DUKE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY LEICESTER LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. [ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015 https://archive.org/details/reportofcouncilpOOIeic LEICESTER LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. INSTITUTED, JUNE 1835, REPORT OF THE COUNCIL PRESENTED TO THE 'Emml iBtmxal Uteetmg:, Assembled, June 1855 : AND A SELECTION OF PAPERS EEAD BEFOEE THE SOCIETY SINCE ITS EOEMATION. , LEICESTER: CHOSSLEY AND CLARKE. LONDON : HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO., PATEKNOSTER ROW. 1855. 4;' LEICESTER : PRINTED BY CROSSLEY AND CLARKE. PREFACE, The Leicester Literary and Pliilosopliical Society has now been established twenty years ; and, during that period, about thi-ee hundred papers, upon a great variety of subjects, have been read before the iMembers and Visitors assembled at its fortnightly meetings. The present Volume contains a selection from those papers, in addition to the Annual Report. It is printed in pursuance of a resolution of the Council, and presented, without charge, to every Member for the year 1 800-06. Should it be thought desii-able to continue the publication, a number of other papers, which have been placed at the dis- posal of the Council, but are now omitted from want of space, will form a highly interesting volimie for next year. It is proposed afterwards to take the papers of each future Session, as the foundation of an zVnnual Volume, according to the following arrangement, yiz : — that an interval of at least twelve months shall elapse between the reading of any paper and its publication; that any lectm-er shall be at liberty to withdi'aw his paper from publication ; and that, when the papers PREFACE. offered in any Session are not sufficient to fill the volume, the deficiency shall be made up from the unpublished papers of an older date. ^ - The Council believe that the influence of the Society may be greatly extended by the printing of its Transactions, and that the- advantages of this arrangement will be recognized by the majority of the Members. The present issue, however, is an experiment ; and, upon the reception which it meets with, must depend the continuance of the design. A few more copies of the Volume have been printed than are required for distribution among the Members of the Society ; and the remainder are now on sale at the Society's Publishers. October, 1855. ^ ' • / - CONTENTS. Page REPORT OF THE COUNCIL :— OFPICEES FOR 1854-55 . . . . . . '3 TIIIJSTEES, &;C. OF THE TOWN MUSEUM . . 4 MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY ..... 5 HONORARY MEMBERS . . . . . . " . 7 . PROCEEDINGS AT ANNUAL MEETING . . . 9- OFFICERS FOR 1855-56 . . . . .. . 10 THE SECTIONAL COMMITTEES . . . . . 10 THE REPORT ........ 13 DONATIONS TO THE MUSEUM . . . . . 18 REPORT OF THE AUDITORS ..... 26 PAPERS READ BEFORE THE SOCIETY:— Ancient Records of Leicester : by william kelly, hon. sec. . . . . ' . . 29 • The late Professor Macgillivray : by james harley, hon. mem. . . . . . . 125 The Connection between Magnetic Pheno- mena AND Epidemic Diseases : by henry KELSALL, M.D., F.R.C.S. ..... 165 A Sweep among the Cobwebs ; or Curiosities * OF THE Law in Times Past : by c. g. mere- wether . . . . . . . . 193 Lady Macbeth : by william napier reeve . 225 The Romantic Poems of Italy : by william palmer ........ 263 Roman Leicester: by j. f. hollings . . . 317 EEPORT OF THE COUNCIL OF THE PRESENTED TO THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, ASSEMBLED JUNE 18, 1855. 3 OFFICERS, 1854-55. - — — WILLIAM NAPIER REEVE. JAMES FRANCIS ROLLINGS, SIR H. HALFORD, BART. M.P. SIR F. G. FOWKE, BART. REV. CHARLES BERRY, ISAAC HODGSON. (Retire, June, 1855J (Retire, June, 1856J WILLIAM KELLY, SAMUEL STONE, GEORGE SHAW, M.D. THOMAS MARSHALL, JOHN FLOWER, WILLIAM WILLIAMSON. JOHN BARCLAY, M.D. WM. CROSSLEY IRWIN, M.D ALFRED BURGESS, ALFRED PAGET, WILLIAM PALMER, JOHN MOORE, FREDK. T. MOTT, THOMAS L. WALKER, GEORGE STEVENSON, CHAS. CAMILLE CAILLARD. JOHN DOVE HARRIS, ROBERT BREWIN, Jun. JOSEPH HAMES, Jun, 4 THE TOWN MUSEUM. trustees. REV. C. BERRY, J. W. NOBLE, M.B. A. BURGESS, J. F. HOLLINGS, T. PAGET, W. PALMER, G. SHAW, M.D. J. KNIGHT, S. STONE, A. PAGET, S. S. BANKART, J. S. CROSS LEY. A. COOPER, J. GOODBAND, C. GOULD, J. HOWCUTT, T. VICCARS, ALD. WESTON. Jonararg Curators. JOHN RYLEY, J. F. HOLLINGS, JOHN MOORE, J. H. STALLAUD, W. N. REEVE, W. KELLY, J. FLOWER. giding Curator. J. E. WEATHERHEAD. 5 MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY. Adnutt Rev R T Cadphu Clarke, Samuel Ao*ar William Clephan, Edwin AngTEVc, Ricli8.rd Coleman, John Sherard r^Q ni n rrlTin T/^Itti f'/iooj m/^/m-h «^UUUcl , ri.lHCU TKi^vmw Samnpl ' V-'l dW lUX U, IVV/UCi L Rpllpir^! fnrPnTTTP iiin XJClidii VJCUigCj JU.li.t r^ricr* Willinm RpTnnfTP Samiipl T^olT-nr Alfrorl A^Tnt'l-of J-fnrhnfnunh XyaiOy, txlll cLl, iy±Uji fx.zi' J J. til uui uiiyiv Rprrv Rpv CJViarlps; -l-'V- J J f AVt^ V • V-ZllCli IC'O J-yclitUil, >» illldlll Biggs, John Davis, Harry J. Biggs, William Dearman, E. Billson, Charles Derbyshire, William Billson, William Ellis, Alfred Billson, William, jun. Elhs, Edward Shipley Bowmar, Charles Ellis, John, Belgrave Brewin Robert, jun. Ellis, William Henry Briggs, Charles Evans, Arthur Broadbent, Benjamin Farnham, Edward Basil, m. p. Brookhouse, Joseph Quorndon Buck, John Flint, Wilham Burgess, Alfred Flower, John Burgess, Thomas Fowke, Sir Frederick Gustavus, Burley, William Bart. Lowesby Caillard, Charles Camille Franklin, George Barton Carryer, Joseph Frisby, Wilham Smith 6 Fullagar, Frank Gibson, James Goddard, Joseph Goodwin, John Wilhs Granby, the Marquis of, m.p. Gregory, WiUiam Griffith, Arthur Halford, Sir Henry, Bart. m,p. Wistow Halford, H. St. John, Wistow Hames, Joseph, jun. Harris, John Dove Harris, Richard Harris, Samuel Smith Hawker, Colonel Haxby, J. B. , Hays, John Herrick, William Perry, Beaumanor Heygate, Sir Frederick William, Bart. Roecliffe Hincks, Richard Hobson, William Stephen Hobson, James Stephen Hodges, Thomas Hodgson, Isaac Hollings, James Francis Howcutt, John Howe, The Right Hon. Earl, Gopsal. Hudson, Alfred Hunt, William Hutchinson, William Evans Irwin, WiUiam Crossley, m.d. Jackson, James Jackson, WiUiam Johnes, Rev. Thomas WiUiam Johnson, Thomas Johnson, Thomas Fielding Kelly, WiUiam Kelsall, Henry, m.d. v Kempson, William Kendal, Henry, Humberstone Kirby, S. Amos Knight, Joseph Lankester, Henry Law, John Lee, Thomas Lloyd, G. H. Lohr, George Augustus Loseby, John Macaulay, Thomas Manners, Lord John, m.p. MarshaU, Thomas Maxfield, Matthew Maynard, Viscount May, WUliam Henry Mercer, Thomas Mere wether, C. G. Mid. Cir. Moore, John Morris, Charles Mott, Frederick Thompson Nedham, Martin Nettleship, Henry Noble, Joseph William, m.b. O'Brien, Michael, Mid. Cir. Overton, Robert, jun. Packe, C. W. m.p. Prestwold Paget, Alfred Paget, Edward Paget, Thomas Palmer, WUliam 7 Parsons, William Paul, Thomas Dennis Raws on, Henry Reeve, William Napier Roberts, John Robinson, Henry M. Rust, Thomas Wills Rutland, His Grace the Duke of, K. G. Belvoir Sargeant, James Sarson, John Selss, Dr. - Shaw, George, m.d. Simpson, Nathaniel * Simpson, William Spencer, Charles Stafford, John Stallard, Joshua Harrison Stevenson, George Stokes, Thomas, New Parks Stone, Samuel Stretton, Clement Sunderland, Thomas Thomas, Wilham Thompson, Thomas Harrower Toller, George Toller, Richard Turner, Thomas Clayton Underwood, Joseph Viccars, Samuel Viccars, Thomas Wale, Henry Walker, Thomas Larkins Wheeler, Thomas James Whetstone, Joseph Whitmore, John WiUiams, J.H. Wilhamson, William Winstanley, J. B. Braunstone Hall Winterton, William Wood, Richard Warner HONORARY MEMBERS. The Very Rev. William Buckland, D.D., F.G.S., Dean of Westminster John Gough Nichols, F.S.A. G. A. K. Wilkes, M.D. John Ryley James Harley Rev. W. Drake, M.A. Coventry 8 Kenneth Macaulay, Q.C. The Rev. Professor Sedgwick, B.D., F.G.S. John Lawrence, Oundle The Ven. the Archdeacon of Leicester Thomas Rossell Potter, TVymeswold Rev. Henry Alford, M.A. London ■ ■ C. Liddell, C.E. London Benjamin Forrester Scott, Leeds Rev. Richard Gwatkin, B.D. Professor Ansted, F.R.S., &c. London John Smeeton, London C. R. Smith, F.R.S., F.S.A., London Joseph Mayer, F.S.A., Liverpool John Rae, M.D., Hudson's Bay House, London • Hon. Leicester Curzon, Capt. Rifle Brigade, Assist. Mihtary Sec. Head Quarters, in the Camp before Sevastopol 9 AT THE ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE fticfstcr fitcriira aiitr ^Ijilosopljital ^mt\), HELD IX THE LECTURE HALL. AT THE TOWN MUSEUM, . • On- MONDAY, THE 18th JUNE, 1855, W. NAPIER REEVE, Esq., Peesidext, in the Chair : The President having opened the business of the Meeting, the Secretary read a List of Donations to the Town Museum since the last Meeting of the Society, Resolved. — That the thanks of the Society be presented to the Donors. The President then read the Report of the Council and the Report of the Auditors. Resolved. — That the said Reports be received and adopted, that they be printed and circulated with the forthcoming volume; and that the thanks of the Society be given to the Council and to the Auditors for their services. The newly elected President, C. C. Caillaed, Esq. having taken the Chair, and addi'essed the Meeting, the following resolutions were unanimously passed : — Resolved. ^ — That the thanks of the Society be given to W. N. Reeve, - Esq. for his valuable services as President during the past year. Resolved. — That the thanks of the Society be given to Isaac Hodgson, Esq. the Treasurer. Resolved. — That the thanks of the Society be given to Mr. Joseph Hames, Jun. for his services as Honorary Secretary. Resolved. — That the thanks of the Society be given to the Honorary Curators for their services in superintending the Museum. 10 The thanks of the Society having been voted to the Press for their reports of the proceedings of the Society during the past year ; the President appointed Messrs. William Kelly and Harry J. Davis, as Scrutineers, and the Meeting proceeded to the election of Officers, when the following were declared to be elected : — THE RIGHT HON. THE EARL HOWE, THOMAS MARSHALL, SIR HENRY HALFORD, BART. M. P. ALFRED PAGET. ISAAC HODGSON. ALFRED BURGESS, WILLIAM PALMER, J. F. HOLLINGS, W. N. REEVE, JOHN MOORE, GEORGE STEVENSON, F. T. MOTT, T. L. WALKER. JOHN DOVE HARRIS, ROBERT BREWIN, Jun. HARRY J. DAVIS. THE SECTIONAL COMMITTEES WERE THEN APPOINTED AS FOLLOWS: ARCH/EOLOGY. REV. C. BERRY, W. KELLY, A. BURGESS, CAPT. KNIGHT, J. FLOWER, T. R. POTTER, SIR F. G. FOWKE, BART. W. N. REEVE, J. F. HOLLINGS, J- H. STALLARD, DR. IRWIN, G. STEVENSON, W. JACKSON, T. L. WALKEK. 11 FINE ARTS. A. BURGESS, W. JACKSON, C. C. CAILLARD, W. KELLY, J. FLOWER, W. N. REEVE, G. B. FRANKLIN, S. STONE, DR. IRWIN, T. L. WALKER. METEOROLOGY. R. BREWIN, JuN. DR. IRWIN, THOMAS BURGESS, H. LANKESTER. J. F. ROLLINGS, JOHN MOORE, J. H. STALLARD. CHEMISTRY AND GENERAL PHYSICS. E. S. ELLIS, DR. IRWIN, J. GODDARD, H. LANKESTER, R. HARRIS, DR. SHAW, J. F. HOLLINGS, J. H. STALLARD. GEOLOGY. A. BURGESS, • J. F. HOLLINGS, J. S. CROSSLEY, DR. IRWIN, ALFRED ELLIS, CAPT. KNIGHT, E. S. ELLIS, DR. SHAW, J. H. STALLARD. NUMISMATICS. M. NEDHAM, w. N. REEVE, HON. SEC. HONORARY CURATORS. J. FLOWER, JOHN MOORE, J. F. HOLLINGS, W. N. REEVE, W. KELLY, JOHN RYLEY, J. H. STALLARD. REPORT. The Council of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society present to the Annual Meeting a Report of their proceedings for the past year. The Society has now been established for twenty years, a period of time sufficiently long to afford a fair proof of its utility, and for it to encounter those phases of pros- perity or depression, which are incidental to the history of a commercial town like Leicester, and which supply a good test as to the soundness of the constitution of any Society established within it. Through one of the latter phases we are now passing ; the profound peace, amidst which the Society was estab- lished, and during which it has grown up and flourished, has been broken ; the nation has " risen up at the sound of war," and the thoughts of men are fixed, if not exclu- sively, at least mainly, on that spot of the earth where mighty nations have met for battle. The increase of national, and consequently of private expenditure, has had, as may be expected, its influence on our Society ; the loss of members, by resignation, re- moval from Leicester, and other causes, has been greater than usual; and, although the addition of new members has exceeded that of many former years, it is felt that 14 efforts must be made, not only to carry on the Society in its former career of prosperity, but to prevent its decline. The Council have, however, no apprehension, but that the necessary efforts will be made; the Council are assured that the value of the Society is fully recognized in the Town, even by those who for sufficient reasons hesitate at this crisis to become members; how, indeed, can it be otherwise, when it is understood that it is to this Society alone that the Town of Leicester owes its Museum, — to this Society alone that it owes the establishment and maintenance of that Institution, which, continually in- creasing in value, afibrds instruction and recreation to hundreds and thousands of visitors. Nor is the value of the Society confined to the Town of Leicester; it has brought to light and preserved much that is interesting and valuable as connected with the County History ; and the Museum, free of access to all, offers to the occasional visitors from the villages in the vicinity of Leicester and from more distant places, objects of interest and value which, but for this Society, would have been neglected, destroyed, or lost sight of. The Council mark with pleasure that this fact is re- cognized by the Nobility and Gentry of Leicestershire in their adhesion to the Society, and their acceptance of office in it, and they earnestly hope that successive years will but serve to shew more and more that the Society is confined to no class or party, but belongs alike to all, to Town and County, Leicester and Leicestershire. The Council, therefore, have no fear that the present anxious state of National Affairs will destroy or seriously injure the Society ; they look with confidence for the 15 period when peace will be restored to the world by the Yictorioiis arms of France and England, and Avith the full belief that with returning peace will return prosperity, they wait patiently for the result. Itiias been customary to close the Annual Report wdth the name of the newly-elected President for the current year ; but the reference to the united arms of France and England, makes this the proper place for announcing that the Council of the Society have unanimously chosen, as President for the year 1855-56, M. Charles Camille Caillard, a gentleman who has resided in Leicester many years, and has been as faithful and energetic an ally in pro- moting the intellectual progress of the Town, in which he has fixed his abode, as his gallant countrymen have been in supporting the physical prowess and martial renown of England. It has long been felt that the services rendered by M. Caillard to the Town in general, and to this Society in particular, merited the highest honors that the latter could offer, and the present time is, on every account, an appropriate period of requesting his acceptance of the Presidential Chair for the current year. With regard to the proceedings of the Society for the past year, there is little to be said beyond the ordinary occurrences of the period. Nineteen new members have joined the Society during the past year ; the total number at the present time is 176, viz. 155 Subscribing and 21 Honorary Members; the latter, elected during the past year, have been Dr. Rae, the celebrated Arctic Traveller, and the Honorable Leicester Curzon, Captain of the Rifle Brigade and Assistant Military Secretary, now at Head Quarters 16 in the Camp before Sevastopol, to both of whom the Museum has been indebted for valuable and interesting additions. ; : : , The Finances of the Society have been duly audited ; the sum received and expended during the past yeaV, and the balance in hand, will be found annexed to this Report. The additions made to the Museum are also specified, both those presented by the Society, and those by indi- viduals. The promised Selection of Specimens from the Great Exhibition of 1851 has not yet arrived, but, from a letter received lately from the Secretary to the Royal Commission, it may be shortly expected, and will doubtless be an important and interesting addition to the Museum. During the past year thirteen Papers have been read, in every case to numerous audiences ; the dates and sub- jects are as under: — ■ FIRST LIST. 1854. Oct. 23. The President .... Opening of the Session. — Inaugural Address. Nov. 6. Naseby Field. 20. Mr. R. Waddington . . Homer.— The Iliad. Dec. 4. Recent Visit to the Early Home and Land of the Conqueror. 18. Monstrelet and his Times. SECOND LIST. ■ . - 1865. Jan. 15. The President .... TheWritings of Louis Napoleon, Part I. William III. and the Revolution of 1688. 29. Royal Progresses to Leicester, Part II. Feb. 12. Mr.H.St.JohnHalford A Journey in Spain in the year 1 808. 17 Feb. 26. Mr. J. H. Stallaud . . Three Weeks Abroad, or, a Conti- nental Holiday. Mar.l2. The President .... TheWritingsof Louis Napoleon, Pt. II. The Stuarts and their Policy. 26. Mr. Williamson .... The Fable of the Phoenix. April 9. Mr. Merewether ... A Sweep among the Cobwebs, or, Curiosities of the Law in Times Past. 23. Mr. H. J. Davis .... The Essay Literature of the Time of Queen Anne. The Council, having reference to the present state of their finances, and to the desire frequently expressed that an effort should be made to preserve some lasting record of the Papers from time to time read before the Society, have determined to publish a Volume, containing a selec- tion of such Papers ; the result is seen in the Volume presented to the members of the Society with this Report, and its effect will enable the Society to determine how far such an experiment shall be repeated hereafter. B 18 DONATIONS TO THE MUSEUM, FROM June 19, 1854, to June 19, 1855. ZOOLOGY, &c. Kittiwake Gull (Z. Tridactyliis), Puffin {F. Arctica), Foolish Guillemot ( ?7. 7Vm7e) ... ... ... Mr. J. FiowEH. Twenty-six specimens of Bird Skins from Brazil, including — pair of Blue-headed Honey-suckers,Iled-lieaded,Blue-lieaded, and Superb Manakin ; lacana, Sec. ... Mr. A. Burgess. Leopard, in glass case. Cub of Brown Bear, Squirrel, Greek Tortoise {T. Gr(Bca\ Alligator, Skull of Polar Bear, Wolf, pair of Owls, Crested Penguin [E. Chrysocoma), Ferru- ginous Duck {F. Nyroca)^ Gannet {^S. Bassanus). Mr. H. Bickley. Indian Ichneumon {H. griseus). Lizard of the genus Varanus. Key. N. p. Small. Nest of Tree Wasp ( Vespa Britannica). A Lady, (per Mr. T. Marshall.) Hedgehog {E. Europceiis) Mr. J. Carryer. Several Exotic Birds, New Zealand ... Mrs. Sweet. Bee-Eater {Merops Apiaster) Key. C. S. Palmer. Nest of a Ground Wasp ( V. Germanica). Mr. G. White. Pair of Wagtails {M. Alba) Mr. J. Plant. Three small Snakes, (NorthAmerica, Egyi)t). Key. G. S. B. Isbell. Pair of Ostriches' Eggs, Jaw of Shark, Skulls of Jackall, Cat, and Dog, Cast of the head of the " Dodo," pair of Echini and four Exotic Insects . . ... Mrs. Eyans. Pipe Fish {jS. Typhle) ... Master A. Stretton. Small Lizard and Scolopendra, (S. Africa) ... Mr. Gough. 19 Variety of " Common Lobster" {A. Mari7ms). Mr. G. Waed. Several recent Shells, Sponges, (Australia). Mrs. W. H. Osborn. BHnd-Worm {Anguis fmgilis), Bradgate ... Mr. F. Parsons. Tarantida, Cicada, and Cocoons of a species of Caterpillar from Australia ... ... Mr. H. Rice. Specimen of Pied Rook ... ... ... Mr. Ridge way. Lizard and small Snake from the Island of Demerara. Mr. Samuel Collins. Spotted Elm Moth {Biston Betularius) ... Master R. Biggs. GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. Specimen of Copper Ore, (Lake Superior, N. America). Mr. J. Orton. Fossil Coral {L. Junceum) ... Mrs. W. H. Osborn. Horn of an Elk, (Tw^ford) Mr. H. Bickley. Specimen of Encrinus, (Derbyshire) ... Mr. Barrow. Syenite, (Mountsorrel) ... Mr. Bodycoat. Stigmaria Ficoides, (Croft Hill) Mr. J. Payne. Specimens of Sulphuret of Lead, (Cornwall). Mr. J. H. Williams. Several Geological Specimens ... ... Mrs. Evans. Fragment of Sandstone, (Mars' HiU), Ditto of Flint, (Black Sea) ... ... ... ... Mrs. I. B. DoBELL. Specimens of Ironstone, (Eaton and Waltham,) discovered by the Donor, during a geological research for His Grace the Duke of Rutland, being the first mineral product discovered east of the Charnwood Forest Rocks ... Mr. J. A. Knipe. Specimens of Gold fi'om the Bendego Diggings, Australia, and California ... ... ... Mr. Geo. Billson. Ammonite from the Gault of Lincolnshii-e. Lit. and Phil. Soc. Specimen of Sulphui'et of Lead, (Ilkington, Derbyshire). Mr. Thos. Roe. Copper Ore, (Ophir, Australia,) Sulphate of Iron, (Australia). Mr. H. Rice. TerebratidaB found at Barkby ... Mr. H. C. Burroavs. Garnets in Mica-schist ... ... ... Mr. W. Collins, 20 NUMISMATICS. Indian Coin, "One Pie," Penny of James II. Mrs. Walker, (per Mr. T. L. Walker.) Third Bronze of AUectus ... ... Lit. and Phil. Soc. North Wales Farthing, Birmingham Hal^enny, Upper Canada Bank Token, Belgian Five Cents, &c. Mr. J. Pennock. Halfpenny Token, 1669 Mr. W. Harrison. Hanseatic Token ... Mr. J. Wigeall. Denarius of Antoninus Pius ... Lit. and Phil. Soc. Third Bronze Coin (Roman) Mr. T. L. Walker. Paper Money, 25 Cents, (America), 20*. Bill, payable at Con- necticut ... ... ... ... Mr. J. Payne. Silver Denarius, several Coins and Tokens. Lit. and Phil. Soc. Second Bronze Coin of Carausius, Token. Mr. T. F. Sarson. Two Roman Coins (Bronze) ... Master A. Stretton. Irish Farthing of Queen Elizabeth, Gold 6s. Piece of Charles I., Commonwealth Shilling, Denarii of Otho and Nero, (St. Martin's Churchyard,) Third Bronze Constantine, Second Bronze Antoninus Pius, Leicester Token. Lit.andPhil.Soc. Third Bronze Claudius Gothicus Mr. Price. Third Bronze Constantinus, loc. Leicester. Lit. and Phil. Soc. Second Bronze Constantius, Silver Penny of Edward I., Three Abbey Pence. Mr. Wm. Collins, (per Mr. Weatherhead.) ARCHAEOLOGY, &c. Roman Vase and Patera, loc. Bath street, Friars,— Mediseval Bottle, called a "Bellarmine or Long-beard," loc. Abbey Meadow, — Small Old English Bottle, and Drinking Vessel, loc. near the Abbey Meadow ... Lit. and Phil. Soc. Mediaeval Pottery, &c. consisting of six Jugs, one Vase, &;c. fomid in clearing out a Moat at Lindridge House, Desford. Mr. Samuel Kirkman. 21 Brass Spoon, temp. Henry YI. ;loc.Xorfolk}. Lit. axdPhil. Soc, Foul* Red Tiles and Fragments of ditto, loc. tlie Friars, — Medi- ■ seval Mug, — Handle of Jug, — Pvidge-tile, several Figui'ed Red Bricks, and Encaustic Tile, loc. near tiie Abbey, — Handle of Jug, and Neck of Ampidla, loc. St. Martin's Chui'cliTard, — Fragments of a Cinerary Urn, — Antique Bronze Vessel, — Pieces of Samian "Ware, and Handle of Jug, loc. Butt Close Lane, — Fragments of a Samian Bowl, loc. Holme Street, — Ditto, witk potter's mark, loc. Coal Hill, — Fragments of Pottery, Neck of a large Amphora, portions of a large Vase, Samian Ware, kc. loc. between Great Holme Street and Braunstone Gate, — large Roman Tile, found in the Friars ... Lit. axd Phil. See. Vase from Herculaneum ... ... Me. JoH^' Flowek. Portion of a Roman Drain Pipe, found in Old Broad Street, between Tln'ogmorton Street and Threadneedle Street, London ... ... Me. John Johxson. Roman Coin, Third Bronze ... ... Me. T. L. Walkee. Rubbing of a Roman Inscription found at Irchester, County of Northampton ... ... ... Me. T. R. Pottee. An old Sword, foimd at Great Easton ... Me. A. Bell. Ancient Bronze Key, found in Redcross Street. Me. J. Payne. Fragments of Samian Ware, loc. WTiarf Street, — Portion of a Mortarium, loc. Bedford Street ... Lit. and Phil. Soc. Small Antique Vase, (Central America). Me. W. Bake well. Mediseval Pottery, found at Samy Castle. !Me. A. Spencee. Roman Ampulla, found in Lower Garden Street, — Thumb Ring, (Mediaeval) found in Causeway Lane. Lit. axd Phil. Soc. Encaustic Tile, loc. Churchyard of St. Mary. Me. T. Pickaed. Part of a Spin-, and Bronze Antique, loc, Loseby, — Bronze Antique ... ... ... ... Me. J. Gamble. Roman Pottery, loc. Bath Lane ... Lit. and Phil. Soc. Vase from Pompeii, Vase fi-om Herculaneum. Me. J. F. Hollings. Lamp from the Ancient Baise ... ... Mes. Hollings. Plaster Cast of a Corbel, from the original in the Church of St. Martin, Leicester ... ... Me. W. Siewaet. 22 MISCELLANEOUS. Seeds of the Cotton and Castor Oil Plant, Hammer, Knife, Pins made of wood, and Head Dress, from Australia. Mrs. W. H. Osborn. Hair-ball from tlie stomach of a Calf ... Mn. T. W. Okton. Pair of Chinese Boots ... ... ... Mr. J. Hassell. Spanish Knife, (Cuchillo) ... ... Mr. W. Coltman. Two pair of Ancient English Shoe Buckles. Mr. W. Harrison. Impressions of the following Seals, viz. — "Borough of Glaston- bury," — "Ditto of North Berwick," — "the Grammar School of St. Saviour's, Southwark,"—" Mayor of Oxford,"— " Sir Walter Raleigh," — "Dervorgille de Baliole, — Alari de Galewad" ... ... ... Mr. J. Hopkin, sen. Pair of Antique Nutcrackers ... ... Mr. A. Spencer. New Zealand Cloak, made from the native Hemp (P. tenax). Mrs. Sweet. Specimen of the Papyrus from Syracuse. The Bight Hon. Earl Howe. _ Autograph Letter of Dean Swift, dated Feb. 11, 1691. Mr. Thos. Macaulay. Impressions, in sulphm% of the following Seals, — " Borough of Great Grimsby,"—" Mayor, Aldermen, &c. of ditto,"— " Old Seal of the Grimsby Haven Co.," — " Present Seal of ditto." Mr. J. HoPKiN, jun. Spathe of Indian Corn, — an Ornament made from a species of Grass, Upper Canada ... ... Mrs. Carryer. Medal struck in commemoration of the Opening of St. George's Plall, Liverpool, — Medal struck in Commemoration of the Holy Alliance, or the United Armies of England and France. TheCommittee or thePermanentLibrary, Leicester. Duplicate of the last-mentioned Medal. Mr. J. Mayer, F.S.A., &c. (per Mr.C.R. Smith,F.S.A., &c.) Lithograph Portrait of the late Wm. Gardiner, Esq. Dr. Wheatley. Instrument of Warfare, (India) ... .. Mr. J. Payne. Palm Branch from the Holy Land ... Rev. G. S. B. Isbell. Miniature Plaster Cast of " Pan and Nymph." Mr. J. Payne. •23 An elaborate Water-color Drawing, (handsomely framed and glazed,) by admeasurement, of the exterior and interior Elevation of portion of the South Wall of the Newarke, battered in breach at the Siege of Leicester by the Royalists, A.D. 1645 — by Thos. Willson, Architect. Lit.and Phil. See. . Hand of a Mummy, from the Tombs of Egypt. Rev. G. S. B. Isbell. Water-color Drawing of the interior of the Apartment of the Old Blue Boar, occupied by Richard III. the night previous to the Battle of Bosworth, — several Brass Rubbings. Mr. J. H. Stallaru. Pair of Slippers from Calcutta ... Lit. and Phil. Soc. Phial, sealed with the Seal of the Temple of the Holy Sepulchre, at Jerusalem, containing Water from the River Jordan, — Scent Bottle from Smyrna ... Mrs. I. B. Dobell. . Obverse and Reverse of fifteen Electrotypes, viz. — the Corona- tion Medal of Queen Victoria, Prince Albert, Prince Blucher, Napoleon, Pascal, Rousseau, and other eminent French Divines and Historians. Mr. J. E. Weatherhead. Skirt Ornament, worn by the Hon. Captain Hare, at the Battle of the Ahna, where he was mortally wounded. Rev. G. S. B. Isbell. - A Religious Relic Mr. J. Gamble. The Edinbro' Courant, 1705 ... Mr. W. Williamson. Impressions, in sulphur, of the following Seals, viz. — " Charter House, Coventry," — " Barlings Abbey," — " Mayor of York," — " Thornton Abbey" . . Mr. Robt. Stephenson. Cotton from the Black Poplar (P. nigra). Master A. Stretton. Card of Admission to the Cock Pit, Leicester. Mr. W. Kelly. Brass Rubbing of Humphrey Tyndall, Dean of Ely, 1591, an ancestor of the late Chief Justice Tindal. Mr. and Mrs. White, (per Mr. Weatherhead.) Plaster Cast of Titus (Csesar), — Electrotype, obverse and reverse, of the Duke of Wellington Medal. Mr. J. E. Weatherhead. Illustrated Hand-Book of the Cathedral Church of Ely. Mrs. J. E. Weatherhead. Water-color Drawings of the following Ancient Buildings in Leicester, viz. — " The Castle Gateway," — " The Magazine," —"Old Bow Bridge,"— " The Golden Lion,"— an Ancient Building in Redcross Street, by the Donor. Mr. A. P. Groom. 24 Handsomely-framed Charter of Henry V. a.d. 1414, translated by H. W. Hewlett, Esq. translator of Ancient Records, London, appropriately illuminated and embellished with the Medallion of the King, and the obverse and reverse of - . the Royal Seal, the Arms of England and France, &c. by Thos. Willson, Architect, Leicester. Lit. and Phil. Soc. Gutta Percha impressions of the following Seals, — "Aelfric, Earl of Mercia," — "Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch," — " University of Cambridge," — " Mansfield Grammar School," — " Tewkesbury Grammar School," — " Archdeacon ' of Shropshire,"—" Great Grimsby Gas Company." Mk. J. HoPKiN, jun. Native Fruit, — Wood and Sawdust of Soap Tree, and Specimen of Seaweed, from Australia, — New Zealand Flax, — Paddle from Loofoo Island, — Cordage from the Cocoa-nut Husk from the Tonga Islands, — Necklace of Human Hair from the Tonga Islands, — Two Robes (flax), purchased at Guadalcanar, Solomon Islands, of King Tubulas' Son, — Pair of Tomahawks, New Zealand, &;c. Mr. H. Rice. Pair of Old English Shoe-buckles ... Lit. and Phil. Soc. Betel-nut and two Seeds from the E. Indies. Wm. Tansley, P.C. BOOKS, &c. Archgeological Journal, for June, 1854, and March, 1855,— Parts 8, 9, 10, of Pagan Saxondom, — Leeds Mercury, 1733, — Dixon's Geology of Sussex, — Collectanea Antiqua, vol. HI. part iv. ... ... ... Lit. and Phil. Soc. Public Works in India, their Importance, with Suggestions for their Extension and Improvement, by Lieut. -Colonel A. Cotton ... ... The Hon. East India Company. A Catalogue of the Drawings, Cameos, &c. illustrative of the Bonaparte Family, and the Principal Persons connected with the Republic and Empire of France, by J. Mayer, F.R.S. &c. The Author, (per Mr. C. R. Smith, F.R.S. &c.) A Lectui-e on the Antiquities of the Anglo-Saxon Cemeteries of 25 the Ages of Paganism, kc. by Thos. Wnght,M.A., F.S.A. kc. Mr. J. Mayer, F.S.A. kc. (per Mr. C. R. Smith, F.S.A.) Expedition to the Shores of the Arctic Seas, 1846-7, by Dr. John Rae, (Hudson's Bay Company Service,) Commander of the Expedition, together with the Autograph of the Author Mr. T. Macaulay. Ai'chaeological Journal for September and December, — Col- lectanea Antiqua, Vol. I. — Household Roll of Bishop S win- field, Grants of King Edward V. (published by the Cam- den Society,) — Leicestershire Words, Phrases, and Proverbs, with Autograph gift from the Author, (by A. B . Evans, D.D.) — Collectanea Antiqua, Part I. Vol. IV. Lit. and Phil. Soc. Result of the Excavations on Brightstone and Bowcombe Dowtis, Isle of Wight, by Geo. HiUier. Mr. C. R. Smith, F.R.S. kc. An Account of the Presents received and the Expences incurred at the Wedding of Richard Polsted and Elizabeth Moore, a.d. 1567, by John Evans, F.S.A. The Author. Notices of Remarkable Mediaeval Coins ... Mr. J. Lindsay. Royal Progresses to Leicester, Part II., being a Paper read before the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society, 1855, by Mr. Wm. KeUy The Author. History of the Rise and Progress of the Charitable Foundations at Church Langton, 1767 ... Mr. Geo. Smalefield. An Account of the Valuations of the Ecclesiastical Preferments in England and Wales, 1682, — Ditto of Ecclesiastical Bene- fices in England and Wales, 1723, — Ditto of the Rectories, kc. in the Ai'chdeaconry of Leicester, &c. 1772-99. Lit. and Phil. Soc. The Human Hair popularly and physiologically considered, with Illustrations, by Alexander Rowland ... The Author. The Virtuoso's Companion and Coin Collector's Guide, with several hundi-ed Engravings, 1795. Mrs. Thompson, (per Mr. Weatherhead.) "The Voluspa,"— " Marculfus,"— " The Assize of Jerusalem," being Papers read before the Literary and Philosophical Society, Leicester, by T. Smith, Esq. F.R.S. Mr. H. J. Davis. London Tradesmen's Tokens, Beaulby Cabinet, 2nd Edition, 1855 ... Library Committee, Guildhall, (per Mr, Serjeant Merewether.) 26 REPORT OF We, the Auditors appointed to audit the Accounts of the Literary has exhibited to us an account of the Receipts and Expenditure of and that we have examined the said Accounts, with the vouchers we further report, that the following is an abstract of the Receipts 5I3r. £. s. d. To Balance of last year's account . . . . . . 18 16 8 „ Arrears of Subscriptions received . . . . . . 5 5 0 „ Subscriptions due June, 1854, received . . . . 162 15 0 „ Subscription due June, 1855, received . . . . 110 „ Donation by Thomas Marshall, Esq., being balance remaining after payment of Lindley and Firn's Bill for repairing the Turret Gateway in the Newarke . . . . . . 0 6 6 £188 4 2 Balance in hand £64 17 1 Leicester f \%th June, 1855= THE AUDITORS. and Pliilosopliical Society, report to the Society that the Secretary the Society, from the 20th June, 18-54, to the 18th June, 1855 ; relating thereto, and find the same correct and satisfactory. And andExpenditm-e ofthe Society, duiing the period above mentioned/ 42 10 0 1 0 0 12 12 6 5 2 6 0 10 6 ©r. £. s. d. The Town Museum : Curator's Salary, one year, to 24th June, 1855, (less loan of £10. repaid) Grants for purchase of Coins „ „ Antiquities, fixing same, &c, 12 „ ,, Books „ „ Shells .. Third Grant to Mr. Willey, according to arrange- ment, for securing the Roman Pavement in Jewry Wall Street from removal ; obtaining admission for the public at the reduced charge of Sixpence each; and in part payment of the ^100. required for its ultimate purchase . . 5 Grants for the purchase of Antiquities found during the progress of the Water and Sewerage Works 6 Paid Mr. T. Willson for Drawings of the Old Town Wall, mounting Henry V.'s Charter, and framing same, &c. 0 0 17 10 0 Paid for engrossing List of Members, for suspension in the Hall „ framing ditto . . „ Illuminated Extract of Minutes of Hon. L. Curzon's Election as Honorary Member Printing and Stationery, (Crossley and Clarke) Extra Stationery Expenses of delivering Circulars, collecting Subscriptions, and attendance at Meetings Subscription to Camden Society „ to Palseontographical Society to Archoeological Society Gratuity to P. C. Hart „ William Pick Sundries £1. 8s. 6d. Postage 19s. Id. Messenger 5s. June 18th, 1855. — Balance in hand d. 90 5 6 0 11 6 1 5 0 0 10 6 15 3 6 0 4 0 7 12 6 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 2 12 7 64 17 1 £188 4 2 ROBT. BREWIN, JuN. WM. BILLSON, JuN. in the absence of Mr. J, D. Harris, Auditors. ANCIENT RECORDS OF LEICESTER: BY WILLIAM KELLY, Hon. Sec. READ BEFORE THE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY LEICESTER, ON THE 24TH FEBRUARY, 1851 = ANCIENT RECORDS LEICESTER. OF In appearing before you this evening to offer some remarks upon, and some extracts from, a portion of the Ancient Records of Leicester^ I do so with considerable diffidence ; as, being unused both to literary composition, and to ad- dress so numerous an audience, I am aware that I am deficient in two great requisites for the task ; but, as I believe you will not deem unworthy of your notice any attempt, however imperfect, to illustrate the manners and customs of those " citizens of no mean city," — our forefa- thers of the good town of Leicester, or to elucidate any point in the history of the town itself, I submit the paper to your kind indulgence, feeling assured that its many imperfections will be overlooked in consideration of the object which I have in view. This is, to draw the atten- tion of the Society to the mass of valuable materials, illustrative of the early history of the town, and, to some extent, of the nation, preserved in the Muniment Rooms of the Borough ; in the hope that some of the Members who are so well qualified for the task, will be induced to enter upon a systematic investigation of them, and to lay the result of their researches before us. In so doing, I conceive, that they will be carrying out one of the 32 ANCIENT RECORDS most important objects of sucli societies as ours, — the illustration of the various branches of the history of our town and county. Too little attention has been paid by historians to the records which most ancient towns possess to a greater or less extent, and it is only in the present day that their value in connection with the general history of the nation is beginning to be properly appreciated. It has been well remarked by Sir Francis Palgrave, that " the genuine history of a country can never be well understood without a complete and searching analysis of the component parts of the community as well as the country ; that genealogical enquiry and local topography, so far fi'om being unworthy the attention of the philosophical enquirer, are amongst the best materials he can use ; and the fortunes and changes of one family, or the events of one upland township, may explain the darkest and most dubious portions of the annals of a realm." It is probable that few provincial towns equal, and still fewer surj^ass, our own, either in the extent or the valuable nature of these records ; and al- though Mr. James Thompson has incorporated many of these in his interesting and highly valuable History of Leicester, still a large number remain inaccessible to the public, and, in many instances, unexamined. Before proceeding to the particular class of documents which I purpose bringing more especially under your notice, it may, perhaps, be expected that I should say somewhat upon the general nature of the Town Archives. Time compels me to do this as briefly as possible. The records generally may be classed under the follow- ing heads, besides many of a miscellaneous nature : — Royal Charters under the Great Seal, commencing with the reign of King John (a.d. 1199). Charters of the Norman Earls of Leicester, and of the Earls and Dukes of Lancaster. OF LEICESTER. 33 Rolls of the Merchant Guild, commencing in the 7th and 8th years of the reign of King Richard I. (a.d. 1196) ; and which, although the most ancient documents we possess, appear to hare been in continuation of still earlier rolls. They extend to the reign of Richard II. The Placita Coronse, or Rolls of the Pleas of the Crown, (which comprehend all crimes and misdemeanom-s, wherein the King, on behalf of the public, was the plain- tiff); the Placita de quo Waranto ; Inquisitions post Mortem ; Records of the Court of Portmanmote, etc. The Tallage or Tax Rolls, containing the names of all the tax-paying inhabitants of the town dming the latter part of the reign of Henry III. and the reigns of Edward I. Edward II. and Edward HI. with the value of theii' moveable property. We learn by one of these rolls containing the particulars of a Tax of a tenth granted to Edward III, in 133G, that the value of the " goods and chattels " of the tax-paying inhabitants, who were 453 in number, amounted to £299. 13s. 4d., the amount of the tax being £29. 199. 4d. Commissions under the Great Seal for the annual musters of soldiers, and muster rolls. Rolls of the Assize of Bread and Ale. Rolls of the religious Guild of Corpus Chiisti, and various deeds of Chantry, etc. The Hall-books, or records of the proceedings at the Meet- ings of the Corporation, from 1478 to the present time. The Hall-papers, extending fr-om 1583 to 1710; and con- taining, besides an extensive collection of valuable documents of a miscellaneous character, many interesting letters and autographs of royal and noble personages ; — these have recently been boimd in twenty-four volumes, and deposited in the Museum. " The Town Book of Acts," containing ordinances for the government of the town, commencing in the reign of Hemy YII. and ending in that of Queen Elizabeth. Many of these are highly curious. " The Vellum Book," partially illuminated, containing transcripts of the early Charters of the town, both fr-om 34 ANCIENT RECORDS the Kings and Earls, from the time of Robert Bossu, the second Norman Earl, in the time of King Stephen, to that of Henry VIII. It also contains the laws of the Portnianmote, the oaths of those entering the Merchant Guild, the early regulations respecting the assize of pro- visions, and other matters. This is an extremely interesting and valuable book, containing, as I believe it does, the only copy of the early laws of the town known to be in existence, and also transcripts of several Charters of wdiich the originals are lost. The earliest transcripts appear from, the character of the writing to have been made in the reign of Edward III. or Richard II. This volume, with the " Book of Acts" just mentioned, and two other books (one of them containing a curious collection of MSS. of the 13th and 14th centuries), after being missing for several years, has recently been found in a box at the Exchange. It is still in its original oak covers. The rolls of the Mayors' Accounts, containing particulars of the receipts and expenditure of the Borough from the reign of Henry III. to that of Richard II. The RoUs of the Chamberlains' Accounts, in continuation of the Mayors' Accounts, and extending in this form to the end of the 16th centmy. And lastly, the Chamberlains' Accormts written on paper. These commence with the year 1587, and extend in this form to 1773, when, for the first time, the particulars w^ere entered in books according to the present system. These three series of accounts form together an ex- tremely valuable collection of historical records, and, making allowances for the changes at different periods, in the value of money, afford us the most certain indications of the gradual rise and progress of the town in importance during the middle ages. And, although the title of them does not seem very attractive, they nevertheless contain a great fund of entertaining and valuable information rela- OF LEICESTER. 35 tive to the commercial, sanitary, and political state of the town, and to the social life of the inhabitants. It is the last of these series of accounts that I shall now have the honour of more especially bringing under your notice. I was induced to select this portion of the Records from having, some four or five years ago, undertaken to arrange them for binding ; Mr. Thompson, at the same time, un- dertaking the arrangement of the Hall-papers, both de- scriptions of documents being then in a state of great disorder and rapidly falling to decay, not from age, but from the exposure to damp and neglect, from which they had suffered for a very long period. An offer to this effect having been made to the Town Council, they, properly appreciating the value of these records of our past history, which if once allowed to perish no wealth could replace, unanimously voted the sum of money required for binding them ; and the result was the twenty -four volumes of Hall- papers, already referred to as being deposited in the Town Museum, and the thirty-eight volumes of Chamber- lains' Accounts remaining at the Town Hall; — a collection of records, many of which a few more years of exposure to damp would have destroyed, but which will now remain as a lasting monument of the enlightened taste of the then members of the Council. Whilst engaged in arranging the accounts 1 was natur- ally led to peruse them, and I was immediately struck by the interesting nature of their contents, and surprised to find how little they had been consulted by our local histo- rians. This I could only account for by the jealous care with which, I understand, all municipal documents were shrouded from the public eye up to a comparatively re- cent period. This induced me to transcribe a consider- able number of the entries, and it is from the extracts then made, with the addition of some introductory extracts from the earlier rolls, and with occasional quotations from 36 ANCIENT KECORDS Other records, that I shall draw my illustrations this evening. The accounts commence with the " feast of St. Michael the Archangel," and extend to the same feast in the following year. After reciting the names of the Mayor and Chamberlains, and the regnal year of the sovereign, we have first a statement of the receipts for the year, which, besides making us acquainted with the various sources, and the total amount of the income of the Cor- poration, affords us minute particulars of the various pos- sessions of the dissolved religious houses in Leicester, at the time they were granted to the town by Queen Eliza- beth. Then follows the account of the expenditure, and we will take the heads of payments for one year (1605-6) as an example. They are as follow : — Chief and other rents paid out. Gifts of Wine, Rewards, and other things. Charges in Suits of Law. Payments about the Vizited People, (i.e. people attacked by the plague.) Payments for Soldiers, etc. Reparations. Fees, Wages, and other payments. Under the head of Gifts of Wine, etc. we have much interesting information afforded us, as from its being then the custom for the Corporation to make presents of wine, spices, fruit, gloves, and sometimes money, not only to the nobility residing in the neighbourhood, but to all per- sons of eminence passing through the town, we have recorded in the accounts the names of such persons, and, not unfrequently, the date of their visits. We also find numerous particulars of the expenditure incurred on the various occasions of royal visits to the town; whilst under the head of " Fees, Wages, and other payments," we learn the various amounts paid at different periods to the mayor and other officials of the town, wdth numerous other cus- OF LEICESTER. 37 tomary and incidental charges, many of them of historical importance. Nmnerous entries relating to the state of the town during the Civil War, both before and subsequent to the memorable siege of 1645, have, for the first time, been published from these extracts in the appendix to Mr. Thompson's His- tory of Leicester, and some of the curious particulars relating to the visitations of the Plague were quoted by Mr. Buck in the interesting paper read by him before this Society on Epidemics in the Middle Ages. It is, of course, utterly impossible to give any accurate description of the general contents of these Accounts within the limits pro- perly assigned to the papers read at our meetings. I have therefore been compelled to restrict myself to two classes of entries, illustrative, in some degree, of the social life of the inhabitants, and to some further extracts connected with a religious foundation in Leicester, of whose history our local historians have given us but little information, and that little incorrect in one of its most important points. The subjects which I have selected are. Sports and Pastimes in the Olden Time, and Popular Punishments now Obsolete, so far as they are illustrated by these docu- ments ; and, the Chapel of Our Lady, formerly standing on the Old West Bridge. Sports and Pastimes. — We will now proceed to make selections from a numerous class of entries illustrative of the Sports and Pastimes of the inhabitants of the town in the olden time. Players. — The payments which for a considerable period occur most frequently are those to stage-players, and the information they afford is exceedingly interesting and valuable, as tending to elucidate the history of the drama previous to and during the age of Shakespeare. The earliest dramatic attempts in England, as in other countries, were Miracle-plays, or Mysteries (as they have 38 ANCIENT RECORDS been termed in modern times) ; but, it would appear that the English distinguished themselves in these productions at an earlier period than other nations. They were com- mon in London in the year 1170; and it is recorded that the miracle-play of St. Katherine had been represented at Dunstable as early as 1119, (Matthew Paris says 1110); it was not, however, until the reign of Edward III. that they were generally acted in English. They were fre- quently performed in the churches during divine service on particular festivals, the clergy using them as the means of imparting religious instruction to the people; thus in the Churchwardens' Accounts for the parish of St. Mary de Castro, for the year 1499, we find there was Paid for a play in the Church, in Dominica infra octav' Epiph' ijs- And in the account for St. Martin's for the year 1660, we have P*^ to the Plears for ther paynes vij^- And in the following year there was . Rec''- for serten stuff lent to the players of Fosson vj'^- We also find among Carte's Extracts from the Ancient Accounts of St. Mary's (the originals of which have, un- fortunately, long since disappeared from the church*), * It is not known at what period these Accounts were removed from the parish chest, but it was doubtless soon after the publication of Nichols's and Throsby's Histories of the Town, They were sold by auction in Lon- don many years afterwards, as appears by the following paragraph cut from the Leicester Journal, without date, but probably about the year 1830: — " Parish Records — A curious collection of ancient writings was sold, last week, by auction, in Pall-mall, being deeds relating to Brokesbye, Great Bowden, Kirby, Coton, Bosworth, Barton, Lubbenham, Huncote,and St. Mary's Church, Leicester. The collection was considerable, being de- posited in five boxes." It would be very desirable that these curious MSS, should, if possible, be recovered, and deposited in the Museum Library. The ancient accounts of St. Margaret's Parish are, I believe, also missing, and were probably ob- tained by the same individual. OF LEICESTER. 39 several curious entries, evidently referring to the dresses worn by the players (either ecclesiastical or lay) who represented the characters in the ancient miracle-plays. For instance : — £. d. 1504. Paid for mending the garment of Jesus and the cross painting 0 1 .3 Paid for a pound of hemp to mend the angels' heads ..... 0 0 4 Paid for linen cloth for the angels' heads and Jesus' hose, making in all . 0 0 9 1507. Paid for a poimd of hemp for the heads of the angels .... 0 0 3 Paid for painting the wmgs and scaff. kc. 0 0 8 1521. Paid for washing the lawn bands for the saints in the chm'ch. 0 0 2 1525. Paid for the di'essing of om- Lady 0 2 11 In the Hall-book, under the date of 1478, we have some particular's respecting the performance in this town of one of these miracle-plays, the subject being the Passion of Christ. It records that at a Common Hall held on the 26th March, " the pleyers the which pleed the Passion-play the year next afore brought yne a byll, the whiche was of serten deutes of mony, and wheder the Passion shulbe put to Crafts to be bounden or nay ; and at y^ tyme the seid pleyers gatF to the pachents y^ mony which that thei had gotten yn playng of the seid play, euer fore to that day, and all y^ rayments, with all other maner of stuff y^ yey had at yat t^'me. And at the same Coinon Halle, be the advyse of all the Coinons, was chosen thies persones after named for to have the gydyng and rule of the seid play." Then follow the names of twenty-one persons, princi- pally leading members of the Corporation, among whom were three of the Wigstons. This record is explained by a MS. in the Harleian Library on the Chester Mysteries. 40 ANCIENT RECORDS It sets forth that " in oukl tyme, not only for the augmen- tation and increes of the Holy and Catholick faith, and to exhort the minds of common people to good Devotion and holsome Doctrine, but also for the Comonwealth and Prosperity of the city, a Play and Declaration of diners Stories of the Bible ; beginning with the Creation and Fall of Lucifer, and ending with the general Judgement of the World [was] to be declared and played in the Whit- sonne Week" by the several Trading Companies of the city. The Pope gave a thousand days' pardon, and the Bishop of Chester forty days' pardon, to every person resorting in peaceable manner to hear and see the said plays, which were stated to have been " instituted to the honour of God," and are supposed to have been first per- formed in the year 1328. The MS. contains the plays thus performed, which were twenty-four in number, and tjie sixteenth on the list is " The Fletchers', Bowyers', Cowpers', and Stringers' Playe- — de Passione ChrisUr These mysteries were performed for the last time in 1574. On the 6th June, 1557, a stage-play of the Passion of Christ began at the Grey Friars, in London, as we learn from Machyn^s Diary. Malone supposes that the last mystery represented in England was also one on Christ's Passion, in the reign of James I. ; and, indeed, the subject appears to have been the most favourite one, if we may judge from the frequency with which it is re- corded to have been performed on various occasions.* The Pageants mentioned in the extract from the Hall- book were probably the annual representations or proces- sions, which took place with great pomp, at Whitsuntide, from the churches of St. Mary and St. Martin to St. Margaret's, and which are described in our local histories. * Even at the present day these Miracle-plays do not appear to be en- tirely extinct in France, for at Christmas, 1852, the Prefect of the Depart- ment of the Vauclase had to forbid the performance of one of them representing the Nativity and Pasdoii of the Saviour. (JimCj 1855.) OF LEICESTER. 41 The following carious extract from the Churchwardens' ■ Accounts of St. Mary's, for the year 1493, is one of many - which occur in various years relative to these ceremonies — Paid for bread, ale, flesh, 6cc. for the Apos- tles and others . . iij'- iiij*^' Another annual exhibition was ^' The Riding of the George," which was doubtless of a similar character. This ceremony was under the direction of the Master of the religious Guild of St. George, who, by an order of the Corporation, was bound to perform it under a penalty of £5. On these occasions the figure of the Saint, armed in ' complete steel and mounted on horse-back, which at other times occupied a prominent position in St. George's chapel, at the west end of St. Martin's church, was drawn through the town, in the presence of the Master and brethren of the Guild, the Mayor and Corporation, and many of the nobility and gentry of the county. The peculiar ceremonies in use on the occasion are not record- ed, although many entries connected with " the riding of the George" occur in the accounts, and in one instance a payment was made for providing a dragon for the pageant. Although not strictly within the limits of my subject, I need not apologise for introducing here the following very curious entries transcribed fi'om a fly-leaf in a book of copies of wills for the year 1534, in the office of the Re- gistrar of the Archdeaconry Court at Leicester. The appointment was at that time held by the writer, William Biller, and I am indebted to the kindness of the present highly-esteemed Registrars for the communication of them. They relate to the performance of the Morris Dance on May Day, in which Robin Hood (sometimes called " King of the May,") was the chief character, and which is fully described in Brand's Popular Antiquities, and Donee's Illustrations of Shakespeare. 42 ANCIENT RECORDS Thys byll mayd of all y^ costys and cliargys whych I Wyllm Byller hath lede forthe off my pm^se. In primis for a yarde and a halfe of Kendaull . xvj''- And also for my costys and chargys gowyng here and there geuyng tendance to Robyn Hode, and because of hym bowght smaule tryfyllys w'''' draw unto other xvj'^ And also I hyard a chote [coat] ij days w''^ chost iiij'' And also I borrowyd a shorde [sword] and a bokelar, w'^'' showrde and bokelar he all- must bowthe loste, whereby I must pay for lendyng of them viij''- And many other thyngys whyche I wyll not recon a pon Sm. . , . , iij^- viij'*- There are three series of miracle-plays still existing, viz., the Townley, Coventry, and Chester Mysteries. A new kind of drama, called Morals, or Moral-plays, and subsequently Moralities, became popular prior to the reign of Henry VI. They were so termed from the cha- racters employed not being scriptural, as in the miracle- plays, but allegorical or symbolical. These plays did not, however, entirely supersede the miracle-plays until the reign of Elizabeth. Another new species of entertainment called Interludes, which were short pieces of a highly humorous character, and which were usually represented in the interval between the feast and the banquet, or, as we should now term it, dessert, were introduced by John Heywood in the reign of Henry VIII. The oldest known comedy in our language, called " Ralph Roister Doister," was written by Nicholas Udall, Master of Eton, prior to the year 1557, and first published in 1 566 or the following year ; but the earliest play which was regularly divided into acts and scenes, was the " For- rex and Porrex" of Lord Buckhurst, which was performed OF LEICESTER. 43 in 1562 ; whilst the earliest known company of play- ers, travelling under the name and patronage of one of the nobility, was that of the Duke of Gloucester, after- wards Richard III. Although both Henry VII. and Henry VIII. had each two companies of actors in their pay, who, as well as the players of the nobility, travelled round the country, representing plays wherever they could obtain adequate reward, yet it was not until the reign of Elizabeth that the establishment of a theatre, properly so called, took place. The plays w^ere frequently performed in the halls of Corporations, but more commonly on moveable stages or scaffolds erected in the yards of Inns or in the open air. In Leicester the performances generally took place in the Town-hall, the upper end of the hall being used as the stage, and the hooks and pulley to which the curtain was attached may still be seen affixed to one of the beams of the roof. It is stated that at this period few, if any, of the theatres had moveable scenes, and that the mechanism of them seldom went beyond a painted chair or a trap door, wdiilst the want of scenery seems to have been supplied by the simple expedient of writing the names of the different places where the scene was laid in the progress of the play, which were disposed in such a manner as to be visible to the audience: — The air-blest castle, round whose wholesome crest The martlet, guest of summer, chose her nest — The forest- walks of Ardcn's fair domain Where Jaques fed his solitary vein ; , No pencil's aid as yet had dar'd supply, Seen only by th' intellectual eye." The profession of an actor had now become a common one over the whole kingdom, and companies of players acting as the servants of the Queen and of the nobility were 44 ANCIENT RECORDS constantly travelling round the country ; whilst in order to restrain the number of itinerant performers^ an act passed in 1572, "for the punishment of rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars," prohibited all players wandering abroad, except players belonging to a baron, or a nobleman of higher degree, and authorized to play by licence under his hand and seal. After these introductory remarks upon therise and pro- gress of the drama in England, I shall now proceed with the Extracts illustrative of this subject from the Borough MSS. premising that as my limits will preclude me from en- tering into details connected with the various companies of players mentioned in the Accounts, I must refer you for further information respecting them to Mr. J. Payne Col- lier's Annals of the Stage, and History of Dramatic Liter- ature (a work to which I am greatly indebted), and will now only repeat that many of the entries which will be adduced throw additional light upon the early history of the stage, which has been so laboriously investigated by that eminent dramatic critic. The earliest entry which I have met with is the follow- ing on the roll for 1530-31 :— s. Itm. gyfn to my lade Prynces plears . . iij In the next year there was ... Paed to y*" Kinge pleares iij In 1537 the Earl of Derby's the Lord Secretary's, and the Prince's players were rew^arded. In 1547 there was " P^ to Sir Henry Parker's piers • • • ' . ' • ' And in the next account we have Itm, p*^ to my lord Protector's pleyrs, at the commandment of Mr. Mayor .... v And Item; p" to the Kyng's Mynstrells .... v There was also " paid to my lord Marques ser- vant w*^ the dauncyng horse ..... iij cl. XX OF LEICESTER. 45 In 1549 there was Paid to Lockwood, the KjTig's Jester . . iij'. iiij'^. And similar payments were made to him on other occa- sions during the hfe of Edward VI. ; whilst during the reigns of Mary and Elizabeth, his name, under the desig- nation of " the Queen's Jester, whose name is Lockwood," is for a considerable period of almost annual recurrence as the recipient of a similar gratuity of 3s. 4d. which, it would seem, he was entitled, by custom or otherwise, to claim as his fee. This is a new name to add to those of Will. Summers, Archee Armstrong, and the few other royal jesters whose names have been commemorated. In 1550 there was Paid to my lord Marques pleyers of Nor- thampton, the xxxth day of November ij'- viij*^- We learn by the account for 1551 that plays still con- tinued occasionally to be acted in churches, and that the performance was so highly esteemed, that the Corporation, although there is irrefragable proof of their being greatly addicted to the pleasures of the table, actually neglected a feast of venison in order to witness it. The church refer- red to was doubtless St. Martin's : — Itin. p'^ for expences that went to the buck that my lady of Himtingdon gave to the xlviij*^', whych was ordejTied at the hall for the Com- pany, and they came not because of the play that was in the chm-che ; whych w*^ bred, alle, flower, pepper, bakjTig, and other charges, amountyth to the some of .... x^- The following curious entry in the church register of Loughborough is supposed to refer to a dramatic perform- ance which took place there at the same period, and probably by the same company as the above : — D 46 ANCIENT RECORDS 1551, June. — The Swat, called 'New acquaintance, alias Stoupe Knave and Know thy Master,' began on the 24th of this month. (Burn's History of Parish Registers, p. 143.) Even so late as 1602 the practice had not entirely ceased, for in that year the churchwardens of Syston, as we learn from the parish register, Paid to Lord Morden's players, because they should not play in the church .... xij**- In 1552 a payment of 5s. was made to the Earl of Northumberland's players. Mary ascended the throne in July, 1553, and very shortly afterwards issued a proclamation for " redresse of Prechars, Pryntars, and Playars," and for a time checked dramatic performances, which had previously been used as a means to advance the principles of the Reformation. For more than two years, says Collier (i. 159), the order appears to have been effectual for the purpose, after which date the renewal of the representation of plays was at- tempted, not indeed in London, but in the country. In the Account for 1555 we have a solitary visit of the Queen's players recorded ; for Mary, it appears, still con- tinued to keep up her domestic establishment for court revels and entertainments on the same footing as during the reign of her father (Collier i. 164). We may be as- sured that the performance on this occasion did not contain any " naughty and seditious matter ... to the slander of Christ's true and Catholic religion," but it was probably one of the old miracle-plays, which, as we learn, were revived during this reign to inculcate and enforce the tenets of the Roman Catholic religion. In consequence of attempts to revive secular plays, an order was made in the Spring of 1556 for the entire suppression of dramatic amusements (Collier i. 159), and no further entries relating OF LEICESTER. 47 to them appear in the Borough Accounts until 1560, the second year of Elizabeth's reign, when her Majesty's com- pany of players experienced the liberality of the Corpora- tion. On the same occasion money was also given " to one player that played alone." As stringent measures were now adopted against the representation of the miracle-plays and similar perform- ances, which were calculated to oppose the progress of the Reformation, as Mary had before adopted against those of an opposite tendency. In 1562 there was Paid to my lorde Oxford's players more than was gathered iiij'- The account for the following year clearly indicates the great impulse which dramatic performances had received through the patronage of the Queen, numerous itinerant companies having visited the town. The Earl of Worcester's players were here on the 10th of October; on the 12th of November, and again on the 1st of July following, those of the Lord Robert Dudley (afterwards Earl of Leicester) were rewarded ; the players of Coventry gave a performance on " twelf evin" ; " Sir Owmfry RatlyfF's" players came on the 5th of July, and were succeeded by the Queen's servants ; whilst the Lord of Loughborough's jester was also rewarded on the Friday after twelfth-day. In 1564 the players of Lord Scrope, Lord Hunsdon, and Mr. " Hibbatt" [Herbert ?] received gifts ; as did also certain strange waits and other mynstrels at the Mayor's dinner, and " Edward Astell and his fellows." There was also Payed to the chyldren that played under Mr. Pott v^ This was doubtless a dramatic performance by the scholars of the Free Grammar School, of which Mr. Pott was the master. Juvenile companies of players were then 48 ANCIENT RECORDS very popular. Among these juvenile actors were the "Children of the Revels" and the choir-boys of St. Paul's, Westminster, Windsor, and the Chapel Royal, all of whom performed secular plays. Shakespeare has alluded to the popularity of these children in Hamlet (act ii. sc. 2). In 1565 the town was visited by the players of the Queen, Lord Hastings of Loughborough, and the Earl of Worcester. The players of Coventry performed on the 31st of January, 1567; those of Sir John "Beryns" on the 7th of March; and the players of Hull on the l*2th of September; whilst in the same year the musicians or minstrels of the Earl of Leicester, Sir Thomas Knevett, and Lord Hunsdon w^ere rewarded on the 14th of June, the 8th of July, and the 12th of August respectively. In 1569 the players of Coventry and Hall, and those of Sir Anthony " Sturley" [Shirley ?], Sir John " Beryn," and Mr. Smith received gifts ; whilst in the following year the last mentioned company and also the Queen's players were again rewarded. The company of players which at this period most frequently visited the town was that under the patronage of the great Earl of Leicester, at the head of which was James Burbadge, the father of the celebrated tragedian. These players were again here in 1570, 1571, and 1573. In the following year they obtained the first royal patent granted in this country to performers of plays ; after which their visits appear to have ceased until 1584, when they were presented with the sum of 24s. beyond what was gathered, they having probably in the interim established themselves permanently in London, at the Blackfriars Theatre. About this period also we have to record visits of the players of the Queen, the Earls of Essex, Worcester, Sussex, Derby, and Warwick, Lords " Burgenny" " Har- bard," and Montague, and those of the Lord Chamberlain, the Lord Admiral, and Sir George Hastings. OF LEICESTER. 49 Id 1574 we have Itm. geven to the players that came owte of Wales more then was gathered In 1577 there was Geven to Pleyars of Enterludes and to Beare- wards this yere more then was gaythered xxiiijs. x'^. In 1582 the Queen's company of players, which had been newly formed in that year by the best actors selected from the other companies, visited the town ; and they were again rewarded in 1584. In the month of March, 1583, a dispute occurred be- tween the Mayor and the Earl of Worcester's players, which is described in a curious document amongst the Hall-papers ; and which, as it illustrates the practices of these itinerant companies of actors, even if it possessed na other interest, is w^orth quoting verbatim. It is as follows : " Will"'. Earle of Worcester, kc. hath by his wrytinge dated the 14th of January, A° 25° Eliz. Re^ Hcensed his servants, viz. Rob*. Browne, James Tmistall, Edward Allen, W"^. Harryson, Tho. Cooke, Ry°. Johnes, Edward Browne, Ily°. Andrewes, to playe and go abrode, vsing themselves orderly, kc. (in these words) — ' These are therefore to require all such her highnes oflfycers to whom these presents shall come, quietly and frendlye, within yo^ several precincts and Corporacons, to permyt and suffer them to passe w'^'' yo'' furtherance vsinge and demeanynge y^'^selves honestly, and to give them (the rather for my sake) such intertaynment as other noble men's players have. Inwyt- nes, &c.' [Present at the hall] " Mr. Mayor, Mr. Noryce, Mr. Geo. Tatam, Mr. Robt. Heyrick, Mr. J. Heyrycke, Mr. Jas. Clarke, Mr. Morton, Mr. Newton, Mr. EUys. " M'^. that Mr. Mayor did geve the aforesaid playors an angell towards there dynner and wild them not to playe at this present, beinge fry day the yj*^ of Marche, for that the tyme was not con- veynyent. The forsed playors mett Mr. Mayor in the strete, nere Mr. Newcomb's housse, after the angell was given abowte a ij howers ; who then craived lycense ageyne to playe at there 50 ANCIENT RECORDS Inn, and he told them they shold not ; then they went away and sed they wold play, wheyther he wold or not and in dispyte of hym, w**^ dyvers other evyll and contemptyous words : witness hereof, Mr. Newcom, Mr. Wycam, and Will"". Dethieke. More, these men, contrary to Mr. Mayor's comandement, went w**^ there drum and trumppytts thorowe the Town, in contempt of Mr. Mayor, neyther wold come at his coihandm* by his offycer, viz.. Worship. " W". Pateson, my lord Harbard's man ] ^^ Tho. Powlton, my lord of Worcester's man J they w°^ dyd so muche abuse Mr. Mayor in the aforesayd words. " Nota. These seyd playors have, submytted them selves and are sorye for there words past, and craved pardon, desyering his worship not to wryte to there m"" agayne them ; and so, vpon there submyssyon, they are licensed to play this night at there Inn; and also they have promysed that vppon the stage, in the begynynge of there play, to shoe vnto the hearers that they are lycensed to playe by Mr. Mayor, and with his good wiU, and that they are sorye for the words past." This MS. possesses additional interest from its supply- ing some new facts connected with the early career of Edward Allen, or Alleyn, one of the most eminent actors of the Shakesperian age ; who subsequently founded Dul- wich College, and who at the period of this transaction was in his seventeenth year. Mr. Collier states in his Memoirs of Edward Alleyn, that his father dying when he was only four years old, his mother subsequently mar- ried a person of the name of Browne, an actor as well as a "haberdasher;" and that the earliest date at which we hear of him in connection with the stage, is the 3rd of January, 1588-9, when he bought, for £37. 10s. the share of " playing apparels, play-books, instruments, and other commodities," which Richard Jones owned jointly with the brothers, John and Edward Alleyn, and their step- father. It will be seen that our notice of him is six years earlier than Mr. Collier's, whilst the document also contains the were OF LEICESTER. 51 name of Alley n's step-father, Robert Browne, as the head of the company, and also that of Richard Jones, just men- ' tioned, who was also, doubtless, the writer of the "curious letter " to Alleyn, on going abroad with an English com- pany of players, which is printed in the Alleyn Papers (p. 19) ; in which work also the name of James Tunstall, another of the company, appears as a witness to a deed. It would appear that the members of this company were not the most quiet and peaceably disposed individuals, as in addition to their having had to beg the mayor's pardon for their riotous conduct towards him, we also find them on the same occasion quarrelling with a rival company of players under the patronage of the Master of the Revels, surreptitiously obtaining possession of their license, and then charging them before the Mayor and Justices with not being duly authorised to play ; and which charge, if proved, would have rendered them liable to be convicted and punished as rogues and vagabonds. As this document is also curious and has never been published, I need not apologise for also quoting it in extenso. It is as follows : — " Mr. Mayor, Mr. J°. Tatam, Mr. Morton. - " Tuesdaie the third daie of Marche, 1583, certen playors, who said they were the servunts of the Queenes Maiesties Master of the Re veils, required lisence to play, and for there aucthory- tye showed forth an Indenture of Lycense from one Mr. Ed- monde Tylneye, esquier, M' of her Ma*' Revells, of the one and George Haysell, of Wisbiche, in the He of Elye, in the County of Cambridge, gentleman, on the other p*^ " The w°^ indenture is dated the yj*^ daie of ffebruarye in the xxv**" year of her Mat^ raign, &c. " In w*''' Indenture there ys one artycle, ' that aU justices, maiores, sherifs, baylyffs, constables, and all other her officers, ministers and subjects whatsoever to be aydinge and assistinge vnto the said Edmund Tilneye, his deputies and assignes, 52 ANCIENT RECORDS attendinge and having due regard vnto such parsons as shall disorderly intrude them selves into any the doings and accons before menconed, not being reformed, qualifyed and bound to the orders prescribed by the sayd Edmund Tyllneye. Theise shalbee therefore not only to signifye and geve notice vnto all and euery her said justices, &;c. that non of there own pretensed aucthoritye intrude them selves and presume to shewe forth any suche playes, enterludes, tragedies, comedies, or shewes, in any places w^'^in this realm, w^^oute the orderly allowance thereof vnder the hand of the sayd Edmund. " ' Nota. No play is to bee played, but such as is allowed by the sayd Edmund, and his hand at the latter end of the said booke they doe play. " ' The forsed Haysell is nowe the chefe playor,' &c." " Friday the 6 of Marche. " Certen players came before Mr, Mayor, at the hall, there being present Mr. John Tatam, Mr. George Tatam, Mr. Morton, and Mr. Worship, who seyd they were the Earle of Woster's men ; who seyd the forseyd playors were not lawftdly auctho- rysed, and y* they had taken from them there commission (but it is untrue, for they forgat there box at the Inn in Leic. and so these men gat it), and they sed the seyd Haysell was not here himself and y® sent the same to Grantom to the seyd Haysell, who dwellithe there." (Hall Papers, i. 32.) The simple facts of the case appear to be as follow : — The players of the Master of the Revels attend before the Mayor, produce their license, and receive his pernjission to perform in the town ; the Earl of Worcester's players subsequently arrive, and finding themselves forestalled by their rivals, they pick a quarrel with them, and endeavour , to make it appear that they are not licensed players : failing in this, and the mayor refusing to allow them to perform in the town, they set his authority at defiance in the manner described in the first document. On the 19th November, 1589, there was Given to therle of Sussex pleyars in reward, not playinge . , , x". OF LEICESTER. 53 And to two muzicons, being servants to the ^ ^• Earl of Essex ij { There was also Geven to certen playars, playinge uppon ropes at the Crosse Keys, more than was gaythered xxviij iiij In the Account for 1590 we find the following entries, being Receipts towards the charges of the gifts gevon to noblemen's players — Inprimis, Receyved att the hall dore the d- xjix**" daye of October, the Queenes Ma*^ playors then playinge .... x Itm. rec"^ att the hall dore, the Earle of Wes- ters playors then playinge vi viij Itin. rec'^ at the hall dore, the Earle of Hart- fords players then playinge .... vi Yiij Itm. rec*^ of John Underwood, the Mayors - Serjiant, w^hiche was by himrec'^of the Mayors Bretherne for yj playes and one bejTC baj^inge ^liiij Itm. rec"^ more of the xhdij*' for the same playes and Beyre baytinge .... xlviij Total. . . xv^ iiij^ The Queen's players received a fee of 40s. and those of the Earls of Worcester and Hertford 20s. each, it being customary to reward the various companies of players in proportion to the rank of their respective patrons. In the same year there was also Geven to the Queens Ma'^ playors, beinge another Companye called the Children of the Chappell . xx^g*. viij*^. In the following year money was also given to the play- ers of the Queen, the Lord Chandos, the Earl of Worces- ter, and "to the Lord Dakers, Vice-President of York, his players, who did not play." 54 ANCIENT RECORDS The celebrated Richard Burbage, whose name is im- mortalized as the original representative of the leading characters in the plays of Shakespeare, and especially of that of Richard the Third, doubtless performed in Leicester on many occasions about this period. He was a member of the company of which his father was the head ; which, as we have seen, was under the patronage of the Earl of Leicester, who had obtained from Elizabeth a patent under the Great Seal, dated the lOtli May, 1574, as a special privilege for his own servants, James Burbadge, John Perkin, John Lanham, William Johnson, and Robert Wylson, to perform ' Comedies, Tragedies, Enterludes, and Stage-playes,' as well within the city of London, as within any cities, towns, or boroughs throughout the Kingdom. In 1589 this Company, which performed at the Black- friars and Globe Theatres, was called ' The Queen's Players,' and sometime subsequently ' The Lord Cham- berlain's Servants,' and finally, on the accession of James the First, they received the title of ' The King's Players :' whilst in 1603, ten days only after the public entry of James into London, a license under the Privy Seal was granted to Lawrence Fletcher, WiUiam Shakespeare, Richard Burbage, and others their associates, to play * Comedies, Tragedies, Histories, Enterludes, Moralls, Pastoralls, Stage plaies, and such like,' either at their usual house, called the Globe, in Surrey, or ' within anie towne halls, or mout halls, or other convenient places' throughout his dominions. Of the frequent visits of Burbage to this part of the country, and of his identification with the character of Richard the Third, we have a striking proof in the Iter Boreale of bishop Corbet, written about the year 1620. The witty bishop, passing through Leicester, visited Bosworth, for the purpose of inspecting the battle-field. He says : — . OF LEICESTER. 55 " Mine host was full of ale and history ; And on the morrow, when he brought us nigh Where the two Roses joined .... ' mistook a player for a king ; For when he should have said, King Richard died. And called — A horse! a horse! he Burhage cried substituting the name of the player for that of the charac- ter which he represented. There is a tradition current amongst us that Shake- speare himself performed 'with a company of strolling players' in our town hall. I fear that this interesting tradition is not susceptible of direct proof, owing, unfortunately, to the names of the players being so rarely mentioned in our Records, but it is in all probability true — indeed it seems difficult to account for the origin of such a statement without some foundation in fact. We have seen that Shakespeare was a member of the company formed under the patronage of the Earl of Leicester, and that these players frequently visited the town ; partly, perhaps, fi'om their all-powerful patron deriving his title from it, but still more from the fact that the Earl's sister, the Countess of Huntingdon, was a frequent resident in Leicester ; and from whom and her lord they would naturally expect countenance and support in their dramatic performances. In 1584, when their visits were resumed after a tem- porary discontinuance, the poet, who was then in his twentieth year, was doubtless a member of the company ; five years later his name appears in a certificate as the twelfth on the list. Will it be drawing too wildly upon the imagination, to suppose it probable, that to the frequent presence of Shakespeare in our interesting old town, the world is indebted for the first germs of those poetic thoughts being implanted in his mind, which afterwards produced those 56 ANCIENT RECORDS imperishable fruits of his genius — Lear and Richard the Third ? I think not. Mr. Rollings has remarked in his Roman Leicester^ the striking similarity which the wild scenery described in Lear^ bears to that of Charnwood forest, from which he believes it to be drawm ; whilst during Shakespeare's early career, there were doubtless many aged persons living in Leicester, whose sires had witnessed, less than a century before, the imposing spectacle of Richard's progress through the town, at the head of his army ; and had beheld the brutal indignities afterwards perpetrated upon his inanimate remains. We may imagine " the poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling," as he paced with slow and meditative step, the scenes inseparably associated with this tragic episode in .our country's annals ; or— following the course of that ancient road, along which the unconquered legions of imperial Rome had borne aloft their eagle-standards to victory — gazed with wrapt attention on the mossy portals of the Abbey ; doubtless conjuring up, and depicting on the tablet of his mind, the vision of the fallen and dying Cardinal passing through them for ever from the outer world. But time forbids us to linger longer upon this subject however enticing its investigation may be, and I will now only add that in the year 1591 there was again Gevon to the Queenes Mat'. Players more than was gaythered xP. This being the company to which Shakespeare be- - longed.* The players of the Earl of Worcester, and of * It may not be entirely devoid of interest to notice here the fact that a Thomas Shakespeare was an inhabitant and Churchwarden of Lutterworth in the early part of the reign of James the First, and was not improbably a distant relative of the poet. His signature, in his official capacity, is attached to a letter addressed by the authorities of Lutterworth to the Mayor of Leicester, in 1611, respecting the plague, which is now before me. OF LEICESTER. m lords ^Dakers/ and ^ Shandowes,' also visited the town, and in the following year those of the Queen, the Lord - Admiral, the Earl of Pembroke, Lord ' Darsye,' the Earl of Worcester, and Lord Montague, were rewarded. In 1596 the Earl of Derby's, the Earl of Huntingdon's, and the Queen's Majesty's Players were paid, more than was gathered, 20.?., \9s. 4d., and 30^., respectively. In 1599 we find that the twenty-four aldermen con- tributed the sum of 16^. and the 'forty-eight' the sum of 405. 