curiosity, on two separate grounds: it is the work of an artist who
was afterwards canonized, and it was used by Napoleon I. on a most
important occasion. Towards the close of the sixth century the artists
of France were highly successful in goldsmith's work, and Limoges
appears to have been the principal centre of this industry. It was at
this time that Abbon flourished--a goldsmith and mint-master, with whom
was placed the young Eloy, who rose from a simple artizan to be the
most remarkable man of his century, and whose virtues were rewarded by
canonization. The apprentice soon excelled his master, and his fame
caused him to be summoned to the throne of Clotaire II., for whom
he made two thrones of gold, enriched with precious stones, from a
model made by the king himself, who had not been able to find workmen
sufficiently skilful to execute it. The talents and probity of St.
Eloy also gained him the affection of Dagobert I., who entrusted him
with many important works, and among them, with the construction of
the throne, or chair of state which is the subject of this article. It
is made of bronze, carved and gilded, and is a beautiful specimen of
workmanship. The occupant of the chair would sit upon a cloth of gold
suspended from the two side bars. For a long time it was preserved in
the sacristy of the royal church of St. Denis, at Paris; but it was
subsequently removed to the Great Library, where it now is. It was upon
this chair that Napoleon I., in August, 1804, distributed the crosses
of the Legion of Honour to the soldiers of the army assembled at
Boulogne for the invasion of England. Napoleon caused the chair to be
brought from Paris for the express purpose.
ST GEORGE'S CAVERN.
Near the town of Moldavia, on the Danube, is shown the cavern where St.
George slew the Dragon, from which, at certain periods, issue myriads
of small flies, which tradition reports to proceed from the carcass of
the dragon. They respect neither man nor beast, and are so destructive
that oxen and horses have been killed by them. They are called the
Golubacz's fly. It is thought when the Danube rises, as it does in
the early part of the summer, the caverns are flooded, and the water
remaining in them, and becoming putrid, produces this noxious fly. But
this supposition appears to be worthless, because, some years ago, the
natives closed up the caverns, and still they were annoyed with the
flies. They nearly resemble mosquitoes. In summer they appear in such
swarms as to look like a volume of smoke; and they sometimes cover a
space of six or seven miles. Covered with these insects, horses not
unfrequently gallop about until death puts an end to their sufferings.
Shepherds anoint their hands with a decoction of wormwood, and keep
large fires burning to protect themselves from them. Upon any material
change in the weather the whole swarm is destroyed thereby.
ENGLISH LETTER BY VOLTAIRE.
The subjoined letter is copied literally from the autograph of
Voltaire, formerly in the possession of the Rev. Mr. Sim, the editor of
Mickle's Poems:--
"Sir,
"j wish you good health, a quick sale of y{r} burgundy, much latin, and
greeke to one of y{r} Children, much Law, much of cooke, and littleton,
to the other. quiet and joy to mistress brinsden, money to all. when
you'll drink y{r} burgundy with m{r} furneze pray tell him j'll never
forget his favours.
But dear john be so kind as to let me know how does my lady
Bollingbroke. as to my lord j left him so well j dont doubt he is so
still. but j am very uneasie about my lady. if she might have as much
health as she has Spirit and witt, sure She would be the strongest body
in england. pray dear s{r} write me Something of her, of my lord, and
of you. direct y{r} letter by the penny post at m{r} Cavalier, Belitery
Square by the R. exchange. j am sincerely and heartily y{r} most humble
most obedient rambling friend
"VOLTAIRE.
"to
"john Brinsden, esq.
"durham's yard
"by charing cross."
THE GOLDEN CHALICE OF IONA.
