MEMORABILIA.
MEMORABILIA;
OR
_RECOLLECTIONS_,
HISTORICAL, BIOGRAPHICAL,
AND
Antiquarian,
BY JAMES SAVAGE.
TAUNTON:
PRINTED FOR JAMES SAVAGE,
AND SOLD BY
J. POOLE, BOOKSELLER, FORE-STREET, AND
BY BALDWIN, CRADOCK, & JOY, PATERNOSTER ROW,
LONDON.
1820.
TAUNTON:
PRINTED BY J. POOLE, FORE-STREET.
ADVERTISEMENT.
The following pages have been compiled from various sources, and from an
extensive course of reading. The Editor has in some instances placed his
authorities in the notes at the bottom of the page; and, where he has
copied from former writers, he has inserted the names of those from whom
he has borrowed his materials. His chief object has been to confine
himself to facts; he has therefore carefully avoided giving opinions
upon, or drawing conclusions from, the various subjects of which he has
treated. He has endeavoured to place many points of history in a new
light, and in every part to illustrate, in some degree, the several
matters which have occupied his attention. It has been his desire to
present the reader with a volume, from which he hopes both instruction
and amusement may be drawn, and he submits it with confidence, to the
perusal of young persons in particular, as a collection of biographical
and historical Miscellanea, calculated to beguile the tedium of an hour,
without inculcating a single idea that may sully the purest mind.
_Taunton, May 31st, 1820._
CONTENTS.
Anecdotes of Dr. Kennicott, 1
Remarkable Historical Coincidences, 4
Charles XII. of Sweden, 6
British Pearls, 8
Pillars of Commemoration, 9
Mason, the Poet, 13
Bishops of Sodor and Man, 17
The Table, 19
Clocks, 20
Aldus Manutius, 22
Bottles of Skin, 24
English Slave Trade, 25
Oliver Cromwell’s Wife, 26
Shakespeare, 28
University Degrees, 31
Guy Carleton, Lord Dorchester, 33
Figs, 35
Fruits cultivated at Rome in the time of Pliny, that are now grown in
our English gardens, 37
Peacocks, 51
Ancient Libraries, 52
King Charles the First, 58
The Fair Geraldine and the Earl of Surrey, 60
Jews in England, 66
The English Bible, 67
Luxury of Ancient Rome, 68
Rhyme, 70
Mr. Coquebert de Montbret, 72
Dr. Thomas Pierce, 73
Writing among the Greeks, 74
Account of the Scriptoria, or Writing Rooms in the Monasteries of
England, 76
Torture in England, 105
Dr. Johnson’s Conversation with the late King, 114
Dr. Beattie’s Conversation with the late King & Queen, 121
Sacred Gardens, 128
Sir Thomas Wyat, 129
The Hand, a Symbol of Power, 132
Henrietta Maria, Queen of Charles I, 135
Last Moments of Philip Melancthon, 142
House of Commons, 145
Mosaic Painting, 165
King Egbert, 168
The Latin Language, 171
Dr. Herschel, 174
Parodies, 177
Mourning for the Dead, 178
Garrick, 179
Lemons, 181
Origin of the Point of Honour, 182
Geoffrey of Monmouth, 185
Lifting up the Hand in Swearing, 205
Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, 207
King Arthur, 210
Alchemy, 213
Account of several Noble Families, in England, who owe their elevation
to the Peerage to their Ancestors having been engaged in Trade, 214
Last Moments of Queen Caroline, 220
The Britons, according to the Greek and Latin Classics, 221
The Seven Sleepers, 227
John Ray, the Naturalist, 230
London Bankers and their Origin, 233
Elucidation of the Ornaments with which the Greeks and Romans adorned
the Human Head on Coins & Medals, 237
The Tradescants, 243
Orange Trees, 249
Articles of Use and Luxury introduced into Europe by the Romans, 251
Account of the Escape of the Earl of Nithsdale from the Tower, in 1716,
255
Account of the first rise of Fairs in England, and the Manner of Living,
in the 16th and 17th Centuries, 269
Sir Richard Clough, 277
Royal Clemency, 279
Lotteries, 280
Herculaneum Manuscripts, 283
Wolves in England, 286
Professor Porson, 288
History of Sepulchral Monuments, 297
Dr. KENNICOTT.
Dr. Kennicott was the son of the parish clerk of Totness, once master of
a charity school in that town. At an early age young Kennicott took the
care of the school, and in that situation wrote some verses, addressed
to the Hon. Mrs. Courtenay, which recommended him to her notice, and to
that of many neighbouring gentlemen, who laudably opened a subscription
to send him to Oxford.
_The following inscription, written by Dr. Kennicott, is engraven on
the tomb of his parents_:
As Virtue should be of good Report,
Sacred be this humble Monument to the Memory of
BENJAMIN KENNICOTT,
Parish Clerk of Totness,
and ELIZABETH his Wife;
The latter an example of every Christian Duty,
The former animated with the warmest zeal, regulated by the
best good sense, and both constantly exerted
for the salvation of himself and others.
Reader! soon shalt thou die also;
And as a Candidate for Immortality, strike thy breast and say,
“Let me live the life of the righteous,that my
latter end may be like his.”
Trifling are the dates of Time, where the subject is Eternity.
Erected by their Son, B. Kennicott, D. D.
Canon of Christ Church, Oxford.