6d. " for and towards the payment of vj playes." Among the companies of players to which payments were made in this and the five following years, were those of the Earl of Lincoln, and Lords Howard, Morley, Dudley, Ivors, ' Vauze,' and Chandos ; those of the last- mentioned nobleman (who did not play), were rewarded with ten shillings, and presented with wine and sugar at a cost of Wd. on the 24th Oct. 1604. The frequency with w^hich the members of the Cor- poration were called upon to pay for the performances of these itinerant companies, was evidently deemed a heavy tax upon their pockets, and we find accordingly that at a common hall held on the 30th January, 1606, it was agreed "that non of either of the Two Companies shal bee compelled att anie tyme hereafter to paye towards ^ anie playes but such of them as shal bee then present at the said playes; the King's Ma*^. playors, the Queene's Ma*^. playors, and the young prince his playors excepted, and alsoe all such playors as doe belong to anie of the Lords of his Ma*^. most honourable privie Counsell alsoe excepted ; to these they are to pay accordinge to the auncyent custome, havinge warnynge by the Mace-Bearer to bee att euerye such play;" — and in 1582 a resolution - of a similar nature had been passed respecting payments to "Bearewards, Bear-baitings, Players, Playes, Enter- ludes, or Games," and restricting the attendance at the 58 ANCIENT RECORDS plays allowed to be performed in the Town-hall to the Mayor and his brethren. In 1608 the Queen's players, the Prince's players of the Whitechapel, London, and the Children of the Revells were rew^arded. In the Account for 1619 we have Item, given to Players that showed Ecalion Motion x^. I have endeavoured in vain to ascertain the meaning of the name of this performance, " Ecalion Motion I sup- posed it to be the name of an early play, but not being able to meet with any notice of it in any work to which I had access, I applied for information on the subject to Mr. Halliwell, who kindly informed me that he could find no- thing like Ecalion in any list of plays, and suggested the possibility of its being intended for a motion or puppet- show on the subject of Deucalion^ which, from the way proper names were murdered by our old account-keepers, is probably correct. I shall have a few observations to make on this species of performance presently. On the 13th January, 1621, there was Given to the Fortune Players, having the King's broad seal to their warrant, as a gratuitye, not playing xxx^ This company was attached to the Fortune Theatre in London, belonging to Henslow and Alleyn (to whom we have before referred). In the same year payments were made to the Prince's players, to the late Queen Anne's servants, to another company of players under the Lord Chamberlain's authority, and to Vincent and his company, having the King's authority to show feats of activity. In 1626 we find the following entry : — Item, geven to a man and a woman that were at Conldweirs playinge with puppets . . iiij^. OF LEICESTER. This species of drama, which was usually termed a droll, a motion, or a puppet-play, and which consisted of a com- pany of wooden actors moved by wires with the assistance of speeches made for them behind the scenery, was, I be- lieve, the origin of our modern " Punch." Puppet-shOws are of great antiquity, and we learn that they were common amongst the Greeks, from whom the Romans received them. They are mentioned by Xenophon, Galen, Aristo- tle (who speaks of some which moved their heads, eyes, hands, and limbs in a very natural manner), Gellius, Ho- race, and others. It is not known at what period they were first performed in England, but it was prior to 1517 ; and we are informed that in the times of the papacy the priests at Witney, in Oxfordshire, annually exhibited a show of the Resurrection, &c. by garnishing out certain small puppets representing the persons of Christ, Mary, and others : and Lambarde, writing towards the close of the 16th century, relates, that when a child, he saw a like puppet-show in St. Paul's Cathedral, London, where the descent of the Holy Ghost was performed; and he adds that " they everywhere used the like dumh-shows, to fur- nish sundry parts of the church service with spectacles of the nativity, passion, and ascension. Cervantes has made Don Quixote the spectator of a puppet-show, and the knight's behaviour upon this occasion is described with great humour. These performances w-ere superseded by the revival of pantomimes, which were first performed by grotesque characters in England at Drury-Lane Theatre* in 1702; whilst the last eminent "motion-master" was Flockton, whose wooden puppets were in high vogue at Bartholomew fair about 1790.* In 1627 and the following year payments were made * Much curious and interesting information on this subject will be found in A Paper on Puppets, by John Doran, in the Gent. Mag. for February, 1852, and also in the articles on the same subject by M. Charles Magnin, in successive numbers of the Revue de Deux 3fondes. (June, 1855.) 60 ANCIENT RECORDS to a great company of players called the Chief Revells," to " Swimierton and his company," " Knight and his company," " Mr. Kite and his company," and to Mr. Moore and his company, " being the Lady Elizabeth her players." There was also Given to Mr. Fenner, the King's Poet, to passe the Towne without playing iij^. iiij^. This was William Fennor, an actor at the Swan, on which pretence he styled himself his Majesties servant," He performed at that theatre in the melodrame, written by himself, entitled " England's Joy," a kind of pageant, once very popular, comprehending in dumb show the chief po- litical events in Queen Elizabeth's reign, and concluding with her apotheosis in great state, " being crowned with the Sun, Moon, and Stars, she is taken up into Heaven." Taylor, the Water-Poet, his contemporary and rival, and his equal as a poet, describes him as " Poor Old Vemior, that plain dealing man, . ' Who acted England's Joy at the Old Swan."^- It is to be presumed that the title of " the King's Toetj"* here given him was assumed in consequence of his having been allowed on various occasions to repeat some of his poems before the King—and must not be confounded with that of poet-laureate, an office then held by Ben Jonson. He was generally designated as " Fennor the rhymster." In 1640 the Lord Goring's and the Lord of Leicester's players had gifts. Payments of a similar nature continue to be made during the reign of Charles I. after which the Puritans prohibited all kinds of plays, and the theatres were closed for thirteen years, whilst the actors w^ere fre- quently taken into custody, and whipped as rogues and * See Collier's History of Dramatic Poetry, iii. 314, note, 320, 321, and 405. OF LEICESTER. 61 vagabonds, as we learn by Whitelocke's Memorials. With the Restoration the drama re-appeared and exhibited a licentiousness hardly equalled by that of any other Chris- tian nation. Mountehanks. — In the Account for the year 1669 we meet with the first notice of that class of vagrant stage- performers, the Mountebanks, or itinerant dealers in phy- sic, "whose stage," says Strutt, " was usually enlivened with mimicry, music, and tumbling, and whose inseparable companion was the merry-andrew." The entry is as follows : — Itm. p"^ to Y Cryer and Beadle for looking to y*" Conduit when y" Moimtybancks were in towne ij^. And in 167'2 there was Paid for ale fetcht to the Ga^Tiesborow when the mountebank doctor was there by ^- ^- ^■ Mr. Maior's order 00 02 06 In Butler's Remains is a very graphic sketch of the character of a Mountebank, and an amusing account is given in the Spectator of the tricks by which these impos- tors gulled the public. Bear-Baiting. — The barbarous custom of bear-baiting was a favourite sport of our ancestors at an early period. We leara from Fitz-Stephen that as early as the reign of Henry 11. the baiting of bears by dogs was a popular game in London ; whilst at a later period a royal bear- ward was an officer regularly attached to the court, and among the Harleian MSS. is preserved the original war- rant of Richard III. appointing John Brown to this office, and which recites " the diligent service he had done the king" as the ground for granting him the privilege of wan- dering about the country with his bears and apes, and re- ceiving the "loving benevolence and favours of the people." This sovereign, as we have before remarked, entertained a E 62 ANCIENT RECORDS company of players, and gave great encouragement to the science of music. Bear-baiting seems to have been a favourite pas- time of Queen Elizabeth, as it was of her sister Mary, and, indeed, it was then considered a fashionable and proper amusement for ladies of the highest rank. Master Laneham informs us that this was one of the " princely pleasures''^ provided for the entertainment of the Queen during her visit to Kenilworth Castle, and we find also that foreign ambassadors were on several occasions enter- tained by her Highness with the same exhibitions to their great delight, and at which she was herself present. As an illustration of the great popularity of bear-baiting in the boroughs about this period, it is recorded that at Congleton, in Cheshire, " the town-bear having died, the Corporation in 1601 gave orders to sell their Bible in order to purchase another, which was done, and the town no longer without a bear." How they replaced the Bible is not told. At Leicester, as we learn by the Account for 1611, there was a Bear-garden, for which the Corporation received the annual rent of xx''. Numerous payments to Bearwards occur in various years ; among others, rewards were given to those of Ed- ward VI. Queen Elizabeth, the Marquis of Dorset, the Earls of Huntingdon, Derby, Shrewsbury, Leicester, and Essex, and the Lords Clinton and Vauze. In 1580 there was 9. d Geven to twoe Berewards att Mr. Mayors dynner, more than was gaytliered . . iiij And to the Q-ueenes Maies*^ Bearewards, viz. one Shawe and one other, more than was gaythered iiij Two years later we have Geven to George Warde, Beareward, the Erie OF LEICESTER. 63 of Huntingdons man, and to one other, ^- being Sir Xpofer Hattons man and a beareward, at Mr. Mayors dynner more tlian was gaythered . , vij In 1588 there was Gevon to Mr. Skevington, then High Sheryff, and dyyers other gentlemen with him at a greate Bearebeating then had, a gallon of wyne, a pound of sugar, and tenne shillings in golde xiiij iiij In 1605 there was Given to the M' of the Babons Lycensed to travel by the King's Warrant .... ij yj Edward Alleyn, to whom we have more than once be- fore referred, held the office of Keeper of the King's Wild Beasts, and Master of the Royal Bear-garden situate on the Bank-side in Southwark. The profits he derived from this appointment are said by his biographer to have been very large, and to have been the source of the great for- tune which he realized; and he is styled by this office, — " Master of the Bears and Dogs," in the letters patent for the foundation of his college in 1620. The last patent discovered to have been given for this office is that grant- ed to Sir Sanders Duncombe in 1639, the practice having been checked by the Parliament in 1642, but the sport was not wholly discontinued in the neighbourhood of London till 1750. Bull- Baiting. — The similar sport of bull-baiting was also a very popular one. I have not noticed any entry in these Accounts respecting it, but among several orders made at a Common Hall " on Thursday before St. Simon and St. Jude," 1467, was the following: — No butcher to kill a bull till baited. It would appear that it was sometimes customary for the baitings to take place before the Mayor's door, for we 64 ANCIENT RECORDS find by the Corporation jonrnals of tlie city of Winchester, tliat in the 30th year of the reign of Henry VIII. it was ordered : — That from hcnsforthe ther shal he no bulstake set before any Mayor's doore to bayte any bull, but onlie at the buU-ringe within the said cytie. At Southampton it was part of the Mayor's office to see that plenty of bulls and bears were provided for baiting. Cock- Fighting. — This was another barbarous sport, which survived until a comparatively recent period. We find the following allusions to it in the Borough Accounts : s. d. 1572. Item, Paid for iij gallons of Wyne, iij^' of sugar, and for cakes given to S*" George Hastings, Knight, and dyvers other knights and gentlemen at the Cocke Pitt xij vi ; 1586. Item, the xxth of June payed for iiij gallons of wyne x*. viii*^., iij^' of sugar . .. ys. and iij dossen of cakes iij^. geven to S"" George Hastings and dyyers other Gentlemen at the Cockinge .... xviij viij The Cock-pit, as appears by Speed's plan of the town, taken about the year 1600, stood on the eastward side of the London Road, between the present Halford-street and Rutland- street, and was a sexangular building with a domed roof. By the kindness of Joseph Harris, Esq., of Westcotes, who possesses the original copper-plate, I am enabled to give on the opposite page an engraving of the card of ad- mission to the old Cock-pit. Pf'icking in the Old Hat. — In the Account for the year 1749, we find an allusion to a cheating game, now obso- lete and undescribed, but which was probably similar in character to that called ' Pricking at the Belt' or girdle, also named playing at ' Fast and Loose,' which is de- scribed by Brand {Popular Antiquiiies^ edit. 1841, vol. ii. OF LEICESTER. 65 p. 255) " to have been a game much practised by the gip- sies in the time of Shakespeare." Paid for prosecuting one Richardson, and others, . sharpers, by pricking at a game called Pricking in the Old Hat 6s. lOd. Archery. — We now come to that pastime and military exercise for w^hich the English once had a world-wide renown — that of Archery. Strutt says " Our ancestors used the bow for a double purpose, in time of war it was a dreadful instrument of destruction ; and in peace it became an object of amuse- ment. It w^ill be needless," he continues, " to insist on the skill of the English ai-chers, or to mention their won- derful performances in the field of battle. The victories they obtained over their enemies are many and glorious ; they are the best eulogiums, and stand upon record in the histories of this country for the perusal, and for the ad- miration of posterity." At the period of which we are speaking — the reign of Elizabeth — archery had greatly decayed, notwithstanding the repeated ordinances in its favour promulgated by various sovereigns previous to this time. Edward the Third issued an order, in the 15th year of his reign, to the sheriffs of most of the English counties to provide 500 white bows, and 500 arrows, for the then intended w^ar against France ; a few years after this, the sheriff of Gloucester was ordered to provide 500 painted as well as 500 white bows. And Henry the Fifth, in 1418, required the English counties to furnish 1,190,000 feathers for arrows, of which number this county and Warwdck had to contribute 60,000. By an Act of Edward the Fourth every Englishman, and Irishman dwelling in England, is commanded to have a long-bow of his own height, and it further directs that butts should be made in every township, at which the inhabitants were to shoot at up and down, upon all feast days, under 66 ANCIENT RECORDS the forfeit of a halfpenny for every time they omitted to perform this exercise ; — and in the reign of Henry the Eighth three several Acts were made for promoting the practice of shooting with the long-bow ; whilst history records the signal service rendered by the archers in this reign: — On Flodden's fatal field ; Where shiver' d was fair Scotland's spear And broken was her shield." Scott, in the fifth canto of Marmion, thus describes the effect produced upon the Scottish host by the English archers in the train of his hero, when proceeding to the court of the chivalrous, but unfortunate, James the Fourth ; and he adds in a note that it is no poetical exaggeration : — Fast ran the Scottish warriors there, Upon the southern band to stare. And envy with their wonder rose, To see such well-appointed foes ; Such length of shafts, such mighty bows, So huge, that many simply thought. But for a vaunt such weapons wrought, And little deem'd their force to feel, Through links of mail and plates of steel, When rattling upon Flodden vale. The cloth-yard arrows flew like hail." The Scots, according to Ascham, had a proverb that every English archer carried under his belt twenty-four Scots, in allusion to his bundle of unerring shafts. In the Hall-Book is an inventory of the armour belong- ing to the Borough in 1590, and among the weapons we find there were at that time, " Tenne Muskitts and Twelve newe Boes, and xiiij sheafe of Arrowes ;" — but soon after this, archery seems to have been discarded in the army, for an order from the Lord Lieutenant (the Earl of Hun- tingdon) to the Mayor, dated 29th April, 1598, for levying forty men for the Queen's forces^ states, that in the time OF LEICESTER. 67 of the former Earl " for the 500 trayned soldiars in this Countie Levyed, the Town of Leicester was then charged w*^ the furnishing of fFortie men, viz. xij Calivers, iiij Miis- kits, xj Bowes and Ar roues, viij Corsletts and pikes, and V bills ; Nowe theire Lordships' pleasures are that all the Bowes and Arrowes and bills generally must be refused, and supplied onlie with musketts, so that your proporcon ys xij Calyvers, xx musketts, and viij Corsletts w^^ pikes." Taylor, the Water-Poet, writing in this reign, says: — " Within these few years I to mind do call The Yeoman of the Guard were Archers all ; A hundred at a time I oft have seen With bows and arrows ride before the Queen ; Their bows in hand, their quivers on their shoulders, Was a most stately sight to the beholders." The piece of ground in Leicester which still retains the name of the Butt Close,* derived its designation from its being the place set apart for the inhabitants to practise shooting at the butts, which were mounds of earth covered with turf. The Close was held by the Corporation under the Duchy of Lancaster by the service of presenting a broad-arrow annually to the Auditor of the Duchy at the Castle. The form of entry in the Chamberlains' Accounts is as follows : — [1528.] Item, paid to the Kyng, a brode arrow with the hedd. Item, a dyscharge for a brode harrow then paed iiij'*. Or more commonly, as in later years : — Paide for a Brode-Arrowe given to the Awditor att the Castle of Leicester for the Butt Close iiij"*. I may mention that a somewhat similar tenure still * This ground has since been built upon, and its locality will in future only be pointed out by the avenue leading from Church gate to East Bond street, which bounded the " Butt Close " on its southern side, and which retains its designation of Butt Close lane. (June, 1855.) 68 ANCIENT RECORDS exists in Leicester, by which the owner of the Crown and Thistle Public-house, in the Loseby Lane, has to present annually to the Corporation at Midsummer a damask rose for the rent of the ground, which was formerly a garden and parcel of the Honor of Leicester. Payments for the repairs of the Butts are of frequent occurrence in the Accounts; thus, in 1598 we find there was ■ " Paid to John Clarke for the carrying of tenne Lodes of TurfFes to the Butt Close to re- payre the Butts w^^all vj^ viij''. And in 1606 the sum of iij^. was ''paid to the Jietclier for dressing of the Tow^n Boes and for ij dosen of Bowe strings," — and several entries occur at various times for " feathering sheaves of arrows," mending quivers for arrows, &c. In 1571 we have » Item, received of Heughe Harrison, crosbo- maker, for his freedom x^ Although Archery has now almost entirely fallen into disuse as a national sport ~ though the twang of the forester's bow, and the whistle of the '' grey goose shaft " are no longer heard " In the glades of merrie Sherwood Under the lefFes grene," the quaint words of old Drayton may still be applied with as much truth as when they w ere first written : — " In this our spacious Isle I think there is not one But he of Robin Hood hath heard, and Little John; And to the end of time the tales shall ne'er be done Of Scarlock, George-a-Green, and Much the Miller's son, Of Tuck, the merry friar, which many a sermon made In praise of Robin Plood, his outlaws, and their trade." OF LEICESTER. 69 Horse- Races. — The first reference I have found in these Accounts relative to Horse-Races in Leicester is in the year ] 602, and is as follows : — Itm. paid for j gallon of Sacke, and one pound of Suger, geven to the gentlemen at the horsse runynge v^ viij*^. In the following year Sir Thomas Griffin, Sir William Faunt, and other gentlemen, were entertained at the Angel with "sacke and Claret at the Horse running." In 1612 we have the first notice of the kind of prize given here to the successful candidate, and which in most places was a silver bell (from whence originated the phrase "to bear the bell") ;— - Itiii. paide for A Gallon of Sacke and A Gallon - of Claret wyne, and one pounde of Suger - given to the Knights and Gentlemen att the horse-running for the Golden Snaffie . viij'. iiij*^. In the following year the prize was a gold cup, and the races took place on the 18th April. In 1673 the sum of £4. was contributed towards "the Plates to be run for," and in 1688 the sum of 5£2. was paid towards buying a Plate to be run for in the Abbey Meadow, and a similar sum was contributed for many years after. In 1690 there was "paid to Collonel Lister's man when he brought the Earl of Rutland's Plate to the Mayor, the 30th day of September, which was to be run for in the Abbey Meadow, v^." and a further sum of 1^. ^d. was paid by the Mayor's order for ribbon to tie on the cover. Although horse-races were customary in England at a very early period, probably even prior to the Conquest, and in the reign of Elizabeth were carried to such excess as greatly to injure the fortunes of the nobility, it is stated that public races were not established until the reign of James the First; the matches previous to that time being 70 ANCIENT RECORDS private, and gentlemen riding their own horses. The foregoing extracts will therefore indicate that Leicester must have been amongst those towns where public races were first established, and we have seen that they were then, as now, supported by the princely house of Rutland. Easter Hunting. — Another annual holiday, which was no doubt a very popular one, was the mock-hunting the hare on the Danes' Hills on Easter Monday, when the Mayor and his brethren in their scarlet robes, and attended by the proper officers, followed the chase, and concluded the day with a banquet at the Mayor's house. A descrip- tion of the proceedings, usual on these occasions, is given in Throsby's History of the Tow^n, and he supposes that the custom originated out of a claim to the royalty of the forest. Many payments relating to this holiday occur in these Accounts. In 1668 we find there was ''paid to Mr. Fawnt and Sir John Bale's huntsmen upon Easter Monday x^." and in the Account for the year 1671 we have an amusing- entry, showing that if the worthy Mayor and his brother- sportsmen did not really commit any destruction amongst the game by their hunting, they, at least, wished it to appear so : — "Itm. p^ to two-and-twenty men that brought and carried hares before Mr. Maior and the Aldermen by Mr. Mayor's order." The auditors considered, we suppose, that this expenditure was not necessary to support the dignity of his worship on the occasion, for the payment was not allowed. It was customary for the Town-Waits to attend this and all other municipal festivals clothed in their scarlet gowns and wearing their silver chains and badges (one of which may be seen in the Town Museum) ; but in this year we find that these sons of harmony being at discord amongst themselves had been dismissed from their office, and the Northampton waits were remunerated "for playing OF LEICESTER. 71 before the Companies on Easter Monday and at May- day Fair" in their stead. Usually, however, free trade in music was not allowed, as in 1582 it was ordered "that no estraungers, viz, waytes, mynstrells, or other muzicbns whatsoever be suffered to play w^^in this Town, neither at weddings, or fFayor-times, or any other times whatso- ever wMst the town-waits were required to play every night and morning orderly, both winter and summer, and not to go out of town except to fairs or weddings, and then only by license of the Mayor. The hounds were lent for the occasion by the various county gentlemen, and amongst those whose huntsmen were rewarded for this service, besides those already men- tioned, were Sir Henry Beaumont, Mr. Mead, and Sir Edward Cave. Throsby states that this custom began to fall into disuse after the year 1767, but traces of it still exist in the annual holiday yet held on the Danes' Hills and the Fosse Road, on Easter Monday, which is now" attended by comparatively few persons, but which not many years since attracted a large concourse of people. This, like so many other old customs, is gradually dying away. It would appear that a similar annual custom of hare hunting was at one time practised by the Corporation of Leicester at Whetstone : of which place they were the Lords of the Manor, and held a court there, when suit and service were done by the tenants: on which occasions, as might be anticipated, a good dinner was provided at the public expense, and a fee paid to the Steward of the Court. In the Chamberlain's Account for the year 1574 we have the following entry : — Item, gevon to the Hare fynders att Whetston Courte xii*^. We . learn by Machyn's Diary, p. 292, that the Corpo- ration of London, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, held 72 ANCIENT RECORDS an annual hunting at the Conduit heads," where they dined, and afterwards returned home in great state. Obsolete Punishments. — Another class of entries which are of frequent occurrence are those relating to modes of popular punishment now obsolete. Among these were the Cucking-Stool, Scolding-Cart, Carting, the Cage, Branks, Whipping-Post, Gibbet, Pillory, and Stocks. We learn that " during the middle ages, the Corporations of towns had the right of independent legislation within their own liberties, and they took cognizance of many of- fences which are not provided against by the law of the land. Hence, various modes of inflicting punishment came into usage, which, with the last traces of the medieval system and of medieval manners have become entirely obsolete." Dr. Johnson says, " We have different modes of re- straining evil — stocks for the man ; a ducking-stool for women ; and a pound for beasts." TJie Cucking-Stool. — The Cucking-Stool is described by Brand as " an engine invented for the punishment of scolds and unquiet women, by ducking them in the water, after having placed them in a stool or chair fixed at the end of a long pole, by which they were immerged in some muddy or stinking pond." Wright says that " the Cuck- ing-stool, which we cannot trace out of our own island, appears to have been in use in Saxon times. It is dis- tinctly mentioned in Domesday-Book as being then em- ployed in the city of Chester. It is there termed ' cathedra stercoris' (which clearly denotes its origin), and it is not improbable that originally the punishment consisted only in the disgrace of being publicly exposed, seated upon such an article during a certain period of time — the process of ducking being a subsequent addition." The supposi- tion here expressed by this eminent antiquary, is, I be- lieve, contrary to the opinion of all former writers on the OF LEICESTER. 7S subject, by whom the punishment was considered to have consisted entirely in immersion ; it is a supposition, how- ever, which I have been able to verify as a fact, both by our own records and those of another ancient borough ; by the latter it will be seen that immersion was resorted to after the more lenient punishment by exposure had been tried in vain. Thus we find that at a Common Hall held here on the Thursday before St. Simon and St. Jude, 1467," it was ordered : — . That scoldes be punished by the Mayor on a cnckstool be- fore their door, and then carried to the four gates of the towTi. And among the orders and laws for the town of Neath, we find the following, made in 154*2 : — " Item, if any woman doe scolde or rage any burgesse or his wyfe, or any other person and hys w^'-fe, if she be foimd faulty in the same by sixe men, then shee to be broughte at the first defaidte to the Cooking-Stoole, and there to sitt one hom-e, at the seconde defaulte twoe houres, and at the thu'd defaulte to lett slipp the pynn or els pay a good f^Tie to the Kmg." Cole, in his MSS. in the British Museum, gives an account of a Cucking-stool at Cambridge, in which he re- membered to have seen a woman ducked for scolding. He says, " the chair hung by a pulley fastened to a beam about the middle of the bridge, in which the woman was confined, and let down under the water three times, and then taken out." He adds, " the Ducking-Stool was con- stantly hanging in its place, and on the back panel of it was engraved devils laying hold of scolds, &c." From the frequency with which payments for making or repairing the Cucking Stool occur in the accounts, it is to be presumed that its use in this town was not rare. Throsby, writing about the year 1790, says in his History of Leicester, that there was at that time a Cucking-stool kept somewhere about the Town Hall premises, and adds that " to the credit of the nimble-tongued fair it is now a 74 ANCIENT RECORDS long time since it was used." On reading this passage, it immediately struck me that an oak chair in the Town Library (called by the Librarian, " Alderman Newton's Chair," but, as I subsequently found, without authority), had very much the character of some of the ancient Cuck- stools of which I had seen engravings. I had not previously examined the chair closely ; but on doing so, I at once found my anticipations confirmed, as it proved beyond doubt to be one of these instruments of punishment formerly in use in Leicester. A drawing of this Cucking-Stool has been kindly made for me by Mr. Flower, from which the ac- companying engraving is taken. It will be^seen that under the arms are grooves, con- structed for the purpose of receiving and retaining in their proper position the cords by which the instrument was suspended when immersion w^as resorted to ; for which occasions also the seat is so constructed as to be remov- able at pleasure, in order that it should offer no obstruction to the passage of the chair through the water. The Cuck- ing-Stool itself may be seen in the Town Museum. OF LEICESTER. 75 During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, charges for making or repairing the Cucking- Stool are of constant " occurrence in the Chamberlains' Accounts. Thus we have : — 8. a. 1548. Item, — Paid to John Croft for ma- kyng the Cookstolle v 1552. Item, — Paid for mendyng of the Cuckstole at tow tymes viij 1558. Item, — Paid to Robert Crofts for makyng of the Duckstoole .... xvj 1563. Item, — for makinge the cucstoole . xvj Item, — to Will*" Yates for making pynes and bands for the same ... 1566. Item, — Paid to Robert Bylbrough for certen wood and bords for the re- pairinge of the Coockstole .... xij Item, — Paid to Wilham Yates for ij longe u'on pjmns with collers for the same Coockstole xij Item, — Paid for nails for the same Coockstole ij 1578. Item, — Paid for a newe Cuckstoole . xiiij In the year 1602 we have a payment " for the charges of the Cuckestool, the Carte, and the Stocks." We learn by the same account that when the fair offender was punished by immersion, the Cucking-Stool was placed on or by the side of the West Bridge, as a payment was made for carrying it there. Charges occur at various periods " for rope to draw the Kuckstoole — for iron worke used abowte ytt — for two staples for the Cuckstoole, etc." A new Cuckstool was provided in 1646, and in the fol- lowing year we again have, Item, Paid for making the Cookestoole . x\'j^ vj"^. Showing that more than one must have been in use at the same time. 76 ANCIENT RECORDS 111 1651 Elizabeth Harris was charged before the Mayor with using abusive language towards the two daughters of Thomas Wigston, and with throwing water and dirt at them, for which she was " adjudged to be put in the Cuckstoole, and be drawne from the Bare Crosse to John Wilson's dore." We also find the following accusation and punishment recorded in the Hall-papers : — 27th June, 1654, before Mr. Maior, Mr. Somerfeild. The Informacon of Mr. Thomas Goadbye against Ann Ram- kin, widdow, sayeth as he was goeinge down Redcrosse streete, one Clarkes wife called him to her and shee tould him that one Ann Ramldn, widdow, did saye that the said Clarkes wife did pyne her husband in the Goale, and as they were talkinge to- gether the said Ann Ramkin came to them and did use many raileinge words and called Mr. Goadbye knave, and did then saye that Clarke's wife did pyne her husband in the Goale. The said ividdow Ramkin sent home in the Cuckstoole then. On the same occasion a similar punishment was award- ed to Richard Pole's wife, who was charged by the above- mentioned Ann Clarke with giving her many railing words, and asserting that her (Clarke's) husband brought home cloth worth three pounds, and that he said so himself in the ' spikehouse.' She was accordingly sent home in the Cuckstool. In 1744 there was paid for bringing out the ^ ^• Cackstool 006 The last notice of it which I have met with in the Ac- counts, is the following one in 1768-9: — Paid Mr. ElHott for a Cuckstool by Order of Hall £2. And I was, indeed, somewhat surprised to find that one had been purchased so recently, both from Throsby's statement before-mentioned, and also that the latest pe- riod at which its use is recorded in Brand's Pojmlar Jn- OF LEICESTER. 77 tiquities was at Kingston-upon-Thames in the year 1745? when the landlady of an alehouse in that town was ducked in the River Thames in the presence of two thousand or three thousand people. An aged inhabitant of the town has recently infonned me, that he recollects having seen, many years ago, ano- ther ancient Cucking-Stool, at that time kept in the Town Hall yard, and which was a kind of chair without legs, fixed at the end of a long pole ; he also remembers, when a boy, to have heard his mother say, that a few years before, she had seen the Cucking-Stool placed at the door of a house in the Shambles Lane, but that the woman having man- aged to leave the house previously, escaped the ducking intended for her ; and that a neighbour, who died some 30 years ago, at an advanced age, related to him that she once saw a woman ducked for scolding, and that the in- strument was placed by the side of the river adjoining the West Bridge. He thinks this must have occurred about 80 years ago, and consequently from 25 to 30 years later than the period stated by Brand. Its use in this town at this comparatively recent period has also been confirmed by a gentleman now in his 81st year, who re- collects the Cuckstool being placed as a mark of disgrace in front of a house in Bond Street ; the woman residing there had also, it appears, twice done penance in St. Mar- garet's chuich, for slander. In reference to this mode of punishment, Mr. Wright has well observed, " It may seem strange to us that it should ever have been thought necessary to punish thus disgracefully a woman for the too free use of her tongue ; but in the turbulent independence which reigned among the inhabitants of the medieval towns, the unruly member was not unfrequently the cause of riots and feuds which endangered the public peace to a greater degree than we can now easily conceive." Tite Scolding-Cart, — The Scolding-Cart, of which no 78 ANCIENT RECORDS mention is made in Brand's Popular Antiqtiities, seems to have been similar in many respects to the Cucking- Stool ; the chief difference appearing to have been, that in this case the mode of punishment consisted in the fair of- fender being exposed when seated upon it, and thus drau n through the town — the Scolding-Cart, unlike the Cucking- Stool, having wheels. Mr. Wright, however, has given extracts from the Accounts of Gravesend and Kingston- upon-Thames which indicate that occasionally the latter instrument was furnished with wheels, in which case it w^ould most likely not be used for immersion. We have seen by the extracts already given from the Borough Ac- counts that the instruments were distinct, payments for the two occurring in the same entry ; whilst in the year 16'29 we find the following charge : — Itin. — Paid to Frauncis Palhiier for making two wheeles and one barr for the Scolding-Cart . ij^ This instrument of popular punishment appears to have escaped the notice of the various writers on the subject. Carting. — Carting was, again, a different punishment, and consisted in the offenders, of both sexes, subjected to it, being drawn through the town with a horse and cart, attended by a man ringing a bell, and frequently, if not invariably, having a paper placed upon their heads setting forth the nature of the offence for which they were so punished. Entries relating to this mode of punishment are far from rare, but they are generally of a nature unsuit- able for quotation. The following, however, may serve to illustrate the custom : — 8. d. 1586. Item, — Payed for a Carte and to the Beadell for cartinge of twoe Harlotts abowte the Towne xij 1598. Item ,— P' to Whittell for his horse and Carte, and one that Led the horse and Carte abowte the town, to Cartt - OF LEICESTER. 79 S, (1. Marye Smjiihe, and one John WylkjTi- son, glover xij Itm. p'^ to George Longley for payne- tinge of ij papers sett on Marye Smithe's head and Wylkynson's [and other work] iij 1613. Item, — paid for A horsse and Carte, three holberde men, and one other man to ring the Bell, when John Camden and his --^f^-^^' and allso Eobert Webster were by order of the Sessions Carted about the Town ^1 1614. Item, — Paide to the Burneman for his horse and Carte, to cart a Knave and a Queyne, which came from Coventrie. . xij 77*!^ Branks. — Another disgraceful punishment which was in use, " To scandalise that sex for scolding To whom the saints are so beholden," was the Branks, scolding-wife, or gossip's-bridle ; for it seems to have been known by all these designations. This curious usage of the olden time was first noticed by Dr. Plott, in his History of Staffordshire, where he says: *' They have an artifice at Newcastle-under-Lyme and Walsall, for correcting of scolds, which it does too, so effectually and so very safely, that I look upon it as much to be preferred to the Cucking-Stoole, which not only endangers the health of the party, but also gives the tongue liberty 'twixt every dipp ; to neither of which this is at all liable : it being such a bridle for the tongue as not only quite deprives them of speech, but brings shame for the transgression and humility thereupon before 'tis taken off': which being put upon the offender by order of the magistrate, and fastened with a padlock behind, she is led round the town by an officer, to her shame, nor is it taken off" till after the party begins to show all external signs imaginable of humiliation and amendment." 80 ANCIENT RECORDS This mode of punishment was also practised in Leices- ter, and the Branks formerly in use was preserved until very recently in our Borough Gaol ; it has now, however, unfortunately got into private hands, but the gentleman who has possession of the instrument has kindly allowed Mr. Flower to make a drawing of it, from which the ac- companying woodcut has been engraved. But few specimens of these singular instruments, I believe, are known to be remaining in England. Among these are examples at Stafford, Worcester, Newcastle-upon- Tyne, Lichfield, Doddington, and at Walton-on-Thames. The latter, which is preserved in the vestry of the church, is said to have been presented to the parish in 1633, by a person named Chester, who lost a valuable estate through a careless w^oman's talk. It is inscribed : — " Chester presents Walton with a Bridle To curb women's tongues that talk too idle."'^' The Cage. — The Cage was frequently a substructure, forming a small prison on which the pillory was erected. We learn by the Court Leet Books of Southampton, * Some curious particulars respecting tliis instrument of punishment, with several illustrations, and also some interesting articles on the Cucking- Stool,with illustrations, will be found in successive numbers of Willis's Cur- rent Notes for 1864. (June, 1855.) OF LEICESTER. 81 that in 1608, a woman who had been guilty of slander, was ordered to leave the town; and when, a few days later, it was discovered that she had not gone away, and had repeated the offence, she was condemned " to be set in a Cadge with a paper before her." This place of con- finement has supplied one of the images in that exquisite little poem of Lovelace's ' To Althoea from Prison :' — " Stone walls doe not a prison make, Nor iron bars a cage ; Minds innocent and quiet take That for an hermitage." In reference to this mode of punishment in Leicester, we find amongst the proceedings at a Common Hall held on the 7th October, 42. Eliz. (1600), it was "agreed that there shall be a Cage presently made and set up in the place called the Barrel Cross or near thereabouts." This was the place now called the Haymarket. The town was formerly adorned with several crosses, as the High-cross, the Red-cross, the Sanvey- cross, and St. John's-cross. On the Bare-hill also stood a stone cross, with which the Cage and Stocks were connected, as appears by the following entries in the Chamberlains' Account for 1575, hitherto unpublished: — s. d. Item, — Paid to Xpofer Nedham for the yrons to the Stocks at Barwell Crosse iiij vij Item, — Paid unto WiUiam Richardson for pavinge at the Bearehill where the Crosse was ij Item, — Ileceyv^ed of Mr. Middleton for stonne to hym sold, called the Beerehill ahas Barrell Crosse xi Item, — Receyved of John Yates and Richard Birckes for the old wood of the broken Cage iij viij At a Common Hall held on the SSnd August, 1613, it 82 ANCIENT RECORDS was ordered that the Cage which stood at Barehill Cross shal bee sett up by St. Mathewes daie next att the pillorie on the Corn wall." In the Account for the year 1604 there is a charge for horse-locks" for the Cage and the pinfold : the latter was then situated in the Market Place, to the eastward of the present Fish-market, which at the same time contained a public "muck-hill," from which, and many other facts which might be cited, no wonder need be felt at the frequent ravages of the plague. TJie Pillory. — The punishment by Pillory was one of the manorial rights of feudal times, " and it appears with the Stocks," says Wright, " to have been one of the instru- ments for tyrannising over the peasantry or servial class of the population." This right was possessed by the Munici- pal body in Leicester, and, in the vellum-book already mentioned, we find by the early regulations for the government of the Town, that this punishment was inflicted upon dishonest tradesmen breaking the assize of provisions, under the authority of the " Statute of Pillory and Tumbrel" enacted in the reign of Henry the Third. Thus, a baker, if his bread were found to be deficient in weight to the value of a farthing in two shillings and six- pence, was to be fined, but if it exceeded that amount, without pecuniary redemption, he was to suffer the punish- ment of the Pillory, termed in the original Collistrigimn, literally, stretch-neck. Again :— if a butcher sold unwhole- some flesh, or bought flesh of Jews and afterwards sold it to Christians, for the first conviction he was to be heavily fined, for the second to suffer the judgment of the Pillory, and for the third offence to be imprisoned. — A brewer breaking the assize of ale was to be amerced for the first, second, and third offences ; and for the fourth, without redemption, he was to suffer the judgment of the Tumbrel or Cucking-Stool, but which mode of punishment, as we have already seen, was subsequently restricted to the fair sex. OF LEICESTER. 83 The Pillory stood in the Market Place, on the Corn- wall, as in the Chamberlains' Account, for the year 1608, the charges appear for setting up the new Pillory there, and the sum of forty shillings was received " for part of the old Pillowrye wood which was to spare." In 1686 another was erected, and the sum of ten shillings was "received of a gentleman towards building" it. This punishment was abolished by act of parliament about thirty-five years ago, except in cases of perjury, and, I believe, the last time it was inflicted for this crime was in London, in the year 1830. Stow, in his Survey of London, has given us a quaint and graphic description of the ancient Pillory on Cornhill, and also of other modes of popular punishment then in use, viz.; the Stocks, Cage, Ringing with Basins, Carting, &c., but the passage is too long for quotation. A curious and, I believe, unique Finger-Pillory is still preserved near the West-end of the Church of Ashby-de- la-Zouch, and which has doubtless been seen by most of the Members of this Spciety.* In the account for the year 1606 we meet with several entries relating to an occurrence which must have caused great sensation in the town at the time. In the month of May, in that year, some serious riots having occurred in the County in opposition to the enclosure of lands, the Earl of Huntingdon, as Lord Lieutenant, ordered a Gibbet to be set up in the Market Place, and this having been destroyed by the mob, the Earl proceeded to the arbitrary and unjustifiable measure of ordering the Mayor and Mr. Heyrick to keep their houses for a month, as prisoners, * It appears by Notes and Queines, 1851, p. 395, that a second example of these curious instruments of punishment is preserved at Littlecote Hall in Wiltshire. It is stated to have been used as an instrument of domestic punishment ; but another writer in the same volume, p. 458, adds, that " finger-pillories (in churches) are said to have been formerly used for the purpose of inflicting penance upon those parishioners who absented themselves fiom ma^sfor any lengthened period.'' (June, 1855.) 84 ANCIENT RECORDS for not having prevented its removal ; and he commanded that another Gibbet should be erected, and a guard appointed to protect it from the people. TJw Stocks. — One of the most common modes of punishment in the middle ages for lighter offences was by exposure in the Stocks. This instrument, although it is novi^ rarely seen except in small country villages, is too well known to render any description of it necessary. Formerly there were several pairs of Stocks in various parts of the town, for we find by these Accounts that they were placed at the four gates of the town ; at the " Senvey Cross the old Hall, in Blue Boar Lane ; at the Bare-hill or BaiTel Cross ; under the Pillory ; and under an elm tree in the Market Place, probably that w^hich formerly stood in front of the Green Dragon public-house. The Whipping -Post was another popular punishment, now entirely obsolete. The instrument is thus described r by Mr. Wright, " Stocks for the hands w^ere placed at a , greater elevation so that the sufferer, with his legs at liberty, was held in an upright position ; the delinquent, in this case, was often subjected to the lash during his confinement, and the machine to which he was attached received the name of a Whipping-Post. In the Account for 1605 are the following charges : — £. s. d. Itm. — P'*. to W". Sheene for A poste for correction of Roages ij Itin. — P'^. to Pobertt Ludlam, lock- smythe for one Iron for the same post xij And in 1680 there was — Paid to John Groce for setting up the Whipping-post and for Ale ... 00 08 06 We learn from Machyn's Diary that it was also designated the post of reformation. At this period the law made no distinction of sex, with regard to the punishment of the lash, for by the Statute of OF LEICESTER. 85 the 21 Jac. I., c. 6, it was enacted that women convicted of simple larcenies under the vakie of ten shillings should be - burned in the hand* and whipped, stocked, or imprisoned for any time not exceeding a year ; and the whipping of women was not abolished until the reign of George IV. Thus in the account for the year 1591, we find there was Paid for the whipping of a woman . . 6'^. And this entry is followed by a charge for the " whipping of a lame cripple," and other instances of the same kind occur in subsequent years. f A Whipping-Post stood beside the Stocks in which Hudibras was confined, of which a burlesque description is given in the poem ; whilst of the great number of them in use during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. we have a striking testimony in the works of Taylor the Water-Poet. He says : — " In London, and within a mile, I ween There are of jails or prisons full eighteen ; And sixti/ ivkipping-230sts, and stocks, and cages." The Virtice of a Jail. One of these instruments is still standing, near the School-house, in the village of Keyham in this county. Witchcraft. — In the Account for the year 1596 we find the following entry respecting Witchcraft; and which illus- trates with horrible significance the superstitious feeling of * In the account for 1599 there is a charge of sixpence "for a Brand to burne prisoners withal." t " The general rule of all England," says the pamphlet, entitled Stanleye's Remedy, published in 1646, " is to whip and punish the wander- ing beggars and to brand them according to the form of the new Statute, and so mark them with such a note of iufamie, as they may be assured no man will set them on work." And the writer adds that " the poor may be whipped to death, and branded for rogues, and so become felons by the law, and the next time hanged for vagrancie." What a picture we have here of the tender mercies of the law at that peiiod! 86 ANCIENT RECORDS the age on this subject, and the judicial murders frequently perpetrated upon its victims : — Itin. p*^ for the charge of meate and drincke of old mother Cooke, being kept in the Hall V dayes at the suite of Mr. Ed- ward Saunders upon suspicbn of Witch- rye, who was afterwards removed to the Countrye gaiole, and was for the same arrayned, condemned, and hanged . . ij^ vj**. Twenty years afterwards (18th July, 1616) nine un- fortunate women were tried at our Assizes, before Justice Winch and Sergeant Crew, convicted, and executed for this supposed crime ; and some very curious particulars relative to their trial will be found in a letter from Aid. Robert Heyrick to his brother Sir William, jeweller to King James I. which is quoted in Mr. Thompson's His- tory of Leicester. The King came to Leicester on the 16th August in this year, and, having personally examined the boy who coun- terfeited to have been bewitched, detected the imposture, and the judges were " discountenanced," and fell into dis- grace ; as we learn by Chamberlain's letters to Sir Dudley Carleton. This, no doubt, led to the liberation of five other women on the 15th October, who had been impri- soned on a similar charge, a sixth having died in gaol. One of the most extraordinary trials for witchcraft on re- cord, and which was connected with this county, was that of Margaret and Phillip Flower, who were executed at Lincoln, March 11th, 1618, for bewitching the children of the Earl of Rutland, at Belvoir Castle ; and the account of which has recently been reprinted from a very rare tract of the period. The number of poor decrepid wretches who were put to death as witches is almost incredible. Hopkins, the notorious witch-finder, occasioned 60 to be hung in one year in the county of Suffolk alone. OF LEICESTER. 87 It is not surprising that the poor and ignorant should have been devoted believers in this horrible superstition, when we find that it was shared by scholars and men of the most eminent station. Bishop Jewel, in a sermon preached before Queen Elizabeth in 1558, made use of the following expressions : — " It may please your Grace to understand that witches and sorcerers within these last few years are marvellously increased within your Grace's realm. Your Grace's subjects pine away, even unto the death ; their colour fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their speech is benumbed, their senses are bereft : — I pray God they never practice further than ujpoyi the suhjectT In Arch- bishop Cranmer's Articles of Visitation, 1549, is the fol- lowing : — " Item, You shall enquire, whether you know of any that use charms, sorcery, enchantments, witchcraft, soothsaying, or any like craft, invented by the Devil." So greatly had charges for witchcraft multiplied through such incentives as these, that in Scotland in 1599, scarcely a year after the publication of the Demonologie of King James, not less than six hundred human beings are said to have been destroyed at once for this imaginary crime ; and it is estimated that from the year 1640 to the Resto- ration, between three thousand and four thousand persons were executed for it in this kingdom ; whilst Barrington, in his observations on the Statute of 20th of Henry YI. does not hesitate to estimate the entire number put to death in England on the charge of witchcraft at thirty thousand. , - So little evidence was required for condemning a witch, that we find by Scot^s Discovery it was held, " That if she have the witche's mark upon her body, it is pre- sumption sufiicient for the judge to proceed and give sen- tence of death upon her! !" In 1650, as we learn from a manuscript among the Hall-papers, this test was tried in this town upon a female named Chettle, who was fortunate enough to escape conviction ; she was examined by four 88 ANCIENT RECORDS of the townswomen, who stated, " that they had diligently searched the said Ann Chettle from the crown of her head to the soles of her feet, * * * and found her to be clear of any such suspicion." Two years later, however, a warrant was again issued for her apprehension to answer another charge, but the result is not recorded. Several other documents relating to witchcraft are to be found among the Borough MSS. In 1620 a singular charge of sorcery, murder, perjury, and other crimes was brought by one Christopher Monck, his ' familiar,' against Gilbert Smith, rector of Swithland, and enforced by petitions to the King and the Recorder: and in July, 1635, a poor woman, named Agnes Tedsall, was tried at the Assizes on a charge of having caused the death of Richard Linsey by witchcraft, but was acquitted. Even so recently as the Summer Assizes of 1717, Jane Clarke of Great Wigston, and her son and daughter, were put upon their trial at Leicester for the crime of witchcraft, as appears by the highly curious contemporary copy of the depositions of the twenty-five witnesses in the case, which is among the MSS. of our Society. It is lamentable to know that this superstition still exists amongst the ignorant, as is frequently evidenced by the public prints. But we will turn to a less painful subject. ^ The Chapel of "Our Blessed Lady" on the old West Bridge, at Leicester. — Among the numerous objects of local antiquity which had been spared by the destroying hand of time, apparently only to disappear before the rapid march of modern improvement, one of the most curious was the old West-bridge, which was removed in the year 1841, to make way for the present more commodious structure. Every one who gazed upon it must have been struck with its highly picturesque ap- pearance, forcibly impressing on the mind associations of OF LEICESTER. 89 an earlier age. This effect, although partly to be attri- buted to its massive and time-worn masonry — the early pointed character of two of its arches — the still earlier character of the eastern arch — and the triangular recesses over its piers — was mainly owing to the singular structure used as a dwelling house, which, extending fi'om the south-east abutment over the front of the eastern arch, rested its western end upon the elongated pier between that and the second arch. Of this edifice but a passing notice has been taken by our local historians. The only reference to it in Nichols's voluminous History of Leices- tershire is the following, which occurs in the account of the Priory of St. Katherine, belonging to the Friars Ere- mites of St. Augustine, which, as is well known, was situ- ated between this and the Bow-bridge ; the authority quoted is Mr. BickerstafTe's MS. " On the south-east side of the West-bridge is a dwelling-house, resting on its edge, the water passing under it through the arch nearest the town ; and the back part continuing above the water on stone-work, once a chapel, with a bell on the south-west, without, near the top ; the frame of which still remains, though the window through which it might play is stopped up. Here two mendicant friars asked alms for the hene- fit of the neighbouring priory.''^ And Throsby, in his account of the Augustine Friars, (evidently quoting from the same authority) says, " The only thing now visible that may be said to belong to the friary, is an old fi'ame, on w^hich hung the mendicant's bell, which projects from the house-top of that dwelling, partly standing on the West-bridge, and partly projecting over the river. Here two mendicants stood begging for the support of their brethren." No mention is made of the Chapel in Nichols's list of religious foundations in Leicester, and, from the foregoing quotations, it would evidently appear that it was con- sidered by the writers as an appendage of the Augustine 90 ANCIENT RECORDS Monastery, and its principal object to have been as a station for two of the brethren of that House to solicit donations from the passers by ; for, as is well knowai, the members of that mendicant Order w^ere not allowed by their rule to possess property, but were to subsist entirely on the alms of the faithful. Although Mr. BickerstalFe's conclusion seems a plausi- ble one, from the contiguity of the Chapel to the Priory, it will shortly be seen that it is not founded on fact, and that the Chapel had no connection with the Priory ; nay, it is highly probable that it was in existence on the bridge long prior to the introduction of this order of monks into England, which did not take place until the year 1252. It is, however, most likely that two of the brethren were stationed on the bridge^ for the purpose before-mentioned. My attention was first drawn to this subject by meeting with the following entry in the Chamberlains' Account for the year 1606, among the receipts derived from the pos- sessions of the dissolved College of St. Mary-de-Castro, of which in that year the Corporation first came into actual possession, although the grant of them by Queen Eliza- beth was dated in the year 1589, the lease previously granted to Edward Holt not having expired until that time : — Itm. rece'^ of Robert Heyricke, glover, for a Mes- suage or tenemente and a gardyn thereto adioynynge neyre unto the West-Gate, and for a howsse called the Chapell upon the said West Brigge, in his occupacbn in fiee ; - farme W ann x?. This shows that at the dissolution of religious houses the Chapel was a dependency of the collegiate church of St. Mary of the Castle ; and this evidence is strengthened by the following item which appears in the return of the revenues of the College at that time : — ■ OF LEICESTER. 91 Oblations before the Images of St. Mai'y-de- Brigge and St. James £1 ; whilst no mention is made of it in the grant of the site of the Augustine Monastery. The point is, however, fully decided by a document which I have subsequently met with in the Muniment-room. It is an indenture of feoff- ment dated 20th September, 1598, by which the Mayor and Burgesses sell to Robert Eyricke, of Mountsorrel, glo- ver, subject to a reserved rent, inter alia, "one House sometime called a Chappel House, situate and being on the south part or side of the West-bridge of the Town of Leicester on the West side or part thereof, &c. and was late parcel of the possessions of the late Colledge of the Blessed Virgin Mary near the Castle of Leicester T From this document it is perfectly evident that the Chapel on the bridge was a dependency of the College of St. Mary of the Castle, and not of the Priory of St. Kath- erine, as supposed by our local historians. The custom of erecting chapels on bridges obtained at a very early period, and even the bridges themselves were deemed of such importance in early times as to be dedi- cated to saints, of which many existing instances might still be pointed out, whilst in ancient Scandinavia they built bridges " for their soul's salvation." We learn that " in the advance of national importance the very ancient mode of communication by ferries was superseded by the construction of permanent bridges across unfordable rivers, and the recourse to these of pilgrims and way- farers (for at that period journeys were more frequently of a religious than a commercial nature), pointed out the most appropriate situation for the erection of chapels. Besides Bridge-Chapels, there were others on the high- way, or in lonely places, which linked the chain of com- munication, and were formed with the same benevolent intentions of providing for the temporary rest and refresh- 92 ANCIENT RECORDS ment of pilgrims and travellers." This custom also pre- vailed on the Continent. In Digby's Mores Catliolici, the following passage occurs : — " Entering Stia, a small town among the Appenines with the ruins of an old castle above it, 1 saw a little chapel at the end of a bridge, on which was an inscription to this effect : — ' Here is the bridge to enter Stia, and here is the Chapel of our Blessed Lady, may it prove to us a bridge to heaven " I imagine that St. James's Chapel, which formerly occupied the site of the Infirmary, and of which litde beyond its name is recorded by our local historians, w^as one of these wayside chapels for the resort of pilgrims. St. James, as is well known, was their patron, and he is represented with a pilgrim's hat, staff, scrip, and escallop shell. The Chapel probably formed part of St. Sepulchre's Church, and, like it, belonged to St. Mary of the Castle, which College, as we have already seen, received the obla- tions made before the image of the Saint. The Chapel had a Hermitage in connection with it, situated on the opposite side of the road, near where the pinfold now stands, adjoining which was a fine spring of water. These places are frequently referred to in the Chamberlains' Ac- counts, the well being termed indiscriminately the Her- mitage-well and the Chaf el-well — the latter of which names it retains to the present day.* It is also probable that the Chapel of St. John, which stood on the Belgrave-road, near the Spital founded by Robert the Leper, son of the third Norman Earl of Lei- cester, before 1250, and the site of which is now occupied by the Pack Horse public-house, was another of these wayside chapels. It belonged to the College of the New- arke, and in the " lock-book " of the Corporation is regis- tered a deed of Chantry, dated 20th Sept. 17 Edw. IV. * The Chapel-well, owing to the great increase of buildings In the neighbourhood, became dry in the summer of 1852, and has now, conse- quently, fallen into disuse. (June, 1 855, ) OF LEICESTER. 98 whereby it was provided that the gyld priest of St. John " should say or sing mass . . . two days in the week in the Chappel of St. John set at the town's end of Leicester." Tradition and documentary evidence are ahke silent as to the period when the old West-bridge of Leicester was first erected, and when " the Chapel of our Blessed Lady of the Brigge " was founded ; I believe, however, that part of the bridge dated from the time of our Norman Earls — ' probably of Robert de Bellomont, the first Earl, who, in 1107, rebuilt the contiguous church of St. Mary-de-Castro, and re-endowed it as a collegiate church, as it had been prior to the Conquest, restoring all its ancient possessions, with considerable additions, consisting of six hundred or seven hundred acres of land and numerous churches, including all those standing in Leicester at the period, with the exception of St. Margaret's. I am led to this conclusion from the character of the eastern arch, which, unlike the others, was semicircular, and was strengthened by chamfered ribs placed parallel ; in both of which re- spects it closely resembled the High-bridge over the Witham, at Lincoln — a work of undoubted Norman ar= chitecture, on which also formerly stood a Chapel ; and it is highly probable that the Earl, whilst piously restoring the Church of our Lady of the Castle, would erect the neighbouring Bridge with the adjoining West- Gate in con- nection with the works of the Castle, (which we know he greatly strengthened) and found the Chapel upon it, also dedicating that to the Virgin, but which, as a minor work, would be merged in the glory of his greater undertaking : — that of erecting and endowing a Church which has rever- berated with the iron tread of the mail-clad Baron, " high of heart and ready of hand," who before departing to gain undying renown as the friend and companion in arms of the Lion-hearted Richard on the plains of Palestine, " Here first his orisons he made Before St. Mary's shrine " ; 94 ANCIENT RECORDS Before whose altar, at a later period, has often humbly knelt that " flower of chivalry," the great Simon de Mont- fort, Leicester's mightiest Earl, and of whom we may justly be proud, not as such, but as the man who in the dark days of feudal oppression and lordly tyranny, himself one of the most powerful of the privileged class, stood boldly forward as the champion of those liberties we now enjoy, and in which sacred cause he may be said to have fallen a martyr (and I cannot here help regretting, in com- mon I am sure with every member of the Society, who had the opportunity of hearing it, that Mr. Hollings's learned and eloquent paper on the life of that truly great man should have been allowed to pass away with the oc- casion which called it forth) ; — which at a still later period was enlarged and adorned by the munificence and under the personal inspection of " Old John of Gaunt, time- honoured Lancaster"; has witnessed, in all probability, the marriage of a Chaucer, and has resounded with the trumpet-tongued words of that worthy soldier of the Cross, Wycliffe, calling on his followers to wage under that ban- ner a more holy and glorious warfare than ever the cru- sader knew ; and which, though mutilated and disfigured, still retains so much of its pristine beauty as to merit the designation conferred upon it among the churches of Lei- cester — that of being " the poetry of architecture." Of Robert de Bellomont and his work we may say, in the words of a transatlantic poet : — " Many centuries have been numbered Since in death the Baron slumbered By the Convent's sculptured portal, Mingling with the common dust ; But the good deed, through the ages Living in historic pages, Brighter grows and gleams immortal, Unconsumed by moth or rust !" To this Earl we are also probably indebted for the Great Hall of the Castle still remaining. OF lf:icester. 95 We learii by a parchment roll, preserved in the Muni- ment room and quoted by Mr. Thompson in his History of Leicester, that in the year 1290 the sum of £28. Os. 5d. was expended upon works at the West-bridge. It is, we conceive, clear that the bridge could not have been first erected at that time for several reasons : in the first place, we find in the Mayor's Account for the year 1262 payments occur for the repair of the bridges ; whilst in a former year money had been collected for the same purpose. The most conclusive proof to my mind, however, not only of a bridge having been in existence on the spot previous to that time, but also as tending strongly to show that Robert de Beilomont erected it, is the fact of that Earl having established the impost called Brig g- Silver^ which Mr. Carte (who is quoted by Nichols and Throsby) describes as a payment for the privilege of fetching wood from the forest, and deriving its name from being collected at the bridges of the town ; — but which tax, as it appears to me, was probably levied upon the inhabitants as pontage, for the purpose of defraying the cost of the erection of the bridge by this Earl, as it w^as remitted by his successor, Robert Bossu ; and his charter having been accidentally burnt in 1253, Simon de Montfort confirmed the remission of this tax and of another called " govel-pennis." The words of the charter then granted also seem clearly to indicate that the tax was strictly a pontage for the maintenance of the bridge. It commences as follows : — "To all the faithful in Christ by whom this writing may he seen or heard : Sir Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, steward of England, health in the Lord ! Let it be known to all men that we have remitted and quit-claimed for ever, for us and our heirs, all those pennies which in any manner were accustomed to be exacted and taken under the name of pon tage at our bridges of Leicester, which are called ' hrigge-silvir^ &c. * " Omnes illos denarios qui aliquo modo nomine pontagii ad pontes no&tros Leyccstr. exigi et capi solebant, qui vocabautur 'Brigge Silvir,'" kc. 96 ANCIENT RECORDS In reference to this tax we find in the 23rcl chap, of the Magna Charta of King John, that " no city, nor Freeman shall be distrained to make any bridges or water-banks, but such as of old have been accustomed to do so;" — whilst in the year 1330, a grant of pontage ( concessio pontagii J was obtained for three years by this Borough from Edward III. for the repairs of the bridge. The bridge was, however, probably rebuilt at the time of the expenditure U23on it in 1290, with the exception of the Eastern end upon which the Chapel stood ; as the acutely pointed arch at the Western end, which retained its original form up to the time of the removal of the bridge, was of the character which prevailed in the architecture of the latter end of the 13th century. The earliest documentary evidence which I have been able to discover connected with the Chapel of our Lady, is a passage in the will of the unfortunate William, Lord Hastings, dated on the 27th June, 1481, and which is preserved amongst the Harleian MSS. It is as follows : — "Also, I woll that myne executors do make new and edify the Chapell of our Lady, called the Chapell on the Brigge at Leicester, and for the making thereof C. pounds. [This sum would probably be equal to at least £1000 in the present day.] Also, &c. that they find a preste in the same Chapell by the space of seaven yercs next after my decease to say daily masse &c. in the same Chapell, and other prayers, as shall be ordeigned by myne executors and for the performing thereof." It is evident from this bequest that a Chapel existed upon the bridge long prior to the reign of Edward IV. We know not if the pious intentions of Lord Hastings were carried into efiect, and the Chapel rebuilt and edified, if " Aye the mass-priest sang his song And patter' d many a prayer. And the chaunting bell toU'd loud and long, And aye the lamp burn'd there." But such was probably the case as we find that other parts OF LEICESTER. m of the will were carried into effect ; and, althougli at the time of its destruction, the edifice was such " a thing of shreds and patches" that no trace of architectural beauty was discernible, it is not improbable that the western gable, with its blocked up window and somewhat picturesque frame for the bell, formed part of the alterations effected in the 15th century, in accordance with the will of that nobleman. In the reign of Henry VII. (8th year) w^e find the Chapel thus referred to in " An Enquiry concerning serten decais had upon the town-wall and dyke" made by Edward Hastings, Knight, Lord Hastings, and John Digby, Knight, by special commission : — Itm.— The said Dean [of St. Mary of the Castle] holdith another ground hesyde our lady of the hrigge, which paid by yeare iiij**. and nowe paith xij**. With the exception of a few uninteresting items for ordinary repairs, no further notice of the once, doubtless, beautiful little Chapel of our Lady of the Bridge, occurs in these accounts. I may mention, by the way, that whilst looking through some of the old documents, I found that there formerly stood on the further side of the West-bridge a building called Countess-Chamber, of which no mention is made in any history of the town, nor does any tradition appear to remain respecting it. From the description given of it in the deed (dated in the year 1633), it would appear to have been immediately adjoining to, or more probably occupying the site of, the highly picturesque old building which formerly stood at the South-w^est corner of the bridge, and which bore the date of 1636. It is described in the deed as being opposite the broken wall of the Order of St. Austine, " and to have been bounded on the East by the water of the Sore, and the Mille Damme." But to g2 98 ANCIENT RECORDS resume : — I fear you will consider that I have trespassed too much upon your patience in thus dilating upon a subject which by many may be deemed but of little interest, but for myself I must confess that I always linger with a melancholy delight amidst the associations inspired by even the most unassuming ecclesiastical structures of our forefathers, who, whatever might have been the errors and superstitions of their religious faith, we must all admit, worshipped God with the best of their substance, and raised fanes to the glory of the Almighty, which, for architectural beauty, grace, and lofty grandeur, were indeed "The noblest works of imitative art;" which we, in this our cold utilitarian age, may vainly hope to equal; and many of which still remain to us as the most exquisite models of their peculiar styles of archi- tecture in the world. It is in allusion to such associations as these that Dr. Johnson remarks : — " The man is little to be envied whose patriotism would not gain force on the plains of Marathon, or whose piety would not grow warmer amongst the ruins of lona." I must now. Sir, draw these very imperfect observations to a close. Subjects, certainly of more historical import- ance, and, probably of more general interest, might have been selected for illustration from these records; and I had, indeed, purposed — had time permitted — to have included some curious particulars respecting royal visits to Leicester, but this I found to be impracticable within the assigned limits, which I regret to have already exceeded. Indeed, the difficulties I have experienced in my task have not arisen from a want of materials, but rather from the profusion of them. The illustrations I have brought before you, rude and imperfect sketches as they are, may suffice to show the variety of subjects to be found in these Accounts ; and OF LEICESTER. 99 enable you to picture to yourselves a few of the phases of the popular manners of the period. Thej certainly indicate a state of society far inferior to our own in refinement, but, whilst we may be truly grateful that oiu' lot is cast in happier times, let us remem- ber that every age has its own work prescribed by the Great Disposer of events ; that to the prolonged struggles and suflferings of these men, or such as these, composing the great burgher class of our ancient towns, we are mainly indebted for our civil and religious liberties ; that the age also, comparatively rude as it was, gave birth to a Sidney, a Raleigh, a Fletcher, a Jonson, a Bacon, a Spen- ser, and a Shakespeare ; whilst each of two villages in our own county produced a brace of brothers of no ordinary eminence — Burton, the first of our local historians, and his still greater brother, the learned author of that extra- ordinary work The Anatomy of Melancliohj ; — Sir John Beaumont, the Soldier-Poet, and his brother Francis : — '• That famous youth full soon removed From Eaith, perhaps by Shakespeare's self approved, Fletcher's associate, Jonson' s fi-iend beloved." We have seen that some of the pastiroes, as well as the punishments of the period, and especially those inflicted upon the weaker sex, were characterised by great cruelty ; but still we must not take this evidence as strictly indicating the feelings of the entire mass of the people, or in what light may the present and the past generation, with their advanced civilisation, expect to appear, when it shall be recorded by historians some two or three centimes hence, that up to the 30th year of the reign of George the Third, the punishment which the law equally awarded to a woman killing her husband, or coining a sliilling, was to be burned alive at the stake ? and that up to a much later period, our Statute Book was disgraced by that most inhuman penalty for the crime of high-treason, with all 100 ANCIENT RECORDS its unmitigated barbarity? Verily, on this score we have but little to boast ! Although great advances have of late years been made in the study of Archaeology, it is still too much the fashion to decry antiquarian learning, and to afifect to despise all researches into the manners and customs of our ancestors as utterly worthless. To our modern utilitarians, indeed, the associations of the past may be as nothing ; and when they are referred to, we can understand why the inhabitants of places, which have only sprung into importance recently, and have, consequently, no such associations to boast of, should cry cui bono ? but, I trust, we shall not echo the cry — no, let us rather cherish with prouder hearts the " Stirring memory of tivo thousand years" which flings its halo over our good old town. Let us look back through the vista of the past, and what a crowd of associations press upon our minds, transferring us in imagination to ages before our era. Here, as Geoffrey of Monmouth relates. King Leir, some two thousand five hundred years ago, founded a city and gave it his own name ; here, too, "after life's fitful fever" was ended, by the pious care of his faithful Cordeila he was interred. We will not stay to enquire whether what the Chronicler has related be a history or a myth ; but, at least, it has connected us with one of the finest crea- tions of the genius of Shakespeare. In our immediate vicinity, within the precincts of our ancient forest, where the giant-oaks with their gnarled branches clasped by the "mystic mistletoe" and the "treacherous ivy," once afforded a gloomy and sacred shade, yet remains part of an undoubted relic of the mysterious and impenetrable rites of the Druids. Beneath our feet the earth teems with memorials of the importance of our town during the Roman sway. Here our forefathers have seen the haughty Dane OF LEICESTER. 101 succumb to the conquering arms of the warlike Ethelfla3da, the Lady of the Mercians, that worthy daughter of the great Alfred ; here, too, our Saxon townsmen valiantly fought against the Norman invader, under the banner of that Erick the Forester, whose descendants still sojourn amongst us. Of w^hat illustrious names and mighty events are the few time-worn remains of the once formidable and magnificent Castle of Leicester calculated to remind us. — Here a long line of renowned Earls bore almost regal sway, many of them occupying important positions in our country's history ; — the potent Leofric, with his Countess the far-famed Lady Godiva ; the unfortunate Edwin, the last of our Saxon Earls, who like his brother Morcar, met wdth an untimely fate at the hands of the Normans ; the wise and benevolent de Bellomont, to whom we have before referred ; Bossu, his son, the founder of the Abbey ; the restless Blanchmains, the powerful and rebellious vassal of Henry XL, whose revolt led to the destruction of Leicester with its almost impregnable fortifications, by the King's forces ; Fitz-Parnel, the renowned Crusader ; and the still more illustrious Simon de Montfort. Here, too, the Earls of the princely line of Lancaster had their favourite abode ; here, also, parliaments have been held, and Kings presided. " Lo on that mound in days of feudal pride Thy tow'ring castle frown' d above the tide ; Flung wide her gates, where troops of vassals met With awe the brow of high Plantagenet." Let us pass under that ruined gateway into the quiet precincts of the Newarke, and muse where once stood in all its pride the Collegiate Church, one of the most beau- tiful in England. Here, undistinguished, with no stone to mark the spot, sleeps the dust of many of the mighty of the earth ; of Constance^ the princely daughter of proud ANCIENT RECORDS Castile ; of Mary de Bohun, wife of the " aspiring Boling- broke," and mother of the hero of Agincourt; and, worthy companion of the great and good, here, too, He the re- mains of Leicester's merchant-prince, William Wigston. Or let us proceed a few steps further and gaze upon that crumbling fragment of a shattered wall ; and, could its stones speak, of what deeds of heroic valour might they not tell when on this spot the men of Leicester — aye, and the women too, — in " the imminent deadly breach," amidst the cannons' ^4ron-shower," long withstood the desperate assaults of the royal army, led on by the fiery Rupert. We learn that here, where the most sanguinary part of what the biographer of Prince Rupert has recorded as " one of the best fought and defended actions of the war," took place, several of the v^^ives and sisters of the gallant defenders, like the Amazons of old, " fighting with all a soldier's courage" in defence of their homes and liberties, " met with a soldier's death." What a striking- lesson on the instability of human greatness we are taught by the time-worn arches of the Bow-bridge — which, to the lasting disgrace of our townsmen in suffering the destruc- tion of the Old Blue Boar, is now, alas ! our only existing memorial of the closing scenes in the life of the last and bravest of the Plantagenets. We behold him, a wise and powerful monarch, entering the town "with a frowning countenance but in great pompe," at the head of a mighty array, attended by all " the pride and circumstance of glo- rious war," and passing over this spot to his last field ; but a few brief days and his naked body, "riddled with wounds," and treated with every mark of infamy, again crosses the bridge to its temporary tomb in the church of the Grey Friars : and at the distance of a few years, says Throsby, as if his bones were wedded to the spot whereon these venerable arches stand, it then became their final resting-place. Or let us read the same lesson inscribed in other characters, upon those ivy-mantled walls, where OF LEICESTER. 103 once the proud Abbey of St. Mary, with many a " long- drawn aisle and fretted vault," lifted its spires towards the sky. On this spot, rendered classic ground by the event, we behold the great Wolsey — but lately the mate of kings — the possessor of almost unbounded wealth and power — — surrounded by even more than regal pomp — and appa- rently firmly fixed on his lofty pinnacle of greatness — sud- denly reduced to appear as a humble suppliant even for a grave : — " 0 father Abbot, An old man, broken mth the storms of state, Is come to lay his weary bones among ye, . ■ Give him a little earth for charity !" If such events as these are worthy a place on the page of history, and we have alluded to a few only of the many associations in which Leicester is so pre-eminently rich, it becomes us to guard the records of the past, which we possess, as a sacred trust bequeathed to us by our prede- cessors for the benefit of posterity ; invaluable but perish- able monuments as they are, bearing truthful witness to events in the history of the town, extending over a period of seven hundred years. It is, indeed, to such documents as these that we must look for history itself ; for whilst its pages are liable to be, as they too frequently have been, falsified by historians to suit the views of a predominant party (and probably in no instance more so than in that of Richard III), we know that these documents speak in no lying tongue, but in the unvarnished accents of truth itself. And whilst we have to regret that many valuable re- cords have been destroyed by the hand of time, by civil strife, and by the neglect of former possessors, let us es- teem the still extensive collection which remains to us like the famed books of the Sibyl — as being rendered trebly precious by the loss of those which have perished. THE LATE PROFESSOR MACGILLIVRAY: BY JAMES HARLEY, Hon. Mem. READ BEFORE THE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, LEICESTER, ON THE 28TH FEBRUARY, 1853. THE AUTHOE'S APOLOGY. This Essay migM have been enriched by the correspondence of Sir Oswald Mosley, Sir William Jardine, Mr. Yarrell, Dr. Johnston of Berwick-on-Tweed, Thomas Durham Weir, Esq. of Linlithgow- shire, the late William Thompson of Belfast, and many other active observers, whose ingenious notes on Birds, MoUusca, and Insects, and other interesting matters having reference to the Fauna of Leicestershire, are at present in our possession ; but it was deemed prudent to omit such obsei-vations altogether for the sake of brevity, as their insertion would necessarily have prolonged it far beyond the limits of a single discourse. If any apology is due it must be sought for in the slender materials on which the paper is founded, as regards the personal histoi-y of Macgillivray, and our clumsy manner of dealing with the subject, rather than in its interesting author and original. In the course of reading, it will be perceived that the little monosyllable I has been carefully omitted ; and, should it damage the Essay, or seem fastidious and pedantic, it is, nevertheless, hoped that our first attempt at Biography may not prove altogether unin- teresting and uninstructive. MACGILLIVRAY. How rare a thing it is for us to meet with an unvarnished tale of human life, — a narrative without imperfection; a literary portrait absolutely chaste and true, without the stain of bias and the colouring of false friendship. Biographers, in the main, recognise the footsteps and every-day life of the individuals whose history they portray, only in the strong light of self-love, self-interest, and the fashion of the times or age in which they happen to live. It appears to the mind of the writer, amounting almost to a positive axiom, that much biography consists in the mere imagination of an author, and consequently the train of thought employed, manipulated, and dexterously woven into discourse, becomes of necessity tinged and moulded by circumstances of conventional life, and the almost endless variety of influences and multiform associ- ations by which man is environed. Is it not true that this terrene state and condition has been so arranged by the great and wondrous Author of all, that our very diurnal being, though so imperfectly understood by us, is, nevertheless, plastic like the rich, exuberant, teeming womb of earth, incessantly but imper- ceptably receiving the seal-like impressions of time ? Hence the task there is to record, with fidelity and truth, the more striking and remarkable scenes and passages which exist in the history of mankind. 