Chapter 2

Towards the month of November a Hydriote brig of war, commanded by the nephew of the brave Criézy, sailed to Cephalonia to take him on board, and bring him to Missolonghi; but the Septinsular government, not permitting ships bearing a Greek flag to come into its harbours, Byron was obliged to pass to Zante in a small vessel, and to join the Greek brig afterwards, which was waiting for him near Zante. Hardly was Byron on board when he kissed the mainmast, calling it "_sacred wood_." The ship's crew astonished at this whimsical behaviour, regarded him in silence; suddenly Byron turned towards the captain and the sailors, whom he embraced with tears, and said to them, "It is by this wood that you will consolidate your independence." At these words the sailors, moved with enthusiasm, regarded him with admiration. Byron soon reached Missolonghi: the members of the Administrative Council received him at the head of two thousand soldiers drawn up in order. The artillery of the place, and the discharge of musquetry announced the happy arrival of this great man. All the inhabitants ran to the shore, and welcomed him with acclamations. As soon as he had entered the town, he went to the hotel of the Administrative Council, where he was complimented by Porphyrios, Archbishop of Arta, Lepanto and Etolia, accompanied by all his clergy. The first words of Byron were, "Where is the brother of the modern Leonidas?" Constantine Botzaris, a young man, tall and well made, immediately stepped forward, and Byron thus accosted him:--"Happy mortal! Thou art the brother of a hero, whose name will never be effaced in the lapse of ages!" Then perceiving a great crowd assembled under the windows of the hotel, he advanced towards the casement, and said, "Hellenes! you see amongst you an Englishman who has never ceased to study Greece in her antiquity, and to think of her in her modern state; an Englishman who has always invoked by his vows that liberty, for which you are now making so many heroic efforts. I am grateful for the sentiments which you testify towards me; in a short time you will see me in the middle of your phalanxes, to conquer or perish with you." A month afterwards the government sent him a deputation, charged to offer him a sword and the patent of Greek citizenship; at the same time the town of Missolonghi inscribed him in its archives. For this public act they prepared a solemn ceremony for him; they fixed beforehand the day--they invited there by circular letters the inhabitants of the neighbouring districts--and more than twenty thousand persons arrived at Missolonghi. Byron in a Greek costume, preceded and followed by all the military, who loved him, proceeded to the church, where the Archbishop Porphyrios and the bishop of Rogon, Joseph, that martyr of religion and his country, received him in the vestibule of the church, clothed in their sacerdotal habits; and, after having celebrated mass, they offered him the sword and the patent of citizenship. Byron demanded that the sword should be first dedicated on the tomb of Marco Botzaris; and immediately the whole retinue, and an immense crowd, went out of the church to the tomb of that warrior, which had been ornamented with beautiful marble at the expense of the poet.

The archbishop placed the sword upon this tomb, and then Byron, to inspire the Greeks with enthusiasm, advanced with a religious silence, and stopping all on a sudden, he pronounced this discourse in the Greek tongue:--"What man reposes buried under this stone? What hollow voice issues from this tomb? What is this sepulchre, from whence will spring the happiness of Greece? But what am I saying? Is it not the tomb of Marco Botzaris, who has been dead some months, and who, with a handful of brave men, precipitated himself upon the numerous ranks of the most formidable enemies of Greece? How dare I approach the sacred place where he reposes--I, who neither possess his heroism nor his virtues? However, in touching this tomb, I hope that its emanations will always inflame my heart with patriotism." So saying, and advancing towards the sepulchre, he kissed it while shedding tears. Every spectator exclaimed, "Lord Byron for ever!" "I see," added his lordship, "the sword and the letter of citizenship, which the government offers me; from this day I am the fellow-citizen of this hero, and of all the brave people who surround me. Hellenes! I hope to live with you, to fight the enemy with you, and to die with you if it be necessary." Byron, superior to vulgar prejudice, saw in the manners of the _pallikares_ an ingenuous simplicity, a manly frankness and rustic procedure, but full of honour; he observed in the people a docility and constancy capable of the greatest efforts, when it shall be conducted by skilful and virtuous men; he observed amongst the Greek women natural gaiety, unstudied gentleness, and religious resignation to misfortunes.

