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the early Christians, and sealed with the blood of the martyrs, degenerated into a spurious devotion, until nothing remained of its divine origin but the empty show of pompous entertainments.

The Cross indeed may have its utility in the mind, but only as a memento of the Redeemer's sufferings and death; to bow down to it is a superstitious vanity, irreconcileable with the spirituality of Christian worship. Caldicot, Monmouthshire, June 8. W. L.

LANDS OF THE LORDS OF THE ISLES.

DUNTILM Castle in the Isle of Skye, the ancient stronghold of the Macdonalds, Lords of the Isles, built upon a high and rocky point, was in former ages surrounded in part by the sea, and by means of a ditch or moat, which in times when gunpowder was unknown, was thus rendered impregnable: its ruins yet remain.

The illustrious family of the Macdonalds then located themselves on the estate of Kilmuir, at the north end of the island of Skye, and resided there for centuries before the erection of the modern and elegant castle of Armadale. The estate of Kilmuir, constituting the most valuable portion of what remained of the almost list-regal possessions of the once all-powerful Lords of the Isles, was sold in the Parliament House, Edinburgh, on May 30, to Captain Fraser of Kilduckie, at the upset price of 80,0007.

THE paths across the moorlands in old Cornwall, are said to have been first traced by angels' feet; they were then trodden by the Pilgrim as he paced the path towards his votive bourne; or by the Palmer, whose less footsteps had neither fixed kebla, nor future abode. Dimly visible by the darker hue of the worn grass, these strait and narrow roads led the traveller along from hermitage to chapelry or cave; or turned aside to greet some legendary spring, until at last the winding way stood still upon the shore where St. Michael of the Mount rebuked the dragon beside the Severn Sea. But what was the wanderer's guide along the wide wild surface of the Cornish moor? The wayside Cross! From mound to mound, from rifted rock to lofty hill, there stood in solemn stone, the trophy of old Syria, to be the soothing signal of the solitude, the welcome beacon of the wayfarer's eye. It was a frequent vow among the former men to make pilgrimage to the shrine of St.

Michael

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CLEVER. Another usage of this word has currency in this locality among those who speak English. The word is used adverbially, and applied to anything done well or in a skilful manner. Thus, sheep in good order, are said to be clever; and if a future improvement is pointed out, the remark is instantly-it will look clever! Llangollen, June 5.

G.

In the churchyard of Kilmuir are buried the remains of the celebrated Flora Macdonald and several other members of the Kingsburgh family, which entertained and sheltered the unfortunate Charles Edward Stuart, when a fugitive after the disaster of Culloden.

EARLY CAREER OF THE LATE JOSEPH HUME, M.P. THE distinction achieved by the late Joseph Hume has been attributed to an incident said to have occurred in his boyhood, which was first promulgated in the Christian Penny Magazine.

The history of the celebrated Joseph Hume is curious. His mother considerably more than half a century ago, sold crockery at a stall. A very rich young peer, in a drunken frolic, upset her stock and smashed it. Lord Panmure was his name. She claimed and received damages," and now, my good woman," said he, "is there any thing else I can do for you?" She replied-she had a son, a sharp little fellow, whom she wished to receive a better education than she could give him. The peer being pleased with the boy sent him to an excellent school. The boy, in Parliament will have contributed to upset and smash the crockery of privilege more than any other Englishman.

In the Morning Herald, this circumstance met with a partial refutation, in these words.—

This anecdote is founded on fact, but not correctly told. The Hon. William Maule, some thirty or forty years before he was created Lord Panmure, professed to believe in the power of Animal Magnetism, as the modern Mesmerism was termed some sixty or seventy years ago; it was, howQUERIES.-Are there any particulars extant of emi-ever, not in a drunken frolic that he broke the crockery, grants from Flanders and from Ireland to England the fifteenth century?

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Are there any lists of Henry, Duke of Richmond's adherents, engaged with him in the conflict at Bosworth field, in August, 1485?

Where are Edmondson, Mowbray Herald's Manuscripts deposited?

Rotherham, June 14.

F. W. H. Edmondson died Feb. 17, 1786: his library and manuscripts were dispersed by sale in 1788.-ED.

but in frolic, and to astonish the weak minds of his com

panions at the inn of Montrose, that he induced the widow Hume herself, under the supposed influence of a mesmerising or magnetic process conducted by Mr. Maule, to break the crockery in her own shop. The sequel is, we believe, correctly told.

