Part 49
"Maclean of Duart, expecting an invasion of his lands in Mull, by his powerful neighbour the Earl of Argyll, applied to Glengarry for assistance. AEneas of Glengarry marched at the head of five hundred men to Ardtornish, nearly opposite to Duart Castle, and crossing with a few of his officers to arrange the passage of the men across the Sound of Mull, Maclean, rejoicing at the arrival of such a friend, offered some choice wine in a golden chalice, part of the plunder of Iona. Glengarry was struck with horror, and said, folding his handkerchief about the chalice, 'Maclean, I came here to defend you against mortal enemies, but since, by sacrilege and profanation, you have made God your enemy, no human means can serve you.' Glengarry returned to his men, and Maclean sent the chalice and some other pieces of plate belonging to the service of the altar, with a deputation of his friends, to persuade him to join him; but he marched home. His example was followed by several other chiefs, and poor Maclean was left to compete, single-handed, with his powerful enemy."
Such was the last historical incident connected with the golden chalice of Iona, perhaps, without exception, the most interesting ecclesiastical relic which Scotland possessed. Unfortunately its later history only finds a parallel in that of the celebrated Danish golden horns. It was preserved in the charter-chest of Glengarry, until it was presented by the late Chief to Bishop Ronald M'Donald, on whose demise it came into the possession of his successor, Dr. Scott, Bishop of Glasgow. Only a few years since the sacristy of St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in that city, where it was preserved was broken into, and before the police could obtain a clue to the depredators, the golden relic of Iona was no longer a chalice. Thus perished, by the hands of a common felon, a memorial of the spot consecrated by the labours of some of the earliest Christian missionaries to the Pagan Caledonians, and which had probably survived the vicissitudes of upwards of ten centuries. In reply to inquiries made as to the existence of any drawing of the chalice, or even the possibility of a trustworthy sketch being executed from memory, a gentleman in Glasgow writes:--"I have no means of getting even a sketch from which to make a drawing. Were I a good hand myself, I could easily furnish one, having often examined it. It was a chalice that no one could look on without being convinced of its very great antiquity. The workmanship was rude, the ornamental drawings or engravings even more hard than medieval ones in their outlines, and the cup bore marks of the original hammering which had beaten it into shape."
NEW MODE OF REVENGE.
Monkeys in India are more or less objects of superstitious reverence, and are, consequently, seldom or ever destroyed. In some places they are even fed, encouraged, and allowed to live on the roofs of the houses. If a man wish to revenge himself for any injury committed upon him, he has only to sprinkle some rice or corn upon the top of his enemy's house, or granary, just before the rains set in, and the monkeys will assemble upon it, eat all they can find outside, and then pull off the tiles to get at that which falls through the crevices. This, of course, gives access to the torrents which fall in such countries, and house, furniture, and stores are all ruined.
CURIOUS SUPERSTITION.
The ring of which we here give a sketch has been selected by us as a subject for engraving and comment, because it embodies a curious superstition which was very prevalent in England in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
The setting is of silver, and the jewel which it carries is called a toadstone. This stone was popularly believed to be formed in the heads of very old toads, and it was eagerly coveted by sovereigns, and by all persons in high office, because it was supposed to have the power of indicating to the person who wore it the proximity of poison, by perspiring and changing colour. Fenton, who wrote in 1569, says--"There is to be found in the heads of old and great toads a stone they call borax or stelon;" and he adds--"They, being used as rings, give forewarning against venom." Their composition is not actually known; by some they are thought to be a stone--by others, a shell; but of whatever they may be formed, there is to be seen in them, as may be noticed in the engraving, a figure resembling that of a toad, but whether produced accidentally or by artificial means is not known, though, according to Albertus Magnus, the stone always bore the figure on its surface, at the time it was taken out of the toad's head. Lupton, in his "1000 Notable Things," says--"A toadstone, called crepaudina, touching any part envenomed, hurt, or stung with rat, spider, wasp, or any other venomous beast, ceases the pain or swelling thereof." The well known lines in Shakespeare are doubtless in allusion to the virtue which Lupton says it possesses:--
"Sweet are the uses of adversity; Which like a toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head."
Ben Jonson also in the _Fox_, has,--
"Were you enamoured on his copper rings, His saffron jewel, with the loadstone in't?"
And Lyly, in his _Euphues_--
"The foule toad hath a faire stone in his head."
The ring we have engraved is a work of the fifteenth century; it forms one of the many rare curiosities of the Londesborough Collection, and is considered to be a very perfect specimen.
ANCIENT ARMLET.
