its lord, Walter de Bolebec, to the Abbey of Cistercian Monks he had
founded at Woburn in Bedfordshire; and in 1204 the monks placed some
of their society here, on this pleasant bank of the Thames. Here arose
a small monastery, being rather--as the writers of the order express
themselves--"a daughter than a cell to Woburn." In 1536 it was annexed
to Bisham. At the Dissolution, according to returns made by the
commissioners, "the clear value of this religious house was 20_l._ 6s.;
it had two monks designing to go to houses of religion; servants, none;
woods, none; debts, none; its bells worth 2_l._ 1s. 8d.; the value of
its moveable goods 1_l._ 3s. 8d.; and the house wholly in ruin." It
must have undergone considerable repair early in the sixteenth century,
and probably very little of the original structure now exists, although
relics of antiquity may be traced in many of its remains. That portion
which fronts the Thames is kept in proper repair, and a large room is
used for the convenience of pleasure parties. The property belongs to
the Scots of Danesfield, a mansion that crowns a neighbouring hill.
Medmenham derives notoriety from events of more recent date than the
occupation of its monks, without goods and without debt. Here, about
the middle of the last century, was established, a society of men of
wit and fashion, who assumed the title of the Monks of St. Francis,
and wore the habit of the Franciscan order. Although it is said
that the statements contained in a now forgotten but once popular
novel--"Chrysal; or the Adventures of a Guinea,"--were exaggerated,
the character which the assumed monks bore in the open world was
sufficiently notorious to justify the worst suspicions of their acts
in this comparative solitude. Their principal members were Sir Francis
Dashwood (afterwards Lord Le Despencer), the Earl of Sandwich, John
Wilks, Bubb Doddington, Churchill, and Paul Whitehead, the poet. The
motto--"Fay ce que voudras," indicative of the principle on which the
society was founded--still remains over the doorway of the Abbey House.
Tradition yet preserves some anecdotes illustrative of the habits of
the "order," and there can be little doubt that this now lonely and
quiet spot was the scene of orgies that were infamous.
PERSECUTION.
Grotius, an historian celebrated for moderation and caution, has
computed that in the several persecutions promoted by Charles V., no
less than a hundred thousand persons perished by the hands of the
executioner. In the Netherlands alone, from the time that his edict
against the reformers was promulgated, he states that there had been
fifty thousand persons hanged, beheaded, buried alive, or burned, on
account of their religion. Indeed, during the reign of Philip the
Second, the Duke of Alva boasted that in the space of nine years he
had destroyed, in the Low Countries, 36,000 persons by the hands of
the executioner alone. At the massacre of Paris, on the feast of St.
Bartholomew, King Charles the Ninth of France assisted in person, and
boasted that he had sacrificed in one night 10,000 of his subjects;
for that massacre the Pope had "Te Deum" sung in the chapel of the
Vatican and issued a bull for a jubilee to be celebrated throughout
France on the 7th December, 1512, in commemoration of what he termed
the _happy success of the king against his heretic subjects_, and
concluded by writing with his own hand a letter to Charles the Ninth,
exhorting him to pursue this salutary and blessed enterprise. In the
short reign of Queen Mary, there were in this realm burned at the stake
one archbishop, four bishops, twenty-one ministers, and nearly three
hundred persons of all classes, of whom fifty-five were women, and four
were children, one of whom sprang from its mother's womb while she was
consuming, and was flung into the flames by the spectators. In 1640
the same spirit of papal bigotry occasioned in Ireland the butchery of
40,000 Protestants, under circumstances of aggravated atrocity which a
Christian will shudder to peruse. Lewis XIV., the most Christian king
and eldest son of the church, starved a million Huguenots at home, and
sent another million grazing in foreign countries.
INNKEEPER'S BILL IN 1762.
The following innkeeper's bill was sent in to the Duke de Nivernois,
who supped and breakfasted at an inn in Canterbury, in 1762; and
considering the value of money at that time, must be deemed extremely
moderate:--
L s. d.
