Chapter LI: Part I: 5th May to 13th 8 (13)

A strict probity, an inviolable regard to truth, an honourable independence of mind, and a diffusive benevolence, adorned his moral character; and to these eminent virtues must be added, that of a rigid economy and improvement of time, for which he was most remarkable. How much he endeavoured to inculcate that which he deemed the foundation of every virtue, the principle of religion, may be seen in his “Chronological, &c., Exercises:” to impress this principle on the youthful heart and mind was considered by him as the highest duty. Mr. Butler’s professional labours were commenced at the early age of seventeen, and were continued with indefatigable ardour to the last year of his life, a period of fifty-seven years. In estimating the value of such a man, we should combine his moral principle with his literary employments; these were formed by him into duties, which he most conscientiously discharged: and he will be long remembered as one who communicated to a large and respectable circle of pupils solid information, examples of virtue, and the means of happiness; and who, in an age fruitful of knowledge, by his writings instructed, and will long continue to instruct the rising generation, and benefit mankind. His virtues will live and have a force beyond the grave.

Mr. Butler died at Hackney, August 1, 1822, after a painful illness, borne with exemplary patience and resignation. He was one of the oldest inhabitants of that parish, and was interred there, by his own desire, in the burying-ground attached to the meeting-house of his friend, the late Rev. Samuel Palmer.

* * * * *

_A list of Mr. Butler’s books for the use of young persons._

1. CHRONOLOGICAL EXERCISES, already mentioned. Price 6_s._ bound.

2. An engraved INTRODUCTION to ARITHMETIC, designed to facilitate
young beginners, and to diminish the labour of the tutor. 4_s._ 6_d._
bound.

3. ARITHMETICAL QUESTIONS, on a new plan; intended to answer the
double purpose of arithmetical instruction and miscellaneous
information. 6_s._ bound.

4. GEOGRAPHICAL and BIOGRAPHICAL EXERCISES, on a new plan. 4_s._

5. EXERCISES on the GLOBES, interspersed with historical,
biographical, chronological, mythological, and miscellaneous
information, on a new plan. The ninth edition. 6_s._ bound.

6. A numerous collection of ARITHMETICAL TABLES. 8_d._

7. GEOGRAPHICAL EXERCISES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT; with maps, and a brief
account of the principal religious sects. 5_s._ 6_d._ bound.

8. MISCELLANEOUS QUESTIONS, relating principally to English history
and biography. Second edition, enlarged. 4_s._

Mr. BOURN, son-in-law of Mr. Butler, and his associate in his profession upwards of thirty years, purchased the copyright of the greater part of Mr. Butler’s works. They have passed through a number of editions, and if the _Every-Day Book_ extend a knowledge of their value, it will be to the certain benefit of those for whose use they were designed. The envious and suspicious may deny that there is such a quality as “disinterestedness in human actions,” yet the editor has neither friendship nor intimacy with any one whom this notice may appear to favour. He only knows Mr. Butler’s books, and therefore recommends them as excellent aids to parents and teachers.

NATURALISTS’ CALENDAR.

Mean Temperature 50·10.

~October 13.~

TRANSLATION K. EDWARD. CONF.

This notice of the day in the church of England calendar and almanacs, denotes it as the festival of the translation of king Edward the Confessor.[383]

* * * * *

Edward the Confessor died on the 5th of January, 1066, and was buried in the abbey church of St. Peter, Westminster. “His queen, Edgitha, survived the saint many years;” she was buried beside him, and her coffin was covered with plates of silver and gold. According to his biographers, in 1102, the body of St. Edward was found entire, the limbs flexible, and the clothes fresh. The bishop of Rochester “out of a devout affection, endeavoured to pluck onely one hayre from his head, but it stuck so firmly that he was defeated of his desire.” This was at the saint’s first translation. Upon miracles “duly proved, the saint was canonized by Alexander III., in 1161.” It appears that “there are commemorated severall translations of his sacred body.” In 1163, “it was again translated by S. Thomas à Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, in the presence of king Henry II. This translation seems to have been made on the 13th of October; for on that day “he is commemorated in our martyrologe, whereas in the Roman he is celebrated on the 5th of January.” It further appears that, “about a hundred years after, in the presence of king Henry III., it was again translated, and reposed in a golden shrine, prepared for it by the same king.[384]

* * * * *

The see of Rome is indebted to Edward the Confessor for a grant to the pope of what was then called Rome-scot, but is now better known by the name of “Peterpenny.” The recollection of this tribute is maintained by the common saying “no penny, no paternoster;” of which there is mention in the following poem from the “Hesperides:”--

Fresh strewings allow
To my sepulcher now,
To make my lodging the sweeter;
A staffe or a wand
Put then in my hand,
With a penny to pay S. Peter.

Who has not a crosse,
Must sit with the losse,
And no whit further must venture;
Since the porter he
Will paid have his fee,
Or els not one there must enter.

Who at a dead lift,
Can’t send for a gift,
A pig to the priest for a roster
Shall heare his clarke say,
By yea and by nay,
No penny no pater noster.

_Herrick._

NATURALISTS’ CALENDAR.

Mean Temperature 50·62.

[383] See vol. 1. 1376.

[384] Butler. Cresys.

~October 14.~

A LUCKY DAY.

“SOME MEMORABLE REMARQUES _upon the_ FOURTEENTH OF OCTOBER, being the
Auspicious Birth-Day of His Present Majesty The Most Serene King JAMES
II. Luc. xix. 42 _In Hoc Die Tuo_. In This THY DAY. London, Printed by
_A. R._ And are to be sold by _Randal Taylor_, near _Stationers_-Hall
1687.” Folio.

