The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 336, October 18, 1828

EMBLEM OF WALES

(For the Mirror.)

It is supposed by some of the Welsh, and in some notes to a poem the author (Mr. P. Lewellyn) says he has been confidently assured, that the leek, as is generally supposed to be, is not the original emblem of Wales, but the sive, or chive, which is common to almost every peasant's garden. It partakes of the smell and taste of the onion and leek, but is not so noxious, and is much handsomer than the latter. It grows in a wild state on the banks of the Wye, infinitely larger than when planted in gardens. According to the above-mentioned author, the manner in which it became the national emblem of Cambria was as follows:—As a prince of Wales was returning victorious from battle, he wished to have some leaf or flower to commemorate the event; but it being winter, no plant or shrub was seen until they came to the Wye, when they beheld the sive, which the prince commanded to be worn as a memorial of the victory.

Tipton, Staffordshire.

W.H

HISTORY OF FAIRS

(For the Mirror.)

Fairs, among the old Romans, were holidays, on which there was an intermission of labour and pleadings. Among the Christians, upon any extraordinary solemnity, particularly the anniversary dedication of a church, tradesmen were wont to bring and sell their wares even in the churchyards, which continued especially upon the festivals of the dedication. This custom was kept up till the reign of Henry VI. Thus we find a great many fairs kept at these festivals of dedications, as at Westminster on St. Peter's day, at London on St. Bartholomew's, Durham on St. Cuthbert's day. But the great numbers of people being often the occasion of riots and disturbances, the privilege of holding a fair was granted by royal charter. At first they were only allowed in towns and places of strength, or where there was some bishop or governor of condition to keep them in order. In process of time there were several circumstances of favour added, people having the protection of a holiday, and being allowed freedom from arrests, upon the score of any difference not arising upon the spot. They had likewise a jurisdiction allowed them to do justice to those that came thither; and therefore the most inconsiderable fair with us has, or had, a court belonging to it, which takes cognizance of all manner of causes and disorders growing and committed upon the place, called pye powder, or pedes pulverizati. Some fairs are free, others charged with tolls and impositions. At free fairs, traders, whether natives or foreigners, are allowed to enter the kingdom, and are under the royal protection in coming and returning. They and their agents, with their goods, also their persons and goods, are exempt from all duties and impositions, tolls and servitudes; and such merchants going to or coming from the fair cannot be arrested, or their goods stopped. The prince only has the power to establish fairs of any kind. These fairs make a considerable article in the commerce of Europe, especially those of the Mediterranean, or inland parts, as Germany. The most famous are those of Frankfort and Leipsic; the fairs of Novi, in the Milanese; that of Riga, Arch-angel of St. Germain, at Paris; of Lyons; of Guibray, in Normandy; and of Beauclaire, in Languedoc: those of Porto-Bello, Vera Cruz, and the Havannah, are the most considerable in America.

HALBERT

THE VIRGINAL

(For the Mirror.)

A rare and beautiful relic of the olden time was lately presented to the museum of the Northern Institution, by William Mackintosh, Esq. of Milbank—an ancient virginal, which was in use among our ancestors prior to the invention of the spinnet and harpsichord. Mary, Queen of Scots, who delighted in music, in her moments of "joyeusitie" as John Knox phrases it, used to play finely on the virginal; and her more fortunate rival, Queen Elizabeth, was so exquisite a performer on the same instrument, that Melville says, on hearing her once play in her chamber, he was irresistibly drawn into the room. The virginal now deposited in the museum formerly belonged to a noble family in Inverness, and is considered to be the only one remaining in Scotland. It is made of oak, inlaid with cedar, and richly ornamented with gold. The cover and sides are beautifully painted with figures of birds, flowers, and leaves, the colours of which are still comparatively fresh and undecayed. On one part of the lid is a grand procession of warriors, whom a bevy of fair dames are propitiating by presents or offerings of wine and fruits. Altogether, the virginal may be regarded as a fine specimen of art, and is doubly interesting as a memorial of times long gone by.

W.G.C

HERSCHEL'S TELESCOPE

(To the Editor of the Mirror.)

