patron, in engraving those treasures of ancient art still known as the Arundelian marbles. But soon the great civil war broke forth; Lord Arundel was compelled to seek a refuge on the Continent, while Hollar, with two other artists, Peake and Faithorne, accepted commissions in the King's service. All three, under the command of the heroic Marquis of Winchester, sustained the memorable protracted siege in Basing House, and though most of the survivors were put to the sword by the parliamentary party, yet, through some means now unknown, the lives of the artists were spared. PRIESTS' HIDING CHAMBERS. less than 24,000 plates. Of a strictly moral character, unblemished by the failings of many men of genius, and of unceasing industry, he passed a long life in adversity, and ended it in destitution of common comfort. Yet of no engraver of his age is the fame now greater, or the value of his works enhanced to so high a degree. TRIAL OF FATHER GARNET. On the 28th of March 1606, took place the trial of Father Garnet, chief of the Jesuits in England, for his alleged concern in the Gunpowder Treason. He was a man of distinguished ability and zeal for the interests of the Romish Church, and had been consulted by the conspirators Greenway and Catesby regarding the plot, on an evident understanding that he was favourable to it. Being found guilty, he was condemned to be hanged, which sentence was put in execution on the ensuing 3rd of May, in St Paul'schurchyard. There has ever since raged a controversy about his criminality; but an impartial person of our day can scarcely but admit that Garnet was all but actively engaged in forwarding the conspiracy. He himself acknowledged that he was consulted by two of the plotters, and that he ought to have revealed what he knew. At the same time, one must acknowledge that the severities then practised towards the professors of the Catholic faith were calculated in no small measure to confound the sense of right and wrong in matters between them and their Protestant For a When he regained his liberty, Hollar followed his patron to Antwerp, and resumed his usual employment; but the early death of Lord Arundel compelled him to return to England, and earn a precarious subsistence by working for print-dealers. His patient industry anticipated a certain reward at the Restoration; but when that event occurred, he found himself as much neglected as the generality of the expectant Royalists were. A fallacious prospect of advantage was opened to him in 1669. He was appointed by the Court to proceed to Tangier, and make plans and drawings of the fortifications and principal buildings there. On his return, the vessel in which he sailed was attacked by seven Algerine pirates, and after a most desperate conflict, the English ship succeeded in gaining the protection of the port of Cadiz, with a loss of eleven killed and seventeen wounded. Hollar, during the engagement, coolly employed himself in sketching the exciting scene, an engraving of which he afterwards published. year's hard work, under an African sun, poor Hollar received no more than one hundred pounds and the barren title of the King's Iconographer. His life now became a mere struggle for bread. The price he received for his work was so utterly inadequate to the extraordinary care and labour he bestowed upon it, that he could scarcely earn a bare subsistence. He worked for fourpence an hour, with an hour-glass always before him, and was so scrupulously exact with respect to his employer's time, that at the least interruption, he used to turn the glass on its side to prevent the sand from running. Hollar was not what may be termed a great artist. His works, though characterised by a truthful air of exactness, are deficient in picturesque effect; but he is the engraver whose memory is ever faithfully cherished by all persons of antiquarian predilections. Hundreds of ancient monuments, buildings, costumes, ceremonies, are preserved in his works, that, had they not been engraved by his skilful hand, would have been irretrievably lost in oblivion. He died as poor as he had lived. An execution was put into his house as he lay dying. With characteristic meekness, he begged the bailiff's forbearance, praying that his bed might be left for him to die on; and that he might not be removed to any other prison than the grave. And thus died Hollar, a man possessed of a singular ability, which he exercised with an industry that permitted neither interval nor repose for more than fifty years. He is said to have engraved no 28 brethren. PRIESTS' HIDING CHAMBERS. During