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Another Random Scribd Document
with Unrelated Content
company carrying the colours, and leading the van. When they met,
they mutually desired each other to lower their colours in sign of
subjection. If there appeared to be a great disproportion in the
strength of the parties, the weakest usually submitted to this
ceremony without much difficulty, thinking their honour was saved
by the evident disproportion of the match; but, if they were nearly
equal in strength, none of them would yield, and it ended in blows,
and sometimes bloodshed. It is related, that, in a battle of this kind,
four were actually killed, and many disabled from work for weeks.
If no opponent appeared, or if they themselves had no intention
of making an attack, at about mid-day they took down their colours,
and marched with horns sounding, towards the most considerable
village in their district; where the lasses, and all the people, came
out to meet them, and partake of their diversions. Boundaries were
immediately appointed, and a proclamation made, that all who
intended to compete in the race should appear. A bonnet
ornamented with ribbons was displayed upon a pole, as a prize to
the victor; and sometimes five or six started for it, and ran with as
great eagerness as if they had been to gain a kingdom; the prize of
the second race was a pair of garters, and the third a knife. They
then amused themselves for some time, with such rural sports as
suited their taste, and dispersed quietly to their respective homes
before sunset.
When two parties met, and one of them yielded to the other,
they marched together for some time in two separate bodies, the
subjected body behind the other; and then they parted good friends,
each performing their races at their own appointed place. Next day,
after the ceremony was over, the ribbons and napkin that formed the
colours, were carefully returned to their respective owners, the
tower was no longer a matter of consequence, and the country
returned to its usual state of tranquility.
The above is a faithful account of this singular ceremony which
was annually repeated in all the country, within the distance of six
miles west from Edinburgh, about thirty years before Dr. Anderson
wrote, which was in the year 1792. How long the custom prevailed,
or what had given rise to it, or how far it had extended on each side,
he was uninformed. He says, “the name of Lammas-towers will
remain, (some of them having been built of stone,) after the
celebration of the festival has ceased. This paper will at least
preserve the memory of what was meant by them. I never could
discover the smallest traces of this custom in Aberdeenshire, though
I have there found several towers of stone, very like the Lammas-
towers of this country; but these seem to have been erected without
any appropriated use, but merely to look at. I have known some of
those erected in my time, where I knew for certain that no other
object was intended, than merely to amuse the persons who erected
them.”[279]

The Cobblers’ Festival at Paris on the First of August, 1641.

A rare old “broadside” in French, printed at the time, with a large
and curious wood-cut at the head, now before the editor, describes a
feast of the cobblers of Paris in a burlesque manner, from whence he
proposes to extract some account of their proceedings as closely as
may be to the original.
First, however, it is proper to observe that the wood engraving,
on the next page, is a fac-simile of one third, and by far the most
interesting portion of the original.
 Festival of the Cobblers of Paris, August
1, 1641.
The entire occupation of the preceding page by a cut, which is
the first of the kind in the Every-Day Book, may startle a few
readers, but it must gratify every person who regards it either as a
faithful transcript of the most interesting part of a very rare
engraving, or as a representation of the mode of feasting in the old
pot-houses of Paris.
 Nothing of consequence is lost by the omission of the other part
of the engraving; for it is merely a crowd of smaller figures, seated
at the table, eating and drinking, or reeling, or lying on the floor
inebriated. The only figure worth notice, is a man employed in
turning a spit, and he has really so lack-a-daisical an appearance,
that it seems worth while to give the top corner of the print in fac-
simile.

We perceive from the page-cut that at the period when the

original was executed, the French landlords “chalked up the score”
as ours do, and that cobblers had music at their dinners as well as
their betters. The band might not be so complete, but it was as good
as they could get, and the king and his nobles could not have more
than money could procure. The two musicians are of some
consideration, as well suited to the scene; nor is the mendicant near
them to be disregarded; he is only a little more needy, and, perhaps,
a little less importunate than certain suitors for court favours. The
singer who accompanies himself on the guitar at the table, is tricked
out with a standing ruff and ruffles, and ear-rings, and seems a
“joculator” of the first order;—and laying aside his dress, and the
jaunty set of his hat, which we may almost imagine had been a
pattern for a recent fashion, his face of “infinite humour” would
distinguish him any where. However rudely the characters are cut,
they are well discriminated. The serving man, with a spur on one
foot and without a shoe on the other, who pours wine into a glass, is
evidently a person—
“contented in his station
who minds his occupation.”
Vandyke himself could scarcely have afforded more grace to a
countess, than the artist of the feast has bestowed on a cobbler’s
wife.

