The _South Sea_ rocks and shelves where thousands drown’d,
When credit sunk and commerce gasping lay,
Thou stoodst; nor sent’st one bill unpaid away.
To the westward of Temple-bar the only other house was that of Messrs.
Middleton and Campbell, goldsmiths, who flourished in 1692, and is now
continued with great credit by Mr. Coutts. From thence to the extremity
of the west end of the town there were none till the year 1756, when the
respectable name of Backwell rose again, conjoined with those of Darel,
Hart, and Croft, who with great reputation opened their shop (afterwards
the house of Devaynes, Noble, and Co.) in Pallmall.
Footnote 51:
He was an alderman of London, and after the Exchequer was shut retired
to Holland, where he died, and was brought over to be interred in the
church of Tyringham, in Buckinghamshire, where he lies embalmed. A
glass is placed over his face, so that it is likely he may even be
seen at this time. There is a small portrait of him at Tyringham
House, in which he is represented in long hair and a flowered gown,
with a table by him.
Footnote 52:
A part of the national debt, amounting to £664,263, is as old as this
iniquitous transaction of Charles the second and his ministers. This
sum was all that those persons received, who had placed their property
and their confidence in that monarch, for the loss of £1,328,526, and
26 years interest thereon at 6 per cent. about £2,100,000 more.
ELUCIDATION OF THE ORNAMENTS WITH WHICH THE GREEKS AND ROMANS ADORNED
THE HUMAN HEAD ON COINS AND MEDALS.
THE DIADEM.
The chief of these ornaments is the diadem, or vitta, which was a
ribband worn about the head, and tied in a floating knot behind. This
was anciently the simple, but superlative badge of kingly power. It is
observable upon the Greek monarchical medals, from the earliest ages, to
the last, without any other ornament, and is almost an infallible sign
of kingly power, and that the portrait, if there be no other
characteristic, is that of a prince. In the Roman coins it is seen on
the Consular ones with Numa and Ancus; but never afterwards till the
time of Licinius. So great an aversion had the Romans to this kingly
distinction, that their emperors had for more than two centuries worn
the radiated crown, peculiar to the gods, before they dared to assume
the diadem, which was considered as the symbol of tyranny. In the family
of Constantine, the diadem becomes common, though not with the ancient
simplicity, being ornamented on either edge with a row of pearls, and
various other decorations.
The Greek queens used the diadem, but the Roman empresses never appear
with it; however, the variety of their head dresses more than
compensates for the want of this ornament.
THE RADIATED CROWN.
The radiated crown was, at first, as on the posthumous coins of
Augustus, a mark of deification, and in little more than a century
after, was put upon most of the emperors’ heads on their several medals.
THE CROWN OF LAUREL.
The crown of laurel was at first the honorary prize of conquerors, but
was afterwards commonly worn, at least on their medals, by all the Roman
emperors, from JULIUS CÆSAR, who was permitted by the senate to wear it
always, to hide the baldness of his forehead. This perhaps gave rise to
the first emperors always appearing with it on their coins, a
circumstance continued even to our times, and looking at its origin is
now a little laughable. The laurel employed by the ancients in forming
their crowns, is apparently what we term the Alexandrian laurel, a most
beautiful evergreen, of a fine tender verdure. In the lower empire the
laurel is often held by a hand above the head as a mark of piety.
THE ROSTRAL CROWN.
Agrippa appears on his coins with the rostral crown, a sign of naval
victory or command, being made of gold, in resemblance of prows of
ships, tied together.
THE MURAL CROWN.
Agrippa is likewise seen with the mural or turretted crown, the prize of
first ascending the walls of an enemy’s city.
THE CIVIC CROWN.
The oaken or civic crown is frequent on reverses, as of Galba and
others; and was the badge of having saved the life of a citizen, or of
many citizens.
THE HELMET.
The helmet appears on coins; as in those of Macedon under the Romans,
which have a head of Alexander, sometimes covered with a helmet. Probus
also has often the helmet on his coins; and Constantine the first, has
helmets of different forms curiously ornamented.
THE NIMBUS OR GLORY.
