apparently cured, suffered from an annual attack of delirium, after
which he used to sink into a state of profound melancholy; his face
becoming livid, his sight obscure, his power of breathing checked,
accompanied by sighs and heavings. Sometimes he fell senseless, and
devoid of pulsation; ejecting blood from his nose and mouth, and
apparently dying. Recourse was had to the influence of music; and the
patient began to revive at the sound, his hands marking the measure,
and the feet being similarly affected. Suddenly rising and laying hold
of a bystander, he began to dance with the greatest agility during
an uninterrupted course of four-and-twenty hours. His strength was
supported by administering to him wine, milk, and fresh eggs. If he
appeared to relapse, the music was repeated, on which he resumed his
dancing. This unfortunate being used to fall prostrate if the music
accidentally stopped, and imagine that the tarantula had again stung
him. After a few years he died, in one of these annual attacks of
delirium.
BYGONE CHRISTMAS CUSTOMS.
------------"Now, too, is heard
The hapless cripple, tuning through the streets
His _carol_ new; and oft, amid the gloom
Of midnight hours, prevail th' accustom'd sounds
Of wakeful _waits_, whose harmony (composed
Of hautboy, organ, violin, and flute,
And various other instruments of mirth),
Is meant to celebrate the coming time."
[Illustration: The Mummers, Or Ancient Waits.]
The manner in which this period of the year has been observed has often
varied. The observances of the day first became to be pretty general
in the Catholic church about the year 300. By some of our ancestors
it was viewed in the double light of a religious and joyful season of
festivities. The midnight preceding Christmas-day every person went
to mass, and on Christmas-day three different masses were sung with
much solemnity. Others celebrated it with great parade, splendour, and
conviviality. Business was superseded by merriment and hospitality;
the most careworn countenance brightened on the occasion. The nobles
and the barons encouraged and participated in the various sports: the
industrious labourer's cot, and the residence of proud royalty, equally
resounded with tumultuous joy. From Christmas-day to Twelfth-day there
was a continued run of entertainments. Not only did our ancestors make
great rejoicings on, but before and after Christmas-day. By a law in
the time of Alfred, the "twelve days after the nativity of our Saviour
were made festivals;"[1] and it likewise appears from Bishop Holt, that
the whole of the days were dedicated to feasting.
[1] Thus we have the origin of Twelfth-day.
Our ancestors' various amusements were conducted by a sort of master
of the ceremonies, called the "Lord of Misrule," whose duty it was to
keep order during the celebration of the different sports and pastimes.
The universities, the lord mayor and sheriffs, and all noblemen and
gentlemen, had their "lords of misrule." These "lords" were first
preached against at Cambridge by the Puritans, in the reign of James
I., as unbecoming the gravity of the university.
[Illustration: The Lord of Misrule.]
The custom of serving boars' heads at Christmas bears an ancient date,
and much ceremony and parade has been occasionally attached to it.
Henry II. "served his son (upon the young prince's coronation) at the
table as server, bringing up the _boar's head_ with trumpets before it."
The custom of strolling from street to street with musical instruments
and singing seems to have originated from a very ancient practice
which prevailed, of certain minstrels who were attached to the king's
court and other great persons, who paraded the streets, and sounded the
hour--thus acting as a sort of watchmen. Some slight remains of these
still exist, but they no longer partake of the authoritative claim
as they originally did, as the "lord mayor's music," &c. It may not,
perhaps, be generally known, that even at the present day "waits" are
regularly sworn before the "court of burgesses" at Westminster, and act
under the authority of a warrant, signed by the clerk, and sealed with
the arms of the city and liberty; in addition to which, they were bound
to provide themselves with a silver badge, also bearing the arms of
Westminster.
In the north they have their _Yule log_, or _Yuletide log_, which is
a huge log burning in the chimney corner, whilst the Yule cakes are
baked on a "girdle," (a kind of frying-pan) over the fire; little lads
and maidens assemble nightly at some neighbouring friends to hear the
goblin story, and join in "fortune-telling," or some game. There is a
part of an old song which runs thus:
"Now all our neighbours' chimneys smoke.
And _Christmas logs_ are burning;
Their ovens they with baked meate choke,
And all their spits are turning."
Among the plants usual to Christmas are the rosemary, the holly, and
the mistletoe. Gay says:
"When _rosemary_ and _bays_, the poet's crown,
Are bawled in frequent cries through all the town,
Then judge the festival of Christmas near--
Christmas, the joyous period of the year.
