Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB
[graphic][merged small][merged small][merged small]

These engravings pretty well describe the occupations of the figures they represent. The cry of "Fine writing-ink" has ceased long ago; and the demand for such a fork as the woman carries is discontinued. They are copied from a set of etchings formerly mentioned-the "Cries of London," by Lauron. The following of that series are worth describing, because they convey some notion of cries which we hear no longer in the streets of the metropolis.

Buy a new Almanack?

correspondence in a small hand-basket, or frail, v. ith papers open in the other hand.

My Name, and your Name, your Father's

Name, and Mother's Name.

A man bears before him a square box, slung from his shoulders, containing typefounders' letters, in small cases, each on a stick; he holds one in his hand. I well remember to have heard this very cry when a boy. The type-seller composed my own name for me, which I was thereby enabled to imprint on paper with common writing

A woman bears book-almanacks before ink, I think it has become wholly extinct her, displayed in a round basket. within the last ten years.

London's Gazette here.

A woman holds one in her hand, and seems to have others in her lapped-up apron.

Buy any Wax or Wafers?

Old Shoes for some Brooms.

A man with birch-brooms suspended be hind him on a stick. His cry intimates that he is willing to exchange them for old shoes; for which a wallet at his back, de

A woman carries these requisites for pending from his waist, seems a receptacle.

Remember the poor Prisoners!

A man, with a capacious covered basket suspended at his back by leather handles, through which his arms pass; he holds in his right hand a small, round, deep box with a slit in the top, through which money may be put in his left hand is a short walkingstaff for his support. In former times the prisoners in different gaols, without allowance, deputed persons to walk the streets and solicit alms for their support, of passengers and at dwelling-houses. The basket was for broken-victuals.

Fritters, piping hot Fritters.

A woman seated, frying the fritters on an iron with four legs, over an open fire lighted on bricks; a pan of batter by her side: two urchins, with a small piece of money between them, evidently desire to fritter it.

Buy my Dutch Biskets?

A woman carries them open in a large, round, shallow arm-basket on her right arm; a smaller and deeper one, covered with a cloth, is on her left.

Who's for a Mutton Pie, or a Christmas
Pie?

A woman carries them in a basket hanging on her left arm, under her cloak; she rings a bell with her right hand.

Lilly white Vinegar, Threepence a Quart. The vinegar is in two barrels, slung across the back of a donkey; pewter measures are on the saddle in the space between them. The proprietor walks behind—he is a jaunty youth, and wears flowers on the left side of his hat, and a lilly white apron; he cracks a whip with his left hand; and his right fingers play with his apron strings.

Old Satin, old Taffety, or Velvet.

A smart, pretty-looking lass, in a highpeaked crowned-hat, a black hood careessly tied under her chin, handsomely stomachered and ruffled, trips along in high-heeled shoes, with bows of ribbons on the insteps; a light basket is on her right arm, and her hands are crossed with a quality air.

Scotch or Russia Cloth.

A comfortably clothed, stout, substantiallooking, middle-aged man, in a cocked hat, (the fashion of those days,) supporting with his left hand a pack as large as his body,

[blocks in formation]

Long Thread Laces, long and strong.

A miserably tattered-clothed girl and boy carry long sticks with laces depending from the ends, like cats-o'-nine tails. This cry was extinct in London for a few years, while the females dressed naturally-now, when some are resuming the old fashion of stiff stays and tight-lacing, and pinching their bowels to inversion, looking unmotherly and bodiless, the cry has been partially revived.

Pretty Maids, pretty Pins, pretty Women.

A man, with a square box sideways under his left arm, holds in his right hand a paper of pins opened. He retails ha'p'orths and penn'orths, which he cuts off from his paper. I remember when pins were disposed of in this manner in the streets by women-their cry was a musical distich

Three-rows-a-penny, pins,

Short whites, and mid-dl-ings!

Fine Tie, or a fine Bob, sir!

