M

XC. Sir Ashton Lever's Directions for preserving Birds, &c.

MR. URBAN,

IN reply to the request of A Constant Reader, I send you the following extracts from a paper, which was, I believe, put into my hands by the late Sir Ashton Lever, at Alkrington, near twenty years ago; in which, after explaining to his friends what are "the subjects he is desirous to obtain," he "lays down a method for their preservation and safe conveyance, calculated to give as little trouble as possible.""Large beasts should be carefully skinned, with the horns, scull, jaws, tail, and feet, left entire: the skin may then either be put into a vessel of spirits, or else rubbed well on the inside with the mixture of salt, alum, and pepper, hereafter mentioned, and hung to dry. Small beasts may be put into a cask of rum, or any other spirits. Large birds may be treated as large beasts, but must not be put in spirits. Small birds may be preserved in the following manner: take out the entrails, open a passage to the brain, which should be scooped out through the mouth; introduce into the cavities of the scull and the whole body some of the mixture of salt, alum, and pepper, putting some through the gullet and whole length of the neck, then hang the bird in a cool airy place, first by the feet, that the body may be impregnated by the salts, and afterward by a thread through the under mandible of the bill, till it appears to be sweet, then hang it in the sun, or near a fire: after it is well dried, clear out what remains loose of the mixture, and fill the cavity of the body with wool, oakum, or any soft substance, and pack it smooth in paper. Large fishes should be opened in the belly, the entrails taken out, and the inside well rubbed with the preparation of salt, alum, and pepper, and stuffed with oakum. Small fishes put in spirits, as well as reptiles and insects, except butterflies and moths, and any insects of fine colours, which should be pinned down in a box prepared for that purpose, with their wings expanded. With regard to birds shot in this kingdom, I wish to have them sent fresh killed; only observe to put tow into the mouth, and upon any wound the bird may have received, to prevent the feathers being soiled, and then wrap it smooth at full length in paper, and pack it close in a box. And if it be sent from a great distance, the entrails should be extracted, and the cavity filled with tow dipped in rum or other

spirits. The following mixture is proper for the preservation of animals: one pound of salt, four ounces of alum, two ounces of pepper, powdered together.

I should be particularly obliged to such captains of ships as would set apart a small cask of spirits, into which they may put every uncommon sea production which they meet with during their voyage, wrapping every article separate in a rag, or a little oakum."

1793, Suppl.

E.

XCI. Royal Hawk.-King James's Hawking. Sir Anthony Weldon.-Weldon's Court of King James.

MR. URBAN,

Feb. 15.

IN the beginning of September last, a paragraph appeared in several newspapers, mentioning, that a hawk had been found at the Cape of Good Hope, and brought from thence by one of the India ships, having on its neck a gold collar, on which was engraven the following words:

"This goodlie hawk doth belong to his Most Excellent Majestie, James Kinge of England. A.D. 1610."

On seeing this account, an anecdote immediately occurred to me, which I had lately met with in a curious old manuscript, containing some remarks and observations on the migration of birds, and their flying to far distant regions; and which, if you think it may throw any light on the subject, now much attended to by naturalists, or confirm the opinion of some, respecting the longevity of birds of prey, is much at your service. The words from my author are as follow: And here I call to mind a story of our Anthony Weldon, in his Court and Character of King James; 'The King,' saith he, being at Newmarket, delighted much to fly his goshawk at herons; and the manner of the conflict was this; the heron would mount, and the goshawk would get much above it: then, when the hawk stooped at the game, the heron would turn up its belly to receive him with his claws and sharp bill; which the hawk perceiving, would dodge and pass by, rather than endanger itself. This pastime being over, both the hawk and heron would mount again, to the utmost of their power, till the hawk would be at another attempt; and, after divers such assaults, usually, by some lucky hit or other, the hawk would bring her

down; but one day, a most excellent hawk being at the game, in the king's presence, mounted so high with his game, that both hawk and heron got out of sight, and were never seen more; inquiry was made, not only all over England, but in all the foreign princes' courts in Europe, the hawk having the king's jesses, and marks sufficient, whereby it might be known; but all their inquiries proved ineffectual.'"

Hoping, Mr. Urban, that the above communication may prove acceptable to some of your readers, either as a matter of amusement, or occasioning some farther inquiry to be made after the hawk lately brought over from the Cape, I remain,

1793, Feb.

Yours, &c.

T. S.

MR. URBAN,

March 3, 1793.

