Born: Christian Gellert,
German poet and fabulist, 1715, Chemnitz, Saxony.
Died: Lord Saye and
Seal, beheaded, 1450, London; William Birde, English
composer of sacred music, 1623; Meric Casaubon,
learned and controversial writer, 1671, bur.
Canterbury Cathedral; Henry Bentinck, second Duke of
Portland, 1726, Jamaica; Samuel Richardson, novelist,
1761; Fisher Ames, American statesman, President of
Harvard College, 1804, Boston, U. S.; Richard Watson,
bishop of Llandaff, 1816; John Adams, second president
of the United States, 1825; Thomas Jefferson, third
president of the United States, 1825; Rev. William
Kirby, naturalist, 1850, Barham, Suffolk; Richard
Grainger, the re-edifier of Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1861,
Newcastle.
Feast Day: St. Finbar,
abbot. St. Bolcan, abbot. St. Sisoes or Sisoy,
anchoret in Egypt, about 429. St. Bertha, widow,
abbess of Blangy, in Artois, about 725. St. Ulric,
bishop of Augsburg, confessor, 973. St. Ode,
archbishop of Canterbury, confessor, 10th century.
TRANSLATION OF ST.
MARTIN
That the Church of Rome should
not only celebrate the day of St. Martin's death
(November 11), but also that of the transference of
his remains from their original humble resting place
to the cathedral of Tours, shews conclusively the
veneration in which this soldier-saint was held. (See
under November 11.) The day continues to have a place
in the Church of England calendar.
In Scotland, this used to be
called St. Martin of Bullion's Day, and the weather
which prevailed upon it was supposed to have a
prophetic character. It was a proverb, that if the
deer rise dry and lie down dry on Bullion's Day, it
was a sign there would be a good gose-harvest�gose
being a term for the latter end of summer; hence gose-harvest
was an early harvest. It was believed generally over
Europe that rain on this day betokened wet weather for
the twenty ensuing days.
THE FOURTH OF JULY
Where a country or a
government has been baffled in its efforts to attain
or preserve a hated rule over another people, it must
be content to see its failure made the subject of
never-ending triumph and exultation. The joy attached
to the sense of escape or emancipation tends to
perpetuate itself by periodical celebrations, in which
it is not likely that the motives of the other party,
or the general justice of the case, will be very
carefully considered or allowed for. We may doubt if
it be morally expedient thus to keep alive the memory
of facts which as certainly infer mortification to one
party as they do glorification to another: but we must
all admit that it is only natural, and in a measure to
be expected.
The anniversary of the
Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776, has ever
since been celebrated as a great national festival
throughout the United States, and wherever Americans
are assembled over the world. From Maine to Oregon,
from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, in every
town and village, this birthday of the Republic has
always hitherto been ushered in with the ringing of
bells, the firing of cannon, the display of the
national flag, and other evidences of public
rejoicing. A national salute is fired at sunrise,
noon, and at sunset, from every fort and man-of-war.
The army, militia, and volunteer troops parade, with
bands of music, and join with the citizens in
patriotic processions. The famous Declaration is
solemnly read, and orators, appointed for the
occasion, deliver what are termed Fourth of July
Orations, in which the history of the country is
reviewed, and its past and coming glories pro-claimed.
The virtues of the Pilgrim Fathers, the heroic
exertions and sufferings of the soldiers of the
Revolution, the growth and power of the Republic, and
the great future which expands before her, are the
staple ideas of these orations. Dinners, toasts, and
speeches follow, and at night the whole country blazes
with bonfires, rockets, Roman candles, and fireworks
of every description. In a great city like New York,
Boston, or Philadelphia, the day, and even the night
previous, is insufferably noisy with the constant
rattle of Chinese-crackers and firearms. In the
evening, the displays of fireworks in the public
squares, provided by the authorities, are often
magnificent.
John Adams, second president
of the United States, and one of the most
distinguished signers of the Declaration of
Independence, in a letter written at the time,
predicted the manner in which it would be celebrated,
and his prediction has doubtless done something to
insure its own fulfilment. Adams and Jefferson, two of
the signers, both in turn presidents, by a most
remarkable coincidence died on the fiftieth
anniversary of Independence, in the midst of the
national celebration, which, being semi-centennial,
was one of extraordinary splendour.
