Part 21
The women here are generally more handsome than in other places, sufficiently endowed with natural beauties, without the addition of adulterate sophistications. In an absolute woman, say the Italians, are required the parts of a Dutch woman, from the girdle downwards; of a French woman, from the girdle to the shoulders: over which must be placed an English face. As their beauties, so also their prerogatives are greater than any nation; neither so servilely submissive as the French, nor so jealously guarded as the Italians; but keeping so true a decorum, that as England is termed the Pergatorie of Servants, and the Hell of Horses, so is it acknowledged the _Paradise_ of _Women_. And it is a common by-word amongst the Italians, that _if there were a bridge built across the narrow seas, all the women in Europe would run into England_. For here they have the upper hand in the streets, the upper place at the table, the thirds of their husband's estates, and their equal share of all lands; privileges with which other women are not acquainted. They were in high esteem in former times amongst foreign nations, for the modestie and gravitie of their conversation; but of late so much addicted to the light garb of the French, that they have lost much of their ancient honour and reputation amongst knowing and more sober men of foreign countries who before admired them.--_Peter Heylin's Cosmographie_, 1652.
PRICES FOR SEATS AT CORONATIONS.
On consulting Stowe, Speed, and other antiquaries, it appears that the price of a good place at the coronation of William the Conqueror was a _blank_; and probably the same at that of his son William Rufus. At that of Henry I. it was a _crocard_, and at King Stephen's and Henry the Second's a _pillard_. At King Richard's and King John's, it was a _fuskin_; and rose at Henry the Third's to a _dodkin_. In the reign of Edward I. the coins began to be more intelligible; and we find that for seeing his coronation a Q was given, or the half of a _ferling_, or farthing, which was, as now, the fourth part of a _sterling_, or penny. At the coronation of Edward II. it was a farthing; and at that of Edward III. a halfpenny, which was very generally given. In the reign of Richard II. it was a penny, and continued the same at that of Henry IV. But at that of Henry V. it was two pennies, or half of a _grossus_, or groat; and the same at that of Henry VI. and of Edward IV.; nor do we find it raised at the coronation of Richard III. or that of Henry VII.
At that of Henry VIII. it was the whole _grossus_, or groat, nor was the price altered at those of Edward VI. and Queen Mary; but at Queen Elizabeth's it was a _teston_, _tester_, or sixpence. At those of James I. and Charles I. a shilling was given; which sum was advanced to half a crown at the coronations of Charles and James II. At King William's and Queen Anne's, it was a crown; and at George the First's the show was seen by many at the same price.
At the coronation of George II. some gave half a guinea; but at that of George III. and Queen Charlotte, anno 1761, curiosity seems to have risen to an amazing height. On this occasion the price given for single seats were almost incredible; in some houses ten guineas, and in ordinary houses five guineas. Great and universal anxiety prevailed to see this grand spectacle, from the reflection how improbable it was that many who were there could ever have an opportunity of witnessing the like again. As an instance of this extreme anxiety, it is confidently related, that a gentleman was prevailed on to take a room for his lady, at the price of one hundred and forty guineas; but the appointment of the solemnity of the coronation falling unluckily at the exact time when she expected to be delivered, she actually further prevailed on her husband to let a skilful man-midwife, nurse, &c., attend her, and to hire another room, lest the hurry of the day should bring on her labour, when it might be impossible for her to be removed without endangering her life.
ANCIENT HOUSE AT BLACKWALL--SAID TO BE THE RESIDENCE OF SIR WALTER RALEIGH.
The house shown in the engraving is interesting from two causes; first, that it was the house in which Sir Walter Raleigh smoked his first pipe of tobacco in England, and secondly, that it is one of the few relics remaining of those picturesque old houses of the days of Queen Bess. The house is built of strongly framed timber, which, in recent years, has been plastered over; and the carved heads that ornament the gables, and which are good both in design and execution, show that this house is at least 350 years old.
