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diff --git a/38905.txt b/38905.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..4ca3ae9 --- /dev/null +++ b/38905.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6781 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, England in the Days of Old, by William Andrews + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: England in the Days of Old + + +Author: William Andrews + + + +Release Date: February 17, 2012 [eBook #38905] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ENGLAND IN THE DAYS OF OLD*** + + +E-text prepared by the Online Distributed Proofreading Team +(http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by +Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 38905-h.htm or 38905-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38905/38905-h/38905-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/38905/38905-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive. See + http://www.archive.org/details/englandindaysofo00andriala + + + + + +ENGLAND IN THE DAYS OF OLD. + + + * * * * * * + +BYGONE ENGLAND, + +Social Studies in its Historic Byways and Highways, + +BY WILLIAM ANDREWS. + +"Of interest alike to the antiquary and general reader is 'Bygone +England,' a book from the able pen of Mr. William Andrews, devoted to the +consideration of some of the phases of the social life of this country in +the olden time."--_Whitehall Review._ + +"A very readable and instructive volume."--_The Globe._ + +"Many are the subjects of interest introduced into this chatty +volume."--_Saturday Review._ + +"There is a large mass of information in this capital volume, and it is so +pleasantly put, that many will be tempted to study it. Mr. Andrews has +done his work with great skill."--_London Quarterly Review._ + +"We welcome 'Bygone England.' It is another of Mr. Andrews' meritorious +achievements in the path of popularising archaeological and old-time +information without in any way writing down to an ignoble level."--_The +Antiquary._ + +"A delightful volume for all who love to dive into the origin of social +habits and customs, and to penetrate into the byways of +history."--_Liverpool Daily Post._ + +"'A delightful book,' is the verdict that the reader will give after a +perusal of its pages. Mr. Andrews has presented to us in a very pleasing +form some phases of the social life of England in the olden +time."--_Publishers' Circular._ + +"Some of the chapters are very interesting, and are most useful for those +who desire to know the origin and history of some of our daily practices +and amusements."--_The World._ + +"In recommending this book to the general public, we do so, feeling +confident that within its pages they will find much that is worth knowing, +that they will never find their interest flag, nor their curiosity +ungratified."--_Hull Daily News._ + + * * * * * * + + +[Illustration: THE HOUSE OF COMMONS IN THE TIME OF SIR ROBERT WALPOLE.] + + +ENGLAND IN THE DAYS OF OLD, + +by + +William Andrews. + + + + + + + +London: +William Andrews & Co., 5, Farringdon Avenue, E.C. +1897. + + + + +Preface. + + +This volume of new studies on old-time themes, chiefly concerning the +social and domestic life of England, is sent forth with a hope that it may +prove entertaining and instructive. It is a companion work to "Bygone +England," which the critical press and reading public received with a warm +welcome on its publication, and thus encouraged me to prepare this and +other volumes dealing with the highways and byways of history. + +WILLIAM ANDREWS. + + THE HULL PRESS, + _February 14th, 1897_. + + + + +Contents. + + + PAGE + + WHEN WIGS WERE WORN 1 + + POWDERING THE HAIR 28 + + MEN WEARING MUFFS 40 + + CONCERNING CORPORATION CUSTOMS 48 + + BRIBES FOR THE PALATE 63 + + REBEL HEADS ON CITY GATES 74 + + BURIAL AT CROSS ROADS 105 + + DETAINING THE DEAD FOR DEBT 115 + + A NOBLEMAN'S HOUSEHOLD IN TUDOR TIMES 122 + + BREAD AND BAKING IN BYGONE DAYS 134 + + ARISE, MISTRESS, ARISE! 142 + + THE TURNSPIT 144 + + A GOSSIP ABOUT THE GOOSE 150 + + BELLS AS TIME-TELLERS 156 + + THE AGE OF SNUFFING 168 + + STATE LOTTERIES 186 + + BEAR-BAITING 205 + + MORRIS DANCERS 222 + + THE FOLK-LORE OF MIDSUMMER EVE 234 + + HARVEST HOME 244 + + CURIOUS CHARITIES 255 + + AN OLD-TIME CHRONICLER 266 + + INDEX 275 + + + + +England in the Days of Old. + + + + +When Wigs were Worn. + + +The wig was for a long period extremely popular in old England, and its +history is full of interest. At the present time, when the wig is no +longer worn by the leaders of fashion, we cannot fully realize the +important place it held in bygone times. Professional, as well as +fashionable people did not dare to appear in public without their wigs, +and they vied with each other in size and style. + +[Illustration: EGYPTIAN WIG (PROBABLY FOR FEMALE), FROM THE BRITISH +MUSEUM.] + +To trace the origin of the wig our investigations must be carried to far +distant times. It was worn in Egypt in remote days, and the Egyptians are +said to have invented it, not merely as a covering for baldness, but as a +means of adding to the attractiveness of the person wearing it. On the +mummies of Egypt wigs are found, and we give a picture of one now in the +British Museum. This particular wig probably belonged to a female, and was +found near the small temple of Isis, Thebes. "As the Egyptians always +shaved their heads," says Dr. T. Robinson, "they could scarcely devise a +better covering than the wig, which, while it protected them from the rays +of the sun, allowed, from the texture of the article, the transpiration +from the head to escape, which is not the case with the turban." Dr. +Robinson has devoted much study to this subject, and his conclusions merit +careful consideration. He also points out that in the examples of Egyptian +wigs in the British and Berlin Museums the upper portions are made of +curled hair, the plaited hair being confined to the lower part and the +sides. On the authority of Wilkinson, says Dr. Robinson, "these wigs were +worn both within the house and out of doors. At parties the head-dress of +the guests was bound with a chaplet of flowers, and ointment was put upon +the top of the wig, as if it had really been the hair of the head." + +We find in Assyrian sculptures representations of the wig, and its use is +recorded amongst ancient nations, including Persians, Medes, Lydians, +Carians, Greeks, and Romans. Amongst the latter nation _galerus_, a round +cap, was the common name for a wig. + +The early fathers of the Church denounced the wig as an invention of the +Evil One. St. Gregory of Nazianzus, as a proof of the virtue of his simple +sister Gorgonia, said, "she neither cared to curl her own hair, nor to +repair its lack of beauty by the aid of a wig." St. Jerome pronounced +these adornments as unworthy of Christianity. The matter received +consideration or perhaps, to put it more correctly, condemnation, at many +councils, commencing at Constantinople, and coming down to the Provincial +Council at Tours. The wig was not tolerated, even if worn as a joke. +"There is no joke in the matter," said the enraged St. Bernard: "the woman +who wears a wig commits a mortal sin." St. John Chrysostom pleaded +powerfully against this enormity; and others might be mentioned who spoke +with no uncertain sound against this fashion. + +Dr. Doran relates a strange story, saying St. Jerome vouches for its +authenticity, and by him it was told to deter ladies from wearing wigs. +"Praetexta," to use Doran's words, "was a very respectable lady, married to +a somewhat paganist husband, Hymetius. Their niece, Eustachia, resided +with them. At the instigation of the husband Praetexta took the shy +Eustachia in hand, attired her in a splendid dress, and covered her fair +neck with ringlets. Having enjoyed the sight of the modest maiden so +attired, Praetexta went to bed. To that bedside immediately descended an +angel, with wrath upon his brow, and billows of angry sounds rolling from +his lips. 'Thou hast,' said the spirit, 'obeyed thy husband rather than +the Lord, and has dared to deck the hair of a virgin, and made her look +like a daughter of earth. For this do I wither up thy hands, and bid them +recognize the enormity of thy crime in the amount of thy anguish and +bodily suffering. Five months more shalt thou live, and then Hell shall be +thy portion; and if thou art bold enough to touch the head of Eustachia +again, thy husband and thy children shall die even before thee.'" + +Church history furnishes some strange stories against wearing wigs, and +the following may be taken as a good example. Clemens of Alexandria, so +runs the tale, surprised wig-wearers by telling those that knelt at church +to receive the blessing, they must please to bear in mind that the +benediction remained on the wig, and did not pass through to the wearer! +Some immediately removed their wigs, but others allowed them to remain, no +doubt hoping to receive a blessing. + +Poetry and history supply many interesting passages bearing on our present +investigations. The Lycians having been engaged in war, were defeated. +Mausoleus, their conqueror, ruthlessly directed the subdued men to have +their heads shaven. This was humiliating in the extreme, and the Lycians +were keenly alive to their ridiculous appearance. The king's general was +tempted with bribes, and finally yielded, and allowed wigs to be imported +for them from Greece, and thus the symbol of degredation became the pink +of Lycian fashion. + +Hannibal, the brave soldier, is recorded to have worn two sorts of wigs; +one to improve, and the other to disguise his person. + +Wigs are said to have been worn in England in the reign of King Stephen, +but their palmy days belong to the seventeenth and the earlier part of the +eighteenth centuries. Says Stow, they were introduced into this country +about the time of the Massacre of Paris, but they are not often alluded to +until the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The earliest payment for one in the +Privy Purse expenses occurs in December, 1529, and is for twenty shillings +"for a _perwyke_ for Sexton, the king's fool." Some twenty years later +wigs, or, to give the full title, periwigs, became popular. + +In France the mania was at its height in the reign of Louis XIV. We are +told in 1656 he had not fewer than forty court _perruquiers_, and these, +by an order of Council, were declared artistes. In addition to this, Le +Gros instituted at Paris an Academie de France des Perruquiers. Robinson +records that a storm was gathering about their heads. He tells us "the +celebrated Colbert, amazed at the large sums spent for foreign hair, +conceived the idea of prohibiting the wearing of wigs at Court, and tried +to introduce a kind of cap." He lost the day, for it was proved that more +money reached the country for wigs than went out to purchase hair. The +fashion increased; larger wigs were worn, and some even cost L200 apiece. + +Charles II. was the earliest English king represented on the Great Seal +wearing a large periwig. Dr. Doran assures us that the king did not bring +the fashion to Whitehall. "He forbade," we are told, "the members of the +Universities to wear periwigs, smoke tobacco, or to read their sermons. +The members did all three, and Charles soon found himself doing the first +two." + +Pepys' "Diary" contains much interesting information concerning wigs. +Under date of 2nd November, 1663, he writes: "I heard the Duke say that he +was going to wear a periwig, and says the King also will. I never till +this day observed that the King is mighty gray." It was perhaps the change +in the colour of his Majesty's hair that induced him to assume the +head-dress he had previously so strongly condemned. + +As might be expected, Pepys, who delighted to be in the fashion, adopted +the wig. He took time to consider the matter, and had consultations with +Mr. Jervas, his old barber, about the affair. Referring in his "Diary" to +one of his visits to his hairdresser, Pepys says "I did try two or three +borders and periwigs, meaning to wear one, and yet I have no stomach for +it; but that the pains of keeping my hair clean is great. He trimmed me, +and at last I parted, but my mind was almost altered from my first +purpose, from the trouble which I forsee in wearing them also." Weeks +passed before he could make up his mind to wear a wig. Mrs. Pepys was +taken to the periwig-maker's shop to see the one made for Mr. Pepys, and +expressed her satisfaction on seeing it. We read in April, 1665, of the +wig being at Jervas' under repair. Early in May, Pepys writes in his +"Diary," he suffered his hair to grow long, in order to wear it, but he +said "I will have it cut off all short again, and will keep to periwigs." +Later, under date of September 3rd, he writes: "Lord's day. Up; and put on +my coloured silk suit, very fine, and my new periwig, bought a good while +since, but durst not wear, because the plague was in Westminster when I +bought it; and it is a wonder what will be in fashion, after the plague is +done, as to periwigs, for nobody will dare to buy any hair, for fear of +the infection, that it had been cut off the heads of people dead of the +plague." + +We learn from an entry in the "Diary" for June 11th, 1666, that ladies in +addition to assuming masculine costume for riding, wore long wigs. +"Walking in the galleries at Whitehall," observes Mr. Pepys, "I find the +ladies of honour dressed in their riding garbs, with coats and doublets +with deep skirts, just for all the world like mine, and buttoned their +doublets up the breast, with periwigs and with hats, so that, only for +long petticoats dragging under their men's coats, nobody could take them +for women in any point whatever." + +Pepys, we have seen, wondered if periwigs would survive after the terrible +plague. He thought not, but he was mistaken. Wigs still remained popular. +The plague passed away, and its terrors were forgotten. The world of folly +went on much as of yore, perhaps with greater gaiety, as a reaction to the +lengthened time of depression. + +In some instances the wig appears much out of place, and a notable example +is that given in the portrait by Kneller, of George, Earl of Albemarle. He +is dressed in armour, and wearing a long flowing wig. Anything more absurd +could scarcely be conceived. + +[Illustration: THE EARL OF ALBEMARLE.] + +The beau of the period when the wig was popular carried in his pocket +beautifully made combs, and in his box at the play, or in other places, +combed his periwig, and rendered himself irresistible to the ladies. +Making love seems to have been the chief aim of his life. Sir John +Hawkins, in his "History of Music," published in 1776, has an informing +note on combing customs. "On the Mall and in the theatre," he tells us, +"gentlemen conversed and combed their perukes. There is now in being a +fine picture by the elder Laroon of John, Duke of Marlborough, at his +_levee_, in which his Grace is represented dressed in a scarlet suit, with +large white satin cuffs, and a very long white peruke which he combs, +while his valet, who stands behind him, adjusts the curls after the comb +has passed through them." Allusions to the practice may be found in the +plays from the reign of Charles II. down to the days of Queen Anne. We +read in Dryden's prologue to "Almanzor and Almahide"-- + + "But as when vizard mask appears in pit, + Straight every man who thinks himself a wit + Perks up, and, managing a comb with grace, + With his white wig sets off his nut-brown face." + +Says Congreve, in the "Way of the World":-- + + "The gentlemen stay but to comb, madam, and will wait on you." + +Thomas Brown, in his "Letters from the Dead to the Living" presents a pen +portrait of beaux, as they appeared at the commencement of the eighteenth +century. Some of the passages are well worth reproducing, as they contain +valuable information concerning wigs. "We met," says the writer, "three +flaming beaux of the first magnitude. He in the middle made a most +magnificent figure--his periwig was large enough to have loaded a camel, +and he bestowed upon it at least a bushel of powder, I warrant you. His +sword-knot dangled upon the ground, and his steinkirk, that was most +agreeably discoloured with snuff from the top to the bottom, reach'd down +to his waist; he carry'd his hat under his left arm, walk'd with both +hands in the waistband of his breeches, and his cane, that hung +negligently down in a string from his right arm, trail'd most +harmoniously against the pebbles, while the master of it was tripping it +nicely upon his toes, or humming to himself." Down to the middle of the +eighteenth century, wigs continued to increase in size. + +It will not now be without interest to direct attention to a few of the +many styles of wigs. + +[Illustration: CAMPAIGN-WIG.] + +Randle Holme, in his "Academy of Armory," published in 1684, has some +interesting illustrations, and we will draw upon him for a couple of +pictures. Our first example is called the campaign-wig. He says it "hath +knots or bobs, or dildo, on each side, with a curled forehead." This is +not so cumbrous as the periwig we have noticed. + +[Illustration: PERIWIG WITH TAIL.] + +Another example from Holme is a smaller style of periwig with tail, and +from this wig doubtless originated the familiar pig-tail. It was of +various forms, and Swift says:-- + + "We who wear our wigs + With fantail and with snake." + +A third example given by Holme is named the "short-bob," and is a plain +peruke, imitating a natural head of hair. "Perukes," says Malcolm, in his +"Manners and Customs," "were an highly important article in 1734. Those of +right gray human hair were four guineas each; light grizzle ties, three +guineas; and other colours in proportion, to twenty-five shillings. Right +gray human hair, cue perukes, from two guineas; white, fifteen shillings +each, which was the price of dark ones; and right gray bob perukes, two +guineas and a half; fifteen shillings was the price of dark bobs. Those +mixed with horsehair were much lower. It will be observed, from the +gradations in price, that real gray hair was most in fashion, and dark of +no estimation." As time ran its course, wigs became more varied in form, +and bore different names. + +[Illustration: RAMILLIE-WIG.] + +We find in the days of Queen Anne such designations as black riding-wigs, +bag-wigs, and nightcap-wigs. These were in addition to the long, formally +curled perukes. In 1706, the English, led by Marlborough, gained a great +victory on the battlefield of Ramillies, and that gave the title to a long +wig described as "having a long, gradually diminishing, plaited tail, +called the 'Ramillie-tail,' which was tied with a great bow at the top, +and a smaller one at the bottom." It is stated in Read's _Weekly Journal_ +of May 1st, 1736, in a report of the marriage of the Prince of Wales, that +"the officers of the Horse and Foot Guards wore Ramillie periwigs by his +Majesty's order." We meet in the reign of George II. other forms of the +wig, and more titles for them; the most popular, perhaps, was the +pigtail-wig. The pig-tails were worn hanging down the back, or tied up in +a knot behind, as shown in our illustration. This form of wig was popular +in the army, but in 1804, orders were given for it to be reduced to seven +inches in length, and finally, in 1808, to be cut off. + +[Illustration: THE PIG-TAIL WIG.] + +[Illustration: BAG-WIG.] + +Here is a picture of an ordinary man; by no means can he be regarded as a +beau. He is wearing a common bag-wig, dating back to about the middle of +the eighteenth century. The style is modified to suit an individual +taste, and for one who did not follow the extreme fashion of his time. In +this example may be observed the sausage curls over the ear, and the +frizziness over the forehead. + +We have directed attention to the large periwigs, and given a portrait of +the Earl of Albemarle wearing one. In the picture of the House of Commons +in the time of Sir Robert Walpole we get an excellent indication of how +popular the periwig was amongst the law-makers of the land. Farquhar, in a +comedy called "Love and a Bottle," brought out in 1698, says, "a full wig +is imagined to be as infallible a token of wit as the laurel." + +Tillotson is usually regarded as the first amongst the English clergy to +adopt the wig. He said in one of his sermons: "I can remember since the +wearing of hair below the ears was looked upon as a sin of the first +magnitude, and when ministers generally, whatever their text was, did +either find or make occasion to reprove the great sin of long hair; and if +they saw any one in the congregation guilty in that kind, they would point +him out particularly, and let fly at him with great zeal." Dr. Tillotson +died on November 24th, 1694. + +[Illustration: ARCHBISHOP TILLOTSON.] + +Wigs found favour with parsons, and in course of time they appear to have +been indispensable. A volume in 1765, was issued under the title of "Free +Advice to a Young Clergyman," from the pen of the Rev. John Chubbe, in +which he recommended the young preacher to always wear a full wig until +age had made his own hair respectable. Dr. Randolph, on his advancement to +the bishopric, presumed to wait upon George IV. to kiss hands without +wearing a wig. This could not be overlooked by the king, and he said, "My +lord, you must have a wig." Bishops wore wigs until the days of William +IV. Bishop Blomfield is said to have been the first bishop to set the +example of wearing his own hair. Even as late as 1858, at the marriage of +the Princess Royal of England, Archbishop Sumner appeared in his wig. + +Medical men kept up the custom of wearing wigs for a long period; perhaps +they felt like a character in Fielding's farce, "The Mock Doctor," who +exclaims, "I must have a physician's habit, for a physician can no more +prescribe without a full wig than without a fee." The wig known as the +full-bottomed wig was worn by the medical profession:-- + + "Physic of old her entry made + Beneath the immense, full-bottom'd shade; + While the gilt cane, with solemn pride + To each suspicious nose applied, + Seemed but a necessary prop + To bear the weight of wig at top." + +We are told Dr. Delmahoy's wig was particularly celebrated in a song which +commenced: + + "If you would see a noble wig, + And in that wig a man look big, + To Ludgate Hill repair, my boy, + And gaze on Dr. Delmahoy." + +In the middle of the last century so much importance was attached to this +portion of a medical man's costume, that Dr. Brocklesby's barber was in +the habit of carrying a bandbox through the High Change, exclaiming: Make +way for Dr. Brocklesby's wig! + +Professional wigs are now confined to the Speaker in the House of Commons, +who, when in the chair, wears a full-bottomed one, and to judges and +barristers. Such wigs are made of horsehair, cleaned and curled with care, +and woven on silk threads, and shaped to fit the head with exactness. The +cost of a barrister's wig of frizzed hair is from five to six guineas. + +An eminent counsel in years agone wished to make a motion before Judge +Cockburn, and in his hurry appeared without a wig. "I hear your voice," +sternly said his Lordship, "but I cannot see you." The barrister had to +obtain the loan of a wig from a learned friend before the judge would +listen to him. + +Lord Eldon suffered much from headache, and when he was raised to the +peerage he petitioned the King to allow him to dispense with the wig. He +was refused; his Majesty saying he could not permit such an innovation. In +vain did his Lordship show that the wig was an innovation, as the old +judges did not wear them. "True," said the King; "the old judges wore +beards." + +In more recent times we have particulars of several instances of both +bench and bar discarding the use of the wig. At the Summer Assizes at +Lancaster, in 1819, a barrister named Mr. Scarlett hurried into court, and +was permitted to take part in a trial without his wig and gown. Next day +the whole of the members of the bar appeared without their professional +badges, but only on this occasion, although on the previous day a hope had +been expressed that the time was not far distant when the mummeries of +costume would be entirely discarded. + +We learn from a report in the _Times_ of July 24th, 1868, that on account +of the unprecedented heat of the weather on the day before in the Court of +Probate and Divorce the learned judge and bar appeared without wigs. + +On July 22nd, 1874, it is recorded that Dr. Kenealy rose to open the case +for the defence in the Tichborne suit; he sought and obtained permission, +to remove his wig on account of the excessive heat. + +Towards the close of the last century few were the young men at the +Universities who ventured to wear their own hair, and such as did were +designated Apollos. + +Women, as well as men, called into requisition, to add to their charms, +artificial accessories in the form of wigs and curls. Ladies' hair was +curled and frizzed with considerable care, and frequently false curls were +worn under the name of heart-breakers. It will be seen from the +illustration we give that these curls increased the beauty of a pretty +face. + +[Illustration: HEART-BREAKERS.] + +Queen Elizabeth, we gather from Hentzner and other authorities, wore false +hair. We are told that ladies, in compliment to her, dyed their hair a +sandy hue, the natural colour of the Queen's locks. + +[Illustration: A BARBER'S SHOP IN THE TIME OF QUEEN ELIZABETH.] + +We present a picture of a barber's shop in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. +It looks more like the home of a magician than the workshop of a +hairdresser, although we see the barber thoughtfully employed on a wig. +The barber at this period was an important man. A few of his duties +consisted in dressing wigs, using the razor, cutting hair, starching +beards, curling moustachios, tying up love-locks, dressing sword-wounds +received in street frays, and the last, and by no means the least, of his +varied functions was that of receiver and circulator of news and scandal. + +It is recorded that Mary Queen of Scots obtained wigs from Edinburgh not +merely while in Scotland, but during her long and weary captivity in +England. From "The True Report of the Last Moments of Mary Stuart," it +appears, when the executioner lifted the head by the hair to show it to +the spectators, it fell from his hands owing to the hair being false. + +We have previously mentioned Pepys' allusions to women and wigs in 1666. +Coming down to later times, we read in the _Whitehall Evening Post_ of +August 17th, 1727, that when the King, George II., reviewed the Guards, +the three eldest Princesses "went to Richmond in riding habits, with hats, +and feathers, and periwigs." + +It will be seen from the picture of a person with and without a wig that +its use made a plain face presentable. There is a good election story of +Daniel O'Connell. It is related during a fierce debate on the hustings, +O'Connell with his biting, witty tongue attacked his opponent on account +of his ill-favoured countenance. But, not to be outdone, and thinking to +turn the gathering against O'Connell, his adversary called out, "Take off +your wig, and I'll warrant that you'll prove the uglier." The witty +Irishman immediately responded, amidst roars of laughter from the crowd, +by snatching the wig from off his own head and exposing to view a bald +plate, destitute of a single hair. The relative question of beauty was +scarcely settled by this amusing rejoinder, but the laugh was certainly on +O'Connell's side. + +[Illustration: WITH AND WITHOUT A WIG.] + +An interesting tale is told of Peter the Great of Russia. In the year +1716, the famous Emperor was at Dantzig, taking part in a public ceremony, +and feeling his head somewhat cold, he stretched out his hand, and +seizing the wig from the head of the burgomaster sitting below him, he +placed it on his own regal head. The surprise of the spectators may be +better imagined than described. On the Czar returning the wig, his +attendants explained that his Majesty was in the habit of borrowing the +wig of any nobleman within reach on similar occasions. His Majesty, it may +be added, was short of hair. + +[Illustration: STEALING A WIG.] + +In the palmy days of wigs the price of a full wig of an English gentleman +was from thirty to forty guineas. Street quarrels in the olden time were +by no means uncommon; care had to be exercised that wigs were not lost. +Says Swift:-- + + "Triumphing Tories and desponding Whigs, + Forget their feuds, and join to save their wigs." + +Although precautions were taken to prevent wigs being stolen, we are told +that robberies were frequently committed. Sam Rogers thus describes a +successful mode of operation: "A boy was carried covered over in a +butcher's tray by a tall man, and the wig was twisted off in a moment by +the boy. The bewildered owner looked all around for it, when an accomplice +impeded his progress under the pretence of assisting him while the +tray-bearer made off." + +Gay, in his "Trivia," thus writes:-- + + "Nor is the flaxen wig with safety worn: + High on the shoulders in a basket borne + Lurks the sly boy, whose hand, to rapine bred, + Plucks off the curling honours of thy head." + +We will bring our gossip about wigs to a close with an account of the +Peruke Riot. On February 11th, 1765, a curious spectacle was witnessed in +the streets of London, and one that caused some amusement. Fashion had +changed; the peruke was no longer in favour, and only worn to a limited +extent. A large number of peruke-makers were thrown out of employment, +and distress prevailed amongst them. The sufferers thought that help might +be obtained from George III., and a petition was accordingly drawn up for +the enforcement of gentlefolk wearing wigs for the benefit of the +wig-makers. A procession was formed, and waited upon the King at St. +James's Palace. His Majesty, we are told, returned a gracious answer, but +it must have cost him considerable effort to have maintained his gravity. + +Besides the monarch, the unemployed had to encounter the men of the +metropolis, and from a report of the period we learn they did not fare so +well. "As the distressed men went processionally through the town," says +the account, "it was observed that most of the wig-makers, who wanted +other people to wear them, wore no wigs themselves; and this striking the +London mob as something monstrously unfair and inconsistent, they seized +the petitioners, and cut off all their hair _per force_." + +Horace Walpole alludes to this ludicrous petition in one of his letters. +"Should we wonder," he writes, "if carpenters were to remonstrate that +since the Peace there is no demand for wooden legs?" The wags of the day +could not allow the opportunity to pass without attempting to provoke more +mirth out of the matter, and a petition was published purporting to come +from the body carpenters imploring his Majesty to wear a wooden leg, and +to enjoin his servants to appear in his royal presence with the same +graceful decoration. + + + + +Powdering the Hair. + + +In the olden days hair-powder was largely used in this country, and many +circumstances connected with its history are curious and interesting. We +learn from Josephus that the Jews used hair-powder, and from the East it +was no doubt imported into Rome. The history of the luxurious days of the +later Roman Empire supplies some strange stories. At this period gold-dust +was employed by several of the emperors. "The hair of Commodus," it is +stated on the authority of Herodian, "glittered from its natural +whiteness, and from the quantity of essences and gold-dust with which it +was loaded, so that when the sun was shining it might have been thought +that his head was on fire." + +It is supposed, and not without a good show of reason, that the Saxons +used coloured hair-powder, or perhaps they dyed their hair. In Saxon +pictures the beard and hair are often painted blue. Strutt supplies +interesting notes on the subject. "In some instances," he says, "which, +indeed, are not so common, the hair is represented of a bright red colour, +and in others it is of a green and orange hue. I have no doubt existing +in my own mind, that arts of some kind were practised at this period to +colour the hair; but whether it was done by tingeing or dyeing it with +liquids prepared for that purpose according to the ancient Eastern custom, +or by powders of different hues cast into it, agreeably to the modern +practice, I shall not presume to determine." + +It was customary among the Gauls to wash the hair with a lixivium made of +chalk in order to increase its redness. The same custom was maintained in +England for a long period, and was not given up until after the reign of +Elizabeth. The sandy-coloured hair of the queen greatly increased the +popularity of the practice. + +The satirists have many allusions to this subject, more especially those +of the reigns of James and Charles I. In a series of epigrams entitled +"Wit's Recreations," 1640, the following appears under the heading of "Our +Monsieur Powder-wig":-- + + "Oh, doe but marke yon crisped sir, you meet! + How like a pageant he doth walk the street! + See how his perfumed head is powdered ore; + 'Twou'd stink else, for it wanted salt before." + +In "Musarum Deliciae," 1655, we read:-- + + "At the devill's shopps you buy + A dresse of powdered hayre, + On which your feathers flaunt and fly; + But i'de wish you have a care, + Lest Lucifer's selfe, who is not prouder, + Do one day dresse up your haire with a powder." + +From the pen of R. Younge, in 1656, appeared, "The Impartial Monitor." The +author closes with a tirade against female follies in these words:--"It +were a good deed to tell men also of mealing their heads and shoulders, of +wearing fardingales about their legs, etc.; for these likewise deserve the +rod, since all that are discreet do but hate and scorn them for it." A +"Loyal Litany" against the Oliverians runs thus:-- + + "From a king-killing saint, + Patch, powder, and paint, + Libera nos, Domine." + +Massinger, in the "City Madam," printed in 1679, describing the dress of a +rich merchant's wife, mentions powder thus:-- + + "Since your husband was knighted, as I said, + The reverend hood cast off, your borrowed hair + Powdered and curled, was by your dresser's art, + Formed like a coronet, hanged with diamonds + And richest orient pearls." + +John Gay, in his poem, "Trivia, or the Art of Walking the Streets of +London," published in 1716, advises in passing a coxcomb,-- + + "Him like the Miller, pass with caution by, + Lest from his shoulder clouds of powder fly." + +We learn from the "Annals of the Barber-Surgeons" some particulars +respecting the taxing of powder. On 8th August, 1751, "Mr. John Brooks," +it is stated, "attended and produced a deed to which he requested the +subscription of the Court; this deed recited that by an Act of Parliament +passed in the tenth year of Queen Anne, it was enacted that a duty of +twopence per pound should be laid upon all starch imported, and of a penny +per pound upon all starch made in Great Britain, that no perfumer, barber, +or seller of hair-powder should mix any powder of alabaster, plaster of +Paris, whiting, lime, etc. (sweet scents excepted), with any starch to be +made use of for making hair-powder, under a pain of forfeiting the +hair-powder and L50, and that any person who should expose the same for +sale should forfeit it and L20." Other details were given in the deed, and +the Barber-Surgeons gave it their support, and promised twenty guineas +towards the cost of passing the Bill through Parliament. + +A few years prior to the above proceeding we gather from the _Gentleman's +Magazine_ particulars of some convictions for using powder not made in +accordance with the laws of the land. "On the 20th October, 1745," it is +recorded, "fifty-one barbers were convicted before the commissioners of +excise, and fined in the penalty of L20, for having in their custody +hair-powder not made of starch, contrary to Act of Parliament: and on the +27th of the same month, forty-nine other barbers were convicted of the +same offence, and fined in the like penalty." + +Before powder was used, the hair was generally greased with pomade, and +powdering operations were attended with some trouble. In houses of any +pretension was a small room set apart for the purpose, and it was known as +"the powdering-room." Here were fixed two curtains, and the person went +behind, exposing the head only, which received its proper supply of powder +without any going on the clothes of the individual dressed. + +In the _Rambler_, No. 109, under date 1751, a young gentleman writes that +his mother would rather follow him to his grave than see him sneak about +with dirty shoes and blotted fingers, hair unpowdered, and a hat uncocked. + +We have seen that hair-powder was taxed, and on the 5th of May, 1795, an +Act of Parliament was passed taxing persons using it. Pitt was in power, +and being sorely in need of money, hit upon the plan of a tax of a guinea +per head on those who used hair-powder. He was prepared to meet much +ridicule by this movement, but he saw that it would yield a considerable +revenue, estimating it as much as L200,000 a year. Fox, with force, said +that a fiscal arrangement dependent on a capricious fashion must be +regarded as an absurdity, but the Opposition were unable to defeat the +proposal, and the Act was passed. Pitt's powerful rival, Charles James +Fox, in his early manhood, was one of the most fashionable men about town. +Here are a few particulars of his "get up" about 1770, drawn from the +_Monthly Magazine_: "He had his chapeau-bas, his red-heeled shoes, and his +blue hair-powder." Later, when Pitt's tax was gathered, like other Whigs +he refused to use hair-powder. For more than a quarter of a century it had +been customary for men to wear their hair long, tied in a pig-tail and +powdered. Pitt's measure gave rise to a number of Crop Clubs. The _Times_ +for April 14th, 1795, contains particulars of one. "A numerous club," says +the paragraph, "has been formed in Lambeth, called the _Crop Club_, every +member of which, on his entrance, is obliged to have his head docked as +close as the Duke of Bridgewater's old bay coach-horses. This assemblage +is instituted for the purpose of opposing, or rather evading, the tax on +powdered heads." Hair cropping was by no means