Pagina-afbeeldingen
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

scarcely as large as my little finger-without feeling the least alarm.

At starting, the wind was N.W. but our course was now E. passing directly over the City. The principal objects which excited my attention were Bunhill Fields Bural Ground, which was conspicuous from the number of tombstones, and the Artillery Ground, adjoining; Finsbury Square and the Circus, near to it; the Bank, like a small town, and the Royal Exchange, which by its side looked insignificant. Bow Church appeared strikingly beautiful as if glazed with snow for the occasion; and, the Vinegar Yard, near Southwark Bridge, was conspicuous, with its casks placed in direct lines. The bridges had nothing particular in their appearance, more than roads passing over the river. We crossed the London Docks and the Isle of Dogs, leaving Greenwich Hospital to the right, which appeared like a gentleman's house, and the Park its walled garden. I must here observe that the various objects although considerably reduced, were perfectly seen, and their outlines most beautifully defined; the view being rather different in this respect to that from the Colosseum, which, however, gives an excellent representation of London and its surrounding scenery, as seen from a balloon. While I was busied in pointing out the well-known sites on terra firma, my brother, whose ideas are probably more lofty than mine, was wrapt up in the awful sublimity of the clouds, exclaiming ever and anon❝ how beautiful! how grand!" We passed through two clouds, without feel ing very cold; indeed, I have felt the cold much more intense on high mountains in the month of August; my hearing, as well as Mr. Graham's, was much affected, almost to pain, which continued some time after our descent. Our highest elevation was about two miles, just sufficient to afford us a very extensive and clear view of the country beneath us, with London, which was now like a map, and so much reduced to the sight that I fancied I could have thrown my cloak over it.

We passed over Blackwall, and entered upon the country, when the principal object was the Thames, which, though traceable to a considerable distance, with its horse shoe and serpentine windings, was the least striking of any object we had beheld;being like a small muddy river, probably from our being immediately over it. On a former ascent, my brother described its appearance as very splendid; but he must have had a more oblique view, so as to reflect the rays of the sun which silvered its surface. Passing Barking Creek and Dagenham Water, leaving Woolwich Warren on our right like a town as represented by Dutch toys, with Purfleet in the front, we proceeded inland, and approached a flat, open country very favourable for a descent; when Mr. Graham opening

the valve, we lowered gradually, which we ascertained by throwing out a small piece of paper, and as that seemed to ascend, so we in reality descended. Our descent was now very interesting, and the excitement almost equal to starting. It was very pleasing to look over the side of the car and watch the objects grow upon the sight; first, the trees became singly and distinctly visible, then the hedges, and lastly the different crops on the fields. I gazed with delight, till Mr. Graham desired me to suspend myself from the hoop to break our fall; we almost immediately landed, with a slight rebound, in a fallow field, and then drifted along, a little to the annoyance of my brother who was to leeward. The grappling irons which we had some time previously suspended from the balloon by a cord 90 feet long, did not lay hold, but were drawn along the field slightly grazing the earth, till the balloon cleared the hedge in pretty style, in which the grapples fixed. We were then suspended a few feet over a fine field of wheat, the wind wafting us pleasantly to and fro, till some men whom we then saw for the first time, running from different directions, secured us, and at our request, hauled us into the next field, which was fallow, to avoid injuring the wheat. Thus, we alighted at half-past five o'clock P.M. having made a voyage of 20 miles in about one hour and a half. The place of our alighting proved to be on the farm of Mr. Snowden, of North Ockendon Hall, Essex, who gave us a friendly welcome. whole village of Ockendon was assembled, and I have now to express our thanks to Mr. Eve, of the manor-farm, who entertained us very hospitably, and sent a horse immediately to Romford, six miles, for a postchaise, in which we started for London, and returned to Hungerford Market soon after midnight.

The

I am afraid, on a perusal of the above, the reader may consider me prosy; but, as an excuse, I never yet read an account of a balloon ascent sufficiently circumstantial to satisfy my curiosity. To conclude, in answer to a few observations that have been made, more in candour than politeness or good taste, I must observe, that, if we have been foolish, it has been at our own risk; if we have not benefited mankind by any new discovery, we have injured no one; and if we have given amusement to thousands, we have left no reproachful reflection.

THE RETURN.

