Chapter 2

"My singuler good Lord, uppon Thursdaye, at even, her Majistie, in her coache, nere Islyngton, taking of the air, her Highnes was environed with a nosmber of roogs. One Mr. Stone, a foteman, cam in all hast to my Lord Maior, and after to me, and told us of the same. I dyd the same nyght send warrants owt into the seyd quarters, and into Westminster and the Duchie; and in the morning I went abrood my selff, and I tooke that daye lxxiiij. roogs, whereof some were blynde, and yet great usurers, and very rich; and the same daye, towards nyght, I sent Mr. Harrys and Mr. Smithe, the Governors of Bridwell, and tooke all the names of the roogs; and then sent theym from the Sessions Hall into Bridwell, where they remayned that nyght. Uppon Twelff daye, in the forenoone, the Master of the Rolls, my selff, and others, receyved a charge before my Lords of the Counsell, as towching roogs and masterles men, and to have a pryvie searche. The same daye, at after dyner (for I dyned at the Rolls), I mett the Governors of Bridwell, and so that after nowne wee examined all the seyd roogs, and gave them substanciall payment. And the stronger wee bestowed on the myine and the lighters; the rest wee dismyssed, with the promise of a dooble paye if we met with theym agayne. Uppon Soundaye, being crastino of the Twelffth daye, I dyned with Mr. Deane, of Westminster, where I conferred with hym touching Westminster and the Duchie; and then I tooke order for Sowthwarke, Lambeth, and Newyngton, from whence I receyved a shool of xl. roogs, men and women, and above. I bestowed theym in Bridwell. I dyd the same after nowne peruse Pooles (St. Paul's), where I tooke about xxii. cloked roogs, that there used to kepe standing. I placed theym also in Bridwell. The next mornyng, being Mundaye, the Mr of the Rolls and the reste tooke order with the constables for a pryvie searche agaynst Thursdaye, at nyght, and to have the offenders brought to the Sessions Hall uppon Frydaye, in the mornyng, where wee the Justices shold mete. And agaynst the same tyme, my Lo. Maior and I dyd the lyke in London and Sowthwarke. The same after nowne, the Masters of Bridwell and I mett; and after every man had been examined, eche one receyved his payment according to his deserts; at whiche tyme the strongest were put to worke, and the others dismissed into theyre countries. The same daye the Mr of the Savoye was with us, and sayd he was sworne to lodge 'claudicantes, egrotantes, et peregrinantes;' and the next morning I sent the constables of the Duchie to the Hospitall, and they brought unto me at Bridwell, vj. tall fellowes, that were draymen unto bruers, and were neither 'claudicantes, egrotantes, nor peregrinantes.' The constables, if they might have had theyre owen wills, would have browght us many moor. The master dyd wryte a very curtese letter unto us to produce theym; and although he wrott charitably unto us, yet were they all soundly paydd, and sent home to theyre masters. All Tewsdaye, Weddensdaye, and Thursdaye, there cam in nosmbers of roogs: they were rewarded all according to theyre deserts.--Uppon Frydaye mornyng, at the Justice Hall, there were brought in above a C. lewd people taken in the pryvie searche. The Mrs of Bridwell receyved theym, and immediately gave theym punishment. This Satterdaye, after causes of consciens, herd by my Lord Maior and me, I dyned and went to Polls (St. Paul's) and in other places, as well within the libertes as elsewhere. I founde not one rooge styuyng. Emongst all these thynges, I dyd note that wee had not of London, Westm., nor Sowthwarke, nor yett Midd., nor Surr., above twelve, and those we have taken order for. The resedew for the most were of Wales, Salop, Cestr., Somerset, Barks, Oxforde, and Essex; and that few or none of theym had been about London above iij. or iiij. mownthes. I did note also that wee mett not agayne with any, in all our searches, that had receyved punishment. The chieff nurserie of all these evill people is the Savoye, and the brick-kilnes near Islyngton. As for the brick-kilnes, we will take suche order that they shall be reformed; and I trust, by yr. good Lordship's help, the Savoye shall be amended; for surelie, as by experiens I fynd it, the same place, as it is used, is not converted to a good use or purpose. And this shall suffice for roogs."--W.G.C.

