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long past by have shook the senate and fieid, have scattered plenty o'er a smiling land, or, as alas! is too frequently the melancholy reverse, shut the gates of mercy on mankind,

Considerations of this nature have suggested a review of the few families remaining in our peerage, whose ancestors enjoyed that distinction.

"Ere yet the fell Plantagenets had spent Their antient rage on Bosworth's purple field."

The protracted duration and alternated reverses of the contest between the houses of Lancaster and York, added to the rancorous inveteracy indispensably inherent in a barbarous age, will account for the comparatively rare sprinkling of the immediate descendants of the followers and councillors of the Plantagenets in our present house of peers. In France, on the other hand, the contemporary struggle for the throne laid between an indisputed native prince, Charles VII. and a foreign competitor, our Henry VI. The courtesies of war (imperfect even as they existed in those days) were allowed fairer play, and those who escaped the immedi ate edge of the foeman's sword were not handed over to the axe of the executioner.

The awful mortality which befell one eminent branch of our gallant Plantagenets at the period in question, is recorded in emphatic terms by their animated and faithful chronicler, Shakspeare:

"Two of thy name, both dukes of Somerset, Have sold their lives unto the house of York, And thou shalt be the third, if this sword hold."

List of English Peerages now existing on the Roll, of which the Date of Creation is prior to the Accession of Henry VII.

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August 23, 1305, sir William Wallace, "the peerless knight of Elleslie," who bravely defended Scotland against Edward I. was executed by order of that monarch on Tower-hill. This distinguished individual is popular in England five hundred years after his death, through the well-known ballad

"Scots wha hae wi' Wallace bled,” &c.

THE SEASON.

Swallows are now preparing for their departure. On this day, in 1826, the editor observed hundreds of them collecting so high in the air that they seemed of the size of flies; they remained wheeling about and increasing in number upwards

of an hour before dusk, when they all took their flight in a south-western direction.

CHELDONIZING, OR SWALLOW SINGING.

To the Editor of the Every-Day Book.

Sir,-The recent, and it is hoped still continued subscriptions in aid of suffering humanity, induce an observation, that to the very remote origin of collecting general alms, may be traced most of the mummeries practised in Christendom in the gothic centuries, and in the English counties, even till within our own memory. Among the Rhodians one method of soliciting eleemosynary gifts, called cheldonizing, or swallow-singing, is corroboratory of the assertion. This benevolence, or voluntary contribution, was instituted by Cleobulus of Lindos, at a time when public necessity drove the Lindians to the expedient of soliciting a general subscription. Theognis speaks of cheldonizing as taking place among the sacred rites practised at Rhodes in the month Boëdromion, or August, and deriving its name from the customary song:

The swallow, the swallow is here,

With his back so black, and his belly so white;

He brings on the pride of the year,

With the gay months of love and the days of delight.

Come, bring out the good humming stuff,
Of your nice tit-bits let the swallow par
take,

Of good bread and cheese give enough,
And a slice of your right Boëdromion cake.

Our hunger, our hunger it twinges,

So give my good masters, I pray; Or we'll pull off your door from its hinges, And, ecod! we'll steal young madam away.

She's a nice little pocket-piece darling,

And faith 'twill be easy to carry her hence; Away with old prudence so snarling,

And toss us down freely a handful of pence.

Come, let us partake of your cheer,

And loosen your purse strings so nearty; No crafty old grey beards are here,

And see we're a merry boy's party, And the swallow, the swallow is here!

Plutarch refers to another Rhodian custom, which is particularly mentioned by Phoenix of Colophon, a writer of iam

bics, who describes the practice being that of certain men going about to collect donations for the crow, and singing or saying

My good, worthy masters, a pittance bestow, Some oatmeal, or barley, or wheat, for the

crow;

A loaf or a penny, or e'en what you will,
As fortune your pockets may happen to fill.

From the poor man a grain of his salt may suffice,

For your crow swallows all, and is not very nice;

And the man who can now give his grain

and no more,

May another day give from a plentiful store.

Come, my lad, to the door, Plutus nods to our And our sweet little mistress comes out with wish, a dish;

She gives us her figs, and she gives us a smile, Heaven bless her, and guard her from sorrow and guile;

And send her a husband of noble degree, And a boy to be danc'd on his grand-daddy's knee;

And a girl like herself to rejoice her good mother,

Who may one day present her with just such

another.

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August 24.

ST. BARTHOLOMEW.

of the sea with two horns in his head and chased her, roaring and gaping all the way at her heels, and she was sure it was

For St. Bartholomew, see vol. i. col. not far off." A man called Wills Tom, an

1131.

MASSACRE OF ST. BARTHOLOMEW This horrible slaughter is noticed in the same volume at the same place. For particulars of the probable amount of the persons massacred, and the different accounts of historians, the reader is referred to a most able article in the "Edinburgh Review, June, 1826," on the extra ordinary misrepresentations of the event and its perpetrators in Mr. Lingard's "History of England."

A RESIDENT IN THE FLEET.