THOMAS JEFFERSON
The celebrated author of the
American Declaration of Independence, entered life as
a Virginian barrister, and, while still a young man,
was elected a member of the House of Burgesses for his
state. When the disputes between the colonies and
mother-country began, he took an active part in the
measures for the resistance of taxation, and for
diffusing the same spirit through the other provinces.
Elected in 1775 to the Continental Congress, he
zealously promoted the movement for a complete
separation from England, and in the Declaration of
Independence, which was adopted on the 4th of July
1776, he laid down the pro-positions, since so often
quoted, that all men are created equal,' with 'an
inalienable right' to 'life, liberty, and the pursuit
of happiness,' and that 'governments derive their just
powers from the consent of the governed.' When the
cause of independence became triumphant, Mr. Jefferson
naturally took a high place in the administration of
the new government. He successively filled the posts
of governor of Virginia, secretary of state under the
presidency of
Washington, and
vice-president under
that of John Adams; finally, in 1801, attaining to the
presidency, which he held for two terms or eight
years.
While Washington and Adams
aimed at a strong, an aristocratic, and a centralising
government, Jefferson stood up as the advocate of
popular rights and measures. He headed the Liberal
Republican, or, as it was afterwards called, the
Democratic party. He laboured for civil and religious
liberty and education. He secured the prohibition of
the slave trade, and of slavery over a vast territory,
and was in favour of universal emancipation. In
Virginia, he secured the abolition of a religious
establishment, and of entails, and the equal rights of
both sexes to inheritance. The most important measure
of his administration was the acquisition of
Louisiana, including the whole territory west of the
Mississippi, which was purchased of France for
15,000,000 dollars. His administration was singularly
free from political favouritism. It is remembered as
one of his sayings, that 'he could always find better
men for every place than his own connections.'
After retiring from the
presidency, he founded the university of Virginia,
carried on an extensive correspondence, entertained
visitors from all parts of the world, and enjoyed his
literary and philosophical pursuits. He was married
early in life, and had one daughter, whose numerous
children were the solace of his old age. At the age of
eighty, he wrote to John Adams, with whom, in spite of
political differences, he maintained a warm personal
friendship: 'I have ever dreaded a doting age; and my
health has been generally so good, and is now so good,
that I dread it still. The rapid decline of my
strength, during the last winter, has made me hope
sometimes that I see land. During summer I enjoy its
temperature; but I shudder at the approach of winter,
and wish I could sleep through it with the dormouse,
and only wake with him in the spring, if ever. They
say that Stark could walk about his room. I am told
you walk well and firmly. I can only reach my garden,
and that with sensible fatigue. I ride, however,
daily, but reading is my delight.�God bless you, and
give you health, strength, good spirits, and as much
life as you think worth having.'
The death of Jefferson, at the
age of eighty-three, was remarkable. Both he and his
friend John Adams, the one the author and the other
the chief advocate of the Declaration of
Independence�each having filled the highest offices in
the Republic they founded�died on the 4th of July
1826, giving a singular solemnity to its fiftieth
anniversary.
On the tomb of Jefferson, at
Monticello, he is described as the author of the
Declaration of Independence, the founder of religious
freedom in Virginia, and of the university of
Virginia; but there is a significant omission of the
fact, that he was twice president of the United
States.
THE FAIRLOP OAK
FESTIVAL
The first Friday in July used
to be marked by a local festival in Essex, arising
through a simple yet curious chain of circumstances.
In Hainault Forest, in Essex,
there formerly was an oak of prodigious size, known
far and wide as the Fairlop Oak. It came to be a ruin
about the beginning of the present century, and in
June 1805 was in great part destroyed by an accidental
fire. When entire�though the statement seems hardly
credible�it is said to have had a girth of thirty-six
feet, and to have had seventeen branches, each as
large as an ordinary tree of its species. A vegetable
prodigy of such a character could not fail to become a
most notable and venerated object in the district
where it grew.
