Chapter 4

Major Grose told me that when he was quartered in Dublin, he ordered an Irish sergeant to exercise the men in shooting at a mark. The sergeant had placed a pole for them to take aim, stationing a certain number on one side, and an equal number on the other, in direct opposition. The Major happened to reach the spot just as they were going to fire, stopped them, and expressed his surprise that the sergeant should have placed them in so dangerous a position, as they must necessarily wound, if not kill each other. "Kill each other!" said the sergeant, "why, they are all our own men." As the men so contentedly remained in the dangerous position, it may be inferred that they were as wise as the sergeant. This story illustrates that of Lord Thomond's cooks, which when the keeper let loose, were fighting each other,--much to his surprise he said, as they belonged to one person, and were "_all on the same side_."

_Vails to Servants._

It is said that this practice prevailed to such a degree, even at the house of the great Lord Chesterfield, that when he invited Voltaire a second time to his table, the French wit in his answer declined the invitation, alleging that "his lordship's _ordinary_ was _too dear_."

Another evil practice of servants to the higher orders, at that time, was carried to such a height that it wrought its own cure. It was usual at the old Italian Opera-house to allot a gallery to the footmen, that when their masters or mistresses had appointed the time to leave the theatre, their servants might be ready to attend. But these _livery-men_ took it into their heads to become critics upon the performances, and delivered their comments in so tumultuous a manner, that the managers found it absolutely necessary to close the gallery against them, and to assign it to those only who paid for admission.

Just before the abolition of this _party-coloured_ tribunal, a wag who was fond of music, but who had more wit than money, appeared at the gallery door, when the porter demanded the name of his master. The wag boldly answered, "I am the Lord Jehovah's servant," and was admitted, one of the door-keepers saying to the other, "I never heard of that man's master before, but suppose it is some scurvy Scotch lord or other."

_New Reading._

Mr. John Kemble used to relate many whimsical anecdotes of provincial actors whom he knew in the early part of his life. He said that an actor who was to perform the character of _Kent_ in the play of "King Lear," had dressed himself like a doctor, with a large grizzle wig, having a walking-stick, which he held up to his nose, and a box under his arm. Being asked why he dressed the Earl of Kent in that manner, he said, "People mistake the character; he was not an earl, but a doctor. Does not Kent say, when the king draws his sword on him for speaking in favour of Cordelia, 'Do kill thy _physician_, Lear;' and when the king tells him to take his 'hated trunk from his dominions,' and Kent says, 'Now to new climes my old trunk I'll bear,' what could he mean but his _medicine chest_, to practise in another country?"

_Absence._

The first Lord Lyttleton was very absent in company, and when he fell into a river, by the oversetting of a boat, at Hagley, it was said of him that he had "sunk twice before he recollected he could swim." Mr. Jerningham told me, that dining one day with his lordship, the earl pointed to a particular dish, and asked to be helped of it, calling it, however, by a name very different from what the dish contained. A gentleman was going to tell him of his mistake. "Never mind," whispered another of the party; "help him to what he asked for, and he will suppose it is what he wanted."

Arthur Murphy, whose mind was chiefly occupied by dramatic subjects, after he became a barrister, dining one Sunday at the chaplain's table, St. James's Palace, being too early, strolled into the Chapel Royal during the service, and desiring a seat, he thus addressed one of the attendants on the pews, "Here, _boxkeeper_, open this _box_."

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MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

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CURIOUS LAWS RELATING TO CAPS.

In England, in the year 1571, it was enacted, "that every person above seven years of age should wear on Sundays and holidays a cap of wool, knit-made, thickened and dressed in England, by some of the trade of cappers, under the forfeiture of three farthings for every day's neglect, excepting maids, ladies, and gentlewomen, and every lord knight, and gentleman, of twenty marks of land, and their heirs, and such as have borne office of worship in any city, town, or place, and the wardens of the London Companies."

