affected by Asuf ul Dowlah, who succeeded his father on the throne
of Oude. This nabob was fond of lavishing his treasures on gardens,
palaces, horses, elephants, European guns, lustres, and mirrors. He
expended annually about L200,000 in English manufactures. He had more
than one hundred gardens, twenty palaces, one thousand two hundred
elephants, three thousand fine saddle horses, one thousand five hundred
double-barrel guns, seventeen hundred superb lustres, thirty thousand
shades of various forms and colours; seven hundred large mirrors,
girandoles and clocks. Some of the latter were very curious, richly set
with jewels, having figures in continual movement, and playing tunes
every hour; two of these clocks only, cost him thirty thousand pounds.
Without taste or judgment, he was extremely solicitous to possess all
that was elegant and rare; he had instruments and machines of every
art and science, but he knew none; and his museum was so ridiculously
arranged that a wooden cuckoo-clock was placed close to a superb
timepiece which cost the price of a diadem; and a valuable landscape of
Claude Lorraine suspended near a board painted with ducks and drakes.
He sometimes gave a dinner to ten or twelve persons, sitting at their
ease in a carriage drawn by elephants. His jewels amounted to about
eight millions sterling. Amidst this precious treasure, he might be
seen for several hours every day handling them as a child does his toys.
ANCIENT SCOTTISH CHIEFTAIN.
[Illustration: [++] Scottish Costume.]
Annexed is a Scottish costume of the eighth or ninth century, after
a drawing on parchment, extracted from an old book, which, according
to the characters on the back, appears to have been written in
Gaelic or Erse. According to the assertion of the possessor, this
Caledonian document was brought to Germany in the year 1596, during the
devastating Reformation in Scotland, when all cloisters and religious
endowments were destroyed, and a perfect victory obtained over the
episcopacy, so that many persons took refuge with their treasures,
on the Continent, where the Scottish monks possessed many religious
houses; some being at Nuremberg. Our figure represents a Highland
chief, whose dress is picturesque and extremely beautiful. The Scottish
tunic or blouse, checkered or striped in light and dark green, with
violet intermixed, and bordered with violet stripes, is covered with a
steel breastplate, accompanied by a back-piece, judging from the iron
brassarts--positively a bequest of the Romans, by whom the Scots were
once subjugated; this, indeed, is also attested by the offensive weapon
the javelin; the sword, however, must be excepted, for it is national
and like that of the present time. The strong shield may also have
descended from the Romans, as well as the helmet, which is decorated
with an eagle's wing; these, together with the hunting-horn, give to
the figure a very imposing appearance. The national plaid is wanting,
this was borne by attendants or squires. We are involuntarily reminded
of the heroes of Fingal and Ossian, and we might almost think that
this figure belonged to the time of the Scottish king, Kenneth the
Second, grandson of King Achaias, and the sister of the Pictish king,
Hang.
GREEK VASES.
Vases of various shapes have been found in the sepulchres of Greece,
such as the _oenochoe_, or jug; the _askos_, or wine-skin; the _phiale
omphalotos_, or saucer having a boss in the centre; _rhyta_, or jugs,
imitated from the _keras_, or horn, as well as some moulded in the
shape of the human bust. Vases of this class, however, occur more
frequently in Italy than in Greece. Some are of remarkable shape. One
in the Durand collection has its interior receded, and in the centre
a medallion of the Gorgon's head; at the edge is the head of a dog or
fox, and to it is attached a long handle terminating in the head of an
animal. Similar handles are often found. Another vase from Sicily, also
in the same collection, with a conical cover, is ornamented externally
with moulded subjects of wreaths, heads of Medusa, &c., painted and
gilded.
[Illustration: [++] Greek Vase.]
Many of the vases intended for ornamental purposes are covered with a
white coating, and painted with colours of the same kind as those used
on the figures before described, but with few and simple ornaments,
plain bands, maeanders, chequered bands and wreaths. A vase found at
Melos affords a curious example. We here annex a sketch of it. It
consists of a number of small vases united together and arranged in a
double circle round a central stand. This kind of vase is supposed to
be the _kernos_, used in the mystic ceremonies to hold small quantities
of viands. By some persons, however, it is thought to have been
intended for eggs or flowers. It is covered with a white coating of
clay, and the zigzag stripes are of a maroon colour. Such vases might
have been used for flower-pots, and have formed small temporary gardens
like those of Adonis, or have been employed as lamps.
