Chapter 2

[3] Aldburgh, or Aldborough, so called by the Normans, was the Iseur of the Ancient Britons, and the Isurium of the Romans. Perhaps there is not another Roman city, not even excepting York, where so many antiquities have been discovered. The opening of ancient baths, burial vaults, &c. has led to the finding of tesselated pavements, coins, urns, rings, lachrymatories, seals, monumental inscriptions, medals, statues, chains, sacrificing vessels, &c. It is to be lamented that modern ignorance and barbarity are fast obliterating all traces of the Roman walls of Isurium; their foundations having been dug up for the mercenary purpose of obtaining their materials. We cannot sufficiently censure such irreverence to "hoar antiquity," or the contracted and grovelling ideas which actuate such village Vandals.

[4] The following letter was addressed by Layton, one of the emissaries of the Dissolution, to Lord Cromwell, at the Reformation:--

"Please your worship to understand that the Abbot of Fountaynes hath so greatly dilapidated his house, wasted ye woods, notoriously keeping six ------; and six days before our coming, he committed theft and sacrilege, confessing the same; for at midnight he caused the chapleyne to stele the keys of the secton, and took out a jewel, a cross of gold with stones; one _Warren_, a goldsmith of the Chepe, was with him in his chamber at the hour, and there they stole out a great emerode with a rubye, the said _Warren_ made the Abbot believe the rubye was a garnet, and so for that he paid nothing for the emerode, but £20. He sold him also plate, without weight or ounces.

"Subscribed, your poor Priest and faithful servant, R. LAYTON."

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THE ANECDOTE GALLERY

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PALEY.

Paley would employ himself in his Natural Theology, and then gather his peas for dinner, very likely gathering some hint for his work at the same time. He would converse with his classical neighbour, Mr. Yates, or he would reply to his invitation that he could not come, for that he was busy knitting. He would station himself at his garden wall, which overhung the river, and watch the progress of a cast-iron bridge in building, asking questions of the architect, and carefully examining every pin and screw with which it was put together. He would loiter along a river, with his angle-rod, musing upon what he supposed to pass in the mind of a pike when he bit, and when he refused to bite; or he would stand by the sea-side, and speculate upon what a young shrimp could mean by jumping in the sun.

With the handle of his stick in his mouth, he would move about his garden in a short hurried step, now stopping to contemplate a butterfly, a flower, or a snail, and now earnestly engaged in some new arrangement of his flower-pots.

He would take from his own table to his study the back-bone of a hare, or a fish's head; and he would pull out of his pocket, after a walk, a plant or stone to be made tributary to an argument. His manuscripts were as motley as his occupations; the workshop of a mind ever on the alert; evidences mixed up with memorandums for his will; an interesting discussion brought to an untimely end by the hiring of servants, the letting of fields, sending his boys to school, reproving the refractory members of an hospital; here a dedication, there one of his children's exercises--in another place a receipt for cheap soup. He would amuse his fire side by family anecdotes:--how one of his ancestors (and he was praised as a pattern of perseverance) separated two pounds of white and black pepper which had been accidentally mixed--_patiens pulveris_, he might truly have added; and how, when the _Paley arms_ were wanted, recourse was had to a family tankard which was supposed to bear them, but which he always took a malicious pleasure in insisting had been bought at a sale--

Haec est Vita solutorum miserâ ambitione gravique;

the life of a man far more happily employed than in the composition of political pamphlets, or in the nurture of political discontent. Nay, when his friend Mr. Carlyle is about going out with Lord Elgin to Constantinople, the very headquarters of despotism, we do not perceive, amongst the multitude of most characteristic hints and queries which Paley addresses to him, a single fling at the Turk, or a single hope expressed that the day was not very far distant when the Cossacks would be permitted to erect the standard of liberty in his capital.

I will do your visitation for you (Mr. Carlyle was chancellor of the diocese,) in case of your absence, with the greatest pleasure--it is neither a difficulty nor a favour.

Observanda--1. Compare every thing with English and Cumberland scenery: e.g., rivers with Eden, groves with Corby, mountains with Skiddaw; your sensations of buildings, streets, persons, &c. &c.; e.g., whether the Mufti be like Dr. ----, the Grand Seignior, Mr. ----.

2. Give us one day at Constantinople minutely from morning to night--what you do, see, eat, and hear.

3. Let us know what the common people have to dinner; get, if you can, a peasant's actual dinner and bottle; for instance, if you see a man working in the fields, call to him to bring the dinner he has with him, and describe it minutely.

