The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 19, No. 538, March 17, 1832

RETROSPECTIVE GLEANINGS

WITCHES

(From Howell's Letters, 1647.)

We need not cross the sea for examples of this kind, we have too many (God wot) at home: King James a great while was loth to believe there were witches; but that which happened to my Lord Francis of Rutland's children, convinced him, who were bewitched by an old woman that was servant at Belvoir Castle, but being displeased, she contracted with the devil, who conversed with her in form of a cat, whom she called Rutterkin, to make away those children, out of mere malignity, and thirst of revenge.

A RICH MAN

"Among the many and various hospitals," says Sir William Temple, "that are every man's curiosity and talk, that travels their country, I was affected with none more than that of the aged seamen at Enchuysen, which is contrived, finished, and ordered, as if it were done with a kind of intention of some well-natured man, that those who had been their whole lives in the hardships and incommodities of the sea, should find a retreat with all the eases and conveniences that old age is capable of feeling and enjoying. And here I met with the only rich man that I ever saw in my life—for one of these old seamen entertaining me a good while with the plain stories of his fifty years voyages and adventures, while I was viewing the hospital and the church adjoining; I gave him, at parting, a piece of their coin, about the value of a crown; he took it and smiled, and offered it me again; but when I refused it, he asked me 'What he should do with money?' I left him to overcome his modesty as he could; but a servant coming after me, saw him give it to a little girl that opened the church door, as she passed by him; which made me reflect upon the fantastic calculation of riches and poverty that is current in the world, by which a man that wants a million, is a prince; he that wants but a groat is a beggar; and this was a poor man that wanted nothing at all."

THE GATHERER

Nicknames.—John Magee, formerly the printer of the Dublin Evening Post, was full of shrewdness and eccentricity. Several prosecutions were instituted against him by the government, and many "keen encounters of the tongue" took place on these occasions between him and John Scott, Lord Clonmel, who was at the period Chief Justice of the King's Bench. In addressing the court in his own defence, Magee had occasion to allude to some public character, who was better known by a familiar designation. The official gravity of Clonmel was disturbed; and he, with bilious asperity reproved the printer, by saying,—"Mr. Magee, we allow no nicknames in this court." "Very well, John Scott," was the reply.

H.S.S.

A Village Hampden.—In the churchyard of one of the parishes of Walsall, Staffordshire, is the following epitaph on a person named Samuel Wilks, who appears, like other persons of his name, to have been a great stickler for the rights of the people:—"Reader, if thou art an inhabitant of the Foreign of Walsall, know that the dust beneath thy feet was imprisoned in thy cause, because he refused to incorporate the poor-rates of the Foreign of Walsall and those of the Borough of Walsall. His resistance was successful. Reader, the benefit is thine."

Difference between a Town and a Village.—The other night it was warmly contested in the Reform debate in the House of Commons, whether Bilston and Sedgeley, in Staffordshire, were towns or villages. Mr. Croker spoke of the "village of Bilston," and the "rural district of Sedgeley," but Sir John Wrottesley maintained that the right hon. gentleman would find nothing in Bilston that would give him any idea of sweet Auburn. "He would find a large market-town in the parish of Wolverhampton, filled not with trees and waving foliage, but with long chimneys and smoking steam-engines. The time was also beyond his memory when Sedgeley was a rural district. The right hon. gentleman would find there no mossy fountains, no bubbling brooks; the only thing at all like them which he could find there would be the torrents of boiling water which the steam-engines perpetually discharged."

Dutch Disgust.—You might seek through all London to find such a piece of furniture as a spitting-box. A Dutchman who was very uncomfortable for the want of one, declared, with great indignation, that an Englishman's only spitting-box was his stomach.

Awkward Honour.—A medical gentleman has written a letter to Sir Henry Halford on Cholera, in which he takes to himself the credit of being "the first to discover the disease, and communicate it to the public." The public is much obliged to him.—Globe.