In May, 1840, some workmen were employed at Everdale, near Preston, in carrying earth to replace the soil which had been washed away from behind a wall formerly built to protect the banks of the river Ribble. In digging for this purpose, they discovered, at a distance of about forty yards from the banks, a great number of articles, consisting of ingots of silver, a few ornaments, some silver armlets, and a large quantity of coins. An attentive examination of all these, and especially of the coins, leads to the conclusion that this mass of treasure was deposited about the year 910, and the articles must be considered such as were worn at the time of King Alfred, or perhaps somewhat earlier.
The armlets, which were all of silver, vary in breadth from a quarter of an inch to an inch and a quarter, and perhaps more. They are generally ornamented, and almost all the ornaments are produced by punching with tools of various forms. The patterns are numerous, but the forms of the punches are very few, the variations being produced by combining the forms of more punches than one, or by placing the same or differently-formed punches at a greater or less distance from each other, or by varying their direction. In the specimen which we have here engraved the punch has had a small square end, and the ornament is formed by a series of blows in transverse or oblique lines. Patterns of the period and localities to which these ornaments belong are scarcely ever found finished by casting or chasing. It would appear, also that the use of solder to unite the various parts of objects was either little known or little practised; for the ends of these ornaments are tied together, and, upon other occasions where union is necessary, rivets are employed.
CHINESE MIRRORS.
There is a puzzling property in many of the Chinese mirrors which deserves particular notice, and we may give it, together with the solution furnished by Sir David Brewster:--"The mirror has a knob in the centre of the back, by which it can be held, and on the rest of the back are stamped in relief certain circles with a kind of Grecian border. Its polished surface has that degree of convexity which gives an image of the face half its natural size; and its remarkable property is, that, when you reflect the rays of the sun from the polished surface, the image of the ornamental border and circles stamped upon the back, is seen distinctly reflected on the wall," or on a sheet of paper. The metal of which the mirror is made appears to be what is called Chinese silver, a composition of tin and copper, like the metal for the specula of reflecting telescopes. The metal is very sonorous. The mirror has a rim (at the back) of about 1-4th or 1-6th of an inch broad, and the inner part, upon which the figures are stamped, is considerably thinner.
"Like all other conjurors (says Sir David Brewster), the artist has contrived to make the observer deceive himself. The stamped figures on the back are used for this purpose. The spectrum in the luminous area _is not an image of the figures on the back_. The figures are a copy of the picture which the artist has _drawn on the face of the mirror_, and so concealed by polishing, that it is invisible in ordinary lights, and can be brought out only in the sun's rays. Let it be required, for example, to produce the dragon as exhibited by one of the Chinese mirrors. When the surface of the mirror is ready for polishing, the figure of the dragon may be delineated upon it in extremely shallow lines, or it may be eaten out by an acid much diluted, so as to remove the smallest possible portion of the metal. The surface must then be highly polished, not upon pitch, like glass and specula, because this would polish away the figure, but upon cloth, in the way that lenses are sometimes polished. In this way the sunk part of the shallow lines will be as highly polished as the rest, and the figure will only be visible in very strong lights, by reflecting the sun's rays from the metallic surface."
THE CADENHAM OAK.
Amongst the many remarkable trees in the New Forest in Hampshire, is one called the Cadenham Oak, which buds every year in the depth of winter. Gilpin says, "Having often heard of this oak, I took a ride to see it on the 29th of December, 1781. It was pointed out to me among several other oaks, surrounded by a little forest stream, winding round a knoll on which they stood. It is a tall straight plant, of no great age, and apparently vigorous, except that its top has been injured, from which several branches issue in the form of pollard shoots. It was entirely bare of leaves, as far as I could discern, when I saw it, and undistinguishable from the other oaks in its neighbourhood, except that its bark seemed rather smoother, occasioned, I apprehended, only by frequent climbing. Having had the account of its early budding confirmed on the spot, I engaged one Michael Lawrence, who kept the White Hart, a small alehouse in the neighbourhood, to send me some of the leaves to Vicar's Hill, as soon as they should appear. The man, who had not the least doubt about the matter, kept his word, and sent me several twigs on the morning of the 5th of January, 1782, a few hours after they had been gathered. The leaves were fairly expanded, and about an inch in length. From some of the buds two leaves had unsheathed themselves, but in general only one. One of its progeny, which grew in the gardens at Bulstrode, had its flower buds perfectly formed so early as the 21st of December, 1781.
"This early spring, however, of the Cadenham oak, is of very short duration. The buds, after unfolding themselves, make no further progress, but immediately shrink from the season and die. The tree continues torpid, like other deciduous trees, during the remainder of the winter, and vegetates again in the spring, at the usual season. I have seen it in full leaf in the middle of the summer, when it appeared, both in its form and foliage, exactly like other oaks."