From the French of the author who drew up the account referring
to the engraving, we learn that on the first day of August, 1641, the
“Society of the Trade of Cobblers,” met in solemn festival (as, he
observes, was their custom) in the church of St. Peters of Arsis,
where, after having bestowed all sorts of praises on their patron,
they divided their consecrated bread between them, with which not
one third of them was satisfied; for while going out of the church
they murmured, while the others chuckled.
After interchanging the reciprocal honours, they were
accustomed to pay to each other, (which we may fairly presume to
have been hard blows,) many of the most famous of their calling
departed to a pot-house, and had a merry-making. They had all such
sorts of dishes at their dinner as their purses would afford;
particularly a large quantity of turnip-soup, on account of the
number of persons present; and as many ox-feet and fricasees of
tripe, as all the tripe-shops of the city and its suburbs could furnish,
with various other dishes which the reporter says he does not
choose to name, lest he should give offence to the fraternity. He
mentions cow-beef, however, as one of the delicacies, and hints at
their excesses having disordered their stomachs and manners. He
speaks of some of them having been the masters, and of others as
more than the masters, for they denominated themselves Messieurs
le Jurez, of their honourable calling. He further says, that to know
the whole history of their assembly, you must go to Gentily, at the
sign of St. Peter, where, when at leisure, they all play together at
bowls. He adds, that it is not necessary to describe them all,
because it is not the custom of this highly indispensable fraternity to
do kindness, and they are always indignant at strong reproaches.
Finally, he says, “I pray God to turn them from their wickedness.”
He subjoins a song which he declares if you read and sing, will show
he has told the truth, and that you will be delighted with it. He
alleges, that he drew it up to make you better acquainted with the
scene represented in the wood-cut, in order that you might be
amused and laugh. Whether it had that tendency cannot be
determined, for unluckily the song, which no doubt was the best
part, has perished from the copy of the singular paper now
described.

Lammas Day
Exeter Lammas Fair.
The charter for this fair is perpetuated by a glove of immense
size, stuffed and carried through the city on a very long pole,
decorated with ribbons, flowers, &c. and attended with music, parish
beadles, and the mobility. It is afterwards placed on the top of the
Guildhall, and then the fair commences; on the taking down of the
glove, the fair terminates.
P.

Rippon Lammas Feast.

To the Editor of the Every-Day Book.
Sir,—If the following sketch of St. Wilfrid’s life, as connected with
his feast at Rippon, be thought sufficiently interesting for insertion,
you will oblige an old contributor.
The town of Rippon owes its rise to the piety of early times, for
we find that Eata, abbot of Melross and Lindisfarne, in the year 661
founded a monastery there, for which purpose he had lands given
him by Alchfrid, at that time king of Deira, and afterwards of the
Northumbrians; but before the building was completed, the Scottish
monks retired from the monastery, and St. Wilfrid was appointed
abbot in 663, and soon afterwards raised to the see of York. This
prelate was then in high favour with Oswy and Egfrid, kings of
Northumberland, and the principal nobility, by whose liberality he
rose to such a degree of opulence as to vie with princes, and enable
him to build several rich monasteries; but his great pomp and
immense wealth having drawn upon him the jealousy of the king
and the archbishop of Canterbury, he was exiled. After an absence
of ten years he was allowed to return to his see, and died in the
monastery of Oundle in 711, aged seventy-six, and was interred
there. In 940, his remains were removed to Canterbury, by Odo,
archbishop of that see. Amongst all the miracles recorded of Wilfrid
by the author of his life,[280] one, if true, was very extraordinary, and
would go far to convert the most obdurate pagan. It is said, that at
this time, God so blessed the holy man’s endeavours towards the
propagation of the faith, that, on a solemn day for baptizing some
thousands of the people of Sussex, the ceremony was no sooner
ended but the heavens distilled such plentiful showers of rain, that
the country was relieved by it from the most prodigious famine ever
heard of. So great was the drought, and provision so scarce, that, in
the extremity of hunger, fifty at a time joined hand in hand and flung
themselves into the sea, in order to avoid the death of famine by
land. But by Wilfrid’s means their bodies and souls were preserved.
The town of Rippon continues to this day to honour the memory
of its benefactor by an annual feast. On the Saturday following
Lammas-day, the effigy of St. Wilfrid is brought into the town with
great ceremony, preceded by music, when the people go out to
meet it in commemoration of the return of their favourite saint and
patron from exile. The following day called St. Wilfrid’s Sunday is
dedicated to him. On the Monday and Tuesday there are horse-races
for small sums only; though formerly there were plates of twenty,
thirty, forty, and fifty pounds.[281]
The following is a literal copy of part of an advertisement from
the “Newcastle Courant” August 28, 1725.
“T Ocounty
BE RUN FOR. The usual four miles’ course on Rippon Common, in the
of York, according to articles. On Monday the thirteenth of September
a purse of twenty guineas by any horse, mare, or gelding that was no more than
five years old the last grass, to be certified by the breeder, each horse to pay two
guineas entrance, run three heats, the usual four miles’ course for a heat, and
carry nine stone, besides saddle and bridle. On Tuesday the fourteenth, THE LADY’S
PLATE of fifteen pounds’ value by any horse, &c. Women to be the riders: each to
pay one guinea entrance, three heats, and twice about the common for a heat.”

