294 CARTE-BALBUENA-POLWHELE-LINSCHOTEN-RYMER. [A King's best Servants.] "WHEN a king," says CARTE, "forbears to [What is Beauty?] "HERMOSA vista tiena al mar cubierto De blanca espuma en olas encrespado; Y mas hermoso quanto mas airado; ، ing with it in Italy. It was there called Cocco- Linschoten himself being at Lisbon this year, [Sensitive Trees.] "AMONG the 'Inquiries for the Antilles, or BALBUENA, El Bernardo, tom. 2, p. 330. over large spots of ground in many parts of Ja [Cornish Wool.] "The sheep of Cornwall were, from 'aun- Thomas Newcomb. THIS author was, by the mother's side, great- [The Disease called Tavardilha, or Coccolucio.] "D. Pall. (I can give no more of his name maica, and is so very sensible, that 'a puff of De Gunnes Eskippandis. "SCIATIS quod Concessimus et licentiam de- [A Generous Enemy.] "In the year 1746, when we were at war SIR JOHN SINCLAIR-CRANMER. 295 laws of humanity, to afford relief to distressed for above a day or two, -all combined to render men, who ask it of us. We cannot, even against our enemies, take advantage of an act of God. You have leave, therefore, to unload your ship, if that be necessary, to stop the leak. You may refit her here, and traffic so far as shall be necessary to pay the charges. You may then depart; and I will give you a pass, to be in force till you are beyond Bermuda; if after that you are taken, you then will be a lawful prize: but now, you are only a stranger, and have a stranger's right to safety and protection. The ship, accordingly departed, and arrived safe in London." -QUERY? [An Enthusiastic Experimentalist in Agriculture.] "SEVERAL years ago, a very ingenious person, the inventor of some useful machines, for which he had taken out patents, but from which he did not derive the profits he had expected; and who found also, that the profession he followed (that of a writing-master), produced but a moderate income, formed an idea that he could make his fortune, by an improved mode of cultivating the soil. With this view, he took up his residence in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh, where he purchased eight Scotch acres of land, from which, by means of his new system, he expected to derive an income of £1600 per annum. His plan was, to plant 5000 gooseberry bushes per acre, making in all 40,000; and, in the interstices between the bushes, to raise cabbages and other vegetables, by the sale of which he expected to be enabled to defray both the expenses of the cultivation and the interest of the money he had paid for the ground. He admitted that no profit could be made till the fifth year, when the bushes would come into full bearing; but he calculated, that, though the bushes were reduced from 5000 to about 4000 plants per acre, yet that each bush, on an average, would produce three Scotch pints, which (making allowances for the rivalship of other cultivators), he would be able to sell at the rate of fourpence per pint, or one shilling per bush. 32,000 bushes, therefore, even at that low price, would produce £1600 per annum. Hence the plan seemed to him certain of success. It was in vain that his friends pointed out an objection, which he had not taken into his consideration, namely, the the plan unsuccessful; and a very small proportion of the crop, under these disadvantages, ever came to market. He was reluctantly compelled, therefore, to extirpate the gooseberry bushes, and to try some other expedient. "He had heard of the great value of a crop of carrots, when produced in ground properly manured and cultivated, and he determined to sow his eight acres with that root. The carrots throve, and to all appearance were an excellent crop; but when raised to be sent to market, a large proportion of them were diseased, having got the distemper called 'Fingers and Toes,' and nobody could be found to purchase them. "Still, however, he was not discouraged; and, being unwilling entirely to lose a crop from which he had expected to derive so much profit, and having heard that carrots contained much sugar, and consequently afforded a great deal of nourishment, he bought an immense quantity of poultry, invented machines for scraping, boiling, and mashing the carrots, and fed his poultry with them to a remarkable state of fatness; but, alas! even these were not marketable; for, although he sold a few of them, nobody who once bought them would purchase them again, for their flesh appeared to be quite raw even when well cooked, in consequence of their having been fed on so red a substance as carrots. "It is much to be regretted, that so ingenious and persevering a character should have experienced so many disappointments; and it will be admitted, that the plans he tried were sufficiently plausible to justify his making the experiments above detailed. Perhaps the gooseberry experiment might have been more successful, had he converted the fruit into wine, which, when properly made from that fruit, is an excellent and wholesome beverage."