108 MACGILLIVRAY. Friendship may, nay, not unfrequently does become pur- blind, and in the very moment of assize, while hoodwinked, gagged, and mole-eyed through such influence, the pen fails to do its work and to lay bare for the gaze of our race the actions, failings, weaknesses, vices, and it may be virtues of man. Prejudice, on the other hand, has its work to perform, with its chalice brim-full of bitter ingredients, personal and relative. Here, also, the pen may describe falsely and wickedly. Truth may be con- strued into falsehood and error. Virtue into vice. Fame into dishonour ; and the love of country, so dear to all, into foul conspiracy, base intrigue, and violent rebellion. The few passages in the life of the distinguished individual whose writings, correspondence, and scientific attainments and celebrity are to form the theme of our discourse, will not, we trust, lay the writer open to undue censure, gendered by a mistaken friendship and false love. Our object, in this brief memoir, is not to rehearse the sayings of man, but to recount, in some humble way, the influence and value of his works and correspondence. For this purpose we shall have to make extracts occasionally from his invaluable letters, analyze his writings, and give some readings from his diversified labours and printed dis- courses. The enquiry may be dull, tedious, and unin- teresting, not unfrequently such essays are so, when the imagination has not been called into full play : but when our task is done, and our literary exercise finished, these few leaves and flowers, gathered pensively with affection at large from the early grave of one so distinguished in the walks of science and the vast fields of literature, will not, we trust, be altogether lost amid the vicissitude and wreck of time. The subject of this memoir, William Macgillivray, was born at Old Aberdeen on the 25th day of January, 1795. When only three years of age he was taken to the Western Isles where he remained till he was eleven, when he MACGILLIVRAY. 109 returned to his native city and attended King's College till he took out his degree of A.M. All his vacations were spent in the Western Isles, and it was there no doubt, amid those wild scenes and sea-girt cliifs, that he first saw with delight and wonder the wisdom of Deity displayed with so much charm and skill in the delicate seaweed, the petal of the lonely flower, and whelk of the desolate strand, beautifully harmonizing with the sweep of the eagle, osprey, and peregrine falcon as they dashed through the liquid void, or sought the covert of the fissured headland and beetling cliffs, overhanging the breakers and ever rolling waters of the Atlantic Ocean. The dissonant cries of the raven, gannet, and cormorant mingled with the oceanic wailings of the feathered tribes peopling the far sea-wave was to his young heart the very music of nature. Through childhood and the fancy seasons of youth he appears to have had a great love for all living creatures. He saw the wisdom and perfection of God in everything ; indeed, says his affectionate and intelligent daughter, writing to Leicestershire on the subject of her father's death, — " I have heard him say, that nature itself would appear frightful to him, were it not for the feeling he con- stantly had that whatever he looked on was the handiwork of Jehovah." With a mind susceptible of such external impressions and lofty emotions, the very source and fruit of a vigorous but just conception of the displays of infinite intelligence, as seen through the mighty vast of creation, one can easily imagine with what delight he would tear the limpet from its native rock ; peep into the literal shell of the mollusc for a sight of the hermit crab ; scale the fastnesses of the Hebridian sea-board to examine minutely the eyrie of the golden eagle, and those spots, the fissures and crevices, where lurk the seal, otter, and long-winged osprey. Years afterwards, he tells us, in his own beautiful Ian- - guage, quite unmistakable, what kind of eff'ectthe sublimity no MACGILLIVRAY. of nature had on his mind when alone he stood and beheld it :• — " It is delightful to wander far away from the haunts, and even the solitary huts of men, and ascending the steep mountain, seat one's self on the ruinous cairn that crowns its summit, where, amid the grey stones, the ptarmigan gleans its Alpine food. There, communing with his own heart, in the wilderness, the lover of nature cannot fail to look up to nature's God. I believe it in fact impossible, in such situation, on the height of Ben Na- miiic-due or Ben Nevis, for example, not to be sensible, not merely of the existence, but also of the presence of a Divinity. In that sacred temple, of which the everlasting hills are the pillars and the blue vault of heaven the dome, he must be a fiend indeed who could harbour an unholy thought. But to know himself, one must go there alone. Accompanied by his fellows, he may see all external nature that he could see in solitude, but the hidden things of his own heart will not be brought to light. To me the ascent of a lofty mountain has always induced a frame of mind similar to that inspired by entering a temple : and I cannot but look upon it as a gross profanation, to enact, in the midst of the sublimities of creation, a convivial scene, such as is usually got up by parties from our large towns, who seem to have no higher aim in climbing to the top of Ben Lomond or Ben Ledi, than to feast there upon cold chicken and "mountain dew," and toss as many stones as they can find over the precipices." Youth, to him, soon fled, and the very morning of his life, so sweet and exquisite in remembrances with most of us, early merged into manhood's dawn and prime. He began to study for the medical profession, but his dislike, we are told, to incur the great responsibility of the practice of it, caused him to abandon it. For a length of time, however, prior to withdrawing himself from the Schools of Medicine attached to the University of his native city, he officiated in the capacity of assistant to the ingenious demonstrator and lecturer on comparative anatomy. The thirst for anatomical inquiry and osteological investigation afforded MACGILLIVRAY. Ill him at this time, through his diligence, patience, and zeal, appears never to have left him : and hence in after years ' his celebrity, fame, and clear-headed descriptions of those forms of organic and inorganic existence v^hich pervade his literary labom's. The first faint glimmerings of Zoology which occupied his hours of study, and which eventually led him to a more intricate acquaintance with the moving masses and myriad creatures so wondrously encircling his daily path, he derived, as he himself informs us, from Pennant and Montagu, and the voluminous works of Belon, Gesner, Aldrovandus, and Brisson. There is a turning point in every man's life — a pivot, and axis, and hinge, on which his fortune and fate revolves. The Bard of Avon, in his own curt language, has told us, that " there is a tide in the affairs of men," and those words of his have become household, and, as it were, stereotyped by usage, and made patent, moreover, like the sayings of the ancients. We are not quite certain as to the exact period of time which elapsed ere Macgillivray bid adieu to his unwearied studies at the University of his native city : but we believe it was in the year 1819, in wdiich he obtained the office of assistant to Professor Jamieson, at that period, as now, Regius Professor of Natural History of the University of Edinburgh. We are not informed how this appointment of his was obtained, but we are inclined to think it was quite unsolicited by him, as .Jamieson had so high an opinion of his talents, industry, and skill as a comparative anatomist. In an autograph letter of his, written some few years afterwards, he characterised him not only as an author and practical naturalist, but also an original thinker and accomplished scholar. Beneath the pa- tient, diligent, and auspicious rule of the Regius Pro- fessor, Macgillivray passed eight years of his life, and so profitable and interesting were his varied studies, 112 MACGILLIVRAY. whilst under the teachmg of so vahiable a guide, to him, that he ever afterwards referred to them with plea- sure, even when harassed and care worn by the friction and toil of succeeding years. His terms of agreement with the authorities of the University precluded him from delivering lectures on Zoology, Botany, and Comparative Anatomy in public in the Schools of Edinburgh, although his efficiency for the task was acknowledged and desired. On leaving Univer- sity College Museum he was appointed to the honourable post of Conservator of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh — a sphere of great usefulness, which he continued to occupy for the space of nearly ten years. Dr. Grant, of the University of London, speaking of him in the year 1827, says, "he possesses a thorough acquaintance with the Latin and French languages : and the numerous translations which he has published, as well as his own memoirs, on various interesting subjects of natural history, exhibit great taste and elegance of English composition, and much correctness and accuracy of obser- vation. His long connection with the Royal Museum of the University of Edinburgh, his frequent visits to the different parts of Scotland and the Western Islands, his attachment to the study of natural history, and his intimate acquaintance with all the best works on that branch of science have enabled him to accumulate much valuable practical knowledge on that subject: and his proficiency in the art of drawing, his correct taste, and nice powers of discrimination, his familiarity with the objects and techni- cal language of natural history, and his indefatigable industry lead me to expect from him a useful and brilliant career, when left to the unrestricted exercise of his abilities. The excellence of his private character and the amiableness of his disposition are equal to his scientific attainments, and his modesty, candour, and obliging manners endear him to all who enjoy his acquaint- MACGILLIVRAY. 113 ance. The highly honourable distinctions he has received from many learned societies in this country he owes entirely to his own merits and abilities." It will be our pleasant task to show that the high opinion entertained of his growing usefulness and scientific worth by Dr. Grant and other distinguished savans, moving in the walks of literature, were not frustrated, as they beheld Macgillivray pursue with unquenchable ardour and untiring zeal the elaboration and further unfoldment of zoological enterprise. To make our duty intelligible we shall give a synopsis of his invaluable contributions to the scientific literature of his country, aware, at the same time, that no eulogy on our part is needed to set forth the importance and value of his discourses. Of his original works, we have :~" The Travels and Researches of Yon Humboldt, being a condensed Narrative of his Journeys in the Equinoctial Regions of America and in Asiatic Russia." The narrative went through three editions. "Lives of Eminent Zoologists, from Aristotle to Linnaeus, with introductory remarks on the study of Natural History and occasional observations on the progress of Zoology." This appeared in 1834. "Description of the Rapacious Birds of Great Britain." (1836.) "A History of British Birds, indigenous and migratory, including their organization, habits, and relations, remarks on Classifica- tion and Nomenclature, an account of the principal organs of Birds, and observations relative to Practical Orni- thology." The first volume of this, his great work, appeared in the year 1837, and the second and third in the years 1839-40. The last two volumes, containing his valedictory remarks, came forth in the autumn of 1852. A history of British Quadrupeds appeared fresh from his pen in 1838 ; and in the following year he published a manual of Geology, which arrived at a second edition in 114 MACGILLIVRAy. 1841. A manual of Botany, comprising vegetable anato- my and physiology, was published during the year 1840. This manual was succeeded by one of British Ornithology, in two volumes, described as a short description of the Birds of Great Britain and Ireland, including the essential characters of the species, genera, families, and orders. A second edition came from the press in the year 1846, with additional remarks and annotations. During the year 1830 he gave us an edition of Withering's Sys- tematic Arrangement of British Plants, one of the best introductions to the study of Botany, accompanied with figures, extant. It is a concisely written work, and as a field-book, all that a student need desire on the subject of the indigenous plants of these islands. The work went through a second edition in the year 1833, a third edition in 1835, a fourth edition in 1837, a fifth edition in the year 1847, and an eighth edition in 1852. He published, moreover, an edition of Sir James Edward Smith's intro- duction to Physiological and Systematical Botany, with additions and annotations, during the year 1836 ; and in the same year he sent forth a Catalogue of the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, comprehend- ing observations and remarks on the preparations illustra- tive of Pathology. His original papers which have found their way into the various Scientific journals are most numerous, some of which may be comprised in the following list, although it is quite certain that there are many more scattered over the literature of our country, were one so fortunate as to meet with them : — Notice relative to two varieties of Nuphar lutea, found in a lake in Aberdeenshire. Remarks on the specific characters of Birds. Descriptions, characters, and synonyms of the different species of the genus Larus, with critical and explanatory remarks. - . ^ MACGILLIVRAY. 115 Description of a supposed new species of Ornitliorhyncus. Description of a species of Auricula common in Aberdeen- ^ shire. Remarks on the Phenogamic Vegetation of the River Dee. List of Birds found in the District of Harris, part of the outer range of the Hebrides. Remarks on the Flora Scotica of Dr. Hooker. " ' Notice regarding the island of Grimsey, off the north coast of Iceland, and the Isles of St. Kilda, on the north-west - coast of Scotland. Account of Harris, one of the districts of the Outer Hebrides. Description of Pecton Niveus, a new species of Shell. On the Covering of Birds, considered chiefly with reference to the description and distinction of Species, Genera, and Orders. Description of a species of Aira found on Loch Na-gar, in Aberdeenshire. Description of a species of Salix found on Braemar. Remarks on the Serrature of the Middle Claw, and the Irre- gular Denticidation of the Beak in certain Birds. Habits of the White-tailed Sea Eagle. On the Uses to which certain Plants have from time imme- morial been employed in the Outer Hebrides. On the Indigenous Trees of North Britain. Remarks on the Sands of the Outer Hebrides. ~ ; Macgillivray, likewise, contributed largely to the Quar- terly Journal of Agriculture, and the transactions of the Highland Society of Scotland. He translated, moreover, three works on Anatomy and Geology, edited a volume of Travels, and did into English about one thousand pages of Natural History, which he found in the French and Latin tongue. During the year 1844 he gave to the world a History of the Molluscous Animals of the counties of Aberdeen, Banff, and Kincardine, the subject of which cost him much labour, owing to the imperfect works, he says, of other describers and monographers. 116 MACGILLIVRAY. Observe how vividly he sets forth the obstacles lying in his path on writing to Leicestershire during the examina- tion of the Fauna of that remote district. " The labour required for such an investigation cannot be at all appreciated by those who have not directed their energies toward such an object. The rocky coasts and sandy beaches of the sea, the valleys and hills of the interior, the pastures, mossy banks, thickets, woods, rocks, rivers, walls, ditches, pools, canals, rills, and waste places were to be assiduously searched. No collections of MoUusca made in the district were known to me, nor do any of our libraries contain the works necessary to be consulted, although that of King's College supphes some of great value. In a situation so remote from the great centre of civiliz- ation, the solution of doubts is often difficult of attainment, and there is always a risk of describing as new what may already have been entered into the long catalogue of known objects. " But the pleasure," he adds, " of continually adding to one's knowledge, the sympathy of friends, the invigorating influence of the many ramblings required, the delight of aiding others in the same pursuits, and many other circumstances, amply suffice to carry one through greater difficulties than those alluded to, even should the sneers of the ignorantly wise, or the frowns of the pompously grave, be directed towards the unconscious wight who, immersed in mud, gropes with the keenness of a money- gatherer, for the, to them, insignificant objects which have exer- cised the wisdom and providence of the Glorious Creator." Thus wrote Macgillivray in the year 1844, on the sub- ject of a most interesting order of animals, of which many forms were to his eye quite new, and especially com- mended to his notice and observation, as belonging to, and forming a most beautiful section of, the Fauna of his native county. But no work on which his pen and scalpel were em- ployed cost him more labour than that of Audubon's Or- nithological Dictionary, or an Account of the Birds of the United States of America. The work was published in five volumes royal octavo. The first volume appeared in MACGILLIVRAY. 117 1831, and the last in the year 1839. It will be unnecessary to state what part Macgillivray undertook to write in this - the principal literary work of the celebrated John James Audubon. In the preface to the first volume the author says : — " I feel pleasure in here acknowledging the assistance which I have received from a friend, Mr. Macgillivray, who being pos- sessed of a liberal education, and a strong taste for the study of the natural sciences, has aided me, not in drawing the figures of my illustrations, nor in writing the book now in your hand, although fully competent for both tasks, but in completing the scientific details and smoothing down the asperities of my Or- nithological biographies." Moreover, in the second volume of the same work, there is an acknowdedgment of his patient enquiry, we observe, worthy the pen and heart of Audubon, but not sufficiently just as regards the vast amount of research and unw^earied industry so generously bestowed upon it. . Audubon says: — " An account of the digestive organs, and trachea of these, generally concise, but occasionally of considerable length, you will find under the articles to which they refer in the present volume. These anatomical descriptions, as well as the sketches by which they are sometimes illustrated, have been executed by my learned friend William Macgillivray, who in the most agree- able manner consented to undertake the labour, by no means small, of such a task, and to whom those who are interested in the progress of Ornithological science, as well as myself, must therefore feel indebted." The descriptions referred to are those of all the species, and of the alimentary and respiratory organs of several hundred specimens preserved in spirits. On the first appearance of the work much discord arose amongst a certain class of observers of the day, as to its genuineness, and its author became the subject of wide- spread criticism. Its merits were set forth in Loudon's Magazine of Natural 118 MACGILLIVRAY. History, at that time the chief organ and repository of many out-door observers, by one of the most scientific ornithologists amongst us, in such unmeasured language, as to draw forth from the pen of an adventurous traveller a series of remarks not very wisely tempered, nor very candidly and calmly expressed. Mr. Waterton, however, was justified in what he affirmed respecting the actual, and legitimate author of the work, as every description it contained was drawn out, arranged, and elaborated by Macgillivray. The sketches were by Audubon, but every word was re-written and moulded by the subject of this memoir. We venture these critical remarks, not at ran- dom, to damage the well-earned reputation of the late dis- tinguished naturalist of the United States, but to set the great industry, and painstaking, undaunted zeal of his coadjutor and master in science in its proper light. Were these strictures denied, we have evidence sufficient to prove — authority beyond the compass of error — however, that Macgillivray came off but ill rewarded in fame and fortune for the ready aid he had so generously and spon- taneously affi^rded Audubon, while a patron-seeking artist on these shores. Native merit frequently is suffered by us to pine away, and find an early tomb, whilst the indi- vidual embracing the advantages afforded him through the sweat of the brain of the child of misfortune and mis- chance becomes thereby enriched and ennobled. Such phenomena as that we speak of is by no means singular, nor can those who take a correct view of human life be ignorant altogether of its lineaments. Great industry, we have elsewhere said, was a cardinal virtue in the daily life of Macgillivray. Indeed, so keen was his thirst for anato- mical knowledge, evinced in his examination of the Birds of the United States, which the woodsman, Audubon, had with so much sacrifice procured for him from the wilds, and prairies, and vast forests of the Western hemisphere, that his most intimate friends were anxious that his inquiries MACGILLIVRAY. 119 should be interrupted, lest his mental powers should become impaired and lost to the world. The synopsis of the Birds of North America, published by Mr. Audubon in the year 1839, was the entire and ex- clusive work of Macgillivray. Every line, every descrip- tion, and every synonym given therein to the student, and for the use of the scientific zoologist, was written by him. As a draughtsman, we believe the subject of this me- moir was most skilful, and as an accomplished artist, moreover, saw in the forms and structures of animals, especially those which he had minutely examined, the imprint and design of His Almighty Hand who "formed the crooked serpent," and bid it live. Audubon, himself an unrivalled draughtsman, whose Lyncean eye was keen to detect misrepresentation and false drawing, however ingeniously accomplished by the student, tyro in the art, or proficient, testified to the great accuracy and spirit of his delineation of the Birds of Great Britain. Observe how he eulogises him in an autograph letter dated Oct. 24th, 1834: — " I have great pleasure in affording you my opinion respect- ing the productions of your pencil, which you have submitted to my inspection. After examining with care and attention above one hundred coloured drawings of British Bii'ds made by you, I am satisfied, not merely that they are minutely accurate representations of the originals, but that they display a perfect knowledge of the characteristic forms and attitudes of the differ- ent species of birds, together with a taste and execution capable of giving effect to the objects in a pictorial point of view. In short, I thmk them decidedly the best representations of birds I have ever seen, and have no hesitation in saying that, should they be engraved in a manner worthy of their excellence, they will form a work not only creditable to you but surpassing in splendour anything of the kind that Great Britain or even Europe has ever produced." Having related with care, much plainness, and with 120 MACGILLIVRAY. great brevity some of the more prominent labours and studies in which Macgillivray's pen, scalpel, and pencil, were employed during his short, arduous, and soul-ab- sorbing life ; we come by gradual steps to his correspon- dence and friendship. It is not in the spirit of egotism that we desire to recur thus to the mere private exer- cises of the pen of a friend, but to show to the world that in his search for natural truth, the individual whose loss we deplore and whose memory we dearly cherish, was not unmindful of Leicestershire or regardless of its interesting Flora and Fauna. No ! Macgillivray contem- plated its varied treasures, its indigenous riches, combined with its inland scenes of native beauty and picturesque ornature, with intense delight and almost unbounded gra- tification. Its Charnwood range of hills, so unlike his own bold, rugged, mountain heights, towering towards the blue expanse and vast ethereal overhanging vault, when faintly described by the humble pen of his correspondent, awoke in his bosom sentiments of the truest benevo- lence and patriotism, which were frequently expressed by him in his letters. The slate rock, sienitic boulder, liasic fossil, coal formation, obscure plant, wandering shell, flaunting insect, vagrant bird, and undescribed mammal — objects and creatures the accompaniment of every scene ; on these he desired to gaze, and over these he frequently cast his wandering eye. It was during the autumn of the year 1839 that the writer of this essay became interested in his researches and attached to his list of friends and correspondents. The circumstances which led to it may appear trivial ; they were so, doubtless. Many a man's friendship, the most sincere and permanent he may enjoy here below, has its rise from sources, the origin of which he cannot decipher, much less is he able clearly to understand. We took up the pen one evening in the course of the antumn just adverted to, not with a desire to open a cor- MACGILLIVRAY. 121 respondence of several years' duration, as it eventually proved, and as all his letters to Leicestershire clearly evince, but to correct an error, which, as it appeared to us, he had suffered incautiously to get into his descrip- tion of the Dartford warbler. Moreover, in addition to the foregoing remarks, we ventured a series of strictures and critical observations on his arrangement and classification of the British Song Birds, commending the fauna of our inland district to his especial notice. The following letter, the first of a numerous miscellany of fugitive discourses, reminding one of those of the modest White of Selborne, soon reached Leicester. It is dated, Edinburgh, Sept. 17th, 1839:— " I offer you my best thanks for your most pleasant letter. I agree with you in thinking that the lark might with more propriety have been a male ; but after all it is not of much im- portance. As to the Dartford warbler, I have only said that it does not occur to the north of Leicestershire, which I suppose is true. It is to be sure implied that it has been found in that County, but on your authority I shall correct the error. " The winter of 1837 w^as extremely mild with us, insomuch that on the 27th of December I ascended one of the highest of the Grampians, Ben Ledi, which at that season is usually covered with snow, but had then only a slight capping of it. But on the 10th of January snow fell and continued for eight or ten weeks, so as to render part of the winter and spring uncom- monly severe. Hence it is that I have given the winter of 1837 a double character. "The nightingale, I think, must have a specific name, as there are other species : and I could not find one better than "Brake," which had been proposed by others. The journal ('Naturalist') of which you speak is really very defective. I have very little to do with it now, although my name must re- main on the cover for nine months yet. I am delighted with your kind offer of making observations for me, and in the mean- time request the very great favour of sending me notes, or de- I 122 MACGILLIVRAY. scriptions of any of those birds not contained in my two volumes, more especially at present the woodpeckers, wryneck, and cuckoo, which are in types, but which I shall not cast off until I have the pleasure of hearing from you. If the green woodpecker occurs in your neighbourhood, or any of the others, I should be exceedingly obliged by youi' sending me, at any time within two or three months, one or more specimens, entire, in a small jar with spirits of any kind. After the cuckoo I take the Birds of Prey, the shrikes, swallows, goatsucker, and kingfisher. Any remarks on these would be most acceptable, as well as advice respecting alterations of method or manner. I think the third volume will prove as good at least as those already published. There have been four or five favourable reviews of the second, and I believe it is selling pretty well. When the work is com- pleted, I intend to try my drawings of the Birds of Great Britain. " As you have been so kind as to ofier your aid, I make no apologies for intimating to you my wishes. If I can now or at any time do anything that may be agreeable to you in return I shall be most happy. Should you wish to have some skins or eggs of any kind to be got here I could send them by London or otherwise. " I wish you would attend to the wagtails, especially the pied, or black and white, and see if light grey individuals occur in your neighbourhood.' ' On the arrival of the foregoing prefatory, significant, but truly natural historical letter, his new correspondent began earnestly to revise his note book, and re-arrange his observations on the fauna of his native county, but more especially the facts relating to the inland range, and geographical distribution of several species of Birds. No fatigue was spared, no task evaded, nor wild, nor forest, nor densely tangled brake left unexplored, ere we were satisfied as to the supposed native haunts, and indigenous state of the Dartford warbler. How many times we traversed the more wild and less frequented parts of Charnwood forest, with its enchanting scenes of rustic life, with its bleak summits intersected by its rugged MACGILLIVRAY. 123 walls overgrown with lichens, so pleasant for the eye of a thorough botanist to gaze on, we cannot now tell, as years have rolled away since these walks were taken. Those early associations, however, with natural objects, and our going forth in quest of out-door knowledge, frequently alone, were to us seasons of charm and intense interest, mingled with tranquil delight. Our inquiries in the woods and wild scenes of Leices- tershire brought us acquainted with many a spot of in- terest, moreover, as regards its uneven surface, physical features, varied phytology, and bird and insect fauna, the knowledge of which, as we daily endeavoured to obtain it in our walks, was to him, in his dissecting room, of great use, as his letter of Oct. 23, 1839, manifestly sets forth: — " I beg leave to offer you my best thanks for yoiu' communi- cation of the 25th, respecting the woodpeckers, which has been very useful to me, as I have had few opportunities of making myself acquainted with these interesting birds. The printing of my third volume is going on, and I am now commencing the Birds of Prey, any notes from you respecting which would be highly acceptable. Have you ever seen a com- mon buzzard taken from the nest or obtained when fully fledged. I have not had one in this state, and have failed in either pro- curing a specimen or in finding a person who could describe its •colours, respecting which I am in much doubt, not being able with certainty to say whether the bird is darker or Hghter as it advances in life. You ask me if you are to immerse the speci- mens of woodpeckers, which you were to endeavour to procure for me, in spirits. I wish them, not for stuffing, as I have already five of the green and fom' of the greater-spotted ; but entire, body and skin, put into spirit, so that they may be preserved fresh for dissection, as I am desirous of comparing their digestive organs, and especially theii' tongues and wind- pipes, with those of the North American species, of which I last winter dissected eight or ten for Mr. Audubon. You also promise a Hst of your ^Voodland Birds, which I shall anxiously look for. Be assured any observations you may send me will 124 MACGILLIVRAY. be most welcome. Was the white-bellied swift, which you saw on the 23rd of September, the Cypselus Alpinus or merely a variety of the common species ? " I should be greatly obliged for notes respecting the goat- sucker, swallows, shrikes, and flycatcher, the fuller the better. But, in short, anything regarding any of the Land Birds, whether already published or not, would be useful to me. I have been so harassed of late with business having no relation to Ornithology, and especially with writing an elementary work on Geology, that, although you were every day in my mind, I put ofi" writing from time to time. I beg you will pardon me for this procrastination, and be assured that, thankful as I am for your unmerited kindess, I anxiously hope that I shall be yet more indebted to you." Wishful to promote the researches and anatomical inquiries of Macgillivray, thus so favourably begun with regard to some of our native birds, hitherto but very imperfectly described, we searched the densely wooded district of the county, took notes of their silvan manners, examined their nests and less known habits, and, in so far as practicable, their personal histories. The youthful plumage of the common buzzard, so accurately desired by him, cost us much trouble to explain ; and as for the wood- peckers, our difficulty in obtaining them within the compass of time pointed out, was not less. Those figured by him, were shot by us, in company of the late Mr. Adams, in Bradgate Park, and we take occasion to relate in this place the circumstance of their having been obtained there, to show, at least, that a part of the fauna of the county of Leicester supplied him with some objects of great interest and value. About the same period we threw together a series of notes on the carrion, hooded crow, and rook, with additional obser- vations and remarks on a cinereous shearwater, captured by a shepherd-dog in the lordship of Cossington. These fugitive notes were forwarded to Edinburgh, and to show MACGILLIVRAY. 125 how they were valued by him, the following graphic letter must explain. It is replete with interest, and abounds with great good humour. It is dated, Edinburgh, Friday morning, half-past 2, 1839, December. " Having just finished the transcription of your articles on the carrion and hooded crows, for my appendix, I am reproved by my conscience for having so long delayed thanking you for the very valuable donations which you have sent me. Your letter of the 10th being before me I shall refer to it before speaking of the other. "It is somewhat marvellous that a cinereous shearw^ater should have driven so far inland as the neighbourhood of Lei- cester ; and its occmTence is a very interesting fact. If the gentleman to whom it belongs resides near you, and intends to keep the specimen, you need not, as you kindly propose, borrow it of him to send it to me, for I intend, if possible, sometime soon, perhaps next autumn, to pay you a visit, and I may then make a drawing of it for my illustrations, of which I have now about 160. " I wish, however, you may have the goodness to make out a regular technical description of it, including measurements, when at leisure. I think, also you ought to send a notice of it to Mr. Yarrell. I cannot sufficiently admire the generous fecHng which has prompted you to exert yom-self so much in behalf of a stranger, and I do earnestly desire that you beHeve me to be very grateful for all your unmerited kindness. You seem to have a vague hope of visiting this cold part of the world. I wish you may, for I think you would be pleased with Edin- bm'gh and its surroimding scenery, with the Frith of Forth, the plain of Sterling, the Grampians, and our beautiful lakes and streams. You ask if there be a good portrait published of Mr. Audubon. There is, and I think I can procure it for you. " Then as to the old bones from Nottingham, they would, certainly, be very interesting to me, as would specimens of any of your rocks, but only in pieces about 4 inches long, 3J broad, and 2 thick. " The woodpeckers and nuthatches arrived in perfect con- dition, and excellent specimens they were. I have dissected, 126 MACGILLIVRAY. described, and figured the tongue, windpipe and digestive organs of both. The descriptions of the habits and haunts of your Woodland Birds which accompanied them is to me invaluable : and when I see the trouble and time that they have cost you, I reaUy do not know what to say, for if I attempt to express my gratitude, I shall do it so stiffly that you may suppose me to be very cold-hearted indeed. " I assure you, dear sir, your exertions in my behalf are responded to by a very lively sense of obKgation, and an esteem which affords me the greatest pleasure. I rejoice to know that kindly and fraternal affections may be cherished by persons who have never seen each other, and that in human nature, degraded as it is, there is still something indicative of its Divine origin. " I am proud of having an Ornithological friend in England. My countrymen, the Celts or Highlanders, like the English more than the Lowlanders, which, perhaps, arises from the old feuds between the two races in Scotland. The Lowland Scotch are generally colder and more prudent than the Celt, and I think the English are franker and more generous than either. " However this may be, I am truly grateful for all your kindness ; and, selfish as the wish may be, I hope the good understanding thus auspiciously commenced will continue. " I have printed twelve sheets of vol. iii. and am now at the osprey and kite. Have you anything to say of the owls? I wish also you would write a history of the starling. I had a great cinereous shrike sent to me from Haddingtonshire a fort- night ago, and a rough-legged buzzard was shot in Fifeshire about the same time. Have you ever met with the Bohemian chatterer ? Should any more woodpeckers occur at any time, please keep a few in spirits, as I intend to wiite a paper on that family, and have about a dozen North American species kept for the purpose. How shall I mention you in my third volume ? Your name has already occurred several times, simply as Mr. Harley of Leicester. You do not say whether you are an M.D., or a Rector, or a Squire, or of what age, or size, single or double, so that I can form no precise idea of you, beyond yom* being a keen observer, and a most liberal minded person. " By the bye, I think you spoke of shrews ; I should be glad to have some, and a harvest mouse, and a dormouse, and MACGILLIVRAY. 127 anything in that department, for I intend to publish the Quadrupeds too." The candid reader of the Selboimian correspondence, so beautifully and classically composed by the mind and pen of the modest White, will discover much to admire in the remarks of Macgillivray, with reference to Zoology, as evinced in these literary productions of his leisure moments. On the opening of the year 1840, a farther out- line of his intended labours in the great cause of Zoology was received by us, to which we responded according to his suggestions and wishes. To the habits and manners of the kingfisher, was added by us a catalogue of all the Land Birds known to us, as forming an interesting part of the fauna of the county. This paper was forwarded to the Scottish capital. The origin of it, its design, value, and relative use to him, in his attempt to make the study of our native birds more attractive, and better understood, is related in the subjoined letter. It is dated, Feb. 24th : — " I have received so many interesting letters from you, since I last had the pleasure of writing, that I must reasonably enter- tain doubts as to your reception of any apology for my delay. My apprehension, however, is the less that the true spirit of a Christian manifests itself in your correspondence. As a brother in this sense, I ask your forgiveness. And now, dear su", I sincerely thank you for all the trouble you have taken on my account, and for the important aid you have afforded me in my Ornithological labours. The third volume gets on but slowly, owing to the bad faith of my woodcutters, or rather engravers on wood, who have greatly disappointed me. However, I have got as far in print as page 368, the Diurnal Eapacious Birds, together with several other groups, being completed. The owls come next, then the shrikes, flycatchers, swifts, swallows, goatsucker, and kingfisher, I should be greatly obliged to you for an accoimt of the habits, nest, kc. of the last mentioned bird. I have afready many of your observations, and will put the rest into the appendix. 128 MACGILLIVRAY. " What I very particularly want for a " Practical Ornithology Lesson" is, a catalogue of all the Land Birds known to you to occur in the county of Leicester, or in your neighbourhood, or in any determinate range around you, prefaced by a very brief notice as to the nature of the district, not exceeding a i)age or two. " The catalogue might, I think, be arranged into three sec- tions, including, the permanent residents, the summer visitants, and the winter visitants. I had made up part of such a brief catalogue from your notes ; but as you have not in them men- tioned all the species, nor the periods of arrival and departure, I have thought it best to have the account direct from your own pen. This will necessarily put you to much trouble, and yet you have been so generous akeady that I cannot feel exceedingly shy in again applying to you. If you have a friend in the extreme South, or in Wales, who would furnish a few histories, or even notes on remarkable species, they would be of great use. " Although the second volume has sold pretty well, yet the booksellers are scarcely satisfied, and Mr. Yarrell's beautifully illustrated and carefully compiled work must come much in the way of mine, which, nevertheless, I hope will be completed." In the month of March following another letter reached Leicester, no less interesting and discursive than its predecessors. He had received some remarks on the habits of our soft-billed summer Birds of Passage, with others of a similar kind relative to our winter birds, and also a monograph on the fieldfare. His communication we abridge for the sake of others of equal worth. " If your brother should find a bird allied to the short-wing- ed willow wren, as you say, I wish you would have the good- ness to send me a specimen. I shall also be obliged to you in the meantime for an account of the habits of the willow wrens. Your notes respecting the kingfisher are very acceptable, and will be printed next week. Have you seen it often or once catch an insect, a butterfly, or a dragon-fly, or any other ? Have you made any more observations respecting the roosting of the fieldfares ? If you have any nests which I have not MACGILLIVRAY. 129 described, will you have the goodness to send me descriptions of them ? Have you ever seen a tame rook, and observed whether the face becomes denuded when that bird is kept in captivity ? " I have not heard of a single rare bird occurring in this district all the winter, with the exception of a Lanius Excuhito7\ - shot by Mr. Hepbm*n in Haddingtonshii'e, and which he sent to me. " The weather has been cold with us for six weeks, and agricultural operations are far advanced. I hope you will con- tinue to favour me with obsei'vations on the Grallatores, which will form the subject of the fourth volume. I should be sorry to put 5'ou to all this trouble, were I not well assured that you are enthusiastic in the matter of Ornithology, and find pleasure in aiding another. What are the principal faults that you find in my two vokmies r Am I too severe, or harsh, or michi-is- tian, in my remarks on the Quinarians or others ? Are my technical descriptions too minute or tedious ? Can you give me some sound censm-e ? Reproof from a friend is most desirable. I think the third volume cannot possibly be out until the first - of June, which is the time at which my publishers wish it. " You were talking about the Highlanders. You will find a true account of them in Chambers' History of the E-ebelhon of . 1745 — the enlarged edition recently published." The wide field of criticism thus opened up so gene- rously by himself we did not choose either to forget or embrace. Indeed, we had a duty to perform to others, as well as to his own great exertions, in the cause of science ; and we endeavoured to improve the opportunity so frankly afforded us. Possessing the friendship of the intrepid and adventurous Waterton, whose guest we had recently been at Walton Hall, we told him of the indignity so incau- tiously bestowed on his researches in the wilds of Tropical America, and the unseemly comparison between the dark- winged raven and its congeners, described so characteris- tically by him as Vagatores or Wanderers, and the kind- hearted squire himself. No one could express more justly the comparative 130 MACGILLIVRAY. worth of Macgillivray's anatomically accurate, and other- wise invaluable labours in the cause of Zoology, than Charles Waterton, when he described to us, in his own simple, unaffected, unostentatious manner, at Walton Hall, the ill-timed indignity just adverted to. The subject of this memoir doubtless had been "too severe, too harsh, too unchristian" and on reviewing his labours closely, he felt it to be so. How careful we ought ever to be, to avoid a too censorious spirit from absorbing our better natures, when passing judgment on the life, actions, and works of our fellow-men. We cannot, how- ever, now tarry to enlarge on the controversy which was carried on with so much acrimony and bad taste by Au- dubon and Waterton at this period. It was plain that our friend in Edinburgh had a hand in it, and that he was the Moecenas and literary apologist of the distin- guished transatlantic naturalist. Our observations upon this controversy, distasteful in some degree, undoubtedly, to the mind of Macgillivray, formed the subject of a paper described by us as "A Short Tour to Bolton Abbey, with some account of the fauna of that interesting district over- lying the river Wharfe, and a sojourn at Walton Hall, with passing remarks on men, manners, and things." The paper reached his dissecting room at Edinburgh, served the end designed by its author, and was finally consigned to oblivion at his own suggestion and earnest entreaty. About the Quinarians much might be said, and more written. Systems, like men, spring up, exist, reach their cuhninating point, and then vanish, leaving behind them the mere names of those attached thereto for perpetuity and fame. The systems founded by Aristotle, Linnaeus, Cuvier, Illiger, Latreille, and Lamarck, with some others of more recent date, are partially extinct. Indeed, their systems were never generally adopted even in a single country of Europe. Methods spring up and die like mushrooms, MACGILLIVRAY. 131 and for the same reason ; — they are composed of flimsy materials and unsubstantial products, easily elaborated; and having no solid frame to give them stability, they fall suddenly into decay, withered by the breath of criticism, which but serves to invigorate that which is possessed of real stamina. Take for example the Quinary system of McLeay, with its allied nursling and sister, the theory of Swainson, whose elaborated views on the subject have been so extolled by some as the ne plus ultima of classification. Even at this very day is it not almost unknown ? Charity, however, forbids us to hasten its decline, although there are grounds obviously clear, and more than sufficient, to induce one to give it a home-thrust on its way to the tomb. Order, heaven's first and primary law, appears to our faculties of discernment more easily traceable in the mighty astral overhanging world of wonders, even although we are compelled to discourse with those orbs of surpass- ing magnitude as they silently revolve round the effulgent sun, through the same medium which led Galileo, Newton, and Herschel to so rich a mine of truth, than in the com- plex range of earth, with its endless tribes and multiform organisms of life depastured on its surface, with all the aid of modern science. And hence, therefore, the great diligence there is re- quired by us to surmount those difficulties which lie across our path when we come to arrange and classify these complicated organisms. During the summer months of 1840, Macgillivray was not altogether unmindful of his Leicester correspondent We had sent him some liasic fossils for examination, ob- tained by us in the adjoining county, the products of a rich and interesting valley, and the remarks contained in the following letter testify that such medals of a former world, so insignificant in the eyes of the present race of MACGTLLIVRAY. men located on the soil from whence they were taken, were not unappreciated by him : — " Two days ago I receiTed the box containing your speci- mens of Sam-ian bones from the lias, also the ' Siamese ' star- lings, and other matters, in good condition, and for which I offer you my best thanks. " Not having examined them particularly I refrain from saying anything further about them at present. Your letter of the 8th of the present month is also before me, in which you make mention of some of your exertions in my behalf, and request me to lay open my mind in reference to your intended catalogue of the Grallatores of Leicestershire, and my fourth volume. I had written a considerable portion of that volume a long time ago, and have recently resumed my labours with the view of arranging the said species w^hich are to be described in it, and forming them into groups. " The herons and allied species are those with which I am at present particidarly occupied. I should feel greatly obliged : by your favouring me with as many observations respecting their habits as you have made, although I fear that opportuni- ties of studying them have not been ample, as only a single ^ species is of common occurrence over the county. If there is a heronry in your neighboui'hood, I hope you will give me an account of it. After your notes on the herons, I should prefer remarks on the coot, water-hen, corn-crake, rail, and the other species of the family. " In the meantime, however, I can say nothing with certain- ty as to the time of publishing that volume, as the booksellers wish to delay it for some time, till they have sold a sufficient number of the previous volumes to enable them to handle again a reasonable quantity of the money which they have laid out. For my part, I have never expected that the work would sell rapidly, but I hope it wiU go off by degrees. The manuals with which I am engaged will, I think, do better. In four months twelve hundred copies of the Geology were sold. About twelve days ago I finished one on the Structure and Fmictions of Plants. I have another now in hand, and intend presently to commence MACGILLIVRAY. 133 a foiu'th, that when tired of the one I may find some amuse- ment in taking up the other ; for such authorship as mine is very laborious, and not well paid. I have £50. for each of the manuals, and £10. for every edition of 2,000. " About the British Birds I could vrrite for months without any fatigue ; but I cannot make money of them, and have re- ceived only £80. for the first volume, and nothing for the second and third ; and for books, preparations, fi'esh specimens, skins, nests and eggs, and paper, I have expended more than the sum received. I am glad to find that you are still enthusiastic on the subject, and have extended your correspondence, the result of which, I hope, will prove satisfactory to you and beneficial to me ! " We must have many Sea-Birds here which you would like. Shall I not send you a parcel of them ? Be so kind as forgive my delay in writing, and favom- me soon with the sight of your well-known hand-waiting, which always afibrds me great pleasure. I shall write again in a few days, when I have examined the contents of the box. " If you have opportunities of seeing egrets in Museums or private collections, be so good as look sharply at them, as many of the species are very like each other. In particular, I wish you could send me a description of the gi'eat white egret, as I have recently obtained a magnificent specimen shot in Scotland, which is, I think, difierent from the common one." Still interested in his inquiries, and future investigation of the Wading Birds, which he had elsewhere character- ized in one of his letters, as forming a most interesting part of the British Fauna, we gave our ready aid to all his views; and as we were desirous that the feathered denizens, indigenous or migratory, haunting our streams and rivu- lets, miry places, upland walds, and sequestered spots, once the habitation of the bittern and wailing curlew, should no longer remain undescribed, we threw together a series of notes on the private habits of the water-hen, coot, and corn-crake. Moreover, in order to acquire a more perfect knowledge 134 MACGILLIVRAY. of the nidification, summer retreat, and less known man- ners of the grey heron, we made a tour to the grounds and rich domains of Lord Warwick, to inspect minutely for ourselves the haunts of that fine species of British Wader. To these miscellaneous notes were added a carefully arranged catalogue of the Grallatorial Birds of the county, with some observations respecting the capture of the cream-coloured plover on Charnwood Forest, and a white or albino variety of the grey heron on the banks of Grooby Pool. The remarks which occur in his letter, dated Edin- burgh, September 14th, 1840, manifestly show to us what great interest he attached to such communications : — " I received your letter of the 10th this morning, and feel grateful for the continued interest you take in the Waders. The list of species occuiTing in the Midland Counties will be printed in connection with one of those in our three Lothians, and another of those of Shetland. There are exactly 70 British Waders, but some of them extremely rare. Yom' account of the great white egret is puzzling, for that bird has no elongated crest {occipital) the feathers on the head being not more than an inch and a half in length. If you happen to see Mr. ChapHn soon, be so good as to get from him what he can recollect re- specting it. Of what size was it ? Was the bill yellow, brown, or black ? The colom^ of the feet ? Several white herons are so very like each other that one can distinguish them only by a very close examination. Ardea Egretta of Europe Sin.d.Ardea Leuce of America have been generally confounded. I find that observers do not look closely enough. Thus, I should like to know how each bird walks ; how it keeps its body, head, and neck ; in probing the mud, whether it merely taps, or inserts the bill deeply ; what are its cries, &;c. &c. I have a good deal of this minute informa- tion. Some of your gamekeepers may be able to give a minute history of the woodcock. I have recently received a fresh speci- men of tringa suharquata, shot at Musselburgh, and two godwits, limom rufa. There are large flocks of Waders there at present, MACGILLIVRAY. 135 and I had much pleasure one day last week in watching the dunlins very closely. I find that without a gun, I can walk slowly to within twelve paces of them when feeding. A godwit stood looking until I was just eleven steps from it. But the curlew, on an open shore, never allows one to get within shoot- ing distance. When you have leisure, I should like a little history of each of the Waders with which you are well acquainted : for example, the coot, water-hen, gallinula porzana. I have already very full descriptions of about twenty. As nobody knows anything of the hobby, could you send me some accomit of its habits and a particular description of the nest and young." In the fall of the year 1840, we were made acquainted, for the first time, wdth the difliculties which Macgilli- vray had to contend with, on account of his publishers' difliculties, which were to him as an ocean of trouble, above whose surge-like billows he never afterwards ap- peared to us to crest life, as it were, and conflict pleasantly with the world. The admirers of the imaginative mind and ingenious pen of the author of Waverley will, we are sure, recollect - the suffering and mental anguish which that distinguished person endured, through the misfortune of others. Those reverses eventually brought Scott through the chequered vale, beset on all sides with vicissitude, down to the couch of soul sickness and the silent tomb. The insidious worm, generated and nurtured in the bosom and heart of such a victim, through misfortune and the poisonous vapours rising out of, and proceeding from the valley of humility, has done its work in almost every age. To such a foe, Macgillivray was no stranger. His heart was too sensitive of impression, and his mind not sufficiently blunted by the world, to enable him to resist firmly, and overcome victoriously, the pang of re- versed action and blighted fortune. These impressions of ours, slightly hinted at in the next letter, were not imagi- native, but real, as the sequel and future years of Macgilli- 136 MACGILLIVRAY. vray will disclose. Writing to Leicester, in the month of October, he says : — "Your letter of the 25th, which I received a few hours ago, puts me in mind of my error in not having long before now acknowledged the obligations under which I am laid by the various interesting and most acceptable communications with which you have favoured me. Having been for three weeks tormented with rheumatism, in the head and gums especially, I have in some measure lost sight of the Waders : and even now I cannot say anything as to the publication of the fourth volume until I see Mr. Scott, whom I expect daily. The booksellers, who have no regard for science, and are concerned only for a pecuniary return for their trouble and outlay, would very gladly exchange our Ornithology for Humphrey, or Pickwick, or any of those amusing and universally readable productions, by which booksellers, and sometimes authors, make fortunes. However, I think we must contrive somehow to get out the remaining two volumes. I wish I had fallen in with publishers having more capital : for it seems they cannot conveniently lay out so much money as is required without a more speedy return. " I have inspected your Geological Collection, and find that all the bones belong to Icthyosauri of very different sizes, some very small and some gigantic. There are numerous vertebree, several femm^a and humeri, portions of ribs, four paddle bones, and one fractm-ed tooth. There may be different species : but a portion of a humerus and two paddle bones belong to Icthyo- saw^us communis. Scarcely any of the bones are in connection, and most of them have been rolled about, before the mud was consolidated. The deposit in which they occur, must, I presume, be the lias. I find it stated in Buckland's address, delivered at the anniversary meeting of the Geological Society of London, on the 21st February, 1840, of which he has been pleased to send me a copy, that a hinder fin of an Icthyosaurus communis has been discovered at Barrow-on-Soar, which, I suppose, is in your neighbourhood, by Sir Philip Egerton. Might you not write some account of this new locality of yours, and make a better search for heads, jaws, teeth, paddles, and connected vertebrae ? I offer you my best thanks for your catalogue of the MACGILLIVRAY. 137 Grallafores, your history of the water-hen, and other Ornithologi- cal communications. I think the white heron, from its ha^-ing a long crest and pale legs, as well as its being similar in form and size to the com m on heron, with which it associated, must have been an albino variety of that species and not an ardea alba. The grebe of which you write may be podiceps aun'tus, of which the bill is somewhat flattened at the base and a little bent upwards to the end. Possibly the melancholy whistle which you heard at nine at night might have proceeded from a golden plover. Yer^' recently I have discovered a new pipit, anthus spinoletta, which has been confounded with a nth us ohscurus, under the common name of anthus aquaticus. If you have a pipit which you have been accustomed to name anthus aquaticus it will probably tm-n out to be spinoletta. It would be worth while to look for it. You will find it described in Tem- minck's manual, 4th part, and in my manual of British Ornitho- logy, of which part the first is nearly printed, and of which I will dii'ect the pubHshers to send you a copy. One of the next manuals will be on the British Mam in alia. But I can- not procui'e bats here, we have only two species. I wish to know what you think of the thi'ee volumes of British Birds. Would you propose any alteration in the manner of treating the Waders : I have collected about twenty birds' skins for you, and when I have a sufficient number will send them to London. My son has been in the Hebrides this summer, but has got nothing new for me, excepting some eggs. He went to St. Kilda in an open boat, and in retm-ning, being in a small boat with two other persons, in tow of a larger, was set adi'ift dming a storm which arose, and with great difficulty made out one of the islands." Proof is not wanting to show that the zeal of Macgilli- yray ^or the accomplishment of his great work on the entire Bird-fauna of Great Britain had suffered but little, through the distracted state and pecuniary difficulties of his publishers. His inquiries in the foregoing interesting communication, respecting the white heron shot by Chaplin on the banks of Grooby Pool, and his critical remarks, moreover, on the peculiarity of the bill of podiceps auritus, K 138 MACGILLIVRAY. and his new discovery of antJius spinoletta on these shores, all indicate a strong feeling "and passion to obtain a more perfect and general insight of the vertebrate animals of our inland county, in order to his enabling British naturalists to view the feathered tribes of these islands in methodized groups. A short time subsequent to that period in which we penned our observations on the peculiar plumage of the heron, and the structural formation, observed by us, in the depressed bill of podiceps auritus, we ventured some strictures on the arrangement, disposition, and peculiarities of his Ornithological labours. These remarks of ours he personally solicited, and when withheld by us, through delicacy, and the imperfect state of our own private judg- ment and views, he still persisted, and finally drew from us the following train of observations : — " My opinion is, that the method adopted by you, in your endeavour to arrange the Birds of Great Britain indigenous and migratory, into groups according to nature, and those diversified affinities discoverable through minute anatomical investigation and patient study, as indicated clearly in the structural organiza- tion of the feathered tribes is not the least remarkable feature embodied in your elaborate discourse on that interesting portion of the vertebratfe. Hitherto much inquiry has only been par- tially successful in this country, at least, when applied to its Bird-faunge ; and therefore, any new and additional proofs of the triumph of comparative anatomy when applied with great skill in demonstration, as you have done in the osseous, digestive, and dermal system, obviously belonging to one part of the second class of vertebrate animals, ought in this age of science and marvellous inquiry, to meet with some support. The system laid down by you, thus singular, and the theory evolved in the classification founded on the digestive apparatus, comprehending the bill, tongue, throat, gullet, crop, proventriculus, gizzard, intestine, and ceocal appendage ; each and every one member, doubtless, most important structural and auxiliary parts belong- ing to warm-blooded, oviporous animals, we grant you : yet, is MACGILLIVRAY. 139 it not possible that siicli a system may meet with but few dis- ciples in OTU' day who shall willingly -and practically adopt it ? It might sm^ely come to pass, were obsers^ers generally as zealous in the cause of natural science and the study of com- parative anatomy as yourseK: — but the zoologists of our age are not so composed, neither are om' schools possessed of men so far advanced in knowledge. System builders have never failed to make the bill and feet of birds, combined with plumage and other obvious well-known characteristic marks, the distinctive signs of identification, so as to qualify them to determine species and work out analogies. " Hence the methods of Linneeus, Viellot, and many others were founded on such palpable points of distinction and resem- blance : feather and skin ornithologists you describe them to be, and so they are, however they may otherwise be designated. " But will the systematic arrangement and method, founded on natural groups, as set forth and explained in the examina- tion of the Birds of Britain and adjacent islands, so ingeni- ously disposed by you, so commend itself to the curious and inquisitive natm-alist, as that he shall be able ^dth such help to determine the specific difierence and relationship of the birds of another hemisphere? " Suppose, for instance, that an intelligent observer was to betake himself away to the TrojDics in quest of natural know- ledge, but primarily with a view to the study of birds, and there extend his researches : and suppose, moreover, that a great part of his inquiries centred on the minute examination of specimens brought to his rude dissecting table by natives in a semi-prepared state, in other words, birds divested of the entire internal apparatus, combined, moreover, with a deranged osseous structure. In such circumstances, we do greatly err if the sys- tem laid down by you would not signally fail on its application to the fauna of so distant a region. It is quite true, and it is gi-anted, that the beautiful theory of natm-al groups, so carefully explained by you, and so ingeniously methodized by yom- pen, might do, as regards British Birds and their arrangement ; but we apprehend the task would be one of insuperable difficulty to the student, and most objectionable and imtenable to the advanced natm-alist, to group the various tribes of Birds in 140 MACGILLIVRAY. such a manner as we observe enunciated and enforced in your treatise on the feathered tribes of this country. Much as we admu-e the skill and deep research bestowed by you on this most interesting subject, and indeed on every subject to which you direct your inquiries, candour, nevertheless, compels us to fear the ordeal to which it is open, and to doubt the universal appli- cation and adoption of the method of classification thus laid down by you with so much ability." Such were our views on the classification of Birds by Macgillivray, and changeable as are the phases of scien- tific light, and variable withal as are the progressive attempts to establish truth and uproot error, yet, notwithstanding all such features, we have seen no reason why we should retract any part of our averment or consign to oblivion our crude and ill-arranged opinion. Of his great work, generally considered, it cannot be denied but that it fairly and fully describes the Birds of these Islands in a manner hitherto unaccomplished by any zoologist. His " Lessons," designated "Practical Ornithology," are, in our humble opinion, sketches taken from nature, drawn from living life, so perfect and original as to have no type and anti- type in the natural history literature of this country. So accurate a mode of description and illustration, as the examples presented to us in the occasional sketches which intersect the more technical parts of his great discourse on the feathered inhabitants of our shores, must have cost him many years' observation and toil to set forth in so pleasant and didactic a manner. The minute analysis of the skeleton of birds, and mode of preparing the same for the cabinet of the virtuoso and closet naturalist, is no where to be found more clearly described and explained than in the writings of Macgillivray. On such matters he wrote, and taught, and expressed himself as an experienced guide; and we cannot fail to discover in his "Lessons" which he has left behind him for the use and benefit of the conservator, the hand of a skilful and practical zoologist. MACGILLIVRAY. 141 Science fed his lamp ; and truth, pursued with unwearied industry, led him in every scene to investigate, to inquire, r to weigh, and to examine. No one has described the habits of Birds more characteristically, in so far as he was able to view them in their respective haunts and homes, than he has done : indeed, he has given us, in several instances, so perfect a style of monography, as the like method of description is not anywhere to be found in the writings of modern naturalists. Highly gifted in mind with powers of thought, sufficiently adapted to delineate by his pen what he saw in nature, he traced ~ her features in those recesses of her vast universe where animal organism appeared to his eye so exquisitely beauti- ful to behold. Alexander Wilson, Audubon, and Water- ton, with many others, have portrayed in their way, with considerable success, it must be allowed, the gorgeous- plumaged Birds of the Western Hemisj^here, creatures whose habits, manners, peculiarities, instincts, affinities, and histories are more diversified than those of the main- land and sea-board of this country ; and yet, notwith- . standing so much has been done, and so great an amount of labour bestow^ed by naturalists on the biographies of the feathered denizens inhabiting the boundless prairies, virgin forests, and immense solitudes of continental America, it is not too much to affirm, that in more recent times the lone wilds, barren wastes, bleak moors, craggy heights^ - cultivated uplands, luxuriant meadows, rills, watercourses, brooks, rivers, lakes, pools, and sea-girt shores of Britain, have had monographers, observers, and natural historians w^hose combined powers of research have made us ac- quainted, in a far more perfect degree, with the forms and organisms of that vast assemblage of winged creatures which reside permanently, visit annually or accidentally these northern isles. For an illustration of what we mean, whose pen has described half so well the habits of the Diurnal Birds of 142 MACGILLIVRAY. Prey as his ? Take the short sketch introductory to the description of the Eagle : — " The Falconidse prey on quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, fishes, and insects, which they pursue by flying, not by walking. In- deed most of the species, owing to the form of their feet, are incapable of progression on the gi'ound, and when they have to move to short distances, are obliged to leap, with the aid of their wings. They seize their victims with their talons, thrust into them their long acuminate claws, and, when of sufficiently small size, carry them off to some secure retreat. " The bill is not generally used for inflicting wounds, but with it they remove hair or feathers, previously to eating the flesh, which they tear up with ease, often swallowing the bones. Having filled the esophagas, which is always capable of being much dilated, they retire to some sequestered place and remain quiet until the food is digested. "The insoluble parts are vomited in roundish pellets, in which the bones are enveloped by the hair and feathers. Their sight is very acute, as is their sense of hearing. Their flight presents modifications, according to the species, being strong and rapid in the falcons, more buoyant in the harriers, light and gliding in the hawks, heavier in the buzzards and eagles ; but in all it is remarkably powerful. They perch with ease, and when at rest on a branch or pinnacle, keep the body nearly erect, and the neck much retracted. On a level sm-face, they incline the body forward, and draw up their claws. The birds are, for the most part, sohtary, and although some species at times con- gregate when food is abundant, none of those that occur in Britain are gregarious in the slightest degi'ee. Their cries are loud and shrill, with little modulation ; their trachea being of nearly uniform width, its rings generally cartilaginous, and the inferior larynxical muscles reduced to a single pair. "They pair early in spring, and form a rude flat nest of sticks, twigs, and other materials, lined with wool or hair : the eggs vary from two to seven or eight, the larger species having fewer than the smaller, and are of a roundish elliptical form. The young are first clothed with light- colovired down, and re- main in the nest until fully fledged, when they differ consider- MACGILLIVRAY. 143 ably in colour from their parents, it not being until the third or fourth year that the adult plumage is complete. When the old birds have transverse bands the young generally have longitu- dinal spots ; in many species the spots and streaks of the young disappear with age ; the tints usually become purer and lighter the older the individual ; and, on the other hand, many which are patched or spotted with white when young, gradually assume a darker tint. In consequence of these variations, great errors have been committed in naming and distinguishing the species. The moult commences in the end of summer, and is completed by the beginning of winter ; but in some species, the eagles in par- ticular, new feathers are found at all seasons." — (Page 174, Raptores, vol. iii.) Moreover, to familiarize our ideas with his literary powers of description, let us take for example the golden eagle and some of its habits, as delineated so beautifully by him. " The golden eagle, which, with the exception of the white- tailed sea eagle, is the largest of our Raptores, is the only bird of its genus that occurs in Britain. The disparity between the male and female is as great as in any species of this family, some individuals of the former measuring only two feet and a half in length, while many of the latter extend to three feet two inches. If not the most celebrated, it is at least the most es- teemed of its tribe, and through the misrepresentations of poets and amateur naturahsts, possesses a character for corn-age and generosity, which a more intimate acquaintance with it than such persons usually acquire, soon suffices to dispel. " Yet the eagle is a magnificent bii'd, and when met with on some grim Alpine crag projecting from the grey mist, inspires a - kind of respect, of which some degree of fear is an essential in- gredient. Even in the menagerie he has a truculent aspect, with those bright but overshadowed eyes, that harmonizes with his wild nature ; and here, extended on the table, as just arrived from the Braes of Lochaber, his broad chest and brawny limbs indicate a power capable of giving effect to those death-dealing talons and expansive wings. He is not seen to advantage in 144 MACGILLIVRAY. the menagerie of a Zoological Society, nor wlien fettered on the smooth lawn of an aristocratic mansion, or perched on the rock of a nursery garden ; nor can his habits be well described by a Cockney ornithologist, whose province it is to concoct systems, work out analogies, and give names to skins that have come from foreign lands carefully packed in boxes lined with tin. " Far away, among the brown hills of Albyn, is thy dwelling place, chief of the rocky glen ! On the crumbling crag of red granite that towers over the fissured precipices of Loch Na-gar thou hast reposed in safety. The croak of the raven has broken thy slumbers, and thou gatherest up thy huge wings, smoothest the feathers on thy sides, and preparest to laimch into the aerial ocean. " Bird of the desert, solitary though thou art, and hateful to the sight of many of thy fellow creatures, thine must be a happy life. " No lord hast thou to bend thy stubborn soul to his will, no cares corrode thy heart, seldom does fear chill thy free spirit, for the windy tempest and the thick sleet cannot injm-e thee, and the lightnings may flash around thee, and the thunders shake the everlasting hills, without rousing thee from thy dreamy repose. " Thou hast a good conscience, and what shouldst thou dread, although a thousand victims have been sacrificed to thy lust of rapine, and even now the blood of that helpless fawn, w^hich thy keen eye discovered among the long heath, crusts thy hooked bill. " Thou hast a commission to plunder ; thou art a robber by right ; mercy and peace are hot of the elements of thy nature ; like the ancient Gael of those wild glens thou goest about armed for strife; even thy love is fierce, and thy nurslings are nurtured with blood. Proud bird of the desert, how joyous must thou be, when on strong wings thou glidest over the mountain tops, and soarest away into the blue sky, until the clouds are beneath, and thou floatest in the ether nearer to heaven than living thing has ever been. Oh, that I too had the wings of an eagle, that I might visit the place of thy rest, and perch on a pinnacle beside thy mate as she broods over her young ones on the rocks of Glen Dee. See how the sunshine brightens the yellow tint of MACGILLlVRAYo 145 his head and neck, until it shines almost like gold ! There he stands nearly erect, with his tail depressed, his large wings half raised by his side, his neck stretched out, and his eye glistening as he glances around. Like other robbers of the desert he has a noble aspect — an imperative mien — a look of proud defiance ; but his nobility has a dash of clownishness, and his falconship a vultui-ine tinge. Still he is a noble bird, powerful, independent, proud, and ferocious ; regardless of the weal and woe of others, and intent solely on the gratification of his own appetite, with- out generosity, without honour, bold against the defenceless, but ever ready to sneak from danger. Such is his nobility about which men have so raved. Suddenly he raises his wings, for he has heard the whistle of the shepherd in the corry, and bending forward, he springs into the air. Hardly do those vigorous flaps serve at first to prevent his descent, but now, curving upwards, he glides majestically along. As he passes the corner of that buttressed battlemented crag, forth rush two ravens from their nest, croaking fiercely ; while one flies above him the other steals beneath, and they essay to strike him but dare not, for they have an instinctive knowledge of the power of his grasp ; and after following him a little way they return to their home, exulting in the thought of having driven him from their neighbourhood. But on a far journey he advances in a direct course, flapping his great wings at regular intervals, then shooting along without seeming to move them. " In ten minutes he has progressed three miles, although he is in no haste, and now disappears behind the shoulder of the hill. Over the moors he sweeps at the height of two hundred or three hundred feet, bending his course on either side, his wings widely spread, his neck and feet retracted, now beating the air and again sailing smoothly along. Suddenly he stops, poises himself for a moment, stoops, but recovers himself with- out reaching the ground. The object of his regard, a golden plover which he had espied on her nest, has eluded him, and he cares not to pursue it. Now he ascends a little, wheels in short cim^es, presently rushes down headlong, assumes the horizontal position when close to the ground, prevents his being dashed against it by expanding his wings and tail, thrusts forth his talons, and grasping a poor terrified ptarmigan that sat cowering 146 MACGILLIVRAY. among the grey liclien, squeezes it to death, raises his head exultingly, emits a clear shrill cry, and springs. In passing a taU cliff that overhangs a small lake, he is assailed by a pair of jer falcons, which dart and plunge at him, as if determined to dispossess him of his booty or drive him headlong to the ground. These prove a more dangerous foe than the raven, the eagle screams, yelps, and throws himself into a posture of defence ; but at length the hawk seeing the t3n:'ant is not bent on plundering his nest, leaves him to pursue his course unmolested. Over woods and green fields and scattered hamlets speeds the eagle ; and now he enters the long valley of the Dee, near the upper end of which is dimly seen through the grey mist the rock of his nest. About a mile from it he meets his mate, who has been abroad on a similar errand, and is returning with a white hare in her talons. They congratulate each other with loud yelping cries, which rouse the drowsy shepherd in the strath below, who mindful of the lambs sends after them his malediction. Now they reach their nest and are greeted by their young with loud clamour. " Let us mark the spot. It is a shelf of a rock, concealed by a projecting angle, so that it cannot be injured from above, and too distant from the base to be reached by a shot. " In the crevices are luxuriant tufts of Rhodiola rosea^ and scattered round are many Alpine plants which would delight the botanist to enumerate. " The mineralogist would not be less pleased could he with chisel and hammer reach that knob which glitters with crystals of quartz and felspar. " The nest is a bulky fabric five feet at least in diameter, rudely constructed of dead sticks, twigs , and heath, flat, unless in the centre where it is a little hoUowed, and covered with wool and feathers. Slovenly creatures, you would think those two young ones clothed with white down. Strewn around are fragments of lambs, hares, grouse and other birds, in various stages of decay. " Alighting on the edges of the nest, the eagles deposit their prey, partially pluck off the hair and feathers, and rudely tear- ing up the flesh lay it before their ever hungry young." Take another illustration. One less florid, purely MACGILLIVRAY. 