Chapter D: A. M (15)

The lawyers constantly endeavour to make work for the trade. I believe it to be true, as some say, that we are now as much _law_-ridden as we were _priest_-ridden some ages ago. I like Charlotte Smith’s definition of the Law Trade. Orlando, in the “Old Manor House,” says to Carr, the lawyer, “I am afraid you are all rogues together;” Carr replies, “More or less, my good friend;--some have more sense than others, and some a little more conscience--but for the rest, I am afraid we are all of us a little too much _professional_ rogues: though some of us, as individuals, would not starve the orphan, or break the heart of the widow, yet, in our vocation, we give all remorse of that sort to the winds.” My last account from Robert’s family says, the lawyers have not yet _settled_ the poor old cottage!

Nat and I only survive of the little tailor’s “extraordinary” children--quite past our labour, and destitute of many comforts we used to enjoy in youth. We have but one step farther to fall, (i.e.) into the workhouse! Yet in the nature of things it cannot be long ere death will close the scene. We have had our day, and night must come. I hope we shall welcome it as heartily as Sancho in Don Quixote did sleep, “Blessed be he who first invented sleep, it covers a man all over like a cloak.”

I shall indeed be agreeably disappointed if any one should bestow any thing upon Nat, or

Sir, your humble obedient servant,

GEO. BLOOMFIELD.

George Bloomfield is in his seventy-third year, and surely this fact, with the contents of the preceding columns, will be sufficient to excite commiseration in feeling and liberal minds. Mr. Faux, a respectable resident at Thetford, in Norfolk, is represented to me as being his friend. George Bloomfield’s own address at Bury St. Edmund’s is prefixed to his letter above. Either to Mr. Faux for him, or to himself direct, the remittance of a little money immediately would be highly serviceable. Something, however, beyond that is clearly requisite, and his statement of his brother Nathaniel’s equal necessities should be considered at the same time. There are names dignified by rank and talents in the list of individuals who admire the works of Robert Bloomfield, and should this sheet fall into their hands it is natural to presume that some of them may seek out and assist his surviving brothers in sorrowing old age. This, however, may not happen, and is not therefore to be relied upon.

The case of the family of the Bloomfields, altogether, is distressing. As this is a season for present-making and social-meeting, I venture to suggest that no gift can be better bestowed than on those who are in the utmost need; nor will the pleasures of a convivial party be lessened, if, while “the glasses sparkle on the board,” a subscription be volunteered towards keeping the last two brothers of Robert Bloomfield from the workhouse during their few remaining years of life. I have done my best to make their distress publicly known, and it remains with individuals to do their best to relieve it. Anything left at Messrs. Hunt and Clarke’s, 4, York-street, Covent Garden, shall be appropriated as the donors may direct. A _meeting_, and a few active individuals, would effect much.

_1st January, 1828._

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~Travellers~

EAST AND WEST.

_To the Editor._

Sir,--I send you a short and plain demonstration, that by travelling eastward or westward round the globe at a given rate, (if it were practicable to do so,) a man might experience a greater or lesser number of days and nights, than if he were to remain still in the same spot. This, I may venture to say, is a fact that very few people are aware of, and few would believe, until it were proved.