Now with bright _holly_ all your temples strow,
With _laurel_ green and sacred _mistletoe_."
A MERMAN.
"The wind being easterly, we had thirty fathoms of water, when at ten
o'clock in the morning a sea monster like a man appeared near our ship,
first on the larboard, where the master was, whose name is William
Lomone, who took a grappling iron to pull him up; but our captain,
named Oliver Morin, hindered him, being afraid that the monster would
drag him away into the sea. The said Lomone struck him on the back, to
make him turn about, that he might view him the better. The monster,
being struck, showed his face, having his two hands closed as if he
had expressed some anger. Afterwards he went round the ship: when he
was at the stern, he took hold of the helm with both hands, and we
were obliged to make it fast lest he should damage it. From thence he
proceeded to the starboard, swimming still as men do. When he came
to the forepart of the ship, he viewed for some time the figure that
was in our prow, which represented a beautiful woman, and then he
rose out of the water as if he had been willing to catch that figure.
All this happened in the sight of the whole crew. Afterwards he came
again to the larboard, where they presented to him a cod-fish hanging
down with a rope; he handled it without spoiling it, and then removed
the length of a cable and came again to the stern, where he took hold
of the helm a second time. At that very moment, Captain Morin got a
harping-iron ready, and took it himself to strike him with it; but
the cordage being entangled, he missed his aim, and the harping-iron
touched only the monster, who turned about, showing his face, as he
had done before. Afterwards he came again to the fore part, and viewed
again the figure in our prow. The mate called for the harping-iron; but
he was frightened, fancying that this monster was one La Commune, who
had killed himself in the ship the year before, and had been thrown
into the sea in the same passage. He was contented to push his back
with the harping-iron, and then the monster showed his face, as he had
done at other times. Afterwards he came along the board, so that one
might have given him the hand. He had the boldness to take a rope held
up by John Mazier and John Deffiete, who being willing to pluck it out
of his hands, drew him to our board; but he fell into the water and
then removed at the distance of a gun's shot. He came again immediately
near our board, and rising out of the water to the navel, we observed
that his breast was as large as that of a woman of the best plight.
He turned upon his back and appeared to be a male. Afterwards he swam
again round the ship, and then went away, and we have never seen him
since. I believe that from ten o'clock till twelve that this monster
was along our board; if the crew had not been frighted, he might have
been taken many times with the hand, being only two feet distant.
That monster is about eight feet long, his skin is brown and tawny,
without any scales, all his motions are like those of men, the eyes
of a proportionable size, a little mouth, a large and flat nose, very
white teeth, black hair, the chin covered with a mossy beard, a sort of
whiskers under the nose, the ears like those of men, fins between the
fingers of his hands and feet like those of ducks. In a word, he is a
well-shaped man. Which is certified to be true by Captain Oliver Morin,
and John Martin, pilot, and by the whole crew, consisting of two and
thirty men."--_An article from Brest, in the Memoirs of Trevoux._--This
monster was mentioned in the Gazette of Amsterdam, October 12, 1725,
where it is said it was seen in the ocean in August, same year.
A SHAVED BEAR.
At Bristol I saw a shaved monkey shown for a fairy; and a shaved
bear, in a check waistcoat and trousers, sitting in a great chair
as an Ethiopian savage. This was the most cruel fraud I ever saw.
The unnatural position of the beast, and the damnable brutality of
the woman-keeper who sat upon his knee, put her arm round his neck,
called him husband and sweet-heart, and kissed him, made it the most
disgusting spectacle I ever witnessed! Cottle was with me.--_Southey._
THE ORIGIN OF WIGS.
As for the origin of wigs, the honour of the invention is attributed
to the luxurious Sapygians in Southern Italy. The Louvain theologians,
who published a French version of the Bible, affected, however, to
discover the first mention of perukes in a passage in the fourth
chapter of Isaiah. The Vulgate has these words: "Decalvabit Dominus
verticem filiarum Sion, et Dominus crinem earum nudabit." This, the
Louvain gentlemen translated into French as follows: "Le Seigneur
dechevelera les tetes des filles de Sion, et le Seigneur decouvrira
leurs perruques;" which, done into English, implies that "The Lord will
pluck the hair from the heads of the daughters of Sion, and will expose
their periwigs."
DRESS IN 1772.
[Illustration: [++] Maccaronies.]