confined to the humbler +ranks of society. The _Times_ of April 25th, 1795, reports that:--"The +following noblemen and gentlemen were at the party with the Duke of +Bedford, at Woburn Abbey, when a general cropping and combing out of +hair-powder took place: Lord W. Russell, Lord Villiers, Lord Paget, &c., +&c. They entered into an engagement to forfeit a sum of money if any of +them wore their hair tied, or powdered, within a certain period. Many +noblemen and gentlemen in the county of Bedford have since followed the +example: it has become general with the gentry in Hampshire, and the +ladies have left off wearing powder." Hair-powder did not long continue in +use in the army, for in 1799 it was abolished on account of the high price +of flour, caused through the bad harvests. Using flour for the hair +instead of for food was an old grievance among the poor. In the "Art of +Dressing the Hair," 1770, the author complains:-- + + "Their hoarded grain contractors spare, + And starve the poor to beautify the hair." + +Pitt's estimates proved correct, for in the first year the tax produced +L210,136. The tax was increased from a guinea to one pound three shillings +and sixpence. Pitt's Tory friends gave him loyal support. The Whigs might +taunt them by calling them "guinea-pigs," it mattered little, for they +were not merely ready to pay the tax for themselves but to pay patriotic +guineas for their servants. A number of persons were exempt from paying +the tax, including "the royal family and their servants, the clergy with +an income of under L100 per annum, subalterns, non-commissioned officers +and privates in the army and navy, and all officers and privates of the +yeomanry and volunteers enrolled during the past year. A father having +more than two unmarried daughters might obtain on payment for two, a +license for the remainder." A gentlemen took out a license for his butler, +coachman, and footman, etc., and if he changed during the year it stood +good for the newly engaged servants. + +Powder was not wholly set aside by ladies until 1793, when with +consideration Queen Charlotte abandoned its use, swayed no doubt by her +desire to cheapen, in that time of dearth, the flour of which it was made. +It has been said its disuse was attributable to Sir Joshua Reynolds, +Angelica Kauffmann, and other painters of their day, but it is much more +likely that the artists painted the hair "full and flowing" because they +found it so, not that they as a class dictated to their patronesses in +despite of fashion. The French Revolution had somewhat to do with the +change, a powdered head or wig was a token of aristocracy, and as the +fashion might lead to the guillotine, sensible people discarded it long +before the English legislature put a tax upon its use. + +With reference to this Sir Walter Scott says in the fifth chapter of "The +Antiquary":--"Regular were the Antiquary's inquiries at an old-fashioned +barber, who dressed the only three wigs in the parish, which, in defiance +of taxes and times, were still subjected to the operation of powdering and +frizzling, and who for that purpose divided his time among the three +employers whom fashion had yet left him." + +"Fly with this letter, Caxon," said the senior (the Antiquary), holding +out his missive, "fly to Knockwinnock, and bring me back an answer. Go as +fast as if the town council were met and waiting for the provost, and the +provost was waiting for his new powdered wig." "Ah, sir," answered the +messenger, with a deep sigh, "thae days hae lang gane by. Deil a wig has a +provost of Fairport worn sin' auld Provost Jervie's time--and he had a +quean of a servant-lass that dressed it hersel', wi' the doup o' a candle +and a dredging box. But I hae seen the day, Monkbarns, when the town +council of Fairport wad hae as soon wanted their town-clerk, or their gill +of brandy ower-head after the haddies, as they wad hae wanted ilk ane a +weel-favoured, sonsy, decent periwig on his pow. Hegh, sirs! nae wonder +the commons will be discontent, and rise against the law, when they see +magistrates, and bailies, and deacons, and the provost himsel', wi' heads +as bald an' as bare as one o' my blocks." + +It was not in Scotland alone that the barber was peripatetic. "In the last +century," says Mrs. G. Linnaeus Banks, author of the "Manchester Man" and +other popular novels, "he waited on his chief customers or patrons at +their own homes, not merely to shave, but to powder the hair or the wig, +and he had to start on his round betimes. Where the patron was the owner +of a spare periwig it might be dressed in advance, and sent home in a box, +or mounted on a stand, such as a barrister keeps handy at the present day. +But when ladies had powdered top-knots, the hairdresser made his harvest, +especially when a ball or a rout made the calls for his services many and +imperative. When at least a couple of hours were required for the +arrangement of a single toupee or tower, or commode, as the head-dress was +called, it may well be understood that for two or three days prior to the +ball the hairdresser was in demand, and as it was impossible to lie down +without disarranging the structure he had raised on pads, or framework of +wire, plastering with pomatum and disguising with powder, the belles so +adorned or disfigured were compelled to sit up night and day, catching +what sleep was possible in a chair. And when I add that a head so dressed +was rarely disturbed for ten days or a fortnight, it needs no stretch of +imagination to realize what a mass of loathsome nastiness the fine ladies +of the last century carried about with them, or what strong stomachs the +barbers must have had to deal with them." + +The Tories often regarded with mistrust any persons who did not use +hair-powder. The Rev. J. Charles Cox, LL.D., F.S.A., the eminent +antiquary, relates a good story respecting his grandfather. "So late as +1820," says Dr. Cox, "Major Cox of Derby, an excellent Tory, declined for +some time to allow his son Edward to become a pupil of a well-known +clerical tutor, for the sole reason that the clergyman did not powder, and +wore his hair short, arguing that he must therefore, be a dangerous +revolutionist." + +In 1869 the tax on hair-powder was repealed, when only some 800 persons +paid it, producing about L1,000 per year. + + + + +Men wearing Muffs. + + +The muff in bygone times was worn by men as well as women. Several writers +state that it was introduced into England in the reign of Charles II., but +this is not correct, for, although it is not of great antiquity, it can +certainly be traced back to a much earlier period. Most probably it +reached us from France, and when it came into fashion it was small in +size. + +The earliest representation of a muff that has come under our notice +occurs in a drawing by Gaspar Rutz (1598) of an English lady, and she +wears it pendant from her girdle. A few years later in the wardrobe +accounts of Prince Henry of Wales, a charge is made for embroidering two +muffs. The entries occur in 1608, and are as follow:--"One of cloth of +silver, embroidered with purles, plates, and Venice twists of silver and +gold; the other of black satten, embroidered with black silk and bugles, +viz., for one L7, the other 60s." Muffs were usually ornamented with +bunches of gay ribbons, or some other decorations, and were generally +hung round the neck with ribbons. + +Several poems and plays of the olden time contain references to men using +muffs. One of the earliest, if not the first, to mention a man wearing a +muff, occurs in an epistle by Samuel Rowlands, written about 1600. It is +as follows:-- + + "Behold a most accomplished cavalier + That the world's ape of fashion doth appear, + Walking the streets his humour to disclose, + In the French doublet and the German hose. + The _muffes_, cloak, Spanish hat, Toledo blade, + Italian ruff, a shoe right Spanish made." + +A ballad, describing the frost fair on the Thames in the winter of 1683-4, +mentions amongst those present:-- + + "A spark of the Bar with his cane and his _muff_." + +In course of time the muff was increased in size, until it was very large. +Dryden, in the epilogue of "The Husband his own Cuckstool," 1696, refers +to the _monstrous muff_ worn by the beau. + +Pepys made a point of being in fashion, but in respect to the muff he was +most economical. He says he took his wife's last year's muff, and it is +pleasing to record that he gallantly bought her a new one. + +[Illustration: MAN WITH MUFF, 1693. (_From a Print of the Period._)] + +Professional men did not neglect to add to their dignity by the use of the +muff. In addition to the gold-headed cane, the doctor carried a muff. An +old book called "The Mother-in-law," includes a character who is advised +by his friends to become a physician. Says one to him: "'Tis but putting +on the doctor's gown and cap, and you'll have more knowledge in an instant +than you'll know what to do withal." Observes another friend: "Besides, +sir, if you had no other qualification than that muff of yours, twould go +a great way. A muff is more than half in the making of a doctor." Cibble +tells Nightshade in Cumberland's "Cholerick Man," 1775, to "Tuck your +hands in your _muff_ and never open your lips for the rest of the +afternoon; 'twill gain you respect in every house you enter." Alexander +Wedderburn, before being called to the English Bar in 1757, had practised +as an advocate in his native city, Edinburgh. In his references to his +early days, there is an allusion to the muff, showing that its use must +have been by no means uncommon in Scotland in the middle of the eighteenth +century. "Knowing my countrymen at that time," he tells us, "I was at +great pains to study and assume a very grave, solemn deportment for a +young man, which my marked features, notwithstanding my small stature, +would render more imposing. Men then wore in winter _small muffs_, and I +flatter myself that, as I paced to the Parliament House, no man of fifty +could look more thoughtful or steady. My first client was a citizen whom I +did not know. He called upon me in the course of a cause, and becoming +familiar with him, I asked him 'how he came to employ me?' The answer was: +'Why, I had noticed you in the High Street, going to the court, the most +punctual of any, as the clock struck nine, and you looked so grave and +business-like, that I resolved from your appearance to have you for my +advocate.'" More instances of the muff amongst professional men might be +cited, but the foregoing are sufficient to indicate the value set upon it +by this class. + +Towards the end of the seventeenth century it was customary to carry in +the muff small dogs known as "muff dogs," and Hollar made a picture of one +of these little animals. + +A tale is told of the eccentric head of one of the colleges at Oxford, who +had a great aversion to the undergraduates wearing long hair, that on one +occasion he reduced the length of a young man's hair by means of a +bread-knife. It is stated that he carried concealed in his muff a pair of +scissors, and with these he slyly cut off offending locks. + +Both the _Tatler_ and the _Spectator_ include notices of the muff. In No. +153 of the _Tatler_, 1710, is a description of a poor but doubtless a +proud person with a muff. "I saw," it is stated, "he was reduced to +extreme poverty, by certain shabby superfluities in his dress, +for--notwithstanding that it was a very sultry day for the time of the +year--he wore a loose great coat and a _muff_. Here we see poverty trying +to imitate prosperity." There are at least three allusions to the muff in +the pages of the _Spectator_. We find in the issue for March 19th, 1711, a +correspondent desires Addison to be "very satyrical upon the little muff" +that was then fashionable amongst men. + +A satirical print was published in 1756, at the Gold Acorn Tavern, facing +Hungerford Market, London, called the "Beau Admiral." It represents +Admiral Byng carrying a large muff. He had been sent to relieve Minorca, +besieged by the French, and after a futile action withdrew his ships, +declaring that the ministry had not furnished him with a sufficient fleet +to successfully fight the enemy. This action made the ministry furious, +and Byng was brought before a court martial, and early in 1757 he was, +according to sentence, shot at Portsmouth. + +In America muffs were popular with both men and women. Old newspapers +contain references to them. The following advertisement is drawn from the +_Boston News Letter_ of March 5th, 1715:-- + + "Any man that took up a Man's Muff drop't on the Lord's Day between + the Old Meeting House & the South, are desired to bring it to the + Printer's Office, and shall be rewarded." + +Mrs. Alice Morse Earle, in her "Costume of Colonial Times" (New York: +1894), gives other instances of men's muffs being missing, "In 1725," says +Mrs. Earle, "Dr. Prince lost his 'black bear-skin muff,' and in 1740 a +sable-skin man's muff was advertised." It is clear from Mrs. Earle's +investigations that the beaux of New England followed closely the lead of +the dandies of Old England. "I can easily fancy," she says, "the mincing +face of Horace Walpole peering out of a carriage window or a sedan-chair, +with his hands and his wrists thrust in a great muff; but when I look at +the severe and ascetic countenance in the portrait of Thomas Prince, I +find it hard to think of him, walking solemnly along Boston streets, +carrying his big bear-skin muff." Other Bostonians, we are told, +maintained the fashion until a much later period. Judge Dana employed it +even after Revolutionary times. In 1783, in the will of Rene Hett, of New +York, several muffs are mentioned, and were considered of sufficient +account to form bequests. + +The puritans of New England had little regard for warmth in their places +of worship, and it is not surprising that men wore muffs. People were +obliged to attend the services of the church unless they were sick, yet +little attempt was made to render the places comfortable. + +The first stove introduced into a meeting-house in Massachusetts was at +Boston in 1773. In 1793 two stoves were placed in the Friends' +meeting-house, Salem, and in 1809 one was erected in the North Church, +Salem. Persons are still living in the United States who can remember the +knocking of feet on a cold day towards the close of a long sermon. The +preachers would ask for a little patience and promise to close their +discourses. + + + + +Concerning Corporation Customs. + + +The history of old English Municipal Corporations contains some quaint and +interesting information respecting the laws, customs, and every-day life +of our forefathers. The institution of corporate towns dates back to a +remote period, and in this country we had our corporations before the +Norman Conquest. The Norman kings frequently granted charters for the +incorporation of towns, and an example is the grant of a charter to London +by Henry I. in the year 1101. + +For more than a century and a half no person was permitted to hold office +in a municipal corporation unless he had previously taken sacrament +according to the rites of the Established Church. The act regulating this +matter was known as the Test Act, which remained in force from the days of +Charles II. to those of George IV. It was repealed on the 9th May, 1828. +In the latter reign, in 1835, was passed the Municipal Reform Act, which +greatly changed the constitution of many corporate towns and boroughs. It +is not, however, so much the laws as local customs to which we wish to +direct attention. + +The mace as a weapon may be traced back to a remote period, and was a +staff about five feet in length with a metal head usually spiked. Maces +were used by the heavy cavalry in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, +but went out of use in England in the reign of Elizabeth. It is not clear +when the ornamental maces came to be regarded as an ensign of authority. +Their first use may be traced back to the twelfth century. At that period +and later spikeless maces were carried by the guards attending princes, as +a convenient weapon to protect them against the sudden attacks of the +assassin. Happily their need passed away, and as a symbol of rank only +they have remained. In civic processions the mace is usually borne before +the mayor, and when the sovereign visits a corporate town it is customary +for the mayor to bear the mace before the monarch. We learn from history +that when Princess Margaret was on her way to Scotland in 1503 to be +united in marriage to James IV., as she passed through the city of York +the Lord Mayor shouldered the mace and carried it before her. The mace +was formerly borne before the mayoress of Southampton when she went out in +state. A singular custom connected with the mace obtained at Leicester. It +was customary for the newly-elected mayor to proceed to the castle, and in +accordance with a charter granted by James I., take an oath before the +steward of the Duchy of Lancaster, "to perform faithfully and well all and +every ancient custom, and so forth according to the best of his +knowledge." On arrival at a certain place within the precincts of the +stronghold the mayor had the great mace lowered from an upright position +as a token of acknowledgment to the ancient feudal earls within their +castle. In 1766 Mr. Fisher, a Jacobite, was elected mayor, and like others +of his class was ever ready when opportunity offered to show his aversion +to the reigning dynasty. He purposely omitted the ceremony of lowering the +mace. When the servant of the mayor refused to "slope the mace," the +Constable of the castle or his deputy refused to admit the mayor. The +ceremony was discontinued after this occurrence, and the mayor went in +private to take the oath. + +[Illustration: THE LORD MAYOR OF YORK ESCORTING PRINCESS MARGARET.] + +The following ordinances were in force at Kingston-upon-Hull about 1450, +and point their own moral. + +"No Mayor should debase his honourable office by selling (during his +Mayoralty) ale or wine in his house." + +"Whenever the Mayor appeared in public he should have a sword carried +before him, and his officers should constantly attend him; also he should +cause everything to be done for the honour of the town, and should not +hold his office for two years together." + +"No Aldermen should keep ale-houses or taverns, nor absent themselves from +the town's business, nor discover what is said in their councils, under +heavy penalties." + +An entry in the annals of Hull in 1549 states that three of the former +sheriffs of the town, named respectively Johnson, Jebson, and Thorp, were +fined L6 13s. 4d. each "for being deficient in the elegance of their +entertainments, for neglecting to wear scarlet gowns, and for not +providing the same for their wives during their shrievalties." Ten years +later a Mr. Gregory was chosen sheriff, and he refused to accept the +office. The matter was referred to the Queen in Council, and he was +ordered to be fined L100, to be disfranchised and turned out of the town. +We are told that the order was executed. + +We gather from the ancient records of Canterbury that, in 1544, it was +decided "that during winter every dark-night the aldermen, common council, +and inn-holders are to find one candle, with light, at their doors, and +the other inhabitants are to do in like fashion upon request, and if any +lantern be stolen, the offender shall be set in the pillory at the mayor's +discretion; the candles are to be lighted at six, and continued until +burnt out." + +In 1549 the sheriff of Canterbury paid a fine of three shillings and +fourpence for wearing his beard. + +Another quaint item in the Canterbury records under the year 1556 is an +order directing the mayor every year before Christmas to provide for the +mayoress, his wife, to wear one scarlet gown, and a bonnet of velvet. If +the mayor failed to procure the foregoing he was liable to a fine of L10. + +[Illustration: BURYING THE MACE AT NOTTINGHAM.] + +At Nottingham the new mayor took office on the 29th September each year. +The outgoing mayor and other members of the corporation marched in +procession to St. Mary's Church. At the conclusion of divine service all +retired to the vestry, and the retiring mayor occupied the chair at the +head of a table covered with a black cloth, in the middle of which lay the +mace covered with rosemary and sprigs of bay. This was called burying the +mace, and no doubt was meant to denote the official decease of the late +holder. The new mayor was then formally elected, and the outgoing mayor +took up the mace, kissed it, and delivered it to his successor with a +suitable speech. After the election of other town officials the company +proceeded to the chancel of the church, where the mayor took the oath of +office, which was administered by the senior coroner. After the mayor had +been proclaimed in public places by the town clerk, a banquet was held at +the municipal buildings; the fare consisted of bread and cheese, fruit in +season, and pipes of tobacco! The proclaiming of the new mayor did not +end on the day of election: on the following market-day he was proclaimed +in face of the whole market, and the ceremony took place at one of the +town crosses. + +[Illustration: THE MAYOR OF WYCOMBE GOING TO THE GUILDHALL.] + +We learn from the Report of the Royal Commission issued in 1837 that the +election of the Mayor of Wycombe was enacted with not a little ceremony. +The great bell of the church was tolled for an hour, then a merry peal was +rang. The retiring mayor and aldermen proceeded to church, and after +service walked in procession to the Guildhall, preceded by a woman +strewing flowers and a drummer beating a drum. The mayor was next elected, +and he and his fellow-members of the corporation marched round the +market-house, and wound up the day by being weighed, and their weights +were duly recorded by the sergeant-at-mace, who was rewarded with a small +sum of money for his trouble. + +In the _Gentlemen's Magazine_ for 1782 we find particulars of past mayoral +customs at Abingdon, Berkshire. "Riding through Abingdon," says a +correspondent, "I found the people in the street at the entrance of the +town very busy in adorning the outside of their houses with boughs of +trees and garlands of flowers, and the paths were strewed with rushes. One +house was distinguished by a greater number of garlands than the rest. On +inquiring the reason, it seemed that it was usual to have this ceremony +performed in the street in which the new mayor lived, on the first Sunday +that he went to church after his election." + +At Newcastle-on-Tyne still lingers a curious custom which dates back to +the period when strife was rife between England and Scotland. It has long +been the practice to present the judges attending the Assizes on their +arrival with two pairs of gloves, a pair to each of their marshals and to +the other members of their retinue, also to the clerks of Assize and their +officers. The judges are entertained in a hospitable manner during their +stay in the city. At the conclusion of the business of the Assizes the +mayor and other members of the Corporation in full regalia wait upon the +judges, and the mayor thus addresses them:-- + +"My Lords, we have to congratulate you upon having completed your labours +in this ancient town, and have also to inform you that you travel hence to +Carlisle, through a border county much and often infested by the Scots; we +therefore present each of your lordships with a piece of money to buy +therewith a dagger to defend yourselves." + +The mayor then gives the senior judge a piece of gold of the reign of +James I., termed a _Jacobus_, and to the junior judge a coin of the reign +of Charles I., called a _Carolus_. After the judge in commission has +returned thanks the ceremony is ended. Some time ago a witty judge +returned thanks as follows: "I thank the mayor and corporation much for +this gift. I doubt, however, whether the Scots have been so troublesome +on the borders lately; I doubt, too, whether daggers in any numbers are to +be purchased in this ancient town for the protection of my suite and of +myself; and I doubt if these coins are altogether a legal tender at the +present time." + +The local authorities are anxious to keep up the ancient custom enjoined +upon them by an old charter, but they often experience great difficulty in +obtaining the old-time pieces of money. Sometimes as much as L15 has been +paid for one of the scarce coins. "Upon the resignation or the death of a +judge who has travelled the northern circuit, we are told the corporation +at once offer to purchase from his representative the 'dagger-money' +received on his visits to Newcastle, in order to use it on future +occasions." + +It was customary, in the olden time, for the mayor and other members of +the Banbury Corporation to repair to Oxford during the assizes and visit +the judge at his lodgings, and the mayor, with all the graces of speech at +his command, ask "my lord" to accept a present of the celebrated Banbury +cakes, wine, some long clay pipes, and a pound of tobacco. The judge +accepted these with gratitude, or, at all events, in gracious terms +expressed his thanks for their kindness. + +The Corporation of Ludlow used to offer hospitality to the judges. The +representatives of the town met the train in which the judges travelled +from Shrewsbury to Hereford, and offered to them cake and wine, the former +on an ancient silver salver, and the latter in a loving-cup wreathed with +flowers. Mr. Justice Hill was the cause of the custom coming to a +conclusion in 1858. He was travelling the circuit, and he communicated +with the mayor saying, "owing to the delay occasioned, Her Majesty's +judges would not stop at Ludlow to receive the wonted hospitality." We are +told the mayor and corporation were offended, and did not offer to renew +the ancient courtesy. + +The making of a "sutor of Selkirk" is attended with some ceremony. "It was +formerly the practice of the burgh corporation of Selkirk," says Dr. +Charles Rogers, the social historian of Scotland, "to provide a collation +or _dejeuner_ on the invitation of a burgess. The rite of initiation +consisted in the newly-accepted brother passing through the mouth a bunch +of bristles which had previously been mouthed by all the members of the +board. This practice was termed 'licking the birse:' it took its origin +at a period when shoemaking was the staple trade of the place, the birse +being the emblem of the craft. When Sir Walter Scott was made a burgess or +'sutor of Selkirk,' he took precaution before mouthing the beslabbered +brush to wash it in his wine, but the act of rebellion was punished by his +being compelled to drink the polluted liquor." In 1819, Prince Leopold was +created "a sutor of Selkirk," but the ceremony was modified to meet his +more refined tastes, and the old style has not been resumed. Mr. Andrew +Lang, a distinguished native of the town, has had the honour conferred +upon him of being made a sutor. + +The Mayor of Altrincham, Cheshire, in bygone times was, if we are to put +any faith in proverbial lore, a person of humble position, and on this +account the "honour" was ridiculed. An old rhyme says-- + + "The Mayor of Altrincham, and the Mayor of Over, + The one is a thatcher, and the other a dauber." + +Sir Walter Scott, in "The Heart of Mid-Lothian," introduces the mayor into +his pages in no flattering manner. Mr. Alfred Ingham, in his "History of +Altrincham and Bowdon" (1879), has collected for his book some curious +information bearing on this theme. He relates a tradition respecting one +of the mayors gifted with the grace of repartee, which is well worth +reproducing:--"The Mayor of Over--for he and the Mayor of Altrincham are +often coupled--journeyed once upon a time to Manchester. He was somewhat +proud, though he went on foot, and on arriving at Altrincham, felt he +would be all the better for a shave. The knight of the steel and the strop +performed the operation most satisfactorily; and as his worship rose to +depart, he said rather grand-eloquently, 'You may tell your customers that +you have had the honour of shaving the Mayor of Over.' 'And you,' retorted +the ready-witted fellow, 'may tell yours that you have had the honour of +being shaved by the Mayor of Altrincham.' The rest can be better imagined +than described." + +We learn from Mr. J. Potter Briscoe that a strange tradition still lingers +in Nottingham, to the effect that when King John last visited the town, he +called at the house of the mayor, and the residence of the priest of St. +Mary's. Finding neither ale in the cellar of one, nor bread in the +cupboard of the other, His Majesty ordered every publican in the town to +contribute sixpennyworth of ale to the mayor annually, and that every +baker should give a half-penny loaf weekly to the priest. The custom was +continued down to the time of Blackner, the Nottingham historian, who +published his history in 1815. + +The mayor of Rye, in bygone times, had almost unlimited authority, and if +anyone spoke evil of him, he was immediately taken and grievously punished +by his body, but if he struck the mayor, he ran the risk of having cut off +the hand that dealt the blow. + +As late as 1600, at Hartlepool, it was enacted, that anyone calling a +member of the council a liar be fined eleven shillings and sixpence, if, +however, the term false was used, the fine was only six shillings and +eightpence. + + + + +Bribes for the Palate. + + +In the days of old it was no uncommon practice for public bodies and +private persons to attempt to bribe judges and others with presents. +Frequently the gifts consisted of drink or food. In some instances money +was expected and given. It is not, however, to bribery in general we want +to direct attention, but to some of its more curious phases, and +especially those which appealed to the recipients' love of good cheer. + +Some of the judges even in a corrupt age would not be tempted. One of the +most upright of our judges was Sir Matthew Hale. It had long been +customary for the Dean and Chapter of Salisbury to present to the judges +of the Western Circuit six sugar loaves. The gift was sent to Hale, and he +directed his servant to pay for the sugar before he tried a case in which +the donors were interested. On another occasion while he was on circuit, a +gentleman gave him a buck, hoping by this act to gain his favour in a +case that was to be tried before him. When the trial was about to +commence, Hale remembered the name of the gentleman and inquired if he was +the person from whom the venison had been received. On being informed that +such was the fact, he would not allow the trial to proceed until he had +made payment for the buck. The gentleman strongly protested against +receiving the money, saying that he had only presented the same to the +Chief Baron as he had done to other judges who had gone the circuit. +Further instances might be mentioned of presents being offered and refused +by Hale, but the foregoing are sufficient to show the character of the +man. + +Newcastle-on-Tyne municipal records contain many references to presents of +sugar loaves. There are for example gifts to noblemen who called at the +town on their way to Scotland. In January 1593, we find particulars of +23s. 7d. for sugar and wine "sent in a present to my L. Ambassador as he +came travling through this towne to Scotland called my L. Souch." + +The charges are as follow:-- + + "Paide for 2 gallons of secke 2 gallons and a quarte of + clared wine 11s. 3d. + + A sugar loaf weis 8 lb. and a quarter at 18d. per pound 12s. 4d." + +A little later the Earl of Essex was bound for Scotland and received a +present at the hands of the local authorities. The town accounts state: + + "Sept. 1594.--Paide for four sugar loaves weide 27-3/4 lbs. 41s. 8d. + + 5 gallons and a pottle of claret, 11s. + + 4 gallons secke 10s. 8d. + -------- + Soma 63s. 4d." + +In the following month the Earl of Essex, in company of my Lord Wharton, +returned from North Britain and received sugar and wine costing the town +L4 14s. 10d. The details of the amount are as under:-- + + "Oct. 1594.--Paide for 3 sugar loves weide 30-1/4 lb. 18d. + per lb. L2 5s. 10d. + + For clarid wine and secke L2 9s. 0d." + +The Bishop of Durham was not overlooked. In February, 1596, we find an +entry as follows:-- + + "Paide for 4 pottles secke and 2 quarte, for 3 pottles of + white wine, and 4 pottles and a quarte of clared wine for + a present to the bishop of Dorum 17s. 6d. + + Paide for 11 lb. of suger which went with the wine 18d. + per pounde 16s. 6d." + +"Mr. Maiore and his brethren" enjoyed sugar and sundry pottles of wine. + +It is satisfactory to find that the ladies were not neglected at +Newcastle-on-Tyne. Here is an entry referring to the entertainment of the +Mayoress and other ladies:-- + + "April, 1595.--Paide for secke, suger, clared wine, and + caikes, to Mrs. Maris, and other gentlewomen, in Mr. + Baxter, his chamber 6s. 8d." + +In the same month is an entry far different in character. It is a charge +of 4d. for leading a scolding woman through the town wearing the brank. +Payments for inflicting punishment on men and women frequently occur. + +The accounts of the borough of St. Ives, Cornwall, contain an item as +follows:-- + + "1640.--Payde Nicholas Prigge for two loaves of sugar, + which were presented to Mr. Recorder L1 10s. 0d." + +The records of the city of Winchester include particulars of many presents +of sugar loaves and other gifts. On March 24th, 1592, it was decided at a +meeting of the municipal authorities to present the Lord Marquis of +Winchester with a sugar loaf weighing five pounds, and a gallon of sack, +on his coming to the Lent Assizes. The accounts of the city at this period +contain entries of payments for sugar loaves given to the Recorder for +a New Year's present, and for pottles of wine bestowed on distinguished +visitors. + +[Illustration: WOMAN WEARING A BRANK, OR SCOLD'S BRIDLE.] + +[Illustration: THE BRANK, OR SCOLD'S BRIDLE.] + +At a meeting held in 1603 of the local authorities of Nottingham, it was +agreed that the town should present to the Recorder, Sir Henry +Pierrepoint, as follows:--"A sugar loaf, 9s.; lemons, 1s. 8d.; white wine, +one gallon, 2s. 8d.; claret, one gallon, 2s. 8d.; muskadyne, one pottle, +2s. 8d.; sack, one pottle, 2s.; total, 20s. 8d." + +A year later the burgesses of Nottingham wished to show the great esteem +they entertained for the Earl of Shrewsbury, and it was decided to give to +him "a veal of mutton, a lamb, a dozen chickens, two dozen rabbits, two +dozen of pigeons, and four capons." This is a truly formidable list, and +seems more suitable for stocking a shop than a gentleman's larder. + +The porpoise in past times was prized as a delicacy, and placed on royal +tables. Down to the days of Queen Elizabeth it was used by the nobles as +an article of food. In the reign of that queen, a penny in twelve was the +market due at Newcastle-on-Tyne, when the fish were cut up and exposed for +sale. The heads, fins, and numbles were taken in addition. The seal was +subject to the same regulations. The porpoise was deemed suitable for a +present. In 1491 it is recorded that a large porpoise was sent from +Yarmouth as a gift to the Earl of Oxford. + +The annals of Exeter furnish particulars of several gifts of fish. In 1600 +it was decided by the local authorities to present to the Recorder of the +city, Mr. Sergeant Hale, annually during his life, eight salmon of the +river Exe. The Mayor for the time being had a like quantity allowed. It +was resolved on the 10th January, 1610, to present, at the cost of the +citizens, to the Speaker of the Parliament, in token of good will, a +hogshead of Malaga wine, or a hogshead of claret, whichever might be +deemed most acceptable, and one baked salmon pie. + +Sir George Trenchard in 1593 received from the Mayor of Lyme a box of +marmalade and six oranges, costing 7s. + +Six months later the municipal accounts of Lyme include an entry as +follows:-- + + "1595.