In England, the press has an all pervading power and incidents like these impress themselves on the comprehension of most minds, becoming in fact household words, and when based in error, are difficult to amend or rectify. The statements here recited, are wholly in

accurate; in reference to either Lord Panmure or Joseph Hume, it is wholly a fiction, and had no reality. The starting point in the life of such a man as Joseph Hume, who will ever be entitled to the consideration of being one of the most meritorious individuals of his day, should be accurately told, and Hume was wholly unknown to Lord Panmure, till after his appearance in Parliament. The facts connected with the breaking of the crockery are now given on the relation of an intimate friend of the late Lord Panmure, who witnessed the frolic, and was aware of all the circumstances connected with that affair.

SWALLOWS TAKEN BY ARTIFICIAL FLIES.

A LITTLE incident occurred a few days since, which though not strictly suited to the character of your Current Notes, is notwithstanding worthy of being noticed.

A friend, who lives in the neighbourhood of Llanrwst, was out fishing with Peter Hughes, the fisherman of that place. While so employed, he heard Peter, who him, found that a swallow had taken the fly, and as they was a few yards above him, call out, and on going to were winding up the line to release it, a sparrow-hawk made a swoop to seize the swallow, who by struggling free, but so narrowly that the point fly caught the hawk by the foot, and he was secured. stream that flows by Chirk, my fly, an exceedingly Last year, while fishing in the Ceiriog, a small neat one, made by John Shaw of Shrewsbury, was taken by a swallow; by exercising some care I set him free with very little injury; but I have never heard of anything like the former incident. Llangollen, June 5.

In one of the years 1794, 5, or 6, during the race week at Montrose, several of the young gentlemen land-got owners of the neighbourhood, including the Lord Panmure, then the Hon. William Ramsay Maule, laid a bet of ten pounds with the late Archibald Scott, of Duninald, that he would not in open day, break a certain quantity of crockery at the Cross of Montrose. He accepted the bet, and on the day appointed, in front of the Town Hall, a temporary scaffold was raised and loaded with all sorts of articles in crockery ware. Mr. Scott, at the hour required, mounted the rostrum, and to the no small amusement and surprise of the bystanders, began in good earnest to break and destroy the fragile materials which were set about and before him.

Thus it is shewn that Mr. Maule was not the sole actor in this matter, nor was it perpetrated in the necromantic style implied in the preceding paragraphs, which are calculated to mislead and create a generally very erroneous impression, from the names of the parties therein asserted to have been implicated; and the effect of this crockery breaking affair, as the late Lord Panmure used to remark, was, Mr. Scott was so abashed and so ashamed of his foolish exhibition, that from that time he almost wholly withdrew himself from society.

The maiden name of Joseph Hume's mother was Mary Allan, and it is quite true that she kept a crockery shop in Montrose, to which she added the sale of toys, groceries, and other little requirements; she further endeavoured to eke out a scanty existence by letting lodgings. Her shop was opposite to a place called the Shorebrae, in Montrose, and her husband commanded small vessel in the Newcastle trade, which probably led to her dealing in crockery.

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SEALED LETTERS.--Observing, in a collection of old papers, the wax seals were interwoven with unwrought silk, may I ask at what period the practice became general? W. M.

Diss, June 8.

Garnier, in his Histoire de France, quoted in the Esprit des Journeaux, April 1782, states, Charles the Fifth, when indisposed with the gout, "s'efforcoit d'ouvrier la lettre de Henri, mais comme elle etoit enlacée avec de fils de soie, ses doights couvert de nodus et presque perclus ne pouvoit les rompre."

Shakespeare, in his Lover's Complaint, alludes to the

custom:

Letters sadly penn'd in blood,

With sleided silk, feat and affectedly
Enswath'd and seal'd to curious secrecy.

been transmitted from Christina, Queen of Sweden, to our
Charles the Second. In fact, the practice continued among
the upper ranks of society in England during the reign of
King William the Third.

Sir John Cullum describes a letter so secured, that had

COINAGE. The Mint return, recently issued, shows that during 1854, the gold coinage amounted to 4,152,1837., of which 562,5721. was in half sovereigns. The silver coinage amounted to 140,480l., of which 55,0417. was in florins. The copper coined amounted to 61,5381.

