Part 62
The nobleman portrayed here is Count Eberhard the elder, first Duke of Wurtemberg, in a festival habit at Stuttgardt, in the year 1492, on the occasion of his receiving the order of the Golden Fleece, the first which Austria instituted for herself (King Maximilian inherited it from Burgundy) and which he received together with King Henry VIII. of England. His costume is taken from an old illumination which, in the year 1847, was copied for King William of Wurtemberg, and which is now preserved in his private library at Stuttgardt. This exemplifies the quilled doublet, made of a kind of damasked black velvet, which appears to have been worn over the defensive armour improved by King Maximilian. Upon the black surcoat appear the orders of the Golden Fleece and the Holy Sepulchre. According to contemporary statues and monuments, Georg von Ekingen and Heinrich von Waellwerth, officers of the court of Eberhard, wore this kind of doublet. The former, according to a portrait, of a red colour; the latter authority is in the Waellwerth Chapel, in the cloister of Lorch near Schw. Gmuend.
PETER THE GREAT AT ZAANDAM.
We learn from authentic records that Peter the Great, Czar of Russia, entered himself, in the year 1697, on the list of ship's carpenters at the Admiralty Office of Amsterdam, in Holland. This is true; but before Peter so enrolled himself, he had made an attempt to fix his abode, for the purpose of study, at Saardam, or Zaandam, a little town situated on the river Zaan, about half an hour's voyage, by steam, from the populous and wealthy city of Amsterdam.
Zaandam, though then, as now, one of the most primitive, original little towns in Europe, had for some time held important commercial intercourse with Russia; and Peter had long seen the advantage to be derived from studying at its head-quarters the art which he felt sure would elevate his country in an extraordinary way. He therefore opened a private correspondence with some trusty friends in Holland, and set forth, with his hand of intelligent companions, early in the summer of 1697; in the autumn of the same year he disembarked at Zaandam, and, alone and unattended, sought an humble lodging from a man of the name of Gerrit Kist, who had formerly been a blacksmith in Russia, and who, as may well be imagined, was astonished at the "imperial apparition;" indeed he could not believe that Peter really wished to hire so humble an abode. But the Czar persevered, and obtained permission to occupy the back part of Kist's premises, consisting of a room and a little shed adjoining, Kist being bound to secresy as to the rank of his lodger: Peter's rent amounted to seven florins (about eleven shillings) a week.
The _maisonnette_, or hut, of Peter the Great now stands alone, and has been encased in a strong wooden frame in order to preserve it. It is in much the same state as when occupied by the Czar. The chief apartment is entered by the door you see open, the projecting roof covers the room probably occupied by Peter's servant, and on the left of the larger room is the recess or cupboard in which Peter slept. Formerly the rear of this abode was crowded with inferior buildings; it is now an airy space, with trees waving over the wooden tenement, and a garden full of sweet-scented flowers embalms the atmosphere around it. A civil old Dutchwoman is the guardian of the property, which is kept up with some taste, and exquisite attention to cleanliness.
The _maisonnette_ has but one door. In Zaandam the old Dutch custom of closing one entrance to the house, except on state occasions, is still kept up; the purpose of the other, the _porte mortuaire_, or _mortuary portal_, is sufficiently explained by its name.
After Peter's departure, his dwelling passed from hand to hand, and would have fallen into oblivion had not Paul the First of Russia accompanied Joseph the Second of Austria and the King of Sweden to Zaandam, on purpose to visit the Czar's old abode. After this it became a sort of fashion to make pilgrimages to the once imperial residence; and it acquired a still greater celebrity when the Emperor Alexander visited it in 1814, and made a great stir in the waters of the Zaan with a fleet of three hundred yachts and innumerable barges, gaily decked with flying pennons. In 1818, William the First of Holland purchased the property, and gave it to his daughter-in-law, the Princess of Orange and a royal Russian by birth: it is to her care the building owes its present state of preservation. Her royal highness appointed a Waterloo invalid as first guardian of the place.