It is said that when Dr. Kennicott took orders, he came to officiate in
his clerical capacity in his native town,—when his father, as parish
clerk, proceeded to place the surplice on his shoulders, a struggle
ensued between the modesty of the son and the honest pride of the
parent, who insisted on paying that respect to his son which he had been
accustomed to shew to other clergymen; to this filial obedience he was
obliged to submit. A circumstance is added, that his mother had often
declared she should never be able to support the joy of hearing her son
preach; and that on her attendance at the church, for the first time,
she was so overcome as to be taken out in a state of temporary
insensibility.
* * * * *
_The following Letter from Dr. Kennicott to the Rev. William Daddo
has been preserved_:
“_To the Rev. Mr. Daddo, in Tiverton, Devon._
“_Wadh. Coll. Mar. 30, 1744._
“Rev. and Hon. Sir,
“Gratitude to benefactors is the great law of nature, and lest I
should violate what was ever sacred, I presume to lay the following
before you.
“There are, Sir, in the world, gentlemen who confine their regards
to self, or the circle of their own acquaintance, and there are
(happy experience convinces me) who command their influence to
enlarge and exert itself on persons remotely situate, both by
fortune and education. To you, Sir, belongs the honour of this
encomium,—to me the pleasure of the obligation, and as I am now
first at leisure in the place whither your goodness has transplanted
me, I lay this acknowledgment before you, as one of the movers in
this system of exalted generosity; for when I consider myself as
surrounded with benefactors, there seems a bright resemblance of the
now exploded system of Ptolemy, in which, Sir, (you know) the
heavenly bodies revolved around the central earth which was thus
rendered completely blest by the contribution of their cheering and
benign influence.
“And now, Sir, the sentiments of duty rise so warm within me, that
every expression of thanks seems faint, and I am lost in endeavours
after a suitable acknowledgment of my obligations.
“But I know, Sir, whom I am now addressing; I know those who most
deserve can least bear praise, and that your goodness is so great,
as even to reject the very thanks of the grateful; like the sun in
its splendour, which forbids the eye that offers to admire it.
“That Heaven may reward yourself and Mrs. Daddo with its best
favours, and console you under your parental sorrows, is my daily
and fervent prayer; and I shall esteem it one of the great honours
of my life to be favoured at your leisure with any commands or
advices you shall condescend to bestow on
Rev. Sir,
Your dutiful and obliged Servant,
BENJAMIN KENNICOTT.”
* * * * *
The Rev. William Daddo was for many years head-master of Blundell’s Free
School, in Tiverton, where young Kennicott received the rudiments of his
classical education. Mr. Daddo having acquired a considerable fortune
from the emoluments of his school, quitted Tiverton, and retired to
Bow-hill House, in the neighbourhood of Exeter, and there died many
years ago, leaving a daughter, an only child, afterwards married to the
Rev. Mr. Terry.
REMARKABLE HISTORICAL COINCIDENCES.
Among the curiosities in the British Museum are shewn two helmets; the
one Roman, found in the ground on which the battle of Cannæ was fought,
216 years before Christ, and the other made of feathers, brought from
one of the South Sea Islands, by Captain Cook. On comparing these
helmets, the shape will be found exactly similar, though the latter was
made by an uncivilized people living at the distance of more than 2000
years since the battle of Cannæ was fought, and who had never even heard
of the Roman name.
A second coincidence is found in the same collection. Two breast-plates
are shewn to the visitors, exactly corresponding in uniformity of shape,
though made of different materials, the one taken from the bosom of an
Egyptian Mummy, which had been dissected, if I may be allowed to use the
term, in the Museum, and the other brought by Captain Cook, among
various other curiosities, from the South Sea Islands.
A third coincidence is the mode of cookery practised by the South Sea
Islanders as described by Captain Cook, especially in roasting their
hogs. This is by means of hot stones placed in a hole dug in the ground.
In Ossian’s Poems the reader will find that the Caledonians of that time
made use of the same method in cooking their hogs for the table.
The extinction of the Roman Empire in the West, about the year 476, by
Odoacer, King of Italy, was attended by one of the most memorable
coincidences in the history of mankind. The patrician Orestes had
married the daughter of Count _Romulus_, of Petovio in Noricum; the name
of _Augustus_, notwithstanding the jealousy of power, was known at
Aquileia as a familial surname; and the appellations of the two great
founders, the first of the city of Rome, and the second of the Roman
monarchy, were strangely united in the last of their successors. The son
of Orestes succeeded to the throne of the Western Empire, and assumed
and disgraced the names of ROMULUS AUGUSTUS; the first was corrupted
into Momyllus by the Greeks, and the second has been changed by the
Latins into the contemptible diminutive Augustulus. The life of this
inoffensive youth, the last Sovereign of the Roman Empire in the West,
was spared by the generous clemency of Odoacer, who dismissed him, with
his whole family, from the imperial palace, fixed his annual allowance
at 6000 pieces of Gold, and assigned the castle of Lucullus, in
Campania, for the place of his exile or retirement.
CHARLES XII. OF SWEDEN.
That Charles the twelfth did not fall by a shot from the walls of
Fredericshall, as is commonly supposed, but met his death from a nearer
and more secret hand, has been fully ascertained; and M. Megret, a
French Engineer, who accompanied him, was, no doubt, concerned in the
murder. Many years afterwards, one Cronsted, an officer, on his death
bed, confessed that he had himself, at the instigation of the Prince of
Hesse, brother-in-law of Charles, and whose wife was declared Queen of
Sweden, fired the shot that killed the unfortunate monarch.
