The Every-day Book and Table Book, v. 1 (of 3) or Everlasting Calendar of Popular Amusements, Sports, Pastimes, Ceremonies, Manners, Customs and Events, Incident to Each of the Three Hundred and Sixty-five Days, in past and Present Times; Forming a Complete History of the Year, Month, and Seasons, and a Perpetual Key to the Almanac

1794. Died Charles Pratt, earl Camden, born in 1713. As chief justice of the common pleas, he was distinguished for having discharged the celebrated John Wilkes from the tower....

Mr. and Miss Gresham were at Mr. Pain’s house, when Mrs. Pain, Mrs. Golding, and her maid went there. It being about dinner time they all dined together; in the interim Mrs. Gol...

As to the Grecian architecture of the present day, it is much a matter of question, whether the style of many of the new churches is not as much removed from the original as the...

It would be tiresome to go at length into the detail of the “second fight,” as it was called, which followed this; the undertaking being to the assembly--for the notion of “matc...

There is a curious print from Heemskerck, of a barber of old times labouring in his vocation: it shows his room or shop. An old woman is making square pancakes at the fire-place...

“This utensil,” says the Antiquarian Repertory, “is called a curfew, or _couvre-feu_, from its use, which is that of suddenly putting out a fire: the method of applying it was t...

St. Bride’s church was built by sir Christopher Wren, and completed in 1680. It has been repeatedly beautified: its last internal decorations were effected in 1824. In it are in...

“The swine-herd, Ho-ti, having gone out into the woods one morning, as his manner was, to collect mast for his hogs, left his cottage in the care of his eldest son Bo-bo, a grea...

Now, let us shift the scene a little, and look at quarter-day under another aspect. On this day some may quit, some may remain; _all_ must pay--that can! Alas, that there should...

The “Great Fire” of London is denoted as above in our almanacs on this day. It broke out at Pudding-lane and ended at Pie-corner. The monument on Fish-street-hill to commemorate...

1546. Cardinal Beaton was on this day assassinated in Scotland. He was primate of that kingdom, over which he exercised almost sovereign sway. Just before his death he got into...

till he came to the hospital of St. Lucy at Manresa, where he lived by begging among the poor, and exhausting his body, not paring his nails, letting the hair of his head and be...

1616. On the same day with Cervantes in Spain, Shakspeare died in England. It was the anniversary of his birth-day, whereon he had completed the fifty-second year of his age. Wh...

Not content with slurring me over with a bare and naked acknowledgement of my occasional visitation in prose, you have done your best to deprive me of my verse-honours. In colum...

According to Butler, St. Anthony was born in 251, at Coma near Heraclea in Egypt, and in that neighbourhood commenced the life of a hermit: he was continually assailed by the de...

It was on the first day of Seurat’s exhibition that I first visited him; this was on Tuesday, the 9th of August, 1825; a day the present sheet of the _Every-Day Book_ has not ye...

4. His great strength enabled him to shake off the dogs, and then, as if quite terrified at their fury, he turned round and endeavoured to fly; and if the bars of the cage had n...

“Chance threw me,” he says, “in the way of Canonbury Castle. It is an ancient brick tower, hard by ‘merry Islington;’ the remains of a hunting-seat of queen Elizabeth, where she...

He conceives that he is the most beautiful person in the world, and hence besides calling himself “the Ærial,” the “New Discovery,” and “the Great Unknown,” he adds “the Paragon...

“It was true enough as he said, for I found the stone every minute going from under me. I had no choice; so thinks I to myself, faint heart never won fair lady, and this is fair...

In the first place, which of you all can say but Master Malt can make a cup of good liquor, with the help of a good brewer; and when it is made, it will be sold. I pray which of...

“To Sportsmen and Naturalists.--Now exhibiting, one of the greatest living natural curiosities in the world; namely, a thorough-bred chesnut MARE, with seven legs! four years of...

A damsel, named Margot, who resided at Paris in 1424, played at _hand-tennis_ with the palm, and also with the back of her hand, better than any man; and what is most surprising...