Byron did not pretend to bend a whole people to his tastes and European habits. He came not to censure with a stern look their costumes, their dances, and their music; on the contrary, he entered into their national dances, he learned their warlike songs, he dressed himself like them, he spoke their language; in a word, he soon became a true _Roumeliote_. Consequently, he was adored by all Western Greece; every captain acknowledged him with pleasure as his chief; the proud Souliots gloried in being under his immediate command. The funds of the first loan being addressed to him, and submitted to his inspection, gave him influence, not only over continental Greece, but even over the Peloponnesus; so that he was in a situation, if not sufficient to stifle discord, at least to keep it within bounds. Not having yet fathomed the character of all the chief people, as well civil as military, he was sometimes deceived in the beginning of his sojourn, which a little hurt his popularity; but being completely above trifling passions, being able to strengthen by his union with it the party which appeared to him the most patriotic, he might without any doubt, with time and experience, have played a part the most magnificent and salutary to Greece. At first he had constructed, at his own expense, a fort in the little isle of Xéclamisma, the capture of which would have given great facilities to the enemies to attack by sea Missolonghi or Anatoliko. Missolonghi gave to this important fort the name of "Fort Byron." This nobleman conceived afterwards, studied and prepared an expedition against the strong place of Lepanto, the capture of which would have produced consequences singularly favourable. Once in possession of the means of regularly paying the soldiers, he would have been able to form a choice body, and take the town, which did not present any difficulty of attack, either on account of the few troops shut up there, or the weakness of its fortifications. Byron only waited the arrival of the loan, to begin his march.

Thus he led an agreeable life in the midst of a nation which he aimed at saving. Enchanted with the bravery of the Souliots, and their manners, which recalled to him the simplicity of Homeric times, he assisted at their banquets, extended upon the turf; he learnt their pyrrhic dance, and he sang in unison the airs of Riga, harmonizing his steps to the sound of their national mandolin. Alas! he carried too far his benevolent condescension. Towards the beginning of April he went to hunt in the marshes of Missolonghi. He entered on foot in the shallows; he came out quite wet, and, following the example of the _pallikares_ accustomed to the _malaria_, he would not change his clothes, and persisted in having them dried upon his body. Attacked with an inflammation upon the lungs, he refused to let himself be bled, notwithstanding the intreaties of his physician, of Maurocordato and all his friends. His malady quickly grew worse; on the fourth day Byron became delirious; by means of bleeding he recovered from his drowsiness, but without being able to speak; then, feeling his end approaching, he gave his attendants to understand that he wished to take leave of the captains and all the Souliots. As each approached, Byron made a sign to them to kiss him. At last he expired in the arms of Maurocordato, whilst pronouncing the names of his daughter and of Greece. His death was fatal to the nation, which it plunged in mourning and tears.

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MANNERS & CUSTOMS OF ALL NATIONS.

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CEREMONIES RELATING TO THE HAIR.

(_For the Mirror_.)

Among the ancient Greeks, all dead persons were thought to be under the jurisdiction of the infernal deities, and therefore no man (says Potter) could resign his life, till some of his hairs were cut to consecrate to them. During the ceremony of laying out, clothing the dead, and sometimes the interment itself, the hair of the deceased person was hung upon the door, to signify the family was in mourning. It was sometimes laid upon the dead body, sometimes cast into the funeral pile, and sometimes placed upon the grave. Electra in Sophocles says, that Agamemnon had commanded her and Chrysothemis to pay him this honour:--

"With drink-off'rings and _locks_ of _hair_ we must, According to his will, his _tomb_ adorn."

Candace in Ovid bewails her calamity, in that she was not permitted to adorn her lover's tomb with her locks.

At Patroclus's funeral, the Grecians, to show their affection and respect to him, covered his body with their hair; Achilles cast it into the funeral pile. The custom of nourishing the hair on religious accounts seems to have prevailed in most nations. Osiris, the Egyptian, consecrated his hair to the gods, as we learn from Diodorus; and in Arian's account of India, it appears it was a custom there to preserve their hair for some god, which they first learnt (as that author reports) from Bacchus.

The Greeks and Romans wore false hair. It was esteemed a peculiar honour among the ancient Gauls to have long hair. For this reason Julius Caesar, upon subduing the Gauls, made them cut off their hair, as a token of submission. In the royal family of France, it was a long time the peculiar mark and privilege of kings and princes of the blood to wear long hair, artfully dressed and curled; every body else being obliged to be polled, or cut round, in sign of inferiority and obedience. In the eighth century, it was the custom of people of quality to have their children's hair cut the first time by persons they had a particular honour and esteem for, who, in virtue of this ceremony, were reputed a sort of spiritual parents or godfathers to them. In the year 1096, there was a canon, importing, that such as wore long hair should be excluded coming into church when living, and not be prayed for when dead. Charlemagne wore his hair very short, his son shorter; Charles the _Bald_ had none at all. Under Hugh Capet it began to appear again; this the ecclesiastics were displeased with, and excommunicated all who let their hair grow. Peter Lombard expostulated the matter so warmly with Charles the Young, that he cut off his own hair; and his successors, for some generations, wore it very short. A professor of Utrecht, in 1650, wrote expressly on the question, Whether it be lawful for men to wear long hair? and concluded for the negative. Another divine, named Reeves, who had written for the affirmative, replied to him. In _New_ England a declaration was inscribed in the register of the colony against the practice of wearing long hair, which was principally levelled at the Quakers, with unjust severity.

