Read the book: «The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 19, No. 553, June 23, 1832», page 3

MANNERS & CUSTOMS OF ALL NATIONS

ANCIENT PASTIMES

From early records it appears that the amusements of our ancestors had a direct tendency to utility; since nearly all their recreations were resolvable into public defence against the attacks of an enemy. The "play at ball was," says Fitz-Stephen, "derived from the Romans, and was the common exercise of every schoolboy." The intention of this game was to make the young men active, nimble, and vigourous, whenever they should be called upon to fight the battles of their country. The necessity of the above accomplishments must be obvious to all who are the least acquainted with their manner of fighting.

Another species of exercise was truly martial. It is related by Fitz-Stephen thus: "Every Friday in Lent a company of young men enter the field on horseback, conducted by the best horsemen. Then march forth the sons of citizens and other young men armed with lances and shields, and these practise feats of war, and show by good proof how serviceable they would be in martial affairs." This is evidently of Roman descent, and cannot fail of bringing to our recollection the "Ludus Trojae," which is supposed to be the invention, as it was the exercise, of Ascanius. The common people in that age of masculine manners made every kind of amusement, where strength was exerted, the subject of instruction and improvement.

In those vacant intervals of industry vulgarly entitled "holidays," indolence which characterizes the present period, was left to the aged or infirm. The writer whom we have before quoted says "The youths are exercised in the summer holidays in leaping, dancing, wrestling, casting the hammer, the stone, and in practising their shields; and in winter holidays the boars prepared for brawn are set to fight, or else in bull and bear baiting." Such we see were the pursuits to which our forefathers devoted their leisure time in or about the year 1130. Their immediate descendants breathed the same spirit. In 1222 certain masters, or professors as we should call them, made a public profession of their instruction and discipline, which they imparted to those who were desirous of making themselves perfect in the above honourable achievements, which we think they were, in spite of these enlightened times, or of the slow "march of intellect."

But of all the manly pastimes our ancestors delighted to honour, archery appears to have gained the greatest sway over the hearts of the multitude. It is stated that through the introduction of several "pernicious games," it had for a long time been disused, and in the 33rd year of the reign of Henry VIII. a statute was made for its revival; it then continued till the reign of Charles I. A faint trial to revive it has again been attempted, but we doubt its success.

James I., at the beginning of his reign, to gratify the people, published a book of sports, of which the women had some time before participated on Sunday evenings, but which had been prohibited. These sports consisted of dancing, ringing, wrestling, and other profanations of that day, and which had risen to such a height that the land would have been deluged with immorality, if Charles I. had not wisely shown his piety, by totally abolishing them; this he did as soon as he came to his throne. In this reign may be said to have ended all those games that taught Britons to defend their altars and their homes, and unhappily nothing has been since instituted to compensate for their loss. E.J.K.

ORIGIN OF THE ARTILLERY COMPANY

Stowe tells us—"About the year 1585, certain gallant, active, and forward citizens, having had experience abroad and at home, voluntarily exercised themselves, and trayned uppe others, for the readie use of warre, so as within two years, there was almost three hundredth marchants, and others of like quality, very sufficient and skillful to traine and teache common souldiers, the managing of their peeces, pikes, and holberds, to march countermarch, and ring; which said marchants, for their owne perfection in military affairs and discipline, met every Tuesday in the year, practising all usual points of warre, and every man by turn bare orderly office, from the Corporall to the Captain: some of them in the yeare 1588 had charge of men in the great Campo at Tilbury, and were generally called Captaines of the Artillery Garden."

After the defeat of the Spanish Armada, the association soon fell to decay. The ground they used was at the north extremity of the city, nigh Bishopsgate, and had before been occupied (says Ellis) by the "fraternity of artillery," or gunners of the Tower.

From the company's register, the only book they saved in the civil wars, it appears that the association was revived in the year 1611, by warrant from the privy council; and the volunteers soon amounted to six thousand. In the year 1640, they quitted their old field of discipline, and entered upon a plot of ground in Bunhill-fields, leased to them by the city.—(See Ellis's History of Shoreditch, and Nicholson's London Artillerie.)

In the thirteenth year of the reign of Henry VII. "All the gardens which had continued time out of mind without Moorgate: to wit, about and beyond the lordship of Fensberry (Finsbury) were destroyed: and of them was made plain field for archers to shoote in." This was the origin of what is now called the Artillery Ground. P.T.W.

HINDOO BURIAL SERVICE

During the funeral ceremony, in some parts of Hindostan, the Brahmins address the respective elements in words to the following purport:—

"O Earth! to thee we commend our brother; of thee he was formed, by thee he was sustained, and unto thee he now returns!

"O Fire! thou hadst a claim in our brother during his life; he subsisted by thy influence in nature, to thee we commit his body, thou emblem of purity, may his spirit be purified on entering a new state of existence!

"O Air! while the breath of life continued, our brother respired by thee; his last breath is now departed, to thee we yield him!

"O Water! thou didst contribute to the life of our brother, thou wert one of his sustaining elements. His remains are now dispersed, receive thy share of him, who has now taken an everlasting flight." SWAINE.

ORIGIN OF THE ACADEMY DELLA CRUSCA

Crusca is an Italian term, signifying bran, hence the name Academy della Crusca, or the Bran Academy, which was established at Florence, for purifying and perfecting the Tuscan language; it was formed in the year 1582, but scarcely heard of before the year 1584, when it became noted for a dispute between Tasso and several of its members. According to its origin, its device is a sieve, and its motto, Il piu bel fior ne coglie; that is, It gathers the finest flour thereof.

