The every-day book and table-book; or, Everlasting calendar of popular amusements

St. Lawrence.

a single penny, enchased in a ring with borders of gold, and covered with a crystal, so accurately wrought, as to be plainly legible, to the great admiration of her majesty, her ministers, and several ambassadors at court.

were obeyed, and after Lawrence had been pressed down with fire-forks for a long time, he said to the tyrant, This side is now roasted enough; O tyrant, do you think roasted meat or raw the best?' Soon after he had said this he expired. The church of St. Lawrence Jewry, in London, is dedicated to him, and has a gridiron on the steeple for a vane, that being generally supposed the instrument of his torture. The ingenious Mr. Robinson, in his Ecclesiastical Researches,' speaking about this saint, says, 'Philip II. of Spain, having won a battle on the 10th of August, the festival of St. Lawrence, vowed to consecrate a PALACE, a CHURCH, and a MONASTERY to his honour. He did erect the ESCURIAL, which is the largest Palace in EUROPE. This immense courts and quarry consists of several quadrangles, all disposed in the shape of GRIDIRON. The bars form several courts; and the Royal Family occupy the HANDLE.' 'Gridirons,' says one, who examined it,' are met with in every part of the building. There are sculptured gridirons, iron gridirons, painted gridThere irons, marble gridirons, &c. &c. are gridirons over the doors, gridirons in the yards, gridirons in the windows, gridirons in the galleries. Never was an instrument of martyrdom so multiplied, so honoured, so celebrated: and thus much for gridirons.'

7770

value, and won it. Upon this victory, his contemporary and rival in penmanship, John Davies, made a satirical, illnatured epigram, intimating that penury continually compelled Bales to remove himself and his "golden pen," to elude the pursuit of his creditors. The particulars of the contest for the pen, supposed to be written by Bales himself, are in the British Museum, dated January 1, 1596.

So much concerning Peter Bales is derived from the late Mr. Butler's "Chronological Exercises," an excellent arrangement of biographical, historical, and miscellaneous facts for the daily use of young ladies.

have

Peter Bales according to Mr. D Israeli, " astonished the eyes of beholders by showing them what they could not see." He cites a narrative, among the Harleian MSS., of "a rare piece of work brought to pass by Peter Bales, an Englishman, and a clerk of the chancery." Mr. D'Israeli presumes this to been the whole Bible, "in an English walnut no bigger than a hen's egg. The nut holdeth the book: there are as many leaves in his little book as the great Bible, and he hath written as much in one of his little leaves, as a great leaf of the Bible." This wonderfully unreadable copy of the Bible was seen by many thousands."

Peter Huet, the celebrated bishop of Avranches, long doubted the story of an eminent writing-master having comprised "the Iliad in a nut-shell," but, after trifling half an hour in examining the matter, he thought it possible. One day, in company at the dauphin's, with a piece of paper and a common pen, he demonstrated, that a piece of vellum, about ten inches in length, and eight in width, pliant and firm, can be folded up and enclosed in the shell of a large walnut; that in breadth it can contain one line of thirty verses, perfectly written with a crow-quill, and in length two hundred

cient Jews made great use of music in their funeral rites; before Christ exerted his power in the restoration of the ruler's daughter, who was supposed to be dead, he caused to be put forth" the minstrels and the people making a noise." Matt. c. 9, v. 23, et seq.

The ceremonies, which I am now going to describe, are still in existence; and evince no symptoms of decay. On the evening preceding the day appointed for the interment, the parish-clerk perambulates the town, carrying a deep and solemn-toned bell, by means of which he announces his approach to various places at which he is accustomed to stop, and give utterance to his mournful message. Well do I remember the deep interest with which I and my youthful associates listened to the melancholy tones of his sepulchral voice, whilst toys were disregarded, and trifling for a moment suspended! As the sounds of the "Deathbell" died away, it was proclaimed thus: "All friends and neighbours are desired

to attend the funeral of

from-

street, to Mary's Chapel: the corpse to be taken up at o'clock." What crowds of little urchins feeling a mixed sensation of fear and curiosity were congregated! What casements were half-opened whilst mute attention lent her willing ear to seize upon the name of the departed,

and the hour of burial!

I have known a party at

a round

game" hushed into silence: and a whist party thrown into a sort of reverie, and there remain till Mrs. What-d'ye-call-'em asked Mrs. What's-her-name, if clubs were trumps? or chid her partner for being guilty of a revoke on account of so common a thing as the "Death-bell.”

On the following day the clerk proceeds to the Corse-house, about an hour before the procession is formed. A small table covered with a white napkin, on which are placed wines and spirits, is put at the door of the house within and around which the people assemble: the clerk takes his place by the table, to assist to a glass of liquor, any person who may approach it. The coffin being brought forth, the clerk takes his place in front of the procession, and is usually attended by a number of those who form the choir on Sunday, all being uncovered. A psalm is sung as the cavalcade moves slowly through the streets. The rest of the "friends and neighbours" follow the corpse to the church, where the ordinary

According to T. N., a Cambridge correspondent, this tree is, in that county, called the Cambridge oak. Old Fuller have lost their love make their mourning calls it "a sad tree, whereof such who garlands; and we know that exiles hung up their harps upon such doleful supdrive out the folly of children. This tree porters. The twigs hereof are physick to phant in the Isle of Ely, where the roots delighteth in moist places, and is triumstrengthen their banks, and top affords fast, it being a by-word in this county, fuell for their fire. It groweth incredibly that the profit by willows will buy the owner a horse before that by other trees will pay for his saddle. Let me add, that if green ashe may burne before a queen, withered willows may be allowed to burne before a lady." The old saying, "She is in her willows" is here illus trated; it implies the mourning of a female for her lost mate.