In France, those who had been bankrupts were obliged ever after to wear a green cap, to prevent people from being imposed on in any future commerce. By several arrets, in 1584, 1622, 1628, and 1688, it was decreed, that if they were at any time found without their green cap, their protection should be null, and their creditors empowered to cast them into prison; but this practice is not now continued.

Among the formation of the different domestic trades of the metropolis into fraternities, or companies, were the _Capellarii_, or Cappers. Respecting these, Hugh Fitz-Otonis, the city _custos_, in the 54th of Henry III., made certain ordinances, in the presence of the aldermen, as that none "should make a cap but of good white or grey wool, or black; that none dye a cap made of white or grey wool into black, they being apt, so dyed, to lose their colour through the rain," &c.

P.T.W.

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WRESTLING.

At Hornchurch, in Essex, there is a singular custom on Christmas Day of wrestling for a boar's head, which is provided by the occupier of Hornchurch Hall. This custom is said to have originated in some charter, with which a correspondent, (H.B.A.,) is totally unacquainted.

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PERSECUTION OF THE JEWS

Mr. Turner has collected (_Hist. Eng._) many curious facts relative to the condition of the Jews, especially in England. Others may be found dispersed in Velly's _History of France_; and many in the Spanish writers, Mariana and Zurita. The following are from Vaissette's _History of Languedoc_:--It was the custom at Toulouse to give a blow on the face to a Jew every Easter;--this was commuted, in the twelfth century, for a tribute. At Beziers another usage prevailed--that of attacking the Jews' houses with stones, from Palm Sunday to Easter. No other weapon was to be used; but it generally produced bloodshed. The populace were regularly instigated to the assault by a sermon from the bishop. At length, a prelate, wiser than the rest, abolished this ancient practice, but not without receiving a good sum from the Jews.

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THE GATHERER.

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_Crusades._--Mr. Hallam, in his excellent _History of the Middle Ages_, (vol. iii. p. 359), gives the following view of these misconceived glories of history:--"The crusades may be considered as martial pilgrimages on an enormous scale; and their influence upon general morality seems to have been altogether pernicious. Those who served under the cross would not indeed have lived very virtuously at home; but the confidence in their own merits, which the principle of such expeditions inspired, must have aggravated the ferocity and dissoluteness of their ancient habits. Several historians attest the depravation of morals which existed both among the crusaders, and in the states formed out of their conquests."

_Slave Trade in England._--In England it was very common, even after the conquest, to export slaves to Ireland; till, in the reign of Henry II., the Irish came to a non-importation agreement, which put a stop to the practice. William of Malmesbury accuses the Anglo-Saxon nobility of selling their female servants as slaves to foreigners. In the canons of a council at London, in 1102, we read--"Let no one from henceforth presume to carry on that wicked traffic, by which men of England have hitherto been sold like brute animals." And Giraldus Cambrensis says that the English, before the conquest, were generally in the habit of selling their children and other relations, to be slaves in Ireland, without having even the pretext of distress or famine, till the Irish, in a national synod, agreed to emancipate all the English slaves in the kingdom.

_Opulent English Merchants._--Some idea of the ancient commercial wealth of Great Britain may be gathered from a glance at the rapid increase of English trade from about the middle of the fourteenth century. Thus, in 1363, Ricard, who had been lord mayor, some years before, entertained Edward III. and the Black Prince, the Kings of France, Scotland, and Cyprus, with many of the nobility, at his own house in the Vintry, and presented them with handsome gifts. This eclipses the costliest entertainments of our times, at the public expense. Philpot, another eminent citizen in Richard II.'s time, when the trade of England was considerably annoyed by privateers, hired one thousand armed men, and dispatched them to sea, where they took fifteen Spanish vessels with their prizes. We find Richard obtaining a great deal from private merchants and trading towns. In 1379, he got 5,000_l._ from London, 1,000 marks from Bristol, and in proportion from smaller places. In 1386 London gave 4,000_l._ more, and 10,000 marks in 1397. The latter sum was obtained also for the coronation of Henry VI. Nor were the contributions of individuals contemptible, considering the high value of money. Hinde, a citizen of London, lent to Henry IV. 2,000_l._ in 1407, and Whittington one half of that sum. The merchants of the staple advanced 4,000_l._ at the same time. Our commerce continued to be regularly and rapidly progressive during the fifteenth century. The famous Canynges, of Bristol, under Henry VI. and Edward IV. had ships of 900 tons burden.