The year 1772 introduced a new style for gentlemen, imported by a
number of young men of fashion who had travelled into Italy, and
formed an association called the Maccaroni Club, in contradistinction
to the Beef-steak Club of London. Hence these new-fashioned dandies
were styled Maccaronies, a name that was afterwards applied to ladies
of the same genus. The accompanying cut delineates the peculiarities
of both. The hair of the gentleman was dressed in an enormous toupee,
with very large curls at the sides; while behind it was gathered and
tied up into an enormous club, or knot, that rested on the back of
the neck like a porter's knot; upon this an exceedingly small hat
was worn, which was sometimes lifted from the head with the cane,
generally very long, and decorated with extremely large silk tassels;
a full white handkerchief was tied in a large bow round the neck;
frills from the shirt-front projected from the top of the waistcoat,
which was much shortened, reaching very little below the waist, and
being without the flap-covered pockets. The coat was also short,
reaching only to the hips, fitting closely, having a small turn-over
collar as now worn; it was edged with lace or braid, or decorated
with frog-buttons, tassels, or embroidery; the breeches were tight,
of spotted or striped silk, with enormous bunches of strings at the
knee. A watch was carried in each pocket, from which hung bunches of
chains and seals: silk stockings and small shoes with little diamond
buckles completed the gentleman's dress. The ladies decorated their
heads much like the gentlemen, with a most enormous heap of hair, which
was frequently surmounted by plumes of large feathers and bunches of
flowers, until the head seemed to overbalance the body. The gown was
open in front; hoops were discarded except in full-dress; and the gown
gradually spread outward from the waist, and trailed upon the ground
behind, shewing the rich laced petticoat ornamented with flowers and
needlework; the sleeves widened to the elbow, where a succession of
ruffles and lappets, each wider than the other, hung down below the
hips.
CHRISTMAS OBSERVANCES PUT DOWN BY THE PURITANS.
During the Commonwealth, when puritanical feelings held iron sway
over the rulers of the land, and rode rampant in high places, many
strong attempts were made to put down what they were pleased to term
superstitious festivals, and amongst these was that of Christmas
Day. So determined was the Puritan party to sweep away all vestiges
of evil creeds and evil deeds, that they were resolved to make one
grand attempt upon the time-honoured season of Christmas. The Holly
and the Mistletoe-bough were to be cut up root and branch, as plants
of the Evil One. Cakes and Ale were held to be impious libations to
superstition; and the Roundheads would have none of it.
[Illustration: Proclaiming the Non-observance of Christmas.]
Accordingly, we learn that, in the year 1647, the Cromwell party
ordered throughout the principal towns and cities of the country, by
the mouth of the common crier, that Christmas Day should no longer
be observed--it being a superstitious and hurtful custom; and that
in place thereof, and the more effectually to work a change, markets
should be held on the 25th day of December.
This was attacking the people, especially the country folks, in
their most sensitive part. It was hardly to be expected that they
would quietly submit to such a bereavement; nor did they, as the
still-existing "News-letters" of those days amply testify.
THE MANNER OF WATCHMEN INTIMATING THE CLOCK AT HERRENHUTH IN GERMANY.
VIII. Past eight o'clock! O, Herrenhuth, do thou ponder;
Eight souls in Noah's ark were living yonder.
IX. 'Tis nine o'clock! ye brethren, hear it striking;
Keep hearts and houses clean, to our Saviour's liking.
X. Now, brethren, hear, the clock is ten and passing;
None rest but such as wait for Christ embracing.
XI. Eleven is past! still at this hour eleven,
The Lord is calling us from earth to heaven.
XII. Ye brethren, hear, the midnight clock is humming;
At midnight, our great Bridegroom will be coming.
I. Past one o'clock; the day breaks out of darkness:
Great Morning-star appear, and break our hardness!
II. 'Tis two! on Jesus wait this silent season,
Ye two so near related, will and reason.
III. The clock is three! the blessed Three doth merit
The best of praise, from body, soul, and spirit.
IV. 'Tis four o'clock, when three make supplication,
The Lord will be the fourth on that occasion.
V. Five is the clock! five virgins were discarded,
When five with wedding garments were rewarded.
VI. The clock is six, and I go off my station;
Now, brethren, _watch yourselves for your salvation_.
A DOG EXTINGUISHING A FIRE.