--Given to Sir George Trenchard a fair box + marmalade gilted, a barrel of conserves oranges and + lemons and potatoes 22s. 10d." + +Mr. George Roberts, in his "Social History of the Southern Counties," has +an interesting note respecting the potatoes named in the foregoing entry. +He says:--"The sweet potato (_Convolvulus Batatas_) was known in England +before the common potato, which received its name from its resemblance to +the Batata. This plant was introduced into this country by Sir Francis +Drake and Sir John Hawkins in the middle of the sixteenth century. The +roots were, about the close of the reign of Elizabeth, imported in +considerable quantities from Spain and the Canaries, and were used as a +confection rather than as a nourishing vegetable." + +We will close this paper with particulars of a present which may be +regarded more of an example of esteem than an attempt at bribery. Hull, in +the days of old, was noted for its ale. The Corporation of the town often +presented one or two barrels to persons to whom they desired to show a +token of regard. Andrew Marvell, the incorruptible patriot, represented +the place in Parliament from 1658 until his death in 1678. He was in close +touch with the leading men of the town, and wrote long and interesting +letters, detailing the operations of the House of Commons, to the Mayor +and Aldermen. In one of his epistles to the Burgesses of Hull he refers +to a gift of ale. "We must," says Marvell, "first give thanks for the kind +present you have been pleased to send us, which will give occasion to us +to remember you often; but the quantity is so great that it might make +sober men forgetful." Marvell's father was master of the Hull Grammar +School, and it was there the patriot was educated. + +[Illustration: ANDREW MARVELL.] + +Hull ale finds a place in proverbial lore, and is named by Ray and others. +Taylor, the water poet, visited the town in 1622, and was the guest of +George Pease, landlord of the "King's Head" Inn, High Street. In Taylor's +poem, entitled "A Very Merrie Ferry Voyage; or, Yorke for My Money," he +thus averts to Hull ale:-- + + "Thanks to my loving host and hostess, _Pease_, + There at mine inne each night I took mine ease; + And there I got a cantle of _Hull Chesse_." + +The poet, in a foot-note, says:--"Hull cheese is much like a loaf out of +the brewer's basket; it is composed of two samples, mault and water in one +compound, and is cousin german to the mightiest ale in England." Ray +quotes the proverb, "You have eaten some Hull cheese," as equivalent to an +accusation of drunkenness. + + + + +Rebel Heads on City Gates. + + +The barbarous custom of spiking heads on city gates, and on other +prominent places, may be traced back to the days of Edward I. His wise +laws won for him the title of "the English Justinian," but he does not +appear to have tempered justice with mercy. In his age little value was +set upon human life. His scheme of conquest included the subjugation and +annexation of Scotland and Wales. + +David, the brother of Llewellyn the Welsh Prince, had been on the side of +the English, and at the hands of Edward had experienced kindness, but in +return he showed little gratitude. In 1282 he made an unprovoked attack on +Hawarden Castle. Subsequently his brother Llewellyn joined in the rising, +and undertook the conduct of the war in South Wales, while David attempted +to defend the North of the country. In a skirmish on the Wye, Llewellyn +was slain by a single knight. David soon fell into the hands of the +English, and was sent in chains to Shrewsbury. Here he was tried by +Parliament, consisting of "the first national convention in which the +Common had any share by legal authority, and the earliest lawful trace of +a mixed assembly of Lords and Commons." Guilty of being a traitor was the +verdict returned, and David was condemned to a new and cruel mode of +execution, viz., "to be dragged at a horse's tail through the streets of +Shrewsbury, and to be afterwards hung and cut down while alive, his heart +and bowels burnt before his face, his body quartered and his head sent to +London." The head of Llewellyn was also to be sent to London, to be spiked +on the Tower encircled with a crown of ivy. + +On the gates of old London Bridge have been spiked the heads of many +famous men--not a few whose brave deeds add glory to the annals of England +and Scotland. The heroic deeds of Sir William Wallace have done much to +increase the dignity of the history of North Britain. After rendering +gallant service to his native land, he was betrayed into the hands of the +English by his friend and countryman, Sir John Menteith, at Glasgow. He +was conveyed to London, was tried and condemned as a rebel, and on August +23rd, 1305, suffered a horrible death, similar to the fate of David, +Prince of Wales. His body was divided and sent into four parts of +Scotland, and his head set up on a pole on London Bridge. Edward I. +degraded himself by this cruel revenge on a patriotic man. In the +following year the head of another Scotch rebel, Simon Frazer, was spiked +beside that of Wallace. + +[Illustration: OLD LONDON BRIDGE, SHEWING HEADS OF REBELS ON THE GATE.] + +In the reign of Edward II., Thomas, Earl of Lancaster, rose to almost +supreme power, but his rule was most distasteful to the people. It was +oppressive and ended in disaster. In 1316, when the Earl was at the height +of his fame, he discovered that a knight formerly in his household had +been induced by the King of England to carry to the King of Scotland a +letter asking that some of his soldiers might slay him. The Earl was then +at Pontefract and had the knight brought before him, and by his orders he +was speedily executed, and his head spiked on the walls of the castle. + +The Barons met the forces of Edward II. at Boroughbridge, in 1322, and +were totally routed, and their leaders, the Earl of Hereford was slain, +and the Earl of Lancaster was taken prisoner, and afterwards executed at +Pontefract. About thirty knights and barons suffered death on the scaffold +in various parts of the country, so that terror might be widely spread. +Some of the bodies were suspended for long periods in chains, and amongst +the number were those of Sir Roger de Clifford, Sir John Mowbray, and Sir +Jocalyn D'Eyville. They were hanged at York, and for three years their +bodies were hung in chains, and then the Friar Preachers committed them to +the ground. Another rebel, Sir Bartholomew de Badlesmere, was executed +at Canterbury, and his head was cut off and spiked on the city gate at +Canterbury. + +At Boroughbridge Sir Andrew de Harcla displayed courage of a high order, +and was rewarded with the title of the Earl of Carlisle, and military +duties of a more important order were entrusted to him, but he did not +long enjoy his honours. The Scots advanced into this country and met the +English at the Abbey of Byland, and completely overpowered them; the Earl +remaining inactive at Boroughbridge with 2,000 foot and horse soldiers. On +a writ dated at Knaresborough, February 27th, 1323, he was tried for +treachery, his collusion with the Scotch was clearly proved, and the +following sentence was passed upon him:--"To be degraded both himself and +his heirs from the rank of earl, to be ungirt of his sword, his gilded +spurs hacked from his heels--said to be the first example of its kind--to +be hanged, drawn, and beheaded, his heart and entrails torn out and burnt +to ashes, and the ashes scattered to the winds; his carcase to be divided +into four quarters, one to be hung on the top of the Tower at Carlisle, +another at Newcastle, the third on the bridge at York, and the fourth at +Shrewsbury, while his head was to be spiked on London Bridge." "You may +divide my body as you please," said the Earl, "but I give my soul to God." +On March 3rd, 1323, the terrible sentence was carried out. + +Under the year 1397, John Timbs, in his "Curiosities of London," records +that the heads of four traitor knights were spiked on London Bridge. + +On Bramham Moor, Yorkshire, on Sunday, February 19th, 1408, Sir Thomas +Rokeby, high sheriff of the county, fighting for Henry IV., completely +defeated an army raised by the Earl of Northumberland, and other nobles +who had revolted against the king. The Earl was slain on the field, and +his chief associate, Lord Bardolf, was mortally wounded and taken +prisoner, but died before he could be removed from the scene of the +battle. The heads of these two noblemen were cut off, and that of the Earl +placed upon a hedge-stake, and carried in a mock procession through the +chief towns on the route to London, and finally found a resting-place on +London Bridge. He was popular amongst his friends, and they greatly +grieved at his death. It was indeed a sore trial to those who had loved +him well to see his mutilated head, full of silver hairs, carried +through the streets of London, a gruesome exhibition for a heartless +public. The head of Lord Bardolf was also spiked on London Bridge. + +Some passages in the life of Eleanor Cobham, first mistress and afterwards +wife of Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, furnish an insight into the +superstitions of the period. She was tried in 1441 for treason and +witchcraft. The chief charge against her was that she and her accomplices +had made a waxen image of the reigning monarch, Henry VI., and placed it +before a slow fire, believing that as the wax melted the king's life would +waste away. She was found guilty and had to do public penance in the +streets of London, and was imprisoned for life in the Isle of Man. Three +persons who had assisted her crimes suffered death. One Margaret Jourdain, +of Eye, near Westminster, was burned in Smithfield. Southwell, a priest, +died before execution in the Tower, and Sir Roger Bolinbroke, a priest, +and reputed necromancer, was hanged, drawn and quartered at Tyburn, and +his head was fixed on London Bridge. The Duchess, in the event of Henry's +death, expected that the Duke of Gloucester, as nearest heir of the +house of Lancaster, would be crowned king. + +The details of Jack Cade's insurrection are well-known, and perhaps a copy +of an inscription on a roadside monument at Heathfield, near Cuckfield in +Sussex, will answer our present purpose:-- + + Near this spot was slain the notorious rebel + JACK CADE, + By Alexander Iden, Sheriff of Kent, A.D. 1450. + His body was carried to London, and his head + fixed on London Bridge. + This is the success of all rebels, and this + fortune chanceth even to traitors. + _Hall's Chronicle._ + +In 1496 two heads were placed on London Bridge; one was Flammock's, a +lawyer, and the other that of a farmer's who had suffered death at Tyburn, +for taking a leading part in a great Cornish insurrection. + +John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, was tried, and executed on June 22nd, +1535, nominally for high treason, but, as a matter of fact, because he +would not be a party to the king's actions. Shortly before his execution +the Pope sent to him a Cardinal's hat. Said the king when he heard of the +honour to be conferred upon the aged prelate, who was then about +seventy-seven years old, "'Fore heaven, he shall wear it on his shoulders +then, for by the time it arrives he shall not have a head to place it +upon." + +Fisher met his death with firmness. At five o'clock in the morning of his +execution he was awakened and the time named to him. He turned over in bed +saying: "Then I can have two hours more sleep, as I am not to die until +nine." Two hours later he arose, dressed himself in his best apparel, +saying, this was his wedding day, when he was to be married to death, and +it was befitting to appear in becoming attire. His head was severed from +his body, and after the executioner had removed all the clothing, he left +the corpse on the scaffold until night, when it was removed by the guard +to All Hallows Churchyard, and interred in a grave dug with their +halberds. It was not suffered to remain there, but was exhumed and buried +in the Chapel of St. Peter ad Vincula in the Tower. The head was spiked on +London Bridge. Hall and others record that the features became fresher and +more comely every day, and were life-like. Crowds were attracted to the +strange sight, which was regarded as a miracle. This annoyed the king not +a little, and he gave orders for the head to be thrown into the river. + +A similar offence to that of Fisher's brought to the block a month later +the head of a still greater and wiser man, Sir Thomas More. He was far in +advance of his times, and his teaching is bearing fruit in our day. His +head was placed on London Bridge, until his devoted daughter, Margaret +Roper, bribed a man to move it, and drop it into a boat in which she sat. +She kept the sacred relic for many years, and at her death it was buried +with her in a vault under St. Dunstan's Church, Canterbury. + +[Illustration: AXE, BLOCK, AND EXECUTIONER'S MASK. (_From the Tower of +London._)] + +We learn from the annals of London Bridge, that in the year 1577, "several +heads were removed from the north end of the Drawbridge to the Southwark +entrance, and hence called Traitors' Gate." + +Heads of priests and others heightened the sickening sight of the bridge. +We may here remark that Paul Hentzner in his "Travels in England," written +in 1598, says in speaking of London Bridge:--"Upon this is built a tower, +on whose top the heads of such as have been executed for high treason are +placed on iron spikes; we counted about thirty." + +Hentzner's curious and interesting work was reprinted at London in 1889. + +Sir Christopher Wren completed Temple Bar, March 1672-3, and in 1684 the +first ghastly trophy was fixed upon it. Sir Thomas Armstrong was accused +of being connected with the Rye House Plot, but made his escape to +Holland, and was outlawed. He, however, within a year surrendered himself, +demanding to be put on his trial. Jefferies in a most brutal manner +refused the request, declaring that he had nothing to do but to award +death. Armstrong sued for the benefit of the law, but without avail. The +judge ordered his execution "according to law," adding, "You shall have +full benefit of the law." On June 24th, 1683, Armstrong was executed, +and his head set up on Westminster Hall; his quarters were divided between +Aldgate, Aldersgate, and Temple Bar, and the fourth sent to Stafford, the +borough he had formerly represented in Parliament. + +[Illustration: MARGARET ROPER TAKING LEAVE OF HER FATHER, SIR THOMAS MORE, +1535.] + +Sir John Friend and Sir William Perkins, on April 9th, 1696, suffered +death at Tyburn for complicity in a conspiracy to assassinate William +III., and on the next day their heads crowned Temple Bar. John Evelyn in +his Diary wrote, "A dismal sight which many pitied." + +In May, 1716, the head of Colonel Henry Oxburg was spiked above the Bar. +He had taken part in the rising of Mar. + +The head of Councillor Layer was placed on the Bar in 1723, for plotting +to murder King George. For more than thirty years Layer's head looked +sorrowfully down on busy Fleet Street. A stormy night at last sent it +rolling into the Strand, and it is recorded it was picked up by an +attorney, and taken into a neighbouring tavern, and according to Nicholls, +it found a resting place under the floor. It is stated that Dr. Rawlinson +"paid a large sum of money for a substitute foisted upon him as a genuine +article." He died without discovering that he had been imposed upon, and, +according to his directions, the relic was placed in his right hand and +buried with him. + +The Rebellion of '45 brought two more heads to Temple Bar. On July 30th, +1746, Colonel Towneley and Captain Fletcher were beheaded on Kennington +Common, and on the following day their heads were elevated on the Bar. +Respecting their heads Walpole wrote on August 15th, 1746, "I have been +this morning to the Tower, and passed under the new heads at Temple Bar, +where people made a trade of letting spying-glasses at a halfpenny a +look." The fresh heads were made the theme of poetry and prose. One of the +halfpenny loyal sightseers penned the following doggerel:-- + + "Three heads here I spy, + Which the glass did draw nigh, + The better to have a good sight; + Triangle they are placed, + And bald and barefaced; + Not one of them e'er was upright." + +We reproduce a curious print published in 1746 representing "Temple Bar" +with three heads raised on tall poles or iron rods. The devil looks +down in triumph and waves the rebel banner, on which are three crowns and +a coffin, with the motto, 'A crown or a grave.' Underneath was written +some wretched verses. + +[Illustration: + + "Observe the banner which would all enslave, + Which ruined traytors did so proudly wave, + The devil seems the project to despise; + A fiend confused from off the trophy flies. + + While trembling rebels at the fabrick gaze, + And dread their fate with horror and amaze, + Let Briton's sons the emblematick view + And plainly see what to rebellion's due." + +COPY OF A PRINT PUBLISHED IN 1746.] + +It is recorded in the "Annual Register" that on "January 20th (between two +and three a.m.), 1766, a man was taken up for discharging musket bullets +from a steel cross-bow at the two remaining heads upon Temple Bar. On +being examined he affected a disorder in his senses, and said his reason +for doing so was his strong attachment to the present Government, and that +he thought it was not sufficient that a traitor should merely suffer +death; that this provoked his indignation, and that it had been his +constant practice for three nights past to amuse himself in the same +manner. And it is much to be feared," says the recorder of the event, +"that he is a near relation to one of the unhappy sufferers." On being +searched, about fifty musket bullets were found on the man, and these were +wrapped up in a paper with a motto--"Eripuit ille vitam." + +Dr. Johnson says that once being with Goldsmith in Westminster Abbey, +"While we surveyed the Poets' Corner, I said to him:-- + + 'Forsitan et nostrum nomen miscebitur illis.' + +(Perhaps some day our names may mix with theirs). When we got to Temple +Bar he stopped me, pointed to the heads upon it, and slyly whispered:-- + + 'Forsitan et nostrum ... miscebitur _Istis_.'" + +One of the heads was blown down on April 1st, 1772, and the other did not +remain much longer. The head of Colonel Towneley is preserved in the +chapel at Townely Hall, near Burnley. It is perforated, showing that it +had been thrust upon a spike. During a visit on May 21st, 1892, to +Towneley Hall by the members of the Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian +Society, the skull was seen, and a note on the subject appears in the +Transactions of the Society. + +[Illustration: TEMPLE BAR IN DR. JOHNSON'S TIME.] + +The heads of not a few Scotchmen were spiked on the gates of Carlisle, and +some romantic stories have come down to us respecting them. One of these +we related in our "Bygone England," and to make this account more complete +we may perhaps be permitted to reproduce it. "A young and beautiful lady," +so runs the tale, "came every morning at sunrise, and every evening at +sunset, to look at the head of a comely youth with long yellow hair, +till at length the lady and the laddie's head disappeared." The incident +is the subject of a song, in which the lovesick damsel bewails the fate of +her lover. Here are two of the verses:-- + + "White was the rose in my lover's hat + As he rowled me in his lowland plaidie; + His heart was true as death in love, + His head was aye in battle ready. + + His long, long hair, in yellow hanks, + Wav'd o'er his cheeks sae sweet and ruddy; + But now it waves o'er Carlisle yetts + In dripping ringlets, soil'd and bloody." + +Many persons in Hull supported the lost cause of Henry VI., but the +governing authorities of the town gave their support to Edward IV., and +those that were on the side of the fallen king met with little mercy at +the hands of the local Aldermen. Mr. T. Tindall Wildridge, who has done so +much to bring to light hidden facts in the history of Hull, tells us that +the Aldermen in 1461 agreed that the head of Nicholas Bradshawe, for his +violent language, be set at the Beverley Gate--the gate that was at a +later period closed against Charles I., when he desired to enter Hull. + +A number of the inhabitants who would not renounce their allegiance to the +House of Lancaster were ordered to leave the town on pain of death. "Among +these outcasts," says Mr. Wildridge, "was a women, who, coming back again, +was subjected to the indignity of the thewes (tumbrel or hand-barrow, in +which scolds were customarily wheeled round the town previous to being +ducked); she was thus led out of the Beverley Gate." + +On the walls and gates of York have been spiked many heads, and with +particulars of a few of the more important we will bring to a close our +gleanings on this gruesome theme, though not one without value to the +student of history. + +Richard Scrope, Archbishop of York, strongly opposed the accession of +Henry IV., and warmly advocated the claims of the Earl of March. A +conspiracy against the king cost him and others their lives. It is +recorded that the king directed Chief Justice Gascoigne to condemn the +Archbishop to death. As might be expected from an upright judge who cast +into prison the king's son for contempt of court, he firmly refused to be +a party to a barbarous and unjust action. Another judge was quickly found +ready to obey the king's behest, and the requisite condemnation was +obtained. Scrope was beheaded on June 8th, 1405, in a field between +Bishopthorpe and York. Thomas Gent, the old historian of York, gives a +sympathetic account of the execution: "The poor unfortunate Archbishop was +put upon a horse, about the value of forty pence, with a halter about its +neck, but without a saddle on its back. The Archbishop gave thanks to God, +saying, 'I never liked a horse better than I like this!' He twice sang the +Psalm _Exaudi_, being habited in a sky-coloured loose garment, with +sleeves of the same colour, but they would not permit him to wear the +linen vesture used by bishops. At the fatal place of execution he laid his +hood and tunic on the ground, offered himself and his cause to Heaven, and +desired the executioner to give him five strokes, in token of the five +wounds of our Saviour, which was done accordingly." This is the first +instance of an English prelate being executed by the civil power. Lord +Mowbray, Earl Marshal of England, Sir William Plumpton and others who were +mixed up in the conspiracy were beheaded. The heads of the Archbishop and +that of Mowbray were spiked and put up on the city walls. + +On the last day in the year 1460 was fought the battle of Wakefield, +which ended in a victory for the house of Lancaster. Richard, Duke of +York, the aspirant to the throne, and many of his loyal supporters were +slain, some so severely wounded as to die shortly afterwards, and others +taken prisoners to be subsequently beheaded. The Duke's head was cut from +his body, encircled by a mock diadem of paper, and spiked above Micklegate +Bar, York, with the face turned to the city:-- + + "So York may overlook the town of York." + +The head of the young Earl of Rutland, murdered by Lord Clifford, was also +set up at York. The headless bodies of the unfortunate pair were quietly +buried at Pontefract. + +The heads of the following Yorkists were also set up at York "for a +spectacle to the people and also as a terror to adversaries:"--The Earl of +Salisbury, Sir Edward Bouchier, Sir Richard Limbricke, Sir Thomas +Harrington of London, Sir Thomas Neville, Sir William Parr, Sir Jacob +Pykeryng, Sir Ralph Stanley, John Hanson, Mayor of Hull, and others. + +[Illustration: MICKLEGATE BAR, YORK.] + +The Lancastrians did not long enjoy their victory. Richard's son, the Earl +of March, succeeded to his father's title and claimed the right to the +English crown. On Palm Sunday, March 21st, 1461, the forces of the Red and +the White Roses met at Towton-field. The battle raged during a blinding +snowstorm, and the Yorkists gained a complete victory. Edward then +proceeded to York and entered by Micklegate Bar. Here the saddening sight +of the head of his father and other brave men who had fallen fighting for +his cause were displayed, also that of his brother. He had them removed, +and in their stead, to still keep up the ghastly show, were placed the +heads of his foes at Towton, and amongst the number the Earl of +Devonshire, Sir William Hill, the Earl of Kyme, and Sir Thomas Foulford. +Shakespeare notices this act of retaliation in _Henry VI._ (Part III., Act +II., Scene 6). + + "_Warwick_: From off the gates of York fetch down the head, + Your father's head, which Clifford placed there: + Instead thereof, let this supply the room; + Measure for measure must be answered." + +Edward had the heads of his father and his brother taken to Pontefract, +placed with their bodies, and then with great pomp the remains were +removed to the church at Fotheringay and there reinterred. + +An attempt was made in 1569 to dethrone Elizabeth, and place in her stead +Mary Queen of Scots. The leaders of the revolt were the Earls of +Northumberland and Westmoreland. It ended in failure, and was the last +trial with arms to restore the Papal power in England. The leaders for a +time made their escape, but the government, with a vengeance that has +seldom been equalled, cruelly punished the masses. Men were hanged at +every market-cross and village-green from Wetherby to Newcastle, the large +part of the north from whence the rebels had come. The Earl of +Northumberland managed to evade capture for nearly two years by hiding in +a wretched cottage. He was betrayed and brought to York. On August 22nd, +1572, he was beheaded, and he died, we are told, "Avowing the Pope's +supremacy, and denying subjection to the Queen, affirming the land to be +in a schism, and her obedient subjects little better than heretics." The +Earl's head was spiked above Micklegate Bar, where it remained for about a +couple of years, and then it was stolen in the night by persons unknown. + +After the defeat of the Jacobites at Culloden on April 16th, 1746, the +Duke of Cumberland on his route to London visited York, and left behind +him a number of prisoners. On November 1st, ten of the rebels were hanged, +drawn, and quartered, and a week later eleven more suffered a similar +fate. The head of one of the unfortunate men, that of Captain Hamilton, +was sent to Carlisle. The heads of Conolly and Mayne were spiked over +Micklegate Bar, York, and eight years later were stolen. A reward was +offered for the detection of the offenders. The following is a copy of the +notice issued:-- + + "York, Guildhall, Feb. 4, 1754. + + "Whereas on Monday night, or Tuesday morning last, the heads of two of + the rebels, which were fixed upon poles on the top of Micklegate Bar, + in this City, were wilfully and designedly taken down, and carried + away: If any person or persons (except the person or persons who + actually took down and carried away the same) will discover the person + or persons who were guilty of so unlawful and audacious an action, or + anywise hiding or assisting therein, he, she, or they shall, upon the + conviction of the offenders, receive a reward of Ten Pounds from the + Mayor and Commonality of the City of York. + + "By order of the said Mayor and said Commonality, JOHN RAPER, Common + Clerk of the said City and County of the same." + +A tailor named William Arundel and an accomplice were found guilty of the +crime. In addition to being fined, Arundel was committed to prison for +two years. + +This last act closes a long and painful chapter in our history. Many of +our larger old English towns have their gruesome tales of Rebel Heads on +their chief gates. + + + + +Burial at Cross Roads. + + +It was customary in the olden time when a person committed suicide to bury +the body at the meeting of four cross roads. We are told by writers who +have paid special attention to this subject, that this strange mode of +burial was confined to the humbler members of society. A careful +consideration of this matter, from particulars furnished by parish +registers and from other old-time records and writings, confirms the +statement. Shakespeare, in the grave scene in _Hamlet_, puts into the +mouths of the clowns who are preparing the grave of Ophelia something to +the same effect. Here are his words:-- + + SECOND CLOWN: But is this law? + + FIRST CLOWN: Ay, marry, is't; crowner's quest law. + + SECOND CLOWN: Will you ha' the truth on't If this had not been a + gentlewoman, she should have been buried out o' Christian burial. + + FIRST CLOWN: Why, there thou say'st; and the more pity that great folk + should have countenance in this world to drown or hang themselves more + than their even Christian (that is, their equal fellow Christian). + +Bearing somewhat on this subject, there is a striking passage in Hone's +"Every Day Book." Mention is first made of a fatal duel in 1803. It +appears two military officers quarrelled and fought at Primrose Hill, +because their dogs had quarrelled in Hyde Park. Moralising on the fatal +event, the writer concludes his reflections as follows:--"The humble +suicide is buried with ignominy in a cross road, and the finger-post marks +his grave for public scorn. The proud duellist reposes in a Christian +grave beneath marble, proud and daring as himself." The more humane of our +countrymen condemned burial at cross roads, and a much needed reform was +brought about. Before reproducing the Act of Parliament respecting the +burial of suicides it will not be without interest to give details of a +few burials in the highways. + +Mr. Simpson in his interesting volume of Derby gleanings, states that on +the 10th of July, 1618, "an old incorrigible rogue cut his own throat in +the County Gaol, and was buried in Green Lane, Derby." We have not any +particulars of this "incorrigible rogue." He would doubtless be interred +at night, and a stake driven through his body. + +The parish register of West Hallam, in the same county, supplies another +instance of burial at four lane ends. The entry reads thus;--"1698, +Katharine, the wife of Tho. Smith, als Cutler, was found _felo de se_ by +ye Coroner's inquest, and interred in ye cross ways near ye wind mill on +ye same day." The local historian is silent respecting this case of +suicide, and all that is now known of the poor woman's sad end is +contained in the parish register. + +It is recorded in a Norwich newspaper, of 1728, that the body of a +hat-presser, after a verdict of _felo de se_, was accordingly buried in +the highway. + +Not far from Boston is a thorn tree known as the "Hawthorn tree," which is +represented in a pretty picture in Pishey Thompson's well-known "History +and Antiquities of Boston" (1856). It is in the parish of Fishtoft, and at +the intersections of the Tower Lane and the road to Fishtoft Church by the +low road to Freiston. "This tree," says Thompson, "is traditionally stated +to have been originally a stake driven into the grave of a (female) +suicide, who was buried at cross roads." The story is generally believed +in the Boston district, although Mr. William Stevenson in a learned paper +in "Bygone Lincolnshire," vol. II., p. 212, states as far as concerns the +hawthorn growing from a stake driven into the ground the tradition has no +foundation in fact. + +Mr. John Higson took interest in Lancashire lore, and from his gleanings +we draw the following particulars of the suicide and burial of James Hill, +a Droylsden innkeeper. He tells us that the poor fellow was inflamed with +jealousy, suddenly disappeared, and about a fortnight afterwards was found +hung or strangled in a tree in Newton Wood, near Hyde. A coroner's inquest +pronounced it an act of suicide, and in accordance with the verdict, the +corpse was interred on the 21st May, 1774, at the three-lane-ends, near +the brook, close by the present Commercial Inn, Newton Moor. Much sympathy +was exhibited towards Hill in Droylsden, and a band of resolute fellows, +about three o'clock on the morning of the 5th June, disinterred his +remains, and re-buried them in Ashton churchyard. A woman who casually met +them spread the information, and they were glad to convey back the body on +the 18th of the same month, when the final interment took place at Newton +Moor. A number of Droylsdenians joined to defray the expense of a +gravestone, on which the following epitaph was written by Joseph Willan, +of Openshaw, and was neatly engraved:-- + + Here is Deposited the Body of the unfortunate + JAMES HILL, + Late of Droylsden, who ended his Life May 6th, 1774, + In the forty-second year of his age. + + Unhappy Hill, with anxious Cares oppress'd, + Rashly presumed to find Death his Rest. + With this vague Hope in Lonesome Wood did he + Strangle himself, as Jury did agree; + For which Christian burial he's denied, + And is consign'd to Lie at this wayside. + + Reader! + + Reflect what may be the consequences of a crime, which excludes the + possibility of repentance. + +In old parish registers we have found records of burials at cross roads, +and Lancashire history furnishes several examples. + +It is stated in "Legends and Superstitions of the County of Durham," by +William Brockie, published in 1886, that in the Mile End Road, South +Shields, at the corner of the left-hand side going northward, just +adjoining Fairless's old ballast way, lies the body of a suicide, with a +stake driven through it. It is, I believe, a poor baker, who put an end to +his existence seventy or eighty years ago, and who was buried in this +frightful manner, at midnight, in unconsecrated ground. The top of the +stake used to rise a foot or two above the ground within the last thirty +years, and boys used to amuse themselves by standing with one foot upon +it. + +Considerable consternation was caused in London towards the close of 1811 +on account of certain murders. The foul deeds were committed by an +Irishman called John Williams. He was arrested, and during his confinement +in Coldbathfields committed suicide. His remains were buried in Cannon +Street, and a stake was driven through the body. + +Many curious items dealing with this custom may be found in the columns of +old newspapers. The following particulars, for example, are drawn from the +_Morning Post_, of 27th April, 1810:--"The officers appointed to execute +the ceremony of driving the stake through the dead body of James Cowling, +a deserter from the London Militia, who deprived himself of existence by +cutting his throat at a public-house in Gilbert Street, Clare Market, in +consequence of which a verdict of self-murder, very properly delayed the +business until twelve o'clock on Wednesday night, when the deceased was +buried in the cross roads at the end of Blackmoor Street, Clare Market." + +The most painful case which has come under our notice occurred at +Newcastle-on-Tyne. Martha Wilson, the widow of a seaman, was last seen +alive by her neighbours on Sunday, the 13th April, 1817, and on the +following Tuesday she was found dead, suspended from a cord tied to a nail +in her room at the Trinity House. She was subject to fits of melancholy, +and had threatened to destroy herself. On the Wednesday following an +inquest was held, and the jury returned a verdict of _felo de se_. Her +mortal remains were buried in the public highway at night, and the strange +sight was watched by a large gathering of the public. After a stake had +been driven through the body of the poor widow the grave was closed. + +The last interment at cross roads in London of which we have been able to +discover any account occurred in June, 1823, when a man named Griffiths, +who had committed suicide, was buried at the junction of Eaton Street and +Grosvenor Place and the King's Road. The burial took place about half-past +one in the morning, and the old practice of driving a stake through the +body in this case was not performed. + +Perhaps the few particulars we have given will be sufficient to fully +illustrate the old-time custom of the burial of suicides at cross roads. +At last the impropriety of the proceedings was forced upon Parliament, and +on the 8th July, 1823, the Royal Assent was given to an Act "to alter and +amend the law relating to the interment of the remains of any person found +_felo de se_." The statute is brief, consisting of only two clauses, +viz.:-- + + 1. That after the passing of this Act, it shall not be lawful for any + coroner, or any other person having authority to hold inquests, to + issue any warrant or other process directing the interment of the + remains of persons against whom a finding of _felo de se_ shall be + had, in any public highway, but that such coroner or other officer + shall give directions for the private interment of the remains of such + person _felo de se_, without any stake being driven through the body + of such person, in the churchyard, or other burial ground of the + parish or place in which the remains of such person might by the laws + or custom of England be interred, if the verdict of _felo de se_ had + not been found against such person; such interment to be made within + twenty-four hours of the finding of the inquisition, and to take place + between the hours of nine and twelve at night. + + 2. Provided, nevertheless, that nothing herein contained shall + authorise the performing of any of the rites of Christian burial, or + the interment of the remains of any such person as aforesaid; nor + shall anything hereinbefore contained be taken to alter the laws or + usages relating to the burial of such persons, except so far as + relates to the interment of such remains in such churchyard or burial + ground, at such time and in such a manner as aforesaid. + +Another change was brought about in 1882 respecting the burial of +suicides. We gather from "The Chronicles of Twyford," by F. J. Snell, +M.A., that in the closing days of 1881 a factory operative, of +irreproachable character, with his own hand took his life. The jury +returned a verdict of _felo de se_, adding a rider to the effect that it +was committed whilst the deceased was under great mental depression. "It +was necessary," says Mr. Snell, "in order to comply with the requirements +of the law, that the interment should take place between the hours of 9 +p.m. and midnight, and also within twenty-four hours of the issuing of the +coroner's warrant. In this case it was issued about eight o'clock in the +evening. The Superintendent of the Police was obliged to arrange for the +funeral the same night. Some delay was caused through the absence of the +cemetery keeper from home, but about 10 p.m. two excavators commenced +digging the grave in a remote corner of the cemetery, and the interment +took place a few minutes before midnight." After the burial, the pastor of +the church with which the poor man was associated offered an extempore +prayer. It is recorded that a large number of spectators watched with deep +interest the proceedings, and that extreme indignation was felt throughout +the town. In the following year, the two members for Tiverton introduced a +bill into the House of Commons "to amend the law relating to the interment +of any person found _felo de se_." The effect of the measure was to repeal +the enactments requiring hurried burial without religious rites, and to +sanction the interment "in any of the ways prescribed or authorised by the +Burial Laws Amendment Act of 1880." + + + + +Detaining the Dead for Debt. + + +On the Continent, in Prussia for example, it was formerly the practice to +detain the dead for debt. A belief long prevailed that such proceedings +were legal in England, and in not a few cases, acting upon this +supposition, corpses have been arrested, and in more instances precautions +have been taken to avoid such painful events. + +The earliest record we have found on this theme occurs in the parish +register of Sparsholt, Berkshire. "The corpse of John Matthews, of +Fawler," it is stated, "was stopt on the churchway for debt, August 27, +1689. And having laine there fower days, was, by Justices' warrant, +buryied in the place to prevent annoyances--but about sixe weeks after, by +an Order of Sessions, taken up and buried in the churchyard by the wife of +the deceased." + +In the churchyard of North Wingfield, Derbyshire, a gravestone bears the +following inscription:-- + + In Memory of + THOMAS, + Son of JOHN and MARY CLAY, + Who departed this life December 16th, 1724, + In the 40th year of his age. + + What though no mournful kindred stand + Around the solemn bier, + No parents wring the trembling hand, + Or drop the silent tear. + + No costly oak adorned with art + My weary limbs enclose, + No friends impart a winding sheet + To deck my last repose. + +The circumstances