Tea, coffee, and chocolate 1 4 0
Supper for self and servant 15 10 0
Bread and beer 3 0 0
Fruit 2 15 0
Wine and punch 10 8 8
Wax candles and charcoal 3 0 0
Broken glass and china 2 10 0
Lodging 1 7 0
Tea, coffee, and chocolate 2 0 0
Chaise and horse, for next stage 2 16 0
There were only twelve persons in the whole company.
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION.
Joseph Battaglia, a surgeon of Ponte Bosio, relates the following case:
Don. G. Maria Bertholi, a priest of Mount Valerius, went to the fair of
Filetto, and afterwards visited a relation in Fenilo, where he intended
to pass the night. Before retiring to rest, he was left reading his
breviary; when, shortly afterwards, the family were alarmed by his
loud cries and a strange noise in his chamber. On opening the door, he
was lying prostrate on the floor, and surrounded by flickering flames.
Battaglia was immediately sent for, and on his arrival the unfortunate
man was found in a most deplorable state. The integuments of the arms
and the back were either consumed or detached in hanging flaps. The
sufferer was sufficiently sensible to give an account of himself.
He said that he felt, all of a sudden, as if his arm had received a
violent blow from a club, and at the same time he saw scintillations
of fire rising from his shirt-sleeves, which were consumed without
having burned the wrists; a handkerchief, which he had tied round his
shoulders, between the shirt and the skin, was intact. His drawers were
also sound; but, strange to say, his silk skull-cap was burnt while his
hair bore no marks of combustion. The unfortunate man only survived
the event four days. The circumstances which attended this case would
seem to warrant the conclusion that the electric fluid was the chief
agent in the combustion.
SHOOTING FISH.
[Illustration: Horned Chaetodon.]
Our shores have produced a few specimens of a richly-coloured fish
called Ray's Sea Bream (_Brama Rayi_), interesting because it
represents a family, almost confined to the tropical seas, of very
singular forms and habits. The family is named _Chaetodontidae_, from
the principal genus in it. They are very high perpendicularly, but
thin and flattened sidewise; the mouth in some projects into a sort
of snout, the fins are frequently much elevated, and send off long
filaments. They are generally adorned with highly-contrasted colours,
which run in perpendicular bands. They are often called scaly-finned
fishes, because the dorsal and anal are clothed, at least in part, with
scales, so as not to be distinguished from the body. The tubular snout
of some, as of a little species which we here represent, is applied to
an extraordinary use, that of shooting flies! The fish approaches under
a fly which it has discovered, resting on a leaf or twig, a few feet
above the water, taking care not to alarm it by too sudden a motion;
then, projecting the tip of its beak from the surface, it shoots a
single drop at the insect with so clever an aim, as very rarely to
miss it, when it falls into the water and is devoured. Being common
in the Indian seas, it is often kept by the Chinese in vases, as we
keep golden-fish, for the amusement of witnessing this feat. A fly is
fastened at some distance, at which the fish shoots, but, disappointed
of course, and wondering that its prey does not fall, it goes on to
repeat the discharge for many times in succession, without seeming to
take in a fresh stock of ammunition, and scarcely ever missing the
mark, though at a distance of three or four feet.
EXTRAORDINARY EARTHQUAKES.
Around the Papandayang, one of the loftiest mountains in Java, no less
than forty villages were reposing in peace. But in August 1772, a
remarkable luminous cloud enveloping its top aroused them from their
security. But it was too late; for at once the mountain began to sink
into the earth, and soon it had disappeared, with the forty villages
and most of the inhabitants, over a space fifteen miles long and six
broad. Still more extraordinary, the most remarkable on record was an
eruption in Sumbawa, one of the Molucca islands, in 1815. It began on
the fifth day of April, and did not cease till July. The explosions
were heard in one direction nine hundred and seventy miles, and in
another seven hundred and twenty miles. So heavy was the fall of ashes
at the distance of forty miles that houses were crushed and destroyed.
