ist of Jllustrations

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PAGE Emblematic Vignette : July, 1 London Mug-house,

110 Scratch-backs,

238 Initial Letter : July, 1 Mug-house Riot,

111 Portrait: William Maginn, LL.D., 240

113 Antique Gem-the Dog Star, 5 Bloomer Costume,

Lady Mary Wortley 5 Rock of Gibraltar,

116 Walton's Initials,

Montagu,

242 St Winifred's Well, Flintshire, . 6 Fleet Marriages, 118 Initial Letter,

244 Medal struck to commemorate St James the Great,

121 Curious Vignette-Four Indian

122 8 Oyster-shell Day, the Battle of the Boyne,

Kings,

244 Equestrian Statue of William III., 9 Legend of St Christopher, . 123 House at Portsmouth in which Double Boat, 11 Portrait : Thomas Campbell,

129 the Duke of Buckingham was Robespierre,

134 Portrait : Dr Garencieres, the

assassinated,

254 Translator of Nostradamus, 12

Wilberforce,
140 Lady with a Pig's Head,

256 Initial Ilustration : Tir Federal,

15
Sir John Bolle,
143 Cloth-fair,

263
Swiss Peasants at the Tir Federal, 15 Gray's Window, St Peter's Col Lee and Harper's Booth, Bartho-
Hall of Prizes at the Tir Federal, 16 lege, Cambridge,

145 lomew Fair,

264 Portrait: Old Scarlett, the Peter Autograph : Ignatius Loyala, 148 Faux the Conjurer's Booth, 265 borough Sexton, 17 Emblematic Vignette : August, 150 The Mermaid,

266 Fairlop Oak, 22 Initial Letter: Augusta. 150 The Spotted Boy,

267 Portraits : Tho Old Hermit of Traitors' Gate, Old London Bridge, 158 Portrait : Chatterton,

268 Newton Burgoland' (two cuts), 27, 28 Tomb of William Rufus, Win Earl of March's Racing Carriage, 283 A Macaroni, 31 chester Cathedral,

161 Portrait and Autograph : John Burke's Dagger-scene in the Ancient Writing Materials (three Bunyan, .

289 House of Commons-Gillray's cuts),

163, 164 Bunyan's Meeting-house, Zoar

166 36 Portrait: Richard Arkwright, caricature,

290

Street, Southwark, Don Pantaleon Sa, 40 Powel's Puppet-show,

168 Emblematic Vignette: September, 292 Fashionable Lady of the 17th Curious Form of Signature, used Initial Letter: September,

292 century, :

42 by Christopher Columbus, . 171 | London, as it appeared from
Harling the Whetstone,
45 An English Pilgrim, .

176 Bankside, Southwark, during
the Great Fire,

302
Old Whetstone in British Museum, 45 Gateway of Walsingham Priory, 177
Couteau rodomont,
46 Gowrie House,

178 Church of All-Hallows Staining, 304 Female Head-dress of 1776, 47 Portrait and Autograph : Ben Great Winchester Street,

306 Silver Owl-Whistle, 50 Jonson,

182 Back-alley, St Bartholomew's, 307 Portrait: Richard Cromwell, 52 The Sea-serpent-from Pontop Dick Tarleton,

308
Marat,
55

185
pidan,

An Exchequer Tally,

310 Bear-garden, Bankside, Southwark, 57 Welsh Man's Inventory-Quaint Sea-bishop,

311 Destruction of the Bastile, 60 Vignette, 188 Sea-monk,

311 Prison of Man in Iron Mask,

61 English County Gentleman read. Golden Cross, worn by St Cuthbert, 312 'The Spaniards,' 1745, 71 ing the News, . 192 St Cuthbert's Beads,

313 A Bagnigge Wells Scene, 1780, . 72 Initial Illustration : St Lawrence, 196 | Amphitheatre: Stratford Jubilee, Sadler's Wells, 1745, 73 Portrait : Sir Charles James 1769,

318 White Conduit House, 1827, 73 Napier,

198 James Boswell, at the Stratford "The Dog and Duck,' 1780, 74 Greenwich Observatory,

200 Jubilee, 1769, .

319 La Pucelle, from her Monument Duel Scene at Gresham College, 203 Portrait : Patrick Cotter O'Brien, 326 at Orleans, 77 James I. in Hawking Costume, 212 Curfew,