1. H. W.

On our journey home, the moon rose in spendour; the beauty and stillness of the night, and the country through which we passed, when contrasted with the recollection of the lively scene on our ascent, and the magnificent one witnessed in the ethereal regions, cannot easily be described, or their

effects on the mind be soon effaced. The aërial machine—frail image of the ingenuity of man-which had enabled us to behold the sublime scene, which had delighted thousands on the earth, in its progress through the air-whose dome, at one time, was capt with clouds, which harmlessly hovered over us-was now folded up and tied on the top of the post-chaise, and about one o'clock in the morning resumed its former situation, within the walls of the Pantheon, in Oxfordstreet. P. T. W.

Manners and Customs.

SPORTS OF THE BEAR GARDEN IN SOUTHWARK, 1639.

[IN the Gentleman's Magazine for the present month, we find the following illustration of the amusements of two centuries since, translated from a Latin MS., by A. J. K., a clever, and we believe, frequent, contributor to the above valuable Journal.]

A facetious Description of the Sports of the Paris Bear Garden, Southwark, and of the inauguration of a certain scullion named Pack, to the office of Cook to the Bears, to which he had been appointed by Sir Thomas Badger, King James's huntsman ; in a letter addressed to the celebrated Lord Cottington, Chancellor of the Exchequer.

To the most Illustrious and most Excellent Lord Francis Lord Cottington, Honest William wisheth all health and happiness.

I have been informed that you have recently been at the Bear Garden, and truly I was much rejoiced to hear it; for it is a pleasant and delightful place, and above all others, well calculated to give lessons in life and manners. Therefore, although it is commonly called the Garden of Paris, or Paris Garden, that is surely a corruption, or rather contraction of the word (for whatever the French may say, they have no such place in all Paris), and the better sort call it the Garden of Paradise. And so indeed it is; such is the variety of pleasure it affords, as Sir Robert Cotton in his Antiquities, and before him John Stow, in his Survey of London, have most learnedly related. For, if you are fond of perfumes, what can be called sweeter, what can be imagined more wholesome, than to snuff up the scent of so many sweetsmelling dogs? What can be more exhilarating than to see men infinitely more careful of their dogs than of themselves, and urging on their whelps with so much ardour, as sometimes themselves to rush foremost upon the bear? If you delight in music, where else is it possible to enjoy so wonderful, so astonishing a concert, of such a variety of voices? There will you hear men shouting, dogs barking, bears roaring, and bulls bellow ing altogether; and thus, though the voices may in themselves differ, yet when combined they produce most incomparable music; espe

-no;

cially when a good bear, who knows his busi ness, on being brought to the stake, strikes the ground with his paws, and as it were keeps time. I know many fellows who call themselves amateurs of music, will be excessively angry with me, for calling this incomparable music; but I wish them to understand, that I don't mean their delicate Lydian measures, which they call "Chamber music," I mean those sublime and sonorous Doric strains, which we call "Loud Music ;" and, in short, no music, as it appears to me, can be more harmonious, none more concordant; for the men, the bears, and the dogs, are alike hallooing, roaring, and barking. But the decision of this question may be safely left to the ears of the judicicus,-I mean to your own. But now let us have done with music, for I have to speak of more There you

solemn and sublimer matters.

may see the same men, at one moment, engaged in a battle, beating, thumping, kicking, and almost killing one another, without any positive cause; and at the next, drinking together, and embracing each other in the most friendly manner, equally without reason. Truly this appears to me to be a picture of the world, a mirror of the age, and the most perfect resemblance of a Court that can be imagined. This is the very place where a wise man may learn how he ought to live in this world; and so my old friend Petronius, who was a shrewd and cunning courtier in his time (you know he lived in the Court of Henry VIII.) was wont to say, "Mundus universus exercet ursiludium;" that is, "All the world is but a bear-baiting."

I had almost forgot to speak of the blind bear, who, when he is bound to the stake, contrives to loosen the knot with his nose and claws; and, as soon as he has freed himself, bolts off to his den, upsetting all in his way, making the men tumble one over another, and putting all into confusion, so that men with eyes in their heads appear to be blinder even than the blind bear himself. Why need I tell you of the bull, with the great bag; or of the pony and monkey which gambol about, and afford a truly royal pastime? Therefore it is that good and wise Monarchs patronize this spectacle; and come once a year to partake of it, in Whitsun week. It is, to say the truth, sport worthy of a King; and I would rather enjoy the sport afforded by that blind bear, than witness a hundred masques.

