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February 15th
Born: Galileo Galilei, astronomer,
1564, Pisa; Louis XV. (of France), 1710.
Died: Oswy (of Northumbria), 670: John Philips,
poet, 1708, Hereford; Anthony Earl of Shaftesbury, author of
Cearacteristics, 1713, Naples; Bishop Francis Atterbury, 1732: John
Hadley, inventor of the sextant, 1744; Charles Andrew Vanloo,
historical painter, 1765.
Feast Day: Saints Faustinns and Jovita, martyrs
at Brescia, about 121. St. Sigefride of York, apostle in Sweden, 1002.
PHILLIPS, THE
CIDER POET
John Philips, the artificial poet who parodied the
style of Milton in the Splendid Shilling, is better known. by his poem
upon Cider, 'which continued long to be read as an imitation of Virgil's
Georgics, which needed not shun the
presence of the original.' Johnson was told by Miller, the eminent gardener and
botanist, that there were many books written on cider in prose which do not
contain so much truth as Philips's poem. ' The precepts which it contains,' adds
Johnson, 'are exact and just; and it is,
therefore, at once a book of entertainment and science.' It is in blank verse, and
an echo of the numbers of Paradise Lost. 'In the disposition of his matter, so as
to intersperse precepts relating to the culture of trees, with sentiments more
generally alluring, and in easy and
graceful transitions from one subject to another, he has very diligently imitated
his master: but he unhappily pleased himself with blank verse, slid supposed that
the numbers of Milton, which impress the mind with veneration, combined as they
are with subjects of in-conceivable
grandeur, could be sustained by images which at most can only rise to eloquence.
Contending angels may shake the regions of heaven in blank verse: but the flow of
equal measures, and the embellishment of rhyme, must recommend to our attention
the art of en-grafting, and decide
the merit of the "redstreak" and "pearmain." '�Johnson.
Philips was cut off by consumption, when he had just
completed his thirty-second year. He was buried in the cathedral of Hereford; and
Sir Simon Harcourt, afterwards Lord Chancellor, gave him a monument in Westminster
Abbey, which bears a long
inscription, in flowing Latinity, said by Johnson to be the composition of Bishop
Atterbury, though commonly attributed to Dr. Freind.
EXTRAORDINARY
MARRIAGES
Among the many remarkable marriages on record, none
are more curious than those in which the bridegroom has proved to be of the same
sex as the bride. Last century there lived a woman who dressed in male attire, and
was constantly going about
captivating her sisters, and marrying them! On the 5th of July 1777,
she was tried at a criminal court in London for thus disguising herself, and it
was proved that at various times she had been married to three women, and
'defrauded them of their money and their
clothes.' The fair deceiver was required by the justices to give the daughters of
the citizens an opportunity of making themselves acquainted with her features by
standing in the pillory at Cheapside: and
after going through this ordeal, she
was imprisoned for six months. In 1773 a woman went courting a woman, dressed as a
man, and was very favourably received. The lady to whom these not very delicate
attentions were paid was much older than the lover, but she was possessed of about
a hundred pounds, and this was the
attraction to her adventurous friend. But the intended treachery was discovered;
and, as the original chronicler of the story says, 'the old lady proved too
knowing.'
A more extraordinary case than either of these was
that of two women who lived together by mutual consent as man and wife for
six-and-thirty years. They kept a public-house at Poplar, and the 'wife,' when on
her death-bed, for the first time told
her relatives the fact concerning her marriage. The writer in the Gentleman's
Magazine (1776) who records the circumstances, states that 'both had been
crossed in love when young, and had chosen this method to avoid further
importunities.' It seems, however, that the truth
was suspected, for the 'husband' subsequently charged a man with extorting money
from her under the threat of disclosing the secret, and for this offence he was
sentenced to stand three times in the pillory, and to undergo four years'
imprisonment.
It is usually considered a noteworthy circumstance for
a man or woman to have been married three times, but of old this number would have
been thought little of St. Jerome mentions a widow that married her twenty-second
husband, who in his turn
had been married to twenty wives�surely an experienced couple! A woman named Elizabeth Masi, who died at Florence in 1768, had been
married. to seven husbands, all of whom she outlived. She married the last of the
seven at the age of 70. When on her
death-bed she recalled the good and bad points in each of her husbands, and having
impartially weighed them in the balance, she singled out her fifth spouse as the
favourite, and desired that her remains might be interred near his. The death of a
soldier is recorded in 1784 who
had had five wives; and his widow, aged 90, wept over the grave of her fourth
husband. The writer who mentioned these facts naively added: 'The said soldier was
much attached to the marriage state.' There is an account of a gentleman who had
been married to four wives, and who
lived to be 115 years old. When he died he left twenty-three 'children' alive and
well, some of the said children being from three to four score. A gentleman died
at Bordeaux in 1772, who had been married sixteen times.
In July 1768 a couple were living in Essex who had
been married eighty-one years, the husband being 107, and the wife 103 years of
age. At the church of St. Clement Danes, in 1772, a woman of 85 was married to her
sixth husband.