Dean Wren, speaking of this tree, says, "King James could not be induced to believe the [Greek: to toi] (_reason_) of this, till Bishop Andrewes, in whose diocese the tree grew, caused one of his own chaplaines, a man of known integritye, to give a true information of itt, which he did; for upon the eve of the Nativitye he gathered about a hundred slips, with the leaves newly opened, which he stuck in claye in the bottom of long white boxes, and soe sent them post to the courte, where they deservedly raised not only admiration, but stopt the mouth of infidelitye and contradiction for ever. Of this I was both an eye-witness, and did distribute many of them to the great persons of both sexes in court and others, ecclesiastical persons. But in these last troublesome times a divelish fellow (of Herostratus humour) having hewen itt round at the roote, made his last stroke on his own legg, whereof he died, together with the old wondrous tree; which now sproutes up againe, and may renew his oakye age againe, iff some such envious chance doe not hinder or prevent itt; from which the example of the former villaine may perchance deterr the attempt. This I thought to testifie to all future times, and therefore subscribe with the same hand through which those little oakye slips past."
SCHOOL EXPENSES IN THE OLDEN TIME.
Of the expenses incurred for schoolboys at Eton early in the reign of Elizabeth, we find some curious particulars in a manuscript of the time: the boys were sons of Sir William Cavendish, of Chatsworth, and the entries are worth notice, as showing the manners of those days. Among the items, a breast of roast mutton is charged ten-pence; a small chicken, fourpence; a week's board, five shillings each; besides the wood burned in their chamber; to an old woman for sweeping and cleaning the chamber, twopence; mending a shoe, one penny; three candles, nine-pence; a book, Esop's Fables, fourpence; two pair of shoes, sixteen-pence; two bunches of wax lights, one penny; the sum total of the payments, including board paid to the bursars of Eton College, living expenses for the two boys and their man, clothes, books, washing, &c., amounts to twelve pounds twelve shillings and seven-pence. The expense of a scholar at the university in 1514 was but five pounds annually, affording as much accommodation as would cost sixty pounds, though the accommodation would be far short of that now customary at Eton.
AN EVENTFUL LIFE.
It is much to be feared that on the field of battle and naval actions many individuals, apparently dead, are buried or thrown overboard. The history of Francois de Civille, a French captain, who was missing at the siege of Rouen, is rather curious. At the storming of the town he was supposed to have been killed, and was thrown, with other bodies, in the ditch, where he remained from eleven in the morning to half-past six in the evening; when his servant, observing some latent heat, carried the body into the house. For five days and five nights his master did not exhibit the slightest sign of life, although the body gradually recovered its warmth. At the expiration of this time, the town was carried by assault, and the servants of an officer belonging to the besiegers, having found the supposed corpse of Civille, threw it out of the window, with no other covering than his shirt. Fortunately for the captain, he had fallen upon a dunghill, where he remained senseless for three days longer, when his body was taken up by his relatives for sepulture, and ultimately brought to life. What was still more strange, Civille, like Macduff, had "been from his mother's womb untimely ripp'd," having been brought into the world by a Caesarean operation, which his mother did not survive; and after his last wonderful escape he used to sign his name with the addition of "three times born, three times buried, and three times risen from the dead by the grace of God."
FIRST BRIDGE OVER THE THAMES.
The humble village bridge which we here engrave is well deserving of a place in our pages as being the first of that grand series of bridges whose last member is London-bridge. What a contrast between the first bridge over the Thames and the last! Thames Head, where the river rises, is in the county of Gloucester, but so near to its southern border, that the stream, after meandering a mile or two, enters Wiltshire, near the village of Kemble. On leaving this village, and proceeding on the main road towards the rustic hamlet of Ewen, the traveller passes over the bridge which forms the subject of our woodcut. It has no parapet, and is level with the road, the water running through three narrow arches. Such is the first bridge over the mighty Thames.
THE VENETIANS.
The Venetians were the first people in Italy who had printed books. They originated a Gazette in the year 1600, and the example was followed at Oxford in 1667, and at Vienna in 1700. They also undertook the discovery of America, and the passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope.
MEDMENHAM ABBEY.
On descending the river Thames, from Henley, after passing Culham Court and Hambledon Lock, the adjacent country become exceedingly beautiful, varied by alternate mills, islands, meadows, and hills, with every now and then ornamental forest trees hanging over the stream, and giving pleasant shade to the current on its downward flow. The wood of Medmenham soon comes in sight; the ruined Abbey is seen among the trees, and close beside it is a pretty ferry, with the pleasant wayside inn of Mrs. Bitmead--a domicile well known to artists, her frequent guests, one of whom, who has since become famous, painted a sign-board which hangs over the door, and is of so good a quality that it might grace the exhibition of the Royal Academy. The Abbey has been pictured a hundred times, and is a capital subject seen from any point of view; the river runs close beside it; there is a hill adjacent--Dane's Hill; dark woods and green meadows are at hand; gay boats and traffic barges are continually passing; the ferry is always picturesque, and the artist is constantly supplied on the spot with themes for pictures; especially he has before him the venerable ruin--"venerable," at least, as far as the eye is concerned. Time has touched it leniently; some of its best "bits" are as they were a century ago, except that the lichens have given to them that rich clothing of grey and gold which the painter ever loves, and added to it, here and there, a green drapery of ivy.