On the evening of the 21st February, 1822, the shop of Mr. Coxon,
chandler, at the Folly, Sandgate, in Newcastle, was left in charge of
his daughter, about nine years of age, and a large mastiff, which is
generally kept there as a safeguard since an attempt was made to rob
the shop. The child had on a straw bonnet lined with silk, which took
fire from coming too near the candle. She endeavoured to pull it off,
but being tied, she could not effect her purpose, and in her terror
shrieked out, on which the mastiff instantly sprang to her assistance,
and with mouth and paws completely smothered out the flame by pressing
the bonnet together. The lining of the bonnet and the child's hair only
were burnt.
CAMBRIDGE CLODS.
About sixty years since, two characters, equally singular in their way,
resided at Cambridge: Paris, a well-known bookseller, and Jackson, a
bookbinder, and principal bass-singer at Trinity College Chapel in that
University; these two gentlemen, who were both remarkably corpulent,
were such small consumers in the article of bread, that their
abstemiousness in that particular was generally noticed; but, to make
amends, they gave way to the greatest excess and indulgence of their
appetites in meat, poultry, and fish, of almost every description. So
one day, having taken an excursion, in walking a few miles from home,
they were overtaken by hunger, and, on entering a public-house, the
only provision they could procure was a clod of beef, weighing near
fourteen pounds, which had been a day or two in salt; and this these
two moderate bread consumers contrived to manage between them broiled,
assisted by a due proportion of buttered potatoes and pickles. The
landlord of the house, having some knowledge of his guests, the story
got into circulation, and the two worthies were ever after denominated
the Cambridge Clods!
WITCH-TESTING AT NEWCASTLE IN 1649.
March 26.--Mention occurs of a petition in the common council books
of Newcastle, of this date, and signed, no doubt, by the inhabitants,
concerning witches, the purport of which appears, from what followed,
to have been to cause all such persons as were suspected of that crime
to be apprehended and brought to trial. In consequence of this, the
magistrates sent two of their sergeants, viz.--Thomas Shevill and
Cuthbert Nicholson, into Scotland, to agree with a Scotchman, who
pretended knowledge to find out witches, by pricking them with pins, to
come to Newcastle, where he should try such who should be brought to
him, and to have twenty shillings a piece, for all he should condemn as
witches, and free passage thither and back again. When the sergeants
had brought the said witch-finder on horseback to town, the magistrates
sent their bellman through the town, ringing his bell and crying,
all people that would bring in any complaint against any woman for a
witch, they should be sent for, and tried by the person appointed.
Thirty women were brought into the town-hall, and stripped, and then
openly had pins thrust into their bodies, and most of them were found
guilty. The said reputed witch-finder acquainted Lieutenant-Colonel
Paul Hobson, deputy-governor of Newcastle, that he knew women whether
they were witches or no by their looks; and when the said person
was searching of a personable and good-like woman, the said colonel
replied, and said, surely this woman is none, and need not be tried,
but the Scotchman said she was, and, therefore, he would try her; and
presently, in the sight of all the people, laid her body naked to the
waist, with her cloathes over her head, by which fright and shame all
her blood contracted into one part of her body, and then he ran a pin
into her thigh, and then suddenly let her cloathes fall, and then
demanded whether she had nothing of his in her body, but did not bleed!
but she being amazed, replied little; then he put his hands up her
cloathes and pulled out the pin, and set her aside as a guilty person,
and child of the devil, and fell to try others, whom he made guilty.
Lieutenant-Colonel Hobson, perceiving the alteration of the aforesaid
woman, by her blood settling in her right parts, caused that woman to
be brought again, and her cloathes pulled up to her thigh, and required
the Scot to run the pin into the same place, and then it gushed out of
blood, and the said Scot cleared her, and said she was not a child of
the devil. The witch-finder set aside twenty-seven out of the thirty
suspected persons, and in consequence, fourteen witches and one wizard,
belonging to Newcastle, were executed on the town moor.
ALEXANDER SELKIRK AND THE DANCING GOATS.
The adventures of Alexander Selkirk, an English sailor, who, more than
one hundred and fifty years since, was left alone on the island of Juan
Fernandez are very wonderful.
This extraordinary man sought to beguile his solitude by rearing kids,
and he would often sing to them, and dance with his motley group around
him. His clothes having worn out, he dressed himself in garments made
from the skins of such as run wild about the island; these he sewed
together with thongs of the same material. His only needle was a long
slender nail; and when his knife was no longer available, he made an
admirable substitute from an iron hoop that was cast ashore.
[Illustration: [++] Alexander Selkirk.]