Your correspondent, a Constant Reader, in No. 330 of the MIRROR, is informed that the identical telescope which he mentions is now in the possession of Mr. J. Davies, optician, 101, High-street, Mary-le-bone, where it may be seen in a finished and perfect state. It is reckoned the best and most complete of its size in Europe.

It was ordered to be made for his late majesty George III. as a challenge against the late Dr. Herschel's; but was prevented from being completed till some time after. The metals, 9-1/4 inches in diameter, having a diagonal eye-piece, four eye tubes of different magnifying powers, and three small specula of various radii, were made by Mr. Watson.

J.D

ANCIENT ROMAN FESTIVALS

OCTOBER

(For the Mirror.)

The Augustalia was a festival at Rome, in commemoration of the day on which Augustus returned to Rome, after he had established peace over the different parts of the empire. It was first established in the year of Rome 735.

The Fontinalia, or Fontanalia, was a religious feast, held among the Romans in honour of the deities who presided over fountains or springs. Varro observes, that it was the custom to visit the wells on those days, and to cast crowns into fountains. This festival was observed on the 13th of October.

The Armilustrum was a feast held on the 19th of October, wherein they sacrificed, armed at all points, and with the sound of trumpets. The sacrifice was intended for the expiation of the armies, and the prosperity of the arms of the people of Rome. This feast may be considered as a kind of benediction of arms. It was first observed among the Athenians.

P.T.W

THE ANECDOTE GALLERY

LORD BYRON AT MISSOLONGHI

[The Foreign Quarterly Review gives the following sketch as a "pendant to Mr. Pouqueville's picture of the poet, given in a preceding page," and requoted by us in the last No. of the MIRROR. It is from a History of Greece, by Rizo, a Wallachian sentimentalist of the first order, and in enthusiasm and exuberance of style, it will perhaps compare with any previous sketches of the late Lord Byron: but the romantic interest which Rizo has thrown about these "more last words" will doubtless render them acceptable to our readers.]

For several years a man, a poet, excited the admiration of civilized people. His sublime genius towered above the atmosphere, and penetrated, with a searching look, even into the deepest abysses of the human heart. Envy, which could not reach the poet, attacked the man, and wounded him cruelly; but, too great to defend, and too generous to revenge himself, he only sought for elevated impressions, and "vivoit de grand sensations," (which we cannot translate), capable of the most noble devotedness, and, persuaded that excellence is comprised in justice, he embraced the cause of the Greeks. Still young, Byron had traversed Greece, properly so called, and described the moral picture of its inhabitants. He quitted these countries, pitying in his verses the misery of the Greeks, blaming their lethargy, and despising their stupid submission; so difficult is it to know a nation by a rapid glance. What was the astonishment of the poet, when some years later he saw these people, whom he had thought unworthy to bear the name of Greeks, rise up with simultaneous eagerness, and declare, in the face of the world, that "they would again become a nation." Byron hesitated at first; ancient prepossessions made him attribute this rupture to a partial convulsion, the ultimate effort of a being ready to breathe the last sigh. Soon new prodigies, brilliant exploits, and heroic constancy, which sustained itself in spite of every opposition, proved to him that he had ill-judged this people, and excited him to repair his error by the sacrifice of his fortune and life; he wished to concur in the work of regeneration. From the shores of the beautiful Etruria he set sail for Greece, in the month of August, 1823. He visited at first the seven Ionian Isles, where he sojourned some time, busied in concluding the first Greek loan. The death of Marco Botzaris redoubled the enthusiasm of Byron, and perhaps determined him to prefer the town of Missolonghi, which already showed for its glory the tombs of Normann, Kyriakoulis, and Botzaris. Alas! that town was destined, four months later, to reckon another mausoleum!

