ANECDOTE

where they were assembled, to talk

with them to their annoyance or OF A YOUNG ITALIAN PRINCE.

disturbance, a writ lay de leproso IN the reign of Charles II. an

amovendo." Italian envoy informed his majesty,

What follows is remarkable. The that a young prince in Italy, having writ is for those lepers who appear married beneath himself, had retired

to the fight of all men that they are into England, and that his friends lepers, by their voice and fores, the requcited he might be searched for, putrefaction of their flesh, and by and fent back as soon as poslible.

the smell of them. And so late as The prince hearing of it, made the reign of Edward the Sixth mulhimsell known to the king, ac

titudes of lepers seem to have been quainting him that he lived twenty- in England; for in 1 Edward VI. five miles from town, in a country

c. 3. in which directions are given retreat, with his beloved Jacintha; for carrying the poor to the places and if his majesty would afford them where they were born, &c. we read bis protection, he should be happier the following clause: “ Provided there, than in the polletion of a always that all leprous and poor crown.

bed-rid creatures may, at their liThe king put a stop to any further

berty, remain and continue in such searches of the envoy, and the houses appointed for lepers or bedenamoured prince lived unknown rid people as they now lie in." with his Jacintha till their deaths, which happened witbiu fix months

ANECDOTE of one another.

OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON.

SINGULAR FACTS

THE late Dr. Stukeley, one day RELATIVE TO LEPROUS PATIENTS. by appointment, paid a visit to Sir [From Hutchinson's History, &c. of Dur. Ifaac Newton. The servant said he ham.]

was in his ftudy. No one was perTHE leprosy was much more mitted to disturb him there; but as common in this part of the globe it was near his dinner-time, the vififormerly than at present, and, per tor sat down to wait for him. In a haps, near half the hospitals that fhort time, a boiled chicken, under were in England were for lepers. a cover, was brought in for dinner. At the five gates of Norwich were An hour pailed, and Sir Isaac did five houles of this fort; and lepers not appear. The doctor then ate were so numerous in the twelfth the fowl; and covering up the empcentury, that by a decree in the ty dilli, delired the servant to get Lateran Council, under pope Alex. another drested for his master. Beander III. 1179, they were em. fore that was ready, the great man powered to erect churches for thein came down. He apologized for his felves, and to have their own mi delay, and added" Give me but nisters (lepers, we may fuppole) to teave to take my short dinner, and I officiate in them. This thews at Mail be at your service. I am faonce how infectious and offensive tigued and faint.” Saying this, he their distemper was; and on this litted

up the cover, and, without account, in England, “ where a any emotion, turned about to Stukeman was a leper, and dwelling in a 'ley with a smile" See,” he says, town, and would come into the « what we studious people are !--I church, or among his neighbours, forgot that I had dined.”

CHARACTERISTIC MANNERS AND CUSTOMS.

1

T

ORIGIN OF CERTAIN INVENTIONS the time of Theodofius, these people
AND CUSTOMS.

always burnt their dead.
HE beard, amongst most na The use of coffee was not known

tions, has experienced all the in Europe till the fixteenth century.
caprices of fashion. The Greeks The tree which produces it, grows
preserved it until the reign of Alex. in great abundance in the kingdom
ander, and the Romans till towards of Yemen. For the cultivation of
the year of Rome 454. Scipio it we are indebted to the Dutch,
Africanus introduced the custom of who carried it from Moka to Ba.
Mhaving every day, and a long series tavia, and thence to Holland. The
of emperors conformed to it; but properties of coffee were discovered,
Adrian resumed it again, and his as is said, by the prior of an Arabian
example was followed by his fuc- monastery, who having observed that
ceffors till Constantine. It appeared cattle did not sleep when they eat
again under Heraclius, and all the certain small beans, tried the effects
Greek emperors wore beards. The of them upon his monks, to prevent
Goths and the Franks had only them from falling asleep in the choir
whiskers. Clodion ordered his sub- during night.
jects to let their beards grow, that Among the Romans, at the end
they might be distinguilhed from of December, during the Saturpalia,
the Romans. The ancient philo. children drew lots with beans to fee
sophers wore long beards. The who would be King; and this cus-
ecclefiaftics of the east always had tom was borrowed from that prac-
beards, but the clergy of the west tised at Athens for the election of
used a razor. There are some coun- magistrates. Hence, perhaps, is the
tries where a long beard serves to origin of our drawing for King and
express grief, and there are others Queen on Twelfth Night.
where the want of a beard is a mark Coaches, as well as all other kinds
of mourning,

of carriages which have been fince The Egyptians are said to have made in imitation of them, were in. been the inventors of beer, in the vented by the French, and the use year 1212 before the Christian æra. of them is of a modero date. Under They named it the Pelusian liquor, Francis I. there were only two because it was first made at Pelulium, coaches; that of the queen, and a city near the mouth of the Nile. that of Diana, natural daughter of

