wife: Could you let me have a basin of your nice milk?' As he sipped it up, he would keep repeating: O how good, how rich! Have you any eggs?' 'No, sir, but I can easily get some.' 'How do they sell now?' 'Eighteen for sixpence, sir.' "Then that will be three for a penny. Will you get me three?' The eggs were procured, and he had two boiled very hard, and began to eat them, asking for another basin of milk. The third egg he put in his pocket for his breakfast next morning. Sometimes he used to take out of his pocket some sandwiches or bread and butter, and ask leave to place them in a cupboard. Having deposited them there, he would examine if they were safe every time he returned to the house after an absence of even half an hour. His Sundays he often spent in walking over the farm with his tenant, who, by Mr Neild's desire, used to carry a pickaxe for examining the quality of the soil at different places. He used to investigate very minutely the nature of his land, and the manner of its cultivation, and keep an account of the number of trees on his estates. He has been known to walk from twelve to fifteen miles to a small portion of his property, and, after counting over the few trees on it, to return the same distance, with no other apparent object for his journey. An idea of Mr Neild's extreme caution in purchasing land, may be gathered from the following extracts from his letters: 'Lot 3 is described as "exceedingly rich grazing-land." Does the tenant stock it with oxen or with Cows-and if with oxen, are they large or small beasts or does he dairy the land, and feed one half and mow the other half?.... I have never seen the close. . . . but I feel assured that if Mr had an idea that I was desirous of purchasing it, he would put such a price upon it as to render all treaty for it nugatory; and therefore, until I can see my way a little more in the matter than I do at present, and until the mortgagees shall feel themselves under an absolute necessity of selling the estate, which they have a power to do, what I have here written should not be suffered to transpire, but be kept within ourselves.... Six hundred pounds for little more than nine acres of land, and of land, perhaps, not of first-rate quality, and subject to a corn-rent of in lieu of tithes, is a long price; and the offer, suppose you feel inclined to make it, can only at first be of a conditional nature, for I must see the close (although you need not tell Mr so) before anything can be con cluded.' Some misers have occasional feasts, though, like angels' visits, short and far between. Such was the case with Mr Neild. Having some business with a clergyman (perhaps to his own advantage), he invited him to dine with him at an inn where he was staying in Buckinghamshire. On this occasion, he was both courteous and hospitable, having provided for their dinner a leg of lamb, a tart, cheese, beer, and a bottle of sherry. He also once invited another clergyman, with two or three other persons connected with his property, to dine with him at an inn in another Buckinghamshire town, and provided for the occasion quite a generous entertainment. But when the same clergymen applied to him for some charitable assistance for their parishes, to one he gave a very uncourteous refusal, and to the other he sent the following characteristic letter: JOHN CAMDEN NEILD. 'CHELSEA, April 24, 1852. REV. AND DEAR SIR-When you last saw me, I was very infirm, and that infirmity has been increasing ever since, and still is upon the increase, until I am at last arrived at almost the last stage of decrepitude. I am confined to my bedroom, and cannot stir from my chair, except in exquisite pain. Without the summer shall work, I may say, on me a mira culous change, I do not expect ever to be at again. All that is wanting at, and, indeed, in all parishes purely agricultural, is a Sunday-school. Mr P- tried to establish a daily school there, but did not succeed. I don't know that you are aware brings about with it a heavy pecuniary burden upon that where a daily school is established, it generally the clergyman; subscriptions, although ample at first, yearly fall off, are badly paid, and by degrees discontinued, until the whole charge, or nearly so, falls upon the minister; and then the school is necessarily discontinued. Such has been the fate of many of the parish schools in Bucks; and such, very recently, of one in Kent, the rector of the parish declining, on account of the charge upon him (as by letters he informs me), to superintend it any longer. I do not see any one except upon business of a most 'You may suppose that, in the state in which I am, urgent nature.