Twelfth Day, &c.:--Make the likeness of a ship in pasteboard with flags
and streamers, the guns belonging to it of kickses, bind them about
with pack-thread and cover them with paste proportionable to the
fashion of a cannon with carriages; lay them in places convenient, as
you see them in ships of war, with such holes and trains of powder that
they may all take fire. Place your ships firm in a great charger; then
make a salt round about it, and stick therein egg-shells full of sweet
water; you may by a great pin take out all the meat out of the egg by
blowing, and then fill it with rose-water. Then in another charger have
the proportion of a stag made of coarse paste, with a broad arrow in
the side of him, and his body filled up with claret wine. In another
charger at the end of the stag have the proportion of a castle with
battlements, percullices, gates, and drawbridges, made of pasteboard,
the guns of kickses, and covered with coarse paste as the former; place
it at a distance from the ship to fire at each other. The stag being
placed betwixt them, with egg-shells full of sweet water (as before)
placed in salt. At each side of the charger wherein is the stag, place
a pie made of coarse paste, in one of which let there be some live
frogs, in the other live birds; make these pies of coarse paste, filled
with bran, and yellowed over saffron, or yolks of eggs: gild them over
in spots, as also the stag, the ship and castle; bake them, and place
them with gilt bay leaves on the turrets and tunnels of the castle and
pies; being baked make a hole in the bottom of your pies, take out the
bran, put in your frogs and birds, and close up the holes with the
same coarse paste; then cut the lids neatly up to be taken off by the
tunnels. Being all placed in order upon the table, before you fire the
trains of powder, order it so that some of the ladies may be persuaded
to pluck the arrow out of the stag; then will the claret wine follow,
as blood running out of a wound. This being done with admiration to
the beholders, after some short pause, fire the train of the castle,
that the pieces all of one side may go off; then fire the trains of
one side of the ship as in a battle; next turn the chargers, and by
degrees fire the trains of each other side, as before. This done, to
sweeten the stink of the powder, the ladies take the egg-shells full of
sweet waters, and throw them at each other, all dangers being seemed
over, and by this time you may suppose they will desire to see what
is in the pies; when lifting first the lid off one pie, out skip some
frogs, which makes the ladies to skip and shriek; next after the other
pie, whence comes out the birds; who by a natural instinct flying at
the light, will put out the candles; so that what with the flying
birds and skipping frogs, the one above, the other beneath, will cause
much delight and pleasure to the whole company: at length the candles
are lighted and a banquet brought in, the music sounds, and every one
with much delight and content rehearses their actions in the former
passages. These were formerly the delights of the nobility, before good
house-keeping had left England, and the sword really acted that which
was only counterfeited in such honest and laudable exercises as these."
SUSPENDED ANIMATION.
David Beck, the celebrated portrait painter, and pupil of Vandyke,
travelling through Germany, was suddenly taken ill, and to all
appearance died, and was laid out as a corpse. His servants, sitting
round the bed, grieved heartily for the loss of so good a master; and,
as grief is thirsty, drank as heartily at the same time. One of them,
becoming more fuddled than the rest, then addressed his companions
thus: "Our master when alive was fond of his glass, let us now, out of
gratitude, then give him one now he is dead." Assent was given, the
head of the dead painter was raised up, and some wine poured down or
spilt about, the fragrance or spirit of which caused Beck to open his
eyes; upon which the servant, who, being drunk, half forgetting his
master was dead, forced down the remainder of the glass. The painter
gradually revived, and thus escaped a living interment.
FUNERAL OF MARAT.
The funeral of Marat was celebrated at Paris, July 17th, 1793, with the
greatest pomp and solemnity. All the sections joined the procession.
An immense crowd of people attended it. Four women bore the bathing
machine in which Marat was standing when he was assassinated; his
shirt, stained with blood, was carried by a fury, in the shape of a
woman, at the top of a pike. After this followed a wooden bedstead,
on which the corpse of Marat was carried by citizens. His head was
uncovered, and the gash he had received could be easily distinguished.
The procession was paraded through several streets, and was saluted on
its march by several discharges of artillery.
