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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/36078-8.txt b/36078-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..8844aa4 --- /dev/null +++ b/36078-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7109 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Literary Byways, by William Andrews + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Literary Byways + +Author: William Andrews + +Release Date: May 10, 2011 [EBook #36078] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITERARY BYWAYS *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive.) + + + + + + + + + +LITERARY BYWAYS. + + + + + Literary Byways + + + By William Andrews + + + LONDON: + WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., 5, FARRINGDON AVENUE, E.C. + 1898. + + + + +Preface. + + +In the following pages no attempt has been made to add to the many +critical works authors bring under the notice of the public. My aim in +this collection of leisure-hour studies is to afford entertaining reading +on some topics which do not generally attract the reader's attention. + +It is necessary for me to state that three of the chapters were originally +contributed to the columns of the _Chambers's Journal_, and by courtesy of +the Editor are reproduced in this volume. + +WILLIAM ANDREWS. + + THE HULL PRESS, + _July 5th, 1898_. + + + + +Contents. + + + PAGE + + AUTHORS AT WORK 1 + + THE EARNINGS OF AUTHORS 43 + + DECLINED WITH THANKS 67 + + EPIGRAMS ON AUTHORS 76 + + POETICAL GRACES 90 + + POETRY ON PANES 94 + + ENGLISH FOLK-RHYMES 100 + + THE POETRY OF TOAST LISTS AND MENU CARDS 110 + + TOASTS AND TOASTING 120 + + CURIOUS AMERICAN OLD-TIME GLEANINGS 131 + + THE EARLIEST AMERICAN POETESS: ANNE BRADSTREET 143 + + A PLAYFUL POET: MISS CATHERINE FANSHAWE 149 + + A POPULAR SONG WRITER: MRS. JOHN HUNTER 160 + + A POET OF THE POOR: MARY PYPER 167 + + THE POET OF THE FISHER-FOLK: MRS. SUSAN K. PHILLIPS 176 + + A POET AND NOVELIST OF THE PEOPLE: THOMAS MILLER 186 + + THE COTTAGE COUNTESS 199 + + THE COMPILER OF "OLD MOORE'S ALMANAC": HENRY ANDREWS 206 + + JAMES NAYLER, THE MAD QUAKER, WHO CLAIMED TO BE THE MESSIAH 213 + + A BIOGRAPHICAL ROMANCE: SWAN'S STRANGE STORY 222 + + SHORT LETTERS 228 + + INDEX 237 + + + + +LITERARY BYWAYS. + + + + +Authors at Work. + + +The interest of the public in those who write for its entertainment +naturally extends itself to their habits of life. All such habits, let it +be said at once, depend on individual peculiarities. One will write only +in the morning, another only at night, a third will be able to force +himself into effort only at intervals, and a fourth will, after the manner +of Anthony Trollope, be almost altogether independent of times and places. +The nearest approach to a rule was that which was formulated by a great +writer of the last generation, who said that morning should be employed in +the production of what De Quincey called "the literature of knowledge," +and the evening in impassioned work, "the literature of power." + +But habits, however unreasonable they may be, are ordinarily very powerful +with authors. One of the most renowned writers always attired himself in +evening dress before sitting down to his desk. The influence of his +attire, he said, gave dignity and restraint to his style. Another author, +of at least equal celebrity, could only write in dressing gown and +slippers. In order that he might make any progress, it was absolutely +essential that he should be unconscious of his clothes. Most authors +demand quiet and silence as the conditions of useful work. Carlyle padded +his room, in order that he might not be annoyed by the clatter of his +neighbours. On the other hand, Jean Paul Richter, whose influence is +visible throughout nearly the whole of Carlyle's writings, would work +serenely in the kitchen with his mother attending to her domestic duties, +and the children playing around him. In an article contributed by Carlyle +to the _Edinburgh Review_ on Richter, we get some interesting facts about +this truly great man. The following is reproduced from Döring. "Richter's +studying or sitting apartment, offered about this time (1793),[1] a true +and beautiful emblem of his simple and noble way of thought, which +comprehended at once the high and the low. Whilst his mother, who then +lived with him, busily pursued her household work, occupying herself about +stove and dresser, Jean Paul was sitting in a corner of the same room, at +a simple writing-desk, with few or no books about him, but merely with one +or two drawers containing excerpts and manuscripts. The jingle of the +household operations seemed not at all to disturb him, any more than did +the cooing of the pigeons, which fluttered to and fro in the chamber--a +place, indeed, of considerable size." Carlyle, commenting on the preceding +passage, says--"Our venerable Hooker, we remember, also enjoyed 'the +jingle of household operations,' and the more questionable jingle of +shrewd tongues to boot, while he wrote; but the good thrifty mother, and +the cooing pigeons, were wanting. Richter came afterwards to live in fine +mansions, and had the great and learned for associates, but the gentle +feelings of those days abode with him: through life he was the same +substantial, determinate, yet meek and tolerating man. It is seldom that +so much rugged energy can be so blandly attempered, that so much vehemence +and so much softness will go together." + +Dr. Johnson's "Dictionary" is one of the most familiar books in the +English language, and the particulars of the way in which it was compiled +are of considerable interest. He agreed with a number of leading London +booksellers to prepare the work for £1,775, and spent seven years over the +task. When he undertook it, he expected to finish it in three years. His +friend, Dr. Adams, called upon him one day, and found him busy with his +book, and, says Boswell, a dialogue as follows ensued. "Adams: 'This is a +great work, sir. How are you to get all the etymologies?' Johnson: 'Why, +here is a shelf with Junius and Skinner, and others; and there is a Welsh +gentleman who has published a collection of Welsh proverbs, who will help +me with the Welsh.' Adams: 'But, sir, how can you do this in three years?' +Johnson: 'Sir, I have no doubt that I can do it in three years.' Adams: +'But the French Academy, which consists of forty members, took forty years +to complete their dictionary.' Johnson: 'Sir, thus it is--this is the +proportion. Let me see: forty times forty is sixteen hundred. As three to +sixteen hundred, so is the proportion of an Englishman to a Frenchman.'" +This pleasantry is not reproduced to show Johnson's vanity, but to give a +glimpse of some of the books he used, and his own ideas as to the period +he expected to spend over the undertaking. + +Johnson fitted up an upper room like a counting house, in which were +employed six copyists; and in spite of his asserted aversion from +Scotchmen, he engaged no less than five of them on his book, so that his +objection to the sons of Caledonia cannot have been very deeply rooted. + +Many of his words were drawn from previously published dictionaries, and +others he supplied himself. He spent much time in reading the best +informed authors, and marked their books with a pencil when he found +suitable material for his work. He would not under any consideration quote +the productions of an author whose writings were calculated to hurt sound +religion and morality. The marked sentences were copied on slips of paper, +which were afterwards posted into an interleaved copy of an old dictionary +opposite the words to which they related. + +At the commencement of the work he made a rather serious mistake by +writing on both sides of his paper. He had to pay twenty pounds to have it +transcribed to one side of the paper only. + +It has been truthfully observed that Dr. Johnson's "Illustrations of the +meanings and uses of words" is the most valuable part of the work, and +shows an extraordinary knowledge of literature. Some of the definitions +were characteristic of the man. Take for example the following, to be +found in the first edition:--"Excise. A hateful tax levied upon +commodities, adjudged, not by the common judges of property, but wretches +hired by those to whom the excise is paid.--Network. Anything reticulated +or decussated at equal distances, with interstices between the +intersections.--Oats. A grain which in England is generally given to +horses, but which in Scotland supports the people." Sir Walter Scott +related the happy retort by Lord Elibank, who said, when he heard the +definition--"Yes; and where else will you see _such_ horses, and _such_ +men."--Patron. Commonly, a wretch, who supports with insolence, and is +paid with flattery.--Pension. In England, it is generally understood to +mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country. + +Mr. Andrew Miller, bookseller, of the Strand, took the chief management of +the publication, and appears to have been much disappointed at the slow +progress the compiler made. He frequently pressed Johnson for more "copy," +and towards the latter part of the work became most anxious, for Johnson +had drawn all his money in drafts long before he had completed the +"Dictionary." + +According to Boswell, "When the messenger who carried the last sheet to +Miller returned, Johnson asked him, 'Well, what did he say?' 'Sir,' +answered the messenger, 'he said, "Thank God I have done with him."' 'I am +glad,' replied Johnson, 'that he thanks God for anything.'" + +The Dictionary was published in 1755 in two volumes at £4 4s. 0d., and +soon went through several editions. The expenses of producing the work +left Johnson a small margin of profit. It firmly established his fame. + +Having referred at some length to Johnson's "Dictionary," let us pay some +little attention to another important work of reference, the "Encyclopędia +Britannica." The first edition was issued in weekly numbers commenced in +1771, and was completed in 1773. It consisted of three small quarto +volumes. The first editor was William Smellie, a studious man who made his +start in life as a compositor, and left the printing office for an hour or +two daily to attend the classes of the Edinburgh University. At nineteen +he was employed as proof-reader, conductor and compiler of the _Scots' +Magazine_ at a salary of sixteen shillings a week. He devised and wrote +the chief articles in the "Encyclopędia Britannica." The agreement of the +work is a curiosity of literature, and reads as follows: + +"Mr. Andrew Bell to Mr. William Smellie. + +"Sir,--As we are engaged in publishing a 'Dictionary of the Arts and +Sciences,' and as you have informed us that there are fifteen capital +sciences, which you will undertake for, and write up the sub-divisions and +detached parts of them, conforming to your plan, and likewise to prepare +the whole work for the press, etc., etc. We hereby agree to allow you £200 +for your trouble." + +A second edition was called for in 1776, and the proprietors offered +Smellie a share in the undertaking if he would edit it; but having other +pressing work on hand, he declined the proposal, and Joseph Tytler, a man +of varied attainments, was engaged. He was born in 1747, and was the son +of a minister of a rural parish in Scotland. After receiving a liberal +education, he was placed with a surgeon at Forfar. He subsequently made a +couple of voyages as a doctor in a whaling-ship to Greenland. Next he +proceeded to Edinburgh with the money he had earned, with a view of +completing his medical education at the University. He had no sooner got +nicely settled in the Northern capital, than he married a girl in humble +circumstances, a step which did not help to advance his worldly interests. +He made many attempts to succeed, but always failed. Keen poverty kept his +nose to the grindstone. His faculty in projecting works was much larger +than his energy in carrying them out. Before he had reached the age of +thirty, he commenced his labours as the editor of the "Encyclopędia +Britannica." The remuneration he received was very small; and while the +work was in progress, he lodged, with his wife and family, with a poor +washerwoman at the village of Duddingston, and for his writing-desk turned +her wash-tub upside down. + +The poor fellow never attempted to hide his poverty. It is said by a +gentleman who once waited upon him, that he found him making a repast on a +cold potato, which he continued eating with as much composure as if he +were dining in the most sumptuous style. + +The Encyclopędia was a great success, and sold to the extent of ten +thousand copies; the owners of the copyright cleared £42,000. Moreover +two of the owners, one a printer and the other an engraver, were paid for +their respective work; yet in spite of this handsome profit, the result of +Tytler's ability, they permitted him to live with his wife and children in +penury. + +He could write almost on any topic, and at any time. As a proof of this, +his biographer tells a good anecdote. "A gentleman in Edinburgh," he +states, "once told him he wanted as much matter as would form a junction +between a certain history and its continuance to a later period. He found +Tytler lodged in one of those elevated apartments called garrets, and was +informed by the old woman with whom he resided that he had gone to bed +rather the worse for liquor. Determined, however, not to depart without +fulfilling his errand, he was shown into Mr. Tytler's apartment by the +light of a lamp, where he found him in the situation described by the +landlady. The gentleman having acquainted him with the nature of the +business which brought him at so late an hour, Mr. Tytler called for pen +and ink, and in a short time produced about a page and a half of +letterpress, which answered the end as completely as if it had been the +result of the most mature deliberation, previous notice, and a mind +undisturbed by any liquid capable of deranging its ideas." + +Tytler was a poet of some skill, and wrote a number of popular songs, +three of which find a place in "The Celebrated Songs of Scotland." He +enjoyed the friendship of Robert Burns. In 1792 he published a prospectus +of a paper to be named the _Political Gazetteer_; when it came under the +notice of Burns he wrote to him as follows:--"Go on, sir; lay bare with +undaunted heart and steady hand that horrid mass of corruption called +politics and state-craft." At the time he penned this he was an officer in +the Excise, and for this and similar expressions he was rebuked by the +Board of Excise. Burns described Tytler as an "obscene, tippling, but +extraordinary body; a mortal who, though he drudges about Edinburgh with +leaky shoes, a skylighted hat, yet that same drunken mortal is author and +compiler of three-fourths of the 'Encyclopędia Britannica,' which he +composed at half-a-guinea a week." + +We must, before dismissing Tytler, give another anecdote, although it does +not relate to literature. We read that "he constructed a huge bag, and +filled it full of gas, and invited the inhabitants of Edinburgh to witness +his flight through the regions of space." Mr. Tytler, it appears, slowly +rose in his bag as high as a garden wall, when something went wrong with +the machinery, and he was deposited head foremost "softly on an adjoining +dunghill." The "gaping crowd nearly killed themselves with laughter." He +was afterwards known as "Balloon Tytler." He wrote a seditious placard, +and had to flee to save his neck. He found a home in America, and for some +time edited a paper at Salem. After a life of toil and trouble, he died in +the year 1803. + +Much has been said about the habits and earnings of Sir Walter Scott, and +it is only necessary for us to observe that he wrote in his +neatly-arranged library, where at any moment he could refer to his books. +He was a most methodical man, and never had to waste time hunting up lost +papers and books. He usually commenced writing between five and six, and +worked until ten in the morning, and during this period it was his +practice to fast. When pressed with work, he would often take breakfast at +nine, and lounge about until eleven, and then write with a will until two +o'clock. During the closing years of Sir Walter Scott's life he employed +William Laidlaw as his amanuensis. Laidlaw was a poet and prose writer of +some merit, possessed of superior shrewdness, and highly esteemed by Sir +Walter and his family. He was for many years steward at Abbotsford. + +Another famous son of the North was Professor Wilson, perhaps more widely +known as "Christopher North," of _Blackwood's Magazine_. He entered in a +large ledger skeletons of intended articles; when he felt in the humour +for working, he turned to his skeletons, selected one, and quickly clothed +it with flesh and nerve. Wilson in a short time could produce a +considerable quantity of original matter. Mr. J. S. Roberts, the editor of +the volume of "Scottish Ballads" in the Chandos Classics series, was a boy +at Blackwood's when Wilson was the chief contributor to "_Maga_." It was +one of Roberts' duties to go to Christopher North for his "copy." He was +wont to sit and amuse himself whilst the great, lion-headed man wrote or +furnished an article on all manner of scraps of waste paper. One day there +was a high wind, and Roberts was indiscreet enough to put Professor +Wilson's article in his hat. The result was hugely disastrous. The +head-gear was blown off, and Wilson's article was distributed in small +portions over all the streets of Edinburgh. It was a frightful thing to +have to go to the author and explain the catastrophe. John Wilson would +swear, as the boy knew; and for a while he swore most stormily, but +eventually calmed his choler, and wrote the article over again. + +Professor Wilson was the author of a severe critique on the earlier poems +of Alfred Tennyson, and in reply to it the poet wrote the following +lines:-- + + "TO CHRISTOPHER NORTH. + + "You did late review my lays, + Crusty Christopher; + You did mingle blame and praise, + Rusty Christopher. + + "When I learnt from whom it came, + I forgave you all the blame, + Musty Christopher; + I could _not_ forgive the praise, + Fusty Christopher. + +After penning the foregoing, the Laureate does not appear to have troubled +himself further respecting Professor Wilson. + +Let us now look at the method of a famous French author. Like many able +writers, Balzac thought out every detail of a story before he commenced +writing it. The places he proposed describing were visited, and the +special features carefully noted. His note-books were filled with +particulars of all classes of characters, for reproduction in his novels. +No sooner had he made up his mind to write on a certain subject, and +collected materials for his work, than he retired from the haunts of men, +and declined to see even his closest friends. Letters might come, but they +were not opened; he was dead to the outer world. His blinds were drawn, +the sunlight shut out, and candles lighted. His ordinary costume was +changed for a loose white monkish gown. The round of his daily toil was as +follows:--At two in the morning he commenced writing, and continued it +until six; a bath was then indulged in; at eight he took coffee, and +rested until the clock marked the hour of nine. He resumed writing until +noon, when an hour was occupied over breakfast. He again laboured with his +pen from one to six, when his work closed for the day. He dined and +conferred with his publisher, and at eight o'clock he retired to rest. +This daily round often occupied two months, in which period he furnished +the first rough draft of his work. The matter was usually re-written, and +even when in type he would frequently alter three or four proofs. We are +not surprised to learn "that he was the terror of the printers; few could +decipher his 'copy,' and it is said that those few made a stipulation with +their employer to work on it for one hour at a time." + +He was a most painstaking writer, but was never satisfied with his +productions. "I took," he said, "sixteen hours out of twenty-four over the +elaboration of my unfortunate style, and I am never satisfied with it when +done." + +Carlyle's productions gave the printers much trouble, on account of the +many alterations he made, and his cramped penmanship. His changes were not +confined to his manuscripts; he revised his proofs to such an extent that +it was frequently found easier to reset the matter than to alter it. Miss +Martineau told a good story anent this subject. "One day," she said, +"while in my study, I heard a prodigious sound of laughter on the stairs, +and in came Carlyle, laughing aloud. He had been laughing in that manner +all the way from the printing office in Charing Cross. As soon as he +could, he told me what it was about. He had been to the office to urge the +printer, and the man said: 'Why, sir, you really are so very hard upon us +with your corrections; they take so much time, you see.' After some +remonstrance, Carlyle observed that he had been accustomed to do this sort +of thing; that he had got works printed in Scotland, and--'Yes, indeed, +sir,' interrupted the printer, 'we are aware of that. We have a man here +from Edinburgh, and when he took up a bit of your copy he dropped it as if +it had burnt his fingers, and cried out, 'Lord have mercy! Have you got +that man to print for? Lord knows when we shall get done all his +corrections.'" + +Mrs. Gore was the author of many fashionable novels and other works, which +won much favourable notice in her day. She did not confine all her +attention to story-writing; she contributed very largely to the leading +magazines, and wrote successfully for the stage. The list of her works is +a long one, yet, in spite of all her tireless toil with the pen, she +entered very freely into the pleasures of society. Mr. Planché visited her +in Paris in 1837, and in course of a conversation she explained how she +managed to find time to write so much. Said Mrs. Gore: "I receive, as you +know, a few friends at dinner at five o'clock nearly every evening. They +leave me at ten or eleven, when I retire to my own room, and write till +seven or eight in the morning. I then go to bed till noon, when I +breakfast, after which I drive out, shop, pay visits, and return at four, +dress for dinner, and as soon as my friends have departed, go to work +again all night as before." Mrs. Gore died in 1861, at the age of +sixty-two years. Her first book was issued in 1823, and it was followed by +no less than seventy separate works. She lived for many years on the +Continent, and supported her family with her pen. + +Mrs. Trollope did not commence her career as an author until she had +"reached the sober season of married and middle life," yet she managed to +produce no less than one hundred and fifteen volumes of fiction. In an +autobiographical work, entitled "What I Remember," by her son, Thomas +Adolphus Trollope, we get some touching pictures of this wonderful woman +writing her books. He speaks of her passing an extended period by the +bedside of her invalid son. From about nine in the morning until eight in +the evening, with "a cheerful countenance and a bleeding heart," she +entertained and nursed her patient. He generally slept about eight, when +she went to her desk and wrote her fiction to amuse light-hearted readers. +She worked from two to three in the morning. This was all done with the +aid of green tea and sometimes laudanum. Mrs. Trollope died at the age of +eighty-three years, so that it cannot be said that hard work killed her, +although she did an immense quantity. + +We believe that hard work seldom kills anyone. Some say that it does, and +point to the fate of Southey, one of the most industrious of English men +of letters, to support their assertion. The mention of his name brings to +the mind scenes of sunshine and shadow. He was a lover of books, and his +charming house in Lake-land contained a fine library. Here he read and +worked, and life passed happily. Nothing could tempt him to leave it, not +even the editorship of _The Times_. When bereft of reason, Southey would +linger lovingly amongst the companions of happier days, his beloved books. +He would play with them as a child plays with a toy. It is generally +believed that hard literary labour killed him. When Dr. Charles Mackay +visited Wordsworth he named the matter to him, and was told that there was +no truth in it. Said Wordsworth of Southey: "He was a calm and methodical +worker, and calm, steady work never kills. It is only worry and hurry that +kill. Southey wrote a great deal; but he wrote easily and pleasantly to +himself. Besides, only those who have tried know what an immense deal of +literary work can be got through comfortably by a man who will work +regularly for only four or even three hours a day. Take the case of Sir +Walter Scott, for instance. What an immensity of work he got through; and +yet he was always idle at one o'clock in the afternoon, and ready for any +amusement, or for such change of labour as the garden or the field +afforded. Southey was like him in that respect, and, though he worked +hard, he always contrived to enjoy abundance of leisure. Scott died of +pecuniary trouble, not of work. Southey died of grief for the loss of his +wife." + +Lord Byron puzzled his friends by continual production whilst appearing to +occupy himself with everything else but writing. + +Hans Christian Andersen had to be alone when he composed his fairy tales. +He was never able to dictate a contribution for the press. All his matter +for the printer was in his own handwriting. This circumstance he named to +Thiers, by whom he was informed that he dictated to an amanuensis the +whole of his "History of the Consulate and the Empire." + +Miss Edgeworth wrote her stories in the common sitting-room, surrounded by +her family. Some authors are able to concentrate their attention on a task +and remain unconscious of anything going on around them. Says a recent +writer on this topic: "Dr. Somerville told Harriet Martineau that he once +laid a wager with a friend that he would abuse Mrs. Somerville in a loud +voice to her face, and she would take no notice; and he did so. Sitting +close to her, he confided to his friend the most injurious things--that +she rouged, that she wore a wig, and such nonsense uttered in a very loud +voice; her daughters were in a roar of laughter, while the slandered lady +sat placidly writing. At last her husband made a dead pause after her +name, on which she looked up in an innocent manner saying, "Did you speak +to me?" + +Southey too could write in the presence of his family. A more remarkable +method of composition was that of Barry Cornwall. He composed his best +poems in the busy streets of London, only leaving the crowd to enter a +shop to commit to paper the verses he had made. + +The poet Gray usually worked himself into the "mood" by reading some +other poet, generally Spenser. + +Shelley always composed out of doors sometimes on the roof tops. Trelawney +describes how he found him in a grove near Florence by a pool of water; he +was gazing unconsciously into the depths. Trelawney did not disturb him, +but when Shelley came out of his trance he had written one of his finest +lyrics, in a hand-writing that no other man could decipher. + +Wordsworth mainly composed his poems during his rural rambles. It was not +an unusual circumstance for him to write with a slate pencil on a smooth +piece of stone his newly made lines. Surely the hillsides and lovely dales +of Lake-land were fitting places for the great high priest of nature to +give birth to his poetry. He repeated his poems aloud as he composed them, +a practice which greatly puzzled the common people. We cannot perhaps +better illustrate the strange impression it made on the country folk than +by repeating an anecdote told to Dr. Charles Mackay by an American +gentleman. He said--"One of his countrymen had lost his way in a vain +attempt to discover Rydal Mount; had taken a wrong turn and gone three or +four miles beyond or to the side of the point he should have aimed at. +Meeting an old woman in a scarlet cloak, who was gathering sticks, he +asked her the way to Rydal Mount. She could not tell him; she did not +know. 'Not know,' said the American, 'the house of the great Wordsworth?' +'No.' 'What, not the house of the man whose fame brings people here from +all parts of the world?' 'No,' she insisted, 'but what was he great +in?--was he a preacher or a doctor?' 'Greater than preacher or doctor--he +was a poet.' 'Oh, poet!' she replied; 'and why did you not tell me that +before? I know who you mean now. I often meet him in the woods, jabbering +his pottery (poetry) to himself. But I'm not afraid of him. He's quite +harmless, and almost as sensible as you or me.'" This is the old story--a +man, however great, is not much thought of in his own district. + +It is generally understood that Lord Tennyson composed much of his poetry +during his rural rambles. + +Edwin Arnold, the editor of the _Daily Telegraph_, wrote his "Light of +Asia" whilst travelling in the railway carriage to and from his newspaper +office. + +Some authors appear to be able to write at any time and in any place. +Anthony Trollope did much writing in a railway train. "It was," he says, +"while I was engaged on 'Barchester Towers' that I adopted a system of +writing, which for some years afterwards I found to be very serviceable to +me. My time was greatly occupied in travelling, and the nature of my +travelling was now changed. I could not any longer do it by horseback. +Railroads afforded me my means of conveyance, and I found that I passed in +railway carriages very many hours of my existence.... If I intended to +make a profitable business of writing, and, at the same time, to do my +best for the Post Office, I must turn my hours to more account than I +could by reading. I made for myself, therefore, a little tablet, and I +found after a few days' exercise that I could write as quickly in a +railway carriage as I could at my own desk. I worked with a pencil, and +what I wrote my wife copied afterwards. My only objection to the practice +came from the appearance of literary ostentation, to which I felt myself +to be subject when going to work before four or five fellow passengers. +But I got used to it." + +Trollope never attached any importance to a writing mood; to use his own +phrase, he sat down to work just "as a cobbler sits down to make shoes." +When at home he rose at from half-past four to five o'clock daily, and, +attired in his dressing-gown, he went to his writing-room. During the cold +weather his old and favourite Irish servant made a fire in it before he +arrived. He placed his watch before him, and he trained himself to write +two hundred and fifty words every fifteen minutes, and he says that he was +able to perform the feat as regularly as his watch went. + +He believed that a serial was spoilt if written month by month as +published. Only once during his long career did he commence publishing a +story before the manuscript was completed, and that was "Framley +Parsonage," in the pages of _Cornhill Magazine_. It is admitted to be one +of his best books. He wielded the pen of a ready writer for nearly forty +years, and in this period produced an enormous quantity of work. He stands +in this respect almost on a level with Sir Walter Scott. No writer of the +highest genius writes like Trollope, though it was Keats' habit to write a +certain number of lines a day when he was engaged on "Endymion." Emerson +remarks "a poet must wait many days in order to glorify one." + +The late Bishop Wilberforce managed to write in his chaise even when +driven over rough roads, as well as in railway carriages. His lordship +appeared to be able to use his pen in most unlikely quarters. + +Amongst authors noted as early risers must be included Charles Dickens. He +has told us how the solemn and still solitude of the morning had a charm +for him. It was seldom that he wrote before breakfast; as a rule he +confined his writing between the hours of breakfast and luncheon. Dickens +was by no means a rapid writer. When engaged on a novel he regarded three +of his not very large pages of manuscript as a good day's work, and four +as excellent. He did not recopy his writings, although they contained +numerous corrections which, however, were clearly made. Prior to +commencing a new story he suffered much from despondency. He spoke of +himself as "going round and round the idea, as you see a bird in his cage +go about his sugar before he touches it." + +Dickens' love of order was very marked; his writing materials were always +neatly arranged, and his household was a model of order. + +The highways and byways of London were familiar to him, and many happy +hours were spent rambling in them. He had a theory that the number of +hours engaged in literary labour should have a corresponding time spent in +pedestrian exercise, and he frequently enjoyed a twenty miles' walk. + +Thackeray was not very particular as to the place or time when he wrote. +He liked to perform his literary labours in a pleasant room. It is +certain, from the large number of books that he produced in a limited +time, that he must have written at a considerable speed. He had also the +happy facility of being able to dictate his works when composing them. + +Previous to commencing a book George Eliot would read all she could find +bearing on the subject. Sometimes she would study over a thousand works to +write one book. She spared no pains in perfecting her productions. + +Charles Reade wrote much and well. He rose at eight o'clock, took +breakfast at nine, and at ten commenced his literary work, which usually +lasted until two in the afternoon. He wrote in his drawing-room, and when +the French windows were closed no sounds from the street could be heard. +When once fairly on the way with a novel he worked with rapidity. He +wrote with a large pen, with very black ink, on large sheets of +drab-coloured paper. Each sheet was numbered as written, and thrown on the +floor, which, after a few hours' writing, was completely covered. A maid +servant gathered up the manuscript, which, after being put in order, was +sent to a copyist, who made, in a round hand, a clear copy. Mr. Reade then +went carefully over it, making improvements by omissions and additions. +The revised sheets were once more copied for the printer. He seldom +dictated a story, but had not any objection to the company of a friend in +his room when busy with his pen. He would sometimes relieve the monotony +of his work by watching a game of tennis on his lawn, or the gambols of +his tame hares, or the traffic passing in the street at the bottom of his +garden. Mr. Reade did not take any lunch; he dined late, and generally +finished the day by a visit to the theatre. + +Alphonse Daudet, the greatest of living French novelists, is a painstaking +man, and usually spends a year in writing a story. He takes a deep +interest in his work; indeed, it seems to get the mastery over him; and +when engaged on "Le Nabob" he worked about twenty hours a day. He related +to an interviewer his method of work, and it transpired that he carries +about with him a small book, and enters in it notes bearing on his +subject. Next he reproduces his jottings and expands them, and as he +completes the items he severs them out of his list. His wife then takes +the manuscript in hand and makes a clear copy, and, at the same time, +corrects any slight errors of redundancy. Daudet goes carefully over it, +making additions and polishing according to his fancy. It is afterwards +rewritten for the press. + +Shortly after the death of Mrs. Henry Wood, her son, Mr. Charles W. Wood, +published in the _Argosy_ some very interesting particulars of her +literary life. She was a born author, and at the age when children play +with dolls she was composing stories. She was a ready writer. Her powerful +prize temperance tale "Danesbury House" was commenced and completed in +twenty-eight days. + +Respecting her manner of writing her novels, says her son: "She first +composed her plot. Having decided upon the main idea, she would next +divide it into the requisite number of chapters. Each chapter was then +elaborated. Every incident in every chapter was thought out and recorded, +from the first chapter to the last. She never changed her plots or +incidents. Once thought out, her purpose became fixed, and was never +turned aside for any fresh departure or emergency that might arise in the +development of the story. The drama had then become to her as if it +actually existed. Every minute detail of the plot was written out before a +line of the story was begun. All was so elaborately sketched that anyone +with sufficient power would have no difficulty in writing the story with +the plot in possession. The only difference would have been the evidence +of another hand. + +"The plot of each novel occupied a good many pages of close, though not +small writing. It would take her, generally speaking, about three weeks to +think it out from beginning to end. During those times she could not bear +the slightest interruption. But I have occasionally gone into her study, +though never without being startled, almost awed, by the look upon her +face. She would be at all times in a reclining chair, her paper upon her +knees, and the expression of her eyes, large, wide-opened, was so intense +and absorbed, so far away, it seemed as if the spirit had wandered into +some distant realm and had to be brought back to its tenement before the +matter, suddenly placed before her, could be attended to. It, indeed, took +many moments to recall her attention, elsewhere concentrated." Mr. Wood +observes, "Only on rare or important occasions was such intrusion ever +permitted for the thread of her ideas once broken could very seldom be +resumed the same day, and, as she never wrote a line of anything when +composing a plot, she would consider that the day had been partly lost or +wasted." + +When Mrs. Wood was writing a story, on entering her study she consulted +the outline she had prepared, and then worked on the allotted portion of +her task. She did not recopy her manuscripts, yet they contained few +corrections, and were very legible and as clear as print. + +Miss Braddon is the author of many widely-read novels, and it is said that +the profits on her works place her high amongst the first six of the best +paid writers of fiction. She left the Hull stage, where she performed +without any particular success under the name of Miss Seton, and took up +her residence at Beverley, where she wrote her first story, "Three times +dead; or the Secret of the Heath." It was printed and published by Mr. C. +R. Empson, and was brought out at a loss. At that time she was about +twenty years of age. In 1861 she issued "Garibaldi, and other Poems," the +contents of this book having previously appeared in a Beverley newspaper. +A year prior to that date she competed for a £5 prize, offered by Mr. +Joseph Temple, for the best ode on celebrating the first tree planted in +the Hull Public Park, and failed to win it. She contributed to several +local newspapers. Her powerful novel, "Lady Audley's Secret," published in +1862, established her reputation, and by industry and skill it has been +sustained. At the commencement of 1887 the sale of "Lady Audley's Secret" +had reached about 450,000 copies, Mrs. Henry Wood's "East Lynne" 120,000 +copies, and Mrs. Craik's "John Halifax Gentleman," 90,000 copies. Miss +Braddon says "The Woman in White" inspired her to write "Lady Audley's +Secret," "a novel of construction and character." Wilkie Collins she +regards as her literary godfather. Miss Braddon had not a single note when +she wrote her most popular story. She now makes a skeleton of her tales in +a small memorandum book, often not extending over a couple of pages, +before she commences writing her novels. She usually writes four days a +week, commencing her work at ten and concluding it at seven, and takes +during that time strong tea at intervals, and occasionally a light +luncheon. The other two days are devoted to riding on horseback and when +possible to hunting. Respecting Miss Braddon's method of writing, some +interesting details appear in the "Treasury of Modern Biography," and +perhaps we cannot do better than draw upon it for a few facts. "By the +fireside," it is stated, "is a particularly low uncomfortable chair. In +this the novelist huddles herself up with a piece of thick cardboard +resting on her lap, and a little ink-bottle held firmly against it with +her left hand. This apparently cramped position appears to be favourable +to the composition, for the pen moves over the great square slips of +paper, and the corrections are few and far between." Her copy is very +clear and carefully punctuated, and is somewhat masculine in style. At one +time she wrote a bold hand, but reduced its size, because she had to cover +more paper with her pen than when she wrote a small hand. She wears a +tailor's thimble to protect the middle finger from the brand of the ink. + +Mr. James Payn was for many years a busy and successful literary man. He +conducted the _Cornhill Magazine_, having previously edited for many years +_Chambers's Journal_. It was in the latter periodical that his first +story, "A Family Scapegrace," appeared. A few years later it was followed +by "Lost Sir Massingberd," which raised the circulation of the serial by +nearly 20,000 copies. Mr. Payn related some time since to Mr. Joseph +Hatton, the journalist, an outline of his daily life which is as follows: +"I rise at eight," said Mr. Payn, "breakfast, read the papers, get to the +office at ten, work at my own work until one--subject to any special call +on Smith and Elder's business--lunch at the Reform Club at one--generally +with Robinson, of the _Daily News_, and occasionally with William +Black--return to the office at two; from two until four I read manuscripts +and edit _Cornhill_; from 4.0 to 6.30 I play whist at the Reform Club--it +is a great rest, whist--home to dinner by seven--I rarely dine out now, +and never go to what are called dinner parties--to bed at ten." + +It remains for us to add that his writing is very difficult to decipher, +indeed he is sometimes puzzled to read it himself; fortunately for the +printers, his daughter makes a copy of his productions by the type-writer. + +In answer to a correspondent, Mr. Philip G. Hamerton detailed particulars +of his method of work. Said Mr. Hamerton in his interesting letter, "I +think that there are two main qualities to be kept in view in literary +composition--freshness and finish. The best way, in my opinion, of +attaining both is to aim at freshness in the rough draft, with little +regard to perfection of expression; the finish can be given by copious +subsequent correction, even to the extent of writing all over again when +there is time. Whenever possible, I would assimilate literary to pictorial +execution by treating the rough draft as a rapid and vigorous sketch, +without any regard to delicacy of workmanship; then I would write from +this a second work, retaining as much as possible the freshness of the +first, but correcting those oversights and errors which are due to +rapidity." + +One of his books, he says, was penned as a private diary, then he made a +rough and rapid manuscript with a lead pencil, and subsequently rewrote +it for the printer, especially with a view to concentration. Mr. Hamerton +states that he used shorthand for one volume, which enabled him to write +it quickly, but he found much trouble in reading it, and he does not +recommend it for literary purposes. + +Referring to work, "The Intellectual Life" was begun in quite a different +form (not in letters), and many pages were written before he concluded +that it was heavy, and that letters would give a lighter and less didactic +appearance. We are told that his story "Marmone" was partly written and +put aside, and it was not until solicited by Messrs. Roberts Brothers for +a book for their "No Name Series," that he completed it. The earlier part +of the novel was written three times over. + +In concluding his letter, he says that "I have sometimes, instead of +rewriting, sent a corrected rough draft to a type-writer. There is an +economy of time in this, and the work can be corrected in the +type-writer's copy; but, on the whole, for very careful finished work, I +think the old plan of rewriting the whole manuscript is superior." + +Mr. G. A. Sala used commonly to be regarded as a journalist, but he ranks +high as an author. He has written nearly a library of books of travel, +essays, and novels, which have been much praised by the critics, and +largely circulated. His father was an Italian gentleman, who married a +charming and accomplished English lady, famous in her day as a vocalist. +Between the ages of six and nine he was totally blind. After regaining his +sight he was placed in the Collčge Bourbon, Paris, for a couple of years, +and subsequently removed to Turnham Green, near London, with a view of +thoroughly acquiring his mother tongue which he spoke imperfectly, in fact +he was almost ignorant of it. His parents intended him for an artist, but +circumstances compelled him to relinquish art in its highest form. +Possessing the happy faculty of effective sketching, he produced hundreds +of political caricatures and pictorial skits on passing events; these +found a ready sale. His eyesight failing, he had to give up lithographing +and engraving, and to try other means of making a living. After a variety +of engagements, an accident led to his finding his right vocation. One +night he was by an oversight locked out of his house, and had to pass the +night perambulating the streets. It occurred to him that he might make it +a subject of an article, which he accordingly wrote under the title of +"The Key of the Street," and submitted it to Charles Dickens. The famous +novelist at once recognised his genius, and encouraged him to become a +constant contributor to _Household Words_. At the suggestion of Dickens he +entered the lists of journalism, and won the highest place amongst +pressmen. He was known as "The Prince of Journalists." Sala joined the +staff of the _Daily Telegraph_, and did much to make the reputation of +that brilliant journal. He represented it in all parts of the world, and +his remuneration equalled the pay of an ambassador. Its columns have been +enriched with several thousand leading articles from his facile pen on +almost every topic. + +Sala was the owner of a large and valuable library, but his chief source +of information was found in his common-place book. In it he had brought +together facts and illustrations on all kinds of subjects calculated to +aid him in his journalistic labours. This wonderful book has often been +described, the best account of it appears in "Living London." "Scarcely a +week passes," says Mr. Sala, "without bringing me letters from +correspondents who ask me to explain my own system of keeping a +common-place book. I have but one such system, and it possesses one +merit, that of rugged simplicity. Take a book, large or small, according +to the size of your handwriting, and take care that at the end of the book +there shall be plenty of space for an index. Begin at the beginning, and +make your entries precisely as they occur to you in unordered sequence. +But after each entry place a little circle, or oval, or parenthesis ( ), +and in a portion of these spaces place consecutive numbers. Here is a +model page taken at random from a book which may have been in keeping for +years:-- + + 'The Prince of Wales wore the robes of the Garter at his marriage in + St. George's Chapel, Windsor. All the other K.Gs present wore their + robes and collars. Mr. W. P. Frith, R.A., who was to paint a picture + of the wedding for the Queen, stood close to the reredos, to the + right, looking from the organ-loft (1023). Just before the liberation + in 1859 of Lombardy from the domination of Austria, the audiences in + the Italian theatres used to give vent to their pent-up patriotism by + shouting at the close of each performance "Viva Verdi!" The initiated + knew that this was meant to signify Viva V (for Victor) E (for + Emmanuele) R (for Re) D I (for d'Italia) (1024). Old Hungerford Market + was never very successful as a fish market; but according to Seyer it + was always very well supplied with shrimps. In Hungerford Street, + leading to the market, there was a pastrycook's famous shop, at which + the penny buns were as good as those sold at Farrance's in Cockspur + Street (1025).' + +"Now, all you have to do is, immediately you have made your entry, to +index it; and if you will only spare the time and patience and +perseverance, to _cross index_ it. Thus under letter W you will write, +'Wales, Prince of, married in Robes of the Garter' (1023); under G, +'Garter, Robes of, worn by P. of W. at his Marriage' (1023); under F, 'W. +P. Frith, R.A., present at the Marriage of P. of W.' (1023). Thus also, +'Verdi, Victor Emmanuel,' and 'Italy' will be indexed under their +respective letters 'V' and 'I,' and be referable to at the number (1024). +I have one common-place book that has been 'cooking' ever since 1858, and +is not half finished yet. The last entry is numbered (5068), and refers to +Sir Thomas Roe, Ambassador from James the First of England to the Emperor +Jehan Guize, commonly called the Great Mogul. The number (5068) is +referred to under the letters R (for Roe), J (for James I.), J (for Jehan +Guize), M (for Mogul), and A (for Ambassadors). By means of a rigidly +pursued system of indexing and _cross indexing_ (so earnestly recommended +by Henry Brougham) you can put your hand at once on the information +bearing on the particular subject which claims your attention." + +Mr. Sala also said:--"I believe this system strengthens and disciplines +the memory, and keeps it green. It is a very good mental exercise to read +a page or two of the index alone, from time to time. You will be +astonished at the number of bright nuggets of fact which will crop up from +the rock of half forgetfulness. Finally, never allow your index to fall +into arrear, and write the figures in your circumscribed spaces in red +ink. The corresponding ones in the index may be in black." + +It was from this mine of literary nuggets that he used to obtain the +materials for his charming papers which amused and instructed the reader. + +Another celebrated modern journalist and author is Mr. Andrew Lang. He is +just the contrary of Mr. Sala in his methods of work. Mr. Lang seems to +pride himself on the fact that he has no other aid to writing except an +excellent memory. He does not trouble himself about books of reference, +and says he has not one of any sort, not even a classical dictionary, in +his house. Mr. Lang is certainly a clever writer, and manages to produce +much pleasant reading, but his contributions to the magazines and +newspapers lack the interesting facts which Mr. Sala placed so pleasantly +before the public in his racy and able articles. Mr. Lang devotes his +mornings to writing books and magazine articles, and the afternoons to +penning leaders for the newspapers. + + + + +The Earnings of Authors. + + +Little is known of the remuneration of authors until the days of Dr. +Samuel Johnson. Before his time, literary men, as a rule, depended on the +generosity of patrons for their means of support, and as an acknowledgment +of their obligations, dedicated their works to them. The dedications were +frequently made in most fulsome terms. The position of the writer was +certainly a mean one; indeed, it might fitly be pronounced degrading; when +he had exhausted his possibilities of patronage, he starved. It was +Johnson--a giant in the world of letters--who broke through the +objectionable custom, and taught the author to look to the reading public +for support, and not to a wealthy patron. It is not until the days of +Samuel Johnson that the subject of literary earnings is of much +importance; yet we may with advantage glance at a few payments made prior +to his age. + +We do not know the amount Shakespeare received for his plays, but it is +certain that his connection with the theatre in London in a few years +realised for him a fortune, and, at a comparatively early age, enabled him +to return to his own town, a man of independent means. Oldys, in one of +his manuscripts, says that "Hamlet" was sold for £5; but he does not +mention his authority for the statement. It appears, from a publication of +Robert Greene's, in 1592, the price of a drama was twenty nobles, or about +£6 13s. 4d. of current coin. + +Small must have been the literary pay of Spenser, Butler, and Otway, since +they feared to die for want of the simple necessaries of life. Milton sold +"Paradise Lost" for £5 down, to be followed by £15 if a second and third +large editions were required. The first edition consisted of 1,500 copies, +and in two years 1,300 were sold. The balance was not disposed of until +five years later. This powerful poem, when given to the world, met with +some adverse criticism. The poet Waller wrote of it thus: "The old, blind +schoolmaster, John Milton, hath published a tedious poem on the fall of +man; if its length be not considered a merit, it hath no other." A greater +poet than Waller--Dryden--recognised its merits, and said: "Undoubtedly, +'Paradise Lost' is one of the greatest, most noble, and most sublime +poems which either this age or nation has produced." Dryden wrote the +following epigram referring to Homer, Virgil, and Milton:-- + + "Three poets--in three distant ages born-- + Greece, Italy, and England did adorn; + The first in loftiness of thought surpassed, + The next in majesty, in both the last. + The force of Nature could no further go; + To make a third, she joined the former two." + +Milton's poem has been praised by the greatest critics, and it is still +very much read. It appears in many forms, and the annual sale is extremely +large. Routledge's popular edition sells at the rate of about a couple of +thousand a year; and we suppose the sale of other editions is equally +great. + +Dryden arranged with Jacob Tonson, the famous bookseller and publisher, to +write for him 10,000 verses, at sixpence per line. To make up the required +number of lines, he threw in the "Epistle to his Cousin," and his +celebrated "Ode to Music." + +Gray only received £40 for the whole of his poems. He presented the +copyright of his famous "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" to +Dodsley, feeling that it was beneath the dignity of a gentleman to make +money with his pen. The lucky publisher quite agreed with him, and +cleared about a thousand pounds by the publication. + +Pope's translation of "Homer" yielded him about £8,000. He was assisted in +the work by William Broome, a scholar who was the author of a volume of +verse. John Henley thus refers to the circumstance:-- + + "Pope came off clean with Homer; but they say, + Broome went before, and kindly swept the way." + +Gay made £1,000 by his "Poems." He was paid £400 for the "Beggar's Opera," +and for the second part, "Polly," £1,000. Rich, the theatrical manager, +profited to a far greater extent from the "Beggar's Opera" than its +author. The contemporary jest was that it made Gay rich, and Rich gay. + +Dr. Johnson sold the copyright of Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield" for +£60, and he thought that amount fairly represented the value of the work. +"The great lexicographer," as Miss Pinkerton called him, placed no high +value on the performance of his friend, but the publisher found in the +"Vicar of Wakefield" a gold mine. Goldsmith was paid £21 for "The +Traveller." It was the work that established his reputation. Before it +appeared he was regarded as little better than a superior Grub Street +hack. Johnson pronounced this the finest poem that had been written since +the death of Pope. After having read it to the sister of Sir Joshua +Reynolds, she said: "Well, I never more shall think Dr. Goldsmith ugly." +The following are the prices Goldsmith obtained for others of his +works:--"English Grammar," £5; the "History of Rome," in two volumes, 250 +guineas; the "History of England," in four volumes, £500; the "History of +Greece," £250; and the "History of the Earth and Animated Nature," in +eight volumes, £850. "She stoops to Conquer" yielded between £400 and +£500. Five shillings a couplet was paid for "The Deserted Village." + +To cover the cost of his mother's funeral, Johnson wrote "Rasselas," and +disposed of it for £100. He sold his "Lives of the Poets" for 200 guineas. +The sum was considered liberal, but Johnson became so engrossed in his +subject that he supplied much more than what was expected from him. It is +believed that out of his work, in twenty-five years, the booksellers +cleared £5,000. It is still a saleable book, and is to be found in every +public and private library of any pretentions. + +The sum of £700 was paid to Fielding for "Tom Jones," and for "Amelia," +£1,000. + +Very large amounts have been given for biographical works. Hayley received +for his "Life of Cowper," £11,000; and Southey, £1,000 for his life of the +same poet. The life of "William Wilberforce" was sold for £4,000; "Bishop +Heber's Journals," for £5,000; "General Gordon's Diary," for £5,250; and +the "Life of Hannah More," for £2,000. + +The income of Scott was, perhaps, the largest ever made by authorship, yet +he said that the pursuit of literature was a good walking-stick, but a bad +crutch! His reputation was first made as a poet, and the following are +particulars of his profits from poetry: "The Lay of the Last Minstrel," +published in 1805, £769 6s.; "Ballads and Lyrical Pieces," published in +1806, £100; for "Marmion," published 1808, Messrs. Constable offered 1,000 +guineas soon after the poem was begun. It proved a very profitable +speculation to its publishers. During the first month after its +appearance, 2,000 copies were sold, the price being 31s. 6d. the quarto +volume. Next came the "Lady of the Lake" (1810), £2,100. This found even +greater favour with the public than its predecessors, and with it Scott's +poetical fame reached its zenith. A new poet who appeared on the scene, +Byron, completely eclipsed Scott. Scott tried, with two more poems, to win +back his lost place, as the popular poet of the period, and produced +"Rokeby," and the "Bridal of Triermain;" the latter was issued +anonymously, but both were failures. When Scott saw that his poetry did +not attract many readers, he turned his thoughts and energy into another +channel, and commenced his immortal novels. He had by him an unfinished +story, the work of former years, which he completed, giving it to the +world under the title of "Waverley." Constable offered £700 for the +copyright--an amount deemed very large in those days for a novel to be +published without the name of the author. Seven hundred sovereigns did +not, however, satisfy Scott; he simply said, "It is too much if the work +should prove a failure, and too little if it should be a success." It was +a brilliant book, and entranced the reading world. Scott had now found his +real vocation. He received for eleven novels, of three volumes each, and +nine volumes of "Tales of My Landlord," the sum of £110,000. For one +novel he was paid £10,000. Between November, 1825, and June, 1827, he +earned £26,000--an amount representing £52 6s. 3d. per working day. From +first to last, Sir Walter Scott made by his literary labours about +£300,000. + +Lord Byron's dealings with Mr. Murray were in every respect satisfactory, +but this did not prevent the pleasure-loving lord from having a little +joke at the expense of his publisher. He delighted Mr. Murray with a gift +of a Bible, but the recipient's pleasure was fleeting, for on examining +the book it was discovered that it contained a marginal correction. "Now +Barabbas was a robber," was altered to "Now Barabbas was a publisher." +This was a cruel stab, seeing that Byron had received for his poetry +£19,340, and might have increased this sum if he had been more anxious +about remuneration. + +In Mrs. Oliphant's book on "William Blackwood and His Sons," a letter is +quoted from Mr. Murray relating to the poet. "Lord Byron is a curious +man," says Murray, "he gave me, as I told you, the copyright of his two +poems, to be printed only in his works. I did not receive the last until +Tuesday night. I was so delighted with it that even as I read it I sent +him a draught for a thousand guineas. The two poems are altogether no more +than twelve hundred and fifteen hundred lines, and will altogether sell +for five and sixpence. But he returned the draught, saying that it was +very liberal--much more than they were worth; that I was perfectly welcome +to both poems to print in his (collected) works without cost or +expectation, but that he did not think them equal to what they ought to +be, and that he would not admit of their separate publication. I went +yesterday, and he was rallying me upon my folly in offering so much that +he dared to say I thought now I had a most lucky escape. 'To prove how +much I think so, my lord,' said I 'do me the favour to accept this pocket +book'--In which I had brought with me my draught, changed into two bank +notes of £1,000 and £50; but he would not take it. But I am not in despair +that he will yet allow their separate publication, which I must continue +to urge for mine own honour." + +Mr. Murray treated Crabbe in a most liberal manner. He paid for the "Tales +of the Hall," and the copyright of his other poems, £3,000. It was given +to the poet in bills, and we read that "Moore and Rogers earnestly advised +him to deposit them, without delay, in some safe hands--but no; he must +take them with him to Trowbridge, and show them to his son John. They +would hardly believe his good luck at home, if they did not see the +bills." On his way to Trowbridge, a friend at Salisbury, at whose house he +rested (Mr. Everett, the banker), seeing that he carried his bills loosely +in his waistcoat pocket, requested to be allowed to take charge of them; +but Crabbe thankfully declined, saying that "There was no fear of his +losing them, and he must show them to his son John." + +Without seeing a line of Thomas Moore's "Lalla Rookh," Messrs. Longman +undertook to pay £3,000 for it. The terms drawn up were simple, and read +as follows: "That upon your giving into our hands a poem of yours, the +length of 'Rokeby,' you shall receive from us the sum of £3,000. We also +agree to the stipulation, that the few songs which you may introduce into +the work shall be considered as reserved for your own selling." + +His poem, of some 6,000 lines, was written in a lonely cottage in +Derbyshire. Moore never tired of telling his friends that the stormy +winter weather in the country helped him to imagine, by contrast, the +bright and everlasting summers and glowing scenery of the East. + +The work was a great success. The first edition was sold in almost +fourteen days; within six months six editions had been called for. It is +said that some parts of the poem were translated into Persian, a +circumstance which caused Mr. Luttrell to write to the author in the +following strain:-- + + "I'm told dear Moore, your lays are sung + (Can it be true, you lucky man?) + By moonlight, in the Persian tongue, + Along the streets of Ispahan." + +Moore received considerable amounts for his "Irish Melodies." The mention +of these call to mind a letter he penned to Mr. Power, his publisher, on +November 12, 1812:-- + +"My dear Sir,--I have just got your letter, and have only time to say, +that if you can let me have three or four pounds by return of post, you +will oblige me. I would not have made this importunate demand on you, but +I have foolishly let myself run dry without trying my other resources, and +I have been the week past literally without one sixpence. Ever, with most +sincere good will.--T.M." + +Mr. Power promptly posted ten pounds to the poet. Said Moore, in the +course of his reply, "The truth is, we have been kept on a visit at a +house where we have been much longer than I wished or intended, and simply +from not having a shilling in my pocket to give to the servants on going +away. So I know you will forgive my teasing you.... You may laugh at my +ridiculous distress in being kept to turtle eating and claret-drinking +longer than I wish, and merely because I have not a shilling in my +pocket,--but, however paradoxical it sounds, it is true." + +We read in Moore's journals, ten years later: "17th August, +1822.--Received to-day a letter from Brougham, enclosing one from Barnes +(the editor of _The Times_), proposing that, as he is ill, I shall take +his place for some time in writing the leading articles of that paper, the +pay to be £100 a month. This is flattering. To be thought capable of +wielding so powerful a political machine as _The Times_ newspaper is a +tribute the more flattering (as is usually the case) from my feeling +conscious that I do not deserve it." The next day he wrote and declined +the offer. + +Thomas Campbell received, at the age of 21 years, £60 for his "Pleasures +of Hope," certainly a small amount for a fine poem, yet it gave him a +name, and enabled him to obtain large sums for some very slight literary +services. The publisher of his "Pleasures of Hope" did not treat him in a +generous manner, and his conduct appears to have embittered his mind as +will be gathered from the following anecdote. He was present at a party at +a period when the actions of Bonaparte were most severely condemned. On +being called upon for a toast, Campbell gave "The Health of Napoleon." +This caused a great surprise to all the company, and an explanation was +called for. "The only reason I have for proposing to honour Bonaparte," +said he, "is that he had the virtue to shoot a bookseller." Palm, a +bookseller, had recently been executed in Germany by order of the French +chief. + +It may here be mentioned that the copyright of the "Life of Bonaparte," by +Sir Walter Scott, with some copies of the work, was sold for £18,000. + +Successful school-books are often gold mines for the authors and +publishers. The copyright of "Vyse's Spelling-Book" was sold for £2,000 +and an annuity of £50 to the compiler. + +The copyright of Rundell's "Domestic Cookery" realised a couple of +thousand pounds, and many other works of this class have been extremely +popular. + +Very large sums have been paid for historical works. Hume received £700 a +volume; and Smollett, for a catch-penny rival work, cleared £2,000. The +money made by Henry is set down at £3,300. The booksellers, says Mr. +Leslie Stephen, made £6,000 out of Robertson's "History of Scotland." He +was paid for his "Charles V." the handsome sum of £4,500. Lingard's +"History of England" is, without doubt, an able work, and for it the +author was paid £4,683. The author's profits for the "Decline and Fall of +the Roman Empire," by Gibbon, are put down at £10,000. + +The foregoing are respectable figures, but they appear small when compared +with the amounts paid to Lord Macaulay. On one occasion he had handed to +him a cheque for £20,000, representing three-fourths of the net profits of +his "History of England." A short time since, the following statement went +the rounds of the newspaper press, respecting Mr. Justin McCarthy's +popular work, the "History of Our Own Times." The book was offered to a +well-known publishing firm, who agreed to purchase it for £600. On finding +that the author was a Home Ruler, however, this firm asked to be allowed +to withdraw from the contract. Mr. McCarthy, who was greatly annoyed at +the suggestion that he might mutilate history to suit his own private or +political views, then went to Messrs. Chatto and Windus, who at once +agreed to publish the work for him on a basis of mutual profits. In the +interval, the other firm reconsidered the situation, and asked to be +allowed to revive the lapsed contract, but were too late, as the book had +been placed in the hands of the second firm. The work won a flattering +reception, and the author has, up to the present time, received several +thousand pounds as his share of the profits. + +In 1897 passed away Dr. Brewer, the compiler of a "Guide to Science," and +other popular books. Shortly before his death, he told an interviewer that +he offered the copyright of his "Guide to Science" to Mr. Thomas Jarrold +for £50, but he declined the venture, saving he would pay a royalty of one +penny in the shilling for every copy sold. It went through two editions in +ten months, and then it was agreed to call 8,000 an edition, the royalty +to be given half-yearly, but any number less than 1,000 to stand over to +the next return. The largest half-yearly royalty was 19,000 copies +(Midsummer, 1836). In 1842, Dr. Brewer offered Mr. Jarrold £2,000 for his +half-share, which he declined. Soon after this, Messrs. Longman and Co. +offered Dr. Brewer £300 per year for life for the copyright. He offered +Mr. Jarrold £4,000 for his share, but he replied that he would not accept +double that sum, in fact that he would not part with it at all. + +According to a careful estimate, Charles Dickens received £10,000 a year +from his works for five years, and died worth nearly £100,000. He made +every penny from his writings and readings. We need scarcely repeat the +well-known facts that "he not only lived in a very liberal style for over +thirty years, keeping up a considerable establishment, and often +travelling without regard to cost, but he brought up a large and expensive +family." + +Thackeray did not make large sums by his books, when we consider his +undoubted genius and the high place he holds amongst the greatest authors. +It is said that he never made more than £5,000 out of any of his novels. +He received large sums for his lectures; indeed, the platform yielded him +better returns than the publishers. + +Eighty thousand pounds is the amount of Bulwer Lytton's earnings as a +novelist. The remuneration he received, when his books first appeared, did +not reach large figures, the sums usually ranging from £600 to £1,000, +although his books were in great favour with lovers of fiction. When a +collected edition of his novels was issued, the publishers paid liberally +for the copyrights. The sale of Lytton's novels is very large; about +80,000 copies of the sixpenny edition, and some thousands of the +three-shillings-and-sixpenny edition, are sold every year. + +The Earl of Beaconsfield, it is said, received the largest amount ever +paid in this country for a single novel. His last work, "Endymion," was +sold for £12,000. He only produced one other successful story, and that +was "Lothair." It is stated, on good authority, that these two novels have +together brought more than double the sums realised for his other books, +although inferior to some of his former writings. In his later years the +public paid for the novelty of reading stories by a statesman, and not for +the merits of his works. Some of his novels have recently been brought out +in a shilling edition, but they have already lost the allurements of +fiction, and are only read by students of politics, or persons curious as +to the character of the author. + +Wilkie Collins was paid for "Armadale" £5,000. Mr. James Payn recently +received £1,000 for the rights of running one of his novels in the pages +of a sixpenny magazine. This author tells rather a good story about the +mode of payment for his novels. "It was," says Mr. Payn, "the custom with +a very respectable firm of publishers, with whom I did business, to pay my +cheques to the names of my immortal works, instead of to myself: and since +it suited their convenience to do so, I never complained of it, though it +sometimes put me in rather a false position when I presented my demands in +person, as, for example, in the case of the 'Family Scapegrace.' When I +came for the proceeds of 'Found Dead,' it was too much for the sense of +professional propriety of the banker's clerk, who gravely observed: 'It is +very fortunate, Sir, that this cheque is not payable to order, or it would +have to be signed by your executors.'" Said Dickens, to whom Payn related +the incident, "I should not like to have much money at a bank which keeps +so clever a clerk as that." + +Anthony Trollope worked hard to gain a footing in the literary world. His +earlier manuscripts were frequently rejected. He tried to induce managers +of theatres to accept his plays, but not one was ever produced. The first +year's labour with the pen, and a very hard year's work too, only yielded +£12. The next year the sum was still small, only amounting to £20, yet he +did not despair. At last, the happy time came, and it was taken at the +flood. It was in 1855 that he scored with "The Warden." From that time he +was a man of mark; his works were in demand, and with ease he earned +£1,000 a year, which soon increased to £2,000 and £3,000, and at the time +of his death to about £4,000. The amounts paid for a few of his books are +as follows: In 1850 was issued "La Vendée," and for it he got £20; twelve +years later he was paid, for "Orley Farm," £3,135; in 1864 was published +"Can You Forgive Her?" for which he received £3,525; and in the same year +was issued "The Small House at Allington," for which he was paid £3,000. +Amongst his other novels for which he received large sums may be mentioned +"The Last Chronicles of Barset," £3,000; "Phineas Finn," £3,200; "He knew +He was Right," £3,200. The last two were published in 1869. He was paid +£3,000 for "The Way We Live Now." "More than nine-tenths of my literary +work," writes Trollope, "has been done in the last twenty years, and +during twelve of those years I followed another profession. I have never +been a slave to this work, giving due time, if not more than due time, to +the amusement I have loved. But I have been constant--and constancy of +labour will conquer all difficulties." In twenty years he made by writing +nearly £70,000. We cannot place Trollope in a high position amongst the +greatest novelists, yet the monetary results of his literary labours must +be regarded as extremely satisfactory. + +Large sums of money were made by George Eliot, but we must not forget that +she had some weary years to wait for the days of prosperity, and that the +story of her life contains many records of disappointment after brave +struggles. We read of her living in humble apartments in London; to earn a +little money, which she much needed when she went to Switzerland in 1849, +she tried to sell her books and globes. It was not until she was forty +years of age that she established a reputation by the publication of "Adam +Bede." She received in cash down, for the first sale of her book, some +£40,000, or about £2,000 a year. George Eliot had a great objection to her +novels appearing in serial form, and she sacrificed much money by not +first publishing them in the magazines. Ouida had for a long time the same +objection to her stories being published piecemeal in newspapers and +periodicals. She now appears to have got over her prejudice in this +matter, and consents to write for newspaper readers. It is generally +believed amongst literary and journalistic men, that she is not a +brilliant success as a newspaper novelist, yet Ouida's income as an author +must be very great. The reader of the weekly paper in which fiction forms +a feature is not educated up to her standard; authors like those engaged +on the _Family Herald_ and similar journals are much more popular. + +It is pleasing to state that Mr. John Ruskin has made large sums with his +books, but not so much, we think, as his merits entitle him to receive. + +We have seen it stated that by "Oceana," by no means a large volume, Mr. +Froude cleared £10,000. + +In the "Life of Longfellow," written by his brother, are a few particulars +of his earnings. During 1825--the last year of his college course--he +contributed poems to the United States _Literary Gazette_, and was paid +one or two dollars a poem, the price depending on the length of the piece. +He wrote, in 1840-1, "The Village Blacksmith," "Endymion," and "God's +Acre," and was paid fifteen dollars each. When his fame was fully +established, Mr. Bonner the publisher of the _New York Ledger_, paid him, +for the right of publishing in that paper, 3,000 dollars for "The Hanging +of the Crane." + +Lord Tennyson received considerable sums for his poetry. He was paid £100 +for the right of printing a short original poem in a monthly magazine. For +his ballad, "The Revenge," in the _Nineteenth Century_, he received 300 +guineas. It became known some time ago that his lordship did not deem +£5,000 a year a sufficient sum for the exclusive right of publishing his +works. He changed his publishers several times. He was regarded as a keen +man of business, and it is said that he generally got the best of the +bargain. + +Money never tempted Robert Browning to contribute to the magazines. His +poems always saw the light in book form. + +Mr. J. Cuthbert Hadden, who has made a study of this subject, says the +supply of verse to-day is greatly in excess of the demand, and so it +happens that in many quarters poetry is not paid for at all. Most of the +minor poets whose volumes come before the public have to bear the whole +expense of production themselves, and only a very small number escape +without considerable loss. In this connection an amusing story regarding +James Russell Lowell--not quite a minor poet--may be quoted. The cost of +publishing his first book was borne entirely by Mr. Lowell himself, the +edition being a plain but substantial one of 500 copies. The author felt +the usual pride in his achievement, and hoped for almost immediate fame. +Unhappily, only a few copies of the work were sold. Soon after, a fire +occurred in the publishing house where the volumes were stored, and they +were destroyed. As the publisher carried a full insurance on the stock, +Mr. Lowell was able to realise the full cash value on his venture, and he +had the satisfaction of saying that the entire edition was exhausted. + +The leading American novelists usually get £1,000 for a serial story in a +magazine, and a similar sum when it is produced in book form. Bret Harte +can command a thousand dollars for a single magazine article. Mrs. Grant +received a cheque for £40,000 for her share of the first volume of General +Grant's "Memoirs," and the whole of her share of the proceeds is put down +at £100,000. + +In closing, we must remind our readers that there are two sides to every +picture, and that countless instances of bitter disappointment and death +are recorded in the annals of literature. Only a few in the mighty army of +writers come to the front and win fame and fortune. + + + + +"Declined with Thanks." + + +"Declined with thanks," is a phrase which often disappoints the aspirant +in the wide field of literature. Works of the highest merit are frequently +rejected by publishers; indeed, some of the most popular books in our +language have gone the rounds of the trade without their merits being +recognised. Frequently the authors, after repeated failures, have brought +their works out at their own risk, and have thereby won fame and fortune. +In works of fiction, perhaps the most notable example of a story which was +offered to publisher after publisher only to be returned to its author, is +that of "Robinson Crusoe." It was at last "Printed for W. Taylor, at the +Ship in Paternoster Row, MDCCXIX." It proved a good speculation for the +lucky publisher. He made a profit of one hundred thousand pounds out of +the venture. Jane Austen's name stands high in the annals of English +literature; yet she had a struggle to get her books published. She sold +her "Northanger Abbey" to a Bath bookseller for the insignificant sum of +ten pounds. The manuscript remained for some time in his possession +without being printed, he fearing that if published it would prove a +failure. He was, however, at length induced to issue it, and its merits +caused it to be extensively read. Samuel Warren could not prevail upon a +publisher to bring out his well-known book, "The Diary of a late +Physician," and, much against his inclination, it was first given to the +reading public as a serial in "Blackwood's Magazine." Thackeray wrote his +great novel, "Vanity Fair," for "Colburn's Magazine"; it was refused by +the publishers, who deemed it a work without interest. He tried to place +it with several of the leading London firms who all declined it. He +finally issued it in monthly parts, and by it his fame as a novelist was +established. + +It will surprise many to learn that the first volume of Hans Christian +Andersen's "Fairy Tales" was declined by every publisher in Copenhagen. +The book was brought out at the author's own cost, and the charming +collection of stories gained for him world-wide renown. The Rev. James +Beresford could not induce any publisher to pay twenty pounds for his +amusing volume, entitled "The Miseries of Human Life." It was after some +delay issued, and in twelve months passed through nine editions. A +humorous notice by Sir Walter Scott in the "Edinburgh Review" doubtless +did much to increase the circulation of the book. The handsome sum of five +thousand pounds profit was cleared out of this happy venture. In an able +work by a leading American critic, entitled "American Publishers and +English Authors," it is stated that "'Jane Eyre' went the round of the +publishing houses of London, but could not find a market until the +daughter of a publisher accidentally discovered the manuscript in an iron +safe, where it had been lying until it was mouldy. She saw the +extraordinary merit of the novel, and induced her father to publish it." +The foregoing statement is incorrect. As a matter of fact, the manuscript +was sent by rail to Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co., on the 24th August, 1847, +and by the 16th of October in the same year the firm issued the novel. +According to Mrs. Gaskell's "Life of Charlotte Brontė," the future +publishers of "Jane Eyre" were at once most favourably impressed with the +book, and this is fully confirmed by the prompt publication of it. +Respecting its reception by the firm, says Mrs. Gaskell, "the first +reader of the manuscript was so powerfully struck by the character of the +tale, that he reported his impression in very strong terms to Mr. Smith, +who appears to have been much amused by the admiration excited. 'You seem +to have been so much enchanted, that I do not know how to believe you,' he +laughingly said. But when a second reader, in the person of a clear-headed +Scotchman, not given to enthusiasm, had taken the manuscript home in the +evening, and become so deeply interested in it as to sit up half the night +to finish it, Mr. Smith's curiosity was sufficiently excited to prompt him +to read it for himself; and great as were the praises which had been +bestowed upon it, he found that they did not exceed the truth." The first +novel Miss Brontė wrote was entitled "The Professor," which was submitted +to numerous publishers without finding one to accept it. It was not issued +until after the death of the gifted author, and is much inferior to her +other books. Says Mrs. Gaskell, "Mr. Smith has told me a little +circumstance connected with the reception of this manuscript, which seems +indicative of no ordinary character. It came in a brown paper parcel to +65, Cornhill. Besides the address to Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co., there +were on it those of other publishers to whom the tale had been sent, not +obliterated, but simply scored through, so that Mr. Smith at once +perceived the names of some of the houses in the trade to which the +unlucky parcel had gone, without success." + +Sterne could not find a bookseller who would pay fifty pounds for +"Tristram Shandy," he therefore issued it on his own account, and it +proved a saleable work, gaining for its author a front place amongst +English humorists. Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was written as a +serial for the "National Era," an anti-slavery journal published at +Washington. It was next offered to Messrs. Jewett & Co., but their reader +and critic pronounced it not a story of sufficient interest to be worth +reproducing in book form. The wife of the latter strenuously insisted that +it would meet with a favourable reception, and advised its publication. In +a notice of Mrs. Stowe, it is stated that in four years 313,000 copies had +been printed in the United States alone, probably as many more in Great +Britain. Miss Warner's popular novel, "The Wide, Wide World," was declined +by a leading New York publisher. It is said that several well-known +houses refused to have anything to do with one of the most popular books +of recent times, "Vice Versā"; even when in type, two American firms did +not discover its worth, and rejected it. + +Some notable books in history, travels, poetry, and science have been +"Declined with thanks." Both Murray and Longman were afraid to risk the +publication of Prescott's "Ferdinand and Isabella," but Bentley brought +out the book, and according to his statement it is the most successful +work that he has published. A score of houses refused to publish "Eöthen." +The author in despair handed his manuscript to one of the lesser known +booksellers, and printed it at his own cost; it was extremely successful. +After twenty-five editions of Buchan's "Domestic Medicine" had been sold, +one thousand six hundred pounds was paid for the copyright, yet, strange +to state, before it was published not a single firm in Edinburgh would pay +a hundred pounds for it. Strahan, the King's printer, had offered to him +the first volume of Blair's "Sermons," and, after a careful perusal, +concluded that the work would not be one to find a ready sale. Dr. +Johnson, however, came to the rescue, and with his eloquence induced Mr. +Strahan to pay a hundred pounds for the copyright. It had a large +circulation; for a second volume, three hundred pounds was the amount +gladly paid, and for subsequent volumes six hundred pounds each. + +Sir Richard Phillips rejected several famous books. It was to this +bookseller and publisher that Robert Bloomfield offered the copyright of +his "Farmer's Boy" in return for a dozen copies of the work when printed. +He feared it would be a failure, and declined it. The poet issued it by +subscription, and within three years 25,000 copies were sold. This +publisher is said to have had offered to him Byron's early poems. He might +have purchased the copyright of "Waverley" for thirty pounds, but declined +it! He rejected other works which won favourable reception from the press +and the public. It is only right to state that he gave to the world many +valuable volumes, and that he was a man of decided literary ability. A +paragraph went the rounds of the literary press after the death of Mr. J. +H. Parker, the well-known Oxford publisher, stating that the copyright of +Keble's "Christian Year" was offered to Joseph Parker for the sum of +twenty pounds and refused. It was further stated that "during the forty +years which followed the publication of this work nearly 400,000 copies +were sold, and Mr. Keble's share of the profits amounted to fourteen +thousand pounds, being one-fourth the retail price." The brothers Smith +desired to sell for twenty pounds to Mr. Murray their celebrated "Rejected +Addresses," but the great publisher declined the proposal with thanks. +They resolved to bring out the book at their own risk. It hit the popular +taste, and after sixteen editions had been sold, Mr. Murray paid for the +copyright one hundred and thirty-one pounds. The poems yielded the authors +over a thousand pounds. + +Editors of newspapers and magazines have often made ludicrous blunders in +rejecting poems of sterling merit. It is generally known that the editor +of the _Greenock Advertiser_ expressed his regret that he could not insert +in his newspaper one of Thomas Campbell's best poems on account of it not +being quite up to his standard. + +The Rev. Charles Wolfe submitted to the editor of a leading magazine his +famous ode on "The Burial of Sir John Moore," but it was rejected in such +a scornful manner as to cause the writer to hand it to the editor of _The +Newry Telegraph_, an Ulster newspaper of no standing as a literary +journal. It was published in 1817, in that obscure paper, with the +initials of "C. W." It was reproduced in various publications, and +attracted great attention. It is one of the best in our limited number of +pieces of martial poetry. + + + + +Epigrams on Authors. + + +The epigram is of considerable antiquity. The Greeks placed on their +monuments, statues, and tombs, short poetical inscriptions, written in a +simple style, and it was from this practice that we derive the epigram. In +the earlier examples we fail to find any traces of satire which is now its +chief characteristic. The Romans were the first to give a satirical turn +to this class of literature. Amongst the writers of Latin epigrams, +Catullus and Martial occupy leading places. The French are, perhaps, the +most gifted writers of epigrams. German epigrammatists have put into verse +moral proverbs. Schiller and Goethe did not, however, follow the usual +practice of their countrymen, but wrote many satirical epigrams, having +great force. Many of our English poets have displayed a fine faculty of +writing epigrams. + +The birthplace of Homer is a disputed point, and has given rise to not a +few essays and epigrams. Thomas Heywood, in one of his poetical +publications, published in 1640, wrote:-- + + "Seven cities warr'd for Homer, being dead, + Who, living, had no roof to shroud his head." + +Much in the same strain wrote Thomas Seward, a century and a half later:-- + + "Seven wealthy towns contend for Homer dead, + Through which the living Homer begg'd his bread." + +The two writers have not stated fully the number of cities which claim to +have given birth to Homer. The number is nearer twenty than seven. Pope, +in his translation of Homer, was assisted by a poet named William Broome, +a circumstance which prompted John Henley to pen the following:-- + + "Pope came off clean with Homer; but, they say, + Broome went before, and kindly swept the way." + +Butler, the author of "Hudibras," was much neglected during his life. It +is true that Charles II. and his courtiers read and were delighted with +his poem, but they did not extend to him any patronage. The greater part +of his days were passed in obscurity and poverty. He had been buried about +forty years when a monument was placed in Westminster Abbey to his memory, +by John Barber, a printer, and afterwards an Alderman and Lord Mayor of +London. Samuel Wesley wrote on the memorial the following lines:-- + + "Whilst Butler, needy wretch! was yet alive, + No gen'rous patron would a dinner give; + See him, when starved to death, and turn'd to dust, + Presented with a monumental bust! + The poet's fate is here in emblem shown,-- + He asked for bread, and he receiv'd a stone." + +An epitaph similar in sentiment to the foregoing was placed by Horace +Walpole over the remains of Theodore, King of Corsica, who, after many +trials and disappointments, ended his life as a prisoner for debt in +King's Bench, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Anne's, +Westminster:-- + + "The grave, great teacher, to a level brings + Heroes and beggars, galley slaves and kings. + But Theodore this moral learn'd ere dead; + Fate pour'd its lesson on his living head; + Bestow'd a kingdom, and denied him bread." + +The fourth Earl of Chesterfield, on seeing a whole-length portrait of Nash +between the busts of Sir Isaac Newton and Pope in the rooms at Bath, wrote +as follows:-- + + "Immortal Newton never spoke + More truth than here you'll find; + Nor Pope himself e'er penn'd a joke + More cruel on mankind. + + The picture, plac'd the busts between, + Gives satire all its strength: + Wisdom and Wit are little seen, + But Folly at full length." + +Stephen Duck's poetry and progress in life gave rise to some lively lines +by the lampooners of the eighteenth century. He was an agricultural +labourer, having a thirst for knowledge and some skill as a writer of +verse. This humble and self-taught student was brought under the notice of +Queen Caroline, who was much interested in his welfare, and pleased with +his poetry; she granted him a pension of £30 a year. He was next made a +yeoman of the guard, an appointment he did not long retain, for he was +advanced to the position of a clergyman in the Church of England, and +presented to the living of Byfleet, Surrey. It is to be feared that his +education was not sufficiently liberal for a clerk in holy orders. Dean +Swift assailed the poor poet as follows:-- + + "The thresher Duck could o'er the Queen prevail; + The proverb says 'No fence against a flail.' + From threshing corn he turns to thresh his brains, + For which Her Majesty allows him grains. + Though 'tis confess'd that those who ever saw + His poems, think them all not worth a straw. + Thrice happy Duck, employed in threshing stubble! + Thy toil is lessen'd and thy profits doubled." + +The want of dignity displayed in the foregoing is unworthy of Swift, and +the reply as follows made by Duck is certainly much to his credit:-- + + "You think it, censor, mighty strange + That, born a country clown, + I should my first profession change + And wear a chaplain's gown! + If virtue honours the low race + From which I was descended, + If vices your high birth disgrace + Who should be most commended?" + +Duck wrote the epitaph for the tombstone over the remains of Joe Miller of +mirthful memory. The following is a copy of the lines:-- + + "If humour, wit, and honesty could save + The hum'rous, witty, honest from the grave; + The grave had not so soon this tenant found + Whom honesty, and wit, and humour crowned. + Or could esteem and love preserve our breath, + And guard us longer from the stroke of death, + The stroke of death on him had later fell, + Whom all mankind esteem'd and lov'd so well." + +The poet-preacher was advanced to the chaplaincy of a regiment of Dragoon +Guards. Sad to relate, in the year 1756, in a fit of insanity, he took his +own life. + +During the Gordon riots on the 7th of January, 1780, Lord Mansfield's +house in Bloomsbury Square was burnt, and in the flames perished his +valuable library, which he commenced collecting when a lad at school. It +included many valuable volumes and materials for memoirs of his times. +Cowper thus wrote on the subject:-- + + "So then--the Vandals of our isle, + Sworn foes of sense and law, + Have burnt to dust a nobler pile + Than ever Roman saw! + + And Murray sighs o'er Pope and Swift, + And many a treasure more, + The well-judged purchase, and the gift + That graced his letter'd store. + + Their pages mangled, burnt, and torn, + The loss was his alone; + But ages yet to come shall mourn + The burning of his own." + +A pleasing and playful epigram on Robert Bloomfield, the author of "The +Farmer's Boy," was written by Henry Kirke White:-- + + "Bloomfield, thy happy omen'd name + Ensures continuance of thy fame; + Both sense and truth this verdict give, + While _fields_ shall _bloom_ thy name shall live." + +The residences of Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge near the English +Lakes suggested the title of lake poets, and of their works the Rev. Henry +Townshend wrote:-- + + "They come from the lakes--an appropriate quarter + For poems diluted with plenty of water." + +Surely Lord Holland was a little wide of the mark when he penned the +following epigram, complaining that Southey did not write sufficient +laureate poems; the fact is, he wrote too many to sustain his reputation +as a poet:-- + + "Our Laureate Bob defrauds the King-- + He takes his cash and will not sing; + Yet on he goes, I know not why, + Singing for us who do not buy." + +In the _Diary_ of Thomas Moore, under date of September 4, 1825, it is +stated: "Lord H. full of an epigram he had just written on Southey, which +we all twisted and turned into various shapes; he is as happy as a boy +during the operation. He suggests the following as the last couplet:-- + + "And for us, who will not buy, + Goes singing on eternally." + +It has been truthfully observed that William Wordsworth "found poetry in +the most common-place events of life, and described them in familiar +language; he naturally contended that there was little real difference +between poetry and prose." Byron thus rallies him on the theory:-- + + "The simple Wordsworth, framer of a lay + As soft as evening in his favourite May, + Who warns his friend, 'to shake off toil and trouble, + And quit his books, for fear of growing double;' + Who, both by precept and example, shows + That prose is verse, and verse is merely prose; + Convincing all, by demonstration plain, + Poetic souls delight in prose inane." + +Theodore Hook produced some pungent verses; here is a slight example on +Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound":-- + + "Shelley styles his new poem _Prometheus Unbound_, + And 'tis like to remain so while time circles round; + For surely an age would be spent in the finding + A reader so weak as to pay for the binding!" + +Scott wrote a poem which was published in 1815, under the title of _The +Field of Waterloo_, and prefaced it thus: "It may be some apology for the +imperfections of this poem, that it was composed hastily, and during a +short tour upon the Continent, where the author's labours were liable to +frequent interruption; but its best apology is, that it was written for +the purpose of assisting the Waterloo subscription." + +This plea did not disarm hostile criticism. Thomas, Lord Erskine, +expressed himself as follows:-- + + "On Waterloo's ensanguined plain + Lie tens of thousands of the slain; + But none by sabre or by shot + Fell half so flat as Walter Scott." + +Wrote Thomas Moore in his _Diary_: "I have read _Walter_-loo. The battle +murdered many, and _he_ has murdered the battle; 'tis sad stuff." + +The Earl of Carlisle wrote a sixpenny pamphlet advocating small theatres; +and on the day it was issued the newspapers contained the announcement +that he had given a large subscription to a public fund, a circumstance +which formed the theme of the following epigram by his cousin, Lord Byron: + + "Carlisle subscribes a thousand pounds + Out of his rich domains; + And for sixpence circles round + The product of his brains: + 'Tis thus the difference you may hit + Between his fortune and his wit." + +Byron made his unhappy marriage the subject of at least three epigrams. +Here are two of them as follows:-- + + ON HIS WEDDING-DAY. + + "Here's a happy new year! But with reason + I beg you'll permit me to say-- + Wish me many returns of the season, + But as few as you please of the day." + +At a later period he wrote-- + + "This day, of all our days, has done + The worst for _me_ and _you_: + 'Tis just six years since we were _one_, + And five since we were _two_." + +Lord Byron's friend, Thomas Moore, wrote many excellent epigrams, and not +a few were penned about him. He published his first volume of poems under +the name of Thomas Little. It is stated that a lady found a copy of the +book under the pillow of her maid's bed, and wrote on it in pencil:-- + + "You read _Little_, I guess; + I wish you'd read _less_." + +The servant was equal to her mistress, and wrote:-- + + "I read Little before, + Now I mean to read _Moore_." + +Lord Byron wrote the following in 1811 on Moore's farcical opera:-- + + "Good plays are scarce; + So Moore writes farce; + The poet's fame grows brittle-- + We knew before + That Little's Moore, + But now 'tis Moore that's Little." + +Respecting Moore's duel with Lord Jeffrey, Theodore Hook composed the +following lines:-- + + "When Anacreon would fight, as the poets have said, + A reverse he displayed in his vapour, + For while all his poems were loaded with lead, + His pistols were loaded with paper. + + For excuses, Anacreon old custom may thank, + Such salvo he should not abuse; + For the cartridge, by rule, is always made blank + That is fired away at _Reviews_." + +"Moore is here called Anacreon," says W. Davenport Adams, "in allusion to +his translations from that poet." The duel was owing to an article in the +_Edinburgh Review_, which Moore thought proper to resent by challenging +the editor. The combatants were, however, arrested on the ground, and +conveyed to Bow Street, where the pistols were found to contain merely a +charge of powder, the balls having in some way disappeared. Byron alludes +to the circumstance in _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_:-- + + "When Little's leadless pistol met his eye, + And Bow Street myrmidons stood laughing by." + +After this strange encounter, the poet and critic were firm friends. + +Slips of the pen have given rise to some smart epigrammatic corrections. +Albert Smith wrote in an album as follows:-- + + "Mont Blanc is the Monarch of Mountains, + They crown'd him long ago; + But who they got to put it on + Nobody seems to know." + ALBERT SMITH. + +Thackeray was successfully solicited to contribute to the same book, and +wrote under the fore-going:-- + + A HUMBLE SUGGESTION. + + "I know that Albert wrote in a hurry, + To criticize I scarce presume; + But methinks that Lindley Murray, + Instead of _who_ had written _whom_." + W. M. THACKERAY. + +Samuel Warren on one occasion made a slip in writing in an album, +misquoting Moore, writing "glory's throb" instead of "glory's thrill." The +mistake formed the subject of the following impromptu lines by Mr. Digby +Seymour:-- + + "Warren, thy memory was poor + The Irish bard to rob, + Had you remembered Tommy Moore, + Glory would 'thrill,' not 'throb.'" + +The vanity of Mr. Warren was unusually largely developed, and gave rise to +a number of amusing anecdotes. Sir George Rose thus refers to his +weakness:-- + + "Samuel Warren, though able, yet vainest of men, + Could he guide with discretion his tongue and his pen, + His course would be clear for--'Ten Thousand a Year;' + But limited else be a brief--'Now and Then.'" + +For a long period Mr. Warren was the Recorder for Hull. Mr. Thompson, the +Town Clerk, was a gentleman of cultivated literary tastes, and able to +compose a neat epigram. He wrote the following:-- + + "Our Recorder, Sam Warren, from all that I hear, + Is one of the kindest of men, + For a friend he presents with 'Ten Thousand a Year,' + And adds to the gift 'Now and Then.'" + +Mr. William Harrison Ainsworth, the romance writer, was very unpopular +with the contributors of _Punch_, and many were the satires on him in its +pages. Colburn published a magazine, in which many of Ainsworth's novels +appeared, and this gave rise to the following epigram:-- + + "Says Ainsworth to Colburn: + 'A plan in my pate is + To give my romance as + A supplement gratis.' + + "Says Colburn to Ainsworth: + ''Twill do very nicely, + For that will be charging + Its value precisely.'" + +In early manhood, Edwin Paxton Hood called upon Bulwer Lytton without any +introduction. The servant told him that his master could not be seen. On +receiving the intimation, Hood took out of his pocket pencil and paper, +and wrote as follows:-- + + "A son of song, to fame unknown, + Stands waiting in your hall below; + Your footman tells him to begone; + Say, mighty Bulwer, shall he go?" + +It is not surprising to learn that the impromptu lines proved an effective +introduction. The interview was the first of many pleasant meetings +between the author of _The Caxtons_ and Mr. Paxton Hood. + + + + +Poetical Graces. + + +Literary by-paths furnish some singular specimens of poetical graces. We +produce a few for the entertainment of our readers. + +Robert Fergusson, the Edinburgh poet, was born in 1751, and was a student +at St. Andrews' University from his thirteenth to his seventeenth year. It +was the duty of each student, in turn, to ask a blessing at the dinner +table. One day, to the consternation of all, the youthful bard repeated +the following lines: + + "For rabbits young, and for rabbits old, + For rabbits hot, and for rabbits cold, + For rabbits tender, and for rabbits tough, + Our thanks we render, for we've had enough." + +The masters of the college deliberated how they should punish the +graceless poet. It was finally resolved not to censure him, but to have in +the future a more spare supply of rabbits. Poor Fergusson's sad career +closed in a lunatic asylum at an early age, not, however, before he had +enriched Scottish poetical literature with some important contributions. + +Burns appears to have had a great admiration for this wayward son of song. +He placed over his remains in the Canongate Churchyard, Edinburgh, a +tombstone bearing the following inscription:-- + + "Here lies Robert Fergusson, + Poet, born September 5th, 1751, + Died October 16th, 1774. + + No sculptured marble here, nor pompous lay + No storied urn, nor animated bust; + This simple stone directs pale Scotia's way + To pour her sorrows o'er her Poet's dust." + +On the back of the stone it is stated:-- + +"By special grant of the Managers to Robert Burns, who erected this stone, +this burial place is ever to remain sacred to the memory of Robert +Fergusson." + +More than one poetical grace is attributed to the facile pen of Burns. His +grace before dinner is well known, and is as follows:-- + + "Oh Thou who kindly dost provide + For every creature's want! + We bless Thee, God of nature wide, + For all Thy goodness lent: + And if it please Thee, Heavenly guide, + May never worse be sent, + But whether granted or denied, + Lord, bless us with content." + +It is said that at one of Burns's convivial dinners he was desired to say +grace, and he gave the following, impromptu: + + "O Lord we do Thee humbly thank + For what we little merit;-- + Now Jean may tak' the flesh away, + And Will bring on the spirit." + +On one occasion a rhymster, who had placed before him a supper small in +quantity and poor in quality, invoked a blessing with the following +lines:-- + + "O Thou who bless'd the loaves and fishes + Look down upon these two poor dishes; + And though the 'tatoes be but small, + Lord make them large enough for all; + For if they do our bellies fill, + 'Twill be a wondrous miracle." + +This reminds us of an epigram entitled "Dress v. Dinner:"-- + + What is the reason, can you guess, + Why men are poor, and women thinner? + So much do they for dinner dress, + There's nothing left to dress for dinner. + +On a graceless peer an epigrammatist wrote:-- + + "'By proxy I pray, and by proxy I vote,' + A graceless peer said to a churchman of note; + Who answered,'My lord, then I venture to say, + You'll to heaven ascend in a similar way.'" + +Here is a grateful grace:-- + + "Some hae meat that canna eat, + An' some cou'd eat that want it; + But we hae meat, an' we can eat, + Sae let the Lord be thankit." + +The Rev. Samuel Wesley, formerly vicar of Epworth, and another friend were +entertained to dinner at Temple Belwood, by a host noted as a strange +compound of avarice and oddity. Mr. Wesley returned thanks with the +following impromptu lines:-- + + "Thanks for the feast, for 'tis no less + Than eating manna in the wilderness, + Here meagre famine bears controlless sway, + And ever drives each fainting wretch away. + Yet here, O how beyond a saint's belief, + We've seen the glories of a chine of beef; + Here chimneys smoke, which never smoked before, + And we have dined, where we shall dine no more." + +In conclusion we give a vegetarian grace. The first four lines are to be +said before the meal:-- + + "These fruits do Thou, O Father, bless, + Which Mother Earth to us doth give; + No blood doth stain our feast to day, + In Thee we trust, and peaceful live." + +The next is a form of thanksgiving after a vegetarian meal:-- + + "We thank Thee, Lord, for these Thy fruits, + Which Mother Earth to us doth give; + No blood hath stained our feast to-day, + In Thee we trust, and peaceful live!" + + + + +Poetry on Panes. + + +In a variety of places, but more especially in old village inns, +reflections in verse, good, bad, and indifferent, have been found +scratched upon window-panes. We have carefully copied the best examples +which have come under our notice, and present a batch herewith, believing +that they may entertain our readers. + +A genial old Yorkshire parson appears at the commencement of the present +century to have been greatly pleased with an inn situated between +Northallerton and Boroughbridge, for he visited it daily to enjoy his pipe +and glass. On one of its window-panes he inscribed some lines, of which +the following is a literal copy:-- + + "Here in my wicker chair I sitt, + From folly far, and far from witt, + Content to live, devoid of care, + With country folks and country fare; + To listen to my landlord's tale, + And drink his health in Yorkshire ale; + Then smoak and read the _York Courant_; + I'm happy and 'tis all I want. + Though few my tythes, and light my purse, + I thank my God it is no worse." + +Here is another Yorkshire example, written towards the close of the last +century; it is from an old wayside inn near Harewood-bridge, on the Leeds +and Harrogate road:-- + + "Gaily I lived, as Ease and Nature taught, + And passed my little Life without a thought; + I wonder, then, why Death, that tyrant grim, + Should think of me, who never thought of him." + +Under the foregoing, the following was written: + + "Ah! why forget that Death should think of thee; + If thou art Mortal, such must surely be; + Then rouse up reason, view thy hast'ning end, + And lose no time to make God thy Friend." + +In the old coaching days, the Dog and Doublet, at Sandon, Staffordshire, +was a popular house. A guest wrote on one of its window panes the +following recommendation:-- + + "Most travellers to whom these roads are known, + Would rather stay at Sandon than at Stone! + Good chaises, horses, treatment, and good wines, + They always meet with at James Ballantine's." + +A penniless poet wrote on a tavern window-pane the lines:-- + + "O Chalk! to me, and to the poor, a friend, + On Thee my life and happiness depend; + On Thee with joy, with gratitude I think, + For, by thy bounty, I both eat and drink." + +"Chalk" is a slang word for credit. Innkeepers kept their accounts on the +back of a door, written with chalk. + +The following epigram was written under a pane disfigured with +autographs:-- + + "Should you ever chance to see, + A man's name writ on a glass, + Be sure he owns a diamond, + And his parent owns an ass." + +On the accession of Her Majesty, this _jeu d'esprit_ was inscribed on an +inn window:-- + + "The Queen's with us, the Whigs exulting say; + For when she found us in, she let us stay. + It may be so; but give me leave to doubt + How long she'll keep you when she finds you out." + +The following lines dated 1793, were written on a window-pane at the Hotel +des Pays Bas, Spa Belgium:-- + + "I love but one, and only one, + Ah, Damon, thou art he! + Love thou but one, and only one, + And let that one be me!" + +Early in the present century, it was customary for the actors to write +their names on the panes in one of the windows of the York Theatre. On the +glass of the same window were found inscribed these lines. + + "The rich man's name embellished stands on brass; + The player simply scribbles his on glass, + Appropriate tablet to the wayward fate-- + A brittle shining, evanescent state: + The fragile glass destroyed--farewell the name; + The actor's glass consumed--farewell his fame." + +Our next example, dated 1834, from Purwell Hall, Batley, Yorkshire, was +composed by a Miss Taylor. It is generally believed that her heart was won +by a lover who did not meet with the approbation of her friends, and that +they made her prisoner in one of the rooms of the old Hall, and there, on +a pane of glass, were written the lines which follow:-- + + "Come, gentle Muse, wont to divert + Corroding cares from anxious heart; + Adjust me now to bear the smart + Of a relenting angry heart. + What though no being I have on earth, + Though near the place that gave me birth, + And kindred less regard do pay + Than thy acquaintance of to-day: + Know what the best of men declare, + That they on earth but strangers are, + Nor matter it a few years hence + How fortune did to thee dispense, + If--in a palace thou hast dwelt, + Or--in a cell of penury felt-- + Ruled as a prince--served as a slave, + Six feet of earth is all thou'lt have. + Hence give my thoughts a nobler theme, + Since all the world is but a dream + Of short endurance." + +Robert Burns wrote several lines on tavern windows. On a pane of glass at +the Queensberry Arms, Sanquhar, he inscribed the following. + + "Ye gods! ye gave to me a wife + Out of your grace and favour, + To be a comfort to my life; + And I was glad to have her. + But if your providence divine + For other ends design her, + To obey your will at any time, + I'm ready to resign her." + +Next may be quoted:-- + + "Envy, if thy jaundiced eye + Through this window chance to pry, + To thy sorrow, thou wilt find + All that's generous, all that's kind: + Virtue, friendship, every grace + Dwelling in this happy place." + +Burns's lines written on the window-panes of the Globe Tavern, Dumfries, +have frequently been quoted. The following inscription refers to the +charms of the daughter of the factor of Closeburn estate, when the poet +resided at Ellisland:-- + + "O lovely Polly Stewart, + O charming Polly Stewart, + There's not a flower that blooms in May, + That's half so fair as thou art." + +In some editions of the poet's works, the following verse, stated to have +been copied from a window of the same tavern, is given:-- + + "The graybeard, Old Wisdom, may boast of his treasures; + Grant me with gay Folly to live; + I grant him his calm-blooded, time settled pleasures; + But Folly has raptures to give." + +Such are a few of the many rhymes scratched upon glass. Some of the panes +on which they were inscribed may now be broken, and this may be the only +means of preserving them. + + + + +English Folk-Rhymes. + + +English folk-rhymes are very numerous and curious. Characteristics of +persons and places have given rise to not a few which are frequently far +from complimentary. Weather-lore is often expressed in rhyme; the rustic +muse has besides rendered historic events popular, and enabled persons to +remember them who are not readers of books. The lines often lack polish, +but are seldom without point. + +Amongst the more ancient rhymes are those respecting grants of land. The +following is a good example, and is from Derbyshire:-- + + "Me and mine + Give thee and thine + Millners Hay + And Shining Cliff, + While grass is green + And hollies rough." + +The old story of the grant is thus related. Years ago, a member of the +ancient family of Lowe had the honour of hunting with the king and his +nobles. Lowe rode a splendid horse, the only one in at the death. The +king admired the animal very much, and the owner presented it to His +Majesty. The horse "mightily pleased the king." Some little time +afterwards, Lowe waited upon the king to beg a brier bed and a +watering-place, which were Shining Cliff and Millners Hay. The request was +at once complied with. The tale does not end here. It is related that "an +envious courtier told the king that he did not know what he was doing, for +what he was giving away was a great wood with a large tract of land." Upon +this, Lowe said to His Majesty: "King or no king?"