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4. The diversions of the common people; whether they seem to enjoy their amusements, and be happy, and sport, and laugh; farm-houses, or any thing answering to them, and of what kind; same of public-houses, roads.

5. Their shops; how you get your breeches mended, or things done for you, and how (i.e. well or ill done;) whether you see the tailor, converse with him, &c.

6. Get into the inside of a cottage; describe furniture, utensils, what you find actually doing.

All the stipulations I make with you for doing your visitation is, that you come over to Wearmouth soon after your return, for you will be very entertaining between truth and lying. I have a notion you will find books, but in great confusion as to catalogues, classing, &c.

7. Describe minutely how you pass one day on ship-board; learn to take and apply lunar, or other observations, and how the midshipmen, &c, do it.

8. What sort of fish you get, and how dressed. I should think your business would be to make yourself master of the middle Greek. My compliments to Bonaparte, if you meet with him, which I think is very likely. Pick up little articles of dress, tools, furniture, especially from low life--as an actual smock, &c.

9. What they talk about; company.

10. Describe your impression upon first seeing things; upon catching the first view of Constantinople; the novelties of the first day you pass there.

In all countries and climates, nations and languages, carry with you the best wishes of, dear Carlyle,

Your affectionate friend,

W. PALEY.

_Quarterly Review_.

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SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY.

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_The Tea Plant_.

The tea leaf is plucked from the plant by the manufacturers at _three_ periods during the spring, which crops they call, in their technical phrase, the head, or first spring; the second spring; and the third spring. The quality of the tea varies according to the time of the plucking. The young and tender leaves of course make finer tea than tough and old ones.--_Asiatic Register_.

_Portsmouth Literary and Philosophical Society_.

We have been much interested with the report of this Society for 1827-8, and we are happy to record the prosperity of the establishment. Some of the lectures, especially those on Geology, or Mineralogy, are very attractive; and in the curator's report, we notice that the Museum, previously rich in fossil organic remains, has been enriched by numerous donations in this department, during the past session. The entire number of specimens in the Museum is upwards of 9,000.

We have not been at Portsmouth for these three years, and till we saw this report, were not aware that the State Chambers, lately on the Platform Battery, had been pulled down towards the close of last year. The building was of some interest. It was of stone, with walls of considerable thickness, and square vaults below, descending to a level with the parade, and used at different periods as dungeons. The part on which the vane stood, was erected in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and the other part was built in the time of Charles II., whose name, with the date, was on a marble slab above the doorway. Of late years the building had been modernized and used as a signal-house and subscription reading-room. If we are not mistaken, the edifice had often been much injured by the encroachments of the sea, and probably this led to its removal.

_Conversations on Geology_.

We notice with much pleasure a handsome volume under the above popular title, which represents that delightful science in the very attractive form of a series of dialogues between a mother and her children. The Huttonian and Wernerian systems and the Mosaic Geology, are here familiarly explained, and illustrative phenomena and recent discoveries glanced at in the progress of the conversations. How much more profitable are such family recreations than sitting hours over spotted pieces of paper, counting the pips of dice, or simpering over fashionable novels and tales of scandal run mad. Bookish families are usually the happiest, at least if we rightly estimate the term. In an early number we shall endeavour to find some portion of these "Conversations" for our columns.

"_Arcana of Science for_ 1829."

This work will appear early in January. It will be on the same plan as the volume of last year, and will contain at least _thirty engravings_, on copper and wood. The _mechanical_ department is unusually copious, and there are some abstracts in the _chemical_, which are of high value.

_Rice_.

Trials have recently been made to grow the dry rice of China in Italy; and it is expected that in time an advantageous cultivation of it may be introduced in France.

_Turf_.

A correspondent of a French work on gardening thinks that green turf may be obtained in France by trenching the ground, freeing it from stones, covering the surface with two or three inches of rich compost, and then laying on the turf. The improved soil, he thinks, will retain moisture sufficient to keep the turf growing all the summer, and, consequently, green.

_Garden of the Hesperides_.

Lieutenant Beachey, in his _Travels in Cyrene_, recently published, has thrown some curious light on the ancient account of these celebrated gardens. It appears, that, like many other wonders, ancient and modern, when reduced to simple truth, they are little more than common occurrences. Baron Humboldt and Mr. Bullock have reduced the floating gardens of Mexico to mud banks, with ditches between; and lieutenant Beachey makes it appear, that the gardens of the Hesperides are nothing more than old stone quarries, the bottoms of which have been cultivated.

_Preparation of Cinnamon_.