Newspapers.—We wish Lieutenant Drummond would calculate the miles of newspaper columns which every club-haunter daily swallows, and the price he pays for the same to the proprietaries and the revenue.—Examiner.

Scandal.—The tell-tale trumpery and eaves-dropping with which the "Tour of a German Prince" is trickseyed out, reminds us of an observation by Lady Morgan: "Admit these fellows into your house, and the only return they will make you is to put you in their book."

Yorkshire Fun.—The assizes and the theatre always open together at York, and it is common to hear the Tykes say, "Eh, lad, ther'l be fun next week; t'pla'ctors is cuming, and t'men's to be hung all at t'syame time."– Atlas.

Ancient Drunkenness in London.—Andrews in his History of Great Britain, says, "In the 16th century drinking had its votaries in abundance. Much time was spent by the citizens of London at their numerous taverns." In the country, if a bitter writer of the time, (Stub's Anatomie of Abuse,) may find credit, every public-house was crowded from morn till night with determined drunkards. Camden, who also allows the increase of drunkenness among the English, imputes it to their familiarity with the Flemings in the Low Country wars.

The taverns of London were many and much frequented. An old bard has favoured us with a list of them in Newes from Bartholomew Fayre, a black letter poem, the title page of which is torn off, viz.

 
"There hath been great sale and utterance of wine,
Besides beere, and ale, and ipocras fine,
In every country, region, and nation,
But chiefly in Billingsgate, at the Salutation;
And the Bore's Head, near London Stone,
The Swan at Dowgate, a taverne well known;
The Mitre in Cheape; and then the Bull Head,
And many like places that make noses red;
Th' Bore's Head in Old Fish Street, Three Crowns in the Vintry,
And now, of late, St. Martin's in the Sentree;
The Windmill in Lothbury; the Ship at th' Exchange,
King's Head in New Fish Street, where roysters do range;
The Mermaid in Cornhill, Red Lion in the Strand,
Three Tuns, Newgate Market; Old Fish Street, at the Swan."
 

The first drinking song that appeared in the English tongue is connected with Gammer Gurton's Needle, and was published in 1551.

P.T.W.

Governesses.—A lady wrote to her son, requesting him to look out for a lady, such as she described, and such as is ordinarily expected in a governess, that is to say, all accomplished, with the disposition of an angel. The gentleman wrote back that he had long been looking out for such a person, and that when he found her, he should not recommend her for a governess, but take her for a wife.—New Monthly Mag.

Counterfeit Kings.—In the infancy of the Roman Empire, we find a counterfeit Agrippa, after him a counterfeit Nero; and before them two counterfeit Alexanders, in Syria. But never was a nation so troubled with these mock kings as England; a counterfeit Richard II. being made in the time of Henry IV.; a counterfeit Mortimer in the time of Henry VI.; a counterfeit Duke of York; a counterfeit Earl of Warwick under Henry VII.; and a counterfeit Edward VI. under the reign of Queen Mary; and a counterfeit Protector, in Oliver Cromwell.

G.K.

Reading at Meals, &.—Lectores, among the Romans, were servants in great men's houses, who were employed in reading while their masters were at supper. They were called by the Greeks, Anagnostae. Acroama, was a name given by the Romans to amusing tales, which they recited at their repasts. The Emperor Severus read himself at table. Atticus never supped without reading. Charlemagne had the histories and acts of ancient kings read to him at table. This was a relic of the ancient Greeks, who had the praises of great men and heroes sung to them while at table. Celsus tells us, reading is bad, especially after supper, for those whose heads are weak; but he recommends reading with an audible voice, for such as have weak stomachs.

P.T.W.

Epigrams from the French

 
"On peut, en vous voyant, devenir infidèle
Mais c'est pour la dernière fois."
 

Chaulieu.

 
"At sight of thee—each lover false might prove,
But having seen—no other e'er could love."
"Ce monde est plein de fous—et qui n'en veut pas voir
Doit se renfermer seul, et casser son miroir."
"With fools the world abounds—who would their presence shun
Must break his mirror—or he'll there see one."
 

T.R.P.