original, is remarkable as a work of art, as well as a genuine
relic of the most venerable antiquity; it was formerly regarded
with superstitious reverence in Ireland, and any liquid drunk from
it was believed to have peculiar properties in alleviating human
suffering; hence, the peasant women of the district in which it was
long preserved, particularly used it in cases of child-birth, and a
serious disturbance was excited on a former attempt to sell it by its
owner. Its legendary history relates that it descended from the sky
ringing loudly; but as it approached the concourse of people who had
assembled at the miraculous warning, the tongue detached itself and
returned towards the skies; hence it was concluded that the bell was
never to be profaned by sounding on earth, but was to be kept for
purposes more holy and beneficent. This is said to have happened on
the spot where once stood the famous Abbey of Fahan, near Innishowen
(County Donegal), founded in the seventh century by St. Mura, or
Muranus, during the reign of Abodh Slaine. For centuries this abbey
was noted as the depository of various valuable objects, which were
held in especial veneration by the people. Amongst these were several
curious manuscripts written by St. Mura, his crozier, and this bell;
which ultimately came into the possession of a poor peasant residing
at Innishowen, who parted with it to Mr. Brown, of Beaumaris, at whose
sale in 1855 it was purchased by Lord Londesborough. The material of
the bell is bronze, and its form quadrangular, resembling other ancient
Irish bells, and leading to the conclusion that it is the genuine
work of the seventh century. The extreme feeling of veneration shown
towards it in various ages is proved by the ornament with which it is
encased. By the accidental removal of one portion of the outer casing,
a series of earlier enrichments were discovered beneath, which were
most probably placed there in the ninth century. The portion disclosed
(the lower right hand corner) consists of a tracery of Runic knots
wrought in brass, and firmly attached to the bell by a thin plate of
gold;--whether the remainder of these early decorations, now concealed,
be similar, cannot be determined without removing the outer plates.
These exterior ornaments consist of a series of detached silver plates
of various sizes diversely embossed in the style known to have
prevailed in the eleventh century. The centre is adorned with a large
crystal, and smaller gems have once been set in other vacant sockets
around it, only one of amber remaining. The two large spaces in front
of the arched top were also most probably filled with precious stones,
as the gold setting still remains entire. The best workmanship has been
devoted to these decorations; the hook for suspending the bell is of
brass, and has been covered with early bronze ornament which has been
filled in with niello, the intervening space being occupied by silver
plates ornamented like the rest of the later decorations which cover
its surface. From the absence of any traces of rivets on the back
or sides of the bell, the decoration it has received may have been
restricted to the casing of the handle and the enrichment of the front
of this venerated relic.
CURIOUSLY-SHAPED DRINKING CUP.
Drinking cups of a fantastic shape were very much in vogue in the
sixteenth century. Sometimes they assumed the shape of birds, sometimes
of animals. In general it is the head that takes off, and serves as
a lid or cover; but sometimes the orifice is in another part of the
body, as, for example, on the back. The specimen now before us is from
Lord Londesborough's collection.
[Illustration [++] Drinking Cup in the Shape of a Stag.]
The stag is of silver, gilt all over; the collar set with a garnet.
Silver bands encircle this curious figure, to which are appended
many small silver escutcheons engraved with the arms and names of
distinguished officers of the Court of Saxe Gotha, the latest being
"Her Von Maagenheim, Camer Juncker und Regierung Assessor in Gotha,
d. 15 Augusti, A{o} 1722." It has probably been a prize for shooting,
successively won by those persons whose arms decorate it.
BANQUETS TO QUEEN ELIZABETH.
Few English sovereigns were so well acquainted with their dominions
as was Queen Elizabeth: she may be said to have visited every corner
of her empire, and in these royal journeys or "progresses," as they
are called, her loyal subjects strove to outvie each other in the
splendour of their receptions. Nothing could surpass the magnificence
of the entertainments thus planned for the queen's gratification,
either as respects the splendour of show, or the costliness of the
more substantial banquet. These occasions are too numerous to mention;
and we can only notice one of the queen's visits to the palace at
Greenwich, as described by a German, who travelled in England in 1598.
