STRANGE STORIES

Uniform with the present Work, and by the same Author.

A Book of Curious Contributions to Natural History.

With Illustrations byZwecker. Post 8vo. 6s. cloth.

"Amongst all the books of the season that will be studied with pleasure as well as profit, by girls as well as boys, there is not one more meritorious in aim, or more successful in execution, thanStrange Stories of the Animal World. In his Preface to this useful compilation, the author ofThings not generally Knownsays that he has endeavoured 'to present wonders free from that love of exaggeration which besets narratives of Natural History.'"â€”AthenÃ¦um."An excellent selection of bird and beast tales, taken by that clever and judicious book-maker, excellent Mr. John Timbs."â€”Saturday Review."Mr. Timbs has never, perhaps, compounded a more attractive book."â€”Examiner."This volume on the Animal World, by Mr. Timbsâ€”the most industrious and interesting of compilersâ€”will delight those model children who like only what is 'quite true,' and may also contribute to awaken in all children that great good taste, a love for Natural History."â€”Notes and Queries."An admirable collection of anecdotes: the matter is very carefully compiled and very well digested. Great praise is due to the author for his careful research."â€”London Review."The care and research which are evident in this volume of Mr. Timbs's are very creditable to him; and they have enabled him to present us with a book which will be a favourite one with young and old."â€”Churchman."The work, which we cordially recommend, is very nicely illustrated."â€”Illustrated Times."This book will furnish instructive amusement for the long winter evenings to all lovers of Nature's wonders."â€”Morning Post.

"An excellent selection of bird and beast tales, taken by that clever and judicious book-maker, excellent Mr. John Timbs."â€”Saturday Review.

"Mr. Timbs has never, perhaps, compounded a more attractive book."â€”Examiner.

"This volume on the Animal World, by Mr. Timbsâ€”the most industrious and interesting of compilersâ€”will delight those model children who like only what is 'quite true,' and may also contribute to awaken in all children that great good taste, a love for Natural History."â€”Notes and Queries.

"An admirable collection of anecdotes: the matter is very carefully compiled and very well digested. Great praise is due to the author for his careful research."â€”London Review.

"The care and research which are evident in this volume of Mr. Timbs's are very creditable to him; and they have enabled him to present us with a book which will be a favourite one with young and old."â€”Churchman.

"The work, which we cordially recommend, is very nicely illustrated."â€”Illustrated Times.

"This book will furnish instructive amusement for the long winter evenings to all lovers of Nature's wonders."â€”Morning Post.