Bonaparte brought Josephine here in 1812. Poor Josephine had no idea of old associations; she jumped from the sublime to the ridiculous at once on entering the "mean habitation," and startled the then proprietor by a burst of untimely laughter.
Many royal and illustrious names may be read on the walls of the principal chamber, and in the book in which the traveller is requested to write his name. Verses and pictures challenge, somewhat impertinently, the attention of the wayfarer; but as we sat down in the triangular arm-chairs, and turned from the dark recess in which Peter slept, to the ingle-nook of the deep chimney, and from the ingle to the dark recess again, we could realize nothing but Peter in his working dress of the labours of the day. There he was in the heat of an autumnal evening still at work, with books and slates, and instruments connected with navigation, before him on the rude deal table, and he plodding on, as diligently as a common mechanic, in pursuit of that knowledge by which nations are made great.
SUPPLY OF WATER FOR LONDON IN OLDEN TIMES.
In 1682 the private houses of the metropolis were only supplied with fresh water twice a-week. Mr. Cunningham, in his "Handbook of London," informs us that the old sources of supply were the Wells, or Fleet River, Wallbrook and Langbourne Waters, Clement's, Clerk's, and Holy Well, Tyburn, and the River Lea. Tyburn first supplied the city in the year 1285, the Thames not being pressed into the service of the city conduits till 1568, when it supplied the conduit at Dowgate. There were people who stole water from the pipes then, as there are who steal gas now. "This yere" (1479), writes an old chronicler of London, quoted by Mr. Cunningham, "a wax charndler in Flete-stre had bi craft perced a pipe of the condite withynne the ground, and so conveied the water into his celar; wherefore he was judged to ride through the citee with a condite upon his hedde." The first engine which conveyed water into private houses, by leaden pipes, was erected at London-bridge in 1582. The pipes were laid over the steeple of St. Magnus; and the engineer was Maurice, a Dutchman. Bulmer, an Englishman, erected a second engine at Broken Wharf. Previous to 1656, the Strand and Covent Garden, though so near to the river, were only supplied by water-tankards, which were carried by those who sold the water, or by the apprentice, if there were one in the house, whose duty it was to fill the house-tankard at the conduit, or in the river. In the middle of the seventeenth century, Ford erected water-works on the Thames, in front of Somerset House; but the Queen of Charles II.--like the Princess Borghese, who pulled down a church next to her palace, because the incense turned her sick, and organ made her head ache--ordered the works to be demolished, because they obstructed a clear view on the river. The inhabitants of the district depended upon their tankards and water-carriers, until the reign of William III., when the York-buildings Waterworks were erected. The frequently-occurring name of Conduit-street, or Conduit-court, indicates the whereabout of many of the old sources whence our forefathers drew their scanty supplies.
DRINKING BOUTS IN PERSIA.
In their drinking parties the Persians are reported, among even the highest classes, to exceed all bounds of discretion. Half a dozen boon companions meet at night. The floor is covered with a variety of stimulating dishes to provoke drinking, for which no provocation whatever is required; among these are pickles of every possible variety, and salted prawns or cray-fish from the Persian Gulf--a food which ought to be an abomination to a true Sheeah. Singers and dancing-boys enliven the scene. A Persian despises a wine-glass; a tumbler is his measure. He has an aversion to "heeltaps," and he drains his glass to the dregs, with his left hand under his chin to catch the drops of wine, lest he should be detected next morning in respectable society by the marks on his dress. They begin with pleasant conversation, scandal, and gossip; then they become personal, quarrelsome, abusive, and indecent, after the unimaginable Persian fashion. As the orgies advance, as the mirth waxes fast and furious, all restraint is thrown aside. They strip themselves stark naked, dance, and play all sorts of antics and childish tricks. One dips his head and face into a bowl of curds, and dances a solo to the admiring topers; while another places a large deeg, or cooking-pot, on his head, and display his graces and attitudes on the light fantastic toe, or rather heel.
