curiosities of the Londesborough Museum. It once formed part of the
collection of Prince Potemkin, and was originally the property of
Charles IX. of France; it is traditionally reported to have been the
gun he used in firing on his Huguenot subjects, from one of the windows
of the Louvre, during the massacre of St. Bartholomew. The barrel is
richly chased in high relief, with a stag-hunt amid foliage. The stock
is inlaid with ivory, sculptured into a series of hunting scenes,
knights on horseback.
The dreadful massacre of Saint Bartholomew commenced at Paris on the
night of the festival of that saint, August 24th, 1572. Above 500
persons of rank, and 10,000 of inferior condition, perished in Paris
alone, besides those slaughtered in the provinces. The king, who had
been persuaded that the destruction of the Huguenots to the last man
was necessary to the safety of his throne, beheld the slaughter from a
window, and being carried away by the example of those whose murderous
doings he witnessed, ordered some long arquebusses to be brought,
and on their being loaded, and handed to him one after another, he
for some time continued to fire on the unfortunate fugitives as they
passed, crying at the same time with a loud voice, "Kill, kill." He
afterwards went and inspected the bodies of the slain, and expressed
his satisfaction at the effective manner in which his orders had been
executed.
TOMB OF RAFFAELLE.
The great painter Raffaelle died at Rome, April 7th 1520, at the early
age of thirty-seven. He was buried in the Pantheon, in a chapel which
was afterwards called Raffaelle's Chapel. For more than a century and
a half his tomb had only a plain epitaph, but Carlo Maratti desired to
place a more striking memorial of Raffaelle's resting-place than the
simple inscription, and accordingly, in the year 1764, a marble bust
of the painter, executed by Paolo Nardini, was placed in one of the
oval niches on each side of the chapel. The epitaph to Maria Bibiena
(Raffaelle's betrothed) was removed to make way for Maratti's new
inscription; and it was currently believed that the skull of Raffaelle
was removed; at least such was the history given of a skull shown
as the painter's, religiously preserved by the Academy of St. Luke,
and descanted on by phrenologists as indicative of all the qualities
which "the divine painter" possessed. But scepticism played its part;
doubts of the truth of this story led to doubts of Vasari's statement
respecting the exact locality of Raffaelle's tomb. Matters were brought
to a final issue by the discovery of a document proving this skull to
be that of Don Desiderio de Adjutorio, founder of the society called
the Virtuosi, in 1542. Thereupon, this society demanded the head of its
founder from the Academy of St. Luke; but they would neither abandon
that, nor the illusion that they possessed the veritable skull of the
great artist. Arguments ran high, and it was at length determined to
settle the question by an examination of the spot, which took place on
the 13th of September 1833, in the presence of the Academies of St.
Luke and of Archaeology, the Commission of the Fine Arts (including
Overback and others), the members of the Virtuosi, the governor of Rome
(Monsignor Grimaldi), and the Cardinal Zurla, the representative of the
pope.
[Illustration: [++] Tomb of Raffaelle.]
The result will be best given in the words of an eye-witness, Signor
Nibby (one of the Commission of Antiquities and Fine Arts), who thus
described the whole to M. Quatremere de Quincy, the biographer of
Raffaelle:--"The operations were conducted on such a principle of exact
method as to be chargeable with over nicety. After various ineffectual
attempts in other directions, we at length began to dig under the altar
of the Virgin itself, and taking as a guide the indications furnished
by Vasari, we at length came to some masonry of the length of a man's
body. The labourers raised the stone with the utmost care, and having
dug within for about a foot and a half, came to a void space. You can
hardly conceive the enthusiasm of us all, when, by a final effort, the
workmen exhibited to our view the remains of a coffin, with an entire
skeleton in it, lying thus as originally placed, and thinly covered
with damp dust. We saw at once quite clearly that the tomb had never
been opened, and it thus became manifest that the skull possessed by
the Academy of St. Luke was not that of Raffaelle. Our first care was,
by gentle degrees, to remove from the body the dust which covered it,
and which we religiously collected, with the purpose of placing it in
a new sarcophagus. Amongst it we found, in tolerable preservation,
pieces of the coffin, which was made of deal, fragments of a painting
which had ornamented the lid, several bits of Tiber clay, formations
from the water of the river, which had penetrated into the coffin by
infiltration, an iron stelletta, a sort of spur, with which Raffaelle
had been decorated by Leo X, several _fibulae_, and a number of metal
_anelli_, portions of his dress." These small rings had fastened the
shroud; several were retained by the sculptor Fibris, who also took
casts of the head and hand, and Camuccini took views of the tomb and
its precious contents; from one of these our cut is copied.