Towards the month of November a Hydriote brig of war, commanded by the nephew of the brave Criézy, sailed to Cephalonia to take him on board, and bring him to Missolonghi; but the Septinsular government, not permitting ships bearing a Greek flag to come into its harbours, Byron was obliged to pass to Zante in a small vessel, and to join the Greek brig afterwards, which was waiting for him near Zante. Hardly was Byron on board when he kissed the mainmast, calling it "sacred wood." The ship's crew astonished at this whimsical behaviour, regarded him in silence; suddenly Byron turned towards the captain and the sailors, whom he embraced with tears, and said to them, "It is by this wood that you will consolidate your independence." At these words the sailors, moved with enthusiasm, regarded him with admiration. Byron soon reached Missolonghi: the members of the Administrative Council received him at the head of two thousand soldiers drawn up in order. The artillery of the place, and the discharge of musquetry announced the happy arrival of this great man. All the inhabitants ran to the shore, and welcomed him with acclamations. As soon as he had entered the town, he went to the hotel of the Administrative Council, where he was complimented by Porphyrios, Archbishop of Arta, Lepanto and Etolia, accompanied by all his clergy. The first words of Byron were, "Where is the brother of the modern Leonidas?" Constantine Botzaris, a young man, tall and well made, immediately stepped forward, and Byron thus accosted him:—"Happy mortal! Thou art the brother of a hero, whose name will never be effaced in the lapse of ages!" Then perceiving a great crowd assembled under the windows of the hotel, he advanced towards the casement, and said, "Hellenes! you see amongst you an Englishman who has never ceased to study Greece in her antiquity, and to think of her in her modern state; an Englishman who has always invoked by his vows that liberty, for which you are now making so many heroic efforts. I am grateful for the sentiments which you testify towards me; in a short time you will see me in the middle of your phalanxes, to conquer or perish with you." A month afterwards the government sent him a deputation, charged to offer him a sword and the patent of Greek citizenship; at the same time the town of Missolonghi inscribed him in its archives. For this public act they prepared a solemn ceremony for him; they fixed beforehand the day—they invited there by circular letters the inhabitants of the neighbouring districts—and more than twenty thousand persons arrived at Missolonghi. Byron in a Greek costume, preceded and followed by all the military, who loved him, proceeded to the church, where the Archbishop Porphyrios and the bishop of Rogon, Joseph, that martyr of religion and his country, received him in the vestibule of the church, clothed in their sacerdotal habits; and, after having celebrated mass, they offered him the sword and the patent of citizenship. Byron demanded that the sword should be first dedicated on the tomb of Marco Botzaris; and immediately the whole retinue, and an immense crowd, went out of the church to the tomb of that warrior, which had been ornamented with beautiful marble at the expense of the poet.

The archbishop placed the sword upon this tomb, and then Byron, to inspire the Greeks with enthusiasm, advanced with a religious silence, and stopping all on a sudden, he pronounced this discourse in the Greek tongue:—"What man reposes buried under this stone? What hollow voice issues from this tomb? What is this sepulchre, from whence will spring the happiness of Greece? But what am I saying? Is it not the tomb of Marco Botzaris, who has been dead some months, and who, with a handful of brave men, precipitated himself upon the numerous ranks of the most formidable enemies of Greece? How dare I approach the sacred place where he reposes—I, who neither possess his heroism nor his virtues? However, in touching this tomb, I hope that its emanations will always inflame my heart with patriotism." So saying, and advancing towards the sepulchre, he kissed it while shedding tears. Every spectator exclaimed, "Lord Byron for ever!" "I see," added his lordship, "the sword and the letter of citizenship, which the government offers me; from this day I am the fellow-citizen of this hero, and of all the brave people who surround me. Hellenes! I hope to live with you, to fight the enemy with you, and to die with you if it be necessary." Byron, superior to vulgar prejudice, saw in the manners of the pallikares an ingenuous simplicity, a manly frankness and rustic procedure, but full of honour; he observed in the people a docility and constancy capable of the greatest efforts, when it shall be conducted by skilful and virtuous men; he observed amongst the Greek women natural gaiety, unstudied gentleness, and religious resignation to misfortunes.

