Tierces, and Barrels; Ravens, Duck, and a Negro Woman and Negro
Boy.--The Coach-House and Stables, with or without the Garden
Spot, formerly the Property of Joseph Murray, Esq; in the Broad
Way, to be let separately or together:--Inquire of said Francis
Lewis.
_New York Gazette_, Apr. 25, 1765.
* * * * *
This Day Run away from _John M' Comb_, Junier, an Indian Woman,
about 17 Years of Age, Pitted in the face, of a middle Stature and
Indifferent fatt, having on her a Drugat, Wastcoat, and Kersey
Petticoat, of a Light Collour. If any Person or Persons, shall
bring the said Girle to her said Master, shall be Rewarded for
their Trouble to their Content.
_American Weekly Mercury_, May 24, 1726.
* * * * *
A Female Negro Child (of an extraordinary good Breed) to be given
away; Inquire of Edes and Gill.
_Boston Gazette_, Feb. 25, 1765.
* * * * *
_To be Sold, for want of Employ._
A Likely Negro Fellow, about 25 Years of Age, he is an
extraordinary good Cook, and understands setting or tending a
Table very well, likewise all Kind of House Work, such as washing,
scouring, scrubbing, &c. Also a Negro Wench his Wife, about 17
Years old, born in this City, and understands all Sorts of House
Work. For farther Particulars inquire of the Printer.
_New York Gazette_, Mar. 21, 1765.
PRESERVATIVE POWER OF COAL-PIT WATER.
The following is extracted from the register of St. Andrew's, in
Newcastle:--"April 24th, 1695, wear buried, James Archer and his son
Stephen, who, in the moneth of May, 1658, were drowned in a coal-pit
in the Galla-Flat, by the breaking in of water from an old waste. The
bodys were found intire, after they had lyen in the water 36 years and
11 months."
THE QUEEN BEE.
Reaumur relates the following anecdote of which he was a witness:--A
queen bee, and some of her attendants, were apparently drowned in a
brook. He took them out of the water, and found that neither the queen
bee, nor her attendants were quite dead. Reaumur exposed them to a
gentle heat, by which they were revived. The plebeian bees recovered
first. The moment they saw signs of animation in their queen, they
approached her, and bestowed upon her all the care in their power,
licking and rubbing her; and when the queen had acquired sufficient
force to move, they hummed aloud, as if in triumph!
DREAM OF KING HENRY I.
A singular dream, which happened to this monarch when passing over
to Normandy in 1130, has been depicted in a manuscript of Florence
of Worcester, in Corpus Christi College, Oxford. The rapacity and
oppressive taxation of his government, and the reflection forced on
him by his own unpopular measures, may have originated the vision. He
imagined himself to have been visited by the representatives of the
three most important grades of society--the husbandmen, the knights,
and the clergy--who gathered round his bed, and so fearfully menaced
him, that he awoke in great alarm, and, seizing his sword, loudly
called for his attendants. The drawings that accompany this narrative,
and represent each of these visions, appear to have been executed
shortly afterwards, and are valuable illustrations of the general
costume of the period. One of them is introduced in this place.
[Illustration: [++] King Henry I. Dreaming.]
The king is here seen sleeping; behind him stand three husbandmen,
one carrying a scythe, another a pitchfork, and the third a shovel.
They are each dressed in simple tunics, without girdles, with plain
close-fitting sleeves; the central one has a mantle fastened by a
plain brooch, leaving the right arm free. The beards of two of these
figures are as ample as those of their lords, this being an article
of fashionable indulgence within their means. The one with the scythe
wears a hat not unlike the felt hat still worn by his descendants in
the same grade: the scroll in his left hand is merely placed there to
contain the words he is supposed to utter to the king.
SEPULCHRAL BARROW OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS.
