prodigies. But instead of questioning the woman, they consulted the
works of their predecessors; not forgetting the inevitable Aristotle.
By dint of much research, they found a letter from Huygens asserting
that there was a prisoner of war at Antwerp, who could see through
stuffs of the thickest texture provided they were not red. The
wonderful man was cited in confirmation of the wonderful woman, and
_vice versa_.
CHARACTER INDICATED BY THE EARS.
According to Aristotle, large ears are indicative of imbecility; while
small ones announce madness. Ears which are flat, point out the rustic
and brutal man. Those of the fairest promise, are firm and of middling
size. Happy the man who boasts of square ears; a sure indication of
sublimity of soul and purity of life. Such, according to Suetonius,
were the ears of the Emperor Augustus.
GROANING BOARDS.
Groaning boards were the wonder in London in 1682. An elm plank was
exhibited to the king, which, being touched by a hot iron, invariably
produced a sound resembling deep groans. At the Bowman Tavern, in
Drury Lane, the mantel-piece did the same so well that it was supposed
to be part of the same elm-tree; and the dresser at the Queen's Arm
Tavern, St. Martin le Grand, was found to possess the same quality.
Strange times when such things were deemed wonderful; even to meriting
exhibition before the monarch.
ANCIENT PLOUGHING AND THRESHING.
The ancient plough was light, the draught comparatively easy; but then
the very lightness required that the ploughman should lean upon it with
his whole weight, or else it would glide over the soil without making
a single furrow. "Unless," said Pliny, "the ploughman stoop forward,
to press down the plough, as well as to conduct it, truly it will turn
aside."
[Illustration: Ancient Mode of Ploughing.]
Oxen were anciently employed in threshing corn, and the same custom is
still retained in Egypt and the east. This operation is effected by
trampling upon the sheaves, and by dragging a clumsy machine, furnished
with three rollers that turn on their axles. A wooden chair is attached
to the machine, and on this a driver seats himself, urging his oxen
backwards and forwards among the sheaves, which have previously been
thrown into a heap of about eight feet wide and two in height. The
grain thus beaten out, is collected in an open place, and shaken
against the wind by an attendant, with a small shovel, or, as it is
termed, a winnowing fan, which disperses the chaff and leaves the grain
uninjured:--
"Thus, with autumnal harvests covered o'er,
And thick bestrewn, lies Ceres' sacred floor;
While round and round, with never-wearied pain,
The trampling steers beat out th' unnumber'd grain."
HOMER.
Horace further tells us, that the threshing floor was mostly a smooth
space, surrounded with mud walls, having a barn or garner on one side;
occasionally an open field, outside the walls, was selected for this
purpose, yet uniformly before the town or city gates. Such was the void
place wherein the king of Israel, and Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, sat
each of them on his throne, clothed in his robes, at the entering in of
the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets prophesied before them. In
the marginal reading we are informed, that this void space was no other
than a threshing floor; and truly the area was well adapted for such an
assemblage, being equally suited to accommodate the two kings and their
attendants, and to separate them from the populace.
[Illustration: Oxen Threshing Corn.]
Eastern ploughshares were of a lighter make than ours, and those who
notice the shortness and substance of ancient weapons, among such as
are preserved in museums, will understand how readily they might be
applied to agricultural uses.
FROST FAIRS.
In 1788-9, the Thames was completely frozen over below London-bridge.
Booths were erected on the ice; and puppet-shows, wild beasts,
bear-baiting, turnabouts, pigs and sheep roasted, exhibited the
various amusements of Bartholomew Fair multiplied and improved. From
Putney-bridge down to Redriff was one continued scene of jollity during
this seven weeks' saturnalia. The last frost fair was celebrated
in the year 1814. The frost commenced on 27th December, 1813, and
continued to the 5th February, 1814. There was a grand walk, or mall,
from Blackfriars-bridge to London-bridge, that was appropriately
named _The City Road_, and lined on each side with booths of all
descriptions. Several printing-presses were erected, and at one of
these an orange-coloured standard was hoisted, with "_Orange Boven_"
printed in large characters. There were E O and Rouge et Noir tables,
tee-totums, and skittles; concerts of rough music, viz. salt-boxes
and rolling-pins, gridirons and tongs, horns, and marrow-bones and
cleavers. The carousing booths were filled with merry parties, some
dancing to the sound of the fiddle, others sitting round blazing fires
smoking and drinking. A printer's devil bawled out to the spectators,
"Now is your time, ladies and gentlemen,--now is your time to support
the freedom of the press! Can the press enjoy greater liberty? Here you
find it working in the middle of the Thames!"
