The Book Of Curiosities Part 65

PEEPING TOM OF COVENTRY.--The following are the particulars of the event which, it is said, gave birth to the above appellation.

The wife of Leofric, earl of Mercia, with her husband, founded a monastery, for an abbot and twenty-four Benedictine monks, at Coventry, in 1043; which was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, St. Peter, and St. Osburg.

Leofric and his Lady, who both died about the latter end of the reign of Edward the Confessor, were buried in the church of the abbey which they had founded. The former seems to have been the first lord of Coventry, and the latter its greatest benefactress, as will appear from the following extraordinary and indeed romantic tradition, which is not only firmly believed at Coventry, but is recorded by many of our own historians:--

The earl had granted the convent and city many valuable privileges; but the inhabitants having offended him, he imposed on them very heavy taxes; for the great lords to whom the town belonged, under the Anglo-Saxons, had those privileges, which cannot be exercised at present by any but the house of commons. The people complained grievously of the severity of the taxes, and applied to G.o.deva, the earl's lady, a woman of great piety and virtue, to intercede in their favour. She willingly complied with the request; but the earl remained inexorable! he told his lady, that were she to ride naked through the streets of the city, he would remit the tax; meaning, that no persuasion whatever should prevail with him, and thinking to silence her by the strange proposal: but she, sensibly touched by the distress of the city, generously accepted the terms. She therefore sent notice to the magistrates of the town, with the strictest orders that all doors and windows should be shut, and that no person should attempt to look out on pain of death. These precautions being taken, the lady rode through the city, covered only with her fine flowing locks. While riding in this manner through the streets, no one dared to look at her, except a poor tailor, who, as a punishment, it is said, for his violating the injunctions of the n.o.ble lady, which had been published with so pious and benevolent a design, was struck blind. This tailor has been ever since remembered by the name of Peeping Tom; and in memory of the event, his figure is still kept up in the window of the house, from whence, it is said, he gratified his curiosity. The lady having thus discharged her engagements, the earl performed his promise, and granted the city a charter, by which the inhabitants were exempted from all taxes. As a proof of this circ.u.mstance, in a window of Trinity church are the figures of the Earl and his Lady, and beneath the following inscription:--

"I, Luriche, for the love of thee, Doe set Coventre toll free."

To this day, the love of G.o.deva is annually commemorated on Friday in Trinity week, when a valiant fair one rides, not literally like the good countess, but in silk, closely fitted to her limbs, and of colour emulating her complexion. The figure of Peeping Tom, in the great street, is also new dressed on the occasion. Mr. O'Keefe has produced a musical entertainment on this subject, written with all the delicacy the subject would admit.

THE LONG ABSENT HUSBAND RETURNED: (From Dr. King's Anecdotes.)--"About the year 1706, I knew," said Dr. King, "one Mr. Howe, a sensible well-natured man, possessed of an estate of 700 or 800 per annum; he married a young lady of good family, in the west of England; her maiden name was Mallet; she was agreeable in her person and manners, and proved a very good wife.

Seven or eight years after they had been married, he arose one morning very early, and told his wife he was obliged to go to the Tower to transact some particular business: the same day, at noon, his wife received a note from him, in which he informed her that he was under the necessity of going to Holland, and should probably be absent three weeks or a month. He was absent from her seventeen years, during which time she never heard from him or of him. The evening before he returned, while she was at supper, and with some of her friends and relations, particularly one Dr. Rose, a physician, who had married her sister, a billet, without any name subscribed, was delivered to her, in which the writer requested the favour of her to give him a meeting the next evening, in the Birdcage-walk, in St. James's Park. When she had read the billet, she tossed it to Dr. Rose, and laughing, said, 'You see, brother, old as I am, I have got a gallant.' Rose, who perused the note with more attention, declared it to be Mr. Howe's hand-writing: this surprised all the company, and so much affected Mrs. Howe, that she fainted away; however, she soon recovered, when it was agreed that Dr. Rose and his wife, with the other gentlemen and ladies who were then at supper, should attend Mrs. Howe the next evening to the Birdcage-walk: they had not been there more than five or six minutes, when Mr. Howe came to them, and after saluting his friends, and embracing his wife, walked home with her, and they lived together in great harmony from that time to the day of his death. But the most curious part of my tale remains to be related.

"When Howe left his wife, they lived in a house in Jermyn-street, near St.

