Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

POETICAL SIGN-BOARDS IN SCOTLAND.

Ar the village of Ravelstone, near Edinburgh, over the door of a roadside inn, was a few years since, and is possibly there still, a painted sign-board of a swan swimming in the water; and below it, these lines:

As the Swan loves water clear,
So do men good ale and beer.

Another sign-board, at Morningside, also near Edinburgh, has a beehive painted, and these lines under it :Within this Hive we are all alive;

Our drink as sweet as honey;
If you are dry, come in and try,

But don't forget the money!

The following is, however, the most singular of the sort, that I know. At Brechin, in Forfarshire, over the door of a shoemaker, named Tytler, who kept shop there about forty years since, was a painted sign-board, having the representation of a pair of torn, and a pair of mended shoes, and underneath:

When boots or shoes are nearly ended,
Here they can be neatly mended,

BY GEORGE TYTLER:

But, Gentlefolks, what do you think?
I must have the ready clink.

Tytler died within the last ten years, still many of the 'living chronicles' of Brechin have a full recollection of the well known sign-board.

Tytler, the avowed amender of men's understandings, was cousin to the eccentric James Tytler, memorable as the writer of Scottish Songs, and as the compiler and editor of the second edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica, and other works; and also, to Dr. William Henry Tytler, the translator of Callimachus, said to have been the first translation by a Scotchman of any Greek poet. Dr. Tytler married a sister of Dr. John Gillies, the historian of Greece.

J.

RICHARD BAXTER THE NONCONFORMIST.

THE biography prefixed to the folio edition of his collected works, is wholly silent as to his marriage, and in Rose's New General Biographical Dictionary there is but a slight passing notice. The following abstract of his marriage license, as registered in the Vicar-General's office, will therefore be read with interest.

1662. April 29. Richard Baxter, of St. Botolph's,

Aldersgate, London, Clerk, aged about forty years, batcheabout twenty-eight years, spinster; and at his own dislor; and Margaret Charleton of Christ Church, London, posal, to marry at Christ Church aforesaid. Alledged by Francis Tyton, of St. Dunstan's in the West.

[ocr errors]

His wife Margaret, a person of great piety, and who entered fully into her husband's views, was the daughter of Francis Charleton, Esq. of Shropshire, and a magistrate. She appears to have been deceased, at the time he made his will, dated July 7, 1689, as in that instrument she is not mentioned. In the preamble he styles himself Richard Baxter, of London, Clerk; but the word Clerk' is erased in the marriage licence; a fact deserving of notice, as he was then with Dr. Bates, one of the lecturers at St. Dunstan's, Fleet Street; and this is possibly one of the many traits of the intolerant inveteracy that after the Restoration was constantly in operation against him.

Baxter died Dec. 8, 1691, and was interred in Christ

Church, Newgate Street.

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

PENSIONS TO LITERATURE AND SCIENCE. THE 1200%. annually appropriated as pensions to literary persons, and their families, have this year been thus dispensed:

:

One hundred pounds per annum to Sir FRANCIS BOND HEAD, Bart., in consideration of the contributions he has made to the literature of this country.

To Mrs. Moir, widow of DAVID MOIR, surgeon, in consideration of her late husband's literary and scientific works, in connexion with his profession, his poetical talents, and the destitute condition of his widow and eight children.

To Dr. EDWARD HINCKS, in consideration of the eminent services rendered by him to history and literature by his antiquarian researches, and especially in connexion with the Assyrian and other Eastern languages.

To Mrs. Lang, in consideration of the eminent services rendered for a period of upwards of fifty years by the late Mr. OLIVER LANG, master shipwright at the Woolwich Dockyard; of his numerous valuable inventions and improvements for the advancement of naval architecture, and the straitened circumstances in which Mrs. Lang is placed.

To the widow of Sir NICHOLAS HARRIS NICOLAS, in consideration of his many valuable contributions to the historical and antiquarian literature of this country; and the limited circumstances in which his family were left at his death.

To the sister and two daughters of the late JAMES SIMPSON, in consideration of his eminent services in the cause of education, and the distressed circumstances in which, owing to the expenditure of his own means in the furtherance of this object, his family are left.