It was Sunday, and after attending service in the chapel, the queen
prepared for dinner. A gentleman entered the room bearing a rod, and
with him another bearing a table-cloth, which, after they had both
kneeled three times, he spread upon the table, and after kneeling
again, they both retired: then came two others, one with the rod
again, the other with a salt-cellar, a plate, and bread, which, after
kneeling, they also placed on the table: then came an unmarried and a
married lady, bearing a tasting-knife, and having stooped three times
gracefully, they rubbed the table with bread and salt. Then came the
yeomen of the guard, bringing in, at each time, a course of dishes,
served in plate, most of it gilt; these dishes were received by a
gentleman, and placed upon the table, while the lady-taster gave to
each guard a mouthful to eat of the particular dish he had brought, for
fear of any poison. During the time that this guard (which consisted
of the tallest and stoutest men that could be found in all England,
being carefully selected for this service) were bringing dinner, twelve
trumpets and two kettle-drums made the hall ring for half an hour
together. After this a number of unmarried ladies appeared, who lifted
the meat from the table, and conveyed it to the queen's inner and more
private chamber, where, after she had chosen for herself, the rest was
sent to the ladies of the court. The queen dined and supped alone, with
very few attendants.
THE GREAT FOG OF 1783.
It prevailed over the adjoining continent, and produced much fear that
the end of all things was at hand. It appeared first at Copenhagen on
the 29th of May, reached Dijon on the 14th June, and was perceived
in Italy on the 16th. It was noticed at Spydberg, in Norway, on the
22nd, and at Stockholm two days later; the following day it reached
Moscow. On the 23rd it was felt on the St. Gothard, and at Buda. By
the close of that month it entered Syria; and on the 18th of July,
reached the Altai Mountains. Before its appearance at these places the
condition of the atmosphere was not similar; for in this country it
followed continued rains; in Denmark it succeeded fine weather of some
continuance; and in other places it was preceded by high winds. The sun
at noon looked rusty-red, reminding one of the lines of Milton. The
heat was intense during its continuance, and the atmosphere was highly
electric. Lightnings were awfully vivid and destructive. In England
many deaths arose from this cause, and a great amount of property was
lost. In Germany public edifices were thrown down or consumed by it;
and in Hungary one of the chief northern towns was destroyed by fires,
caused by the electric fluid, which struck it in nine different places.
In France there were hailstones and violent winds. In Silesia there
were great inundations. The dry fogs of 1782-83 were accompanied by
influenza; at St. Petersburgh 40,000 persons were immediately attacked
by it, after the thermometer had suddenly risen 30 degrees. Calabria
and Sicily were convulsed by earthquakes; in Iceland a volcano was
active, and about the same time one sprung out of the sea off Norway.
The co-existence of dry fogs with earthquakes and volcanic eruptions
had been previously observed--_e.g._, in the years 526, 1348, 1721; and
since then, in 1822 and 1834.
A somewhat similar fog overspread London before the cholera of 1831,
and the influenza of 1847. Hecker ("Epidemics of the Middle Ages")
has collected notices of various phenomena of this kind, which
have preceded the great continental plagues, and have often been
characterised by offensive odours.
MONKEYS DEMANDING THEIR DEAD.
Mr. Forbes tells a story of a female monkey (the Semnopithecus
Entellus) who was shot by a friend of his, and carried to his tent.
Forty or fifty of her tribe advanced with menacing gestures, but stood
still when the gentleman presented his gun at them. One, however, who
appeared to be the chief of the tribe, came forward, chattering and
threatening in a furious manner. Nothing short of firing at him seemed
likely to drive him away; but at length he approached the tent door
with every sign of grief and supplication, as if he were begging for
the body. It was given to him, he took it in his arms, carried it away,
with actions expressive of affection, to his companions, and with them
disappeared. It was not to be wondered at that the sportsman vowed
never to shoot another monkey.
BARA.
Mr. Howel, in his descriptive travels through Sicily, gives a
particular account of the magnificent manner in which the festival of
the Assumption of the Virgin is kept by the Sicilians under the title
of Bara, which, although expressive of the machine he describes, is
also, it appears, generally applied as a name of the feast itself.
