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diff --git a/11705-h/11705-h.htm b/11705-h/11705-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0903681 --- /dev/null +++ b/11705-h/11705-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1594 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"> +<html> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /> +<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 20, Issue 560, August 4, 1832, by Various</title> +<style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[*/ + + <!-- + body {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + p {text-align: justify;} + blockquote {text-align: justify;} + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center;} + pre {font-size: 0.7em;} + + hr {text-align: center; width: 50%;} + html>body hr {margin-right: 25%; margin-left: 25%; width: 50%;} + hr.full {width: 100%;} + html>body hr.full {margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 0%; width: 100%;} + hr.short {text-align: center; width: 20%;} + html>body hr.short {margin-right: 40%; margin-left: 40%; width: 20%;} + + .note, .footnote + {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + + span.pagenum + {position: absolute; left: 1%; right: 91%; font-size: 8pt;} + + .poem + {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; margin-bottom: 1em; text-align: left;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem p {margin: 0; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem p.i2 {margin-left: 1em;} + .poem p.i4 {margin-left: 2em;} + .poem p.i6 {margin-left: 3em;} + .poem p.i8 {margin-left: 4em;} + .poem p.i10 {margin-left: 5em;} + + .figure + {padding: 1em; margin: 0; text-align: center; font-size: 0.8em; margin: auto;} + .figure img + {border: none;} + .figure p + + .side { float:right; + font-size: 75%; + width: 25%; + padding-left:10px; + border-left: dashed thin; + margin-left: 10px; + text-align: left; + text-indent: 0; + font-weight: bold; + font-style: italic;} + a:link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + link {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:visited {color:blue; + text-decoration:none} + a:hover {color:red} + --> +/*]]>*/ +</style> +</head> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11705 ***</div> +<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and +Instruction, Vol. 20, Issue 560, August 4, 1832, by Various</h1> +<br /> +<br /> +<center><b>E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, David King,<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</b></center> +<br /> +<br /> +<hr class="full" /> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page65" name="page65"></a>[pg +65]</span> +<h1>THE MIRROR<br /> +OF<br /> +LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.</h1> +<hr class="full" /> +<table width="100%" summary="Volume, Number, and Date"> +<tr> +<td align="left"><b>Vol. 20. No. 560.]</b></td> +<td align="center"><b>SATURDAY, AUGUST 4, 1832</b></td> +<td align="right"><b>[PRICE 2d.</b></td> +</tr> +</table> +<hr class="full" /> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page66" name="page66"></a>[pg +66]</span> +<h2>THE ELEPHANTS IN THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, REGENT'S PARK.</h2> +<div class="figure" style="width:100%;"><a href= +"images/560-1.png"><img width="100%" src="images/560-1.png" alt= +"" /></a> THE ELEPHANT, IN THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS, REGENT'S +PARK.</div> +<p>The annexed Engraving will probably afford the reader a better +idea of the Zoological Gardens, than did either of our previous +Illustrations. It is indeed a fair specimen of the luxurious +accommodation afforded by the Society for their animals; while it +enables us to watch the habits of the stupendous tenants in a state +of nature, or at least, free from unnecessary restriction or +confinement. It is an opportunity hitherto but rarely enjoyed in +this country; the Elephants exhibited in our menageries being caged +up, and only allowed to protrude the head outside the bars. The +Duke of Devonshire, as our readers may recollect, possessed an +Elephant which died in the year 1829: she was allowed the range of +a spacious paddock at Chiswick, but her docility, intelligence, and +affection, which were extraordinary, were only witnessed by a few +visiters. In the <i>Jardin du Roi</i>, at Paris, the Elephant has +long enjoyed advantages proportionate to his importance in the +scale of creation. Six years since we remember seeing a fine young +specimen in the enjoyment of an ample enclosure of greensward, and +a spacious bath has since been added to the accommodations. This +example has been rightly followed in our Zoologicai Gardens.</p> +<p>The Elephant Stable is at the extremity of the northern garden +in the Regent's Park. It is of capacious dimensions, but is built +in a style of unappropriate rusticity. Adjoining the stable is a +small enclosure, which the Elephant may measure in two or three +turns. Opposite is an enclosure of much greater extent, so as to be +almost worthy of the name of a little park or paddock. The fence is +of iron, and light but substantial. Within the area are a few +lime-trees, the lower branches of which are thinned by the Elephant +repeatedly twisting off their foliage with his trunk, as adroitly +as a gardener would gather fruit. His main luxury is, however, in +his bath, which is a large pool or tank of water, of depth nearly +equal to his height. In hot weather he enjoys his ablutions here +with great gusto, exhibiting the liveliest tokens of satisfaction +and delight. Our artist has endeavoured to represent the noble +creature in his bath, though the pencil can afford but an imperfect +idea of the extasy of the animal on this occasion. His evolutions +are extraordinary for a creature of such stupendous size. His +keeper had at first some difficulty in inducing him to enter the +pond, but he now willingly takes to the water, and thereby exhibits +himself in a point of view in which we have not hitherto been +accustomed to view an Elephant in this country. The fondness of +Elephants for bathing is very remarkable. When in the water they +often produce a singular noise with their trunks. Bishop Heber +describes this habit as he witnessed it near Dacca:—"A sound +struck my ear, as if from the water itself on which we were riding, +the most solemn and singular I can conceive. It was long, loud, +deep, and tremulous, somewhat between the bellowing of a bull and +the blowing of a whale, or perhaps most like those roaring buoys +which are placed at the mouths of some English harbours, in which +the winds make a noise to warn ships off them. 'Oh,' said Abdallah, +'there are Elephants bathing: Dacca much place for Elephant.' I +looked immediately, and saw about twenty of these fine animals, +with their heads and trunks just appearing above the water. Their +bellowing it was which I had heard, and which the water conveyed to +us with a finer effect than if we had been on shore." The Elephant +can also eject from his trunk water and dust, and his own saliva, +over every part of his body, to cool its heated surface; and he is +said to grub up dust, and blow it over his back and sides, to keep +off the flies.</p> +<p>There are two Elephants in the Zoological Gardens. Both are of +the Asiatic species. The larger animal was purchased by the Society +about fifteen months since. It is probably about eleven years old, +and is still growing; and a register of its bulk at various periods +has been commenced. The smaller Elephant was presented to the +Society by Sir Edward Barnes, late governor of Ceylon. It has been +stated to be a dwarf variety, and that its age is not far short of +that of the larger individual; but this assertion is questionable. +It is much more consistent with our knowledge of the species to +regard it, in the absence of all previous knowledge of the history +of the individual, as a young one not exceeding four years old. +This specimen will be seen in the distance of the Engraving.<a id= +"footnotetag1" name="footnotetag1"></a><a href= +"#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a></p> +<hr /> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page67" name="page67"></a>[pg +67]</span> +<h3>STANZAS ON REVISITING LUDLOW CASTLE.</h3> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Pale ruin! once more as I gaze on thy walls,</p> +<p>What memories of old, the sad vision recalls,</p> +<p class="i2">For change o'er thee lightly has past;</p> +<p>Yet what hearts are estrang'd and what bright hopes are +fled,</p> +<p>And friends I erst dwelt with now sleep with the dead,</p> +<p class="i2">Since in childhood I gazed on thee last!</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Thine image still rests on the clear stream beneath,</p> +<p>And flow'rs as of yore, thy old battlement wreathe,</p> +<p class="i2">Like rare friends by adversity's side;</p> +<p>Still clinging aloft, the wild tree I behold</p> +<p>That marks in derision, the spot, where of old</p> +<p class="i2">The standard once floated in pride.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>But the conqueror, Time, hath thy banner o'erthrown,</p> +<p>And crumbled to ruin the courtyards that shone</p> +<p class="i2">With chivalry's gorgeous array;</p> +<p>And where music, and laughter so often have rung,</p> +<p>In thy tapestried halls, now the ivy hath flung</p> +<p class="i2">A mantle to hide their decay.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Through the hush of thy lone haunts I wander again,</p> +<p>Where these time-hallow'd relics, familiar remain,</p> +<p class="i2">As if charmed into magic repose;</p> +<p>The pass subterraneous,—the fathomless well,</p> +<p>The mound whence the violet peeps—and the cell</p> +<p class="i2">Where the fox-glove in solitude grows.</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>In the last rays of sunset thy grey turrets gleam,</p> +<p>Yet I linger with thee—as to muse o'er a dream,</p> +<p class="i2">That mournful truths soon will dispel;</p> +<p>My pathway winds onward—life's cares to renew,</p> +<p>And I feel, as thy towers now fade from my view,</p> +<p>'Tis for over—I bid thee farewell!</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><span style="margin-left:3em">E.L.J.</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2>THE NOVELIST.</h2> +<hr /> +<h3>THE HUNTSMAN.</h3> +<h4><i>A Traditionary Tale: by Miss M.L. Beevor.</i></h4> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"The merciful man is merciful to his beast."</p> +<p>"The worm we tread upon will turn again."</p> +</div> +</div> +<p>Charles, the chief huntsman of Baron Mortimer, was undeniably a +very handsome young man, the <i>beau ideal</i> of the lover, as +pictured by the glowing imagination of maidens, and the beau +<i>real</i> of a dozen villages in the vicinity of Mortimer Castle. +Yet, was his beauty not amiable, but rather calculated to inspire +terror and distrust, than affection and confidence: in fact, a +bandit may be uncommonly handsome; but, by the fierce, haughty +character of his countenance, the fire which flashes from his eyes, +and the contempt which curls his mustachoed lip, create fear, +instead of winning regard, and this was the case with Charles. One, +however, of those maidens, unto whom it was the folly and vanity of +his youth to pay general court, conceived for him a passion deep +and pure, which in semblance, at least, he returned; but how far to +answer his own nefarious purposes, for Charles Elliott was a +godless young man, we shall hereafter discover.