Imatges de pàgina
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Customs of Various
Countries.

THE DUNMOW BACON

The following custom was observed till the dissolution of Monasteries in the time of Henry VIII. It is said to have been instituted in the time of King John by Richard Fitzwalter, a favourite of his, and a nobleman of unbounded munificence: he is reported to have been at the expence of rebuilding the convent of Dunmow, and was, in other respects, a great benefactor thereto. The custom was observed with great solemnity and triumph in the manner following: The party claiming the gammon, or, as was sometimes given, a flitch, was obliged to take an oath, kneeling be fore the Prior of Dunmow, the Friars and Brethren of the Convent, and an assemblage of the town's folk, upon two pointed stones in the church-yard; the oath was administered with a long process, and whilst it was going on, the friars accompanied it with solemn singing. As soon as this ceremony was ended, the pilgrim for the bacon, as the claimant was termed, was taken up upon men's shoulders, and borne round the Priory church-yard, and then through the town, with the whole concourse following in procession, carrying the bacon before him When this was gone through, the person departed for his home, bearing the bacon along with him, thereby ending the pastime.

The form of the oath was as follows:You shall swear by the custom of our con fession,

That you never made any nuptial transgression
Since you were married to your wife;
By household brawles, or contentious strife,
Or otherwise, in bed or board,
Offended each other in deed or word;
Or since the parish-clerk said amen,
Wished yourselves unmarried agen;
Or, in a twelvemonth and a day,
Repented not in thought any way,
But continued true and in desire,
As when you joined hands in the holy quire.
If to these conditions without all fear,
Of your own accord you will freely swear,
A gammon of bacon you shall receive,
And bear it hence with love and good leave,
For this is our custom in Dunmow well known,

Though the sport be ours the bacon's your own
The chair in which the successful can-
didates for the bacon was seated, after
obtaining the honourable testimony of their
connubial happiness, is stili preserved in
Dunmow church, and forms part of the
admiranda of that place. It is of great
antiquity, and was once probably the
official chair of the prior, or that of the
lord of the manor, in which he held the
annual courts, and received the suit and
service of his tenants.

The above whimsical custom was not

the only one that existed in the kingdom, for a similar one prevailed in the manor of Wichnor, in the county of Stafford, when, in addition to the bacon awarded to the happy pair, corn was given.

Science and Art.

PREPARATION OF BLACKING.

Take of plaister ground and sifted 2lbs. 4oz., lamp-black about 9oz., barley malt, as used by brewers, 18oz., olive oil 1 oz.; steep the malt in water almost boiling hot until the soluble portions are well extracted; put the solution into a basin, stir it into the plaister aud lamp-black, and evaporate to the consistency of paste, then add the oil, the quantity of which may be increased by degrees. To the mixture may be added, if desired, a few drops of oil of lemons, or of lavender as a perfume. If ground plaister be not attainable, its place may be supplied with potter's clay.-This, which is the com position of a French chemist, M. Bra finest blacking; it spreads evenly, dries connot, is undoubtedly the cheapest and and shines quickly on the leather by a slight friction of the brush, and has not the objection of burning the leather.

POWDER MILLS.

Although great care is taken to exclude from these manufactories all articles of iron, and to substitute copper and other metals in the metallic parts of the ma chinery, which will not strike fire, yet it is well known that explosions, attended with disastrous consequences, are very frequent. Excited by an occurrence of this nature, Col. Aubert, of the French artillery, was induced, in conjuction with Capt. Tardy, to resume some experiments which he had successfully tried to ascertain whether gunpowder would not explode by the shock of copper. The result was, that powder would inflame by the stroke of copper npon copper, or upon the alloys of copper. This gave rise to further investigation, could be exploded by the stroke of iron when it was ascertained that gunpowder upon iron, iron upon copper, copper upon copper, iron upon marble, and by using the balistic pendulum, by lead upon lead, and, with suitable precautions, even by lead upon wood. The experiments were successful both with English and French powder, and clearly show that in all the manipulations of a powder manufactory, all violent shocks and percussions should be carefully avoided, since they may occasion the disengagement of sufficient heat to produce the inflammation of powder.

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DR. FULLER.