An immense machine of about 50 feet high is constructed, designing
to represent Heaven; and in the midst is placed a young female
personating the Virgin, with an image of Jesus on her right hand;
round the Virgin 12 little children turn vertically, representing so
many Seraphim, and below them 12 more children turn horizontally,
as Cherubim; lower down in the machine a sun turns vertically, with
a child at the extremity of each of the four principal radii of his
circle, who ascend and descend with his rotation, yet always in an
erect posture; and still lower, reaching within about 7 feet of the
ground, are placed 12 boys, who turn horizontally without intermission
around the principal figure, designing thereby to exhibit the 12
apostles, who were collected from all corners of the earth, to be
present at the decease of the Virgin, and witness her miraculous
assumption. This huge machine is drawn about the principal streets by
sturdy monks; and it is regarded as a particular favour to any family
to admit their children in this divine exhibition.
CRADLE OF HENRY V.
Most of our readers have probably seen, in the illustrated newspapers
of the day, sketches of the magnificently artistic cradles which
have been made for the children of our good Queen, or for the Prince
Imperial of France. It will be not a little curious to contrast with
those elaborately beautiful articles the cradle of a Prince of Wales in
the fourteenth century. We here give a sketch of it.
[Illustration [++] Cradle of Henry V.]
It was made for the use of Henry Prince of Wales, afterwards King
Henry V, generally called Henry of Monmouth, because he was born in
the castle there in the year 1388. He was the son of Henry IV of
Bolingbroke, by his first wife Mary de Bohun. He was educated at
Queen's College, Oxford, under the superintendence of his half uncle,
the great Cardinal Henry Beaufort. On the accession of his father to
the throne, he was created Prince of Wales, and, at the early age
of sixteen, was present at the battle of Shrewsbury, where he was
badly wounded in the face. After having greatly distinguished himself
in the war against Owen Glendour, he spent some years idleness and
dissipation, but on his coming to the throne, by the death of his
father, April 20, 1413, he threw off his former habits and associates,
chose his ministers from among those of tried integrity and wisdom in
his father's cause, and seemed everywhere intent on justice, on victory
over himself, and on the good of his subjects. After a short but
glorious reign of ten years, in which the victory of Agincourt was the
principal event, he expired at the Bois de Vincennes, near Paris, on
the last day of August, 1422, in the thirty-fourth year of his age. He
was engaged at the time in a war with the Dauphin of France. His heart
was warm as his head was cool, and his courage equal to his wisdom,
which emboldened him to encounter the greatest dangers, and surmount
the greatest difficulties His virtues were not inferior to his
abilities, being a dutiful son, a fond parent, an affectionate brother,
a steady and generous friend, and an indulgent master. In a word,
Henry V., though not without his failings, merits the character of an
amiable and accomplished man, and a great and good king. Such was the
sovereign, for whose infant years the plain, but still not tasteless,
cradle was made, which we have here engraved, as it is preserved in the
castle of Monmouth, his birthplace.
THE FONT AT KILCARN.
The venerable old church at Kilcarn, near Navan, in the county of
Meath, contains a font of great rarity, and we have selected it as a
fitting object for our work, inasmuch as it is a striking instance of
the union of the beautiful with the curious.
[Illustration [++] Font at Kilcarn.]
Placed upon its shaft, as represented in the cut, it measures in height
about three feet six inches; the basin is two feet ten inches in
diameter, and thirteen inches deep. The heads of the niches, twelve in
number, with which its sides are carved, are enriched with foliage of
a graceful but uniform character, and the miniature buttresses which
separate the niches are decorated with crockets, the bases resting upon
heads, grotesque animals, or human figures, carved as brackets. The
figures within the niches are executed with a wonderful degree of care,
the drapery being represented with each minute crease or fold well
expressed. They are evidently intended to represent Christ, the Virgin
Mary, and the twelve apostles. All the figures are seated. Our Saviour,
crowned as a King, and holding in his hand the globe and cross, is in
the act of blessing the Virgin, who also is crowned, the "Queen of
Heaven." The figures of most of the apostles can easily be identified:
Saint Peter by his key; Saint Andrew by his cross of peculiar shape;
and so on. They are represented barefooted, and each holds a book in
one hand.
THE BLOOD-SUCKING VAMPIRE.