147 English ; a picture, not imaginative, but one of nature, as we see it in our rural walks beside our inland streams and water-courses, as they steal along through our rich meadow lands, overshadowed by dark-leaved alders and pollard willows. No portrait can be more true to nature. It faithfully represents a river scene and its gaily clad inhabitant. " The woods are resuming their green mantle, and the little birds are singing their summer songs. From afar comes the mm-mm^ of the waterfall, swelling and dpng away at intervals as the air becomes still or the warm breezes sweep along the birchen thicket and ruffle the bosom of the pebble-paved pool, margined with alders and willow^s. " On the flowery bank of the stream, beside the hole, the water-rat nibbles the tender blades ; and on that round stone, in the rapid, is perched the dipper, ever welcome to the sight, with its dusky mantle and snowy breast. Slowly along the pale blue sky sail the white fleecy clouds, as the lark, springing from the fields, flutters in ecstacy over his happy mate crouched upon her eggs under the shade of the long grass, assured that no rambling urchin shall invade her sanctuary. " But see ! perched on the stump of a decayed willow jutting from the bank, stands a kingfisher, still, and silent, and ever watchful. Let us creep a httle nearer, that we may observe him to more advantage. Be cautious, for he is shy and seeks not the admiration which his beauty natm-ally excites. There he is grasping the spHnt with his tiny red feet, his bright blue back ghstening in the sunshine, his ruddy breast reflected from the pool beneath, his long dagger-hke bill and his eye intent on the minnows below, that swarm among the roots of the old tree that project into the waters from the crumbling bank. "He stoops, opens his wings a little, shoots downwards, plunges headlong into the water, re-appears in a moment, flut- ters, sweeps ofi* in a curved du-ection, whfrls round, and returns to his post. The minnow in his bill he beats against the decay-, ed stump until it is dead, then tossing up his head swallows it, and resumes his ordinary postm*e as if nothing had happened. Swarms of insects flutter and gambol aroimd, but he heeds them 148 MACGILLIVRAY. not. A painted butterfly at length comes up, fluttering on its desultory flight, and as it hovers over the hyacinths unsuspicious of danger, the kingfisher springs from his perch and pursues him, but without success. Then swift as a barbed arrow, dart- ing straight forward on rapid-moving pinion, gleams his mate, who alights on a stone far up the stream, for she has seen us and is not desirous of our company." We cannot enlarge, nor must we extract from, his Grallatorial Birds, although his descriptive powers appear to us not the less accurate, when employed on the histories of the feathered forms which frequent the misty marsh, the bleak and desolate moors, and lonesome wilds of these northern islands : — the 70 species of Grallators mentioned by him in the correspondence with so much care and apparent intelligence. In the month of February, 1841, Macgillivray commu- nicated to us his design of leaving Edinburgh to occupy the chair of Natural History in Marischal College, Aber- deen, then vacant by the death of Dr. Davidson. This was an event of great importance to him, as well as to his family, and the future employment of his pen and mind. His great labours in the cause of science, and the spread of natural knowledge in his native city occupied some of his busiest moments, nor did he suffer these golden moments of his to become injured by lassitude and stunted by misfortune on leaving Edinburgh, the scene of some of his richest pleasures and fondest associations. The appointment adverted to was in the gift of the crown — a Regius Professorship. An amusing letter of his, dated March, 1841, makes us acquainted with his appointment to the chair, and exhibits, in a most striking manner, what obstacles he had to contend with, and how, and by what means the Professorship was obtained. True worth is not always appreciated, but in the crown appointment, in this instance, we have reason to believe that it met its just reward, as the sequel of the subjoined letter evidently shows. MACGILLIVRAY. U9 "As to the Professorship, there were three candidates for it, in the field : namely, Dr. Fleming, Shier, and myself. Dr. Fleming was supported by an enormous force of cavalry, infantry, and artilleiy. Among the great guns on his side were Buckland, Murchison, Sedgwick, Lyell, and Jamieson : enough to batter the most adamantine heart of an umpire. Mr. Shier was supported by the Lord Provost, Magistrates, Town-Council, and Professors of Aberdeen. Both had a splendid array of political influence. Dr. Birkbeck, a single county member, backed by Mr. Weir, and the Divine Providence was all the assistance I could get, and it was all I required. The appoint- ment has been granted me solely on account of my peculiar studies, and Lord Normanby has done me the honour of intimating that I have been preferred to the ProfessorshijD." It was in the month of June, when Macgillivray bid adieu to " Modern Athens," and the walks and purlieus of that beautiful city, from whence he had caused so many interesting discourses to go forth from his pen. We can- not tell what were his thoughts on leaving the friendships cultivated there, where he was wont to listen to the words of Jamieson, and sit to hear that distinguished teacher describe and manipulate in the University. Manifold were the trials which beset the path of our friend, and great were the difficulties attendant on his removal to the North of Scotland, partly owing to his excision from friendships dear to him, partly also owing to the unfavourable impres- sion that he had entertained respecting the sphere of his future labours in the cause of scientific inquiry ; and partly, moreover, from the unsettled condition and embarrassed state of his publishers' affairs of which we have already spoken. Delicacy, however, forbids our turning the cur- tain of life aside to view the agitated bosom and aching heart of our friend, torn to pieces by the harpies of Pater- noster-row, and the literary vultures known to exist only on the toil of the hand and sweat of the brain of the children of genius. 150 MACGILLIVRAY. Observe with what diligence he applied himself to the duties of his professor's chair on reaching Aberdeen. His letter is dated, June 10th, 1841. " I have been thinking of you ever since I came here : but the confusion resulting from my hurried removal from " Auld Reekie," and my settlement in the city celebrated, as I have said in one of my books, for " learned professors and dried had- docks," has hitherto prevented me from resuming my old ways. " I arrived in Aberdeen, with my family, on the evening of the 1st of May, and commenced lectming on Botany on the morning of the 3rd. My furniture and collections, di-eadfully mangled, made their appearance presently after. I had taken a house in the village of Old Aberdeen, and after a week we entered on our new abode, w^hich is pleasantly situated. We have a garden of about an acre, well stocked with trees and flowers. At the distance of three hundred yards, is an ancient Cathedi'al, still used as a place of worship ; and about a quarter of a mile ofi' is the river Don, which winds beautifully among green fields and then enters a ravine with high banks. The distance from Marischal College is a mile and a quarter or a Httle more. I am up every morning by seven at the latest, often at six, and lecture from eight to nine. The country is not so beautiful as that around Edinburgh : but it is comparatively unexplored. I have commenced a descriptive account of its productions, among which are some good things, as, Berdepileus^ Soi^ex ciliatus^Limnia horealis. As to the birds I can say nothing at present, unless that Scott seems to have no mind to get on with them. Can you devise any scheme by which we might get the remaining two volumes out ? I expect to be able in a few days to give myself the pleasure of writing you a long and creditable epistle. So, I hope you will excuse me for being so very brief at present. The arrival of your letter containing the plant, however, induced me to take up my pen. I have not examined it minutely, but I think it is not fossil. I will give you my opinion of it in my next. I suppose it occurs merely in fissures between plates or slabs of the lias or oolite, near the sm*face. As you speak of insects, may I ask if you would have the goodness to send me a few of your coleoptera. Dear sir, I am grateful for having so MACGILLIVRAY. 151 true, (and so tried) and so worthy a friend ; and I will in future write as often as you can desire. "Your letters have often cheered me when I was almost despondent, instructed me on many points on which I was ignorant, and are more welcome to me than those of any individual with whom I correspond. Bad penmanship ! Great men generally are bad writers : and I, having been promoted to a professional chair, seem disposed to become slovenly in my writing : but I promise you a beautiful epistle, written with my gown off!" Fairly located in his native city, surrounded on all sides by many natural peculiarities, on which his juvenile sight and early inquiries thus far had only partially been directed, Macgillivray, on his return to the banks of the Don, applied himself at once to the pleasant task of describing its entire Physical features, including its Fauna and Flora. Many years' absence from the spot on which his eye first saw the light of day, and the very cradle of his earliest associations, the companions of his youth, the Bethel of his young aspiring heart ; — these now revisited, and obscurely seen, were, doubtless, a part of that con- geries of ideas which possessed his mind, and influenced his pen, and accelerated his researches, in so far as he was able, during his leisure moments, to devote himself to the accomplishment of the task he had in hand. Diligent and persevering, he urged on his way, occasionally stopping in his course to converse by letter with his friends. Lec- turing and writing, combined with other analytical matters, occupied his moments, and constituted his every-day life, and literally fettered him to the Professor's chair. Some- times despondent, yet full of the brightest hope as regards the promotion of the cause of science and the progress of natural knowledge in the north of Scotland, he fain would kindle its dying embers and re-light the wick of the lamp of truth in the homes of his Celtic and Gaelic countrymen. The following beautiful letter, written by him when 15f MACGILLIVRAY. labouring under some such anticipations as we have just adverted to, found its way to Leicester in June, 1841. It is so characteristic of its author that one is tempted to transcribe it at full length. " It appears that I have at length found a temporary refuge from the storm. Yet the anchorage seems unsafe, for the blasts of adversity still shake the frail bark, and the sunshine of peace comes but in fugitive glimpses. However, here I am, as the Professor of Natural History in the University of Aberdeen, and Providence has assigned me the station for good to me and others. There are two towns here, the new and old, the former large and populous, the latter a village rather than a town. In each is a College, and that College is a University, with power to grant degrees in Arts, Medicine, Law, and Divinity. The two Universities are not only separate and dis- tinct, but rivals and enemies. Marischal College and University is situate in the New Town, at the distance of a mile from King's College, of which I am an alumnus, although now a Professor in the rival and more modern institution. " Being fond of rural shades and solitary rambles, and having " always in mind the health of my family, I have chosen for my habitation a house in the midst of a large garden, a mile and a half distant from Marischal College, and half a mile beyond King's College. " The Professors of the two Universities are not on friendly terms, and those of my own are probably not well pleased at my having settled in the midst of the enemy. Strange to say, those of King's College have been more friendly than those of my own. I have been visited by the Principal, Dr. Jack, and by the four Professors, Dr. Fleming, Dr. Forbes, Mr. Scott, and Mr. TuUoch, while only one of my colleagues of the New Town has made his appearance. Yet I am not sure of their having a dislike to me, although no doubt they would have preferred another. Be this as it may, I find my situation in many re- spects most pleasant. I have been lecturing on Botany since I came here to a class of twenty-five most attentive and re- spectful pupils. The district is in a great measure unex- plored, and must yield many interesting objects. In the last MACGILLIVRAY. ' 153 six weeks I have walked more than in the whole previous year, and have slept less than at almost any time of my life ; so that, although in excellent health, I am getting so thin that my clothes are quite loose about me. Nothing can be more pleasant than my locality. The house and garden are bounded on two sides by two lanes rather than streets, on which are a few similar houses inhabited by the aristocracy of the village ; proud enough people, as village nobles generally are. Just opposite is a fine old Cathedral, (granite), with two tall spires, on one of which is a clock, the sight and sound of which are most pleasing to me. The churchyard, which is large, is surrounded by vener- able trees. I love to sit in the old chm^ch and listen to the reading of the Scriptures, and the exposition of their doctrines. Many times have I been struck by passages which bore reference to my own case. I have never been very regular in my church- goings, but here I find difficulty in staying away. The ministers are not eloquent, vigorous, or in any way very impressive, but they really jDreach sound doctrine, and although both moderates, are, in my judgment, quite evangelical. " Leaving the church, however, we find beyond it a fine semicircular hollow, bounded by trees, with a beautifid river, the Don, winding on one side, and then entering a ravine with wooded banks, at the end of which is the celebrated " Brigg o' Balgownie," an antique arch throwm over the chasm. Below it is a fine modern bridge of several arches, and half a mile farther are the sands of the sea shore, which extend from the mouth of the river, southward to the Dee and northward to the Ythan. The country lower is rather dull, having no remarkable features, the surface being merely undulated and the fields enclosed by rude stone walls, with scarcely any hedges, and not many trees. " But as there are heaths, pastures, fields, woods, pools, rills, and rivers, as well as marshes, sands, and the ocean, it furnishes ample materials for study. There are few naturalists here ; but a very friendly and agreeable person, who is remarkably fond of Zoology, resides beside me, and is my daily companion in my short rambles. " But, having thus given you some idea of my present position, I must leave for other occasions the many things that I have to say to you. L 154 MACGILLIVRAY. The specimen of the fossil flora of the Costock valley which you sent me is certainly not fossil, it being unaltered and a RTii%omorpha. It is Rhizomorpha divergens of Greville." Minutely observant, and methodically studious in all his researches, Macgillivray, on commencing life as a Pro- fessor, ardently applied his mind and pen towards the accomplishment of a comprehensive work descriptive of the forms and habits of the terrestrial, littoral, and marine animals, which his almost unaided efforts had discovered in his native county and adjoining districts. The Mollusca Aberdonica, of which some mention has already been made in this essay, came forth as the first fruit of his genius and industry. It cost him much trouble to arrange and methodize, and it may be of some interest to the conchologists of Leicestershire to be informed, that this, the least noticeable part of its fauna, supplied him with some objects not unworthy of his notice and considera- tion. And, in return for these trifling amenities of ours, which were to him of great value for comparison and minute analysis, he forwarded to us for the Museum, and for the use of its conservator, several species of shells from his own district, which we were careful to present in due time. The species we now enumerate, and we do so, because of the interest attached to them by the malecolo- gist and studious observer :-— 1 Littorina retusa 12 Tellina solidula 2 Purpura lapillus 13 Amphidesma alba 3 Natica alderi 1 4 Cardium fasciatum 4 Tornatella tornatilis 15 Helix arbustorum 5 Fuscus turricola 16 „ hortensis 6 Lacuna vincta ' 17 „ caperata 7 Dentalium entalis 18 Helix hispida 8 Littorina ulvea 19 Zonites cellarius 9 Mactra stultorum ^ 20 „ nitidulus 10 Tellina fabula 21 „ alharius 11 tenuis ^ 22 „ rotundatus MACGILLIVRAY. 155 23 Vitrina pellucida 24 Pupa umbilicata 25 „ marginata 26 BuUa 27 Clausilia rugosa 29 Littorina saxatilis 30 „ tenebrosa 3 1 Rissoa ulvea 32 Planorbis vortex 33 Limnseus trimcatulus 28 Zua lubrica Strange to say, but such desiderata are not to be met with in any of the drawers belonging to the Museum. It is quite certain that Macgilhvray extended his in- quiries to the study of Marine Zoology, and the examina- tion of those exquisitely beautiful forms and organisms which diversify so marvellously, and people so wondrously, the blue waters of the mighty deep. Alder and Hancock in their elaborate and combined re- searches into the Nudibranchiate Mollusca dispersed along our shores, and illustrated by them with so much care, frequently refer to the observations made by Macgillivray : and Mr. Darwin, more recently, in his monograph on the Cirripedia, adverts to his labours, when directed to such forms, for correctness and clearness of specific determina- tion. It was no mean or insignificant compliment paid him for describing, so accurately, whatever objects he had ex- amined under so many disadvantages, when acknowledged by Darwin so frankly, whose inquiries, for so many years, have been directed to a minute study and careful investi- gation of the Cirripedia and allied forms which are known to affect these northern shores. Amidst these diversified labours, and great painstaking industry, Macgillivray's evening hours were frequently absorbed by sorrowful solicitude respecting his son, which at times oppressed his spirits and overwhelmed his tender heart. From his first paddling across a portion of the waters of the great Atlantic from the mainland of Scotland to St. Kilda in an open boat, elsewhere referred to by his father, in quest of birds' eggs and other objects to him of 156 MACGILLIVRAY. great interest, to his placing his foot on the deck of the Fly, under the command of Captain Blackwood, at the instance of the late excellent Lord Derby, his patron, for the exploration of the Islands lying to the north of New Holland and the survey of Torres' Straits, to his return to his native soil : — his subsequent voyage of four or five years in the Rattlesnake, under Captain Stanley, and his final appointment to the "Herald,"* at present on her long, tedious, and perilous voyage in quest of marine ad- venture in the great Pacific Ocean ; all these pursuits of * It may be interesting to some present for the writer to state that the Herald, mentioned in this Essay, is the same ship which Captain Kellett sailed in, to search the inhospitable shores of the great Polar Basin, the northern coast line of America, Asia, and Europe, as it is now described by Arctic adventurers, in quest of Sir John Franklin and his hardy companions. The enterprise and success of Captain Kellett in those high northern latitudes, in search of the missing Expedition, must be fresh in the recollection of most of us, especially since Clure, in those recent despatches of his, has given us so touching a picture of the scene when the Herald parted company with the Enterprise at Point Hope" in Behring's Straits, One scarcely recollects reading an incident in human hfe more touching and more suffused with the "joy of grief." On reaching this country the Herald was re-commissioned, in the Spring of 1852, for especial service in the South Pacific and the Luciade Archipelago. I suppose no ship, destined for peculiar service, ever received more attention from the government and the scientific people of this country than the one under our notice ; unless it was the " Endeavour," com- missioned in the year 1767 by the ever to be lamented Captain Cook, for marine discovery in the South Sea, Indian Archipelago, and elsewhere. Time will never efface from our memory the great interest, national pride, and profound admiration which, in company with others, we experienced in the month of May, 1852, on our special visit to the Herald and her crew ; and fondly as we gaze on her track, her deep sea soundings, and her adventure in barbarous climes, we shall hail alike her safe return to these shores. Under the direction of Captain Denham, the officer in command of the Enterprise, deep sea soundings MACGILLIVRAY. 157 his soDj combined with his apparent indifference to danger, to self-sacrifice, and premature death, it might be, weighed heavy on his spirits, choked his heart, and operated like a leaden pall over-wrapping his fondest hopes and paternal memory. Macgillivray lived to look upon the Voyage of the Rattlesnake, and to muse in sadness over its tales of ad- venture, and the scenes it records of the antipodal world. The son lives, and tells of nature as seen by him on the vast unbounded ocean, with its clustering islands and its coral strands teeming with life ; but the father has passed the flood, and tells only in seraph strains the transports of yon celestial world. The son lives, we believe, to tell yet . more of that amazing wondrous deep, with its " Herald bark" cresting its billows, peopled with undiscovered forms on which no eye but that of Omnipotence ever gazed ; but the father triumphs, we know, in another ocean, described in the sublime language of Holy Writ as " a sea of glass," and by our own Milton as " the floor of Heaven," studded with crystal splendour and orient light, across whose dazzling brightness and effulgence no have been made from Rio to the Cape of Good Hope, and from thence to Hobart Town and Sydney. Near to the small island lying off Tristan d'Aucuna soundings were made by the Herald, in a calm sea, under most favourable auspices, to the amazing depth of eight miles and thirty fathoms, or thereabout — the profoundest depth of the ocean ever yet attained by navigators in any age of the world. The plummet, it is said by Captain Denham, in his paper on the subject laid before the Royal Society, took nine hours and thirty minutes in reaching the bed of the ocean and in running out its line. The law of storms, marine botany, zoology, geology, having especial reference to the formation of coral reefs, and other vast oceanic phenomena, combined with the distribu- tion and diffusion of the human race, its types, language, and present ethnological characteristics, it is well known, are to occupy the daily study and patient investigation of the enterprising officers and crew of the Herald. 158 MACGILLIVRAY. darkness comeSj nor night-fall sheds its black pavilion pomp, for there is no night with Him " who filleth all in all." We are now brought to the last hours of Macgilli- vray, and to dwell for a moment, ere we finish our task, on his eventful life. In the spring of 1852 he became seriously indisposed through a nervous fever brought on by misfortune and anxiety, the unmistakable precursors of decay, heralds of the tomb and mausoleum. His medical adviser, anxious for his restoration again to health, de- sired him with great earnestness to seek a warmer climate and a change of scene. He did so, and in the company of his intelligent and aflfectionate daughter, sought a tempor- ary place of residence at Torquay. For a short time he appeared to recover from the depression under which he had so visibly suffered, and his friends for a while enter- tained the hope that the succedaneum sought by him in Devonshire might completely restore him again to health and home. But it was a faint and transient anticipation. True it is, that a short return to mental vigour enabled him to pencil and delineate some of the fishes and en- tomostracoLis forms which his companion eagerly obtained for him along the shore in their daily out-door exercises and walks ; these drawings, and his few valedictory obser- vations contained in the last volume of his great work,* were, I believe, those, and those only, on which the mind * Can there be a more dirge-like prefix than the following, which appears to us to have been the last effort of his pen ? — " I have finished one of the many difficult and laborious tasks which I had imposed upon myself. Twelve years have elapsed since the first three volumes of the work were issued to the public, and I had scarcely hoped to see its completion, when I was most unexpectedly encouraged to revise the MSS. of the two remaining volumes, contain- ing the Wading and Swimming Birds, of which the history, in so far as I am acquainted, will be given on the same plan as that adopted for the Land Birds. " Com.menced in hope and carried on with zeal, thouhg ended MACGILLIVRAY. 159 and genius of Macgillivray were employed, of a transitory nature, during tlie few closing days of his life. Whilst sojourning in Devonshire his wife died. He received the intelligence of his bereavement and widowhood in the midst of the many temporary pursuits which he had embraced to divert his thoughts from the scenes of his Scottish labours and toil. It was to his heart a pang of sorrow and a source of unmitigated grief. Like a stricken deer, Macgillivray was wounded by the archers ; and most poignantly was it felt by him. But it was the gentle blow of an invisible hand. Day came, and passed away without relief, and his pillow, so soft and restorative withal to most, brought with it no soothing repose, no healing power. His spirits gradually shrank up, and in- in sorrow and sickness; I can look upon my work without much regard to the opinion which contemporary writers may form of it : assured that what is useful in it will not be forgotten, and knowing that already it has had a beneficial influence on many of the former, and will more powerfully influence the next generation of home Ornithologists. " I had been led to think that I had occasionally been somewhat rude, or at least blunt in my criticism, but I do not perceive wherein 1 have much erred in that respect, and I feel no inclination to apologise. I have been honest and sincere in my endeavour to promote the truth. With death at present not far distant before my eyes, I am pleased to think that I have not countenanced error through fear or favour, neither have I in any case modified my sentiments so as to endeavour thereby to conceal or palliate my faults. Though I might have accom- plished more, I am thankful for having been permitted to add very considerably to the knowledge previously obtained of a very pleasant subject. If I have not very frequently indulged in reflections on the power, wisdom, and goodness of God, as suggested by even my im- perfect understanding of his wonderful works, it is not because I have not ever been sensible of the relation between the Creator and his creatures, nor because my chief enjoyment, when wandering among the hills and valleys, exploring the rugged shore of the ocean, or searching the cultivated fields, has not been in a sense of his presence. — To Him who alone doeth great wonders be all glory and praise." 160 MACGILLIVRAY. Stead of the disorder under which he lay prostrate being relieved, his sickness became more obvious and less hopeful to his affectionate companion and dearest earthly joy ; and he was urgently constrained by the resident sur- geon who visited him, to withdraw from Devonshire, and seek again the scenery and associations of his own native hills. It was manifest on his arrival in London, on his way to the land of his sires, that his sand had nearly run its course, and that bounding pulse and loving heart, once so full of harp and song, evidently became all but mute when his feet trod the hearth-stone of his own home. How vivid are the representations afforded us in that Book which cannot lie, as well as in the remarkable sayings of the ancient heathen philosophers, as we are wont to call them, of the weakness, frailty, and mortality of man. The wisdom of the wisest has symbolized it in a variety of forms, so unmistakable that we fain blend the imagery of it as so many stages and calends, denoting the eventful but transitory life of man in his journey from the cradle to the tomb. The withdrawal of the sun, the light, the moon, the stars, the clouds, the fear also of the Keeper of the taber- nacle, its darkness, the voiceless condition of the dwelling from which the daughters of music had fled, the grass- hopper a burden, desire gone, the mourner in the streets weeping because man goeth to his long home. All these Macgillivray felt, for they are mortal. But the time of his departure w^as at hand, and on Sunday afternoon, September the 5th, the heavenly message came, and it came not unwelcome. The silver cord w^as loosed, the golden bowl broken, the pitcher broken at the fountain, and the wheel at the cistern ; the springs of life had ceased to play their part. His race was indeed run, his tender heart heaved its last sigh, his feeble voice, as it halted with responses, articulated audibly, as it were, between two worlds, softly exclaimed " God of my salvation." MACGILLIVRAY. 161 Macgillivray was no more. Suffused in tears, eight orphan children gazed on the corpse of him whom they had so ^ tenderly loved, and whose name, " Father," they had so • often accented, — the world was now before them, and Providence their guide. Reflections. — The foregoing brief sketch of the life and writings of so invaluable a man must be taken for what it is and no more. No portion of the rude outline has been in print, save that which w^e have unavoidably given in the way of extract, and which we have acknow- ledged in its proper place. Egotism we altogether dis- avow, although it is clear that our feeble offices frequently appear in view in the correspondence. Truth on all occa- sions was his guerdon, and his motto was, to pursue dili- gently the path to obtain it. His shield and banner bore the insignia of his peerless investigation and brave discoveries in the fields of science, literature, and art ; and when actively engaged in the pur- suit and study of the animal forms on w^hich his eye became intently fixed, his pen and pencil aided by the dissecting knife, unfolded much of the great arcana of nature, and those beautiful discourses of his evince clearly that he instinctively, as it were, beheld some part of the wisdom, contrivance, and skill of the ineffable Author of all good. Intense application, the beauty and glory, pride and ornament of the Saxon, Celtic, and Gaelic character, with him was no vain employment, but a reality, cultivated at an amazing cost, until it became lustrous and trans- parent. Modesty and great humility were strikingly displayed in the life of Macgillivray. Those beautiful traits of character which inseparably connect with patriotism and genuine philanthropy, not unfrequently urged him to for- 162 MACGILLIVRAY. sake the chair of the professor, and repair to the couch, palet, and dying chamber of the lone Highlander. How exquisitely touching is the picture of benignant compas- sion, adorned with precious gifts and rare qualities, when seen by us weeping and bleeding itself away in the dying chamber of the poor man. A picture so truly human can come little short of that one described to us as Deity in earthly form and guise, weeping over the sleeping remains of Lazarus. Moreover, it is quite certain that Macgillivray fed his lamp from the same source, though somewhat modified, when setting forth in his printed works the grandeur and skill of the Divine Artificer, Impressed by so great a cloud of living realities, on every side besetting our daily walks, forms of exquisite workmanship and matchless perfection diffused harmoniouslj^ throughout the mighty universe for man to examine and carefully find out ; let us take heed, lest, when viewing these imprints and foot- steps of their great Original, we fail through pride and conceit to discern the great end for which we and they were created. No cenotaph, no marble urn, no chiselled bust, no ful- some epitaph in letters of gold, mock his remains ; but a slight heave of the turf, in a quiet churchyard, beside the banks of the Don, overgrown with grass and wild flowers, which in life he so frequently described, tells the inquisitive stranger that the ashes of the author of " British Birds, Indigenous and Migratory," repose there. His greatest ambition was to finish life well, and to leave behind him a name less perishable than marble, and a column whose basis might perchance rest on the literature of his native country, having an inscription so legibly written as that the naturalist in every succeeding age down to the re- motest period of time, might gaze on his works with admiration and love. Many years ago Macgillivray breathed this beautiful MACGILLIVRAY. 163 sentiment, when contrasting his own labours with the works of those whose researches were in progress in the same field of inquiry, and in the refulgent light of an eternal day ; a sentiment so chaste withal, so full of pathos, and so pregnant of import, that we shall employ it in a vale- dictory manner in closing this imperfect essay on his life and writings. " Let us seat ourselves on this mossy knoll, inhale the pui-e air, and gaze upon the blue hills that skirt the horizon, the ex- tended plains, the green woods, and the brown moors. " It is a beautiful, nay, a happy world, although filled with sin and sorrow. How lovely then must be that in which grief has no place, in which the purified soul Hves in the eternal sun- shine of God's love. Without gratitude for mercies, humility on account of frailties, hope for happier days, trust in Provi- dence, and an earnest desire to do good to our fellow-men, our world, beautiful as it may be, would not be worth living in, and all our Ornithology, however scientific and orderly we might make it, and whatever applause it might elicit from so many crowds, would be of no real advantage to us. Even as it is, the science that has reference merely to the things of time seems to me a very small matter, hardly worth disputing about. " And yet, when I descend from this mound, which to me is the temple of God, and shut myself up in my closet to pen the pages of a history of British Birds, I shall sometime forget to exercise that moderation towards opposing wi'iters which con- science might approve. " But the sky is blackening in the west, large drops are be- ginning to fall, a thread of yellow light has shot across the gloom, and as heavy rain and thunder may be expected, let us betake ourselves to the Hunter's Tryste and await the issue. I always feel excited and nervous during a thunder storm. The glory of the dazzhng flash, the pomp of the rolling mass of sound, the thick darkness and the deluge of water, impress me with terror and dehght, wonder and dread. It is like the valley of the shadow of death. When the clouds are past, and the bow of promise gladdens the eye, and the glorious sun shines in the clear blue sky, a gladness, tempered with awe, comes over the 164 MACGILLIVRAY. soul and feelings, like that wliich I hope may be mine and thine, good reader, when the last trumpet shall summon us before the judgment-seat." Balmoral MS. — The Queen, according to the account in the pubhc journals of the day, has purchased, for private circulation, Macgilhvray's Sketch of Balmoral and the surrounding districts. The importance of the work in question cannot be properly appre- ciated by the public, as it is the private property of Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen ; but should it ever be published, the Sketch will be found to describe very accurately that portion of the mountain range of Scotland, with its scenery, geology^ botany, and entire faunse, in the midst of which is situated the northern resi- dence of the Sovereign of these realms. THE CONNECTION BETWEEN MAGNETIC PHENOMENA AND EPIDEMIC DISEASES: BY HENRY KELSALL, M.D., F.R.C.S. READ BEFORE THE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, LEICESTER ON THE 8TH MAY, 1854. THE CONNECTION BETWEEN MAGNETIC PHENOMENA AND EPIDEMIC DISEASES. When anxiety was recently excited by the third return of Asiatic cholera to this country, some thoughts that had occurred to my mind during the second appearance of that ghastly visitor in 1849 came fresh to remembrance; and after a little reflection have resulted in the adoption of an hypothesis of the cause of the epidemic, which, however imperfect, I venture to propose to the considera- tion of those who may deem it worth confirming or de- molishing by further observation. All are, T believe, agreed at the present day that the exciting cause of Asiatic cholera is a subtle poison or miasm inhaled by the lungs with the atmospheric air, or ' absorbed by water and taken into the stomach, and thence conveyed to the circulation. I assume this supposition to ■ be true ; and, indeed, any one who has witnessed the dis- tressing scene of the stage of collapse in an unfortunate fellow creature suffering from cholera can scarcely fail to be struck with the thought that he must be labouring , under the effects of some powerful poison. The object I have in view is to endeavour, if possible, to advance a step towards determining the source of this poison. Now, 168 MAGNETIC PHENOMENA AND defects in our sanitary arrangements, however numerous, are insufficient to account for the appearance of cholera ; for, though this epidemic is always most malignant in those localities where the atmosphere or water is charged with putrid matters, these things alone are quite inad- equate to explain all the circumstances of its history ; because, though they have all been in operation time immemorial, and well known to be the source of typhus fever, they failed to develope Asiatic cholera in England till A.D. 1832. For example, in the year 1852 the town of Newcastle-on-Tyne was as filthy, and all the apparent causes of the disease were as abundant, as in A.D. 1853, yet in 1852 these sanitary defects were unproductive of cholera, which was fatal to so many in the following year. And while Newcastle was suffering from the visitation in 1853 there were numerous places in the United Kingdom which enjoyed perfect immunity, though quite as unfavour- ably circumstanced as Newcastle as respects filthiness and impurity of the water. There must consequently have been some additional and invisible agency at work during the prevalence of cholera in Newcastle to have converted the causes of typhus into causes of a new epidemic. The singular regularity of the march of cholera in its three migrations from the East, is, of itself, a proof of the existence of some such additional agency, and that its progress is ruled by some physical law, which cannot be sought in any peculiar condition of the atmosphere, be- cause cholera often progressed rapidly to windward during the prevalence of the monsoon, and w^as equally virulent in every variety of temperature and weather, the heat of India or the cold of Archangel. The reported perturbations of magnetic power and electricity during the continuance of cholera in Russia, seeming to give force to the opinion of those who believe in an electrical cause, I was led to compare the history of its path with the chart of magnetic curves, published by EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 169 Professor Barlow, in the expectation of finding some rela- tion between the course of migratory cholera and the direction of these curves. An inspection of the chart seemed to confirm the idea, for it does appear as if the track of the disease has hitherto been regulated by the position and direction of these magnetic lines. If this can be satisfactorily shown, I think it advances us a step towards gaining some information respecting the cause of the pestilence. [The lecturer here directed attention to the magnetic chart of Professor Barlow, copied fi'om Black's Edinburgh Atlas, and after explaining the nature of the magnetic lines thereon delineated, proceeded.] It will be observed that one of the lines of no variation on Barlow's chart describes a remarkable inflection around the peninsula of Hindostan, and on each side of this are other lines running nearly parallel to it, indicating the amounts of increasing magnetic deviation, easterly and westerly. Another line of no variation extends from the mag- netic pole, (discovered or reached by Captain Ross, in latitude N 70° 5', longitude W 96° 47',) through the centre of Hudson's Bay and parts of the American continent, to a south magnetic pole — the lines of increasing variation on each side of this one being seemingly a different series from the group that converges towards the eastern line of no variation. It was near the centre of the circle described by this remarkable line that cholera first became known. The following brief history of Asiatic cholera, and its invasion of Europe, is condensed from the narratives of several writers, who carefully noticed its progress, and who have accounted for it, each by a theory of his own, — one - attributing its spread entirely to contagion, another to the evolution of noxious vapours from the earth, and some to volcanic or electrical causes. The disease seems to have been unknown in India till M 170 MAGNETIC PHENOMENA AND A.D. 1781 ; at least there is no distinct record of its pre- vious existence ; but on the 22nd of March, 1781, a corps of five thousand European troops were suddenly assailed at Ganjam, N 19° 28', E 85° 10', with intense virulence, by the new disease, which at first was attributed to poison, till it was found that the native villages in the vicinity were also suffering from the disease. When it appeared at Ganjam, men in perfect health suddenly dropped down by dozens, and either died or w^ere past recovery in less than an hour; and besides those w^ho died, above five hundred were admitted into hospital on that day. On the two following days the disease continued unabated, and by that time more than one half of the army was suffering from it. Thus was Asiatic cholera first introduced to the notice of Europeans. In the following year, (1782,) cholera appeared at Madras, and as these two places lie near the centre of the great curve described by the line of no variation, the in- fluence accompanying the magnetic line would appear to have swept slowly from north to south in the direction of the curve. A.D. 1783. Cholera appeared at Hurdwar, N 30° 0', E 78° 7', and thence passed in a southerly direction through the centre of Hindostan, being thenceforward known as an endemic disease in India. A.D. 1817. In August, the disease burst forth at Jessore, and spread rapidly to Calcutta, which is situated about one hundred miles to the south-west of Jessore, and then it was first observed to have taken a migratory character. From this centre the pestilence gradually travelled by three principal streams. 1st. One flowing south-west along the Coromandel coast to Madras, which it took about twelve months to reach ; thence it went to Ceylon, where it arrived six months afterwards, and then passed on consecutively to Sumatra, Java, Borneo, and the Spice Islands, to Timor, EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 171 which it reached in 1823, and probably proceeded on- wards to the then unexplored northern part of Australia. Cholera also appeared at Bombay in August, 1818, and descended six months later to Tivandrum and the coasts of Cape Comorin ; that is, in every case along the course of the curves which lie on the eastern side of the line of no variation. 2nd. Another stream, proceeding from the same centre, travelled south-east along the opposite coast of the Bay of Bengal to Arracan, which it took twelve months to reach, and another year to traverse the Malay Peninsula ; thence it swept over the Philippine Islands and Canton, where it arrived in 1820. It reached Pekin in 1821, pro- bably passing also over Japan, all of which places lie nearly in order (as the disease appeared) on the remaining or northerly portion of the same curves — i. e., those in- fluenced by the south-west current of the epidemic. 3rd. xA. third stream progressed westward (as if com- municated by induction to other lines lying westward) along the valley of the Ganges to Bundelcund, and having reached Delhi, Saharampore, and Kotah, it stopped ab- ruptly for about a year — that is, the choleraic influence reached only to a curve, which runs close to the line of no variation, these towns, and also Hurdwar and Bombay, being situated nearly on the same curve. Hitherto the disease had, therefore, been confined almost within this great circle. A.D. 1819. In July, cholera broke out at Oudeypore, Ajmeer, and the adjacent places — viz. on points which lie on a curve, a little further westward of that on which Delhi, Kotah, Bombay, &c. are situated ; and having arrived thus far, there was a pause of two years. These two groups of places, simultaneously affected in 1818 and 1819, it will be observed do not lie east and west of each other respectively, or north and south, but nearly on the same magnetic line. 172 MAGNETIC PHENOMENA AND were affected in 1818. Hurdwar . . N 30° 00' E 78° 07' Saharampore N 29° 59' E 77° 33' Delhi . . . N 28° 35' E 77° 12' Kotah . . . N 25° 05' E 75° 50' Bombay . . N 18° 55' E 72° 52' But the two principal places affected in 1819, lie on a more westerly curve. Ajmeer . . N 26° 20' E 74° 34' ] were affected Oudeypore . N 24° 30' E 74° 00' J in 1819. A.D. 1821. In July, after a pause of two years, the disease appeared with tremendous violence at Muscat, Bushire, and Bussorah, on the Persian Gulf, and spread rapidly from Bussorah at the Mouth of the Tigris, to Bagdat, which it reached in a month, destroying many thousands, but subsided a little in the winter of 1821. It seems to have been taken for granted by the writers who have described the track of this epidemic, that it generally followed the course of rivers in its transit towards the west ; but whenever this was the case I think it was a mere coincidence ; because, as cholera passed down the Coromandel coast, it did not follow the course of the numerous streams which empty themselves into the Bay of Bengal, but it crossed them. When, therefore, the pestilence seemed to follow the course of the Ganges to the westward, the choleraic influence was in reality passing by a kind of induction from one line of magnetic variation to the next, in westerly order ; and afterwards, when it progressed to the north-west, apparently along the banks of the Tigris and Euphrates, it was flickering up and down the magnetic lines, which run in a direction somewhat parallel to the course of these rivers. The same reasoning applies to the progress of cholera up the Volga and Oural rivers. Again, during the pause between the years 1819 and 1821, the course of the disease is thought to have been arrested by the burning deserts lying westward of Hin- EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 173 dostan, but it is more likelj that the pestilential influence continued during those two years to be gradually imparted to more westerly curves lying on these deserts, and that it passed along them, north and south as before, until it reached by the same kind of induction the lines which pass through Muscat, Bushire, and Bussorah ; this cir- cumstance being unnoticed, because the northern ends of these lines penetrate into regions then little known to Europeans, and their southern extremities pass over the Indian Ocean. A.D. 1822. In the summer, cholera resumed its march from Persia towards Europe, extending up the river Tigris to Erzeroum, in Armenia, and up the Euphrates to Aleppo, sweeping also along the western shore of the Caspian Sea, with the magnetic lines. A.D. 1823. The disease spread westward from Aleppo to Antioch, and several other ports on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean, and along the western coast of the Caspian, northward to Astrachan, at the mouth of the Volga, where, seeming to exhaust itself, after causing the deaths of 144 persons, it disappeared for the time. Six years then elapsed, the pestilence, as it were, paus- ing on the eastern skirts of Europe. A.D. 1829. In the summer it re-appeared with malig- nity at Orenberg on the Oural river (N 52° IT, E 54° 10'), and devastated the surrounding province till the winter set in. A.D. 1830. In July, the smouldering pestilence, as if gathering fresh power, broke out again in Persia, and crept northward, chiefly along the western shore of the Caspian Sea, visiting Bakou, Salain, at the mouth of the Kour ; Astrachan, at the mouth of the Volga, and many inter- mediate towns (extending westward to Mecca), Tiflis in Georgia, and crossing the Caucasian range of mountains to SaratofF, N 51° 30', E 45° 59'. Then it proceeded northwards till it arrived at Moscow, N 55° 42', E 37° 30', 174 MAGNETIC PHENOMENA AND where, on September 14th, 1830, two or three cases were reported. In six weeks above three thousand persons died, and notwithstanding a cordon sanitaire thrown around Moscow by the Emperor Nicholas, the disease continued to ascend to the north, till it reached St. Peters- burgh, N 59° 54', E 30° 21', and passed on to Archangel on the White Sea, following throughout its course the lines of magnetic variation, and then, as if again propa- gated by the induction I have previously surmised, it ex- tended westward, and passed down the lines which extend from Riga, on the Baltic, N 56' 56', E 24° 17', to the mouths of the Danube and Odessa, on the Black Sea, N 46° 27', E 30° 55', i. e. through about 630 miles of latitude. A.D. 1831. The disease appeared this year at Con- stantinople, and two months afterwards in Egypt, having in twelve months reached a line somewhat more to the westward. It also broke out at Warsaw, Cracow, Berlin, and Vienna, a line extending from Egypt to the Baltic being thus almost simultaneously affected. The influence reached Hamburgh early in October, 1831, and on October 26th, the disease appeared in London and at Sunderland on the eastern coast of England, as if the cause (whatever it be) had passed to a new group of magnetic lines, viz. those which converge towards the north magnetic pole, discovered by Captain Ross. A.D. 1832. In February it reached the lines which curve in a south-westerly direction, between Edinburgh and Dublin, and these two places were attacked by the disease, in the same order of time as was observed in its progress elsewhere ; Dublin being visited by the pestilence a few weeks later than Edinburgh : but it did not ap- proach France until the influence had been communicated to several fresh magnetic curves, lying further westward, and then, in March, 1832, the disease appeared almost simultaneously at Paris and Calais, and spread through EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 175 France from town to town, setting quarantine restrictions at defiance. In June, 1832, that is, three months after it appeared in France, cholera broke out at Quebec ! ! as if the influence had been conveyed along the lines which pass through France, and after descending towards the south-west, rise in a north-westerly direction towards Canada on their way to Captain Ross's north magnetic pole. In the same month (June, 1832) cholera reached New York, and ravaged this part of the American continent, while a reflex current returned back to Europe on the curves which connect North America with Spain and Por- tugal — Lisbon and Madrid being attacked in 1833, and the choleraic influence still communicating itself to the next adjacent lines southward — Gibraltar suffered in 1834, Marseilles, Toulon, Piedmont, Genoa, and Florence in 1835, Naples in 1836, Algiers and Malta in 1837, and here the pestilence died out, twenty years after it began to migrate from Jessore. The epidemic took the same route when it passed over Europe the second time in 1848-49, but on its second visitation, after reaching America it extended to the West Indies in 1851. Having thus as I think demonstrated that Asiatic cho- lera passed from region to region, through every variety of climate, along the lines of magnetic variation^ as traced on Professor Barlow's chart ; the influence (whatever it be) imparting itself to the next adjacent lines, and travers- ing these north and south, again progressing further and further westward until the curves belonging to another magnetic pole were reached, and then following the di- rection of this new group until the disease had been con- veyed over the greater part of the habitable earth ; I may add, that I observed on several occasions the same cha- racter in the progress of the epidemic, on a small scale, when cholera prevailed, on the south side of the river 176 MAGNETIC PHENOMENA AND Thames, in September, 1849, from two to four cases of malignant cholera occurring within a few hours of each other along a particular street, or running across a street, to houses in an adjoining parallel street, the points where these cases happened, lying in respect of each other in a line bearing about NNE, that is, in the direction of the magnetic curve. By applying the rule I have supposed to reports of the apparently capricious movements of cholera — its running occasionally through nearly all the houses on one side of a street, and sparing those on the opposite side ; or deci- mating a regiment encamped on one side of a road, and not touching the men of another regiment encamped on the other side — the course of the disease will not ap- pear to be so capricious. Pepys, in his Diary, relates the same apparent inconsistency of the Great Plague of A.D. 1665, which, he says, caused so many deaths on one side of the main street of Petersfield, (Hants.) that the shutters of nearly all the houses w^ere closed, while those of the shops on the opposite side of the street remained opened as usual, the inmates having suffered little from the pestilence. Wliy migratory cholera should follow the course of the magnetic curves remains to be ascertained. There is obviously something more than mere coincidence in the path of the influence following the direction of these lines, and I therefore deferentially offer some speculative sug- gestions, in the endeavour to approach a theory of the cause of cholera. With respect to magnetic variation. Previous to the year 1657, the north pole of the needle pointed to the eastward of north at London, and was then observed to be rapidly approaching every year to the point of no variation. A.D. 1657, it was observed by Bond to point due north at London, and from that year to A.D. 1814, it gradually EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 177 deviated towards the west till it attained its extreme westerly yariation 24° 21' 10". Since 1814 the magnet has been slowly receding to- wards the east, and still annually continues to decrease its westerly deviation. As it occupied 157 years to decline from true north to its greatest westerly deviation, it may be inferred that it will be 157 years in returning to the same point, which would be A. D. 1971, from thence the same number of years in arriving at its maximum easterly variation, and that 157 years is the cycle of these changes. If so, they appear to have coincided with the times of several migratory pestilences of different characters ; for example : — A. D. 1814 was the year of maximum westerly variation, followed by Asiatic cholera, A.D. 1817; A.D. 1657 was about the year of no variation, fol- lowed by the Great Plague, A.D. 1665; A.D. 1500 was the year of greatest easterly varia- tion, accompanied by sweating sickness (from 1485 to 1551;) A.D. 1343 was the year of no variation, accompa- nied by the black death (from 1333 to 1351). Thus, in 1817, three years after the time of maximum westerly variation, cholera began to move from the East towards Europe, and reached London in fifteen years. In 1665, eight years after the magnet had begun to vary westward, London was visited by the Great Plague. About A.D. 1500 the magnet had probably attained its greatest easterly variation at London ; and of the numerous plagues that devastated Europe from the close of the fif- teenth to the middle of the sixteenth century, the most remarkable was the English sweat, or sweating sickness. There were five distinct visitations of this epidemic in England, extending through a period of 66 years. A.D. 1485. The sweating sickness appeared for the 178 MAGNETIC PHENOMENA AND first time on the banks of the Severn, in the month of August, and passing eastward to London it ceased in England on January 1st, 1486 (having continued five months). Then after an interval of 21 years, A.D. 1506, it re-appeared in London during the sum- mer, and continued till the autumn — this being about the time when the magnetic needle was at the maximum easterly variation. Then there was another interval of 1 1 years. A.D. 1517. In July, the disease again broke out in London, and thence spread all over the kingdom till De- cember, (six months.) Then another pause of eleven years. A.D. 1528. In May, the sweating sickness appeared again in London, and spread all over England, till the winter set in, (eight months). A.D. 1529, sweating sickness appeared in Ham- burg, July 25th ; Lubeck, July 29th ; Zwickau, August 14th ; Strasburg, August 24th ; Stettin, August 31st, and continued nine days ; In September the disease spread all over Germany. . ; It reached Danzig September 1st, and continued seven days ; Cologne, Augsburg, and Frankfurt-on-the-Maine, on the 5th, 6th, and 7th of September ; Vienna, September 20th ; . ; Amsterdam, September 27th ; And the disease ceased simultaneously in the \ ' Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway, on the 1st of October, 1529. - A.D. 1551, April 15th, after an absence from Eng- land of twenty-three years, sweating sickness suddenly revisited Shrewsbury, and thence in " stinking mists" ex- tended eastward, reaching London about July 9th, and EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 179 spread all over England. This final irruption of the dis- ease terminated September SOth, having continued six months and a half. It is remarkable that the first and last outbreaks of this epidemic commenced on the banks of the Severn, and spread eastward ; for if some epidemics bear any relation to terrestrial magnetism and electricity, their migrations may be regulated like those of cholera, by the direction of the magnetic curves. Those delineated by Professor Bar- low, for the purpose of showing the places of magnetic variation at the present time, are no doubt nearly exact, but as there are no means of constructing such a chart for previous ages, it is impossible to conjecture the figure of these curves at the time when sweating sickness prevailed. Hecker adopts the opinions of the writers of those times, that the habits and natural constitution of the English in the sixteenth century especially predisposed them to this disease ; and affirms that Englishmen on the continent of Europe were attacked by sweating sickness while it was raging in England, though the natives of the continent escaped ; and foreigners residing in England during the epidemic were not affected by it : but this assertion seems inconsistent with Hecker's own lucid nar- rative, because at the first visitation of sweating sickness, it broke out among the foreign mercenary soldiers in the army of Henry the Seventh after the Battle of Bosworth Field f see Hecker, p. 294*), and during the third visitation, A.D. 1517, Ammonius of Lucca died of the disease in England; above all, in 1529, sweating sickness was con- fined solely to the continent of Europe, and did not touch England at all ; whence it would appear, that its five ap- pearances in this island should not be attributed to any peculiar constitution of the inhabitants, but to some such * Epidemics of the Middle Ages, by J. F. C. Hecker, M.D.; translated from the German by B. C. Babington, M.D., F.R.S. 180 MAGNETIC PHENOMENA AND cause as Hecker himself suggests ; he says " The English sweating sickness made its appearance not alone, but surrounded by a whole group of epidemics, (maUgnant and putrid fevers) on the continent of Europe, called forth by general morbific influences of an unknown nature.'" The sudden irruptions, and no less extraordi- nary sudden cessations of this pestilence, wherever it ap- peared, irresistibly suggest that the unknown morbific influences'''' were due to some unusual cosmical cause, the most probable of which I conjecture to have been some perturbation of terrestrial electricity. I will now proceed to speak of another pestilence which devastated Europe, (and probably the whole earth,) about 150 years previous to the sweating sickness. A.D. 1348-49, (six years after the year of no variation) England was visited by the most fearful migratory pesti- lence on record. " La Mortelega Grande," — " The Great Mortality," or "The Black Death," was an inflammatory and putrid plague, which, in addition to its cosmical origin and propa- gation, was of a highly contagious character, and was supposed to have commenced in the kingdom of Cathay, (China,) in the year 1333, (preceded by tremendous and devastating earthquakes* in that part of the world,) and to have spread in a westerly direction, across the continent of Asia to Constantinople, where it arrived in fourteen years, (viz. in 1347,) destroying the whole population on some parts of the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. The following quotation from the introduction to Boc- cacio's Decameroji shows the character of " The Black Death," and that it passed over the earth from east to west. * It is remarkable that in 1815 (time of maximum westerly variation) the island of Sumbawa, near Java, was depopulated by the most awful earthquake of modern times; of 12,000 inhabitants only 26 survived. (See Sir Stamford Raffles' Java, vol. i. p. 28.) Asiatic cholera began to migrate shortly after these terrestrial convulsions. EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 181 Boccacio, who was an eye witness, says " In the year of our Lord, 1348, there happened in Florence, the first city in all Italy, a most terrible plague, which, whether owing to the influence of the planets or that it was sent from God as a just punishment for our sins, had broken out some years before in the Levant, and, after passing from place to place, and making incredible havoc all the way, had now reached the West, where, spite of all the means that art and human foresight could suggest, — as • keeping the city clear from filth, and excluding all sus- pected persons, — notwithstanding frequent consultation what else was to be done, nor omitting prayers to God, with frequent processions, in the spring of the foregoing year it began to shew itself in a sad and wonderful manner, and difierent from what it had been in the East, where bleeding from the nose is the fatal prognostic. Here there appeared certain tumours in the groins, or under the arm- pits, some as big as a small apple, others as an egg ; and afterwards purple spots in most parts of the body, in some cases large, and but few in number, in others less and more numerous ; both sorts being the usual messengers of death : the lower animals, dogs, cats, fowls, and swine, also fell victims to the disease." It is also remarkable that many hundred years pre- viously, Pliny wrote (Nat. Hist, hook vii. cliap. 51,) " ^4 pestilence is observed always to go from the south parts towards the setting of the sun, and it is scarcely ever otherwise^'' that is, the course of epidemic plagues pre- vious to Pliny's time was observed to have always been in a north-westerly direction, as we have seen that of cholera to be in the present century. The description given by Thucydides of the great plague of Athens, 430 years before the Christian era, leaves little doubt that that pestilence was identical in character with the "Black Death" of the fourteenth cen- tury. Thucydides says it began in Egypt, and thence 182 MAGNETIC PHENOMENA AND passed on to Athens, (i. e. it travelled in a north-westerly direction) ; he does not hint that it was supposed to have been imported by contagion, but says that it invaded Athens " on a sadden," so that at first it was believed that " poison had been cast into the wells," a suspicion which prevailed not only when the "Black Death" appeared "suddenly," and swept over Europe, 1700 years after- wards, causing the perpetration of atrocious cruelties on the Jews, who were ignorantly accused of poisoning the wells, but when Asiatic cholera was new in Europe, the same suspicion of poisoning the wells prevailed among the uneducated classes on the Continent and in England. Professor Hecker, in his valuable treatise, traces the progress of the "Black Death" of the fourteenth century from the /ar East towards Constantinople, nearly in the very direction which cholera passed over in our own times, and, assigning contagion as one of the causes of this great pestilence, he says, " from China the route of the caravans lay to the north of the Caspian Sea through Central Asia to Tauris, here ships were ready to take the produce of the East to Constantinople ;" other caravans went from India to Asia Minor, and touched at the cities south of the Caspian Sea ; and lastly, from Bagdat, through Arabia to Egypt ; also the maritime communication on the Red Sea, from India to Arabia and Egypt was not inconsiderable. " In all these directions contagion," he says, " made its way ;" but he also adduces the united testimony of several German, French, and Italian writers of those days that something was superadded to contagion, by the fact that " a thick stinking mist, a dense and awful fog was seen in the heavens, rising in the East and descending upon Italy," over which it spread in 1347, in which year Sicily and Marseilles were also affected. Sardinia, Corsica, and Majorca were visited in succession ; and in January, 1348, the plague appeared in Avignon and other cities in the south of France and north of Italy, and in Spain. The EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 18B precise days of its irruption in the individual towns are no longer to be ascertained ; but it was not simultaneous, for in Florence the disease appeared in the beginning of April, in Cesena on the ] st of June, and place after place was attacked throughout the whole year ; and after it had passed through the whole of France and Germany it broke out in England in August, where it advanced so gradually that three months elapsed before it reached London. "Having first appeared in Dorsetshire, it attacked Bristol, Gloucester, and London, then proceeded north- wards to Norwich, Yarmouth, Leicester, and York; some of the towns losing nine-tenths of iheir inhabitants. It prevailed in England for one year, terminating in August, 1349. The "Black Death" then went to Scotland, from which it passed over to Norway and Sweden in 1349, but it did not make its appearance in Russia till 1351, (more than three years after it had broken out at Constantinople). Instead, therefore, of advancing in a north-westerly direc- tion from Tauris and fi'om the Caspian Sea, it thus made the great circuit of the Black Sea by way of Constan- tinople, southern and central Europe, England, Scotland, and Poland, before it reached the Russian territories, a phenomenon which has not again occurred with respect to more recent pestilences originating in Asia." This circumstance may be explained by conceding that the " unknown morbific influences " are connected with terrestrial electricity, and that they follow the direction of the varying magnetic curves, as cholera appears to have done; about A.D. 1348, a group of magnetic curves may have crossed the meridians through the countries visited by the " Black Death," and after thus passing over the continent of Europe have bent upwards to the north, and traversed Great Britain from south to north, and then have gone through Iceland, Greenland, Norway, Poland, and Russia, converging towards a pole situated much more to the eastward than that reached by Captain Ross, (per- 184 MAGNETIC PHENOMENA AND haps the magnetic pole laid down on Barlow's chart, near the longitude of 35° east). This is no outrageous specu- lation, because it is a fact that so recently as the year 1657, a line of no variation must have crossed the Atlantic between London and New York nearly at right angles to the meridians, similar to that which at the present day crosses the meridians in the Indian Ocean and surrounds Hindostan. In 1700, when the deviation of the magnet became better understood, the variation of the compass was ob- served at London to be only 8° west, and at the same time at New York there was no variation at all. Between that time and 1814 the variation at London continued to in- crease towards the west, but there has been no variation at New York from 1700 to the present time, which proves the fact above stated, and that there must have occurred some considerable change in the configuration of the mag- netic curves between England and America during those 157 years ; if so, there were probably other consider- able changes in the contour of these lines in still more ancient times. If the course of migratory epidemics is regulated by the magnetic curves, it is reasonable to conjecture that the generation of their specific miasmata is connected with perturbations of terrestrial electricity. Magnetism and electricity mutually depend one on the other; a bar of soft iron is converted into a temporary magnet when an electric current is made to invest it — and conversely, a current of electricity is obtained by rotating two helices of copper wire against the poles of a perma- nent steel magnet ; the deviation of the magnet itself may be caused by some such means as the following : — The vol- taic current and the magnet have the property of deflecting each other, in proportion to their relative strengths, and the direction in which this deflection takes place follows a certain known law ; — being to the right or left, according EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 185 as the directio7i of the electric current is varied ; if the current pass from helow upward, the north pole of the needle will be deflected towards the left, — if it pass down- ward^ the north pole of the needle will be deflected towards the right hand. Then, if voltaic currents ascend from the centre of the earth into the atmosphere in certain parts of the globe, these would deflect the magnet to the left, and occasion Westerly variation : — and if in other places currents descend from the atmosphere towards the centre of the earth, they would deflect the north pole of the magnet to the right hand, and cause Easterly variation, in which case there would always be constant currents of electricity on the whole surface of the earth, when in its normal condition. The observations of Colonel Beaufoy, Professor Bar- low, and Mr. Christie have demonstrated that there is also a small diurnal variation of the magnetic needle, amount- ing in quantity from 2' to nearly 13' of a degree, which constantly arrives at its maximum daily variation Westerly, a little after noon, and then recedes till it attains its great- est Easterly variation, about 7 a.m. To account for this daily variation, Professor Bartow suggests that the Sun possesses a certain magnetic action on the needle. During the prevalence of Asiatic cholera, it has been asserted that great perturbations of magnetism had been observed during short periods of time, when that epidemic was at its height. It is said that at St. Petersburgh, in 1831, while the disease continued, magnets lost their at- tractive power, and electrical machines could not be made to act. But in 1849, when cholera visited Plymouth, an ingenious instrument was constructed by Mr. Roberts, a watchmaker, of Union-street, Stonehouse, which showed that diminution of magnetic power bore a constant rela- tion to the number of malignant cases, which were daily reported. The instrument consists of two steel horse- shoe magnets, the north pole of one being connected by 186 MAGNETIC PHENOMENA AND a hinge with the south pole of the other. The attraction of the opposite pair of poles is counteracted by a pulley and weighted pendulum, provided with a point, which indicates the force of the magnetic attraction on the arc of a circle divided into degrees. With this apparatus (of which he kept a daily register) he observed that while the epidemic continued at Plymouth, the index marked a diminution of magnetism on the arc attached to the in- strument ; and on one particular occasion, when a great number of malignant cases were reported in the town, the index fell nearly three degrees, denoting a great dimi- nution of attractive power in the two horse-shoe magnets. When cholera ceased altogether, the index returned to the extreme end of the arc, and there it has remained ever since. Thus, I think I have adduced two reasons for attri- buting the origin of Asiatic cholera to the influence of terrestrial electricity, — 1st, by the coincidence of the path of the epidemic with the magnetic curves, and 2nd, the disturbance and diminution of magnetic force during the continuance of the pestilence. To explain how the absence of electricity can give rise to disease, I offer this hypothesis. It is well known that the voltaic current is a decom- posing agent, — that its property is to overcome the elective affinity of bodies through which it passes, — to keep them as it were asunder. I suppose that when a locality is healthy, there must exist a continued electric current, passing from below upwards in our part of the earth, and from above downwards in the Pacific Ocean, the tendency of which is to prevent the formation of deleterious com- pounds that would otherwise take place by the chemical union of gases, which are to be everywhere found in greater or less abundance on the surface of the ground, and that the various pestilential miasmata may have their origin in varying conditions of these electric currents, i. e. EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 187 as to tension and quantity ; — modified by temperature and other accidents — at one time engendering the invisible miasmata of typhus, influenza, or cholera ; at other times, " the stinking mists " as they were called by the writers of the middle ages — those palpable clouds of fcEtid vapour which accompanied the path of the awful " Black Death " and of the " Sweating Sickness." The localities most favourable to the development of malignant epidemics, are those where the level is low and damp, and the air and water are polluted by the efl9uvia of cesspools, drains, graveyards, and the like. These effluvia consist of about six elements : oxygen, hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, sulphur, and phosphorus, in the state of carburetted, sulphuretted, and phosphuretted hydrogen — carbonic acid, and ammonia. The inhalation of most of these gases is quickly pro- ductive of pernicious consequences, but in their separate state they have never been known to occasion epidemics ; but supposing the temporary absence of the power which overcomes the affinity of the elements of these gases, I conceive that they may chemically combine in new formulae or compounds, and form any variety of disease-producing miasmata, by a ver}" small diff'erence in the proportions of the elements of each new combination. To exemplify my meaning, I may instance the variety of effects that result from the varying proportions of only four of these elements, when united in the active principles of certain vegetables, — viz. aconitine, quinine, morphine, and strychnine, the composition of which is — Aconitine .... O. 14, H. 47, C. 60, N. Morphine , . . . O. 18, H. 6, C. 34, N. Quinine O. 2, H. 12, C. 20, N. Strychnine . . . O. 3, H. 16, C. 30, N. Each of these bodies is therefore composed of the very same elements, the only difference among them being the 188 MAGNETIC PHENOMENA AND proportionate number of equivalents or atoms of the ele- ments of which they are composed. I have selected these few as examples. The number might be greatly multi- plied, but if only four of the elements of which noxious effluvia consists are susceptible of such a variety of com- binations, and effects on the animal body, w^hen united in vegetable matter, I imagine that an atom of sulphur or phosphorus entering into composition with two or more of these same elements, may form a new product, yet un- detected by the chemist, inodorous, volatile, perhaps capable of being absorbed by water, and when applied to the human lungs or stomach productive of powerful or fatal effects, w^hich most likely are malignant, in proportion to the greater or less concentration of the poison imbibed.* If the hypothesis I have suggested be true, it is evident that it is impossible to arrest the course of cholera or any other epidemic, but the malignity of such diseases may be greatly modified and diminished by withdrawing, to the best of our ability, the materials of which the concentrated poisons which cause them are formed, by the action of a mysterious, or, as I believe, of an electrical influence, and this must consist in some effectual method of purifying our towns of filth, and especially of ceasing to make com- mon sewers of the rivers on wdiich they are built. As to the general treatment of Asiatic cholera, it is notorious that every orthodox plan recommended and adopted has signally failed, though each has been vaunted in its turn. Phlebotomy, and the transfusion of blood and injection of saline compounds into the veins of the sufferers ; internal and external stimulants ; salivation ; the * The carbuncular inflammation of the lungs and bloody expectoration, which characterized the most deadly form of the " Black Death," and destroyed life before any of its other symptoms had time to be developed, proves that some irritative poison must have been applied to the organs thus first affected, and which must have been inspired by the lungs in the act of breathing. EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 189 calomel and opium plan ; astringents ; purgatives ; seda- tives ; the saline, the alkaline, and the sulphuric acid plan ; - the whole of v^hich, according to my conviction, have tended more or less to the destruction of the unfortunate patients, whom it would have been far better to have left entirely alone to the unassisted powers of nature ; for in no disease to which humanity is subject have the evils of "bold medical practice," as it is called, been more palpable. ' ^ In the management of cholera, a hint might have been usefully taken from the history of the sweating sickness of the middle ages. " .: •. . . This disease, soon after the first symptoms appeared, was characterized by a profuse foetid perspiration, the duration of which was exactly twenty-four hours, at the end of w^hich time, if the patient survived, he was safe, i.e. if he had been conducted safely past the crisis of the disease ; but if, during the course of the sweating, it was , suddenly suppressed, (as by the action of cold, &c.) death was the certain result ; in fact, this appears to have been the fate of nearly every person who was attacked by the epidemic on its first appearance in this country, and when such drugs as were then in use were trusted to. Experi- ence soon taught the inutility of drugs, and then the en- deavours of the physicians were directed to the promotion of the critical sweat, which they saw was evidently the means instituted by nature to evacuate some specific poison from the body through the skin ; at first this was overdone by heaping blankets, &c. on the sweating patients, and they were sweated or stewed to death ; the mortality, by this method of treatment, was found to be quite as great as that of the former. Eventually a rational method was adopted, which consisted in enveloping the patient with light coverings, the moment the first symptoms of the disease appeared, in such manner that the sweating was neither allowed to be suddenly checked, nor unduly urged 190 MAGNETIC PHENOMENA AND to excess ; and under this mode of treatment it was soon found that the great majority of patients quickly recovered, and the disease proved to be a manageable one. Now let a similar rule be applied in the treatment of Asiatic cholera. Here is a febrile disease, consisting, like all others of the same class, of — 1st, A cold stage (collapse) attended by a group of symptoms which indicate intense nervous disturbance ; 2nd, A stage of reaction ; and 3rd, A sweating stage, or stage of recovery ; the two latter being sometimes incomplete, a low chronic typhoid fever setting in, instead of the critical and quick recovery, and capable of communicating cholera by con- tagion. I conceive that these phenomena are manifestations of nature's efforts to evacuate a specific poison from the sys- tem, — during the first of the above-mentioned stages, through the medium of the bowels. In sweating sickness, from some other peculiarity of its exciting poison, in the economy of nature, it was evacuated through the skin, instead of by the bowels ; and if in sweating sickness it proved to be fatally pernicious to check or to urge forward the natural effort of sweating, it might reasonably be expected, that to oppose violently the natural effort of purging, in the case of cholera, would be similarly per- nicious ; and so I believe it has hitherto been in the method of treating cholera, by irritating the organs by which nature was endeavouring to rectify herself, with the exhibition of all kinds of crude mixtures of drugs. The more rational plan (as in the case of the skin in sweating sickness) should be to deal very gently with the whole alimentary tube, while it is passing through a severe ordeal, by leaving it as much as possible at rest, exciting it by neither food, even of the lightest kind, (which, under the circumstances, it is absurd to expect can be digested,) EPIDEMIC DISEASES. 