A chalice, as used in sacred ceremonies, is figured on various early
Scottish ecclesiastical seals, as well as on sepulchral slabs and other
medieval sculptures. But an original Scottish chalice, a relic of
the venerable abbey of St. Columba, presented, till a very few years
since, an older example of the sacred vessels of the altar than is
indicated in any existing memorial of the medieval Church. The later
history of this venerable relic is replete with interest. It was of
fine gold, of a very simple form, and ornamented in a style that gave
evidence of its belonging to a very early period. It was transferred
from the possession of Sir Lauchlan MacLean to the Glengarry family,
in the time of AEneas, afterwards created by Charles II. Lord Macdonell
and Arross, under the circumstances narrated in the following letter
from a cousin of the celebrated Marshal Macdonald, Duke of Tarentum,
and communicated by a clergyman (Rev. AEneas M'Donell Dawson), who
obtained it from the family of the gentleman to whom it was originally
addressed:--
"The following anecdote I heard from the late bishop, John Chisholm,
and from Mr. John M'Eachan, uncle to the Duke of Tarentum, who died at
my house at Irin Moidart, aged upwards of one hundred years:--
"Maclean of Duart, expecting an invasion of his lands in Mull, by
his powerful neighbour the Earl of Argyll, applied to Glengarry for
assistance. AEneas of Glengarry marched at the head of five hundred men
to Ardtornish, nearly opposite to Duart Castle, and crossing with a few
of his officers to arrange the passage of the men across the Sound of
Mull, Maclean, rejoicing at the arrival of such a friend, offered some
choice wine in a golden chalice, part of the plunder of Iona. Glengarry
was struck with horror, and said, folding his handkerchief about the
chalice, 'Maclean, I came here to defend you against mortal enemies,
but since, by sacrilege and profanation, you have made God your enemy,
no human means can serve you.' Glengarry returned to his men, and
Maclean sent the chalice and some other pieces of plate belonging
to the service of the altar, with a deputation of his friends, to
persuade him to join him; but he marched home. His example was followed
by several other chiefs, and poor Maclean was left to compete,
single-handed, with his powerful enemy."
Such was the last historical incident connected with the golden
chalice of Iona, perhaps, without exception, the most interesting
ecclesiastical relic which Scotland possessed. Unfortunately its
later history only finds a parallel in that of the celebrated Danish
golden horns. It was preserved in the charter-chest of Glengarry,
until it was presented by the late Chief to Bishop Ronald M'Donald, on
whose demise it came into the possession of his successor, Dr. Scott,
Bishop of Glasgow. Only a few years since the sacristy of St. Mary's
Roman Catholic Church in that city, where it was preserved was broken
into, and before the police could obtain a clue to the depredators,
the golden relic of Iona was no longer a chalice. Thus perished, by
the hands of a common felon, a memorial of the spot consecrated by
the labours of some of the earliest Christian missionaries to the
Pagan Caledonians, and which had probably survived the vicissitudes
of upwards of ten centuries. In reply to inquiries made as to the
existence of any drawing of the chalice, or even the possibility of a
trustworthy sketch being executed from memory, a gentleman in Glasgow
writes:--"I have no means of getting even a sketch from which to make a
drawing. Were I a good hand myself, I could easily furnish one, having
often examined it. It was a chalice that no one could look on without
being convinced of its very great antiquity. The workmanship was rude,
the ornamental drawings or engravings even more hard than medieval ones
in their outlines, and the cup bore marks of the original hammering
which had beaten it into shape."
NEW MODE OF REVENGE.
Monkeys in India are more or less objects of superstitious reverence,
and are, consequently, seldom or ever destroyed. In some places they
are even fed, encouraged, and allowed to live on the roofs of the
houses. If a man wish to revenge himself for any injury committed
upon him, he has only to sprinkle some rice or corn upon the top of
his enemy's house, or granary, just before the rains set in, and the
monkeys will assemble upon it, eat all they can find outside, and then
pull off the tiles to get at that which falls through the crevices.
This, of course, gives access to the torrents which fall in such
countries, and house, furniture, and stores are all ruined.
CURIOUS SUPERSTITION.
The ring of which we here give a sketch has been selected by us as
a subject for engraving and comment, because it embodies a curious
superstition which was very prevalent in England in the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries.
[Illustration [++] Fifteenth Century Ring.]