There are some stupid fellows in the world who neither know how to transact business, nor to take recreation; but when we wish to characterize a fellow particularly clever, knowing, and experienced, we commonly say, "Take care of that chap,-he has seen the bears." And, again, when one sharp fellow is overreached by another still sharper, it is a common proverb among us," What, are you there, with your bears ? For my own

part, I honestly confess I would much rather enjoy myself with bears and dogs, than play with cats or monkeys, as is now the fashion; and, therefore, I intreat you, as often as your business will permit, that you fail not to visit the Bear Garden, for you will always find to be, as Cicero says, "Schola disciplinæ, morum regula, et magistra vitæ."

Of which I will now give you a great example, in a humble personage. There was a scullion in my Lord's kitchen, whose name was Pack, a clever fellow enough; he obtained, through my influence, from Tom Badger, of most happy memory, the office or place of cooking for the bears, and preparing their dinners and food. When he was introduced into the bears' stable, the bear-wards carefully placed him, according to custom, upon the back of one of the largest bears (which is the usual ceremony of inauguration for all who are to have any charge over the beasts), and in this manner, possession, or what we term in law "livery and seisin" of his office, is delivered to him. The bear carried his rider with great good nature, and he with no less merriment, having in one hand a tankard of ale, and in the other a pipe of tobacco, began to drink to the health of "All the Bears." At this moment, two large dogs were slyly let in; the instant the bear saw them, up got old Bruin on his hind legs, capsized poor Pack, and spilled the ale-pot with almost all the contents into his lap. However, it did him no further harm: and Pack told me, when he came home, that he never enjoyed his ale so much before. Now as often as I think of this story, I fancy I see you, my dear Sir Francis, reposing on your couch, wrapped up in skins and furs, and looking exactly like a great old bear, drinking up my ale, and calling out, like Pack, "Long live Honest William with his ale, I think I never drank better in all my life."

but I won't detain you any longer. I have received your warrant for a buck, for which I heartily thank you, hoping you'll soon send me another. I intended to have dined with you yesterday, but did not know whether or not you would be at home, and I was invited elsewhere; and you well know that Honest William is always a man of his word, and so farewell.

From my little cabin in the world.
July 26, 1639.

Old Poets.

THE LONG VACATION.

Now at such times as lawyers walke the streets, Without long rowles of papers in their hands; When friendly neighbour with his neighbour meetes, Without false chalenge to each others lands, The counsellor without his client stands! When that large capitoll lies voide and waste, Where senators and judges late were plac't. Storer's Life of Wolsey.

WOLSEY'S LAMENT.

ALL as my chrysom, so my winding-sheete, Noue joy'de my birth, none mourn'd my death to The short parenthesis of life was sweete,

see;

But short, what was before unknown to me, And what must follow, is the Lord's decree : The period of my glory is exprest;

Now of my death; and then my muse take rest.

[The second of these two stanzas contains an image almost as fine as any to be found in poetry :]

I did not meane, with predecessors' pride,
To walke on cloth, as custome did require;
More fit that cloth were hung on either side

In mourning wise, or make the poor attire;
More fit the dirige of a mournfull quire
In dull sad notes all sorrowes to exceede,
For him in whom the prince's love is dead.

I am the tombe where that affection lies,
That was the closet where it living kept;
Yet wise men say, affection never dies ;—
No, but it turnes; and when it long hath slept,
Looks heavy, like the eie that long hath wept.
O could it die, that were a restfull state;
But living, it converts to deadly hate.

VIRTUE.

[ocr errors]

Ibid.