At the present time a tavern has been built between this house and the river. Formerly, however, there was, no doubt, a trimmed garden and terrace towards the Thames, from which the inhabitants may have watched the progress of Queen Elizabeth from the Tower to her palace at Greenwich.
It is singular to notice the fashion of these old houses, arising from the value of space within walled towns; each floor projects over the other, so that the upper apartments have more room than the lower. While, in an artistic point of view, we cannot help regretting the disappearance of the venerable and quaint gables, for sanitary and other reasons we must be content with the change.
AMBASSADORS--WHY HELD BY THE ARMS AT THE OTTOMAN COURT.
A dervise addressed Bajazet, emperor of the Turks, 1495, for alms, and while the charitable Sultan searched for his money, the treacherous beggar wounded him with a dagger, and was instantly slain by the royal attendants. This incident is rendered memorable by its having occasioned the ungracious restraint under which even the ambassadors of Christian powers were subject to in former times when they received an audience from the Ottoman Emperor.
They were held by the arms by two attendants, when they approached the throne, nor were their arms loosed till they had quitted the presence.
TRAVELLING IN 1760.
The nobility and gentry were accustomed to make their long journeys in ponderous family-carriages, drawn by four horses. These vehicles would be laden at the top with an array of trunks and boxes, while perhaps six or seven persons, with a lapdog, would be stowed within. The danger of famine on the road was averted by a travelling larder of baskets of various condiments; the risk of thirst would be provided against by bottles of usquebaugh, black cherry-brandy, cinnamon-water, sack, port, or strong beer: while the convoy would be protected by a basket-hilted sword, an old blunderbuss, and a bag of bullets and a great horn of gunpowder.
OLD ST. PAUL'S.
In the old cathedral was a tower of stone, in height from the ground 260 feet, on which was a spire of wood, covered with lead, 274 feet high. In the tower was a celebrated peal of bells; and somewhat above the stone-work was a "faire dial," from which there was order taken in the eighteenth year of Edward III. that the rich chasing and gilding should be always kept in good preservation. On this dial was the figure of an angel pointing to the hours of both day and night--a device more appropriate than most of the clock-hands in present use. From this lofty steeple, which formed such an important feature of old London, the chimes rung merrily on saints' days and holidays; and at times the choristers mounted up aloft and chaunted forth their orisons at dawn and sunset--a custom still observed at Durham Cathedral. Before the fire of London, the spire of St. Paul's was more than once destroyed or damaged by fire and lightning.
On Candlemas Eve, 1444, about two o'clock in the afternoon, the lightning fired the steeple. The citizens came forth and succeeded in overcoming the fire; it, however, broke forth again at night, and but little of the spire was saved. In the year 1561, in the month of June, there fell a prodigious quantity of rain, attended with thunder and lightning. St. Paul's steeple was struck within a yard of the top. At first, a little fire appeared, resembling the light of a torch, and in eight minutes the weather-cock fell; and the wind rising high, the fire within an hour afterwards destroyed the steeple down to the very battlements, and then, in consequence of the mass of burning timber that fell from the spire, burnt so violently that the iron-work and the bells melted and fell upon the stairs in the church; the east and west roofs catching fire communicated with the north and south, and destroyed them all. Much damage was also done to other parts.
The spire was again reared, and the damaged bells properly replaced. In addition to the bells in the tower of old St. Paul's there was a common bell, the property of the city, hung in a suitable building, closely adjoining to the Cathedral, which was rung that the inhabitants might assemble at wardmotes and other important occasions. Another fire damaged the ancient church, and then the great fire of 1666, swept steeples, bells, churches, and all before it.
THE BEDFORD MISSAL.