Captain Stedman, who travelled in Guiana, from 1772 to 1777, published
an account of his adventures, and for several years afterwards it
was the fashion to doubt the truth of his statements. In fact, it
was a general feeling, up to a much later period than the above,
that travellers were not to be believed. As our knowledge, however,
has increased, and the works of God have been made more manifest,
the reputation of many a calumniated traveller has been restored,
and, among others, that of Captain Stedman. We shall, therefore,
unhesitatingly quote his account of the bite of the vampire:--"On
waking, about four o'clock this morning, in my hammock, I was
extremely alarmed at finding myself weltering in congealed blood,
and without feeling any pain whatever. Having started up and run to
the surgeon, with a firebrand in one hand, and all over besmeared
with gore, the mystery was found to be, that I had been bitten by the
vampire or spectre of Guiana, which is also called the flying dog
of New Spain. This is no other than a bat of monstrous size, that
sucks the blood from men and cattle, sometimes even till they die;
knowing, by instinct, that the person they intend to attack is in a
sound slumber, they generally alight near the feet, where, while the
creature continues fanning with his enormous wings, which keeps one
cool, he bites a piece out of the tip of the great toe, so very small
indeed, that the head, of a pin could scarcely be received into the
wound, which is consequently not painful; yet, through this orifice he
contrives to suck the blood until he is obliged to disgorge. He then
begins again, and thus continues mucking and disgorging till he is
scarcely able to fly, and the sufferer has often been known to sleep
from time into eternity. Cattle they generally bite in the ear, but
always in those places where the blood flows spontaneously. Having
applied tobacco-ashes as the best remedy, and washed the gore from
myself and my hammock, I observed several small heaps of congealed
blood all around the place where I had lain upon the ground; upon
examining which, the surgeon judged that I had lost at least twelve or
fourteen ounces during the night. Having measured this creature (one of
the bats), I found it to be, between the tips of the wings, thirty-two
inches and a-half; the colour was a dark brown, nearly black, but
lighter underneath."
LUXURY IN 1562.
The luxury of the present times does not equal, in one article at
least, that of the sixteenth century. Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, the
Queen's ambassador at Paris, in a letter to Sir Thomas Chaloner, the
ambassador at Madrid, in June, 1562, says,
"I pray you good my Lord Ambassador sende me two paire of parfumed
gloves, parfumed with orrange flowers and jacemin, th'one for my
wives hand, the other for mine owne; and wherin soever I can pleasure
you with any thing in this countrey, you shall have it in recompence
thereof, or els so moche money as they shall coste you; provided
alwaies that they be of the best choise, wherein your judgment is
inferior to none."
SINGULAR PHENOMENON--PHOSPHORESCENCE OF THE SEA.
The sea has sometimes a luminous appearance, a phenomenon that has
been observed by all sailors, who consider it the forerunner of windy
weather. It is said to occur most frequently in the summer and autumn
months, and varies so much in its character, as to induce a doubt
whether it can always be attributed to the same cause. Sometimes the
luminous appearance is seen over the whole surface of the water, and
the vessel seems as though floating upon an ocean of light. At other
times, the phosphorescence is only seen immediately around the ship.
A portion of water taken from the sea does not necessarily retain its
luminous appearance, but its brilliance will generally continue as long
as the water is kept in a state of agitation. Some naturalists imagine
the phosphorescence of the sea to arise from the diffusion of an
immense number of animalculae through the medium, and others attribute
it to electricity. Dr. Buchanan has given an account of a very
remarkable appearance of the sea, observed by him during a voyage from
Johanna to Bombay. About eight o'clock in the evening of the 31st of
July, 1785, the sea had a milk-white colour, and upon it were floating
a multitude of luminous bodies greatly resembling that combination of
stars known as the milky way, the brightest of them representing the
larger stars of a constellation. The whiteness, he says, was such as
to prevent those on board from seeing either the break or swell of
the sea, although, from the motion of the ship and the noise, they
knew them to be violent, and the light was sufficiently intense to
illuminate the ropes and rigging. This singular phenomenon continued
till daylight appeared. Several buckets of water were drawn, and in
them were found a great number of luminous bodies, from a quarter of an
inch to an inch and a half in length, and these were seen to move about
as worms in the water. There might be, he said to Dr. Buchanan, four
hundred of these animals in a gallon of water. A similar appearance had
been observed before in the same sea by several of the officers, and
the gunner had seen it off Java Head, in a voyage to China.