191 nor full draughts of water, much less by such indigestible substances as chalk, catechu, spices, brandy, calomel, opium, &c., the least evil of which is to protract the vomit- ing and purging, the very symptoms they are given to counteract. When, on the contrary, the digestive organs are not tampered with, the crisis of the disease is accomplished more speedily and favourably ; which is indicated by the cessation of intestinal tumult ; and then, from the extreme exhaustion which remains; provided the patient is free from any previous organic visceral disease, the probability is three to one in his favour that he will perfectly recover. ' \- .1 OR CURIOSITIES OF THE LAW IN TIMES PAST: BY MR. C. G. MEREWETHER. ^ READ BEFORE THE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, LEICESTER, ON THE 9TH APRIL, 1855. A SWEEP AMONG THE COBWEBS; OR CURIOSITIES OF THE LAW IN TIMES PAST. I CONFESS it is with some considerable alarm that I begin the duty I have undertaken, not only because of the novelty of the position (for until I had the pleasure of attending at one of the lectures in the present session, I am ashamed to confess that I never was an auditor, much less a performer in any good work of the kind) ; but also on account of the subject itself which I have to illustrate, which never, so far as I can learn, has hitherto been pro- truded in this particular manner. But when you. Sir, were kind enough to do me the honour to ask for a paper; and, leaving the more general topics which I mentioned, stated your opinion that this special one might be rendered in- teresting to all, I gladly accepted the opportunity of the sutor, ' sticking to his last,' and resolved to do my duty by it as best I could, not without some fear, however, as to the result. However, Trop prevoir les suites de choses, we know, is wrong ; and upon more mature reflection I began to coincide with the view which you took, even had I intended to treat upon the dry subject itself; for it must have been remarked by every one of us, that nothing appears to create such general interest both to readers and hearers, as what 196 CURIOSITIES OF THE LAW is commonly called a trial ; few places of public resort are more crowded than our courts of justice ; few satires more relished by their readers than the " Wasps," or the " Plaideurs." But I do not upon the present occasion (phrase dear to all English orators) purpose to give the narratives of famous causes, or to enlarge in a popular manner upon the principles and practices of the law of England, (either of which courses might, no doubt, be pursued with pleasure and profit,) so much as to give specimens of what may be called the Antiquities of the Law, casually illustrating the manners and customs of bygone times, in a way of which no other subject matter is perhaps so susceptible. It was sound philosophy which said, Give me the making of the people's ballads, and let who will make their laws : and so I say. Show me the laws of a people, and I will tell you their social condition. From old statutes, old reports, old treatises, many of them written in a language now almost unintelligible, (the Bayeaux tapestry of the law,) I pro- pose to draw curiosities, which will sound as strange to your ears of the nineteenth century, as does the language in which they are couched. We shall have to roam, cur- sorily it must be, over a large tract of ever- changing ground, bringing you down from the days half-hidden in the mist of what is paradoxically called legal memory — when Gascoyne's majesty rebuked the insolence of the heir to the throne — past the epoch of Lord Chancellor More's steadfast adherence to what he conceived to be the dictates of his conscience— lightly, for the sake of the dig- nity of our now spotless ermine, past the evil days when judges forgot their oaths and their consciences, to affirm the legality of unconstitutional extortions, and when the great and good Lord Hale quoted Scripture to justify the sentence of a poor old woman to death for witchcraft — boldly, aye, and proudly, through the old hall of West- minster, ringing with the shouts of those who joy at the IN TIMES PAST. 197 manly vindication of England's rights by the judges of King James, as they sent back the seven bishops to their homes, the heroes for the time of an exultant populace — past the days again v^hen the same populace thought to wreak their vengeance upon the same upright body of men, who had fearlessly done their duty towards the Gordon rioters — and so down to the days of newspaper prosecu- tions, to the days of " Old Bags " and his greater brother, to the days which saw the octogenarian giant of 1855, the noble old lion whose voice has gone forth like a trumpet through every nation of Europe, denouncing now the ter- giversations of Prussia, now the perfidy of the Czar, saw him, I say, then a rising young man, solemnly fined by the high court of the Midland Circuit for appearing as Mr. Copley, in a blue coat and brass buttons, nankeen panta- loons, and the then " boyish foppery " of Hessian boots, at a Derby assize ball — another abomination, by the way, which the better taste of these times has, it is to be hoped, swept away for ever. The topics of interest in such a large field are perpetu- ally recurring; but it is not to the broader features, for which your Hume or Macaulay will suffice, that I now wish to draw your attention. It is to lesser matters than these, but no less indicative of our forefathers' condition. We have all of us seen in the ' gigantic gooseberry ' column of the Advertiser or Mercury, enticing looking little paragraphs. commencing, "It is not generally known." These are my models, this the humble method of didactic discourse which will be followed this evening ; and if, in opening drawer after drawer, and taking out my specimens with little connection one with another, my hearers should think me somewhat desultory, let me ask them to extend to me that kind indulgence which most of them, I con- clude, have been unlucky enough to have themselves ex- tended in their earlier days to some estimable, but, at the same time, mineralogical or entomological aunt. And I 198 CURIOSITIES OF THE LAW shall, I think, best insure this, by taking the little bits of interest not separately and chronologically, but by classes, as it were, of subjects ; of which, the four or five which have been selected for this paper, will be laid before you in such order as a somewhat ragged -levy of all shapes and sizes can well attain. But before I begin, it seems well to say a word about the lingua Franca, of which you will have to bear with a good many specimens. This curious mixture of French with other languages pervades most of our old law books, as Butler sings of the "diction of Hudibras" — - " It was a particoloui'ed di'ess Of patch' d and piebald languages ; ; - 'Twas English cut on '■French'' and Latin Like fustian heretofore on sattin." And I do not know that a more absurd example can be found than the one I am now about to quote. Most of my hearers remember the severe strictures that were passed some years ago on a worthy assistant Judge, on account of his merely augmenting the sentence of a lady who had thrown her shoe at him, and further expressed her opinion that he was a " pig if the criminals in the time of the Stuarts were no better behaved, at least they met with speedier, and, as far as we know, uncriticised vengeance. I should premise that I will read this and other passages verbatim, and as far as speech will suffice, literatim: then adding a translation where necessary. " Richardson, C. J. de Com. Banke, al assizes at Salisbury in summer, 1631, fuit assaulte per prisoner la condemne par felony: que puis (after) son condemnation jet un brickbat a le dit Justice, que narrowly mist: et pur ceo, immediately, fut indictment drawn per Noy envers le prisoner, et son dexter manus ampute, et fix al gibbet, sur que luy meme immediatement hange in presence de Court." IN TIMES PAST. 199 This case is alluded to by Jeremy Taylor in the Ductor DuhitantiuTriy during the discussion of the \ery nice point how far any one, in the situation of a judge or juryman, may exercise his own private information to qualify or add to evidence in the case. The casuist asks — " How, if he sees the fact done before him in court ? a purse . cut ; or a stone thrown at his brother Judge, as happened at Ludloio not many years since : the judge proceeded to sentence on intuition of the fact, and stayed not for the solemnities of law." As to the place where this occurred, it may be observed - that Taylor is right, and the reporter wrong. The latter means Shrewshmj : and the assizes were held at Ludlow - instead, on account of a fever. I am sorry to say most of our earlier reports are not to be depended on in small matters. The mention of Jeremy Taylor's great work, more neglected as it is and has been than any book of similar merit in our language, leads me to diverge for a moment from my true path, to quote an eloquent passage from his biographer and admirer, the Apostle of India, Reginald Heber. In that portion of the Life which treats of the Bishop's wTitings, he says : — "With all its learning, all its acuteness of argument and criticism, its strong practical good sense, and its admirable moderation, the ' Ductor Duhitantium ' is the least read and least popular of his writings. While his devotional w^orks have found their way into every closet and every cottage, his opus magnum reposes on the shelves of our great libraries in company with the neglected giants of an earlier day." And in another place he speaks of this great monument of Taylor's industry in a comparison which w^ill w^ell ap- prove itself to this audience, collected in this building : — " It resembles," says Heber, " in some degree, those ancient cabinets (such as Evelyn, Boyle, or Wilkins may have bequeathed 200 CURIOSITIES OF THE LAW to their descendants), whose multifarious contents perplex our choice, and offer to the admiration of a more accurate age, a vast wilderness of varieties ; but whose ebony drawers and perfumed recesses contain specimens of everything that is rare and pre- cious, and many things for which a modern museum might be searched in vain." If by this short digression I should be fortunate enough to secure but one fresh reader for this great work, of which a new and splendid edition has, by the way, re- cently appeared at Oxford, I shall consider my labours not altogether fruitless. To return to the French. This absurd melange con- tinued to be used in all courts until 1650, when the Par- liament ordered all reports, &c. to be translated, and the proceedings, both oral and written, to be for the future in English. The former was never done ; and the latter only continued till the Restoration, when jargon returned, and remained in full force till 1730, when it was finally abolished. It is difficult to conceive now, how an age of such bright intellect, and in which our own fine language was perhaps both spoken and written with greater purity than at any subsequent period, the age of Steele and Addison, of Dry den and Pope, could have tolerated such twaddle. But there were not wanting, as may indeed be safely predicated of all abuses, crowds of defenders for even this ; among whom I regret to name one who was a far better writer than lawyer, and who ought, therefore, to have been the first to hail the change, I mean Mr. Justice Blackstone. His arguments, which may be found at the end of the 21st chapter of the 3rd book, are quaint; and simply amount to a justification of the continuance of any enormity, because otherwise, future generations will be unable to understand old language or old manners ; and that, understanding a bad thing past, is better for posterity than the possession of a present good. A line of reason- ing which would have prevented the introduction of rail- IN TIMES PAST. 201 ways, because a race of men would gradually be introduced who could not drive four in hand. This use of French and Latin caused many words to be used in those days in common parlance, which now appear pedantic, and indeed unintelligible. Take, for instance, as the first which occurs to me, the line in Troilus and Cressida, put into the mouth of Hector (Act ii. sc. 2) : — " Every tithe soul midst many thousand dismes Has been as dear as Helen." — No one unfamiliar with the constant use of the last word of the line, would suppose it other than a strained attempt to avoid the repetition of the word tithe ; whereas, used as a substantive, the word disme is the more common of the two. So, again, in Hamlet, where the gravediggers, quiz- zing the learning poured forth in the case of Hales and Petit, talk of " Se offendendo^'' they are to be looked on as by no means displaying an unprofessional amount of information, hard words of that description being in as common use, and mangled as much, as Habeas Corpus was in the days of Horne Tooke. But to our Curiosities themselves, and first, place aiix dames. T must begin with the ladies, to let them know what the law thought of tJiem in days gone by ; and 1 regret to say that it does not seem to be very gallant, for upon the very first hazardous topic of discussion I come to, the relations between baron and feme, or what we now call husband and wife, I find it laid down in all the terrors of black letter law French, by Mr. Justice Crompton, in his "Myrrour of Justices," that though the baron may have the peace (may swear the peace) against his wife, shoidd she beat him, still that lie may chastise her reason- ably : and he goes on to point out what "reasonably" is, in terms which [ cannot but think are the origin of the notion, that an angry husband may use a stick, if so be it 202 CURIOSITIES OF THE LAW be no bigger than his little finger: a notion sadly preva- lent in some districts. The next material point I come to, shows still more strongly that, then as now, filthy lucre was the main object of vile man, and that the judges were no better than other folks; for they calmly lay down in Baker's case, that abduction is no offence at all, if the fair subject either has no fortune, or is heir apparent to nothing: a doctrine which, though it would not help Messrs. Garden and Chichester much, would doubtless be very popular among youth who prefer personal attractions to the beaux yenoc d'une cassette. And although a semblance of chivalry is at first apparent in grave doubts which existed among the judges of Queen Elizabeth's time, as to whether the man could sue the woman — whether a chemist could then by law bring an action for breach of promise of marriage against his fair deceiver, yet the reasons they give for these doubts would be so unsatisfactory to the ladies I see around me, and reflect so strongly on their "mutability," which " being the gift of Providence, it were not well," they say, " to punish," that I really dare not quote them. The Courts, however, so far took care of wives, that they would not let them starve ; and in a great case, decided by all the twelve judges after enormous argument, Mr. Justice Twysden was at first of opinion, that a hus- band could not prohibit a tradesman from trusting his wife for necessaries, because if he might prohibit one, he might go on till he had (if he lived long enough, and did nothing else, I suppose, all his life) prohibited every man in England : and then, if he joined the King's enemies, either she must go too, in which case she would in all probability be hanged : or on the other hand stay at home and then she would be starved, which, he remarked, would be inconvenient. This eminent judge, be it observed, was the unfortunate victim to, some say, the overweening ambition, others the IN TIMES PAST. 203 malicious fun. of the great Lord Shaftesbury, when Chan- cellor ; — who, to the utter dismay of the legal celebrities of the day, would persist in restoring the ancient custom of riding in procession through the Strand to Westminster. However, the cortege got on admirably as far as Charing Cross, when a brewer's dray (you see how little times are altered) coming thundering down the then open road, where the College of Physicians now stands, charged the ill-starred procession full tilt. Dire was the consternation, and Justice Twysden, says the old chronicler, was " laid along in the dirt;" and being by no manner of means to be mduced to remount, ruined the state of the day, and for ever put a stop to ermine and scarlet getting astride of a horse for the future. Still, ungallant as they seem, the judges were careful that no young lady should lessen her attractions, at an age when she might be reasonably supposed incapable of appreciating their ultimate use : and so when an improvi- dent damsel, named Anna Secrogheham (in four syllables, but whose surname seems, by the way it is spelt in one of the reports, to have been, fortunately for her friends, pro- nounced Scroggam) had made a bad bargain, the Court interfered. Hear Keble : — "Trespass by Infant through her Guardian, for assaulting her and cutting off her hair. Defendant pleaded that the plain- tiff was above sixteen years of age, and had [Oh, rash Anna !] agreed for sixpence in hand [Oh, the knowledge of feminine nature of the astute wig maker !] paid to her, that defendant have license to take hvo ounces of her hair. But by the Court, it's no plea, for the Infant can not license such a thing, although she may agree with the barber to be reasonably trimmed. So there was judgment for the gii4, in the 20th year of Car. II." I mentioned Chief Justice Gascoyne. The late lamented John William Smith, a name dear to all lawyers, whose playfulness was equal to his learning, at the time of the run of " Macaulay's Lays," wrote a squib, entitled the 204 CURIOSITIES OF THE LAW " Lay of Gascoyne." It consists of an account of the Great Gadshill Robbery by FalstafF and Co. and their subsequent trial before his lordship, and, in the course of the ballad, gives an epitome of the proceedings in criminal cases at that time. I shall not scruple to take up your time by quoting this portion, as 1 do not know that it has ever been printed, except in a not-much-read periodical, and I can vouch for the statements it contains being every one of them no less true than strange. After narrating the exploit, the flight of the perpetrators, and Poins' prediction that they would soon be brought to condign punishment, the Lay goes on — " And sooth he said — for justice sped In those days at a rate Which now 'twere vain to seek to gain In matters small or great. " No tribe,"^* with rusty camlet gowns And shabby horsehair wigs, Harangued the upper gallery In favour of the prigs. " And sundry wise precautions The sages of the law Discreetly framed, whereby they aimed To keep the rogues in awe. For lest some sturdy criminal ; False witnesses should bring. His witnesses were not allowed To swear to any thing. " And lest his wily advocate The Court should overreach. His advocate was not allowed The privilege of speech. * This is severe : but fidelity compels me to read it. IN TIMES PAST. 205 " Yet such, was the humanity And -svisdom of the law, That if, in his indictment, there Appealed to be a flaw. " The Coiu^t assigned him counsellors To argue on the doubt — Provided he himself had first Contiived to point it out. " Yet, lest theii- mildness shoidd perchance Be craftily abused, To show him the indictment they Most stmdily refused. " But, still, that he might imderstand The natm-e of the charge, The same icas ^in the Latin tongue) Read out to him at large. " Twas thus the law kept rogues in awe, Gaye honest men protection, And, justly famed, by all was named, Of reason the perfection. But now the case is different. The rogues are getting bold ; It was not so some time ago, In the good days of old." One or two observations on the dates of the various innovations alluded to in this daguerreotype of the Old Bailey of 1400, may be useful and interesting. The "tribe with horsehair wigs" were not allowed to address the jury in cases of felony, to the shame of our nation be it said, within the memory of most in this room. Although counsel to cross-examine, &c. and to advise a prisoner on points of law, were usually allowed by the wise discretion of the judges in each case ; yet even this was not formally acquired as a i-ight, and the 7th year of William the Third 206 CURIOSITIES OF THE LAW was the first which saw the prisoner in cases of high trea- son, and in those only, entitled to such assistance by law. It was not till another William, years and years afterwards, sat upon the throne — it was not till the year of Grace 1837, that what we now regard as the most ordinary privilege, was accorded to a prisoner. And this eighty years after Blackstone had denounced the prohibition as "inhuman" ! The next grievance, not allowing the prisoner's wit- nesses to be sworn, whereby the jury gave to them less credit than to the crown's, arose out of a still more Dra- conian practice, of not allowing any witnesses for the prisoner at all, which gradually was modified, (but not till the reign of the Tudors) into the above unreasonable dis- tinction : and this again, so prone are we in England to adhere to what is, rather than what is abstractedly right, was not done away with, although Lord Coke himself had said there was not a scintilla of law in the practice, till the statute of William the Third before alluded to. The third point, of picking holes in the indictment, and the means the prisoner has of doing it, has, I am ashamed to say, continued till within the last year or two. The indictment is now, however, in common with all other proceedings, in the vernacular. These are all improve- ments, and on the right side : otherwise, in reference to the manner of conducting a prosecution now-a-days, I may observe this, that without wishing to see the French system of interrogating the prisoner, and their latitude of examination introduced here without alteration, I do think our present pruderies, if 1 may so call them, disgraceful in the other direction. To a stranger coming into a court, it must appear as if all concerned, counsel and judge, w^ere endeavouring to prevent the detection of crime, so many are the exclusions of evidence, and so lax are the tram- mels by which an unanswered defender is bound. In point of fact, the judge has a very hard task before him, to get a notorious offender convicted at allj and the mercy IN TIMES PAST. 207 we all of us show to the prisoner, leads most of us, I fear, iu a great iiieasiu*e to forget the correlative mercy due to society. I have heard that controversy is one object of these lectures, and I therefore venture to introduce this my opinion (dogmatism being the only parent of contro- versy), that a trial of an offender against the laws of this country ought to be conducted in a more hostile manner than it usually is now. The ancient institution of tossing up, was early in vogue with juries ; for in Lord Fitzwalter's case a new trial was granted, on the ground that the iniquitous jury had decided their verdict by " cross and pile," answering to our heads or tails, I feel that I ought to mention, before I leave the subject, the appeal of death or murder, as it is sometimes called. The difficulty I feel on such a topic is this, that many, I believe most, now here are informed upon the subject; still as some may not be, and it is certainly the greatest legal curiosity which has endured from past time to what may be called present, I do not think right to pass it by. iVssuming that all know what it was, I will first observe, that the last occasion on which an actual trial by battel was awarded, upon that wager being tendered by the party appealed against, was in the 7 Car. 1. between Lord Kea and Mr. Ramsay, to be found iu Howell's State Trials, 3rd volume. But the curious part of the matter is, that the rigJit remained in full force long after this. In 1818, upon the well-known occasion of Abraham Thornton being acquitted by a jury at the assizes at Warwick, for the miu'der of Mary Ashford. after a ball at Sutton Coldfield, the brother of the murdered woman brought his appeal of death ; a barbarous practice in itself, without going any further, as it was really and truly in most cases used to extort money as the price of blood ; the appellant being able to make any terms he pleased as the ransom of the prisoner's life : which life, on the othei hand, if he chose 208 CURIOSITIES OF THE LAW to demand, " the King," says Blackstone, although he may pardon and remit an execution after an ordinary conviction, has, in such case, no power to spare, any more than he has to remit damages in an ordinary action" at law. But if the defendant tendered wager of battel, it must have been accepted, unless the appellant in his turn tendered such strong proofs of guilt as to amount to cer- tainty. And so it was, that in 1818, amid every mark of civilisation, in the highest court of criminal judicature in the realm, a miscreant like Thornton was enabled to stand up, and, as the report has it, to say, " Not Guilty, and I am ready to defend the same by my sword and taking off his glove, he threw it down on the floor of the court. The judges were obliged to admit this : and further, they held, that in this particular case, there was not such cer- tainty of guilty, as to prevent his wager being accepted, and thereupon the appeal was of course dropped, and a statute was passed in the next year abolishing the practice entirely. One more remark on criminal trials, and I have done. The ordinary word culprit, is a blundering derivative of the words written by the officer of the court at the top of the indictment, when the prisoner pleaded : cul. for priso- ner, pomt, (written p n t, and corrupted into prit,) puts himself upon the country. The other derivation given by Blackstone is ingenious, but untenable. Perhaps the most amusing branch of the old law is the law of slander. The cases are interminable, the virus of the maligners frequently absurd in the extreme. 1 take at random a few cases, premising that the same scholastic ingenuity which led old Twysden to arrive at the inextri- cable dilemma for the poor wife, by a process of regular syllogistic deduction, revels in the law of libel. Thus a poor plaintiff having stated that another man had said of him that he was as very a thief as any in Welling- boroughj" was immediately told by the indignant court, IN TIMES PAST. 209 that he must be nonsuited, as he had not averred that there was any thief in Wellingborough, (although I should - - have thought from the experience ^Yhich I gain of the place at Northampton Assizes, that the Judge who went the last Midland Circuit might have taken judicial notice of that fact). So a defendant saying of the plaintiff, that . there was " no purse cut vvithin foiirty miles but thou hast . a share," the plaintiff was nonsuited because he did not aver that a purse had ever been cut within fourty miles. (I presume most of my hearers know that this expression, cut-purse, arises from people wearing them hung to their girdles, from which the Barringtons of those days privily slit them.) In another case, one Major Bill was attacked to a third person, also an aspirant to unpaid magistracy, as follows : — " You, a justice ! you will make just such a justice as Major Bill does, w^ho is a blockhead, an ass, a coxcomb, and a bufileheaded justice :" and it was adjudged that an action did not lye : for [adopting the reasoning of the court as to ladies' breach of faith, which T have already mentioned,] " it was not his fault if he were a blockhead and buffleheaded, for he cannot be other than Providence has made him." (You w411 observe that the court did not venture on assigning any definite meaning to the tremen- dous epithet of " buffleheaded.") - Not so shy were the court in another celebrated case. It has always been considered that counsel may say what he likes of any one else : but, any one else may not say what he likes of counsel — for " Si home dit al un Coun- sellor del ley en le North, ' Thou art a dafiy down dilly,' action gist," and the court went further and acquiesced in the averment that the offensive appellation meant (I pre- sume on the Northern Circuit,) an ambidexter. What that again means, they do not say. And the ill-used Counsellor had £500. for damage. On the other hand, where the charge is definite, the 210 CURIOSITIES OF THE LAW sages of the law are not so particular. But a young lady Quaker was reluctantly compelled to abide by the disgrace of its being publicly said that she did not practice self- denial; it having been held that the elders were justified in saying so, and could not be made to " pay for it," by this somewhat susceptible damsel. In one case they held that the plaintiff was clearly entitled, as a Scotchman, to damages, for having undue frequency in his dealings for brimstone imputed to him by defendant, who was a chemist, and having lost the custom of the plaintiff', revenged himself by disclosing his previous dealings. I cannot omit to notice an ingenious defence to a pro- secution for libel, which caused a good deal of argument, but which will hardly, I think, be copied by the medical members of the Literary and Philosophical. To this in- dictment, the defendant pleaded as an answer, a complete answer^ that he, the defendant himself, " was a surgeon, and not a gentleman, as the indictment alleged," and much time was devoted to the enquiry whether this was material or not. The ingenious and covert satire of placing a wooden gun at the door of a half-pay officer, with an averment that it imputed cowardice, was held to be actionable. So it was held, that to say of a man that he was a Jacobite, and w^anted to bring in the "Prince of Wales" and Popery, was actionable in George the First's time, and £400. damages given. I am afraid this decision would hardly go down now, when everybody has some such im- putation from one side or the other cast upon him at social tea tables, and revenges himself by a similar accusation in his turn. This perhaps, popular as the practice of evil-speaking and slandering is, and always has been, will be enough upon this head. I am only afraid that from taking the first that came to fill out this portion of the programme, I have missed many better cases. I may, however, plead in ex- IN TIMES PAST. 211 tenuation, that some of the funniest are expressed with too much of an ancestor's license of tongue, to be here admis- - sible, and that one large branch is thereby cut off. Truth, however, compels me not to refrain from observing that the softer sex appear to have borne undisputed sway in the regions of friendly observations of this sort, and also, I am bound to say, to have been singularly successful in their defences before the court. There were published, some years ago, some very curious notes by Chief Justice Lee, in his manuscript diary, now^ at Hartwell, the well-known retirement of the King of France, and the residence of the Chief Justice's descendant. Dr. Lee. He (the Chief Justice) mentions as a notorious fact, that Sir Harbottle Grimston gave ^8,000. an enormous sum in . those days, to the great Lord Clarendon, for being ap- pointed Master of the Rolls; and that his own predecessor, Parker, was the first to refuse Lord Clarendon — insisting on £3,000. as the usual fee from a Judge to the Chancellor. Bribery appears to have been very common — Lord Bacon being among the worst ; but as they usually took as much as they could get from both sides, and then decided rightly, it did not much signify. Lord Nottingham used to sit at a table covered with bribes, and when any one brought money, to turn away his head in affected reluctance, and lisp, " O, tyrant, cuthtom."* I proceed to quote one or two curious entries : — "July 22, 1732. — At a meeting at Lord Raymond's, Chief J ustice Eyre declared he knew of no law for tj^ing the thumbs of prisoners with whipcord, to which the rest seemed to assent, and Brother Comyns said he never fomid any mention of it in any book. But nota bene ; the practice is otherwise : and it * This practice was endeavoured to be revived the other day only ; for Vice-Chancellor Kindersley announced not long ago in Court, that two innocent maiden ladies had sent him a letter, offering half the estate if he would only decree in their favour. 212 CURIOSITIES OF THE LAW was agreed that Judge Tracy had tyed a man's thumbs, who stood mute." (This accords with what Coke says of torture, that, though always contrary to the common law of England, it was still done by prerogative.) The Chief Justice tells us, that in the time of James I. judges used to be asked their opinion beforehand, and those who w^ere not clear to give judgment for the Crown, were asked to step out. A most ingenious way of securing unanimity. Lord Hardwicke shewed him a proclamation of Ed- ward VI. which might be very useful just now, condemning to the hulks for ten years all who spread false rumours. The Judges about that time appear to have been great divines, and to have held hot dispute with one another on circuit about the eternal fitness of things, as did Thwackum and Square in " Tom Jones." C. B. Reynolds seems to have been a regular built polemic, and at the summer assizes at Leicester to have utterly put down the unfortu- nate Chief Justice, as appears by his Diary, upon the point of the legitimate spring of human action. He mentions a curious feature in JefFerys' life, recorded by dear old Roger North, (whose sketches of Judges I am only deterred from constantly quoting by the reflection that everybody ought to read them for himself). Few, however, know how early is the practice humbly followed by Mr. Bob Sawyer, of having peremptory messages brought to him in church or elsewhere, by which means, to Mr. Winkle's great admiration, he acquired a reputation for enormous business. It seems that this took root in the English bar as early as 1660 ; for JefFerys, when an utter barrister, used to order his man to come to him at the coffee-house, and tell him " that company attended him at chambers ; at which he would jmjf a little, and say, ' Let them wait awhile,' and so made a show of business," says censorious Roger, who hated him. IN TIMES PAST. 213 The Chief Justice also mentions a good mot of Xov's the prosecutor of the irreverent prisoner before mentioned. - To a covenanter who came to him (when on circuit and directing an indictment against one Obadiah Standbvfaith), and who alleged that the Lord had sent him to tell Noy to enter a yiolle prosequi; Noy retorted, that he must be a lying villain, for "the Lord knew that nobody but the Attorney-General had power to enter a 7iolle prosequi'' There is one subject of considerable interest in England, about which a good deal of misconception prevails. Many people in this land cry out and believe, not only that Britons never have been and never will be slaves, but also that the very act of treading English soil makes a slave free, &c. &c. I spare you the usual Exeter-hall metaphors. Now neither of these propositions are true. For the first, I shall simply refer you to the Act of Parlia- ment, passed to inaugurate the reign of a most humane and beloved sovereign as ever ascended the throne, the young Edward YL He mentions this statute in his journal, but merely speaks of it as "an extream meesiu-e." . When I read it, you will see that for three years and more there existed in merrie England a state of slavery, not ' less tyrannical in theory, and certainly far more irksome and brutal in practice, than ever Jamaica saw. It imme- diately succeeds in the statute-book a notable and highly desirable act of Henry VHL entitled " an act to abolish diversity of opinions in religion," and making the said diversity felony with the punishment of death. In much the same spirit is conceived the act I am about to quote, the preamble of which (citing, in a manner which appears now almost ridiculous, the words of a well-known proverb) begins as follows : — For as much as idlenesse and vagabondrie is the mother and roote of all evil, and the multitude of people given thereto hath alwaies been heere very gi-eate, and more in number as maie plainely appeare than in other regions." 214 CURIOSITIES OF THE LAW — It then goes on to enact that " Every vagabond, sturdie beggar, or loiterer, shall be marked V with a hot iron on the breast, and be adjudged to the presen- tour of such vagabond, to be his slave for two yeeres next fol- lowing, and to order the said slave as foUoweth : that is to say, onely giving the said slave bread and water or small drinke, and such reffuse of meate as he shall thinke fitte, and cause the said slave to worke by beating, cheining, or otherwise, in such work and labour, hoiv vile soever it hee, as he shall put him to. " And if he runne away, to be branded S on the cheeke, and be a slave for ever to the said master. And it shall bee lawful for everie persone, to whom such slave is adjudged, to put a ring of iron about his necke, arm, or leg, for more knowledge or suretie of keeping him." Humanity rejoices at the statement with which the next statute commences, passed four years afterwards ; it gives, as a reason for the repeal of this " New Poor Law," that " the extreamity of the said act hath been occasion that it hath not been generally put in ure." (This word, invariably used in old statutes, is a contraction of user.) The Oxford and Cambridge men seem to have been at a low ebb in those days, as one section of the new act enacts that " no vagrant is to be excused by reason that he is a clerk of one Unyversitie or of other, without letters permissory from the Chaunceller of such Unyversitie :" from which we may gather that they used to travel on charity, as do the members of guilds in Germany, during their Lehrjahre, to this day. The other error arising from the judicial authority of Lord Hardwicke — (" by the law of England one man can- not have absolute interest in the person of another ;") — who undoubtedly overstrained strict justice in the cause of humanity, is, that a slave is rendered free for the remain- der of his life by the mere setting foot on English ground ; and I know few opinions more widely current than this. You will therefore give me leave, I am sure, to call your IN TIMES PAST. 215 attention to a case of much later date than any I have yet mentioned, but which coming from a series of works not very generally read (the Admiralty Reports), may be new and interesting to some. It is called the case of " The Slave Grace and is in another respect remarkable as being the last judgment delivered on any important matter by the great Lord Stowell, on whose unrivalled decisions upon blockade and capture cases the whole of the impor- tant points during the present war have hitherto been rested, and I will venture to say will so continue to be. Owing to the weakness of his eyes and voice, he was com- pelled to ask the junior counsel for the crown (the present Sir John Dodson, Judge of the Prerogative Court) to read it for him. It occupies forty pages, and was delivered Nov. 9, 1827, (a year memorable to Leicester folk, as being the date of the petition against the alleged malfea- sances of their Corporation in the matter of Elections, which was conducive in a great degree to the struggle which finally resulted in the Reform Bill). The facts of the case are shortly these : — Grace, a quadroon girl, came to England from Antigua with her mistress, Mrs. Allan, in 1822. She remained with her till her return in 1823. They went back in the same ship with a Mr. Wyke, the collector of customs for the island ; and it is supposed that during the voyage an attachment grew up between him and Grace, who was very handsome, and also accomplished for her station. Be that as it may, in 1825 Wyke seized her during her performance of her ordinary duties (to which she had retm-ned as usual) under an allegation that she had been illegally imported in 1823 ; — that is, treating her return with her mistress as a fresh importation, owing to the then generally believed doctrine of the enfranchising nature of English soil. The master, Mr. Allan, sued for restitution in the island court, laying her value at ^£125, and got a decree, against which an appeal was lodged, of which this judgment was . 216 CURIOSITIES OF THE LAW the conclusion. In this remarkable display of learning, Lord Stowellj after reviewing every authority, comes to the determination that — " Though, during the residence in England no dominion, authority, or coercion can be exer- cised over such a person, yet on her return to her place of birth and servitude the right to exercise such dominion revives." Slaves, therefore, " are not," says he, " ipso facto free by setting foot on English ground, but are free while here, and cannot be sent out of the country by any legal process: the slave'''' (he goes on) ''continues a slave, but our law relieves him from the rigour of the code of slavery during his residence in this country." At this conclusion Lord Stowell regrets to arrive, but he feels that the immutable law of nations is more to be regarded than the mere feelings of sympathy which would dictate an opposite course. The cases which had previously occurred in our courts about slaves are curious, and afford a ready means of sliding into another branch of law which I intend to touch, the law of property in animals. The earliest is a case in which the court held that negroes passed to an executor, and were by usage like other goods ; that is, say the Judges, " till they become Christians." So again, they held, somewhat miscellaneously, in the time of King James, that " Trover lay of {i.e. you could bring an action for) musk cats and monkies, and also of negroes, because they were merchandise." To the credit of our law, how- ever, these two cases were ere long overruled ; for during the reign of Geo. IT. an action having been brought ''pro lino JEtldope, Anglice vocato, a negro," and ^30. damages recovered upon the above authorities ; " on motion for arrest of judgment, it was put that he had no property in him, for he could not kill him, as he might an ox ; and, after great debate, the court overruled the previous deci- sions, and said trover would lie for no human being." The test of property here put appears to have been a IN TIMES PAST. very common one. In an action for a bloodhound, brought in the reign of Henry VIIL the defendant argued that a . dog was of no value or profit, but only for pleasure : that when the plaintiff was out of possession, his property was gone in the dog; and finally, as conclusive upon the point, that no tithe was payable in respect of dogs. But the court, I rejoice to say, upheld a man's right to his dog; and said, if it were only for pleasure, that was enough ; for, said one of them, " Si ay un popinjay, ou thrush que chaunt, and refresh mes spirits, quex sont cause de bon valetude de mon corps, que est plus graund tresure de touts riches, and graund comfort al moy. Am I to have my popinjay killed and have no remedy ?" What sort of refi'eshment the worthy Judge supposed a green wood- pecker or popinjay's singing would afford, let the ornitho- logists of the Society decide. The readers of "Tom Jones" will remember a grand discussion on this very point anent Sophia's canary bird, which Master Blifil had maliciously let loose. The point about tithes is taken in another case, where the court decide that it is not payable (so sharply did they then look after the anise and cummin) for the eggs of tame pheasants: but if " eggs hatch, et educate jeune pheasants qui vellent aller hors de 1' inclosure, si lour wings ne fueront clipp," and their wings are thereupon clipped, that then tithe is payable of these, the produce of the said eggs. These cases are quoted by an eminent judge, in the great copyright case of " Millar and Taylor," which was the first occasion for more than twelve years of any differ- ence of opinion in the Court of Queen's Bench, under the presidency of Lord Mansfield. The judges differed, and it went to the House of Lords ; which, although upon the main point there were nine judges against three, and the - House only consisted of the Chancellor and Lord Camden, deliberately passed by the opinion of the nine judges (in a p 218 CURIOSITIES OF THE LAW manner sometimes done in a certain high place now), and, to their endless disgrace, declared that a man has no pro- perty at common law in his writings, on account of the indistinctness of his title. I feel sure that I can enlist the feelings of my hearers in favour of Mr. Justice Aston (the judge who quoted the illustration I have been citing of the popinjay) by giving his manly declaration to the Lords: "/ know no property more emphatically a ma^ibs own — nay^ more incapable of being mistaken^ than his literary works!''' Indeed, the whole arguments in this case will amply repay any literary man's trouble in reading them. With respect to dogs, you may be interested in know- ing that " There be four kinds of dogs which the law de- lighteth and doth acknowledge : videlicet, a mastiff, — a hound, — a spaniel, — and a tumbler." Favouring these sorts, as it does, the law requires strict accuracy in its votaries when they ask for assistance ; and so a plaintiff who sued another for taking away his " whelps," was non- suited, for (as in the Wellingborough thief case) he did not specify what sort of whelps, and the law knoweth not bear''s whelps. I am ashamed to say, that a prisoner was acquitted within these five years, who was indicted for stealing " eggs," because it was suggested by his counsel that, for all that appeared in the indictment, they might have been snake's eggs, in which the prosecutor could have no property. I cannot leave this subject without giving you a speci- men of Lord Coke's style. He is very great upon this particular topic, and I do not find a quotation more likely to show his peculiar vein, and more likely to induce you to believe, that, instead of being dry, he is really very amusing from his pedantry, than the following explanation of the law's peculiar favour and regard towards swa7is : — " A swan is a royal fowl ; and the law is founded on a reason in nature : for the cock swan is an emblem or representation of an affectionate and true husband to his wife, above all other IN TIMES PAST. 219 fo^yls ; for the cock swan holdeth himself to one hen only, — and for this cause natiu-e hath conferred upon him a gift above all others, that is, to die so joT^-fully, that he sings sweetly when that he dies, as saith the poet ;" — and then he quotes the well-known Latin lines— a prac- tice, by the way, of which he is particularly fond. I had almost forgotten to mention a very curious case, the first resuiTectionist offence I know of, which was from this very town of Leicester. The question arose. Whose property is the winding-sheet ? It cannot very well be the property of the deceased, and everybody else would seem to have waived all title to it; but the court held that it might be taken to be the property of the executors, and the offender was duly hanged out of hand, or rather would have been, but he had his ' clergy,' as it was called, which was an institution more to the encouragement of literature than any we now possess. I presume most here are aware of the custom: to those who are not, it may be sufficient to say, that as a clerk in orders could not then be done anything to in the ordinary courts, he had to make out his exemption ; and the readiest mode of doing this in illite- rate times, when scarcely any one else could read, was to give him a book. Hence the old method of denoting that a felony was held to be clergyable, as it was called, is shortly, " and he had the book," a phrase which has often puzzled embryo lawyers, as there is nothing to lead to its meaning. As the number of those to whom "R" would now be put in the calendar increased, this was found inconvenient, and was gradually restricted and altered, till in the fifth year of George IV. a statute was passed which virtually ended it altogether; and the form was finally abolished in the fourth year of her present Majesty. The last subject of antiquity I shall venture to present to you to-night, is that of the sumptuary and other restric- tive laws so much in vogue in earlier periods of our his- tory ; and this will enable me also to give a few curious 220 CURIOSITIES OF THE LAW details as to the dress and manners of my own profession during the earlier reigns. One of the first we meet with, passed by a parliament of Henry VII. evinces a laudable desire for the good behaviour of Young England: — "And furthermore," it says, " it is ordeyned that noon apprentice or servaunt in husbandrie play at the tables, but onely [except] for mete and drinke " (a regulation that is much complied with by the latter class to this day, whose stakes are usually limited to a quart of beer). "Ne (nor) at the tennise, disc (quoits), cardes, or boules, in no wise out of Christmas ; and in Christmas, only at the dwelling-house of his maister, or where the maister is present." The penalty for breach is " one day in the stokkis, openly." The company of their masters is also insisted upon in one of the earlier game- laws, which enacts that no inferior tradesman (i.e. journey- man) or apprentice shall either hunt, hawk, or fish, except in his master's presence. But the great sumptuary law was passed by Edward IV. This act, which begins as usual, in those days, " Prayen the Coihons," enacted a regular succession of costume. No person, under the degree of a Lord, was to wear silk colour of pu7'pull, nor cloth of gold, nor furr of sables. No person under the degree of squires and gentlemen, of ^100. a year (about aGl, 000.) might wear "in arraie for the body, ascuns, bolsters, or stuff ti7^e-die-\Qime, coton, ou cadas, n'autre stuffure en son perpoint " ( doublet, or jacket, applied to both sexes), smif linure accordant al mesme" (but only lining, &c.) under a penalty of 6s. 8d. So that the legislature do not seem to approve of the system of padding, &c. of which some men^ and it is said (but people are very calumnious, and I will go no further) so7ne MEN then, avail themselves so largely. The Parliament, however, are careful to exempt "players in their interludes and some young father of a family, newly come "down to the House" from his domus et IN TIMES PAST. 221 placens uxor, has obviously stepped in to rescue — probably by the direct injunction of Mistress Alice — from the opera- - . tion of the act, the " coroimes pur cappes des enfam^'' of which he had doubtless just seen a very gaudy specimen gracing the smooth and roofless brow of his son and heir. Another section sets its face against an unseemly prac- tice of wearing coats resembling our modern " monkies," and enjoins in unmistakeable language, which I dare not quote, that a man shall at least be able to sit down on his skirts, under the enormous penalty of sGlO. of our money. And because," it continues, " laune niefels, and other coverchiefs daily brought into this realm for sille women, doe induce great cost and waste, none are to be sold ex- ceeding 10s." — I think even the ladies will admit that if there is to be a limitation, this is a reasonable one, seeing that it is more than the cost of two quarters of wheat. This statute is celebrated for another reason. It is the first Act of Parliament which contains clauses partaking of the nature of the recent corn-laws. Several had forbidden or limited exportation ; but this is, as far as I know, the first which introduced restrictions upon the free importa- tion of corn. And you will see that the exact principle of the much-abused sliding scale was involved here also. It enacts that — No wheat is to be imported unless the price at home exceeds ..68 qr. of 8 bush. No rye 4 0 „ No barley 3 0 So that here you have the infantine squall of the well-worn cry — Protection. I find that I have left myself no time for enlarging, as I had intended on the sumptuousness of the dresses, and the gorgeous glories of the flags and masques which we Templars got up in those days. Nor can I tell you now . the exact measurements our benchers prescribed for the seemly attire of ordinary barristers, nor how loudly and • 222 CURIOSITIES OF THE LAW repeatedly they denounce the flippancy of boots. How Massinger dedicates his favourite play " The Picture," to our Inn, as being the best judges of dramatic literature. Nor how we spent 5£20,000. on a fete to Queen Elizabeth, which riches our more provident rulers of the last twenty years have better devoted to the renovation of our glorious church. For while another great society of lawyers has been building a dining hall to entertain Queen Victoria, and leaving its small chapel up one pair of stairs in a corner, I say it to the credit of the Temple benchers, the successors of Plowden and Coke, that they have not suf- fered us to " dwell in a house of cedars," while the beauties of that gorgeous edifice, bequeathed to our care as a monument of the dark race of priestly knights long past away, have been fading and decaying before our eyes. I do not believe that any reformer, I am sure no good Templar can, in his heart, grudge the £50,000. which have been spent in that service. Faults there undoubtedly are ; less expenditure would have perhaps ensured as much real splendour ; but at any rate what has been spent has been spent lavishly and freely, as funds for such trusts, when dedicated to such purposes, ought to be spent by those whose high office it is to administer them. I have now trespassed quite long enough upon your patience. I feel conscious that I have not discharged half my task ; I see that many things are not inserted which ought to have been, and for which room and time ought to have been found by leaving out others. My broom, I fear, though certainly new, has not swept the cobwebs clean ; but still I have to ask your indulgence, because one or two obstacles, which I need not mention, and could not foresee, have prevented any revision or correction such as I could have wished to have given to it. This morning, however, has done something for me; and, perhaps, cu7'- rente calamo^ is, after all, the most proper style for an oral exercise. Corneille once told the actor Baron, who de- IN TIMES PAST. 223 sired to understand some meaningless lines in Titus and Berenice : " They are to be recited, my dear boy, not to be read in private : they will be admired when they are heard, though people don't know what they mean." I hope, in like manner, that though the practised eye would detect solecisms, the less practised ear may fail to suffer from them, may gather the few grains of corn, and reject the chaff. One merit, and only one, can I claim with a safe con- science, and that is, that I have not scamped my work, as the builders say, so far as it has gone. I have not, like a smart reviewer of the second half of the nineteenth cen- tury, resorted to those wonderful books of cram which turn a rank penny-a-liner into a philosopher, upon any given subject, in the space of half-an-hour. I have gone to reports, and not to treatises. I have gone to the old year-books, and not to abridgements, remembering our greatest law author's concluding adage. Melius est peter e fontes, quam sectari rivulos. I cannot go further and say I have culled, for I have not ; I was unable to distinguish between one curiosity and another in point of merit, and so I even took them as they came. I hope that they have not been without interest and amusement, I know it is my fault if they have. Instruction I have not so much aimed at, but knowledge of any kind, especially of our own people, is always desirable ; and if, not undervaluing the merits of our ancestors, nor lightly esteeming many of their views or institutions because they are occasionally tinged with absurdity, we at the same time rejoice with thankfulness that from some of the graver errors which have been shadowed forth to-night, this age in w^hich we live is happily exempt, we shall not, I hope, have cause to regret an occasional visit to the apparently dry subject of this night's investigation ; and we shall acknowledge that, after all, with all its shortcomings and all its exactions, the common law of England merits the praises long bestowed CURIOSITIES OF THE LAW IN TIMES PAST. upon it by jurisprudents, merits its adoption by our Trans- atlantic children, whose pride and glory it is ; and, finally, merits the position it holds, and always has held, of being the law which governs the greatest and proudest nation upon the face of the earth. LADY MACBETH: BY ^ WILLIAM NAPIER REEVE. READ BEFORE THE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, LEICESTER, MARCH 10, 1851. LADY MACBETH. It is probable that amongst my audience, there may be some who were present on a former occasion when I read a paper on the character of Macbeth as delineated in the tragedy known by that name, and who may remember some of the main points that I then olfered to their notice ; but as it is also certain, that to many others, I am addressing myself on this subject for the first time ; I will refer briefly to the points in which I differed from the common estimate of Macbeth's character, doing this as shortly as possible, and only for the sake of illustrating more clearly the principal subject of my paper to-night. In my former paper then, I dissented altogether from that conception of Macbeth's character that the commen- tators on this tragedy have generally adopted, including amongst them great names, such as Hazlitt and Dr. Johnson ; stating, however, that I was not alone in the opinions which I then presented to the audience, and naming specially Mr. George Fletcher, author of the volume entitled " Studies of Shakespeare," and other critical and historical essays of no mean repute, as an authority from whom I had learnt much, and by whom my judgment, if not absolutely guided, was most materially strengthened. I cannot flatter myself that my paper had much effect at that time in altering preconceived ideas, but I believe that in consequence of what I stated respecting Mr. Fletcher's volume, it was added to the list of the 228 LADY MACBETH. Permanent Library, and I can see by the state of the book that it has been read by many persons ; I hope, therefore, that I may now find some not only to concm' with me in what I then said of Macbeth himself, but to listen without having their minds thoroughly made up before hand, to what I am about to say on the character of his wife. Claiming, however, as I do for myself, and every one else, the right of private judgment ; I am fully aw^are, that the character of all others the least hopeful, is that of a man wise in his own conceit ; when, therefore, I mention the great names of Dr. Johnson, Hazlitt, and others, and especially of one, from whom in the course of my paper I shall find occasion to differ altogether, I would not offend this assembly by presumptuously placing my opinions in contradiction to those of persons universally and justly venerated, merely saying they think so and so and I think otherwise ; but I would carefully examine their own critical remarks, and assign reasons why I think that these remarks are erroneous. My audience can then weigh the reasons which I offer for their consideration, and without being led away by the prestige attaching itself to indi- viduals, can, and I hope will, resolutely judge for them- selves. I have had occasion before to remark, that this is a ' Republic of Letters ; ' we have a president it is true, but there is no authority with us, either amongst the living or the dead ; which, however weighty it may be, we admit to be infallible. Some of these remarks I w^as obliged to make in my former paper ; how absolutely necessary they are to-night will be seen shortly even with this prelude, I feel like one about to commit high treason, when I say that the person whose authority on the right estimate of Lady Macbeth I dispute, is no other than Mrs. Siddons her- self. For that, however, presently. — One word as to Dr. Johnson. — That learned person, in his remarks on this tragedy, asserts, " that the play has no nice discrimina- LADY MACBETH. 229 tion of character, that the events are too great to admit the influence of particular dispositions ; that the course of action necessarily determines the conduct of the agents." If this be true, if the play does not admit of any nice discrimination of character, and the conduct of the agents is controlled by the course of events, then indeed, it is hopeless to attempt to engage your attention in the study of the character of one individual in it ; but if, as I shall attempt to show, the course of events is the natural result of character, both as it regards the subsequent crime and the fate of the criminals ; and if you can agree with me, that the character of Lady Macbeth, joint actor as she was in the murder of Duncan, yet differs essentially from that of her accomplice, that there is at least, a nice discrimination of character between herself and her husband : may we not believe it to be possible, that Dr. Johnson is also mistalien when he says that Lady Macbeth is merely detested, and places her in a more disgusting point of view than her husband, whose courage, he says, " does preserve some esteem, though every one rejoices in his fall." I will not, however, enter into any critical examination of the character of Macbeth to-night, I will simply, as I have mentioned, recapitulate for the sake of illustrating the character of his wife in connexion with his own, the estimate 1 have formed of it. He is, I know, generally regarded with some pity, as a man having many good qualities, but compelled to evil by a fate which he could not control — indeed I observe that the Times newspaper speaking of Mr. Macready's final appearance on the stage the other day, in the character of Macbeth, alluded to the latter as the 'fate-ridden man.'' Upon the whole, indeed, I am not sure whether he has not been more pitied than detested ; a murderer certainly, but the victim of fate and a had wife, urged by her to the commission of his first crime ; and thus a nature originally uoble, was destroyed by her evil influence. Now 1 am here to-night to stand 230 LADY MACBETH. up for the lady, it is a bad case at the best and I know it, but it need not be made worse by heaping upon her wretched head, in addition to her own sins, those of that most detestable of mankind, her husband. I will simply say then, that I commence my disquisition on her character, by noting down her husband as one of those intensely selfish beings whose own fancied good is the sole object of their existence ; who in promoting their own ends think nothing of the misery they bring upon others, even if the amount of suffering they occasion exceed a hundredfold that of any benefit they can secure to them- selves ; utterly devoid of any grateful or generous feeling, and therefore incapable of remorse ; possessing not even a trace of any virtue, save the dubious one of physical courage under certain circumstances; bad to the very core; jumping at the thought of murder the instant that the life of any one seems to be an obstacle in his path ; and that, not by any suggestion of his wife, or of the weird sisters, but naturally by the promptings of his own black heart ; consistent in wickedness throughout, the same in principle though necessarily becoming worse in degree, from the beginning to the end of the play, his death befitting his life, and his dead body, though that of a king, mutilated and cast to the dogs. If any gentleman present differs in this estimate of Macbeth, let him at the close of my paper, point out if he can, one single virtue that this man possessed, one single trait of character deserving of esteem, and I will either show that he is mistaken, or confess that I am. At present, however, I proceed on the assumption that, whatever Lady Macbeth herself might be, her husband w^as as bad a man as Shakespeare has ever depicted ; and that is saying much. Now then for the lady. Lady Macbeth appears upon the stage in four acts only. In the first we have her soliloquy on receiving her LADY MACBETH. 231 husband's letter, and her subsequent persuasions to murder Duncan T^'hile under their roof. In the second act the murder is committed. In the third, she and her husband appear in the enjoyment, such as it is, of their crime, as King and Queen of Scotland; it is in this act that the banquet scene, "^ith the ghost of Banquo, occurs. In the foiu'th act Lady Macbeth does not appear. In the fifth Tve have the sleep-walking, and the subsequent announce- ment of her death. Thus, we have her before the deed of blood was committed, before it is even planned ; we have her during the commission of it ; and we have her whole subsequent career before us ; here are materials at least for forming something like a correct estimate of her character ; and many writers have attempted to do so ; amongst others, Ca)?ipheU, who sums up his opinion thus, ' I am persuaded that Shakespeare never meant her for anything better than a character of superb depravity, and a being, with all her decorum and force of mind, naturally cold and remorseless.'" Why Shakespeare should present to us a character of "superb depravity," (a phrase I conceive most unhappily chosen,) what purpose would have been answered by it, is not very easy to conjecture ; and were it not for one * other remark by the same writer, it would be equally difficult to conceive why he should style her naturally cold and remorseless, whose mental tortiu'e might have wrung forgiveness from Duncan himself; but I think that the key to the whole comments of this writer may be found in the following passage : — " In some other characters which Mrs. Siddons performed, the memory of the old or the imagination of the voimg might possibly conceive her to have a siihstitiite. hut not in Lach/ Mac- heth. The moment she seized the part, she identijied her image u-ith it in the minds of the living generation.'' This is not only the fact, but even now, with the name of Lady Macbeth, rises up the image of Mrs. Siddons ; 232 LADY MACBETH. the picture of Lady Macbeth is the portrait of Mrs. Sid- dons ; and commentators generally, carried away by the surpassing powers of this great actress, devoted themselves, not to the critical examination of the character as presented by Shakespeare, but to the description of the character as presented by her; so great indeed was her power, that this can be easily excused ; indeed, while she lived and walked the stage, it would have been deemed as hopeless as presumptuous to insinuate that she could possibly have been mistaken in her conception of the character. There are few amongst us who can have seen Mrs. Siddons in this part ; if there be any, I hope that they will favour us with their reminiscences of her performance ; but T, and most of the present generation, can only arrive at her conception of the character of Lady Macbeth, by the writings she has left behind on the subject. And it is to the examination of these writings, and of the tragedy itself, that I shall confine myself to-night ; if Mrs. Siddons herself be in error, it is easy to conceive that any one else may be. Mrs. Siddons, then, necessarily in depicting the cha- racter of the wife, must form a specific estimate of that of her husband ; and starting with an error that it is difficult to conceive could have passed so long unnoticed, (viz. that the murder of Duncan did not enter into the mind of Macbeth imtil it was suggested by the weird sisters) she proceeds to take the description that the wife gives of her husband, in her well known soliloquy, as the 7-eal character of the man ; and on that assumption, actually finds this wretch to be really " amiable, con- scientious, nay, pious." This wretch Macbeth amiable ! who conceives the murder of his master, at the very moment when the latter is loading him with rewards and honours ; conscientious ! this wretched being conscientious in whom the very mention of his master's son but suggests the idea of another victim. LADY MACBETH, 23a "The Prince of Cumberland! — That is a step ' On which I must fall do^Ti, or else o'er-leap, For in my way it lies." Pious ! who boasts that were he but secure of the result here, he would snap his fingers at all notion of an here- after, — " that but this blow ... Might be the be-all, and the end-all here, But here, upon this bank and shoal of time, — We'd jtmip the life to come." If Mrs. Siddons could so thoroughly mistake the character of the man^ may she not also, nay, is it not certain that she must to a great extent, have mistaken the the character of the woman who was to influence him } So it is, that throughout her whole acting, it was Lady Macbeth that was the greater villain of the two ; she speaks of her as "fascinating the mind of a hero so daunt- less, a character so amiable, so honourable, as Macbeth (wonderful infatuation, it appears to me, that could persist in ascribing these qualities to a wretch like Macbeth) " as seducing her husband to brave all the dangers of the pre- sent, and all the terrors of a future world;" and even whilst we abhor his crimes we are constrained, she says, "to pity the infatuated mctim of such a thraldom ^ With this idea present to her mind, Mrs. Siddons represents Lady Macbeth in the earlier scenes, as "inhe- rently selfish and imperious ; not actuated by any love or devotion for her husband, but remorsely determined to sway him to the fulfilment of her own will and all accounts of her performance of the character represent her as carrying out this idea. In her first performance in London, the Macbeth of the day positively quailed be- neath her ; and in the first act, where Macbeth announces the coming of Duncan, and, in answer to his wife's enquiry, his purposed departure on the morrow, her reply, " O never shall sun that morrow see," was delivered as an Q 234 LADY MACBETH. ' imperious injunction, under which Macbeth seemed to smk m pure helplessness. This conception was carried out through the whole play ; the memory of it is still vivid amongst men. Even within the last few years a writer in Blackwood's Magazine describes her performance as that of a 'triumphant fiend,' trampling, mind you, over the shrinking will of her husband, whom she all this while regards with sincere contempt : this latter feature, the contempt for her husband, was so marked as to be in itself the subject of comment to the critics of the day. " Upon her return from the chamber of slaughter," says Mr, Boaden, " after gilding the faces of the grooms ; from the peculiar character of her lip, she gave an ex- pression of contempt more striking than any she had hitherto displayed." This, as I shall attempt to show, is as complete a mis- conception as that of the character of the man. Mrs. Siddons' idea is of a bad woman, utterly remorseless, cold and impassive, swaying a naturally amiable but weak- minded man to her will ; despising him all the w^hile that she compels his mental submission. True to tJiis concep- tion of the character, she carried it out even in the famous sleep-walking scene ; she looked, says the writer I have just referred to, " a living statue, she spoke with the solemn tone of a voice from a shrine ; she stood, more the sepulchral avenger of regicide than a sufferer from its conviction. Her grand voice, her fixed and marble coun- tenance, and her silent step, gave the impression of a supernatural being, the genius of an ancient oracle, a tremendous Nemesis.'''' As we read this, and, in the portraits of Mrs. Siddons which have come down to us, can picture to ourselves the image so forcibly presented, does it not, even while we read, strike us, that this sepulchral and commanding figure is somewhat inconsistent with the suffering criminal that Shakespeare has represented.? does not this triumphant LADl MACBETH. 235 fiend seem somewhat at variance vrith the poor sleep- walker, uttering in her disturbed dreams words of anguish and words of remorse ? somewhat inconsistent with the poor wretch terminating with her own hands a life that, on the contemplation of the past, had become unendurable ? I cannot but think so — and seeing in Mrs. Siddons' repre- sentation, or rather description, of the character several glaring inconsistencies, I venture to go to the fountain head, to Shakespeare himself, and endeavour to learn from him, without the aid of note or comment, not only the character he would present before lis, but the lesson he would have us draw from it. Lady Macbeth first appears before lis in the fifth scene of the first act; we have seen Macbeth himself several times before, have heard the announcement of the weird sisters, learnt the thoughts of his heart, and known, that he was instantly the murderer in intent that he afterwards became in act; but our first introduction to his wife is whilst she is reading the letter announcing the events that had occuiTedj and his interview with the weird sisters — his statement that he had learned 'by the perfectest report' that they had more than mortal knowledge, describing the coming of the missive of the king, hailing him ^ Thane of Cawdor," and then announcing their last and startling salutation, •* Hail, King that shall be Now up to this time, the tenor of her way had flowed on evenly, the wife of a soldier, noble by birth, and hold- ing an honourable command in the army of his sovereig-n ; there had been apparently nothing hitherto, in their mar- ried life, beyond its natural incidents ; the parting with the warrior, his departure to the field of battle, the sus- pense of the separation, and the tidings of his safety, come in due course ; but with the tidings of safety comes the sudden increase of honour, the favour of the king, the popular acclaim ; and thus her husband is suddenly raised out of his former condition, to be for a time the 236 LADY MACBETH. man of chief mark in the kingdom. So great and so sudden is the change, that in itself it might suggest more ambitious thoughts ; but when to this is added the abso- lute promise of the crown by those who are more than mortal in their foreknowledge, the heart of this ambitious w^oman sw^ells at the thought, and she, who but an hour ago would have held it beyond her hopes that her husband should be Thane of Cawdor, now, " to be less than Queen disdains." At this moment there is a complete change in her ideas, that which was but an instant ago desirable is now des- pised ; that which was before unthoaght of, is suddenly presented as the chief object of her heart. She will have it at all hazards, and will trample under foot all obstacles in her path ; the prominent feature in her character, her resolute, her indomitable will, now displays itself, and she so rapidly arrives at the determination to possess the pro- mised crown; that her fear is, not lest she or her husband should be hurried in deeds of wrong to obtain it^ but that he should be too scrupulous in the manner. Hitherto she imagines her husband to be the same as she had supposed him when he courted her, nothing has occm'red to bring out his true character, for Jiis duty has as yet marched with his inclination, and like many other selfish men, so long as nothing happens to exhibit him in his true character, he passes as possessing a nature full of the milk of human kindness, one who would do holily that he would highly ; one who would not play false, &c. &c. Poor woman, she was like most other wives in this, that she thought much better of her husband than he deserved; but we who have seen the wretch in his selfish commun- ings wdth himself, ite know that so far from being full of the milk of human kindness he is in intent a murderer already ; and we feel that so far from the wife's description of the man being his real character, it is but the description of the fair outside, a whited sepulchre at best. LADY MACBETH. 237 But Shakespeare has with wonderful skill introduced this passage to exhibit more prominently the resolution of the woman ; she expects to encounter opposition in her husband, she expects in his character difficulties in the outset, and she longs for his coming that she may at once address herself to the task of overcoming them. Hitherto the manner of obtaining the crown is un- thought of ; she is prepared to trample on all laws, human and divine, but the manner in which she is to proceed is uncertain. Think for a moment of her state of mind, this over- throw of all restraint, this readiness for evil, this fit object for temptation of the fiend. The tempter comes. " Enter an Attendant. " The King, comes here to night." - ' - What a message ! and at what a crisis — one can imagine her start, and her reply : — " Thou'rt mad to say it. Is not thy master with him? who, wer't so. Would have inform'd for preparation." The attendant reiterates his statement with circumstances; his reply scarce occupies a second, hut in that second the Jiend, the evil spirit takes possession of her ; in that instant the way to obtain the crown suggests itself — the way is murder ! murder of her guest ! murder of her king ! She adopts the idea instantly, never flinches from it ; but as the details come over her, as the nature of the act she is about to commit becomes more developed, she fears lest in the execution of it her resolution shall fail ; determined to have the crown, resolved upon that as her chief good, she addresses herself in the short interval that remains before the coming of her husband, to overcome in her own heart, those relentings which were statural to her. This is a part of the drama requiring careful study for the right understanding of her character. Mrs. Siddons delivered 238 LADY MACBETH. it as a command; like a Hecate summoning up the fiends of darkness to her bidding; her portrait as Lady Macbeth is at this moment, and even from the picture we may judge how terrible the reality must have been. But an actress will one day come who will represent not the fiend, but the woman, the woman ! the daughter ! (even at the worst moment, driven from the act by the memory of her father) ; the mother who could even then apostrophise the memory of her infant and her once tender love for it. That actress reading the character of Lady Macbeth aright will see in this soliloquy a struggle^ not a command ; the struggle of her earlier nature ; the last glimpses of what she was, of what she might have remained had she not fallen by that sin, ambition ! " by which sin fell the angels ! " . - . . All henceforth is horrible ! so horrible that I linger for a moment ere I approach it, and I ask you, when you leave this room, and address yourselves quietly to the study of this magnificent poem, (well does it deserve study) I ask you to approach this part of it, not with the preconceived ideas of Mrs. Siddons' Lady Macbeth, but with a desire to analyse the character that SJiakespeare has given us. Had Lady Macbeth been the fiend-like woman represented, her subsequent career would have been in accordance with the first act, she would have gone on from bad to worse, remorseless ; but on the con- trary, when the deed is done, when she awakes from the insane dream she had indulged in, of the power of a crown to confer happiness, however it was obtained, we see not the triumphant and remorseless murderess but the heart-broken and dying woman ! I am now approaching the deed of blood, do not believe that I regard it with less abhorrence than any one here — a more foul or bloody deed was scarcely ever done — I know but of one that exceeds it ; that where the murder was directed in these words : — " Set ye LTriah in the fore^ LADY MACBETH. 239 front of the hottest battle, and reth'e ye from him that he may be smitten and die." That murder is unparalleled in cowardice and wicked- ness, why do we tolerate the name of the murderer ; why ? because of his subsequent remorse, because of the anguish of the guilty man ; we see in that very anguish that the deed was not his nature, that he had fallen from his original character, fallen by a sudden temptation. Bemember this ; remember this I say, remember David when we are sitting in judgment on Lady Macbeth. Her soliloquy is broken off by the entrance of her husband; she addresses him at once by his newly acquired titles — " Great Glamis ! Worthy Cawdor ! " — and then passes on to the promise : — " Greater than both, by the aU-hail hereafter : Thy letters, have transported me beyond This ignorant present, and I feel now The future in the instant." Macbeth replies to this by the simple announcement of that she knew already : — " My dearest love, Duncan comes here to-night." " And when goes hence ? " "To-morrow, as he piu'poses." And then comes the first breaking of her plan to her husband — that part which I have already referred to as delivered by Mrs. Siddons with an energy that absolutely cowed the actor that took the part of Macbeth, — literally reduced him from the triumphant warrior into the trem- bling imbecile before her ; delivered in such a manner as to make the audience feel that her power was irresistible, and that her husband was but a feeble instrument in her hands : but surely this cannot be the right reading of it. Why should we conceive the wife at that moment im- perious } — nothing in the antecedents of Macbeth's career LADY MACBETH. would imply that she held mastery over him ; his valour had exalted her, and she meets him with a certain homage to his renown, as she had borne previous testimony to his fancied virtues ; that irresolution which she afterwards taunts him with had not then displayed itself ; and I can- not but believe that a future representation of this play will exhibit Lady Macbeth here, not as the imperious woman commanding^ but as the fascinating woman en- treating^ tempting, by the exhibition of the very bait which had already ensnared her soul — the belief that the act should — "to all our nights and days to come, Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom." Up to this time, remember, she is ignorant of the workings of his heart ; she is acting upon the assumption that he is all that she has described him to be, and thus there is a certain respect shown to his supposed character. We, , however, know better ; and Macbeth receives her sugges- tions without any repugnance, and merely says, " We will speak further:" and it is clear that they do speak, and that before we meet them again the murder is fully agreed on. In the last scene of this act we have Macbeth alone ; he has fully agreed upon the murder, but, as the hour approaches, trembles at the consequences. It is important to mark this ; he never has the slightest remorse, he is only calculating the chances of failure, and what then would happen to himself — " He, but of fear^ knows no control, Because his conscience, stained and foul. Feels not the import of the deed;" — but it is this irresolution that has led to the general belief that Macbeth by himself would not have done the deed ; and possibly at that time he would not, but he was a mur- derer in intent, as we see by his own words, and sooner or later would have been so in act. LADY MACBETH. 241 While he hesitates however, in comes his wife. Now then the tone and words may be as imperious as possible ; , because the man has lowered himself from the pedestal she once believed him to occupy ; he has consented to become a criminal, and she addresses him as the guilty address the guilty. He hesitates : and as her persuasion to him was the hope of future honour and glory, he tries to meet her in the same way, by showing that he has received present honours, which he would be satisfied with for the present. She, putting aside all that, taunts him wdth a word, of all others most hateful to a man, especially too from a woman, coward! — he re-asserts his daring, — " I dare do all that may become a man, Who dares do more, is none." — Instantly she retorts, by the enquiry — " What beast was it then That made you break the enterprise to me r" (Insisting, however) - " "VSHien you dui-st do it, then you were a man, And to be more than what you were, you woidd Be so much more the man." Then she urges his oath, not as binding on him, but as evidence of his then resolution ; contrasts her own deter- mination with his w^eakness in such forcible terms, that at last he brings out the real secret of his hesitancy, — his fear— " If we should fail !" She replies quietly — "We fail!" ' - But then enters upon the description of the manner in which the murder can be done without discovery, and the. 242 LADY MACBETH. guilt laid on others. This at once removes all difficulty with him, and the two leave the stage fully bent upon their atrocious purpose. When we next see Lady Macbeth she is waiting for her husband, then in the very act of committing the mur- der; we learn from her own lips that she had prepared everything, drugged the possets, laid the daggers ready, nay more, fearful lest her husband's resolution should fail him, had essayed the act herself. What stayed her ? — what, it will be well to notice, — " Had he not resembled My father as he slept, I had done 't." See, she shrinks from the act of blood, — she is resolved in will, she has no fear, like her husband, of the conse- quences ; but even at such a moment the image of her old father stays the uplifted dagger ; there is nothing fiend- like here — it is a fallen woman, not a fiend, — the woman in shrinking from the act, asserting herself still. In comes the pale terrified murderer, " I have done the deed ; — did'st thou not hear a noise ?" Yes, the deed is done ; nothing can undo it ; and now her work begins ; and now the nature of the act begins to present itself to her. Her husband is by this time a poor trembling caitiff, leaning upon her stronger mind for sup- port, and his weakness taxes her to the utmost. She replies to his first enquiry by an apparently careless answer, " I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry." Then as he begins to feel mental horror creeping over him, she bids him dismiss these thoughts — giving, in her very injunction, however, proof of the effect they were already beginning to take on her. " These deeds must not be thought After these ways, so it will make us ?nad.^^ LADY MACBETH. 