lived in the time of James and Charles I. Mr. Hastings was second son
to the Earl of Huntingdon; and inherited a good estate in Dorsetshire
from his mother. He was one of the keepers of New Forest, Hampshire;
and resided in the lodge there during a part of every summer season.
But his principal residence was at Woodlands, in Dorsetshire, where
he had a capital mansion. One of his nearest neighbours, was the
Lord Chancellor Cooper, first Earl of Shaftesbury. Two men could not
be more opposite in their disposition and pursuits. They had little
communication therefore; and their occasional meetings were rendered
more disagreeable to both from their opposite sentiments in politics.
Lord Shaftesbury, who was the younger man, was the survivor; and the
following account of Mr. Hastings is said to have been the production
of his pen. "Mr. Hastings was low of stature, but very strong, and
very active; of a ruddy complexion, with flaxen hair. His clothes were
always of green cloth. His house was of the old fashion; in the midst
of a large park, well stocked with deer, rabbits, and fish-ponds. He
had a long narrow bowling-green in it; and used to play with round
sand-bowls. Here, too, he had a banqueting-room built, like a stand
in a large tree. He kept all sorts of hounds, that ran buck, fox,
hare, otter, and badger; and had hawks of all kinds, both long and
short-winged. His great hall was commonly strewed with marrow-bones;
and full of hawk-perches, hounds, spaniels, and terriers. The upper
end of it was hung with fox-skins of this and the last year's killing.
Here and there a pole-cat was intermixed; and hunter's poles in great
abundance. The parlour was a large room, completely furnished in the
same style. On a broad hearth, paved with bricks, lay some of the
choicest terriers, hounds, and spaniels. One or two of the great chairs
had litters of cats in them, which were not to be disturbed. Of these,
three or four always attended him at dinner; and a little white wand
lay by his trencher, to defend it, if they were too troublesome. In
the windows, which were very large, lay his arrows, cross-bows, and
other accoutrements. The corners of the room were filled with his best
hunting and hawking poles. His oyster-table stood at the lower end of
the room, which was in constant use twice a day, all the year round;
for he never failed to eat oysters both at dinner and supper; with
which the neighbouring town of Poole supplied him. At the upper end of
the room stood a small table with a double desk; one side of which held
a church Bible; the other, the Book of Martyrs. On different tables of
the room lay hawks' hoods; bells, old hats with their crowns thrust in,
full of pheasants' eggs, tables, dice, cards, and a store of tobacco
pipes. At one end of this room was a door, which opened into a closet,
where stood bottles of strong beer and wine, which never came out
but in single glasses, which was the rule of the house; for he never
exceeded himself, nor permitted others to exceed. Answering to this
closet was a door into an old chapel, which had been long disused for
devotion; but, in the pulpit, as the safest place, was always to be
found a cold chine of beef, a venison pasty, a gammon of bacon, or a
great apple-pie with thick crust, well baked. His table cost him not
much, though it was good to eat at. His sports supplied all but beef
and mutton, except on Fridays, when he had the best of fish. He never
wanted a London pudding; and he always sang it in with, "_My part lies
therein-a._" He drank a glass or two of wine at meals; put syrup of
gilly-flowers into his sack; and had always a tun-glass of small-beer
standing by him, which he often stirred about with rosemary. He lived
to be an hundred; and never lost his eyesight, nor used spectacles. He
got on horseback without help; and rode to the death of the stag, till
he was past fourscore."
PERFUMED BANQUETS OF THE ANCIENTS.