--"Why, king, Lowe." +Adding with prompitude: "The brier-bed and watering-place are thine:" the +rhyme above quoted being given as the title for the grant. + +It is asserted that Athelstan granted the first charter to the ancient +borough of Hedon, Yorkshire, in these words:-- + + "As free make I thee + As eye see or ear hear." + +It is said a similar charter was granted by the same king to the +neighbouring town of Beverley. + +An old, old Norfolk rhyme says:-- + + "Rising was a seaport town, + And Lynn it was a wash; + But now Lynn is a seaport town, + And Rising fares the worst." + +It is said at Norwich:-- + + "Caistor was a city ere Norwich was none, + And Norwich was built of Caistor stone." + +"About half-way between Curbar and Brompton, to the right of the turnpike +leading from Barlow to Sheffield," writes William Wood, "there is, far on +the moor, a very level flat piece of ground, near a mile square, most +remarkable for its boggy nature, so much so that it is dangerous to cross, +or at times to approach. Here, before the Roman invasion, says the legend, +stood a town or village, the inhabitants of which lived, according to +Diodorus Siculus, in small cots or huts built of wood, the walls of stakes +or wattles, like hurdles, and covered with rushes or reeds. These +dwellings, with their inhabitants, were swallowed up by one of those +convulsions of nature so destructive at times to the habitations of +mankind." Respecting Leechfield and Chesterfield are the following lines +current in Derbyshire:-- + + "When Leechfield was a market town, + Chesterfield was gorse and broom; + Now Chesterfield's a market town, + Leechfield a marsh is grown." + +Respecting Nertoun, a Somersetshire village, near Taunton, is this +couplet:-- + + "Nertoun was a market-town + When Taunton was a furzy down." + +A Scottish rhyme says:-- + + "York was, London is, + And Edinburgh will be + The biggest of the three." + +Says a popular English rhyme:-- + + "Lincoln was, London is, + And York shall be + The fairest city of the three." + +In the days of old it was the practice to allow the wives of the Lord +Mayors of York to retain by courtesy the title Lady for life, and this +custom gave rise to the following couplet:-- + + "The Lord Mayor's a lord but a year and a day; + But his Lady's a lady for ever and aye." + +Few English towns have made greater progress than the thriving port of +Hull. Its prosperity was predicted long ago:-- + + "When Myton is pulled down, + Hull shall become a great town." + +As a matter of history, it may be stated that when the town was threatened +by Charles I., a number of houses in Myton Lane, as well as the +Charter-house, were laid in ruins by Sir John Hotham, governor of Hull, +so that they might not give shelter to the Royalists. Ray refers to this +couplet, and, in error, calls Myton, Dighton. + +Selling church-bells has given rise to satirical rhymes. Here are three +Lincolnshire rhymes on this topic:-- + + "The poor Hatton people + Sold the bells to build up the steeple." + +The next says:-- + + "Owersby's parish, + Wicked people, + Sold their bells to Kelsey + To build a steeple." + +It is stated in the third:-- + + "Poor Scartho people, + Sold their bells to repair the steeple." + +About 1710, the spire of Arlesey Church, Bedfordshire, fell down, and it +is believed the bells were broken. The metal was sold to a distant parish +to raise money to rebuild the spire, and until the year 1877 only one +small bell was suspended in the steeple to call the inhabitants to the +house of prayer. The transaction gave rise to the saying:-- + + "Arlesey, Arlesey, wicked people, + Sold their bells to build their steeple." + +About half a century later, a similar accident occurred at Welstead, and +the bishop granted a license to sell three of the bells, to enable the +parishioners with the proceeds to restore the tower. It gave rise to a +taunting distich similar to the one at Arlesey. + +On the walls of Newington Church, London, in 1793, was written a rhyme +anent the rebuilding of the church without a steeple and selling the +bells:-- + + "Pious parson, pious people + Sold the bells to build the steeple; + A very fine trick of the Newington people, + To sell the bells to build a steeple." + +Rhymes on steeples are very common; perhaps the best known is the one on +Preston, Lancashire:-- + + "Proud Preston, poor people, + High church and low steeple." + +In a somewhat similar strain is the one on Bowness-on-Windermere:-- + + "New church and old steeple, + Poor town and proud people." + +Lincolnshire rhymes are very numerous, and a complete collection would +almost fill a book. Here are three:-- + + "Gainsbro' proud people + Built a new church to an old steeple." + +According to the next:-- + + "Luddington poor people + Built a brick church to a stone steeple." + +A question is put and answered thus:-- + + "Boston! Boston! + What hast thou to boast on? + High steeple, proud people, + And shoals that souls are lost on." + +The village of Ugley, Essex, supplies a satirical couplet:-- + + "Ugley church, Ugley steeple, + Ugley parson, Ugley people." + +An old triplet describes the characteristics of three church spires +thus:-- + + "Bloxham for length, + Adderbury for strength, + King-Sutton for beauty." + +Almost every district furnishes examples of bell rhymes. We give one +example, and it is from Derbyshire:-- + + "Crich two roller-boulders, + Winfield ting-tangs, + Alfreton kettles, + And Pentrich pans, + Kirk-Hallam candlesticks, + Cossall cow-bells, + Denby cracked puncheons, + And Horsley merry bells." + +It is very generally believed in Derbyshire that the town of Alfreton was +once the stake at a game of cards--"put," and that the loser exclaimed on +the cards being dealt out:-- + + "If I have not an ace, a deuce, and tray, + Farewell, Alfreton, for ever and aye." + +There is a similar couplet respecting Carnfield Hall, near to Alfreton. It +is related by Mr. E. Kirk, a Lancashire folk-lorist, that the owner of a +large farm in Goosnargh, called Landscales, staked his land at a game of +"put." He received his three cards, which were a tray, a deuce, and an +ace, and he put--that is, struck the table with his fist, in proof of his +resolution to abide by the issue of his cards. His opponent had two trays +and a deuce. The farm was consequently lost, and its owner exclaimed:-- + + "Ace, deuce, and tray, + Landscales, go thy way." + +A Derbyshire rhyme refers to the inhabitants of four places as follows:-- + + "Ripley ruffians, + Butterly blocks, + Swanwick bulldogs, + Alfreton shacks." + +Equally severe is the following on the people of the villages between +Norwich and Yarmouth:-- + + "Halvergate hares, Reedham rats, + Southwood swine, and Cantley cats, + Acle asses, Moulton mules, + Beighton bears, and Freethorpe fools." + +Of Derbyshire folk it is said:-- + + "Derbyshire born and Derbyshire bred, + Strong in the arm, but weak in the head." + +The next are two Kentish rhymes:-- + + "Sutton for mutton + Kerby for beef, + South Darve for gingerbread, + Dartford for a thief." + +This is complimentary:-- + + "English lord, German count, and French marquies, + A yeoman of Kent is worth all three." + +It is said of Herefordshire:-- + + "They who buy a house in Herefordshire + Pay three years' purchase for the air." + +Says a Gloucestershire rhyme:-- + + "Blest is the eye + Betwixt Severn and Wye." + +In the same shire is the next couplet:-- + + "Beggarly Birley, strutting Stroud, + Hampton poor, and Painswick proud." + +Many more rhymes similar to the foregoing might be given, if space +permitted; but we have only room for a few more examples, and they relate +to the weather. An old distich says:-- + + "When clouds are on the hills, + They'll come down by the mills." + +Another rhyme states:-- + + "When the mist comes from the hill, + Then good weather it doth spill. + When the mist comes from the sea, + Then good weather it will be." + +In Worcestershire there is a saying:-- + + "When Bredon Hill puts on his hat, + Ye men of the vale, beware of that." + +Says a Yorkshire rhyme:-- + + "When Oliver's Mount puts on his hat, + Scarbro' town must pay for that." + +In the same broad shire is a similar couplet:-- + + "When Ingleboro' wears a hat, + Ribblesdale'll hear o' that." + + + + +The Poetry of Toast Lists and Menu Cards. + + +The public dinner-season in provincial England commences early in October +and ends in the middle of March. During that period, at the slightest +provocation, our countrymen are prepared to dine together, not with a +desire of over-indulgence in eating, but to enjoy the pleasant company +usually gathered round the festive board. It is an admitted fact that the +men who are in the habit of attending banquets are generally most +abstemious. Speech, story, and song form a pleasing part of the +proceedings of literary-society dinners, masonic banquets, and the more +homely but not less enjoyable suppers held in connection with the Burns' +Clubs. The toast lists and menu cards are often very interesting; they are +frequently artistic in design, and enriched with quotations from the +poets, which renders them of more than passing interest. A few quotations +from some of the best of those which have come under our notice seem worth +reproducing. The authors represented cover a wide field, ranging from +Shakespeare to Tennyson. The former is the most quotable poet, and he is +most frequently drawn upon. Burns, however, runs him very closely. + +In turning over a pile of toast lists, the first to attract our attention +is the one prepared for the Hull Shakespearean Festival. On the front page +is a portrait of the bard and the familiar line of "rare" Ben Jonson:-- + + "He was not of an age, but for all time." + +Under the first toast--that of the Queen--are two lines from _Henry V._:-- + + "God and his angels guard your sacred throne, + And make you long become it." + +The toast of the evening follows: "The Immortal Memory of +Shakespeare"--Dr. Johnson's well-known verse beneath it:-- + + "Each change of many-coloured life he drew; + Exhausted worlds, and then imagined new; + Existence saw him spurn her bounded reign, + And panting Time toiled after him in vain." + +The third speaker had for his topic "Shakespeare's Universality," with a +motto from _Romeo and Juliet_:-- + + "Monarch of the universal earth." + +Actors and actresses were next toasted under the heading of +"Shakespearean Exponents," with a quotation from _Othello_:-- + + "Speak of me as I am: nothing extenuate, + Nor set down aught in malice." + +The next theme was "Shakespeare and Tragedy," with a line from _Richard +III._:-- + + "I live to look upon their tragedy." + +Then followed "Shakespeare and Comedy," with two lines from the _Taming of +the Shrew_:-- + + "Frame your mind for mirth and merriment, + Which bars a thousand harms." + +Under the sentiment of "Shakespeare and History," is a line from _Henry +IV._ (Part II.):-- + + "There is a history in all men's lives." + +Lastly, "Shakespearean Women" were remembered, and under the toast are +three lines as follow from the third part of _Henry VI._:-- + + "'Tis beauty that doth oft make women proud; + 'Tis virtue that doth make them most admired; + 'Tis modesty that makes them seem divine." + +The programme of music is headed with a couple of lines from _Twelfth +Night_:-- + + "If music be the food of love, play on; + Give me excess of it." + +At the foot of the card is printed "Good Night," and a quotation from +_Macbeth_, as follows:-- + + "At once good night: + Stand not upon the order of your going, + But go at once." + +The toast list of a local literary society contains some happy quotations +from Shakespeare. The speakers are reminded at the commencement of the +programme, in the words from _Hamlet_, that "Brevity is the soul of wit." +The two lines under the toast of "The Prince and Princess of Wales" are +from _Pericles_:-- + + "As jewels lose their glory if neglected, + So princes their renown if not respected." + +A line from _Richard III._:-- + + "Arm, fight, and conquer for England's sake." + +was the motto to the toast of "The Army, Navy, and Auxiliary Forces." +Under the toast of "The Officers of the Club" are words from _Othello_:-- + + "We cannot all be masters." + +Two good lines from the _Taming of the Shrew_ are given with the toast of +"Literature and Science":-- + + "My books and instruments shall be my company, + On them to look and practise by myself." + +A line under the toast of "The Press" says, in the words of the _Merchant +of Venice_:-- + + "There are some shrewd contents in your paper." + +We have seen on several menu cards:-- + + "A good digestion to you all, and once more + I shower a welcome on you--welcome all." + --_Henry VIII._ + +A more general quotation (from _Macbeth_) is:-- + + "Now good digestion wait on appetite, + And health on both." + +The bill of fare for the Tercentenary Banquet held in 1864, at +Stratford-on-Avon, in honour of Shakespeare, is perhaps the best specimen +of cuisine literature ever produced. The following are a few of the +edibles and the quotations:-- + +Roast turkey:-- + + "Why, here comes swelling like a turkey-cock." + --_Henry V._ + +Roast fowls:-- + + "There is a fowl without a feather." + --_Comedy of Errors._ + +Ducks:-- + + "O dainty duck!"--_Midsummer Night's Dream._ + +Boar's head:-- + + "Like a full-acorned boar."--_Cymbeline._ + +York hams:-- + + "Sweet stem from York's great stock." + --_Henry VI._ (Part I.). + +Tongues:-- + + "Silence is only commendable in a neat's tongue dried." + --_Merchant of Venice._ + +Mayonnaise of lamb:-- + + "Was never gentle lamb more mild."--_Richard II._ + +Braised lamb and beef:-- + + "What say you to a piece of beef and mustard? + A dish that I love to feed upon." + --_Taming of the Shrew._ + +Roast lamb:-- + + "Come you to seek the lamb here?" + --_Measure for Measure._ + +Lobster and mayonnaise salads:-- + + "Sallet was born to do me good."--_Henry IV._ (Part II.). + +Dressed lobsters and crabs:-- + + "There's no meat like them: I could wish my best friend at such a + feast."--_Timon of Athens._ + +Desserts, cakes, jellies, and creams:-- + + "The queen of curds and cream."--_Winter's Tale._ + +Dressed potatoes:-- + + "Let the sky rain potatoes."--_Merry Wives of Windsor._ + +Bitter ale:-- + + "And here's the pot of good double beer, neighbour: + Drink, and fear not your man."--_Henry VI._ (Part II.). + +In addition to the foregoing, many interesting and well-chosen quotations +appear on the famous bill of fare. + +The bill of fare of the Annual Dinner of the Norwich Saint Andrew Society, +held in 1896, was headed, "Caird o' Guid Things":-- + + "KAIL BREE. + Maukin. + Cockie Leekie. + + GUID CALLER FISH. + Sole-fleuks, baned an' stovit. + Caller Cod wi' Sauce o' Caller Ou. + + THE HAGGIS. + "Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, + Great Chieftain, o' the puddin' race!" + + "A nip o' Fairntosh, an' it's no ower perjinkitie measure!" + + ROAST AN' BILED. + Sheeps' Hurdies. + Sirloins o' Nowte. + Biled Chuckies an' Tongue. + Rostit Bubblyjock wi' Sausages. + Tatties Biled an' Champit. + Curly Kail. + + "I'm thinkin', Sandy, we wadna be the waur o' a drappie." + + Roastit Feesants wi' Raupit Tatties. + + CONFECTOURI. + Figmaleerie o' Fruits. + Jeelies. + Plum Puddin'. + Mince Pies. + Apple Tairts and Cream. + Kebbuck wi' Celery an' guid Oat Farls. + + DESSERT AN' COFFEE. + "Let them that wants Coffee, hae Coffee; I'm thinkin' I'll hae a dram!" + +The birthday of Burns is celebrated in all parts of the world: wherever +Scotchmen are located the bard is honoured. We have before us a number of +Burns dinner toast lists, and several are headed "Should auld acquaintance +be forgot?" + +The following are from the toast lists of the Hull Burns' Club. Under the +toast of "The Queen," two lines appear:-- + + "In the field of proud honour, our swords in our hand, + Our Queen and our country to save." + +To the toast of "The Mayor, Sheriff, and Corporation" is this couplet:-- + + "How wisdom and folly meet, mix, and unite; + How virtue and vice blend their black and their white." + +The toast of the evening, "The Memory of Burns," has under it the +following verse from _The Cotter's Saturday Night_:-- + + "O Scotia! my dear, my native soil! + For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent! + Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil + Be blessed with health, and peace, and sweet content." + +We have seen inscribed with this toast a verse from one of Bennoch's +beautiful poems:-- + + "With reverent silence we will fill + A cup whene'er this day returns, + And pledge the memory of the Bard, + The Bard of Nature--Robert Burns, + Immortal Burns." + +Appended to the toast of "The Hull Burns' Club" are the noble lines:-- + + "It's coming yet, for a' that, + That man to man, the warld o'er, + Shall brithers be for a' that." + +"The Visitors," "Kindred Societies," are included with suitable +quotations. The verse under the toast of "The Press" is a happy +selection:-- + + "Here's freedom to him that wad read, + Here's freedom to him that wad write, + There's nane ever feared that the truth should be heard, + But they whom the truth would indite." + +We have seen the following quoted several times with this toast:-- + + "A chiel's amang you takin' notes, + And faith he'll prent it." + +The concluding toast, that of "The Lassies," has the familiar lines:-- + + "The wisest man the warl' e'er saw, + He dearly loved the lassies, O!" + +At a dinner of the Hull Literary Club the toast list was enriched with +quotations from the works of the Poet Laureate. An excerpt from _The +Princess_ on the first page says:-- + + "Hark the bell + For dinner, let us go!" + +Two lines from a poem, _To the Rev. F. D. Maurice_, head the list:-- + + "You'll have no scandal while you dine, + But honest talk and wholesome wine." + +To the toast of "The Queen" are four lines, as follow:-- + + "Her Court was pure; her life serene; + God gave her peace; her land reposed; + A thousand claims to reverence closed + In her as Mother, Wife, and Queen." + +Five lines from _The Battle of Brunanburgh_ are given to the toast of "Our +Brave Defenders":-- + + "Theirs was a greatness + Got from their grandsires-- + Theirs that so often in + Strife with their enemies, + Struck for their hoards and their hearths and their homes." + +Two quotations appear under the toast of "Success to the Hull Literary +Club":-- + + "We rub each other's angles down."--_In Memoriam._ + + "Work in noble brotherhood."--_Exhibition Ode._ + +With the toast of "Literature and the Arts" is the line:-- + + "Let knowledge grow from more to more." + +Under "The Press":-- + + "News from the humming city comes to it." + +The line under the toast of "The Ladies" is brief and graceful:-- + + "Made to be loved." + + + + +Toasts and Toasting. + + +Toasting and drinking were more general half a century ago than they are +at the present time. In the earlier years of the Queen's reign temperance, +if not teetotalism, was, it is true, making headway, but in a great +measure convivial customs were maintained, and toasting was popular. Books +were published to supply suitable toasts, for public and private parties. +Such compilations must have been extremely useful to those who attended +social gatherings, and were not able to express graceful and pithy +sentiments. + +We have before us a little work issued in London in 1847, under the title +of "The Social and Convivial Toast-Master; and Compendium of Sentiment." +It consists of prose and poetry arranged under various headings, such as +Loyal and Patriotic, Naval and Military, Masonic, Bacchanalian, Amatory, +Sporting, Political, Sentimental, and lastly, Miscellaneous. It cannot be +without interest to reproduce from this rare volume a few examples of the +toasts of the earlier Victorian era. + +The opening section of the book is devoted to loyal and patriotic toasts. +The first toast is this:-- + + "Albert and Victoria; may their union be cemented by love and + affection, and their Royal offspring adorn the station they are + destined to fill." + +A brief and popular toast was:-- + + "Church and Queen." + +Another sentiment was:-- + + "Happiness to the Royal pair--Victoria and Albert." + +A longer toast is as follows:-- + + "Here's a health to Her Majesty, + Conversion to her enemies, + And he that will not pledge her health + I wish him neither wit nor wealth, + Nor yet a rope to hang himself." + +Another toast is to this effect:-- + + "Health to the Queen, prosperity to the people, and may the Ministry + direct their endeavours to the public good rather than engage in party + distinction." + +A favourite sentiment was:-- + + "Great Britain's rising star, the Prince of Wales." + +Many of the patriotic toasts ask for reforms:-- + + "A revision of the code of criminal laws." + +At this period they were extremely severe. + + "A speedy restoration of the rights of the people." + +was another toast, and not a few related to Ireland. + + "Truth for England and justice for Ireland" + +is one, and another says:-- + + "The birthplace of wit, the home of hospitality--Ireland." + +Patriotic toasts relating to Scotland are numerous, such as:-- + + "Scotland, the birthplace of valour--the country of worth." + + "Scottish heroes; and may their fame live for ever." + +A popular toast of the past was:-- + + "The independence of Greece and the memory of Byron." + +The dislike to France by our fathers is plainly indicated in several +sentiments:-- + + "May French principles never corrupt English manners." + +It would appear from many of the toasts that the nation was weary of war +and wanted peace and liberty. The plea for liberty occurs in many of the +sentiments; it is the closing wish of the following:-- + + "May peace o'er Britain spread her wing, + And commerce fill her ports with gold; + May arts and science comfort bring, + And liberty her sons enfold." + +The naval and military toasts, as befits a nation that has gained glory in +battles on sea and land, are on the whole good. A few examples only must +suffice. How out of date our first appears in this age of ironclads:-- + + "Old England's wooden walls." + +Here is a punning toast:-- + + "Sir Home Popham--and pop-home to all our enemies." + +A nautical toast is:-- + + "To Nelson's memory here's a health, + And to his gallant tars, + And may our British seamen bold, + Despite both wounds and scars, + Make France and Spain, + And all the main + And all the foes to know, + Britons reign o'er the main, + While the stormy winds do blow." + +Says another toast:-- + + "May the deeds never be forgot that were done at Trafalgar and + Waterloo." + +Wellington is not neglected in the toasts, but he is not so popular as +Nelson. The feats of the Life Guards at Waterloo are remembered:-- + + "The Life Guards: that washed out in blood the blots of Piccadilly." + +Another famous regiment is thus toasted:-- + + "The Scotch Greys: that made the Eagles look black." + +Half a century ago was a toast which will find to-day a response in many +hearts:-- + + "The Greeks: may they never fall under Turkish bondage." + +Many of the masonic sentiments are fine; they are amongst the best in the +book. Here is good teaching:-- + + "May we never condemn that in a brother which we pardon in ourselves." + + "May the evening's diversions bear the morning's reflections." + + "May every society instituted for the promotion of virtue--flourish." + +Other toasts are equally good, but the masonic allusions make them more +suitable for the perusal of members of the craft than for the public. + +Next in order come Bacchanalian toasts. Some of the sentiments would not +meet with favour in well regulated society at the present period, but we +doubt not were hailed with delight in the hard drinking days of old. The +first toast under this head is:-- + + "A friend and a bottle of wine to give him." + +Wine and women find a place in not a few of the sentiments:-- + + "A full purse, a fresh bottle, and a pretty face." + + "Beauty, wit, and wine." + + "Wine, women, and wit." + +The foregoing are brief, and are perhaps the best toasts which link women +with wine. The next is not a bad toast:-- + + "May our love of the glass never make us forget decency." + +Punning examples are included, such as the two following:-- + + "May good fellows be found in every port, and all bad ones obliged to + sherry out." + + "May we never be out of spirits." + +On the whole, the toasts under this heading are not equal in merit to many +of the others in the volume. + +We find amatory toasts next in order, and of this class quote three +examples:-- + + "The fairest work of nature--women." + + "The village maid, may she remain so till she gets a good husband." + + "Love without deceit, and matrimony without regret." + +Sporting sentiments are by no means numerous; only four pages are devoted +to them. The following are specimens:-- + + "May the thirst of blood never disgrace a British sportsman." + + "May the love of the chase never interrupt our attention to the + welfare of the country." + + "The huntsman's pleasures--the field in the morning, the bottle at + night." + +Some are in rhyme, and the following is a favourable example:-- + + "May jovial hunters in the morn + Prepare them for the chase; + Rise at the sounding of the horn, + And health with sport enhance." + +Under the heading of political toasts are a number free from party +sentiment, advocating more the glory of our country than the praise of a +particular party. We can quite understand how favourably a toast like the +following would be received:-- + + "The British Lion, may he never rise in anger and sit down in fear." + +The next is brief:-- + + "Death or Liberty." + +A popular toast is as follows:-- + + "Here's to England, the ruler and queen of the waves, + May she ever be found to give freedom to slaves. + May she always extend to the weak and oppressed, + Those blessings with which her own have been blessed. + +Lastly, let us quote one that in our day might be taken to heart by those +in office:-- + + "May Ministers while they are servants of the Crown never forget that + they are representatives of the people." + +Next in order come sentimental toasts. Examples of these may almost be +culled at random to represent the whole, for there is a great sameness +about them:-- + + "May our great men be good and our good men great." + + "May goodness prevail where beauty fails." + + "May we never be lost to hope." + + "Our friends, our country, our laws, home, love, and liberty." + +Two pages are devoted to flash toasts, but as far as we are able to judge +are without interest. + +The work closes with a varied and interesting collection of toasts under +the heading of "Miscellaneous," and contains excellent examples of the wit +and wisdom of bygone times. The celebrated Roxburghe Club of book-lovers +was founded in 1812, and has given to the world many valuable volumes. The +social side of the society was well sustained, and the following are the +ten bibliomania toasts which were honoured at the festive gatherings:-- + + 1. "The immortal memory of Christopher Valdarfer, printer of the + Boccaccio of 1471." + + 2. "The memory of William Caxton, founder of the British Press." + + 3. "To the memory of Wynkyn de Worde, Pynson, and Notary, successors + of Caxton." + + 4. "The memory of John, Duke of Roxburghe." + + 5. "The memory of Lady Juliana Barnes and the St. Albans' Press." + + 6. "The memory of Gutenberg, Fust, and Schoeffer, fathers of the art + of printing." + + 7. "The Aldine family of Venice." + + 8. "The Giunti family of Florence." + + 9. "The prosperity of the Roxburghe Club, and in all cases the cause + of Bibliomania all over the world." + + 10. "The Society of the Bibliophiles Franēais." + +By-the-way, in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, is a memorial to the +first English printer, bearing the following inscription:-- + + "To the memory of + William Caxton, + Who first introduced into Great Britain + The Art of Printing; + And, who, A.D. 1477 or earlier, exercised that art in the + Abbey of Westminster, + This Tablet, + In remembrance of one to whom the literature of this + country is so largely indebted, was raised + Anno Domini MDCCCXX + By the Roxburghe Club. + Earl Spencer, K.G., President." + +Professional sentiments are rather plentiful. The surgeon's toast is:-- + + "The man that bleeds for his country." + +The schoolmaster's toasts are rather numerous, but not without point:-- + + "Addition to patriots, + Subtraction to placemen, + Multiplication to the friends of peace, + Division to its enemies, + Reduction to abuses, + Rule of three to king, lords, and commons, + Practice to reformation, + Fellowship to Britons, + Discount to the National Debt, + Decimal fractions to the clergy." + +Toasts of musicians are included:-- + + "May a crotchet in the head never bar the utterance of good notes." + +A second sentiment is:-- + + "May the lovers of harmony never be in want of a note, and its enemies + die in a common chord." + +Tradesmen's toasts are very plentiful, and several include puns. Here is +the hatter's sentiment:-- + + "When the rogue naps it, may the lesson be felt." + +Respecting the baker is the following:-- + + "May we never be done so much as to make us crusty." + +The glazier's toast is:-- + + "The praiseworthy glazier who takes pains to see his way through + life." + +A rather longer toast is that of the greengrocer:-- + + "May we spring up like vegetables, have turnip noses, reddish cheeks, + and carroty hair--and may our hearts never be hard like those of + cabbages, nor may we be rotten at the core." + +The sentiment of the pawnbroker is:-- + + "When we lend our cash to a friend, may it be to his interest to pay + the principal, and his principle to pay the interest." + +The shoemaker's toast is:-- + + "May the cobbler's lapstones never fail him." + +In another toast we have an allusion to shoes:-- + + "May the enemies of Great Britain always have long corns and short + shoes." + +Here we close this curious collection of toasts, feeling thankful that +such a book is no longer required for the every-day use of the people. A +great change for the better has come over the manners and customs of our +countrymen. Turning over the pages of this publication has given us +pleasure, and we trust the quotations culled from it may not fail to +interest our readers. + + + + +Curious American Old-Time Gleanings. + + +"The only true history of a country," said Lord Macaulay, "is to be found +in its newspapers." Sir George Cornewall Lewis expressed his conviction +that the historian of the future will find all his materials in the +_Times_. The American historian Mr. Bancroft seldom saw a newspaper +without drawing from it materials for his works. The story-teller often +obtains from the daily and weekly press suggestive notes. Charles Reade +made excellent use of the romantic episodes recorded in the newspapers. +His scrapbooks containing clippings from the papers were numerous and +valuable, and amongst his most cherished treasures. Many modern men of +letters might be mentioned who are alive to the importance of preserving +facts drawn from the journals of the day. + +Professor James Davie Butler, LL.D., a few years ago wrote an amusing and +at the same time a valuable paper on Scrap-books. He related how he had +corrected, through seeing in an old Connecticut newspaper an +advertisement, statements made by the leading historians of America. It +was respecting the horse of General Stark, a hero in the American War, who +broke Burgoyne's left wing. Headley says, "Stark's horse sank under him." +Everett states, "The General's horse was killed in the action." Irving +writes, "The veteran had his horse shot under him." They were led to make +the statement from a postscript of a letter the General wrote saying, "I +lost my horse in the action." Here is the advertisement referred to:-- + + "TWENTY DOLLARS REWARD.--Stolen from me, the subscriber, in the time + of action, the 16th of August last, a Brown Mare, five years old; had + a star in her forehead. Also a doeskin seated saddle, blue housing + trimmed with white, and a curbed bridle.--It is earnestly requested of + all Committees of Safety, and others in authority, to exert themselves + to recover the said Mare, so that the thief may be brought to justice + and the Mare brought to me; and the person, whoever he be, shall + receive the above reward for both; and for the Mare alone, one-half + that sum. How scandalous, how disgraceful and ignominious, must it + appear to all friendly and generous souls to have such sly, artful, + designing villains enter into the field of action in order to pillage, + pilfer, and plunder from their brethren when engaged in battle! + + JOHN STARK, B.D.G. + + Bennington, 11th Sept., 1777." + +The foregoing may be regarded as a good proof of the value of historical +facts gleaned from newspapers. + +In recent years several interesting works have been compiled from old +newspapers. Perhaps the most important is a set of volumes entitled "The +Olden Times Series," prepared by Mr. Henry M. Brooks, a painstaking +antiquary, and published in Boston, Massachusetts. Not the least +interesting of the volumes is one devoted to the _New England Sunday_. The +opening page proves that neither the rich nor the poor were permitted to +break the strict Sabbath regulations. In Connecticut, in 1789, General +Washington was stopped by the officer representing the State authorities +for riding on Sunday. The circumstances were reported in the columns of +the _Columbian Centinel_ for December of that year. "The President," it is +stated, "on his return to New York from his late tour through Connecticut, +having missed his way on Saturday, was obliged to ride a few miles on +Sunday, in order to gain the town, at which he had previously proposed to +attend divine service. Before he arrived, however, he was met by a +Tythingman, who, commanding him to stop, demanded the occasion of his +riding; and it was not until the President had informed him of every +circumstance, and promised to go no farther than the town intended, that +the Tythingman would permit him to proceed on his journey." + +In the old days, little attempt was made to render the places of worship +attractive, or even to warm the rooms in which the preachers delivered +their long sermons, although the people were obliged by law to attend the +services unless they were sick. It was a serious matter not to be a +"meeting-goer," it was, as Mr. Brooks says, to be ranged with thieves and +other outlaws. Mr. Felt, the compiler of the _Annals of Salem_, has +brought together some items of interest bearing on the introduction of +stoves into the churches of the district. "For a long period," writes Mr. +Felt, "the people of our country did not consider that a comfortable +degree of warmth while at public worship contributed much to a profitable +hearing of the gospel." He states that the first stove heard of in +Massachusetts for a meeting-house was put up by the first Congregation of +Boston in 1773. Two stoves were placed in the Friends' Society +meeting-house at Salem in 1793, and one in the North Church, Salem in +1809. "Not a few remember," writes Mr. Brooks, "the general knocking of +feet on cold days and near the close of long sermons. On such occasions, +the Rev. Dr. Hopkins used to say now and then: 'My hearers, have a little +patience, and I will soon close.'" + +One of Mr. Brook's volumes deals with _Strange and Curious Punishments_, +and it gives particulars of many harsh and cruel laws. It appears, from an +address delivered before the Essex Bar Association in 1885, that the +old-time punishments in America were much milder than the criminal laws of +England at the time, and the number of capital offences was greatly +reduced. Persons were frequently whipped. The following is an example +drawn from the Essex County Court Records: "In 1643, Roger Scott, for +repeated sleeping in meeting on the Lord's Day, and for striking the +person who waked him, was, at Salem, sentenced to be severely whipped." + +Whipping appears to have been a common means of punishing offenders who +transgressed the laws. In the month of January, 1761, we see it stated +that four men for petty larceny were publicly whipped at the cart's tail +through the streets of New York. We gather from another newspaper report +that a man named Andrew Cayto received forty-nine stripes at the public +whipping-post for house-robbery--namely, for robbing one house, +thirty-nine stripes; and for robbing the other, ten stripes. It appears in +some instances prisoners had, as part of their sentence, to sit on the +gallows with ropes about their necks. We read: "At Ipswich, Massachusetts, +June 1763, one Francis Brown for stealing a large quantity of goods, was +found guilty; and it being the second conviction, he was sentenced by the +Court to sit on the gallows an hour with a rope round his neck, to be +whipt thirty stripes, and pay treble damages." The man was a native of +Lisbon, and described as a great thief. "We hear from Worcester," says the +_Boston Chronicle_, November 20th, 1769, "that on the 8th instant one +Lindsay stood in the pillory there one hour, after which he received +thirty stripes at the public whipping-post, and was then branded on the +hand; his crime was forgery." It appears that it was the custom to brand +by means of hot iron the letter F on the palm of the right hand. + +We find that at this period persons found guilty of passing counterfeit +dollars were sentenced to have their ears cropped. + +To illustrate his subject Mr. Brooks draws from Felt's _Annals of Salem_ +not a few quaint items. It is stated that "in 1637, Dorothy Talby, for +beating her husband, is ordered to be bound to and chained to a post." It +is recorded that "in 1649 women were prosecuted in Salem for scolding," +and probably in many cases whipped or ducked. The ducking-stool appears to +have been frequently employed. Under date of May 15th 1672, we find it +stated: "The General Court of Massachusetts orders that scolds and railers +shall be gagged or set in a ducking stool, and dipped over head and ears +three times." + +We find particulars of one Philip Ratclif for making "hard speeches +against Salem Church, as well as the Government," sentenced to pay "forty +pounds, to be whipped, to have his ears cropped, and to be banished." The +date of this case is 1631. In the _Annals of Salem_, under date for May +3rd, 1669, it is recorded that "Thomas Maule is ordered to be whipped for +saying that Mr. Higgenson preached lies, and that his instruction was 'the +doctrine of devils.'" + +The Quakers were very severely dealt with. At Salem, for making +disturbances in the meeting-house, etc., Josiah Southwick, Mrs. Wilson, +Mrs. Buffum, and other Quakers, were whipped at the cart's tail through +the town. After being banished, Southwick returned to Salem, and for this +offence was whipped through the towns of Boxton, Roxbury, and Dedham. + +In bygone times, hanging the remains of persons executed was general in +England; in America it was an uncommon practice. Mr. Brooks, however, +gives particulars of a few instances. At Newport, Rhode Island, on March +12th, 1715, a man named Mecum, was executed for murder; and his body hung +in chains on Miantonomy Hill, where the bodies of some Indians executed +three years previously were then hanging. A negro hanged at Newport in +1769 was gibbetted on the same hill. + +A few lighter passages than those we have studied brighten up the records +of American punishments, which were very severe. A prisoner in February, +1789, escaped through the jail chimney at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and +wrote on the wall as follows: "The reason of my going is because I have no +fire to comfort myself with, and very little provision. So I am sure if I +was to stay any longer I should perish to death. Look at that bed there! +Do you think it fit for any person to lie on? + + "If you are well, I am well; + Mend the chimney, and all's well!" + +To the gentlemen and officers of Portsmouth, from your humble servant, + + WILLIAM FALL. + +"N.B.--I am very sorry that I did not think of this before, for if I had, +your people should not have had the pleasure of seeing me take the +lashes." + +_Curiosities of the Lottery_ is the title of another volume of Mr. +Brooks's "Olden Time Series." Selling lottery tickets was regarded as a +respectable calling. "The better the man," says Mr. Brooks, "the better +the agent. Indeed, it was generally thought to be just as respectable to +sell lottery tickets as to sell Bibles; and we have them classed together +in the same advertisement." In England, we must not forget the fact that +the business was conducted on the same lines in bygone times. The first +lottery in this country was drawn day and night at the west door of St. +Paul's Cathedral, London, from the 11th of January to May 6th, 1569. The +profit, which was considerable, was devoted to the repair of harbours. The +prizes consisted of pieces of plate. + +In the United States, lotteries were instituted for a variety of objects, +including building bridges, cleaning rivers, rebuilding Faneuil Hall, +raising money to successfully carry on the work of Dartmouth College, +Harvard College, and other seats of learning. The advertisements were +extremely quaint, illustrated with crudely drawn but effective pictures, +and supplied "a speedy cure for a broken fortune." Rhymes as well as +pictures were largely employed in advertisements for lotteries. Much has +been spoken and written against lotteries; but, nevertheless, in some of +the States of the Union they are still lawful. + +With a dip into a volume called _Days of the Spinning Wheel_, we bring our +old-time gleanings to a close. The items we cull relate to a trade once +very general in the United States, but happily now a thing of the past. +Advertisements similar to the following appeared in all the American +newspapers; not a few of the publishers took an active part in the trade +of buying and selling human beings. "To be sold," advertises the _Boston +Evening Gazette_, 1741, "by the printer of this paper, the very best negro +woman in this town, who has had the small pox and measles; is as hearty as +a horse, as brisk as a bird, and will work like a beaver." The same +publisher stated that he also had on sale "a negro man about thirty years +old, who can do both town and country business very well, but will suit +the country best, where they have not so many dram-shops as we have in +Boston. He has worked at the printing business fifteen or sixteen years; +can handle axe, saw, spade, hoe, or other instrument of husbandry as well +as most men, and values himself and is valued by others for his skill in +cookery." + +In the _Gazette_ of May 12, 1760, is offered for sale "a negro woman about +twenty-eight years of age; she is remarkably healthy and strong, and has +several other good qualities; and is offered for sale for no other reason +than her being of a furious temper, somewhat lazy. Smart discipline would +make her a very good servant. Any person minded to purchase may be further +informed by inquiring of the printer." It will be gathered from the +foregoing that the faults of the slaves were clearly stated. + +Children were often given away; and many announcements like the following, +drawn from the _Postboy_, February 28, 1763, appeared:--"To be given away, +a male negro child of good breed, and in good health. Inquire of Green +and Russell." + +Runaway slaves gave considerable trouble to their owners, and the papers +include numerous advertisements, details respecting appearance, speech, +dress, etc., of the missing persons. After describing his runaway slave, +the owner concluded his announcement thus: "All masters of vessels and +others are cautioned against harbouring, concealing, or carrying off the +said negro, if they would avoid the rigour of the law." + + + + +The Earliest American Poetess: + +Anne Bradstreet. + + +To Northamptonshire belongs the honour of giving birth to the first woman +poet who produced a volume of poetry in America. Her name was Anne +Bradstreet. She was born in the year 1612. The place of her birth is not +absolutely certain. "There is little doubt," says Helen Campbell, the +author of "Anne Bradstreet, and Her Time," "that Northampton, England, was +the home of her father's family." At an early age she sailed with her +father, Thomas Dudley, to Massachusetts Bay, he being one of the earliest +settlers in New England. For some years he had been steward to the Earl of +Lincoln. He was a man of means, and belonged to a good family, claiming +kinship with the Dudleys and Sidneys of Penshurst. Literature had for him +many charms; he wrote poetry, and, says his daughter, he was a "magazine +of history." He left his native country and braved the perils of sea and +land to settle in a distant clime where he might worship God according to +his conscience. This stern, truth-speaking Puritan soon had his sterling +merits recognised, and held the governorship of Massachusetts from 1634 to +1650. He closed at the age of seventy-seven years a well-spent life. After +death, in his pocket were found some of his recently written verses. His +daughter Anne was a woman of active and refined mind, having acquired +considerable culture at a time when educational accomplishments were +possessed by few. She suffered much from ill-health; in her girlhood she +was stricken with small pox, and was also lame. Her many trials cast a +tinge of sadness over her life and writings. + +She grew up to be a winsome woman, gaining esteem from the leading people +of her adopted country, and her fame as a writer of poetry reached the +land of her nativity. + +She married, in 1629, Simon Bradstreet, Secretary, and afterwards +Governor, of the Colony. + +Her first volume, published at Boston in 1640, was dedicated to her +father. The title is very long, and is as follows: "Several Poems, +compiled with great variety of wit and learning, full of delight, wherein +especially is contained a Complete Discourse and Description of the Four +Elements, Constitutions, Ages of Man, and Seasons of the Year; together +with an exact Epitome of the Three First Monarchies, viz.: the Assyrian, +Persian, and Grecian, and the Beginning of the Roman Commonwealth to the +end of their last King; with divers other pleasant and serious Poems. By a +Gentlewoman of New England." The book met with much favour, and soon +passed into a second edition. In the third edition, issued in 1658, her +character is thus sketched: "It is the work of a woman honoured and +esteemed where she lives, for her gracious demeanour, her eminent parts, +her pious conversation, her courteous disposition, her exact diligence in +her place, and discreet management of her family occasions; and more so, +these poems are the fruits of a few hours curtailed from her sleep, and +other refreshments." The work was reprinted and published in London in +1650, with the high-sounding title of "The Tenth Muse, lately sprung up in +America." Compared with much that was written in the age in which she +lived, her poetry is entitled to a foremost rank, but it is not +sufficiently good to gain for it a lasting place in literature. It mainly +attracts attention in our time as being the first collection of poetry +published in America. + +Professor Charles F. Richardson, one of the soundest American critics, +speaks of some of the poems as by "no means devoid of merit, though +disfigured by a paucity of words and stiffness of style." The estimable +writer of this volume won words of praise from her leading countrymen. +President Rogers, of Harvard College, himself a poet, thus addressed +her:-- + + "Madam, twice through the Muses's grove I walked + Under your blissful bowers-- + Twice have I drunk the nectar of your lines." + +All her critics were not so complimentary as President Rogers. Some did +not think that a woman had a right to produce poetry and to such she +adverts in the following lines:-- + + "I am obnoxious to each carping tongue + Who says my hand a needle better fits, + A poet's pen all scorn I should thus wrong, + For such despite they cast on female wits: + If what I do prove well, it won't advance; + They'll say it's stol'n, or else it was by chance." + +Here are four lines on "The Vanity of all Worldly Things," which, give a +favourable example of her poetic power:-- + + "As he said vanity, so vain say I, + Oh vanity, O vain all under sky; + Where is man can say, lo! I have found + On brittle earth a consolation sound?" + +The next specimen of her poetry is an "Elegy on a Grandchild":-- + + "Farewell, sweet babe, the pleasure of mine eye; + Farewell, fair flower, that for a space was lent, + Then ta'en away into eternity. + Blest Babe, why should I once bewail thy fate, + Or sigh the days so soon were terminate, + Sith thou art settled in an everlasting state?" + + "By nature trees do rot when they are grown, + And plums and apples thoroughly ripe do fall, + And corn and grass are in their season mown, + And time brings down what is both strong and tall; + But plants new set to be eradicate, + And buds new-bloom to have so short a date, + 'Tis by His hand alone that nature guides, and fate." + +The lines which follow were written in the prospect of death, and +addressed to her husband:-- + + "How soon, my dear, death may my steps attend, + How soon 't may be thy lot to lose thy friend, + We both are ignorant. Yet love bids me + These farewell lines to recommend to thee, + That, when that knot's untied that made us one + I may seem thine, who in effect am none. + + "And, if I see not half my days that's due, + What Nature would God grant to yours and you. + The many faults that well you know I have, + Let be interred in my oblivious grave; + If any virtue is in me, + Let that live freshly in my memory; + And when thou feel'st no griefs, as I no harms, + Yet live thy dead, who long lay in thine arms; + And, when thy loss shall be repaid with gains, + Look to my little babes, my dear remains, + And, if thou lov'st thyself or lovest me, + These, oh protect from step-dame's injury! + And, if chance to thine eyes doth bring this verse, + With some sighs honour my absent hearse, + And kiss this paper, for thy love's dear sake, + Who with salt tears this last farewell doth take." + +In the year 1666, her house at Andover was consumed by fire, and her +letters and papers destroyed, which put an end to one of her literary +projects. Six years later she died, at the age of sixty years. It is said +of her by an American author: "Her numbers are seldom correct, and her ear +had little of Milton's tenderness or Shakespeare's grace; yet she was the +contemporary of England's greatest poets, the offspring of that age of +melody which had begun with Spenser and Sidney, an echo, from the distant +wilderness of the period of universal song." Several of her descendants +are amongst the most gifted of American poets; they include Channing, +Dana, Holmes, and others. Her husband nearly reached the age of a hundred +years, and was termed "the Nestor of New England." + + + + +A Playful Poet: + +Miss Catherine Fanshawe. + + +Several lasting contributions were made to poetical literature by Miss +Catherine Maria Fanshawe. In the literary and artistic circles of London +in the closing years of the last century, and for more than three decades +of the present century she was popular. + +Miss Fanshawe was born in 1775, and came of a good old English family. At +an early age she displayed literary gifts full of promise. The following +sonnet, written at the age of fourteen and addressed to her mother, has +perhaps not been excelled by any youthful writer:-- + + "Oh thou! who still by piercing woe pursued, + Alone and pensive, pour'st thy sorrows here, + Forgive, if on thy griefs I dare intrude + To wipe from thy lov'd cheek the falling tear. + Dear mourner, think!--thy son will weep no more; + His life was spotless, and his death was mild, + And, when this vain delusive life is o'er, + He'll shine a seraph, whom thou lost a child. + Then, as we bend before th' eternal throne, + Oh may'st thou, with exulting accents boast, + 'Now shall my children ever be my own, + For none of those thou gavest me are lost.' + With rapture then thou'lt meet th' angelic boy, + And she who sow'd in tears shall meet in joy." + + _August, 1789._ + +A long playful poem composed at the age of sixteen, was addressed to the +Earl of Harcourt, on his wishing to spell her name, Catherine, with a K. +It displays much erudition, but it is too long to quote in full. We give a +few of the lines pleading for the letter C:-- + + "And can his antiquarian eyes, + My Anglo-Saxon C despise? + And does Lord Harcourt day by day, + Regret the extinct initial K? + And still with ardour unabated, + Labour to get it reinstated? + I know, my lord, your generous passion, + For every long exploded fashion; + And own the Catherine you delight in, + Looks irresistibly inviting, + Appears to bear the stamp and mark, + Of English used in Noah's Ark; + 'But all that glitters is not gold,' + Not all things obsolete are old. + Would you but take the pains to look, + In Dr. Johnson's quarto book + (As I did, wishing much to see, + Th' aforesaid letter's pedigree), + Believe me, 'twould a tale unfold, + Would make your Norman blood run cold; + My lord, you'll find the K's no better, + Than an interpolated letter; + A wand'ring Greek, a franchis'd alien, + Derived from Cadmus or Deucalion; + And why, or wherefore, none can tell, + Inserted 'twixt the J and L. + The learnčd say, our English tongue + On Gothic beams is built and hung. + Then why the solid fabric piece, + With motley ornaments from Greece? + Her lettered despots had no bowels, + For northern consonants and vowels; + The Roman and the Greek grammarian + Deem'd us, and all our words barbarian; + 'Till those hard words, and harder blows, + Had silenced all our haughty foes; + And proud they were to kiss the sandals + (Shoes we had none) of Goths and Vandals." + +She wrote a satire on William Cobbett, M.P., for Oldham, which was +extremely popular amongst politicians at the period it was penned. This is +not surprising, for it contains some most amusing lines. It is entitled +"The Speech of the Member for Odium." + +In the lighter vein she produced some verses in imitation of the poetry of +Wordsworth. + + "There is a river clear and fair, + 'Tis neither broad nor narrow; + It winds a little here and there, + It winds about like any hare; + And then it takes as straight a course + As on the turnpike road a horse, + Or through the air an arrow. + + The trees that grow upon the shore, + Have grown a hundred years or more, + So long, there is no knowing. + Old Daniel Dobson does not know, + When first these trees began to grow; + But still they grew, and grew, and grew, + As if they'd nothing else to do, + But ever to be growing. + + The impulses of air and sky + Have reared their stately stems so high, + And clothed their boughs with green; + Their leaves the dews of evening quaff,-- + And when the wind blows loud and keen, + I've seen the jolly timbers laugh, + And shake their sides with merry glee-- + Wagging their heads in mockery. + + Fix'd are their feet in solid earth, + Where winds can never blow; + But visitings of deeper birth + Have reached their roots below. + For they have gained the river's brink, + And of the living waters drink. + + There's little Will, a five year's child-- + He is my youngest boy; + To look on eyes so fair and wild, + It is a very joy:-- + He hath conversed with sun and shower, + And dwelt with every idle flower, + As fresh and gay as them. + He loiters with the briar rose, + The blue-bells are his play-fellows, + That dance upon their slender stem. + + And I have said, my little Will + Why should not he continue still + A thing of Nature's rearing? + A thing beyond the world's control-- + A living vegetable soul,-- + No human sorrow fearing. + + It were a blessed sight to see + That child become a willow tree, + His brother trees among. + He'd be four time as tall as me, + And live three times as long." + +It was related by the Rev. William Harness, who did much to make known the +merits of Miss Fanshawe's works, that when the foregoing lines were read +to a distinguished admirer of Wordsworth's poetry, she thought them +beautiful, and wondered why the poet had never shown them to her! + +Miss Fanshawe's fame rests on the authorship of the celebrated riddle on +the letter H, which has frequently been attributed to Byron, and appeared +in more than one edition of his poems. At a party held one evening at the +house of her friend, Mr. Hope, of Deep Dene, the conversation turned upon +the abuse of the aspirate. After the guests had withdrawn, Miss Fanshawe +retired to her room and composed her noted poem. Next morning she read it +at the breakfast table, much to the surprise and delight of the company. +It is as follows:-- + + "'Twas in heaven pronounced, and 'twas muttered in hell, + And echo caught faintly the sound as it fell; + On the confines of earth 'twas permitted to rest, + And the depths of the ocean its presence confest. + 'Twill be found in the sphere, when 'tis riven asunder, + Be seen in the lightning, and heard in the thunder. + 'Twas allotted to man with his earliest breath, + Attends at his birth, and awaits him in death, + Presides o'er his happiness, honour, and health, + Is the prop of his house, and the end of his wealth. + In the heaps of the miser 'tis hoarded with care, + But is sure to be lost on his prodigal heir, + It begins every hope, every wish it must bound, + With the husbandman toils, and with monarchs is crown'd, + Without it the soldier, the seaman may roam, + But woe to the wretch who expels it from home! + In the whispers of conscience its voice will be found, + Nor e'en in the whirlpool of passion be drown'd, + 'Twill not soften the heart; but though deaf to the ear, + It will make it acutely and instantly hear. + Yet in shade let it rest like a delicate flower, + Ah, breathe on it softly--it dies in an hour. + +Some other riddles and charades appear in her collected poems, but none +are of equal merit to the riddle on the letter H. + +Our next example bears the title of an "Ode":-- + + "Lo! where the gaily vestur'd throng, + Fair learning's train, are seen, + Wedg'd in close ranks her walls along, + And up her benches green.[2] + Unfolded to their mental eye + Thy awful form, Sublimity! + The moral teacher shows-- + Sublimity of Silence born, + And Solitude 'mid caves forlorn + And dimly vision'd woes; + Or Stedfast Worth, that inly great + Mocks the malignity of faith. + While whisper'd pleasure's dulcet sound + Murmurs the crowded room around, + And Wisdom, borne on Fashion's pinions, + Exulting hails her new dominions. + Oh! both on me your influence shed, + Dwell in my heart and deck my head! + + Where'er a broader, browner shade + The shaggy beaver throws, + And with the ample feather's aid + O'er canopies the nose; + Where'er with smooth and silken pile, + Ling'ring in solemn pause awhile, + The crimson velvet glows; + From some high benches giddy brink, + Clinton with me begins to think + (As bolt upright we sit) + That dress, like dogs, should have its day, + That beavers are too hot for May, + And velvets quite unfit. + + Then taste, in maxims sweet, I draw + From her unerring lip; + How light, how simple are the straw, + How delicate the chip! + Hush'd is the speaker's powerful voice, + The audience melt away, + I fly to fix my final choice + And bless th' instructive day. + + The milliner officious pours + Of hats and caps her ready stores, + The unbought elegance of spring; + Some wide, disclose the full round face, + Some shadowy, lend a modest grace + And stretch their sheltering wing. + + Here clustering grapes appear to shed + Their luscious juices on the head, + And cheat the longing eye; + So round the Phrygian monarch hung + Fair fruits that from his parchčd tongue + For ever seem'd to fly. + + Here early blooms the summer rose; + Her ribbons wreathe fantastic bows; + Here plays gay plumage of a thousand dyes-- + Visions of beauty, spare my aching eyes! + Ye cumbrous fashions, crowd not on my head! + Mine be the chip of purest white, + Swan-like, and as her feathers light + When on the still wave spread; + And let it wear the graceful dress, + Of unadornčd simpleness. + + Ah! frugal wish; ah! pleasing thought; + Ah! hope indulged in vain; + Of modest fancy chiefly bought + A stranger yet to Payne.[3] + With undissembled grief I tell,-- + For sorrow never comes too late,-- + The simplest bonnet in Pall Mall + Is sold for £1 8_s._ + + To Calculation's sober view, + That searches ev'ry plan, + Who keep the old, or buy the new, + Shall end where they began. + + Alike the shabby and the gay + Must meet the sun's meridian ray; + The air, the dust, the damp. + This, shall the sudden shower despoil; + That slow decay by gradual soil; + Those, envious boxes cramp. + Who will, their squander'd gold may pay; + Who will, our taste deride; + We'll scorn the fashion of the day + With philosophic pride. + + Methinks we thus, in accents low, + Might Sydney Smith address, + 'Poor moralist! and what art thou, + Who never spoke of dress!' + + 'Thy mental hero never hung + Suspended on a tailor's tongue, + In agonising doubt; + Thy tale no flutt'ring female show'd, + Who languish'd for the newest mode, + Yet dar'd to live without.'" + +In Miss Mary Russell Mitford's "Recollections of a Literary Life" are some +genial allusions to Miss Fanshawe. "Besides," wrote Miss Mitford, "her +remarkable talent for graceful and polished pleasantry, whether in prose +or verse, Miss Catherine Fanshawe was admirable as a letter-writer, and as +a designer in almost every style." Her drawings and etchings met with +praise from those capable of judging their merits. + +After Miss Fanshawe's death, in 1834, her friend, the Rev. William +Harness, printed for private circulation a small collection of her poems, +expressing his wish "that some enduring memorial may exist of one who, in +her varied accomplishments, her acute perception of the beautiful, her +playful fancy, her charming conversation, her gentle and retiring manners, +her lively sympathy with the sorrows and joys of others, and above all, +her simple piety, was so cherished a member of a society, not very +extended but intimately united by a common love of literature, and art, +and science, which existed in London at the close of the last and the +opening of the present century, and which, perhaps, taken for all in all, +has never been surpassed." In 1876, Mr. Basil Montagu Pickering issued +"The Literary Remains of Catherine Maria Fanshawe," with notes by the +Rev. William Harness. Doubtless his admiration of the productions of the +author prompted him to publish the volume. Only two hundred and fifty +copies were printed. Mr. Pickering is entitled to the gratitude of lovers +of choice poetry for publishing the charming volume. + + + + +A Popular Song Writer: + +Mrs. John Hunter. + + +The name of Mrs. John Hunter stands high on the roll of English song +writers. She is one of the most gifted women in her particular literary +field Hull has produced, and it is most remarkable that she is not noticed +in any local work devoted to history or biography. Her maiden name was +Anne Home, and she was the eldest daughter of Robert Home, of Greenlaw, +Berwickshire, surgeon of Burgoyne's Regiment of Light Horse, and +subsequently a physician in Savoy. He greatly displeased his parents by +marrying at an early age, and on this account they declined to assist him +in the outset of his professional career. He proceeded to Hull, and +practised as a surgeon. In the year 1742, Anne, his eldest daughter, was +born. She received a liberal education, and at an early age displayed +considerable poetical gifts. Her early work found its way into the +periodicals, and in one entitled the _Lark_, published at Edinburgh, at +the age of twenty-three years, she contributed her well-known song, "The +Flowers of the Forest," and a song we quote as a specimen of her style:-- + + "Adieu, ye streams that smoothly glide + Through mazy windings o'er the plain; + I'll in some lonely cave reside, + And ever mourn my faithful swain. + + Flower of the forest was my love, + Soft as the sighing summer's gale; + Gentle and constant as the dove, + Blooming as roses in the vale. + + Alas! by Tweed my love did stray, + For me he searched the banks around; + But, ah! the sad and fatal day, + My love, the pride of swains, was drown'd. + + Now droops the willow o'er the stream; + Pale stalks his ghost in yonder grove; + Dire fancy paints him in my dream; + Awake I mourn my hopeless love." + +Such is one of her many songs, several of which were set to music by +Haydn. Her best known song is, perhaps, "My Mother bids me bind my +Hair":-- + + "My mother bids me bind my hair + With bands of rosy hue, + Tie up my sleeves with ribbons rare, + And lace my bodice blue. + + "For why," she cries, "sit still and weep, + While others dance and play?" + Alas! I scarce can go or creep + While Lubin is away. + + 'Tis sad to think the days are gone + When those we love were near; + I sit upon this mossy stone, + And sigh when none can hear. + + And while I spin my flaxen thread, + And sing my simple lay, + The village seems asleep or dead + Now Lubin is away." + +In July, 1771, Miss Home was married to John Hunter, the famous anatomist, +who step by step rose from the bench of a cabinet-maker to one of the +highest positions in the medical profession. He was a native of Long +Calderwood, Kilbride parish, Lanarkshire. After working some time as a +cabinet-maker, he proceeded to London, and obtained an appointment as an +anatomical assistant. He was student at Chelsea Hospital in 1748, a year +later undertook the charge of the dissecting room, and in the same year +entered St. Mary's Hall, Oxford, as a gentleman commoner. He did not +remain there very long. In 1750 he was a surgeon-pupil at St. George's +Hospital. His brother made his mark in London as a surgeon, and John +joined him as lecturer in 1754. Ten years' toil in the dissecting room +broke down his health. With a view of obtaining a change of work and +climate, he joined the army, and in 1761 was made staff-surgeon. He was at +the siege of Belle Isle in his first year, and was afterwards with the +army in Portugal. He returned home in 1763, and commenced practising as a +surgeon. He read many able papers before the members of the Royal Society; +in 1767, he was elected a fellow of that distinguished body. In 1787 he +was awarded the Copleyan gold medal. He wrote some important medical +works. His death was sudden, and occurred in the Board-room of St. +George's Hospital, on the 16th October, 1793, at the age of 64 years. His +father died when he was ten years of age, and his early education was +neglected. At the age of twenty he could simply read and write, knowing no +other language than his own. He was most diligent. His museum contained +10,563 specimens and preparations illustrative of human and comparative +anatomy, physiology, pathology, and natural history. It was two years +after his death purchased by the Government for £15,000, and presented to +the Royal College of Surgeons. Dr. Hunter won fame but not wealth, and +died a comparatively poor man. In marriage he was most fortunate; his +wife had a beautiful face, and handsome person. She entertained the +doctor's guests with delightful conversation, and her amiability and +simple manners endeared her to all with whom she came in contact, many of +whom were men of world-wide reputation. Some of Mrs. Hunter's friends did +not always meet with the approval of her husband. The following story is +well known, but will bear repeating:--"On returning home late one evening, +after a hard day's fag, Hunter unexpectedly found his drawing-room filled +with musical professors, connoisseurs, and other idlers, whom Mrs. Hunter +had assembled. He was greatly irritated, and walking straight into the +room, addressed the astonished guests pretty much in the following strain: +'I know nothing of this kick-up, and I ought to have been informed of it +beforehand; but as I am now returned home to study, I hope the present +company will retire.' This intimation was, of course, speedily followed by +an _exeunt omnes_." Mrs. Hunter was both a skilful musician and a graceful +singer. The greater part of her poetry displays much sweetness of +expression and force. A volume of her poems was issued in 1802, and +attracted much favourable notice. + +Mrs. Hunter wrote the following epitaph for a monument to her husband to +be placed in St. Martin's Church, London, where he was buried. The then +rector of the parish, however, stated it was contrary to the rules to have +any memorial placed in the church:-- + + "Here rests in awful silence, cold and still, + One whom no common spark of genius fir'd; + Whose reach of thought Nature alone could fill, + Whose deep research the love of truth inspired. + + Hunter, if years of toil and watchful care, + If the vast labours of a pow'rful mind + To soothe the ills humanity must share, + Deserve the grateful plaudits of mankind. + + Then to each human weakness buried here + Envy would raise, to dim a name so bright, + Those specks which on the orb of day appear, + Take nothing from his warm and welcome light." + +In the year 1860, the remains of John Hunter were removed from the church +of St. Martin-in-the-Fields and placed in Westminster Abbey, to rest with +the dust of England's most famous sons. The Council of the Royal College +of Surgeons erected a tablet bearing a suitable inscription. + +Mrs. Hunter retired from society after the death of her husband, and found +much enjoyment in literature. She had two children, a son and a daughter. +On the 7th January, 1821, she died in London after a lingering illness, +being nearly eighty years of age. Her name will long remain, and recall +the life of one who added several popular songs to our literature. In +popular anthologies her productions usually find a place. + + + + +A Poet of the Poor: + +Mary Pyper. + + +Scotland is a land of song. It has been the birthplace of many poets who +have added glory to our literary annals. Its list of authors includes the +names of a large number of men and women in the humbler walks of life, who +took up literature under difficulties, and won honourable places in the +world of letters. Burns at the plough, Hogg tending his sheep on the +hillside, Hugh Miller in the quarry, Allan Cunningham with chisel in hand, +William Thom and Robert Tannahill at the shuttle, and Janet Hamilton in +her humble home are familiar figures to every reader of Scottish +biography. + +Amongst the lesser known names is that of Mary Pyper, who, under severe +trials, read a great deal and produced poems of considerable merit for a +self-taught writer. She was born at Greenock, on the 27th of May, 1795. +Her father was a clockmaker, named Alexander Pyper, who had married a +worthy woman, Isabella Andrews, both of whom were natives of Edinburgh. +Failing to obtain regular employment in their native city, the parents of +our heroine moved westwards in search of work. Mary Pyper, in an +autobiographical letter, addressed to the Rev. Charles Rogers, LL.D., +states that "her father enlisted in the 42nd Highlanders on account of +failing to find employment." Says Mr. D. H. Edwards, in his _Modern +Scottish Poets_, "it was a time of war when recruits were often made in an +unscrupulous manner, and one day Alexander Pyper found a shilling in his +pocket, and was told to his astonishment that he had enlisted in His +Majesty's service." His regiment, shortly after he joined it, received +orders to march from Perth across the Sheriffmuir, a distance of sixteen +miles. Poor Mrs. Pyper walked, carrying her infant in her arms, the rain +coming down in torrents. After a weary tramp the poor mother sat down +nearly broken-hearted, fearing that her baby had perished. On the arrival +of the baggage carts, warm clothing and other necessaries were procured, +and happily the child began to revive. + +The regiment subsequently proceeded to Ireland. Pyper, on leaving Dublin +for England, stumbled and fractured his leg. The accident rendered him +unfit for active service, and he was discharged. He did not long survive, +and at the age of six months, Mary Pyper was left fatherless. + +Her mother then returned to her native city. Here she had to struggle for +bread, gaining a scanty living as a boot-binder. She devoted much time to +the education of her child, who proved an apt scholar. Mother and daughter +delighted in the study of history, but Mary's chief pleasure was derived +from the works of the poets. She was familiar with the poetry of +Shakespeare, Milton, Scott, Cowper, and other celebrated authors. As a +child she was puny; she was always little, and might be called a dwarf. In +her early years she suffered much from ill-health. She was troubled with +jaundice, and on three occasions had severe attacks of fever, each lasting +from six to eight weeks. Her mother, too, was often sick, and when other +children of her age were enjoying childish games Mary Pyper was busy with +her needle helping to add to the slender income of her mother. + +After being confined to her bed for six years, Mrs. Pyper died on the 27th +of March, 1827. It was during the attendance on her mother that Mary first +thought of composing verses. The poor woman had been obliged to run into +debt to the extent of £9. This amount was paid by her daughter out of her +wages of six shillings per week, obtained from a shop-keeper who employed +her to make buttons and fringes. Hoping to earn more, she left her +situation, and obtained a small basket containing fancy goods, which she +hawked for sale, but this did not prove a satisfactory means of making a +living. It was uncertain, and the walking fatiguing. In later years she +had a continual struggle, and met with numerous misfortunes. Writing to +Dr. Rogers, in 1860, she said: "As I was working in our church-school, I +fell and broke my arm, some ten years since. Eight months after this, I +was painting my house and, over-reaching myself, ricked my back, and the +year before I fell on the frost and severely hurt my head." Kind friends +helped to lighten her troubles, which she bore with Christian fortitude. + +A small volume of her poems was published in 1860, mainly through the +assistance of Mr. T. Constable. The work met with a favourable reception, +and a couple of the hymns were reproduced in the pages of _Lyra +Britannica_. Mr. Henry Wright, the compiler of the work entitled _Lays of +Pious Minstrels_, includes in it examples of Mary Pyper's poetry. In the +preface to his volume he wrote: "The attention of my readers is especially +directed to the pieces 'Let me go,' 'Servant of God,' and 'We shall see +Him as He is,' the composition of Miss Mary Pyper, a resident in one of +the closes or alleys in the Old Town of Edinburgh, who is in extreme old +age, quite alone in the world, totally blind, and in deep poverty. Since +the notice of Miss Pyper appeared in the last edition of this work, many +benevolent persons have sent me donations for her in postage stamps, and +otherwise. I shall be glad to be the medium of alleviating in any degree +the very painful circumstances in which she is placed." It will be seen +from the foregoing that in addition to other afflictions she lost her +eyesight in her old age. + +We give a few specimens of her verses, which are chiefly of a religious +and devotional character. The first poem is entitled "The Christian's View +of Death": + + "Let me go! the Day is breaking + Morning bursts upon mine eye, + Death this mortal frame is shaking, + But the soul can never die! + + Let me go! the Day-Star, beaming, + Gilds the radiant realms above; + Its full glory on me streaming, + Lights me to the Land of Love." + +The last stanzas of her "Servant of God" are as follow:-- + + "There Flowers immortal bloom + To charm the ravished sight; + And palms and harps await for those + Who walk with Him in white. + + For they shall sing the song + Of Moses, long foretold, + When they have passed those pearly gates + And streets of burnished gold. + + The glories of the Lamb + Their rapturous strains shall raise-- + Eternal ages shall record + His love, His power, His praise." + +The following are the concluding lines of "We shall see Him as He is":-- + + "When we pass o'er death's dark river + We shall see Him as He is-- + Resting in His love and favour + Owning all the glory His; + There to cast our crowns before Him-- + Oh! what bliss the thought affords! + There for ever to adore Him-- + King of Kings and Lord of Lords." + +One of her best hymns is entitled "What has Jesus done?" The little gem we +next reproduce is perhaps her best known production. It has been widely +quoted and much admired:-- + + EPITAPH: A LIFE. + + "I came at morn--'twas Spring, I smiled, + The fields with green were clad; + I walked abroad at noon, and lo! + 'Twas summer--I was glad. + I sate me down--'twas autumn eve, + And I with sadness wept; + I laid me down at night--and then + 'Twas winter--and I slept." + +The following poem is a fair specimen of her poetic power:-- + + ON SEEING TWO LITTLE GIRLS PRESENT A FLOWER TO A DYING PERSON. + + "Come, sit beside my couch of death, + With that fair summer flower, + That I may taste its balmy breath + Before my final hour. + The lily's virgin purity, + The rose's rich perfume, + Speak with a thrilling voice to me, + Preparing for the tomb. + + "Each calls to mind sweet Sharon's rose, + The lily of the vale-- + The white and stainless robes of those + Who conquer and prevail. + For as it droops its modest head, + Methinks it seems to say: + 'All flesh, like me, must quickly fade, + Must wither and decay!' + + "And yet it tells of fairer skies, + And happier lands than this, + Where beauteous flowers immortal vie, + And plants of Paradise: + A land where blooms eternal spring-- + Where every storm is past; + Fain would my weary spirit wing + Its way--and be at rest.-- + + "But hark, I hear a choral strain-- + It comes from worlds above, + It speaks of my release from pain, + Of rest--in Jesus' love! + Jesus, my hope, my help, my stay, + My all in earth or heaven, + Let thy blest mandate only say, + 'Thy sins are all forgiven!' + + "Then will I plume my joyful wing + To those blest realms of peace, + Where saints and angels ever sing, + And sorrows ever cease. + Dear mother, dry thy tearful eye, + And weep no more for me, + The orphan's God that reigns on high + The widow's God shall be. + + "Pull me a sprig of that white flower, + And place it on my breast, + The last effect of friendship's power + Shall charm my heart to rest. + Then, Lord, let me depart from pain + To realms where glories dwell, + Where I may meet those friends again, + And say no more 'farewell!'" + +Her first book did not yield much pecuniary profit. In 1865 a larger +volume of her poetry was published by Mr. Andrew Elliot, of Edinburgh. +Her valued friend, Miss Moncrieff, prefaced it with a biographical sketch, +and Dean Ramsay wrote an introduction. He described her poems as being of +"no common excellence, both in diction and sentiment." The book also +contains a portrait of the author. Through the kindly interest of the +publisher the work proved extremely successful, and the proceeds of the +sale became her chief support in her old age, when unable to work through +feeble health and blindness. She enjoyed many comforts, thanks to the help +of Miss M. A. Scott Moncrieff, Mr. Andrew Elliot, and other warm-hearted +friends. + +She died in 1870, having reached more than the allotted three score years +and ten, and was interred in the historic burial ground of Greyfriars' +Church, Edinburgh. Her last resting-place was for some years without any +monumental stone, but mainly through the exertions of Dr. Rogers, in May, +1885, a handsome cross was erected over her remains, simply bearing her +name, "Mary Pyper." + + + + +The Poet of the Fisher-Folk: + +Mrs. Susan K. Phillips. + + "The poet's little span is done, + The poet's work on earth goes on; + The hand that strikes the ringing chords, + The thought that clothes itself in words, + That chimes with every varying mood, + That gives a friend to solitude, + In flash or fire, in smiles or tears, + Wakes echoes for all coming years." + SUSAN K. PHILLIPS. + + +From the days of Cędmon, the first and greatest of the Anglo-Saxon poets, +to the present time, Yorkshire has produced many singers of power, whose +poetry has been read and appreciated far beyond the limits of England's +largest county. The lovely scenery, romantic legends, old-world tales, and +noble lives of its sons and daughters have had a marked influence on the +writings of its poets. We recognise this in the best work of Mr. Alfred +Austin, our present Poet Laureate, the sisters Brontė, Ebenezer Elliott, +the Corn Law Rhymer, and in a marked degree in Mrs. Susan K. Phillips, +whose well-spent life has just closed, and whose contributions to +literature have gained for her an honourable place amongst the authors of +the Victorian era. In the realm of poetry devoted to the joys and sorrows +of the fisher-folk, she has not been equalled. + +How true are the words of Sir Henry Taylor, "The world knows nothing of +its greatest men," and we may add, less, if possible, of its greatest +women. Men have a better opportunity of becoming known, and their works +appreciated, than women, for men take a more active part in public affairs +which bring them in closer touch with the people. As a rule women are of a +more retiring disposition, and the result is that their merits are not so +readily recognised as those of men, yet their works are often more +ennobling and lasting. + +Mrs. Phillips' best poems deal with various incidents in the lives of the +fisher-folk of the Yorkshire coast. She was a frequent visitor to Whitby, +and was beloved by the rough, but kind-hearted, fishermen. She was a true +friend to them in their time of sorrow, and in the hard lot of those who +are engaged on the perilous waters of the North Sea. + +Before giving examples of the poetry of Mrs. Phillips, it may be well to +present a few details of her life. She was born in 1831 at Aldborough, +the _Isurium_ of the Romans, a village of great antiquity, not far distant +from Boroughbridge. Her father, the Rev. George Kelly Holdsworth, M.A., +was vicar of the parish. + +In 1856 she was married to Mr. H. Wyndham Phillips, a celebrated artist, +who has been dead some years. Mrs. Phillips resided for many years at +Green Royd, Ripon, but usually spent the summer months at Whitby. + +In 1865 her first volume of poetry appeared under the title of "Verses and +Ballads," and the welcome given to it induced her to issue, five years +later, "Yorkshire Songs and Ballads." A still more important volume was +given to the world in 1878, from the well-known house of Messrs. Macmillan +& Co., entitled, "On the Seaboard." The critical press were not slow to +recognise the sterling merits of this book, which soon passed into a +second edition. On this work the reputation of Mrs. Phillips mainly rests. +Some of the poems had previously appeared in the pages of _Macmillan's +Magazine_, _All the Year Round_, _Cassell's Magazine_, and other leading +periodicals. They had been widely quoted in the press on both sides of the +Atlantic. "These poems," said the reviewer, in a leading London daily, +"suggest a recollection of Charles Kingsley, but the writer has a voice +and song of her own, which is full of yearning pathetic sweetness, and a +loving human sympathy with the anxious homes of the poor toiler of the +sea. The poems evince a true simplicity of style which is only another +word for sincerity." It was stated by another critic that "This volume of +verses stands out in bright relief from the average poetry of the day. All +is pure, womanly, in a setting of most graceful and melodious verse." +Other notices were equally good. In 1884, Messrs. J. S. Fletcher & Co., +Leeds, published "Told in a Coble, and other Poems." Many of those +relating to Whitby were warmly welcomed, and added not a little to her +fame. This is her last volume of collected poems, but not a few have since +been written and printed in the periodicals, and might, with advantage to +the world of letters, be collected, and reappear in book form. + +Mrs. Phillips was for a long period one of the honorary secretaries of the +Ripon Home for Girls, and did much useful work for this excellent +institution. Says one who knew her well, "She was extremely generous in +disposition, and her warm-hearted liberality and her kindly interest in +those in distress endeared her to all classes." On May 25th, 1897, she +died at Sea Lawn, Torquay, having reached the age of sixty-six years. + +Instead of giving brief quotations from several pieces, it will be perhaps +the better plan to reproduce at length two or three of the author's poems, +and enable our readers to form their own conclusions. We may not quote the +best of the writer's work, but indicate her style. No one, we think, can +read lines like the following without being moved, and his sympathy +extended to the sorrowing fisher-folk:-- + + LOST WITH ALL HANDS. + + "'Lost, with all hands, at sea.' + The Christmas sun shines down + On the headlands that frown o'er the harbour wide, + On the cottages, thick on the long quay side, + On the roofs of the busy town. + + 'Lost, with all hands, at sea.' + The dread words sound like a wail, + The song of the waits, and the clash of the bells, + Ring like death-bed dirges or funeral knells, + In the pauses of the gale. + + Never a home so poor + But it brightens for good Yule Tide, + Never a heart too sad or too lone, + But the holy Christmas mirth 'twill own, + And his welcome will provide. + + Where the sea-coal fire leaps + On the fisherman's quiet hearth, + The Yule Log lies for his hand to heave, + While he hastes to his bride on Christmas Eve, + In the flush of his strength and mirth. + + High on the little shelf + The tall Yule candle stands, + For the ship is due ere the Christmas night, + And it waits to be duly set alight, + By the coming father's hands. + + Long has the widow spared + Her pittance for warmth and bread, + That her sailor boy, when he home returns, + May joy, that her fire brightly burns, + Her board is so amply spread. + + The sharp reef moans and moans, + The foam on the sand lies hoar; + The 'sea-dog' flickers across the sky, + The north wind whistles shrill and high + 'Mid the breakers' ominous roar. + + But on the great pier head, + The grey-haired sailors stand, + While the black clouds pile away in the west, + And the spray flies free from the billow's crest + Ere they dash on the hollow sand. + + Never a sail to be seen + On the long grim tossing swell; + Only drifting wreckage of canvas and spar, + That sweep with the waves o'er the harbour bar, + Their terrible tale to tell. + + Did a vision of Christmas pass + Before their drowning eyes? + When 'mid rent of rigging and crash of mast, + The brave ship, smote by the mighty blast, + Went down 'neath the pitiless skies. + + No Christmas joy I ween + On the rock-bound coast may be. + Put token and custom of Yule away, + While widows and orphans weep and pray + For the 'hands lost out at sea.'" + +Still in the pathetic strain we will give another poem. In quoting this we +feel we are not doing full justice to Mrs. Phillips, but it at all events +shows her deep devotion to the race she greatly helped in their many +trials. + + THE FISHERMAN'S FUNERAL. + + "Up on the breezy headland the fisherman's grave they made, + Where, over the daisies and clover-bells, the birchen branches swayed; + Above us the lark was singing in the cloudless skies of June, + And under the cliffs the billows were chanting their ceaseless tune; + For the creamy line was curving along the hollow shore, + Where the dear old tides were flowing that he would ride no more. + + The dirge of the wave, the note of the bird, and the priest's low tone + were blent + In the breeze that blew from the moorland, all laden with country scent; + But never a thought of the new-mown hay tossing on sunny plains, + Or of lilies deep in the wild wood, or roses gemming the lanes, + Woke in the hearts of the stern bronzed men who gathered about the + grave, + Where lay the mate who had fought with them the battle of wind and wave. + + How boldly he steered the coble across the foaming bar, + When the sky was black to the eastward and the breakers white on the + scar! + How his keen eye caught the squall ahead, how his strong hand furled the + sail, + As we drove through the angry waters before the raging gale! + How cheery he kept the long dark night; and never a parson spoke + Good words like those he said to us when at last the morning broke! + + So thought the dead man's comrades, as silent and sad they stood, + While the prayer was prayed, the blessing said, and the dull earth + struck the wood; + And the widow's sob, and the orphan's wail, jarred through the joyous + air; + How could the light wind o'er the sea blow on so fresh and fair? + How could the gay waves laugh and leap, landward o'er sand and stone, + While he, who knew and loved them all, lay lapped in clay alone? + + But for long, when to the beetling heights the snow-tipped billows roll, + When the cod, and the skate, and dogfish dart around the herring shoal; + When gear is sorted and sail is set, and the merry breezes blow, + And away to the deep-sea harvest the stalwart reapers go, + A kindly sigh and a hearty word, they will give to him who lies + Where the clover springs, and the heather blooms beneath the northern + skies." + +We regard the following lines on a well-known division of East Yorkshire, +as a successful effort on the part of Mrs. Phillips. An August day spent +in rambling amongst the leafy lanes of Holderness cannot easily be +forgotten. There is a lack of romantic and rugged scenery, but the old +farmsteads nestling amongst the trees and the fields of golden grain have +a beauty not surpassed in many parts of old England:-- + + IN HOLDERNESS. + + "The wind blew over the barley, the wind blew over the wheat, + Where the scarlet poppy toss'd her head, with the bindweed at her feet; + The wind blew over the great blue sea, in the golden August weather, + Till the tossing corn and the tossing waves showed shadow and gleam + together. + + The wind blew over the barley, the wind blew over the oats, + The lark sprung up in the sunny sky, and shook his ringing notes; + Over the wealth of the smiling land, the sweep of the glittering sea, + 'Which is the fairest?' he sang, as he soared o'er the beautiful + rivalry. + + And with a fuller voice than the wind, a deeper tone than the bird, + Came the answer from the solemn sea, that Nature, pausing, heard,-- + 'The corn will be garnered, the lark will be hushed at the frown of the + wintry weather, + The sun will fly from the snow-piled sky, but I go on for ever!'" + +It would be a pleasure to reproduce some of her poems dealing with the +romantic legends of her native shire, but the space at our disposal does +not permit this; they may, however, be found in her published works. We +close with some pretty lines on the bells she loved so well:-- + + THE WHITBY BELLS. + + "The Whitby bells, so full and free, + They ring across the sunny sea, + That the great ocean god, who dwells + 'Mid coral groves and silvery shells, + Wakes to the summons joyously. + + O'er the purpling moors and ferny dells + Sound the sweet chimes, and bird and bee + Pause, hearing over land and lea + The Whitby bells. + + And as the mellow music swells + One listener to the Whitby bells + Feels all the days that used to be, + Speak in the blended harmony; + They shrine life--death--and their farewells, + The Whitby bells." + + + + +A Poet and Novelist of the People: + +Thomas Miller. + + +On the roll of self-taught authors, Thomas Miller is entitled to a high +place, and amongst Victorian men of letters he holds an honourable +position. He enriched English literature with many charming works on +country life and scenes. Although his career was not eventful, it is not +without interest, furnishing a notable instance of a man surmounting +difficulties and gaining distinction. + +He was born on August 31st, 1808, at Gainsborough, a quaint old +Lincolnshire town, situated on the banks of the river Trent. His father +held a good position, being a wharfinger and shipowner; he died, however, +when his son was a child, without making provision for his wife, who had +to pass some years in pinching poverty. Young Thomas received a very +limited education at school, and according to his own account he only +learned "to write a very indifferent hand, and to read the Testament +tolerably." His playmate was Thomas Cooper, the Chartist and Poet, and +this notable man, in his autobiography, has much to say about the boyhood +of our hero. Mrs. Miller, to provide for her family, had to sew sacks. + +Says Thomas Cooper, "She worked early and late for bread for herself and +her two boys; but would run in, now and then, at the back door, and join +my mother for a few whiffs at the pipe. And then away they would go again +to work, after cheering each other, to go stoutly through the battle of +life." + +"They bent their wits, on one occasion," continues Mr. Cooper, "to +disappoint the tax-gatherer. He was to 'distrain' on a certain day; but +beds, chairs, and tables were moved secretly in the night to blind Thomas +Chatterton's; and when the tax-gatherer came next day to execute his +threat, there was nothing left worth his taking. The poor were often +driven to such desperate schemes to save all they had from ruin, in those +days; and the curse upon taxes and the tax-gatherer was in the mouths of +hundreds--for those years of war were terrific years of suffering for the +poor, notwithstanding their shouts and rejoicings when Matthew Guy rode +in, with ribbons flying, bringing news of another 'glorious victory.'" +"Sometimes," adds Mr. Cooper, "Miller's mother and mine were excused +paying some of the taxes by appealing to the magistrates, a few of whom +respected them for their industry, and commiserated their hardships. But +the petition did not always avail." + +In spite of poverty, Miller's childhood was not without its sunshine, and +many days spent in the lanes and fields were not the least enjoyable of +his pleasures. He was first engaged as a farmer's boy at Thornock, a +village near his native town. The trade of basket-making was subsequently +learned, and when quite a young man he married. He migrated to Nottingham, +and obtained employment as a journeyman at a basket-manufactory in the +town. + +"At this period," says Dr. Spencer T. Hall, "the Sherwood Forester," "he +had a somewhat round but intelligent face, a fair complexion, full, blue, +speaking eyes, and a voice reminding one of the deeper and softer tones of +a well-played flute. Of all who saw him at his work, it is probable that +scarcely one knew how befitting him was the couplet of Virgil, where he +says: + + 'Thus while I sung, my sorrows I deceived, + And bending osiers into baskets weaved.'" + +He had the good fortune to become known to Mr. Thomas Bailey, a man of +literary taste, the writer of several works, and father of the more famous +Philip James Bailey, author of "Festus." Mr. Bailey recognised at once the +merits of a collection of poems submitted to him by Miller, was the means +of the pieces being printed, and did all in his power to obtain a +favourable welcome for the volume. The book was entitled "Songs of Sea +Nymphs;" it contained only forty-eight pages, and was sold at two +shillings. In his preface the author stated: "I am induced to offer these +extracts from unpublished poems in their present state solely because I +cannot find any publisher who will undertake, without an extensive list of +subscribers, the risk of publishing a volume of poetry written by an +individual whose humble station in life buries him in obscurity." He next +explains that the object of the work is to elicit the opinion of his +country-men as to the merits or demerits of his verses--which he terms +"trifles." Mr. Miller says, "Concerning the poems, I have only to add that +the three first songs are extracts from an unpublished poem entitled, +'Hero and Leander, a Tale of the Sea.' The scene is chiefly confined to +Neptune's palace beneath the waves. The other extracts are from 'Adelaide +and Reginald, a Fairy Tale of Bosworth Field.' I am aware that the date is +too modern for fairies; however, who can prove it? for so long as a barren +circle is found in the velvet valleys of England, tradition will ever call +it a fairy-ring. Having launched my little bark on the casual ocean of +public opinion, not without anxiety, I leave it to its fate.--Thomas +Miller, Basket-maker, Nottingham, August, 1832." The volume was the means +of making him many friends, and enabling him to start business on his own +account. He had a work-room in the Long Row, and a stall on a Saturday in +the market-place. Here is a picture of the stall from Spencer Hall's +graphic pen:--"There was poetry in his very baskets. A few coarser ones +were there, but others of more beautiful pattern, texture, and colour, +flung a sort of bloom over the rest; and the basket-maker and his wares +well-matched each other, as he would take his cigar from his mouth, and +ask some pretty market maiden, in his cheeriest tones, as she lingered and +looked, if she would not like to purchase. As a youth, I was wont to stand +there chatting with him occasionally, and to hear him, between customers, +pour out the poetry of Coleridge and other great minds, with an +appreciance and a melody that such authors might themselves have listened +to with pride and delight." + +He next moved to London, hoping to follow a literary career by +contributing at the commencement to the monthly magazines. Writing gave +Miller great pleasure, but put little money in his purse, and to obtain +bread for his household he had to work at his trade in the metropolis. +Friends at first were few, and he had none able to help him to literary +employment. He had journeyed to London alone, and arrived there with +seven-and-sixpence in his pocket, intending to send for his wife and +family when brighter days dawned. Some time passed before there was a +break in the dark clouds which hung over him. Here are particulars of the +dawn of better times. "One day," says Mr. Joseph Johnson, in _Manchester +Notes and Queries_, "when bending over his baskets, he was surprised by a +visit from Mr. W. H. Harrison, editor of _Friendship's Offering_, who had +fortunately read one of Miller's poems, and had become impressed with the +ability and original talent of the author. The result of the interview was +a request that the basket-maker would write a poem for the _Offering_. +Miller, at the time, was so poor that he had neither paper, pens, nor ink, +nor the means to buy these needful materials for his poem. He tided over +the difficulty by using the whity-brown paper in which his sugar had been +wrapped, and mixed some soot with water for his ink; the back of a bellows +serving him for a desk, upon which he wrote his charming poem, entitled, +'The Old Fountain.' His letter to the editor of the _Offering_ was sealed +with moistened bread. The poem was accepted, and two guineas immediately +returned. It is simply impossible to imagine the rapture which would fill +the breast of the poor poet on receipt of so large a sum." Says Miller, "I +never had been so rich in my life before, and I fancied some one would +hear of my fortune and try and rob me of it; so, at night, I barred the +door, and went to bed, but did not sleep all night, from delight and +fear." + +We reproduce the lines as a fair example of Miller's poetry:-- + + THE OLD FOUNTAIN. + + "Deep in the bosom of a silent wood, + Where an eternal twilight dimly reigns, + A sculptured fountain hath for ages stood, + O'erhung with trees; and still such awe remains + Around the spot, that few dare venture there-- + The babbling water spreads such superstitious fear. + + It looks so old and grey, with moss besprent, + And carven imag'ry, grotesque or quaint; + Eagles and lions are with dragons blent + And cross-winged cherub; while o'er all a Saint + Bends grimly down with frozen blown-back hair, + And on the dancing spray its dead eyes ever stare. + + From out a dolphin's mouth the water leaps + And frets, and tumbles to its bed of gloom; + So dark the umbrage under which it sweeps, + Stretching in distance like a dreary tomb; + With murmurs fraught, and many a gibbering sound, + Gurgle, and moan, and hiss, and plash, and fitful bound. + + Oh! 'tis a spot where man might sit and weep + His childish griefs and petty cares away; + Wearied Ambition might lie there and sleep, + And hoary Crime in silence kneel to pray. + The fountain's voice, the day-beams faintly given, + Tell of that starlight land we pass in dreams to heaven. + + There, lovely forms in elder times were seen, + And snowy kirtles waved between the trees; + And light feet swept along the velvet green, + While the rude anthem rose upon the breeze, + When round the margin England's early daughters + Worshipped the rough-hewn Saint that yet bends o'er the waters. + + And some bent priest, whose locks were white as snow, + Would raise his trembling hands and voice to pray; + All would be hushed save that old fountain's flow + That rolling bore the echoes far away; + Perchance a dove, amid the foliage dim, + Might raise a coo, then pause to list their parting hymn. + + That old grey abbey lies in ruins now, + The wild-flowers wave where swung its pond'rous door; + Where once the altar rose, rank nettles grow, + The anthem's solemn sound is heard no more; + 'Tis as if Time had laid down to repose, + Drowsed by the fountain's voice, which through the forest flows." + +He wrote and worked at his trade; his poetry won for him many admirers, +amongst them Lady Blessington, Thomas Moore, Samuel Rogers, the +banker-poet, and others, and he was welcomed to their houses. He remarked, +"Often have I been sitting in Lady Blessington's splendid drawing-room in +the morning, and talking and laughing as familiarly as in the old house at +home; and on the same evening I might have been seen on Westminster +Bridge, between an apple vendor and a baked-potato merchant, vending my +baskets." + +In 1836, he wrote "A Day in the Woods," consisting of a series of +sketches, stories, and poems. The reading public welcomed the work, and +the critical press recognised it as the production of a man of undoubted +genius. He continued to make friends, including "L. E. L.," the poetess, +Campbell, Leigh Hunt, Jerrold, Disraeli and Thackeray. The merits and +success of his book caused Colburn to make him a tempting offer to write +a three-volume novel, and in 1838 appeared "Royston Gower." The work was +so popular that the same publisher commissioned him to write two more +novels, namely, in 1839, "Fair Rosamond," and in 1840, "Lady Jane Grey." +He produced other novels, perhaps the best known is "Gideon Giles." These +works are now to be obtained in cheap form, and have been most extensively +circulated. + +He was assisted and encouraged by Rogers, Lady Blessington and others, to +commence as a publisher and bookseller, and was enabled by their kindness +to purchase back from Colburn the copyrights of his novels. His place of +business was 9, Newgate Street, opposite Christ's Hospital, and from here +he issued several of his own books besides works by well-known authors. +Miller did not succeed in business, and gave it up to devote all his time +to writing books and contributing to the periodicals and newspapers. He +wrote for the _Athenęum_, _Literary Gazette_, _Chambers' Journal_, +_Household Words_, _Boys' Own Magazine_, the _Illustrated London News_, +and other monthlies and weeklies. Many leading articles from his facile +pen appeared in the _Morning Post_. His papers on the months in Chambers' +"Book of Days," which describe the varied aspects of the country during +the year, have been reproduced in an elegant volume bearing the title of +"All Round the Year." + +Mr. J. Potter Briscoe, F.R.H.S., kindly supplies me with the following +list of books by Thomas Miller:--"All Round the Year," 1860; "Birds, Bees, +and Blossoms," 1867, 1869 (see also "Original Poems," etc.); "British Wolf +Hunter," 1859; "Boys' Own Library," 6 vols., 1856; "Boys' Spring, Summer, +Autumn, and Winter Books," 1847, 1881; "Boys' Own Country Book, Seasons, +and Rural Rides," 1867, 1868; "Brampton among the Roses," 1863; "Child's +Country Book," 1867; "Child's Country Story Book," 1867, 1870, 1881; +"Common Wayside Flowers," 1841, 1873; "Country Year book," 2 vols., 1847, +1 vol., 1836; "Day in the Woods," 1836; "Desolate Hall," (in "Friendship's +Offering") 1838; "Dorothy Dovedale's Trials," 2 vols., 1864; "English +Country Life," 1858, 1859, 1864; "Fair Rosamond," 3 vols., 1839, 1 vol., +1862; "Fortune and Fortitude," 1848; "Fred and the Gorillas," 1869, 1873; +"Fred Holdsworth" (In _Illustrated London News_), 1852, 1873; "Gaboon," +1868; "Gideon Giles, the Roper," 1840, 1841, 1859, 1867; "Godfrey +Malvern," 1842, 1843, 1844, 1847, 1858, 1877; "Goody Platts and her two +Cats," 1864; "History of the Anglo-Saxons," 1848, 1850, 1852, 1856; +"Jack-of-All-Trades," 1867; "Lady Jane Grey, a romance," 3 vols., 1840, 1 +vol., 1861, 1864; "Langley-on-the-Lea; or, Love and Duty," 1858; "Life and +[remarkable] Adventures of a Dog," 1856, 1870; "Lights and Shades of +London Life" (forming vol. 5 of Reynolds' _Mysteries of London_); "Little +Blue Hood," 1863; "My Father's Garden," 1866, 1867; "No Man's Land, etc.," +1860, 1861, 1863; "Old Fountain" (in _Friendship's Offering_, etc.); +"Original Poems for my Children," 1850 (see also "Birds," etc.); "Our Old +Town" (Gainsborough) 1857, 1858; "Old Park Road," 1870, 1876; "Picturesque +Sketches of London," 1852 (in the _Illustrated London News_); "Pictures of +Country Life," 1846, 1847, 1853; "Poacher and other Pictures of Country +Life," 1858; "Poems," 1841, 1848, 1856; "Poetical Language of Flowers," +1838, 1847, 1853, 1856, 1865, 1869, 1872; "Royston Gower," 3 vols., 1830, +1 vol. 1858, 1860, 1874; "Rural Sketches," 1839, 1861; "Sketches of +English Country Life"; "Songs for British Riflemen," 1860; "Songs of the +Sea Nymphs," 1857; "Songs of the Seasons," 1865; "Sports and Pastimes of +Merry England," 1859 (?