-Your most obedient servant, J. CAMDEN NEILD.' Mr Neild's ordinary answer to all applications for charitable contributions was a refusal; but in some few instances it was otherwise. He once, but only once, gave a pound for the Sunday-school at North Marston; he contributed £5 or £10 towards building a school at Aton Clinton, Bucks; he sent £50 subscriber to the London Asylum for the Blind; to the Culham Training College; he was an annual infirmary for Buckinghamshire, but withheld it and he promised £300 towards the building of an from an objection to the site. Thus it appears that tion of the character which we see displayed in Dancer, Mr Neild, as a miser, did not quite reach the perfecElwes, and other examples of this deplorable kind in various obituary notices, that his mind had no of eccentricity. Neither was it true of him, as said intellectuality-that nature had no beauty or endearspecimen of humanity.' Mr Neild, in reality, possessed ments for him-that he was a frigid, spiritless considerable knowledge of legal and general literasubject of money, he retained to the last a love for ture; and, despite his narrow-mindedness on the the ancient classics, and enjoyed poetical pathos and elegant phraseology, both in ancient and modern authors. So late as the year 1849, the writer of this notice received from him a letter containing a fully evincing his knowledge of the language, and Latin inscription, with his own comments on it, his taste for refined and elegant diction, and even the well-chosen words used to express it. Although poing out the exquisite tenderness of one idea, and he might not duly appreciate works of art or the charms, nor altogether devoid of a certain regard beauties of nature, yet he was not blind to their there is reason to believe it is, presents a pleasing for them. There is one anecdote which, if true, as contrast to his general character. It is said that, finding the son of one of his tenants an exceedingly clever boy, he persuaded his father to bring him up self, either wholly or in part, the expenses of his for one of the learned professions, and paid himschool and college education. That boy is now a distinguished scholar, and a dignitary in the Church of England. In February 1850, Mr Neild became subject to a very painful disorder, from which he suffered more or less to the end of his life. After that event, among those who were aware of his wealth, his will necessarily came to light, and great was the sensation which it occasioned. After bequeathing a few trifling legacies to different persons, he left the whole of his vast property, estimated at £500,000, to Her Most Gracious Majesty, Queen Victoria, begging Her Majesty's most gracious acceptance of the same, for her sole use and benefit, and her heirs, &c.' The executors were the Keeper of the Privy Purse, for the time being; Dr Henry Tattam, archdeacon of Bedford; and Mr Stevens, of Willesborough; to each of whom he bequeathed £100. He was buried, on 16th September, according to his own desire, in the chancel of North Marston Church-in that very chancel which he had so elaborately repaired with strips of calico. His will had excited such curiosity that, though his life had passed almost unnoticed, a large concourse of persons assembled at Chelsea to witness the removal of his body, and the church and churchyard at North Marston were crowded with wondering-not lamenting-spectators. Among them were many of his tenants, of his workmen, and of the poor of the parish in which he possessed so much property; but not a tear was shed, not a regret uttered, as his body was committed to its last resting-place. He had done nothing to excite their gratitude, to win their sympathy, or to lay them under the slightest obligation. His property had passed into other hands, and they felt it was almost impossible they could suffer by the change. The only remark heard was: 'Poor creature! had he known so much would have been spent on his funeral, he would have come down here to die to save the expense !' Two caveats were entered against his will, but subsequently withdrawn, and the Queen was left to take undisputed possession of his property. She immediately increased Mr Neild's bequest to his executors to £1000 each; she provided for his old housekeeper, for whom he had made no provision, though she had lived with him twenty-six years; and she secured an annuity on Mrs Neal, who had frustrated Mr Neild's attempt at suicide. Her Majesty has since, in 1855, thoroughly and judiciously restored the chancel of North Marston Church, and inserted an east window of beautifully stained glass, beneath which is a reredos sculptured in Caen stone, and bearing this inscription: "This Reredos, and the stained-glass window above it, were erected by Her Majesty Victoria (D. G. B. R. F.D.) in the eighteenth year of her reign, in memory of John Camden Neild, Esq., of this parish, who died August 30, 1852, aged 72. The chancel, which was built by the offerings made at the shrine of Sir John Schorne, a sainted rector of the parish in the thirteenth century, is a fine specimen of the perpendicular style, at its best period. It contains sedilia, piscina, niches, &c.-all richly ornamented with elaborate sculpture, so that now, with these all carefully restored, and the addition of its elegant memorial-window, there is perhaps not a more handsome chancel to be found in any village church. The rest of the church, however, is of an earlier and a plainer style of architecture. AUGUST 31. JOHN BUNYAN. St Aidan or Aedan, bishop of Lindisfarne, confessor, 651. St Cuthburge, queen of Northumbria, virgin and abbess, beginning of 8th century. St Raymund Nonnatus, confessor, 1240. St Isabel, virgin, 1270. Born.