The engraving on the next page is copied from a plate in Douglas's
_Neniae_ and represents one of the most ancient of the Kentish barrows
opened by him in the Chatham Lines, Sept. 1779; and it will enable the
reader at once to understand the structure of these early graves, and
the interesting nature of their contents. The outer circle marks the
extent of the mound covering the body, and which varied considerably in
elevation, sometimes being but a few inches or a couple of feet from
the level of the ground, at others of a gigantic structure. In the
centre of the mound, and at the depth of a few feet from the surface,
an oblong rectangular grave is cut, the space between that and the
outer circle being filled in with chalk, broken into small bits, and
deposited carefully and firmly around and over the grave. The grave
contained the body of a male adult, tall and well-proportioned, holding
in his right hand a spear, the shaft of which was of wood, and had
perished, leaving only the iron head, 15 inches in length, and at the
bottom a flat iron stud (_a_), having, a small pin in the centre, which
would appear to have been driven into the bottom of the spear-handle;
an iron knife lay by the right side, with remains of the original
handle of wood. Adhering to its under side were very discernible
impressions of coarse linen cloth, showing that the warrior was buried
in full costume. An iron sword is on the left side, thirty-five and
a quarter inches in its entire length, from the point to the bottom
of the handle, which is all in one piece, the wood-work which covered
the handle having perished; the blade thirty inches in length and two
in breadth, flat, double-edged, and sharp-pointed, a great portion of
wood covering the blade, which indicates that it was buried with a
scabbard, the external covering being of leather, the internal of wood.
A leathern strap passed round the waist, from which hung the knife and
sword, and which was secured by the brass buckle (_b_), which was found
near the last bone of the vertebrae, or close to the os sacrum. Between
the thigh-bones lay the iron umbo of a shield, which had been fastened
by studs of iron, four of which were found near it, the face and
reverse of one being represented at (_c_.) A thin plate of iron (_d_),
four and a half inches in length, lay exactly under the centre of the
umbo, having two rivets at the end, between which and the umbo were
the remnants of the original wooden (and perhaps hide-bound) shield;
the rivets of the umbo having apparently passed through the wood to
this plate as its bracer or stay. In a recess at the feet was placed a
vase of red earth, slightly ornamented round the neck with concentric
circles and zigzag lines.
[Illustration: [++] Anglo-Saxon Sepulchral Barrow.]
AN OLD GANDER.
Willoughby states in his work on Ornithology, that a friend of his
possessed a gander eighty years of age; which in the end became so
ferocious that they were forced to kill it, in consequence of the
havock it committed in the barn-yard. He also talks of a swan three
centuries old; and several celebrated parrots are said to have attained
from one hundred to one hundred and fifty years.
EXTRAORDINARY SLEEPER.
M. Brady, Physician to Prince Charles of Lorraine, gives the following
particulars of an extraordinary sleeper:--
"A woman, named Elizabeth Alton, of a healthful strong constitution,
who had been servant to the curate of St. Guilain, near the town
of Mons, about the beginning of the year 1738, when she was about
thirty-six years of age grew extremely restless and melancholy. In
the month of August, in the same year, she fell into a sleep which
held four days, notwithstanding all possible endeavours to awake her.
At length she awoke naturally, but became more restless and uneasy
than before; for six or seven days, however, she resumed her usual
employments, until she fell asleep again, which continued eighteen
hours. From that time to the year 1753, which is fifteen years, she
fell asleep daily about three o'clock in the morning, without waking
until about eight or nine at night. In 1754 indeed her sleep returned
to the natural periods for four months, and, in 1748, a tertian ague
prevented her sleeping for three weeks. On February 20, 1755, M. Brady,
with a surgeon, went to see her. About five o'clock in the evening,
they found her pulse extremely regular; on taking hold of her arm it
was so rigid, that it was not bent without much trouble. They then
attempted to lift up her head, but her neck and back were as stiff as
her arms. He hallooed in her ear as loud as his voice could reach; he
thrust a needle into her flesh up to the bone; he put a piece of rag
to her nose flaming with spirits of wine, and let it burn some time,
yet all without being able to disturb her in the least. At length, in
about six hours and a half, her limbs began to relax; in eight hours
she turned herself in the bed, and then suddenly raised herself up,
sat down by the fire, ate heartily, and began to spin. At other times,
they whipped her till the blood came; they rubbed her back with honey,
and then exposed it to the stings of bees; they thrust nails under her
finger-nails; and it seems these triers of experiments consulted more
the gratifying their own curiosity than the recovery of the unhappy
object of the malady."
A FAT ENGLISHMAN.
Keysler, in his travels, speaks of a corpulent Englishman, who in
passing through Savoy, was obliged to make use of twelve chairmen. He
is said to have weighed five hundred and fifty pounds, or thirty-nine
stone four pounds.
A HAPPY FAMILY.