-SIR JOHN SINCLAIR'S Correspondence, vol. 2, p. 301. [New Establishment at Canterbury.] "At what time the Cathedral Church of Canterbury (was) newly erected, altered, and changed, from Monks to secular men of the Clergy, in the time of King Henry VIII., as to prebendaries, canons, petty canons, choristers, and scholars, these were present at that erec hazard of not finding a market for such a quan- tion-Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Cantertity of the same article. He was too sanguine bury, the Lord Riche, Chancellor of the Court to admit of any difficulty in effecting a sale. of the Augmentation of the Revenues of the The event, however, proved, that the difficulty Crown, Sir Christopher Hallis, knight, the king's anticipated, was perfectly well-founded. The attorney, Sir Anthony Sancteleger, knight, with gooseberry bushes produced an abundant crop; divers other Commissioners. And taking upon and both the quantity and quality of the fruit them to nominate and elect such convenient exceeded his most sanguine expectations. But and apt persons, as should serve for the furnithe occasional inclemencies of the season, the ture of the said Cathedral Church, according to numbers destroyed by the boys and women sent the new foundation, it came to pass, that when to pull them, the circumstance that a large they should elect the children of the grammar proportion became ripe nearly at the same time, school, there were of the Commissioners more and the fruit being of so very perishable a nature than one or two, which would have none admitthat it could not be preserved in a perfect state ted but younger brethren and gentlemen's sons. As for other husbandmen's children, they were more meet (they said) for the plough and to be artificers, than to occupy the place of the learned sort; so that they wished none else to be put to school but only gentlemen's chil dren. "Whereunto that most reverend father, Thomas Cranmer, Archbishop of Canterbury, being of a contrary mind, said that he thought it not indifferent so to order the matter. For (said he) poor men's children are many times endued with more singular gifts of nature, which are also the gifts of God, as with eloquence, memory, apt pronunciation, sobriety, with such like, and also commonly more given to apply their study, than is the gentleman's son delicately educated. "Whereunto it was on the other part replied, that it was meet for the ploughman's son to go to plough, and the artificer's son to apply the trade of his parents' vocation, and the gentlemen's children are meet to have the knowledge of government and rule in the commonwealth. For we have as much need of plough even as of any other state, and all sorts of men may not go to school. "I grant (quoth the Archbishop) much of your meaning herein, as needful in a commonwealth; but yet utterly to exclude the ploughman's son and the poor man's son from the benefit of learning, as though they were unworthy to have the gift of the Holy Ghost bestowed on them, as well as upon others, is as much as to say, as that Almighty God should not be at liberty to bestow his great gifts of grace upon any person, nor no where else but as we and other men shall appoint them to be employed, according to our fancy, and not according to his most godly will and pleasure: who giveth his gifts, both of learning and other perfections in all sciences, unto all kinds and states of people indifferently. Even so doth he many times withdraw from them and their posterity again those beneficial gifts, if they be not thankful. If we should shut up into a strait corner the bountiful grace of the Holy Ghost, and thereupon attempt to build our fancies, we should make as perfect a work thereof, as those that took upon them to build the tower of Babelon. For God would so provide, that the offspring of other best born children should peradventure become most unapt to learn and very dull, as I myself have seen no small number of them very dull and without all manner of capacity. And to say the truth, I take it that none of us all here, being gentlemen born, as 1 think, but had our beginning that way from a low and base parentage: and through the benefit of learning and other civil knowledge, for the most part, all gentles ascend to their estate. "Then it was again answered, that the most part of the nobility came up by feat of arms and martial acts. "As though (quoth the Archbishop) that the noble Captain was always unfurnished of good learning and knowledge, to persuade and dissuade his army rhetorically, which rather that way is brought unto authority than ....else his manly looks. To conclude the poor man's son by pains taking... for the most part will be learned, when the gentleman's son will not take the pains to get it. And we are taught by the Scriptures, that Almighty God raiseth up from the dunghill and setteth him in high authority; and when so it pleaseth Him, of his divine providence, deposeth princes unto a right humble and poor estate. Wherefore if the gentleman's son be apt to learning, let him be admitted; if not apt, let the poor man's child apt enter his room." - CRANMER'S Works, Ed. Jenkyns, vol. 1, p. 294. [The Cura de Bargote.] "THE memory of the Cura de Bargote (a village near Viana) is still current in Navarre. They say of him among other things, that being a famous wizard in Rioja and Navarre his delight was to make great journies in a few minutes, and thus he went to see the wars of Ferdinand V. in Italy, and some of Charles V., bringing news to Logrono and to Viana on the very day of the battle, which the event always in due time confirmed. They say also that he once tricked the Devil to prevent the death of a Pope, either Alexander VI. or Julius II. (асcording to the private life of both it might have happened to either). It seems according to some private and unpublished memoirs that the Pope intrigued with a married