The setting is of silver, and the jewel which it carries is called
a toadstone. This stone was popularly believed to be formed in the
heads of very old toads, and it was eagerly coveted by sovereigns,
and by all persons in high office, because it was supposed to have
the power of indicating to the person who wore it the proximity of
poison, by perspiring and changing colour. Fenton, who wrote in 1569,
says--"There is to be found in the heads of old and great toads a
stone they call borax or stelon;" and he adds--"They, being used as
rings, give forewarning against venom." Their composition is not
actually known; by some they are thought to be a stone--by others,
a shell; but of whatever they may be formed, there is to be seen in
them, as may be noticed in the engraving, a figure resembling that of
a toad, but whether produced accidentally or by artificial means is
not known, though, according to Albertus Magnus, the stone always bore
the figure on its surface, at the time it was taken out of the toad's
head. Lupton, in his "1000 Notable Things," says--"A toadstone, called
crepaudina, touching any part envenomed, hurt, or stung with rat,
spider, wasp, or any other venomous beast, ceases the pain or swelling
thereof." The well known lines in Shakespeare are doubtless in allusion
to the virtue which Lupton says it possesses:--
"Sweet are the uses of adversity;
Which like a toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head."
Ben Jonson also in the _Fox_, has,--
"Were you enamoured on his copper rings,
His saffron jewel, with the loadstone in't?"
And Lyly, in his _Euphues_--
"The foule toad hath a faire stone in his head."
The ring we have engraved is a work of the fifteenth century; it forms
one of the many rare curiosities of the Londesborough Collection, and
is considered to be a very perfect specimen.
ANCIENT ARMLET.
In May, 1840, some workmen were employed at Everdale, near Preston,
in carrying earth to replace the soil which had been washed away from
behind a wall formerly built to protect the banks of the river Ribble.
In digging for this purpose, they discovered, at a distance of about
forty yards from the banks, a great number of articles, consisting
of ingots of silver, a few ornaments, some silver armlets, and a
large quantity of coins. An attentive examination of all these, and
especially of the coins, leads to the conclusion that this mass of
treasure was deposited about the year 910, and the articles must be
considered such as were worn at the time of King Alfred, or perhaps
somewhat earlier.
[Illustration [++] Ancient Armlet.]
The armlets, which were all of silver, vary in breadth from a quarter
of an inch to an inch and a quarter, and perhaps more. They are
generally ornamented, and almost all the ornaments are produced by
punching with tools of various forms. The patterns are numerous, but
the forms of the punches are very few, the variations being produced by
combining the forms of more punches than one, or by placing the same
or differently-formed punches at a greater or less distance from each
other, or by varying their direction. In the specimen which we have
here engraved the punch has had a small square end, and the ornament is
formed by a series of blows in transverse or oblique lines. Patterns of
the period and localities to which these ornaments belong are scarcely
ever found finished by casting or chasing. It would appear, also that
the use of solder to unite the various parts of objects was either
little known or little practised; for the ends of these ornaments are
tied together, and, upon other occasions where union is necessary,
rivets are employed.
CHINESE MIRRORS.
There is a puzzling property in many of the Chinese mirrors which
deserves particular notice, and we may give it, together with the
solution furnished by Sir David Brewster:--"The mirror has a knob in
the centre of the back, by which it can be held, and on the rest of
the back are stamped in relief certain circles with a kind of Grecian
border. Its polished surface has that degree of convexity which gives
an image of the face half its natural size; and its remarkable property
is, that, when you reflect the rays of the sun from the polished
surface, the image of the ornamental border and circles stamped upon
the back, is seen distinctly reflected on the wall," or on a sheet of
paper. The metal of which the mirror is made appears to be what is
called Chinese silver, a composition of tin and copper, like the metal
for the specula of reflecting telescopes. The metal is very sonorous.
The mirror has a rim (at the back) of about 1-4th or 1-6th of an inch
broad, and the inner part, upon which the figures are stamped, is
considerably thinner.