On the twenty-fourth of August, 1736, a remarkably fat boar was taken up in coming out of Fleet Ditch into the Thames: it proved to be a butcher's, near Smithfield-bars, who had missed him five months, all which time, it seems, he had been in the common sewer, and was improved in price from ten shillings to two guineas.*

THE FIRST PIGS IN SCOTLAND.

Within the last century (probably about 1720) a person in the parish of Ruthwell, in Dumfriesshire, called the "Gudeman o' the Brow," received a young swine as a present from some distant part; which seems to have been the first ever seen in that part of the country. This pig having strayed across the Lochar into the adjoining parish of Carlavroc, a woman who was herding cattle on the marsh, by the sea side, was very much alarmed at the sight of a living creature, that she had never seen or heard of before, approaching her straight from the shore as if it had come out of the sea, and ran home to the village of Blackshaw screaming. As she ran, the pig ran snorking and grunting after her, seeming glad that it had met with a companion. She arrived at the village so exhausted and terrified, that before she could get her story told she fainted away. By the time she came to herself, a crowd of people had collected to see what was the matter, when she told them, that "There was a diel came out

• Gentleman's Magazine.

old schoolmaster, said if he could see it he would "cunger the diel," and got a bible and an old sword. The pig immediately started hehind his back with a loud grumph, which put him into such a fright, that his hair stood upright in his head, and he was obliged to be carried from the field half dead.

The whole crowd ran some one way and some another; some reached the house-tops, and others shut themselves in barns and byres. At last one on the housetop called out it was "the Gudeman o' the Brow's grumphy," he having seen it before. Thus the affray was settled, and the people reconciled, although some still entertained frightful thoughts about it, and durst not go over the door to a neighbour's house after dark without one to set or cry them. One of the crowd who had some compassion on the creature, called out, "give it a tork of straw to eat, it will be hungry."

the Lochar, and on its way home, near Next day the pig was conveyed over the dusk of evening, it came grunting up to two men who were pulling thistles on the farm of Cockpool. Alarmed at the had tethered beside them, intending to sight, they mounted two old horses they make their way home, but the pig getting between them and the houses, caused in Lochar moss, where one of their horses them to scamper out of the way and land was drowned, and the other with difficulty not part one from the other to call for asrelieved. The night being dark, they durst sistance, lest the monster should find them out and attack them singly; nor durst they speak above their breath for fear of being devoured. At day-break next morning they took a different course, by Cumwhere they found their families much longon castle, and made their way home, alarmed on account of their absence. They said that they had seen a creature about the size of a dog, with two horns on its head, and cloven feet, roaring out like a lion, and if they had not galloped away, it would have torn them to pieces. of their wives said, "Hout man, it has been the Gudeman of the Brow's grumphy; it frightened them a' at the Blackshaw yesterday, and poor Meggie Anderson maist lost her wits, and is ay out o' ae fit into anither sin-syne."

One

The pig happened to lay all night among the corn where the men were pulling thistles, and about day-break set forward on its journey for the Brow. One Gabriel Gunion, mounted on a longtailed grey colt, with a load of white fish in a pair of creels swung over the beast, encountered the pig, which went nigh among the horse's feet and gave a snork The colt, being as much frightened as Gabriel, wheeled about and scampered off sneering, with his tail on his "riggin," at full gallop. Gabriel cut the slings and dropt the creels, the colt soon dismounted his rider, and going like the wind, with his tail up, never stopped till he came to Barnkirk point, where he took the Solway Frith and landed at Bownes, on the Cumberland side. Gabriel, by the time he got up, saw the pig within sight, took to his heels, as the colt was quite gone, and reached Cumlongon wood in time to hide himself, where he staid all that day and night, and next morning got home alınost exhausted. He told a dreadful story! The fright caused him to imagine the pig as big as a calf, having long horns, eyes like trenchers, and a back like a hedgehog. He lost his fish; the colt was got back, but never did more good; and Gabriel fell into a consumption, and died about a year afterwards.

About the same time a vessel came to Glencaple quay, a little below Dumfries, that had some swine on board; one of them having got out of the vessel in the night, was seen on the farm of Newmains next morning. The alarm was spread, and a number of people collected. The animal got many different names, and at last it was concluded to be a "brock (a badger). Some got pitchforks, some clubs, and others old swords, and a hot pursuit ensued; the chase lasted a considerable time, owing to the pursuers los ing heart when near their prey and retreating. One Robs Geordy having rather a little more courage than the rest, ran "neck or nothing," forcibly upon the animal, and run it through with a pitchfork, for which he got the name of "stout hearted Geordy" all his life after. A man, nearly a hundred years of age, who was alive in 1814, in the neighbourhood where this happened, declared that he remembered the Gudeman of the Brow's pig, and the circumstances related, and he said it was the first swine ever seen in that country.*

* Henderson on the Breeding of Swine 1814, 8vo.

NATURALISTS' CALENDAR. Mean Temperature ... 6180.

August 25.

ISLINGTON CATTLE MARKET.

August 25, 1746, a distemper which arose among the horned cattle, broke out afresh in the parts adjacent to London, and "the fair for the sale of Welsh cattle near Islington was kept at Barnet.”*

IMPORTANT TO HOUSEKEEPERS.

The following letter from a lady claims the attention of every good housewife at this particular season.