James's church; he went no farther than a little street in Westminster, where he took a room, for which he paid five or six s.h.i.+llings a week, and changing his name, and disguising himself by wearing a black wig, (for he was a fair man,) he remained in this habitation during the whole time of his absence! He had two children by his wife when he departed from her, who were both living at that time; but they both died young, in a few years after. However, during their lives, the second or third year after their father disappeared, Mrs. Howe was obliged to apply for an act of parliament, to procure a proper settlement of her husband's estate, and a provision for herself out of it, during his absence, as it was uncertain whether he was alive or dead; this act he suffered to be solicited and pa.s.sed, and enjoyed the pleasure of reading the progress of it in the votes, in a little coffee-house which he frequented, near his lodging.

"Upon quitting his house and family in the manner I have mentioned, Mrs.

Howe at first imagined, as she could not conceive any other cause for such an abrupt elopement, that he had contracted a large debt unknown to her, and by that means involved himself in difficulties which he could not easily surmount; and for some days she lived in continual apprehension of demands from creditors, or seizures, executions, &c. But nothing of this kind happened; on the contrary, he did not only leave his estate free and unenc.u.mbered, but he paid the bills of every tradesman with whom he had any dealings; and upon examining his papers, in due time after he was gone, proper receipts and discharges were found from all persons, whether tradesmen or others, with whom he had any manner of transactions or money concerns. Mrs. Howe, after the death of her children, thought proper to lessen her establishment of servants, and the expenses of her housekeeping: and therefore removed from her house in Jermyn-street, to a little house in Brewer-street, near Golden-square. Just over-against her lived one Salt, a corn-chandler. About ten years after Howe's abdication, he contrived to form an acquaintance with Salt, and was at length in such a degree of intimacy with him, that he usually dined with Salt once or twice a week. From the room in which they sat, it was not difficult to look into Mrs. Howe's dining-room, where she generally ate, and received her company; and Salt, who believed Howe to be a bachelor, frequently recommended Mrs. Howe as a suitable match. During the last seven years of this gentleman's absence, he went every Sunday to St. James's church, and used to sit in Mr. Salt's seat, where he had a view of his wife, but could not be easily seen by her. After he returned home, he never would confess, even to his most intimate friends, what was the real cause of such a singular conduct: apparently there was none; but whatever there was, he was certainly ashamed to own it.

"Dr. Rose has often said to me, that he believed his brother Howe would never[23] have returned to his wife, if the money which he took with him, which was supposed to have been 1000 or 2000, had not been all spent: indeed, he must have been a good economist, and frugal in his manner of living, otherwise his money would scarcely have held out; for I imagine he had his whole fortune by him; I mean what he carried away with him in money and bank-bills: and he daily took out of his bag, like the Spaniard in Gil Blas, what was sufficient for his expenses."

A CURIOUS HISTORICAL FACT.--During the troubles in the reign of Charles I.

a country girl came to London, in search of a place as a servant maid; but not succeeding, she hired herself to carry out beer from a brewhouse, and was one of those called tub-women. The brewer, observing a good looking girl in this low occupation, took her into his family as a servant, and, after a short time, married her; but he died while she was yet a young woman, and left her the bulk of his fortune. The business of the brewery was dropped, and the young widow was recommended to Mr. Hyde, as a skilful lawyer to arrange her husband's affairs. Hyde, (who was afterwards the great Earl of Clarendon,) finding her fortune considerable, married her.

Of this marriage there was no other issue than a daughter, who was afterwards the wife of James II., and mother of Mary and Anne, queens of England.

The following is said to be THE MOST EXTRAORDINARY FACT ON RECORD.--In the appendix to the Rev. John Campbell's Travels in South Africa, is recorded one of the strangest occurrences in the moral annals of mankind. It will be recollected, that some years ago the Grosvenor, East Indiaman, was wrecked off the coast of Caffraria, (a district divided from the country of the Hottentots by the Great Fish River,) and that nearly the whole of the pa.s.sengers and crew perished on the occasion. It was, however, discovered, that two young ladies had survived the miseries of this dreadful event, and were resident in the interior of a country uninhabited by Europeans. Mr. Campbell does not relate this occurrence from personal evidence, but we cannot doubt the extraordinary fact.

The Landdrost of Graaf Ragrel had been deputed by the British government to pay a visit to the king of Caffraria, for the purpose of ascertaining whether there were any survivors from the wreck of the Grosvenor. Finding there were two females, he succeeded in procuring an introduction to them.