woman, whose husband could not publicly complain, because he held an high office under the Pope, and both he and his wife were related to certain Cardinals and Bishops. But his secret desire of vengeance was so strong that he formed a conspiracy to kill the Pontiff who dishonoured him. The Devil went when the Cura de Bargote had made his complaint, told him one day that the Pope would come to a violent death that night. The Cura wished to prevent this, but without revealing this purpose to his familiar, desired to be carried immediately to Rome that he might be there when the death took place and was made known, and that he might see the Pope's funeral, and observe all that would be done on the occasion. The devil accordingly carried him to Rome. The Cura presents himself to the Pope, and overcoming all difficulties by declaring that what he had to impart concerned the Pontiff personally, and could only be revealed to him in secret. Having obtained audience and told him all, the Pope as a reward for having saved his life, absolved him from all his guilt, censure and punishment for his witchcraft, upon a promise that he would never repeat such practices. The Cura was afterwards apprehended by the Inquisition of Logrono, but he was soon set free on account of the merit which he had thus contracted."LLORENTE. Hist. de la Inquisicon Espane, tom. 1, c. 11. EVLIA-RABELAIS-STODDART-LEDWICK. [Divers coloured Beards.] "THE seniors of this guild have beards of different colours by the effect of the vapour of the brass, some green, some sulphur coloured." -EVLIA. [Silent Powder of Human Bones.] "THE powder which explodes without sound is made by the men of the powder-fabric of El Meidaun. The ashes employed in it are ashes of human bones." EVLIA. [A Spiritual Journey, &c.] "THE Youth shall travel forward till unto the Old-agedness; yet nevertheless the way will prove very narrow to him in some places, especially when he comes near the City (whereof the Prophet Esdras speaks,) which lieth in a valley or low ground (or in the humility or abasement,) where the way is but a foot broad; and on the one side is water, and on the other side is fire. Esdras iv. 6, 7. That is, if the Young Birth follow not the Agedness of Being, but turn itself from the way of self-denial, then it must perish either in the Water or in the Fire. The Water which is the vain incon 297 [Via Lactea, Le Chemin Sainct Jacques.] "THAT part of the heaven," says RABELAIS, que les Philosophes appellent Via lactea, et les Lifreloffres nomment le chemin Sainct Jacques." Las Cuevas de Salamanca. "En ella es el Demonio Cathedratico, i por salario se queda con un Estudiante de cade siete que entran. Solo el Marques de Villena le engano, dexandole la sombra en vez de cuerpo. Mas padecio el pobre Marques el trabaxo de no tener sombra desde aquel tiempo; cosa que hace estremecer las Carnes. El modo de ensenar tambien es endemoniado, pues sobre una silla Infernal que tienen alla dentro, solo se ve un brazo que parece de Hombre, el qual habla i se menea sin cessar, i assi explica todas las Hechicerias i maldades." - FRANC. BOTELLO DE MORAES I VASCONCELLOS. stancy, or lightmindedness of the earthly world, of the Lake, and with his motion shakes the wherein the first world perished: and the Fire is the envious cruelty, which is greedy of revenge (for her propriety or self-interest), to kill and destroy whatever is not like unto herself; and in this Fire shall this last world perish." whole expanse. His power is not always used for good purposes, he sometimes overturns boats; sometimes entices mares from the pasture-in short he is a complete Water King! "Akin to this, but not supernatural, is the River-Bull, a harmless creature, who is sup This passage occurs in an address to the posed to emerge from the lake into the pasture reader prefixed to a book with the following title, of cows. The Highland herdsmen pretend that they can distinguish the calves which spring from this union." - STODDART'S Remarks on Scotland. [St. Maula's Plague.] "A Spiritual Journey of a Young Man towards the Land of Peace, to live therein Essentially in God, who met in his journey with three sorts of Disputes with some Proverbs or Sentences which the Old Age spake to the "THE memory of St. Maula is continued in Young Man. Also a Spiritual Dialogue, where- Kilkenny by her plague, that fell upon them unto is annexed a Round, or Chorus Dance, thus: There was a plague in the town, and whereunto the Vain Heathenish Lusts, with such as died thereof, being bound with wythes their wicked confused minds and thoughts (as upon the bier, were buried in S. Maula's churchwell in confusion as in a show of holiness) assem- yard. After that the infection ceased, women ble from all Corners of the Earth, and dancing hand in hand, skip and jump to Hell." Translated out of Dutch. London, printed by J. Macock, 1659: foolscap 4to.1 [The Milky Way, or Watling Street.] "SAILORS used to call the Milky Way Watling Street." (Complaynt of Scotland p. 90.) In the poem of Orpheus, contained in a black letter volume of which an imperfect and unique copy is preserved in the Advocates' Library, Edinburgh, Orpheus is said to have gone to Hell "through Watling Street." 