Loe raamatut: «The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 10, No. 269, August 18, 1827», lehekülg 7

THE GATHERER

"I am but a Gatherer and disposer of other men's stuff."—Wotton.

CITY FEASTING

The following is the bill of fare for the Court of Assistants of the Worshipful the Company of Wax Chandlers, London, 1478:—Two loins of veal, and two loins of mutton, 1s. 4d.; one loin of beef, 4d.; one dozen of pigeons and one dozen of rabbits, 9d.; one pig and one capon, 1s.; one goose and a hundred eggs, 1s. 1/2d.; one leg of mutton, 2-1/2d.; two gallons of sack, 1s. 4d.; eight gallons of strong ale, 1s. 6d.—7s. 6d.

The fathers of the church considered the earth as a great ship, surrounded by water, with the prow to the east and the stern to the west. We still find in Cosmas, a monk of the fourteenth century, a sort of geographical chart, in which, the earth has this figure. Even among the ancients, though many of their geometricians had acknowledged the sphericity of the globe, it was for a long time imagined that the earth was a third longer than it was broad, and thence arose the terms of longitude and latitude. St. Athanasius expresses himself most warmly against astronomers. "Let us stop the mouths of these barbarians," he exclaims, "who, speaking without proof, dare assert that the heavens also extend under the earth."

Augustus gave an admirable example how a person who sends a challenge should be treated. When Marc Antony, after the battle of Actium, defied him to single combat, his answer to the messenger who brought it was, "Tell Marc Antony, if he be weary of life, there are other ways to end it; I shall not take the trouble of becoming his executioner."

An Irish gentleman, whose lady had absconded from him, cautioned the public against trusting her in these words:—"My wife has eloped from me without rhyme or reason, and I desire no one will trust her on my account, for I am not married to her."

The Duke of Biron heard the decree for his instant death pronounced by the Revolutionary Tribunal, 1793, with unmoved tranquillity. On returning to prison, his philosophy maintained that character of Epicurean indifference which had accompanied his happier years; he ordered some oysters and white wine. The executioner entered as he was taking this last repast. "My friend," said the duke, "I will attend you; but you must let me finish my oysters. You must require strength for the business you have to perform: you shall drink a glass of wine with me." He filled a glass for the executioner, another for the turnkey, and one for himself, and went to the place of execution, where he met death with the courage that distinguished almost all the victims of that fearful period.

A Gascon boasted in every company that he was descended from so ancient a family, that he was still paying at that very day the interest of a sum which his ancestors had borrowed to pay their expenses when they went to adore our Saviour at Bethlehem.

There is now living in Pontenovo, in Corsica, a shepherdess, who successively refused the hand of Augereau, then a corporal, and of Bernadotte, then a sergeant in that island. She little dreamt that she was declining to be a marechale of France or the queen of Sweden!