QUEEN ELIZABETH'S DRESSES.
The list of the Queen's wardrobe, in 1600, shows us that she had then
only 99 robes, 126 kirtles, 269 gowns (round, loose, and French), 136
foreparts, 125 petticoats, and 27 fans, not to mention 96 cloaks, 83
save guards, 85 doublets, and 18 lap mantles.
Her gowns were of the richest materials--purple, gold tissue, crimson
satin, cloth of gold, cloth of silver, white velvet, munsy cloth,
tawney satin, horse-flesh coloured satin, Isabella coloured satin dove
coloured velvet, lady blush satin, drake coloured satin, and [...]
coloured satin.
The cloaks are of perfumed leather, black taffety; the petticoats of
blue satin; the jupes of orange coloured satin; the doublets of straw
coloured satin; the mantles of white blush, striped with red swan's
down.
The most characteristic dresses are the following:--
A frock of cloth of silver, checquered with red silk, like bird's eyes,
with demi sleeves, a cut of crimson velvet twisted on with silver,
lined with crimson velvet.
A mantle of white lawn, cut and turned in, embroidered all over with
works of silver, like pomegranates, roses, honeysuckles, and acorns.
One French kirtle of white satin, cut all over, embroidered with loops,
flowers, and clouds of Venice gold, silver, and silk.
One round kirtle of white satin, embroidered all over with the work
like flames, peascods, and pillars, with a border likewise embroidered
with roses.
The stomacher (fore part) of white satin, embroidered very fair with
borders of the sun, moon, and other signs and planets of Venice gold,
silver, and silk of sundry colours, with a border of beasts beneath,
likewise embroidered.
Other gowns we find adorned with bees, spiders, flies, worms, trunks of
trees, pansies, oak leaves, and mulberries; so that "Bess" must have
looked like an illustrated edition of _AEsop's Fables_.
In one case she shines in rainbows, clouds, flames of fire, and suns;
in another, with fountains and trees, snakes, and grasshoppers; the
buttons themselves, in one instance, assume the shape of butterflies,
in another of birds of Paradise.
The fans were of white and coloured feathers, with gold handles set
with precious stones, or of crystal and heliotrope; one of them
contained a looking-glass, another Leicester's badge of the bear and
ragged staff. Her swords had gilt handles and blood-stone studs; her
poniards were gold and ivory, ornamented with tassels of blue silk; her
slippers of cloth of silver, and of orange-coloured velvet, embroidered
with seed pearls; her parasol was of crimson velvet damask, striped
with Venetian gold and silver lace, the handle mother-of-pearl.
Her jewels were both numerous and curious: the head ornaments
resembling a white lion with a fly on his side, a golden fern-branch
with a lizard, ladybird, and a snail upon it, an Irish dart of gold set
with diamonds, a golden rose with a fly and spider upon it, a golden
frog set with jewels, a golden daisy, and emerald buttons, gown studs
of rubies and pearls, and a chain of golden scallop shells, with chains
of agate and jet. A sumptuous magnificence was the characteristic of
the costume of this reign. When Elizabeth visited the Earl of Hertford,
at Elvetham, that nobleman met her with 3,000 followers, with black and
yellow feathers in their hats, and most of them wearing gold chains.
When she visited Suffolk, 200 bachelors in white velvet, with as many
burghers in black velvet coats and gold chains, and 1800 serving-men
received on horseback. For the French ambassador's amusement, in 1559,
1400 men-at-arms, clad in velvet, with chains of gold, mustered in
arms in Greenwich Park; and on another occasion there was a tournament
on Midsummer (Sunday) Night at the palace of Westminster, between ten
knights in white, led by the Earl of Essex, and ten knights in blue,
led by the Earl of Rutland.
CARE OF THE BEARD.