"Like all other conjurors (says Sir David Brewster), the artist has
contrived to make the observer deceive himself. The stamped figures on
the back are used for this purpose. The spectrum in the luminous area
_is not an image of the figures on the back_. The figures are a copy
of the picture which the artist has _drawn on the face of the mirror_,
and so concealed by polishing, that it is invisible in ordinary lights,
and can be brought out only in the sun's rays. Let it be required,
for example, to produce the dragon as exhibited by one of the Chinese
mirrors. When the surface of the mirror is ready for polishing, the
figure of the dragon may be delineated upon it in extremely shallow
lines, or it may be eaten out by an acid much diluted, so as to remove
the smallest possible portion of the metal. The surface must then be
highly polished, not upon pitch, like glass and specula, because this
would polish away the figure, but upon cloth, in the way that lenses
are sometimes polished. In this way the sunk part of the shallow lines
will be as highly polished as the rest, and the figure will only be
visible in very strong lights, by reflecting the sun's rays from the
metallic surface."
THE CADENHAM OAK.
Amongst the many remarkable trees in the New Forest in Hampshire, is
one called the Cadenham Oak, which buds every year in the depth of
winter. Gilpin says, "Having often heard of this oak, I took a ride to
see it on the 29th of December, 1781. It was pointed out to me among
several other oaks, surrounded by a little forest stream, winding round
a knoll on which they stood. It is a tall straight plant, of no great
age, and apparently vigorous, except that its top has been injured,
from which several branches issue in the form of pollard shoots. It
was entirely bare of leaves, as far as I could discern, when I saw it,
and undistinguishable from the other oaks in its neighbourhood, except
that its bark seemed rather smoother, occasioned, I apprehended, only
by frequent climbing. Having had the account of its early budding
confirmed on the spot, I engaged one Michael Lawrence, who kept the
White Hart, a small alehouse in the neighbourhood, to send me some of
the leaves to Vicar's Hill, as soon as they should appear. The man,
who had not the least doubt about the matter, kept his word, and sent
me several twigs on the morning of the 5th of January, 1782, a few
hours after they had been gathered. The leaves were fairly expanded,
and about an inch in length. From some of the buds two leaves had
unsheathed themselves, but in general only one. One of its progeny,
which grew in the gardens at Bulstrode, had its flower buds perfectly
formed so early as the 21st of December, 1781.
"This early spring, however, of the Cadenham oak, is of very short
duration. The buds, after unfolding themselves, make no further
progress, but immediately shrink from the season and die. The tree
continues torpid, like other deciduous trees, during the remainder of
the winter, and vegetates again in the spring, at the usual season.
I have seen it in full leaf in the middle of the summer, when it
appeared, both in its form and foliage, exactly like other oaks."
Dean Wren, speaking of this tree, says, "King James could not be
induced to believe the [Greek: to toi] (_reason_) of this, till
Bishop Andrewes, in whose diocese the tree grew, caused one of his
own chaplaines, a man of known integritye, to give a true information
of itt, which he did; for upon the eve of the Nativitye he gathered
about a hundred slips, with the leaves newly opened, which he stuck in
claye in the bottom of long white boxes, and soe sent them post to the
courte, where they deservedly raised not only admiration, but stopt the
mouth of infidelitye and contradiction for ever. Of this I was both
an eye-witness, and did distribute many of them to the great persons
of both sexes in court and others, ecclesiastical persons. But in
these last troublesome times a divelish fellow (of Herostratus humour)
having hewen itt round at the roote, made his last stroke on his own
legg, whereof he died, together with the old wondrous tree; which now
sproutes up againe, and may renew his oakye age againe, iff some such
envious chance doe not hinder or prevent itt; from which the example of
the former villaine may perchance deterr the attempt. This I thought
to testifie to all future times, and therefore subscribe with the same
hand through which those little oakye slips past."
SCHOOL EXPENSES IN THE OLDEN TIME.
Of the expenses incurred for schoolboys at Eton early in the reign of
Elizabeth, we find some curious particulars in a manuscript of the
time: the boys were sons of Sir William Cavendish, of Chatsworth, and
the entries are worth notice, as showing the manners of those days.