Far back in the last century,
there lived an estimable block and pump maker in
Wapping, Daniel Day by name, but generally known by
the quaint appellative of Good Day. Haunting a small
rural retreat which he had acquired in Essex, not far
from Fairlop, Mr. Day became deeply interested in the
grand old tree above described, and began a practice
of resorting to it on the first Friday of July, in
order to eat a rustic dinner with a few friends under
its branches. His dinner was composed of the good old
English fare, beans and bacon, which he never changed,
and which no guest ever complained of. Indeed, beans
and bacon became identified with the festival, and it
would have been an interference with many hallowed
associations to make any change or even addition. By
and by, the neighbours caught Mr. Day's spirit, and
came in multitudes to join in his festivities. As a
necessary consequence, trafficking-people came to sell
refreshments on the spot; afterwards commerce in hard
and soft wares found its way thither; shows and
tumbling followed; in short, a regular fair was at
last concentrated around the
Fairlop Oak, such as Gay
describes:
Pedlars' stalls with
glitt'ring toys are laid,
The various fairings of the country-maid.
Long silken laces hang upon the twine,
And rows of pins and amber bracelets shine.
Here the tight lass, knives, combs, and scissors
spies,
And looks on thimbles with desiring eyes.
The mountebank now treads the stage, and sells
His pills, his balsams, and his ague-spells:
Now o'er and o'er the nimble tumbler springs,
And on the rope the vent'rous maiden swings;
Jack Pudding, in his party-coloured jacket,
Tosses the glove, and jokes at ev'ry packet:
Here raree-shows are seen, and Punch's feats,
And pockets picked in crowds and various cheats.
Mr. Day had thus the
satisfaction of introducing the appearances of
civilisation in a district which had heretofore been
chiefly noted as a haunt of banditti.
Fun of this kind, like fame,
naturally gathers force as it goes along. We learn
that for some years before the death of Mr. Day, which
took lace in 1767, the pump-and-block-makers of
Wapping, to the amount of thirty or forty, used to
come each first Friday of July to the Fairlop
beans-and-bacon feast, seated in a boat formed of a
single piece of wood, and mounted upon wheels, covered
with an awning, and drawn by six horses. As they went
accompanied by a band of musicians, it may be readily
supposed how the country-people would flock round,
attend, and stare at their anomalous vehicle, as it
hurled madly along the way to the forest. A local
poet, who had been one of the company, gives us just a
faint hint of the feelings connected with this
journey:
'O'er land our vessel bent
its course,
Guarded by troops of foot and horse;
Our anchors they were all a-peak,
Our crew were baling from each leak,
On Stratford bridge it made me quiver,
Lest they should spill us in the river.'
The founder of the Fairlop
Festival was remarkable for benevolence and a few
innocent eccentricities. He was never married, but
bestowed as much kindness upon the children of a
sister as he could have spent upon his own. He had a
female servant, a widow, who had been eight-and-twenty
years with him. As she had in life loved two things in
especial, her wedding ring and her tea, he caused her
to be buried with the former on her finger, and a
pound of tea in each hand�the latter circumstance
being the more remarkable, as he himself disliked tea,
and made no use of it. He had a number of little
aversions, but no resentments. It changed the usual
composed and amiable expression of his countenance to
hear of any one going to law. He literally every day
relieved the poor at his gate. He often lent sums of
money to deserving persons, charging no interest for
it. When he had attained a considerable age, the
Fairlop Oak lost one of its branches. Accepting the
fact as an omen of his own approaching end, he caused
the detached limb of the tree to be fashioned into a
coffin for himself, and this convenience he took care
to try, lest it should prove too short. By his
request, his body was borne in its coffin to Barking
churchyard by water, in a boat, the worthy old
gentleman having contracted a prejudice against all
land vehicles, the living horse included, in
consequence of being so often thrown from them in his
various journeys.