a hundred and fifty years following the Reformation, Catholicism, as is well known, was generally treated by the law with great severity, insomuch that a trafficking priest found in England was liable to capital punishment for merely performing the rites of his religion. Nevertheless, even in the most rigorous times, there was always a number of priests concealed in the houses of the Catholic nobility and gentry, daring everything for the sake of what they thought their duty. The country-houses of the wealthy Catholics were in many instances provided with secret chambers, in which the priests lived concealed probably from all but the lord and lady of the mansion, and at the utmost one or two confidential domestics. It is to be presumed that a priest was rarely a permanent tenant of the Patmos provided for him, because usually these concealed apartments were straitened and inconvenient that not even religious enthusiasm could reconcile any one long to occupy them. Yet we are made aware of an instance of a priest named Father Blackhall residing for a long series of years in the reign of Charles I. concealed in the house of the Viscountess Melgum, in the valley of the Dee, in Scotland.* 80 As an example of the style of accommodation, two small chambers in the roof formed the priest's retreat in the old half-timber house of Harborough Hall, midway between Hegley and * See his Memoirs, published by the Spalding Society. Kidderminster.* At Watcomb, in Berks, there is an old manor-house, in which the priest's chamber is accessible by lifting a board on the staircase. A similar arrangement existed at Dinton Hall, near Aylesbury, the seat of Judge Mayne, one of the Regicides, to whom it gave temporary shelter at the crisis of the Restoration. It was at the top of the mansion, under the beams of the roof, and was reached by a narrow passage lined with cloth. Not till three of the steps of an ordinary stair were lifted up, could one discover the entrance to this passage, along which Mayne could crawl or pull himself in order to reach his den.† PRIESTS' HIDING CHAMBERS. ...a ment which contained a concealed closet. . priest's hole.' The arrangements thus indicated give a striking idea of the dangers which beset the ministers of the Romish faith in times when England lived in continual apprehension of changes which they might bring about, and when they were accordingly treated with all the severity due to public enemies. One of the houses most remarkable for its means of concealing proscribed priests was Hendlip Hall, a spacious mansion situated about four miles from Worcester, supposed to have been built late in Elizabeth's reign by John Abingdon, the queen's cofferer, a zealous partisan of Mary Captain Duthy, in his Sketches of Hampshire, Queen of Scots. It is believed that Thomas notices an example which existed in that part of Abingdon, the son of the builder of the mansion, England. In the old mansion of Woodcote, he was the person who took the chief trouble in so says, 'behind a stack of chimneys, accessible fitting it up. The result of his labours was that only by removing the floor boards, was an apart-there was scarcely an apartment which had not secret ways of going in and out. Some had back staircases concealed in the walls; others had places of retreat in their chimneys; some had trap-doors, descending into hidden recesses. All,' in the language of a writer who examined the house, presented a picture of gloom, insecurity, and suspicion.'t Standing, moreover, on elevated ground, the house afforded the means of keeping a watchful look-out for the approach of the emissaries of the law, or of persons by whom it might have been dangerous for any skulking priest to be seen, supposing his reverence to have gone forth for an hour to take the air. Father Garnet, who suffered for his guilty knowledge of the Gunpowder Treason, was concealed in Hendlip, under care of Mr and Mrs Abingdon, for several weeks, in the winter of 1605-6. Suspicion did not light upon his name at first, but the confession of Catesby's servant, Bates, at length made the government aware of his guilt. He was by this time living at Hendlip, along with a lady named Anne Vaux, who devoted herself to him through a purely religious feeling, and another Jesuit, named Hall. Just as we have surmised regarding the general life of the skulking priesthood, these persons spent most of their hours in the apartments occupied by the family, only resorting to places of strict concealment when strangers visited the house. When Father Garnet came to be inquired after, the government, suspecting Hendlip to be his place of retreat, sent Sir Henry Bromley thither, with PRIESTS' HIDING CHAMBERS. MARCH 29. SIR THOMAS PARKYNS. the place was hampered, they might have baffled inquiry for a quarter of a year.