Instances are by no means rare of affectionate
attachment existing between man and wife over a period longer than is ordinarily
allotted to human life. In the middle of the last century a farmer of Nottingham
died in his 107th year.
Three days afterwards his wife died also, aged 97. They had lived happily together
upwards of eighty years. About the same time a yeoman of Coal-pit Heath,
Gloucestershire, died in his 104th year. The day after his funeral his
wife expired at the age of 115: they had
been married eighty-one years.
The announcements of marriages published in the
Gentleman's Magazine during the greater part of last century included a
very precise statement of the portions brought by the brides. Here are a few of
such notices:
'Mr. N. Tillotson, an eminent preacher among the
people called Quakers, and a relative of Arch-bishop Tillotson, to Miss with
�7000.'
'Mr. P. Bowen to Miss Nicholls, of Queenhithe, with
�10,000.'
'Sir George C. to the widow Jones, with �1000
a-year, besides ready money.'
The following announcement follows the notice of a
marriage in the Gentleman's Magazine for November 1774:�'They at the same time
ordered the sexton to make a grave for the interment of the lady's father, then
dead.' This was unusual: but a
stranger scene took place at St. Dunstan's church on one occasion, during the
performance of the marriage ceremony. The bridegroom was a carpenter, and he
followed the service devoutly enough until the words occurred, 'With this ring I
thee wed.' He repeated these, and then
shaking his fist at the bride added, 'And with this fist I'll break thy head.' The
clergyman refused to proceed, but, says the account, 'the fellow declared he meant
no harm,' and the confiding bride 'believed he did but jest,' whereupon the
service was completed.
A still more unpleasant affair for the lady once
happened. A young couple went to get married, but found on their arrival at church
that they had not money to pay the customary fees. The clergyman not being
inclined to give credit, the bridegroom
went out to get the required sum, while the lady waited in the vestry. During his
walk the lover changed his mind, and never returned to the church. The young girl
waited two hours for him, and then departed, � 'Scot free,' dryly remarks one
narrator. A bridegroom was once
arrested at the church door on the charge of having left a wife and family
chargeable to another parish, ' to the great grief and shame of the intended
bride.'
In Scotland, in the year 1749, there was married the
'noted bachelor, W. Hamilton.' He was so deformed that he was utterly unable to
walk. The chronicler draws a startling portrait of the man: 'His legs were drawn
up to his ears, his arms were
twisted backwards, and almost every member was out of joint.' Added to these
peculiarities, he was eighty years of age, and was obliged to be carried to church
on men's shoulders. Nevertheless, his bride was fair, and only twenty years of
age! A wedding once took place in
Berkshire' under remarkable circumstances: the bridegroom was of the mature age of
eighty-five, the bride eighty-three, and the bridesmaids each upwards of seventy �
neither of these damsels having been married. Six grand-daughters of the
bridegroom strewed flowers before the
'happy couple,' and four grandsons of the bride sang an epithalamium composed by
the parish clerk on the occasion. On the 5th February, in the
eighteenth year of Elizabeth (corresponding to 1576), Thomas Filsby, a deaf man,
was married in St. Martin's parish, Leicester. Seeing that, on account of his
natural infirmity, he could not, for his part, observe the order of the form of
marriage, some peculiarities were introduced into the
ceremony, with the approbation of the Bishop of Lincoln, the commissary Dr.
Chippendale, and the Mayor of Leicester. The said Thomas, for expressing of his
mind, instead of words, of his own accord used these signs: first he embraced her
[the bride, Ursula Russet] with his arms;
took her by the hand and put a ring on her finger; and laid his hand upon his
heart, and held up his hands towards heaven; and, to shew his continuance to dwell
with her to his life's end, he did it by closing his eyes with his hands, and
digging the earth with his feet, and
pulling as though he would ring a bell, with other signs approved.' At the more
recent marriage of a deaf and dumb young man at Greenock, the only singularity was
in the company. The bridegroom, his three sisters, and two young men with them
were all deaf and dumb. There is a
case mentioned in Dodsley's Annual Register of an ostler at a tavern in Spilsby
who walked with his intended wife all the way to Gretna Green to get married�240
miles.
Some of the most remarkable marriages that have ever taken place are those in which
the brides came to the altar partly, or in many cases entirely, divested of
clothing. It was formerly a common notion that if a man married a woman en
chemisette he was not liable for her
debts; and in Notes and Queries there is an account by a clergyman of the
celebration of such a marriage some few years ago. He tells us that, as nothing was
said in the rubric about the woman's dress, he did not think it right to refuse to
perform the marriage service. At
Whitehaven a wedding was celebrated under the same circumstances, and there are
several other instances on record.
A curious example of compulsory marriage once took place in Clerkenwell. A blind
woman, forty years of age, conceived a strong affection for a young man who worked
in a house near to her own, and whose 'hammering' she could hear early and late.
