Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

ment, Indian government, Bank of England, Metropolitan Board of Works, and several municipal and colonial stocks, are transferred in the books kept for the purpose at the Bank of England, where the seller must make the transfer either personally or by his attorney.

In these times of bad trade and general financial and mercantile depression, people look upon the Stock Exchange with a jaundiced eye, as the outward and visible herald of falling prices and increasing losses, and scarcely a good word is heard of the House' or anything connected with it. But the Stock Exchange, great as its influence undoubtedly is, cannot control events, and ignorance can be the only excuse of those who do not recognise in it an institution of great public utility, we might almost say of absolute necessity in a great commercial country, in which the savings accumulated by industry must find a ready means of investment. Far be it from us to say that the Stock Exchange is immaculate; but everything is done by the governing body to make it so; and it is the paramount interest of each member to fulfil his engagements promptly and honestly. No doubt, many flagrant cases of default have taken place; but when the magnitude of the transactions and the varied interests involved are taken into account, it must be admitted that the loss to the public from this cause is wonderfully small. We believe that one of the most fruitful causes of the disasters which have of late years helped to throw discredit on the Stock Exchange is the pernicious habit, if we may so call it, indulged in by many persons of leaving stock in the hands of their brokers for safe custody, collection of coupons, &c. When a man has bought stock and paid for it, he should in all circumstances insist upon having it in his own keeping, or at all events under his own control, at his banker's; or, if in London, in the vaults of the National Safe-deposit Company, or other place of safety. The folly of leaving valuable securities in the hands and at the mercy of any one man, no matter who he is, and often for a long course of years, cannot be too much deprecated; and in these days, when bankers and others offer every facility to their customers for keeping papers of value in perfect safety and under their own control, there can be no excuse for such laxness. If this were attended to by every one -and why should it not be?-we are convinced that our convict prisons would not be so full, and society would not suffer so many rude shocks as have shaken it during the last few years.

We would refer, in conclusion, to one more form of temptation which is daily and hourly thrown into the way of investors, and which we also hold responsible for much loss to the unsophisticated. In these days of cheap postage, the public is deluged with prospectuses of every description, most of which are prepared in so alluring a manner, and appeal so specially to human cupidity, that the investing public are led away, and part with their money never to see it again. We can only advise such persons

[blocks in formation]

POST-OFFICE NOTES.

WITH the rapidly increasing population of this country, it is only natural that increased work should be entailed upon the various departments of the State, and this is essentially the case with respect to the Post-office, for, in addition to the cause already mentioned, the better education of the people is brought to bear in increasing the mass of correspondence passing through that from the recently issued Report of the Postmasterdepartment for transit. Accordingly, we find, general, that the year's working for the twelve months ending the 31st of March 1885, shows an increase in correspondence of nearly four per cent., the yearly increase in population being about one per cent., or only a fourth of the increase in correspondence.

the year was as follows: Letters, 1,360,341,400; The number of letters, &c., delivered during post-cards, 160,340,500; book-packets and circulars, 320,416,800; newspapers, 143,674,500— making a total of 1,984,773,200. Of parcels, 22,904,373 were delivered-making a grand total of 2,007,677,573 articles. These figures give an average of thirty-eight letters to each person in the United Kingdom. Including post-cards, the average is forty-two; a far larger proportion, the Report states, than in any other country. With the total average is nearly fifty-six. The number book-packets, newspapers, and parcels included, of registered letters carried was 11,365,151, showing a decrease of one-and-a-half per cent.

The total number of letters, post-cards, &c., received at the Returned Letter Offices during the year was 5,626,875, being a decrease of nearly two per cent. over the previous year; from which it may be gathered that the public at large has become more careful in addressing its correspondence correctly. Out of this total, 512,636 letters were unreturnable; 26,472 letters were posted without any address, and out of this number there were 1686 which contained value to the amount of £3898. Upwards of 45,000 parcels were undelivered, on account, chiefly, of insecure packing and incomplete addresses.

During the last year, 483 new post-offices have been opened, bringing the total number in the United Kingdom to 16,434. Letter-boxes have been added to the number of 773-thus making the total number of receptacles of all kinds for letters about 33,000.