In the hall or apartment where the Academy meets, every thing bears allusion to the name and device: the seats are in the form of a baker's basket; their backs like a shovel for moving of corn; the cushions of grey satin in form of sacks, or wallets; and the branches, where the lights are placed, likewise resemble sacks. This Academy is now united with two others, viz. the Fiorentina, and the Apatisti, under the name of Reale Accademia Fiorentina.

P.T.W.

ANGLO-SAXON DRESS

(For the Mirror.)

"Among the ornaments," says Mr. Turner, "worn by the ladies, mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon documents, we read of a golden fly, beautifully adorned with gems; of golden vermiculated necklaces; of a bulla; of golden head-bands, and of a neck-cross. The ladies had also gowns; for a Bishop of Winchester sends us a present, 'a shot gown (gunna) sown in our manner.' Thus we find the mantle, the kirtle, and the gown mentioned by these names among the Saxons, and even the ornaments of cuffs. In the drawings of the manuscripts of these times, the women appear with a long, loose robe, reaching down to the ground, and large loose sleeves. Upon their head is a hood or veil, which falling down before, was wrapped round the neck and breast. All the ladies in the drawing having their necks, from the chin, closely wrapped in this manner, and in none of them is a fine waist attempted to be displayed, nor have their heads any other covering than their hoods."

W.G.C.

THE SELECTOR; AND LITERARY NOTICES OF NEW WORKS

ARLINGTON,

By the Author of "Granby,"

Is not the most striking novel of the season. This may by some readers be attributed to the absence of that dashing caricatura style and constant aiming at antitheses, which, if it relieve the vapidness of the story, does not add to its natural attractions. Nevertheless, there are pictures of life and manners in these volumes which have the easy and unconstrained air of an author who is not writing for mere effect, but for the purpose of "holding the mirror up to nature," and correcting the follies and vices of the age without attempting to exaggerate them.

We do not attempt to unravel the story of Arlington, but quote a few flying extracts. First is a

Scandal-loving Letter

from Sir Gerald Denbigh to Lady Ulverston, a lady distinguished by a congenial love of tracasserie, and a congenial idolization of social distinctions; an address which passed for cleverness; unimpeachable taste in self-adornment; and who was courted by the ball-going part of London as a dispenser of tickets for Almack's.

"Do you know you are paying us all a very undeserved compliment in being curious about our proceedings; and I will not turn the head of any one here, by imparting a syllable touching your inquiries. You ask what the party is composed of—a sign that you don't consume your invaluable time in spelling newspapers—for Berwick announces the accessions to his menagerie as diligently as Pidcock. Our last arrivals were those Polar bears, the Rochdales, with their pretty youngest daughter, who is surprisingly little, chilly and frozen for a creature that has always been living among icebergs. We are doomed to them for a week, Lord Rochdale having promised to stay so long; and he is one of those patterns of inconvenient precision, who, having once promised, will certainly pay the heavy debt of visitation to the uttermost minute. Arlington is here—brought expressly to play suitor, and looking affectingly conscious of his rôle. Berwick, I believe, has told him that he shall die of disappointment, or, what is as bad, shut up his house, if he quits them unaccepted. What an alternative for the poor youth—to be forced to marry at one-and-twenty, or deprive the world of the fortunate master of the best cook in Christendom.

"There is a strange heterogeneous medley here. Fancy, of all living creatures, the Bolsovers being brought hither to meet the Rochdales, whom they suit like point ruffles with a shooting-jacket. Either Berwick has acquired a taste for contrasts, or, in assorting his party, has overlooked every thing but the prospective match, and drawn the rest of the company by lot. His only other considerate arrangement is having Charles Theobald here to swain Lady Bolsover, and talk 'Turf' with her Lord. This is one of Berwick's 'good-natured things.' To do him justice, nobody knows better how to place chacun avec sa chacune; but it is a pity that in this case it contributes so little to the general amusement; for really Theobald's intense flirtation with Lady Bolsover, is the flattest piece of dull indecorum that ever met my virtuous eyes. They are dull, these people—keep him from quadrupeds, and Theobald is a cipher; and Lady B. has little more than the few ideas which she gets sent over with her dresses from Paris. I know it is mauvais ton to cry them down—but I cannot help it. My sincerity will ruin me some fine day.

"The Hartlands are here: he talks parliament, and she talks strong sense, and tells every body how to do every thing, and seems to say, like Madame de Sevigné's candid Frenchwoman, Il n'y a que moi qui ai toujours raison. To close the list, we have that good-looking puppy, young Leighton, an underbred youth, spoiled by premature immersion in a dandy regiment, who goes about saying the same things to every body, and labouring to reward the inconsiderate benevolence of you soft-hearted patronesses, by talking as if London lay packed in Willis's rooms, and nobody existed but on Wednesday nights. Forgive my impertinence; you know how, in my heart, I revere your oligarchy.

"You will wonder how I amuse myself in the midst of this curious specimen of a social Macedoine—quite well—and am acquiring a taste for that true epicurean apathy which one enjoys in perfection, among people whom one expects neither to interest, nor to be interested by; and I sit down among them as calmly comfortable as I can conceive a growing cabbage to be in wet weather. I hold my tongue and watch the chaos as gravely as I can, while Berwick labours to make the jarring elements of his party harmonize, and offends every one in turn by trying to talk to him in his own way. I observe this generally irritates people; nobody likes to be so well understood.