In this curious tract, the author purports to set forth “how lucky the _Fourteenth of October_ hath been to the princes of England,” and because he discovers “out of _Wharton’s Gesta Britannorum_, and the collections of others, that his late royal highness, our magnanimous magnificent sovereign, (James II.,) was also born upon that _augural_ day,” he observes--“It made more than ordinary impression upon me, so that I never saw him, but, I thought, in his very face there were extraordinary instances and tokens of regality.”

There were some, it seems, who, after “his late royal highness” the dukes “recess into Holland,” “exceedingly tryumphed, wishing he might never return; nay, that he durst not, nor would be permitted so to do; using, moreover, opprobrious terms.” These persons, he tells us, he “prophetically characteris’d” in his “_Introductio ad Latinam Blasoniam_;” hence, he says, “Indignation made me print my ensuing sentiments,” which “found good acceptance among the better and more loyal sort;” and hence, he further says, “things by me forethought, and publickly hinted, being come to pass, my _Day Fatality_ began to be remembred; and one whom I wish very well, desiring I would give him leave to reprint _that_, and two other of my small pieces together, I assented to his request.” These form the present treatise, from whence we gather that the _Fourteenth of October_

------------- “gave the Norman duke
That vict’ry whence he England’s scepter took,”

and was remarkable for the safe landing of Edward III., after being endangered by a tempest at sea on his returning victorious from France. Wherefore, says our author, in Latin first, and then in these English lines--

“Great duke rejoice in this your day of birth,
And may such _omens_ still increase your mirth.”

Afterwards he relates, from Matthew Paris, that when “Lewis king of France had set footing here, and took some eminent places, he besieged Calais from 22 of July, to the _Fourteenth of October_ following, about which time the siege was raised, and England thereby relieved.” Likewise “a memorable peace, (foretold by Nostradamus) much conducing to the saving of christian blood, was made upon the _Fourteenth of October, 1557_, between pope Paul the IV., Henry the II. of France, and Philip the II. of Spain.” Whereon, exclaims our exultant author, “A _lucky day_ this, not only to the princes of England, but auspicious to the welfare of Europe.” He concludes by declaring “that it may be so to his royal highness, as well as it was to the most great queen his mother, are the hearty prayers of BLEW-MANTLE.”

From the conclusion of the last sentence, and the previous reference to his “Blasoniam,” we find this writer to have been John Gibbon, the author of “An Easie Introduction to Latine Blason, being both Latine and English”--an octavo volume, now only remembered by the few collectors of every thing written on “coat-armour.”

* * * * *

Gibbon speaks of one of his pamphlets “whose title _should_ have been _Dux Bonis Omnibus Appellens_, or _The Swans’ Welcome_;” or rather, as he afterwards set it out at large, “Some Remarks upon the Note-worthy Passage, mentioned in the TRUE DOMESTICK INTELLIGENCE dated _October the Fourteenth 1679_, concerning a company of SWANS more than ordinary gathered together at his royal highness’s landing.” Instead, however, of its having such a title, he tells us “there was _a strange mistake_, not only in that, but in other material circumstances; so that many suppose, the printer could never have done it himself, but borrowed the assistance of the evil spirit to render it ridiculous, and not only so, but the very _Duke_ himself and the _Loyal Artillery_!”, wherefore “the printer smothered the far greatest number of them,” yet, as he adds it to the tract on the _Fourteenth of October_, we have the advantage to be told “what authors say of the candid Swan,” that all esteem him for a “bird royal,” that “oftentimes in coats and crests we meet him either crown’d or coronally collar’d,” that “he is a bird of great beauty and strength also,” that “shipmen take it for good luck if in peril of shipwreck they meet swans,” that “he uses not his strength to prey or tyrannize over any other fowl, but only to be revenged of such as offer him wrong,” and so forth. _Ergo_--according to “Blew-mantle,” we should believe that, “the most serene king James II.” was greeted by these honourable birds, “in _allegory_ assembled,” to signify his kindred virtues. If Gibbon lived from 1687, where he published his “Remarques, on the _Fourteenth of October_” as the auspicious birth-day of James II. until the landing of William III. in the following year--did he follow the swan-like monarch to the court of France, or remain “Blew-mantle” in the Herald’s college, to do honour to the court of “the deliverer?”

Gibbon, in his “Remarques,” on the “auspicious” _Fourteenth of October_, prints the following epistle, to himself, which may be regarded as a curiosity on account of the superstition of its writer.

A letter from Sir _Winston Churchil_, Knight; Father to the Right
Honourable, _John_ Lord Churchil.

I Thank you for your kind Present, the Observation of the _Fatality of
Days_. I have made great Experience of the Truth of it; and have set
down _Fryday_, as my own Lucky Day; the Day on which I was Born,
Christen’d, Married, and, I believe, will be the Day of my Death: The
Day whereon I have had sundry Deliverances, (too long to relate) from
Perils by Sea and Land, Perils by False Brethren, Perils of Law Suits,
&c. I was Knighted (by chance, unexpected by my self) on the same Day;
and have several good Accidents happened to me, on that Day: And am so
superstitious in the Belief of its good Omen, That I chuse to begin
any Considerable Action (that concerns me) on the same Day. I hope HE,
whom it most concerns, will live to own your Respect, and Good Wishes,
expressed in That Essay of yours: Which discovering a more than common
Affection to the DUKE, and being as valuable for the Singularity of
the _Subject_, as the Ingenuity of your _Fancy_, I sent into
_Flanders_, as soon as I had it; That They on the Other Side the Water
may see, ’Tis not all sowre Wine, that runs from our _English_ Press.

* * * * *

“The Right Honourable, John Lord Churchil,” mentioned at the head of this ominous letter, became celebrated as “the great duke of Marlborough.” Sir Winston Churchill was the author of “Divi Britannici, a history of the lives of the English kings” in folio; but his name is chiefly remembered in connection with his son’s, and from his having also been father to Arabella Churchill, who became mistress to the most serene king of Blew-Mantle Gibbon, and from that connection was mother of the duke of Berwick, who turned his arms against the country of her birth.