During the feast of St. Wilfrid, which continues nearly all the
week, the inhabitants of Rippon enjoy the privilege of rambling
through the delightful grounds of “Studley Royal,” the seat of Mrs.
Laurence, a lady remarkable for her amiable character and bounty to
the neighbouring poor. On St. Wilfrid’s day the gates of this fairy
region are thrown open, and all persons are allowed to wander
where they please.
No description can do justice to the exuberant distribution of
nature and art which surrounds one on every side on entering these
beautiful and enchanting grounds; the mind can never cease to
wonder, nor the eye tire in beholding them.
The grounds consist of about three hundred acres, and are laid
out with a taste unexcelled in this country. There is every variety of
hill and dale, and a judicious introduction of ornamental buildings
with a number of fine statues; among them are Hercules and
Antæus, Roman wrestlers, and a remarkably fine dying gladiator.
The beauties of this terrestrial paradise would fill a volume, but the
chief attraction is the grand monastic ruin of Fountain’s abbey. This
magnificent remain of olden time is preserved with the utmost care
by the express command of its owner, and is certainly the most
perfect in the kingdom. It is seated in a romantic dale surrounded by
majestic oaks and firs. The great civility of the persons appointed to
show the place, is not the least agreeable feeling on a visit to
Studley Royal.
I am, &c.
J. J. A. F.

Dissenters’ Festival.
 The first of August, as the anniversary of the death of queen
Anne, and the accession of George I., seems to have been kept with
rejoicing by the dissenters. In the year 1733, they held a great
meeting in London, and several other parts of the kingdom to
celebrate the day, it being that whereon the “schism bill” was to
have taken place if the death of the queen had not prevented it. If
this bill had passed into a law, dissenters would have been debarred
the liberty of educating their own children.[282]

Dogget’s Coat and Badge.

Also in honour of this day there is a rowing match on the river
Thames, instituted by Thomas Dogget an old actor of celebrity, who
was so attached to the Brunswick family, that sir Richard Steele
called him “a whig up to the head and ears.”
In the year after George I. came to the throne, Dogget gave a
waterman’s coat and silver badge to be rowed for by six watermen
on the first day of August, being the anniversary of that king’s
accession to the throne. This he continued till his death, when it was
found that he had bequeathed a certain sum of money, the interest
of which was to be appropriated annually, for ever, to the purchase
of a like coat and badge, to be rowed for in honour of the day by six
young watermen whose apprenticeships had expired the year
before. This ceremony is every year performed on the first of
August, the claimants setting out, at a signal given, at that time of
the tide when the current is strongest against them, and rowing
from the Old Swan, near London-bridge, to the White Swan at
Chelsea.[283]
Broughton, who was a waterman, before he was a prize-fighter,
won the first coat and badge.

This annual rowing-match is the subject of a ballad-opera, by

Charles Dibdin, first performed at the Haymarket, in 1774, called
“The Waterman, or the First of August.” In this piece Tom Tugg, a
candidate for Dogget’s coat and badge, sings the following, which
was long a popular
 SONG.
And did you not hear of a jolly young waterman,
Who at Blackfriars-bridge used for to ply;
And he feather’d his oars with such skill and dexterity,
Winning each heart and delighting each eye:
He looked so neat, and rowed so steadily,
The maidens all flocked in his boat so readily,
And he eyed the young rogues with so charming an air,
That this waterman ne’er was in want of a fare.
What sights of fine folks he oft row’d in his wherry!
’Twas clean’d out so nice, and so painted withal;
He was always first oars when the fine city ladies,
In a party to Ranelagh went, or Vauxhall:
And oftentimes would they be giggling and leering,
But ’twas all one to Tom, their gibing and jeering,
For loving, or liking, he little did care,
For this waterman ne’er was in want of a fare.
And yet, but to see how strangely things happen,
As he row’d along, thinking of nothing at all,
He was plied by a damsel so lovely and charming,
That she smiled, and so straightway in love he did fall;
And, would this young damsel but banish his sorrow,
He’d wed her to-night before to-morrow:
And how should this waterman ever know care,
When he’s married and never in want of a fare?
Tom Tug wins Dogget’s coat and badge under the eyes of his
mistress, who sits with her friends to see the rowing-match from an
inn window overlooking the river; and, with the prize, he wins her
heart.

Dogget.
Colley Cibber calls Dogget “a prudent, honest man,” and relates
anecdotes highly to our founder’s honour. One of them is very
characteristic of Dogget’s good sense and firmness.
The lord chamberlain was accustomed to exercise great power
over actors. In king William’s reign he issued an order that no actor
of either company should presume to go from one to the other
without a discharge, and the lord chamberlain’s permission; and
messengers actually took performers who disobeyed the edict into
custody. Dogget was under articles to play at Drury-lane, but
conceiving himself treated unfairly, quitted the stage, would act no
more, and preferred to forego his demands rather than hazard the
tediousness and danger of the law to recover them. The manager,
who valued him highly, resorted to the authority of the lord
chamberlain. “Accordingly upon his complaint, a messenger was
immediately despatched to Norwich, where Dogget then was, to
bring him up in custody. But doughty Dogget, who had money in his
pocket, and the cause of liberty at his heart, was not in the least
intimidated by this formidable summons. He was observed to obey it
with a particular cheerfulness, entertaining his fellow-traveller, the
messenger, all the way in the coach (for he had protested against
riding) with as much humour as a man of his business might be
capable of tasting. And, as he found his charges were to be
defrayed, he, at every inn, called for the best dainties the country
could afford, or a pretended weak appetite could digest. At this rate
they jollily rolled on, more with the air of a jaunt than a journey, or a
party of pleasure than of a poor devil in durance. Upon his arrival in
town, he immediately applied to the lord chief justice Holt for his
habeas corpus. As his case was something particular, that eminent
and learned minister of the law took a particular notice of it: for
Dogget was not only discharged, but the process of his confinement
(according to common fame) had a censure passed upon it in court.”
“We see,” says Cibber, “how naturally power, only founded on
custom, is apt, where the law is silent, to run into excesses; and
while it laudably pretends to govern others, how hard it is to govern
itself.”[284]

