_Man killed at Worcester by a Sword-fish.—Teignton Squash.—Grafting.—
Ned of the Toddin.—Worcester China.—Cathedral.—St Wulstan.—
K. John's Grave.—Journey to Birmingham._
Tuesday, July 6.
Were I an epicure, I should wish to dine every fast day at Worcester.
The Severn runs through the town, and supplies it with salmon in
abundance, the most delicious of all fish. You would hardly suppose that
there could be any danger from sea-monsters in bathing at such a
distance from the mouth of the river, which is at least five-and-twenty
leagues by the course of the stream; yet about thirty years ago a man
here actually received his death wound in the water from a swordfish.
The fish was caught immediately afterwards, so that the fact was
ascertained beyond a doubt.
Perry is the liquor of this country: a cyder made from pears instead of
apples. The common sort when drawn from the cask is inferior to the
apple juice, but generous perry is truly an excellent beverage. It
sparkles in the glass like Champaign, and the people here assure me that
it has not unfrequently been sold as such in London. I am told a
circumstance concerning the particular species of pear from which this
of the finer quality is made, which would stagger my belief, if I did
not recollect that in such cases incredulity is often the characteristic
of ignorance. This species is called the _Teignton squash_—(admire, I
pray you, this specimen of English euphony!)—all the trees have been
grafted from the same original stocks at Teignton; those stocks are now
in the last stage of decay, and all their grafts are decaying at the
same time. They who have made the physiology of plants their study, (and
in no other country has this science ever been so successfully pursued
as here,) assert that with grafted trees this always is the case; that
the graft, being part of an old tree, is not renovated by the new stock
into which it is inoculated, but brings with it the diseases and the age
of that from which it has been taken, and dies at the same time of
natural[3] decay. The tree raised from seed is the progeny of its
parent, and itself a separate individual; it begins a new lease of life.
That which is produced from a graft obtains, like a dismembered polypus,
a separate existence; but its life, like that of the fabled Hamadryads,
ends with that of the trunk from which it sprung.
The adjoining province of Herefordshire, with its immediate vicinity, is
the great cyder country; more and of better quality being made here than
in the West of England. Particular attention is now paid here by
scientific men to the culture of the apple, which they raise from seed,
in conformity to the theory just explained; they choose the seed
carefully, and even assert that the pips from the southern chambers of
the apple are preferable to those in the other side. In many parts of
England cyder is supposed to be an unwholesome liquor; experience here
disproves the opinion. It is the common drink: the people drink it
freely at all times, and in harvest times profusely: a physician of the
country says that any other liquor taken so profusely would be hurtful,
but that no ill effects are produced by this. Madness is said to be
frequent in this province; and those persons, who, when they find two
things coexistent, however unconnected, immediately suppose them to be
cause and effect, attribute it to the use of cyder. If the fact be true,
the solution is obvious; madness is an hereditary disease: in former
times families were more stationary than they are now, intermarriages
took place within a narrow sphere, and the inhabitants of a whole
province would, in not many generations, all be of the same blood.
A generation ago there certainly were in these parts many poor madmen or
idiots, who, being quite harmless, were permitted to wander whither they
would, and received charity at every house in their regular rounds. Of
one of these, his name was Ned of the Toddin, I have just heard a tale
which has thrilled every nerve in me from head to foot. He lived with
his mother, and there was no other in family:—it is remarked that idiots
are always particularly beloved by their mothers, doubtless because they
always continue in a state as helpless and as dependent as infancy. This
poor fellow, in return, was equally fond of his mother; love towards her
was the only feeling of affection which he was capable of, and that
feeling was proportionately strong. The mother fell sick and died: of
death, poor wretch, he knew nothing, and it was in vain to hope to make
him comprehend it. He would not suffer them to bury her, and they were
obliged to put her into the coffin unknown to him, and carry her to the
grave, when, as they imagined, he had been decoyed away to a distance.
Ned of the Toddin, however, suspected that something was designed;
watched them secretly, and as soon as it was dark opened the grave, took
out the body and carried it home. Some of the neighbours compassionately
went into the cottage to look after him: they found the dead body seated
in her own place in the chimney corner, a large fire blazing, which he
had made to warm her, and the idiot son with a large dish of pap
offering to feed her.—"Eat, mother!" he was saying,—"you used to like
it!"—Presently, wondering at her silence, he looked at the face of the
corpse, took the dead hand to feel it, and said, "Why d'ye look so pale,
mother? why be you so cold?"
