Page images
PDF
EPUB

It is not so very wonderful then, that, by some direction, his son Henry and his daughter Frances should have fallen upon this neighbourhood, for their abode. By the way too, we may mention that a direct descendant of Cromwell resides in "Our Town," who, while avowing all the liberal political attachments of his ancestors, exhibits them through the Christian feeling, and enlightened mind, of these better times. From careful research, we find that the religious tendencies of this place, toned and directed as they were by the peculiar notions of those protestants who, in Mary's reign fled to Geneva rendered them very likely to be betrayed into Cromwell's interests; and it is pretty certain, that Nonconformity dates its full establishment G. amongst us, from the Protectorate.

To be Continued,

ECONOMICAL HINTS TO COTTAGERS.
Concluded from Page 134.

As my wish, in all this, is to keep you as much as possible dependent only on your own labour and exertions for your support. I have endeavoured to recollect the most minute particular, which may be of service to you,-most truly and sincerely should I rejoice to see the same spirit of independence revive again amongst the Cottagers of England, which, when I left the north, was so predominant a feature in that class of people. I shall conclude these long remarks with an event which happened to a worthy old man 'who often worked for me, and which I think deserves to be recorded.

He was a stone mason, which, in that part of the country, is a very good business. He had brought up a family very respectably, but they, having families of their own, could not contribute much to the support of their aged parents, who made use of all their feeble efforts to support themselves, he by his toiling as long as he was able at his employment, and she labouring at her wheel.-Sickness, at length, overtook him; and after suffering a great deal, he was most reluctantly compelled to apply to the parish for relief, an act which his high spirit could not brook the idea of, but which was most readily promised him from his known character. He was however obliged to go about two miles in a cart to attend the meeting; he bore the journey very well, and stood to receive his money, when just as it was put into his hand, his feelings overpowered him, and he dropped down dead!!! Poor honest Joseph Nixon, long may you be remembered! and may a tear arise in every independent eye at your most sensitive end. His was spirit becoming every English Peasant, and till this revives, this otherwise favour'd country will never flourish as it has once done. Cherish it therefore, as much as in you lies; labour night and day rather than submit to apply to your parish while you have health and strength, keep your independence of its bounty,-so will you be happy here and eternally blessed hereafter !

THE BISHOP AND HIS BIRDS.

A worthy Bishop, who died lately at Ratisbon, had for his arms two fieldfares, with the motto " Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? "This strange coat of arms had often excited attention, and many persons had wished to know its origin, as it was generally reported that the bishop had chosen it for himself, and that it bore reference to some event in his early life. One day an intimate friend, with whom he was taking his morning's walk, asked him its meaning, and the bishop replied by relating the following story :

Fifty or sixty years ago, a little boy resided at a village near Dillengen, on the banks of the Danube. His parents were very poor, and, almost as soon as the boy could walk, he was sent into the woods to pick up sticks for fuel. When he grew older, his father taught him to pick juniper berries, and carry them to a neighbouring distiller, who wanted them for making hollands. Day by day the poor boy went to his task, and on his road he passed by the open windows of the village school, where he saw the schoolmaster teaching a number of boys of about the same age as himself. He looked at these boys with feelings of almost envy, so earnestly did he long to be among them. He thought it was in vain to ask his father to send him to school, for he knew his parents had no money to pay the schoolmaster; and he often passed the whole day thinking, while he was gathering his juniper berries, what he could possibly do to please the schoolmaster, in the hope of getting some lessons. One day, when he was walking sadly along, he saw two of the boys belonging to the school trying to set a bird-trap, and he asked one what it was for? The boy told him that the schoolmaster was very fond of fieldfares, and that they were setting the trap to catch some. This delighted the poor boy, for he recollected that he had often seen a great number of these birds in the juniper wood, where they came to eat the berries, and he had no doubt but he could catch some.

The next day the little boy borrowed an old basket of his mother, and when he went to the wood he had the great delight to catch two fieldfares. He put them in the basket, and, tying an old handkerchief over it, he took them to the schoolmaster's house. Just as he arrived at the door, he saw the two little boys who had been setting the trap, and with some alarm he asked them if they had caught any birds. They answered in the negative; and the boy, his heart beating with joy, gained admittance into the schoolmaster's presence. In a few words he told how he had seen the boys setting the trap, and how he had caught the birds, to bring them as a present to the master.

"A present, my good boy!" cried the schoolmaster; "you do not look as if you could afford to make presents. Tell me your price, and I will pay you, and thank you besides."

"I would rather give them to you, sir, if you please," said the boy.

The schoolmaster looked at the boy as he stood before him, with bare head and feet, and ragged trowsers that reached only half-way down his naked legs. "You are a very singular boy!" said he; "but if you will not take money, you must tell me what I can do for you: as I cannot accept your present without doing something for it in return. Is there anything I can do for you?" "Oh, yes!" said the boy, trembling with delight;

should like better than anything else."