-56); "Summer Morning," 1844; "Tales of Old +England," 1849, 1881; "Village Queen," 1851, 1852; "Watch the End" (second +edition of "My Father's Garden") 1869, 1871, 1873; "Year Book of Country +Life," 1855; "Year Book of the Country," 1837; "Young Angler," 1862. + +The foregoing volumes are in the Nottingham Public Library, and the +librarian, Mr. Briscoe is to be congratulated on bringing together +Miller's works in the city closely associated with his career. In Paxton +Hood's "Peerage of Poverty," a fine estimate of Miller's ability as an +author is given, though very little about his life is recorded. On the +25th of October, 1874, he died at his residence, a small house in West +Street, Kensington, leaving a son and two daughters. Shortly before his +death an effort was made to get him placed on the Civil List. Mr. Disraeli +was not able to include him at the time, but, with his well-known +generosity, made him an allowance from some other fund. Miller only +received one quarterly instalment before passing away. + + + + +The Cottage Countess. + + +The late Poet Laureate has given a world-wide interest to the romantic +story of "The Peasant Countess" of "Burleigh House by Stamford town," in +his popular poem, "The Lord of Burleigh." He relates how Henry Cecil, in +the guise of a landscape painter in humble circumstances, wooes and weds a +rustic maiden, and how a shadow overcasts her bright dream when the real +rank of her husband is made known to her:-- + + "But a trouble weighed upon her, + And perplexed her night and morn, + With the burthen of an honour + Unto which she was not born. + Faint she grew, and ever fainter, + And she murmured, 'Oh, that he + Were once more that landscape-painter, + Which did win my heart from me.' + So she drooped and drooped before him, + Fading slowly from his side: + Three fair children first she bore him, + Then before her time she died." + +The poet tells how keenly the Lord of Burleigh mourned her loss, and that +he buried her in the dress in which she was married. + +The real facts, however, are not so poetical; yet Hazlitt says that the +story outdoes the "Arabian Nights." The following particulars may be +regarded as a correct version of this romantic tale. Henry Cecil was born +in the year 1754, and was the only child of the Hon. Thomas Chambers Cecil +by his marriage with Miss Charlotte Gardner. At the age of nineteen he had +lost his parents, and was the presumptive heir to his uncle's estates and +the earldom of Exeter. He was by no means popular with his uncle, and +seldom troubled the inmates of Burleigh House with his presence. While +still a minor, he married into a good old west of England family, his wife +being a lady of great personal charms, named Emma Vernon, the only +daughter of the Squire of Hornbury Hall, in the county of Worcester. The +union was not a happy one, young Cecil being far from an exemplary +husband. He wasted much of his time and money in gambling. After fifteen +years of married life he sought and obtained a divorce. His own folly and +other circumstances rendered him a poor man, and induced him shortly +before the time he obtained a divorce to quit the society of those in his +rank of life, and settle down in one of the secluded villages in +Shropshire. He selected Bolas Magna, a charming little place, nestling +among apple orchards and green lanes. Here he was known as John Jones, and +was lost to the fashionable world, out of sight and out of mind. For a +short time he lodged at the village hostelry, freely conversing with the +customers who came at night to smoke their pipes and drink their beer. The +days he spent in sketching the pretty bits of scenery in the district. + +The noisy life of an inn soon palled upon him, and he sought lodgings at +some of the farmhouses, but his search was almost futile, as he was viewed +with much suspicion; indeed, some went so far as to hint that he was a +highwayman. The honest country folk failed to discover any visible means +of his making money, although they saw that he spent it pretty freely. He +at last procured lodgings at the dwelling of a labourer called Hoggins, +and soon made himself a favourite in the humble household. Cecil appears +to have been anticipating the day when he would be a free man, and, even +before he had obtained a divorce, he paid some attention to an attractive +young woman named Taylor. She, however, being engaged, did not favour his +suit. He then made love to Sarah Hoggins, the daughter of his landlady--a +young, comely, honest girl, who reciprocated his affection. Her mother was +doubtful about the matter, feeling that the marriage of her girl with a +stranger was a step that might lead to serious results, and she had a +lingering suspicion that there might be some truth in the rumour of her +lodger being a highwayman. The father was more favourably inclined; he saw +that the man had plenty of money, and it was a golden opportunity not to +be missed, and he encouraged the match. Eventually the mother had to give +way. In June, 1791, he obtained a divorce, and, on the 3rd of October, in +the same year, in the little church of Bolas, Henry Cecil and Sarah +Hoggins were married. He bought a piece of land near Hodnet, and on it +built a house, the largest in the neighbourhood. The local tradesmen +looked upon him with mistrust, and he had to make liberal advances of +money before they would undertake the work. Here he lived with his young +wife, teaching her such accomplishments as she would require in her +future high station. He did not, however, give any hint as to his real +character. His superior manners and education, in spite of the mystery of +his life, made him friends, and inspired some confidence, so that the +ratepayers elected him to one of their parish offices. The duties of his +parochial appointment took him to the sessions at Shrewsbury, where he +encountered a brother magistrate, who had been an old schoolfellow, +although not recognised by him. As a proof of his disposition to oblige +his friends and make himself generally useful, it is recorded that on one +occasion he gratified his father-in-law by carrying a large pig as a +present to a neighbouring squire. + +A little daughter was born at Bolas, who died after living a few days, and +was buried in the churchyard, without a stone to mark her grave, which is +now forgotten. + +After he had been married about two years he read in a country newspaper +an account of the death of his uncle, which occurred towards the close of +the year 1793. Early in the following January, he repaired, with his wife, +then nineteen years of age, to Burleigh House. He merely told her that he +had to go to a distant part of the country, and wished to have her +company. They travelled on horseback, the wife being seated on a pillion +behind her husband, according to the fashion of the period. They stopped +at the several noblemen's and gentlemen's seats on their route. At last +they reached Burleigh House, where she was told that she was a countess, +and the mystery of Henry Cecil solved. + +When surrounded by the titled and the great, she sighed for a humbler +position, but nevertheless she made an excellent wife and mother, and the +happiness of her husband was complete. It was of short duration, for in +the flower of her life she died, deeply lamented, on January 17th, 1797. + +In addition to the first-born previously mentioned, they had a daughter +and two sons. One of the sons was the peer who succeeded his father. Lord +Burleigh settled seven hundred a year on his wife's parents, and gave them +the house he had just vacated. The Countess was cordially received by the +Earl's relatives, and mixed in the fashionable society of London, and won +respect and regard from all with whom she came in contact. + +Lawrence painted her portrait. She is represented as far from rustic in +appearance, her face being oval and very pleasing. + +It remains to be stated, to complete the outline of the life of Henry +Cecil, that he was created a marquis, that he married for his third wife +the Dowager-Duchess of Hamilton, and died in the year 1804. + + + + +The Compiler of "Old Moore's Almanac," + +Henry Andrews. + + +The name of Henry Andrews is familiar to the literary and scientific world +as the compiler for many years of "Old Moore's Almanac," but the +particulars of his life are not generally known. His career, although not +an eventful one, was most honourable, and furnishes a notable example of a +man who, from a humble beginning, by perserverance attained an important +position in life. + +He was born at Frieston, near Grantham, on February 4th, 1744, of parents +in poor circumstances, who were only able to afford him a limited +education. In his earliest years he appears to have had a love for +astronomy, a science in which he afterwards became one of the most +proficient of his day. It is recorded that when only six years old he +would frequently stand in his shirt looking at the moon out of his chamber +window at midnight; when about ten years of age, he used to fix a table on +Frieston Green on clear frosty nights, and set a telescope thereon +through which to view the stars. The young student would afterwards sit +by the fireside with a table covered with books, making astronomical +calculations. + +At an early age he left home to earn his own living, the first situation +he filled being that of servant to a shopkeeper at Sleaford. We next trace +him to the city of Lincoln, where he was engaged to wait upon a lady. +During his leisure time, he took every opportunity to make weather-glasses +and weather-houses. The last situation he held as a gentleman's servant, +was under J. Feriman, Esq., who found Andrews so intent on study that he +kindly allowed him two or three hours daily to devote to that purpose. + +We are told that on the 1st of April, 1764, he went to Aswarby Hall, the +seat of Sir Christopher Whichcote, to view the eclipse of the sun which +was visible on that day. A number of ladies and gentlemen had assembled +for the same purpose. Having previously calculated a type of this eclipse, +he presented the same to the company, showing them the manner of its +appearance in a dark room upon a board, and, after it was over they +unanimously declared that his calculations came nearer than any given in +the almanacs. Shortly after the above meeting, he opened a school at +Basingthorpe, near Grantham. We presume the venture did not prove +satisfactory, for we find that he was afterwards engaged as an usher in a +clergyman's boarding-school at Stilton. His next move was to Cambridge, +hoping there to obtain assistance in prosecuting his studies from the men +of science in the University. Accustomed to a quiet life, he could not +endure the bustle of that ancient seat of learning, so left and settled at +Royston, Hertfordshire, where he opened a school, and continued to reside +until the day of his death. He had only reached the age of twenty-three +when he took up his residence at the latter town. + +A few years after Andrews settled there, we find his name on the +title-page of an almanac, and an advertisement of his school. The +title-page of the publication is curious, and reads as follows:-- + + "A Royal almanac and meteorological diary for the year of our Lord, + 1778, and of the Julian period 6491. The second after Bissextile or + leap year, and the eighteenth year of the Reign of his Majesty King + George III. Containing the feasts and fasts of the Church of England; + the times of the lunations; the rising and setting of the sun; the + equation of time for the regulating of clocks and watches; the moon's + rising and setting; the times of high water at London Bridge, morning + and afternoon; the aspects of the planets and weather. Also, for every + sixth day, the increase and decrease of days; the beginning and end + of daylight; the nightly rising, southing and setting of the planets + and seven stars; adapted to the meridian and latitude of London. + Likewise an exact meteorological journal for the preceding year, or + the state of the barometer and thermometer, with the wind, weather, + &c., as they were registered every day. Also the depth of rain which + fell, and the observations made every month. To which are added the + eclipses of the sun and moon and other remarkable phenomena that will + happen this year; the Middlesex commencement of the sessions of the + peace; a table of the terms and their returns, and for finding the + times of high water at most of the seaports of this kingdom. By Henry + Andrews, Teacher of the Mathematics, at Royston, Herts. London: + Printed for T. Carnan, in St. Paul's Church-Yard, who dispossessed the + stationers of the privilege of printing almanacs, which they had + unjustly monopolised 170 years, 1778. Price 1s." + +Following is a copy of his advertisement:-- + + "At Royston, Herts., Young Gentlemen and others may be commendably + boarded with the Author of this Almanac at reasonable rates, and be + taught by him as follows, viz., Writing, Arithmetic, Mensuration, + Geometry, Trigonometry, Navigation, Astronomy, the use of the Globes, + &c." + +For forty-three years Henry Andrews compiled _Moore's Almanac_ for the +Company of Stationers. The following extract from a letter written by +Andrews' only son, proves that he did not receive liberal remuneration for +his arduous task. Mr. W. H. Andrews stated:--"My father's calculations, +etc., for _Moore's Almanac_ continued during a period of forty-three +years; and although through his great talent and management he increased +the sale of that work from 100,000 to 500,000 copies, yet, strange to say, +all he received for his services was £25 per annum. Yet I never heard him +murmur even once about it; such was his delight in pursuing his favourite +studies, that his anxiety about remuneration was out of the question. Sir +Richard Phillips, who at times visited him at Royston, once met him in +London, and endeavoured to persuade him to go with him to Stationers' +Hall, and he would get him £100; but he declined going, saying that he was +satisfied." + +He was compiler of the _Nautical Ephemeris_, and on retiring from the +appointment he received the thanks of the Board of Longitude, accompanied +by a handsome present, as a just tribute of long and able services, for +which he would not receive more than a nominal payment. + +In 1805, Andrews built a house in High Street, Royston, and in it he spent +the remainder of his life. It is worthy of note that he paid the builders +of the work as it progressed, on account of the men being in poor +circumstances, a good proof of his kind consideration. + +At the age of seventy-six, Andrews closed his well-spent life. We find in +the _Gentleman's Magazine_, of February, 1820, a short notice of his +career, concluding thus:-- + +"His profound knowledge of Astronomy and the Mathematics was acknowledged +by all scientific men who were acquainted with his abilities, but the +greatness of his mind was never more conspicuous than during the period of +his last illness; and on his deathbed not a murmur escaped his lips, but +serenity of mind, patience, and resignation were constantly depicted in +his countenance, in which amiable situation he continued until the vital +spark fled." + +He was interred in the new burial ground, Royston, and over his remains +was placed a tombstone, bearing the following inscription:-- + + "In memory of Mr. Henry Andrews, who, from a limited education, made + great progress in the liberal sciences, and was justly esteemed one of + the best Astronomers of the Age. He departed this life, in full + assurance of a better, January 26th, 1820, aged 76 years." + +A portrait of Henry Andrews was published, and is now very rare. Dr. +Charles Mackay, in his entertaining volume entitled "Extraordinary Popular +Delusions" (issued by Routledge), gives a small portrait, and under it +states, "Henry Andrews, the original 'Francis Moore.'" This is a mistake, +as the Almanac was named after Francis Moore, physician, one of the many +quack doctors who duped the credulous in the latter part of the 17th +century. In Chambers's "Book of Days" (Vol. I., pages 9-14) will be found +some very interesting information respecting Almanacs and Almanac Writers. +We find it stated that "Francis Moore, in his Almanac for 1711, dates from +the sign of the Old Lilly, near the old barge-house, in Christ Church +Parish, Southwark, July 19th, 1710." Then follows an advertisement, in +which he undertakes to cure diseases. Lysons mentions him as one of the +remarkable men who, at different periods, resided at Lambeth, and says +that his house was in Calcott's Alley, High Street, then called Back Lane, +where he practised as astrologer, physician, and schoolmaster. _Moore's +Almanac_ had appeared some years prior to 1711. We refer the reader +wishing to obtain information respecting written and printed almanacs, to +"The Book of Days." + + + + +James Nayler, + +The Mad Quaker, who claimed to be the Messiah. + + +History furnishes particulars of many men who have claimed to be the +Messiah, and perhaps the most celebrated of the number is James Nayler, +"the mad Quaker." He was born at East Ardsley, near Wakefield, in the year +1616. It is certain that his parents were in humble circumstances, and it +is generally believed that his father occupied a house near the old +church, and that he was a small farmer. James Nayler, for a person in his +station in life, received a fairly good education. In his early manhood he +was a husbandman, and resided in his native village. When about twenty-two +years of age he married, as he puts it, "according to the world," and +removed to Wakefield. + +Shortly after his marriage, the Civil War broke out in England, and Nayler +took his share in the struggle between King and Parliament. He joined, in +1641, as a private, the Parliamentarian army, and his conduct and ability +gaining him advancement, he rose to the position of quarter-master under +General Lambert. While in Scotland ill-health obliged him to retire from +active service, and he returned home. + +Nayler carefully studied the Scriptures, and was a zealous member of the +Independents, worshipping at Horbury, but he left this body in disgrace. +It transpired that he had been paying attentions to a married woman named +Mrs. Roper, of Horbury, whose husband had been absent from her for a long +period, and that she became a mother, and that Nayler was the father of +the child. The Rev. Mr. Marshall, the minister of the Independents, +exposed him, and took him severely to task, so that he was finally +expelled from that body. + +George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends, visited Wakefield in +the year 1651, and made a convert of James Nayler. Here commences the real +interest of Nayler's career--a career in which there is much to deplore, +but much also certainly to cause wonder. He possessed extraordinary gifts +as a preacher, and impressed the people with the truth of his teaching, +more especially in the North and West of England. Troubles beset him +almost on every hand,--troubles often caused through his own mistaken +zeal and frail conduct; but he bore his trials with a noble Christian +spirit. Nayler had no sooner joined the Quakers then he commenced what he +termed his travels. At the quarter-sessions held at Appleby, in 1652, he +was tried and found guilty of blasphemy, and sentenced to twenty weeks' +imprisonment. On being released he continued spreading his doctrines in +the North. We gather from the remarks of an officer who had served under +Cromwell a testimony to the power of Nayler's preaching. "After the battle +of Dunbar," says the officer, "as I was riding in Scotland at the head of +my troop, I observed at some distance from the road a crowd of people, and +one higher than the rest; upon which I sent one of my men to see, and +bring me word what was the meaning of the gathering; and seeing him ride +up and stay there, without returning according to my order, I sent a +second, who stayed in like manner; and then I determined to go myself. +When I came thither, I found it was James Nayler preaching to the people, +but with such power and reaching energy as I had not till then been +witness of. I could not help staying a little, although I was afraid to +stay, for fear I was made a _Quaker_, being forced to tremble at the +sight of myself. I was struck with more terror by the preaching of James +Nayler than I was at the battle of Dunbar, when we had nothing else to +expect but to fall a prey to the swords of our enemies, without being able +to help ourselves. I clearly saw the Cross of Christ to be submitted to, +so I durst stay no longer, but got off, and carried condemnation for it in +my own breast. The people there cried out against themselves, imploring +mercy, a thorough change, and the whole work of salvation to be effected +by them." + +Nayler, in 1654 after visiting in the West, wended his way to London, and +preached to two congregations which had been formed by Edward Burrough and +Francis Howgil, members of the Society of Friends, who suffered +imprisonment with him at Appleby. He broke up both congregations, and drew +after him "some inconsiderate women." + +His mind gave way, and he believed that he was the Messiah. +"Notwithstanding the irregularities of Nayler's life," says Scatcherd, the +learned historian of Morley, "there were many things in the man, which, +with low and ignorant people, exceedingly favoured his pretensions to the +Messiahship. He appeared, both as to form and feature, the perfect +likeness to Jesus Christ, according to the best descriptions. His face was +of the oval shape, his forehead broad, his hair auburn and long, and +parted on the brow, his beard flowing, his eyes beaming with a benignant +lustre, his nose of the Grecian or Caucasian order, his figure erect and +majestic, his aspect sedate, his speech sententious, deliberative, and +grave, and his manner authoritative." Carlyle has drawn a pen picture of +Nayler, but not with the skill of the foregoing. + +It is not our intention to attempt to trace Nayler from place to place in +his wanderings, but to touch on the more important episodes of his closing +years. He visited the West in 1652 on a religious mission, and revisited +it again four years later. During his visit to Cornwall, he prophesied, +and subsequently one of the charges made against him was that he +proclaimed himself to be a prophet. At Exeter he was charged with +vagrancy, and imprisoned. During his confinement he was visited by a +number of women, who had been moved by his teaching. Amongst the number +was a widow named Dorcas Erbury. She fell into a swoon, and it was +supposed that she was dead. Nayler went through certain ceremonies, and +he pretended to have restored her to life. Referring to this when examined +by the Bristol Magistrate at a later period, the woman said: "Nayler laid +his hand on my head after I had been dead two days, and said, 'Dorcas, +arise!' and I arose, and live, as thou seest." On being asked if she had +any witness to corroborate her statement, she said that her mother was +present. The local authorities at Exeter released Nayler after detaining +him for a short time. At this period some strange scenes occurred. "The +usual posture of Nayler," says Scatcherd, "was sitting in a chair, while +his company of men and women knelt before him." These, it appears, were +very numerous and constant for whole days together. At the commencement of +the service, a female stepped forth and sang:-- + + "This is the joyful day, + Behold! the King of righteousness is come!" + +Another, taking him by the hand, exclaimed:-- + + "Rise up, my love--my dove--and come away, + Why sittest thou among the pots." + +Then, putting his hand upon her mouth, she sunk upon the ground before +him, the auditory vociferating:-- + + "Holy, holy, holy, to the Almighty." + +His procession through Chepstow caused much amazement in that quiet place. +"Nayler" is described as being mounted on the back of a horse or +mule;--one Woodcock preceded him bareheaded, and on foot:--a female on +each side of Nayler held his bridle; many spread garments in his +way,--while the women sang: "Hosannah to the Son of David--blessed is he +that cometh in the name of the Lord--Hosannah in the highest!" + +Nayler and his followers entered Bristol in a procession similar to the +one just described. We are told that on this particular day in the year of +grace 1656, when he visited the city of Bristol, rain was falling, and the +roads were deep with mud, but neither mud nor rain could check the ardour +of himself and disciples, and they sang hymns of praise. They first wended +their steps to the High Cross, and then to the White Hart, Broad Street, +where a couple of Quakers were staying. The local magistrates were soon on +the alert, and had the party apprehended and cast into prison. After being +examined by Bristol magistrates, Nayler and his followers were sent to +London to be examined before Parliament. His examination and the debate on +it occupied many days, and the members finally resolved "that James +Nayler was guilty of horrid blasphemy, and that he was a grand impostor +and seducer of the people"; and his sentence was, "that he should be set +on the pillory, in the Palace Yard, Westminster, during the space of two +hours, on Thursday next, and be whipped by the hangman through the streets +from Westminster to the Old Exchange, London; and there, likewise, he +should be set on the pillory, with his head in the pillory, for the space +of two hours, between the hours of eleven and one, on Saturday next, in +each place wearing a paper containing an inscription of his crimes; and +that at the Old Exchange his tongue should be bored through with a hot +iron, and that he should be there also stigmatised in the forehead with +the letter B; and that he should be afterwards sent to Bristol, to be +conveyed in and through the city on horseback, with his face backwards, +and there also should be whipped the next market-day after he came +thither; and that thence he should be committed to prison in Bridewell, +London, and there be restrained from the society of all people, and there +to labour hard till he should be released by Parliament; and during that +time he should be debarred the use of pen, ink, and paper, and he should +have no relief but what he earned by his daily labour." This terrible +sentence was duly carried out, although Parliament and Cromwell were +petitioned to mitigate the punishment. During his imprisonment he wrote +his recantations in letters addressed to the Quakers. After being confined +for two years he was set at liberty, and repaired to Bristol, and at a +public meeting made a confession of his offence and fall. His address +moved nearly all present to tears. The Quakers once more received him back +to their Society. + +His end came in the year 1660. In that year he left London for Wakefield, +but failed to reach it. At Holm, near King's Rippon, Huntingdonshire, one +night he was bound and robbed, and left in a field, where he was found by +a countryman. He was removed to a house at Holm and every attention paid +to him, but he soon died from the results of the rough treatment he had +received at the hands of the highwaymen. + + + + +A Biographical Romance. + +Swan's Strange Story. + + +In the olden days the misfortunes of William Swan frequently formed the +topic of conversation amongst friends, who gathered round the fireside in +the homes on the wild wolds of Yorkshire, where he spent some years of his +disappointed life. The full details of his career have been lost in the +lapse of time; never, to our knowledge, have they been committed to paper, +but sufficient particulars may be brought together to prove in his case +the truth of the old saying that "fact is stranger than fiction." + +Nearly two centuries ago there was joy in Benwell Hall, near +Newcastle-on-Tyne, the stately mansion of Richard Swan, Esq., the occasion +of the rejoicing being the birth of an heir. The parents dreamed of a +bright future for their boy, and proudly predicted that he would, in a +worthy manner, perpetuate the name and fame of Swan. The happy +expectations of boyhood were not to be realised, for the young heir had +barely reached the age of nine years, when he was kidnapped from his +home, in order that another might inherit the wealth that by kinship +belonged to him. He was quietly shipped on board the "New Britannia" brig, +which formed part of the squadron under command of the famous Sir +Cloudesley Shovel. His position was that of a "powder monkey," and his +chief employment was to bring powder from the magazine to the gunners +during the naval engagements. On the 22nd of October, 1707, the fleet was +wrecked on the Scilly Isles, owing to the Admiral mistaking the rocks for +the sea-coast. No less than eight hundred brave men found a watery grave, +and several vessels were lost. Happily the ship in which Swan sailed +escaped destruction. Ill-fate, however, followed in its wake, for, shortly +afterwards, it was captured by an Algerine corsair, and Swan was sold to +the Moors as a slave. Four weary years were passed in Barbary. He gained +his liberty through the assistance of the Redeeming Friars, a noble body +of men who were the means of freeing thousands of Christians from +captivity. Many benevolent persons left large sums of money for redeeming +their fellow countrymen from bondage, and this money was expended +judiciously through the agency of the Friars. + +Swan had not the good fortune to reach his home in safety. He was again +taken prisoner, and sold once more into slavery, this time to an English +planter in South Carolina. Here his sufferings were terrible. He toiled +with negroes from sunrise to sunset, the slave-drivers keeping them busy +at work in the cotton and sugar plantations by means of the lash. Managing +to escape, he landed, after an exile of twenty years, on his native shore +in 1726, and speedily made his way to Newcastle-on-Tyne. His father's +footman, Thomas Chance, and his old nurse, Mrs. Gofton, identified him, +and he at once instituted a claim for the estate of his uncle, Alderman +Swan, Mayor of Hull, who had died and left property yielding an income of +£20,000 a year. His efforts proved unsuccessful, and the deep +disappointment broke his heart, his death occurring in 1736, at the age of +thirty-eight years. + +Swan had married a Yorkshire woman called Jane Cole, of North Dalton, near +Driffield, by whom he had a son named William. The widowed mother told her +boy, as soon as he was able to understand, that he was the rightful heir +to vast estates, and encouraged him to persevere to obtain them. The +melancholy fate of her husband was not sufficient to crush her ardent +spirit. A lawyer at Driffield was consulted, and he advised that action be +taken. He undertook to conduct the case without payment until the estates +were obtained, beyond the sums for correspondence, court fees, etc. The +man, however, drained the poor fellow of every penny that he could +procure, and both mother and son denied themselves the necessaries of life +to keep up the constant demands of the solicitor. Months and years passed +without getting any satisfaction. Poor Mrs. Swan at last felt the case to +be hopeless, and the anxious waiting, with its disappointing results, +preyed so on her mind that she fell into ill-health and died. Speaking to +her son before her death, she said: "Oh, William, let this horrid plea +drop. Don't pay that man any more money. I feel that he would skin us both +alive. They are a bad set all these law men." William was young, and like +the majority of young people, hope was firmly fixed in his nature. He not +only devoted all his money to law, but bought a second-hand copy of +"Blackstone's Commentaries," and spent all his leisure time in studying +it, until he was complete master of the work. After the death of his +mother, he gave up house-keeping, and took lodgings with a widow, having +a daughter about twenty-four years of age. They became interested in his +case, and lent him money to carry on his suit. A rich uncle had left the +girl a few hundred pounds. The young couple were brought into sympathy +with each other, which ripened into mutual affection, and in a short time, +with the consent freely given of the mother, they were married. Shortly +after the wedding it transpired that the attorney at Driffield had been +cheating his client, and instead of using the hard-earned money of William +Swan to gain his estates, he had spent it in dissipation, and was a ruined +man. + +Swan proceeded to London, and consulted another lawyer. This man advised +an action which swallowed up the wife's small fortune, without getting +them one step nearer obtaining the estate. Trouble after trouble came upon +William. His heart was almost crushed, but he continued the action to the +best of his ability. His wife begged of him to leave law alone, to return +to their Yorkshire home, live by their industry, and give up all thoughts +of the property. He refused to act upon her good advice. He got into debt, +and was committed to the Fleet prison on his inability to pay. Here ill +luck still followed him, for he caught the jail fever. In his sickness his +devoted wife got permission to visit him, and bring him some delicacies. +She, alas, caught the fever, and in a few days died. He recovered, but the +death of his loving helpmate was almost too much for him. She had endured +much for his sake, but never by word or deed showed regret at becoming his +wife. Shortly afterwards a jail delivery enabled him to leave prison. His +illness rendered him so weak that he could hardly walk. He obtained +lodgings in an obscure lane or alley near Chiswell Street, and afterwards +was found dead in bed. It is believed that his remains were buried in a +pauper's grave. + + + + +Short Letters. + + +The shortest letters on record are two exchanged between a couple of +members of the Society of Friends. One of them, wishing to learn if a +correspondent in a distant town had any news to communicate, posted to him +a quarto sheet of paper, on which nothing but a note of interrogation was +written, thus: ? (meaning, "what news?") He received in reply, by next +post, a blank sheet of paper, indicating that there was nothing to relate. + +Some of the best of brief letters have been penned by members of the +dramatic profession. The following are good specimens. A tradesman made +application to Mordaunt, the player, for payment of an account, as +follows:-- + + "Sir,--Your bill having been standing a very long time, I beg to have + it settled forthwith. + + Yours, etc., + J. Thwaites." + +Said the comedian in reply:-- + + "Sir,--When your bill is tired of _standing_, it is welcome to sit + down. + + Yours, etc., + T. H. M." + +The next letters passed between Samuel Foote, the famous actor, and his +unfortunate mother:-- + + "Dear Sam,--I am in prison for debt; come and assist your loving + mother, + + E. Foote." + +His answer was almost as brief, certainly as pathetic:-- + + "Dear Mother,--So am I, which prevents his duty being paid to his + loving mother by her affectionate son. + + Sam Foote." + + "P.S.--I have sent my attorney to assist you; in the meantime let us + hope for better days." + +Quin had a misunderstanding with Rich, the manager of Covent Garden +Theatre, which resulted in the former leaving in an unceremonious manner. +He soon regretted the step that he had taken, and wrote to his old friend +and manager:-- + + "I am at Bath. + + Quin." + +Rich did not deem such a letter a sufficient apology for his unwarrantable +conduct, and thus replied to it:-- + + "Stay there and be hanged. + + Rich." + +The Rev. Sydney Smith, in answer to a friend who had forwarded a letter +asking him to sit for his portrait, to be executed by Landseer, the +gifted painter, whose pictures of dogs made him famous, sent the following +reply:-- + + "Is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing?" + +Genial Charles Lamb wrote an amusing letter to Haydon, the artist, in +answer to an invitation to pay him a visit. The odd address of Haydon was +the cause of the note, which ran as follows:-- + + "My dear Haydon,--I will come, with pleasure, to 22, Lisson Grove, + North, at Rossi's, half-way up, right hand side, if I can find it. + + Yours, + C. Lamb." + + "20, Russell Court, + Covent Garden, East, + Half-way up, next the corner, + Left-hand side." + +A lady named Morris, of Plymouth, is recorded to have been the first of +her sex to venture under water in a diving bell. + +She had wit as well as courage, and wrote to her father a rhyming epistle, +saying:-- + + "From a belle, my dear father, you've oft had a line, + But not from a bell under water; + Just now I can only assure you I'm thine, + Your diving and dutiful daughter." + +Frank Smedley, the author of "Frank Fairleigh," addressed to a lady friend +the following letter in verse:-- + + "To Mrs. G. H. Virtue." + + "Thou better half of Virtue, gentle friend, + Fairly to thee, I, Fairleigh, greeting send; + Frankly I give what frankly you desire; + You thus Frank Fairleigh's autograph acquire. + To make assurance doubly sure, this medley + Of Franks and Fairleighs this I sign-- + Frank Smedley." + +A famous sporting character, named Captain O'Byrne, laid a wager about +Admiral Payne, and wrote to him as follows:-- + + "Dear Payne,--Pray, were you bread to the sea?" + +The witty Admiral made reply:-- + + "Dear O'Byrne,--No; but the sea was bread to me." + +It is said that King Charles the Second received the following letter:-- + + "King Charles,--One of your subjects the other night robbed me of £40, + for which I robbed another of the same sum, who has inhumanly sent me + to Newgate, and he vows I shall be hanged; therefore, for your own + sake, save my life, or you will lose one of the best seamen in your + navy. + + Jack Skifton." + +His Majesty promptly answered the letter:-- + + "Jack Skifton,--For this time I'll save thee from the gallows, but if + hereafter thou art guilty of the like, I'll have thee hanged, though + the best seaman in my navy. + + Charles Rex." + +Here is a copy of a quaint letter sent to another king. It was written by +Dr. Schmidt, sacristan of the Cathedral at Berlin, to Frederick of +Prussia: + + "Sire,--I acquaint your Majesty, 1st, that they are wanting books of + psalms for the Royal Family. I acquaint your Majesty, 2ndly, that + there wants wood to warm the Royal seats. And I acquaint your Majesty, + 3rdly, that the balustrade next the river, behind the church, is + become ruinous. + + Schmidt, + Sacristan of the Cathedral." + +In reply to the foregoing diverting communication the king wrote:-- + + "I acquaint Mr. Sacrist Schmidt, 1st, that they who want to sing songs + may buy books. I acquaint Mr. Sacrist Schmidt, 2ndly, that those who + want to be kept warm may buy wood. I acquaint Mr. Sacrist Schmidt, + 3rdly, that I shall not trust any longer to the balustrade next to the + river; and I acquaint Mr. Sacrist Schmidt, 4thly, that I will not have + any more correspondence with him. + + Frederick." + +The following phonographic curiosity is extracted from the _Times_. It was +written by an unsophisticated person to his physician, in Lancashire:-- + + "Cer yole oblige me uf yole kum and ce me i hev a bad kowld an am hill + in mi bow hills an hev lorst mi happetite. + + Roger Trooman." + +One Highlander wrote to another the following smart letter:-- + + "My dear Glengarry,--As soon as you can prove yourself to be my chief, + I shall be ready to acknowledge you. In the meantime + + I am yours, + MacDonald." + +The Duke of Wellington engaged an intelligent Scotch farmer, named Heriot, +to act as his private secretary. + +"Walking in the city one day," says the Rev. Dr. Charles Rogers, "Mr. +Heriot met an old acquaintance from Scotland." + +"Hallo! Heriot," said his friend, "what are you doing in London?" + +"I am secretary to the Duke of Wellington," answered Heriot. + +"You are nothing of the sort," said the Scotsman; "and I fear you're doing +little good, since you would impose upon me in this fashion." + +Returning to Scotland, it occurred to Heriot's acquaintance that he would +write to the Duke, warning him that one Heriot "had been passing himself +off as his secretary." + +He received the following reply: + + "Sir,--I am directed by the Duke of Wellington to acknowledge the + receipt of your letter; and I am, + + Your obedient servant, + + J. Heriot, + Private Secretary." + +A captain being ordered with his regiment to the Cape, made application to +the Duke of Wellington for permission to try and arrange for a transfer to +another corps. The "Iron Duke" merely turned up his letter and wrote +"Sail or sell," and returned it to the applicant. + +Mr. George Seton, who has devoted much attention to this theme, tells an +American story in which a brief letter holds a prominent place. He states +that "in 1693, the Rev. Stephen Mix made a journey to Northampton in +search of a wife. He arrived at the Rev. Solomon Stoddard's, and informed +him of the object of his visit. Mr. Stoddard introduced him to his six +daughters, and then retired. Addressing Mary, the eldest, Mr. Mix said +that he had lately settled at Wethersfield, was desirous of obtaining a +wife, and concluded by offering his heart and hand. The blushing damsel +replied that so important a proposal required time for consideration; and +accordingly Mr. Mix left the room in order to smoke a pipe with her +father, while she took the case to 'avizandum.' On her answer being sent +for, she requested further time for consideration; and it was agreed that +she should send her answer by letter to Wethersfield. In the course of a +few weeks, Mr. Mix received a reply, which was soon followed by the +wedding:-- + + "Northampton, + 3rd November, 1693. + + Rev. Stephen Mix,--Yes.--Mary Stoddard." + +We will bring to a close our examples of laconic letters with another +specimen from the other side of the Atlantic. A notable dark day at +Boston, on the 19th March, 1790, induced a lady to write to Dr. Byles, an +eccentric but clever notability, the following note:-- + + "Dear Doctor,--How do you account for this darkness?" + +He simply said:-- + + "Dear Madam,--I am as much in the dark as you are." + + +THE END + + + + +Index. + + + Ainsworth, W. H., 88 + + Alfreton, staked at Cards, 107 + + American Novelists, 65 + + Andersen, H. C., 20, 68 + + Andrews, Henry, 206-212 + + _Argosy_, 29 + + Arnold, Sir Edwin, 23 + + Austen, Jane, 67 + + Appleby, 215 + + + Bacchanalian toasts, 124 + + Balloon Tytler, 12 + + Balzac, 14-16 + + Barnes, editor of _The Times_, 54 + + Beaconsfield, Earl of, 59-60 + + Bells, Rhymes on, 104, 106 + + Benwell Hall, 222 + + Beresford, James, 68 + + Beverley, 32, 101 + + Bills of Fare, 114, 115-116 + + Biographical Romance: Swan's Strange Story, 222-227 + + _Blackwood's Magazine_, 13 + + Blair's "Sermons," 72 + + Bloomfield, Robert, 73, 81 + + Bolas Magna, 201 + + Books, Southey's love of, 19 + + Boswell, 7 + + Braddon, Miss, 31-34 + + Bradstreet, Anne, 143-148 + + Brewer, Dr., 57-58 + + Briscoe, J. Potter, on Miller's Works, 196-198 + + Bristol, Procession of Nayler at, 219 + + Brooks, Henry M., 133 + + Brontė, Charlotte, 69-71 + + Browning, Robert, 64 + + Buchan's "Domestic Medicine," 72 + + Burleigh, Lord of, 199 + + Burns, Robert, 11, 91, 92, 98, 116-118 + + Butler, author of "Hudibras," 77-78 + + Butler, Professor, on Scrap-books, 131-133 + + Byron, Lord, 20, 50, 51, 73, 82, 84, 85 + + + Campbell, Thomas, 55 + + Cards, 107 + + Carlyle, T., 2-3, 16 + + Catherine, Spelling of, 150-151 + + Cecil, Henry, 199 + + Celebrated Songs of Scotland, 11 + + Chalk, Lines on, 95 + + _Chambers's Journal_, 34 + + Charles II., letter to, 231 + + Chepstow, 219 + + Christian's View of Death, 171 + + Civil War, 213 + + Common Place-Book, Sala's, 38-41 + + Compiler of "Old Moore's Almanac": Henry Andrews, 206-212 + + _Cornhill Magazine_, 25, 34 + + Cornwall, Barry, 21 + + Cooper, Thomas, 187 + + Cottage Countess, The, 199-205 + + Cowper, 81 + + Crabbe, 51-52 + + Curious American Old-Time Gleanings, 131-142 + + Curiosities of the Lottery, 139-140 + + + Days of the Spinning Wheel, 140 + + Daudet, A., 28-29 + + "Declined with Thanks," 67-75 + + Derbyshire rhymes, 100, 102, 106, 107, 108 + + De Quincey, 1 + + Dickens, Charles, 26-27, 58 + + Dictionary, Johnson's, how compiled, 4-7 + + Diving bell, 230 + + Dress _v._ Dinner, 92 + + Duck, Stephen, 79-80 + + Duel, 85 + + Ducking stool, 137 + + + Earliest American Poetess: Anne Bradstreet, 143-148 + + Ears cropped, 136, 137 + + Earnings of Authors, 43-66 + + East Ardsley, 213 + + Edgeworth, Miss, 21 + + Editor's poverty, 9 + + Elegy written in a country churchyard, 45-46 + + Eliot, George, 27, 62-63 + + "Encyclopędia Britannica," 7-12 + + English Folk Rhymes, 100-109 + + Epigrams on Authors, 76-89 + + + Fergusson, Robert, 90 + + Fielding, 48 + + Fisherman's Funeral, The, 182 + + Flowers of the Forest, 161 + + Foote, S., 229 + + Fox, Geo., 214 + + French Epigrams, 76 + + Frieston, 206 + + + Gallows, 136 + + Gay, 46 + + German Epigrams, 76 + + Gibbon, 56 + + Glazier's Toast, 129 + + Globe Tavern, Dumfries, 98 + + Gloucestershire Rhyme, 108 + + Goldsmith, 46-47 + + Gordon Riots, 80 + + Gore, Mrs., 17-18 + + Grant's Memoirs, 66 + + Greek Epigrams, 76 + + Gray, 21, 45-46 + + Greengrocer's Toast, 129 + + "Guide to Science," 57 + + + Hadden, J. Cuthbert, 64 + + Hamerton, P. G., 35, 36 + + Hall, Dr. Spencer T., 188 + + Harte, Bret, 65 + + Hatter's Toast, 129 + + Hayley, 48 + + Hedon, 101 + + Historical value of newspapers, 131 + + Historical works, 56-57 + + Holderness, In, 184 + + Homer, 76-77 + + Hood, E. P., 88 + + Hook, Theodore, 83, 85 + + Hull, Stage, Miss Braddon on, 31; + Rhyme, 103; + Shakespearean Festival, 111; + Burns' Club, 116-118; + Literary Club, 118-119; + Mrs. Jno. Hunter born at, 160 + + Hung in chains, 138 + + Humour in prison, 138-139 + + Hunter, Dr. John, 162-165 + + Hunter, Mrs. John, 160-175 + + + Inn rhymes, 94, 95, 96, 98 + + + "Jane Eyre," 69 + + Jeffrey, Lord, 85 + + Johnson, Dr. S., 4-7, 43, 46, 47 + + + Keats, 25 + + Keble's "Christian Year," 73-74 + + Kentish Rhymes, 108 + + Kidnapping, 222 + + Knocking of feet in Churches, 135 + + + Lady Mayoress of York, 103 + + Laidlow, William, 13 + + Lake Poets, 81 + + Lamb, Charles, 230 + + Lancashire rhymes 105, 107 + + Lang, Andrew, 41-42 + + Leechfield, 102 + + Lingard's History of England, 56 + + Lincolnshire rhymes, 103, 104, 105, 106 + + London rhyme, 103 + + Longfellow, 63-64 + + Lord Mayors of York, 103 + + Lost with all Hands, 180 + + Lotteries, 139-140 + + Lowell, J. R., 65 + + Loyal and Patriotic Toasts, 121-122 + + Ludicrous blunders, 74 + + Lytton, Bulwer, 59, 89 + + + Macaulay, Lord, 56-57 + + Mansfield, Lord, 80-81 + + Martineau, Miss, 16 + + Masonic Toasts, 124 + + Miscellaneous Toasts, 127 + + Miller, A., 6 + + Miller, Joe, 80 + + Miller, Thomas, 186-198 + + Milton, John, 44; + epigram on, 45 + + Monument in Greyfriars' to Mary Pyper, 175 + + Moore, Francis, 212 + + Moore, Thomas, 52-54, 85, 86 + + Mordaunt, 228 + + Musicians' Toasts, 128-129 + + My Mother bids me bind my Hair, 161 + + Myton Rhyme, 103 + + + Naval and Military Toasts, 122-123 + + Nayler, James, the Mad Quaker, 213-221 + + New England Sunday, 133 + + Newington Church, 105 + + Newton, Sir Isaac, 78 + + Norfolk rhymes, 101 + + Norwich rhyme, 102 + + Nottingham Public Library, Miller's books in, 196-198 + + + Old Fountain, The, 192 + + Old Moore's Almanac, 206-212 + + Olden Times Series, by Henry M. Brooks, 133-142 + + Oliphant, Mrs., 50 + + On seeing two little girls present a flower to a dying person, 173 + + Ouida, 63 + + + "Paradise Lost," 44 + + Pawnbroker's Toast, 129 + + Payn, James, 34-35, 60 + + Playful Poet: Miss Catherine Fanshawe, 149-159 + + Playing at cards for towns, 107 + + Phillips, Sir Richard, 73 + + Phonographic curiosity, 232 + + Pillory, 136; + Nayler in the, 220 + + Poem in imitation of Wordsworth, 151 + + Poet and Novelist of the People: Thomas Miller, 186-198 + + Poet of the Fisher-Folk: Mrs. Susan K. Phillips, 176-185 + + Poet of the Poor: Mary Pyper, 167-175 + + Poetical Graces, 90-93 + + Poetry of Toast Lists and Menu Cards, 110-119 + + Poetry on Panes, 94-99 + + Political Toasts, 126 + + Pope, 46, 78 + + Popular Song Writer: Mrs. John Hunter, 160-175 + + Prayer by proxy, 92 + + Prescott, 72 + + Printer's troubled by authors, 16 + + Professional Toasts, 128 + + Proud Preston, 105 + + Punning Toasts, 125 + + Purlwell Hall, 97 + + Pyper, Mary, 167-175 + + + Quakers punished, 137; + Mad Quaker, 213-221 + + Quin, 229 + + + Rabbits, Grace on, 27 + + Reade, Charles, 27-28 + + Redeeming Friars, 223 + + Rich, 229 + + Richardson, Professor C. F., 146 + + Richter, J. P., 2-3 + + Riddle on the letter H., 153-154 + + Rhyming grants of land, 100-101 + + Robertson's "History of Scotland," 56 + + "Robinson Crusoe," 67 + + Rose, Sir George, 87 + + Roxburghe Club, 127-128 + + Royston, 208 + + Ruskin, John, 63 + + + Sala, G. A., 36-41 + + Sandon, rhyme at, 95 + + Scrap-books, 131-133 + + Scarborough rhymes, 109 + + Schmidt, 231 + + Schoolmaster's Toasts, 128 + + School books, 55 + + Scolds, punished, 137 + + Scott, Sir Walter, 12-13, 48-50, 73, 82-83 + + _Scots' Magazine_, 8 + + Selling bells, Rhymes on, 104 + + Sentimental Toasts, 126 + + Servant of God, 172 + + Seymour, Digby, 87 + + Shakespeare's fortune, 44 + + Shakespearean Quotations, 111-115 + + Shelley, 22 + + Shoemaker's Toast, 129 + + Short Letters, 228-235 + + Slave-trade, 140-142 + + Sleeping in meeting-house, Punishment for, 135 + + Smedley, F., 230 + + Smellie, William, 7-8 + + Smith, Albert, 86 + + Smith, Sydney, 229 + + Smollett, 56 + + Somerville, Mrs., 21 + + Somerset rhymes, 103 + + Southey, 19-20, 21, 82 + + Spires of Churches, 106 + + Sporting Toasts, 125 + + St Andrews' University, 90 + + Sterne, 71 + + Stoves, introduction into churches, 134 + + Stowe, Mrs., 71 + + Strange and curious punishments, 135 + + Sunday in New England, 133 + + Swan's Strange Story, 222-227 + + Swift, Dean, 79 + + + Tennyson, Lord, 14, 64, 118-119, 199 + + Tercentenary Banquet at Stratford-on-Avon, 114 + + Thackeray, W. M, 27, 58, 87 + + Theodore, King of Corsica, 78 + + Thompson, Town Clerk of Hull, 87-88 + + _Times, The_, editorship refused by Southey, 19 + + Toasts and Toasting, 120-130 + + Tongue bored with a hot iron, 220 + + Travelling on Sunday, 133 + + Trollope, Mrs, 18-19 + + Trollope, A., 1, 24-25, 60-62 + + Trollope, T. A., 18 + + Tytler, Joseph, 8-12 + + + Ugley, rhyme on, 106 + + + Vegetarian graces, 93 + + "Vicar of Wakefield," 46 + + "Vice Versa," 72 + + Vyse's Spelling-Book, 55 + + + Wakefield, 213, 214 + + Warner, Miss, 71 + + Warren, Samuel, 68, 87-88 + + Waterloo, 83-84 + + Weather rhymes, 108 + + Wellington, Secretary to the Duke of, 233 + + Wesley, Rev. S., 93 + + Whipping, 135, 220 + + Whitby Bells, 185 + + White, H. K., 81 + + Wilberforce, Bishop, 26 + + Wilson, Professor, 13-14 + + Wood, Mrs. Henry, 29-31 + + Worcestershire Rhymes, 109 + + Wolfe, Charles, 74-75 + + Words, meaning of, 6 + + Wordsworth, W., 22-23, 82 + + + York Theatre, 96 + + Yorkshire pane rhymes, 94, 95, 96, 97; + Rhymes, 103-109; + Poets, 176. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] He was thirty years of age. + +[2] The Royal Institution where the Rev. Sydney Smith was reading lectures +on moral philosophy. The particular lecture alluded to in the above ode +was "The Sublime." + +[3] A fashionable milliner. + + + + +"Mr. Andrews' books are always interesting."--_Church Bells._ + +"No student of Mr. Andrews' books can be a dull after-dinner speaker, for +his writings are full of curious out-of-the-way information and good +stories."--_Birmingham Daily Gazette._ + + +England in the Days of Old. + +BY WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S., + +_Demy 8vo., 7s. 6d. Numerous Illustrations._ + + +This volume is one of unusual interest and value to the lover of olden +days and ways, and can hardly fail to interest and instruct the reader. It +recalls many forgotten episodes, scenes, characters, manners, customs, +etc., in the social and domestic life of England. + + +CONTENTS:--When Wigs were Worn--Powdering the Hair--Men Wearing +Muffs--Concerning Corporation Customs--Bribes for the Palate--Rebel Heads +on City Gates--Burial at Cross Roads--Detaining the Dead for Debt--A +Nobleman's Household in Tudor Times--Bread and Baking in Bygone +Days--Arise, Mistress, Arise!--The Turnspit--A Gossip about the +Goose--Bells as Time-Tellers--The Age of Snuffing--State +Lotteries--Bear-Baiting--Morris Dancers--The Folk-Lore of Midsummer +Eve--Harvest Home--Curious Charities--An Old-Time Chronicler. + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS:--The House of Commons in the time of Sir Robert +Walpole--Egyptian Wig--The Earl of Albemarle--Campaign Wig--Periwig with +Tail--Ramillie-Wig--Pig-tail Wig--Bag-Wig--Archbishop +Tilotson--Heart-Breakers--A Barber's Shop in the time of Queen +Elizabeth--With and Without a Wig--Stealing a Wig--Man with Muff, +1693--Burying the Mace at Nottingham--The Lord Mayor of York escorting +Princess Margaret--The Mayor of Wycombe going to the Guildhall--Woman +wearing a Scold's Bridle--The Brank--Andrew Marvell--Old London Bridge, +shewing heads of rebels on the gate--Axe, Block, and Executioner's +Mask--Margaret Roper taking leave of her father, Sir Thomas More--Rebel +Heads, from a print published in 1746--Temple Bar in Dr. Johnson's +time--Micklegate Bar, York--Clock, Hampton Court Palace--Drawing a Lottery +in the Guildhall, 1751--Advertising the Last State Lottery--Partaking of +the Pungent Pinch--Morris Dance, from a painted window at Betley--Morris +Dance, temp. James I.--A Whitsun Morris Dance--Bear Garden, or Hope +Theatre, 1647--The Globe Theatre, temp. Elizabeth--Plan of Bankside early +in the Seventeenth Century--John Stow's Monument. + +A carefully prepared Index enables the reader to refer to the varied and +interesting contents of the book. + +"A very attractive and informing book."--_Birmingham Daily Gazette._ + +"Mr. Andrews has the true art of narration, and contrives to give us the +results of his learning with considerable freshness of style, whilst his +subjects are always interesting and picturesque."--_Manchester Courier._ + +"The book is of unusual interest."--_Eastern Morning News._ + +"Of the many clever books which Mr. Andrews has written none does him +greater credit than "England in the Days of Old," and none will be read +with greater profit."--_Northern Gazette._ + + + + +"Valuable and interesting."--_The Times._ + +"Readable as well as instructive."--_The Globe._ + +"A valuable addition to any library."--_Derbyshire Times._ + + +The Bygone Series. + + +In this series the following volumes are included, and issued at 7s. 6d. +each. Demy 8vo, cloth gilt. + +These books have been favourably reviewed in the leading critical journals +of England and America. + +Carefully written articles by recognised authorities are included on +history, castles, abbeys, biography, romantic episodes, legendary lore, +traditional stories, curious customs, folk-lore, etc., etc. + +The works are illustrated by eminent artists, and by the reproduction of +quaint pictures of the olden time. + + BYGONE BERKSHIRE, edited by Rev. P. H. Ditchfield, M.A., F.S.A. + BYGONE CHESHIRE, edited by William Andrews. + BYGONE DEVONSHIRE, by the Rev. Hilderic Friend. + BYGONE DURHAM, edited by William Andrews. + BYGONE HERTFORDSHIRE, edited by William Andrews. + BYGONE LEICESTERSHIRE, edited by William Andrews. + BYGONE LINCOLNSHIRE (2 vols), edited by William Andrews. + BYGONE NORFOLK, edited by William Andrews. + BYGONE NORTHUMBERLAND, edited by William Andrews. + BYGONE NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, by William Stevenson. + BYGONE SCOTLAND, by David Maxwell, _C.E._ + BYGONE SOMERSETSHIRE, edited by Cuming Walters. + BYGONE SOUTHWARK, by Mrs. E. Boger. + BYGONE SUFFOLK, edited by Cuming Walters. + BYGONE SURREY, edited by George Clinch and S. W. Kershaw, F.S.A. + BYGONE SUSSEX, by W. E. A. Axon. + BYGONE WARWICKSHIRE, edited by William Andrews. + BYGONE YORKSHIRE, edited by William Andrews. + + + + +The Church Treasury of History, Custom, Folk-Lore, etc. + +EDITED BY WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S. + +_Demy 8vo., 7s. 6d. Numerous Illustrations._ + + +CONTENTS:--Stave-Kirks--Curious Churches of Cornwall--Holy Wells--Hermits +and Hermit Cells--Church Wakes--Fortified Church Towers--The Knight +Templars: their Churches and their Privileges--English Medieval +Pilgrimages--Pilgrims' Signs--Human Skin on Church Doors--Animals of the +Church in Wood, Stone, and Bronze--Queries in Stones--Pictures in +Churches--Flowers and the Rites of the Church--Ghost Layers and Ghost +Laying--Church Walks--Westminster Wax-Works--Index. Numerous +Illustrations. + +"It is a work that will prove interesting to the clergy and churchmen +generally, and to all others who have an antiquarian turn of mind, or like +to be regaled occasionally by reading old-world customs and +anecdotes."--_Church Family Newspaper._ + +"Mr. Andrews has given us some excellent volumes of Church lore, but none +quite so good as this. The subjects are well chosen. They are treated +brightly and with considerable detail, and they are well illustrated.... +Mr. Andrews is himself responsible for some of the most interesting +papers, but all his helpers have caught his own spirit, and the result is +a volume full of information well and pleasantly put."--_London Quarterly +Review._ + +"Those who seek information regarding curious and quaint relics or customs +will find much to interest them in this book. The illustrations are +good."--_Publishers' Circular._ + +"An excellent and entertaining book."--_Newcastle Daily Leader._ + +"The book will be welcome to every lover of archęological +lore."--_Liverpool Daily Post._ + +"The volume is of a most informing and suggestive character, abounding in +facts not easy of access to the ordinary reader, and enhanced with +illustrations of a high order of merit, and extremely +numerous."--_Birmingham Daily Gazette._ + +"The contents of the volume are very good."--_Leeds Mercury._ + +"The volume is sure to meet with a cordial reception."--_Manchester +Courier._ + +"A fascinating book."--_Stockport Advertiser._ + +"Mr. Andrews has brought together much curious matter."--_Manchester +Guardian._ + +"The book is a very readable one, and will receive a hearty +welcome."--_Herts. Advertiser._ + +"Mr. William Andrews has been able to give us a very acceptable and useful +addition to the books which deal with the curiosities of Church lore, and +for this deserves our hearty thanks. The manner in which the book is +printed and illustrated also commands our admiration."--_Norfolk +Chronicle._ + + + + +Antiquities and Curiosities of the Church. + +EDITED BY WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S. + +_Demy 8vo., 7s. 6d. Numerous Illustrations._ + + +CONTENTS:--Church History and Historians--Supernatural Interference in +Church Building--Ecclesiastical Symbolism in Architecture--Acoustic +Jars--Crypts--Heathen Customs at Christian Feasts--Fish and +Fasting--Shrove-tide and Lenten Customs--Wearing Hats in Church--The Stool +of Repentance--Cursing by Bell, Book, and Candle--Pulpits--Church +Windows--Alms-Boxes and Alms-Dishes--Old Collecting +Boxes--Gargoyles--Curious Vanes--People and Steeple +Rhymes--Sun-Dials--Jack of the Clock-House--Games in Churchyards--Circular +Churchyards--Church and Churchyard Charms and Cures--Yew Trees in +Churchyards. + +"A very entertaining work."--_Leeds Mercury._ + +"A well-printed, handsome, and profusely illustrated work."--_Norfolk +Chronicle._ + +"There is much curious and interesting reading in this popular volume, +which moreover has a useful index."--_Glasgow Herald._ + +"The contents of the volume is exceptionally good reading, and crowded +with out-of-the way, useful, and well selected information on a subject +which has an undying interest."--_Birmingham Mercury._ + +"In concluding this notice it is only the merest justice to add that every +page of it abounds with rare and often amusing information, drawn from the +most accredited sources. It also abounds with illustrations of our old +English authors, and it is likely to prove welcome not only to the +Churchman, but to the student of folk-lore and of poetical +literature."--_Morning Post._ + +"We can recommend this volume to all who are interested in the notable and +curious things that relate to churches and public worship in this and +other countries."--_Newcastle Daily Journal._ + +"It is very handsomely got up and admirably printed, the letterpress being +beautifully clear."--_Lincoln Mercury._ + +"The book is well indexed."--_Daily Chronicle._ + +"By delegating certain topics to those most capable of treating them, the +editor has the satisfaction of presenting the best available information +in a very attractive manner."--_Dundee Advertiser._ + +"It must not be supposed that the book is of interest only to Churchmen, +although primarily so, for it treats in such a skilful and instructive +manner with ancient manners and customs as to make it an invaluable book +of reference to all who are concerned in the seductive study of +antiquarian subjects."--_Chester Courant._ + + + + +A Book About Bells. + +BY THE REV. GEO. S. TYACK, B.A., + +Author of the "Historic Dress of the Clergy," etc. + +_Crown, cloth extra 6s._ + + +CONTENTS:--Invention of Bells--Bell Founding and Bell Founders--Dates and +Names of Bells--The Decoration of Bells--Some Noteworthy Bells--The Loss +of Old Bells--Towers and Campaniles--Bell-Ringing and Bell-Ringers--The +Church-Going Bell--Bells at Christian Festivals and Fasts--The Epochs of +Man's Life Marked by the Bells--The Blessings and the Cursings of the +Bells--Bells as Time-Markers--Secular Uses of Church and other +Bells--Small Bells, Secular and Sacred--Carillons--Belfry Rhymes and +Legends--Index of Subjects, Index of Places. + +THIRTEEN FULL-PAGE PLATES. + +"A most useful and interesting book.... All who are interested in bells +will, we feel confident, read it with pleasure and profit."--_Church +Family Newspaper._ + +"A pleasing, graceful, and scholarly book.... A handsome volume which will +be prized by the antiquary, and can be perused with delight and advantage +by the general reader."--_Notes and Queries._ + +"'A Book About Bells' can be heartily commended."--_Pall Mall Gazette._ + +"An excellent and entertaining book, which we commend to the attention not +only of those who are specially interested in the subject of bells, but to +all lovers of quaint archęological lore."--_Glasgow Herald._ + +"The book is well printed and artistic in form."--_Manchester Courier._ + +"'A Book About Bells' is destined to be the work of reference on the +subject, and it ought to find a home on the shelves of every +library."--_Northern Gazette._ + +"The task Mr. Tyack has set himself, he has carried out admirably, and +throughout care and patient research are apparent."--_Lynn News._ + +"We heartily recommend our readers to procure this volume."--_The +Churchwoman._ + +"An entertaining work."--_Yorkshire Post._ + +"'A Book About Bells' will interest almost everyone. Antiquaries will find +in it an immense store of information: but the general reader will equally +feel that it is a book well worth reading from beginning to end."--_The +News_, Edited by the Rev. Charles Bullock, B.D. + +"An excellent work."--_Stockton Herald._ + +"It is a well-written work, and it is sure to be popular."--_Hull +Christian Voice._ + +"Covers the whole field of bell-lore."--_Scotsman._ + +"Most interesting and finely illustrated."--_Birmingham Daily Gazette._ + + + + +Historic Dress of the Clergy. + +BY THE REV. GEO. S. TYACK, B.A., + +Author of "The Cross in Ritual, Architecture, and Art." + +_Crown, cloth extra, 3s. 6d._ + + +The work contains thirty-three illustrations from ancient monuments, rare +manuscripts, and other sources. + +"A very painstaking and very valuable volume on a subject which is just +now attracting much attention. Mr. Tyack has collected a large amount of +information from sources not available to the unlearned, and has put +together his materials in an attractive way. The book deserves and is sure +to meet with a wide circulation."--_Daily Chronicle._ + +"This book is written with great care, and with an evident knowledge of +history. It is well worth the study of all who wish to be better informed +upon a subject which the author states in his preface gives evident signs +of a lively and growing interest."--_Manchester Courier._ + +"Those who are interested in the Dress of the Clergy will find full +information gathered together here, and set forth in a lucid and scholarly +way."--_Glasgow Herald._ + +"We are glad to welcome yet another volume from the author of 'The Cross +in Ritual, Architecture, and Art.' His subject, chosen widely and carried +out comprehensively, makes this a valuable book of reference for all +classes. It is only the antiquary and the ecclesiologist who can devote +time and talents to research of this kind, and Mr. Tyack has done a real +and lasting service to the Church of England by collecting so much useful +and reliable information upon the dress of the clergy in all ages, and +offering it to the public in such a popular form. We do not hesitate to +recommend this volume as the most reliable and the most comprehensive +illustrated guide to the history and origin of the canonical vestments and +other dress worn by the clergy, whether ecclesiastical, academical, or +general, while the excellent work in typography and binding make it a +beautiful gift-book."--_Church Bells._ + +"A very lucid history of ecclesiastical vestments from Levitical times to +the present day."--_Pall Mall Gazette._ + +"The book can be recommended to the undoubtedly large class of persons who +are seeking information on this and kindred subjects."--_The Times._ + +"The work may be read either as pastime or for instruction, and is worthy +of a place in the permanent section of any library. The numerous +illustrations, extensive contents table and index, and beautiful +workmanship, both in typography and binding, are all features of +attraction and utility."--_Dundee Advertiser._ + + + + +The Miracle Play in England, + +An Account of the Early Religious Drama. + +BY SIDNEY W. CLARKE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW. + +_Crown 8vo., 3s. 6d. Illustrated._ + + +In bygone times the Miracle Play formed an important feature in the +religious life of England. To those taking an interest in the history of +the Church of England, this volume will prove useful. The author has given +long and careful study to this subject, and produced a reliable and +readable book, which can hardly fail to interest and instruct the reader. +It is a volume for general reading, and for a permanent place in the +reference library. + +CONTENTS:--The Origin of Drama--The Beginnings of English Drama--The York +Plays--The Wakefield Plays--The Chester Plays--The Coventry Plays--Other +English Miracle Plays--The Production of a Miracle Play--The Scenery, +Properties, and Dresses--Appendix--The Order of the York Plays--Extract +from City Register of York, 1426--The Order of the Wakefield Plays--The +Order of the Chester Plays--The Order of the Grey Friars' Plays at +Coventry--A Miracle Play in a Puppet Show--Index. + +"Mr. Clarke has chosen a most interesting subject, one that is attractive +alike to the student, the historian, and the general reader.... A most +interesting volume, and a number of quaint illustrations add to its +value."--_Birmingham Daily Gazette._ + +"The book should be useful to many."--_Manchester Guardian._ + +"An admirable work."--_Eastern Morning News._ + +"Mr. Sidney Clarke's concise monograph in 'The Miracle Play in England' is +another of the long and interesting series of antiquarian volumes for +popular reading issued by the same publishing house. The author briefly +sketches the rise and growth of the 'Miracle' or 'Mystery' play in Europe +and in England; and gives an account of the series or cycle of these +curious religious dramas--the forerunners of the modern secular +play--performed at York, Wakefield, Chester, Coventry, and other towns in +the middle ages. But his chief efforts are devoted to giving a sketch of +the manner of production, and the scenery, properties, and dresses of the +old miracle play, as drawn from the minute account books of the craft and +trade guilds and other authentic records of the period. Mr. Clarke has +gone to the best sources for his information, and the volume, illustrated +by quaint cuts, is an excellent compendium of information on a curious +byeway of literature and art."--_The Scotsman._ + + + + +Legal Lore: Curiosities of Law and Lawyers. + +EDITED BY WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S. + +_Demy 8vo., Cloth extra, 7s. 6d._ + + +CONTENTS:--Bible Law--Sanctuaries--Trials in Superstitious Ages--On +Symbols--Law Under the Feudal System--The Manor and Manor Law--Ancient +Tenures--Laws of the Forest--Trial by Jury in Old Times--Barbarous +Punishments--Trials of Animals--Devices of the Sixteenth Century +Debtors--Laws Relating to the Gipsies--Commonwealth Law and +Lawyers--Cock-Fighting in Scotland--Cockieleerie Law--Fatal +Links--Post-Mortem Trials--Island Laws--The Little Inns of Court--Obiter. + +"There are some very amusing and curious facts concerning law and lawyers. +We have read with much interest the articles on Sanctuaries, Trials in +Superstitious Ages, Ancient Tenures, Trials by Jury in Old Times, +Barbarous Punishments, and Trials of Animals, and can heartily recommend +the volume to those who wish for a few hours' profitable diversion in the +study of what may be called the light literature of the law."--_Daily +Mail._ + +"Most amusing and instructive reading."--_The Scotsman._ + +"The contents of the volume are extremely entertaining, and convey not a +little information on ancient ideas and habits of life. While members of +the legal profession will turn to the work for incidents with which to +illustrate an argument or point a joke, laymen will enjoy its vivid +descriptions of old-fashioned proceedings and often semi-barbaric ideas to +obligation and rectitude."--_Dundee Advertiser._ + +"The subjects chosen are extremely interesting, and contain a quantity of +out-of-the-way and not easily accessible information.... Very tastefully +printed and bound."--_Birmingham Daily Gazette._ + +"The book is handsomely got up; the style throughout is popular and clear, +and the variety of its contents, and the individuality of the writers gave +an added charm to the work."--_Daily Free Press._ + +"The book is interesting both to the general reader and the +student."--_Cheshire Notes and Queries._ + +"Those who care only to be amused will find plenty of entertainment in +this volume, while those who regard it as a work of reference will rejoice +at the variety of material, and appreciate the careful indexing."--_Dundee +Courier._ + +"Very interesting subjects, lucidly and charmingly written. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Literary Byways + +Author: William Andrews + +Release Date: May 10, 2011 [EBook #36078] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITERARY BYWAYS *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<p class="center"><span class="giant">LITERARY BYWAYS.</span></p> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/title.jpg" alt="Literary Byways By William Andrews" /></div> +<p> </p> +<p class="center">LONDON: WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO.,<br />5, FARRINGDON AVENUE, E.C.<br />1898.</p> +<p> </p><p> </p> + +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/printer.jpg" alt="" /></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<h2>Preface.</h2> + +<div class="note"> +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">In</span> the following pages no attempt has been made to add to the many +critical works authors bring under the notice of the public. My aim in +this collection of leisure-hour studies is to afford entertaining reading +on some topics which do not generally attract the reader’s attention.</p> + +<p>It is necessary for me to state that three of the chapters were originally +contributed to the columns of the <i>Chambers’s Journal</i>, and by courtesy of +the Editor are reproduced in this volume.</p> + +<p class="right"><span class="smcap">William Andrews.</span></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">The Hull Press</span>,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;"><i>July 5th, 1898</i>.</span></p></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<h2>Contents.</h2> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td> </td><td align="right"><small>PAGE</small></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Authors at Work</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Earnings of Authors</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_43">43</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Declined with Thanks</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Epigrams on Authors</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_76">76</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Poetical Graces</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_90">90</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Poetry on Panes</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_94">94</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">English Folk-Rhymes</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_100">100</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Poetry of Toast Lists and Menu Cards</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_110">110</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Toasts and Toasting</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_120">120</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Curious American Old-Time Gleanings</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_131">131</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Earliest American Poetess: Anne Bradstreet</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_143">143</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">A Playful Poet: Miss Catherine Fanshawe</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_149">149</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">A Popular Song Writer: Mrs. John Hunter</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_160">160</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">A Poet of the Poor: Mary Pyper</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_167">167</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Poet of the Fisher-Folk: Mrs. Susan K. Phillips</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_176">176</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">A Poet and Novelist of the People: Thomas Miller</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_186">186</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Cottage Countess</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_199">199</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Compiler of “Old Moore’s Almanac”: Henry Andrews</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_206">206</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">James Nayler, the Mad Quaker, who claimed to be the Messiah</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_213">213</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">A Biographical Romance: Swan’s Strange Story</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_222">222</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Short Letters</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_228">228</a></td></tr> +<tr><td><span class="smcap">Index</span></td><td align="right"><a href="#Page_237">237</a></td></tr></table> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="giant">LITERARY BYWAYS.</span></p> +<p> </p> +<h2>Authors at Work.</h2> + +<p><span class="dropfig"><img src="images/the_start.jpg" alt="The" /></span> interest of the public in those who write for its entertainment +naturally extends itself to their habits of life. All such habits, let it +be said at once, depend on individual peculiarities. One will write only +in the morning, another only at night, a third will be able to force +himself into effort only at intervals, and a fourth will, after the manner +of Anthony Trollope, be almost altogether independent of times and places. +The nearest approach to a rule was that which was formulated by a great +writer of the last generation, who said that morning should be employed in +the production of what De Quincey called “the literature of knowledge,” +and the evening in impassioned work, “the literature of power.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span>But habits, however unreasonable they may be, are ordinarily very powerful +with authors. One of the most renowned writers always attired himself in +evening dress before sitting down to his desk. The influence of his +attire, he said, gave dignity and restraint to his style. Another author, +of at least equal celebrity, could only write in dressing gown and +slippers. In order that he might make any progress, it was absolutely +essential that he should be unconscious of his clothes. Most authors +demand quiet and silence as the conditions of useful work. Carlyle padded +his room, in order that he might not be annoyed by the clatter of his +neighbours. On the other hand, Jean Paul Richter, whose influence is +visible throughout nearly the whole of Carlyle’s writings, would work +serenely in the kitchen with his mother attending to her domestic duties, +and the children playing around him. In an article contributed by Carlyle +to the <i>Edinburgh Review</i> on Richter, we get some interesting facts about +this truly great man. The following is reproduced from Döring. “Richter’s +studying or sitting apartment, offered about this time (1793),<small><a name="f1.1" id="f1.1" href="#f1">[1]</a></small> a true +and beautiful emblem of his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> simple and noble way of thought, which +comprehended at once the high and the low. Whilst his mother, who then +lived with him, busily pursued her household work, occupying herself about +stove and dresser, Jean Paul was sitting in a corner of the same room, at +a simple writing-desk, with few or no books about him, but merely with one +or two drawers containing excerpts and manuscripts. The jingle of the +household operations seemed not at all to disturb him, any more than did +the cooing of the pigeons, which fluttered to and fro in the chamber—a +place, indeed, of considerable size.” Carlyle, commenting on the preceding +passage, says—“Our venerable Hooker, we remember, also enjoyed ‘the +jingle of household operations,’ and the more questionable jingle of +shrewd tongues to boot, while he wrote; but the good thrifty mother, and +the cooing pigeons, were wanting. Richter came afterwards to live in fine +mansions, and had the great and learned for associates, but the gentle +feelings of those days abode with him: through life he was the same +substantial, determinate, yet meek and tolerating man. It is seldom that +so much rugged energy can be so blandly attempered, that so much vehemence +and so much softness will go together.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span>Dr. Johnson’s “Dictionary” is one of the most familiar books in the +English language, and the particulars of the way in which it was compiled +are of considerable interest. He agreed with a number of leading London +booksellers to prepare the work for £1,775, and spent seven years over the +task. When he undertook it, he expected to finish it in three years. His +friend, Dr. Adams, called upon him one day, and found him busy with his +book, and, says Boswell, a dialogue as follows ensued. “Adams: ‘This is a +great work, sir. How are you to get all the etymologies?’ Johnson: ‘Why, +here is a shelf with Junius and Skinner, and others; and there is a Welsh +gentleman who has published a collection of Welsh proverbs, who will help +me with the Welsh.’ Adams: ‘But, sir, how can you do this in three years?’ +Johnson: ‘Sir, I have no doubt that I can do it in three years.’ Adams: +‘But the French Academy, which consists of forty members, took forty years +to complete their dictionary.’ Johnson: ‘Sir, thus it is—this is the +proportion. Let me see: forty times forty is sixteen hundred. As three to +sixteen hundred, so is the proportion of an Englishman to a Frenchman.’” +This pleasantry is not reproduced<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> to show Johnson’s vanity, but to give a +glimpse of some of the books he used, and his own ideas as to the period +he expected to spend over the undertaking.</p> + +<p>Johnson fitted up an upper room like a counting house, in which were +employed six copyists; and in spite of his asserted aversion from +Scotchmen, he engaged no less than five of them on his book, so that his +objection to the sons of Caledonia cannot have been very deeply rooted.</p> + +<p>Many of his words were drawn from previously published dictionaries, and +others he supplied himself. He spent much time in reading the best +informed authors, and marked their books with a pencil when he found +suitable material for his work. He would not under any consideration quote +the productions of an author whose writings were calculated to hurt sound +religion and morality. The marked sentences were copied on slips of paper, +which were afterwards posted into an interleaved copy of an old dictionary +opposite the words to which they related.</p> + +<p>At the commencement of the work he made a rather serious mistake by +writing on both sides of his paper. He had to pay twenty pounds to have it +transcribed to one side of the paper only.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span>It has been truthfully observed that Dr. Johnson’s “Illustrations of the +meanings and uses of words” is the most valuable part of the work, and +shows an extraordinary knowledge of literature. Some of the definitions +were characteristic of the man. Take for example the following, to be +found in the first edition:—“Excise. A hateful tax levied upon +commodities, adjudged, not by the common judges of property, but wretches +hired by those to whom the excise is paid.—Network. Anything reticulated +or decussated at equal distances, with interstices between the +intersections.—Oats. A grain which in England is generally given to +horses, but which in Scotland supports the people.” Sir Walter Scott +related the happy retort by Lord Elibank, who said, when he heard the +definition—“Yes; and where else will you see <i>such</i> horses, and <i>such</i> +men.”—Patron. Commonly, a wretch, who supports with insolence, and is +paid with flattery.—Pension. In England, it is generally understood to +mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country.</p> + +<p>Mr. Andrew Miller, bookseller, of the Strand, took the chief management of +the publication, and appears to have been much disappointed at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> slow +progress the compiler made. He frequently pressed Johnson for more “copy,” +and towards the latter part of the work became most anxious, for Johnson +had drawn all his money in drafts long before he had completed the +“Dictionary.”</p> + +<p>According to Boswell, “When the messenger who carried the last sheet to +Miller returned, Johnson asked him, ‘Well, what did he say?’ ‘Sir,’ +answered the messenger, ‘he said, “Thank God I have done with him.”’ ‘I am +glad,’ replied Johnson, ‘that he thanks God for anything.’”</p> + +<p>The Dictionary was published in 1755 in two volumes at £4 4s. 0d., and +soon went through several editions. The expenses of producing the work +left Johnson a small margin of profit. It firmly established his fame.</p> + +<p>Having referred at some length to Johnson’s “Dictionary,” let us pay some +little attention to another important work of reference, the “Encyclopædia +Britannica.” The first edition was issued in weekly numbers commenced in +1771, and was completed in 1773. It consisted of three small quarto +volumes. The first editor was William Smellie, a studious man who made his +start in life as a compositor, and left the printing office for an hour or +two daily to attend the classes of the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span>Edinburgh University. At nineteen +he was employed as proof-reader, conductor and compiler of the <i>Scots’ +Magazine</i> at a salary of sixteen shillings a week. He devised and wrote +the chief articles in the “Encyclopædia Britannica.” The agreement of the +work is a curiosity of literature, and reads as follows:</p> + +<p>“Mr. Andrew Bell to Mr. William Smellie.</p> + +<p>“Sir,—As we are engaged in publishing a ‘Dictionary of the Arts and +Sciences,’ and as you have informed us that there are fifteen capital +sciences, which you will undertake for, and write up the sub-divisions and +detached parts of them, conforming to your plan, and likewise to prepare +the whole work for the press, etc., etc. We hereby agree to allow you £200 +for your trouble.”</p> + +<p>A second edition was called for in 1776, and the proprietors offered +Smellie a share in the undertaking if he would edit it; but having other +pressing work on hand, he declined the proposal, and Joseph Tytler, a man +of varied attainments, was engaged. He was born in 1747, and was the son +of a minister of a rural parish in Scotland. After receiving a liberal +education, he was placed with a surgeon at Forfar. He subsequently made a +couple of voyages as a doctor in a whaling-ship to Greenland.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> Next he +proceeded to Edinburgh with the money he had earned, with a view of +completing his medical education at the University. He had no sooner got +nicely settled in the Northern capital, than he married a girl in humble +circumstances, a step which did not help to advance his worldly interests. +He made many attempts to succeed, but always failed. Keen poverty kept his +nose to the grindstone. His faculty in projecting works was much larger +than his energy in carrying them out. Before he had reached the age of +thirty, he commenced his labours as the editor of the “Encyclopædia +Britannica.” The remuneration he received was very small; and while the +work was in progress, he lodged, with his wife and family, with a poor +washerwoman at the village of Duddingston, and for his writing-desk turned +her wash-tub upside down.</p> + +<p>The poor fellow never attempted to hide his poverty. It is said by a +gentleman who once waited upon him, that he found him making a repast on a +cold potato, which he continued eating with as much composure as if he +were dining in the most sumptuous style.</p> + +<p>The Encyclopædia was a great success, and sold to the extent of ten +thousand copies; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> owners of the copyright cleared £42,000. Moreover +two of the owners, one a printer and the other an engraver, were paid for +their respective work; yet in spite of this handsome profit, the result of +Tytler’s ability, they permitted him to live with his wife and children in +penury.</p> + +<p>He could write almost on any topic, and at any time. As a proof of this, +his biographer tells a good anecdote. “A gentleman in Edinburgh,” he +states, “once told him he wanted as much matter as would form a junction +between a certain history and its continuance to a later period. He found +Tytler lodged in one of those elevated apartments called garrets, and was +informed by the old woman with whom he resided that he had gone to bed +rather the worse for liquor. Determined, however, not to depart without +fulfilling his errand, he was shown into Mr. Tytler’s apartment by the +light of a lamp, where he found him in the situation described by the +landlady. The gentleman having acquainted him with the nature of the +business which brought him at so late an hour, Mr. Tytler called for pen +and ink, and in a short time produced about a page and a half of +letterpress, which answered the end as completely as if it had been the +result of the most mature<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> deliberation, previous notice, and a mind +undisturbed by any liquid capable of deranging its ideas.”</p> + +<p>Tytler was a poet of some skill, and wrote a number of popular songs, +three of which find a place in “The Celebrated Songs of Scotland.” He +enjoyed the friendship of Robert Burns. In 1792 he published a prospectus +of a paper to be named the <i>Political Gazetteer</i>; when it came under the +notice of Burns he wrote to him as follows:—“Go on, sir; lay bare with +undaunted heart and steady hand that horrid mass of corruption called +politics and state-craft.” At the time he penned this he was an officer in +the Excise, and for this and similar expressions he was rebuked by the +Board of Excise. Burns described Tytler as an “obscene, tippling, but +extraordinary body; a mortal who, though he drudges about Edinburgh with +leaky shoes, a skylighted hat, yet that same drunken mortal is author and +compiler of three-fourths of the ‘Encyclopædia Britannica,’ which he +composed at half-a-guinea a week.”</p> + +<p>We must, before dismissing Tytler, give another anecdote, although it does +not relate to literature. We read that “he constructed a huge bag, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> +filled it full of gas, and invited the inhabitants of Edinburgh to witness +his flight through the regions of space.” Mr. Tytler, it appears, slowly +rose in his bag as high as a garden wall, when something went wrong with +the machinery, and he was deposited head foremost “softly on an adjoining +dunghill.” The “gaping crowd nearly killed themselves with laughter.” He +was afterwards known as “Balloon Tytler.” He wrote a seditious placard, +and had to flee to save his neck. He found a home in America, and for some +time edited a paper at Salem. After a life of toil and trouble, he died in +the year 1803.</p> + +<p>Much has been said about the habits and earnings of Sir Walter Scott, and +it is only necessary for us to observe that he wrote in his +neatly-arranged library, where at any moment he could refer to his books. +He was a most methodical man, and never had to waste time hunting up lost +papers and books. He usually commenced writing between five and six, and +worked until ten in the morning, and during this period it was his +practice to fast. When pressed with work, he would often take breakfast at +nine, and lounge about until eleven, and then write with a will until two +o’clock. During the closing years of Sir<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> Walter Scott’s life he employed +William Laidlaw as his amanuensis. Laidlaw was a poet and prose writer of +some merit, possessed of superior shrewdness, and highly esteemed by Sir +Walter and his family. He was for many years steward at Abbotsford.</p> + +<p>Another famous son of the North was Professor Wilson, perhaps more widely +known as “Christopher North,” of <i>Blackwood’s Magazine</i>. He entered in a +large ledger skeletons of intended articles; when he felt in the humour +for working, he turned to his skeletons, selected one, and quickly clothed +it with flesh and nerve. Wilson in a short time could produce a +considerable quantity of original matter. Mr. J. S. Roberts, the editor of +the volume of “Scottish Ballads” in the Chandos Classics series, was a boy +at Blackwood’s when Wilson was the chief contributor to “<i>Maga</i>.” It was +one of Roberts’ duties to go to Christopher North for his “copy.” He was +wont to sit and amuse himself whilst the great, lion-headed man wrote or +furnished an article on all manner of scraps of waste paper. One day there +was a high wind, and Roberts was indiscreet enough to put Professor +Wilson’s article in his hat. The result was hugely disastrous. The +head-gear<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> was blown off, and Wilson’s article was distributed in small +portions over all the streets of Edinburgh. It was a frightful thing to +have to go to the author and explain the catastrophe. John Wilson would +swear, as the boy knew; and for a while he swore most stormily, but +eventually calmed his choler, and wrote the article over again.</p> + +<p>Professor Wilson was the author of a severe critique on the earlier poems +of Alfred Tennyson, and in reply to it the poet wrote the following +lines:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p><span style="margin-left: .25em;">“<span class="smcap">To Christopher North.</span></span></p> + +<p>“You did late review my lays,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Crusty Christopher;</span><br /> +You did mingle blame and praise,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Rusty Christopher.</span><br /> +<br /> +“When I learnt from whom it came,<br /> +I forgave you all the blame,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Musty Christopher;</span><br /> +I could <i>not</i> forgive the praise,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Fusty Christopher.</span></p></div> + +<p>After penning the foregoing, the Laureate does not appear to have troubled +himself further respecting Professor Wilson.</p> + +<p>Let us now look at the method of a famous French author. Like many able +writers, Balzac thought out every detail of a story before he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> commenced +writing it. The places he proposed describing were visited, and the +special features carefully noted. His note-books were filled with +particulars of all classes of characters, for reproduction in his novels. +No sooner had he made up his mind to write on a certain subject, and +collected materials for his work, than he retired from the haunts of men, +and declined to see even his closest friends. Letters might come, but they +were not opened; he was dead to the outer world. His blinds were drawn, +the sunlight shut out, and candles lighted. His ordinary costume was +changed for a loose white monkish gown. The round of his daily toil was as +follows:—At two in the morning he commenced writing, and continued it +until six; a bath was then indulged in; at eight he took coffee, and +rested until the clock marked the hour of nine. He resumed writing until +noon, when an hour was occupied over breakfast. He again laboured with his +pen from one to six, when his work closed for the day. He dined and +conferred with his publisher, and at eight o’clock he retired to rest. +This daily round often occupied two months, in which period he furnished +the first rough draft of his work. The matter was usually re-written, and +even when in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> type he would frequently alter three or four proofs. We are +not surprised to learn “that he was the terror of the printers; few could +decipher his ‘copy,’ and it is said that those few made a stipulation with +their employer to work on it for one hour at a time.”</p> + +<p>He was a most painstaking writer, but was never satisfied with his +productions. “I took,” he said, “sixteen hours out of twenty-four over the +elaboration of my unfortunate style, and I am never satisfied with it when +done.”</p> + +<p>Carlyle’s productions gave the printers much trouble, on account of the +many alterations he made, and his cramped penmanship. His changes were not +confined to his manuscripts; he revised his proofs to such an extent that +it was frequently found easier to reset the matter than to alter it. Miss +Martineau told a good story anent this subject. “One day,” she said, +“while in my study, I heard a prodigious sound of laughter on the stairs, +and in came Carlyle, laughing aloud. He had been laughing in that manner +all the way from the printing office in Charing Cross. As soon as he +could, he told me what it was about. He had been to the office to urge the +printer, and the man said: ‘Why, sir, you really are so very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> hard upon us +with your corrections; they take so much time, you see.’ After some +remonstrance, Carlyle observed that he had been accustomed to do this sort +of thing; that he had got works printed in Scotland, and—‘Yes, indeed, +sir,’ interrupted the printer, ‘we are aware of that. We have a man here +from Edinburgh, and when he took up a bit of your copy he dropped it as if +it had burnt his fingers, and cried out, ‘Lord have mercy! Have you got +that man to print for? Lord knows when we shall get done all his +corrections.’”</p> + +<p>Mrs. Gore was the author of many fashionable novels and other works, which +won much favourable notice in her day. She did not confine all her +attention to story-writing; she contributed very largely to the leading +magazines, and wrote successfully for the stage. The list of her works is +a long one, yet, in spite of all her tireless toil with the pen, she +entered very freely into the pleasures of society. Mr. Planché visited her +in Paris in 1837, and in course of a conversation she explained how she +managed to find time to write so much. Said Mrs. Gore: “I receive, as you +know, a few friends at dinner at five o’clock nearly every evening. They +leave me at ten or eleven, when I retire to my own room, and write<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> till +seven or eight in the morning. I then go to bed till noon, when I +breakfast, after which I drive out, shop, pay visits, and return at four, +dress for dinner, and as soon as my friends have departed, go to work +again all night as before.” Mrs. Gore died in 1861, at the age of +sixty-two years. Her first book was issued in 1823, and it was followed by +no less than seventy separate works. She lived for many years on the +Continent, and supported her family with her pen.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Trollope did not commence her career as an author until she had +“reached the sober season of married and middle life,” yet she managed to +produce no less than one hundred and fifteen volumes of fiction. In an +autobiographical work, entitled “What I Remember,” by her son, Thomas +Adolphus Trollope, we get some touching pictures of this wonderful woman +writing her books. He speaks of her passing an extended period by the +bedside of her invalid son. From about nine in the morning until eight in +the evening, with “a cheerful countenance and a bleeding heart,” she +entertained and nursed her patient. He generally slept about eight, when +she went to her desk and wrote her fiction to amuse light-hearted readers. +She worked from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> two to three in the morning. This was all done with the +aid of green tea and sometimes laudanum. Mrs. Trollope died at the age of +eighty-three years, so that it cannot be said that hard work killed her, +although she did an immense quantity.</p> + +<p>We believe that hard work seldom kills anyone. Some say that it does, and +point to the fate of Southey, one of the most industrious of English men +of letters, to support their assertion. The mention of his name brings to +the mind scenes of sunshine and shadow. He was a lover of books, and his +charming house in Lake-land contained a fine library. Here he read and +worked, and life passed happily. Nothing could tempt him to leave it, not +even the editorship of <i>The Times</i>. When bereft of reason, Southey would +linger lovingly amongst the companions of happier days, his beloved books. +He would play with them as a child plays with a toy. It is generally +believed that hard literary labour killed him. When Dr. Charles Mackay +visited Wordsworth he named the matter to him, and was told that there was +no truth in it. Said Wordsworth of Southey: “He was a calm and methodical +worker, and calm, steady work never kills. It is only worry and hurry that +kill. Southey wrote a great deal; but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> he wrote easily and pleasantly to +himself. Besides, only those who have tried know what an immense deal of +literary work can be got through comfortably by a man who will work +regularly for only four or even three hours a day. Take the case of Sir +Walter Scott, for instance. What an immensity of work he got through; and +yet he was always idle at one o’clock in the afternoon, and ready for any +amusement, or for such change of labour as the garden or the field +afforded. Southey was like him in that respect, and, though he worked +hard, he always contrived to enjoy abundance of leisure. Scott died of +pecuniary trouble, not of work. Southey died of grief for the loss of his +wife.”</p> + +<p>Lord Byron puzzled his friends by continual production whilst appearing to +occupy himself with everything else but writing.</p> + +<p>Hans Christian Andersen had to be alone when he composed his fairy tales. +He was never able to dictate a contribution for the press. All his matter +for the printer was in his own handwriting. This circumstance he named to +Thiers, by whom he was informed that he dictated to an amanuensis the +whole of his “History of the Consulate and the Empire.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>Miss Edgeworth wrote her stories in the common sitting-room, surrounded by +her family. Some authors are able to concentrate their attention on a task +and remain unconscious of anything going on around them. Says a recent +writer on this topic: “Dr. Somerville told Harriet Martineau that he once +laid a wager with a friend that he would abuse Mrs. Somerville in a loud +voice to her face, and she would take no notice; and he did so. Sitting +close to her, he confided to his friend the most injurious things—that +she rouged, that she wore a wig, and such nonsense uttered in a very loud +voice; her daughters were in a roar of laughter, while the slandered lady +sat placidly writing. At last her husband made a dead pause after her +name, on which she looked up in an innocent manner saying, “Did you speak +to me?”</p> + +<p>Southey too could write in the presence of his family. A more remarkable +method of composition was that of Barry Cornwall. He composed his best +poems in the busy streets of London, only leaving the crowd to enter a +shop to commit to paper the verses he had made.</p> + +<p>The poet Gray usually worked himself into the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> “mood” by reading some +other poet, generally Spenser.</p> + +<p>Shelley always composed out of doors sometimes on the roof tops. Trelawney +describes how he found him in a grove near Florence by a pool of water; he +was gazing unconsciously into the depths. Trelawney did not disturb him, +but when Shelley came out of his trance he had written one of his finest +lyrics, in a hand-writing that no other man could decipher.</p> + +<p>Wordsworth mainly composed his poems during his rural rambles. It was not +an unusual circumstance for him to write with a slate pencil on a smooth +piece of stone his newly made lines. Surely the hillsides and lovely dales +of Lake-land were fitting places for the great high priest of nature to +give birth to his poetry. He repeated his poems aloud as he composed them, +a practice which greatly puzzled the common people. We cannot perhaps +better illustrate the strange impression it made on the country folk than +by repeating an anecdote told to Dr. Charles Mackay by an American +gentleman. He said—“One of his countrymen had lost his way in a vain +attempt to discover Rydal Mount; had taken a wrong turn and gone three or +four miles beyond or to the side<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> of the point he should have aimed at. +Meeting an old woman in a scarlet cloak, who was gathering sticks, he +asked her the way to Rydal Mount. She could not tell him; she did not +know. ‘Not know,’ said the American, ‘the house of the great Wordsworth?’ +‘No.’ ‘What, not the house of the man whose fame brings people here from +all parts of the world?’ ‘No,’ she insisted, ‘but what was he great +in?—was he a preacher or a doctor?’ ‘Greater than preacher or doctor—he +was a poet.’ ‘Oh, poet!’ she replied; ‘and why did you not tell me that +before? I know who you mean now. I often meet him in the woods, jabbering +his pottery (poetry) to himself. But I’m not afraid of him. He’s quite +harmless, and almost as sensible as you or me.’” This is the old story—a +man, however great, is not much thought of in his own district.</p> + +<p>It is generally understood that Lord Tennyson composed much of his poetry +during his rural rambles.</p> + +<p>Edwin Arnold, the editor of the <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, wrote his “Light of +Asia” whilst travelling in the railway carriage to and from his newspaper +office.</p> + +<p>Some authors appear to be able to write at any<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> time and in any place. +Anthony Trollope did much writing in a railway train. “It was,” he says, +“while I was engaged on ‘Barchester Towers’ that I adopted a system of +writing, which for some years afterwards I found to be very serviceable to +me. My time was greatly occupied in travelling, and the nature of my +travelling was now changed. I could not any longer do it by horseback. +Railroads afforded me my means of conveyance, and I found that I passed in +railway carriages very many hours of my existence.... If I intended to +make a profitable business of writing, and, at the same time, to do my +best for the Post Office, I must turn my hours to more account than I +could by reading. I made for myself, therefore, a little tablet, and I +found after a few days’ exercise that I could write as quickly in a +railway carriage as I could at my own desk. I worked with a pencil, and +what I wrote my wife copied afterwards. My only objection to the practice +came from the appearance of literary ostentation, to which I felt myself +to be subject when going to work before four or five fellow passengers. +But I got used to it.”</p> + +<p>Trollope never attached any importance to a writing mood; to use his own +phrase, he sat<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> down to work just “as a cobbler sits down to make shoes.” +When at home he rose at from half-past four to five o’clock daily, and, +attired in his dressing-gown, he went to his writing-room. During the cold +weather his old and favourite Irish servant made a fire in it before he +arrived. He placed his watch before him, and he trained himself to write +two hundred and fifty words every fifteen minutes, and he says that he was +able to perform the feat as regularly as his watch went.</p> + +<p>He believed that a serial was spoilt if written month by month as +published. Only once during his long career did he commence publishing a +story before the manuscript was completed, and that was “Framley +Parsonage,” in the pages of <i>Cornhill Magazine</i>. It is admitted to be one +of his best books. He wielded the pen of a ready writer for nearly forty +years, and in this period produced an enormous quantity of work. He stands +in this respect almost on a level with Sir Walter Scott. No writer of the +highest genius writes like Trollope, though it was Keats’ habit to write a +certain number of lines a day when he was engaged on “Endymion.” Emerson +remarks “a poet must wait many days in order to glorify one.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>The late Bishop Wilberforce managed to write in his chaise even when +driven over rough roads, as well as in railway carriages. His lordship +appeared to be able to use his pen in most unlikely quarters.</p> + +<p>Amongst authors noted as early risers must be included Charles Dickens. He +has told us how the solemn and still solitude of the morning had a charm +for him. It was seldom that he wrote before breakfast; as a rule he +confined his writing between the hours of breakfast and luncheon. Dickens +was by no means a rapid writer. When engaged on a novel he regarded three +of his not very large pages of manuscript as a good day’s work, and four +as excellent. He did not recopy his writings, although they contained +numerous corrections which, however, were clearly made. Prior to +commencing a new story he suffered much from despondency. He spoke of +himself as “going round and round the idea, as you see a bird in his cage +go about his sugar before he touches it.”</p> + +<p>Dickens’ love of order was very marked; his writing materials were always +neatly arranged, and his household was a model of order.</p> + +<p>The highways and byways of London were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> familiar to him, and many happy +hours were spent rambling in them. He had a theory that the number of +hours engaged in literary labour should have a corresponding time spent in +pedestrian exercise, and he frequently enjoyed a twenty miles’ walk.</p> + +<p>Thackeray was not very particular as to the place or time when he wrote. +He liked to perform his literary labours in a pleasant room. It is +certain, from the large number of books that he produced in a limited +time, that he must have written at a considerable speed. He had also the +happy facility of being able to dictate his works when composing them.</p> + +<p>Previous to commencing a book George Eliot would read all she could find +bearing on the subject. Sometimes she would study over a thousand works to +write one book. She spared no pains in perfecting her productions.</p> + +<p>Charles Reade wrote much and well. He rose at eight o’clock, took +breakfast at nine, and at ten commenced his literary work, which usually +lasted until two in the afternoon. He wrote in his drawing-room, and when +the French windows were closed no sounds from the street could be heard. +When once fairly on the way with a novel<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> he worked with rapidity. He +wrote with a large pen, with very black ink, on large sheets of +drab-coloured paper. Each sheet was numbered as written, and thrown on the +floor, which, after a few hours’ writing, was completely covered. A maid +servant gathered up the manuscript, which, after being put in order, was +sent to a copyist, who made, in a round hand, a clear copy. Mr. Reade then +went carefully over it, making improvements by omissions and additions. +The revised sheets were once more copied for the printer. He seldom +dictated a story, but had not any objection to the company of a friend in +his room when busy with his pen. He would sometimes relieve the monotony +of his work by watching a game of tennis on his lawn, or the gambols of +his tame hares, or the traffic passing in the street at the bottom of his +garden. Mr. Reade did not take any lunch; he dined late, and generally +finished the day by a visit to the theatre.</p> + +<p>Alphonse Daudet, the greatest of living French novelists, is a painstaking +man, and usually spends a year in writing a story. He takes a deep +interest in his work; indeed, it seems to get the mastery over him; and +when engaged on “Le Nabob”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> he worked about twenty hours a day. He related +to an interviewer his method of work, and it transpired that he carries +about with him a small book, and enters in it notes bearing on his +subject. Next he reproduces his jottings and expands them, and as he +completes the items he severs them out of his list. His wife then takes +the manuscript in hand and makes a clear copy, and, at the same time, +corrects any slight errors of redundancy. Daudet goes carefully over it, +making additions and polishing according to his fancy. It is afterwards +rewritten for the press.</p> + +<p>Shortly after the death of Mrs. Henry Wood, her son, Mr. Charles W. Wood, +published in the <i>Argosy</i> some very interesting particulars of her +literary life. She was a born author, and at the age when children play +with dolls she was composing stories. She was a ready writer. Her powerful +prize temperance tale “Danesbury House” was commenced and completed in +twenty-eight days.</p> + +<p>Respecting her manner of writing her novels, says her son: “She first +composed her plot. Having decided upon the main idea, she would next +divide it into the requisite number of chapters. Each chapter was then +elaborated. Every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> incident in every chapter was thought out and recorded, +from the first chapter to the last. She never changed her plots or +incidents. Once thought out, her purpose became fixed, and was never +turned aside for any fresh departure or emergency that might arise in the +development of the story. The drama had then become to her as if it +actually existed. Every minute detail of the plot was written out before a +line of the story was begun. All was so elaborately sketched that anyone +with sufficient power would have no difficulty in writing the story with +the plot in possession. The only difference would have been the evidence +of another hand.</p> + +<p>“The plot of each novel occupied a good many pages of close, though not +small writing. It would take her, generally speaking, about three weeks to +think it out from beginning to end. During those times she could not bear +the slightest interruption. But I have occasionally gone into her study, +though never without being startled, almost awed, by the look upon her +face. She would be at all times in a reclining chair, her paper upon her +knees, and the expression of her eyes, large, wide-opened, was so intense +and absorbed, so far away, it seemed as if the spirit<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> had wandered into +some distant realm and had to be brought back to its tenement before the +matter, suddenly placed before her, could be attended to. It, indeed, took +many moments to recall her attention, elsewhere concentrated.” Mr. Wood +observes, “Only on rare or important occasions was such intrusion ever +permitted for the thread of her ideas once broken could very seldom be +resumed the same day, and, as she never wrote a line of anything when +composing a plot, she would consider that the day had been partly lost or +wasted.”</p> + +<p>When Mrs. Wood was writing a story, on entering her study she consulted +the outline she had prepared, and then worked on the allotted portion of +her task. She did not recopy her manuscripts, yet they contained few +corrections, and were very legible and as clear as print.</p> + +<p>Miss Braddon is the author of many widely-read novels, and it is said that +the profits on her works place her high amongst the first six of the best +paid writers of fiction. She left the Hull stage, where she performed +without any particular success under the name of Miss Seton, and took up +her residence at Beverley, where she wrote<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> her first story, “Three times +dead; or the Secret of the Heath.” It was printed and published by Mr. C. +R. Empson, and was brought out at a loss. At that time she was about +twenty years of age. In 1861 she issued “Garibaldi, and other Poems,” the +contents of this book having previously appeared in a Beverley newspaper. +A year prior to that date she competed for a £5 prize, offered by Mr. +Joseph Temple, for the best ode on celebrating the first tree planted in +the Hull Public Park, and failed to win it. She contributed to several +local newspapers. Her powerful novel, “Lady Audley’s Secret,” published in +1862, established her reputation, and by industry and skill it has been +sustained. At the commencement of 1887 the sale of “Lady Audley’s Secret” +had reached about 450,000 copies, Mrs. Henry Wood’s “East Lynne” 120,000 +copies, and Mrs. Craik’s “John Halifax Gentleman,” 90,000 copies. Miss +Braddon says “The Woman in White” inspired her to write “Lady Audley’s +Secret,” “a novel of construction and character.” Wilkie Collins she +regards as her literary godfather. Miss Braddon had not a single note when +she wrote her most popular story. She now makes a skeleton of her tales in +a small<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> memorandum book, often not extending over a couple of pages, +before she commences writing her novels. She usually writes four days a +week, commencing her work at ten and concluding it at seven, and takes +during that time strong tea at intervals, and occasionally a light +luncheon. The other two days are devoted to riding on horseback and when +possible to hunting. Respecting Miss Braddon’s method of writing, some +interesting details appear in the “Treasury of Modern Biography,” and +perhaps we cannot do better than draw upon it for a few facts. “By the +fireside,” it is stated, “is a particularly low uncomfortable chair. In +this the novelist huddles herself up with a piece of thick cardboard +resting on her lap, and a little ink-bottle held firmly against it with +her left hand. This apparently cramped position appears to be favourable +to the composition, for the pen moves over the great square slips of +paper, and the corrections are few and far between.” Her copy is very +clear and carefully punctuated, and is somewhat masculine in style. At one +time she wrote a bold hand, but reduced its size, because she had to cover +more paper with her pen than when she wrote a small hand. She wears a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> +tailor’s thimble to protect the middle finger from the brand of the ink.</p> + +<p>Mr. James Payn was for many years a busy and successful literary man. He +conducted the <i>Cornhill Magazine</i>, having previously edited for many years +<i>Chambers’s Journal</i>. It was in the latter periodical that his first +story, “A Family Scapegrace,” appeared. A few years later it was followed +by “Lost Sir Massingberd,” which raised the circulation of the serial by +nearly 20,000 copies. Mr. Payn related some time since to Mr. Joseph +Hatton, the journalist, an outline of his daily life which is as follows: +“I rise at eight,” said Mr. Payn, “breakfast, read the papers, get to the +office at ten, work at my own work until one—subject to any special call +on Smith and Elder’s business—lunch at the Reform Club at one—generally +with Robinson, of the <i>Daily News</i>, and occasionally with William +Black—return to the office at two; from two until four I read manuscripts +and edit <i>Cornhill</i>; from 4.0 to 6.30 I play whist at the Reform Club—it +is a great rest, whist—home to dinner by seven—I rarely dine out now, +and never go to what are called dinner parties—to bed at ten.”</p> + +<p>It remains for us to add that his writing is very<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> difficult to decipher, +indeed he is sometimes puzzled to read it himself; fortunately for the +printers, his daughter makes a copy of his productions by the type-writer.</p> + +<p>In answer to a correspondent, Mr. Philip G. Hamerton detailed particulars +of his method of work. Said Mr. Hamerton in his interesting letter, “I +think that there are two main qualities to be kept in view in literary +composition—freshness and finish. The best way, in my opinion, of +attaining both is to aim at freshness in the rough draft, with little +regard to perfection of expression; the finish can be given by copious +subsequent correction, even to the extent of writing all over again when +there is time. Whenever possible, I would assimilate literary to pictorial +execution by treating the rough draft as a rapid and vigorous sketch, +without any regard to delicacy of workmanship; then I would write from +this a second work, retaining as much as possible the freshness of the +first, but correcting those oversights and errors which are due to +rapidity.”</p> + +<p>One of his books, he says, was penned as a private diary, then he made a +rough and rapid manuscript with a lead pencil, and subsequently<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> rewrote +it for the printer, especially with a view to concentration. Mr. Hamerton +states that he used shorthand for one volume, which enabled him to write +it quickly, but he found much trouble in reading it, and he does not +recommend it for literary purposes.</p> + +<p>Referring to work, “The Intellectual Life” was begun in quite a different +form (not in letters), and many pages were written before he concluded +that it was heavy, and that letters would give a lighter and less didactic +appearance. We are told that his story “Marmone” was partly written and +put aside, and it was not until solicited by Messrs. Roberts Brothers for +a book for their “No Name Series,” that he completed it. The earlier part +of the novel was written three times over.</p> + +<p>In concluding his letter, he says that “I have sometimes, instead of +rewriting, sent a corrected rough draft to a type-writer. There is an +economy of time in this, and the work can be corrected in the +type-writer’s copy; but, on the whole, for very careful finished work, I +think the old plan of rewriting the whole manuscript is superior.”</p> + +<p>Mr. G. A. Sala used commonly to be regarded as a journalist, but he ranks +high as an author.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> He has written nearly a library of books of travel, +essays, and novels, which have been much praised by the critics, and +largely circulated. His father was an Italian gentleman, who married a +charming and accomplished English lady, famous in her day as a vocalist. +Between the ages of six and nine he was totally blind. After regaining his +sight he was placed in the Collège Bourbon, Paris, for a couple of years, +and subsequently removed to Turnham Green, near London, with a view of +thoroughly acquiring his mother tongue which he spoke imperfectly, in fact +he was almost ignorant of it. His parents intended him for an artist, but +circumstances compelled him to relinquish art in its highest form. +Possessing the happy faculty of effective sketching, he produced hundreds +of political caricatures and pictorial skits on passing events; these +found a ready sale. His eyesight failing, he had to give up lithographing +and engraving, and to try other means of making a living. After a variety +of engagements, an accident led to his finding his right vocation. One +night he was by an oversight locked out of his house, and had to pass the +night perambulating the streets. It occurred to him that he might make it +a subject of an article, which he<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> accordingly wrote under the title of +“The Key of the Street,” and submitted it to Charles Dickens. The famous +novelist at once recognised his genius, and encouraged him to become a +constant contributor to <i>Household Words</i>. At the suggestion of Dickens he +entered the lists of journalism, and won the highest place amongst +pressmen. He was known as “The Prince of Journalists.” Sala joined the +staff of the <i>Daily Telegraph</i>, and did much to make the reputation of +that brilliant journal. He represented it in all parts of the world, and +his remuneration equalled the pay of an ambassador. Its columns have been +enriched with several thousand leading articles from his facile pen on +almost every topic.</p> + +<p>Sala was the owner of a large and valuable library, but his chief source +of information was found in his common-place book. In it he had brought +together facts and illustrations on all kinds of subjects calculated to +aid him in his journalistic labours. This wonderful book has often been +described, the best account of it appears in “Living London.” “Scarcely a +week passes,” says Mr. Sala, “without bringing me letters from +correspondents who ask me to explain my own system of keeping a +common-place book. I have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> but one such system, and it possesses one +merit, that of rugged simplicity. Take a book, large or small, according +to the size of your handwriting, and take care that at the end of the book +there shall be plenty of space for an index. Begin at the beginning, and +make your entries precisely as they occur to you in unordered sequence. +But after each entry place a little circle, or oval, or parenthesis ( ), +and in a portion of these spaces place consecutive numbers. Here is a +model page taken at random from a book which may have been in keeping for +years:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>‘The Prince of Wales wore the robes of the Garter at his marriage in +St. George’s Chapel, Windsor. All the other K.Gs present wore their +robes and collars. Mr. W. P. Frith, <span class="smcaplc">R.A.</span>, who was to paint a picture +of the wedding for the Queen, stood close to the reredos, to the +right, looking from the organ-loft (1023). Just before the liberation +in 1859 of Lombardy from the domination of Austria, the audiences in +the Italian theatres used to give vent to their pent-up patriotism by +shouting at the close of each performance “Viva Verdi!” The initiated +knew that this was meant to signify Viva V (for Victor) E (for +Emmanuele) R (for Re) D I (for d’Italia) (1024). Old Hungerford Market +was never very successful as a fish market; but according to Seyer it +was always very well supplied with shrimps. In Hungerford Street, +leading to the market, there was a pastrycook’s famous shop, at which +the penny buns were as good as those sold at Farrance’s in Cockspur +Street (1025).’</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span>“Now, all you have to do is, immediately you have made your entry, to +index it; and if you will only spare the time and patience and +perseverance, to <i>cross index</i> it. Thus under letter W you will write, +‘Wales, Prince of, married in Robes of the Garter’ (1023); under G, +‘Garter, Robes of, worn by P. of W. at his Marriage’ (1023); under F, ‘W. +P. Frith, <span class="smcaplc">R.A.</span>, present at the Marriage of P. of W.’ (1023). Thus also, +‘Verdi, Victor Emmanuel,’ and ‘Italy’ will be indexed under their +respective letters ‘V’ and ‘I,’ and be referable to at the number (1024). +I have one common-place book that has been ‘cooking’ ever since 1858, and +is not half finished yet. The last entry is numbered (5068), and refers to +Sir Thomas Roe, Ambassador from James the First of England to the Emperor +Jehan Guize, commonly called the Great Mogul. The number (5068) is +referred to under the letters R (for Roe), J (for James I.), J (for Jehan +Guize), M (for Mogul), and A (for Ambassadors). By means of a rigidly +pursued system of indexing and <i>cross indexing</i> (so earnestly recommended +by Henry Brougham) you can put your hand at once on the information +bearing on the particular subject which claims your attention.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>Mr. Sala also said:—“I believe this system strengthens and disciplines +the memory, and keeps it green. It is a very good mental exercise to read +a page or two of the index alone, from time to time. You will be +astonished at the number of bright nuggets of fact which will crop up from +the rock of half forgetfulness. Finally, never allow your index to fall +into arrear, and write the figures in your circumscribed spaces in red +ink. The corresponding ones in the index may be in black.”</p> + +<p>It was from this mine of literary nuggets that he used to obtain the +materials for his charming papers which amused and instructed the reader.</p> + +<p>Another celebrated modern journalist and author is Mr. Andrew Lang. He is +just the contrary of Mr. Sala in his methods of work. Mr. Lang seems to +pride himself on the fact that he has no other aid to writing except an +excellent memory. He does not trouble himself about books of reference, +and says he has not one of any sort, not even a classical dictionary, in +his house. Mr. Lang is certainly a clever writer, and manages to produce +much pleasant reading, but his contributions to the magazines and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> +newspapers lack the interesting facts which Mr. Sala placed so pleasantly +before the public in his racy and able articles. Mr. Lang devotes his +mornings to writing books and magazine articles, and the afternoons to +penning leaders for the newspapers.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p> +<h2>The Earnings of Authors.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Little</span> is known of the remuneration of authors until the days of Dr. +Samuel Johnson. Before his time, literary men, as a rule, depended on the +generosity of patrons for their means of support, and as an acknowledgment +of their obligations, dedicated their works to them. The dedications were +frequently made in most fulsome terms. The position of the writer was +certainly a mean one; indeed, it might fitly be pronounced degrading; when +he had exhausted his possibilities of patronage, he starved. It was +Johnson—a giant in the world of letters—who broke through the +objectionable custom, and taught the author to look to the reading public +for support, and not to a wealthy patron. It is not until the days of +Samuel Johnson that the subject of literary earnings is of much +importance; yet we may with advantage glance at a few payments made prior +to his age.</p> + +<p>We do not know the amount Shakespeare received for his plays, but it is +certain that his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> connection with the theatre in London in a few years +realised for him a fortune, and, at a comparatively early age, enabled him +to return to his own town, a man of independent means. Oldys, in one of +his manuscripts, says that “Hamlet” was sold for £5; but he does not +mention his authority for the statement. It appears, from a publication of +Robert Greene’s, in 1592, the price of a drama was twenty nobles, or about +£6 13s. 4d. of current coin.</p> + +<p>Small must have been the literary pay of Spenser, Butler, and Otway, since +they feared to die for want of the simple necessaries of life. Milton sold +“Paradise Lost” for £5 down, to be followed by £15 if a second and third +large editions were required. The first edition consisted of 1,500 copies, +and in two years 1,300 were sold. The balance was not disposed of until +five years later. This powerful poem, when given to the world, met with +some adverse criticism. The poet Waller wrote of it thus: “The old, blind +schoolmaster, John Milton, hath published a tedious poem on the fall of +man; if its length be not considered a merit, it hath no other.” A greater +poet than Waller—Dryden—recognised its merits, and said: “Undoubtedly, +‘Paradise<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> Lost’ is one of the greatest, most noble, and most sublime +poems which either this age or nation has produced.” Dryden wrote the +following epigram referring to Homer, Virgil, and Milton:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Three poets—in three distant ages born—<br /> +Greece, Italy, and England did adorn;<br /> +The first in loftiness of thought surpassed,<br /> +The next in majesty, in both the last.<br /> +The force of Nature could no further go;<br /> +To make a third, she joined the former two.”</p> + +<p>Milton’s poem has been praised by the greatest critics, and it is still +very much read. It appears in many forms, and the annual sale is extremely +large. Routledge’s popular edition sells at the rate of about a couple of +thousand a year; and we suppose the sale of other editions is equally +great.</p> + +<p>Dryden arranged with Jacob Tonson, the famous bookseller and publisher, to +write for him 10,000 verses, at sixpence per line. To make up the required +number of lines, he threw in the “Epistle to his Cousin,” and his +celebrated “Ode to Music.”</p> + +<p>Gray only received £40 for the whole of his poems. He presented the +copyright of his famous “Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard” to +Dodsley, feeling that it was beneath the dignity of a gentleman to make +money with<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> his pen. The lucky publisher quite agreed with him, and +cleared about a thousand pounds by the publication.</p> + +<p>Pope’s translation of “Homer” yielded him about £8,000. He was assisted in +the work by William Broome, a scholar who was the author of a volume of +verse. John Henley thus refers to the circumstance:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Pope came off clean with Homer; but they say,<br /> +Broome went before, and kindly swept the way.”</p> + +<p>Gay made £1,000 by his “Poems.” He was paid £400 for the “Beggar’s Opera,” +and for the second part, “Polly,” £1,000. Rich, the theatrical manager, +profited to a far greater extent from the “Beggar’s Opera” than its +author. The contemporary jest was that it made Gay rich, and Rich gay.</p> + +<p>Dr. Johnson sold the copyright of Goldsmith’s “Vicar of Wakefield” for +£60, and he thought that amount fairly represented the value of the work. +“The great lexicographer,” as Miss Pinkerton called him, placed no high +value on the performance of his friend, but the publisher found in the +“Vicar of Wakefield” a gold mine. Goldsmith was paid £21 for “The +Traveller.” It was the work that established his reputation.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> Before it +appeared he was regarded as little better than a superior Grub Street +hack. Johnson pronounced this the finest poem that had been written since +the death of Pope. After having read it to the sister of Sir Joshua +Reynolds, she said: “Well, I never more shall think Dr. Goldsmith ugly.” +The following are the prices Goldsmith obtained for others of his +works:—“English Grammar,” £5; the “History of Rome,” in two volumes, 250 +guineas; the “History of England,” in four volumes, £500; the “History of +Greece,” £250; and the “History of the Earth and Animated Nature,” in +eight volumes, £850. “She stoops to Conquer” yielded between £400 and +£500. Five shillings a couplet was paid for “The Deserted Village.”</p> + +<p>To cover the cost of his mother’s funeral, Johnson wrote “Rasselas,” and +disposed of it for £100. He sold his “Lives of the Poets” for 200 guineas. +The sum was considered liberal, but Johnson became so engrossed in his +subject that he supplied much more than what was expected from him. It is +believed that out of his work, in twenty-five years, the booksellers +cleared £5,000. It is still a saleable book, and is to be<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> found in every +public and private library of any pretentions.</p> + +<p>The sum of £700 was paid to Fielding for “Tom Jones,” and for “Amelia,” +£1,000.