To the daughters of the late JOSEPH TUCKER, in consideration of their late father's services as Surveyor of the Navy for eighteen years, and the distressed condition to which they are reduced.

To ALARIC ALEXANDER WATTS, in consideration of his services to literature, and to art.

Eighty pounds per annum to the Rev. WILLIAM HICKEY, in consideration of the service which his writings, published under the signature of "Martin Doyle," have rendered to the cause of agricultural and social improvement among the people of Ireland; and the same amount

To the daughters of Dr. MACGILLIVRAY, in consideration of their late father's contributions to natural history, and the destitute condition in which his family are placed at his decease.

Fifty pounds per annum to Mrs. LEE, widow of THOMAS EDWARD BOWDICH, the celebrated African traveller, in consideration of her contributions to literature, and the straitened circumstances to which she is now reduced.

To Mrs. Glen, widow of Dr. GLEN, missionary to the East for nearly thirty years; in consideration of his services to biblical literature by his translation of the Old Testament into Persian, and her distressed condition.

To Mrs. Hogg, widow of JAMES HOGG, "the Ettrick Shepherd," in consideration of her late husband's poetical talent.

To the widow and daughter of JOSEPH TRAIN, in consideration of his personal services to literature, and the valuable aid derived by the late Sir Walter Scott, from Mr. Train's antiquarian and literary researches, prosecuted under Sir Walter's directions;

and

Forty pounds per annum to the daughters of the late JAMES KENNEY, dramatist, author of Raising the Wind, and other well-known productions.

[blocks in formation]

SHAKESPEARE'S ROMEO AND Juliet. THE CROSS AND THE CRESCENT. ROMEUS and Julietta, translated by Brooke, was THE Emperor, Charles the Sixth, on the commenceprinted in 1562, 8vo., and of Shakespeare's Romeo and ment of the war between Austria and the Turks, in Juliet, "newly corrected, augmented, and amended," 1717, took leave of his general, Prince Eugene, in these there were editions printed for John Smethwick, in words," Prince, I have set over you a general who is 1607 and 1609, 4to. The following memoranda appear always to be called to your council, and in whose name all to allude to an edition of Romeus and Julietta, not now your operations are to be undertaken." The Emperor known. They are from a portion of a leaf of some then placed in his hand a crucifix richly set with diapublisher's shop-book, used in the binding of an old monds; at the foot was an inscription, JESUS CHRISTUS volume, and refer to payments to printers of the books GENERALISSIMUS. Forget not," added the Emperor, named. Thomas Creede printed several of Shakespeare's "that you are fighting his battles who shed his blood for plays for various publishers from 1594, onward. He man upon the cross; under his supreme guidance attack printed the Merry Wives of Windsor, in 1602, for and overwhelm the enemies of Christ and Christianity." Arthur Jackson, whose memorandum this might have been.

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

THE recent query of Young America,' as to the origin of the terms John Bull' and Uncle Sam,' elicited from the editor of the New York Sunday Times, the following reply:

Englishmen are called 'John Bulls,' we believe, because they are generally reputed to be cross and uncommunicative to strangers. Our national appellation is said to have originated in the following manner. During the last war with England [in 1814], a man by the name of Elbert Anderson furnished provisions by contract to the general government. A great quantity were barrelled at Troy, N. Y., and the barrels were marked with the initials of the contractor's name, E. A., and U. S. for United States. The inspector of these provisions was one Samuel Wilson, called familiarly Uncle Sam.' One day a workman was asked what the letters E. A., U. S. upon the barrels signified, when he said that they stood for Elbert Anderson and Uncle Sam.' The joke took and spread among the soldiers, who afterwards, whenever they saw anything marked U. S. declared it belonged to Uncle Sam. By degrees it has found its way into our national vocabulary, and may, for aught we know, yet be voted to be a classical expression.

[ocr errors]

66

MR. GEORGE BRETTINGHAM SOWERBY, F.L.S., of 70, Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury, author of several highly approved works on Natural History, died July 26, in his sixty-fifth year, at his residence in Hornsey

road.