[5] See the Engraving, vol. xviii. p. 337 of _The Mirror._

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POVERTY OF KINGS, AND THE BRITISH CROWN PAWNED.

As to increasing wealth by war, that has never yet happened to this nation; and, I believe, rarely to any country. Our former kings most engaged in war were always poor, and sometimes excessively so. Edward III. pawned his jewels to pay foreign forces; and _magnam coronam Angliae_, his imperial crown, three several times--once abroad, and twice to Sir John Wosenham, his banker, in whose custody the crown remained no less than eight years. The Black Prince, as Walsingham informs us, was constrained to pledge his plate. Henry V., with all his conquests, pawned his crown, and the table and stools of silver which he had from Spain. Queen Elizabeth is known to have sold her very jewels.

G.K.

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HEAD-DRESS OF THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY, IN ENGLAND.

In Wickliffe's _Commentaries upon the Ten Commandments_, in the midst of a moral exhortation, he manages, by a few bold touches, to give us a picture of the fashionable head-dress of his day:--

"And let each woman beware, that neither by countenance, nor by array of body nor of head, she stir any to covet her to sin. Not crooking (curling) her hair, neither laying it up on high, nor the head arrayed about with gold and precious stones; not seeking curious clothing, nor of nice shape, showing herself to be seemly to fools. For all such arrays of women St. Peter and St. Paul, by the Holy Ghost's teaching, openly forbid."

D.P.

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SALADS.

Oil for salads is mentioned in the Paston Letters, in 1466, in which year Sir John Paston writes to his mother, that he has sent her "ii. potts off oyl for salady's, whyche oyl was goode a myght be when he delyv'yd yt, and schuld be goode at the reseyving yff itt was not mishandled nor miscarryd." This indicates that vegetables for the table were then cultivated in England, although the common opinion is, that most of our fruit and garden productions were destroyed during the civil wars between the houses of York and Lancaster. A good salad, however, had become so scarce some years afterwards, that Katharine, the queen of Henry VIII., is said, on a particular occasion, to have sent to the continent to procure one.

D.P.

* * * * *

ADVERTISEMENT OF THE OPENING OF THE LONDON COFFEE HOUSE, UPWARDS OF A CENTURY AGO.

"May, 1731.

"Whereas it is customary for Coffee Houses and other Public Houses to take 8_s._ for a quart of Arrack, and 6_s._ for a quart of Brandy or Rum, made into Punch;

_This is to give Notice_,

That James Ashley has opened, on Ludgate Hill, the London Coffee House, Punch House, Dorchester Beer and Welsh Ale Warehouse, where the finest and best old Arrack, Rum, and French Brandy is made into Punch, with the other of the finest ingredients--viz.:

"A quart of Arrack made into Punch for six shillings; and so in proportion to the smallest quantity, which is half-a-quartern for fourpence halfpenny.

"A quart of Rum or Brandy made into Punch for four shillings; and so in proportion to the smallest quantity, which is half-a-quartern for threepence; and Gentlemen may have it as soon made as a gill of wine can be drawn."

G.K.

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SIR WILLIAM JONES'S PLAN OF STUDY.

Some idea of the acquirements of the resolute industry with which Jones pursued his studies may be formed from the following memorandum:--

"Resolved to learn no more _rudiments_ of any kind, but to perfect myself in--first, twelve languages, as the _means_ of acquiring accurate knowledge of

I. History. 1. Man 2. Nature.

II. Arts. 1. Rhetoric. 2. Poetry. 3. Painting. 4. Music.

III. Sciences. 1. Law. 2. Mathematics. 3. Dialectics.

"N.B. Every species of human knowledge may be reduced to one or other of these divisions. Even _law_ belongs partly to the history of man, partly as a science to dialectics. The twelve languages are Greek, Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, German, English.--1780."

* * * * *

SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY.

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SAILING UP THE ESSEQUIBO.

