Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

instead of engaging my attention to what the Doctor said, I suffered both my mind and my eyes to run at random, (and it is very rare but Satan can throw in a temptation, when the sinner lies open for it) I soon singled out a young lady that almost charmed me dead, but having made my inquiries, I found to my sorrow she was pre-engaged. However my friends to keep up the humour I was in, advised me to make an experiment upon her elder sister (they both being the daughters of the Reverend Doctor Annesley.")

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

The languishing Philaret,' as he styles himself, proceeds to entertain his readers with a history of the courtship, a sketch of his own personal appearance, a recital of their love-letters, and a short abstract of the sermon preparatory to the wedding, preached by the reverend father of the lovely Iris.' This was in 1682. He took a large house, The Black Raven,' at the corner of Princes Street, near the Royal Exchange. His wife was a prudent person, who "managed all his affairs for him, and left him entirely to his own rambling and scribbling humours." "These were golden days, he adds, the world was always smiling upon us." In 1683 he published, and, perhaps, wrote "The Informer's Doorn, a letter from Utopia to the man in the Moon, presented to the consideration of all the Tantivy Lads and Lasses in Europe, by a true son of the Church, with threescore cuts." This was followed in 1685 by • Maggots, or Poems on several subjects never before handled." It was written at the age of nineteen by Samuel Wesley, Dunton's brother-in-law, and the father of the celebrated founder of Methodism. An account of the volume will be found in Granger. About this period the defeat of the Duke of Monmouth in the West cast a universal damp upon trade, and having five hundred pounds owing to him in New England, he resolved, after some reflection, to make a trip to that country, and open a warehouse for the sale of books. Dunton gives an amusing account of the voyage.

66

Second Spira, The Post Boy robbed of his Mail, A
Voyage round the World, The New Quevedo, Pastor's
Legacy, Heavenly Pastime, The Hue and Cry after
Conscience." All these he heartily wished he had never
seen, and advised all who had them to burn them.
Dunton was accused of printing nothing but trash.'
He consoled himself by observing, "If authors have
trash in their heads, the world must endure the penance
to have it in their houses and hands." The Second Spira
Dunton says
made a sensation when first published.
it was the composition of Sault himself, "whose despair
and melancholy made him look like some walking ghost;
and I heard several such broken speeches as these fall
from him, I am damned, I am damned !"

as

66

66

66

In 1692 Dunton succeeded to some property by the death of a cousin, and made a considerable figure in the Company of Stationers. The world smiled upon the thriving man of business. He proceeds to give a sketch of all the characters with whom he was at this period acquainted. Bishop Barlow's very soul was wrapt up in books." Barlow, Rector of Chalgrave, is described a man in some sense of very great worth, but has got a strange habit of borrowing money, and d ferring the payment." Jay, Rector of Chinnor, "delivered his Turner, Rector of Walbleton, and author of The Hissermons without any dependence upon his notes." tory of Remarkable Providences,' and 'The History of all Religions,' was very generous, and would not receive a farthing for his copy till his success was known." Stephens, lecturer of Cripplegate, "shewed me his own coffin which he kept in readiness some years before he died as a memento of his own mortality." Of Wooly, author of the Complete Library, we are told "his style was gentle and natural, as his mien and his action without force or foppery. He thunders not along in a torrent of epithets, nor stuns the audience with an equipage of words: but insinuates by easy and agreeable "In the autumn of 1686 he returned to London, measures, and carries the day by persuasion rather than and expected nothing but a golden life for the future, assault. Some of our parsons are but a sacred sort of though all his bright prospects soon withered, for being and speak as if they were at the head of an army." drummers at the best; they beat violently upon the ear, deeply entangled in pecuniary engagements for a sisterin-law, he was not suffered to step over the threshold Mr. Doolittle was "a man of considerable learning, who for ten months." While hiding from his creditors, he endeavours to do good in a plain way." Slater was "a one Lord's day went to hear Dr. Annesley preach, plain practical preacher very popular in the city." Sam disguised in woman's clothes. He was discovered, a Wesley is described chace; our hero took to the alleys, and came off with flying colours.' "Wearied with this confinement, he determined to take a trip to Holland, Flanders, and Germany," and having gratified his rambling propensities, returned to England in 1688. "On the day the Prince of Orange came to London, he again opened shop at the Black Raven, opposite the Poultry Compter, where he traded ten years with a variety of success and disappointments." Amongst the productions of his press may be enumerated The Tigurine Liturgy, Bloody Assizes, Shower's Mourner's Companion, Madame Singer's Poems, Baxter's Life, Coke's Detection, and the History of the Edict of Nantes. Of six hundred works he printed, he only repented of seven.-The