</p> +<p>Annette Martin was the daughter of a small farmer who resided +about a mile and a half from the Castle; but, being the tenant of +Lord Mortimer, had not only frequent occasion to go thither himself +with the rural produce of his farm, (for which the Castle was a +ready market,) but also to send Annette. Thus then commenced that +innocent girl's acquaintance with the Baron's chief huntsman, not +long after Elliott's induction into that office, by the resignation +of his superannuated predecessor.</p> +<p>Strange rumours were afloat respecting the conduct of Charles; +none of which, it is to be presumed, met the Baron's ears, or +assuredly the deprivation of his office would have followed. But +Lord Mortimer was a young man, paying his addresses to a lady who +lived at some distance from the Castle, and consequently much +absent from it. And, what said pretty Annette to the rumours which +failed not to meet <i>her</i> ear, of her lover's misconduct? "I +don't believe a word of them! Charles may be fonder of pleasure +than of business, but he is a young man; by and by he will see and +feel the necessity of steady application to the duties of his +situation, and become less wild and more manly." "NEVER!" would be +solemnly enunciated by Annette's auditors. "As to the charge," +would she undauntedly continue, "brought against him of cruelty to +the dogs under his care, it is an abominable falsehood; Elliott may +be passionate, I don't say he is not, but he is generous and +humane. <i>I</i> have never seen him scourge the hounds, as you +tell me he does, until blood drops from their mangled hides; +<i>I</i> have never heard the cries which, you say, resound from +their kennels day and night; cries of pain and hunger."</p> +<p>"And have you never seen," would ask some well-meaning +tale-bearer, "any of those poor brutes, whose wealed and mangled +coats, proclaimed how savagely they had been treated?"</p> +<p>"I have indeed seen," would answer Annette, "dogs lacerated by +the wild boars with which the Castle forests abound."</p> +<p>"And have you never observed the miserable skin-and-bone plight +of my lord's hounds?"</p> +<p>"They are not thinner, Charles says, than most hounds in good +training: when dogs get fat, they become lazy, lose the faculty of +finding game, and the inclination of bringing it down."</p> +<p>"Dogs it is true, ought not to be pampered and surfeited, but +they ought to be <i>fed</i>." Upon this, Annette would vehemently +maintain that fed they were, and amply, as she had seen Elliott cut +up their meat; whilst the friendly newsmonger would charitably +hint, that her intended knew as well as most men how to turn an +<i>honest</i> penny, by cheating the dogs of their food, and +selling it elsewhere.</p> +<p>Annette cared little for inuendos which she attributed chiefly +to malice and ill-nature. None are so difficult to convince as +those who are obstinately deaf to conviction, and there is an +idolatry of affection which sometimes burns fonder and deeper, as +its object is contemned and despised by the world. Annette had also +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page68" name="page68"></a>[pg +68]</span> some idea, that these, and other reports to the +prejudice of Charles, originated with an unsuccessful rival, though +poor William Curry, amiable, single-minded, and good-humoured as he +was, never breathed in her presence, a syllable to the +disparagement of Elliott.</p> +<p>Time sped, and upon an occasion when Lord Mortimer returned for +a week or two to his Castle, the conduct of his chief huntsman was +reported to him; but Charles with consummate art, so vindicated +himself, and so contrived to disgrace his accusers, that when the +young baron again left home, he stood higher perhaps than ever, in +his confidence and favour.</p> +<p>It was the bright summer-time, the period when rural folks make +holiday, (at least they did so then, but times have strangely +altered of late in once <i>merry</i> England,) the woods put on +their brightest green, and the people their finest clothes, for +there were wakes, fairs, and rustic meetings innumerable in the +vicinity of the Castle. Charles the huntsman might, as usual, be +seen at these <i>fêtes</i> for nothing, but after his late +victory, he carried his head higher, assumed a swaggering gait, and +looked his neighbours out of countenance with impudent +defiance.</p> +<p>The village feasts were not yet over, when late one night, a +cavalier, passing through one of the great forests which surrounded +Mortimer Castle, beheld, (for it was a moon-light night,) a female +form slowly sauntering about the bridle-way in which he was riding, +and uttering heavy moans and sobs. At first, taking this figure for +something supernatural, the traveller was startled, but quickly +recovering himself, he rode boldly up to, and addressed, the object +of his idle fears:—"I have been waiting here for hours," +replied the young woman, for such indeed she was, "and my friend is +not yet come; I am sadly afraid, sir, some accident may have +happened to him."</p> +<p>"<i>Him!</i>" quoth the stranger laughing, "O my good girl, if +you be waiting for a <i>gentleman</i>, no wonder you're +disappointed. He has played you false, rely upon it, and won't come +to night,—so you'd better go home."</p> +<p>"O sir! O my Lord!—I cannot—I dare not! What would +father and mother say? and what could I say?"</p> +<p>"Ay—Annette,—Annette Martin,—what <i>could</i> +you say?"</p> +<p>"Only the <i>truth</i>, your lordship;" replied the poor girl +sobbing, and curtseying, "and then they'd turn me out of doors, for +they do so hate Charles,—Charles Elliott, your +honour,—that they've as good as sworn, as they'll never +consent to my marrying him, and so—and so—I was just a +waiting here to-night for him to come as he promised he would, and +take me away to the far off town, and"—</p> +<p>"And there marry you, I suppose, without your father and +mother's consent:—eh, Annette?"</p> +<p>"Yes, my lord, an please you," replied the poor girl with +another rustic dip.</p> +<p>"No, Annette," replied the young baron, "it does not quite +please me; and Charles, at any rate, unless some very unforeseen +circumstance should have detained him, shall know what <i>I</i> +think of his present conduct to you. But come,—mount behind +me,—I am unexpectedly returning to the Castle, Dame Trueby +shall there make you comfortable for to-night, your parents and +friends shall never know but that your absence from home was +occasioned by a regular visit to her, and your marriage in two or +three days, with <i>my</i> sanction, Annette, will, I think, +completely settle matters."</p> +<p>The urbane young baron alighting, assisted Annette to mount his +noble steed, who, though overwhelmed by his kindness, refused to +listen to all the consolation, or banterings, with which he +endeavoured to cheer her on her way to Castle Mortimer, choosing +rather to believe that some dreadful accident had befallen her +lover, than that carelessness, or perfidy, caused his absence. Dame +Trueby's account was little calculated to soothe Annette's anxiety, +or to satisfy Lord Mortimer respecting Elliott's proceedings.</p> +<p>"I have not seen Charles," said she, "since early this morning, +when I heard him say he was going to feed the hounds, poor +creatures! and time enough that he did, I think, considering that +he left them without a morsel for a whole day and night, whilst he +was capering away at Woodcroft Feast; and then,—the +beast!—what does he, but comes back so dead drunk that we +were forced to carry him up to bed; meanwhile, the hungry brutes, +poor dumb souls, just ready to eat one another, have been fit to +raise the very dead with their barking, and ramping, and +yowling!"</p> +<p>"A sad account is this, Margery."</p> +<p>"A very <i>true</i> one, please your lordship," replied the old +housekeeper, testily.</p> +<p>"I don't doubt it," returned Lord Mortimer, "but cannot at this +time of night, dame, with Charles absent, and this young woman, his +intended wife, wanting some refreshment and a bed (for which indeed +I have ample need myself), make any inquiry into the affair. Let +Elliott call me in the morning instead of More, do you meanwhile +make this young woman as comfortable as you can, and +<i>recollect</i>, Mrs. Trueby, <i>that she is come to the Castle +upon a visit to you</i>."</p> +<p>Margery curtseyed, and "yessed," and "very welled," with +apparent submission, but though she dared not express her thoughts, +it was easy to read in her ample countenance, sad suspicions +relative to the honour of her noble master, and of the forlorn +damsel thus thrust upon her peculiar hospitality. "And," continued +Lord Mortimer, "Charles, you are sure, fed the dogs this +morning?"</p> +<p>"Don't know, my lord, I'm sure," replied the old housekeeper, +doggedly, "I suppose he <span class="pagenum"><a id="page69" name= +"page69"></a>[pg 69]</span> did, and belike beat 'em too; I only +know they've been quiet all day, which, it stands to reason, they +wouldn't have been without <i>wittals</i>; but Master Elliott, I've +not seen since."</p> +<p>"Not since early this morning, and 'tis now midnight! Where can +he be?"</p> +<p>"The Lord knows, sir! after no good I doubt, for he's a wild +lad, and these fairs and dances, fairly turn his brain."</p> +<p>Little further passed that night between the young lord and his +housekeeper; after taking some refreshment he retired to rest, and +poor Annette also sought, under the auspices of circumspect +Mistress Margery, repose in Castle Mortimer, little anticipating +the singularly dreadful disclosure of the ensuing morning. Charles, +in fact, not having returned, one of the inferior +serving-men,—who durst not, now that his master was at home, +stand upon the punctilio of "<i>not my business</i>," undertook +soon after dawn to "see to the hounds," in his stead; when upon +opening the door of the large enclosure in which they were kept, he +there beheld, to his unutterable consternation and horror, <i>the +mangled remnants of the careless and cruel Huntsman</i>: these +consisted of his clothes, torn into strips, and dyed in blood, with +fragments sufficient of flesh and bone to attest the hideous fact, +that the ravenous brutes, had, after their last long fast, sprung +upon their tormentor, (awful retribution!) even at the very moment +when he appeared amongst them with their long delayed meal, torn +him in pieces, and devoured him!</p> +<p>Lord Mortimer, though, he could not in conscience blame his +canine favourites, nor forbear regarding his huntsman's fate as a +signal instance of the retributive justice of Providence, felt +himself obliged to destroy the whole pack, after their ferocious +banquet on human flesh; and with tears in his eyes, he forced +himself to witness their execution, lest the cupidity or misjudging +kindness of any of his retainers, should induce them to mitigate +the culprits' doom. The horrid story spread far and wide, and one +of its earliest results was the appearance at Castle Mortimer of a +poor woman and three young children, who stated in an agony of +grief, that <i>she</i> was the lawful <i>wife</i> of the deceased +Charles Elliott, whom he had maintained in a distant town, unto +whom his visits, when off duty at the Castle, and absent without +leave, were sometimes paid, and who, with her children, being +suddenly bereaved by his awful demise of their sole hope and +support, now humbly threw themselves upon the benevolence of Lord +Mortimer for employment and subsistence!