Part 65

Tradition ascribes its commencement to two merchants, who raised it to the height of 12 cubits at an age slightly subsequent to that of Buddha himself. Successive kings of Pegu added to this from time to time, till at last it assumed its present form, most probably about three or four centuries ago.

PEST HOUSE DURING THE PLAGUE IN TOTHILL FIELDS.

Tothill Fields, a locality between Pimlico and the Thames, was anciently the manor of Tothill, belonging to John Maunsel, chancellor, who in 1256, entertained here Henry III. and his court at a vast feast in tents and pavilions. Here were decided wagers of battle and appeals by combat. Necromancy, sorcery and witchcraft were punished here; and "royal solemnities and goodly jousts were held here." In Culpeper's time the fields were famous for parsley. In 1642 a battery and breastwork were erected here. Here also were built the "Five Houses," or "Seven Chimneys," as pest-houses for victims of the plague. One of these pest-houses is given in the above engraving, taken from an old print. In the plague time of 1665, the dead were buried "in the open Tuttle Fields." In Queen Anne's reign here was William Well's head garden on the site of Vincent-square. The Train Bands were drawn out here in 1651. In the last century the fields were a noted duel-ground, and here, in 1711, Sir Cholmeley Deering, M.P., was killed by the first shot of Mr. Richard Thornhill, who was tried for murder and acquitted, but found guilty of manslaughter and burnt in the hand.

THE THUGS.

The following account of these horribly extraordinary men is taken from Dr. Hooker's Himalayan Journals; writing at Mirzapore, he says:--"Here I had the pleasure of meeting Lieutenant Ward, one of the suppressors of Thuggee (_Thuggee_, in Hindostan, signifies a deceiver; fraud, not open force, being employed). This gentlemen kindly showed me the approvers, or king's evidence of his establishment, belonging to those three classes of human scourges, the Thug, Dakoit, and Poisoner. Of these the first was the Thug, a mild-looking man, who had been born and bred to the profession: he had committed many murders, saw no harm in them, and felt neither shame nor remorse. His organs of observation and destructiveness were large, and the cerebellum small. He explained to me how the gang waylay the unwary traveller, enter into conversation with him, and have him suddenly seized, when the superior throws his own girdle round the victim's neck and strangles him, pressing the knuckles against the spine. Taking off his own girdle, he passed it round my arm, and showed me the turn as coolly as a sailor once taught me the hangman's knot. The Thug is of any caste, and from any part of India. The profession have particular stations, which they generally select for murder, throwing the body of their victim into a well.

"Their origin is uncertain, but supposed to be very ancient, soon after the Mahommedan conquest. They now claim a divine original, and are supposed to have supernatural powers, and to be the emissaries of the divinity, like the wolf, the tiger, and the bear. It is only lately that they have swarmed so prodigiously--seven original gangs having migrated from Delhi to the Gangetic provinces about 200 years ago, from whence all the rest have sprung. Many belong to the most amiable, intelligent, and respectable classes of the lower and even middle ranks: they love their profession, regard murder as sport, and are never haunted with dreams, nor troubled with pangs of conscience during hours of solitude, or in the last moments of life. The victim is an acceptable sacrifice to the goddess Davee, who by some classes is supposed to eat the lifeless body, and thus save her votaries the necessity of concealing it.

"They are extremely superstitious, always consulting omens, such as the direction in which a hare or a jackal crosses the road; and even far more trivial circumstances will determine the fate of a dozen of people, and perhaps of an immense treasure. All worship the pickaxe, which is symbolical of their profession, and an oath sworn on it binds closer than on the Koran. The consecration of this weapon is a most elaborate ceremony, and takes place only under certain trees. The Thugs rise through various grades: the lowest are scouts; the second, sextors; the third, are holders of the victim's hands; the highest, stranglers.

"Though all agree in never practising cruelty, or robbing previous to murder--never allowing any but infants to escape (and these are trained to Thuggee), and never leaving a trace of such goods as may be identified--there are several variations in their mode of conducting operations: some tribes spare certain castes, others none; murder of woman is against all rules; but the practice crept into certain gangs, and this it is which led to their discountenance by the goddess Davee, and the consequent downfall of the system. Davee, they say, allowed the British to punish them, because a certain gang had murdered the mothers to obtain their daughters to be sold to prostitution.