As “this goodly frame, the earth,” turns round upon its own axis once in twenty-four hours, and as the circumference of the globe is divided into 360 degrees, consequently every part of the globe’s surface must travel round its axis at the rate of fifteen degrees in one hour; or, which is the same thing, one degree in four minutes. Having premised this, we will suppose that a man sets off at seven o’clock in the morning, just as the sun rises above the horizon, and travels westward in the sun’s ecliptic; one degree before it sets, he will have light four minutes longer than if he were to remain at the place from whence he set out; and his day, instead of being twelve hours long, (dividing the twenty-four hours into twelve day and twelve night,) and closing at seven o’clock, will be twelve hours and four minutes, and close at four minutes past seven. He continues to travel in the same direction, and with the same velocity, during the night, (for he must never rest,) and that also will be four minutes longer than it would have been had he remained at the place where the sun set till it again rose; because, as he is travelling after the sun when it goes down, and from it as the morning approaches, of course it will be longer in overtaking him: he will be then two degrees from the starting place or goal, which you please, for we intend to send him completely round the world, and the sun will not rise the second morning till eight minutes past seven. His travel continues at the same rate, and he again has the sun four minutes longer, which does not set on the second day till twelve minutes past seven: this closes the third day. The next morning the sun rises not till sixteen minutes past seven; then he has travelled four degrees, and his day and night have each been four minutes longer than if he had been stationary. Now we will suppose another man to have gone from the same place at the same moment, (_viz._ seven o’clock,) taking the opposite direction. He travels east to meet the sun, and at the same rate of travel as our westward bound wight. The sun will go down upon him four minutes _sooner_ than if he had remained at the place from which he started, and eight minutes sooner than upon the other man: his day will close at fifty-six minutes past six. He goes on from the sun as it sinks, and towards it as it rises, and he will have light four minutes earlier than if he had stopped when the sun went down till it again rose, eight minutes sooner than he would have seen it at the starting post, and sixteen minutes sooner than the opposite traveller; this is at the end of the second day. He travels on; light again deserts him four minutes earlier, _viz._ at forty-eight minutes past six at the end of three degrees, and the second morning the sun will rise at forty-four minutes past six, sixteen minutes earlier than at the place he started from, and thirty-two minutes earlier than with the other man, with whom on the same morning it does not rise till sixteen minutes past seven. It is plain therefore, that while the western traveller has only seen two nights and two days, the eastern has enjoyed the same number of each, and more than half an hour of another day; and it is equally plain that if they continue to travel round the globe at the same rate of motion, the eastern traveller will have more days and nights than the western; those of the former being proportionally shorter than those of the latter. The following shows the commencement and length of each day to both travellers:--

WESTERN TRAVELLER’S EASTERN TRAVELLER’S
1st day begins 1st day begins
at 7 o’clock, at 7 o’clock,
morning. morning.
2 ------ 8 minutes past 7. 2 ------ 52 minutes past 6.
3 ------ 16 ------------ 7. 3 ------ 44 ------------ 6.
4 ------ 24 ------------ 7. 4 ------ 36 ------------ 6.
5 ------ 32 ------------ 7. 5 ------ 28 ------------ 6.
6 ------ 40 ------------ 7. 6 ------ 20 ------------ 6.
7 ------ 48 ------------ 7. 7 ------ 12 ------------ 6.
8 ------ 56 ------------ 7. 8 ------ 4 ------------ 6.
9 ------ 4 ------------ 8. 9 ------ 56 ------------ 5.
10 ------ 12 ------------ 8. 10 ------ 48 ------------ 5.
11 ------ 20 ------------ 8. 11 ------ 40 ------------ 5.
12 ------ 28 ------------ 8. 12 ------ 32 ------------ 5.
13 ------ 36 ------------ 8. 13 ------ 24 ------------ 5.
14 ------ 44 ------------ 8. 14 ------ 16 ------------ 5.
15 ------ 52 ------------ 8. 15 ------ 8 ------------ 5.
16 ------ -- ------------ 9. 30 degrees. 16 ------ -- ------------ 5.
17 ------ 8 ------------ 9. 17 ------ 52 ------------ 4.
18 ------ 16 ------------ 9. 18 ------ 44 ------------ 4.
19 ------ 24 ------------ 9. 19 ------ 36 ------------ 4.
20 ------ 32 ------------ 9. 20 ------ 28 ------------ 4.
21 ------ 40 ------------ 9. 21 ------ 20 ------------ 4.
22 ------ 48 ------------ 9. 22 ------ 12 ------------ 4.
23 ------ 56 ------------ 9. 23 ------ 4 ------------ 4.
24 ------ 4 ----------- 10. 24 ------ 56 ------------ 3.
25 ------ 12 ----------- 10. 25 ------ 48 ------------ 3.
26 ------ 20 ----------- 10. 26 ------ 40 ------------ 3.
27 ------ 28 ----------- 10. 27 ------ 32 ------------ 3.
28 ------ 36 ----------- 10. 28 ------ 24 ------------ 3.
29 ------ 44 ----------- 10. 29 ------ 16 ------------ 3.
30 ------ 52 ----------- 10. 30 ------ 8 ------------ 3.
31 ------ -- ----------- 11. 60 degrees. 31 ------ -- ------------ 3.

