feeling and habit of the race, that in all ages is the foundation of national freedom; namely, the system of separate communities, each conducting its own internal concerns, whether as an independent state, or as member of a federation under a dominant republic; or as forming part of the dominion of a Macedonian king, or of a Roman emperor, Nor are the Greeks, as evidenced by their proceedings at this hour, deteriorated in their habitude or inherent recognition of the ancient system even under Turkish vassalage. The coins of Greece are indisputably, beyond all comparison, the most numerous of Greek monuments, and it is but reasonable to believe that if the German writers of the last century possessed our present information on the geography and monuments of Greece, most of their extravagant theories would never have been promulgated; hence the Numismata Hellenica has been rendered as conducive as possible to the illustration of the geography, art, mythology and history of ancient Greece, and as a volume of reference, commends itself to the notice of all numismatists and scholars, and should be found in all collegiate, public, and provincial town libraries. Anciently the rites of St. John Baptist were observed, when it was the custom to turn or roll a wheel about, in signification of the sun's annual course, or the sun then occupying the highest place in the zodiac, was about descending. Many years since, a merry-andrew, to attract young men and maides' to his stage-play, advertised he would on Midsummer-day, being the anniversary of the nativity of St. John Baptist, on the cucke-stool at Harleston,' among other extraordinary antics, Take a ride round the sunne, From the heaven should cumm.' His performance was to have been on the boarded stage over the water; and the sun alluded to wheel, as here was simply the shewn, used for the lowering the cuck-stool, with the scold, into the water, and in raising it; but from its very decayed state, in the midst of his feats, the framework gave way, and he was im MERIT is often an obstacle to fortune and success, and the reason is, it always produces two bad effects-envy and fear. Envy in those who cannot rise to the same degree of perfection; and fear in those who are established, and who dread, that by advancing a man possessed of more abilities or more attainments than them-mersed in the selves, they may be supplanted. NELL GWYNNE. Among the curiosities dispersed at the sale of the Duchess of Portland's Museum, in May 1786, No. 1119, was "an emerald and gold enamelled smelling bottle, formerly the property of Nell Gwynne." Bought by Jones, a jeweller, for 77. 10s. CUCKING OR DUCKING STOOLS IN NORFOLK. BLOMEFIELD, referring to the fact that St. George's Gild had a tenement in Norwich, which they sometimes used as a Gildhall, adds, they had also customs at Fyve Brigge Stathe, and were obliged to find a Coke-stool there. From the Court book, he further notices two instances of the use of the Cucke-stool.* 1562. A woman for whoredom to ryde on a cart, with a paper in her hand, and tynklyd with a bason; and so at one o'clock to be had to the cokyng-stool, and ducked in the water. 1597. Margaret Grove, a common skould, to be carried with a bason rung before her to the Cucke-stool, at Fyebridge, and there to be three times ducked. * History of Norfolk, 1741, fol. p. 739. mud and water, creating no small degree of diversion and uproar amid many hundreds of spectators. This was the last ducking effected from the old constructed stage, as what remained of the timber work was afterwards removed, and the water enclosed within palings; but even then some involuntary duckings took effect. A boy shambling on the rails of the cuck-stool water, fell over, and was plunged in head foremost. Saturated in the water, mud and duckweed, he at length got out, and scampered off homeward, screaming aloud. The mother hearing her boy, ran to his assistance, and as she approached, said,-Ther ber donunt make such a noyze, yew carnt be twe thankd-full to Gaud, that yew ar eut.' To which young hopeful replied,-"'Spoze thu-n Ime too too than-k-um fur put-ting me in-mar'nt make a noize!' The pales or railings have since in their turn been taken away, and the present wall as an enclosure built. Yarmouth. SUPERSTITION is the spleen of the soul. W Dean Swift, VERNON. Current Notes, vol. iii. p. 91, Admiral Vernon took PORTO BELLO, with six men-of-war, on Nov. 22, 1739. A print illustrative of this event was published April 25, 1740. THE SQUARE OF TWELVE.