Byron did not pretend to bend a whole people to his tastes and European habits. He came not to censure with a stern look their costumes, their dances, and their music; on the contrary, he entered into their national dances, he learned their warlike songs, he dressed himself like them, he spoke their language; in a word, he soon became a true Roumeliote. Consequently, he was adored by all Western Greece; every captain acknowledged him with pleasure as his chief; the proud Souliots gloried in being under his immediate command. The funds of the first loan being addressed to him, and submitted to his inspection, gave him influence, not only over continental Greece, but even over the Peloponnesus; so that he was in a situation, if not sufficient to stifle discord, at least to keep it within bounds. Not having yet fathomed the character of all the chief people, as well civil as military, he was sometimes deceived in the beginning of his sojourn, which a little hurt his popularity; but being completely above trifling passions, being able to strengthen by his union with it the party which appeared to him the most patriotic, he might without any doubt, with time and experience, have played a part the most magnificent and salutary to Greece. At first he had constructed, at his own expense, a fort in the little isle of Xéclamisma, the capture of which would have given great facilities to the enemies to attack by sea Missolonghi or Anatoliko. Missolonghi gave to this important fort the name of "Fort Byron." This nobleman conceived afterwards, studied and prepared an expedition against the strong place of Lepanto, the capture of which would have produced consequences singularly favourable. Once in possession of the means of regularly paying the soldiers, he would have been able to form a choice body, and take the town, which did not present any difficulty of attack, either on account of the few troops shut up there, or the weakness of its fortifications. Byron only waited the arrival of the loan, to begin his march.

Thus he led an agreeable life in the midst of a nation which he aimed at saving. Enchanted with the bravery of the Souliots, and their manners, which recalled to him the simplicity of Homeric times, he assisted at their banquets, extended upon the turf; he learnt their pyrrhic dance, and he sang in unison the airs of Riga, harmonizing his steps to the sound of their national mandolin. Alas! he carried too far his benevolent condescension. Towards the beginning of April he went to hunt in the marshes of Missolonghi. He entered on foot in the shallows; he came out quite wet, and, following the example of the pallikares accustomed to the malaria, he would not change his clothes, and persisted in having them dried upon his body. Attacked with an inflammation upon the lungs, he refused to let himself be bled, notwithstanding the intreaties of his physician, of Maurocordato and all his friends. His malady quickly grew worse; on the fourth day Byron became delirious; by means of bleeding he recovered from his drowsiness, but without being able to speak; then, feeling his end approaching, he gave his attendants to understand that he wished to take leave of the captains and all the Souliots. As each approached, Byron made a sign to them to kiss him. At last he expired in the arms of Maurocordato, whilst pronouncing the names of his daughter and of Greece. His death was fatal to the nation, which it plunged in mourning and tears.

MANNERS & CUSTOMS OF ALL NATIONS

CEREMONIES RELATING TO THE HAIR

(For the Mirror.)

Among the ancient Greeks, all dead persons were thought to be under the jurisdiction of the infernal deities, and therefore no man (says Potter) could resign his life, till some of his hairs were cut to consecrate to them. During the ceremony of laying out, clothing the dead, and sometimes the interment itself, the hair of the deceased person was hung upon the door, to signify the family was in mourning. It was sometimes laid upon the dead body, sometimes cast into the funeral pile, and sometimes placed upon the grave. Electra in Sophocles says, that Agamemnon had commanded her and Chrysothemis to pay him this honour:—

"With drink-off'rings and locks of hair we must,
According to his will, his tomb adorn."

Candace in Ovid bewails her calamity, in that she was not permitted to adorn her lover's tomb with her locks.

At Patroclus's funeral, the Grecians, to show their affection and respect to him, covered his body with their hair; Achilles cast it into the funeral pile. The custom of nourishing the hair on religious accounts seems to have prevailed in most nations. Osiris, the Egyptian, consecrated his hair to the gods, as we learn from Diodorus; and in Arian's account of India, it appears it was a custom there to preserve their hair for some god, which they first learnt (as that author reports) from Bacchus.