In the arsenal at Stockholm, the Swedes preserve, with great care, the
clothes he was habited in at the time he fell. The coat is a plain blue
cloth regimental one, such as every common soldier wore. Round the waist
he had a broad buff leathern belt, in which hung his sword. The hat is
torn only about an inch square, in that part of it which lies over the
temple, and certainly would have been much more injured by a large shot.
His gloves are of very fine leather, and as the left one is perfectly
clean and unsoiled could only have been newly put on. Voltaire says that
the instant the King received the shot, he had the force and courage to
put his hand to his sword, and lay in that posture. The right hand glove
is covered in the inside with blood, and the belt at that part where the
hilt of his sword lay, is likewise bloody, so that it seems clear, he
had previously put his hand to his head, on receiving the shot, before
he attempted to draw his sword and make resistance.
In the same case that contains his clothes is preserved the cap he wore
on the terrible day at Bender, when he so desperately defended himself
against the Turks. It is of fur; and has one tremendous cut on the side,
which must have been within a hair’s breadth of there ending the career
of this wonderful man.
BRITISH PEARLS.
The River Conway in North Wales was of considerable importance, even
before the Roman invasion, for the Pearl muscle, (the _Mya
Margaritifera_ of Linnæus) and Suetonius acknowledged, that one of his
inducements for undertaking the subjugation of Wales, was the Pearl
Fishery carried forwards in that river. According to Pliny, the muscles,
called by the natives _Kregindilin_, were sought for with avidity by the
Romans, and the pearls found within them were highly valued; in proof of
which it is asserted, that Julius Cæsar, dedicated a breastplate set
with British Pearls to Venus Genetrix, and placed it in her temple at
Rome. A fine specimen from the Conway is said to have been presented to
Catherine, consort of Charles II. by Sir Richard Wynne of Gwydir; and it
is further said that it has since contributed to adorn the regal crown
of England. Lady Newborough possessed a good collection of the Conway
pearls, which she purchased of those who were fortunate enough to find
them, as there is no regular fishery at present. The late Sir Robert
Vaughan had obtained a sufficient number to appear at Court, with a
button and loop to his hat, formed of these beautiful productions, about
the year 1780.
PILLARS OF COMMEMORATION.
The erection of a column or pillar, on the highest point of that ridge
of hills, called Blackdown, which separates the county of Somerset from
that of Devon, in commemoration of the great victories obtained by the
Duke of Wellington, is an inducement to look into history, to see how
the nations of antiquity, particularly those of Greece and Rome,
rewarded their heroes who signalized themselves by the performance of
feats of military courage, valour, and skill.
Among the Grecians it was usual to confer honours and rewards upon those
who distinguished themselves in battle by valiant and courageous
conduct. The ordinary rewards presented to conquerors in all the states
of Greece, were crowns, which were sometimes inscribed with the person’s
name and actions that had merited them, as appears from the inscription
upon the crown presented by the Athenians to Conon. The Athenians
sometimes honoured those who had performed great actions with permission
to raise pillars, or erect statues to the gods, with inscriptions
declaring their victories. Plutarch, however, supposes this to have been
a grant rarely yielded to the greatest commanders. Cimon, who commanded
the Athenian fleet against the Persians, became master of the city of
Eion, in Thrace, and was, on account of his not imitating former
commanders, by standing upon the defensive, but repulsing the enemy, and
carrying the war into their own country, highly respected and admired by
his countrymen, who allowed him, in honour of his success over the
enemy, to erect three pillars of stone or marble, each surmounted with
the head of Mercury; but though they bore an inscription, Cimon was not
permitted to inscribe his name upon them. These pillars were considered
by his contemporaries as the highest honour which had then been
conferred upon any commander.
Various Pillars were erected at Rome in honour of great men, and to
commemorate illustrious actions. Thus there were the _Columna Ænea_, a
pillar of Brass, on which a league with the Latins was written. The
_Columna Rostrata_, the Rostral Column, erected in the Forum, in honour
of Duillius, was adorned with figures of ships, and was constructed of
white marble. This column is still remaining with its inscription. It
was built in honour of a great victory gained by Duillius over the
Carthaginian fleet near Lipara, in the first Punic war. Another Pillar
was erected by M. Fulvius, the Consul, consisting of one stone of
Numidian marble, nearly 20 feet high.
But the most remarkable columns were those of _Trajan_ and _Antoninus
Pius_.
Trajan’s Pillar was erected in the middle of his Forum, and was composed
of twenty-four great pieces of marble, but so curiously cemented as to
seem but one. Its height is 128 feet. It is about 12 feet in diameter at
the bottom, and 10 at the top. It has in the inside 185 steps for
ascending to the top, and forty windows for the admission of light. The
whole pillar is incrusted with marble, on which are represented the
warlike exploits of that Emperor and his army, particularly in Dacia. On
the top was a Colossal figure of Trajan, holding in his left hand a
sceptre, and in his right a hollow globe of gold, in which his ashes
were put, but Eutropius affirms that his ashes were put under the
pillar.
The pillar of Antoninus was erected after his death, by the Senate, in
honour of his memory. It is 176 feet high, the steps of ascent 106, and
the windows 56. The sculpture and other ornaments are much of the same
kind with those of Trajan’s pillar, but the work is greatly inferior.