</p> + +<p>Very large amounts have been given for biographical works. Hayley received +for his “Life of Cowper,” £11,000; and Southey, £1,000 for his life of the +same poet. The life of “William Wilberforce” was sold for £4,000; “Bishop +Heber’s Journals,” for £5,000; “General Gordon’s Diary,” for £5,250; and +the “Life of Hannah More,” for £2,000.</p> + +<p>The income of Scott was, perhaps, the largest ever made by authorship, yet +he said that the pursuit of literature was a good walking-stick, but a bad +crutch! His reputation was first made as a poet, and the following are +particulars of his profits from poetry: “The Lay of the Last Minstrel,” +published in 1805, £769 6s.; “Ballads and Lyrical Pieces,” published in +1806, £100; for “Marmion,” published 1808, Messrs. Constable offered 1,000 +guineas soon after the poem was begun. It proved a very profitable +speculation to its publishers. During the first month after its +appearance, 2,000 copies were sold, the price being 31s. 6d. the quarto +volume.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> Next came the “Lady of the Lake” (1810), £2,100. This found even +greater favour with the public than its predecessors, and with it Scott’s +poetical fame reached its zenith. A new poet who appeared on the scene, +Byron, completely eclipsed Scott. Scott tried, with two more poems, to win +back his lost place, as the popular poet of the period, and produced +“Rokeby,” and the “Bridal of Triermain;” the latter was issued +anonymously, but both were failures. When Scott saw that his poetry did +not attract many readers, he turned his thoughts and energy into another +channel, and commenced his immortal novels. He had by him an unfinished +story, the work of former years, which he completed, giving it to the +world under the title of “Waverley.” Constable offered £700 for the +copyright—an amount deemed very large in those days for a novel to be +published without the name of the author. Seven hundred sovereigns did +not, however, satisfy Scott; he simply said, “It is too much if the work +should prove a failure, and too little if it should be a success.” It was +a brilliant book, and entranced the reading world. Scott had now found his +real vocation. He received for eleven novels, of three volumes each, and +nine<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> volumes of “Tales of My Landlord,” the sum of £110,000. For one +novel he was paid £10,000. Between November, 1825, and June, 1827, he +earned £26,000—an amount representing £52 6s. 3d. per working day. From +first to last, Sir Walter Scott made by his literary labours about +£300,000.</p> + +<p>Lord Byron’s dealings with Mr. Murray were in every respect satisfactory, +but this did not prevent the pleasure-loving lord from having a little +joke at the expense of his publisher. He delighted Mr. Murray with a gift +of a Bible, but the recipient’s pleasure was fleeting, for on examining +the book it was discovered that it contained a marginal correction. “Now +Barabbas was a robber,” was altered to “Now Barabbas was a publisher.” +This was a cruel stab, seeing that Byron had received for his poetry +£19,340, and might have increased this sum if he had been more anxious +about remuneration.</p> + +<p>In Mrs. Oliphant’s book on “William Blackwood and His Sons,” a letter is +quoted from Mr. Murray relating to the poet. “Lord Byron is a curious +man,” says Murray, “he gave me, as I told you, the copyright of his two +poems, to be printed only in his works. I did not receive<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> the last until +Tuesday night. I was so delighted with it that even as I read it I sent +him a draught for a thousand guineas. The two poems are altogether no more +than twelve hundred and fifteen hundred lines, and will altogether sell +for five and sixpence. But he returned the draught, saying that it was +very liberal—much more than they were worth; that I was perfectly welcome +to both poems to print in his (collected) works without cost or +expectation, but that he did not think them equal to what they ought to +be, and that he would not admit of their separate publication. I went +yesterday, and he was rallying me upon my folly in offering so much that +he dared to say I thought now I had a most lucky escape. ‘To prove how +much I think so, my lord,’ said I ‘do me the favour to accept this pocket +book’—In which I had brought with me my draught, changed into two bank +notes of £1,000 and £50; but he would not take it. But I am not in despair +that he will yet allow their separate publication, which I must continue +to urge for mine own honour.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Murray treated Crabbe in a most liberal manner. He paid for the “Tales +of the Hall,” and the copyright of his other poems, £3,000. It was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> given +to the poet in bills, and we read that “Moore and Rogers earnestly advised +him to deposit them, without delay, in some safe hands—but no; he must +take them with him to Trowbridge, and show them to his son John. They +would hardly believe his good luck at home, if they did not see the +bills.” On his way to Trowbridge, a friend at Salisbury, at whose house he +rested (Mr. Everett, the banker), seeing that he carried his bills loosely +in his waistcoat pocket, requested to be allowed to take charge of them; +but Crabbe thankfully declined, saying that “There was no fear of his +losing them, and he must show them to his son John.”</p> + +<p>Without seeing a line of Thomas Moore’s “Lalla Rookh,” Messrs. Longman +undertook to pay £3,000 for it. The terms drawn up were simple, and read +as follows: “That upon your giving into our hands a poem of yours, the +length of ‘Rokeby,’ you shall receive from us the sum of £3,000. We also +agree to the stipulation, that the few songs which you may introduce into +the work shall be considered as reserved for your own selling.”</p> + +<p>His poem, of some 6,000 lines, was written in a lonely cottage in +Derbyshire. Moore never tired<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> of telling his friends that the stormy +winter weather in the country helped him to imagine, by contrast, the +bright and everlasting summers and glowing scenery of the East.</p> + +<p>The work was a great success. The first edition was sold in almost +fourteen days; within six months six editions had been called for. It is +said that some parts of the poem were translated into Persian, a +circumstance which caused Mr. Luttrell to write to the author in the +following strain:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“I’m told dear Moore, your lays are sung<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">(Can it be true, you lucky man?)</span><br /> +By moonlight, in the Persian tongue,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Along the streets of Ispahan.”</span></p> + +<p>Moore received considerable amounts for his “Irish Melodies.” The mention +of these call to mind a letter he penned to Mr. Power, his publisher, on +November 12, 1812:—</p> + +<p>“My dear Sir,—I have just got your letter, and have only time to say, +that if you can let me have three or four pounds by return of post, you +will oblige me. I would not have made this importunate demand on you, but +I have foolishly let myself run dry without trying my other resources, and +I have been the week past literally without<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> one sixpence. Ever, with most +sincere good will.—T.M.”</p> + +<p>Mr. Power promptly posted ten pounds to the poet. Said Moore, in the +course of his reply, “The truth is, we have been kept on a visit at a +house where we have been much longer than I wished or intended, and simply +from not having a shilling in my pocket to give to the servants on going +away. So I know you will forgive my teasing you.... You may laugh at my +ridiculous distress in being kept to turtle eating and claret-drinking +longer than I wish, and merely because I have not a shilling in my +pocket,—but, however paradoxical it sounds, it is true.”</p> + +<p>We read in Moore’s journals, ten years later: “17th August, +1822.—Received to-day a letter from Brougham, enclosing one from Barnes +(the editor of <i>The Times</i>), proposing that, as he is ill, I shall take +his place for some time in writing the leading articles of that paper, the +pay to be £100 a month. This is flattering. To be thought capable of +wielding so powerful a political machine as <i>The Times</i> newspaper is a +tribute the more flattering (as is usually the case) from my feeling +conscious that I do not deserve it.” The next day he wrote and declined +the offer.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>Thomas Campbell received, at the age of 21 years, £60 for his “Pleasures +of Hope,” certainly a small amount for a fine poem, yet it gave him a +name, and enabled him to obtain large sums for some very slight literary +services. The publisher of his “Pleasures of Hope” did not treat him in a +generous manner, and his conduct appears to have embittered his mind as +will be gathered from the following anecdote. He was present at a party at +a period when the actions of Bonaparte were most severely condemned. On +being called upon for a toast, Campbell gave “The Health of Napoleon.” +This caused a great surprise to all the company, and an explanation was +called for. “The only reason I have for proposing to honour Bonaparte,” +said he, “is that he had the virtue to shoot a bookseller.” Palm, a +bookseller, had recently been executed in Germany by order of the French +chief.</p> + +<p>It may here be mentioned that the copyright of the “Life of Bonaparte,” by +Sir Walter Scott, with some copies of the work, was sold for £18,000.</p> + +<p>Successful school-books are often gold mines for the authors and +publishers. The copyright of “Vyse’s Spelling-Book” was sold for £2,000 +and an annuity of £50 to the compiler.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>The copyright of Rundell’s “Domestic Cookery” realised a couple of +thousand pounds, and many other works of this class have been extremely +popular.</p> + +<p>Very large sums have been paid for historical works. Hume received £700 a +volume; and Smollett, for a catch-penny rival work, cleared £2,000. The +money made by Henry is set down at £3,300. The booksellers, says Mr. +Leslie Stephen, made £6,000 out of Robertson’s “History of Scotland.” He +was paid for his “Charles V.” the handsome sum of £4,500. Lingard’s +“History of England” is, without doubt, an able work, and for it the +author was paid £4,683. The author’s profits for the “Decline and Fall of +the Roman Empire,” by Gibbon, are put down at £10,000.</p> + +<p>The foregoing are respectable figures, but they appear small when compared +with the amounts paid to Lord Macaulay. On one occasion he had handed to +him a cheque for £20,000, representing three-fourths of the net profits of +his “History of England.” A short time since, the following statement went +the rounds of the newspaper press, respecting Mr. Justin McCarthy’s +popular work, the “History of Our Own Times.” The book<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> was offered to a +well-known publishing firm, who agreed to purchase it for £600. On finding +that the author was a Home Ruler, however, this firm asked to be allowed +to withdraw from the contract. Mr. McCarthy, who was greatly annoyed at +the suggestion that he might mutilate history to suit his own private or +political views, then went to Messrs. Chatto and Windus, who at once +agreed to publish the work for him on a basis of mutual profits. In the +interval, the other firm reconsidered the situation, and asked to be +allowed to revive the lapsed contract, but were too late, as the book had +been placed in the hands of the second firm. The work won a flattering +reception, and the author has, up to the present time, received several +thousand pounds as his share of the profits.</p> + +<p>In 1897 passed away Dr. Brewer, the compiler of a “Guide to Science,” and +other popular books. Shortly before his death, he told an interviewer that +he offered the copyright of his “Guide to Science” to Mr. Thomas Jarrold +for £50, but he declined the venture, saving he would pay a royalty of one +penny in the shilling for every copy sold. It went through two editions in +ten months, and then it was agreed to call 8,000 an edition, the royalty +to be given half-yearly, but<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> any number less than 1,000 to stand over to +the next return. The largest half-yearly royalty was 19,000 copies +(Midsummer, 1836). In 1842, Dr. Brewer offered Mr. Jarrold £2,000 for his +half-share, which he declined. Soon after this, Messrs. Longman and Co. +offered Dr. Brewer £300 per year for life for the copyright. He offered +Mr. Jarrold £4,000 for his share, but he replied that he would not accept +double that sum, in fact that he would not part with it at all.</p> + +<p>According to a careful estimate, Charles Dickens received £10,000 a year +from his works for five years, and died worth nearly £100,000. He made +every penny from his writings and readings. We need scarcely repeat the +well-known facts that “he not only lived in a very liberal style for over +thirty years, keeping up a considerable establishment, and often +travelling without regard to cost, but he brought up a large and expensive +family.”</p> + +<p>Thackeray did not make large sums by his books, when we consider his +undoubted genius and the high place he holds amongst the greatest authors. +It is said that he never made more than £5,000 out of any of his novels. +He received large sums for his lectures; indeed, the platform yielded him +better returns than the publishers.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>Eighty thousand pounds is the amount of Bulwer Lytton’s earnings as a +novelist. The remuneration he received, when his books first appeared, did +not reach large figures, the sums usually ranging from £600 to £1,000, +although his books were in great favour with lovers of fiction. When a +collected edition of his novels was issued, the publishers paid liberally +for the copyrights. The sale of Lytton’s novels is very large; about +80,000 copies of the sixpenny edition, and some thousands of the +three-shillings-and-sixpenny edition, are sold every year.</p> + +<p>The Earl of Beaconsfield, it is said, received the largest amount ever +paid in this country for a single novel. His last work, “Endymion,” was +sold for £12,000. He only produced one other successful story, and that +was “Lothair.” It is stated, on good authority, that these two novels have +together brought more than double the sums realised for his other books, +although inferior to some of his former writings. In his later years the +public paid for the novelty of reading stories by a statesman, and not for +the merits of his works. Some of his novels have recently been brought out +in a shilling edition, but they have already lost the allurements of +fiction, and are<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> only read by students of politics, or persons curious as +to the character of the author.</p> + +<p>Wilkie Collins was paid for “Armadale” £5,000. Mr. James Payn recently +received £1,000 for the rights of running one of his novels in the pages +of a sixpenny magazine. This author tells rather a good story about the +mode of payment for his novels. “It was,” says Mr. Payn, “the custom with +a very respectable firm of publishers, with whom I did business, to pay my +cheques to the names of my immortal works, instead of to myself: and since +it suited their convenience to do so, I never complained of it, though it +sometimes put me in rather a false position when I presented my demands in +person, as, for example, in the case of the ‘Family Scapegrace.’ When I +came for the proceeds of ‘Found Dead,’ it was too much for the sense of +professional propriety of the banker’s clerk, who gravely observed: ‘It is +very fortunate, Sir, that this cheque is not payable to order, or it would +have to be signed by your executors.’” Said Dickens, to whom Payn related +the incident, “I should not like to have much money at a bank which keeps +so clever a clerk as that.”</p> + +<p>Anthony Trollope worked hard to gain a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> footing in the literary world. His +earlier manuscripts were frequently rejected. He tried to induce managers +of theatres to accept his plays, but not one was ever produced. The first +year’s labour with the pen, and a very hard year’s work too, only yielded +£12. The next year the sum was still small, only amounting to £20, yet he +did not despair. At last, the happy time came, and it was taken at the +flood. It was in 1855 that he scored with “The Warden.” From that time he +was a man of mark; his works were in demand, and with ease he earned +£1,000 a year, which soon increased to £2,000 and £3,000, and at the time +of his death to about £4,000. The amounts paid for a few of his books are +as follows: In 1850 was issued “La Vendée,” and for it he got £20; twelve +years later he was paid, for “Orley Farm,” £3,135; in 1864 was published +“Can You Forgive Her?” for which he received £3,525; and in the same year +was issued “The Small House at Allington,” for which he was paid £3,000. +Amongst his other novels for which he received large sums may be mentioned +“The Last Chronicles of Barset,” £3,000; “Phineas Finn,” £3,200; “He knew +He was Right,” £3,200. The last two were published in 1869.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> He was paid +£3,000 for “The Way We Live Now.” “More than nine-tenths of my literary +work,” writes Trollope, “has been done in the last twenty years, and +during twelve of those years I followed another profession. I have never +been a slave to this work, giving due time, if not more than due time, to +the amusement I have loved. But I have been constant—and constancy of +labour will conquer all difficulties.” In twenty years he made by writing +nearly £70,000. We cannot place Trollope in a high position amongst the +greatest novelists, yet the monetary results of his literary labours must +be regarded as extremely satisfactory.</p> + +<p>Large sums of money were made by George Eliot, but we must not forget that +she had some weary years to wait for the days of prosperity, and that the +story of her life contains many records of disappointment after brave +struggles. We read of her living in humble apartments in London; to earn a +little money, which she much needed when she went to Switzerland in 1849, +she tried to sell her books and globes. It was not until she was forty +years of age that she established a reputation by the publication of “Adam +Bede.” She received in cash down, for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> the first sale of her book, some +£40,000, or about £2,000 a year. George Eliot had a great objection to her +novels appearing in serial form, and she sacrificed much money by not +first publishing them in the magazines. Ouida had for a long time the same +objection to her stories being published piecemeal in newspapers and +periodicals. She now appears to have got over her prejudice in this +matter, and consents to write for newspaper readers. It is generally +believed amongst literary and journalistic men, that she is not a +brilliant success as a newspaper novelist, yet Ouida’s income as an author +must be very great. The reader of the weekly paper in which fiction forms +a feature is not educated up to her standard; authors like those engaged +on the <i>Family Herald</i> and similar journals are much more popular.</p> + +<p>It is pleasing to state that Mr. John Ruskin has made large sums with his +books, but not so much, we think, as his merits entitle him to receive.</p> + +<p>We have seen it stated that by “Oceana,” by no means a large volume, Mr. +Froude cleared £10,000.</p> + +<p>In the “Life of Longfellow,” written by his brother, are a few particulars +of his earnings.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> During 1825—the last year of his college course—he +contributed poems to the United States <i>Literary Gazette</i>, and was paid +one or two dollars a poem, the price depending on the length of the piece. +He wrote, in 1840-1, “The Village Blacksmith,” “Endymion,” and “God’s +Acre,” and was paid fifteen dollars each. When his fame was fully +established, Mr. Bonner the publisher of the <i>New York Ledger</i>, paid him, +for the right of publishing in that paper, 3,000 dollars for “The Hanging +of the Crane.”</p> + +<p>Lord Tennyson received considerable sums for his poetry. He was paid £100 +for the right of printing a short original poem in a monthly magazine. For +his ballad, “The Revenge,” in the <i>Nineteenth Century</i>, he received 300 +guineas. It became known some time ago that his lordship did not deem +£5,000 a year a sufficient sum for the exclusive right of publishing his +works. He changed his publishers several times. He was regarded as a keen +man of business, and it is said that he generally got the best of the +bargain.</p> + +<p>Money never tempted Robert Browning to contribute to the magazines. His +poems always saw the light in book form.</p> + +<p>Mr. J. Cuthbert Hadden, who has made a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> study of this subject, says the +supply of verse to-day is greatly in excess of the demand, and so it +happens that in many quarters poetry is not paid for at all. Most of the +minor poets whose volumes come before the public have to bear the whole +expense of production themselves, and only a very small number escape +without considerable loss. In this connection an amusing story regarding +James Russell Lowell—not quite a minor poet—may be quoted. The cost of +publishing his first book was borne entirely by Mr. Lowell himself, the +edition being a plain but substantial one of 500 copies. The author felt +the usual pride in his achievement, and hoped for almost immediate fame. +Unhappily, only a few copies of the work were sold. Soon after, a fire +occurred in the publishing house where the volumes were stored, and they +were destroyed. As the publisher carried a full insurance on the stock, +Mr. Lowell was able to realise the full cash value on his venture, and he +had the satisfaction of saying that the entire edition was exhausted.</p> + +<p>The leading American novelists usually get £1,000 for a serial story in a +magazine, and a similar sum when it is produced in book form. Bret Harte +can command a thousand dollars for a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> single magazine article. Mrs. Grant +received a cheque for £40,000 for her share of the first volume of General +Grant’s “Memoirs,” and the whole of her share of the proceeds is put down +at £100,000.</p> + +<p>In closing, we must remind our readers that there are two sides to every +picture, and that countless instances of bitter disappointment and death +are recorded in the annals of literature. Only a few in the mighty army of +writers come to the front and win fame and fortune.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> +<h2>“Declined with Thanks.”</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">“Declined</span> with thanks,” is a phrase which often disappoints the aspirant +in the wide field of literature. Works of the highest merit are frequently +rejected by publishers; indeed, some of the most popular books in our +language have gone the rounds of the trade without their merits being +recognised. Frequently the authors, after repeated failures, have brought +their works out at their own risk, and have thereby won fame and fortune. +In works of fiction, perhaps the most notable example of a story which was +offered to publisher after publisher only to be returned to its author, is +that of “Robinson Crusoe.” It was at last “Printed for W. Taylor, at the +Ship in Paternoster Row, <span class="smcaplc">MDCCXIX</span>.” It proved a good speculation for the +lucky publisher. He made a profit of one hundred thousand pounds out of +the venture. Jane Austen’s name stands high in the annals of English +literature; yet she had a struggle to get her books published. She sold +her “Northanger Abbey” to a Bath<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> bookseller for the insignificant sum of +ten pounds. The manuscript remained for some time in his possession +without being printed, he fearing that if published it would prove a +failure. He was, however, at length induced to issue it, and its merits +caused it to be extensively read. Samuel Warren could not prevail upon a +publisher to bring out his well-known book, “The Diary of a late +Physician,” and, much against his inclination, it was first given to the +reading public as a serial in “Blackwood’s Magazine.” Thackeray wrote his +great novel, “Vanity Fair,” for “Colburn’s Magazine”; it was refused by +the publishers, who deemed it a work without interest. He tried to place +it with several of the leading London firms who all declined it. He +finally issued it in monthly parts, and by it his fame as a novelist was +established.</p> + +<p>It will surprise many to learn that the first volume of Hans Christian +Andersen’s “Fairy Tales” was declined by every publisher in Copenhagen. +The book was brought out at the author’s own cost, and the charming +collection of stories gained for him world-wide renown. The Rev. James +Beresford could not induce any publisher to pay twenty pounds for his +amusing volume, entitled<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> “The Miseries of Human Life.” It was after some +delay issued, and in twelve months passed through nine editions. A +humorous notice by Sir Walter Scott in the “Edinburgh Review” doubtless +did much to increase the circulation of the book. The handsome sum of five +thousand pounds profit was cleared out of this happy venture. In an able +work by a leading American critic, entitled “American Publishers and +English Authors,” it is stated that “‘Jane Eyre’ went the round of the +publishing houses of London, but could not find a market until the +daughter of a publisher accidentally discovered the manuscript in an iron +safe, where it had been lying until it was mouldy. She saw the +extraordinary merit of the novel, and induced her father to publish it.” +The foregoing statement is incorrect. As a matter of fact, the manuscript +was sent by rail to Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co., on the 24th August, 1847, +and by the 16th of October in the same year the firm issued the novel. +According to Mrs. Gaskell’s “Life of Charlotte Brontë,” the future +publishers of “Jane Eyre” were at once most favourably impressed with the +book, and this is fully confirmed by the prompt publication of it. +Respecting its reception by the firm, says Mrs. Gaskell, “the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> first +reader of the manuscript was so powerfully struck by the character of the +tale, that he reported his impression in very strong terms to Mr. Smith, +who appears to have been much amused by the admiration excited. ‘You seem +to have been so much enchanted, that I do not know how to believe you,’ he +laughingly said. But when a second reader, in the person of a clear-headed +Scotchman, not given to enthusiasm, had taken the manuscript home in the +evening, and become so deeply interested in it as to sit up half the night +to finish it, Mr. Smith’s curiosity was sufficiently excited to prompt him +to read it for himself; and great as were the praises which had been +bestowed upon it, he found that they did not exceed the truth.” The first +novel Miss Brontë wrote was entitled “The Professor,” which was submitted +to numerous publishers without finding one to accept it. It was not issued +until after the death of the gifted author, and is much inferior to her +other books. Says Mrs. Gaskell, “Mr. Smith has told me a little +circumstance connected with the reception of this manuscript, which seems +indicative of no ordinary character. It came in a brown paper parcel to +65, Cornhill. Besides the address to Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co., there +were on it<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> those of other publishers to whom the tale had been sent, not +obliterated, but simply scored through, so that Mr. Smith at once +perceived the names of some of the houses in the trade to which the +unlucky parcel had gone, without success.”</p> + +<p>Sterne could not find a bookseller who would pay fifty pounds for +“Tristram Shandy,” he therefore issued it on his own account, and it +proved a saleable work, gaining for its author a front place amongst +English humorists. Mrs. Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” was written as a +serial for the “National Era,” an anti-slavery journal published at +Washington. It was next offered to Messrs. Jewett & Co., but their reader +and critic pronounced it not a story of sufficient interest to be worth +reproducing in book form. The wife of the latter strenuously insisted that +it would meet with a favourable reception, and advised its publication. In +a notice of Mrs. Stowe, it is stated that in four years 313,000 copies had +been printed in the United States alone, probably as many more in Great +Britain. Miss Warner’s popular novel, “The Wide, Wide World,” was declined +by a leading New York publisher. It is said that several well-known<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> +houses refused to have anything to do with one of the most popular books +of recent times, “Vice Versâ”; even when in type, two American firms did +not discover its worth, and rejected it.</p> + +<p>Some notable books in history, travels, poetry, and science have been +“Declined with thanks.” Both Murray and Longman were afraid to risk the +publication of Prescott’s “Ferdinand and Isabella,” but Bentley brought +out the book, and according to his statement it is the most successful +work that he has published. A score of houses refused to publish “Eöthen.” +The author in despair handed his manuscript to one of the lesser known +booksellers, and printed it at his own cost; it was extremely successful. +After twenty-five editions of Buchan’s “Domestic Medicine” had been sold, +one thousand six hundred pounds was paid for the copyright, yet, strange +to state, before it was published not a single firm in Edinburgh would pay +a hundred pounds for it. Strahan, the King’s printer, had offered to him +the first volume of Blair’s “Sermons,” and, after a careful perusal, +concluded that the work would not be one to find a ready sale. Dr. +Johnson, however, came to the rescue, and with his<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> eloquence induced Mr. +Strahan to pay a hundred pounds for the copyright. It had a large +circulation; for a second volume, three hundred pounds was the amount +gladly paid, and for subsequent volumes six hundred pounds each.</p> + +<p>Sir Richard Phillips rejected several famous books. It was to this +bookseller and publisher that Robert Bloomfield offered the copyright of +his “Farmer’s Boy” in return for a dozen copies of the work when printed. +He feared it would be a failure, and declined it. The poet issued it by +subscription, and within three years 25,000 copies were sold. This +publisher is said to have had offered to him Byron’s early poems. He might +have purchased the copyright of “Waverley” for thirty pounds, but declined +it! He rejected other works which won favourable reception from the press +and the public. It is only right to state that he gave to the world many +valuable volumes, and that he was a man of decided literary ability. A +paragraph went the rounds of the literary press after the death of Mr. J. +H. Parker, the well-known Oxford publisher, stating that the copyright of +Keble’s “Christian Year” was offered to Joseph Parker for the sum of +twenty pounds and refused. It was further stated that “during the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> forty +years which followed the publication of this work nearly 400,000 copies +were sold, and Mr. Keble’s share of the profits amounted to fourteen +thousand pounds, being one-fourth the retail price.” The brothers Smith +desired to sell for twenty pounds to Mr. Murray their celebrated “Rejected +Addresses,” but the great publisher declined the proposal with thanks. +They resolved to bring out the book at their own risk. It hit the popular +taste, and after sixteen editions had been sold, Mr. Murray paid for the +copyright one hundred and thirty-one pounds. The poems yielded the authors +over a thousand pounds.</p> + +<p>Editors of newspapers and magazines have often made ludicrous blunders in +rejecting poems of sterling merit. It is generally known that the editor +of the <i>Greenock Advertiser</i> expressed his regret that he could not insert +in his newspaper one of Thomas Campbell’s best poems on account of it not +being quite up to his standard.</p> + +<p>The Rev. Charles Wolfe submitted to the editor of a leading magazine his +famous ode on “The Burial of Sir John Moore,” but it was rejected in such +a scornful manner as to cause the writer to hand it to the editor of <i>The +Newry Telegraph</i>, an Ulster newspaper of no<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> standing as a literary +journal. It was published in 1817, in that obscure paper, with the +initials of “C. W.” It was reproduced in various publications, and +attracted great attention. It is one of the best in our limited number of +pieces of martial poetry.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span></p> +<h2>Epigrams on Authors.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> epigram is of considerable antiquity. The Greeks placed on their +monuments, statues, and tombs, short poetical inscriptions, written in a +simple style, and it was from this practice that we derive the epigram. In +the earlier examples we fail to find any traces of satire which is now its +chief characteristic. The Romans were the first to give a satirical turn +to this class of literature. Amongst the writers of Latin epigrams, +Catullus and Martial occupy leading places. The French are, perhaps, the +most gifted writers of epigrams. German epigrammatists have put into verse +moral proverbs. Schiller and Goethe did not, however, follow the usual +practice of their countrymen, but wrote many satirical epigrams, having +great force. Many of our English poets have displayed a fine faculty of +writing epigrams.</p> + +<p>The birthplace of Homer is a disputed point, and has given rise to not a +few essays and epigrams. Thomas Heywood, in one of his poetical +publications, published in 1640, wrote:—</p> + +<p class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> +“Seven cities warr’d for Homer, being dead,<br /> +Who, living, had no roof to shroud his head.”</p> + +<p>Much in the same strain wrote Thomas Seward, a century and a half later:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Seven wealthy towns contend for Homer dead,<br /> +Through which the living Homer begg’d his bread.”</p> + +<p>The two writers have not stated fully the number of cities which claim to +have given birth to Homer. The number is nearer twenty than seven. Pope, +in his translation of Homer, was assisted by a poet named William Broome, +a circumstance which prompted John Henley to pen the following:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Pope came off clean with Homer; but, they say,<br /> +Broome went before, and kindly swept the way.”</p> + +<p>Butler, the author of “Hudibras,” was much neglected during his life. It +is true that Charles II. and his courtiers read and were delighted with +his poem, but they did not extend to him any patronage. The greater part +of his days were passed in obscurity and poverty. He had been buried about +forty years when a monument was placed in Westminster Abbey to his memory, +by John Barber, a printer, and afterwards an Alderman and Lord Mayor of +London. Samuel Wesley wrote on the memorial the following lines:—</p> + +<p class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> +“Whilst Butler, needy wretch! was yet alive,<br /> +No gen’rous patron would a dinner give;<br /> +See him, when starved to death, and turn’d to dust,<br /> +Presented with a monumental bust!<br /> +The poet’s fate is here in emblem shown,—<br /> +He asked for bread, and he receiv’d a stone.”</p> + +<p>An epitaph similar in sentiment to the foregoing was placed by Horace +Walpole over the remains of Theodore, King of Corsica, who, after many +trials and disappointments, ended his life as a prisoner for debt in +King’s Bench, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Anne’s, +Westminster:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“The grave, great teacher, to a level brings<br /> +Heroes and beggars, galley slaves and kings.<br /> +But Theodore this moral learn’d ere dead;<br /> +Fate pour’d its lesson on his living head;<br /> +Bestow’d a kingdom, and denied him bread.”</p> + +<p>The fourth Earl of Chesterfield, on seeing a whole-length portrait of Nash +between the busts of Sir Isaac Newton and Pope in the rooms at Bath, wrote +as follows:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Immortal Newton never spoke<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">More truth than here you’ll find;</span><br /> +Nor Pope himself e’er penn’d a joke<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">More cruel on mankind.</span><br /> +<br /> +The picture, plac’d the busts between,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gives satire all its strength:</span><br /> +Wisdom and Wit are little seen,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But Folly at full length.”</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>Stephen Duck’s poetry and progress in life gave rise to some lively lines +by the lampooners of the eighteenth century. He was an agricultural +labourer, having a thirst for knowledge and some skill as a writer of +verse. This humble and self-taught student was brought under the notice of +Queen Caroline, who was much interested in his welfare, and pleased with +his poetry; she granted him a pension of £30 a year. He was next made a +yeoman of the guard, an appointment he did not long retain, for he was +advanced to the position of a clergyman in the Church of England, and +presented to the living of Byfleet, Surrey. It is to be feared that his +education was not sufficiently liberal for a clerk in holy orders. Dean +Swift assailed the poor poet as follows:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“The thresher Duck could o’er the Queen prevail;<br /> +The proverb says ‘No fence against a flail.’<br /> +From threshing corn he turns to thresh his brains,<br /> +For which Her Majesty allows him grains.<br /> +Though ’tis confess’d that those who ever saw<br /> +His poems, think them all not worth a straw.<br /> +Thrice happy Duck, employed in threshing stubble!<br /> +Thy toil is lessen’d and thy profits doubled.”</p> + +<p>The want of dignity displayed in the foregoing is unworthy of Swift, and +the reply as follows made by Duck is certainly much to his credit:—</p> + +<p class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> +“You think it, censor, mighty strange<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That, born a country clown,</span><br /> +I should my first profession change<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And wear a chaplain’s gown!</span><br /> +If virtue honours the low race<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From which I was descended,</span><br /> +If vices your high birth disgrace<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who should be most commended?”</span></p> + +<p>Duck wrote the epitaph for the tombstone over the remains of Joe Miller of +mirthful memory. The following is a copy of the lines:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“If humour, wit, and honesty could save<br /> +The hum’rous, witty, honest from the grave;<br /> +The grave had not so soon this tenant found<br /> +Whom honesty, and wit, and humour crowned.<br /> +Or could esteem and love preserve our breath,<br /> +And guard us longer from the stroke of death,<br /> +The stroke of death on him had later fell,<br /> +Whom all mankind esteem’d and lov’d so well.”</p> + +<p>The poet-preacher was advanced to the chaplaincy of a regiment of Dragoon +Guards. Sad to relate, in the year 1756, in a fit of insanity, he took his +own life.</p> + +<p>During the Gordon riots on the 7th of January, 1780, Lord Mansfield’s +house in Bloomsbury Square was burnt, and in the flames perished his +valuable library, which he commenced collecting when a lad at school. It +included many<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> valuable volumes and materials for memoirs of his times. +Cowper thus wrote on the subject:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“So then—the Vandals of our isle,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sworn foes of sense and law,</span><br /> +Have burnt to dust a nobler pile<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Than ever Roman saw!</span><br /> +<br /> +And Murray sighs o’er Pope and Swift,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And many a treasure more,</span><br /> +The well-judged purchase, and the gift<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That graced his letter’d store.</span><br /> +<br /> +Their pages mangled, burnt, and torn,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The loss was his alone;</span><br /> +But ages yet to come shall mourn<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The burning of his own.”</span></p> + +<p>A pleasing and playful epigram on Robert Bloomfield, the author of “The +Farmer’s Boy,” was written by Henry Kirke White:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Bloomfield, thy happy omen’d name<br /> +Ensures continuance of thy fame;<br /> +Both sense and truth this verdict give,<br /> +While <i>fields</i> shall <i>bloom</i> thy name shall live.”</p> + +<p>The residences of Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge near the English +Lakes suggested the title of lake poets, and of their works the Rev. Henry +Townshend wrote:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“They come from the lakes—an appropriate quarter<br /> +For poems diluted with plenty of water.”</p> + +<p>Surely Lord Holland was a little wide of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> mark when he penned the +following epigram, complaining that Southey did not write sufficient +laureate poems; the fact is, he wrote too many to sustain his reputation +as a poet:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Our Laureate Bob defrauds the King—<br /> +He takes his cash and will not sing;<br /> +Yet on he goes, I know not why,<br /> +Singing for us who do not buy.”</p> + +<p>In the <i>Diary</i> of Thomas Moore, under date of September 4, 1825, it is +stated: “Lord H. full of an epigram he had just written on Southey, which +we all twisted and turned into various shapes; he is as happy as a boy +during the operation. He suggests the following as the last couplet:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“And for us, who will not buy,<br /> +Goes singing on eternally.”</p> + +<p>It has been truthfully observed that William Wordsworth “found poetry in +the most common-place events of life, and described them in familiar +language; he naturally contended that there was little real difference +between poetry and prose.” Byron thus rallies him on the theory:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“The simple Wordsworth, framer of a lay<br /> +As soft as evening in his favourite May,<br /> +Who warns his friend, ‘to shake off toil and trouble,<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>And quit his books, for fear of growing double;’<br /> +Who, both by precept and example, shows<br /> +That prose is verse, and verse is merely prose;<br /> +Convincing all, by demonstration plain,<br /> +Poetic souls delight in prose inane.”</p> + +<p>Theodore Hook produced some pungent verses; here is a slight example on +Shelley’s “Prometheus Unbound”:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Shelley styles his new poem <i>Prometheus Unbound</i>,<br /> +And ’tis like to remain so while time circles round;<br /> +For surely an age would be spent in the finding<br /> +A reader so weak as to pay for the binding!”</p> + +<p>Scott wrote a poem which was published in 1815, under the title of <i>The +Field of Waterloo</i>, and prefaced it thus: “It may be some apology for the +imperfections of this poem, that it was composed hastily, and during a +short tour upon the Continent, where the author’s labours were liable to +frequent interruption; but its best apology is, that it was written for +the purpose of assisting the Waterloo subscription.”</p> + +<p>This plea did not disarm hostile criticism. Thomas, Lord Erskine, +expressed himself as follows:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“On Waterloo’s ensanguined plain<br /> +Lie tens of thousands of the slain;<br /> +But none by sabre or by shot<br /> +Fell half so flat as Walter Scott.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>Wrote Thomas Moore in his <i>Diary</i>: “I have read <i>Walter</i>-loo. The battle +murdered many, and <i>he</i> has murdered the battle; ’tis sad stuff.”</p> + +<p>The Earl of Carlisle wrote a sixpenny pamphlet advocating small theatres; +and on the day it was issued the newspapers contained the announcement +that he had given a large subscription to a public fund, a circumstance +which formed the theme of the following epigram by his cousin, Lord Byron:</p> + +<p class="poem">“Carlisle subscribes a thousand pounds<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Out of his rich domains;</span><br /> +And for sixpence circles round<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The product of his brains:</span><br /> +’Tis thus the difference you may hit<br /> +Between his fortune and his wit.”</p> + +<p>Byron made his unhappy marriage the subject of at least three epigrams. +Here are two of them as follows:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p><span style="margin-left: 3em;"><span class="smcap">On His Wedding-day.</span></span></p> + +<p>“Here’s a happy new year! But with reason<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I beg you’ll permit me to say—</span><br /> +Wish me many returns of the season,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But as few as you please of the day.”</span></p></div> + +<p>At a later period he wrote—</p> + +<p class="poem">“This day, of all our days, has done<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The worst for <i>me</i> and <i>you</i>:</span><br /> +’Tis just six years since we were <i>one</i>,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And five since we were <i>two</i>.”</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>Lord Byron’s friend, Thomas Moore, wrote many excellent epigrams, and not +a few were penned about him. He published his first volume of poems under +the name of Thomas Little. It is stated that a lady found a copy of the +book under the pillow of her maid’s bed, and wrote on it in pencil:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“You read <i>Little</i>, I guess;<br /> +I wish you’d read <i>less</i>.”</p> + +<p>The servant was equal to her mistress, and wrote:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“I read Little before,<br /> +Now I mean to read <i>Moore</i>.”</p> + +<p>Lord Byron wrote the following in 1811 on Moore’s farcical opera:—</p> + +<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">“Good plays are scarce;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">So Moore writes farce;</span><br /> +The poet’s fame grows brittle—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">We knew before</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That Little’s Moore,</span><br /> +But now ’tis Moore that’s Little.”</p> + +<p>Respecting Moore’s duel with Lord Jeffrey, Theodore Hook composed the +following lines:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“When Anacreon would fight, as the poets have said,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A reverse he displayed in his vapour,</span><br /> +For while all his poems were loaded with lead,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His pistols were loaded with paper.</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span><br /> +For excuses, Anacreon old custom may thank,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Such salvo he should not abuse;</span><br /> +For the cartridge, by rule, is always made blank<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That is fired away at <i>Reviews</i>.”</span></p> + +<p>“Moore is here called Anacreon,” says W. Davenport Adams, “in allusion to +his translations from that poet.” The duel was owing to an article in the +<i>Edinburgh Review</i>, which Moore thought proper to resent by challenging +the editor. The combatants were, however, arrested on the ground, and +conveyed to Bow Street, where the pistols were found to contain merely a +charge of powder, the balls having in some way disappeared. Byron alludes +to the circumstance in <i>English Bards and Scotch Reviewers</i>:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“When Little’s leadless pistol met his eye,<br /> +And Bow Street myrmidons stood laughing by.”</p> + +<p>After this strange encounter, the poet and critic were firm friends.</p> + +<p>Slips of the pen have given rise to some smart epigrammatic corrections. +Albert Smith wrote in an album as follows:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Mont Blanc is the Monarch of Mountains,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They crown’d him long ago;</span><br /> +But who they got to put it on<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nobody seems to know.”</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;"><span class="smcap">Albert Smith.</span></span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span><ins class="correction" title="original: Thackerey">Thackeray</ins> was successfully solicited to contribute to the same book, and +wrote under the fore-going:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">A Humble Suggestion.</span></span></p> +<p>“I know that Albert wrote in a hurry,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To criticize I scarce presume;</span><br /> +But methinks that Lindley Murray,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Instead of <i>who</i> had written <i>whom</i>.”</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;"><span class="smcap">W. M. Thackeray.</span></span></p></div> + +<p>Samuel Warren on one occasion made a slip in writing in an album, +misquoting Moore, writing “glory’s throb” instead of “glory’s thrill.” The +mistake formed the subject of the following <ins class="correction" title="original: improptu">impromptu</ins> lines by Mr. Digby +Seymour:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Warren, thy memory was poor<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The Irish bard to rob,</span><br /> +Had you remembered Tommy Moore,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Glory would ‘thrill,’ not ‘throb.’”</span></p> + +<p>The vanity of Mr. Warren was unusually largely developed, and gave rise to +a number of amusing anecdotes. Sir George Rose thus refers to his +weakness:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Samuel Warren, though able, yet vainest of men,<br /> +Could he guide with discretion his tongue and his pen,<br /> +His course would be clear for—‘Ten Thousand a Year;’<br /> +But limited else be a brief—‘Now and Then.’”</p> + +<p>For a long period Mr. Warren was the Recorder for Hull. Mr. Thompson, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> +Town Clerk, was a gentleman of cultivated literary tastes, and able to +compose a neat epigram. He wrote the following:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Our Recorder, Sam Warren, from all that I hear,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is one of the kindest of men,</span><br /> +For a friend he presents with ‘Ten Thousand a Year,’<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And adds to the gift ‘Now and Then.’”</span></p> + +<p>Mr. William Harrison Ainsworth, the romance writer, was very unpopular +with the contributors of <i>Punch</i>, and many were the satires on him in its +pages. Colburn published a magazine, in which many of Ainsworth’s novels +appeared, and this gave rise to the following epigram:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Says Ainsworth to Colburn:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘A plan in my pate is</span><br /> +To give my romance as<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A supplement gratis.’</span><br /> +<br /> +“Says Colburn to Ainsworth:<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘’Twill do very nicely,</span><br /> +For that will be charging<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Its value precisely.’”</span></p> + +<p>In early manhood, Edwin Paxton Hood called upon Bulwer Lytton without any +introduction. The servant told him that his master could not be seen. On +receiving the intimation, Hood took out of his pocket pencil and paper, +and wrote as follows:—</p> + +<p class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +“A son of song, to fame unknown,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stands waiting in your hall below;</span><br /> +Your footman tells him to begone;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Say, mighty Bulwer, shall he go?”</span></p> + +<p>It is not surprising to learn that the impromptu lines proved an effective +introduction. The interview was the first of many pleasant meetings +between the author of <i>The Caxtons</i> and Mr. Paxton Hood.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p> +<h2>Poetical Graces.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Literary</span> by-paths furnish some singular specimens of poetical graces. We +produce a few for the entertainment of our readers.</p> + +<p>Robert Fergusson, the Edinburgh poet, was born in 1751, and was a student +at St. Andrews’ University from his thirteenth to his seventeenth year. It +was the duty of each student, in turn, to ask a blessing at the dinner +table. One day, to the consternation of all, the youthful bard repeated +the following lines:</p> + +<p class="poem">“For rabbits young, and for rabbits old,<br /> +For rabbits hot, and for rabbits cold,<br /> +For rabbits tender, and for rabbits tough,<br /> +Our thanks we render, for we’ve had enough.”</p> + +<p>The masters of the college deliberated how they should punish the +graceless poet. It was finally resolved not to censure him, but to have in +the future a more spare supply of rabbits. Poor Fergusson’s sad career +closed in a lunatic asylum at an early age, not, however, before he had +enriched Scottish poetical literature with some important contributions.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span>Burns appears to have had a great admiration for this wayward son of song. +He placed over his remains in the Canongate Churchyard, Edinburgh, a +tombstone bearing the following inscription:—</p> + +<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 2em;">“Here lies Robert Fergusson,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Poet, born September 5th, 1751,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Died October 16th, 1774.</span><br /> +No sculptured marble here, nor pompous lay<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No storied urn, nor animated bust;</span><br /> +This simple stone directs pale Scotia’s way<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To pour her sorrows o’er her Poet’s dust.”</span></p> + +<p>On the back of the stone it is stated:—</p> + +<p>“By special grant of the Managers to Robert Burns, who erected this stone, +this burial place is ever to remain sacred to the memory of Robert +Fergusson.”</p> + +<p>More than one poetical grace is attributed to the facile pen of Burns. His +grace before dinner is well known, and is as follows:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Oh Thou who kindly dost provide<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For every creature’s want!</span><br /> +We bless Thee, God of nature wide,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For all Thy goodness lent:</span><br /> +And if it please Thee, Heavenly guide,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">May never worse be sent,</span><br /> +But whether granted or denied,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lord, bless us with content.”</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>It is said that at one of Burns’s convivial dinners he was desired to say +grace, and he gave the following, impromptu:</p> + +<p class="poem">“O Lord we do Thee humbly thank<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For what we little merit;—</span><br /> +Now Jean may tak’ the flesh away,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And Will bring on the spirit.”</span></p> + +<p>On one occasion a rhymster, who had placed before him a supper small in +quantity and poor in quality, invoked a blessing with the following +lines:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“O Thou who bless’d the loaves and fishes<br /> +Look down upon these two poor dishes;<br /> +And though the ’tatoes be but small,<br /> +Lord make them large enough for all;<br /> +For if they do our bellies fill,<br /> +’Twill be a wondrous miracle.”</p> + +<p>This reminds us of an epigram entitled “Dress v. Dinner:”—</p> + +<p class="poem">What is the reason, can you guess,<br /> +Why men are poor, and women thinner?<br /> +So much do they for dinner dress,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">There’s nothing left to dress for dinner.</span></p> + +<p>On a graceless peer an epigrammatist wrote:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“‘By proxy I pray, and by proxy I vote,’<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A graceless peer said to a churchman of note;</span><br /> +Who answered,‘My lord, then I venture to say,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">You’ll to heaven ascend in a similar way.’”</span></p> + +<p>Here is a grateful grace:—</p> + +<p class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +“Some hae meat that canna eat,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">An’ some cou’d eat that want it;</span><br /> +But we hae meat, an’ we can eat,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Sae let the Lord be thankit.”</span></p> + +<p>The Rev. Samuel Wesley, formerly vicar of Epworth, and another friend were +entertained to dinner at Temple Belwood, by a host noted as a strange +compound of avarice and oddity. Mr. Wesley returned thanks with the +following impromptu lines:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Thanks for the feast, for ’tis no less<br /> +Than eating manna in the wilderness,<br /> +Here meagre famine bears controlless sway,<br /> +And ever drives each fainting wretch away.<br /> +Yet here, O how beyond a saint’s belief,<br /> +We’ve seen the glories of a chine of beef;<br /> +Here chimneys smoke, which never smoked before,<br /> +And we have dined, where we shall dine no more.”</p> + +<p>In conclusion we give a vegetarian grace. The first four lines are to be +said before the meal:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“These fruits do Thou, O Father, bless,<br /> +Which Mother Earth to us doth give;<br /> +No blood doth stain our feast to day,<br /> +In Thee we trust, and peaceful live.”</p> + +<p>The next is a form of thanksgiving after a vegetarian meal:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“We thank Thee, Lord, for these Thy fruits,<br /> +Which Mother Earth to us doth give;<br /> +No blood hath stained our feast to-day,<br /> +In Thee we trust, and peaceful live!”</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p> +<h2>Poetry on Panes.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">In</span> a variety of places, but more especially in old village inns, +reflections in verse, good, bad, and indifferent, have been found +scratched upon window-panes. We have carefully copied the best examples +which have come under our notice, and present a batch herewith, believing +that they may entertain our readers.</p> + +<p>A genial old Yorkshire parson appears at the commencement of the present +century to have been greatly pleased with an inn situated between +Northallerton and Boroughbridge, for he visited it daily to enjoy his pipe +and glass. On one of its window-panes he inscribed some lines, of which +the following is a literal copy:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Here in my wicker chair I sitt,<br /> +From folly far, and far from witt,<br /> +Content to live, devoid of care,<br /> +With country folks and country fare;<br /> +To listen to my landlord’s tale,<br /> +And drink his health in Yorkshire ale;<br /> +Then smoak and read the <i>York Courant</i>;<br /> +I’m happy and ’tis all I want.<br /> +Though few my tythes, and light my purse,<br /> +I thank my God it is no worse.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>Here is another Yorkshire example, written towards the close of the last +century; it is from an old wayside inn near Harewood-bridge, on the Leeds +and Harrogate road:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Gaily I lived, as Ease and Nature taught,<br /> +And passed my little Life without a thought;<br /> +I wonder, then, why Death, that tyrant grim,<br /> +Should think of me, who never thought of him.”</p> + +<p>Under the foregoing, the following was written:</p> + +<p class="poem">“Ah! why forget that Death should think of thee;<br /> +If thou art Mortal, such must surely be;<br /> +Then rouse up reason, view thy hast’ning end,<br /> +And lose no time to make God thy Friend.”</p> + +<p>In the old coaching days, the Dog and Doublet, at Sandon, Staffordshire, +was a popular house. A guest wrote on one of its window panes the +following recommendation:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Most travellers to whom these roads are known,<br /> +Would rather stay at Sandon than at Stone!<br /> +Good chaises, horses, treatment, and good wines,<br /> +They always meet with at James Ballantine’s.”</p> + +<p>A penniless poet wrote on a tavern window-pane the lines:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“O Chalk! to me, and to the poor, a friend,<br /> +On Thee my life and happiness depend;<br /> +On Thee with joy, with gratitude I think,<br /> +For, by thy bounty, I both eat and drink.”</p> + +<p>“Chalk” is a slang word for credit. Innkeepers<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> kept their accounts on the +back of a door, written with chalk.</p> + +<p>The following epigram was written under a pane disfigured with +autographs:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Should you ever chance to see,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A man’s name writ on a glass,</span><br /> +Be sure he owns a diamond,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And his parent owns an ass.”</span></p> + +<p>On the accession of Her Majesty, this <i>jeu d’esprit</i> was inscribed on an +inn window:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“The Queen’s with us, the Whigs exulting say;<br /> +For when she found us in, she let us stay.<br /> +It may be so; but give me leave to doubt<br /> +How long she’ll keep you when she finds you out.”</p> + +<p>The following lines dated 1793, were written on a window-pane at the Hotel +des Pays Bas, Spa Belgium:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“I love but one, and only one,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ah, Damon, thou art he!</span><br /> +Love thou but one, and only one,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And let that one be me!”</span></p> + +<p>Early in the present century, it was customary for the actors to write +their names on the panes in one of the windows of the York Theatre. On the +glass of the same window were found inscribed these lines.</p> + +<p class="poem">“The rich man’s name embellished stands on brass;<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>The player simply scribbles his on glass,<br /> +Appropriate tablet to the wayward fate—<br /> +A brittle shining, evanescent state:<br /> +The fragile glass destroyed—farewell the name;<br /> +The actor’s glass consumed—farewell his fame.”</p> + +<p>Our next example, dated 1834, from Purwell Hall, Batley, Yorkshire, was +composed by a Miss Taylor. It is generally believed that her heart was won +by a lover who did not meet with the approbation of her friends, and that +they made her prisoner in one of the rooms of the old Hall, and there, on +a pane of glass, were written the lines which follow:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Come, gentle Muse, wont to divert<br /> +Corroding cares from anxious heart;<br /> +Adjust me now to bear the smart<br /> +Of a relenting angry heart.<br /> +What though no being I have on earth,<br /> +Though near the place that gave me birth,<br /> +And kindred less regard do pay<br /> +Than thy acquaintance of to-day:<br /> +Know what the best of men declare,<br /> +That they on earth but strangers are,<br /> +Nor matter it a few years hence<br /> +How fortune did to thee dispense,<br /> +If—in a palace thou hast dwelt,<br /> +Or—in a cell of penury felt—<br /> +Ruled as a prince—served as a slave,<br /> +Six feet of earth is all thou’lt have.<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Hence give my thoughts a nobler theme,</span><br /> +Since all the world is but a dream<br /> +Of short endurance.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>Robert Burns wrote several lines on tavern windows. On a pane of glass at +the Queensberry Arms, Sanquhar, he inscribed the following.</p> + +<p class="poem">“Ye gods! ye gave to me a wife<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Out of your grace and favour,</span><br /> +To be a comfort to my life;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And I was glad to have her.</span><br /> +But if your providence divine<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For other ends design her,</span><br /> +To obey your will at any time,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">I’m ready to resign her.”</span></p> + +<p>Next may be quoted:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Envy, if thy jaundiced eye<br /> +Through this window chance to pry,<br /> +To thy sorrow, thou wilt find<br /> +All that’s generous, all that’s kind:<br /> +Virtue, friendship, every grace<br /> +Dwelling in this happy place.”</p> + +<p>Burns’s lines written on the window-panes of the Globe Tavern, Dumfries, +have frequently been quoted. The following inscription refers to the +charms of the daughter of the factor of Closeburn estate, when the poet +resided at Ellisland:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“O lovely Polly Stewart,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">O charming Polly Stewart,</span><br /> +There’s not a flower that blooms in May,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That’s half so fair as thou art.”</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>In some editions of the poet’s works, the following verse, stated to have +been copied from a window of the same tavern, is given:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“The graybeard, Old Wisdom, may boast of his treasures;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Grant me with gay Folly to live;</span><br /> +I grant him his calm-blooded, time settled pleasures;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But Folly has raptures to give.”</span></p> + +<p>Such are a few of the many rhymes scratched upon glass. Some of the panes +on which they were inscribed may now be broken, and this may be the only +means of preserving them.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p> +<h2>English Folk-Rhymes.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">English</span> folk-rhymes are very numerous and curious. Characteristics of +persons and places have given rise to not a few which are frequently far +from complimentary. Weather-lore is often expressed in rhyme; the rustic +muse has besides rendered historic events popular, and enabled persons to +remember them who are not readers of books. The lines often lack polish, +but are seldom without point.</p> + +<p>Amongst the more ancient rhymes are those respecting grants of land. The +following is a good example, and is from Derbyshire:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Me and mine<br /> +Give thee and thine<br /> +Millners Hay<br /> +And Shining Cliff,<br /> +While grass is green<br /> +And hollies rough.”</p> + +<p>The old story of the grant is thus related. Years ago, a member of the +ancient family of Lowe had the honour of hunting with the king and his +nobles. Lowe rode a splendid horse, the only one in at the death. The +king<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> admired the animal very much, and the owner presented it to His +Majesty. The horse “mightily pleased the king.” Some little time +afterwards, Lowe waited upon the king to beg a brier bed and a +watering-place, which were Shining Cliff and Millners Hay. The request was +at once complied with. The tale does not end here. It is related that “an +envious courtier told the king that he did not know what he was doing, for +what he was giving away was a great wood with a large tract of land.” Upon +this, Lowe said to His Majesty: “King or no king?”—“Why, king, Lowe.” +Adding with prompitude: “The brier-bed and watering-place are thine:” the +rhyme above quoted being given as the title for the grant.</p> + +<p>It is asserted that Athelstan granted the first charter to the ancient +borough of Hedon, Yorkshire, in these words:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“As free make I thee<br /> +As eye see or ear hear.”</p> + +<p>It is said a similar charter was granted by the same king to the +neighbouring town of Beverley.</p> + +<p>An old, old Norfolk rhyme says:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Rising was a seaport town,<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And Lynn it was a wash;</span><br /> +But now Lynn is a seaport town,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And Rising fares the worst.”</span></p> + +<p>It is said at Norwich:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Caistor was a city ere Norwich was none,<br /> +And Norwich was built of Caistor stone.”</p> + +<p>“About half-way between Curbar and Brompton, to the right of the turnpike +leading from Barlow to Sheffield,” writes William Wood, “there is, far on +the moor, a very level flat piece of ground, near a mile square, most +remarkable for its boggy nature, so much so that it is dangerous to cross, +or at times to approach. Here, before the Roman invasion, says the legend, +stood a town or village, the inhabitants of which lived, according to +Diodorus Siculus, in small cots or huts built of wood, the walls of stakes +or wattles, like hurdles, and covered with rushes or reeds. These +dwellings, with their inhabitants, were swallowed up by one of those +convulsions of nature so destructive at times to the habitations of +mankind.” Respecting Leechfield and Chesterfield are the following lines +current in Derbyshire:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“When Leechfield was a market town,<br /> +Chesterfield was gorse and broom;<br /> +Now Chesterfield’s a market town,<br /> +Leechfield a marsh is grown.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>Respecting Nertoun, a Somersetshire village, near Taunton, is this +couplet:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Nertoun was a market-town<br /> +When Taunton was a furzy down.”</p> + +<p>A Scottish rhyme says:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“York was, London is,<br /> +And Edinburgh will be<br /> +The biggest of the three.”</p> + +<p>Says a popular English rhyme:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Lincoln was, London is,<br /> +And York shall be<br /> +The fairest city of the three.”</p> + +<p>In the days of old it was the practice to allow the wives of the Lord +Mayors of York to retain by courtesy the title Lady for life, and this +custom gave rise to the following couplet:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“The Lord Mayor’s a lord but a year and a day;<br /> +But his Lady’s a lady for ever and aye.”</p> + +<p>Few English towns have made greater progress than the thriving port of +Hull. Its prosperity was predicted long ago:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“When Myton is pulled down,<br /> +Hull shall become a great town.”</p> + +<p>As a matter of history, it may be stated that when the town was threatened +by Charles I., a number of houses in Myton Lane, as well as the +Charter-house, were laid in ruins by Sir John Hotham,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> governor of Hull, +so that they might not give shelter to the Royalists. Ray refers to this +couplet, and, in error, calls Myton, Dighton.</p> + +<p>Selling church-bells has given rise to satirical rhymes. Here are three +Lincolnshire rhymes on this topic:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“The poor Hatton people<br /> +Sold the bells to build up the steeple.”</p> + +<p>The next says:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Owersby’s parish,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wicked people,</span><br /> +Sold their bells to Kelsey<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To build a steeple.”</span></p> + +<p>It is stated in the third:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Poor Scartho people,<br /> +Sold their bells to repair the steeple.”</p> + +<p>About 1710, the spire of Arlesey Church, Bedfordshire, fell down, and it +is believed the bells were broken. The metal was sold to a distant parish +to raise money to rebuild the spire, and until the year 1877 only one +small bell was suspended in the steeple to call the inhabitants to the +house of prayer. The transaction gave rise to the saying:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Arlesey, Arlesey, wicked people,<br /> +Sold their bells to build their steeple.”</p> + +<p>About half a century later, a similar accident<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> occurred at Welstead, and +the bishop granted a license to sell three of the bells, to enable the +parishioners with the proceeds to restore the tower. It gave rise to a +taunting distich similar to the one at Arlesey.</p> + +<p>On the walls of Newington Church, London, in 1793, was written a rhyme +anent the rebuilding of the church without a steeple and selling the +bells:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Pious parson, pious people<br /> +Sold the bells to build the steeple;<br /> +A very fine trick of the Newington people,<br /> +To sell the bells to build a steeple.”</p> + +<p>Rhymes on steeples are very common; perhaps the best known is the one on +Preston, Lancashire:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Proud Preston, poor people,<br /> +High church and low steeple.”</p> + +<p>In a somewhat similar strain is the one on Bowness-on-Windermere:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“New church and old steeple,<br /> +Poor town and proud people.”</p> + +<p>Lincolnshire rhymes are very numerous, and a complete collection would +almost fill a book. Here are three:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Gainsbro’ proud people<br /> +Built a new church to an old steeple.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>According to the next:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Luddington poor people<br /> +Built a brick church to a stone steeple.”</p> + +<p>A question is put and answered thus:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Boston! Boston!<br /> +What hast thou to boast on?<br /> +High steeple, proud people,<br /> +And shoals that souls are lost on.”</p> + +<p>The village of Ugley, Essex, supplies a satirical couplet:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Ugley church, Ugley steeple,<br /> +Ugley parson, Ugley people.”</p> + +<p>An old triplet describes the characteristics of three church spires +thus:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Bloxham for length,<br /> +Adderbury for strength,<br /> +King-Sutton for beauty.”</p> + +<p>Almost every district furnishes examples of bell rhymes. We give one +example, and it is from Derbyshire:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Crich two roller-boulders,<br /> +Winfield ting-tangs,<br /> +Alfreton kettles,<br /> +And Pentrich pans,<br /> +Kirk-Hallam candlesticks,<br /> +Cossall cow-bells,<br /> +Denby cracked puncheons,<br /> +And Horsley merry bells.”</p> + +<p>It is very generally believed in Derbyshire that<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> the town of Alfreton was +once the stake at a game of cards—“put,” and that the loser exclaimed on +the cards being dealt out:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“If I have not an ace, a deuce, and tray,<br /> +Farewell, Alfreton, for ever and aye.”</p> + +<p>There is a similar couplet respecting Carnfield Hall, near to Alfreton. It +is related by Mr. E. Kirk, a Lancashire folk-lorist, that the owner of a +large farm in Goosnargh, called Landscales, staked his land at a game of +“put.” He received his three cards, which were a tray, a deuce, and an +ace, and he put—that is, struck the table with his fist, in proof of his +resolution to abide by the issue of his cards. His opponent had two trays +and a deuce. The farm was consequently lost, and its owner exclaimed:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Ace, deuce, and tray,<br /> +Landscales, go thy way.”</p> + +<p>A Derbyshire rhyme refers to the inhabitants of four places as follows:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Ripley ruffians,<br /> +Butterly blocks,<br /> +Swanwick bulldogs,<br /> +Alfreton shacks.”</p> + +<p>Equally severe is the following on the people of the villages between +Norwich and Yarmouth:—</p> + +<p class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> +“Halvergate hares, Reedham rats,<br /> +Southwood swine, and Cantley cats,<br /> +Acle asses, Moulton mules,<br /> +Beighton bears, and Freethorpe fools.”</p> + +<p>Of Derbyshire folk it is said:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Derbyshire born and Derbyshire bred,<br /> +Strong in the arm, but weak in the head.”</p> + +<p>The next are two Kentish rhymes:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Sutton for mutton<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Kerby for beef,</span><br /> +South Darve for gingerbread,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Dartford for a thief.”</span></p> + +<p>This is complimentary:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“English lord, German count, and French marquies,<br /> +A yeoman of Kent is worth all three.”</p> + +<p>It is said of Herefordshire:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“They who buy a house in Herefordshire<br /> +Pay three years’ purchase for the air.”</p> + +<p>Says a Gloucestershire rhyme:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Blest is the eye<br /> +Betwixt Severn and Wye.”</p> + +<p>In the same shire is the next couplet:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Beggarly Birley, strutting Stroud,<br /> +Hampton poor, and Painswick proud.”</p> + +<p>Many more rhymes similar to the foregoing might be given, if space +permitted; but we have only room for a few more examples, and they relate +to the weather. An old distich says:—</p> + +<p class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> +“When clouds are on the hills,<br /> +They’ll come down by the mills.”</p> + +<p>Another rhyme states:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“When the mist comes from the hill,<br /> +Then good weather it doth spill.<br /> +When the mist comes from the sea,<br /> +Then good weather it will be.”</p> + +<p>In Worcestershire there is a saying:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“When Bredon Hill puts on his hat,<br /> +Ye men of the vale, beware of that.”</p> + +<p>Says a Yorkshire rhyme:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“When Oliver’s Mount puts on his hat,<br /> +Scarbro’ town must pay for that.”</p> + +<p>In the same broad shire is a similar couplet:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“When Ingleboro’ wears a hat,<br /> +Ribblesdale’ll hear o’ that.”</p> + + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span></p> +<h2>The Poetry of Toast Lists and Menu Cards.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> public dinner-season in provincial England commences early in October +and ends in the middle of March. During that period, at the slightest +provocation, our countrymen are prepared to dine together, not with a +desire of over-indulgence in eating, but to enjoy the pleasant company +usually gathered round the festive board. It is an admitted fact that the +men who are in the habit of attending banquets are generally most +abstemious. Speech, story, and song form a pleasing part of the +proceedings of literary-society dinners, masonic banquets, and the more +homely but not less enjoyable suppers held in connection with the Burns’ +Clubs. The toast lists and menu cards are often very interesting; they are +frequently artistic in design, and enriched with quotations from the +poets, which renders them of more than passing interest. A few quotations +from some of the best of those which have come under our notice seem worth +reproducing. The authors represented cover a wide field,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> ranging from +Shakespeare to Tennyson. The former is the most quotable poet, and he is +most frequently drawn upon. Burns, however, runs him very closely.</p> + +<p>In turning over a pile of toast lists, the first to attract our attention +is the one prepared for the Hull Shakespearean Festival. On the front page +is a portrait of the bard and the familiar line of “rare” Ben Jonson:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“He was not of an age, but for all time.”</p> + +<p>Under the first toast—that of the Queen—are two lines from <i>Henry V.</i>:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“God and his angels guard your sacred throne,<br /> +And make you long become it.”</p> + +<p>The toast of the evening follows: “The Immortal Memory of +Shakespeare”—Dr. Johnson’s well-known verse beneath it:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Each change of many-coloured life he drew;<br /> +Exhausted worlds, and then imagined new;<br /> +Existence saw him spurn her bounded reign,<br /> +And panting Time toiled after him in vain.”</p> + +<p>The third speaker had for his topic “Shakespeare’s Universality,” with a +motto from <i>Romeo and Juliet</i>:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Monarch of the universal earth.”</p> + +<p>Actors and actresses were next toasted under<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> the heading of +“Shakespearean Exponents,” with a quotation from <i>Othello</i>:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Speak of me as I am: nothing extenuate,<br /> +Nor set down aught in malice.”</p> + +<p>The next theme was “Shakespeare and Tragedy,” with a line from <i>Richard +III.</i>:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“I live to look upon their tragedy.”</p> + +<p>Then followed “Shakespeare and Comedy,” with two lines from the <i>Taming of +the Shrew</i>:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Frame your mind for mirth and merriment,<br /> +Which bars a thousand harms.”</p> + +<p>Under the sentiment of “Shakespeare and History,” is a line from <i>Henry +IV.</i> (Part II.):—</p> + +<p class="poem">“There is a history in all men’s lives.”</p> + +<p>Lastly, “Shakespearean Women” were remembered, and under the toast are +three lines as follow from the third part of <i>Henry VI.</i>:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“’Tis beauty that doth oft make women proud;<br /> +’Tis virtue that doth make them most admired;<br /> +’Tis modesty that makes them seem divine.”</p> + +<p>The programme of music is headed with a couple of lines from <i>Twelfth +Night</i>:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“If music be the food of love, play on;<br /> +Give me <ins class="correction" title="original: access">excess</ins> of it.”</p> + +<p>At the foot of the card is printed “Good Night,” and a quotation from +<i>Macbeth</i>, as follows:—</p> + +<p class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">“At once good night:</span><br /> +Stand not upon the order of your going,<br /> +But go at once.”</p> + +<p>The toast list of a local literary society contains some happy quotations +from Shakespeare. The speakers are reminded at the commencement of the +programme, in the words from <i>Hamlet</i>, that “Brevity is the soul of wit.” +The two lines under the toast of “The Prince and Princess of Wales” are +from <i>Pericles</i>:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“As jewels lose their glory if neglected,<br /> +So princes their renown if not respected.”</p> + +<p>A line from <i>Richard III.</i>:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Arm, fight, and conquer for England’s sake.”</p> + +<p>was the motto to the toast of “The Army, Navy, and Auxiliary Forces.” +Under the toast of “The Officers of the Club” are words from <i>Othello</i>:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“We cannot all be masters.”</p> + +<p>Two good lines from the <i>Taming of the Shrew</i> are given with the toast of +“Literature and Science”:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“My books and instruments shall be my company,<br /> +On them to look and practise by myself.”</p> + +<p>A line under the toast of “The Press” says, in the words of the <i>Merchant +of Venice</i>:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“There are some shrewd contents in your paper.”</p> + +<p>We have seen on several menu cards:—</p> + +<p class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> +“A good digestion to you all, and once more<br /> +I shower a welcome on you—welcome all.”<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">—<i>Henry VIII.</i></span></p> + +<p>A more general quotation (from <i>Macbeth</i>) is:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Now good digestion wait on appetite,<br /> +And health on both.”</p> + +<p>The bill of fare for the Tercentenary Banquet held in 1864, at +Stratford-on-Avon, in honour of Shakespeare, is perhaps the best specimen +of cuisine literature ever produced. The following are a few of the +edibles and the quotations:—</p> + +<p>Roast turkey:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Why, here comes swelling like a turkey-cock.”<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">—<i>Henry V.</i></span></p> + +<p>Roast fowls:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“There is a fowl without a feather.”<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">—<i>Comedy of Errors.</i></span></p> + +<p>Ducks:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“O dainty duck!”—<i>Midsummer Night’s Dream.</i></p> + +<p>Boar’s head:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Like a full-acorned boar.”—<i>Cymbeline.</i></p> + +<p>York hams:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Sweet stem from York’s great stock.”<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">—<i>Henry VI.</i> (Part I.).</span></p> + +<p>Tongues:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Silence is only commendable in a neat’s tongue dried.”<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">—<i>Merchant of Venice.</i></span></p> + +<p>Mayonnaise of lamb:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Was never gentle lamb more mild.”—<i>Richard II.</i></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>Braised lamb and beef:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“What say you to a piece of beef and mustard?<br /> +A dish that I love to feed upon.”<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">—<i>Taming of the Shrew.</i></span></p> + +<p>Roast lamb:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Come you to seek the lamb here?”<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">—<i>Measure for Measure.</i></span></p> + +<p>Lobster and mayonnaise salads:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Sallet was born to do me good.”—<i>Henry IV.</i> (Part II.).</p> + +<p>Dressed lobsters and crabs:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“There’s no meat like them: I could wish my best friend at such a +feast.”—<i>Timon of Athens.</i></p> + +<p>Desserts, cakes, jellies, and creams:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“The queen of curds and cream.”—<i>Winter’s Tale.</i></p> + +<p>Dressed potatoes:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Let the sky rain potatoes.”—<i>Merry Wives of Windsor.</i></p> + +<p>Bitter ale:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“And here’s the pot of good double beer, neighbour:<br /> +Drink, and fear not your man.”—<i>Henry VI.</i> (Part II.).</p> + +<p>In addition to the foregoing, many interesting and well-chosen quotations +appear on the famous bill of fare.</p> + +<p>The bill of fare of the Annual Dinner of the Norwich Saint Andrew Society, +held in 1896, was headed, “Caird o’ Guid Things”:—</p> + +<p class="center"> +“<span class="smcap">Kail Bree.</span><br /> +Maukin.<br /> +Cockie Leekie.<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span><br /> +<span class="smcap">Guid Caller Fish.</span><br /> +Sole-fleuks, baned an’ stovit.<br /> +Caller Cod wi’ Sauce o’ Caller Ou.<br /> +<br /> +THE HAGGIS.<br /> +“Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,<br /> +Great Chieftain, o’ the puddin’ race!”<br /> +“A nip o’ Fairntosh, an’ it’s no ower perjinkitie measure!”<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Roast an’ Biled.</span><br /> +Sheeps’ Hurdies.<br /> +Sirloins o’ Nowte.<br /> +Biled Chuckies an’ Tongue.<br /> +Rostit Bubblyjock wi’ Sausages.<br /> +Tatties Biled an’ Champit.<br /> +Curly Kail.<br /> +“I’m thinkin’, Sandy, we wadna be the waur o’ a drappie.”<br /> +Roastit Feesants wi’ Raupit Tatties.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Confectouri.</span><br /> +Figmaleerie o’ Fruits.<br /> +Jeelies.<br /> +Plum Puddin’.<br /> +Mince Pies.<br /> +Apple Tairts and Cream.<br /> +Kebbuck wi’ Celery an’ guid Oat Farls.<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Dessert an’ Coffee.</span><br /> +“Let them that wants Coffee, hae Coffee; I’m thinkin’ I’ll hae a dram!”</p> + +<p>The birthday of Burns is celebrated in all parts of the world: wherever +Scotchmen are located the bard is honoured. We have before us a number of +Burns dinner toast lists, and several are headed “Should auld acquaintance +be forgot?”</p> + +<p>The following are from the toast lists of the Hull Burns’ Club. Under the +toast of “The Queen,” two lines appear:—</p> + +<p class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> +“In the field of proud honour, our swords in our hand,<br /> +Our Queen and our country to save.”</p> + +<p>To the toast of “The Mayor, Sheriff, and Corporation” is this couplet:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“How wisdom and folly meet, mix, and unite;<br /> +How virtue and vice blend their black and their white.”</p> + +<p>The toast of the evening, “The Memory of Burns,” has under it the +following verse from <i>The Cotter’s Saturday Night</i>:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“O Scotia! my dear, my native soil!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent!</span><br /> +Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Be blessed with health, and peace, and sweet content.”</span></p> + +<p>We have seen inscribed with this toast a verse from one of Bennoch’s +beautiful poems:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“With reverent silence we will fill<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A cup whene’er this day returns,</span><br /> +And pledge the memory of the Bard,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The Bard of Nature—Robert Burns,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 7em;">Immortal Burns.”</span></p> + +<p>Appended to the toast of “The Hull Burns’ Club” are the noble lines:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“It’s coming yet, for a’ that,<br /> +That man to man, the warld o’er,<br /> +Shall brithers be for a’ that.”</p> + +<p>“The Visitors,” “Kindred Societies,” are included with suitable +quotations. The verse under the toast of “The Press” is a happy +selection:—</p> + +<p class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> +“Here’s freedom to him that wad read,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Here’s freedom to him that wad write,</span><br /> +There’s nane ever feared that the truth should be heard,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But they whom the truth would indite.”</span></p> + +<p>We have seen the following quoted several times with this toast:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“A chiel’s amang you takin’ notes,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And faith he’ll prent it.”</span></p> + +<p>The concluding toast, that of “The Lassies,” has the familiar lines:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“The wisest man the warl’ e’er saw,<br /> +He dearly loved the lassies, O!”</p> + +<p>At a dinner of the Hull Literary Club the toast list was enriched with +quotations from the works of the Poet Laureate. An excerpt from <i>The +Princess</i> on the first page says:—</p> + +<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 3em;">“Hark the bell</span><br /> +For dinner, let us go!”</p> + +<p>Two lines from a poem, <i>To the Rev. F. D. Maurice</i>, head the list:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“You’ll have no scandal while you dine,<br /> +But honest talk and wholesome wine.”</p> + +<p>To the toast of “The Queen” are four lines, as follow:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Her Court was pure; her life serene;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">God gave her peace; her land reposed;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A thousand claims to reverence closed</span><br /> +In her as Mother, Wife, and Queen.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>Five lines from <i>The Battle of Brunanburgh</i> are given to the toast of “Our +Brave Defenders”:—</p> + +<p class="poem"><span style="margin-left: 5em;">“Theirs was a greatness</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Got from their grandsires—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Theirs that so often in</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Strife with their enemies,</span><br /> +Struck for their hoards and their hearths and their homes.”</p> + +<p>Two quotations appear under the toast of “Success to the Hull Literary +Club”:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“We rub each other’s angles down.”—<i>In Memoriam.</i><br /> +<br /> +“Work in noble brotherhood.”—<i>Exhibition Ode.</i></p> + +<p>With the toast of “Literature and the Arts” is the line:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Let knowledge grow from more to more.”</p> + +<p>Under “The Press”:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“News from the humming city comes to it.”</p> + +<p>The line under the toast of “The Ladies” is brief and graceful:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Made to be loved.”</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p> +<h2>Toasts and Toasting.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Toasting</span> and drinking were more general half a century ago than they are +at the present time. In the earlier years of the Queen’s reign temperance, +if not teetotalism, was, it is true, making headway, but in a great +measure convivial customs were maintained, and toasting was popular. Books +were published to supply suitable toasts, for public and private parties. +Such compilations must have been extremely useful to those who attended +social gatherings, and were not able to express graceful and pithy +sentiments.</p> + +<p>We have before us a little work issued in London in 1847, under the title +of “The Social and Convivial Toast-Master; and Compendium of Sentiment.” +It consists of prose and poetry arranged under various headings, such as +Loyal and Patriotic, Naval and Military, Masonic, Bacchanalian, Amatory, +Sporting, Political, Sentimental, and lastly, Miscellaneous. It cannot be +without interest to reproduce from this rare volume a few examples of the +toasts of the earlier Victorian era.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>The opening section of the book is devoted to loyal and patriotic toasts. +The first toast is this:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“Albert and Victoria; may their union be cemented by love and +affection, and their Royal offspring adorn the station they are +destined to fill.”</p> + +<p>A brief and popular toast was:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“Church and Queen.”</p> + +<p>Another sentiment was:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“Happiness to the Royal pair—Victoria and Albert.”</p> + +<p>A longer toast is as follows:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Here’s a health to Her Majesty,<br /> +Conversion to her enemies,<br /> +And he that will not pledge her health<br /> +I wish him neither wit nor wealth,<br /> +Nor yet a rope to hang himself.”</p> + +<p>Another toast is to this effect:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“Health to the Queen, prosperity to the people, and may the Ministry +direct their endeavours to the public good rather than engage in party +distinction.”</p> + +<p>A favourite sentiment was:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“Great Britain’s rising star, the Prince of Wales.”</p> + +<p>Many of the patriotic toasts ask for reforms:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“A revision of the code of criminal laws.”</p> + +<p>At this period they were extremely severe.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“A speedy restoration of the rights of the people.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>was another toast, and not a few related to Ireland.</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“Truth for England and justice for Ireland”</p> + +<p>is one, and another says:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“The birthplace of wit, the home of hospitality—Ireland.”</p> + +<p>Patriotic toasts relating to Scotland are numerous, such as:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“Scotland, the birthplace of valour—the country of worth.”</p> + +<p>“Scottish heroes; and may their fame live for ever.”</p></div> + +<p>A popular toast of the past was:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“The independence of Greece and the memory of Byron.”</p> + +<p>The dislike to France by our fathers is plainly indicated in several +sentiments:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“May French principles never corrupt English manners.”</p> + +<p>It would appear from many of the toasts that the nation was weary of war +and wanted peace and liberty. The plea for liberty occurs in many of the +sentiments; it is the closing wish of the following:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“May peace o’er Britain spread her wing,<br /> +And commerce fill her ports with gold;<br /> +May arts and science comfort bring,<br /> +And liberty her sons enfold.”</p> + +<p>The naval and military toasts, as befits a nation that has gained glory in +battles on sea and land, are on the whole good. A few examples only<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> must +suffice. How out of date our first appears in this age of ironclads:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“Old England’s wooden walls.”</p> + +<p>Here is a punning toast:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“Sir Home Popham—and pop-home to all our enemies.”</p> + +<p>A nautical toast is:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“To Nelson’s memory here’s a health,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And to his gallant tars,</span><br /> +And may our British seamen bold,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Despite both wounds and scars,</span><br /> +Make France and Spain,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And all the main</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And all the foes to know,</span><br /> +Britons reign o’er the main,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">While the stormy winds do blow.”</span></p> + +<p>Says another toast:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“May the deeds never be forgot that were done at Trafalgar and +Waterloo.”</p> + +<p>Wellington is not neglected in the toasts, but he is not so popular as +Nelson. The feats of the Life Guards at Waterloo are remembered:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“The Life Guards: that washed out in blood the blots of Piccadilly.”</p> + +<p>Another famous regiment is thus toasted:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“The Scotch Greys: that made the Eagles look black.”</p> + +<p>Half a century ago was a toast which will find to-day a response in many +hearts:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“The Greeks: may they never fall under Turkish bondage.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>Many of the masonic sentiments are fine; they are amongst the best in the +book. Here is good teaching:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“May we never condemn that in a brother which we pardon in ourselves.”</p> + +<p>“May the evening’s diversions bear the morning’s reflections.”</p> + +<p>“May every society instituted for the promotion of virtue—flourish.”</p></div> + +<p>Other toasts are equally good, but the masonic allusions make them more +suitable for the perusal of members of the craft than for the public.</p> + +<p>Next in order come Bacchanalian toasts. Some of the sentiments would not +meet with favour in well regulated society at the present period, but we +doubt not were hailed with delight in the hard drinking days of old. The +first toast under this head is:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“A friend and a bottle of wine to give him.”</p> + +<p>Wine and women find a place in not a few of the sentiments:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“A full purse, a fresh bottle, and a pretty face.”</p> + +<p>“Beauty, wit, and wine.”</p> + +<p>“Wine, women, and wit.”</p></div> + +<p>The foregoing are brief, and are perhaps the best toasts which link women +with wine. The next is not a bad toast:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“May our love of the glass never make us forget decency.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span>Punning examples are included, such as the two following:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“May good fellows be found in every port, and all bad ones obliged to +sherry out.”</p> + +<p>“May we never be out of spirits.”</p></div> + +<p>On the whole, the toasts under this heading are not equal in merit to many +of the others in the volume.</p> + +<p>We find amatory toasts next in order, and of this class quote three +examples:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“The fairest work of nature—women.”</p> + +<p>“The village maid, may she remain so till she gets a good husband.”</p> + +<p>“Love without deceit, and matrimony without regret.”</p></div> + +<p>Sporting sentiments are by no means numerous; only four pages are devoted +to them. The following are specimens:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“May the thirst of blood never disgrace a British sportsman.”</p> + +<p>“May the love of the chase never interrupt our attention to the +welfare of the country.”</p> + +<p>“The huntsman’s pleasures—the field in the morning, the bottle at +night.”</p></div> + +<p>Some are in rhyme, and the following is a favourable example:—</p> + +<p class="poem"> +“May jovial hunters in the morn<br /> +Prepare them for the chase;<br /> +Rise at the sounding of the horn,<br /> +And health with sport enhance.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>Under the heading of political toasts are a number free from party +sentiment, advocating more the glory of our country than the praise of a +particular party. We can quite understand how favourably a toast like the +following would be received:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“The British Lion, may he never rise in anger and sit down in fear.”</p> + +<p>The next is brief:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“Death or Liberty.”</p> + +<p>A popular toast is as follows:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Here’s to England, the ruler and queen of the waves,<br /> +May she ever be found to give freedom to slaves.<br /> +May she always extend to the weak and oppressed,<br /> +Those blessings with which her own have been blessed.</p> + +<p>Lastly, let us quote one that in our day might be taken to heart by those +in office:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“May Ministers while they are servants of the Crown never forget that +they are representatives of the people.”</p> + +<p>Next in order come sentimental toasts. Examples of these may almost be +culled at random to represent the whole, for there is a great sameness +about them:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“May our great men be good and our good men great.”</p> + +<p>“May goodness prevail where beauty fails.”</p> + +<p>“May we never be lost to hope.”</p> + +<p>“Our friends, our country, our laws, home, love, and liberty.”</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>Two pages are devoted to flash toasts, but as far as we are able to judge +are without interest.</p> + +<p>The work closes with a varied and interesting collection of toasts under +the heading of “Miscellaneous,” and contains excellent examples of the wit +and wisdom of bygone times. The celebrated Roxburghe Club of book-lovers +was founded in 1812, and has given to the world many valuable volumes. The +social side of the society was well sustained, and the following are the +ten bibliomania toasts which were honoured at the festive gatherings:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p class="hang">1. “The immortal memory of Christopher Valdarfer, printer of the Boccaccio of 1471.”</p> + +<p class="hang">2. “The memory of William Caxton, founder of the British Press.”</p> + +<p class="hang">3. “To the memory of Wynkyn de Worde, Pynson, and Notary, successors of Caxton.”</p> + +<p class="hang">4. “The memory of John, Duke of Roxburghe.”</p> + +<p class="hang">5. “The memory of Lady Juliana Barnes and the St. Albans’ Press.”</p> + +<p class="hang">6. “The memory of Gutenberg, Fust, and Schœffer, fathers of the art of printing.”</p> + +<p class="hang">7. “The Aldine family of Venice.”</p> + +<p class="hang">8. “The Giunti family of Florence.”</p> + +<p class="hang">9. “The prosperity of the Roxburghe Club, and in all cases the cause of Bibliomania all over the world.”</p> + +<p class="hang">10. “The Society of the Bibliophiles Français.”</p></div> + +<p>By-the-way, in St. Margaret’s Church, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>Westminster, is a memorial to the +first English printer, bearing the following inscription:—</p> + +<p class="center">“To the memory of<br /> +William Caxton,<br /> +Who first introduced into Great Britain<br /> +The Art of Printing;<br /> +And, who, A.D. 1477 or earlier, exercised that art in the<br /> +Abbey of Westminster,<br /> +This Tablet,<br /> +In remembrance of one to whom the literature of this<br /> +country is so largely indebted, was raised<br /> +Anno Domini MDCCCXX<br /> +By the Roxburghe Club.<br /> +Earl Spencer, K.G., President.”</p> + +<p>Professional sentiments are rather plentiful. The surgeon’s toast is:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“The man that bleeds for his country.”</p> + +<p>The schoolmaster’s toasts are rather numerous, but not without point:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Addition to patriots,<br /> +Subtraction to placemen,<br /> +Multiplication to the friends of peace,<br /> +Division to its enemies,<br /> +Reduction to abuses,<br /> +Rule of three to king, lords, and commons,<br /> +Practice to reformation,<br /> +Fellowship to Britons,<br /> +Discount to the National Debt,<br /> +Decimal fractions to the clergy.”</p> + +<p>Toasts of musicians are included:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>“May a crotchet in the head never bar the utterance of good notes.”</p> + +<p>A second sentiment is:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“May the lovers of harmony never be in want of a note, and its enemies +die in a common chord.”</p> + +<p>Tradesmen’s toasts are very plentiful, and several include puns. Here is +the hatter’s sentiment:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“When the rogue naps it, may the lesson be felt.”</p> + +<p>Respecting the baker is the following:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“May we never be done so much as to make us crusty.”</p> + +<p>The glazier’s toast is:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“The praiseworthy glazier who takes pains to see his way through life.”</p> + +<p>A rather longer toast is that of the greengrocer:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“May we spring up like vegetables, have turnip noses, reddish cheeks, +and carroty hair—and may our hearts never be hard like those of +cabbages, nor may we be rotten at the core.”</p> + +<p>The sentiment of the pawnbroker is:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“When we lend our cash to a friend, may it be to his interest to pay +the principal, and his principle to pay the interest.”</p> + +<p>The shoemaker’s toast is:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“May the cobbler’s lapstones never fail him.”</p> + +<p>In another toast we have an allusion to shoes:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>“May the enemies of Great Britain always have long corns and short +shoes.”</p> + +<p>Here we close this curious collection of toasts, feeling thankful that +such a book is no longer required for the every-day use of the people. A +great change for the better has come over the manners and customs of our +countrymen. Turning over the pages of this publication has given us +pleasure, and we trust the quotations culled from it may not fail to +interest our readers.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span></p> +<h2>Curious American Old-Time Gleanings.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">“The</span> only true history of a country,” said Lord Macaulay, “is to be found +in its newspapers.” Sir George Cornewall Lewis expressed his conviction +that the historian of the future will find all his materials in the +<i>Times</i>. The American historian Mr. Bancroft seldom saw a newspaper +without drawing from it materials for his works. The story-teller often +obtains from the daily and weekly press suggestive notes. Charles Reade +made excellent use of the romantic episodes recorded in the newspapers. +His scrapbooks containing clippings from the papers were numerous and +valuable, and amongst his most cherished treasures. Many modern men of +letters might be mentioned who are alive to the importance of preserving +facts drawn from the journals of the day.</p> + +<p>Professor James Davie Butler, <span class="smcaplc">LL.D.</span>, a few years ago wrote an amusing and +at the same time a valuable paper on Scrap-books. He related how he had +corrected, through seeing in an old Connecticut newspaper an +advertisement,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> statements made by the leading historians of America. It +was respecting the horse of General Stark, a hero in the American War, who +broke Burgoyne’s left wing. Headley says, “Stark’s horse sank under him.” +Everett states, “The General’s horse was killed in the action.” Irving +writes, “The veteran had his horse shot under him.” They were led to make +the statement from a postscript of a letter the General wrote saying, “I +lost my horse in the action.” Here is the advertisement referred to:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“<span class="smcap">Twenty Dollars Reward.</span>—Stolen from me, the subscriber, in the time +of action, the 16th of August last, a Brown Mare, five years old; had +a star in her forehead. Also a doeskin seated saddle, blue housing +trimmed with white, and a curbed bridle.—It is earnestly requested of +all Committees of Safety, and others in authority, to exert themselves +to recover the said Mare, so that the thief may be brought to justice +and the Mare brought to me; and the person, whoever he be, shall +receive the above reward for both; and for the Mare alone, one-half +that sum. How scandalous, how disgraceful and ignominious, must it +appear to all friendly and generous souls to have such sly, artful, +designing villains enter into the field of action in order to pillage, +pilfer, and plunder from their brethren when engaged in battle!</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;"><span class="smcap">John Stark, B.D.G.</span></span></p> + +<p>Bennington, 11th Sept., 1777.”</p></div> + +<p>The foregoing may be regarded as a good<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> proof of the value of historical +facts gleaned from newspapers.</p> + +<p>In recent years several interesting works have been compiled from old +newspapers. Perhaps the most important is a set of volumes entitled “The +Olden Times Series,” prepared by Mr. Henry M. Brooks, a painstaking +antiquary, and published in Boston, Massachusetts. Not the least +interesting of the volumes is one devoted to the <i>New England Sunday</i>. The +opening page proves that neither the rich nor the poor were permitted to +break the strict Sabbath regulations. In Connecticut, in 1789, General +Washington was stopped by the officer representing the State authorities +for riding on Sunday. The circumstances were reported in the columns of +the <i>Columbian Centinel</i> for December of that year. “The President,” it is +stated, “on his return to New York from his late tour through Connecticut, +having missed his way on Saturday, was obliged to ride a few miles on +Sunday, in order to gain the town, at which he had previously proposed to +attend divine service. Before he arrived, however, he was met by a +Tythingman, who, commanding him to stop, demanded the occasion of his +riding; and it was not until the President had informed him of every<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> +circumstance, and promised to go no farther than the town intended, that +the Tythingman would permit him to proceed on his journey.”</p> + +<p>In the old days, little attempt was made to render the places of worship +attractive, or even to warm the rooms in which the preachers delivered +their long sermons, although the people were obliged by law to attend the +services unless they were sick. It was a serious matter not to be a +“meeting-goer,” it was, as Mr. Brooks says, to be ranged with thieves and +other outlaws. Mr. Felt, the compiler of the <i>Annals of Salem</i>, has +brought together some items of interest bearing on the introduction of +stoves into the churches of the district. “For a long period,” writes Mr. +Felt, “the people of our country did not consider that a comfortable +degree of warmth while at public worship contributed much to a profitable +hearing of the gospel.” He states that the first stove heard of in +Massachusetts for a meeting-house was put up by the first Congregation of +Boston in 1773. Two stoves were placed in the Friends’ Society +meeting-house at Salem in 1793, and one in the North Church, Salem in +1809. “Not a few remember,” writes Mr. Brooks, “the general knocking of +feet on<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> cold days and near the close of long sermons. On such occasions, +the Rev. Dr. Hopkins used to say now and then: ‘My hearers, have a little +patience, and I will soon close.’”</p> + +<p>One of Mr. Brook’s volumes deals with <i>Strange and Curious Punishments</i>, +and it gives particulars of many harsh and cruel laws. It appears, from an +address delivered before the Essex Bar Association in 1885, that the +old-time punishments in America were much milder than the criminal laws of +England at the time, and the number of capital offences was greatly +reduced. Persons were frequently whipped. The following is an example +drawn from the Essex County Court Records: “In 1643, Roger Scott, for +repeated sleeping in meeting on the Lord’s Day, and for striking the +person who waked him, was, at Salem, sentenced to be severely whipped.”</p> + +<p>Whipping appears to have been a common means of punishing offenders who +transgressed the laws. In the month of January, 1761, we see it stated +that four men for petty larceny were publicly whipped at the cart’s tail +through the streets of New York. We gather from another newspaper report +that a man named Andrew Cayto received forty-nine stripes at the public<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> +whipping-post for house-robbery—namely, for robbing one house, +thirty-nine stripes; and for robbing the other, ten stripes. It appears in +some instances prisoners had, as part of their sentence, to sit on the +gallows with ropes about their necks. We read: “At Ipswich, Massachusetts, +June 1763, one Francis Brown for stealing a large quantity of goods, was +found guilty; and it being the second conviction, he was sentenced by the +Court to sit on the gallows an hour with a rope round his neck, to be +whipt thirty stripes, and pay treble damages.” The man was a native of +Lisbon, and described as a great thief. “We hear from Worcester,” says the +<i>Boston Chronicle</i>, November 20th, 1769, “that on the 8th instant one +Lindsay stood in the pillory there one hour, after which he received +thirty stripes at the public whipping-post, and was then branded on the +hand; his crime was forgery.” It appears that it was the custom to brand +by means of hot iron the letter F on the palm of the right hand.