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Lettuce; in a warm sheltered spot, not before the last week: choose the hardy sorts, as the cos and brown Dutch.

Radishes; short top, and early dwarf, in the second and fourth week.

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"The complete New-Year's Gift, or Religious Meditations, 1725." 12mo.

"The Young Gentleman's New-Year's Gift, or Advice to a Nephew, 1729." 12mo.

Among the works published under this title, the most curious is a very diminutive and extremely rare volume called "The

Cabbages; early York, and sugar loaf, New-Year's Gift, presented at court from

about the close of the month.

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In the year 1604, upon New Year's Day, Prince Henry, then in his tenth year, sent to his father, king James I., a short poem in hexameter Latin verses, being his first offering of that kind.

Books were not only sent as presents on this day, but the practice occasioned numerous publications bearing the title, as a popular denomination, without their contents at all referring to the day. For example, the following are titles of some in the library of the British Museum::

"A New-Year's-Gift, dedicated to the Pope's Holiness 1579." 410.

"A New-Year's-Gift to be presented to the King's most excellent Majestie: with a petition from his loyale Subjects, 1646."

4to.

"Domestic Gardener's Manual. In the Every-Day Book.

the Lady Parvula, to the Lord Minimus (commonly called little Jeffery), her majesty's servant-with a letter penned in short hand, wherein is proved that little things are better than great. Written by Microphilus, 1636." This very singular publication was written in defence of Jeffery Hudson, who, in the reign of Charles I., was a celebrated dwarf, and had been ridiculed by Sir William Davenant, in a poem called Jeffreidos,concerning turkey-cock. Sir Walter Scott has rea supposed battle between Jeffery and a vived the popularity of the little hero by introducing him into" Peverel of the Peak Jeffery Hudson

was born at Oakham in Rutlandshire. At about seven or eight years old, being then only eighteen inches high, he was retained in the service of the duke of Buckingham, who resided at Burleigh-on-the hill. On a visit from king Charles I. and his queen, Henrietta Maria, the duke table in a cold pie, which the duchess precaused little Jeffery to be served up to sented to her majesty. From that time her majesty kept him as her dwarf; and in that capacity he afforded much entertainment at court. Though insignificant in stature, his royal mistress employed him on a mission of delicacy and importance; for in 1630 her majesty sent him to France to bring over a midwife, on returning with whom he was taken prisoner by the Dunkirkers, and despoiled of many rich presents to the queen from her mother Mary de Medicis: he lost to the value or £2500 belonging to himself, which he had received as gifts from that princess and ladies of the French court. It was in reference to this embassy that Davenant wrote his mortifying poem, in which he laid the scene at Dunkirk, and represented Jeffery to have been rescued from the enraged turkey-cock by the courage of the gentlewoman he escorted. Jeffery is said to have assumed much consequence after his embassy, and to have been impatient under the teazing of the courtiers, and the insolent provocations of the domestics of the palace. One of his tormentors was

THE DOMESTIC DWARF.
FROM AN ENGRAVING IN WIERIX'S BIBLE, 1594.

the king's porter, a man of gigantic height,
who, in a masque at court, drew Jeffery
out of his pocket, to the surprise and mer-
riment of all the spectators. This porter
and dwarf are commemorated by a re-
presentation of them in a well-known
bas-relief, on a stone affixed, and still re-
maining,in the front of a house on the north
side of Newgate Street, near Bagnio Court.
Besides his misadventure with the Dun-
kirkers, he was captured by a Turkish
rover, and sold for a slave into Barbary,
whence he was redeemed. On the break-
ing out of the troubles in England, he
was made a captain in the royal army, and
in 1644 attended the queen to France,
where he received a provocation from Mr.
Crofts, a young man of family, which he
took so deeply to heart, that a challenge
ensued. Mr. Crofts appeared on the
ground armed with a syringe. This lu-
dicrous weapon was an additional and
deadly insult to the poor creature's feel-
ings. There ensued a real duel, in which
the antagonists were mounted on horse-
back, and Jeffery, with the first fire of his
pistol, killed Mr. Crofts on the spot. He
remained in France till the restoration,
when he returned to England. In 1682
he was arrested upon suspicion of con-
nivance in the Popish Plot, and committed
to the gate-house in Westminster, where
he died at the age of sixty-three.