MAGIC RAIN STONE.
The Indian magi, who are to invoke Yo He Wah, and mediate with the
supreme holy fire that he may give seasonable rains, have a transparent
stone of supposed great power in assisting to bring down the rain, when
it is put in a basin of water, by a reputed divine virtue, impressed on
one of the like sort, in time of old, which communicates it circularly.
This stone would suffer a great decay, they assert, were it even seen
by their own laity; but if by foreigners, it would be utterly despoiled
of its divine communicative power.
THE BOMBARDIER BEETLE.
The bombardier beetle (_Carabus crepitans_) when touched produces a
noise resembling the discharge of a musket in miniature, during which
a blue smoke may be seen to proceed from its extremity. Rolander says
that it can give twenty discharges successively. A bladder placed near
its posterior extremity, is the arsenal that contains its store. This
is its chief defence against its enemies; and the vapour or liquid
that proceeds from it is of so pungent a nature, that if it happens to
be discharged into the eyes, it makes them smart as though brandy had
been thrown into them. The principal enemy of the bombardier is another
insect of the same tribe, but three or four times its size. When
pursued and fatigued it has recourse to this stratagem; it lies down in
the path of its enemy, who advances with open mouth to seize it; but on
the discharge of the artillery, this suddenly draws back, and remains
for a while confused, during which the bombardier conceals itself in
some neighbouring crevice, but if not lucky enough to find one, the
other returns to the attack, takes the insect by the head, and bears it
off.
THE PILLORY FOR EATING FLESH IN LENT.
Even in this kingdom, so late as the Reformation, eating flesh in
Lent was rewarded with the pillory. An instance of this occurs in
the "Patriot King," the particulars of which, quoted in "Clavis
Calendaria," are somewhat amusing. Thomas Freburn's wife, of
Paternoster-row, London, having expressed a particular inclination
for pig, one was procured, ready for the spit; but the butter-woman
who provided it, squeamish as to the propriety of what she had done,
carried a foot of it to the Dean of Canterbury. The Dean was at
dinner, and one of his guests was Freburn's landlord, and Garter King
at Arms, who sent to know if any of his family were ill, that he ate
flesh in Lent. 'All well,' quoth Freburn, (perhaps too much of a
Dissenter for the times,) 'only my wife longs for pig.' His landlord
sends for the Bishop of London's apparitor, and orders him to take
Freburn and his pig before Stocksly, the Bishop, who sent them both
to Judge Cholmley; but he not being at home, they were again brought
back to the Bishop, who committed them to the Compter. Next day, being
Saturday, Freburn was carried before the Lord Mayor, who sentenced
him to stand in the pillory on the Monday following, with one half
of the pig on one shoulder, and the other half on the other. Through
Cromwell's intercession, the poor man at last gained his liberty by a
bond of twenty pounds for his appearance. The mischief-making pig was,
by the order of the Bishop, buried in Finsbury-field, by the hand of
his Lordship's apparitor; but Freburn was turned out of his house, and
could not get another in four years. Hence we may infer his ruin.
HUGE CANNON AT THE SIEGE OF CONSTANTINOPLE.
In 1432, several kinds of artillery are mentioned, cannons, bombards,
vulgaires, coulverins. The vulgaires were ordinary artillery. In the
year 1460, James II. of Scotland was killed by the accidental bursting
of a cannon. The artillery of the Turks, in the year 1453, surpassed
whatever had yet appeared in the world. A stupendous piece of ordnance
was made by them; its bore was twelve palms, and the stone bullet
weighed about 600 lbs.; it was brought with great difficulty before
Constantinople, and was flanked by two almost of equal magnitude:
fourteen batteries were brought to bear against the place, mounting 130
guns; the great cannon could not be loaded and fired more than seven
times in one day. Mines were adopted by the Turks, and counter-mines
by the Christians. At this siege, which was in 1453, ancient and
modern artillery were both used. Cannons, intermingled with machines
for casting stones and darts, and the battering-ram was directed
against the walls. The fate of Constantinople could no longer be
averted: the diminutive garrison was exhausted by a double attack; the
fortifications were dismantled on all sides by the Ottoman cannon;
a spirit of discord impaired the Christian strength. After a siege
of fifty-three days, Constantinople, which had defied the power of
Chosroes, the Chagan, and the Caliphs, was subdued by the arms of
Mahomet II.
