網頁圖片
PDF
ePub 版

"It skills not whether you din'd or no." Gull's Hornbook, by Decker. "It skills not if the four knaves lie on their backs." Gull's Hornbook. “It skills not greatly who impugns our doom." Shakspeare's Henry VI. Part II.

The word "Knowledge" is used as a verb-active in the same sense as acknowledge in many of the early translations of the Bible, viz. Coverdale's, Cranmer's, the Bishop's, Taverner's, and Matthew's, and even by Wicliff in his Testament (1380). It was in such common use in early days that the accession of the syllable "ac" seems almost unnecessary. It is in Coverdale's Translation of Erasmus, in Musculus's Common Places, in Bishop Fisher's Sermons, in Becon's Sermons, in Marbeck's Notes, and in the Golden Legend.

Page 39. I think that both John son and Bailey give us the illustration of the word swing as here used-"The power of money is no other than the unrestrained tendency of it," &c. Vide Johnson's fifth illustration.

Page 46. I do not think that the mode of expression—he dotes for age very uncommon. The word for, in the sense of because, is explained by Mr. Dibdin himself in the preceding page; and Addison is quoted both by Johnson and Bailey in the first example, "An old woman begins to dote," &c.

Page 66. Johnson is certainly mistaken when he asserts that wain is a contraction of waggon. Both the words are genuine Saxon, and I should contend that wain is the older, and is still a prevailing provincial word. What is more antient in English astronomy than Charles's wain? "He maketh the waynes of Heaven." 9 Job 9. Bishop's Bible. See also Magna Charta, Hen. 3. Article 15. Blackstone's edition, "Villanus eodem modo amercietur salvo waynnagio suo si inciderit in misericordiam nostram;" thus translated by Rastell, &c. "any others villain than ours, sball be likewise amerced, saving his wainage, if he fall into our mercy."

Page 141. Recklessness is Saxon for carelessness and not for rashness. Vide the Articles of the Church. See also Ash and Bailey, and an bundred Divines.

Page 167. Wiped, in the sense here put, is not an expression peculiar to

master Raphe Robinson. You will find it both in Ash and Johnson, ren dered-to cheat, to defraud, and it is so used in the second volume of Erasmus's Paraphrase. St. James, fol. 26.

"If Fortune blow backwarde, he shall ether bee wyped be sydes all his goods, and be banished to goe on begging," &c. Bailey quotes it (in the same sense) from Spenser.

Page 169. The usage of the verb "to crack," (to boast or vapour) is by no means peculiar to Robinson. Every Divine, from Latimer and Hooper to Beveridge and Tillotson, uses it in the same sense. In the controversy between Bishop Jewell and Harding, it is many times repeated. Sir Thomas More uses it in other parts of his works; and Shakspeare, more than once or twice, "What cracker is this same that deafs our ears," King John. See also the Bishop's Bible, 51 Jer. 55, "and made great crakes with your words.” Yours, &c.

OBSERVATOR.

(To be continued.)

Jan. 4.

Mr. URBAN, or is a Letter on the utility of N your last Volume, Part II. p.493, Evening Lectures, signed "A Member of the Church of England." I have, for a great length of time, felt deeply interested in the vast importance of the more general adoption of this measure; and cannot but deplore iu common with many others, the consequences that have resulted from the long-acknowledged want of it; being confident that the numbers who dissent from the Church, whether upon the plea of doctrine or discipline (but more particularly the latter), have been greatly increased by this deficiency in the service of the Established Church. Your Correspondent has related the gratifying effects of an Evening Lecture, in a place which he has lately visited. With your leave I will take another course, and briefly observe upon the state of the city wherein I live, and where, I am sorry to say, there is no such practice. With fourteen parish churches, and two chapels for Dissenters, the place is tolerably well supplied with accommodations for the population, which is about 12,000 persons. At nearly all the churches the morning service is regularly read,

and

and a sermon preached every Sunday. At ten of them the evening service is read between the hours of two and four o'clock in the afternoon, mostly without the addition of a ser mon; and only at two churches are there Lectures, which are preached at four o'clock in the afternoon; and though well attended, would, I have no doubt, attract a much greater congregation, if the service began at six or half-past six o'clock. At both the Dissenting Chapels (which togegether are capable of containing 2000 persons), there is worship in the morning, afternoon, and evening; and though one of the Chapels has been rebuilt lately, and the other considerably enlarged, they are in the evening crowded exceedingly.