As a phenomenon more remarkable oi Jeffery Hudson than his stature, it is said that he remained at the height of eighteen inches till he was thirty, when he shot up to three feet nine inches and there fixed.

His waistcoat of blue satin, slashed, and ornamented with pinked white silk, and his breeches and stockings, in one piece of blue satin, are preserved in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford.*

Dwarfs.

The Romans kept dwarfs, as we do monkies, for diversion; and some persons even carried on the cruel trade of stopping the growth of children by confining them in chests: most dwarfs came from Syria and Egypt. Father Kircher published an engraving of an ancient bronze, representing one of these dwarfs; and Count Caylers another print of a similar bronze. Dwarfs commonly went unclothed, and decked with jewels. One of our queens carried a dwarf about for the admiration of spectators.+ Dwarfs and deformed persons were retained to ornament the tables of princes.

Wierix's Bible contains a plate by John Wierix, representing the feast of Dives, with Lazarus at his door. In the rich man's banqueting room there is a dwarf to contribute to the merriment of the company, according to the custom among people of rank in the sixteenth century. This little fellow, at play with a monkey, is the subject of the engraving at the head of this page.

Pigmies.

Among vulgar errors is set down this, that there is a nation of pigmies, not above

Granger. Walpole's Painters. Fosbroke's Encyclopædia of Antiquities Montaigne.

two or three feet high, and that they solemnly set themselves in battle to fight against the cranes. "Strabo thought this a fiction; and our age, which has fully discovered all the wonders of the world as fully declares it to be one."* This refers to accounts of the Pechinians of

Ethiopia, who are represented of small stature, and as being accustomed every year to drive away the cranes which flocked to their country in the winter. They are pourtrayed on ancient gems mounted on cocks or partridges, to fight the cranes; or carrying grasshoppers, and leaning on staves to support the burthen: also, in a shell, playing with two flutes, or fishing with a line.t

Cranes,

A crane was a sumptuous dish at the tables of the great in ancient times.

William the Conqueror was remarkable for an immense paunch, and withal was so exact, so nice and curious in his repasts, that when his prime favorite, William Fitz Osborne, who, as dapifer or steward of the household, had the charge of the curey, served him with the flesh of a crane scarcely half roasted, the king was so highly exasperated that he lifted up his fist, and would have struck him, had not Eudo, who was appointed dapifer immediately after, warded off the blow. I Tame cranes, kept in the middle ages,

are said to have stood before the table at

dinner, and kneeled, and bowed the head, when a bishop gave the benediction.§ But how they knelt is as fairly open to enquiry, as how Dives could take his seat in torment, as he did, according to an old carol, "all on a serpent's knee."

ROYAL NEW YEAR GIFTS.

In 1605, the year after prince Henry presented his verses to James I., Sir Dudley Carleton writes:-"New year's day passed without any solemnity, and the exorbitant gifts that were wont to be used at that time are so far laid by, that the accustomed present of the purse of gold was hard to be had without asking." It appears, however, that in this year the Earl of Huntingdon presented and received a new year's gift. His own words record the method of presenting and receiving it.

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"The manner of presenting a New-yere's gifte to his Majestie from the Earle of Huntingdon.

"You must buy a new purse of about vs. price, and put thereinto xx pieces of new gold of xxs. a-piece, and go to the presence-chamber, where the court is, upon new-yere's day, in the morning about 8 o'clocke, and deliver the purse and the gold unto my Lord Chamberlain then you must go down to the Jewellhouse for a ticket to receive xviiis. vid, as a gift to your pains, and give vid. there to the boy for your ticket; then go to Sir William Veall's office, and shew your ticket, and receive your xviiis. vid. Then go to the Jewell-house again, and make a piece of plate of xxx ounces weight, and marke it, and then in the afternoone you may go and fetch it away, and then give the gentleman who delivers it you xls. in gold, and give to the boy iis. and to the porter vid.”•

PEERS' NEW YEAR'S GIFTS.