mob

gave

"wrote too fast to write well." Baxter's humour

as something morose and sour which may, perhaps, be imputed to the many bodily afflictions he laboured under, as well as to the troubles and dis

[ocr errors]

turbances he met with in the world." We have not
Bates, Owen, Horneck,
room for the characters of
Mr. Keach mounted upon some apocalyptical beast much
Hickeringill, Howe, Shower, Silvester, or Burgess."
admired among the Anabaptists, and to do him right,
his thoughts are easy, just, and pertinent. He is a popular
preacher, and, as appears by his awakening sermons, under-
stands the humour and necessity of his audience. His
practical books have met with a kind reception, and I
believe his War with the Devil, and Travels of True God-
liness, (of which I printed ten thousand) will sell to the end
of time."

[ocr errors]

Dunton was a shrewd observer of character. Of Tom Brown we are told he knew how to translate Latin or French incomparably well, but "his morals were wretchedly out of order." Ben Bridgewater "was in part author of the Religio Bibliopola." Dr. Shirley's "talent lies at collection. He is as true as steel to his word, and would slave off his feet to oblige a bookseller. He wrote Lord Jeffrey's Life for me, of which six thousand were sold." Philips "will write you a design off in a very little time if the gout or claret do not stop him. He translates the Present State of Europe, or the Monthly Mercury,' incomparably well. It is one of the finest journals of the kind the world has ever seen. I was once concerned in it, but had the misfortune to drop it." Bradshaw was "the best accomplished hack author I have met with; he wrote the Parable of the Magpies' for me, and many thousands of them sold." According to Dunton's shrewd suspicion, he was employed by Dr. Midgeley to write the Turkish Spy.' Pitts was a surgeon in Monmouth's army, and in part author of the Bloody Assizes. Robert Carr, "a small Poetical Insect like Bays in everything but writing well; an odd mixture of lead and mercury, as heavy and dull as an old usurer, and yet as unfixt and maggoty as Parson Grub." Ames was "originally a coatseller, and has written almost as many pretty little pleasant poems as Taylor the Water poet. He died in a hospital, but I hope he was truly penitent; for a little before his deccase he said to me, with a great deal of concern, "Ah! Mr. Dunton, with what another face does the world appear, now I have Death in view!" Ridpath, a Scotsman, was very fortunate in engaging in the History of the Works of the Learned, which was originally my own thought, and the first I published under the title of the Athenian Supplement, and the next under that of the Complete Library." He was the author of the Flying Post, and "invented the Polygraphic, or Writing Engine." The Complete Library, alluded to by Dunton, was the first Review published in this country. Having exhausted the characters of his authors, Dunton proceeds to the booksellers. Of Lee of Lombard, we are told "such a pirate, such a cormorant was never before. Copies, books, men, shops, all was one: he held no property, right or wrong, good or bad, till at last he began to be known, and the booksellers, not enduring so ill a man among them to disgrace them, spewed him out; and off he marched for Ireland, where he acted as felonious Lee, as he did in London. And as Lee lived a thief, so he died a hypocrite; for being asked on his deathbed if he would forgive Mr. C- that had formerly wronged him, Yes, said Lee, if I die I forgive him, but if I happen to live, I am resolved to be revenged on him." | Hodgson the bookseller “calls a spade a spade, his word is his parchment, and his yea his oath, which he will not violate for fear or gain." Samuel Crouch "has a swinging soul of his own; would part with all he has to serve a friend." Nathaniel Crouch. I think I have given you the very soul of his character when I have told you that his talent lies at collection. He has