-Caius Cæsar Caligula, Roman emperor, 12 A. D., Antium. Died.-Henry V., king of England, 1422, Vincennes, near Paris; Etienne Pasquier, French jurist and his torian, 1615, Paris; John Bunyan, author of the Pilgrim's Progress, 1688, Snowhill, London; Dr William Borlase, antiquary, 1772, Ludgran, Cornwall; F. A. Danican (Phillidor), noted for his skill in chess-playing, 1795; Dr James Currie, biographer of Burns, 1805, Sidmouth; Admiral Sir John Thomas Duckworth, 1817, Devonport. JOHN BUNYAN. Everybody has heard of his birth at Elstow, about a mile from Bedford, in 1628; that he was bred a tinker; that his childhood was afflicted with remorse and dreams of fiends flying away with him; that, as he grew up, he 'danced, rang church-bells, played at tip-cat, and read Sir Bevis of Southampton, for which he suffered many stings of conscience; that his indulgence in profanity was such, that a woman of loose character told him he was the ungodliest fellow for swearing she had ever heard in all her life,' and that 'he made her tremble to hear him;' that he entered the Parliamentary army, and served against the king in the decisive campaign of 1645; that, after terrible mental conflicts, he became converted, a Baptist, and a preacher; that at the Restoration in 1660 he was cast into Bedford jail, where, with intervals of precarious liberty, he remained for twelve years, refusing to be set at large on the condition of silence, with the brave answer: If you let me out to-day, I'll preach again to-morrow;' that, on his release, the fame of his writings, and his ability as a speaker, drew about him large audiences in London and elsewhere, and that, a few months before the Revolution of 1688, he caught a fever in consequence of a long ride from Reading in the rain, and died at the house of his friend, Mr Strudwick, a grocer at the sign of the Star, on Snowhill, London. Bunyan was buried in Bunhill Fields, called by Southey, the Campo Santo of the Dissenters.' There sleep Dr John Owen and Dr Thomas Goodwin, Cromwell's preachers; George Fox, the Quaker; Daniel Defoe, Dr Isaac Watts, Susannah Wesley, the mother of the Wesleys; Ritson, the antiquary; William Blake, the visionary poet and painter; Thomas Stothard, and a host of others of greater or lesser fame in their separate sects. A monument, with a recumbent statue of Bunyan, was erected over his grave in 1862. It is a significant fact,' observes Macaulay, 'that, till a recent period, all the numerous editions of the Pilgrim's Progress were evidently meant for the cottage and the servants' hall. The paper, the printing, the plates were of the meanest description. In general, when the educated minority differs [with the uneducated majority] about the merit of a book, the opinion of the educated minority finally prevails. The Pilgrim's Progress is perhaps the only book about which, after the lapse of a hundred years, the educated minority has come over to the opinion of the common people.' The literary history of the Pilgrim's Progress is indeed remarkable. It attained quick popularity. The first edition was 'Printed for Nath. Ponder, at the Peacock in the Poultry, 1678,' and before the year closed a second edition was called for. In the four following years it was reprinted six times. The eighth edition, which contains the last improvements made by the author, was published in 1682, the ninth in 1684, the tenth in 1685. In Scotland and the colonies, it was even more popular than in England. Bunyan tells that in New England his dream was the daily subject of conversation of thousands, and was thought worthy to appear in the most superb binding. It had numerous admirers, too, in Holland and among the Huguenots in France. Envy started the rumour that Bunyan did not, or could not have written the book, to which, with scorn to tell a lie,' he answered: 'It came from mine own heart, so to my head, Manner and matter too was all mine own, was limited to those who read for religious edification and made no pretence to critical tastes. When the literati spoke of the book, it was usually with contempt. Swift observes in his Letter to a Young Divine: 'I have been better entertained and more informed by a few pages in the Pilgrim's Progress than by a long disCourse upon the will and intellect, and simple and complex ideas;' but we apprehend the remark was designed rather to depreciate metaphysics than to exalt Bunyan. Young, of the Night Thoughts, coupled Bunyan's with prose JOHN BUNYAN. D'Urfey's doggerel, and in the Spiritual Quixote the adventures of Christian are classed with those of Jack the Giant Killer and John Hickathrift. But the most curious evidence of the rank assigned to Bunyan in the eighteenth century appears in Cowper's couplet, written so late as 1782: 'I name thee not, lest so despised a name Should move a sneer at thy deserved fame.' It was only with the growth of purer and more Catholic principles of criticism towards the close of the last century and the beginning of the present, that the popular verdict was affirmed and the Pilgrim's Progress registered among the choicest English classics. With almost every Christmas there now appears one or more editions of the Pilgrim, sumptuous in typography, paper, and binding, and