_By Captain J.E. Alexander, H.P., late 16th Lancers, M.R.G.S., &c._

My purpose was now to proceed up the noble Essequibo river towards the El Dorado of Sir Walter Raleigh, and view the mighty forests of the interior, and the varied and beautiful tribes by which they are inhabited. Our residence on the island of Wakenaam had been truly a tropical one. During the night, the tree frogs, crickets, razor-grinders, reptiles, and insects of every kind, kept up a continued concert. At sunrise, when the flowers unfolded themselves, the humming birds, with the metallic lustre glittering on their wings, passed rapidly from blossom to blossom. The bright yellow and black mocking-birds flew from their pendant nests, accompanied by their neighbours, the wild bees, which construct their earthen hives on the same tree. The continued rains had driven the snakes from their holes, and on the path were seen the bush-master (cona-couchi) unrivalled for its brilliant colours, and the deadly nature of its poison; and the labari equally poisonous, which erects its scales in a frightful manner when irritated. The rattlesnake was also to be met with, and harmless tree snakes of many species. Under the river's bank lay enormous caymen or alligators,--one lately killed measured twenty-two feet. Wild deer and the peccari hog were seen in the glades in the centre of the island; and the jaguar and cougour (the American leopard and lion) occasionally swam over from the main land.

We sailed up the Essequibo for a hundred miles in a small schooner of thirty tons, and occasionally took to canoes or coorials to visit the creeks. We then went up a part of the Mazaroony river, and saw also the unexplored Coioony: these three rivers join their waters about one hundred miles from the mouth of the Essequibo. In sailing or paddling up the stream, the breadth is so great, and the wooded islands so numerous, that it appears as if we navigated a large lake. The Dutch in former times had cotton, indigo, and cocoa estates up the Essequibo, beyond their capital Kykoveral, on an island at the forks or junction of the three rivers. Now, beyond the islands at the mouth of the Essequibo there are no estates, and the mighty forest has obliterated all traces of former cultivation. Solitude and silence are on either hand, not a vestige of the dwellings of the Hollanders being to be seen; and only occasionally in struggling through the entangled brushwood one stumbles over a marble tombstone brought from the shores of the Zuyderzee.

At every turn of the river we discovered objects of great interest. The dense and nearly impenetrable forest itself occupied our chief attention; magnificent trees, altogether new to us, were anchored to the ground by bush-rope, convolvuli, and parasitical plants of every variety. The flowers of these cause the woods to appear as if hung with garlands. Pre-eminent above the others was the towering and majestic Mora, its trunk spread out into buttresses; on its top would be seen the king of the vultures expanding his immense wings to dry after the dews of night. The very peculiar and romantic cry of the bell-bird, or campanero, would be heard at intervals; it is white, about the size of a pigeon, with a leathery excrescence on its forehead, and the sound which it produces in the lone woods is like that of a convent-bell tolling.

A crash of the reeds and brushwood on the river's bank would be followed by a tapir, the western elephant, coming down to drink and to roll himself in the mud; and the manati or river-cow would lift its black head and small piercing eye above the water to graze on the leaves of the coridore tree. They are shot from a stage fixed in the water, with branches of their favourite food hanging from it; one of twenty-two cwt. was killed not long ago. High up the river, where the alluvium of the estuary is changed for white sandstone, with occasionally black oxide of manganese, the fish are of delicious flavour; among others, the pacoo, near the Falls or Rapids, which is flat, twenty inches long, and weighs four pounds; it feeds on the seed of the _arum arborescens_, in devouring which the Indians shoot it with their arrows: of similar genus are the cartuback, waboory, and amah.

The most remarkable fish of these rivers are, the _peri_ or _omah_, two feet long; its teeth and jaws are so strong, that it cracks the shells of most nuts to feed on their kernels, and is most voracious; the Indians say that it snaps off the breasts of women, and emasculates men. Also the genus _silurus_, the young of which swim in a shoal of one hundred and fifty over the head of the mother, who, on the approach of danger, opens her mouth, and thus saves her progeny; with the _loricaria calicthys_, or _assa_, which constructs a nest on the surface of pools from the blades of grass floating about, and in this deposits its spawn which is hatched by the sun. In the dry season this remarkable fish has been dug out of the ground, for it burrows in the rains owing to the strength and power of the spine; in the gill-fin and body it is covered with strong plates, and far below the surface finds moisture to keep it alive. The _electric eel_ is also an inhabitant of these waters, and has sometimes nearly proved fatal to the strongest swimmer. If sent to England in tubs, the wood and iron act as conductors, and keep the fish in a continued state of exhaustion, causing, eventually, death: an earthenware jar is the vessel in which to keep it in health.

