Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

(and small blame to me), down I fell an the flure, cry in- -"New pittayatees!" -cryin' out" Murther! murther!" Sal. Oh, the hangin'-bone villian! Kat. Oh, that's not all! As I was risin', my jew'l, he was goin' toisthrek me agin; and with that, I cried out-"New pittayatees!"- -I cried out, "Fair play, Mikee," says I; "don't sthrek a man down;" but he wouldn't listen to rayson, and was goin' to hit me agin, whin I put up the child that was in my arms betune me and harm. "Look at your babby, Mikee," says I. "How do I know that, you flag-hoppin' jade," says he. (Think o'that, Sally, jew'l-misdoubtin' my vartue, and I an honest woman, as I am. God help me!)

Sal. Oh! bud you're to be pitied, Katty, dear.

Kat. Well, puttin' up the child betune me and harm, as he was risin' his hand"Oh!" says I, "Mikee, darlint, don't sthrek the babby;" but, my dear, before the word was out o' my mouth, he sthruk the babby. (I thought the life id lave me.) And, iv coorse, the poor babby, that never spuk a word, began to cry"New pittayatees!"--began to cry, and roar, and bawl, and no wondher. Sul. Oh, the haythen, to sthrek the child.

[ocr errors]

Kat. And, my jewel, the neighbours in the flure below, hearin' the skrimmage, kem runnin' up the stairs, cryin' out"New pittayatees!' cryin' out, "Watch, watch! Mikee M'Evoy," says they, "would you murther your wife, you villian?" "What's that to you?" says he; "isn't she my own?" says he, “and if I plase to make her feel the weight o' my- -"New pittayatees!"- -the weight o' my fist, what's that to you?" says he; "its none o' your business any how, so keep your tongue in your jaw, and your toe in your pump, and 'twill be betther for your "New pittayatees!" 'twill be betther for your health, I'm thinkin'," says he; and with that he looked cruked at thim, and squared up to one o' thim-(a poor definceless craythur, a tailor.)

"Would you fight your match," says

innocent man.

the poor "Lave my sight," says Mick, or, by Jingo, I'll put a stitch in your side, my jolly tailor," says he.

"Yiv put a stitch in your wig already," says the tailor, "and that 'll do for the present writin'."

-a

And with that, Mikee was goin' to hit him with a--" New pittayatee !"lift-hander; but he was cotch owld iv, before he could let go his blow; and who should stand up forminst him, but

[ocr errors]

My new pittayatees!"—but the tailor's wife; (and, by my sowl, it's she that's the sthrapper, and more's the pity she's thrown away upon one o' the sort;) and says she, "let me at him," says she, "it's I that's used to give a man a lickin' every day in the week; you're bowld on the head now, you vagabone," says she; "but if I had you alone," says she, "no matther if 1 wouldn't take the consait out o' your— "New pittayatees !"- -out o' your braggin' heart;" and that's the way she wint on bally raggin' him; and, by gor, they all tuk patthern after her, and abused him, my dear, to that degree, that, I vow to the Lord, the very dogs in the sthreet wouldn't lick his blood

Sul. Oh, my blessin' on them.

Kat. And with that, one and all, they began to cry" New pittayatees !”they began to cry him down; and, at last, they all swore out, "Hell's bells attind your berrin'," says they, ❝ you vagabone," as they just tuk him up by the scuff o' the neck, and threwn him down the stairs: every step he'd take, you'd think he'd brake his neck (Glory be to God!), and so I got rid o' the ruffin; and then they left me, cryin'"New pittayatees!"cryin' afther the vagabone; though the angels knows well he wasn't desarvin' o' che precious dhrop that feli from my two good-lookin' eyes—and, oh! but the condition he left me in.

Sal. Lord look down an you.

Kat. And a purty sight it id be, if you could see how I was lyin' in the middle o' the flure cryin'—“ My new pittayatees!"--cryin' and roarin', and the poor child, with his eye knocked out, in the corner, cryin'- "New pittayatees !" and, indeed, every one in the place was cryin' "New pittayatees!” -was cryin' murther.

Sal. And no wondher, Katty dear.

