had learned to read and a little to write, he was bound apprentice to a shoemaker, and that he followed this occupation. When he was about eighteen years of age, he found means to procure a Lilye's Grammar, a Gouldman's Dictionary, Ovid's Metamorphoses, and a Latin Bible, and, by the help of these books, he acquired Latin enough to read the works of astrological authors in that language. He next applied himself to the study of Greek and Hebrew. He also studied physic; but was, saith the same author, a shoemaker in Covent-garden in 1680. He was sworn Physician to his Majesty, in the title to his translation of "Hadrianus or Mynsicht's Treasury of Physic," 1682; but he never attended the court, nor received any salary. He is said to have taken a doctor's degree, en passant, when he was in Scotland. Mr. Partridge lies buried in the churchyard of Mortlake, in Surrey, with a Latin inscription to his memory; from which it appears he was born at East Sheen, in the same county, Jan. 18, 1644, and died June 24, 1715.

As he was so unfortunate as to be the butt of that celebrated wit, Dean Swift, the ridiculous part of his character will be remembered when the rest of his personal history is forgotten. Partridge, however, claims some expression of commendation for his assiduous industry and application in the acquisition of considerable attainments in literature.

JOHN GADBURY, his contemporary and opponent, was a native of Wheatly, near Oxford, born Dec. 31, 1627, his father being a yeoman of that parish; and his mother was a daughter of Sir John Curzon, of Waterperry, knight. He was apprenticed to one Thomas Nicols, a taylor, in Oxford, but left that occupation in 1644, to pursue the vehement inclination he had to astrology. He went to London and became a pupil of the noted William Lilly, under whom he profited so well as soon to be enabled to set up the trade of Almanac-making and fortunetelling for himself, and his pen was employed for many years on nativities, almanacs, and prodigies. Other astrologers were content to exercise their art for the benefit of their own country only, but Gadbury extended his to

a remote part of the globe; as, in 1674, he published his 'West India or Jamaica Almanac," for that year. He calculated the nativities of Charles the First, the King of Sweden, and Sir Matthew Hale, all of which are in print.

His old master Lilly, who quarreled with him, and against whom he wrote a book called "6 Anti-Merlinus Anglicus," says he was a "monster of ingratitude," and “ a graceless fellow." Lilly adds, that he went to sea with the intention of sailing to Barbadoes, but died on his voyage. In his

Ephemeris; or, a Diary Astronomical, Astrological, Meteorological, for the Year of our Lord 1688;" he dates from Brick-court, by the Dean's-yard, Westminster, where he probably resided. This Almanac contains the usual quantity of matter common to such publications, but we look in vain for any prediction respecting the occurrences which happened during this eventful year he appears as much in the dark, in this respect, as Coley, Partridge, and his other learned contemporaries.

In a column headed observations, some curious chronological entries occur: take the following as a sample:

Upon the 22d day of this Month (March) 1682; a great fire happened at Newmarket, which (though it destroyed half the town, yet) was the happy means of preserving the lives of our late, and our present Gracious Sovereigns from the horrid assassination intended against them by the Rye-house Conspirators."

66

Upon the 23d day (August) his Majesty began his Royal Progress for the west, to visit and encourage his loyal subjects there, after their late grievous sufferings under the horrid rebellion began by the late D. of Monmouth's landing at Lime; and to convince his other subjects that God is with him, his Majesty in this his progress most mercifully vouchsafed to heal many languishing Men, Women, and Children of the Evil."

In John Gadbury's Almanac for the year 1689, the following lines appeared in the month of January.

All Hail, my Masters, Eighty-Eight is gone, That year of wonders which the world so

fear'd;

Yet hath produc'd for us to anchor on,
A Prince of Wales, the subject of each Bard;
And that thou now art mine, sweet Babe, for-

give,

I'll sing thy praises, and thy Vassal live.

This called forth the following philippic from the pen of his opponent Partridge, and which was inserted in his "Merlinus Liberatus" for the following year, headed "Flagellum Gadburianum."

Dear John! why all this Cant, or is 't thy skill,
To shew indeed thou 'rt Jack Gadb'ry still?
You Perkin's slave, a convert bought by Rome,
Of all religions too, but stuck to none.
And yet no Changling; thou art still the same
Thou ever wast, and so thou wilt remain.
Turn Papist if the Court be so; and when

That faith's laid by, you are to seek again.
Then where's thy Anchor, thou unsteady tool,
Always a K. but now proclaim'd a fool?
A Fool in folio: not this change foresee!

This plaguy Eighty-Eight hath cheated thee.