In January, 1786, when the Bedford Missal was on sale, with the rest of the Duchess of Portland's collection, King George III. sent for his bookseller, and expressed his intention to become the purchaser. The bookseller ventured to submit to his majesty, that the article in question, as one highly curious, was likely to fetch a high price. "How high?" exclaimed the king. "Probably two hundred guineas," replied the bookseller. "Two hundred guineas for a Missal!" exclaimed the Queen, who was present, and lifted up her hands with astonishment. "Well, well," said his Majesty, "I'll have it still; but since the Queen thinks two hundred guineas so enormous a price for a Missal, I'll go no further." The biddings for the royal library did actually stop at that point; and Mr. Edwards carried off the prize by adding three pounds more. The same Missal was afterwards sold at Mr. Edwards's sale, in 1815, and purchased by the Duke of Marlborough, for L637 15s.
FORMATION OF THE VOLCANO OF JORULLO.
The Mexican volcanoes of Orizaba, Popocatepetl, Jorullo, and Colima appear to be connected with each other, being placed in the direction of a line running transverse to the former, and passing east and west from sea to sea.
As was first observed by Humboldt, these mountains are all situated between north latitude 18 deg. 59' and 19 deg. 12'. In an exact line of direction with the other volcanoes, and over the same transverse fissure, Jorullo was suddenly elevated on the 29th of September, 1759. The circumstances attending the production of this volcano are so remarkable, that we shall here notice them in some detail.
An extensive plain, called the Malpays, was covered by rich fields of cotton, sugar-cane, and indigo, irrigated by streams, and bounded by basaltic mountains, the nearest active volcano being at the distance of eighty miles. This district, situated at an elevation of about 2600 feet above the level of the sea, was celebrated for its beauty and extreme fertility. In June, 1759, alarming subterranean sounds were heard, and these were accompanied, by frequent earthquakes, which were succeeded by others for several weeks, to the great consternation of the neighbouring inhabitants. In September tranquillity appeared to be re-established, when, in the night of the 28th, the subterranean noise was again heard, and part of the plain of Malpays, from three to four miles in diameter, rose up like a mass of viscid fluid, in the shape of a bladder or dome, to a height of nearly 1700 feet; flames issued forth, fragments of red-hot stones were thrown to prodigious heights, and, through a thick cloud of ashes, illumined by volcanic fire, the softened surface of the earth was seen to swell up like an agitated sea. A huge cone, above 500 feet high, with five smaller conical mounds, suddenly appeared, and thousands of lesser cones (called by the natives _hornitos_, or ovens,) issued forth from the upraised plain. These consisted of clay intermingled with decomposed basalt, each cone being a _fumarolle_, or gaseous vent, from which issued thick vapour. The central cone of Jorullo is still burning, and on one side has thrown up an immense quantity of scoriaceous and basaltic lavas, containing fragments of primitive rocks. Two streams, of the temperature of 186 deg. of Fahrenheit, have since burst through the argillaceous vault of the hornitos, and now flow into the neighbouring plains. For many years after the first eruption, the plains of Jorullo were uninhabitable from the intense heat that prevailed.
CRATER OF VESUVIUS IN 1829.
The crater Stromboli, which has been in activity since the most ancient times, presents at present the same appearances as those which were described by Spallanzani, in 1788. It is constantly filled with lava in a state of fusion, which alternately rises and falls in the cavity. Having ascended to ten or twelve yards below the summit of the walls, this boiling fluid is covered with large bubbles, which burst with noise, letting enormous quantities of gas escape from them, and projecting on all sides scoriaceous matter. After these explosions, it again subsides, but only to rise again and produce like effects--these alternations being repeated regularly at intervals of some minutes. In craters where the lava is less fluid than in that of Stromboli, new cones are sometimes formed in the midst of the Crater, which first rise in the form of a dome, and then burst out so as to form a small active volcano in the middle of the crater of the great one. This phenomenon is often presented within the crater of Vesuvius, and was more particularly witnessed in 1829.
LOAF SUGAR.
In 1553 a sugar-loaf was presented to Mr. Waldron, of Bovey House, which weighed 7 lbs., at 1s. 1d. per lb. (7s. 7d.)