</p> + +<p>We find that at this period persons found guilty of passing counterfeit +dollars were sentenced to have their ears cropped.</p> + +<p>To illustrate his subject Mr. Brooks draws from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> Felt’s <i>Annals of Salem</i> +not a few quaint items. It is stated that “in 1637, Dorothy Talby, for +beating her husband, is ordered to be bound to and chained to a post.” It +is recorded that “in 1649 women were prosecuted in Salem for scolding,” +and probably in many cases whipped or ducked. The ducking-stool appears to +have been frequently employed. Under date of May 15th 1672, we find it +stated: “The General Court of Massachusetts orders that scolds and railers +shall be gagged or set in a ducking stool, and dipped over head and ears +three times.”</p> + +<p>We find particulars of one Philip Ratclif for making “hard speeches +against Salem Church, as well as the Government,” sentenced to pay “forty +pounds, to be whipped, to have his ears cropped, and to be banished.” The +date of this case is 1631. In the <i>Annals of Salem</i>, under date for May +3rd, 1669, it is recorded that “Thomas Maule is ordered to be whipped for +saying that Mr. Higgenson preached lies, and that his instruction was ‘the +doctrine of devils.’”</p> + +<p>The Quakers were very severely dealt with. At Salem, for making +disturbances in the meeting-house, etc., Josiah Southwick, Mrs. Wilson, +Mrs. Buffum, and other Quakers, were whipped at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> cart’s tail through +the town. After being banished, Southwick returned to Salem, and for this +offence was whipped through the towns of Boxton, Roxbury, and Dedham.</p> + +<p>In bygone times, hanging the remains of persons executed was general in +England; in America it was an uncommon practice. Mr. Brooks, however, +gives particulars of a few instances. At Newport, Rhode Island, on March +12th, 1715, a man named Mecum, was executed for murder; and his body hung +in chains on Miantonomy Hill, where the bodies of some Indians executed +three years previously were then hanging. A negro hanged at Newport in +1769 was gibbetted on the same hill.</p> + +<p>A few lighter passages than those we have studied brighten up the records +of American punishments, which were very severe. A prisoner in February, +1789, escaped through the jail chimney at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and +wrote on the wall as follows: “The reason of my going is because I have no +fire to comfort myself with, and very little provision. So I am sure if I +was to stay any longer I should perish to death. Look at that bed there! +Do you think it fit for any person to lie on?</p> + +<p class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> +“If you are well, I am well;<br /> +Mend the chimney, and all’s well!”</p> + +<p>To the gentlemen and officers of Portsmouth, from your humble servant,</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;"><span class="smcap">William Fall.</span></span></p> + +<p>“N.B.—I am very sorry that I did not think of this before, for if I had, +your people should not have had the pleasure of seeing me take the +lashes.”</p> + +<p><i>Curiosities of the Lottery</i> is the title of another volume of Mr. +Brooks’s “Olden Time Series.” Selling lottery tickets was regarded as a +respectable calling. “The better the man,” says Mr. Brooks, “the better +the agent. Indeed, it was generally thought to be just as respectable to +sell lottery tickets as to sell Bibles; and we have them classed together +in the same advertisement.” In England, we must not forget the fact that +the business was conducted on the same lines in bygone times. The first +lottery in this country was drawn day and night at the west door of St. +Paul’s Cathedral, London, from the 11th of January to May 6th, 1569. The +profit, which was considerable, was devoted to the repair of harbours. The +prizes consisted of pieces of plate.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>In the United States, lotteries were instituted for a variety of objects, +including building bridges, cleaning rivers, rebuilding Faneuil Hall, +raising money to successfully carry on the work of Dartmouth College, +Harvard College, and other seats of learning. The advertisements were +extremely quaint, illustrated with crudely drawn but effective pictures, +and supplied “a speedy cure for a broken fortune.” Rhymes as well as +pictures were largely employed in advertisements for lotteries. Much has +been spoken and written against lotteries; but, nevertheless, in some of +the States of the Union they are still lawful.</p> + +<p>With a dip into a volume called <i>Days of the Spinning Wheel</i>, we bring our +old-time gleanings to a close. The items we cull relate to a trade once +very general in the United States, but happily now a thing of the past. +Advertisements similar to the following appeared in all the American +newspapers; not a few of the publishers took an active part in the trade +of buying and selling human beings. “To be sold,” advertises the <i>Boston +Evening Gazette</i>, 1741, “by the printer of this paper, the very best negro +woman in this town, who has had the small pox and measles; is as hearty as +a horse, as brisk as<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> a bird, and will work like a beaver.” The same +publisher stated that he also had on sale “a negro man about thirty years +old, who can do both town and country business very well, but will suit +the country best, where they have not so many dram-shops as we have in +Boston. He has worked at the printing business fifteen or sixteen years; +can handle axe, saw, spade, hoe, or other instrument of husbandry as well +as most men, and values himself and is valued by others for his skill in +cookery.”</p> + +<p>In the <i>Gazette</i> of May 12, 1760, is offered for sale “a negro woman about +twenty-eight years of age; she is remarkably healthy and strong, and has +several other good qualities; and is offered for sale for no other reason +than her being of a furious temper, somewhat lazy. Smart discipline would +make her a very good servant. Any person minded to purchase may be further +informed by inquiring of the printer.” It will be gathered from the +foregoing that the faults of the slaves were clearly stated.</p> + +<p>Children were often given away; and many announcements like the following, +drawn from the <i>Postboy</i>, February 28, 1763, appeared:—“To be given away, +a male negro child of good breed,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> and in good health. Inquire of Green +and Russell.”</p> + +<p>Runaway slaves gave considerable trouble to their owners, and the papers +include numerous advertisements, details respecting appearance, speech, +dress, etc., of the missing persons. After describing his runaway slave, +the owner concluded his announcement thus: “All masters of vessels and +others are cautioned against harbouring, concealing, or carrying off the +said negro, if they would avoid the rigour of the law.”</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p> +<h2>The Earliest American Poetess:<br />Anne Bradstreet.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">To</span> Northamptonshire belongs the honour of giving birth to the first woman +poet who produced a volume of poetry in America. Her name was Anne +Bradstreet. She was born in the year 1612. The place of her birth is not +absolutely certain. “There is little doubt,” says Helen Campbell, the +author of “Anne Bradstreet, and Her Time,” “that Northampton, England, was +the home of her father’s family.” At an early age she sailed with her +father, Thomas Dudley, to Massachusetts Bay, he being one of the earliest +settlers in New England. For some years he had been steward to the Earl of +Lincoln. He was a man of means, and belonged to a good family, claiming +kinship with the Dudleys and Sidneys of Penshurst. Literature had for him +many charms; he wrote poetry, and, says his daughter, he was a “magazine +of history.” He left his native country and braved the perils of sea and +land to settle in a distant clime where he might worship God according to +his conscience.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> This stern, truth-speaking Puritan soon had his sterling +merits recognised, and held the governorship of Massachusetts from 1634 to +1650. He closed at the age of seventy-seven years a well-spent life. After +death, in his pocket were found some of his recently written verses. His +daughter Anne was a woman of active and refined mind, having acquired +considerable culture at a time when educational accomplishments were +possessed by few. She suffered much from ill-health; in her girlhood she +was stricken with small pox, and was also lame. Her many trials cast a +tinge of sadness over her life and writings.</p> + +<p>She grew up to be a winsome woman, gaining esteem from the leading people +of her adopted country, and her fame as a writer of poetry reached the +land of her nativity.</p> + +<p>She married, in 1629, Simon Bradstreet, Secretary, and afterwards +Governor, of the Colony.</p> + +<p>Her first volume, published at Boston in 1640, was dedicated to her +father. The title is very long, and is as follows: “Several Poems, +compiled with great variety of wit and learning, full of delight, wherein +especially is contained a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> Complete Discourse and Description of the Four +Elements, Constitutions, Ages of Man, and Seasons of the Year; together +with an exact Epitome of the Three First Monarchies, viz.: the Assyrian, +Persian, and Grecian, and the Beginning of the Roman Commonwealth to the +end of their last King; with divers other pleasant and serious Poems. By a +Gentlewoman of New England.” The book met with much favour, and soon +passed into a second edition. In the third edition, issued in 1658, her +character is thus sketched: “It is the work of a woman honoured and +esteemed where she lives, for her gracious demeanour, her eminent parts, +her pious conversation, her courteous disposition, her exact diligence in +her place, and discreet management of her family occasions; and more so, +these poems are the fruits of a few hours curtailed from her sleep, and +other refreshments.” The work was reprinted and published in London in +1650, with the high-sounding title of “The Tenth Muse, lately sprung up in +America.” Compared with much that was written in the age in which she +lived, her poetry is entitled to a foremost rank, but it is not +sufficiently good to gain for it a lasting place in literature. It mainly +attracts<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> attention in our time as being the first collection of poetry +published in America.</p> + +<p>Professor Charles F. Richardson, one of the soundest American critics, +speaks of some of the poems as by “no means devoid of merit, though +disfigured by a paucity of words and stiffness of style.” The estimable +writer of this volume won words of praise from her leading countrymen. +President Rogers, of Harvard College, himself a poet, thus addressed +her:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Madam, twice through the Muses’s grove I walked<br /> +Under your blissful bowers—<br /> +Twice have I drunk the nectar of your lines.”</p> + +<p>All her critics were not so complimentary as President Rogers. Some did +not think that a woman had a right to produce poetry and to such she +adverts in the following lines:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“I am obnoxious to each carping tongue<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who says my hand a needle better fits,</span><br /> +A poet’s pen all scorn I should thus wrong,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For such despite they cast on female wits:</span><br /> +If what I do prove well, it won’t advance;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">They’ll say it’s stol’n, or else it was by chance.”</span></p> + +<p>Here are four lines on “The Vanity of all Worldly Things,” which, give a +favourable example of her poetic power:—</p> + +<p class="poem"><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> +“As he said vanity, so vain say I,<br /> +Oh vanity, O vain all under sky;<br /> +Where is man can say, lo! I have found<br /> +On brittle earth a consolation sound?”</p> + +<p>The next specimen of her poetry is an “Elegy on a Grandchild”:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Farewell, sweet babe, the pleasure of mine eye;<br /> +Farewell, fair flower, that for a space was lent,<br /> +Then ta’en away into eternity.<br /> +Blest Babe, why should I once bewail thy fate,<br /> +Or sigh the days so soon were terminate,<br /> +Sith thou art settled in an everlasting state?”<br /> +<br /> +“By nature trees do rot when they are grown,<br /> +And plums and apples thoroughly ripe do fall,<br /> +And corn and grass are in their season mown,<br /> +And time brings down what is both strong and tall;<br /> +But plants new set to be eradicate,<br /> +And buds new-bloom to have so short a date,<br /> +’Tis by His hand alone that nature guides, and fate.”</p> + +<p>The lines which follow were written in the prospect of death, and +addressed to her husband:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“How soon, my dear, death may my steps attend,<br /> +How soon ’t may be thy lot to lose thy friend,<br /> +We both are ignorant. Yet love bids me<br /> +These farewell lines to recommend to thee,<br /> +That, when that knot’s untied that made us one<br /> +I may seem thine, who in effect am none.<br /> +<br /> +“And, if I see not half my days that’s due,<br /> +What Nature would God grant to yours and you.<br /> +The many faults that well you know I have,<br /> +Let be interred in my oblivious grave;<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>If any virtue is in me,<br /> +Let that live freshly in my memory;<br /> +And when thou feel’st no griefs, as I no harms,<br /> +Yet live thy dead, who long lay in thine arms;<br /> +And, when thy loss shall be repaid with gains,<br /> +Look to my little babes, my dear remains,<br /> +And, if thou lov’st thyself or lovest me,<br /> +These, oh protect from step-dame’s injury!<br /> +And, if chance to thine eyes doth bring this verse,<br /> +With some sighs honour my absent hearse,<br /> +And kiss this paper, for thy love’s dear sake,<br /> +Who with salt tears this last farewell doth take.”</p> + +<p>In the year 1666, her house at Andover was consumed by fire, and her +letters and papers destroyed, which put an end to one of her literary +projects. Six years later she died, at the age of sixty years. It is said +of her by an American author: “Her numbers are seldom correct, and her ear +had little of Milton’s tenderness or Shakespeare’s grace; yet she was the +contemporary of England’s greatest poets, the offspring of that age of +melody which had begun with Spenser and Sidney, an echo, from the distant +wilderness of the period of universal song.” Several of her descendants +are amongst the most gifted of American poets; they include Channing, +Dana, Holmes, and others. Her husband nearly reached the age of a hundred +years, and was termed “the Nestor of New England.”</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span></p> +<h2>A Playful Poet:<br />Miss Catherine Fanshawe.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Several</span> lasting contributions were made to poetical literature by Miss +Catherine Maria Fanshawe. In the literary and artistic circles of London +in the closing years of the last century, and for more than three decades +of the present century she was popular.</p> + +<p>Miss Fanshawe was born in 1775, and came of a good old English family. At +an early age she displayed literary gifts full of promise. The following +sonnet, written at the age of fourteen and addressed to her mother, has +perhaps not been excelled by any youthful writer:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Oh thou! who still by piercing woe pursued,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Alone and pensive, pour’st thy sorrows here,</span><br /> +Forgive, if on thy griefs I dare intrude<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To wipe from thy lov’d cheek the falling tear.</span><br /> +Dear mourner, think!—thy son will weep no more;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His life was spotless, and his death was mild,</span><br /> +And, when this vain delusive life is o’er,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He’ll shine a seraph, whom thou lost a child.</span><br /> +Then, as we bend before th’ eternal throne,<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Oh may’st thou, with exulting accents boast,</span><br /> +‘Now shall my children ever be my own,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For none of those thou gavest me are lost.’</span><br /> +With rapture then thou’lt meet th’ angelic boy,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And she who sow’d in tears shall meet in joy.”</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: -1em;"><i>August, 1789.</i></span></p> + +<p>A long playful poem composed at the age of sixteen, was addressed to the +Earl of Harcourt, on his wishing to spell her name, Catherine, with a K. +It displays much erudition, but it is too long to quote in full. We give a +few of the lines pleading for the letter C:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“And can his antiquarian eyes,<br /> +My Anglo-Saxon C despise?<br /> +And does Lord Harcourt day by day,<br /> +Regret the extinct initial K?<br /> +And still with ardour unabated,<br /> +Labour to get it reinstated?<br /> +I know, my lord, your generous passion,<br /> +For every long exploded fashion;<br /> +And own the Catherine you delight in,<br /> +Looks irresistibly inviting,<br /> +Appears to bear the stamp and mark,<br /> +Of English used in Noah’s Ark;<br /> +‘But all that glitters is not gold,’<br /> +Not all things obsolete are old.<br /> +Would you but take the pains to look,<br /> +In Dr. Johnson’s quarto book<br /> +(As I did, wishing much to see,<br /> +Th’ aforesaid letter’s pedigree),<br /> +Believe me, ’twould a tale unfold,<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>Would make your Norman blood run cold;<br /> +My lord, you’ll find the K’s no better,<br /> +Than an interpolated letter;<br /> +A wand’ring Greek, a franchis’d alien,<br /> +Derived from Cadmus or Deucalion;<br /> +And why, or wherefore, none can tell,<br /> +Inserted ’twixt the J and L.<br /> +The learnèd say, our English tongue<br /> +On Gothic beams is built and hung.<br /> +Then why the solid fabric piece,<br /> +With motley ornaments from Greece?<br /> +Her lettered despots had no bowels,<br /> +For northern consonants and vowels;<br /> +The Roman and the Greek grammarian<br /> +Deem’d us, and all our words barbarian;<br /> +’Till those hard words, and harder blows,<br /> +Had silenced all our haughty foes;<br /> +And proud they were to kiss the sandals<br /> +(Shoes we had none) of Goths and Vandals.”</p> + +<p>She wrote a satire on William Cobbett, M.P., for Oldham, which was +extremely popular amongst politicians at the period it was penned. This is +not surprising, for it contains some most amusing lines. It is entitled +“The Speech of the Member for Odium.”</p> + +<p>In the lighter vein she produced some verses in imitation of the poetry of +Wordsworth.</p> + +<p class="poem">“There is a river clear and fair,<br /> +’Tis neither broad nor narrow;<br /> +It winds a little here and there,<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>It winds about like any hare;<br /> +And then it takes as straight a course<br /> +As on the turnpike road a horse,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Or through the air an arrow.</span><br /> +<br /> +The trees that grow upon the shore,<br /> +Have grown a hundred years or more,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So long, there is no knowing.</span><br /> +Old Daniel Dobson does not know,<br /> +When first these trees began to grow;<br /> +But still they grew, and grew, and grew,<br /> +As if they’d nothing else to do,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But ever to be growing.</span><br /> +<br /> +The impulses of air and sky<br /> +Have reared their stately stems so high,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And clothed their boughs with green;</span><br /> +Their leaves the dews of evening quaff,—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And when the wind blows loud and keen,</span><br /> +I’ve seen the jolly timbers laugh,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And shake their sides with merry glee—</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wagging their heads in mockery.</span><br /> +<br /> +Fix’d are their feet in solid earth,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where winds can never blow;</span><br /> +But visitings of deeper birth<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Have reached their roots below.</span><br /> +For they have gained the river’s brink,<br /> +And of the living waters drink.<br /> +<br /> +There’s little Will, a five year’s child—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">He is my youngest boy;</span><br /> +To look on eyes so fair and wild,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">It is a very joy:—</span><br /> +He hath conversed with sun and shower,<br /> +And dwelt with every idle flower,<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">As fresh and gay as them.</span><br /> +He loiters with the briar rose,<br /> +The blue-bells are his play-fellows,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That dance upon their slender stem.</span><br /> +<br /> +And I have said, my little Will<br /> +Why should not he continue still<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A thing of Nature’s rearing?</span><br /> +A thing beyond the world’s control—<br /> +A living vegetable soul,—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">No human sorrow fearing.</span><br /> +<br /> +It were a blessed sight to see<br /> +That child become a willow tree,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His brother trees among.</span><br /> +He’d be four time as tall as me,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And live three times as long.”</span></p> + +<p>It was related by the Rev. William Harness, who did much to make known the +merits of Miss Fanshawe’s works, that when the foregoing lines were read +to a distinguished admirer of Wordsworth’s poetry, she thought them +beautiful, and wondered why the poet had never shown them to her!</p> + +<p>Miss Fanshawe’s fame rests on the authorship of the celebrated riddle on +the letter H, which has frequently been attributed to Byron, and appeared +in more than one edition of his poems. At a party held one evening at the +house of her friend, Mr. Hope, of Deep Dene, the conversation turned upon +the abuse of the aspirate. After the guests<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> had withdrawn, Miss Fanshawe +retired to her room and composed her noted poem. Next morning she read it +at the breakfast table, much to the surprise and delight of the company. +It is as follows:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“’Twas in heaven pronounced, and ’twas muttered in hell,<br /> +And echo caught faintly the sound as it fell;<br /> +On the confines of earth ’twas permitted to rest,<br /> +And the depths of the ocean its presence confest.<br /> +’Twill be found in the sphere, when ’tis riven asunder,<br /> +Be seen in the lightning, and heard in the thunder.<br /> +’Twas allotted to man with his earliest breath,<br /> +Attends at his birth, and awaits him in death,<br /> +Presides o’er his happiness, honour, and health,<br /> +Is the prop of his house, and the end of his wealth.<br /> +In the heaps of the miser ’tis hoarded with care,<br /> +But is sure to be lost on his prodigal heir,<br /> +It begins every hope, every wish it must bound,<br /> +With the husbandman toils, and with monarchs is crown’d,<br /> +Without it the soldier, the seaman may roam,<br /> +But woe to the wretch who expels it from home!<br /> +In the whispers of conscience its voice will be found,<br /> +Nor e’en in the whirlpool of passion be drown’d,<br /> +’Twill not soften the heart; but though deaf to the ear,<br /> +It will make it acutely and instantly hear.<br /> +Yet in shade let it rest like a delicate flower,<br /> +Ah, breathe on it softly—it dies in an hour.</p> + +<p>Some other riddles and charades appear in her collected poems, but none +are of equal merit to the riddle on the letter H.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>Our next example bears the title of an “Ode”:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Lo! where the gaily vestur’d throng,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fair learning’s train, are seen,</span><br /> +Wedg’d in close ranks her walls along,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And up her benches green.<small><a name="f2.1" id="f2.1" href="#f2">[2]</a></small></span><br /> +Unfolded to their mental eye<br /> +Thy awful form, Sublimity!<br /> +The moral teacher shows—<br /> +Sublimity of Silence born,<br /> +And Solitude ’mid caves forlorn<br /> +And dimly vision’d woes;<br /> +Or Stedfast Worth, that inly great<br /> +Mocks the malignity of faith.<br /> +While whisper’d pleasure’s dulcet sound<br /> +Murmurs the crowded room around,<br /> +And Wisdom, borne on Fashion’s pinions,<br /> +Exulting hails her new dominions.<br /> +Oh! both on me your influence shed,<br /> +Dwell in my heart and deck my head!<br /> +<br /> +Where’er a broader, browner shade<br /> +The shaggy beaver throws,<br /> +And with the ample feather’s aid<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">O’er canopies the nose;</span><br /> +Where’er with smooth and silken pile,<br /> +Ling’ring in solemn pause awhile,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The crimson velvet glows;</span><br /> +From some high benches giddy brink,<br /> +Clinton with me begins to think<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">(As bolt upright we sit)</span><br /> +That dress, like dogs, should have its day,<br /> +That beavers are too hot for May,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And velvets quite unfit.</span><br /> +<br /> +Then taste, in maxims sweet, I draw<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From her unerring lip;</span><br /> +How light, how simple are the straw,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">How delicate the chip!</span><br /> +Hush’d is the speaker’s powerful voice,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The audience melt away,</span><br /> +I fly to fix my final choice<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And bless th’ instructive day.</span><br /> +<br /> +The milliner officious pours<br /> +Of hats and caps her ready stores,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The unbought elegance of spring;</span><br /> +Some wide, disclose the full round face,<br /> +Some shadowy, lend a modest grace<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And stretch their sheltering wing.</span><br /> +<br /> +Here clustering grapes appear to shed<br /> +Their luscious juices on the head,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And cheat the longing eye;</span><br /> +So round the Phrygian monarch hung<br /> +Fair fruits that from his parchèd tongue<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For ever seem’d to fly.</span><br /> +<br /> +Here early blooms the summer rose;<br /> +Her ribbons wreathe fantastic bows;<br /> +Here plays gay plumage of a thousand dyes—<br /> +Visions of beauty, spare my aching eyes!<br /> +Ye cumbrous fashions, crowd not on my head!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mine be the chip of purest white,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Swan-like, and as her feathers light</span><br /> +When on the still wave spread;<br /> +And let it wear the graceful dress,<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span>Of unadornèd simpleness.<br /> +<br /> +Ah! frugal wish; ah! pleasing thought;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Ah! hope indulged in vain;</span><br /> +Of modest fancy chiefly bought<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A stranger yet to Payne.<small><a name="f3.1" id="f3.1" href="#f3">[3]</a></small></span><br /> +With undissembled grief I tell,—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For sorrow never comes too late,—</span><br /> +The simplest bonnet in Pall Mall<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Is sold for £1 8<i>s.</i></span><br /> +<br /> +To Calculation’s sober view,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That searches ev’ry plan,</span><br /> +Who keep the old, or buy the new,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shall end where they began.</span><br /> +<br /> +Alike the shabby and the gay<br /> +Must meet the sun’s meridian ray;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The air, the dust, the damp.</span><br /> +This, shall the sudden shower despoil;<br /> +That slow decay by gradual soil;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Those, envious boxes cramp.</span><br /> +Who will, their squander’d gold may pay;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who will, our taste deride;</span><br /> +We’ll scorn the fashion of the day<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With philosophic pride.</span><br /> +<br /> +Methinks we thus, in accents low,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Might Sydney Smith address,</span><br /> +‘Poor moralist! and what art thou,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who never spoke of dress!’</span><br /> +<br /> +‘Thy mental hero never hung<br /> +Suspended on a tailor’s tongue,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">In agonising doubt;</span><br /> +Thy tale no flutt’ring female show’d,<br /> +Who languish’d for the newest mode,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Yet dar’d to live without.’”</span></p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>In Miss Mary Russell Mitford’s “Recollections of a Literary Life” are some +genial allusions to Miss Fanshawe. “Besides,” wrote Miss Mitford, “her +remarkable talent for graceful and polished pleasantry, whether in prose +or verse, Miss Catherine Fanshawe was admirable as a letter-writer, and as +a designer in almost every style.” Her drawings and etchings met with +praise from those capable of judging their merits.</p> + +<p>After Miss Fanshawe’s death, in 1834, her friend, the Rev. William +Harness, printed for private circulation a small collection of her poems, +expressing his wish “that some enduring memorial may exist of one who, in +her varied accomplishments, her acute perception of the beautiful, her +playful fancy, her charming conversation, her gentle and retiring manners, +her lively sympathy with the sorrows and joys of others, and above all, +her simple piety, was so cherished a member of a society, not very +extended but intimately united by a common love of literature, and art, +and science, which existed in London at the close of the last and the +opening of the present century, and which, perhaps, taken for all in all, +has never been surpassed.” In 1876, Mr. Basil Montagu Pickering issued +“The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> Literary Remains of Catherine Maria Fanshawe,” with notes by the +Rev. William Harness. Doubtless his admiration of the productions of the +author prompted him to publish the volume. Only two hundred and fifty +copies were printed. Mr. Pickering is entitled to the gratitude of lovers +of choice poetry for publishing the charming volume.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p> +<h2>A Popular Song Writer:<br />Mrs. John Hunter.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> name of Mrs. John Hunter stands high on the roll of English song +writers. She is one of the most gifted women in her particular literary +field Hull has produced, and it is most remarkable that she is not noticed +in any local work devoted to history or biography. Her maiden name was +Anne Home, and she was the eldest daughter of Robert Home, of Greenlaw, +Berwickshire, surgeon of Burgoyne’s Regiment of Light Horse, and +subsequently a physician in Savoy. He greatly displeased his parents by +marrying at an early age, and on this account they declined to assist him +in the outset of his professional career. He proceeded to Hull, and +practised as a surgeon. In the year 1742, Anne, his eldest daughter, was +born. She received a liberal education, and at an early age displayed +considerable poetical gifts. Her early work found its way into the +periodicals, and in one entitled the <i>Lark</i>, published at Edinburgh, at +the age of twenty-three years, she contributed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> her well-known song, “The +Flowers of the Forest,” and a song we quote as a specimen of her style:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Adieu, ye streams that smoothly glide<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Through mazy windings o’er the plain;</span><br /> +I’ll in some lonely cave reside,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And ever mourn my faithful swain.</span><br /> +<br /> +Flower of the forest was my love,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Soft as the sighing summer’s gale;</span><br /> +Gentle and constant as the dove,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Blooming as roses in the vale.</span><br /> +<br /> +Alas! by Tweed my love did stray,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">For me he searched the banks around;</span><br /> +But, ah! the sad and fatal day,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My love, the pride of swains, was drown’d.</span><br /> +<br /> +Now droops the willow o’er the stream;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Pale stalks his ghost in yonder grove;</span><br /> +Dire fancy paints him in my dream;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Awake I mourn my hopeless love.”</span></p> + +<p>Such is one of her many songs, several of which were set to music by +Haydn. Her best known song is, perhaps, “My Mother bids me bind my +Hair”:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“My mother bids me bind my hair<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With bands of rosy hue,</span><br /> +Tie up my sleeves with ribbons rare,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And lace my bodice blue.</span><br /> +<br /> +“For why,” she cries, “sit still and weep,<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">While others dance and play?”</span><br /> +Alas! I scarce can go or creep<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">While Lubin is away.</span><br /> +<br /> +’Tis sad to think the days are gone<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When those we love were near;</span><br /> +I sit upon this mossy stone,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And sigh when none can hear.</span><br /> +<br /> +And while I spin my flaxen thread,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And sing my simple lay,</span><br /> +The village seems asleep or dead<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Now Lubin is away.”</span></p> + +<p>In July, 1771, Miss Home was married to John Hunter, the famous anatomist, +who step by step rose from the bench of a cabinet-maker to one of the +highest positions in the medical profession. He was a native of Long +Calderwood, Kilbride parish, Lanarkshire. After working some time as a +cabinet-maker, he proceeded to London, and obtained an appointment as an +anatomical assistant. He was student at Chelsea Hospital in 1748, a year +later undertook the charge of the dissecting room, and in the same year +entered St. Mary’s Hall, Oxford, as a gentleman commoner. He did not +remain there very long. In 1750 he was a surgeon-pupil at St. George’s +Hospital. His brother made his mark in London as a surgeon, and John +joined him as lecturer in 1754. Ten years’ toil in the dissecting room +broke down<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> his health. With a view of obtaining a change of work and +climate, he joined the army, and in 1761 was made staff-surgeon. He was at +the siege of Belle Isle in his first year, and was afterwards with the +army in Portugal. He returned home in 1763, and commenced practising as a +surgeon. He read many able papers before the members of the Royal Society; +in 1767, he was elected a fellow of that distinguished body. In 1787 he +was awarded the Copleyan gold medal. He wrote some important medical +works. His death was sudden, and occurred in the Board-room of St. +George’s Hospital, on the 16th October, 1793, at the age of 64 years. His +father died when he was ten years of age, and his early education was +neglected. At the age of twenty he could simply read and write, knowing no +other language than his own. He was most diligent. His museum contained +10,563 specimens and preparations illustrative of human and comparative +anatomy, physiology, pathology, and natural history. It was two years +after his death purchased by the Government for £15,000, and presented to +the Royal College of Surgeons. Dr. Hunter won fame but not wealth, and +died a comparatively poor man. In marriage he was most fortunate;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> his +wife had a beautiful face, and handsome person. She entertained the +doctor’s guests with delightful conversation, and her amiability and +simple manners endeared her to all with whom she came in contact, many of +whom were men of world-wide reputation. Some of Mrs. Hunter’s friends did +not always meet with the approval of her husband. The following story is +well known, but will bear repeating:—“On returning home late one evening, +after a hard day’s fag, Hunter unexpectedly found his drawing-room filled +with musical professors, connoisseurs, and other idlers, whom Mrs. Hunter +had assembled. He was greatly irritated, and walking straight into the +room, addressed the astonished guests pretty much in the following strain: +‘I know nothing of this kick-up, and I ought to have been informed of it +beforehand; but as I am now returned home to study, I hope the present +company will retire.’ This intimation was, of course, speedily followed by +an <i>exeunt omnes</i>.” Mrs. Hunter was both a skilful musician and a graceful +singer. The greater part of her poetry displays much sweetness of +expression and force. A volume of her poems was issued in 1802, and +attracted much favourable notice.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>Mrs. Hunter wrote the following epitaph for a monument to her husband to +be placed in St. Martin’s Church, London, where he was buried. The then +rector of the parish, however, stated it was contrary to the rules to have +any memorial placed in the church:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Here rests in awful silence, cold and still,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">One whom no common spark of genius fir’d;</span><br /> +Whose reach of thought Nature alone could fill,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Whose deep research the love of truth inspired.</span><br /> +<br /> +Hunter, if years of toil and watchful care,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">If the vast labours of a pow’rful mind</span><br /> +To soothe the ills humanity must share,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Deserve the grateful plaudits of mankind.</span><br /> +<br /> +Then to each human weakness buried here<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Envy would raise, to dim a name so bright,</span><br /> +Those specks which on the orb of day appear,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Take nothing from his warm and welcome light.”</span></p> + +<p>In the year 1860, the remains of John Hunter were removed from the church +of St. Martin-in-the-Fields and placed in Westminster Abbey, to rest with +the dust of England’s most famous sons. The Council of the Royal College +of Surgeons erected a tablet bearing a suitable inscription.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Hunter retired from society after the death of her husband, and found +much enjoyment in literature. She had two children, a son<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> and a daughter. +On the 7th January, 1821, she died in London after a lingering illness, +being nearly eighty years of age. Her name will long remain, and recall +the life of one who added several popular songs to our literature. In +popular anthologies her productions usually find a place.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p> +<h2>A Poet of the Poor:<br />Mary Pyper.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">Scotland</span> is a land of song. It has been the birthplace of many poets who +have added glory to our literary annals. Its list of authors includes the +names of a large number of men and women in the humbler walks of life, who +took up literature under difficulties, and won honourable places in the +world of letters. Burns at the plough, Hogg tending his sheep on the +hillside, Hugh Miller in the quarry, Allan Cunningham with chisel in hand, +William Thom and Robert Tannahill at the shuttle, and Janet Hamilton in +her humble home are familiar figures to every reader of Scottish +biography.</p> + +<p>Amongst the lesser known names is that of Mary Pyper, who, under severe +trials, read a great deal and produced poems of considerable merit for a +self-taught writer. She was born at Greenock, on the 27th of May, 1795. +Her father was a clockmaker, named Alexander Pyper, who had married a +worthy woman, Isabella Andrews, both of whom were natives of Edinburgh. +Failing<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> to obtain regular employment in their native city, the parents of +our heroine moved westwards in search of work. Mary Pyper, in an +autobiographical letter, addressed to the Rev. Charles Rogers, <span class="smcaplc">LL.D.</span>, +states that “her father enlisted in the 42nd Highlanders on account of +failing to find employment.” Says Mr. D. H. Edwards, in his <i>Modern +Scottish Poets</i>, “it was a time of war when recruits were often made in an +unscrupulous manner, and one day Alexander Pyper found a shilling in his +pocket, and was told to his astonishment that he had enlisted in His +Majesty’s service.” His regiment, shortly after he joined it, received +orders to march from Perth across the Sheriffmuir, a distance of sixteen +miles. Poor Mrs. Pyper walked, carrying her infant in her arms, the rain +coming down in torrents. After a weary tramp the poor mother sat down +nearly broken-hearted, fearing that her baby had perished. On the arrival +of the baggage carts, warm clothing and other necessaries were procured, +and happily the child began to revive.</p> + +<p>The regiment subsequently proceeded to Ireland. Pyper, on leaving Dublin +for England, stumbled and fractured his leg. The accident rendered him +unfit for active service, and he was discharged.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> He did not long survive, +and at the age of six months, Mary Pyper was left fatherless.</p> + +<p>Her mother then returned to her native city. Here she had to struggle for +bread, gaining a scanty living as a boot-binder. She devoted much time to +the education of her child, who proved an apt scholar. Mother and daughter +delighted in the study of history, but Mary’s chief pleasure was derived +from the works of the poets. She was familiar with the poetry of +Shakespeare, Milton, Scott, Cowper, and other celebrated authors. As a +child she was puny; she was always little, and might be called a dwarf. In +her early years she suffered much from ill-health. She was troubled with +jaundice, and on three occasions had severe attacks of fever, each lasting +from six to eight weeks. Her mother, too, was often sick, and when other +children of her age were enjoying childish games Mary Pyper was busy with +her needle helping to add to the slender income of her mother.</p> + +<p>After being confined to her bed for six years, Mrs. Pyper died on the 27th +of March, 1827. It was during the attendance on her mother that Mary first +thought of composing verses. The poor woman had been obliged to run into +debt to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> the extent of £9. This amount was paid by her daughter out of her +wages of six shillings per week, obtained from a shop-keeper who employed +her to make buttons and fringes. Hoping to earn more, she left her +situation, and obtained a small basket containing fancy goods, which she +hawked for sale, but this did not prove a satisfactory means of making a +living. It was uncertain, and the walking fatiguing. In later years she +had a continual struggle, and met with numerous misfortunes. Writing to +Dr. Rogers, in 1860, she said: “As I was working in our church-school, I +fell and broke my arm, some ten years since. Eight months after this, I +was painting my house and, over-reaching myself, ricked my back, and the +year before I fell on the frost and severely hurt my head.” Kind friends +helped to lighten her troubles, which she bore with Christian fortitude.</p> + +<p>A small volume of her poems was published in 1860, mainly through the +assistance of Mr. T. Constable. The work met with a favourable reception, +and a couple of the hymns were reproduced in the pages of <i>Lyra +Britannica</i>. Mr. Henry Wright, the compiler of the work entitled <i>Lays of +Pious Minstrels</i>, includes in it examples<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> of Mary Pyper’s poetry. In the +preface to his volume he wrote: “The attention of my readers is especially +directed to the pieces ‘Let me go,’ ‘Servant of God,’ and ‘We shall see +Him as He is,’ the composition of Miss Mary Pyper, a resident in one of +the closes or alleys in the Old Town of Edinburgh, who is in extreme old +age, quite alone in the world, totally blind, and in deep poverty. Since +the notice of Miss Pyper appeared in the last edition of this work, many +benevolent persons have sent me donations for her in postage stamps, and +otherwise. I shall be glad to be the medium of alleviating in any degree +the very painful circumstances in which she is placed.” It will be seen +from the foregoing that in addition to other afflictions she lost her +eyesight in her old age.</p> + +<p>We give a few specimens of her verses, which are chiefly of a religious +and devotional character. The first poem is entitled “The Christian’s View +of Death”:</p> + +<p class="poem">“Let me go! the Day is breaking<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Morning bursts upon mine eye,</span><br /> +Death this mortal frame is shaking,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">But the soul can never die!</span><br /> +<br /> +Let me go! the Day-Star, beaming,<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Gilds the radiant realms above;</span><br /> +Its full glory on me streaming,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Lights me to the Land of Love.”</span></p> + +<p>The last stanzas of her “Servant of God” are as follow:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“There Flowers immortal bloom<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To charm the ravished sight;</span><br /> +And palms and harps await for those<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who walk with Him in white.</span><br /> +<br /> +For they shall sing the song<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of Moses, long foretold,</span><br /> +When they have passed those pearly gates<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And streets of burnished gold.</span><br /> +<br /> +The glories of the Lamb<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Their rapturous strains shall raise—</span><br /> +Eternal ages shall record<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His love, His power, His praise.”</span></p> + +<p>The following are the concluding lines of “We shall see Him as He is”:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“When we pass o’er death’s dark river<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">We shall see Him as He is—</span><br /> +Resting in His love and favour<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Owning all the glory His;</span><br /> +There to cast our crowns before Him—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Oh! what bliss the thought affords!</span><br /> +There for ever to adore Him—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">King of Kings and Lord of Lords.”</span></p> + +<p>One of her best hymns is entitled “What has Jesus done?” The little gem we +next reproduce is perhaps her best known production. It has been widely +quoted and much admired:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 4em;"><span class="smcap">Epitaph: A Life.</span></span></p> + +<p>“I came at morn—’twas Spring, I smiled,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The fields with green were clad;</span><br /> +I walked abroad at noon, and lo!<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">’Twas summer—I was glad.</span><br /> +I sate me down—’twas autumn eve,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And I with sadness wept;</span><br /> +I laid me down at night—and then<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">’Twas winter—and I slept.”</span></p></div> + +<p>The following poem is a fair specimen of her poetic power:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p><span class="smcap">On seeing two little girls present</span><br /><span style="margin-left: 1.5em;"><span class="smcap">a flower to a dying person.</span></span></p> + +<p>“Come, sit beside my couch of death,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With that fair summer flower,</span><br /> +That I may taste its balmy breath<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Before my final hour.</span><br /> +The lily’s virgin purity,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The rose’s rich perfume,</span><br /> +Speak with a thrilling voice to me,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Preparing for the tomb.</span><br /> +<br /> +“Each calls to mind sweet Sharon’s rose,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The lily of the vale—</span><br /> +The white and stainless robes of those<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Who conquer and prevail.</span><br /> +For as it droops its modest head,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Methinks it seems to say:</span><br /> +‘All flesh, like me, must quickly fade,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Must wither and decay!’</span><br /> +<br /> +“And yet it tells of fairer skies,<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">And happier lands than this,</span><br /> +Where beauteous flowers immortal vie,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And plants of Paradise:</span><br /> +A land where blooms eternal spring—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where every storm is past;</span><br /> +Fain would my weary spirit wing<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Its way—and be at rest.—</span><br /> +<br /> +“But hark, I hear a choral strain—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">It comes from worlds above,</span><br /> +It speaks of my release from pain,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Of rest—in Jesus’ love!</span><br /> +Jesus, my hope, my help, my stay,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">My all in earth or heaven,</span><br /> +Let thy blest mandate only say,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">‘Thy sins are all forgiven!’</span><br /> +<br /> +“Then will I plume my joyful wing<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To those blest realms of peace,</span><br /> +Where saints and angels ever sing,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And sorrows ever cease.</span><br /> +Dear mother, dry thy tearful eye,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And weep no more for me,</span><br /> +The orphan’s God that reigns on high<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The widow’s God shall be.</span><br /> +<br /> +“Pull me a sprig of that white flower,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And place it on my breast,</span><br /> +The last effect of friendship’s power<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shall charm my heart to rest.</span><br /> +Then, Lord, let me depart from pain<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">To realms where glories dwell,</span><br /> +Where I may meet those friends again,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And say no more ‘farewell!’”</span></p></div> + +<p>Her first book did not yield much pecuniary profit. In 1865 a larger +volume of her poetry was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> published by Mr. Andrew Elliot, of Edinburgh. +Her valued friend, Miss Moncrieff, prefaced it with a biographical sketch, +and Dean Ramsay wrote an introduction. He described her poems as being of +“no common excellence, both in diction and sentiment.” The book also +contains a portrait of the author. Through the kindly interest of the +publisher the work proved extremely successful, and the proceeds of the +sale became her chief support in her old age, when unable to work through +feeble health and blindness. She enjoyed many comforts, thanks to the help +of Miss M. A. Scott Moncrieff, Mr. Andrew Elliot, and other warm-hearted +friends.</p> + +<p>She died in 1870, having reached more than the allotted three score years +and ten, and was interred in the historic burial ground of Greyfriars’ +Church, Edinburgh. Her last resting-place was for some years without any +monumental stone, but mainly through the exertions of Dr. Rogers, in May, +1885, a handsome cross was erected over her remains, simply bearing her +name, “Mary Pyper.”</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p> +<h2>The Poet of the Fisher-Folk:<br />Mrs. Susan K. Phillips.</h2> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td>“The poet’s little span is done,<br /> +The poet’s work on earth goes on;<br /> +The hand that strikes the ringing chords,<br /> +The thought that clothes itself in words,<br /> +That chimes with every varying mood,<br /> +That gives a friend to solitude,<br /> +In flash or fire, in smiles or tears,<br /> +Wakes echoes for all coming years.”<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;"><span class="smcap">Susan K. Phillips.</span></span></td></tr></table> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">From</span> the days of Cædmon, the first and greatest of the Anglo-Saxon poets, +to the present time, Yorkshire has produced many singers of power, whose +poetry has been read and appreciated far beyond the limits of England’s +largest county. The lovely scenery, romantic legends, old-world tales, and +noble lives of its sons and daughters have had a marked influence on the +writings of its poets. We recognise this in the best work of Mr. Alfred +Austin, our present Poet Laureate, the sisters Brontë, Ebenezer Elliott, +the Corn Law Rhymer, and in a marked degree in Mrs. Susan K. Phillips, +whose well-spent life has just closed, and whose contributions to +literature have gained for her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> an honourable place amongst the authors of +the Victorian era. In the realm of poetry devoted to the joys and sorrows +of the fisher-folk, she has not been equalled.</p> + +<p>How true are the words of Sir Henry Taylor, “The world knows nothing of +its greatest men,” and we may add, less, if possible, of its greatest +women. Men have a better opportunity of becoming known, and their works +appreciated, than women, for men take a more active part in public affairs +which bring them in closer touch with the people. As a rule women are of a +more retiring disposition, and the result is that their merits are not so +readily recognised as those of men, yet their works are often more +ennobling and lasting.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Phillips’ best poems deal with various incidents in the lives of the +fisher-folk of the Yorkshire coast. She was a frequent visitor to Whitby, +and was beloved by the rough, but kind-hearted, fishermen. She was a true +friend to them in their time of sorrow, and in the hard lot of those who +are engaged on the perilous waters of the North Sea.</p> + +<p>Before giving examples of the poetry of Mrs. Phillips, it may be well to +present a few<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> details of her life. She was born in 1831 at Aldborough, +the <i>Isurium</i> of the Romans, a village of great antiquity, not far distant +from Boroughbridge. Her father, the Rev. George Kelly Holdsworth, <span class="smcaplc">M.A.</span>, +was vicar of the parish.</p> + +<p>In 1856 she was married to Mr. H. Wyndham Phillips, a celebrated artist, +who has been dead some years. Mrs. Phillips resided for many years at +Green Royd, Ripon, but usually spent the summer months at Whitby.</p> + +<p>In 1865 her first volume of poetry appeared under the title of “Verses and +Ballads,” and the welcome given to it induced her to issue, five years +later, “Yorkshire Songs and Ballads.” A still more important volume was +given to the world in 1878, from the well-known house of Messrs. Macmillan +& Co., entitled, “On the Seaboard.” The critical press were not slow to +recognise the sterling merits of this book, which soon passed into a +second edition. On this work the reputation of Mrs. Phillips mainly rests. +Some of the poems had previously appeared in the pages of <i>Macmillan’s +Magazine</i>, <i>All the Year Round</i>, <i>Cassell’s Magazine</i>, and other leading +periodicals. They had been widely quoted in the press on both sides of the +Atlantic.<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> “These poems,” said the reviewer, in a leading London daily, +“suggest a recollection of Charles Kingsley, but the writer has a voice +and song of her own, which is full of yearning pathetic sweetness, and a +loving human sympathy with the anxious homes of the poor toiler of the +sea. The poems evince a true simplicity of style which is only another +word for sincerity.” It was stated by another critic that “This volume of +verses stands out in bright relief from the average poetry of the day. All +is pure, womanly, in a setting of most graceful and melodious verse.” +Other notices were equally good. In 1884, Messrs. J. S. Fletcher & Co., +Leeds, published “Told in a Coble, and other Poems.” Many of those +relating to Whitby were warmly welcomed, and added not a little to her +fame. This is her last volume of collected poems, but not a few have since +been written and printed in the periodicals, and might, with advantage to +the world of letters, be collected, and reappear in book form.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Phillips was for a long period one of the honorary secretaries of the +Ripon Home for Girls, and did much useful work for this excellent +institution. Says one who knew her well, “She was extremely generous in +disposition,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> and her warm-hearted liberality and her kindly interest in +those in distress endeared her to all classes.” On May 25th, 1897, she +died at Sea Lawn, Torquay, having reached the age of sixty-six years.</p> + +<p>Instead of giving brief quotations from several pieces, it will be perhaps +the better plan to reproduce at length two or three of the author’s poems, +and enable our readers to form their own conclusions. We may not quote the +best of the writer’s work, but indicate her style. No one, we think, can +read lines like the following without being moved, and his sympathy +extended to the sorrowing fisher-folk:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p><span style="margin-left: 3em;"><span class="smcap">Lost with all Hands.</span></span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">“‘Lost, with all hands, at sea.’</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The Christmas sun shines down</span><br /> +On the headlands that frown o’er the harbour wide,<br /> +On the cottages, thick on the long quay side,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">On the roofs of the busy town.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">‘Lost, with all hands, at sea.’</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The dread words sound like a wail,</span><br /> +The song of the waits, and the clash of the bells,<br /> +Ring like death-bed dirges or funeral knells,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In the pauses of the gale.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Never a home so poor</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">But it brightens for good Yule Tide,</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>Never a heart too sad or too lone,<br /> +But the holy Christmas mirth ’twill own,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">And his welcome will provide.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Where the sea-coal fire leaps</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">On the fisherman’s quiet hearth,</span><br /> +The Yule Log lies for his hand to heave,<br /> +While he hastes to his bride on Christmas Eve,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">In the flush of his strength and mirth.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">High on the little shelf</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The tall Yule candle stands,</span><br /> +For the ship is due ere the Christmas night,<br /> +And it waits to be duly set alight,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">By the coming father’s hands.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Long has the widow spared</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Her pittance for warmth and bread,</span><br /> +That her sailor boy, when he home returns,<br /> +May joy, that her fire brightly burns,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Her board is so amply spread.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The sharp reef moans and moans,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The foam on the sand lies hoar;</span><br /> +The ‘sea-dog’ flickers across the sky,<br /> +The north wind whistles shrill and high<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">’Mid the breakers’ ominous roar.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">But on the great pier head,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">The grey-haired sailors stand,</span><br /> +While the black clouds pile away in the west,<br /> +And the spray flies free from the billow’s crest<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Ere they dash on the hollow sand.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Never a sail to be seen</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">On the long grim tossing swell;</span><br /> +Only drifting wreckage of canvas and spar,<br /> +That sweep with the waves o’er the harbour bar,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Their terrible tale to tell.</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Did a vision of Christmas pass</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Before their drowning eyes?</span><br /> +When ’mid rent of rigging and crash of mast,<br /> +The brave ship, smote by the mighty blast,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Went down ’neath the pitiless skies.</span><br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">No Christmas joy I ween</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">On the rock-bound coast may be.</span><br /> +Put token and custom of Yule away,<br /> +While widows and orphans weep and pray<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 2em;">For the ‘hands lost out at sea.’”</span></p></div> + +<p>Still in the pathetic strain we will give another poem. In quoting this we +feel we are not doing full justice to Mrs. Phillips, but it at all events +shows her deep devotion to the race she greatly helped in their many +trials.</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p><span style="margin-left: 5em;"><span class="smcap">The Fisherman’s Funeral.</span></span></p> + +<p>“Up on the breezy headland the fisherman’s grave they made,<br /> +Where, over the daisies and clover-bells, the birchen branches swayed;<br /> +Above us the lark was singing in the cloudless skies of June,<br /> +And under the cliffs the billows were chanting their ceaseless tune;<br /> +For the creamy line was curving along the hollow shore,<br /> +Where the dear old tides were flowing that he would ride no more.<br /> +<br /> +The dirge of the wave, the note of the bird, and the priest’s low tone were blent<br /> +In the breeze that blew from the moorland, all laden with country scent;<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>But never a thought of the new-mown hay tossing on sunny plains,<br /> +Or of lilies deep in the wild wood, or roses gemming the lanes,<br /> +Woke in the hearts of the stern bronzed men who gathered about the grave,<br /> +Where lay the mate who had fought with them the battle of wind and wave.<br /> +<br /> +How boldly he steered the coble across the foaming bar,<br /> +When the sky was black to the eastward and the breakers white on the scar!<br /> +How his keen eye caught the squall ahead, how his strong hand furled the sail,<br /> +As we drove through the angry waters before the raging gale!<br /> +How cheery he kept the long dark night; and never a parson spoke<br /> +Good words like those he said to us when at last the morning broke!<br /> +<br /> +So thought the dead man’s comrades, as silent and sad they stood,<br /> +While the prayer was prayed, the blessing said, and the dull earth struck the wood;<br /> +And the widow’s sob, and the orphan’s wail, jarred through the joyous air;<br /> +How could the light wind o’er the sea blow on so fresh and fair?<br /> +How could the gay waves laugh and leap, landward o’er sand and stone,<br /> +While he, who knew and loved them all, lay lapped in clay alone?<br /> +<br /> +But for long, when to the beetling heights the snow-tipped billows roll,<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>When the cod, and the skate, and dogfish dart around the herring shoal;<br /> +When gear is sorted and sail is set, and the merry breezes blow,<br /> +And away to the deep-sea harvest the stalwart reapers go,<br /> +A kindly sigh and a hearty word, they will give to him who lies<br /> +Where the clover springs, and the heather blooms beneath the northern skies.”</p></div> + +<p>We regard the following lines on a well-known division of East Yorkshire, +as a successful effort on the part of Mrs. Phillips. An August day spent +in rambling amongst the leafy lanes of Holderness cannot easily be +forgotten. There is a lack of romantic and rugged scenery, but the old +farmsteads nestling amongst the trees and the fields of golden grain have +a beauty not surpassed in many parts of old England:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;"><span class="smcap">In Holderness.</span></span></p> +<p>“The wind blew over the barley, the wind blew over the wheat,<br /> +Where the scarlet poppy toss’d her head, with the bindweed at her feet;<br /> +The wind blew over the great blue sea, in the golden August weather,<br /> +Till the tossing corn and the tossing waves showed shadow and gleam together.<br /> +<br /> +The wind blew over the barley, the wind blew over the oats,<br /> +The lark sprung up in the sunny sky, and shook his ringing notes;<br /> +Over the wealth of the smiling land, the sweep of the glittering sea,<br /> +‘Which is the fairest?’ he sang, as he soared o’er the beautiful rivalry.<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span><br /> +And with a fuller voice than the wind, a deeper tone than the bird,<br /> +Came the answer from the solemn sea, that Nature, pausing, heard,—<br /> +‘The corn will be garnered, the lark will be hushed at the frown of the wintry weather,<br /> +The sun will fly from the snow-piled sky, but I go on for ever!’”</p></div> + +<p>It would be a pleasure to reproduce some of her poems dealing with the +romantic legends of her native shire, but the space at our disposal does +not permit this; they may, however, be found in her published works. We +close with some pretty lines on the bells she loved so well:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">The Whitby Bells.</span></span></p> +<p>“The Whitby bells, so full and free,<br /> +They ring across the sunny sea,<br /> +That the great ocean god, who dwells<br /> +’Mid coral groves and silvery shells,<br /> +Wakes to the summons joyously.<br /> +<br /> +O’er the purpling moors and ferny dells<br /> +Sound the sweet chimes, and bird and bee<br /> +Pause, hearing over land and lea<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">The Whitby bells.</span><br /> +<br /> +And as the mellow music swells<br /> +One listener to the Whitby bells<br /> +Feels all the days that used to be,<br /> +Speak in the blended harmony;<br /> +They shrine life—death—and their farewells,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">The Whitby bells.”</span></p></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span></p> +<h2>A Poet and Novelist of the People:<br />Thomas Miller.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">On</span> the roll of self-taught authors, Thomas Miller is entitled to a high +place, and amongst Victorian men of letters he holds an honourable +position. He enriched English literature with many charming works on +country life and scenes. Although his career was not eventful, it is not +without interest, furnishing a notable instance of a man surmounting +difficulties and gaining distinction.</p> + +<p>He was born on August 31st, 1808, at Gainsborough, a quaint old +Lincolnshire town, situated on the banks of the river Trent. His father +held a good position, being a wharfinger and shipowner; he died, however, +when his son was a child, without making provision for his wife, who had +to pass some years in pinching poverty. Young Thomas received a very +limited education at school, and according to his own account he only +learned “to write a very indifferent hand, and to read the Testament +tolerably.” His playmate was Thomas Cooper, the Chartist and Poet, and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> +this notable man, in his autobiography, has much to say about the boyhood +of our hero. Mrs. Miller, to provide for her family, had to sew sacks.</p> + +<p>Says Thomas Cooper, “She worked early and late for bread for herself and +her two boys; but would run in, now and then, at the back door, and join +my mother for a few whiffs at the pipe. And then away they would go again +to work, after cheering each other, to go stoutly through the battle of +life.”</p> + +<p>“They bent their wits, on one occasion,” continues Mr. Cooper, “to +disappoint the tax-gatherer. He was to ‘distrain’ on a certain day; but +beds, chairs, and tables were moved secretly in the night to blind Thomas +Chatterton’s; and when the tax-gatherer came next day to execute his +threat, there was nothing left worth his taking. The poor were often +driven to such desperate schemes to save all they had from ruin, in those +days; and the curse upon taxes and the tax-gatherer was in the mouths of +hundreds—for those years of war were terrific years of suffering for the +poor, notwithstanding their shouts and rejoicings when Matthew Guy rode +in, with ribbons flying, bringing news of another ‘glorious victory.’”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> +“Sometimes,” adds Mr. Cooper, “Miller’s mother and mine were excused +paying some of the taxes by appealing to the magistrates, a few of whom +respected them for their industry, and commiserated their hardships. But +the petition did not always avail.”</p> + +<p>In spite of poverty, Miller’s childhood was not without its sunshine, and +many days spent in the lanes and fields were not the least enjoyable of +his pleasures. He was first engaged as a farmer’s boy at Thornock, a +village near his native town. The trade of basket-making was subsequently +learned, and when quite a young man he married. He migrated to Nottingham, +and obtained employment as a journeyman at a basket-manufactory in the +town.</p> + +<p>“At this period,” says Dr. Spencer T. Hall, “the Sherwood Forester,” “he +had a somewhat round but intelligent face, a fair complexion, full, blue, +speaking eyes, and a voice reminding one of the deeper and softer tones of +a well-played flute. Of all who saw him at his work, it is probable that +scarcely one knew how befitting him was the couplet of Virgil, where he +says:</p> + +<p class="poem">‘Thus while I sung, my sorrows I deceived,<br /> +And bending osiers into baskets weaved.’”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>He had the good fortune to become known to Mr. Thomas Bailey, a man of +literary taste, the writer of several works, and father of the more famous +Philip James Bailey, author of “Festus.” Mr. Bailey recognised at once the +merits of a collection of poems submitted to him by Miller, was the means +of the pieces being printed, and did all in his power to obtain a +favourable welcome for the volume. The book was entitled “Songs of Sea +Nymphs;” it contained only forty-eight pages, and was sold at two +shillings. In his preface the author stated: “I am induced to offer these +extracts from unpublished poems in their present state solely because I +cannot find any publisher who will undertake, without an extensive list of +subscribers, the risk of publishing a volume of poetry written by an +individual whose humble station in life buries him in obscurity.” He next +explains that the object of the work is to elicit the opinion of his +country-men as to the merits or demerits of his verses—which he terms +“trifles.” Mr. Miller says, “Concerning the poems, I have only to add that +the three first songs are extracts from an unpublished poem entitled, +‘Hero and Leander, a Tale of the Sea.’ The scene is chiefly confined to +Neptune’s palace<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> beneath the waves. The other extracts are from ‘Adelaide +and Reginald, a Fairy Tale of Bosworth Field.’ I am aware that the date is +too modern for fairies; however, who can prove it? for so long as a barren +circle is found in the velvet valleys of England, tradition will ever call +it a fairy-ring. Having launched my little bark on the casual ocean of +public opinion, not without anxiety, I leave it to its fate.—Thomas +Miller, Basket-maker, Nottingham, August, 1832.” The volume was the means +of making him many friends, and enabling him to start business on his own +account. He had a work-room in the Long Row, and a stall on a Saturday in +the market-place. Here is a picture of the stall from Spencer Hall’s +graphic pen:—“There was poetry in his very baskets. A few coarser ones +were there, but others of more beautiful pattern, texture, and colour, +flung a sort of bloom over the rest; and the basket-maker and his wares +well-matched each other, as he would take his cigar from his mouth, and +ask some pretty market maiden, in his cheeriest tones, as she lingered and +looked, if she would not like to purchase. As a youth, I was wont to stand +there chatting with him occasionally, and to hear him, between customers, +pour out the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> poetry of Coleridge and other great minds, with an +appreciance and a melody that such authors might themselves have listened +to with pride and delight.”</p> + +<p>He next moved to London, hoping to follow a literary career by +contributing at the commencement to the monthly magazines. Writing gave +Miller great pleasure, but put little money in his purse, and to obtain +bread for his household he had to work at his trade in the metropolis. +Friends at first were few, and he had none able to help him to literary +employment. He had journeyed to London alone, and arrived there with +seven-and-sixpence in his pocket, intending to send for his wife and +family when brighter days dawned. Some time passed before there was a +break in the dark clouds which hung over him. Here are particulars of the +dawn of better times. “One day,” says Mr. Joseph Johnson, in <i>Manchester +Notes and Queries</i>, “when bending over his baskets, he was surprised by a +visit from Mr. W. H. Harrison, editor of <i>Friendship’s Offering</i>, who had +fortunately read one of Miller’s poems, and had become impressed with the +ability and original talent of the author. The result of the interview was +a request that the basket-maker<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> would write a poem for the <i>Offering</i>. +Miller, at the time, was so poor that he had neither paper, pens, nor ink, +nor the means to buy these needful materials for his poem. He tided over +the difficulty by using the whity-brown paper in which his sugar had been +wrapped, and mixed some soot with water for his ink; the back of a bellows +serving him for a desk, upon which he wrote his charming poem, entitled, +‘The Old Fountain.’ His letter to the editor of the <i>Offering</i> was sealed +with moistened bread. The poem was accepted, and two guineas immediately +returned. It is simply impossible to imagine the rapture which would fill +the breast of the poor poet on receipt of so large a sum.” Says Miller, “I +never had been so rich in my life before, and I fancied some one would +hear of my fortune and try and rob me of it; so, at night, I barred the +door, and went to bed, but did not sleep all night, from delight and +fear.”</p> + +<p>We reproduce the lines as a fair example of Miller’s poetry:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p><span style="margin-left: 4em;"><span class="smcap">The Old Fountain.</span></span></p> +<p><span style="margin-left: 1em;">“Deep in the bosom of a silent wood,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where an eternal twilight dimly reigns,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">A sculptured fountain hath for ages stood,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">O’erhung with trees; and still such awe remains</span><br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span><span style="margin-left: 1em;">Around the spot, that few dare venture there—</span><br /> +The babbling water spreads such superstitious fear.<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">It looks so old and grey, with moss besprent,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And carven imag’ry, grotesque or quaint;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Eagles and lions are with dragons blent</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And cross-winged cherub; while o’er all a Saint</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Bends grimly down with frozen blown-back hair,</span><br /> +And on the dancing spray its dead eyes ever stare.<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">From out a dolphin’s mouth the water leaps</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And frets, and tumbles to its bed of gloom;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">So dark the umbrage under which it sweeps,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Stretching in distance like a dreary tomb;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">With murmurs fraught, and many a gibbering sound,</span><br /> +Gurgle, and moan, and hiss, and plash, and fitful bound.<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Oh! ’tis a spot where man might sit and weep</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">His childish griefs and petty cares away;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Wearied Ambition might lie there and sleep,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And hoary Crime in silence kneel to pray.</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The fountain’s voice, the day-beams faintly given,</span><br /> +Tell of that starlight land we pass in dreams to heaven.<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">There, lovely forms in elder times were seen,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And snowy kirtles waved between the trees;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And light feet swept along the velvet green,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">While the rude anthem rose upon the breeze,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">When round the margin England’s early daughters</span><br /> +Worshipped the rough-hewn Saint that yet bends o’er the waters.<br /> +<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And some bent priest, whose locks were white as snow,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Would raise his trembling hands and voice to pray;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">All would be hushed save that old fountain’s flow</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That rolling bore the echoes far away;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Perchance a dove, amid the foliage dim,</span><br /> +Might raise a coo, then pause to list their parting hymn.<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">That old grey abbey lies in ruins now,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The wild-flowers wave where swung its pond’rous door;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Where once the altar rose, rank nettles grow,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">The anthem’s solemn sound is heard no more;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">’Tis as if Time had laid down to repose,</span><br /> +Drowsed by the fountain’s voice, which through the forest flows.”</p></div> + +<p>He wrote and worked at his trade; his poetry won for him many admirers, +amongst them Lady Blessington, Thomas Moore, Samuel Rogers, the +banker-poet, and others, and he was welcomed to their houses. He remarked, +“Often have I been sitting in Lady Blessington’s splendid drawing-room in +the morning, and talking and laughing as familiarly as in the old house at +home; and on the same evening I might have been seen on Westminster +Bridge, between an apple vendor and a baked-potato merchant, vending my +baskets.”</p> + +<p>In 1836, he wrote “A Day in the Woods,” consisting of a series of +sketches, stories, and poems. The reading public welcomed the work, and +the critical press recognised it as the production of a man of undoubted +genius. He continued to make friends, including “L. E. L.,” the poetess, +Campbell, Leigh Hunt, Jerrold, Disraeli and Thackeray. The merits and +success<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> of his book caused Colburn to make him a tempting offer to write +a three-volume novel, and in 1838 appeared “Royston Gower.” The work was +so popular that the same publisher commissioned him to write two more +novels, namely, in 1839, “Fair Rosamond,” and in 1840, “Lady Jane Grey.” +He produced other novels, perhaps the best known is “Gideon Giles.” These +works are now to be obtained in cheap form, and have been most extensively +circulated.</p> + +<p>He was assisted and encouraged by Rogers, Lady Blessington and others, to +commence as a publisher and bookseller, and was enabled by their kindness +to purchase back from Colburn the copyrights of his novels. His place of +business was 9, Newgate Street, opposite Christ’s Hospital, and from here +he issued several of his own books besides works by well-known authors. +Miller did not succeed in business, and gave it up to devote all his time +to writing books and contributing to the periodicals and newspapers. He +wrote for the <i>Athenæum</i>, <i>Literary Gazette</i>, <i>Chambers’ Journal</i>, +<i>Household Words</i>, <i>Boys’ Own Magazine</i>, the <i>Illustrated London News</i>, +and other monthlies and weeklies. Many leading articles from his facile +pen appeared in the <i>Morning Post</i>. His<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> papers on the months in Chambers’ +“Book of Days,” which describe the varied aspects of the country during +the year, have been reproduced in an elegant volume bearing the title of +“All Round the Year.”</p> + +<p>Mr. J. Potter Briscoe, <span class="smcaplc">F.R.H.S.</span>, kindly supplies me with the following +list of books by Thomas Miller:—“All Round the Year,” 1860; “Birds, Bees, +and Blossoms,” 1867, 1869 (see also “Original Poems,” etc.); “British Wolf +Hunter,” 1859; “Boys’ Own Library,” 6 vols., 1856; “Boys’ Spring, Summer, +Autumn, and Winter Books,” 1847, 1881; “Boys’ Own Country Book, Seasons, +and Rural Rides,” 1867, 1868; “Brampton among the Roses,” 1863; “Child’s +Country Book,” 1867; “Child’s Country Story Book,” 1867, 1870, 1881; +“Common Wayside Flowers,” 1841, 1873; “Country Year book,” 2 vols., 1847, +1 vol., 1836; “Day in the Woods,” 1836; “Desolate Hall,” (in “Friendship’s +Offering”) 1838; “Dorothy Dovedale’s Trials,” 2 vols., 1864; “English +Country Life,” 1858, 1859, 1864; “Fair Rosamond,” 3 vols., 1839, 1 vol., +1862; “Fortune and Fortitude,” 1848; “Fred and the Gorillas,” 1869, 1873; +“Fred Holdsworth” (In <i>Illustrated London News</i>), 1852, 1873; “Gaboon,” +1868;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> “Gideon Giles, the Roper,” 1840, 1841, 1859, 1867; “Godfrey +Malvern,” 1842, 1843, 1844, 1847, 1858, 1877; “Goody Platts and her two +Cats,” 1864; “History of the Anglo-Saxons,” 1848, 1850, 1852, 1856; +“Jack-of-All-Trades,” 1867; “Lady Jane Grey, a romance,” 3 vols., 1840, 1 +vol., 1861, 1864; “Langley-on-the-Lea; or, Love and Duty,” 1858; “Life and +[remarkable] Adventures of a Dog,” 1856, 1870; “Lights and Shades of +London Life” (forming vol. 5 of Reynolds’ <i>Mysteries of London</i>); “Little +Blue Hood,” 1863; “My Father’s Garden,” 1866, 1867; “No Man’s Land, etc.,” +1860, 1861, 1863; “Old Fountain” (in <i>Friendship’s Offering</i>, etc.); +“Original Poems for my Children,” 1850 (see also “Birds,” etc.); “Our Old +Town” (Gainsborough) 1857, 1858; “Old Park Road,” 1870, 1876; “Picturesque +Sketches of London,” 1852 (in the <i>Illustrated London News</i>); “Pictures of +Country Life,” 1846, 1847, 1853; “Poacher and other Pictures of Country +Life,” 1858; “Poems,” 1841, 1848, 1856; “Poetical Language of Flowers,” +1838, 1847, 1853, 1856, 1865, 1869, 1872; “Royston Gower,” 3 vols., 1830, +1 vol. 1858, 1860, 1874; “Rural Sketches,” 1839, 1861; “Sketches of +English Country Life”; “Songs for<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> British Riflemen,” 1860; “Songs of the +Sea Nymphs,” 1857; “Songs of the Seasons,” 1865; “Sports and Pastimes of +Merry England,” 1859 (?-56); “Summer Morning,” 1844; “Tales of Old +England,” 1849, 1881; “Village Queen,” 1851, 1852; “Watch the End” (second +edition of “My Father’s Garden”) 1869, 1871, 1873; “Year Book of Country +Life,” 1855; “Year Book of the Country,” 1837; “Young Angler,” 1862.</p> + +<p>The foregoing volumes are in the Nottingham Public Library, and the +librarian, Mr. Briscoe is to be congratulated on bringing together +Miller’s works in the city closely associated with his career. In Paxton +Hood’s “Peerage of Poverty,” a fine estimate of Miller’s ability as an +author is given, though very little about his life is recorded. On the +25th of October, 1874, he died at his residence, a small house in West +Street, Kensington, leaving a son and two daughters. Shortly before his +death an effort was made to get him placed on the Civil List. Mr. Disraeli +was not able to include him at the time, but, with his well-known +generosity, made him an allowance from some other fund. Miller only +received one quarterly instalment before passing away.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p> +<h2>The Cottage Countess.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> late Poet Laureate has given a world-wide interest to the romantic +story of “The Peasant Countess” of “Burleigh House by Stamford town,” in +his popular poem, “The Lord of Burleigh.” He relates how Henry Cecil, in +the guise of a landscape painter in humble circumstances, wooes and weds a +rustic maiden, and how a shadow overcasts her bright dream when the real +rank of her husband is made known to her:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“But a trouble weighed upon her,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And perplexed her night and morn,</span><br /> +With the burthen of an honour<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Unto which she was not born.</span><br /> +Faint she grew, and ever fainter,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">And she murmured, ‘Oh, that he</span><br /> +Were once more that landscape-painter,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Which did win my heart from me.’</span><br /> +So she drooped and drooped before him,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Fading slowly from his side:</span><br /> +Three fair children first she bore him,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Then before her time she died.”</span></p> + +<p>The poet tells how keenly the Lord of Burleigh<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> mourned her loss, and that +he buried her in the dress in which she was married.</p> + +<p>The real facts, however, are not so poetical; yet Hazlitt says that the +story outdoes the “Arabian Nights.” The following particulars may be +regarded as a correct version of this romantic tale. Henry Cecil was born +in the year 1754, and was the only child of the Hon. Thomas Chambers Cecil +by his marriage with Miss Charlotte Gardner. At the age of nineteen he had +lost his parents, and was the presumptive heir to his uncle’s estates and +the earldom of Exeter. He was by no means popular with his uncle, and +seldom troubled the inmates of Burleigh House with his presence. While +still a minor, he married into a good old west of England family, his wife +being a lady of great personal charms, named Emma Vernon, the only +daughter of the Squire of Hornbury Hall, in the county of Worcester. The +union was not a happy one, young Cecil being far from an exemplary +husband. He wasted much of his time and money in gambling. After fifteen +years of married life he sought and obtained a divorce. His own folly and +other circumstances rendered him a poor man, and induced him<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> shortly +before the time he obtained a divorce to quit the society of those in his +rank of life, and settle down in one of the secluded villages in +Shropshire. He selected Bolas Magna, a charming little place, nestling +among apple orchards and green lanes. Here he was known as John Jones, and +was lost to the fashionable world, out of sight and out of mind. For a +short time he lodged at the village hostelry, freely conversing with the +customers who came at night to smoke their pipes and drink their beer. The +days he spent in sketching the pretty bits of scenery in the district.</p> + +<p>The noisy life of an inn soon palled upon him, and he sought lodgings at +some of the farmhouses, but his search was almost futile, as he was viewed +with much suspicion; indeed, some went so far as to hint that he was a +highwayman. The honest country folk failed to discover any visible means +of his making money, although they saw that he spent it pretty freely. He +at last procured lodgings at the dwelling of a labourer called Hoggins, +and soon made himself a favourite in the humble household. Cecil appears +to have been anticipating the day when he would be a free man, and, even +before he had obtained a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> divorce, he paid some attention to an attractive +young woman named Taylor. She, however, being engaged, did not favour his +suit. He then made love to Sarah Hoggins, the daughter of his landlady—a +young, comely, honest girl, who reciprocated his affection. Her mother was +doubtful about the matter, feeling that the marriage of her girl with a +stranger was a step that might lead to serious results, and she had a +lingering suspicion that there might be some truth in the rumour of her +lodger being a highwayman. The father was more favourably inclined; he saw +that the man had plenty of money, and it was a golden opportunity not to +be missed, and he encouraged the match. Eventually the mother had to give +way. In June, 1791, he obtained a divorce, and, on the 3rd of October, in +the same year, in the little church of Bolas, Henry Cecil and Sarah +Hoggins were married. He bought a piece of land near Hodnet, and on it +built a house, the largest in the neighbourhood. The local tradesmen +looked upon him with mistrust, and he had to make liberal advances of +money before they would undertake the work. Here he lived with his young +wife, teaching her such accomplishments<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> as she would require in her +future high station. He did not, however, give any hint as to his real +character. His superior manners and education, in spite of the mystery of +his life, made him friends, and inspired some confidence, so that the +ratepayers elected him to one of their parish offices. The duties of his +parochial appointment took him to the sessions at Shrewsbury, where he +encountered a brother magistrate, who had been an old schoolfellow, +although not recognised by him. As a proof of his disposition to oblige +his friends and make himself generally useful, it is recorded that on one +occasion he gratified his father-in-law by carrying a large pig as a +present to a neighbouring squire.</p> + +<p>A little daughter was born at Bolas, who died after living a few days, and +was buried in the churchyard, without a stone to mark her grave, which is +now forgotten.</p> + +<p>After he had been married about two years he read in a country newspaper +an account of the death of his uncle, which occurred towards the close of +the year 1793. Early in the following January, he repaired, with his wife, +then nineteen years of age, to Burleigh House. He merely told her that he +had to go to a distant part of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> the country, and wished to have her +company. They travelled on horseback, the wife being seated on a pillion +behind her husband, according to the fashion of the period. They stopped +at the several noblemen’s and gentlemen’s seats on their route. At last +they reached Burleigh House, where she was told that she was a countess, +and the mystery of Henry Cecil solved.</p> + +<p>When surrounded by the titled and the great, she sighed for a humbler +position, but nevertheless she made an excellent wife and mother, and the +happiness of her husband was complete. It was of short duration, for in +the flower of her life she died, deeply lamented, on January 17th, 1797.</p> + +<p>In addition to the first-born previously mentioned, they had a daughter +and two sons. One of the sons was the peer who succeeded his father. Lord +Burleigh settled seven hundred a year on his wife’s parents, and gave them +the house he had just vacated. The Countess was cordially received by the +Earl’s relatives, and mixed in the fashionable society of London, and won +respect and regard from all with whom she came in contact.</p> + +<p>Lawrence painted her portrait. She is <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>represented as far from rustic in +appearance, her face being oval and very pleasing.</p> + +<p>It remains to be stated, to complete the outline of the life of Henry +Cecil, that he was created a marquis, that he married for his third wife +the Dowager-Duchess of Hamilton, and died in the year 1804.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p> +<h2>The Compiler of “Old Moore’s Almanac,”<br />Henry Andrews.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> name of Henry Andrews is familiar to the literary and scientific world +as the compiler for many years of “Old Moore’s Almanac,” but the +particulars of his life are not generally known. His career, although not +an eventful one, was most honourable, and furnishes a notable example of a +man who, from a humble beginning, by perserverance attained an important +position in life.</p> + +<p>He was born at Frieston, near Grantham, on February 4th, 1744, of parents +in poor circumstances, who were only able to afford him a limited +education. In his earliest years he appears to have had a love for +astronomy, a science in which he afterwards became one of the most +proficient of his day. It is recorded that when only six years old he +would frequently stand in his shirt looking at the moon out of his chamber +window at midnight; when about ten years of age, he used to fix a table on +Frieston Green on clear frosty nights, and set a telescope thereon +through<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> which to view the stars. The young student would afterwards sit +by the fireside with a table covered with books, making astronomical +calculations.</p> + +<p>At an early age he left home to earn his own living, the first situation +he filled being that of servant to a shopkeeper at Sleaford. We next trace +him to the city of Lincoln, where he was engaged to wait upon a lady. +During his leisure time, he took every opportunity to make weather-glasses +and weather-houses. The last situation he held as a gentleman’s servant, +was under J. Feriman, Esq., who found Andrews so intent on study that he +kindly allowed him two or three hours daily to devote to that purpose.</p> + +<p>We are told that on the 1st of April, 1764, he went to Aswarby Hall, the +seat of Sir Christopher Whichcote, to view the eclipse of the sun which +was visible on that day. A number of ladies and gentlemen had assembled +for the same purpose. Having previously calculated a type of this eclipse, +he presented the same to the company, showing them the manner of its +appearance in a dark room upon a board, and, after it was over they +unanimously declared that his calculations came nearer than any given in +the almanacs. Shortly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> after the above meeting, he opened a school at +Basingthorpe, near Grantham. We presume the venture did not prove +satisfactory, for we find that he was afterwards engaged as an usher in a +clergyman’s boarding-school at Stilton. His next move was to Cambridge, +hoping there to obtain assistance in prosecuting his studies from the men +of science in the University. Accustomed to a quiet life, he could not +endure the bustle of that ancient seat of learning, so left and settled at +Royston, Hertfordshire, where he opened a school, and continued to reside +until the day of his death. He had only reached the age of twenty-three +when he took up his residence at the latter town.</p> + +<p>A few years after Andrews settled there, we find his name on the +title-page of an almanac, and an advertisement of his school. The +title-page of the publication is curious, and reads as follows:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“A Royal almanac and meteorological diary for the year of our Lord, +1778, and of the Julian period 6491. The second after Bissextile or +leap year, and the eighteenth year of the Reign of his Majesty King +George III. Containing the feasts and fasts of the Church of England; +the times of the lunations; the rising and setting of the sun; the +equation of time for the regulating of clocks and watches; the moon’s +rising and setting; the times of high water at London Bridge, morning +and afternoon; the aspects of the planets and weather. Also, for every +sixth day, the increase and decrease of days; the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> beginning and end +of daylight; the nightly rising, southing and setting of the planets +and seven stars; adapted to the meridian and latitude of London. +Likewise an exact meteorological journal for the preceding year, or +the state of the barometer and thermometer, with the wind, weather, +&c., as they were registered every day. Also the depth of rain which +fell, and the observations made every month. To which are added the +eclipses of the sun and moon and other remarkable phenomena that will +happen this year; the Middlesex commencement of the sessions of the +peace; a table of the terms and their returns, and for finding the +times of high water at most of the seaports of this kingdom. By Henry +Andrews, Teacher of the Mathematics, at Royston, Herts. London: +Printed for T. Carnan, in St. Paul’s Church-Yard, who dispossessed the +stationers of the privilege of printing almanacs, which they had +unjustly monopolised 170 years, 1778. Price 1s.”</p> + +<p>Following is a copy of his advertisement:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“At Royston, Herts., Young Gentlemen and others may be commendably +boarded with the Author of this Almanac at reasonable rates, and be +taught by him as follows, viz., Writing, Arithmetic, Mensuration, +Geometry, Trigonometry, Navigation, Astronomy, the use of the Globes, +&c.”</p> + +<p>For forty-three years Henry Andrews compiled <i>Moore’s Almanac</i> for the +Company of Stationers. The following extract from a letter written by +Andrews’ only son, proves that he did not receive liberal remuneration for +his arduous task. Mr. W. H. Andrews stated:—“My father’s calculations, +etc., for <i>Moore’s Almanac</i> continued during a period of forty-three +years; and although through<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> his great talent and management he increased +the sale of that work from 100,000 to 500,000 copies, yet, strange to say, +all he received for his services was £25 per annum. Yet I never heard him +murmur even once about it; such was his delight in pursuing his favourite +studies, that his anxiety about remuneration was out of the question. Sir +Richard Phillips, who at times visited him at Royston, once met him in +London, and endeavoured to persuade him to go with him to Stationers’ +Hall, and he would get him £100; but he declined going, saying that he was +satisfied.”</p> + +<p>He was compiler of the <i>Nautical Ephemeris</i>, and on retiring from the +appointment he received the thanks of the Board of Longitude, accompanied +by a handsome present, as a just tribute of long and able services, for +which he would not receive more than a nominal payment.</p> + +<p>In 1805, Andrews built a house in High Street, Royston, and in it he spent +the remainder of his life. It is worthy of note that he paid the builders +of the work as it progressed, on account of the men being in poor +circumstances, a good proof of his kind consideration.</p> + +<p>At the age of seventy-six, Andrews closed his well-spent life. We find in +the <i>Gentleman’s<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> Magazine</i>, of February, 1820, a short notice of his +career, concluding thus:—</p> + +<p>“His profound knowledge of Astronomy and the Mathematics was acknowledged +by all scientific men who were acquainted with his abilities, but the +greatness of his mind was never more conspicuous than during the period of +his last illness; and on his deathbed not a murmur escaped his lips, but +serenity of mind, patience, and resignation were constantly depicted in +his countenance, in which amiable situation he continued until the vital +spark fled.”</p> + +<p>He was interred in the new burial ground, Royston, and over his remains +was placed a tombstone, bearing the following inscription:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“In memory of Mr. Henry Andrews, who, from a limited education, made +great progress in the liberal sciences, and was justly esteemed one of +the best Astronomers of the Age. He departed this life, in full +assurance of a better, January 26th, 1820, aged 76 years.”</p> + +<p>A portrait of Henry Andrews was published, and is now very rare. Dr. +Charles Mackay, in his entertaining volume entitled “Extraordinary Popular +Delusions” (issued by Routledge), gives a small portrait, and under it +states, “Henry Andrews, the original ‘Francis Moore.’” This<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> is a mistake, +as the Almanac was named after Francis Moore, physician, one of the many +quack doctors who duped the credulous in the latter part of the 17th +century. In Chambers’s “Book of Days” (Vol. I., pages 9-14) will be found +some very interesting information respecting Almanacs and Almanac Writers. +We find it stated that “Francis Moore, in his Almanac for 1711, dates from +the sign of the Old Lilly, near the old barge-house, in Christ Church +Parish, Southwark, July 19th, 1710.” Then follows an advertisement, in +which he undertakes to cure diseases. Lysons mentions him as one of the +remarkable men who, at different periods, resided at Lambeth, and says +that his house was in Calcott’s Alley, High Street, then called Back Lane, +where he practised as astrologer, physician, and schoolmaster. <i>Moore’s +Almanac</i> had appeared some years prior to 1711. We refer the reader +wishing to obtain information respecting written and printed almanacs, to +“The Book of Days.”</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p> +<h2>James Nayler,<br />The Mad Quaker, who claimed to be the Messiah.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">History</span> furnishes particulars of many men who have claimed to be the +Messiah, and perhaps the most celebrated of the number is James Nayler, +“the mad Quaker.” He was born at East Ardsley, near Wakefield, in the year +1616. It is certain that his parents were in humble circumstances, and it +is generally believed that his father occupied a house near the old +church, and that he was a small farmer. James Nayler, for a person in his +station in life, received a fairly good education. In his early manhood he +was a husbandman, and resided in his native village. When about twenty-two +years of age he married, as he puts it, “according to the world,” and +removed to Wakefield.</p> + +<p>Shortly after his marriage, the Civil War broke out in England, and Nayler +took his share in the struggle between King and Parliament. He joined, in +1641, as a private, the Parliamentarian army, and his conduct and ability +gaining him advancement, he rose to the position of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span>quarter-master under +General Lambert. While in Scotland ill-health obliged him to retire from +active service, and he returned home.</p> + +<p>Nayler carefully studied the Scriptures, and was a zealous member of the +Independents, worshipping at Horbury, but he left this body in disgrace. +It transpired that he had been paying attentions to a married woman named +Mrs. Roper, of Horbury, whose husband had been absent from her for a long +period, and that she became a mother, and that Nayler was the father of +the child. The Rev. Mr. Marshall, the minister of the Independents, +exposed him, and took him severely to task, so that he was finally +expelled from that body.</p> + +<p>George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends, visited Wakefield in +the year 1651, and made a convert of James Nayler. Here commences the real +interest of Nayler’s career—a career in which there is much to deplore, +but much also certainly to cause wonder. He possessed extraordinary gifts +as a preacher, and impressed the people with the truth of his teaching, +more especially in the North and West of England. Troubles beset him +almost on every hand,—troubles often caused through his own mistaken<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> +zeal and frail conduct; but he bore his trials with a noble Christian +spirit. Nayler had no sooner joined the Quakers then he commenced what he +termed his travels. At the quarter-sessions held at Appleby, in 1652, he +was tried and found guilty of blasphemy, and sentenced to twenty weeks’ +imprisonment. On being released he continued spreading his doctrines in +the North. We gather from the remarks of an officer who had served under +Cromwell a testimony to the power of Nayler’s preaching. “After the battle +of Dunbar,” says the officer, “as I was riding in Scotland at the head of +my troop, I observed at some distance from the road a crowd of people, and +one higher than the rest; upon which I sent one of my men to see, and +bring me word what was the meaning of the gathering; and seeing him ride +up and stay there, without returning according to my order, I sent a +second, who stayed in like manner; and then I determined to go myself. +When I came thither, I found it was James Nayler preaching to the people, +but with such power and reaching energy as I had not till then been +witness of. I could not help staying a little, although I was afraid to +stay, for fear I was made a <i>Quaker</i>, being forced to tremble at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> +sight of myself. I was struck with more terror by the preaching of James +Nayler than I was at the battle of Dunbar, when we had nothing else to +expect but to fall a prey to the swords of our enemies, without being able +to help ourselves. I clearly saw the Cross of Christ to be submitted to, +so I durst stay no longer, but got off, and carried condemnation for it in +my own breast. The people there cried out against themselves, imploring +mercy, a thorough change, and the whole work of salvation to be effected +by them.”</p> + +<p>Nayler, in 1654 after visiting in the West, wended his way to London, and +preached to two congregations which had been formed by Edward Burrough and +Francis Howgil, members of the Society of Friends, who suffered +imprisonment with him at Appleby. He broke up both congregations, and drew +after him “some inconsiderate women.”</p> + +<p>His mind gave way, and he believed that he was the Messiah. +“Notwithstanding the irregularities of Nayler’s life,” says Scatcherd, the +learned historian of Morley, “there were many things in the man, which, +with low and ignorant people, exceedingly favoured his pretensions to the +Messiahship. He appeared, both as to form<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> and feature, the perfect +likeness to Jesus Christ, according to the best descriptions. His face was +of the oval shape, his forehead broad, his hair auburn and long, and +parted on the brow, his beard flowing, his eyes beaming with a benignant +lustre, his nose of the Grecian or Caucasian order, his figure erect and +majestic, his aspect sedate, his speech sententious, deliberative, and +grave, and his manner authoritative.” Carlyle has drawn a pen picture of +Nayler, but not with the skill of the foregoing.</p> + +<p>It is not our intention to attempt to trace Nayler from place to place in +his wanderings, but to touch on the more important episodes of his closing +years. He visited the West in 1652 on a religious mission, and revisited +it again four years later. During his visit to Cornwall, he prophesied, +and subsequently one of the charges made against him was that he +proclaimed himself to be a prophet. At Exeter he was charged with +vagrancy, and imprisoned. During his confinement he was visited by a +number of women, who had been moved by his teaching. Amongst the number +was a widow named Dorcas Erbury. She fell into a swoon, and it was +supposed that she was dead. Nayler went through certain<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> ceremonies, and +he pretended to have restored her to life. Referring to this when examined +by the Bristol Magistrate at a later period, the woman said: “Nayler laid +his hand on my head after I had been dead two days, and said, ‘Dorcas, +arise!’ and I arose, and live, as thou seest.” On being asked if she had +any witness to corroborate her statement, she said that her mother was +present. The local authorities at Exeter released Nayler after detaining +him for a short time. At this period some strange scenes occurred. “The +usual posture of Nayler,” says Scatcherd, “was sitting in a chair, while +his company of men and women knelt before him.” These, it appears, were +very numerous and constant for whole days together. At the commencement of +the service, a female stepped forth and sang:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“This is the joyful day,<br /> +Behold! the King of righteousness is come!”</p> + +<p>Another, taking him by the hand, exclaimed:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Rise up, my love—my dove—and come away,<br /> +Why sittest thou among the pots.”</p> + +<p>Then, putting his hand upon her mouth, she sunk upon the ground before +him, the auditory vociferating:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“Holy, holy, holy, to the Almighty.”</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>His procession through Chepstow caused much amazement in that quiet place. +“Nayler” is described as being mounted on the back of a horse or +mule;—one Woodcock preceded him bareheaded, and on foot:—a female on +each side of Nayler held his bridle; many spread garments in his +way,—while the women sang: “Hosannah to the Son of David—blessed is he +that cometh in the name of the Lord—Hosannah in the highest!”</p> + +<p>Nayler and his followers entered Bristol in a procession similar to the +one just described. We are told that on this particular day in the year of +grace 1656, when he visited the city of Bristol, rain was falling, and the +roads were deep with mud, but neither mud nor rain could check the ardour +of himself and disciples, and they sang hymns of praise. They first wended +their steps to the High Cross, and then to the White Hart, Broad Street, +where a couple of Quakers were staying. The local magistrates were soon on +the alert, and had the party apprehended and cast into prison. After being +examined by Bristol magistrates, Nayler and his followers were sent to +London to be examined before Parliament. His examination and the debate on +it occupied<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> many days, and the members finally resolved “that James +Nayler was guilty of horrid blasphemy, and that he was a grand impostor +and seducer of the people”; and his sentence was, “that he should be set +on the pillory, in the Palace Yard, Westminster, during the space of two +hours, on Thursday next, and be whipped by the hangman through the streets +from Westminster to the Old Exchange, London; and there, likewise, he +should be set on the pillory, with his head in the pillory, for the space +of two hours, between the hours of eleven and one, on Saturday next, in +each place wearing a paper containing an inscription of his crimes; and +that at the Old Exchange his tongue should be bored through with a hot +iron, and that he should be there also stigmatised in the forehead with +the letter B; and that he should be afterwards sent to Bristol, to be +conveyed in and through the city on horseback, with his face backwards, +and there also should be whipped the next market-day after he came +thither; and that thence he should be committed to prison in Bridewell, +London, and there be restrained from the society of all people, and there +to labour hard till he should be released by Parliament; and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> during that +time he should be debarred the use of pen, ink, and paper, and he should +have no relief but what he earned by his daily labour.” This terrible +sentence was duly carried out, although Parliament and Cromwell were +petitioned to mitigate the punishment. During his imprisonment he wrote +his recantations in letters addressed to the Quakers. After being confined +for two years he was set at liberty, and repaired to Bristol, and at a +public meeting made a confession of his offence and fall. His address +moved nearly all present to tears. The Quakers once more received him back +to their Society.</p> + +<p>His end came in the year 1660. In that year he left London for Wakefield, +but failed to reach it. At Holm, near King’s Rippon, Huntingdonshire, one +night he was bound and robbed, and left in a field, where he was found by +a countryman. He was removed to a house at Holm and every attention paid +to him, but he soon died from the results of the rough treatment he had +received at the hands of the highwaymen.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p> +<h2>A Biographical Romance.<br />Swan’s Strange Story.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">In</span> the olden days the misfortunes of William Swan frequently formed the +topic of conversation amongst friends, who gathered round the fireside in +the homes on the wild wolds of Yorkshire, where he spent some years of his +disappointed life. The full details of his career have been lost in the +lapse of time; never, to our knowledge, have they been committed to paper, +but sufficient particulars may be brought together to prove in his case +the truth of the old saying that “fact is stranger than fiction.”</p> + +<p>Nearly two centuries ago there was joy in Benwell Hall, near +Newcastle-on-Tyne, the stately mansion of Richard Swan, Esq., the occasion +of the rejoicing being the birth of an heir. The parents dreamed of a +bright future for their boy, and proudly predicted that he would, in a +worthy manner, perpetuate the name and fame of Swan. The happy +expectations of boyhood were not to be realised, for the young heir had +barely reached the age of nine years, when he was kidnapped<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> from his +home, in order that another might inherit the wealth that by kinship +belonged to him. He was quietly shipped on board the “New Britannia” brig, +which formed part of the squadron under command of the famous Sir +Cloudesley Shovel. His position was that of a “powder monkey,” and his +chief employment was to bring powder from the magazine to the gunners +during the naval engagements. On the 22nd of October, 1707, the fleet was +wrecked on the Scilly Isles, owing to the Admiral mistaking the rocks for +the sea-coast. No less than eight hundred brave men found a watery grave, +and several vessels were lost. Happily the ship in which Swan sailed +escaped destruction. Ill-fate, however, followed in its wake, for, shortly +afterwards, it was captured by an Algerine corsair, and Swan was sold to +the Moors as a slave. Four weary years were passed in Barbary. He gained +his liberty through the assistance of the Redeeming Friars, a noble body +of men who were the means of freeing thousands of Christians from +captivity. Many benevolent persons left large sums of money for redeeming +their fellow countrymen from bondage, and this money was expended +judiciously through the agency of the Friars.