The brutality and favage fury of Henry II. The kings of France, the Barbarians, who, after a battle, before they used these machines, took from their graves such of their travelled on horseback; the prin enemies as had perished, that they ceffes were carried in 'litters, and might infult and strip them, intro- ladies rode behind their squires, duced among

the ancients the cus- The magistrates, who went to the tom of burning dead bodies. The palace on mules, opposed the Greeks adopted it long before the of coaches as much as they could. Trojan war; and Sylla, fearing that In 1563 they petitioned Charles IX. the Romans would treat him in the to forbid them in the city, and preç, same manner as he had treated Caius served their ancient customs till the Marius, ordered, when dying, that commencement of the seventeenth his body should be placed on a fu- century. The number of coaches neral pile. From that cpoch, till began then to encrease. The first

lord

he luxury

lord at court who had one, was John Lent. There are still some mona. de Laval de Bois-Dauphin, and le- series where the monks expire upon yeral others followed his example. alhes. The Greeks and the Romans, Nevertheless, about the middle of who were accustomed to burn their the last century, there were no more dead, and to collect the ashes in than three or four coaches in Paris ; urns, gave rise to that elegant exat present there are above fifteen pression of the poets,

66 che allies of thousand, without including hack. the dead." ney coaches, and those which are The ancient Gauls considered let for hire. A person of the name long hair as a mark of honour and of Sauvage, who lived in the itreet liberty; but Cæsar, made them lay it of St. Martin, at the hotel of St. aside as foon as he had subdued them, Fiacre, first formed the idea of elta- Ecclefiafticş rendered homage to blifhing public carriages, which God by cutting their hair fhort, and made the name of fracre be applied imagined that in doing this they both to the carriage and the driver* gave him a proof of their spiritual In 1650 Francis Villerme obtained fervitude, and of their perfect subthe exclusive privilege of letting out mission to his will. People formerly for hire all kinds of chaises ; and fe, (wore by their hair ; and to cut off ven years after one was granted for this badge of dignity from any one, hackney coaches to Mr. Givri. The was to devote him to ignominy, success of this enterprize excited Those who entered into a conspiracy, many other individuals to solicit the were obliged to cut off each other's same favour, and carriages were soon hair. It was a piece of refined poseen in all the quarters of Paris. liteness among the French to pull Some historians, and especially those out a hair when they met a friend, of Italy, give the name of coach to and to present it to him. In the the principal Standard of an army, eighth century, great lords caufed which was fixed to a pole erected in the first hair of their children to be a charios covered with purple. This cut by thofe for whom they enteris said to have been the invention tained the greatest esteem, and by of Heribert, archbishop of Milan, this ceremony they became their about the year 1124. The emperor spiritual sponsors. About the year Othọ IV. and several kings of Hun- 1116, long hair was considered as a gary, employed carriages of the fame luxury, and a mark of effeminacy. kind.

Eighty years after, whoever wore Ashes

among feveral nations were long hair was, by a canon, excluded a mark of grief and repentance. The from entering the chureh ; and on Hebrews covered their heads with Christmas-day at mass, Godfroy, them in the time of public calami- bishop of Amiens, 'refused at St. ties, and the people of Niniveh ex. Oiner, in presence of Robert, earl piated their faults with fackcloth of Flanders, the offerings of those and alhes. In the primitive church, who had preserved their hair. Franthe bishop marked with aflies the cis I. wore his hair fort, on account forehead of a finner who began his of a wound which he had received penitence, and hence came the prace in his head; his courtiers followed tice enjoined by the council of Be. his example, and the people imineventum, in 1091, of going to tated the courtiers. receive fome on the Wednesday The invention of bells is attributed which precedes the first Sunday of to the Egyptians: however this may

* FIACRE, in French, signifies both a + Hence called Alh-Wednesday. coach and a hackney coachman.