MR. SAMUEL NIXON, Sculptor, who executed the statue of King William the Fourth, at the end of Eastcheap, leading to London Bridge, died in his fifty-first year, on the 2nd instant, at his residence, Manby Place, Kennington Common.

RICHARD PRIESTLEY, THE BOOKseller.

MANY readers of Current Notes will doubtless remember the late RICHARD PRIESTLEY, Bookseller, in Holborn, but who died a recipient of Sutton's benevolence, in Charter House, on February 4, 1852, in his eightyfirst year. At the termination of the War in 1815, his stock, unencumbered, was worth upwards of thirty thousand pounds, but the decline that ensued in the prices of old established Classical Works, of which his stock mainly consisted, induced his printing of editions, by modern editors of distinguished acquirements and erudition, and in forms more consonant with the requirements and taste of our day. The sale, equivocal and slow, did not reimburse the great outlay of production, and embarrassment ensued. His daughter, MARY ANN PRIESTLEY survives, pennyless and in want. Her letter, addressed to the Editor, thus imploringly describes her pressing need :—

"Stern necessity compels me. My circumstances leave me penniless! Do you think a small sum could be raised to rescue me from the most unhappy situation in which I am placed, without friends or relations? I know not what will become of me, unless some charitable hand be extended towards me. Think of my dear Father, and pity his unhappy child, so different to what my youth promised; to be in such a condition at my age is indeed trying."

To those to whom a small sum is no object, this appeal is respectfully addressed; and Mr. Willis will willingly take charge of any kindness thus charitably

conferred.

OSS AND THE CRESCENT. harles the Sixth, on the R etween Austria and the Tr his general, Prince Engene, in de ave set over you a grav your council, and in wi o be undertaken." The Emer and a crucifix richly set d as an inscription, Justs Cr Forget not," added the Emer g his battles who shed his under his supreme gi emies of Christ and Christ

ITINGHAM SOWERBY, FIS, 1 et, Bloomsbury, auther ve on Natural History,

ar, at his residence

7, Sculptor, who exer the Fourth, at the 1 Bridge, died in the , at his residence, Ma

LEY, THE BOOKSELL
rent Notes will

RD PRIESTLEY, B
ipient of Sutton's
uary 4, 1812, in
tion of the War
worth upwars
decline that en
assical Works, of
ced his print
guished acquir
Consonant wishes.
The sale, e
eat outlay of
Jis daughter, M
and in wart
Emploringly se

e. My ch ink a smal most unharme riends or tel

e, unless st

s me. T

y child, so **

n such a ca

m is to the

and Mr. Wish ess thus cr

No. XLV.]

WILLIS'S CURRENT CURRENT NOTES.

"Takes note of what is done-
By note, to give and to receive."-SHAKESPEARE.

THE ROMAN ERA. HAVING occasion lately to refer to Sir N. Harris Nicolas' Chronology of History, I was much surprised at finding these words relative to the Roman Era. "Dr. Hales has determined from history and astronomy,' that the Varronian computation is correct, viz.

B.C. 753."

That this date cannot be determined, from conflicting history, is obvious; but I am at a loss to conceive by what astronomical process Dr. Hales has proved the Varronian Era to be the true one. Many astronomers and writers on Chronology have totally failed in the attempt. The Jesuit Denys Petau, in his chapter on the subject, makes this admission :

Quod ad Solis deliquia pertinet duo, quorum alterum in ipso Romuli conceptu, alterum eo die, quo Urbs est fundari cœpta, contigisse dicitur; ea sunt hactenus ex Tabulis quæsita frustra.

There were two ancient traditions at Rome, concern

ing the first foundation of that city. One, that after the destruction of Troy, certain Trojan fugitives, driven by the winds on the western coast of Italy, anchored at the mouth of the Tiber; that their women tired with the hardships of the sea, and instigated by one of their number, named Roma, conspired and burned the fleet: that the wanderers, thus constrained to remain, chose the Palatine hill for their settlement, and called it Roma. The other, that the exiled Trojans were conducted by Eneas; that he, after seven years of wandering through various lands and seas, settled in Italy, and built the city Lavinium, where he reigned three years: that his son Ascanius, after his death, relinquished Lavinium to his step-mother, and built Alba, where he and his descendants reigned three hundred and thirty years prior to the foundation of Rome: that a total eclipse of the sun occurred on the 21st of April, the festival of the Parilia, in the year when the building of

that city commenced.