Sir Winston was a cavalier, knighted at the restoration of Charles II., for exertions in the royal cause, by which his estates became forfeited. He recovered them under Charles, obtained a seat in the house of commons, became a fellow of the royal society, had a seat at the board of green cloth, and died in 1688. He was born in 1620, at Wootton Glanville, in Dorsetshire.[385] His letter on “Fryday” is quite as important as his “Divi Britannici.”

TAKING HONEY WITHOUT KILLING THE BEES.

On the 14th day of October, 1766, Mr. Wildman, of Plymouth, who had made himself famous throughout the west of England for his command over bees, was sent for to wait on lord Spencer, at his seat at Wimbledon, in Surrey; and he attended accordingly. Several of the nobility and persons of fashion were assembled, and the countess had provided three stocks of bees. The first of his performances was with one hive of bees hanging on his hat, which he carried in his hand, and the hive they came out of in the other hand; this was to show that he could take honey and wax without destroying the bees. Then he returned into the room, and came out again with them hanging on his chin, with a very venerable beard. After showing them to the company, he took them out upon the grass walk facing the windows, where a table and table cloth being provided, he set the hive upon the table, and made the bees hive therein. Then he made them come out again, and swarm in the air, the ladies and nobility standing amongst them, and no person stung by them. He made them go on the table and took them up by handfuls, and tossed them up and down like so many peas; he then made them go into their hive at the word of command. At five o’clock in the afternoon he exhibited again with the three swarms of bees, one on his head, one on his breast, and the other on his arm, and waited on lord Spencer in his room, who had been too much indisposed to see the former experiments; the hives which the bees had been taken from, were carried by one of the servants. After this exhibition he withdrew, but returned once more to the room with the bees all over his head, face, and eyes, and was led blind before his lordship’s window. One of his lordship’s horses being brought out in his body clothes, Mr. Wildman mounted the horse, with the bees all over his head and face, (except his eyes;) they likewise covered his breast and left arm; he held a whip in his right hand, and a groom led the horse backwards and forwards before his lordship’s window for some time. Mr. Wildman afterwards took the reins in his hand, and rode round the house; he then dismounted, and made the bees march upon a table, and at his word of command retire to their hive. The performance surprised and gratified the earl and countess and all the spectators who had assembled to witness this great bee-master’s extraordinary exhibition.[386]

* * * * *

Can the honey be taken without destroying the bees? There are accounts to this effect in several books, but some of the methods described are known to have failed. The editor is desirous of ascertaining, whether there is a convenient mode of preserving the bees from the cruel death to which they are generally doomed, after they have been despoiled of their sweets.

NATURALISTS’ CALENDAR.

Mean Temperature 50·85.

[385] General Biographical Dictionary, (Hunt and Clarke,) vol. i.

[386] Annual Register, 1766.

~October 15.~

EXHUMATION.

It appears from a printed half sheet, of which the following is a copy, that the will of a person who had been resident at Stevenage, was proved on this day in the year 1724, whereby he desired his remains to be kept unburied. It is a curious document, and further information respecting the individual whose caprice was thus indulged will be acceptable.

(COPY)

THE ECCENTRIC WILL

OF THE LATE

HENRY TRIGG, OF STEVENAGE,

Where his Remains are still upon the Rafters of the West End of the Hovel, and may be viewed by any Traveller who may think it worthy of Notice.

_The same is recorded in History, and may be depended on as a Fact._

~In the Name of God, Amen.~

I, HENRY TRIGG, of Stevenage, in the County of Hertford, Grocer, being very infirm and weak in body, but of perfect sound mind and memory, praised be God for it, calling unto mind the mortality of my body, do now make and ordain this my last WILL and TESTAMENT, in writing hereafter following, that is to say:--Principally I recommend my Soul into the merciful hands of Almighty God that first gave me it, assuredly believing and only expecting free pardon and forgiveness of all my sins, and eternal life in and through the only merits, death, and passion of Jesus Christ my Saviour; and as to my body, I commit it to the West End of my Hovel, to be decently laid there upon a floor erected by my Executor, upon the purlins, upon the same purpose, nothing doubting but at the general Resurrection I shall receive the same again by the mighty power of God, and as for and concerning such wordly substance as it hath pleased God to bless me with in this life, I do devise and dispose of the same in manner and form following.

_Imprimis._--I give and devise unto my loving brother THOMAS TRIGG, of _Letchworth_, in the County of _Hertford_, Clerk, and to his Heirs and Assigns for ever, all those my Freehold Lands lying dispersedly in the several Common Fields and parish of _Stevenage_ aforesaid, and also all my Copyhold Lands, upon condition that he shall lay my body upon the place before-mentioned: and also all that Messuage, Cottage, or Tenement, at _Redcoat’s Green_, in the parish of _Much Wymondly_, together with those Nine Acres of Land, (more or less) purchased of William Hale and Thomas Hale, junr. and also my Cottage, Orchard, and Barn, with Four Acres of Land (more or less) belonging, lying, and being in the parish of _Little Wymondly_, now in the possession of SAMUEL KITCHENER, labourer; and also all my Cottages, Messuages, or Tenements, situate and being in _Stevenage_, aforesaid; or, upon condition that he shall pay my brother GEORGE TRIGG the sum of Ten Pounds per annum for his life; but if my brother should neglect or refuse to lay my body where I desire it should be laid, then upon that condition, I Will and bequeath all that which I have already bequeathed to my brother THOMAS TRIGG, unto my brother GEORGE TRIGG, and to his Heirs for ever: and if my brother GEORGE TRIGG, should refuse to lay my body under my Hovel, then what I have bequeathed unto him as all my Lands and Tenements, I lastly bequeath them unto my Nephew WILLIAM TRIGG, and his Heirs for ever, upon his seeing that my body is decently laid up there as aforesaid.