A gentleman travelling through Mecklenburg, some years since, witnessed
a singular association of incongruous animals. After dinner, the
landlord of the inn placed on the floor a large dish of soup, and gave
a loud whistle. Immediately there came into the room a mastiff, an
Angora cat, an old raven, and a remarkably large rat, with a bell about
its neck. They all four went to the dish, and, without disturbing each
other, fed together; after which the dog, cat, and rat, lay before
the fire, while the raven hopped about the room. The landlord, after
accounting for the familiarity of these animals, informed his guest
that the rat was the most useful of the four; for the noise he made had
completely freed his house from the rats and mice with which it was
before infested.
ANCIENT FIRE-ARMS IN THE TOWER OF LONDON ARMORY.
We have just now before us a drawing of an old piece of ordnance,
formed of bars of iron, strongly hooped with the same material, which
forms a striking contrast with the finely-wrought cannons which may be
seen in store at Woolwich Arsenal, and elsewhere, at the present day.
The exact date and manner of the introduction of cannon is a matter
which has caused much dispute. The earliest mention of the use of
cannon on shipboard is in Rymer's "Foedera." It is an order to Henry
Somer, Keeper of the Private Wardrobe in the Tower, to deliver to Mr.
Goveney, Treasurer to Queen Philippa, Queen of Sweeden, Denmark, and
Norway, (who was then sent by her uncle, Henry the Fourth, to her
husband, in the ship called the Queen's Hall,) the following military
stores: 11 guns, 40 petras pro gunnes, 40 tumpers, 4 torches, 1 mallet,
2 fire-pans, 40 pavys, 24 bows, 40 sheaves of arrows.
After the old cannon composed of bars of iron, hooped together, had
been some time in use, hand-cannon, a simple tube fixed on a straight
stake, was used in warfare, charged with gunpowder and an iron bullet.
This was made with trunnions and casabel precisely like the large
cannon. In course of time, the touch-hole was improved, and the barrel
cast in brass. This, fixed to a rod, had much the appearance of a large
sky-rocket. What is now called the stock was originally called the
frame of the gun.
Various improvements were from time to time made in the hand-gun,
amongst which was a pan fixed for containing the touch-powder. In rainy
weather, this became a receptacle for water; to obviate which, a small
piece of brass made to turn on a pin was placed as a cover. This done,
there was a difficulty in preserving the aim in consequence of the
liability of the eye to be diverted from the sight by the motion of the
right hand when conveying the lighted match to the priming. This was,
to a certain extent, prevented by a piece of brass being fixed to the
breech and perforated. The improved plan for holding the lighted match
for firing the hand-guns is shown in the engraving of the Buckler and
Pistol; it consists of a thin piece of metal something in shape of an S
reversed, the upper part slit to hold the match, the lower pushed up by
the hand when entended to ignite the powder.
After the invention of the hand-cannon, its use became general in a
very short space of time in most parts of the civilized world.
Philip de Comines, in his account of the battle of Morat, in 1476, says
he encountered in the confederate army 10,000 _arquebusiers_.
The arquebusiers in Hans Burgmain's plates of the "Triumph of
Maximilian the First," have suspended from their necks large powder
flasks or horns, a bullet bag on the right hip, and a sword on the
left, while they carry the matchlock in their hands.
Henry the Eighth's Walking-stick, as the Yeomen of Guard at the Tower
call it, is a short spiked mace, in the head of which are three short
guns or pistols, which may be fired at very primitive touch-holes by a
match.
The Revolver has four barrels, and although clumsy in construction, is
not very different in principles from those recently introduced.
[Illustration: 1. Henry the Eighth's Walking-stick. 2. A Revolver of
the Fifteenth century. 3. Buckler, with Pistol inserted.]
The use of the pistol inserted inside the buckler is obvious as the
latter affords protection to the person while using the former.
WIGS.
[Illustration: [++] Wigs.]
In 1772 the Maccaronies, as the exquisites of that time were called,
wore wigs similar to 1, 2, 3, with a large toupee, noticed as early as
1731, in the play of the _Modern Husband_: "I meet with nothing but a
parcel of _toupet_ coxcombs, who plaster up their brains upon their
periwigs," alluding to the pometum with which they were covered. Those
worn by the ladies in 1772 are given as 4, showing the rows of curls at
the sides. The pig-tails were worn hanging down the back, or tied up in
a knot behind, as in 5. About 1780 the hair which formed it was allowed
to stream in a long lock down the back, as in 6, and soon afterwards
was turned up in a knot behind. Towards the end of the century, the
wig, as a general and indispensable article of attire to young and old,
went out of fashion.
A FALSE FIND.