243 Then, rallying him by the epithet " Worthy Thane," " Why Worthy Thane, You do unbend your noble strength to think So brain- sickly of things." Looking at his hands, and bidding him get some water, - she sees that he has brought the daggers from Duncan's chamber, and bids him take them back again. This he refuses to do, and she, snatching them from him, enters the fatal chamber, whilst he remains in a paroxysm of fear without. I cannot conceive what Dr. Johnson meant by saying that there was no nice discrimination of character in this play ; the two murderers are alike in one thing only, their guiltiness ; the distinction between the two, in every other respect, is marked and palpable. But I will pass on for the present. Lady Macbeth, resolute in will, as her husband is weak, enters the chamber of death, smears the hands of the sleeping attendants with blood, and then returns to her husband, becoming now the master-spirit, and directing for a time his every action. The alarm is soon given, and ere w^e meet Lady Mac- beth again, her husband, with Lord Lennox, has re-entered the chamber of Duncan, and added two other murders to his list; she is present while Macbeth describes the ap- palling spectacle of the body of Duncan as the apology for his hasty act in destroying the grooms ; faints at the recital, and is carried out. Here for a moment let us pause in the narrative, to pass in review before us the two principal characters. Macbeth, cowardly, selfish murderer, hesitates only so long as his fears have the mastery ; the instant that these are overcome, there is no stay ; he shrinks not at the act of murder, though he dare not afterwards enter the room alone ; in company with another, however, he goes in 24t LADY MACBETH. unhesitatingly, and without the shadow of hesitation, or even sorrow for the necessity, murders two other men in the presence of his first victim. The act of blood has no more effect on him than the slaughter of sheep has on a butcher, and he describes with a sickening minuteness, nay, w^ith a sort of gusto, the bloody spectacle. Why, if there were nothing else to do away with the notion that he was naturally humane, generous, amiable, &c. &c. surely this scene itself would be sufficient. Mark, how- ever, the difference with her. The woman, shrinking, as we have seen from the act, now that it is done, cannot even bear the recital of it ; and when her husband, with an insensibility well befitting his wdiole character, depicts, as referring to the grooms, the spectacle that he and she had actually presented but a few minutes before, her iron resolution gives way, and she swoons at the recollection of it. There have been those who deem this fainting a mere pretence ; forgetful, that she had now become aware of the moral cowardice of her husband ; of his absolute de- pendence on her for support, and that nothing but physical inability to sustain her part longer, would have induced her to withdraw from his side. The fainting was real, not feigned. This scene closes the second act, but before I pass on, I must beg permission to read an extract from Mr. Fletcher. He also justly deems this part of the play of the highest importance to the right understanding of the two principal characters. " This scene," says Mr. Fletcher (referring to that in which the murder is discovered), " shows us Macbeth, when his paroxysm ensuing upon the act of murder has quite spent itself, and he is become quite himself again ; that is, the cold-blooded, treacherous, cowardly assassin ! Let any one who may have been disposed, with most of the critics, to believe that Shakespeare has delineated LADY MACBETH. 245 Macbeth as a character originally remorseful^ well con- sider the speech of most elaborate, refined, and cold- - - blooded hypocrisy, in which, so speedily after his poetical whinings over all the consequences to himself, in what he had done, he alleges his motives for killing the two sleep- ing attendants : — '^Macbeth. Oh yet I do repent me of my fury, That I did kill them. Macduff. Wherefore did you so? " Macbeth. Who can be wise, amaz'd — temperate and furious, Loyal and neutral in a moment ? No man ! The expedition of my violent love Outran the pauser reason." "Assuredly too, the dramatist had his reasons for caus- ing Macbeth's hypocritically pathetic description of the scene of murder, to be delivered thus publicly in the pre- sence of her, whose hands had had so large a share in giving it that particular aspect. It lends double force to this most characteristic trait of Macbeth's character, that he should not be moved, even by his lady's presence, from delivering his affectedly indignant description of that bloody spectacle, in terms which must so vividly recal to her mind's eye the sickening objects, which his own moral . cowardice had compelled her to gaze upon. " Here lay Duncan. His silver skin, laced with his golden blood, And his gash'd stabs, look'd like a breach in nature For ruin's wasteful entrance." And then, how marvellously the next sentence is contrived so as to express in one breath the aspect which the guilt- less attendants whom his wife's guilty hands had be- smeared, and that, which he and she the real murderers now standing before us, had presented the moment after the consummation of the deed." 246 LADY MACBETH. " There, the murderers — - Steep'd in the colors of theii' trade, their daggers Unmannerly breech' d with gore.-— Who could refrain That had a heart to love, and in that heart. Courage to make his love known." These words draw from Lady Macbeth the instant excla- mation, " Help me hence, oh ! " Mr. Fletcher refers to the general idea, that this swooning was feigned, and combating the notion says, — " The careful observer will see what a dreadful accumu- lation of suffering is inflicted on her by her husband's own lips, in the speech we have just cited; painting, in stronger, blacker, colours than ever, the guilty horrors of their common deed. Even her indomitable resolution may well shrink for a moment under a stroke so withering and so unexpected. It is, however, remarkable, that upon her exclamation of distress, Macduff first, and Banquo after- wards, cries out, * Look to the lady,' but that we find not the smallest sign of attention paid to her situation by Macbeth himself, who, arguing from his own character to hers, and seeing in the filthy statement nothing that should really cause emotion on her part, might and probably did regard it as merely dexterous feigning." " Again, we repeat," continues Mr. Fletcher, referring to the man, " that a character like this is one of the most cowardly selfishness and most remorseless treachery, which all its poetical excitability does but exasperate into the perpetration of more and more extravagant enormities." In the third act we breathe at first a fresher atmos- phere ; the scene has changed — it is a room in a royal palace now — Duncan's murder has brought no stigma on Macbeth, on the contrary, he is by general acclaim hailed king of Scotland, and he and she, whom we saw but just now as alternately shrinking criminals, now come before us crowned and royally attired, trumpets sounding before them, and lords and ladies in their train. LADY MACBETH. 24f Ah, if wrong could but come right, how happy she would be ; the golden round is on his brow, and he holds ^ ' sovereign sway and masterdom all that she bent her re- solute will to accomplish is accomplished ; now then let us watch the further development of character ; she is a * tri- - umphant fiend,' says one ; 'naturally cruel,' says another; ' invariably savage,' says a third ; ' a superb instance of depravity,' says a fourth ; tell me then, if this be so, why she is no more represented as an actor or abettor in the further scenes of bloodshed ? w^hy as not suggesting Banquo's murder? why as not urging the surprise of Macduff's castle, and the slaughter of his family ? if she had been the fiend supposed, she would have hovered around Macbeth as his evil genius, constantly leading him onwards, combating from time to time any lingering- emotions of pity, and steeping him by the force of her will deeper and deeper in crime. Is it so 1 every thing the other way ; Banquo's murder is concealed from her, and so far from finding in her the ready counsellor to further deeds of blood, he seeks out the ministers of darkness and delivers himself up to unholy incantations. In him, true to his bad original, we find the progressive development of vice, but in her, one crime and one only ; in him a con- stantly recurring dread of consequences, in her the ever present memory of the fast, there is no need of any catastrophe, of any divine messenger to awaken conscience ; in her it never sleeps, even in her newly acquired dignities, even in the first assumption of royalty we see the cureless gnawing of the heart. — "Naught's had, all's spent — ~ . A\Tien om* desire is got without content, 'Tis safer to be that which we destroy. Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy." Poor wretch ! will you not join with me in saying so ? Poor wretch, preparing for a banquet with such a heartache, for 248 LADY MACBETH. remember, this exclamation is wrung from her before any further horrors, before Banquo is murdered, before general suspicion points the finger at her husband. Macbeth enters at her bidding, and in his conversation with her we learn what they both suffer. " The affliction of these terrible dreams That shake us nightly. Better be with the dead Whom we to gain our place, have sent to peace, Than on the torture of the mind to he In restless agony." But we also see more and more plainly, the essential difference of the two ; do you mark how Macbeth con- stantly brings in his wife as joint actor. " Whom ive to gain our place." Just as in the former acts he had said, — " When ive have marked with blood those sleepy two." There is a constant coming to her for support, (not, mind you, for incentive to further crime) but a constant leaning on her and a constant reminding of her, that she is as deeply in the guilt as he. Not one single attempt do we find in the whole drama from him to allay her anguish, though he is evidently well aware of her suffering. She, on the contrary, like a true woman yet a guilty one, but a woman still, (what shallow reasoner could call her a fiend) like a true woman I say is ever ready to drive back her own agony to mitigate his ; where does she ever reproach him, save to rouse him from fears which are dangerous.? while he never comes to her, never applies to her one single epithet of tenderness, save when he wants her advice, or her support ; never once does he address a single word of kindness to her for her own sake alone. Now comes on the banquet. The scene is once more in public, a room of state in the palace, a banquet pre- LADY MACBETH. 24§ pared, enter Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Rosse, Lenox, Lords, and Attendants. Macbeth is less the haughty monarch than the bhifF and hearty soldier. " Macbeth. You know your own degrees, sit down : at first And last, a hearty welcome. " Lords. Thanks to your majesty. " Macbeth. Ourself will mingle with society, And play the humble host. Our hostess keeps her state ; but in best time, We will require her welcome. " Lady Macbeth. Pronounce it for me, Sir*, to all oui' Mends ; For my heart speaks, they ai;e welcome." While the guests, however, are arranging themselves, pursuant to the king's directions, he is arrested for a moment at the door, by the return of the murderers of Banquo, who bring him news that Fleance has escaped, though Banquo is dead; this, suggesting to him dangerous consequences to himself, (still the old selfish mffian we see) brings on a fit of that mental hallucination that was displayed just before the murder of Duncan ; and as he then saw an air-drawn dagger, so on naming the name of Banquo, he sees an apparition of the man, covered with wounds, just as the murderers had described him ; and here I may be allowed to agree with those who execrate the brutality of taste which requires upon the stage a pal- pable form as the apparition, a brutality that surely cannot last much longer. Macbeth's exclamations of horror bring his wife in- stantly to his side ; and she endeavours at once to take off the general attention of the guests, and re-assure him. " Sit, worthy friends ; my lord is often thus, And hath been from his youth. Pray you, keep seat ; The fit is momentary — upon a thought He will again be well. If much you note him 2m LADY MACBETH. You shall offend him, and extend his passion. Feed, and regard him not." • Then turning to her husband, she assails him in the same point that she has found him most assailable before,— his manhood, and his reputation for daring : — " Are you a man ?" He replies as she expected — " Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that Which might appal the devil." It is no time for wasting words, — she addresses him with taunts, in which at the same time she appeals to his self- esteem and to his fears :-— " O proper stuff! This is the very painting of your fear ; This is the air-drawn dagger which you said Led you to Duncan. 0 these flaws and starts, Impostors to true fear, would well become A woman's story at a winter's fire Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself ! Why do you make such faces ? When all's done You look -but on a stool." These words, however, are inefi'ectual to recal him to him- self,~he continues his outcries, and, forgetful of all else but the present terror, points to it, and tries to make her see it — the paroxysm however goes off, and he seems himself again. All her taunting words have, of course, been delivered in an under tone — seeing him recovered, however, she addresses him courteously and aloud : — - " My worthy lord ! Your noble friends do lack you." Macbeth, recalled to himself, sits down, calls for wine, pledges his guests, and names Banquo. At the mention LADY MACBETH. 251 of his name, however, his fit returns ; once more he sees the apparition, and breaks out into fearful outcries. He is now seated amongst his lords, his wife cannot address anything to him, and her efforts, becoming how= ever fainter and fainter, are addressed to the guests :— = "Think of this, good peers, But as a thing of custom, — 'tis no other — ■ Only it spoils the pleasure of the time." Macbeth continues to address the phantom unchecked, till the paroxysm goes off, then, seeing the confusion of his guests, he makes one effort to detain them : — " Pray you sit still." . - His wife, however, fearful of what further may happen, especially when one of the lords begins to question him as to what he has seen, stops all enquiry by declaring that the malady is becoming worse and worse, and hurries the guests away in disorder. Now then the banqueting hall is deserted — there are the viands untouched, there is all the splendour of royalty around them ; but there is the proof in the half insane wretch before her, that for her, royalty can bring no hap- piness. Had she been the fiend supposed, now her de- moniac nature would have broken out. All restraint re- moved by the absence of witnesses, rage and fury at his cow^ardice would have found vent in her reproaches. I know not how this scene is represented on the stage, but I can fancy Macbeth pacing about the hall, still half beside himself, while she sits down, resting her head on her hands, feeling despair creeping over her. Not another word of reproach does she address to him ; she had only done so at first for ]iis sake, but the mischief is done now and past remedy. She lets him rave on without inter- ruption. 252 LADY MACBETH. "It will have blood I they say blood will have blood. Stones have been known to move, and trees to speak. Augurs and understood relations have, By maggot-pies and choughs and rooks, brought forth The secret' st man of blood." Then turning suddenly to her he asks, "What is the night?" She quietly replies, " Almost at odds with morning, which is which." Then, becoming alive to the consequences to himself, he asks abruptly, and assuming his royal tone, " How say'st thou, that Macduff Denies his person at our great bidding ?" She replies, evidently with a wish to soothe him, with a doubt that the invitation had reached him. " Did you send to him, Sir?" And then comes out that burst of wickedness from him, which shows that he is abandoned to the fiend ; but from that moment a line of demarcation, distinct and material, is drawn between himself and her. Thus he speaks : — " I will to-morrow, (And betimes I will) to the weird sisters. More shall they speak, for I am bent to know By the worst means the worst — for mine own good, All causes shall give way. I am in blood Steep' d in so far, that should I wade no more, Returning were as tedious as go o'er." What says she, — this naturally cruel and remorseless one, remember, this fiend, this superb instance of depra- vity !— what says she to that excellent person her husband —is it to sit down with him to plan and perpetrate further deeds of blood ? No, it is to urge him to seek rest in LADY MACBETH. sleep, soothing him by gentle words, or at least essaying to do so ; and they pass away from before us, she to her chamber, to her remorse, to her agony, to her death ; and he to the ministers of darkness, and to deeds of cruelty which throw even all the preceding into shade. Oh, let us mark the development of character, and thus form a right estimate of it in the beginning. We come now to the last act. A long interval has passed since we saw Lady Macbeth, an interval crowded with the atrocities of him, but in which, it seems clear, that she took no part whatever. If it be questioned why I draw this conclusion, I reply by pointing out that Mac- beth has wholly deserted her guidance for that of the witches, and has received promises of personal safety, or at least what he deems promises of personal safety, from them — and these promises make him careless of further advice or assistance from her ; also that in the interview between the fugitive lords and the prince Malcolm, while the atrocities of Macbeth are dwelt upon, there is not the slightest allusion to her, as participating in them ; it is true that at the close of the play, Malcolm refers to the dead butcher and his Jiend-like queen, but remember, it is the son of Duncan that is speaking, and he has in chief remembrance the act by which he chiefly suffered. Surely if Shakespeare had intended her for such a character as Mrs. Siddons has pourtrayed, we should have seen the increase of wickedness in her, as well as in her husband. Why stop her in her career ? Why bring before us a series of murders in which she bears no part ? And why, above all, open the last act of the drama with the spectacle of her intense mental suffering, not, like him, in the fears of the future, but in the memory of the past ? We come now to the fifth act, and the first scene. I dare not read this scene : we know it well ; and I should but spoil it in the attempt. But let us mark in the mental working of the unconscious somnambulist, the constant 254 LADY MACBETH. terror that night brings. First, she is afraid of the dark- ness — " She has light by her continually, 'tis her com- mand and then, even when she has sunk into slumber, the dread visions of the past pursue her still. Finely has the dramatist placed her thus before us, that we may dive into the recesses of that heart, which her iron will would in her waking hours have shut up from us. Now, remem- ber, all guard is off; 'tis the heart, unconsciously it is true, but not the less surely, laying itself bare before us. The dreadful act is re-enacted, — " One ; two ; why then 'tis time to do it." Her part in urging her husband, and the inducements held out to him, — " Fie, my lord, fie ! a soldier, and afeard ? What need we fear who knows it, When none can call our power to account." Then comes the horrid recollection of the chamber of death — " Who would have thought the old man Had so much blood in him." Then her mind passes to that burst of helpless commi- seration, " The thane of Fife had a wife ; Where is she now ?" Then the remembrance of Macbeth at the banquet, and her agitated chiding of him — " No more, my lord, no more of that ; You mar all with your starting." And then a rapid change to her own agony— " Here's the smell of blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh ! oh ! oh !" Well might the doctor say, " What a sigh is there ; the LADY MACBETH. 255 heart is sorely charged." He was evidently a kind, gentle creature ; he did what we should all have done had we seen her, — pity her. Yes, criminal as she was, he could pity her. The last words of the poor wretch are significant of her character; she has evidently gone through the dreadful act, been haunted by it in all its phases, and the last effort of the mind, true to her character, is for her hus- band — " Wash your hands, put on your night-gown, look not so pale." Then still thinking of her husband in another crisis, — " I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried ; he cannot come out of his grave." Then going back to Duncan's murder, — " To bed, to bed ; there's knocking at the gate. Come ! come ! come ! come ! give me you?' hand; what's done can- not be undone. To bed, to bed, to bed." Oh ! who cannot see even in these broken mutterings traces of the true woman, traces of the bright original, polluted as it had been by the trail of the serpent. Sleep- ing or waking, in action or in thought, she is true to him for whom she plunged into crime. I have before remarked that never, except for his sake, does a word of reproach escape her, never does she attempt to throw the blame of the deed on him ; and here in her dreams he is still cared for — '''give me your handy Can we still think her an * ogi'ess,' naturally cruel, cold, and remorseless } no, no, no ! fallen as she was, she was, even fallen, capable of what Sir Edward Bulwer calls " that grand woman-heroism, abnegation of self." I shall not pursue the narrative further, we see Lady Macbeth no more, though shortly afterwards we hear of her death and the manner in which her husband receives the 256 LADY MACBETH. intelligence, proves that he at least thinks he has more important matters to trouble himself about than that ; not a syllable of regret or pity escapes from him, though but a short time before he could whine over his own misfortunes and talk of his having neither honour, love, obedience, troops of friends. A likely matter indeed that he should have ! a selfish man like him only has friends in his youth^ before his character is rightly known ; as he grows older he has none about him but those who care as little in truth for him as he does for them. Macbeth to have friends indeed ! when his wretched wife died he lost the last of them. I just now referred to Sir Edward Bulwer's novel, and reading it the other night when my paper was almost con- cluded, I find Mrs. Caxton remarking, " it is very hard for a man to describe us women." Well, perhaps it is, and at any rate this sentence determined me in seeking the opinion of a woman on my subject before I quite con- cluded it. I procured Mrs. Jameson's " Characteristics of Women," a book T had never seen till 1 had almost finished my paper, and looked with some curiosity for her estimate of Lady Macbeth. 1 am more than ever convinced that my view of her character is the right one, because I find that it accords so closely with that of this celebrated authoress, and I must be permitted to trespass upon you a little longer with a few quotations from her essay. Mrs. Jameson, with the true tact of a woman, at once perceives this abnegation of self that 1 have referred to. " It is particularly observable," says she, " that in Lady Macbeth's concentrated, strong-nerved ambition, (the ruling passion of her mind) there is yet a touch of woman- hood. She is ambitious, less for herself than for her husband. In her famous soliloquy after reading her hus- band's letter, she does not once refer to herself ; it is of him she thinks, she wishes to see her Jtushand on the LADY MACBETH. 257 throne, and to place the sceptre within his grasp. Nor is there anything vulgar in her ambition ; we cannot trace in ' her grand and capacious mind, that it is the mere baubles and trappings of royalty that dazzle and allure her. Her's is the sin of the ' star-bright apostate,' and she plunges with her husband into an abyss of guilt to procure ' for all their days and nights to come sole sovereign sway and master- dom.' She fixes her eye steadily on this, soars far above all womanish feelings and scruples to attain it, and stoops upon her victim with the strength and velocity of a vulture ; but having councilled unflinchingly the crime necessary for the attainment of her purpose, she stops there." " If my feeling of Lady Macbeth's character (continues Mrs. Jameson) be just to the conception of the poet, she is one who could steel herself to the commission of a crime from necessity or expediency, and be daringly wicked for a great end ; but not likely to perpetrate gra- tuitous murders from any vague or selfish fears." Mrs. Jameson also refers to the close of the banquet scene, and I read her remarks with peculiar pleasure as the same incidents had forcibly impressed me years ago in reading this drama. " When the guests are dismissed and they are alone she says no more, and not a syllable of re- proach or scorn escapes her ; a few^ w ords of submissive reply to his questions, and an entreaty to seek repose are all she permits herself to utter ; there is a touch of pathos and tenderness in this silence which has always affected me beyond expression, it is one of the most masterly and most beautiful traits of character in the whole play." I have sometimes endeavoured to picture to myself Lady Macbeth throughout her whole career, to image to myself, as it were, the sort of being that would be through- out consistent with that portion of her life comprised in the drama. First, then, in personal appearance she would be the reverse of Mrs. Siddons, and in the place of the dark looks, imperious deportment, and commanding 258 LADY MACBETH. stature of that lady, I would have a light-hah'ed, delicate, fairy-formed woman, just the outward form to please a great big fellow like Macbeth, and just the woman to be captivated with his stalwart form and physical prowess ; enthusiastic in everything ; loving her old father intensely ; rapt up in the child she once had ; and above all, devoted to her husband ; and in this very intensity of love and devotion, possessing that peculiar phase of character, which I can assure my fair hearers is by no means un- common amongst women, I hardly know what term to give it, selfishness seems a wrong term, especially after what I have said of woman's ^ abnegation of self,' but a certain absence of all conscientiousness as to the rights of others when placed in opposition with the fancied interests of her own family. No man, I think, who has been much behind the scenes of real life, either a divine, a physician, or a lawyer, but must have occasionally encountered this character, A novelist once seized hold of it, and, drawing I dare say from the life, from what he had actually seen, represented a mother committing an act of the most flagrant injustice and hateful ingratitude, and actually jus- tifying herself to the party wronged by talking of her duty to her childj'' whose pecuniary interests she fancied might be prejudiced by an opposite course; this mother, you will understand, being in the same story represented as devoted to this child, and, as far as she herself was con- cerned, sacrificing life, fortune, every thing she had for it. In my own personal experience I have more than once encountered such a character. At one moment her con- duct to the world would kindle up a flame of indignation that one could scarce be restrained from breaking out into passionate invective, at another time exhibiting the woman's heroism, ^ abnegation of self,' to such an extent, that the expression, " poor thing ! " would be wrung from one in spite of all previous recollections. In the absence of all religious restraint, in the absence LADY MACBETH. 259 of the royal law of Christianity, I can easily conceive of a character like this, violating for the sake of her family, all ' laws, human and divine ; for a time morally blind, and rushing into crime with a fixed purpose that knows no stop or stay, till it is consummated. Until this time all the antecedents of this character might have been lovely, nay, the very intensity of purpose, so long as it was restrained within the bounds of right, would but add to its charm. And thus I can easily con- ceive that Lady Macbeth, in her early life, and up to the period of the fatal temptation, presented the most beauti- ful specimen of w^omanhood, and attracted to herself the fondness of all about her ; that had the supposed interests of her husband marched with his duty to God and to man, she would have been in her career by his side, a heroine ever ready to sustain him through whatever scenes of trial, danger, or suffering he might be called to pass. Like our own glorious countrywoman — Lady Sale — or like other heroines whom late events have called forth, (the wife of Kossuth for instance,) the resolute will would have dis- played itself in every scene, in the actual fight, in pestilence, in famine, in the dungeon, and if need be on the scaffold itself; calm and unmoved amidst danger; heroic in endurance ; she would, we are sure, have stood by her husband to the last, and died, if need be, to save him. Unhappily in her case the chief good presents itself as only to be obtained by the commission of a wrong. And now the same character that I have described, possessing but feeble conscientiousness, will be utterly blind to the effects of the crime on her own heart. I mean the moral effects that will as surely result from it, as the physical effects would from a dose of arsenic. She, I say, is utterly unconscious of the ruinous nature of the act she purposes to commit, on all her future happiness; flatters herself with the thought that this shall be her only crime, and that all 260 LADY MACBETH. her life afterwards shall be so good as to compensate for just this one sin: further, she would probably dwell on the benefit that others would derive from this single sin; the reign of her husband (whom she regards as the first of men) so much more brilliant than that of Duncan, so much more beneficial to the people, and so glorious to himself. Then having thus blinded herself, she rushes upon the crime, and stops not until it is accomplished ; but, and I particularly call upon you to note this, accomplished by others so far as the actual deed of blood, the infliction of the suffering is concerned. A woman such as I have described would shrink from using the dagger herself, though her resolution that others should do it, would be unfaltering. But when the deed is done, when the remembrance of it comes to her; when the species of delirium which Shakespeare has so well described " between the acting of a dreadful thing, and the first motion of it ;" when this has passed away, the woman would inevitably be the victim of the most fearful mental conflict; the horror of the actual deed would pursue her night and day ; remorse for the sufferer, and fear for her guilty accomplice, would perpetually distract her. The scene which represents Lady Macbeth in this condition is a master-piece of the master-poet; another proof of his superhuman knowledge of the human heart. But it is a scene so totally opposed to all those notions that image Lady Macbeth as the ' master -Jiend^ as ' a purely detestable character,' without anything to call forth one pitying emotion from us, that I can, as I said at first, only account for the persistence of various critics in such a conception, by the supposition that it was the acting of the character by Mrs. Siddons, and not the study of it as depicted by Shakespeare, that engaged their attention. The character, however, which I have endeavoured to LADY MACBETH. 261 present before you to-night is taken from the drama, and not from the stage ; and it does appear to me that if you will not allow me to speak of her as *Poor Lady Macbeth,' you may at least join with the physician who witnessed her sufferings all unconsciously to herself, and say, "Well, well, God forgive us all !" I cannot suppose that the ideas I have put forth to- night w^ill pass without opposition ; I sincerely hope that they will not ; we contend in this assembly not for victory but for truth, and the victor and the vanquished are alike the gainers by the dispersion of error. I present, then, my views before you for the most rigid criticism, the more opponents the better. Perhaps I may find a supporter, but if not, " Lay on, Macduff, And " I think, Mr, President, I had better stop here. THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY: BY WILLIAM PALMER. READ BEFORE THE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, LEICESTER, JANUARY 9, 1843. THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. It has been often related that when Cardinal Hippolito, in compliment to whom Ariosto composed his Orlando Furioso, had perused that immortal work, he exclaimed, " From whence can the man have collected such a mass of absurdities ?" The simple explanation of this phenomenon is, that the Cardinal, who was a man of the world and a politician, had, perhaps on this very account, no idea of the pleasures of the imagination. The adventures detailed he knew could not have happened, and he recognized in the composition no deeper design. It is obvious that some events are so intrinsically interesting that the bare mention of them rivets the attention, but in order to this it is necessary that they should be true, or if fictitious, that they should possess such a degree of probability as not to outrage any of the established conclusions of the mind. As belief is natural to man, he receives with unques- tioning confidence whatever is proposed to him, until he has been taught by experience the necessity of caution. Hence, when a story-teller addresses himself to children or uncultivated auditors, he is not necessitated to observe the measures of strict probability, nay, he will generally find that, within certain limits, the opposite course will be s 266 THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. the most successful, the love of the marvellous being a more powerful incentive to attention than the love of nature. But is belief in the facts related essential in a cultivated audience, to the enjoyment of the narrative ? Is it possi- ble that with the full knowledge of the falsehood, the nar- rative should instruct or delight ? Undoubtedly it is — but in this case the narrator is not a mere detailer of occur- rences to which he invites credence. His story is not his end, but the means he chooses for attaining it. That end is frequently concealed, and in order to apprehend it an intellectual sense is required, which by analogy to the bodily one is called Taste. Thus, if I am gravely told of a country where, as Letitia Hardy expresses it, the men and women are all horses, or of a voyage of discovery to the moon, nothing but compulsion will induce me to listen to the details ; but if these fictions be embellished by the genius of a Swift or an Ariosto, I experience the greatest pleasure in the perusal of incidents which, if differently related, would have excited nothing but aversion or con- tempt. A romance or poem often exhibits both the character- istics we have endeavoured to illustrate. The narrative itself, apart from the manner in which it is conveyed, is capable of interesting a certain description of persons whose simplicity may be such as to give credence to every circumstance, while the work may be perused by a more refined class of readers with such an engrossing admiration of its higher intentions, as to render them altogether for- getful of those principles by which they are daily in the habit of judging ordinary events. It is my intention this evening to bring before you the principal of the Romantic Narrative Poems of the Italians, works occupying an important place in modern literature, and deserving attention, not only from the extraordinary ability displayed in their composition, but also on account THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. 267 of the influence they exercised on the minds of other authors, both native and foreign. In comparing this class of Poems with the Epic a very remarkable difference is immediately discernible: The materials of both were drawn from the exploits or - fictions of a rude state of society, usually well fitted for poetic purposes ; but whilst, in the masterpieces of the ancients, the incidents and events appear to have been first formed and wrought out in the mind of the author into one grand whole, to which the several parts are ren- dered duly subordinate ; and the style, moreover, evinces a considerable accordance in sentiment on the part of the poet, with the feelings and manners he describes ; in the works with which we are now contrasting them, instead of a lofty and heroical vein, the writer assumes the free tone of a narrator, and often indulges in lively 'badinage.' The events appear to follow each other almost fortuitously, at the same time that, by the unexpected interruptions of the narrative, and the interweaving of one story with another, - curiosity is w^armly excited, and the mind finds itself - irresistibly carried forward from one creation of the poet's fancy to another, or involved in an agreeable labyrinth of complicated adventures.* * It is remarkable how a close and attentive study produces and con- firms the conviction that in this complication there is a real, though artfully concealed, order. Mr. Rose, for instance, in his preface to his analysis of Bojardo's poem, imputes as a fault to Ariosto the entire want of connection in his plots, and asserts that they can only be regarded as so many loose episodes. But the same writer, in a note to his translation of one of the later Cantos of the Furioso, thus reads his recantation. " I am convinced, after a long and close consideration, that little could safely be abridged in this extraordinary poem besides the complimentary eflPusions. Everything else has its use, and is conducive to some dramatic, if not poetical, effect. After being long afraid of proclaiming so bold a conclusion, I have derived great confidence from finding that such was the opinion of the late Mr. Fox, who used to contend that there was no such thing as an episode in the Furioso ; and in the proper estimation of the term he is undoubtedly 'right, for nothing can be left out or altered, without injury to some other 26B THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. The cause of these characteristics appears to be, that the Romantic Poets, in availing themselves of the rich stores of invention and imagination which the chivalrous narratives, so popular during the dark and middle ages, afforded, chose to adopt the style and manner of the professional story-tellers and rhymers who had long been accustomed to retail them to the people ; and like them, to vouch authority in their support, by citing, or pretend- ing to cite, the original sources from which they were presumed to have been derived ; whilst, by imparting to their compositions an air of levity, or mock-gravity, the poets in question took care to show to their readers that they were themselves fully sensible of the absurdity of what they related. The position occupied by the Prose Romances is curious, they having been derived from the bardic rhap- sodies on the one hand, and having, on the other, afforded the materials for the elaborate efforts we are this evening to notice. A number of ballads were often strung together by industrious copyists, without much regard either to the identity of the heroes or the chronology of the events. The feudal barons, for whose amusement these compila- tions were chiefly made, were not hypercritical on this score, neither were they averse to find the warlike inci- dents interspersed with tales of gallantry and allusions little suited to meet with acceptance in modern society. A large volume in which a due number of these stories had been brought into juxtaposition was often the only book to be found in a castle. The clergy, taking advantage of the favour with which these works were received, undertook the task of reducing some of them into prose, in order to give them the appear- piece of the machinery. This may be extravagant and fantastical, but it is fitted to its ends and coherent in all its varieties." THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. 269 ance of true history. In making their selection they natur- ally gave due preference to achievements in defence of the church, and added sentiments calculated to advance the influence of their order, but at the same time, by way of mixing the dulce with the utile, they left untouched and unmitigated the whole of the scandalous incidents.* The chivalrous chronicles are of two classes, viz :— those of the Round Table, treating of the exploits of the fabulous King Arthur and his Knights, and those relating to Charlemagne and his Paladins. There has been a warm controversy between the French and English antiquaries with respect to the superior claim to originality in these productions. The contest is amus- ing, as shewing how insufl[icient is the boasted impartiality of the savant to resist the strong bias of national vanity. Following the best modern authorities, I declare for the genuine antiquity, at all events of the materials, of the Romances of Arthur, which (to diminish the envy of our French neighbours who delight in representing us as their imitators) were composed in Normandy, upon the basis of British or Armorican lays derived from the inhabitants of this island, many of whom, as is w^ell known, fled from the ravages of the Saxons to colonize the province of Brittany. Torquato Tasso, in his discourse upon the art of poetry, mentions the times of Arthur and Charlemagne as peculiarly suitable to furnish the materials of along poem. The memory of those periods, he observes, is not so fresh as to confine the poet to historical accuracy, nor, on the other hand, are they so remote as to destroy the commu- nity of sentiment, particularly as the names of the most famous characters have been familiarized to our ears by the labours of a multitude of romance writers. The narrative poets of Italy adopted Charlemagne as * See the Essay by Panizzi, prefixed to his edition of Bojardo and Ariosto. 270 THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. their hero in preference to Arthur. This was natural ; for the former having become famous throughout Europe as the founder of the Western Empire, and the champion of Christianity, his name was highly proper to be associated with themes which would be increasingly attractive to the public, by enlisting their favourable prepossessions, and in addition, several of his principal paladins, as Orlando, and Oliver, were Italians by birth. There is a remarkable discrepancy between the poetical and historical Charlemagne, and various conjectures have been hazarded in order to account for it. The most pro- bable one appears to be that the character is not derived from an individual, but from the whole race of the Carlo- vingian kings, who were all alike called Charles, and did not during their lives receive their distinguishing appel- lations. In the same way the hero Ruggiero (from whose union with Bradamante, the noble house of Este, according to poetic authority, took its rise,) is a combination of several historical characters of that name, who holding possession of the important city of Reggio, or Risa, in Calabria, made many formidable attacks upon the Saracens in Sicily, and eventually, about the middle of the twelfth cen- tury, conquered that island. It is of importance to notice the effect produced by the Crusades upon this class of writings. " Adenez, king- at-arms to Philip the Bold, wrote romances in verse about the year 1280, particularly those of Bertha (the mother of Charlemagne) and of Ogier le Danois ; and in these and other cotemporary performances are to be found much of the brilliant embellishment imparted to the chivalrous romances of a later era. The knights no longer wandered in the sombre forests of a semi- barbarous country. The intercourse opened by the Cru- sades had placed at the poet's disposal the luxuries and perfumes of the most favoured climes, and, with THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. 271 them, a still more precious boon — the inexhaustible stores of Eastern imagination." There is a maxim in law, " nihil semel est inventum et perfectum," but it is of general application, and extends to the operations of mind as well as to the arts and appli- ances of civilization, for though undoubtedly a mighty genius has sometimes arisen to carry excellence at once to a point of perfection, which posterity must in vain attempt to attain, yet the history of literature exhibits a manifest tendency to a gradual improvement and refinement in the art of composition. And even in the case of the few authors to whom the wreath of immortality has been awarded by the universal voice, it would perhaps be found, had we the means of making the examination, that they, no less than the humblest of their imitators, had before their mental vision some type or model, however much it may have been surpassed, which first suggested the par- ticular path they pursued with such brilliant results. It sometimes happens that we are enabled to trace the gi'adual development of a style of writing through a series of works, and such an examination, when practicable, is both interesting and improving, while it enables us to ap- preciate with greater accuracy than could otherwise be attained the merits of the authors so compared, for it by no means follov^^s that he who has added the last grace and finish to a style, which had been painfully elaborated by his predecessor, is justly entitled to a monopoly of the fame and applause so readily conceded by the delighted reader; while, on the other hand, the discovery of the rude origi- nal of the description or idea that has enchanted us may increase, instead of lessening, our admiration of the genius by which it was enriched and embellished. I conceive that such a development is to be found in the three principal romantic poems of the Italians ; — the Morgante Maggiore, of Luigi Pulci ; the Orlando Inna- morato, of Matteo Maria Bojardo ; and the Orlando 27-2 THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. Furioso, of Ludovico Ariosto, and to these I propose to confine my observations, referring to Mr. Panizzi's essay for a learned and elaborate investigation both of these and of the works of a less extended reputation. The common theme of all these poems are the wars of Charlemagne against the Saracens and Pagans, and the exploits of his Paladins and their Infidel opponents. This opens a wide scene of operations, embracing the whole of the then known world, including, as to Bojardo and Ariosto, the discoveries of Marco Polo, to say nothing of the terrestrial paradise, the moon and the infernal shades, to all of which the last-named poet leads our imagination. The cause of Charlemagne is that of Christianity; and Pulci expresses his opinion, that so powerful were the Saracens at the period, — " Che se non fusse stato a lor confiiii Carlo a pugnar per la fide di Cristo, ^ Forse saremmo ognuno maumettisti. — (adding) Ergo, Carole, in tempore venisti." But although the Monarch is held up to veneration as the ostensible champion of the faith, his character and per- sonal actions as here described excite far different senti- ments. In the Morgante, he is an infatuated dupe ; in the Innamorato he is often made ridiculous. Ariosto un- doubtedly presents him in a more favourable light, yet throughout the whole of his poetical history never, either in the council-chamber or the saddle, does he exhibit sagacity or valour at all approaching to the amount of those qualifications possessed by his principal adherents. This circumstance is probably attributable to the cause before alluded to, — the confounding of Charles the Great with persons of the same name, in the works from which the materials of the poems are drawn. No doubt in the fifteenth century more accurate histories were accessible, and accordingly Pulci, in his last canto, puts into the THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. 273 mouths of Lattanzio and Alcuin (who are introduced to pronounce Charles's funeral oration) a rational outline of the events of his reign ; but in the body of the poem his plan required him to follow the romancers. As we have hinted, antiquarians have met with small success in identifying the romantic heroes with historical personages, yet there is a sufficient correspondence be- tween the various legends to enable the curious to make out with tolerable consistency the reciprocal relationship and the common descent of Charlemagne and his Paladins from the great Hector of Troy ! (My hearers will of course understand that I refer to a poetical, and not a his- torical pedigree.) The bravest and most renowned for their achievements are the knights of the illustrious house of Chiaramonte or Cleremont, which included Orlando, Kinaldo, Ricciardetto, the heroine Bradamante, Astolfo, and Malagigi, the magician. Between this house and that of Maganza, of which Gano da Pontieri was the chief remaining representative, there existed a deep-rooted animosity, not a little exasperated by the machinations of that infamous traitor ; while from a distant coliaterial shoot from the stock of Hector descended Ruggero and the amazon Marfisa, both of whom, though born of Christian parents, had been educated amongst the Saracens, and whose adventures and ultimate conversion to Christianity occupy no small portion of the Innamorato and Furioso, but particularly of the latter. On the side of the Infidels are ranged the sovereigns of numerous cities and provinces, who pour an ill-armed and undisciplined rabble on the fields of France in successive invasions, ilmongst these are Erminione, Saracen King of Denmark ; Antea, Queen of Babylon ; Galafron, King of Cathay ; Gradasso, of Sericana ; above all, Aggramante of Africa, with his thirty- two confederates, including the terrible Rodomonte, and lastly, Marsiglio of Spain, the associate with Gano in the black treason of Roncesvalles must not be forgotten. 274 THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. The principal of these warlike characters, when sepa- rated from their respective hosts, are conducted by the poets through an almost inexhaustible variety of adven- tures in earth, sea, and air—besieging and defending cities — turning the fortune of battles — rescuing distressed damsels — challenging to mortal combat tyrants and dis- courteous knights — and destroying with untiring energy " Gorgons, and hydras, and chimeras dire." It is of the very essence of chivalrous virtue to yield a ready homage to the power of beauty; neither the con- jugal tie nor the most zealous orthodoxy could prevent a knight from surrendering at discretion to every new assail- ant ; but who but the peerless Angelica could ever hope to captivate at a glance the Ruler of Christendom and the nobles of his court, in an instant to derange the entire policy of the state, and finally to transform the noble and valiant Orlando into a furious madman, spreading terror and devastation wherever he directed his steps ? But it is time to address ourselves more particularly to the Morgante Maggiore of Luigi Pulci, said to have been written at the request of tlie mother of the great Lorenzo de' Medici, and to have appeared about the year 1480. Pulci was of a good but poor family, and two of his bro- thers were also devoted to the muses. Luigi was a man of no ordinary powers ; he possessed a considerable share of learning, as is evident from the frequency of his classical allusions ; yet he depended wholly on himself in the exe- cution of his performance, and disdained to copy from the ancient models. Nor does his immortality depend on his being the founder of a school. In spite of numberless faults, his poem must ever be regarded as a great intellec- tual achievement. His terseness of expression, the vigour of action which distinguishes his characters, the absence of tame and protracted descriptions, the humorous vein between jest and earnest in which he delights, and certain THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. 275 outrageously ludicrous images, render it impossible for the reader who has once made his acquaintance ever to forget him. After an attentive consideration, I agree with those who maintain that the religious portion of the poem is not to be regarded as a burlesque of serious subjects. Pulci's own religious views were certainly grievously lax and in- correct, but I am convinced no premeditated outrage of the popular belief of the day was intended. Any one who will compare the account given by Benvenuto Cellini of his miraculous vision in the pope's dungeon, with Pulci's description of the last moments of his saintly warriors, will, I think, recognize a strong resemblance, only to be accounted for by a similarity of education in the narrators, whilst the sentiments in both, to our differently prepared minds, appear equally strange and unaccountable. The leading feature of the Morgante is evidently the treachery of Gano. From the very commencement of the poem the honest Paladins are thoroughly aware of his perfidy; nor are the very enemies of Christianity unac- quainted with it. Traitor, miscreant, Iscariot, and similar terms of reproach, are the common epithets applied to him by all but his infatuated Prince, who for his outrageous folly is christened by his chiefs " Carlo Matto," instead of Carlo Magno. This infatuation creates immeasurable disgust in the Paladins, particularly Orlando, and leads to his withdrawal from court, and in several subsequent instances occasions violent altercations and open insur- rections. Whenever the poet lets fall a hint that Gano is at his tricks again, we expect a deep-laid and mischievous plot, — when he is banished or in confinement we anticipate that his cunning will bring him of!'; and so it proves, in all but his last and crowning villany, where we feel that were he to escape punishment, the existence of an Almighty Ruler of events might almost be questioned. Previously to this climax, we have three or four futile attempts on the part of Gano to ruin the house of Chiara- 276 THE ROMANTIC TOEMS OF ITALY. monte, chiefly that branch to which Rinaldo belongs, he having an especial antipathy to that paladin. The instru- ment with which he works is generally the cord of the hangman, and that functionary plays a conspicuous part throughout the poem. On one occasion, all attempts having failed to bring Charles to reason, Rinaldo and Astolfo determine to commence the honourable profession of highwaymen, in order that the inconvenience suffered by the subjects of the monarch may force from them remonstrances not to be neglected. Unfortunately Astolfo falls into the King's hands, and being committed to the custody of Gano and his Manganese, they easily procure the usual sentence of sus. per col. which is in the very act of being carried into effect, when Orlando and his party, who were waiting in readiness at St. Denis, arrive at the scaffold and effect a rescue. The Parisians pay dearly for their share in the transaction in the slaughter of multitudes, to appease the fury of the irritated Paladins, and Charles is obliged to fly for his life. After this explosion Gano intrigues, first to regain the favour of the King, which he easily accomplishes, and sub- sequently with foreign states, sometimes by letter (he is a great letter writer) and sometimes in person, to bring about the invasion of France, or other injuries to the Christian cause. It is he who instigates Manfredonio to revenge the voluntary departure of his daughter Meridiana in search of the paladin Uliviere, upon the emperor Charles. He also prevails on the Sultan of Babilon to send Antea, the beautiful heiress to his dominions, a very Bellona in valour, to besiege Rinaldo's castle of Montal- bano ; but the fair warrior having been previously ena- moured of Rinaldo during his sojourn in the east, though she succeeds in gaining possession of the fortress by the conquest in single combat of his two brothers left as its defenders, resolves to make no other use of her victory than to deliver it up to her bosom's lord on his return, and THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. 277 rewards Gano with a sound cudgelling at the hands of four Mamelukes, for counselhng her to hang the unsuc- . cessful duellists. A large proportion of the events of the Morgante take place in Pagania, as the non-christian part of the world is styled. They consist mainly of the exploits of Orlando and the Knights, wdio after his several departures in disgust from the court of his Sovereign, leave France in search of him. In these events there is a want of variety. The daughters of Saracen kings invariably fall in love with one or more of the Christian knights, and as their passions are warm and they have little inclination for half measures, they are ever ready to renounce Mahomet, betray the interests of their country, and not unfrequently to cut the throat of their own fathers, if they can thereby make themselves more agreeable to the stranger knights on whom they have bestowed their affection. The knights constantly arrive at a city "in pudding-time," in Butler's phrase, to deliver some damsel from the unpleasantness of being eaten alive by a monster, or carried away by a neighbouring prince, who in the eastern fashion, pays his addresses at the head of an army some hundreds of thou- sands strong, and very frequently the obliged citizens are converted by and receive baptism from the hands of the hero. The baptism of Saracens is a frequent incident, particularly in Pulci. In the case of a renowned cate- chumen a short exposition of the faith is vouchsafed ; but with the rude multitude the success of the day, or the feats of a conqueror, stand in place of any theological expo- sition. As may be conjectured from the name of his poem, Pulci is fond of delineating giants. Morgante is the survivor of three brothers. Two of them, named Passa- monte and Alabaster are killed by Orlando for their im- piety in slinging ponderous stones upon a monastery situate at the foot of a mountain, and Morgante only 278 THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. escapes the same fate by a prompt submission, accompa- nied by a renunciation of Mahomet. He enters into the service of Orlando, who finds in him a most useful aux- ihary in every enterprise requiring extraordinary strength.* Like Samson among the Philistines, he seems to be introduced chiefly to afford amusement by the exercise of his amazing strength. He plucks armed knights from the saddle and carries them bodily to the enemy's camp. With his terrible weapon, a bell-clapper, he beats down all opponents, and during the siege of Babylon, having seized hold of a bastion of the wall, he brings down a shower of masonry with as much ease as a school-boy would shake ripe damsons from the tree, and thereby opens an easy approach for the army of the assailants. When he is unfortunately carried off, about the middle of the poem, by the bite of a sea-crab in the heel, his master and the Christians in general manifest their high esteem for his good qualities and their deep regret at his loss. Orlando, however, previously to his own death, has the satisfaction of hearing from the angel Gabriel of the present happiness of his faithful attendant ! Many other giants, all of them on the Infidel side, occupy a place in the poem ; but the most farcical repre- sentation is that of the destruction of two of unprecedented size, who accompany Antea in her second expedition, namely, that against Paris. The Christians are so dismayed at the appearance of these walking towers that they give up all thoughts of defence, till Malagigi encourages them to be of good cheer, as he will soon by his art dispose of the objects of their apprehension. Accordingly he conjures up a spirit of a most whimsical appearance, a complete duplicate of the "Diable Boiteux" of Le Sage. This little gentleman commences a series of most provoking and practical insults at the expense of the tall champions, * See Lord Byron's admirable translation of the first Canto. THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. 279 who in all their attempts to catch and execute vengeance upon their tormentor discover that he is possessed of the ubiquity of a will-o'-the-wisp. After leading them a long and fatiguing dance amidst shouts of laughter from the spectators, he induces them to follow him into a thick bush of underwood, which the enchanter had previously taken care to have abundantly sprinkled with birdlime. The giants finding themselves fairly entrapped, begin to apprehend the jest, but alas, it has a tragic termination for them, as the Christians being instructed by Malagigi, set fire to the bush, and reduce it and its unwieldy occu- pants to ashes. The character of Margutte excites unmitigated disgust. Cruel, ungrateful, and delighting in every species of wick- edness, there is nothing comic about him but his immea- surable impudence. His adventures have nothing what- ever to do with the story, and the writer in order to get rid of him makes him expire in a fit of laughter at seeing an ape array himself in the boots which Morgante had for a jest removed from his comrade while he was asleep. We are subsequently informed that Margutte got a place in the other world, as lacquey to Beelzebub, where he de- lighted the devils with his accustomed sallies and effrontery. At the commencement of the twenty-fifth canto there is a marked alteration of style ; and certain solemn notes are uttered, which, like the deep throes of a volcano prior to an eruption, prepare the mind to expect some terrific event. " The phenomena which accompany the negociation of the infamous treaty between Gano and Marsilio, and the situation of the place (the park of the latter) where it is transacted, form the subject of a description full of vigour and imagination. The treachery of Roncesvalles had no sooner been proposed by Gailo, under a carob-tree near the fountain, where he and the King were sitting, than heaven gave signs of anger by various prodigies. Mar- 280 THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALF. silio's seat was upset without any apparent cause, the sun was obscured, and a violent storm, accompanied by rain and hail, followed. A laurel, which stood by their side, was struck by a thunder-bolt, (in spite of all classical assertions of the impossibility of such an event,) and an earthquake, which shook most violently even the antipodes, carried their consternation to the highest pitch. They were so terrified that neither dared stir, they knew not what they were doing, and remained motionless, looking amazed at these portents. Suddenly a fire appeared above their heads, the water of the fountain overflowed, it was red like blood, and burning, it blasted all the herbs which it touched. The animals in the park began to fight with each other. Gano was just thinking that, according to tradition, it was on a carob-tree that Judas hung himself, when blood oozed from it, the leaves fell off, and it withered away. A fruit fell from it on the head of the traitor, whose hair stood on end. This convulsion of nature comes quite unex- pectedly upon the reader, and produces an awful effect. Any one well acquainted with the Italian language will read the whole passage with delight, and will be impressed with deeper feelings of a solemn terror than he might perchance expect in this poem." * The act which "roars so loud, and thunders in the index," is the betrayal of Orlando and the best of the Paladins into the pass of Roncesvalles, near the foot of the Pyrenees, under a pretence of an embassy to receive * Panizzi. The stanza in which the fall of the fruit is mentioned is as follows : — " Era di sopra alba fonte un carubbio, L'arbor, si dice, ove s'impicco Giuda; Questo, piti che altro, inise Gano in dubbio, , , Perche di sangue gocciolava e suda. Poi si secco in un punto i rami e'l subbio, Si che di foglie si spogliava e nuda, E cased in capo a Ganelone un pome Che tutte quante gli arriccio le chiome." THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. 281 the tribute of Marsilio, -^ho after his defeat before Paris had sued for peace. In this situation they are to be attacked by an overwhehning host of Saracens, previously placed in ambush for the purpose. The treachery, not- withstanding the warning voice of Malagigi, whose art enabled him to predict the calamity, is but too successful. Orlando, though suj^ported by an army far fi'om despicable, consisting of a hundred thousand men, after performing prodigies of valour, is obliged to succumb to forces of six times that amount. Having first witnessed the fate of most of his valiant comrades, he, with his war horse, both overcome by excessive fatigue, arrives with difficulty at a fountain somewhat removed from the scene of slaughter. His faithful steed, that long had served him well In peace and war, now closed his languid eye, Kneel'd at his feet, and seem'd to say " Farewell ! I've brought thee to the destin'd port, and die." Orlando felt anew his sorrows swell "When he beheld his Yeghautino he Stretched on the field, that crystal fount beside, Stifien'd his limbs, and cold his warHke pride. And, 0 my much-lov'd steed, my generous friend. Companion of my better years, he said. And have I liv-'d to see so sad an end Of all my toils, and thy brave spuit fled ? O pardon me, if e'er I did offend With hasty wrong, that mild and foithfid head, Just then his eyes a momentary Hglit Flash' d quick, then closed again in endless night. Merivale. The Paladin does not long survive this intelligent quad- ruped. Time is, however, allowed to Orlando to confess, receive absolution, and to take a pathetic farewell of his remaining friends. Rinaldo and Riciardetto are of the number. Malagigi having brought them on horseback in 282 THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. three days from Egypt to Roncesvalles just in time for the battle, through the instrumentality of two devils who were compelled to enter into their horses, one of them the famous Bajardo, by which possession by the spirits the chargers are not merely endued with the necessary swift- ness, but are also enabled to leap the broadest rivers, and finally the straits of Gibraltar ! Charles, hearing of the "woeful defeat, hastens in person to the field, when Orlando actually comes to life again, merely for the purpose of presenting his sovereign with the sword Durindana, and immediately after this act of homage becomes cold and inanimate as before. Charles executes a terrible vengeance both on Marsilio and his city of Saragossa ; but for Gano is reserved a still more horrible end. After being dragged through a crowd, who load him with execrations, and almost tear his flesh from his bones, he is executed upon the identical carob- tree which exhibited the awful prodigies, no less a person- age than Archbishop Turpin officiating as hangman. The diablerie of the Morgante is perhaps more amusing than that of the Innamorato. Pulci's Astaroth is a remark- ably well-spoken devil, and talks theology like a doctor in divinity. The bold idea of placing him and another of the ' neri cherubini ' on the summit of a church-steeple to catch the souls of the Saracens disembodied from the slaughter of Roncesvalles, is said to be taken from Turpin, but the hot work which Pulci says fell to the lot of St. Peter in admitting the Christian souls into Paradise, which caused " Che la barba gli sudava e '1 pelo," seems to be characteristic of this author. iVmong the peculiarities of Pulci may be mentioned his artificial vagaries in the construction of his stanzas, which, - however, afford no gratification to a reader of taste. He is fond of commencing a great number of lines with the THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. 283 same words; and not content with the mherent difficulties of the ottava rim a, which, in spite of a pretty general notion to the contrary, are greater in Italian than in our own language, he voluntarily imposes on himself additional shackles.* * The following stanza will serve as a specimen : — ' ' " La casa cosa parea bretta e brutta, Vinta dal vento ; e la natta e la notte Stilla le stelle : ch' a tetto era tulta. Del pane appena ne dette ta 'dotte; Pere avea pure e qualche fratta frutta • E svina e svena di botto una botte ; _ . " Poscia per pesci lasehe preee a r esca ; Ma il letto aliotta a la frasca fu fresca." In another example the similar commencement of the lines gives a com- plete air of burlesque to a relation of the most appalling sufferings. An unfortunate princess has, by a cruel giant, been kept for seven long years chained to a rock with a lion for a sentinel, and has been fed, not on such small deer as formed the sustenance of the unhappy Edgar, but on snakes, crocodiles, and other reptiles of a warmer latitude. She thus pours forth her complaints to the 'par nobile fratrum' Morgante and Margutte :— " O padre, o madre, o fratelli, o sorelle, O dolci amiche, o compagne, o parente, O membre afilitte lasse e meschinelle, O vita trista misera e dolente; - O mondo pazzo, o crude e fere stelle, O destino aspro e 'ngiusto veramente, - : O morte, refrigerio a 1' aspra vita, Perche non vieni a me? chi t' ha impedita? " E questa la mia patria dov'io nacqui? E questo il mio palagio e '1 mio castello ? " E questo il nido ov' alcun tempo giacqui? E questo il padre e '1 mio dolce fratello? ■ E questo il popol dov'io tanto piacqui ? E questo il regno giusto antico e bello ? - ' E questo il porto de la mia salute ? E questo il premio d' ogni mia virtute ? " Ove son or le mie purpuree veste ? Ove son or le gemme e le ricchezze ? Ove son or gia le notturne feste ? Ove son or le mie delicatezze ? 284 THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. There are several circumstances which have tended to prevent, particularly in the case of foreigners, the forma- tion of a correct judgment both as to the actual and com- parative merits of the poems yet to be examined. The fame of the Furioso having almost entirely eclipsed that of the Innamorato, it has been commonly read without a previous perusal of the older poem. Such a method of proceeding of course renders the plot in a great degree unintelhgible, as well as the allusions to characters and events previously described. This, however, in one point of view, exalts our ideas of the powers of Ariosto, for were it not that the magic of his style and the exuberance of his fancy almost invariably, in spite of all these disadvan- tages, interest the reader in the immediate scenes under description, he certainly would never accomplish the perusal of a single canto. Hence it has resulted that while this author's reputation as a story-teller is fully established, his skill in the successful continuation of a plot designed by another (perhaps as difficult a task as can well be con- ceived) is generally overlooked. Again, the greatest injustice has been done to Bojardo. Instead of reaping the glory justly due to him for the pro- jection of his gorgeous design, and the partial execution of it, Berni, whose share in the work as now read is com- paratively small, has been allowed to wear the laurels so " Ove son or le mie compagne oneste ? , Ove son or le fuggite dolcezze? Ove son or le damigelle mie ? Ove son, dico ? oime, non son gia quie. " Ove son or gli amanti miei puliti? Ove son or le cetre e gli organetti? Ove son ora i balli e' gran conviti ? Ove son ora i romanzi e' rispetti ? Ove son ora i profferti mariti ? Ove son or mill' altri miei diletti ? Ove son 1' aspre selve e' lupi adesso, E gli orsi e' draghi e' tigri ? son qui presso." THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. 285 painfully earned by his predecessor, and to have his name associated with the Innamorato often to the exclusion of the real author. Until the late edition by Panizzi, no reprint of Bojardo's work had appeared since 1545, and the poem was chiefly known to modern readers in the dress of Berni. Neither is it safe to depend on the assertions of the critics, as scarcely any of those who have assumed to pass an opinion on the subject have been at the pains of perus- ing the original Innamorato. There is a correspondence in several particulars relative to Bojardo and Ariosto ; both were born of noble families in the immediate neighbourhood of each other. Nicolo Ariosto the father of Ludovico, appears to have occupied the identical official situation which was filled by Matteo Maria Bojardo the poet, that of Governor of Reggio, but the latter was the holder of considerable feudal domains, partially, if not entirely conferred by the sovereign house of Este, being Count of Scandiano, Lord of Arceto, Cassalgrande, Gesso, La Torricella, &c., while Ariosto, with a very moderate patrimony, found himself charged on the death of his father, with the guardianship of several younger brothers and sisters. The poets were also both men of distinguished classical attainments, and wrote elegant latin verses ; both contributed some of the very earliest regular dramas to the literature of their country. Moreover, both were employed in political nego- ciations of trust and responsibility by the same powerful family which they so highly magnified in their writings. Bojardo was chiefly attached to Ercolo the first duke of Ferrara, Ariosto to Ippolito d' Este, a younger son of the latter, better known as Cardinal Hippolito. Some critics have expressed themselves to the effect that the sole object of Bojardo in composing his poem, was to deduce the descent of his patrons from the heroic times, and to celebrate the achievements of Ruggiero and Bradamante, a pair who united by their marriage two 286 THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. distant branches of the ilkistrious stock of Hector, and with whose marriage we may conjecture the genealogical tree of the Estes commenced. This is undoubtedly one of the objects of the poet, but whether it occurred to his mind in the first instance may very fairly be doubted, since during the whole of his first book, consisting of twenty-nine cantos, neither of those characters is introduced. The poem is inscribed " Orlando Innamorato del Conte Matteo Maria Bojardo da Scandiano, tratto dalla Storia di Turpino Arcivescovo Reminse," and the subjects of the respective books are formally announced. To repeat them here would be, to those unacquainted with the poem, to present a skeleton in illustration of the departed glories of a beautiful form. I prefer to point attention to the principal dramatis personse, and to a few of the most striking situations and effects. The paladins Orlando and Rinaldo are the main sup- port of Charlemagne's government, which at the time the poem opens is firmly established. Orlando was the husband of Alda la Bella ; Rinaldo, of Clarice, both of whom were present with their lords at the Court Plenar the King was holding at Paris, and shone as the brightest ornaments of Charles's court. The entrance into the banqueting-hall of the surpass- ingly lovely Angelica, sent by her father Galaphron from Cathay for the very purpose of captivating the Christian warriors, in an instant changed the aspect of affairs.* The * I subjoin a translation of this celebrated description, in twelve stanzas, borrowing the sixth and seventh from W. Stewart Rose. " Gia s' appressava quel giorno nel quale Si dovea la gran giostra incominciare, Quand' il Ee Cai-lo in abito Eeale A la sua mensa fece convitare Ciascun Signore, e Baron naturale, Che venner la sua festa ad onorare ; E forno in quel convito gli assettati Viutiduo mila e trenta annumerati. " And now arrived was th' important day When the great jousts should formally begin, And Charlemagne, quite in a kingly way, By inv^ation prompt had gathered in To grace the feast, and add to the display, Each Lord and Baron hearing rule within His wide dominions, and there were in Hall Twenty-two thousand, thirty guests in all. THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. 287 Paladins, with the Monarch at their head, drink in the intoxicating draught, and so powerful is its effect upon Orlando and Rinaldo that, on her return to the East, which takes place earlier than she had intended on ac- count of her brother and protector Argalia being slain in "Re Carlo Mano con faccia gioconda Sopra una sedia d' or tra' Paladini, Si fu posato a la Mensa Eitonda : A la sua fronte furno i Saracini, Che non volsero usar banco, ne sponda: Anzi sterno a giacer come mastini Sopra a tapeti, come e lor usanza, Spregiando seco il custume di Franza. " A destra ed a sinistra poi ordinate Forno le mense, come 1 libro pone : A la prima le teste coronate, Un Inglese, un Lombardo ed un Bertone, Molto nomati in la Cristianitate, Ottone, Desiderio e Salamone ; E gli altri presso a lor di mano in mano, Secondo il pregio d' ogui Re Cristiano. "A la seconda fur Duchi e Marcliesi : E ne la terza Conti e Cavalieri ; Molto fumo onorati i Maganzesi, E sopra a tutti Gano da Pontieri ; Eanaldo avea di foco gli ocelli accesi Perch e quei traditori, in atto altieri, L' avian tra lor ridendo assai beffato, Perche non era com' essi addobbato, " Pur nascose nel petto i pensier caldi, Mostrando nalla vista allegra fazza ; Ma fra se stesso diceya : ribaldi, Se io vi ritrovo doman su la piazza, Vedro come starete in sella saldi, Gente asinina, maledetta razza: Che tutti quanti, se '1 mio cor non erra, Spero gittai-vi a la glostra per terra. " Re Balugante, che 'n viso il giiardava, E indovinava quasi i saoi pensieri, Per un suo Tui-cimanno il domandava; Se ne la Corte di questo Impeiieri, Per roba, o per Yirtute s' onorava ? Accio che lui, che quivi e forestieri, E de' costtimi de' Cristian digiuno, Sappia r onor suo render a ciascuno. " Rise Ranaldo, e con benigno aspetto Al messaggier diceva ; rappoi-tate A Balugante, poi ch' egli ha diletto, D ' aver le' gente Cristiane onoi'ate ; " King Charles himself, with a right jocund Upon a throne of gold, amidst his Peers, [face, His fam'd Round Table royally did grace: A motley crowd of Saracens appears Covering the floor throughout the central space. On caiTpets wallowing like hounds or bears. Instead of sitting at the board in ranks, Comtemning thus the usage of the Franks. " On either side of these, to left and right, Were tables ranged, (the ancient book goes on) Along the fi.rst, crown'd monarchs met the sight From Bretag-ne, Lombardy, from England one. The fame of these thro' Christendom shone With Otho, Desiderius, Salamon, [bright, And other puissant kings in order staid Accoi'ding to jsrecedency and grade. "The second was for Dukes and Marquises, The third for Counts and simple CavaUers ; In great respect were held the Maganzese, But first and foremost, Gan of Pontieres; Einaldo's eyes flash fire because he sees Those traitors chuckling midst provoking jeers, Assuming towards him the most haughty airs, Because his knighthood did not equal theirs. " However, he his rising choler checked, Shewing a visage calm to outward sight, Mutt' ring meanwhile — Asinine slaves, expect If I on you to-morrow but alight, To prove if one of all your cursed sect Against my lance's thrust can sit upright : Each cur of you, if not my puiiDOse fail. Shall fly a yard beyond his horse's tail. " King Balugantes marked his discontent. And reading, as he weened, his secret thought, To him liis hencheman with a message sent. To wot if it was true, as he was taught. That honor, not by worth and wisdom went. But in this Christian court was sold and bought, That he a strange r and a Turk, if txaae, Might render each and all the honor due. "The good Rinaldo smiled, and to the sable Reporter of the royal message said,— ' To solve the question, as I best am able, ' (If I in rules of court am rightly read,) THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. single combat by the Spanish knight Ferraguto or Ferraii, the pursuit of the fair enslaver becomes an object para- mount to every consideration of duty. It happens that in passing through the forest of Ardennes that Angelica and Rinaldo, neither of whom w^as aware of the vicinity of Che i gliiotti a mensa, e le puttane in letto, ' Honor and place to glutton at the table Sono tra noi piu volte accarezzate ; ' Are duly yielded, as to dame in bed ; Ma dove poi conviene usar valore, ' But in the field, where warriors spur their steeds, Dassi a ciascun il suo debito onore. ' The worth of man is measured by his deeds.' "Mentre che stanno in tal parlar costorc Sonarno gli stromenti d' ogni banda; Ed ecco piatti grandissimi d' oro Coperti di fiuissima vivanda: Coppe di smalto con sottil lavoro L' Imperatore a ciascun Baron manda. Chi d' una cosa, e chi d' altra onorava, Mostrando che di lor si ricordava. " Quivi si stava con molta allegrezza. Con parlar basso, e bei ragionamenti : Ee Carlo, che si vide in tanta altezza, Tanti Ee, Duci, e Cavalier valenti, Tutta la gente Pagana disprezza. Come arena del mar dinnanti ai venti ; Ma nuova cosa ch' ebbe ad apparaiire, Fe lui con gli altri insieme sbigottire, " Perd che in capo de la sala bella. Quattro giganti grandissimi e fieri Intrarno, e lor nel mezzo una donzella, Ch' era seguita da un sol cavalieri ; La quel sembrava mattutina stella, E giglio d' orto, e rosa di verzieri ; In somma a dir di lei la veritade, Non fu veduta mai tanta beltade. " Era qui ne la sala Galerana, Ed eravi Alda la moglie d' Orlando, Clarice, ed Armellina tant' umana, Ed altre assai, che nel mio dir non spando, Bella ciascuna, e di virtu fontana: Dico bella parea ciascuna, quaudo Non era giunto in sala ancor quel fiore, Che a r altre di belta tolse 1' onore. "OgniBarone, e Principe Cristiano, In quella parte ha livoltato il viso, Ne rimase a giacere alcun Pagano ; Ma ciascun d' essi di stupor conquiso, Si fece a la donzella prossimano ; La qual, con vista allegra e con un riso Da far innamorare un cor di sasso, Incomincio cosi, parlando basso." ), "While the last mentioned knights this parley The music suddenly strikes up amain ; [hold. And lo ! large salvers form'd of burnished gold Which did the choicest luxuries contain, And richly inlaid cups, of worth untold. The Emp'ror sends 'mongst the Baronial train. To this and that he graciously inclined, And shew'd that each was freshly borne in mind. " Thus then abode the guests with much delight In friendly intercourse and conversation : Charles joyed to see in such a hopeful plight All his Kings, Dukes, and Knights of reputation ; The Pagan race he inwardly did slight. And long'd to chase them in a whirlwind's fashion; But a new object meets the Monarch's eyes. And strikes him and the rest with great surprise. " For at the Hall's extremity afar Four giants tall and fierce exceedingly Entered, encompassing a damsel rare, Followed by a sole knight of bearing high; The maid shone brighter than the morning star, Not Flora's colors with her tint could vie ; And to declare the simple truth — I ween Beauty so exquisite was never seen. " The beauteous Galerene was there in Hall, And Alda Bella, Eoland's wedded dame. The gentle Armelline, Clarissa,— all The empire held of most extended fame : Each by herself appeared a miracle. And well the gazer's raptured view might claim. But in the presence of that Paragon Their rays were quite eclips'd, their empire gone. " Each Christian Prince and Baron towards the Where she appear'd darted his eager gaze, [part Up to their feet the grovelling Pagans start. Pressing around the damsel in amaze : She , with a look and smile to move a heart Of adamant to love, in subtle phrase Unto the King, in accents soft and low. Addressed herself, her errand's cause to shew." THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. 