The name of WING, though he has been dead for much more than a century, continues as fresh as ever at the head of our sheet Almanacs. Vincent Wing was a native of Luffenham, in Rutlandshire, born in 1619; he was the author of an "Ephemeris for thirty years," a Computatio Catholica," and several other astrological and mathematical pieces. His "Astronomia Britannica" has been much commended, and is certainly a work of considerable merit. His life was written by Gadbury, who says he died in 1668. We have seen Almanacs for the years 1689 and 1690 with the name of John

about [out, Young Perkin's birth, and also turn'd him For whom thy tir'd brains were so devout. Deluded Fool! by thy own art betray'd,

And by those Stars you oft so famous made. Then curse thy Stars (for less you cannot do), Thy fate, and all the Constellations too : Sue 'em at Law, on Quo Warranto score, [o're. Till thou art full reveng'd, ne're give 'em Your evidence are good, so are your laws,

Let the dispencing Judges try the cause, At least a Bolesworth sum this action draws. Art thou the prophet of false Ahab's crew, Young Perkin's seer? Ay, and a blind one

too.

Art thou the man (heaven forgive the sin) [in? That curst each faith thyself had not been You damn'd the Church, the Test, and by that doom

Thy soul and conscience too, to set up Rome, All o're Apostate; and with that thou 'It have The name of John the Prince of Wales his slave, [due, To whom your prayers are (by your promise) And to his father, could you know him too. How, Jack! what stuff was that? you hence The common scandal to Astrology. [must be I cann't resolve, whether (to tell you true) Pity or Laughter is the more your due.

It is observable, that almost all the noted astrologers vilified each other as rogues and impostors; Gadbury was, however, no less careful to do justice to the merits of his friend Sir George Wharton, most of whose works he collected and published.

"The Black Life of John Gadbury" was written and published by Partridge in 1693, which might be about the time of his death, but his name appeared long after this in an almanac, similar to the one he published. There is a complete collection of his printed works in the British Museum. There was another astrologer, a Job Gadbury, who was taught his art by John, and probably succeeded him in the Almanac, and who died in 1715.

scendant of the above Vincent Wing. These were printed at Cambridge by John Hayes, printer to the University.

He

"Apollo Anglicanus," an Almanac by RICHARD SAUNDERS, Student in the Physical and Mathematical Sciences, appeared about the same time. It consists of two parts,-the first contains a Calendar with the usual contents, unless that the fifth column has poetical stories of the fixed stars and constellations collected from Dr. Hood and others; and the second part has the eclipses, the sun's quarterly ingresses, the southing of the seven stars, with rules and tables for both superficial and solid measure. dates from Ouston, in the county of Leicester, as the place of his residence. He was author of "The Astrological Judgment and Practice of Physick, deduced from the Position of ye Heavens at the Decumbiture of the sick Persons. 1677, 4to." A portrait of Mr. Saunders is before this book. He also wrote a folio volume on Physiognomy, Chiromancy, Moles, Dreams, &c. from which various extracts and abridgments have been made and sold by the hawkers.

Mr.

Physiognomy and chiromancy were more respected in the reign of Charles the Second than they have been since; they were regarded as next in dignity to their sister art astrology. Evelyn has given a long chapter upon physiognomy in his "Numismata." The first book on Chiromancy ever printed in England was published by George Wharton in 1652, 8vo. and dedicated to Mr. Ashmole. It is a translation from the Latin of John Rothman, M.D.

The mercurialists, physiognomists, chiromancers, philomaths, and wellwishers to the mathematics, were more numerous in this reign than they have been at any other period; the ridiculous absurdities promulgated by these men, and the ready reception which a credulous public gave to their trash, was truly surprising, and it is lamentable to reflect that the press should ever have been prostituted in the dissemination of such foolish superstitions. The names of Dee, Kelly, Heydon, and Ramesey stand conspicuous in this respect, and there were many others of inferior note, which flourished in the seventeenth century.

Such was the credulity of the people at that period, that there was scarcely a country town in which there was not a calculator of nativities, and a caster of urine. Many to their great emolument united both professions, as a student in physic and astrology was, by the generality of the vulgar, esteemed much superior to a mere physician; and planetary influence was supposed to be of the greatest efficacy in human life, especially in love affairs. Yours, &c. A. P.

Mr. URBAN,

Hartburn, Morpeth, June 29. THE translation of the Zetlandic letter, with the original text, which you did me the favour to publish in your Magazine for December 1836, according to my own apprehension, has not been found free from errors. By the kind assistance of the Reverend Mr. Paterson, an exemplary and excellent minister in the Shetland Islands, I have been enabled to furnish you with the following long list of errata, to which I have added a few illustrations, with the hope that this additional attempt to obtain a correct notion of the affinity which exists between the dialects of the North of England and the Shetland Islands, may not be unacceptable to many of

your readers.

J. H.

18, du ela, the pitlock or young scethe fishing.