</p> +<p>The grief and confusion of poor Annette Martin, upon this +discovery of black villany meditated against her by the +unprincipled huntsman, and upon its miraculous and awful +frustration, may be imagined: yet had it also its beneficial +influence; for, whilst shuddering at the fearful end of the wretch +who had plotted her destruction, her once fond affection was +converted into bitter hatred; and, ere long, blessing and thanking +God for her miraculous preservation, and casting the very memory of +the deceiver from her heart, she was without much difficulty +persuaded to become the wife of William Curry, her once rejected, +but really worthy and amiable admirer.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2>MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.</h2> +<hr /> +<h3>PORTUGAL.</h3> +<h4>(<i>Abridged chiefly from the Rev. Mr. Kinsey's "Portugal +Illustrated."</i>)</h4> +<p><i>Spaniards and Portuguese.</i>—"Strip a Spaniard of all +his virtues, and you make a good Portuguese of him," says the +Spanish proverb. I have heard it said more truly, "Add hypocrisy to +a Spaniard's vices, and you have the Portuguese character." These +nations blaspheme God by calling each other natural enemies. Their +feelings are mutually hostile; but the Spaniards despise the +Portuguese, and the Portuguese hate the +Spaniards.—<i>Southey.</i></p> +<p><i>Portugal.</i>—Situated by the side of a country just +five times its size, Portugal, but for the advantageous position of +its coast, the good faith of England, and the weakness of its +hostile neighbour, impassable roads, and numerous strong places, +would long since have returned to the primitive condition of an +Iberian province; but its separate existence as a nation has been +preserved to it by the strength of the British alliance being +brought into a glorious co-operation with all its own internal +means of defence.—<i>Kinsey.</i></p> +<p><i>Column of Disgrace.</i>—About the middle of the last +century, the Duke of Aviero was detected in a conspiracy with the +Jesuits in Portugal, and accordingly executed. His house, at Belem, +was levelled to the ground at the time of the Duke's decapitation, +and on the site was erected <i>a column of disgrace</i>, which +still remains, though some shops have been erected beside it to +hide the inscription; a just symbol of the conduct of the nation on +this subject, for what they cannot alter they strive to +conceal.</p> +<p>Over the proscenium of the opera-house at Lisbon is a large +clock placed rather in advance, whose dexter supporter is old Time +with his scythe, and the sinister, one of the Muses playing on a +lyre.</p> +<p><i>A Lisbon Dandy.</i>—A small, squat, puffy figure +incased within a large pack-saddle, upon the back of a lean, +high-boned, straw-fed, cream-coloured nag, with an enormously +flowing tail, whose length and breadth would appear to be each +night guarded from discolouration by careful involution above the +hocks. Taken, from his gridiron spurs and long pointed boots, up +his broad, blue-striped pantaloons, <span class="pagenum"><a id= +"page70" name="page70"></a>[pg 70]</span> <i>à la +Cossaque</i>, to the thrice-folded piece of white linen on which he +is seated in <i>cool</i> repose; thence by his cable chain, bearing +seals as large as a warming-pan, and a key like an anchor; then a +little higher to the figured waistcoat of early British +manufacture, and the sack-shapened coat, up to the narrow brim +sugar-loaf hat on his head,—where can be found his equal? Nor +does he want a nose as big as the gnomon of a dial-plate; and two +flanks of impenetrable, deep, black brushwood, extending under +either ear, and almost concealing the countenance, to complete the +singular contour of his features.</p> +<p><i>A Lisbon Water-carrier</i> earns about sixpence per day, the +moiety of which serves to procure him his bread, his fried sardinha +from a cook's stall, and a little light wine perhaps, on +holidays,—water being his general beverage, nay, one might +almost say, his element. A mat in a large upper room, shared with +several others, serves him in winter as a place of repose for the +night; but during the summer he frequently sleeps out in the open +air, making his filled water-barrel his pillow.</p> +<p><i>Vanity.</i>—A young Lisbon dandy hearing an Englishman +complain of the intolerable filth and stench of his metropolis, +retorted that, for his part, when he was in London, it was the +absence of that filth, and the want of the smells complained of, +that had rendered his residence in our metropolis so disagreeable +and uncomfortable to him. "No passion," as Southey says, "makes a +man a liar so easily as vanity."</p> +<p><i>Dogs.</i>—In Lisbon dogs seem to luxuriate under the +violence of the heat, and to avoid the shady sides of the streets, +though the thermometer of Fahrenheit be at 110 degrees; and +scarcely an instance of canine madness is ever known to occur. When +the French decreed the extinction of the tribe of curs that infest +the streets, no native executioner could be found to put the +exterminating law in force; nay, the very measure excited popular +indignation.</p> +<p><i>Golden Sands.</i>—Perhaps originally it was the fabled +gold of the Tagus which attracted Jews to Lisbon in such numbers, +and the general persuasion indeed is, that the yellow sands of this +royal river did actually once produce sufficient gold to make a +magnificent crown and sceptre for the amiable hands of that patriot +sovereign, the good king Denis.</p> +<p><i>A Dinner.</i>—A dish of yellow-looking bacalhao, the +worst supposable specimen of our saltings in Newfoundland; a +platter of compact, black, greasy, dirty-looking rice; a pound, if +so much, of poor half-fed meat; a certain proportion of hard-boiled +beef, that has never seen the salting pan, having already yielded +its nutritious qualities to a swinging tureen of Spartan soup, and +now requiring the accompaniment of a satellite tongue, or friendly +slice of Lamego bacon, to impait a dull relish to it; potatoes of +leaden continuity; dumplings of adamantine contexture, that +Carthaginian vinegar itself might fail to dissolve; with offensive +vegetables, and something in a round shape, said to be imported +from Holland, and called cheese, but more like the unyielding rock +of flint in the tenacity of its impenetrable substance; a small +quantity of <i>very small</i> wine; abundance of water; and an +awful army of red ants, probably imported from the +Brazils—the wood of which the chairs and tables are made, +hurrying across the cloth with characteristic industry;—such +are the principal features of the quiet family dinner-table of the +Portuguese.</p> +<p><i>The Dockyard</i> of Lisbon is scarcely as extensive as many +of the largest of our private ship-builders on the banks of the +Thames and the Avon.</p> +<p><i>Funerals.</i>—In Portugal the corpse is placed in an +open coffin, and the head and feet are left bare. A vessel filled +with holy water is placed at the foot of the bier, which the +priests and relatives of the deceased sprinkle on the body. The +service being concluded, the corpse is followed by the relatives +down into the vaults below the church, where vinegar and quick lime +having been poured upon the body, the falling lid of the coffin is +closed and <i>locked</i>, and the key delivered to the chief +mourner, who proceeds immediately from the funeral, with his party +of friends who have witnessed the interment take place, to the +house of the defunct, where the key being left with the nearest +relative, and the complimentary visit being paid, the rite is +considered as terminated. No fire is lighted in the house of a +deceased person upon the day of his funeral, and the relatives, who +live in separate houses, are in the habit of supplying a +ready-dressed dinner, under the supposition that the inmates are +too much absorbed in grief to be equal to giving any orders for the +preparation of food. During the course of the ensuing week, the +chief mourners receive their several relatives and friends at tea. +The assembly is sorrowful and dull. It has been asserted, though +not corroborated, that such is the poverty and disregard of decorum +on the part of the Portuguese government, that when a person dies +without leaving behind sufficient to defray the expenses of his +funeral, the dead body is laid on the pavement of the most public +street, with a box upon the breast, into which passers-by drop +copper or silver coin, until sufficient has thus been obtained to +defray the expense of interment; and that a soldier stands at the +head of the body to see that no money is abstracted; for, in +Portugal, even the sacred purpose for which it is intended would +not secure it without his protection.</p> +<p>There is no pardoning <i>soi-disant liberaux</i>, who prove, by +their acts, the greatest enemies of the sacred dignity of +liberty.</p> +<hr /> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page71" name="page71"></a>[pg +71]</span> +<h3>PUNISHMENT OF DEATH.</h3> +<p><i>Decollatio</i>, or beheading, was a military punishment among +the Romans. In early times it was performed with an axe, and +afterwards with a sword. It is worthy of remark, that in all +countries where beheading and hanging are used as capital +punishments, the former is always considered less ignominious. +Thus, in England, beheading is the punishment of nobles, when +commoners for the same crime are hanged. The crime of high treason +is here punished with beheading. Commoners, however, are hanged +before the head is cut off, and nobles also, unless the king remits +that part of the punishment. In Prussia, formerly a nobleman could +not be hanged; and if his crime was such that the law required this +punishment, he was degraded before the execution. At present, +hanging is not used in that country, and since so many instances +have occurred of extreme suffering, on the part of the criminal, +caused by the unskilfulness of the executioner in beheading with +the sword, this mode of execution has been abolished. Beheading in +Prussia is now always performed with a heavy axe, the sufferer +being previously tied to a block. In France, during the +revolutionary government, beheading by means of a machine, the +guillotine, came into use, and still prevails there, to the +exclusion of all other modes of capital punishment. A person who +has murdered his father or mother, however, has his right arm cut +off the moment before he is guillotined. In the middle ages, it +was, in some states, the duty of the youngest magistrates to +perform the executions with the sword. In China, it is well known +that beheading is practised, sometimes accompanied with the most +studied torments. In the United States of America, beheading is +unknown, the halter being the only instrument of capital +punishment. In many European countries, beheading with the sword +still prevails.</p> +<p>P.</p> +<hr /> +<h3>PRICE OF BLOOD.—WERE AND WERELADE.</h3> +<p>Were, or <i>Wera</i>, in our old law books, signifies what was +anciently paid for <i>killing a man</i>. When such crimes were +punished with pecuniary mulets, not death, the price was set on +every man's head, according to his condition and quality.