meale will cost him a sixpence, or in some places but four-pence; but if he will eate in his chamber, he commands what meate he will according to his appetite; yea, the kitchen is open to him to order the meate to be dressed as he likes beste. After having eaten what he pleases, he may, with credit, set by a part for the next day's breakfast. His bill will then be written for him, and should he object to any charge, the hoste is ready to alter it."* Taverns and alehouses were often distinguished formerly by a bush or tuft of ivy at their doors, a custom which more particularly prevailed in Warwickshire, and is still practised, remarks Mr Ritson," in this county, at Statutes-hirings, wakes, &c. by people who sell ale at no other times." Shakspeare alludes to this observance in his epilogue to As You like it, If it be true," he says, "that good wine needs no bush, 'tis true that a good play needs no epilogue: yet to good wine they do use good bushes." Several old plays mention the same custom, and Bishop Earle in his Microsmography, tells us that " tavern is a degree. (or if you will) a paire of stairs above an alehouse, where men are drunk with more credit and apology. If the vintner's nose be at door, it is a sign sufficient, but the absence of this is supplied by the IVY-BUSH. a That houses of this description, the whole furniture of which, according to Earle, consisted but of a stool, a table, and a pot de chambre, were as numerous, in proportion to the population, two hundred years ago, as at present, and the scene of the same disgusting and intemperate orgies, is but too apparent from the invective of Burton, in his " Anatomy of Melancholy" “See the mischief," he exclaims, " many men knowing that merry company is the only medicine against melancholy, will, therefore, neglect their business, and in another extream, spend all their dayes among good fellows in a tavern, or an ale Moryson's Itinerary. Fo. Lond. 1617. house, and know not otherwise how to bestow their time, but in drinking; malt, worms, men, fishes, or water snakes. Qui bibunt solum ranarum more, nihil comedentes, like so many frogs in a puddle. "Tis their sole exercise to eat and drink to sacrifice to Volupia, Rumina, Edulica, Patina, Mellona, is all their religion. They wish for Philaxenus' neck, Jupiter's trinoctium, and that the sun would stand still, as in Joshua's time, to satisfie their desire. Flourishing wits, and men of good parts, good fashion, and good worth, basely prostitute themselves to very rogues company, to take tobacco and drink, to roar and sing scurrille songs in base places. They drown their wits, and seethe their brains in ale." Some remarkable inns, or houses of entertainment, are mentioned by various authors, which have long ceased to exist. One of these, called the Checquer Inn, Mr. Lysons inform us, had in the year 1454, a license granted to its landlord, John Calcot, to have an Oratory in his house, and a Chaplain, for the use of his family and guests, as long as his house should continue decent and respectable, and adapted to the celebration of Divine Service. This house was probably situated on or near the site of an alley between High-street and Fore-street, called Calcot's-alley," and was the place where Moore, the noted Almanac maker lived inany years. Another ancient inn, still in part standing, but shewed entire in Hollar's view just mentioned, was situated at the beginning of Forestreet, on the river side. Both these inns are said to have been in great business for entertaining travellers, while the Horse-ferry was in use, before the building of Westminsterbridge. 66 Enteresting Varieties. VICARS OF BRAY.-The Vicar of Bray, in Berkshire, was a Papist. under the reign of Henry VIII. and a Protestant under Edward VI; he 66 was a Papist again under Mary, and once more became a Protestant in the reign of Elizabeth. When this scandal to the gown was reproached for his versatility of religious creeds, and taxed with being a turncoat and an inconstant changeling, as Fuller expresses it, he replied, “Not so, neither; for if I changed my religion, I am sure I kept true to my principle, which is to live and die Vicar of Bray!" This vivacious and Reverend hero has given birth to a proverb peculiar to this country, The Vicar of Bray will-be Vicar of Bray still*." But how has it happened that this Vicar should be so notorious, and one in much higher rank, acting the same part, should have escaped notice? Dr. Kitchen, Bishop of Llandaff, from an idle Abbot under Henry the VIII., was made a busy Bishop; Protestant under Edward, he returned to his old master under Mary; and at last took the oath of supremacy under Elizabeth, and finished as a Parliamentary Protestant. A pun spread the odium of his name; for they said that he had always loved the Kitchen better than the Church! selves with laces. This singular custom continued in vogue from the year 1382 to 1468, a period of eighty-six years but in the last-mentioned year we find (by referring to the Ancient Chronicles) that it was prohibited under the forfeiture of twenty shillings, and pain of cursing by the clergy. DRAGO. GOTHS AND HUNS.