21, blessit, piebald.

24, bocht, fishing line 5 fathoms long. 30, paald, pressed against.

GENT. MAG. VOL. X.

31, lokkin, clasping. 34, odias, odious.

37, shoarded, shored or propped up. Page 590.

1, noost, creek where boats are drawn up. 2, bùre, bore.

9, lek da ful, like the fowl. 15, trou, through.

18, sukkalegs, stockings without feet. tuag, hillock.

19, meashee, net made of straw ropes. 22, splunder, quite.

36, hee, it, time: neuter gender, but sel

dom used in Zetlandic.

37, johnsmis, Johnsmas.

39, bindi, basket made of the stalks of docks.

43, blaand, whey of sour milk, much used as a beverage in Shetland.

51, sloomin, at a sluggish, sauntering

pace.

57, lipnin, expecting. 62, klif, hoof. 59, Sudderlan, Sutherland.

Page 591.

1, no a krum atill'd itt kud a been a humblband till a whillie: i. e.-not a bit in it could have been a humblaband to a small four-oared boat. A humblaband is a small piece of rope or a leather thong, which keeps the oar steady while the rower is pulling. 6, veeraly, distinctly, livelily.

7, kumm, dust. In Westmorland, sawcoom is saw-dust.

17, i da ebb, on the shore between high and low water mark.

ta so at da ela, to saw or scatter at the fishing place. Limpets for this purpose are parboiled, chewed, and spirted from the mouth on the water, to invite the fish near the top. The hooks on the lines are, however, always baited. 32, viandit, inclined. 48, trist, twist.

49, we breekbandit it, I took him round the waist or trousers band. We is here used instead of I, a very common mode of speech in the north of England. 54, gaat, hog or swine.

33, sefeeshint, sufficient. 34, smuk, worsted shoe.

37, riveleen, ancient highland brouge or shoe. See Lady of the Lake, canto iii. note 9.

37, virse, swine's hide.

40, Saxie, a giant. The kettle, in which he boiled the ship, is a hollow in a rock in the Island of Uist. Through Shetland, rocks surrounded by water are called Saxie's stepping stones. 43, bens, bones.

Page 593.

8, pushin, worthless.

13, blett, bashful. Blaat, in Northumberland.

19, mour az, more than.

26, Geegarin meenz shiften aboot fer ples ta ples in the eage o'a tyme. This clause is wrong printed in the text: "and a eage o'a time," should be "in the eage, &c." that is, from time to time. 31, veezable, anything.

44, ferdamel, provision for the day. 46, bindies, baskets.

48, spaarls, puddings made of coarse beef. 58 & 59, drap o' hey bru in a ùlie keg or hulke eddiran,-literally-drop of hay broth in an oil cag or barrel, either. In Shetland, as in the mountainous parts of the North of England, infusions of hay in water are given to calves instead of milk; and to cows, to increase their quantity of milk. Decoctions of herbs, in Bartholomew, Turner, and other old writers, are very commonly called broths.

Mr. URBAN, Oxford, Oct. 15. TO those of your readers who have been educated at Eton, it may be interesting to learn what were the charges for education, board, lodging, and extras, three hundred years ago. I therefore communicate a copy of a letter from the Usher, in the time of Philip and Mary, to Sir Gilbert Dethick, Garter King of Arms, informing him that the commons were raised two-pence per week; and therefore the quarter's charge for his son was 16s. The charge for the master's own service was 6s. 8d. and this, with the "store-money" (or score-money"? for the reading is doubtful), washing, &c. made up the total charge of twenty-seven shillings and seven pence for one quarter.

This paper has been accidentally preserved, in consequence of what Garter has written on the back. There he noted that Lord William Howard was installed as a Knight of the Gar

ter, on the 31st of January, 1554-5, from whom he received "a gownd of damaske" for his fee; and he set down, in French, the style of Emanuel Duke of Savoy, who was installed at the same time. Hence it is probable that the Usher's account was for the "quarter" that ended in December, 1554; at which time Nicholas Dethick, Garter's eldest son, was sixteen years old. For Noble says, that he died on the 19th of January, 1596, aged 57. (History of the Heralds' College, p. 176.)

Ten years after the date of this document, Nicholas Dethick was created a Pursuivant of Arms, by the title of Bluemantle. His patent for that office is dated 25th January, 7 Eliz. (1565); and is printed in the Fœdera, xv. 649: it occurs also in a volume of his MS. collections on various matters of honour and nobility; but that for his subsequent office of Windsor Herald, is neither in his MS. nor in the Fœdera. He was raised to that degree in April, 1583. I have therefore copied, for your readers' gratification, Dethick's own memoranda of the ceremony of his creation, with a copy of the warrant for his tabard; to which I add the oath which he then took, as it appears (among other official oaths) at the beginning of the same MS. The reader will perceive that very slight alteration was needful to accommodate it to the reign of a female sovereign.