</p> +<p><i>Werelade</i>, among the Saxons, was the denying of a homicide +on oath, in order to be quit of the fine, or forfeiture, called +<i>were</i>. If the party denied the fact, he was to purge himself, +by the oaths of several persons, according to his degree and +quality. If the guilt amounted to four pounds, he was to have +eighteen jurors on his father's side, and four on his mother's: if +to twenty-four pounds, he was to have sixty jurors, and this was +called <i>werelade</i>.</p> +<p><i>Weregild</i>, or <i>Weregeld</i>, was the price of a man's +head; which was paid partly to the king for the loss of his +subject, partly to the lord whose vassal he was, and partly to the +next of kin.</p> +<p>"In the same manner (says Blackstone,) by the Irish brehon law, +in case of murder, the brehon or judge, compounded between the +murderer and the friends of the deceased, who prosecuted him, by +causing the malefactor to give unto them, or to the child or wife +of him that was slain, a recompense, which they called +<i>eriach</i>. And thus we find in our Saxon laws, particularly +those of King Athelstan, the several <i>weregilds</i> for homicide, +established in progressive order, from the death of the ceorl or +peasant, up to that of the king himself."</p> +<p>The <i>weregild</i> of an archbishop, and of an earl, was 15,000 +thrismas; that of a bishop or alderman, 8,000; that of a general or +governor, 4,000; that of a priest or thane, 2,000; that of a king, +30,000; half to be paid to his kindred, and the other half to the +public. The weregild of a ceorl was 266 thrismas.</p> +<p>P.T.W.</p> +<hr /> +<h3>LORD HIGH CHANCELLOR OF ENGLAND.</h3> +<p>The second great officer of the crown is the Lord High +Chancellor, or Keeper of the Great Seal, which are the same in +authority, power, and precedence. They are appointed by the King's +delivery of the Great Seal to them, and by taking the oath of +office. They differ only in this point, that the Lord Chancellor +hath also letters patent, whereas the Lord Keeper hath none.</p> +<p>He is an officer of very great power; as no patents, writs, or +grants, are valid, until he affixes the Great Seal thereto.</p> +<p>Among the many great prerogatives of his office, he has a power +to judge, according to equity, conscience, and reason, where he +finds the law of the land so defective as that the subject would be +injured thereby.</p> +<p>He has power to collate to all ecclesiastical benefices in His +Majesty's gift, rated under 20<i>l</i>. a year in the King's +books.</p> +<p>In ancient times, this great office was most usually filled by +an ecclesiastic. The first upon record after the Conquest, is +Maurice, in 1067, who was afterward Bishop of London.</p> +<p>Nor do we find an elevation of any Chancellor to the Peerage, +until the year 1603, when King James I. delivered a new Great Seal +to Sir Thomas Egerton, and soon after created him Baron of +Ellesmere,<a id="footnotetag2" name="footnotetag2"></a><a href= +"#footnote2"><sup>2</sup></a> and constituted him Lord High +Chancellor of England. But until of late years, the custom never +prevailed, that the Lord High Chancellor of England should he made +an hereditary Peer of the realm. He performs all matters which +appertain to the Speaker of the House of Lords, whereby he maybe +said to be the eye, ear, and tongue of that great +assembly.—<i>Manual of Rank and Nobility.</i></p> +<hr class="full" /> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page72" name="page72"></a>[pg +72]</span> +<h2>NEW BOOKS.</h2> +<hr /> +<h3>LETTERS ON NATURAL MAGIC.</h3> +<p>(This is certainly one of the most ingenious books of the +season, and independently of its place as a volume of the <i>Family +Library</i>, it has substantive claims which we trust will not he +overlooked. It is from the graceful pen of Sir David Brewster, who +possesses, in a high degree, the peculiar talent of investing +scientific inquiries with the charm of popular delight; in short, +of making science easy, and often conveying in a single chapter +what others labour to effect in a volume. He, in truth, teaches us +the sweet uses of science.</p> +<p>The present work appears to be the suggestion of Sir Walter +Scott, to whom it is addressed in letters. We can give but a faint +idea of the extent and interest of its subject, which ranges from +the magic of the ancients to the intoxicating gas of the moderns; +yet the purpose of the work is mainly to trace the connexion of +those prodigies of the material world which are termed Natural +Magic, with scientific causes. Thus, in the introductory letter, +the writer observes on the resources of ancient magic:—)</p> +<p>The secret use which was thus made of scientific discoveries and +of remarkable inventions, has no doubt prevented many of them from +reaching the present times; but though we are very ill informed +respecting the progress of the ancients in various departments of +the physical sciences, yet we have sufficient evidence that almost +every branch of knowledge had contributed its wonders to the +magician's budget, and we may even obtain some insight into the +scientific acquirements of former ages, by a diligent study of +their fables and their miracles.</p> +<p>(In the second letter, upon Ocular Illusions, is the following +beautiful passage on the Eye:—)</p> +<p>This wonderful organ may be considered as the sentinel which +guards the pass between the worlds of matter and of spirit, and +through which all their communications are interchanged. The optic +nerve is the channel by which the mind peruses the hand-writing of +Nature on the retina, and through which it transfers to that +material tablet its decisions and its creations. The eye is +consequently the principal seat of the supernatural. When the +indications of the marvellous are addressed to us through the ear, +the mind may be startled without being deceived, and reason may +succeed in suggesting some probable source of the illusion by which +we have been alarmed. But when the eye in solitude sees before it +the forms of life, fresh in their colours and vivid in their +outline; when distant or departed friends are suddenly presented to +its view; when visible bodies disappear and reappear without any +intelligible cause; and when it beholds objects, whether real or +imaginary, for whose presence no cause can be assigned, the +conviction of supernatural agency becomes under ordinary +circumstances unavoidable. Hence it is not only an amusing but an +useful occupation to acquire a knowledge of those causes which are +capable of producing so strange a belief, whether it arises from +the delusions which the mind practises upon itself, or from the +dexterity and science of others.</p> +<p>(The Optical phenomena, as might be expected, are most abundant, +as they include the subject of spectral illusions and apparitions, +and natural phenomena marked with the marvellous. The properties of +Sound are next in interest; among them we find explained the wonder +of singers breaking glasses with their great power of voice; the +automaton flute-player, talking engines, echoes, &c. The +Mechanical causes are less numerous: among them we are glad to see +<i>noticed</i> the feat of lifting heavy persons, which we +ourselves have often seen accomplished; but Sir David Brewster does +not supply the cause. As the matter may be new to many readers, we +quote the two relating pages.)</p> +<p>One of the most remarkable and inexplicable experiments relative +to the strength of the human frame, which you have yourself seen +and admired, is that in which a heavy man is raised with the +greatest facility, when he is lifted up the instant that his own +lungs and those of the persons who raise him are inflated with air. +This experiment was, I believe, first shown in England a few years +ago by Major H., who saw it performed in a large party at Venice +under the direction of an officer of the American Navy. As Major H. +performed it more than once in my presence, I shall describe as +nearly as possible the method which he prescribed. The heaviest +person in the party lies down upon two chairs, his legs being +supported by the one and his back by the other. Four persons, one +at each leg, and one at each shoulder, then try to raise him, and +they find his dead weight to be very great, from the difficulty +they experience in supporting him. When he is replaced in the +chair, each of the four persons takes hold of the body as before, +and the person to be lifted gives two signals by clapping his +hands. At the first signal he himself and the four lifters begin to +draw a long and full breath, and when the inhalation is completed, +or the lungs filled, the second signal is given, for raising the +person from the chair. To his own surprise and that of his bearers, +he rises with the greatest facility, as if he were no heavier than +a feather. On several occasions I have observed that when one of +the bearers performs his part ill, by making the inhalation out of +time, the part of the body which he tries to raise is left as it +were behind. As you have repeatedly seen this experiment, and have +performed the part both of the load and of <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page73" name="page73"></a>[pg 73]</span> the +bearer, you can testify how remarkable the effects appear to all +parties, and how complete is the conviction, either that the load +has been lightened, or the bearer strengthened by the prescribed +process. At Venice the experiment was performed in a much more +imposing manner. The heaviest man in the party was raised and +sustained upon the points of the fore-fingers of six persons. Major +H. declared that the experiment would not succeed if the person +lifted were placed upon a board, and the strength of the +individuals applied to the board. He conceived it necessary that +the bearers should communicate directly with the body to be raised. +I have not had an opportunity of making any experiments relative to +these curious facts; but whether the general effect is an illusion, +or the result of known or of new principles, the subject merits a +careful investigation.</p> +<p>(In connexion with walking along the ceiling is noticed the +beautiful contrivance of the foot of the house-fly and gecko, and +the head of the sucking-fish. To the next portion, Chemistry has +supplied fewer wonders than we expected: they occupy but fifty +pages.</p> +<p>The examples in this book are the most quotable portion, but the +majority of them would be new to few readers: who, for instance, is +unacquainted with the feats of Topham, the strong man, or the +Invisible Girl. The explanations are not so easily transferable, +since they are generally accompanied by illustrations.</p> +<p>By the way, how many of these wonders are recorded in the early +volumes of the Philosophical Transactions, with all the gravity of +the FF.R.S. whose zeal, industry, and emulation rendered the early +years of the Society peculiarly brilliant. The very titles of some +of the early papers would make a "wonderful museum;" as Four Suns +observed in France—Worms that eat Stones and +Mortar—which are almost as marvellous as one of Sir David +Brewster's lines—a coach and four filled with skeletons. The +Royal Society has now existed a century and three-quarters: in +their early Transactions are inquiries relative to the +tides—observations on the darting threads of +spiders—"experiments about respiration"—"of red snow +seen at Genoa," &c.; yet scores of philosophers, at the present +moment, are controverting these very subjects.)