* * * * *
Wednesday, July 7.
The main manufactory of this place is in porcelain, and the shops in
which this ware is displayed are as splendid and as beautiful as can
possibly be imagined. They are equal in length to a common parochial
church, and these exquisite works of art arranged in them in the best
order upon long counters, around the sides, and in the windows on each
side the door which occupy the whole front. In China it is said that the
prepared clay is buried in deep pits, and left to ripen there for half a
century; by which means their porcelain attains that semi-pellucid and
pearly delicacy which has never been equalled here. If this be the case,
the inferiority of the English ware is accounted for. Trade in England
will not wait for such slow returns. But if the Chinese excel them in
this particular instance, and rival them in the vividness of their
colours, they must yield the palm in whatever depends upon taste. One
dinner service you see painted with landscapes, every separate piece
being a different picture; another represents flowers or fruit coloured
to the life; another, the armorial bearings of the family for whom it
has been fabricated, emblazoned with all the richness of heraldic
colouring. These things are perfect in their kind: yet such are the
effects of prejudice and habit, that the grotesque and tasteless
patterns of the real China are frequently preferred; and the English
copy the hair-lined eyebrows of the Chinese, their unnatural trees and
distorted scenery, as faithfully as if they were equally ignorant of
perspective themselves. There is however thus much to be said in favour
of this prejudice, that plates and tea-saucers have made us better
acquainted with the Chinese than we are with any other distant people.
If we had no other documents concerning this extraordinary nation, a
series of engravings from these their own pictures would be considered
as highly curious, and such a work, if skilfully conducted and
annotated, might still elucidate the writings of travellers, and not
improbably furnish information which it would be in vain to seek in
Europe from other sources.
Another important branch of the trade of Worcester is in leathern
gloves. One inevitable consequence of the unnatural extension of trade
in this land of commerce is, that the slightest change of fashion
reduces so many of the labouring class to immediate distress and ruin.
Three or four years ago the English ladies chose to wear long silken
gloves; the demand for leathern ones immediately ceased, and the women,
whose business it was to make them, were thrown out of employ. This was
the case of many hundreds here in Worcester. In such cases men commonly
complain and submit; but women are more disposed to be mutinous; they
stand less in fear of law, partly from ignorance, partly because they
presume upon the privilege of their sex, and therefore in all public
tumults they are foremost in violence and ferocity. Upon this occasion
they carried their point within their own territories; it was dangerous
to appear in silken gloves in the streets of this city; and one lady,
who foolishly or ignorantly ventured to walk abroad here in this
forbidden fashion, is said to have been seized by the women and whipped.
The cathedral church of this city is a fine Gothic edifice, which has
lately undergone a thorough repair. It is some satisfaction to see, that
if the English build no new cathedrals, they at least preserve the old
ones, which I hope and trust are likely to survive that schism which
threatened them with destruction, and to witness the revival and
restoration of the true faith, whereof they are such splendid memorials.
St Wulstan was the founder. His name indeed is remembered here; but in
this church, where the shrine of the founder was once devoutly visited,
the tomb which is now pointed out to the notice and respect of
travellers is that of the bishop who first set the example of
disobedience to king James II. when he attempted to recall the nation to
the religion of their fathers! It is not in this magnificent monument of
his own rearing that the history of St Wulstan is to be learnt. I have
found in the Chronicle of a Spanish Benedictine what I should never have
heard at Worcester. This holy man was elected to the see against his own
will, nor did he accept it till he had been convinced by signs that it
was the will of God. After some years his enemies conspired to depose
him. There are few finer miracles in hagiology than that which is
recorded as having been vouchsafed upon this occasion. They complained
that he was illiterate, and therefore unworthy of the dignity which he
held. The true cause of the accusation was, that he was a Saxon; the
Norman conquest had been effected since his appointment to the see, and
it was wanted for a foreigner. A council was assembled in Westminster
abbey. The king and the Norman prelates were prejudiced judges; and
Lanfranc, the primate, though too holy a man ever to commit an act of
wilful injustice, in his zeal for learning lent a ready ear to the
charges, and, being an Italian, was easily deceived by the
misrepresentations of the accusers. Accordingly he pronounced sentence
of deposition against the saint, and required him to deliver up his ring
and crosier. St Wulstan, neither feeling dismay at heart, nor
manifesting sorrow in his countenance, rose up as soon as sentence was
pronounced against him, and leaning upon his crosier, replied:
"Certainly I know that I am unworthy of my honourable office, and
unequal to the weight of my dignity; but it is no new thing for me to
know this! I knew it and acknowledged it when my clergy elected me; and
the bishops compelled me to accept it, and holy king Edward, my lord, by
apostolical authority, imposed this weight upon my shoulders, and
ordered this crosier to be given into my hands. You," said he,
addressing himself to Lanfranc, "you demand from me the crosier which
you did not give me, and take from me the office which I did not receive
from you. I therefore, confessing my own insufficiency, and obeying the
decree of the council, yield up my crosier, not to you, but to him from
whose authority I received it." Saying this, he advanced to the tomb of
holy king Edward the Confessor. "There are new laws in this land," he
exclaimed, "a new king and new prelates, who promulgate new sentences!