Kat. Oh bud that's not all. If you seen the condition the place was in afther it; it was turned upside down like a beggar's breeches. Throth I'd rather be at a bull-bait than at it, enough to make an honest woman cry--" New pittayatees!"to see the daycent room rack'd and ruin'd, and my cap tore aff my head into tatthers, throth you might riddle bulldogs through it; and bad luck to the

hap'orth he left me but a few——“ New vittayatees!"-a few coppers; for the morodin' thief spint all his- "New pittayatees!" -all his wages o' the whole week in makin' a baste iv himself; and God knows but that comes aisy to him; and divil a thing I had to put inside my face, nor a dhrop to dhrink, barrin' a few --"New pittayatees!"- -a few grains o' tay, and the ind iv a quarther o' sugar, and my eye as big as your fist, and as black as the pot (savin' your presence), and a beautiful dish iv-" New pittayatees!"-dish iv delf, that I bought only last week in Timple bar, bruk in three halves, in the middle o' the ruction, and the rint o' the room not ped,—and I dipindin' only an- "New pittayatees!" -an cryin' a sieve-full o' pratees, or screechin' a lock o' savoys, or the like.

But I'll not brake your heart any more, Sally dear ;-God's good, and never opens one door, but he shuts another;-and that's the way iv it;-an' strinthins the wake with- -" New pittayatees !"with his purtection; and may the widdy and the orphin's blessin' be an his name, I pray! And my thrust is in divine providence, that was always good to me, and sure I don't despair; but not a night that I kneel down to say my prayers, that I don't pray for--"New pittayatees!" pray for all manner o' bad luck to attind that vagabone, Mikee M'Evoy. My curse light an him this blessid minit; and [A voice at a distance calls," Potatoes!"]

Kat. Who calls?-(Perceives her customer.)-Here ma'am. Good-bye, Sally, darlint-good-bye. "New pittay-a

tees!"

[Exit Katty by the Cross Poddle.]

Advertisement.

"There is an Office for generall accommodation of all people, newly erected and kept at the house of Edward Tooley Gentleman, Scituate in Basinghall-street neer Blackwell-hall, London. There are several registers there kept, where such persons may enter their names, and desire, that shall at any time have occasion in any of the particulars following, viz. Such as have a desire to Mortgage or sell any Land or Houses, or to let to farm any Land by Lease or yearly Rent in any part of England, or such as desire to be boarded by the year or otherwise, or to take lodgings in, or Country Houses neer the City of London. Or such as shall at any time want able and fit Soliciters to follow any businesse, and likewise such as shall want either men Servants, Apprentisses, Clerks, or others, or Maid Servants, or Nurses for Children. There are likewise registers kept to enter the names and places of aboad of all such as shall desire to buy Land or houses, or to let out money upon Mortgage, or to take to farm any Land, or to take Countrey Houses about the City, or Lodgings in the City, or to take any to board; and likewise for all Servants that shall any time want a Service, and make their desires known at the said Office. By which means people may easily come to the knowledge one of the other, and their several necessities andoccasionsbe speedily supplyed.-And likewise all Ministers' Widdows, and others, that have Studies of Books to sell at second hand, may at the said Office give in a Catalogue of their Books, and such as want any Books scarce to be come by, may upon their repair to the said Office view the said Catalogues, and very probably know where to be supplyed."

[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

COURT GAMES AND DIVERSIONS TEMP. CHARLES II.

[For the Year Book.]

In 1660 we find Pepys saying, "After supper my lord sent for me, intending to play at cards with him, but I not knowing cribbage we fell into discourse." Then, "after my lord had done playing at ninepins." Afterwards "to the Mitre Tavern, here some of us fell to handycapp, a sport that I never knew before." Next year, "played with our wives at bowles.