</p> +<hr /> +<h3>PILGRIMAGE THROUGH KHUZISTAN AND PERSIA.</h3> +<p>(This is not just so good a work as its full title-page may lead +the reader to expect. It runs thus "Fifteen Months' Pilgrimage +through untrodden tracts of Khuzistan and Persia, in a journey from +India to England, through parts of Turkish Arabia, Persia, Armenia, +Russia, and Germany." Now, there is attractive promise in the word +"untrodden," and it may be said to apply to the Asiatic tour of the +author, or his first volume, but is not appropriate to the second, +which owes its main interest to his interview with Skryznecki, the +illustrious Pole. Neither is the term pilgrimage characteristic of +the journey, which has the sketchiness and levity of a flying tour +rather than the observant gravity of a patient pilgrimage. +Nevertheless, the work is altogether full of vivacity and interest, +and the author, Mr. J.H. Stocqueler, must be as pleasant on his +travels, as his book will be in our hands.</p> +<p>Crossing from Bombay, the author reached Muscat in eleven days. +Here, with his host, Reuben, he paid his respects to his highness +the Imaum, whose court is a curiosity.)</p> +<p>The Imaum's palace was close to the water's edge in front of the +town, and his highness received Reuben and myself in an arbour or +veranda open to the sea. At the entrance to the veranda stood +several well dressed Arabs armed with sword, spear, and dagger, and +half a dozen dirty looking Abyssinians clothed somewhat like the +sepoys in our Indian army, and equipped much after the same +fashion. These latter, as I understood, were paraded in honour of +my visit; and indeed generally form the <i>garde du corps</i> on +occasions of an Englishman's presentation at the <i>Court of +Muscat</i>. The Imaum rose on our entrance and accommodated us with +chairs, and after we had been served with some insipid sherbet, +addressed himself to me on the subject of my journey, its object +and direction; and then touched on the politics of Europe.</p> +<p>Our interview closed by his highness offering me the use of his +horses, his houses, and his ships of war, the cabins of which +afforded excellent accommodation, and which were generally occupied +by English visiters.</p> +<p>The Imaum of Muscat is passionately fond of horses, and devotes +considerable time and attention to their breeding. Of some of the +finest horses in his stud, the Imaum makes presents to the +governors of the Indian presidencies, and deserving officers in his +own service. Horses likewise form an article of trade between +Muscat and India, and yield, as I have been told, a considerable +profit.</p> +<p>(Intellect is not on the march at Bushire. It contains a small +school founded by the famous Joseph Wolff, and supported by the +British residents in Persia. Mr. Wolff projected much; but Mr. +Stocqueler says:)</p> +<p>The school possessed, while I was at Bushire, no more than +thirteen pupils, who were struggling through the rudiments of the +Persian and Armenian languages, under the guidance of a sleepy old +Armenian.</p> +<p>(At Koete, our author visited three brothers, "all dressed alike +and so much resembling each other in feature, and in the total +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page74" name="page74"></a>[pg +74]</span> loss of the left eye, that it was difficult to discover +my friend the supercargo, who had accompanied us from Bombay."</p> +<p>Koete is about a mile long, and a quarter of a mile broad. The +houses are built of mud and stone, and flat roofed with the trunk +of the date tree. Around it is a wall, beyond which nothing is to +be seen but a vast sandy plain, extending more than sixty miles. +Within the walls, it is equally sterile, it literally yields +<i>nothing</i>; here, "all <i>is</i> barren," and the water is far +from sweet, yet 4,000 souls live, though the sheikh keeps up no +standing army. Mr. S. sails thence into the <i>Shut-ul-Arab</i>, +[River of the Arabs,] the banks of which are more delightful than +those of the Thames at Richmond.</p> +<p>At Bussorah—a <i>bain à la Turque</i>.)</p> +<p>Entering the hummaum, I found myself suddenly in an apartment +resembling a vaulted cellar, dimly lighted by small apertures, and +glazed sky-lights in the dome. Stone and brick benches, covered +with cloths and coarse carpets, were ranged along the walls, and +there was a fireplace where coffee and chibouks were prepared, and +cloths dried. Having been required to strip, and a cloth tied round +my waist, I was led into a second apartment filled with steam, and +of so high a temperature, that in one instant I lost my breath, and +in the next was streaming from every pore. I anticipated a speedy +dissolution of my "solid flesh;" but on reaching a third apartment, +(all vaulted and lighted, or rather darkened alike,) I had become +somewhat relieved. In this apartment were four cisterns nearly +level with the floor, into which the hot water was drawn by cocks +placed in the wall above. As soon as I had decided that the water +was hot enough, I was placed by the side of one of the cisterns, +and then the operation commenced.</p> +<p><i>Act</i> 1.—Deluged with hot water from the hands of a +stout Persian. <i>Act</i> 2.—Conducted by said Persian to a +stone ottoman in the centre of the room, and caused to sit down. +<i>Act</i> 3.—My whole body kneaded by the fists of the +aforesaid; joints cracked, ears pulled, mustachoes dyed, limbs +rubbed with a hair-cloth glove. <i>Act</i> 4.—Enveloped in +warm towels, and served with a pipe. <i>Act</i> 5.—Wiped dry; +led into the outer apartment dressed and—<i>Exit</i>.</p> +<p>(Starting from Bussorah, the author is towed up the Euphrates as +follows.)</p> +<p>As soon as we had got out of the creek, we found both wind and +tide had set against us. The <i>mallahs</i>, or trackers, +immediately stripped, placing their clothes on their heads, and +sprang on shore. A rope was passed from the mast-head to a girdle +round their respective bodies, and off they set along the banks; +sometimes, on reaching creeks, irrigating channels, or unequal +projections, plunging up to their necks, and wading or swimming +with their burthen, as the depth or shallowness of the water +required. In this way all the communication up the Tigris and +Euphrates is carried on when the wind blows down those rivers. The +business of tracking as may be conceived, is extremely fatiguing +and dangerous: in fact, so excellent a test does it furnish of the +muscular powers and courage of man, that the heads of the Mallah +tribes require that each Mallah should make three trips to Bagdad, +as a tracker, before he can be qualified for the married state and +the care of a family.</p> +<p>(The plague rages at Bagdad, and he returns to Bussorah. On his +way he escapes a storm on the Euphrates.)</p> +<p>The river, which does not ordinarily rise until the month of +June, now rose with inconceivable rapidity, preceded by a violent +storm, and in a few hours inundated the whole Irâk. +Numberless villages of matted huts were swept away; men, women, and +children, were in a moment rendered houseless; numerous cattle and +sheep were drowned; date trees torn up by the roots, and boats +swamped or stranded. The artificial banks of the river, which had +governed our progress upwards, were now overflowed, and it was with +the greatest difficulty we could discover the river's bed and +escape getting aground.</p> +<p>(At Bussorah.)</p> +<p>Intelligence of the approach of the plague had spread +consternation throughout the city, and had sent thousands of its +inhabitants into retreat. The shops were closed—trade at a +stand—the streets deserted—houses tenantless—the +oft busy creek had scarcely a boat moving on its surface—the +mosques were filled with the dismayed Moslems, whom poverty or +self-interest had kept in the town—the Christian churches +held the few Armenians and Chaldeans whom fear had driven to pray +with sincerity. Here might be seen a cluster of Zobeir Arabs, +meditating rapine: and there a straggling Jew, ruminating on the +losses he had sustained by the flight of the panic-stricken slaves +of his usury.</p> +<p>Aga Pharseigh had lost all his confidence and self-sufficiency. +He had sent off his family to Bushire; he was himself to sink into +the humble office of clerk to the resident; and he was (which he +esteemed the most distressing event of the three) to encounter face +to face those who had just left the "city of the plague." I had +told him of the circumstances under which I had met the resident, +(coming from Bagdad,) and that there were three cases of plague on +board. The Armenian, whose only notions regarding <i>cases</i> were +acquired in the course of his mercantile transactions, and who +believed a plague case and a six dozen champagne case to be much +about the same article, ejaculated, "Three <i>cases</i> of plague! +Merciful heavens!—if the major wanted to preserve such +abominable <span class="pagenum"><a id="page75" name= +"page75"></a>[pg 75]</span> virus, could he not have brought a +smaller quantity? Three cases! If it <i>should</i> run out, how it +might spread about the town!"</p> +<p>(The "divinity" of the sheikh of the Chabeans is worth record. +He was pleased with Mr. Stocqueler's medical zeal, and more so with +a box of ointment which he laid "at his feet as a certain remedy +for the <i>impaired vision</i> of his left eye. He had been stone +blind from his childhood, but he held it disrespectful to be told +so."</p> +<p>The levee of the sheikh of Fellahi is amusing.)</p> +<p>He was in a spacious veranda in front of his harem, looking out +on the palace court, above which it was raised for about three +feet. Three or four beautiful hawks were perched near the sheikh, +and he was patting a couple of favourite greyhounds. Below, in the +court, stood a considerable guard, and about the sheikh's person +were a number of subordinate sheikhs. Those of the highest rank +merely bowed and took their places, others advanced and kissed the +sheikh's hand while the humblest officers knelt on one knee to +perform the same ceremony. I observed, however, that great respect +was always paid to age in this little court, for when the head of a +village, far advanced in years, limped up to the <i>nummud</i>, the +sheikh rose and embraced him, though he held but a trifling post, +and was a man of little personal merit. My own reception was most +flattering. "Ah, ha! khoob! khoob! shahbas!" (good, good, +admirable!) exclaimed Mobader Khan, in Persian—"you are now +yourself. It is long since I looked upon an Englishman, but I do +not forget that they are a great nation." He then discoursed with +me about my plans for the future prosecution of my journey, and +gave me some instructions for going through the Chab territory. +Talking of hunting, and more especially of falconry, he told me +that his deserts abounded with game, and that if I would stay with +him, I should see herds of antelopes fall to his noble hawks. He +was curious about our field sports, but showed very little interest +in more important matters; because, said he, "I am already well +informed in all that concerns Europeans and their empires."</p> +<p>The sheikh is held in great veneration by all the tribes, who +fly to Fellahi at his summons, bringing their own <i>materiel</i> +of war. In this way he can command the services of six or seven +thousand cavalry, and above fifteen thousand infantry, +independently of the wandering Illyauts, who inhabit the deserts of +Chab.