These documents are preserved among Ashmole's Collections relative to the Order of the Garter-a series of very curious MSS. and papers-but miscellaneous, and almost chaotic. A minute description of them is now passing through the University's press.

ΜΕΛΑΣ.

I ame bold to troble your mastershipe wt my l'res att this p'sent, because I must paye a great deale of monye nowe out of hand. I praye you sende itt by this bringer, or els the next weke by one of yo" s'vants.

Yors to comaunde to his power,

WILLAM GRENE, Vsher of Eton'. From the Ashmolean MS. 1116, i. f. 59. "A° 1583, the Quenes Mati at Grenewiche. On St. George's even the Quenes Mati cam not abroad, but the day; and went in procession and offered; also dined abroad, proceeded from the chappell through the gallary and great chamber." [Then follows a list of the Knights of the Garter, as ranked that year in their stalls.]

"Wendsday being the 24 of Aperill, 1583, N. D. all' Blumantell, was created Windsor Hearauld, in the rowme of Ric' Turpin, by Therle of Lestcester in his chamber, Therle of Pembrouke and Sr Francis Drake present. Offycers of Armes present :

Sr Gilbert] D[ethick],* all' G[arter],

held the bok and sowrd.

R[obert] C[ooke], all' C[larencieux].
Assistaunce-J [ohn] Co[ke], all' Lan-

Ibid. fol. 72.

"By the Quene [s] Mati.

"We will and comande you, that immediately vppon the sight hereof, you deliver, or cause to be delivered, vnto or trusty and welbelouid servant Nicholas Dethick, al's Windsor, one of or Harauldes of Armes, a Coat of or Armes, of satten, paynted wt fyne golde in oyle, of lyke stuff, length and bredth as hath bene accustomed to be delyvered by you to any of or Harauldes of Armes heertofore. And these or l'res shalbe yo' suffycient warrante and discharge in this behalfe. Given vnder our signett, at our mannor of Grenewiche, the nynetenth day of Aprill, in the fyve and twentith yeere of or raigne.

"To or trusty and welbelovid John Fortescu, esquier, Mr of or great Ward

* The names of the officers, being set down only by their initials, are filled up on the authority of Lant's Roll. (MS. Ashmol. 846, iv.)

robe, or in his absence to his Deputy or "WYNEBANK." Deputies there.

Ibid. fol. 2.

"THE OTHE OF THE HERAULDE WHAN HE YS MADE BEFORE HIS SOUVERAIN Lorde.

Side

"The booke, swourde,
collor of SSS. and wyne. (Note.

"1. Fyrste ye shall swere that ye shalbe trwe to the most highe and mighty prince our Souverain Lord the Kinge, and yf you have any knowlege or here any ymaginacion of treason, or any langage or woord that shoulde mooue or sounde to the de

rogacion or hurte of his estate and highnes (wch God deffende) ye shall in that case as hastely and as soone as ys possyble unto you, discouer and shewe yt unto his highnes, or to his noble and discrete councell, and concele yt in no wyse.

2. Also ye shall promys and swere that ye shalbe conuersaunt and serviceable to all gentelmen to doo their cōmaundemente to their worsshipp, by your good councell that God hath sent you, and ever redye to offer your service unto them.

"3. Also ye shall promys and swere to be secrete and kepe ye secretes of knights, squyres, ladyes, and gentel woomen, as a confessour of armes, and not to discouer them in no wyse, excepte yt be treason as yt is beforesaide.

"4. Also ye shall promis and swere, yf that fortune fall you in diuers landes and cuntrees ye goo or ryde, that ye fynd any gentelman of name and of armes, that hath lost his good in worshipp of knighthood, in the Kinges service, or in any other place of worshipp, and ys fallen in to pouertee, ye shall ayde, supporte hym, and succour him in that you may; and yf he aske you of your good to his sustenaunce, ye shall geue him parte of suche as God hath sente you to your power as ye may bere.

5. Also ye shall promys and swere, if ye be in any place that ye here any langage betwene party and party that is not worsshipfull, proffitable, nor vertuous, that ye kepe your mouthe close, and reporte yt not forthe, but to theire worshipp and the beste.

"6. Also ye shall promys and swere, yf so be that ye be in any place, that ye here any debate or langage dishoneste, betwene gentelman and gentelman, the whiche ye be priue to, yf so be that ye be required by Prynce, Judge, or any other, to bere wyttnes, oonles that the lawe will nedes compell you so to doo, you shall not wt oute lycens of both parties; and when ye have leve, ye shall for any loue, any good favour or awe, but say the soothe to yo' knowlege.