289 the other, stop to drink of the water of two fountains respectively, one of which had the property of exciting love, and the other had been endued by the enchanter Merlin with that of inspiring hatred. The consequence is, that Angelica falls madly in love with Rinaldo, whose affection she thenceforth employs all her arts to secure, whilst he at the same instant conceives the most violent disgust of the lady, avoids her as a pestilence, and returns with all haste to Paris. Here, then, are forces brought into action which are capable of exciting the most violent commotions, and such is accordingly the result. Still more to entangle what may be called the /ot^e-plot, we find that Angelica had admirers nearer home. Sacripante, king of Circassia, had long been a patient suitor ; but Agricane, emperor of Tartary, (being of too haughty a temper to brook a refusal,) in order to obtain her at all hazards, actually besieged her father Galaphron in his capital of Albracca. The proud beauty is thus obliged to solicit aid from the previously slighted Sacripante, and he rapturously complies with a request which augurs so well for the future success of his passion. The siege of Albracca thus becomes the centre of the action during a considerable period, leading the poet to a description of barbaric warfare, which fired the imagina- tion of Milton when he exclaimed — " Such forces met not, nor so wide a camp, When Agrican, with all his northern powders, Besieged Albracca, as romances tell, The city of Gallaphi-one, from thence to wdn The fairest of her sex, Angelica, - • ' r His daughter, sought by many prowest knights, Both Paynim, and the peers of Charlemagne." Hither the Amazon Marfisa leads her Indian myrmidons in behalf of the besieged, and Orlando is proud to throw his valour into the same scale. That invincible Paladin 290 THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. distinguishes himself during this formidable siege by his feats of arms, killing, amongst many others, his rival Agricane in a duel, whom however he converts, and bap- tizes in his last moments. The stay of Orlando in Albracca is not continuous, as he is called away by the claims of friendship, w^hich those of love had not wholly extinguished, — whilst Angelica, tormented by her passion for Rinaldo, not only employs every available agent to entice him into her dominions, but, with the help of her magic ring, which had the virtue of frustrating all enchantments and rendering its possessor invisible upon occasion, leaves her fortress to follow his footsteps. But although she is the means of rescuing him from the most imminent perils, all is insufficient to over- come his deep-rooted repugnance. Soon after the return of both Orlando and Angelica to the city, Rinaldo himself, having travelled to the East, joins the besiegers. The news of his arrival throws Angelica into an ecstasy of delight. She, however, dissembles before Orlando, while that Paladin, transported with the rage of jealousy, sends a most insulting defiance to his cousin, and goads him to a single combat unparalleled for its ferocity. Angelica, alarmed for the safety of her beloved Rinaldo, imposes on the ready obedience of his furious assailant a diffi- cult adventure, which he instantly sets out to accom- plish : but Rinaldo following, accompanied by certain knights of his party for the purpose of terminating the contest, has the misfortune, with them, of falling into the power of the Fata Morgana. Orlando, in the achievement of his task, delivers these prisoners, and the success of that enterprise leads to a reconciliation of his quarrel with Rinaldo. On his second return to Albracca he finds it closely beleaguered, but forces his way to the citadel, when Angelica, after describing the distresses of the garrison, entreats him to aid her escape and escort her to France. This design is carried into effect by a sally. THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. 291 and the besiegers, after the departure of the Prmcess, reduce the city to ashes. It is not the custom of the romantic poets to allow their characters to pursue an uninterrupted course; and in this instance the lady and her protector are separated long before they reach their destination. Bojardo, pleased with this idea of the fountains, indulges us with a repetition of it, by causing Angelica and Rinaldo again to pass through the forest of Ardennes, and to drink of the reverse foun- tains, of course with precisely opposite effects. Soon after this the fair coquette falls into the hands of Charle- magne, and he, having had such fatal experience of the evils accruing to the Christian cause by the absence of his Paladins, resolves to use her beauty as an incentive to their valour, by placing her in the hands of Namo, the old duke of Baviera, promising her to that Paladin who should slay the greatest number of Saracens in the war in which be was at that time engaged, and in this situation the heroine is left by Bojardo. A character subordinate to the leading ones, Orlando and Rinaldo, is Brandamarte, the faithful friend, and, except when inevitable accident prevents, the inseparable attendant of the former. There exists the most devoted mutual attachment between Bran- damarte and Fiordilisa, daughter of Doliston, king of Lissa, who, after having been stolen from her parents and sold to the lord of the sylvan tower, where she appears to have acquired great skill in the detection of enchantments, is happily restored in the later portion of the Innamorato ; and the long-tried affection of the lovers is rewarded by a formal " marriage with consent." Ariosto continues their adventures, and completes a beautiful picture of conjugal fidelity by making Fiordilisa expire of grief at the loss of her husband. Fiordilisa is destined to encounter multiplied difficulties, and is the subject of many a hair-breadth escape. She often renders most essential service to the Christian Pala- 292 THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. dins, but particularly on that occasion when she instructs Rinaldo in delivering Orlando, her Brandimarte, and other knights from the garden of the enchantress Dragontina. She is altogether one of the most interesting of the female characters. In order to introduce a new set of actors we must now return to give a slight sketch of the warlike operations in the West. Gradasso, king of Sericani in parts beyond India, a mighty monarch of gigantic stature, with the face and heart of a dragon, in order to obtain possession of the horse Bajardo, and the sword Durindana, invades France via Africa and Spain, at the head of no less than one hundred and fifty thousand cavalry, — and, after having received a severe check in the territories of Marsiglio, approaches Paris, having at length been joined by that faithless tributary of Charles, and other auxiliaries. He routs the Christians in a general engagement, and takes the King and most of the Paladins prisoners, but they are delivered by the impetuous Astolfo, with the assistance of the wonder-working golden lance of Argalia, which had come into his possession, he having made such liberation a condition of a single combat with Gradasso, who, in compliance with the laws of chivalry, hesitated not to stake all on the result of the encounter. Having come so far to so little purpose, Gradasso turns on his heel and returns to Sericani. Bojardo commences his second book in a truly heroic style. Agramante, the formidable king of Africa, (whose lineal descent from Alexander the Great is formally traced out) burning with desire to avenge the death of his father Trojano, who had been slain by Orlando, projects the invasion of France. He summons a solemn parliament in Biserta the capi- tal. After four months spent in preparation or in travelling from distant provinces, thirty-two tributary Kings enter THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. 293 the city in regal state, and in due time proceed to a superb hall in Agramante's palace, the walls of which are em- ^ bellished with the chief passages in the Life of Alexander. Here a solemn debate ensued ; but it having transpired that an Astrologer had predicted the failure of the ex- pedition unless it were joined by Ruggiero, a youth of miraculous promise, who was kept concealed in an en- chanted castle by his tutor Atlantes, a magician, the great majority decided on previously employing means to effect this important discovery. The fierce Rodomonte, king of Algiers, is an exception. Indignant at the delay, he sets sail, accompanied only by his own vassals, in the midst of a terrific storm ; and having lost a third of his ships in the transit, lands on the shores of Provence. Hence pursuing his furious career, he ravages the country with fire and sword ; while Marsiglio, privately seduced by the traitor Gano, attacks France from the Pyrenees. It is at this juncture that the heroine Bradamante, sister of Rinaldo, is introduced, lending her powerful aid in repelling the invaders. Meanwhile the magic ring of Angelica has been sug- gested as a feasible means of discovering the retreat of Ruggiero, and Brunello, a dwarfish adept, unrivalled for his cunning and feats of legerdemain joyfully takes upon him- self the task of stealing it. He makes a rapid journey to China, and not only successfully accomplishes his embassy, but also steals the sword of Marfisa and the horse of Sacripante, effecting the last feat by a device which it will be remembered by the readers of Don Quixote was adopted by Gines de Passamonte in removing from under Sancho Panza his faithful dapple. We remark, by the bye, that while Bojardo represents this feat to have been performed with the assistance merely of one prop of wood to elevate the saddle fi*om the charger's back, Cervantes, copying Ariosto's quo- tation of the occurrence, has made Gines employ four. 294 THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. The single one, however, appears to me much more suitable to the context, and to the quicksilver movements of Brunello. The sketch given of this most accomplished of cut- purses is admirable. He is rewarded for his ingenuity by his master with the kingdom of Tingitana ; but neither his promotion nor his agility prevent his finally wearing that peculiar cravat which has cut short the career of so many less gifted devotees of Mercury. This event occurs in the Furioso ; and it is the humorous idea of Ariosto to assign his elevation to the gallows to the same princely hands which had previously placed him on the throne. The assistance of Ruggiero having been secured, and the main army having crossed the Mediterranean, Agramante conducts them to join the allied forces of Rodomonte and Marsiglio then engaged against the Christians; and Bojardo proceeds to describe with astonishing force and spirit the feats of the heroes of the respective faiths. The youthful Ruggiero having presumed to engage Orlando, Atlantes, fearing for his ward, employs a stratagem to withdraw Orlando from the field ; and the ultimate result of his absence is the retreat of Charlemagne's army within the walls of Paris. Previously to this, Mandricardo, son of Agrican, having recovered the arms of Hector, with the exception of the helmet and the sword Durindana, arrives in France and becomes an important accession to the infidel host. Ruggiero, and Bradamante also, in an accidental encounter in which he gallantly defends her from the fury of Rodomonte, are both pierced with the shafts of the blind archer; but Bojardo was obliged to leave the conduct of this most interesting attachment to his successor, as the invasion of Italy by Charles the Eighth, and his own death, which immediately followed, put an abrupt period to his labours. A reader passing from the perusal of the Morgante to that of the Innamorato will not fail to recognize in the THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. 295 latter the hand of a superior artist. Pulci describes most graphically individual objects ; but he is little skilled in the difficult art of composition. He resembles a self- taught artist, while the excellent education and well direct- ed practice of Bojardo combine to supply an ease and confidence to his manner, rarely attainable without those advantages. His position, too, as a feudal baron, un- doubtedly contributed to the freedom and independence which distinguish the execution of his self-imposed task. This characteristic has been frequently noticed ; and it is a favorite remark, that he tells his story with the air of a prince in his own dominions. Tradition asserts that he was accustomed to compose on horseback, and \when in- vigorated by the healthful exercise of the chase. Although choosing to adopt the romantic legends as the groundwork of his poem, he disdained to follow them with a slavish exactitude ; and he has embellished his perform- ance with multiplied incidents and imitations from other sources; borrowing from the Greek and Latin classics the fables (for instance) of the centaurs, harpies, syrens, and Cyclops ; and not improbably from eastern story much of luxurious splendour and striking hyperbole. In his de- scriptions of battles and tournaments he seems fully to enter with his audience (he of all others assumes most com- pletely the style of the story-teller) into the joyous delight with which it is probable the imposing spectacles of deeds of arms had not yet ceased to be regarded, at least by the young and gay inmates of the ducal court. Yet there is a most tiresome sameness in his descriptions of duels. After a short acquaintance we look upon the unvaried process of hacking and hewing of plate and mail with the half mirthful feeling with which we watch the furious onslaught of melo-dramatic actors at a minor theatre. We are aware that the blows are most accurately meted out, and that the combatants, notwithstanding their apparently deadly inten- tions, are intended to survive and fight another day. 296 THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. This observation is meant to apply to encounters between Knights of the first water, not to those wholesale splittings, loppings, and decapitations of inferior knights and " vil canaglia," which a first-rate one always performs when he puts forth his strength in a regular engagement. Bojardo has, moreover, certain stock phrases, such as " per la foresta," with its still expected rhyme, " con gran tempesta." I am inclined to think, however, that the repetition does not arise either from a poverty of the author's vocabulary or from indolence ; but that it is in- tentional. It seems fair to presume this, since the author is known to have bestowed unbounded pains upon his poem; and Berni, in his Rifacimento, in which he as- sumes to give a greater polish to the original work, has preserved these expressions unaltered. The author, sub- scribing to the adage, " Dulce est desipere in loco," does not forget to provide occasionally a fund of boisterous merriment for his hearers, who we must remember were Italians, a people whose love of the odd and grotesque is proverbial, and whose lungs are accustomed to crow like Chanticleer at the antics of Puncinello and Scaramuccia. If we except the beautiful episode of Oliviere and Forisene, Pulci has scarcely attempted any serious deli- neation of the passion of love. Bojardo has made it the mainspring of the most important actions, and describes its workings under various circumstances with admirable truth and pathos. It was this author's announced intention to sing " . . . . i gesti smisurati L' alta fatica e le mirabil pruove Che fece il franco Orlando per aniore " — and as true love is said to be best evidenced by occasional jealousy, it became an important feature in the design to paint Orlando jealous. A great mind agitated by violent passions is one of the THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. 29t sublimest of objects ; and to describe it uobly is utterly out of the power of an ordinary poet. The successful execution of this task by Bojardo is, in this view, alone sufficient to place him in a high niche of the temple of fame. But he is also entitled to great praise for his allegorical personages and incidents. Familiar as he undoubtedly w^as with Homer, Virgil, and Dante, we of course cannot give him credit for originality in personifying the Virtues and Vices, or shadowing forth the thraldom of the soul by the incarcera- tion of the body ; but we believe he was the first to use with poetical skill and judgment, for the purposes both of embellishment and instruction, the fanciful creations of aerial and submarine beings, which, however they might have become familiarized to his cotemporaries through the story-tellers and romancers, were originally imported from the cast. It is the opinion of competent scholars that the Fairy of the Romances is the Peri of the Persian and Arabian Tales ; and that the emblematical colours which we so frequently meet with in the Romantic Poems are derived from the same localities. Bojardo has been less successful in his tales of life and manners, of which there are several examples in the poem. The principal one, the story of Prasilclo and Iroldo is taken, with some important alterations, from the Decame- ron ; that of Folderico and Ordauro is partly of Grecian and partly of Norman origin. Whatever merit these stories might be deemed to possess if viewed by them- selves, yet when contrasted with the inimitable narrations of Ariosto, they sink into tameness and insipidity ; and I think the reader who peruses them as they occur in the Innamorato itselfj and previously to any acquaintance with the Furioso, will feel that the author is not in his true element when attempting this style of writing. The Furioso being so much better knowai to general readers than the Innamorato, I shall not enter into any u 298 THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. detailed account of the incidents ; but propose to make my references to it in connection with the older poem, of which it is in fact a continuation, believing that the main features may be traced to suggestions derived from Bojar- do, but carried out, sometimes upon the principle of imita- tion and sometimes of contrast. The Innamorato was, as is well known, extremely popular, and there seem to have been many reasons to induce Ariosto to comply with the general wish that he should take up the unfinished theme. Amongst these, the opportunity of gratifying his patron by continuing a nar- rative adorned with the glories of his ancestors may be fairly presumed to have had its weight, however much the independent spirit which Ariosto is proved to have pos- sessed might revolt from the baseness of adulation. Be this as it may, the poet reaped no advantages from his labours. Cardinal Hippolito treated the whole with con- tempt, while the laudatory strains are to posterity the only tedious portions of the poem. The opinion, then, I have formed, after some delibera- tion, is that Ariosto in the execution of his task determined not merely to gather up the threads of his predecessor and to work his design to a close, but was ambitious to produce a poem of equal extent founded on the same subject, and embracing the same characters, but giving full scope to his own inventive genius ; while regarding the Innamorato as deficient in elegance, he aimed at a more polished diction and a higher finish of style. The prominent subject of Bojardo's poem, conformably to its title, is Orlando in love. The first overpowering effect of Angelica's appearance upon Orlando and the Paladins, causing them — " With foul effeminacy to become Her bondslaves, — O indignity, O blot To honor and religion," — THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. 299 has already been described, and some hints given of the succeeding embroglio. According to the original plan the - Innamorato was to have consisted of a hundred cantos ; the author lived to complete sixty-nine. At the time he breaks off, not only had all the characters appeared upon the scene, but the events were so far ripening that a denouement to the piece was not difficult to be conjectured or devised. The war before Albracca had been concluded, and the city reduced to ashes ; Agrican, the first cause of the invasion, had met his fate in single combat w^ith Or- lando. The "most exquisite mischief," Angelica, had fled to the West. The youth Ruggiero, having been discovered in his enchanted retreat, had passed into Europe as the chief hope of the African expedition, and been introduced to the martial heroine Bradamante, (sister of Rinaldo,) in a manner so romantic as clearly to indicate them for each other. Finally, as to military matters, the city of Paris was besieged by the forces of Agrimante, in whose ranks were assembled the terrible Rodomonte, Ferrau, the newly- arrived Mandricardo, and Gradasso, and all the worthies of the Paynim host. Charlemagne makes a desperate sally, which is seconded by Orlando and Brandimarte, and the fortune of the day appears balanced between the contending armies. Finding matters in this condition, Ariosto, instead of taking the shortest road to a conclusion, by bringing back Orlando permanently to his duty, and thus giving speedy victory to Charlemagne's arms, determines to widen the plot, and at the same time to enhance the conception of Bojardo by transporting the Paladin (like Tristam and Lancelot before him) from a lover into a madman. " Diro d' Orlando in un medesono tratto Cosa non detta in prosa mai, ne in rima ; Che per amor venne in furore e matto, ' , D' iiom clie si saggio era stimato prima." 300 THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. Further, whilst in the Innamorato we have the mighty power of beauty influencing (or rather overturning) the course of human events, in the Furioso we meet with the most poignant, though far from ill-natured, satire upon the folly of yielding to such fascinations. Bojardo, at the commencement of his poem, fills the imagination with an exalted idea of the charms of the heroine by introducing her in the pompous description we have already given, the effect of which is never lost to the reader, but prepares him for all the results which afterwards follow. Nor does Bojardo fail to enlist our sympathy for her misfortunes, and the humiliating pass to which she is brought by the cruelty of Rinaldo. When he is plunged in an enchanted dungeon (to quote the words of Foscolo), she appears before him and proffers freedom ; she im- plores him with tears to pardon the sufferings which the enchanter inflicted on him for her sake, and supplicates his pity, but Rinaldo turns a deaf ear to her prayers, although indebted to her assistance for his escape from the perils and monsters which surrounded him. Ariosto introduces the fair coquette to us under a dif- ferent aspect, but it is one strictly in accordance with the leading design he had formed, as above stated. He begins by throwing out sly insinuations as to her virtue ; and at the very time two knights are contending for her in mortal combat, he makes her stealthily escape on horseback, leaving them to discover, when exhaustion compelled them to desist, that the prize for which they were so eagerly contending was already beyond their reach. The moral is palpable ; but no language of mine can convey an idea of the elegance and wit with which it is presented by this inimitable master. Ariosto's satirical conception attains its climax in his description of Angelica's wayward fancy for the page Medoro, whom she accidentally found in the forest, after he had been wounded by the Saracens in the heroic THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. 301 attempt to cany off the body of his master, king Dar- danello. I shall offer this passage (with some necessary alterations) in an English translation, which appeared some years since in a periodical of a very evanescent existence, as it ably preserves the genius of the original. Angelica got off her horse in haste, ' ^ And made the shepherd get as fast from his ; She ground the herbs with stones, and then expressed With her white hands the balmy milkiness ; Then dropp'd it in the wound, and bath'd his breast, His stomach, feet, and all that was amiss ; And of such virtvie was it, that at length The blood was stopp'd, and he look'd up with strength. The patient is next removed, under the lady's special superintendence, to the shepherd's cottage. Nor woidd she leave him, she esteem' d him so, ^ Till she had seen him well with her own eye ; So full of pity did her bosom grow. Since first she saw him faint and like to die. Seeing his mamiers now, and beauty too, She felt her heart yearn somehow inwardly ; She felt her heart yearn somehow, till at last 'Twas all on fire, and burning warm and fast. The shepherd's house was good enough, and neat, A little shady cottage in a dell ; The man had just rebuilt it all complete. With room to spare, in case more births befell. There with such knowledge did the lady treat Her handsome patient, that he soon grew well ; But not before she had, on her own part, A secret wound much greater in her heart. Much greater was the wound and deeper far. The invisible arrow made in her heart-strings ; 'Twas from Medoro's lovely eyes and hair; 'Twas from the naked archer with the wings. 30*2 THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. She feels it now ; she feels, and yet can bear Another's less than her own sufferings. She thinks not of herself: she thinks alone How to cure him, by whom she is undone. The more his wound recovers and gets ease, *fe Her own grows worse, and widens day by day. The youth gets well ; the lady languishes. Now warm, now cold, as fitful fevers play. His beauty heightens like the flowering trees ; She, miserable creature, melts away Like the weak snow, which some warm sun has found FaH'n out of season, on a rising ground. And must she speak at last, rather than die ? And must she plead without another's aid? She must, she must ; — the vital moments fly — She lives — she dies, a passion- wasted maid. At length she waives all scrupulosity And tyrant custom's rules, — the words are said ; And she asks pity underneath that blow, Which he perhaps that gave it did not know. To young Medoro's raw unpractis'd will Is given to choose or spurn this peerless rose. He seizes what is ofler'd him, but ill Th' amazing value of the treasure knows. To sanction it — to honestize the thing, A priest the church's blessing first bestows, (For without marriage what can come but strife ;) And the bride-mother was the shepherd's wife. All was perform' d, in short, that could be so In such a place, to make the nuptials good ; Nor did the happy pair think fit to go. But spent the month and more within the wood. The lady to the stripling seem'd to grow. His step her step, his eyes her eyes pursued ; Nor did her love lose any of its zest. Though she was always hanging on his breast. THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. 303 In doors and out of doors, by night, by day, She had the charmer by her side for ever ; Morning and evening they would stroll away, Now by some field, or little tufted river ; They chose a cave in middle of the day, : Perhaps not less agreeable or clever Than Dido and Eneas found of yore, To screen them till the tempest's rage was o'er. And all this while there was not one smooth tree. That stood by stream or fountain with glad breath, Nor stone less hard than stones are apt to be, But they would find a knife to carve it with ; And in a thousand places you might see, And on the walls about you and beneath, ' ; ' Angelica and Medoro,' tied in one, As many ways as lovers' knots can run. O Count Orlando ! O King Sacripant ! That fame of yours, say, what avails it ye ? That lofty honor, those great deeds ye vaunt. Say, what's their value with the lovely she ? Show me — recal to memory (for I can't,) — Shew me, I beg, one single courtesy That ever she vouchsafed ye, far or near, For all you've done and have endured for her. And you, if you. could come to life again, O Agrican ! how hard 'twould seem to you, Whose love was met by nothing but disdain And vile repulses, shocking to go through ! O Ferragus ! O thousands ! who in vain Did all that loving and great hearts could do, — Oh! what an ending of your amorous strife. The fam'd Angelica a stripling's wife ! Thus far Ariosto conducts us in his most lively and joyous manner ; but when he comes to describe the con- sequences of the heroine's base and unworthy attachment in the madness of Orlando, he is too accurate a judge to 304 THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. indulge in pleasantry. Terror and pity, says Ginguene, are the only sentiments which the poet excites in this sublime and unique description. I must endeavour to convey some idea of the delinea- tion, rather in a paraphrase than a translation. Some weeks after the departure of the lovers, Orlando, happening to arrive at the scene where the agreeable honey-moon had been spent, is surprised to observe some of their memorials sculptured upon the trees : but recol- lecting that there was a possibility of the name of Angelica being borne by more than one individual, he checked his rising emotion, and commenced a close examination, only to discover evidence from the character that the writer could be no other than the peerless beauty herself. He next deludes himself with the thought that perchance she may have chosen to bestow upon liim the fictitious name of Medoro. Thus he proceeds from spot to spot, his mind shrink- ing with horror from the conclusion to which circum- stances were too surely conducting him — as a bird in the snare of the fowler becomes only the more entangled by her efforts to escape. At length, hard by the transparent fountain, and on the walls of the cave which during the noon -day heat had been the favourite retreat of the lovers, he found evidence to w^hich an incredulity less determined than his own must have yielded assent. For here, Medoro, in a well-turned inscription in the Arabic language, (well understood by Orlando, ) had most poetically apostro- phized the sylvan deities on the exquisite moments he had spent in the grotto with his Angelica. Again and again he read the fatal lines, still endeavouring to extract from them another sense ; while ever and anon he felt suspicion wdth icy grasp encircling his heart, till at length, unequal to the awful struggle, he stood wrapt in senseless astonishment, his eyes still turned towards the rock, but looking only on vacancy. His mind had received a THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. 305 shock, and the work of ruin was destined soon to be accomplished. His head dropped upon his breast, his brow, once so noble, had lost its expression, nor could overcharged nature find vent for the internal anguish. After a long interval, however, he recovered from his stupor; fancy even suggested one more faint and feeble possibility on which retreating hope for an instant paused. Might not the whole be an imposition contrived by an enemy or rival, sufficiently astute to give it effect by counterfeiting the characters ? With a view of prose- cuting his enquiries he therefore mounted his steed Brig- liadoro, and sought the nearest village, where, the night having come on, he implored such rustic hospitality as the place afforded, and, unfortunately, of the very peasant under whose roof the lovers had resided. Receiving from the inmates confirmation strong of all his fears, and be- holding the gem given by Angelica as a guerdon to her host, his jealousy attained its climax. No longer able to restrain his emotion, he fled from the cottage, without waiting for the dawn, and, burying himself in the recesses of the forest, opened the gates of his grief with the most fearful cries. Here he continued for many days and nights, avoiding inhabited places, and, when exhausted by fatigue, throwing himself upon the hard ground without protection from the weather. His eyes became two foun- tains, which, as he imagined, after having exhausted their natural resources, were fast pouring forth the vital current. Having long exhibited his hero an outcast from human society, and everywhere committing the most fearful de- vastation, Ariosto at length provides for his restoration, and that after a fashion as fanciful and grotesque as can well be conceived. As, according to vulgar superstition, things lost on earth are safely deposited in the moon, the English knight Astolpho charitably undertakes a voyage to the terrestrial paradise upon the Hypogriph, whence, accompanied by 306 THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. the Evangelist St. John, he proceeds to the before-men- tioned satellite, and, amongst a great variety of other stray articles, discovers that of which he v^^as in search, the same being carefully preserved in a large jar bearing the distinctive label ' Senno d' Orlando,' — ' Orlando's wits.' Immediately returning to earth with the prize, means are taken first for the discovery of the Paladin, and next for the restoration of his faculties. This is accomplished by certain friendly knights who tie him to the ground with cart ropes, and cause him to inhale the contents of the vase through his nostrils ! Leaving the hero and'heroine of the poem, and passing to other characters, Ruggiero and Bradaraante, as I have already observed, notwithstanding the opposition of their faith, had been sufficiently designated for each other in the Tnnamorato. Ariosto, after providing as many cross and perplexing interruptions to the course of their true love as the most romantic reader could desire, at length, and at the most judicious moment, describes the conversion of Ruggiero to the Christian faith, and concludes the poem most dramatically with their marriage. No one, however, can doubt but that, had the poet been merely desirous of writing a conclusion to the Tn- namorato, he would have brought about the same result at a much earlier period. Again, in the persons of Bradamante and Fiordelisa, Bojardo had sketched a pathetic picture of conjugal affec- tion, and had fully impressed the reader's mind with that prominent idea in relation to them. Ariosto afterwards introduces incidents, bearing such an analogy to the for- mer as plainly to show that he is exhibiting his powers in rivalship of his predecessor. Further, in those terrific and bloodthirsty duels, and in the combats of knights with giants and monsters, into which Bojardo has pur- posely thrown so large a mixture of the burlesque, he found a close imitator in Ariosto, who, in several instances, THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. displays that determination to out-herod Herod which fixes, without the possibility of a mistake, the parts of the In- namorato which were present to his fancy. Reasoning in a similar manner, would it be too much to say, that the extravagant adventure of the Princess Fiordispina, was the offspring of a mirthful feeling which passed through the mind of Ariosto in perusing that pas- sage in the Innamorato where she conceives an affection for Fiordilegi so unusual between those of the same sex ; and which suggested the bold idea of removing the ap- parent anomaly ? I might, did time permit, multiply instances, and men- tion the ghost of Argalia rising from the river to which his corpse had, at the very opening of the Innamorato, been consigned, and reproaching Ferrau with his breach of faith in not restoring the borrowed helmet. Or con- trast the great and decisive duel between Orlando and Agramante with the previous one in India between the same hero and Agrican, — the siege of Paris in the Furioso with that of Albracca in the Innamorato, — Rodomont* * The mention of Rodomont suggests a celebrated passage in the Furioso of which I some time since attempted a translation, and which I will venture to read, as a specimen of the author's powers in another style. It describes the assault of the Infidels upon the city of Paris and the destruction of Rodo- mont's retainers by the firing of a mine. Fierce Rodomont's own men behind him press'd, And planting ladders, mounted up amain ; Here the Parisians are so sore distress'd. To quit their first defence they now are fain — Knowing, howe'er, they still within possess'd Enough the enemy to entertain — For 'twixt the wall and next escarpment steep A ditch descended, horrible and deep. Besides that our men on the further side Close lin'd the bank, and made a powerful head ; Fresh troops are on the inner wall descried With darts and arrows, ready to be sped 308 THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. setting sail from Africa in a storm, with his feats in the Christian capital, where he committed more fearful havoc than " the rugged Pyrrhus " at Troy, — and the dwarf Bru- nello promoted to the throne in the one poem, to the scaffold in the other. With deadly aim against the first who tried To pass the gulf. — This struck with sudden dread ' , The foe without, who back had shrunk I ween, But Rodomont, the son of king Uliene, Cheering and threat'ning the astonish'd crowd Against their will, before him forc'd them on, And wheresoe'er a wretch a token shew'd Of fear or flight, that instant clave him down ; Many he thrust, or spurn'd with curses loud, Into the foss — and often seized upon Some straggler by the arm, or neck, or hair, And with a reckless fury hurled him there. While the Barbaric soldiery descend, Or tumble, rather, to the gulf profound, 7 ' And the unscath'd their utmost efforts bend, Of th' inner space to reach the vantage ground, Sarza's fierce King, whose eagerness did lend A wing to ev'ry limb, with mighty bound, \ Despite his vasty bulk, in arms complete, Flung himself sheer across, a leap of thirty feet. For such, or thereabout, that chasm's span, He cleared it with a greyhound's nimbleness, And lighted down as softly as a man Who stealthy felt, beneath his feet does press ; And soon he struck the foremost in our van, : - , As they had worn a player's tinsel dress Ahd not hard steel, so little did their mail Against his sword and mighty strength avail. Meanwhile the Christians, who had fashioned ^ ' Their wily snares throughout the foss profound, Having heap'd up within the hollow bed. Dry birch and crates, with store of pitch around, All well conceal'd from sight, tho' thickly spread For many a foot 'neath that fallacious ground ; And to increase the mischief of the hoard. O'er all the mass had many a vessel pour'd, ' THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. 309 In the supernatural machinery there is also a similar correspondence to that we have remarked in the other ^ incidents ; and the mixture of allegorj' in the ideal per- sonifications is also a common characteristic. I should be inclined, however, to contend that Bojardo, who is the more liberal in this kind of embellishment, has also pro- duced by means of it a more picturesque effect. At any rate, the gardens of Dragontina and Falarina, the cave of Riches, the inflictions of Penitence, the prisons of Mor- gana, and, finally, the river of Laughter, in the Innamorato, are far more deeply impressed upon my own imagination than anything of the same kind in the later poem. And as to the fairy Alcina, who chiefly figures in the Furioso, I prefer to the description of her voluptuous retreat and dangerous allurements, Bojardo's previous picture of her Of oil, saltpetre, sulphur, and whate'er Of like intlaramables they could obtain ; And whilst the foe their scaling ladders rear And trust the inner battlements to gain, Our men, the half achiev'd success t' iinpair And all these proud attempts to render vain, On a concerted signal, suddenly At various points the lighted match apply. " . Instant the scatter'd flames in one unite, Which fills the whole of that extended space, And upward soars to such a towering height, As if to scorch the pale moon's humid face ; A smoky cloud succeeds, as black as night, And of the sunny day usurps the place, " , And a report rebellows long and loud, IMore awful than e'er came from thunder cloud. Then on the ear a hideous concert came, The piercing shrieks and bowlings of despair Of wretches, whom that Chief of cruel fame Had led so ruthlessly to perish there ! - And to the cracklings of the murd'rous flame Harsh discord made upon the startled air The sounds that issued with the fieiy wave From the recesses of that ghastly grave. 310 THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. discovery by the knights Astolpho, Rinaldo, and Dudone, while engaged in attracting by the power of sorcery the fishes of the sea, without the use of net or hook, and of her elopement with the dashing youth Astolpho on the back of a whale, which had been drawn from the watery element for this especial service. Ariosto's ideas of the virtuous fairy Logistilla, sister of Morgana and Alcina, and of Melissa, a damsel who dabbles in magic for benevolent purposes solely, are, it seems, strictly original ; but whether he has established a judicious family relationship in the case of the former personage may, I think, be very fairly doubted. It is evident that Ariosto adhered less exclusively to the super- natural agencies of the Round Table and other Romances than Bojardo, and has fixed his eye more frequently upon the classical models. He applied allegory to the purposes of satire with ter- rific effect, as for instance when he feigns the abode of Discord to be amongst a community of Priests; and in the following passage descriptive of two of the objects which met the eye of Astolpho in the lunar circle, and which is also strongly illustrative of the free spirit of his age :— " He marks a mighty pool of porridge spill' d, And asks what in that symbol should he read ; And learns, 'twas Charity by sick men will'd For distribution after they were dead. He pass'd a heap of flow'rs, which erst distill'd Siveet savours, and now noisome odours shed ; The gift (if it may lawfully be said) Which Constantine to good Sylvester made." But while w^e call attention to the close correspondence wdiich exists in many particulars between Bojardo and Ariosto, and in so doing render a just tribute to the inven- tive and constructive genius of the former, we must not forget to dwell upon the immense general superiority of THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. mi Ariosto in all that constitutes an accomplished master of the poetic art ; and more especially in that graceful ease of expression which is one of his most remarkable charac- teristics. I shall make no apology for the introduction of the following eloquent eulogium from the able pen of Foscolo, w^hich will convey in a few words a more adequate conception of the poet's powers than the most laboured efforts of my own. " Ariosto intoxicates the imagination, compels us to be pleased with whatever pleases him, and to see only w^iat he sees. Aerial palaces — fairies — the ring of invisibility — the golden lance of victory — the winged horse — the flight to the moon and many other wild fictions, w^hile they amuse us in other poets, though they cause us to pity the credulity of the multitude, are all presented by Ariosto as creations of nature herself. If we pause and reflect we cannot give credit to them ; but whilst we read, it is scarcely possible to pause for reflection. Ariosto increases the power which he obtains over us by the suspense in which we remain during such a varied series of events, and the confusion which they produce in our memory. At the moment when the narrative of an adventure rolls before us like a torrent, it suddenly becomes dry, and immediately afterwards we hear the rushing of other streams, whose course we had lost, but which we are desirous of regaining. Their waves mingle and separate again, and precipitate themselves in various directions; and the reader remains in a state of pleasing perplexity, like the fisherman, who, astonished by the harmony of the thousand instruments which sound in the isle of Circe, drops his nets and listens to their music — " Stupefatto, Perde le reti il pescatore ; e ode." " One principal cause of the pleasure we derive from the perusal of Ariosto," remarks another eminent writer 312 THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. (M. de Sismondi) "is the essentially poetic world to which he transports us, — a region where all the familiar interests of common life are suspended, where honour and love are the sole lawgivers, and supply the motives of every action, where no factitious wants or interested calculations in- trude to freeze the generous emotions of the soul, and where the innumerable pains and inquietudes w^hich arise from vanity and the inequalities of wealth and condition are totally lost sight of and forgotten. How refreshing to a mind jaded with common place business and occur- rences is such a transportation ! " It is indeed a characteristic of this species of poetry that it is impossible to derive from it any species of instruction — for the ideal world of chivalry presents no points of resemblance with that with which we are actually conversant. But there is a luxury in an occupation which pretends not to the seriousness of a lesson, and a reverie wdthout an object is of the very essence of poetry, which properly is not a means to an end, but the exercises of certain powers of the mind. " Though Ariosto was not the inventor of the ideal world of Chivalry, yet in his hands the delineation of it attained its highest point of perfection, and the fantastic race of knights-errant will for ever rise to the imagination in the lineaments which he has imparted to them. "The versification of this great poet is distinguished rather by sweetness and elegance than by grandeur. His language is most exquisitely harmonious, and in this quality he is perhaps unrivalled. As he seems in general to play with his subject he never long sustains and seldom rises to the dignity of the epic. He even seeks the grace of facility in negligence itself. We often find him repeat- ing a portion of a stanza in that which succeeds, like an extempore speaker, who recalls his words to give himself time to collect his thoughts. Frequently his phrases appear to be thrown in at random, and we are sensible THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. 313 that an expression is not the best that might have been selected, or that a line serves no other purpose than the exigencies of the rhyme. These things in other authors would be ranked as faults ; but Ariosto acquires over us a power so absolute, that we not only acquit him of blame for his irregularities, but admire them, as imparting a naivete and an additional semblance of truth to his narrative." A very remarkable feature in Ariosto is the surprising acquaintance with the fair sex, displayed in his various delineations. Every shade of worth or demerit, strength or weakness, is pourtrayed with faultless accuracy, from the most unsullied purity in an Isabella, to shameless effrontery and heartless treachery in an Origille or a Gabrina. He often indulges in a little good-natured raillery at their expense ; for instance — " Ad ogni modo tiitte sono ingrate, Ne si troYa tra loro oncia di biiono ;" " Well, at the best, they're ingrates one and all, Nor 'mongst them can be found an ounce of good ;" but he is, notwithstanding, naturally and most enthusiasti- cally gallant ; and any instance of injustice or cruelty towards the weaker sex excites in him the most lively indignation : — " Parnii non sol gran mal, ma che 1' uom faccia Contra natiu'a ; e sia di Dio ribello, Chi s' induce a percuotere la faccia Di bella donna, o rompeiie im capello. Ma clii le da yeneno, o chi le caccia L' alma dal corpo con laccio o coltello, Ch' uomo sia quel, non credero in eterno, Ma in vista umana un spirto dell' inferno." A question may possibly have suggested itself to the minds of some of my hearers as to the utility of the works * 314 THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. to which our attention has been directed ; and when the enormous amount of time and talents is considered which have been expended by these authors upon the perpetua- tion and embellishment of fables, in themselves wild and extravagant as a sick man's dreams, it must be confessed that the disproportion between the earnestness of the effort and the trifling nature of the apparent result is very striking. If, however, we were to extend our enquiries into a most interesting field, and view the subject in re- lation to the development of the human mind and the history of modern civilization, we should probably form a more just estimate both of the aspirations of the authors in question and of our own obligations to them. To our- selves as Englishmen such a study offers associations peculiarly interesting. Italy first among the nations of Europe awoke from the long night of barbarism which overspread the ruins of the Homan empire. She sounded the lyre of poetry, and some of its earliest strains were re-echoed by a British bard. Spenser (the next in order and fame to Chaucer,) drew his inspiration, in an especial manner, from the Italian muse. Perhaps he was enticed by his admiration into too close an imitation ; but who can blame him for an anxiety to transfer into the language of his countrymen those particular beauties which had so powerfully excited his own fancy. It cannot be necessary to mention a still greater name, and to remind you of Milton's passionate love of Italian poetry, or of his early training in that accomplished school. In short, to what- ever stage of our national progress we turn our attention we shall see the same influence exerted, and recognize its beneficial effects in softening and refining our language. The moral application of the eflScients thus elaborated is altogether a distinct, though (in its own relation) an all-important consideration ; they may be employed by a Milton in illustrating the noblest of themes, by another writer to point a blasphemous jest or conceal the gross- THE ROMANTIC POEMS OF ITALY. 315 ness of a licentious sentiment. We are, doubtless, bound to protest against the latter perversion, but we must not forget that a similar liability to abuse attaches to every human endowment and possession. Providence has established no necessary connection between high intellectual endowments and a disposition to employ them to the highest ends, (for such an arrange- ment would have been inconsistent with individual respon- sibility,) but it has ordained that the blessings of civiliza- tion should depend upon the exercise of industry and ingenuity, and (no less clearly) that we should mediately owe our intellectual gratifications to the labours of the illustrious few who have spent their lives in unfolding the mighty energies of mind, and whose thoughts are destined to live and fructify in future ages and in yet undiscovered regions. =^ ROMAN LEICESTER: BY J. F. ROLLINGS. READ BEFORE THE LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, LEICESTER, JANUARY 13, 1851. ROMAN LEICESTER. The subject of the present paper must derive any claims it may possess to your notice, rather from that feehng of natural curiosity in regard to all inquiries and speculations affecting our common place of residence, from which few of us may be presumed to be exempt, than from any very new or remarkable results to be expected from such a field of investigation. Of the materials calculated to throw light upon the condition of Leicester from its earliest foundation to the termination of the Roman dominion, no small portion has already been made generally accessible by the pages of Throsby and the great work of Nichols. Neither of these writers, however, has availed himself of the collateral and most important information which might be obtained from many obvious sources, but especially from the works of the classic historians. Neither has attempted to draw anything like a general inference from the data which have been placed at his command. Nor will it be using an expression unwarranted by a just and candid spirit of criticism, to affirm that, by both, the valu- able facts, which they have accumulated, are presented in a confused, disjointed, and a far from satisfactory form. In the History of Leicester, lately published by our fellow- townsman, Mr. James Thompson, a work worthy of all respect, and of which, from the ability, the learning, and 320 ROMAN LEICESTER. the laborious research it uniformly exhibits, we have every reason to be proud, the design of the author has naturally restricted him to but a brief consideration of the memo- rials of Roman occupation among us. It has appeared to me, therefore, that your attention would not be unworthily occupied by an ordered and succinct digest of what is known upon this subject, as well as of the conclusions which such information seems — with a greater or less show of reason — to support. To this task I now address myself. The period to which our consideration is to be directed, is indeed one marked by great and remarkable events in the history of the world, for it is that included between the reigns of Claudius and the third Valentinian— a space of nearly four centuries of momentous revolutions — of those wide-spread and mighty changes, which characterised the extension and the disso- lution of a gigantic aggressive dominion- — the fluctuations of an alternately advancing and ebbing civilization — and lastly, the subversion of a majestic and time -hallowed superstition by a lowlier but diviner faith. For ourselves, as for former generations, that period was not without its consequences of immense import, for it was the time when the site of our dwellings first afforded a home to the arts and the refinements of civilized life ; when that industry, which now finds a mart in every haven accessible to the mariner, was trained to its earliest efforts; when the seeds of those Municipal Institutions, which constitute the chief glory of our civil Polity, were permanently and indestruc- tibly sown. I will not occupy your time by the expressions of a vain regret, that, notwithstanding all the investigations of anxious and sagacious inquirers, this portion of our national history is still, in many important respects, over- clouded with the most perplexing obscurity ; and that the truths which are established in relation to it upon the evidence of extant authorities — of local monuments — of de- caying dialects and traditions — must be considered rather ROMAN LEICESTER. 8*21- as scattered points of light, illuminating widely-separated ^ portions of a dark and mysterious void, than as a mutually connected series of illustrations, calculated to afford in- sight into the general character and complexion of what is hidden, by their distinctness, their variety, or their extent. The researches of modern ArchaBologists render it pro- bable that long before the establishment in our island of the tribes by which it was possessed at the period of the Roman invasion, the country was thinly populated by a race scarcely elevated above the lowest grade of barbarism in which mankind can exist, and of habits to all appear- ance analogous to those of the natives of Patagonia, or of the New Hebrides, at the present day. The rude methods of interment employed by this primitive people — their un- couth implements of flint and bone — the sites of their miserable habitations, mere shallow excavations in moorish wastes, which could only have been protected from the inclemencies of the climate by roofs of the simplest con- struction, and in which it is difficult to conceive how the wretched occupants found room to crouch around their scanty fires, — are indisputable evidences of the former existence of such a phase of society in our island ; a con- dition of things not without its interest in the eyes of the Antiquarian and the Ethnologist, but one until recently unsuspected, and, but for the few and scattered vestiges to which allusion has been made, perhaps destined to remain for ever unknown. The arrival upon our shores of the first wave of the great Celtic tide of immigration, was probably the earliest event which interrupted this condition of savage and monotonous isolation. Of the history, the wars, and the wanderings of that remarkable family of the human race, distinguished by the generic appellation of Celtee or Celts, — whose original home w^as, without doubt, in the remote regions of the East, and whose progress through the 322 ROMAN LEICESTER. countries south of the Danube to the coasts of the At- lantic, may have extended through many ages, — it is not my intention to speak on the present occasion. It is suf- ficient to state that at a period in which the traditionary annals of our country may be said to begin, England was occupied by three distinct populations, who derived their origin from a common source, and who were united by a strong similarity of language, of customs, and of religion. In the Welsh Triads — those unfortunately fragmentary, but still inestimable records, embodying a knowledge which no other source of information could supply, they are thus enumerated : — \ - " The three benevolent and peaceful tribes of Britain, who obtained their habitation without contest or violence. " The first were the stock of the Cymri, who came with Hu Gadarn, into the land of Britain, for he would not have lands by fighting and contention, but of equity and in peace. " The second were the race of the Loegrwys, who came from the land of Gwas, [supposed to mean the country of the Veneti, near the mouth of the Lcegre, Ligur, or Loire,] and were sprung from the primitive stock of the Cjonri. " The third were the Britains. They came from the land of Llydau, [that is, Armorica or Brittany,] and were also sprung from the primordial stock of the Cymri. "And they are called the Three Peaceful Tribes, because they came by mutual consent and permission, in peace and tranquil- lity. These three tribes descended from the common stock of the Cymri, and were of one language and one speech." In these few words we have perhaps the first authentic chapter of British history. As to the situation of the three tribes in question, there can be no doubt that the more westerly districts of the island were held by the children of the mythic Hu Gadarn. The Britons proper occupied the coast opposite Armorica, and perhaps no small portion of the southern counties ; while the fertile country between the Thames and the Humber constituted the possession of ROMAN LEICESTER. 323 the Loegrian Cymri, our own county lying nearly in the ' centre of the district. Fresh changes and successive immigrations in after times modified and in part confounded, these primary dis- tinctions. By a second influx of Celtic colonists, the Caledonians were established in Scotland, and the tribe of the Gwddelians in those northern parts of England after- wards known by the common name of Albany ; w^hile the race of the Galedin, driven from their home beyond the seas by a sudden inundation, were allowed to settle in the Isle of Wight, and upon the opposite coast, fi'om which they were in turn expelled by a horde of the Teutonic Belgse. Lastly, and what is more closely connected with our present subject, a great portion of Lcegria — and especially the counties of Lincolnshire, Leicester- shire, Rutland, and Northampton — was forcibly invaded and subdued by the people of the Coranied, afterwards known by the Romanized appellation of the Coritani or Coita7ini, w^hose former place of habitation (called by the authors of the Triads the land of Pwyl or of Pools) is suppose to have been the marshy wastes of Zealand and the mouths of the Rhine. At a subsequent period, the Coritani, in connection with another tribe, w^hose Celtic appellation is lost in the Latin term Cenomagni or Ceno- manni, constituted the powerful nation of the Iceni^ whose territory comprehending, in addition to the Midland dis- tricts, the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, and a part of Essex, may be said to have extended from the Humber to the Stour. From the ancient Itinerary known as that of Richard of Cirencester, — a document which bears the marks of undoubted antiquity, however in parts rendered incorrect by the errors of interpolators and transcribers — w^e learn that the territory of the Loegrian or Coritanian branch of the Iceni lay within the limits of the famous Caledonian wood, a vast primeval forest, by which Midland and Northern England was then densely overgrown, and 324 ROMAN LEICESTER. which the tangled chases of Charnwood and Sherwood have continued not unworthily to represent up to a period almost within the memory of the present generation. Of the actual point of civilization attained by the Celtic and Belgic Britons at the time of the first arrival of the Romans, it is difficult to speak with certainty. Yet it may be remarked, that even from the well-known de- scription of Caesar, a degree of advancement may fairly be argued, much superior to that which the popular idea assigns to our painted and skin-clad progenitors — whose priests resided in hollow trees and were nourished by acorns, and whose towns were simply collections of w^retched hovels, surrounded by a rude rampart of earth and brushwood, in which men and cattle were crowded together with but little difference of accommodation or of place. On the whole, if we assign to them a condition of civilization at least equal to that prevalent in Greece during the Heroic Ages, we shall probably not be very wide of the truth. A national order of poets implies a national litera- ture; and it is certain that the metrical and orally-delivered learning of the Cymric Druids and Bards, whatever it may have been in regard to its other qualities, was at least singularly varied and extensive. Of their acquaintance with written characters, there is undoubtedly stronger evidence than exists for the prevalence of the same medium of communication in the days of Homer. In the art of agriculture, it is certain that their skill was far from limited ; for Pliny speaks of a method of lime-dressing common in Britain similar in all appearance to that practised, not without beneficial effects, at the present time. Of their skill in metallurgy we yet possess un- doubted evidence. The golden torques and armlets, which constituted the principal ornaments of the British chief- tain, are often of the most exquisite workmanship. The few specimens of their defensive armour which remain to us, are both skilfully and elegantly fabricated; and in ROMAN LEICESTER. 325 those curious instruments called celts, which have so long constituted the torment of antiquaries, and which are almost invariably found by analysis to consist of ten parts of copper combined with one of tin, we have abundant proof that they were well acquainted with the means of tempering no very tractable materials, for warlike or domestic uses, after their due reduction from their native ores. Moreover the employment of a metallic circulating medium is plainly indicated by the specimens of that golden -ring money which is considered so precious an ad- dition to our cabinets and museums. It may be added that the construction of the w^ar chariots, which consti- tuted the main strength of the British armies, and which must be considered as an usage of undoubted Oriental origin, implies a considerable degree of mechanical dex- terity ; and that the subjugation of the horse, either to military purposes or to the processes of husbandry, is sufficient in itself to indicate a condition of things far superior to that of mere barbarism. Finally, we might dwell upon the solemn and majestic temples of Stone- henge and of Abury — those wonderful proofs of a labour of which the method and the resources remain unex- plained to the present hour ; to the singular skill in castrametation which is shown in numerous British en- campments ; and, lastly, to those means of internal communication which, constructed at a period long anterior to the approach of the eagles of the Caesars, suffer in some instances but little in comparison with the most striking labours of the kind w^hich are left to testify of the science and industry of Imperial Rome. The earliest efforts towards the subjugation of Britain by that colossal power, under whose yoke it was the destiny of most of the nations of Europe, of Eastern Asia, and of Northern Africa, successively to pass, must be con- sidered rather as exploratory expeditions than as serious attempts at permanent occupation. The arms of the first 326 ROMAN LEICESTER. Caesar were, it is well known, scarcely carried north of the Thames ; nor, if we compare the trivial character of their results with the magnitude of his two famous expeditions, can we consider them in any other light than that of frus- trated aggressions. Even in the reign of Claudius — when, with additional resources and a much more determined purpose, the same enterprise was again attempted — the resistance to its execution long continued to be one of the most desperate and unyielding character. Ten years of uninterrupted hostilities, and thirty pitched battles, were insufficient to advance the standards of the legionaries beyond the line of the Severn and the Avon ; and it was not until the fiftieth year of the Christian era that the Midland districts experienced the terrible potency of Italian warfare, and the desolation with which its opera- tions were for the most part accompanied. On the ac- cession of Ostorius Scapula to the proprsetorship of Britain, that skilful and enterprising general, for the pur- pose of more effectually keeping in check the incursions of the yet unsubdued tribes to the northward, determined upon establishing a chain of posts or fortresses, which, according to the received text of Tacitus, were intended to connect the Severn with the Avon, but which the judg- ment of modern commentators (who have, with great ap- pearance of reason, suspected an error in the wording of the passage) considers as having extended from the first- named river to the Nen.* With the intention of interrupting this operation, the Iceni — (against whose territory, and most especially that portion occupied by the Coritani, it must have been re- garded as a direct and a most formidable demonstration) — * " Detraliere arma suspectosque castris Antonam et Sabrinam fluvios coliibere parat. Quod primi Iceni abnuere, valida gens, nee proeliis con- cussa, quia societatem nostram volentes accesserant ; bisque auctoribus eir- cumjectce nationes locum pugnte diligere, septum agresti aggere et aditu angusto, ne pervius equiti foret," etc. — Tacitus, A anal. Lib. xii. ROMAN LEICESTER. 327 flew to arms, and after occupying in force a position ren- dered difficult of access by the natural steepness of the ground, and further fortifying the post by a solid earthwork, resolutely awaited in the stronghold thus hastily construct- ed, the approach of the forces of the propraetor. Although Ostorious was on this occasion only able to summon to his assistance some of the Social Cohorts attached to the Britannic legions, with a small body of horse ; and was, moreover, compelled, when advancing to the attack, to dismount his cavalry, by the formidable character of the ascent ; the result of his assault was that which has usually accompanied the exertions of courage, science, and discipline, when opposed to but the first of these quali- ties, however supported by a preponderance of numerical strength. After a protracted and obstinate struggle, the Iceni were driven from their works, and almost annihilated within the precincts of the encampment, which they are represented as defending with the obstinacy of despair to the last. The blow thus inflicted proved for a while effec- tive in subduing the spirit of the nation; and the con- queror, with but few attempts at opposition, was enabled to pursue his triumphs in a north-westerly direction, through the counties of Leicester, Stafford, and Cheshire, to the mountains of North Wales and the coast of the Irish Sea. If it is a matter of any moment to ascertain the actual theatre of those operations, in which our Coritanian fore- fathers were first taught to appreciate the power of the Roman sword, I may state that the celebrated forts of Ostorious have been satisfactorily traced by an eminent modern antiquary. Sir Richard Colt Hoare, in his Notes upon Giraldus Camhrensis^ in a continuous line, running at first nearly at right angles with the ancient Watling- street, and afterwards parallel with the right bank of the Nen, by Chesterton, Aston-le-Walls, Weedon, Northamp- ton, Coggenhoe, Irchester, Thrapstone, and Clifford's Hill, 328 ROMAN LEICESTER. to the city of Peterborough. The same writer is inclined to regard the great British encampment at Borough Hill, near Daventry, the Roman Bennavenna, as the scene of the signal defeat of the Iceni by the cavalry and social cohorts, of Ostorius. But that it might be thought pre- sumption to differ from the opinion of so weighty an authority, T should feel inclined to suggest that the camp of Borough Hill, near Twyford, in this County, appears to possess even greater claims to the distinction in ques- tion, so closely does that admirable military position appear to coincide, in its precipitous escarpment on three sides, its vallum of piled stones, its one accessible face, and its single entrance, wdth the description given by the Roman historian. It is at any rate worthy of notice that the name of the energetic lieutenant of Clau- dius is still indirectly perpetuated in our own immediate locality; for a passage over a small brook close to the village of Gaddesby has borne from time immemorial, as . we learn from our promised county historian, Mr. Thomas Potter, the name of Ostor-ford — a title of which the origin is obvious.* The course of hostilities, begun by the subjection of the Midland Counties, and the partial exploration of North Wales, was brought to a close by a successful expedition against the Brigantes, or people of Lancashire and York- shire ; and there is little question, that at some period * In the Autumn of 1853, the area of Borough Camp was partially ex- cavated under the direction of the Archaeological Section of the Leicester Literary and Philosophical Society. No remains, which could certainly be assigned to the Roman period, were discovered, nor, had they been found, would this circumstance have been fatal to the supposition that the work was in the first instance raised by the Coritanian Iceni. Positive signs of Celtic occupation were thought to present themselves in fragments of pot- tery of the rudest workmanship, a flint arrow head, and the remains of a human skeleton, which had been interred after the most ancient fashion, in a crouching or recumbent position, in a part of the vallum at the north- west corner of the encampment. , ROMAN LEICESTER. 329 during the progress of these movements, Leicester first received the Roman appellation by which it is known in the Itinerary of Antoninus. The word Rath, in the only dialect of the Celtic tongue in w^hich it still exists, signifies " an enclosed space or fortress," and is preserved to the present day as a prefix common to several Irish towns, as Rathdxnm, Ratlimoxe, Rathcormick. On the banks of the Soar, such a British station doubtless existed at a period more ancient than that of the Roman occupancy ; and the term Rath Coranied,* " the fortress or town of the Cora- nians," may plainly be discovered, like the original cha- racter upon a palimpsest manuscript, beneath the Italian- ized name of Ratm Coritanorum — the Ragw of Ptolemy by an obvious mistake of some early transcriber — by a still further corruption, the Ratecorion of the unknown geographer of Ravenna — and the Ratiscorion of Richard of Cirencester. To the great bulk of the Britons, however, who still continued to use their native language, the rising town, probably superior in size and importance to any in the Midland districts, was better known by the title of Caer Lerion, or city of the Loegriansf — if, indeed, the appellation is not to be derived, as some antiquaries have supposed, from the neighbouring river, upon which, in com- * Hath, a fortress or village, an artificial mount, a plain or cleared spot. {Ir. id.) — Armstrong's Gaelic Dictionary. t Caer, a wall or mound for defence, the walls of a city, a castle or fortress, a walled or fortified town, a city. Caer-vynwent, a churchyard wall ; Caer-Gwdion, the galaxy, from Gwydion, a Welch astronomer. Such places as were called Caer by the Britons, were called by the Saxons Cester, and by the Romans Castrum. — {Oioen's Welch Dictionary.) It may be observed that 'Rates Coritanorum is far from being the only instance of Romanized Celtic, which occurs in the Itineraries. Xlriconitim, for instance, (now Wroxeter) is an evident corruption of the British name for the neigh- bouring hill, the well-known Wrekin. Conversely, many of the Celtic appellations of Roman British cities appear to be mere altered forms of Latin words. In the history of Nennius, Caer-Mencipet (Verulam) is manifestly derived from Municipium, — Caer-Colon (Colchester) from Colonia, Sec. As to the term Lcegria, it is not unworthy of remark, that Y 330 ROMAN LEICESTER. memoration of the nobler stream watering their original country, the Loegrian colonists may have bestowed the name of the Legre or Ligur. Some centuries after, the name, altered by the Saxons in accordance with their usual custom, passed through a series of transmutations, of which the most noticeable are Legreoceaster, Legre- cester, Legeceiste?', and Leircester, into that which the town at present bears. That the central part of the modern Leicester is in- cluded within the lines of an ancient Roman encampment may be readily admitted. It does not, however, follow that we must look to precisely the same site for the original Celtic Rath or fortified settlement. For obvious reasons, a military station would scarcely in the first instance be formed in such a manner as to include within the same defences the homes of a disaffected population and the dwellings of the conquerors ; but rather on some rising ground in the neighbourhood, which united the advantage of security with the ready command of supplies from a mart, close at hand. It is for this reason I am inclined to believe, that the singular double embankments, of which a portion may still be seen close to the Aylestone toll-gate, but which once extended from the vicinity of the South- gates to a distance of about half-a-mile, forming a kind of rude arc of which the river Soar might be considered as the chord, are to be regarded as the boundary of the British stronghold or location, to which the Roman Ratae was indebted for its name. The words of Caesar, known to every classical student, are full authority for the fact, that the inhabitants of the island in his day were accus- in after times it was extended by the Cyrari of Wales to the greater part, if not to the whole of Britain. Thus Pennant — Cymru Lloegyr a Llewelyn Y rown i gyd am wellen Gwilym. Wales, England, and Llewylyn, . All would I give for a sight of William, ROMAN LEICESTER. 331 tomed to protect their residences with earthworks of this description. " Oppidum autem Britanni vocant, quum sylvas impeditas vallo atque fossa munierunt, quo hostium vitandse causa convenire consueverunt" — " the Britons give the name of town to the thick woods, which they fortify by an embankment and ditch, and within which they are accustomed to assemble to avoid incursions of the enemy." Moreover, the embankments are to all appearance not of Roman origin, for they differ widely from the generality of earthworks which are known to have been constructed by that people ; while they closely resemble the double ram- parts and intermediate fosse, which are found at Benna- venna, or Borough Hill, already alluded to ; in the camps of Caradoc or Caractacus in South Wales, and in other certain British localities. The great Roman station estab- lished in its immediate neighbourhood, and rapidly grow- ing into the dignity of an important town, may be supposed speedily to have attracted and absorbed the population of the more ancient settlement; but the designation of the Rath, or Rawdykes, has continued until the present time to testify to the real character of those venerable mounds, in which Stukeley, with too great hastiness of decision, discovered the remains of a British Cursus, and which following writers, who have hesitated to accede to his judgment, have left, as an archa3ological enigma incapable of any satisfactory solution. One other vestige of the Celtic period, yet partially . existing almost close to our walls, must not be passed over without transient notice. In a meadow, a little to the west of the Fosse-way, and not far from the ancient boundary-wall of the Abbey of St. Mary de PratiSj is a sloping hollow, which has evidently been excavated by the hand of man. In the midst of this was, within the last few years, visible an upright stone about seven feet in height, since wantonly demolished to the level of the soil, but of which the time-worn base still remains embedded 332 ROMAN LEICESTER. in the earth to the depth of nearly a yard. The monu- ment, while it remained erect, was distinguished by the name of St. John's Stone, and the spot upon which it stood was, in the memory of many living, annually visited about the time of Midsummer by numerous parties from the town, in pursuance of a custom of unknown antiquity. Now in this rude memorial we have, 1 doubt not, one of those monolithic erections or hoar-stones anciently sancti- fied by the rites of Druidic worship, of which examples remain in the celebrated Harestone in Cornwall, as well as in numerous similar rude columns in Gloucestershire, Shropshire, the Isle of Anglesea, and various parts both of Scotland and Ireland ; — of which, too, the famous London Stone is now supposed also to furnish an ex- ample. The name long attached to it is a strong cor- roborative proof of this assumption. The feast of St. John the Baptist in the Roman calendar answers, as all are aware, nearly to the summer Solstice — a most solemn period in the Druidic system of religion, as, indeed, in the mythology of the Celtic and Teutonic races in general. On this day, upon which, as if marking the period of the greatest altitude of the sun in the northern heavens, the blossom of the misletoe was supposed to drop to the ground, mysterious rites were performed in the consecrated groves, while in the evening the hill tops blazed with in- numerable beltanes^ or festive fires, in honor of the Great Fire or Sun God, whose vivifying power was then exerted upon the earth to its utmost extent. The temporising prudence of the Catholic Church in subsequent times diverted to another purpose, without wholly abrogating, these idolatrous observances. The solstitial festival was still celebrated, but with holy masses and processions, in the place of the wild incantations and gloomy ceremonies of Druids and Bards, while the fires annually flaming from our hills, in imitation of those which in former ages had illuminated the forests and mountains of Syria in worship ROMAN LEICESTER. 338 of Bel or Baal-peor, were made symbolic of the heavenly fervour, the divine light of faith and of zeal, conspicuous in the life and actions of the great Herald of the Christian daj. In our sacred stone of St. John, then, we may recognize a local proof of this general adaptation. With- out such an interpretation, the name is devoid of reason or of meaning. By its aid, the connexion between the locality in question, the custom for which it was once re- markable, and the appellation it has immemorially borne, must be rendered intelligible to the least extensive powers of discernment. The propraBtorship of Ostorius Scapula was followed by those of Aulus Didius and Quintus Yeranius, whose ex- ploits were principally confined to securing the conquests of their predecessors. The rule of the next governor, Suetonius Paullinus, was of a far different complexion. At the very commencement of his office, this commander, fired it was supposed with a desire of emulating the recent exploits of Domitius Corbulo in Parthia and Armenia, projected the famous expedition against the Isle of Angle- sea, which has been depicted with such masterly approach to reality in the pages of Tacitus. Before, however, the hostilities waged against the Western tribes of Britain were brought to a conclusion, the Roman arms sustained, in another quarter, the most disastrous defeat they were destined to receive in the island, by the memorable in- surrection of the Iceni and their confederates, under their Queen Boadicea. The wrongs and the outrages inflicted upon this unfortunate heroine, it is wholly unnecessary to repeat before a literary audience. Equally well known is the story of her temble vengeance, and of the sanguinary retaliation to which this, in its turn, gave birth. At the first outburst of the insurrection the Roman colony of Col- chester was assaulted, taken, and reduced to ashes. Who does not remember the wonderful painting by the historian of the fate of that unhappy city, preceded by the gloomy 334 ROMAN LEICESTER. omens of ensanguined seas and tremendous visions, the clash of arms and the dissonance of barbaric warfare heard by night from its deserted curia and temple ? The ninth legion under the command of Petilius Cerealis while advancing to relieve the post was next met in the open field and ingloriously routed, its infantry being annihilated to a man, and the legate himself with the utmost difficulty escaping capture or death. Suetonius, although by forced marches from the recent scene of his victories he was en- abled to reach London before the insurgents, nevertheless found himself too weak to defend that already important mart of commerce against their fury. The garrison was therefore withdrawn, with a portion of the population, and the place thus partially abandoned was soon afterwards stormed and ruined, with the same ferocity which had been displayed at the destruction of Colchester, the utmost refinements of inventive cruelty being exhausted upon its inhabitants. A similar fate awaited the municipal town of Verulamium or St. Alban's. But by this time the army of Suetonius, comprising the whole of the fourteenth legion, the vexillarii of the twentieth, and the nearest auxiliary cohorts, had been raised to the respectable force of ten thousand men. With these the propraetor, after occupying a position chosen with consummate skill, determined upon committing the fate of the war to the issue of a general engagement. In the great battle which ensued, the trained valour of the legionaries once more prevailed over the strength of overwhelming numbers, inflamed to the highest point of resolution by native hardihood, the sense of recent triumph, the recollection of past insults, and the anticipation of greater evils yet to come. No less than eighty thousand Britons are said by some writers to have been left upon the field, while the loss of their opponents was reckoned at but four hundred slain. Boadicea eluded the vengeance of the conquerors by self-destruction ; and from henceforth the history of the Iceni is undistinguished HOMAN LEICESTER. 335 from that of the other tribes over whom the Imperial power was extended for nearly four long centuries of monotonous and uninten'upted submission. To us the campaign of Suetonius, independently of its general importance in our national annals, possesses a peculiar ground of interest, not only as sti'ictly forming part of our local history, but as enabling us to determine with a reasonable degi'ee of probability the legion by which Leicester and the Midland districts were held at the time ; and by the labours of which the walls of our town may be supposed to have been originally constructed. The grounds for such an inference I have already had the honour of laying before you. They may be briefly repeated as follows. The whole force of Suetonius, while propraetor of Britain, is known to have consisted of four legions, — the Second, the Ninth, the Fourteenth, and the Twentieth. Of these, as we have seen, the ninth was en- countered on its march to Colchester, and almost entirely destroyed by the Iceni, in the first stage of their famous insurrection. We may conclude, therefore, that its head quarters were, at the time, somewhere in the Eastern Counties, and most probably at Venta Icenorum^ the pre- sent Caistor, near Norwich. The subsequent battle with Boadicea, as has also been shown, was fought by the Four- teenth legion in fall strength, aided by the vexillaries of the Twentieth. Now it is certain that the latter, known as the Legio Vicesima Victrix, was long ordinarily quartered at Deva, (Chester,) which, indeed, has been marked as its peculiar station in the Itineraries. It is, therefore, reason- able to believe that it may have been first established in that post by Ostorius or Didius, in one of the campaigns of these commanders against North Wales, and the countiy of the Brigantes — that it afterwards served under Sueto- nius, in his expedition against Anglesea — and that its main strength was left behind for the double purpose of securing his recent conquests, and of preventing any in- 330 ROMAN LEICESTER. surgent movements in his rear, while its veteran cohorts or vexillarii were detached to serve as an escort to the general during his hurried return to arrest the progress of Boadicea. On that occasion the route of Suetonius, assuming it to have lain along the Via Devana, must of necessity have been through the Midland Counties, and through the lately fortified station of Ratce. Under these circumstances, nothing can be fairer than the conclusion that the Fourteenth legion, w^hich formed the flower of his forces in the subsequent operations, and of which the soldiers were in consequence distinguished by the proud title of Domitores Britanni(B, was gathered from the dis- tricts which lay upon his direct road, in order to be con- centrated in the position against which the daring strength of the Iceni was irretrievably shattered. And since there is no station in the central parts of England to be com- pared w^ith Leicester in the extent and massiveness of those ancient boundary walls, which, wherever their foun- dations are discovered, bear distinct traces of Roman origin, we may also infer — first, that the head quarters of the legion in question had been established perhaps as early as the days of Ostorius at Rat(B Coritanorimi^ — and secondly, that by the hands of its warriors our town was raised to the condition of a military post of first-rate importance.