TOUCHING FOR THE EVIL
(Vol. iii., pp. 42. 93.)
There is ample evidence that the French monarchs performed the ceremony of touching for the evil.
In a MS. in the University Library, Cambridge18, is this memorandum:—
"The Kings of England and Fraunce by a peculiar guift cure the King's evill by touching them with their handes, and so doth the seaventh sonne."—Ant. Miraldus, p. 384.
Fuller intimates that St. Louis was the first king of France who healed the evil. "So witnesseth Andrew Chasne, a French author, and others."19
Speaking of the illness of Louis XI., "at Forges neere to Chinon," in March, 1480, Philip de Commines says:
"After two daies he recovered his speech and his memory after a sort: and because he thought no man understood him so wel as my selfe, his pleasure was that I should alwaies be by him, and he confessed himselfe to the officiall in my presence, otherwise they would never have understood one another. He had not much to say, for he was shriven not long before, because the Kings of Fraunce use alwaies to confesse themselves when they touch those that be sick of the King's evill, which he never failed to do once a weeke. If other Princes do not the like, they are to blame, for continuall a great number are troubled with that disease."20
Pierre Desrey, in his Great Chronicles of Charles VIII., has the following passage relating to that monarch's proceedings at Rome in January, 1494-5:—
"Tuesday the 20th, the king heard mass in the French chapel, and afterwards touched and cured many afflicted with the king's evil, to the great astonishment of the Italians who witnessed the miracle."21
And speaking of the king at Naples, in April, 1495, the same chronicler says:—
"The 15th of April, the king, after hearing mass in the church of the Annonciada, was confessed, and then touched and cured great numbers that were afflicted with the evil—a disorder that abounded much all over Italy—when the spectators were greatly edified at the powers of such an extraordinary gift.
* * * * *
"On Easter day, the 19th of April, the king was confessed in the church of St. Peter, adjoining to his lodgings, and then touched for the evil a second time."22
Fuller, in remarking upon the cure of the king's evil by the touch of our English monarchs, observes:—
"The kings of France share also with those of England in this miraculous cure. And Laurentius reports, that when Francis I., king of France, was kept prisoner in Spain, he, notwithstanding his exile and restraint, daily cured infinite multitudes of people of that disease; according to this epigram:
'Hispanos inter sanat rex chæradas, estque
Captivus Superis gratus, ut antè fuit.'
'The captive king the evil cures in Spain:
Dear, as before, he doth to God remain.'
"So it seemeth his medicinal quality is affixed not to his prosperity, but person; so that during his durance, he was fully free to exercise the same."23
Cavendish, relating what took place on Cardinal Wolsey's embassy to Francis I., in 1527, has the following passage:—
"And at his [the king's] coming in to the bishop's palace [at Amiens], where he intended to dine with my Lord Cardinal, there sat within a cloister about two hundred persons diseased with the king's evil, upon their knees. And the king, or ever he went to dinner, provised every of them with rubbing them and blessing them with his bare hands, being bareheaded all the while; after whom followed his almoner distributing of money unto the persons diseased. And that done, he said certain prayers over them, and then washed his hands, and so came up into his chamber to dinner, where as my lord dined with him."24
Laurentius, cited by Fuller in the page already given, was, it seems, physician in ordinary to King Henry IV. of France. In a treatise entitled De Mirabili Strumarum Curatione, he stated that the kings of England never cured the evil. "To cry quits with him," Dr. W. Tucker, chaplain to Queen Elizabeth, in his Charismate, denied that the kings of France ever originally cured the evil
"but per aliquam propaginem, 'by a sprig of right,' derived from the primitive power of our English kings, under whose jurisdiction most of the French provinces were once subjected."25
Louis XVI., immediately after his coronation at Rheims, in 1775, went to the Abbey of St. Remi to pay his devotions, and to touch for the evil. The ceremony took place in the Abbey Park, and is thus described in a paper entitled Coronation of the Kings of France prior to the Revolution, by Charles White, Esq.:—
"Two thousand four hundred individuals suffering under this affliction, having been assembled in rows in the park, his majesty, attended by the household physicians, approached the first on the right. The physician-in-chief then placed his hand upon the patient's head, whilst a captain of the guards held the hands of the latter joined before his bosom. The king, with his head uncovered, then touched the patient by making the sign of the cross upon his face, exclaiming, 'May God heal thee! The king touches thee.' The whole two thousand four hundred having been healed in a similar manner, and the grand almoner having distributed alms to each in succession, three attendants, called chefs de goblet, presented themselves with golden salvers, on which were three embroidered napkins. The first, steeped in vinegar, was then offered to the king by Monsieur; the second, dipped in plain water, was presented by the Count d'Artois; and the third, moistened with orange water, was banded by the Duke of Orleans."26
The power of the seventh son to heal the evil (mentioned in the MS. I have cited) is humourously alluded to in the Tatler (No. 11.). I subjoin the passage, which occurs in a letter signed "D. Distaff."