The scamp’ring hare outstript the wind, The creeping tortoise lagg’d behind, And scarce had pass’d a single pole, When puss had almost reach’d the goal. “Friend tortoise,” quoth...

Robert Parker wrote a remarkably learned book, in folio, entitled--“A Scholasticall Discourse against symbolizing with Antichrist in ceremonies: especially in the signe of the C...

The great “prodigies” of this show were the “performing pig,” and the performing show-woman. She drew forth the learning of the “_swinish philosopher_” admirably. He told his le...

1535. Albert Pio, prince of Carpi, was buried with extraordinary pomp in the church of the Cordeliers at Paris. He had been deprived of his principality by the duke of Ferrara,...

And what are all the great men that have ever lived but such mocking names? Montaigne, who translated a theological work by Raimondi di Sibondi, on being told by some learned fr...

While Henry VIII. reigned, “the rebels of Essex and Kent,” in 1381, set fire to the house, causing it to burn for the space of seven days together, and not suffering any to quen...

“On opening my eyes, the first thing that meets them is my own breath rolling forth, as if in the open air, like smoke out of a cottage-chimney. Think of this symptom. Then I tu...

Alban Butler informs us, from William of Malmsbury, that he was a bishop, though of what nation or see is unknown, and that his name is in the English martyrology. Cressy says,...

By an order of privy council of the 3rd of October, 1547, the mayor and under-sheriff of the county were required, not only to acknowledge before the vicechancellor, heads of co...

It is supposed that the first bridge of London was built between the years 993 and 1016; it was of wood. There is a vulgar tradition, that the foundation of the old stone bridge...

The emperor Charles V. being curious to know the sentiments of his meanest subjects concerning himself and his administration, often went incog. and mixed himself in such compan...

He was descended from Alild, king of Munster, built the abbey of Innis-Fallen in an island on the lake of Loughlane, county of Kerry; another at Ardfinnan, in Tipperary; and a t...

One of the most pleasing sights at this festive season is the group of boys and girls returned from school. Go where you will, a cluster of their joyous chubby faces present the...

Michael Angelo resumed Julius’s mausoleum, but the pontiff had changed his mind, and sorely against Michael’s inclination, engaged him to decorate the ceilings and walls of the...

The _shows_ of all kinds had their fronts towards the area of Smithfield, and their backs close against the backs of the stalls, without any passage between them in any part. Th...

“My pleasant friend JEM WHITE was so impressed with a belief of metamorphoses like this frequently taking place, that in some sort to reverse the wrongs of fortune in these poor...

This exhibition took place in a street at Pentonville, during the present month, 1825. Its coming was announced by a man playing the Pan-pipes, or “mouth-organ,” which he accomp...

From this volume it appears that Labre was born at Boulogne, on the 26th of March, 1748. When a child he would not play as other children did, but made little oratories, and “ch...

The arrangement and march are settled by the Cadi, who is always the most active person in the company; and is, by virtue of his important office, the chief marshal, orator, buf...

About the same time the glow-worm shines. Of this species of insect the females are without wings and luminous, the males are furnished with wings, but are not luminous; it is p...

If it be really true that this king admired these sentiments, he is entitled to the praise of having libelled himself by his admiration of virtue. Waller in a letter to St. Evre...

In the London journals of January, 1824, the following anecdote from a Carlow paper bears the above title:--“A young lady, who died in this town, had been some time previous to...

It is an historical fact, that the wretched contriver of king Edward’s murder passed the remainder of her days in dismal horror; and her nights brought no repose from the afflic...

One of the miracles alleged of St. David is, that at the anti-Pelagian synod he restored a child to life, ordered it to spread a napkin under his feet, and made an oration; that...

In your fourteenth number, you accuse the almanac-makers of having thought good to fix Easter-day on the 3rd of April instead of the 10th, on which day, you say, according to th...

Throughout the poetry of Michael Angelo, of which there is much in existence, love is a pervading sentiment, though, without reference to any particular object. Condivi had ofte...