EXECUTION OF ANNE BOLEYN.
In Houssaie's "Memoirs," Vol. I. p. 435, a little circumstance is
recorded concerning the decapitation of the unfortunate Anne Boleyn,
which illustrates an observation of Hume. Our historian notices that
her executioner was a Frenchman of Calais, who was supposed to have
uncommon skill; it is probable that the following incident might
have been preserved by tradition in France, from the account of the
executioner himself. Anne Boleyn being on the scaffold, would not
consent to have her eyes covered with a bandage, saying that she had
no fear of death. All that the divine who assisted at her execution
could obtain from her was, that she would shut her eyes. But as she
was opening them at every moment, the executioner could not bear their
tender and mild glances. Fearful of missing his aim, he was obliged to
invent an expedient to behead the queen. He drew off his shoes, and
approached her silently; while he was at her left hand, another person
advanced at her right, who made a great noise in walking, so that this
circumstance drawing the attention of Anne, she turned, her face from
the executioner, who was enabled by this artifice to strike the fatal
blow without being disarmed by that pride of affecting resignation
which shone in the eyes of the lovely Anne Boleyn.
MEXICAN TENNIS.
The Mexicans had one singular law in their play with the ball. In the
walls of the court where they played certain stones, like mill-stones
were fixed, with a hole in the middle, just large enough to let the
ball pass through; and whoever drove it through, which required great
skill, and was, of course, rarely effected, won the cloaks of the
lookers-on. They, therefore, took to their heels to save their cloaks,
and others pursued to catch them, which was a new source of amusement.
CURIOUSLY-SHAPED VESSEL.
[Illustration [++] Vessel in the Shape of a Lion.]
There is a singular class of Northern relics, of the Christian Period,
of which analogous types have been found in Scotland, which well
deserve our attention. The relics of which we speak consist of a
curious variety of vessels, presumed to have been designed for holding
liquors, but invariably made in the form of some animal or monstrous
hybrid. The annexed figure represents one of these, in the collection
of Charles Kirkpatrick Sharp, Esq., and found by him among a hoard of
long-forgotten family heirlooms, in a vault of his paternal mansion
of Hoddam Castle, Dumfriesshire. Of its previous history nothing is
known. It is made of bronze. The principal figure is a lion, without a
tail, measuring fourteen inches in length, and nearly fourteen inches
in greatest height. On the back is perched a nondescript animal, half
greyhound, half fish, apparently intended for a handle to the whole,
while from the breast projects a stag's head with large antlers. This
has a perforation in the back of the neck, as if for the insertion of
a stop-cock, and it appears probable was designed for running off the
liquid contained within the singular vessel to which it is attached. A
small square lid on the top of the lion's head, opening with a hinge,
supplies the requisite aperture for whatever liquor it was designed to
hold. A similar relic, possessed by Sir John Maxwell, Bart., was dug up
a few years since on the Pollock estate; and another, in the collection
of the late E. W. A. Drummond Hay, Esq., was also in the form of a lion.
A SENSIBLE DOG.
Professor Owen was walking with a friend, the master of the dog,
by the side of a river, near its mouth, on the coast of Cornwall,
and picked up a small piece of seaweed. It was covered with minute
animals, and Mr. Owen observed to his companion, throwing the weed
into the water,--"If this small piece afforded so many treasures, how
microscopically rich the whole plant would be! I should much like to
have one!" The gentleman walked on; but hearing a splashing in the
water, turned round and saw it violently agitated. "It is Lion!" both
exclaimed. "What can he be about? He was walking quietly enough by our
side a minute ago." At one moment they saw his tail above the water,
then his head raised for a breath of air, then the surrounding element
shook again, and at last he came ashore, panting from his exertions,
and laid a whole plant of the identical weed at Mr. Owen's feet. After
this proof of intelligence, it will not be wondered at, that when Lion
was joyfully expecting to accompany his master and his guest on an
excursion, and was told to go and take care of and comfort Mrs. Owen,
who was ill, that he should immediately return to the drawing-room, and
lay himself by her side, which he never left during the absence of his
owner; his countenance alone betraying his disappointment, and that
only for a few minutes.
