HINYBORO. "Those shows which once profan'd the sacred page, The barb'rous Mysteries' of our infant Stage; Tatler, No. 18 and 87; Spectator Johnson has said (and surely no 28: Adventurer 89; World 45: higher authority in morals, after the and Mirror 82), vou may not ner sacred writings, can be adduced), haps reject this attempt "to chroni- that "it is the duty of every man to ele small beer." endeavour that something may be An Author and his Reader have added by his industry to the heredibeen compared to persons travelling tary aggregate of knowledge. To together, and it is therefore extreme- add much can indeed be the lot of ly desirable that a good understand few, but to add something, however ing should subsist between them. little, every one may hope." Now for my part, as I ride along, if I hear of any venerable vestige of ADAM AND EVE. I consider this antiquity, any splendid mansion, not unfrequent sign to be a vestige any curious collection, or any of scenery remarkable for sublimity or beauty, even though it should take me a few miles out of the straight high road, I can hardly refrain from in which Adam and Eve were among the deviation; and should I chance the principal of the "Dramatis Perto be any where near to a spot of sonæ." Stow tells us that in 1409 historick interest, or rendered sa- at Clerkenwell, "The Creation of cred as the birth-place, residence, or the World" was acted by the Comdepository of pre-eminent genius, pany of Parish Clerks before a very learning, or virtue, the temptation large assembly, and that the perof a visit is absolutely irresistible. formance occupied eight days. In If I mistake not, Mr. Urban, our one of the Chester Whitsun plays, feelings and our taste in this do not originally acted in 1328, and repeatdisagree, and were I your compa- ed so lately as 1500, Adan and nion on a real journey, I should not Eve appear in a state of complete be apprehensive of much censure nudity; Eve converses with the for my present aberrations; but in serpent; eats of the forbidden fruit, this excursion on paper, how shall I and gives to Adam; after which conciliate the good graces of your they procure coverings of fig-leaves. readers, for I never can continue in And all this was witnessed with the direct path. if by digressing a composure by a numerous assemlittle I can pick up what I may ig- blage of both sexes! norantly deem a curious etymology, a characteristick anecdote, or a jeu d'esprit ? Dreadfully gross as these representations appear to us, is there not more real indelicacy in the female To some readers, it is true, I may exposure of modern days? The relate what they well knew before, true test consists in the emotions and get only their contemptuous excited or intended so to be. There "Crambe his repetita" for my pains; is no immodesty in the nakedness of by others I may be censured as hav- a savage; and among our unrefined ing wasted their time and mine in ancestors the only sentiments ocdetailing impertinent sillinesses; casioned by these strange spectacles, but I can truly repeat that they have were probably those of Religion; afforded pleasure to myself, and in but in the ball rooms of the 19th the hope of communicating like century it is almost necessary to be pleasure to others, I began this com- "more or less than man," to escape pilation. Besides, let it be remem- from voluptuous imaginations. The bered, that the great and good Dr. female who thus endeavours to ob tain a husband shoots widely of the Professors, in 896; an excellent mark, for even the most dissipated Such would I have my mistress, not my wife.” Poet, a good scholar, the author and translator of several Works. Regular and devout in his religious duties, the founder of many churches, and most exemplary in all the domestick relations, this "good and faithful servant" exchanged his temporal for an eternal crown, in 901. Almost the only remain of the once splendid Abbey of Stratford Langton, in Essex, consists of a beautiful arch in front of the Adam Semper honos, nomenque tuum laudesque mante and Eve publick house. ALFRED'S HEAD is the appropriate sign of a principal inn at Wantage in Berkshire, where he was born in 849. "Alfred thine, In whom the splendour of heroick war, Thomson. It is not to be expected that I should attempt a history, a biography, or even a bare enumeration of the name of every eminent person whose intended similitude decorates the sign-posts of our publick houses; but some of the most important will be noticed in alphabetical order. "I decus! I nostrum ! bunt." Although not a very frequent Alsign, yet King Alfred," or fred's Head," is to be met with in several large towns. i hus ANGEL. The frequent occurrence of this figure (very often holding a coat of arms in its hands) in our ancient ecclesiastical aud domestick edifices. has probabiy been a principal reason of the present prevalence of this sign. a large inn at Grantham in Lincolnshire, took its name from some such representations cut in stone in front of the building which was once a Commandery of Knights Templars. To this also may be added that an angel is borne as a supporter to the arins of very many