be,

be, it is certain that they were al The first watches were made at
ways used to announce the festivals Nuremberg in 1500, by Peter Hell,
in honour of Osiris. Amongit the and called “Nuremburg eggs,
Hebrews, the high priest in grand account of their oval form. The
ceremonies wore a kind of tunic, fame year George Purbach, a'ma-
ornamented with small golden bells. thematician of Vienna, employed a
At Athens the priests of Proserpine watch that pointed to seconds, for
and Cybele used them during their astronomical observations,
facrifices, and in some measure they The art of making perukes was
made a part of their mysteries. Bells invented at Paris, about the end of
were known also among the Per- the reign of Lewis XIII. and people
fians, the Greeks, and the Romans. then gave over the use of calottes
Pope Sabinian, and St. Paulin of ornamented with a double row of
Nola, introduced them into the hair, quite straight or frizzed. The
church, to call the faithful to divine abbé la Riviere tirst set the example;
worship, and to distinguish the ca- his peruke weighed two pounds.
nonical hours, but it does not ap- These head-dreffes were heavy, and
pear that large bells were used be- of an enormous fize, until 1680,
fore the sixth century. In 610 the when the Sieur Ervais devised a me-
army of Clotaire, who were besieging thod of curling the hair. - Perukes
Sens, were fo frightened by the then became real ornaments, and
noise of the bells of the church of seemed to banish the marks of old
St. Stephen, which Loup, bishop of age.
Orleans, ordered to be rung, that Nonius Marcellus refers the ori.
they raised the fiege, and betook gin of New-year's gifts among the
themselves to flight. About the Romans to Tatius, king of the Sa-
beginning of the following century, bines, who reigned at Rome con-
bells were baptised; for Alcuin, jointly with Romulus, and who'have
preceptor to Charlemain, considers ing considered as a good omen, a
this ceremony as much older than present of fome branches cut in a
the year 770.

wood consecrated to Strenia, the god, The Romans invented lotteries, dess of strength, which he received to enliven their Saturnalia. This on the firit day of the new year, alle festival began by the distribution of thorised this custom afterwards, and tickets which gained some prize. gave to these presents the name of Augustus made lotteries which con Štrenæ. However this may be, the fisted of things of little value, but Romans on that day celebrated a Nero established some for the peo- festival in honour of Janus, and paid ple, in which a thousand tickets their respects at the same time to were distributed daily, and several of Juno; but they did not pass it in those who were favoured by fortune idleness, left they should become ingot rich by them. Heliogabalus dolent during the rest of the year, invented some very singular : the They fent presents to one another of prizes were either of great value or figs, dates, honey, &c. to shew their, of none at all ; one gained a prize friends that they wilhed for a happy of fix flaves, and another of fix fies; and agreeable life. Clients, that is fome got valuable vases, and others to say, those who were under the vases of common earth. A lottery protection of the great, carried preof this kind exhibited an excellent sents of this kind to their patrons, picture of the inequality with which adding to them a small piece of Fortune distributes her favours.

filver,

Antiinony,

Antimony, that remedy fo cele- before were interred in the highbrated, was discovered by a German ways, and ancient tombs are fiil to monk, named Basil Valentine, who, be seen on the roads leading to searching for the philofopher's stone, Rome. Hence these words, so often and having thrown to the liogs what repeated in epitaphs, Sta viatorremained after fome of his experi- Stop traveller. ments, observed, that those who In 1474, the physicians and lurAvallowed it, after being violently geons of Paris represented to Louis purged, became much fatter. He X1. that several people of distinction took it into his head to make a trial were afflicted with the stone, and that of it upon some of his brother monks; it would be of the highest utility to but, as the dose was too strong, they anatomy to examine, in a living suball died. Hence comes the name of ject, that part of the human body antimoine in French, which has been which is the seat of this disorder. given to this mineral substance. They therefore requested his ma

The custom of saying “ God bless jesty, that he would order a person, you” to those who sneeze, is said to named Franc-Archer, who had been have originated from pope Gregory, subject to this malady, and who was surnamed the Great, during the time condemned to be hanged, to be deof an epidemical disorder, which livered into their hands. This becarried people off in a fit of sneezing. ing granted, the first operation of Soine, however, pretend that this cutting for the stone was performed custom is much older, and that it publicly at Paris, in the burying was known to the Greeks and the ground of St. Severin. The criRomans long before the christian minal was completely cured in the

space of a fortnight, and obtained, Cards were invented under the besides his pardon, a considerable reign of Charles VI. king of France, reward. We cannot here help obto amuse him during the intervals of serving, that this is a striking inthat disorder which conducted him stance of the vicissitudes of life,

fince, to be cured of his disorder, it Burying grounds were not esta- was necessary that this unhappy man blished until the year 200. People should be condemned to the gallows.

æra.

to the grave.

SELECT BIOGRAPHY.

thereupon writing himself Cromwell, SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF

alias Williams, who was in such faa OLIVER CROMWELL.

vour with the king, that he received [From Letters written a few Years since.] the dignity of knighthood for his

LIVER's extraction, by his heroic behaviour at a tilting, in 32

father's side, was from Sir R. Henry VIII. Williams, knight, a gentleman of He had also the great abbey of note in the court of Henry VIII. Ramsay, the nunnery at Hinchinand son to Morgan ap Williams, a broke, with the priories of Sawtry Welchman, by a filter of Thomas and Huntington, given to him upon lord Cromwell, earl of Eflex; who, the disposal of the monastery-lands; being preferred by his uncle to the all which he left unto Sir Henry {ervice of king Henry, was, for that Cromwell, knight, his son and heir, cause, called Cromwell -Sir Richard who left ifrue, Sir Oliver Cromwell,

made