A very remarkable peculiarity in the banquets of the ancients was,
their not confining the resources of the table to the gratification of
one sense alone. Having exhausted their invention in the confection
of stimulants for the palate, they broke new ground, and called in
another sense to their aid; and by the delicate application of odours
and richly-distilled perfumes, these refined voluptuaries aroused the
fainting appetite, and added a more exquisite and ethereal enjoyment
to the grosser pleasures of the board. The gratification of the sense
of smelling (a sense held by us in very undeserved neglect, probably
on account of its delicacy) was a subject of no little importance
to the Romans. However this may be, it is certain that the Romans
considered flowers as forming a very essential article in their festal
preparations; and it is the opinion of Bassius, that at their desserts
the number of flowers far exceeded that of fruits. When Nero supped
in his Golden House, a mingled shower of flowers and odorous essences
fell upon him; and one of Heliogabalus' recreations was to smother
his courtiers with flowers, of whom it may be said, they "died of a
rose in aromatic pain." Nor was it entirely as an object of luxury
that the ancients made use of flowers; they were considered to possess
sanative and medicinal qualities. According to Pliny, Athenaeus, and
Plutarch, certain herbs and flowers were of sovereign power to prevent
the approaches of ebriety, or, as Bassius less clearly expresses it,
clarify the functions of the brain.
CHINESE BRIDGES.
Of Chinese bridges, some have been very much exaggerated in the
accounts by Du Halde and the missionaries, as it appears from the
later reports concerning the bridge at Foo-chow-foo, visited during
the unsuccessful commercial voyage of the ship "Amherst," in 1832, and
since the war become familiar to our countrymen. This same bridge,
which proved a very poor structure after all, had been extolled by
the Jesuits as something quite extraordinary. A bridge of ninety-one
arches, being in fact a very long causeway, was passed by Lord
Macartney between Soo-chow and Hang-chow, and near the Lake called
Tae-hoo. The highest arch, however, was supposed to be between twenty
and thirty feet in height, and the whole length of the causeway half
a mile. It was thrown across an arm of the lake, on the eastern side
of the canal. The late Sir George Staunton observed a bridge between
Peking and Tartary, built across a river which was subject to being
swelled by mountain floods. This was erected upon caissons of wattles
filled with stones. It appeared to have been built with expedition,
and at small cost, where the most solid bridge would be endangered by
inundations. The caissons were fixed by large perpendicular spars, and
over the whole were laid planks, hurdles, and gravel. It was only in
Keang-nan that solid bridges were observed to be thrown over the canal,
being constructed of coarse grey marble, or of a reddish granite. Some
of the arches were semicircular, others the transverse section of an
ellipse, and others again approached the shape of a horseshoe, or
Greek [Greek: capital Omega], the space being widest at top. In the
ornamental bridges that adorn gardens and pleasure-grounds, the arch is
often of height sufficient to admit a boat under sail, and the bridge
is ascended by steps.
[Illustration [++] Chinese Bridge.]
All the stones of a Chinese arch are commonly wedge-shaped, their
sides forming radii which converge towards the centre of the curve.
It is observable that, according to the opinion of Captain Parish,
who surveyed and made plans of the Great Wall, no masonry could be
superior to it. The arched and vaulted work was considered by him as
exceedingly well turned. The Chinese, therefore, must have understood
the construction and properties of the arch long before the Greeks and
Romans, whose original and most ancient edifices consisted of columns,
connected by straight architraves, of bulk sufficient to support the
incumbent pressure of solid masonry.
SOCIABLE WEAVER-BIRD.
There are some birds whose social instinct impels them to live in
company, and to unite their powers in the construction of a common
edifice: in this respect resembling the Beaver among quadrupeds, and
the Bee among insects. Among these we may mention the Ani (_Crotophaga
ani_) of the West Indies; the Pensile Grosbeak (_Loxia pensilis_)
of West Africa; and the Bottle-nested Sparrow of India: but more
remarkable than any of these is the Sociable Grosbeak (_Loxia
socialis_) of South Africa, whose habits are described by Le Vaillant.
