the Jews were acquainted with the ufe of beer long before the time of our Saviour; for Columella mentions Egyptian beer—“ Pelusiaci proritať pocula zythi :” and, if I mistake not, the Egyptians afcribed the invention to Ofiris. Nor will that high antiquity of its origin be deemed improbable by any person who recollects that the ufe of fermented bread appears to have been general throughout Egypt in the days of Mofes for, if that had not been the cafe, the use of unfer mented bread by the poor and oppressed Iraelites, in the hurry and confution of the exodus, could not have been regarded as a circumstance so extracrdinary or important, as to become the foundation of a na : tional anniversary-the feast of unleavened bread. Should any of your readers here start an objection, and fay that leaven and yeaft are different things, I request that he will be fo good as to inform me whence leaven fift originated? With respect to the Egyptian beer, when the heat of the climate is taken into confideration, I conceive that it could have been brewed only in small quantities, fresh and fresh, for immediate ufe or that, if laid by in any larger quantities, it must have been an article of expenfive luxury, exclufively confined to the more opulent clafs of inhabitants, who could indulge themselves with the accommodation of deep and cool cellarage-or that it was a muddy, difgufting, unwholefome, beverage*-unless the Egyptians poffeffed fome art, at prefent unknown, by which they prevented the liquor from continuing to ferment beyond the neceffary time, or fermenting anew when once it had undergone the vinous fermentation to a fuffici. ent degree. From the effects experienced even in the mild climate of England, fuch of your readers as are accustomed to keep malt liquor for any length of time in their cellars, will readily admit my obfervations to be well founded. The extract from the Northumberland Houfebold Book is curious but is it carrect? for, on multiplying the hogheads by the gallons, I find a different refult. Be that, however, as it may, it would be defirable to know what proportion His Like that thick, black, muddy, Bohemian beer noticed by Burton the Melancholif "Nothing goes in fo thick ; Grace's "quarter" of malt bore to the modern quarter, confifting of eight Winchefter bufbels. If the measure, used on the occafion in queftion, was the fame as ours, either the malt must then have been much better than we can procure at prefent, or the ancient mode of brewing was better, or the liquor brewed by our ances tors was not fo trong as that which is now drunk by their pofterity: for His Grace of Northumberland (whom I cannot fuppofe to have brewed worse bear than his neighbours) made twelve gallons from every bufbel of malt; whereas eight or nine are as many as can now be made tolerably good from a Winchester bufhel, of fuch malt, at least, as is to be procured in and about London. Another particular which trikes me in that extract, is the remarkably small quantity of hops. If the statement be correct, there must alto have been a prodigious difference in quality between the hops of that and of the prefent day; or, at that period, the English did not brew their beer to be kept any time, but drank it quite fresh and fermenting for the allowance there is only one pound of hops to a quarter of malt; to which quantity, eight pounds are now found indifpenfably neceffary, if the liquor be intended to stand the fummer-if not, at least five or fix: otherwife it will foon turn four,, and corrupt, fo as to be unfit for drinking. If you deem this hafty fcribble worthy of admiffion into your valuable Mifcellany, I hope your readers will excuse me for having omitted to refer to book and chapter in quoting my authorities. I would very cheerfully give more particular references, were I not prevented by want of leifure at the prefent moment, to examine the volumes in fearch of the passages. I am, Sir, your conftant reader, J. CAREY: Ilington, February 2. whence he had been abfent for fome time, in order to exprefs their joy on that occafion, caused a comedy to be acted before him, on Sunday, January 31, 1417, the fubjects of which were the nativity of our Lord, the arrival of the Eastern Magi, and the cruelty of Herod. The Germans, therefore, fays Monfieur L'Enfant, are obliged to the English for the invention of thefe fort of fpectacles, unknown to them before that time Letter from Mr. Cole to Dr. Percy. Feb. 23, 1767. CROZIER, or PASTORAL STAFF. Dr. Archibald Macklain, in a note up on the word crozier, in Mofheim's Ecclefiaftical History, (vol. i. p. 319, edit. 1758,) thus explains it. "The lituus, (lays he,) which, among the ancient Romans, was the chief enfign of the augurs, and which derived its name from its refemblance to the military-trumpet, became a mark of