He saw them habited like Caffre women; their bodies were painted after the fas.h.i.+on of the native inhabitants; and their manners and appearance were altogether anti-European. The Landdrost, however, sought to obtain their confidence by a liberal offer of his best services to restore them to their country and friends. But they were unmoved by his solicitations.

They stated that they had fallen into the hands of the natives after they had been cast ash.o.r.e from the wreck; that their companions had been murdered, and that they had been compelled to give themselves in marriage; that having affectionate husbands, children, and grand-children, their attachments were bounded by their actual enjoyments. Upon being repeatedly urged to depart with the Landdrost, they replied, that probably at their return to England they might find themselves without connections or friends, and that their acquired habits ill fitted them to mingle with polished society; in short, that they would not quit Caffraria.

Such, then, is the powerful influence of habit! Two young ladies, highly educated, and in all probability lovely in their persons, are taught by habit to forget those scenes of gaiety they were so well calculated to ornament, and the antic.i.p.ated enjoyments of high matrimonial connections; to forget their parents, their relations, the accomplished companions of their youth, and all the refinements of life! Among a savage people, they acquire congenial feelings, and their vitiated nature ceases to repine: they love the untutored husbands given to them by fate; they rear their children in the stupidity of Hottentot faith; they designate their wretched hovel with the sacred name of Home; they expel memory from their occupations; and regret no longer mingles with their routine of barbarous pleasures. Is this, in reality, a picture of the human mind, with all its boasted attributes, its delicacies, its refinements, its civilized superiority? Yes! for custom is a second nature.

This fact is also related by Vaillant, in his Travels in the interior parts of Africa. He says, volume i. page 286, "I was told, almost six weeks prior to my visiting that coast, that an English vessel had been wrecked on these barbarous sh.o.r.es; that being driven on the sands, a part of the crew had fallen into the hands of the Caffres, who had put them all to death, except _a few women_, whom they had _cruelly reserved_."

UNFORTUNATE ARTIFICER.--There was an artificer in Rome, who made vessels of gla.s.s of so tenacious a temper, that they were as little liable to be broken as those that are made of gold and silver: when therefore he had made a vial of the purer sort, and such as he thought a present worthy of Caesar alone, he was admitted into the presence of their then Emperor Tiberius. The gift was praised, the skilful hand of the artist applauded, and the donation of the giver accepted. The artist, that he might enhance the wonder of the spectators, and promote himself yet further in the favour of the Emperor, desired the vial out of Caesar's hand, and threw it with such force against the floor, that the most solid metal would have received some damage or bruise thereby. Caesar was not only amazed, but affrighted with the act; but he, taking up the vial from the ground, (which was not broken, but only bruised together, as if the substance of the gla.s.s had put on the temperature of bra.s.s,) he drew out an instrument from his bosom, and beat it out to its former figure. This done, he imagined that he had conquered the world, as believing that he had merited an acquaintance with Caesar, and raised the admiration of all the beholders; but it fell out otherwise, for the Emperor inquired if any other person besides himself was privy to the like tempering of gla.s.s?

When he had told him, "No," he commanded his attendants to strike off his head, saying, "That should this artifice come once to be known, gold and silver would be of as little value as the dirt of the street." Long after this, viz. in 1610, we read, that amongst other rare presents, then sent from the Sophy of Persia to the king of Spain, were six mirrors of malleable gla.s.s, so exquisitely tempered that they could not be broken.

CHAP. LXXIX.

CURIOSITIES IN HISTORY, ETC.--(_Concluded._)

_Great Events from Little Causes--Dreadful Instances of the Plague, in Europe--Fire of London--Vicar of Bray--Curious Account of the Ceremonies at Queen Elizabeth's Dinner--A Blacksmith's Wife become a Queen--Swine's Concert._

GREAT EVENTS FROM LITTLE CAUSES.--The most important events sometimes take place from little and insignificant causes.

1. Sir Isaac Newton's sublime genius, set a-going by the fall of an apple, never stopped till it had explained the laws of nature.

2. Hospinian (who wrote so successfully against the Popish ceremonies) was first convinced of the necessity of such a work by the talk of an ignorant country landlord, who thought that religious fraternities were as old as the creation, that Adam was a monk, and that Eve was a nun.

3. Metius was led to the discovery of optic gla.s.ses, by observing some schoolboys play upon the ice, who made use of their copy-books, rolled up in the shape of tubes, to look at each other, to which they sometimes added pieces of ice at the end, to view distant objects.

4. Luther's quarrelling with Pope Leo. X. and bringing himself into difficult and dangerous circ.u.mstances, perhaps led him to search, think, and judge for himself, and consult the scriptures; by which he overthrew errors, which had been received as truths for ages.

