Part 131
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 a British public, whose national character Belzoni has elevated, by introducing into England many splendid remains of ancient grandeur. The journals of another year will record whether these representations were sufficient to rouse national feeling to a sense of national honour, and the necessity of relieving a lady whose husband perished in an enterprise to enrich her country, by making it the deposit of his further discoveries. Belzoni had penetrated and examined distant regions, and after disclosing the results of his investigations, and all the curious monuments of art he collected on his travels, he left London for the deserts of Africa, where he fell while labouring towards Timbuctoo, for other specimens of human ingenuity, and endeavouring to explore and point out channels of enterprise to our manufacturers and merchants. It is from these classes especially that his fate claims commiseration; and from them, and the public in general, Mrs. Belzoni should derive aid. Removal of her embarrassment, is only a suspension of the misfortunes that await a bereaved female, if she is not afforded the means of future support. This is said by one who never saw her or her late husband, and who only volunteers the plain thoughts of a plain man, who knows the advantages which England derives from Belzoni’s ardour and perseverance, and is somewhat qualified, perhaps, to compassionate Mrs. Belzoni’s helplessness. During a season of festal enjoyment, when friends and neighbours “make wassail,” any individual of right feeling might thaw indifference into regard for her situation, and “make the widow’s heart sing for joy.”
Subscriptions are advertised to be received by the following bankers, Messrs. Coutts and Co; Esdaile and Co.; Goslings and Co.; Hammersley and Co.; Hopkinson and Co.; Hoare, Barnett, and Co.; Jones, Lloyd, and Co.; Masterman and Co.; Smith, Payne, and Co.; Snow and Paul; Willis, Percival, and Co.; Wright and Co.
[398] Butler.
[399] Hasted’s Kent.
[400] Sir J. Sinclair’s Statist. Acc. of Scotland.
And after him came next the chill December; Yet he, through merry feasting which he made And great bonfires, did not the cold remember; His Saviour’s birth so much his mind did glad. Upon a shaggy bearded goat he rode, The same wherewith Dan Jove in tender years, They say was nourisht by the Idæan mayd; And in his hand a broad deepe bowle he beares, Of which he freely drinks an health to all his peers.
_Spenser._
This is the twelfth and last month of the year. By our ancestors “December hath his due appellation given him in the name of _winter-monat_, to wit, _winter-cometh_; but after the Saxons received Christianity, they then, of devotion to the birth-time of Christ, termed it by the name of _heligh-monat_, that is to say, holy-cometh.”[401] They also called it _midwinter-monath_ and _guil erra_, which means the former or first _giul_. The feast of Thor, which was celebrated at the winter solstice, was called _giul_ from _iol_, or _ol_, which signified _ale_, and is now corrupted into _yule_. This festival appears to have been continued through part of January.[402]
Our pleasant guide to “The Months,” Mr. Leigh Hunt, says of December thus:--
It is now complete winter. The vapourish and cloudy atmosphere wraps us about with dimness and chilliness; the reptiles and other creatures that sleep or hide during the cold weather, have all retired to their winter quarters; the farmer does little or nothing out of doors; the fields are too damp and miry to pass, except in sudden frosts, which begin to occur at the end of the month; and the trees look but like skeletons of what they were--
Bare ruined choirs in which the sweet birds sang.
_Shakspeare._
The evergreen trees with their beautiful cones, such as firs and pines, are now particularly observed and valued. In the warmer countries, where shade is more desirable, their worth and beauty are more regularly appreciated. Virgil talks of the pine as being handsomest in gardens; and it is a great favourite with Theocritus, especially for the fine sound of the air under its kind of vaulted roof.
But we have flowers as well as leaves in winter-time; besides a few of last month, there are the aconite and hellebore, two names of very different celebrity; and in addition to some of the flourishing shrubs, there is the Glastonbury thorn, which puts forth its beauty at Christmas. It is so called, we believe, because the abbots of the famous monastery at that place first had it in their garden from abroad, and turned its seasonable efflorescence into a miracle.