The nimbus or glory, now peculiar to the saints, was formerly applied to
emperors. A nimbus appears round the head of Constantine the second, in
a gold coin of that prince; and of Flavia Maxima Fausta, in a gold
medallion; and of Justinian in another. But the idea is as ancient as
the reign of Augustus, and is found in Roman authors, before it appeared
on coins. Oiselius gives a coin of Antoninus Pius, with the _nimbus_,
but this however is doubtful, and may have been some flaw in the coin
from which he engraved his representation.
OTHER ORNAMENTS OF THE HEAD.
Besides the diadem, the Greek princes sometimes appear with the laurel
crown. The Arsacidæ, or kings of Parthia, wear a kind of sash round the
head, with their hair in rows of curls like a wig. Tigranes and the
kings of Armenia, wear the _tiara_, a singular kind of cap, but the well
known badge of imperial power in the ancient eastern world. Xerxes, a
petty prince of Armenia, appears in a coin extant of him in a conical
cap, with a diadem around it. Juba, the father, has a singular crown,
like a conical cap, all hung with pearls.
The successors of Alexander assumed by way of distinction, different
symbols of the Deity, to be observed on the busts of their medals, such
as the lion’s skin of Hercules, which surrounds the head of the first
Seleucus; the horn placed behind the ear, an image of their strength and
power, or of their being the successors of Alexander, called the son of
Jupiter Ammon; the wing placed in like manner behind the ear, symbolic
of the rapidity of their conquests, or of their being descendants from
the god Mercury.
Some authors, however, have doubted if all these heads be not of gods,
except those with the horn. Eckhel observes, that even the horn and
diadem belong to Bacchus, as on a coin of Nuceria Alfaterna. Bacchus,
according to Diodorus Siculus, invented the diadem, to cure his
head-aches, and was horned like his father Jupiter Ammon. The only king
who appears on coins, according to Eckhel, with the horn, is Lysimachus.
Pyrrhus had a crest of goats’ horns to his helmet, as we are informed by
Plutarch, in his life, and the goat was the symbol of Macedon. It is
likely that the successors of Alexander took this badge of the horn in
consequence.
Besides the distinctions of supreme power, or honorary reward, there are
other symbolic ornaments of the head, observable on some Roman coins.
Such is the veil, or, more properly, the _toga_ drawn over the head, to
be seen on the busts of Julius Cæsar, when Pontifex Maximus, and others.
This shews that the person bore the pontificate or the augurship; the
augurs having a particular gown, called _laena_, with which they covered
their heads, when employed in observing omens. Latterly the veil is only
a mark of consecration, and is common in coins of empresses, as
Faustina, Mariniana, and others. In the coins of Claudius Gothicus we
first find it as a mark of the consecration of an emperor; and it
continued in those of Constantius the first, Maximian the first, and
Constantine the first.
The remarkable part of the Roman head dress among the ladies, was the
_sphendona_, or sling, on the crown of the head; answering to the modern
hair cushion. But it was of gold, and so prominent as to be even
remarkable in a coin. The hair appears in many fashions, as now.
Sometimes the bust of an empress is supported by a crescent, to imply
that she was the moon, as her husband was the sun of the state.
Generally, only the bust is given on ancient coins; but sometimes half
the body or more. In the latter case the hands often appear, with tokens
of majesty in them. Such is the globe, said to have been introduced by
Augustus, to express possession of the world. The sceptre, sometimes
confounded with the consular staff. The roll of parchment, symbolic of
legislative power; and the handkerchief expressing that of the public
games, where the emperor gave the signal. Some princes even hold the
thunderbolt, shewing that their power was equal to that of Jupiter in
heaven. Others hold an image of victory.
Most queens of Egypt, on their coins, have the sceptre. It appears at
the top of their head; and would seem part of the dress, were it not
that in other coins, it passes beneath the neck transversely, so that
both ends appear.
The victors, at the sacred games among the ancients, had bound round the
head, an ornament called _anadema_, which has sometimes been confounded
with the diadem worn by the ancient Persian kings.
THE TRADESCANTS.
The Tradescants, father and son, were among the first eminent gardeners,
and were the very first collectors of natural history in this kingdom.
John Tradescant the elder was, according to Anthony Wood, a Fleming, or
a Dutchman. We are informed by Parkinson, that he had travelled into
most parts of Europe, and into Barbary, and from some emblems remaining
upon his monument in Lambeth church-yard, it appears that he had visited
Greece, Egypt, and other Eastern countries.