From the household book of Henry Algernon Percy, the fifth Earl of Northumberland, in 1511, it appears, that, when the earl was at home, he was accustomed to give on new-year's day as follows,

To the king's servant bringing a newyear's gift from the king, if a special friend of his lordship, £6. 13s. 4d.; if only a servant to the king, £5.

To the servant bringing the queen's new-year's gift £3. 6s. 8d.

To the servant of his son-in-law, bringing a new-year's gift, 13s. 4d.

To the servant bringing a new-year's gift from his lordship's son and heir, the lord Percy, 12d.

To the daily minstrels of the household, as his tabret, lute, and rebeck, upon newyear's day in the morning, when they play at my lord's chainber door, 20s. viz. 13s. 4d. for my lord and 6s. 8d. for my lady, if she be at my 'ord's finding, and not at her own. And for playing at my lord Percy's chamber door 2s., and 8d a piece for playing at each of my lord's younger sons.

To each of my lord's three henchmen, when they give his lordship gloves, 6s. 8d. To the grooms of his lordship's cham ber, to put in their box, 20s.

Nichols's Progresses

My lord useth and accustometh to give yearly, when his lordship is at home, and hath an Abbot of misrule in Christmas, in his lordship's house, upon new-year's day, in reward, 20s.

To his lordship's officer of arms, herald, or pursuivant, for crying "Largess" before his lordship on new-year's day, as upon the twelfth day following, for each day,

10s.

To his lordship's six trumpets, when they play at my lord's chamber door, on new-year's day in the morning, 13s. 4d. for my lord, and 6s. 8d. for my lady, if she be at my lord's finding.

To his lordship's footmen, when they do give his lordship gloves in the morning, each of them 3s. 4d.*

66

REMARKABLE NEW YEAR'S GIFTS.

Sir John Harrington, of Bath, sent to James I. (then James VI. of Scotland only) at Christmas, 1602, for a New-year's gift, a curious "dark lantern." The top was a crown of pure gold, serving also to cover a perfume pan; within it was a shield of silver embossed, to reflect the light; on one side of which were the sun, moon, and planets, and on the other side the story of the birth and passion of Christ as it is found graved by a king of Scots [David II.] that was prisoner in Nottingham." Sir John caused to be inscribed in Latin, on this present, the following passage for his majesty's perusal, "Lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom." Mr. Park well observes of this New-year's lantern, that "it was evidently fabricated at a moment when the lamp of life grew dim in the frame of queen Elizabeth: it is curious as a relique of court-craft, but it displays a 'darkness visible' in the character of our politic knight, and proves that he was an early worshipper of the regal sun which rose in the north, though his own 'notes and private remembrances' would seem to indicate a different disposition." In truth the "regal sun" of the north had not yet appeared above the horizon; for Elizabeth was still living, and the suppliant to her expected successor was actually writing of her, in these terms: "I find some less mindful of what they are soon to lose, than of what perchance they may hereafter get. Now, on my own part, I cannot blot from my memory's table the goodness of our sovereign lady to me, even (I will

• Antiquarian Repertory.

say) before born. Her affection to my mother, who waited in her privy chamber, her bettering the state of my father's fortune, her watchings over iny youth, her liking to my free speech, &c., have rooted such love, such dutiful remembrance of her princely virtues, that to turn askant from her condition with tearless eyes would stain and foul the spring and fount of gratitude." The grieving knight wrote thus of his "sovereign lady," to his own wife, whom he calls "sweet Mall," two days after he had dispatched the dark lantern to James, with "Lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom."