The inhabitants of several of the parishes, have endeavoured, without success, to obtain the establishment of an Evening Lecture in their Churches many of the objections mentioned by your Correspondent have been urged," the expense of lighting," "the danger of imitating the Methodists," and "the possibility of affording greater facilities to youth in forming improper connexions," with other equally frivolous and unimportant objections, have in most cases silenced the application. The result is, that many hundreds of young persons in this place are left to idle away the precious hours of the Lord's Day in loitering to and fro in the streets, or employing their time in a manner infinitely more dangerous to their morals.

If, Mr. Urban, this was the state of one place only, there would be much to regret; but when we know the same may be said of almost every village, and by far too many towns in the kingdom, when the sublime service which our ancestors in their wis dom designed for the evening, is read so early in the afternoon, as to be almost a continuation of the morning service; when these things, I say, are almost general, some new regulation does indeed seem to be necessary. In answer to one objection alleged by your Correspondent," that the Service of the day is sufficiently fatiguing, without additional or superfluous duty," I would ask, why not read the Evening Service in the evening, instead of the afternoon And then, with the addition of a sermon,

you have all that constitutes what is commonly called an Evening Lecture. If any pious Clergyman (and of such, I trust, our venerable Establishment can boast, and proudly boast, of many) would make trial of this alteration, an extended audience would soon satisfy him that he had conferred a real blessing on his flock; and a perseverance in so excellent a practice would ensure to his Church a still increasing, rather than a diminishing congregation.

Should your Correspondent be inclined to favour us with some further remarks, I hope he will convey them in a spirit that will better beseem "A Member of the Church of England ;" and that he will not again apply to the teachers of those who differ from us, the epithet of "Religious Mountebanks." Such language as this is neither becoming in a Churchman nor a Christian, and more especially when indiscriminately applied to a class of men, amongst whom, he can. not deny, are to be found many eminent for their piety and virtue.

A LAYMAN, AND A MEMBER OF
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND.

Mr. URBAN, Somers' Town, Jun. 9.
N your last Volume, Part ii. p.488,

J. G. refers to the account of the late Queen's journey from Harwich to London, on her Majesty's first landing in this country, as given by Dr. Watkins. Some of the circumstances of this journey are yet fresh in my memory. I was at that period at Tolleshunt Darcey, within a few miles of Colchester; and with other boys strongly invited by our friends to see the fine sight of a new Queen passing through that town. Doubtless, the route of the Princess, with all the particulars, is to be found in your pages; but the reason of her being taken to spend the night at Witham, in the house of Lord Abercorn, although unprepared, and as I recollect, in the absence of his Lordship, was obviously the more equal division of the journey, which would indeed have been considerably broken by another stage as far as Chelmsford. The Princess's first stage was to Colchester, where she took some refreshment at the house of Mr. Enneu, the then town clerk, and where Mr. Great, the grocer, a descendant of either a high or low Dutch family of

the

the name of Von Grot, long settled in Colchester, had the honour of presenting her Highness, on his knees, with a box of candied Bringoe roots, one of the staple articles of that antient town. To proceed with my gossip, Mr. Urban, the late respectable Dr. Clubbe of Ipswich, sou of the Rev. Mr. Clubbe, author of the "Antiquities of Wheatfield," in turning over the pages of which, you and 1 have had a laugh in days long past, served his apprenticeship to the brother of this Mr. Great, who was an apothecary. Much about the time of which 1 speak, Mrs. Enneu sustained a loss of that kind, very ill relished by those who are fond of good eating-she had all her turkies stolen, and that, as was guessed, by no ordinary professional thief.

I have mentioned Tollesbunt Darcey :-in the adjoining parish church, Tolleshunt Knights, about the year 1761, I saw, as I recollect, in the North wall, a very antient monument of soft stone. Upon this tomb reclined at length a knight armed cap-a-pié, with two figures at his feet, traditionally said to be his two spaid bitches. As the story went, this knight aided by his two spaid bitches, waged a furious combat with his holiness the Devil, on a certain dispute as to the future site of a house called Barn Hall; the Devil insisting that it should not stand where the building was commenced, and in consequence, pulling all down by night which had been reared by day. Though the knight fought bravely, he does not appear to have been equally tam Mercurio quam Marti; for, making an unpardonable blunder in certain responses, which, by the laws of the combat, he was necessitated to make, the subtle Devil vanquisbed, and declared he would have him, whether he were buried by sea or by land, in church or churchyard: and so, in order to outwit the Devil, he was buried in the church wall. Now, as I have not been at Tolleshunt Knights from that time to the present, I wish much to know whether the knight lies snug and safe in the church wall still.