_Item._--I give and bequeath unto my Nephew WILLIAM TRIGG, the sum of Five Pounds at the age of Thirty Years: to his Sister SARAH the sum of Twenty Pounds; to his Sister ROSE the sum of Twenty Pounds; and lastly to his Sister ANN the sum of Twenty Pounds, all at the age of Thirty Years: to JOHN SPENCER, of London, Butcher, the sum of One Guinea; and to SOLOMON SPENCER, of Stevenage, the sum of One Guinea, three years next after my decease; to my cousin HENRY KIMPTON, One Guinea, one year next after my decease; and another Guinea, two years after my decease; to WILLIAM WABY, Five Shillings; and to JOSEPH PRIEST, Two Shillings and Sixpence, two years after my decease; to my tenant ROBERT WRIGHT the sum of Five Shillings, two years next after my decease; and to RALPH LOWD and JOHN REEVES, One Shilling each, two years next after my decease.

_Item._---- All the rest of my Goods, and Chattels, and personal Estate, and ready Money, I do hereby give and devise unto my Brother THOMAS TRIGG, paying my Debts and laying my Body where I would have it laid, whom I likewise make and ordain my full and sole Executor of this my last Will and Testament, or else to them before mentioned; ratifying and confirming this and no other to be my last Will and Testament. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my Hand and Seal, this twenty-eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord, one Thousand seven Hundred and twenty four.

HENRY TRIGG.

_Read, Signed, Sealed, and declared by the said_ HENRY TRIGG, _the
Testator, to be his last Will and Testament, in the presence of us,
who have subscribed our Names as Witnesses hereto, in the Presence of
the said Testator_.

JOHN HAWKINS, Senr.

JOHN HAWKINS, Junr.

The mark [X] of WILLIAM SEXTON.

Proved in the Archdeaconry of Huntingdon, the 15th of October, 1724, by the Executor THOMAS TRIGG.

* * * * *

In October, 1743, a cobbler, at Bristol, died of a bite in the finger inflicted by a cat, which was sent to his house by an old woman in revenge for his calling her “Witch,” against which dipping in salt water proved ineffectual. “This, they say, was well attested;” and well it might be; for doubtless the cat was mad, and the woman, bewitched by the unhappy cobbler of Bristol, had no more to do with the bite, than “the old woman of Ratcliff-highway.”

* * * * *

The 15th day of October was dedicated by “the Merchants to Mercury,” and is so noted in the calendar of Julius Cæsar. This name is derived _a mercibus_, because he was the god of merchandize; and, in that quality, he is sometimes represented as a young man without a beard, holding on his wrists a cock as an emblem of vigilance, and in his hand a purse as its reward. A beautiful head of this deity on hiacynth, in the possession of lord Clanbrassill, when it was charmingly etched by Worlidge, is pictured in the present engraving. It suggests itself as one of the most elegant forms for a seal that can be presented to the eye.

* * * * *

Gather your rose-buds while you may,
Old Time is still a-flying;
And that same flower that blooms to-day,
To-morrow may be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the Sun,
The higher he is getting,
The further still his course is run,
And nearer he’s to setting.

An elevated stand he takes,
And to the fiddle’s squeak, he makes
A loud and entertaining lecture
On every wonder-working picture:--
The children cry “hark!--look at that!”
And folks put money in the hat;
Or buy his papers that explain
The stories they would hear again.

This engraving is taken from one by Chodowiecki, of Berlin, to show the German showman, on his stage of boards and tressils, as he shows his pictures. These are usually prints stretched out, side by side, on an upright frame, or sometimes oil paintings representing characters or situations of interest. For instance, in the present exhibition there is the mode of keeping the festival of the new year, a grand ball, a feast, a wedding, a “high sight” of the court, and, in all, thirteen subjects, sufficiently beyond the intimacy of the populace to excite their curiosity. The showman commonly details so much concerning every thing in his grand exhibition, and so elevates each, as to interest his auditors to the height of desiring further particulars. The stories are printed separately in the shape of ballads or garlands, and “embellished with cuts;” by the sale of these to his auditors he obtains the reward of his oratory.

The qualifications for a German showman are a manly person, sonorous voice, fluent delivery, and imposing manner. In dress he is like a sergeant-major, and in address like a person accustomed to command. He is accompanied in his speeches by a fiddler of vivacity or trick, to keep the people “in merry pin.” This associate is generally an old humourist, with a false nose of strange form and large dimensions, or a huge pair of spectacles. Their united exertions are sure to gratify audiences more disposed to be pleased than to criticise. With them, the show is an affair of like or dislike to the eye, and beyond that the judgment is seldom appealed to on the spot. If the outlines of the showman’s stories are bold, and well expressed, they are sure to amuse; his printed narratives are in good demand; both exhibitors and auditors part satisfied with each other; and they frequently meet again. This is the lowest order of the continental street comedy. In England we have not any thing like it, nor are we likely to have; for, though strange sights almost cease to attract, yet the manager and musician to a rational exhibition of this sort, in the open air, clearly come within the purview of recent acts of parliament, and would be consigned to the tread-mill. What recreation, however, can be more harmless if the subjects are harmless. “Death and the Lady,” the “Bloody Gardener’s Cruelty,” and the numerous tribe of stories to which these garlands belong, continue to be pinned on lines against a few walls of the metropolis, but they cease to attract. The “common people,” as they are called, require a new species of street entertainment and a new literature: both might be easily supplied with infinite advantage to the public morals.

NATURALISTS’ CALENDAR.

Mean Temperature 50·72.

~October 16.~

THE SEASON.