A MAN IN A VAULT ELEVEN DAYS.
_St. Benedict Fink._--"1673, April 23, was buried Mr Thomas Sharrow,
Cloth-worker, late Churchwarden of this parish, killed by an accidental
fall into a vault, in London Wall, Amen Corner, by Paternoster Row,
and was supposed had lain there eleven days and nights before any
one could tell where he was, _Let all that read this take heed of
drink._"--Truly, a quaint warning!
BLIND GRANNY.
[Illustration: [++] Blind Granny.]
This miserable, wretched, drunken object, who was blind of one eye,
used to annoy the passengers in the streets of London, while sober,
with licking her blind eye with her tongue, which was of a most
enormous length, and thickness; indeed, it was of such a prodigious
size, that her mouth could not contain it, and she could never close
her lips, or to use a common expression, keep her tongue within
her teeth. This wonderful feat of washing her eye with her tongue
was exhibited with a view of obtaining money from such as crowded
around her, and no sooner had she obtained sufficient means, but
she hastened to the first convenient liquor-shop, to indulge her
propensity in copious libations, and when properly inspired, would
rush into the streets with all the gestures of a frantic maniac, and
roll and dance about, until she became a little sobered, which was
sometimes accelerated by the salutary application of a pail of water,
gratuitously bestowed upon her by persons whose doorway she had taken
possession of, as shelter from the persecuting tormentings of boys and
girls who generally followed her.
ANCIENT FEMALE COSTUME.
[Illustration: [++] costume of a female of the higher classes.]
A good specimen of the costume of a female of the higher classes is
here given, from an effigy of a lady of the Ryther family, in Ryther
church, Yorkshire, engraved in Hollis's _Monumental Effigies_. She
wears a wimple, covering the neck and encircling the head, the hair
of which is gathered in plaits at the sides, and covered with a
kerchief, which falls upon the shoulders, and is secured by a fillet
passing over the forehead. The sleeves of the gown hang midway from
the elbow and the wrist, and display the tight sleeve with its rows of
buttons beneath. The mantle is fastened by a band of ribbon, secured
by ornamental studs. The lower part of the dress consists of the wide
gown, lying in folds, and completely concealing the feet, which have
been omitted, in order to display the upper part of this interesting
effigy to greater advantage.
CHILCOTT, THE GIANT.
1815. Died at Trenaw, in Cornwall, a person known by the appellation
of Giant Chilcott. He measured at the breast six feet nine inches, and
weighed four hundred and sixty pounds. One of his stockings held six
gallons of wheat.
DR. LETTSOM'S REASONS FOR DISMISSING A SERVANT.
The Doctor was in the practice of carrying the produce of his fees
carelessly in his coat-pocket. His footman being aware of this, used to
make free with a guinea occasionally, while it hung up in the passage.
The Doctor, having repeatedly missed his gold, was suspicious of the
footman, and took an opportunity of watching him. He succeeded in
the detection, and, without even noticing it to the other servants,
called him into his study, and coolly said to him, "John, art in want
of money?" "No;" replied John. "Oh! then, why didst thou make so free
with my pocket? And since thou didst not want money, and hast told me a
lie, I must part with thee. Now, say what situation thou wouldst like
abroad, and I will obtain it for thee; for I cannot keep thee; I cannot
recommend thee; therefore thou must go." Suffice it to say, the Doctor
procured John a situation, and he went abroad.
HANDBILL FROM PECKHAM FAIR IN 1726.
Our ancestors just 133 years ago had but limited opportunities for
gratifying a taste for Natural History if we may judge from the supply
of animals deemed sufficient to attract attention in 1726:--
"_Geo. I. R._
"To the lovers of living curiosities. To be seen during the time of
_Peckham Fair_, a Grand Collection of Living Wild Beasts and Birds,
lately arrived from the remotest parts of the World.
"1. The _Pellican_ that suckles her young with her heart's blood, from
Egypt.
"2. The Noble _Vultur Cock_, brought from _Archangell_, having the
finest tallons of any bird that seeks his prey; the fore part of his
head is covered with hair, the second part resembles the wool of a
Black; below that is a white ring, having a Ruff, that he cloaks his
head with at night.
