SNUFFERS. Perhaps there is no implement of domestic use that we are less acquainted with, in its old form, than snuffers. I have now before me a pair, which for their antiquity and elegant workmanship seem worth attention: the engraving on the other side represents their exact size and construction. After some research, I can only meet with particulars of one other pair, which were found in digging the foundation of a granary, at the foot of a hill adjoining to Cotton Mansion-house, (formerly the seat of the respectable family of the Mohuns,) in the parish of St. Peter, Portisham, about two miles north-east from Abbotsbury in Dorsetshire. They were of brass, and weighed six ounces. "The great difference," says Mr. Hutchins, "between these and modern utensils of the same name and use is, that these are in shape like a heart fluted, and consequently terminate in a point. They consist of two equal lateral cavities, by the edges of which the snuff is cut off and received into the cavities, from which it is not got out without particular application and trouble. There are two circumstances attending this little utensil, which seem to bespeak it of considerable age: the roughness of the workmanship, which is in all respects as rude and coarse as can be well imagined, and the awkwardness of the form." There is an engraving of the Dorsetshire snuffers in the history of that county. Now for the crown and throne of Israel, That with sweet milk and honey overflowed. The snuffers now submitted to notice are These snuffers are plain on the underside, and made without legs. They were Absalon, triumphant. Absalon. First Absalon was by the trumpet's sound And now is set in fair Jerusalem Jove, for Jehovah. Alvida. Ladies, go sit you down amidst this bower, And let the Eunuchs play you all asleep: Put garlands made of roses on your heads, And play the wantons, whilst I talk awhile. Ladies. Thou beautiful of all the world, we will (Exeunt.) Alvida. King of Cilicia, kind and courteous; Like to thyself, because a lovely King; Come lay thee down upon thy Mistress' knee, And I will sing and talk of Love to thee. Cilicia. Most gracions Paragon of excellence, It fits not such an abject wretch as I To talk with Rasni's Paramour and Love. Alvida. To talk, sweet friend! who would not talk with thee? Oh be not cry: art thou not only fair? Come twine thine arms about this snow-whit A love-nest for the Great Assyrian King. Cilica. Madam, I hope you mean not for to mock me. thee, Hear me but sing of Love: then by my sighs, Cilicia. Sing, Madam, if you please; but love in jest. Beauty, alas! where wast thou born, I and thou in sooth are one, Heigho, I love; Heigho, I love; Alvida. And wilt thou then not pity my estate ? Cilicia. Ask love of them who pity may impart. Alvida. I ask of thee, sweet; thou hast stole my heart. Cilicia. Your love is fixed on a greater King. Alvida Tut, women's iove-it is a fickle thing. I love my Rasni for my dignity: I love Cilician King for his sweet eye. I love my Rasni, since he rules the worid: But more I love this Kingly little world. And thus, and thus, and thus: thus much I love thee. [From "Tethys' Festival," by Samuel Daniel, 1610.] Song at a Court Masque C. L. Scylla and Charybdis. ANCIENT AND PRESENT STATE. Incidit in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charybdis. This Latin verse, which has become proverbial, is thus translated : He falls on Scylla, who Charybdis shuns. The line has been ascribed to Ovid; it is not, however, in that or any other classic poet, but has been derived from Philippe Gualtier, a modern French writer of Latin verses. Charybdis is a whirlpool in the straits of Messina, on the coast of Sicily, opposite to Scylla, a dangerous rock on the coast of Italy. The danger to which mariners were exposed by the whirlpool is thus described by Homer in Pope's transla- about with great rapidity, without obeying tion: Dire Scylla there a scene of horror forms, And here Charybdis fills the deep with storms; And high above the rock she spouts the main. He says, the helm in the smallest degree. When the Virgil imagines the origin of this terrific force of the waters, as they come out of the scene: May 19, 1770. Found ourselves within half a mile of the coast of Sicily, which is low, but finely variegated. The opposite coast of Calabria is very high, and the mountains are covered with the finest ver dure. It was almost a dead calm, our ship scarce moving half a mile in an hour, so that we had time to get a complete view of the famous rock of Scylla, on the Calabrian side, Cape Pylorus on the Sicilian, and the celebrated Straits of the Faro that runs between them. Whilst we were still some miles distant from the entry of the Straits, we heard the roaring of the current, like the noise of some large impetuous river confined between narrow banks. This increased in proportion as we advanced, till we saw the water in many places raised to a considerable height, and forming large eddies or whirlpools. The sea in every other place was as smooth as glass. Our old pilot told us, that he had often seen ships caught in these eddies, and whirled • Bourn's