An appearance at this time of the year, already noticed, appears to have surprised our countrymen in Lancashire. Though there is no doubt that the authorities who communicate the intelligence believe it very remarkable, yet it is doubtful whether the occurrence may not be more frequent in that part of England than they have had the opportunity of remarking. Their account is to the following purport:--

On Sunday, October 1, 1826, a phenomenon of rare occurrence in the neighbourhood of Liverpool was observed in that vicinage, and for many miles distant, especially at Wigan. The fields and roads were covered with a light filmy substance, which by many persons was mistaken for cotton; although they might have been convinced of their error, as staple cotton does not exceed a few inches in length, while the filaments seen in such incredible quantities extended as many yards. In walking in the fields the shoes were completely covered with it, and its floating fibres came in contact with the face in all directions. Every tree, lamppost, or other projecting body had arrested a portion of it. It profusely descended at Wigan like a sleet, and in such quantities as to affect the appearance of the atmosphere. On examination it was found to contain small flies, some of which were so diminutive as to require a magnifying glass to render them perceptible. The substance so abundant in quantity was the _gossamer_ of the garden, or field spider, often met with in the country in fine weather, and of which, according to Buffon, it would take 663,552 spiders to produce a single pound.[387]

NATURALISTS’ CALENDAR.

Mean Temperature 58·45.

[387] Liverpool Mercury. See The Times, October 9.

~October 17.~

A LYING-IN CUSTOM.

A lady who is pleased to grace these columns by her pen, transmits a very minute description of a very “comfortable thing” at this time of the year, which may well be extended from a particular usage at an interesting period, to a general one.

SUGARED TOAST.

_To the Editor of the Every-Day Book._

_Westbury, September 10, 1826._

Sir,--I suspect that although you solicit the aid of correspondents in furnishing your excellent miscellany with accounts of local customs, you scarcely expect to receive one which appertains to that important time, when mothers increase their care, and fathers receive the additional “tender juveniles” with joy or sorrow, “as it may happen!” If you should give publicity to the following strange “feast,” (more honoured in the breach than in the observance,) I shall feel gratified, as it may not only lead to an elucidation of its meaning and origin, but will tend to convince your readers, that you will not despise their efforts at contribution, however humble. I am not a native of this part of the country, or, as the good people say here, I am not “one o’ Westbury,” for I have resided till lately in and near London, where the manners customs, and habits, are a hundred years in advance of those of the western part of the kingdom; hence, many of the usages that obtain around us, which now excite my surprise, would have passed as a thing of course, had I been always among them.

On the “confinement” of a lady,--but I must, before I proceed, define a _lady_ “of these parts,” by the unerring test of her husband’s qualifications: if he can maintain his own, and her station in their little world, he is then “well to do,”--“a rich fellow enough, go to--a fellow that hath had losses, and which is more, a householder; one who hath two gowns to his back, and every thing handsome about him;”--one who recreates in his own gig; keeps a “main” of company; patronises the tiny theatre; grows his own pines, and tries to coax his forced plants into the belief that the three dozen mould candles which he orders to be lighted in his hot-house every evening, are “shedding delicious _light_,” left by the “garish god of day,” for their especial benefit, during his nocturnal rambles![388] The wife of such a man, sir, I designate a lady and when such a lady’s _accouchement_ takes place, her “dear five hundred friends” are admitted to see her the next day. In London, the scale of friendship is graduated woefully lower; for visiters there, bear the pangs of absence from the interesting recluse a _whole fortnight_.

You are, doubtless, anxious to come to the “pith and marrow” of this communication, and I will tantalize you no longer. In “_these_” parts of the country, it is the custom, when a lady shall have been “as well as can be expected,” for thirteen or fourteen days, for the husband to enjoy what is called “the gentleman’s party,” viz: all his friends, bachelor and Benedict, are invited to eat “sugared toast,” which, (as the cookery-books always say,) “is thus prepared”--Rounds of bread are “_baked_,” (videlicit _toasted_,) each stratum spread thick with moist sugar, and piled up in a portly punch bowl, ready for action: “strong beer,” (_anglice_, home-brewed ale,) is in the mean time heated, and poured boiling hot over the mound of bread; which is taken immediately to the expectant guests, who quickly come to the conclusion of the gothic “mess.” How they contrive to emancipate the toast from the scalding liquid, I never could, by any effort of ingenuity and research, decide to my own satisfaction. A goodly slice you know, sir, it would be entirely impracticable to achieve; for in half a minute from the time of the admission of the “hot beer,” the toast must be “all of a swam,” (as we elegantly say here,) and, resembling the contents of the witch’s cauldron, “thick and slab.” Whether a soup ladle and soup plates are in requisition on the occasion, I am equally unable to ascertain; but on the _final_ dismissal of this gentlemanly food, (for I by no means would insinuate that the congregation is limited to one act of devotion,) they magnanimously remunerate the “nurse,” by each putting money into the empty bowl, which is then conveyed to the priestess of their ignoble orgies! Of all the “mean and impotent conclusions” of a feast, defend me from _that_, which pays its “pic nic” pittance to an old crone, who is hired to attend the behests of the “lady,” but who by some strange mutation becomes the directress of the “gentleman’s” revels, and the recipient of the payment from his guests, for “_sugar’d toast_!”

Should this “custom,” be thought worthy of being admitted into the _Every-Day Book_, you will “tell” of something more than Herrick “dreamt of in his philosophy;” and the following couplet might “blush to find its fame” among his descriptive lines that adorn your title-page; after

“Bridegrooms, brides, and of their bridal cakes,”

might come--

“I tell of times when husbands rule the roast,
And riot in the joys of ‘sugar’d toast;’
I tell of groves, &c.”

I am, Sir,

Yours very respectfully,

I. J. T.

NATURALISTS’ CALENDAR.

Mean Temperature 50·60.

[388] A fact!

~October 18.~

DEATH OF THE LOTTERY.