Dr. Fuller, the author of the Church History of England, and other valuable works, had perhaps one of the most extensive memories of any man of his day. It is said of him that he could dictate to five several amanuensis at the same time, and to each on a different subject. The following anecdote will prove that his heart was as good as his memory. The doctor making a visit to the committee of sequestrators sitting at Waltham in Essex, they soon fell into a discourse and commendation of his great memory, to which he replied:" Tis true, gentlemen, that fame has given me the report of a memorist, and if you please, I will give you an experiment of it." They all accepted the motion, and told him they should look upon it as an obligation, praying him to begin:-"

-"Gentlemen," said he, "I will give you an instance of my memory in the particular business in which you are employed. Your worships have thought fit to sequester an honest, but poor, cavalier parson, my neighbour, from his living, and committed him to prison; he has a large family, and his circumstances are but indifferent; if you will please to release him out of prison, and restore him to his living, I will never forget the kindness while I live." This good-natured jest wrought so effectually upon the committee, that they immediately released and restored the poor clergyman.

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WIT.

The late Richard Brinsley Sheridan being in the country on a visit at the mansion of a friend, an elderly maiden lady who was present, and for whose society he had no fancy, set her heart on being his companion in a walk. He excused himself first, on account of the however, the lady intercepted him in an badness of the weather. Soon afterwards, attempt to escape without her : "Well," said she, "it has cleared up, I see.' cleared up enough for one, but not for "Why, yes," he answered, "it has

two."

EPIGRAM FROM QUARLES. On the Sacraments.

W.

The loaves of bread were five, the fishes two, Whereof the multitude were made partaker Who made the fishes? God. But tell me who

Gave being to the loaves of bread? The baker. Even so these Sacraments, which some call seven,

Five were ordain'd by man and two by HEA VEN.

ON TOM-A-COOMBE, Alias Thin-beard.

Brother of John-a-Coombe, the usurer, upon whom the immortal Shakspeare, the supposed author of the following, wrote the well-known satirical epitaph:

Thin in beard, and thick in purse,
Never man beloved worse,

He went to the grave with many a curse,
The devil and he had both one nurse.

EPITAPH ON MR. DEATH.

What changes in this world of breath,
Mortals are doomed to see,
Thou art reduced from death to death,-

Death is reduced to thee.

ON A DYER.

Below this turf a man doth lie, Who dyed to live, and lived to die!

Diary and Chronology,

DATE. DAYS.

DIARY.

DATE.

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COPRESPONDING CHRONOLOGY.

Feb. 20 This saint, who was Archbishop of Lyons, obtained
such a great name for his piety, as to cause him
to be canonized. He died A. D. 454.
1712.-Solemnized on this day the marriage of the
Czar Peter, and the celebrated Catherine, at St.
Petersburg. Their union had been before. se-
cretly performed at Jawerof, in Poland.
1716.-Anniversary of the birth of the English
Roscius, David Garrick, of immortal memory.
21 1553.-Beheaded on this day Henry Grey, the
11th Duke of Suffolk. This nobleman was hus-
band to Frances, the daughter of Charles Bran-
don, and father of Lady Jane Grey; after his
death the title laid dormant till 1603, when
Thomas Lord Howard, of Walden, was created
Earl of Suffolk by James I.

1803.-On this day was executed for treason in
Southwark, Colonel Despard and six others.
22 By Butler we are informed that this saint lived
in a trellis hut exposed to the severities of the
weather, clothed in the skins of beasts.
1806.-Expired on this day James Barry, the ce-
lebrated historical painter. A series of epic paint-
ings by him, depicting the origin and progress
of human nature, enrich the walls of the Society
for the Encouragement of Arts.

1804.-Died in penury, John Davy, the musical composer, on this day. Mr. D. was an able performer on the organ, violin, and violoncello, and a very talented composer.

23 1792.-Anniversary of the death of Sir Joshua Reynolds, the eminent painter, and president of the Royal Academy. Goldsmith, the poet, his friend, says of him, that

He has not left a wiser or better behind:

His pencil was striking, resistless, and grand, His manners were gentle, complying, and bland. 24 Our saint was chosen by lot into the apostolical office, in the place of the traitor, Judas. He is thought to have commenced his mission in Judæa, and was afterwards crucified by the Jews. 1684.-Born at Halle in Germany, the celebrated musician, George Frederick Handel: the excellent oratorios and other compositions of this famed master are still the admiration of all classes.