333 Wayland Smith's Cave, . 83 Hawk's Bells, .

212 Portrait: Roger Crab,

334 Mass in the Campagna,

87
Lure,
213 Antique Bookbinding,

338 Kett, the Rebel, under the Oak Portrait: Joe Miller,

216 Ancient Books (two cuts),

339, 340 of Reformation, . 90 Joe Miller's Tombstone, St Cle Lunardi's Balloon,

346 Burns's Monument at Dumfries, 94 ment Danes Churchyard, 217 Pest-house in Tothill Fields, Silhouette of Mrs Burns, widow The Douglas Banner,

219 Westminster, .

357 96 The Comet--first British steam Catchpoles (two cuts), 365, 366 Hampden Church, 97 passage-boat,

220 Engagement off Flamborough Portrait : John Hampden, 98 Ballad-seller, 221 Head,

37 Mr Bright,

99
-, temp. William III., 222 Harvest Home,

378 Initial Letter~Mary Magdalene, 101 Grub Street,

223 New River Head, 1665,

391 Vischer's Rat-catcher, 17th cen. Festival at Tutbury, 225 Autograph : Myddleton,

392 tury,

104 Autograph: Frederick the Great, 230 Little Conduit in Cheapside, 392 Portrait : Richard Gibson, 107 Washing Tally,

231 Tankard Bearer,

392 'Jenny Geddes's Stool,' 109 Memorial of Jacobite Martyrs, 235 Water Carrier,

393

of the Poet,

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

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Emblematic Vignette: October, 398 Emblematic Vignette : November, 525 Belzoni at Sadler's Wells as the Initial Letter: October, 398 Initial Letter: November, 525 Patagonian Samson,

651 Portrait: Joseph Ritson, 405 Pledging Healths (two cuts), • 530 Marine Ceremonies at ‘Crossing Cresset-bearer, 409 Jew's House at Lincoln, 535 the Line,

65+ Watchman-temp. James I., 409 Lisbon,

537 Ancient Gothic Crown,

660 Old Street Lamps,

410 Gunpowder Conspirators, 547 Legendary Representation of St Aristocratic Extinguishers, 411 Vault beneath the Old House of Nicholas,

662 Silver Heart in Culross Abbey Lords,

548 Portrait : Selman, the Cut-purse, 669 church, 416 Procession of a Guy, 549 - Mall Cut-purse,

671 Figure of a Heart delineated on Portrait: Princess Charlotte, 553 Fortune Theatre, Golden Lane, Tomb in St John's Church,

Madame Roland, 559

Barbican, as it appeared in 1790, 676 Margate,

416 The Giants in Guildhall, 562 Autograph : Christiana, Duchess Representation of a Heart in Pageantexhibited on Lord Mayor's of Lorraine,

678 Church of Lillingstone Dayrell, 417 Day in 1616,

563 Lauriston Castle, as it appeared Ancient Watches (four cuts), 419, 420 Chariot of Justice in the Lord at the close of the last century, 679 Portrait: the Lady Protectress, 426 Mayor's Pageant, 1698, 565 Altar to Baal,

788 Harry Rowe,

436 St Martin dividing his Cloak with Mysterious Inscription AntiHastings from the Fairlight a Beggar, .

567 quaries puzzled,

689 Downs, 444 Ancient Forks,

573 The Hardicanute Marble, 690 Battle of Hastings, .

444 Shower of Falling Stars at Nia Fame eluding her follower, 690 Orator Henley,

446

gara, in November 1833, 577 Portrait : William Hogarth, . 700 The Diamond Necklaco, . 452 Old Parr's Cottage, near Alder Sun-dial and Fountain, formerly Whistle Drinking Cup, 456 bury, Shropshire,

582 at Leadenhall Corner, London, 712 Fan-mount, representing a Lottery, 466 Portrait: Mr Wombwell, 586 Pulpit Hour-glasses (two cuts), 713 Lottery 'Fly-leaves' (three cuts), 468 Procession of 17th November 1679, Almanac Day' at Stationer's Portrait: Lord William ( Belted commemorative of the murder Hall,