The Greeks and Romans wore false hair. It was esteemed a peculiar honour among the ancient Gauls to have long hair. For this reason Julius Caesar, upon subduing the Gauls, made them cut off their hair, as a token of submission. In the royal family of France, it was a long time the peculiar mark and privilege of kings and princes of the blood to wear long hair, artfully dressed and curled; every body else being obliged to be polled, or cut round, in sign of inferiority and obedience. In the eighth century, it was the custom of people of quality to have their children's hair cut the first time by persons they had a particular honour and esteem for, who, in virtue of this ceremony, were reputed a sort of spiritual parents or godfathers to them. In the year 1096, there was a canon, importing, that such as wore long hair should be excluded coming into church when living, and not be prayed for when dead. Charlemagne wore his hair very short, his son shorter; Charles the Bald had none at all. Under Hugh Capet it began to appear again; this the ecclesiastics were displeased with, and excommunicated all who let their hair grow. Peter Lombard expostulated the matter so warmly with Charles the Young, that he cut off his own hair; and his successors, for some generations, wore it very short. A professor of Utrecht, in 1650, wrote expressly on the question, Whether it be lawful for men to wear long hair? and concluded for the negative. Another divine, named Reeves, who had written for the affirmative, replied to him. In New England a declaration was inscribed in the register of the colony against the practice of wearing long hair, which was principally levelled at the Quakers, with unjust severity.

P.T.W

Pagoda in Kew Gardens

In one of the wildernesses of Kew Gardens stands the Great Pagoda, erected in the year 1762, from a design in imitation of the Chinese Taa. The base is a regular octagon, 49 feet in diameter; and the superstructure is likewise a regular octagon on its plan, and in its elevation composed of 10 prisms, which form the 10 different stories of the building. The lowest of these is 26 feet in diameter, exclusive of the portico which surrounds it, and 18 feet high; the second is 25 feet in diameter, and 17 feet high; and all the rest diminish in diameter and height, in the same arithmetical proportion, to the ninth story, which is 18 feet in diameter and 10 feet high. The tenth story is 17 feet in diameter, and, with the covering, 20 feet high, and the finishing on the top is 17 feet high; so that the whole structure, from the base to the top of the fleuron, is 163 feet. Each story finishes with a projecting roof, after the Chinese manner, covered with plates of varnished iron of different colours, and round each of them is a gallery enclosed with a rail. All the angles of the roof are adorned with large dragons, eighty in number, covered with a kind of thin glass of various colours, which produces a most dazzling reflection; and the whole ornament at the top is double gilt. The walls of the building are composed of very hard bricks; the outside of well-coloured and well-matched greystocks, (bricks,) neatly laid. The staircase is in the centre of the building. The prospect opens as you advance in height; and from the top you command a very extensive view on all sides, and, in some directions, upwards of forty miles distant, over a rich and variegated country.

FINE ARTS

MR. HAYDON'S PICTURE OF "CHAIRING THE MEMBERS."

In our last volume we were induced to appropriate nearly six of our columns to a description of Mr. Haydon's Picture of the Mock Election in the King's Bench Prison—or rather the first of a series of pictures to illustrate the Election, the subject of the present notice being the Second, or the Chairing of the Members, which was intended for the concluding scene of the burlesque. It will, therefore, be unnecessary for us here to give any additional explanation of the real life of these paintings, except so far as may be necessary to the explanation of the present picture.

The "Chairing" was acted on a water butt one evening, but was to have been again performed in more magnificent costume the next day; just, however, as all the actors in this eccentric masquerade, High Sheriff, Lord Mayor, Head Constable, Assessor, Poll Clerks, and Members, were ready dressed, and preparing to start, the marshal interfered, stopped the procession, and, after some parley, was advised to send for the guards.

"About the middle of a sunny day," says Mr. Haydon, "when all was quiet, save the occasional cracking of a racket ball, while some were reading, some smoking, some lounging, some talking, some occupied with their own sorrows, and some with the sorrows of their friends, in rushed six fine grenadiers with a noble fellow of a sergeant at their head, with bayonets fixed, and several rounds of ball in their cartouches, expecting to meet (by their looks) with the most desperate resistance."

"The materials thus afforded me by the entrance of the guards, I have combined in one moment;" or "I have combined in one moment what happened at different moments; the characters and soldiers are all portraits. I have only used the poets and painters' license, to make out the second part of the story, a part that happens in all elections, viz. the chairing of the successful candidates."