-Some persons retain the ruling passion that influenced their actions during life, to the last moment of their existence. M. de Lagny, a member of the Academy of Sciences at Paris, a great calculator, became in his last illness insensible, when M. Maupertius approached his bed, and in the hope of arousing him, said, "M. de Lagny, what is the square of twelve?" He replied, "An hundred and forty-four," and instantly expired. NORWEGIAN SONG OF FREEDOM. Translated from the Danish of J. NORDAHL BRUN, BISHOP OF BERGEN. To Norway, mother of the brave, Chorus. To Norway, Mother of the brave, Drink, to the children of the rocks, Chorus. Drink, to the children of the rocks, One glass to faith and friendship flows; Drink each the girl his heart adores, And shame on him who falters! Drink to Norway's hills sublime, Dofra is an immense ridge of mountains which form the boundary between the southern and the northern parts of Norway. The name is derived from the giant Dovre. Throughout the whole extent of Dovre, there are but four houses to be found-Drivstuen, Kongsvold, Gierkin or Hierkin, and Fogstuen; the possessors of which are exempted from all taxes, and receive besides some allowance from the adjacent districts, in consideration of which, they are bound to convey, lodge, and succour travellers. Another translation, omitting the second verse of this Chorus. To Norway, valour's native sphere, One glass at friendship's shrine is due, Some nymph, my friend, may claim for you, From us this welcome duty. Shame on the slave spurns not his chains, Chorus. To Norway, valour's native sphere, Now, Norway, we thy mountains boast, And thrice 'rapt plaudits thunders: Chorus. To Norway, valour's native sphere, In the Voyage dans le Nord de l'Europe, par A. Lamotte,' p. 336, is a version in Latin of this latter | translation, 'par le Docteur G * * * * *.' JERMYN OF RUSHBROOKE. On the fly-leaf of Ben Jonson's copy of Camdeni Annales Rerum Anglicarum et Hibernicarum, regnante Elizabetha, ad 1589, printed in 1615-27; in his autograph, yet extant, is the following epitaph:— In ædibus D. Margareta in Lothbury Jerminorum a Rushbrooke nobile germen Flos Juvenum sub ævi flore raptus Et quod negavit sæculo, cœlo dedit. PP. P. BEN JONSON. VICISSITUDES OF A NUMISMATIST. terms of the contract, in rendering the Otho to his enthusiastic friend the Lyonnese collector. The gold coins that Vaillant so singularly preserved, it is stated were of extreme beauty and rarity, were religiously revered among the gems of the French cabinet, and were placed in the golden vase, till stolen by burglars from that establishment, and the whole melted. Many were deemed uniques, and that appreciation appears to be sustained, by few others occurring to repair that loss. THE BEARD IN THE PULpit. FRANCIS the First, disgusted with the prevailing practice in his day, of the clergy retaining their beards, obtained from the Pope, a brief by which all ecclesiastics throughout France were compelled to shave, or pay a large sum for the privilege of appearing with a beard. The bishops and richly beneficed clergy readily paid the prohibitory fine, but the poorer sort, unable to comply, were reduced to the grievous necessity of surrendering this ornament of the chin. The license obtained by compliance with the terms of the papal brief, was, however, secondary to the statute regulations of the Church, which in some instances were directly inhibitory of the bishop himself performing the service, unshaven; and of this fact, Duprat was in his person as a prelate, a remarkable instance. VAILLANT, a distinguished numismatic writer, was employed many years in collecting the rarest and most choice coins for the Royal Cabinet of Louis the Four-long teenth. On one occasion having to go to Rome, he embarked with other Frenchmen of character and distinction, at Marseilles, in a vessel belonging to Leghorn, that was captured at sea by an Algerine corsair, on the day following that of his departure. As France was not then at war with the Dey, Vaillant and his companions consoled themselves, the Algerines would soon set them on shore, at liberty, but the corsair captain excused himself by saying he was too far from the French coast, and had no more provisions than were barely sufficient for his immediate return. The Algerines, therefore accosting them with "bona pace Francesi," stripped Vaillant and his companions, and carried them to Algiers, where they were treated as slaves. The applications by the French consul for their liberation, were constantly resisted by the Dey's insisting on their detention, by reason of there being eight Algerines, in the king's gallies, whose enlargement he could not obtain. Vaillant after being four months and a half a slave, was permitted to return to France, and twenty gold coins of which he had been despoiled by the corsair, were restored to him. He embarked in a small ship, bound for Marseilles, and after sailing for two days, a Sallee rover was seen advancing towards them, the pirate by means of their oars, baffled every manoeuvre made by the sailing vessel to avoid a rencontre, and was soon within cannon shot. Vaillant, in extreme anxiety for the twenty gold coins, jeopardised by his recent captivity, swallowed them, without the slightest hesitation; but a breeze at the moment springing up, the vessel quickly darted beyond the reach of the pirate, and was driven upon the coast of Catalonia, where it fortunately escaped becoming a total wreck. The captain subsequently entangled himself among the shores and sand-banks of the Rhone, where he lost his anchors, and Vaillant in a boat, with much difficulty, reached the shore. The gold coins, which weighed