noble families. THE ARCHERS. THE BOW AND ARROW. The English archers were the best in the world, and their superiority was particularly evinced in the glorious fields of Cressy, Poictiers, and Agincourt. Alfred fought under his brother King Ethelred at Ashdown in 871, to commemorate which victory the armorial bearing of Wessex, a white horse, was cut and still remains on "White Horse" hill; ascended the throne the same year; took shelter in the isle of Athelney; visited the Danish camp in the disguise of a harper, and obtained a complete victory It is good to have two strings to at Edington, in 878; established a your bow, is a proverb originating powerful English fleet, and thus among archers, who formerly for founded the Navy of Britain in fear of accidents were often thus 882; defeated the Danish chieftain provided, as appears by a law of Hastings; restored peace to his Charlemagne, issued in the year kingdom; divided England into 813, which speaks of "arcum cum Counties, hundreds, and tythings; duabus cordis." A ring, in the instituted the office of Sheriff; com- possession of Sir John Pringle, posed his Code of Laws; and es- found upon the field of battle at tablished the Trial by Jury in 893; Bannockburn, represents an archfounded or restored the University er with a bow having two strings of Oxford, and placed in it learned attached to it, one of which is drawn up with the arrow, while the other while archery was practised, was remains unemployed. And this obliged to keep in his house either passage from Ascham, "Although a bow of yew or some other wood. he have two strings put on at once," proves that the practice existed in his time, temp. Eliz. A fool's bolt is soon shot, a proverb quoted by the Duke of Orleans in Shakspeare's Henry V. is derived from a short thick arrow called a bird-bolt, without a point and spreading so much as to leave a flat surface of the breadth of a shilling. Thus in Marston's "What you will," 1607, "Cupid, Pox of his bird-bolt! Venus The bird-bolt shot from a crossbow, was an inferiour kind of archery used by fools, who for obvious reasons were not permitted to shoot with pointed arrows. We use the word Butt, the place on which the mark to be shot at is fixed, metaphorically, to express a silly. passive character, on whom any one may with impunity exer cise his wit. trice It would seem therefore that yews were not only planted in churchyards to defend their churches from the wind, but on account of their use in making bows; while, by the benefit of being secured in enclosed places, their poisonous quality was prevented from doing mischief to the cattle." So also Dr. Trusler says, that in the year 1482, yw trees were encouraged in churchyards (as being fenced from the cattle) for the making of bows. But Mr. Brand asks," Are not all plantation grounds fenced from cattle ?" and adds, “How much more probable the conjecture of Dr. Browne, that the planting of yew trees in church-yards seems to derive its origin from ancient funeral rites, in which from its perpetual verdure it was used as an emblem of the resurrection." already run Although in this article I have bounds, yet I am disposed to play a long way out of the truant still more, and I do not think that your readers will be displeased if they have not before seen related to me by a lady since dead, "The Archers' Song," which was and which I have never met with in print. as In Shakspeare's" Much ado about Nothing, Benedick says of Beaher affections have their full bent." This too is a metaphor derived from archery; the bow has its bent when it is drawn as far it can be. Yeoman, though derived by Junius from German (Frisick) a villager, is by many deduced from the employment of that class of men in war as archers, whose bows were made of yew; in like manner as the title of esquire is derived from the French equ, a shield, which it was his office to bear before the knight. Several motives have been assigned for the planting of the yew "Bright Phoebus! thou patron of poets below, For you we esteem as the god of the bow, The fashion of shooting 'twas you who began, And the Goddesses shot with their eyes, Diana, who slaughter'd the brutes with her darts, On beautiful Iris Apollo bestow'd trees which we so commonly find It soon grew her hobby-horse, and as she rode in church-yards. Steevens says, "From some of the ancient Statutes it appears that every Englishman, On it like an arrow she flew, Gaudy dame. To earth came the art of the Archers at last, The Parthians were bowmen of old, and their pride Lay in shooting and scampering too; Then a health to the brave British bowmen be crown'd; May their courage ne'er sit in the dark; May their strings be all good, and their bows be all sound, And their arrows fly true to the mark! THE BAG OF NAILS was, and perhaps still is, the name of an inn at Chelsea; which may be noticed as the ne plus ultra of ludicrous corruption, having originally been a groupe of Bacchanals. still frequent, we may conjecture to have been, once, a very popular sign, as it was borne by that "centre-shaking thunder clap of war,” that "proud setter-up and pullerdown of Kings," Richard