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A clergyman of the name of Gastrill, had made a purchase of certain property of lands and tenements, in and near the town of Stratford, the most vuluable part and parcel of which, in the estimation of all but this reckless priest, was the house, called New Place, which Shakspeare built, and in which he resided until his death. To this house was a garden, and in that garden stood a tree, which had been planted and cherished by the poet the mulberry-tree so congenially commemorated by Garrick and Arne. This ungracious son of the church occupied the house for his own dwelling, and although fully aware that this tree was held sacred by the whole town and neighbourhood, callous to all good neighbourly feeling, finding that it overshadowed a part of his house, one evil night, he ordered it to be cut down.

The first emotion excited by the discovery of this profanation was general astonishment;-this was succeeded by a general fury against the perpetrator, and the enraged populace surrounded the premises, and vowed vengeance against Gastrill and his family. He absconded in terror, and it was said, such was the resentment of the townspeople, that they resolved, not only to banish him, but that no one of his name should henceforth be allowed to dwell amongst them.

It is an ill wind that blows good to no one. This was verified in the future fortune of a carpenter in the town, who purchased the tree, divided it into parts of various dimensions, and had numberless articles of turnery and carving made out of them, and obtained considerable wealth by his trade in these universally sought relics, which were held by many almost sacred. It is asserted that there are ten or a dozen sculls at least, of the same holy saint to be seen at different convents in various parts of Spain, and it is supposed that as many mulberry trees, within the

last half century, have been converted into inkstands, tobacco-stoppers, and various turnery ware, all as veritably relics of this identical stump. One genuine fragment, however, is in the possession of Mr. Kean, which was presented, to the elder Angelo by Garrick, and given by his son to this living tragedian. It was purchased at Stratford at the time of the jubilee. Garrick had a chair, curiously carved, of the same wood, which was disposed of at the auction of Mrs. Garrick's effects.

The downfall of this tree was for a long time the common topie of conversation at the public dinners and club meetings at Stratford. The corporation having obtained a part of the trunk, it occurred to one of the members of the civic body, to have some device made thereof, as an offering to Garrick. A motion being made to that effect, it was unanimously carried, and the following letter was written to him by the steward, and a member was appointed to wait upon him accordingly : "SIR,

"The Corporation of Stratford, ever desirous of expressing their gratitude to all who do honour and justice to the memory of Shakspeare, and highly sensible that no person, in any age, has excelled you therein, would think themselves much honoured, if you would become one of their body. Though this body do not now send members to parliament, perhaps the inhabitants may not be the less virtuous; and to render the freedom of this place the more acceptable to you, the corporation propose to send it in a box made out of that very mulberry_tree planted by Shakspeare's own hand. The story of that tree is too long to be here inserted: but the gentleman who is so obliging as to convey this to you, will acquaint you herewith. As, also, the corporation would be happy in receiving from your hands, some statue, bust, or picture of Shakspeare, to be placed within their new town-hall. They would be equally pleased to have some picture of yourself, that the memory of both may be perpetuated together, in that place which gave him birth, and where he still lives in the mind of every inhabitant."

This complimentary epistle, from the townsmen of the great dramatic poet, went to the player's heart. He accepted the freedom with warmth, and the box which contained it with rapture; and, in return presented them with his whole length picture, painted by Mr. Robert Wilson, the father of the present member for Southwark, which was placed in the Town Hall, as was subsequently a statue of Shakspeare presented also by Garrick.

ILLUSTRATIONS OF HISTORY.

PAPER AND BOOKS.

For the Olio.

HAVING detailed some account of printing in our last, we this week follow with the attendants of that art, Paper and Books. And in endeavouring to give as correct an idea as possible of the origin of these highly essential articles in Europe, we find that the Romans used for their writings, the Papyrus of Egypt, a kind of rush attaining in its growth, the height of ten cubits, which from its cheapness was an article of general utility. But before the Greeks and Romans adopted this substitute for paper, they wrote upon plain wooden boards, called schedæ, or schedule and on such schedule was written in Hebrew, the Gospel of St. Matthew, which according to Baronius was found in the tomb of Barnabas, sometimes the written wood was overlaid with wax,bearing the name pugillares cerei, this mode being resorted to as a medium for the carrying on a secret correspondence. According to Pliny the custom of writing on boards may be looked on as coeval with the Trojan war. The ancient jurists gave to their writings the appellations, tabulis, ceris, and pugillaribus, the first of which implied a carefully written work, whilst the other terms denoted a careless manuscript or copy. The Romans for ordinary communication used tablets of wood covered with wax, if more than one, they were strung together at the corners, and conveyed to the person for whom they were intended by messengers.