In his travels, he is supposed to have collected not only plants and
seeds, but most of those curiosities of every sort which formed his
collection, which afterwards became celebrated, and is now the Ashmolean
museum, at Oxford.
When he first settled in this kingdom, cannot at this distance of time,
be ascertained; perhaps it was towards the latter end of the reign of
queen Elizabeth, or the beginning of that of king James the first. His
portrait, engraven by Hollar, before the year 1656, represents him as a
person very far advanced in years, and seems to countenance this
opinion.
He lived in a large house at South Lambeth, where, there is reason to
think, his museum was frequently visited by persons of rank, who became
benefactors thereto; among these were king Charles the first, to whom he
was gardener, Henrietta Maria, his queen, Archbishop Laud, George, Duke
of Buckingham, Robert and William Cecil, Earls of Salisbury, and many
other persons of distinction.
John Tradescant may, therefore, justly be considered as the earliest
collector in this kingdom,[53] of every thing that was curious in
natural history, namely, minerals, birds, fishes, insects, &c. &c. He
had also a good collection of coins and medals, besides a great variety
of extraordinary rarities. Some of the plants which grew in his garden
are, if not totally extinct in this country, at least become very
uncommon.
This able man, by his great industry, made it manifest, in the very
infancy of botany, as a science, that there is scarcely any plant
existing in the known world, that will not, with proper care, thrive in
this kingdom. The time of his death cannot be ascertained, no mention
being made of it in the register of Lambeth church.
John Tradescant the son, and his wife, joined in a deed of gift, by
which their friend Elias Ashmole was entitled to this collection after
the decease of the former. On that event taking place, in 1662, it was
accordingly claimed by him, but the widow Tradescant refusing to deliver
it, was compelled so to do by a decree of the court of Chancery. She
was, a few years after, found drowned, in a pond, in her own garden.
His house at South Lambeth, then called Tradescant’s Ark,[54] thus
coming into the possession of Ashmole, he came to reside there in 1674,
and added a noble room to it, adorning the chimney with his arms,
impaling those of Sir William Dugdale, whose daughter was his third
wife. Ashmole was much respected by his contemporaries, and was
frequently visited at South Lambeth by persons of very exalted rank,
particularly by the ambassadors of foreign princes, to whom he had
presented his book on the Order of the Garter.
It is well known that Tradescant’s collection was given by Ashmole to
the University of Oxford, where it forms the principal part of the
museum that goes by his name, the house, in which it is contained,
having been built for its reception.[55]
A monument was erected in the south east part of Lambeth church-yard, in
1662, by Hester, the relict of John Tradescant, the son, to the memory
of her husband, and the other members of his family.
This, once beautiful monument has suffered so much by the weather, that
no just idea can now, on inspection, be formed of the north and south
sides; but this defect is supplied from very fine drawings[56] in the
Pepysian library, at Cambridge. On the east side is Tradescant’s arms;
on the west a hydra, and under it a skull; on the south, broken columns,
Corinthian capitals, &c. supposed to be ruins in Greece, or some other
Eastern country; and on the north, a crocodile, shells, &c. and a view
of some Egyptian buildings; various figures of trees, &c. in relievo,
adorn the four corners of the monument.
In a visit made by Sir W. Watson and Dr. Mitchell to Tradescant’s
garden, in 1749, an account of which, is inserted in Philos. Trans. vol.
xlvi. p. 160, it appears that it had been many years totally neglected,
and the house belonging to it empty and ruined, but though the garden
was quite covered with weeds, there remained among them manifest
footsteps of its founder.[57] They found there the _Borago latifolia
sempervirens_ of Caspar Bauhine; _Polygonatum vulgare latifolium, C. B_;
_Aristolochia clematitis recta, C. B._ and _Dracontium_ of Dodoens.
There were then remaining two trees of the _Arbutus_, which from their
being so long used to our winters, did not suffer by the severe cold of
1739-40, when most of their kind were killed in England. In the orchard
there was a tree of the _Rhamnus catharticus_, about 20 feet high, and
nearly a foot in diameter. There are at present no traces of this garden
remaining.