THE CROWN OF CHARLEMAGNE.
As the emblem of sovereignty which once adorned the brows of one of
earth's mightiest men, and as a unique specimen of the state at which
the goldsmith's art had arrived as early as the ninth century, we here
present our readers with an engraving of the crown of Charlemagne.
[Illustration [++] Crown of Charlemagne.]
This great man was the eldest son of Pepin the Short, and grandson of
Charles Martel, and was born at the castle of Ingelheim, near Metz,
in the year 742. His father dying in 768 he succeeded to the crown in
conjunction with his brother Carloman, whose death in 771 left him sole
monarch of the Franks. By his alliances, negociations, and principally
by his numerous and glorious wars, he so enlarged his dominions, that
at length they extended from the Ebro to the mouth of the Elbe, from
the Atlantic to the mountains of Bohemia and the Saal, and from the
British Channel to the Volturno. In the year 800 he was crowned at
Rome, as Emperor of the West, by Pope Leo III., and died of a pleurisy
in 814, at Aix-la-Chapelle, in the cathedral of which city he was
buried with extraordinary magnificence. Equally illustrious in the
cabinet and in the field, a wise legislator, and a great warrior, the
patron of men of letters, and the restorer of learning, Charlemagne
has united in his favour the suffrages of statesmen and soldiers, and
of ecclesiastics, lawyers, and men of letters, who have all vied with
one another in bestowing the homage of their praise on the celebrated
founder of the Western Empire.
The crown of this illustrious man, of which our engraving is a correct
representation, is now preserved at Vienna in the Imperial Treasury.
It is composed of eight plates of gold, four large and four small,
connected by hinges. The large ones, studded with precious stones, form
the front, the back, and the intermediate points of the crown; the
small ones, placed alternately with these, are ornamented with enamels
representing Solomon, David, King Hezekiah seated on his throne,
and Christ seated between two flaming seraphim, such as the Greeks
usually represent them. The costume of the figures resembles that of
the Emperors of the Lower Empire, and although the inscriptions which
accompany the figures are in Latin, the whole bears the impress of
Greek workmanship. The ground of the figures is formed by the metal
itself, which has been hollowed out to receive the enamel; but all the
details of the design are traced out with fine fillets of gold. The
flesh-tints are in rose-coloured enamel; the colours employed in the
draperies and accessories are deep and light blue, red, and white. The
crown has unquestionably been retouched at various periods, but yet
there is nothing to invalidate the tradition which assigns the more
ancient portions to the time of Charlemagne. The enamels must belong to
the same early period.
SPENT BY THE CORPORATION OF COVENTRY AT THE ENTERTAINMENT OF KING JAMES
II. IN HIS PROGRESS THROUGH COVENTRY, 1687.
(Mr. Richard Haywood, Treasurer.)
L s. d.
Gave a gold cup 171 17 6
Mr. Septimus Butt, mayor, for sweetmeats 27 17 0
Meat 13 14 0
Wine 21 12 6
Homage fee 41 6 8
King's cook 10 0 0
City cook 9 8 6
Steward Fielding, for making a speech to his Majesty 5 7 6
For linen spoiled, borrowed of Mrs. Smith, Spon-street 2 12 6
The aldermen that went to Worcester to invite him 3 18 9
Several companies for waiting on the King 27 9 4
Alderman Webster, for meat 3 6 0
Alderman Bradney for corn 3 5 6
His Majesty's clerk of the market 1 1 6
The King's trumpeters 2 0 0
Richard Howcott, for carrying the city streamer 0 7 0
The city bailiff's bill for fish, fowl, and wine 88 18 2
-------------
L434 2 9
TRAVELLING EXPENSES IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
Of travelling expenses in the thirteenth century, a roll is in
existence, and is too interesting to be passed over. It contains
a steward's accompts of the daily expenses of a person of rank in
the reign of Edward I, on a journey from Oxford to Canterbury,
and during his sojourn in London, about the year 1289; while the
record throws much light upon the mode of our ancestors' living,
at a period concerning which we have very few similar memorials.
