Loe raamatut: «The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 17, No. 484, April 9, 1831», lehekülg 2
The tragical murder of Edward by Elfrida, at Corfe Castle, and its memorable defence by Lady Bankes, form two very interesting narratives in Hutchins’s Dorset. Their details would occupy too much of our present sheet, although they are worth reprinting for the gratification of the general reader.
Corfe Castle, as we have already intimated, is proposed to be disfranchised by the Great Reform Bill now before Parliament.
A year or two hence, probably, the political consequence of the place will be humbled as the Castle itself!
ANCIENT PARLIAMENTS
(To the Editor.)
In the Literary Magazine for 1792 I find the following list of places, which formerly sent members to parliament:—
The three last named places were summoned during the Commonwealth—also Manchester;—when discontinued, not known. Greenwich was summoned 4th and 5th of Philip and Mary; discontinued 6th of Philip and Mary. The other places were principally summoned and discontinued during the reigns of Edward the First, Second, and Third. Calais, in France, was summoned the 27th of Henry the Eighth; discontinued 3rd of Philip and Mary.
In the reign of Edward the Third, an act of Parliament, made in the reign of William the Conqueror, was pleaded in the case of the Abbey of St. Edmundsbury, and judicially allowed by the court. Hence it appears (says a writer on this subject) that parliaments, or general councils, are coeval with the kingdom itself.
The first triennial parliament was in the year 1561; the first septennial one, in the year 1716.
Henry the Eighth increased the representatives in parliament 38; Edward the Sixth, 44; Mary, 25; Elizabeth, 62; and James the First, 27.
P.T.W.
ANCIENT BOROUGH OF LYDFORD
(For the Mirror.)
Lydford is a poor, decayed village, consisting of ragged cottages, situated about seven miles from the north of Tavistock, Devonshire. It was (says Britton) formerly a place of consequence; and Prince states, that this ancient town and borough was the largest parish in the county, or the kingdom, and that the whole forest of Dart belonged to it; to whose parson, or rector, all the tithes thereof are due. It is said that this town, in its best strength, was able to entertain Julius Cæsar, at his second arrival here in Britain; but, anno 997 it was grievously spoilt by the inhuman Danes. Recovering again, it had, in the days of the Conqueror, 122 burgesses. This is still the principal town of the Stannaries, wherein the court is held relating to those causes. There is an ancient castle, in which the courts are held; and offenders against the stannary laws were here confined, in a dreary and dismal dungeon, which gave rise to a proverb—”Lydford laws punish a criminal first, and try him afterwards.”
It appears from the Domesday Book, that Lydford and London were rated in the same manner, and at the same time.
Lydford formerly sent members to parliament, but was excused from this burden, as it was then considered, by pleading propter paupertatem.
P.T.W.
A WORD FOR THE READERS OF THE MIRROR
Cadwallader Colden, in his Account of the Five Indian Nations of Canada, says—“They think themselves by nature superior to the rest of mankind, and call themselves Ongue-honwe—that is, men surpassing all others. The words expressing things lately come to their knowledge are all compounds. They have no labials in their language, nor can they pronounce perfectly any word wherein there is a labial; and when one endeavours to teach them to pronounce these words, they tell one they think it ridiculous that they must shut their lips to speak. Their language abounds with gutturals and strong aspirations: these make it very sonorous and bold; and their speeches abound with metaphors after the manner of the eastern nations. Sometimes one word among them includes an entire definition of the thing: for example—they call wine Oneharadeschoengtseragherie, as to say, a liquor made of the juice of the grape.”
N.B. It is hoped the above guttural word will not stick in the throat of the reader.
P.T.W.
SONG
(For the Mirror.)
Oh fly with me my lady love, my island home is free,
And its flowers will bloom more sweetly still, when gazed upon by thee;
Come, lady, come, the stars are bright—in all their radiant power,
As if they gave their fairy light to guide thee to my bower.
Oh fly with me, my little bark is waiting ’neath the steep,
And the midnight breeze is fresh to waft thee o’er the stilly deep;
Though tempests blow they should not raise thy fears, nor scathe thy form,
For love would hover o’er thee still, a halo in the storm.
I’ve found for thee, my lady love, the freshest flowing springs,
Whose cooling waters ever burst in crystal sparklings;
It is for thee my shaft will wing the wild bird in the air,
Or strike the swift gazelle to deck our simple mountain fare.
Oh ’tis thou canst bid my spirit throb with rapture’s warmest sigh,
As gushing winds will make a lute’s strings sleeping melody;
When other hopes have faded like the flow’rets of the spring,
Thou’lt be to me a joyous wreath for ever blossoming.
Then fly with me my lady love, my island borne is free,
And its flowers will bloom more sweetly still, when gazed upon by thee;
Come, lady, come, the stars are bright in all their radiant power,
As if they gave their fairy light to guide thee to my bower.
WRITING INK
(To the Editor.)
I see in your admirable work one of the never ending disquisitions about making writing ink. As I have used as much as most people in the threescore and ten years of my life, and my father used perhaps three times as much, and we never were nor are troubled, I suppose we manage as well as most folks—and as it is begged of me to a great amount, I infer that others like it.
I improve a little on my father’s plan, by substituting a better vehicle, and the knowledge of this improvement I obtained from a lady to whom a Princess Esterhazy communicated it.