1774.-Anniversary of the birth of the Duke of Cambridge, brother of his present Majesty. 25 This saint was the daughter of Richard, King of the West Saxons. After being a nun for twenty seven years at Wimburn, in Dorsetshire, she went to Germany, and became abbess of a nunnery at Heidenheim, in Suabia, and there died in 779.

1601.-Anniversary of the beheading the Earl of
Essex, chief favourite of Queen Elizabeth, for
treasonable practices.

26 St. Alexander, who was bishop of Alexandria, was
a firm opponent of Arius. He died A. D, 325.
1723.-Expired on this day the witty and facetious
Thomas D'Urfey, the successful author of many
dramatic pieces. Tom D'Urfey as he was fa-
miliarly styled, was particularly noticed by
Charles II for his pleasantry and humour.
27 Anniversary of the death of the great natural phi-
losopher, John Evelyn, Esq. the author of the
celebrated work entitled "Sylva," or a discourse
of forest trees.

28 The saint recorded to-day was patriarch of Alex.
andria. He died A. D. 537.

1776.-Anniversary of the death of Dr, Robt. James, inventor of the fever powder bearing his name. Dr. Goldsmith's death was caused by taking an extravagant dose of this medicine.

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AMONG all the savage tribes, it is customary for people to ruin themselves on account of the dead. The family distributes what it possesses among the guests invited to the funeral feast; and they must eat and drink up every thing in the cabin. At sun-rise they set up a loud howling over the coffin of bark on which the corpse is laid; at sun-set the howling is repeated; this lasts three days, at the expiration of which the deceased is interred. A hillock is thrown up over his grave; if he has been a renowned warrior, a stake painted red marks the place of sepulture.

Among several tribes the relatives of the deceased inflict wounds on their arms and legs. For a whole month the cries of grief are continued at sun-set and sun-rise, and for several years the anniversary of the loss sustained is greeted by the same cries.

When a savage dies in winter while hunting, his body is kept on branches of trees, and the last honours are not paid to VOL. I. I

his remains till after the return of the warriors to the village of his tribe. The same practice formerly prevailed among the Muscovites.

Not only have the Indians different prayers and ceremonies, according to the degree of kindred, the dignity, the age, and the sex of the deceased person, but they have also seasons of public exhumation, of general commemoration.

Why are the savages of America among all the nations of the earth those who pay the greatest veneration for the dead? In national calamities the first thing they think of is to save the treasures of the tomb; they recognize no legal property but where the remains of ancestors have been interred. When the Indians have pleaded their right of possession they have always employed this argument, which in their opinion was irrefragable:-" Shall we say to the bones of our fathers-Rise and follow us to a strange land?" Finding that this argument was disregarded, what course did they pursue? they carried along with them the bones which could not follow.

The motives of this attachment to sacred 8-SATURDAY, MARCH 1.

The following extract, illustrative of the habits and character of this once celebrated individual, we give in the language of the Prefect of the Imperial Palace :

relics may easily be discovered. Civilized RECOLLECTIONS OF NAPOLEON. nations have monuments of literature and the arts for memorials of their country; they have cities, palaces, towers, columns, obelisks; they have the furrows of the plough in the fields cultivated by them; their names are engraven in brass and marble; their actions are recorded in their chronicles.

The savages have none of these things; their names are not inscribed on the trees of their forests: their huts, built in a few hours, perish in a few moments; the wooden spade with which they till the soil, has but just skimmed its surface, without being capable of turning up a furrow; their traditional songs are vanishing with the last memory which retains, with the last voice which repeats them. For the tribes of the new world, there is therefore but a single monument-the grave. Take from the savages the bones of their fathers, and you take from them their history, their laws, and their very gods, you rob these people in future times of the proof of their existence, and of that of their nothingness.- Chateauriand's Travels in America.

At this period of his life, (April 1814) Napoleon was forty-six years old. He was about five feet five inches in height; his head was large, his eyes of a clear blue; his hair dark chesnut: his eyelashes were lighter than his eye-brows, which were, like his hair, of a deep chesnut, his nose was well shaped, and the form of his mouth pleasing and extremely expressive; his hands were remarkably white and beautiful; his feet were small, but his shoes were not calculated to show them off to advantage, because he would not endure the smallest restraint. On the whole, he was well made, and wellproportioned. I have particularly remarked a habit which he had of inclining, by a sudden movement, his head and the upper part of his body to the right, and of applying his arm and elbow, to his side, as if he wished to make himself taller. This mechanical movement

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