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Lanterns were in use among the ancients. One was discovered in the subterranean ruins of Herculaneum. Some lanterns were of horn, and others of bladder resembling horn. One of Stosch's gems represents Love enveloped in drapery, walking softly, and carrying a lantern in his hand. The dark lantern of

the Roman sentinels was square, covered

on three sides with black skin, and on the other side white skin, which permitted the light to pass. On the Trojan column is a great ship-lantern hanging before the poop of the vessel. With us, lanterns were in common use very early. That horn-lanterns were invented by Alfred is a common, but apparently an erroneous statement; for Mr. Fosbroke shows that not only horn, but glass lanterns were mentioned as in use among the AngloSaxons, many years before Alfred lived. That gentleman cites from Aldhelm, who

wrote in the seventh century, a passage to this effect," Let not the glass lantern he despised, or that made of a shorn hide and osier-twigs; or of a thin skin, although a brass lamp may excel it." Our ancient hand-lantern was an oblong square, carried the narrow end uppermost, with an arched aperture for the light, and a square handle.†

Nugæ Antiquæ i. 321, 325, Barrington's Obs. on Anc. Statutes. Brand

Lantern and Canale-light.

This was the usual cry of the old London bellman. It is mentioned as such by Heywood in the "Rape of Lucrece."

Lantern and candle light-here,
Maids ha' light there,

Thus go the cries

The same writer, in "Edward IV., 1626," speaks of "no more calling of lan thorn and candle light." Hence two tracts by Dekker bear the title of "Lanthorn and candle-light: or the bellman's night-walk." "Two other tracts, also by Dekker, are entitled "English villanies, &c., discovered by lanthorne and candlelight, and the help of a new cryer, called O-Per-Se-O, 1648," &c.

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The last item is supposed to have been for a drink from the wassail-cup, which girls were accustomed to offer at newyear's tide, in expectation of a gift. The apple stuck with nuts may have been a rustic imitation of the common new-year's gift of "an orange stuck with cloves," mentioned by Ben Jonson in his Christmas Masque. The new-year's gift of capons from tenants to their landlords appears from Cowley to have been customary

Ye used in the former days to fall
Prostrate unto your landlord in his hall,
When with low legs, and in an humble
guise,

Ye offered up a capon sacrifice

Unto his worship at a New-year's tide.

This custom of capon-giving is also mentioned by Bishop Hall, in one of his satires.

Yet must he haunt his greedy landlord's

hall

With often presents at each festival;

• Nare's Glossary.

With crammed capons every New-year's

moin,

Or with green cheeses when his sheep are shorn.*

A manuscript of ceremonies and services at court, in the time of king Henry VII., entitled a "Royalle Book," formerly belonging to the distinguished antiquary Peter Le Neve, Norroy king at arms, and supposed by him to have been written by an esquire or gentleman-usher of that sovereign, contains the order of regal ceremony to this effect:

On New-year's Day the king ought to wear his surcoat, and his kirtle, and his pane of ermine; and, if his pane be five ermine deep, a duke shall be but four; an earl three. And the king must have on his head his hat of estate, and his sword before him; the chamberlain, the steward, the treasurer, the comptroller, and the ushers, before the sword; and before them all other lords, save only them that wear robes; and they must follow the king: and the greatest estate to lead the queen. This array belongs to the feasts of New-year's Day, Candlemas Day, Midsummer Day, the Assumption of our Lady, and the Nativity of our Lady, as it pleaseth the king. And, if two of the king's brethren be there, one is to lead the queen, and another to go with hura that beareth the train of the king; and else no man in England, save the prince.

Also, the king going in a day of estate in procession, crowned, the queen ought not to go in that procession without the queen be crowned; but to abide in her closet or travers, or else where it pleaseth the king that she shall abide.

On New-year's Day in the morning, the king, when he cometh to his footschete, an usher of the chamber to be ready at the chamber doo, and say, "Sire, here is a year's gift coming from the queen." And then he shall say, "Let it come in, sire." And then the usher shall let in the messenger with the gift, and then, after that, the greatest estate's servant that is come, each one after the other according to their estate; and, after that done, all other lords and ladies after their estate. And all this while the king mus sit at his foot-schete. This done, the chamberlain shall send for the treasurer of the chamber, and charge the treasurer to give the messenger that bringeth the queen's

• Archæologia.

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