The Tradescants were usually called Tradeskin by their contemporaries,
and the name is uniformly so spelled in the parish register of Lambeth,
and by Flatman the painter, who in a poem mentions Tradescant’s
collection;
“Thus John Tradeskin starves our wond’ring eyes,
”By boxing up his new-found rarities.“
The following is a list of the portraits of the Tradescant family now in
the Ashmolean Museum; both father and son are in these portraits called
Sir John, though it does not appear that either of them were ever
knighted.
1. Sir John Tradescant, sen. a three quarters piece, ornamented with
fruit, flowers, and garden roots.
2. The same, after his decease.
3. The same, a small three-quarters piece, in water colours.
4. A large painting of his wife, son and daughter, quarter-length.
5. Sir John Tradescant, junior, in his garden, with a spade in his hand,
half length.
6. The same with his wife, half length.
7. The same, with his friend Zythepsa of Lambeth, a collection of
shells, &c. upon a table before them.
8. A large quarter piece inscribed Sir John Tradescant’s second wife and
son.
These pictures have neither date nor painter’s name. They are esteemed
to be good portraits, but who the person was, who is called Zythepsa is
not known. He is painted as if entering the room, and Sir John is
shaking him by the hand.
Hollar engraved two portraits of the Tradescants, father and son, which
are placed as frontispieces to the little volume, mentioned in the
preceding note.
Granger (2. 370) says he saw a picture at a gentleman’s house in
Wiltshire, which was not unlike that of the deceased Tradescant, and the
inscription was applicable to it:—
Mortuus haud alio quam quo pater ore quiesti
Quam facili frueris nunc quoque nocte doces.
Footnote 53:
Tradescant was the first English collector of curiosities in a private
rank. Thoresby was the second. _Gough’s Topogr_.
Footnote 54:
The late James West, Esq. told Mr. Bull, that one of the family of
Roelans, of which there are four or five prints by Hollar, lived a
long while at Lambeth, in the house that afterwards belonged to
Tradescant, to whom Roelans sold it. _Granger’s B. II._ 2. 371.
Footnote 55:
In the year 1656 the younger Tradescant, published a small volume,
entitled “Museum Tradescantianum, or a Collection of Rarities
preserved at South Lambeth. London, 1656, small octavo.” This book is
divided into two parts, the first containing a catalogue of the
museum, and the second an enumeration of the plants, shrubs, and
trees, growing in the garden at South Lambeth. Among the natural
curiosities here preserved are “a dragon’s egg—the claw of the bird
_Rock_, which, as authors report, is able to trusse an elephant,” &c.
&c.
Footnote 56:
These drawings are engraven in the Philosophical Trans. vol. 63, p.
88; and printed from the same plates, in Bibl. Topogr. Brit. vol. 2.
in Dr. Ducarel’s Hist. of Lambeth.
Footnote 57:
Tradescant’s was the next botanical garden in England after Gerard’s.
Gerard seems to have been the first that cultivated a botanical
garden. He had a large one near his house in Holborn, London, where he
raised nearly eleven hundred different trees and plants. He published
his history of plants in 1597 under the patronage of Lord Burleigh.
His herbal was republished in 1636 by Johnson.
ORANGE TREES.
The first orange trees seen in England, are said to have been planted by
Sir Francis Carew, at Beddington, in Surrey. Sir Francis died in 1607,
aged 81. Aubrey says they were brought from Italy by Sir Francis, but
the editors of the Biographia Britannica speaking from a tradition
preserved in the family, tell us that they were raised by him from the
seeds of the first oranges which were imported into England by Sir
Walter Raleigh, who had married his niece. The trees were planted in the
open ground, and were preserved in the winter by a moveable shed. They
flourished about a century and a half, being destroyed by the hard frost
in 1739-40.
In the transactions of the Linnæan Society there are some notices
relating to the progress of botany in England, written by the late
eminent naturalist, Peter Collinson. Speaking of the orange trees at
Beddington be says—“In the reign of queen Elizabeth the first orange and
lemon trees were introduced into England by two curious gentlemen, one
of them Sir Nicholas Carew, at Beddington. They were planted in the
natural ground, but against every winter an artificial covering was
raised for their protection. I have seen them some years ago[58] in
great perfection. But this apparatus going to decay, without due
consideration a green-house of brick work was built all round them, and
left on the top uncovered in the summer. I visited them a year or two
after in their new habitation, and to my great concern found some
dyeing, and all declining; for although there were windows on the south
side, they did not thrive in their confinement; but being kept damp,
with the rains, and wanting a free, airy, full sun, all the growing
months of summer, they languished, and at last all died.