Whether Mrs. Hume supplied the articles for Mr. A. Scott's exhibition, and thus created some supposition in connection with the origin of the tradition is not known, but whoever did so, the claim was discharged at the time; and supposing the farce to have occurred in 1794, Joseph Hume was then seventeen years old; to his INQUIRER will doubtless find specimens of the Swedish mother's industry he was indebted for his education, and Copper Money in the British Museum, but the editor he was then passing midway through his studies at would willingly shew him his own varieties, and refer college. It is believed, that it was through the influence him to others of the larger representative pieces, as also of David Scott, then an East India Director and Mem- the one Daler Swedish Mint Tokens, derisively desigber for Forfarshire, Joseph Hume obtained his appoint-nated Baron Gortz's Gods,' the issue of which, to aid ment in the Company's service, to which he did so much honour.

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King Charles the Twelfth, was one of the charges of treason made against that minister. The history of these pieces has yet to be written.

No. LV.]

WILLIS'S CURRENT NOTES.

"Takes note of what is done

By note, to give and to receive."-SHAKESPEARE.

[JULY, 1855.

SONG IN DISPRAISE OF WOMEN.

From a Manuscript, time of King Henry VII.

THES wemen all,
Both great and small,
They wander to and fro;
Nowe here, now there,
They wot not where,

But J will not say so!

They rune, they range,
Theyr myndes do change,
They mak theyr frends yr foe;
At louers trewe,
Gidy days and newe,
But J will not say so!
Wythin their brest,
Theyr loue doth rest,

Who lyst to pue shall know;
For all ther bost,

All day almost,

But J will not say so!

Now whot, now colde
Ther ys no holde,
But as the wynd doth blowe;
When all is done,
Change like the moon,
But J will not say so!

They loue, they leyue,
They will deceiue,

As dyse that meyn do throwe;

Who vsyth them myche,
Shall neuer be ryche,
But J will not say so!

Gyue thys, gyue that,
All thyngs they lacke,
And all you may bestowe;
Ones ought of syghte,
Farewell, good nyght,
But J will not say so!

Thus one and other,

Takyth after the mother,

As cockes by kynd do crowe;
My song ys endyd,

The best maye be amended,
But J will not say so!

The Harl. MS. 7578, has a version of this ballad, which Ritson has printed, see Ancient Songs, 1790,

p. 134.

* The word 'and' is indicated by an imperfectly formed "and per se," shewing the then use of that character.

VOL. V.

ROYAL THEATRICALS AT HAMPTON COURT.

INDUCED by the beauty and cheapness of the late Mr. John Kemble Chapman's History of Theatrical Entertainments at Court, more particularly those performed before Her Majesty at Windsor Castle, in 1848–9, I became a purchaser, and found in it much to approve and commend. Considerable research is embodied in its well printed pages, and the numerous engravings with which it is embellished are entitled to the highest praise: it is altogether a pleasingly interesting volume.

During the reigns of Elizabeth, James the First, and Charles the First, there were Court representations of Theatrical performances at Hampton Court; but at p. 31, it is stated "William the Third had no taste for the drama, nor have we any record of dramatic entertainments at Court until four plays were performed at St. James's before Queen Anne in 1704. That George the First, who spoke no English, and was past the learning of it, early in 1718, ordered the Great Hall at Hampton Court Palace to be fitted up as a theatre, where plays were to have been acted twice a week during the summer season, by way of propitiating public opinion in the encouragement of the drama; but the month of September was more than half passed before the arrangements were completed, and seven plays were all that were represented before the Court returned to London."

Colley Cibber, who in his Apology states many interesting particulars of these performances, notices that subsequently but one play was given at Hampton Court by King George the Second, for the entertainment of the Duke of Lorraine; and from that period till the present reign, it is certain no theatrical representations have graced the festivities of the Regal Court of England.

These observations are preludial to the purport of an unpublished letter by the late WILLIAM CAPON, formerly a scene painter of no mean notoriety at Drury Lane and Covent Garden Theatres. Written in 1821, it appears to have reference to some Dutch print of a theatrical performance in William the Third's reign, most probably in Holland, but supposed to have been a graphic illustration in his time of the Royal Theatre at Hampton Court. It commences:

"In the summer of 1783, I was for the first time at Hampton Court Palace. In the great Hall built by Cardinal Wolsey, there was then remaining a Theatre, with some scenery, an orchestra, etc., which was called King William the Third's Theatre. The whole was very dirty and shabby in appearance, and to the best of my recollection, might have been about eighteen or twenty feet wide from the first wing on the one side, to

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the opposite wing on the other, and about the same in depth from the front of the stage to the last scene at the back. There were, I think, four pairs of wings, some scenes on rollers, and hanging borders, but much torn, and very dirty.