716 Will') Howard, 473 of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey, 588 The Flying Ship,

721 Portrait: Grace Darling, 475 Demonstrations on Queen Eliza The Judgment of St Thomas, 724 Samuel Taylor Cole beth's Day, in 1679,

589 The Yule Log,

734 ridge,

481 Portrait: Sir Henry Lee and his Initial Illustration : Snapdragon, 738 Fox-hunting-Gone Away!' 489

Dog,
590 Party of Mummers,

740 Bloodhunter clear A Lady's Face adorned with Lord of Misrule,

742 ing a stone-wall in good style, 490 Patches-temp. Charles I., 593 Children's Carol on ChristmasPunch-bowl Sign—the ‘Spiller's Assault on Dr Hill at Ranelagh, 603 morning, ·

748 Head,' 498 Robin Hood's Grave, .

607 Christmas-morning Carol by Chil. Interior of West Wycombo Portrait and Autograph : John dren in Yorkshire,

750 Church, 499 Kitto,

617 The Offering of the Magi, 751 The Alfred Jewel, 507 Great Storin : Destruction of tho Rings of the Magi,

752 Serenade of 'Rough Music,' 510 First Eddystone Light-house, 621 Initial Illustration : Old English Portrait: John Keats, 512 Defiance to Pitt's Horse Tax : & Christmas Fare,

754 Henry Welby, the Grub Farmer riding his Cow to Cumnor Church, Berkshire, 760 Street Hermit, 515 Market,

627 St - Monday in the Days of Ducking for Apples on Halloween, 520 Residence of Washington Irving, 628 Hogarth, .

770 The Luck of Edenhall,

522 Mortimer's Hole, Nottingham A Stationer's Stall, or Bookshop Cheapside, with the Procession of Castle,

630 in the Olden Time,

773 Marie de Medici on her visit to Emblematic Vignette: December, 639 The White Horse of Berkshire,

778 Charles L and his Queen, 524 Initial Letter : December, 639 Primitive Style of Skating,

787

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ULY

(DESCRIPTIVE.)

Robin Hood and his merry men in the free old

forests is now what our old poets

*All under the greenwood tree.' loved to call sweet summer-time, when the leaves We feel the harness chafe in which we have

are green and long,' for hitherto so willingly worked, amid the 'fever and in such brief word-painting did they the fret' of the busy city, and pine to get away to picture this pleasant season of the some place where we can hear the murmur of the year; and, during this hot month, we sea, or what is nearest the sound—the rustle of sigh while perusing the ancient ballad the summer leaves. We long to lie down beneath lore, and wish we could recall the the low-bending, and high overhanging branches past, were it only to enjoy a week with | beside the stream, that runs dark and bright 53

1

THE BOOK OF DAYS.

through shade and sunshine, and watch the blue yield as much as fifteen pounds of wool each. It
dragon-flies sport above the bluer forget-me-nots, is amusing to watch the lambs after the dams are
that nod their tufted heads to every breeze which clipped, the way they go smelling about them, and
ripples the water. There fancy floats away, and the pitiful bleating they make, until the mother
where the drooping willow gives a white shiver as answers, when they at once recognise her voice,
the underpart of the leaves are turned to the and all doubt in a moment ceases.
light, and the brook rolls along singing a quiet Sheep-shearing feasts, like harvest-homes, are
tune,' we conjure up the image of sweet Ophelia, of ancient date ; for we read in the Bible of
'her clothes spread wide' upon the glassy stream, Nabal, who had three thousand sheep in Carmel,
and seem again to hear her warbling snatches of holding a sheep-shearing feast in his house 'like
old tunes' till, mermaid-like, she sinks beneath the the feast of a king' and the custom still remains
weeping-brook.' Then we hear the bleating, of amongst many of our English sheep-breeders in
sheep that come down from some hidden bending the present day. It is pleasant to know that such
of the water-course, and journeying along we see old-world customs are still kept up; that when the
an old-world picture, such as the gray patriarchs owner has gathered the wool that clothes him, and
had often looked on, and which is familiar to us, the com that feeds him, he should make glad the
through the Bible-pages, unaltered through thou hearts of those who have borne the burden and
sanıls of years; for there we find them washing heat of the day. While this busy work is going
sheep, just as they did when David and Solomon on, the bean-fields are in bloom, and fill the air
paused to look at the sheep-washers, beside the brooks around with such a perfume as makes the wayfarer
that flow through the valleys around Jerusalem. feel languid, longing to lie down in the midst of
The mind wanders away into the twilight of those it, and with half-shut eyes dream dreams.
remote ages, and we wonder who she was whose At every passing gust which ripples the fields,
teeth he in his Songs compared to a flock of sheep the com now makes a husky whisper, and there