"Tipstaff, being a seventh son, used to cure the king's evil; but his rascally descendants are so far from having that healing quality, that by a touch upon the shoulder, they give a man such an ill habit of body, that he can never come abroad afterwards."
I imagine that by the seventh son is meant the seventh son of a seventh son.
C. H. Cooper.
Cambridge, Feb. 4. 1851.
P.S. Since the above was written, I have observed the following notice of the work of Laurentius in Southey's Common Place Book, 4th Series, 478. (apparently from a bookseller's catalogue):
"Laurentius (And.) De Mirabili Strumas Sanandi VI. Solis Galliæ Regibus Christianissimis divinitas concessa, (fine copy,) 12s. Paris, 1609.
"This copy possesses the large folded engraving of Henry IV., assisted by his courtiers in the ceremony of curing the king's evil."
Replies to Minor Queries
Forged Papal Bulls (Vol. ii., p. 491.).—In your Number, 20th Dec., J. E. inquires where is the instrument for counterfeiting the seal of the Pope's Bulls, which was dredged up from the ruins of old London Bridge. It is in my possession, and your correspondent will find an account of it, with woodcuts of the instrument itself and the seal, in the Proceedings of the Archæological Association, 11th Feb. 1846.
Geo. R. Corner.
Eltham.
Obeism.—As your correspondent T. H. (Vol. iii., p. 59.) desires "any information" on the subject of Obeism, in the absence of more and better, I offer my mite: that in the early part of this century it was very common among the slave-population in the West Indies, especially on the remoter estates—of course of African origin—not as either a "religion" or a "rite," but rather as a superstition; a power claimed by its professors, and assented to by the patients, of causing good or evil to, or averting it from them; which was of course always for a "consideration" of some sort, to the profit, whether honorary, pecuniary, or other, of the dispenser. It is by the pretended influence of certain spells, charms, ceremonies, amulets worn, or other such incantations, as practised with more or less diversity by the adepts, the magicians and conjurers, the "false prophets" of all ages and countries.
On this matter, a curious phenomenon to investigate would be, the process by which the untonsured neophyte is converted into the bonneted doctor; the progress and stages of his mind in the different phases of the practice; how he begins by deceiving himself, to end in deceiving others; the first uninquiring ignorance; the gradual admission of ideas, what he is taught or left to imagine; the faith, of what is fancied to be so, the mechanical belief; then the confusion of thought from the intrusion of doubt and uncertainty; the adoption of some undefined notions; and, finally, actual unbelief; followed by designed and systematic injustice in the practice of what first was taken up in sincerity, though even this now perhaps is not unmixed with some fancy of its reality. For this must be the gradation more or less gone through in all such things, whether Obeism, Fetichism, the Evil Eye, or any sort of sorcery or witchcraft, in whatever variousness of form practised; cheats on the one hand, and dupes on the other the primum mobile in every case being, some shape or other of gain to the practitioner.
It seems, however, hardly likely that Obeism should now be "rapidly gaining ground again" there, from the greater spread of Christianity and diffusion of enlightenment and information in general since the slave-emancipation; as also from the absence of its feeding that formerly accompanied every fresh importation from the coast: as, like mists before the mounting sun, all such impostures must fade away before common sense, truth, and facts, whenever these are allowed their free influence.
The conclusion, then, would rather be, that Obeism is on the decline only more apparent, when now seen, than formerly, from its attracting greater notice.
M.