The Mahometans are very superstitious touching the beard. They bury
the hairs which come off in combing it, and break them first, because
they believe that angels have charge of every hair, and that they gain
them their dismissal by breaking it. Selim I. was the first Sultan who
shaved his beard, contrary to the law of the Koran. "I do it," said
he apologetically to the scandalized and orthodox mufti, "to prevent
my vizier leading me by it." He cared less for it than some of our
ancestors, two centuries ago, did for their own. They used to wear
pasteboard covers over them in the night, lest they should turn upon
them and rumple them in their sleep!
The famous Raskolniki schismatics had a similar superstition to the
Mahometan one mentioned above. They considered the divine image in man
to reside in the beard.
DOLE IN CONSEQUENCE OF A DREAM.
At Newark-upon-Trent, a curious custom, founded upon the preservation
of Alderman Clay and his family by a dream has prevailed since the days
of Cromwell. On 11th March every year, penny-loaves are given away to
every one who chooses to appear at the Town Hall and apply for them,
in commemoration of the Alderman's deliverance, during the siege of
Newark by the Parliamentary forces. This gentleman, by will, dated 11th
December, 1694, gave to the Mayor and Aldermen, one hundred pounds, the
interest of which was to be given to the Vicar yearly, on condition
of his preaching an annual sermon. Another hundred pounds were also
appropriated for the behoof of the poor, in the way above-mentioned.
The origin of this bequest is singular. During the bombardment of
Newark by Oliver Cromwell's forces, the Alderman dreamed three nights
successively that his house had taken fire, which produced such a vivid
impression upon his mind, that he and his family left it, and in a few
days the circumstances of his vision actually took place, by the house
being burned down by the besiegers.
GLOVE MONEY.
Gloves were popular new-year's gifts, or sometimes "glove-money" in
place of them; occasionally, these gloves carried gold pieces in them.
When Sir Thomas More was Chancellor, he decided a case in favour
of Mrs. Croaker against Lord Arundel; the former, on the following
new-year's day, gratefully presented the judge with a pair of gloves
with forty angels in them. "It would be against good manners," said
the Chancellor, "to forsake a gentlewoman's new-year's gift, and I
accept the gloves. The _lining_ you will elsewhere bestow."
GLAIVES.
The glaive was derived from the Celtic custom of placing a sword with
a hollow handle at the end of a pole, called by the natives of Wales
"llavnawr"--_the blade weapon_, and takes its name from the Cleddyv,
or Gleddyv, of the Welsh. In an abstract of the grants of the 1st
of Richard III., among the Harleian MSS., No. 443, is a warrant to
Nicholas Spicer, authorising him to impress smiths for making 2,000
Welsh glaives; and 20s. 6d. are charged for 30 glaives, with their
staves, made at Abergavenny and Llanllolved. In the romaunt of Guy,
Earl of Warwick, by Walter of Exeter, written in the time of Edward
II., also in the Harleian Library of the British Museum, they are
called gleves; thus--
"Grant coupes de gleves trenchant
Les escurs ne lur vailut gans."
"Such powerful strokes from cutting gleves,
That the shields were not worth a glove."
[Illustration: [++] Glaive.]
They were also in frequent use on the Continent, and the "Chronicle of
Flanders" mentions an instance of the cavalry having armed themselves
with glaives, which they ornamented with pennoncels. The specimen which
we have here engraved is one which was made for the Doge of Venice,
during the time that the Emperor Charles V. had the command there, in
compliment to whom the centre ornament is the Austrian eagle. Upon this
the arms of the succeeding Doge, Francisco Veneri, who held the office
from 1554 to 1556, have been deeply incised, no doubt to commemorate
the expulsion of the Germans. The pole, at the top of which the weapon
was fixed, is omitted in our engraving.
CRUELTY OF FRANCIS CARRARA.
Francis Carrara, the last Lord of Padua, was famous for his cruelties.
They shew (at Venice) a little box for a toilette, in which are six
little guns, which are so ordered with springs, and adjusted in such a
manner, that upon the opening of the trunk, the guns fired and killed
the lady to whom Carrara sent it for a present. They show also with
this, some little pocket cross-bows and arrows of steel, with which he
took pleasure to kill those he met, so secretly, that they could hardly
either perceive the blow, or him that gave it.
IRISH PIPES.