At the end of this degree, the sixtieth, the sun rises upon the eastern traveller at three in the morning, he having had thirty days and thirty nights. At the same degree it does not rise upon the western traveller till eleven in the morning, he having had the same number of days and nights. When, therefore, the morning of his thirty-first day is just breaking, the eastern traveller has had the sun eight hours. They have both then had an equal number of days and nights complete, but the eastern will have had eight hours of another day more than the western. Let us try it a little further. The

WESTERN TRAVELLER’S
32nd day will break at 8 min. past 11, morn.
33 16 11.
34 24 11.
35 32 11.
36 40 11.
37 48 11.
38 56 11.
39 4 12.
40 12 12.
41 20 12.
42 28 12.
43 36 12.
44 44 12.
45 52 12.
46 1 at noon, 90
degrees.

EASTERN TRAVELLER’S
32nd day will break at 52 min. past 2, morn.
33 44 2.
34 36 2.
35 28 2.
36 20 2.
37 12 2.
38 4 2.
39 56 1.
40 48 1.
41 40 1.
42 32 1.
43 24 1.
44 16 1.
45 8 1.
46 1. at noon, 90
degrees.

There appears to be two hours’ difference every fifteenth day.

WESTERN TRAVELLER’S
61st day will break at 3, P. M.
76 5
91 7.

EASTERN TRAVELLER’S
61st day will break at 11 at night.
76 9
91 7.

The men would now be together at the other side of the globe, and would see the sun rise at the same moment, but he who had travelled eastward would have seen a day and a night more than the other.

WESTERN TRAVELLER’S
106th day will break at 9, at night.
121 11.
136 1, morning.
151 3.
166 5.
181 7. 360 degrees.

EASTERN TRAVELLER’S
106th day will break at 5, P. M.
121 3.
136 1, noon.
151 11, A. M.
166 9.
181 7.

They will now be at the spot where they started from, the western traveller having seen two days and two nights less than the eastern.[516]

N. G. S.

[516] In this way, by hurrying the Jews round the globe at a given
rate, their Sabbath might be made to fall upon the same day as the
Christians’.

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~Old Customs.~

_For the Table Book._

HAGMENA.

The hagmena is an old custom observed in Yorkshire on new year’s eve. The keeper of the pinfold goes round the town, attended by a rabble at his heels, and knocking at certain doors, sings a barbarous song, according to the manner “of old king Henry’s days;” and at the end of every verse they shout “Hagman Heigh.”

When wood was chiefly used by our forefathers as fuel, this was the most proper season for the hagman, or wood-cutter, to remind his customers of his services, and solicit alms from them. The word “hag” is still used among us for a wood, and the “hagman” may be a compound name from his employment. Some give it a more sacred interpretation, as derived from the Greek ἁγια μηνη, the “holy month,” when the festivals of the church for our Saviour’s birth were celebrated. Formerly on the last day of December, the monks and friars used to make a plentiful harvest by begging from door to door, and reciting a kind of carol, at the end of every stave of which they introduced the words “agia mene,” alluding to the birth of Christ. A very different interpretation has, however, been given to it by one John Dixon, a Scotch presbyterian parson, when holding forth against this custom, in one of his sermons at Kelso--“Sirs, do you know what hagman signifies?--It is the devil to be in the house: that is the meaning of its Hebrew original.” It is most probably a corruption of some Saxon words, which length of time has rendered obsolete.

OLD ST. LUKE’S DAY.

On this day a fair is held in York for all sorts of small wares, though it is commonly called “_Dish Fair_,” from the quantity of wooden dishes, ladles, &c. brought to it. There was an old custom at this fair, of bearing a wooden ladle in a sling on two stangs, carried by four sturdy labourers, and each labourer supported by another. This, without doubt, was a ridicule on the meanness of the wares brought to this fair, small benefit accruing to the labourers at it. It is held by charter, granted 25th Jan., 17th Hen. VII.

St. Luke’s day is also known in York by the name of “_Whip-Dog Day_,” from a strange custom that schoolboys use there, of whipping all the dogs that are seen in the streets on that day. Whence this uncommon persecution took its rise is uncertain. The tradition of its origin seems very probable; that, in times of popery, a priest, celebrating mass at this festival in some church in York, unfortunately dropped the pix after consecration, which was forthwith snatched up suddenly and swallowed by a dog that laid under the altar. The profanation of this high mystery occasioned the death of the dog; the persecution, so begun, has since continued to this day, though now greatly abridged by the interference of some of the minor members of the honourable corporation, against the whole species in that city.