[ocr errors]

you can do for me what I

"What is that?" asked the schoolmaster, smiling. "Teach me to read," cried the boy, falling on his knees; "oh dear, kind sir, teach me to read."

The schoolmaster complied. The boy came to him all his leisure hours, and learnt so rapidly, that the sohoolmaster recommended him to a Nobleman who resided in the neighbourhood. This gentlemen, who was as noble in his mind as in his birth, patronised the poor boy, and sent him to school at Ratisbon. The boy profited by his opportunities, and when he rose, as he soon did, to wealth and honours, he adopted two fieldfares as his arms."

"What do you mean?" cried the bishop's friend.

"I mean," returned the bishop, with a smile, "that the poor boy was MYSELF."

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

"See then that ye walk circumspectly," says the Apostle St. Paul, "not as fools but as wise, Redeeming the Time," saving and obtaining all the time you can for the best purposes, for the health of the soul, and also, the health of the body, rescuing every fleeting moment from the hands of sin and sloth, ease and pleasure; and that the more diligently, because we read "the days are evil."

Redeeming the time from sleep, is, we fear, little considered even by those amongst us who are most eminent for piety and virtue. Numbers have been very conscientious in other respects, in attending diligently upon the duties and ordinances of religion, both in public and private, but have not been so in this, they do not look upon it as forming an important branch of Christian self-denial, and seem to think it a matter of total indifference whether they sleep more or less, whether they rise at six o'clock in the morning, or at nine.

But let us consider, what it is to redeem the time from sleep.

It is briefly and simply this,-to take just that measure of sleep which nature requires, and no more; that measure which is most conducive to the health and vigour both of body and mind.

Now, we affirm, that one measure will not suit all, neither will the same measure suffice even the same persons at one time as at another. Whoever therefore, they are, that attempt to find one measure of sleep for all persons, do not understand the nature of the human body, so widely different in different persons, as neither do they, who imagine, that the same measure will suit even the same person at all times.

If a person be ill, or weakened by preceding sickness, he wants more sleep and rest than he does when in perfect health, and so he will when his strength has been exhausted by long continued labour.

I knew a young man, a Student at one of the Universities, who was absolutely persuaded, and who would listen to no argument in favour of a contrary opinion, that no one living need to sleep more than four hours and a half out of twenty-four. I know another young man, about the same age as the former, who in a letter to me, writes thus: "I cannot, under any circumstances, do with less than seven hours sleep, after being behind the counter all day, and nine hours if I have to undergo any extra fatigue.

Now I think that the joint testimony of these two persons, tends very much to favour the point we contend for, viz: that one measure will not suit all, neither will the same measure suffice the person at one time as at another. We have one affirming, and absolutely contending that four hours and a half rest are quite sufficient for any one, and the other stating that he cannot do without seven hours sleep under ordinary circumstances, and nine when he has laboured longer in the day. For my own part, I am fully convinced from personal observation, and experience, that whatever may be done by extraordinary persons, or in some extraordinary cases in which persons have gone on with little sleep for some months, the human body can scarcely continue in health and vigour with a less amount of sleep than six hours in the twenty-four.

If any one would desire to know the exact amount of sleep his constitution requires, he may easily do so by means of an alarum, which is now so cheap as to be within the grasp of every person, and so contriving it that it may wake him half No. 10.

12

an hour sooner every morning, beginning we will say from seven o'clock, (for not a moment later ought a healthy person to be in bed) let him spring up and begin to dress himself immediately, and, I had almost said not look back at his bed, for the temptation to lie down again is so great, especially in the dark and cold winter mornings, that it requires a fixed and determined resolution, replete with every good argument in favour of early rising, to combat with false and foolish reasoning on the comfort of enjoying "a little more sleep and a little more slumber."

But why should we be so exact? What harm is there in doing as our neighbours do? What occasion have we for being so very particular, so nice about an hour or two in the morning? Suppose we lie in bed from ten until eight or nine o'clock in the winter, and six or seven in summer, what harm is there in that?

"Do you really desire to know what harm there is in not redeeming all the time you can from sleep? Suppose in spending therein an hour a day more than nature requires? Why, first, it hurts your substance, it is throwing away six hours a week, which might turn to some temporal account. If you can do any work, you might earn something in that time, were it ever so small; and you have no need to throw even this away. If you do not want it yourself, give it to them that do; you know some of them that are not far off. If you are of no trade, still you may so employ your time that it will bring money, or money's worth to yourself or others." +

To be Continued,

[ocr errors]

THE CHANNEL ISLANDS.