Again: "I saw otter-hunting with the king." Then: "To St. James's Park, where I saw the Duke of York playing at pelemele, the first time that ever I saw the sport." In 1662 "to Whitehall garden, where lords and ladies are now at bowles." In January of the same year, Evelyn says, "his majesty as usual opened the revells of the night by throwing the dice himself in the privy chamber. The ladies also played deep. I came away when the Duke of Ormond had won £1000, and left them still at passage, cards, &c. &c., at other tables." He next notices "a grand masque at Lincoln's Inn." And, "December 1, saw the strange and wonderful dexterity of the sliders on the new canal in St. James's Park, performed before their majesties by divers gentlemen with scheets after the manner of the Hollanders." In the same month Pepys makes a similar observation: "Over the park, where I first in my life, it being a great frost, did see people with their skeates sliding, which is a very pretty art." In the ensuing May, Pepys went to nine-pins." In Deceinber he saw the king playing at tennis," and went "to Shoe Lane to see a cockfighting." In January following, Pepys notes his going "to St. James's Park seeing people play at pell mell (pall mall) -where it pleased me to hear a gallant swear at one of his companions for suffering his man (a spruce blade) to be so saucy as to strike a ball while his master was playing on the mall." In June we find this entry-" With my wife to Hackney, played at shuffleboard, eat cream and good cherries;" and in July "my lady Wright, and all of us, to billiards." In March, 1668, Evelyn "found the Duke and Duchess of York, Lady Castlemaine, and other great ladies, playing at I love my love with an A." On the 16th of June, 1670, Evelyn went "to the bear garden, where was cock-fighting, with a dog fighting, beare and bull-baiting;-it being a famous day for butcherly sports, or rather barbarous cruelties." Evelyn says, again, in October, 1671, "we wcnt hunting and hawking," and "in the afternoon to cards and dice." In 1672 we find Evelyn "after dinner at Leicesterhouse with Lady Sunderland, where was Richardson the famous fire-eater shewing his feats."

Morley, near Leeds.

J. S.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

27th July, 1747, died the rev. Nicholas Tindal, a translator and continuator of Rapin's History of England. He became a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, and was reduced to pecuniary inconvenience; but by clerical preferment he was at different times rector of Alverstoke, Hants; vicar of Great Waltham, in Essex ; chaplain in the bay of Revel, on board the Torbay; assistant chaplain to the factory at Lisbon; rectory of Colbourne, in the Isle of Wight; and at length chaplain of Greenwich Hospital. His literary labors were numerous, and chiefly carried on in conjunction with the rev. Philip Morant. Their diligence was great; but Morant, a native of Guernsey or Jersey, scarcely knew French or English grammatically, and wrote a compound of both. Tindal published Morant's translation of De Beausobre and L'Enfant's Notes of St. Matthew's Gospel, and commenced the History of Essex, which he afterwards resigned to Morant, probably because he exchanged his preferment there; while Morant obtained St. Mary's, Colchester, and Aldham, both in that county. They afterwards joined in that vast concern, the translation of Rapin's History of England, with a continuation; and the work sold so well, that the publishers, the Knaptons, made them a present of £200. Tindal was engaged in several other works. He died at a very advanced age at Greenwich hospital, where he was buried in the new cemetery.*

"BLACK'S THE WHITE OF MY EYE."

It is common with vulgar women, while quarrelling, for one to exclaim to the other, "You cannot say black's the white of my eye!" meaning that nobody can justly speak ill of her.

Mr. Brand has no doubt that this ex

pression originated in the popular super

* Noble

stition concerning an evil eye, that is, an enchanting or bewitching eye. In confirmation of this he cites the following passage from Scot's "Discovery of Witchcraft," p. 291. "Many writers agree with Virgil and Theocritus in the effect of bewitching eyes, affirming that in Scythia there are women called Bithiæ, having two balls, or rather Blacks, in the apples of their eyes. These, (forsooth,) with their angry looks, do bewitch and hurt." Mr. Brand adds an anecdote, "Going once to visit the remains of Brinkburne Abbey, in Northumberland, I found a reputed witch in a lonely cottage by the side of a wood, where the parish had placed her to save expenses, and keep her out of the way. On enquiry at a neighbouring farm-house, I was told, though I was a long while before I could elicit any thing from the inhabitants in it concerning her, that every body was afraid of her cat, and that she was herself thought to have an evil eye,' and that it was accounted dangerous to meet her in a morning 'black-fasting.'

[ocr errors]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

July 28.

OLIVER CROMWELL.