which led to the foregoing epitaph are thus narrated. +Thomas Clay was a man of intemperate habits, and at the time of his death +was indebted to Adlington, the village inn-keeper, to the amount of twenty +pounds. The publican resolved to seize the body; but the parents of the +deceased carefully kept the door locked until the day appointed for the +funeral. As soon as the door was opened, Adlington rushed into the house +and seized the corpse, and placed it on a form in the open street. Clay's +friends refused to pay the publican's account, and after the body had been +exposed for several days, the inn-keeper buried it in a bacon chest. + +This subject has received attention in the pages of _Notes and Queries_, +and in the issue of May 2nd, 1896, the following appeared:--"At +Brandeston, Suffolk," said a contributor, "there is a well-authenticated +story of the body of the 'old squire,' Mr. John Revett or Rivett, who died +in 1809, being removed secretly at night, by some of the servants and +tenantry, from the library at Brandeston Hall, where it lay, to the church +of Brandeston, which is in the park close by the Hall. Mr. Revett, like +many of the family, had been very extravagant, keeping his own pack of +hounds, etc.; and what with elections and unlimited hospitality, had got +heavily into debt, and had involved the old family estate so, that +Brandeston and Cretingham, which had been in the Revett family from 1480, +got into Chancery after his death, and passed out of the family in 1830, +or thereabouts. The belief of the people, with whom the old squire was +very popular, was that if the body was not removed to the sanctuary it +would be seized for debt; hence their action." A son of one of the old +servants, whose father assisted in carrying the body to the church, +related the story in 1895 to the correspondent of _Notes and Queries_. It +is well known in the village. + +The most painful case of arresting a dead body which has come under our +notice, is that of John Elliott, in 1811. The particulars are given in the +"Annual Register," and also in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ for that year, +but not so fully nor correctly as in a newspaper report of that period, +which is reproduced in the pages of _Notes and Queries_ for March 28th, +1896. The facts of the case are as follow:--John Elliott, at the time of +his death, on October 3rd, 1811, was indebted to Baker, a bricklayer, and +Heasman, a carpenter, a small sum for work done. These two men, with two +sheriffs' officers, on Monday, October 7th, proceeded to the house where +Elliott lay dead, and were there met by the son of the deceased. He stated +that his father was dead. The officers informed him that they had a +warrant to arrest the deceased, and asked where the body lay. The son +pointed out the room, saying the door was locked, and his mother had gone +out and taken the key, but was expected every minute. After waiting a few +minutes, one of the men violently kicked the door, broke it open, and +entered the room where the body lay in a coffin. The body was identified, +and possession taken of it. The interment was fixed by the family for the +following Wednesday, and at four o'clock on that day, the undertaker and +his man arrived for the purpose of removing the body to Shoreditch Church +for burial, but Baker and Heasman and the sheriffs' men entered the house +with a shell, and took it into the room where the corpse lay. After asking +the son to pay the debt and prevent his father's body being taken away, +and he replying that he was unable to discharge it, Baker and Heasman +literally crammed the naked body into the shell, and put it into a cart +before the house, where it remained over half-an-hour, attracting to the +place a large number of people who behaved in a riotous manner. The body +was then removed to Heasman's house, and placed in a cellar until October +11th, when it was conveyed by him and others to Bethnal Green, and left in +a burial vault. + +Such are the details briefly stated that were given to the judge who tried +the men who committed this outrageous public indecency. The jury, after +retiring for a few minutes, returned, and awarded damages L200. + +We have given at some length the foregoing case, to illustrate the lawless +condition of the country at the commencement of this century. We may +congratulate ourselves on living in happier times. + +It was currently reported at the death of Sheridan, in 1816, that an +attempt would be made to detain his body for debt, but at his funeral no +such action occurred. + +Mr. John Cameron, in his work issued in 1892, under the title of "The +Parish of Campsie," states that in 1824 died the Rev. James Lapslie, vicar +of the parish, who was, at the time of his death, in debt, and the +proceedings of a creditor are thus related:--"On the day of the funeral," +says Mr. Cameron, "the body was arrested at the mouth of the open grave, +and further procedure barred by some legal process, until the arresting +creditor had satisfaction given him for the payment of the debt owing by +the deceased. Sir Samuel Stirling, sixth baronet, became security to the +arresting creditor, and the body was then consigned to the grave." + +Much reliable information on old-time subjects has been carefully +chronicled by Mr. I. W. Dickinson, B.A., the author of "Yorkshire Life and +Character." He tells us that in the earlier years of the present century +it was generally believed that a corpse could be detained for debt, and it +was, in several instances in the West Riding, successfully carried out, +the friends subscribing on the spot in order to be enabled to pay their +last respects to the dead. Mr. Dickinson also tells me of another West +Riding belief, that a doctor, summoned to a sick bed, could legally take +the nearest way, even through corn fields and private grounds, or whatever +else intervened, without rendering himself liable for damages. + +We gather from _Notes and Queries_ of March 28th, 1896, that the fact was +established in 1841, that the body of a debtor, dying in custody, cannot +be detained in prison after death. It appears that Scott, gaoler of +Halifax, acting for Mr. Lane Fox, the Lord of the Manor, detained the body +of one of the debtors who died in prison. It was subsequently buried in +the gaol in unconsecrated ground, on the refusal of the debtor's executors +to pay the claims that were demanded of them. Action was taken against the +gaoler, and at a trial at York Assizes he was convicted of breaking the +laws of his country. + + + + +A Nobleman's Household in Tudor Times + + +The Earls of Northumberland, members of the Percy family, for a long +period were a power in the north of England. Their pedigree has been +traced back to Mainfred, a Danish chieftain who rendered great service to +Rollo in the Conquest of Normandy. William de Perci, of Perci, near +Villedieu, landed on the English shore with Duke William, and for valour +at the battle of Hastings he was rewarded with extensive grants of land in +Yorkshire. + +In their northern strongholds this noble family lived in stately style, +and frequently figured on the battle-field, and took their share in events +which make up the history of the country. The story of their lives, with +its lights and shades, reads like a romance; but it is outside the purpose +of our paper to linger over its romantic episodes. It may be stated that +the fourth Earl was Lord Lieutenant of Yorkshire, and by direction of King +Henry VII., he had to make known to the inhabitants of his county the +reasons for a most objectionable tax for the purpose of engaging in a war +with Bretagne. This gave rise to a bitter feeling against him, the people +erroneously believing that the tax was levied at his instigation. In 1489, +a mob broke into his house at Cockledge, near Thirsk, murdering him and +several of his servants. The Earl had been a generous man, and was much +beloved, and his untimely death was deeply deplored. He was buried in +Beverley Minster, and 14,000 people attended his funeral, which was +conducted in a magnificent manner, at a cost of L1,037 6s. 8d., equalling +some L10,000 in our current coin. Skelton, the poet laureate, in an elegy, +lamented his "dolourous death." The lines commence:-- + + "I wayle, I wepe, I sobbe, I sigh ful sore + The dedely fate, the dolefulle destenny + Of him that is gone, alas! without restore + Of the blode royall, descending nobelly, + Whose Lordshipe doutles was slayne lamentably." + +His son, the fifth Earl, who was born at Leconfield Castle in the year +1457, was a man of aesthetic tastes, and a patron of learning. He is +described as being "vain and excessively fond of pomp and display." When +the Princess Margaret journeyed to Scotland to marry the King, the Earl +escorted her through Yorkshire. According to an old account, he was "well +horst, upon a fayre courser, with a cloth to the ground of cramsyn +velvett, all borded of orfavery, his armes very riche in many places uppon +his saddle and harnys, and his sterrops gilt. With him was many noble +Knights, all arrayed in his sayd Livery of Velvett with some goldsmith's +work, great chaynes, and war wel mounted; a Herault, bearing his cotte and +other gentylmen in such wayes array'd of his said Livery, sum in Velvett, +others in Damask, Chamlett, etc., well mounted to the number of 300 +Horsys." The Princess made her public entry into Edinburgh riding on a +pillion behind the King. + +The Earl had three castles, and lived at them alternately, and, as he had +only sufficient furniture for one, it was removed from one house to the +other when he changed residences. Seventeen carts and one waggon were +employed to convey it. + +This Percy's taste for poetry prompted him to have painted on the walls +and ceilings of his castles moral lessons in verse. The following may be +quoted as a specimen:-- + + "Punyshe moderatly, and discretly correct, + As well to mercy, as to justice havynge a respect; + So shall ye have meryte for the punyshment, + And cause the offender to be sory and penitent. + + If ye be movede with anger or hastynes, + Pause in youre mynde and your yre repress: + Defer vengeance unto your anger asswagede be; + So shall ye mynyster justice, and do dewe equyte." + +We have another proof of his love of poetry preserved in the British +Museum, in the form of a beautiful manuscript engrossed on vellum, richly +emblazoned, and superbly illuminated. It includes specimens of the best +poetry then produced, and a metrical account of the Percy family, by one +of the Earl's chaplains, named Peares. This interesting work was prepared +under his directions. + +In the year 1512, he commenced the compilation of what we now call the +"Northumberland Household Book," and it contains regulations and other +details respecting his castles at Wressel and Leckonfield. From this +curious work we obtain an interesting picture of the home life of a +nobleman in Tudor times. We find that the Earl lived in state and +splendour little inferior to that of the King. The household was +conducted on the same plan as that of the reigning monarch, and the +warrants were made out in the same form and style. "As the King had his +Privy Council and great council of Parliament to assist him in enacting +statutes and regulations for the public weal," says a writer who has made +a study of this subject, "so the Earl of Northumberland had his council, +composed of his principal officers, by whose advice and assistance he +established this code of economic laws; as the King had his lords and +grooms of the bed-chamber, who waited in their respective turns, so the +Earl of Northumberland was attended by the constables and bailiffs of his +several castles, who entered into waiting in regular succession." We +further find that all the leading officers of his household were men of +gentle birth, and consisted of "controller, clerk of the kitchen, +chamberlain, treasurer, secretary, clerk of the signet, survisor, heralds, +ushers, almoner, a schoolmaster for teaching grammar, minstrels, eleven +priests, presided over by a doctor of divinity or dean of the chapel, and +a band of choristers, composed of eleven singing men and six singing +boys." The head officials sat at a table called the Knight's Board. Every +day were expected to sit down to dinner 166 officers and domestic +servants and fifty-seven visitors. The amount annually spent in +house-keeping was L1,118 17s. 8d., representing in our money about +L10,000. + +The number of daily meals was four, and consisted of breakfast taken at +seven, dinner at ten, supper at four o'clock, and livery served in the +bedroom between eight and nine, before retiring to rest. The lord sat at +the head of the table in state. The oaken table, long and clumsy, stood in +the great hall, and the guests were ranged according to their station on +long, hard, and comfortless benches. The massive family silver salt cellar +was placed in the middle of the table, and persons of rank sat above it, +and those of an inferior position below it. There was a great display of +pewter dishes and wooden cups, and plenty of food and liquor was on the +table. But elegance did not prevail: forks had not been introduced, and +fingers were used to convey food to the mouth. + +The allowances at the meals were most liberal. One perceives there was +much wine and beer consumed in those days. Take, for example, that at +breakfast. On flesh days it included "for my lord and lady a loaf of bread +on trenchers, two manchets (loaves of fine meal), a quart of wine, half a +chine of mutton, or a chine of beef boiled." The fare of the two elder +children, "my Lord Percy, and Mr. Thomas Percy," consisted of "half a loaf +of household bread, a manchet, one pottle of beer (two quarts!), a +chicken, or else three mutton bones boiled." It will be noticed that wine +was not served to the two young noblemen. The fare of the two little +children is thus described: "Breakfasts for the nurcery, for my lady +Margaret and Mr. Yngram Percy, a manchet, one quart of beer, three mutton +bones boiled." My ladies' gentlewomen were served with "a pottle of beer, +three mutton bones boiled, or else a piece of beef boiled." The breakfast +on fish days was as follows:--"For my lord and my lady, a loaf of bread on +trenchers, two manchets, a quart of beer, a quart of wine, two pieces of +salt-fish, six baked herrings, or a dish of sprats; for the two elder +sons, half a loaf of household bread, a manchet, a pottle of beer, a dish +of butter, a piece of salt-fish, a dish of sprats, or three white (fresh) +herrings; for the two children in the nursery, a manchet, a quart of beer, +a dish of butter, a piece of salt-fish, a dish of sprats, or three white +herrings; and for my lady's gentlewomen, a loaf of bread, a pottle of +beer, a piece of salt-fish, or three white herrings." It will be observed +that the family dined two to a plate or mess, this being the usual +practice in the Middle Ages. The other meals were quite, if not more +substantial than that of breakfast. The liveries, as we have previously +stated, were consumed in the bed-chamber just before retiring to rest, and +the Earl and Countess had placed on their table, "two manchets, a loaf of +household bread, a gallon of beer, and a quart of wine." The wine was +warmed and mixed with spices. After reading the preceding bills of fare, +we are not surprised to learn that at this period the English people were +regarded as the greatest eaters in Europe. + +In the "Northumberland Household Book" is a long and interesting list of +articles and their prices, which were expected to last a year. It will not +be without interest to reproduce a few of the more important items, as +follow:--Wheat 236-1/2 quarters at 6s. 8d. The market price today is very +different. Malt, as might be expected from the quantity of beer brewed, is +a rather large total, being 249 quarters, I bushel, and the price 4s. per +quarter; hops, 656 lbs., at 13s. 4d. per 120 lbs.; fat oxen, 109, at 13s. +4d. each; lean oxen, 24, at 8s. each; to be fed in his lordship's +pastures; sheep, 787, fat and lean, at 1s. 8d. each, one with another; +porks (pigs), 25, at 2s. each; calves, 28, at 1s. 8d. each; lambs, 60, of +which 10, at 1s. each, to serve from Christmas to Shrovetide, and 50, at +10d. each, to serve from Easter to Midsummer. The list of fish is large, +and includes 160 stock-fish at 2-1/2d. each for the Lent season; +salt-fish, 1,122, at 4d. each; white herrings, 9 barrels, at 10s. the +barrel; red herrings, 10 cades (each cade containing 500), at 6s. 8d. the +cade; sprats, 5 cades (each cade containing 1,000), at 2s. the cade; salt +salmon, 200, at 6d. each; salt sturgeon, 3 firkins, at 10s. each firkin; +salt eels, 5 cags, at 4s. each. Thirty-six gallons of oil, at 11-1/2d. per +gallon, were provided for frying the fish. Salt is entered twice--bay +salt, 10 quarters, at 4s. the quarter; and white salt, 6-1/2 quarters, at +4s. the quarter; vinegar, 40 gallons, at 4d. the gallon. The quantity of +mustard, ready-made, is large, being 180 gallons, at 2-1/4d. per gallon. +In old Christmas carols there are frequent allusions to mustard. During +the Commonwealth, it was threatened to stop Christmastide festivals by Act +of Parliament, and this caused the tallow-chandlers to loudly complain, +for they could not sell their mustard on account of the diminished +consumption of brawn. In the familiar old carol, sung annually at Queen's +College, Oxford, is a line:-- + + "The boar's head with mustard." + +In a carol sung before Prince Henry, at St. John's College, Oxford, in +1607, is a couplet:-- + + "Let this boar's head and mustard + Stand for pig, goose, and custard." + +Under the heading of spices are enumerated:--Pepper, 50 lbs., raisons of +currants, 200 lbs., prunes, 151-1/2 lbs., ginger, 21-1/2 lbs., mace, 6 +lbs., cloves, 3-1/2 lbs., sugar, 200-1/4 lbs., cinnamon, 17 lbs., 3-1/2 +quarters almonds, 152 lbs., dates, 30 lbs., nutmegs, 1-1/4 lbs., grains of +Paradise, 7 lbs., turnfole, 10-1/2 lbs., saunders, 10 lbs., powder of +annes, 3-1/4 lbs., rice, 19 lbs., comfits, 19-1/2 lbs., galagals, 1/2 lb., +long pepper, 1/2 lb., blanch powder, 2 lbs. The amount of the foregoing is +L25 19s. 7d. The list of wine embraces--Gascony wine, 10 tuns, 2 +hogsheads, at L4 14s. 4d. per tun, viz., red, 3 tuns, claret, 5 tuns, and +white, 2 tuns, 2 hogsheads. There was also provided 90 gallons of +verjuice, at 3d. per gallon; this was a sour juice of unripe grapes, +apples, or crabs. A barrel and a half of honey was provided at a cost of +33s. The foregoing are the chief items of food and drink for the annual +consumption in a Tudor household. + +The fuel consisted of sea coal, 80 chaldrons, charcoal, 20 quarters, and +4,140 faggots for brewing and baking. Sixty-four loads of wood had also to +be provided, for the coal could not be burnt without it. The coal must +have been poor. + +The expenses provide for the players at Christmas, and they appear to have +acted 20 plays at 1s. 8d. per play. We find a bearward attended at +Christmas for making sport with his beasts, and in the "Household Book" he +is referred to amongst those receiving payments as follows:-- + + "Furst, my Lorde usith and accustomyth to gyff yerely the Kynge or the + Queene's _barwarde_, if they have one, when they custome to come unto + him, yerely--vj_s._ viij_d._" + + "Item, my Lorde usith and accustomyth to gyfe yerly, when his + Lordshipe is at home, to his _barward_, when he comyth to my Lorde in + Christmas with his Lordshippe's beests, for makynge of his Lordship + pastyme, the said xi days--xx_s._" + +At this period, bear-baiting was a popular amusement. Sunday was a great +day for the pastime. It was on the last Sunday of April, 1520, that part +of the chancel of St. Mary's Church, Beverley, fell, killing a number of +people. According to a popular tradition, a bear was being baited, and +mass was being sung at the same time, but at the latter only fifty-five +attended and all were killed, whereas at the former about a thousand were +present. Hence the origin of the Yorkshire saying, "It is better to be at +the baiting of a bear than the singing of a mass." An expert horseman was +also employed in connection with the household. He had not to be afraid of +a fence, and it was his duty to attend my Lord when hunting. + + + + +Bread and Baking in Bygone Days. + + +The earliest form of bread consisted of grain soaked in water, then +pressed, and afterwards dried by means of the sun or fire. Another early +kind of bread took the form of porridge or pudding, consisting of flour +mixed with water and boiled. Next came the method of kneading dough, and +the result was tough and unleavened bread. + +In Saxon times women made bread, and the modern title "lady" is softened +from the Saxon _hlaf-dige_, meaning the distributor of bread. We learn +from contemporary pictures that Anglo-Saxon bread consisted of round +cakes, not unlike the Roman loaves of which we get representations in the +pictures at Pompeii, and not unlike our Good-Friday cross-buns, which we +are told come down to us from our Saxon forefathers. + +In connection with monasteries were bake-houses, and the work here would +be done by the conversi or lay brothers. The holy bread in the mass was +baked in the convents and churches by the priests or monks with much +ceremony. Ovens were sometimes connected with old churches. + +Some of the monks in Saxon times do not appear to have fared well. We find +it recorded that in the eighth century those at the Abbey of St. Edmund +had to partake of barley bread because the income of the house was not +sufficent to provide wheaten-bread twice or thrice daily. + +Towards the close of the thirteenth century the chief bakers who supplied +London with bread lived at Stratford-le-Bow, Essex, doubtless on account +of being near Epping Forest, where they could obtain cheap firewood. At a +later period some were located at Bromley-by-Bow. The bread was brought to +London in carts, and exposed for sale in Bread Street. The bakers attended +daily excepting on Sundays and great festivals. It was no uncommon +circumstance to seize the bread on its way to town for being of light +weight, or made of unsound materials. It was not until the year 1302 that +London bakers were permitted to sell bread in shops. + +A Royal Charter was granted in 1307 to the London Bakers' Company. The +charter, we are told, "empowered the company to correct offences +concerning the trade, to make laws and ordinances, to levy fines and +penalties for non-observance thereof; and within the city and suburbs, and +twelve miles round, to view, search, prove, and weigh all bread sold; and +in case of finding it unwholesome, or not of due assize, to distribute it +to the poor of the parish where it was found, and to impose fines, and +levy the same by distress and sale of offenders' goods." When reform +became the order of the day the power of the Bakers' Company passed away. + +There are various old-time statutes of the assize of bread in London. The +earliest dates back to the days of Henry II. Another belongs to the reign +of Henry III.; it regulated the price of bread according to the value of +corn. A baker breaking the law was fined, and if his offence was serious +he was placed in the pillory. These statutes were extended under Edward +VI., Charles II., and Queen Anne. + +In 1266 bakers were commanded not to impress their bread with the sign of +the cross, _Agnus Dei_, or the name of Jesus Christ. + +The lot of the baker in bygone times was a very hard one. He could not +sell where he liked, and the price of his bread was regulated by those in +authority. Pike, in his "History of Crime in England," says, "Turn where +he might, the traveller in London in 1348 could hardly fail to light upon +some group, which would tell him the character of the people he had to +see. Here, perhaps, a baker with a loaf hung round his neck, was being +jeered, and pelted in the pillory, because he had given short weight, or +because, when men had asked him for bread, he had given them not a stone, +but a lump of iron enclosed by a crust." + +At this period women were largely employed in the bakehouse. Women in +mediaeval times performed much of the rougher kind of labour. Mr. Pike +tells a tragic tale to illustrate the heartless character of bakehouse +women in bygone times:--"At Middleton, in Derbyshire, there lived a man +whose wife bore a name well known to readers of mediaeval romances, Isolda +or Isoult. As he lay one night asleep in his bed, this female Othello took +him by the neck and strangled him. As soon as he was dead, she carried the +body to an oven which adjourned their chamber, and piled up a fire to +destroy the traces of her guilt. But, though she had so far shown the +energy and power of a man, her courage seems to have failed her at the +last moment. She took to flight, and her crime was discovered." + +In the olden time, it was the practice of females to deliver bread from +house to house in London. The bakers gave them thirteen articles for +twelve, and the odd article appears to have been the legitimate profit +which they were entitled to receive in return for their work. From this +old custom we obtain the baker's dozen of thirteen. Bakers were not +permitted to give credit to women retailers if they were known to be in +debt to others. It was also against the law to receive back unsold bread +if cold. The latter regulation would make the saleswomen energetic in +their labours. + +In many places the ducking-stool was employed to punish offending bakers. +The old records of Beverley contain references to this subject. "During +the Middle Ages," it is stated on good authority, "scarcely any spectacle +was so pleasing to the people of Central Europe as that of the public +punishment of the cheating baker. The penalties inflicted on swindling +bakers included confiscation of property, deprivation of civil and other +rights, banishment from the town for certain periods, bodily punishment, +the pillory, and the gibbet. If a baker was found guilty of an offence +against the law, he was arrested and kept in safe custody till the gibbet +was ready for him. It was erected as nearly as possible in the middle of +the town, the beam projecting over a stagnant pool; at the end of the beam +was a pulley, over which ran a rope fastened to a basket large enough to +hold a man. The baker was forced into the basket, which was drawn up to +the beam; there he hung over the muddy pool, the butt of the jeers and +missiles of a jubilant crowd. The only way to escape was to jump into the +dirty water and run through the crowd to his home, and if he did not take +the jump willingly, he was sometimes helped out of the basket by means of +a pole. In some towns a large cage was used instead of a basket, and, +instead of taking a jump, the culprit was lowered into the filthy pool and +drawn up again several times until the town authorities thought he had had +enough." In some parts of Turkey it was, until recently, the rule to +punish a baker who did not give full weight by nailing his ear to the +doorpost. If he were out when the officers of justice arrived his son or +his servant was punished in his stead, as the authorities were very much +averse from making their men do the journey twice. + +The Court Leet records of many of our old English towns include items of +interest bearing on this subject. At Manchester, at the Court Leet held +October 1, 1561, it was resolved that no person or persons be permitted to +make for sale any kind of bread in which butter is mixed, under a fine of +10s. Later, the use of suet was forbidden. In 1595, we are told that "the +Court Leet Jury of Manchester ordered that no person was to be allowed to +use butter or suet in cakes or bread; fine, 20s. No baker or other person +to be allowed to bake said cakes, &c.; fine, 20s. No person to be allowed +to sell the same; fine, 20s." Next year, on September 30, we gather from +the records that "eight officers were appointed to see that no flesh meat +was eaten on Fridays and Saturdays, and twelve for the overseeing of them +that put butter, cream, or suet in their cakes." We learn from the history +of Worcester that an order was made in 1641 that the bakers were not to +make spice bread or short cakes, "inasmuch as it enhaunced the price of +butter." + +A rather curious regulation in bygone times was the one which enforced the +baker of white bread not to make brown, and the baker of brown bread not +to make white. + +Very heavy fines used to be inflicted on persons selling short weight of +bread. "A baker was convicted yesterday," says the _Times_ of July 8th, +1795, "at the Public Office, Whitechapel, of making bread to the amount of +307 ounces deficient in weight, and fined a penalty of L64 7s." In the +same journal, three days later, we read, "A baker was yesterday convicted +in the penalty of L106 5s. on 420 ounces of bread, deficient in weight." +The market records, week after week, in 1795, as a rule, record an +increased price of grain, and by the middle of the year the matter had +become serious. The members of the Privy Council gave the subject careful +consideration, and strongly recommended that families should refrain from +having puddings, pies, and other articles made of flour. With the +following paragraph from the _Times_ of July 22nd, 1795, we close our +notes on bread in bygone days:--"His Majesty has given orders for the +bread used in his household to be made of meal and rye mixed. No other +sort is to be permitted to be baked, and the Royal Family eat bread of the +same quality as their servants do." + + + + +Arise, Mistress, Arise! + + +In the olden time in many places in the provinces it was the practice on +Christmas-day morning to permit the servants and apprentices to remain in +bed, and for the mistress to get up and attend to the household duties. +The bellman at Bewdley used to go round the town, and after ringing his +bell and saying, "Good-morning, masters, mistresses, and all, I wish you a +merry Christmas," he sang the following: + + "Arise, mistress, arise, + And make your tarts and pies, + And let your maids lie still; + For if they should rise and spoil your pies, + You'd take it very ill. + Whilst you are sleeping in your bed, + I the cold wintry nights must tread + Past twelve o'clock, &c." + +Bewdley was famous for its ringers and singers, and its town crier was a +man of note. An old couplet says: + + "For ringers, singers, and a crier + Bewdley excelled all Worcestershire." + +In Lancashire was heard the following, proclaimed in the towns and +villages: + + "Get up old wives, + And bake your pies, + 'Tis Christmas-day in the morning; + The bells shall ring, + The birds shall sing, + 'Tis Christmas-day in the morning." + +At Morley, near Leeds, a man was formerly paid for blowing a horn at 5 +a.m. to make known the time for commencing, and at 8 p.m. the hour for +giving up work. His blast was heard daily except on Sundays. On +Christmas-day morning he blew his horn and sang: + + "Dames arise and bake your pies, + And let your maids lie still; + For they have risen all the year, + Sore against their will." + + + + +The Turnspit. + + +One of the most menial positions in an ancient feudal household was that +of turnspit. A person too old or too young for more important duties +usually performed the work. John Lydgate, the monk of Bury, who was born +in 1375, and died in 1460, gives us a picture of the turnspit as +follows:-- + + "His mouth wel wet, his sleeves right thredbare, + A turnbroche, a boy for hagge of ware, + With louring face noddynge and slumberyng." + +Says Aubrey that these servants "did lick the dripping for their pains." + +In the reign of Edward III., the manor of Finchingfield was held by Sir +John Compes, by the service of turning the spit at His Majesty's +coronation. This certainly appears a humble position for a knight to fill +in "the gallant days of chivalry." + +The spits or "broches" were often made of silver, and were usually carried +to the table with the fish, fowl, or joint roasted upon them. + +The humble turnspit was not overlooked by the guests in the days of old, +when largess was bestowed. We gather from "Howard's Household Book" that +Lord Howard gave four old turnspits a penny each. When Mary Tudor dined at +Havering, she rewarded the turnbroches with sixteen-pence. + +Dogs as well as men performed the task of turning the spit from an early +period, and old-time literature includes many references to the subject. +Doctor Caius, the founder of the college at Cambridge bearing his name, is +the earliest English writer on the dog. "There is," wrote Caius, +"comprehended under the curs of the coarsest kind, a certain dog in +kitchen service excellent. For when any meat is to be roasted they go into +a wheel, where they, turning about with the weight of their bodies, so +diligently look to their business, that no drudge nor scullion can do the +feat more cunningly, whom the popular sort hereupon term turnspits." + +We have seen several pictures of dogs turning the spit, and an interesting +example appears in a work entitled "Remarks on a Tour in North and South +Wales," published in 1800. The dog is engaged in his by no means pleasant +work. "Newcastle, near Carmarthen," says the author, "is a pleasant +village. At a decent inn here a dog is employed as turnspit. Great care is +taken that this animal does not observe the cook approach the larder; if +he does, he immediately hides himself for the remainder of the day, and +the guest must be contented with more humble fare than intended." + +Mr. Jesse, a popular writer on rural subjects, was a keen observer of +old-time customs and institutions, and the best account of the turnspit +that has come under our notice is from his pen. "How well do I remember, +in the days of my youth," says Mr. Jesse, "watching the operations of a +turnspit at the house of a worthy old Welsh clergyman in Worcestershire, +who taught me to read. He was a good man, wore a bushy wig, black worsted +stockings, and large plaited buckles in his shoes. As he had several +boarders as well as day scholars, his two turnspits had plenty to do. They +were long-bodied, crook-legged, and ugly dogs, with a suspicious, unhappy +look about them, as if they were weary of the task they had to do, and +expected every moment to be seized upon to do it. Cooks in those days, as +they are said to be at present, were very cross, and if the poor animal, +wearied with having a larger joint than usual to turn, stopped for a +moment, the voice of the cook might be heard rating him in no very gentle +terms. When we consider that a large, solid piece of beef would take at +least three hours before it was properly roasted, we may form some idea of +the task a dog had to perform in turning a wheel during that time. A +pointer has pleasure in finding game, the terrior worries rats with +eagerness and delight, and the bull-dog even attacks bulls with the +greatest energy, while the poor turnspit performs his task with +compulsion, like a culprit on a treadmill, subject to scolding or beating +if he stops a moment to rest his weary limbs, and is then kicked about the +kitchen when the task is over." + +The mode of teaching the dog its duties is described in a book of +anecdotes published at Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1809. It was more summary than +humane. The dog was put in the wheel, and a burning coal with him; he +could not stop without burning his legs, and so was kept upon the full +gallop. These dogs were by no means fond of their profession. It was +indeed hard work to run in a wheel for two or three hours, turning a piece +of meat twice their own weight. + +In the same work two more anecdotes bearing on this theme also find a +place, and are worth reproducing. "Some years ago," we are told, "a party +of young men, at Bath, hired the chairmen on a Saturday night to steal all +the turnspits in the town, and lock them up till the following evening. +Accordingly, on Sunday, when everybody has roast meat for dinner, all the +cooks were to be seen in the streets, 'Pray have you seen our Chloe?' asks +one. 