The late Lord Rolle married the last of that branch of the Waldron family. The house remains about ten miles west of Lyme. The sugar-loaf was charged at a high rate, considering the greater value of money in Queen Mary's reign. This article began to be highly prized. The sugar-cane, which had been grown from the year 1148 in Sicily, had been imported into Madeira A.D. 1419. About the year 1503 the art of refining sugar, before called "blanch powdre," was discovered by a Venetian; before which the juice, when selected instead of honey for sweetening, was used as it came from the cane. Only twenty-seven years from this date, in 1526, it was imported from St. Lucar in Spain by Bristol merchants. Let not the present of the Mayor of Lyme be considered as a cheap article produced in abundance in the islands of the West Indies. The sugar-cane was not imported thither into Barbadoes from the Brazils till the year 1641. How surprising the result of official inquiries in the year 1853 into the consumption of sugar! It amounted to 7,523,187 cwts., or 30 lbs. each individual of the United Kingdom.
SUSPENSION BRIDGES AT FREYBOURG.
There are two suspension bridges in Freybourg; one remarkable for its great length, the other for its extreme beauty. The latter connects the top of two mountains, swinging over a frightful gulf that makes one dizzy to look down into. There are no buttresses or masonwork in sight at a little distance; shafts are sunk in the solid rock of the mountains, down which the wires that sustain it are dropped. There it stretches, a mere black line, nearly three hundred feet in the heavens, from summit to summit. It looks like a spider's web flung across a chasm; its delicate tracery showing clear and distinct against the sky. While you are looking at the fairy creation suspended in mid-heaven, almost expecting the next breeze will waft it away, you see a heavy waggon driven on it; you shrink back with horror at the rashness that could trust so frail a structure at that dizzy height; but the air-hung cobweb sustains the pressure, and the vehicle passes in safety. Indeed, weight steadies it; while the wind, as it sweeps down the gulf, makes it swing under you. The large suspension bridge is supported on four cables of iron wire, each one composed of one thousand and fifty-six wires. As the Menai bridge of Wales is often said to be longer than this, I give the dimensions of both as I find them in Mr. Murray:--Freybourg: length, nine hundred and five feet; height, one hundred and seventy-four feet; breadth, twenty eight feet. Menai: length, five hundred and eighty feet; height, one hundred and thirty feet; breadth, twenty-five feet. A span of nine hundred and five feet, without any intermediate pier, seems impossible at first, and one needs the testimony of his own eyes before he can fully believe it.
WONDERFUL CLOCK.
Towards the end of the last century, a clock was constructed by a Genevan mechanic named Droz, capable of performing a variety of surprising movements, which were effected by the figures of a negro, a shepherd, and a dog. When the clock struck, the shepherd played six tunes on his flute, and the dog approached and fawned upon him. This clock was exhibited to the King of Spain, who was highly delighted with the ingenuity of the artist. The king, at the request of Droz, took an apple from the shepherd's basket, when the dog started up and barked so loud that the king's dog, which was in the same room, began to bark also. We are moreover informed that the negro, on being asked what hour it was, answered the question in French, so that he could be understood by those present.
MANDRIN THE SMUGGLER, 1757.
