diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:43:29 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 04:43:29 -0700 |
| commit | c2dad48fe079a7aef43fbe2394b0efb49c972eec (patch) | |
| tree | e7bb34ca2cfac2cb096dc872390da448a94d8e6d /14008-h | |
Diffstat (limited to '14008-h')
| -rw-r--r-- | 14008-h/14008-h.htm | 2253 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 14008-h/images/m578-1.png | bin | 0 -> 111417 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 14008-h/images/m578-2.png | bin | 0 -> 25536 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 14008-h/images/m578-3.png | bin | 0 -> 39034 bytes |
4 files changed, 2253 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/14008-h/14008-h.htm b/14008-h/14008-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..965c7b8 --- /dev/null +++ b/14008-h/14008-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,2253 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" +"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> + +<title>The Mirror of Literature, Issue 578.</title> + + <style type="text/css"> + <!-- + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + p {text-align: justify;} + blockquote {text-align: justify;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center;} + pre {font-size: 0.7em;} + + hr {text-align: center; width: 50%;} + html>body hr {margin-right: 25%; margin-left: 25%; width: 50%;} + hr.full {width: 100%;} + html>body hr.full {margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 0%; width: 100%;} + + .note, .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + + span.pagenum {position: absolute; left: 1%; right: 91%; font-size: 8pt;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem p {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem p.i2 {margin-left: 1em;} + .poem p.i4 {margin-left: 2em;} + .poem p.i6 {margin-left: 3em;} + .poem p.i8 {margin-left: 4em;} + + .figure {padding: 1em; margin: 0; text-align: center; font-size: 0.8em; margin: auto;} + .figure img {border: none;} + --> + </style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14008 ***</div> + + <hr class="full" /> + <span class="pagenum"><a id="page353" name="page353"></a>[pg 353]</span> + + <h1>THE MIRROR<br /> + OF<br /> + LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.</h1> + <hr class="full" /> + + <table width="100%" summary="Banner"> + <tr> + <td align="left"><b>VOL. XX, NO. 578.]</b></td> + <td align="center"><b>SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1, 1832.</b></td> + <td align="right"><b>[PRICE 2d.</b></td> + </tr> + </table> + <hr class="full" /> + +<h2>TANFIELD ARCH, DURHAM.</h2> + +<div class="figure" style="width: 100%;"> +<a href="images/m578-1.png"><img width="100%" src="images/m578-1.png" +alt="Tanfield Arch, Durham." /></a> +<small><b>TANFIELD ARCH, DURHAM.</b></small> +</div> + +<p> +Tanfield is a considerable village, situated seven miles from Gateshead, +in the county of Durham, and eight miles in a south-west direction from +Newcastle-on-Tyne. The above arch is about a mile from the village, and +crosses a deep dell, called Causey Burne, down which an insignificant +streamlet finds its sinuous course. The site possesses some picturesque +beauty, though its silvan pride be +</p> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> + <p> After a season gay and brief,</p> + <p> Condemn'd to fade and flee.</p> +</div></div> + + + +<p> +It has much of the poet's "bosky bourne," and beside +</p> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> + <p> The huddling brooklet's secret brim,</p> +</div></div> + + + +<p> +his pensive mind may feed upon the natural glories of the scene; while, +attuned to melancholy, +</p> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> + <p> In hollow music sighing through the glade,</p> +<p class="i2"> The breeze of autumn strikes the startled ear,</p> + <p> And fancy, pacing through the woodland shade,</p> +<p class="i2"> Hears in the gust the requiem of the year.</p> +<p style="text-align: right;"> +KIRKE WHITE'S <i>Early Poems</i>. +</p> +</div></div> + + + + + +<p> +The ARCH was an architectural wonder of the last century. It was built +in the year 1729, as a passage for the wagon-way, or rail-road for the +conveyance of coals from collieries in the vicinity of Tanfield, which +were the property of an association called "the Great Allies." It is a +magnificent stone structure, one hundred and thirty feet in the span, +springing from abutments nine feet high, to the height of sixty feet: +a dial is placed on the top with a suitable inscription. The expense +of its construction is stated to have amounted to 12,000<i>l.</i>; the +masonry is reputed to be extremely good, and the arch itself is nearly +perfect, though it is now only known as a foot-way, the collieries for +the use of which it was built, being no longer worked: previously it was +but a private road-way. In Cooke's <i>Topography</i> we find it stated, +(though it is not mentioned upon what authority,) that the architect +built a former arch which fell, and that the apprehension of the second +experiencing the same fate induced him to commit suicide. +</p> + +<p> +Before the building of the New London Bridge, the arch at Tanfield is +said to have been the largest stone arch in existence. The span of the +central arch of the bridge is 152 feet; and that of the arches on each +side of the centre, 140 feet: the span of the arches of Waterloo Bridge +is 120 feet; so that the reader may form a tolerably correct estimate of +the arch at Tanfield. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page354" name="page354"></a>[pg 354]</span> +</p> + + +<h3> + THE RESTING-PLACE. +</h3> + + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> + <p> Where shall this wounded, aching breast.</p> + <p> Find a couch of soothing rest—</p> +<p class="i4"> A respite from its woes?</p> + <p> Friend! mark'st thou that grassy bed,</p> + <p> The cold, clay dwelling of the dead—</p> +<p class="i4"> There, there is sure repose.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> + <p> When shall this soul, so long borne down</p> + <p> By Fate's despite and with'ring frown,</p> +<p class="i4"> A rescue know from care?</p> + <p> Friend! when that dark home is thine,</p> + <p> Never more thy heart shall pine—</p> +<p class="i4"> Grim sorrow comes not there.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> + <p> When thy name is of that number,</p> + <p> Sound and sweet will be thy slumber;—</p> + <p> All earthly pangs and troubles cease,</p> + <p> Nor dare invade that house of peace.</p> + <p> On that pillow, ozier drest,</p> + <p> The worn, the "weary are at rest."</p> + <p> Thy broken heart shall cease to sigh,</p> + <p> And tears forsake that sunken eye;—</p> + <p> No dreams distract that holy sleep—</p> + <p> No tempests break that calm so deep.</p> + <p> Come, then!—forsaken, wearied, come!</p> + <p> Here is for thee a peaceful home.</p> +</div></div> + + + +<p><i>Sarum.</i></p> +<h4>COLBOURNE.</h4> + +<hr /> + + +<h3> + THE HORSE "ECLIPSE." +</h3> + + +<p> +A warm—hearted Correspondent, "W.C." of <i>Milton</i> (who is anxious +for our accuracy on all points), wishes us to correct an error or two in +the account of <i>Eclipse</i>, at p. 362, vol. xix. of <i>The Mirror</i>. It is +there stated that Mr. Wildman sold the moiety of Eclipse to Colonel +O'Kelly, for 650 guineas; and that O'Kelly subsequently bought the other +moiety for 1,100 guineas. But, our Correspondent, who was for many years +intimate with both the above gentlemen, assures us that "the Colonel +gave to Mr. Wildman 2,000<i>l.</i> for a moiety of Eclipse, and +subsequently 2,000<i>l.</i> for the other moiety—making the whole +purchase-money 4,000<i>l</i>." +</p> + +<p> +In the page wherein the above mis-statement appears is another error, +respecting the speed of <i>Childers</i>—"over the round course at +Newmarket, 3 miles, 6 furlongs, and 93 yards, in 6 minutes and 40 +seconds; to perform which, he must have moved 82-1/2 feet in a second of +time, or at the rate of nearly one mile in a minute." We have referred +to the work whence the above was quoted (<i>Hist. Epsom</i>, p. 103), +and find it to correspond with our reprint. The calculation is evidently +incorrect: for Childers would thus appear scarcely to have exceeded half +a mile a minute. +</p> + +<hr class="full" /> + + + + +<h2> + THE NATURALIST. +</h2> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h3> + POISON OF THE HORNED VIPER. +</h3> + +<center> +(<i>Cerastes Coluber.</i>) +</center> + + +<p> +Mr. Madden, whilst in Thebes, killed one of these animals, for the +purpose of extracting its poison, which he found in a small membrane in +the front of the jaw under the two hollow teeth. Having collected the +venom carefully on a piece of glass, he examined it with a microscope, +and found it to consist of sharp, saline spiculae, of a reticular +appearance, extremely minute. "Half of this I gave to a dog, in a piece +of meat—it produced no sensible effect; I then diluted the remainder, +smeared the point of a lancet with it, and wounded the dog in the +shoulder: this application he only survived three hours."'—<i>Madden's +Travels.</i> +</p> + +<h4>MEDICUS.</h4> + +<hr /> + + +<h3> + FISH BATTLE. +</h3> + + +<p> +Captain Crow, in a work published a short time since, relates the +following as having occurred on a voyage to Memel:—"One morning during +a cairn, when near the Hebrides, all hands were called up at three +o'clock, to witness a battle between several of the fish called +thrashers and some sword-fish on one side, and an enormous whale on the +other. It was in the middle of summer, and the weather being clear, and +the fish close to the vessel, we had a fine opportunity of witnessing +the contest. As soon as the whale's back appeared above the water, the +thrashers, springing several yards into the air, descended with great +violence upon the object of their rancour, and inflicted upon him the +most severe slaps with their tails, the sound of which resembled the +reports of muskets fired at a distance. The sword-fish, in their turn, +attacked the distressed whale, stabbing him from below;—and thus beset +on all sides, and wounded, when the poor creature appeared, the water +around him was dyed with blood. In this manner they continued tormenting +and wounding him for many hours, until we lost sight of him; and I have +no doubt they, in the end, accomplished his destruction." +</p> + +<h4> +W.G.C. +</h4> + +<hr class="full" /> + + + + +<h2> + NOTES OF A READER. +</h2> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h3> + INFLUENCE OF THE MIND ON THE BODY. +</h3> + + +<p> +"Should the body sue the mind before a court of judicature, for damages, +it would be found that the mind would prove to have been a ruinous +tenant to its landlord."—<i>Plutarch</i>. +</p> + +<p> +[We abridge these interesting facts from "An Inquiry into the Influence +of the Mind and Passions on the Body, in the production of Disease"—in +No. 11 of the <i>London Medical and Surgical Journal</i>.