'Why,' replies the other, 'I was coming to ask if you had seen our +Pompey.' Up came a third, while they were talking, to inquire for her +Toby. And there was no roast meat in Bath that day. It is told of these +dogs in this city, that one Sunday, when they had as usual followed their +mistresses to church, the lesson for the day happened to be that chapter +in Ezekiel, wherein the self-moving chariots are described. When first the +word wheel was pronounced, all the curs pricked up their ears in alarm; at +the second wheel they set up a doleful howl. When the dreadful word was +uttered a third time, every one of them scampered out of church, as fast +as he could, with his tail between his legs." + +Allusions to this subject may be found in some of the poets of the olden +time, more especially in those of a political character. Pitt, in his _Art +of Preaching_, has the following on a man who speaks much, but to little +purpose:-- + + "His arguments in silly circles run, + Still round and round, and end where they begun. + So the poor turnspit, as the wheel runs round, + The more he gains, the more he loses ground." + + + + +A Gossip about the Goose. + + +The goose figures largely in the history, the legends, and the proverbial +lore of our own and other lands. In ancient Egypt it was an object of +adoration in the temple and an article of diet on the table. The Egyptians +mainly took beef and goose flesh as their animal food, and it has been +suggested that they expected to obtain physical power from the beef and +mental vigour from the goose. To support this theory, it has been shown +that other nations have eaten the flesh of wolves and drunk the blood of +lions, hoping thereby to become fierce and courageous. Some other nations +have refused to partake of the hare and the deer on account of the +timidity of these animals, fearing lest by eating their flesh they should +also partake of their characteristic fearfulness and timidity. + +Pliny thought very highly of the goose, saying "that one might almost be +tempted to think these creatures have an appreciation of wisdom, for it is +said that one of them was a constant companion of the peripatetic +philosopher Lacydes, and would never leave him, either in public or when +at the bath, by night or by day." + +The cackling of the goose saved Rome. According to a very old story, the +guards of the city were asleep, and the enemy taking advantage of this, +were making their way through a weak part of the fortifications, expecting +to take the city by surprise. The wakeful geese hearing them, at once +commenced cackling, and their noise awoke the Romans, who soon made short +work of their foes. This circumstance greatly increased the gratitude of +the Roman citizens for the goose. + +We gather from the quaint words of an old chronicler a probable solution +of the familiar phrase, "To cook one's goose." "The kyng of Swedland"--so +runs the ancient record--"coming to a towne of his enemyes with very +little company, his enemyes, to slyghte his forces, did hang out a goose +for him to shoote; but perceiving before nyghte that these fewe soldiers +had invaded and sette their chief houlds on fire, they demanded of him +what his intent was, to whom he replyed, 'To cook your goose'." + +In the days when the bow and arrow were the chief weapons of warfare, it +was customary for the sheriffs of the counties where geese were reared to +gather sufficient quantities of feathers to wing the arrows of the English +army. Some of the old ballads contain references to winging the arrow with +goose feathers. A familiar instance is the following: + + "'Bend all your bows,' said Robin Hood; + 'And with the gray goose wing, + Such sport now show as you would do + In the presence of the king'." + +To check the exportation of feathers, a heavy export duty was put upon +them. + +The goose frequently figures in English tenures. In a poem by Gascoigne, +published in 1575, there is an allusion to rent-day gifts, which appear to +have been general in the olden time: + + "And when the tenants come to pay their quarter's rent, + They bring some fowle at Midsummer, a dish of fish in Lent, + At Christmasse a capon, and at Michaelmasse a goose." + +A strange manorial custom was kept up at Hilton in the days of Charles II. +An image of brass, known as Jack of Hilton, was kept there. "In the +mouth," we are told, "was a little hole just large enough to admit the +head of a pin; water was poured in by a hole in the back, which was +afterwards stopped up." The figure was then set on the fire; and during +the time it was blowing off steam, the lord of the manor of Essington was +obliged to bring a goose to Hilton and drive it three times round the +hall-fire. He next delivered the goose to the cook; and when dressed, he +carried it to the table and received in return a dish of meat for his own +mess. + +In bygone times, Lincolnshire was a great place for breeding geese; and +its extensive bogs, marshes, and swamps were well adopted for the purpose. +The drainage and cultivation of the land have done away with the haunts +suitable for the goose; but in a great measure Lincolnshire has lost its +reputation for its geese. Frequently in the time when geese were largely +bred, one farmer would have a thousand breeding-geese, and they would +multiply some sevenfold every year, so that he would have under his care +annually, some eight thousand geese. He had to be careful that they did +not wander from the particular district where they had a right to allow +them to feed, for they were regarded as trespassers, and the owner could +not get stray geese back unless he paid a fine of twopence for each +offender. + +Within the last fifty years it was a common occurrence to see on sale in +the market-place at Nottingham at the Goose Fair from fifteen to twenty +thousand geese, which had been brought from the fens of Lincolnshire. A +street on the Lincolnshire side of the town is called Goosegate. + +The origin of the custom of eating a goose at Michaelmas is lost in the +shadows of the dim historic past. According to one legend, Saint Martin +was tormented with a goose, which he killed and ate. He died after eating +it; and ever since, Christians have, as a matter of duty, on the saint's +day sacrificed the goose. We have seen from the preceding quotation from +Gascoigne that the goose formed a popular Michaelmas dish from an early +period. + +It is a common saying, "The older the goose the harder to pluck," when old +men are unwilling to part with their money. The barbarous practice of +plucking live geese for the sake of their quills gave rise to the saying. +It was usual to pluck live geese about five times a year. Quills for pens +were much in request before the introduction of steel pens. One London +house, it is stated, sold annually six million quill pens. A professional +pen-cutter could turn out about twelve hundred daily. + +Considerable economy was exercised in the use of quill pens. Leo Allatius, +after writing forty years with one pen, lost it, and it is said he mourned +for it as for a friend. William Hutton wrote the history of his family +with one pen, which he wore down to the stump. He put it aside, +accompanied by the following lines: + + THIS PEN. + + "As a choice relic I'll keep thee, + Who saved my ancestors and me. + For seven long weeks you daily wrought + Till into light our lives you brought, + And every falsehood you avoided + While by the hand of Hutton guided." + + June 3, 1779. + +In conclusion, it may be stated that Philemon Holland, the celebrated +translator, wrote one of his books with a single pen, and recorded in +rhyme the feat as follows: + + "With one sole pen I wrote this book, + Made of a gray goose quill; + A pen it was when I it took, + A pen I leave it still." + + + + +Bells as Time-Tellers. + + +The ringing of the bell in bygone times was general as a signal to +commence and to close the daily round of labour. In some of the more +remote towns and villages of old England the custom lingers at the +ingathering of the harvest. At Driffield, in the East Riding of Yorkshire, +for example, the harvest bell is still rung at five o'clock in the morning +to arouse the labourers from their slumbers, and at seven in the evening +the welcome sound of the bell intimates the time for closing work for the +day. + +References to this subject may sometimes be found in parish accounts and +other old church documents. In the parish chest of Barrow-on-Humber, +Lincolnshire, is preserved a copy of the "Office and Duty of the Parish +Clerk," bearing date of 1713, stating:-- + + "Item.--He is to ring a Bell Every working day morning at Break of the + day, and continue the ringing thereof until All Saints, and also to + ring a Bell Every Evening about the sunseting until harvest be fully + ended: which Bells are to begin to ring from the beginning of the + harvest." + +We learn from an old survey of the parish, still retained amongst the +church papers, the reward given to the clerk for ringing the harvest bell. +Says the document:-- + + "The Clarke Receiveth from Every Cottoger at Easter for Ringing the + Day and Night Bell in Harvest two pecks of wheat." + +Barrow-on-Humber became famous for its bells, beer, and singers. An old +rhyme states:-- + + "Barrow for ringing, + And Barrow for singing, + And the Oak for good stout ale." + +The Oak is the sign of the village inn, and a place of more than local +reputation for its strong, home-brewed ale. + +We have traces of the custom of ringing the harvest bell in various parts +of the Midlands. At Moreton and at Walgrave, in Northamptonshire, the +harvest bell was rung at four o'clock in the morning. At Spratton, +Wellingborough, and other places in the county, the custom is still +remembered, but not kept up. + +It was customary in many places, when the last load of grain was brought +home, to deck it with the boughs of the oak and ash, and a merry peal of +the church bells made known the news that the farmer had ended his +harvest, the farm labourers riding on the top of the load to sing-- + + "Harvest home! harvest home! + The boughs they do shake, the bells they do ring, + So merrily we bring the harvest in, harvest in! + So merrily we bring the harvest in." + +In some of the more remote villages of the country, the gleaners' bell is +rung as a signal to commence gleaning. By this means, to use the words of +Mr. Thomas North, our leading authority on bell lore, the old and feeble, +as well as the young and active, may have a fair start. At Lyddington, +Rutland, says Mr. North, the clerk claims a fee of a penny a week from +women and big children, as a recompense for his trouble. The parish clerk +at West Deeping, Lincolnshire, claimed twopence a head from the gleaners, +but as they refused to pay, he declined to ring the bell. + +Bearing on this theme may be included particulars of a bell formerly rung +at Louth when the harvest on the "Gatherums" was ripe. "A piece of ground +so called," writes Mr. North, "was in former times cultivated for the +benefit of the poor. When the 'pescods' were ripe, the church bell was +rung, which gave warning to the poor that the time had arrived when they +might gather them; hence (it is said) _gather 'em_ or _gatherum_." From +the church accounts is drawn the following: + + "1536. Item for Knyllyng the bell in harvest for gatheringe + of the pescods iiijd." + +Similar entries occur in the books of the church. + +An inscription on a bell at Coventry, dated 1675, states:-- + + "I ring at six to let men know + When to and fro' their work to goe." + +At St. Ives a bell bears a pithy inscription as follows:-- + + "Arise, and go about your business." + +The bells of Bow are amongst the best known in England, and figure in the +legendary lore as well as in the business life of London. Every reader is +familiar with the story of Dick Whittington leaving the city in despair, +resting on Highgate Hill, and hearing the famous bells, which seemed to +say in their merry peals-- + + "Turn again, Whittington, + Thou worthy citizen, + Lord Mayor of London." + +In 1469, an order was given by the Court of the Common Council for Bow +bell to be rung every night at nine o'clock. Nine was the recognised time +for tradesmen to close their shops. The clerk, whose duty it was to ring +the bell, was irregular in his habits, and the late performance of his +duties disappointed the toiling apprentices, who thus addressed him:-- + + "Clerk of Bow bell, + With thy yellow locks, + For thy late ringing + Thy head shall have knocks." + +The clerk replied:-- + + "Children of Cheape, + Hold you all still, + For you shall hear Bow Bell + Ring at your will." + +The foregoing rhymes take us back to a period before clocks were in +general use in this country. The parentage of the present clock cannot be +traced with any degree of certainty. We learn that as early as 996, +Gerbert, a distinguished Benedictine monk (subsequently Pope Sylvester +II.), constructed for Magdeburg a clock, with a weight as a motive power. +Clocks with weights were used in monasteries in Europe in the eleventh +century. It is supposed that they had not dials to indicate the time, but +at certain intervals struck a bell to make known the time for prayers. + +From the fact that a clock-keeper was employed at St. Paul's, London, in +1286, it is presumed that there must have been a clock, but we have not +been able to discover any details respecting it. There was a clock at +Westminster in 1290, and two years later L30 was paid for a large clock +put up at Canterbury Cathedral. Thirty pounds represented a large sum of +money in the year 1292. About 1326 an astronomical clock was erected at +St. Albans. It was the work of Richard de Wallingford, a blacksmith's son +of the town, who rose to the position of Abbot there. In the earlier half +of the fourteenth century are traces of numerous other clocks in England. +According to Haydn's "Dictionary of Dates," in the year 1530 the first +portable clock was made. This statement does not agree with a writer in +"Chambers's Encyclopaedia" (edition 1890). "The date," we are told in that +work, "when portable clocks were first made, cannot be determined. They +are mentioned in the beginning of the fourteenth century. The motive power +must have been a mainspring instead of a weight. The Society of +Antiquaries of England possess one, with the inscription in Bohemian that +it was made at Prague, by Jacob Zech, in 1525. It has a spring for motive +power, with fusee, and is one of the oldest portable clocks in a perfect +state in England." + +It is asserted that no clock in this country went accurately before the +one was erected at Hampton Court, in 1540. Shakespeare, in his _Love's +Labour's Lost_, gives us an idea of the unsatisfactory manner clocks kept +time in the days of old. He says:-- + + ... "Like a German clock, + Still a-repairing; ever out of frame; + And never going aright." + +Coming down to later times, we may give a few particulars of the +difficulty of ascertaining the time in the country in the earlier years of +the last century. + +[Illustration: CLOCK, HAMPTON COURT PALACE.] + +Norrisson Scatcherd, the historian of Morley, near Leeds, gives in his +history, published in 1830, an amusing sketch of a local worthy named John +Jackson, better known as "Old Trash," poet, schoolmaster, mechanic, +stonecutter, land-measurer, etc., who was buried at Woodkirk on May 19th, +1764. "He constructed a clock, and in order to make it useful to the +clothiers who attended Leeds market from Earls and Hanging Heaton, +Dewsbury, Chickenley, etc., he kept a lamp suspended near the face of +it, and burning through the winter nights, and he would have no shutters +nor curtains to his window, so that the clothiers had only to stop and +look through it to know the time. Now, in our age of luxury and +refinement, the accomodation thus presented by 'Old Trash' may seem +insignificant and foolish, but I can assure the reader that it was not. +The clothiers in the early part of the eighteenth century were obliged to +be upon the bridge at Leeds, where the market was held, by about six +o'clock in the summer, and seven in the winter; and hither they were +convened by a bell anciently pertaining to a Chantry Chapel, which once +was annexed to Leeds Bridge. They did not all ride, but most went on foot. +They did not carry watches, for few of them had ever possessed such a +valuable. They did not dine on fish, flesh, and fowl, with wine, etc., as +some do now. No! no! The careful housewife wrapped up a bit of oatcake and +cheese in a little checked handkerchief, and charged her husband to mind +and not get above a pint of ale at 'The Rodney.' Would Jackson's clock +then be of no use to men who had few such in their villages? Who seldom +saw a watch, but took much of their intelligence from the note of the +cuckoo." + +For an extended period, the curfew bell has been a most important +time-teller. The sounds are no longer heard as the signal for putting out +fires, as they were in the days of the Norman kings. It is generally +asserted that William the Conqueror introduced the curfew custom into +England, but it is highly probable that he only enforced a law which had +long been in existence in the kingdom, and which prevailed in France, +Italy, Spain, and other countries on the Continent. Houses at this period +were usually built of wood, and fires were frequent and often fatal, and +on the whole it was a wise policy to put out household fires at night. The +fire as a rule was made in a hole in the middle of the floor, and the +smoke escaped through the roof. In an account of the manners and customs +of the English people, drawn up in 1678, the writer states that before the +Reformation, "Ordinary men's houses, as copyholders and the like, had no +chimneys, but flues like louver holes; some of them were in being when I +was a boy." In the year 1103, Henry I. modified the curfew custom. In +"Liber Albus," we find a curious picture of London life under some of the +Plantagenet kings, commencing with Edward I. It was against the city +regulations for armed persons to wander about the city after the ringing +of the curfew bell. + +We may infer from a circumstance in the closing days of William I., that +from a remote period there was a religious service at eight o'clock at +night. It will be remembered that the king died from the injuries received +by the plunging of his horse, caused by the animal treading on some hot +ashes. Shortly before his death he was roused from the stupor which +clouded his mind, by the ringing of the vesper bell of a neighbouring +church. He asked if it were in England and if it were the curfew bell that +he heard. On being told that he was in his "own Normandy," and the bell +was for evening prayer, he "charged them bid the monks pray for his soul, +and remained for a while dull and heavy." + +At Tamworth, in 1390, a bye-law was passed, and "it provided that no man, +woman, or servant should go out after the ringing of the curfew from one +place to another unless they had a light in their hands, under pain of +imprisonment." For a long period it was the signal for closing +public-houses. + + + + +The Age of Snuffing. + + +In this country old customs linger long, and although the age of snuffing +has passed away, in some quarters the piquant pinch still finds favour. +Our ancient municipal corporations have been reformed, but old usages are +still maintained and revived. In 1896 we saw an account in the newspapers +of an amusing episode which occurred during a meeting of the Pontefract +Town Council. One of the aldermen, noticing that the councillors had "to +go borrowing" snuff, suggested the re-introduction of the old Corporation +snuff-box. The official box, in the shape of an antler, was unearthed from +underneath the aldermanic bench amidst much amusement, and the Mayor +promised ere another sitting the article in question should be duly +cleaned and replenished with the stimulating powder. Sir Albert K. Rollit, +the learned and genial member of Parliament for South Islington, when +Mayor of his native town of Hull a few years ago, presented to his brother +members of the Corporation a massive and valuable snuff-box. The gift was +much appreciated. In a compilation recently published under the title of +"The Corporation Plate and Insignia of Office, &c., of the Cities and +Towns of England and Wales," will be found particulars of snuff-boxes +belonging to some of the older municipal bodies. In bygone times taking +snuff was extremely popular, its palmy days in England being during the +eighteenth century. Snuff was praised in poetry and prose. Peer and +peasant, rich and poor, the lady in her drawing-room and the humble +housewife alike enjoyed the pungent pinch. The snuff-box was to be seen +everywhere. + +The earliest allusion we have to snuffing occurs in the narrative of the +second voyage of Columbus in 1494. It is there related by Roman Pane, the +friar, who accompanied the expedition, that the aborigines of America +reduced tobacco to a powder, and drew it through a cane half a cubit long; +one end of this they placed in the nose and the other upon the powder. He +also stated that it purged them very much. + +Snuff and other forms of tobacco on their introduction had many bitter +opponents. After the Great Plague the popularity of tobacco and snuff +increased, for during the time of the terrible visitation both had been +largely used as disinfectants. There is a curious entry in Thomas Hearne's +Diary, 1720-21, bearing on this theme. He writes as follows under date of +January 21:--"I have been told that in the last great plague in London +none that kept tobacconists' shops had the plague. It is certain that +smoaking was looked upon as a most excellent preservative. In so much that +even children were obliged to smoak. And I remember that I heard formerly +Tom Rogers, who was yeoman beadle, say that when he was that year when the +plague raged a schoolboy at Eton, all the boys in the school were obliged +to smoak in the school every morning, and that he was never whipped so +much in his life as he was one morning for not smoaking." Pepys says in +his Diary on June 7, 1665:--"The hottest day that ever I felt in my life. +This day, much against my will, I did in Drury Lane see two or three +houses marked with a red cross upon the doors, and 'Lord have mercy upon +us!' writ there; which was a sad sight to me, being the first of the kind +that to my remembrance I ever saw. It put me into ill-conception of myself +and my smell, so that I was forced to buy some roll tobacco to smell and +chew, which took apprehension." Another impetus to the habit of +snuff-taking was given in 1702. Our Fleet was under the command of Sir +George Rooke, and it is recorded that at Port Saint Mary, near Cadiz, +several thousand barrels of choice Spanish snuff were captured. At Vigo on +the homeward voyage more native snuff was obtained, and found its way to +England, instead of the Spanish market, as it was originally intended. The +snuff was sold at the chief English ports for the benefit of the officers +and men. In not a few instances waggon-loads were disposed of at fourpence +per pound. It was named Vigo snuff, and the popularity of the ware, its +cheapness, and novelty were the means of its coming into general use. In +no part of the world did it become and remain more popular than in North +Britain. A volume published in London in 1702, entitled "A Short Account +of Scotland," without the author's name, but apparently by a military +officer, contains some interesting information on the social life of the +people. We gather from this work that the chief stimulant of the Scotch at +this period was snuff. "They are fond of tobacco," it is stated, "but +more from the sneesh-box [snuff-box] than the pipe. And they made it so +necessary that I have heard some of them say that, should their bread come +in competition with it, they would rather fast than their sneesh should be +taken away. Yet mostly it consists of the coarsest tobacco, dried by the +fire, and pounded in a little engine after the form of a tap, which they +carry in their pockets, and is both a mill to grind and a box to keep it +in." At social gatherings the snuff-mull was constantly passed round, and +we are told that each guest left traces of its use on the table, on his +knees, the folds of his dress, and on the floor. The preacher's voice was +impaired with excessive indulgence in snuff. + +Long before the English visitor had written his book on Scotland, attempts +had been made to prohibit snuff-taking in church. At the Kirk Session of +St. Cuthbert's, held on June 18, 1640, it was decided that every +snuff-taker in church be amerced in "twenty shillings for everie falt." +Under date of April 11, 1641, it is stated in the Kirk Session records of +Soulton as follows:--"Statute with consent of the ministers and elders, +that every one that takes snuff in tyme of Divine Service shall pay 6s. +8d., and give one public confession of his fault." At Dunfermline, the +Kirk Session had this matter under consideration, and the bellman was +directed "to tak notice of those who tak the sneising tobacco in tyme of +Divine Service, and to inform concerning them." A writer in a popular +periodical, in a chapter on "The Divine Weed," makes a mistake, we think, +presuming people smoked in church in bygone days. "At one period in the +history of tobacco," says the contributor, "smoking was so common that it +was actually practised in church." Previous to the visit of James the +First to the University of Cambridge, in 1615, the Vice-Chancellor issued +a notice to the students, which enjoined that "Noe graduate, scholler, or +student of this Universitie presume to take tobacco in Saint Marie's +Church, uppon payne of finall expellinge the Universitie." The taking of +tobacco doubtless means using it in the form of snuff and not smoking it +in a pipe. + +Later, and perhaps at the period under notice, a strong feeling prevailed +against smoking in the public streets. In the records of the Methwold +Manor, Norfolk, is an entry in the court books dated October 4, 1659, as +follows:--"Wee agree that any person that is taken smookeing tobacco in +the street, forfeit one shilling for every time so taken, and it shall be +put to the uses aforesaid (that is to the use of the towne). We present +Nicholas Barber for smoking in the street, and do amerce him one +shilling." At a parish meeting held at Winteringham, on January 6, 1685, +it was resolved:--"None shall smoke tobacco in the streets upon paine of +two shillings for every default." Schoolmasters were forbidden to smoke. +In the rules of Chigwell School, founded in 1629, only fourteen years +after the visit of James to Cambridge, it is stated:--"The master must be +a man of sound religion, neither Papist nor Puritan, of a grave behaviour, +and sober and honest conversation, no tippler, or haunter of alehouses, +and no puffer of tobacco." + +We may come to the conclusion from the facts we have furnished, that if +persons were not permitted to smoke in the street, it is quite certain +they would not be allowed to do so in the house of prayer. + +Preachers of all sections of the religious world delighted in a pinch of +snuff. Sneezing was heard in the highest and humblest churches, and it +even made St. Peter's at Rome echo. The practice so excited the ire of +Pope Innocent the Twelfth that he made an effort in 1690 to stop it in +his churches, and "solemnly excommunicated all who should dare to take +snuff." Tyerman, in his "Life of Wesley," tells us the great trouble the +famous preacher had with his early converts. "Many of them were absolutely +enslaved to snuff; some drank drams, &c., to remedy such evils, the +preachers were enjoined on no account to take snuff, or to drink drams +themselves; and were to speak to any one they saw snuffing in sermon time, +and to answer the pretence that drams cured the colic and helped +digestion." Mr. Wesley cautioned a preacher going to Ireland against +snuff, unless by order of a physician, declaring that no people were in +such blind bondage to the silly, nasty, dirty custom as were the Irish. It +is stated so far did Irishmen carry their love of snuffing, that it was +customary, when a wake was on, to put a plate full of snuff upon the dead +man's, or woman's stomach, from which each guest was expected to take a +pinch upon being introduced to the corpse. + +In the earlier days of snuff-taking, people generally ground their own +snuff by rubbing roll tobacco across a small grater, usually fixed inside +the snuff-box. We find in old-time writings many allusions to making +snuff from roll tobacco. In course of time snuff was flavoured with rich +essences, and scented snuffs found favour with the ladies. The man of +refinement prided himself on his taste for perfumed powder. We find it +stated in Fairholt's book on "Tobacco," that in the reign of William III. +the beaux carried canes with hollow heads, that they might the more +conveniently inhale a few grains through the perforations, as they +sauntered in the fashionable promenades. Women quickly followed the lead +of men in snuffing, in spite of satire in the _Spectator_ and other papers +of the period. The list of famous snuff-takers of the olden time is a long +one, and only a few can be noticed here. Queen Charlotte heads the roll. +She was persistent in the practice, and her unfilial and rude sons called +her "Old Snuff." Captain Gronow, when a boy at Eton, saw the Queen in +company with the King taking an airing on the Terrace at Windsor, and +relates "that her royal nose was covered with snuff both within and +without." Mrs. Siddons, "the queen of tragedy," largely indulged in the +use of snuff, both on and off the stage, even while taking her more +important characters. Mrs. Jordan, another "stage star," a representative +of the comic muse, obtained animation from frequent use of snuff. Mrs. +Unwin, the friend of Cowper, was extremely fond of it, and so was the +poet, yet he was not a smoker. On snuff he wrote as follows:-- + + "The pungent, nose-refreshing weed, + Which whether pulverised it gain + A speedy passage to the brain, + Or whether touched with fire it rise + In circling eddies to the skies, + Does thought more quicken and refine + Than all the breath of all the Nine." + +Pope, in "The Rape of the Lock," refers to ladies with their snuff-boxes +always handy, and the fair Belinda found hers particularly useful in the +battle she waged:-- + + "See, fierce Belinda on the baron flies + With more than usual lightning in her eyes; + And this bred lord, with manly strength endued, + She with one finger and a thumb subdued. + Just where the breath of life his nostrils drew + A charge of snuff the wily virgin threw; + The gnomes direct, to every atom just, + The pungent grains of titillating dust. + Sudden with startling tears each eye o'erflows, + And the high dome re-echoes to his nose." + +Napoleon's legacy to the famous Lady Holland was a snuff-box, and Moore +celebrated the gift in a verse written while he was in Paris in 1821:-- + + "Gift of the Hero, on his dying day, + To her who pitying watch'd, for ever nigh; + Oh, could he see the proud, the happy ray, + This relic lights up in her generous eye, + Sighing, he'd feel how easy 'tis to pay + A friendship all his kingdoms could not buy." + +Amongst ladies we have to include the charming Clarinda, a friend of +Robert Burns, on whom he wrote when obliged to leave her:-- + + "She, the fair sun of all her sex, + Has blest my glorious day, + And shall, a glimmering planet, fix + My worship to its ray." + +[Illustration: PARTAKING OF THE PUNGENT PINCH.] + +She was much addicted to the use of snuff, more especially towards the +closing years of her life, and to the last she was famous for her singular +sprightliness in conversation. Dr. Deering wrote, about the end of the +first half of the eighteenth century, a history of Nottingham, and in it +he relates how ladies, enjoying their tea, between each dish regaled their +nostrils with a pinch or two of snuff. The snuff-boxes carried by them +were usually costly, and generally elegant in form. David Garrick gave his +wife a gold snuff-box. George Barrington, the celebrated pickpocket and +author, stole from Prince Orloff a snuff-box, set with brilliants, valued +at L30,000. Barrington was transported to Botany Bay, and at the opening +of Sydney Theatre, January 16, 1796, Young's tragedy, _The Revenge_, was +performed by convicts, and a prologue from Barrington's pen contained this +passage:-- + + "From distant climes, o'er widespread seas, we come, + Though not with much _eclat_, or beat of drum; + True patriots we, for, be it understood, + We left our country for our country's good. + No private views disgraced our generous zeal, + What urged our travels was our country's weal; + And none will doubt but that our emigration + Has proved most useful to the British nation." + +In the olden time it was customary for the English Court to present to an +Ambassador on his return home a gold snuff-box, and only in late years has +this practice been discontinued. George IV. made a fraudulent display of +snuff-taking; he carried an empty box, and pretended to draw from it +pinches and apply them to his nose. The great Napoleon could not endure +smoking, but filled his waistcoat pocket with snuff, and partook of +prodigious quantities. Nelson enjoyed his snuff, and his snuff-box finds a +place among his relics at Greenwich. Literary men and dramatists figure +in imposing numbers amongst snuff-takers. Dryden enjoyed snuff, and did +not object to share the luxury with others. A favourite haunt of his was +Will's Coffee-house in Bow Street, Covent Garden, where he was met by the +chief wits of the time. In the "London Spy," by Ned Wright, it is related +that a parcel of raw, second-rate beaux and wits were conceited if they +had but the honour to dip a finger and thumb into Mr. Dryden's snuff-box. +Addison, Bolingbroke, Congreve, Swift, and Pope were snuff-takers. Dr. +Samuel Johnson carried large supplies in his waistcoat pocket, and his +friend Boswell thus praised it:-- + + "Oh snuff! our fashionable end and aim! + Strasburg, Rappee, Dutch, Scotch, + Whate'er thy name; + Powder celestial! quintescence divine! + New joys entrance my soul while thou art mine." + +Arkbuckle, another Scottish poet, author of many humorous and witty poems, +wrote in 1719 as follows:-- + + "Blest be his shade, may laurels ever bloom, + And breathing sweets exhale around his tomb, + Whose penetrating nostril taught mankind + First how by snuff to rouse the sleeping mind." + +The following lines are by Robert Leighton, a modern Scotch poet of +recognised ability:-- + + THE SNUFFIE AULD MAN. + + "By the cosie fireside, or the sun-ends o' gavels, + The snuffie auld bodie is sure to be seen; + Tap, tappin' his snuff-box, he snifters and sneevils, + And smachers the snuff frae his mou' to his een. + Since tobacco cam' in, and the snuffin' began, + The hasna been seen sic a snuffie auld man. + + His haurins are dozen'd, his een sair bedizen'd, + And red round the lids as the gills o' a fish; + His face is a' bladdit, his sark-breest a' smaddit-- + And snuffie a picture as ony could wish. + He maks a mere merter o' a' thing he does, + Wi' snuff frae his fingers an' draps frae his nose. + + And wow but his nose is a troublesome member-- + Day and nicht, there's nae end to its snuffie desire; + It's wide as the chimlie, it's red as an ember, + And has to be fed like a dry-whinnie fire, + It's a troublesome member, and gie's him nae peace, + Even sleepin' or eatin' or sayin' the grace. + + The kirk is disturbed wi' his hauchin and sneezin', + The domime stoppit when leadin' the psalm; + The minister, deav'd out o' logic and reason, + Pours gall in the lugs that are gapin' for balm. + The auld folks look surly, the young chaps jocose, + While the bodie himsel' is bambazed wi' his nose. + + He scrimps the auld wife baith in garnal and caddy; + He snuffs what wad keep her in comfort and ease; + Rapee, Lundyfitt, Prince's Mixture, and Taddy, + She looks upon them as the warst o' her faes. + And we'll ne'er see an end o' her Rooshian war + While the auld carle's nose is upheld like a Czar." + +Charles and Mary Lamb both enjoyed snuff, and doubtless felt its use +assisted them in their literary labours. Here is a picture drawn by Mary +of the pair as they were penning their "Tales from Shakespeare," sitting +together at the same table. "Like a literary Darby and Joan," she says, "I +taking snuff, and he groaning all the while, and saying he can make +nothing of it, till he has finished, when he finds he has made something +of it." Sterne was a snuff-taker, and when his wife was about to join him +in Paris in 1762, he wrote a letter in which he said:--"You will find good +tea upon the road from York to Dover; only bring a little to carry you +from Calais to Paris. Give the custom-house officer what I told you. At +Calais give more, if you have much Scotch snuff; but as tobacco is good +here, you had best bring a Scotch mull and make it yourself; that is, +order your valet to manufacture it, 'twill keep him out of mischief." In +another letter he says:--"You must be cautious about Scotch snuff; take +half a pound in your pocket, and make Lyd do the same." Sir Joshua +Reynolds is described as taking snuff profusely. It is related that he +powdered his waistcoat, let it fall in heaps upon the carpet, and even +upon his palette, and it thus became mixed with his pigments and +transferred to his pictures. Gibbon was a confirmed snuff-taker. In one of +his letters he relates how he took snuff. "I drew my snuff-box," he said, +"rapp'd it, took snuff twice, and continued my discourse, in my usual +attitude of my body bent forwards, and my forefinger stretched out." + +Offering a pinch of snuff has always been regarded as a mark of civility, +but there are some men who could not tolerate the practice. Frederick the +Great, for example, disliked others to take snuff from his box. He was +lying in the adjoining room to one where he had left his box, and his page +helped himself to a pinch from it. He was detected, and Frederick said, +"Put that box in your pocket; it is too small for both of us." George II. +liked to have his box for his own exclusive use, and when a gentleman at a +masquerade helped himself to a pinch, the King in great anger threw away +the box. + + + + +State Lotteries. + + +For more than two-and-a-half centuries state lotteries were popular in +this country. They were imported into England from the continent; prior to +being known here they were established in Italy, and most probably they +came to us from that country. + +An announcement of the first English lottery was made in 1566, and it +stated that it would consist of forty-thousand lots or shares at ten +shillings each. The prizes, many and valuable, included money, plate, and +certain sorts of merchandise. The winner of the greatest and most +excellent prize was entitled to receive "the value of five thousand +poundes sterling, that is to say, three thousande poundes in ready money, +seven hundred poundes in plate, gilte and white, and the reste in good +tapisserie meete of hangings and other covertures, and certain sortes of +good linen cloth." Tapisserie and good linen cloth figure in several of +the prizes, or to give the spelling of the announcement, prices. A large +number of small money prizes were offered, including ten thousand at +fifteen shillings each, and nine thousand four hundred and eighteen at +fourteen shillings each. + +The object of the lottery was to raise money to repair the harbours and to +carry out other useful works. Although the undertaking was for an +excellent purpose, and the prizes tempting, the sale of the tickets was +slow, and special inducements were made by Queen Elizabeth to persons +taking shares. Persons who "adventured money in this lottery" might visit +several of the more important towns in "the Realme of Englande, and Dublyn +and Waterforde in the Realm of Irelande," and there remain for seven days +without any molestation or arrest of them for any manner of offence saving +treason, murder, pyracie, or any other felonie, or for breach of her +Majesties peace during the time of her coming abiding or returne. +Doubtless these conditions would induce many to take shares. Public bodies +as well as private persons invested money in lottery tickets. Not so much +as a matter of choice as to comply with the urgent wishes of the queen and +her advisers. The public had little taste for the lottery, but the leading +people in the land were almost compelled to take shares, and the same may +be said of chief cities and towns. In the city records of Winchester for +example, under the year 1566, it is stated:--"Taken out of the Coffer the +sum of L10 towards the next drawen of the lottery." On the 