[blocks in formation]

LOVE is nature's second son, Causing a spring of virtue where she shines; And as without the sun, the world's great eye, All colours, beauties, both of art and nature, Are given in vain to men; so, without love, All beauties bred in women are in vain ; All virtues born in men lie buried;

For love informs us as the sun doth colours:
And as the sun, reflecting his warm beams
Against the earth, begets all fruits and flowers;
So love, fair shining in the inward man,

Brings forth in him the honourable fruits
Of valour, wit, virtue, and haughty thoughts;
Brave resolution, and divine discourse:
O, 'tis the paradise-the heaven of earth:
And didst thou know the comforts of two hearts
In one delicious harmony united,-
As to joy, one joy; and think both one thought;
Live both one life, and therein double life;
To see their souls meet at an interview;
In their bright eyes,-at parley in their lips;
Their language, kisses; and t'observe the rest-
Touches, embraces, and each circumstance
Of all love's most unmatched ceremonies,
Thou would'st abhor thy tongue for blasphemy.
O, who can comprehend how sweet love tastes,
But he that hath been present at its feasts.

LOVE AND JEALOUSY.

SUCH love is like a smoky fire

Ibid.

In a cold morning: though the fire be cheerful,
Yet is the smoke so sour and cumbersome,
"Twere better lose the fire than find the smoke.
Such an attendant then as smoke to fire,
Is jealousy to love; better want both
Than have both.

Ibed.

A PETIT, MAITRE OF THE TIME OF ELIZABETH.
I WONDER where that neat spruce slave becomes;
I think he was some barber's son, by the mass,
'Tis such a picked fellow, not a hair
About his whole bulk, but it stands in print ;
Each pin hath its due place, not any point
But hath its perfect tie, fashion and grace.
A thing whose soul is specially employ'd
In knowing where best gloves, best stockings,
waistcoats,

Curiously wrought, are sold; sacks milliners' shops
For all new types and fashions, and can tell ye
What new devices, of all sorts, there are:
And there is not, in the whole Rialto,

But oue new-fashion'd waistcoat, or one night-cap,
One pair of gloves, pretty or well perfum'd,
And from a pair of gloves, of half-a-crown
To twenty crowns, will to a very scute

Smell out the price; and for these womanly parts
He is esteem'd a witty gentleman.

The Naturalist.

THE ELECTRICAL EEL.

Ibid.

THIS curious creature is a fish of the order termed apodal, or without ventral fins. Several species are known to naturalists; the most famous of which is the gymnotus electricus, found in the rivers of South America. The body is nearly of an equal thickness throughout; head and tail obtuse; and the length five or six feet. In colour, and altogether, on first view, it appears very much like an eel, from which resemblance it has most probably received its name; but, according to John Hunter," it has none of the specific properties of that fish." The most singular fact in its history is its possession of the property of communicating a sensation similar to the shock from an electrifying machine, when touched with the hand, or an electric conductor. The seat of the organs which produce this extraordinary effect is along the under side of the tail. They are composed of four bundles of parallel membraneous laminæ, placed very near each other, and nearly horizontally, extending from the skin to the central medial plane of the body, connected together by numerous vertical laminæ, arranged transversely. The little cells, or canals, which are intercepted by these two kinds of laminæ, are, according to Cuvier, filled with a gelatinous substance, and the whole appa. ratus is abundantly supplied with nerves. A specimen of the gymnotus, which was conveyed alive to England some years since, afforded the curious an opportunity of verifying the reports of travellers as to its electric property. The celebrated John Hunter was one of its most successful examiners, and his very interesting "Account" will be found in the Philosophical Transactions, (1775). His results accord with the conclusions of more recent observers. Among the latter, the indefatigable Humboldt is entitled to first rank, and a summary of his observations may be stated as follows:

"These electrical eels inhabit the Rio

Colorado, the Guarapiche, and several small streams which cross the Chayma missions, as well as the Orinoco, the Meta, and the Maranham; and in the Iianos, particularly in the environs of Calabozo, the pools of stagnant water, and the streams which fall into the Orinoco, are filled with them. They are, at once, dreaded and detested by the natives. The muscular part of the flesh is tolerably good eating, but the electric organ, which fills more than two-thirds of the body, is slimy and disagreeable, and is, accordingly, carefully separated from the rest.

"The gymnotus is the largest electrical fish known, some of those measured by him being from five feet four inches to five feet seven inches in length. One, four feet one inch long, weighed 15 Troy pounds, and its transverse diameter was three inches seven and a half lines. The colour was a fine olivegreen; the under part of the head yellow mingled with red. Along the back are two rows of small yellow spots, each of which contains an excretory aperture for the mucus, with which the skin is constantly covered. The swimming-bladder is of large size, and before it is situated another of smaller dimensions; the former separated from the skin by a mass of fat, and resting upon the electric organs, which occupy more than two-thirds of the fish.