1 The translation seems to have been made by a foreigner, probably a Dutch Quaker. and maids went thither to dance; and instead of napkins and handkerchiefs to keep them together in their round, it is said they took those wythes to serve their purpose. It is generally conceived that Maula was angry for profaning her church-yard, and with the wythes infected the dancers so, that shortly after man, woman and child died in Kilkenny." -LEDWICKE'S Antiq. of Kilkenny. Collect. de Reb. Hib. 2.541. Hammer's Chronicle quoted. [Moderation-Murderation.] "PAPISTS. In the Netherlands they made a show of moderation, and called their edict so, yet even that in truth was, was felt, and was 298 THOROUGHGOOD-HASSELQUIST THORNTON-THEVENOT. then called Murderation. - THOROUGHGOOD's profanation to our landlord; but custom had faSermon before the H. Commons at the solemn miliarized him to this, and many more important fast, Christmas Day, 1644. revolutionary dangers." -FORBES, Letters from France, vol. 2, p. 146. [The Devil's Predilection for the North.] "THE Devil's predilection for the North is thus accounted for, in the very curious Libro del Maestro e del Discepolo, intitulato Lucidario. Novamente revisto, e da Molti errori aspurgato; e in lingua Toscha ridutto. Vineggia, 1534. "Ma.-il primo Angelo per accidente hebbe nome Sathan, overo Sathael, cioe contrario a Dio? Dis. Quando fo lui contrario a Dio? Ma. Quando lui vide che Dio gli haven dato honore e gloria sopra gli Angeli, lui disprezo tutti gli altri, e volse esser somigliante al nostro Signore, e anchora maggiore. Dis. Come volse lui essere somigliante a lui, e maggior di lui? Ma. Pero che lui volse melior stato che Dio non li haveva datto, pero volea ponere la sua sedia ad aquilone aqu ch' e contro al mezo di, a esser pari a altissimo, e voleva comandare alli altri per tyranneria.". Cap. 5. [Egyptian Custom of Hatching Eggs under Women's Armpits.] "OVENS are not the only artificial means employed in Egypt for hatching chickens. The women put eggs under their armpits, and have the patience to keep them there till they are hatched by the heat of the body."1-HASSELQUIST, P. 55. Miquelets. THIS is what the Catalans themselves gave as the origin of the name in the middle of the seventeenth century. The word Miquelots occurs in Rabelais, and is explained by one of his commentators to mean the pilgrims to St. Michael's Mount, near St. Malo. It was a proverb that les grands gueux vont i St. Jaques en Galice, et les petits in S. Michel. Not improbably, therefore, the French may have given to the irregular troops in Catalonia the name, comparing them to these beggarly pilgrims. [Profanation.] "Ar Châteaudun, in our own gardens, on the summit of a rocky hill overhanging the river, the tables for company in the linden groves, are composed of tomb-stones, with their inscriptions, supported by broken pillars and other ornaments from the churches. Near them stands a marble vase richly sculptured, which served as a baptismal font, or receptacle for holy water. These gardens and the adjacent public walks formerly belonged to a convent now in ruins. I could not help expressing my dislike of such wanton 1 There is a story somewhere of a woman put to death by having roasted eggs placed under her armpits, while burning hot. The arms were tied down, and she was left to perish. This custom seems to have given the hint of the cruelty. [Power of the Turkish Tenses.] "ONE of the tenses in the Turkish language, supposes in the speaker an absolute and precise knowledge of the truth of his assertion, unrestricted in any of its relations by doubt or uncertainty: if, on the contrary, the knowledge of the fact be merely acquired from report, and though supported by testimony or its own probability, be not known to the speaker from the evidence of his own senses or experience, he expresses by a different inflection the modification with which his report is to be received."-Т. THORNTON's Turkey, &c. vol. 1, p. 40. [Tyranny of the Brahmins.] "THE women are happy that the Mahomet. ans are become masters in the Indies, to deliver them from the tyranny of the Brahmins, who always desire their death, because these ladies never being burnt without all their ornaments of gold and silver about them, and none but they having power to touch their ashes, they fail not to pick up all that is precious from amongst them. However, the Great Mogul and other Mahometan Princes, having ordered their Governors to employ all their care in suppressing that abuse as much as lies in their power, it requires at present great solicitations and considerable presents, for obtaining the permission of being burnt; so that the difficulty they meet with in this, secures a great many women from the infamy they would incur in their caste, if they were not forced to live by a superior power." - THEVENOT. [Plain Style.] "My unaffected stile retains, you see, Her old Frize-Cloak of young Rusticity." WITHER'S Satyre. [Douthwaite's Poems.] "THE Barber in the Upholsterer was a portrait of Douthwaite, who lived in Brownlow Street, Holborn: and in order to take him off accurately, Woodward shaved with him for a considerable time. He wrote, and we believe published, two volumes of poems, for which his customers among the gentlemen of Gray's Inn subscribed. Often have we admired the tottering gait of the thin, tremulous, smirking, talkative, inconsiderate old man. Woodward's personification of him was correctness itself."-Pa norama, vol. 9, p. 1064. A volume of his poems I take to be the book which I once saw in the possession of Thomas Wilkinson at Yanvath, very original and amusing nonsense, and not without its value as |