30th July, +1568, is another entry as follows:--"That L3 be taken out of the Coffers +of the cytie and be put into the lottery, and so muche money as shall make +up evyn lotts with those that are contrybuting of the cytie, so that it +passed not 10s." + +The eventful day arrived after long waiting for commencing the drawing of +the lottery. The place selected for the purpose was at the west door of +St. Paul's Cathedral, London. Operations were commenced in 1569, on +January 11th, and continued day and night until May 6th. + +Some years passed before another state lottery took place. It is believed +that one noticed by Stow in his "Annales," occurring in 1585, was the +second. "A lotterie," chronicles Stow, "for marvellous, rich, and +beautiful armour was begunne to be drawne at London in S. Paules +Churchyard, at the great West gate (a house of timber and board being +there erected for that purpose) on S. Peter's Day in the morning, which +lotteries continued in drawing day and night, for the space of two or +three dayes." + +Our first two Stuart kings do not appear to have employed the lottery as a +means of raising money. James I. granted a lotterie in favour of the +colony of Virginia. The prizes consisted of pieces of plate. It was drawn +in a house built for the purpose near the West end of St. Paul's. The +drawing commenced on the 29th June, and was completed by 20th July, 1612. +It is said that a poor tailor won the first prize, viz. "foure thousand +Crownes in fayre plate," and that it was conveyed to his humble home in a +stately style. The lottery gave general satisfaction, it was plainly and +honestly conducted, and knights, esquires and leading citizens were +present to check any attempt at cheating. During the reign of Charles I., +in 1630, the earliest lottery for sums of money took place. + +The Puritans do not seem to have had any decided aversion to obtaining +money by means of the lottery. During the Commonwealth it was resorted to +for getting rid of forfeited Irish estates. + +At the restoration the real gaming spirit commenced and caused much misery +and ruin. The lottery sheet was set up in many public places, and the +Crown received a large revenue from this source. The financial arrangement +of a lottery was simple, the state offered a certain sum of money to be +repaid by a larger. We learn from Chambers's "Book of Days," that "The +government gave L10 in prizes for every share taken, on an average. A +great many blanks, or of prizes under L10 left of course, a surplus for +the creation of a few magnificent prizes wherewith to attract the unwary +public." It was customary for city firms known as lottery-office-keepers +to contract for the lottery, and they always paid more than L10 per share, +usually L16 was paid, which left the government a handsome profit. The +contractors disposed of the tickets to the public for L20 to L22 each. The +shares were frequently divided by the contractors into halves, quarters, +eights, and sixteenths, and this was done at advanced prices. It was out +of the clients for aliquot parts that the lottery-office-keepers reaped a +heavy harvest. They were men who understood the art of advertising, and +used pictures, poetry, and prose in a most effective manner. Our own +collections of lottery puffs is curious and interesting. Some very good +examples are reproduced in "A History of English Lotteries," by John +Ashton, and published by the Leadenhall Press, London, in 1893. + +[Illustration: DRAWING A LOTTERY IN THE GUILDHALL, 1751] + +It is related that one firm of lottery ticket contractors gave an old +woman fifty pounds a year to join them as a nominal partner on account of +her name being Goodluck. + +We have stated that at the commencement of lotteries they were drawn near +St. Paul's, subsequently the City Guildhall was the place, and later +Cooper's Hall, Basinghall Street, was used for this purpose. Before the +day appointed for the drawing of a lottery, public preparations had been +made for it at Somerset House. Each lottery ticket had a counterpart and a +counterfoil, and when the issue of the tickets was complete, an +announcement was made, and a day fixed for the counterparts of the tickets +to be sealed up in a box, and any ticket-holder might attend and see that +his ticket was included with others in a box, and it was placed in a +strong box and locked up with seven keys, then sealed with seven seals. +Two other boxes, locked and sealed as the one with tickets, contained the +prize tickets and blanks. These were removed with ceremony to the place of +drawing. Four prancing horses would draw, on their own sledges, the +wheels of fortune, each of which were about six feet in diameter. By their +side galloped a detachment of Horse Guards. Arrived at their destination, +the great wheels were placed at each end of a long table, where the +managers of the lottery took their seats. With care the tickets were +emptied into the wheels, and finally they were set in motion. Near each +wheel stood a boy, usually from the Blue-Coat School. Simultaneously the +lads put into the wheels their hands, each drawing a paper out. These they +hold up, and an officer, called the proclaimer, calls out in a loud voice +the number, say sixty! another responds a prize or blank, as the case may +be, and the drawing thus proceeds until it is finished, often a long and +tedious piece of work. If even a blank is first drawn, the owner of the +ticket received a prize of a thousand pounds, and a similar sum was won by +the owner of the last ticket drawn. The boys were well rewarded for their +trouble, and on the whole the lotteries appear to have been fairly +conducted. + +[Illustration: ADVERTISING THE LAST STATE LOTTERY.] + +We give a picture of a pageant-like machine, used in London to advertise +the last state lottery. The artist by whom it was drawn wrote an +entertaining letter respecting it. "As I was walking up Holborn on the +9th of October, 1826," he says, "I saw a strange vehicle moving slowly on, +and when I came up to it, found a machine, perhaps from twenty to thirty +feet high, of an octagon shape, covered all over with lottery papers of +various colours. It had a broad brass band round the bottom, and moved on +a pivot; it had a very imposing effect. The driver and the horse seemed as +dull as though they were attending a solemn funeral, whilst the different +shopkeepers came to the doors and laughed; some of the people passing and +repassing read the bills that were pasted on it, as if they had never read +one before, others stationed themselves to look at it as long as it was in +sight. It entered Monmouth Street, that den of filth and rags, where so +great a number of young urchins gathered together in a few minutes as to +be astonishing. There being an empty chair behind, one of them seated +himself in it, and rode backwards; another said, 'let's have a stone +through it,' and a third cried 'let's sludge it.' This was no sooner +proposed than they threw stones, oyster shells, and dirt, and burst +several of the sheets; this attack brought the driver from his seat, and +he was obliged to walk by the side of his machine up the foul street +which his show canvassed, halting now and then to threaten the boys who +still followed and threw. I made a sketch, and left the scene." + +Powerful protests were made in parliament against the immorality of the +lottery. It took a long time to bring those in office to a sense of their +duty. The immense profits they yielded were extremely useful for state +purposes. Mr. Parnell hit hard the men in power, and it was he who +suggested that the following epitaph be inscribed on the tomb of a +Chancellor of the Exchequer:-- + + "Here lies the + RIGHT HON. NICHOLAS VANSITTART, + once Chancellor of the Exchequer; + the parton of Bible Societies, + the builder of Churches, + a friend to the education of the poor, + an encourager of Savings' Banks, + and a supporter of Lotteries." + +On Wednesday, 18th October, 1826, the last state lottery was drawn in +England, and it will not be without interest to reproduce from a London +newspaper a report of the closing proceedings. "Yesterday afternoon," it +is recorded, "at about half past six o'clock, that old servant of the +State, the Lottery, breathed its last, having for a long period of years, +ever since the days of Queen Anne, contributed largely towards the public +revenue of the country. This event took place at Cooper's Hall, Basinghall +Street; and, such was the anxiety on the part of the public to witness the +last drawing of the lottery, that great numbers of persons were attracted +to the spot, independently of those who had an interest in the +proceedings. The gallery of the Cooper's Hall was crowded to excess long +before the period fixed for the drawing (five o'clock), and the utmost +anxiety was felt by those who had shares in the lottery, for the arrival +of the appointed hour. The annihilation of lotteries, it will be +recollected was determined upon in the session of Parliament before last; +and thus, a source of revenue bringing into the treasury the sums of +L250,000 and L300,000 per annum, will be dried up. + +This determination on the part of the legislature is hailed, by the +greatest portion of the public, with joy, as it will put an end to a +system which many believe to have fostered and encouraged the late +speculations, the effects of which have been and are still severely felt. +A deficiency in the public revenue, to the extent of L250,000 annually, +will occur, however, in the consequence of this annihilation of lotteries, +and it must remain for those who have strenuously supported the putting a +stop to lotteries, to provide for the deficiency. + +Although that which ended yesterday was the last, if we are informed +correctly, the lottery-office keepers have been left with a great number +of tickets remaining on their hands--a pretty strong proof that the +public, in general, have now no relish for these schemes." + +The drawing of the lottery commenced shortly after five o'clock, and ended +at twenty minutes past six, so it did not take long to complete the last +state lottery in England. + +Those most interested in lotteries did not let them die without trying to +prove their value to the public and the state. Bish, who conducted an +extensive business in tickets, issued an address as follows:-- + +"At the present moment, when so many of the comforts of the poorer classes +are more or less liable to taxation, it may surely be a question whether +the abolition of lotteries, by which the State was a gainer of nearly +half a million per annum, be, or be not, a wise measure! + +'Tis true that, as they were formerly conducted, the system was fraught +with some evil. Insurances were allowed upon the fate of numbers through +protracted drawings; and, as the insurances could be effected for very +small sums, those who could ill afford loss, imbibed a spirit of gambling, +which the legislature, very wisely, most effectually prevented, by +adopting, in the year 1809, the present improved mode of deciding the +whole lottery in one day. + +As the present conducted, the lottery is a voluntary tax, contributed to +only by those who can afford it, and collected without trouble or expense; +one by which many branches of the revenue are considerably aided, and by +means of which hundreds of persons find employment. The wisdom of those, +who at this time resign the income produced by it, adds to the number of +the unemployed, may, as I have observed in a former address, surely be +questioned. + +Mr. Pitt, whose ability on matters of financial arrangements few will +question, and whose morality was proverbial, would not, I am bold to say, +have yielded to the outcry against a tax, the continuing of which would +have enabled him to let the labourer drink his humble beverage at a +reduced price, or the industrious artisan to pursue his occupation by a +cheaper light. But we live in other times--in the age of improvement! To +stake patrimonal estates at hazard or _ecarte_, in the purlieus of St. +James's, is merely amusement, but to purchase a ticket in the lottery, by +which a man may gain an estate at a trifling risk, is--immoral! Nay, +within a few hours of the time I write, were not many of our nobility and +senators, some of whom, I dare say, voted against lotteries, assembled, +betting thousands upon a horse race? + +In saying so much, it may be thought that I am somewhat presumptuous, or +that I take a partial view of the case. It is, however, my honest opinion, +abstracted from personal considerations, that the measure of abolishing +lotteries is an unwise one, and, as such, I give it to that public, of +which I have been, for many years, the highly favoured servant, and for +whose patronage, though lotteries cease, my gratitude will ever continue." + +We will close our studies on this subject with a copy of an epitaph +written in remembrance of these old-time institutions. It is as +follows:-- + + In Memory of + THE STATE LOTTERY, + the last of a long line + whose origin in England commenced + in the year 1569, + which, after a series of tedious complaints, + _Expired_ + on the + 18th day of October, 1826. + During a period of 257 years, the family + flourished under the powerful protection + of the + British Parliament; + the Minister of the day continuing to + give them his support for the improvement + of the revenue. + As they increased, it was found that their + continuance corrupted the morals + and encouraged a spirit + of Speculation and Gambling among the lower + classes of the people; + thousands of whom fell victims to their + insinuating and tempting allurements. + Many philanthropic individuals + in the Senate, + at various times for a series of years, + pointed out their baneful influence + without effect, + His Majesty's Ministers + still affording them their countenance + and protection. + The British Parliament + being, at length, convinced of their + mischievous tendency, + His Majesty, GEORGE IV., + on the 9th July, 1823, + pronounced sentence of condemnation + on the whole of the race; + from which time they were almost + NEGLECTED BY THE BRITISH PUBLIC. + Very great efforts were made by the + Partizans and friends of the family to + excite + the public feeling in favour of the last + of the race, in vain: + It continued to linger out the few + remaining + moments of its existence without attention + or sympathy, and finally terminated + its career, unregretted by any + virtuous mind. + + + + +Bear-Baiting. + + +Few sports in England have been more popular than bear-baiting. Other +forms of amusement waned before its attractions. The Sovereign, in the +days of old, had as a member of his Court a Bearward, as well as a +Chancellor. In and about London the sport was largely patronised, but it +was by no means confined to the Metropolis; in all parts of the country +bear-baitings were held. Fitzstephen, a monk of Canterbury, who lived in +the reign of Henry II., in his description of London, relates that in the +forenoon of every holy day during the winter season, the youthful +Londoners were amused with the baiting of bears and other animals. He says +the bears were full grown. + +Edward III., in his proclamation, includes bear-baiting amongst +"dishonest, trivial, and useless games." The proclamation does not appear +to have had any lasting effect on the public as regards bear-baiting. The +diversion increased in popularity. + +Southwark was a popular place for baiting animals, and Sunday the usual +day for the amusement. Stow has several notes bearing on this theme. In +respect to charges to witness the sport, he tells us "those who go to the +Paris Garden, the Belle Sauvage, the Theatre, to behold bear-baiting, +interludes, or fence-play, must not account (_i.e._, reckon on) any +pleasant spectacle unless they first pay one penny at the gate, another at +the entrie of the scaffold, and a third for quiet standing." We learn from +Stow that at Southwark were two bear-gardens, the old and the new; places +wherein were kept bears, bulls, and other beasts to be baited; as also +mastiffs in their several kennels were there nourished to bait them. These +bears and other beasts were baited in plots of ground scaffolded round for +the beholders to stand safe. Stow condemns the foulness of these rude +sights, and says the money idly thrown away upon them might have been +given to the poor. + +In the reign of Henry VIII., Erasmus visited England, and he relates that +many herds of bears were maintained at the Court for the purpose of being +baited. We are further told by him that the rich nobles had their +bearwards, and the Royal establishment its Master of the King's Bears. + +[Illustration: BEAR GARDEN, OR HOPE THEATRE. 1647.] + +Men were not wanting to raise their voices against this brutal sport even +at the time kings favoured it. Towards the close of the reign of Henry +VIII., Crowley wrote some lines, which we have modernised, as follows:-- + + "What folly is this to keep with danger + A great mastiff dog, and foul, ugly bear, + And to this intent to see these two fight + With terrible tearing, a full ugly sight. + And methinks these men are most fools of all + Whose store of money is but very small, + And yet every Sunday they will surely spend + A penny or two, the bear-ward's living to mend. + At Paris Garden, each Sunday, a man shall not fail + To find two or three hundred for the bear-ward's vale; + One halfpenny a piece they use for to give + When some have not more in their purses, I believe. + Well, at the last day their conscience will declare + That the poor ought to have all that they may spare, + If you therefore go to witness a bear fight + Be sure that God His curse will upon you alight." + +We may recognise the zeal of the writer, but we cannot commend the merits +of his poetry. + +When Princess Elizabeth was confined at Hatfield House, she was visited by +her sister, Queen Mary. On the morning after her arrival, after mass was +over, a grand entertainment of bear-baiting took place, much to their +enjoyment. + +Elizabeth, as a princess, took a delight in this sport, and when she +occupied the throne she gave it her support. When the theatre, in the +palmy days of Shakespeare and Burbage, was attracting a larger share of +public patronage than the bear garden, she waxed indignant, and in 1591 an +order was issued from the Privy Council, forbidding "plays to be performed +on Thursdays because bear-baiting and such pastimes had usually been +practised." The Lord Mayor followed the order with an injunction in which +it was stated "that in divers places the players are not to recite +their plays to the great hurt and destruction of the game of bear-baiting +and suchlike pastimes, which are maintained for Her Majesty's pleasure." + +[Illustration: THE GLOBE THEATRE. TEMP. ELIZABETH.] + +During the famous visit in 1575, of Queen Elizabeth to the Earl of +Leicester, at Kenilworth Castle, baiting thirteen bears by ban dogs (a +small kind of mastiff), was one of the entertainments provided for the +royal guest. + +History furnishes several instances of the Queen having animals baited for +the diversion of Ambassadors. On May 25, 1559, the French Ambassadors +dined with the Queen, and after dinner bulls and bears were baited by +English dogs. She and her guests stood looking at the pastime until six +o'clock. Next day the visitors went by water to the Paris Garden, where +similar sports were held. In 1586, the Danish Ambassadors were received at +Greenwich by Her Majesty, and bull and bear baiting were part of the +amusements provided. Towards the close of her reign, the Queen entertained +another set of Ambassadors with a bear-bait at the Cockpit near St. +James's. Baiting animals appears to have been the chief form of amusement +provided by the Queen for foreign visitors. + +Edmund Alleyn, founder of Dulwich College, was for a long time part owner +of the bear gardens at Southwark. Mr. Edward Walford thinks that he was +obliged to become a proprietor to make good his position as a player, and +to carry out his theatrical designs. He had to purchase the patent office +of "Beare ward," or "Master of the King's Beares." Alleyn is reputed to +have had a well stocked garden. On one occasion, when Queen Elizabeth +wanted a grand display of bear-baiting, Sir John Dorrington, the chief +master of Her Majesty's "Games of Bulls and Bears," applied and obtained +animals from Alleyn. + +The following advertisement written in a large hand was found amongst the +Alleyn papers, and is supposed to be the original placard exhibited at the +entrance of the bear-garden. It is believed to date back to the days of +James I.:-- + + "Tomorrowe being Thursdaie shalbe seen at the Bear-gardin on the + banckside a greate mach plaid by the gamsters of Essex, who hath + chalenged all comers whatsoever to plaie v dogs at the single beare + for v pounds, and also to wearie a bull dead at the stake; and for + your better content shall have plasent sport with the horse and ape + and whiping of the blind beare. Vivat Rex!" + +The public had to be protected from the dogs employed in this sport. +From the "Archives of Winchester," published 1856, a work compiled from +the city records, we find it stated.--"By an Ordinance of the 4th of +August, in the twenty-eighth year of the reign of Elizabeth, bull-dogs +were prohibited roving throughout the city unmuzzled. Itm.--That noe +person within this citie shall suffer or permit any of theire Mastife +Doggs to goe unmusselled, uppon paine of everie defalte herein of 3s. 4d. +to be levied by distresse, to the use of the Poore people of the citie." + +[Illustration: PLAN OF BANKSIDE EARLY IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.] + +James I. was a lover of hunting and other sports, and gave his patronage +to bear-baiting. We learn from Nichols' "Progresses and Processions," that +the King commanded that a bear which had killed a child which had +negligently been left in the bear-house of the Tower, be baited to death +upon a stage. The order was carried out in presence of a large gathering +of spectators. + +In a letter written on July 12th, 1623, by Mr. Chamberlain to Sir Dudley +Carleton, the following passage occurs:--"The Spanish Ambassador is much +delighted in bear-baiting. He was last week at Paris Garden, where they +showed him all the pleasure they could both with bull, bear, and horse, +besides jackanapes, and then turned a white bear into the Thames, where +the dogs baited him swimming, which was the best sport of all." + +Mr. William Kelly, in his work entitled "Notices Illustrative of the Drama +and other Popular Amusements, Chiefly in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth +Centuries," has some very curious information relating to bear-baiting. +The Leicester town accounts contain entries of many payments given to the +bear-wards of Edward VI., Queen Elizabeth, and members of the nobility. +Leicester had its bear-garden, but we learn from Mr. Kelly that the local +authorities were not content to see the sport there, "as it was introduced +at the Mayor's feast, at the Town Hall, which was attended by many of the +nobility and gentry of the neighbourhood." We may suppose that, taking the +place usually occupied by the "interlude," the bear was baited in the Hall +in the interval between the feast and the "banquet" or dessert, and the +company, like the Spanish Ambassador, no doubt witnessed the exhibition +"with great delight." Much might be said relating to Leicester, but we +must be content with drawing upon Mr. Kelly for one more item. "In the +summer of 1589 (probably at the invitation of the Mayor), the High +Sheriff, Mr. Skeffington, and 'divers other gentlemen with him,' were +present at 'a great beare-beating' in the town, and were entertained, at +the public expense, with wine and sugar, and a present of 'ten shillings +in gold' was also made." + +A couplet concerning Congleton Church Bible being sold to purchase a bear +to bait at the annual feast, has made the town known in all parts of the +country. The popular rhyme says:-- + + "Congleton rare, Congleton rare, + Sold the Bible to pay for a bear." + +The scandal has been related in prose and poetry by many pens. Natives of +the ancient borough are known as "Congleton Bears"--by no means a pleasant +epithet. The inhabitants make the best of the story, and tell how just +before the wakes their only bear died, and it was feared that they would +be unable to obtain another to enjoy their popular sport. The bear-ward +was most diligent in collecting money to buy another animal, but after all +his exertions he failed to obtain the required amount. He at last made +application to the local authorities, and as they had a small sum in the +"towne's boxe" put aside for the purchase of a Bible for the chapel, it +was lent, and it is presumed that the sum of 16s. was duly returned, and +the scriptures were obtained. + +Egerton Leigh, in his "Cheshire Ballads," has an amusing poem bearing on +this subject, and he concludes it as follows:-- + + "The townsmen, 'tis true, would explain it away, + In those days when Bibles were so dear they say, + That they th' old Bible swopped at the wakes for a bear, + Having first bought a new book. + Thus shrink they the sneer, + And taunts 'gainst their town thus endeavour to clear." + +The town accounts show how popular must have been the sport at Congleton. +The following are a few items:-- + + 1589. Imprimis to Mr. Trafforde, his man, the bearewarde 0 4 4 + + That was given Sir John Hollecrofts bearewarde 0 2 0 + + 1591. Payd yt was given Shelmerdyne ye bearewarde at wakes 0 2 0 + + 1597. Payd that was given to Mr. Haughton, of Haughton, + towards his man that had beares here 0 5 0 + + 1610. Kelsall bearward 0 5 0 + + To the players and bearewarde at the wakes 0 15 0 + + 1611. Bullward and bearward at wakes 0 15 0 + + 1612. William Hardern to fetch Shelmadene again with his + bears at Whitsuntide 0 1 3 + + He refused to come, and Bramt, the bearward, came + and was paid 0 6 8 + + Fetching the bears at the wakes 0 3 6 + + Fetching two more bears 1s., bearward 15s. 0 16 0 + + 1613. Item payd to Willm. Statborne for fetching the + bearewarde (from Knutsford) at the wakes 0 1 0 + + 1621. Given Raufe Shelmerdyne for sport made by him with + his beares at Congleton Wakes 0 10 0 + + Item paide to Brocke, the bearewarde, at Whitsuntide 0 5 8 + +Such are a few examples of the many entries which appear in the Congleton +town accounts relating to bear-baiting. + +Congleton is not the only place reproached for selling the church Bible +for enabling the inhabitants to enjoy the pastime of bear-baiting. Two +miles distant from Rugby is the village of Clifton, and, says a couplet, + + "Clifton-upon-Dunsmore, in Warwickshire, + Sold the church Bible to buy a bear." + +Another version of the old rhyme is as follows:-- + + "The People of Clifton-super-Dunsmore + Sold ye Church Byble to buy a bayre." + +There is a tradition that in the days of old the Bible was removed from +the Parish Church of Ecclesfield and pawned by the churchwardens to +provide the means of a bear-baiting. Some accounts state this occurred at +Bradfield, and not at Ecclesfield. The "bull-and-bear stake" at the latter +Yorkshire village was near the churchyard. + +Under the Commonwealth this pastime was not permitted, but when the +Stuarts were once more on the throne bear-baiting and other sports became +popular. + +Hockley-in-the-Hole, near Clerkenwell, in the days of Addison, was a +favourite place for the amusement. There is a reference to the subject in +the _Spectator_ of August 11th, 1731, wherein it is suggested that those +who go to the theatres for a laugh should "seek their diversion at the +bear garden, where reason and good manners have no right to disturb them." + +Gay, in his "Trivia," devotes some lines to this subject. He says:-- + + "Experienced men inured to city ways + Need not the calendar to count their days, + When through the town, with slow and solemn air, + Led by the nostril walks the muzzled bear; + Behind him moves, majestically dull, + The pride of Hockley Hole, the surly bull, + Learn hence the periods of the week to name-- + Mondays and Thursdays are the days of game." + +Towards the close of the last century the pastime, once the pleasure of +king's and queens and the highest nobles in the land, was mainly upheld by +the working classes. A bill, in 1802, was introduced into the House of +Commons to abolish baiting animals. The measure received the support of +Courtenay, Sheridan, and Wilberforce, men of power in Parliament, but Mr. +Windham, who led the opposition, won the day. He pronounced it "as the +first result of a conspiracy of the Jacobins and Methodists to render the +people grave and serious, preparatory to obtaining their assistance in the +furtherance of other anti-national schemes." The bill was lost by thirteen +votes. In 1835, baiting animals was finally stopped by Act of Parliament. + + + + +Morris-Dancers. + + +Says Dr. Johnson: "the Morris-Dance, in which bells are jingled, or staves +or swords clashed, was learned by the Moors, and was probably a kind of +Pyrrhic, or military dance. "Morisco," says Blount (Span.), a Moor; also a +dance, so called, wherein there were usually five men, and a boy dressed +in a girl's habit, whom they called the Maid Marrion, or perhaps Morian, +from the Italian Morione, a head-piece, because her head was wont to be +gaily trimmed up. Common people called it a Morris-Dance." Such are the +statements made at the commencement of a chapter on this subject in +"Brand's Popular Antiquities." + +It is generally agreed that the Morris-Dance was introduced into this +country in the sixteenth century. In the earlier English allusions it is +called _Morisco_, a Moor, and this indicates its origin from Spain. It was +popular in France before it was appreciated amongst our countrymen; some +antiquaries assert that it came to England from our Gallic neighbours, or +even from the Flemings, while others state that when John of Gaunt +returned from Spain he was the means of making it known here, but we think +there is little truth in the statement. + +Our countrymen soon united the Morris-Dance with the favourite pageant +dance of Robin-hood. We discover many traces of the two dances in sacred +as well as profane places. In old churchwarden's accounts we sometimes +find items bearing on this theme. The following entries are drawn from the +"Churchwardens' and Chamberlains' Books of Kingston-upon-Thames:"-- + + "1508. For paynting of the _Mores_ garments for + sarten gret leveres 0 2 4 + + " For plyts and 1/4 of laun for the _Mores_ + garments 0 2 11 + + " For Orseden for the same 0 0 10 + + " For bellys for the daunsars 0 0 12 + + 1509-10. For silver paper for the _Mores_-dawnsars 0 0 7 + + 1519-20. Shoes for the _Mores_-daunsars, the frere, + and Mayde Maryan, at 7d. a peyre 0 5 4 + + 1521-22. Eight yerds of fustyan for the + _Mores_-daunsars' coats 0 16 0 + + " A dosyn of gold skynnes for the Morres 0 0 10 + + 1536-37. Five hats and 4 porses for the daunsars 0 0 4-1/2." + +It is stated that in 1536-37, amongst other clothes belonging to the play +of Robin Hood, left in the keeping of the churchwardens, were "a fryer's +coat of russet, with a kyrtle of worsted welted with red cloth, a mowren's +cote of buckram, and 4 Morres daunsars cote of white fustain spangelyed, +and two gryne saten cotes, and a dysardd's cote of cotton, and 6 payre of +garters with bells." + +Some curious payments appear in the churchwardens' accounts of St. Mary's +parish, Reading, and are quoted by Coates, the historian of the town. +Under the year 1557, items as follow appear:-- + + "Item, payed to the Morrys-Daunsars and the + Mynstrelles, mete and drink at Whitsontide 0 3 4 + + Payed to them the Sonday after May Day 0 0 20 + + Pd. to the Painter for painting of their cotes 0 2 8 + + Pd. to the Painter for 2 doz. of Lyvereys 0 0 20." + +The following is a curious note drawn from the original accounts of St. +Giles', Cripplegate, London:-- + + "1571. Item, paide in charges by the appointment of the parisshoners, + for the settinge forth of a gyaunt morris-dainsers, with vj calyvers + and iij boies on horseback, to go in the watche befoore the Lade + Maiore uppon Midsomer even, as may appeare by particulars for the + furnishinge of same, vj. li. ixs. ixd." + +[Illustration: MORRIS DANCE, FROM A PAINTED WINDOW AT BETLEY.] + +We learn from the churchwardens' accounts of Great Marlow that dresses for +the Morris-dance were lent out to the neighbouring parishes down to 1629. +Some interesting pictures illustrating the usages of bygone ages include +the Morris-dance, and gives us a good idea of the costumes of those taking +part in it. A painted window at Betley, Staffordshire, has frequently +formed the subject of an illustration, and we give one of it. + +Here is shown in a spirited style a set of Morris-dancers. It is described +in Steven's "Shakespeare" (_Henry IV._, Part I.) There are eleven pictures +and a Maypole. The characters are as follow:--1, Robin Hood; 2, Maid +Marion; 3, Friar Tuck; 4, 6, 7, 10, and 11, Morris-dancers; 5, the +hobby-horse; 8, the Maypole; 9, the piper; and 12, the fool. Figures 10 +and 11 have long streamers to the sleeves, and all the dancers have bells, +either at the ankles, wrists, or knees. Tollett, the owner of the window, +believed it dated back to the time of Henry VIII., _c._ 1535. Douce thinks +it belongs to the reign of Edward IV., and other authorities share his +opinion. It is thought that the figures of the English friar, Maypole, and +hobby-horse have been added at a later period. + +Towards the close of the reign of James I., Vickenboom painted a picture, +Richmond Palace, and in it a company of Morris-dancers form an attractive +feature. The original painting includes seven figures, consisting of a +fool, hobby-horse, piper, Maid Marion, and three dancers. We give an +illustration of the first four characters and one of the dancers, from a +drawing by Douce, produced from a tracing made by Grose. The bells on the +dancer and the fool are clearly shown. + +We also present a picture of a Whitsun Morris-dance. In the olden time, at +Whitsuntide, this diversion was extremely popular. + +Many allusions to the Morris-dancers occur in the writings of Elizabethan +authors. Shakespeare, for example, in Henry V., refers to it thus:-- + + "And let us doit with no show of fear; + No! with no more than if we heard that England + Were busied with a Whitsun Morris-dance." + +In _All's Well that Ends Well_, he speaks of the fitness of a +"Morris-dance for May-day." We might cull many quotations from the poets, +but we will only make one more and it is from Herrick's "Hesperides," +describing the blessings of the country:-- + + "Thy _Wakes_, thy Quintals, here thou hast + Thy maypoles, too, with garlands grac'd + Thy _Morris-dance_, thy Whitsun-ale; + Thy shearing flat, which never fail." + +In later times the Morris-dance was frequently introduced on the stage. + +[Illustration: MORRIS DANCERS, TEMP. JAMES I. (_From a Painting by +Vickenboom._)] + +As might be expected, the Puritans strongly condemned this form of +pleasure. Richard Baxter, in his "Divine Appointment of the Lord's Day," +gives us a vivid picture of Sunday in a pleasure-loving time. "I have +lived in my youth," says Baxter, "in many places where sometimes shows of +uncouth spectacles have been their sports at certain seasons of the year, +and sometimes _morrice-dancings_, and sometimes stage plays and sometimes +wakes and revels.... And when the people by the book [of Sports] were +allowed to play and dance out of public service-time, they could hardly +break off their sports that many a time the reader was fain to stay till +the piper and players would give over; and sometimes the _morrice-dancers_ +would come into the church in all their linen, and scarfs, and antic +dresses, with morrice-bells jingling at their legs. And as soon as common +prayer was read did haste out presently to their play again." Stubbes, +in his "Anatomie of Abuses" (1585), writes in a similar strain. + +[Illustration: A WHITSUN MORRIS DANCE.] + +The pleasure-loving Stuarts encouraged Sunday sports, and James I., in his +Declaration of May 24th 1618, directed that the people should not be +debarred from having May-games, Whitsun-ales, and Morris-dances, and the +setting up of May poles. + +During the Commonwealth, dancing round the Maypole and many other popular +amusements were stopped, but no sooner had Charles II. come to the throne +of the country than the old sports were revived. For a fuller account of +this subject the reader would do well to consult Brand's "Popular +Antiquities," and the late Alfred Burton's book on "Rush-Bearing," from +both works we have derived information for this chapter. + + + + +The Folk-Lore of Midsummer Eve. + + +The old superstitions and customs of Midsummer Eve form a curious chapter +in English folk-lore. Formerly this was a period when the imagination ran +riot. On Midsummer Day the Church holds its festival in commemoration of +the birth of St. John the Baptist, and some of the old customs relate to +this saint. + +On the eve of Midsummer Day it was a common practice to light bonfires. +This custom, which is a remnant of the old Pagan fire-worship, prevailed +in various parts of the country, but perhaps lingered the longest in +Cornwall. We gather from Borlase's "Antiquities of Cornwall," published in +1754, that at the Midsummer bonfires, the Cornish people attended with +lighted torches, tarred and pitched at the end, and made their +perambulations round the fires, afterwards going from village to village +carrying their torches before them. He regarded the usage as a survival of +Druidical superstitions. In the same county it was a practice on St. +Stephen's Down, near Launceston, to erect a tall pole with a bush fixed +at the top of it, and round the pole to heap fuel. After the fire was lit, +parties of wrestlers contested for prizes specially provided for the +festival. According to an old tradition, an evil spirit once appeared in +the form of a black dog, and since that time the wrestlers have never been +able to meet on Midsummer Eve without being seriously injured in the +sport. + +About Penzance, not only did the fisher-folk and their friends dance about +the blazing fire, but sang songs composed for the joyous time. We give a +couple of verses from one of these songs:-- + + "As I walked out to yonder green + One evening so fair, + All where