Seriously, I should be glad to be informed by any of your Correspondents in that part of Essex, whether this antient monument, which was in tolerable good preservation, although

without the slightest vestige of in-
scription, in 1761, be still in being, or
whether it has undergone the usual
fate of such in our country churches ?
Yours, &c.
JOHN LAWRENCE.

Ancient Anecdotes, &c.
from VALERIUS MAXIMUS,
by Dr. CAREY, West Square.
(Continued from vol. LXXXIX. ii.
p. 509.)

AT

66

Ta time when Valerius wrote this collection of “ Memorabilia” (the early part of the first century of the Christian æra), so cautious were the citizens of Marseilles to guard against hostile surprises, that no stranger, who approached their city with a sword or other weapon, was permitted to enter the gates, until he had delivered it into the hands of cer tain officers stationed there for that purpose, who kept it in their custody during his stay, and returned it to him at his departure.-Lib. 2, 6, 9.

The ancient Gauls, under a firm belief of the immortality of the soul, often lent sums of money, which were not to be repaid, until the lenders and the borrowers met in the other world.-Lib. 2, 6, 10.

In one of the Thracian tribes, the birth of a child was a subject of lamentation; and a funeral was attended with cheerful rejoicing.— Lib. 2, 6, 12.

It was a custom among the Lycians, that, during the period of mourning for a deceased relative, the men should wear the feminine dress, in order that the shame of appearing in that unmanly garb might the sooner induce them to lay it aside, and, together with it, their unavailing regret.— Lib. 2, 6, 13.

In the year 501 (U. C.*) the Consul C. Cotta, having occasion to absent himself from his army while engaged in a siege, appointed an offcer, a near relative of his own, as temporary commander in his stead. During his absence, the besieged made

*(U. C.)-Although, to the Classical Reader, this needs no explanation, it may be proper to apprise the English Reader, that the numbers accompanying the (U.C.) are the dates of the years from the foundation of Rome, which I shall, henceforward, thus briefly mark, in particular cases, where the dates may be of importance in estimating the manners and customs of different ages.

a fu rious

a furious sortie, set fire to the besiegers' works, and nearly succeeded in storming their camp. In resentment of which disgrace, the Consul, on his return to the army, ordered his unfortunate vicegerent to be severely scourged; degraded him from his rank, and condemned him to serve on foot as a common soldier.- Lib. 2, 7, 4.

The Dictator Postumius Tubertus (U. C. 322) punished his own son for having, without orders, quilted his post, to engage the enemy. Although the valiant youth returned victorious from the combat, the father ordered him to be beheaded: [and, if I be not very much mistaken, the punishment of decapitation, in the Roman army, was always preceded by a severe application of the rods.]-Lib. 2, 1, 6.

The Consul Manlius (413 U. C.) exercised similar severity against his own son, who, being personally chal. lenged by the commander of a hostile party, had privately gone forth to encounter his challenger, had gal lantly defeated and slain him, and returned laden with his spoils.-Lib.2,7,6. While the Consul Calpurnius Piso was carrying on the war against the fugitive slaves in Sicily (U. Č. 620), a body of Roman cavalry, under the command of C. Titius, suffered themselves to be surrounded and ignomi. niously disarmed by a party of the enemy. As a punishment for their disgraceful and un-Roman submission, the Consul condemned Titius to stand at head quarters from morn till night, bare-footed, with his vest ungirt, and his gown curtailed and this penance was continued during his whole remaining term of service; with the additional aggravation of an exclusion from all society, and a prohibition to enjoy the comfort of bathing, which, by a Roman, was deemed almost as necessary as his food.-Nor did the Consul confine his severity to the unfortunate commander of the troop: he further punished the whole corps, by dismounting them, and transferring them to the companies of slingers, the least respectable portion of a Roman army.-Lib. 2, 7, 9.