A recent writer, evidently well acquainted with the manners of the period, introduces us to a character mentioned in a former sheet. “In the midst of all, the public attention w...

“A lawyer,” says an old comedy which I once read at the British Museum, “is an odd sort of fruit--first rotten--then green--and then ripe.” There is too much of truth in the hom...

Of the manner wherein a May game was anciently set forth, he who above all writers contemporary with him could best devise it has “drawn out the platform,” and exhibited the pag...

Beautiful! How beautiful is all this visible world! How glorious in its action and itself; But we, who name ourselves its sovereigns, we, Half dust, half deity, alike unfit To s...

The minister of Logierait, in Perthshire, describing that parish, says: “On the evening of the 31st of October, O. S., among many others, one remarkable ceremony is observed. He...

In this wild, groping, dark, and drearie cove, Of wife, of children, and of health bereft, I hailed thee, friendly spider, who hadst wove Thy mazy net on yonder mouldering raft:...

The writing match between Peter Bales and David Johnson, mentioned by Mr. Butler, “was only traditionally known, till, with my own eyes,” says Mr. D’Israeli, “I pondered on this...

In Mr. Brand’s “Popular Antiquities,” he gives the subjoined Anglo-Norman carol, from a MS. in the British Museum,[415] with the accompanying translation by his “very learned an...

He was prætor of Rome in 574, under the emperor Justin; next year he became a monk, and by fasting and study so weakened his stomach, that he swooned if he did not frequently ea...

Moore, who resided as a writer and factor under the African company, at the mouth of the Gambia, about five years, and in 1738, published his travels, describing the several nat...

The _rout_ was first discontinued by sir Brooke Watson, because it was always customary to have it in passion week. The allowance has since had an increase of 3000_l._ This libe...

If a satirical prophecy in “Vox Graculi,” 4to. 1623, may be relied on as authority, it bears testimony to the popularity of Twelfth-night at that period. On the 6th of January t...

“Two handkerchiefs, on which are impressions of our Saviour’s face; the one sent by our Lord himself as a present to Agbarus, prince of Edessa; the other given at the time of hi...

Produced by Chris Curnow, Harry Lamé, Google Books for some images. and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images gener...

It is not intended to point out the tortuous directions of Hagbush-lane; for the chief object of this notice is to excite the reader to one of the pleasantest walks he can imagi...

Spain, as a catholic country, is profuse in adoration of the virgin. On her festivals a shrine is erected in the open street, decorated with flowers, and surrounded by a number...

A Warwickshire correspondent says, that in that county “the first swarm of bees is simply called a _swarm_, the second from the same hive is called a _cast_, and the third from...

Come forth, come forth, my maidens, ’tis the day of good St. John, It is the Baptist’s morning that breaks the hills upon; And let us all go forth together, while the blessed da...

The “_Mirror of the Months_,” a pleasing volume published in the autumn of 1825, and devoted to the service of the year, points to the appearance of nature at this time:--“The l...

Joan was sent to Blois, where a large convoy was prepared for the supply of Orleans, and an army of ten thousand men, under the command of St. Severe, assembled to escort it; sh...

The day before Easter-day is in some parts called “Holy Saturday.” On the evening of this day, in the middle districts of Ireland, great preparations are made for the finishing...

The present Mr. Samuel Wesley, brother of the preceding, and born in 1766, also gave a very early indication of musical genius. When only three years of age, he could play on th...

Take one pound of drying (boiled linseed) oil, two ounces of yellow wax, two ounces of spirits of turpentine, and one of Burgundy pitch, melted carefully over a slow fire. With...

This done, they return to the house, the doors of which they are sure to find bolted by the females, who, be the weather what it may, are inexorable to all entreaties to open th...

On this day in 1380, gunpowder was first used in Europe by the Venetians against the Genoese. Its power is said by the Germans to have been discovered accidentally by Berthold S...