THE wonder of the public is so frequently excited by some new invention, deemed hitherto supernatural, at home, and is so entirely engrossed with the mightier affairs and interests of our own country, that but a very small degree of its attention is possessed by those little fertile spots, which deck the Channel, and which, though separated from the maternal island by an arm of the mighty Atlantic, still hold allegiance to her sovereign. Thinking, however, that a short description of Guernsey, the principal and characteristic of the whole, will not be without interest to those unacquainted with the history, mode of government, &c., of these interesting portions of our dominions, we submit the following :

Guernsey is supposed to have been discovered by the Romans (B.C. 17); it was then an uninhabited island, overrun with briers and brushwood; but through the instrumentality of a settlement formed by them, it gradually began to assume the appearance of a cultivated island. But little more is heard of it until the sixth century, when the introduction of Christianity by Sampson, Bishop of Doll, undoubtedly tended greatly to the enhancement of the social condition of the people, and to a great improvement in the appearance of the island. This man erected a chapel for Christian worship somewhere near that bay, which now, in commemoration of him, is called Sampson's Bay. In the tenth century the Danes, aware of the advantageous situation of the island, made several attempts to possess themselves of it, and in order to ward off their attacks, a castle was built at a place called the End of the Vale, which was used as a Monastery for the lay brotherhood, the hospitality and kindness of whom, Robert, Duke of Normandy, experienced, when adverse winds, and contending elements, shattered his fleet and drove it on the shore. He sojourned three months with the Abbot, and, as an acknowledgement of their benevolence, left engineers, and other artisans, who instructed the natives in the art of war, built mounds (some of which now remain) in order to enable them the more easily to detect the approach of a warlike incursion, and in time to take means of defence, and constructed many fortifications which added materially to the safety of the island.

Philip, King of France, in the time of King John, sent out a fleet against Guernsey, and though he had the advantage of coming upon them unexpectedly, he still found that his project was not so easily achieved, for, after a short engagement, he was obliged to put to sea again. But though this island was so successful against the invasion of a foreign power, it was doomed to fall a prey to the civil war between the parliamentarians and royalists; for, having embraced the side of the King, Oliver Cromwell, exasperated at its temerity, soon hove in front of Cornet Castle, with a fleet of armed men. But they had a little mistaken the nature of its defenders; for, added to the impregnable position of the castle (being built on a rock) it was well fortified with a garrison, who obstinately withstood his assault for fourteen days, but, at last, overcome by hunger, they capitulated on honourable terms. Guernsey resembles a triangle in shape; on its north side it is almost a plane, but descends with a gentle slope towards the south, which, by reason of narrow vales, and deep, romantic glens, presents a very charming prospect to the eye. It is intersected by streams, and rivulets; and its supply of wood, though not equal to that of Jersey, is still sufficient to add to the beauty of the scenery. Travelling is rendered rather inconvenient through the badness of the roads, there being but few good ones in the island: the best are those which lead from some of the parishes to St. Peter's Port.

Its climate is mild and healthy, and combines the more genial air of France, with the somewhat more fickle climate of England. Frosts are very seldom severe, or of long duration, and, on the whole, it is much warmer than many other lands in the same latitude. Although the soil is very productive, the cultivation of grain is not rendered so serviceable as it otherwise might be, on account of the minute division of the land. A man who holds twenty or thirty acres is considered a large farmer, while from six to twelve is the ordinary quantity attached to a farm. Peas and beans are the most plentiful, and though corn is grown, it is thought by some that it can be imported cheaper. Its productions comprise most of the useful vegetables and herbs of England, to which it unites the more delicious fruits of France. The fig-tree abounds and arrives at great perfection. Aloes are not uncommon; and many of those delicate plants which all the skill of the horticulturist in England will sometimes fail to rear, grow here in out-door luxuriance, without the aid of artificial means, and may very often be met with in a wild state. Although nature in the distribution of her favours has not furnished Guernsey with that useful substance coal, she has, in order to supply the deficiency, covered those rocks which surround the island with a sea-weed, called by the natives vraic, which, when dried, not only supplies the place of coal, but is useful for many other domestic purposes; and in the culture of the land is the principal manure used by them. There are two seasons set apart for the gathering or harvest of this weed, viz., March and July, and as the value of it is fully understood by the inhabitants, the days of gathering are ushered in by a general rejoicing, and both women and children assist the men in procuring it. As soon as morning dawns numbers of small vehicles, occupied by the workers, each equiped with a small instrument resembling a scythe, may be seen hastening towards the scene of action; and such is their anxiety to make the best of their time, that their impatience will scarcely await the preparing of the boats to carry them to the rocks, so that it is not an unfrequent sight to see cars floating, and horses swimming from all directions to the long-wished-for goal. After the day's labour is over, they turn to feasting and merriment, and their repast consists principally of vraicing cakes, made for the occasion, and at this important time the best cask of cider is tapped, The vraic, when cut, is spread on the coast to dry, and is then either stored for fuel, and other purposes, or sold. The islanders have a very singular, and no less economical method of spending their winter evenings, which originated probably in their poverty. Each house has its lit de ville, a square frame similar to that of a bed, which, covered with dry fur, or hay, forms a very comfortable seat, and is generally stowed in one corner of the room. Each in its turn is patronized by the youths and maidens of the neighbouring houses. Sitting close together around the frame, with a lamp in the centre, suspended from the ceiling, a very comfortable degree of warmth is thus imparted,

« PreviousContinue »