Obeahism.—In answer to T. H.'s Query regarding Obeahism, though I cannot answer his question fully, as to its origin, &c., yet I have thought that what I can communicate may serve to piece out the more valuable information of your better informed correspondents. I was for a short time in the island of Jamaica, and from what I could learn there of Obeahism, the power seemed to be obtained by the Obeah-man or woman, by working upon the fears of their fellow-negroes, who are notoriously superstitious. The principal charm seemed to be, a collection of feathers, coffin furniture, and one or two other things which I have forgotten. A small bundle of this, hung over the victim's door, or placed in his path, is supposed to have the power of bringing ill luck to the unfortunate individual. And if any accident, or loss, or sickness should happen to him about the time, it is immediately imputed to the dreaded influence of Obeah! But I have heard of cases where the unfortunate victim has gradually wasted away, and died under this powerful spell, which, I have been informed by old residents in the island, is to be attributed to a more natural cause, namely, the influence of poison. The Obeah-man causes a quantity of ground glass to be mixed with the food of the person who has incurred his displeasure; and the result is said to be a slow but sure and wasting death! Perhaps some of your medical readers can say whether an infusion of powdered glass would have this effect. I merely relate what I have been told by others.
While speaking of the superstition of the negroes, I may mention a very curious one, very generally received and universally believed among them, called the rolling calf, which, if you wish, I will give you an account of in my next.
D. P. W.
Pillgarlick (Vol. ii., p. 393.; Vol. iii., pp. 42. 74.).—It seems to me that the passage quoted from Skelton by F. S. Q. completely elucidates the meaning of this word. Let us premise that, according to all principles of English etymology, pill-garlick is as likely to mean "the pillar of garlick" as to be a syncopated form of "pill'd garlick." Now we see from Skelton's verse that in his time the peeling of garlick was proverbially a degraded employment—one which was probably thrust off upon the lowest inmate of the servants' hall, in an age when garlick entered largely into the composition of all made dishes. The disagreeable nature of the occupation is sufficient to account for this. Accordingly we may well suppose that the epithet "a poor pill-garlick" would be applied to any person, in miserable circumstances, who might be ready to undertake mean employment for a trifling gratuity.
This, I think, satisfactorily answers the original question, "Whence comes the expression?" The verse quoted by F. S. Q. satisfactorily establishes the orthography, viz., pill garlick. A Query of some interest still remains—In what author do we first find the compound word?
R. D. H.
Pillgarlick (Vol. iii., p. 74.).—That to pill is merely another form of the word to peel, appears from the book of Genesis, c. xxx., v. 37, 38: "And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hazel and chesnut tree: and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods. And he set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks," &c.
On first seeing your correspondent's Query, it occurred to me that perhaps "poor Pillgarlick" was in some way akin to "Pillicock," of whom Edgar, in King Lear, records that "Pillicock sat on Pillicock's hill;" but the connexion between these two worthies, if any, I confess myself quite unable to trace.
I conceive that Pillgarlick means "peeler of garlick," i.e. scullion; or, to borrow a phrase from a witness in a late case at the Middlesex sessions, which has attracted some attention, "a person in a low way of life."
The passage from Skelton, cited by your correspondent F. S. Q., may, I think, be explained thus: the will is so powerful in man's moral constitution, that the reason must content itself with an inferior place (as that of a scullion compared with that of the master of the house); or if it attempts to assert its proper place, it will find it a hopeless endeavour—as hopeless as that of "rosting a stone."
X. Z.
Hornbooks (Vol. ii., pp. 167. 236.).—In answer to Mr. Timbs, I send you the following particulars of a Hornbook in the British Museum, which I have this morning examined.
It is marked in the new catalogue (Press Mark 828, a. 55.). It contains on one side the "Old English Alphabet"—the capitals in two lines, the small letters in one. The fourth line contains the vowels twice repeated (perhaps to doubly impress upon the pupil the necessity of learning them). Next follow, in two columns, our ancient companions, "ab, eb, ib," &c., and "ba, be, bi," &c. After the formula of exorcism comes the "Lord's Prayer" (which is given somewhat differently to our present version), winding up with "i. ii. iii. iiii. v. vi. vii. viii. ix. x." On the other side is the following whimsical piece of composition:—
"What more could be wished for, even by a literary gourmand under the Tudors, than to be able to Read and Spell; To repeat that holy charm before which fled all unholy Ghosts, Goblins, or even the old Gentleman himself to the very bottom of the Red Sea, and to say that immortal prayer, which secures heaven to all who ex animo use it, and those mathematical powers, by knowing units, from which spring countless myriads."