Scarcely any thing is known of this celebrated performer, but

through Cibber, with whom he was a joint patentee in Drury-lane
theatre. They sometimes warmly differed, but Cibber respected his
integrity and admired his talents. The accounts of Dogget in
“Cibber’s Apology,” are exceedingly amusing, and the book is now
easily accessible, for it forms the first volume of “Autobiography, a
collection of the most instructive and amusing lives written by the
parties themselves;”—a work printed in an elegant form, and
published at a reasonable price, and so arranged that every life may
be purchased separately.
Cibber says of Dogget, “He was a golden actor.—He was the
most an original, and the strictest observer of nature, of all his
contemporaries. He borrowed from none of them; his manner was
his own; he was a pattern to others, whose great merit was, that
they had sometimes tolerably imitated him. In dressing a character
to the greatest exactness he was remarkably skilful; the least article
of whatever habit he wore, seemed in some degree to speak and
mark the different humour he presented; a necessary care in a
comedian, in which many have been too remiss or ignorant. He
could be extremely ridiculous without stepping into the least
impropriety to make him so. His greatest success was in characters
of lower life, which he improved from the delight he took in his
observations of that kind in the real world. In songs and particular
dances, too, of humour, he had no competitor. Congreve was a great
admirer of him, and found his account in the characters he expressly
wrote for him. In those of Fondlewife, in his ‘Old Batchelor,’ and Ben,
in ‘Love for Love,’ no author and actor could be more obliged to their
mutual masterly performances.”
Dogget realized a fortune, retired from the stage, and died,
endeared to watermen and whigs, at Eltham, in Kent, on the twenty-
second of September, 1721.

NATURALISTS’ CALENDAR.
Mean Temperature 64·77.

[278] Mr. Brady’s Clavis Calendara.

[279] Dr. James Anderson, in Trans. Soc. Antiq. Scot.
[280] V. Wilfridi inter xx Scriptores.
[281] Gentleman’s Magazine.
[282] Ibid.
[283] Jones’s Biographia Dramaticæ.
 [284] Autobiography, 1826, 18mo. vol. i. p. 202.

August 2.
Chronology.
Thomas Gainsborough, eminent as a painter, and for love of his
art, died on the second of August, 1788. His last words were, “We
are all going to heaven, and Vandyke is of the party.” He was buried,
by his own desire, near his friend Kirby, the author of the Treatise on
“Perspective,” in the grave-yard of Kew chapel.
Gainsborough was born at Sudbury, in Suffolk, in 1727, where his
father was a clothier, and nature the boy’s teacher. He passed his
mornings in the woods alone; and in solitary rambles sketched old
trees, brooks, a shepherd and his flock, cattle, or whatever his fancy
seized on. After painting several landscapes, he arrived in London
and received instructions from Gravelot and Hayman: he lived in
Hatton-Garden, married a lady with 200l. a year went to Bath, and
painted portraits for five guineas, till the demand for his talent
enabled him gradually to raise the price to a 100l. He settled in Pall-
mall in 1774, with fame and fortune.
Gainsborough, while at Bath, was chosen a member of the Royal
Academy on its institution, but neglected its meetings. Sir Joshua
Reynolds says, “whether he most excelled in portraits, landscapes,
or fancy pictures, it is most difficult to determine.” His aërial
perspective is uncommonly light and beautiful. He derived his grace
and elegance from nature, rather than manners; and hence his
paintings are inimitably true and bewitching. Devoted to his art, he
regretted leaving it; just before his death, he said, “he saw his
deficiences, and had endeavoured to remedy them in his last works.”
No object was too mean for Gainsborough’s pencil; his habit of
closely observing things in their several particulars, enabled him to
perceive their relations to each other, and combine them. By painting
at night, he acquired new perceptions: he had eyes and saw, and he
secured every advantage he discovered. He etched three plates; one
for “Kirby’s Perspective;” another an oak tree with gypsies; and the
third, a man ploughing on a rising ground, which he spoiled in
“biting in:” the print is rare.
In portraits he strove for natural character, and when this was
attained, seldom proceeded farther. He could have imparted
intelligence to the features of the dullest, but he disdained to elevate
what nature had forbidden to rise; hence, if he painted a butcher in
his Sunday-coat, he made him, as he looked, a respectable yeoman;
but his likenesses were chiefly of persons of the first quality, and he
maintained their dignity. His portraits are seldom highly finished, and
are not sufficiently estimated, for the very reason whereon his
reputation for natural scenery is deservedly high. Sir Joshua gave
Gainsborough one hundred guineas for a picture of a girl and pigs,
though its artist only required sixty.[285]
Gainsborough had what the world calls eccentricities. They
resulted rather from his indulgence in study, than contempt for the
usages of society. It was well for Gainsborough that he could
disregard the courtesies of life without disturbance to his happiness,
from those with whom manners are morals.
A series of “Studies of Figures” from Gainsborough’s “Sketch
Books,” are executed in lithography, in exact imitation of his original
drawings by Mr. Richard Lane. Until this publication, these drawings
were unknown. Mr. Lane’s work is to Gainsborough, what the prints
in Mr. Otley’s “Italian School of Design,” are to Raphael and Michael
Angelo. Each print is so perfect a fac-simile, that it would be
mistaken for the original drawing, if we were not told otherwise. This
is the way to preserve the reputation of artists. Their sketches are
often better than their paintings; the elaboration of a thought tends
to evaporate its spirit.