GERMAN COSTUMES OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
The costume-sketch which we give on next page, is taken from an original drawing, having the following superscription:--
"Varium et mutabile semper foemina Faec suo quem amat scripsit. Georgius Wolfgang Von Kaltenthal. 1579."
The group represents the above-named young knight, with his youthful wife, taking a ride. She wears a blue silken dress, with a boddice of gold brocade, trimmed with fur, and a rose-coloured silk scarf; the head-dress is quite plain, the hair being fastened with a golden dagger set in jewels. The knight's dress consists of a light green doublet, with dark green stripes; slashed hose, edged with white; yellowish leather surcoat without sleeves, riding boots of untanned leather, and grey felt hat with red and white plume, dagger, and sword. The accoutrements of the horse are simply black, with some metal ornaments. The young lady is the beautiful Leonora Caimingen, who was at that time a great favourite of the Court at Wurtemberg. In travelling thus (which was at that time the only mode), females of the higher rank only were accustomed to make use of masks, or veils, for the preservation of their complexions, that custom being generally unusual. The ancestral castle of the knights of Kaltenthal was situated between Stuttgardt and Boeblingen, on the summit of a rock overhanging the valley of Hesslach. It exists no longer.
ANCIENT TRIPOD.
Tripods are, next to vases, the most ancient furniture in the world; the imagination of the ancients invested them with fanciful forms, and we meet with designs which, although very simple, show already the power exercised by the re-productive faculties of the mind upon the objects surrounding these ancient nations. Representations of the kind were, however, exceedingly rare till the last forty years, and it must be considered an especial piece of good fortune that the excavations made in several parts of Etruria, have afforded more than one example of this description. The specimen engraved was found in the Gailassi Regulini tomb of Cervetri, in Etruria, and in it we see a large vessel placed on the tripod, from the edge of which five lions' heads start forth with hideous expression. These monsters lend to the whole that fanciful aspect distinguishing objects of the archaic period. When we imagine to ourselves this kettle boiling, and these cruel animals wreathed and enveloped in smoke, we can understand how the fancy of superstitious worshippers, who were wont to make use of these implements in their religious ceremonies, may have found in them an allusion to the spirits of the victims whose remains were exposed to the destructive fire glowing underneath. To us, at least, this representation may illustrate the terrific but grand passage of Homer, where the bodies of the slaughtered sun bulls become once more instinct with life, demanding vengeance with fearful cries: Odyssey, Book xii, verse 395.
"The skins began to creep, and the flesh around the spits bellowed, The roasted as well as the raw. And thus grew the voice of the oxen."
The careful construction of the three-legged mechanism which lends a firm support to this fire-stand, has been restored according to the indication of some fragments found on the spot. It presents a graceful aspect, and forms, in some respects, a remarkable contrast to the heavy character of the vessel occupying so lofty a position, as the proportions of the legs are exceedingly slender, and the feet themselves, instead of being broad and shapeless, are all composed of a great many fine articulations.
FONDNESS OF THE ROMANS FOR PEARLS.
Of all the articles of luxury and ostentation known to the Romans, pearls seem to have been the most esteemed. They were worn on all parts of the dress, and such was the diversity of their size, purity, and value, that they were found to suit all classes, from those of moderate to those of the most colossal fortune. The famous pearl ear-rings of Cleopatra are said to have been worth about L160,000, and Julius Caesar is said to have presented Servilia, the mother of Brutus, with a pearl for which he had paid above L48,000; and though no reasonable doubt can be ascertained in regard to the extreme exaggeration of these and similar statements, the fact that the largest and finest pearls brought immense prices is beyond all question. It has been said that the wish to become master of the pearls with which it was supposed to abound, was one of the motives which induced Julius Caesar to invade Britain. But, though a good many were met with in various parts of the country, they were of little or no value, being small and ill-coloured. After pearls and diamonds, the emerald held the highest place in the estimation of the Romans.