To meet the increased work of the department, 1969 officers have been added to the permanent staff during the year, bringing the total number employed up to about 48,000. In addition to these, about 47,000 persons are employed throughout the country by different postmasters as assistants; but most of them have private occupations, and only perform postal duties for a short time in the day. The pension list shows a total of 3337 retired officers in receipt of pensions amounting to £175,602 per annum.

Several important improvements in the mailservice have been carried out during the year, nearly all the large towns in Scotland being

benefited by an arrangement which reduces by passes into the rear of the machine. The carpet forty minutes the time occupied in the transit is then reversed and put through again. This of the mails from London to Perth. A new is usually sufficient for ordinary Brussels or mail-train leaving King's Cross at 7.40 A.M. Kidderminster; but thick-pile carpets of Axmingreatly improves the service between the continent and Yorkshire; in proof of which it may be mentioned that a letter posted in Paris on Tuesday evening would arrive in Yorkshire on Wednesday about noon; and a reply could be posted so as to be delivered in Paris early on Thursday morning. This is an instance of celerity which leaves nothing to be desired.

Several curious incidents are noted as having occurred during the year. A bird, described as a 'blue-breast,' hatched during the summer a brood of young ones in a private letter-box in a road near Lockerbie. She allowed the postman to feed her, and remained on the nest when he opened the box, but invariably flew away if any one else appeared. A box arrived at Greenock by parcel post which, in consequence of the strange noises which were heard to proceed from it, was opened by the postmaster, when it was found to contain a common screech-owl. As the bird was in an exhausted condition, it was taken care of and fed, and when properly recovered, sent on by railway to its owner. Two cheques, for one hundred and seventeen and twenty pounds respectively, were posted in a letter-box at Birmingham without cover or address, one being payable to bearer, and the other uncrossed! They were relegated to the Returned Letter Office, and duly restored to their owners. In Liverpool, a penny stamp was posted, on the back of which was written twenty-six words. This was duly delivered, as was also a second and similar epistle; but on the experiment being repeated with a halfpenny stamp, the novel missive became liable to a charge of one penny, as an insufficiently prepaid document; and this penalty was duly enforced.

A NEW CARPET-CLEANER.

It may not be generally known to our readers that carpets are now cleaned on an extensive scale in London and a few other of the great towns in England and Scotland. The machine is made so as to thoroughly beat every inch of the carpet subjected to it, besides removing all dirt and eradicating moths and their eggs, without damage to the fabric. The machine itself consists of an external wooden casing of over twenty feet long, strongly put together, oblong in shape, with a narrow orifice along the front of it, of sufficient width to admit of the thickest carpet; thus it will take a carpet of the largest dimension equally well as a small stair ditto. Through the centre of the machine runs iron shaft, which is driven by steam or other power. The shaft is what is termed lagged, that is, lined externally with wood, to which are attached at equal distances around it four rows of wide leather straps, the whole length of it. The carpet is placed on the edge of the aperture of the machine, and as the shaft revolves, the leather straps or chains, each row in succession, strike the carpet that is being cleaned, so that no part is missed. The circular action of the straps as they rotate has a slight pulling tendency on the carpet, which slowly and surely draws it in, on to an elastic bed or platform, from which it

an

ster or Turkey make, which hold and retain the dust, &c., are subjected to repeated operations until properly cleaned. The material cannot be damaged, on account of the elastic platform, which gives way, and so modifies the pressure of the straps as they descend upon it. Then, again, the leather thongs being loose, like the lash of a whip, bend themselves to the contour of the article they fall upon, so different from the hole-producing rigid stick hitherto in use. The cleaning of a carpet of an ordinary sized dining or drawing room is begun and finished in from ten to fifteen minutes. When the fabric is drawn from the machine the colours show much of their pristine beauty now that they are freed from dust. The dust evolved during the process is sucked by a powerful fan and driven through an inclosed spout into a chimney shaft, where it meets the flame from a furnace, and is consumed.

The machine, we understand, is an American invention, and was first introduced into this country about six years ago, and may be seen at work in Leicester, Nottingham, Edinburgh, and other large towns.

ONLY FRIENDS.
SUMMER'S freshness fell around us,
Nature dreamed its sweetest dream,
Every balmy evening found us

By the meadow or the stream,
With our hearts as free from sadness
As the sunshine heaven sends;
Youth's bright garden bloomed in gladness,
Where we wandered-only friends.