Then came hot July, boiling like to fire, That all his garments he had cast away. Upon a lyon raging yet with ire He boldly rode, and made him to obey: (It was the beast that wh...

One consequence of the prosperous appearance that the South Sea scheme bore, till within a short period before its failure, was a variety of equally promising and delusive proje...

This is another saint in the church of England calendar and the almanacs. He was bishop or archbishop of Rheims, and the instructor of Clovis, the first king of the Franks who p...

I am a poor wronged _Day_. I appeal to you as the general patron of the family of the _Days_. The candour with which you attended to the expostulations of a poor relative of our...

Bishop Bruno awoke in the dead midnight, And he heard his heart beat loud with affright: He dreamt he had rung the palace bell, And the sound it gave was his passing knell.

In “The Months,” by Mr. Leigh Hunt, he remarks that “if February were not the precursor of spring, it would be the least pleasant season of the year, November not excepted. The...

Burmah is the designation of an active and vigorous race, originally inhabiting the line of mountains, separating the great peninsula, stretching from the confines of Tartary to...

4. The space for this calculation occupies from ten in the forenoon to two in the afternoon. These observations refer principally to summer, though they affect spring and autumn...

If any man hang, drowne, stabbe, or by any violent meanes make away his life, the goods and lands of any such person are forfeit to the use of the king; and I see no reason but...

At twelve o’clock, the barrier at the foot of the bridge on the city side of the river was thrown open, and the company, who were provided with tickets for the coffer-dam, were...

The _making of the sepulchre_ was a practice founded upon ancient tradition, that the second coming of Christ would be on Easter-eve; and _sepulchre-making_, and watching it, re...

The _Spital Sermon_ derives its name from the priory and hospital of “our blessed Lady, St. Mary _Spital_,” situated on the east side of Bishopsgate-street, with fields in the r...

_Thirty_ years ago, when buckles were worn in shoes, a boy would meet a person in the street with--“Sir, if you please, your shoe’s _unbuckled_,” and the moment the accosted ind...

About the same time, Gregory Nazianzen, patriarch and archbishop of Constantinople, one of the fathers of the church, and master to the celebrated Jerome, composed plays from th...

The legend of St. Dunstan relates many miracles of him, the most popular of which is to this effect; that St. Dunstan, as the fact really was, became expert in goldsmith’s work;...

The freemasons, having caused a magnificent triumphal arch in the true Augustine style to be erected at the entry of the place where the stone was laid, they passed through it,...

The pump of the Skinner’s-well is let into a low dead wall. On its north side is an earthenware shop; and on the south a humble tenement occupied by a bird-seller, whose cages w...

But, oh! the 12th day of _August_, that mountain holiday, ushered in by the ringing of the sheep bell--’tis then that, jacketed in fustian, with a gun on my shoulder, and a powd...

Thou art the flower of memory; The pensive soul recalls in thee The year’s past pleasures; And, led by kindred thought, will flee, Till, back to careless infancy, The path she m...

According to catholic story, St. Nicholas was a saint of great virtue, and disposed so early in life to conform to ecclesiastical rule, that when an infant at the breast he fast...

The printed description of these processions are usually entitled “_Triumphs_,” though they are more commonly called “_The London Pageants_,” all of them are scarce, and some of...

Bartholomew Fair must and will be put down. It is for this reason that so much has been said of its former and present state. No person of respectability now visits it, but as a...

The celebrated Belzoni died at the close of the year 1823, and at the same period of the year 1825, the newspapers contain advertisements and appeals, in behalf of his widow, to...

Besides Jenyns’s suppositions, allow me to notice the crimping of fish, the skinning of eels alive, the whipping of pigs to death, to make them tender, the boiling of live crabs...

The mill-dam dashes on the restless wheel, And wantons in the pebbly gulf below No frost can bind it there; its utmost force Can but arrest the light and smoky mist, That in its...

All journeymen are paid by their master-printer for all church holidays that fall not on a _Sunday_, whether they work or no, what they can earn every working-day, be it 2, 3, o...