The accompanying figures represent the Irish bagpipes in their
primitive and improved forms. We have here the earliest pipes,
originally the same as the Scotch, as appears from a drawing made in
the sixteenth century, and given in Mr. Bunting's work; but they now
differ, in having the mouthpiece supplied by the bellows A, which,
being filled by the motion of the piper's arm, to which it is fastened,
fills the bag B; whence, by the pressure of the other arm, the wind is
is conveyed into the chanter C, which is played on with the fingers,
much like a common pipe. By means of a tube, the wind is conveyed into
drones _a_, _a_, _a_, which, tuned at octaves to each other, produce
a kind of cronan, or bass, to the chanter. The second cut represents
the improved, or union pipes, the drones of which, tuned at thirds and
fifths by the regulator, have keys attached to them, which not only
produce the most delightful accords, but enable the player to perform
parts of tunes, and sometimes whole tunes, without using the chanter
at all. Both drones and chanter can be rendered quiescent by means of
stops.
[Illustration: Common Bagpipes.]
[Illustration: Union Pipes.]
The pipers were at one period the "great originals" of Ireland. The
race is gradually departing, or at least "sobering" down into the ranks
of ordinary mortals; but there was a time when the pipers stood out
very prominently upon any canvas that pictured Irish life. Anecdotes
of their eccentricities might be recorded that would fill volumes. For
many years past their power has been on the wane; temperance committed
sad havoc on their prospects; and at length the introduction of "brass
bands" effectually destroyed the small balance that remained to them of
hope.
NOVEL WAY OF CURING VICIOUS HORSES.
Burckhardt tells us of a strange mode of curing a vicious horse. He has
seen, he says, vicious horses in Egypt cured of the habit of biting by
presenting to them, while in the act of doing so, a leg of mutton just
taken from the fire. The pain which the horse feels in biting through
the hot meat causes it to abandon the practice.
GROUND ICE.
Every one who has watched the freezing of a lake or pond, or any other
collection of still water, must be well aware that the ice begins to
form on the surface in thin plates or layers, which on the continuance
of the frost gradually become thicker and more solid, until the water
is affected in a downward direction, and becomes, perhaps, a solid
mass of ice. This is universally the case in stagnant water, but
it has been repeatedly proved that in rapid and rugged streams the
process of freezing is often very different. In direct opposition,
as it would seem, to the laws of the propagation of heat, the ice in
running water frequently begins to form at the bottom of the stream
instead of the top; and this fact, while it is received with doubt by
some, even among the scientific, is frequently attested by those whose
business leads them to observe the phenomenon connected with rivers.
Millers, fishermen, and watermen find that the masses of ice with which
many rivers are crowded in the winter season rise from the bottom or
bed of the stream. They say that they have seen them come up to the
surface, and have also borne them up with their hooks. The under part
of these masses of ice they have found covered with mud or encrusted
with gravel, thus bearing plain marks of the ground on which the ice
had rested. The testimony of people of this class in our country agrees
with that of a similar class in Germany, where there is a peculiar term
made use of to designate floating ice, i. e. _grundeis_ (ground-ice).
A striking example of the formation of ground-ice is mentioned by the
Commander Steenk, of Pillau. On the 9th of February, 1806, during a
strong south-east wind, and a temperature a little exceeding 34 deg. Fahr.,
a long iron chain, to which the buoys of the fair-way are fastened,
and which had been lost sight of at Schappeiswrack in a depth of from
fifteen to eighteen feet, suddenly made its appearance at the surface
of the water and swam there; it was, however, completely encrusted with
ice to the thickness of several feet. Stones, also, of from three to
six pounds' weight, rose to the surface; they were surrounded with a
thick coat of ice. A cable, also, three and a half inches thick, and
about thirty fathoms long, which had been lost the preceding summer in
a depth of thirty feet, again made its appearance by swimming to the
surface; but it was enveloped in ice to the thickness of two feet. On
the same day it was necessary to _warp_ the ship into harbour in face
of an east wind; the anchor used for that purpose, after it had rested
an hour at the bottom, became so encrusted with ice, that it required
not more than half the usual power to heave it up.