66

66

melted down the best of our English histories into twelvepenny books, which are filled with wonders, rarities, and curiosities; for you must know his title pages are a little swelling." Of Keble, who printed religious books, we are told, "while others wrangle about religion he endeavours to practise it." Benjamin Harris "sold a Protestant petition in King Charles' reign, for which they fined him five hundred pounds, and set him in the pillory; but his wife stood by him to defend her husband against the mob." Mr. Knapton "is a very accomplished person; not that thin sort of animal that flutters from tavern to playhouse and back again; all his life made up with wig and cravat, without one dram of thought in his composition, but a person made up with solid worth." We have not space for the country or Irish booksellers, or Eliphal Dobson, with his "creaking wooden leg;" Dunton sums up the whole by observing, "he knew not one knave or blockhead amongst them all."

To the booksellers succeed the auctioneers. Of Millington, the Robins' of his day, we learn that he "had a quick wit and wonderful fluency of speech. There was usually as much comedy in his once, twice, thrice,' as can be met with in a modern play. Where,' said Millington, is your generous flame for learning? Who but a sot or a blockhead would have money in his pocket and starve his brains?' Dr. Cave once bidding too leisurely for a book, says M. Is this your Primitive Christianity?' alluding to a book the honest Doctor had published under that title."

[ocr errors]
[blocks in formation]

DID BURTON COMMIT SUICIDE?-In answer to Mr. Miller's inquiry concerning the death of Robert Burton, the author of the " Anatomy of Melancholy," that inexhaustible storehouse of wit, learning, and satire, I beg to inform him that he will find somewhat to his purpose in Wood's Athenæ Oxoniensis. It is the first biographical notice of him with which I am acquainted, and is probably the most authentic. Concerning his death, Wood hath thus written :-" He, the said R. Burton, paid his last debt to nature, in his chamber in Christ Church, at or very near that time, which he had some years before foretold from the calculation of his own nativity, which being exact, several of the students did not forbear to whisper among themselves, that rather than there should be a mistake in the calculation, he sent up his soul to heaven through a slip about his neck." If there were no other reason—and there seems to have been none-for the students' whispers, it had been far better to have forborne to slander the memory of one whose wit few of them were scholars enough to appreciate, and whose learning they envied because they had no hope to equal. But Burton had not cared for what is called popularity; he was far too plain spoken, too honest and keen a satirist of the vice, ignorance, and

[merged small][ocr errors][subsumed][subsumed][ocr errors][subsumed]

LETTER FROM SIR WALTER SCOTT TO JAMES
BOSWELL, ESQ.

My dear Boswell,-Your letter, like all that can remind me of you, was most kindly welcome; I am sorry that at present I can only throw together a few general and unauthenticated remarks about Scottish Archery, for I am living here in the midst of workpeople, and the few books I have at this place are packed into trunks to keep them out of the way.

Scotland, as you full well do know, was very inferior to England in Archery-in fact she had no yeomen, properly so called, who were the flower of the English common people-yet in ancient times the Sagittarii of Selkirkshire are celebrated even by the English historians, who described their fighting and falling around their Lord the Stewart at Falkirk. The Scottish Kings made many Acts of Parliament for encouraging the practice of Archery, and there are Butts, usually elevated mounds of earth, for this purpose, near many towns and castles. The burghs had most of them silver