<a id="footnotetag1" name="footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a> The whole +paper is written in as clear, concise, and popular a style as the +subject will allow, and its importance demands the attention of the +reader; although we have not thought it to our purpose to follow the +writer to the main object—or how these causes operate in the +<i>production of disease</i>.] +</p> + +<p> +Descartes observes, that the soul is so +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page355" name="page355"></a>[pg 355]</span> +much influenced by the constitution of our bodily organs, that if it +were possible to find out a method of increasing our penetration, it +should certainly be sought for in medicine, the connexion between the +body and mind, is, in fact, so strong, that it is difficult to conceive +how one of them should act, and the other not be sensible, in a greater +or less degree, of that action. The organs of sense, by which we +acquire all our ideas of external objects, when acted upon, convey the +subject of thought to the nervous fibres of the brain; and while the +mind is employed in thinking, the part of the brain is in a greater or +less degree of motion; a large quantity of blood is transmitted to the +brain, the action of the arteries become increased, and the nervous +system sensibly affected. +</p> + +<p> +Plato has remarked, with reference to the influence of the mind on the +corporeal frame, "Where the action of the soul is too powerful, it +attacks the body so powerfully that it throws it into a consuming state; +if the soul exerts itself in a peculiar manner on certain occasions, the +body is made sensible of it, for it becomes heated and debilitated." An +Italian physician also observes on this subject, that the union of the +soul with the body is so intimate, that they reciprocally share the good +or evil which happens to either of them. The mind cannot put forth its +powers when the body is tired with inordinate exercise and too close +application to study destroys the body by dissipating the animal spirits +which are necessary to recruit it.<a id="footnotetag2" name="footnotetag2"></a><a href="#footnote2"><sup>2</sup></a> +</p> + +<p> +The knowledge of the influence of the passions of the mind over the +bodily functions, is of ancient date. Plato, in his "<i>Timaeus</i>," +states it as his firm conviction, that the spirit exerted a marked +influence in producing disease. This opinion was afterwards revived by +Helmont, Hesper Doloeus, and Stahl; the latter plainly says, that the +rational soul presides over and directs the animal functions. In this +doctrine he was followed by Nichols, in his "<i>Anima Medica</i>." +According to the doctrines of Stahl, the disorders of the body proceed +principally from the mind; and, according as it is variously affected, +it produces different effects (diseases.) Hence, when the mind, which +animates the most robust and best organized body, is violently agitated +by fright, rage, grief, vehement desire, or any other passion, whether +sudden, or attended by long and painful sensations, the body manifestly +suffers, and a variety of diseases, as apoplexy, palsy, madness, fever, +and hysterics, may be the consequence. If this be true, an attention to +the regulations of the mind is of much more importance than physicians +seem disposed to admit. The poet of health justly says, +</p> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> + <p> "'Tis the great art of life to manage well</p> + <p> The restless mind."</p> +</div></div> + + + +<p> +In the course of this vitally important and deeply-interesting subject +of inquiry, it is not my intention to enter into any metaphysical +discussion respecting the inscrutable and mysterious union existing +between matter and mind, or to endeavour to point out the manner in +which the body influences the mind, and the mind the body. Such subjects +we do not think to be legitimate objects of inquiry. The medical +philosopher is engaged in less obscure and less uncertain researches; he +does not attempt to solve the question regarding the intimate union +subsisting between the natural and intellectual portions of our nature, +but he wisely confines himself to an attentive examination of the +phenomena which result from that union. Man is compounded of a soul and +body, so closely united, not <i>identified,</i> that they frequently +struggle and occasionally overpower each other. Sometimes the mind +ascends the throne and subdues, in a moment, the physical energies of +the most powerful of her subjects. At other times the body gains the +ascendency, and lays prostrate before her the mightiest of human +intellects. Instances illustrative of both propositions are of daily +occurrence. It has been said of Sophocles, that being desirous of +proving that at an advanced age he was in full possession of his +intellectual faculties, he composed a tragedy, was crowned, and died +through joy. The same thing happened to Philippides, the comic writer. +M. Juventius Thalma, on being told that a triumph had been decreed to +him for having subdued Corsica, fell down dead before the altar at which +he was offering up his thanksgiving. Zimmerman, in his work on +Experience in Physic, has related the circumstance of a worthy family in +Holland being reduced to indigence; the elder brother passed over to the +East Indies, acquired considerable fortune there, and returning home +presented his sister with the richest jewel: the young woman, at this +unexpected change of fortune became motionless and died. The famous +Forquet died on being told that Louis XIV. had restored him to his +liberty. It is also related of Diodorus Chronos, who was considered as +the most subtle logician of the time of Ptolemy Soter, that Stilbo one +day in the presence of the king, proposed a question to him, to which he +was unable to reply. The king, willing to cover him with shame, +pronounced only one part of his name, and called him <i>ovos</i>, ass, +instead of Chronos. Diodorus was so much affected at this as to die soon +afterwards. +</p> + +<p> +Perhaps there is not a more remarkable instance on record showing, in a +melancholy though forcible light, the dominion of mind over the material +frame, than the circumstances which attended the death of John Hunter. +This distinguished surgeon and physiologist died in a fit of enraged +passion; +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page356" name="page356"></a>[pg 356]</span> +and, what is somewhat extraordinary, he had often predicted that such +excitement would prove fatal to him. He died at St. George's Hospital, +Oct. 16, 1793, under these circumstances: being there in the exercise of +his official duty as surgeon, he had a warm dispute with Dr. Pearson, on +a professional subject; upon which he said, "I must retire, for I feel +an agitation which will be fatal to me if I increase it." He immediately +withdrew into an adjoining room; but Dr. Pearson, not being willing to +give up his argument, followed him, which so annoyed Hunter, that he +vehemently exclaimed, "You have followed me on purpose to be the death +of me! You have murdered me!" and instantly fell and expired! Mrs. +Byron, the mother of the noble bard, is said to have died in a fit of +passion. Mr. Moore, in his life of Lord Byron, in speaking of Mrs. +Byron's illness, says,—"At the end of July her illness took a new and +fatal turn; and so sadly characteristic was the close of the poor lady's +life, that a fit of ague, brought on, it is said, by reading the +upholsterer's bills, was the ultimate cause of her death." A somewhat +similar circumstance is recorded of Malbranche. The only interview that +Bishop Berkley and Malbranche had was in the latter philosopher's cell, +when the conversation turned upon the non-existence of matter, and +Malbranche is said to have exerted himself so much in the discussion +that he died in consequence. Sanctorius relates an instance of a famous +orator, who so far exerted his mind in delivering an oration that he +became, in a few hours, quite insane. +</p> + +<p> +The effect of a too close application of mind to study on the bodily +health has long been a matter of common observation. The Roman orator, +Cicero, points out forcibly the dangers arising from inordinate exertion +of mind; and he has laid down some rules for guarding against the +effects of study. M. Van Swieten, in alluding to this subject, relates +the case of a man whose health was severely injured, by what he calls +"literary watchings." Whenever he listened with any attention to any +story, or trifling tale, he was seized with giddiness; he was in violent +agonies whenever he wanted to recollect any thing which had slipped his +memory; he oftentimes fainted away gradually, and experienced a +disagreeable sensation of lassitude. Rousseau has very justly remarked, +that excessive application of mind "makes men tender, weakens their +constitutions, and when once the body has lost its powers, those of the +soul are not easily preserved. Application wears out the machine, +exhausts the spirits, destroys the strength, enervates the mind, makes +us pusillanimous, unable either to bear fatigue, or to keep our passions +under."<a id="footnotetag3" name="footnotetag3"></a><a href="#footnote3"><sup>3</sup></a> +</p> + +<p> +Shakspeare appears to have formed a just conception of the great injury +which the corporeal frame experiences from a too close application of +mind. The immortal bard observes,— +</p> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> + <p> "——Universal plodding poisons up</p> + <p> The nimble spirits in the arteries</p> + <p> As motion and long-during action tires</p> + <p> The sinewy vigour of the traveller."</p> +<p style="text-align: right;"><i>Love's Labour Lost.</i></p> +</div></div> + + + + + +<p> +In the consultations of Wesper we find related the history of a young +man of family 22 years of age, who, having applied himself incessantly +to intense mental exertion, was seized with a fit of insanity, in which +fit he wounded several persons and killed his keeper. Catalepsy has been +known to have been produced by great mental application. Fomelius gives +us a remarkable instance of it. A man (says he) who passed whole nights +in writing and studying, was suddenly attacked with a fit of catalepsy: +all his limbs stiffened in the attitude he was in when the disease first +seized him. He remained upon his seat, holding the pen in his hand, and +with his eyes fixed on his paper, so that he was considered to be still +at his studies, till being called to, and then shaken, he was found to +be without motion or sensation.<a id="footnotetag4" name="footnotetag4"></a><a href="#footnote4"><sup>4</sup></a> +</p> + +<p> +Many extraordinary instances are on record, of remarkable changes having +been produced in birds by an affection of the animal passions. The +following fact is related by Mr. Young, in the Edinburgh Geographical +Journal. A blackbird had been frightened in her cage by a cat; when it +was relieved, it was found lying on its back, quite wet with +perspiration. The feathers fell off, and were renewed, but the new ones +were perfectly white. +</p> + +<p> +A similar phenomenon has been observed in the human species, who have +been exposed to the effects of inordinate passion. Borrelli relates the +case of a French gentleman, who was thrown into prison, and on whom fear +operated so powerfully as to change his hair completely grey in the +course of one night. Dr. Darwin ascribes this phenomenon to the torpor +of the vessels, which circulates the fluids destined to nourish the +hair. Nothing will, perhaps, demonstrate more fully the effects of moral +causes in producing disease than the structural alterations discoverable +in the bodies of those who have died whilst labouring under nostalgia, +or the Swiss malady. This disease is considered peculiar to the Swiss, +and is occasioned by a desire of revisiting their own country, and of +witnessing again the scenes of their youth. This desire begins with +melancholy sadness, love of solitude, silence, bodily weakness, &c. and +is only cured by returning to their native country. Avenbrugger says, +that in dissecting the bodies of those who have died in consequence of +this disease, organic lesions of the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page357" name="page357"></a>[pg 357]</span> +heart generally are detected. A particular musical composition, supposed +to be expressive of the happiness of the people, is in great vogue in +Switzerland. If this tune or piece of music is played among the Swiss in +any foreign country, it tends strongly to recall their affections for +their native soil, and their desire of returning, and to induce the +desire called nostalgia consequent on their disappointment. The effects +of this musical composition is so powerful, that it is forbidden to be +repeated in the French camp on pain of death, it having at one period +had the effect of producing a mutiny among the Swiss soldiers, at that +time in the employ of the French king. +</p> + +<p> +Predictions of death, whether supposed to be supernatural, or emanating +from human authority, have often, in consequence of the poisonous +effects of fear, been punctually fulfilled. The anecdote is well +attested, of the licentious Lord Littleton, that he expired at the exact +stroke of the clock, which in a dream or vision, he had been forewarned +would be the signal of his departure. In Lesanky's voyage round the +world, there is an account of a religious sect in the Sandwich Islands, +who arrogate to themselves the power of praying people to death. Whoever +incurs their displeasure, receives notice that the homicide litany is +about to begin, and such are the effects of the imagination, that the +very notice is frequently sufficient with these people to produce the +effect. +</p> + +<p> +Thousands of other instances might be cited, illustrative of the fatal +effects of inordinate indulgence in passion. +</p> + + + + +<hr class="full" /> + + + + +<h2> + RETROSPECTIVE GLEANINGS. +</h2> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h3> +ANCIENT BRIDEWELL.