28th July, 1655.-In the appendix to Mr. Scatcherd's "History of Morley, near Leeds," he presents the two following remarkable papers, in illustration of his view of Cromwell's real character. "TO HIS HIGHNESS, THE LORD PROTECTOR of the Commonwealth of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

"THE HUMBLE PETITION of MARGERY, the wife of WILLIAM BEACHAM, mariner, "Sheweth,

"That your Petitioner's husband hath been active and faithful in the wars of this Commonwealth, both by sea and land, and hath undergone many hazards by imprisonment and fights, to the endangering his life, and at last lost the use of his right arm, and is utterly disabled from future service, as doth appear from the certificate annexed; and yet he hath no more than forty shillings from Chatham by the year.

[blocks in formation]

"You received from me, this 28th instant, a Petition of Margery Beacham, desiring the admission of her son into the Charter-house. I know the man, who was employed one day in an important secret service, which he did effectually to our great benefit and the Commonwealth's. The Petition is a brief relation of a fact without any flattery. I have wrote under it a common reference to the Commissioners, but I mean a great deal morethat it shall be done without their debate or consultation of the matter; and so do you privataly hint to—

"I have not the particular shining bauble, or feather in my cap for crowds to gaze at, or kneel to; but I have power and resolution to make the Nations tremble. To be short, I know how to deny Petitions; and, whatever I think proper for outward form to refer to any officer or office, I expect that such my compliance with custom shall be also looked upon as an indication of my will and pleasure to have the thing done. See, therefore, that the boy is admitted.

66

Thy true friend,

OLIVER P."

Upon the "feather in my cap," Mr. Scatcherd adds, from Burton's Diary, i. 383, that, in Cromwell's answer to the address from the army, touching the acceptance of the kingly office, he told them "that, for his part, he loved the title-'a feather in a hat-as little as they did:" and, from Ludlow's Memoirs, ii. 586, that "Cromwell said, it was but a feather in a man's cap,' and therefore he wondered

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

29th July, 1822.-The cordwainers of Newcastle celebrated the feast of St. Crispin, by holding a coronation of their patron saint, and afterwards walking in procession. The coronation took place in the court of the Freemen's Hospital, at the Westgate, at 11 o'clock, and soon after twelve the procession moved forward through the principal streets of that town and Gateshead, and fiually halted at the sign of the Chancellor's Head, in Newgate-street, where the members of the trade partook of a dinner. There had not been a similar exhibition at Newcastle since the year 1789. †

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

On the 30th of July, 1588, Sir William Stewart was slain at Edinburgh, by the earl of Bothwell, who was the most famed disturber of the public peace in those times. The quarrel had arisen on a former occasion, on account of some despiteful language used by Sir William, when the fiery earl vowed the destruction of his enemy in words too shocking to be repeated. He met with Sir William by chance in Blackfriars' Wynd, and avowing revenge drew his sword; Sir William standing upon his defence with his back to the wall, Bothwell thrust his ranier

Scatcherd's History of Morley, 333;-in which work are many original particulars respecting Cromwell's officers, and his engagements in the north.

+ Sykes's Local Records.

h. m.

July 30. Twilight begins Sun rises

[ocr errors]

1 17

[ocr errors]

4 16

[ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

ETON ELECTION SATURDAY.
[For the Year Book.]

This aquatic ceremony at Eton occurs, at the latest, on the Saturday before the last Monday in July; and ends what is called election week, during which boys are elected as "king's scholars" into Eton College, and king's scholars are chosen as students for King's College, Cambridge. The Monday which regulates it is Speech and Breaking up Day at Eton; the speeches not very numerously attended, as there is not much room for company, and they are with scarcely any exception in the Latin language, a tongue not very intelligible, especially when spoken; since most of the company who chiefly desire to visit them, are the parents and friends of the students, and a mixed audience.

The ceremony which is intended as a rejoicing for the holidays is identically the same as that described on the 4th of June; instead however of G. R., it is now W. R. at election, that is, the initials then put up are those of the ruling monarch.

May, 1831.

MATHEMATICS.

PILGARLIC.

A Challenge to all England. If any man can resolve the following problem, let him send his answer (postage paid) to me, and I will inform the public. N. B. I will not have an interview with any one.

Problem.-To divide any given number Chambers's Traditions of Edinburgh, i. 121

« ZurückWeiter »