FOOTNOTES:[1]Annals of England, vol. i. 1855.[2]Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, N.Â S. No. 1, 1858.[3]The Rivers, Mountains, and Sea-Coasts of Yorkshire, 2d edit. 1855.[4]It must have been a proud day for John Aubrey, the Wiltshire antiquary, when he attended Charles II. and the Duke of York on their visit to Abury, which the King was told at a meeting of the Royal Society, in 1663 (soon after its formation), as much excelled Stonehenge as a cathedral does a parish church. In leaving Abury, the King "cast his eie on Silbury Hill, about a mile off," and with the Duke of York, Dr. Charlton, and Aubrey, he walked up to the top of it. Dr. Stukeley, in his account of Abury, published in 1743, probably refers to another royal visit, when he notes: "Some old people remember Charles II., the Duke of York, and the Duke of Monmouth,ridingup Silbury Hill."[5]See Apsley Pellatt'sCuriosities of Glass-Making, 1849.[6]This is a much contested question among ethnologists and other authors. Mr. Craufurd and Sir George Cornewall Lewis totally disbelieve in the voyage of the PhÅ“nicians to the Scilly Islands, through which they are imagined to have supplied the Eastern world with Cornish tin; since they are not likely to have performed the requisite voyage from the entrance of the Mediterranean, 1,000 miles in a straight line over a stormy sea; but Sir Charles Lyell considers it would have been much safer for the PhÅ“nicians to come round by sea than trust their cargoes through Gaul, then not sufficiently safe to be a highway for trade. Nor is there any tin in the Scilly Islands; but Sir Henry James shows that the Cassiterides, where the tin was obtained, is St. Michael's Mount. Sir Henry has recently found in the bed of the harbour of Falmouth an ancient wrecked ingot of tin, of precisely that shape and weight which would adapt it as half-cargo for a horse, balanced by a similar ingot on the other side. The metal was thus conveyed along our southern coast to a favourable place for embarkation, whence the cargoes crossed the Channel and were taken overland through Gaul to the Mediterranean. The ingot discovered at Falmouth resembled in form anastragalusor knuckle-bone, the shape being convenient for slinging over the back of a horse; and it is important to notice that Diodorus Siculus uses the termastragaliin describing the shape of the tin-blocks brought from the island of Ictis, which there could be no doubt was the same as St. Michael's Mount. The ingot weighs 120 pounds, and the form of the under-surface is such as to adapt it for resting on the bottom of a boat. Sir Henry believes, with Sir Charles Lyell, that in more ancient times, previous to the Roman occupation of Gaul, tin was conveyed to the Mediterranean round the coasts of Gaul and Lusitania; but more recently, as Diodorus Siculus states, it was carried by land after crossing the narrow part of the Channel. The miners of the present day sometimes find bronze weapons in old tin-works. It is not necessary to assume that these were imported, as there is plenty of copper in Cornwall. It is believed they were manufactured there, and that a vast proportion of the bronze weapons of antiquity were actually made in Cornwall and exported.[7]Observations.By Henry Long, Esq.[8]The Rev. R. Burgess, B.D.[9]On some of the Relations of ArchÃ¦ology to Physical Geography in the North of England.1853.[10]SeeCuriosities of Glass-making.[11]It may, however, be new to some of our readers to be informed that Owen Glendower's Oak, whence that Welsh chieftain is said to have witnessed the discomfiture of his English allies at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, still stands at Shelton, in a garden on the right of the road from Shrewsbury to Oswestry, where the Welsh army lay.[12]See theGuide to the Ruins of Uriconium(Third Edition, 1860), by Thomas Wright, Esq. M.A., F.S.A., the accomplished archÃ¦ologist, who, by his unwearied exertions, has so efficiently contributed to the exploration of these remains.[13]Palgrave'sHist. of England, Anglo-Saxon Period. 1834.[14]Senior'sLectures on Political Economy.[15]Hoskins;EncylopÃ¦dia Britannica, 7th edit.[16]Just as Charles, Duke of Norfolk, in our day, was accustomed to feed his favourite dogs, by cutting pieces from joints on the dinner-table, and throwing them to the dogs on the polished floor of Arundel Castle.[17]The chief iron-works of Sussex were in the Wealden strata, whence the iron ore was extracted from the argillaceous beds, and was smelted with charcoal made from the abundance of wood. At Buxted, near Lindfield, iron ordnance were made three centuries since by Ralph Hogge, assisted by Peter Bawde, a Frenchman, and his covenanted servant, John Johnson; and the memory of whose works, of which two specimens are still existing in the Tower of London, is preserved in"Master Hogfe, and his man John,They did cast the first can-non."(W.Â D. Cooper, F.S.A., ArchÃ¦ologia, vol. xxxvii. p. 483.)Up to 1720, Sussex was the principal seat of the iron manufacture in England: the last furnace, at Ashburnham, was blown out in 1827. Kent was alike noted for its iron; and the last great work of its furnaces was the noble balustrades and gates which surround St. Paul's Cathedral, London: they were cast at Gloucester Furnace, Lamberhurst, and cost upwards of Â£11,202. "In the middle ages, and down even to a late date, while Dudley and Wolverhampton were obscure names, the forges of Kent and Sussex were all a-glow with smelting and hammering the iron which the soil still yields, although it is not worth the while of any one to work it. The discovery of the coalfields of Wales and Staffordshire gave the Kent and Sussex furnaces their deathblow, leaving the country dotted with forge and furnace farms, and deep holes, now filled with tangled underwood, from which the ore was brought." (Saturday Review, No. 182.) Kent and Sussex have no coal, and the iron manufacture left these counties when smelting with coal or coke began to supersede smelting with charcoal. Iron was also worked in Surrey. John Evelyn, in a letter to John Aubrey, dated February 8, 1675, states, that on the stream which winds through the valley of Wotton "were set up the first brass mills, for casting, hammering into plates, and cutting and drawing into wire, that were in England; also a fulling mill, and a mill for hammering iron, all of which are now demolished." The last of these mills gave its name to a small street or hamlet in the parish of Abinger, which to this day is calledthe Hammer.â€”Curiosities of Science.Second Series.[18]In some parts of England, thebadness of the roadscontinued to our day, when mud and clay were almost as great hindrances as in the Saxon times. Kent and Sussex were specially ill-favoured in this respect. Defoe, after travelling through all the counties, tells us that the road from Tunbridge was "the deepest and dirtiest" in all that part of England; and hereabouts it was, not far from Lewes, that he describes a sight which he had never seen in any other part of England, "that going to church at a country village, he saw an ancient lady, and a lady of very good quality, drawn to church in her coach with six oxen; nor was it either frolic or humour, but mere necessity." In 1708, Prince George of Denmark journeyed from Godalming, through the Sussex mud to Petworth, to meet Charles VI. of Spain: it cost six hours to conquer the last nine miles of the way. At a later date, Horace Walpole calls Sussex "a fruitful country, but very dirty for travellers, so that it may be better measured by days' journeys than by miles; whence it was, that in a late order for regulating the wages of coachmen at such a price a day's journey from London, Sussex alone was excepted, as wherein shorter way or better pay was allowed." Yet, in this county, stage-coach travelling attained higher perfection than in the majority of the counties of England. "In these days of railroads, express trains, excursion trains, mail trains, parliamentary trains, and special trains, there is no great difficulty in making a tour in Sussex, without any very great outlay of expense or time."â€”Quarterly Review.[19]Host and Guest.By A.Â V. Kirwan. 1864.[20]Miss Baker'sNorthamptonshire Glossary.