<a id="footnotetag5" name="footnotetag5"></a><a href="#footnote5"><sup>5</sup></a> +</h3> + + +<p> +The following curious facts, respecting the state of the metropolis +during the reign of Queen Elizabeth, are extracted from the weekly +reports made by William Fletewood, Recorder of London, to Lord +Burghley:— +</p> + +<p> +"My singuler good Lord, uppon Thursdaye, at even, her Majistie, in her +coache, nere Islyngton, taking of the air, her Highnes was environed +with a nosmber of roogs. One Mr. Stone, a foteman, cam in all hast to my +Lord Maior, and after to me, and told us of the same. I dyd the same +nyght send warrants owt into the seyd quarters, and into Westminster and +the Duchie; and in the morning I went abrood my selff, and I tooke that +daye lxxiiij. roogs, whereof some were blynde, and yet great usurers, +and very rich; and the same daye, towards nyght, I sent Mr. Harrys and +Mr. Smithe, the Governors of Bridwell, and tooke all the names of the +roogs; and then sent theym from the Sessions Hall into Bridwell, where +they remayned that nyght. Uppon Twelff daye, in the forenoone, the +Master of the Rolls, my selff, and others, receyved a charge before my +Lords of the Counsell, as towching roogs and masterles men, and to have +a pryvie searche. The same daye, at after dyner (for I dyned at the +Rolls), I mett the Governors of Bridwell, and so that after nowne wee +examined all the seyd roogs, and gave them substanciall payment. And the +stronger wee bestowed on the myine and the lighters; the rest wee +dismyssed, with the promise of a dooble paye if we met with theym +agayne. Uppon Soundaye, being crastino of the Twelffth daye, I dyned +with Mr. Deane, of Westminster, where I conferred with hym touching +Westminster and the Duchie; and then I tooke order for Sowthwarke, +Lambeth, and Newyngton, from whence I receyved a shool of xl. roogs, men +and women, and above. I bestowed theym in Bridwell. I dyd the same after +nowne peruse Pooles (St. Paul's), where I tooke about xxii. cloked +roogs, that there used to kepe standing. I placed theym also in +Bridwell. The next mornyng, being Mundaye, the Mr of the Rolls and the +reste tooke order with the constables for a pryvie searche agaynst +Thursdaye, at nyght, and to have the offenders brought to the Sessions +Hall uppon Frydaye, in the mornyng, where wee the Justices shold mete. +And agaynst the same tyme, my Lo. Maior and I dyd the lyke in London and +Sowthwarke. The same after nowne, the Masters of Bridwell and I mett; +and after every man had been examined, eche one receyved his payment +according to his deserts; at whiche tyme the strongest were put to +worke, and the others dismissed into theyre countries. The same daye +the Mr of the Savoye was with us, and sayd he was sworne to lodge +'claudicantes, egrotantes, et peregrinantes;' and the next morning I +sent the constables of the Duchie to the Hospitall, and they brought +unto me at Bridwell, vj. tall fellowes, that were draymen unto bruers, +and were neither 'claudicantes, egrotantes, nor peregrinantes.' The +constables, if they might have had theyre owen wills, would have browght +us many moor. The master dyd wryte a very curtese letter unto us to +produce theym; and although he wrott charitably unto us, yet were they +all soundly paydd, and sent home to theyre masters. All Tewsdaye, +Weddensdaye, and Thursdaye, there cam in nosmbers of roogs: they were +rewarded all according to theyre deserts.—Uppon Frydaye mornyng, at the +Justice Hall, there were brought in above a C. lewd people taken in the +pryvie searche. The Mrs of Bridwell receyved theym, and immediately gave +theym punishment. This Satterdaye, after causes of consciens, herd by my +Lord Maior and me, I dyned and went to +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page358" name="page358"></a>[pg 358]</span> +Polls (St. Paul's) and in other +places, as well within the libertes as elsewhere. I founde not one rooge +styuyng. Emongst all these thynges, I dyd note that wee had not of +London, Westm., nor Sowthwarke, nor yett Midd., nor Surr., above twelve, +and those we have taken order for. The resedew for the most were of +Wales, Salop, Cestr., Somerset, Barks, Oxforde, and Essex; and that few +or none of theym had been about London above iij. or iiij. mownthes. +I did note also that wee mett not agayne with any, in all our searches, +that had receyved punishment. The chieff nurserie of all these evill +people is the Savoye, and the brick-kilnes near Islyngton. As for the +brick-kilnes, we will take suche order that they shall be reformed; and +I trust, by yr. good Lordship's help, the Savoye shall be amended; for +surelie, as by experiens I fynd it, the same place, as it is used, is +not converted to a good use or purpose. And this shall suffice for +roogs."—W.G.C. +</p> + +<p> +See the Engraving, vol. xviii. p. 337 of <i>The Mirror.</i> +</p> + + +<hr /> + + +<h3> + POVERTY OF KINGS, AND THE BRITISH CROWN PAWNED. +</h3> + +<p> +As to increasing wealth by war, that has never yet happened to this +nation; and, I believe, rarely to any country. Our former kings most +engaged in war were always poor, and sometimes excessively so. Edward +III. pawned his jewels to pay foreign forces; and <i>magnam coronam +Angliae</i>, his imperial crown, three several times—once abroad, and +twice to Sir John Wosenham, his banker, in whose custody the crown +remained no less than eight years. The Black Prince, as Walsingham +informs us, was constrained to pledge his plate. Henry V., with all his +conquests, pawned his crown, and the table and stools of silver which he +had from Spain. Queen Elizabeth is known to have sold her very jewels. +</p> + +<h4> +G.K. +</h4> + +<hr /> + + +<h3> + HEAD-DRESS OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY, IN ENGLAND. +</h3> + + +<p> +In Wickliffe's <i>Commentaries upon the Ten Commandments</i>, in the +midst of a moral exhortation, he manages, by a few bold touches, to give +us a picture of the fashionable head-dress of his day:— +</p> + +<p> +"And let each woman beware, that neither by countenance, nor by array of +body nor of head, she stir any to covet her to sin. Not crooking +(curling) her hair, neither laying it up on high, nor the head arrayed +about with gold and precious stones; not seeking curious clothing, nor +of nice shape, showing herself to be seemly to fools. For all such +arrays of women St. Peter and St. Paul, by the Holy Ghost's teaching, +openly forbid." +</p> + +<h4> +D.P. +</h4> + +<hr /> + + +<h3> + SALADS. +</h3> + + +<p> +Oil for salads is mentioned in the Paston Letters, in 1466, in which +year Sir John Paston writes to his mother, that he has sent her "ii. +potts off oyl for salady's, whyche oyl was goode a myght be when he +delyv'yd yt, and schuld be goode at the reseyving yff itt was not +mishandled nor miscarryd." This indicates that vegetables for the table +were then cultivated in England, although the common opinion is, that +most of our fruit and garden productions were destroyed during the civil +wars between the houses of York and Lancaster. A good salad, however, +had become so scarce some years afterwards, that Katharine, the queen of +Henry VIII., is said, on a particular occasion, to have sent to the +continent to procure one. +</p> + +<h4> +D.P. +</h4> + +<hr /> + + +<h3> + ADVERTISEMENT OF THE OPENING OF THE LONDON COFFEE HOUSE, UPWARDS OF A +CENTURY AGO. +</h3> + +<p> +"May, 1731. +</p> + +<p> +"Whereas it is customary for Coffee Houses and other Public Houses to +take 8<i>s.</i> for a quart of Arrack, and 6<i>s.</i> for a quart of Brandy or +Rum, made into Punch; +</p> + +<center> +<i>This is to give Notice</i>, +</center> + +<p> +That James Ashley has opened, on Ludgate Hill, the London Coffee House, +Punch House, Dorchester Beer and Welsh Ale Warehouse, where the finest +and best old Arrack, Rum, and French Brandy is made into Punch, with the +other of the finest ingredients—viz.: +</p> + +<p> +"A quart of Arrack made into Punch for six shillings; and so in +proportion to the smallest quantity, which is half-a-quartern for +fourpence halfpenny. +</p> + +<p> +"A quart of Rum or Brandy made into Punch for four shillings; and so in +proportion to the smallest quantity, which is half-a-quartern for +threepence; and Gentlemen may have it as soon made as a gill of wine can +be drawn." +</p> + +<h4> +G.K. +</h4> + +<hr /> + + +<h3> + SIR WILLIAM JONES'S PLAN OF STUDY. +</h3> + + +<p> +Some idea of the acquirements of the resolute industry with which Jones +pursued his studies may be formed from the following memorandum:— +</p> + +<p> +"Resolved to learn no more <i>rudiments</i> of any kind, but to perfect +myself in—first, twelve languages, as the <i>means</i> of acquiring +accurate knowledge of +</p> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> + <p style="text-align: center;"> I. History.</p> + <p style="text-align: center;"> 1. Man 2. Nature.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> + <p style="text-align: center;"> II. Arts.</p> + <p style="text-align: center;"> 1. Rhetoric. 2. Poetry. 3. Painting. 4. Music.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> + <p style="text-align: center;"> III. Sciences.</p> + <p style="text-align: center;"> 1. Law. 2. Mathematics. 3. Dialectics.</p> +</div></div> + + + +<p> +"N.B. Every species of human knowledge may be reduced to one or other of +these divisions. Even <i>law</i> belongs partly to the history of man, +partly as a science to dialectics. The twelve languages are Greek, +Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, +Turkish, German, English.—1780." +</p> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<p> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page359" name="page359"></a>[pg 359]</span> +</p> + + + + +<h2> + SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY. +</h2> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h3> + SAILING UP THE ESSEQUIBO. +</h3> + +<center> +<i>By Captain J.E. Alexander, H.P., late 16th Lancers, M.R.G.S., &c.