The floating cinders in the ocean, hundreds of miles distant, were
two feet thick, and vessels were forced through with difficulty. The
darkness in Java, three hundred miles distant, was deeper than the
blackest night; and, finally, out of the twelve thousand inhabitants of
the island, only twenty-six survived the catastrophe.
BEAUTIFUL ARCH.
One of the rarities of architecture is the beautiful arch in the choir
of Cannistown Church, not far from Bective, near Trim, in Ireland. Down
to the very latest period of Gothic architecture, the original plan of
a simple nave, or nave and chancel, was followed, and the chief or only
difference observable in churches of very late date, from those of the
sixth and seventh centuries, consists in the form of the arch-heads,
the position of the doorway, the style of the masonry, which is usually
much better in the more ancient examples, and the use of bell-turrets,
the cloigeteach, or detached round tower, having answered this purpose
during the earlier ages. A beautiful and highly characteristic example
of an early pointed church is that at Cannistown. As usual, it consists
of a nave and chancel, and there are the remains of a bell-turret upon
the west gable, the usual position. The choir arch is represented in
the annexed cut.
[Illustration [++] Arch in the Choir of Cannistown Church.]
There are numerous examples of churches of this style scattered
over Ireland, but they are usually plain, and the choir arch is
generally the plainest feature in the building. As example, we can
refer our readers to the churches of Kilbarrack, Dalkey, Kinsale, and
Rathmichael, all in the immediate neighbourhood of Dublin.
THOMAS CONECTE.
There was a Carmelite friar, Thomas Conecte, who, previous to his
being burnt as a heretic at Rome, in 1434, excited the admiration of
all Flanders by his vehement sermons against the luxury of the women.
His satire was chiefly levelled against their head-dresses, which rose
to so enormous a height, that the most exalted head-dresses of a late
day were but dwarfs to them. Juvenal des Ursins, who lived at that
period, declares that, notwithstanding the troubles of the times, the
maidens and married ladies rose to prodigious excess in their attire,
and wore hair of a surprising height and breadth, having on each side
two ears of so unaccountable a size, that it was impossible for them
to pass through a door. Their dresses were the hennins of Flanders,
which the worthy Carmelite was so inveterate against. He made them
dress themselves in a more modest manner. But, alas no sooner had Friar
Thomas left the country than the head-dresses shot up to a greater
height than ever. They had only bowed their heads like bullrushes
during the storm. Poor Thomas attacked the infallible church itself,
and they, in default of better arguments, burnt him.
CURIOUS COINCIDENCES.
On the 21st of April, 1770, Lewis XVI. was married.
21st of June, 1770, fifteen hundred people were trampled to death at
the _fete_.
21st of January, 1782, _fete_ for the birth of the Dauphin.
21st of June, 1791, the flight to Varennes.
21st of September, 1792, the abolition of royalty.
21st of January, 1793, the unfortunate monarch's decapitation.
AMPHITHEATRES.
The deficiency of theatres erected by the Romans is far more than
compensated by the number and splendour of their amphitheatres, which,
with their baths, may be considered as the true types of Roman art. It
seems almost certain that they derived this class of public buildings
from the Etruscans. At Sutri there is a very noble one cut out of
the tufa rock, which was no doubt used by that people for festal
representations long before Rome attempted anything of the kind. It is
uncertain whether gladiatorial fights or combats of wild beasts formed
any part of the amusements of the arena in those days, though boxing,
wrestling, and contests of that description certainly did; but whether
the Etruscans actually proceeded to the shedding of blood and slaughter
is more than doubtful.
Even in the remotest parts of Britain, in Germany, and Gaul, wherever
we find a Roman settlement, we find the traces of their amphitheatres.