NATURALISTS’ CALENDAR.
Mean Temperature 64·95.

[285] Pilkington.
 August 3.
Chronology.
Michael Adanson, an eminent naturalist of Scottish extraction,
born in April, 1727, at Aix, in Provence, died at Paris on the third of
August, 1806. Needham, at one of his examinations, presented
Adanson, then a child, with a microscope, and the use of the
instrument gave the boy a bias to the science which he distinguished
as a philosopher. His parents destined him for the church, and
obtained a prebend’s stall for him, but he abandoned his seat, made
a voyage to Senegal in 1757, and published the result of his labours
in a natural history of that country. This obtained him the honour of
corresponding member in the Academy of Sciences. In 1763, his
“Famille des Plantes” appeared; it was followed by a design of an
immense general work, which failed from Louis XV., withholding his
patronage. He formed the project of a settlement on the African
coast for raising colonial produce without negro slavery, which the
French East India company refused to encourage: he refused to
communicate his plan to the English, who, after they had become
martyrs of Senegal, applied for it to Adanson, through lord North. He
declined invitations from the courts of Spain and Russia, and
managed as well as he could with pensions derived from his office of
royal censor, his place in the academy, and other sources inadequate
to the expense of forming his immense collections. He was reduced
to poverty by the revolution. The French invited him to join it as a
member; he answered, “he had no shoes.” This procured him a
small pension, whereon he subsisted till his death.[286]

So early as thirteen years of age, Adanson began to write notes

on the natural histories of Aristotle and Pliny; but soon quitted books
to study nature. He made a collection of thirty-three thousand
existences, which he arranged in a series of his own. This was the
assiduous labour of eight years. Five years spent at Senegal, gave
him the opportunity of augmenting his catalogue. He extended his
researches to subjects of commercial utility, explored the most fertile
and best situated districts of the country, formed a map of it,
followed the course of the Niger, and brought home with him an
immense collection of observations, philosophical, political, moral,
and economical, with an addition to his catalogue of about thirty
thousand hitherto unknown species, which, with his former list, and
subsequent additions brought the whole number to more than ninety
thousand.