It is so convenient, that whenever I go to Leamington, Brighton, Tunbridge, or such places of temporary residence, I send to a chemist’s my recipe, reduced to the quantity of half a pint; and my ink is in use as soon as it comes, improving daily.
My home quantities are these:
Three quarts of stale good beer, not porter.
Three quarters of a pound fresh blue Aleppo galls, beaten.
Four ounces of copperas.
Four ounces of gum Arabic in powder.
Two ounces of rock alum.
This is kept for a week in a wide-mouthed pitcher close to the fire, never on it, frequently stirred with a stick, and slightly covered with a large cork or tile.
My small quantity is—
Half a pint of good beer.
Two ounces of galls.
Half an ounce of copperas.
Ditto of gum Arabic.
Quarter of an ounce of rock alum.
It will never mould or lose its substance or colour. The large quantity will bear half as much beer for future use. If it thickens, thin it with beer.
I adopt the Italian ladies’ method of keeping the roving of a bit of silk stocking in the glass, which the pen moving, preserves the consistency of the liquid and keeps the fingers from it.
If you have seen better ink than this, I yield my pre-eminence.4
BLACKY.
SONG
(For the Mirror.)
O pledge me not in sparkling wine,
In cups with roses bound;
O hail me at no festive shrine,
In mirth and music’s sound.
Or if you pledge me, let it be
When none are by to hear,
And in the wine you drink to me,
For me let fall a tear.
Forbear to breathe in pleasure’s hall,
A name you should forget;
Lest echo’s faintest whisper fall
On her who loves thee yet.
Or if you name me, let it be
When none are by to hear;
And as my name is sigh’d by thee,
For me let fall a tear.
O think not when the harp shall sound
The notes we lov’d again,
And gentle voices breathe around,
I mingle in the strain.
Oh! only think you hear me when
The night breeze whispers near;
In hours of thought, and quiet, then
For me let fall a tear.
Seek me not in the mazy dance,
Nor let your fancy trace
Resemblance in a timid glance;
Or distant form and face.
But if you seek me, be it when
No other forms are near;
And while in thought we meet again,
For me let fall a tear.
L.M.N.
MANNERS & CUSTOMS OF ALL NATIONS
BULL-BAITING IN SUFFOLK
(For the Mirror.)
Lavenham Market-place was once considered as one of the most celebrated “theatres for cruel scenes” in the county of Suffolk,
“Where bulls and dogs in useless contest fought,
And sons of reason satisfaction sought
From sights would sicken Feeling’s gentle heart,
Where want of courage barb’d Oppression’s dart.”5
On every anniversary of the Popish powder-plot, it was customary here to bait bulls; and it was then pretty generally understood that no butcher could legally slaughter a bull without first baiting him; or in default of doing so, he must burn candles in his shop so long as a bit of the bull-beef remained there for sale.
Whilst a bull, with false horns, has been defending himself at the stake, or ring, in this market-place, dogs have been seen in the streets quarrelling for a part of the tongue of the living bull! and daughters of reason have joined their treble screams to the yell of triumph when the bull either tossed or worried a dog, or a dog had pinned the bull, by fastening on his nose so desperately firm as even to suffer his limbs to be broken—nay, cut off—before he would let go his hold.
A man (of course of the bull-dog breed), not many years since, engaged to attack a bull with his teeth, and so far succeeded as to deprive the animal of power to hurt him.
In Bury, too, so late as the year 1801, a mob of “Christian savages were indulging in the inhuman amusement of baiting and branding a bull. The poor animal, who had been privately baited on the same day, burst from his tethers in a state of madness. He was again entangled, and, monstrous to relate, his hoofs were cut off, and he defended himself on his mangled, bleeding stumps!”
The public exhibition of this most cowardly pastime is now prohibited; and the bull-ring was taken up, by order of Mr. Buck, out of this market-place about eight years back.
The name of the Rev. James Buck, rector of Lavenham, deserves to stand recorded as one of the most indefatigable magistrates who, uniting authority with compassion, exerted himself to the last in the cause of humanity.
The common arguments which have ever been adduced to show that we have animals bred by nature for various sports, and that the poor man has as great a right to his share of amusement as the rich man—that there are in all countries animals originally formed and carefully trained to the exercise of sports—must be admitted; but the Creator of Brutes and the Judge of Man never can behold cruelty to animals without hearing their cry; and although they are all evidently sent for the wise purpose of affording food, and of contributing to the comfort and improvement of the condition of man, they never were created to be abused, lacerated, mangled, and whilst living, cut to pieces and baited by brutes of superior race, depraved at heart and debased by custom.
If two men choose to stand up and fib each other about (saying nothing of the practice), why let them do it; or if two dogs worry each other to death for a bone, or two cocks meet and contend for the sovereignty of a dunghill. In these last two cases the appearance of cruelty is out of the question, and how much soever we may be inclined to pity, we are entirely divested of the ability to blame. Dogs naturally quarrel; and any attempt to reform and reconcile two snarling puppies, would be as inconsistent as it would be foolish to abuse the nettle for stinging our flesh, or to upbraid the poppy for its disagreeable and choking odour.
The true criterion of perfection to civilization is in proportion to the kind feeling entertained, and the humanity practised, towards those animals (in particular) which are subject to the immediate control of man.
Lavenham.
F. RIBBANS.