Their soldiery, it seems, could not exist without the enjoyment of
seeing men engage in doubtful and mortal combats--either killing one
another, or torn to pieces by wild beasts. It is not to be wondered at
that a people who delighted so much in the bloody scenes of the arena
should feel but very little pleasure in the mimic sorrows and tame
humour of the stage. It fitted them, it is true, to be a nation of
conquerors, and gave them the empire of the world, but it brought with
it feelings singularly inimical to all the softer arts, and was perhaps
the great cause of their debasement.
As might be expected, the largest and most splendid of these buildings
is that which adorns the capital; and of all the ruins which Rome
contains, none have excited such universal admiration as the Flavian
amphitheatre. Poets, painters, rhapsodists, have exhausted all the
resources of their arts in the attempt to convey to others the
overpowering impression this building produces on their own minds.
With the single exception, perhaps, of the Hall at Karnac, no ruin has
met with such universal admiration as this. Its association with the
ancient mistress of the world, its destruction, and the half-prophetic
destiny ascribed to it, all contribute to this. Still it must be
confessed that
"The gladiator's bloody circus stands
A noble wreck in ruinous perfection,"
and worthy of all or nearly all the admiration of which it has been the
object. Its interior is almost wholly devoid of ornament, or anything
that can be called architecture--a vast inverted pyramid. The exterior
does not possess one detail which is not open to criticism, and indeed
to positive blame. Notwithstanding all this, its mass, its form, and
its associations, all combine to produce an effect against which the
critic struggles in vain.
The length of the building, measured along its greatest diameter, is
620 ft., its breadth 513, or nearly in the ratio of 6 to 5, which may
be taken as the general proportion of these buildings, the variations
from it being slight, and apparently either mistakes in setting out
the work in ancient times, or in measuring it in modern days, rather
than an intentional deviation. The height of the 3 lower stories is
120 ft.; the total height as it now stands, 157 ft. The arena itself
measures 287 ft. in length by 180 in breadth, and it is calculated that
the building would contain 80,000 spectators; 50,000 or 60,000 would be
much nearer the truth, at least according to the data by which space is
calculated in our theatres and public places.
HUNDRED FAMILIES' LOCK.
A common Chinese talisman is the "hundred families' lock," to procure
which a father goes round among his friends, and, having obtained from
a hundred different parties a few of the copper coins of the country,
he himself adds the balance, to purchase an ornament or appendage
fashioned like a lock, which he hangs on his child's neck, for the
purpose of locking him figuratively to life, and making the hundred
persons concerned in his attaining old age.
THE DUKE DE REICHSTADT.
At the Imperial Palace of Schoenbrun, about five English miles from
Vienna, is shown the window fractured by the bullet of the enthusiastic
student who shot at Napoleon while he was reviewing the Imperial Guard,
and also the apartment he occupied when he made this his head-quarters,
instead of entering the city. An additional interest is imparted to the
place, by the circumstance of the Duke de Reichstadt having, when taken
ill, chosen the identical chamber and spot in which his father Napoleon
had slept, to close his mortal career: and by a singular coincidence,
the remains of the young prince were subjected to a post-mortem
examination upon the same table at which the Emperor had held his
councils. In imitation of the military hardihood of his sire, the young
duke was in the habit of exposing himself to all weathers, and keeping
guard during successive nights, a practice which often called forth
from his surgeon, Dr. Malfati, the expressive words, '_Rappelez vous,
mon Prince, que vouz avez un Coeur de Fer dans un Corp de Verre_.'
MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS' CANDLESTICK.
Almost every article, however trifling its intrinsic value, and however
homely its appearance, which once belonged to a celebrated individual,
is always regarded as an object of interest, and we have, therefore,
no hesitation in presenting our readers with the annexed engraving
of one of a pair of candlesticks which were once the property of the
unfortunate Mary, Queen of Scots.
[Illustration [++] Mary Queen of Scots' Candlestick.]