There are in each term stated days called _dies in banco_, (days in bank,) that is, days of appearance in the court of common bench. They are usually about a week from each othe...

Warton says, “This carol, yet with many innovations, is retained at Queen’s-college, in Oxford.” It is still sung in that college, somewhat altered, “to the common chant of the...

Mr. Sheridan’s speech in defence of Mr. Fox’s celebrated East-India Bill was so masterly, as to induce the public opinion to select him from the second class of parliamentary sp...

“All Valentines are not foolish, and I shall not easily forget thine, my kind friend (if I may have leave to call you so) E. B.--E. B. lived opposite a young maiden, whom he had...

On the 19th of August, 1823, Robert Bloomfield died at Shefford, in Bedfordshire, aged 57. He was born at Honington, near Bury, in Suffolk, where he received instruction in read...

“WHEREAS, by the late most terrible and dreadful Storms of Wind, with which it hath pleased Almighty God to afflict the greatest part of this our Kingdom, on Friday and Saturday...

But if the felon, after his apprehension, or in his going to execution, happened to make his escape out of the forest of Hardwick, which liberty, on the east end of the town, do...

[382] _Whiffler_, Mr. Douce says, in his “_Illustrations of Shakspeare_,” is a term undoubtedly borrowed from _whiffle_, another name for a fife or small flute; for whifflers we...

“This rumour came to the knowledge of the kings councell: whereupon the lord cardinall sent for the maior, and other of the councell of the citie, giving them to understand what...

As regards St. Swithin and his day, it may be observed, that according to bishop Hall when Swithin died, he directed that “his body should not be laid within the church, but whe...

Mark the golden grains that pass Brightly thro’ this channell’d glass, Measuring by their ceaseless fall Heaven’s most precious gift to all! Busy, till its sand be done, See the...

Maitland says, that Kemp “spared no expense nor contrivance to render it quite private and retired from public inspection, decent in its regulation, and as genteel in its furnit...

Ivy hath a lybe; she laghtit with the cold, So mot they all hafe that wyth Ivy hold. Nay, Ivy! Nay, hyt, &c. Holy hat berys as red as any Rose, The foster the hunters, kepe hem...

The cultivation of plants commences with our infancy. If estranged from it by the pursuits of active life, yet, during a few years’ retirement from the “great hum” of a noisy wo...

1. They make a procession to the church. 2. They put lighted candles on the altar. 3. They sing a hymn to these saints. 4. They chaunt the antiphona. 5. They sing the praises of...

From the “Diana” of George of Montemayor, 1598, there is an extract in the _Literary Pocket Book_ sweetly descriptive of a placid scene in nature. It begins with--“When the joyo...

According to captain Starkey’s narrative, when “learning to walk alone,” he unfortunately fell, “and so hurt his left arm, that it turned to a white swelling as large as a child...

Ye who with rod and line aspire to catch Leviathans that swim within the stream Of this fam’d _River_, now no longer _New_, Yet still so call’d, come hither to the Sluice-house....

Lions, with other beasts of prey and curious animals presented to the king of England, are committed to the Tower on their arrival, there to remain in the custody of a keeper es...

One of the pleasantest walks from Greenwich is over Blackheath, along by the park-wall to Charlton; and from thence after passing through that village, across Woolwich common an...

The fire having continu’d all this night (if I may call that night which was as light as day for ten miles round about, after a dreadful manner,) when conspiring with a fierce e...

This saint is in our almanacs and in the calendar of the church of England. The day is a great festival in the Romish church. The rev. Edward Barnard, of Brantinghamthorpe, in “...

This saint is in the church of England calendar. His name was Winfred. He was born at Crediton in Devonshire, educated in a Benedictine monastery at Exeter, sent to Friesland as...

Lawn, as white as driven snow; Cypress, black as e’er was crow; Gloves, as sweet as damask roses Masks for faces, and for noses; Bugle bracelet, necklace-amber, Perfume for a la...