5. To this we may add the marriage of Henry VIII. with Ann Boleyn, which was the occasion of England's renouncing the supremacy of the Pope, and of bringing about the Reformation.

6. "An apothecary's chariot (says one) very probably produced No. 45. of the North Briton, and its consequences the American war, the French revolution, and the dreadful events that have since taken place in Europe."

DREADFUL INSTANCES OF THE PLAGUE, IN EUROPE.--Thucydides, lib. ii. gives an account of a dreadful plague which happened in Athens about B. C. 430, and with which he was himself infected, while the Peloponnesians under the command of Archidamus wasted all her territory abroad; but of these two enemies the plague was by far the most severe. The most dreadful plague that ever raged at Rome, was in the reign of t.i.tus, A. D. 80. The emperor left no remedy unattempted to abate the malignity of the distemper, acting during its continuance like a father to his people. The same fatal disease raged in all the provinces of the Roman empire, in the reign of M.

Aurelius, A. D. 167, and was followed by a dreadful famine, earthquakes, inundations, and other calamities. About A. D. 430, the plague visited Britain, just after the Picts and Scots had made a formidable invasion of the southern part of the island. It raged with uncommon fury, and swept away most of those whom the sword and famine had spared, so that the living were scarcely sufficient to bury the dead. About A. D. 1348, the plague became almost general over Europe. Many authors give an account of this plague, which is said to have appeared first in the kingdom of Kathay, in 1346, and to have proceeded gradually west to Constantinople and Egypt. From Constantinople it pa.s.sed into Greece, Italy, France, and Africa, and by degrees along the coast of the ocean into Britain and Ireland, and afterwards into Germany, Hungary, Poland, Denmark, and the other northern kingdoms. According to Antonius, archbishop of Florence, the distemper carried off 60,000 people in that city. In 1656, the plague was brought from Sardinia to Naples, being introduced into the city by a transport with soldiers on board. It raged with excessive violence, carrying off, in less than six months, 400,000 of the inhabitants. In 1720, the city of Ma.r.s.eilles was visited with this destructive disease, brought in a s.h.i.+p from the Levant; and in seven months, during which time it continued, it carried off not less than 60,000 people. The ravages of this disease have been dreadful wherever it has made its appearance. On the first arrival of the Europeans at the island of Grand Canaria, it contained 14,000 fighting men; soon after which, two-thirds of these inhabitants fell a sacrifice to the plague. The destruction it has made in Turkey in Europe, and particularly in Constantinople, must be known to every reader; and its fatal effects have been particularly heightened there by that firm belief which prevails among the people of predestination, &c. It is generally brought into European Turkey from Egypt; where it is very frequent, especially at Grand Cairo. To give even a list of all the plagues which have desolated many flouris.h.i.+ng countries, would extend this article beyond all bounds, and minutely to describe them all is impossible. Respecting the plague which raged in Syria in 1760, we refer to the Abbe Mariti's Travels through Cyprus, Syria, and Palestine, volume i. pages 278, 296. This plague was one of the most malignant and fatal that Syria ever experienced; for it scarcely had made its appearance in any part of the body, before it carried off the patient.

Some particulars respecting THE GREAT FIRE OF LONDON.--The following is part of the inscription on the Monument, which records this calamitous event. "The second day of September, 1666, at the distance of two hundred and two feet, the height of this column, a terrible fire broke out about midnight. It consumed in its progress eighty-nine churches, the city gates, Guildhall, many public structures, hospitals, schools, libraries, a vast number of stately edifices, thirteen thousand two hundred dwelling-houses, and four hundred streets. The ruins of the city were four hundred and thirty-six acres, from the Tower by the Thames side to the Temple church, and from the north-east gate along the city wall, to Holborn bridge. Three days after, when this fatal fire had baffled all human counsels and endeavours, it stopped, as it were by a command from Heaven, and was on every side extinguished."

VICAR OF BRAY.--Every one has frequently heard this reverend son of the church mentioned; probably his name may have outlived the recollection of his pious manoeuvres: he was in his principles a SIXTUS THE FIFTH. The vicar of Bray, in Berks.h.i.+re, was a Papist under the reign of Henry the Eighth, and a Protestant under Edward the Sixth; he 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 for being a turn-coat 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 the Vicar of Bray!"

