On the 10th of August, 1575, Peter Bales, one of our earliest and most
eminent writing-masters, finished a performance which contained the
Lord’s prayer, the creed, the decalogue, with two short prayers in
Latin, his own name, motto, the day of the month, year of our Lord, and
reign of the queen, (Elizabeth,) to whom he afterwards presented it at
Hampton-court, all within the circle of a single penny, enchased in a
ring with borders of gold, and covered with a crystal, so accurately
wrought, as to be plainly legible, to the great admiration of her
majesty, her ministers, and several ambassadors at court.
In 1590, Bales kept a school at the upper end of the Old Bailey, and the
same year published his “Writing School-Master.” In 1595, he had a trial
of skill in writing with a Mr. Daniel (David) Johnson, for a “golden
pen” of £20 value, and won it. Upon this victory, his contemporary and
rival in penmanship, John Davies, made a satirical, ill-natured epigram,
intimating that penury continually compelled Bales to remove himself and
his “golden pen,” to elude the pursuit of his creditors. The particulars
of the contest for the pen, supposed to be written by Bales himself, are
in the British Museum, dated January 1, 1596.
So much concerning Peter Bales is derived from the late Mr. Butler’s
“Chronological Exercises,” an excellent arrangement of biographical,
historical, and miscellaneous facts for the daily use of young ladies.
Peter Bales according to Mr. D’Israeli, “astonished the eyes of
beholders by showing them what they could not see.” He cites a
narrative, among the Harleian MSS., of “a rare piece of work brought to
pass by Peter Bales, an Englishman, and a clerk of the chancery.” Mr.
D’Israeli presumes this to have been the whole Bible, “in an English
walnut no bigger than a hen’s egg. The nut holdeth the book: there are
as many leaves in his little book as the great Bible, and he hath
written as much in one of his little leaves, as a great leaf of the
Bible.” This wonderfully unreadable copy of the Bible was “seen by many
thousands.”
Peter Huet, the celebrated bishop of Avranches, long doubted the story
of an eminent writing-master having comprised “the Iliad in a
nut-shell,” but, after trifling half an hour in examining the matter, he
thought it possible. One day, in company at the dauphin’s, with a piece
of paper and a common pen, he demonstrated, that a piece of vellum,
about ten inches in length, and eight in width, pliant and firm, can be
folded up and enclosed in the shell of a large walnut; that in breadth
it can contain one line of thirty verses, perfectly written with a
crow-quill, and in length two hundred and fifty lines; that one side
will then contain seven thousand five hundred verses, the other side as
much, and that therefore the piece of vellum will hold the whole fifteen
thousand verses of the Iliad.
The writing match between Peter Bales and David Johnson, mentioned by
Mr. Butler, “was only traditionally known, till, with my own eyes,” says
Mr. D’Israeli, “I pondered on this whole trial of skill in the precious
manuscript of the champion himself; who, like Cæsar, not only knew how
to win victories, but also to record them.” Johnson for a whole year
gave a public challenge, “To any one who should take exceptions to this
my writing and teaching.” Bales was magnanimously silent, till he
discovered that since this challenge was proclaimed, he “was doing much
less in writing and teaching.” Bales then sent forth a challenge, “To
all Englishmen and strangers,” to write for a gold pen of twenty pounds
value, in all kinds of hands, “best, straightest, and fastest,” and most
kind of ways; “a full, a mean, a small, with line and without line; in a
slow-set hand, a mean facile hand, and a fast running hand;” and
further, “to write truest and speediest, most secretary and clerk-like,
from a man’s mouth, reading or pronouncing, either English or Latin.”
Within an hour, Johnson, though a young friend of Bales, accepted the
challenge, and accused the veteran of arrogance. “Such an absolute
challenge,” says he, “was never witnessed by man, without exception of
any in the world!” Johnson, a few days after, met Bales, and showed him
a piece of “secretary’s hand,” which he had written on fine parchment,
and said, “Mr. Bales, give me one shilling out of your purse, and, if
within six months you better or equal this piece of writing, I will give
you forty pounds for it.” Bales accepted the shilling, and the parties
were thereby bound over to the trial of skill. The day before it took
place, a printed paper posted through the city taunted Bales’s “proud
poverty,” and his pecuniary motives as “ungentle, base, and mercenary,
not answerable to the dignity of the golden pen!” Johnson declared that
he would maintain his challenge for a thousand pounds more, but that
Bales was unable to make good a thousand groats. Bales retorted by
affirming the paper a sign of his rival’s weakness, “yet who so bold,”
says Bales, “as blind Bayard, that hath not a word of Latin to cast at
a dog, or say ‘Bo!’ to a goose!” The goose was mentioned perhaps, in
allusion to Michaelmas-day 1595, when the trial commenced before five
judges; an “ancient gentleman” was intrusted with “the golden pen.” The
first trial was for the manner of teaching scholars; this terminated in
favour of Bales. The second, for secretary and clerk-like writing,
dictated in English and in Latin, was also awarded to Bales; Johnson
confessing that he wanted the Latin tongue, and was no clerk. On the
third and last trial, for fair writing in sundry kinds of hands, Johnson
prevailed in beauty and most “authentic proportion,” and for superior
variety of the Roman hand; but in court-hand, and set-text, Bales
exceeded, and in bastard secretary was somewhat perfecter than Johnson.
For a finishing blow, Bales drew forth his “master-piece,” and, offering
to forego his previous advantages if Johnson could better this specimen,
his antagonist was struck dumb. In compassion to the youth of Johnson,
some of the judges urged the others not to give judgment in public.
Bales remonstrated against a private decision in vain, but he obtained
the verdict and secured the prize. Johnson, however, reported that _he_
had won the golden pen, and issued an “Appeal to all impartial Penmen,”
wherein he affirmed, that the judges, though his own friends, and honest
gentlemen, were unskilled in judging of most hands, and again offered
forty pounds to be allowed six months to equal Bales’s “master-piece.”
Finally, he alleged, that the judges did not deny that Bales possessed
himself of the golden pen by a trick: he relates, that Bales having
pretended that his wife was in extreme sickness, he desired that she
might have a sight of the golden pen, to comfort her, that the “ancient
gentleman,” relying upon the kind husband’s word, allowed the golden pen
to be carried to her, and that thereupon Bales immediately pawned it,
and afterwards, to make sure work, sold it at a great loss, so that the
judges, ashamed of their own conduct, were compelled to give such a
verdict as suited the occasion. Bales rejoined, by publishing to the
universe the day and hour when the judges brought the golden pen to his
house, and painted it with a hand over his door for a sign.[241] This is
shortly the history of a long contest, which, if it has not been
paralleled in our own time, we have been reminded of by the open
challenges of living calligraphers.
~John Flamsteed.~
On the 10th of August, 1675, the foundation stone of the Royal
Observatory, for watching and noting the motions of the celestial
bodies, was laid on the hill where it now stands, in Greenwich Park.
The edifice was erected by order of king Charles II., at the instance of
sir Jonas Moor, under the direction of sir Christopher Wren; and it is
worthy of record here, that the celebrated Flamsteed, constructed a
“Scheme of the Heavens,” at the very minute when the foundation stone
was laid. It has never appeared in any work, and as the public are
wholly unacquainted with its existence, it is subjoined exactly as
Flamsteed drew it with his own hand.
[Illustration: 1675, Aug. 10^{d}. 03^{h}. 14´.
P. M. lat. 51°. 28´. 10´´.