_Gold-beating._--Reaumur asserts, that in an experiment he made, one grain of gold was extended to rather more than forty-two square inches of leaf-gold; and that an ounce of gold, which in the form of a cube, is not half an inch either high, broad, or long, is beat under the hammer into a surface of 150 square feet. The process is as follows:--The gold is melted in a crucible, and taken to the flattening mills, where it is rolled out till it becomes of the consistence of tin; it is then cut into small square pieces, and each piece is laid between a leaf of skin (known by the name of goldbeaters-skin); two parchment bands are then passed over the whole, and each band is reversed; it is then hammered out to the size of the skin, taken out, cut and hammered over again, and so on till it is sufficiently thin; when it is placed in books, the leaves of which are rubbed with red ochre, to prevent the gold adhering to them. There are gold leaves not thicker, in some parts, than the three hundred and sixty thousandth part of an inch. BURTON.

_Ancient Pitch-in-the Hole._--A soldier was brought to Alexander to exhibit a trick which he had acquired, of pitching a pea into a distant hole, which just fitted it;--when the reward which the great conqueror bestowed upon the soldier for his useless application of time was a peck of peas. P.T.W.

_Pekin._--Balducci Pegalotti, a Florentine writer upon commerce, about the year 1340, describes Pekin (under the name of Cambalu) the capital city of China, as being one hundred miles in circumference. He also states the journey from the Genoese territories to Pekin as of rather more than eight months, going and returning; and he assures us it was perfectly secure, not only for caravans, but for a single traveller, with a couple of interpreters and a servant.

_Mercers and Drapers._--Among the trading companies into which the middling ranks were distributed on the continent, in the twelfth century, those concerned in silk and woollens were most numerous and honourable. None were admitted to the rank of burgesses in the towns of Aragon who used any manual trade, with the exception of dealers in fine cloths.

_Usury._--The interest of money was exceedingly high throughout the middle ages. At Verona, in 1228, it was fixed by law at 12-1/2 per cent.; at Modena, in 1270, it seems to have been as high as 20. The republic of Genoa, towards the end of the fourteenth century, when Italy had grown wealthy, paid only from 7 to 10 per cent. to her creditors. But in France and England the rate was far more oppressive. An ordinance of Philip the Fair, in 1311, allows 20 per cent. after the first year of the loan. Under Henry III., according to Matthew Paris, the debtor paid 10 per cent. every two months; but this is absolutely incredible as a general practice.

_Worsted._--Blomefield, the historian of Norfolk, thinks that a colony of Flemings settled, as early as the reign of Henry II., at Worsted--a village in that county--and immortalized its name by their manufacture. It soon reached Norwich, though not conspicuous till the reign of Edward I.

_The Lord's Prayer in Arawaak._[21]--Kururumanny--haamary caleery oboraady--bachooty deweet bossa--baynse parocan, bayin so pareeka--yahaboo ororoo adiako--meherachehbeyn dacotooniah--Ebehey nebehedow wakayany odomay--Mayera toonebah dayensey--Boboro talidey.--_Hedouainey._--_Jour. Geog. Soc._

[21] An Indian nation, settled in British Guiana.

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*** Our Correspondent E. has been misinformed. The translation of the Letter of Lord Byron, inserted in our Number 575, as the first, will be found in Moore's Life of Byron, vol. vi. p. 147, new edit.--but without the subscription of "Peer of England."

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