The evergreens and winter flowers are like real friends, who, whatever be their peculiar disposition, whether serious or gay, will never forsake us. Even roses, with which we are so apt to associate summer weather, flourish from May to December inclusive; and during the winter months will live and prosper in apartments. We need never be without them from the first day of the year to the last; and thus, to the numerous comparisons made between roses and the fair sex, may be added this new one, as complimentary to their friendship as it is true.
We have anticipated our general observations on winter-time in our remarks at the beginning of the year. December is in general too early a month for the fine manly exercise of skating, which indeed can be taken but rarely, on account of our changeful weather and the short continuance of frost. Like swimming, all the difficulty of it is in the commencement, at least for the purposes of enjoyment. The graces of outside strokes, and spread eagles, are the work of time and ambition.
But December has one circumstance in it, which turns it into the merriest month of the year,--Christmas. This is the holiday, which, for obvious reasons, may be said to have survived all the others; but still it is not kept with any thing like the vigour, perseverance, and elegance of our ancestors. They not only ran Christmas-day, new-year’s-day, and twelfth-night, all into one, but kept the wassail-bowl floating the whole time, and earned their right to enjoy it by all sorts of active pastimes. The wassail-bowl, (as some of our readers may know by experience, for it has been a little revived of late,) is a composition of spiced wine or ale, with roasted apples put into it, and sometimes eggs. They also adorned their houses with green boughs, which it appears, from Herrick, was a practice with many throughout the year,--box succeeding at Candlemas to the holly, bay, rosemary, and misletoe of Christmas,--yew at Easter to box,--birch and flowers at Whitsuntide to yew,--and then bents and oaken boughs. The whole nation were in as happy a ferment at Christmas, with the warmth of exercise and their firesides, as they were in May with the new sunshine. The peasants wrestled and sported on the town-green, and told tales of an evening; the gentry feasted then, or had music and other elegant pastimes; the court had the poetical and princely entertainment of masques; and all sung, danced, revelled, and enjoyed themselves, and so welcomed the new year like happy and grateful subjects of nature.
This is the way to turn winter to summer, and make the world what heaven has enabled it to be; but as people in general manage it, they might as well turn summer itself to winter. Hear what a poet says, who carries his own sunshine about with him:--
As for those chilly orbs, on the verge of creation Where sunshine and smiles must be equally rare Did they want a supply of cold hearts for that station, Heaven knows we have plenty on earth we could spare.
Oh, think what a world we should have of it here, If the haters of peace, of affection, and glee, Were to fly up to Saturn’s comfortless sphere, And leave earth to such spirits as you, love, and me.
_Moore._
Nor is it only on holidays that nature tells us to enjoy ourselves. If we were wise, we should earn a reasonable portion of leisure and enjoyment day by day, instead of resolving to do it some day or other, and seldom doing it at all. Company is not necessary for it, at intervals, except that best and most necessary company of one’s family-partners in life, or some one or two especial friends, truly so called, who are friends for every sort of weather, winter as well as summer. A warm carpet and curtains, a sparkling fire, a book, a little music, a happy sympathy of talk or a kind of discussion, may then call to mind with unenvying placidity the very rarest luxuries of the summer-time; and instead of being eternally and foolishly told, that pleasures produce pains, by those who really make them do so with their profligacy or bigotry, we shall learn the finer and manlier knowledge--how to turn pain to the production of pleasure.
Lawrence, of virtuous father, virtuous son, Now that the fields are dank and ways are mire, Where shall we sometimes meet, and by the fire Help waste a sullen day, what may be won From the hard season gaining? Time will run On smoother, till Favonius re-inspire The frozen earth, and clothe in fresh attire The lily and rose, which neither sowed nor spun. What neat repast shall feast us, light and choice, Of Attick taste, with wine, whence we may rise To hear the lute well touched, or artful voice Warble immortal notes and Tuscan air? He who of these delights can judge, and spare To interpose them oft, is not unwise.
_Milton._
[401] Verstegan.
[402] Dr. F. Sayers
~December 1.~
_St. Eligius_, or _Eloy_, Bp. of Noyon. A. D. 659.
THE SEASON.