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>Swan had not the good fortune to reach his home in safety. He was again +taken prisoner, and sold once more into slavery, this time to an English +planter in South Carolina. Here his sufferings were terrible. He toiled +with negroes from sunrise to sunset, the slave-drivers keeping them busy +at work in the cotton and sugar plantations by means of the lash. Managing +to escape, he landed, after an exile of twenty years, on his native shore +in 1726, and speedily made his way to Newcastle-on-Tyne. His father’s +footman, Thomas Chance, and his old nurse, Mrs. Gofton, identified him, +and he at once instituted a claim for the estate of his uncle, Alderman +Swan, Mayor of Hull, who had died and left property yielding an income of +£20,000 a year. His efforts proved unsuccessful, and the deep +disappointment broke his heart, his death occurring in 1736, at the age of +thirty-eight years.</p> + +<p>Swan had married a Yorkshire woman called Jane Cole, of North Dalton, near +Driffield, by whom he had a son named William. The widowed mother told her +boy, as soon as he was able to understand, that he was the rightful heir +to vast estates, and encouraged him to persevere to obtain them. The +melancholy fate of her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> husband was not sufficient to crush her ardent +spirit. A lawyer at Driffield was consulted, and he advised that action be +taken. He undertook to conduct the case without payment until the estates +were obtained, beyond the sums for correspondence, court fees, etc. The +man, however, drained the poor fellow of every penny that he could +procure, and both mother and son denied themselves the necessaries of life +to keep up the constant demands of the solicitor. Months and years passed +without getting any satisfaction. Poor Mrs. Swan at last felt the case to +be hopeless, and the anxious waiting, with its disappointing results, +preyed so on her mind that she fell into ill-health and died. Speaking to +her son before her death, she said: “Oh, William, let this horrid plea +drop. Don’t pay that man any more money. I feel that he would skin us both +alive. They are a bad set all these law men.” William was young, and like +the majority of young people, hope was firmly fixed in his nature. He not +only devoted all his money to law, but bought a second-hand copy of +“Blackstone’s Commentaries,” and spent all his leisure time in studying +it, until he was complete master of the work. After the death of his +mother, he gave up house-keeping,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> and took lodgings with a widow, having +a daughter about twenty-four years of age. They became interested in his +case, and lent him money to carry on his suit. A rich uncle had left the +girl a few hundred pounds. The young couple were brought into sympathy +with each other, which ripened into mutual affection, and in a short time, +with the consent freely given of the mother, they were married. Shortly +after the wedding it transpired that the attorney at Driffield had been +cheating his client, and instead of using the hard-earned money of William +Swan to gain his estates, he had spent it in dissipation, and was a ruined +man.</p> + +<p>Swan proceeded to London, and consulted another lawyer. This man advised +an action which swallowed up the wife’s small fortune, without getting +them one step nearer obtaining the estate. Trouble after trouble came upon +William. His heart was almost crushed, but he continued the action to the +best of his ability. His wife begged of him to leave law alone, to return +to their Yorkshire home, live by their industry, and give up all thoughts +of the property. He refused to act upon her good advice. He got into debt, +and was committed to the Fleet prison<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> on his inability to pay. Here ill +luck still followed him, for he caught the jail fever. In his sickness his +devoted wife got permission to visit him, and bring him some delicacies. +She, alas, caught the fever, and in a few days died. He recovered, but the +death of his loving helpmate was almost too much for him. She had endured +much for his sake, but never by word or deed showed regret at becoming his +wife. Shortly afterwards a jail delivery enabled him to leave prison. His +illness rendered him so weak that he could hardly walk. He obtained +lodgings in an obscure lane or alley near Chiswell Street, and afterwards +was found dead in bed. It is believed that his remains were buried in a +pauper’s grave.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span></p> +<h2>Short Letters.</h2> + +<p class="dropcap"><span class="caps">The</span> shortest letters on record are two exchanged between a couple of +members of the Society of Friends. One of them, wishing to learn if a +correspondent in a distant town had any news to communicate, posted to him +a quarto sheet of paper, on which nothing but a note of interrogation was +written, thus: ? (meaning, “what news?”) He received in reply, by next +post, a blank sheet of paper, indicating that there was nothing to relate.</p> + +<p>Some of the best of brief letters have been penned by members of the +dramatic profession. The following are good specimens. A tradesman made +application to Mordaunt, the player, for payment of an account, as +follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“Sir,—Your bill having been standing a very long time, I beg to have +it settled forthwith.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;">Yours, etc.,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 14em;">J. Thwaites.”</span></p></div> + +<p>Said the comedian in reply:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“Sir,—When your bill is tired of <i>standing</i>, it is welcome to sit +down.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;">Yours, etc.,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 14em;">T. H. M.”</span></p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>The next letters passed between Samuel Foote, the famous actor, and his +unfortunate mother:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“Dear Sam,—I am in prison for debt; come and assist your loving +mother,</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;">E. Foote.”</span></p></div> + +<p>His answer was almost as brief, certainly as pathetic:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“Dear Mother,—So am I, which prevents his duty being paid to his +loving mother by her affectionate son.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;">Sam Foote.”</span></p> + +<p>“P.S.—I have sent my attorney to assist you; in the meantime let us +hope for better days.”</p></div> + +<p>Quin had a misunderstanding with Rich, the manager of Covent Garden +Theatre, which resulted in the former leaving in an unceremonious manner. +He soon regretted the step that he had taken, and wrote to his old friend +and manager:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“I am at Bath.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 4em;">Quin.”</span></p></div> + +<p>Rich did not deem such a letter a sufficient apology for his unwarrantable +conduct, and thus replied to it:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“Stay there and be hanged.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 8em;">Rich.”</span></p></div> + +<p>The Rev. Sydney Smith, in answer to a friend who had forwarded a letter +asking him to sit for his portrait, to be executed by Landseer, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> +gifted painter, whose pictures of dogs made him famous, sent the following +reply:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“Is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing?”</p> + +<p>Genial Charles Lamb wrote an amusing letter to Haydon, the artist, in +answer to an invitation to pay him a visit. The odd address of Haydon was +the cause of the note, which ran as follows:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“My dear Haydon,—I will come, with pleasure, to 22, Lisson Grove, +North, at Rossi’s, half-way up, right hand side, if I can find it.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;">Yours,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 14em;">C. Lamb.”</span></p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 2em;">“20, Russell Court,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">Covent Garden, East,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Half-way up, next the corner,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 6em;">Left-hand side.”</span></p></div> + +<p>A lady named Morris, of Plymouth, is recorded to have been the first of +her sex to venture under water in a diving bell.</p> + +<p>She had wit as well as courage, and wrote to her father a rhyming epistle, +saying:—</p> + +<p class="poem">“From a belle, my dear father, you’ve oft had a line,<br /> +But not from a bell under water;<br /> +Just now I can only assure you I’m thine,<br /> +Your diving and dutiful daughter.”</p> + +<p>Frank Smedley, the author of “Frank Fairleigh,” addressed to a lady friend +the following letter in verse:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> +<span style="margin-left: 3em;">“To Mrs. G. H. Virtue.”</span></p> +<p>“Thou better half of Virtue, gentle friend,<br /> +Fairly to thee, I, Fairleigh, greeting send;<br /> +Frankly I give what frankly you desire;<br /> +You thus Frank Fairleigh’s autograph acquire.<br /> +To make assurance doubly sure, this medley<br /> +Of Franks and Fairleighs this I sign—<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">Frank Smedley.”</span></p></div> + +<p>A famous sporting character, named Captain O’Byrne, laid a wager about +Admiral Payne, and wrote to him as follows:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“Dear Payne,—Pray, were you bread to the sea?”</p> + +<p>The witty Admiral made reply:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“Dear O’Byrne,—No; but the sea was bread to me.”</p> + +<p>It is said that King Charles the Second received the following letter:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“King Charles,—One of your subjects the other night robbed me of £40, +for which I robbed another of the same sum, who has inhumanly sent me +to Newgate, and he vows I shall be hanged; therefore, for your own +sake, save my life, or you will lose one of the best seamen in your +navy.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;">Jack Skifton.”</span></p></div> + +<p>His Majesty promptly answered the letter:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“Jack Skifton,—For this time I’ll save thee from the gallows, but if +hereafter thou art guilty of the like, I’ll have thee hanged, though +the best seaman in my navy.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;">Charles Rex.”</span></p></div> + +<p>Here is a copy of a quaint letter sent to another king. It was written by +Dr. Schmidt, sacristan of the Cathedral at Berlin, to Frederick of +Prussia:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span>“Sire,—I acquaint your Majesty, 1st, that they are wanting books of +psalms for the Royal Family. I acquaint your Majesty, 2ndly, that +there wants wood to warm the Royal seats. And I acquaint your Majesty, +3rdly, that the balustrade next the river, behind the church, is +become ruinous.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;">Schmidt,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 14em;">Sacristan of the Cathedral.”</span></p></div> + +<p>In reply to the foregoing diverting communication the king wrote:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“I acquaint Mr. Sacrist Schmidt, 1st, that they who want to sing songs +may buy books. I acquaint Mr. Sacrist Schmidt, 2ndly, that those who +want to be kept warm may buy wood. I acquaint Mr. Sacrist Schmidt, +3rdly, that I shall not trust any longer to the balustrade next to the +river; and I acquaint Mr. Sacrist Schmidt, 4thly, that I will not have +any more correspondence with him.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;">Frederick.”</span></p></div> + +<p>The following phonographic curiosity is extracted from the <i>Times</i>. It was +written by an unsophisticated person to his physician, in Lancashire:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“Cer yole oblige me uf yole kum and ce me i hev a bad kowld an am hill +in mi bow hills an hev lorst mi happetite.</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;">Roger Trooman.”</span></p></div> + +<p>One Highlander wrote to another the following smart letter:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“My dear Glengarry,—As soon as you can prove yourself to be my chief, +I shall be ready to acknowledge you. In the meantime</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 12em;">I am yours,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 14em;">MacDonald.”</span></p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>The Duke of Wellington engaged an intelligent Scotch farmer, named Heriot, +to act as his private secretary.</p> + +<p>“Walking in the city one day,” says the Rev. Dr. Charles Rogers, “Mr. +Heriot met an old acquaintance from Scotland.”</p> + +<p>“Hallo! Heriot,” said his friend, “what are you doing in London?”</p> + +<p>“I am secretary to the Duke of Wellington,” answered Heriot.</p> + +<p>“You are nothing of the sort,” said the Scotsman; “and I fear you’re doing +little good, since you would impose upon me in this fashion.”</p> + +<p>Returning to Scotland, it occurred to Heriot’s acquaintance that he would +write to the Duke, warning him that one Heriot “had been passing himself +off as his secretary.”</p> + +<p>He received the following reply:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>“Sir,—I am directed by the Duke of Wellington to acknowledge the +receipt of your letter; and I am,</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 10em;">Your obedient servant,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 12em;">J. Heriot,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 14em;">Private Secretary.”</span></p></div> + +<p>A captain being ordered with his regiment to the Cape, made application to +the Duke of Wellington for permission to try and arrange for a transfer to +another corps. The “Iron Duke”<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> merely turned up his letter and wrote +“Sail or sell,” and returned it to the applicant.</p> + +<p>Mr. George Seton, who has devoted much attention to this theme, tells an +American story in which a brief letter holds a prominent place. He states +that “in 1693, the Rev. Stephen Mix made a journey to Northampton in +search of a wife. He arrived at the Rev. Solomon Stoddard’s, and informed +him of the object of his visit. Mr. Stoddard introduced him to his six +daughters, and then retired. Addressing Mary, the eldest, Mr. Mix said +that he had lately settled at Wethersfield, was desirous of obtaining a +wife, and concluded by offering his heart and hand. The blushing damsel +replied that so important a proposal required time for consideration; and +accordingly Mr. Mix left the room in order to smoke a pipe with her +father, while she took the case to ‘avizandum.’ On her answer being sent +for, she requested further time for consideration; and it was agreed that +she should send her answer by letter to Wethersfield. In the course of a +few weeks, Mr. Mix received a reply, which was soon followed by the +wedding:—</p> + +<div class="blockquot"> +<p>“Northampton,<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 4em;">3rd November, 1693.</span></p> + +<p>Rev. Stephen Mix,—Yes.—Mary Stoddard.”</p></div> + +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>We will bring to a close our examples of laconic letters with another +specimen from the other side of the Atlantic. A notable dark day at +Boston, on the 19th March, 1790, induced a lady to write to Dr. Byles, an +eccentric but clever notability, the following note:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“Dear Doctor,—How do you account for this darkness?”</p> + +<p>He simply said:—</p> + +<p class="blockquot">“Dear Madam,—I am as much in the dark as you are.”</p> + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/the_end.jpg" alt="THE END" /></div> + +<p> </p> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></p> +<h2>Index.</h2> + +<p class="index">Ainsworth, W. H., <a href="#Page_88">88</a><br /> +<br /> +Alfreton, staked at Cards, <a href="#Page_107">107</a><br /> +<br /> +American Novelists, <a href="#Page_65">65</a><br /> +<br /> +Andersen, H. C., <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br /> +<br /> +Andrews, Henry, <a href="#Page_206">206-212</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Argosy</i>, <a href="#Page_29">29</a><br /> +<br /> +Arnold, Sir Edwin, <a href="#Page_23">23</a><br /> +<br /> +Austen, Jane, <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br /> +<br /> +Appleby, <a href="#Page_215">215</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Bacchanalian toasts, <a href="#Page_124">124</a><br /> +<br /> +Balloon Tytler, <a href="#Page_12">12</a><br /> +<br /> +Balzac, <a href="#Page_14">14-16</a><br /> +<br /> +Barnes, editor of <i>The Times</i>, <a href="#Page_54">54</a><br /> +<br /> +Beaconsfield, Earl of, <a href="#Page_59">59-60</a><br /> +<br /> +Bells, Rhymes on, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a><br /> +<br /> +Benwell Hall, <a href="#Page_222">222</a><br /> +<br /> +Beresford, James, <a href="#Page_68">68</a><br /> +<br /> +Beverley, <a href="#Page_32">32</a>, <a href="#Page_101">101</a><br /> +<br /> +Bills of Fare, <a href="#Page_114">114</a>, <a href="#Page_115">115-116</a><br /> +<br /> +Biographical Romance: Swan’s Strange Story, <a href="#Page_222">222-227</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Blackwood’s Magazine</i>, <a href="#Page_13">13</a><br /> +<br /> +Blair’s “Sermons,” <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br /> +<br /> +Bloomfield, Robert, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_81">81</a><br /> +<br /> +Bolas Magna, <a href="#Page_201">201</a><br /> +<br /> +Books, Southey’s love of, <a href="#Page_19">19</a><br /> +<br /> +Boswell, <a href="#Page_7">7</a><br /> +<br /> +Braddon, Miss, <a href="#Page_31">31-34</a><br /> +<br /> +Bradstreet, Anne, <a href="#Page_143">143-148</a><br /> +<br /> +Brewer, Dr., <a href="#Page_57">57-58</a><br /> +<br /> +Briscoe, J. Potter, on Miller’s Works, <a href="#Page_196">196-198</a><br /> +<br /> +Bristol, Procession of Nayler at, <a href="#Page_219">219</a><br /> +<br /> +Brooks, Henry M., <a href="#Page_133">133</a><br /> +<br /> +Brontë, Charlotte, <a href="#Page_69">69-71</a><br /> +<br /> +Browning, Robert, <a href="#Page_64">64</a><br /> +<br /> +Buchan’s “Domestic Medicine,” <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br /> +<br /> +Burleigh, Lord of, <a href="#Page_199">199</a><br /> +<br /> +Burns, Robert, <a href="#Page_11">11</a>, <a href="#Page_91">91</a>, <a href="#Page_92">92</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a>, <a href="#Page_116">116-118</a><br /> +<br /> +Butler, author of “Hudibras,” <a href="#Page_77">77-78</a><br /> +<br /> +Butler, Professor, on Scrap-books, <a href="#Page_131">131-133</a><br /> +<br /> +Byron, Lord, <a href="#Page_20">20</a>, <a href="#Page_50">50</a>, <a href="#Page_51">51</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a>, <a href="#Page_84">84</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Campbell, Thomas, <a href="#Page_55">55</a><br /> +<br /> +Cards, <a href="#Page_107">107</a><br /> +<br /> +Carlyle, T., <a href="#Page_2">2-3</a>, <a href="#Page_16">16</a><br /> +<br /> +Catherine, Spelling of, <a href="#Page_150">150-151</a><br /> +<br /> +Cecil, Henry, <a href="#Page_199">199</a><br /> +<br /> +Celebrated Songs of Scotland, <a href="#Page_11">11</a><br /> +<br /> +Chalk, Lines on, <a href="#Page_95">95</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Chambers’s Journal</i>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a><br /> +<br /> +Charles II., letter to, <a href="#Page_231">231</a><br /> +<br /> +Chepstow, <a href="#Page_219">219</a><br /> +<br /> +Christian’s View of Death, <a href="#Page_171">171</a><br /> +<br /> +Civil War, <a href="#Page_213">213</a><br /> +<br /> +Common Place-Book, Sala’s, <a href="#Page_38">38-41</a><br /> +<br /> +Compiler of “Old Moore’s Almanac”: Henry Andrews, <a href="#Page_206">206-212</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Cornhill Magazine</i>, <a href="#Page_25">25</a>, <a href="#Page_34">34</a><br /> +<br /> +Cornwall, Barry, <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br /> +<br /> +Cooper, Thomas, <a href="#Page_187">187</a><br /> +<br /> +Cottage Countess, The, <a href="#Page_199">199-205</a><br /> +<br /> +Cowper, <a href="#Page_81">81</a><br /> +<br /> +Crabbe, <a href="#Page_51">51-52</a><br /> +<br /> +Curious American Old-Time Gleanings, <a href="#Page_131">131-142</a><br /> +<br /> +Curiosities of the Lottery, <a href="#Page_139">139-140</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Days of the Spinning Wheel, <a href="#Page_140">140</a><br /> +<br /> +Daudet, A., <a href="#Page_28">28-29</a><br /> +<br /> +“Declined with Thanks,” <a href="#Page_67">67-75</a><br /> +<br /> +Derbyshire rhymes, <a href="#Page_100">100</a>, <a href="#Page_102">102</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a>, <a href="#Page_108">108</a><br /> +<br /> +De Quincey, <a href="#Page_1">1</a><br /> +<br /> +Dickens, Charles, <a href="#Page_26">26-27</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a><br /> +<br /> +Dictionary, Johnson’s, how compiled, <a href="#Page_4">4-7</a><br /> +<br /> +Diving bell, <a href="#Page_230">230</a><br /> +<br /> +Dress <i>v.</i> Dinner, <a href="#Page_92">92</a><br /> +<br /> +Duck, Stephen, <a href="#Page_79">79-80</a><br /> +<br /> +Duel, <a href="#Page_85">85</a><br /> +<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span>Ducking stool, <a href="#Page_137">137</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Earliest American Poetess: Anne Bradstreet, <a href="#Page_143">143-148</a><br /> +<br /> +Ears cropped, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>, <a href="#Page_137">137</a><br /> +<br /> +Earnings of Authors, <a href="#Page_43">43-66</a><br /> +<br /> +East Ardsley, <a href="#Page_213">213</a><br /> +<br /> +Edgeworth, Miss, <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br /> +<br /> +Editor’s poverty, <a href="#Page_9">9</a><br /> +<br /> +Elegy written in a country churchyard, <a href="#Page_45">45-46</a><br /> +<br /> +Eliot, George, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_62">62-63</a><br /> +<br /> +“Encyclopædia Britannica,” <a href="#Page_7">7-12</a><br /> +<br /> +English Folk Rhymes, <a href="#Page_100">100-109</a><br /> +<br /> +Epigrams on Authors, <a href="#Page_76">76-89</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Fergusson, Robert, <a href="#Page_90">90</a><br /> +<br /> +Fielding, <a href="#Page_48">48</a><br /> +<br /> +Fisherman’s Funeral, The, <a href="#Page_182">182</a><br /> +<br /> +Flowers of the Forest, <a href="#Page_161">161</a><br /> +<br /> +Foote, S., <a href="#Page_229">229</a><br /> +<br /> +Fox, Geo., <a href="#Page_214">214</a><br /> +<br /> +French Epigrams, <a href="#Page_76">76</a><br /> +<br /> +Frieston, <a href="#Page_206">206</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Gallows, <a href="#Page_136">136</a><br /> +<br /> +Gay, <a href="#Page_46">46</a><br /> +<br /> +German Epigrams, <a href="#Page_76">76</a><br /> +<br /> +Gibbon, <a href="#Page_56">56</a><br /> +<br /> +Glazier’s Toast, <a href="#Page_129">129</a><br /> +<br /> +Globe Tavern, Dumfries, <a href="#Page_98">98</a><br /> +<br /> +Gloucestershire Rhyme, <a href="#Page_108">108</a><br /> +<br /> +Goldsmith, <a href="#Page_46">46-47</a><br /> +<br /> +Gordon Riots, <a href="#Page_80">80</a><br /> +<br /> +Gore, Mrs., <a href="#Page_17">17-18</a><br /> +<br /> +Grant’s Memoirs, <a href="#Page_66">66</a><br /> +<br /> +Greek Epigrams, <a href="#Page_76">76</a><br /> +<br /> +Gray, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_45">45-46</a><br /> +<br /> +Greengrocer’s Toast, <a href="#Page_129">129</a><br /> +<br /> +“Guide to Science,” <a href="#Page_57">57</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Hadden, J. Cuthbert, <a href="#Page_64">64</a><br /> +<br /> +Hamerton, P. G., <a href="#Page_35">35</a>, <a href="#Page_36">36</a><br /> +<br /> +Hall, Dr. Spencer T., <a href="#Page_188">188</a><br /> +<br /> +Harte, Bret, <a href="#Page_65">65</a><br /> +<br /> +Hatter’s Toast, <a href="#Page_129">129</a><br /> +<br /> +Hayley, <a href="#Page_48">48</a><br /> +<br /> +Hedon, <a href="#Page_101">101</a><br /> +<br /> +Historical value of newspapers, <a href="#Page_131">131</a><br /> +<br /> +Historical works, <a href="#Page_56">56-57</a><br /> +<br /> +Holderness, In, <a href="#Page_184">184</a><br /> +<br /> +Homer, <a href="#Page_76">76-77</a><br /> +<br /> +Hood, E. P., <a href="#Page_88">88</a><br /> +<br /> +Hook, Theodore, <a href="#Page_83">83</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a><br /> +<br /> +Hull, Stage, Miss Braddon on, <a href="#Page_31">31</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rhyme, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Shakespearean Festival, <a href="#Page_111">111</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Burns’ Club, <a href="#Page_116">116-118</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Literary Club, <a href="#Page_118">118-119</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mrs. Jno. Hunter born at, <a href="#Page_160">160</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Hung in chains, <a href="#Page_138">138</a><br /> +<br /> +Humour in prison, <a href="#Page_138">138-139</a><br /> +<br /> +Hunter, Dr. John, <a href="#Page_162">162-165</a><br /> +<br /> +Hunter, Mrs. John, <a href="#Page_160">160-175</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Inn rhymes, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_98">98</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +“Jane Eyre,” <a href="#Page_69">69</a><br /> +<br /> +Jeffrey, Lord, <a href="#Page_85">85</a><br /> +<br /> +Johnson, Dr. S., <a href="#Page_4">4-7</a>, <a href="#Page_43">43</a>, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_47">47</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Keats, <a href="#Page_25">25</a><br /> +<br /> +Keble’s “Christian Year,” <a href="#Page_73">73-74</a><br /> +<br /> +Kentish Rhymes, <a href="#Page_108">108</a><br /> +<br /> +Kidnapping, <a href="#Page_222">222</a><br /> +<br /> +Knocking of feet in Churches, <a href="#Page_135">135</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Lady Mayoress of York, <a href="#Page_103">103</a><br /> +<br /> +Laidlow, William, <a href="#Page_13">13</a><br /> +<br /> +Lake Poets, <a href="#Page_81">81</a><br /> +<br /> +Lamb, Charles, <a href="#Page_230">230</a><br /> +<br /> +Lancashire rhymes <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_107">107</a><br /> +<br /> +Lang, Andrew, <a href="#Page_41">41-42</a><br /> +<br /> +Leechfield, <a href="#Page_102">102</a><br /> +<br /> +Lingard’s History of England, <a href="#Page_56">56</a><br /> +<br /> +Lincolnshire rhymes, <a href="#Page_103">103</a>, <a href="#Page_104">104</a>, <a href="#Page_105">105</a>, <a href="#Page_106">106</a><br /> +<br /> +London rhyme, <a href="#Page_103">103</a><br /> +<br /> +Longfellow, <a href="#Page_63">63-64</a><br /> +<br /> +Lord Mayors of York, <a href="#Page_103">103</a><br /> +<br /> +Lost with all Hands, <a href="#Page_180">180</a><br /> +<br /> +Lotteries, <a href="#Page_139">139-140</a><br /> +<br /> +Lowell, J. R., <a href="#Page_65">65</a><br /> +<br /> +Loyal and Patriotic Toasts, <a href="#Page_121">121-122</a><br /> +<br /> +Ludicrous blunders, <a href="#Page_74">74</a><br /> +<br /> +Lytton, Bulwer, <a href="#Page_59">59</a>, <a href="#Page_89">89</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Macaulay, Lord, <a href="#Page_56">56-57</a><br /> +<br /> +Mansfield, Lord, <a href="#Page_80">80-81</a><br /> +<br /> +Martineau, Miss, <a href="#Page_16">16</a><br /> +<br /> +Masonic Toasts, <a href="#Page_124">124</a><br /> +<br /> +Miscellaneous Toasts, <a href="#Page_127">127</a><br /> +<br /> +Miller, A., <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br /> +<br /> +Miller, Joe, <a href="#Page_80">80</a><br /> +<br /> +Miller, Thomas, <a href="#Page_186">186-198</a><br /> +<br /> +Milton, John, <a href="#Page_44">44</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">epigram on, <a href="#Page_45">45</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Monument in Greyfriars’ to Mary Pyper, <a href="#Page_175">175</a><br /> +<br /> +Moore, Francis, <a href="#Page_212">212</a><br /> +<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>Moore, Thomas, <a href="#Page_52">52-54</a>, <a href="#Page_85">85</a>, <a href="#Page_86">86</a><br /> +<br /> +Mordaunt, <a href="#Page_228">228</a><br /> +<br /> +Musicians’ Toasts, <a href="#Page_128">128-129</a><br /> +<br /> +My Mother bids me bind my Hair, <a href="#Page_161">161</a><br /> +<br /> +Myton Rhyme, <a href="#Page_103">103</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Naval and Military Toasts, <a href="#Page_122">122-123</a><br /> +<br /> +Nayler, James, the Mad Quaker, <a href="#Page_213">213-221</a><br /> +<br /> +New England Sunday, <a href="#Page_133">133</a><br /> +<br /> +Newington Church, <a href="#Page_105">105</a><br /> +<br /> +Newton, Sir Isaac, <a href="#Page_78">78</a><br /> +<br /> +Norfolk rhymes, <a href="#Page_101">101</a><br /> +<br /> +Norwich rhyme, <a href="#Page_102">102</a><br /> +<br /> +Nottingham Public Library, Miller’s books in, <a href="#Page_196">196-198</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Old Fountain, The, <a href="#Page_192">192</a><br /> +<br /> +Old Moore’s Almanac, <a href="#Page_206">206-212</a><br /> +<br /> +Olden Times Series, by Henry M. Brooks, <a href="#Page_133">133-142</a><br /> +<br /> +Oliphant, Mrs., <a href="#Page_50">50</a><br /> +<br /> +On seeing two little girls present a flower to a dying person, <a href="#Page_173">173</a><br /> +<br /> +Ouida, <a href="#Page_63">63</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +“Paradise Lost,” <a href="#Page_44">44</a><br /> +<br /> +Pawnbroker’s Toast, <a href="#Page_129">129</a><br /> +<br /> +Payn, James, <a href="#Page_34">34-35</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60</a><br /> +<br /> +Playful Poet: Miss Catherine Fanshawe, <a href="#Page_149">149-159</a><br /> +<br /> +Playing at cards for towns, <a href="#Page_107">107</a><br /> +<br /> +Phillips, Sir Richard, <a href="#Page_73">73</a><br /> +<br /> +Phonographic curiosity, <a href="#Page_232">232</a><br /> +<br /> +Pillory, <a href="#Page_136">136</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Nayler in the, <a href="#Page_220">220</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Poem in imitation of Wordsworth, <a href="#Page_151">151</a><br /> +<br /> +Poet and Novelist of the People: Thomas Miller, <a href="#Page_186">186-198</a><br /> +<br /> +Poet of the Fisher-Folk: Mrs. Susan K. Phillips, <a href="#Page_176">176-185</a><br /> +<br /> +Poet of the Poor: Mary Pyper, <a href="#Page_167">167-175</a><br /> +<br /> +Poetical Graces, <a href="#Page_90">90-93</a><br /> +<br /> +Poetry of Toast Lists and Menu Cards, <a href="#Page_110">110-119</a><br /> +<br /> +Poetry on Panes, <a href="#Page_94">94-99</a><br /> +<br /> +Political Toasts, <a href="#Page_126">126</a><br /> +<br /> +Pope, <a href="#Page_46">46</a>, <a href="#Page_78">78</a><br /> +<br /> +Popular Song Writer: Mrs. John Hunter, <a href="#Page_160">160-175</a><br /> +<br /> +Prayer by proxy, <a href="#Page_92">92</a><br /> +<br /> +Prescott, <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br /> +<br /> +Printer’s troubled by authors, <a href="#Page_16">16</a><br /> +<br /> +Professional Toasts, <a href="#Page_128">128</a><br /> +<br /> +Proud Preston, <a href="#Page_105">105</a><br /> +<br /> +Punning Toasts, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br /> +<br /> +Purlwell Hall, <a href="#Page_97">97</a><br /> +<br /> +Pyper, Mary, <a href="#Page_167">167-175</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Quakers punished, <a href="#Page_137">137</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Mad Quaker, <a href="#Page_213">213-221</a></span><br /> +<br /> +Quin, <a href="#Page_229">229</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Rabbits, Grace on, <a href="#Page_27">27</a><br /> +<br /> +Reade, Charles, <a href="#Page_27">27-28</a><br /> +<br /> +Redeeming Friars, <a href="#Page_223">223</a><br /> +<br /> +Rich, <a href="#Page_229">229</a><br /> +<br /> +Richardson, Professor C. F., <a href="#Page_146">146</a><br /> +<br /> +Richter, J. P., <a href="#Page_2">2-3</a><br /> +<br /> +Riddle on the letter H., <a href="#Page_153">153-154</a><br /> +<br /> +Rhyming grants of land, <a href="#Page_100">100-101</a><br /> +<br /> +Robertson’s “History of Scotland,” <a href="#Page_56">56</a><br /> +<br /> +“Robinson Crusoe,” <a href="#Page_67">67</a><br /> +<br /> +Rose, Sir George, <a href="#Page_87">87</a><br /> +<br /> +Roxburghe Club, <a href="#Page_127">127-128</a><br /> +<br /> +Royston, <a href="#Page_208">208</a><br /> +<br /> +Ruskin, John, <a href="#Page_63">63</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Sala, G. A., <a href="#Page_36">36-41</a><br /> +<br /> +Sandon, rhyme at, <a href="#Page_95">95</a><br /> +<br /> +Scrap-books, <a href="#Page_131">131-133</a><br /> +<br /> +Scarborough rhymes, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br /> +<br /> +Schmidt, <a href="#Page_231">231</a><br /> +<br /> +Schoolmaster’s Toasts, <a href="#Page_128">128</a><br /> +<br /> +School books, <a href="#Page_55">55</a><br /> +<br /> +Scolds, punished, <a href="#Page_137">137</a><br /> +<br /> +Scott, Sir Walter, <a href="#Page_12">12-13</a>, <a href="#Page_48">48-50</a>, <a href="#Page_73">73</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82-83</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Scots’ Magazine</i>, <a href="#Page_8">8</a><br /> +<br /> +Selling bells, Rhymes on, <a href="#Page_104">104</a><br /> +<br /> +Sentimental Toasts, <a href="#Page_126">126</a><br /> +<br /> +Servant of God, <a href="#Page_172">172</a><br /> +<br /> +Seymour, Digby, <a href="#Page_87">87</a><br /> +<br /> +Shakespeare’s fortune, <a href="#Page_44">44</a><br /> +<br /> +Shakespearean Quotations, <a href="#Page_111">111-115</a><br /> +<br /> +Shelley, <a href="#Page_22">22</a><br /> +<br /> +Shoemaker’s Toast, <a href="#Page_129">129</a><br /> +<br /> +Short Letters, <a href="#Page_228">228-235</a><br /> +<br /> +Slave-trade, <a href="#Page_140">140-142</a><br /> +<br /> +Sleeping in meeting-house, Punishment for, <a href="#Page_135">135</a><br /> +<br /> +Smedley, F., <a href="#Page_230">230</a><br /> +<br /> +Smellie, William, <a href="#Page_7">7-8</a><br /> +<br /> +Smith, Albert, <a href="#Page_86">86</a><br /> +<br /> +Smith, Sydney, <a href="#Page_229">229</a><br /> +<br /> +<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>Smollett, <a href="#Page_56">56</a><br /> +<br /> +Somerville, Mrs., <a href="#Page_21">21</a><br /> +<br /> +Somerset rhymes, <a href="#Page_103">103</a><br /> +<br /> +Southey, <a href="#Page_19">19-20</a>, <a href="#Page_21">21</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a><br /> +<br /> +Spires of Churches, <a href="#Page_106">106</a><br /> +<br /> +Sporting Toasts, <a href="#Page_125">125</a><br /> +<br /> +St Andrews’ University, <a href="#Page_90">90</a><br /> +<br /> +Sterne, <a href="#Page_71">71</a><br /> +<br /> +Stoves, introduction into churches, <a href="#Page_134">134</a><br /> +<br /> +Stowe, Mrs., <a href="#Page_71">71</a><br /> +<br /> +Strange and curious punishments, <a href="#Page_135">135</a><br /> +<br /> +Sunday in New England, <a href="#Page_133">133</a><br /> +<br /> +Swan’s Strange Story, <a href="#Page_222">222-227</a><br /> +<br /> +Swift, Dean, <a href="#Page_79">79</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Tennyson, Lord, <a href="#Page_14">14</a>, <a href="#Page_64">64</a>, <a href="#Page_118">118-119</a>, <a href="#Page_199">199</a><br /> +<br /> +Tercentenary Banquet at Stratford-on-Avon, <a href="#Page_114">114</a><br /> +<br /> +Thackeray, W. M, <a href="#Page_27">27</a>, <a href="#Page_58">58</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87</a><br /> +<br /> +Theodore, King of Corsica, <a href="#Page_78">78</a><br /> +<br /> +Thompson, Town Clerk of Hull, <a href="#Page_87">87-88</a><br /> +<br /> +<i>Times, The</i>, editorship refused by Southey, <a href="#Page_19">19</a><br /> +<br /> +Toasts and Toasting, <a href="#Page_120">120-130</a><br /> +<br /> +Tongue bored with a hot iron, <a href="#Page_220">220</a><br /> +<br /> +Travelling on Sunday, <a href="#Page_133">133</a><br /> +<br /> +Trollope, Mrs, <a href="#Page_18">18-19</a><br /> +<br /> +Trollope, A., <a href="#Page_1">1</a>, <a href="#Page_24">24-25</a>, <a href="#Page_60">60-62</a><br /> +<br /> +Trollope, T. A., <a href="#Page_18">18</a><br /> +<br /> +Tytler, Joseph, <a href="#Page_8">8-12</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Ugley, rhyme on, <a href="#Page_106">106</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Vegetarian graces, <a href="#Page_93">93</a><br /> +<br /> +“Vicar of Wakefield,” <a href="#Page_46">46</a><br /> +<br /> +“Vice Versa,” <a href="#Page_72">72</a><br /> +<br /> +Vyse’s Spelling-Book, <a href="#Page_55">55</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +Wakefield, <a href="#Page_213">213</a>, <a href="#Page_214">214</a><br /> +<br /> +Warner, Miss, <a href="#Page_71">71</a><br /> +<br /> +Warren, Samuel, <a href="#Page_68">68</a>, <a href="#Page_87">87-88</a><br /> +<br /> +Waterloo, <a href="#Page_83">83-84</a><br /> +<br /> +Weather rhymes, <a href="#Page_108">108</a><br /> +<br /> +Wellington, Secretary to the Duke of, <a href="#Page_233">233</a><br /> +<br /> +Wesley, Rev. S., <a href="#Page_93">93</a><br /> +<br /> +Whipping, <a href="#Page_135">135</a>, <a href="#Page_220">220</a><br /> +<br /> +Whitby Bells, <a href="#Page_185">185</a><br /> +<br /> +White, H. K., <a href="#Page_81">81</a><br /> +<br /> +Wilberforce, Bishop, <a href="#Page_26">26</a><br /> +<br /> +Wilson, Professor, <a href="#Page_13">13-14</a><br /> +<br /> +Wood, Mrs. Henry, <a href="#Page_29">29-31</a><br /> +<br /> +Worcestershire Rhymes, <a href="#Page_109">109</a><br /> +<br /> +Wolfe, Charles, <a href="#Page_74">74-75</a><br /> +<br /> +Words, meaning of, <a href="#Page_6">6</a><br /> +<br /> +Wordsworth, W., <a href="#Page_22">22-23</a>, <a href="#Page_82">82</a><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +York Theatre, <a href="#Page_96">96</a><br /> +<br /> +Yorkshire pane rhymes, <a href="#Page_94">94</a>, <a href="#Page_95">95</a>, <a href="#Page_96">96</a>, <a href="#Page_97">97</a>;<br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Rhymes, <a href="#Page_103">103-109</a>;</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Poets, <a href="#Page_176">176</a>.</span><br /> +</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<div class="verts"> +<p class="note">“Mr. Andrews’ books are always interesting.”—<i>Church Bells.</i></p> + +<p class="note">“No student of Mr. Andrews’ books can be a dull after-dinner speaker, for +his writings are full of curious out-of-the-way information and good +stories.”—<i>Birmingham Daily Gazette.</i></p> + +<p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">England in the Days of Old.</span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By WILLIAM ANDREWS, f.r.h.s.</span>,</p> +<p class="center"><i>Demy 8vo., 7s. 6d. Numerous Illustrations.</i></p> + +<p>This volume is one of unusual interest and value to the lover of olden +days and ways, and can hardly fail to interest and instruct the reader. It +recalls many forgotten episodes, scenes, characters, manners, customs, +etc., in the social and domestic life of England.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Contents</span>:—When Wigs were Worn—Powdering the Hair—Men Wearing +Muffs—Concerning Corporation Customs—Bribes for the Palate—Rebel Heads +on City Gates—Burial at Cross Roads—Detaining the Dead for Debt—A +Nobleman’s Household in Tudor Times—Bread and Baking in Bygone +Days—Arise, Mistress, Arise!—The Turnspit—A Gossip about the +Goose—Bells as Time-Tellers—The Age of Snuffing—State +Lotteries—Bear-Baiting—Morris Dancers—The Folk-Lore of Midsummer +Eve—Harvest Home—Curious Charities—An Old-Time Chronicler.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">List of Illustrations</span>:—The House of Commons in the time of Sir Robert +Walpole—Egyptian Wig—The Earl of Albemarle—Campaign Wig—Periwig with +Tail—Ramillie-Wig—Pig-tail Wig—Bag-Wig—Archbishop +Tilotson—Heart-Breakers—A Barber’s Shop in the time of Queen +Elizabeth—With and Without a Wig—Stealing a Wig—Man with Muff, +1693—Burying the Mace at Nottingham—The Lord Mayor of York escorting +Princess Margaret—The Mayor of Wycombe going to the Guildhall—Woman +wearing a Scold’s Bridle—The Brank—Andrew Marvell—Old London Bridge, +shewing heads of rebels on the gate—Axe, Block, and Executioner’s +Mask—Margaret Roper taking leave of her father, Sir Thomas More—Rebel +Heads, from a print published in 1746—Temple Bar in Dr. Johnson’s +time—Micklegate Bar, York—Clock, Hampton Court Palace—Drawing a Lottery +in the Guildhall, 1751—Advertising the Last State Lottery—Partaking of +the Pungent Pinch—Morris Dance, from a painted window at Betley—Morris +Dance, temp. James I.—A Whitsun Morris Dance—Bear Garden, or Hope +Theatre, 1647—The Globe Theatre, temp. Elizabeth—Plan of Bankside early +in the Seventeenth Century—John Stow’s Monument.</p> + +<p>A carefully prepared Index enables the reader to refer to the varied and +interesting contents of the book.</p> + +<p>“A very attractive and informing book.”—<i>Birmingham Daily Gazette.</i></p> + +<p>“Mr. Andrews has the true art of narration, and contrives to give us the +results of his learning with considerable freshness of style, whilst his +subjects are always interesting and picturesque.”—<i>Manchester Courier.</i></p> + +<p>“The book is of unusual interest.”—<i>Eastern Morning News.</i></p> + +<p>“Of the many clever books which Mr. Andrews has written none does him +greater credit than “England in the Days of Old,” and none will be read +with greater profit.”—<i>Northern Gazette.</i></p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center">“Valuable and interesting.”—<i>The Times.</i></p> +<p class="center">“Readable as well as instructive.”—<i>The Globe.</i></p> +<p class="center">“A valuable addition to any library.”—<i>Derbyshire Times.</i></p> + +<p class="center"><span class="huge">The Bygone Series.</span></p> + +<p>In this series the following volumes are included, and issued at 7s. 6d. +each. Demy 8vo, cloth gilt.</p> + +<p>These books have been favourably reviewed in the leading critical journals +of England and America.</p> + +<p>Carefully written articles by recognised authorities are included on +history, castles, abbeys, biography, romantic episodes, legendary lore, +traditional stories, curious customs, folk-lore, etc., etc.</p> + +<p>The works are illustrated by eminent artists, and by the reproduction of +quaint pictures of the olden time.</p> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table"> +<tr><td>BYGONE BERKSHIRE, edited by Rev. P. H. Ditchfield, <span class="smcaplc">M.A., F.S.A.</span><br /> +BYGONE CHESHIRE, edited by William Andrews.<br /> +BYGONE DEVONSHIRE, by the Rev. Hilderic Friend.<br /> +BYGONE DURHAM, edited by William Andrews.<br /> +BYGONE HERTFORDSHIRE, edited by William Andrews.<br /> +BYGONE LEICESTERSHIRE, edited by William Andrews.<br /> +BYGONE LINCOLNSHIRE (2 vols), edited by William Andrews.<br /> +BYGONE NORFOLK, edited by William Andrews.<br /> +BYGONE NORTHUMBERLAND, edited by William Andrews.<br /> +BYGONE NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, by William Stevenson.<br /> +BYGONE SCOTLAND, by David Maxwell, <i>C.E.</i><br /> +BYGONE SOMERSETSHIRE, edited by Cuming Walters.<br /> +BYGONE SOUTHWARK, by Mrs. E. Boger.<br /> +BYGONE SUFFOLK, edited by Cuming Walters.<br /> +BYGONE SURREY, edited by George Clinch and S. W. Kershaw, <span class="smcaplc">F.S.A.</span><br /> +BYGONE SUSSEX, by W. E. A. Axon.<br /> +BYGONE WARWICKSHIRE, edited by William Andrews.<br /> +BYGONE YORKSHIRE, edited by William Andrews.</td></tr></table> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">The Church Treasury of History, Custom, Folk-Lore, etc.</span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Edited by WILLIAM ANDREWS, f.r.h.s.</span></p> +<p class="center"><i>Demy 8vo., 7s. 6d. Numerous Illustrations.</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Contents</span>:—Stave-Kirks—Curious Churches of Cornwall—Holy Wells—Hermits +and Hermit Cells—Church Wakes—Fortified Church Towers—The Knight +Templars: their Churches and their Privileges—English Medieval +Pilgrimages—Pilgrims’ Signs—Human Skin on Church Doors—Animals of the +Church in Wood, Stone, and Bronze—Queries in Stones—Pictures in +Churches—Flowers and the Rites of the Church—Ghost Layers and Ghost +Laying—Church Walks—Westminster Wax-Works—Index. Numerous +Illustrations.</p> + +<p>“It is a work that will prove interesting to the clergy and churchmen +generally, and to all others who have an antiquarian turn of mind, or like +to be regaled occasionally by reading old-world customs and +anecdotes.”—<i>Church Family Newspaper.</i></p> + +<p>“Mr. Andrews has given us some excellent volumes of Church lore, but none +quite so good as this. The subjects are well chosen. They are treated +brightly and with considerable detail, and they are well illustrated.... +Mr. Andrews is himself responsible for some of the most interesting +papers, but all his helpers have caught his own spirit, and the result is +a volume full of information well and pleasantly put.”—<i>London Quarterly +Review.</i></p> + +<p>“Those who seek information regarding curious and quaint relics or customs +will find much to interest them in this book. The illustrations are +good.”—<i>Publishers’ Circular.</i></p> + +<p>“An excellent and entertaining book.”—<i>Newcastle Daily Leader.</i></p> + +<p>“The book will be welcome to every lover of archæological +lore.”—<i>Liverpool Daily Post.</i></p> + +<p>“The volume is of a most informing and suggestive character, abounding in +facts not easy of access to the ordinary reader, and enhanced with +illustrations of a high order of merit, and extremely +numerous.”—<i>Birmingham Daily Gazette.</i></p> + +<p>“The contents of the volume are very good.”—<i>Leeds Mercury.</i></p> + +<p>“The volume is sure to meet with a cordial reception.”—<i>Manchester +Courier.</i></p> + +<p>“A fascinating book.”—<i>Stockport Advertiser.</i></p> + +<p>“Mr. Andrews has brought together much curious matter.”—<i>Manchester +Guardian.</i></p> + +<p>“The book is a very readable one, and will receive a hearty +welcome.”—<i>Herts. Advertiser.</i></p> + +<p>“Mr. William Andrews has been able to give us a very acceptable and useful +addition to the books which deal with the curiosities of Church lore, and +for this deserves our hearty thanks. The manner in which the book is +printed and illustrated also commands our admiration.”—<i>Norfolk +Chronicle.</i></p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">Antiquities and Curiosities of the Church.</span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Edited by WILLIAM ANDREWS, f.r.h.s.</span></p> +<p class="center"><i>Demy 8vo., 7s. 6d. Numerous Illustrations.</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Contents</span>:—Church History and Historians—Supernatural Interference in +Church Building—Ecclesiastical Symbolism in Architecture—Acoustic +Jars—Crypts—Heathen Customs at Christian Feasts—Fish and +Fasting—Shrove-tide and Lenten Customs—Wearing Hats in Church—The Stool +of Repentance—Cursing by Bell, Book, and Candle—Pulpits—Church +Windows—Alms-Boxes and Alms-Dishes—Old Collecting +Boxes—Gargoyles—Curious Vanes—People and Steeple +Rhymes—Sun-Dials—Jack of the Clock-House—Games in Churchyards—Circular +Churchyards—Church and Churchyard Charms and Cures—Yew Trees in +Churchyards.</p> + +<p>“A very entertaining work.”—<i>Leeds Mercury.</i></p> + +<p>“A well-printed, handsome, and profusely illustrated work.”—<i>Norfolk +Chronicle.</i></p> + +<p>“There is much curious and interesting reading in this popular volume, +which moreover has a useful index.”—<i>Glasgow Herald.</i></p> + +<p>“The contents of the volume is exceptionally good reading, and crowded +with out-of-the way, useful, and well selected information on a subject +which has an undying interest.”—<i>Birmingham Mercury.</i></p> + +<p>“In concluding this notice it is only the merest justice to add that every +page of it abounds with rare and often amusing information, drawn from the +most accredited sources. It also abounds with illustrations of our old +English authors, and it is likely to prove welcome not only to the +Churchman, but to the student of folk-lore and of poetical +literature.”—<i>Morning Post.</i></p> + +<p>“We can recommend this volume to all who are interested in the notable and +curious things that relate to churches and public worship in this and +other countries.”—<i>Newcastle Daily Journal.</i></p> + +<p>“It is very handsomely got up and admirably printed, the letterpress being +beautifully clear.”—<i>Lincoln Mercury.</i></p> + +<p>“The book is well indexed.”—<i>Daily Chronicle.</i></p> + +<p>“By delegating certain topics to those most capable of treating them, the +editor has the satisfaction of presenting the best available information +in a very attractive manner.”—<i>Dundee Advertiser.</i></p> + +<p>“It must not be supposed that the book is of interest only to Churchmen, +although primarily so, for it treats in such a skilful and instructive +manner with ancient manners and customs as to make it an invaluable book +of reference to all who are concerned in the seductive study of +antiquarian subjects.”—<i>Chester Courant.</i></p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">A Book About Bells.</span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By the Rev. GEO. S. TYACK, b.a.</span>,</p> +<p class="center">Author of the “Historic Dress of the Clergy,” etc.</p> +<p class="center"><i>Crown, cloth extra 6s.</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Contents</span>:—Invention of Bells—Bell Founding and Bell Founders—Dates and +Names of Bells—The Decoration of Bells—Some Noteworthy Bells—The Loss +of Old Bells—Towers and Campaniles—Bell-Ringing and Bell-Ringers—The +Church-Going Bell—Bells at Christian Festivals and Fasts—The Epochs of +Man’s Life Marked by the Bells—The Blessings and the Cursings of the +Bells—Bells as Time-Markers—Secular Uses of Church and other +Bells—Small Bells, Secular and Sacred—Carillons—Belfry Rhymes and +Legends—Index of Subjects, Index of Places.</p> + +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Thirteen Full-page Plates.</span></p> + +<p>“A most useful and interesting book.... All who are interested in bells +will, we feel confident, read it with pleasure and profit.”—<i>Church +Family Newspaper.</i></p> + +<p>“A pleasing, graceful, and scholarly book.... A handsome volume which will +be prized by the antiquary, and can be perused with delight and advantage +by the general reader.”—<i>Notes and Queries.</i></p> + +<p>“‘A Book About Bells’ can be heartily commended.”—<i>Pall Mall Gazette.</i></p> + +<p>“An excellent and entertaining book, which we commend to the attention not +only of those who are specially interested in the subject of bells, but to +all lovers of quaint archæological lore.”—<i>Glasgow Herald.</i></p> + +<p>“The book is well printed and artistic in form.”—<i>Manchester Courier.</i></p> + +<p>“‘A Book About Bells’ is destined to be the work of reference on the +subject, and it ought to find a home on the shelves of every +library.”—<i>Northern Gazette.</i></p> + +<p>“The task Mr. Tyack has set himself, he has carried out admirably, and +throughout care and patient research are apparent.”—<i>Lynn News.</i></p> + +<p>“We heartily recommend our readers to procure this volume.”—<i>The +Churchwoman.</i></p> + +<p>“An entertaining work.”—<i>Yorkshire Post.</i></p> + +<p>“‘A Book About Bells’ will interest almost everyone. Antiquaries will find +in it an immense store of information: but the general reader will equally +feel that it is a book well worth reading from beginning to end.”—<i>The +News</i>, Edited by the Rev. Charles Bullock, <span class="smcaplc">B.D.</span></p> + +<p>“An excellent work.”—<i>Stockton Herald.</i></p> + +<p>“It is a well-written work, and it is sure to be popular.”—<i>Hull +Christian Voice.</i></p> + +<p>“Covers the whole field of bell-lore.”—<i>Scotsman.</i></p> + +<p>“Most interesting and finely illustrated.”—<i>Birmingham Daily Gazette.</i></p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">Historic Dress of the Clergy.</span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By the Rev. GEO. S. TYACK, b.a.</span>,</p> +<p class="center">Author of “The Cross in Ritual, Architecture, and Art.”</p> +<p class="center"><i>Crown, cloth extra, 3s. 6d.</i></p> + +<p>The work contains thirty-three illustrations from ancient monuments, rare +manuscripts, and other sources.</p> + +<p>“A very painstaking and very valuable volume on a subject which is just +now attracting much attention. Mr. Tyack has collected a large amount of +information from sources not available to the unlearned, and has put +together his materials in an attractive way. The book deserves and is sure +to meet with a wide circulation.”—<i>Daily Chronicle.</i></p> + +<p>“This book is written with great care, and with an evident knowledge of +history. It is well worth the study of all who wish to be better informed +upon a subject which the author states in his preface gives evident signs +of a lively and growing interest.”—<i>Manchester Courier.</i></p> + +<p>“Those who are interested in the Dress of the Clergy will find full +information gathered together here, and set forth in a lucid and scholarly +way.”—<i>Glasgow Herald.</i></p> + +<p>“We are glad to welcome yet another volume from the author of ‘The Cross +in Ritual, Architecture, and Art.’ His subject, chosen widely and carried +out comprehensively, makes this a valuable book of reference for all +classes. It is only the antiquary and the ecclesiologist who can devote +time and talents to research of this kind, and Mr. Tyack has done a real +and lasting service to the Church of England by collecting so much useful +and reliable information upon the dress of the clergy in all ages, and +offering it to the public in such a popular form. We do not hesitate to +recommend this volume as the most reliable and the most comprehensive +illustrated guide to the history and origin of the canonical vestments and +other dress worn by the clergy, whether ecclesiastical, academical, or +general, while the excellent work in typography and binding make it a +beautiful gift-book.”—<i>Church Bells.</i></p> + +<p>“A very lucid history of ecclesiastical vestments from Levitical times to +the present day.”—<i>Pall Mall Gazette.</i></p> + +<p>“The book can be recommended to the undoubtedly large class of persons who +are seeking information on this and kindred subjects.”—<i>The Times.</i></p> + +<p>“The work may be read either as pastime or for instruction, and is worthy +of a place in the permanent section of any library. The numerous +illustrations, extensive contents table and index, and beautiful +workmanship, both in typography and binding, are all features of +attraction and utility.”—<i>Dundee Advertiser.</i></p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">The Miracle Play in England,</span></p> +<p class="center">An Account of the Early Religious Drama.</p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">By SIDNEY W. CLARKE, Barrister-at-Law.</span></p> +<p class="center"><i>Crown 8vo., 3s. 6d. Illustrated.</i></p> + +<p>In bygone times the Miracle Play formed an important feature in the +religious life of England. To those taking an interest in the history of +the Church of England, this volume will prove useful. The author has given +long and careful study to this subject, and produced a reliable and +readable book, which can hardly fail to interest and instruct the reader. +It is a volume for general reading, and for a permanent place in the +reference library.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Contents</span>:—The Origin of Drama—The Beginnings of English Drama—The York +Plays—The Wakefield Plays—The Chester Plays—The Coventry Plays—Other +English Miracle Plays—The Production of a Miracle Play—The Scenery, +Properties, and Dresses—Appendix—The Order of the York Plays—Extract +from City Register of York, 1426—The Order of the Wakefield Plays—The +Order of the Chester Plays—The Order of the Grey Friars’ Plays at +Coventry—A Miracle Play in a Puppet Show—Index.</p> + +<p>“Mr. Clarke has chosen a most interesting subject, one that is attractive +alike to the student, the historian, and the general reader.... A most +interesting volume, and a number of quaint illustrations add to its +value.”—<i>Birmingham Daily Gazette.</i></p> + +<p>“The book should be useful to many.”—<i>Manchester Guardian.</i></p> + +<p>“An admirable work.”—<i>Eastern Morning News.</i></p> + +<p>“Mr. Sidney Clarke’s concise monograph in ‘The Miracle Play in England’ is +another of the long and interesting series of antiquarian volumes for +popular reading issued by the same publishing house. The author briefly +sketches the rise and growth of the ‘Miracle’ or ‘Mystery’ play in Europe +and in England; and gives an account of the series or cycle of these +curious religious dramas—the forerunners of the modern secular +play—performed at York, Wakefield, Chester, Coventry, and other towns in +the middle ages. But his chief efforts are devoted to giving a sketch of +the manner of production, and the scenery, properties, and dresses of the +old miracle play, as drawn from the minute account books of the craft and +trade guilds and other authentic records of the period. Mr. Clarke has +gone to the best sources for his information, and the volume, illustrated +by quaint cuts, is an excellent compendium of information on a curious +byeway of literature and art.”—<i>The Scotsman.</i></p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<p class="center"><span class="huge">Legal Lore: Curiosities of Law and Lawyers.</span></p> +<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Edited by WILLIAM ANDREWS, f.r.h.s.</span></p> +<p class="center"><i>Demy 8vo., Cloth extra, 7s. 6d.</i></p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Contents</span>:—Bible Law—Sanctuaries—Trials in Superstitious Ages—On +Symbols—Law Under the Feudal System—The Manor and Manor Law—Ancient +Tenures—Laws of the Forest—Trial by Jury in Old Times—Barbarous +Punishments—Trials of Animals—Devices of the Sixteenth Century +Debtors—Laws Relating to the Gipsies—Commonwealth Law and +Lawyers—Cock-Fighting in Scotland—Cockieleerie Law—Fatal +Links—Post-Mortem Trials—Island Laws—The Little Inns of Court—Obiter.</p> + +<p>“There are some very amusing and curious facts concerning law and lawyers. +We have read with much interest the articles on Sanctuaries, Trials in +Superstitious Ages, Ancient Tenures, Trials by Jury in Old Times, +Barbarous Punishments, and Trials of Animals, and can heartily recommend +the volume to those who wish for a few hours’ profitable diversion in the +study of what may be called the light literature of the law.”—<i>Daily +Mail.</i></p> + +<p>“Most amusing and instructive reading.”—<i>The Scotsman.</i></p> + +<p>“The contents of the volume are extremely entertaining, and convey not a +little information on ancient ideas and habits of life. While members of +the legal profession will turn to the work for incidents with which to +illustrate an argument or point a joke, laymen will enjoy its vivid +descriptions of old-fashioned proceedings and often semi-barbaric ideas to +obligation and rectitude.”—<i>Dundee Advertiser.</i></p> + +<p>“The subjects chosen are extremely interesting, and contain a quantity of +out-of-the-way and not easily accessible information.... Very tastefully +printed and bound.”—<i>Birmingham Daily Gazette.</i></p> + +<p>“The book is handsomely got up; the style throughout is popular and clear, +and the variety of its contents, and the individuality of the writers gave +an added charm to the work.”—<i>Daily Free Press.</i></p> + +<p>“The book is interesting both to the general reader and the +student.”—<i>Cheshire Notes and Queries.</i></p> + +<p>“Those who care only to be amused will find plenty of entertainment in +this volume, while those who regard it as a work of reference will rejoice +at the variety of material, and appreciate the careful indexing.”—<i>Dundee +Courier.</i></p> + +<p>“Very interesting subjects, lucidly and charmingly written. The +versatility of the work assures for it a wide popularity.”—<i>Northern +Gazette.</i></p> + +<p>“A happy and useful addition to current literature.”—<i>Norfolk Chronicle.</i></p> + +<p>“The book is a very fascinating one, and it is specially interesting to +students of history as showing the vast changes which, by gradual course +of development have been brought about both in the principles and practice +of the law.”—<i>The Evening Gazette.</i></p></div> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><strong>Footnotes:</strong></p> + +<p><a name="f1" id="f1" href="#f1.1">[1]</a> He was thirty years of age.</p> + +<p><a name="f2" id="f2" href="#f2.1">[2]</a> The Royal Institution where the Rev. Sydney Smith was reading lectures +on moral philosophy. The particular lecture alluded to in the above ode +was “The Sublime.”</p> + +<p><a name="f3" id="f3" href="#f3.1">[3]</a> A fashionable milliner.</p> + + +<p> </p><p> </p> +<hr style="width: 50%;" /> +<p><strong>Transcriber’s Notes:</strong></p> + +<p>Punctuation has been corrected without note.</p> + +<p>Other than the corrections noted by hover information, inconsistencies in +spelling and hyphenation have been retained from the original.</p> + + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Literary Byways, by William Andrews + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITERARY BYWAYS *** + +***** This file should be named 36078-h.htm or 36078-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/0/7/36078/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Literary Byways + +Author: William Andrews + +Release Date: May 10, 2011 [EBook #36078] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITERARY BYWAYS *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive.) + + + + + + + + + +LITERARY BYWAYS. + + + + + Literary Byways + + + By William Andrews + + + LONDON: + WILLIAM ANDREWS & CO., 5, FARRINGDON AVENUE, E.C. + 1898. + + + + +Preface. + + +In the following pages no attempt has been made to add to the many +critical works authors bring under the notice of the public. My aim in +this collection of leisure-hour studies is to afford entertaining reading +on some topics which do not generally attract the reader's attention. + +It is necessary for me to state that three of the chapters were originally +contributed to the columns of the _Chambers's Journal_, and by courtesy of +the Editor are reproduced in this volume. + +WILLIAM ANDREWS. + + THE HULL PRESS, + _July 5th, 1898_. + + + + +Contents. + + + PAGE + + AUTHORS AT WORK 1 + + THE EARNINGS OF AUTHORS 43 + + DECLINED WITH THANKS 67 + + EPIGRAMS ON AUTHORS 76 + + POETICAL GRACES 90 + + POETRY ON PANES 94 + + ENGLISH FOLK-RHYMES 100 + + THE POETRY OF TOAST LISTS AND MENU CARDS 110 + + TOASTS AND TOASTING 120 + + CURIOUS AMERICAN OLD-TIME GLEANINGS 131 + + THE EARLIEST AMERICAN POETESS: ANNE BRADSTREET 143 + + A PLAYFUL POET: MISS CATHERINE FANSHAWE 149 + + A POPULAR SONG WRITER: MRS. JOHN HUNTER 160 + + A POET OF THE POOR: MARY PYPER 167 + + THE POET OF THE FISHER-FOLK: MRS. SUSAN K. PHILLIPS 176 + + A POET AND NOVELIST OF THE PEOPLE: THOMAS MILLER 186 + + THE COTTAGE COUNTESS 199 + + THE COMPILER OF "OLD MOORE'S ALMANAC": HENRY ANDREWS 206 + + JAMES NAYLER, THE MAD QUAKER, WHO CLAIMED TO BE THE MESSIAH 213 + + A BIOGRAPHICAL ROMANCE: SWAN'S STRANGE STORY 222 + + SHORT LETTERS 228 + + INDEX 237 + + + + +LITERARY BYWAYS. + + + + +Authors at Work. + + +The interest of the public in those who write for its entertainment +naturally extends itself to their habits of life. All such habits, let it +be said at once, depend on individual peculiarities. One will write only +in the morning, another only at night, a third will be able to force +himself into effort only at intervals, and a fourth will, after the manner +of Anthony Trollope, be almost altogether independent of times and places. +The nearest approach to a rule was that which was formulated by a great +writer of the last generation, who said that morning should be employed in +the production of what De Quincey called "the literature of knowledge," +and the evening in impassioned work, "the literature of power." + +But habits, however unreasonable they may be, are ordinarily very powerful +with authors. One of the most renowned writers always attired himself in +evening dress before sitting down to his desk. The influence of his +attire, he said, gave dignity and restraint to his style. Another author, +of at least equal celebrity, could only write in dressing gown and +slippers. In order that he might make any progress, it was absolutely +essential that he should be unconscious of his clothes. Most authors +demand quiet and silence as the conditions of useful work. Carlyle padded +his room, in order that he might not be annoyed by the clatter of his +neighbours. On the other hand, Jean Paul Richter, whose influence is +visible throughout nearly the whole of Carlyle's writings, would work +serenely in the kitchen with his mother attending to her domestic duties, +and the children playing around him. In an article contributed by Carlyle +to the _Edinburgh Review_ on Richter, we get some interesting facts about +this truly great man. The following is reproduced from Doering. "Richter's +studying or sitting apartment, offered about this time (1793),[1] a true +and beautiful emblem of his simple and noble way of thought, which +comprehended at once the high and the low. Whilst his mother, who then +lived with him, busily pursued her household work, occupying herself about +stove and dresser, Jean Paul was sitting in a corner of the same room, at +a simple writing-desk, with few or no books about him, but merely with one +or two drawers containing excerpts and manuscripts. The jingle of the +household operations seemed not at all to disturb him, any more than did +the cooing of the pigeons, which fluttered to and fro in the chamber--a +place, indeed, of considerable size." Carlyle, commenting on the preceding +passage, says--"Our venerable Hooker, we remember, also enjoyed 'the +jingle of household operations,' and the more questionable jingle of +shrewd tongues to boot, while he wrote; but the good thrifty mother, and +the cooing pigeons, were wanting. Richter came afterwards to live in fine +mansions, and had the great and learned for associates, but the gentle +feelings of those days abode with him: through life he was the same +substantial, determinate, yet meek and tolerating man. It is seldom that +so much rugged energy can be so blandly attempered, that so much vehemence +and so much softness will go together." + +Dr. Johnson's "Dictionary" is one of the most familiar books in the +English language, and the particulars of the way in which it was compiled +are of considerable interest. He agreed with a number of leading London +booksellers to prepare the work for L1,775, and spent seven years over the +task. When he undertook it, he expected to finish it in three years. His +friend, Dr. Adams, called upon him one day, and found him busy with his +book, and, says Boswell, a dialogue as follows ensued. "Adams: 'This is a +great work, sir. How are you to get all the etymologies?' Johnson: 'Why, +here is a shelf with Junius and Skinner, and others; and there is a Welsh +gentleman who has published a collection of Welsh proverbs, who will help +me with the Welsh.' Adams: 'But, sir, how can you do this in three years?' +Johnson: 'Sir, I have no doubt that I can do it in three years.' Adams: +'But the French Academy, which consists of forty members, took forty years +to complete their dictionary.' Johnson: 'Sir, thus it is--this is the +proportion. Let me see: forty times forty is sixteen hundred. As three to +sixteen hundred, so is the proportion of an Englishman to a Frenchman.'" +This pleasantry is not reproduced to show Johnson's vanity, but to give a +glimpse of some of the books he used, and his own ideas as to the period +he expected to spend over the undertaking. + +Johnson fitted up an upper room like a counting house, in which were +employed six copyists; and in spite of his asserted aversion from +Scotchmen, he engaged no less than five of them on his book, so that his +objection to the sons of Caledonia cannot have been very deeply rooted. + +Many of his words were drawn from previously published dictionaries, and +others he supplied himself. He spent much time in reading the best +informed authors, and marked their books with a pencil when he found +suitable material for his work. He would not under any consideration quote +the productions of an author whose writings were calculated to hurt sound +religion and morality. The marked sentences were copied on slips of paper, +which were afterwards posted into an interleaved copy of an old dictionary +opposite the words to which they related. + +At the commencement of the work he made a rather serious mistake by +writing on both sides of his paper. He had to pay twenty pounds to have it +transcribed to one side of the paper only. + +It has been truthfully observed that Dr. Johnson's "Illustrations of the +meanings and uses of words" is the most valuable part of the work, and +shows an extraordinary knowledge of literature. Some of the definitions +were characteristic of the man. Take for example the following, to be +found in the first edition:--"Excise. A hateful tax levied upon +commodities, adjudged, not by the common judges of property, but wretches +hired by those to whom the excise is paid.--Network. Anything reticulated +or decussated at equal distances, with interstices between the +intersections.--Oats. A grain which in England is generally given to +horses, but which in Scotland supports the people." Sir Walter Scott +related the happy retort by Lord Elibank, who said, when he heard the +definition--"Yes; and where else will you see _such_ horses, and _such_ +men."--Patron. Commonly, a wretch, who supports with insolence, and is +paid with flattery.--Pension. In England, it is generally understood to +mean pay given to a state hireling for treason to his country. + +Mr. Andrew Miller, bookseller, of the Strand, took the chief management of +the publication, and appears to have been much disappointed at the slow +progress the compiler made. He frequently pressed Johnson for more "copy," +and towards the latter part of the work became most anxious, for Johnson +had drawn all his money in drafts long before he had completed the +"Dictionary." + +According to Boswell, "When the messenger who carried the last sheet to +Miller returned, Johnson asked him, 'Well, what did he say?' 'Sir,' +answered the messenger, 'he said, "Thank God I have done with him."' 'I am +glad,' replied Johnson, 'that he thanks God for anything.'" + +The Dictionary was published in 1755 in two volumes at L4 4s. 0d., and +soon went through several editions. The expenses of producing the work +left Johnson a small margin of profit. It firmly established his fame. + +Having referred at some length to Johnson's "Dictionary," let us pay some +little attention to another important work of reference, the "Encyclopaedia +Britannica." The first edition was issued in weekly numbers commenced in +1771, and was completed in 1773. It consisted of three small quarto +volumes. The first editor was William Smellie, a studious man who made his +start in life as a compositor, and left the printing office for an hour or +two daily to attend the classes of the Edinburgh University. At nineteen +he was employed as proof-reader, conductor and compiler of the _Scots' +Magazine_ at a salary of sixteen shillings a week. He devised and wrote +the chief articles in the "Encyclopaedia Britannica." The agreement of the +work is a curiosity of literature, and reads as follows: + +"Mr. Andrew Bell to Mr. William Smellie. + +"Sir,--As we are engaged in publishing a 'Dictionary of the Arts and +Sciences,' and as you have informed us that there are fifteen capital +sciences, which you will undertake for, and write up the sub-divisions and +detached parts of them, conforming to your plan, and likewise to prepare +the whole work for the press, etc., etc. We hereby agree to allow you L200 +for your trouble." + +A second edition was called for in 1776, and the proprietors offered +Smellie a share in the undertaking if he would edit it; but having other +pressing work on hand, he declined the proposal, and Joseph Tytler, a man +of varied attainments, was engaged. He was born in 1747, and was the son +of a minister of a rural parish in Scotland. After receiving a liberal +education, he was placed with a surgeon at Forfar. He subsequently made a +couple of voyages as a doctor in a whaling-ship to Greenland. Next he +proceeded to Edinburgh with the money he had earned, with a view of +completing his medical education at the University. He had no sooner got +nicely settled in the Northern capital, than he married a girl in humble +circumstances, a step which did not help to advance his worldly interests. +He made many attempts to succeed, but always failed. Keen poverty kept his +nose to the grindstone. His faculty in projecting works was much larger +than his energy in carrying them out. Before he had reached the age of +thirty, he commenced his labours as the editor of the "Encyclopaedia +Britannica." The remuneration he received was very small; and while the +work was in progress, he lodged, with his wife and family, with a poor +washerwoman at the village of Duddingston, and for his writing-desk turned +her wash-tub upside down. + +The poor fellow never attempted to hide his poverty. It is said by a +gentleman who once waited upon him, that he found him making a repast on a +cold potato, which he continued eating with as much composure as if he +were dining in the most sumptuous style. + +The Encyclopaedia was a great success, and sold to the extent of ten +thousand copies; the owners of the copyright cleared L42,000. Moreover +two of the owners, one a printer and the other an engraver, were paid for +their respective work; yet in spite of this handsome profit, the result of +Tytler's ability, they permitted him to live with his wife and children in +penury. + +He could write almost on any topic, and at any time. As a proof of this, +his biographer tells a good anecdote. "A gentleman in Edinburgh," he +states, "once told him he wanted as much matter as would form a junction +between a certain history and its continuance to a later period. He found +Tytler lodged in one of those elevated apartments called garrets, and was +informed by the old woman with whom he resided that he had gone to bed +rather the worse for liquor. Determined, however, not to depart without +fulfilling his errand, he was shown into Mr. Tytler's apartment by the +light of a lamp, where he found him in the situation described by the +landlady. The gentleman having acquainted him with the nature of the +business which brought him at so late an hour, Mr. Tytler called for pen +and ink, and in a short time produced about a page and a half of +letterpress, which answered the end as completely as if it had been the +result of the most mature deliberation, previous notice, and a mind +undisturbed by any liquid capable of deranging its ideas." + +Tytler was a poet of some skill, and wrote a number of popular songs, +three of which find a place in "The Celebrated Songs of Scotland." He +enjoyed the friendship of Robert Burns. In 1792 he published a prospectus +of a paper to be named the _Political Gazetteer_; when it came under the +notice of Burns he wrote to him as follows:--"Go on, sir; lay bare with +undaunted heart and steady hand that horrid mass of corruption called +politics and state-craft." At the time he penned this he was an officer in +the Excise, and for this and similar expressions he was rebuked by the +Board of Excise. Burns described Tytler as an "obscene, tippling, but +extraordinary body; a mortal who, though he drudges about Edinburgh with +leaky shoes, a skylighted hat, yet that same drunken mortal is author and +compiler of three-fourths of the 'Encyclopaedia Britannica,' which he +composed at half-a-guinea a week." + +We must, before dismissing Tytler, give another anecdote, although it does +not relate to literature. We read that "he constructed a huge bag, and +filled it full of gas, and invited the inhabitants of Edinburgh to witness +his flight through the regions of space." Mr. Tytler, it appears, slowly +rose in his bag as high as a garden wall, when something went wrong with +the machinery, and he was deposited head foremost "softly on an adjoining +dunghill." The "gaping crowd nearly killed themselves with laughter." He +was afterwards known as "Balloon Tytler." He wrote a seditious placard, +and had to flee to save his neck. He found a home in America, and for some +time edited a paper at Salem. After a life of toil and trouble, he died in +the year 1803. + +Much has been said about the habits and earnings of Sir Walter Scott, and +it is only necessary for us to observe that he wrote in his +neatly-arranged library, where at any moment he could refer to his books. +He was a most methodical man, and never had to waste time hunting up lost +papers and books. He usually commenced writing between five and six, and +worked until ten in the morning, and during this period it was his +practice to fast. When pressed with work, he would often take breakfast at +nine, and lounge about until eleven, and then write with a will until two +o'clock. During the closing years of Sir Walter Scott's life he employed +William Laidlaw as his amanuensis. Laidlaw was a poet and prose writer of +some merit, possessed of superior shrewdness, and highly esteemed by Sir +Walter and his family. He was for many years steward at Abbotsford. + +Another famous son of the North was Professor Wilson, perhaps more widely +known as "Christopher North," of _Blackwood's Magazine_. He entered in a +large ledger skeletons of intended articles; when he felt in the humour +for working, he turned to his skeletons, selected one, and quickly clothed +it with flesh and nerve. Wilson in a short time could produce a +considerable quantity of original matter. Mr. J. S. Roberts, the editor of +the volume of "Scottish Ballads" in the Chandos Classics series, was a boy +at Blackwood's when Wilson was the chief contributor to "_Maga_." It was +one of Roberts' duties to go to Christopher North for his "copy." He was +wont to sit and amuse himself whilst the great, lion-headed man wrote or +furnished an article on all manner of scraps of waste paper. One day there +was a high wind, and Roberts was indiscreet enough to put Professor +Wilson's article in his hat. The result was hugely disastrous. The +head-gear was blown off, and Wilson's article was distributed in small +portions over all the streets of Edinburgh. It was a frightful thing to +have to go to the author and explain the catastrophe. John Wilson would +swear, as the boy knew; and for a while he swore most stormily, but +eventually calmed his choler, and wrote the article over again. + +Professor Wilson was the author of a severe critique on the earlier poems +of Alfred Tennyson, and in reply to it the poet wrote the following +lines:-- + + "TO CHRISTOPHER NORTH. + + "You did late review my lays, + Crusty Christopher; + You did mingle blame and praise, + Rusty Christopher. + + "When I learnt from whom it came, + I forgave you all the blame, + Musty Christopher; + I could _not_ forgive the praise, + Fusty Christopher. + +After penning the foregoing, the Laureate does not appear to have troubled +himself further respecting Professor Wilson. + +Let us now look at the method of a famous French author. Like many able +writers, Balzac thought out every detail of a story before he commenced +writing it. The places he proposed describing were visited, and the +special features carefully noted. His note-books were filled with +particulars of all classes of characters, for reproduction in his novels. +No sooner had he made up his mind to write on a certain subject, and +collected materials for his work, than he retired from the haunts of men, +and declined to see even his closest friends. Letters might come, but they +were not opened; he was dead to the outer world. His blinds were drawn, +the sunlight shut out, and candles lighted. His ordinary costume was +changed for a loose white monkish gown. The round of his daily toil was as +follows:--At two in the morning he commenced writing, and continued it +until six; a bath was then indulged in; at eight he took coffee, and +rested until the clock marked the hour of nine. He resumed writing until +noon, when an hour was occupied over breakfast. He again laboured with his +pen from one to six, when his work closed for the day. He dined and +conferred with his publisher, and at eight o'clock he retired to rest. +This daily round often occupied two months, in which period he furnished +the first rough draft of his work. The matter was usually re-written, and +even when in type he would frequently alter three or four proofs. We are +not surprised to learn "that he was the terror of the printers; few could +decipher his 'copy,' and it is said that those few made a stipulation with +their employer to work on it for one hour at a time." + +He was a most painstaking writer, but was never satisfied with his +productions. "I took," he said, "sixteen hours out of twenty-four over the +elaboration of my unfortunate style, and I am never satisfied with it when +done." + +Carlyle's productions gave the printers much trouble, on account of the +many alterations he made, and his cramped penmanship. His changes were not +confined to his manuscripts; he revised his proofs to such an extent that +it was frequently found easier to reset the matter than to alter it. Miss +Martineau told a good story anent this subject. "One day," she said, +"while in my study, I heard a prodigious sound of laughter on the stairs, +and in came Carlyle, laughing aloud. He had been laughing in that manner +all the way from the printing office in Charing Cross. As soon as he +could, he told me what it was about. He had been to the office to urge the +printer, and the man said: 'Why, sir, you really are so very hard upon us +with your corrections; they take so much time, you see.' After some +remonstrance, Carlyle observed that he had been accustomed to do this sort +of thing; that he had got works printed in Scotland, and--'Yes, indeed, +sir,' interrupted the printer, 'we are aware of that. We have a man here +from Edinburgh, and when he took up a bit of your copy he dropped it as if +it had burnt his fingers, and cried out, 'Lord have mercy! Have you got +that man to print for? Lord knows when we shall get done all his +corrections.'" + +Mrs. Gore was the author of many fashionable novels and other works, which +won much favourable notice in her day. She did not confine all her +attention to story-writing; she contributed very largely to the leading +magazines, and wrote successfully for the stage. The list of her works is +a long one, yet, in spite of all her tireless toil with the pen, she +entered very freely into the pleasures of society. Mr. Planche visited her +in Paris in 1837, and in course of a conversation she explained how she +managed to find time to write so much. Said Mrs. Gore: "I receive, as you +know, a few friends at dinner at five o'clock nearly every evening. They +leave me at ten or eleven, when I retire to my own room, and write till +seven or eight in the morning. I then go to bed till noon, when I +breakfast, after which I drive out, shop, pay visits, and return at four, +dress for dinner, and as soon as my friends have departed, go to work +again all night as before." Mrs. Gore died in 1861, at the age of +sixty-two years. Her first book was issued in 1823, and it was followed by +no less than seventy separate works. She lived for many years on the +Continent, and supported her family with her pen. + +Mrs. Trollope did not commence her career as an author until she had +"reached the sober season of married and middle life," yet she managed to +produce no less than one hundred and fifteen volumes of fiction. In an +autobiographical work, entitled "What I Remember," by her son, Thomas +Adolphus Trollope, we get some touching pictures of this wonderful woman +writing her books. He speaks of her passing an extended period by the +bedside of her invalid son. From about nine in the morning until eight in +the evening, with "a cheerful countenance and a bleeding heart," she +entertained and nursed her patient. He generally slept about eight, when +she went to her desk and wrote her fiction to amuse light-hearted readers. +She worked from two to three in the morning. This was all done with the +aid of green tea and sometimes laudanum. Mrs. Trollope died at the age of +eighty-three years, so that it cannot be said that hard work killed her, +although she did an immense quantity. + +We believe that hard work seldom kills anyone. Some say that it does, and +point to the fate of Southey, one of the most industrious of English men +of letters, to support their assertion. The mention of his name brings to +the mind scenes of sunshine and shadow. He was a lover of books, and his +charming house in Lake-land contained a fine library. Here he read and +worked, and life passed happily. Nothing could tempt him to leave it, not +even the editorship of _The Times_. When bereft of reason, Southey would +linger lovingly amongst the companions of happier days, his beloved books. +He would play with them as a child plays with a toy. It is generally +believed that hard literary labour killed him. When Dr. Charles Mackay +visited Wordsworth he named the matter to him, and was told that there was +no truth in it. Said Wordsworth of Southey: "He was a calm and methodical +worker, and calm, steady work never kills. It is only worry and hurry that +kill. Southey wrote a great deal; but he wrote easily and pleasantly to +himself. Besides, only those who have tried know what an immense deal of +literary work can be got through comfortably by a man who will work +regularly for only four or even three hours a day. Take the case of Sir +Walter Scott, for instance. What an immensity of work he got through; and +yet he was always idle at one o'clock in the afternoon, and ready for any +amusement, or for such change of labour as the garden or the field +afforded. Southey was like him in that respect, and, though he worked +hard, he always contrived to enjoy abundance of leisure. Scott died of +pecuniary trouble, not of work. Southey died of grief for the loss of his +wife." + +Lord Byron puzzled his friends by continual production whilst appearing to +occupy himself with everything else but writing. + +Hans Christian Andersen had to be alone when he composed his fairy tales. +He was never able to dictate a contribution for the press. All his matter +for the printer was in his own handwriting. This circumstance he named to +Thiers, by whom he was informed that he dictated to an amanuensis the +whole of his "History of the Consulate and the Empire." + +Miss Edgeworth wrote her stories in the common sitting-room, surrounded by +her family. Some authors are able to concentrate their attention on a task +and remain unconscious of anything going on around them. Says a recent +writer on this topic: "Dr. Somerville told Harriet Martineau that he once +laid a wager with a friend that he would abuse Mrs. Somerville in a loud +voice to her face, and she would take no notice; and he did so. Sitting +close to her, he confided to his friend the most injurious things--that +she rouged, that she wore a wig, and such nonsense uttered in a very loud +voice; her daughters were in a roar of laughter, while the slandered lady +sat placidly writing. At last her husband made a dead pause after her +name, on which she looked up in an innocent manner saying, "Did you speak +to me?" + +Southey too could write in the presence of his family. A more remarkable +method of composition was that of Barry Cornwall. He composed his best +poems in the busy streets of London, only leaving the crowd to enter a +shop to commit to paper the verses he had made. + +The poet Gray usually worked himself into the "mood" by reading some +other poet, generally Spenser. + +Shelley always composed out of doors sometimes on the roof tops. Trelawney +describes how he found him in a grove near Florence by a pool of water; he +was gazing unconsciously into the depths. Trelawney did not disturb him, +but when Shelley came out of his trance he had written one of his finest +lyrics, in a hand-writing that no other man could decipher. + +Wordsworth mainly composed his poems during his rural rambles. It was not +an unusual circumstance for him to write with a slate pencil on a smooth +piece of stone his newly made lines. Surely the hillsides and lovely dales +of Lake-land were fitting places for the great high priest of nature to +give birth to his poetry. He repeated his poems aloud as he composed them, +a practice which greatly puzzled the common people. We cannot perhaps +better illustrate the strange impression it made on the country folk than +by repeating an anecdote told to Dr. Charles Mackay by an American +gentleman. He said--"One of his countrymen had lost his way in a vain +attempt to discover Rydal Mount; had taken a wrong turn and gone three or +four miles beyond or to the side of the point he should have aimed at. +Meeting an old woman in a scarlet cloak, who was gathering sticks, he +asked her the way to Rydal Mount. She could not tell him; she did not +know. 'Not know,' said the American, 'the house of the great Wordsworth?' +'No.' 'What, not the house of the man whose fame brings people here from +all parts of the world?' 'No,' she insisted, 'but what was he great +in?--was he a preacher or a doctor?' 'Greater than preacher or doctor--he +was a poet.' 'Oh, poet!' she replied; 'and why did you not tell me that +before? I know who you mean now. I often meet him in the woods, jabbering +his pottery (poetry) to himself. But I'm not afraid of him. He's quite +harmless, and almost as sensible as you or me.'" This is the old story--a +man, however great, is not much thought of in his own district. + +It is generally understood that Lord Tennyson composed much of his poetry +during his rural rambles. + +Edwin Arnold, the editor of the _Daily Telegraph_, wrote his "Light of +Asia" whilst travelling in the railway carriage to and from his newspaper +office. + +Some authors appear to be able to write at any time and in any place. +Anthony Trollope did much writing in a railway train. "It was," he says, +"while I was engaged on 'Barchester Towers' that I adopted a system of +writing, which for some years afterwards I found to be very serviceable to +me. My time was greatly occupied in travelling, and the nature of my +travelling was now changed. I could not any longer do it by horseback. +Railroads afforded me my means of conveyance, and I found that I passed in +railway carriages very many hours of my existence.... If I intended to +make a profitable business of writing, and, at the same time, to do my +best for the Post Office, I must turn my hours to more account than I +could by reading. I made for myself, therefore, a little tablet, and I +found after a few days' exercise that I could write as quickly in a +railway carriage as I could at my own desk. I worked with a pencil, and +what I wrote my wife copied afterwards. My only objection to the practice +came from the appearance of literary ostentation, to which I felt myself +to be subject when going to work before four or five fellow passengers. +But I got used to it." + +Trollope never attached any importance to a writing mood; to use his own +phrase, he sat down to work just "as a cobbler sits down to make shoes." +When at home he rose at from half-past four to five o'clock daily, and, +attired in his dressing-gown, he went to his writing-room. During the cold +weather his old and favourite Irish servant made a fire in it before he +arrived. He placed his watch before him, and he trained himself to write +two hundred and fifty words every fifteen minutes, and he says that he was +able to perform the feat as regularly as his watch went. + +He believed that a serial was spoilt if written month by month as +published. Only once during his long career did he commence publishing a +story before the manuscript was completed, and that was "Framley +Parsonage," in the pages of _Cornhill Magazine_. It is admitted to be one +of his best books. He wielded the pen of a ready writer for nearly forty +years, and in this period produced an enormous quantity of work. He stands +in this respect almost on a level with Sir Walter Scott. No writer of the +highest genius writes like Trollope, though it was Keats' habit to write a +certain number of lines a day when he was engaged on "Endymion." Emerson +remarks "a poet must wait many days in order to glorify one." + +The late Bishop Wilberforce managed to write in his chaise even when +driven over rough roads, as well as in railway carriages. His lordship +appeared to be able to use his pen in most unlikely quarters. + +Amongst authors noted as early risers must be included Charles Dickens. He +has told us how the solemn and still solitude of the morning had a charm +for him. It was seldom that he wrote before breakfast; as a rule he +confined his writing between the hours of breakfast and luncheon. Dickens +was by no means a rapid writer. When engaged on a novel he regarded three +of his not very large pages of manuscript as a good day's work, and four +as excellent. He did not recopy his writings, although they contained +numerous corrections which, however, were clearly made. Prior to +commencing a new story he suffered much from despondency. He spoke of +himself as "going round and round the idea, as you see a bird in his cage +go about his sugar before he touches it." + +Dickens' love of order was very marked; his writing materials were always +neatly arranged, and his household was a model of order. + +The highways and byways of London were familiar to him, and many happy +hours were spent rambling in them. He had a theory that the number of +hours engaged in literary labour should have a corresponding time spent in +pedestrian exercise, and he frequently enjoyed a twenty miles' walk. + +Thackeray was not very particular as to the place or time when he wrote. +He liked to perform his literary labours in a pleasant room. It is +certain, from the large number of books that he produced in a limited +time, that he must have written at a considerable speed. He had also the +happy facility of being able to dictate his works when composing them. + +Previous to commencing a book George Eliot would read all she could find +bearing on the subject. Sometimes she would study over a thousand works to +write one book. She spared no pains in perfecting her productions. + +Charles Reade wrote much and well. He rose at eight o'clock, took +breakfast at nine, and at ten commenced his literary work, which usually +lasted until two in the afternoon. He wrote in his drawing-room, and when +the French windows were closed no sounds from the street could be heard. +When once fairly on the way with a novel he worked with rapidity. He +wrote with a large pen, with very black ink, on large sheets of +drab-coloured paper. Each sheet was numbered as written, and thrown on the +floor, which, after a few hours' writing, was completely covered. A maid +servant gathered up the manuscript, which, after being put in order, was +sent to a copyist, who made, in a round hand, a clear copy. Mr. Reade then +went carefully over it, making improvements by omissions and additions. +The revised sheets were once more copied for the printer. He seldom +dictated a story, but had not any objection to the company of a friend in +his room when busy with his pen. He would sometimes relieve the monotony +of his work by watching a game of tennis on his lawn, or the gambols of +his tame hares, or the traffic passing in the street at the bottom of his +garden. Mr. Reade did not take any lunch; he dined late, and generally +finished the day by a visit to the theatre. + +Alphonse Daudet, the greatest of living French novelists, is a painstaking +man, and usually spends a year in writing a story. He takes a deep +interest in his work; indeed, it seems to get the mastery over him; and +when engaged on "Le Nabob" he worked about twenty hours a day. He related +to an interviewer his method of work, and it transpired that he carries +about with him a small book, and enters in it notes bearing on his +subject. Next he reproduces his jottings and expands them, and as he +completes the items he severs them out of his list. His wife then takes +the manuscript in hand and makes a clear copy, and, at the same time, +corrects any slight errors of redundancy. Daudet goes carefully over it, +making additions and polishing according to his fancy. It is afterwards +rewritten for the press. + +Shortly after the death of Mrs. Henry Wood, her son, Mr. Charles W. Wood, +published in the _Argosy_ some very interesting particulars of her +literary life. She was a born author, and at the age when children play +with dolls she was composing stories. She was a ready writer. Her powerful +prize temperance tale "Danesbury House" was commenced and completed in +twenty-eight days. + +Respecting her manner of writing her novels, says her son: "She first +composed her plot. Having decided upon the main idea, she would next +divide it into the requisite number of chapters. Each chapter was then +elaborated. Every incident in every chapter was thought out and recorded, +from the first chapter to the last. She never changed her plots or +incidents. Once thought out, her purpose became fixed, and was never +turned aside for any fresh departure or emergency that might arise in the +development of the story. The drama had then become to her as if it +actually existed. Every minute detail of the plot was written out before a +line of the story was begun. All was so elaborately sketched that anyone +with sufficient power would have no difficulty in writing the story with +the plot in possession. The only difference would have been the evidence +of another hand. + +"The plot of each novel occupied a good many pages of close, though not +small writing. It would take her, generally speaking, about three weeks to +think it out from beginning to end. During those times she could not bear +the slightest interruption. But I have occasionally gone into her study, +though never without being startled, almost awed, by the look upon her +face. She would be at all times in a reclining chair, her paper upon her +knees, and the expression of her eyes, large, wide-opened, was so intense +and absorbed, so far away, it seemed as if the spirit had wandered into +some distant realm and had to be brought back to its tenement before the +matter, suddenly placed before her, could be attended to. It, indeed, took +many moments to recall her attention, elsewhere concentrated." Mr. Wood +observes, "Only on rare or important occasions was such intrusion ever +permitted for the thread of her ideas once broken could very seldom be +resumed the same day, and, as she never wrote a line of anything when +composing a plot, she would consider that the day had been partly lost or +wasted." + +When Mrs. Wood was writing a story, on entering her study she consulted +the outline she had prepared, and then worked on the allotted portion of +her task. She did not recopy her manuscripts, yet they contained few +corrections, and were very legible and as clear as print. + +Miss Braddon is the author of many widely-read novels, and it is said that +the profits on her works place her high amongst the first six of the best +paid writers of fiction. She left the Hull stage, where she performed +without any particular success under the name of Miss Seton, and took up +her residence at Beverley, where she wrote her first story, "Three times +dead; or the Secret of the Heath." It was printed and published by Mr. C. +R. Empson, and was brought out at a loss. At that time she was about +twenty years of age. In 1861 she issued "Garibaldi, and other Poems," the +contents of this book having previously appeared in a Beverley newspaper. +A year prior to that date she competed for a L5 prize, offered by Mr. +Joseph Temple, for the best ode on celebrating the first tree planted in +the Hull Public Park, and failed to win it. She contributed to several +local newspapers. Her powerful novel, "Lady Audley's Secret," published in +1862, established her reputation, and by industry and skill it has been +sustained. At the commencement of 1887 the sale of "Lady Audley's Secret" +had reached about 450,000 copies, Mrs. Henry Wood's "East Lynne" 120,000 +copies, and Mrs. Craik's "John Halifax Gentleman," 90,000 copies. Miss +Braddon says "The Woman in White" inspired her to write "Lady Audley's +Secret," "a novel of construction and character." Wilkie Collins she +regards as her literary godfather. Miss Braddon had not a single note when +she wrote her most popular story. She now makes a skeleton of her tales in +a small memorandum book, often not extending over a couple of pages, +before she commences writing her novels. She usually writes four days a +week, commencing her work at ten and concluding it at seven, and takes +during that time strong tea at intervals, and occasionally a light +luncheon. The other two days are devoted to riding on horseback and when +possible to hunting. Respecting Miss Braddon's method of writing, some +interesting details appear in the "Treasury of Modern Biography," and +perhaps we cannot do better than draw upon it for a few facts. "By the +fireside," it is stated, "is a particularly low uncomfortable chair. In +this the novelist huddles herself up with a piece of thick cardboard +resting on her lap, and a little ink-bottle held firmly against it with +her left hand. This apparently cramped position appears to be favourable +to the composition, for the pen moves over the great square slips of +paper, and the corrections are few and far between." Her copy is very +clear and carefully punctuated, and is somewhat masculine in style. At one +time she wrote a bold hand, but reduced its size, because she had to cover +more paper with her pen than when she wrote a small hand. She wears a +tailor's thimble to protect the middle finger from the brand of the ink. + +Mr. James Payn was for many years a busy and successful literary man. He +conducted the _Cornhill Magazine_, having previously edited for many years +_Chambers's Journal_. It was in the latter periodical that his first +story, "A Family Scapegrace," appeared. A few years later it was followed +by "Lost Sir Massingberd," which raised the circulation of the serial by +nearly 20,000 copies. Mr. Payn related some time since to Mr. Joseph +Hatton, the journalist, an outline of his daily life which is as follows: +"I rise at eight," said Mr. Payn, "breakfast, read the papers, get to the +office at ten, work at my own work until one--subject to any special call +on Smith and Elder's business--lunch at the Reform Club at one--generally +with Robinson, of the _Daily News_, and occasionally with William +Black--return to the office at two; from two until four I read manuscripts +and edit _Cornhill_; from 4.0 to 6.30 I play whist at the Reform Club--it +is a great rest, whist--home to dinner by seven--I rarely dine out now, +and never go to what are called dinner parties--to bed at ten." + +It remains for us to add that his writing is very difficult to decipher, +indeed he is sometimes puzzled to read it himself; fortunately for the +printers, his daughter makes a copy of his productions by the type-writer. + +In answer to a correspondent, Mr. Philip G. Hamerton detailed particulars +of his method of work. Said Mr. Hamerton in his interesting letter, "I +think that there are two main qualities to be kept in view in literary +composition--freshness and finish. The best way, in my opinion, of +attaining both is to aim at freshness in the rough draft, with little +regard to perfection of expression; the finish can be given by copious +subsequent correction, even to the extent of writing all over again when +there is time. Whenever possible, I would assimilate literary to pictorial +execution by treating the rough draft as a rapid and vigorous sketch, +without any regard to delicacy of workmanship; then I would write from +this a second work, retaining as much as possible the freshness of the +first, but correcting those oversights and errors which are due to +rapidity." + +One of his books, he says, was penned as a private diary, then he made a +rough and rapid manuscript with a lead pencil, and subsequently rewrote +it for the printer, especially with a view to concentration. Mr. Hamerton +states that he used shorthand for one volume, which enabled him to write +it quickly, but he found much trouble in reading it, and he does not +recommend it for literary purposes. + +Referring to work, "The Intellectual Life" was begun in quite a different +form (not in letters), and many pages were written before he concluded +that it was heavy, and that letters would give a lighter and less didactic +appearance. We are told that his story "Marmone" was partly written and +put aside, and it was not until solicited by Messrs. Roberts Brothers for +a book for their "No Name Series," that he completed it. The earlier part +of the novel was written three times over. + +In concluding his letter, he says that "I have sometimes, instead of +rewriting, sent a corrected rough draft to a type-writer. There is an +economy of time in this, and the work can be corrected in the +type-writer's copy; but, on the whole, for very careful finished work, I +think the old plan of rewriting the whole manuscript is superior." + +Mr. G. A. Sala used commonly to be regarded as a journalist, but he ranks +high as an author. He has written nearly a library of books of travel, +essays, and novels, which have been much praised by the critics, and +largely circulated. His father was an Italian gentleman, who married a +charming and accomplished English lady, famous in her day as a vocalist. +Between the ages of six and nine he was totally blind. After regaining his +sight he was placed in the College Bourbon, Paris, for a couple of years, +and subsequently removed to Turnham Green, near London, with a view of +thoroughly acquiring his mother tongue which he spoke imperfectly, in fact +he was almost ignorant of it. His parents intended him for an artist, but +circumstances compelled him to relinquish art in its highest form. +Possessing the happy faculty of effective sketching, he produced hundreds +of political caricatures and pictorial skits on passing events; these +found a ready sale. His eyesight failing, he had to give up lithographing +and engraving, and to try other means of making a living. After a variety +of engagements, an accident led to his finding his right vocation. One +night he was by an oversight locked out of his house, and had to pass the +night perambulating the streets. It occurred to him that he might make it +a subject of an article, which he accordingly wrote under the title of +"The Key of the Street," and submitted it to Charles Dickens. The famous +novelist at once recognised his genius, and encouraged him to become a +constant contributor to _Household Words_. At the suggestion of Dickens he +entered the lists of journalism, and won the highest place amongst +pressmen. He was known as "The Prince of Journalists." Sala joined the +staff of the _Daily Telegraph_, and did much to make the reputation of +that brilliant journal. He represented it in all parts of the world, and +his remuneration equalled the pay of an ambassador. Its columns have been +enriched with several thousand leading articles from his facile pen on +almost every topic. + +Sala was the owner of a large and valuable library, but his chief source +of information was found in his common-place book. In it he had brought +together facts and illustrations on all kinds of subjects calculated to +aid him in his journalistic labours. This wonderful book has often been +described, the best account of it appears in "Living London." "Scarcely a +week passes," says Mr. Sala, "without bringing me letters from +correspondents who ask me to explain my own system of keeping a +common-place book. I have but one such system, and it possesses one +merit, that of rugged simplicity. Take a book, large or small, according +to the size of your handwriting, and take care that at the end of the book +there shall be plenty of space for an index. Begin at the beginning, and +make your entries precisely as they occur to you in unordered sequence. +But after each entry place a little circle, or oval, or parenthesis ( ), +and in a portion of these spaces place consecutive numbers. Here is a +model page taken at random from a book which may have been in keeping for +years:-- + + 'The Prince of Wales wore the robes of the Garter at his marriage in + St. George's Chapel, Windsor. All the other K.Gs present wore their + robes and collars. Mr. W. P. Frith, R.A., who was to paint a picture + of the wedding for the Queen, stood close to the reredos, to the + right, looking from the organ-loft (1023). Just before the liberation + in 1859 of Lombardy from the domination of Austria, the audiences in + the Italian theatres used to give vent to their pent-up patriotism by + shouting at the close of each performance "Viva Verdi!" The initiated + knew that this was meant to signify Viva V (for Victor) E (for + Emmanuele) R (for Re) D I (for d'Italia) (1024). Old Hungerford Market + was never very successful as a fish market; but according to Seyer it + was always very well supplied with shrimps. In Hungerford Street, + leading to the market, there was a pastrycook's famous shop, at which + the penny buns were as good as those sold at Farrance's in Cockspur + Street (1025).' + +"Now, all you have to do is, immediately you have made your entry, to +index it; and if you will only spare the time and patience and +perseverance, to _cross index_ it. Thus under letter W you will write, +'Wales, Prince of, married in Robes of the Garter' (1023); under G, +'Garter, Robes of, worn by P. of W. at his Marriage' (1023); under F, 'W. +P. Frith, R.A., present at the Marriage of P. of W.' (1023). Thus also, +'Verdi, Victor Emmanuel,' and 'Italy' will be indexed under their +respective letters 'V' and 'I,' and be referable to at the number (1024). +I have one common-place book that has been 'cooking' ever since 1858, and +is not half finished yet. The last entry is numbered (5068), and refers to +Sir Thomas Roe, Ambassador from James the First of England to the Emperor +Jehan Guize, commonly called the Great Mogul. The number (5068) is +referred to under the letters R (for Roe), J (for James I.), J (for Jehan +Guize), M (for Mogul), and A (for Ambassadors). By means of a rigidly +pursued system of indexing and _cross indexing_ (so earnestly recommended +by Henry Brougham) you can put your hand at once on the information +bearing on the particular subject which claims your attention." + +Mr. Sala also said:--"I believe this system strengthens and disciplines +the memory, and keeps it green. It is a very good mental exercise to read +a page or two of the index alone, from time to time. You will be +astonished at the number of bright nuggets of fact which will crop up from +the rock of half forgetfulness. Finally, never allow your index to fall +into arrear, and write the figures in your circumscribed spaces in red +ink. The corresponding ones in the index may be in black." + +It was from this mine of literary nuggets that he used to obtain the +materials for his charming papers which amused and instructed the reader. + +Another celebrated modern journalist and author is Mr. Andrew Lang. He is +just the contrary of Mr. Sala in his methods of work. Mr. Lang seems to +pride himself on the fact that he has no other aid to writing except an +excellent memory. He does not trouble himself about books of reference, +and says he has not one of any sort, not even a classical dictionary, in +his house. Mr. Lang is certainly a clever writer, and manages to produce +much pleasant reading, but his contributions to the magazines and +newspapers lack the interesting facts which Mr. Sala placed so pleasantly +before the public in his racy and able articles. Mr. Lang devotes his +mornings to writing books and magazine articles, and the afternoons to +penning leaders for the newspapers. + + + + +The Earnings of Authors. + + +Little is known of the remuneration of authors until the days of Dr. +Samuel Johnson. Before his time, literary men, as a rule, depended on the +generosity of patrons for their means of support, and as an acknowledgment +of their obligations, dedicated their works to them. The dedications were +frequently made in most fulsome terms. The position of the writer was +certainly a mean one; indeed, it might fitly be pronounced degrading; when +he had exhausted his possibilities of patronage, he starved. It was +Johnson--a giant in the world of letters--who broke through the +objectionable custom, and taught the author to look to the reading public +for support, and not to a wealthy patron. It is not until the days of +Samuel Johnson that the subject of literary earnings is of much +importance; yet we may with advantage glance at a few payments made prior +to his age. + +We do not know the amount Shakespeare received for his plays, but it is +certain that his connection with the theatre in London in a few years +realised for him a fortune, and, at a comparatively early age, enabled him +to return to his own town, a man of independent means. Oldys, in one of +his manuscripts, says that "Hamlet" was sold for L5; but he does not +mention his authority for the statement. It appears, from a publication of +Robert Greene's, in 1592, the price of a drama was twenty nobles, or about +L6 13s. 4d. of current coin. + +Small must have been the literary pay of Spenser, Butler, and Otway, since +they feared to die for want of the simple necessaries of life. Milton sold +"Paradise Lost" for L5 down, to be followed by L15 if a second and third +large editions were required. The first edition consisted of 1,500 copies, +and in two years 1,300 were sold. The balance was not disposed of until +five years later. This powerful poem, when given to the world, met with +some adverse criticism. The poet Waller wrote of it thus: "The old, blind +schoolmaster, John Milton, hath published a tedious poem on the fall of +man; if its length be not considered a merit, it hath no other." A greater +poet than Waller--Dryden--recognised its merits, and said: "Undoubtedly, +'Paradise Lost' is one of the greatest, most noble, and most sublime +poems which either this age or nation has produced." Dryden wrote the +following epigram referring to Homer, Virgil, and Milton:-- + + "Three poets--in three distant ages born-- + Greece, Italy, and England did adorn; + The first in loftiness of thought surpassed, + The next in majesty, in both the last. + The force of Nature could no further go; + To make a third, she joined the former two." + +Milton's poem has been praised by the greatest critics, and it is still +very much read. It appears in many forms, and the annual sale is extremely +large. Routledge's popular edition sells at the rate of about a couple of +thousand a year; and we suppose the sale of other editions is equally +great. + +Dryden arranged with Jacob Tonson, the famous bookseller and publisher, to +write for him 10,000 verses, at sixpence per line. To make up the required +number of lines, he threw in the "Epistle to his Cousin," and his +celebrated "Ode to Music." + +Gray only received L40 for the whole of his poems. He presented the +copyright of his famous "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard" to +Dodsley, feeling that it was beneath the dignity of a gentleman to make +money with his pen. The lucky publisher quite agreed with him, and +cleared about a thousand pounds by the publication. + +Pope's translation of "Homer" yielded him about L8,000. He was assisted in +the work by William Broome, a scholar who was the author of a volume of +verse. John Henley thus refers to the circumstance:-- + + "Pope came off clean with Homer; but they say, + Broome went before, and kindly swept the way." + +Gay made L1,000 by his "Poems." He was paid L400 for the "Beggar's Opera," +and for the second part, "Polly," L1,000. Rich, the theatrical manager, +profited to a far greater extent from the "Beggar's Opera" than its +author. The contemporary jest was that it made Gay rich, and Rich gay. + +Dr. Johnson sold the copyright of Goldsmith's "Vicar of Wakefield" for +L60, and he thought that amount fairly represented the value of the work. +"The great lexicographer," as Miss Pinkerton called him, placed no high +value on the performance of his friend, but the publisher found in the +"Vicar of Wakefield" a gold mine. Goldsmith was paid L21 for "The +Traveller." It was the work that established his reputation. Before it +appeared he was regarded as little better than a superior Grub Street +hack. Johnson pronounced this the finest poem that had been written since +the death of Pope. After having read it to the sister of Sir Joshua +Reynolds, she said: "Well, I never more shall think Dr. Goldsmith ugly." +The following are the prices Goldsmith obtained for others of his +works:--"English Grammar," L5; the "History of Rome," in two volumes, 250 +guineas; the "History of England," in four volumes, L500; the "History of +Greece," L250; and the "History of the Earth and Animated Nature," in +eight volumes, L850. "She stoops to Conquer" yielded between L400 and +L500. Five shillings a couplet was paid for "The Deserted Village." + +To cover the cost of his mother's funeral, Johnson wrote "Rasselas," and +disposed of it for L100. He sold his "Lives of the Poets" for 200 guineas. +The sum was considered liberal, but Johnson became so engrossed in his +subject that he supplied much more than what was expected from him. It is +believed that out of his work, in twenty-five years, the booksellers +cleared L5,000. It is still a saleable book, and is to be found in every +public and private library of any pretentions. + +The sum of L700 was paid to Fielding for "Tom Jones," and for "Amelia," +L1,000. + +Very large amounts have been given for biographical works. Hayley received +for his "Life of Cowper," L11,000; and Southey, L1,000 for his life of the +same poet. The life of "William Wilberforce" was sold for L4,000; "Bishop +Heber's Journals," for L5,000; "General Gordon's Diary," for L5,250; and +the "Life of Hannah More," for L2,000. + +The income of Scott was, perhaps, the largest ever made by authorship, yet +he said that the pursuit of literature was a good walking-stick, but a bad +crutch! His reputation was first made as a poet, and the following are +particulars of his profits from poetry: "The Lay of the Last Minstrel," +published in 1805, L769 6s.; "Ballads and Lyrical Pieces," published in +1806, L100; for "Marmion," published 1808, Messrs. Constable offered 1,000 +guineas soon after the poem was begun. It proved a very profitable +speculation to its publishers. During the first month after its +appearance, 2,000 copies were sold, the price being 31s. 6d. the quarto +volume. Next came the "Lady of the Lake" (1810), L2,100. This found even +greater favour with the public than its predecessors, and with it Scott's +poetical fame reached its zenith. A new poet who appeared on the scene, +Byron, completely eclipsed Scott. Scott tried, with two more poems, to win +back his lost place, as the popular poet of the period, and produced +"Rokeby," and the "Bridal of Triermain;" the latter was issued +anonymously, but both were failures. When Scott saw that his poetry did +not attract many readers, he turned his thoughts and energy into another +channel, and commenced his immortal novels. He had by him an unfinished +story, the work of former years, which he completed, giving it to the +world under the title of "Waverley." Constable offered L700 for the +copyright--an amount deemed very large in those days for a novel to be +published without the name of the author. Seven hundred sovereigns did +not, however, satisfy Scott; he simply said, "It is too much if the work +should prove a failure, and too little if it should be a success." It was +a brilliant book, and entranced the reading world. Scott had now found his +real vocation. He received for eleven novels, of three volumes each, and +nine volumes of "Tales of My Landlord," the sum of L110,000. For one +novel he was paid L10,000. Between November, 1825, and June, 1827, he +earned L26,000--an amount representing L52 6s. 3d. per working day. From +first to last, Sir Walter Scott made by his literary labours about +L300,000. + +Lord Byron's dealings with Mr. Murray were in every respect satisfactory, +but this did not prevent the pleasure-loving lord from having a little +joke at the expense of his publisher. He delighted Mr. Murray with a gift +of a Bible, but the recipient's pleasure was fleeting, for on examining +the book it was discovered that it contained a marginal correction. "Now +Barabbas was a robber," was altered to "Now Barabbas was a publisher." +This was a cruel stab, seeing that Byron had received for his poetry +L19,340, and might have increased this sum if he had been more anxious +about remuneration. + +In Mrs. Oliphant's book on "William Blackwood and His Sons," a letter is +quoted from Mr. Murray relating to the poet. "Lord Byron is a curious +man," says Murray, "he gave me, as I told you, the copyright of his two +poems, to be printed only in his works. I did not receive the last until +Tuesday night. I was so delighted with it that even as I read it I sent +him a draught for a thousand guineas. The two poems are altogether no more +than twelve hundred and fifteen hundred lines, and will altogether sell +for five and sixpence. But he returned the draught, saying that it was +very liberal--much more than they were worth; that I was perfectly welcome +to both poems to print in his (collected) works without cost or +expectation, but that he did not think them equal to what they ought to +be, and that he would not admit of their separate publication. I went +yesterday, and he was rallying me upon my folly in offering so much that +he dared to say I thought now I had a most lucky escape. 