between four and five ounces, were still within him, and greatly incommoded him; he consulted two physicians as to the proper method of relieving himself of them, but singular as it may appear, they differed in opinion, and Vaillant would not adopt the prescription of either. Abstaining from medicine, nature from time to time gave him relief, and he reached Lyons when he had recovered about half of his treasure. In that city he hastened to a brother antiquary, one of his numismatic associates, related circumstantially his mishaps, not forgetting the manner of his secreting the gold coins. He showed his delighted friend, those he had in possession, and described those he hourly expected. Among these in the womb of time, was an Otho his friend was most desirous of acquiring, and busily engaged in stipulating with Vaillant for its purchase at a stated sum, forgot to render his friend any assistance, till Vaillant complying, was with some difficulty, enabled that day to fulfil the Duprat, son of the Chancellor of that name, had naturally a beard that excited general admiration; and shortly after his return from the Council of Trent, where he had displayed his eloquence, and distinguished himself by his writings was appointed to the see of Clermont. On Easter-Sunday he appeared at the cathedral to take possession, but found the doors closed. Three dignitaries of the Chapter awaited him at the entrance; one held a razor; another, a pair of scissors; and the third, a book containing the ancient statutes of that church, to which, with his finger, that officer pointed to the wouldbe bishop the words barbis rasis-no beards. In vain did Duprat endeavour to avoid that despoilment, and argued the sinfulness of doing any work on so solemn a day; but inexorably determined, those who held the razor and the scissors resisted his entering, and protruded their weapons in such guise, that the non-inducted bishop, to save his beard, fled in dismay, abandoned the honour, and grief in a few days rendered him for ever insensible to the advantages of a prelatical position, or the vain solicitude created by the unusual elegance of a beard. Even in old England,' where it is said common sense finds a home, there are found highly reprehensible attempts of the clergy to wear a beard in the pulpit. A correspondent of the Durham Advertiser states, it is reported the clergyman at Cockfield has given so much offence to his parishioners by wearing his beard, that they have discontinued their attendance at church. SIR THOMAS OVERBURY. In an official book, of the time of James the First, recently obtained, I find intermixed with business entries, the following notes, referring to historical events:1615. November 20. The D. of Somersett was committed to the Towre; and the same day, came Sir Geo. Moore, Knighte, to be Leiutenant of the Towre. 1615. November 20th. Sir Jaruis Eluis, late Leiutenant of the Towre, was hanged vpon the Towre-hill, for the poizoninge of Sir Tho. Ouerburie, late prisoner in the Towre. CLERICAL REMISSION OF BURIAL FEES. ADMIRAL Sir George Rooke, a name resplendent on the roll of England's naval heroes, in the years of his probation served as a captain of marines, when that force was originally organised. While he was quartered upon the Essex coast, the ague made sad havoc with his men, and many cases were fatal. The minister of the village, harassed with the frequent calls thus caused, refused to bury any more of them, unless the accustomed burial fees were paid. Captain Rooke made no reply, but the next who died, he ordered to be conveyed to the minister's house, and the coffin placed on the table in the There are also the following verses, allusive to the hall, and there left. This greatly added to the clergyperpetrators of this disgraceful transaction : I. C. V. R.* V. R. A. K. V. 0. 2. P. From Katharine Docke theare launcht a Pincke, Wth winde in poope she sail'd to Kent. man's embarrassments, who in the fulness of sadness in his heart, intimated to the captain in a polite message, "that if he would cause the dead man to be taken away, he would never more dispute it with him, but would readily bury him and his whole company for nothing !” Tartini, born at Pirano in Istria, was from boyhood much disposed to the study of music, and one night dreamed that he made a compact with his Satanic Majesty, who promised on all occasions to be at his service, and during that delusive slumber all passed as he wished; even his desires were promptly accelerated by the agency of his new coadjutor. At length, he fancied, he placed his violin in the hands of the devil, to ascertain his musical qualities, when to his astonishment, he heard him perform a solo so singularly melodious, and executed with such superior taste and precision, that it greatly surpassed all he had ever heard. So exquisite was his delight upon this occasion, that it deprived him of the power of breathing; but awaking with the intensity of the sensation, he instantly arose, and taking his fiddle, hoped to express what he believed he had just heard, but in vain. His best efforts, it is true, helped