(_To be concluded in our next._)

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FINE ARTS.

* * * * *

CROSSES.[6]

We resume the illustration of these curious structures with two specimens of interesting architectural character, and memorable association with our early history. The first is Neville's Cross, at Beaurepaire (or Bear Park, as it is now called), about two miles north-west from Durham. Here David II., King of Scots, encamped with his army before the celebrated battle of Red Hills, or Neville's Cross, as it was afterwards termed, from the above elegant stone cross, erected to record the victory by Lord Ralph Neville. The English sovereign, Edward III., had just achieved the glorious conquest of Crecy; and the Scottish king judged this a fit opportunity for his invasion. However, "the great northern barons of England, Percy and Neville, Musgrave, Scope, and Hastings, assembled their forces in numbers sufficient to show that, though the conqueror of Crecy, with his victorious army, was absent in France, there were Englishmen enough left at home to protect the frontiers of his kingdom from violation. The Archbishops of Canterbury and York, the prelates of Durham, Carlisle, and Lincoln, sent their retainers, and attended the rendezvous in person, to add religious enthusiasm to the patriotic zeal of the barons. Ten thousand soldiers, who had been sent over to Calais to reinforce Edward III.'s army, were countermanded in this exigency, and added to the northern army.[7]"

The battle, which was fought October 17, 1346, lasted only three hours, but was uncommonly destructive. The English archers, who were in front, were at first thrown into confusion, and driven back; but being reinforced by a body of horse, repulsed their opponents, and the engagement soon became general. The Scottish army was entirely defeated, and the king himself made prisoner; though previous to the fight he is said to have regarded the English with contempt, and as a raw and undisciplined host, by no means competent to resist the power of his more hardy veterans.

"Amid repeated charges, and the most dispiriting slaughter by the continuous discharge of the English arrows, David showed that he had the courage, though not the talents, of his father (Robert Bruce). He was twice severely wounded with arrows, but continued to encourage to the last the few of his peers and officers who were still fighting around him."[8] He scorned to ask quarter, and was taken alive with difficulty. Rymer says, "The Scotch king, though he had two spears hanging in his body, his leg desperately wounded, and being disarmed, his sword having been beaten out of his hand, disdained captivity, and provoked the English by opprobrious language to kill him. When John Copeland, who was governor of Roxborough Castle, advised him to yield, he struck him on the face with his gauntlet so fiercely, that he knocked out two of his teeth. Copeland conveyed him out of the field as his prisoner. Upon Copeland's refusing to deliver up his royal captive to the queen (Philippa), who stayed at Newcastle during the battle, the king sent for him to Calais, where he excused his refusal so handsomely, that the king sent him back with a reward of 500_l._ a year in lands, where he himself should choose it, near his own dwelling, and made him a knight banneret."[9]

Hume states Philippa to have assembled a body of little more than 12,000 men, and to have rode through the ranks of her army, exhorting every man to do his duty, and to take revenge on these barbarous ravagers. "Nor could she be persuaded to leave the field till the armies were on the point of engaging. The Scots have often been unfortunate in the great pitched battles which they have fought with the English: even though they commonly declined such engagements where the superiority of numbers was not on their side; but never did they receive a more fatal blow than the present. They were broken and chased off the field: fifteen thousand of them, some historians say twenty thousand, were slain; among whom were Edward Keith, Earl Mareschal, and Sir Thomas Charteris, Chancellor: and the king himself was taken prisoner, with the Earls of Sutherland, Fife, Monteith, Carrick, Lord Douglas, and many other noblemen." The captive king was conveyed to London, and afterwards in solemn procession to the Tower, attended by a guard of 20,000 men, and all the city companies in complete pageantry; while "Philippa crossed the sea at Dover, and was received in the English camp before Calais, with all the triumph due to her rank, her merit, and her success." These indeed were bright days of chivalry and gallantry.