On the following day the body was further examined by professional
men: the skeleton was found to measure five feet seven inches, the
narrowness of the coffin indicated a slender and delicate frame. This
accords with the contemporary accounts, which say he was of a refined
and delicate constitution; his frame was all spirit; his physical
strength so limited that it was a wonder he existed so long as he did.
The investigation completed, the body was exhibited to the public from
the 20th to the 24th, and then was again placed in a new coffin of
lead, and that in a marble sarcophagus presented by the pope, and taken
from the antiquities in the Museum of the Vatican. A solemn mass was
then announced for the evening of the 18th of October. The Pantheon was
then illuminated, as for a funeral; the sarcophagus, with its contents,
was placed in exactly the same spot whence the remains had been taken.
The presidents of the various academies were present, with the Cavalier
Fabris at their head. Each bore a brick, which he inserted in the
brickwork with which the sepulchre was walled in. And so the painter
awaits "the resurrection of the just," and the fellowship of saints
and angels, of which his inspired pencil has given us the highest
realisation on earth.
ANTIMONY.
The origin of the use of _anti-moine_, or antimony, is a remarkable
circumstance. Basil Valentin, superior of a college of religionists,
having observed that this mineral fattened the pigs, imagined that it
would produce the same effect on the holy brotherhood. But the case was
seriously different; the unfortunate fathers, who greedily made use of
it, died in a short time, and this is the origin of its name, according
to the pure French word. In spite of this unfortunate beginning,
Paracelsus resolved to bring this mineral into practice; and by mixing
it with other preparations make it useful. The Faculty at Paris were
on this occasion divided into two parties, the one maintaining that
antimony was a poison; the other affirmed that it was an excellent
remedy. The dispute became more general, and the Parliament and
the College of the Sorbonne interfered in the matter; but sometime
afterwards people began to judge rightly concerning this excellent
mineral; and its wonderful and salutary effects have occasioned the
Faculty to place it among their best medicines.
PERSONAL APPEARANCE OF MAHOMET.
For the personal appearance and private life of Mahomet, we must rely
on the Arabian writers, who dwell with fond and proud satisfaction on
the graces and intellectual gifts with which nature had endowed him. He
was of a middle stature, of a clear, fair skin, and ruddy complexion.
His head and features, though large, were well proportioned; he had
a prominent forehead, large dark-brown eyes, an aquiline nose, and
a thick bushy beard. His mouth, though rather wide, was handsomely
formed, and adorned with teeth white as pearls, the upper row not
closely set, but in regular order--which appeared when he smiled, and
gave an agreeable expression to his countenance. He had a quick ear,
and a fine sonorous voice. His dark eyebrows approached each other
without meeting. His hair fell partly in ringlets about his temples,
and partly hung down between his shoulders. To prevent whiteness, the
supposed effect of Satanic influence, he stained it, as the Arabs
often do still, of a shining reddish colour. His frame was muscular
and compact--robust rather than corpulent. When he walked, he carried
a staff, in imitation of the other prophets, and had a singular
affectation of being thought to resemble Abraham. The assertion of
the Greeks and Christians, that he was subject to epilepsy, must be
ascribed to ignorance or malice.
STIRRUPS.