Gazetteer. narrowest part of the Straits. The head of this promontory is the famous Scylla. It must be owned that it does not altogether come up to the formidable description that Homer gives of it; the reading of which (like that of Shakspeare's Cliff) almost makes one's head giddy. Neither is the passage so wondrous narrow and difficult as he makes it. Indeed it is probable that the breadth of it is greatly increased since his time, by the violent impetuosity of the current. And this violence too must have always diminished, in proportion as the breadth of the channel increased. Our pilot says, there are many small rocks that show their heads near the base of the large ones. These are probably the dogs that are described as howling round the monster Scylla. There are likewise of the water, and tend still to increase the many caverns that add greatly to the noise horror of the scene. The rock is near two hundred feet high. There is a kind of castle or fort built on its summit; and the town of Scylla, or Sciglio, containing three or four hundred inhabitants, stands on its south side, and gives the title of prince to a Calabrese family. CHARYBDIS. The harbour of Messina is formed by a off from the east end of the city, and sepasmall promontory or neck of land that runs rates that beautiful basin from the rest of the Straits. The shape of this promontory is that of a reaping-hook, the curvature of which forms the harbour, and secures it from all winds. From the striking resemblance of its form, the Greeks, who never gave a name that did not either describe the object or express some of its most remarkable properties, called this place Zancle, or the Sickle, and feigned that the sickle of Saturn fell on this spot, and gave it its form. But the Latins, who were not quite so fond of fable, changed its name to Messina, (from Messis, a harvest,) because of the great fertility of its fields. It is certainly one of the safest harbours in the world after ships have got in; but it is likewise one of the most difficult access. The celebrated gulf or whirlpool of Charybdis lies near to its entry, and often occasions such an intestine and irregular motion in the water, that the helm loses most of its power, and ships have great difficulty to get in, even with the fairest wind that can blow. This whirlpool, I think, is probably formed by the small promontory I have mentioned; which contracting the Straits in this spot, must necessarily increase the velocity of the current; but no doubt other causes, of which we are ignorant, concur, for this will by no means account for all the appearances which it has produced. The great noise occasioned by the tumultuous motion of the waters in this place, made the ancients liken it to a voracious sea-monster perpetually roaring for its prey; and it has been represented by their authors, as the most tremendous passage in the world. Aristotle gives a long and a formidable description of it in his 125th chapter De Admirandis, which I find translated in an old Sicilian book I have got here. It begins, "Adeo profundum, horridumque spectaculum, &c." but it is too long to transcribe. It is likewise described by Homer, 12th of the Odyssey; Virgil, 3d Æneid; Lucretius, Ovid, Sallust, Seneca, as also by many of the old Italian and Sicilian poets, who all speak of it in terms of horror; and represent it as an object that inspired terror, even when looked on at a distance. It certainly is not now so formidable; and very probably, the violence of this motion, continued for so many ages, has by degrees worn smooth the rugged rocks and jutting shelves, that may have intercepted and confined the waters. The breadth of the Straits too, in this place, I make no doubt is considerably enlarged. Indeed, from the nature of things it must be so; the perpetual friction occasioned by the current must wear away the bank on each side, and enlarge the bed of the water. The vessels in this passage were obliged to go as near as possible to the coast of Calabria, in order to avoid the suction occasioned by the whirling of the waters in this vortex; by which means when they came to the narrowest and most rapid part of the Straits, betwixt Cape Pelorus and Scylla, they were in great danger of being carried upon that rock. From whence the proverb, still applied to those, who in attempting to avoid one evil fall into another. There is a fine fountain of white marble on the key, representing Neptune holding Scylla and Charybdis chained, under the emblematical figures of two sea-monsters, as represented by the poets. The little neck of land, forming the harbour of Messina, is strongly fortified. The citadel, which is indeed a very fine work is built on that part which connects it with the main land. The farthermost point, which runs out to sea, is defended by four small forts, which command the entry into the harbour. Betwixt these lie the lazaret, and a lighthouse to warn sailors of their approach to Charybdis, as that other on Cape Pelorus is intended to give them notice of Scylla. It is probably from these lighthouses (by the Greeks called Pharoi) that the whole of this celebrated Strait has