P.T.W.

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Pagoda in Kew Gardens.

In one of the wildernesses of Kew Gardens stands the _Great Pagoda_, erected in the year 1762, from a design in imitation of the Chinese Taa. The base is a regular octagon, 49 feet in diameter; and the superstructure is likewise a regular octagon on its plan, and in its elevation composed of 10 prisms, which form the 10 different stories of the building. The lowest of these is 26 feet in diameter, exclusive of the portico which surrounds it, and 18 feet high; the second is 25 feet in diameter, and 17 feet high; and all the rest diminish in diameter and height, in the same arithmetical proportion, to the ninth story, which is 18 feet in diameter and 10 feet high. The tenth story is 17 feet in diameter, and, with the covering, 20 feet high, and the finishing on the top is 17 feet high; so that the whole structure, from the base to the top of the fleuron, is 163 feet. Each story finishes with a projecting roof, after the Chinese manner, covered with plates of varnished iron of different colours, and round each of them is a gallery enclosed with a rail. All the angles of the roof are adorned with large dragons, eighty in number, covered with a kind of thin glass of various colours, which produces a most dazzling reflection; and the whole ornament at the top is double gilt. The walls of the building are composed of very hard bricks; the outside of well-coloured and well-matched greystocks, (bricks,) neatly laid. The staircase is in the centre of the building. The prospect opens as you advance in height; and from the top you command a very extensive view on all sides, and, in some directions, upwards of forty miles distant, over a rich and variegated country.

* * * * *

FINE ARTS

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MR. HAYDON'S PICTURE OF "CHAIRING THE MEMBERS."

In our last volume we were induced to appropriate nearly six of our columns to a description of Mr. Haydon's Picture of the Mock Election in the King's Bench Prison--or rather _the first_ of a series of pictures to illustrate the Election, the subject of the present notice being the Second, or the Chairing of the Members, which was intended for the concluding scene of the burlesque. It will, therefore, be unnecessary for us here to give any additional explanation of the real life of these paintings, except so far as may be necessary to the explanation of the present picture.

The "_Chairing_" was acted on a water butt one evening, but was to have been again performed in more magnificent costume the next day; just, however, as all the actors in this eccentric masquerade, High Sheriff, Lord Mayor, Head Constable, Assessor, Poll Clerks, and Members, were ready dressed, and preparing to start, the marshal interfered, stopped the procession, and, after some parley, was advised to send for the guards.

"About the middle of a sunny day," says Mr. Haydon, "when all was quiet, save the occasional cracking of a racket ball, while some were reading, some smoking, some lounging, some talking, some occupied with their own sorrows, and some with the sorrows of their friends, in rushed six fine grenadiers with a noble fellow of a sergeant at their head, with bayonets fixed, and several rounds of ball in their cartouches, expecting to meet (by their looks) with the most desperate resistance."

"The materials thus afforded me by the entrance of the guards, I have combined in one moment;" or "I have combined in one moment what happened at different moments; the _characters_ and _soldiers are all portraits_. I have only used the poets and painters' license, to make out the second part of the story, a part that happens in all elections, viz. the chairing of the successful candidates."

"In the corner of the picture, on the left of the spectator, are three of the guards, drawn up across the door, standing at ease, with all the self-command of soldiers in such situations, hardly suppressing a laugh at the ridiculous attempts made to oppose them; in front of the guards, is the commander of the enemy's forces; viz.--a little boy with a tin sword, on regular guard position, ready to receive and oppose them, with a banner of 'Freedom of Election,' hanging on his sabre; behind him stands the Lord High Sheriff, affecting to charge the soldiers with his mopstick and pottle. He is dressed in a magnificent suit of decayed splendour, with an old court sword, loose silk stockings, white shoes, and unbuckled knee-bands; his shoulders are adorned with white bows, and curtain rings for a chain, hung by a blue ribbon from his neck. Next to him, adorned with a blanket, is a character of voluptuous gaiety, helmeted by a saucepan, holding up the cover for a shield, and a bottle for a weapon. Then comes the Fool, making grimaces with his painted cheeks, and bending his fists at the military; while the Lord Mayor with his white wand, is placing his hand on his heart with mock gravity and wounded indignation at this violation of _Magna Charta_ and civil rights. Behind him are different characters, with a porter pot for a standard, and a watchman's rattle; while in the extreme distance, behind the rattle, and under the wall, is a ragged Orator addressing the burgesses on this violation of the privileges of Election.