From every information we have been able to collect, we believe that
the appendage of stirrups were not added to saddles before the sixth
century. It is said, that previous to the introduction of stirrups,
the young and agile used to mount their horses by vaulting upon them,
which many did in an expert and graceful manner; of course, practice
was essential to this perfection. That this should be afforded, wooden
horses were placed in the Campus Martius, where this exercise was
performed of mounting or dismounting on either side; first, without,
and next with arms. Cavalry had also occasionally a strap of leather,
or a metallic projection affixed to their spears, in or upon which the
foot being placed, the ascent became more practicable. Respecting the
period of this invention, Montfaucon has presumed that the invention
must have been subsequent to the use of saddles; however, opposed to
this opinion, an ingenious argument has been offered, that it is
possible they might have been anterior to that invention; because, it
is said, they might have been appended to a girth round the body of the
horse. Both Hippocrates and Galen speak of a disease to which the feet
and ancles were subject, from long riding, occasioned by suspension
of the feet without a resting-place. Suetonius, the Roman, informs us
that Germanicus, the father of Caligula, was wont to ride after dinner,
to strengthen his ancles, by the action of riding affording the blood
freer circulation in the part.
THE GREAT SHOEMADOO PAGODA.
[Illustration: [++] Great Shoemadoo Pagoda.]
The Buddhist temple of which we here give an engraving is the great
Shoemadoo Pagoda at Pegu. Among other things it is interesting as
being one of the earliest attempts at that class of decoration, which
consists in having at the base of the building a double range of small
pagodas, a mode of ornamentation that subsequently became typical in
Hindu architecture; their temples and spires being covered, and indeed
composed of innumerable models of themselves, clustered together so as
to make up a whole.
The building stands on two terraces, the lower one about 10 ft. high,
and 1391 ft. square: the upper one, 20 ft. in height, is 684 ft.
square; from the centre of it rises the pagoda, the diameter of whose
base is 395 ft. The small pagodas are 27 ft. high, and 108 or 110 in
number; while the great pagoda itself rises to the height of 331 ft.
above its terrace, or 361 ft. above the country, thus reaching a height
nearly equal to St. Paul's Cathedral; while the side of the upper
terrace is only 83 ft. less than that of the great Pyramid.
Tradition ascribes its commencement to two merchants, who raised it to
the height of 12 cubits at an age slightly subsequent to that of Buddha
himself. Successive kings of Pegu added to this from time to time, till
at last it assumed its present form, most probably about three or four
centuries ago.
PEST HOUSE DURING THE PLAGUE IN TOTHILL FIELDS.
[Illustration: [++] Pest House in Tothill Fields.]
Tothill Fields, a locality between Pimlico and the Thames, was
anciently the manor of Tothill, belonging to John Maunsel, chancellor,
who in 1256, entertained here Henry III. and his court at a vast feast
in tents and pavilions. Here were decided wagers of battle and appeals
by combat. Necromancy, sorcery and witchcraft were punished here; and
"royal solemnities and goodly jousts were held here." In Culpeper's
time the fields were famous for parsley. In 1642 a battery and
breastwork were erected here. Here also were built the "Five Houses,"
or "Seven Chimneys," as pest-houses for victims of the plague. One of
these pest-houses is given in the above engraving, taken from an old
print. In the plague time of 1665, the dead were buried "in the open
Tuttle Fields." In Queen Anne's reign here was William Well's head
garden on the site of Vincent-square. The Train Bands were drawn out
here in 1651. In the last century the fields were a noted duel-ground,
and here, in 1711, Sir Cholmeley Deering, M.P., was killed by the first
shot of Mr. Richard Thornhill, who was tried for murder and acquitted,
but found guilty of manslaughter and burnt in the hand.
THE THUGS.
The following account of these horribly extraordinary men is taken from
Dr. Hooker's Himalayan Journals; writing at Mirzapore, he says:--"Here
I had the pleasure of meeting Lieutenant Ward, one of the suppressors
of Thuggee (_Thuggee_, in Hindostan, signifies a deceiver; fraud,
not open force, being employed). This gentlemen kindly showed me the
approvers, or king's evidence of his establishment, belonging to those
three classes of human scourges, the Thug, Dakoit, and Poisoner. Of
these the first was the Thug, a mild-looking man, who had been born and
bred to the profession: he had committed many murders, saw no harm in
them, and felt neither shame nor remorse. His organs of observation and
destructiveness were large, and the cerebellum small. He explained to
me how the gang waylay the unwary traveller, enter into conversation
with him, and have him suddenly seized, when the superior throws his
own girdle round the victim's neck and strangles him, pressing the
knuckles against the spine. Taking off his own girdle, he passed it
round my arm, and showed me the turn as coolly as a sailor once taught
me the hangman's knot. The Thug is of any caste, and from any part of
India. The profession have particular stations, which they generally
select for murder, throwing the body of their victim into a well.