Mandrin was the son of a peasant in Dauphiny who dealt in cattle. His first employment was buying and selling horses, by which he subsisted several years. But having on some occasion committed a murder, he was obliged to fly from justice, and in his absence was condemned by the Parliament of Grenoble to be broken on the wheel. Being now a fugitive, and destitute of employment, he learned to counterfeit money, and by this fraud made considerable gain, till, being discovered, the officers of the Mint at Lyons issued a warrant for apprehending him, and he was again obliged to quit the country. While he was wandering about from place to place, and hiding himself in caves and woods, he became acquainted with a gang of smugglers, and associating with them was, after some time, made their captain. As this gang was very numerous, he was less cautious of being seen, and having at length lost his sense of fear by habitual danger, he frequently entered towns and cities, raised contributions on the king's officers by force, and spread the same terror among others that others had brought upon him. But in proportion as he became more formidable he was, in fact, less secure; for the Government found it necessary to detach after him such a force as he could not resist, and the Farmers-General offered 48,000 livres reward for taking him. After many times attacking his party in a running fight, in which several were cut off, Mandrin, with eight of his men, took shelter in a castle on the frontiers of Savoy. They were closely pursued by several detachments, under the command of Colonel de Moliere, who entered the King of Sardinia's territory after him, without having first obtained leave. Moliere was immediately opposed by a great number of peasants: whether they were instigated by Mandrin, or whether they were jealous of their privilege, is not known; but all his expostulations being fruitless, and being determined not to relinquish his prey, for whom he hoped to receive so considerable a reward, he forced his way against them, killing twelve and wounding many others. Mandrin waited the issue of this contest in his castle, where he was soon besieged by 150 men, who attacked the place with great vigour. Mandrin and his partisans defended themselves like men who had nothing to fear in a battle equal to being taken alive; and after several of them were killed, and the castle gates burst open, they retreated, fighting from chamber to chamber, and from story to story, till, reaching the garret, and being able to proceed no further, they were at last overpowered by numbers, having killed twenty of their adversaries, and spent all their ammunition. Mandrin, with those that survived of his little party, were carried prisoners to Valence in Dauphiny. * * * Mandrin was examined every day from the 13th of May to the 25th, in order to discover his accomplices. In the mean time several of his associates were put to the torture to discover what they knew of him, and were afterwards broken on the wheel, that death might give a sanction to their testimony.
He himself was subjected to torture, but without eliciting anything further than he had previously revealed. Throughout he steadfastly refused to betray his comrades, and conducted himself with much dignity and heroism. On the day of his execution he received absolution from Father Gasperini, a Jesuit, who had administered to him the consolations of religion during his confinement.
Before he was led out of the prison, his shoes and stockings were taken from him; but, though barefooted, he walked along with great firmness and a good grace. When he came to the cathedral to perform the _amende honorable_, he asked forgiveness of the monks and priests for his want of respect to their order, and was then conducted to the scaffold. He mounted with great composure, and addressed himself in a short and pathetic exhortation to the spectators, especially the young persons of both sexes; he then sat down on the nave of the wheel, and loosened the buttons of his shirt-sleeves himself. Then he entreated pardon of the custom-house officers, whom he had so often and so grossly injured; and turning to the penitents who surrounded the scaffold--with his confessor and two other eminent persons of his order--he earnestly recommended himself as the object of their prayer, and immediately delivered himself up to the executioner. He received eight blows on his arms and legs, and one on his stomach, and was intended to have been left to expire of the wounds; but as the executioner was going down from the scaffold, an order came to strangle him; the bishop and all the considerable persons at Valence having interceded for this mitigation of his punishment. Mandrin was twenty-nine years of age, about five feet five inches high, well made, had a long visage, blue eyes, and sandy chesnut hair; he had something rough in his countenance, and a strong robust port; he was perpetually smoking tobacco, with which he drank plentifully of any liquor that was at hand, and ate till the last with a good appetite.
SUDDEN RECOVERY FROM MADNESS.
The following extraordinary account is taken from the _Gentleman's Magazine_ of 1784:--"About six years since, a seafaring person was taken into the Asylum for Maniacs at York; during the space of five years and six months he never expressed any desire for sustenance, and was fed in the manner of an infant. The servants undressed him at night, and dressed him in the morning; he never spoke, and remained with his body bent all day, and was regarded by all about him as an animal nearly converted into a vegetable. About the middle of May, 1783, he suddenly astonished the people round him with saying, 'Good morrow to you all.' He then thanked the servants for the care they had taken of him, and appeared perfectly sane. A few days after, he wrote a letter to his wife, in which he expressed himself with great propriety. On the 28th of May following he was allowed to leave the hospital, and return to his family; and has now the command of a ship in the Baltic trade, and is in full enjoyment of perfect health, both in mind and body. This very singular case is attested by Dr. Hunter, F.E.S., of York, in a letter to Dr. Percival, of Manchester, and by the servants now at the Asylum in York."
SUMMARY OF THE BIBLE.