been denominated the Faro of Messina. According to Brydone, the hazard to sailors was less in his time than the Nestor of song, and the poet of the Æneid, had depicted in theirs. In 1824, Capt. W. II. Smyth, to whom a survey of the coast of Sicily was intrusted by the lords of the Admiralty, published a " Memoir" in 1824, with the latest and most authentic accounts of these celebrated classic spots-viz.: SCYLLA. As the breadth across this celebrated strait has been so often disputed, I particularly state, that the Faro Tower is exactly six thousand and forty-seven English yards from that classical bugbear, the Rock of Scylla, which, by poetical fiction, has been depicted in such terrific colours, and to describe the horrors of which, Phalerion, a painter, celebrated for his nervous representation of the awful and the tremendous, exerted his whole talent. But the flights of poetry can seldom bear to be shackled by homely truth, and if we are to receive the fine imagery, that places the summit of this rock in clouds brooding eternal mists and tempests-that represents it as inaccessible, even to a man provided with twenty hands and twenty feet, and immerses its base among ravenous sea-dogs;-why not also receive the whole circle of mytho logical dogmas of Homer, who, though so frequently dragged forth as an authority in history, theology, surgery, and geography, ought in justice to be read only as a poet. In the writings of so exquisite a bard, we must not expect to find all his representations strictly confined to a mere accurate narration of facts. Moderns of intelligence, in visiting this spot, have gratified their imaginations, already heated by such de scriptions as the escape of the Argonauts, and the disasters of Ulysses, with fancying it the scourge of seamen, and that in a gale its caverns 'roar like dogs;' but I, as a sailor, never perceived any difference between the effect of the surges here, and on any other coast, yet I have frequently watched it closely in bad weather. It is now, as I presume it ever was, a common rock, of bold approach, a little worn at its base, and surmounted by a castle, with a sandy bay on each side. The one on the south side is memorable for the disaster that happened there during the dreadful earthquake of 1783, when an overwhelming wave (supposed to have been occasioned by the fall of part of a promontory into the sea) rushed up the beach, and, in its retreat, bore away with it upwards of two thousand people. CHARYBDIS. Outside the tongue of land, or Braccio di St. Rainiere, that forms the harbour of Messina, lies the Galofaro, or celebrated vortex of Charybdis, which has, with more reason than Scylla, been clothed with terrors by the writers of antiquity. To the undecked boats of the Rhegians, Locrians, Zancleans, and Greeks, it must have been formidable; for, even in the present day, small craft are sometimes endangered by it, and I have seen several men-of-war, and even a seventy four gun ship, whirled round on its surface; but, by using due caution, there is generally very little danger or inconvenience to be apprehended. It appears to be an agitated water, of from seventy to ninety fathoms in depth, circling in quick eddies. It is owing probably to the meeting of the harbour and lateral currents with the main one, the latter being forced over in this direction by the opposite point of Pezzo. This agrees in some measure with the relation of Thucydides, who calls it a violent reciprocation of the Tyrrhene and Sicilian seas; and he is the only writer of remote antiquity I remember to have read, who has assigned this danger its true situation, and not exaggerated its effects. Many wonderful stories are told respecting this vortex, particularly some said to have been related by the celebrated diver, Colas, who lost his life here. I have never found reason, however, during my examination of this spot, to believe one of them. For the Table Book. A FRAGMENT. FROM CORNELIUS MAY's "JOURNEY TJ THE GREATE MARKETT AT OLYMPUS""SEVEN STARRS OF WITTE." One daye when tired with worldly toil, I sped, as from soul-cankering care, The wares they had to sell. And cried, "How lack ye?" "What's y're neede ?" Quoth I, "What have you here to sell? To purchase being inclined;" Said one, "We've art and science here, And every gifte of minde." "What coin is current here?" I asked, Spoke Hermes in a trice, Industrie, perseverence, toile, I saw Apollo, and went on, "Come buy," said he, "this lyre of mine I'll pledge it sterling golde; This is the sample of its worthe, 'Tis cheape at life, come buy!" So saying, he drew olde Homer forth, And placed him 'neath my eye. I turn'd aside, where in a row Smalle bales high piled up stood; Tyed rounde with golden threades of life. And eache inscribed with blood, "Travell to far and foreign landes;" "The knowledge of the sea;" "Alle beastes, and birdes, and creeping thinges, And heaven's immensity;" "Unshaken faithe when alle men change," "The patriot's holy heart;" "The might of woman's love to stay When alle besides departe." I ne saw things soe strange of forme, "Strange as these thinges appeare, Can buy these stores alone; |