"Their origin is uncertain, but supposed to be very ancient, soon
after the Mahommedan conquest. They now claim a divine original, and
are supposed to have supernatural powers, and to be the emissaries
of the divinity, like the wolf, the tiger, and the bear. It is only
lately that they have swarmed so prodigiously--seven original gangs
having migrated from Delhi to the Gangetic provinces about 200 years
ago, from whence all the rest have sprung. Many belong to the most
amiable, intelligent, and respectable classes of the lower and even
middle ranks: they love their profession, regard murder as sport, and
are never haunted with dreams, nor troubled with pangs of conscience
during hours of solitude, or in the last moments of life. The victim
is an acceptable sacrifice to the goddess Davee, who by some classes
is supposed to eat the lifeless body, and thus save her votaries the
necessity of concealing it.
"They are extremely superstitious, always consulting omens, such as
the direction in which a hare or a jackal crosses the road; and even
far more trivial circumstances will determine the fate of a dozen of
people, and perhaps of an immense treasure. All worship the pickaxe,
which is symbolical of their profession, and an oath sworn on it binds
closer than on the Koran. The consecration of this weapon is a most
elaborate ceremony, and takes place only under certain trees. The
Thugs rise through various grades: the lowest are scouts; the second,
sextors; the third, are holders of the victim's hands; the highest,
stranglers.
"Though all agree in never practising cruelty, or robbing previous
to murder--never allowing any but infants to escape (and these are
trained to Thuggee), and never leaving a trace of such goods as may be
identified--there are several variations in their mode of conducting
operations: some tribes spare certain castes, others none; murder of
woman is against all rules; but the practice crept into certain gangs,
and this it is which led to their discountenance by the goddess Davee,
and the consequent downfall of the system. Davee, they say, allowed the
British to punish them, because a certain gang had murdered the mothers
to obtain their daughters to be sold to prostitution.
"Major Sleeman has constructed a map demonstrating the number of
'bails,' or regular stations for committing murder, in the kingdom of
Oude alone, which is 170 miles long by 100 broad, and in which are 274,
which are regarded by the Thug with as much satisfaction and interest
as a game preserve is in England; nor are these 'bails' less numerous
than in other parts of India. Of twenty assassins who were examined,
one frankly confessed to having been engaged in 931 murders, and the
least guilty of the number in 24. Sometimes 150 persons collected into
one gang, and their profits have often been immense, the murder of six
persons on one occasion yielding 82,000 rupees, upwards of L8,000."
ENGLISH EARTHENWARE AND SHAKSPEARE'S JUG.
Much uncertainty exists regarding the period when the manufacture
of fine earthenware was first introduced into England. Among the
documents in the Foedera, occur various lists of articles, ordered to
be purchased in England for several foreign potentates, and permitted
to be exported for their use without paying the Custom duties. One of
these lists, dated in 1428, enumerates many objects as then shipped
for the use of the King of Portugal and the Countess of Holland, among
which are "six silver cups, each of the weight of six marks (or four
pounds), a large quantity of woollen stuffs, and 2000 plates, dishes,
saucers, and other vessels of _electrum_."
As these articles were, no doubt, the produce of the country, it
would appear that utensils for domestic use were then made of metal,
and not of pottery; and it was not till some time afterwards that
the latter was introduced by the Dutch, whose manufactory at Delft
probably existed as early as the fifteenth century, and who sent large
quantities of their ware to England. The skill and excellence of the
English artizans consisted in the manufacture of silver and other
metals. Of this, instances are recorded in the correspondence of La
Mothe Fenelon, the French ambassador at the Court of Queen Elizabeth;
and in the travels of Hentzner, who visited England in 1598. Both
describe in glowing colours the silver plate which adorned the buffets,
as well as the magnificent furniture and decorations of the palaces of
that sumptuous queen.