"Figure to yourself," says this enterprising traveller, "a huge,
irregular, sloping roof, with all the eaves completely covered with
nests, crowded close together, and you will have a tolerably correct
idea of these singular edifices." The birds commence this structure by
forming the immense canopy of a mass of grass, so compact and firmly
basketed together as to be impenetrable to the rain. This sometimes
surrounds a large tree, giving it, but for the upper branches, somewhat
the form of a mushroom. Beneath the eaves of this canopy the nests
are formed; the upper surface is not used for this purpose, but as it
is sloping, with a projecting rim, it serves to let the rain-water
run off, and preserves each little dwelling from the wet. Le Vaillant
procured one of these great shelters, and cut it in pieces with a
hatchet: the chief portion consisted of Boshman's grass, so compact
as to be impenetrable by rain. Each nest is three or four inches in
diameter, which is sufficient for the bird; but, as they are all close
together around the eaves, they appear to the eye to form but one
building, and, in fact, are distinguishable from each other only by a
little external aperture, which serves as an entrance to the nest. This
large nest contained 320 inhabited cells.
[Illustration: Nest of Sociable Weaver Bird.]
WOLVES IN ENGLAND.
King Edward the First commissioned Peter Corbet to destroy the wolves
in the counties of Gloucester, Worcester, Hereford, Salop, and
Stafford; and ordered John Gifford to hunt them in all the forests of
England.
The forest of Chiltern was infested by wolves and wild bulls in the
time of Edward the Confessor. William the Conqueror granted the
lordship of Riddesdale, in Northumberland, to Robert de Umfraville,
on condition of defending that part of the country against enemies and
wolves. King John gave a premium of ten shillings for catching two
wolves.
In the reign of King Henry the Third Vitalis de Engaine held the manors
of Laxton and Pitchley, in the county of Northampton, by the service
of hunting the wolf, whenever the king should command him. In the
reign of Edward the First, it was found by inquisition that John de
Engaine held the manor of Great Gidding, in the county of Huntingdon,
by the service of hunting the hare, fox, wild cat, and wolf, within the
counties of Huntingdon, Northampton, Buckingham, Oxford, and Rutland.
In the reign of Edward the Third, Thomas de Engaine held certain manors
by the service of finding, at his own proper cost, certain dogs for the
destruction of wolves, foxes, martins, and wild cats in the counties of
Northampton, Rutland, Oxford, Essex, and Buckingham.
TEMPLES OF BRAMBANAM.
In the island of Java, and not far from the ruins of Boro Buddor,
are situated the Buddhist temples of Brambanam; certainly one of the
most extraordinary groups of buildings of its class, and very unlike
anything we now find in India; though there can scarcely be a doubt but
that the whole is derived from an Indian original now lost.
The great temple is a square building above 45 ft. square, and 75 ft.
high, terminating upwards in an octagonal straight-lined pyramid. On
each face of this is a smaller temple of similar design joined to the
great one by corridors; the whole five thus constituting a cruciform
building. It is raised upon a richly ornamented square base. One of
the smaller temples serves as an entrance-porch. The building itself
is very curiously and richly ornamented with sculpture; but the most
remarkable feature of the whole group is the multitude of smaller
temples which surround the central one, 239 in number. Immediately
beyond the square terrace which supports the central temple stand 28
of these, forming a square of 8 on each side, counting the angular
ones both ways. Beyond these, at a distance of 35 ft., is the second
square, 44 in number; between this and the next row is a wide space of
above 80 ft., in which only 6 temples are situated, two in the centre
of the north and south faces, and one on each of the others. The two
outer rows of temples are situated close to one another, back to back,
and are 160 in number, each face of the square they form being about
525 ft. All these 239 temples are similar to one another, about 12 ft.
square at the base, and 22 ft. high, all richly carved and ornamented,
and in every one is a small square cell, in which was originally placed
a cross-legged figure, probably of one of the Jaina saints, though
the drawings which have been hitherto published do not enable us to
determine whom they represent--the persons who made them not being
aware of the distinction between Buddhist and Jaina images.