"Major Sleeman has constructed a map demonstrating the number of 'bails,' or regular stations for committing murder, in the kingdom of Oude alone, which is 170 miles long by 100 broad, and in which are 274, which are regarded by the Thug with as much satisfaction and interest as a game preserve is in England; nor are these 'bails' less numerous than in other parts of India. Of twenty assassins who were examined, one frankly confessed to having been engaged in 931 murders, and the least guilty of the number in 24. Sometimes 150 persons collected into one gang, and their profits have often been immense, the murder of six persons on one occasion yielding 82,000 rupees, upwards of L8,000."

ENGLISH EARTHENWARE AND SHAKSPEARE'S JUG.

Much uncertainty exists regarding the period when the manufacture of fine earthenware was first introduced into England. Among the documents in the Foedera, occur various lists of articles, ordered to be purchased in England for several foreign potentates, and permitted to be exported for their use without paying the Custom duties. One of these lists, dated in 1428, enumerates many objects as then shipped for the use of the King of Portugal and the Countess of Holland, among which are "six silver cups, each of the weight of six marks (or four pounds), a large quantity of woollen stuffs, and 2000 plates, dishes, saucers, and other vessels of _electrum_."

As these articles were, no doubt, the produce of the country, it would appear that utensils for domestic use were then made of metal, and not of pottery; and it was not till some time afterwards that the latter was introduced by the Dutch, whose manufactory at Delft probably existed as early as the fifteenth century, and who sent large quantities of their ware to England. The skill and excellence of the English artizans consisted in the manufacture of silver and other metals. Of this, instances are recorded in the correspondence of La Mothe Fenelon, the French ambassador at the Court of Queen Elizabeth; and in the travels of Hentzner, who visited England in 1598. Both describe in glowing colours the silver plate which adorned the buffets, as well as the magnificent furniture and decorations of the palaces of that sumptuous queen.

Still Elizabeth, who so highly prided herself upon the state and splendour of her establishment, and who was in constant intercourse with the Court of France and the Low Countries, was not likely to have remained altogether satisfied without possessing, among the manufactures of her own kingdom, something similar to the fine Fayence then in use in every foreign court. Though it is probable that Delft ware procured from Holland was first used, it may reasonably be presumed that the ware called by her name was afterwards manufactured, under her immediate patronage, for the use of the court and the nobility; and although there is no record of the fact, it is supposed that Stratford-le-Bow was the site of the manufactory.

Shakspeare's Jug, of which we here give an engraving, which has been carefully preserved by the descendants of the immortal bard since the year 1616, is, perhaps, the most remarkable example of the Elizabethan pottery now existing. The shape partakes very much of the form of the old German or Dutch ewer, without, however, the usual top or cover; the one now attached to the jug being a modern addition of silver, with a medallion bust of the poet in the centre, beautifully executed and inscribed "WM. SHAKSPEARE, AT THE AGE OF FORTY." It is about ten inches high, and sixteen inches round at the largest part, and is divided lengthwise into eight compartments, having each a mythological subject in high relief. All of these, although executed in the quaint style of the period, possess considerable merit. Some of them, indeed, manifest much masterly grouping of both human figures and animals; and such is the admirable state of preservation of this very interesting old English relic, that as correct a judgment may be formed of its workmanship, as in the days of its first possessor; at all events, as regards the degree of perfection to which English Pottery had attained in the Elizabethan age; an inspection of this jug will justify the presumption, that her Court was not less tastefully provided in that respect than those of the Continent, notwithstanding the obscurity in which the precise locality and extent of the manufactory is unfortunately involved.

PRICE OF MACKAREL.

The price of mackarel, in May, 1807, in the Billingsgate market, was as follows:--Forty guineas for every hundred of the first cargo, which made the fish come to seven shillings apiece! The next supplies were also exorbitant, though much less so than the first, fetching thirteen pounds per hundred, or two shillings apiece. The very next year the former deficiencies were more than made up, for it appears that during the season 1808, mackarel were hawked about the streets of Dover, at sixty for a shilling, or five for a penny; whilst they so blockaded the Brighton coast that on one night it became impossible to land the multitudes taken, and at last both fish and nets went to the bottom together.

POPE'S CHAIR.