Now for my "Query." Can any of your correspondents oblige me with the probable date of this literally literary treasure, or refer me to any source of information on the subject?
Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie.
Bacon (Vol. iii., p. 41.).—The explanation given in a former number from old Verstegan, of the original meaning of the family name of Bacon, and the application of the word to the unclean beast, with the corroboration from the pages of Collins's Baronetage, is very interesting. The word, as applied to the salted flesh of the dead animal, is another instance of the introduction of a foreign term for a dead animal, in opposition to the Anglo-Saxon name of the living animal. It was used in this sense in France at a very early period; and Ampère, in his Histoire Littéraire de la France avant le 12ième Siècle, iii. 482., mentions the word among other instances of Gallicisms in the Latin of the Carolingian diplomas and capitularies, and quotes the capitularies of Charles the Fat. Bacco, porc salé, from the vulgar word bacon, jambon. The word was in use as late as the seventeenth century in Dauphiné, and the bordering cantons of Switzerland, and is cited in the Moyen de Parvenir, ch. 38. The passage is curious, as it would seem to intimate that Lord Bacon was one of the personages introduced in that very extraordinary production of the Rabelaisian school.
I have frequently heard the word employed by the country people in the markets of Geneva.
J. B. D.
Lachrymatories (Vol. ii., pp. 326. 448.).—In illustration of the question as to the probable use of those small vases so commonly found in sepulchral monuments, I extract the following from Wayfaring Sketches among the Greeks and Turks. 2d edit. Introduction, pp. 6, 7. London: Chapman, 1849.
"The poorest of the sepulchres is certain to contain (in Greece) at least a few of these beautiful vases, the lachrymatories, &c.
* * * * *
When found in the graves of females, their form would generally seem to indicate that they had been used for containing scents, and other requisites of the toilet; in one that was found not long since, there was a preparation evidently (?) of rouge or some such paint for the face, &c., the mark left by the pressure of two fingers of a small hand was distinctly visible (?)."
To me, ignorant as I am of antiquarian matters, this sounds very curious; and I send it you in case you may find it worthy of insertion, as provocative of discussion, and with the utilitarian idea that I may gain some information on the subject.
C. D. Hamont.
Greenock, Jan. 16. 1851.
Scandal against Queen Elizabeth (Vol. iii., p. 11.).—An intercepted letter, apparently from a popish priest, preserved among the Venetian correspondence in the State Paper Office, gives the following account of the death-bed of the Queen; which, as illustrative of the observations of your correspondent Cudyn Gywn, may not be uninteresting:—
"London, 9 Martii, 1603.
"About 10 dayes synce dyed the Countess of Notingham. The Queene loved the Countess very much, and hath seemed to take her death very heavelye, remayning euer synce in a deepe melancholye, wth conceipte of her own death, and complayneth of many infirmyties, sodainlye to haue ouertaken her, as impostūmecoñ in her head, aches in her bones, and continuall cold in her legges, besides notable decay in iudgemt and memory, insomuch as she cannot attend to any discourses of governmt and state, but delighteth to heare some of the 100 merry tales, and such like, and to such is uery attentiue; at other tymes uery impatient, and testye, so as none of the Counsayle, but the secretary, dare come in her presence."
May we not class this story of her majesty's predilection for the hundred merry tales among the "black relations of the Jesuits?"
Spes.
Meaning of Cefn.—What is the meaning of the Welsh word "Cefn" used as prefix?
Josephus.
1. The first meaning of the word "Cefn" is, "the back;" e.g. "Cefn dyn," "the back of a man."
2. It also signifies "the upper part of the ridge of some elevated and exposed land." As a prefix, its meaning depends upon the fact whether the word attached to it be an adjective or a substantive. If an adjective be attached, it has the second signification; i.e. it is the upper part of some exposed land, having the particular quality involved in the adjective, such as, "Cefndu," "Cefngwyn," "Cefncoch," the black, white, or red headland.
When a substantive is attached, it has the first signification; i.e. it is the back of the thing signified by the substantive; such as, "Cefnllys," the back of the court.
E. L.
Portrait of Archbishop Williams (Vol. iii., p. 8.).—There is a portrait of this prelate in the library of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, in the Cloisters. The greater part of the archbishop's library was given to this library, but only one volume of it seems to have been preserved. It is of this library the remark is made in J. Beeverell, Délices de la Grande Bretagne, p. 847., 12mo., 1707:
"Il se trouve dans le cloistre une bibliothèque publique, qui s'ouvre soir et matin pendant les séances des Cours de Justice dans Westminstre."