* MARCH 29. Saints Jonas, Barachisius, and their companions, martyrs, 327. St Mark, Bishop of Arethusa, in Syria, 4th century. Saints Armogastes, Archinimus, and Satur, martyrs, 457. St Gundleus, a Welsh King, 5th century. St Eustasius (or Eustachius), abbot of Luxeu, 625. instructions which reveal to us much of the character of the arrangements for the concealment of priests in England. In the search,' says this document, 'first observe the parlour where they use to dine and sup; in the east part of that parlour it is conceived there is some vault, which to discover you must take care to draw down the wainscot, whereby the entry into the vault may be discovered. The lower parts of the house must be tried with a broach, by putting the same into the ground some foot or two, to try whether there may be perceived some timber, which, if there be, there must be some vault underneath it. For the upper rooms, you must observe whether they be more in breadth than the lower rooms, and look in which places the rooms be enlarged; by pulling up some boards, you may discover some vaults. Also, if it appear that there be some corners to the chimneys, and the same boarded, if the boards be taken away there will appear some. If the walls seem to be thick, and covered with wainscot, being tried with a gimlet, if it strike not the wall, but go through, some suspicion is to be had thereof. If there be any double loft, some two or three feet, one above another, in such places any may be har-Captain Thomas Coram, originator of the Foundling boured privately. Also, if there be a loft towards the roof of the house, in which there appears no entrance out of any other place or lodging, it must of necessity be opened and looked into, for these be ordinary places of hovering [hiding].' Sir Henry invested the house, and searched it from garret to cellar, without discovering anything suspicious but some books, such as scholarly men might have been supposed to use. Mrs. Abingdon-who, by the way, is thought to have been the person who wrote the letter to Lord Monteagle, warning him of the plot-denied all knowledge of the person searched for. So did her husband when he came home. I did never hear so impudent liars as I find here,' says Sir Henry in his report to the Earl of Salisbury, forgetting how the power and the habit of mendacity was acquired by this persecuted body of Christians. After four days of search, two men came forth half dead with hunger, and proved to be servants. Sir Henry occupied the house for several days more, almost in despair of further discoveries, when the confession of a conspirator condemned at Worcester put him on the scent for Father Hall, as for certain lying at Hendlip. It was only after a search protracted to ten days in all, that he was gratified by the voluntary surrender of both Hall and Garnet. They came forth from their concealment, pressed by the need for air rather than food, for marmalade and other sweetmeats were found in their den, and they had had warm and nutritive drinks passed to them by a reed through a little hole in a chimney that backed another chimney, into a gentlewoman's chamber.' They had suffered extremely by the smallness of their place of concealment, being scarcely able to enjoy in it any movement for their limbs, which accordingly became much swollen. Garnet expressed his belief that, if they could have had relief from the blockade for but half a day, so as to allow of their sending away books and furniture by which Born.-Sanzio Raffaelle, painter, 1483, Urbino; † Dr John Lightfoot, Scripture commentator, 1602, Stoke-uponTrent; Joseph Ignace Guillotin, physician, originator of the guillotine in France, 1738, Xaintes; Marshal Jean de Dieu Soult, Duke of Dalmatia, 1769, St Amand-du-Tarn; Sir Edward Geoffrey Stanley, fourteenth Earl of Derby, statesman, 1799. Died.