A wig-seller stands with one on his hand, combing it, and talks to a customer at his door, which is denoted by an inscription to be in "Middle-row, Holbourn." Wigs on blocks stand on a bracketed board outside his window. This was when every body, old and young, wore wigs-when the price for a common one was a guinea, and a journeyman had a new one every yearwhen it was an article in every apprentice's indenture that his master should find him in "one good and sufficient wig, yearly, and every year, for, and during, and unto the expiration, of the full end, and term, of his apprenticeship."

Buy my fine Singing Glasses !

They were trumpet-formed glass tubes, of various lengths. The crier blows one

of half his own height. He holds others in his left hand, and has a little box, and two or three baskets, slung about his waist.

Japan your Shoes, your honour!

A shoeblack. A boy, with a small basket beside him, brushes a shoe on a stone, and addresses himself to a wigged beau, who carries his cocked-hat under his left arm, with a crooked-headed walkingstick in his left hand, as was the fashion among the dandies of old times. I recollect shoeblacks formerly at the corner of almost every street, especially in great thoroughfares. There were several every morning on the steps of St. Andrew's church Holborn, till late in the forenoon. But the greatest exhibition of these artists was on the site of Finsbury-square, when it was an open field, and a depository for the stones used in paving and street-masonry. There, a whole army of shoeblacks intercepted the citizens and their clerks, on their way from Islington and Hoxton to the counting houses and shops in the city, with "Shoeblack, your honour!" "Black your shoes, sir!"

Each of them had a large, old tin-kettle, containing his apparatus, viz. a capacious pipkin, or other large earthen-pot, containing the blacking, which was made of ivory black, the coarsest moist sugar, and pure water with a little vinegar-a knife-two or three brushes-and an old wig. The old wig was an indispensable requisite to a shoeblack; it whisked away the dust, or thoroughly wiped off the wet dirt, which his knife and brushes could not entirely detach; a rag tied to the end of a stick smeared his viscid blacking on the shoe, and if the blacking was "real japan," it shone. The old experienced shoe-wearers preferred an oleaginous, lustreless blacking. A more liquid blacking, which took a polish from the brush, was of later use and invention. Nobody, at that time, wore boots, except on horseback; and every body wore breeches and stockings: pantaloons or trousers were unheard of. The old shoeblacks operated on the shoes while they were on the feet, and so dexterously as not to soil the fine white cotton stocking, which was at one time the extreme of fashion, or to smear the buckles, which were universally worn. Latterly, you were accommodated with an old pair of shoes to stand in, and the yesterday's paper to read, while your shoes were cleaning and polishing, and your buckles were whitened and brushed. When shoestrings first came

into vogue, the prince of Wales (now the king) appeared with them in his shoes, and a deputed body of the buckle-makers Birmingham presented a petition to h royal highness to resume the wearing a buckles, which was good-naturedly com plied with. Yet in a short time shoestrings entirely superseded buckles. The first incursion on the shoeblacks was by the makers of "patent cake-blacking," on sticks formed with a handle, like a small battledoor; they suffered a more fearful invasion from the makers of liquid blacking in bottles. Soon afterwards, when " Day and Martin " manufactured the ne plus ultra of blacking, private shoeblacking became general, public shoeblacks rapidly disappeared, and now they are extinct. The last shoeblack that I remember in London, sat under the covered entrance of Red Lion-court, Fleet-street, within the last six years.

ANTIQUARIAN MEMORANDUM.
For the Table Book,

CHAIR AT PAGE'S LOCK.

At a little alehouse on the Lea, neat Hoddesdon, called "Page's Lock," there is a curious antique chair of oak, richly carved, It has a high, narrow back inlaid with cane, and had a seat of the same, which last s replaced by the more durable substitute of oak. The framework is beautifully carved in foliage, and the top rail of the back, as also the front rail between the legs, have the imperial crown in the centre. The supports of the back are twisted pillars, surmounted with crowns, by way of knobs, and the fore-legs are shaped like beasts' paws.