It is observed by Dr. Forster in the “Perennial Calendar,” that the weather at this time is usually mild, and wet, with fogs; we have an occasional interchange of frosts. On some occasions a kind of weather occurs now which occasionally happens during all the winter months. The air becomes perfectly calm, the sky clouded and dark, without much mist below, the ground gets dry, and not a leaf stirs on the trees, and the sounds of distant bells, and other sounds and noises are heard at a great distance, just as they are on other occasions before rain. The thermometer is often from 45° to 52°. The barometer rises to “set fair” and remains steady, and the current of smoke from the chimnies either goes straight upright into the air in a vertical column, or inclines so little with the breath of air as to indicate sometimes one wind and sometimes another. At this time the crowing of the cocks, the noise of busy rooks and daws, which feed in flocks in the meadows, and fly at morning and eventide in flocks to and from their nests, the music of distant singing, and the strokes of the church clocks and chimes are heard for miles, as if carried along under the apparent sounding board of the clouds above. Even the voices of persons are heard at a vast distance, all being hushed around.
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FLORAL DIRECTORY.
Dark Stapelia. _Stapelia pulla._ Dedicated to _St. Eligius_.
~December 2.~
_St. Bibiania_, A. D. 363.
CHRONOLOGY.
On the 2d of December, 1823, the London Mechanics’ Institution was formed, and on the anniversary of the day, in 1824, the first stone of its theatre for the delivery of the lectures, in Southampton Buildings, Chancery-lane, was laid by Dr. Birkbeck. In a cavity of the stone was placed a bottle, wherein were sealed up a book of the laws of the institution--the tenth number of the “Mechanics’ Magazine,” which contained an account of the first meeting of the members--a vellum roll, on which was inscribed the names of the officers of the institution,--and a portrait of Dr. Birkbeck, the president. The bottle having been deposited, the president proceeded to lay the stone, which bears the following inscription, with the names of all the officers of the institution:--
This Stone, the first of the Lecture Room,
was laid on the 2d of December, 1824,
Being the First Anniversary of the Establishment
of the
LONDON MECHANICS’ INSTITUTION,
by
GEORGE BIRKBECK, M. D. PRESIDENT,
In the presence of the following Officers of the Institution,
Vice-Presidents, Trustees, Auditors,
John Martineau, Esq.,
Professor Millington,
John Borthwick Gilchrist, LL. D.
Robert M‘William, Esq.
After the stone was laid, Dr. Birkbeck addressed the meeting in nearly the following words:--“Now have we founded our edifice for the diffusion and advancement of human knowledge. Now have we begun to erect a temple, wherein man shall extend his acquaintance with the universe of mind, and shall acquire the means of enlarging his dominion over the universe of matter. In this spot, hereafter, the charms of literature shall be displayed, and the powers of science shall be unfolded to the most humble inquirers; for to ‘the feast of reason’ which will be here prepared, the invitation shall be as unbounded as the region of intellect. For an undertaking so vast in its design, and so magnificent in its objects (nothing short, indeed, of the moral and intellectual amelioration and aggrandizement of the human race), the blessing of heaven, I humbly trust, will not be implored in vain. If, in this institution, we seek to obey the mandate which has gone forth, that knowledge shall be increased; if we act in obedience to the injunction, that in all our gettings we should get understanding; if we succeed in proving, that for the existence of the mental wilderness, the continuance of which we all deeply deplore, we ought ‘to blame the culture, not the soil;’ if by rendering man more percipient of the order, harmony, and benevolence, which pervade the universe, we more effectually ‘assert eternal Providence, and justify the ways of God to man;’ and if thus we shall be the happy means of rendering it palpable, that the immortal essence within us, when freed from the deformity of ignorance and vice, has been created in the express image of God--then may we confidently hope that Omniscience will favourably behold our rising structure; and that in its future progress, Omnipotence, without whose assistance all human endeavours are vain, will confer upon us a portion of his powers. Whilst I remind you that the illustrious Bacon, long ago, maintained that ‘knowledge is power,’ I may apprize you that it has, since his time, been established that knowledge is wealth--is comfort--is security--is enjoyment--is happiness. It has been found so completely to mingle with human affairs, that it renders social life more endearing; has given to morality more sprightliness; and, politically, has produced more consistent obedience--it takes from adversity some of its bitterness, and enlarges the sphere, as well as augments the sweetness of every laudable gratification; and lastly, unquestionably one of its brightest influences, it becomes at once an avenue and a guide to that ‘temple which is not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.’”