(To be continued.)

know" the best mode of producing germination in exotic seeds*," that in the year 1793, M. Humbolt discovered that metallic oxydes favour it in proportion to their degree of oxydation. This fact induced him to search for a substance with which oxygen might be so weakly combined as to be easily separated, and he made choice of oxygenated muriatic gas mixed with water. The seeds of cresses soaked in this gas showed germs at the end of six hours; but not in common water till the end of thirty-two hours. The action of the first fluid on the vegetable fibres is quickly announced by a great number of air-bubbles, which cover the seeds, a phenomenon not exhibited by water till at the end of from thirty to forty-five minutes.

a

In 1796, he resumed the subject in new series of experiments, and found that, by joining the stimulus of caloric to that of oxygen, he was enabled still more to accelerate the progress of vegetation. He took the seeds of garden-cresses, peas, Frenchbeans, lettuce, and mignionette, equal quantities of which he put into pure water, and the gas at the temperature of 88° Fahrenheit; the cresses exhibited germs in three hours in the gas, but not in water till the end of twenty-six hours. These experiments have since been repeated by several distinguished philosophers. Professor Pobl at Dresden, caused to germinate in oxygenated muriatic acid, the seed of a new kind of Euphorbia, taken from a collection of dried plants, 120 years old. Jacquin and Vander Schott, at Vienna, threw into this acid all the old seeds which had been kept 20 or 30 years at the Botanic Garden, every previous attempt to produce vegetation in which had been fruitless, and their latent germinating powers were for the most part stimulated with success ; the hardest seeds yielded to the agency of this acid. Among others which germinated were the yellow bonduc, or nickar-tree (guilandina bonduc), the pigeon cytisus (cytisus cajan), the dodonca angustifolia, the climbing mimosa (mimosa scandens), and some new kinds of the homea. See Encyclopædia Londinensis, article E. BIRCH.

Mr. URBAN, Plaistow Acad. Jan. 4. Germination.

PERMIT me to inform your Cor

respondent C. L. who wishes to

* See vol. LXXXIX. ii. p. 518.

even

Mr.

Mr. URBAN,
Nov. 30.
HE inclosed Letters are the two

Tart of a series, written from the Continent, by a gentleman of York, to a near relation. Besides containing many important facts and observations, they form a very suitable appendix to Letters of a similar kind, written about a century ago, which you lately introduced into your valuable Magazine*. If from the specimen which I have now sent, you are of opinion that they will answer your purpose, and be a source of entertainment and instruction to your Readers, I am permitted by the Author to promise you the remainder. Yours, &c. GODFREY.

[blocks in formation]

Calais, July 31, 1818. We left Dover Harbour at five minutes past nine, and entered Calais Harbour at five minutes before twelve. The day was fine, and the wind (S.W.) fair. The packet-boat was the Chichester; the passage 108. 6d.

On landing, we left our passports at the proper office, and our luggage was taken to the Custom-house to be examined. If I had had any new cotton stockings, they would have been seized. We then proceeded to Quillacq's Hotel, and have ordered dinner. We are to procure new passports in lieu of those granted in London, which last will be forwarded to Paris: upon the new passports there is a stamp duty of two francs.

* See vol. LXXVIII. i. 401; LXXXIX. i. pp. 29. 122. 204.

GENT. MAG. January, 1820,

This country smells of tobacco and burnt wood, as usual. The Pillar on the Pier was erected on the spot where the King landed from England, in April 1814.

LETTER II.

Cambrai, Aug. 3, 1818.

As a specimen of French dinners, lacq's, premising that the table was a I will tell you what we had at Quildeal board, set upon cross sticks— soup, soles, mutton maintenon, veal fricandeau, potatoes, chicken and argooseberries, and plums: this was the tichoke, pastry, cheese, cherries, dinner for two; the tables d'hôte are on a larger scale. The Duke of Wellington had announced his intention to sleep at Quillacq's on Friday night, and was expected at half-past eleven. I sat up considering whether I should go to bed (which I felt much inclined to do), or wait the arrival of the Conqueror of France. Whilst I was laid considering that I might sleep any on a large sofa, debating the matter, night, but could not see so great a man any night; on the other hand, what better should I be for having seen him? besides, he might not come, found my sitting up was not agreeor might be behind his time, &c. I able to the waiter, who every now and then made errands into the room to length, at eleven o'clock, he came see if I was wanting to retire. At

into the room, blew out the two candles on the table, and was proceeding to blow out a third on the side-table; and on my calling out for him to leave one candle, he replied, Tout le monde va se coucher.' This being the case, I was obliged to retire; for it was not for John Bull to introduce as all the world was going to bed, his bad customs of turning night into day. I could not, however, but suspect that my anxiety to see the Duke, and my having so repeatedly inquired about his arrival, might determine the waiter to baulk me; as the Duke is no mighty favourite with Frenchinen. The next morning, at seven, I went down to the pier, and saw the Duke's carriage embarked aboard the Lord Duncau packet. He was to sail The wind, at W. N. W. was directly at high water (between ten and eleven). against him, and his passage would probably occupy seven or eight hours at least. The sailors were disputing

about

« 上一頁繼續 »