The Willow (Salix)

In Sylvan Sketches, to an account of the willow, elegant poetical illustrations are attached, from whence are extracted the subjoined agreeable notices.

According to some botanists, there are more than fifty British willows only. The sweet, or bay-leaved willow, salir penta dria, is much used in Yorkshire for making baskets; its leaves afford a yellow dye Baskets are also made from the osier, which belongs to this genus; but of the willows, the bitter purple willow, salis purpurea, is the best adapted for the finest

basket-work. The common, or white willow, salix alba, takes its specific name from the white silken surface of the leaves on the under side. The bark is used to tan leather, and to dye yarn of a cinnamon colour. It is one of the trees to which the necessitous Kamtschatdales are often obliged to recur for their daily bread, which they make of the inner bark, ground into flour. The bark of this willow has in some cases been found a good substitute for the Peruvian bark. The grey willow, or sallow, salix cinerea, grows from six to twelve feet high. In many parts of England, children gather the flowering branches of this tree on Palm Sunday, and call them palms. With the bark, the inhabitants of the Highlands and the Hebrides tan leather. The wood, which is soft, white, and flexible, is made into handles for hatchets, spades, &c. It also furnishes shoemakers with their cutting-boards, and whettingboards to smooth the edges of their knives upon.

The weeping willow, salix Babylonica, a native of the Levant, was not cultivated in this country till 1730. This tree, with its long, slender, pendulous branches, is one of the most elegant ornaments of English scenery. The situation which it affects, also, on the margins of brooks or rivers, increases its beauty; like Narcissus, it often seems to bend over the water for the purpose of admiring the reflection:

"Shadowy trees, that lean So elegantly o'er the water's brim."

There is a fine weeping willow in a garden near the Paddington end of the New Road, and a most magnificent one, also, in a garden on the banks of the Thames, just before Richmond-bridge, on the Richmond side of the river. Several of the arms of this tree are so large, that one of them would in itself form a fine tree. They are propped by a number of stout poles; and the tree appears in a flourishing condition. If that tree be, as it is said, no more than ninety-five years old, the quickness of its growth is indeed astonishing.

Martyn relates an interesting anecdote, which he gives on the authority of the St. James's Chronicle, for August, 1801:

"The famous and admired weeping willow planted by Pope, which has lately been felled to the ground, came from Spain, enclosing a present for lady SufNo. 35.

folk. Mr. Pope was in company when the covering was taken off; he observed that the pieces of stick appeared as if they had some vegetation; and added, Perhaps they may produce something we have not in England.' Under this idea, he planted it in his garden, and it produced the willow-tree that has given birth to so many others." It is said, that the destruction of this tree was caused by the eager curiosity of the admirers of the poet, who, by their numbers, so disturbed the quiet and fatigued the patience of the possessor, with applications to be permitted to see this precious relic, that to put an end to the trouble at once and for ever, she gave orders that it should be felled to the ground.

The weeping willow, in addition to the pensive, drooping appearance of its branches, weeps little drops of water, which stand like fallen tears upon the leaves. It will grow in any but a dry soil, but most delights, and best thrives, in the immediate neighbourhood of water. The willow, in poetical language, commonly introduces a stream, or a forsaken lover :

"We pass a gulph, in which the willows dip

Their pendent boughs, stooping as if to drink." Cowper.

Fletcher, a young girl, who loses her wit lows; nay, the smallest tree known, withwith hopeless love for Palamon

Nothing but and between

Ever was

Palamon, fair Palamon !' "

Herrick thus addresses the willow-tree: "Thou art to all lost love the best,

The only true plant found;
Wherewith young men and maids distrest,
And left of love, are crowned.
"When once the lover's rose is dead,

Or laid aside forlorn,
Then willow garlands 'bout the head,
Bedewed with tears, are worn.
"When with neglect, the lover's bane,
Poor maids rewarded be

For their love lost, their only gain
Is but a wreath from thee.

"And underneath thy cooling shade,
When weary of the light,

The love-spent youth and love-sick maid Come to weep out the night."

out any exception. The herbaceous willow, salix herbacea, is seldom higher than three inches, sometimes not more than two; and yet it is in every respect a tree, notwithstanding the name herbaceous, which, as it has been observed, is inappropriate. Dr. Clarke says, in his "Travels in Norway," "We soon recognised some of our old Lapland acquaintances, such as Betula nana, with its minute leaves, like silver pennies; mountain-birch; and the dwarf alpine species of willow of which half a dozen trees, with all their branches, leaves, flowers, and roots, might be compressed within two of the pages of a lady's pocket-book, without coming into contact with each other. After our return to England, specimens of the salix herbacea were given to our friends, which, when framed and glazed, had the appearance of miniature drawings. The author, in collecting them for his herbiary, has frequently compressed twenty of these trees between two of the

This poet has some lines addressed to pages of a duodecimo volume." Yet in a willow garland also:—

"A willow garland thou didst send

Perfumed, last day, to me;
Which did but only this portend,
I was forsook by thee.