BISHOP WATSON
Richard Watson was eminent as
a prelate, politician, natural philosopher, and
controversial theologian; but his popular fame may be
said to depend solely on one little book, his Apology
for the Bible, written as a reply to Paine's Age of
Reason. A curious error has been, more than once,
lately promulgated respecting this prelate. At a
telegraphic soiree, held in the Free-trade Hall,
Manchester, during the meeting of the British
Association for the Advancement of Science, at that
city, in 1861, it was confidently asserted that Bishop
Watson had given the first idea of the electric
telegraph. The only probable method of accounting for
so egregious an error, is that Bishop Watson had been
confounded with Sir William Watson, who, when an
apothecary in London, conducted some electrical
experiments in 1747, and succeeded in sending the
electric current from a Leyden jar through a
considerable range of earth, or water, and along wires
suspended in the open air on sticks. But, even he
never had the slightest idea of applying his
experiments to telegraphic purposes. In his own
account of these experiments, he says: 'If it should
be asked to what useful purposes the effects of
electricity can be applied, it may be answered that we
are not yet so far advanced in these discoveries as to
render them conducive to the service of mankind.'
Bishop Watson was elected
professor of chemistry at the university of Cambridge
in 1769; and he gives us the following statement on
the subject: 'At the time this honour was conferred
upon me, I knew nothing at all of chemistry, had never
read a syllable on the subject, nor seen a single
experiment in it!' A very fair specimen of the
consideration in which physical science was held at
the English universities, during the dark ages of the
last century. After studying chemistry for fourteen
months, Watson commenced his lectures; but in all his
printed works on chemistry, and other subjects, the
word electricity is never once mentioned!
WILLIAM
HUTTON'S 'STRONG WOMAN.'
William Hutton, the quaint
but
sensible Birmingham manufacturer, was accustomed to
take a month's tour every summer, and to note down his
observations on places and people. Some of the results
appeared in distinct books, some in his autobiography,
and some in the Gentleman's Magazine, towards
the close of the last century and the beginning of the
present. One year he would be accompanied by his
father, a tough old man, who was not frightened at a
twenty-mile walk; another year he would go alone;
while on one occasion his daughter went with him, she
riding on horseback, and he trudging on foot by her
side. Various parts of England and Wales were thus
visited, at a time when tourists' facilities were
slender indeed. It appears from his lists of distances
that he could 'do' fifteen or twenty miles a day for
weeks together; although his mode of examining places
led to a much slower rate of progress.
One of the odd characters
which he met with at Matlock, in Derbyshire, in July
1801, is worth describing in his own words. After
noticing the rocks and caves at that town, he said:
'The greatest wonder I saw was Miss Phoebe Bown, in
person five feet six, about thirty, well-proportioned,
round-faced and ruddy; a dark penetrating eye, which,
the moment it fixes upon your face, stamps your
character, and that with precision. Her step (pardon
the Irishism) is more manly than a man's, and can
easily cover forty miles a day. Her common dress is a
man's hat, coat, with a spencer above it, and men's
shoes; I believe she is a stranger to breeches. She
can lift one hundred-weight with each hand, and carry
fourteen score. Can sew, knit, cook, and spin, but
hates them all, and every accompaniment to the female
character, except that of modesty. A gentleman at the
New Bath recently treated her so rudely, that " she
had a good mind to have knocked him down." She
positively assured me she did not know what fear is.
She never gives an affront, but will offer to fight
any one who gives her one. If she has not fought,
perhaps it is owing to the insulter being a coward,
for none else would give an affront [to a woman]. She
has strong sense, an excellent judgment, says smart
things, and supports an easy freedom in all companies.
Her voice is more than masculine, it is deep toned;
the wind in her face, she can send it a mile; has no
beard; accepts any kind of manual labour, as holding
the plough, driving the team, thatching the ricks, &c.
But her chief avocation is breaking-in horses, at a
guinea a week; always rides without a saddle; and is
supposed the best judge of a horse, cow, &c., in the
country; and is frequently requested to purchase for
others at the neighbouring fairs. She is fond of
Milton, Pope, Shakspeare, also of music; is
self-taught; performs on several instruments, as the
flute, violin, harpsichord, and supports the bass-viol
in Matlock church. She is an excellent markswoman,
and, like her brother-sportsmen, carries her gun upon
her shoulder. She eats no beef or pork, and but little
mutton; her chief food is milk, and also her
drink�discarding wine, ale, and spirits.'