</i> +</center> + + +<p> +My purpose was now to proceed up the noble Essequibo river towards +the El Dorado of Sir Walter Raleigh, and view the mighty forests of +the interior, and the varied and beautiful tribes by which they are +inhabited. Our residence on the island of Wakenaam had been truly +a tropical one. During the night, the tree frogs, crickets, +razor-grinders, reptiles, and insects of every kind, kept up a continued +concert. At sunrise, when the flowers unfolded themselves, the humming +birds, with the metallic lustre glittering on their wings, passed +rapidly from blossom to blossom. The bright yellow and black +mocking-birds flew from their pendant nests, accompanied by their +neighbours, the wild bees, which construct their earthen hives on the +same tree. The continued rains had driven the snakes from their holes, +and on the path were seen the bush-master (cona-couchi) unrivalled for +its brilliant colours, and the deadly nature of its poison; and the +labari equally poisonous, which erects its scales in a frightful manner +when irritated. The rattlesnake was also to be met with, and harmless +tree snakes of many species. Under the river's bank lay enormous caymen +or alligators,—one lately killed measured twenty-two feet. Wild deer +and the peccari hog were seen in the glades in the centre of the island; +and the jaguar and cougour (the American leopard and lion) occasionally +swam over from the main land. +</p> + +<p> +We sailed up the Essequibo for a hundred miles in a small schooner of +thirty tons, and occasionally took to canoes or coorials to visit the +creeks. We then went up a part of the Mazaroony river, and saw also the +unexplored Coioony: these three rivers join their waters about one +hundred miles from the mouth of the Essequibo. In sailing or paddling up +the stream, the breadth is so great, and the wooded islands so numerous, +that it appears as if we navigated a large lake. The Dutch in former +times had cotton, indigo, and cocoa estates up the Essequibo, beyond +their capital Kykoveral, on an island at the forks or junction of the +three rivers. Now, beyond the islands at the mouth of the Essequibo +there are no estates, and the mighty forest has obliterated all traces +of former cultivation. Solitude and silence are on either hand, not a +vestige of the dwellings of the Hollanders being to be seen; and only +occasionally in struggling through the entangled brushwood one stumbles +over a marble tombstone brought from the shores of the Zuyderzee. +</p> + +<p> +At every turn of the river we discovered objects of great interest. +The dense and nearly impenetrable forest itself occupied our chief +attention; magnificent trees, altogether new to us, were anchored to +the ground by bush-rope, convolvuli, and parasitical plants of every +variety. The flowers of these cause the woods to appear as if hung with +garlands. Pre-eminent above the others was the towering and majestic +Mora, its trunk spread out into buttresses; on its top would be seen +the king of the vultures expanding his immense wings to dry after the +dews of night. The very peculiar and romantic cry of the bell-bird, or +campanero, would be heard at intervals; it is white, about the size of a +pigeon, with a leathery excrescence on its forehead, and the sound which +it produces in the lone woods is like that of a convent-bell tolling. +</p> + +<p> +A crash of the reeds and brushwood on the river's bank would be followed +by a tapir, the western elephant, coming down to drink and to roll +himself in the mud; and the manati or river-cow would lift its black +head and small piercing eye above the water to graze on the leaves of +the coridore tree. They are shot from a stage fixed in the water, with +branches of their favourite food hanging from it; one of twenty-two cwt. +was killed not long ago. High up the river, where the alluvium of the +estuary is changed for white sandstone, with occasionally black oxide of +manganese, the fish are of delicious flavour; among others, the pacoo, +near the Falls or Rapids, which is flat, twenty inches long, and weighs +four pounds; it feeds on the seed of the <i>arum arborescens</i>, in +devouring which the Indians shoot it with their arrows: of similar genus +are the cartuback, waboory, and amah. +</p> + +<p> +The most remarkable fish of these rivers are, the <i>peri</i> or +<i>omah</i>, two feet long; its teeth and jaws are so strong, that it +cracks the shells of most nuts to feed on their kernels, and is most +voracious; the Indians say that it snaps off the breasts of women, and +emasculates men. Also the genus <i>silurus</i>, the young of which swim +in a shoal of one hundred and fifty over the head of the mother, who, on +the approach of danger, opens her mouth, and thus saves her progeny; +with the <i>loricaria calicthys</i>, or <i>assa</i>, which constructs a +nest on the surface of pools from the blades of grass floating about, +and in this deposits its spawn which is hatched by the sun. In the dry +season this remarkable fish has been dug out of the ground, for it +burrows in the rains owing to the strength and power of the spine; in +the gill-fin and body it is covered with strong plates, and far below +the surface finds moisture to keep it alive. The <i>electric eel</i> is +also an inhabitant of these waters, and has sometimes nearly proved +fatal to the strongest swimmer. If sent to England in tubs, the wood and +iron act as conductors, and keep the fish in a continued state of +exhaustion, causing, eventually, death: an +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page360" name="page360"></a>[pg 360]</span> +earthenware jar is the vessel in which to keep it in health. +</p> + +<center> +(<i>To be concluded in our next.</i>) +</center> + +<hr class="full" /> + + + + +<h2> + FINE ARTS. +</h2> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h3> +CROSSES.<a id="footnotetag6" name="footnotetag6"></a><a href="#footnote6"><sup>6</sup></a> +</h3> + + +<div class="figure" style="width: 50%; float: left;"> +<a href="images/m578-2.png"><img width="100%" src="images/m578-2.png" +alt="Neville's Cross" /></a> +<br /><i>Neville's Cross</i> +</div> +<p> +We resume the illustration of these curious structures with two +specimens of interesting architectural character, and memorable +association with our early history. The first is <i>Neville's Cross</i>, +at Beaurepaire (or Bear Park, as it is now called), about two miles +north-west from Durham. Here David II., King of Scots, encamped with his +army before the celebrated battle of Red Hills, or Neville's Cross, as +it was afterwards termed, from the above elegant stone cross, erected to +record the victory by Lord Ralph Neville. The English sovereign, Edward +III., had just achieved the glorious conquest of Crecy; and the Scottish +king judged this a fit opportunity for his invasion. However, "the great +northern barons of England, Percy and Neville, Musgrave, Scope, and +Hastings, assembled their forces in numbers sufficient to show that, +though the conqueror of Crecy, with his victorious army, was absent +in France, there were Englishmen enough left at home to protect the +frontiers of his kingdom from violation. The Archbishops of Canterbury +and York, the prelates of Durham, Carlisle, and Lincoln, sent their +retainers, and attended the rendezvous in person, to add religious +enthusiasm to the patriotic zeal of the barons. Ten thousand soldiers, +who had been sent over to Calais to reinforce Edward III.'s army, were +countermanded in this exigency, and added to the northern army.<a id="footnotetag7" name="footnotetag7"></a><a href="#footnote7"><sup>7</sup></a>" +</p> + +<p> +The battle, which was fought October 17, 1346, lasted only three hours, +but was uncommonly destructive. The English archers, who were in front, +were at first thrown into confusion, and driven back; but being +reinforced by a body of horse, repulsed their opponents, and the +engagement soon became general. The Scottish army was entirely defeated, +and the king himself made prisoner; though previous to the fight he is +said to have regarded the English with contempt, and as a raw and +undisciplined host, by no means competent to resist the power of his +more hardy veterans. +</p> + +<p> +"Amid repeated charges, and the most dispiriting slaughter by the +continuous discharge of the English arrows, David showed that he had the +courage, though not the talents, of his father (Robert Bruce). He was +twice severely wounded with arrows, but continued to encourage to the +last the few of his peers and officers who were still fighting around +him."<a id="footnotetag8" name="footnotetag8"></a><a href="#footnote8"><sup>8</sup></a> He scorned to ask quarter, and was taken alive with difficulty. +Rymer says, "The Scotch king, though he had two spears hanging in his +body, his leg desperately wounded, and being disarmed, his sword having +been beaten out of his hand, disdained captivity, and provoked the +English by opprobrious language to kill him. When John Copeland, who was +governor of Roxborough Castle, advised him to yield, he struck him on +the face with his gauntlet so fiercely, that he knocked out two of his +teeth. Copeland conveyed him out of the field as his prisoner. Upon +Copeland's refusing to deliver up his royal captive to the queen +(Philippa), who stayed at Newcastle during the battle, the king sent for +him to Calais, where he excused his refusal so handsomely, that the king +sent him back with a reward of 500<i>l.</i> a year in lands, where he +himself should choose it, near his own dwelling, and made him a knight +banneret."<a id="footnotetag9" name="footnotetag9"></a><a href="#footnote9"><sup>9</sup></a> +</p> + +<p> +Hume states Philippa to have assembled a body of little more than 12,000 +men, and to have rode through the ranks of her army, exhorting every man +to do his duty, and to take revenge on these barbarous ravagers. "Nor +could she be persuaded to leave the field till the armies were on the +point of engaging. The Scots have often been unfortunate in the great +pitched battles which they have fought with the English: even though +they commonly declined such engagements where the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page361" name="page361"></a>[pg 361]</span> +superiority of numbers was not on their side; but never did they receive +a more fatal blow than the present. They were broken and chased off the +field: fifteen thousand of them, some historians say twenty thousand, +were slain; among whom were Edward Keith, Earl Mareschal, and Sir Thomas +Charteris, Chancellor: and the king himself was taken prisoner, with the +Earls of Sutherland, Fife, Monteith, Carrick, Lord Douglas, and many +other noblemen." The captive king was conveyed to London, and afterwards +in solemn procession to the Tower, attended by a guard of 20,000 men, +and all the city companies in complete pageantry; while "Philippa +crossed the sea at Dover, and was received in the English camp before +Calais, with all the triumph due to her rank, her merit, and her +success." These indeed were bright days of chivalry and gallantry. +</p> + +<p> +"The ground whereon the battle was fought," say the topographers of the +county,<a id="footnotetag10" name="footnotetag10"></a><a href="#footnote10"><sup>10</sup></a> "is about one mile west from Durham; it is hilly, and in some +parts very steep, particularly towards the river. Near it, in a deep +vale, is a small mount, or hillock, called the <i>Maiden's Bower</i>, on +which the holy Corporex Cloth, wherewith St. Cuthbert covered the +chalice when he used to say mass, was displayed on the point of a spear, +by the monks of Durham, who, when the victory was obtained, gave notice +by signal to their brethren stationed on the great tower of the +Cathedral, who immediately proclaimed it to the inhabitants of the city, +by singing Te Deum. From