In one of the rooms at that stately and picturesque baronial hall, Audley End, the seat of Lord Braybrooke, there is preserved the interesting relic which forms the subject of the annexed engraving. Its history is thus told on a brass plate inserted in the back--"This chair, once the property of Alexander Pope, was given as a keep-sake to the nurse who attended him in his illness; from her descendants it was obtained by the Rev. Thomas Ashley, curate of the parish of Binfield, and kindly presented by him to Lord Braybrooke, in 1844, nearly a century after the poet's decease." It is apparently of Flemish workmanship, and of rather singular design; in the centre medallion is a figure of Venus holding a dart in her right hand, and a burning heart in her left. The narrow back and wide-circling arms give a peculiarly quaint appearance to this curious relic of one of our greatest poets.

FIRST WIND-MILLS.

Mabillon mentions a diploma of the year 1105, in which a convent in France is allowed to erect water and windmills, _molendina ad ventum_.

Bartolomeo Verde proposed to the Venetians in 1332, to build a wind-mill. When his plan had been examined, he had a piece of ground assigned him, which he was to retain if his undertaking succeeded within a specified time. In 1373, the city of Spires caused a wind-mill to be erected, and sent to the Netherlands for a person acquainted with the method of grinding by it. A wind-mill was also constructed at Frankfort, in 1442; but it does not appear to have been ascertained whether there were any there before.

About the twelfth century, in the pontificate of Gregory, when both wind and water-mills became more general, a dispute arose whether mills were titheable or not. The dispute existed for some time between the persons possessed of mills and the clergy; when neither would yield. At length, upon the matter being referred to the pope and sacred college, the question was (as might have been expected when interested persons were made the arbitrators) determined in favour of the claims of the church.

THE "HAPPY DISPATCH" IN JAPAN.

The _Hari-kari_, or "Happy Dispatch," consists in ripping open their own bowels with two cuts in the form of a cross--after the artistic dissector's fashion. Officials resort to it under the fear of the punishment which they may expect; for it is a leading principle that it is more honourable to die by one's own hand than by another's. Princes and the high classes receive permission to rip themselves up as a special favour, when under sentence of death: their entire family must die with the guilty. Sometimes, by favour, the nearest relative of the condemned is permitted to perform the function of executioner in his own house. Such a death is considered less dishonourable than by the public executioners, aided by the servants of those who keep disreputable houses.

But the Japanese, for the most part, always ask permission to rip themselves; and they set about it with astonishing ease, and not without evident ostentation. The criminal who obtains this favour assembles all his family and his friends, puts on his richest apparel, makes an eloquent speech on his situation, and then, with a most contented look, he bares his belly, and in the form of a cross rips open the viscera. The most odious crimes are effaced by such a death. The criminal thenceforward ranks as a brave in the memory of men. His family contracts no stain, and his property is not confiscated.

It is curious that the Romans and the Japanese should hit upon crucifixion as a mode of punishment. These coincidences often startle us in reviewing the manners and customs of men. Vainly we strive to conjecture how such a mode of punishment could have suggested itself to the mind of man. The _in terrorem_ object scarcely accounts for it. Constantine abolished it amongst the Romans, in honour of Him who was pleased to make that mode of dying honourable in the estimation of men.

The Hari-kari, or happy dispatch, is still more incomprehensible. We shudder at the bare idea of it. To commit suicide by hanging, by drowning, by poison, by firearms, by a train in rapid motion--all these modes are reasonable in their madness; but to rip open our bowels!--and with _two_ cuts! We are totally at a loss to imagine how such a mode of self-murder could have been adopted; we cannot but wonder at the strength of nerve which enables it to be accomplished: but we feel no doubt of the everlasting force of national custom--especially amongst the Orientals--in the continuance of this practice. Montesquieu said, "If the punishments of the Orientals horrify humanity, the reason is, that the despot who ordains them feels that he is above all laws. It is not so in Republics, wherein the laws are always mild, because he who makes them is himself a subject." This fine sentiment, thoroughly French, is evidently contradicted by the institutions of Japan, where the Emperor himself, the despot, is a subject: besides, Montesquieu would have altered his antithesis had he lived to see the horrors of the Reign of Terror in the glorious French Republic.

PURITAN ZEAL.

The following is a copy of the order issued by Government for the destruction of Glasgow Cathedral:--"To our traist friendis,--Traist friendis, after most hearty commendacion, we pray you fail not to pass incontinent to the kirk, (of Glasgow, or elsewhere, as it might be) and tak down the hail images thereof, and bring furth to the kirk-zyard, and burn them openly. And sicklyke cast down the altaris, and purge the kirk of all kynd of monuments of idolatrye. And this ze fail not to do, as ze will do us singular emplesure; and so commitis you to protection of God.