Both these pillars are still standing, and justly reckoned among the
most precious remains of antiquity. Pope Sixtus V. instead of the
statues of the Emperors, caused the statue of St. Peter to be erected on
Trajan’s pillar, and of St. Paul on that of Antoninus.
Pompey’s Pillar, as it is commonly called, in the city of Alexandria in
Egypt, is equally celebrated with the two just mentioned. It is composed
of red granite. The base is a square of about 15 feet on each side; this
block of marble, 60 feet in circumference, rests on two layers of stone
bound together with lead. The shaft and the upper member of the base are
of one piece of 90 feet long, and nine in diameter. The capital is
corinthian, with palm leaves, and not indented; it is 9 feet high. The
whole column is 114 feet in height. It is perfectly well polished, and
only a little shivered on the eastern side. Nothing can equal the
majesty of this column; seen from a distance it overtops the town, and
serves as a signal for vessels. Approaching it nearer, it produces
astonishment mixed with awe. The eye can never be tired with admiring
the beauty of the capital, the length of the shaft, nor the
extraordinary simplicity of the pedestal.
Among the first inhabitants of the world after the flood there were
pillars erected sacred to the Pythonic god, Apollo, or the Sun. These
pillars had curious hieroglyphical inscriptions; they were very lofty
and narrow in comparison of their length; hence among the Greeks, who
copied from the Egyptians, every thing gradually tapering to a point was
stiled an Obelisk.
MASON THE POET.
The merit of this gentleman as a poet is well known. However he was not
satisfied with the applause he received in that character; he was
desirous also of being esteemed a good musician and a good painter. In
music he succeeded better than in painting. He performed decently on the
harpsichord, and by desire, I undertook, says Dr. Miller, in the History
of Doncaster, to teach him the principles of composition; but that I
never could effect. Indeed, others before me had failed in the attempt,
nevertheless he fancied himself qualified to compose; for a short Anthem
of his, beginning “LORD of all power and might,” was performed at the
Chapel Royal, of which only the melody was his own; the bass was
composed by another person. The same may be said of two more Anthems,
sung in the Cathedral of York. In painting he never arrived even to a
degree of mediocrity; so true is Pope’s observation:
“One science only will one genius fit,
”So vast is art, so narrow human wit.”
Fond, however, of being considered as a patron both of music and
painting, he contributed to the advancement of several young men by his
recommendation: yet I never knew him patronize but one, in either of
these arts, whom he did not desert afterwards, without his former
favourite ever knowing in what he had offended him.
“When young,” says Dr. Miller, “I was one of those he took under his
protection. He permitted me to dedicate the music of some elegies to
him, and also gave me pieces of his own writing to set to music,
particularly the ‘Ode to Death’ in Caractacus. However, at the end of a
few years, I found myself involved in the disgrace of others, though I
never knew the cause of my dismissal; most probably our disgrace
proceeded from the envy of some officious tale-bearer. On recollection,
I have often observed him listen attentively to these characters; and
his favourite servant had it in his power to lead him which way he
pleased, even to the changing a former acquaintance as easily as he
would change his coat. Rather late in life he married Miss Sharman, of
Hull, which was his native place. The reason he assigned for making her
an offer of marriage was, that he had been a whole evening in her
company with others, and observed, that during all that time she never
spoke a single word. This lady lived about a year after their marriage.
She died at Bristol, where, in the Cathedral, he placed a handsome
monument to her memory, on which are inscribed some beautiful and
much-admired lines as an epitaph. During the short time this lady lived
with him, he appeared more animated and agreeable in his conversation;
but after her decease, his former phlegm returned, and he became silent,
sullen, and reserved.
“Though he had a good income, and was by no means extravagant, yet he
frequently fancied himself poor, to that degree, that he once asked an
acquaintance to lend him a hundred pounds, though at that very time he
had considerable sums of money in the public funds, for which he
neglected taking the interest. A great attachment appeared to exist
between him and a very hospitable family in the neighbourhood of
Doncaster, to whom he was nearly related, and with whom he used to pass
some months in the summer. At length he fancied they expected to receive
a good legacy at his decease, but resolving to disappoint them, he did
not even mention them in his will, but left the greater part of his
property to a person who had formerly been his curate.”
* * * * *
_The following Letter from Mason to Dr. Beattie, is preserved in Sir
William Forbes’s Life of the latter_:
_York, 17th October, 1771._
“In my late melancholy employment of reviewing and arranging the
papers, which dear Mr. Gray’s friendship bequeathed to my care, I
have found nine letters of yours, which I meant to have returned ere
this, had I found a safe opportunity by a private hand; but as no
such opportunity has yet occurred, I take the liberty of troubling
you with this, to enquire how I may best convey them to you. I shall
continue here till the 12th of next month, and hope in that interval
to be favoured with a line from you upon this subject.
“I should deprive myself of a very sincere gratification, if I
finished this letter, with the business that occasions it. You must
suffer me to thank you for the very high degree of poetical pleasure
which the first book of your ‘Minstrel’ gave my imagination, and
that equal degree of rational conviction which your ‘Essay on the
Immutability of Truth’ impressed on my understanding. I will freely
own to you, that the very idea of a Scotsman’s attacking Mr. Hume,
prejudiced me so much in favour of the latter piece, that I should
have approved it, if, instead of a masterly, it had been only a
moderate performance.