that period the victory was annually +commemorated in a similar manner by the choristers, till the occurrence +of the Civil Wars, when the custom was discontinued; but again revived +on the Restoration," and observed till nearly the close of the last +century. +</p> + +<p> +The site of the Cross is by the road-side: it was defaced and broken +down in the year 1589. Its pristine beauty is thus minutely described in +Davis's <i>Rights and Monuments</i>: "On the west side of the city of +Durham, where two roads pass each other, a most famous and elegant cross +of stone work was erected to the honour of God, &c. at the sole cost of +Ralph, Lord Neville, which cross had seven steps about it, every way +squared to the socket wherein the stalk of the cross stood, which socket +was fastened to a large square stone; the sole, or bottom stone being of +a great thickness, viz. a yard and a half every way: this stone was the +eighth step. The stalk of the cross was in length three yards and a half +up to the boss, having eight sides all of one piece; from the socket it +was fixed into the boss above, into which boss the stalk was deeply +soldered with lead. In the midst of the stalk, in every second square, +was the Neville's cross; a saltire in a scutcheon, being Lord Neville's +arms, finely cut; and, at every corner of the socket, was a picture of +one of the four Evangelists, finely set forth and carved. The boss at +the top of the stalk was an octangular stone, finely cut and bordered, +and most curiously wrought; and in every square of the nether side +thereof was Neville's Cross, in one square, and the bull's head in the +next, so in the same reciprocal order about the boss. On the top of the +boss was a stalk of stone, (being a cross a little higher than the +rest,) whereon was cut, on both sides of the stalk, the picture of our +Saviour Christ, crucified; the picture of the Blessed Virgin on one +side, and St. John the Evangelist on the other; both standing on the top +of the boss. All which pictures were most artificially wrought together, +and finely carved out of one entire stone; some parts thereof, though +carved work, both on the east and west sides, with a cover of stone +likewise over their heads, being all most finely and curiously wrought +together out of the same hollow stone, which cover had a covering of +lead." +</p> + +<div class="figure" style="width: 50%; float: right;"> +<a href="images/m578-3.png"><img width="100%" src="images/m578-3.png" +alt="(Percy's Cross.)" /></a><br /> +(<i>Percy's Cross.</i>) +</div> + + +<p> +The second specimen (<i>see the Cut</i>) stands by the side of the +highway over Hedgeley Moor, in the adjoining county of Northumberland. +This Cross is a record of the War of the Roses. Here, in one of the +skirmishes preliminary to the celebrated victory at Hexham (May 12, +1464), Sir Ralph Percy was slain, by Lord Montacute, or Montague, brother +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page362" name="page362"></a>[pg 362]</span> +to the Earl of Warwick, and warden of the east marches between Scotland +and England. His dying words are stated to have been, "I have saved the +bird in my breast:" meaning his faith to his party. The memorial is a +square stone pillar, embossed with the arms of Percy and Lucy: they are +nearly effaced by time, though the personal valour of the hero is +written in the less perishable page of history. +</p> + +<p> +The Nevilles are distinguished personages in the pages of the historians +of the North. In Durham they have left a lasting memorial of their +magnificence in Raby Castle, the principal founder of which was John de +Neville, Earl of Westmoreland; who, in 1379, obtained a license to +castellate his manor of Raby; though a part of the structure appears to +have been of more ancient date. Leland speaks of it in his time as "the +largest castle of lodgings in all the north country." It remains to this +day the most perfect castellated mansion, or, more strictly, castle, in +the kingdom, and its "<i>hall</i>" eclipses even the chivalrous +splendour of Windsor: here 700 knights, who held of the Nevilles, are +said to have been entertained at one time. The whole establishment is +maintained with much of the hospitable glories of the olden time by the +present distinguished possessor of Raby, the Marquess of Cleveland. +</p> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h3> + WINTER EXHIBITION OF PICTURES, AT THE SUFFOLK-STREET GALLERY. +</h3> + +<center> +(<i>Concluded from page</i> 231.) +</center> + + +<p> +144. Landscape and Figures. The first by <i>Gainsborough</i>; the latter +by <i>Morland</i>. +</p> + +<p> +145. The Body of Harold discovered by Swanachal and two Monks, the +morning after the Battle of Hastings. <i>A.J. Woolmer.</i> A picture of +some, and not undeserved, distinction in a previous exhibition. +</p> + +<p> +150. Mr. King and Mrs. Jordan in the "Country Girl." <i>R. Smirke, +R.A.</i> The drawing is easy and natural, but the colouring appears to +us deficient in tone and breadth. +</p> + +<p> +153. View of the River Severn near the New Passage House. +<i>Nasmyth.</i> A delightful scene in what we may call the artist's +best, or <i>crisp</i> style. +</p> + +<p> +157. Puppy and Frog. <i>E. Landseer, R.A.</i> In the most vigorous style +of our best animal painter. +</p> + +<p> +163. A State Quarry. <i>De Loutherbourg.</i> +</p> + +<p> +165—167. Portraits of Worlidge and Mortimer. Painted by themselves. +</p> + +<p> +172. Villa of Maecenas. One of <i>Wilson's</i> most celebrated +compositions, of classic fame. +</p> + +<p> +181. Master's Out, "The Disappointed Dinner Party." <i>R.W. Buss.</i> A +scene of cockney mortification humorously treated.—An unlucky Londoner +and his tawdrily-dressed wife, appeared to have toiled up the hill, with +their family of four children, to a friend's cottage, the door of which +is opened by an old housekeeper, with "Master's out," while the host +himself is peeping over the parlour window-blind at the disappointment +of his would-be visitors. The annoyance of the husband at the +inhospitable answer, and the fatigue of his fine wife, are cleverly +managed; while the mischievous pranks of the urchin family among the +borders of the flower-garden remind us of the pleasant "Inconveniences +of a Convenient Distance." The colouring is most objectionable; though +the flowers and fine clothes are very abundant. +</p> + +<p> +194. Falls of Niagara. <i>Wilson.</i> A sublime picture of this terrific +wonder of the world. +</p> + +<p> +196. Erzelin Bracciaferro musing over Meduna, slain by him for +disloyalty during his absence in the Holy Land. <i>Fuseli.</i> A +composition of touching melancholy, such as none but a master-mind could +approach. +</p> + +<p> +199. The late R.W. Elliston, Esq. One of <i>Harlow's</i> best portraits: +the likeness is admirable, and the tone well accords with Elliston's +unguent, supple expression. +</p> + +<p> +204. Portrait of Dr. Wardrope. <i>Raeburn.</i> This is one of the +artist's finest productions: it is clever, manly, and vigorous—painting +to the life, without the flattering unction of varnished canvass. The +fine, broad, bold features of the sitter were excellently adapted to the +artist's peculiar powers. +</p> + +<p> +205. Portrait of Thomson, the Poet. <i>Hogarth.</i> The well-known +picture. How fond poets of the last century were of their +<i>dishabille</i> in portraits: they had their day as well as nightcaps. +</p> + +<p> +217. Johnny Gilpin. <i>Stothard.</i> This lively composition is well +known, as it deserves to be; but it may not so well be remembered that +the popularity of John Gilpin was founded by a clever lecturer, who +recited the "tale in verse" as part of his entertainment. (<i>See page +367.</i>) What would an audience of the present day say to such +puerility; though it would be certainly more rational than people +listening to a French play, or an Italian or German opera, not a line of +which they understand. +</p> + +<p> +229. Portrait of R.B. Sheridan. The well-known picture, by +<i>Reynolds</i>, whence is engraved the Frontispiece to Moore's Life of +the Statesman and Dramatist. Here is the "man himsel," in the formal cut +blue dress-coat and white waistcoat of the last century. The face may be +accounted handsome: the cheeks are full, and, with the nose, are +rubicund—<i>Bacchi tincti</i>; the eyes are black and brilliantly +expressive;—and the visiter should remember that Sir Joshua Reynolds, +in painting this portrait, is said to have affirmed that their pupils +were larger than those of any human being he had ever met +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page363" name="page363"></a>[pg 363]</span> +with. They retained their beauty to the last, though the face did not, +and the body became bent. How much it is to be regretted that Sheridan +with such fine eyes had so little foresight. There is in the gallery a +younger portrait of him, in a stage or masquerade dress, which is +unworthy of comparison with the preceding. +</p> + +<p> +231. Scene in Covent Garden Market. One of the best views of the old +place, by <i>Hogarth</i>; and one of the last sketches before the recent +improvements, will he found in <i>The Mirror</i>, vol. xiii. p. 121. By +the way, the pillar and ball, which stood in the centre of the square, +and are seen in the present picture, were long in the garden of John +Kemble, in Great Russell-street, Bloomshury. +</p> + +<p> +243. Portrait of the late Mr. Holcroft. <i>Dawe.</i> In this early +performance of the artist, we in vain seek for the "best looks" of the +sitter: such as the painter threw into his portraits of crowned heads. +</p> + +<p> +248. The Happy Marriage. An <i>unfinished</i> picture by <i>Hogarth</i>; +yet how beautifully is some of the distant grouping made out;—what life +and reality too in the figures, and the whole composition, though seen, +as it were, through a mist. +</p> + +<p> +249. Study of a Head from Nature, painted by lamp-light. <i>Harlow.</i> +A curious vagary of genius. +</p> + +<p> +258. Daughter of Sir Peter Lely. <i>Lely.</i> We take this to be the +oldest picture in the gallery. Lely has been dead upwards of a century +and a half. +</p> + +<p> +263. One of <i>Lawrence's</i> Portraits of himself. +</p> + +<p> +286. Sir John Falstaff at Gad's Hill. <i>T. Stothard</i>, R.A. The +figure has not the fleshy rotundity of the Falstaff of Shakspeare; he is +like a half-stuffed actor in the part. +</p> + +<p> +298. Portrait of the late King when Prince of Wales. <i>Lawrence.