THE BLACK STONE AT MECCA.
Near the entrance of the Kaaba at Mecca, at the north-eastern corner, is the famous Black Stone, called by the Moslems _Hajra el Assouad_, or Heavenly Stone. It forms a part of the sharp angle of the building, and is inserted four or five feet above the ground. The shape is an irregular oval, about seven inches in diameter. Its colour is now a deep reddish brown, approaching to black; and it is surrounded by a border of nearly the same colour, resembling a cement of pitch and gravel, and from two to three inches in breadth. Both the border and the stone itself are encircled by a silver band, swelling to a considerable breadth below, where it is studded with nails of the same metal. The surface is undulated, and seems composed of about a dozen smaller stones, of different sizes and shapes, but perfectly smooth, and well joined with a small quantity of cement. It looks as if the whole had been dashed into many pieces by a severe concussion, and then re-united--an appearance that may perhaps be explained by the various disasters to which it has been exposed. During the fire that occurred in the time of Yezzid I. (A.D. 682), the violent heat split it into three pieces; and when the fragments were replaced, it was necessary to surround them with a rim of silver, which is said to have been renewed by Haroun el Raschid. It was in two pieces when the Karmathians carried it away, having been broken by a blow from a soldier during the plunder of Mecca. Hakem, a mad sultan of Egypt, in the 11th century, endeavoured, while on the pilgrimage, to destroy it with an iron club which he had concealed under his clothes; but was prevented and slain by the populace. Since that accident it remained unmolested until 1674, when it was found one morning besmeared with dirt, so that every one who kissed it returned with a sullied face. Though suspicion fell on certain Persians, the authors of this sacrilegious joke were never discovered. As for the quality of the stone, it does not seem to be accurately determined. Burckhardt says it appeared to him like a lava, containing several small extraneous particles of a whitish and yellowish substance. Ali Bey calls it a fragment of volcanic basalt, sprinkled with small-pointed coloured crystals, and varied with red feldspar upon a dark black ground like coal, except one of its protuberances, which is a little reddish. The millions of kisses and touches impressed by the faithful have worn the surface uneven, and to a considerable depth. This miraculous block all orthodox Mussulmans believe to have been originally a transparent hyacinth, brought from heaven to Abraham by the angel Gabriel; but its substance, as well as its colour, have long been changed by coming in contact with the impurities of the human race.
PARAGRAPH FROM THE "POSTMAN" IN 1697.
"Yesterday being the day of thanksgiving appointed by the States-General for the peace, His Excellency, the Dutch ambassador, made a very noble bonfire before his house in St. James's Square, consisting of about 140 pitch barrels placed perpendicularly on seven scaffolds, during which the trumpets sounded, and two hogsheads of wine were kept continually running amongst the common people."
LORD MAYOR'S FEAST IN 1663.
Pepys gives a curious account of a Lord Mayor's dinner in 1663. It was served in the Guildhall, at one o'clock in the day. A bill of fare was placed with every salt-cellar, and at the end of each table was a list of the persons proper there to be seated. Here is a mixture of abundance and barbarism. "Many were the tables, but none in the hall, but the Mayor's and the Lords' of the Privy Council, _that had napkins or knives_, which was very strange. I sat at the merchant-stranger's table, where ten good dishes to a mess, with plenty of wine of all sorts; but it was very unpleasing that we had no napkins, nor change of trenchers, and drank out of earthen pitchers and wooden dishes. The dinner, it seems, is made by the Mayor and two Sheriffs for the time being, and the whole is reckoned to come to L700 or L800 at most." Pepys took his spoon and fork with him, as was the custom of those days with guests invited to great entertainments. "Forks" came in with Tom Coryat, in the reign of James I.; but they were not "familiar" till after the Restoration. The "laying of napkins," as it was called, was a profession of itself. Pepys mentions, the _day before_ one of his dinner-parties, that he went home, and "there found one laying of my napkins against to-morrow, in figures of all sorts, which is mighty pretty, and, it seems, is his trade, and he gets much money by it."