“I shall be happy to know, that the remaining books of your
‘Minstrel’ are likely to be published soon. The next best thing,
after instructing the world profitably, is to amuse it innocently.
England has lost that man, (Mr. Gray) who, of all others in it, was
best qualified for both these purposes; but who, from early chagrin
and disappointment, had imbibed a disinclination to employ his
talents beyond the sphere of self-satisfaction and improvement. May
Scotland long possess, in you, a person both qualified and willing
to exert his, for the pleasure and benefit of society.”
BISHOPS OF SODOR AND MAN.
The Bishopric of Sodor and Man was first erected by Pope Gregory IV,
about the year 840, and had for its diocese the Isle of Man and all the
Hebrides or Western Islands of Scotland; but when the Isle of Man became
dependent upon the kingdom of England, the Western Islands withdrew
themselves from the obedience of their Bishop, and had Bishops of their
own, whom they entitled _Episcopi Sodorenses_, but commonly Bishops of
the Isles. The Prelates of the diocese of the Isles had three places of
residence, namely, the Isle of Icolumkill, Man, and Bute; and in ancient
writs, are promiscuously styled _Episcopi Manniæ et Insularum_,
_Episcopi Æbudarum_, and _Episcopi Sodorenses_, which last title is
still retained by the Bishops of the Isle of Man; and the reason of this
style is as follows: The Island of Ily, or I, or Ionah, was in former
ages a place famous for sanctity and learning, and very early became the
seat of a Bishop. This little Island was likewise denominated
Icolumkill, from St. Columba (the companion of St. Patrick) founding a
monastery here in the sixth century, which was the mother of above one
hundred other monasteries situated in different parts of Britain and
Ireland. From the many learned men who came to study here, the Picts and
English Saxons of the North owe their conversion to Christianity. The
Scots used long ago to commit the education of the presumptive heir of
the crown to the care of the Bishops of this see; and so holy was the
Island of Icolumkill reckoned, that most of the Scottish monarchs were
interred there. The Cathedral church was dedicated to our Saviour, for
whom the Greek word is _Soter_, hence _Soterensis_, now corrupted to
_Sodorensis_; and it seems probable that this is the reason why the
Danes called these Islands _Sodoroe_. The civil wars that raged among
the Scots enabled the Danes and Norwegians to seize the Isle of Man; and
about the year 1097 or 1098, Donald Bane, an usurper, who then sat on
the throne of Scotland, treacherously put the Norwegians in possession
of the Western Isles, for the assistance they had given him. It is
probable that these foreigners were the cause that the see was
translated entirely to the Isle of Man. They were at length however,
expelled from all their usurped dominions. During the great contest
between the houses of Bruce and Baliol for the throne of Scotland, King
Edward III., of England, made himself master of the Isle of Man, and it
has remained an appendage of the crown of England ever since. The Lords
of the Isle of Man sat up Bishops of their own, and the Scottish
monarchs continued their Bishops of the Isles. The patronage of the
Bishopric of Man was given, together with the Island, to the Stanleys,
by King Edward IV. and they came by an heir-female to the Duke of Athol,
who still keeps it; and on a vacancy thereof, he nominates the intended
Bishop to the King, who sends him to the Archbishop of York for
consecration. This is the reason why the Bishop of Sodor and Man is not
a Lord of Parliament, as none can have suffrage in the house of Peers
who do not hold immediately of the King himself.
THE TABLE.
The form of a half-moon for a table is of very ancient date; the Romans
called it the _Sigma_, from its resemblance to the Greek letter so
called, which was in the time of the Roman Emperors like the letter C.
Martial tells us this sort of table admitted but of seven persons,
_septem sigma capit_. And Lampridius, in his life of Heliogabalus,
mentions it very frequently, and says it was for seven only; he tells us
the Emperor once invited eight, on purpose to raise a laugh against the
person for whom there would be no seat. The same form of a table
continued in after ages. The authors of the life of St. Martin say, that
the Emperor Maximus invited him to a repast, where the table had the
form of a sigma; and again in the lower ages, Sidonius Apollinaris
speaks of the same thing in the life of the Emperor Majorianus; and it
is likewise represented in a manuscript of the fifth or sixth century.
The seat itself was only a common bench or form; the sigma was the
principal piece of furniture, and most ornamented. In the time of Homer
the guests sat round the table, as we do now, but afterwards some
nations adopted the custom of a reclining position at their meals.
CLOCKS.
The first Clock we know of in this Country was put up in an old tower of
Westminster Hall, in the year 1288, and in 1292, there was one in the
Cathedral of Canterbury. These were probably of foreign workmanship; and
it may be doubted, if there was at that time any person who followed the
business of making clocks. There was, however, one very ingenious
artist, Richard of Wallingford, Abbot of St. Albans, who constructed a
clock which represented the motions of the sun, moon, and stars, and the
ebbing and flowing of the sea. That this wonderful piece of mechanism
might be of permanent utility to his Abbey, he composed a book of
directions for the management of it. And Leland who appears to have seen
it, says, that in his opinion all Europe could not produce such another.