'To prove how +much I think so, my lord,' said I 'do me the favour to accept this pocket +book'--In which I had brought with me my draught, changed into two bank +notes of L1,000 and L50; but he would not take it. But I am not in despair +that he will yet allow their separate publication, which I must continue +to urge for mine own honour." + +Mr. Murray treated Crabbe in a most liberal manner. He paid for the "Tales +of the Hall," and the copyright of his other poems, L3,000. It was given +to the poet in bills, and we read that "Moore and Rogers earnestly advised +him to deposit them, without delay, in some safe hands--but no; he must +take them with him to Trowbridge, and show them to his son John. They +would hardly believe his good luck at home, if they did not see the +bills." On his way to Trowbridge, a friend at Salisbury, at whose house he +rested (Mr. Everett, the banker), seeing that he carried his bills loosely +in his waistcoat pocket, requested to be allowed to take charge of them; +but Crabbe thankfully declined, saying that "There was no fear of his +losing them, and he must show them to his son John." + +Without seeing a line of Thomas Moore's "Lalla Rookh," Messrs. Longman +undertook to pay L3,000 for it. The terms drawn up were simple, and read +as follows: "That upon your giving into our hands a poem of yours, the +length of 'Rokeby,' you shall receive from us the sum of L3,000. We also +agree to the stipulation, that the few songs which you may introduce into +the work shall be considered as reserved for your own selling." + +His poem, of some 6,000 lines, was written in a lonely cottage in +Derbyshire. Moore never tired of telling his friends that the stormy +winter weather in the country helped him to imagine, by contrast, the +bright and everlasting summers and glowing scenery of the East. + +The work was a great success. The first edition was sold in almost +fourteen days; within six months six editions had been called for. It is +said that some parts of the poem were translated into Persian, a +circumstance which caused Mr. Luttrell to write to the author in the +following strain:-- + + "I'm told dear Moore, your lays are sung + (Can it be true, you lucky man?) + By moonlight, in the Persian tongue, + Along the streets of Ispahan." + +Moore received considerable amounts for his "Irish Melodies." The mention +of these call to mind a letter he penned to Mr. Power, his publisher, on +November 12, 1812:-- + +"My dear Sir,--I have just got your letter, and have only time to say, +that if you can let me have three or four pounds by return of post, you +will oblige me. I would not have made this importunate demand on you, but +I have foolishly let myself run dry without trying my other resources, and +I have been the week past literally without one sixpence. Ever, with most +sincere good will.--T.M." + +Mr. Power promptly posted ten pounds to the poet. Said Moore, in the +course of his reply, "The truth is, we have been kept on a visit at a +house where we have been much longer than I wished or intended, and simply +from not having a shilling in my pocket to give to the servants on going +away. So I know you will forgive my teasing you.... You may laugh at my +ridiculous distress in being kept to turtle eating and claret-drinking +longer than I wish, and merely because I have not a shilling in my +pocket,--but, however paradoxical it sounds, it is true." + +We read in Moore's journals, ten years later: "17th August, +1822.--Received to-day a letter from Brougham, enclosing one from Barnes +(the editor of _The Times_), proposing that, as he is ill, I shall take +his place for some time in writing the leading articles of that paper, the +pay to be L100 a month. This is flattering. To be thought capable of +wielding so powerful a political machine as _The Times_ newspaper is a +tribute the more flattering (as is usually the case) from my feeling +conscious that I do not deserve it." The next day he wrote and declined +the offer. + +Thomas Campbell received, at the age of 21 years, L60 for his "Pleasures +of Hope," certainly a small amount for a fine poem, yet it gave him a +name, and enabled him to obtain large sums for some very slight literary +services. The publisher of his "Pleasures of Hope" did not treat him in a +generous manner, and his conduct appears to have embittered his mind as +will be gathered from the following anecdote. He was present at a party at +a period when the actions of Bonaparte were most severely condemned. On +being called upon for a toast, Campbell gave "The Health of Napoleon." +This caused a great surprise to all the company, and an explanation was +called for. "The only reason I have for proposing to honour Bonaparte," +said he, "is that he had the virtue to shoot a bookseller." Palm, a +bookseller, had recently been executed in Germany by order of the French +chief. + +It may here be mentioned that the copyright of the "Life of Bonaparte," by +Sir Walter Scott, with some copies of the work, was sold for L18,000. + +Successful school-books are often gold mines for the authors and +publishers. The copyright of "Vyse's Spelling-Book" was sold for L2,000 +and an annuity of L50 to the compiler. + +The copyright of Rundell's "Domestic Cookery" realised a couple of +thousand pounds, and many other works of this class have been extremely +popular. + +Very large sums have been paid for historical works. Hume received L700 a +volume; and Smollett, for a catch-penny rival work, cleared L2,000. The +money made by Henry is set down at L3,300. The booksellers, says Mr. +Leslie Stephen, made L6,000 out of Robertson's "History of Scotland." He +was paid for his "Charles V." the handsome sum of L4,500. Lingard's +"History of England" is, without doubt, an able work, and for it the +author was paid L4,683. The author's profits for the "Decline and Fall of +the Roman Empire," by Gibbon, are put down at L10,000. + +The foregoing are respectable figures, but they appear small when compared +with the amounts paid to Lord Macaulay. On one occasion he had handed to +him a cheque for L20,000, representing three-fourths of the net profits of +his "History of England." A short time since, the following statement went +the rounds of the newspaper press, respecting Mr. Justin McCarthy's +popular work, the "History of Our Own Times." The book was offered to a +well-known publishing firm, who agreed to purchase it for L600. On finding +that the author was a Home Ruler, however, this firm asked to be allowed +to withdraw from the contract. Mr. McCarthy, who was greatly annoyed at +the suggestion that he might mutilate history to suit his own private or +political views, then went to Messrs. Chatto and Windus, who at once +agreed to publish the work for him on a basis of mutual profits. In the +interval, the other firm reconsidered the situation, and asked to be +allowed to revive the lapsed contract, but were too late, as the book had +been placed in the hands of the second firm. The work won a flattering +reception, and the author has, up to the present time, received several +thousand pounds as his share of the profits. + +In 1897 passed away Dr. Brewer, the compiler of a "Guide to Science," and +other popular books. Shortly before his death, he told an interviewer that +he offered the copyright of his "Guide to Science" to Mr. Thomas Jarrold +for L50, but he declined the venture, saving he would pay a royalty of one +penny in the shilling for every copy sold. It went through two editions in +ten months, and then it was agreed to call 8,000 an edition, the royalty +to be given half-yearly, but any number less than 1,000 to stand over to +the next return. The largest half-yearly royalty was 19,000 copies +(Midsummer, 1836). In 1842, Dr. Brewer offered Mr. Jarrold L2,000 for his +half-share, which he declined. Soon after this, Messrs. Longman and Co. +offered Dr. Brewer L300 per year for life for the copyright. He offered +Mr. Jarrold L4,000 for his share, but he replied that he would not accept +double that sum, in fact that he would not part with it at all. + +According to a careful estimate, Charles Dickens received L10,000 a year +from his works for five years, and died worth nearly L100,000. He made +every penny from his writings and readings. We need scarcely repeat the +well-known facts that "he not only lived in a very liberal style for over +thirty years, keeping up a considerable establishment, and often +travelling without regard to cost, but he brought up a large and expensive +family." + +Thackeray did not make large sums by his books, when we consider his +undoubted genius and the high place he holds amongst the greatest authors. +It is said that he never made more than L5,000 out of any of his novels. +He received large sums for his lectures; indeed, the platform yielded him +better returns than the publishers. + +Eighty thousand pounds is the amount of Bulwer Lytton's earnings as a +novelist. The remuneration he received, when his books first appeared, did +not reach large figures, the sums usually ranging from L600 to L1,000, +although his books were in great favour with lovers of fiction. When a +collected edition of his novels was issued, the publishers paid liberally +for the copyrights. The sale of Lytton's novels is very large; about +80,000 copies of the sixpenny edition, and some thousands of the +three-shillings-and-sixpenny edition, are sold every year. + +The Earl of Beaconsfield, it is said, received the largest amount ever +paid in this country for a single novel. His last work, "Endymion," was +sold for L12,000. He only produced one other successful story, and that +was "Lothair." It is stated, on good authority, that these two novels have +together brought more than double the sums realised for his other books, +although inferior to some of his former writings. In his later years the +public paid for the novelty of reading stories by a statesman, and not for +the merits of his works. Some of his novels have recently been brought out +in a shilling edition, but they have already lost the allurements of +fiction, and are only read by students of politics, or persons curious as +to the character of the author. + +Wilkie Collins was paid for "Armadale" L5,000. Mr. James Payn recently +received L1,000 for the rights of running one of his novels in the pages +of a sixpenny magazine. This author tells rather a good story about the +mode of payment for his novels. "It was," says Mr. Payn, "the custom with +a very respectable firm of publishers, with whom I did business, to pay my +cheques to the names of my immortal works, instead of to myself: and since +it suited their convenience to do so, I never complained of it, though it +sometimes put me in rather a false position when I presented my demands in +person, as, for example, in the case of the 'Family Scapegrace.' When I +came for the proceeds of 'Found Dead,' it was too much for the sense of +professional propriety of the banker's clerk, who gravely observed: 'It is +very fortunate, Sir, that this cheque is not payable to order, or it would +have to be signed by your executors.'" Said Dickens, to whom Payn related +the incident, "I should not like to have much money at a bank which keeps +so clever a clerk as that." + +Anthony Trollope worked hard to gain a footing in the literary world. His +earlier manuscripts were frequently rejected. He tried to induce managers +of theatres to accept his plays, but not one was ever produced. The first +year's labour with the pen, and a very hard year's work too, only yielded +L12. The next year the sum was still small, only amounting to L20, yet he +did not despair. At last, the happy time came, and it was taken at the +flood. It was in 1855 that he scored with "The Warden." From that time he +was a man of mark; his works were in demand, and with ease he earned +L1,000 a year, which soon increased to L2,000 and L3,000, and at the time +of his death to about L4,000. The amounts paid for a few of his books are +as follows: In 1850 was issued "La Vendee," and for it he got L20; twelve +years later he was paid, for "Orley Farm," L3,135; in 1864 was published +"Can You Forgive Her?" for which he received L3,525; and in the same year +was issued "The Small House at Allington," for which he was paid L3,000. +Amongst his other novels for which he received large sums may be mentioned +"The Last Chronicles of Barset," L3,000; "Phineas Finn," L3,200; "He knew +He was Right," L3,200. The last two were published in 1869. He was paid +L3,000 for "The Way We Live Now." "More than nine-tenths of my literary +work," writes Trollope, "has been done in the last twenty years, and +during twelve of those years I followed another profession. I have never +been a slave to this work, giving due time, if not more than due time, to +the amusement I have loved. But I have been constant--and constancy of +labour will conquer all difficulties." In twenty years he made by writing +nearly L70,000. We cannot place Trollope in a high position amongst the +greatest novelists, yet the monetary results of his literary labours must +be regarded as extremely satisfactory. + +Large sums of money were made by George Eliot, but we must not forget that +she had some weary years to wait for the days of prosperity, and that the +story of her life contains many records of disappointment after brave +struggles. We read of her living in humble apartments in London; to earn a +little money, which she much needed when she went to Switzerland in 1849, +she tried to sell her books and globes. It was not until she was forty +years of age that she established a reputation by the publication of "Adam +Bede." She received in cash down, for the first sale of her book, some +L40,000, or about L2,000 a year. George Eliot had a great objection to her +novels appearing in serial form, and she sacrificed much money by not +first publishing them in the magazines. Ouida had for a long time the same +objection to her stories being published piecemeal in newspapers and +periodicals. She now appears to have got over her prejudice in this +matter, and consents to write for newspaper readers. It is generally +believed amongst literary and journalistic men, that she is not a +brilliant success as a newspaper novelist, yet Ouida's income as an author +must be very great. The reader of the weekly paper in which fiction forms +a feature is not educated up to her standard; authors like those engaged +on the _Family Herald_ and similar journals are much more popular. + +It is pleasing to state that Mr. John Ruskin has made large sums with his +books, but not so much, we think, as his merits entitle him to receive. + +We have seen it stated that by "Oceana," by no means a large volume, Mr. +Froude cleared L10,000. + +In the "Life of Longfellow," written by his brother, are a few particulars +of his earnings. During 1825--the last year of his college course--he +contributed poems to the United States _Literary Gazette_, and was paid +one or two dollars a poem, the price depending on the length of the piece. +He wrote, in 1840-1, "The Village Blacksmith," "Endymion," and "God's +Acre," and was paid fifteen dollars each. When his fame was fully +established, Mr. Bonner the publisher of the _New York Ledger_, paid him, +for the right of publishing in that paper, 3,000 dollars for "The Hanging +of the Crane." + +Lord Tennyson received considerable sums for his poetry. He was paid L100 +for the right of printing a short original poem in a monthly magazine. For +his ballad, "The Revenge," in the _Nineteenth Century_, he received 300 +guineas. It became known some time ago that his lordship did not deem +L5,000 a year a sufficient sum for the exclusive right of publishing his +works. He changed his publishers several times. He was regarded as a keen +man of business, and it is said that he generally got the best of the +bargain. + +Money never tempted Robert Browning to contribute to the magazines. His +poems always saw the light in book form. + +Mr. J. Cuthbert Hadden, who has made a study of this subject, says the +supply of verse to-day is greatly in excess of the demand, and so it +happens that in many quarters poetry is not paid for at all. Most of the +minor poets whose volumes come before the public have to bear the whole +expense of production themselves, and only a very small number escape +without considerable loss. In this connection an amusing story regarding +James Russell Lowell--not quite a minor poet--may be quoted. The cost of +publishing his first book was borne entirely by Mr. Lowell himself, the +edition being a plain but substantial one of 500 copies. The author felt +the usual pride in his achievement, and hoped for almost immediate fame. +Unhappily, only a few copies of the work were sold. Soon after, a fire +occurred in the publishing house where the volumes were stored, and they +were destroyed. As the publisher carried a full insurance on the stock, +Mr. Lowell was able to realise the full cash value on his venture, and he +had the satisfaction of saying that the entire edition was exhausted. + +The leading American novelists usually get L1,000 for a serial story in a +magazine, and a similar sum when it is produced in book form. Bret Harte +can command a thousand dollars for a single magazine article. Mrs. Grant +received a cheque for L40,000 for her share of the first volume of General +Grant's "Memoirs," and the whole of her share of the proceeds is put down +at L100,000. + +In closing, we must remind our readers that there are two sides to every +picture, and that countless instances of bitter disappointment and death +are recorded in the annals of literature. Only a few in the mighty army of +writers come to the front and win fame and fortune. + + + + +"Declined with Thanks." + + +"Declined with thanks," is a phrase which often disappoints the aspirant +in the wide field of literature. Works of the highest merit are frequently +rejected by publishers; indeed, some of the most popular books in our +language have gone the rounds of the trade without their merits being +recognised. Frequently the authors, after repeated failures, have brought +their works out at their own risk, and have thereby won fame and fortune. +In works of fiction, perhaps the most notable example of a story which was +offered to publisher after publisher only to be returned to its author, is +that of "Robinson Crusoe." It was at last "Printed for W. Taylor, at the +Ship in Paternoster Row, MDCCXIX." It proved a good speculation for the +lucky publisher. He made a profit of one hundred thousand pounds out of +the venture. Jane Austen's name stands high in the annals of English +literature; yet she had a struggle to get her books published. She sold +her "Northanger Abbey" to a Bath bookseller for the insignificant sum of +ten pounds. The manuscript remained for some time in his possession +without being printed, he fearing that if published it would prove a +failure. He was, however, at length induced to issue it, and its merits +caused it to be extensively read. Samuel Warren could not prevail upon a +publisher to bring out his well-known book, "The Diary of a late +Physician," and, much against his inclination, it was first given to the +reading public as a serial in "Blackwood's Magazine." Thackeray wrote his +great novel, "Vanity Fair," for "Colburn's Magazine"; it was refused by +the publishers, who deemed it a work without interest. He tried to place +it with several of the leading London firms who all declined it. He +finally issued it in monthly parts, and by it his fame as a novelist was +established. + +It will surprise many to learn that the first volume of Hans Christian +Andersen's "Fairy Tales" was declined by every publisher in Copenhagen. +The book was brought out at the author's own cost, and the charming +collection of stories gained for him world-wide renown. The Rev. James +Beresford could not induce any publisher to pay twenty pounds for his +amusing volume, entitled "The Miseries of Human Life." It was after some +delay issued, and in twelve months passed through nine editions. A +humorous notice by Sir Walter Scott in the "Edinburgh Review" doubtless +did much to increase the circulation of the book. The handsome sum of five +thousand pounds profit was cleared out of this happy venture. In an able +work by a leading American critic, entitled "American Publishers and +English Authors," it is stated that "'Jane Eyre' went the round of the +publishing houses of London, but could not find a market until the +daughter of a publisher accidentally discovered the manuscript in an iron +safe, where it had been lying until it was mouldy. She saw the +extraordinary merit of the novel, and induced her father to publish it." +The foregoing statement is incorrect. As a matter of fact, the manuscript +was sent by rail to Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co., on the 24th August, 1847, +and by the 16th of October in the same year the firm issued the novel. +According to Mrs. Gaskell's "Life of Charlotte Bronte," the future +publishers of "Jane Eyre" were at once most favourably impressed with the +book, and this is fully confirmed by the prompt publication of it. +Respecting its reception by the firm, says Mrs. Gaskell, "the first +reader of the manuscript was so powerfully struck by the character of the +tale, that he reported his impression in very strong terms to Mr. Smith, +who appears to have been much amused by the admiration excited. 'You seem +to have been so much enchanted, that I do not know how to believe you,' he +laughingly said. But when a second reader, in the person of a clear-headed +Scotchman, not given to enthusiasm, had taken the manuscript home in the +evening, and become so deeply interested in it as to sit up half the night +to finish it, Mr. Smith's curiosity was sufficiently excited to prompt him +to read it for himself; and great as were the praises which had been +bestowed upon it, he found that they did not exceed the truth." The first +novel Miss Bronte wrote was entitled "The Professor," which was submitted +to numerous publishers without finding one to accept it. It was not issued +until after the death of the gifted author, and is much inferior to her +other books. Says Mrs. Gaskell, "Mr. Smith has told me a little +circumstance connected with the reception of this manuscript, which seems +indicative of no ordinary character. It came in a brown paper parcel to +65, Cornhill. Besides the address to Messrs. Smith, Elder & Co., there +were on it those of other publishers to whom the tale had been sent, not +obliterated, but simply scored through, so that Mr. Smith at once +perceived the names of some of the houses in the trade to which the +unlucky parcel had gone, without success." + +Sterne could not find a bookseller who would pay fifty pounds for +"Tristram Shandy," he therefore issued it on his own account, and it +proved a saleable work, gaining for its author a front place amongst +English humorists. Mrs. Stowe's "Uncle Tom's Cabin" was written as a +serial for the "National Era," an anti-slavery journal published at +Washington. It was next offered to Messrs. Jewett & Co., but their reader +and critic pronounced it not a story of sufficient interest to be worth +reproducing in book form. The wife of the latter strenuously insisted that +it would meet with a favourable reception, and advised its publication. In +a notice of Mrs. Stowe, it is stated that in four years 313,000 copies had +been printed in the United States alone, probably as many more in Great +Britain. Miss Warner's popular novel, "The Wide, Wide World," was declined +by a leading New York publisher. It is said that several well-known +houses refused to have anything to do with one of the most popular books +of recent times, "Vice Versa"; even when in type, two American firms did +not discover its worth, and rejected it. + +Some notable books in history, travels, poetry, and science have been +"Declined with thanks." Both Murray and Longman were afraid to risk the +publication of Prescott's "Ferdinand and Isabella," but Bentley brought +out the book, and according to his statement it is the most successful +work that he has published. A score of houses refused to publish "Eoethen." +The author in despair handed his manuscript to one of the lesser known +booksellers, and printed it at his own cost; it was extremely successful. +After twenty-five editions of Buchan's "Domestic Medicine" had been sold, +one thousand six hundred pounds was paid for the copyright, yet, strange +to state, before it was published not a single firm in Edinburgh would pay +a hundred pounds for it. Strahan, the King's printer, had offered to him +the first volume of Blair's "Sermons," and, after a careful perusal, +concluded that the work would not be one to find a ready sale. Dr. +Johnson, however, came to the rescue, and with his eloquence induced Mr. +Strahan to pay a hundred pounds for the copyright. It had a large +circulation; for a second volume, three hundred pounds was the amount +gladly paid, and for subsequent volumes six hundred pounds each. + +Sir Richard Phillips rejected several famous books. It was to this +bookseller and publisher that Robert Bloomfield offered the copyright of +his "Farmer's Boy" in return for a dozen copies of the work when printed. +He feared it would be a failure, and declined it. The poet issued it by +subscription, and within three years 25,000 copies were sold. This +publisher is said to have had offered to him Byron's early poems. He might +have purchased the copyright of "Waverley" for thirty pounds, but declined +it! He rejected other works which won favourable reception from the press +and the public. It is only right to state that he gave to the world many +valuable volumes, and that he was a man of decided literary ability. A +paragraph went the rounds of the literary press after the death of Mr. J. +H. Parker, the well-known Oxford publisher, stating that the copyright of +Keble's "Christian Year" was offered to Joseph Parker for the sum of +twenty pounds and refused. It was further stated that "during the forty +years which followed the publication of this work nearly 400,000 copies +were sold, and Mr. Keble's share of the profits amounted to fourteen +thousand pounds, being one-fourth the retail price." The brothers Smith +desired to sell for twenty pounds to Mr. Murray their celebrated "Rejected +Addresses," but the great publisher declined the proposal with thanks. +They resolved to bring out the book at their own risk. It hit the popular +taste, and after sixteen editions had been sold, Mr. Murray paid for the +copyright one hundred and thirty-one pounds. The poems yielded the authors +over a thousand pounds. + +Editors of newspapers and magazines have often made ludicrous blunders in +rejecting poems of sterling merit. It is generally known that the editor +of the _Greenock Advertiser_ expressed his regret that he could not insert +in his newspaper one of Thomas Campbell's best poems on account of it not +being quite up to his standard. + +The Rev. Charles Wolfe submitted to the editor of a leading magazine his +famous ode on "The Burial of Sir John Moore," but it was rejected in such +a scornful manner as to cause the writer to hand it to the editor of _The +Newry Telegraph_, an Ulster newspaper of no standing as a literary +journal. It was published in 1817, in that obscure paper, with the +initials of "C. W." It was reproduced in various publications, and +attracted great attention. It is one of the best in our limited number of +pieces of martial poetry. + + + + +Epigrams on Authors. + + +The epigram is of considerable antiquity. The Greeks placed on their +monuments, statues, and tombs, short poetical inscriptions, written in a +simple style, and it was from this practice that we derive the epigram. In +the earlier examples we fail to find any traces of satire which is now its +chief characteristic. The Romans were the first to give a satirical turn +to this class of literature. Amongst the writers of Latin epigrams, +Catullus and Martial occupy leading places. The French are, perhaps, the +most gifted writers of epigrams. German epigrammatists have put into verse +moral proverbs. Schiller and Goethe did not, however, follow the usual +practice of their countrymen, but wrote many satirical epigrams, having +great force. Many of our English poets have displayed a fine faculty of +writing epigrams. + +The birthplace of Homer is a disputed point, and has given rise to not a +few essays and epigrams. Thomas Heywood, in one of his poetical +publications, published in 1640, wrote:-- + + "Seven cities warr'd for Homer, being dead, + Who, living, had no roof to shroud his head." + +Much in the same strain wrote Thomas Seward, a century and a half later:-- + + "Seven wealthy towns contend for Homer dead, + Through which the living Homer begg'd his bread." + +The two writers have not stated fully the number of cities which claim to +have given birth to Homer. The number is nearer twenty than seven. Pope, +in his translation of Homer, was assisted by a poet named William Broome, +a circumstance which prompted John Henley to pen the following:-- + + "Pope came off clean with Homer; but, they say, + Broome went before, and kindly swept the way." + +Butler, the author of "Hudibras," was much neglected during his life. It +is true that Charles II. and his courtiers read and were delighted with +his poem, but they did not extend to him any patronage. The greater part +of his days were passed in obscurity and poverty. He had been buried about +forty years when a monument was placed in Westminster Abbey to his memory, +by John Barber, a printer, and afterwards an Alderman and Lord Mayor of +London. Samuel Wesley wrote on the memorial the following lines:-- + + "Whilst Butler, needy wretch! was yet alive, + No gen'rous patron would a dinner give; + See him, when starved to death, and turn'd to dust, + Presented with a monumental bust! + The poet's fate is here in emblem shown,-- + He asked for bread, and he receiv'd a stone." + +An epitaph similar in sentiment to the foregoing was placed by Horace +Walpole over the remains of Theodore, King of Corsica, who, after many +trials and disappointments, ended his life as a prisoner for debt in +King's Bench, and was buried in the churchyard of St. Anne's, +Westminster:-- + + "The grave, great teacher, to a level brings + Heroes and beggars, galley slaves and kings. + But Theodore this moral learn'd ere dead; + Fate pour'd its lesson on his living head; + Bestow'd a kingdom, and denied him bread." + +The fourth Earl of Chesterfield, on seeing a whole-length portrait of Nash +between the busts of Sir Isaac Newton and Pope in the rooms at Bath, wrote +as follows:-- + + "Immortal Newton never spoke + More truth than here you'll find; + Nor Pope himself e'er penn'd a joke + More cruel on mankind. + + The picture, plac'd the busts between, + Gives satire all its strength: + Wisdom and Wit are little seen, + But Folly at full length." + +Stephen Duck's poetry and progress in life gave rise to some lively lines +by the lampooners of the eighteenth century. He was an agricultural +labourer, having a thirst for knowledge and some skill as a writer of +verse. This humble and self-taught student was brought under the notice of +Queen Caroline, who was much interested in his welfare, and pleased with +his poetry; she granted him a pension of L30 a year. He was next made a +yeoman of the guard, an appointment he did not long retain, for he was +advanced to the position of a clergyman in the Church of England, and +presented to the living of Byfleet, Surrey. It is to be feared that his +education was not sufficiently liberal for a clerk in holy orders. Dean +Swift assailed the poor poet as follows:-- + + "The thresher Duck could o'er the Queen prevail; + The proverb says 'No fence against a flail.' + From threshing corn he turns to thresh his brains, + For which Her Majesty allows him grains. + Though 'tis confess'd that those who ever saw + His poems, think them all not worth a straw. + Thrice happy Duck, employed in threshing stubble! + Thy toil is lessen'd and thy profits doubled." + +The want of dignity displayed in the foregoing is unworthy of Swift, and +the reply as follows made by Duck is certainly much to his credit:-- + + "You think it, censor, mighty strange + That, born a country clown, + I should my first profession change + And wear a chaplain's gown! + If virtue honours the low race + From which I was descended, + If vices your high birth disgrace + Who should be most commended?" + +Duck wrote the epitaph for the tombstone over the remains of Joe Miller of +mirthful memory. The following is a copy of the lines:-- + + "If humour, wit, and honesty could save + The hum'rous, witty, honest from the grave; + The grave had not so soon this tenant found + Whom honesty, and wit, and humour crowned. + Or could esteem and love preserve our breath, + And guard us longer from the stroke of death, + The stroke of death on him had later fell, + Whom all mankind esteem'd and lov'd so well." + +The poet-preacher was advanced to the chaplaincy of a regiment of Dragoon +Guards. Sad to relate, in the year 1756, in a fit of insanity, he took his +own life. + +During the Gordon riots on the 7th of January, 1780, Lord Mansfield's +house in Bloomsbury Square was burnt, and in the flames perished his +valuable library, which he commenced collecting when a lad at school. It +included many valuable volumes and materials for memoirs of his times. +Cowper thus wrote on the subject:-- + + "So then--the Vandals of our isle, + Sworn foes of sense and law, + Have burnt to dust a nobler pile + Than ever Roman saw! + + And Murray sighs o'er Pope and Swift, + And many a treasure more, + The well-judged purchase, and the gift + That graced his letter'd store. + + Their pages mangled, burnt, and torn, + The loss was his alone; + But ages yet to come shall mourn + The burning of his own." + +A pleasing and playful epigram on Robert Bloomfield, the author of "The +Farmer's Boy," was written by Henry Kirke White:-- + + "Bloomfield, thy happy omen'd name + Ensures continuance of thy fame; + Both sense and truth this verdict give, + While _fields_ shall _bloom_ thy name shall live." + +The residences of Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge near the English +Lakes suggested the title of lake poets, and of their works the Rev. Henry +Townshend wrote:-- + + "They come from the lakes--an appropriate quarter + For poems diluted with plenty of water." + +Surely Lord Holland was a little wide of the mark when he penned the +following epigram, complaining that Southey did not write sufficient +laureate poems; the fact is, he wrote too many to sustain his reputation +as a poet:-- + + "Our Laureate Bob defrauds the King-- + He takes his cash and will not sing; + Yet on he goes, I know not why, + Singing for us who do not buy." + +In the _Diary_ of Thomas Moore, under date of September 4, 1825, it is +stated: "Lord H. full of an epigram he had just written on Southey, which +we all twisted and turned into various shapes; he is as happy as a boy +during the operation. He suggests the following as the last couplet:-- + + "And for us, who will not buy, + Goes singing on eternally." + +It has been truthfully observed that William Wordsworth "found poetry in +the most common-place events of life, and described them in familiar +language; he naturally contended that there was little real difference +between poetry and prose." Byron thus rallies him on the theory:-- + + "The simple Wordsworth, framer of a lay + As soft as evening in his favourite May, + Who warns his friend, 'to shake off toil and trouble, + And quit his books, for fear of growing double;' + Who, both by precept and example, shows + That prose is verse, and verse is merely prose; + Convincing all, by demonstration plain, + Poetic souls delight in prose inane." + +Theodore Hook produced some pungent verses; here is a slight example on +Shelley's "Prometheus Unbound":-- + + "Shelley styles his new poem _Prometheus Unbound_, + And 'tis like to remain so while time circles round; + For surely an age would be spent in the finding + A reader so weak as to pay for the binding!" + +Scott wrote a poem which was published in 1815, under the title of _The +Field of Waterloo_, and prefaced it thus: "It may be some apology for the +imperfections of this poem, that it was composed hastily, and during a +short tour upon the Continent, where the author's labours were liable to +frequent interruption; but its best apology is, that it was written for +the purpose of assisting the Waterloo subscription." + +This plea did not disarm hostile criticism. Thomas, Lord Erskine, +expressed himself as follows:-- + + "On Waterloo's ensanguined plain + Lie tens of thousands of the slain; + But none by sabre or by shot + Fell half so flat as Walter Scott." + +Wrote Thomas Moore in his _Diary_: "I have read _Walter_-loo. The battle +murdered many, and _he_ has murdered the battle; 'tis sad stuff." + +The Earl of Carlisle wrote a sixpenny pamphlet advocating small theatres; +and on the day it was issued the newspapers contained the announcement +that he had given a large subscription to a public fund, a circumstance +which formed the theme of the following epigram by his cousin, Lord Byron: + + "Carlisle subscribes a thousand pounds + Out of his rich domains; + And for sixpence circles round + The product of his brains: + 'Tis thus the difference you may hit + Between his fortune and his wit." + +Byron made his unhappy marriage the subject of at least three epigrams. +Here are two of them as follows:-- + + ON HIS WEDDING-DAY. + + "Here's a happy new year! But with reason + I beg you'll permit me to say-- + Wish me many returns of the season, + But as few as you please of the day." + +At a later period he wrote-- + + "This day, of all our days, has done + The worst for _me_ and _you_: + 'Tis just six years since we were _one_, + And five since we were _two_." + +Lord Byron's friend, Thomas Moore, wrote many excellent epigrams, and not +a few were penned about him. He published his first volume of poems under +the name of Thomas Little. It is stated that a lady found a copy of the +book under the pillow of her maid's bed, and wrote on it in pencil:-- + + "You read _Little_, I guess; + I wish you'd read _less_." + +The servant was equal to her mistress, and wrote:-- + + "I read Little before, + Now I mean to read _Moore_." + +Lord Byron wrote the following in 1811 on Moore's farcical opera:-- + + "Good plays are scarce; + So Moore writes farce; + The poet's fame grows brittle-- + We knew before + That Little's Moore, + But now 'tis Moore that's Little." + +Respecting Moore's duel with Lord Jeffrey, Theodore Hook composed the +following lines:-- + + "When Anacreon would fight, as the poets have said, + A reverse he displayed in his vapour, + For while all his poems were loaded with lead, + His pistols were loaded with paper. + + For excuses, Anacreon old custom may thank, + Such salvo he should not abuse; + For the cartridge, by rule, is always made blank + That is fired away at _Reviews_." + +"Moore is here called Anacreon," says W. Davenport Adams, "in allusion to +his translations from that poet." The duel was owing to an article in the +_Edinburgh Review_, which Moore thought proper to resent by challenging +the editor. The combatants were, however, arrested on the ground, and +conveyed to Bow Street, where the pistols were found to contain merely a +charge of powder, the balls having in some way disappeared. Byron alludes +to the circumstance in _English Bards and Scotch Reviewers_:-- + + "When Little's leadless pistol met his eye, + And Bow Street myrmidons stood laughing by." + +After this strange encounter, the poet and critic were firm friends. + +Slips of the pen have given rise to some smart epigrammatic corrections. +Albert Smith wrote in an album as follows:-- + + "Mont Blanc is the Monarch of Mountains, + They crown'd him long ago; + But who they got to put it on + Nobody seems to know." + ALBERT SMITH. + +Thackeray was successfully solicited to contribute to the same book, and +wrote under the fore-going:-- + + A HUMBLE SUGGESTION. + + "I know that Albert wrote in a hurry, + To criticize I scarce presume; + But methinks that Lindley Murray, + Instead of _who_ had written _whom_." + W. M. THACKERAY. + +Samuel Warren on one occasion made a slip in writing in an album, +misquoting Moore, writing "glory's throb" instead of "glory's thrill." The +mistake formed the subject of the following impromptu lines by Mr. Digby +Seymour:-- + + "Warren, thy memory was poor + The Irish bard to rob, + Had you remembered Tommy Moore, + Glory would 'thrill,' not 'throb.'" + +The vanity of Mr. Warren was unusually largely developed, and gave rise to +a number of amusing anecdotes. Sir George Rose thus refers to his +weakness:-- + + "Samuel Warren, though able, yet vainest of men, + Could he guide with discretion his tongue and his pen, + His course would be clear for--'Ten Thousand a Year;' + But limited else be a brief--'Now and Then.'" + +For a long period Mr. Warren was the Recorder for Hull. Mr. Thompson, the +Town Clerk, was a gentleman of cultivated literary tastes, and able to +compose a neat epigram. He wrote the following:-- + + "Our Recorder, Sam Warren, from all that I hear, + Is one of the kindest of men, + For a friend he presents with 'Ten Thousand a Year,' + And adds to the gift 'Now and Then.'" + +Mr. William Harrison Ainsworth, the romance writer, was very unpopular +with the contributors of _Punch_, and many were the satires on him in its +pages. Colburn published a magazine, in which many of Ainsworth's novels +appeared, and this gave rise to the following epigram:-- + + "Says Ainsworth to Colburn: + 'A plan in my pate is + To give my romance as + A supplement gratis.' + + "Says Colburn to Ainsworth: + ''Twill do very nicely, + For that will be charging + Its value precisely.'" + +In early manhood, Edwin Paxton Hood called upon Bulwer Lytton without any +introduction. The servant told him that his master could not be seen. On +receiving the intimation, Hood took out of his pocket pencil and paper, +and wrote as follows:-- + + "A son of song, to fame unknown, + Stands waiting in your hall below; + Your footman tells him to begone; + Say, mighty Bulwer, shall he go?" + +It is not surprising to learn that the impromptu lines proved an effective +introduction. The interview was the first of many pleasant meetings +between the author of _The Caxtons_ and Mr. Paxton Hood. + + + + +Poetical Graces. + + +Literary by-paths furnish some singular specimens of poetical graces. We +produce a few for the entertainment of our readers. + +Robert Fergusson, the Edinburgh poet, was born in 1751, and was a student +at St. Andrews' University from his thirteenth to his seventeenth year. It +was the duty of each student, in turn, to ask a blessing at the dinner +table. One day, to the consternation of all, the youthful bard repeated +the following lines: + + "For rabbits young, and for rabbits old, + For rabbits hot, and for rabbits cold, + For rabbits tender, and for rabbits tough, + Our thanks we render, for we've had enough." + +The masters of the college deliberated how they should punish the +graceless poet. It was finally resolved not to censure him, but to have in +the future a more spare supply of rabbits. Poor Fergusson's sad career +closed in a lunatic asylum at an early age, not, however, before he had +enriched Scottish poetical literature with some important contributions. + +Burns appears to have had a great admiration for this wayward son of song. +He placed over his remains in the Canongate Churchyard, Edinburgh, a +tombstone bearing the following inscription:-- + + "Here lies Robert Fergusson, + Poet, born September 5th, 1751, + Died October 16th, 1774. + + No sculptured marble here, nor pompous lay + No storied urn, nor animated bust; + This simple stone directs pale Scotia's way + To pour her sorrows o'er her Poet's dust." + +On the back of the stone it is stated:-- + +"By special grant of the Managers to Robert Burns, who erected this stone, +this burial place is ever to remain sacred to the memory of Robert +Fergusson." + +More than one poetical grace is attributed to the facile pen of Burns. His +grace before dinner is well known, and is as follows:-- + + "Oh Thou who kindly dost provide + For every creature's want! + We bless Thee, God of nature wide, + For all Thy goodness lent: + And if it please Thee, Heavenly guide, + May never worse be sent, + But whether granted or denied, + Lord, bless us with content." + +It is said that at one of Burns's convivial dinners he was desired to say +grace, and he gave the following, impromptu: + + "O Lord we do Thee humbly thank + For what we little merit;-- + Now Jean may tak' the flesh away, + And Will bring on the spirit." + +On one occasion a rhymster, who had placed before him a supper small in +quantity and poor in quality, invoked a blessing with the following +lines:-- + + "O Thou who bless'd the loaves and fishes + Look down upon these two poor dishes; + And though the 'tatoes be but small, + Lord make them large enough for all; + For if they do our bellies fill, + 'Twill be a wondrous miracle." + +This reminds us of an epigram entitled "Dress v. Dinner:"-- + + What is the reason, can you guess, + Why men are poor, and women thinner? + So much do they for dinner dress, + There's nothing left to dress for dinner. + +On a graceless peer an epigrammatist wrote:-- + + "'By proxy I pray, and by proxy I vote,' + A graceless peer said to a churchman of note; + Who answered,'My lord, then I venture to say, + You'll to heaven ascend in a similar way.'" + +Here is a grateful grace:-- + + "Some hae meat that canna eat, + An' some cou'd eat that want it; + But we hae meat, an' we can eat, + Sae let the Lord be thankit." + +The Rev. Samuel Wesley, formerly vicar of Epworth, and another friend were +entertained to dinner at Temple Belwood, by a host noted as a strange +compound of avarice and oddity. Mr. Wesley returned thanks with the +following impromptu lines:-- + + "Thanks for the feast, for 'tis no less + Than eating manna in the wilderness, + Here meagre famine bears controlless sway, + And ever drives each fainting wretch away. + Yet here, O how beyond a saint's belief, + We've seen the glories of a chine of beef; + Here chimneys smoke, which never smoked before, + And we have dined, where we shall dine no more." + +In conclusion we give a vegetarian grace. The first four lines are to be +said before the meal:-- + + "These fruits do Thou, O Father, bless, + Which Mother Earth to us doth give; + No blood doth stain our feast to day, + In Thee we trust, and peaceful live." + +The next is a form of thanksgiving after a vegetarian meal:-- + + "We thank Thee, Lord, for these Thy fruits, + Which Mother Earth to us doth give; + No blood hath stained our feast to-day, + In Thee we trust, and peaceful live!" + + + + +Poetry on Panes. + + +In a variety of places, but more especially in old village inns, +reflections in verse, good, bad, and indifferent, have been found +scratched upon window-panes. We have carefully copied the best examples +which have come under our notice, and present a batch herewith, believing +that they may entertain our readers. + +A genial old Yorkshire parson appears at the commencement of the present +century to have been greatly pleased with an inn situated between +Northallerton and Boroughbridge, for he visited it daily to enjoy his pipe +and glass. On one of its window-panes he inscribed some lines, of which +the following is a literal copy:-- + + "Here in my wicker chair I sitt, + From folly far, and far from witt, + Content to live, devoid of care, + With country folks and country fare; + To listen to my landlord's tale, + And drink his health in Yorkshire ale; + Then smoak and read the _York Courant_; + I'm happy and 'tis all I want. + Though few my tythes, and light my purse, + I thank my God it is no worse." + +Here is another Yorkshire example, written towards the close of the last +century; it is from an old wayside inn near Harewood-bridge, on the Leeds +and Harrogate road:-- + + "Gaily I lived, as Ease and Nature taught, + And passed my little Life without a thought; + I wonder, then, why Death, that tyrant grim, + Should think of me, who never thought of him." + +Under the foregoing, the following was written: + + "Ah! why forget that Death should think of thee; + If thou art Mortal, such must surely be; + Then rouse up reason, view thy hast'ning end, + And lose no time to make God thy Friend." + +In the old coaching days, the Dog and Doublet, at Sandon, Staffordshire, +was a popular house. A guest wrote on one of its window panes the +following recommendation:-- + + "Most travellers to whom these roads are known, + Would rather stay at Sandon than at Stone! + Good chaises, horses, treatment, and good wines, + They always meet with at James Ballantine's." + +A penniless poet wrote on a tavern window-pane the lines:-- + + "O Chalk! to me, and to the poor, a friend, + On Thee my life and happiness depend; + On Thee with joy, with gratitude I think, + For, by thy bounty, I both eat and drink." + +"Chalk" is a slang word for credit. Innkeepers kept their accounts on the +back of a door, written with chalk. + +The following epigram was written under a pane disfigured with +autographs:-- + + "Should you ever chance to see, + A man's name writ on a glass, + Be sure he owns a diamond, + And his parent owns an ass." + +On the accession of Her Majesty, this _jeu d'esprit_ was inscribed on an +inn window:-- + + "The Queen's with us, the Whigs exulting say; + For when she found us in, she let us stay. + It may be so; but give me leave to doubt + How long she'll keep you when she finds you out." + +The following lines dated 1793, were written on a window-pane at the Hotel +des Pays Bas, Spa Belgium:-- + + "I love but one, and only one, + Ah, Damon, thou art he! + Love thou but one, and only one, + And let that one be me!" + +Early in the present century, it was customary for the actors to write +their names on the panes in one of the windows of the York Theatre. On the +glass of the same window were found inscribed these lines. + + "The rich man's name embellished stands on brass; + The player simply scribbles his on glass, + Appropriate tablet to the wayward fate-- + A brittle shining, evanescent state: + The fragile glass destroyed--farewell the name; + The actor's glass consumed--farewell his fame." + +Our next example, dated 1834, from Purwell Hall, Batley, Yorkshire, was +composed by a Miss Taylor. It is generally believed that her heart was won +by a lover who did not meet with the approbation of her friends, and that +they made her prisoner in one of the rooms of the old Hall, and there, on +a pane of glass, were written the lines which follow:-- + + "Come, gentle Muse, wont to divert + Corroding cares from anxious heart; + Adjust me now to bear the smart + Of a relenting angry heart. + What though no being I have on earth, + Though near the place that gave me birth, + And kindred less regard do pay + Than thy acquaintance of to-day: + Know what the best of men declare, + That they on earth but strangers are, + Nor matter it a few years hence + How fortune did to thee dispense, + If--in a palace thou hast dwelt, + Or--in a cell of penury felt-- + Ruled as a prince--served as a slave, + Six feet of earth is all thou'lt have. + Hence give my thoughts a nobler theme, + Since all the world is but a dream + Of short endurance." + +Robert Burns wrote several lines on tavern windows. On a pane of glass at +the Queensberry Arms, Sanquhar, he inscribed the following. + + "Ye gods! ye gave to me a wife + Out of your grace and favour, + To be a comfort to my life; + And I was glad to have her. + But if your providence divine + For other ends design her, + To obey your will at any time, + I'm ready to resign her." + +Next may be quoted:-- + + "Envy, if thy jaundiced eye + Through this window chance to pry, + To thy sorrow, thou wilt find + All that's generous, all that's kind: + Virtue, friendship, every grace + Dwelling in this happy place." + +Burns's lines written on the window-panes of the Globe Tavern, Dumfries, +have frequently been quoted. The following inscription refers to the +charms of the daughter of the factor of Closeburn estate, when the poet +resided at Ellisland:-- + + "O lovely Polly Stewart, + O charming Polly Stewart, + There's not a flower that blooms in May, + That's half so fair as thou art." + +In some editions of the poet's works, the following verse, stated to have +been copied from a window of the same tavern, is given:-- + + "The graybeard, Old Wisdom, may boast of his treasures; + Grant me with gay Folly to live; + I grant him his calm-blooded, time settled pleasures; + But Folly has raptures to give." + +Such are a few of the many rhymes scratched upon glass. Some of the panes +on which they were inscribed may now be broken, and this may be the only +means of preserving them. + + + + +English Folk-Rhymes. + + +English folk-rhymes are very numerous and curious. Characteristics of +persons and places have given rise to not a few which are frequently far +from complimentary. Weather-lore is often expressed in rhyme; the rustic +muse has besides rendered historic events popular, and enabled persons to +remember them who are not readers of books. The lines often lack polish, +but are seldom without point. + +Amongst the more ancient rhymes are those respecting grants of land. The +following is a good example, and is from Derbyshire:-- + + "Me and mine + Give thee and thine + Millners Hay + And Shining Cliff, + While grass is green + And hollies rough." + +The old story of the grant is thus related. Years ago, a member of the +ancient family of Lowe had the honour of hunting with the king and his +nobles. Lowe rode a splendid horse, the only one in at the death. The +king admired the animal very much, and the owner presented it to His +Majesty. The horse "mightily pleased the king." Some little time +afterwards, Lowe waited upon the king to beg a brier bed and a +watering-place, which were Shining Cliff and Millners Hay. The request was +at once complied with. The tale does not end here. It is related that "an +envious courtier told the king that he did not know what he was doing, for +what he was giving away was a great wood with a large tract of land." Upon +this, Lowe said to His Majesty: "King or no king?"--"Why, king, Lowe." +Adding with prompitude: "The brier-bed and watering-place are thine:" the +rhyme above quoted being given as the title for the grant. + +It is asserted that Athelstan granted the first charter to the ancient +borough of Hedon, Yorkshire, in these words:-- + + "As free make I thee + As eye see or ear hear." + +It is said a similar charter was granted by the same king to the +neighbouring town of Beverley. + +An old, old Norfolk rhyme says:-- + + "Rising was a seaport town, + And Lynn it was a wash; + But now Lynn is a seaport town, + And Rising fares the worst." + +It is said at Norwich:-- + + "Caistor was a city ere Norwich was none, + And Norwich was built of Caistor stone." + +"About half-way between Curbar and Brompton, to the right of the turnpike +leading from Barlow to Sheffield," writes William Wood, "there is, far on +the moor, a very level flat piece of ground, near a mile square, most +remarkable for its boggy nature, so much so that it is dangerous to cross, +or at times to approach. Here, before the Roman invasion, says the legend, +stood a town or village, the inhabitants of which lived, according to +Diodorus Siculus, in small cots or huts built of wood, the walls of stakes +or wattles, like hurdles, and covered with rushes or reeds. These +dwellings, with their inhabitants, were swallowed up by one of those +convulsions of nature so destructive at times to the habitations of +mankind." Respecting Leechfield and Chesterfield are the following lines +current in Derbyshire:-- + + "When Leechfield was a market town, + Chesterfield was gorse and broom; + Now Chesterfield's a market town, + Leechfield a marsh is grown." + +Respecting Nertoun, a Somersetshire village, near Taunton, is this +couplet:-- + + "Nertoun was a market-town + When Taunton was a furzy down." + +A Scottish rhyme says:-- + + "York was, London is, + And Edinburgh will be + The biggest of the three." + +Says a popular English rhyme:-- + + "Lincoln was, London is, + And York shall be + The fairest city of the three." + +In the days of old it was the practice to allow the wives of the Lord +Mayors of York to retain by courtesy the title Lady for life, and this +custom gave rise to the following couplet:-- + + "The Lord Mayor's a lord but a year and a day; + But his Lady's a lady for ever and aye." + +Few English towns have made greater progress than the thriving port of +Hull. Its prosperity was predicted long ago:-- + + "When Myton is pulled down, + Hull shall become a great town." + +As a matter of history, it may be stated that when the town was threatened +by Charles I., a number of houses in Myton Lane, as well as the +Charter-house, were laid in ruins by Sir John Hotham, governor of Hull, +so that they might not give shelter to the Royalists. Ray refers to this +couplet, and, in error, calls Myton, Dighton. + +Selling church-bells has given rise to satirical rhymes. Here are three +Lincolnshire rhymes on this topic:-- + + "The poor Hatton people + Sold the bells to build up the steeple." + +The next says:-- + + "Owersby's parish, + Wicked people, + Sold their bells to Kelsey + To build a steeple." + +It is stated in the third:-- + + "Poor Scartho people, + Sold their bells to repair the steeple." + +About 1710, the spire of Arlesey Church, Bedfordshire, fell down, and it +is believed the bells were broken. The metal was sold to a distant parish +to raise money to rebuild the spire, and until the year 1877 only one +small bell was suspended in the steeple to call the inhabitants to the +house of prayer. The transaction gave rise to the saying:-- + + "Arlesey, Arlesey, wicked people, + Sold their bells to build their steeple." + +About half a century later, a similar accident occurred at Welstead, and +the bishop granted a license to sell three of the bells, to enable the +parishioners with the proceeds to restore the tower. It gave rise to a +taunting distich similar to the one at Arlesey. + +On the walls of Newington Church, London, in 1793, was written a rhyme +anent the rebuilding of the church without a steeple and selling the +bells:-- + + "Pious parson, pious people + Sold the bells to build the steeple; + A very fine trick of the Newington people, + To sell the bells to build a steeple." + +Rhymes on steeples are very common; perhaps the best known is the one on +Preston, Lancashire:-- + + "Proud Preston, poor people, + High church and low steeple." + +In a somewhat similar strain is the one on Bowness-on-Windermere:-- + + "New church and old steeple, + Poor town and proud people." + +Lincolnshire rhymes are very numerous, and a complete collection would +almost fill a book. Here are three:-- + + "Gainsbro' proud people + Built a new church to an old steeple." + +According to the next:-- + + "Luddington poor people + Built a brick church to a stone steeple." + +A question is put and answered thus:-- + + "Boston! Boston! + What hast thou to boast on? + High steeple, proud people, + And shoals that souls are lost on." + +The village of Ugley, Essex, supplies a satirical couplet:-- + + "Ugley church, Ugley steeple, + Ugley parson, Ugley people." + +An old triplet describes the characteristics of three church spires +thus:-- + + "Bloxham for length, + Adderbury for strength, + King-Sutton for beauty." + +Almost every district furnishes examples of bell rhymes. We give one +example, and it is from Derbyshire:-- + + "Crich two roller-boulders, + Winfield ting-tangs, + Alfreton kettles, + And Pentrich pans, + Kirk-Hallam candlesticks, + Cossall cow-bells, + Denby cracked puncheons, + And Horsley merry bells." + +It is very generally believed in Derbyshire that the town of Alfreton was +once the stake at a game of cards--"put," and that the loser exclaimed on +the cards being dealt out:-- + + "If I have not an ace, a deuce, and tray, + Farewell, Alfreton, for ever and aye." + +There is a similar couplet respecting Carnfield Hall, near to Alfreton. It +is related by Mr. E. Kirk, a Lancashire folk-lorist, that the owner of a +large farm in Goosnargh, called Landscales, staked his land at a game of +"put." He received his three cards, which were a tray, a deuce, and an +ace, and he put--that is, struck the table with his fist, in proof of his +resolution to abide by the issue of his cards. His opponent had two trays +and a deuce. The farm was consequently lost, and its owner exclaimed:-- + + "Ace, deuce, and tray, + Landscales, go thy way." + +A Derbyshire rhyme refers to the inhabitants of four places as follows:-- + + "Ripley ruffians, + Butterly blocks, + Swanwick bulldogs, + Alfreton shacks." + +Equally severe is the following on the people of the villages between +Norwich and Yarmouth:-- + + "Halvergate hares, Reedham rats, + Southwood swine, and Cantley cats, + Acle asses, Moulton mules, + Beighton bears, and Freethorpe fools." + +Of Derbyshire folk it is said:-- + + "Derbyshire born and Derbyshire bred, + Strong in the arm, but weak in the head." + +The next are two Kentish rhymes:-- + + "Sutton for mutton + Kerby for beef, + South Darve for gingerbread, + Dartford for a thief." + +This is complimentary:-- + + "English lord, German count, and French marquies, + A yeoman of Kent is worth all three." + +It is said of Herefordshire:-- + + "They who buy a house in Herefordshire + Pay three years' purchase for the air." + +Says a Gloucestershire rhyme:-- + + "Blest is the eye + Betwixt Severn and Wye." + +In the same shire is the next couplet:-- + + "Beggarly Birley, strutting Stroud, + Hampton poor, and Painswick proud." + +Many more rhymes similar to the foregoing might be given, if space +permitted; but we have only room for a few more examples, and they relate +to the weather. An old distich says:-- + + "When clouds are on the hills, + They'll come down by the mills." + +Another rhyme states:-- + + "When the mist comes from the hill, + Then good weather it doth spill. + When the mist comes from the sea, + Then good weather it will be." + +In Worcestershire there is a saying:-- + + "When Bredon Hill puts on his hat, + Ye men of the vale, beware of that." + +Says a Yorkshire rhyme:-- + + "When Oliver's Mount puts on his hat, + Scarbro' town must pay for that." + +In the same broad shire is a similar couplet:-- + + "When Ingleboro' wears a hat, + Ribblesdale'll hear o' that." + + + + +The Poetry of Toast Lists and Menu Cards. + + +The public dinner-season in provincial England commences early in October +and ends in the middle of March. During that period, at the slightest +provocation, our countrymen are prepared to dine together, not with a +desire of over-indulgence in eating, but to enjoy the pleasant company +usually gathered round the festive board. It is an admitted fact that the +men who are in the habit of attending banquets are generally most +abstemious. Speech, story, and song form a pleasing part of the +proceedings of literary-society dinners, masonic banquets, and the more +homely but not less enjoyable suppers held in connection with the Burns' +Clubs. The toast lists and menu cards are often very interesting; they are +frequently artistic in design, and enriched with quotations from the +poets, which renders them of more than passing interest. A few quotations +from some of the best of those which have come under our notice seem worth +reproducing. The authors represented cover a wide field, ranging from +Shakespeare to Tennyson. The former is the most quotable poet, and he is +most frequently drawn upon. Burns, however, runs him very closely. + +In turning over a pile of toast lists, the first to attract our attention +is the one prepared for the Hull Shakespearean Festival. On the front page +is a portrait of the bard and the familiar line of "rare" Ben Jonson:-- + + "He was not of an age, but for all time." + +Under the first toast--that of the Queen--are two lines from _Henry V._:-- + + "God and his angels guard your sacred throne, + And make you long become it." + +The toast of the evening follows: "The Immortal Memory of +Shakespeare"--Dr. Johnson's well-known verse beneath it:-- + + "Each change of many-coloured life he drew; + Exhausted worlds, and then imagined new; + Existence saw him spurn her bounded reign, + And panting Time toiled after him in vain." + +The third speaker had for his topic "Shakespeare's Universality," with a +motto from _Romeo and Juliet_:-- + + "Monarch of the universal earth." + +Actors and actresses were next toasted under the heading of +"Shakespearean Exponents," with a quotation from _Othello_:-- + + "Speak of me as I am: nothing extenuate, + Nor set down aught in malice." + +The next theme was "Shakespeare and Tragedy," with a line from _Richard +III._:-- + + "I live to look upon their tragedy." + +Then followed "Shakespeare and Comedy," with two lines from the _Taming of +the Shrew_:-- + + "Frame your mind for mirth and merriment, + Which bars a thousand harms." + +Under the sentiment of "Shakespeare and History," is a line from _Henry +IV._ (Part II.):-- + + "There is a history in all men's lives." + +Lastly, "Shakespearean Women" were remembered, and under the toast are +three lines as follow from the third part of _Henry VI._:-- + + "'Tis beauty that doth oft make women proud; + 'Tis virtue that doth make them most admired; + 'Tis modesty that makes them seem divine." + +The programme of music is headed with a couple of lines from _Twelfth +Night_:-- + + "If music be the food of love, play on; + Give me excess of it." + +At the foot of the card is printed "Good Night," and a quotation from +_Macbeth_, as follows:-- + + "At once good night: + Stand not upon the order of your going, + But go at once." + +The toast list of a local literary society contains some happy quotations +from Shakespeare. The speakers are reminded at the commencement of the +programme, in the words from _Hamlet_, that "Brevity is the soul of wit." +The two lines under the toast of "The Prince and Princess of Wales" are +from _Pericles_:-- + + "As jewels lose their glory if neglected, + So princes their renown if not respected." + +A line from _Richard III._:-- + + "Arm, fight, and conquer for England's sake." + +was the motto to the toast of "The Army, Navy, and Auxiliary Forces." +Under the toast of "The Officers of the Club" are words from _Othello_:-- + + "We cannot all be masters." + +Two good lines from the _Taming of the Shrew_ are given with the toast of +"Literature and Science":-- + + "My books and instruments shall be my company, + On them to look and practise by myself." + +A line under the toast of "The Press" says, in the words of the _Merchant +of Venice_:-- + + "There are some shrewd contents in your paper." + +We have seen on several menu cards:-- + + "A good digestion to you all, and once more + I shower a welcome on you--welcome all." + --_Henry VIII._ + +A more general quotation (from _Macbeth_) is:-- + + "Now good digestion wait on appetite, + And health on both." + +The bill of fare for the Tercentenary Banquet held in 1864, at +Stratford-on-Avon, in honour of Shakespeare, is perhaps the best specimen +of cuisine literature ever produced. The following are a few of the +edibles and the quotations:-- + +Roast turkey:-- + + "Why, here comes swelling like a turkey-cock." + --_Henry V._ + +Roast fowls:-- + + "There is a fowl without a feather." + --_Comedy of Errors._ + +Ducks:-- + + "O dainty duck!"--_Midsummer Night's Dream._ + +Boar's head:-- + + "Like a full-acorned boar."--_Cymbeline._ + +York hams:-- + + "Sweet stem from York's great stock." + --_Henry VI._ (Part I.). + +Tongues:-- + + "Silence is only commendable in a neat's tongue dried." + --_Merchant of Venice._ + +Mayonnaise of lamb:-- + + "Was never gentle lamb more mild."--_Richard II._ + +Braised lamb and beef:-- + + "What say you to a piece of beef and mustard? + A dish that I love to feed upon." + --_Taming of the Shrew._ + +Roast lamb:-- + + "Come you to seek the lamb here?" + --_Measure for Measure._ + +Lobster and mayonnaise salads:-- + + "Sallet was born to do me good."--_Henry IV._ (Part II.). + +Dressed lobsters and crabs:-- + + "There's no meat like them: I could wish my best friend at such a + feast."--_Timon of Athens._ + +Desserts, cakes, jellies, and creams:-- + + "The queen of curds and cream."--_Winter's Tale._ + +Dressed potatoes:-- + + "Let the sky rain potatoes."--_Merry Wives of Windsor._ + +Bitter ale:-- + + "And here's the pot of good double beer, neighbour: + Drink, and fear not your man."--_Henry VI._ (Part II.). + +In addition to the foregoing, many interesting and well-chosen quotations +appear on the famous bill of fare. + +The bill of fare of the Annual Dinner of the Norwich Saint Andrew Society, +held in 1896, was headed, "Caird o' Guid Things":-- + + "KAIL BREE. + Maukin. + Cockie Leekie. + + GUID CALLER FISH. + Sole-fleuks, baned an' stovit. + Caller Cod wi' Sauce o' Caller Ou. + + THE HAGGIS. + "Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face, + Great Chieftain, o' the puddin' race!" + + "A nip o' Fairntosh, an' it's no ower perjinkitie measure!" + + ROAST AN' BILED. + Sheeps' Hurdies. + Sirloins o' Nowte. + Biled Chuckies an' Tongue. + Rostit Bubblyjock wi' Sausages. + Tatties Biled an' Champit. + Curly Kail. + + "I'm thinkin', Sandy, we wadna be the waur o' a drappie." + + Roastit Feesants wi' Raupit Tatties. + + CONFECTOURI. + Figmaleerie o' Fruits. + Jeelies. + Plum Puddin'. + Mince Pies. + Apple Tairts and Cream. + Kebbuck wi' Celery an' guid Oat Farls. + + DESSERT AN' COFFEE. + "Let them that wants Coffee, hae Coffee; I'm thinkin' I'll hae a dram!" + +The birthday of Burns is celebrated in all parts of the world: wherever +Scotchmen are located the bard is honoured. We have before us a number of +Burns dinner toast lists, and several are headed "Should auld acquaintance +be forgot?" + +The following are from the toast lists of the Hull Burns' Club. Under the +toast of "The Queen," two lines appear:-- + + "In the field of proud honour, our swords in our hand, + Our Queen and our country to save." + +To the toast of "The Mayor, Sheriff, and Corporation" is this couplet:-- + + "How wisdom and folly meet, mix, and unite; + How virtue and vice blend their black and their white." + +The toast of the evening, "The Memory of Burns," has under it the +following verse from _The Cotter's Saturday Night_:-- + + "O Scotia! my dear, my native soil! + For whom my warmest wish to Heaven is sent! + Long may thy hardy sons of rustic toil + Be blessed with health, and peace, and sweet content." + +We have seen inscribed with this toast a verse from one of Bennoch's +beautiful poems:-- + + "With reverent silence we will fill + A cup whene'er this day returns, + And pledge the memory of the Bard, + The Bard of Nature--Robert Burns, + Immortal Burns." + +Appended to the toast of "The Hull Burns' Club" are the noble lines:-- + + "It's coming yet, for a' that, + That man to man, the warld o'er, + Shall brithers be for a' that." + +"The Visitors," "Kindred Societies," are included with suitable +quotations. The verse under the toast of "The Press" is a happy +selection:-- + + "Here's freedom to him that wad read, + Here's freedom to him that wad write, + There's nane ever feared that the truth should be heard, + But they whom the truth would indite." + +We have seen the following quoted several times with this toast:-- + + "A chiel's amang you takin' notes, + And faith he'll prent it." + +The concluding toast, that of "The Lassies," has the familiar lines:-- + + "The wisest man the warl' e'er saw, + He dearly loved the lassies, O!" + +At a dinner of the Hull Literary Club the toast list was enriched with +quotations from the works of the Poet Laureate. An excerpt from _The +Princess_ on the first page says:-- + + "Hark the bell + For dinner, let us go!" + +Two lines from a poem, _To the Rev. F. D. Maurice_, head the list:-- + + "You'll have no scandal while you dine, + But honest talk and wholesome wine." + +To the toast of "The Queen" are four lines, as follow:-- + + "Her Court was pure; her life serene; + God gave her peace; her land reposed; + A thousand claims to reverence closed + In her as Mother, Wife, and Queen." + +Five lines from _The Battle of Brunanburgh_ are given to the toast of "Our +Brave Defenders":-- + + "Theirs was a greatness + Got from their grandsires-- + Theirs that so often in + Strife with their enemies, + Struck for their hoards and their hearths and their homes." + +Two quotations appear under the toast of "Success to the Hull Literary +Club":-- + + "We rub each other's angles down."--_In Memoriam._ + + "Work in noble brotherhood."--_Exhibition Ode._ + +With the toast of "Literature and the Arts" is the line:-- + + "Let knowledge grow from more to more." + +Under "The Press":-- + + "News from the humming city comes to it." + +The line under the toast of "The Ladies" is brief and graceful:-- + + "Made to be loved." + + + + +Toasts and Toasting. + + +Toasting and drinking were more general half a century ago than they are +at the present time. In the earlier years of the Queen's reign temperance, +if not teetotalism, was, it is true, making headway, but in a great +measure convivial customs were maintained, and toasting was popular. Books +were published to supply suitable toasts, for public and private parties. +Such compilations must have been extremely useful to those who attended +social gatherings, and were not able to express graceful and pithy +sentiments. + +We have before us a little work issued in London in 1847, under the title +of "The Social and Convivial Toast-Master; and Compendium of Sentiment." +It consists of prose and poetry arranged under various headings, such as +Loyal and Patriotic, Naval and Military, Masonic, Bacchanalian, Amatory, +Sporting, Political, Sentimental, and lastly, Miscellaneous. It cannot be +without interest to reproduce from this rare volume a few examples of the +toasts of the earlier Victorian era. + +The opening section of the book is devoted to loyal and patriotic toasts. +The first toast is this:-- + + "Albert and Victoria; may their union be cemented by love and + affection, and their Royal offspring adorn the station they are + destined to fill." + +A brief and popular toast was:-- + + "Church and Queen." + +Another sentiment was:-- + + "Happiness to the Royal pair--Victoria and Albert." + +A longer toast is as follows:-- + + "Here's a health to Her Majesty, + Conversion to her enemies, + And he that will not pledge her health + I wish him neither wit nor wealth, + Nor yet a rope to hang himself." + +Another toast is to this effect:-- + + "Health to the Queen, prosperity to the people, and may the Ministry + direct their endeavours to the public good rather than engage in party + distinction." + +A favourite sentiment was:-- + + "Great Britain's rising star, the Prince of Wales." + +Many of the patriotic toasts ask for reforms:-- + + "A revision of the code of criminal laws." + +At this period they were extremely severe. + + "A speedy restoration of the rights of the people." + +was another toast, and not a few related to Ireland. + + "Truth for England and justice for Ireland" + +is one, and another says:-- + + "The birthplace of wit, the home of hospitality--Ireland." + +Patriotic toasts relating to Scotland are numerous, such as:-- + + "Scotland, the birthplace of valour--the country of worth." + + "Scottish heroes; and may their fame live for ever." + +A popular toast of the past was:-- + + "The independence of Greece and the memory of Byron." + +The dislike to France by our fathers is plainly indicated in several +sentiments:-- + + "May French principles never corrupt English manners." + +It would appear from many of the toasts that the nation was weary of war +and wanted peace and liberty. The plea for liberty occurs in many of the +sentiments; it is the closing wish of the following:-- + + "May peace o'er Britain spread her wing, + And commerce fill her ports with gold; + May arts and science comfort bring, + And liberty her sons enfold." + +The naval and military toasts, as befits a nation that has gained glory in +battles on sea and land, are on the whole good. A few examples only must +suffice. How out of date our first appears in this age of ironclads:-- + + "Old England's wooden walls." + +Here is a punning toast:-- + + "Sir Home Popham--and pop-home to all our enemies." + +A nautical toast is:-- + + "To Nelson's memory here's a health, + And to his gallant tars, + And may our British seamen bold, + Despite both wounds and scars, + Make France and Spain, + And all the main + And all the foes to know, + Britons reign o'er the main, + While the stormy winds do blow." + +Says another toast:-- + + "May the deeds never be forgot that were done at Trafalgar and + Waterloo." + +Wellington is not neglected in the toasts, but he is not so popular as +Nelson. The feats of the Life Guards at Waterloo are remembered:-- + + "The Life Guards: that washed out in blood the blots of Piccadilly." + +Another famous regiment is thus toasted:-- + + "The Scotch Greys: that made the Eagles look black." + +Half a century ago was a toast which will find to-day a response in many +hearts:-- + + "The Greeks: may they never fall under Turkish bondage." + +Many of the masonic sentiments are fine; they are amongst the best in the +book. Here is good teaching:-- + + "May we never condemn that in a brother which we pardon in ourselves." + + "May the evening's diversions bear the morning's reflections." + + "May every society instituted for the promotion of virtue--flourish." + +Other toasts are equally good, but the masonic allusions make them more +suitable for the perusal of members of the craft than for the public. + +Next in order come Bacchanalian toasts. Some of the sentiments would not +meet with favour in well regulated society at the present period, but we +doubt not were hailed with delight in the hard drinking days of old. The +first toast under this head is:-- + + "A friend and a bottle of wine to give him." + +Wine and women find a place in not a few of the sentiments:-- + + "A full purse, a fresh bottle, and a pretty face." + + "Beauty, wit, and wine." + + "Wine, women, and wit." + +The foregoing are brief, and are perhaps the best toasts which link women +with wine. The next is not a bad toast:-- + + "May our love of the glass never make us forget decency." + +Punning examples are included, such as the two following:-- + + "May good fellows be found in every port, and all bad ones obliged to + sherry out." + + "May we never be out of spirits." + +On the whole, the toasts under this heading are not equal in merit to many +of the others in the volume. + +We find amatory toasts next in order, and of this class quote three +examples:-- + + "The fairest work of nature--women." + + "The village maid, may she remain so till she gets a good husband." + + "Love without deceit, and matrimony without regret." + +Sporting sentiments are by no means numerous; only four pages are devoted +to them. The following are specimens:-- + + "May the thirst of blood never disgrace a British sportsman." + + "May the love of the chase never interrupt our attention to the + welfare of the country." + + "The huntsman's pleasures--the field in the morning, the bottle at + night." + +Some are in rhyme, and the following is a favourable example:-- + + "May jovial hunters in the morn + Prepare them for the chase; + Rise at the sounding of the horn, + And health with sport enhance." + +Under the heading of political toasts are a number free from party +sentiment, advocating more the glory of our country than the praise of a +particular party. We can quite understand how favourably a toast like the +following would be received:-- + + "The British Lion, may he never rise in anger and sit down in fear." + +The next is brief:-- + + "Death or Liberty." + +A popular toast is as follows:-- + + "Here's to England, the ruler and queen of the waves, + May she ever be found to give freedom to slaves. + May she always extend to the weak and oppressed, + Those blessings with which her own have been blessed. + +Lastly, let us quote one that in our day might be taken to heart by those +in office:-- + + "May Ministers while they are servants of the Crown never forget that + they are representatives of the people." + +Next in order come sentimental toasts. Examples of these may almost be +culled at random to represent the whole, for there is a great sameness +about them:-- + + "May our great men be good and our good men great." + + "May goodness prevail where beauty fails." + + "May we never be lost to hope." + + "Our friends, our country, our laws, home, love, and liberty." + +Two pages are devoted to flash toasts, but as far as we are able to judge +are without interest. + +The work closes with a varied and interesting collection of toasts under +the heading of "Miscellaneous," and contains excellent examples of the wit +and wisdom of bygone times. The celebrated Roxburghe Club of book-lovers +was founded in 1812, and has given to the world many valuable volumes. The +social side of the society was well sustained, and the following are the +ten bibliomania toasts which were honoured at the festive gatherings:-- + + 1. "The immortal memory of Christopher Valdarfer, printer of the + Boccaccio of 1471." + + 2. "The memory of William Caxton, founder of the British Press." + + 3. "To the memory of Wynkyn de Worde, Pynson, and Notary, successors + of Caxton." + + 4. "The memory of John, Duke of Roxburghe." + + 5. "The memory of Lady Juliana Barnes and the St. Albans' Press." + + 6. "The memory of Gutenberg, Fust, and Schoeffer, fathers of the art + of printing." + + 7. "The Aldine family of Venice." + + 8. "The Giunti family of Florence." + + 9. "The prosperity of the Roxburghe Club, and in all cases the cause + of Bibliomania all over the world." + + 10. "The Society of the Bibliophiles Francais." + +By-the-way, in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, is a memorial to the +first English printer, bearing the following inscription:-- + + "To the memory of + William Caxton, + Who first introduced into Great Britain + The Art of Printing; + And, who, A.D. 1477 or earlier, exercised that art in the + Abbey of Westminster, + This Tablet, + In remembrance of one to whom the literature of this + country is so largely indebted, was raised + Anno Domini MDCCCXX + By the Roxburghe Club. + Earl Spencer, K.G., President." + +Professional sentiments are rather plentiful. The surgeon's toast is:-- + + "The man that bleeds for his country." + +The schoolmaster's toasts are rather numerous, but not without point:-- + + "Addition to patriots, + Subtraction to placemen, + Multiplication to the friends of peace, + Division to its enemies, + Reduction to abuses, + Rule of three to king, lords, and commons, + Practice to reformation, + Fellowship to Britons, + Discount to the National Debt, + Decimal fractions to the clergy." + +Toasts of musicians are included:-- + + "May a crotchet in the head never bar the utterance of good notes." + +A second sentiment is:-- + + "May the lovers of harmony never be in want of a note, and its enemies + die in a common chord." + +Tradesmen's toasts are very plentiful, and several include puns. Here is +the hatter's sentiment:-- + + "When the rogue naps it, may the lesson be felt." + +Respecting the baker is the following:-- + + "May we never be done so much as to make us crusty." + +The glazier's toast is:-- + + "The praiseworthy glazier who takes pains to see his way through + life." + +A rather longer toast is that of the greengrocer:-- + + "May we spring up like vegetables, have turnip noses, reddish cheeks, + and carroty hair--and may our hearts never be hard like those of + cabbages, nor may we be rotten at the core." + +The sentiment of the pawnbroker is:-- + + "When we lend our cash to a friend, may it be to his interest to pay + the principal, and his principle to pay the interest." + +The shoemaker's toast is:-- + + "May the cobbler's lapstones never fail him." + +In another toast we have an allusion to shoes:-- + + "May the enemies of Great Britain always have long corns and short + shoes." + +Here we close this curious collection of toasts, feeling thankful that +such a book is no longer required for the every-day use of the people. A +great change for the better has come over the manners and customs of our +countrymen. Turning over the pages of this publication has given us +pleasure, and we trust the quotations culled from it may not fail to +interest our readers. + + + + +Curious American Old-Time Gleanings. + + +"The only true history of a country," said Lord Macaulay, "is to be found +in its newspapers." Sir George Cornewall Lewis expressed his conviction +that the historian of the future will find all his materials in the +_Times_. The American historian Mr. Bancroft seldom saw a newspaper +without drawing from it materials for his works. The story-teller often +obtains from the daily and weekly press suggestive notes. Charles Reade +made excellent use of the romantic episodes recorded in the newspapers. +His scrapbooks containing clippings from the papers were numerous and +valuable, and amongst his most cherished treasures. Many modern men of +letters might be mentioned who are alive to the importance of preserving +facts drawn from the journals of the day. + +Professor James Davie Butler, LL.D., a few years ago wrote an amusing and +at the same time a valuable paper on Scrap-books. He related how he had +corrected, through seeing in an old Connecticut newspaper an +advertisement, statements made by the leading historians of America. It +was respecting the horse of General Stark, a hero in the American War, who +broke Burgoyne's left wing. Headley says, "Stark's horse sank under him." +Everett states, "The General's horse was killed in the action." Irving +writes, "The veteran had his horse shot under him." They were led to make +the statement from a postscript of a letter the General wrote saying, "I +lost my horse in the action." Here is the advertisement referred to:-- + + "TWENTY DOLLARS REWARD.--Stolen from me, the subscriber, in the time + of action, the 16th of August last, a Brown Mare, five years old; had + a star in her forehead. Also a doeskin seated saddle, blue housing + trimmed with white, and a curbed bridle.--It is earnestly requested of + all Committees of Safety, and others in authority, to exert themselves + to recover the said Mare, so that the thief may be brought to justice + and the Mare brought to me; and the person, whoever he be, shall + receive the above reward for both; and for the Mare alone, one-half + that sum. How scandalous, how disgraceful and ignominious, must it + appear to all friendly and generous souls to have such sly, artful, + designing villains enter into the field of action in order to pillage, + pilfer, and plunder from their brethren when engaged in battle! + + JOHN STARK, B.D.G. + + Bennington, 11th Sept., 1777." + +The foregoing may be regarded as a good proof of the value of historical +facts gleaned from newspapers. + +In recent years several interesting works have been compiled from old +newspapers. Perhaps the most important is a set of volumes entitled "The +Olden Times Series," prepared by Mr. Henry M. Brooks, a painstaking +antiquary, and published in Boston, Massachusetts. Not the least +interesting of the volumes is one devoted to the _New England Sunday_. The +opening page proves that neither the rich nor the poor were permitted to +break the strict Sabbath regulations. In Connecticut, in 1789, General +Washington was stopped by the officer representing the State authorities +for riding on Sunday. The circumstances were reported in the columns of +the _Columbian Centinel_ for December of that year. "The President," it is +stated, "on his return to New York from his late tour through Connecticut, +having missed his way on Saturday, was obliged to ride a few miles on +Sunday, in order to gain the town, at which he had previously proposed to +attend divine service. Before he arrived, however, he was met by a +Tythingman, who, commanding him to stop, demanded the occasion of his +riding; and it was not until the President had informed him of every +circumstance, and promised to go no farther than the town intended, that +the Tythingman would permit him to proceed on his journey." + +In the old days, little attempt was made to render the places of worship +attractive, or even to warm the rooms in which the preachers delivered +their long sermons, although the people were obliged by law to attend the +services unless they were sick. It was a serious matter not to be a +"meeting-goer," it was, as Mr. Brooks says, to be ranged with thieves and +other outlaws. Mr. Felt, the compiler of the _Annals of Salem_, has +brought together some items of interest bearing on the introduction of +stoves into the churches of the district. "For a long period," writes Mr. +Felt, "the people of our country did not consider that a comfortable +degree of warmth while at public worship contributed much to a profitable +hearing of the gospel." He states that the first stove heard of in +Massachusetts for a meeting-house was put up by the first Congregation of +Boston in 1773. Two stoves were placed in the Friends' Society +meeting-house at Salem in 1793, and one in the North Church, Salem in +1809. "Not a few remember," writes Mr. Brooks, "the general knocking of +feet on cold days and near the close of long sermons. On such occasions, +the Rev. Dr. Hopkins used to say now and then: 'My hearers, have a little +patience, and I will soon close.'" + +One of Mr. Brook's volumes deals with _Strange and Curious Punishments_, +and it gives particulars of many harsh and cruel laws. It appears, from an +address delivered before the Essex Bar Association in 1885, that the +old-time punishments in America were much milder than the criminal laws of +England at the time, and the number of capital offences was greatly +reduced. Persons were frequently whipped. The following is an example +drawn from the Essex County Court Records: "In 1643, Roger Scott, for +repeated sleeping in meeting on the Lord's Day, and for striking the +person who waked him, was, at Salem, sentenced to be severely whipped." + +Whipping appears to have been a common means of punishing offenders who +transgressed the laws. In the month of January, 1761, we see it stated +that four men for petty larceny were publicly whipped at the cart's tail +through the streets of New York. We gather from another newspaper report +that a man named Andrew Cayto received forty-nine stripes at the public +whipping-post for house-robbery--namely, for robbing one house, +thirty-nine stripes; and for robbing the other, ten stripes. It appears in +some instances prisoners had, as part of their sentence, to sit on the +gallows with ropes about their necks. We read: "At Ipswich, Massachusetts, +June 1763, one Francis Brown for stealing a large quantity of goods, was +found guilty; and it being the second conviction, he was sentenced by the +Court to sit on the gallows an hour with a rope round his neck, to be +whipt thirty stripes, and pay treble damages." The man was a native of +Lisbon, and described as a great thief. "We hear from Worcester," says the +_Boston Chronicle_, November 20th, 1769, "that on the 8th instant one +Lindsay stood in the pillory there one hour, after which he received +thirty stripes at the public whipping-post, and was then branded on the +hand; his crime was forgery." It appears that it was the custom to brand +by means of hot iron the letter F on the palm of the right hand. + +We find that at this period persons found guilty of passing counterfeit +dollars were sentenced to have their ears cropped. + +To illustrate his subject Mr. Brooks draws from Felt's _Annals of Salem_ +not a few quaint items. It is stated that "in 1637, Dorothy Talby, for +beating her husband, is ordered to be bound to and chained to a post." It +is recorded that "in 1649 women were prosecuted in Salem for scolding," +and probably in many cases whipped or ducked. The ducking-stool appears to +have been frequently employed. Under date of May 15th 1672, we find it +stated: "The General Court of Massachusetts orders that scolds and railers +shall be gagged or set in a ducking stool, and dipped over head and ears +three times." + +We find particulars of one Philip Ratclif for making "hard speeches +against Salem Church, as well as the Government," sentenced to pay "forty +pounds, to be whipped, to have his ears cropped, and to be banished." The +date of this case is 1631. In the _Annals of Salem_, under date for May +3rd, 1669, it is recorded that "Thomas Maule is ordered to be whipped for +saying that Mr. Higgenson preached lies, and that his instruction was 'the +doctrine of devils.'" + +The Quakers were very severely dealt with. At Salem, for making +disturbances in the meeting-house, etc., Josiah Southwick, Mrs. Wilson, +Mrs. Buffum, and other Quakers, were whipped at the cart's tail through +the town. After being banished, Southwick returned to Salem, and for this +offence was whipped through the towns of Boxton, Roxbury, and Dedham. + +In bygone times, hanging the remains of persons executed was general in +England; in America it was an uncommon practice. Mr. Brooks, however, +gives particulars of a few instances. At Newport, Rhode Island, on March +12th, 1715, a man named Mecum, was executed for murder; and his body hung +in chains on Miantonomy Hill, where the bodies of some Indians executed +three years previously were then hanging. A negro hanged at Newport in +1769 was gibbetted on the same hill. + +A few lighter passages than those we have studied brighten up the records +of American punishments, which were very severe. A prisoner in February, +1789, escaped through the jail chimney at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and +wrote on the wall as follows: "The reason of my going is because I have no +fire to comfort myself with, and very little provision. So I am sure if I +was to stay any longer I should perish to death. Look at that bed there! +Do you think it fit for any person to lie on? + + "If you are well, I am well; + Mend the chimney, and all's well!" + +To the gentlemen and officers of Portsmouth, from your humble servant, + + WILLIAM FALL. + +"N.B.--I am very sorry that I did not think of this before, for if I had, +your people should not have had the pleasure of seeing me take the +lashes." + +_Curiosities of the Lottery_ is the title of another volume of Mr. +Brooks's "Olden Time Series." Selling lottery tickets was regarded as a +respectable calling. "The better the man," says Mr. Brooks, "the better +the agent. Indeed, it was generally thought to be just as respectable to +sell lottery tickets as to sell Bibles; and we have them classed together +in the same advertisement." In England, we must not forget the fact that +the business was conducted on the same lines in bygone times. The first +lottery in this country was drawn day and night at the west door of St. +Paul's Cathedral, London, from the 11th of January to May 6th, 1569. The +profit, which was considerable, was devoted to the repair of harbours. The +prizes consisted of pieces of plate. + +In the United States, lotteries were instituted for a variety of objects, +including building bridges, cleaning rivers, rebuilding Faneuil Hall, +raising money to successfully carry on the work of Dartmouth College, +Harvard College, and other seats of learning. The advertisements were +extremely quaint, illustrated with crudely drawn but effective pictures, +and supplied "a speedy cure for a broken fortune." Rhymes as well as +pictures were largely employed in advertisements for lotteries. Much has +been spoken and written against lotteries; but, nevertheless, in some of +the States of the Union they are still lawful. + +With a dip into a volume called _Days of the Spinning Wheel_, we bring our +old-time gleanings to a close. The items we cull relate to a trade once +very general in the United States, but happily now a thing of the past. +Advertisements similar to the following appeared in all the American +newspapers; not a few of the publishers took an active part in the trade +of buying and selling human beings. "To be sold," advertises the _Boston +Evening Gazette_, 1741, "by the printer of this paper, the very best negro +woman in this town, who has had the small pox and measles; is as hearty as +a horse, as brisk as a bird, and will work like a beaver." The same +publisher stated that he also had on sale "a negro man about thirty years +old, who can do both town and country business very well, but will suit +the country best, where they have not so many dram-shops as we have in +Boston. He has worked at the printing business fifteen or sixteen years; +can handle axe, saw, spade, hoe, or other instrument of husbandry as well +as most men, and values himself and is valued by others for his skill in +cookery." + +In the _Gazette_ of May 12, 1760, is offered for sale "a negro woman about +twenty-eight years of age; she is remarkably healthy and strong, and has +several other good qualities; and is offered for sale for no other reason +than her being of a furious temper, somewhat lazy. Smart discipline would +make her a very good servant. Any person minded to purchase may be further +informed by inquiring of the printer." It will be gathered from the +foregoing that the faults of the slaves were clearly stated. + +Children were often given away; and many announcements like the following, +drawn from the _Postboy_, February 28, 1763, appeared:--"To be given away, +a male negro child of good breed, and in good health. Inquire of Green +and Russell." + +Runaway slaves gave considerable trouble to their owners, and the papers +include numerous advertisements, details respecting appearance, speech, +dress, etc., of the missing persons. After describing his runaway slave, +the owner concluded his announcement thus: "All masters of vessels and +others are cautioned against harbouring, concealing, or carrying off the +said negro, if they would avoid the rigour of the law." + + + + +The Earliest American Poetess: + +Anne Bradstreet. + + +To Northamptonshire belongs the honour of giving birth to the first woman +poet who produced a volume of poetry in America. Her name was Anne +Bradstreet. She was born in the year 1612. The place of her birth is not +absolutely certain. "There is little doubt," says Helen Campbell, the +author of "Anne Bradstreet, and Her Time," "that Northampton, England, was +the home of her father's family." At an early age she sailed with her +father, Thomas Dudley, to Massachusetts Bay, he being one of the earliest +settlers in New England. For some years he had been steward to the Earl of +Lincoln. He was a man of means, and belonged to a good family, claiming +kinship with the Dudleys and Sidneys of Penshurst. Literature had for him +many charms; he wrote poetry, and, says his daughter, he was a "magazine +of history." He left his native country and braved the perils of sea and +land to settle in a distant clime where he might worship God according to +his conscience. This stern, truth-speaking Puritan soon had his sterling +merits recognised, and held the governorship of Massachusetts from 1634 to +1650. He closed at the age of seventy-seven years a well-spent life. After +death, in his pocket were found some of his recently written verses. His +daughter Anne was a woman of active and refined mind, having acquired +considerable culture at a time when educational accomplishments were +possessed by few. She suffered much from ill-health; in her girlhood she +was stricken with small pox, and was also lame. Her many trials cast a +tinge of sadness over her life and writings. + +She grew up to be a winsome woman, gaining esteem from the leading people +of her adopted country, and her fame as a writer of poetry reached the +land of her nativity. + +She married, in 1629, Simon Bradstreet, Secretary, and afterwards +Governor, of the Colony. + +Her first volume, published at Boston in 1640, was dedicated to her +father. The title is very long, and is as follows: "Several Poems, +compiled with great variety of wit and learning, full of delight, wherein +especially is contained a Complete Discourse and Description of the Four +Elements, Constitutions, Ages of Man, and Seasons of the Year; together +with an exact Epitome of the Three First Monarchies, viz.: the Assyrian, +Persian, and Grecian, and the Beginning of the Roman Commonwealth to the +end of their last King; with divers other pleasant and serious Poems. By a +Gentlewoman of New England." The book met with much favour, and soon +passed into a second edition. In the third edition, issued in 1658, her +character is thus sketched: "It is the work of a woman honoured and +esteemed where she lives, for her gracious demeanour, her eminent parts, +her pious conversation, her courteous disposition, her exact diligence in +her place, and discreet management of her family occasions; and more so, +these poems are the fruits of a few hours curtailed from her sleep, and +other refreshments." The work was reprinted and published in London in +1650, with the high-sounding title of "The Tenth Muse, lately sprung up in +America." Compared with much that was written in the age in which she +lived, her poetry is entitled to a foremost rank, but it is not +sufficiently good to gain for it a lasting place in literature. It mainly +attracts attention in our time as being the first collection of poetry +published in America. + +Professor Charles F. Richardson, one of the soundest American critics, +speaks of some of the poems as by "no means devoid of merit, though +disfigured by a paucity of words and stiffness of style." The estimable +writer of this volume won words of praise from her leading countrymen. +President Rogers, of Harvard College, himself a poet, thus addressed +her:-- + + "Madam, twice through the Muses's grove I walked + Under your blissful bowers-- + Twice have I drunk the nectar of your lines." + +All her critics were not so complimentary as President Rogers. Some did +not think that a woman had a right to produce poetry and to such she +adverts in the following lines:-- + + "I am obnoxious to each carping tongue + Who says my hand a needle better fits, + A poet's pen all scorn I should thus wrong, + For such despite they cast on female wits: + If what I do prove well, it won't advance; + They'll say it's stol'n, or else it was by chance." + +Here are four lines on "The Vanity of all Worldly Things," which, give a +favourable example of her poetic power:-- + + "As he said vanity, so vain say I, + Oh vanity, O vain all under sky; + Where is man can say, lo! I have found + On brittle earth a consolation sound?" + +The next specimen of her poetry is an "Elegy on a Grandchild":-- + + "Farewell, sweet babe, the pleasure of mine eye; + Farewell, fair flower, that for a space was lent, + Then ta'en away into eternity. + Blest Babe, why should I once bewail thy fate, + Or sigh the days so soon were terminate, + Sith thou art settled in an everlasting state?" + + "By nature trees do rot when they are grown, + And plums and apples thoroughly ripe do fall, + And corn and grass are in their season mown, + And time brings down what is both strong and tall; + But plants new set to be eradicate, + And buds new-bloom to have so short a date, + 'Tis by His hand alone that nature guides, and fate." + +The lines which follow were written in the prospect of death, and +addressed to her husband:-- + + "How soon, my dear, death may my steps attend, + How soon 't may be thy lot to lose thy friend, + We both are ignorant. Yet love bids me + These farewell lines to recommend to thee, + That, when that knot's untied that made us one + I may seem thine, who in effect am none. + + "And, if I see not half my days that's due, + What Nature would God grant to yours and you. + The many faults that well you know I have, + Let be interred in my oblivious grave; + If any virtue is in me, + Let that live freshly in my memory; + And when thou feel'st no griefs, as I no harms, + Yet live thy dead, who long lay in thine arms; + And, when thy loss shall be repaid with gains, + Look to my little babes, my dear remains, + And, if thou lov'st thyself or lovest me, + These, oh protect from step-dame's injury! + And, if chance to thine eyes doth bring this verse, + With some sighs honour my absent hearse, + And kiss this paper, for thy love's dear sake, + Who with salt tears this last farewell doth take." + +In the year 1666, her house at Andover was consumed by fire, and her +letters and papers destroyed, which put an end to one of her literary +projects. Six years later she died, at the age of sixty years. It is said +of her by an American author: "Her numbers are seldom correct, and her ear +had little of Milton's tenderness or Shakespeare's grace; yet she was the +contemporary of England's greatest poets, the offspring of that age of +melody which had begun with Spenser and Sidney, an echo, from the distant +wilderness of the period of universal song." Several of her descendants +are amongst the most gifted of American poets; they include Channing, +Dana, Holmes, and others. Her husband nearly reached the age of a hundred +years, and was termed "the Nestor of New England." + + + + +A Playful Poet: + +Miss Catherine Fanshawe. + + +Several lasting contributions were made to poetical literature by Miss +Catherine Maria Fanshawe. In the literary and artistic circles of London +in the closing years of the last century, and for more than three decades +of the present century she was popular. + +Miss Fanshawe was born in 1775, and came of a good old English family. At +an early age she displayed literary gifts full of promise. The following +sonnet, written at the age of fourteen and addressed to her mother, has +perhaps not been excelled by any youthful writer:-- + + "Oh thou! who still by piercing woe pursued, + Alone and pensive, pour'st thy sorrows here, + Forgive, if on thy griefs I dare intrude + To wipe from thy lov'd cheek the falling tear. + Dear mourner, think!--thy son will weep no more; + His life was spotless, and his death was mild, + And, when this vain delusive life is o'er, + He'll shine a seraph, whom thou lost a child. + Then, as we bend before th' eternal throne, + Oh may'st thou, with exulting accents boast, + 'Now shall my children ever be my own, + For none of those thou gavest me are lost.' + With rapture then thou'lt meet th' angelic boy, + And she who sow'd in tears shall meet in joy." + + _August, 1789._ + +A long playful poem composed at the age of sixteen, was addressed to the +Earl of Harcourt, on his wishing to spell her name, Catherine, with a K. +It displays much erudition, but it is too long to quote in full. We give a +few of the lines pleading for the letter C:-- + + "And can his antiquarian eyes, + My Anglo-Saxon C despise? + And does Lord Harcourt day by day, + Regret the extinct initial K? + And still with ardour unabated, + Labour to get it reinstated? + I know, my lord, your generous passion, + For every long exploded fashion; + And own the Catherine you delight in, + Looks irresistibly inviting, + Appears to bear the stamp and mark, + Of English used in Noah's Ark; + 'But all that glitters is not gold,' + Not all things obsolete are old. + Would you but take the pains to look, + In Dr. Johnson's quarto book + (As I did, wishing much to see, + Th' aforesaid letter's pedigree), + Believe me, 'twould a tale unfold, + Would make your Norman blood run cold; + My lord, you'll find the K's no better, + Than an interpolated letter; + A wand'ring Greek, a franchis'd alien, + Derived from Cadmus or Deucalion; + And why, or wherefore, none can tell, + Inserted 'twixt the J and L. + The learned say, our English tongue + On Gothic beams is built and hung. + Then why the solid fabric piece, + With motley ornaments from Greece? + Her lettered despots had no bowels, + For northern consonants and vowels; + The Roman and the Greek grammarian + Deem'd us, and all our words barbarian; + 'Till those hard words, and harder blows, + Had silenced all our haughty foes; + And proud they were to kiss the sandals + (Shoes we had none) of Goths and Vandals." + +She wrote a satire on William Cobbett, M.P., for Oldham, which was +extremely popular amongst politicians at the period it was penned. This is +not surprising, for it contains some most amusing lines. It is entitled +"The Speech of the Member for Odium." + +In the lighter vein she produced some verses in imitation of the poetry of +Wordsworth. + + "There is a river clear and fair, + 'Tis neither broad nor narrow; + It winds a little here and there, + It winds about like any hare; + And then it takes as straight a course + As on the turnpike road a horse, + Or through the air an arrow. + + The trees that grow upon the shore, + Have grown a hundred years or more, + So long, there is no knowing. + Old Daniel Dobson does not know, + When first these trees began to grow; + But still they grew, and grew, and grew, + As if they'd nothing else to do, + But ever to be growing. + + The impulses of air and sky + Have reared their stately stems so high, + And clothed their boughs with green; + Their leaves the dews of evening quaff,-- + And when the wind blows loud and keen, + I've seen the jolly timbers laugh, + And shake their sides with merry glee-- + Wagging their heads in mockery. + + Fix'd are their feet in solid earth, + Where winds can never blow; + But visitings of deeper birth + Have reached their roots below. + For they have gained the river's brink, + And of the living waters drink. + + There's little Will, a five year's child-- + He is my youngest boy; + To look on eyes so fair and wild, + It is a very joy:-- + He hath conversed with sun and shower, + And dwelt with every idle flower, + As fresh and gay as them. + He loiters with the briar rose, + The blue-bells are his play-fellows, + That dance upon their slender stem. + + And I have said, my little Will + Why should not he continue still + A thing of Nature's rearing? + A thing beyond the world's control-- + A living vegetable soul,-- + No human sorrow fearing. + + It were a blessed sight to see + That child become a willow tree, + His brother trees among. + He'd be four time as tall as me, + And live three times as long." + +It was related by the Rev. William Harness, who did much to make known the +merits of Miss Fanshawe's works, that when the foregoing lines were read +to a distinguished admirer of Wordsworth's poetry, she thought them +beautiful, and wondered why the poet had never shown them to her! + +Miss Fanshawe's fame rests on the authorship of the celebrated riddle on +the letter H, which has frequently been attributed to Byron, and appeared +in more than one edition of his poems. At a party held one evening at the +house of her friend, Mr. Hope, of Deep Dene, the conversation turned upon +the abuse of the aspirate. After the guests had withdrawn, Miss Fanshawe +retired to her room and composed her noted poem. Next morning she read it +at the breakfast table, much to the surprise and delight of the company. +It is as follows:-- + + "'Twas in heaven pronounced, and 'twas muttered in hell, + And echo caught faintly the sound as it fell; + On the confines of earth 'twas permitted to rest, + And the depths of the ocean its presence confest. + 'Twill be found in the sphere, when 'tis riven asunder, + Be seen in the lightning, and heard in the thunder. + 'Twas allotted to man with his earliest breath, + Attends at his birth, and awaits him in death, + Presides o'er his happiness, honour, and health, + Is the prop of his house, and the end of his wealth. + In the heaps of the miser 'tis hoarded with care, + But is sure to be lost on his prodigal heir, + It begins every hope, every wish it must bound, + With the husbandman toils, and with monarchs is crown'd, + Without it the soldier, the seaman may roam, + But woe to the wretch who expels it from home! + In the whispers of conscience its voice will be found, + Nor e'en in the whirlpool of passion be drown'd, + 'Twill not soften the heart; but though deaf to the ear, + It will make it acutely and instantly hear. + Yet in shade let it rest like a delicate flower, + Ah, breathe on it softly--it dies in an hour. + +Some other riddles and charades appear in her collected poems, but none +are of equal merit to the riddle on the letter H. + +Our next example bears the title of an "Ode":-- + + "Lo! where the gaily vestur'd throng, + Fair learning's train, are seen, + Wedg'd in close ranks her walls along, + And up her benches green.[2] + Unfolded to their mental eye + Thy awful form, Sublimity! + The moral teacher shows-- + Sublimity of Silence born, + And Solitude 'mid caves forlorn + And dimly vision'd woes; + Or Stedfast Worth, that inly great + Mocks the malignity of faith. + While whisper'd pleasure's dulcet sound + Murmurs the crowded room around, + And Wisdom, borne on Fashion's pinions, + Exulting hails her new dominions. + Oh! both on me your influence shed, + Dwell in my heart and deck my head! + + Where'er a broader, browner shade + The shaggy beaver throws, + And with the ample feather's aid + O'er canopies the nose; + Where'er with smooth and silken pile, + Ling'ring in solemn pause awhile, + The crimson velvet glows; + From some high benches giddy brink, + Clinton with me begins to think + (As bolt upright we sit) + That dress, like dogs, should have its day, + That beavers are too hot for May, + And velvets quite unfit. + + Then taste, in maxims sweet, I draw + From her unerring lip; + How light, how simple are the straw, + How delicate the chip! + Hush'd is the speaker's powerful voice, + The audience melt away, + I fly to fix my final choice + And bless th' instructive day. + + The milliner officious pours + Of hats and caps her ready stores, + The unbought elegance of spring; + Some wide, disclose the full round face, + Some shadowy, lend a modest grace + And stretch their sheltering wing. + + Here clustering grapes appear to shed + Their luscious juices on the head, + And cheat the longing eye; + So round the Phrygian monarch hung + Fair fruits that from his parched tongue + For ever seem'd to fly. + + Here early blooms the summer rose; + Her ribbons wreathe fantastic bows; + Here plays gay plumage of a thousand dyes-- + Visions of beauty, spare my aching eyes! + Ye cumbrous fashions, crowd not on my head! + Mine be the chip of purest white, + Swan-like, and as her feathers light + When on the still wave spread; + And let it wear the graceful dress, + Of unadorned simpleness. + + Ah! frugal wish; ah! pleasing thought; + Ah! hope indulged in vain; + Of modest fancy chiefly bought + A stranger yet to Payne.