"The painted decorations which were exposed to the eye, were to the best of my recollection very like to those shewn in this print; they were at least of a similar style of architecture.

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The stage was raised about four or five feet above the floor of the hall. In this print, the Lion shewn on the breast of the guardsman on the left hand, are the arms of Holland; on the breast of the one, on the right, are the arms of Zealand; but whether these are intended to show some of King William's Dutch bodyguard, I know not. We may suppose some dramatie representation is proceeding by the appearance of the persons on the stage, but there is a vastness of size of the whole when compared with the human figures, which does not correspond with the size of the theatre which I remember in the hall of Hampton Court Palace; and reckoning the human figures as shewn in the print, at six feet, the wings (if wings they are intended to represent,) are about eighteen feet high from the feet of the first men on each side, to the top of the cornice, from the crown moulding, of which the arched borders vault; again, the disposition of each side is so different to the usual arrangement of a theatre, that I am at a loss to conclude what the artist has really intended to shew. If each side is one continued plane standing parallel to the other, as far as to the distant range of figures, which evidently are purposely in shadow in order to throw a strong light on the next distant plane, which is at a right angle with the sides, this disposition is quite contrary to all usuality of practice in stage arrangement, and is not a picture so dissected as is convenient to the exits and entrances of the performers, and required by the business of the stage, for here could be no entrance but from behind, otherwise than at the doors in the front on each side; nor was the disposition of the stage at Hampton Court in the manner here shewn,-the wings there in the usual manner stood parallel to the ground line, and to each other, to facilitate the entrances and exits of the performers from behind the scenes.

"In this very extraordinary and scarce print, there have been three plates employed to produce its present appearance. That which shews the stage to the foot of the figures standing on it, is of superior merit to the other representing a Proscenium vaulting over with a semi-elliptical arch; an orchestra, and pit and side boxes. By the inscription at the bottom, it was published at Amsterdam. The publisher's name appears, but not those of the artists, or date.

"The verses in Low Dutch at the foot of the print, are evidently from the marks, worked from a third plate.

"Colley Cibber in his Apology particularly describes the effects produced by an alteration that was made in Vanbrugh's theatre in the Haymarket, subsequently the Italian Opera House, shortly after it had been built

in 1706,-the throwing an arch from wall to wall, over the front of the stage.

66

There seems in this view taken altogether some such similarity as might induce a belief this print may possibly represent that theatre with the alterations mentioned by Cibber; and the shape of the orchestra is really very like to the brick foundations discovered by me, after the destruction of that theatre in June, 1789, when and during the following winter I made most accurate measurements and plans of the whole ruins, and perspective views, particularly from the north end, of its appearance after the fire.* I then saw distinctly former foundations of walls, which had been by the pit flooring wholly concealed from observation. "W. CAPON."

STERNE'S LE FEVRE.

THE following Memorandum from a Manuscript by the late Mr. Halpin of Portarlington, Queen's County, Ireland; in the possession of Dr. Hanlon, of that town, may possibly interest the readers of Current Notes.

The first master of the French school, at Portarlington, was Mr. Le Fevre, who kept boarders, a most worthy character, a friend and correspondent of Dr. Henry Maude, bishop of Meath, the original founder and promoter of the Protestant Charter Schools. From Le Fevre's school others were established, particularly for infant children, so that the town of Portarlington, for more than half a century has been celebrated for its schools, there being at present [1811] six reputable seminaries for the instruction of the youth of both sexes; three for males, and three for females, which conjointly contain three hundred children.

Le Fevre the protomaster's son bore a commission in the army, and was the identical Le Fevre of whom Sterne in his Tristram Shandy has drawn so good a picture. Dublin, July 6.

A. S.

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THE ASSUANLEE CUP.

COLLECTORS of rarities regard with particular attention the Cups or vessels which have been in the olden day owned by distinguished individuals, or have derived a special interest from their association with some memorable event. In this respect there are few can vie with the silver Cup now in the possession of Mrs. Alexander Gordon, only surviving child of the late Sir Ernest Gordon of Park and Cobairdy, and the history of its acquirement by Sir Ernest's father, is equally bordering on romance, with the manner in which it is said to have been originally obtained.