One day's expenses are as follow: "In bread, sixpence. Two gallons
of wine, a gift of hospitality from the rector of Berton. Item in
bread, sixpence. Two gallons of wine, a gift of hospitality from the
rector of Mistern. Beer, sixpence. Herrings, threepence. Stockfish,
fourpence. Porpoise and fish, fourpence. Perch and roach, seven-pence.
Large eels, seven-pence. Vegetables, threepence farthing. Figs and
raisins, twopence. Fuel, five-pence. A bed for two nights, twopence.
Hay for seven horses, seven-pence. A bushel of oats, twenty-pence.
Apples, a halfpenny. Sum, six shillings and eight-pence halfpenny."
The most expensive day in the roll is on a Sunday, "in expenses of
my lord at Westminster, when he held a breakfast there for knights,
clerks, and squires. Bread, two shillings. Beer, twelve-pence. Wine,
three shillings and eight-pence. Half a salmon, for the standard,
with the chine, three shillings and eight-pence. A fresh conger eel,
three shillings. Three fat pikes, five fat eels, and twenty-seven fat
roaches, twelve shillings and fourpence. Half a hundred lamprorns,
twelve-pence. Oysters, threepence. Vegetables, twopence. The hire of
a boy to prepare the breakfast, one penny. Fare to Westminster, one
penny. A basket, one penny farthing. On the same day at the inn: bread,
five-pence farthing. Beer from the store. Two gallons of beer for the
boys, twopence. Fish from the store. Candles, a halfpenny. Fuel, a
halfpenny. Hay bought, five-pence three farthings. Straw, sixpence.
Two bushels of oats, eight-pence. Two pair of shoes for my lord,
twelve-pence. Sum, thirty shillings and threepence farthing."
DUNS IN THE MAHRATTA COUNTRY.
The Mahratta mode of recovering debts is curious. When the creditor
cannot get his money, and begins to see the debt as rather desperate,
he sits _dhurna_ upon his debtor; that is, he squats down at the door
of the tent, and becomes, in a certain mysterious degree, the master
of it. No one goes in or out without his approbation. He neither eats
himself, nor suffers his debtor to eat; and this famishing contest is
carried on till the debt is paid, or till the creditor begins to _feel_
that want of food is a greater punishment than the want of money. This
curious mode of enforcing a demand is in universal practice among the
Mahrattas; Scindiah himself, the chieftain, not being exempt from it.
The man who sits the _dhurna_, goes to the house, or tent, of him
whom he wishes to bring to terms, and remains there till the affair
is settled; during which time, the one under restraint is confined to
his apartment, and not suffered to communicate with any persons but
those whom the other may approve of. The laws by which the _dhurna_
is regulated are as well defined and understood as those of any other
custom whatever. When it is meant to be very strict, the claimant
carries a number of his followers, who surround the tent, sometimes
even the bed of his adversary, and deprive him altogether of food;
in which case, however, etiquette prescribes the same abstinence to
himself: the strongest stomach, of course, carries the day. A custom of
this kind was once so prevalent in the province and city of Benares,
that Brahmins were _trained_ to remain a long time without food. They
were then sent to the door of some rich individual, where they made a
vow to remain without eating, till they should obtain a certain sum of
money. To preserve the life of a Brahmin is so absolutely a duty, that
the money was generally paid; but never till a good struggle had taken
place, to ascertain whether the man was staunch or not; for money is
the life and soul of all Hindoos.
VAUXHALL.
[Illustration [++] Vauxhall.]