Upon the wonderful sojourn of this man, Defoe founded his exquisite
tale of "Robinson Crusoe," a narrative more extensively read and better
known than perhaps any other ever written.
JACOB BOBART.
A curious anecdote of Jacob Bobart, keeper of the physic garden at
Oxford, occurs in one of Grey's notes to _Hudibras_--"He made a dead
rat resemble the common picture of dragons, by altering its head and
tail, and thrusting in taper sharp sticks, which, distended the skin on
each side till it resembled wings. He let it dry as hard as possible.
The learned immediately pronounced it a dragon; and one of them sent
an accurate description of it to Dr. Magliabecchi, librarian to the
Grand Duke of Tuscany; several fine copies of verses were wrote on so
rare a subject; but at last Mr. Bobart owned the cheat. However, it was
looked upon as a masterpiece of the art; and, as such, deposited in the
Museum."
BLIND JACK.
[Illustration: [++] Blind Jack.]
The streets of London, in the reigns of Queen Anne and Georges I. and
II., were infested with all sorts of paupers, vagabonds, impostors,
and common adventurers; and many, who otherwise might be considered
real objects of charity, by their disgusting manners and general
appearance in public places, rather merited the interference of the
parish beadles, and the discipline of Bridewell, than the countenance
and encouragement of such persons as mostly congregated around common
street exhibitions. One-eyed Granny and Blind Jack were particular
nuisances to the neighbourhoods in which the first practised her
mad-drunk gambols, and the latter his beastly manner of performing on
the flageolet. John Keiling, alias _Blind Jack_, having the misfortune
to lose his sight, thought of a strange method to insure himself a
livelihood. He was constitutionally a hale, robust fellow, without
any complaint, saving blindness, and having learnt to play a little
on the flageolet, he conceived a notion that, by performing on that
instrument in a different way to that generally practised, he should
render himself more noticed by the public, and be able to levy larger
contributions on their pockets.
The manner of _Blind Jack's_ playing the flageolet was by obtruding
the mouthpiece of the instrument up one of his nostrils, and, by long
custom, he could produce as much wind as most others with their lips
into the pipe; but the continued contortion and gesticulation of his
muscles and countenance rendered him an object of derision and disgust,
as much as that of charity and commiseration.
THE YORKSHIRE TIKE.
Ah iz i truth a country youth,
Neean us'd teea Lunnon fashions;
Yet vartue guides, an' still presides,
Ower all mah steps an' passions.
Neea coortly leear, bud all sincere,
Neea bribe shall ivver blinnd me,
If thoo can like a Yorkshire tike,
A rooague thoo'll nivver finnd me.
Thof envy's tung, seea slimlee hung,
Wad lee aboot oor country,
Neea men o' t' eearth booast greter wurth,
Or mare extend ther boounty.
Oor northern breeze wi' uz agrees,
An' does for wark weel fit uz;
I' public cares, an' all affairs,
Wi' honour we acquit uz.
Seea gret a moind is ne'er confiand,
Tu onny shire or nation;
They geean meeast praise weea weel displays
A leearned iddicasion.
Whahl rancour rolls i' lahtle souls,
By shallo views dissarning,
They're nobbut wise 'at awlus prize
Gud manners, sense, and leearnin.
TWO OF THE FATHERS ON FALSE HAIR.
Tertullian says, "If you will not fling away your false hair, as
hateful to Heaven, cannot I make it hateful to yourselves, by reminding
you that the false hair you wear may have come not only from a
criminal, but from a very dirty head; perhaps from the head of one
already damned?" This was a very hard hit indeed; but it was not nearly
so clever a stroke at wigs as that dealt by Clemens of Alexandria. The
latter informed the astounded wig-wearers, when they knelt at church
to receive the blessing, that they must be good enough to recollect
that the benediction remained on the wig, and did not pass through
to the wearer! This was a stumbling-block to the people; many of
whom, however, retained the peruke, and took their chance as to the
percolating through it of the benediction.
FOOD OF ANIMALS.
Linnaeus states the cow to eat 276 plants, and to refuse 218; the goat
eats 449, and declines 126; the sheep takes 387, and rejects 141;
the horse likes 262, and avoids 212; but the hog, more nice in its
provision than any of the former, eats but 72 plants, and rejects 171.
SLAVE ADVERTISEMENTS.
The following announcements are curious, as showing the merchandise
light in which the negro was regarded in America while yet a colony of
Great Britain:--
_FRANCIS LEWIS, Has for SALE_,