There is a fine specimen of ancient Clock-making in Wells Cathedral. It
is a clock constructed by Peter Lightfoot, one of the monks of
Glastonbury, about the year 1325, of complicated design and ingenious
execution. It was originally put up in that celebrated Monastery, and
was placed in the south transept, and by means of a communication tolled
the hours on the great bell of the central tower, whilst the quarters
were struck by automata on two small bells in the transept. The dial
plate shews the hours, and also the changes of the moon, the solar and
other astronomical motions; on its summit there is an horizontal frame
work, which exhibits by the aid of machinery, eight knights on horseback
armed for a tournament, and pursuing each other with a rapid rotatory
motion. At the Reformation this clock was removed from Glastonbury Abbey
to its present situation in Wells Cathedral.
The Clock in Exeter Cathedral was erected by Bishop Courtenay in the
year 1480. It is on the Ptolemaic system of Astronomy and of a curious
construction for the age in which it was put up. The earth is
represented by a globe in the centre; the sun by a fleur-de-lys; and the
moon by a ball painted half black and half white, which turns on its
axis, and shews the different phases of that luminary.
ALDUS MANUTIUS.
[DIED 1516.]
It would be difficult to say whether the exertions of any individual,
however splendid his talents, or even the labours of any particular
association, or academy, however celebrated, ever shed so much lustre on
the place of their residence as that which Venice derives from the
reputation of a stranger, who voluntarily selected it for his abode. I
allude to ALDUS MANUTIUS. This extraordinary person combined the lights
of the scholar, with the industry of the mechanic; and to his labours,
carried on without interruption till the conclusion of a long life, the
world owes the first or _principes editiones_ of twenty eight Greek
Classics. Among these we find Pindar, Æschylus, Sophocles, Euripides,
Herodotus, Thucydides, Demosthenes, Plato, and Aristotle. Besides these,
there are few ancient authors of any note, of whom this indefatigable
editor has not published editions of acknowledged accuracy, and as far
as the means of the art of printing, then in its infancy, permitted, of
great beauty. In order to appreciate the merit of Aldus, we must
consider the difficulties under which he must have laboured at a time
when there were few public libraries; when there was no regular
communication between distant cities; when the price of manuscripts put
them out of the reach of persons of ordinary incomes; and when the
existence of many since discovered, was utterly unknown. The man who
could surmount these obstacles, and publish so many authors till then
inedited; who could find means and time to give new and more accurate
editions of so many others already published, and accompany them all
with prefaces mostly of his own composition; who could extend his
attention still farther and by his labours secure the fame, by
immortalizing the compositions of the most distinguished scholars of his
own age and country, must have been endowed in a very high degree, not
only with industry and perseverance, but with judgment, learning, and
discrimination. One virtue more, Aldus possessed in common with many of
the great literary characters of that period, I mean, a sincere and
manly piety, a virtue which gives consistency, vigour, and permanency to
every good quality, and never fails to communicate a certain grace and
dignity to the whole character.
BOTTLES OF SKIN.
The Ancients made use of bottles of skin to hold their wine, as is usual
in many countries to this day. Thus Homer mentions wine being _brought
in a goat’s skin_. (Il. II. iii. line 247. Odys. VI. line 78, IX. line
196, 212) Herodotus (ii. 121,) mentions _skins_ being filled with wine.
And Maundrell in his Travels to Jerusalem, speaking of the Greek Convent
at Bellmount, near Tripoli, in Syria, says, “The same person whom we saw
officiating at the altar in his embroidered sacerdotal robe, brought us
the next day on his own back, a kid, and a _goat’s skin of wine_ as a
present from the Convent.”
ENGLISH SLAVE TRADE.
A great article of exportation among the Anglo-Saxons was Slaves, in
which kind of traffic, the Northumbrians in particular, were very
famous, amongst whom this trade continued, according to William of
Malmesbury, for some time after the conquest. The people of Bristol were
also very much employed in the Slave Trade, which they pursued with such
eagerness, that they frequently spared not their nearest relations; but
at length they were prevailed upon by the preaching and exhortation of
Wulstan, Bishop of Worcester, who possessed that See at the time of the
Conquest, to quit such a barbarous and inhuman traffic.
In the history of the Saxon period there is frequent mention of living
money, in contradistinction to coins of gold, silver, &c. This living
money consisted of slaves and cattle of all sorts, which according to
the value fixed upon them by law, were equally current with gold or
silver in the payment of debts.
In Domesday Book it is said that in the Borough of Lewes, four-pence was
to be paid to the Portreeve for every man sold within that borough.
The Monks were forbid by an ancient Canon to manumit their slaves, and
this unhappy race of men seems to have been longer perpetuated on the
estates of the Monasteries than elsewhere, for in the survey of
Glastonbury Abbey taken after the dissolution, there is mention of “271
bondmen, whose bodies and goods were at the King’s Highness’s pleasure.”
OLIVER CROMWELL’S WIFE.
The two following notable instances of this Lady’s niggardliness are
taken from a very scarce little book intitled “The Court and Kitchen of
Elizabeth Cromwell,” &c. printed in 1664.