The date given to these monuments by the natives is about the 9th or
10th century, at which time the Jains were making great progress at
Guzerat and the western parts of India; and if the traditions are to
be relied upon, which bring the Hindu colonists of Java from that
quarter, it is almost certain that they would have brought that
religion with them. If the age, however, that is assigned to them be
correct, they are specimens of an earlier date and form than anything
we now find in India, and less removed from the old Buddhist type than
anything that now remains there.
GRAHAM ISLAND.
The most recent instance of subaqueous eruption, with which we are
acquainted is that which produced Hotham or Graham Island, in the year
1831. This island was thrown up in the Mediterranean, between the
south-west coast of Sicily and the African coast, in latitude 37 deg. 8'
30" north, and longitude 12 deg. 42' 15" east. The eruption seems to have
been first observed by John Corrao, the captain of a Sicilian vessel,
who passing near to the spot on the 10th of July, observed an immense
column of water ejected from the sea to the height of sixty feet, and
about eight hundred yards in circumference.
On the 16th of July, Corrao again passed the same spot, and he found
that a small island had been formed, twelve feet high, with a crater in
the centre, from which immense columns of vapour and masses of volcanic
matter were ejected.
The island was afterwards visited by several scientific gentlemen,
and is said to have been two hundred feet high, and three miles in
circumference, on the 4th of August. But from this time the island
decreased in size; for being composed of loose scoriae and pumice, it
was rapidly acted upon by the water; and on the 3rd of September, when
carefully measured by Captain Wodehouse, was only three-fifths of a
mile in circumference, and one hundred and seven feet high. At the end
of October the island had entirely disappeared, except one small point
composed of sand and scoriae. Captain Swinburne examined the spot in the
beginning of the year 1832, and found an extensive shoal to occupy the
place where the island had once been. In 1833 there was a dangerous
reef, of an oval form, three-fifths of a mile in circumference.
A ROYAL SPORTSMAN.
When the King of Naples (the greatest sportsman in Europe) was in
Germany, about the year 1792, it was said in the German papers, that
in the different times he had been shooting in Austria, Bohemia, and
Moravia, he had killed 5 bears, 1,820 wild boars, 1,968 stags, 13
wolves, 354 foxes, 15,350 pheasants, 1,121 rabbits, 16,354 hares, 1,625
she-goats, 1,625 roebucks, and 12,435 partridges.
LIFE IN DEATH.
The wife of the consul of Cologne, Retchmuth, apparently died of the
plague, in 1571; a ring of great value, with which she was buried,
tempted the cupidity of the grave-digger, and was the cause of many
future years of happiness. At night the purloiner marched to his
plunder, and she revived. She lived to be the mother of three children,
and, when deceased in reality, was re-buried in the same church,
where a monument was erected, reciting the particulars above stated
in German verse. A woman of Poictiers, being buried with four rings,
tempted the resurrection-man, who _awoke_ the woman in the attempt, as
he was rather rude in his mode of possessing them. She called out; he,
being frightened, fled. The lady walked home, recovered, and had many
children afterwards.
ROCK-CUT MONUMENTS OF ASIA MINOR.
The engraving below represents an example of rock-cut monuments which
are found at Doganlu, in Asia Minor. They are placed on the rocky side
of a narrow valley, and unconnected apparently with any great city or
centre of population. Generally they are called tombs, but there are
no chambers nor anything about them to indicate a funereal purpose,
and the inscriptions which accompany them are not on the monuments
themselves, nor do they refer to such a purpose. Altogether, they are
certainly among the most mysterious remains of antiquity, and, beyond
a certain similarity to the rock-cut tombs around Persepolis, it is
not easy to point out any monuments that afford even a remote analogy
to guide us in our conjectures. They are of a style of art clearly
indicating a wooden origin, and consist of a square frontispiece,
either carved into certain geometric shapes, or prepared apparently
for painting; at each side is a flat pilaster, and above a pediment
terminating in two scrolls. Some, apparently the more modern, have
pillars of a rude Doric order, and all indeed are much more curious
than beautiful. When more of the same class are discovered, they may
help us to some historic data: all that we can now say of them is,
that, judging from their inscriptions and the traditions in Herodotus,
they seem to belong to some Indo-Germanic race from Thessaly, or
thereabouts, who had crossed the Hellespont and settled in their
neighbourhood; and their date is possibly as far back as 1000, and most
probably before 700 B.C.