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FLORAL DIRECTORY.
Lemon Geodorum. _Geodorum citrinum._ Dedicated to _St. Bibiania_.
~December 3.~
_St. Francis Xavier_, A. D. 1552. _St. Birinus_, first Bp. of Dorchester, A. D. 650. _St. Sola_, A. D. 790. _St. Lucius_, King, A. D. 182.
_Royal Dance of Torches._
_Berlin, December 3, 1821._--Of all the entertainments which took place in this capital, on the occasion of the marriage of the prince royal with the princess of Bavaria, none appeared so extraordinary to foreigners, as the _dance of torches_, (_Fakeltanz_.) It was executed after the grand marriage feast, in the following manner:--“The royal family, followed by all the personages who had partook of the feast at separate tables, proceeded to the white saloon. The dance was immediately opened by the privy councillor, marshal of the court, the baron de Maltzahn, bearing his baton of order. After him followed two and two, according to seniority of rank, the privy councillors and the ministers of state, bearing _wax torches_. The august bride and bridegroom preceded the above dancers, and walked round the saloon. The princess royal stopped before the king, and making him a profound reverence, invited him to dance. After having danced one turn with his majesty, she danced with all the princes. The prince royal, in like manner, danced with all the princesses. After the ball, the royal family passed into the apartment of Frederick I., where the grand mistress, countess of Norde, distributed the garter of the bride.”
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FLORAL DIRECTORY.
Indian Tree. _Euphorbia Tirucalli._ Dedicated to _St. Francis Xavier_.
~December 4.~
_St. Peter Chrysologus_, A. D. 450. _St. Barbara_, A. D. 306. _St. Anno_, Abp. of Cologne, A. D. 1075. _St. Osmund_, Bp. A. D. 1099 _St. Maruthas_, Bp. 5th Cent. _St. Siran_, or _Sigirannus_, A. D. 655. _St. Clement_, of Alexandria, A. D. 189.
_Ancient Divinations in Advent._
From the following lines of Barnaby Googe, it appears that rustic young girls in ancient times, indulged at this season in attempting to divine the name of the man they were to marry, from forcing the growth of onions in the chimney-corner, and that they ascertained the temper of the good man, from the straitness or crookedness of a faggot-stick drawn from a woodstack. Advent seems likewise to have been a time wherein the young ones went about and levied contributions
Three weekes before the day whereon was borne the Lorde of Grace, And on the Thursday boyes and girles do runne in every place, And bounce and beate at every doore, with blowes and lustie snaps, And crie, the _advent_ of the Lord not borne as yet perhaps. And wishing to the neighbours all, that in the houses dwell, A happie yeare, and every thing to spring and prosper well: Here have they peares, and plumbs, and pence, ech man gives willinglee, For these three nightes are always thought unfortunate to bee: Wherein they are afrayde of sprites, and cankred witches spight, And dreadfull devils blacke and grim, that then have chiefest might. In these same dayes yong wanton gyrles that meete for marriage bee, Doe search to know the names of them that shall their husbands bee. Foure onyons, five, or eight, they take and make in every one, Such names as they do fansie most, and best do thinke upon. Thus neere the chimney them they set, and that same onyon than, That first doth sproute, doth surely beare the name of their good man. Their husbandes nature eke they seeke to know, and all his guise, When as the sunne hath hid himselfe, and left the starrie skies, Unto some woodstacke do they go, and while they there do stande Eche one drawes out a faggot sticke, the next that commes to hande, Which if it streight and even be, and have no knots at all, A gentle husband then they thinke shall surely to them fall. But if it fowle and crooked be, and knottie here and theare, A crabbed churlish husband then, they earnestly do feare. These thinges the wicked papistes beare, and suffer willingly, Because they neyther do the ende, nor fruites of faith espie: And rather had the people should obey their foolish lust, Than truely God to know; and in him here alone to trust.