The

"It would be rash to expose one's self to the first shocks of a very large individual,-the pain and numbness which follow in such a case being extremely violent. When in a state of great weakness, the animal produces in the person who touches it a twitching, which is propagated from the hand to the elbow; a kind of internal vibration, lasting two or three seconds, and followed by painful torpidity, being felt after every stroke. electric energy depends upon the will of the creature, and it directs it toward the point where it feels most strongly irritated. The organ acts only under the immediate influence of the brain and heart; for, when one of them was cut through the middle, the fore part of the body alone gave shocks. Its action on man is transmitted and intercepted by the same substances that transmit and intercept the electrical current of a conductor charged by a Leyden jar or a Voltaic pile. In the water the shock can be conveyed to a considerable distance. No spark has ever been observed to issue from the body of the

eel when excited.

"The gymnoti are objects of dread to the natives, and their presence is considered as the principal cause of the want of fish in the pools of the Llanos. All the inhabitants of the waters avoid them; and the Indians asserted that when they take young alligators and these animals in the same net, the latter never display any appearance of wounds, because they disable their enemies before they

are attacked by them. It became necessary to change the direction of a road near Urituco, solely because they were so numerous in a river that they killed many mules in the course of fording it."

The narrative of Humboldt's mode of catching the specimens, from an examination of which he obtained these results, will be read with equal interest:

"It being very difficult to catch the gymnoti with nets, on account of their extreme agility, it was resolved to procure some by intoxicating or benumbing them with the roots of certain plants, which when thrown into the water produce that effect. At this juncture the Indians informed them that they would fish with horses, and soon brought from the savannah about thirty of these animals, which they drove into the pool.

"The extraordinary noise caused by the horses' hoofs makes the fishes issue from the mud, and excites them to combat. These yellowish and livid eels, resembling large aquatic snakes, swim at the surface of the water, and crowd under the bellies of the horses and mules. The struggle between animals of so different an organization affords a very interesting sight. The Indians, furnished with harpoons and long, slender reeds, closely surround the pool. Some of them climb the trees, whose branches stretch horizontally over the water. By their wild cries and their long reeds, they prevent the horses from coming to the edge of the basin. The eels, stunned by the noise, defend themselves by repeated discharges of their electrical batleries, and for a long time seem likely to obtain the victory. Several horses sink under the violence of the invisible blows which they receive in the organs most essential to life, and, benumbed by the force and frequency of the shocks, disappear beneath the surface. Others, panting, with erect mane, and haggard eyes expressive of anguish, raise themselves and endeavour to escape from the storm which overtakes them, but are driven back by the Indians. A few, however, succeed in eluding the vigilance of the fishers; they gain the shore, stumble at every step, and stretch themselves out on the sand, exhausted with fatigue, and having their limbs benumbed by the electric shocks of the gymnoti.

"In less than five minutes two horses were killed. The eel, which is five feet long, presses itself against the belly of the horse, and makes a discharge along the whole extent of its electric organ. It attacks at once the heart, the viscera, and the cæliac plexus of the abdominal nerves. It is natural that the effect which a horse experiences should be more powerful than that produced by the same fish on man, when he touches it only by one of the extremities. The horses are probably not killed but only stunned; they

[merged small][graphic][merged small]

YUCCA GLORIOSA, OR GREAT ADAM'S NEEDI.E. THIS magnificent plant has lately been seen James Bagust, near the end of Boyer-lane, in splendid bloom, in the garden of Mr. Camberwell New Road. It contained, i.. its full vigour, from 1,500 to 2,000 blossoms, and attracted vast numbers of beholders, who were struck with admiration of its magnitude and beauty. It has been dormant for many years in the garden of Mr. Bagust, but this sumBagust, it is far more splendid than the mer unfolded its beauties According to Mr. American aloe. Its superiority consists in the number of liliaceous blossoms, which are equal in size to the tulip, and possess the rare quality of attracting insects, as the substance of the flower is of a honey hue:

"How Nature paints her colours, how the bee
Sits on her bloom, extracting liquid sweet."-Milton.
P. T. W.

« VorigeDoorgaan »