μ.
Sir Alexander Cumming (Vol. iii., p. 39.).—In answer to an inquiry relative to Sir Alexander Cumming, of Culter, I may refer to the Scottish Journal (Menzies, Edin. 1848) of Topography, Antiquities, Traditions, &c., vol. ii. p. 254., where an extract from a MS. autobiography of the baronet is given. The work in which this occurs is little known; but, as a repertory of much curious and interesting information, deserved a more extensive circulation than it obtained. It stopped with the second volume, and is now somewhat scarce, as the unsold copies were disposed of for waste paper.
Pater-noster Tackling (Vol. iii., p. 89.).—Pater-noster fishing-tackle, so called in the shops, is used to catch fish (perch, for instance) which take the bait at various distances between the surface and the bottom of the water. Accordingly, hooks are attached to a line at given intervals throughout its length, with leaden shots, likewise regularly distributed, in order to sink it, and keep it extended perpendicularly in the water.
This regularity of arrangement, and the resemblance of the shots to beads, seems to have caused the contrivance to have been, somewhat fancifully, likened to a chaplet or rosary. In a rosary there is a bead longer than the rest, for distinction's sake called the Pater-noster; from whence that name applies to a rosary; and, therefore, to anything likened to it; and, therefore, to the article of fishing-tackle in question.
The word pater-noster, i.e. pater-noster-wise, is an heraldic term (vide Ash's Dictionary), applied to beads disposed in the form of a cross.
Robert Snow.
Welsh Words for Water (Vol. iii., p. 30.).—
"It is quite surprising," says Sharon Turner (Trans. of the Royal Society of Literature, vol. i. pt. i. p. 97.), "to observe that, in all the four quarters of the world, many nations signify this liquid by a vocable of one or more syllables, from the letter M."
He mentions the Hebrew word for it, mim; in Africa he finds twenty-eight examples, in Asia sixteen, in South America five, in North America three, in Europe three; and elsewhere, in Canary Islands one, in New Zealand one. He adds—
"We trace the same radical in the Welsh more, the sea, and in the Latin mare, humor, humidus.27
"All these people cannot be supposed to have derived their sound from each other. It must have descended to them from some primitive source, common to all."
From the expression used by J. W. H., "the connexion of the Welsh dwr with the Greek ὕδωρ is remarkable," he appears not to have known that Vezron found so many resemblances in the Doric or Laconic dialect, and the Celtic, that he thereupon raised the theory that the Lacedæmonians and the Celts were of the same—the Titanic—stock.
T. J.
Early Culture of the Imagination (Vol. iii., p. 38.).—The germ of the thought alluded to by Mr. Gatty is as ancient as the time of Plato, and may be found in the Republic, book ii. c. 17. If this will aid Mr. Gatty in his research, it is gladly placed at his disposal by
Kenneth R. H. Mackenzie.
January 20. 1851.
Venville (Vol. iii., p. 38.).—R. E. G. inquires respecting the origin of this word, as applied to certain tenants round Dartmoor Forest. The name is peculiar to that district, and is applied chiefly to certain vills or villages (for the most part also parishes), and to certain tenements within them, which pay fines to the Lord of Lidford and Dartmoor, viz. the Prince of Wales, as Duke of Cornwall. The fines are supposed to be due in respect either of rights of common on the forest, or of trespasses committed by cattle on it; for the point is a vexata quæstio between the lord and tenants of Dartmoor and the tenants of the Venville lands, which lie along the boundaries of it. In the accounts rendered to the lord of these fines, there was a distinct title, headed "Fines Villarum" when these accounts were in Latin; and I think it cannot be doubted that the lands and tenures under this title came to be currently called Finevill lands from this circumstance. Hence Fenvill, Fengfield, or Venvill; the last being now the usual spelling and pronunciation. R. E. G. may see a specimen of these accounts, and further observations on them, in Mr. Rowe's very instructive Perambulation of Dartmoor, published a year or two ago at Plymouth.
E. S.
Cum Grano Salis (Vol. iii., p. 88.) simply means, with a grain of allowance; spoken of propositions which require qualification. The Cambridge man's explanation, therefore, does not suit the meaning. I have always supposed that salis was added to denote a small grain. I find in Forcellini that the Romans called a small flaw in crystals sal.