“The first, was the very next summer after Oliver’s coming to the
Protectorate in 1654. In June, at the very first season of green pease,
where a poor country woman living some where about London, having a very
early but small quantity in her garden, was advised to gather them and
carry them to the Lady Protectress; her counsellors conceiving she would
be very liberal in her reward, they being the first of that year;
accordingly the poor woman came to the _Strand_; and having her pease
amounting to a peck and a half, in a basket, a cook by the _Savoy_ as
she passed, either seeing or guessing at them, demanded the price, and
upon her silence offered her an angel (a coin so called) for them, but
the woman expecting some greater matter, went on her way to _Whitehall_,
where after much ado, she was directed to her chamber, and one of her
maids came out, and understanding it was a present and a rarity, carried
it in to the Protectress, who out of her princely munificence sent her a
crown, which the maid told into her hand; the woman seeing this
baseness, and the frustration of her hopes, and remembering withal what
the cook had proffered her, _threw back the money into the maid’s hands,
and desired her to fetch her back her pease, for that she was offered
five shillings more for them before she brought them thither, and could
go fetch it presently_; and so half slightingly and half ashamedly, this
great lady returned her present, putting it off with a censure upon the
unsatisfactory daintiness of luxurious and prodigal epicurism. The very
same pease were afterwards sold by the woman to the said cook, who is
yet alive (that is in 1664) to justify the truth of this relation.
“The other is of a later date. Upon Oliver’s rupture with the Spaniards,
the commodities of Spain grew very scarce, and the prices of them raised
by such as could procure them under-hand. Among the rest of these goods,
the fruits of the growth of that country were very rare and dear,
especially oranges and lemons. One day as the Protector was private at
dinner he called for an orange to a loin of veal, to which he used no
other sauce, and urging the same command, was answered by his wife, that
_Oranges were oranges now; that crab oranges would cost a groat, and for
her part she never intended to give it_; and it was presently whispered
that sure her Highness was never the adviser of the Spanish war: and
that his Highness would have done well to have consulted his digestion,
before his lusty and inordinate appetite of dominion and riches in the
West Indies.”
SHAKESPEARE.
The following ingenious reasons are assigned by Mr. Charles Butler, in
his “Memoirs of the English Catholics,” as grounds for a belief that
Shakespeare was a Roman Catholic.
“May the Writer premise a suspicion, which from internal evidence, he
has long entertained, that Shakespeare was a Roman Catholic. Not one of
his works contains the slightest reflections on Popery, or any of its
practices; or any eulogy of the Reformation. His panegyric on Queen
Elizabeth is cautiously expressed; whilst Queen Catherine is placed in a
state of veneration; and nothing can exceed the skill with which
Griffith draws the panegyric of Wolsey. The Ecclesiastic is never
presented by Shakespeare in a degrading point of view. The jolly Monk,
the irregular Nun, never appear in his Drama. Is it not natural to
suppose, that the topics, on which at that time, those who criminated
Popery loved so much to dwell, must have often solicited his notice, and
invited him to employ his muse upon them, as subjects likely to engage
the favourable attention both of the Sovereign and the subject? Does not
his abstinence from these justify a suspicion, that _a Popish feeling_
with-held him from them. Milton made the Gunpowder Conspiracy the theme
of a regular Poem. _Shakespeare is altogether silent on it._”
* * * * *
The Editor of the Morning Chronicle has given a short comment on the
above Paragraph: “We will only oppose” says he, “a single observation to
Mr. Butler’s suspicion. Shakespeare was buried _at his own desire in a
Protestant Church_, with this rather curious Inscription, which we
recommend to Mr. Butler’s perusal:
_Good Friend for Jesu’s sake forbear_
To dig the dust inclosed here.
Blest be the man that spares these stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones.”
The Editor of the Morning Chronicle does not give his authority for
stating that Shakespeare was buried _by his own desire_ in a Protestant
Church. The poet, in his will, does not express any _desire_ about being
buried in any particular place, and being buried in a Protestant Church,
neither proves one thing nor another respecting his religion. It is no
proof that he was a Protestant because he was buried in a Protestant
Church, even if it were clearly shewn that it was by his own desire;
neither is it any proof that he was not a Roman Catholic because he was
buried in a Protestant Church. Let us ask the Editor of the M. C. where
the Catholics of Shakespeare’s time could bury their dead but in
Protestant Churches, or in consecrated ground belonging to Protestant
Churches?
The inscription which the Editor of the M. C. mentions to have been
placed upon Shakespeare’s tomb, certainly does not prove any more
respecting his religion than does his being buried in a Protestant
Church. It has been observed with a high degree of probability that the
inscription in question alludes to the custom which was then in use of
removing skeletons after a certain time, and depositing them in Charnel
Houses. Similar execrations are found in many ancient Latin Epitaphs.
It is one of the observations of Mr. Butler, in proof of his suspicion,
that Shakespeare was a Roman Catholic, that the poet has not eulogized
the Reformation. In the speech (play of Henry VIII. scene the last)
which Archbishop Cranmer makes at the christening of the Princess
Elizabeth, Shakespeare puts into the Prelate’s mouth these prophetic
words—
“In her days ...
“GOD shall be truly known” ...
which appear evidently to infer that in the Roman Catholic times GOD was
not truly known, but that the Reformation, so eminently promoted by
Queen Elizabeth, had brought forth light and truth. Mr. Butler seems to
have overlooked these lines, and the inference that may be drawn from
them, namely, that Shakespeare was _not_ a Roman Catholic.
The author of a Tragedy, recently published, entitled “Moscow,” says (p.
67.) that “he has discovered that Shakespeare was a Free-Mason. Let
every brother of the _third degree_, therefore SEARCH the works of the
immortal bard, and he will find the TRUTH of the above assertion.”
UNIVERSITY DEGREES.
It does not appear that there were any degrees in either the Greek or
Roman academies; the only distinction was that of masters and scholars.