The arrangement of Adanson’s “Families des Plantes,” is founded

upon the principle, “that if there is in nature a system which we can
detect, it can only be founded on the totality of the relations of
characters, derived from all the parts and qualities of plants.” His
labours are too manifold to be specified, but their magnitude may be
conceived from his having laid before the academy, in 1773, the plan
of his “Universal Natural Encyclopædia,” consisting of one hundred
and twenty manuscript volumes, illustrated by seventy-five thousand
figures, in folio. In 1776, he published in the “Supplement of the first
Encyclopædia,” by Diderot and D’Alembert, the articles relative to
natural history and the philosophy of the sciences, comprised under
the letters A. B. C. In 1779, he journied over the highest mountains
in Europe, whence he brought more than twenty thousand
specimens of different minerals, and charts of more than twelve
hundred leagues of country. He was the possessor of the most
copious cabinet in the world.
Adanson’s first misfortune from the revolution was the
devastation of his experimental garden, in which he had cultivated
one hundred and thirty kinds of mulberry to perfection; and thus the
labour of the best part of his life was overthrown in an instant. One
privation succeeded another, till he was plunged in extreme
indigence, and prevented from pursuing his usual studies for want of
fire and light. “I have found him in winter (says his biographer) at
nine in the evening, with his body bent, his head stooped to the
floor, and one foot placed upon another, before the glimmering of a
small brand, writing upon this new kind of desk, regardless of the
inconvenience of an attitude which would have been a torment to
any one not excited by the most inconceivable habit of labour, and
inspired with the ecstacy of meditation.”
Adanson’s miserable condition was somewhat alleviated by the
minister Benezech; but another minister, himself a man of letters,
Francois de Neufchateau, restored Adanson to the public notice, and
recommended him to his successors. The philosopher, devoted to his
studies, and apparently little fitted for society, sought neither patron
nor protector; and indeed he seems never to have been raised
above that poverty, which was often the lot of genius and learning in
the stormy period of the revolution. His obligations to men in power
were much less than to a humbler benefactor, whose constant and
generous attachment deserves honourable commemoration. This
was Anne-Margaret-Roux, the wife of Simon Henry, who, in 1783, at
the age of twenty-eight, became the domestic of Adanson, and from
that time to his death, stood in the place to him of relations, friends,
and fortune. During the extremity of his distress, when he was in
want of every necessary, she waited upon him during the day, and
passed the night, without his knowledge, in labours, the wages of
which she employed in the purchase of coffee and sugar, without
which he could do nothing. At the same time, her husband, in the
service of another master in Picardy, sent every week bread, meat,
and vegetables, and even his savings in money, to supply the other
wants of the philosopher. When Adanson’s accumulated infirmities
rendered the cares of the wife insufficient, Simon Henry came and
assisted her, and no more quitted him.
From the time of his residence at Senegal, Adanson was
exceedingly sensible of cold and humidity; and from inhabiting a
ground floor, without cellars, in one of the lowest streets in Paris, he
was continually labouring under rheumatic affections. The attitude in
which he read and wrote, which was that of his body bent in an
arm-chair, and his legs raised high on each side of the chimney-
place, contributed to deposit humours upon his loins, and the
articulations of his thighs. When he had again got a little garden, he
used to pass whole days before his plants, sitting upon his crossed
legs; and he often forgot, in the ardour of study, to go to bed. This
mode of life occasioned an osseous disease in the right thigh. In
January, 1806, as he was standing by his fire, he perceived his thigh
bend, and would have fallen, had he not been supported by his
devoted domestic. He was put to bed, the limb was replaced, and he
was attended with the utmost assiduity by the faithful pair, who even
tore up their own linen for his dressings. Except his surgeon, they
were the only human beings he saw during the last six months of his
life—a proof how little he had cultivated friendship among his
equals. Napoleon informed of his wretched situation, sent him three
thousand livres, which his two attendants managed with the greatest
fidelity. Whilst confined to his bed, he continued his usual occupation
of reading and writing, and was seen every morning with the pen in
his hand, writing without spectacles, in very small characters, at
arm’s length. The powers of his understanding were entire when he
expired.[287]

NATURALISTS’ CALENDAR.
Mean Temperature 64·25.

[286] General Biography, vol. i. 17.

[287] Dr. Aikin’s Athenæum.

August 4.
Long Bowls.
On the fourth of August, 1739, a farmer of Croydon undertook
for a considerable wager, to bowl a skittle-bowl from that town to
London-bridge, about eleven miles, in 500 times, and performed it in
445.[288]

NATURALISTS’ CALENDAR.
Mean Temperature 63·72.

[288] Gentleman’s Magazine.

 August 5.
St. James’s Day, Old Style.
It is on this day, and not on St. James’s day new style, as
mistakingly represented in vol. i. col. 978, that oysters come in.
 Oyster Day.
For the Every-Day Book.
Greengrocers rise at dawn of sun—
August the fifth—come haste away!
To Billingsgate the thousands run,—
’Tis Oyster Day!—’tis Oyster Day!
Now at the corner of the street
With oysters fine the tub is filled;
The cockney stops to have a treat
Prepared by one in opening skilled.
The pepper-box, the cruet,—wait
To give a relish to the taste;
The mouth is watering for the bait
Within the pearly cloisters chased.
Take off the beard—as quick as thought
The pointed knife divides the flesh;—
What plates are laden—loads are bought
And eaten raw, and cold, and fresh!
Some take them with their steak for sauce,
Some stew, and fry, and scollop well;
While, Leperello-like, some toss;
And some in gutting them excel.[289]
Poor creatures of the ocean’s wave!
Born, fed, and fatted for our prey;—
E’en boys, your shells when parted, crave,
Perspective for the “Grotto day.”
With watchful eye in many a band
The urchin wights at eve appear;
They raise their “lights” with voice and hand—
“A grotto comes but once a year!”
Then, in some rustic gardener’s bed
The shells are fixed for borders neat;
Or, crushed within a dustman’s shed,
Like deadmen’s bones ’neath living feet.
*, *, P.

Chronology.
 Sir Reginald Bray, the architect of king Henry the seventh’s
chapel, died August 5, 1503. His family came into England with the
Conqueror, and flourished in Northampton and Warwickshire. He was
second son to sir Richard Bray, a privy counsellor to king Henry VI.
In the first year of Richard III. Reginald had a general pardon, for
having adhered, it is presumed, to Henry VI. He favoured the
advancement of the earl of Richmond to the throne as Henry VII.,
who made him a knight banneret, probably on Bosworth field. At this
king’s coronation he was created a knight of the bath, and
afterwards a knight of the garter.
Sir Reginald Bray was a distinguished statesman and warrior. He
served at the battle of Blackheath in 1497, on the Cornish
insurrection under lord Audley, part of whose estates he acquired by
grant. He was constable of Oakham castle in Rutlandshire, joint chief
justice of the forests south of Trent, high steward of the university of
Oxford, chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster, and high treasurer.
Distinguished by the royal favour, he held the Isle of Wight for his
life at an annual rent of three hundred marks, and died possessed of
large estates, under a suspicious sovereign who extorted large sums
from his subjects when there was very little law to control the royal
will. His administration was so just as to procure him the title of “the
father of his country.” To his skill in architecture we are indebted for
the most eminent ecclesiastical ornament of the metropolis—the
splendid chapel founded by Henry in his lifetime at Westminster; and
he conducted the chapel of St. George, at Windsor palace, to its
completion.