* As to the Second legion, the only one which remains to be accounted for, there is every ground for believing that during the insurrection of the Iceni, it was * The continuance of the fourteenth legion in Britain was comparatively of brief duration, since, after being first recalled by the emperor Nero, and afterwards sent back to the scene of its former services by Vitellius, in con- sequence of the active part it had taken in support of his rival Otho, it was again and finally summoned into Italy immediately after the accession of Vespasian. After its departure, Leicester was probably held, in consequence of the pacific state of the country, merely by weak detachments from the other legions, or by some of their auxiliary cohorts. The absence of all legionary inscriptions among our many monuments of the Roman era, may perhaps be considered as strengthening this supposition. EOMAN LEICESTER. 337 so far distant from the seat of war, as to afford its legate, Poenius Posthumus, who afterwards fell by his own hand, driven to suicide by the reproaches of his indignant soldiery, a plausible pretext for not joining his com- mander until the event of the campaign was determined, — that it was in fact lying in its usual quarters at Caer- leon on the Usk, in Monmouthshire, where we know from unquestionable testimony it was generally stationed for the purpose of repressing all incursions to the southward of the fierce tribes of the Ordovices and Silures. From the period when, under the. government of the just and wise Julius Agricola, the arts and the appliances of Roman life were extensively introduced into Britain, it is not reasonable to suppose that Leicester was the seat of less refinement than characterised other localities in the subject province, in which theatres and temples, baths and porticos, public diversions and lavish entertainments — con- stituted prominent features of the policy by which, accord- ing to Tacitus, the vanquished were soothed to slavery, under the specious names of civilization and polish. Situated in the very heart of the district, which, in com- pliment to the dynasty founded by Vespasian, was known by the name of Flavia C(esane?isis, and at the point of intersection of the two principal roads by which Britain was traversed, (the Via Devana leading from Colchester to Chester, and the Via Fossata or Fosse-way, which formed a communication between the mouth of the Exe and the marshes of Lincolnshire) ; lying, moreover, at no incon- venient distance from the great British roads, the Ryk- nield-street, the Watling-street, and the celebrated Salt- way, — it no doubt had its full share in such intercourse and commerce as the tendencies of the age allowed. From its position in relation to the Fosse, it could hardly fail of witnessing the imposing pomp and magnificence of the Emperor Hadrian during his progress through Britain in the year 120. The fierce and vindictive Severus may be 338 ROMAN LEICESTER. supposed to have been received within its gates on his way to his great Caledonian expedition ; and the same portals were, perhaps, a short time afterwards, thrown open to receive the ashes of the Imperial Conqueror on their pas- sage from the funeral pyre at York to their final resting- place upon the banks of the Tiber. During the transient gleam of British independence under the auspices of Ca- rausius, it may have hailed with exultation the return of the illustrious Menapian, the Sertorius of the seas, and the first founder of our long series of maritime triumphs, after baffling the vindictive efforts of the tyrant Maximian. Lastly, the eagles of the politic Constantine may have been mustered within its walls in preparation for the ter- rible conflict, that was to result in the elevation of the sublime symbol of the Cross above the crumbling ruins of the Paganism of the West. This, indeed, is mere conjectural history; but conjecture itself fails us at the next step of our enquiry : nor is there any subsequent public event to which we can with any probability attach the name of our town, until we find it re-appearing to testify to the wide-spread ascendancy of Saxon dominion, as one of the leading tributaries under the sceptre of the Mercian kings. What, during the centuries over which we have thus cursorily passed, was the condition of our progenitors ? By what form of civil government were their rights pro- tected or oppressed ? What were the characteristics of their social habits ? In what manner did their religious sentiments find expression, through the means of external ceremony or symbolic form ? Such questions can only be answered by the aid of the scanty knowledge we possess in relation to the general provincial policy of Rome, occa- sionally rendered clearer by the additional light afforded by the labours of local antiquaries. According to Richard of Cirencester the towns of Romanized Britain were di- vided, as in other provinces, into four distinct classes : the ROMAN LEICESTER. 339 Coloni(B, or colonies ; Municipia, or municipal towns ; cities possessed of the Jus Latii, or privilege of the Latian right ; and finally. Stipendiary cities. Among the twelve of the latter class enumerated by the same writer, we find the name of Ragae, or Ratae. From another source of information, however, we know that these distinctions were at a subsequent period abolished, and that the privi- leges of municipal government were conferred upon the Romanized inhabitants of Britain without distinction. Without entering into the intricacies of a question, which the utmost ingenuity of scholars has hitherto been unable satisfactorily to solve, — the exact point in which the jus Lata differed from the jus Civitatis — what the term " stipendiaries " absolutely implied, or the true dis- tinction between the privileges of the municipia and coloni(By — we may infer that the local forms of govern- ment in Britain in general, differed little from those of the municipalities established in Italy or Gaul. In these the management of domestic interests was entrusted to ten magistrates called decemvirs, constituting in their col- lective capacity the town council, senate, or curia. From this body two members were annually chosen to fill the higher offices discharged by the diimnviri, who held a position ap- parently somewhat similar to that of our modern mayors. The privileges of particular trades and occupations were protected by fraternities or companies, from which there is little doubt that the guilds of the middle ages were derived. Thus we find in inscriptions mention of the " fraternity of bakers," of smiths, and even wood-cutters. The preroga- tives of the dominant power were, however, watched, and the collection of the revenue duly carried out by a Roman officer under the title of prcBses, prcefectus, procurator, or comes, at the head of a military force, whose authority might extend either to single cities or to whole districts, and to whose decision appeals invariably lay in all weightier matters of controversy. 340 ROMAN LEICESTER. As to the system of jurisprudence generally prevalent in Roman Britain, we have sufficient evidence that in the more civilized communities it was nearly identical with that founded upon the laws of the Twelve Tables, the Edicts of the Pra3tors, and the Senatorial decrees. Ac- ' cording to the testimony of Juvenal, the British jurists had in his time already acquired considerable eminence under their Gallic instructors. The city of York, which we know to have been visited by the great civilian Papin- ianus, and from which a rescript of some importance, and still to be found in the Codex of Justinian, is dated under the authority of Severus and Antoninus, was in after ages, a famous school of Municipal law ; — and there can be no question, that this legal reputation was founded upon tastes and studies introduced and extensively cultivated at a much earlier period. At the same time, it is nearly certain that, while the principles of Roman government flourished within the walls immediately protected by its arms, extensive districts were left almost entirely to the rule of native chieftains, whose obedience to the foreign power, which had taken such vigorous root among them, was expressed in the shape of a stated tribute alone. This important fact may be deduced not only from the evidence afforded by Latin writers and extant inscriptions, but from the condition of affairs which we find prevalent in Britain almost immediately after the withdrawal of the legionaries. From this it may be easily perceived that the spirit of foreign government, however locally powerful, had never assumed the form of an indigenous and per- vading principle, binding into an unity of conviction and action even the majority of those to whose acceptance it had been introduced. The influence of that iron dominion which had so long insured a normal uniformity, being once withdrawn, society immediately resolved itself into a tumult of contending elements. The latent claims to sovereignty of the old Cymric families were again renewed. The prin- ROMAN LEICESTER. 341 cipal centres of civilization, disconnected by the hostilities of intermediate tribes, were unable to protect either them- selves, or each other, by a determinate and united plan of action ; and one of the fairest and most fertile countries of Europe was ravaged from end to end by a horde of savage invaders, whom but a tenth part of the native population, if acting in concert, would have been sufficient to confine for ever to their mountain fastnesses and im- penetrable woods. In regard to the religion prevalent under Roman auspices in our island prior to the introduction of Christianity, we possess the most convincing proofs that, essentially poly- theistic and pliant in its character, it showed here the same adaptability to national superstitions which, even under the shadow of the Capitol itself, found a ready place for the divinities of Syria and Egypt, in the enormous list of its indigenous gods. In the principal cities the mythology of Latium was unquestionably followed and as extensively known, even to the collateral legends which are embodied in the roman- tic poetry of Ovid. The more potent deities, the venerated Dii majorinn gentium of the Latin priesthood, formed, as might naturally be supposed, the prominent ob- jects of worship ; as is proved by the numerous existing altars to Jupiter, to Minerva, to Neptune, to Mars, and to Apollo. Moreover, we have votive inscriptions to Fortune, to the Genius of the Britannic land, to Epona the God- dess of stables, to the Egyptian Serapis, the Hellenic Artemis, the Tjrian Hercules, and even to the Persian Mithras. The heads of Ceres, of Pomona, and of Silenus, occur on tessellated pavements, and this beautiful means of pictorial representation has also been found to record the triumphs of Bacchus, the musical skill of Orpheus, and the story of Actieon. It is certain, that the same deification of the members of the Imperial House which degraded to a point lower than that of the grossest 342 ROMAN LEICESTER. idolatry the abject sycophancy of the Roman senate, was included in the religious system of the provincials of Britain. Tacitus speaks expressly of a temple erected to the worship of the emperor Claudius at Camelodunum. But besides these, we encounter the singular and half- barbaric names of the divinities Belutocader, Camulus, Cocideus, and Servus ; of the goddesses Andrate or An- draste, Brigantia, and Sulleva, as well as of the Matres Campestres or Weird-mothers of the Wolds. In all this it is easy to discover something like an attempted com- promise between the more recent mythology and the older worship whose rites it invaded and disturbed — an evidence of the impression made upon the minds of the conquerors by a system of belief, by far more awful, more mysterious, and more imposing, in all its externals, than their own, even while they exulted over its ruined altars and desecrat- ed groves. In the remoter districts I am inclined to think the old Celtic divinities continued to keep their ground uninteruptedly against the deities of Olympus until the general diffusion of Christianity. Gildas at least, himself a Britain, and the earliest name in our national literature, speaks of the symbols of idolatry as numerously existing in his time, and in terms which appear much more ap- plicable to the features of the Druidic worship, than to the classic mythology of Greece and Rome. Although scarcely more definite information is to be gathered as to the social and domestic habits of our Romanized ancestors, than in relation to their forms of civil government, there are ample reasons for concluding, that none of the refinements of luxury, none of the re- sources of art, accessible at the seat of Empire, were unknown to its dependencies upon the frontiers of Cal- edonia, or upon the banks of the Severn and the Thames. The discoveries made from time to time on the sites of Roman stations are of themselves sufficient testimony to this effect. In the neighbourhood of several may yet be ROMAN LEICESTER. 343 traced the areas of spacious amphitheatres. The public and private baths which are constantly brought to light by the labours of the excavator, show the same elaborate contrivances for convenience and comfort, for the economy of fuel, and the regulated distribution of heat, as the balnea of imperial erection. The remains of private villas, in the size and the distribution of their apartments, are exact copies of those which once crowded the shores of Baiae or the warm slopes of Puteoli. Their tessellated floors are exceeded by few which have been discovered in the residences of the Caesars; while their walls are marked by the same pictorial decorations as the chambers of Herculaneum and Pompeii. The numerous amphorae of capacious dimensions, which form part of every collection of Roman pottery, were once doubtless filled with the produce of vintages of no contemptible character, and which it seems that the sun of Britain was in those days powerful enough to ripen ; perhaps occasionally with the costlier juices of Italian vineyards — "the wines of Setia, Cales, and Falern;" while the unguentaria with which they are accompanied may have contained the precious balsams of Syria or the remotest Ind. The abundance of the fragments of the red ware of Samos shows that this fragile and beautiful fictile material must have been a common article of import, perhaps of a most skilful national imitation. In the glass cinerary urns which have been occasionally rescued from destruction, and in one or two instances in our own immediate neighbourhood, we - discern the same skilfulness of design and beauty of material as in those covered by the cippi of the Appian or Flaminian way. But it is fair to add, that in the tumuli situated along the course of the great Roman roads, and which therefore must have been raised at a time posterior to their completion, few such traces of advanced art are discoverable. In these both the funeral vases and the ornaments by which they are occasionally accompanied 344 ROMAN LEICESTER. are still generally of the rudest description. Than the former, indeed, it is often impossible to imagine more im- perfect specimens of the potter's art, while the latter con- sist principally of misshapen pieces of amber, of variegated heads of baked clay, or awkwardly drilled and half polished fragments of pink coloured or amethystine quartz. From these general remarks I turn to a brief considera- tion of the traces of Roman dominion yet existing in Leicester. And first, as to the probable extent and boundaries of the original Encampment. These will be sufficiently indicated by the line of the old walls, which, after being raised, as we have assumed, in the first instance by the hands of the Imperial legionaries, continued for many centuries afterwards to constitute the chief defence of the Saxon and Norman borough, and were so solidly constructed as to resist the utmost efforts made for their destruction, when, after the obstinate siege of 1173, Lei- cester was fired and laid in ruins by Richard de Lacy, High Justiciary of Henry the Second. If this supposition is correct, the course of the original Fosse and Vallum must be represented on the North by Sanvey Gate and Soar Lane ; on the East by the Church and Gallowtree Gates; on the South by Ilorsefair Street and Millstone Lane, and by a line drawn from the latter across the churchyard of St. Mary de Castro to the bank of the Soar a little beyond the Castle Mount. The western Vallum appears to have followed the course of the river from the end of Soar Lane to the point already indicated as ter- minating the Southern rampart. The Praetorian Gate may have been situated on the spot afterwards occupied by our East Gates. The Porta Principalis Bextra and Sinistra may have stood respectively where the North and South Gates were afterwards erected. The Porta Decumana I conceive to have been placed not far from the Soar, and nearly opposite the present Bow Bridge. According to General Roy, one of the two great roads of the Encamp- ROMAN LEICESTER. 345 ment, — either the Via Pri?icipalis or the Via Pretoria — followed the course of the modern High Cross Street. And allowing this to have been the case, the line of High Street and St. Nicholas' Street, running at right angles to it, might be supposed to indicate the direction of the other.* The recent discovery, however, of tessellated pavements, fragments of columns, and other antiquities under both these lines of route, seems to show that the conjecture of General Roy must be partially incorrect, and that the direction of the main streets of the Roman town can no longer be distinctly traced. But we have every reason for placing, with the military archaeologist referred to, the site of the Prsetorium near the present Church of St. Nicholas. At no great distance from the Praetorium, was generally, as it is well known, situated the market-place of the Encampment, and it is not im- possible that to this use the space was from the first devoted, upon which the Wednesday's market is held to the present day. If so, few instances of the continuance of a local custom can be considered more remarkable; nor will the feelings of interest, with which we are accus- tomed to regard this undoubtedly most ancient mart, be lessened by the reflection that, precisely on the same spot where our thrifty housekeepers cheapen the produce of the fields and gardens of their neighbours, the camp fol- lowers attendant on the ensigns of the Caesars were, almost eighteen hundred years ago, employed in the same occu- * Of the square stations, Leicester, the JRatce Coritanorum, is one of the most distinct. It seems to exceed somewhat in size the Polybian camp of a consular army. If the Fosse-way formed its principal street, then what are now called the Jewry Walls may have been established on the ruins of the Prcetorium, and in this sense the camp must have fronted the east, but if the Fosse-way was the Praetorian street, then it fronted the north. — . Militai-y Antiquities. In the above passage the Via Devana seems to have been mistaken for the Fosse-way. The latter does not enter Leicester, being merely connected with it by the ancient Via Vicinalis, now represented by Watts's Causeway, z ' B46 ' ROMAN LEICESTER. pation, while the predecessor of our annoyance jury, the Koman sedile, stood by to visit the false dealer, as now, with the summary demolition of his fraudulent balances and measures. A much more interesting, although at the same time a much more uncertain subject for the speculations of the archaeologist, presents itself in the ruin, which for centuries has been known by the name of the Jewry Wall. This venerable memorial — the most striking left in Britain of the grand and massive architecture adopted, (as if with the hope of its enduring throughout the remote ages to which their dreams of empire extended,) by the great military civilisers of the world — is too familiar in its external features to all present to warrant more than the most succinct description. Its eastern front consists of four ' solid arches or recesses, with an intermediate niche of brickwork turned in a mass of rubble, composed of frag- ments of forest stone, cemented by a rough but most efficient grouting, and at intervals bonded by courses of quarry tiles. The western face is unfortunately hidden by the buildings of a manufactory, which, in the worst spirit of modern disregard to localities rendered sacred by a hundred associations, has been raised against it. But we know that in this also were formerly visible two vaulted recesses of smaller dimensions, built not altogether con- formably with two of those on the opposite side. This most interesting relic, I find, from the published measure- ments of Mr. Shenton, to be 74 feet in length by 19 in height. The arches on the eastern side are respectively eleven, twelve, thirteen, and fourteen feet high, and of the varying breadth of fourteen, six, and eleven feet. The greatest thickness is about eight feet seven inches. Of the many theories which have been advanced in ex- planation of the purposes which the Jewry Wall was first erected to subserve, that which pronoimces it to be a portion of a temple dedicated to the god Janus seems to ROMAN LEICESTER. 347 have obtained the most general accejDtance. According to a second opinion, almost as widely diffused, it must be regarded as the ruins of the ancient Gateway of the city. Other antiquarians have conjectured that the fragment in question is a remnant of the solidly constructed public baths. Among the supporters of the first-mentioned theory are to be found the names of Burton and Stukely. The second is strenuously advocated by Throsby, and by many archaeologists of the last century. The last is strengthened by the authority of Dr. Priestley. Of the several opinions to which I have alluded, the first is perhaps the least tenable. Whatever may have been the design of the building of which our Jewry Wall once constituted a part, it is almost certain that it could not have been a temple sacred to the worship of Janus or of any other Roman divinity. On examination, indeed, it will be found that the popular opinion upon the subject is based upon a construction, quite unwarranted by the text, of a passage in the apocryphal history of Britain which bears the name of Geoffrey of Monmouth. In the pages of that extraordinary writer first occurs the roman- tic story of Leir, the founder of Leicester, and his three daughters, from which Shakespeare has derived the lead- ing incidents of his inimitable tragedy. And I may be allowed to observe parenthetically, that to us it can be no unpleasing matter of supposition, to imagine that, in ad- dition to his obligations to our legendary history for the plot of his great drama, the poet was also indebted to localities in our neighbourhood for portions of its scenery, and that the wild and desolate heaths of Charnwood forest were connected, in his imagination, with that terrible out- burst of anguish and despair, displayed amidst the fury of the contending elements, in comparison with which the phrenzy of GEdipus and of Orestes are but faint and in- effective porti'aitures. To return, however, to our more immediate subject. The passage in Geoffrey of Mon- mouth is as follows: — 348 ROMAN LEICESTER. " In the meantime Aganippus sent officers all over Gaul to raise an army to restore his father-in-law to the throne of Britain, which done, Leir returned to Britain with his son and daughter and the forces which they had raised, where he fought with his sons-in-law, and routed them. Having thus reduced the whole kingdom to his power, he died. The third year Aganippus also died, and Cordeilla obtaining the kingdom bm-ied her father in a certain vault, which she ordered to be made for him under the river Soar in Leicester, and which had been built originally under ground to the honour of the god Janus. And here all the workmen of the city upon the anni- versary solemnity of that festival used to begin the year by labours." From this passage it is easy to perceive how the Jewry Wall has been associated with the worship of Janus in the popular conviction. Geoffrey of Monmouth speaks of a temple of Janus in the town of Leicester. In that town there are certain ruins of undoubted Roman workmanship. These, therefore, must have belonged to the temple in question. Such appears to be the line of argument. But surely nothing can be imagined less strictly logical. That there may have once existed in Leicester a shrine dedi- cated to the old Ausonian god is extremely probable. It may at the same time readily be conceded that the Edifice, or at least a Crypt which once belonged to it, may still have remained in the time of the historian, or rather in that of the author from whose legendary compilation his work is said to have been translated. We can also find little difficulty in believing that the peculiar custom he records, and which is in perfect keeping with the attributes of Janus, as god of the opening year, may have continued up to that period, and long after the religion from which it was derived had fallen into decay. It is certain that another statement of the same writer, relative to the wor- ship of Minerva at Bath* has been proved to be substan- tially correct by the discovery of the ruins of the very * Hist. Brit. lib. ii. c. 10. ROMAN LEICESTER. 349 temple. But let it be remarked that in the account of Geoffrey of Monmouth there is not a word from which the site of his temple of Janus can be identified with that of the Jewry Wall. On the contrary, he expressly states that it was constructed in part under the river Soar, — in other words, in close proximity to the river where, indeed, if the western gate of Roman Leicester stood in the position we have assigned to it, we should naturally ex- pect to find such a structure. Of the ordinary custom, common both to the Greeks and Romans, of erecting shrines to their gods close to the gates of their cities, every one present is probably well aware. Lucretius speaks of the brazen images of divinities placed in such situations, whose hands were worn away by repeated acts of devotion on the part of the multitude. " Portas propter ahena Signa manus dextras ostendunt attenuari Ssepe salntantum tactu preeterque meantum." Now, as Janus was a god whose especial office it was to preside over the entrances and avenues to cities, there was probably none whose shrines were more frequently found in these localities. Far from rejecting the account of Geoffrey of Monmouth, therefore, vre are fully justified in receiving it, with those reasonable restrictions as to place which he has himself intimated These, however, if the question is to be discussed upon the merits of his evidence alone, are surely fatal to any connection of the Jewry Wall with the temple of Janus and the supposed burial place of Leir. 1 would further remark that in the ruin of which we are treating, there is not the slightest resemblance to any known part of a temple, neither to the vestibule or portico, the Cella, nor the Adytum. Again, the building when perfect was, as it will presently be seen, far too spacious to admit of any such explanation of its purpose. Most of the Roman temples in Britain, like 350 ROMAN LEICESTER. those in the other imperial provinces, and even in the capital itself, appear to have been constructed on a com- paratively limited scale, as may be seen from the restored front elevation of the one at Bath already alluded to, and from the dimensions of another which formerly stood upon the banks of the Carron. Lastly, it so happens that there does exist on the Continent, an unquestionable temple of Janus, which will afford us the means of judging of the forms and proportions of the edifices erected to that Divinity in the provincial cities of the Empire. This building, which is called the Jennetoi, (an obvious cor- ruption of Jani Tectum,) and which somewhat resembles in general character, the Arch of Janus Quadrifrons in the Velabrum at Rome, as figured in the well-known work of Piranesi, is situated on the banks of the river Arroux, and not far from the Western Gate of Autun, the ancient August odumim. From the Histoire de V Antique Cite Autun, by Edme Thomas, I have taken a drawing of this interesting structure. A single glance at the sketch will be sufficient to show the many great and manifest differences existing between it and our own Jewry Wall. Temple of Janus at Autun. ROMAN LEICESTER. 351 Nor can it be well maintained that the Jewry Wall is to be regarded as an ancient Gateway. It shows no traces of an opening large enough for the passage of vehicles, or for the ordinary current even of a limited population. It is in no way connected with the Roman boundary of the town. It bears no resemblance to those entrances to Roman cities which still exist on the Continent, as at Treves, Autun, Verona, and Pompeii, — or in Britain, as in the instance of the Portvvay of Lincoln, or of the Decu- man Gate of Lymne, the ancient Portus Lemanis. In most, if not the whole of the above, the soffits and arch- stones are of solid masonry. They are, besides, in every instance, constructed either in the form of a curtain of brick or stonework protected by flanking towers, or are mere barriers thrown across a narrow street, and not com- ponent parts of structures, of which other portions were de- voted to widely different uses. It is clear that such is not the case with the Leicester ruin, which may be shown to have been a part of a vast mass or Insula of buildings, once not only occupying the whole area of the churchyard of St. Nicholas, but extending on the south far beyond the pre- mises occupied by Mr. Rust, and stretching in a westerly direction to within an inconsiderable distance of the bank of the river. Everywhere in its neighbourhood continuous foundations of Roman work of the strongest and most solid construction have been met with, as well as drains and flue tiles, portions of tessellated pavements and shafts of broken columns. These discoveries seem to indicate that we have in the Jewry Wall a remnant of one of those imposing erections which were intended to be applied to no one single purpose, but in which the Public Baths were connected with a Court-house or Basilica, and occasionally with a Curia and Arsenal. That such an arrangement was at least sometimes adopted in Roman Britain is not a matter of conjecture, but one which admits of direct and positive proof, for we find in the Britannia Romana of 352 ROMAN LEICESTER. Horsley an inscription which expressly testifies to the erection of a Bath, conjointly with a Basilica, by the proprsetor Cneius Lucilianus, under the auspices of the Emperor Gordian, and the superintendence of Marcus Aurelius Quirinus, pra3fect of the first cohort of the Gor- dian legion.* In reference to the opinion first expressed by Dr. Priestley, that the Jewry Wall is a fragment of the Balnea of Roman Leicester, I would observe, that unless we rather consider it as having belonged to the Basilica, there seems little reason to dispute the soundness of such an opinion. There is a striking similarity between the deeply-arched recesses in the eastern face of the wall and the interior chambers, called the Apodyteria, Frigidaria, and Calidaria, of the Roman Balnea. And certainly among the many remains of Roman edifices which have been figured in the wmks of different Archaeologists, it would seem most to resemble those of the public baths at Pompeii, a drawing of which I beg to submit to your notice. Take away the intervening wall in front, and we may almost imagine that we are standing before our own building. There are the same parallel recesses, the same variations in the height and span of the arches, the same general accordance in character, if not in dimensions. Further, I find in Throsby a passage distinctly proving that from the ruin under our notice it was formerly found necessary to convey large quantities of w^ater to the neigh- bouring river. He says : — " In 1793, as some workmen were employed in removing the earth nearly an equal distance between the Jewry Wall and the river, they found at the depth of about five feet some very large * IMPEKATOR . CJ5SAR . MARCUS . ANTONINUS . GORDIANUS . PIUS . FELIX . AUGUSTUS . BALNEUM , CUM . BASILICA . A . ■ SOLO . INSTRUXIT . PER . CNEIUM . LUCILIANUM . LEGATUM . AUGUSTALEM . PROPR^TOREM . CURANTE . MARCO . AURELIO . QUIRING . PR^FECTO . COHORTIS . PRIM^ . LEGIONIS . GORDIAN^ . ROMAN LEICESTER. 353 blocks of freestone about half a ton weigbt ; and on their being removed, it was discovered that they had been placed over a kind of tunnel two feet over, and four deep, made of the same kind of materials and built on the same principle as the Jewry Wall. The bottom of this tunnel is of freestone like the blocks that cover it. The commencement of it, so far as is known, is in the cellar of Mr. S. Roberts' house [now Mr. Rust's pre- mises] near the south end of Jewry Wall, and continues with a considerable descent in a right line northwestwardly to the river. In emptying this tunnel of its contents (for it was com- pletely gutted up), I found that it contained light earthy par- ticles on the sm-face ; somewhat heavier lower ; at the bottom gravelly ; the whole blended with broken pottery, in general of a singular description ; besides which a few bones of animals were found therein in a petrifying state, and a fragment or two of glass vessels." A little further on, in the same work, occurs another remarkable passage, which will, perhaps, be thought to throw some light upon the true position of the temple of Janus : — " Within the space of a yard of this ancient sewer lay the base of tw^o columns, and two shafts, each about a yard long ; girth, nearly a yard and three-fom'ths. None of these lay below the blocks of stone which covered the shore. About the same time, but at the distance of nearly thirty yards from these, was discovered on a bed of fine red clay, at the depth of twelve feet, a capital of a column, made of the same sort of stone as the base and columns, and corresponding in every particular with them. I have put all the members of one column together in my garden. This, now it is erected, shows that it was originally hewn behind to fit some rugged building probably of forest-stone. Near these columns lay two amazing strong foundations of a considerable building, made of forest- stone and grout, the extraordinary floor mentioned above joined to one of them. On this wrought stone I dare say but little. The defenceless traditions of a Janus' s temple and a King Leir's palace, I have noticed in this w^ork, but to conjecture that this column belonged to one or the other, might subject me very properly to censure." 354 ROMAN LEICESTER. HORIZONTAL SECTION AT SPRINGING OF ARCHES. A — Filled up with rubble. B — Modern Brickwork. C — Original thickness of Wall: an outline of what remains is seen in the elevation. But it is also possible that the Jewry Wall may be the western end of a Basilica. Although greatly inferior to them in magnitude, it is not altogether unlike the remains of the ROMAN LEICESTER. 355 famous Basilica of Constantine at Rome, erroneously called by some antiquaries the Temple of Peace. The building which it formerly terminated or perhaps divided from some neighbouring structure (possibly the public baths) appears, when perfect, to have extended over a somewhat greater space of ground than that occupied by the present Church of St. Nicholas, which has been almost entirely built of Roman quarry tiles and rubble, and may, therefore, be presumed to stand nearly on the same site as the more ancient edifice which yielded the materials for its erection. If we assume the area occupied by the latter to be contained within a parallelogram, whose sides are respectively about eighty and one hundred and sixty feet in length, — which will be found to be not very far from the truth, — such a measurement will not only give us the ratio of proportions laid down by Vitruvius for the con- struction of a Basilica, but will coincide with the super- ficial extent of several remaining edifices of this descrip- tion. Again, the Roman Basilicse, as it is well known, consisted of a double story, or rather of a ground floor and an upper portico, resembling the gallery of a modern church, and it is remarkable that the traces of such a com- bination still exist in the Jewry Wall, since above its re- cesses on the eastern side may yet be observed a series of square holes, into which the supporting beams of a gallery may have been inserted. As a final argument leading to a similar conclusion, 1 would refer to the custom, prevalent in the earlier times of Christianity, of consecrating Ba- silicse to the worship of the Church. Such was the case with the Julian Basilica at Rome, and that of Argentarius near Ravenna. Instances, however, of this kind are far too numerous and familiar to warrant especial mention. I will only add, in taking leave of a subject upon which so much contrariety of opinion exists, and which after all is involved in so much doubt and perplexity, one fact, upon which there can be no room whatever for controversy. It 856 ROMAN LEICESTER. is demonstrable, that, to whatever uses the building repre- sented by the Jewry Wall was adapted, it must have undergone considerable alterations and repairs even during the Roman period. This is sufficiently shown by a marked absence of conformity between one of its eastern recesses and an elegantly turned arch of Roman tiles in the wall behind — an unconformity so great, that a whole jamb of the lesser arch is completely hidden by the adjacent pier or abutment. I have further to state, that in the course of a series of excavations recently made for the enlargement of Mr. Rust's manufactory, a most remarkable mass of masonry, in all respects resembling the neighbouring wall, was dis- covered, in which w^ere embedded not only fragments of earthen pipes, but a vast quantity of flue tiles filled up with mortar, and according to Mr. Barfoot, to whom I am indebted for the information, crossing each other in all directions, and affording an appearance exactly like the cells of a honeycomb.* These flues must of course, in the first instance, have formed part of the hypocaust of a public Balneum, or of some other large Roman building, and, after its destruction by time or by accident, must have been worked up as materials towards the erection of a second structure raised on the same spot. From extant inscriptions we gather that this re-erection of Baths and * The excavations referred to have afforded, among other antiquities, such as an abundance of hair-pins of bone, coins of Vespasian, &c., some of the finest specimens of Roman quarries which have yet been disinterred in Leicester. Several presented by Mr. Rust to the Town Museum are most curiously marked. One retains the distinct impression of a naked foot, — another a rude figure evidently traced with the point of a stick by some careless bystander. Many bear marks of the feet of animals, as the crow or raven, the sheep or deer, and, as it is believed, of the wild-boar, the fox, and the wolf. If the latter supposition is correct, they must be con- sidered curious memorials of the times when the savage animals of the forest prowled by night beneath the sliadow of our walls, and when the sentinels at our gates heard much the same sylvan tumult from the hills of the Charnwood which now startles the adventurous settler upon the banks of the Ohio or the Susquehanna. ROMAN LEICESTER. 357 Basilicae was not unusual during the Roman occupation of Britain. * And, after the evidence just adduced, it - must be plain that the Leicester Jewry Wall affords an additional example of the practice. Next to the Jewry Wall the Milliare or Milestone, which, after standing many years without protection in a conspicuous part of the town, was recently transferred to our local Museum, is unquestionably the most important monument of the Roman period contained within the precincts of Leicester. This invaluable relic was acci- dently discovered about eighty years since almost close to the Fosse Road, and near the spot occupied by the old Thurmaston Tollgate, in the garden of which it lay for several weeks with every prospect of immediate destruction, since it was actually destined to afford materials for the repair of the highway, and was only rescued from this fate by one of the Commissioners, who imagined it might render more valuable service if converted to the purposes of a garden-roller. The stone of which it is composed is apparently a rough millstone grit, its shape is nearly that of a cylinder, three feet six inches in height and about five feet seven inches in circumference. After many and protracted discussions among anti- quaries as to the exact inscription which it bears — for the characters are rudely engraved, considerably worn, and in one or two places seem to have been altogether erased — the legend appears all but proved by the learned and * An inscription in the Britannia Romana of Horsley speaks of the re- building of a Roman bath, which had been destroyed by fire, at Bowes, the ancient Lavatrce. Mr. Wright, in his admirable work, The Celt, the Boman, and the Saxon, instances from Whitaker the restoration of a public bath as well as a Basilica : — BALINEVM REFECT. .. ASILIC AM VETVSTATE CONLABSAM SOLO RESTITVTAIM. 358 ROMAN LEICESTER. elaborate treatises of Mr. Ashby and Mr. Lockinge to have existed in the following abbreviated form : — IMP.. CAES.. DIV. TRAIN. PARTE. F. DIV. TRAIAN. HADRIAN A. P. M. TR f POT. IV. COS. III. A. RATIS. * ' II To the Emperor and Caesar the august Trajan Hadrian, son of the divine Trajan surnamed Parthicus, ^^randson of the divine Nerva Pontifex Maximus ; four times invested with Tribunitial power, thrice Consul. From Ratae. Two miles. Independently of its value as fully determining the identity of Leicester with the Ratse of Antoninus — a point which before its discovery was considered open to con- troversy and w^hich in fact had been denied by highly respectably authorities — the column presents additional features of no common interest. In the first place, with the exception of a similar stone, also of the date of Hadrian, preserved at Caton in Lancashire, and a milliare found between Huntingdon and Cambridge and now deposited in the University Library, it is the only monument of the kind known to exist in Britain ; * for although two other supposed miliary pillars are mentioned by Horsley, one of which is dedicated to Antoninus, and a second to Gallus and Volusianus, the actual use of both has been seriously questioned. In the second place, the legend with which it is engraved is perhaps the most ancient lapidary inscription t The letters marked with asterisks are not now to be seen on the column. * Since the delivery of the above lecture a second mihary column, dis- interred from the Fosse in the neighbourhood of Sex Hill, has been placed in the Leicester Museum by the liberality of the owner, Mr. W. Bryans. It bears only the initial letters IMP. and has to all appearance never been inscribed with any others. The date, therefore, cannot be ascertained, but, like the mihare found near Thurmaston, it may most reasonably be referred to the reign of Hadrian. ROMAN LEICESTER. 359 in England, since none which can be proved to be anterior to the reign of Hadrian have thus far been discovered.* In the third place, it throws considerable light upon the exact time of the completion, if not of the original con- struction, of the Fosse- way ; for the fourth year of Hadrian,t which corresponds with the one hundred and twentieth year of the Christian era, is on good evidence believed to be the date of the visit of that emperor to Britain. The inference, therefore, naturally suggests itself, from the coincidence of the above date with that which is found upon the milliare, that the Fosse was finished in expecta- * Inscriptions on lead of the reigns of Claudius, Nero, Vespasian, and Domitian may be found in The Celt, the Roman, and the Saxon. Two on brass of the time of Trajan are given from Lysons' Reliquice Romano RritanniccB in the Monumenta Historica Britannica, p. cvi. The only- inscription on stone which appears to be earlier than the accession of Hadrian was found at Chichester in the earlier part of the last century j but even in this case the date is doubtful. EPTVNO . ET . MINERVAE . TEMPLUM . . ' O. SALVTEM DO. DIVINAE AVCTOEITA CLAVD. GIBVBNI. R. LEGA. AUG. IN BEIT. GIVM . FABRORVM . . . QVI . IN . EO D.S.D. DONANTE . AREAM . . ENTE . PVDENTINI . FIL, Neptuno et Minervae templum pro salute domus divines ex auctoritate Tiberii Claudii Cogidubni Regis Legati Augusti in Britannia Collegium Fabrorum et qui in eo sunt de suo dedicaverunt, donante aream Pudente Pudentini filio. For the safety of the Divine House, and by authority of King Tiberius Claudius, Cogidubnus, Legate in Britain of the august Emperor, the College of Artizans and those who are comprised in it, dedicated from their own substance (this) temple to Neptune and Minerva. Pudens the son of Pu- dentinus bestowed the site. t The first tribuneship of Hadrian occurred a.d. 105. " Tribunus plebis factus est Candido et Quadrato iterum consulibus in quo magistratu ad perpetuam tribunitiam potestatem omen sibi factum asserit," &c. — JElius Spartianus. His second tribunate corresponds, on the authority of an in- scription preserved in the Monument. Hist. Brit, with his second consul- ship. HADR. BRIT. MAX. TR. POT. II. COS. II. i. e. with the year 118, or the first year of his reign, for Trajan died in August, a. d. tertium Idus (11th) 117. The third and last consulate of Hadrian took place in 119. 360 ROMAN LEICESTER. tion, or in facilitation of the imperial progress, and that the stone now in our Museum was raised on the occasion, under the auspices, or it may be under the direction of Hadrian himself, among whose tastes the designing and the perfecting of public works is known to have formed a most conspicuous feature. To our antiquarian members present, w^ho may be interested in a comparison between the legend of the Leicester milliare and those of others erected nearly at the same time which have been discovered on the Continent, I may observe, that two milliaria bearing the name of Hadrian are mentioned in Mr. Ashby's Treatise, which is to be found at length in Nichols' Leicestershire. The in- scription upon one is copied from Gruter, that of the second, which I have transcribed, exists upon a column which w^as dug up near the town of Entreroches, and is, I believe, still preserved in the city of Geneva.* A third, which has been placed among the collection of Roman x^ntiquities in the city of Treves, on the*Moselle, is of far greater interest than either, since while the date upon it differs from that of the Leicester column only by a single year, its inscription is as nearly as possible iden- tical with that of our own milestone. The legend of the Treves milliare when its few erasures are supplied will stand exactly thus : — IMP. CaeS. DIVL TRAIAni. pARTHICI. FILL Divi NERVAE NePOTL TRAIANo. HADRIANo. TR POTES. V. cOS. IIL A. COL. AVG. MIL. XXIL * IMP. CAES . TITO . AELIO HADEIANO AUG. P.M.. TEIB. POT. cos. III. P.P. AVENTICUM MP. XXXI. ROMAN LEICESTER. 361 From the authority of his biographer, ^lius Spar- tianus, we find that Hadrian visited Gaul immediately after quitting the province of Britain. In the miliare of Treves, therefore, we see that the same method was there adopted as in this island, of celebrating his presence by the increased activity of public works. It is further remarkable, that by the characters which the stone ex- hibits, a matter of considerable antiquarian controversy is definitively determined. Up to the present time it has been doubted whether miliary inscriptions are votive, or simply records of distances and dates ; in other words, whether the abbreviated names and titles which they bear are to be read in the dative, the ablative, or the nomina- tive case, for even the latter has occasionally been suggested. Now in the Treves inscription, the word NEPOTI, which on ours has been used in a contracted form, has been fortunately engraved at length. This, of course, decides the question absolutely in favour of a votive reading. It remains but briefly to speak of those few vestiges of the domestic life of our predecessors, during the earlier centuries of the Christian era, which still exist in the shape of tessellated pavements, of fictile vessels, and of coins or medals ; for of the legionary and sepulchral inscriptions, the altars, sculptures, and bronzes, so often found on the site of other Roman stations, we unfortunately do not possess a single example. The pavements of Leicester, however, are among the most elaborate and beautiful which have hitherto been discovered in Britain, although I be- lieve that in few instances they have been found under- propped by that curious arrangement of supporting pillars, for the double purpose of dryness and warmth, which is often seen at Lincoln, at Cirencester, and in other localities. From incidental notices scattered through the works of our local historians, we have reason to suppose that no less than fourteen tessellated floors have been discovered, and 362 ROMAN LEICESTER, I regret to add for the most part barbarously destroyed, within our walls during the last two centuries. Most of , them were disinterred along the line of High Cross Street, although others have been found in the Blackfriars, (which has yielded no less than three,) in Vine Street, in Mill- stone Lane, and in the Cherry Orchard near Danett's Hall, by the side of the Via Vicinalis, or branch road, which at one time formed the principal means of communication with the Fosse. The most remarkable, confessedly, among them, is one which was uncovered in 1832, at the corner of Jewry-wall Street, and which has recently been engraved with ad- mirable skill, patience, and fidelity, under the directions of Mr. Ekroyd Smith, whose labours, archaeologists have, it is to be feared, not yet learned to appreciate as they deserve. It may be doubted whether any town in England contains a specimen of Roman art of the kind more grace- ful in its design or more exquisite in its execution than this. The only mosaic which we possess of a legendary or mythic character was discovered in the High Cross Street nearly two centuries ago, and has ever since afforded a fertile subject for learned dispute ; some antiquaries con- tending that it refers to the story of Actaeon, and others to that of Cyparissus as related in the Metamorphoses of Ovid. From the comparatively rude style in which it is executed we may conceive it to be a copy of one of much superior workmanship. The group which it contains is composed of a female figure, sufficiently indicated as Diana by her accompanying emblem, the stag, — and of a winged Cupid, who is taking aim at the goddess with his bow bent, and the arrow fitted to the string. This design was once manifestly the central compartment of a pave- ment, which, when perfect, may have been adorned like many others, with the forms of wild animals and the dif- ferent symbols of the chase. On the whole it would seem most likely that the intention of the artist was to represent ROMAN LEICESTER. 363 the only triumph ever gained by the " frivolous bolt of Cupid" over the recluse Divinity of the woods, in her passion for the Latmian shepherd Endymion. The fictile antiquities of Leicester possess little in their number or in their peculiar character to distinguish them from the specimens of Roman pottery discovered on other sites. The usual forms of oUcb, amphorce, and prmfericula are represented, although as yet far too sparingly, in our Museum. The beautiful red ware of Samos appears to have been here, as elsewhere, far fi'om uncommon, and many fragments of earthenware are marked wdth the makers' names. Of these, the most constantly recurring are the well-known stamps of Macrinus, Albinus, and Primanus. A mortarium in the Museum bears the mark of C'Vida. But we are not without a more barbarous nomenclature in the names of Albusa, Cicur, Margne, and of Ardu. One fragment of a Samian patera* has been recently discovered during the excavations for the Town drainage, which evidently served as a Gage cVA^nour or Love Token, some fifteen centuries ago, for it is perforated as if for the purpose of being suspended from the person, and engraved in a bold masculine hand with the names — VERECVNDA LVDIA. LVCIVS GLADIATOR. thus affording the only known instance of characters traced by the hand of one, whose stated occupation it was to con- tend for life and death in the public arena. * Now in the Town Museum. ROMAN LEICESTER. The Roman coins, which have from time to time been discovered on the site of ancient Ratse, have unfortunately for the most part been distributed among collectors at a distance, in consequence of the want, until recently, of any public place for their reception. Yet those which have from time to time found their w^ay into our cabinet have presented an almost unbroken series of Emperors from the days of Augustus to those of Arcadius and Honorius. Of these, the coins of Constantino, with the Pagan reverse of the w^olf, or that of the Sun, with the well-known legend, * Soli invicto Comiti,' constitute per- haps one half of the whole number, and, if their abundance could be considered as any criterion, we might be war- ranted in concluding that Roman Leicester had attained its highest point of prosperity during the reign of the first Christian Emperor. The garden of Mr. Kelly alone, near the Bow Bridge, has afforded the names and legends of Caligula, Claudius, Vespasian, Domitian, Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius, Faustina, Aurelian, Albinus, Posthumas, Carinus, Carausius, Allectus, Maximian, Li- cinius, Constantino, Valens, Probus, and Valentinian. Silver denarii, in remarkable perfection, of Nero and Domitian have occasionally been brought to light, and although medals in first brass of the earlier Csesars are exceedingly rare, those of Hadrian and Antoninus have sometimes been found in considerable numbers. Having thus far reviewed, to the full extent of the limits prescribed by our standing rules, the most remark- able vestiges of the Roman period existing in our imme- diate neighbourhood, I leave the subject for further eluci- dation and discussion in the hands of the Society. If the consideration, which may be awarded it, tends to no other result than to induce a better appreciation and a more careful protection of those local objects of Antiquity, which in all enlightened communities, are regarded with feelings of the deepest interest, the end which I have proposed to ROMAN LEICESTER. 365 myself will be fiilly accomplished. Were such a feeling more general among us, there is every reason to believe ^ that this ancient Municipality of Leicester, connected as it is with the most stirring historical associations, would yield to' none in the kingdom in its possession of varied illustrations of the lives led by our ancestors throughout the period, during which the dialect of the Tyber w^as the • language of mastery in our cities ; while the name of Britain was known but as a feeble and subsidiary member of that stupendous System, the most majestic in externals the world has yet beheld, which was suffered for the wisest purposes to fuse for a while into a partial conformity of usages and of institutions, of speech and of laws, all exist- ing families of men, from the burning sands of Mauritania to the ice-bound shores of the Elbe, — from the waters of the mighty Euphrates to the coasts of the yet untraversed Atlantic. How little, when the proofs and signs of its reality stand discovered before us, seems actually to separate us from the momentous epoch, when the dele- gates of the Caesars gave law in our stately Basilica ; when our market-place was thronged with the auxiliaries of Thrace and of Spain, the swarthy Numidian and the blue- eyed Gaul, or with those veteran Italian legionaries, whose talk may have been of personal exploits performed against Arminius or Vologeses — of feats upon the field of Bebria- cum, or beneath the still smouldering walls of Jerusalem ; — when the Celtic chieftain, with golden chain and amber frontlet, looked gloomily upon the strange arms and en- signs of his recent Conquerors ; when the savage native of the distant wolds stood wondering at the din of a life affording so marked a contrast with his own, and offering for sale his well-trained hunting dogs or painted basket w^are, then the only valued or known productions of Britain which found admission to the Forum of Imperial Rome. How little, in many respects, since that long-perished day, has the march of actual improvement been commensurate 366 ROMAN LEICESTER. with that of Time ! How liberal were those, our ancient masters, of the resources of their science and their art ! How free was their diffusion under every clime of all they had to teach 1 How noble were their conceptions of the wants and the requisitions of the great family of the people ! How strenuous and how costly were their efforts against those fertile causes of endemic pestilence, which have been only recently made among ourselves the subject of sanitary laws. Yet, since the date of that period, at least fifty generations have toiled and struggled, have ruled and bartered, have loved and warred, have fulfilled the common destiny and passed noiselessly to the common goal. Surely the most trifling object, which tends to bridge this awful sea of time, replete with the hopes and the destinies of departed millions—with fitful purposes and varying actions — with transitory phases, but imperishable results — and places us in imagination face to face with those, by whom the course was then being accomplished which we in our turn are following, with hopes of brighter prospects and more beneficent developments yet to be revealed, — is not without an appropriate and a practi- cal use. Yet more ; if Archaeology, which in its most uncertain aspect is still suggestive History, is unappreciated by any to whom its language is addressed, it is not because its words are without a meaning, but because the ear of the listener is dull, and limited of sense to their proper import. The man, to whom any phase of society, whether past or present, in its barbarism or in its refinement, in its disgrace or in its glory, in its weakness or in its power, does not constitute a point of attraction and interest, is by so much less a man in the freest and fullest acceptation of the term. I would add, that every individual, who, while eminently responsible to the full extent of his endowments and his means for the happiness of the Community into which he is born, never looks back as on a standard of comparison ROMAN LEICESTEH. 367 to what has been achieved by former generations, loses one of the best incentives for the improvement of his own. Let us hope that among us, at least, there is no one, to whom the great volume of the Past, written — at how costly a price — for our tuition — whose pages are the rise and the decay of nations, and whose lines are the lives of hoping, of aspiring, and of enduring men— is without a voice of exhortation and of meaning, while the greatest have been contented to shape their actions by its guidance, and to the wisest it has ever proved a source of Inspiration, and a lamp of Instruction. INDEX. A Alleyn, Edward, the actor, 49, 50, 58, 63. ^ j Ancient Records of Leicester, paper | by William Kelly, 29-103— In- troduction, 31 — Sir F. Palgrave's j opinion on the value of local records | as amongst the best materials for national history, 32 — Mr. Thomp- i son's History of Leicester noticed, j ih. — classification, &c. of the town i records,32-34"Value of the "goods { and chattels " of the inhabitants, j in 1336, 33 — the Hall papers, ih. I —"The Town Book of Acts," il.— ''The Vellum Book," ih. — its con- tents, ih. — the Mayors' and Cham- lains' accounts, 34 — their value as | indicating the rise and progress of the town, ih. — the Hall papers and accounts arranged, and subse- quently bound by order of the Town Council, 35 — the Chamber- lains' accounts described, 36 — cus- tomary gifts by the Corporation, ih. — royal visits to the town, ih. — fees, wages, &c. ih. — state of the town during the Great Civil War, 37 — the Plague, ih. — Mr. Buck's paper on Epidemics in the Middle Ages noticed, ih. — Sports and Pas- times in the olden time, ih. — Play- j ers, ih. — entries of payments to j them very numerous, ih. — valuable as elucidating the history of the early English drama, ih. — Miracle- plays the earliest form of dramatic performance in England, ih. — act- ed in the churches, for imparting religious instruction, 38 — in St. Mary's, Leicester, ih. — St. Mar- tin's, ih. — the players of Foston, ib. — St. Mary's Churchwardens' ac- counts, ih. — sold by auction, ih. and note — extracts from them, 39 — the Hall book, ih. — the Passion- play in Leicester, ih. —the Chester mysteries, 40 — the Passion-play there, ih. — at London, ih. — in France in 1852, ih. — the Pageants in Leicester, ih. — ''The Riding of the George," 41 — curious entries respecting Robin Hood, 42 — Moral-plays introduced, ih. — In- terludes, ih. — "Ralph Roister Bols- ter," the earliest English comedy, ih.— " Forrex and Porrex," ih. — players of Richard HL Henry VH. and Henry VHL 43 — itinerant players, ih. — first establishment of a theatre, ih. — plays, where general- ly performed, ih. — in Leicester at the town-hall, ih. — the hooks and pulley for the curtain still remain- ing there, ih. — scenery, &c. of the early stage, ih. — great increase of itinerant plaj'ers, ih. — Act against them, 44 — Mr. J. P. Colher's Annals of the Stage noticed, ih. — payments to various companies of players quoted, ih. — the king's minstrels, ih. — the dancing horse, ih. — Lockwood, the king's jester, 45 — other notices of him, ih. — royal jesters, ih. — plays still per- formed in churches in 1551, ih. — the corporation neglect a venison feast to witness one, ih. — church register of Loughborough, ih. — "The Swat" there, 46— Lord Mor- den's players paid for not acting in the church at Syston, ih. — Queen Mary's hostility to secular plays, ih. — miracle-plays revived, ih. — Queen Elizabeth, 47 — her players 370 INDEX. at Leicester, ib.—one who played alone, ib. — Elizabetli's patronage of the drama, ib. — other payments to players, Lord Loughbo- rough's jester, ib. — waits and minstrels at the mayor's feast, ib, —Edward Astell and his fellows, ib. — performance by the scholars of the Free School, i6.~juvenile companies of players, 48— their popularity, ib. — alluded to by Shakespeare, i^.—visits of com- panies of players and minstrels, ib. =— Earl of Leicester's players under James Burbadge, ib. — their fre- quent visits, ib. — other companies of players, ib. — a company from Wales, 49 — payments to players of interludes and bearwards, ib. — the Queen's players, ib.— the Earl of Worcester's players, ib. — MS. re- lation of their quarrel with the mayor, ib. — are forbidden to play, ib. — their submission,i6. — interest- ing character of the MS., 50 — it affords the earliest notice of Ed- ward Alleyn as an actor, &c. ib. — ■ they quarrel with the players of the Master of the Revels, 51-52 — his license to Mr. Hay sell, the chief player, ib. — payments to other companies of players, 53 — reward- ed according to their patron's rank, ib. — Richard Burbage and the Earl of Leicester's players, 54 — fre- quently at Leicester, ib. — as proved by Bishop Corbet's Iter Boreale, 55 — tradition that Shakespeare performed in the town-hall, ib. — probably true, and why, ib. — his Lear and Richard the Third pro- bably the result of his visits to Leicester, 56 — Thomas Shakes- peare, ib. note — other records to itinerant players, 57 — restrictions by the Corporation on the pay- ments to players, bearwards, &c. ib.—ihe Queen's players, 58 — the Whitechapel players, ib. — theChil- dren of the Revels, ib. — Ecalion Motion, probably a puppet-show, ib, — the Fortune players, ib. — Henslow and Alleyn, other companies of players, puppets, i6 .—description, &c. of puppet- shows, 59 — the Chief Revels, and Swinnerton's, Knight's, Kite's, and Moore's companies, 60~William Fennor, the king's poet, ib. — thea- tres closed, during the Common- wealth, ib. — and revival of the drama at the Restoration, 61 — mountebanks, bear-baiting, ib. Richard Hi's bear ward, ib. — bear- baiting, a favourite pastime of Queens Mary and Elizabeth, 62 — a bible sold to buy a town bear, ib. — the bear-garden at Leicester, ib. — payments to royal and other bearwards at the mayor's feast, &c. ib. — Sir Christopher Hatton's man, 63 — wine given at a great bear- baiting, ib. — Edward Alleyn, * M^". of the Babons,' ib. — the last patent for that office, ib. — bull-baiting, ib. — "no butcher to kill a bull till baited," ib. — cock-fighting, 64 — gifts of wine to Sir G. Hastings and others at the cock-pit, ib. — where situated, ib. — the card of admission to it, ib. — " Pricking in the old hat," an obsolete game, ib. Archery, 65 — Strutt's description of the English Archers, ib. — Ar- chery in England from Edward HL to Ehzabeth, ib.~dX Flodden Field, 66 — Scott's Marmion quoted, ib. — inventory of the town armour in 159^, ib. — Taylor the Water-poet's description of Queen Elizabeth's archer-guard, 67— the Butt-close in Leicester, ib. — held by the pre- sentation of a broad arrow, ib.~ built upon, ib. — tenure by the ser- vice of presenting a rose, 68 — pay- ments for repairing the butts, for arrows, bow-strings, &c. ib. — de- cay of archery, ib. — Drayton's lines on Robin Hood quoted, ib. — Horse-races in Leicester, 69 — Easter hunting on the Danes' Hills, 70— hare-hunting at Whetstone, 71 — court, ib. — at London, ib. — obsolete punishments, 72 — the INDEX. 371 CUCKING-STOOL, lb. -- described by Brand, ih. — in use in Saxon times, ih, — Mr. Wright's opinion that originally the punishment was by exposure, ducking being a sub- sequent addition, ih. — this view (opposed to general opinion) sup- ported by extracts from the records of Leicester and Neath, 73 — (.'ole's account of the c. s. at Cambridge, ih. — payments for the c. s. fre- quent at Leicester, ih. — Throsby's account of one at the town-hall, ih. — chair in the town library identified as a c. s. 74— descrip- tion of it, ih. — entries relating to the c. s. 75 — orders for women to be drawn on the c. s. 76 — the * spikehouse,' ih. — a new c.s. made in 1768-69, ih. — being 23 years later than the last instance men- tioned by Brand, 77 — in use here within the memory of persons now living, ih. — Mr. Wright's observa- tion on this mode of punishment, ih. — the scolding cart,77 — carting, 78 — papers on offenders' heads, 79 — the branks, i6. — the cage, 80, crosses in Leicester, 8 ] — payments for the cage and stocks, ih. — pin- fold and muck-hill in the Market- place, 82 — the pillory, 82-83 — the stocks, 8 4 — whippi ng-post, 84-85 — branding and whipping vagrants, 85, note — witchcraft, 85-88 — the chapel of Our Lady on the old West bridge at Leicester, 88— its highly picturesque appearance, 89 — Mr. BickerstafFe's account of it as be- longing to the Augustine Friary, ih. — followed by our local histori- ans, ih. — but shown to be errone- ous, 90 — the chapel proved to have been a dependency of St. Mary-de- Castro, ih. — early origin of chapels on bridges, 91— -erected for the use of pilgrims, ih. — wayside cha- pels, 92 — St. James's chapel, and St. John's chapel, Leicester, ih. — the hermitage, or chapel-well, ih. — not known when or by whom the West-bridge and its chapel were originally erected, 93 — but probably in 1 107 by the first Nor- man Earl of Leicester, ih. — and why, ih. — he restores St. Mary's church, ih. — its associations, ih. — erects the castle hall, 94 — repairs of the bridge in 1290, 95 — "Brigg- Silvir," ih. — Simon de Montfort's remission of it, ih. — William Lord Hastings bequest for rebuilding the chapel, 96 — reference to the chapel in a survey of the town wall, &c. temp. Henry VH. 97 — " Countess-chamber," ih. — associ- ations inspired by ancient ecclesi- astical edifices, 98 — state of society as illustrated by the records, 99— archaeological studies too generally neglected, 100 — Leicester and its historical associations, ih. — King Leir, ih, — the Druids, ih. — the Ro- mans, ih. — the Danes, ih. — Ethel- floeda, 101 — Eric the Forester, ih. — the Normans, ih. — the castle and its lords, ih. — the Newarke and its church, with its illustrious dead, ih. the Newarke wall, 102 — its breach and its gallant defence, ih. — Bow- bridge and Richard the Third, ih. — Wolsey and the abbey, 103 — the historical value of our local records, ih. — our duty to preserve them for future times, ih. Angelica at the Court Plenar, 286 and note. Angelica and the page Medoro, 301. Annual Meeting of the Society, 9. Anthus spinoletta, 137. Antiquities of the Law, I96. Appeal of death, 207. Archdeaconry Court of Leicester, curious entries in a book of Wilis there, 42 Archery, 65-68. Archaeological Section of the Mu- seum, 10. Archaeology, its value as suggestive history, 366. Ariosto, 272. „ superiority of, 310. Arrow, a broad, presented annually 372 INDEX. at the Castle, for tbxe Butt Close, at Leicester, 67. Arts, Fine, Section, 11. Arthur and Charlemagne, 269, Asiatic cholera, 167- „ >, history of, 169- „ treatment of, 188. Astle, Edward, an actor, 47. Auditors' Report, 26. Audubon, J. J. 117-120. B. Balmoral MS. 164. Baron and feme, 201. Barristers, puffing by, 212. Bear-baiting, 61-53- Bellomonte, Robert de. Earl of Lei- cester, 93. Bible, one sold to buy a town bear, 62. Bickerstaffe, Mr. his account of the chapel on the bridge at Leicester, 89. Black death, 180. Blackstone, Mr. Justice, 200. Boadicea, her revolt against the Ro- mans, 333. Bojardo, 271, 284. Borough Hill : the defeat of the Bri- tons there, &c. 328. Bow-bridge and Richard IIL 102. „ Roman coins found near it, 364. Branks, or scold's bridle, 79. Bribery of judges, 211. Brigg silvir, 95. Britain ; its state of civilization be- fore the Roman invasion, 321, at that period, 324, subsequently, 340. Bull-baiting, 63. Burbage, Richard, the actor, his vi- sits to Leicester, 54. Butt Close in Leicester, 67 and note. Buzzard, 123. C. Caer Lerion, the British name of Lei- cester, 329. Caesar, the extent of his conquests in Britain, 324. Cage, the, 80. Carting, 78. Chapel on the bridge at Leicester, 88-97. Chapel-well, 92 and note. Chemistry section, 11. Chester mysteries, 40. Cholera, Asiatic, l67. „ history of, 169. „ treatment of, 188. Churches of Leicester, plays acted in them, 38, 45. Claudius ; the extent of his conquest in Britain, 326. Clergy, benefit of, 219. Cock-fighting, and the Cock-Pit at Leicester, 64. Coins, Roman, found at Leicester, 364. Coke, Lord, on swans, 218. Colonics, the Roman, in Britain, 339. Committees, sectional, of the Mu- seum, 10. Connection, the, between magnetic phenomena and epidemic diseases, paper by HenryKelsalljM.D.F.R.c.s. see " Magnetic Phenomena." Cooke, mother, hanged as a witch, S6. Copley, Mr., 197. Copyright, literary, 217. Corbet, Bishop, his Iter Boreale, quoted, 55. Countess-chamber, 97. Criminal proceedings, old practice in, 205. Crosses in Leicester, *8 1 . Cucking-stool, 7'2-77- Curators, honorary, 1 1 . Curator, acting, 4. Curiosities of the law in times past, paper by C. G. Merewether, see " Sweep among the Cobwebs.'* D. Dane Hills, Easter hunting there, 70. Dartford Warbler, 121. Dogs, curious case as to, 217, 218. Donations to the Museum, 18. Ducking-stool, see " Cucking-stool." INDEX. 373 E. Eagle, golden. 14 3. Easter hunting on the Danes' Hills. 70. Eggs of Pheasants, old law of tithe as to. 217. Egrets, 133, 1 34. Ehzabeth, Queen, the drama in her reign, 4 7. Ehzabeth, Queen, her patron?.ge of bear- baiting, d'2. Epidemics, Hypothesis as to their caase, 1 56. Eric the Forester, 101. Ethellioeda, the Lady of the Mer- cians, ib. F. Falconidse, 142. Fennor, William, the King's Poet," 60. Fictile vessels found at Leicester, 363. Fine Ai'ts section of the Museum, 1 1 . Fletcher, Mr. G,, his works ahuded to, 227. Retcher, Mr. G,, quotations from, 244, 240. Foston, CO. Leicester, the players of, 3S. G. GeoiJrey of Monmouth, his legend of King Leir quoted, 34 7- Geological section of the Museum, 1 1. George, riding of the, at Leicester, 41. Gladiator, Lucius, his love token, discovered at Leicester, 363. Godiva, Lady, 101. Grallatores, 132-137. Great Plague, the, 176. Guild, St. George's, 41. H. Harley, James, paper by, 105. Hare hunting, by the Corporation of Leicester, 70, 71. Hastings, Lord William, his bequest, for rebuilding the Chapel on the Bridge at Leicester, 96. ■''Herald,'" account of the ship, 156. Hermitage-well, 92 and note. Heron, white variety, 134. Holhngs, J. F., paper by, 317- Horse races, 6Q. L Icthyosaurus communis, 136, Italy, see Romantic Poems," J. Jamieson, Professor, 111. Jameson, Mrs., quotation from, 2 56, 257. Janus, Temple of, at Autun, referred to, 350. Jewry Wall in Leicester, 346-357. Jurisprudence in Britain under the Romans, 340. Jus Lata and Jus Civitatis of the Rom.ans, 339. K. Kelly, Wilhain, paper by, 29—103. Kelsall, H., m.d., paper by, 165. Kingfisher, 147- King's, the, players, 44— n:iinstrels, il. — jester, 4 5 — poet, 60. L. Lady Macbeth, paper by W. X. Reeve, 225 — ^Dr. Johnson's view of her character, 229 — Macready's last appearance in the character of Macbeth, ih. — estimate of Mac- beth's character, 230 — Campbell's opinion of Lady Macbeth, 231 — ■ Mrs. Siddons' \iew of the same character, 232 — Mr. Boaden's re- miniscence of her performance, 2 34 — Lady Macbeth's first appear- ance in the drama, 235 — her esti- mate of her husband, 236 — her first thought of Duncan's murder, 237 — her suggestion of same to her husband, 239 — iris hesitation, 241 — the deed done, 242 — distinc- 374 INDEX. tion in character between Macbeth and his wife, 243 — the discovery of the murder, and subsequent slaughter of the grooms, 244 — the apparition of Banquo, 248 — Lady- Macbeth after the banquet scene, 251 — the sleepwalking scene, 254 — Mrs. Jameson on the character of Lady Macbeth, 256 — imaginary portrait of Lady Macbeth in her childhood and youth, 258 — pecu- liar feature of her character, its energy for good or evil, 259 — conclusion, 260. Lanius excubitor, 129. * Lay of Gascoyne " by John W. Smith, 204. Legion, the fourteenth ; its head quarters at Ratae, 336. Leicester, see " Ancient Records." „ its historical associations, 100, 365. Leicester, Dudley, Earl of, his players, 48, 54 — his minstrels, 48. Leicester, Roman, paper by J. F. Hollings, see " Roman Leicester." Leicester, its condition in the time of Juhus Agricola, 33/. Leicester, Imperial visitors to, ib. Leir, King, the reputed founder of Leicester, 100, 347. Lingua Franca, 198. „ „ abolition of, in legal proceedings, 200. Local Records ; their value as mate- rials for national history, 32. Lockwood, a royal jester, 45. Lucius, Gladiator, his love token, 363. M. Macbeth, Lady, paper by W. N. Reeve, see "Lady Macbeth." Macbeth, Lady, and her husband, character of, 229. Macgillivray, the late professor, paper by J. Harley, 105— author's apo- logy, 106 — difficulties of biography, 107 — birth and early years of Mac- gillivray, 108— effect of mountain scenery upon his mind, 110 — studies medicine, ib. — is appointed assistant to professor Jamieson, at Edinburgh, 111 — becomes con- servator of the Museums of the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh, 112 — Dr. Grant's opinion of him, ib. — list of his works, 1 1 3 — difficulties of study- ing the Mollusca in the north of Scotland, 1 16— the part he took in Audubon's Ornithological Diction- ary, ib. — and in Audubon's Birds of North America, 119 — Audu- bon's opinion of his drawings of birds, ib. — Macgillivray's interest in the natural history of Leicester- shire, 120— origin of his corres- pondence with the author, ib. — extract from letter on the Dart- ford warbler, nightingale, wood- peckers, wagtails, &c., 121— letter on the common buzzard, wood- peckers, white-bellied swift, &c., 1 23 — woodpeckers shot for him by the author in Bradgate Park, 124 — letter in acknowledgement of the author's assistance, &c. 125 — letter requesting a list of Leicestershire birds, 128 — controversy between Audubon and Waterton, 130 — the Quinary and other systems, ib. — letter on the Grallatores, his man- uals of geology, &c., money re- ceived for his books, &c., 132 — letter on the herons and other waders, 134 — difficulties with his publishers, 135 — letter on bones of Ichthyosauri received from Lei- cestershire, 136 — anewpipit, 137 — Anthusspinoletta, &c. ib. — A uthor's opinion of Macgillivray's classifi- cation, 138 — excellence of his de- scriptions of the habits of birds, 141 — his description of the Falco- nidae, extract, 142 — of the golden eagle, 143 — of the kingfisher, 147 — his appointment to the chair of Natural History in Marischal College, Aberdeen, 148 — letter on his arrival in Aberdeen, 150 — letter, descriptive of Aberdeen, its INDEX. 375 two universities, &c., 152 — his Mollusca Aberdonica, 154 — list of shells sent to the Leicester Mu- seum, ib. — his studies in marine zoology, 155 — solicitude for his son, ib. — expedition of the " Herald," 156 — his illness and visit to Devon- shire, 158 — death of his wife, 159 — his own death, 160 — reflections on his life and character, 16 1 — Balmoral, MS., 164. Macgillivray, last days of, 158. „ works of, 113. „ gift of shells by, to the Museum, 154. Macgillivray, system of, examined, 138. „ his son, 156. „ reflections on his life, 161. Magnetic Phenomena and Epidemic Diseases, the connection between, paper by H. Kelsall, M.D., 165— cause of Asiatic cholera, 1 67 — Bar- low's chart of magnetic curves, 169 — history of Asiatic cholera, z6. — theory that cholera follows the course of rivers refuted, 172 — theory that it follows the lines of magnetic variation established, 1 75 — correspondence between the dates of great pestilences and the periods of no variation, and of maximum variation in the compass, 177 — history of the sweating sickness, ib. — history of the black death, 180 — Boccacio's description of it, 181 — Pliny's remark on the course of pestilences, ib. — Thiicydides' account of the black death, ib. — Hecker's account of it, 182 — changes in the lines of magnetic variation, 184 — cause of the va- riation of the magnet, ib. — dis- turbance of magnetic force during the prevalence of epidemics, 185 — Magnetometer, constructed by Mr. Roberts of Plymouth, ib. — why the absence of electricity gives rise to disease, 186 — composition of some vegetable poisons, 187 — means of diminishing epidemics, 188 — treat- ment of cholera, ib. — treatment of the sweating sickness, 189. Magnet, variation of, 176. „ „ cause of, 184. „ diurnal, 185. Magnetometer, constructed by Mr. Roberts of Plymouth, 185. Marischal College, Aberdeen, 152. Market (the Wednesday's) in Lei- cester, and that in the Roman en- campment probably held on the same site, 345. Mary, Queen ; the state of the drama in her reign, 46. Members of Lit. and Phil. Society, list of, 5. Members, honorary, 7. Merewether, C. G., paper by, 193. Meteorological section of the Mu- seum, 1 1 . Milliare, the Roman, at Leicester, 357-360. „ one found near Sex Hill, 358, note. „ at Treves, 360. Montfort, Simon de. Earl of Lei- cester, 95. Mountebanks, 6l . Municipia, the Roman, in Britain, 339. Museum, Leicester, trustees of, &c. 4. Museum, donations to, 18. N. Neath, extract from the Records of, 73. Nightingale, 121. Noy, Bon mot of, 213. Numismatic section of the Museum, 11. O. Obsolete punishments, 72-85. Ocean, depth of, 157. Officers of the Society, 1854-5, 3, „ „ 1855-6, 10. Orlando Innamorato, 286. „ Furioso, 298. Ostor-ford in Leicestershire, 328. Ostorius Scapula, his conquests in Britain, 326. 376 INDEX. P. Pageants from the Churches in Lei- cester, 40. Palgrave, Sir F., his opinion on the value of local records, quoted, 32. Palmer, W., paper by, 263. Papers, list of, read before the Society, 1854-5, 16. Passion-play at Leicester, &c , 39- Pavements, Roman tessellated, found at Leicester, 361. Pillory, 82. Plague, the great, 176. „ of Athens, 181. Plays and players, 37 — 6l. Podiceps auritus, 137. Poets, the King's, 60. Poisons, chemical composition of, 187. Potters' names on fictile vessels found at Leicester, 363, Preetorium, its probable site in Lei- cester, 345. " Pricking in the Old Hat," 64. Pulci, Bojardo, and Ariosto, 271. Punishments, obsolete, 72-85. Puppet-shows, 59. a. Quinary system, 131. R. " Ralph Roister Doister," the earhest English comedy, 42. Ratae, the Roman name of Leicester, its derivation, &c., 329. Rawdykes, the, near Leicester, 330. Records, ancient, of Leicester, paper by W.Kelly, see^AncientRecords." Reeve, W. N. paper by, 225. Religion in Britain under the Ro- mans, 341. Report of the Council, 13. „ „ Auditors, 26. Resolutions at Annual Meeting of the Society, 9. Resurrectionist case, 219. Revels, license from the master of the, 5 1 . Richard III, his players, 43. Richard III, his bear-ward, 61. at Leicester, 56, 102. Riding of the George at Leicester, 41 . Robin Hood, curious entries respect- ing, 42. Rodomont, 307 note. Roman Leicester, paper by J. F. Boilings, 317-367. — Introduction, 319 — remarks on the notices of Roman Leicester in the works of Throsby, Nichols, and Thompson, ib. — the period comprised within the limits of the paper, 320 — the consequences of the Roman con- quest of Britain, ib. — previous con- dition of the inhabitants, 321 — im- migration of the Celtee, the Welsh Triads quoted, 322 — other immigrations : — the Caledonians, the Gwddelians, the Galedins, the Teutonic Belgae, the Coritani, the Iceni, 323 — Itinerary of Rich- ard of Cirencester noticed, ib.— state of civilization of the 13ritons in the time of Csesar, 324, 325 — Extent of the Roman con- quests at that period, 326 — in the time of Claudius, ib. — Os- torius Scapula establishes a chain of posts from the Severn to the Avon, 326— -revolt of the Iceni, '/J. —their defeat, 327—supposed to have occurred at Borough Hill, near Daventry, ib. — but more pro- bably at Borough Hill, Leicester- shire, 328 — excavations there, ib. — Ostor-ford, ib. — subjection of the Midland Counties, ib. — Ratse when first applied to Leicester, ib. — its derivation from Rath, 329 — known asCaerLerion by theBritons, ib. — whence derived, ib. — itsSaxon names, 330 — the Rawdykes pro- bably the site of the original Rath, or fortified settlement, descrip- tion of them, 331, 332— St. John's stone, ib. — succession of Roman Propraetors in Britain, 333— insur- rection under Boadicea, ib. — its consequences, 334 — the Midland districts held by the 14th legion, 335 — its head-quarters probably at INDEX. 377 ' Rat