[21]Southey'sNaval History of England, vol. i. p. 121.[22]From Poundbury may be seen Woolverton House, formerly the seat of the Trenchard family, and in it the fortunes of the House of Russell, humanly speaking, began to rise in the ascendant. When the Archduke of Spain was obliged to land at Weymouth, he was brought to the Sheriff of Dorset, and lived at Woolverton House. The Sheriff, not being able to speak in any language but "Dorset," found it difficult to converse with the Archduke, and bethought him of a young kinsman, named Russell, who had been a factor in Spain, and sent for him. The young man made himself so agreeable to the Archduke that he brought him to London, where the King took a fancy to him, and in time he became Duke of Bedford, and was the founder of the House of Russell.[23]The Roman bricks in the remains of a villa found at Stonesfield, near Woodstock, were fresh and sound.[24]The uses of these openings are, however, much controverted by antiquarian writers:â€”"With regard to the holes made in the archways of the gates as found both at Windsor and the Tower of London, the most probable theory of their use is that they were formed, not as is generally supposed, for the purpose of throwing down burning sand and other corroding substances on the assailants of the castle, but to pour down water on any fires which the enemy might make with faggots or other materials before the gate and portcullis."â€”J.Â H. Parker, F.S.A.[25]A Visitation of Seats and Arms.By John Bernard Burke, Esq. Vol. i. p. 64.[26]Quarterly Review.[27]Charles Knight;Penny CyclopÃ¦dia, subWindsor Castle.[28]Surrey'sPoems.[29]History of Bremhill.[30]This window is by Buckler, after a design of Lonsdale; in it are portraits of Charles, Duke of Norfolk, as Baron Fitz-Walter; Captain Morris, as Master of the Knights Templar; Henry Howard, jun. as the Baron's Page; and H.Â C. Combe, Esq. as Lord Mayor of London.[31]Quarterly Review, July, 1862. The twelfth Duke died in 1842, the thirteenth in 1856, and the fourteenth in 1860. The present Duke, the fifteenth, succeeded at the age of thirteen.[32]In the noble park of Cowdray, the home of the Montagues, Queen Elizabeth, in 1591, killed three or four deer with her cross-bow, while on a visit to Lord Montague. Three deaths in one family by drowning, and the almost total destruction of a fine mansion by fire, within the memory of living man, are enough to make one tread the beautiful grounds of Cowdray with feelings of awe, and to invest it with a superstitious melancholy. Three hundred years ago, however, there was no more festive house in England, when "three oxen and 120 geese" figured in its bill of fare for breakfast. The then proprietor was a strict disciplinarian, and the "Orders and Rules of Sir Anthony Browne" curiously illustrate the domestic economy of a great man's family in the sixteenth century, especially as regards its important departments of the "ewerye" and the "buttyre," and those pet officers, "my server" and "my carver."â€”Quarterly Review, 1861.[33]"The cat's behind thebuttery-shelf."â€”Old Ditty.[34]Saturday Review, 1861.[35]There is an oft-quoted passage in the Aubrey MSS. which may be appositely represented here as a life-like picture of the economy of the Hall: "The lords of manouers did eate in their great gothicque halls, at the high tables or oreile, the folk at the side-tables. The meat was served up by watchwords. Jacks are but an invention of the other days; the poor boys did turn the spitts, and licked the dripping-pan, and grew to be huge lusty knaves. The body of the servants were in the Great Hall, as now in the guard-chamber, privy-chamber, &c. The hearth was commonly in the midst, as at colleges, whence the saying, 'round about our coal-fire.' Here, in the Halls were the mummings, cob-loaf stealing, and great number of old Christmas playes performed. In great houses were lords of misrule during the twelve dayes after Christmas. The halls of justices were dreadful to behold. The screens were garnished with corslets and helmets gaping with open mouth, with coates of mail, lances, pikes, halberts, brown-bills, battle-axes, bucklers, and the modern callivers, petronells, and (in King Charles's time) muskets and pistolls."[36]Saturday Review, 1859.[37]Abridged from a paper inOnce a Week, 1860.[38]Saturday Review, 1859.[39]In times anterior to this date, the greater part of the City was built of wood. The houses being roofed with straw, reeds, &c. frequent fires took place, owing to this mode of building: thus, in the first year of the reign of Stephen, a conflagration spread from London Bridge to the church of St. Clement Danes, in the Strand. Thenceforth, the houses were built of stone, covered and protected by thick tiles against the fury of fire, whenever it arose. The change from wood to stone dates from this period.[40]Something for Everybody, and a Garland for the Year.By the Author of the present volume. Pp. 170-176, Second Edition.[41]Count Rumford was one of the founders of the Royal Institution, the workshop of the Royal Society. In the basement of the house of the Institution in Albemarle Street, was fitted up an experimental kitchen, with "Rumford stoves," roasters, and boilers. One of his earliest stoves is in the Museum of the Royal Society, at Burlington House. Count Rumford lived some time at 45, Brompton Row, where the double windows in the house-front long denoted the scientific aims of the ingenious tenant.[42]See Hall-fires, described at p.122.[43]It was not till the reign of William III. that coal became our staple fuel.[44]SeePopular Errors Explained. New edit. p. 42. 1858. The old custom of ringing the curfew-bell is retained in several villages and towns. (See Mr. Syer Cuming's paper in theJournal of the British ArchÃ¦ological Association, vol. iv. p. 153. Also,Notes and Queries, vols. ii. iii. iv. vi. vii. viii.) In proof that the custom cannot justly be considered an evidence of an unworthy state of subjection, is the fact that the obligation to extinguish fires and lights at a certain hour was imposed upon his subjects by David I. King of Scotland, in hisLeges Burgarum; and in this case no one ever imagined that it conveyed any sign of infamy or servitude. Curfew-ringing is common in the south of Scotland, at Kelso, and other towns in Roxburghshire, which appears to prove that it cannot have originated with the Norman Conqueror.[45]See Note at p.160.[46]In the Office of the Board of Green Cloth, at St. James's Palace, are preserved the followingRules of the Houseof the Duchess of York the mother of Richard the Third:â€”"Upon eating dayes. At dinner by eleven of the clocke."Upon fasting dayes. At dinner by twelve of the clocke."At supper upon eating dayes; for the officers at four of the clocke."My lady and the household at five of the clocke at supper."Livery of fires and candles, from the feast of All-Hallows, unto Good Fridayâ€”then expireth the time of fire and candle."[47]From theBuilder, 1864, with additions.[48]The quantity of salmon caught in the river Wye was formerly so great that it is said to have been usual to insert a clause in the indentures of the Hereford apprentices that they should not be compelled to eat salmon more than twice a week.[49]The historical details have been, in the main, condensed from "Some Passages in the Life and Character of a Lady resident in Herefordshire and Worcestershire during the Civil War of the Seventeenth Century, collected from her Account Book in the possession of Sir Thomas Edward Winnington, Baronet, of Stamford Court, in the county of Worcester, with Historical Observations and Notes by John Webb, M.A., F.S.A.ArchÃ¦ologia, vol. xxxvii. pp. 189-223. 1857."