-Pope Stephen X., 1058, Florence; Raymond Lully, the enlightened doctor,' 1315, Majorca; Henry Percy, third Earl of Northumberland, killed at the battle of Towton, 1461; Archbishop Tobias Matthew, 1629, York; Theophilus Bonet, eminent Genevese physician, 1689; Hospital in London, 1751; Emanuel Swedenborg, 1772, Coldbath Fields, London; Gustavus III. of Sweden, 1792, Stockholm; Charles Dignum, singer, 1827; Sir William Drummond, learned historian, 1828; Thomas Harrison, of Chester, architect, 1829; Lieutenant Stratford, R.N., editor of the Nautical Almanac, 1853. SIR THOMAS PARKYNS-CORNISH WRESTLING. Sir Thomas Parkyns, Bart., of Bunny Park, Nottinghamshire, who died on the 29th of March 1741, was the author of a curious work, entitled The Inn Play, or Cornish Hugg Wrestler. Nor was he a mere writer on wrestling; he was an able and skilful athlete himself, as well as a ripe scholar, subtle disputant, and energetic country magistrate. Slightly eccentric, he was equally at home in the wrestling ring or on the magisterial bench; and it was said that he could throw an antagonist, combat a paradox, quote the classics, and lay down the law at quarter sessions, with any man in all England. It was when a boy, under the famous Dr Busby, at Westminster School, that the attention of Sir Thomas was first attracted to wrestling, by his having to construe the well-known epigram of Martial, commencing with the line: Rure morans, quid agam? respondi pauca, rogatus,' which has been thus translated: 'When to my farm retired, how do I live? If any ask, this short account I give ; The gods, at the first light, I do adore, And place this care all other cares before. My grounds I visit then, and servants call, And their just tasks I do impose on all. *Jardine's Narrative of the Gunpowder Plot, p. 189. 1857. + Sometimes the 28th of March is given as the date of the birth of the illustrious Raphael. The original statement on the subject is that Raphael was born on Good Friday (he died also on Good Friday). A French work, entitled Ephémérides, 1812, affirms that Good Friday of 1483 was the 29th of March, and this authority we follow. Jest, sing, rest, and, on all that passes, think. From Westminster, Sir Thomas went to Cambridge, where his principal study was mathematics and mechanics, in their applications to feats of strength and dexterity. We next find him a student at Gray's-inn, relieving the dry study of the law by instructions in wrestling, boxing, and fencing, from the best masters that the metropolis could produce. Succeeding to the title early in life, he settled down on his ancestral estate at Bunny, and established an annual wrestling match in his park, open to all comers. The prize was a gold-laced hat, value twenty-two shillings, and three shillings for the second best. The amount was small, but the glory was great. Sir Thomas was no idle patron of the contests; he never objected to go in for a fall with the best man on the ground, and often won and wore the gold-laced hat himself. His servants were all upright, muscular, young fellows, and good wrestlers. Indeed, his favourite coachman and footman had defeated the baronet himself in the wrestling ring, throwing him on his back in such consummate style, that his heart warmed to them at once, and, like Robin Hood of yore, he immediately took them into his service. There was a policy in this, for he well knew that a good and powerful wrestler could be no other than a sober man. "Whoever would be a complete wrestler,' says Sir Thomas, must avoid being overtaken in drink, which very much enervates, or, being in a passion at the sight of his adversary, or having received a fall, in such cases he is bereaved of his senses, not being master of himself is less of his art, but sheweth too much play, or none at all, or rather pulleth, kicketh, and ventureth beyond all reason and his judgment when himself. That man's a fool, that hopes for good, From flowing bowls and feverish blood.' He also further informs us, that the greatest of wrestling masters is one Bacchus, who has many assistants, among others: Brandy a Frenchman, Usquebaugh an Irishman, Rum a Molossonian— these masters teach mostly the trip, which I assure you is no safe and sound play. You may know them by their walkings and gestures, they stagger and reel, and cross legs, which I advise my scholars to avoid, and receive many a foul fall in the sink or kennel: and were your constitutions of porphyry, marble, or steel, they will make you yield to your last and only fair fall.' Speaking of the antiquity of wrestling, he saysThough at the beginning of the preface I take notice that wrestling was in vogue, great credit, reputation, and estimation in Martial the poet's days, wrestling without all doubt is of greater antiquity, as appears by Genesis, Jacob wrestled with an angel. Whether it was real SIR THOMAS PARKYNS, and corporeal, or mystical and spiritual in its signification, I leave the divines to determine. But I advise all my scholars to avoid wrestling with angels; for, though they may maintain the struggle till break of