[blocks in formation]

All Rights Reserved.

CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL

OF

POPULAR

LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART

Fifth Series

ESTABLISHED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, 1832
CONDUCTED BY R. CHAMBERS (SECUNDUS)

No. 90.-VOL. II.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 1885.

SOME MEDIEVAL BANQUETS. AN old chronicler tells us that on the occasion of a tournament honoured by the presence of most of the nobility of England, the cooks who prepared the banquets entered into a friendly contest as to which of them should have the merit of designing the most acceptable dish. The cook to whom this honour fell sent in a sucking-pig harnessed to a chariot of plumpudding with strings of sausages. To enjoy such a dish as this, our forefathers must, to say the least of it, have been very gross feeders. They were also great feeders, and the chief aim of a host was to load the table until it literally groaned beneath the weight placed upon it.

PRICE 1d.

elevation to the 'primacy of England.' The Kingmaker himself was no less notable for his housekeeping. At his London mansion his retainers consumed six oxen daily for breakfast! and at his numerous seats the same liberal scale of purveyance was absolutely necessary.

The tables of the great lords being furnished with this lavish extravagance, the waste of food must have been immense, not only because of the impossibility of cooking whole oxen, calves, sheep, and swine so that every portion of the flesh shall be eatable; but also because, in those days, it would not have been complimentary to the guests to provide for them as if you had wished them to eat as we moderns do.

The Germans, always celebrated for heavy eating, furnish us with some curious culinary items. In the middle ages the goose was the grand dish among them; but they also ate crows, storks, cranes, herons, swans, and bitterns

these last-named dishes being arranged in a circle of honour around the goose. The geier or European vulture, the dogfish, the dolphin, and even the whale, were eaten; whilst a roast guinea-pig was considered a very great delicacy. All their foods were highly spiced; and sauces were endless in their variety, three or four kinds being served up with each dish. In these sauces, pepper, mace, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, garlic, saffron, and pimento contended for the mastery; and the more decided the flavour, the better the cook.

In 1470, the Archbishop of York gave a banquet which has probably never been surpassed for the abundance of the comestibles consumed. Three hundred quarters of flour were used, three hundred and thirty tuns of ale, a hundred hogsheads of hippocras, eighty fat oxen, six wild oxen, a thousand and four sheep, three hundred pigs, three hundred sucking-pigs, three hundred calves, three thousand geese, a thousand capons, two hundred peafowl, two hundred cranes, two hundred kids, two thousand chickens, four thousand pigeons, four thousand rabbits, two hundred and four herons, four thousand ducks, two hundred pheasants, five hundred partridges, four thousand snipes, four hundred waterhens, one hundred quails, one thousand bitterns, two Of course, the great art was to arrange these hundred roes, four hundred deer, fifteen hundred sauces in an ascending scale of piquancy. and six venison pasties, fourteen hundred bowls great, indeed, was the passion for highly flavoured of meat jelly, four thousand bowls of sweet spices, foods, that turkeys had often an allowance of three hundred pikes, three hundred breams, eight musk in their daily rations. The most fashiondogfish, four dolphins, and four hundred fruit-able wines were those of Chios, Cyprus, and tarts. Sixty red-faced cooks laboured and fumed other Greek vintages; but, as highly flavoured to reduce these good things to dainty dishes; while a thousand serving-men waited outside the banqueting-hall, and five hundred and fifteen within. The lordly archbishop who sat at the head of the table was the brother of the celebrated 'King-maker,' and the occasion was his

So

foods require drink to correspond, the wine was generally spiced, and was served under the name of hippocras. It was not thought unpolite, even so late as the sixteenth century, for a guest to ask his host what wines he intended to provide, so that he might make his calcu

lations as to what he would take before he In Elizabethan days, the first course on great confined himself to the particular tipple which should place him under the table; nor was it thought unpolite in the middle of a banquet to undo the girdle in order to make more room for such tempting tit-bits as pike-tails, barbels' heads, skin of roast goose, and swan-tongues. The feast usually commenced at eleven in the forenoon; and the longer the host could keep the guests at table, the better was he thought of; but in the matter of drinking, he was expected to encourage potation by providing bacchanalian songs, or, at least, by being himself the first to become hors de combat. It was with this latter object that a rich man would mix his wines; while a poorer one would contrive to have his homely tankard strongly dosed with wine, or even spirits, when these had become general.