NATURALISTS’ CALENDAR.
Mean Temperature 63·47.

[289] See the supper scene in “Don Giovanni,”—also the Irishman’s joke
of eating the oysters and taking his master the shells. Speaking of
“Oysters”—the song sung by Grimaldi senior,—“An oyster crossed in
love,”—has been very popular.
 August 6.
Transfiguration.
For this denomination of the day see vol. i. col. 1071.
It is alleged that this festival was observed at Rome in the fifth
century, though not universally solemnized until in 1457 pope
Calixtus III. ordained its celebration to commemorate the raising of
the siege of Belgrade by Mahomet II.[290]

NATURALISTS’ CALENDAR.
Mean Temperature 63·37.

[290] Butler. Brady.

August 7.
Name of Jesus.
A festival in honour of the name of Jesus appears was anciently
held on the second Sunday in Epiphany, from whence it was
removed at the reformation to this day, and the name of St. Donatus
expunged by the English reformers to make room for it. That saint’s
name had previously been substituted for that of St. Afra, to whom
the day had first been dedicated in honour of her martyrdom.
 Caput Sancti Adalberonis.
Augsburg cathedral was rebuilt by St. Ulric to whom and St. Afra
jointly it was dedicated: a Latin folio with engravings by Kilian
describes its magnificence.[291] In the church were preserved the
sculls of several saints, blazing with jewellery, mitred or crowned,
reposing on embroidered cushions, and elevated on altars or
reliquaries. One of these is selected as a specimen of the sumptuous
adornment of deceased mortality in Roman catholic churches.
 St. Afra.
This saint is alleged to have suffered martyrdom under
Dioclesian. She had led an abandoned life at Augsburg, but being
required to sacrifice to the heathen deities she refused; wherefore,
with certain of her female companions, she was bound to a stake in
an island on the river Lech, and suffocated by smoke from vine
branches. She is honoured as chief patroness of Augsburg.

St. Ulric.
This saint was bishop of Augsburg, which city he defended
against the barbarians by raising walls and erecting fortresses
around it, and died in 973, surrounded by his clergy, while lying on
ashes strewed on the floor in the form of a cross.

NATURALISTS’ CALENDAR.
Mean Temperature 63·20.

[291] Basilica S. S. Udalrici et Afræ, Imperialis Monasterii ord. S. Benedicti

Augustæ Vindel. Historice descripta; edit. secunda. August. Vindel. 1653.

August 8.
The Season.
This time of the year is usually remarkably fine. The rich glow of
summer is seldom in perfection till August. We now enjoy settled hot
weather, a glowing sky, with varied and beautiful, but not many
clouds, and delightfully fragrant and cool evenings. The golden
yellow of the ripe corn, the idea of plenty inspired by the
commencing harvest of wheat, the full and mature appearance of
the foliage, in short the tout ensemble of nature at this time is more
pleasing than perhaps that of any of the other summer months.
One of the editors of the “Perennial Calendar,” inserts some
verses which he found about this time among his papers; he says
they are “evidently some parody,” and certainly they are very
agreeable.
 Infantine Recollections
In Fancy how dear are the scenes of my childhood
Which old recollections recal to my view!
My own little garden, its plants, and the wild wood,
The old paper Kite that my Infancy flew.
The cool shady Elm Grove, the Pond that was by it,
My small plaything Mill where the rain torrent fell;
My Father’s Pot Garden, the Drying Ground nigh it,
The old wooden Pump by the Melon ground well.
That Portugal Laurel I hail as a treasure,
For often in Summer when tired of play,
I found its thick shade a most exquisite pleasure,
And sat in its boughs my long lessons to say.
There I first thought my scholarship somewhat advancing,
And turning my Lilly right down on its back,
While my thirst for some drink the Sun’s beams were enhancing
I shouted out learnedly—Da mihi lac.
No image more dear than the thoughts of these baubles,
Ghigs, Peg Tops, and Whip Tops, and infantine games
The Grassplot for Ball, and the Yewwalk for Marbles,
And the arbours for whoop, and the vine trellis frames.
Those three renowned Poplars, by Summer winds waved
By Tom, Ben, and Ned, that were planted of yore,
’Twixt the times when these Wights were first breeched and first shaved
May now be hewn down, and may waver no more!
How well I remember, when Spring flowers were blowing,
With rapture I cropt the first Crocuses there!
Life seemed like a Lamp in eternity glowing,
Nor dreamt I that all the green boughs would be sear.
In Summer, while feasting on Currants and Cherries,
And roving through Strawberry Beds with delight,
I thought not of Autumn’s Grapes, Nuts, and Blackberries,
Nor of Ivy decked Winter cold shivering in white.
E’en in that frosty season, my Grandfather’s Hall in,
I used to sit turning the Electric Machine,
And taking from Shockbottles shocks much less galling,
If sharper than those of my manhood I ween.
The Chesnuts I picked up and flung in the fires,
The Evergreens gathered the hot coals to choke;
 The Evergreens gathered the hot coals to choke;
Made reports that were emblems of blown up desires,
And warm glowing hopes that have ended in smoke.
How oft have I sat on the green bench astonished
To gaze at Orion and Night’s shady car,
By the starspangled Sky’s Magic Lantern admonished
Of time and of space that were distant afar!
But now when embarked on Life’s rough troubled ocean,
While Hope with her anchor stands up on the bow,
May Fortune take care of my skiff put in motion,
Nor sink me when coyly she steps on the prow.