</p> +<p>(At Bebuhan are some interesting notes.)</p> +<p>The Khans and Meerzas of Bebuhan are considerable consumers of +coffee, but not after the fashion of Turks, Arabs, or Europeans. It +is with them a kind of <i>bon-bon</i> eaten in a powdered and +roasted state, without having had any connexion with hot water. +When Meer Goolam Hussein called on me, he was always accompanied by +his coffee-bearer, who carried about the fragrant berry in a +<i>snuff-box</i>, and handed it frequently to the company present. +The first time it was brought to me, deceived by its colour and +quality, and strengthened in the delusion by its singular +repository, I took a <i>pinch</i> of the coffee and applied it to +my nose, amidst the roars of laughter and looks of surprise of all +the party.</p> +<p>(A <i>vestry dinner</i> in Persia must be one of our +<i>selections</i>.)</p> +<p>At the convent of Julfa the governing bishop and his confreres +have ample room, plenty of society, and a well furnished table. I +dined once with his lordship and the churchwardens, and found that +vestry honours and vestry appetites are not exclusively English +characteristics. The dinner was spread as usual on the ground, on a +large white cloth, around which the guests assembled. Placed +opposite each guest was a plate, knife, fork, spoon, and glass, a +piece of cheese, two or three feet of bread, and a hard boiled egg. +The feast commenced by each person drinking a dram of aniseed; then +came in quick succession mutton chops, boiled fowls, boiled +kidneys, sour curds, tea, apricots, apples, and grapes, sweetmeats, +and salt fish; to each of which laymen and churchmen did equal +justice, finishing the feast with a sacrifice to Bacchus.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2>THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.</h2> +<hr /> +<h3>BOYHOOD OF CRANMER—SCHOOLS BEFORE THE REFORMATION.</h3> +<p>Cranmer received his early education from a parish-clerk. This +may seem singular, for he was of gentle blood, and was entered at +Cambridge amongst "the better sort of students." But probably such +shifts were not unusual before the Reformation. The monasteries +indeed had schools attached to them in many instances. In +Elizabeth's time a complaint is made by the Speaker of the Commons, +that the number of such places of education had been reduced by a +hundred, in consequence of the suppression of the religious houses. +Still it must often have happened (thickly scattered as the +monasteries were) that the child lived at an inconvenient distance +from any one of them; mothers, too, might not have liked to trust +less robust children to the clumsy care of a fraternity; and +probably little was learned in these academies after all. Erasmus +makes himself merry with the studies pursued in them; and it is +remarkable that no sooner did the love of learning revive, than the +popularity of the monasteries declined. For thirty years before the +Reformation, there were few or no new religious foundations, whilst +schools, on the other hand, began <span class="pagenum"><a id= +"page76" name="page76"></a>[pg 76]</span> to multiply in their +stead; a fact which sufficiently marks the state of public opinion +with regard to the monasteries as places of education—for +education began now to be the desire of the day. Schools, +therefore, in the present acceptation of the term, in Cranmer's +boyhood there were scarcely any; and it was the crying want of them +in London that induced Dean Colet to establish that of St. Paul's, +which, under the fostering care of Lily, the first master, not only +became so distinguished in itself, but set the example, and +prepared the way, by its rules and its grammar, for so many others +which followed in its wake. Edward VI.; with the natural feeling of +a boy fond of knowledge, and himself a proficient for his years, +was aware of the evil, and projected the remedy. Colet might be his +model—but he was embarrassed in his means by courtiers, who +were for ever uttering the cry of the horse-leech's daughters; and, +besides, his days were soon numbered. Cranmer, who perhaps +remembered the obstacles in his own way, and who certainly foresaw +the great calamity of an ignorant clergy, pressed for the +establishment of a school in connexion with every cathedral—a +school, as it were, of the prophets—where boys intended for +holy orders might be brought up suitably to the profession they +were about to adopt, and where the bishops might ever find persons +duly qualified to serve God in the church. But Cranmer was +overruled, and a measure, which might have helped to catch up the +church before it fell into that abyss of ignorance which seems to +have immediately succeeded the Reformation, (the natural +consequence of a season of convulsion and violence,) was unhappily +lost. It was not till the reign of Elizabeth that the evil was at +all adequately met, nor fully indeed then, as the deficiency of +well-endowed schools at this day testifies. Still much was at that +time done. The dignitaries and more wealthy ecclesiastics of the +reformed Church bestirred themselves and founded some schools. Many +tradesmen, who had accumulated fortunes in London, (then the almost +exclusive province of commercial enterprise,) retired in their +later years to the country-town which had given them birth, and +gratefully provided for the better education of their neighbours, +by furnishing it with a grammar-school. And even the honest yeoman, +a person who then appears to have appreciated learning, and often +to have brought up his boy to the church, united in the same +praiseworthy object. In such cases application was usually made to +the Queen for a charter, which was granted with or without +pecuniary assistance on her own part; and whoever will examine the +dates of our foundation schools, will find a great proportion of +them erected in that glorious reign.</p> +<p>Thus it came to pass (to revert to our text), that Cranmer was +sent to college in his fourteenth year, Oxford and Cambridge being +at that time the substitutes for the schools which have succeeded +them, and being considered the two great national receptacles for +all the boys in the country. There they were subjected to corporal +punishment. The statutes were framed with a reference to the habits +of mere boys; it is forbidden, for instance, in one of the +Cambridge statutes, to play marbles on the senate-house steps; and +the number of the students was so enormous (still for the same +reason), that Latimer, in one of his sermons, speaks of a decrease +in those of his own time, to the amount of no less than ten +thousand.—<i>Quarterly Review</i>.</p> +<hr /> +<h3>A TRUE STORY OF MAGIC IN THE EAST.</h3> +<p>M. ——, a Perote, one who knew "the difference +between alum and barley-sugar,"<a id="footnotetag3" name= +"footnotetag3"></a><a href="#footnote3"><sup>3</sup></a> if ever +man did, a good catholic, a conscientious person, a dragoman, and +as such necessarily attached to truth, and never telling a lie, +save in the way of business, was himself the hero, or the witness +rather of the story he narrated. He was sent one morning from the +European palace of ——, at Pera, on business in +Constantinople. He was in a great hurry, but as he reached the +Meytiskellesi, or wharf of the dead, and was about stepping into +his cäik to be rowed across the harbour of the Golden Horn, +either a nail in one of the rough planks of the wooden quay caught +his slipper, or a post on it his robe, I forget which—but the +dragoman turned round, and saw standing close by him, a tall and +very notorious African magician, who had long been practising at +the capital, and was known to every body as one of the lions of the +place. To do a civil thing, and perhaps to keep well in this world +with one who had intercourse with the spirits of the next, the +dragoman naturally supposing he was waiting there on the water's +edge only to cross over from the suburb to the city, very politely +invited him to take a passage in his cäik. The tall African +made no verbal reply, but smiled, and waved his hand to decline the +high honour.</p> +<p>The dragoman then concluding, that instead of waiting to cross +over himself, he was expecting the arrival of some one from the +opposite side of the Golden Horn, stepped into his cäik, which +instantly glided from the quay and shot across the port. The boats +at Constantinople are all very light and sharp, and go with +astonishing speed, even when propelled with one pairs of oars; but +people of high consideration, like dragomans, generally have two +pairs to their cäiks, and at this time M. —— being +in a very great hurry, told his two rowers to pull as fast as they +could.</p> +<p>When about half way on his short aquatic journey, <span class= +"pagenum"><a id="page77" name="page77"></a>[pg 77]</span> M. +—— turned his head and looked back, and then he saw at +the end of the quay, just where he had left him, the tall African +standing starch and motionless, like a granite statue before an +Egyptian temple.</p> +<p>The dragoman's boat continued to cleave the waves; it neared the +opposite shore—no cäik had passed him on his +way—when lo! as his own came in concussion with the wooden +piles of the Divan-kapi-iskellesi, and he rose from his seat to +step on shore, he saw the identical African wizard standing there +before him, and gazing calmly over to the opposite quay where he +had just left him, and whence it was impossible he could have +proceeded by mortal agency!</p> +<p>The dragoman rubbed his eyes, as well he might; but there was +the Maugrabee, with his large leaden eye gazing across the Golden +Horn, and fixed on the wharf of the dead, just as he had been left +behind there gazing at the Divan-kapi-iskellesi. M. —— +felt a sort of flesh-shivering at this undeniable proof of the +wizard's power; he remained for better than a minute in the +position he was, when the tall African first struck his eye, +spell-bound as it were, with one foot on the edge of the boat, and +the other on the edge of the quay; but recovering himself, he drew +up his hinder leg, and then crossing himself like a good catholic, +and <i>salaaming</i> his acquaintance, like a polite Turk, he +stepped along the quay, touching the necromancer as he passed him, +and thus completely assuring himself, it was no deception of +vision. Mr. —— thinking more about this wonderful +occurrence than the business of the —— nation he was +going upon went his way, and having discharged his duty, hurried +back to Pera, where he told this story, where it was universally +believed from the veracity and character and dignity of the +narrator, and where the narrator himself is still living. Very +possibly, while I am writing he is telling his rencounter with the +wizard, for he tells it to every +stranger—<i>Metropolitan</i>.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2>NOTES OF A READER.</h2> +<hr /> +<h3>PRECIOUS STONES.</h3> +<h4>(<i>From Part 15, of Knowledge for the People—Mineralogy +and Geology</i>.)</h4> +<p><i>Why was crystal so named?</i></p> +<p>Because it was probably the first substance ever noticed as +occurring in a regular form, and the ancients believing it to be +water permanently congealed by extreme cold, from its transparency, +called it <i>Krustallos</i>, signifying ice; but in time the word +became used without attention being paid to its original meaning, +and was applied to all the regular figures observed in +minerals.