They are made of brass, each of them of eleven and a-half inches in
height. They are of French manufacture; the sunk parts are filled
up with an inlay of blue, green, and white enamel, very similar to
that done at Limoge. These extremely elegant and curious articles are
the property of Lord Holland, and are preserved at Holland House,
Kensington.
Holland House is associated "with the costly magnificence of Rich,
with the loves of Ormond, the councils of Cromwell, and the death
of Addison." It has been for nearly two centuries and a-half the
favourite resort of wits and beauties, of painters and poets, of
scholars, philosophers, and statesmen. In the lifetime of the late Lord
Holland, it was the meeting-place of "the Whig Party;" and his liberal
hospitality made it "the resort, not only of the most interesting
persons composing English society--literary, philosophical, and
political, but also to all belonging to those classes who ever visited
this country from abroad."
EXTRAORDINARY INSTANCES OF INHUMANITY.
In 1534, in the wars of Edward III. with France, Fordun relates that a
Frenchman purchased from the Scots several English prisoners, and that
he beheaded them to avenge the death of his father. This sentimental
cruelty can perhaps be paralleled by that of Coccinas, who, at the
massacre of Paris, bought many Huguenots, that he might torture them
to death for his private satisfaction. Philip Galeas Visconti, Duke of
Milan, was a man of a nature so timid, that thunder threw him into
agonies; yet was he so inhuman, that he could _enjoy the shrieks of
a female stretched upon a rack_. Wenceslaus, the German Emperor, say
Mezeray, Voltaire, and others, _roasted his cook alive_, for dressing
his dinner amiss; and never had so intimate a friend in Prague as the
common executioner; and even _him_ he put to death at last, for not
taking him at his word, when he once had bid him cut his head off, and
actually knelt down to receive the stroke.
ANCIENT ROMAN LAMPS.
The earliest lamps fabricated by the potters of ancient Rome have an
open circular body, with a curved projecting rim to prevent the oil
from spilling, and occur both in terra-cotta, and also in the black
glazed ware found in the sepulchres of Nola. Many have a projecting
hollow pipe in the centre, in order to fix them to a stick on the top
of a candelabrum. These lamps have no handles. They may have been
placed in the sacella or lararia, and were turned on the potter's wheel.
The shoe-shaped is the most usual, with a round body, a projecting
spout or nozzle having a hole for the wick, and a small annular handle,
which is more or less raised.
[Illustration [++] Ancient Roman Lamp.]
A singular variety of lamp, well adapted for a table, was fitted
into a kind of small altar, the sides of which were ornamented with
reliefs. Several however, from their unusual shape, maybe considered
as fancy ware, the upper part, or the whole lamp, being moulded into
the resemblance of some object. Such are lamps in the British Museum in
the shape of a female head surmounted by a flower, or of the head of a
negro or Nubian with open jaws, through which the wick was inserted.
Most of these lamps appear to have been made between the age of
Augustus and that of Constantine. The style, of course best at the
earlier period of the empire, degenerates under the later emperors,
such as Philip and Maximus, and becomes at last Byzantine and bad.
Most lamps had only one wick, but the light they afforded must have
been feeble, and consequently some have two wicks, the nozzle for
which project beyond the body of the lamp. In the same manner were
fabricated lamps of three, five, and seven wicks. If more were required
the nozzles did not project far beyond the body of the lamp, which
was then moulded in a shape adapted for the purpose, and especially
the favourite one of a galley. Sometimes a conglomeration of small
lamps was manufactured in a row, or in a serrated shape, which enabled
the purchaser to obtain what light he required; still the amount of
illumination must have been feeble. As many as twenty wicks have been
found in some lamps.
The greater number average from three to four inches long, and one
inch high; the walls are about one-eighth of an inch thick, and the
circular handles not more than one inch in diameter. Some of the larger
lamps, however, are about nine inches or a foot long, with handles
eight or nine inches high.
AN ECCENTRIC ENGLISHMAN.