illustrated by favourite artists. Ancient editions are sought for with eager rivalry by collectors; but, strange to say, only one perfect copy of the first edition of 1678 is known to be extant. Originally published for a shilling, it was bought, a few years ago, by Mr H. S. Holford, of Tetbury, in its old sheep-skin cover, for twenty guineas. It is probable that, if offered again for sale, it would fetch twice or thrice that sum. A curious anecdote of Bunyan appeared in the Morning Advertiser a few years ago. To pass away the gloomy hours in prison, Bunyan took a rail out of the stool belonging to his cell, and, with his knife, fashioned it into a flute. The keeper, hearing music, followed the sound to Bunyan's cell; but, while they were unlocking the door, the ingenious prisoner replaced the rail in the stool, so that the searchers were unable to solve the mystery; nor, during the remainder of Bunyan's residence in the jail, did they ever discover how the music had been produced. In an old account of Bedford, there is an equally good anecdote, to the effect that a Quaker called upon Bunyan in jail one day, with what he professed to be a message from the Lord. 'After searching for thee,' JOHN BUNYAN. THE BOOK OF DAYS. PHILLIDOR, THE CHESS-PLAYER. In an obscure part of the borough of Southwark | been erected a short while before the Revolution, -in Zoar Street, Gravel Lane-there is an old by a few earnest Protestant Christians, as a means dissenting meeting-house, now used as a carpenter's of counteracting a Catholic school which had been shop, which tradition affirms to have been occupied established in the neighbourhood under the auspices by John Bunyan for worship. It is known to have of James II. But Bunyan may have once or twice or occasionally preached in it during the year preceding his death. From respect for the name of the illustrious Nonconformist, we have had a view taken of the interior of the chapel in its present state. PHILLIDOR, THE CHESS-PLAYER. Phillidor is known, in the present day, not under his real name, but under one voluntarily assumed; and not for the studies to which he devoted most time and thought, but for a special and exceptional talent. François André Danican, born at Dreux, in France, in 1726, was in his youth one of the pages to Louis XIV., and was educated as a courtmusician. He composed a motet for the Royal Chapel at the early age of fifteen. Having by some means lost the sunshine of regal favour, he earned a living chiefly by teaching music, filling up vacant time as a music-copyist for the theatres and concerts, and occasionally as a composer. He composed music to Dryden's Alexander's Feast; in 1754, he composed a Lauda Jerusalem for the chapel at Versailles; in 1759, an operetta called Blaisé le Savetier; and then followed, in subsequent years, Le Maréchal-ferrant, Le Sorcier, Ernelinde, Persée, Themistoclée, Alceste, and many other operas-the whole of which are now forgotten. Danican, or-to give the name by which he was generally known-Phillidor, lives in fame through his chess-playing, not his music. When quite a young man, an intense love of chess seized him; and at one time he entertained a hope of adding to his income by exhibiting his chess-playing powers, and giving instructions in the game. With this view he visited Holland, Germany, and England. While in England, in 1749, he published his Analyse des Echecs a work which has taken its place among the classics of chess. During five or six years of residence in London, his remarkable play attracted much attention. Forty years passed over his head, marked by many vicissitudes as a chess-player as well as a composer, when the French Revolution drove him again to England, where he died on the 31st August 1795. The art of playing chess blindfold was one by which Phillidor greatly astonished his contemporaries, though he was not the first to do it. Buzecca, in 1266, played three games at once, looking at one board, but not at the other two; all three of his competitors were skilful players; and his winning of two games, and drawing a third, naturally excited much astonishment. Ruy Lopez, Mangiolini, Terone, Medrano, Leonardi da Cutis, Paoli Boi, Salvio, and others who lived between the thirteenth and the seventeenth centuries, were also able to play at chess without seeing the board. Father Sacchieri, who was professor of mathematics at Pavia early in the last century, could play three games at once against three players, without seeing any of the boards. Many of these exploits were not well known until recently; and, on that account, Phillidor was regarded as a prodigy. While yet a youth, he used to play imaginary games of chess as he lay awake in bed. His first real game of this kind he won of a French abbé. He afterwards became so skilful in this special knack, that he could play nearly as well without as with seeing the board, even when playing two games at once. Forty years of wear and tear did not deprive him of this faculty; for when in England, in 1783, he competed blindfold against three of the best players then living, Count Bruhl, Baron Maseres, and Mr Bowdler: winning two of the games and drawing the third. On another occasion he did