THE CUPID OF THE HINDOOS.
Among the Hindoo deities _Camdeo_, or Manmadin differs but little from the Cupid of the ancients. He is also called _Ununga_, or, without body; and is the son of Vishnu and Lacshmi. Besides his bow and arrows, he carries a banner, on which is delineated a fish: his bow is a sugar-cane; the cord is formed of bees; the arrows are of all sorts of flowers; one only is headed, but the point is covered with a honeycomb--an allegory equally just and ingenious, and which so correctly expresses the pleasures and the pangs produced at one and the same time by the wounds of love. Manmadin is represented, as in the annexed plate, riding on a parrot.
One day, when Vishnu, to deceive Sheeva, had assumed the figure of a beautiful young female, Manmadin discharged an arrow, which pierced the heart of the formidable deity, and inflamed it with love of the nymph. The latter fled, and at the moment when Sheeva had overtaken her, Vishnu resumed his proper form. Sheeva, enraged at the trick played upon him, with one flash of his eyes burned and consumed the imprudent Manmadin, who hence received the name of _Ununga_. He was restored to life by a shower of nectar, which the gods in pity poured upon him: but he remained without body and is the only Indian deity who is accounted incorporeal. Camdeo is particularly worshipped by females desirous of obtaining faithful lovers and good husbands.
OLD DIAL AND FOUNTAIN IN LEADENHALL-STREET.
The above sketch is taken from an old work on astronomy and geography by Joseph Moxon, and printed by him, and sold "at his Shop on _Cornhill_, at the signe of _Atlas_, 1659." We cannot do better than give Moxon's own words with reference to the dial:--"To make a dyal upon a solid ball or globe, that shall show the hour of the day without a gnomon. The equinoctial of this globe, or (which is all one) the middle line must be divided into 24 equal parts, and marked with 1, 2, 3, 4, &c., and then beginning again with 1, 2, 3, &c. to 12. Then if you elevate one of the poles so many degrees above an horizontal line as the pole of the world is elevated above the horizon in your habitation, and place one of the twelves directly to behold the north, and the other to behold the south, when the sun shines on it, the globe will be divided into two halfs, the one enlightened with the sunshine, and the other shadowed; and where the enlightened half is parted from the shadowed half, there you will find in the equinoctial the hour of the day, and that on two places on the ball, because the equinoctial is cut in two opposite points by the light of the sun. A dyal of this sort was made by Mr. John Leak and set up on a composite columne at Leadenhall Corner, in London, in the majoralty of Sir John Dethick, knight. The figure whereof I have inserted because it is a pretty peece of ingenuity, and may, perhaps, stand some lover of the art in stead either for imitation or help of invention."
MAGNIFICENCE OF MADYN, THE CAPITAL OF PERSIA, WHEN INVADED BY THE SARACENS, A.D. 626.
The invaders could not express their mingled sensations of surprise and delight, while surveying in this splendid capital the miracles of architecture and art, the gilded palaces, the strong and stately porticoes, the abundance of victuals in the most exquisite variety and profusion, which feasted their senses, and courted their observation on every side. Every street added to their astonishment, every chamber revealed a new treasure; and the greedy spoilers were enriched beyond the measure of their hopes or their knowledge. To a people emerging from barbarism, the various wonders which rose before them in all directions, like the effect of magic, must have been a striking spectacle. We may therefore believe them when they affirm, what is not improbable, that the different articles of merchandise--the rich and beautiful pieces of manufacture which fell a prey on this occasion--were in such incalculable abundance, that the thirtieth part of their estimate was more than the imagination could embrace. The gold and silver, the various wardrobes and precious furniture, surpassed, says Abul-feda, the calculation of fancy or numbers; and the historian Elmacin ventured to compute these untold and almost infinite stores at the value of 3,000,000,000 pieces of gold.