</i> +The features at this period were remarkably handsome; and considering +the influence of pre-eminence in birth, the expression is not +over-tinged with <i>hauteur</i>. No persons have their portraits so +frequently painted as princes; and the artist who has the fortune to +paint them at all ages, as Lawrence did, must watch their personal +changes with reflective interest, though he may confine them to the +tablet of his memory. What an interval between the youthful vigour of +the above portrait of the Prince and the artist's last, fine +whole-length of the King, in dignified ease, on the sofa! Alas! lines +increase in our faces as they do in the imperfect maps of a +newly-discovered country. +</p> + +<p> +313 and 228. Two Landscapes, by <i>Lawrence</i>, reminding us how +strongly the artist's genius was fettered by public taste in Kneller's +profitable glory of painting "the living." +</p> + +<p> +In the <i>Water-colour Room</i>, are many interesting productions, and +some curiosities in their way. We have Paul Sandby and the quaintly +precise Capon beside Glover and Landseer—so that the drawings are as +motley as the paintings. Here also are Lawrence's inimitable chalk +portraits of his present Majesty and the Duke of Wellington, which show +us how much true genius can accomplish in a few lines. +</p> + +<hr /> + + +<h3> + SCHOOL OF PAINTING AT THE BRITISH INSTITUTION. +</h3> + +<center> +(<i>From a Correspondent</i>.) +</center> + + +<p> +The present school of painting commenced on the 17th of September, and +the students, as usual, have made numerous attempts to copy the +inimitable examples of art which have been selected for their +improvement. The selections consist of specimens from the Italian, +Flemish, Dutch, and English schools, and afford ample variety, in style +and subject, for the different tastes of the students. We are sorry to +state, however, that only a very few copies can be selected as +possessing a fair resemblance to the superb originals. We proceed to +notice those who deserve the most praise:— +</p> + +<p> +<i>Gainsborough's</i> Milk Girl is a most happy production of the +pencil: the figure possesses great infantile beauty; and the landscape +is rural, and in perfect harmony with the subject. This work has been +cleverly copied by Messrs. Sargeant and Lilley in oil, and by Miss Fanny +Corbaux in water-colour. +</p> + +<p> +An Advocate in his Study—<i>Ostade</i>: an exquisitely finished cabinet +picture. The expression in the advocate's face is excellent, and the +various objects in his study are in proper keeping with his calling. The +copy by Mr. Novice is excellent; and those of Messrs. Robson and Higham +display great ability, though they are not sufficiently finished. +</p> + +<p> +A Sea-shore, attributed to <i>Backhuysen</i>, has been studied by Mr. +Dujardin. +</p> + +<p> +Landscape—<i>Gaspar Poussin.</i> This great master admirably delineated +the grandeur of Italian scenery, and invariably chose to represent it +when the clouds forboded a storm, or when other accidental effects of +nature added to the sublimity of the occasion. We generally experience a +kind of awe while contemplating his works; and this feeling is excited +by the <i>chef d'oeuvre</i> before us. Several students have attempted +it in oil; and Messrs. Musgrave, Burbank, and Taylor have copied it in +water-colour. +</p> + +<p> +Messrs. Marks, Sargeant, and Foster deserve notice for their studies +from a Landscape with Figures, by <i>Waterloo</i>; and a charming +picture by <i>Albert Cuyp</i>, representing a wide champaign country, +with some well-executed figures in the foreground, has engaged the +talents of Messrs. Hilder, Child, and Stanley. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Guido's</i> Magdalen has been beautifully +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page364" name="page364"></a>[pg 364]</span> +copied, on a small scale, by Mr. Emmerson; and St. Martin dividing his +Garments, by <i>Rubens</i>, has met with successful imitators in the +pencils of Messrs. Middleton and Buss. These gentlemen's copies, +however, are considerably smaller than the original, which is of the +dimensions of life. +</p> + +<p> +The Water Mill, a brilliant little picture by <i>Ruysdael</i>, has +employed the pencils of several students;—among the most successful of +whom are Messrs. Stark, Lee, and Hilder. +</p> + +<p> +View on the Grand Canal, Venice, by <i>Canaletti</i>: this is, perhaps, +the <i>ne plus ultra</i> of the master, and is the property of that +distinguished patron of the fine arts—Lord Farnborough. Miss Dujardin +has produced the best copy: she has painted the buildings, boats, &c., +with considerable accuracy, and has succeeded in imitating the +transparency of the water. Miss Cook and Mr. Fowler have also copied +this work. +</p> + +<p> +Miss F. Corbaux (in water-colour), and Messrs. Sargeant, Robson, +Simpson, and Lilley (in oil), have well copied the Cupid by <i>Sir J. +Reynolds</i>; and Messrs. Fussel, Hilder, Sims, and Hoffland, deserve +praise for their copies from a Dutch Village, by <i>Ruysdael</i>. A Corn +Field, by the same master, appears to have been carefully studied by +Messrs. Lee and Novice. +</p> + +<p> +To conclude: A spirited series of small views in Venice, by +<i>Guardi</i>, have been prettily imitated by Mr. Sargeant and Miss +Dujardin. +</p> + +<h4> +G.W.N. +</h4> + +<hr class="full" /> + + + + +<h2> + THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. +</h2> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h3> + SCRAPS FROM THE DIARY OF A TRAVELLER. +</h3> + +<p style="text-align: right;"> +<i>Rome</i>. +</p> + + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> + <p> If e'er you have seen an artist sketching</p> +<p class="i2"> The purlicus of this ancient city,</p> + <p> I need not tell you how much stretching</p> +<p class="i2"> There is of <i>truth</i>, to make things pretty;—</p> + <p> How trees are brought, perforce, together,</p> +<p class="i2"> Where never tree was known to grow:</p> + <p> And founts condemned to trickle, whether</p> +<p class="i2"> There's water for said founts or no;—</p> + <p> How ev'n the wonder of the Thane</p> +<p class="i2"> In sketching all its wonder loses,</p> + <p> As woods <i>will</i> come to Dunsinane,</p> +<p class="i2"> Or any where the sketcher chooses.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> + <p> For instance, if an artist see,—</p> + <p> As at romantic Tivoli,—</p> + <p> A water-fall and ancient shrine,</p> +<p class="i2"> Beautiful both, but not so plac'd</p> + <p> As that his pencil can combine</p> +<p class="i2"> Their features in one <i>whole</i> with taste,—</p> + <p> What does he do? why, without scruple,</p> + <p> He whips the Temple up, as supple</p> + <p> As were those angels who (no doubt)</p> + <p> Carried the Virgin's House<a id="footnotetag11" name="footnotetag11"></a><a href="#footnote11"><sup>11</sup></a> about,—</p> + <p> And lands it plump upon the brink</p> +<p class="i2"> Of the cascade, or whersoever</p> + <p> It suits his plaguy taste to think</p> +<p class="i2"> 'Twill look most picturesque and clever!</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> + <p> In short, there's no end to the treacheries</p> + <p> Of man or maid who once a sketcher is,</p> + <p> The livelier, too, their fancies are,</p> +<p class="i2"> The more they'll falsify each spot;</p> + <p> As any dolt can give what's <i>there</i>,</p> +<p class="i2"> But men of genius give what's <i>not</i>.</p> + <p> Then come your travellers, false as they,—</p> + <p> All Piranesis, in their way;</p> + <p> Eking out bits of truth with fallacies,</p> + <p> And turning pig-stys into palaces.</p> + <p> But, worst of all, that wordy tribe,</p> + <p> Who sit down, hang them, to <i>describe</i>;</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> + <p> Who, if they can but make things fine,</p> +<p class="i2"> Have consciences by no means tender</p> + <p> In sinking all that, will not shine,</p> +<p class="i2"> All vulgar facts, that spoil their splendour:—</p> + <p> As Irish country squires they say,</p> +<p class="i2"> Whene'er the Viceroy travels nigh,</p> + <p> Compound with beggars, on the way,</p> +<p class="i2"> To be lock'd up, till he goes by;</p> + <p> And so send back his Lordship marvelling,</p> + <p> That Ireland should be deem'd so starveling.</p> +</div><div class="stanza"> + <p> This cant, for instance,—how profuse 'tis</p> + <p> Over the classic page of E——e!</p> + <p> Veiling the truth in such fine phrase,</p> +<p class="i2"> That we for poetry might take it,</p> + <p> Were it not dull as prose, and praise,</p> +<p class="i2"> And endless elegance can make it.—T. MOORE.</p> +</div></div> + + + +<p style="text-align: right;"> +<i>Metropolitan</i>. +</p> + +<hr /> + + +<h3> + ASMODEUS IN LONDON. +</h3> + +<center> +(<i>From the New Monthly Magazine</i>.) +</center> + + +<p> +I was alone with Sleep. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +I woke with a singular sense of feebleness and exhaustion, and turning +my dizzy eyes—-beheld the walls and furniture of my own chamber in +London. Asmodeus was seated by my side reading a Sunday newspaper—his +favourite reading. +</p> + +<p> +"Ah!" said I, stretching myself with so great an earnestness, that I +believed at first my stature had been increased by the malice of the +Wizard, and that I stretched from one end of the room to the other—"Ah! +dear Asmodeus, how pleasant it is to find myself on earth again! After +all, these romantic wonders only do for a short time. Nothing like +London when one has been absent from it upon a Syntax search after the +Picturesque!" +</p> + +<p> +"London is indeed a charming place,"—said the Devil—"all our +fraternity are very fond of it—it is the custom for the Parisians to +call it dull. What an instance of the vanity of patriotism—there is +vice enough in it to make any reasonable man cheerful." +</p> + +<p> +"Yes: the gaiety of Paris is really a delusion. How poor its shops—how +paltry its equipages—how listless its crowds—compared with those of +London! If it was only for the pain in walking their accursed stones, +sloping down to a river in the middle of the street—all sense of idle +enjoyment would be spoilt. But in London—'the hum, the stir, the din of +men'—the activity and flush of life everywhere—the brilliant +shops—the various equipages—the signs of luxury, wealth, restlessness, +that meet you on all sides—give a much more healthful and vigorous +bound to the spirits, than the indolent loungers of the Tuileries, +spelling a thrice-read French paper which contains nothing, or sitting +on chairs by the hour together, unwilling +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page365" name="page365"></a>[pg 365]</span> +to stir because they have paid +a penny for the seat—ever enjoy. O! if London would seem gay after +Paris, how much more so after a visit to the interior of the Earth. +And what is the news, my Asmodeus?" +</p> + +<p> +"The Theatres have re-opened. Apropos of them—I will tell you a fine +instance of the futility of human ambition. Mr. Monck Mason took the +King's Theatre, saith report—(which is the creed of devils)—in order +to bring out an opera of his own, which Mr. Laporte, with a very +uncourteous discretion, had thought fit to refuse. The season +passes—and Mr. Monck Mason has ruined himself without being able to +bring out his opera after all! What a type of speculation. A speculator +is one who puts a needle in a hay-stack, and then burns all his hay +without finding the needle. It is hard to pay too dear for one's +whistle—but still more hard if one never plays a tune on the whistle +one pays for. Still the world has lost a grand pleasure in not seeing +damned an Opera written by the Manager of the Opera-house,—it would +have been such a consolation to all the rejected operatives,—it would +have been the prettiest hardship entailed on a great man ever since the +time of that speaker who was forced himself to put the question whether +he had been guilty of bribery, and should be expelled the House, and had +the pleasure of hearing the Ayes predominate. <i>Je me mête</i> with the +affairs of the Theatre—they are in my diabolic province, you know. But +if the stage be the fosterer of vice, as you know it is said, vice just +at this moment in England has very unattractive colours." +</p> + +<p> +"Ah, wait till we break the monopoly. But even now have we not the +'Hunchback?' +</p> + +<p> +"Yes; the incarnation of the golden mediocre: a stronger proof, by the +hyperbolic praise it receives, of the decline of the drama than even the +abundance of trash from which it gleams. Anything at all decent from a +new dramatic author will obtain success far more easily than much higher +merit, in another line; literary rivalship not having yet been directed +much towards the stage, there are not literary jealousies resolved and +united against a dramatist's as against a poet's or a novelist's +success. Every one can praise those pretensions, however humble, which +do not interfere with his own." +</p> + +<p> +"It is very true; there is never any very great merit, at least in a new +author, when you don't hear the abuse louder than the admiration. And +now, Asmodeus, with your leave, I will prepare for breakfast, and our +morning's walk." +</p> + +<p> +"Oh, dear, dear London, dear even in October! Regent-street, I salute +you!