[50]Loseley, the fine old domain of the Mores, mentioned in a preceding page (180), lies between two and three miles south-west of Guildford. It had, no doubt, from an early period, its manse, or capital dwelling-house, fortified by a moat, according to the custom of the feudal ages. This dwelling has long since been destroyed, and the present mansion at Loseley is of the age of Elizabeth, and was built between 1562 and 1568. The principal entrance opens into the Hall, but was originally at the end of the passage between the screens which divide the Hall from the Kitchen and Butteries. Latin inscriptions were placed over the doors: that over the Kitchen door was "Fami, non GulÃ¦" (To hunger, not to gluttony); over the Buttery door, "Siti, non Ebrietati" (To thirst, not to drunkenness); and over the Parlour door, "Probis, non Pravis" (To the virtuous, not the wicked). The finest apartment is the Withdrawing-room, a splendid example of the decorative style of the early part of Elizabeth's reign. It exhibits a rich cornice, on which is therebusof the More family, a mulberry-tree. The wainscoting is panelled, and the ceiling ornamented with pendent drops and Gothic tracery. The chimney-piece is elaborately enriched: the lower story is Corinthian; and the upper division, or mantel, has grotesque caryatides, supporting a fascia and cornice. The intermediate panelling is emblazoned with the arms of the Mores, which also enrich the glazing of the mullioned windows. In the gallery of the mansion were formerly two gilt chairs with cushions worked by Queen Elizabeth. Here, in 1603, Sir George More entertained King James I. and his Queen.[51]In the Sandwich and many of the islands of the Pacific, every child has a piece of sugar-cane in its hand; while in our own sugar colonies the negro becomes fat in crop time on the abundant juice of the ripening cane. This mode of using the cane is, no doubt, the most ancient of all, and was well known to the Roman writers. Lucan (book iii. 237) speaks of the eaters of the cane, as "those who drink sweet juice from the tender reed."[52]It is remarkable, that the first house at which Coffee was first sold in England, the Angel, Oxford, and the first house at which Tea was sold in England, Garraway's, in Change Alley, London, were both taken down in the same yearâ€”1866.[53]Things not Generally Known.Second Series.[54]Harrison'sDescription of England, c. vi.; Holinshed'sChron.ii. 171.[55]Abridged from a paper by Mr. Albert Way, F.S.A.;ArchÃ¦ological Journal, vol. ii. pp. 332-339.[56]Dogget, the actor, who bequeathed the Coat and Badge, to be rowed for annually on the Thames, was noted for dancing the Cheshire Round, as he is represented in his portrait.[57]The staple of this paper is selected and condensed from a series of learned articles, entitled "The Rights, Disabilities, and Usages of the Ancient English Peasantry;" in theLaw Magazine and Law Review, published by Messrs. Butterworth. Some of the ancient law terms have been omitted, in order to better adapt this abstract for popular reading.[58]In our day, the beadle is most familiar to us as an officer of the church. Formerly, one of his duties was a strange one. We read of the beadle, in a church, going round the edifice during service, carrying a long staff, at one end of which was a fox's brush, and at the other a knob: with the former, he gently tickled the faces of the female sleepers, while on the heads of their male compeers he bestowed with the knob a terrible rap.At Acton church, in Cheshire, some five and twenty years ago, one of the churchwardens, or the apparitor, used to go round the church during service, with a long wand in his hand; and if any of the congregation were asleep, they were instantly awoke by a tap on the head.In the church at Dunchurch, a similar custom existed: a person, having a stout wand, shaped like a hay-fork at the end, stept stealthily up and down the naves and aisles, and whenever he saw an individual asleep, he touched him so effectually, that the spell was broken; this being sometimes done by fitting the fork to the nape of the neck.[59]From a paper by the author of the present volume, inOnce a Week; reprinted by permission of the proprietors.[60]See Mr. Corner's paper "On the History of Horselydown," 1855.[61]We quote the above from a contribution to theBirmingham Daily Post. The details are of value, from their being furnished by an eye-witness.[62]Selected and abridged from review of Neckam's Work, inThe Timesjournal.[63]From a paper, by the Rev. Thomas Hugo, read to the Somerset ArchÃ¦ological Society.[64]Translated from the Anglo-Norman, by H.Â T. Riley, M.A. 1863.[65]That the oblique or skew arch is an old invention is attested by the following passage in theHandbook of Spain, by Mr. Ford, who resided in that country several years: "Now visit the Alcazar (Cathedral, Seville); but first observe a singular Moorish skew arch, in a narrow street leading (from the cathedral) to the Puerta de Xerez: it proves that the Moors practised this now assumed modern invention, at least, eight centuries ago."[66]The kitchen was the first building erected by Wolsey in his new College, and has undergone no material alteration either in shape, size, or arrangement. It is a good specimen of an ancient English kitchen.[67]In a paper read to the Society of Antiquaries, describing the Trevelyan MS.[68]See Murray'sHandbook to Hampshire, Surrey, and the Isle of Wight.[69]Quarterly Review, No. 223.[70]English Review, No. 2.[71]Grafton, vol. ii. p. 154. Balls of about a pound and a half weight have been dug up on the field, but none of the chroniclers speak of artillery as used by either side.[72]"Sir John Cheney, of Sherland, personally encountering King Richard, was felled to the ground by the monarch, had his crest struck off, and his head laid bare: for some time, it is said, he remained stunned; but recovering after awhile, he cut the skull and horns off the hide of an ox which chanced to be near, and fixed them upon his head, to supply the top of the upper part of his helmet: he then returned to the field of battle, and did such signal service that Henry, on being proclaimed King, assigned Cheney for crest the bull's scalp, which his descendants still bear."â€”Sir Bernard Burke'sVicissitudes of Families, p. 350.[73]In his very interestingVisits to the Fields of Battle, in England, of the Fifteenth Century.[74]Timesjournal.[75]See page305,ante.[76]Timesjournal.[77]Seeante, pp.116,124.[78]"Hatfield House and its Contents,"Builder, 1859.[79]Horace Walpole tells us that Sir Robert Walpole, against the earnest representations of his family and most intimate friends, had consented to the recall of Bolingbroke ("that intriguing Proteus") from banishment, excepting only his re-admission to the House of Lords. "Bolingbroke, at his return [1723], could not avoid waiting on Sir Robert to thank him, and was invited to dine with him at Chelsea; but whether tortured at witnessing Walpole's serene frankness and felicity, or suffocated with indignation and confusion at being forced to be obliged to one whom he hated and envied, the first morsel he put into his mouth was near choking him, and he was reduced to rise from table and leave the room for some minutes. I never heard of their meeting more."â€”Walpole'sReminiscences.[80]It is also said to have been lined with cedar.â€”Seeante, p.345.[81]The upper part of the mill was taken down; the lower part is still used for grinding corn. The situation of the old mansion is indicated by the names of Bolingbroke-gardens and Bolingbroke-terrace.[82]Mallet did not fail to publish, after Bolingbroke's death, his writings disclosing his opposition to revealed religion, which drew from Johnson the severe remark, that Bolingbroke, "having loaded a blunderbuss, and pointed it against Christianity, had not the courage to discharge it himself, but left half-a-crown to a hungry Scotchman to pull the trigger after his death."[83]Communication toNotes and Queries, Second Series, No. 212, by the Author of the present volume.[84]Historical Sketches of Statesmen.Third Series, vol. ii. corrected Edition.[85]TheBuilder.[86]Brindswood, an estate in this parish, was formerly held under the following curious tenure:â€”"Upon every alienation, the owner of the estate, with his wife, man, and maid-servant, each single, on a horse, comes to the parsonage, where he does his homage, and pays his relief in the following manner:â€”He blows three blasts with his horn, and carries a hawk upon his fist; his servant has a greyhound in a slip, both for the use of the Rector that day; he receives a chicken for his hawk, a peck of oats for his horse, and a loaf of bread for his greyhound; they all dine, after which the master blows three blasts with his horn, and they all depart."[87]Mr. Whincopp;Journal of the British ArchÃ¦ological Association, 1866.