Mr. Jervise in his recently published History and Traditions of the Land of the Lindsays, has entered fully into the history of the transactions which in the reign of James the Second led to the rebellion of the adherents of Douglas and Crawford, caused by the ruthless act of that monarch stabbing Douglas to the heart, while under an invitation to supper in the Castle of Stirling, on the evening of Feb. 13, 1452; the particulars are thus related :

Douglas went thither on the faith of a safe-conduct under the Great Seal. After supper, His Majesty led Douglas to a side apartment, and remonstrating with him on his lawless intrigue, urged him to break the covenant which he then held with Crawford and Ross, with this demand Douglas, though unarmed and in the midst of foes, determinedly refused to comply, and the King then exclaiming with an oath-If you will not break this league, I shall!-struck him to the heart with a dagger. Sir Patrick Gray and others, who were secreted near the fatal chamber, then rushed on the Earl and finished this cold blooded act of royalty by throwing the carcase out at the window into the palace garden, which aperture has since been called "the Douglas window." This murder was the signal for open rebellion on the part of Earl Douglas's adherents-his brothers instigated by indignation and horror, proclaimed the King a liar and traitor at the gates of his palace, dragged ignominiously through the streets of Stirling at the tail of a horse, the Earl's safe-conduct, and afterwards

set the town on fire.

The battle of Brechin that followed, was fought at the Haercairn, about two miles north-east of the city, on May 18, 1452, when the Earl's party, from circumstances detailed by the historian, were discomfited, and one of the royalists, a son of Donald, the Thane of Cawdor, becoming intermingled with the routed rebels, and unable to extricate himself, went onward with them to Finhaven Castle, where, while quaffing "the blood red wine," the Earl and his followers were aroused by an alarm of the advance of the king's forces under Huntley, and in the confusion consequent on preparing for defence, Calder had opportunity to carry off the silver drinking cup, which on his returning, he presented to his chief as evidence of his having bearded the Tiger" in his den, and as a reward received an augmentation to his patrimony of Assuanlee, or favours of a like kind.

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There are doubts as to Calder's braggart fame; personally he appears to have previously evinced so little

courage, that he had been branded and stigmatised as a coward, and according to another account it is intimated, that he had stolen in disguise to the Earl's camp as a spy, yet all agree, that

A silver cup he from the table bore. However obtained, the cup remained in the Assuanlee family till about the middle of the last century, when, as related by Mr. Jervise, the following incident occurred.

Some years after the 'fortyfive,' a party of gentlemen, Jacobites, and all more or less under the ban of Government, ventured to hold a meeting at

a small hostelry in Morayshire, between Elgin and Forres. In the course of their sederunt, one of their number, Gordon of Cobairdy, rose up to mend the fire, and in doing so saw something at the bottom of the peat-bunker, or box for holding the peats, which seemed to glitter. He fished the object out, and found that it was a large and handsome old cup, but flattened. On enquiry it turned out, this was the celebrated Cup of Assuanlee, that had been pledged in security for a debt to the inn-keeper, by the Laird, a drinking spendthrift. Cobairdy, a man of considerable taste, and a collector of rarities, never lost sight of the cup, till opportunity offered when he got it into his possession, though he and his family had to pay more than one sum of money which had been raised by Assuanlee on the security of his little-cared-for heirloom. Cobairdy had it perfectly restored to shape, and on the top or cover had the figure placed, the crest of his family, Gordon of Cobairdy. It has been erroneously stated the arms of the Earl of Crawford were upon it, but there are no arms.-On the lid, in characters apparently of the seventeenth century, is the following inscription

TITUBANTEM FIRMAVIT HUNTLEIUS,

BREICHEN, MAII 20 (or 28) 1453. Exclusive of the figure, the Gordon crest, the Cup Scottish pint and two gills. measures in height about fifteen inches, and holds a

by Lord Lindsay. The woodcut is from a drawing kindly communicated

INGLEDEW.-Can any reader of Current Notes give an account of the family or birth-place of Thomas Ingeldew, a clerk of the diocese of York, who in 1461 founded two Fellowships in Magdalen College, Oxford? Newcastle-upon-Tyne. ANGELTHEON.

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