They accuse thee of error, O holy king, in promoting me, and me of
presumption for having obeyed thee. Then, Edward, thou couldst err, for
thou wert mortal; but now, when peradventure thou art enjoying the
presence of the Lord, now,—canst thou now be deceived?—I will not yield
up my crosier to these from whom I did not receive it; they are men who
may deceive and be deceived. But to thee do I deliver it, who hast
escaped the errors and darkness of the world, and art in the light of
truth; to thee with the best willingness I resign my pastoral staff, and
render up the charge of my flock. My lord and king, give thou the charge
to whom thou thinkest worthy!" He then laid the crosier upon the tomb,
disrobed himself of his episcopal insignia, and took his seat like a
private monk in the assembly. The crosier entered the stone, as if it
had been imbedded in melting wax, and could not be taken from it by any
other hand than by that of the holy bishop who had laid it there.
The grave of king John is here, a monarch remarkable in English history
for having signed the Great Charter, resigned his crown to the pope's
legate, and offered to turn Mohammedan if the Miramolin would assist him
against his subjects. As there were some doubts whether the grave which
was commonly supposed to be his was really so, it was opened two or
three years ago, and the tradition verified. It appeared that it had
been opened before for other motives; for some of the bones were
displaced, and the more valuable parts of his dress missing. As this was
at the time when the revolutionary disposition of the people had
occasioned some acts of unusual rigour on the part of government, it was
remarked in one of the newspapers, that if king John had taken the
opportunity to walk abroad and observe how things were going on, it must
have given him great satisfaction to see how little was left of that
Magna Charta, which he had signed so sorely against his will.
* * * * *
We waited in Worcester for the coach from Bristol to Birmingham, which
passes through in the afternoon, and in which we were tolerably sure of
finding room, as it is one of those huge machines which carries sixteen
withinside. Its shape is that of a coffin[4] placed upside-down; the
door is at the end, and the passengers sit sideways. It is not very
agreeable to enter one of these coaches when it is nearly full: the
first comers take possession of the places nearest the door at one end,
or the window at the other, and the middle seats are left for those who
come in last, and who for that reason, contrary to the parable of the
labourers in the vineyard, may literally be said to bear the heat of the
day. There were twelve passengers already seated when we got in; they
expressed no satisfaction at this acquisition of company; one woman
exclaimed that she was almost stewed to death already, and another cried
out to the coachman that she hoped he would not take in any body else.
The atmosphere of the apartment, indeed, was neither fresher nor more
fragrant than that of a prison; but it was raining hard, and we had no
alternative. The distance was only two stages, that is a long day's
journey in our own country, but here the easy work of five hours; but I
never before passed five hours in travelling so unpleasantly. To see any
thing was impossible; the little windows behind us were on a level with
our heads, the coachman's seat obstructed the one in front, and that in
the door-way was of use only to those who sat by it. Any attempt which
we made at conversation by way of question, was answered with forbidding
brevity; the company was too numerous to be communicative; half of them
went to sleep, and I endeavoured to follow their example, as the best
mode of passing away time so profitless and so uncomfortable. But it was
in vain; heat, noise, and motion, kept me waking. We were heartily
rejoiced when the coach arrived at Birmingham, and we were let loose, to
stretch our limbs at liberty, and breathe an air, cool at least, if not
fresh.
[3] Hudibras might have added this illustration to his well-known simile
of the new noses: but the experiments of Taliacotius have been verified
in modern times; and this may teach us not too hastily to disbelieve an
assertion which certainly appears improbable.—TR.
[4] The author compares one of these coaches elsewhere, (vol. i. p. 35,)
to a trunk with a rounded lid, placed topsy-turvy. It should appear,
therefore, that coffins in Spain are shaped like trunks.—TR.