"3. An _Eagle of the Sun_, that takes the loftiest flight of any bird
that flies. There is no bird but this that can fly to the face of the
Sun with a naked eye.
"4. A curious Beast, bred from a _Lioness_, like a foreign _Wild Cat_.
"5. The _He-Panther_, from Turkey, allowed by the curious to be one of
the greatest rarities ever seen in _England_, on which are thousands of
spots, and not two of a likeness.
"6 & 7. The two fierce and surprising _Hyaenas_, Male and Female, from
the River _Gambia_. These Creatures imitate the human voice, and so
decoy the Negroes out of their huts and plantations to devour them.
They have a mane like a horse, and two joints in their hinder leg more
than any other creature. It is remarkable that all other beasts are to
be tamed, but _Hyaenas_ they are not.
"8. An _Ethiopian Toho Savage_, having all the actions of the human
species, which (when at its full growth) will be upwards of five feet
high.
"Also several other surprising Creatures of different sorts. To be seen
from 9 in the morning till 9 at night, till they are sold. Also, all
manner of curiosities of different sorts, are bought and sold at the
above place by John Bennett."
SOMNAMBULISM.
Some years ago a Hampshire Baronet was nearly driven to distraction
by the fact that, every night, he went to bed in a shirt, and every
morning awoke naked, without the smallest trace of the missing garment
being discovered.
Hundreds of shirts disappeared in this manner; and as there was no fire
in his room, it was impossible to account for the mystery. The servants
believed their master to be mad; and even he began to fancy himself
bewitched. In this conjuncture, he implored an intimate friend to
sleep in the room with him; and ascertain by what manner of mysterious
midnight visitant his garment was so strangely removed. The friend,
accordingly, took up his station in the haunted chamber; and lo! as the
clock struck one, the unfortunate Baronet, who had previously given
audible intimation of being fast asleep, rose from his bed, rekindled
with a match the candle which had been extinguished, deliberately
opened the door, and quitted the room. His astonished friend followed:
saw him open in succession a variety of doors, pass along several
passages, traverse an open court, and eventually reach the stable-yard;
where he divested himself of his shirt, and disposed of it in an old
dung-heap, into which he thrust it by means of a pitchfork. Having
finished this extraordinary operation, without taking the smallest heed
of his friend who stood looking on, and plainly saw that he was walking
in his sleep, he returned to the house, carefully reclosed the doors,
re-extinguished the light, and returned to bed; where the following
morning he awoke as usual, stripped of his shirt!
The astonished eye-witness of this extraordinary scene, instead of
apprising the sleep-walker of what had occurred, insisted that the
following night, a companion should sit up with him; choosing to have
additional testimony to the truth of the statement he was about to
make; and the same singular events were renewed, without the slightest
change or deviation. The two witnesses, accordingly, divulged all they
had seen to the Baronet; who, though at first incredulous, became of
course convinced, when, on proceeding to the stable-yard, several
dozens of shirts were discovered; though it was surmised that as many
more had been previously removed by one of the helpers, who probably
looked upon the hoard as stolen goods concealed by some thief.
KILLED BY EATING MUTTON AND PUDDING.
_Teddington._--"James Parsons, who had often eat a shoulder of mutton
or a peck of hasty pudding, at a time, which caused his death, buried
March 7, 1743-4, aged 36."
CORAL REEFS.
Coral reefs are produced by innumerable small zoophytes, properly
called _Coral-insects_. The Coral insect consists of a little oblong
bag of jelly closed at one end, but having the other extremity open,
and surrounded by tentacles or feelers, usually six or eight in number,
set like the rays of a star. Multitudes of these diminutive animals
unite to form a common stony skeleton called _Coral_, or _Madrepore_,
in the minute openings of which they live, protruding their mouths
and tentacles when under water; but suddenly drawing them into their
holes when danger approaches. These animals cannot exist at a greater
depth in the sea than about ten fathoms, and as the Coral Islands often
rise with great steepness from a sea more than three hundred fathoms
deep, it would seem that a great alteration must have taken place in
the depth of the ocean since the time when these little architects
commenced their labours. Throughout the whole range of the Polynesian
and Australasian islands, there is scarcely a league of sea unoccupied
by a coral reef, or a coral island; the former springing up to the
surface of the water, perpendicularly from the fathomless bottom,
"deeper than did ever plummet sound;" and the latter in various stages,
from the low and naked rock, with the water rippling over it, to an
uninterrupted forest of tall trees.