MARRIAGE VOW.
The matrimonial ceremony, like many others, has undergone some
variation in the progress of time. Upwards of three centuries ago,
the husband, on taking his wife, as now, by the right hand, thus
addressed her:--"I. N. _undersygne_ the N. for my wedded wyfe, for
better, for worse, for richer, for porer, yn sickness, and in helthe,
tyl dethe us departe, (not "do part," as we have erroneously rendered
it, the ancient meaning of "departe," even in Wickliffe's time, being
"separate") as holy churche hath ordeyned, and thereto I plygth the my
trowthe." The wife replies in the same form, with an additional clause,
"to be buxom to the, tyl dethe us departe." So it appears in the first
edition of the "Missals for the use of the famous and celebrated Church
of Hereford, 1502," fol. In what is called the "Salisbury Missal," the
lady pronounced a more general obedience: "to be bonere and buxom in
bedde and at the borde."
LOVE OF GARDENS.
Louis XVIII., on his restoration to France, made, in the park in
Versailles, the _facsimile_ of the garden at Hartwell; and there
was no more amiable trait in the life of that accomplished prince.
Napoleon used to say that he should know his father's garden in Corsica
blindfolded, by the smell of the earth! And the hanging-gardens
of Babylon are said to have been raised by the Median Queen of
Nebuchadnezzar on the flat and naked plains of her adopted country,
to remind her of the hills and woods of her childhood. We need not
speak of the plane-trees of Plato--Shakspeare's mulberry-tree--Pope's
willow--Byron's elm? Why describe Cicero at his Tusculum--Evelyn at
Wotton--Pitt at Ham Common--Walpole at Houghton--Grenville at Dropmere?
Why dwell on Bacon's "little tufts of thyme," or Fox's geraniums? There
is a spirit in the garden as well as in the wood, and the "lilies of
the field" supply food for the imagination as well as materials for
sermons.
ANCIENT DANISH SHIELD.
[Illustration [++] Ancient Danish Shield.]
In Asia, from whence the greater number, probably all, of the European
nations have migrated, numerous implements and weapons of copper
have been discovered in a particular class of graves; nay, in some
of the old and long-abandoned mines in that country workmen's tools
have been discovered, made of copper, and of very remote antiquity.
We see, moreover, how at a later period attempts were made to harden
copper, and to make it better suited for cutting implements by a slight
intermixture, and principally of tin. Hence arose that mixed metal
to which the name of "bronze" has been given. Of this metal, then,
the Northmen of "the bronze period" formed their armour, and among
numerous other articles, three shields have been discovered which
are made wholly of bronze; and we here give a sketch of the smallest
of them, which is about nineteen inches in diameter, the other two
being twenty-four. These shields are formed of somewhat thin plates
of bronze, the edge being turned over a thick wire metal to prevent
the sword penetrating too deeply. The handle is formed of a cross-bar,
placed at the reverse side of the centre boss, which is hollowed out
for the purpose of admitting the hand.
SACRED GARDENS.
The origin of sacred gardens among the heathen nations may be traced
up to the garden of Eden. The gardens of the Hesperides, of Adonis, of
Flora, were famous among the Greeks and Romans. "The garden of Flora,"
says Mr. Spence (Polymetis, p. 251), "I take to have been the Paradise
in the Roman mythology. The traditions and traces of Paradise among the
ancients must be expected to have grown fainter and fainter in every
transfusion from one people to another. The Romans probably derived
their notions of it from the Greeks, among whom this idea seems to have
been shadowed out under the stories of the gardens of Alcinous. In
Africa they had the gardens of the Hesperides, and in the East those of
Adonis, or the _Horti Adonis_, as Pliny calls them. The term _Horti
Adonides_ was used by the ancients to signify gardens of pleasure,
which answers to the very name of Paradise, or the garden of Eden, as
_Horti Adonis_ does to the garden of the Lord."
ANCIENT CHAIR OF DAGOBERT.
[Illustration [++] Chair of Dagobert.]