BLACKBERRY JAM.

To the Editor of the Every-Day Book.

a

Westbury, Wiltshire, Aug. 15, 1826. the above sweet subject,-the uses of " Sir,-The importance that I attach to jam" even may be important,-induces me to offer you the option of republishing a few lines on the occasion, which first appeared in a very condensed form last autumn, in the "Examiner" newspaper. I am anxious to obtain further celebrity, and a wider circulation of the merits which this wholesome dainty justly lay claim, and the success that attended my former little notice of it, encourage me to persevere; for I was informed that after the publication alluded to, the "Herald" copied it, and that subsequently it was cried in the streets of your dingy metropolis.

I can only judge of the prevailing quantity of the kindly blackberry, by the vast profusion that enriches our woody vales, where nature seems resolved to solace herself for the restrictions to which she has been confined by the dreary downs that skirt our beautiful vicinity; and where Falstaff must surely have originated his happy expression of "reasons being plenty as blackberries!" But I am keeping you too long from the subject. The method of preparing the delicate conserve that forms so large a portion of my children's favourite adjunctive anment, is so simple, that it can be achieved by the merest novice in the nice department of "domestic management."

Gentleman's Magazine.

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Boil the blackberries with half their weight of coarse moist sugar for three quarters of an hour, keeping the mass stirred constantly. It is a mistake to suppose that a stewpan is a necessary vehicle on the occasion; the commonest tin saucepan will answer the purpose equally well. The more luxurious preses being made with white sugar, and hat of equal weight with the fruit, are necessarily unwholesome; but the cheapness of this homely delicacy, besides its sanative properties renders it peculiarly desirable for scantily furnished tables. It has been a "staple commodity" in my family for some years past, and with the exception of treacle, I find it the most useful aliment in "regulating the bowels" of my children;-you as a family man," sir, will excuse, nay, appreciate the observation, and all your readers who have "their quivers full of them," will not disdain the gratis prescription that shall supersede the guinea fee! Indeed, to the sparing use of butter, and a liberal indulgence in treacle and blackberry jam, I mainly attribute the extraordinary health of my young family. The prodigal use, or rather the abuse, of butter that pervades all classes, has often surprised me: the very cottage children, whose tattered apparel bespeaks abject poverty, I continually meet munching their "hunks" of bread, smeared with butter; how much should I rejoice to see, because I know its superiority in every respect, my favourite jam substituted! But cottage children are far from being objects of my compassion, for they live in the "country," which comprehensive word conveys delicious ideas of sun, fresh air, exercise, flowers, shady trees, and this wholesome fruit clustering about them, and inviting their chubby fingers at every healthful step. My pity is reserved for their forlorn little brethren, doomed to breathe the unwholesome atmosphere of crowded manufactories, and close narrow alleys in populous cities! What a luxury would a supper be twice a week, for instance, to the poor little "bottoms" in Spitalfields.t Who knows but they might re

If the berries be gathered in wet weather, an hour will not be too long a time to boil them.

+ I have heard of the distress among the weavers, and neaven forbid that I should speak lightly of their calamities -But eat they must, and eat they do; and

if reduced to bread, so called, butter, or cheese, is included; it is this I regret, for jam would be cheaper as well as more wholesome, and should be purchased at the shops as other articles of onsumption are.

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ceive their first taste for Shakspeare while being fed, like their great prototype in the "Midsummer Night's Dream," with blackberries! "Dewberries," which Titania ordered for the refreshment of her favourite, are so nearly allied to their glossy neighbours, that when the season is far advanced the two are not easily distinguished. Shakspeare, who knew every thing, was of course aware that the dewberry ripens earlier than the blackberry; namely, in the season for " apricots." It must be confessed that nothing but the associations that are connected with the elegant and romantic name dewberry," fit only for the mouth of a fairy to pronounce, could induce me to give a preference to the latter; they are not so numerous, nor consequently so useful. I own I am sanguine respecting the general introduction of blackberries into the London street cries. What an innovation they would cause! what a rural sight, and sound, and taste, and smell, would they introduce into that wilderness of houses! What a conjuring up of happy feelingsalmost as romantic as those that are inspired by "bilberries, ho!" When I resided in London, I recollect the wild, and exquisite, and undefinable sensations that were excited by the peculiar and un-city-like cry of these "whorts."* used to look out at the blue-frocked boys who sold them, with their heavy country faces; capacious "gabardines, that hinted of Caliban; round hats, that knew no touch of form; and unaccountable laced up boots; with as much astonishment, as if I had beheld and heard purveyors from the wilderness shouting "Manna!" which we all know is " angel's food !”

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I have taken up sadly too much of your time, sir, I feel assured. I intended but to name the method of making blackberry jam, to assure you of its salubrity, and to request you to recommend its general use:-and I have only now to request that you will not suffer the very imperfect manner in which I, who cannot write for the public eye, have handled the subject to deter you from doing it justice. I am, Sir, Yours respectfully,

I. J. T. P. S. It has just occurred to me to say, why should not grocers, confectioners,

As they are called, near the uncultivated moorland waste where they grow. Wortleterrey is the

correct name.

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