“A better fate has attended the other fine parcel of orange trees, &c.
brought over at the same time, by Sir Robert Mansell, at Margam in South
Wales. My nephew counted 80 trees of citrons, limes, burgamots, Seville
and China orange-trees, planted in great cases all ranged in a row
before the green-house. This is the finest sight of its kind in England.
He had the curiosity to measure one of them. A China orange measured in
the extent of its branches fourteen feet. A Seville orange-tree was
fourteen feet high, the case included, and the stem twenty one inches
round. A China orange-tree twenty two inches and a half in girt.
“I visited the orangery at Margam, in the year 1766, in company with Mr.
Lewis Thomas, a very sensible and attentive man, who told me that the
orange-trees, &c. in that garden were intended as a present from the
king of Spain to the king of Denmark; and that the vessel in which they
were shipped, being taken in the channel, the trees were made a present
of to Sir Robert Mansell.”
Footnote 58:
This was written in the year 1754.
ARTICLES OF USE AND LUXURY INTRODUCED INTO EUROPE BY THE ROMANS.
Whatever evils either reason or declamation have imputed to extensive
empire, the power of Rome was attended with some beneficial consequences
to mankind; and the same freedom of intercourse which extended the
vices, diffused likewise the improvements of social life. In the more
remote ages of antiquity, the world was unequally divided. The east was
in the immemorial possession of arts and luxury; whilst the west was
inhabited by rude and warlike barbarians, who either disdained
agriculture, or to whom it was totally unknown. Under the protection of
an established government, the productions of happier climates, and the
industry of more civilized nations were gradually introduced into the
western countries of Europe, and the natives were encouraged, by an open
and profitable commerce, to multiply the former, as well as to improve
the latter. It would be almost impossible to enumerate all the articles,
either of the animal or vegetable kingdoms which were successively
imported into Europe from Asia and Egypt; it is only intended here to
touch on a few of the principal heads. It is also not improbable that
the Greeks and Phœnicians introduced some new arts and productions into
the neighbourhood of Marseilles and Cadiz.
1. Almost all the flowers, the herbs, and the fruits, that grow in our
European gardens, are of foreign extraction, which in many cases, is
betrayed even by their names; the apple was a native of Italy, and when
the Romans had tasted the richer flavour of the apricot, the peach, the
pomegranate, the citron, and the orange, they contented themselves with
applying to all these new fruits the common denomination of apple,
discriminating them from each other by the additional epithet of their
country.
2. In the time of Homer, the vine grew wild in the island of Sicily, and
most probably in the adjacent continent; but it was not improved by the
skill, nor did it afford a liquor grateful to the taste, of the savage
inhabitants. A thousand years afterwards, Italy could boast, that of the
fourscore most generous and celebrated wines, more than two thirds were
produced from her soil. The blessing was soon communicated to the
Narbonnese province of Gaul; but so intense was the cold to the north of
the Cevennes, that in the time of Strabo, it was thought impossible to
ripen the grapes in those parts of Gaul. The intense cold of a Gallic
winter was even proverbial among the ancients. This difficulty, however,
was gradually vanquished; and there is some reason to believe that the
vineyards of Burgundy are as old as the age of the Antonines. In the
beginning of the fourth century, the orator Eumenius speaks of the vines
in the territory of Autun, which were decayed through age, and the first
plantation of which was totally unknown.
3. The olive, in the western world, followed the progress of peace, of
which it was considered as the symbol. Two centuries after the
foundation of Rome, both Italy and Africa were strangers to that useful
plant; it was naturalized in those countries; and at length carried into
the heart of Spain and Gaul. The timid errors of the ancients, that it
required a certain degree of heat, and could only flourish in the
neighbourhood of the sea, were insensibly exploded by industry and
experience.
4. The cultivation of flax was transported from Egypt to Gaul, and
enriched the whole country, however it might impoverish the particular
lands on which it was sown.
5. The use of artificial grasses became familiar to the farmers both of
Italy and the provinces, particularly the lucerne, which derived its
name and origin from Media. The assured supply of wholesome and
plentiful food for the cattle during winter, multiplied the number of
the flocks and herds, which, in their turn, contributed to the fertility
of the soil.