[1]Annals of England, vol. i. 1855.

[2]Edinburgh New Philosophical Journal, N.Â S. No. 1, 1858.

[3]The Rivers, Mountains, and Sea-Coasts of Yorkshire, 2d edit. 1855.

[4]It must have been a proud day for John Aubrey, the Wiltshire antiquary, when he attended Charles II. and the Duke of York on their visit to Abury, which the King was told at a meeting of the Royal Society, in 1663 (soon after its formation), as much excelled Stonehenge as a cathedral does a parish church. In leaving Abury, the King "cast his eie on Silbury Hill, about a mile off," and with the Duke of York, Dr. Charlton, and Aubrey, he walked up to the top of it. Dr. Stukeley, in his account of Abury, published in 1743, probably refers to another royal visit, when he notes: "Some old people remember Charles II., the Duke of York, and the Duke of Monmouth,ridingup Silbury Hill."

[5]See Apsley Pellatt'sCuriosities of Glass-Making, 1849.

[6]This is a much contested question among ethnologists and other authors. Mr. Craufurd and Sir George Cornewall Lewis totally disbelieve in the voyage of the PhÅ“nicians to the Scilly Islands, through which they are imagined to have supplied the Eastern world with Cornish tin; since they are not likely to have performed the requisite voyage from the entrance of the Mediterranean, 1,000 miles in a straight line over a stormy sea; but Sir Charles Lyell considers it would have been much safer for the PhÅ“nicians to come round by sea than trust their cargoes through Gaul, then not sufficiently safe to be a highway for trade. Nor is there any tin in the Scilly Islands; but Sir Henry James shows that the Cassiterides, where the tin was obtained, is St. Michael's Mount. Sir Henry has recently found in the bed of the harbour of Falmouth an ancient wrecked ingot of tin, of precisely that shape and weight which would adapt it as half-cargo for a horse, balanced by a similar ingot on the other side. The metal was thus conveyed along our southern coast to a favourable place for embarkation, whence the cargoes crossed the Channel and were taken overland through Gaul to the Mediterranean. The ingot discovered at Falmouth resembled in form anastragalusor knuckle-bone, the shape being convenient for slinging over the back of a horse; and it is important to notice that Diodorus Siculus uses the termastragaliin describing the shape of the tin-blocks brought from the island of Ictis, which there could be no doubt was the same as St. Michael's Mount. The ingot weighs 120 pounds, and the form of the under-surface is such as to adapt it for resting on the bottom of a boat. Sir Henry believes, with Sir Charles Lyell, that in more ancient times, previous to the Roman occupation of Gaul, tin was conveyed to the Mediterranean round the coasts of Gaul and Lusitania; but more recently, as Diodorus Siculus states, it was carried by land after crossing the narrow part of the Channel. The miners of the present day sometimes find bronze weapons in old tin-works. It is not necessary to assume that these were imported, as there is plenty of copper in Cornwall. It is believed they were manufactured there, and that a vast proportion of the bronze weapons of antiquity were actually made in Cornwall and exported.

[7]Observations.By Henry Long, Esq.

[8]The Rev. R. Burgess, B.D.

[9]On some of the Relations of ArchÃ¦ology to Physical Geography in the North of England.1853.

[10]SeeCuriosities of Glass-making.

[11]It may, however, be new to some of our readers to be informed that Owen Glendower's Oak, whence that Welsh chieftain is said to have witnessed the discomfiture of his English allies at the Battle of Shrewsbury in 1403, still stands at Shelton, in a garden on the right of the road from Shrewsbury to Oswestry, where the Welsh army lay.

[12]See theGuide to the Ruins of Uriconium(Third Edition, 1860), by Thomas Wright, Esq. M.A., F.S.A., the accomplished archÃ¦ologist, who, by his unwearied exertions, has so efficiently contributed to the exploration of these remains.

[13]Palgrave'sHist. of England, Anglo-Saxon Period. 1834.

[14]Senior'sLectures on Political Economy.

[15]Hoskins;EncylopÃ¦dia Britannica, 7th edit.

[16]Just as Charles, Duke of Norfolk, in our day, was accustomed to feed his favourite dogs, by cutting pieces from joints on the dinner-table, and throwing them to the dogs on the polished floor of Arundel Castle.

[17]The chief iron-works of Sussex were in the Wealden strata, whence the iron ore was extracted from the argillaceous beds, and was smelted with charcoal made from the abundance of wood. At Buxted, near Lindfield, iron ordnance were made three centuries since by Ralph Hogge, assisted by Peter Bawde, a Frenchman, and his covenanted servant, John Johnson; and the memory of whose works, of which two specimens are still existing in the Tower of London, is preserved in"Master Hogfe, and his man John,They did cast the first can-non."(W.Â D. Cooper, F.S.A., ArchÃ¦ologia, vol. xxxvii. p. 483.)Up to 1720, Sussex was the principal seat of the iron manufacture in England: the last furnace, at Ashburnham, was blown out in 1827. Kent was alike noted for its iron; and the last great work of its furnaces was the noble balustrades and gates which surround St. Paul's Cathedral, London: they were cast at Gloucester Furnace, Lamberhurst, and cost upwards of Â£11,202. "In the middle ages, and down even to a late date, while Dudley and Wolverhampton were obscure names, the forges of Kent and Sussex were all a-glow with smelting and hammering the iron which the soil still yields, although it is not worth the while of any one to work it. The discovery of the coalfields of Wales and Staffordshire gave the Kent and Sussex furnaces their deathblow, leaving the country dotted with forge and furnace farms, and deep holes, now filled with tangled underwood, from which the ore was brought." (Saturday Review, No. 182.) Kent and Sussex have no coal, and the iron manufacture left these counties when smelting with coal or coke began to supersede smelting with charcoal. Iron was also worked in Surrey. John Evelyn, in a letter to John Aubrey, dated February 8, 1675, states, that on the stream which winds through the valley of Wotton "were set up the first brass mills, for casting, hammering into plates, and cutting and drawing into wire, that were in England; also a fulling mill, and a mill for hammering iron, all of which are now demolished." The last of these mills gave its name to a small street or hamlet in the parish of Abinger, which to this day is calledthe Hammer.â€”Curiosities of Science.Second Series.

"Master Hogfe, and his man John,They did cast the first can-non."(W.Â D. Cooper, F.S.A., ArchÃ¦ologia, vol. xxxvii. p. 483.)