But, now, I must speak of those powers in which Mr. Smith was unrivalled. His personation of _Charles Surface_, in the “School for Scandal,” (of which he was the original repres...

Naogeorgus records, that if the snow lay on the ground this day, snow-ball combats were exhibited with great vigour, till one party got the victory, and the other ran away: the...

The variety of funeral-rites and ceremonies, prevalent in different ages and countries, has been so great as to forbid any attempt to enumerate them; but it is consistent with t...

The approach of spring was there commemorated with an abundance of display, its allegorical character was its most remarkable feature. It was called _Der Sommers-gewinn_, the ac...

“There were also divers pageants, and morris dancers attendant on the setting of this marching watch. The _constables_, were divided into two parties; one halfe consisting of on...

Littlewit tells his wife, Win, of the great hog, and of a bull with five legs, in the Fair. Zeal-of-the-land loudly declaims against the Fair, and against Trash’s commodities:--...

It is observed by Dr. Forster in the “Perennial Calendar,” that about this season the purple spring crocus, _crocus vernus_, now blows, and is the latest of our crocuses. “It co...

The same Jesuit relates, that St. Blase was scourged, and seven holy women anointed themselves with his blood; whereupon their flesh was combed with iron combs, their wounds ran...

Three pieces of artillery being brought forward to beat down the draw-bridge, the governor demolished the little bridge of passage on the left hand, at the entrance of the fortr...

The popular triumph was of short duration. Scarcely had Octavia resumed her rank, when Nero, under colour of a false and infamous charge, again banished her. Never exile filled...

SIR WILLIAM BLACKSTONE died on the 14th of February, 1780. He was born at the house of his father, a silkman, in Cheapside, London, on the 10th of July, 1723; sent to the Charte...

C’s bull, an attorney not to be compared to, 239. Cages of squirrels, 1385. Cairo, the Pacha refuses a diploma, 84. Cakes, 42; tossed from an ox’s horn, 43. Calabrian minstrels...

Stow says, that “to this priory king Henry the second granted the priviledge of a Faire to bee kept yeerly at Bartholomew-tide, for three daies, to wit, the eve, the day, and th...

Hackin, the, a sausage, 1640. Hackney coaches, at Stourbridge, 1301. Hagbush-lane, Islington, account of, 870; derivation of name, 875. Haggis, how made, 1634. Hail-storm saint,...

This festival of St. John is observed by the church of England, and consequently his name is in the church calendar and the almanacs. The church of Rome, from whence the celebra...

Packhorse travelling, 876. Packington’s pound, a tune, 1214. Pageants in London, 671, 1443, 1473, 1487; at Edinburgh, 647; on St. John’s eve, 825; of the seasons, fasts, and fea...

“We call,” says Mr. Leigh Hunt--“we call upon the admirers of the good and beautiful to help us in ‘rescuing nature from obloquy.’ All you that are lovers of nature in books,--l...

On the 7th of November, 1615, (Michaelmas Term, 13 Jac. I.) when Ann Turner, a physician’s widow, was indicted at the bar of the court of king’s bench, before sir Edward Coke (a...

Waggon-driving at shrove-tide, 258. Waggoner in love, 227. Waits of London, 829; their ancient services, 1625. Wales, St. Patrick of, 371; superstitious customs, 523, 562, 849,...

ABBEVILLE, sporting letter from, 1575. Abduction, case of, 767. Abelard, P., died, 494. Abercrombie, sir R., died, 397. Aboo, or Aber, Irish war-cry, 502. Abraham’s bosom, in ol...

Amicus, 718. Bees and birds, 647. Cantab, 697. Constant Reader, 518, 1356. Causidicus, 517. C. L., 965, 1358, 1385. C. R. H., 1331. Δ, 658. D., 1063, 1122. D. G., 466. Dorsetshi...

120. Sadler’s Wells’ angling, 343. 121. St. Anne and St. Joachim, 1010. 122. St. Bride’s Church, Fleet-street, 87. 123. St. Catharine, 1506. 124. St. Cecilia, 1495. 125. St. Cri...