him to produce a piece considered the most excellent of all his performances, and that he entitled the Devil's Sonata, but it was so greatly inferior to the phantom of his dream, that this distinguished musician stated, he would willingly have broken his instrument, and abandoned music altogether, had he known any other means of obtaining a subsistence. THE Third Volume of Willis's Current Notes, is now published, price THREE SHILLINGS, in cloth boards. A few copies of the prior volumes remain, but an early application for them is desirable. No. XL.] "Takes note of what is done LAST HOURS OF QUEEN MARY THE SECOND, From Manuscript Memoranda, by one of the Household MARY, Queen of Great Britain and Ireland, was on Thursday, being the 27th day of December, 1694, about 7 o'clock, P.M. ill to extremity, having a little before taken some of the late King Charles's drops, being a high cordial, and the last refuge of the physicians; but these not in the least reviving her spirits, all future means ceased, and a visible declension of her spirits appeared every half hour. About twelve the same night she began to expire, and by one in the morning, or a quarter past, her breath entirely left her body. She bore her sickness with all patience imaginable, and never was heard once to complain, but submitted to the stroke of death with all composedness and serenity of mind, as being well assured of the happiness of her future state, she having some time before received the blessed sacrament of the Archbishop of Canterbury, and eight or ten bishops communicated with her. Never was so melancholy a place as the palace of Kensington, nothing but sobs and tears in every corner thereof; and much adoe they had to prevail with the King to retire into another room whilst the Queen expired. So excessive was his grief and anxiety of mind, that he several times expressed his wish that he might resign his breath with hers; and he was once or twice so near it, by swooning away, that they had much adoe to support his spirit, and were forced to let him blood. In a word, the King has lost the best of wives, and her subjects the most merciful, the most charitable and the best of queens. [APRIL, 1854. PROFESSOR WILSON, the Christopher North, and Editor of the Edinburgh Review, expired at his house in Gloucester Place, Edinburgh, shortly after midnight, on the morning of Monday, April 3, in his sixty-ninth year. The following letter, addressed to the Ettrick Shepherd, in 1815, but not intended for publication, will doubtless amuse many readers of Current Notes:"Edinburgh, September. "MY DEAR HOGG,-I am in Edinboro', and wish to be out of it. Mrs. Wilson and I walked 350 miles in the Highlands, between the 5th of July and the 26th of August, sojourning in divers glens from Sabbath unto Sabbath, fishing, eating, and staring. I purpose appearing in Glasgow on Thursday, where I shall stay till the Circuit is over. I then go to Elleray, in the character of a Benedictine monk, till the beginning of November. Now pause and attend. If you will meet me at Moffat, on October 6th, I will walk or mail it with you to Elleray, and treat you there with fowls and Irish whiskey. Immediately on the receipt of this, write a letter to me, at Mr. Smith's Bookstore, Hutchison Street, Glasgow, saying positively if you will, or will not do so. If you dont, I will lick you, and fish up Douglas Burn before you, next time I come to Ettrick Lake. I saw a letter from you to M-- the other day, by which you seem to be alive and well. You are right in not making verses when you can catch trout. Francis Jeffrey leaves Edinboro' this day for Holland and France. I presume, after destroying the king of the Netherlands, he intends to annex that kingdom to France, and assume the supreme power of the United Countries, under the title of Geoffrey the First. You, he will make Poet Laureate and Fishmonger, and me admiral of the Musquito Fleet. Mary the Second was born April 30, 1662; married to the Prince of Orange (our present gracious King) on March 4, 1678; proclaimed Queen of England, France, and Ireland, Feb. 13, 1689; and crowned on April 11th following; on which day she was also proclaimed Queen "If you have occasion soon to write to Murray, pray of Scotland. She died Dec. 28, 1694, in the thirty-introduce something about "The City of the Plague," second year and eighth month of her age, and in the sixth year of her reign. Quis talia fando, Temperet a lachrymis. An Epigram on the Queen. The Queen so greatly dies, the King so grieves, • Thomas Tenison, who had been translated from Lincoln on the 6th of that month; his predecessor Tillotson died on the 22nd of the preceding month, November. VOL. IV. as I shall probably offer him that poem, in about a fortnight or sooner. Of course I do not wish you to say that the poem is utterly worthless. I think that a bold eulogy from you (if administered immediately), would be of service to me; but if you do write about it, do not tell him that I have any intention of offering it to him, but you may say, you hear I am going to offer it to a London bookseller. |