If any thing can be believed that is said by the lottery people respecting the lottery, before the appearance of the next sheet of the _Every-Day Book_ the lottery will be at an end for ever.

Particulars respecting the last moments of this “unfortunate malefactor,” will be very acceptable if transmitted immediately; and in order to an account of lotteries in the ensuing sheet, information and anecdotes respecting them are most earnestly desired.

FORGED NOTES IN SHOP WINDOWS.

A newspaper of this day in the year 1818, contains a paragraph which marks the discontent that prevailed in London, in consequence of a regulation adopted by the Bank of England at that time.

“The new mode adopted by the Bank, of stamping the forged notes presented to them for payment, and returning them to the parties who may have received them, has at least the good effect of operating as a caution to others, not to receive notes without the greatest caution. It has, however, another effect often productive of public inconvenience; for such are the doubts now entertained as to the goodness of every note tendered in payment, that many will not give change at all; and the disposition to adhere to this practice seems every day to be getting more general. In almost every street in town, forged notes are seen posted on tradesmen’s windows, and not unfrequently this exhibition is accompanied with the words ‘Tradesmen! beware of changing notes.’ The operation of stamping the forged notes, was at first performed by the hand, but now so arduous has this labour become, that a machine is erected for the purpose, and it would seem from the never-ceasing quantity of such paper in circulation, that it will be necessary to erect a steam-engine, so that hundreds may undergo the operation at once.”[389]

NATURALISTS’ CALENDAR.

Mean Temperature 51·32.

[389] Observer.

~October 19.~

GARRICK.

“Garrick was, and Kemble is no more.”

On this day in the year 1741, the “British Roscius,” as he is emphatically termed, made his first appearance as “a gentleman who never appeared on any stage.” A remarkable event, precursing the revival of the drama, by Garrick, and its perfection by Kemble, deserves notice as a memorial of what “has been:” particularly as we have arrived at a period when, in consequence of managers having been outmanaged, and the public tricked out of its senses, the drama seems to have fallen to rise no more.

* * * * *

_Leadenhall-street, October, 1826._

Sir,--The following is a copy of the play-bill that announced the first appearance of Mr. Garrick.

I am, Sir, yours truly,

H. B.

_October 19, 1741._

GOODMAN’S FIELDS.

At the late Theatre in Goodman’s Fields, this day will be performed a Concert of Vocal and Instrumental Music, divided into two parts.

Tickets at Three, Two, and One Shilling.

Places for the boxes to be taken at the Fleece Tavern, near the
Theatre.

N. B. Between the two parts of the Concert will be presented an
Historical Play, called the Life and Death of

KING RICHARD THE THIRD, containing the distresses of King Henry VI.

The artful acquisition of the Crown by KING RICHARD,

The murder of the young King Edward V. and his brother, in the Tower.

The landing of the Earl of Richmond,

And the death of King Richard in the memorable battle of Bosworth
Field, being the last that was fought between the Houses of York and
Lancaster.

With many other true historical passages.

The part of KING RICHARD _by a Gentleman_.

(_Who never appeared on any stage._)

King Henry, by Mr. Giffard; Richmond, Mr. Marshall; Prince Edward, by
Miss Hippisley; Duke of York, Miss Naylor; Duke of Buckingham, Mr.
Peterson; Duke of Norfolk, Mr. Blades; Lord Stanley, Mr. Pagett;
Oxford, Mr. Vaughan; Tressel, Mr. W. Giffard; Catesby, Mr. Marr;
Ratcliff, Mr. Crofts; Blunt, Mr. Naylor; Tyrrell, Mr. Puttenham; Lord
Mayor, Mr. Dunstall; The Queen, Mrs. Steel; Duchess of York, Mrs.
Yates;

And the part of Lady ANNE,

By Mrs. GIFFARD.

With Entertainments of Dancing

By Mons. Fromet, Madam Duvall, and the two Masters and Miss Granier.

To which will be added a _Ballad Opera_ of one act, called

THE VIRGIN UNMASK’D.

The part of Lucy by Miss HIPPISLEY.

Both of which will be performed gratis by persons for their diversion.

The Concert will begin exactly at six o’clock.

NATURALISTS’ CALENDAR.

Mean Temperature 51·10.

~October 20.~

WRESTLING.

A writer in a journal of this month, 1826,[390] gives the following account of several wrestling matches between men of Devonshire and Cornwall, on the 19th 20th and 21st of September preceding, at the Eagle-tavern-green, City-road. He says, “the difference in the style of wrestling of these two neighbouring shires, is as remarkable as that of the lineaments of their inhabitants. The florid chubby-faced Devon-man is all life and activity in the ring, holding himself erect, and offering every advantage to his opponent. The sallow sharp-featured Cornwall-man is all caution and resistance, bending himself in such a way, that his legs are inaccessible to his opponent, and waiting for the critical instant, when he can spring in upon his impatient adversary.”

The account of the matches at the Eagle-tavern then proceeds in the following manner:--