Up to 1720, Sussex was the principal seat of the iron manufacture in England: the last furnace, at Ashburnham, was blown out in 1827. Kent was alike noted for its iron; and the last great work of its furnaces was the noble balustrades and gates which surround St. Paul's Cathedral, London: they were cast at Gloucester Furnace, Lamberhurst, and cost upwards of Â£11,202. "In the middle ages, and down even to a late date, while Dudley and Wolverhampton were obscure names, the forges of Kent and Sussex were all a-glow with smelting and hammering the iron which the soil still yields, although it is not worth the while of any one to work it. The discovery of the coalfields of Wales and Staffordshire gave the Kent and Sussex furnaces their deathblow, leaving the country dotted with forge and furnace farms, and deep holes, now filled with tangled underwood, from which the ore was brought." (Saturday Review, No. 182.) Kent and Sussex have no coal, and the iron manufacture left these counties when smelting with coal or coke began to supersede smelting with charcoal. Iron was also worked in Surrey. John Evelyn, in a letter to John Aubrey, dated February 8, 1675, states, that on the stream which winds through the valley of Wotton "were set up the first brass mills, for casting, hammering into plates, and cutting and drawing into wire, that were in England; also a fulling mill, and a mill for hammering iron, all of which are now demolished." The last of these mills gave its name to a small street or hamlet in the parish of Abinger, which to this day is calledthe Hammer.â€”Curiosities of Science.Second Series.

[18]In some parts of England, thebadness of the roadscontinued to our day, when mud and clay were almost as great hindrances as in the Saxon times. Kent and Sussex were specially ill-favoured in this respect. Defoe, after travelling through all the counties, tells us that the road from Tunbridge was "the deepest and dirtiest" in all that part of England; and hereabouts it was, not far from Lewes, that he describes a sight which he had never seen in any other part of England, "that going to church at a country village, he saw an ancient lady, and a lady of very good quality, drawn to church in her coach with six oxen; nor was it either frolic or humour, but mere necessity." In 1708, Prince George of Denmark journeyed from Godalming, through the Sussex mud to Petworth, to meet Charles VI. of Spain: it cost six hours to conquer the last nine miles of the way. At a later date, Horace Walpole calls Sussex "a fruitful country, but very dirty for travellers, so that it may be better measured by days' journeys than by miles; whence it was, that in a late order for regulating the wages of coachmen at such a price a day's journey from London, Sussex alone was excepted, as wherein shorter way or better pay was allowed." Yet, in this county, stage-coach travelling attained higher perfection than in the majority of the counties of England. "In these days of railroads, express trains, excursion trains, mail trains, parliamentary trains, and special trains, there is no great difficulty in making a tour in Sussex, without any very great outlay of expense or time."â€”Quarterly Review.

[19]Host and Guest.By A.Â V. Kirwan. 1864.

[20]Miss Baker'sNorthamptonshire Glossary.

[21]Southey'sNaval History of England, vol. i. p. 121.

[22]From Poundbury may be seen Woolverton House, formerly the seat of the Trenchard family, and in it the fortunes of the House of Russell, humanly speaking, began to rise in the ascendant. When the Archduke of Spain was obliged to land at Weymouth, he was brought to the Sheriff of Dorset, and lived at Woolverton House. The Sheriff, not being able to speak in any language but "Dorset," found it difficult to converse with the Archduke, and bethought him of a young kinsman, named Russell, who had been a factor in Spain, and sent for him. The young man made himself so agreeable to the Archduke that he brought him to London, where the King took a fancy to him, and in time he became Duke of Bedford, and was the founder of the House of Russell.

[23]The Roman bricks in the remains of a villa found at Stonesfield, near Woodstock, were fresh and sound.

[24]The uses of these openings are, however, much controverted by antiquarian writers:â€”"With regard to the holes made in the archways of the gates as found both at Windsor and the Tower of London, the most probable theory of their use is that they were formed, not as is generally supposed, for the purpose of throwing down burning sand and other corroding substances on the assailants of the castle, but to pour down water on any fires which the enemy might make with faggots or other materials before the gate and portcullis."â€”J.Â H. Parker, F.S.A.

[25]A Visitation of Seats and Arms.By John Bernard Burke, Esq. Vol. i. p. 64.

[26]Quarterly Review.

[27]Charles Knight;Penny CyclopÃ¦dia, subWindsor Castle.

[28]Surrey'sPoems.

[29]History of Bremhill.

[30]This window is by Buckler, after a design of Lonsdale; in it are portraits of Charles, Duke of Norfolk, as Baron Fitz-Walter; Captain Morris, as Master of the Knights Templar; Henry Howard, jun. as the Baron's Page; and H.Â C. Combe, Esq. as Lord Mayor of London.

[31]Quarterly Review, July, 1862. The twelfth Duke died in 1842, the thirteenth in 1856, and the fourteenth in 1860. The present Duke, the fifteenth, succeeded at the age of thirteen.

[32]In the noble park of Cowdray, the home of the Montagues, Queen Elizabeth, in 1591, killed three or four deer with her cross-bow, while on a visit to Lord Montague. Three deaths in one family by drowning, and the almost total destruction of a fine mansion by fire, within the memory of living man, are enough to make one tread the beautiful grounds of Cowdray with feelings of awe, and to invest it with a superstitious melancholy. Three hundred years ago, however, there was no more festive house in England, when "three oxen and 120 geese" figured in its bill of fare for breakfast. The then proprietor was a strict disciplinarian, and the "Orders and Rules of Sir Anthony Browne" curiously illustrate the domestic economy of a great man's family in the sixteenth century, especially as regards its important departments of the "ewerye" and the "buttyre," and those pet officers, "my server" and "my carver."â€”Quarterly Review, 1861.

[33]"The cat's behind thebuttery-shelf."â€”Old Ditty.

[34]Saturday Review, 1861.

[35]There is an oft-quoted passage in the Aubrey MSS. which may be appositely represented here as a life-like picture of the economy of the Hall: "The lords of manouers did eate in their great gothicque halls, at the high tables or oreile, the folk at the side-tables. The meat was served up by watchwords. Jacks are but an invention of the other days; the poor boys did turn the spitts, and licked the dripping-pan, and grew to be huge lusty knaves. The body of the servants were in the Great Hall, as now in the guard-chamber, privy-chamber, &c. The hearth was commonly in the midst, as at colleges, whence the saying, 'round about our coal-fire.' Here, in the Halls were the mummings, cob-loaf stealing, and great number of old Christmas playes performed. In great houses were lords of misrule during the twelve dayes after Christmas. The halls of justices were dreadful to behold. The screens were garnished with corslets and helmets gaping with open mouth, with coates of mail, lances, pikes, halberts, brown-bills, battle-axes, bucklers, and the modern callivers, petronells, and (in King Charles's time) muskets and pistolls."