"Right over the figure with a saucepan, is a Turnkey, holding up a key and pulling down the celebrated Meredith; who, quite serious, and believing he will really sit in the House, is endeavouring to strike the turnkey with a champagne glass. The gallant member is on the shoulders of two men, who are peeping out and quizzing.

"Close to Meredith is his fellow Member, dressed in a Spanish hat and feather, addressing the Sergeant opposite him, with an arch look, on the illegality of his entrance at elections, while a turnkey has taken hold of the member's robe, and is pulling him off the water butt with violence.

"The sergeant, a fine soldier, one of the heroes of Waterloo, is smiling and amused, while a grenadier, one of the other three under arms, is looking at his sergeant for orders.

"In the corner, directly under the sergeant, is a dissipated young man, addicted to hunting and sports, without adequate means for the enjoyment, attended by his distressed family. He, half intoxicated, has just drawn a cork, and is addressing the bottle, his only comfort, while his daughter is delicately putting it aside and looking with entreaty at her father.

"The harassed wife is putting back the daughter, unwilling to deprive the man she loves, of what, though a baneful consolation, is still one; while the little, shoeless boy with his hoop, is regarding his father with that strange wonder, with which children look at the unaccountable alteration in features and expression, that takes place under the effects of intoxication.

"Three pawnbroker's duplicates, one for the child's shoes, 1_s_. 6_d_., one for the wedding ring, 5_s_., and one for the wife's necklace, 7_l_., lie at the feet of the father, with the Sporting Magazine; for drunkards generally part with the ornaments or even necessaries of their wives and children before they trespass on their own.

"At the opposite corner lies curled up the Head Constable, hid away under his bed-curtain, which he had for a robe, and slyly looking, as if he hoped nobody would betray him. By his side is placed a table, with the relics of a luxurious enjoyment, while a washing tub as a wine cooler, contains, under the table, Hock, Champagne, Burgundy, and a Pine.

"Directly over the sergeant, on the wall, are written, 'The _Majesti_ of the _Peepel_ for ever--huzza!'--'No military at Elections!' and 'No Marshal!'--on the standards to the left, are '_Confusion to Credit, and no fraudulent Creditors_.' In the window are a party with a lady smoking a hookah; on the ledge of the window, "Success to the detaining Creditor!" --At the opposite window is a portrait of the Painter, looking down on the extraordinary scene with great interest--underneath him is, 'Sperat infestis.'

"On a board under the lady smoking, is written the order of the Lord Mayor, enjoining _Peace_, as follows:--

"Banco Regis, Court House, July 16, In the Sixth year of the Reign of GEORGE IV.

"Peremptorily ordered--

"That the Special Constables and Headboroughs of this ancient Bailwick do take into custody all Persons found in any way committing a breach of the Peace, during the Procession of Chairing the Members returned to represent this Borough.

"SIR ROBERT BIRCH, (Collegian) Lord Mayor.

"'A New Way to pay Old Debts,'--is written over the first turnkey; and below it, 'N.B. A very old way, discovered 3394 years B.C.;' and in the extreme distance, over a shop, is--'Dealer in every thing genuine.'

"While the man beating the long drum, at the opposite end, another the cymbals, and the third blowing a trumpet, with the windows all crowded with spectators, complete the composition, with the exception of the melancholy victim behind the High Sheriff.

"I recommend the contemplation of this miserable creature, once a gentleman, to all advocates of imprisonment for debt. First rendered reckless by imprisonment--then hopeless--then sottish--and, last of all, from utter despair of freedom, insane! Round his withered temples is a blue ribbon, with 'Dulce est pro Patriâ mori,' (it is sweet to die for one's country); for he is baring his breast to rush on the bayonets of the guards, a willing sacrifice, as he believes, poor fellow, for a great public principle. In his pocket he has three pamphlets, 'On Water Drinking, or The Blessings of Imprisonment for Debt,'--and Adam Smith's 'Moral Essays.'--Ruffles hang from his wrists, the relics of former days, rags cover his feeble legs, one foot is naked, and his appearance is that of a decaying being, mind and body."

Such is Mr. Haydon's "Explanation" of his own Picture; and it only remains for us to give the reader some idea of its most prominent beauties. As a whole, it is very superior to the "Election," highly as we were disposed to rate the merits of that performance. The style is masterly throughout, and every shade of the colouring has all the depth and richness which characterize works of real genius. There is a spirit in every touch which differs as much from the softened and soulless compositions of certain modern artists, as does the florid architecture of the ancients from the starved proportions of these days, or the rich and graceful style of the Essayists from the fabrications of little, self-conceited biographers. In short, the whole scene is dashed off in the first style of art; the subject and humour are all over English--true to nature, and so forcible as to seize on the attention of the most listless beholder.