arrows or similar prizes frequently shot for by the neighbouring gentlemen. There is one preserved at Selkirk, another, I believe, at Peebles, and others in other places; but the exercise is now out of fashion. The principal society or company is that of the Royal Archers in Edinburgh, amongst whom Jacobitism long found a refuge. Their procession in the beginning of the last century is reported by tradition to have been the most brilliant possible. They were headed by the Duke of Hamilton (killed by Mohun), and the Tory nobles; their bonnets decorated with their wives' jewels. In my time they marched with maimed rites, and did not make a great show, though including some respectable individuals. I remember, particularly, Sinclair of Roslin, however, whose long gray hair, tall stature, well formed limbs, and handsome countenance, were absolutely Fingallian. The company still subsists, and no less a person than Sir Peter Walker (ask your brother about him) is to give their annals to the world. He is (to use the orthography of old Logan) a fowl, which he explained by saying it was the civilest way of caa'ing a man a guse. The Highlanders, and particularly the Isles-men, long used a very peculiar kind of bow, greatly inferior to the long-bow of England. It was short, comparative, with a loose string, and discharged arrows with a long, slender, iron head, and two barbs. I have one of these arrow-heads, found in paving the streets of Perth. Bows and arrows were used by the Highlanders in Montrose's wars, and so late as 1707, when the Earl of Orkney raised a Highland regiment, the grenadiers had bows and arrows, rather as a part of national dress, I suppose, than for use at that period. Archery was much in fashion about 1790-1, but the raising of the volunteer force interfered with the exercise, and it is only now practised by a few amateurs. They have, of late, however, made progresses to Peebles, to shoot for the arrow there, and I remember, at the request of said Sir Peter, applying to the magistrates of Selkirk for permission for them to shoot for the Selkirk arrow, which had not been the object of competition for a hundred years. But I rather think the match was laid aside. To these scraps of information I can only add that I have half a dozen pieces of execrable doggrel poetry, written by the Teviotdale and Selkirkshire lairds, on a silver arrow being won by the Laird of Gluck. I found them at Mertoun, among the papers of old Sir William Scott, of Harden, and the present laird gave me leave to keep them. If you have any curiosity, I will have them transcribed for your friend when I go to Edinburgh on the 12th May. They contain a satirical encounter of wit, in which both parties seem to have fought with blunt weapons. Should these general hints require any elucidation or amplification I will be happy to afford it when I go to Edinburgh.

The whole superiority of the English in their wars both with the French and Scotch turned on the longbow. Bruce dispersed their archers at Bannockburn with a body of light horse stationed for the purpose, an example which no subsequent Scottish general had sense

[graphic]

to imitate; though I could point out two or three interesting historical incidents where it was earnestly recommended by experienced Scottish warriors.

I was in very poor health for about a twelvemonth, with spasmodic attacks in the stomach, but am now beginning to feel like myself again. I have little hope of being in London for many a long day, so your best way will be to come down and see me here, where I have been doing much, and still have much to do. I am delighted to hear your Shakespeare is to go to press. I have not seen the epistles. I love Moore's genius, and detest his politics too much to care whether I ever do or no. I never read the Twopenny Post-bag. Kind love to Heber, Sotheby, your brother, and all friends

Ever yours,

Abbotsford, Melrose, 25th April.

WALTER SCOTT.

ANCIENT SPURS.-According to Grose, the period when spurs were first invented seems unknown. "Common sense points out that they must be nearly coeval with the art of riding on horseback. A man kicking a dull or tired horse would soon discover he stood in need of a more powerful stimulus than his heels; and it does not seem to require any extraordinary effort of genius to invent and fix to the feet some kind of spur or goad. That the Romans had spurs at least as early as the Augustan age is proved by the concurrent testimony of diverse writers, though for some reason not easy to discover among the many equestrian figures that have survived, none of the riders are represented with spurs." Virgil speaks of a heel shod with iron,

'Quadrupedemque citum ferratâ calce fatigat.' So also Livy, Cicero, and Plautus.