At Falmouth, some years ago, the sexton found coal in digging a grave;
he concluded it must be a mine, and ran with the news and the specimen
to the clergyman. The surgeon explained that they had stolen a French
prisoner who died, and filled his coffin with coal that the bearers
might not discover its emptiness.
BELLS.
As far back as the Anglo-Saxon times, before the conclusion of the
seventh century, bells had been in use in the churches of this country,
particularly in the monastic societies of Northumbria; and were,
therefore, in use from the first erection of parish churches among us.
Those of France and England appear to have been furnished with several
bells. In the time of Clothaire II., King of France, and in the year
610, the army of that king was frightened from the siege of the city of
Sens, by ringing the bells of St. Stephen's Church. They were sometimes
composed of iron in France; and in England, as formerly at Rome, they
were frequently made of brass. And as early as the ninth century many
were cast of a large size and deep note.
Weever, in his work on funeral monuments, says--"In the little
sanctuary at Westminster, King Edward III., erected a clochier, and
placed therein three bells, for the use of St. Stephen's Chapel. About
the biggest of them were cast in the metal these words:--
"King Edward made mee thirty thousand weight and three;
Take me down and wey mee, and more you shall find mee."
"But these bells being taken down in the reign of Henry VIII., one
wrote underneath with a coal:--
"But Henry the Eight,
Will bait me of my weight."
This last distich alludes to a fact mentioned by Stow, in his survey
of London--ward of Farringdon Within to wit--that near to St. Paul's
School stood a clochier, in which were four bells, called _Jesus'
bells_, the greatest in all England, against which Sir Miles Partridge
staked an hundred pounds, and won them of Henry VIII., at a cast of
dice.
Matthew Paris observes, that anciently the use of bells was prohibited
in time of mourning. Mabillon adds, that it was an old practice to
ring the bells for persons about to expire, to advertise the people
to pray for them--whence our passing-bell. The passing-bell, indeed,
was anciently for two purposes--one to bespeak the prayers of all good
Christians for a soul just departing; the other to drive away the evil
spirits who were supposed to stand at the bed's foot.
This dislike of spirits to bells is mentioned in the Golden Legend, by
Wynkyn de Worde. "It is said, evill spirytes that ben in the regyon
of thayre, doubte moche when they here the belles rongen; and this is
the cause why the belles ben rongen when it thondreth, and when grete
tempeste and outrages of wether happen; to the ende that the fiends and
wycked spirytes shold be abashed and flee, and cease of the movynge of
tempeste." Another author observes, that the custom of ringing bells at
the approach of thunder is of some antiquity; but that the design was
not so much to shake the air, and so dissipate the thunder, as to call
the people to church, to pray that the parish might be preserved from
the terrible effect of lightning.
Warner, in his history of Hampshire, enumerates the virtues of a bell,
by translating the lines from the "Helpe to Discourse:--
"Men's death's I tell by doleful knell;
Lightning and thunder I break asunder.
On Sabbath all to church I call;
The sleepy head I raise from bed;
The winds so fierce I doe disperse;
Men's cruel rage I doe assuage."
[Illustration: The Curfew Bell.]
Four of the bells of the ancient Abbey of Hexham were dedicated or
baptised; and although the old bells no longer exist, the legends upon
the whole six have been preserved, and a free translation given by Mr.
Wright, is as follows:--
1. Even at our earliest sound,
The light of God is spread around.
2. At the echo of my voice,
Ocean, earth and air, rejoice.
3. Blend thy mellow tones with mine,
Silver voice of Catherine!
4. Till time on ruin's lap shall nod.
John shall sound the praise of God.
5. With John in heavenly harmony,
Andrew, pour thy melody.
6. Be mine to chant Jehovah's fame,
While Maria is my name.
These epigraphs or legends on bells, are not uncommon. The Rev. W. C.
Lukis, in his notices on church bells, read at the Wilts Archaeological
Meeting, gave the following instances:--
At Aldbourne, on the first bell, we read, "The gift of Jos. Pizzie and
Wm. Gwynn.
"Music and ringing we like so well,
And for that reason we gave this bell."
On the fourth bell is,--
"Humphry Symsin gave xx pound to buy this bell,
And the parish gave xx more to make this ring go well."
A not uncommon epigraph is,--
"Come when I call
To serve God all."
At Chilton Foliatt, on the tenor, is,--
"Into the church the living I call,
And to the grave I summon all.
Attend the instruction which I give,
That so you may for ever live."
At Devizes, St. Mary, on the first bell, is,--
"I am the first, altho' but small.