The richest of the Romans used as paper, thin pieces of ivory called Libri Elephantini; and. Ulpian states that the principal transactions of great princes, were usually written with a black colour on ivory. These tablets, from their being so expensive, were wholly confined to the opulent. After the invention of the Egyptian paper, the Greeks and Romans continued still to use their tablets, and wax, though they were provided with a material far more convenient in the papyrus, and considerably cheaper, until time mastered their prejudices. But when the Saracens conquered Egypt in the seventh century, the communication between that country, and the people settled in Italy, or in other parts of Europe, was entirely broken off, thereby putting a fatal stop to their procuring the Egyptian writing material. In their necessity for a substitute for the article that they was deprived of by the Saracenic war, they resorted to the use of skins to write on, and from this circumstance we may date the invention of parchment, the price of which when it

came into general use, rose so extremely high that manuscripts written thereon were of the greatest value. This material was in use until the eleventh century, when the art of making paper from rags was discovered, nearly three centuries previous to the establishing of paper mills, which is said to have taken place in the fourteenth century, and soon after this, France, Genoa, and Holland, had almost the exclusive manufacture, and by these countries, it was imported into other Kingdoms and States. The first paper mill in England is said to have been established by a German of the name of Spiellman, at Dartford, in the year 1588, but till the year 1690, scarcely any good paper was made in this country, it having been previously imported from the countries of Europe above stated, many attempts have been tried to fabricate paper from other materials in the stead of rags, but as none have come into general use, it must be presumed that the old mode claims the precedence.

The

Having said thus much of paper we turn to books, the word book being ap plied as a general name to any literary composition, or that which forms a volume. The derivation of the name comes from the use of the finest part of the inner bark of trees, called liber, and from which originated the word Book, these barks when coiled up into a roll, were termed volumen, a volume. term book is also applied to the division of a volume, signifying a part of the whole. The most ancient known book in the world is the Pentateuch of Moses, and in profane literature the poems of Homer, though some place Hesiod's works before those of the father of Greek poetry. The works of Homer were painted in golden characters on the skins of animals. Many manuscripts of the eighth, ninth, and following centuries in existence on the continent are written on parchment, with part of the former manuscript erased, to make way for some new composition, to be substituted merely from the scarcity of writing materials in those days. And it is probable that this mode of procedure occasioned the destruction of several works of the ancients, a book of Livy, or Tacitus being erased to make room for the Legendary tale of a saint, or the superstitious prayer of a missal. Montfaucon affirms that the greater part of the manuscripts on parchment seen by him, had some former book erased. The number of manuscripts were small, previous to the eleventh cen❤ tury, when the means of increasing them were supplied. Many circumstances prove the scarcity of books during these ages.

Private persons seldom possessed any books whatever, even monasteries of note, had only one missal. It is said that Lupus, abbot of Ferrieres, in a letter to the Pope, A D. 855, beseeches him to lend him a copy of Cicero de Oratore, and Quintilian's Institutions, "for," says he, although we have part of those books, there is no complete copy of them in all France."

The price of books was so high, that persons of moderate fortune could not purchase them. A countess of Anjou paid for a copy of the Homilies of Haimon, Bishop of Halberstadt,two hundred sheep, five quarters of wheat, and the same quantity of rye and millet. And even so late as the year 1471, when Lewis the eleventh of France borrowed the works of Rasis, the Arabian physician, from the faculty of medicine in Paris, he was obliged to deposit in pledge a quantity of plate, and procure a nobleman to join with him as a surety in a deed, binding himself under great forfeiture to restore it. When any person made a present of a book to a church or monastery, in which were the only libraries during these ages, it was deemed a gift of such value that he offered it on the altar, pro remedio animæ suæ, in order to obtain the forgiveness of his sins. In the reign of Henry the sixth, Caxton, the first promulgator of books in England, established a press at Oxford; but the University press being discovered to be so remote from the seat of Government, and too great a distance from any sea-port, other presses were established at St. Albans and the Abbey of Westminster; in the latter place Caxton printed his first book, the game of Chess. His next performance was the "Dictes and Sayenges of the Philosophers, translated out of French, by Antone erle Ryvyres, Lord Seerles, emprynted by Wyllyam Caxton at Westmestre, 1477." Having brought our account down to the production of the first books in England, we shall here close this article on the subject, as most of our readers are aware that the present improved stage in the art of constructing books is the result of experience gained by many men through succeeding ages.