"Every one," says Mr. Darwin, "must be struck with astonishment when
he first beholds one of these vast rings of coral rock, often many
leagues in diameter, here and there surmounted by a low verdant island
with dazzling white shores, bathed on the outside by the foaming
breakers of the ocean, and on the inside surrounding a calm expanse of
water, which, from reflection, is of a bright but pale green colour.
The naturalist will feel this astonishment more deeply after having
examined the soft and almost gelatinous bodies of these apparently
insignificant creatures; and when he knows that the solid reef
increases only on the outer edge, which, day and night, is lashed by
the breakers of an ocean never at rest."
[Illustration: [++] Coral Reefs.]
Coral being beautiful in form and colour, is sought after for purposes
of ornament; and its fishery or gathering gives employment to many
persons in the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf, the Mediterranean, and other
places. In the Straits of Messina, the rocks which yield coral are from
about 350 to 650 feet below the surface of the water. The coral here
grows to about the height or length of twelve inches, and requires
eight or ten years to come to perfection. In the general mode of
fishing for coral, the instrument used consists of two heavy beams of
wood, secured together at right angles, and loaded with stones to sink
them.
MILITARY HATS IN OLDEN TIME.
[Illustration:
No. 1, Charles I.
No. 2, William III.
No. 3, Nivernois.
No. 4, Kevenhuller.
No. 5, Ramilies.
No. 6, Wellington.]
WHY A MAN MEASURES MORE IN THE MORNING THAN IN THE EVENING, &c.
There is an odd phenomenon attending the human body, as singular as
common: that a person is shorter standing than lying; and shorter in
the evening when he goes to bed, than in the morning when he rises.
This remark was first made in England, and afterwards confirmed at
Paris, by M. Morand, a member of the Royal Academy of Sciences in
France, and by the Abbot Fontana likewise.
The last-mentioned person found, from a year's experience, that
ordinarily in the night he gained five or six lines, and lost nearly as
much in the day.
The cause of which effect, so ancient, so common, but so lately
perceived, proceeds from the different state or condition of the
intervertebral annular cartilages.
The vertebrae, or joints of the spine, are kept separate, though joined
by particular cartilages, every one of which has a spring. These yield
on all sides, without any inflexion on the spine, to the weight of
the head and upper extremities; but this is done by very small and
imperceptible degrees, and most of all when the upper parts of the body
are loaded with any exterior weight. So that a man is really taller
after lying some time, than after walking, or carrying a burthen a
great while.
For this reason it is that, in the day and evening, while one is
sitting or standing, the superior parts of the body that weigh or press
upon the inferior, press those elastic annular cartilages, the bony
jointed work is contracted, the superior parts of the body descend
towards the inferior, and proportionably as one approaches the other,
the height of the stature diminishes.
Hence it was, that a fellow enlisting for a soldier, by being measured
over-night, was found deficient in height, and therefore refused; but
by accident being gauged again the next morning, and coming up to the
stature, he was admitted.
On the contrary, in the night-time, when the body is laid a-bed, as
it is in an horizontal situation, or nearly so, the superior parts
do not weigh, or but very little, upon the inferior; the spring of
the cartilages is unbent, the vertebrae are removed from one another,
the long jointed work of the spine is dilated, and the body thereby
prolonged; so that a person finds himself about half an inch, or more,
higher in stature in the morning than when going to bed. This is the
most natural and simple reason that can be given, for the different
heights of the same person at different times.
A SENSIBLE DOG REFUSING TO BAIT A CAT.
A dustman of the name of Samuel Butcher, residing at Mile-end, who
kept a large dog, having taken it into his head to divert himself and
others, a few days ago, by the cruel sport of cat baiting, which the
dog refusing to perform to the satisfaction of his master, was beat by
him in a most brutal manner, when the animal at length, in retaliation,
flew at his unmerciful keeper, and inflicted very severe wounds about
his face, limbs, and body, in some instances tearing large mouthfuls of
his flesh quite clean out, and at one time clung so fast to the man,
that before he disengaged from him the animal's throat was obliged to
be cut. The man was promptly conveyed to the London Hospital, and there
died of the injuries he received.
A HORSE GETTING HIMSELF SHOD.