—Bond-street, my good fellow, how are you? And you, O beloved +Oxford-street! whom the 'Opium Eater' called 'stony-hearted,' and whom +I, eating no opium, and speaking as I find, shall ever consider the +most kindly and maternal of all streets—the street of the middle +classes—busy without uproar, wealthy without ostentation. Ah, the +pretty ancles that trip along thy pavement! Ah, the odd country +cousin-bonnets that peer into thy windows, which are lined with cheap +yellow shawls, price £1. 4s. marked in the corner! Ah, the brisk young +lawyers flocking from their quarters at the back of Holborn! Ah, the +quiet old ladies, living in Duchess-street, and visiting thee with their +eldest daughters in the hope of a bargain! Ah, the bumpkins from Norfolk +just disgorged by the Bull and Mouth—the soldiers—the milliners—the +Frenchmen—the swindlers, the porters with four-post beds on their back, +who add the excitement of danger to that of amusement! The various, +shifting, motley group, that belong to Oxford-street, and Oxford-street +alone. What thoroughfares equal thee in variety of human specimens! in +the choice of objects—for remark—satire—admiration! Beside the other +streets seem chalked out for a sect,—narrow-minded and devoted to a +<i>coterie</i>. Thou alone art Catholic—all receiving. Regent-street +belongs to foreigners, cigars, and ladies in red silk, whose characters +are above scandal. Bond-street belongs to dandies and picture-buyers. +St. James's to club-loungers, and young men in the Guards, with +mustachios properly blackened by the <i>cire</i> of Mr. Delcroix; but +thou, Oxford-street, what class can especially claim thee as its own? +Thou mockest at oligarchies; thou knowest nothing of select orders! +Thou art liberal as air—a chartered libertine! accepting the homage +of all, and retaining the stamp of none. And to call <i>thee</i> +stony-hearted!—certainly thou art so to beggars—to people who have not +the WHEREWITHAL; but thou wouldst not be so respectable if thou wert not +capable of a certain reserve to paupers. Thou art civil enough, in all +conscience, to those who have a shilling in their pocket;—those who +have not, why do they live at all?" +</p> + +<p> +"That's not exactly what surprises me," said Asmodeus; "I don't wonder +<i>why</i> they live, but <i>where</i> they live: for I perceive boards +in every parish proclaiming that no vagrant—that is, no person who is +too poor to pay for his lodging—will be permitted to stay there. Where +then does he stay?—every parish unites against him—not a spot of +ground is lawful for him to stand on. At length he is passed on to his +own parish; the meaning of which is, that not finding a decent +livelihood in one place, the laws prevent his seeking it at any other. +By the way, it would not be a bad plan to substitute a vagrant for a +fox, and, to hunt him regularly, you might hunt him with a pack of +respectable persons belonging to the middle class, and eat him when he's +caught. That +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page366" name="page366"></a>[pg 366]</span> +would be the shortest way to get rid of the race. You might +proclaim a reward for every vagrant's head: it would gain the King more +honour with the rate-payers than clearing the country of wolves won +to his predecessor. What wolf eats so much as a beggar? What wolf so +troublesome, so famished, and so good for nothing? People are quite +right in judging a man's virtue by his wealth; for when a man has not +a shilling he soon grows a rogue. He must live on his wits, and a man's +wits have no conscience when his stomach is empty. We are all very poor +in Hell—very; if we were rich, Satan says, justly, that we should +become idle." +</p> + +<p> +I know not how it is, but my frame is one peculiarly susceptible to +ennui. There's no man so instantaneously bored. What activity does this +singular constitution in all cases produce! All who are sensitive to +ennui do eight times the work of a sleek, contented man. Anything but a +large chair by the fireside, and a family circle! Oh! the bore of going +every day over the same exhausted subjects, to the same dull persons of +respectability; yet that is the doom of all domesticity. Then +<i>pleasure</i>! A wretched play—a hot opera, under the ghostly +fathership of Mr. Monck Mason—a dinner of sixteen, with such silence +or <i>such</i> conversation!—a water-party to Richmond, to catch cold +and drink bad sauterne—a flirtation, which fills all your friends with +alarm, and your writing-desk with love-letters you don't like to burn, +and are afraid of being seen; nay, published, perhaps, one fine day, +that you may go by some d——d pet name ever afterwards!—hunting in a +thick mist—shooting in furze bushes, that "feelingly persuade you what +you are"—"the bowl," as the poets call the bottles of claret that never +warm you, but whose thin stream, like the immortal river,— +</p> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> + <p> "Flows and as it flows, for ever may flow on;"</p> +</div></div> + + + +<p> +or the port that warms you indeed: yes, into a bilious headach and a low +fever. Yet all these things are pleasures!—parts of social enjoyment! +They fill out the corners of the grand world—they inspire the minor's +dreams—they pour crowds into St. James's, Doctors' Commons, and Melton +Mowbray—they——Oh! confound them all!—it bores one even to write +about them. +</p> + +<p> +Only just returned to London, and, after so bright a panegyric on it, +I already weary of the variety of its samenesses. Shall I not risk the +fate of Faust, and fall in love—ponderously and <i>bonâ fide</i>? Or +shall I go among the shades of the deceased, and amuse myself with +chatting to Dido and Julius Caesar? Verily, reader, I leave you for the +present to guess my determination. +</p> + +<hr class="full" /> + + + + +<h2> + DOMESTIC HINTS. +</h2> + + + +<hr /> + + +<h3> + WASTE OF BONES +</h3> + + +<p> +Is at all times reprehensible, but more especially as they are employed +as a manure for dry soils, with the very best effect. They are commonly +ground and drilled in, in the form of powder, with turnip seed. Mr. +Huskisson estimated the real value of bones annually imported, +(principally from the Netherlands and Germany) for the purpose of being +used as a manure, at 100,000<i>l.</i>; and he contended that it was not +too much to suppose that an advance of between 100,000<i>l.</i> and +200,000<i>l.</i> expended on this article occasioned 500,000 additional +quarters of corn to be brought to market.—<i>Loudon's Encycl. +Agricult.</i> +</p> + +<hr /> + + +<h3> + GOOD FLOUR. +</h3> + +<p> +According to the assize acts, a sack of flour weighing 280 lbs. is +supposed capable of being baked into 80 quartern loaves; one-fifth of +the loaf being supposed to consist of water and salt, and four-fifths of +flour. But the number of loaves that may be baked from a sack of flour +<i>depends entirely</i> on its goodness. Good flour requires more water +than bad flour, and old flour than new flour. Sometimes 82, 83, and even +86 loaves have been made from a sack of flour, and sometimes hardly 80. +</p> + +<hr /> + + +<h3> + LEGAL ADULTERATION OF BREAD. +</h3> + +<p> +Within the city of London, and in those places in the country where an +assize is not set, it is lawful for the bakers to make and sell bread +made of wheat, barley, rye, oats, buckwheat, Indian corn, peas, beans, +rice, or potatoes, or any of them, along with common salt, pure water, +eggs, milk, barm, leaven, potato or other yeast, and <i>mixed in such +proportions as they shall think fit</i>. (3 Geo. IV. c. 106, and 1 and 2 +Geo. IV. c. 50.) +</p> + +<hr /> + + +<h3> + HIGH PRICE OF COALS IN LONDON. +</h3> + +<p> +Much has frequently been said of the monopoly of coal-owners; "but," +observes Mr. Macculloch, "we are satisfied, after a pretty careful +investigation of the circumstances, that no such monopoly has ever +existed; and that the high price of coal in the metropolis is to be +ascribed wholly to the various duties and charges that have been laid +upon it, from the time that it has passed from the hands of the owner, +to the time that it is lodged in the cellar of the consumer."—<i>Dict. +Commerce, &c.</i> 1832. +</p> + +<hr /> + + +<h3> + ROASTING COFFEE. +</h3> + +<p> +Coffee in this country is rarely well roasted; and in this consists its +chief excellence. Dr. Moseley long since observed—"The roasting of the +berry to a proper degree requires great nicety: the virtue and +agreeableness of the +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page367" name="page367"></a>[pg 367]</span> +drink depend upon it; and both are often injured +by the ordinary method. Bernier says, when he was at Cairo, where coffee +is so much used, he was assured by the best judges, that there were +only two people in that great city who understood how to prepare it in +perfection. If it be underdone, its virtues will not be imparted, and, +in use, it will load and oppress the stomach; if it be overdone, it will +yield a flat, burnt, and bitter taste, its virtues will be destroyed, +and, in use, it will heat the body, and act as an astringent." The +desirable colour of roasted coffee is that of cinnamon. Coffee-berries +readily imbibe exhalations from other bodies, and thereby acquire an +adventitious and disagreeable flavour. Sugar placed near coffee will, in +a short time, so impregnate the berries as to injure their flavour. Dr. +Moseley mentions, that a few bags of pepper, on board a ship from India, +spoiled a whole cargo of coffee. +</p> + +<hr class="full" /> + + + + +<h2> + THE GATHERER. +</h2> + + + +<hr /> + +<p> +<i>History of "The Merry Devil of Edmonton" and "The Witch of +Edmonton."—</i>Lysons, in his <i>Environs of London</i>, says, "There +is a fable (says Norden) of one Peter Fabell, that lyeth in Edmonton +church, who is said to have beguiled the devell by policie for money; +but the devell is deceit itselfe, and hardly deceived."—"Belike (says +Weever) he was some ingenious, conceited gentleman, who did use some +sleightie tricks for his own disport. He lived and died in the reign of +Henry the Seventh, says the book of his merry pranks." The book Weever +refers to is a pamphlet, now very scarce, called "<i>The Life and Death +of the Merry Devil of Edmonton, with the Pleasant Pranks of Smug the +Smith, &c."</i> These pleasant pranks compose the greater part of the +book, which informs us that Peter Fabell was born at Edmonton, and lived +and died there in the reign of Henry VII. He is called "an excellent +scholar, and well seene in the arte of magick." His story was worked up +into a play, called "The Merry Devil of Edmonton," which has been +falsely attributed to Shakspeare, but is now generally supposed to have +been written by Michael Drayton. There are five editions of this play; +the first came out in 1608; the scene is laid at Edmonton and Enfield. +Edmonton has furnished the stage with another drama, called, "The Witch +of Edmonton." +</p> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> + <p> "The town of Edmonton has lent the stage</p> + <p> A Devil and a Witch, both in an age."</p> +</div></div> + + + +<p> +says the prologue to this play, which is said to be founded on a known +true story, and exhibits various witchcrafts practised upon the +neighbourhood by one Mother Sawyer, whose portrait with that of her +familiar (a dog, called Tom, which is one of the <i>dramatis personae</i>,) +is in the title-page. In the last act, Mrs. Sawyer is led out to +execution. Thus far Lysons.