The rough bark is first scraped off with knives, and then, with a peculiar instrument, the inner rind is stripped off in long slips; these are tied up in bundles, and put to dry in the sun, and the wood is sold for fuel. The operation was thus explained to bishop Heber by the cinnamon peelers; but in the regular preparation, the outer bark is not scraped off; but the process of fermentation, which the strips undergo when tied up in large quantities, removes the coarse parts. The peelers are called Chaliers.

_Power of the Sun's Rays_.

Mr. Mackintosh, contractor for the government works at Stonehouse Point, Devon, lately had to descend in the diving-bell with workmen to lay the foundation of a sea wall. The machine is fitted with convex glasses, in the upper part, to serve the purpose of windows; and Mr. Mackintosh states, that on several occasions, in clear weather, he has witnessed the sun's rays so concentrated by the circular windows, as to burn the labourers' clothes, when opposed to the focal point, and this when the machine was twenty-five feet under the surface of the water!--_From the MS. Journal of the Bristol Nursery Library_.

_The Cowslip and Polyanthus_.

By sowing the seed of the wild cowslip in the garden, a number of varieties will be produced, some of which have flowers of a beautiful bright red colour. May not this process be the first step towards the formation of our garden polyanthus? if that be not, as is generally supposed, a variety of the primrose, rather than of the cowslip.--_Gard. Mag_.

_French Method of making Coffee_.

The principal points are these:--The coffee,--_Turkey or Bourbon_,--should be roasted only till it is of a _cinnamon colour_, and closely covered up during the process of roasting. In France this is done in closed iron cylinders, turned over a fire by a handle, like a grindstone. The coffee should be coarsely ground soon after it is roasted, but not until quite cool: some think its _aroma_ is better preserved by beating in a mortar, but this is tedious. The proportions for _making coffee_ are usually _one pint of boiling water to two and a half ounces of coffee_. The coffee being put into the water, the coffee-pot should be covered up, and left for two hours surrounded with hot cinders, so as to keep up the temperature, without making the liquor boil. Occasionally stir it, and after two hours' infusion, remove it from the fire, and allow it a quarter of an hour to settle, and when perfectly clear, decant it. Isinglass, or hartshorn shavings, are sometimes used to clarify coffee; but by this addition you lose a great portion of its delicious aroma.

Coffee in England is generally _over-roasted_, and to this fault arise all the inconveniences which are so often attributed to coffee, but which, in reality, are produced by the imperfect modes of its preparation.--_From the Coffee-Drinker's Manual, translated from the French_.

_Ivy_.

Attached to the officers' barracks at Winchester, is a very fine specimen of ivy; its trunk has been severed off to a height of more than two feet from the ground, yet it has for years continued in healthy vegetation.--_Gard. Mag_.

_Parasite Sycamore_.

In Kinmel Park, Denbighshire, is an oak tree, which, twenty or thirty years ago, lost one of its largest branches by the wind, and a partial decay was the consequence; a key from a neighbouring sycamore fell into the fracture, which, vegetating, has formed for the old mutilated oak a new head. This parasite appears to have so completely seated itself, that, though the place of its first lodgment is twelve feet from the ground, it is thought that its roots will very soon penetrate to the earth, and at last destroy its venerable nurse.--_Ibid_.

_Turpentine_.

Common turpentine is the produce of the Scotch pine. Trees with the thickest bark, and which are most exposed to the sun, generally yield the most turpentine. The first incision is made near the foot of the tree, and as the resin flows most abundantly in hot weather, the operations are begun about the end of May, and continued to September. The juice is received into holes dug in the ground, is afterwards taken out with iron ladles, poured into pails, and removed to a hollow trunk, capacious enough to hold three or four barrels. _Essential oil of turpentine_ is obtained by distillation. _Common resin_ is the residuum of the process for obtaining the essential oil. _Tar_ is obtained from the roots and other parts of old trees. _Med. Botany_.

_Gum Arabic_.

The purest and finest gum arabic is brought in caravans to Cairo, by the Arabs of the country round Mounts Tor and Sinai, who bring it from this distance on the backs of camels, sown up in bags, and often adulterated with sand, &c. The gum exudes spontaneously from the bark and trunk of the branches of the tree, in a soft, nearly fluid state, and hardens by exposure to the air, or heat of the sun. It begins to flow in December, immediately after the rainy season, near the flowering time of the tree. Afterwards, as the weather becomes hotter, incisions are made through the bark, to assist the transudation of the juice.--_Ibid_.

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SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

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RECOLLECTIONS OF A R*T.

_Written by Himself_.

_From Blackwood's Magazine._

This is a pleasant piece of satire upon the _autobiographic_ mania of the present day. The original article extends to twenty pages, and is throughout a masterly graphic sketch. We have marked a few extracts, which we shall endeavour to connect.