episcopal dignity, we call it the crozier, or bishop's ftaff." But berein I take him to be utterly mistaken. The crozier, or pastoral staff, is taken from the known and common staff which thepherds, even to this day, make ufe of to catch hold of the hinder-leg of their fheep, in order to take them, and alludes to the paftoral office of the bifhops and clergy, according to that of our Saviour, I am the good fhepherd ;" and to the common name of the clergy, paftors, or thepherds. It is no uncommon device to fee a crozier, from the hand of a bishop or faint, piercing the mouth of a dragon, on which they trample, to imitate the victory of Chriftian faith over the works of the Devil, reprefented by a dragon. This was on an old tomb, the only one remaining, dug up fome years ago in the precincts of the Priory of Bernwell, near Cambridge, and probably defigned for one of the priors there. It is on an old tomb in Pelham Church, where the crofs gorges the dragon. And the fame device occurs on an old tomb belonging to Bifhop Roger, at Salisbury. (See the Archæologia, vol. ii. pl. xiii.) HABITS AND FASHIONS. Monfieur de la Porte, in his Mémoires, printed 1751, at p. 81, tells us that the Comte de Charoft, in 1633, going to Court, was dreffed in a suit of black velvet, with white boots. The same person, a little after, at p. 85, fays that Queen Anne of Auftria, his miftrefs, fent him to the Duke of Lor. 4 raine, who had displeased her, and to reproach him with his folly, with a prefent of a tababare, as he calls it, où bonnet à l'Angloife de velours verd chamarè de pasfemens d'or double de panne jeune, avec un bouquet de plumes, vertes jaunes! It fhould feem by this that it was then looked upon as a fort of fools cap: yet by the defcription it feems to have been much more ornamented than the hat, which has banished all forts of caps but the Scotch blue bonnet, no doubt from its usefulness and better defence against the weather. Black filk patches on the face were used by the ladies even in Oliver's time. (See the Life of Lady Warner, p. 19.) KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL. "The The feats of the old oaken stalls, which are contrived to turn up or down, as the perfon chufes to fit higher or lower, are curioufly carved with grote fque figures, as in the older ones in Ely Cathedral; but thefe odd figures, to ridicule the monks and regular clergy, are no where better expreffed than in the ftone fpouts and ornaments of the old buildings of this college, oppofite to Clare Hall Chapel. Burnet, in his Travels, giving an account of the cathedral of Strafburg, has fet this matter in a good light, (p. 276, 277): bas reliefs upon the tops of the great pillars of the church are not fo visible; but they are furprizing; for this being a fabric of three or four hundred years old, it is very ftrange to fee fuch representations as are there. There is a proceffion reprefented, in which a hog carrieth the pot with the holy water, and affes and hogs, in priestly veftments, follow, to make up the proceffion. There is also an afs ftanding before an altar, as if he were going to confecrate, and one carrieth a cafe with reliques, within which one feeth a fox; and the trains of all who go in this proceffion are carried up by monkies.This feems to have been made in hatred of the monks, whom the fecular clergy abhorred at that time, because they had drawn the wealth and the following of the world after them; and they had expofed the fecular clergy fo much for their ignorance, that it is probable, after fome ages, the monks falling under the fame contempt, the fecular clergy took their turn in expofing them in fo lafting a reprefen tation to the fcorn of the world. is alfo in the pulpit a nun, cut in wood, lying along, and a fryar lying near her, with his breviary open before him, and his head under the nun's habit, and the nun's feet are fhod with iron fhoes." There SELECTIONS SELECTIONS from the CORRESPONDENCE of MR. COLE and his FRIENDS. SOAME JENYNS. "Have you feen Mr. Soame Jenyns's Book on the internal Evidence of Chriftianity; it is much read and admired. He told me that the King talked much to him about it last Sunday, and femed mafter of every argument in it. At the Feaft of the Sons of the Clergy laft week, Sir S. Stafford Smyth, who fate on the right hand of the Lord Mayor Sawbridge, afked him if he had read it? He replied, with a laugh, What! Soame Jenyns write in behalf of Chriftianity.' Yes, (replies Smyth,) and he tells you in his book that he believed once as little as you can do." Dr. Lort to Mr. Cole. May 15, 1776. MR. WILKES. "Mr. Wilkes's fpeech pleafed me much: if the fcoundrel really meant all he faid, he would nearly have cancelled all his rogueries, in my opinion; but his defign is to diftrefs, by propofing great matters at an