the fair maids may be seen, + Playing at the bonfire. + + Where larks and linnets sing so sweet, + To cheer each lively swain, + Let each prove true unto her lover, + And so farewell the plain." + +Mr. William Bottrell, one of the most painstaking writers on Cornish +folk-lore, in an article written in 1873, asserts that not a few old +people living in remote and primitive districts, "believe that dancing in +a ring over the embers, around a bonfire, or leaping (singly) through its +flames, is calculated to insure good luck to the performers, and serve as +a protection from witchcraft and other malign influences during the +ensuing year." Mr. Bottrell laments the decay of these pleasing old +Midsummer observances. He tells us that within "the memory of many who +would not like to be called old, or even aged, on a Midsummer's eve, long +before sunset, groups of girls--both gentle and simple--of from ten to +twenty years of age, neatly dressed and decked with garlands, wreaths, or +chaplets of flowers, would be seen dancing in the streets." + +Some of the ancient Midsummer rites are still observed in Ireland. We have +from an eyewitness some interesting items on the subject. People assemble +and dance round fires, the children jump through the flames, and in former +times coals were carried into corn fields to prevent blight. The peasants +are not, of course, aware that the ceremony is a remnant of the worship of +Baal. It is the opinion of not a few that the famous round towers of +Ireland were intended for signal fires in connection with this worship. + +In the pleasant pages of T. Crofton Croker's "Researches in the South of +Ireland," are particulars of a custom, observed on the eve of St. John's +Day, of dressing up a broomstick as a figure, and carrying it about in the +twilight from one cabin to the other, and suddenly pushing it in at the +door, a proceeding which causes both surprise and merriment. The figure is +known as Bredogue. + +The superstitious inhabitants of the Isle of Man formerly, on Midsummer +Eve, lighted fires to the windward side of fields, so that the smoke might +pass over the corn. The cattle were folded, and around the animals was +carried blazing grass or furze, as a preventative against the influence of +witches. Many other strange practices and beliefs prevailed. + +In Wales, in the earlier years of the present century, it was customary to +fix sprigs of the plant called St. John's wort over the doors of the +cottages, and sometimes over the windows, in order to purify the houses +and drive away all fiends and evil spirits. It was the common custom in +England in the olden time for people to repair to the woods, break +branches from the trees, and carry them to their homes with much delight, +and place them over their doors. The ceremony, it is said, was to make +good the Scripture prophecy respecting the Baptist, that many should +rejoice at his birth. + +Midsummer Eve has ever been famous as a time suitable for love +divinations, and surely a few notes on love-lore cannot fail to find +favour with our fair readers. In a popular story issued at the +commencement of this century, from the polished pen of Hannah More, the +heroine of the tale says that she would never go to bed on this night +without first sticking up in her room the common plant called "Orpine," +or, more generally, "Midsummer Men," as the bending of the leaves to the +right or the left indicate to her if her lover was true or false. The +following charming lines refer to the ceremony, and are translated from +the German poet, and given in Chambers's "Book of Days," so we may infer +that the same superstition prevails in that country:-- + + "The young maid stole through the cottage door, + And blushed as she sought the plant of power: + 'Thou silver glow-worm, oh, lend me thy light, + I must gather the mystic St. John's wort to-night-- + The wonderful herb, whose leaf will decide + If the coming year shall make me a bride.' + And the glow-worm came + With its silvery flame, + And sparkled and shone + Through the night of St. John. + + "And soon as the young maid her love-knot tied, + With noiseless tread, + To her chamber she sped, + Where the sceptral moon her white beams shed: + 'Bloom here, bloom here, thou plant of power, + To deck the young bride in her bridal hour!' + But it droop'd its head, that plant of power, + And died the mute death of the voiceless flower; + And a wither'd wreath on the ground it lay, + More meet for a burial than a bridal day. + And when a year was passed away, + All pale on her bier the young maid lay; + And the glow-worm came + With its silvery flame, + And sparkled and shone + Through the night of St. John, + And they closed the cold grave o'er the maid's cold clay." + +We gather from Thorpe's "Northern Mythology," that in Sweden it was the +practice to place under the head of a youth or maiden nine kinds of +flowers, with a full belief that they would dream of their sweethearts. + +In England, in past times, the moss-rose was plucked with considerable +ceremony on this eve for love divinations. Says the writer of a poem +entitled "The Cottage Girl":-- + + "The moss-rose that, at fall of dew, + Ere eve its duskier curtain drew, + Was freshly gathered from its stem, + She values as the ruby gem; + And, guarded from the piercing air, + With all an anxious lover's care, + She bids it, for her shepherd's sake, + Await the New Year's frolic wake: + When faded in its altered hue, + She reads--the rustic is untrue! + But if its leaves the crimson paint, + Her sick'ning hopes no longer faint; + The rose upon her bosom worn, + She meets him at the peep of morn, + And lo! her lips with kisses prest, + He plucks it from her panting breast." + +"On the continent," says Dyer, in his "Folk-Lore of Plants," "the rose is +still thought to possess mystic virtues in love matters, as in Thuringia, +where the girls foretell their future by means of rose leaves." It appears +from a contributor to Chambers's "Book of Days," that there was brought +some time ago under the notice of the Society of Antiquarians a curious +little ring, which had been found in a ploughed field near Cawood, +Yorkshire. It was inferred from its style and inscription to belong to the +fifteenth century. The device consisted of two orpine plants joined by a +true-love knot, with this motto above: _Ma fiancee velt_, _i.e._, "My +sweetheart is willing or desirous." We are told that the stalks of the +plants were bent to each other, in token that the parties represented by +them were to come together in marriage. The motto under the ring was _Joye +l'amour feu_. It is supposed that it was originally made for some lover to +give to his mistress on Midsummer Eve, as the orpine plant is connected +with that time. The dumb cake is another item of Midsummer folk-lore:-- + + "Two make it, + Two bake it, + Two break it;" + +a third put it under their pillows, and this was all done without a word +being spoken. If this was faithfully carried out it was believed that the +diviners would dream of the men they loved. + +Sowing hempseed on this eve was once a general custom. We have noted +particulars of the ceremony as carried out at Ashbourne, Derbyshire. At +this village, when a young maiden wished to discover who would be her +future husband, she repaired to the churchyard, and as the clock struck +the witching hour of midnight, she commenced running round the church, +continually repeating the following lines:-- + + "I sow hempseed, hempseed I sow; + He that loves me best + Come after me and mow." + +After going round the church a dozen times without stopping, her lover was +said to appear and follow her. The closing scene of this spell is well +described in a poem by W. T. Moncrieff:-- + + "Ah! a step. Some one follows. Oh, dare I look back? + Should the omen be adverse, how would my heart writhe. + Love, brace up my sinews! Who treads on my track? + 'Tis he, 'tis the loved one; he comes with the scythe, + He mows what I've sown; bound, my heart, and be blithe. + On Midsummer Eve the glad omen is won, + Then hail to thy mystical virgil, St. John." + +From the charms of love let us briefly turn to a superstition relating to +death. At one time it was believed, and in some country districts the +superstition may yet linger, that anyone fasting during the evening, and +then sitting at midnight in the church porch, would see the spirits of +those destined to die that year come and knock at the church door. The +ghosts were supposed to come in the same succession as the persons were +doomed to pass away. + +A pleasing old custom long survived in Craven, Yorkshire, and other parts +of the North of England, of new settlers in the town or village, on the +first Midsummer Eve after their arrival, to set out before their doors a +plentiful repast of cold beef, bread, cheese, and ale. We are told that +neighbours who wished to cultivate their acquaintance sat down and partook +of their hospitality, and thus "eat and drunk themselves into intimacy." +Hone's "Every Day Book" has a note of this custom being observed at Ripon. +"It was a popular superstition," wrote Grose, "that if any unmarried woman +fasted on Midsummer Eve, and at midnight laid a clean cloth with bread, +cheese, and ale, and then sat down as if going to eat, the street door +being left open, the person whom she was afterwards to marry would come +into the room and drink to her, bowing; and after filling a glass would +leave the table, and, making another bow, retire." + + + + +Harvest Home. + + +Among the old-world customs connected with the times and seasons, that of +celebrating the ingathering of the harvest with a rustic festival has +survived many which have either passed away, and almost out of memory, or +have come to have only a partial and precarious hold upon the minds of the +present generation. The rush-cart maintains a feeble struggle for +existence in a few northern localities, but each year shows diminished +vigour; the May-day festival of the chimney-sweepers has become obsolete, +and the dance round the May-pole an open-air ballet; and many old +observances connected with the Christmas season which were formerly common +to all England are now kept up only in these northern counties, where the +flavour of antiquity seems to be much more highly appreciated than in the +south. But the harvest home festival holds its ground with equal +persistency in both portions of the kingdom, and has of late years been +invested with additional glories, sometimes with a superabundance of them +which threatens a reaction. There were some features of the older +celebrations of the ingathering of the fruits of the earth, however, +which, from various causes, have fallen into disuse, and which many of us +would gladly, if it were possible, see restored. + +We could welcome, for instance, the songs into which the joyous feelings +of the harvesters broke forth in the old times as the last load of grain +was carried off the field, and when the lads and lasses, with the older +rustics, had partaken of a good supper in the farmer's kitchen, and +afterwards danced to the music of the fiddle or pipes in the barn. There +are many references to the feasting and singing and dancing customs of +this season in the poetry of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. +Tusser tells us that:-- + + "In harvest time, harvest folk, servants and all, + Should make all together, good cheer in the hall, + And fill the black bowl, so blithe to their song, + And let them be merry, all harvest time long." + +Peele, in his "Old Wives' Tales," makes his harvesters sing:-- + + "Lo, here we come a-reaping, a-reaping, + To reap our harvest fruit; + And thus we pass the year so long, + And never be we mute." + +Stevenson, in his "Twelve Months," says, "In August the furmety pot +welcomes home the harvest cart, and the garland of flowers crowns the +captain of the reapers. The battle of the field is now stoutly fought. The +pipe and the tabor are now busily set a-work, and the lad and the lass +will have no lead in their heels. Oh, 'tis a merry time, wherein honest +neighbours make good cheer, and God is glorified in his blessings on the +earth." Tusser's verse reminds us of another feature of these old +celebrations of which little trace remains at the present day, that is, +the temporary suspension of all social inequality between employer and +employed. There would be less reason to regret this change, however, if, +in place of the temporary obliviousness of class distinctions, we could +see more genial intercourse all through the year. + +The clergy seem to have been less in evidence at the harvest rejoicings of +those days than at present. There was a tithe question even two centuries +ago, for Dryden, in his _King Arthur_, makes his festive rustics sing:-- + + "We've cheated the parson, we'll cheat him again, + For why should the blockhead have one in ten? + One in ten! one in ten! + For staying while dinner is cold and hot, + And pudding and dumpling are burnt to the pot! + Burnt to pot! burnt to pot! + We'll drink off our liquor while we can stand. + And hey for the honour of England! + Old England! Old England!" + +There is some comfort for the loss of the singing and dancing customs of +the old times in that the fact the heavy drinking of the period has also +become a thing of the past, and perhaps also in the reflections arising +from the misuse of music of which some curious illustrations have been +preserved by Mr. Surtees. The historian mentions, in his "History of +Durham," having read a report of the trial of one Spearman, for having +made a forcible entry into a field at Birtley, and mowed and carried away +the crop, a piper playing on the top of the loaded waggon for the purpose +of making the predatory harvesters work the faster, so as to get away +before their roguish industry could be interrupted. It may be noted in +passing that a similar use of music is shown in the following entry in the +parish accounts of Gateshead, under the date of 1633:--"To workmen for +making the streets even at the King's coming, 18s. 4d.: and paid to the +piper for playing to the menders of the highway, five several days, 3s. +4d." + +Many local variations exist in the customs associated with the harvest +home festivities observed in different parts of the country, especially in +the north, where all old customs and observances, like the provincial +dialects, have lingered longest, and still linger when they have died out +and been forgotten in the south. In Cleveland, it is, or used to be, the +custom, on forking the last sheaf on the wagon, for the harvesters to +shout in chorus:-- + + "Weel bun and better shorn, + Is Master ----'s corn; + We hev her, we hev her, + As fast as a feather. + Hip, hip, hurrah!" + +A similar custom exists in Northumberland, where it is called "shouting a +kirn." It consists in a simultaneous shout from the whole of the people +present. In some localities the shout is preceded by a rhyme suitable to +the occasion, recited by the clearest-voiced persons among those +assembled. Mr. James Hardy gives the following as a specimen:-- + + "Blessed be the day our Saviour was born, + For Master ----'s corn's all well shorn; + And we will have a good supper to-night, + And a drinking of ale, and a kirn! a kirn!" + +All unite in a simultaneous shout at the close, and he who does not +participate in the ringing cheer is liable to have his ears pulled. In +Glendale, an abbreviated version of the rhyme is used, with a variation, +as follows:-- + + "The master's corn is ripe and shorn, + We bless the day that he was born, + Shouting a kirn! a kirn!" + +Are these customs observed at the present day? This is an age of change. +We have used the present tense in the foregoing references, but it is in +the past tense that we read in Chambers's "Book of Days," that, "In the +North of England, the reapers were accustomed to leave a good handful of +grain uncut; they laid it down flat, and covered it over; when the field +was done, the bonniest lass was entrusted with the pleasing duty of +cutting the final handful, which was presently dressed up with various +sewings, tyings, and trimmings like a doll, and hailed as a Corn Baby or +Kirn Dolly. It was carried home in triumph with music of fiddles and +bagpipes, set up conspicuously at night during supper, and usually +preserved in the farmer's parlour for the remainder of the year. The fair +maiden who cut this handful of grain was called the Har'st Queen." A +similar custom prevailed, with local variations, in Shropshire, +Gloucestershire, Hertfordshire, Devonshire, and other parts of England. In +Lincolnshire, and some other counties, handbells were rung by those riding +on the last load, and the following rhyme sung:-- + + "The boughs do shake and the bells do ring, + So merrily comes in our harvest in, + Our harvest in, our harvest in! + Hurrah!" + +Writers on local customs formerly observed in different parts of the +country, have preserved the memory of a curious one connected with the +last handful of wheat. In some parts the reapers threw their sickles at +the reserved handful, and he who succeeded in cutting it down shouted, "I +have her!" "What have you?" the others cried out. "A mare!" he replied. +"What will you do with her?" was then asked. "Send her to ----," naming +some neighbouring farmer whose harvest work was not completed. This rustic +pleasantry was called "crying the mare." The rejoicings attendant on the +bringing in of the last load of corn are thus described in the "Book of +Days":--"The waggon containing it was called the hock cart; it was +surmounted by a figure formed out of a sheaf, with gay dressings, +intended to represent the goddess Ceres. In front men played merry tunes +on the pipe and tabor, and the reapers tripped around in a hand-in-hand +ring, singing appropriate songs, or simply by shouts and cries giving vent +to the excitement of the day. In some districts they sang or shouted as +follows:-- + + "Harvest home, harvest home! + We ploughed, we have sowed, + We have reaped, we have moved, + We have brought home every load. + Hip, hip, hip, harvest home!" + +In some parts the figure on the waggon, instead of an effigy, was the +prettiest of the girl-reapers, decked with summer flowers, and hailed as +the Harvest Queen. Bloomfield, in one of his Suffolk ballads, thus +preserves the memory of this custom:-- + + "Home came the jovial Hockey load, + Last of the whole year's crop; + And Grace among the green boughs rode, + Right plump upon the top." + +These and many other harvest-home customs undoubtedly had their origin in +heathen times, in common with those associated with the New Year, the +Epiphany, May Day, and many other festivals. + +Not the least important part of the harvest home observances was the +supper which closed them, and which took place in the kitchen of the +farmhouse or in the barn, the master and mistress presiding. The fare on +these occasions was substantial and plentiful, and good home-brewed ale +was poured out abundantly--we are afraid too much so. The harvest home +supper of the sixteenth century, as graphically portrayed by Herrick, +included:-- + + "Foundation of your feast, fat beef, + With upper stories, mutton, veal, + And bacon, which makes full the meal; + With several dishes standing by, + As here a custard, there a pie, + And here all-tempting frumentie. + And for to make the merry cheer, + If smirking wine be wanting here, + There's that which drowns all care, stout beer." + +Instead of a formal vote of thanks to the givers of the feast, the +prevailing feeling was expressed in a song, one version of which runs as +follows:-- + + "Here's health to our master, + The load of the feast; + God bless his endeavours, + And send him increase. + May prosper his crops, boys, + And we reap next year; + Here's our master's good health, boys, + Come, drink off your beer! + + Now harvest is ended, + And supper is past; + Here's to our mistress's health, boys, + Come, drink a full glass. + For she's a good woman, + Provides us good cheer; + Here's our mistress's good health, boys. + Come, drink off your beer!" + +Over the greater part of England a harvest-thanksgivings service has, at +the present day, taken the place of the festive observances of former +times. It would be useless to regret the passing away of the old customs, +even if there was much more reason for such a feeling; for change is an +inevitable condition of existence, and we can no more recall the old +things which have passed away than we can replace last year's snow on the +wolds. Even the harvest-thanksgiving service, with its accompanying cereal +and horticultural decorations of church and chapel, seems destined to a +change. The decorations are too often overdone. We have seen in some +churches piles of fruit and vegetables that would furnish a shop, in +addition to sheaves of corn and stacks of quartern loaves. In some +instances, a more deplorable display has been made in the shape of a +model of a farmyard, thus turning the place of worship into a show. +Sometimes, too, the sermon has no reference to the harvest. Sometimes, +again, the service is held before the harvest has been gathered in; or +thanks are offered for an abundant harvest when it has notoriously been +deficient. Perhaps the need of a collection at this particular time may +account for these discrepancies. Such mistakes are easily avoided, +however, and no fault can reasonably be found with these celebrations when +religious zeal is kept within the bounds of discretion. + + + + +Curious Charities. + + +We obtain some interesting side-lights on the condition of the people in +the past from old-time charities. Several of the prison charities founded +in bygone times are extremely quaint and full of historic interest. One +Frances Thornhill appears to have had a desire to make the prison beds +comfortable. She left the sum of L30 for the Corporation of the city of +York to provide straw for the beds of the prisoners confined in York +Castle. The local authorities in these later years appear to have received +the interest on the capital without carrying out the conditions of the +charity. + +Bequests of fuel suggest to the mind the time when persons not only +suffered from imprisonment but also from cold. At Bury St. Edmund's, L10 +was left by Margaret Odiam for a minister to say mass to the inmates of +the jail, and for providing faggots to warm the long ward in which the +poor prisoners were lodged. In 1787, Elizabeth Dean, of Reading, left L156 +17s. 5d., the interest of which she directed to be spent in buying +firewood for the county jail. + +At Norwich, a worthy man named John Norris left Consols to the value of +L300 for buying beef and books for the felons confined in the jail. The +prison food is now regulated by law and the charity beef is banished, but +we believe the interest is spent in supplying the prisoners with +literature. Even as late as 1821, John Hall left Consols to the value of +L127 16s. for providing a Christmas dinner of the good old English fare of +roast beef and plum pudding for the criminals in the Northampton county +prison. In 1556, Thomas Cattell left a rent charge of L35 a year for +buying beef and oatmeal for the poor prisoners of Newgate and other London +prisons. + +A singular bequest was made in the year 1556, by Griffith Ameridith, of +Exeter, and it amounted to L524 4s. 11d. in Consols, "for providing +shrouds for prisoners executed at Kingswell, and for the maintenance of a +wall round the burial ground." "But," says a writer on this theme, +"probably for want of subjects for shrouds, the income is now, without any +authority, applied to a distribution of serge petticoats to old women." +One advantage of the change is that the new recipients can at least +express their gratitude. In the olden time it was by no means an uncommon +practice for criminals about to be executed to proceed to the gallows in +shrouds. On July 30th, 1766, two men were hanged at Nottingham for +robbery. "On the morning of their execution," says a local record, "they +were taken to St. Mary's Church, where they heard 'the condemned sermon,' +and then to their graves, in which they were permitted to lie down to see +if they would fit. They walked to the place of execution in their +shrouds." At an execution in the same town in 1784, we read in a local +newspaper report that the unfortunate men were attired in their shrouds. +To add to the impressiveness of the condemned sermon, the coffins in which +the condemned criminals were to be buried, were exhibited during the +service. + +Charities and collections in churches were formerly very common in this +country for freeing British subjects from slavery in foreign lands. In +1655, Alicia, Duchess of Dudley, by a deed poll, directed L100 per annum +to be drawn from the rents of certain lands situated in the parish of +Bidford, Warwickshire, for redeeming poor English Christian slaves or +captives from the Turks. Thomas Betson, of Hoxton Square, London, by will +dated 15th February, 1723, left a considerable fortune for the redemption +of British slaves in Turkey and Barbary. He died in 1725, and five years +later the property was estimated to be worth about L22,000, and the +interest on half the amount was to be devoted to ransoming his countrymen +from slavery. In the year 1734, it is stated that 135 men were freed by +this charity. Between the years 1734 and 1826, the large sum of L21,088 +8s. 2-1/2d. was expended in the admirable cause of freeing the captive. +Many of the old church books contain entries respecting collections for +this object. In the books of Holy Cross, Westgate, Canterbury, is a long +list of the names of persons in the parish in March, 1670, contributing +L02 07s. 04d., for "Redeeming the Captives in Turkye." + +Sir John Gayer, was in his time a leading London merchant, an Alderman for +the ward of Aldgate, and a popular Lord Mayor. He lived in the reigns of +James I. and Charles I., and was a man of great enterprise, ready to +encounter perils in foreign lands to forward his commercial projects. On +one memorable occasion he was travelling with a caravan of merchants +across the desert of Arabia, and by some accidental means managed to +separate himself from his friends, and at night-fall was alone. His +position was one of great peril: he heard the roaring of wild animals, but +failed to find any place of refuge. We gather from the story of his life +that:--"He knelt down and prayed fervently, and devoutly promised, that if +God would rescue him from his impending danger the whole produce of his +merchandise should be given as an offering in benefactions to the poor, on +his return to his native country. At this extremity a lion of an unusually +large size was approaching him. Death appeared inevitable, but the prayer +of the good man had ascended to heaven, and he was delivered. The lion +came up close to him. After prowling round him, smelling him, bristling +his shaggy hair, and eyeing him fiercely, he stopped short, turned round, +and trotted quietly away, without doing the slightest injury. It is said +that Sir John Gayer remained in the same suppliant posture till the +morning dawned, when he pursued his journey, and happily came up with his +friends, who had given up all hope of again seeing him." The journey was +concluded without further misadventure, a ready market found for the +goods, and old England reached in safety with increased wealth. Sir John +did not forget his vow, and many were the deeds of charity he performed, +more especially to the poor of his own parish of St. Katharine Cree. One +of bequests amounting to L200 was left to the needy of that parish on +condition that a "sermon should be occasionally preached in the church to +commemorate his deliverance from the jaws of the lion." The sermon is +known as the "Lion Sermon." + +In the church of St. Katharine Cree within the altar rails is a carved +head of Gayer. On the right hand side is a text, as follows:--"The eyes of +the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their +prayers--Ps. 34, v. 15;" on the left hand side this text appears:--"The +effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much--James V., +xvi.;" and under the figure this motto:--"Super Astra Spero." There is a +brass bearing the following inscription:-- + + In Memory of + SIR JOHN GAYER, KNT., + Founder of the "Lion Sermon" who was descended from + the Old West Country Family of Gayer, + and was born at Plymouth, + and became Sheriff of this City of London in 1635, + and Lord Mayor of London in 1647. + + He was a member of the Levant or Turkey Company, and of the Worshipful + Company of Fishmongers, London, and President of Christ's Hospital, + London, and a liberal donor to and pious founder of Charities. + + This City has especial reason to be proud of him, for rather than + withdraw his unflinching assertion of the Native Liberties of the + Citizens, and his steadfast support of King Charles I., he submitted + to imprisonment in the Tower at the hands of the Parliament in 1647 + and 1648, and his "Salva Libertate" became historical. + + He resided in this Parish, and "Dyed in peace in his owne house" on + the 20th of July 1649, and he now lies buried in a Vault beneath this + Church of St. Katharine Cree, Leadenhall St. + + This Memorial Brass was subscribed for by Members of and Descendants + from the Family of Gayer, and was placed here by them in testimony of + their admiration for and appreciation of the noble character and many + virtues of their illustrious ancestor. + + The work of organising this Memorial was carried out by + Edmund Richard Gayer, M.A. of Lincoln's Inn, Esq., Barrister at Law, + 1888. + +There are a number of ancient bequests for ringing bells and lighting +beacons to guide travellers by night. These were very useful charities, +for in the days of old, lands were generally unenclosed, and the roads +poorly constructed. It was difficult for the wayfarer to find his way when +the nights were dark. At the ancient village of Hessle, near Hull, a bell +is still rung every night except Sunday, at 7 o'clock. Long, long ago, so +runs the local story, a lady was lost on a dark night near the place, and +was in sore distress, fearing that she would have to wander about in the +cold until daylight. Happily, the ringing of the Hessle bells enabled her +to direct her course to the village in safety, although she had to wend +her weary steps over a trackless country. In gratitude for her delivery +she left a piece of land to the parish clerk, on condition that he rang +every evening one of the church bells. + +A similar story is related respecting a Barton-on-Humber bell ringing +custom. Richard Palmer left in 1664 a bequest to the sexton of Workingham, +Berkshire, for ringing a bell every evening at eight, and every morning at +four o'clock. One reason for ringing this, was "that strangers and others +who should happen, on winter nights, within hearing of the ringing of the +said bell, to lose their way in the country, might be informed of the time +of the night, and receive some guidance into the right way." + +John Wardall, in his will dated 29th August, 1656, provided for a payment +of L4 per annum being made to the Churchwardens of St. Botolph's, +Billingsgate, London, "to provide a good and sufficient iron and glass +lanthorn, with a candle, for the direction of passengers to go with more +security to and from the water-side, all night long, to be fixed at the +north-east corner of the parish church, from the feast-day of St. +Bartholomew to Lady-Day; out of which sum L1 was to be paid to the sexton +for taking care of the lanthorn." In 1662 a man named John Cooke made a +similar bequest for providing a lamp at the corner of St. Michael's Lane, +next Thames Street. + +In past ages churches were frequently unpaved and the floor usually +covered with rushes. Not a few persons have left money and land for +providing rushes for churches. In these latter days rushes are no longer +strewn on the floor for keeping the feet warm in cold weather, but at a +number of places old rights are maintained by the carrying out of the +custom. At Clee, Lincolnshire, for example, the parish officials possess +the right of cutting rushes from a certain piece of land for strewing the +floor of the church every Trinity Sunday. The churchwardens preserve their +rights by cutting a small quantity of grass annually and strewing it on +the church floor. At Old Weston, Huntingdonshire, a similar custom still +lingers. "A piece of land," says Edwards in his "Remarkable Charities," +"belongs, by custom, to the parish clerk for the time being, subject to +the condition of the land being mown immediately before Weston feast, +which occurs in July, and the cutting thereof strewed on the church floor, +previous to divine service on the feast Sunday, and continuing there +during divine service." At Pavenham, Bedfordshire, the church is annually +strewn with grass cut from a certain field, on the first Sunday after the +11th July. "Until recently," says a well-informed correspondent, "the +custom was for the churchwardens to claim the right of removing from the +field in question as much grass as they could 'cut and cart away from +sunrise to sunset.' A few years ago this arrangement was altered into a +yearly payment on the part of the tenant of the field of one guinea." The +money is spent in purchasing grass for spreading on the church floor. The +parishioners have always taken a deep interest in this old custom. On the +benefaction table of Deptford Church is recorded that "a person unknown +gave half-a-quarter of wheat, to be given in bread on Good Friday, and +half a load of rushes at Whitsuntide, and a load of pea-straw at +Christmas yearly, for the use of the church." In 1721, an offer of 21s. +per annum was accepted in lieu of the straw and rushes, and in 1744, the +sum of 10s. yearly in place of the half-quarter of wheat. + +John Rudge, by his will dated 17th April, 1725, left a pound a year to a +poor man to go round the parish church of Trysull, Staffordshire, during +the delivery of the sermon, to keep people awake and drive out of the +church any dogs which might come in. Richard Brooke left 5s. a year for a +person to keep quiet during divine service the boys in the Wolverhampton +church and churchyard. + +At Stockton-in-the-Forest, Yorkshire, is a piece of land called "Petticoat +Hole," and it is held on the condition of providing a poor woman of the +place every year with a new petticoat. + +We will close this chapter with particulars of a novel mode of +distributing a charity. At Bulkeley, Cheshire, a charity of 19s. 2d. was +given to the poor as follows. The overseer obtained the amount in coppers, +placed them in a peck measure, and invited each of the poor folks to help +himself or herself to a handful. + + + + +An Old-Time Chronicler. + + +We have frequently referred to the writings of John Stow in this work, and +we think a short account of his life and labours will prove interesting to +our readers. + +From the ranks of tailors have sprung many famous men. Not one more +worthy, perhaps, than honest John Stow, the painstaking compiler of works +which have found a lasting place in historic literature. + +Stow was a Londoner of Londoners, born in 1525, in the parish of St. +Michael, Cornhill. His father and grandfather were citizens, and appear to +have been most worthy men. John Stow was trained under his father to the +trade of a tailor. At an early age he took an interest in the study of +history and antiquities, and, as years ran their course, his love of +research increased. We have had handed down to us from the pen of Edmund +Howes, his literary executor, a well-drawn word-portrait of Stow. We learn +that he was tall in stature, and, as befits the ideal student, lean in +body and face. His eyes were small and clear, and his sight excellent. As +might be expected, through long and active use, his memory was very good. +He was sober, mild, and corteous, and ever ready to impart information to +those that sought it. + +He lived in an historically attractive age. It was a period when some of +our greatest countrymen worked and talked amongst men. Gifted authors made +the time glorious in our literary annals. Stow's fame mainly rests on +being an exact and picturesque describer of the London of Queen Elizabeth. +His _Survey_ is not a mere topographical account of the city, but a +pleasantly penned picture, full of life and character, of the social +condition, manners, customs, sports, and pastimes of the people. + +John Stow was most minute as a writer, and his attention to slight +circumstances has caused some critics to make merry over his productions. +Fuller, for example, spoke of him "as such a smell-feast that he cannot +pass by the Guildhall but his pen must taste the good cheer therein." It +is his consideration of minor matters that renders his book so valuable to +the student of bygone times. We may quote, to illustrate this, a few +lines from his _Survey of London_. After a description of the Abbey of St. +Clare, he writes: "Near adjoining to this Abbey, on the south side +thereof, was sometime a farm belonging to the said nunnery, at which farm +I myself, in my youth, have fetched many a halfpennyworth of milk, and +never had less than three ale pints for a halfpenny in the summer, nor +less than one ale quart for a halfpenny in the winter, always hot from the +kine, as the same was milked and strained. One Trolop, afterwards Goodman, +was farmer there, and had thirty or forty kine to the pail. Goodman's son, +being heir to his father's purchase, let out the ground first for the +grazing of horses, and then for garden plots, and lived like a gentleman +thereby." + +In about his fortieth year, Stow gave up his business as a tailor and +devoted his entire life to antiquarian pursuits. Fame he won, but not +fortune. In place of being wealthy in his old age, he, as we shall +presently see, suffered from poverty. His principal works include his +_Summary of English Chronicles_, first issued in 1561. In 1580, his +_Annals; or, a General Chronicle of England_ was published. His most +important work was given to the world in 1598, under the title of a +_Survey of London and Westminster_. Besides writing the foregoing original +books, he assisted on the continuation of Holinshed's _Chronicle_ and +Speght's edition of Chaucer, and he was employed on other undertakings. + +[Illustration: JOHN STOW'S MONUMENT.] + +Many a long journey Stow made in search of