[Illustration [++] Rock-Cut Monument.]
ARCH OF TRAJAN AT BENEVENTUM.
Triumphal arches were among the most peculiar forms of art which the
Romans borrowed from those around them, and used with that strange
mixture of splendour and bad taste which characterises all their works.
[Illustration [++] Arch of Trajan at Beneventum.]
These were in the first instance no doubt borrowed from the Etruscans,
as was also the ceremony of the triumph with which they were ultimately
associated. At first they seem rather to have been used as festal
entrances to the great public roads, whose construction was considered
as one of the most important benefits a ruler could confer on his
country. There was one erected at Rimini in honour of an important
restoration of the Flaminian Way by Augustus; another at Susa in
Piedmont, to commemorate a similar act of the same Emperor. Trajan
built one on the pier at Ancona, when he restored that harbour, and
another at Beneventum, when he repaired the Via Appia, represented in
the woodcut here given. It is one of the best preserved as well as
most graceful of its class in Italy. The arch of the Sergii at Pola
in Istria seems also to have been erected for a like purpose. That of
Hadrian at Athens, and another built by him at Antinoe in Egypt, were
monuments merely commemorative of the benefits which he had conferred
on those cities by the architectural works he had erected within their
walls. By far the most important application of these gateways, in Rome
at least, was to commemorate a triumph which may have passed along the
road over which the arch was erected beforehand, for the triumphal
procession to pass through, of which it would remain a memorial.
JUDGES' SALARIES.
In the reign of Henry III. the King's Justices enjoyed a salary of ten
marks per annum, which, in the twenty-third year of that King, was
augmented to twenty pounds, and soon after to more. Under Henry IV. the
Chief Justices of the King's Bench and Common Pleas had forty pounds,
and one of the judges of Common Pleas had fifty-five marks. In 1466,
the salary of Thomas Littleton, judge of the King's Bench, amounted to
L136 13s. 4d. modern money; besides about L17 7s. for his fur-gown,
robes, &c.
EXTRAORDINARY OAK.
Gilpin, in his "Forest Scenery," says, "Close by the gate of the
water-walk at Magdalen College, in Oxford, grew an oak, which perhaps
stood there a sapling when Alfred the Great founded the university.
This period only includes a space of nine hundred years, which is no
great age for an oak. It is a difficult matter indeed to ascertain the
age of a tree. The age of a castle or abbey is the object of history;
even a common house is recorded by the families that built it. All
these objects arrive at maturity in their youth, if I may so speak.
But the tree, gradually completing its growth, is not worth recording
in the early part of its existence. It is then only a common tree;
and afterwards, when it becomes remarkable for its age, all memory of
its youth is lost. This tree, however, can almost produce historical
evidence for the age assigned to it. About five hundred years after the
time of Alfred, William of Wainfleet, Dr. Stukely tells us, expressly
ordered his college to be founded near the Great Oak; and an oak could
not, I think, be less than five hundred years of age to merit that
title, together with the honour of fixing the site of a college. When
the magnificence of Cardinal Wolsey erected that handsome tower which
is so ornamental to the whole building, this tree might probably be
in the meridian of its glory, or rather, perhaps, it had attained a
green old age. But it must have been manifestly in its decline at that
memorable era when the tyranny of James gave the fellows of Magdalen so
noble an opportunity of withstanding bigotry and superstition. It was
afterwards much injured in Charles the Second's time, when the present
walks were laid out. Its roots were disturbed, and from that period it
declined fast, and became reduced by degrees to little more than a mere
trunk. The oldest members of the university can scarcely recollect it
in better plight. But the faithful records of history have handed down
its ancient dimensions. Through a space of sixteen yards on every side
from its trunk, it once flung its boughs, and under its magnificent
pavilion could have sheltered with ease three thousand men, though in
its decayed state it could for many years do little more than shelter
some luckless individual whom the driving shower had overtaken in his
evening walk. In the summer of 1788, this magnificent ruin fell to the
ground, alarming the college with its rushing sound. It then appeared
how precariously it had stood for many years. Its grand tap-root was
decayed, and it had hold of the earth only by two or three roots, of
which none was more than a couple of inches in diameter. From a part of
its ruins a chair has been made for the President of the College, which
will long continue its memory."