[36]Saturday Review, 1859.

[37]Abridged from a paper inOnce a Week, 1860.

[38]Saturday Review, 1859.

[39]In times anterior to this date, the greater part of the City was built of wood. The houses being roofed with straw, reeds, &c. frequent fires took place, owing to this mode of building: thus, in the first year of the reign of Stephen, a conflagration spread from London Bridge to the church of St. Clement Danes, in the Strand. Thenceforth, the houses were built of stone, covered and protected by thick tiles against the fury of fire, whenever it arose. The change from wood to stone dates from this period.

[40]Something for Everybody, and a Garland for the Year.By the Author of the present volume. Pp. 170-176, Second Edition.

[41]Count Rumford was one of the founders of the Royal Institution, the workshop of the Royal Society. In the basement of the house of the Institution in Albemarle Street, was fitted up an experimental kitchen, with "Rumford stoves," roasters, and boilers. One of his earliest stoves is in the Museum of the Royal Society, at Burlington House. Count Rumford lived some time at 45, Brompton Row, where the double windows in the house-front long denoted the scientific aims of the ingenious tenant.

[42]See Hall-fires, described at p.122.

[43]It was not till the reign of William III. that coal became our staple fuel.

[44]SeePopular Errors Explained. New edit. p. 42. 1858. The old custom of ringing the curfew-bell is retained in several villages and towns. (See Mr. Syer Cuming's paper in theJournal of the British ArchÃ¦ological Association, vol. iv. p. 153. Also,Notes and Queries, vols. ii. iii. iv. vi. vii. viii.) In proof that the custom cannot justly be considered an evidence of an unworthy state of subjection, is the fact that the obligation to extinguish fires and lights at a certain hour was imposed upon his subjects by David I. King of Scotland, in hisLeges Burgarum; and in this case no one ever imagined that it conveyed any sign of infamy or servitude. Curfew-ringing is common in the south of Scotland, at Kelso, and other towns in Roxburghshire, which appears to prove that it cannot have originated with the Norman Conqueror.

[45]See Note at p.160.

[46]In the Office of the Board of Green Cloth, at St. James's Palace, are preserved the followingRules of the Houseof the Duchess of York the mother of Richard the Third:â€”"Upon eating dayes. At dinner by eleven of the clocke."Upon fasting dayes. At dinner by twelve of the clocke."At supper upon eating dayes; for the officers at four of the clocke."My lady and the household at five of the clocke at supper."Livery of fires and candles, from the feast of All-Hallows, unto Good Fridayâ€”then expireth the time of fire and candle."

[46]In the Office of the Board of Green Cloth, at St. James's Palace, are preserved the followingRules of the Houseof the Duchess of York the mother of Richard the Third:â€”

"Upon eating dayes. At dinner by eleven of the clocke.

"Upon fasting dayes. At dinner by twelve of the clocke.

"At supper upon eating dayes; for the officers at four of the clocke.

"My lady and the household at five of the clocke at supper.

"Livery of fires and candles, from the feast of All-Hallows, unto Good Fridayâ€”then expireth the time of fire and candle."

[47]From theBuilder, 1864, with additions.

[48]The quantity of salmon caught in the river Wye was formerly so great that it is said to have been usual to insert a clause in the indentures of the Hereford apprentices that they should not be compelled to eat salmon more than twice a week.

[49]The historical details have been, in the main, condensed from "Some Passages in the Life and Character of a Lady resident in Herefordshire and Worcestershire during the Civil War of the Seventeenth Century, collected from her Account Book in the possession of Sir Thomas Edward Winnington, Baronet, of Stamford Court, in the county of Worcester, with Historical Observations and Notes by John Webb, M.A., F.S.A.ArchÃ¦ologia, vol. xxxvii. pp. 189-223. 1857."

[50]Loseley, the fine old domain of the Mores, mentioned in a preceding page (180), lies between two and three miles south-west of Guildford. It had, no doubt, from an early period, its manse, or capital dwelling-house, fortified by a moat, according to the custom of the feudal ages. This dwelling has long since been destroyed, and the present mansion at Loseley is of the age of Elizabeth, and was built between 1562 and 1568. The principal entrance opens into the Hall, but was originally at the end of the passage between the screens which divide the Hall from the Kitchen and Butteries. Latin inscriptions were placed over the doors: that over the Kitchen door was "Fami, non GulÃ¦" (To hunger, not to gluttony); over the Buttery door, "Siti, non Ebrietati" (To thirst, not to drunkenness); and over the Parlour door, "Probis, non Pravis" (To the virtuous, not the wicked). The finest apartment is the Withdrawing-room, a splendid example of the decorative style of the early part of Elizabeth's reign. It exhibits a rich cornice, on which is therebusof the More family, a mulberry-tree. The wainscoting is panelled, and the ceiling ornamented with pendent drops and Gothic tracery. The chimney-piece is elaborately enriched: the lower story is Corinthian; and the upper division, or mantel, has grotesque caryatides, supporting a fascia and cornice. The intermediate panelling is emblazoned with the arms of the Mores, which also enrich the glazing of the mullioned windows. In the gallery of the mansion were formerly two gilt chairs with cushions worked by Queen Elizabeth. Here, in 1603, Sir George More entertained King James I. and his Queen.

[51]In the Sandwich and many of the islands of the Pacific, every child has a piece of sugar-cane in its hand; while in our own sugar colonies the negro becomes fat in crop time on the abundant juice of the ripening cane. This mode of using the cane is, no doubt, the most ancient of all, and was well known to the Roman writers. Lucan (book iii. 237) speaks of the eaters of the cane, as "those who drink sweet juice from the tender reed."

[52]It is remarkable, that the first house at which Coffee was first sold in England, the Angel, Oxford, and the first house at which Tea was sold in England, Garraway's, in Change Alley, London, were both taken down in the same yearâ€”1866.

[53]Things not Generally Known.Second Series.

[54]Harrison'sDescription of England, c. vi.; Holinshed'sChron.ii. 171.

[55]Abridged from a paper by Mr. Albert Way, F.S.A.;ArchÃ¦ological Journal, vol. ii. pp. 332-339.