Among the items, a breast of roast mutton is charged ten-pence; a
small chicken, fourpence; a week's board, five shillings each; besides
the wood burned in their chamber; to an old woman for sweeping and
cleaning the chamber, twopence; mending a shoe, one penny; three
candles, nine-pence; a book, Esop's Fables, fourpence; two pair of
shoes, sixteen-pence; two bunches of wax lights, one penny; the sum
total of the payments, including board paid to the bursars of Eton
College, living expenses for the two boys and their man, clothes,
books, washing, &c., amounts to twelve pounds twelve shillings and
seven-pence. The expense of a scholar at the university in 1514 was but
five pounds annually, affording as much accommodation as would cost
sixty pounds, though the accommodation would be far short of that now
customary at Eton.
AN EVENTFUL LIFE.
It is much to be feared that on the field of battle and naval actions
many individuals, apparently dead, are buried or thrown overboard. The
history of Francois de Civille, a French captain, who was missing at
the siege of Rouen, is rather curious. At the storming of the town he
was supposed to have been killed, and was thrown, with other bodies, in
the ditch, where he remained from eleven in the morning to half-past
six in the evening; when his servant, observing some latent heat,
carried the body into the house. For five days and five nights his
master did not exhibit the slightest sign of life, although the body
gradually recovered its warmth. At the expiration of this time, the
town was carried by assault, and the servants of an officer belonging
to the besiegers, having found the supposed corpse of Civille, threw it
out of the window, with no other covering than his shirt. Fortunately
for the captain, he had fallen upon a dunghill, where he remained
senseless for three days longer, when his body was taken up by his
relatives for sepulture, and ultimately brought to life. What was still
more strange, Civille, like Macduff, had "been from his mother's womb
untimely ripp'd," having been brought into the world by a Caesarean
operation, which his mother did not survive; and after his last
wonderful escape he used to sign his name with the addition of "three
times born, three times buried, and three times risen from the dead by
the grace of God."
FIRST BRIDGE OVER THE THAMES.
[Illustration [++] First Bridge over the Thames.]
The humble village bridge which we here engrave is well deserving
of a place in our pages as being the first of that grand series of
bridges whose last member is London-bridge. What a contrast between
the first bridge over the Thames and the last! Thames Head, where
the river rises, is in the county of Gloucester, but so near to its
southern border, that the stream, after meandering a mile or two,
enters Wiltshire, near the village of Kemble. On leaving this village,
and proceeding on the main road towards the rustic hamlet of Ewen,
the traveller passes over the bridge which forms the subject of our
woodcut. It has no parapet, and is level with the road, the water
running through three narrow arches. Such is the first bridge over the
mighty Thames.
THE VENETIANS.
The Venetians were the first people in Italy who had printed books.
They originated a Gazette in the year 1600, and the example was
followed at Oxford in 1667, and at Vienna in 1700. They also undertook
the discovery of America, and the passage to India by the Cape of Good
Hope.
MEDMENHAM ABBEY.
On descending the river Thames, from Henley, after passing Culham Court
and Hambledon Lock, the adjacent country become exceedingly beautiful,
varied by alternate mills, islands, meadows, and hills, with every
now and then ornamental forest trees hanging over the stream, and
giving pleasant shade to the current on its downward flow. The wood
of Medmenham soon comes in sight; the ruined Abbey is seen among the
trees, and close beside it is a pretty ferry, with the pleasant wayside
inn of Mrs. Bitmead--a domicile well known to artists, her frequent
guests, one of whom, who has since become famous, painted a sign-board
which hangs over the door, and is of so good a quality that it might
grace the exhibition of the Royal Academy. The Abbey has been pictured
a hundred times, and is a capital subject seen from any point of view;
the river runs close beside it; there is a hill adjacent--Dane's Hill;
dark woods and green meadows are at hand; gay boats and traffic barges
are continually passing; the ferry is always picturesque, and the
artist is constantly supplied on the spot with themes for pictures;
especially he has before him the venerable ruin--"venerable," at least,
as far as the eye is concerned. Time has touched it leniently; some of
its best "bits" are as they were a century ago, except that the lichens
have given to them that rich clothing of grey and gold which the
painter ever loves, and added to it, here and there, a green drapery of
ivy.
[Illustration [++] Manor of Medmenham.]