MENTION is made in your last Magazine, of the hawk found at the Cape of Good Hope with an inscription on his collar, indicating his having belonged to James I. of England. Your correspondent infers, with great probability, the authenticity of the inscription, from an anecdote (which, he says, he lately met with in an old manuscript) alluding to Sir Anthony Weldon's Court of King James. Having lately read that curious book, I recollected the circumstance, and turned to the passage alluded to, which indeed, as to the chief circumstance of the hawk's disappearing, is faithfully quoted, but in Weldon no mention is made of the manner of conflict, &c. As it may probably be not unpleasing to many of your readers, I have sent you the pas sage in question faithfully transcribed from Sir A. Weldon's History.

"The French sending over his Falconer to shew that sport, his master Falconer lay longhere; but could not killone kite, ours being more magnanimous than the French kite, Sir Thomas Monson desired to have that flight in all exquisiteness, and to that end was at 100l. charge in gosfaulcons for that flight; in all that charge, he never had but one cast would perform it, and those that had killed nine kites, never missed one, The Earle of Pembroke, with all

* The word King, I suppose, is here by mistake omitted.

the Lords, desired the king but to walk out of Royston town's end, to see that flight, which was one of the most stateliest flights of the world, for the high mountee; the king went unwillingly forth, the flight was shewed, but the kite went to such a mountee, as all the field lost sight of kite and hawke and all, and neither kite nor hawke were either seen or heard of to this present, which made all the court conjecture it a very ill omen."

I shall be obliged to any of your ingenious correspondents for some account of the author and book I have just quoted. It abounds with curious anecdotes of the great men and transactions of those times, of which the author is said, in the title-page, to have been an eye and care witnesse. What degree of faith is due to them, at present, I am rather at a loss to determine.

1799, March.

MR. URBAN,

Yours, &c.

J. W.

April 23.

YOUR correspondent J. W. may find, in the Antiquarian Repertory, vol. III. p. 28, a half-length portrait of Sir Anthony Weldon, from a drawing in the collection of the present Earl of Bute, in which his face is represented as unpleasing and disagreeable, as his character is unworthy and despicable, in a short memoir which accompanies the portrait, extracted from Wood's Athena. In pp. 193, 194, of the same volume, Mr. Thorpe, of Bexley, has favoured the editor with some strictures on the foregoing extract, containing a good account of the family of Weldon, by which it appears that Mr. Wood was wrong in saying that Sir Anthony "was born of mean extraction," though Mr. Thorpe has nothing to say in vindication of his personal character. 1793, April.

MR. URBAN,

E.

June 2.

J. W. has requested to know what degree of faith is due to Weldon's Court of King James. The following notices may assist his inquiry. Ant. Wood (Ath. Ox. I. 729) says, "it was accounted a most notorious libel."-Rapin (Hist. of Eng. II. 189) denominates it properly "but a satire."-and Dr. Campbell (Biog. Brit, III. 684) asserts, "that the notions and evidence it contains are of no value at all." That Weldon, indeed, was the author of the work. as the title-page intimates, by the initials of Sir A. W. or that the real author

was an eye and ear witness of the circumstances he records, are points separately combated and denied in an answer to the pamphlet itself, entituled "Aulicus Coquinariæ;" and printed in the same year, 1650. Which book, says the Oxford historian (ut supra) involves much of a MS. in the Bodleian Library, written by Bishop Goodman, and inscribed "The Court of King James, by Sir A. W. reviewed.” This vindication of the King and his Court contains a mul titude of complex or contradictory relations, in which "confusion is worse confounded" than before. And, as it was professedly published to exculpate those persons and transactions, which had been reflected on in the work ascribed to Sir A. W. there can (in all probability) be little just reliance placed in the opposite assurances either of the one writer or the other. Secret histories are at best suspicious; and that strange complication of mystery which hung over certain events in the reign of our first James, seems also to have involved the narration of them.

For the farther satisfaction of your correspondent J. W. I beg to add, that A. Wood persists in considering Weldon as the real author, notwithstanding the preface to "Aulicus Coquinaria" declares "The brat was only fathered upon him," and, although the title-page describes it as "pre tended to be penned by Sir A. W. and published since his

death.".

In the transcript from Weldon's History, the charge for gos-faulcons should be printed 1000l. instead of 1001. according to the edition of 1650, p. 150.

1793, June.

T. P.

XCII. Progressive Introduction of Newspapers.

Account of the first Newspapers established in England*. JULY 9, 1662, a very extraordinary question arose, about preventing the publication of the debates of the Irish Parliament in an English newspaper called; The Intelligencer; and a letter was written from the Speaker to Sir Edward Nicholas, the English Secretary of State, to prevent these

*See Lord Mountmorres's Hist. of the Irish Parliament,