I will be heard above you all."
And on the second bell is,--
"I am the second in this ring,
Therefore next to thee I will sing."
Which, at Broadchalk, is thus varied:--
"I in this place am second bell,
I'll surely do my part as well."
On the third bell at Coln is,--
"Robert Forman collected the money for casting this bell
Of well-disposed people, as I do you tell."
At Bath Abbey, on the tenth bell, is,--
"All you of Bath that hear me sound,
Thank Lady Hopton's hundred pound."
On the fifth bell at Amesbury is,--
"Be strong in faith, praise God well,
Frances Countess Hertford's bell."
And, on the tenor,--
"Altho' it be unto my loss,
I hope you will consider my cost."
At Stowe, Northamptonshire, and at St. Mary the Virgin, Oxford, we
find,--
"Be it known to all that doth me see,
That Newcombe, of Leicester, made me."
At St. Michael's, Coventry, on the fourth bell, is,--
"I ring at six to let men know
When to and from their work to go."
On the seventh bell is,--
"I ring to Sermon with a lusty bome,
That all may come and none can stay at home."
On the eighth bell is--
"I am and have been called the common bell
To ring, when fire breaks out to tell."
At St. Peter's-le-Bailey, Oxford, four bells were sold towards
finishing the tower, and in 1792 a large bell was put up, with this
inscription:--
"With seven more I hope soon to be
For ages joined in harmony."
But this very reasonable wish has not yet been realized; whereas at St.
Lawrence's, Reading, when two bells were added to form a peal of ten,
on the second we find--
"By adding two our notes we'll raise,
And sound the good subscribers' praise."
The occasion of the erection of the Westminster Clock-tower, is said
to have been as follows:--A certain poor man, in an action for debt,
being fined the sum of 13s. 4d., Radulphus Ingham, Chief Justice of
the King's Bench, commiserating his case, caused the court roll to
be erased, and the fine reduced to 6s. 8d., which being soon after
discovered, Ingham was amerced in a pecuniary mulct of eight hundred
marks, which was employed in erecting the said bell-tower, in which
was placed a bell and a clock, which, striking hourly, was to remind
the judges in the hall of the offence of their brother. This bell was
originally called Edward; "but," says a writer in the "Antiquarian
Repertory," "when the Reformation caused St. Edward and his hours to
be but little regarded; as other bells were frequently called Tom, as
fancied to pronounce that name when stricken--that at Lincoln, for
instance, and that at Oxford--this also followed the fashion, of which,
to what I remember of it before it was hung up, I may add another proof
from a catch made by the late Mr. Eccles, which begins--
"'Hark, Harry, 'tis late--'tis time to be gone,
For Westminster Tom, by my faith, strikes one."
Hawkins, in his "History of Music," says,--"The practice of ringing
bells in change, or regular peals, is said to be peculiar to England:
whence Britain has been termed the _ringing island_. The custom seems
to have commenced in the time of the Saxons, and was common before the
Conquest. The ringing of bells, although a recreation chiefly of the
lower sort, is, in itself, not incurious. The tolling of a bell is
nothing more than the producing of a sound by a stroke of the clapper
against the side of the bell, the bell itself being in a pendant
position, and at rest. In ringing, the bell, by means of a wheel and
a rope, is elevated to a perpendicular; in its motion, the clapper
strikes forcibly on one side, and in its return downwards, on the
other side of the bell, producing at each stroke a sound." There are
still in London several societies of ringers. There was one called the
College Youths (bell-ringers, like post-boys, never seem to acquire old
age). Of this it is said Sir Matthew Hale, Lord Chief Justice of the
King's Bench, was, in his youthful days, a member; and in the life of
that upright judge, by Burnet, some facts are mentioned which favour
this relation. In England the practice of ringing has been reduced to
a science, and peals have been composed which bear the names of their
inventors; some of the most celebrated of these were composed about
fifty years ago by one Patrick. This man was a maker of barometers.
In the year 1684, one Abraham Rudhall, of the city of Gloucester,
brought the art of bell-founding to great perfection. His descendants
in succession have continued the business of casting bells; and by a
list published by them at Lady Day, 1774, the family, in peals and odd
bells, had cast to the amount of 3,594. The peals of St. Dunstan's
in the East, St. Bride's, London, and St. Martin's-in-the-Fields,
are among the number. The following "Articles of Ringing" are upon
the walls of the belfry in the pleasant village of Dunster, in
Somersetshire. They are dated 1787:--