Still Elizabeth, who so highly prided herself upon the state and
splendour of her establishment, and who was in constant intercourse
with the Court of France and the Low Countries, was not likely to
have remained altogether satisfied without possessing, among the
manufactures of her own kingdom, something similar to the fine Fayence
then in use in every foreign court. Though it is probable that Delft
ware procured from Holland was first used, it may reasonably be
presumed that the ware called by her name was afterwards manufactured,
under her immediate patronage, for the use of the court and the
nobility; and although there is no record of the fact, it is supposed
that Stratford-le-Bow was the site of the manufactory.
[Illustration: [++] Shakspeare's Jug.]
Shakspeare's Jug, of which we here give an engraving, which has been
carefully preserved by the descendants of the immortal bard since the
year 1616, is, perhaps, the most remarkable example of the Elizabethan
pottery now existing. The shape partakes very much of the form of the
old German or Dutch ewer, without, however, the usual top or cover;
the one now attached to the jug being a modern addition of silver,
with a medallion bust of the poet in the centre, beautifully executed
and inscribed "WM. SHAKSPEARE, AT THE AGE OF FORTY." It is about ten
inches high, and sixteen inches round at the largest part, and is
divided lengthwise into eight compartments, having each a mythological
subject in high relief. All of these, although executed in the quaint
style of the period, possess considerable merit. Some of them, indeed,
manifest much masterly grouping of both human figures and animals; and
such is the admirable state of preservation of this very interesting
old English relic, that as correct a judgment may be formed of its
workmanship, as in the days of its first possessor; at all events, as
regards the degree of perfection to which English Pottery had attained
in the Elizabethan age; an inspection of this jug will justify the
presumption, that her Court was not less tastefully provided in that
respect than those of the Continent, notwithstanding the obscurity
in which the precise locality and extent of the manufactory is
unfortunately involved.
PRICE OF MACKAREL.
The price of mackarel, in May, 1807, in the Billingsgate market, was
as follows:--Forty guineas for every hundred of the first cargo, which
made the fish come to seven shillings apiece! The next supplies were
also exorbitant, though much less so than the first, fetching thirteen
pounds per hundred, or two shillings apiece. The very next year the
former deficiencies were more than made up, for it appears that during
the season 1808, mackarel were hawked about the streets of Dover, at
sixty for a shilling, or five for a penny; whilst they so blockaded
the Brighton coast that on one night it became impossible to land the
multitudes taken, and at last both fish and nets went to the bottom
together.
POPE'S CHAIR.
[Illustration: [++] Alexander Pope's Chair.]
In one of the rooms at that stately and picturesque baronial hall,
Audley End, the seat of Lord Braybrooke, there is preserved the
interesting relic which forms the subject of the annexed engraving.
Its history is thus told on a brass plate inserted in the back--"This
chair, once the property of Alexander Pope, was given as a keep-sake
to the nurse who attended him in his illness; from her descendants
it was obtained by the Rev. Thomas Ashley, curate of the parish of
Binfield, and kindly presented by him to Lord Braybrooke, in 1844,
nearly a century after the poet's decease." It is apparently of Flemish
workmanship, and of rather singular design; in the centre medallion is
a figure of Venus holding a dart in her right hand, and a burning heart
in her left. The narrow back and wide-circling arms give a peculiarly
quaint appearance to this curious relic of one of our greatest poets.
FIRST WIND-MILLS.
Mabillon mentions a diploma of the year 1105, in which a convent in
France is allowed to erect water and windmills, _molendina ad ventum_.
Bartolomeo Verde proposed to the Venetians in 1332, to build a
wind-mill. When his plan had been examined, he had a piece of ground
assigned him, which he was to retain if his undertaking succeeded
within a specified time. In 1373, the city of Spires caused a wind-mill
to be erected, and sent to the Netherlands for a person acquainted
with the method of grinding by it. A wind-mill was also constructed at
Frankfort, in 1442; but it does not appear to have been ascertained
whether there were any there before.
About the twelfth century, in the pontificate of Gregory, when both
wind and water-mills became more general, a dispute arose whether mills
were titheable or not. The dispute existed for some time between the
persons possessed of mills and the clergy; when neither would yield. At
length, upon the matter being referred to the pope and sacred college,
the question was (as might have been expected when interested persons
were made the arbitrators) determined in favour of the claims of the
church.
THE "HAPPY DISPATCH" IN JAPAN.