C. B.
Hoops (Vol. iii., p. 88.).—The examples given in Johnson's article Farthingale will sufficiently answer the question. Farthingales are mentioned in Latimer with much indignant eloquence:
"I trow Mary had never a verdingale."
If the question had been, not whether they were in use as early as 1651, but whether they were in use in 1651, perhaps there would have been more difficulty, for they do not appear in Hollar's dresses, 1640.
C. B.
Cranmer's Descendants (Vol. iii., p. 8.).—It may be of some interest to C. D. F. to be informed, that the newspapers of the time recorded the death of Mr. Bishop Cranmer of Wivelescombe, co. Somerset, on the 8th April, 1831, at the age of eighty-eight. He is said to have been a direct descendant of the martyred archbishop, to whose portraits he bore a strong personal resemblance.
J. D. S.
Shakspeare's Use of the Word "Captious" (Vol. ii., p. 354.).—Why may not the word have the same meaning as it has now? A captious person is not primarily a deceitful person, but either one who catches at any argument to uphold his own cause, or, more generally, one who catches or cavils at arguments or expressions used by another, and fastens a frivolous objection on them; one who takes exception to a point on paltry and insufficient grounds:
"Yet in this captious and intenible sieve
I still pour in the waters of my love."
i.e. yet into this sieve, which catches at, and yet never holds them, I still pour the waters of my love.
There seems to me a double meaning of the word captious, indicating an under-current of thought in the author; first, the literal sense, then the inferential: "this sieve catches at and seems as if it would intercept the waters of my love, but takes me in, and disappoints me, because it will not uphold them." The objection to explaining captious by simply fallacious, is that the word means this by inference or consequence, rather than primarily. Because one who is eager to controvert, i.e. who is captious, generally, but not always, acts for a sophistical purpose and means to deceive. Cicero, I believe, uses fallax and captiosus as distinct, not as synonymous, terms.
E. A. D.
Boiling to Death (Vol. ii., p. 519.).—
"Impoysonments, so ordinary in Italy, are so abominable among English, as 21 Hen. 8. it was made high treason, though since repealed; after which the punishment for it was to be put alive in a caldron of water, and there boiled to death: at present it is felony without benefit of clergy."—Chamberlayne's State of England,—an old copy, without a title-page.
Judging from the list of bishops and maids of honour, I believe the date to be 1669.
Wedsecnarf.
Dozen of Bread (Vol. ii., p. 49.).—The Duchess of Newcastle says of her Nature's Picture:
"In this volume there are several feigned stories, &c. Also there are some morals and some dialogues; but they are as the advantage loaf of bread to the baker's dozen." 1656.
Wedsecnarf.
Friday Weather (Vol. iii., p. 7.).—A very old friend of mine, a Shropshire lady, tells me that her mother (who was born before 1760) used to say that Friday was always the fairest, or the foulest, day of the week.
Wedsecnarf.
Saint Paul's Clock (Vol. iii., p. 40.).—In reply to Mr. Campkin's Query, I send you the following extract from Easton's Human Longevity (London, 1799):
"James Hatfield died in 1770, aged 105. Was formerly a soldier: when on duty as a centinel at Windsor, one night, at the expiration of his guard, he heard St. Paul's clock, London, strike thirteen strokes instead of twelve, and not being relieved as he expected he fell asleep; in which situation he was found by the succeeding guard, who soon after came to relieve him; for such neglect he was tried by a court-martial, but pleading that he was on duty his legal time, and asserting, as a proof, the singular circumstance of hearing St. Paul's clock strike thirteen strokes, which, upon inquiry, proved true—he was in consequence acquitted."
J. B. Colman.
Lunardi (Vol. ii., p. 469.).—I remember seeing Lunardi's balloon pass over the town of Ware, previous to its fall at Standon. I have seen the moonstone described by your correspondent C. J. F., but all that I can remember of an old song on the occasion is. "They thought it had been the man in the moon," alluding to the men in the fields, who ran away frightened. But a servant girl had the courage to take the rope thrown out by Lunardi, and was well rewarded. It caused a great sensation, and many of the principal inhabitants of Ware and Wadesmill assembled with Lunardi at the Feathers Inn, at the latter place.