</p> +<p><i>Why are the fine crystals of quartz used as a substitute for +glass in spectacles?</i></p> +<p>Because, from their superior hardness, they do not so readily +become scratched as glass: they are then termed pebbles.</p> +<p><i>Why is the stone Cairn Gorm so called?</i></p> +<p>Because it is found in great beauty in the mountain of Cairn +Gorm, in Scotland. It consists of brown and yellow crystals of +quartz, and is much admired for seal stones, &c.; it is +sometimes improperly termed topaz.</p> +<p><i>Why is quartz the constituent of so many gems?</i></p> +<p>Because the tinges it receives from metals are sufficient to +produce these varieties. Thus, <i>amethyst</i>, or purple quartz, +is tinged with a little iron and manganese. <i>Rose quartz</i>, or +false ruby, derives its colour from manganese. <i>Avanturine</i> is +a beautiful variety of quartz, of a rich brown colour, which, from +a peculiarity of texture, appears filled with bright spangles. +Small crystals of quartz, tinged with iron, are found in Spain, and +have been termed <i>hyacinths of Compostella</i>. Flint, +chalcedony, carnelian, onyx, sardonyx, and bloodstone, or +heliotrope, and the numerous varieties of agates, are principally +composed of quartz, with various tinging materials.</p> +<p><i>Why is opal among the most beautiful productions of the +mineral world?</i></p> +<p>Because the colours are not occasioned by any particular tinge +of the substance, but by its peculiar property of refracting the +solar rays. It is a compound of about 90 silica, and 10 water. The +finest specimens come exclusively from Hungary. There is a variety +of opal called <i>Hydrophane</i>, which is white and opaque till +immersed in water; it then resembles the former.</p> +<p><i>Why is the sapphire genus so highly prized?</i></p> +<p>Because, after diamond, it is the hardest substance in nature. +It forms also the most valuable gems, as the oriental ruby and the +topaz. The blue variety, or sapphire, is harder than the ruby. It +is infusible before the blowpipe. It becomes electrical by rubbing, +and retains its electricity for several hours; but does not become +electrical by heating. It occurs in alluvial soil, in the vicinity +of rocks belonging to the secondary or floetz-trap formation, and +imbedded in gneiss. It is found at Rodsedlitz and Treblitz in +Bohemia, and Hohenstein in Saxony; Expailly in France; and +particularly beautiful in the Capelau mountains, twelve days from +Sirian, a city of Pegu. Next to diamond it is the most valuable of +gems. The white and pale blue varieties, by exposure to heat become +snow-white; and when cut, exhibit so high a degree of lustre, that +they are used in place of diamond. The most highly prized varieties +are the crimson and carmine red; these are the oriental ruby of the +jeweller; the next is sapphire; and the last is sapphire, or +oriental topaz. The asterias, or star-stone, is a very beautiful +variety, in which the colour is generally of a reddish violet, with +an opalescent <span class="pagenum"><a id="page78" name= +"page78"></a>[pg 78]</span> lustre. A sapphire of ten carats weight +is considered to be worth fifty guineas.—<i>Jameson</i>.</p> +<p>The blue topaz, or Brazilian sapphire, is of recent +introduction. The white topaz considerably exceeds rock crystal in +lustre, and in Brazil is called <i>mina nova</i>.<a id= +"footnotetag4" name="footnotetag4"></a><a href= +"#footnote4"><sup>4</sup></a></p> +<p><i>Why is ruby of such a brilliant colour?</i></p> +<p>Because a sixth of it is chromic acid, while other gems, as the +garnet, are coloured by oxide of iron. The most esteemed, and at +the same time, rarest colour, of the oriental ruby, is pure +carmine, or blood-red of considerable intensity, forming, when well +polished, a blaze of the most exquisite and unrivalled tint. It is, +however, more or less pale, and mixed with blue in various +proportions; hence it occurs rose-red and reddish white, crimson, +peach-blossom red, and lilac blue—the latter variety being +named oriental amethyst. A ruby perfect both in colour and +transparency, is much less common than a good diamond, and when of +the weight of three or four carats, is even more valuable than that +gem. The king of Pegu, and the monarchs of Siam and Ava, monopolize +the rarest rubies; the finest in the world is in the possession of +the first of these kings: its purity has passed into a proverb, and +its worth when compared with gold, is inestimable. The Subah of the +Deccan, also, is in possession of a prodigiously fine one, a full +inch in diameter. The princes of Europe cannot boast of any of a +first rate magnitude. Mr. Mawe, from whose interesting work we +abridge these particulars, considers the oriental sapphire to rank +next in value to the ruby. Among the British crown jewels is an +inestimable sapphire; it is of the purest and deepest azure, more +than two inches long, and one inch broad. The finest ruby among +these gems is more treasured for its antiquity than intrinsic +value, it being the one worn at Cressy and Agincourt, by the Black +Prince and Henry V.: this is worn on the back cross, and the +sapphire on the front, of the imperial crown upon state +occasions.</p> +<p><i>Why are garnets often found of a reddish brown tinge?</i></p> +<p>Because of the excess of oxide of iron which they contain; a +small proportion being sufficient to colour them entirely, without +injuring their play and splendour. In fact, the perfection of all +gems depends less on the quality of their component principles, +than on their complete solution and intimate combination. The +alkalized earths, as lime, magnesia, and still better, pot-ash, +seem to intervene as solvents, for alumina, completely dissolved, +acquires, as we have shown from Klaproth, a crystallization, of +which, by itself, it is not susceptible.</p> +<p>The garnet is found in Bohemia, Ceylon, and other countries; but +the chief mart formerly being Sirian, the capital of Pegu, the best +are often denominated Sirian garnets. The colour most esteemed is +blood or cherry red, mixed often, however, with blue, forming tints +of crimson, purple, and reddish violet; or orange red and hyacinth +brown. The Sirian garnet is of a violet colour, which, in some rare +specimens, makes it compete with the amethyst, from which it is to +be discriminated by the disadvantage of losing its brilliancy, and +acquiring an orange tint by candlelight. Distinct from all other +garnets, it preserves its colour unmixed with the common black +tinge, unassisted by foil, even when thick. <i>Course garnets</i> +are used as emery for polishing metals, and by lapidaries. They are +found in Ireland, in Norway, and many other countries.</p> +<hr /> +<h3>GEOLOGICAL CHANGES EFFECTED BY THE SEA.</h3> +<h4>(<i>From the preceding work</i>.)</h4> +<p><i>Why are certain formations called marine?</i></p> +<p>Because they result from continual deposits of shingle and sand, +as may be seen on the flat coast of our eastern counties. In this +manner, at Lowestoffe-Ness, as well as at Yarmouth, the sea has +erected a series of natural embankments against itself. The present +extent of land thrown up by the sea, and out of the reach of the +highest tides, is nearly three miles long, projecting from the base +of the original cliff to the distance of 660 yards at the Ness. The +respective lines of growth are indicated by a series of small +embankments, perfectly defined. Several of these ridges have been +formed within the memory of men now living. A rampart of heavy +materials is first thrown up by a violent gale from the north-cast. +Sand is subsequently blown over, and consolidates the shingle, and +the process is completed by marine plants taking root and extending +their fibres in a kind of net-work through the mass. In process of +time the surface becomes covered with vegetable mould, and +ultimately, in many cases, is productive of good herbage.<a id= +"footnotetag5" name="footnotetag5"></a><a href= +"#footnote5"><sup>5</sup></a></p> +<p><i>Why are shingle beaches formed by heavy gales?</i></p> +<p>Because every breaker is more or less charged with the materials +composing the beach; the shingles are forced forward as far as the +broken wave can reach, and, in their shock against the beach, drive +others before them that were not held in momentary mechanical +suspension by the breaker. By these means, and particularly at the +greatest height of the tide, the shingles are projected on the land +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page79" name="page79"></a>[pg +79]</span> beyond the reach of the retiring waves: and this great +accumulation of land upon beach being effected at high water, it is +clear, the ebb tide cannot deprive the land of what it has gained. +Smaller lines are formed in moderate weather, to be swept away by +heavy gales: hence it would appear, that the sea was diminishing +the beach; but attention will show that the shingles of the lines +so apparently swept away, are but accumulated elsewhere. How often +has our observation of these changes realized the homely simile of +Shakspeare:—</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>Like as the waves make towards the pebble shore,</p> +<p class="i2">So do our minutes hasten to their end;</p> +<p>Each changing place with that which goes before,</p> +<p class="i2">In sequent toil all forwards do contend.</p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Why is this progressive march of beaches far from +rapid?</i></p> +<p>Because it can only take place in proportion to the greater +power or duration of one wind to another: moreover, the pebbles +become comminuted in their passage, and thus, the harder can only +travel to considerable distances. Works are sometimes constructed +to arrest beaches, either to protect land behind, or to prevent +their passage round pier-heads into artificial harbours, and thus +engineers are practically aware of their travelling power in +direction of certain winds.</p> +<p><i>Why are sandy-beaches formed more rapidly than +shingle?</i></p> +<p>Because the breakers have the same tendency to force sand upon +the land as in the case of shingles; but being so much lighter than +the latter, sand can be transported by coast-tides or currents +whose velocity would be insufficient to move shingles. On the other +hand, however, smaller bodies and forces of water can throw sand on +the shore. The <i>spray</i> that could not transport a pebble can +carry sand, and thus it is conveyed far beyond situations where the +reflux of a wave can be felt. This may be witnessed on some parts +of the Sussex coast, as at Worthing. In rough weather too, the +spray of the sea, with heavy rain, carries much sand, which it +deposits on the fronts of houses, as may be seen upon the return of +moderate weather: this effect may be witnessed on the splendid +terraces of the Brighton cliffs, and its destructive working on +their plaster fronts is very evident.</p> +<hr /> +<h3>INNKEEPERS.