information. He could not ride, +and had to travel on foot. In the midst of great trials it is recorded +that his good humour never forsook him. In his old age he was troubled +with pains in his feet, and quietly remarked that his "afflictions lay in +the parts he had formerly made so much use of." + +We might well suppose that Stow's blameless life would render him free +from suspicion, and that his grateful countrymen would regard with respect +his great work in writing the history of England. Such was not the case. +It was thought that his researches would injure the reformed religion, and +on this miserable plea he was cast into prison, and his humble home was +searched. We obtain from the report of the searchers an interesting +account of the contents of Stow's library. It consisted, we are told, of +"great collections of his own, of his English chronicles, also a great +sort of old books, some fabulous, as _Sir Gregory Triamour_, and a great +parcel of old manuscript chronicles in parchment and paper; besides +miscellaneous tracts touching physic, surgery, herbs, and medical +receipts, and also fantastical popish books printed in old time, and +others written in old English on parchment." + +John Stow failed to make much money, but on the whole, he lived a peaceful +life, enjoying the many pleasures that fall to the lot of the student. +Happily for him, to use Howes' words, "He was careless of the scoffers, +backbiters, and detractors." + +It is Howes who also tells that Stow always protested never to have +written anything either of malice, fear, or favour, nor to seek his own +particular gain or vain-glory, and that his only pains and care was to +write the truth. + +At the age of four score years, his labours received State acknowledgment. +It was indeed a poor acknowledgment, for, in answer to a petition, James +I. granted him a licence to beg. Stow sought help, to use his own words, +as "a recompense for his labour and travel of forty-five years, in setting +forth the _Chronicles of England_, and eight years taken up in the _Survey +of the Cities of London and Westminster_, towards his relief in his old +age, having left his former means of living, and also employing himself +for the service and good of his country." + +The humble request was granted, and the document says:--"Whereas our +loving subject, John Stow (a very aged and worthy member of our city of +London), this five-and-forty years hath, to his great charge, and with +neglect of his ordinary means of maintenance (for the general good, as +well of posterity as of the present age), compiled and published divers +necessary books and chronicles; and therefore we, in recompense of these +his painful labours, and for encouragement of the like, have, in our Royal +inclination, been pleased to grant our Letters Patent, under our Great +Seal of England, thereby authorising him, the said John Stow, to collect +among our loving subjects their voluntary contributions and kind +gratuities." + +The foregoing authority to beg was granted for twelve months, but, as the +response was so small, it pleased the King to extend the privilege for +another year. From one parish in the City of London he only received seven +shillings and sixpence--a poor reward, to use Stow's words, "of many a +weary day's travel, and cold winter night's study." + +His end now was drawing near, and mundane trials were almost over. On the +5th of April, 1605, his well-spent life closed, and his mortal remains +were laid to rest in his parish church of St. Andrew, Undershaft. Here may +still be seen the curious and interesting monument which his loving widow +erected. It is pleasant to leave the busy streets of the great metropolis +and repair to the quiet sanctuary where rests the old chronicler, and look +upon his quaint monument, and reflect on ages long passed. When the Great +Fire of 1666 destroyed the London Stow had so truthfully described, his +monument escaped destruction. + + +Ye Ende + + + + +INDEX. + + + Abingdon, customs at, 56 + + Advertisement, novel, 194-197 + + Age of Snuffing, 168-185 + + Alleyn, Edward, founder of Dulwich College, 212 + + Altrincham, Mayor of, 60-61 + + Ambassadors, at bear-baitings, 211, 215-216 + + America, Muffs in, 45-46; + Cold places of worship, 46-47 + + Anglo-Saxon bread, 134 + + An Old-Time Chronicler, 266-274 + + Arise, Mistress, Arise!, 142-143 + + Armstrong, Sir Thomas, 84-87 + + Arrows, 152 + + Ashbourne, custom at, 241 + + + Baker's dozen, 138 + + Baiting animals stopped by Act of Parliament, 221 + + Banbury, customs at, 58 + + Banks, Mrs. G. L., on hair-dressing, 38 + + Bankside, plan of, 213 + + Barber's shop, 21 + + Barley bread, 135 + + Baxter, Richard, on Sunday pleasure, 231 + + Barbers fined, 32 + + Barrington, G., poet and pickpocket, 180-181 + + Barrister's wig, 18, 19 + + Barrow bells, 157 + + Bear-baiting, 132-133, 205-221 + + Bells as Time-Tellers, 156-167 + + Bell ringing bequests, 261-262 + + Beverley, funeral at, 123; + bear-baiting at, 133 + + Bewdley, custom at, 142 + + Bish, Mr., on Lotteries, 200-202 + + Blue-Coat boys, draw at lotteries, 194 + + Boar's-head with mustard, 131 + + Bonfires, 234, 235 + + Bow bells, 159 + + Boroughbridge, Battle of, 77 + + Brandeston, removing a dead body to the church for protection, 117 + + Bread and Baking in Bygone Days, 134-141 + + Bread Street, 135 + + Bribes for the Palate, 63-73 + + British slaves, freeing, 257-258 + + Briscoe, J. P., on Nottingham customs, 61-62 + + Bromley-by-Bow, bakers at, 135 + + Burial at Cross Roads, 105-114 + + Burying the mace, 53 + + Butter and suet, prohibiting the use of in making bread, 140 + + Byng, Admiral, shot, 45 + + + Cade, Jack, 81 + + Caius, Dr., on dogs, 145 + + Cambridge, regulations relating to tobacco, 173 + + Candles for lighting the streets, 52 + + Canterbury, curious customs at, 52-53 + + Capture of snuff, 171 + + Carlisle, Earl of, beheaded, 78-79 + + Carlisle, heads spiked at, 92-95 + + Charles II. and wigs, 7 + + Charlotte, Queen, gives up using hair-powder, 36; + taking snuff, 176 + + Christmas rhymes, 142 + + Chronicler, an Old-Time, 266-274 + + Churches, snuff taking in, 172-175 + + Clarinda, Burns on, 178 + + Clee, custom at, 263 + + Clergy and the wig, 15-17 + + Clifton rhyme, 219-220 + + Clocks, introduction of, 160 + + Clothiers in eighteenth century, 165 + + Closing shops, time for, 160 + + Cobham, Eleanor, trial of, 80 + + Cockledge, murder at, 123 + + Combing the wig, 10 + + Concerning Corporation Customs, 48-62 + + Congleton, bear-baiting at, 217-218 + + Conspiracy to assassinate William III., 87 + + Cooper's Hall, Lotteries at, 193 + + Cornish Insurrection, 81; + folk-lore, 234-236 + + Corporation snuff-boxes, 168-169 + + Craven cartoon, 242 + + Crop Clubs, 34 + + Curious Charities, 255-265 + + Curious window at Betley, 225-227 + + Curfew bell, 166-167 + + + Dagger Money, 57 + + Death, Superstitions relating to, 242 + + Death of William I., 167 + + Deering on snuff-taking, 178 + + Detaining the Dead for Debt, 115-121 + + Derby, suicide, burial of a, 106 + + Discarding wigs in court, 19 + + Doctors' muffs, 42 + + Dogs, earliest writer on, 145; + in muffs, 44 + + Droylsden, suicide, burial of, 108-109 + + Druidical superstitions, 234 + + Dryden, Haunt of, 182 + + Ducking Stool, 138 + + Duels, 106 + + + Earle, Mrs. A. M., on American Muffs, 46 + + Early closing of public-houses, 167 + + Eating custom, 242-243 + + Ecclesfield, tradition at, 220 + + Edward III., proclamation of, against bear-baiting, 205 + + Egypt, goose in, 150 + + Egyptians, invent wigs, 1 + + Eldon, Lord, objects to the wig, 18 + + Elizabeth, enjoys baiting animals, 208 + + Epitaphs, 109, 116, 197, 203-204, 260-261 + + Erasmus in England, 206 + + Exeter, salmon given at, 70 + + + False hair, 20, 22 + + Famous snuff takers, 176 + + Fathers of the Church denounce wigs, 3 + + Felo-de-se, Acts relating to, 112-114 + + Female follies, 30 + + Fined for arresting the dead, 118-119, 121 + + Fined for being deficient in elegance, 52 + + First English lottery, 186-188 + + Fish, presentation of, 70 + + Fisher, Bishop, beheaded, 81-82 + + Fishtoft, burial of a suicide at, 107 + + Fitstephen on bear-baiting, 205 + + Fletcher, Captain, 88-89 + + Folk-Lore of Midsummer Eve, 234-243 + + France, Mania for Wigs in, 6-7 + + Funeral, stately, 123 + + + Garrick, Mrs., 178 + + George II., a selfish snuff-taker, 185 + + Glayer, Sir John, 258-261 + + Globe Theatre, 209 + + Gold-dust used for hair-powder, 28 + + Gossip about the Goose, 150-155 + + Great Plague, tobacco and snuff used during, 169-171 + + Guinea-pigs, 35 + + + Harvest bell, 156, 157-158 + + Harvest Home, 244-254 + + Hair, cut off with a bread-knife, 44 + + Hale, Sir Matthew, 63-64 + + Hamlet, Grave scene in, 105 + + Hampton Court Palace, clock at, 162-163 + + Hannibal and his wigs, 5-6 + + Hartlepool, strange enactment at, 62 + + Hawarden attacked, 74 + + Heart-breakers, 20 + + Hempseed, sowing, 241 + + Henzner, Paul, 84 + + Herrick on harvest customs, 252-253 + + Hilton, Jack of, 152 + + Hockley-in-the-Hole, 220 + + Holy bread, 134 + + Hope theatre, 207 + + Horse Guards, protect the lottery wheel, 193 + + Howard's Household Book, 145 + + Hull, curious ordinances at, 51-53; + Sheriff to provide his wife with a scarlet gown, 52; + Andrew Marvell and Hull ale, 71-73; + head spiked at, 95; + ducking-stool at, 96; + Mayor slain, 98; + snuff-box at, 168-169 + + + Incorporation of towns, 48 + + Inscription on bells, 159 + + Ireland, St. John's eve in, 236-237 + + Irish folk-lore, 175 + + + Jackson, John, and his clock, 162-166 + + Jacobites, defeat of, 102 + + James I. and tobacco, 173; + orders a bear to be baited to death, 215 + + Johnson, Dr. Samuel, and his snuff, 182 + + Judge's wig, 18 + + + Keeping people awake, 255 + + Kenilworth, bears baited at, 211 + + King eating meal and rye bread, 141 + + Kingston-upon-Thames, Morris Dancers at, 223 + + Knocking feet in meeting houses, 47 + + + Lady, origin of, 134 + + Lamb, Charles and Mary, 184 + + Lanthorns, bequests for providing, 262-263 + + Last Lottery in England, 198-200 + + Layer, Councillor, 87-88 + + Leconfield castle, 123 + + Leeds bridge, market on, 165 + + Leicester, mace lowering at, 51; + bear-baiting at, 216-217 + + Leighton, Robert, poem by, 183-184 + + Letters from the dead to the living, 11 + + Licence to beg, 272-273 + + Lincolnshire geese, 153 + + Lion Sermon, 258-261 + + London Bakers' Company, 135-136 + + London Bridge, 75-84 + + London, burials of suicides, 110-111 + + Love divinations, 238-240 + + Louth, ringing custom at, 158 + + Lowering the mace, 51 + + Ludlow, customs at, 59 + + Lycians, heads shaven and wigs worn, 5 + + + Mace, as a weapon and as an ensign of authority, 49 + + Manchester, curious baking regulations, 140 + + Manorial service, curious, 144, 152 + + Margarett, Princess, 49, 123-124 + + Mar, Rising of, 87 + + Marvell, Andrew, and Hull ale, 71-73 + + Mary, Queen of Scots, 102 + + May-pole, 233 + + Meals in the olden time, 127-129 + + Medical men and the wig, 17-18 + + Men wearing Muffs, 40-47 + + Michaelmas goose, 154 + + Micklegate Bar, York, 98-99; + heads stolen from, 103 + + Milk, price of, in the olden time, 268 + + More, Sir Thomas, beheaded, 83 + + Morley, custom at, 143 + + Morris-Dancers, 222-233 + + Municipal Reform Act, 48 + + Murder, strange story of a, 137 + + + Napoleon taking snuff, 181; + snuff-box, 177-178 + + Newcastle-on-Tyne, assize custom at, 56-58; + presents of wine and sugar loaves, 64-66; + brank at, 66, 67; + burial of a suicide, 111 + + Nobleman's Household in Tudor Times, 122-133 + + North Wingfield, dead body stopped at, 115-116 + + Northumberland Household Book, 125-133 + + Norwich, burial of a suicide, 107 + + Nottingham, burying the mace at, 53-55; + ale and bread custom, 61-62; + town's presents, 69; + Goose Fair, 154 + + Novel mode of distributing a charity, 265 + + + Over, Mayor of, 60-61 + + O'Connell, D., and his wig, 22-23 + + + Parading a head, 79 + + Parliament sitting at Shrewsbury, 75 + + Palm-Sunday, battle on, 101 + + Penzance, customs at, 235 + + Pepys and his wigs, 7-9; + muffs, 41; + on the Plague, 170 + + Percy family, 122-133 + + Peter the Great obtaining the loan of a wig, 23 + + Petticoat charity, 265 + + Pig-tail, 12, 14 + + Pillory, bakers in the, 137 + + Pipes and tobacco for judges, 58 + + Piper playing to workmen, 247-248 + + Pliny on the goose, 150 + + Poets' Corner, Johnson and Goldsmith in, 91-92 + + Porpoise regarded as a delicacy, 69 + + Pope on Belinda, 177 + + Potatoes, preservation of, 70-71 + + Powdering the Hair, 28-39 + + Pontefract Castle, head spiked at, 77 + + Prison charities, 255-256 + + Punishing bakers, 138-140, 141 + + Puritans and lotteries, 189 + + + Quill pens, 155 + + + Ramillie Wig, 13 + + Reading, Morris Dancers at, 224 + + Rebel Heads on City Gates, 74-104 + + Revolt against Henry IV., 79 + + Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 184-185 + + Riot, Wig, 25-27 + + Rollit, Sir Albert K., 168 + + Rome saved by the cackling of the goose, 151 + + Roper, Margaret, 83, 85 + + Rushes for church floors, 263-265 + + Rye, authority of Mayor, 62 + + Rye House Plot, 84-87 + + + Saxons colouring their hair, 28 + + Scarlet gowns for the Mayoress, 52 + + Scotland, wigs in, 36-37; + muff in, 42; + body arrested in, 120; + snuff taking in, 171-173 + + Scott, Sir Walter, on wigs, 37 + + School-boys obliged to smoke, 170 + + Schoolmasters forbidden to smoke, 174 + + Scrope, Richard, beheaded, 96-97 + + Selkirk, Making a sutor of, 59 + + Selling the Church Bible to pay for a Bear, 217-220 + + Sheridan, curious report respecting, 120 + + Shrewsbury, Parliament sitting at, 75 + + Shrouds for prisoners, 256-257 + + Shouting a kirn, 248-250 + + Slaves, freeing christian, 257-258 + + Smoking forbidden in the streets, 173-174 + + Snuffing, earliest allusion to, 169 + + Southampton, Mayoress of, 50 + + South Shields, suicide, burial of, 109-110 + + Sowing hempseed, 241 + + Sparsholt, dead body detained at, 115 + + Speaker's wig, 18 + + Spice bread, making prohibited, 140 + + St. Albans, clock at, 161 + + St. Paul's Lotteries drawn at the doors of, 188 + + State Lotteries, 186-204 + + Stealing wigs, 24-25 + + Sterne, a snuff taker, 184 + + Stow, John, 266-274 + + Stratford-le-Bow, bakers at, 135 + + Sugar-loaves, presentation of, 62-69 + + + Tamworth, curious bye-law at, 167 + + Taxing hair-powder, 31, 33; + repealing tax, 39 + + Taylor, John, on Hull ale, 72-73 + + Tea and snuff, 178 + + Temple Bar, 84-92 + + Test Act, 48 + + Thewes at Hull, 96 + + Towneley, Colonel, 88-92 + + Towton-field, battle of, 101 + + Turnspit, The, 144-149 + + Twyford, suicide, burial of, 113-114 + + + Unwin, Mrs., fond of snuff, 177 + + + Valuable snuff-boxes, 181 + + Vesper bell, 167 + + + Wakefield, battle of, 97-98 + + Wales, subjugation of, 74 + + Wallace, Sir William, 75 + + Watches not usually carried, 165 + + Welsh rebels beheaded, 74 + + Wesley, Rev. John, and snuff-taking, 175 + + West Hallam, burial at four lane ends, 107 + + West Riding lore, 120-121 + + When Wigs were Worn, 1-27 + + Whittington, Dick, 159 + + Whitsun morris dance, 228 + + Wigs, 1-27; + Riots, 25-27 + + Wildridge, T. Tindall, on Hull, 95 + + Winchester, presents of sugar loaves at, 66-69; + curious regulations, 215 + + Women wearing wigs, 9, 22 + + Worcester, curious baking regulation, 140 + + Wressel Castle, 125 + + Wycombe, customs at, 55-56 + + + York, Duke of, slain, 98; + head spiked, 98 + + York, Lord Mayor of, 49 + + York, walls and gates of, 96-104 + + + + + SOME RECENT BOOKS PUBLISHED BY + WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., + 5, FARRINGDON AVENUE, LONDON, E.C. + + +Antiquities and Curiosities of the Church. + +EDITED BY William Andrews, F.R.H.S. + +_Demy 8vo., 7s. 6d. Numerous Illustrations._ + +CONTENTS:--Church History and Historians--Supernatural Interference in +Church Building--Ecclesiastical Symbolism in Architecture--Acoustic +Jars--Crypts--Heathen Customs at Christian Feasts--Fish and +Fasting--Shrove-tide and Lenten Customs--Wearing Hats in Church--The Stool +of Repentance--Cursing by Bell, Book, and Candle--Pulpits--Church +Windows--Alms-Boxes and Alms-Dishes--Old Collecting +Boxes--Gargoyles--Curious Vanes--People and Steeple +Rhymes--Sun-Dials--Lack of the Clock-House--Games in Churchyards--Circular +Churchyards--Church and Churchyard Charms and Cures--Yew Trees in +Churchyards. + + "A very entertaining work."--_Leeds Mercury._ + + "A well-printed, handsome, and profusely illustrated work."--_Norfolk + Chronicle._ + + "There is much curious and interesting reading in this popular volume, + which moreover has a useful index."--_Glasgow Herald._ + + "The contents of the volume is exceptionally good reading, and crowded + with out-of-the-way, useful, and well selected information on a + subject which has an undying interest."--_Birmingham Mercury._ + + "In concluding this notice it is only the merest justice to add that + every page of it abounds with rare and often amusing information, + drawn from the most accredited sources. It also abounds with + illustrations of our old English authors, and it is likely to prove + welcome not only to the Churchman, but to the student of folk-lore and + of poetical literature."--_Morning Post._ + + "We can recommend this volume to all who are interested in the notable + and curious things that relate to churches and public worship in this + and other countries."--_Newcastle Daily Journal._ + + "It is very handsomely got up and admirably printed, the letterpress + being beautifully clear."--_Lincoln Mercury._ + + "The book is well indexed."--_Daily Chronicle._ + + "By delegating certain topics to those most capable of treating them, + the editor has the satisfaction of presenting the best available + information in a very attractive manner."--_Dundee Advertiser._ + + "It must not be supposed that the book is of interest only to + Churchmen, although primarily so, for it treats in such a skilful and + instructive manner with ancient manners and customs as to make it an + invaluable book of reference to all who are concerned in the seductive + study of antiquarian subjects."--_Chester Courant._ + + +The Cross, in Ritual, Architecture, and Art. + +BY THE REV. GEO. S. TYACK, B.A. + +_Crown 8vo., 3s. 6d. Numerous Illustrations._ + +The author of this Volume has brought together much valuable and +out-of-the-way information which cannot fail to interest and instruct the +reader. The work is the result of careful study, and its merits entitle it +to a permanent place in public and private libraries. Many beautiful +illustrations add to the value of the Volume. + + "This book is reverent, learned, and interesting, and will be read + with a great deal of profit by anyone who wishes to study the history + of the sign of our Redemption."--_Church Times._ + + "A book of equal interest to artists, archaeologists, architects, and + the clergy has been written by the Rev. G. S. Tyack, upon 'The Cross + in Ritual, Architecture, and Art.' Although Mr. Tyack has restricted + himself to this country, this work is sufficiently complete for its + purpose, which is to show the manifold uses to which the Cross, the + symbol of the Christian Faith, has been put in Christian lands. It + treats of the Cross in ritual, in Church ornament, as a memorial of + the dead, and in secular mason work; of preaching crosses, wayside and + boundary crosses, well crosses, market crosses, and the Cross in + heraldry. Mr. Tyack has had the assistance of Mr. William Andrews, to + whom he records his indebtedness for the use of his collection of + works, notes, and pictures; but it is evident that this book has cost + many years of research on his own part. It is copiously and well + illustrated, lucidly ordered and written, and deserves to be widely + known."--_Yorkshire Post._ + + "This is an exhaustive treatise on a most interesting subject, and Mr. + Tyack has proved himself to be richly informed and fully qualified to + deal with it. All lovers of ecclesiastical lore will find the volume + instructive and suggestive, while the ordinary reader will be + surprised to find that the Cross in the churchyard or by the roadside + has so many meanings and significances. Mr. Tyack divides his work + into eight sections, beginning with the pre-Christian cross, and then + tracing its development, its adaptations, its special uses, and + applications, and at all times bringing out clearly its symbolic + purposes. We have the history of the Cross in the Church, of its use + as an ornament, and of its use as a public and secular instrument; + then we get a chapter on 'Memorial Crosses,' and another on 'Wayside + and Boundary Crosses.' The volume teems with facts, and it is evident + that Mr. Tyack has made his study a labour of love, and spared no + research in order, within the prescribed limits, to make his work + complete. He has given us a valuable work of reference, and a very + instructive and entertaining volume."--_Birmingham Daily Gazette._ + + "An engrossing and instructive narrative."--_Dundee Advertiser._ + + "As a popular account of the Cross in history, we do not know that a + better book can be named."--_Glasgow Herald._ + + +Old Church Lore. + +BY WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S. + +_Demy 8vo., 7s. 6d._ + +CONTENTS--The Right of Sanctuary--The Romance of Trial--A Fight between +the Mayor of Hull and the Archbishop of York--Chapels on Bridges--Charter +Horns--The Old English Sunday--The Easter Sepulchre--St. Paul's +Cross--Cheapside Cross--The Biddenden Maids Charity--Plagues and +Pestilences--A King Curing an Abbot of Indigestion--The Services and +Customs of Royal Oak Day--Marrying in a White Sheet--Marrying under the +Gallows--Kissing the Bride--Hot Ale at Weddings--Marrying Children--The +Passing Bell--Concerning Coffins--The Curfew Bell--Curious Symbols of the +Saints--Acrobats on Steeples--A carefully prepared Index--Illustrated. + + "An interesting volume."--_The Scotsman._ + + "A worthy work on a deeply interesting subject.... We commend this + book strongly."--_European Mail._ + + "The book is eminently readable, and may be taken up at any moment + with the certainty that something suggestive or entertaining will + present itself."--_Glasgow Citizen._ + + "Mr. Andrews' book does not contain a dull page.... Deserves to meet + with a very warm welcome."--_Yorkshire Post._ + + +A Lawyer's Secrets. + +BY HERBERT LLOYD. + +AUTHOR OF "THE CHILDREN OF CHANCE," ETC. + +_Price One Shilling._ + + +"Mr. Herbert Lloyd gives us a succession of stories which may reasonably +be taken to have their origin in the experience of a lawyer practicing at +large in the criminal courts. It is natural that they should be of a +romantic nature; but romance is not foreign to a lawyer's consulting room, +so that this fact need not be charged against this lawyer's veracity.... +The stories, seven in all, cover the ground of fraud and murder, inspired +by the prevailing causes of crime--greed and jealousy. Our lawyer is happy +in having the majority of his clients the innocent victims of false +charges inspired and fostered in a great measure by their own folly; but +this is a natural phase of professional experience, and we are only +concerned with the fact that he generally manages it as effectively in the +interests of his clients as his editor does in presenting them to his +audience."--_Literary World._ + +"A volume of entertaining stories.... The book has much the same interest +as a volume of detective stories, except that putting the cases in a +lawyer's mouth gives them a certain freshness. It is well written, and +makes a capital volume for a railway journey."--The Scotsman. + +"A very entertaining volume."--_Birmingham Daily Gazette._ + + +Legal Lore: Curiosities of Law and Lawyers. + +EDITED BY WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S. + +_Demy 8vo., Cloth extra, 7s. 6d._ + +CONTENTS:--Bible Law--Sanctuaries--Trials in Superstitious Ages--On +Symbols--Law Under the Feudal System--The Manor and Manor Law--Ancient +Tenures--Laws of the Forest--Trial by Jury in Old Times--Barbarous +Punishments--Trials of Animals--Devices of the Sixteenth Century +Debtors--Laws Relating to the Gipsies--Commonwealth Law and +Lawyers--Cock-Fighting in Scotland--Cockieleerie Law--Fatal +Links--Post-Mortem Trials--Island Laws--The Little Inns of Court--Obiter. + + "There are some very amusing and curious facts concerning law and + lawyers. We have read with much interest the articles on Sanctuaries, + Trials in Superstitious Ages, Ancient Tenures, Trials by Jury in Old + Times, Barbarous Punishments, and Trials of Animals, and can heartily + recommend the volume to those who wish for a few hours' profitable + diversion in the study of what may be called the light literature of + the law."--_Daily Mail._ + + "Most amusing and instructive reading."--_The Scotsman._ + + "The contents of the volume are extremely entertaining, and convey not + a little information on ancient ideas and habits of life. While + members of the legal profession will turn to the work for incidents + with which to illustrate an argument or point a joke, laymen will + enjoy its vivid descriptions of old fashioned proceedings and often + semi-barbaric ideas to obligation and rectitude."--_Dundee + Advertiser._ + + "The subjects chosen are extremely interesting, and contain a quantity + of out-of-the-way and not easily accessible information.... Very + tastefully printed and bound."--_Birmingham Daily Gazette._ + + "The book is handsomely got up; the style throughout is popular and + clear, and the variety of its contents, and the individuality of the + writers gave an added charm to the work."--_Daily Free Press._ + + "The book is interesting both to the general reader and the + student."--_Cheshire Notes and Queries._ + + "Those who care only to be amused will find plenty of entertainment in + this volume, while those who regard it as a work of reference will + rejoice at the variety of material, and appreciate the careful + indexing."--_Dundee Courier._ + + "Very interesting subjects, lucidly and charmingly written. The + versatility of the work assures for it a wide popularity."--_Northern + Gazette._ + + "A happy and useful addition to current literature."--_Norfolk + Chronicle._ + + "The book is a very fascinating one, and it is specially interesting + to students of history as showing the vast changes which, by gradual + course of development have been brought about both in the principles + and practice of the law."--_The Evening Gazette._ + + +In The Temple + +By a BARRISTER-AT-LAW. + +_Price One Shilling._ + +This book opens with a chapter on the history of the Temple. Next follows +an account of the Knight Templars. The story of the Devil's Own is given +in a graphic manner. A Sketch of Christmas in the Temple is included. In +an entertaining manner the reader is informed how to become a Templar, the +manner of keeping terms is described, and lastly, the work concludes with +a chapter on call parties. + + "Amusing and interesting sketches."--_Law Times._ + + "Pleasing gossip about the barristers' quarters."--_The Gentlewoman._ + + "A pleasant little volume."--_The Globe._ + + +The Red, Red Wine. + +BY THE REV. J. JACKSON WRAY. + +_Crown 8vo., 330 pp. A portrait of the Author and other illustrations._ + +_Price 3s. 6d._ + +"This, as its name implies, is a temperance story, and is told in the +lamented author's most graphic style. We have never read anything so +powerful since 'Danesbury House,' and this book in stern and pathetic +earnestness even excels that widely-known book. It is worthy a place in +every Sunday School and village library; and, as the latest utterance of +one whose writings are so deservedly popular, it is sure of a welcome. It +should give decision to some whose views about Local Option are +hazy."--_Joyful News._ + +"The story is one of remarkable power."--_The Temperance Record._ + +"An excellent and interesting story."--_The Temperance Chronicle._ + + +Faces on the Queen's Highway. + +BY FLO. JACKSON. + +_Elegantly Bound, Crown 8vo., price 2s. 6d._ + +Though oftenest to be found in a pensive mood, the writer of this very +dainty volume of sketches is always very sweet and winning. She has +evidently a true artist's love of nature, and in a few lines can limn an +autumn landscape full of colour, and the life which is on the down slope. +And she can tell a very taking story, as witness the sketch "At the Inn," +and "The Master of White Hags," and all her characters are real, live +flesh-and-blood people, who do things naturally, and give very great +pleasure to the reader accordingly. Miss Jackson's gifts are of a very +high order.--_Aberdeen Free Press._ + + +The Doomed Ship; or, The Wreck in the Arctic Regions. + +BY WILLIAM HURTON. + +_Crown 8vo., Elegantly Bound, Gilt extra, 3s. 6d._ + +"There is no lack of adventures, and the writer has a matter-of-fact way +of telling them."--_Spectator._ + +"'The Doomed Ship,' by William Hurton, is a spirited tale of adventures in +the old style of sea-stories. Mr. Hurton seems to enter fully into the +manliness of sea life."--_Idler._ + + +Chronologies and Calendars. + +BY JAMES C. MACDONALD, F.S.A. Scot. + +_Crown 8vo., price 7s. 6d._ + +"It is unlike most books on its subject in being brief and readable to an +unlearned student. But its chief interest and its unquestionable value is +for those who consider dates more curiously than most men need do in an +age in which incorporated societies endeavour to persuade a man to insure +his life by presenting him with an illuminated table of days. Those who +are engaged in original historical researches will find it invaluable both +for study and for reference."--_The Scotsman._ + +"A large amount of carefully prepared information."--_Aberdeen Free +Press._ + + +The Quaker Poets of Great Britain and Ireland. + +BY EVELYN NOBLE ARMITAGE. + +_Demy 8vo., cloth extra, 7s. 6d._ + +The volume opens with a brief sketch of the Rise of the Society of +Friends, and Characteristics of its Poetry. Biographical Notices and +Examples of the best Poems of the Chief Quaker Poets of Great Britain and +Ireland. + + "The book throughout is a good example of scholarly and appreciative + editing."--_The Times._ + + "The book is well worth reading, and evinces signs of careful + selection and treatment of themes."--_Liverpool Daily Post._ + + "Mrs. Armitage's book was worth compiling, and has claims on others + than members of the Society of Friends."--_Newcastle Daily Leader._ + + "The volume is well worth careful study."--_Manchester Guardian._ + + "This is a charming and even captivating book."--_Friends' Quarterly + Examiner._ + + +Stepping Stones to Socialism. + +BY DAVID MAXWELL, C.E. + +_Crown 8vo., 140 pp.; fancy cover, 1s.; cloth bound, 2s._ + +CONTENTS:--In a reasonable and able manner Mr. Maxwell deals with the +following topics:--The Popular meaning of the Word Socialism--Lord +Salisbury on Socialism--Why There is in Many Minds an Antipathy to +Socialism--On Some Socialistic Views of Marriage--The Question of Private +Property--The Old Political Economy is not the Way of Salvation--Who is My +Neighbour?--Progress, and the Condition of the Labourer--Good and Bad +Trade: Precarious Employment--All Popular Movements are Helping on +Socialism--Modern Literature in Relation to Social Progress--Pruning the +Old Theological Tree--The Churches: Their Socialistic Tendencies--The +Future of the Earth in Relation to Human Life--Socialism is Based +on Natural Laws of Life--Humanity in the Future--Preludes to +Socialism--Forecasts of the Ultimate Form of Society--A Pisgah-top View of +the Promised Land. + + "A temperate and reverent study of a great question."--_London + Quarterly Review._ + + "Mr. David Maxwell's book is the timely expression of a + richly-furnished mind on the current problems of home politics and + social ethics."--_Eastern Morning News._ + + "Quite up-to-date."--_Hull Daily Mail._ + + +The Studies of a Socialist Parson. + +BY THE REV. W. H. ABRAHAM, M.A. (London). + +_Crown 8vo., Price One Shilling._ + +The volume consists of sermons and addresses, given mostly at the St. +Augustine's Church, Hull. The author in his preface says, "It is the duty +of the clergyman to try and understand what Socialism is, and to lead men +from the false Socialism to the true." + +CONTENTS:--The Working-man, Past and Present: A Historical Review--Whither +are we going?--National Righteousness--The True Value of Life--Christian +Socialism--Jesus Christ, the True Socialist--Socialism, through Christ or +without Him?--The Great Bread Puzzle--Labour Day, May 1, 1892--The People, +the Rulers, and the Priests--Friendly Societies--Trades' Unions--The +People's Church--On some Social Questions--The Greatest Help to the true +Social Life--The Great I Am--God as a present force--Signs of the Times. + + "The volume is deserving of all praise."--_Glasgow Herald._ + + "An admirable contribution to the solution of difficult problems. Mr. + Abraham has much that is valuable to say, and says it + well."--_Spectator._ + + "The book is as a whole sensitive and suggestive. The timely words on + 'Decency in Journalism and Conversation' deserve to be widely + read."--_London Quarterly Review._ + + +Yorkshire Family Romance. + +BY FREDERICK ROSS, F.R.H.S. + +_Elegantly bound in cloth gilt, Demy 8vo., 6s._ + +CONTENTS:--The Synod of Streoneshalh--The Doomed Heir of Osmotherley--St. +Eadwine, the Royal Martyr--The Viceroy Siward--Phases in the Life of a +Political Martyr--The Murderer's Bride--The Earldom of Wiltes--Blackfaced +Clifford--The Shepherd Lord--The Felons of Ilkley--The Ingilby Boar's +Head--The Eland Tragedy--The Plumpton Marriage--The Topcliffe +Insurrection--Burning of Cottingham Castle--The Alum Workers--The Maiden +of Marblehead--Rise of the House of Phipps--The Traitor Governor of Hull. + + "The grasp and thoroughness of the writer is evident in every page, + and the book forms a valuable addition to the literature of the North + Country."--_Gentlewoman._ + + "Many will welcome this work."--_Yorkshire Post._ + + +Legendary Yorkshire. + +BY FREDERICK ROSS, F.R.H.S. + +_Elegantly bound in cloth gilt, Demy 8vo., 6s._ + +CONTENTS:--The Enchanted Cave--The Doomed City--The Worm of +Nunnington--The Devil's Arrows--The Giant Road Maker of Mulgrave--The +Virgin's Head of Halifax--The Dead Arm of St. Oswald the King--The +Translation of St. Hilda--A Miracle of St. John--The Beatified +Sisters--The Dragon of Wantley--The Miracles and Ghost of Watton--The +Murdered Hermit of Eskdale--The Calverley Ghost--The Bewitched House of +Wakefield. + + "It is a work of lasting interest, and cannot fail to delight the + reader."--_Beverley Recorder._ + + "The history and the literature of our county are now receiving marked + attention, and Mr. Andrews merits the support of the public for the + production of this and other interesting volumes he has issued. We + cannot speak too highly of this volume, the printing, the paper, and + the binding being faultless."--_Driffield Observer._ + + +In Folly Land. + +BY CAP AND BELLS. + +_Crown 8vo., One Shilling._ + +"'Folly Land' is the title of a neatly-produced shilling volume of +humorous verse by a writer who--if we are not misinformed--veils a +well-known name under the nom de guerre of 'Cap and Bells.' Some of the +comic poems, 'A Wicked Story' and 'Just my Luck,' for instance, are funny. +A humorous and unhackneyed recitation is always a welcome addition to the +not varied repertoire of the professional or amateur reciter, and some of +the contents of 'Folly Land' are likely to become popular."--_The Star._ + + +Biblical and Shakespearian Characters Compared. + +BY THE REV. JAMES BELL. + +_Crown 8vo., 3s. 6d._ + +Between the Hebrew Bible and Shakespeare there exists some interesting and +instructive points of resemblance, especially in respect of their ways of +life and character. No doubt certain inevitable differences also exist +between them, but these do not hide the resemblance; rather they serve to +set it, so to speak, in bolder relief. + +The author in this volume treats or this striking resemblance, under +certain phases, between Hebrew Prophecy and Shakespearian Drama. + +The following are the chief "Studies" which find a place in the +work:--Hebrew Prophecy and Shakespeare: a Comparison--Eli and Hamlet--Saul +and Macbeth--Jonathan and Horatio--David and Henry V.--Epilogue. + + "One of the most suggestive volumes we have met with for a long + time."--_Birmingham Daily Gazette._ + + "A deeply interesting book."--_The Methodist Times._ + + "A highly interesting and ingenious work."--_British Weekly._ + + +The New Fairy Book. + +Edited by WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S. + +_Price 4s. 6d. Demy 8vo._ + +This volume contains Fifteen New Fairy Stories by Popular Authors. Many +charming original illustrations are included. + +It is beautifully printed in bold clear type, and bound in a most +attractive style. + + "A very delightful volume, and eminently qualified for a gift book.... + The stories are bright and interesting."--_Glasgow Herald._ + + "We hope the book will get into many children's hands."--_Review of + Reviews._ + + "We can recommend the stories for their originality, and the volume + for its elegant and tasteful appearance."--_Westminster Gazette._ + + +Famous Frosts and Frost Fairs in Great Britain. + +Chronicled from the Earliest to the Present Time. + +BY WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S. + +_Fcap. 4to. Bevelled boards, gilt tops. Price 4s._ + +This work furnishes a carefully prepared account of all the great Frosts +occurring in this country from A.D. 134 to 1887. The numerous Frost Fairs +on the Thames are fully described, and illustrated with quaint woodcuts, +and several old ballads relating to the subject are reproduced. It is +tastefully printed and elegantly bound. + + "A very interesting volume."--_Northern Daily Telegraph._ + + "A great deal of curious and valuable information is contained in + these pages.... A comely volume."--_Literary World._ + + "An interesting and valuable work."--_West Middlesex Times._ + + "A volume of much interest and great importance."--_Rotherham + Advertiser._ + + +Andrews's Library of Masterpieces of Choice Literature. + +This series of works consists of reprints carefully edited, with notes, +etc., of a number of works which have long been out of print, but which +are of undoubted merit, and volumes that cultured book-lovers will prize. +Only the very best works in our literature are included in the series, and +are carefully printed on good paper, and suitably bound. 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