improper time; and his compliment to Bishop Lowth is only to deal the heavier blow on Bishop Terrick, who, I dare fay, had none of those abfurd prejudices he lays to his charge: all he meant was not to awaken the abfurd prejudices of Wilkes's Prefbyterian fiiends and allies." Mr. Cole to Dr. Lort. May 16, 1777. CHATTERTON. "I doubt you are again in error, my good Sir, abour the letter in the Gentleman's Magazine, against the Rowleians, unless Mr. Malone fent it to you; for he is the author, and no: M. Steevens, from whom I imagine you received it. There is a report, that proof of fome part of Chatterton's forgery is to be produced from an accomplice. But this I do not anfwer for, nor know the circumftances. I have fcarce feen a perfon who is not perfuaded that the fashion of the prems was Chatterton's own; though he might have found fome old ftuff to work upon, which very likely was the cafe: but now that the poems have been fo much examined, nobedy (that has an ear) can get over the modernity of the modulation, and the recent caft of the ideas and phrafeology, corroborated by fuch palpable pillage of Pope and Dryden. Still the boy remains a prodigy, by whatever means he procured or produced the edifice he erected: and fill it will be inexplicable how he found time or materials for operating fuch miracles, Your's ever. H. W." Mr. Horace Walpole to Mr. Cole. Feb. 22, 1782. MONTHLY MAG. No.112. OLIVER CROMWELL. "Whenever I can get the Chartulary conveyed to you by a friend, for it must not be hazarded in a ftage, you shall certainly have it. I will fend you in my of Colne Priory, I fear, does not now exnext copies of the feals I took. The feal it. Mrs. Holgate burnt a great box full of deeds and feals, many of them in t:n cales. Into the fame fire went a lock of Oliver Cromwell's hair, and a Diary of his Life, in his own hand-writing, in the true binet of his, filled with his table linen: canting ftrain. She has a fine ebony cathe gave me a napkin, which has on it the arms he affumed as Lord Protector, Mr. Tyfon to Mr. Cole. Nov. 22, 1779. with the coronet over them." First PINE-APPLE raised in ENGLAND. "Mr. Pennicot: has fhewn me a moft curious and delightful picture. It is Rofe, the royal gardener, prefenting the firft pine-apple raifed in England to Charles the Second. They are in a gar den, with a view of a good private house, fuch as there are feveral at Sunbury, and about London. It is by far the belt likenefs of the King I ever faw: the countenance chearful and good-humoured, and very fenfible. He is in brown, lined with orange, and many black ribands; a large flapped hat, dark wig not tied up, nor yet bushy; a point cravat, no waiffcoat, and atafleled handkerchiet hanging from a low pocket. The whole is of the finaller landscape fize and extremely well coloured, with perfect harmony. It was a legacy from London, grandfon of him who Mr. H. Walpole to Mr. Col. was partner with Wife." March 6, 1780. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, So long a time has elapfed fince I first iffued my proposals for publishing a "Verbal Index to the Plays of Shakfpeare," that I felt it incumbent on me to convey to my fubfcribers fome information to account for the delay, and for this purpose request your intention of the following notice in the Monthly Magazine. It will be recollected, that I originally ftated my de ermination not to print the index, till I fhould be affured that my expences fhould be covered, and, therefore, adopted the only mod, by which I could afcertain, how far fuch a work was defined by the public. It is now time to inform my fubfcribers, that the depots in the hands of my booksellers are by no means equal to defraying the expences of publi U cation cation, and that it has been only in compliance with the wishes of fome of Shakfpeare's warm admirers, that I have fuffered the fubfcription to remain open fo long. If the work fhould eventually be published, the fubfcribers will in one reIpect be benefited by the delay, as it has given me an opportunity of incorporating in my index the play of Pericles, which had not been infeited in our poet's works, till the last edition published by Mr. Stevens. Three months more I am willing to give to the experiment; and, at the expiration of that period, either the work fhall be put to the prefs, or the fubfcribers fhall be called upon through the channel of the Monthly Magazine to withdraw their depofit from the hands where they lodged it, and where it has ever fince remained. I am Sir, Your most obedient Servant, Bath 12th Jan. 1804. FRANCIS Twiss. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, A LLOW me, by way of fequel to the late remarks of two of your Correspondents on certain paffages of Gray and Clarendon, to mention an odd abfurdity into which another admired writer has fallen. It occurs in Darwin's defcription of his marvellous Poifon-tree of Java where the author, ftudious of decoration, has overlooked propriety. "Fierce in dread filence on the blafted heath, Dire Upas fits, the Hydra-tree of death. Steep'd in fell poifon, as his fharp teeth part, A thousand tongues in quick vibration dart; Snatch the proud eagle towering o'er the heath, Or pounce the lion, as he talks beneath. Chain'd at his root two Scion-demons dwell, Breathe the faint hifs, or try the fhriller yell; Rife, fluttering in the air on callow wings, And aim at inf&t-prey their little ftings." BOTANIC GARDEN, Part 2. Can. 3. v. 237. The paffage contains a great deal of fine poetry certainly. What a pity that it fhould want common-fenfe! For how is it poffible that infects can get near enough to the young shoots to be destroyed by them, while the baleful effluvia from the parent-tree fpreads fo much wider, and arrefts the distant flight of the eagle. On reading the paffage in question, I was for. cibly reminded of the ingenuity of "The man who, contriving a hole thro' the wall, To admit his two cats, the one great, t'other fmall, When a great hole was made for great pufs to pass thro'. Had a little one cut for the little cat too!"* In the fame poet's address to Philanthropy, there is an imitation, fo palpable, of fome lines in the Wanderer of Savage, that I fufpect my notice of it must have been anticipated. "The Spirits of the Good, who bend from high mire." BOTANIC GARDEN, Part 2. Can. 2. v. 463. The lines of Savage to which I allude are the following: "Where veiny marble dignifies the ground, With emblem fair in fculpture rifing round, Once-lov'd Horatio fleeps, a mind elate ! Lamented fhade, ambition was thy fate. Ev'n Angels, wondering, oft his worth furvey'd ; Behold a man, like one of us! they said. Straight heard the Furies, and with envy glar'd, And to precipitate his fall prepar'd." WANDERER, Canto 5. v. 537. The imitator, has, however, so much improved upon his original, that the theft must be forgiven. Yet, from certain other resemblances, there feems reason to believe that the poet of Derby was. indebted, in more inftances than one, to the author of the Wanderer. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. Ν SIR, To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, AM engaged in reading books upon IN your Publication of the sith the I fome particular sciences, and have of you favour your Readers Jan. 28, 1804. cafion to take up authors of all per ods. When I begin a book, it becomes necesfary, for obvious reasons, to know with fome precifion the time in which it was written; although this might be so easily intimated by the author, yet it is but feldom that the reader is fo fortunate as to mert with direct information of it. It is evident that no conclufion can be drawn from obferving the date of the year in which a book was published, as the interval between writing and publishing may vary exceedingly; and if it be an edition fubfequent to the first, it is impoffible to form even a guess, from this circumstance, of the year in which it was written. It now and then happens that a license, or approbation of fome learned fociety, is prefixed to a book, which, being always dated, afford fome little light to the inquiry. It alfo fometimes occurs to the author to infert a date to his dedication or preface; this is a happy hint to his reader. But most commonly the reader is not accommodated in any one of thefe ways, and is left to judge very vaguely of the date of the work, if he have not a biographical account of the author at hand; and even if he have, he is not always fatisfied in this particular, if the writer be not of fome celebrity. I wish, Sir, you could perfuade anthors to prefix to their dedications, prefaces, advertisements, &c. the date in which their works are delivered over to the printer; or if they choose to fend forth their offfpring without thefe ufual attendants, to find fome corner in which the era of their compofitions may be made known; by which we should be enabled to know their relative pofitions to one another in respect to time, and to appreciate their opportunities of information, from the itate of fcience, and accumulation of facts, at the time in which they compofed. This communication would generally be rather advantageous to their fame, than otherwife; and always fatisfactory, if not frequently neceffary, to the reader. I am, Sir, Your obedient Servant, London, 5th Jan. 1804. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. A SIR, LLOW me to return thanks to your three different correfpondents who have fo obligingly anfwered my queries respecting tea-kettles, and at the fame time to notice a remark in the Rev. Mr. Robinson's anfwer, which feems to merit U 2 further |