[56]Dogget, the actor, who bequeathed the Coat and Badge, to be rowed for annually on the Thames, was noted for dancing the Cheshire Round, as he is represented in his portrait.

[57]The staple of this paper is selected and condensed from a series of learned articles, entitled "The Rights, Disabilities, and Usages of the Ancient English Peasantry;" in theLaw Magazine and Law Review, published by Messrs. Butterworth. Some of the ancient law terms have been omitted, in order to better adapt this abstract for popular reading.

[58]In our day, the beadle is most familiar to us as an officer of the church. Formerly, one of his duties was a strange one. We read of the beadle, in a church, going round the edifice during service, carrying a long staff, at one end of which was a fox's brush, and at the other a knob: with the former, he gently tickled the faces of the female sleepers, while on the heads of their male compeers he bestowed with the knob a terrible rap.At Acton church, in Cheshire, some five and twenty years ago, one of the churchwardens, or the apparitor, used to go round the church during service, with a long wand in his hand; and if any of the congregation were asleep, they were instantly awoke by a tap on the head.In the church at Dunchurch, a similar custom existed: a person, having a stout wand, shaped like a hay-fork at the end, stept stealthily up and down the naves and aisles, and whenever he saw an individual asleep, he touched him so effectually, that the spell was broken; this being sometimes done by fitting the fork to the nape of the neck.

At Acton church, in Cheshire, some five and twenty years ago, one of the churchwardens, or the apparitor, used to go round the church during service, with a long wand in his hand; and if any of the congregation were asleep, they were instantly awoke by a tap on the head.

In the church at Dunchurch, a similar custom existed: a person, having a stout wand, shaped like a hay-fork at the end, stept stealthily up and down the naves and aisles, and whenever he saw an individual asleep, he touched him so effectually, that the spell was broken; this being sometimes done by fitting the fork to the nape of the neck.

[59]From a paper by the author of the present volume, inOnce a Week; reprinted by permission of the proprietors.

[60]See Mr. Corner's paper "On the History of Horselydown," 1855.

[61]We quote the above from a contribution to theBirmingham Daily Post. The details are of value, from their being furnished by an eye-witness.

[62]Selected and abridged from review of Neckam's Work, inThe Timesjournal.

[63]From a paper, by the Rev. Thomas Hugo, read to the Somerset ArchÃ¦ological Society.

[64]Translated from the Anglo-Norman, by H.Â T. Riley, M.A. 1863.

[65]That the oblique or skew arch is an old invention is attested by the following passage in theHandbook of Spain, by Mr. Ford, who resided in that country several years: "Now visit the Alcazar (Cathedral, Seville); but first observe a singular Moorish skew arch, in a narrow street leading (from the cathedral) to the Puerta de Xerez: it proves that the Moors practised this now assumed modern invention, at least, eight centuries ago."

[66]The kitchen was the first building erected by Wolsey in his new College, and has undergone no material alteration either in shape, size, or arrangement. It is a good specimen of an ancient English kitchen.

[67]In a paper read to the Society of Antiquaries, describing the Trevelyan MS.

[68]See Murray'sHandbook to Hampshire, Surrey, and the Isle of Wight.

[69]Quarterly Review, No. 223.

[70]English Review, No. 2.

[71]Grafton, vol. ii. p. 154. Balls of about a pound and a half weight have been dug up on the field, but none of the chroniclers speak of artillery as used by either side.

[72]"Sir John Cheney, of Sherland, personally encountering King Richard, was felled to the ground by the monarch, had his crest struck off, and his head laid bare: for some time, it is said, he remained stunned; but recovering after awhile, he cut the skull and horns off the hide of an ox which chanced to be near, and fixed them upon his head, to supply the top of the upper part of his helmet: he then returned to the field of battle, and did such signal service that Henry, on being proclaimed King, assigned Cheney for crest the bull's scalp, which his descendants still bear."â€”Sir Bernard Burke'sVicissitudes of Families, p. 350.

[73]In his very interestingVisits to the Fields of Battle, in England, of the Fifteenth Century.

[74]Timesjournal.

[75]See page305,ante.

[76]Timesjournal.

[77]Seeante, pp.116,124.

[78]"Hatfield House and its Contents,"Builder, 1859.

[79]Horace Walpole tells us that Sir Robert Walpole, against the earnest representations of his family and most intimate friends, had consented to the recall of Bolingbroke ("that intriguing Proteus") from banishment, excepting only his re-admission to the House of Lords. "Bolingbroke, at his return [1723], could not avoid waiting on Sir Robert to thank him, and was invited to dine with him at Chelsea; but whether tortured at witnessing Walpole's serene frankness and felicity, or suffocated with indignation and confusion at being forced to be obliged to one whom he hated and envied, the first morsel he put into his mouth was near choking him, and he was reduced to rise from table and leave the room for some minutes. I never heard of their meeting more."â€”Walpole'sReminiscences.

[80]It is also said to have been lined with cedar.â€”Seeante, p.345.

[81]The upper part of the mill was taken down; the lower part is still used for grinding corn. The situation of the old mansion is indicated by the names of Bolingbroke-gardens and Bolingbroke-terrace.

[82]Mallet did not fail to publish, after Bolingbroke's death, his writings disclosing his opposition to revealed religion, which drew from Johnson the severe remark, that Bolingbroke, "having loaded a blunderbuss, and pointed it against Christianity, had not the courage to discharge it himself, but left half-a-crown to a hungry Scotchman to pull the trigger after his death."

[83]Communication toNotes and Queries, Second Series, No. 212, by the Author of the present volume.

[84]Historical Sketches of Statesmen.Third Series, vol. ii. corrected Edition.

[85]TheBuilder.

[86]Brindswood, an estate in this parish, was formerly held under the following curious tenure:â€”"Upon every alienation, the owner of the estate, with his wife, man, and maid-servant, each single, on a horse, comes to the parsonage, where he does his homage, and pays his relief in the following manner:â€”He blows three blasts with his horn, and carries a hawk upon his fist; his servant has a greyhound in a slip, both for the use of the Rector that day; he receives a chicken for his hawk, a peck of oats for his horse, and a loaf of bread for his greyhound; they all dine, after which the master blows three blasts with his horn, and they all depart."

[87]Mr. Whincopp;Journal of the British ArchÃ¦ological Association, 1866.

Back to Index Next