the same thing, even giving the odds of 'the pawn and move' (as it is called) to one of his antagonists. What surprised the lookers-on most was, that Phillidor could keep up a lively conversation during these severe labours. Phillidor's achievement has been far outdone in recent years by Morphy, Paulsen, and Blackburne, in respect to the number of games played at once; but the lively Frenchman carried off the palm as a gossip and a player at the same time. DREAD OF SCOTCH COMPETITION: SCOTCH NON-TRADING LEAGUE AGAINST ENGLAND. On this day, in 1527, is dated the 'ordinary' of the corporation of weavers in Newcastle, in which, amongst other regulations, there is a strict one that no member should take a Scotsman to apprentice, or set any of that nation to work, under a penalty of forty shillings. To call a brother, 'Scot' or 'mansworn,' inferred a forfeit of 6s. 8d., without any forgiveness.'-Brand's Hist. of Newcastle. The superior ability of the Scottish nation, in the competitions of life, seems to have made an unusual impression on their Newcastle neighbours. To be serious-we can fortunately shew our freedom from national partiality by following up the above with an example of the like illiberality on the part of Scotland towards England. It consists of a sort of covenant entered into in the year 1752 by the drapers, mercers, milliners, &c., of Edinburgh, to cease dealing with commercial travellers from England-what were then called English Riders. Considering'-so runs the language of this document that the giving orders or commissions to English Riders (or clerks to English merchants), when they come to this city, tends greatly to the destruction of the wonted wholesale trade thereof, from which most of the towns in Scotland used to be furnished with goods, and that some of these English Riders not only enhances the said wholesale trade, but also corresponds with, and sells goods to private families and persons, at the same prices and rates as if to us in a wholesale way, and that their frequent journeys to this place are attended with high charges, which consequently must be laid on the cost of those goods we buy from them, and that we can be as well served in NON-TRADING LEAGUE AGAINST ENGLAND. goods by a written commission by post (as little or no regard is had by them to the patterns or colours of goods which we order them to send when they are here), therefore, and for the promoting of trade, we hereby voluntarily bind and oblige ourselves that, in no time coming, we shall give any personal order or commission for any goods we deal in to any English dealer, clerk, or rider whatever who shall come to Scotland. They add an obligation to have no dealings with any people in England who shall make a practice of coming themselves or sending clerks or riders into Scotland.' The penalty was to be two pounds two shillings for every breach of the obligations. This covenant was drawn out on a good sheet of vellum bearing a stamp, and which was to be duly registered, in order to give it validity at law against the obligants in case of infraction. It bears one hundred and fifty-four signatures, partly of men, generally in good and partly of women in bad holograph. It is endorsed, Resolution and Agreement of the Merchants of Edinburgh for Discouraging English Riders from Coming into Scotland. This strange covenant, as it appears to us, seems to have made some noise, for, several months after its date, the following paragraph regarding it appeared in an English newspaper: We hear from Scotland, that the trading people throughout that kingdom have agreed, by a general association, not to give any orders for the future to any English riders that may be sent among them by the English tradesmen. This resolution is owing to the unfair behaviour of the itinerants, whose constant practice it is to undermine and undersell each other, without procuring any benefit to the trading interest of the nation in general, by such behaviour; which, on the contrary, only tends to unsettle the course of business and destroy that connection and good understanding between people, who had better not deal together at all, than not do it with spirit and mutual confidence. It is said also that several towns in England have already copied this example.'-London Daily Advertiser, January 27, 1753. Amongst the male signatures are those of James Lindsay, Cleghorn and Livingston, David Inglis, Edward Caithness, Patrick Inglis, Hugh Hamilton, Adam Anderson, Murray and Lindsay, George Dunsmure, George Pitcairne, James Beveridge, Bertram and Williamson, Alexander Hepburn, Arbuthnott and Scott, James Stirling, Thomas Trotter, Jun., William Clapperton, Archibald Bowie, James Allan, William Burn, Nicol Swan, Archibald M'Coull, John Hope, Stuart and Wallace, Walter Hamilton, John Grieve, Oliver Tod. Several of these were wealthy citizens; some became magistrates. Amongst the female names are those of Katherine Ramsay and sisters, Peg Bowie, Betty Murray, others thus familiarly Christy Balfour, and many expressed. The Misses Ramsay were milliners of great business, who ultimately realised some wealth, and built a handsome suburban villa, in which to spend their latter days. 291 |