The contest between Abraham Cann and Warren, not only displayed this difference of style, but was attended with a degree of suspense between skill and strength, that rendered it extremely interesting.--The former, who is the son of a Devonshire farmer, has been backed against any man in England for 500_l._ His figure is of the finest athletic proportions, and his arm realizes the muscularity of ancient specimens: his force in it is surprising; his hold is like that of a vice, and with ease he can pinion the arms of the strongest adversary, if he once grips them, and keep them as close together, or as far asunder, as he chooses. He stands with his legs apart, his body quite upright, looking down good humouredly on his crouching opponent.--In this instance, his opponent Warren, a miner, was a man of superior size, and of amazing strength, not so well distributed however, throughout his frame; his arms and body being too lengthy in proportion to their bulk. His visage was harsh beyond measure, and he did not disdain to use a little craft with eye and hand, in order to distract his adversary’s attention. But he had to deal with a man as collected as ever entered the ring. Cann put in his hand as quietly as if he were going to seize a shy horse, and at length caught a slight hold between finger and thumb of Warren’s sleeve. At this, Warren flung away with the impetuosity of a surprised horse. But it was in vain; there was no escape from Cann’s pinch, so the miner seized his adversary in his turn, and at length both of them grappled each other by the arm and breast of the jacket. In a trice Cann tripped his opponent with the toe in a most scientific but ineffectual manner, throwing him clean to the ground, but not on his back, as required. The second heat began similarly, Warren stooped more, so as to keep his legs out of Cann’s reach, who punished him for it by several kicks below the knee, which must have told severely if his shoes had been on, according to his county’s fashion. They shook each other rudely--strained knee to knee--forced each other’s shoulders down, so as to overbalance the body--but all ineffectually.--They seemed to be quite secure from each other’s efforts, as long as they but held by the arm and breast-collar, as ordinary wrestlers do. A new grip was to be effected. Cann liberated one arm of his adversary to seize him by the cape behind: at that instant Warren, profiting by his inclined posture, and his long arms, threw himself round the body of the Devon champion, and fairly lifted him a foot from the ground, clutching him in his arms with the grasp of a second Anteæus.--The Cornish men shouted aloud, “Well done, Warren!” to their hero, whose naturally pale visage glowed with the hope of success. He seemed to have his opponent at his will, and to be fit to fling him, as Hercules flung Lycas, any how he pleased. Devonshire then trembled for its champion, and was mute. Indeed it was a moment of heart-quaking suspense.--But Cann was not daunted; his countenance expressed anxiety, but not discomfiture. He was off terra-firma, clasped in the embrace of a powerful man, who waited but a single struggle of his, to pitch him more effectually from him to the ground.--Without straining to disengage himself, Cann with unimaginable dexterity glued his back firmly to his opponent’s chest, lacing his feet round the other’s knee-joints, and throwing one arm backward over Warren’s shoulder, so as to keep his own enormous shoulders pressed upon the breast of his uplifter. In this position they stood at least twenty seconds, each labouring in one continuous strain, to bend the other, one backwards, the other forwards.--Such a struggle could not last. Warren, with the weight of the other upon his stomach and chest, and an inconceivable stress upon his spine, felt his balance almost gone, as the energetic movements of his countenance indicated.--His feet too were motionless by the coil of his adversary’s legs round his; so to save himself from falling backwards, he stiffened his whole body from the ankles upwards, and these last being the only liberated joints, he inclined forwards from them, so as to project both bodies, and prostrate them in one column to the ground together.--It was like the slow and poising fall of an undermined tower.--You had time to contemplate the injury which Cann the undermost would sustain if they fell in that solid, unbending posture to the earth. But Cann ceased bearing upon the spine as soon as he found his supporter going in an adverse direction. With a presence of mind unrateable, he relaxed his strain upon one of his adversary’s stretched legs, forcing the other outwards with all the might of his foot, and pressing his elbow upon the opposite shoulder. This was sufficient to whisk his man undermost the instant he unstiffened his knee--which Warren did not do until more than half way to the ground, when from the acquired rapidity of the falling bodies nothing was discernible.--At the end of the fall, Warren was seen sprawling on his back, and Cann whom he had liberated to save himself, had been thrown a few yards off on all-fours. Of course the victory should have been adjudged to this last. When the partial referree was appealed to, he decided, that it was not a fair fall, as only one shoulder had bulged the ground, though there was evidence on the back of Warren that both had touched it pretty rudely.--After much debating a new referree was appointed, and the old one expelled; when the candidates again entered the lists. The crowning beauty of the whole was, that the second fall was precisely a counterpart of the other. Warren made the same move, only lifting his antagonist higher, with a view to throw the upper part of his frame out of play. Cann turned himself exactly in the same manner using much greater effort than before, and apparently more put to it, by his opponent’s great strength. His share, however, in upsetting his supporter was greater this time, as he relaxed one leg much sooner, and adhered closer to the chest during the fall; for at the close he was seen uppermost, still coiled round his supine adversary, who admitted the fall, starting up, and offering his hand to the victor. He is a good wrestler too--so good, that we much question the authority of “The Times,” for saying that he is not one of the _crack_ wrestlers of Cornwall.--From his amazing strength, with common skill he should be a first-rate man at this play, but his skill is much greater than his countrymen seemed inclined to admit.--Certain it is, they destined him the first prize, and had Cann not come up to save the honour of his county, for that was his only inducement, the four prizes, by judiciously matching the candidates, would no doubt have been given to natives of Cornwall.

BLACKFORD, THE BACKSWORD PLAYER.

_To the Editor of the Every-Day Book._

Sir,--Your correspondent C. T. p. 1207, having given a description of “Purton Fair,” my grandmother and father born there, the birth-place of Anne Boleyn, I feel interested in the spot of my progenitors. C. T., speaking of old “Corey Dyne,” the gipsy, says a man named _Blackford_ was the most noted Backsword-player of his day. He bore off the prizes then played for in London, Bath, Bristol, and Gloucester. When very young, at Lyneham grammar-school, I recollect this frontispiece despoiler broke fourteen heads, one after another; in the fifteenth bout, however, he pretty nearly found his match in the person of Isaac Bushel, a blacksmith of this place, who could bite a nail asunder, eat a shoulder of mutton with appendages, or fight friend or foe for love or money. It was a saying, “Bushel could take enough to kill a dozen men;” nor was his head unlike his name: he was the village Wat Tyler.