Having formed an acquaintance
with him, she gave him a silver watch and other presents, and lent him �10 to assist
him in his business. The recipient of these favours waited on the lady to thank her,
and intimated that he was about to leave London. This was by no means what the blind
woman wanted, and as she
was determined not to lose the person whose industrial habits had so charmed her,
she had him arrested for the debt of �10 and thrown into prison. While in
confinement she visited him, and offered to forgive him the debt, on condition that
he married her. Placed in this strait,
the young man chose what he deemed the least of the two evils, and married his '
benefactress,' as the writer in the Gentleman's Magazine calls her. The men who
arrested him gave the bride away at the altar. In 1767 a young blacksmith of Bedford
was paying his addresses to a
maiden, and upon calling to see her one evening was asked by her mother, what was
the use of marrying a girl without money? Would it not be better for him to take a
wife who could bring �500 P The blacksmith thought it would, and said he should be
'eternall obliged' to his
adviser if she could introduce him to such a prize. ' I am the person, then,' said
the mother of his betrothed, and we are told that ' the bargain was struck
immediately.' Upon the return of the girl, she found her lover and parent on
exceedingly good terms with each other, and
they were subsequently married. The bride was sixty-four years of age, and the
bridegroom eighteen. This disparity of years is comparatively trifling. A doctor of
eighty was married to a young woman of twenty-eight; a blacksmith of ninety (at
Worcester, 1768) to a girl of
fifteen; a gentleman of Berkshire, aged seventy-six, to a girl whom his third wife
had brought up. The husband had children living thrice the age' of his fourth wife.
At Hill farm, in Berkshire, a blind woman of ninety years was married to her
ploughman, aged twenty; a gentleman
of Worcester, upwards of eighty-five, to a girl of eighteen; a soldier of
ninety-five, ' who had served in King William's wars, and had a ball in his nose,'
to a girl of fifteen. In 1769 a woman of Rotherhithe, aged seventy, was married to a
young man aged twenty-three�just half
a century difference between their ages. A girl of sixteen married a gentleman of
ninety-four�but he had �50,000.
TIME-CANDLES
In the Life of Alfred the Great, by Asserius, we read that, before the invention of
clocks, Alfred caused six tapers to he made for his daily use; each taper,
containing twelve pennyweights of wax, was twelve inches long, and of
proportionate-breadth. The whole length was
divided into twelve parts, or inches, of which three would burn for one hour, so
that each taper would. be consumed in four hours; and the six tapers, being lighted
one after the other, lasted for twenty-four hours. But the wind blowing through the
windows and doors, and chinks
of the walls of the chapel, or through the cloth of his tent, in which they were
binning, wasted these tapers, and, consequently, they burnt with no regularity: he
therefore designed a lantern made of ox or cow horn, cut into thin plates, in which
he enclosed the tapers; and thus
protecting them from the wind, the period of their burning became a matter of
certainty.
This is an amusing and oft-quoted story, but, like many other old stories, it lacks
authenticity. The work of Asser, there is reason to believe, is not genuine. See the
arguments in Wright's Biog. Brit. Lit. vol. i. pp. 408 412. It moreover
appears that some of the
institutions popularly ascribed to Alfred, existed before his time.�Kernble's
Saxons in England.
Still, there is nothing very questionable in this mode of Alfred's to measure time;
and, possibly, it may have suggested an 'improvement,' which was patented so
recently as 1859, and which consists in making marks on the side or around the sides
of candles either by
indentation or colouring at intervals, and equal distances apart, according to the
size of the candle, to indicate the time by the burning of the candle. The marks are
to consist of hours, half-hours, and if necessary quarter-hours, the distance to be
determined by the kind of
candle used; the mark or other announcement may be made either in the process of
manufacture or after.
THE GREAT TUN OF HEIDELBERG
In a large under room, in the castle or palace of the Princes Palatine of the Rhine
at Heidelberg, the eccentric traveller Thomas Coryat found this vast vessel, in its
original form, of which he has given a picture representing himself as perched on
its top, with a glass
of its contents in his hands. To him it appeared the greatest wonder he had seen in
his travels, fully entitled to rank with those seven wonders of the world of which
ancient authors inform us.
Its construction was begun in the year 1589 and finished in 1591, one Michael
Warner being theprincipal fabricator. It was composed of beams twenty-seven feet
long, and had. a diameter of eighteen feet. The iron hopping was eleven thousand
pounds in weight. The cost was eleven
score and eighteen pounds sterling. It could hold a hundred and thirty-two fuders of
wine, a fader being equal to four English hogs-heads, and the value of the Rhenish
contained in it when Coryat visited Heide]. berg (1608) was close upon two thousand
pounds.
'When tie cellarer,' says Coryat, 'draweth wine out of the vessel, he ascendeth
two several degrees of wooden stairs made in the form of a ladder, and so goeth up
to the top; about the middle whereof there is a hung-hole or venting orifice, into
the which he conveyeth a
pretty instrument of some foot and a half long, made in the form of a spout,
wherewith he draweth up the wine and so potmeth it after a pretty manner into a
glass.'
The traveller advises visitors to beware lest they be inveigled to drink more than
is good for them.
Murray's Handbook of the, Rhine represents the present tun as made in 1751, as
thirty-six feet long an twenty-four in height, and as capable of containing 800
hogsheads, or 283,200 bottles. It has been disused since 1760.
February 16th
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