(Signed)

AR. ARGYLE.

JAMES STEWART.

RUTHVEN.

_From Edinburgh the XII. of Aug. 1560._

"Fail not, but ze tak guid heyd that neither the dasks, windows, nor duris, be ony ways hurt or broken, uthe glassin wark, or iron wark."

FREDERICK THE GREAT AT TABLE.

The table of the great Frederic of Prussia was regulated by himself. There were always from nine to a dozen dishes, and these were brought in one at a time. The King carved the solitary dish, and helped the company. One singular circumstance connected with this table was, that each dish was cooked by a different cook, who had a kitchen to himself! There was much consequent expense, with little magnificence. Frederic ate and drank, too, like a boon companion. His last work, before retiring to bed, was to receive from the chief cook the bill of fare for the next day; the price of each dish, and of its separate ingredients, was marked in the margin. The monarch looked it cautiously through, generally made out an improved edition, cursed all cooks as common thieves, and then flung down the money for the next day's expenses.

ARTIFICIAL SWEETS.

Professor Playfair, in an able lecture delivered in the Great Exhibition, and since published, has raised a curtain, which displays a rather repulsive scene. He says, the perfume of flowers frequently consists of oils and ethers, which the chemist can compound artificially in his laboratory. Singularly enough these are generally derived from substances of an intensely disgusting odour. A peculiarly fetid oil, termed the "fusel" oil, is formed in making brandy. This fusel oil distilled with sulphuric acid and acetate of potass, gives the oil of pears (?). The oil of apples is made from the same fusel, by distillation with the same acid and chromate of potass. The oil of pineapples is obtained from the product of the action of putrid cheese on sugar! or by making a soap with butter. The artificial oil of bitter almonds is now largely employed in perfuming soap confectionary; extracted by nitric acid and the fetid oil of gas tar. Many a fair forehead is damped with _eau de mille fleurs_ without the knowledge that its essential ingredient is derived from the drainage of cow-houses!

TEUTONIC HUT-SHAPED VASES.

Some remarkable sepulchral urns, of which we give a sketch, resembling those of the early inhabitants of Alba Longa, in Italy, have been found in Germany, and are distinctly Teutonic. They occur in the sepulchres of the period when bronze weapons were used, and before the predominance of Roman art. One found at Mount Chemnitz, in Thuringen, had a cylindrical body and conical top, imitating a roof. In this was a square orifice, representing the door or window, by which the ashes of the dead were introduced, and the whole then secured by a small door fastened with a metal pin. A second vase was found at Roenne; a third in the island of Bornholm. A similar urn exhumed at Parchim had a shorter body, taller roof, and door at the side. Still more remarkable was another found at Aschersleben, which has its cover modelled in shape of a tall conical thatched roof, and the door with its ring still remaining. Another, with a taller body and flatter roof, with a door at the side, was found at Klus, near Halberstadt. The larger vases were used to hold the ashes of the dead, and are sometimes protected by a cover, or stone, or placed in another vase of coarser fabric. The others are the household vessels, which were offered to the dead filled with different viands. Some of the smaller vases appear to have been toys.

Extraordinary popular superstitions have prevailed amongst the German peasantry as to the origin and nature of these vases, which in some districts are considered to be the work of the elves,--in others, to grow spontaneously from the ground like mushrooms--or to be endued with remarkable properties for the preservation of milk and other articles of food. Weights to sink nets, balls, discs, and little rods of terra-cotta, are also found in the graves.

LYNCH'S CASTLE, GALWAY.

The house in the town of Galway, still known as "Lynch's Castle," although the most perfect example now remaining, was at one period by no means a solitary instance of the decorated habitations of the Galway merchants. The name of Lynch, as either provost, portreve, sovereign, or mayor of Galway, occurs no fewer than ninety-four times between the years 1274 and 1654; after that year it does not appear once. The house here pictured was the residence of the family for many generations. It had, however, several branches, whose habitations are frequently pointed out by their armorial bearings, or their crest, a lynx, over the gateway. One of its members is famous in history as the Irish Junius Brutus. The mere fact is sufficiently wonderful without the aid of invention; but it has, as may be supposed, supplied materials to a host of romancers. The story is briefly this:--