The date is generally supposed to be that of Elizabeth; and this is confirmed by the circumstance of the chairs in the long gailery of Hatfield-house, in Hertfordshire, being of similar construction, but without the crowns. The date of these latter chairs is unquestionably that of Elizabeth, whe visited her treasurer, Burleigh, whose sea it was. The circumstance of the erowes being carved on the chair above-named and their omission in those at Hatfiel would seem to imply a regal distinctio and we may fairly infer, that it once forme part of the furniture of queen Elizabet hunting-lodge situate on Epping fores not many miles from Hoddesdon.

GASTON.

MINISTER OF KIRKBY LONSDALE, KIRKBY KENDAL.-LUNE BRIDGE.

To the Editor.

Sir, The Tenth Part of your interesting ublication, the Table Book, has been lent me by one of your constant readers; ho, aware of the interest which I take in very thing connected with Westmoreland, ointed out the Notes of T. Q. M. on a "edestrian Tour from Skipton to Keswick.* It is not my intention to review those otes, or to point out the whole of his inccuracies; but I shall select one, which, my humble judgment, is quite inexcus

ble.

After stating that the Rev. Mr. unt was once the curate of Kirkby (not irby, as your correspondent spells it) onsdale, he adds, "I believe the wellnown Carus Wilson is the officiating minister at present." "What your narrator means by the appellation "well known," e alone can determine-and to which of e family he would affix the term, I canot possibly imagine. The eldest son is ector of Whittington, an adjoining parish; e second son of the same family is vicar Preston, in Lancashire; the third is the urate of Tunstal, in the same county. These are all the gentlemen of that family ho are, or ever were, "officiating miniters:" and I can safely assure your corespondent, that not one of them ever was e officiating minister of Kirkby Lonsdale.

I should be much obliged to T. Q. M. if he would point out the house where my friend Barnabee

viewed

An hall, which like a taverne shewed
Neate gates, white walls, nought was sparing,
Pots brimful, no thought of caring.

If a very curious tradition respecting the very fine and remarkable bridge over the river Lune, together with a painting of it done for me by a cobbler at Lancaster, would be at all interesting to you, I shall be happy to send them to your publishers. The picture is very creditable to the artist; and after seeing it, I am sure you will say, that however (if ever) just, in former days, the moderns furnish exceptions to the wellknown maxim—

Ne sutor ultra crepidam.

I am, sir,

your obedient servant, London, Sept. 25, 1827. BOB SHORT.

Discoveries

OF THE

ANCIENTS AND MODERNS.

No. X.

The vicar is the Rev. Mr. Sharp; who the THE COPERNICAN SYSTEM THAT OF THE

rate is I forget, but an inquirer could ave easily ascertained it; and an inquiry would have furnished him with some very urious details respecting the actual incum

ent.

By the way, let me mention the curious act of this town retaining its ancient name, hile Kendal, a neighbouring town, has Ost, in common parlance, a moiety of its ame. In all legal documents Kendal is escribed as Kirkby Kendal, as the former Kirkby Lons-dale; and the orthography important, as it shows at once the deri ation of these names. Kirk-by-Lon's-dale, nd Kirk-by-Ken or Kent-dale, evidently how, that the prominent object, the hurches of those towns on the banks of heir respective river, the Lune, Loyne, Lon, as it is variously written, and the Kent or Ken, and their dales, or vallies, urnished the cognomen.

* Col. 271, &c.

ANCIENTS.

Copernicus places the sun in the centre of our system, the fixed stars at the circumference, and the earth and other planets in the intervening space; and he ascribes to the earth not only a diurnal motion around its axis, but an annual motion round the sun. This simple system, which explains all the appearances of the planets and their situations, whether processional, stationary, or retrograde, was so fully and distinctly inculcated by the ancients, that it is matter of surprise it should derive its name from a modern philosopher,

Pythagoras thought that the earth was a movable body, and, so far from being the centre of the world, performed its revolutions around the region of fire, that is the sun, and thereby formed day and night. He is said to have obtained this knowledge among the Egyptians, who represented the sun emblematically by a beetle, because that insect keeps itself six months under

ground, and six above; or, rather, because having formed its dung into a ball, it afterwards lays itself on its back, and by means of its feet whirls that ball round in a circle. Philolaus, the disciple of Pythagoras, was the first publisher of that and several other opinions belonging to the Pythagorean school. He added, that the earth moved in an oblique circle, by which, no doubt, he meant the zodiac.