M. Hugi, president of the Society of Natural History at Soleure,
observed, in February, 1827, a multitude of large icy tables on the
river Aar. These were continually rising from the bottom, over a
surface of four hundred and fifty square feet, and the phenomenon
lasted for a couple of hours. Two years afterwards he witnessed a
similar occurrence. On the 12th of February, 1829, at sunrise, and
after a sudden fall in the temperature, the river began to exhibit
numerous pieces of floating ice, although there was no sign of freezing
on the surface, either along the banks, or in shady places where the
water was calm. Therefore it could not be said that the floating masses
were detached from the banks. Nor could they have proceeded from any
large sheet of ice farther up the river, because, higher up, the river
exhibited hardly any ice. Besides, flakes of ice commenced soon to rise
up above the bridge; towards mid-day, islands of ice were seen forming
in the centre of the river; and by the next day these were twenty-three
in number, the largest being upwards of two hundred feet in diameter.
They were surrounded with open water, resisting a current which flowed
at the rate of nearly two hundred feet in a minute, and extending over
a space of one-eighth of a league. M. Hugi visited them in a small
boat. He landed, examined them in every direction, and discovered that
there was a layer of compact ice on their surface a few inches in
thickness, resting on a mass having the shape of an inverted cone, of a
vertical height of twelve or thirteen feet, and fixed to the bed of the
river. These cones consisted of half-melted ice, gelatinous, and much
like the spawn of a frog. It was softer at the bottom than at the top,
and was easily pierced in all directions with poles. Exposed to the
open air, the substance of the cones became quickly granulated, like
the ice that is formed at the bottom of rivers.
In the same year the pebbles in a creek of shallow water, near a
very rapid current of the Rhine, were observed to be covered with a
sort of transparent mass, an inch or two in thickness, and which, on
examination, was found to consist of icy spicula, crossing each other
in every direction. Large masses of spongy ice were also seen in
the bed of the stream, at a depth of between six or seven feet. The
watermen's poles entered these with ease, and often bore them to the
surface. This kind of ice forms most quickly in rivers whose bed is
impeded with stones and other foreign bodies.
HINDOO COMPUTATION.
The Hindoos call the whole of their four ages a _divine age_; a
thousand divine ages form a _calpa_, or one of Brahma's days, who,
during that period, successively invested fourteen _menus_, or holy
spirits, with the sovereignty of the earth. The _menu_ transmits his
empire to his posterity for seventy-one divine ages, and this period
is called _manawantara_, and as fourteen _manawantara_ make but nine
hundred and ninety-four divine ages, there remain six, which are the
twilight of Brahma's day. Thirty of these days form his month; twelve
of these months one of his years; and one hundred of these years the
duration of his existence. The Hindoos assert that fifty of these years
have already elapsed, so that we are in the first day of the first
month of the fifty-first year of Brama's age, and in the twenty-eighth
divine age of the seventh _manawantara_. The first three human ages of
this age, and five thousand years of the fourth are past. The Hindoos
therefore calculate that it is 131,400,007,205,000 years since the
birth of Brahma, or the beginning of the world.
CHINESE TOMB.
Like all people of Tartar origin, one of the most remarkable
characteristics of the Chinese is their reverence for the dead, or, as
it is usually called, their ancestral worship. In consequence of this,
their tombs are not only objects of care, but have frequently more
ornament bestowed upon them than graces the dwellings of the living.
[Illustration: [++] Chinese Tomb.]
Their tombs are of different kinds; but the most common arrangement is
that of a horseshoe-shaped platform, cut out of the side of a hill,
as represented in our engraving. It consequently has a high back,
in which is the entrance to the tomb, and slopes off to nothing at
the entrance to the horseshoe, where the wall generally terminates
with two lions or dragons, or some fantastic ornament common to
Chinese architecture. When the tomb is situated, as is generally the
case, on a hillside, this arrangement is not only appropriate, but
elegant. When the same thing is imitated on a plain, it is singular,
misplaced, and unintelligible. Many of the tombs are built of granite,
finely polished, and carved with a profusion of labour that makes us
regret that the people who can do such things should have so great a
predilection for ephemeral wooden structures, when capable of employing
the most durable materials with such facility.
ABYSSINIAN ARMS.
[Illustration: [++] Abyssinian Arms.]