To the latter, Virgil alludes, Æn. i. 264—

Moresque viris et moenia ponet :
Tertia dum Latio regnantem viderit æstas,
Ternaque transierint Rutulis hyberna subactis.
At puer Ascanius, cui nunc cognomen Julo,
Triginta magnos volvendis mensibus orbes
Imperio explebit, regnumque ab sede Lavini
Transferet, et Longam multa vi muniet Albam.
Hic jam ter centum totos regnabitur annos
Gente sub Hectorea; donec, etc.

VOL. IV.

[SEPTEMBER, 1854.

Donatus remarks, "Post triennium Æneæ, triginta Ascanio, et trecenti Hectoreæ, genti dantur." From Justin xliii. 1, we learn that Æneas was slain in the war with Mezentius. He immediately adds: “In locum ejus Ascanius filius successit, qui, Lavinio relicto, Longam Albam condidit, quæ trecentis annis caput regni fuit." Servius makes this period twenty years longer : "Inter excidium Troja et ortum urbis Romæ anni interveniunt 360."

With respect to the time when the city was founded, Cicero says, Divin. II. 47.

L. Tarutius Firmanus, familiaris noster, in primis Chaldaicis rationibus eruditus, urbis nostræ natalem diem repetebat ab iis Parilibus, quibus eam a Romulo conditam accepimus: Romamque, in Jugo cum esset Luna natam esse

dicebat.

And Manilius, iv. 731—

Hesperiam sua Libra tenet, qua condita Roma.

makes it an eclipse of the moon, by saying the "Sun Solinus also says the moon was in Libra; but he was in Taurus." Plutarch tells us more distinctly, in the Life of Romulus, where he mentions the calculations of Tarutius, that there was a conjunction of the when the first stone of Rome was laid. sun and moon, attended by an eclipse, on the very day

That no eclipse of the sun took place on the 21st of April, B.o. 753, nor for ninety-nine years previously, astronomical calculations, but I find that a total eclipse nor half a century subsequently, I have fully proved by of that luminary actually did happen on the 21st of April, B.C. 853.

hundred years prior to Varro's date, and corresThis is very remarkable-just one from Plutarch, 1. c. that Varro had his date from the ponding exactly with other circumstances. We learn lips of Tarutius; is it not possible then, that he, by a slip of memory, might have committed an error in one figure, and substituted one date for another-equivalent to 753 for 853?

This eclipse, according to modern tables, would have been invisible at Rome; but if Ptolemy's Lunation (29 d. 12 h. 44 m. 3 s. 20"), were correct, and the calculation made accordingly, the middle of the eclipse would have been at 7 h. 13 m, P.M. and the commencement visible for some time at Rome, there being no doubt, that the calculations of Tarutius and Ptolemy were derived from the same source-" Chaldaicis rationibus," "Babylonian numbers." If, on the other

K

[blocks in formation]

Various dates from B.C. 1271 to 1171, have been as

signed to the destruction of Troy. That named by Apollodorus, B.C. 1184, is the date generally received, but only one, however, of those dates, seems to correspond with the concurrent tests of tradition and astronomy. According to Timæus, as cited by Censorinus, de Die Natali, c. 21, Troy was taken and destroyed B.C. 1193. It was midnight, between the 1st and 2nd of February; the moon was full and shone brightly. All writers agree in this particular. Lesches, the author of the Ilias Parva, tells us,

Νὺς μὲν την μεσάτη, λαμπρή δ' ἐπέτελλε σελήνη. The Greeks usually chose the time of full moon, as the most auspicious season for attacking an enemy. Clemens Alex. Strom. i. 10; and Aristides, Platon. ii. Callisthenes, in the second book of his Histories, wrote that Troy was taken in the beginning of February. Hellanicus, Dionysius Argivus, Lysimachus also, and

others mention this month as the time of that occurrence. The Jesuit De la Cerda, on Virgil, En. ii. 250, without giving any date or author, alludes to an eclipse, and says he is far from thinking it an eclipse of the sun, “in coitu Lunæ," because the moon was full.