</h3> +<p>The inn-keeper of former times seems to have been a person of +less humble station than now—he shared his calling with the +monastery and with the village-pastor. Travellers had to choose (as +they still have in Roman Catholic countries) between the refectory +of the monk, the parsonage of the minister, and the tavern of mine +host—payment for the night's lodging, where he was in a +condition to pay, being expected of him, in one shape or other, at +all. The keeper of the Tabard in the Canterbury Tales appears to be +upon a level with his guests, both in rank and information, and to +play the part of one who felt that he was receiving his equals, and +no more, under his roof; yet his company was not of the lowest; and +in those times it seems to have been usual for the landlord to +preside at the common board, and act in every respect as the +hospitable master of the house, save only in exacting the shot; as +indeed is the custom in many parts of Germany at the present day. +When the system of lay impropriations had begun to take effect, it +was by no means an uncommon thing for the minister himself to be +also the tavern-keeper, a circumstance, however, which, it must be +confessed, may be thought to argue the extreme impoverishment of +the church, which drove the clergy to such expedients for a living, +rather than the respectability of the calling to which they thus +betook themselves.—<i>Quarterly Review.</i></p> +<hr /> +<h3>EFFECTS OF FRUIT AS REGARDS CHOLERA.</h3> +<p>We have seen rather a curious document, drawn up by some of the +chief growers of fruit and vegetables in the villages round London. +It is stated on the authority of twenty-one such persons, whose +names are appended, that up to July the 24th (when it is dated,) of +1,010 labourers of either sex employed in their gardens, one only +was indisposed, and not one had had cholera. Their inference is +that fruit and vegetables are not favourable to the production of +that disease; but it does not appear to us that the premises +warrant the conclusion. Is it the fact that those labourers eat a +larger portion of fruit and vegetables than others? It is +notorious, with regard to pastrycooks, confectioners, and such +persons, that they do not consume more—if so much—of +their commodities as others; and certainly persons so situated as +the thousand and ten abovementioned are much less likely than +others to commit any excess in regard to the articles in question. +It is not against the use, but the abuse of "the kindly fruits of +the earth," that we protest; and we are quite sure that many cases +of cholera have been produced by unripe fruit and raw vegetables +(as cucumbers,) taken even in moderate quantity; and that great +caution is necessary in this respect, notwithstanding the +declaration of the growers.—<i>Medical Gazette</i>.</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<h2>THE GATHERER.</h2> +<hr /> +<p><i>Olive Oil.</i>—The amount of duties paid on olive oil +imported into the United Kingdom, from January 5, 1831, to April 5, +1832, was £76,962. The quantity of this oil imported in that +period was 2,286,629 gallons—<i>Med. and Surg. +Journal.</i></p> +<span class="pagenum"><a id="page80" name="page80"></a>[pg +80]</span> +<p><i>Coffee.</i>—The duty on raw coffee is now 6<i>d</i>. +per lb. on colonial, and 9<i>d</i>. on foreign; the retail price is +2<i>s</i>. to 4<i>s</i>.</p> +<p><i>The Irish Bar.</i>—Mr. Dundas, a keen, sarcastic man, +who loved his bottle nearly as well as Sir Hercules Langreish, +invited the baronet to a grand dinner in London, where the wine +circulated freely, and wit kept pace with it. Mr. Dundas, wishing +to procure a laugh at Sir Hercules, said, "Why, Sir Hercules, is it +true that we Scotch formerly <i>transported</i> all our criminals +and felons to Ireland?" "I dare say," replied Sir Hercules; "but +did you ever hear, Mr. Dundas, of any of your countrymen +<i>returning to Scotland</i> from transportation."</p> +<p><i>Lord Byron's opinion of Earl Grey.</i>—"Madame de Stael +was forcibly struck by the factitious tone of the best society in +London, and wished very much to have an opportunity of judging of +that of the second class. She, however, had not this opportunity, +which I regret, as I think it would have justified her +expectations. In England, the raw material is generally good; it is +the over-dressing that injures it; and as the class she wished to +study are well educated, and have all the refinement of +civilization without its corruption, she would have carried away a +favourable impression. Lord Grey and his family were the +personification of her <i>beau ideal</i> of perfection, as I must +say they are of mine," continued Byron, "and might serve as the +finest specimens of the pure English patrician breed, of which so +few remain." <i>His</i> uncompromising and uncompromised dignity, +founded on self-respect, and accompanied by that certain proof of +superiority—simplicity of manner and freedom from +affectation, with <i>her</i> mild and matron graces, her whole life +offering a model to wives and mothers—really they are people +to be proud of, and a few such would reconcile one to one's +species.—<i>From Lady Blessington's Conversations—New +Monthly Magazine.</i></p> +<p><i>Cats Horticulturists.</i>—Cat Mint is a species of +<i>Nepeta</i>. It is covered with a very soft, hoary, velvet-like +down, and has a strong, pungent, aromatic odour, like penny royal +or valerian, that is peculiarly grateful to cats, whence its +specific and English names. These animals are so fond of it, that +it is almost impossible to keep them from it, <i>after being +transplanted</i>. Ray and Miller, both assert, however, that cats +will never meddle with such plants as are raised from seed. Hence +the old saying,</p> +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<p>"If you set it,</p> +<p>The cats will eat it;</p> +<p>If you sow it</p> +<p>The cats don't know it."</p> +</div> +<div class="stanza"> +<p><span style="margin-left:3em">P.T.W.</span></p> +</div> +</div> +<p><i>Beef-eaters</i>, or yeomen of the guard, are stationed by the +sideboard at great royal dinners. The term is a corruption from the +French <i>buffetiers</i>, from <i>buffet</i>, sideboard.</p> +<p><i>A Lion Killer.</i>—Lions abound in the west of India. A +gentleman assured Captain Skinner that he had, in one season, +killed forty-five in the province of Hissar, alone. None of them +were large, but he mentioned having met with one of uncommon +beauty; its skin was of the usual tawny colour, but its mane a rich +glossy black, as was also the tuft on the tail.</p> +<p><i>Vultures.</i>—On passing the carcass of a bullock (says +Captain Skinner,) we had a proof of the keenness of the vulture's +scent. An hour before not one was seen; nor was the place, being so +wild and far removed from all habitations, likely to be haunted by +them: yet now they thronged every tree in the neighbourhood. There +could not have been less than four or five hundred.</p> +<p><i>Jackalls.</i>—In some parts of India the howling of +innumerable jackalls is never out of your ear, from the minute +night falls to the first dawn of day. Captain Skinner says, until +he became familiar to the screaming sound, he used to start from +his sleep, and fancy some appalling calamity had driven the +inhabitants of a neighbouring town to rash forth in fear and +madness from their homes. Such frightful clamour might attend an +earthquake or a deluge. The animals come up close to your very +doors in large packs, and roar away without any apparent object, +frequently standing a longtime in one place, as a dog does when +"baying the moon."</p> +<p><i>Narrow Streets.</i>—In grand Cairo, if you +unfortunately meet a string of masked beauties upon donkies, you +must make a rapid retreat, and resign yourself to be squeezed to a +mummy against the wall for daring to stand in their course, if your +curiosity should tempt you to do so.</p> +<p><i>Mussulman and Hindoo Religion.</i>—"Where the same +village is inhabited by people of both religions, they occupy +opposite portions of it: and the circumstance may always be known +by there being a well at each end of it; for the Hindoos would not +draw water from the same fountain as the Mahomedans, for all the +wealth of this world."</p> +<p><i>The only Favour.</i>—At the battle of Spires, a +regiment had orders not to grant any quarter; an unhappy enemy, +wounded and disarmed, begged hard for his life from one of its +officers, who touched with his situation, replied, "I pity your +misfortune, and—ask anything else but that, and upon my +honour I will grant your request."</p> +<hr class="full" /> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote1" name= +"footnote1"></a> <b>Footnote 1</b>:<a href= +"#footnotetag1">(return)</a> +<p>The new-born Elephant is about three feet long. Between fifteen +and twenty years of age, Elephants may be said to be adult. In +India it is thought that they live three centuries.</p> +<p>The natural history of the Elephant would occupy many pages. A +few points, however, are peculiarly interesting in connexion with +the individuals from India, in the Zoological Gardens. The Indian +Elephant appears, when fully grown, to attain a larger size than +the African, the females commonly measuring from seven to eight, +and the males from eight to ten, feet in height; though we find in +old accounts the height of the Asiatic Elephant stated at fifteen +or sixteen feet. The head of the Indian is more oblong than that of +the African Elephant; and the forehead of the former has a deep +concavity, while the head of the African is round and convex in all +its parts. The teeth of the Indian species consist of narrow +transverse bands of equal size, while those of the African are +larger in the middle than at the ends, and are lozenge shaped. The +ears of the Asiatic are smaller, and descend only to his neck, +while in the African species the ears cover the shoulders. The +former has four distinct toes, and the latter but three, on his +hind feet. The Elephants of Ceylon are much prized for size, +beauty, and hardihood. If the small Elephant in the Gardens be a +native of Ceylon, it is by no means a beautiful specimen of the +variety.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote2" name= +"footnote2"></a> <b>Footnote 2</b>:<a href= +"#footnotetag2">(return)</a> +<p>From him descended the late Dukes of Bridgewater of that +surname.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote3" name= +"footnote3"></a> <b>Footnote 3</b>:<a href= +"#footnotetag3">(return)</a> +<p>A Turkish saying, much in use.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote4" name= +"footnote4"></a> <b>Footnote 4</b>:<a href= +"#footnotetag4">(return)</a> +<p>The pink topaz is made from the yellow, which, when of intense +colour, is put into the bowl of a tobacco pipe, or small crucible, +covered with ashes or sand: on the application of a low degree of +heat, it changes its colour from a yellow to a beautiful pink. It +contains fluoric acid, which may be the means of this +change.—<i>Mawe</i>.</p> +</blockquote> +<blockquote class="footnote"><a id="footnote5" name= +"footnote5"></a> <b>Footnote 5</b>:<a href= +"#footnotetag5">(return)</a> +<p>From a Communication to the <i>Philosophical Magazine</i>, by +Mr. R. Taylor.</p> +</blockquote> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>Printed and published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near Somerset +House,) London; sold by ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, Leipsic; +G.G. BENNIS, 55, Rue Neuve, St. Augustin, Paris; and by all Newsmen +and Booksellers.</p> +<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11705 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/11705-h/images/560-1.png b/11705-h/images/560-1.png Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ad67302 --- /dev/null +++ b/11705-h/images/560-1.png |