NATURALISTS’ CALENDAR.
Mean Temperature 62·97.

August 9.
The Eagle—a Royal Bird.
The “Gentleman’s Magazine” records that, on August the ninth,
1734 a large eagle was taken near Carlton, in Kent, by a taylor: its
wings when expanded were three yards eight inches long. It was
claimed by the lord of the manor, but afterwards demanded by the
king’s falconer as a royal bird and carried to court.

It was formerly a custom with itinerant showmen, who had

tolerably sized eagles among their “wonders of nature,” to call them
“Eagles of the Sun.”
 To the Sun.
Most glorious orb! that wert a worship, ere
The mystery of thy making was reveal’d!
Thou earliest minister of the Almighty,
Which gladden’d, on their mountain tops, the hearts
Of the Chaldean shepherds, till they pour’d
Themselves in orisons! Thou material God!
And representative of the Unknown—
Who chose thee for His shadow! Thou chief star!
Centre of many stars! which mak’st our earth
Endurable, and temperest the hues
And hearts of all who walk within thy rays;
Sire of the seasons! Monarch of the climes,
And those who dwell in them! for near or far,
Our inborn spirits have a tint of thee,
Even as our outward aspects;—thou dost rise,
And shine, and set in glory. Fare thee well!
Byron.

Sunset.
We walked along the pathway of a field,
Which to the east a hoar wood shadowed o’er,
But to the west was open to the sky:
There now the sun had sunk; but lines of gold
Hung on the ashen clouds, and on the points
Of the far level grass and nodding flowers,
And the old dandelion’s hoary beard,
And, mingled with the shades of twilight lay
On the brown massy woods: and in the east
The broad and burning moon lingeringly rose
Between the black trunks of the crowded trees,
While the faint stars were gathering overhead.

NATURALISTS’ CALENDAR.
Mean Temperature 62·45.

August 10.
This is the festival day of St. Lawrence.
 Chronology.
Old Anthony Munday, the pleasant continuator of Stow’s “Survey,”
renders this day remarkable by a curious notice.
Coya Shawsware’s Tomb.

Coya Shawsware’s Tomb.

This is an exactly reduced fac-simile representation of the wood-
cut in Stow, and the following is Anthony Munday’s story:—
“This monument, or that of which this is a shadow, with their
characters engraven about it, stands in Petty France, at the west end
of the lower churchyard of St. Botolphes, Bishopsgate, (not within,
but without the walls, the bounds of our consecrated ground,) and
was erected to the memory of one Coya Shawsware, a Persian
merchant, and a principal servant and secretary to the Persian
ambassadour, with whom he and his sonne came over. He was aged
forty-four, and buried the tenth of August, 1626: the ambassadour
himselfe, young Shawsware his sonne, and many other Persians
(with many expressions of their infinite love and sorrow) following
him to the ground betweene eight and nine of the clocke in the
morning. The rites and ceremonies that (with them) are done to the
dead, were chiefly performed by his sonne, who, sitting crosse-
legged at the north end of the grave, (for his tombe stands north
and south,) did one while reade, another while sing; his reading and
singing intermixt sighing and weeping: and this, with other things
that were done in the grave in private (to prevent with the sight the
relation) continued about halfe an houre.
“But this was but this dayes businesse: for, as this had not beene
enough to performe to their friend departed, to this place and to this
end (that is, prayer, and other funerall devotions) some of them
came every morning and evening at sixe and sixe, for the space of a
moneth together; and had come (as it was then imagined) the
whole time of their abode here in England, had not the rudenesse of
our people disturbed and prevented their purpose.”

NATURALISTS’ CALENDAR.
Mean Temperature 63·69.

August 11.
Dog Days end.
Clouds.
Clouds are defined to be a collection of vapours suspended in the
atmosphere, and rendered visible.
Although it be generally allowed that clouds are formed from the
aqueous vapours, which before were so closely united with the
atmosphere as to be invisible, it is not easy to account for the long
continuance of some very opaque clouds without dissolving; or to
assign the reason why the vapours, when they have once begun to
condense, do not continue to do so till they at last fall to the ground
in the form of rain or snow, &c. It is now known that a separation of
the latent heat from the water, of which vapour is composed, is
attended with a condensation of that vapour in some degree; in
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