J.R.J.

CUSTOMS OF VARIOUS COUNTRIES-No. V.

WHIPPING THE APPLE TREES.
For the Olio.

In the parish of Warlington in Surrey, the following custom existed a few years since, it referred to the rites performed in honour of Pomona.

Early in the Spring the boys go round to the several orchards in the parish, and

whip the apple-trees, in order to procure a plentiful crop of fruit, and after having done it, they carry a bag to the house, when it is usual for the owner of the trees, or orchards, to reward them with a gift of meal, they then depart to perform the same ceremony at the next orchard, or premises where there is apple trees.

THE TOWN OF MONTGOMERY.

AT this place our forefathers observed a practice towards scolds and lewd women, to prevent the many evils that arose in the town from their strifes, fightings, defamations,&c. and the many other disturbances such as shoutings and bawlings which they might commit. It is as follows, when they are taken, they are immediately adjudged to the goging stode, (which goging stode answers to the cucking or ducking stool resorted to in early times, at the punishment of scolds when they were ducked in thewater for their shrewish propensities,) there to stand with naked feet, with their hair hanging dishevelled, for as long a time as would enable them to be seen by persons passing that way, according to the will of the chief bailiffs. J. O

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as it used to be observed. But a more modern writer having given the details of this religious rite as she witnessed it in 1820, we give it in her words. "The ceremony takes place in the beautiful chapel of the Quirinal, where the Pope himself officiates, and blesses, and distributes with his own hands, a candle to every person in the body of the church; each going individually, and kneeling at the throne to receive it. The ceremony commences with the cardinals, then follow the bishops, prelati canons, priors, abbots, priests, &c. down to the sacristans and the meanest officers of the church. When the last of these has gotten his candle, the poor conservatori, the representative of the Roman Senate and people, receive theirs.

This ceremony over, the candles are lighted, the pope is mounted in his chair and carried in procession, with hymns chaunting, round the anti-chapel: the throne is stripped of its hangings, the pope and cardinals take off their gold and crimson dresses, put on their ordinary robes, and the usual mass of the morning is sung. The Benediction of the Candles takes place in all the parish churches.— Lady Morgan's Italy.

the name of chyme. This chyme passes gradually into the intestinal canal, where by a certain action of the bowels, and the agency of the bile, the juices of the pancreas or sweetbread, and perhaps other means yet undiscovered, it is separated into two distinct substances; one a liquid matter, similar to milk in appearance, called chyle, and a solid matter of greater consistence, which is protruded along the canal, and gradually thrown out of the body as excrementitious. The chyle is absorbed by the lacteals passing into the thoracic duct, from which it is conveyed into the left subclavian vein, mixes with the blood, and is gradually conveyed into that important liquid. The blood circulates through the whole body, and furnishes materials to all the organs to supply their waste, and continue their functions; from it too all the different liquids of the body are secreted. Thus digestion serves to increase the quantity of blood, from which, as from a storehouse, every thing necessary for the supply of the animal is drawn.

Science and Art.

ICE IN INDIA.

THE method adopted by the Indians to obtain ice, about the latitude of the Tropic of Cancer or further north, is very ingenious. In India it hardly ever freezes naturally. They dig pits in the ground above two feet deep, which they line with dried sugar canes or Indian corn. On this they place very shallow dishes made of unglazed and very porous earthen ware, and filled with soft water, that has been boiled. They are deposited in the evening, and in consequence of the evaporation from the outside of the dishes, a considerable portion of the water is found frozen next morning. The ice is collected before sunrise, and rammed into a cellar underground, and lined with straw, where in consequence of its own accumulated cold it freezes into a solid

mass.

DIGESTION.

THE Compound action of digestion in man and the larger animals, is by many but imperfectly understood. The food is taken into the mouth, where it is masticated and mixed with the saliva; it is then swallowed and conveyed into the stomach, where it remains till it becomes converted into a kind of pulp, known by

Anecdotiana.