"Since it is so, I'll tell thee what;

To-morrow thou shalt see
Me wear the willow, after that
To die upon the tree.

"As beasts unto the altars go

With garlands dressed, so I
Will with my willow-wreath also
Come forth, and sweetly die."

The willow seems, from the oldest times, to have been dedicated to grief;

under them the children of Israel lamented their captivity:" By the rivers of Babylor, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion: we hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof."*

The wicker-baskets made by our forefathers are the subject of an epigram by Martial :

"From Britain's painted sons I came,
And basket is my barbarous name;
Yet now I am so modish grown,
That Rome would claim me for her own.'

It is worthy to be recollected, that some of the smallest trees known are wil

The Psalms.

the great northern forests, Dr. Clarke found a species of willow" that would make a splendid ornament in our English shrubberies, owing to its quick growth, and beautiful appearance. It had much more the appearance of an orange than of a willow-tree, its large luxuriant leaves being of the most vivid green colour, splendidly shining. We believed it to be a variety of salix amygdalina, but it may be a distinct species: it principally flourishes in Westro Bothnia, and we never saw it elsewhere."

So much, and more than is here quoted, respecting the willow, has been gathered by the fair authoress of Sylvan Sketches.

In conclusion, be it observed, that the common willow is in common language that name it is mentioned by Chaucer:— sometimes called the sallow, and under "Whoso buildeth his hous all of salowes, And pricketh his blind hors over the falowes,

And suffreth his wife for to seche hallowes,

He is worthy to be honged on the gallowes."

August 10.

Chaucer.

St. Lawrence.

His name stands in the church of England calendar. He suffered martyrdom at Roine, under Valerian. Mr. Audley relates of St. Lawrence, " that being peculiarly obnoxious, the order for his punishment was, Bring out the grate of iron; and when it is red hot, on with him, roast him, broil him, turn him : upon pain of our high displeasure, do every man his office, Oye tormentors.' These orders were obeyed, and after Lawrence had been pressed down with fire-forks for a long time, he said to the tyrant, This side is now roasted enough; O tyrant, do you think roasted meat or raw the best?' Soon after he had said this he expired. The church of St. Lawrence Jewry, in London, is dedicated to him, and has a gridiron on the steeple for a vane, that being generally supposed the instrument of his torture. The ingenious Mr. Robinson, in his Ecclesiastical Researches,' speaking about this saint, says, 'Philip II. of Spain, having won a battle on the 10th of August, the festival of St. Lawrence, vowed to consecrate a PALACE, a CHURCH, and a MONASTERY to his honour. He did erect the ESCURIAL, which is the largest Palace in EUROPE. This immense quarry consists of several courts and quadrangles, all disposed in the shape of a GRIDIRON. The bars form several courts; and the Royal Family occupy the HANDLE.' 'Gridirons,' says one, who examined it, are met with in every part of the building. There are sculptured gridirons, iron gridirons, painted gridirons, marble gridirons, &c. &c. There are gridirons over the doors, gridirons in the yards, gridirons in the windows, gridirons in the galleries. Never was an instrument of martyrdom so multiplied, so honoured, so celebrated: and thus much for gridirons.'"*

CHRONOLOGY.

On the 10th of August, 1575, Peter Bales, one of our earliest and most eminent writing-masters, finished a performance which contained the Lord's prayer, the creed, the decalogue, with two short prayers in Latin, his own name, motto, the day of the month, year of our Lord, and reign of the queen, (Elizabeth,) to whom he afterwards presented it at Hampton-court, ali within the circle of

Companion to the Almanac.

In 1590, Bales kept a school at the upper end of the Old Bailey, and the same year published his "Writing SchoolMaster." In 1595, he had a trial of skill in writing with a Mr. Daniel (David) Johnson, for a golden pen " of £20 value, and won it. Upon this victory, his contemporary and rival in penmanship, John Davies, made a satirical, illnatured epigram, intimating that penury continually compelled Bales to remove himself and his "golden pen," to elude the pursuit of his creditors. The particulars of the contest for the pen, supposed to be written by Bales himself, are in the British Museum, dated January 1, 1596.

have

Peter Bales according to Mr. D Israeli, " astonished the eyes of beholders by showing them what they could not see." He cites a narrative, among the Harleian MSS., of “a rare piece of work brought to pass by Peter Bales, an Englishman, and a clerk of the chancery." Mr. D'Israeli presumes this to been the whole Bible, "in an English walnut no bigger than a hen's egg. The nut holdeth the book: there are as many leaves in his little book as the great Bible, and he hath written as much in one of his little leaves, as a great leaf of the Bible." This wonderfully unreadable copy of the Bible was "seen by many thousands."

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