The manor of Medmenham was, in the reign of King Stephen, given by its lord, Walter de Bolebec, to the Abbey of Cistercian Monks he had founded at Woburn in Bedfordshire; and in 1204 the monks placed some of their society here, on this pleasant bank of the Thames. Here arose a small monastery, being rather--as the writers of the order express themselves--"a daughter than a cell to Woburn." In 1536 it was annexed to Bisham. At the Dissolution, according to returns made by the commissioners, "the clear value of this religious house was 20_l._ 6s.; it had two monks designing to go to houses of religion; servants, none; woods, none; debts, none; its bells worth 2_l._ 1s. 8d.; the value of its moveable goods 1_l._ 3s. 8d.; and the house wholly in ruin." It must have undergone considerable repair early in the sixteenth century, and probably very little of the original structure now exists, although relics of antiquity may be traced in many of its remains. That portion which fronts the Thames is kept in proper repair, and a large room is used for the convenience of pleasure parties. The property belongs to the Scots of Danesfield, a mansion that crowns a neighbouring hill. Medmenham derives notoriety from events of more recent date than the occupation of its monks, without goods and without debt. Here, about the middle of the last century, was established, a society of men of wit and fashion, who assumed the title of the Monks of St. Francis, and wore the habit of the Franciscan order. Although it is said that the statements contained in a now forgotten but once popular novel--"Chrysal; or the Adventures of a Guinea,"--were exaggerated, the character which the assumed monks bore in the open world was sufficiently notorious to justify the worst suspicions of their acts in this comparative solitude. Their principal members were Sir Francis Dashwood (afterwards Lord Le Despencer), the Earl of Sandwich, John Wilks, Bubb Doddington, Churchill, and Paul Whitehead, the poet. The motto--"Fay ce que voudras," indicative of the principle on which the society was founded--still remains over the doorway of the Abbey House. Tradition yet preserves some anecdotes illustrative of the habits of the "order," and there can be little doubt that this now lonely and quiet spot was the scene of orgies that were infamous.
PERSECUTION.
Grotius, an historian celebrated for moderation and caution, has computed that in the several persecutions promoted by Charles V., no less than a hundred thousand persons perished by the hands of the executioner. In the Netherlands alone, from the time that his edict against the reformers was promulgated, he states that there had been fifty thousand persons hanged, beheaded, buried alive, or burned, on account of their religion. Indeed, during the reign of Philip the Second, the Duke of Alva boasted that in the space of nine years he had destroyed, in the Low Countries, 36,000 persons by the hands of the executioner alone. At the massacre of Paris, on the feast of St. Bartholomew, King Charles the Ninth of France assisted in person, and boasted that he had sacrificed in one night 10,000 of his subjects; for that massacre the Pope had "Te Deum" sung in the chapel of the Vatican and issued a bull for a jubilee to be celebrated throughout France on the 7th December, 1512, in commemoration of what he termed the _happy success of the king against his heretic subjects_, and concluded by writing with his own hand a letter to Charles the Ninth, exhorting him to pursue this salutary and blessed enterprise. In the short reign of Queen Mary, there were in this realm burned at the stake one archbishop, four bishops, twenty-one ministers, and nearly three hundred persons of all classes, of whom fifty-five were women, and four were children, one of whom sprang from its mother's womb while she was consuming, and was flung into the flames by the spectators. In 1640 the same spirit of papal bigotry occasioned in Ireland the butchery of 40,000 Protestants, under circumstances of aggravated atrocity which a Christian will shudder to peruse. Lewis XIV., the most Christian king and eldest son of the church, starved a million Huguenots at home, and sent another million grazing in foreign countries.
INNKEEPER'S BILL IN 1762.
The following innkeeper's bill was sent in to the Duke de Nivernois, who supped and breakfasted at an inn in Canterbury, in 1762; and considering the value of money at that time, must be deemed extremely moderate:--
L s. d.
Tea, coffee, and chocolate 1 4 0 Supper for self and servant 15 10 0 Bread and beer 3 0 0 Fruit 2 15 0 Wine and punch 10 8 8 Wax candles and charcoal 3 0 0 Broken glass and china 2 10 0 Lodging 1 7 0 Tea, coffee, and chocolate 2 0 0 Chaise and horse, for next stage 2 16 0
There were only twelve persons in the whole company.
SPONTANEOUS COMBUSTION.