This vivacious and reverend hero has given birth to a proverb peculiar to his county, "The Vicar of Bray will be Vicar of Bray still." Fuller tells us, in his facetious chronicle of his Worthies, that this vicar had seen some martyrs burnt two miles off at Windsor, and found this fire too hot for his tender temper. He was one of those who, though they cannot turn the wind, will turn their mills, and set them so, that wheresoever it bloweth, their grist shall certainly be ground.

The following ACCOUNT OF THE CEREMONIES AT QUEEN ELIZABETH'S DINNER, deserves to be recorded.--A German traveller, (Hentzner) talking of Queen Elizabeth, thus describes the solemnity of her dinner. "While she was at prayers, we saw her table set out in the following solemn manner: a gentleman entered the room, bearing a rod, and along with him another who had a table-cloth, which, after they had both kneeled three times with the utmost veneration, he spread upon the table; and, after kneeling again, they both retired. Then came two others, one with the rod again, the other with a salt-cellar, a plate, and bread: when they had kneeled, as the others had done, and placed what was brought upon the table, they too retired with the same ceremonies performed by the first. At last came an unmarried lady, (we were told she was a countess,) and along with her a married one, bearing a lasting knife: the former, who was dressed in white silk, when she had prostrated herself three times in the most graceful manner, approached the table, and rubbed the plates with bread and salt, with as much care as if the queen had been present: when they had waited there a little while, the yeomen of the guard entered, bareheaded, clothed in scarlet, with a golden rose upon their backs, bringing in at each turn a course of twenty-four dishes, served in plate, most of it gilt; these dishes were received by a gentleman in the same order they were brought, and placed upon the table, while the lady-taster gave to each of the guards a mouthful to eat, of the particular dish he had brought, for fear of any poison. During the time that this guard, which consists of the tallest and stoutest men that could be found in all England, were bringing dinner, twelve trumpets and two kettledrums made the hall ring for half an hour together. At the end of this ceremonial, a number of unmarried ladies appeared, who, with particular solemnity, lifted the meat off the table, and conveyed it into the queen's inner and more private chamber, where, after she had chosen for herself, the rest went to the ladies of the court."

A BLACKSMITH'S WIFE BECOME A QUEEN.--It is a curious circ.u.mstance, that the present queen of the Sandwich islands, was formerly, or rather is at this time, the wife of a Russian blacksmith. An English vessel lying off what we usually call the Fox Island, several years ago, one of the officers became enamoured of the fair spouse of a son of Vulcan there; and, his pa.s.sion being returned, he contrived to smuggle her on board the vessel, and keep her there concealed without the knowledge of his captain, till they had cleared the port.

In the course of the voyage, however, the circ.u.mstance became known to the captain, who being highly enraged at such a breach of faith and discipline, kept her confined till they arrived at the Sandwich Islands, where she was put on sh.o.r.e. The forlorn Ariadne, however, found a Bacchus for her Theseus,--a royal lover, to replace her lost lieutenant. The king of the island became enamoured of the fair Russian, made her his wife, and raised her to his throne. He was no every-day king. He was a statesman and a hero, though we should call him a savage. He progressively created a respectable navy of several well-built frigates; taught his subjects to be excellent sailors; raised armies; subdued the surrounding islands; and at the close of a prosperous reign, left his possessions and his sovereignty to his queen, who now reigns as his successor. She is well obeyed by her subjects; possesses great wealth in flocks, herds, and rice-ground; and sends frequent presents to her former deserted husband, who still continues to hammer horses' shoes in a Russian colony, while his faithless, but it seems not quite ungrateful spouse, stretches her sceptre over several prosperous isles.

THE SWINE'S CONCERT.--The abbot of Baigne, a man of great wit, and who had the art of inventing new musical instruments, being in the service of Louis XI. king of France, was ordered by that prince to get him a concert of swine's voices, thinking it impossible. The abbot was not surprised, but asked money for the performance, which was immediately delivered him; and he wrought a thing as singular as ever was seen. For out of a great number of hogs, of several ages, which he got together, and placed under a tent or pavilion covered with velvet, before which he had a table of wood painted, with a certain number of keys, he made an organical instrument; and as he played upon the said keys, he, by means of little spikes, which p.r.i.c.ked the hogs, made them cry in such order and consonance, as highly delighted the king and all his company.

CHAP. Lx.x.x.

CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE.

_Origin of the Materials of Writing--Minute Writing--t.i.tles of Books--Literary Labour and Perseverance--Curious Account of the Scarcity of Books--Celebrated Libraries--Book of Blunders--Curious Account of the Means of Intellectual Improvement in London._