[3] + With undissembled grief I tell,-- + For sorrow never comes too late,-- + The simplest bonnet in Pall Mall + Is sold for L1 8_s._ + + To Calculation's sober view, + That searches ev'ry plan, + Who keep the old, or buy the new, + Shall end where they began. + + Alike the shabby and the gay + Must meet the sun's meridian ray; + The air, the dust, the damp. + This, shall the sudden shower despoil; + That slow decay by gradual soil; + Those, envious boxes cramp. + Who will, their squander'd gold may pay; + Who will, our taste deride; + We'll scorn the fashion of the day + With philosophic pride. + + Methinks we thus, in accents low, + Might Sydney Smith address, + 'Poor moralist! and what art thou, + Who never spoke of dress!' + + 'Thy mental hero never hung + Suspended on a tailor's tongue, + In agonising doubt; + Thy tale no flutt'ring female show'd, + Who languish'd for the newest mode, + Yet dar'd to live without.'" + +In Miss Mary Russell Mitford's "Recollections of a Literary Life" are some +genial allusions to Miss Fanshawe. "Besides," wrote Miss Mitford, "her +remarkable talent for graceful and polished pleasantry, whether in prose +or verse, Miss Catherine Fanshawe was admirable as a letter-writer, and as +a designer in almost every style." Her drawings and etchings met with +praise from those capable of judging their merits. + +After Miss Fanshawe's death, in 1834, her friend, the Rev. William +Harness, printed for private circulation a small collection of her poems, +expressing his wish "that some enduring memorial may exist of one who, in +her varied accomplishments, her acute perception of the beautiful, her +playful fancy, her charming conversation, her gentle and retiring manners, +her lively sympathy with the sorrows and joys of others, and above all, +her simple piety, was so cherished a member of a society, not very +extended but intimately united by a common love of literature, and art, +and science, which existed in London at the close of the last and the +opening of the present century, and which, perhaps, taken for all in all, +has never been surpassed." In 1876, Mr. Basil Montagu Pickering issued +"The Literary Remains of Catherine Maria Fanshawe," with notes by the +Rev. William Harness. Doubtless his admiration of the productions of the +author prompted him to publish the volume. Only two hundred and fifty +copies were printed. Mr. Pickering is entitled to the gratitude of lovers +of choice poetry for publishing the charming volume. + + + + +A Popular Song Writer: + +Mrs. John Hunter. + + +The name of Mrs. John Hunter stands high on the roll of English song +writers. She is one of the most gifted women in her particular literary +field Hull has produced, and it is most remarkable that she is not noticed +in any local work devoted to history or biography. Her maiden name was +Anne Home, and she was the eldest daughter of Robert Home, of Greenlaw, +Berwickshire, surgeon of Burgoyne's Regiment of Light Horse, and +subsequently a physician in Savoy. He greatly displeased his parents by +marrying at an early age, and on this account they declined to assist him +in the outset of his professional career. He proceeded to Hull, and +practised as a surgeon. In the year 1742, Anne, his eldest daughter, was +born. She received a liberal education, and at an early age displayed +considerable poetical gifts. Her early work found its way into the +periodicals, and in one entitled the _Lark_, published at Edinburgh, at +the age of twenty-three years, she contributed her well-known song, "The +Flowers of the Forest," and a song we quote as a specimen of her style:-- + + "Adieu, ye streams that smoothly glide + Through mazy windings o'er the plain; + I'll in some lonely cave reside, + And ever mourn my faithful swain. + + Flower of the forest was my love, + Soft as the sighing summer's gale; + Gentle and constant as the dove, + Blooming as roses in the vale. + + Alas! by Tweed my love did stray, + For me he searched the banks around; + But, ah! the sad and fatal day, + My love, the pride of swains, was drown'd. + + Now droops the willow o'er the stream; + Pale stalks his ghost in yonder grove; + Dire fancy paints him in my dream; + Awake I mourn my hopeless love." + +Such is one of her many songs, several of which were set to music by +Haydn. Her best known song is, perhaps, "My Mother bids me bind my +Hair":-- + + "My mother bids me bind my hair + With bands of rosy hue, + Tie up my sleeves with ribbons rare, + And lace my bodice blue. + + "For why," she cries, "sit still and weep, + While others dance and play?" + Alas! I scarce can go or creep + While Lubin is away. + + 'Tis sad to think the days are gone + When those we love were near; + I sit upon this mossy stone, + And sigh when none can hear. + + And while I spin my flaxen thread, + And sing my simple lay, + The village seems asleep or dead + Now Lubin is away." + +In July, 1771, Miss Home was married to John Hunter, the famous anatomist, +who step by step rose from the bench of a cabinet-maker to one of the +highest positions in the medical profession. He was a native of Long +Calderwood, Kilbride parish, Lanarkshire. After working some time as a +cabinet-maker, he proceeded to London, and obtained an appointment as an +anatomical assistant. He was student at Chelsea Hospital in 1748, a year +later undertook the charge of the dissecting room, and in the same year +entered St. Mary's Hall, Oxford, as a gentleman commoner. He did not +remain there very long. In 1750 he was a surgeon-pupil at St. George's +Hospital. His brother made his mark in London as a surgeon, and John +joined him as lecturer in 1754. Ten years' toil in the dissecting room +broke down his health. With a view of obtaining a change of work and +climate, he joined the army, and in 1761 was made staff-surgeon. He was at +the siege of Belle Isle in his first year, and was afterwards with the +army in Portugal. He returned home in 1763, and commenced practising as a +surgeon. He read many able papers before the members of the Royal Society; +in 1767, he was elected a fellow of that distinguished body. In 1787 he +was awarded the Copleyan gold medal. He wrote some important medical +works. His death was sudden, and occurred in the Board-room of St. +George's Hospital, on the 16th October, 1793, at the age of 64 years. His +father died when he was ten years of age, and his early education was +neglected. At the age of twenty he could simply read and write, knowing no +other language than his own. He was most diligent. His museum contained +10,563 specimens and preparations illustrative of human and comparative +anatomy, physiology, pathology, and natural history. It was two years +after his death purchased by the Government for L15,000, and presented to +the Royal College of Surgeons. Dr. Hunter won fame but not wealth, and +died a comparatively poor man. In marriage he was most fortunate; his +wife had a beautiful face, and handsome person. She entertained the +doctor's guests with delightful conversation, and her amiability and +simple manners endeared her to all with whom she came in contact, many of +whom were men of world-wide reputation. Some of Mrs. Hunter's friends did +not always meet with the approval of her husband. The following story is +well known, but will bear repeating:--"On returning home late one evening, +after a hard day's fag, Hunter unexpectedly found his drawing-room filled +with musical professors, connoisseurs, and other idlers, whom Mrs. Hunter +had assembled. He was greatly irritated, and walking straight into the +room, addressed the astonished guests pretty much in the following strain: +'I know nothing of this kick-up, and I ought to have been informed of it +beforehand; but as I am now returned home to study, I hope the present +company will retire.' This intimation was, of course, speedily followed by +an _exeunt omnes_." Mrs. Hunter was both a skilful musician and a graceful +singer. The greater part of her poetry displays much sweetness of +expression and force. A volume of her poems was issued in 1802, and +attracted much favourable notice. + +Mrs. Hunter wrote the following epitaph for a monument to her husband to +be placed in St. Martin's Church, London, where he was buried. The then +rector of the parish, however, stated it was contrary to the rules to have +any memorial placed in the church:-- + + "Here rests in awful silence, cold and still, + One whom no common spark of genius fir'd; + Whose reach of thought Nature alone could fill, + Whose deep research the love of truth inspired. + + Hunter, if years of toil and watchful care, + If the vast labours of a pow'rful mind + To soothe the ills humanity must share, + Deserve the grateful plaudits of mankind. + + Then to each human weakness buried here + Envy would raise, to dim a name so bright, + Those specks which on the orb of day appear, + Take nothing from his warm and welcome light." + +In the year 1860, the remains of John Hunter were removed from the church +of St. Martin-in-the-Fields and placed in Westminster Abbey, to rest with +the dust of England's most famous sons. The Council of the Royal College +of Surgeons erected a tablet bearing a suitable inscription. + +Mrs. Hunter retired from society after the death of her husband, and found +much enjoyment in literature. She had two children, a son and a daughter. +On the 7th January, 1821, she died in London after a lingering illness, +being nearly eighty years of age. Her name will long remain, and recall +the life of one who added several popular songs to our literature. In +popular anthologies her productions usually find a place. + + + + +A Poet of the Poor: + +Mary Pyper. + + +Scotland is a land of song. It has been the birthplace of many poets who +have added glory to our literary annals. Its list of authors includes the +names of a large number of men and women in the humbler walks of life, who +took up literature under difficulties, and won honourable places in the +world of letters. Burns at the plough, Hogg tending his sheep on the +hillside, Hugh Miller in the quarry, Allan Cunningham with chisel in hand, +William Thom and Robert Tannahill at the shuttle, and Janet Hamilton in +her humble home are familiar figures to every reader of Scottish +biography. + +Amongst the lesser known names is that of Mary Pyper, who, under severe +trials, read a great deal and produced poems of considerable merit for a +self-taught writer. She was born at Greenock, on the 27th of May, 1795. +Her father was a clockmaker, named Alexander Pyper, who had married a +worthy woman, Isabella Andrews, both of whom were natives of Edinburgh. +Failing to obtain regular employment in their native city, the parents of +our heroine moved westwards in search of work. Mary Pyper, in an +autobiographical letter, addressed to the Rev. Charles Rogers, LL.D., +states that "her father enlisted in the 42nd Highlanders on account of +failing to find employment." Says Mr. D. H. Edwards, in his _Modern +Scottish Poets_, "it was a time of war when recruits were often made in an +unscrupulous manner, and one day Alexander Pyper found a shilling in his +pocket, and was told to his astonishment that he had enlisted in His +Majesty's service." His regiment, shortly after he joined it, received +orders to march from Perth across the Sheriffmuir, a distance of sixteen +miles. Poor Mrs. Pyper walked, carrying her infant in her arms, the rain +coming down in torrents. After a weary tramp the poor mother sat down +nearly broken-hearted, fearing that her baby had perished. On the arrival +of the baggage carts, warm clothing and other necessaries were procured, +and happily the child began to revive. + +The regiment subsequently proceeded to Ireland. Pyper, on leaving Dublin +for England, stumbled and fractured his leg. The accident rendered him +unfit for active service, and he was discharged. He did not long survive, +and at the age of six months, Mary Pyper was left fatherless. + +Her mother then returned to her native city. Here she had to struggle for +bread, gaining a scanty living as a boot-binder. She devoted much time to +the education of her child, who proved an apt scholar. Mother and daughter +delighted in the study of history, but Mary's chief pleasure was derived +from the works of the poets. She was familiar with the poetry of +Shakespeare, Milton, Scott, Cowper, and other celebrated authors. As a +child she was puny; she was always little, and might be called a dwarf. In +her early years she suffered much from ill-health. She was troubled with +jaundice, and on three occasions had severe attacks of fever, each lasting +from six to eight weeks. Her mother, too, was often sick, and when other +children of her age were enjoying childish games Mary Pyper was busy with +her needle helping to add to the slender income of her mother. + +After being confined to her bed for six years, Mrs. Pyper died on the 27th +of March, 1827. It was during the attendance on her mother that Mary first +thought of composing verses. The poor woman had been obliged to run into +debt to the extent of L9. This amount was paid by her daughter out of her +wages of six shillings per week, obtained from a shop-keeper who employed +her to make buttons and fringes. Hoping to earn more, she left her +situation, and obtained a small basket containing fancy goods, which she +hawked for sale, but this did not prove a satisfactory means of making a +living. It was uncertain, and the walking fatiguing. In later years she +had a continual struggle, and met with numerous misfortunes. Writing to +Dr. Rogers, in 1860, she said: "As I was working in our church-school, I +fell and broke my arm, some ten years since. Eight months after this, I +was painting my house and, over-reaching myself, ricked my back, and the +year before I fell on the frost and severely hurt my head." Kind friends +helped to lighten her troubles, which she bore with Christian fortitude. + +A small volume of her poems was published in 1860, mainly through the +assistance of Mr. T. Constable. The work met with a favourable reception, +and a couple of the hymns were reproduced in the pages of _Lyra +Britannica_. Mr. Henry Wright, the compiler of the work entitled _Lays of +Pious Minstrels_, includes in it examples of Mary Pyper's poetry. In the +preface to his volume he wrote: "The attention of my readers is especially +directed to the pieces 'Let me go,' 'Servant of God,' and 'We shall see +Him as He is,' the composition of Miss Mary Pyper, a resident in one of +the closes or alleys in the Old Town of Edinburgh, who is in extreme old +age, quite alone in the world, totally blind, and in deep poverty. Since +the notice of Miss Pyper appeared in the last edition of this work, many +benevolent persons have sent me donations for her in postage stamps, and +otherwise. I shall be glad to be the medium of alleviating in any degree +the very painful circumstances in which she is placed." It will be seen +from the foregoing that in addition to other afflictions she lost her +eyesight in her old age. + +We give a few specimens of her verses, which are chiefly of a religious +and devotional character. The first poem is entitled "The Christian's View +of Death": + + "Let me go! the Day is breaking + Morning bursts upon mine eye, + Death this mortal frame is shaking, + But the soul can never die! + + Let me go! the Day-Star, beaming, + Gilds the radiant realms above; + Its full glory on me streaming, + Lights me to the Land of Love." + +The last stanzas of her "Servant of God" are as follow:-- + + "There Flowers immortal bloom + To charm the ravished sight; + And palms and harps await for those + Who walk with Him in white. + + For they shall sing the song + Of Moses, long foretold, + When they have passed those pearly gates + And streets of burnished gold. + + The glories of the Lamb + Their rapturous strains shall raise-- + Eternal ages shall record + His love, His power, His praise." + +The following are the concluding lines of "We shall see Him as He is":-- + + "When we pass o'er death's dark river + We shall see Him as He is-- + Resting in His love and favour + Owning all the glory His; + There to cast our crowns before Him-- + Oh! what bliss the thought affords! + There for ever to adore Him-- + King of Kings and Lord of Lords." + +One of her best hymns is entitled "What has Jesus done?" The little gem we +next reproduce is perhaps her best known production. It has been widely +quoted and much admired:-- + + EPITAPH: A LIFE. + + "I came at morn--'twas Spring, I smiled, + The fields with green were clad; + I walked abroad at noon, and lo! + 'Twas summer--I was glad. + I sate me down--'twas autumn eve, + And I with sadness wept; + I laid me down at night--and then + 'Twas winter--and I slept." + +The following poem is a fair specimen of her poetic power:-- + + ON SEEING TWO LITTLE GIRLS PRESENT A FLOWER TO A DYING PERSON. + + "Come, sit beside my couch of death, + With that fair summer flower, + That I may taste its balmy breath + Before my final hour. + The lily's virgin purity, + The rose's rich perfume, + Speak with a thrilling voice to me, + Preparing for the tomb. + + "Each calls to mind sweet Sharon's rose, + The lily of the vale-- + The white and stainless robes of those + Who conquer and prevail. + For as it droops its modest head, + Methinks it seems to say: + 'All flesh, like me, must quickly fade, + Must wither and decay!' + + "And yet it tells of fairer skies, + And happier lands than this, + Where beauteous flowers immortal vie, + And plants of Paradise: + A land where blooms eternal spring-- + Where every storm is past; + Fain would my weary spirit wing + Its way--and be at rest.-- + + "But hark, I hear a choral strain-- + It comes from worlds above, + It speaks of my release from pain, + Of rest--in Jesus' love! + Jesus, my hope, my help, my stay, + My all in earth or heaven, + Let thy blest mandate only say, + 'Thy sins are all forgiven!' + + "Then will I plume my joyful wing + To those blest realms of peace, + Where saints and angels ever sing, + And sorrows ever cease. + Dear mother, dry thy tearful eye, + And weep no more for me, + The orphan's God that reigns on high + The widow's God shall be. + + "Pull me a sprig of that white flower, + And place it on my breast, + The last effect of friendship's power + Shall charm my heart to rest. + Then, Lord, let me depart from pain + To realms where glories dwell, + Where I may meet those friends again, + And say no more 'farewell!'" + +Her first book did not yield much pecuniary profit. In 1865 a larger +volume of her poetry was published by Mr. Andrew Elliot, of Edinburgh. +Her valued friend, Miss Moncrieff, prefaced it with a biographical sketch, +and Dean Ramsay wrote an introduction. He described her poems as being of +"no common excellence, both in diction and sentiment." The book also +contains a portrait of the author. Through the kindly interest of the +publisher the work proved extremely successful, and the proceeds of the +sale became her chief support in her old age, when unable to work through +feeble health and blindness. She enjoyed many comforts, thanks to the help +of Miss M. A. Scott Moncrieff, Mr. Andrew Elliot, and other warm-hearted +friends. + +She died in 1870, having reached more than the allotted three score years +and ten, and was interred in the historic burial ground of Greyfriars' +Church, Edinburgh. Her last resting-place was for some years without any +monumental stone, but mainly through the exertions of Dr. Rogers, in May, +1885, a handsome cross was erected over her remains, simply bearing her +name, "Mary Pyper." + + + + +The Poet of the Fisher-Folk: + +Mrs. Susan K. Phillips. + + "The poet's little span is done, + The poet's work on earth goes on; + The hand that strikes the ringing chords, + The thought that clothes itself in words, + That chimes with every varying mood, + That gives a friend to solitude, + In flash or fire, in smiles or tears, + Wakes echoes for all coming years." + SUSAN K. PHILLIPS. + + +From the days of Caedmon, the first and greatest of the Anglo-Saxon poets, +to the present time, Yorkshire has produced many singers of power, whose +poetry has been read and appreciated far beyond the limits of England's +largest county. The lovely scenery, romantic legends, old-world tales, and +noble lives of its sons and daughters have had a marked influence on the +writings of its poets. We recognise this in the best work of Mr. Alfred +Austin, our present Poet Laureate, the sisters Bronte, Ebenezer Elliott, +the Corn Law Rhymer, and in a marked degree in Mrs. Susan K. Phillips, +whose well-spent life has just closed, and whose contributions to +literature have gained for her an honourable place amongst the authors of +the Victorian era. In the realm of poetry devoted to the joys and sorrows +of the fisher-folk, she has not been equalled. + +How true are the words of Sir Henry Taylor, "The world knows nothing of +its greatest men," and we may add, less, if possible, of its greatest +women. Men have a better opportunity of becoming known, and their works +appreciated, than women, for men take a more active part in public affairs +which bring them in closer touch with the people. As a rule women are of a +more retiring disposition, and the result is that their merits are not so +readily recognised as those of men, yet their works are often more +ennobling and lasting. + +Mrs. Phillips' best poems deal with various incidents in the lives of the +fisher-folk of the Yorkshire coast. She was a frequent visitor to Whitby, +and was beloved by the rough, but kind-hearted, fishermen. She was a true +friend to them in their time of sorrow, and in the hard lot of those who +are engaged on the perilous waters of the North Sea. + +Before giving examples of the poetry of Mrs. Phillips, it may be well to +present a few details of her life. She was born in 1831 at Aldborough, +the _Isurium_ of the Romans, a village of great antiquity, not far distant +from Boroughbridge. Her father, the Rev. George Kelly Holdsworth, M.A., +was vicar of the parish. + +In 1856 she was married to Mr. H. Wyndham Phillips, a celebrated artist, +who has been dead some years. Mrs. Phillips resided for many years at +Green Royd, Ripon, but usually spent the summer months at Whitby. + +In 1865 her first volume of poetry appeared under the title of "Verses and +Ballads," and the welcome given to it induced her to issue, five years +later, "Yorkshire Songs and Ballads." A still more important volume was +given to the world in 1878, from the well-known house of Messrs. Macmillan +& Co., entitled, "On the Seaboard." The critical press were not slow to +recognise the sterling merits of this book, which soon passed into a +second edition. On this work the reputation of Mrs. Phillips mainly rests. +Some of the poems had previously appeared in the pages of _Macmillan's +Magazine_, _All the Year Round_, _Cassell's Magazine_, and other leading +periodicals. They had been widely quoted in the press on both sides of the +Atlantic. "These poems," said the reviewer, in a leading London daily, +"suggest a recollection of Charles Kingsley, but the writer has a voice +and song of her own, which is full of yearning pathetic sweetness, and a +loving human sympathy with the anxious homes of the poor toiler of the +sea. The poems evince a true simplicity of style which is only another +word for sincerity." It was stated by another critic that "This volume of +verses stands out in bright relief from the average poetry of the day. All +is pure, womanly, in a setting of most graceful and melodious verse." +Other notices were equally good. In 1884, Messrs. J. S. Fletcher & Co., +Leeds, published "Told in a Coble, and other Poems." Many of those +relating to Whitby were warmly welcomed, and added not a little to her +fame. This is her last volume of collected poems, but not a few have since +been written and printed in the periodicals, and might, with advantage to +the world of letters, be collected, and reappear in book form. + +Mrs. Phillips was for a long period one of the honorary secretaries of the +Ripon Home for Girls, and did much useful work for this excellent +institution. Says one who knew her well, "She was extremely generous in +disposition, and her warm-hearted liberality and her kindly interest in +those in distress endeared her to all classes." On May 25th, 1897, she +died at Sea Lawn, Torquay, having reached the age of sixty-six years. + +Instead of giving brief quotations from several pieces, it will be perhaps +the better plan to reproduce at length two or three of the author's poems, +and enable our readers to form their own conclusions. We may not quote the +best of the writer's work, but indicate her style. No one, we think, can +read lines like the following without being moved, and his sympathy +extended to the sorrowing fisher-folk:-- + + LOST WITH ALL HANDS. + + "'Lost, with all hands, at sea.' + The Christmas sun shines down + On the headlands that frown o'er the harbour wide, + On the cottages, thick on the long quay side, + On the roofs of the busy town. + + 'Lost, with all hands, at sea.' + The dread words sound like a wail, + The song of the waits, and the clash of the bells, + Ring like death-bed dirges or funeral knells, + In the pauses of the gale. + + Never a home so poor + But it brightens for good Yule Tide, + Never a heart too sad or too lone, + But the holy Christmas mirth 'twill own, + And his welcome will provide. + + Where the sea-coal fire leaps + On the fisherman's quiet hearth, + The Yule Log lies for his hand to heave, + While he hastes to his bride on Christmas Eve, + In the flush of his strength and mirth. + + High on the little shelf + The tall Yule candle stands, + For the ship is due ere the Christmas night, + And it waits to be duly set alight, + By the coming father's hands. + + Long has the widow spared + Her pittance for warmth and bread, + That her sailor boy, when he home returns, + May joy, that her fire brightly burns, + Her board is so amply spread. + + The sharp reef moans and moans, + The foam on the sand lies hoar; + The 'sea-dog' flickers across the sky, + The north wind whistles shrill and high + 'Mid the breakers' ominous roar. + + But on the great pier head, + The grey-haired sailors stand, + While the black clouds pile away in the west, + And the spray flies free from the billow's crest + Ere they dash on the hollow sand. + + Never a sail to be seen + On the long grim tossing swell; + Only drifting wreckage of canvas and spar, + That sweep with the waves o'er the harbour bar, + Their terrible tale to tell. + + Did a vision of Christmas pass + Before their drowning eyes? + When 'mid rent of rigging and crash of mast, + The brave ship, smote by the mighty blast, + Went down 'neath the pitiless skies. + + No Christmas joy I ween + On the rock-bound coast may be. + Put token and custom of Yule away, + While widows and orphans weep and pray + For the 'hands lost out at sea.'" + +Still in the pathetic strain we will give another poem. In quoting this we +feel we are not doing full justice to Mrs. Phillips, but it at all events +shows her deep devotion to the race she greatly helped in their many +trials. + + THE FISHERMAN'S FUNERAL. + + "Up on the breezy headland the fisherman's grave they made, + Where, over the daisies and clover-bells, the birchen branches swayed; + Above us the lark was singing in the cloudless skies of June, + And under the cliffs the billows were chanting their ceaseless tune; + For the creamy line was curving along the hollow shore, + Where the dear old tides were flowing that he would ride no more. + + The dirge of the wave, the note of the bird, and the priest's low tone + were blent + In the breeze that blew from the moorland, all laden with country scent; + But never a thought of the new-mown hay tossing on sunny plains, + Or of lilies deep in the wild wood, or roses gemming the lanes, + Woke in the hearts of the stern bronzed men who gathered about the + grave, + Where lay the mate who had fought with them the battle of wind and wave. + + How boldly he steered the coble across the foaming bar, + When the sky was black to the eastward and the breakers white on the + scar! + How his keen eye caught the squall ahead, how his strong hand furled the + sail, + As we drove through the angry waters before the raging gale! + How cheery he kept the long dark night; and never a parson spoke + Good words like those he said to us when at last the morning broke! + + So thought the dead man's comrades, as silent and sad they stood, + While the prayer was prayed, the blessing said, and the dull earth + struck the wood; + And the widow's sob, and the orphan's wail, jarred through the joyous + air; + How could the light wind o'er the sea blow on so fresh and fair? + How could the gay waves laugh and leap, landward o'er sand and stone, + While he, who knew and loved them all, lay lapped in clay alone? + + But for long, when to the beetling heights the snow-tipped billows roll, + When the cod, and the skate, and dogfish dart around the herring shoal; + When gear is sorted and sail is set, and the merry breezes blow, + And away to the deep-sea harvest the stalwart reapers go, + A kindly sigh and a hearty word, they will give to him who lies + Where the clover springs, and the heather blooms beneath the northern + skies." + +We regard the following lines on a well-known division of East Yorkshire, +as a successful effort on the part of Mrs. Phillips. An August day spent +in rambling amongst the leafy lanes of Holderness cannot easily be +forgotten. There is a lack of romantic and rugged scenery, but the old +farmsteads nestling amongst the trees and the fields of golden grain have +a beauty not surpassed in many parts of old England:-- + + IN HOLDERNESS. + + "The wind blew over the barley, the wind blew over the wheat, + Where the scarlet poppy toss'd her head, with the bindweed at her feet; + The wind blew over the great blue sea, in the golden August weather, + Till the tossing corn and the tossing waves showed shadow and gleam + together. + + The wind blew over the barley, the wind blew over the oats, + The lark sprung up in the sunny sky, and shook his ringing notes; + Over the wealth of the smiling land, the sweep of the glittering sea, + 'Which is the fairest?' he sang, as he soared o'er the beautiful + rivalry. + + And with a fuller voice than the wind, a deeper tone than the bird, + Came the answer from the solemn sea, that Nature, pausing, heard,-- + 'The corn will be garnered, the lark will be hushed at the frown of the + wintry weather, + The sun will fly from the snow-piled sky, but I go on for ever!'" + +It would be a pleasure to reproduce some of her poems dealing with the +romantic legends of her native shire, but the space at our disposal does +not permit this; they may, however, be found in her published works. We +close with some pretty lines on the bells she loved so well:-- + + THE WHITBY BELLS. + + "The Whitby bells, so full and free, + They ring across the sunny sea, + That the great ocean god, who dwells + 'Mid coral groves and silvery shells, + Wakes to the summons joyously. + + O'er the purpling moors and ferny dells + Sound the sweet chimes, and bird and bee + Pause, hearing over land and lea + The Whitby bells. + + And as the mellow music swells + One listener to the Whitby bells + Feels all the days that used to be, + Speak in the blended harmony; + They shrine life--death--and their farewells, + The Whitby bells." + + + + +A Poet and Novelist of the People: + +Thomas Miller. + + +On the roll of self-taught authors, Thomas Miller is entitled to a high +place, and amongst Victorian men of letters he holds an honourable +position. He enriched English literature with many charming works on +country life and scenes. Although his career was not eventful, it is not +without interest, furnishing a notable instance of a man surmounting +difficulties and gaining distinction. + +He was born on August 31st, 1808, at Gainsborough, a quaint old +Lincolnshire town, situated on the banks of the river Trent. His father +held a good position, being a wharfinger and shipowner; he died, however, +when his son was a child, without making provision for his wife, who had +to pass some years in pinching poverty. Young Thomas received a very +limited education at school, and according to his own account he only +learned "to write a very indifferent hand, and to read the Testament +tolerably." His playmate was Thomas Cooper, the Chartist and Poet, and +this notable man, in his autobiography, has much to say about the boyhood +of our hero. Mrs. Miller, to provide for her family, had to sew sacks. + +Says Thomas Cooper, "She worked early and late for bread for herself and +her two boys; but would run in, now and then, at the back door, and join +my mother for a few whiffs at the pipe. And then away they would go again +to work, after cheering each other, to go stoutly through the battle of +life." + +"They bent their wits, on one occasion," continues Mr. Cooper, "to +disappoint the tax-gatherer. He was to 'distrain' on a certain day; but +beds, chairs, and tables were moved secretly in the night to blind Thomas +Chatterton's; and when the tax-gatherer came next day to execute his +threat, there was nothing left worth his taking. The poor were often +driven to such desperate schemes to save all they had from ruin, in those +days; and the curse upon taxes and the tax-gatherer was in the mouths of +hundreds--for those years of war were terrific years of suffering for the +poor, notwithstanding their shouts and rejoicings when Matthew Guy rode +in, with ribbons flying, bringing news of another 'glorious victory.'" +"Sometimes," adds Mr. Cooper, "Miller's mother and mine were excused +paying some of the taxes by appealing to the magistrates, a few of whom +respected them for their industry, and commiserated their hardships. But +the petition did not always avail." + +In spite of poverty, Miller's childhood was not without its sunshine, and +many days spent in the lanes and fields were not the least enjoyable of +his pleasures. He was first engaged as a farmer's boy at Thornock, a +village near his native town. The trade of basket-making was subsequently +learned, and when quite a young man he married. He migrated to Nottingham, +and obtained employment as a journeyman at a basket-manufactory in the +town. + +"At this period," says Dr. Spencer T. Hall, "the Sherwood Forester," "he +had a somewhat round but intelligent face, a fair complexion, full, blue, +speaking eyes, and a voice reminding one of the deeper and softer tones of +a well-played flute. Of all who saw him at his work, it is probable that +scarcely one knew how befitting him was the couplet of Virgil, where he +says: + + 'Thus while I sung, my sorrows I deceived, + And bending osiers into baskets weaved.'" + +He had the good fortune to become known to Mr. Thomas Bailey, a man of +literary taste, the writer of several works, and father of the more famous +Philip James Bailey, author of "Festus." Mr. Bailey recognised at once the +merits of a collection of poems submitted to him by Miller, was the means +of the pieces being printed, and did all in his power to obtain a +favourable welcome for the volume. The book was entitled "Songs of Sea +Nymphs;" it contained only forty-eight pages, and was sold at two +shillings. In his preface the author stated: "I am induced to offer these +extracts from unpublished poems in their present state solely because I +cannot find any publisher who will undertake, without an extensive list of +subscribers, the risk of publishing a volume of poetry written by an +individual whose humble station in life buries him in obscurity." He next +explains that the object of the work is to elicit the opinion of his +country-men as to the merits or demerits of his verses--which he terms +"trifles." Mr. Miller says, "Concerning the poems, I have only to add that +the three first songs are extracts from an unpublished poem entitled, +'Hero and Leander, a Tale of the Sea.' The scene is chiefly confined to +Neptune's palace beneath the waves. The other extracts are from 'Adelaide +and Reginald, a Fairy Tale of Bosworth Field.' I am aware that the date is +too modern for fairies; however, who can prove it? for so long as a barren +circle is found in the velvet valleys of England, tradition will ever call +it a fairy-ring. Having launched my little bark on the casual ocean of +public opinion, not without anxiety, I leave it to its fate.--Thomas +Miller, Basket-maker, Nottingham, August, 1832." The volume was the means +of making him many friends, and enabling him to start business on his own +account. He had a work-room in the Long Row, and a stall on a Saturday in +the market-place. Here is a picture of the stall from Spencer Hall's +graphic pen:--"There was poetry in his very baskets. A few coarser ones +were there, but others of more beautiful pattern, texture, and colour, +flung a sort of bloom over the rest; and the basket-maker and his wares +well-matched each other, as he would take his cigar from his mouth, and +ask some pretty market maiden, in his cheeriest tones, as she lingered and +looked, if she would not like to purchase. As a youth, I was wont to stand +there chatting with him occasionally, and to hear him, between customers, +pour out the poetry of Coleridge and other great minds, with an +appreciance and a melody that such authors might themselves have listened +to with pride and delight." + +He next moved to London, hoping to follow a literary career by +contributing at the commencement to the monthly magazines. Writing gave +Miller great pleasure, but put little money in his purse, and to obtain +bread for his household he had to work at his trade in the metropolis. +Friends at first were few, and he had none able to help him to literary +employment. He had journeyed to London alone, and arrived there with +seven-and-sixpence in his pocket, intending to send for his wife and +family when brighter days dawned. Some time passed before there was a +break in the dark clouds which hung over him. Here are particulars of the +dawn of better times. "One day," says Mr. Joseph Johnson, in _Manchester +Notes and Queries_, "when bending over his baskets, he was surprised by a +visit from Mr. W. H. Harrison, editor of _Friendship's Offering_, who had +fortunately read one of Miller's poems, and had become impressed with the +ability and original talent of the author. The result of the interview was +a request that the basket-maker would write a poem for the _Offering_. +Miller, at the time, was so poor that he had neither paper, pens, nor ink, +nor the means to buy these needful materials for his poem. He tided over +the difficulty by using the whity-brown paper in which his sugar had been +wrapped, and mixed some soot with water for his ink; the back of a bellows +serving him for a desk, upon which he wrote his charming poem, entitled, +'The Old Fountain.' His letter to the editor of the _Offering_ was sealed +with moistened bread. The poem was accepted, and two guineas immediately +returned. It is simply impossible to imagine the rapture which would fill +the breast of the poor poet on receipt of so large a sum." Says Miller, "I +never had been so rich in my life before, and I fancied some one would +hear of my fortune and try and rob me of it; so, at night, I barred the +door, and went to bed, but did not sleep all night, from delight and +fear." + +We reproduce the lines as a fair example of Miller's poetry:-- + + THE OLD FOUNTAIN. + + "Deep in the bosom of a silent wood, + Where an eternal twilight dimly reigns, + A sculptured fountain hath for ages stood, + O'erhung with trees; and still such awe remains + Around the spot, that few dare venture there-- + The babbling water spreads such superstitious fear. + + It looks so old and grey, with moss besprent, + And carven imag'ry, grotesque or quaint; + Eagles and lions are with dragons blent + And cross-winged cherub; while o'er all a Saint + Bends grimly down with frozen blown-back hair, + And on the dancing spray its dead eyes ever stare. + + From out a dolphin's mouth the water leaps + And frets, and tumbles to its bed of gloom; + So dark the umbrage under which it sweeps, + Stretching in distance like a dreary tomb; + With murmurs fraught, and many a gibbering sound, + Gurgle, and moan, and hiss, and plash, and fitful bound. + + Oh! 'tis a spot where man might sit and weep + His childish griefs and petty cares away; + Wearied Ambition might lie there and sleep, + And hoary Crime in silence kneel to pray. + The fountain's voice, the day-beams faintly given, + Tell of that starlight land we pass in dreams to heaven. + + There, lovely forms in elder times were seen, + And snowy kirtles waved between the trees; + And light feet swept along the velvet green, + While the rude anthem rose upon the breeze, + When round the margin England's early daughters + Worshipped the rough-hewn Saint that yet bends o'er the waters. + + And some bent priest, whose locks were white as snow, + Would raise his trembling hands and voice to pray; + All would be hushed save that old fountain's flow + That rolling bore the echoes far away; + Perchance a dove, amid the foliage dim, + Might raise a coo, then pause to list their parting hymn. + + That old grey abbey lies in ruins now, + The wild-flowers wave where swung its pond'rous door; + Where once the altar rose, rank nettles grow, + The anthem's solemn sound is heard no more; + 'Tis as if Time had laid down to repose, + Drowsed by the fountain's voice, which through the forest flows." + +He wrote and worked at his trade; his poetry won for him many admirers, +amongst them Lady Blessington, Thomas Moore, Samuel Rogers, the +banker-poet, and others, and he was welcomed to their houses. He remarked, +"Often have I been sitting in Lady Blessington's splendid drawing-room in +the morning, and talking and laughing as familiarly as in the old house at +home; and on the same evening I might have been seen on Westminster +Bridge, between an apple vendor and a baked-potato merchant, vending my +baskets." + +In 1836, he wrote "A Day in the Woods," consisting of a series of +sketches, stories, and poems. The reading public welcomed the work, and +the critical press recognised it as the production of a man of undoubted +genius. He continued to make friends, including "L. E. L.," the poetess, +Campbell, Leigh Hunt, Jerrold, Disraeli and Thackeray. The merits and +success of his book caused Colburn to make him a tempting offer to write +a three-volume novel, and in 1838 appeared "Royston Gower." The work was +so popular that the same publisher commissioned him to write two more +novels, namely, in 1839, "Fair Rosamond," and in 1840, "Lady Jane Grey." +He produced other novels, perhaps the best known is "Gideon Giles." These +works are now to be obtained in cheap form, and have been most extensively +circulated. + +He was assisted and encouraged by Rogers, Lady Blessington and others, to +commence as a publisher and bookseller, and was enabled by their kindness +to purchase back from Colburn the copyrights of his novels. His place of +business was 9, Newgate Street, opposite Christ's Hospital, and from here +he issued several of his own books besides works by well-known authors. +Miller did not succeed in business, and gave it up to devote all his time +to writing books and contributing to the periodicals and newspapers. He +wrote for the _Athenaeum_, _Literary Gazette_, _Chambers' Journal_, +_Household Words_, _Boys' Own Magazine_, the _Illustrated London News_, +and other monthlies and weeklies. Many leading articles from his facile +pen appeared in the _Morning Post_. His papers on the months in Chambers' +"Book of Days," which describe the varied aspects of the country during +the year, have been reproduced in an elegant volume bearing the title of +"All Round the Year." + +Mr. J. Potter Briscoe, F.R.H.S., kindly supplies me with the following +list of books by Thomas Miller:--"All Round the Year," 1860; "Birds, Bees, +and Blossoms," 1867, 1869 (see also "Original Poems," etc.); "British Wolf +Hunter," 1859; "Boys' Own Library," 6 vols., 1856; "Boys' Spring, Summer, +Autumn, and Winter Books," 1847, 1881; "Boys' Own Country Book, Seasons, +and Rural Rides," 1867, 1868; "Brampton among the Roses," 1863; "Child's +Country Book," 1867; "Child's Country Story Book," 1867, 1870, 1881; +"Common Wayside Flowers," 1841, 1873; "Country Year book," 2 vols., 1847, +1 vol., 1836; "Day in the Woods," 1836; "Desolate Hall," (in "Friendship's +Offering") 1838; "Dorothy Dovedale's Trials," 2 vols., 1864; "English +Country Life," 1858, 1859, 1864; "Fair Rosamond," 3 vols., 1839, 1 vol., +1862; "Fortune and Fortitude," 1848; "Fred and the Gorillas," 1869, 1873; +"Fred Holdsworth" (In _Illustrated London News_), 1852, 1873; "Gaboon," +1868; "Gideon Giles, the Roper," 1840, 1841, 1859, 1867; "Godfrey +Malvern," 1842, 1843, 1844, 1847, 1858, 1877; "Goody Platts and her two +Cats," 1864; "History of the Anglo-Saxons," 1848, 1850, 1852, 1856; +"Jack-of-All-Trades," 1867; "Lady Jane Grey, a romance," 3 vols., 1840, 1 +vol., 1861, 1864; "Langley-on-the-Lea; or, Love and Duty," 1858; "Life and +[remarkable] Adventures of a Dog," 1856, 1870; "Lights and Shades of +London Life" (forming vol. 5 of Reynolds' _Mysteries of London_); "Little +Blue Hood," 1863; "My Father's Garden," 1866, 1867; "No Man's Land, etc.," +1860, 1861, 1863; "Old Fountain" (in _Friendship's Offering_, etc.); +"Original Poems for my Children," 1850 (see also "Birds," etc.); "Our Old +Town" (Gainsborough) 1857, 1858; "Old Park Road," 1870, 1876; "Picturesque +Sketches of London," 1852 (in the _Illustrated London News_); "Pictures of +Country Life," 1846, 1847, 1853; "Poacher and other Pictures of Country +Life," 1858; "Poems," 1841, 1848, 1856; "Poetical Language of Flowers," +1838, 1847, 1853, 1856, 1865, 1869, 1872; "Royston Gower," 3 vols., 1830, +1 vol. 1858, 1860, 1874; "Rural Sketches," 1839, 1861; "Sketches of +English Country Life"; "Songs for British Riflemen," 1860; "Songs of the +Sea Nymphs," 1857; "Songs of the Seasons," 1865; "Sports and Pastimes of +Merry England," 1859 (?-56); "Summer Morning," 1844; "Tales of Old +England," 1849, 1881; "Village Queen," 1851, 1852; "Watch the End" (second +edition of "My Father's Garden") 1869, 1871, 1873; "Year Book of Country +Life," 1855; "Year Book of the Country," 1837; "Young Angler," 1862. + +The foregoing volumes are in the Nottingham Public Library, and the +librarian, Mr. Briscoe is to be congratulated on bringing together +Miller's works in the city closely associated with his career. In Paxton +Hood's "Peerage of Poverty," a fine estimate of Miller's ability as an +author is given, though very little about his life is recorded. On the +25th of October, 1874, he died at his residence, a small house in West +Street, Kensington, leaving a son and two daughters. Shortly before his +death an effort was made to get him placed on the Civil List. Mr. Disraeli +was not able to include him at the time, but, with his well-known +generosity, made him an allowance from some other fund. Miller only +received one quarterly instalment before passing away. + + + + +The Cottage Countess. + + +The late Poet Laureate has given a world-wide interest to the romantic +story of "The Peasant Countess" of "Burleigh House by Stamford town," in +his popular poem, "The Lord of Burleigh." He relates how Henry Cecil, in +the guise of a landscape painter in humble circumstances, wooes and weds a +rustic maiden, and how a shadow overcasts her bright dream when the real +rank of her husband is made known to her:-- + + "But a trouble weighed upon her, + And perplexed her night and morn, + With the burthen of an honour + Unto which she was not born. + Faint she grew, and ever fainter, + And she murmured, 'Oh, that he + Were once more that landscape-painter, + Which did win my heart from me.' + So she drooped and drooped before him, + Fading slowly from his side: + Three fair children first she bore him, + Then before her time she died." + +The poet tells how keenly the Lord of Burleigh mourned her loss, and that +he buried her in the dress in which she was married. + +The real facts, however, are not so poetical; yet Hazlitt says that the +story outdoes the "Arabian Nights." The following particulars may be +regarded as a correct version of this romantic tale. Henry Cecil was born +in the year 1754, and was the only child of the Hon. Thomas Chambers Cecil +by his marriage with Miss Charlotte Gardner. At the age of nineteen he had +lost his parents, and was the presumptive heir to his uncle's estates and +the earldom of Exeter. He was by no means popular with his uncle, and +seldom troubled the inmates of Burleigh House with his presence. While +still a minor, he married into a good old west of England family, his wife +being a lady of great personal charms, named Emma Vernon, the only +daughter of the Squire of Hornbury Hall, in the county of Worcester. The +union was not a happy one, young Cecil being far from an exemplary +husband. He wasted much of his time and money in gambling. After fifteen +years of married life he sought and obtained a divorce. His own folly and +other circumstances rendered him a poor man, and induced him shortly +before the time he obtained a divorce to quit the society of those in his +rank of life, and settle down in one of the secluded villages in +Shropshire. He selected Bolas Magna, a charming little place, nestling +among apple orchards and green lanes. Here he was known as John Jones, and +was lost to the fashionable world, out of sight and out of mind. For a +short time he lodged at the village hostelry, freely conversing with the +customers who came at night to smoke their pipes and drink their beer. The +days he spent in sketching the pretty bits of scenery in the district. + +The noisy life of an inn soon palled upon him, and he sought lodgings at +some of the farmhouses, but his search was almost futile, as he was viewed +with much suspicion; indeed, some went so far as to hint that he was a +highwayman. The honest country folk failed to discover any visible means +of his making money, although they saw that he spent it pretty freely. He +at last procured lodgings at the dwelling of a labourer called Hoggins, +and soon made himself a favourite in the humble household. Cecil appears +to have been anticipating the day when he would be a free man, and, even +before he had obtained a divorce, he paid some attention to an attractive +young woman named Taylor. She, however, being engaged, did not favour his +suit. He then made love to Sarah Hoggins, the daughter of his landlady--a +young, comely, honest girl, who reciprocated his affection. Her mother was +doubtful about the matter, feeling that the marriage of her girl with a +stranger was a step that might lead to serious results, and she had a +lingering suspicion that there might be some truth in the rumour of her +lodger being a highwayman. The father was more favourably inclined; he saw +that the man had plenty of money, and it was a golden opportunity not to +be missed, and he encouraged the match. Eventually the mother had to give +way. In June, 1791, he obtained a divorce, and, on the 3rd of October, in +the same year, in the little church of Bolas, Henry Cecil and Sarah +Hoggins were married. He bought a piece of land near Hodnet, and on it +built a house, the largest in the neighbourhood. The local tradesmen +looked upon him with mistrust, and he had to make liberal advances of +money before they would undertake the work. Here he lived with his young +wife, teaching her such accomplishments as she would require in her +future high station. He did not, however, give any hint as to his real +character. His superior manners and education, in spite of the mystery of +his life, made him friends, and inspired some confidence, so that the +ratepayers elected him to one of their parish offices. The duties of his +parochial appointment took him to the sessions at Shrewsbury, where he +encountered a brother magistrate, who had been an old schoolfellow, +although not recognised by him. As a proof of his disposition to oblige +his friends and make himself generally useful, it is recorded that on one +occasion he gratified his father-in-law by carrying a large pig as a +present to a neighbouring squire. + +A little daughter was born at Bolas, who died after living a few days, and +was buried in the churchyard, without a stone to mark her grave, which is +now forgotten. + +After he had been married about two years he read in a country newspaper +an account of the death of his uncle, which occurred towards the close of +the year 1793. Early in the following January, he repaired, with his wife, +then nineteen years of age, to Burleigh House. He merely told her that he +had to go to a distant part of the country, and wished to have her +company. They travelled on horseback, the wife being seated on a pillion +behind her husband, according to the fashion of the period. They stopped +at the several noblemen's and gentlemen's seats on their route. At last +they reached Burleigh House, where she was told that she was a countess, +and the mystery of Henry Cecil solved. + +When surrounded by the titled and the great, she sighed for a humbler +position, but nevertheless she made an excellent wife and mother, and the +happiness of her husband was complete. It was of short duration, for in +the flower of her life she died, deeply lamented, on January 17th, 1797. + +In addition to the first-born previously mentioned, they had a daughter +and two sons. One of the sons was the peer who succeeded his father. Lord +Burleigh settled seven hundred a year on his wife's parents, and gave them +the house he had just vacated. The Countess was cordially received by the +Earl's relatives, and mixed in the fashionable society of London, and won +respect and regard from all with whom she came in contact. + +Lawrence painted her portrait. She is represented as far from rustic in +appearance, her face being oval and very pleasing. + +It remains to be stated, to complete the outline of the life of Henry +Cecil, that he was created a marquis, that he married for his third wife +the Dowager-Duchess of Hamilton, and died in the year 1804. + + + + +The Compiler of "Old Moore's Almanac," + +Henry Andrews. + + +The name of Henry Andrews is familiar to the literary and scientific world +as the compiler for many years of "Old Moore's Almanac," but the +particulars of his life are not generally known. His career, although not +an eventful one, was most honourable, and furnishes a notable example of a +man who, from a humble beginning, by perserverance attained an important +position in life. + +He was born at Frieston, near Grantham, on February 4th, 1744, of parents +in poor circumstances, who were only able to afford him a limited +education. In his earliest years he appears to have had a love for +astronomy, a science in which he afterwards became one of the most +proficient of his day. It is recorded that when only six years old he +would frequently stand in his shirt looking at the moon out of his chamber +window at midnight; when about ten years of age, he used to fix a table on +Frieston Green on clear frosty nights, and set a telescope thereon +through which to view the stars. The young student would afterwards sit +by the fireside with a table covered with books, making astronomical +calculations. + +At an early age he left home to earn his own living, the first situation +he filled being that of servant to a shopkeeper at Sleaford. We next trace +him to the city of Lincoln, where he was engaged to wait upon a lady. +During his leisure time, he took every opportunity to make weather-glasses +and weather-houses. The last situation he held as a gentleman's servant, +was under J. Feriman, Esq., who found Andrews so intent on study that he +kindly allowed him two or three hours daily to devote to that purpose. + +We are told that on the 1st of April, 1764, he went to Aswarby Hall, the +seat of Sir Christopher Whichcote, to view the eclipse of the sun which +was visible on that day. A number of ladies and gentlemen had assembled +for the same purpose. Having previously calculated a type of this eclipse, +he presented the same to the company, showing them the manner of its +appearance in a dark room upon a board, and, after it was over they +unanimously declared that his calculations came nearer than any given in +the almanacs. Shortly after the above meeting, he opened a school at +Basingthorpe, near Grantham. We presume the venture did not prove +satisfactory, for we find that he was afterwards engaged as an usher in a +clergyman's boarding-school at Stilton. His next move was to Cambridge, +hoping there to obtain assistance in prosecuting his studies from the men +of science in the University. Accustomed to a quiet life, he could not +endure the bustle of that ancient seat of learning, so left and settled at +Royston, Hertfordshire, where he opened a school, and continued to reside +until the day of his death. He had only reached the age of twenty-three +when he took up his residence at the latter town. + +A few years after Andrews settled there, we find his name on the +title-page of an almanac, and an advertisement of his school. The +title-page of the publication is curious, and reads as follows:-- + + "A Royal almanac and meteorological diary for the year of our Lord, + 1778, and of the Julian period 6491. The second after Bissextile or + leap year, and the eighteenth year of the Reign of his Majesty King + George III. Containing the feasts and fasts of the Church of England; + the times of the lunations; the rising and setting of the sun; the + equation of time for the regulating of clocks and watches; the moon's + rising and setting; the times of high water at London Bridge, morning + and afternoon; the aspects of the planets and weather. Also, for every + sixth day, the increase and decrease of days; the beginning and end + of daylight; the nightly rising, southing and setting of the planets + and seven stars; adapted to the meridian and latitude of London. + Likewise an exact meteorological journal for the preceding year, or + the state of the barometer and thermometer, with the wind, weather, + &c., as they were registered every day. Also the depth of rain which + fell, and the observations made every month. To which are added the + eclipses of the sun and moon and other remarkable phenomena that will + happen this year; the Middlesex commencement of the sessions of the + peace; a table of the terms and their returns, and for finding the + times of high water at most of the seaports of this kingdom. By Henry + Andrews, Teacher of the Mathematics, at Royston, Herts. London: + Printed for T. Carnan, in St. Paul's Church-Yard, who dispossessed the + stationers of the privilege of printing almanacs, which they had + unjustly monopolised 170 years, 1778. Price 1s." + +Following is a copy of his advertisement:-- + + "At Royston, Herts., Young Gentlemen and others may be commendably + boarded with the Author of this Almanac at reasonable rates, and be + taught by him as follows, viz., Writing, Arithmetic, Mensuration, + Geometry, Trigonometry, Navigation, Astronomy, the use of the Globes, + &c." + +For forty-three years Henry Andrews compiled _Moore's Almanac_ for the +Company of Stationers. The following extract from a letter written by +Andrews' only son, proves that he did not receive liberal remuneration for +his arduous task. Mr. W. H. Andrews stated:--"My father's calculations, +etc., for _Moore's Almanac_ continued during a period of forty-three +years; and although through his great talent and management he increased +the sale of that work from 100,000 to 500,000 copies, yet, strange to say, +all he received for his services was L25 per annum. Yet I never heard him +murmur even once about it; such was his delight in pursuing his favourite +studies, that his anxiety about remuneration was out of the question. Sir +Richard Phillips, who at times visited him at Royston, once met him in +London, and endeavoured to persuade him to go with him to Stationers' +Hall, and he would get him L100; but he declined going, saying that he was +satisfied." + +He was compiler of the _Nautical Ephemeris_, and on retiring from the +appointment he received the thanks of the Board of Longitude, accompanied +by a handsome present, as a just tribute of long and able services, for +which he would not receive more than a nominal payment. + +In 1805, Andrews built a house in High Street, Royston, and in it he spent +the remainder of his life. It is worthy of note that he paid the builders +of the work as it progressed, on account of the men being in poor +circumstances, a good proof of his kind consideration. + +At the age of seventy-six, Andrews closed his well-spent life. We find in +the _Gentleman's Magazine_, of February, 1820, a short notice of his +career, concluding thus:-- + +"His profound knowledge of Astronomy and the Mathematics was acknowledged +by all scientific men who were acquainted with his abilities, but the +greatness of his mind was never more conspicuous than during the period of +his last illness; and on his deathbed not a murmur escaped his lips, but +serenity of mind, patience, and resignation were constantly depicted in +his countenance, in which amiable situation he continued until the vital +spark fled." + +He was interred in the new burial ground, Royston, and over his remains +was placed a tombstone, bearing the following inscription:-- + + "In memory of Mr. Henry Andrews, who, from a limited education, made + great progress in the liberal sciences, and was justly esteemed one of + the best Astronomers of the Age. He departed this life, in full + assurance of a better, January 26th, 1820, aged 76 years." + +A portrait of Henry Andrews was published, and is now very rare. Dr. +Charles Mackay, in his entertaining volume entitled "Extraordinary Popular +Delusions" (issued by Routledge), gives a small portrait, and under it +states, "Henry Andrews, the original 'Francis Moore.'" This is a mistake, +as the Almanac was named after Francis Moore, physician, one of the many +quack doctors who duped the credulous in the latter part of the 17th +century. In Chambers's "Book of Days" (Vol. I., pages 9-14) will be found +some very interesting information respecting Almanacs and Almanac Writers. +We find it stated that "Francis Moore, in his Almanac for 1711, dates from +the sign of the Old Lilly, near the old barge-house, in Christ Church +Parish, Southwark, July 19th, 1710." Then follows an advertisement, in +which he undertakes to cure diseases. Lysons mentions him as one of the +remarkable men who, at different periods, resided at Lambeth, and says +that his house was in Calcott's Alley, High Street, then called Back Lane, +where he practised as astrologer, physician, and schoolmaster. _Moore's +Almanac_ had appeared some years prior to 1711. We refer the reader +wishing to obtain information respecting written and printed almanacs, to +"The Book of Days." + + + + +James Nayler, + +The Mad Quaker, who claimed to be the Messiah. + + +History furnishes particulars of many men who have claimed to be the +Messiah, and perhaps the most celebrated of the number is James Nayler, +"the mad Quaker." He was born at East Ardsley, near Wakefield, in the year +1616. It is certain that his parents were in humble circumstances, and it +is generally believed that his father occupied a house near the old +church, and that he was a small farmer. James Nayler, for a person in his +station in life, received a fairly good education. In his early manhood he +was a husbandman, and resided in his native village. When about twenty-two +years of age he married, as he puts it, "according to the world," and +removed to Wakefield. + +Shortly after his marriage, the Civil War broke out in England, and Nayler +took his share in the struggle between King and Parliament. He joined, in +1641, as a private, the Parliamentarian army, and his conduct and ability +gaining him advancement, he rose to the position of quarter-master under +General Lambert. While in Scotland ill-health obliged him to retire from +active service, and he returned home. + +Nayler carefully studied the Scriptures, and was a zealous member of the +Independents, worshipping at Horbury, but he left this body in disgrace. +It transpired that he had been paying attentions to a married woman named +Mrs. Roper, of Horbury, whose husband had been absent from her for a long +period, and that she became a mother, and that Nayler was the father of +the child. The Rev. Mr. Marshall, the minister of the Independents, +exposed him, and took him severely to task, so that he was finally +expelled from that body. + +George Fox, the founder of the Society of Friends, visited Wakefield in +the year 1651, and made a convert of James Nayler. Here commences the real +interest of Nayler's career--a career in which there is much to deplore, +but much also certainly to cause wonder. He possessed extraordinary gifts +as a preacher, and impressed the people with the truth of his teaching, +more especially in the North and West of England. Troubles beset him +almost on every hand,--troubles often caused through his own mistaken +zeal and frail conduct; but he bore his trials with a noble Christian +spirit. Nayler had no sooner joined the Quakers then he commenced what he +termed his travels. At the quarter-sessions held at Appleby, in 1652, he +was tried and found guilty of blasphemy, and sentenced to twenty weeks' +imprisonment. On being released he continued spreading his doctrines in +the North. We gather from the remarks of an officer who had served under +Cromwell a testimony to the power of Nayler's preaching. "After the battle +of Dunbar," says the officer, "as I was riding in Scotland at the head of +my troop, I observed at some distance from the road a crowd of people, and +one higher than the rest; upon which I sent one of my men to see, and +bring me word what was the meaning of the gathering; and seeing him ride +up and stay there, without returning according to my order, I sent a +second, who stayed in like manner; and then I determined to go myself. +When I came thither, I found it was James Nayler preaching to the people, +but with such power and reaching energy as I had not till then been +witness of. I could not help staying a little, although I was afraid to +stay, for fear I was made a _Quaker_, being forced to tremble at the +sight of myself. I was struck with more terror by the preaching of James +Nayler than I was at the battle of Dunbar, when we had nothing else to +expect but to fall a prey to the swords of our enemies, without being able +to help ourselves. I clearly saw the Cross of Christ to be submitted to, +so I durst stay no longer, but got off, and carried condemnation for it in +my own breast. The people there cried out against themselves, imploring +mercy, a thorough change, and the whole work of salvation to be effected +by them." + +Nayler, in 1654 after visiting in the West, wended his way to London, and +preached to two congregations which had been formed by Edward Burrough and +Francis Howgil, members of the Society of Friends, who suffered +imprisonment with him at Appleby. He broke up both congregations, and drew +after him "some inconsiderate women." + +His mind gave way, and he believed that he was the Messiah. +"Notwithstanding the irregularities of Nayler's life," says Scatcherd, the +learned historian of Morley, "there were many things in the man, which, +with low and ignorant people, exceedingly favoured his pretensions to the +Messiahship. He appeared, both as to form and feature, the perfect +likeness to Jesus Christ, according to the best descriptions. His face was +of the oval shape, his forehead broad, his hair auburn and long, and +parted on the brow, his beard flowing, his eyes beaming with a benignant +lustre, his nose of the Grecian or Caucasian order, his figure erect and +majestic, his aspect sedate, his speech sententious, deliberative, and +grave, and his manner authoritative." Carlyle has drawn a pen picture of +Nayler, but not with the skill of the foregoing. + +It is not our intention to attempt to trace Nayler from place to place in +his wanderings, but to touch on the more important episodes of his closing +years. He visited the West in 1652 on a religious mission, and revisited +it again four years later. During his visit to Cornwall, he prophesied, +and subsequently one of the charges made against him was that he +proclaimed himself to be a prophet. At Exeter he was charged with +vagrancy, and imprisoned. During his confinement he was visited by a +number of women, who had been moved by his teaching. Amongst the number +was a widow named Dorcas Erbury. She fell into a swoon, and it was +supposed that she was dead. Nayler went through certain ceremonies, and +he pretended to have restored her to life. Referring to this when examined +by the Bristol Magistrate at a later period, the woman said: "Nayler laid +his hand on my head after I had been dead two days, and said, 'Dorcas, +arise!' and I arose, and live, as thou seest." On being asked if she had +any witness to corroborate her statement, she said that her mother was +present. The local authorities at Exeter released Nayler after detaining +him for a short time. At this period some strange scenes occurred. "The +usual posture of Nayler," says Scatcherd, "was sitting in a chair, while +his company of men and women knelt before him." These, it appears, were +very numerous and constant for whole days together. At the commencement of +the service, a female stepped forth and sang:-- + + "This is the joyful day, + Behold! the King of righteousness is come!" + +Another, taking him by the hand, exclaimed:-- + + "Rise up, my love--my dove--and come away, + Why sittest thou among the pots." + +Then, putting his hand upon her mouth, she sunk upon the ground before +him, the auditory vociferating:-- + + "Holy, holy, holy, to the Almighty." + +His procession through Chepstow caused much amazement in that quiet place. +"Nayler" is described as being mounted on the back of a horse or +mule;--one Woodcock preceded him bareheaded, and on foot:--a female on +each side of Nayler held his bridle; many spread garments in his +way,--while the women sang: "Hosannah to the Son of David--blessed is he +that cometh in the name of the Lord--Hosannah in the highest!" + +Nayler and his followers entered Bristol in a procession similar to the +one just described. We are told that on this particular day in the year of +grace 1656, when he visited the city of Bristol, rain was falling, and the +roads were deep with mud, but neither mud nor rain could check the ardour +of himself and disciples, and they sang hymns of praise. They first wended +their steps to the High Cross, and then to the White Hart, Broad Street, +where a couple of Quakers were staying. The local magistrates were soon on +the alert, and had the party apprehended and cast into prison. After being +examined by Bristol magistrates, Nayler and his followers were sent to +London to be examined before Parliament. His examination and the debate on +it occupied many days, and the members finally resolved "that James +Nayler was guilty of horrid blasphemy, and that he was a grand impostor +and seducer of the people"; and his sentence was, "that he should be set +on the pillory, in the Palace Yard, Westminster, during the space of two +hours, on Thursday next, and be whipped by the hangman through the streets +from Westminster to the Old Exchange, London; and there, likewise, he +should be set on the pillory, with his head in the pillory, for the space +of two hours, between the hours of eleven and one, on Saturday next, in +each place wearing a paper containing an inscription of his crimes; and +that at the Old Exchange his tongue should be bored through with a hot +iron, and that he should be there also stigmatised in the forehead with +the letter B; and that he should be afterwards sent to Bristol, to be +conveyed in and through the city on horseback, with his face backwards, +and there also should be whipped the next market-day after he came +thither; and that thence he should be committed to prison in Bridewell, +London, and there be restrained from the society of all people, and there +to labour hard till he should be released by Parliament; and during that +time he should be debarred the use of pen, ink, and paper, and he should +have no relief but what he earned by his daily labour." This terrible +sentence was duly carried out, although Parliament and Cromwell were +petitioned to mitigate the punishment. During his imprisonment he wrote +his recantations in letters addressed to the Quakers. After being confined +for two years he was set at liberty, and repaired to Bristol, and at a +public meeting made a confession of his offence and fall. His address +moved nearly all present to tears. The Quakers once more received him back +to their Society. + +His end came in the year 1660. In that year he left London for Wakefield, +but failed to reach it. At Holm, near King's Rippon, Huntingdonshire, one +night he was bound and robbed, and left in a field, where he was found by +a countryman. He was removed to a house at Holm and every attention paid +to him, but he soon died from the results of the rough treatment he had +received at the hands of the highwaymen. + + + + +A Biographical Romance. + +Swan's Strange Story. + + +In the olden days the misfortunes of William Swan frequently formed the +topic of conversation amongst friends, who gathered round the fireside in +the homes on the wild wolds of Yorkshire, where he spent some years of his +disappointed life. The full details of his career have been lost in the +lapse of time; never, to our knowledge, have they been committed to paper, +but sufficient particulars may be brought together to prove in his case +the truth of the old saying that "fact is stranger than fiction." + +Nearly two centuries ago there was joy in Benwell Hall, near +Newcastle-on-Tyne, the stately mansion of Richard Swan, Esq., the occasion +of the rejoicing being the birth of an heir. The parents dreamed of a +bright future for their boy, and proudly predicted that he would, in a +worthy manner, perpetuate the name and fame of Swan. The happy +expectations of boyhood were not to be realised, for the young heir had +barely reached the age of nine years, when he was kidnapped from his +home, in order that another might inherit the wealth that by kinship +belonged to him. He was quietly shipped on board the "New Britannia" brig, +which formed part of the squadron under command of the famous Sir +Cloudesley Shovel. His position was that of a "powder monkey," and his +chief employment was to bring powder from the magazine to the gunners +during the naval engagements. On the 22nd of October, 1707, the fleet was +wrecked on the Scilly Isles, owing to the Admiral mistaking the rocks for +the sea-coast. No less than eight hundred brave men found a watery grave, +and several vessels were lost. Happily the ship in which Swan sailed +escaped destruction. Ill-fate, however, followed in its wake, for, shortly +afterwards, it was captured by an Algerine corsair, and Swan was sold to +the Moors as a slave. Four weary years were passed in Barbary. He gained +his liberty through the assistance of the Redeeming Friars, a noble body +of men who were the means of freeing thousands of Christians from +captivity. Many benevolent persons left large sums of money for redeeming +their fellow countrymen from bondage, and this money was expended +judiciously through the agency of the Friars. + +Swan had not the good fortune to reach his home in safety. He was again +taken prisoner, and sold once more into slavery, this time to an English +planter in South Carolina. Here his sufferings were terrible. He toiled +with negroes from sunrise to sunset, the slave-drivers keeping them busy +at work in the cotton and sugar plantations by means of the lash. Managing +to escape, he landed, after an exile of twenty years, on his native shore +in 1726, and speedily made his way to Newcastle-on-Tyne. His father's +footman, Thomas Chance, and his old nurse, Mrs. Gofton, identified him, +and he at once instituted a claim for the estate of his uncle, Alderman +Swan, Mayor of Hull, who had died and left property yielding an income of +L20,000 a year. His efforts proved unsuccessful, and the deep +disappointment broke his heart, his death occurring in 1736, at the age of +thirty-eight years. + +Swan had married a Yorkshire woman called Jane Cole, of North Dalton, near +Driffield, by whom he had a son named William. The widowed mother told her +boy, as soon as he was able to understand, that he was the rightful heir +to vast estates, and encouraged him to persevere to obtain them. The +melancholy fate of her husband was not sufficient to crush her ardent +spirit. A lawyer at Driffield was consulted, and he advised that action be +taken. He undertook to conduct the case without payment until the estates +were obtained, beyond the sums for correspondence, court fees, etc. The +man, however, drained the poor fellow of every penny that he could +procure, and both mother and son denied themselves the necessaries of life +to keep up the constant demands of the solicitor. Months and years passed +without getting any satisfaction. Poor Mrs. Swan at last felt the case to +be hopeless, and the anxious waiting, with its disappointing results, +preyed so on her mind that she fell into ill-health and died. Speaking to +her son before her death, she said: "Oh, William, let this horrid plea +drop. Don't pay that man any more money. I feel that he would skin us both +alive. They are a bad set all these law men." William was young, and like +the majority of young people, hope was firmly fixed in his nature. He not +only devoted all his money to law, but bought a second-hand copy of +"Blackstone's Commentaries," and spent all his leisure time in studying +it, until he was complete master of the work. After the death of his +mother, he gave up house-keeping, and took lodgings with a widow, having +a daughter about twenty-four years of age. They became interested in his +case, and lent him money to carry on his suit. A rich uncle had left the +girl a few hundred pounds. The young couple were brought into sympathy +with each other, which ripened into mutual affection, and in a short time, +with the consent freely given of the mother, they were married. Shortly +after the wedding it transpired that the attorney at Driffield had been +cheating his client, and instead of using the hard-earned money of William +Swan to gain his estates, he had spent it in dissipation, and was a ruined +man. + +Swan proceeded to London, and consulted another lawyer. This man advised +an action which swallowed up the wife's small fortune, without getting +them one step nearer obtaining the estate. Trouble after trouble came upon +William. His heart was almost crushed, but he continued the action to the +best of his ability. His wife begged of him to leave law alone, to return +to their Yorkshire home, live by their industry, and give up all thoughts +of the property. He refused to act upon her good advice. He got into debt, +and was committed to the Fleet prison on his inability to pay. Here ill +luck still followed him, for he caught the jail fever. In his sickness his +devoted wife got permission to visit him, and bring him some delicacies. +She, alas, caught the fever, and in a few days died. He recovered, but the +death of his loving helpmate was almost too much for him. She had endured +much for his sake, but never by word or deed showed regret at becoming his +wife. Shortly afterwards a jail delivery enabled him to leave prison. His +illness rendered him so weak that he could hardly walk. He obtained +lodgings in an obscure lane or alley near Chiswell Street, and afterwards +was found dead in bed. It is believed that his remains were buried in a +pauper's grave. + + + + +Short Letters. + + +The shortest letters on record are two exchanged between a couple of +members of the Society of Friends. One of them, wishing to learn if a +correspondent in a distant town had any news to communicate, posted to him +a quarto sheet of paper, on which nothing but a note of interrogation was +written, thus: ? (meaning, "what news?") He received in reply, by next +post, a blank sheet of paper, indicating that there was nothing to relate. + +Some of the best of brief letters have been penned by members of the +dramatic profession. The following are good specimens. A tradesman made +application to Mordaunt, the player, for payment of an account, as +follows:-- + + "Sir,--Your bill having been standing a very long time, I beg to have + it settled forthwith. + + Yours, etc., + J. Thwaites." + +Said the comedian in reply:-- + + "Sir,--When your bill is tired of _standing_, it is welcome to sit + down. + + Yours, etc., + T. H. M." + +The next letters passed between Samuel Foote, the famous actor, and his +unfortunate mother:-- + + "Dear Sam,--I am in prison for debt; come and assist your loving + mother, + + E. Foote." + +His answer was almost as brief, certainly as pathetic:-- + + "Dear Mother,--So am I, which prevents his duty being paid to his + loving mother by her affectionate son. + + Sam Foote." + + "P.S.--I have sent my attorney to assist you; in the meantime let us + hope for better days." + +Quin had a misunderstanding with Rich, the manager of Covent Garden +Theatre, which resulted in the former leaving in an unceremonious manner. +He soon regretted the step that he had taken, and wrote to his old friend +and manager:-- + + "I am at Bath. + + Quin." + +Rich did not deem such a letter a sufficient apology for his unwarrantable +conduct, and thus replied to it:-- + + "Stay there and be hanged. + + Rich." + +The Rev. Sydney Smith, in answer to a friend who had forwarded a letter +asking him to sit for his portrait, to be executed by Landseer, the +gifted painter, whose pictures of dogs made him famous, sent the following +reply:-- + + "Is thy servant a dog that he should do this thing?" + +Genial Charles Lamb wrote an amusing letter to Haydon, the artist, in +answer to an invitation to pay him a visit. The odd address of Haydon was +the cause of the note, which ran as follows:-- + + "My dear Haydon,--I will come, with pleasure, to 22, Lisson Grove, + North, at Rossi's, half-way up, right hand side, if I can find it. + + Yours, + C. Lamb." + + "20, Russell Court, + Covent Garden, East, + Half-way up, next the corner, + Left-hand side." + +A lady named Morris, of Plymouth, is recorded to have been the first of +her sex to venture under water in a diving bell. + +She had wit as well as courage, and wrote to her father a rhyming epistle, +saying:-- + + "From a belle, my dear father, you've oft had a line, + But not from a bell under water; + Just now I can only assure you I'm thine, + Your diving and dutiful daughter." + +Frank Smedley, the author of "Frank Fairleigh," addressed to a lady friend +the following letter in verse:-- + + "To Mrs. G. H. Virtue." + + "Thou better half of Virtue, gentle friend, + Fairly to thee, I, Fairleigh, greeting send; + Frankly I give what frankly you desire; + You thus Frank Fairleigh's autograph acquire. + To make assurance doubly sure, this medley + Of Franks and Fairleighs this I sign-- + Frank Smedley." + +A famous sporting character, named Captain O'Byrne, laid a wager about +Admiral Payne, and wrote to him as follows:-- + + "Dear Payne,--Pray, were you bread to the sea?" + +The witty Admiral made reply:-- + + "Dear O'Byrne,--No; but the sea was bread to me." + +It is said that King Charles the Second received the following letter:-- + + "King Charles,--One of your subjects the other night robbed me of L40, + for which I robbed another of the same sum, who has inhumanly sent me + to Newgate, and he vows I shall be hanged; therefore, for your own + sake, save my life, or you will lose one of the best seamen in your + navy. + + Jack Skifton." + +His Majesty promptly answered the letter:-- + + "Jack Skifton,--For this time I'll save thee from the gallows, but if + hereafter thou art guilty of the like, I'll have thee hanged, though + the best seaman in my navy. + + Charles Rex." + +Here is a copy of a quaint letter sent to another king. It was written by +Dr. Schmidt, sacristan of the Cathedral at Berlin, to Frederick of +Prussia: + + "Sire,--I acquaint your Majesty, 1st, that they are wanting books of + psalms for the Royal Family. I acquaint your Majesty, 2ndly, that + there wants wood to warm the Royal seats. And I acquaint your Majesty, + 3rdly, that the balustrade next the river, behind the church, is + become ruinous. + + Schmidt, + Sacristan of the Cathedral." + +In reply to the foregoing diverting communication the king wrote:-- + + "I acquaint Mr. Sacrist Schmidt, 1st, that they who want to sing songs + may buy books. I acquaint Mr. Sacrist Schmidt, 2ndly, that those who + want to be kept warm may buy wood. I acquaint Mr. Sacrist Schmidt, + 3rdly, that I shall not trust any longer to the balustrade next to the + river; and I acquaint Mr. Sacrist Schmidt, 4thly, that I will not have + any more correspondence with him. + + Frederick." + +The following phonographic curiosity is extracted from the _Times_. It was +written by an unsophisticated person to his physician, in Lancashire:-- + + "Cer yole oblige me uf yole kum and ce me i hev a bad kowld an am hill + in mi bow hills an hev lorst mi happetite. + + Roger Trooman." + +One Highlander wrote to another the following smart letter:-- + + "My dear Glengarry,--As soon as you can prove yourself to be my chief, + I shall be ready to acknowledge you. In the meantime + + I am yours, + MacDonald." + +The Duke of Wellington engaged an intelligent Scotch farmer, named Heriot, +to act as his private secretary. + +"Walking in the city one day," says the Rev. Dr. Charles Rogers, "Mr. +Heriot met an old acquaintance from Scotland." + +"Hallo! Heriot," said his friend, "what are you doing in London?" + +"I am secretary to the Duke of Wellington," answered Heriot. + +"You are nothing of the sort," said the Scotsman; "and I fear you're doing +little good, since you would impose upon me in this fashion." + +Returning to Scotland, it occurred to Heriot's acquaintance that he would +write to the Duke, warning him that one Heriot "had been passing himself +off as his secretary." + +He received the following reply: + + "Sir,--I am directed by the Duke of Wellington to acknowledge the + receipt of your letter; and I am, + + Your obedient servant, + + J. Heriot, + Private Secretary." + +A captain being ordered with his regiment to the Cape, made application to +the Duke of Wellington for permission to try and arrange for a transfer to +another corps. The "Iron Duke" merely turned up his letter and wrote +"Sail or sell," and returned it to the applicant. + +Mr. George Seton, who has devoted much attention to this theme, tells an +American story in which a brief letter holds a prominent place. He states +that "in 1693, the Rev. Stephen Mix made a journey to Northampton in +search of a wife. He arrived at the Rev. Solomon Stoddard's, and informed +him of the object of his visit. Mr. Stoddard introduced him to his six +daughters, and then retired. Addressing Mary, the eldest, Mr. Mix said +that he had lately settled at Wethersfield, was desirous of obtaining a +wife, and concluded by offering his heart and hand. The blushing damsel +replied that so important a proposal required time for consideration; and +accordingly Mr. Mix left the room in order to smoke a pipe with her +father, while she took the case to 'avizandum.' On her answer being sent +for, she requested further time for consideration; and it was agreed that +she should send her answer by letter to Wethersfield. In the course of a +few weeks, Mr. Mix received a reply, which was soon followed by the +wedding:-- + + "Northampton, + 3rd November, 1693. + + Rev. Stephen Mix,--Yes.--Mary Stoddard." + +We will bring to a close our examples of laconic letters with another +specimen from the other side of the Atlantic. A notable dark day at +Boston, on the 19th March, 1790, induced a lady to write to Dr. Byles, an +eccentric but clever notability, the following note:-- + + "Dear Doctor,--How do you account for this darkness?" + +He simply said:-- + + "Dear Madam,--I am as much in the dark as you are." + + +THE END + + + + +Index. + + + Ainsworth, W. H., 88 + + Alfreton, staked at Cards, 107 + + American Novelists, 65 + + Andersen, H. C., 20, 68 + + Andrews, Henry, 206-212 + + _Argosy_, 29 + + Arnold, Sir Edwin, 23 + + Austen, Jane, 67 + + Appleby, 215 + + + Bacchanalian toasts, 124 + + Balloon Tytler, 12 + + Balzac, 14-16 + + Barnes, editor of _The Times_, 54 + + Beaconsfield, Earl of, 59-60 + + Bells, Rhymes on, 104, 106 + + Benwell Hall, 222 + + Beresford, James, 68 + + Beverley, 32, 101 + + Bills of Fare, 114, 115-116 + + Biographical Romance: Swan's Strange Story, 222-227 + + _Blackwood's Magazine_, 13 + + Blair's "Sermons," 72 + + Bloomfield, Robert, 73, 81 + + Bolas Magna, 201 + + Books, Southey's love of, 19 + + Boswell, 7 + + Braddon, Miss, 31-34 + + Bradstreet, Anne, 143-148 + + Brewer, Dr., 57-58 + + Briscoe, J. Potter, on Miller's Works, 196-198 + + Bristol, Procession of Nayler at, 219 + + Brooks, Henry M., 133 + + Bronte, Charlotte, 69-71 + + Browning, Robert, 64 + + Buchan's "Domestic Medicine," 72 + + Burleigh, Lord of, 199 + + Burns, Robert, 11, 91, 92, 98, 116-118 + + Butler, author of "Hudibras," 77-78 + + Butler, Professor, on Scrap-books, 131-133 + + Byron, Lord, 20, 50, 51, 73, 82, 84, 85 + + + Campbell, Thomas, 55 + + Cards, 107 + + Carlyle, T., 2-3, 16 + + Catherine, Spelling of, 150-151 + + Cecil, Henry, 199 + + Celebrated Songs of Scotland, 11 + + Chalk, Lines on, 95 + + _Chambers's Journal_, 34 + + Charles II., letter to, 231 + + Chepstow, 219 + + Christian's View of Death, 171 + + Civil War, 213 + + Common Place-Book, Sala's, 38-41 + + Compiler of "Old Moore's Almanac": Henry Andrews, 206-212 + + _Cornhill Magazine_, 25, 34 + + Cornwall, Barry, 21 + + Cooper, Thomas, 187 + + Cottage Countess, The, 199-205 + + Cowper, 81 + + Crabbe, 51-52 + + Curious American Old-Time Gleanings, 131-142 + + Curiosities of the Lottery, 139-140 + + + Days of the Spinning Wheel, 140 + + Daudet, A., 28-29 + + "Declined with Thanks," 67-75 + + Derbyshire rhymes, 100, 102, 106, 107, 108 + + De Quincey, 1 + + Dickens, Charles, 26-27, 58 + + Dictionary, Johnson's, how compiled, 4-7 + + Diving bell, 230 + + Dress _v._ Dinner, 92 + + Duck, Stephen, 79-80 + + Duel, 85 + + Ducking stool, 137 + + + Earliest American Poetess: Anne Bradstreet, 143-148 + + Ears cropped, 136, 137 + + Earnings of Authors, 43-66 + + East Ardsley, 213 + + Edgeworth, Miss, 21 + + Editor's poverty, 9 + + Elegy written in a country churchyard, 45-46 + + Eliot, George, 27, 62-63 + + "Encyclopaedia Britannica," 7-12 + + English Folk Rhymes, 100-109 + + Epigrams on Authors, 76-89 + + + Fergusson, Robert, 90 + + Fielding, 48 + + Fisherman's Funeral, The, 182 + + Flowers of the Forest, 161 + + Foote, S., 229 + + Fox, Geo., 214 + + French Epigrams, 76 + + Frieston, 206 + + + Gallows, 136 + + Gay, 46 + + German Epigrams, 76 + + Gibbon, 56 + + Glazier's Toast, 129 + + Globe Tavern, Dumfries, 98 + + Gloucestershire Rhyme, 108 + + Goldsmith, 46-47 + + Gordon Riots, 80 + + Gore, Mrs., 17-18 + + Grant's Memoirs, 66 + + Greek Epigrams, 76 + + Gray, 21, 45-46 + + Greengrocer's Toast, 129 + + "Guide to Science," 57 + + + Hadden, J. Cuthbert, 64 + + Hamerton, P. G., 35, 36 + + Hall, Dr. Spencer T., 188 + + Harte, Bret, 65 + + Hatter's Toast, 129 + + Hayley, 48 + + Hedon, 101 + + Historical value of newspapers, 131 + + Historical works, 56-57 + + Holderness, In, 184 + + Homer, 76-77 + + Hood, E. P., 88 + + Hook, Theodore, 83, 85 + + Hull, Stage, Miss Braddon on, 31; + Rhyme, 103; + Shakespearean Festival, 111; + Burns' Club, 116-118; + Literary Club, 118-119; + Mrs. Jno. Hunter born at, 160 + + Hung in chains, 138 + + Humour in prison, 138-139 + + Hunter, Dr. John, 162-165 + + Hunter, Mrs. John, 160-175 + + + Inn rhymes, 94, 95, 96, 98 + + + "Jane Eyre," 69 + + Jeffrey, Lord, 85 + + Johnson, Dr. S., 4-7, 43, 46, 47 + + + Keats, 25 + + Keble's "Christian Year," 73-74 + + Kentish Rhymes, 108 + + Kidnapping, 222 + + Knocking of feet in Churches, 135 + + + Lady Mayoress of York, 103 + + Laidlow, William, 13 + + Lake Poets, 81 + + Lamb, Charles, 230 + + Lancashire rhymes 105, 107 + + Lang, Andrew, 41-42 + + Leechfield, 102 + + Lingard's History of England, 56 + + Lincolnshire rhymes, 103, 104, 105, 106 + + London rhyme, 103 + + Longfellow, 63-64 + + Lord Mayors of York, 103 + + Lost with all Hands, 180 + + Lotteries, 139-140 + + Lowell, J. R., 65 + + Loyal and Patriotic Toasts, 121-122 + + Ludicrous blunders, 74 + + Lytton, Bulwer, 59, 89 + + + Macaulay, Lord, 56-57 + + Mansfield, Lord, 80-81 + + Martineau, Miss, 16 + + Masonic Toasts, 124 + + Miscellaneous Toasts, 127 + + Miller, A., 6 + + Miller, Joe, 80 + + Miller, Thomas, 186-198 + + Milton, John, 44; + epigram on, 45 + + Monument in Greyfriars' to Mary Pyper, 175 + + Moore, Francis, 212 + + Moore, Thomas, 52-54, 85, 86 + + Mordaunt, 228 + + Musicians' Toasts, 128-129 + + My Mother bids me bind my Hair, 161 + + Myton Rhyme, 103 + + + Naval and Military Toasts, 122-123 + + Nayler, James, the Mad Quaker, 213-221 + + New England Sunday, 133 + + Newington Church, 105 + + Newton, Sir Isaac, 78 + + Norfolk rhymes, 101 + + Norwich rhyme, 102 + + Nottingham Public Library, Miller's books in, 196-198 + + + Old Fountain, The, 192 + + Old Moore's Almanac, 206-212 + + Olden Times Series, by Henry M. Brooks, 133-142 + + Oliphant, Mrs., 50 + + On seeing two little girls present a flower to a dying person, 173 + + Ouida, 63 + + + "Paradise Lost," 44 + + Pawnbroker's Toast, 129 + + Payn, James, 34-35, 60 + + Playful Poet: Miss Catherine Fanshawe, 149-159 + + Playing at cards for towns, 107 + + Phillips, Sir Richard, 73 + + Phonographic curiosity, 232 + + Pillory, 136; + Nayler in the, 220 + + Poem in imitation of Wordsworth, 151 + + Poet and Novelist of the People: Thomas Miller, 186-198 + + Poet of the Fisher-Folk: Mrs. Susan K. Phillips, 176-185 + + Poet of the Poor: Mary Pyper, 167-175 + + Poetical Graces, 90-93 + + Poetry of Toast Lists and Menu Cards, 110-119 + + Poetry on Panes, 94-99 + + Political Toasts, 126 + + Pope, 46, 78 + + Popular Song Writer: Mrs. John Hunter, 160-175 + + Prayer by proxy, 92 + + Prescott, 72 + + Printer's troubled by authors, 16 + + Professional Toasts, 128 + + Proud Preston, 105 + + Punning Toasts, 125 + + Purlwell Hall, 97 + + Pyper, Mary, 167-175 + + + Quakers punished, 137; + Mad Quaker, 213-221 + + Quin, 229 + + + Rabbits, Grace on, 27 + + Reade, Charles, 27-28 + + Redeeming Friars, 223 + + Rich, 229 + + Richardson, Professor C. F., 146 + + Richter, J. P., 2-3 + + Riddle on the letter H., 153-154 + + Rhyming grants of land, 100-101 + + Robertson's "History of Scotland," 56 + + "Robinson Crusoe," 67 + + Rose, Sir George, 87 + + Roxburghe Club, 127-128 + + Royston, 208 + + Ruskin, John, 63 + + + Sala, G. A., 36-41 + + Sandon, rhyme at, 95 + + Scrap-books, 131-133 + + Scarborough rhymes, 109 + + Schmidt, 231 + + Schoolmaster's Toasts, 128 + + School books, 55 + + Scolds, punished, 137 + + Scott, Sir Walter, 12-13, 48-50, 73, 82-83 + + _Scots' Magazine_, 8 + + Selling bells, Rhymes on, 104 + + Sentimental Toasts, 126 + + Servant of God, 172 + + Seymour, Digby, 87 + + Shakespeare's fortune, 44 + + Shakespearean Quotations, 111-115 + + Shelley, 22 + + Shoemaker's Toast, 129 + + Short Letters, 228-235 + + Slave-trade, 140-142 + + Sleeping in meeting-house, Punishment for, 135 + + Smedley, F., 230 + + Smellie, William, 7-8 + + Smith, Albert, 86 + + Smith, Sydney, 229 + + Smollett, 56 + + Somerville, Mrs., 21 + + Somerset rhymes, 103 + + Southey, 19-20, 21, 82 + + Spires of Churches, 106 + + Sporting Toasts, 125 + + St Andrews' University, 90 + + Sterne, 71 + + Stoves, introduction into churches, 134 + + Stowe, Mrs., 71 + + Strange and curious punishments, 135 + + Sunday in New England, 133 + + Swan's Strange Story, 222-227 + + Swift, Dean, 79 + + + Tennyson, Lord, 14, 64, 118-119, 199 + + Tercentenary Banquet at Stratford-on-Avon, 114 + + Thackeray, W. M, 27, 58, 87 + + Theodore, King of Corsica, 78 + + Thompson, Town Clerk of Hull, 87-88 + + _Times, The_, editorship refused by Southey, 19 + + Toasts and Toasting, 120-130 + + Tongue bored with a hot iron, 220 + + Travelling on Sunday, 133 + + Trollope, Mrs, 18-19 + + Trollope, A., 1, 24-25, 60-62 + + Trollope, T. A., 18 + + Tytler, Joseph, 8-12 + + + Ugley, rhyme on, 106 + + + Vegetarian graces, 93 + + "Vicar of Wakefield," 46 + + "Vice Versa," 72 + + Vyse's Spelling-Book, 55 + + + Wakefield, 213, 214 + + Warner, Miss, 71 + + Warren, Samuel, 68, 87-88 + + Waterloo, 83-84 + + Weather rhymes, 108 + + Wellington, Secretary to the Duke of, 233 + + Wesley, Rev. S., 93 + + Whipping, 135, 220 + + Whitby Bells, 185 + + White, H. K., 81 + + Wilberforce, Bishop, 26 + + Wilson, Professor, 13-14 + + Wood, Mrs. Henry, 29-31 + + Worcestershire Rhymes, 109 + + Wolfe, Charles, 74-75 + + Words, meaning of, 6 + + Wordsworth, W., 22-23, 82 + + + York Theatre, 96 + + Yorkshire pane rhymes, 94, 95, 96, 97; + Rhymes, 103-109; + Poets, 176. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] He was thirty years of age. + +[2] The Royal Institution where the Rev. Sydney Smith was reading lectures +on moral philosophy. The particular lecture alluded to in the above ode +was "The Sublime." + +[3] A fashionable milliner. + + + + +"Mr. Andrews' books are always interesting."--_Church Bells._ + +"No student of Mr. Andrews' books can be a dull after-dinner speaker, for +his writings are full of curious out-of-the-way information and good +stories."--_Birmingham Daily Gazette._ + + +England in the Days of Old. + +BY WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S., + +_Demy 8vo., 7s. 6d. Numerous Illustrations._ + + +This volume is one of unusual interest and value to the lover of olden +days and ways, and can hardly fail to interest and instruct the reader. It +recalls many forgotten episodes, scenes, characters, manners, customs, +etc., in the social and domestic life of England. + + +CONTENTS:--When Wigs were Worn--Powdering the Hair--Men Wearing +Muffs--Concerning Corporation Customs--Bribes for the Palate--Rebel Heads +on City Gates--Burial at Cross Roads--Detaining the Dead for Debt--A +Nobleman's Household in Tudor Times--Bread and Baking in Bygone +Days--Arise, Mistress, Arise!--The Turnspit--A Gossip about the +Goose--Bells as Time-Tellers--The Age of Snuffing--State +Lotteries--Bear-Baiting--Morris Dancers--The Folk-Lore of Midsummer +Eve--Harvest Home--Curious Charities--An Old-Time Chronicler. + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS:--The House of Commons in the time of Sir Robert +Walpole--Egyptian Wig--The Earl of Albemarle--Campaign Wig--Periwig with +Tail--Ramillie-Wig--Pig-tail Wig--Bag-Wig--Archbishop +Tilotson--Heart-Breakers--A Barber's Shop in the time of Queen +Elizabeth--With and Without a Wig--Stealing a Wig--Man with Muff, +1693--Burying the Mace at Nottingham--The Lord Mayor of York escorting +Princess Margaret--The Mayor of Wycombe going to the Guildhall--Woman +wearing a Scold's Bridle--The Brank--Andrew Marvell--Old London Bridge, +shewing heads of rebels on the gate--Axe, Block, and Executioner's +Mask--Margaret Roper taking leave of her father, Sir Thomas More--Rebel +Heads, from a print published in 1746--Temple Bar in Dr. Johnson's +time--Micklegate Bar, York--Clock, Hampton Court Palace--Drawing a Lottery +in the Guildhall, 1751--Advertising the Last State Lottery--Partaking of +the Pungent Pinch--Morris Dance, from a painted window at Betley--Morris +Dance, temp. James I.--A Whitsun Morris Dance--Bear Garden, or Hope +Theatre, 1647--The Globe Theatre, temp. Elizabeth--Plan of Bankside early +in the Seventeenth Century--John Stow's Monument. + +A carefully prepared Index enables the reader to refer to the varied and +interesting contents of the book. + +"A very attractive and informing book."--_Birmingham Daily Gazette._ + +"Mr. Andrews has the true art of narration, and contrives to give us the +results of his learning with considerable freshness of style, whilst his +subjects are always interesting and picturesque."--_Manchester Courier._ + +"The book is of unusual interest."--_Eastern Morning News._ + +"Of the many clever books which Mr. Andrews has written none does him +greater credit than "England in the Days of Old," and none will be read +with greater profit."--_Northern Gazette._ + + + + +"Valuable and interesting."--_The Times._ + +"Readable as well as instructive."--_The Globe._ + +"A valuable addition to any library."--_Derbyshire Times._ + + +The Bygone Series. + + +In this series the following volumes are included, and issued at 7s. 6d. +each. Demy 8vo, cloth gilt. + +These books have been favourably reviewed in the leading critical journals +of England and America. + +Carefully written articles by recognised authorities are included on +history, castles, abbeys, biography, romantic episodes, legendary lore, +traditional stories, curious customs, folk-lore, etc., etc. + +The works are illustrated by eminent artists, and by the reproduction of +quaint pictures of the olden time. + + BYGONE BERKSHIRE, edited by Rev. P. H. Ditchfield, M.A., F.S.A. + BYGONE CHESHIRE, edited by William Andrews. + BYGONE DEVONSHIRE, by the Rev. Hilderic Friend. + BYGONE DURHAM, edited by William Andrews. + BYGONE HERTFORDSHIRE, edited by William Andrews. + BYGONE LEICESTERSHIRE, edited by William Andrews. + BYGONE LINCOLNSHIRE (2 vols), edited by William Andrews. + BYGONE NORFOLK, edited by William Andrews. + BYGONE NORTHUMBERLAND, edited by William Andrews. + BYGONE NOTTINGHAMSHIRE, by William Stevenson. + BYGONE SCOTLAND, by David Maxwell, _C.E._ + BYGONE SOMERSETSHIRE, edited by Cuming Walters. + BYGONE SOUTHWARK, by Mrs. E. Boger. + BYGONE SUFFOLK, edited by Cuming Walters. + BYGONE SURREY, edited by George Clinch and S. W. Kershaw, F.S.A. + BYGONE SUSSEX, by W. E. A. Axon. + BYGONE WARWICKSHIRE, edited by William Andrews. + BYGONE YORKSHIRE, edited by William Andrews. + + + + +The Church Treasury of History, Custom, Folk-Lore, etc. + +EDITED BY WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S. + +_Demy 8vo., 7s. 6d. Numerous Illustrations._ + + +CONTENTS:--Stave-Kirks--Curious Churches of Cornwall--Holy Wells--Hermits +and Hermit Cells--Church Wakes--Fortified Church Towers--The Knight +Templars: their Churches and their Privileges--English Medieval +Pilgrimages--Pilgrims' Signs--Human Skin on Church Doors--Animals of the +Church in Wood, Stone, and Bronze--Queries in Stones--Pictures in +Churches--Flowers and the Rites of the Church--Ghost Layers and Ghost +Laying--Church Walks--Westminster Wax-Works--Index. Numerous +Illustrations. + +"It is a work that will prove interesting to the clergy and churchmen +generally, and to all others who have an antiquarian turn of mind, or like +to be regaled occasionally by reading old-world customs and +anecdotes."--_Church Family Newspaper._ + +"Mr. Andrews has given us some excellent volumes of Church lore, but none +quite so good as this. The subjects are well chosen. They are treated +brightly and with considerable detail, and they are well illustrated.... +Mr. Andrews is himself responsible for some of the most interesting +papers, but all his helpers have caught his own spirit, and the result is +a volume full of information well and pleasantly put."--_London Quarterly +Review._ + +"Those who seek information regarding curious and quaint relics or customs +will find much to interest them in this book. The illustrations are +good."--_Publishers' Circular._ + +"An excellent and entertaining book."--_Newcastle Daily Leader._ + +"The book will be welcome to every lover of archaeological +lore."--_Liverpool Daily Post._ + +"The volume is of a most informing and suggestive character, abounding in +facts not easy of access to the ordinary reader, and enhanced with +illustrations of a high order of merit, and extremely +numerous."--_Birmingham Daily Gazette._ + +"The contents of the volume are very good."--_Leeds Mercury._ + +"The volume is sure to meet with a cordial reception."--_Manchester +Courier._ + +"A fascinating book."--_Stockport Advertiser._ + +"Mr. Andrews has brought together much curious matter."--_Manchester +Guardian._ + +"The book is a very readable one, and will receive a hearty +welcome."--_Herts. Advertiser._ + +"Mr. William Andrews has been able to give us a very acceptable and useful +addition to the books which deal with the curiosities of Church lore, and +for this deserves our hearty thanks. The manner in which the book is +printed and illustrated also commands our admiration."--_Norfolk +Chronicle._ + + + + +Antiquities and Curiosities of the Church. + +EDITED BY WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S. + +_Demy 8vo., 7s. 6d. Numerous Illustrations._ + + +CONTENTS:--Church History and Historians--Supernatural Interference in +Church Building--Ecclesiastical Symbolism in Architecture--Acoustic +Jars--Crypts--Heathen Customs at Christian Feasts--Fish and +Fasting--Shrove-tide and Lenten Customs--Wearing Hats in Church--The Stool +of Repentance--Cursing by Bell, Book, and Candle--Pulpits--Church +Windows--Alms-Boxes and Alms-Dishes--Old Collecting +Boxes--Gargoyles--Curious Vanes--People and Steeple +Rhymes--Sun-Dials--Jack of the Clock-House--Games in Churchyards--Circular +Churchyards--Church and Churchyard Charms and Cures--Yew Trees in +Churchyards. + +"A very entertaining work."--_Leeds Mercury._ + +"A well-printed, handsome, and profusely illustrated work."--_Norfolk +Chronicle._ + +"There is much curious and interesting reading in this popular volume, +which moreover has a useful index."--_Glasgow Herald._ + +"The contents of the volume is exceptionally good reading, and crowded +with out-of-the way, useful, and well selected information on a subject +which has an undying interest."--_Birmingham Mercury._ + +"In concluding this notice it is only the merest justice to add that every +page of it abounds with rare and often amusing information, drawn from the +most accredited sources. It also abounds with illustrations of our old +English authors, and it is likely to prove welcome not only to the +Churchman, but to the student of folk-lore and of poetical +literature."--_Morning Post._ + +"We can recommend this volume to all who are interested in the notable and +curious things that relate to churches and public worship in this and +other countries."--_Newcastle Daily Journal._ + +"It is very handsomely got up and admirably printed, the letterpress being +beautifully clear."--_Lincoln Mercury._ + +"The book is well indexed."--_Daily Chronicle._ + +"By delegating certain topics to those most capable of treating them, the +editor has the satisfaction of presenting the best available information +in a very attractive manner."--_Dundee Advertiser._ + +"It must not be supposed that the book is of interest only to Churchmen, +although primarily so, for it treats in such a skilful and instructive +manner with ancient manners and customs as to make it an invaluable book +of reference to all who are concerned in the seductive study of +antiquarian subjects."--_Chester Courant._ + + + + +A Book About Bells. + +BY THE REV. GEO. S. TYACK, B.A., + +Author of the "Historic Dress of the Clergy," etc. + +_Crown, cloth extra 6s._ + + +CONTENTS:--Invention of Bells--Bell Founding and Bell Founders--Dates and +Names of Bells--The Decoration of Bells--Some Noteworthy Bells--The Loss +of Old Bells--Towers and Campaniles--Bell-Ringing and Bell-Ringers--The +Church-Going Bell--Bells at Christian Festivals and Fasts--The Epochs of +Man's Life Marked by the Bells--The Blessings and the Cursings of the +Bells--Bells as Time-Markers--Secular Uses of Church and other +Bells--Small Bells, Secular and Sacred--Carillons--Belfry Rhymes and +Legends--Index of Subjects, Index of Places. + +THIRTEEN FULL-PAGE PLATES. + +"A most useful and interesting book.... All who are interested in bells +will, we feel confident, read it with pleasure and profit."--_Church +Family Newspaper._ + +"A pleasing, graceful, and scholarly book.... A handsome volume which will +be prized by the antiquary, and can be perused with delight and advantage +by the general reader."--_Notes and Queries._ + +"'A Book About Bells' can be heartily commended."--_Pall Mall Gazette._ + +"An excellent and entertaining book, which we commend to the attention not +only of those who are specially interested in the subject of bells, but to +all lovers of quaint archaeological lore."--_Glasgow Herald._ + +"The book is well printed and artistic in form."--_Manchester Courier._ + +"'A Book About Bells' is destined to be the work of reference on the +subject, and it ought to find a home on the shelves of every +library."--_Northern Gazette._ + +"The task Mr. Tyack has set himself, he has carried out admirably, and +throughout care and patient research are apparent."--_Lynn News._ + +"We heartily recommend our readers to procure this volume."--_The +Churchwoman._ + +"An entertaining work."--_Yorkshire Post._ + +"'A Book About Bells' will interest almost everyone. Antiquaries will find +in it an immense store of information: but the general reader will equally +feel that it is a book well worth reading from beginning to end."--_The +News_, Edited by the Rev. Charles Bullock, B.D. + +"An excellent work."--_Stockton Herald._ + +"It is a well-written work, and it is sure to be popular."--_Hull +Christian Voice._ + +"Covers the whole field of bell-lore."--_Scotsman._ + +"Most interesting and finely illustrated."--_Birmingham Daily Gazette._ + + + + +Historic Dress of the Clergy. + +BY THE REV. GEO. S. TYACK, B.A., + +Author of "The Cross in Ritual, Architecture, and Art." + +_Crown, cloth extra, 3s. 6d._ + + +The work contains thirty-three illustrations from ancient monuments, rare +manuscripts, and other sources. + +"A very painstaking and very valuable volume on a subject which is just +now attracting much attention. Mr. Tyack has collected a large amount of +information from sources not available to the unlearned, and has put +together his materials in an attractive way. The book deserves and is sure +to meet with a wide circulation."--_Daily Chronicle._ + +"This book is written with great care, and with an evident knowledge of +history. It is well worth the study of all who wish to be better informed +upon a subject which the author states in his preface gives evident signs +of a lively and growing interest."--_Manchester Courier._ + +"Those who are interested in the Dress of the Clergy will find full +information gathered together here, and set forth in a lucid and scholarly +way."--_Glasgow Herald._ + +"We are glad to welcome yet another volume from the author of 'The Cross +in Ritual, Architecture, and Art.' His subject, chosen widely and carried +out comprehensively, makes this a valuable book of reference for all +classes. It is only the antiquary and the ecclesiologist who can devote +time and talents to research of this kind, and Mr. Tyack has done a real +and lasting service to the Church of England by collecting so much useful +and reliable information upon the dress of the clergy in all ages, and +offering it to the public in such a popular form. We do not hesitate to +recommend this volume as the most reliable and the most comprehensive +illustrated guide to the history and origin of the canonical vestments and +other dress worn by the clergy, whether ecclesiastical, academical, or +general, while the excellent work in typography and binding make it a +beautiful gift-book."--_Church Bells._ + +"A very lucid history of ecclesiastical vestments from Levitical times to +the present day."--_Pall Mall Gazette._ + +"The book can be recommended to the undoubtedly large class of persons who +are seeking information on this and kindred subjects."--_The Times._ + +"The work may be read either as pastime or for instruction, and is worthy +of a place in the permanent section of any library. The numerous +illustrations, extensive contents table and index, and beautiful +workmanship, both in typography and binding, are all features of +attraction and utility."--_Dundee Advertiser._ + + + + +The Miracle Play in England, + +An Account of the Early Religious Drama. + +BY SIDNEY W. CLARKE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW. + +_Crown 8vo., 3s. 6d. Illustrated._ + + +In bygone times the Miracle Play formed an important feature in the +religious life of England. To those taking an interest in the history of +the Church of England, this volume will prove useful. The author has given +long and careful study to this subject, and produced a reliable and +readable book, which can hardly fail to interest and instruct the reader. +It is a volume for general reading, and for a permanent place in the +reference library. + +CONTENTS:--The Origin of Drama--The Beginnings of English Drama--The York +Plays--The Wakefield Plays--The Chester Plays--The Coventry Plays--Other +English Miracle Plays--The Production of a Miracle Play--The Scenery, +Properties, and Dresses--Appendix--The Order of the York Plays--Extract +from City Register of York, 1426--The Order of the Wakefield Plays--The +Order of the Chester Plays--The Order of the Grey Friars' Plays at +Coventry--A Miracle Play in a Puppet Show--Index. + +"Mr. Clarke has chosen a most interesting subject, one that is attractive +alike to the student, the historian, and the general reader.... A most +interesting volume, and a number of quaint illustrations add to its +value."--_Birmingham Daily Gazette._ + +"The book should be useful to many."--_Manchester Guardian._ + +"An admirable work."--_Eastern Morning News._ + +"Mr. Sidney Clarke's concise monograph in 'The Miracle Play in England' is +another of the long and interesting series of antiquarian volumes for +popular reading issued by the same publishing house. The author briefly +sketches the rise and growth of the 'Miracle' or 'Mystery' play in Europe +and in England; and gives an account of the series or cycle of these +curious religious dramas--the forerunners of the modern secular +play--performed at York, Wakefield, Chester, Coventry, and other towns in +the middle ages. But his chief efforts are devoted to giving a sketch of +the manner of production, and the scenery, properties, and dresses of the +old miracle play, as drawn from the minute account books of the craft and +trade guilds and other authentic records of the period. Mr. Clarke has +gone to the best sources for his information, and the volume, illustrated +by quaint cuts, is an excellent compendium of information on a curious +byeway of literature and art."--_The Scotsman._ + + + + +Legal Lore: Curiosities of Law and Lawyers. + +EDITED BY WILLIAM ANDREWS, F.R.H.S. + +_Demy 8vo., Cloth extra, 7s. 6d._ + + +CONTENTS:--Bible Law--Sanctuaries--Trials in Superstitious Ages--On +Symbols--Law Under the Feudal System--The Manor and Manor Law--Ancient +Tenures--Laws of the Forest--Trial by Jury in Old Times--Barbarous +Punishments--Trials of Animals--Devices of the Sixteenth Century +Debtors--Laws Relating to the Gipsies--Commonwealth Law and +Lawyers--Cock-Fighting in Scotland--Cockieleerie Law--Fatal +Links--Post-Mortem Trials--Island Laws--The Little Inns of Court--Obiter. + +"There are some very amusing and curious facts concerning law and lawyers. +We have read with much interest the articles on Sanctuaries, Trials in +Superstitious Ages, Ancient Tenures, Trials by Jury in Old Times, +Barbarous Punishments, and Trials of Animals, and can heartily recommend +the volume to those who wish for a few hours' profitable diversion in the +study of what may be called the light literature of the law."--_Daily +Mail._ + +"Most amusing and instructive reading."--_The Scotsman._ + +"The contents of the volume are extremely entertaining, and convey not a +little information on ancient ideas and habits of life. While members of +the legal profession will turn to the work for incidents with which to +illustrate an argument or point a joke, laymen will enjoy its vivid +descriptions of old-fashioned proceedings and often semi-barbaric ideas to +obligation and rectitude."--_Dundee Advertiser._ + +"The subjects chosen are extremely interesting, and contain a quantity of +out-of-the-way and not easily accessible information.... Very tastefully +printed and bound."--_Birmingham Daily Gazette._ + +"The book is handsomely got up; the style throughout is popular and clear, +and the variety of its contents, and the individuality of the writers gave +an added charm to the work."--_Daily Free Press._ + +"The book is interesting both to the general reader and the +student."--_Cheshire Notes and Queries._ + +"Those who care only to be amused will find plenty of entertainment in +this volume, while those who regard it as a work of reference will rejoice +at the variety of material, and appreciate the careful indexing."--_Dundee +Courier._ + +"Very interesting subjects, lucidly and charmingly written. The +versatility of the work assures for it a wide popularity."--_Northern +Gazette._ + +"A happy and useful addition to current literature."--_Norfolk Chronicle._ + +"The book is a very fascinating one, and it is specially interesting to +students of history as showing the vast changes which, by gradual course +of development have been brought about both in the principles and practice +of the law."--_The Evening Gazette._ + + + + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Passages in italics are indicated by _italics_. + +Punctuation has been corrected without note. + +The following misprints have been corrected: + "Thackerey" corrected to "Thackeray" (page 87) + "improptu" corrected to "impromptu" (page 87) + "access" corrected to "excess" (page 112) + +Other than the corrections listed above, inconsistencies in spelling and +hyphenation have been retained from the original. + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Literary Byways, by William Andrews + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITERARY BYWAYS *** + +***** This file should be named 36078.txt or 36078.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/0/7/36078/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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