The Saxon spur used in England during the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries, was of the spear kind, and bore an exact resemblance to the subjoined specimen of a Frankish spur, which was dug in France, and is of iron much corroded. The pryck spur was the next in

S

fashion, and of this, interesting examples may be seen on the Earl of Cornwall's monument in Westminster Abbey, and on the cross legged effigies of knights. A

spur of this kind was dug up at Mountsorrel in Leicestershire of cast copper gilt, and having a pointed knob. As the castle was taken and rased to the ground in 1217, it was probably some warrior's, who, during the siege, was buried here, according to custom, in his boots and spurs. See Gent.'s Mag. for 1787, where it is engraved. From this kind of spur was evidently derived the old English expression of prycking, which may be found in the Percy Ballads, and in Spenser's Faerie Queen,

'A gentle knight came pricking o'er the plain.' The rouelle or wheel spur was the next improvement; and I should be glad of any information as to the earliest instance of its introduction. Perhaps the most beautiful specimen in existence is preserved in the Liverpool

Museum. It is evidently of foreign manufacture; and its interest is considerably enhanced by the fact of its being a relic of Bosworth Field. In the time of Edward IV. the long spiked rowel was in vogue. It was of iron, and had six formidable spikes, nearly three inches in length. See Fig. 2. WILL O' THE WYND.

ODD NUMBERS.-" Rusticus," in your last, asks, "What is the origin of the belief in the luck of odd numbers?" I have heard it before commented upon, and the only origin assigned, that the belief in the value of numbers is as old as creation; and of the remarkable recurrence of some numbers in the Bible, there is no doubt; though I do not say they are all odd numbers. Some, however, are: thus, seven days was the world in creation (and the Rabbis say that as it was seven days in creation, so will it endure seven thousand years, which idea coincides with the inference drawn by our own divines from the prophecies); there are seven notes in music, and seven prismatic colours; seven times were the walls of Jericho encompassed; three days was Jonah in the belly of the whale, typical of our Saviour's descent for three days into the grave; man, made in the image of God, consists of three parts, body, soul, and mind; the Sacred Trinity consists of three persons. Of the even numbers in the Bible which are favoured, forty and twelve are remarkable; forty days was Moses in the mount, forty days the Saviour in his temptations; twelve was the number of the tribes; and twelve the number of the Apostles. Doubtless many more such coincidences might be adduced; not only the sacred writings, but history affords the proof that the belief in the lucky influence of some numbers more than others has not been confined to the vulgar only. Should this seem to afford any answer to the wishes of your Correspondent for information on the subject, I should feel happy that I have thrown any light upon it.

S.

OLD ENGLISH GAMES.-In a rare tract by John Northbrooke, a preacher at Bristol, entitled "A Treatise wherein Dicing, Dauncing, Vaine Plays or Enterluds, with other idle Pastimes, &c. commonly used on the Sabbath day, are reproved," occurs the following singular passage:

"What is a man now-a-dayes if he know not fashions, and how to weare his apparel after the best fashion? to kepe company, and to become Mummers and Diceplayers, and to play their twenty, forty, or 100 li. at Cards, Dice, &c., Post, Cente, Gleke, or such other games."

66

Again, in Dr. Rainoldes' " Overthrow of Stage Plays," 1559:

Time of recreation is necessary, I grant, for schollers, yet in my opinion it were not fit for them to play at Stooleball, among wenches, nor at Mumchance or Maw with idle, loose companions, nor at trunkes in Guile-halls, nor to dance about Maypoles, nor to rufle in Alehouses, nor to steale deere nor rob orchards."

I wish some "dust-raking Commentator," to borrow an expression of Collier's, would kindly give me some RUSTICUS. explanation of the games alluded to.