Plutarch intimates, that Timæus Locrensis, another disciple of Pythagoras, held the same opinion; and that when he said the planets were animated, and called them the different measures of time, he meant no other than that they served by their revolutions to render time commensurable; and that the earth was not fixed to a spot, but was carried about by a circular motion, as Aristarchus of Samos, and Seleucus afterwards taught.

This Aristarchus of Samos, who lived about three centuries before Jesus Christ, was one of the principal defenders of the doctrine of the earth's motion. Archimedes informs us, "That Aristarchus, writing on this subject against some of the philosophers of his own age, placed the sun immovable in the centre of an orbit, described by the earth in its circuit." Sextus Empiricus cites him, as one of the principal supporters of this opinion.

the motions of Venus and Mercury abo the sun.

66

That the earth is round, and inhabited o all sides, and of course that there are Ant podes, or those whose feet are directly op posite to ours, is one of the most ancient doctrines inculcated by philosophy. Dio genes Laertius, in one part of his history, says, that Plato was the first who called the inhabitants of the earth opposite to us Antipodes." He does not mean that Plato was the first who taught this opinion, but only the first who made use of the term Antipodes;" for, in another place, he mentions Pythagoras as the first who taught it. When Plutarch wrote, it was a point of controversy; and Lucretius and Pliny, who oppose this notion, as well as St. Augustine, serve as witnesses that it must have prevailed in their time.

66

The proofs which the ancients brought of the sphericalness of the earth, were the same that the moderns use. Pliny on this subject observes, that the land which retires out of sight to persons on the deck of a ship, appears still in view to those who are upon the mast. He thence concludes, that the earth is round. Aristotle drew this consequence not only from the circular shadow of the earth on the disk of the moon in eclipse, but also from this, that, in travelling south, we discover other stars, and that those which we saw before, whether in the zenith or elsewhere, change their situation with respect to us.

the ancients

From a passage in Plutarch it appears, that Cleanthes accused Aristarchus of impiety and irreligion, by troubling the repose of Vesta and the Larian gods; when, in ` On whatever arguments giving an account of the phenomena of the founded their theory, it is certain they planets in their courses, he taught that clearly apprehended that the planets re heaven, or the firmament of the fixed stars, volved upon their own axis. Heraclides of was immovable, and that the earth moved Pontus, and Ecphantus, two celebrated in an oblique circle, revolving at the same Pythagoreans, said, that the earth turned time around its own axis. from west to east, just as a wheel does upon its axis or centre. According to Atticus, the platonist, Plato extended this observa tion from the earth to the sun and other planets. "To that general motion which makes the planets describe a circular course, he added another, resulting from their spherical shape, which made each of them move about its own centre, whilst they per formed the general revolution of their course." Plotinus also ascribes this sent ment to Plato; for speaking of him he says, that besides the grand circular course observed by all the stars in general, Plats thought "they each performed another about their own centre."

Theophrastus, as quoted by Plutarch, says in his History of Astronomy, which has not reached our times, that Plato, when advanced in years, gave up the error he had been in, of making the sun turn round the earth; and lamented that he had not placed it in the centre, as it deserved, instead of the earth, which he had put there contrary to the order of nature. Nor is it at all strange that Plato should reassume an opinion which he had early imbibed in the schools of the two celebrated Pythagoreans, Archytas of Tarentum, and Timæus the Locrian, as we see in St. Jerome's Christian apology against Rufinus. In Cicero we find, that Heraclides of Pontus, who was a Pythagorean, taught the same doctrine. It may be added, that Tycho Brache's system was known to Vitruvius, as well as were

The same notion is ascribed to Nicetas of Syracuse by Cicero, who quotes Theo phrastus to warrant what he advances This Nicetas is he whom Diogenes Laertius

« ZurückWeiter »