When Joachim I. of Brandenburg married the daughter of the Duke of Saxony in 1524, the first course consisted of hare, venison, birds, and apples roasted in butter; the second, of smerlin, quince and pear tarts, and hare-pie; and the third, of capon served with biscuits and sweet wines, also of whey and rice.

In addition to these dishes, there were served with each course immense piles of sugar and almond paste, to represent some group of figures, such as a tournament of knights, an historical or legendary event, or some sacred subject. These contrivances were called show-dishes; and the ingenuity of the court pastry-cooks and confectioners must often have been exercised for months beforehand in order to furnish them; while the good monks at the neighbouring monastery must often have been obliged to ransack their brains in order to suggest subjects which should prove both interesting and new.

In 1585, when Prince John William of Jülich married Princess Jakoba of Baden, the showdishes grew to such considerable proportions that they occupied a very large space in the dininghall. The principal show-dish represented a garden, where grew laurel-trees with leaves covered with spangles, fruit-trees on great rocks; hills and mountains; rivers and ponds in which swam live fish; castles, cities, mansions, farms and huts; forests inhabited by elephants, lions, tigers, and singing-birds; whilst some musicians, skilfully hidden in the cardboard, discoursed sweet music to the delight of the guests.

Many a time, live animals, especially birds, were hidden away in a cake or a pie; and the guests were doubtless as much amused as our own youngsters are to this day with the 'fourand-twenty blackbirds baked in a pie,' a nursery song which must have been suggested by more than one real dainty dish set before a real king. But perhaps the most curious pie ever placed before royalty was that one in which Archie Armstrong the jester was served before Queen Anne of Denmark for her amusement.

occasions would probably be wheaten flummery, stewed broth or spinach broth, or smallage, gruel, or hotchpot. The second consisted of fish, among which we may note lampreys, poorJohn, stock-fish, and sturgeon, with side-dishes of porpoise. The third course comprised quaking puddings, bag puddings, black puddings, white puddings, and marrow puddings. Then came veal, beef, capons, humble-pie, mutton, marrow pasties, Scotch collops, wild-fowl, and game. In the fifth course, all kinds of sweets, creams in all their varieties, custards, cheese-cakes, jellies, warden-pies, suckets, sillabubs, and so on; to be followed perhaps by white cheese and tansy-cake. For the drinks, ale and beer, wine, sack, and numerous varieties of mead or metheglin, some of which were concocted out of as many as fiveand-twenty herbs, and were redolent of sweet country perfumes.

Queen Elizabeth's table was always laid with the utmost solemnity. The majordomo entered the banqueting-room with his white wand accompanied by one with the table-cloth. Both kneeled three times reverently, the cloth was spread, and after some further reverent kneeling, they retired. In like manner the majordomo led in the man who carried the salt-cellar, the plates, and the bread, when the performances on the knees were again repeated. Two ladies of title now entered, one a matron and the other unmarried. These prostrated themselves three times, when the younger lady rubbed the plates reverently with salt and bread. After that came the yeomen of the guard, or 'beefeaters,' each bearing a silver dish. There were usually four-and-twenty to a course. A gentleman received each dish; and after it was placed by him on the table, a ladytaster took out a small portion, and gave it to the man who had carried it in, to eat, in case it should have been poisoned. During the whole of these observances, the prostrations were continued, just as if the queen herself had been present, and the trumpeters blew fanfares, and the kettledrums rolled. By this time the queen had entered her private room leading out of the banqueting-hall, and each dish was in turn carried in to her by an unmarried lady, and placed on the table for Her Majesty to make her selection; after which they were conveyed once more into the great room, to be consumed by those who had the honour of dining at court. Throughout the whole meal, the most reverential and solemn etiquette was rigorously exacted of all.

The same ceremonial observances were in a lesser degree customary throughout the land in the thousand-and-one red-gabled mansions which raised their proud heads from amidst the stately green trees of the parks, each knight and noble being a little king in his domain. No wonder, then, that in Queen Elizabeth's days Englishmen considered themselves born to rule the world,

[ocr errors]

Sept. 19, 1885.]