"A R--t! a R--t! clap to the door."

POPE.

As I intend to write the following pages entirely for my own amusement, and as they will most probably never meet the eye of mortal man, who alone can decipher them, it is unnecessary for me to make any observations on the doctrine of metempsychosis, to which indeed my reader (if there shall ever be one) may perhaps not be inclined to give implicit belief. It is unnecessary for me, therefore, to begin by alluding to my former visit to this earth. I shall not even hint, whether if it ever took place, it was in antediluvian ages, or during the Babylonian, Grecian, or Roman glory; or in more modern times. Be assured, however, gentle reader, (if any there ever be,) that I have the faculty of observation--that I have seen many generations of men--that I have been in almost every corner of the habitable world, and that I am intimately acquainted with the history of mankind.--(Sir Walter Scott's Novels I have listened to with the greatest attention!)--I have eat opium in Constantinople--garlic in Italy--potatoes in Ireland. I have dabbled my whiskers in Guava jelly--have drunk rack at Delhi, and at New South Wales I have enjoyed the luxuries of Kangaroo soup and Opossum gravy. I have been at the Highland-moors with young Englishmen--at Melton with young Scotsmen, and at bathing-quarters with old dowagers and their daughters. I have travelled in all ways--by seas--by land--on foot--on horseback--in a carriage--in a ship--in a palanquin--in a muff; but the motion of the camel I never could bear, it so jolted my poor old bones, and discomposed my whole body. India never agreed well with me. The insects, not to mention the serpents, annoyed me. The heat made me quite bilious; and, indeed, I began to feel my liver affected. And however partial I naturally was to perfumes, I soon had a great dislike to the strong smell of musk, which I felt about myself, and which, as I observe every historian agrees, very soon begins to appear in all of my species who reside for any time in India. Musk should not of itself be disagreeable; but to have it constantly below one's nose, and to have every thing you touch smelling of it, you may easily conceive must be very annoying.

The Count de Buffon, whom we reckon one of our best historians, I see, says we are an omnivorous animal, and that we only seem to prefer hard substances to those which are tender or succulent. In this, however, he is mistaken; at least I can answer for myself. I know, for my part, I prefer mulligatawney and a tender young chicken, to an old pair of boots or a well-picked bone.

I have the misfortune, my reader, whoever you may be, to belong to a race to which you have an aversion; I may say a perfect horror. I am a wretched proscribed animal. A lady would faint at the sight of me; and if I should merely run across a room, a whole legion of boys and footmen would be after me; and if they should kill me, they themselves, and I am afraid every other person, would give them credit for doing a meritorious action. But, gentle reader, our character is worse than it should be. Although we never received any kindness from man, I am sure I can answer for myself, at least, I have not very often done him mischief for mischief's sake; and do remember that I did not choose my own form, and that perhaps I am now doomed to animate it from the contempt and cruelty, with which, in better days, I may have used the species. But I moralize, and this does not well suit my present condition. You may think it as ridiculous an idea as an oyster in love, which, I remember, used to tickle my fancy. I must only for one moment be allowed to observe, that man bestows far too much care and attention on that green-eyed monster, which I do detest--I mean the cat. If we were caressed and made much of like it, and half so carefully attended to, I am sure we would make a much better return, and be truly grateful and attached. My friend Buffon seems perfectly to understand their character, and I must be allowed to quote a sentence or two from him, which I know will be much more credited than any thing I could myself say. "They possess," says he, "an innate malice, and perverse disposition, which increase as they grow up, and which education teaches them to conceal, but not to subdue. From determined robbers, the best education can only convert them into flattering thieves, for they have address, subtlety, and desire of plunder." ... "They easily assume the habits of society, but never acquire its manners, for they have only the appearance of attachment and friendship." And again he says, "the cat appears to have no feelings which are not interested--to have no affection which is not conditional-- and to carry on no intercourse with man, but with the view of turning it to his own advantage. Even the tamest are under no subjection, for they act merely to please themselves."

The dog is a very different animal. He is really attached to his master, and only lives to serve him. A dog is a perfect gentleman, and I love to fight with gentlemen.

The Apostle Paul, in his Epistle to the Philippians, says,--"Beware of dogs!" c. iii. v. 2. Now, I cannot help always having thought, that he must have meant cats. It is very easy to suppose the Greek word "[Greek: kunas]," may have crept in instead of "[Greek: galas]" and this, indeed, is I believe, corroborated by the folio manuscript copy of the Bible, of 1223, in the British Museum.