which come up from the washing. In our are white spots on the long ears, which tell that
wanderings through the nooks and corners of it is fast ripening, and that bending reapers will
England, we have seen sheep-washing in such plea- soon be busy with their crooked sickles in the
sant places, that had they been selected purposely harvest-field. We now see amid the grass that is
to harmonise with this picturesque occupation, it powdered with summer-dust, the most beautiful
would scarcely have been possible to have added of all our wayside-flowers, the pretty pimpernel,
a new beauty to the scene, though trees are always which, though but little larger than the bloom
beautiful when reflected in water, especially when of the common chickweed, fairly dazzles the eye
they also overbang a ground of green. The wattled like a gem with its rich crimson petals. By the
hurdles, running in lines beneath the wide-spread- very rim of the cart-rut, and close by the dent of
ing, branches, which enclose the white sheep, the horse's hoof on the brown highway, it blows, a
making gray patches of light under the boughs, thing of beauty, that has no peer in garden or
and upon the greensward; the sheep-washer stand-green-house, whether blood-red, crimson, or scarlet,
ing in the pool, and the idlers in every variety of for nothing but the flashing blaze of the red poppy
coloured costume assembled on the banks, and of the cornfield, can be compared with it a
all mirrored in the water, make as pretty a rural moment for richness of colour. Country-people
picture as the eye can delight to dwell upon, and call this wayside beauty the poor man's weather-
which seems ever changing its hue under the glass, and the shepherd's clock; and it never errs
shifting lights of heaven. Then those brown in announcing the approach of rain, for long before
sinewy labourers clutch at the fleecy sheep as we can discover any sign of the coming shower, we
they are driven down the bank-keeping their find its deep-dyed petals folded up in its green
heads clear of the water, while they roll them cup. As a time-keeper, it may be relied upon,
to and fro, making incessant circles of ripples, always closing at noon, no matter how fine the
for as one releases a sheep, another seizes upon it, day may be, and never opening again before seven
until the immersion is completed, when it swims on the following morning. Its leaves are also very
to the opposite bank, and there stands bleating, beautiful, of a fine clean oval shape, and on the
while the water drops from its heavy-hanging underpart spotted. Often near to it, on the sunny;
wool. Now and then you hear a loud laugh from side of the hedge, may now be found the dull
the spectators, for the chubby farmer's-boy, who golden-coloured agrimony, with its long spiked
has to drive the sheep into the water for the men to head up-coned with little flowers, the favourite
wash, finds one that is obstinate, at which he pushes 'tea' of the poor cottagers, and a thousand times
with all his might, when the animal gives a sudden more delicious than some of the rubbish sold as
spring, and the boy falls headlong into the pool. tea in low neighbourhoods, for it makes a most

About a week or so after the washing, sheep- refreshing beverage. Scarcely a leaf can be shearing commences; the reason why clipping' found on tree, shrub, or plant, to equal in is delayed for this length of time is, that the fleece beauty of form that of the agrimony, so deeply may regain its oily nature, which it can only and elegantly are the edges cut, and so richly do through the wool becoming thoroughly dry, veined, that they carry the eye from the upwhen the shears cut through it easily. This also iš piled head of five-petaled golden flowers, which a busy time, and we have seen half a score sheep- so gracefully overtop the foliage. The fragrance, shearers at work at once, the large barn-door too, is quite refreshing; only bruise this elegant having been lifted off its hinges and raised about leaf between the fingers, and it throws out an a foot above the ground, to place the sheep upon, aroma that can no more be forgotten than the while they were shorn. By night the barn looks smell of roses. The next favourite as a tea-making like a large wool warehouse, so high rise the piles herb among our old country-women, is the wood of rolled up fleeces, and some of our English sheep betony, now in bloom, and which forms a winding