[blocks in formation]

CONSTANCE WARING had not been enjoying herself in Bordighera. Her amusement indeed came to an end with the highly exciting yet disagreeable scene which took place between herself and young Gaunt the day before he went away. It is late to recur to this, so much having passed in the meantime; but it really was the only thing of note that happened to her. The blank negative with which she had met his suit, the air of surprise, almost indignation, with which his impassioned appeal was received, confounded poor young Gaunt. He asked her, with a simplicity that sprang out of despair, 'Did you not know then? Were you not aware? Is it possible that you were not-prepared?'

'For what, Captain Gaunt?' Constance asked, fixing him with a haughty look.

He returned that look with one that would have cowed a weaker woman. 'Did you not know that I-loved you?' he said.

Even she quailed a little. 'Oh, as for that, Captain Gaunt!-a man must be responsible for his own follies of that kind. I did not ask you to care for me, as you say. I thought, indeed, that you would have the discretion to see that anything of the kind between us was out of the question.'

'Why?' he asked, almost sternly; and Constance hesitated a little, finding it perhaps not so easy to reply.

'Because,' she said after a pause, with a faint flush, which showed that the effort cost her something-because-we belong to two different worlds-because all our habits and modes of living are different.' By this time she began to grow a little indignant that he should give her so much trouble. 'Because you are Captain Gaunt, of the Indian service, and I am Constance Waring,' she said with angry levity.

He grew deadly red with fierce pride and

shame.

'Because you are of the higher class, and I of the lower,' he said. 'Is that what you mean? Yet I am a gentleman, and one cannot well be more.'

To this she made no reply, but moved away from where she had been standing to listen to him, and returned to her chair. They were on the loggia, and this sudden movement left him at one end, while she returned to the other. He stood for a time following her with his eyes; then, having watched the angry abandon with which she threw herself into her seat, turning her head away, he came a little closer with a certain sternness in his aspect.

'Miss Waring,' he said, 'notwithstanding the

distance between us, you have allowed me to be your-companion for some time past.'

'Yes,' she said. 'What then? There was no one else, either for me or for you.'

'That, then, was the sole reason?' 'Captain Gaunt,' she cried, 'what is the use of all this? We were thrown in each other's

way. I meant nothing more; if you did, it was your own fault. You could not surely expect that I should marry you and go to India with you? It is absurd-it is ridiculous,' she cried with a hot blush, throwing back her head. He saw with suddenly quickened perceptions that the suggestion filled her with contempt and shame. And the young man's veins tingled as if fire was in them; the rage of love despised shook his very soul.

'And why?' he cried; and why?' his voice tremulous with passion. 'What is ridiculous in that? It may be ridiculous that I should have believed in a girl like you. I may have been a vain weak fool to do it, not to know that I was only a plaything for your amusement; but it never could be ridiculous to think that a woman might love and marry an honourable man.'

He paused several times to command his voice, and she listened impatient, not looking at him, clasping and unclasping her hands.

'It would be ridiculous in me,' she cried. 'You don't know me, or you never would have dreamt- Captain Gaunt, this had better end. It is of no use lashing yourself to fury, or me either. Think the worst of me you can; it will be all the better for you-it will make you hate me. Yes, I have been amusing myself; and so, I supposed, were you too.'

'No,' he said, 'you could not think that.' She turned round and gave him one look, then averted her eyes again, and said no more.

'You did not think that,' he cried vehemently. 'You knew it was death to me, and you did not mind. You listened and smiled, and led me on. You never checked me by a word, or gave me to understand- Oh,' he cried with

a sudden change of tone, 'Constance, if it is India, if it is only India, you have but to hold up a finger, and I will give up India without a word!'

He had suddenly come close to her again. A wild hope had blazed up in him. He made as though he would throw himself at her feet. She lifted her hand hurriedly, to forbid this action.

'Don't!' she cried sharply. 'Men are not theatrical nowadays. It is nothing to me whether you go to India or stay at home. I have told you already I never thought of anything beyond friendship. Why should not we have amused each other, and no harm? If I have done you any harm, I am sorry; but it will only be for a very short time.'

He had turned away, stung once more into

« PreviousContinue »