-The terrific honours which these ferocious nations paid to their deceased Monarchs, are recorded in history, at the interment of Attila, king of the Huns, and Alaric, King of the Goths. Attila died in 453, and was buried in the midst of a vast champaign in a coffin, which was inclosed in one of gold, another of silver, and a third of iron. With the body were interred all the spoils of the enemy, harnesses embroidered with gold and studded with jewels; rich silks, and whatever they had taken most precious in the palaces of the kings they had pillaged: and that the place of this interment might for ever remain concealed, the Huns deprived of life all who assisted at his burial! The Goths had done nearly the same for Alaric, in 410, at Cosenca, a town in Calabria. They turned aside the river Vasenta, and having formed a grave in the midst of its bed, where its course was most rapid, they interred this king with prodigious accumulation of riches. After having caused the river to re-assume its usual course, they murdered, without exception, all those who had been concerned in digging this singular grave. TALC OIL.-This nostrum was famous in its day as a cosmetic, probably because the mineral, when calcined, becomes very white, and was thought a fit substitute for ceruse. In Baptista Porta's "Natural Magic," English translation, 1658, are three receipts for making it, under the title, How to dissolve TALK for to beautify women." But they all consist of modes of calcining that mineral, with other fanciful additions. The last, indeed, directs, how to make snails eat the powder of it!! A fourth receipt in B. x. ch. 19. fully directs the calcination, and then recommends to lay it in a moist place, until it dissolve into oil;' which might be till doomsday. But it might imbibe some moisture, to make it look more like oil. From the near similarity, and almost identical sound, of the word, Mr. Whalley supposed it to have been what the French call TAC; but TAC meant the disease which was to be cured, i. e. the rot in sheep, and the oil to be applied was HUILE DE cedre, (Menage, in his "ORIGINES.") The English receipts for making it prove, also, that he was mistaken. His note is on this passage:— "With ter empirics in their chamber, 'It is often mentioned by the dramatists, and generally with some satirical reflection on the ladies. Talc was also called Muscovy glass: "She were an excellent lady, but that her face peeleth like Muscovy glass." Malcontent, O. Pl. iv. 88. "He should have brought me some fresh oil of talc, These ceruses are common " Massing." Cit. Mad." iv. 2. "She ne'er had nor hath Any belief in Madam Baud-bee's bath, Or Turner's oil of talc." B. Jons. "Underw." p. 391. TO CORRESPONDENTS. We hope he of Tollington Park does not begin to be impatient; he may rest assured that his two poems shall not be delayed much longer; nor shall that by Zamouzag-a queer signature, by the by, for a poet to assume.-G. Sneyd's gleanings from the "Gentleman's Magazine" shall grace our VARIETIES ere dissolution, which appeared in that long-the prediction of our speedy work a month or two since, did not escape our notice, but we trust the writer will find us (as cousin Jonathon would express it) a pretty considerable d-d deal more LIVELY than the humdrum old twaddler imagines: we suppose he has some connexion with the penny Trash," and therefore the wish was father to the thought.-To George we can only offer our former admonition, with two lines from his favourite, Wordsworth: Two "Poets in their youth begin in gladness, "But thereof comes in the end despondency and madness." The editor of the "New Monthly Magazine," in his number for September, has an article on Count Rostopchin's pamphlet relative to the burning of Moscow, in which he says,-" Our two-fold reason for noticing this little production so late after its appearance, is because we have not seen it even alluded to in any English publication, great or small, and because we consider it entitled to rank, from various causes, as the most remarkable of modera pamphlets." Common justice to our selves demands that we should remind our readers of the circumstance that a notice of Count R's pamphlet appeared in the NIC-NAC so long since as the month of January, 1824 (vide vol. ii. p. 87), and therefore whatever merit there may be in priority of observation, we are fairly entitled to lay claim to it." ERRATA. (In a few copies) p. 265, col. 1, line 4, read "on one occasion." Line 7, read 1392." P. 266, col. 1, 1.38. read "being one." LONDON-Printed and Published by T. Wallis Camden Town; and also Published by C. Harris, Baw Street, Covent Garden, by whom Communications for the Editor are received; Dunbar, Wych Street Dury Lane; andArcher, Berwick Street, Soho. |