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FLORAL DIRECTORY.
Barbados Gooseberry. _Cactus Pereskia._ Dedicated to _St. Peter Chrysologus_.
~December 5.~
_St. Sabas_, Abbot, A. D. 532. _St. Crispina_, A. D. 304. _St. Nicetius_, Bp. of Triers, A. D. 566.
_Foot Ball in Scotland._
On Tuesday the 5th of December, 1815, a great foot-ball match took place at Carterhaugh, Ettrick Forest (a spot classical in minstrelsy), betwixt the Ettrick men and the men of Yarrow; the one party backed by the earl of Home, and the other by sir Walter Scott, sheriff of the forest, who wrote two songs for the occasion, one whereof follows:--
_Lifting the Banner of the House of Buccleugh, at the great Foot-ball match, on Carterhaugh._
From the brown crest of Newark its summons extending, Our signal is waving in smoke and in flame; And each forester blithe from his mountain descending, Bounds light o’er the heather to join in the game.
_Chorus._
Then up with the banner, let forest winds fan her, She has blazed over Ettrick eight ages and more; In sport we’ll attend her, in battle defend her, With heart and with hand, like our fathers’ before.
When the southern invader spread waste and disorder, At the glance of her crescents he paus’d and withdrew For around them were marshal’d the pride of the border, The flowers of the forest, the bands of Buccleuch. Then up with the banner, &c.
A stripling’s weak hand to our revel has borne her, No mail glove has grasp’d her, no spearmen around; But ere a bold foeman should scathe or should scorn her, A thousand true hearts would be cold on the ground. Then up with the banner, &c.
We forget each contention of civil dissension, And hail, like our brethren, Home, Douglas, and Car; And Elliot and Pringle in pastime shall mingle, As welcome in peace as their fathers in war. Then up with the banner, &c.
Then strip lads, and to it, though sharp be the weather, And if, by mischance, you should happen to fall, There are worse things in life than a tumble on heather, And life is itself but a game at foot-ball! Then up with the banner, &c.
And when it is over, we’ll drink a blythe measure To each laird and each lady that witness’d our fun, And to every blythe heart that took part in our pleasure, To the lads that have lost and the lads that have won. Then up with the banner, &c.
May the forest still flourish, both borough and landward From the hall of the peer to the herd’s ingle nook; And huzza! my brave hearts, for Buccleuch and his standard For the king and the country, the clan and the duke! Then up with the banner, &c.
QUOTH THE SHERIFF OF THE FOREST
_Abbotsford_, _Dec._ 1, 1815.
Something has been said concerning _ball-play_, at p. 863, and more remains to be observed, with which foot-ball will be mentioned hereafter. At present the year hastens the volume to a close, and we must put by many things to make ready for the “great festival:”--
_Christmas_ is a coming, We’ll have flowing bowls, Laughing, piping, drumming, We’ll be jovial souls.
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FLORAL DIRECTORY.
Longstalked Hibiscus. _Hibiscus pedunculatus._ Dedicated to _St. Crispina_.
~December 6.~
_St. Nicholas_, Abp. of Myra, A. D. 342. _Sts. Dionysia_, _Dativa_, _Æmilianus_, _Boniface_, _Leontia_, _Tertius_, and _Majoricus_, Martyrs. _St. Peter Paschal_, A. D. 1300. _St. Theophilus_, Bp. of Antioch, A. D. 190.
~St. Nicholas.~
He is in the almanacs, and church of England calendar. He is patron or titular saint of virgins, boys, sailors, and the worshipful company of parish clerks of the city of London. Mr. Audley briefly observes of him, that he was remarkable in his infancy for piety, and the knowledge of the scriptures; that he was made bishop of Myra, in Lycia, by Constantine the Great, and that “he was present in the council of Nice, where, it is said, he gave Arius a box on the ear.”[403]