—Many curious particulars relating to Mrs. +Sawyer may be seen in a quarto pamphlet, published in 1621, under the +title, of <i>The wonderful discoverie of Elizabeth Sawyer, a witch, late +of Edmonton; her conviction, her condemnation, and death; together with +the relation of the Divel's accesse to her, and their conference +together. Written by Henry Goodcole, Minister of the Word of God, and +her continued visitor in the Goale of Newgate.</i> The play of "The +Merry Devil of Edmonton" was performed at the Globe, on the Bank-side. +"The Witch of Edmonton" was often acted at the Cock-pit, in Drury-lane, +and once at Court, with singular applause. It was never printed till the +year 1658; and was composed by Rowley, Dekker, and Ford, as a +tragi-comedy. +</p> + +<h4> +P.T.W. +</h4> + +<hr /> + + +<p> +<i>Moody the Actor</i> was an avaricious man. He once lent money to Mr. +Brereton, the actor; Brereton did not return it immediately, and Moody +waited with some degree of patience. At length, the first time Moody met +him, he looked earnestly at him, and vented a kind of noise between a +sigh and a groan. He repeated this interjection whenever he met +Brereton, who at length was so annoyed, that he put his hand in his +pocket and paid him. Moody took the money, and with a gentler aspect +said, "Did I ask you for it, Billy?"—Speaking of Sheridan, Moody once +said, "I have the highest respect for Mr. Sheridan; I honour his +talents, and would do anything to show my friendship for him, but take +his word."—<i>Taylor.</i> +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +<i>A Cruel Physiognomist.</i>—Quin said of Macklin, "If God writes a +legible hand, that fellow is a villain." At another time, Quin had the +hardihood to say to Macklin himself, "Mr. Macklin, by the <i>lines</i>—I +beg your pardon, sir—by the <i>cordage</i> of your face, you should +be hanged." +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +"<i>The Grand Pause.</i>"—Macklin had three pauses in his acting—the +first, moderate; the second, twice as long; but his last, or "grand +pause," as he styled it, was so long, that the prompter, on one +occasion, thinking his memory failed, repeated the cue (as it is +technically called) several times, and at last so loud as to be heard by +the audience. At length Macklin rushed from the stage, and knocked him +down, exclaiming, "The fellow interrupted me in my grand pause!" +</p> + +<p> +<i>John Gilpin</i>.—Henderson, the actor, in his public readings, first +brought into notice the humorous tale of John Gilpin, which he recited +with such spirit and comic effect that it drew public attention to the +poems of Cowper in general, which, excellent as they are, particularly +<i>The Task</i>, were but little known at the time, though they are now +justly in universal estimation. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page368" name="page368"></a>[pg 368]</span> +</p> + +<p> +<i>Bibb the Engraver.</i>—Taylor relates: How Bibb supported himself, +having relinquished engraving, it would be difficult to conceive, if he +had not levied taxes upon all whom he knew, insomuch that, besides his +title of Count, he acquired that of "Half-crown Bibb," by which +appellation he was generally distinguished; and according to a rough, +and, perhaps, fanciful estimate, he had borrowed at least 2,000<i>l.</i> +in half-crowns. I remember to have met him on the day when the death of +Dr. Johnson was announced in the newspapers, and, expressing my regret +at the loss of so great a man, Bibb interrupted me, and spoke of him as +a man of no genius, whose mind contained nothing but the lumber of +learning. I was modestly beginning a panegyric upon the doctor, when he +again interrupted me with, "Oh! never mind, that old blockhead. Have you +such a thing as ninepence about you?" Luckily for him I had a little +more. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +<i>Worst Leg</i>—Theophilus Cibber was by no means wanting in abilities +or humour. He had ill-formed legs; and having projected one of them in +company, which was noticed with a laugh, he offered to lay a wager that +there was a worse in company; and it being accepted, he put forward his +other leg, which was indeed more ill-shaped than the other. +</p> + +<hr /> + +<p> +<i>A Painter's Gratitude</i>.—Zoffani, the celebrated painter, who was +born at Frankfort, 1735, came to England, as a painter of small +portraits, when he was about the age of thirty years. He had the honour +to be employed by his Majesty, and painted portraits of the royal +family; and he was engaged by the Queen, to paint for her a view of the +Tribune of the Gallery of Florence. He was somewhat of a humorist; and +it is said of him, that whilst he was engaged painting in the Florentine +Gallery, the Emperor of Germany visited the Grand Duke; and coining up +to Zoffani, in the Gallery, was much pleased with his performance, and +asked him his name; and on hearing it, inquired what countryman he was, +when he answered, "An Englishman."—"Why," said the Emperor, "your name +is German!"—"True," returned the painter. "I was born in Germany, that +was accidental; <i>I call that my country where I have been +protected!</i>" He was a member of the Royal Academy, and died in 1808. +</p> + +<h4> +P.T.W. +</h4> + +<hr /> + +<p> +<i>Watching for the Soul.</i>—Margaret of Valois, Queen of Navarre, +being present at the death-bed of one of her maids of honour, continued +to fix her eyes on the dying person with uncommon eagerness and +perseverance till she breathed her last. The ladies of the Court +expressed their astonishment at this conduct, and requested to know what +satisfaction her majesty could derive from so close an inspection of the +agonies of death. Her answer marked a most daring and inquisitive mind. +She said that having often heard the most learned doctors and +ecclesiastics assert, that on the extinction of the body the immortal +part was set at liberty and unloosed, she could not restrain her anxious +curiosity to observe if such separation were visible or discernible; +that none had she been able in any degree to discover. She was suspected +of Hugonotism, and was so devout as to compose hymns. +</p> + +<p> +<i>Harvest-home.</i>—This custom a Correspondent believes to be +exclusively English; and its rapid disuse in many parts of England +cannot be but a source of regret to those who study the moral enjoyment +of the labouring classes of society. The social meal is now recompensed +by a trifling sum of money, which is either the resource of drunkenness +and debauchery, or at best is but comparatively ill-spent. +</p> + +<p> +<i>All things by Comparison.</i>—Aristippus being reprehended of luxury +by one that was not rich, for that he gave six crowns for a small fish, +answered, "Why, what would you have, given?" The other said, "Some +twelve pence." Aristippus said again, "And six crowns is no more with +me." +</p> + +<h4> +P.T.W. +</h4> + +<hr /> + + +<p> +<i>Epitaphs.</i>—At Castle Camps, in Cambridgeshire, is the following +quaint epitaph on a former rector— +</p> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> + <p> Mors mortis morti mortem nisi morte dedisset,</p> + <p> Aeternae Vitae Janua clausa foret.</p> +</div></div> + + + +<p> +The translation is obviously, "unless the Death of Death (Christ) had +given death to Death by his own death, the gate of eternal life had been +closed." A poetic specimen of declension! +</p> + +<p> +At Babraham, in Cambridgeshire, is this on Orazio Palovicini, who was +the last deputed to this country to collect the Peter-pence; but instead +of returning to Rome, he divided the spoil with the Queen, and bought +the estate at Babraham.— +</p> + + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> + <p> Here lies Orazio Pulovicin,</p> + <p> Who robb'd the Pope to pay the Queen.</p> + <p> He was a thief:—A thief? thou liest!</p> + <p> For why?—He robb'd but antichrist.</p> + <p> Him Death with besom swept from Babraham,</p> + <p> Unto the bosom of old Abraham;</p> + <p> Then came Hercules, with his club,</p> + <p> And knocked him down to Beelzebub.</p> +<p style="text-align: right;">INDAGATOR.</p> +</div></div> + +<hr /> + + +<h3> + THE ANNUALS FOR 1833. +</h3> + + + +<center> +With our next Number, a SUPPLEMENT,<br /> +CONTAINING THE<br /> +Spirit of the Annuals for 1833:<br /> +With a fine Engraving, &c.<br /> +</center> + +<hr class="full" /> + +<blockquote class="footnote"> +<a id="footnote1" name="footnote1"></a> +<b>Footnote 1</b>: +<a href="#footnotetag1">(return)</a> +A cleverly conducted work containing more popular information +on Medicine, Surgery, and what are termed the collateral sciences, +than we are accustomed to find in a "professional" journal. +</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"> +<a id="footnote2" name="footnote2"></a> +<b>Footnote 2</b>: +<a href="#footnotetag2">(return)</a> +Rammazini. +</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"> +<a id="footnote3" name="footnote3"></a> +<b>Footnote 3</b>: +<a href="#footnotetag3">(return)</a> +Preface de Narcisse Oeuvres, Diverses, t. l. v. 172. +</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"> +<a id="footnote4" name="footnote4"></a> +<b>Footnote 4</b>: +<a href="#footnotetag4">(return)</a> +Pathol. lib. 3. cap. 2. Oper. Omm. p. 406. +</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"> +<a id="footnote5" name="footnote5"></a> +<b>Footnote 5</b>: +<a href="#footnotetag5">(return)</a> +See the Engraving, vol. xviii. p. 337 of <i>The Mirror.</i> +</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"> +<a id="footnote6" name="footnote6"></a> +<b>Footnote 6</b>: +<a href="#footnotetag6">(return)</a> +See also pages 113 and 329 of the present volume. +</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"> +<a id="footnote7" name="footnote7"></a> +<b>Footnote 7</b>: +<a href="#footnotetag7">(return)</a> +Hist. Scot. By Sir W. Scott, Bt., vol. i, p. 197. +</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"> +<a id="footnote8" name="footnote8"></a> +<b>Footnote 8</b>: +<a href="#footnotetag8">(return)</a> +Ibid. p. 199. +</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"> +<a id="footnote9" name="footnote9"></a> +<b>Footnote 9</b>: +<a href="#footnotetag9">(return)</a> +Faedera, tom. v. p. 542. +</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"> +<a id="footnote10" name="footnote10"></a> +<b>Footnote 10</b>: +<a href="#footnotetag10">(return)</a> +Messrs Britton and Brayley—Beauties of England and Wales, +vol. v. p. 199. +</blockquote> + +<blockquote class="footnote"> +<a id="footnote11" name="footnote11"></a> +<b>Footnote 11</b>: +<a href="#footnotetag11">(return)</a> +The Santa Casa. +</blockquote> + +<hr class="full" /> +<p> +<i>Printed and published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near Somerset +House,) London; sold by G.G. BENNIS, 55, Rue Neuve, St. Augustin, Paris; +CHARLES JUGEL, Francfort; and by all Newsmen and Booksellers.</i> +</p> +<hr class="full" /> + +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 14008 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/14008-h/images/m578-1.png b/14008-h/images/m578-1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..39e4815 --- /dev/null +++ b/14008-h/images/m578-1.png diff --git a/14008-h/images/m578-2.png b/14008-h/images/m578-2.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9e3562c --- /dev/null +++ b/14008-h/images/m578-2.png diff --git a/14008-h/images/m578-3.png b/14008-h/images/m578-3.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3b83fc1 --- /dev/null +++ b/14008-h/images/m578-3.png |