"The ground whereon the battle was fought," say the topographers of the county,[10] "is about one mile west from Durham; it is hilly, and in some parts very steep, particularly towards the river. Near it, in a deep vale, is a small mount, or hillock, called the _Maiden's Bower_, on which the holy Corporex Cloth, wherewith St. Cuthbert covered the chalice when he used to say mass, was displayed on the point of a spear, by the monks of Durham, who, when the victory was obtained, gave notice by signal to their brethren stationed on the great tower of the Cathedral, who immediately proclaimed it to the inhabitants of the city, by singing Te Deum. From that period the victory was annually commemorated in a similar manner by the choristers, till the occurrence of the Civil Wars, when the custom was discontinued; but again revived on the Restoration," and observed till nearly the close of the last century.

The site of the Cross is by the road-side: it was defaced and broken down in the year 1589. Its pristine beauty is thus minutely described in Davis's _Rights and Monuments_: "On the west side of the city of Durham, where two roads pass each other, a most famous and elegant cross of stone work was erected to the honour of God, &c. at the sole cost of Ralph, Lord Neville, which cross had seven steps about it, every way squared to the socket wherein the stalk of the cross stood, which socket was fastened to a large square stone; the sole, or bottom stone being of a great thickness, viz. a yard and a half every way: this stone was the eighth step. The stalk of the cross was in length three yards and a half up to the boss, having eight sides all of one piece; from the socket it was fixed into the boss above, into which boss the stalk was deeply soldered with lead. In the midst of the stalk, in every second square, was the Neville's cross; a saltire in a scutcheon, being Lord Neville's arms, finely cut; and, at every corner of the socket, was a picture of one of the four Evangelists, finely set forth and carved. The boss at the top of the stalk was an octangular stone, finely cut and bordered, and most curiously wrought; and in every square of the nether side thereof was Neville's Cross, in one square, and the bull's head in the next, so in the same reciprocal order about the boss. On the top of the boss was a stalk of stone, (being a cross a little higher than the rest,) whereon was cut, on both sides of the stalk, the picture of our Saviour Christ, crucified; the picture of the Blessed Virgin on one side, and St. John the Evangelist on the other; both standing on the top of the boss. All which pictures were most artificially wrought together, and finely carved out of one entire stone; some parts thereof, though carved work, both on the east and west sides, with a cover of stone likewise over their heads, being all most finely and curiously wrought together out of the same hollow stone, which cover had a covering of lead."

The second specimen (_see the Cut_) stands by the side of the highway over Hedgeley Moor, in the adjoining county of Northumberland. This Cross is a record of the War of the Roses. Here, in one of the skirmishes preliminary to the celebrated victory at Hexham (May 12, 1464), Sir Ralph Percy was slain, by Lord Montacute, or Montague, brother to the Earl of Warwick, and warden of the east marches between Scotland and England. His dying words are stated to have been, "I have saved the bird in my breast:" meaning his faith to his party. The memorial is a square stone pillar, embossed with the arms of Percy and Lucy: they are nearly effaced by time, though the personal valour of the hero is written in the less perishable page of history.

The Nevilles are distinguished personages in the pages of the historians of the North. In Durham they have left a lasting memorial of their magnificence in Raby Castle, the principal founder of which was John de Neville, Earl of Westmoreland; who, in 1379, obtained a license to castellate his manor of Raby; though a part of the structure appears to have been of more ancient date. Leland speaks of it in his time as "the largest castle of lodgings in all the north country." It remains to this day the most perfect castellated mansion, or, more strictly, castle, in the kingdom, and its "_hall_" eclipses even the chivalrous splendour of Windsor: here 700 knights, who held of the Nevilles, are said to have been entertained at one time. The whole establishment is maintained with much of the hospitable glories of the olden time by the present distinguished possessor of Raby, the Marquess of Cleveland.

[6] See also pages 113 and 329 of the present volume.

[7] Hist. Scot. By Sir W. Scott, Bt., vol. i, p. 197.

[8] Ibid. p. 199.

[9] Faedera, tom. v. p. 542.

[10] Messrs Britton and Brayley--Beauties of England and Wales, vol. v. p. 199.

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WINTER EXHIBITION OF PICTURES, AT THE SUFFOLK-STREET GALLERY.

(_Concluded from page_ 231.)

144. Landscape and Figures. The first by _Gainsborough_; the latter by _Morland_.