day, and seem to lay their adversaries supine and on their backs, yet they will have the fall and be out of joint with Jacob's thigh.' A good specimen of what may be termed the wrestling style of Sir Thomas is found in the following directions for giving an opponent the throw called by adepts 6 THE FLYING HORSE. Take him by the right hand with your left, your palm being upwards as if you designed only to shake him by the hand in a friendly manner in the beginning, and twist it outwards, and lift it upwards to make way for your head, and put your head under his right arm-pit, and hold his hand down to your left side, hold your head stiff backwards, to hold him out of his strength, then put your right arm up to the shoulder between his grainings, and let your hand appear behind past his breech, but if you suspect they will cavil at that arm, as a breeching, lay your arm along his belly, and lift him up as high as your head and in either hold, when so high, lean backward, and throw him over your head.' There is a good-humoured quaintness in the description of this encounter. How placidly it commences with taking the opponent's hand in a friendly manner,' reminding us of Izaak Walton's words, use him as though you loved him,' when directing how to impale a wretched frog on a fishing-hook. Anon, the plot thickens, until, at last, the astonished novice finds himself performing the flying-horse-the spread eagle the Americans more analogically term it-over his friend's head! One of the wrestling baronet's whims was to form a collection of stone coffins; and a rare and probably unexampled collection he did form, and keep with great nicety, in the churchyard at Bunny. It was not from any antiquarian tastes, however, that he made this collection; neither was it for the mere empty desire of possessing a few score stone coffins. He was one who loved to read a moral in all around him; to find tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, and good in everything. The coffins ranged before him were emblems of mortality, teaching the athletic champion of the wrestling ring that the great wrestler Death would inevitably overcome him in the end. And to carry this impression of humility even into the house of prayer, he caused his own monument-the marble effigies of Sir Thomas Parkyns, as he termed it-to be placed opposite his pew in the chancel-his own chancel of Bunny Church, that he might look on it every Lord's day, and say-What is life! This monument was carved out of a fair piece of marble,' in his own great barn, by his own domestic chaplain; and from what remains of it now, we may hope that the chaplain was a much better clergyman than a sculptor. On this monument Sir Thomas is depicted in the centre, standing in his wrestling dress, potent and postured, ready for either flying-horse or SIR THOMAS PARKYNS. MARCH 29. SIR THOMAS PARKYNS. Cornish-hug. His attitude is the first position emblematises 'the divine and human struggle for of wrestling, as well as a moralising posture, and the glorious mastery.' On one side is a well limbed figure lying above the scythe of time, the sun rising gloriously over it, showing that the strong man and wrestler is in the prime of youth. On the other side we see the same figure stretched in a coffin, with Time, scythe in hand, standing triumphantly over it; the sun gone down, marking the darkness of the tomb, the fate of all, strong or feeble. There are some Latin verses on the monument, that have been translated as follows: 'At length, by conquering Time subdued, Till now he still unshaken stood, Whene'er he strove, and gain'd the prize. O'ermatch'd by Him who conquers all. When he, though now he faint and fail, Thus did Sir Thomas Parkyns moralise in marble, and decorate with solemn emblems the church at Bunny. The Though no training will enable a man to wrestle successfully against a century, still temperance, wholesome toil, and manly exercise, will carry him bravely over several scores of years. Sir Thomas Parkyns never knew a day's illness until his seventy-eighth year, when death at last gave him the backfall, and he died universally beloved and lamented. wrestling matches he instituted were annually kept up for many years after his death, and were not finally done away with till about the year His monument, though considerably dilapidated, is still to be seen in the chancel of Bunny Church; we had almost forgotten to say that, having selected one of his stone coffins for his own use, he left the remainder to such parishioners of Bunny as might choose to be interred in them. 1810. |