ECCENTRIC ADVERTISEMENT.
The following strange advertisement is copied from the Harleian MSS.:
"_In Nova fert Animus_. These are to give notice, (for the benefit of
the public,) that there is newly arrived from his travels, a gentleman,
who, after above forty years' study, hath, by a wonderful blessing on
his endeavours, discovered, as well the nature as the infallible cure
of several strange diseases, which (though as yet not known to the
world) he will plainly demonstrate to any ingenious artist, to be the
greatest causes of the most common distempers incident to the body of
man. The names of which take as follow:
The strong fives
The marthambles
The moon-pall
The hockogrocle.
"Now, though the names, natures, symptoms, and several cures of these
diseases, are altogether unknown to our greatest physicians, and the
particular knowledge of them would (if concealed) be a vast advantage
to the aforesaid person; yet, he well knowing that his country's
good is to be preferred to his private interest, doth hereby promise
all sorts of people, a faithful cure of all or any of the diseases
aforesaid, at as reasonable rates as our modern doctors have for that
of any common distemper.
"He is spoken with at the ordinary hours of business, at the Three
Compasses, in Maiden-lane."
MODERN EGYPTIAN FEMALE ORNAMENTS.
[Illustration [++] Ckoo'r.]
Among the many ornaments which the women of Egypt in modern times
are so fond of wearing, none is more curious or more generally worn
than the _Ckoo'r_. It is a round convex ornament, commonly about five
inches in diameter, of which there are two kinds. The first that we
shall describe, and which is the only kind worn by ladies, or by the
wives of tradesmen of moderate property, is the _ckoor's alma's_, or
diamond ckoor's. This is composed of diamonds set generally in gold;
and is open work, representing roses, leaves, &c. The diamonds are
commonly of a very poor and shallow kind; and the gold of this and all
other diamond ornaments worn in Egypt is much alloyed with copper. The
value of a moderately handsome diamond ckoor's is about a hundred and
twenty-five, or a hundred and fifty pounds sterling. It is very seldom
made of silver; and I think that those of gold, when attached to the
deep red turboo'sh, have a richer effect, though not in accordance
with our general taste. The wives even of petty tradesmen sometimes
wear the diamond ckoor's: they are extremely fond of diamonds, and
generally endeavour to get some, however bad. The ckoor's, being of
considerable weight, is at first painful to wear; and women who are in
the habit of wearing it complain of headache when they take it off:
hence they retain it day and night; but some have an inferior one
for the bed. Some ladies have one for ordinary wearing, another for
particular occasions, a little larger and handsomer; and a third merely
to wear in bed. The other kind of ckoor's, _ckoor's dah'ab_ (or, of
gold), is a convex plate of very thin embossed gold, and almost always
a false emerald (a piece of green glass), not cut with facets, set in
the centre. Neither the emerald nor the ruby are here cut with facets:
if so cut, they would generally be considered false. The simple gold
ckoor's is lined with a thick coat of wax, which is covered with a
piece of paper. It is worn by many women who cannot afford to purchase
diamonds; and even by some servants.
ANTIQUE ROMAN MEDICINE STAMP.
[Illustration [++] Roman Medicine Stamp.]