Now, it is a certain fact, that the moon was full on the morning of the 2nd of February, B.C. 1193, and eclipsed; but invisible at Troy, as the sun had previously risen. It is also a fact that the sun was eclipsed on the 9th of August in the preceding year, B.c. 1194, the greatest obscurity being about six in the morning. This eclipse is alluded to by Homer, Il. ii. 567, where he describes the battle in which Sarpedon was slain.

If, therefore, from 1193 we subtract the seven years of Æneas' wanderings by sea and land, the three years of his reign in Italy, and the three hundred and thirty years, during which Ascanius and his descendants reigned at Alba, we shall, I think, obtain the true Roman Era, в c. 853:

[ocr errors]

853.

Thus, 1193-(7 + 3 + 30 + 300) The only question now remaining is, how do Dr. Hales, and the other supporters of the Varronian computation, B.C. 753, account for one complete hundred years between these two dates?

Having thrown out these suggestions, I leave the subject to be thoroughly investigated by more competent scholars. D. B. H.

Hawkshead, Sept. 8.

[blocks in formation]

ISABELLA Sforza.

RENOUARD notices, under 1544, a work printed at Venice by Paul Manutius, entitled, Della Vera Tranquillita dell' Animo. Opera utillissima et nuovamente composta dalla Illustrissima Signora, la Signora Isa-¦ BELLA SFORZA," in 4to. 53 feuillets. Publié par Ortensio Lando, sous le nom supposé de Tranquillo, et par lui dédiée à Otho Truxes, évèque d'Augsbourg."* In the Kendall Collection, at Colchester, is a manuscript translation of this work. The English title being— The Heauen of the Mynde, or the Myndes Heauen. A moste excellent, learned and religious Treatise, declaring the way and rediest manner how to Attayne the True Peace and Quiet of the Mynde. Written in the Italiane tongue by the right honourable Ladie, Madonna ISABELLA SFORZA, sister to the Great Duke of Mylane; and translated into English by A[nthony] M[undy].

This translation, on fifty-three leaves, quarto, closely and fairly written, is preceded by a dedication to Alderman Swynnerton, dated 22nd of December, 1602, and signed AN: MUNDY. In the dedication occurs this passage-"Alphonso Ferreze writing in recommendation [of the work] in Italyane saythe, That every lyne valued is worthe an Ingot of Golde. It is the work of a moste honourable Lady written for comfort of her own confusion, in the time of her imprisonment for the cause of Christ."

Can any reader of Current Notes state whether this Translation has appeared in print, and where any notice of Isabella Sforza and her imprisonment may be found?

W.

Mundy's translation is unpublished, and unknown to is the dedication, as it would seem Mundy thus sought those conversant with his works. Another point of interest employment as a writer of London Pageants; he wrote that in 1605, in honour of Sir Leonard Holliday, as also Chrysothriambos, the Triumphes of Golde, in 1611; but in the following year Decker wrote the pageant for Sir John Swinnerton, who is characterised by Robert Tailor in his comedy entitled The Hogge hath Lost his Pearle, 1614, 4to. Mundy died in his eightieth year, August 10, 1633, and was buried in St. Stephen's, Coleman Street.

VABALATHUS.-Dr. Martin Lister, in his Journey to Paris, 1698, mentions his visit to Mons. Vaillant at his apartments in the Arsenal::

He told me he had never seen any Coins of Odenatus, but he had very lately parted with one of Zenobia, to the Duke of Maine. As for Vabalathus, he had seen some of him, in brass, and one he had in silver, which he very obligingly made me a present of, and this was the only silver coin he had ever met with of him. His reading of itVABALATHVS V. GR. IMP. R. Vices gerens Imperii Romani. Vaillant by this appears to have read the C as a G, and the D as a P. W. F.

* Annales de l'Imprimerie des Alde, 1825, vol. i. pp. 308.

« AnteriorContinuar »