EFEECTS OF A ROMAN PROCLAMATION.

THE following anecdote is recorded in history. Titus Quintus Flaminirus, the Roman General, after having defeated Philip, King of Macedon, caused a proclamation to be made at the Isthmic games, where universal Greece was assembled, that all the Greek cities which had been subject to the Macedonian yoke, should thenceforward be free and independent, and exempt from tribute. On the annunciation of such joyous and unexpected tidings, so loud a shout of exultation was raised by the countless multitude around, that some birds which happened to be flying over the scene were stunned with the noise, and fell stupified to the ground.

EPIGRAM. For the Olio. TASTE.

"Taste," cries the Artist-"Taste!" the Glutton cries,

Taste lives in all mortality's desires;
Yet taste is useless when we lack supplies,

For want of taste, the starving inan expires.
P.

GOLDEN NOTES.

It is related of one of the French Kings, that on being told the people made free with his character in their songs, he answered, "It would be very hard if they were not allowed to sing for their money.'

ANGELO THE FENCING MASTER.

AT an interview, that took place between his late Majesty George the Third, and the highly talented President of the Royal Academy, the late Benjamin West, when he was commissioned to paint the picture of the Battle of the Boyne, the king persuaded him to make a study of the elder Angelo, the celebrated horseman and fencing-master, for the equestrian figure of King William, for that well known composition; saying, "few paint ers place the figure properly upon the horse, and Angelo is the finest horseman in the world." Mr. West adapted..

and Mr. Angelo sat for the figure accordingly, upon his own horse,

Monarch.

It is a curious coincidence, but through a fortuitous circumstance, the same person sat to the sculptor as a model for the equestrian statue of King William now standing in Merrion Square, Dublin.Angelo Reminis.

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RATS AT RIO JANEIRO.

THE City of Rio Janeiro and its environs, are infested by these disagreeable vermin to such a surprising extent, that, at meal times, is not at all uncommon to see them sporting round the room, nor do the canine race take any heed of them, as they may be often seen feeding off the same heap of garbage. The dental powers of these rats are very great, even to such an extent, that a thick clumsy door of hard wood is often perforated by them in a single night.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.

When Queen Elizabeth, in her progress through the Kingdom, stopped at Covenaddressed her Majesty in rhyme, in the try, the Mayor attended by the Aldermen, following words :

We men of Coventry,
Are very glad to see,
Your Royal Majestie,

Good Lord, how fair you be!

To which her Majesty was pleased to return the following gracious answer :

My royal Majesty,
Is very glad to see,
Ye Men of Coventry,

Good Lord, what fools ye be!

LORD ERSKINE AND DR. PARR. THESE two worthies were considered, even by their personal friends, to be the vainest men of the age. The Doctor once said to the Ex-chancellor in one of their social meetings, Erskine, I mean to write your epitaph when you die." Lord Erskine replied, "Doctor, it is almost a temptation to commit suicide."

FEBRUARY.

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Is the second month of the year, and was so placed in the calender by Numa, who was chosen by the people of Rome to succeed Romulus as their King. This month was considered by the Romans as under the protection of Neptune, who had dominion over the waters. Numa Pompilius called this month Februarius, because of the God Februus, who presided over the purifications, or because of Juno surnamed Februa, for in this month, the Lupercalia was celebrated in honour of her, when the women were purified by the priests of Pan Lycæus, who were called Lupercals. During this month, the Romans held their feast called Terminalia, in honour of Terminus the god of Bounds. They also held their feast Equiria in the Campus Martius, which was solemnized with a horse-racing. This month is also said to have derived its name from the Feralia, sacrifices that were offered to appease the manes of the Gods. Our Saxon Ancestors called February Sprout Kele, by Kele meaning KeleWurt, known as cole-wurt, or the kale of the cabbage tribe, which was considered as the greatest pot herb then used, and given as a wholesome sustenance to Husbandmen. The Romans, when they were without practitioners in medicine, had so good an opinion of this herb, that they caused large quantities to be planted for its medicinal properties, as a remedy against sickness. It has been observed by a modern writer, that if this month was not the precursor of Spring, it would be the least pleasant season of the year, November not excepted, from the thaws taking place, attended with a mixture of cold and damp. Pisces or the fishes, is the Zodiacal Sign for this *month. J. R.J.

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