The trees seen above the houses at the foot of the Surrey side of
Westminster Bridge are those of Vauxhall Gardens, the site of which
will soon be covered with buildings. These grounds were once the glory
of English pleasure-gardens, frequented by the highest in the land
from the gay days of Charles II. to those of "the Regency," and were
celebrated in musical history for talent of the highest kind here
introduced. In the old orchestra, whose towering summit may be seen
from the Thames, the greatest musical celebrities have sung. Handel,
Dr. Arne, and Hook superintended its concerts; and Hogarth decorated
its walls with paintings. It obtained its name from a very old mansion
that once stood near it. This old manor-house of Fawkes Hall, as it
existed in the reign of Charles I., is shown in our engraving; at that
time it was described as a "fair dwelling-house, strongly built, of
three stories high, and a pier staircase breaking out from it nineteen
feet square." This staircase occupied one of the towers, in accordance
with the ancient plan, and the house was a curious specimen of the old
timber houses of the gentry in the sixteenth century.
It appears to have obtained its name from Foukes de Breut, who married
the heiress of the manor, the Countess of Albemarle, sister to Baldwin,
Archbishop of Canterbury; and it was granted by the name of the manor
of Foukeshall, by Edward III. to his favourite Hugh le Despenser. In
1615 the records of the Duchy of Cornwall prove the premises known as
Vauxhall Gardens to have been the leasehold property of Jane Vaux,
widow of John Vaux, citizen and vintner of London, and a benefactor
to the parish of Lambeth. It has always remained, with the manor of
Kennington, as the property of the crown, and belongs to the Prince of
Wales as part of his Duchy of Cornwall. Vauxhall Gardens closed for
ever on July 25th, 1859, with an _al fresco fete_.
EGYPTIAN TOILET BOXES.
[Illustration [++] Egyptian Toilet Boxes.]
The ladies of ancient Egypt were very fond of having their apartments
set off with a profusion of knick-knacks, and among other articles of
that sort, they usually had several different kinds of toilet-boxes
on their dressing-tables. The above engraving represents a group of
them. They have been found in considerable numbers among the ruins
of the palaces, and they form interesting objects among the Egyptian
curiosities in many of our museums. They were made of wood, or of
ivory, often inlaid, and always elaborately carved. Sometimes they
partook of the nature of spoons, the containing part being shallow,
at the end of a long solid handle; the handle was carved into the
most fanciful forms--a grotesque human figure, a woman, a fox, or a
fish--and the spoon part was generally covered with a lid, which turned
on a pivot. In one of those in the engraving, the spoon takes the
form of a fish, the cover being carved to resemble its scales, while
another, also in the form of a fish, has two cavities, the one covered,
the other permanently open. Sometimes the body of a goose formed the
box, either trussed for the table, or in the posture of life, and other
forms were devised from the fancy of the artist. Some of these shallow
boxes are supposed to have been used for holding small quantities of
ointments and cosmetics upon the toilet-table.
SPACIOUS KITCHEN.
One of the most spacious kitchens in England is that of Raby Castle,
the magnificent seat of the Duke of Cleveland. It is a square of thirty
feet, having three chimneys, one for the grate, a second for stoves,
and the third, (now stopped up,) for the great cauldron. The roof
is arched, with a small cupola in the centre: it has likewise five
windows, from each of which steps descend, but only in one instance to
the floor; and a gallery runs round the whole interior of the building.
The ancient oven is said to have allowed a tall person to stand upright
in it, its diameter being fifteen feet. It has since been converted
into a wine cellar, the sides being divided into ten parts, and each
holding a hogshead of wine in bottles. Vast as is this kitchen, it must
have been but suitable to the hospitality of former ages: for, in one
of the apartments of Raby Castle, seven hundred knights are stated to
have been entertained at one time.
THE HAWTHORNDEN CAVES.