Nevil, Earl of Warwick, who was slain at the battle of Barnet in 1471. Bear-baiting was a favourité amusement of our ancestors. Sir Thomas Pope entertained Queen Marv and the Princess Elizabeth at Hatfield with a grand exhibition of "bear-baiting, with which their Highnesses were right well conBARBER'S POLE. It has been said tent." Bear-baiting was a part of that the original distinction of our the amusement of Elizabeth, among barber's shops, was the figure of a the "Princely Pleasures of Kenilhuman head or poll (a name now worth Castle." Rowland White, almost obsolete excepting in a poll- speaking of the Queen, then in her tax), and that from cheapness or 67th year, says, Her Majesty is convenience it was changed into a very well. This day she appoints long thick stick, because that too a Frenchman to do feats upon a is called a pole. But surgery and rope in the Conduit-court. Toshaving were formerly practiced by morrow she has commanded the the same person, whence the cor- bears, the bull, and the ape, to be porate company of Barber-chirur- bayted in the tilt-yard. Upon geons; and the original intention Wednesday she will have solemne of the parti-coloured staff over their dawncing.' doors was, to shew that the master The office of Chief Master of the of the shop could breathe a vein as Bears was held under the Crown well as mow a beard; such a staff with a salary of 16d. per diem. to this day by village practitioners Whenever the King chose to enter. being put into the hand of a patient tain himself or his visitors with this undergoing the operation of phlebo- sport, it was the duty of the Master tomy. The white band which ac- to provide bears, and dogs, and to companies the staff was meant to superintend the baiting; and he represent the fillet thus elegantly was invested with unlimited authotwined about it. rity to issue commissions and to BEAR. BEAR AND RAGGED send his officers into every county STAFF. A very great proportion in England, who were empowered of our signs exhibit the arms of to seize and take away any bears, some popular character, or family bulls, or dogs, that they thought of distinction residing in the neigh- meet for his Majesty's service. bourhood. At present the whole The latest record by which this coat is most commonly displayed; diversion was publickly authorised, but formerly, and even now in se- is a grant to Sir Sanders Duncombe, Oct. 11, 1661, for "the sole prac for the space of fourteen years.' tising and profit of the fighting and Occasional exhibitions of this kind combating of wild and domestick were continued till about the midbeats within the realm of England dle of the 18th century. CHARLOTTE, PRINCESS PALATINE; SECOND WIFE TO THE DUKE OF ORLEANS, BROTHER OF LOUIS XIV. From La Belle Assemblée. PERHAPS it would be difficult was much disconcerted at beholdto find in the whole world such ing her; but accustoming himself an ugly hand and arm as this Prin- to her person, she gained, during cess was possessed of. The King the twenty years they lived toge would often laugh as he looked at ther, by her good-humoured and them, and the good-humoured Prin- sensible conduct, his entire conficess laughed as heartily as his Ma- dence and esteem. jesty. As Charlotte knew she had no pretensions to beauty, she was always the first to ridicule the defects of her person. On great festivals, Monsieur, her husband, always obliged her to put on rouge; this was a great torment to her, as she not only detested all kind of artifice, but also whatever put her the least out of her way. She was determined never to augment her ugliness by excess of ornament: and being once asked to draw her own picture, she gave the following sketch: "I must be insupportably ugly, for I have not one good feature. My eyes are small, my nose broad and flat, my mouth wide, and my lips thin; not a single material to build a good face from; I have large In her early youth she was very high cheek bones, my face is very fond of playing with swords and long, I am short of stature, thick fire-arms, and disdained to amuse set, and my legs are large. In herself with dolls or playthings. short, I am a little ugly wretch; She would often weep because she and if I did not render myself one would endure was not a boy; her nurse once told amusing, no her, in order to pacify her, that if she jumped high she would become a boy accordingly, the Princess would take such dangerous leaps, that it was a wonder she did not break her neck. On her first arrival in France, as the wife of Monsieur, that Prince From the European Magazine. me.' "You seem to have a shocking dislike to Madame de Maintenon, said the King one day to her "Sire," replied the Princess, "I do not like disproportionate allian ces." VARIETIES. a youth, at College, occurred; which IN N perusing the Biography of the I transcribe for the amusement of late celebrated Dr. William the numerous readers of your valuThompson, who died at Kensington, able Miscellany. March 16, 1817, in the 71st year "About the year 1774, while of his age the following singular young Thompson attended the Diinstance of his facetiousness when vinity school at St. Andrews, it |