COLEBROOK'S MEMOIRS.-In Horace Walpole's "Memoirs of the Reign of George the Third," there is a note from the MS. Memoirs of Sir George Colebrook. Have these Memoirs been ever published, and if not, where are they? That gentleman, who was a banker, failed with Alexander Fordyce and the Bank of Ayr, in 1772.* Sir George was director of the East India Company, and very conspicuous in defending its privileges. He was also said to be a patron of the arts, an amateur in Chinese monsters, and very fond of pomp and show. Of this gentleman's career I am desirous to learn as much as possible, and shall be indebted to any one who will indicate, through the medium of Mr. Willis's Notes," some source of information concerning him. F. ST. JOHN.

66

* See Francis's "Chronicles and Characters of the Stock Exchange," second edition.

EDMUND CURLL.-I should be glad if any of your Correspondents could give me, or refer me to, an account of Curll the bookseller's deeds and misdeeds. I have merely seen his name mentioned, and that sometimes in not very creditable company. Also, "from gay to grave, from lively to severe," I am anxious to know of a work on the bibliography of Scottish song." Is there such a one? Perhaps some of your friends can answer. JAMES B. MURDOCH.

Glasgow, 162, Hope Street.

66

COINS.-I must crave a brief space once more in your Current Notes," because I perceive that in your last Number a correspondent (A. S.) has asserted that Granger's note "is not erroneous," whereas I have distinctly stated that it is. A reference to Granger (Article Simon) will determine which statement is correct. But as it is not every one (country readers particularly) to whom Granger's work is accessible, permit me to add that he distincly specifies the Coins of Cromwell, "the dies for whose Crown, &c. were exquisitely cut by him (Simon)," and thereupon adds this note, This piece (the Crown) which has about the edge adiniat nemo,' is scarce. a motto from Terence, Has nisi periturus mihi It sold, credite posteri!

66

6

at the late Mr. West's sale for £68."

[ocr errors]

Petition

Now, Sir, there is no mistaking the piece alluded to in this note; for no other coin than the Crown of Oliver bears such a motto. Granger, therefore, in asserting that Oliver's Crown produced £68 is (I repeat it) in error. Moreover Mr. West possessed no The Crown," nor does Granger say that he did. highest price that any coin produced in Mr. W.'s sale was £32. Consequently I am at a loss to conceive on what information A. S. grounds his statement. B. N.

MICHAEL WOHLGEMUTH.-In answer to the inquiry, are there any known pictures of this master in existence? I beg to say that his best picture, and the one which all the judges allow to be genuine, is in the Imperial Gallery at Vienna, in the upper rooms; it is an altar-piece, with four doors, representing figures of saints. In Stanley's edition of "Bryan's Dictionary,' it is said to have been painted in 1511, and to represent St. Jerome seated on a throne, with the donors, a man and a woman, kneeling at his side.

In the same apartments are some by his great pupil, known than they are. of extraordinary merit, and which deserve to be more

In the Berlin Gallery are two also by Wohlgemuth, one is a Virgin and Child and John the Baptist preaching; the other, I am not certain as to the subject; and there is a mistake in Waagen's Catalogue of the Berlin Gallery, which makes me more doubtful.

There is also one in the Louvre said to be by him, and there are five in the Munich Gallery attributed to his hand; but they may all be classed doubtful. The one at Vienna is undoubted, and proves him to have been an artist of great merit. D.

INQUIRY.-Can any of your readers translate the following inscription, which is engraved in a silver gilt ring in my possession, on which are the arms of Poland and Lithuania, impaled, and surmounted by a regal crown? WOLNOSE CALOSE NUPODLEGLOSE D. 29. LISLOP 1830. ROKU.

"

"

JOSEPH SPENCE.-I observe, in the number of "Current Notes" for February, an inquiry as to the birthplace of Spence. Mr. Singer, in the edition of Spence's Anecdotes which he published some years back, gives a good deal of entertaining matter in a biographical sketch prefixed to the main work. Spence, according to this gentleman's account, was born at Kingsclere, I think it is Polish, and that it records a death. Hants. April 25, 1699.

FELTHAM.

S. I. T.

« AnteriorContinuar »