In almost every country on the earth there are natural or artificial
caves, which have supplied hiding-places, retreats for anchorites, and
even permanent native dwellings. Such caves abound in Scotland, and
especially along the coast, but in general their interest arises rather
from the associations of popular traditions, than from any intrinsic
peculiarity of character pertaining to them. Few such retreats are more
remarkable, either for constructive art, or historic associations,
than the well-known caves beneath the old tower of Hawthornden, near
Edinburgh. They have been hewn, with great labour and ingenuity, in
the rocky cliff which overhangs the river Esk. No tradition preserves
the history or date of their execution, but concealment was evidently
the chief design of the excavators. The original entrance is most
ingeniously made in the shaft of a very deep draw-well, sunk in the
court-yard of the castle, and from its manifest utility as the ordinary
and indispensable appendage of the fortress, it most effectually
conceals its adaptation as a means of ingress and communication with
the rock chambers beneath. These are of various forms and sizes, and
one in particular is pierced with a series of square recesses, somewhat
resembling the columbaria of a Roman tomb, but assigned by popular
tradition as the library of its later owner, Drummond, the Scottish
poet. Whatever was the purpose for which these were thus laboriously
cut, the example is not singular. A large cave in Roxburghshire, hewn
out in the lofty cliff which overhangs the Teviot, has in its sides
similar recesses, and from their supposed resemblance to the interior
of a pigeon-house, the cavern has received the name of the _Doo-cave_.
Authentic notices of the Hawthornden caves occur so early as the reign
of David II., when a daring band of Scottish adventurers made good
their head-quarters there, while Edward held the newly-fortified castle
of Edinburgh, and the whole surrounding district. In the glen of the
little river Ale, which falls into the Teviot at Ancrum, extensive
groups of caves occur, all indicating, more or less, artificial
adaptation as human dwellings; and in many other districts similar
evidences may be seen of temporary or permanent habitation, at some
remote period, in these rude recesses. Along the coast of Arran there
are several caves of various dimensions, one of which, at Drumandruin,
or Drumidoon, is noted in the older traditions of the island as the
lodging of Fin M'Coul, the Fingal of Ossian, during his residence in
Arran. Though low in the roof, it is sufficiently capacious for a
hundred men to sit or lie in it. In this, as in other examples, we find
evidences of artificial operations, proving its connexion with races
long posterior to those with whose works we have chiefly to do in this
section of archaeological inquiry. In the further end a large detached
column of rock has a two-handed sword engraved on it, surmounted by
a deer, and on the southern side of the cave a lunar figure is cut,
similar in character to those frequently found on the sculptured
pillars and crosses which abound in Scotland. It is now more frequently
styled the king's cave, and described as the retreat of Robert the
Bruce, while he lurked as a fugitive in the Western Isles; but, like
many other traditions of the Bruce, this seems to be of very recent
origin. Other caves in the same island are also of large dimensions,
and variously associated with popular traditions, as, indeed, is
generally the case where subterranean retreats of any considerable
extent occur. Some are the supposed dwellings of old mythic chiefs,
whose names still live in the traditional songs of the Gael. Others
are the retreats which the primitive confessors of Scotland excavated
or enlarged for their oratories or cells. Of the latter class are
the caves of St. Molio, on the little island of Lamlash, or the Holy
Isle, on the east coast of Arran; of St. Columba and St. Cormac, on
the Argyleshire coast; of St. Ninian, in Wigtonshire; of St. Serf,
at Dysart, on the Fifeshire coast; and the celebrated "ocean cave of
St. Rule, in Saint Andrew's Bay." This last oratory consists of two
chambers hewn out of the sandstone cliffs of that exposed coast. The
inner apartment is a plain cell, entered from the supposed oratory of
the Greek saint. The latter is nearly circular, measuring about ten
feet in diameter, and has a stone altar hewn in the solid rock on its
eastern side.
MONKISH PRAYERS.
The Monks used to pray heartily, or rather say their prayers no less
than seven times in the twenty-four hours. We will give their names:--
1st.--Nocturnal, at cock-crowing, or two o'clock in the morning.
2nd.--Matins, at six o'clock in the morning.
3rd.--Tierce, at nine o'clock in the morning.
4th.--Sext, at twelve o'clock at noon.
5th.--None, at three o'clock in the afternoon.
6th.--Vespers, at six o'clock in the afternoon.
7th.--Compline, soon after seven.
Quarles has a neat epigram on the subject:--
For all our prayers th' Almighty does regard
The judgment of the _balance_, not the _yard_;
He loves not words, but matter; 'tis his pleasure
To buy his wares by _weight_, and not by _measure_.
THE TRAP-DOOR SPIDER.
[Illustration: Trap-door Spider.]