When the Somerset youths played with the Wiltshire on a stage on Calne-green, two years since, one of Blackford’s descendants gave a feeling proof of head-breaking with other heads of this blood-letting art, in which stratagem is used to conceal the crimson gush chiefly by sucking. Like fencing, attitude and agility are the great assistants to ensure success in backsword-playing; the basket is also of great service to the receiving of blows, and protecting the muscles of the wrist. The greatest exploits remembered at Purton by the present memorialist, arose out of the “Coronation of George the Third.” All the festivities of the seasons were concentrated, and May games and Christmas customs, without regard to usage, in full exercise. The belfry was filled day after day; any one that could pull a rope might ring, which is no easy task; the bells are deep, and two or three men usually raise the tenor. Some of the Blackfords lie in Purton churchyard.

_October 5._

*, *, P.

* * * * *

The autumnal dress of a man in the fourteenth century is introduced, from the transcript of an illumination, in a manuscript which supplied the Spring and Summer dress of that age, before presented.

And here as suitable to the season may be subjoined some lines by a correspondent.

AUTUMNAL FEELINGS.

_For the Every-Day Book._

The flowers are gone, the trees are bare,
There is a chillness in the air,
A damp that in the spirit sinks,
Till the shudd’ring heart within me shrinks:
Cold and slow the clouds roll past,
And wat’ry drops come with the blast
That moans, amid the poplars tall,
A dirge for the summer’s funeral.

Every bird to his home has gone,
Save one that loves to sing alone
The robin;--in yon ruin’d tree
He warbles sweetly, mournfully
His shrill note comes upon the wind,
Like a sound of an unearthly kind;
He mourns the loss of his sunny bowers,
And the silent haunts of happy hours.

There he sits like a desolate thing,
With a dabbled breast and a dripping wing,
He has seen his latent joys decline,
Yet his heart is lighter far than mine;
His task is o’er--his duty done,
His strong-wing’d race on the wind have gone,
He has nothing left to brood upon;
He has still the hope of a friendly crumb
When the wintry snow over earth shall come,
And a shelter from the biting wind,
And the welcome looks of faces kind.

I wander here amid the blast,
And a dreary look I backward cast;
The best of my years I feel are fled,
And I look to the coming time with dread
My heart in a desert land has been,
Where the flower of hope alone was green;
And little in life’s decline have I
To expect from kindred’s sympathy.
Like the leaves now whirl’d from yonder spray,
The dreams I have cherish’d day by day,
On the wings of sorrow pass away.

Yet I despair not--time will bring
To the plumeless bird a new bright wing,
A warmer breeze to the now chill’d flower,
And to those who mourn a lighter hour;
A gay green leaf to the faded tree,
And happier days, I trust, to me.
‘Twas best that the weeds of sorrow sprung
With my heart’s few flowers, while yet ’twas young,
They can the sooner be destroy’d,
And happiness fill their dreary void.

S. R. J.

NATURALISTS’ CALENDAR.

Mean Temperature 50·77.

[390] The London Magazine.

~October 21.~

BATTLE OF TRAFALGAR.

In a dreadful engagement off Cape Trafalgar, on the 21st of October, 1805, between the English fleet, consisting of twenty-seven sail of the line and four frigates, and the combined fleets of France and Spain, consisting of thirty-three sail and seven frigates, which lasted four hours, twenty sail of the enemy were sunk or destroyed, and the French commander-in-chief, (admiral Villeneuve,) with two Spanish admirals, were made prisoners. The gallant Nelson was wounded about the middle of the action, and died nearly at its close.--“Thus terminated the brilliant career of our peerless NAVAL HERO, who was, beyond dispute, preeminent in courage, in a department of the British service where all our countrymen are proverbially courageous: who, to unrivalled courage, united skill equally conspicuous and extraordinary; who, in consequence of these rare endowments, never led on our fleets to battle that he did not conquer; and whose name was a tower of strength to England, and a terror to her foes.”[391]

NATURALISTS’ CALENDAR.

Mean Temperature 50·62.

[391] Butler’s Chronological Exercises.

~October 22.~

CHILD PLAYED FOR.

In October, 1735, a child of James and Elizabeth Leesh, of Chester-le-street, in the county of Durham, was _played for at cards_, at the sign of the Salmon, one game, four shillings against the child, by Henry and John Trotter, Robert Thomson, and Thomas Ellison, which was won by the latter, and delivered to them accordingly.[392]

NATURALISTS’ CALENDAR.

Mean Temperature 49·97.

CÆSAR’S CAMP, CALLED THE BRILL.]

ROMAN REMAINS AT PANCRAS.

A former notice of some antiquities in this vicinity, seems to have occasioned the subjoined article on similar remains. Its initials will be recognised as those of a correspondent, whose communications have been acceptable, and read with interest.

ROMAN REMAINS AT PANCRAS.

SIR,--In the ninetieth number of your _Every-Day Book_, (the present volume, col. 1197-1204,) a very interesting article appeared on the subject of the Roman remains near Pentonville, and thinking you may be inclined to acquaint your readers with “Cæsar’s Camp” at St. Pancras, situate near the old church, which are likely in the course of a short time to be entirely destroyed by the rage for improvement in that neighbourhood, I forward you the following particulars.

The only part at present visible is the prætorium of Cæsar, which may be seen in the drawing that accompanies this, but the ditch is now nearly filled up. I visited the spot about a week ago, and can therefore vouch for its existence up to that time, but every thing around it begins to bear a very different aspect to what it did about two years back, when my attention was particularly called to the spot from having read Dr. Stukeley’s remarks on the subject. At that time I was able to trace several other vestiges, which are entirely destroyed by the ground having been since dug up for the purpose of making bricks.

The following extracts are taken from the second volume of Dr. Stukeley’s “Itinerary.” The plan of the camp is taken from the same work. I shall feel pleasure if you will call attention to it, as you have already to the Roman remains at Pentonville.

I am, Sir, yours respectfully,

S. G.

_October 9, 1826._

DR. STUKELEY’S ACCOUNT OF CÆSAR’S CAMP.