The first seminaries of learning among christians were the cathedral
churches and monasteries, but in process of time the schools belonging
to them were regulated, and men of learning opened others in places
where they could find protection and encouragement. Hence the origin of
universities, which at first were merely a collection of those schools,
to which Princes and great men gave liberal endowments, and granted
particular immunities and privileges. Degrees were not conferred till
the universities were incorporated; a circumstance extremely probable,
when we recollect that all civil honours must be derived from the
supreme magistrate.
The most ancient degrees were those of Bachelor and Master of Arts.
Before the existence of a certain statute, which obliged the theologists
to be regents in arts previously to their ascending the chair of Doctor,
they were only students, and bachelors, or masters of divinity, without
reading the arts. At that time the degrees in arts were held in such
estimation, as to be thought superior to that of doctor in any other
faculty.
The degree of Doctor was not known in England till the time of Henry II.
It afterwards became common, and was taken not only by Professors of
Divinity, Law, and Medicine, but by those of Grammar, Music, Philosophy,
Arts, &c. As the Doctors of those professions, however, seldom obtained
great honour or riches, this degree declined and fell into neglect. That
of Music is the only one which has survived.
GUY CARLETON,
LORD DORCHESTER.
When General Wolfe was appointed to the Command of the Land Forces
destined to act against Canada, in 1759, Mr. Pitt, then Secretary of
State, told him, that as he could not give him so many troops as he
wanted for the Expedition, he would make it up to him in the best
manner he could, by allowing him the appointment of all his
Officers. Accordingly the General sent in a list, in which was the
name of Lieutenant-Colonel Carleton, whom he had put down as
Quarter-Master-General. This Officer, who had been Aide-de-Camp to
the Duke of Cumberland during the campaign in Germany, in 1757, had
unfortunately made himself obnoxious to George the Second, by some
unguarded expressions relating to the Hanoverian Troops, and which
had by some officious person been reported to the King. Lord
Ligonier, then Commander in Chief of the Forces, took General
Wolfe’s list to his Majesty for his approbation, when the King
having looked over it, made some objections in pointed terms, to
Colonel Carleton’s name, and refused to sign his commission. Lord
Ligonier reported the King’s objections and refusal to Mr. Pitt, who
immediately sent his Lordship a second time to his Majesty with no
better success. Mr. Pitt then suggested that his Lordship should go
again, which he refused, on which Mr. Pitt told him, that unless he
went to the King and got Colonel Carleton’s commission signed he
should lose his place. Lord Ligonier then went a third time to the
King, and represented to him the peculiar state of the expedition,
and that in order to make the General completely responsible for
every part of his conduct, it was necessary that the officers
employed under him should be those who enjoyed his entire and
perfect confidence, so that, if he did not succeed, he might not
accuse the Government at home with putting under him officers who,
either by incapacity, want of energy, or inactivity, should thwart
his commands, and thus paralyse the most skilful arrangements. The
King listened to his Lordship’s reasons with a favourable ear, and
his resentment against Colonel Carleton, was so completely disarmed,
that he immediately signed the commission under which that Officer
accompanied General Wolfe as Quarter-Master-General of his army.
FIGS.
Figs have from the earliest times been reckoned among the delights of
the palate.
Moses, in the Pentateuch, enumerates among the praises of the promised
land, (Deut. viii. 8.) that it was a “Land of Fig Trees”.
The Athenians valued figs at least as highly as the Jews. Alexis (in the
Deipnosophists) calls figs “Food for the Gods.” Pausanias says that the
Athenian, Phytalus, was rewarded by Ceres for his hospitality, with the
gift of the first fig-tree. Some foreign guest, no doubt, transmitted to
him the plant, which he introduced into Attica. It succeeded so well
there, that Athensæus brings forward Lynceus and Antiphanes vaunting the
figs of Attica as the best on the earth. Horapollo, or rather his
commentator Bolzair, says that when the master of a house is going a
journey he hangs out a broom of fig-boughs for good luck.
By one of the laws of Solon all the products of the earth were forbidden
to be exported from Athens; under this law the exportation of figs was
prohibited, and it is from this circumstance we have the word
_sycophant_ from the Greek; those who violated this law were subject to
a heavy penalty, and the informer against the delinquents was called a
sycophant from the original word literally meaning an “exhibiter of
figs,” as thereby substantiating his charge. The name was afterward more
extensively applied, and is now associated with the ideas of meanness,
servility, and calumny.
A taste for figs marked the progress of refinement in the Roman Empire.
In Cato’s time but six sorts of figs were known; in Pliny’s twenty-nine.
The sexual system of plants seems first to have been observed in the fig
tree. Pliny in his Natural History alludes to this under the term
_caprification_.
In modern times the esteem for figs has been more widely diffused; when
Charles the 5th visited Holland in 1540, a Dutch merchant sent him, as
the greatest delicacy which Zuricksee could offer, a plate of figs. The
gracious Emperor dispelled for a moment the fogs of the climate by
declaring, that he had never eaten figs in Spain with more pleasure.
Carter praises the figs of Malaga; Tournefort those of Marseilles; Ray
those of Italy; Brydone those of Sicily; Dumont those of Malta; Browne
those of Thessaly; Pocock those of Mycone; De la Mourtraye those of
Tenedos and Mitylene; Chandler those of Smyrna; Maillet those of Cairo;
and Lady Mary Wortley Montague those of Tunis. What less can be inferred
from this conspiring testimony than that wherever there is a fig there
is a feast?