Their seruice thus in ordering, and payde for masse and all, They to the tauerne streightways go, or to the parsons hall, Where all the day they drinke and play, and pots about do walk, &c. OLD HOB. T. A. communicates that there is a custom very common in Cheshire called Old Hob: it consists of a man carrying a dead horse's head, covered with a sheet, to frighten people. This frolic is usual between All Soul's day and Christmas. NATURALISTS' CALENDAR. Mean Temperature . . . 47 · 37. November 3. THE BECKFORD FAMILY. On the 3d of November, 1735, Peter Beckford, Esq. died in Jamaica, worth three hundred thousand pounds. His direct male ancestor, served in a humble capacity in the armament under Penn and Venables, which captured that important island. Mr. Peter Beckford was father of the celebrated alderman Beckford, whose fortune enabled him to purchase the landed estate of the Meroyns in Wiltshire, which, till lately, formed a distinguished part of the possessions of the present Mr. Beckford. forest, and the reception of the monks of St. Augustine. Many vestiges remain of the splendour of this abbey, which is now a large farin, and stone coffins have been found here. A carpenter in this neighbourhood recently digging a hole for the post to a gate, struck his spade against a substance which proved to be gold, and weighed two ounces: it was the image of a monk in the posture of prayer, with a a book open before him. A subterraneous passage once led from this place to Malmsbury-abbey, a distance of seven miles. At this ruin, when a boy, I was shown the stone upon which the blood is said to have been spilt by a school-master, who, in a passion, killed his pupil with a penknife. Clack spring and fall Fairs were well attended formerly. They were held for horses, pigs, cows, oxen, sheep, and shows; but especially for the " hiring servants." Hamlet's words,-" Oh, what a falling off is here!" may not inappropriately be applied. Old Michaelmasday is the time the fall fair is kept, but, really, every thing which constitutes a fair, seemed this year to be absent. A few farmers strolled up and down the main street in their boots, and took refuge in the hospitable houses; a few rustics waited about the " Mop" or "Statue" in their clean frocks twisted round their waists with their best clothes on; a few sellers of cattle looked round for customers, with the pike tickets in their hats; and a few maid servants placed themselves in a corner to be hired here, there was no want of Clack, for many were raised in stature by their pattens and rather towering bonnets; and a few agriculturists' daughters and dames, in whom neither scarcity of money nor apparel were visible, came prancing into the courts of their friends and alighting at the uppingstocks, and dashed in among the company with true spirit and bon hommie. Clack fair was worth gazing at a few years ago. When Joe Ody,* the stultum ingenium, obtained leave to show forth in the Blindhouse by conjuring rings off women's fingers, and finding them in men's pockets, eating fire and drawing yards of ribands out of his mouth, giving shuffling tricks with cards, to ascertain how much money was in the ploughman's yellow purse, cutting off cock's heads, A native of this part, and at the top of MerryAndrewism. 66 pricking in the garter for love tokens, giving a chance at the "black cock or the white cock," and lastly, raising the devil, who carries off the cheating parish baker upon his back. These, indeed, were fine opportunities for old women to talk about, when leaning over the hatch of the front door, to gossip with their ready neighbours in the same position opposite, while their goodmen of the house, sat in the porch chuckling with pipe in one hand and jug in the other." Then the "learned dog" told person's names by letters; and here I discovered the secret of this canine sapiency, the master twitched his thumb and finger for the letter at which the dog stopped. I posed, master and dog, however, by giving my christian name "Jehoiada." A word no fair scholar could readily spell; this shook the faith of many gaping disciples. The "poney" too was greatly admired for telling which lassie loved her morning bed, which would be first married, and which youth excelled in kissing a girl in a sly corner. The being “ground young again," no less enlivened the spirits of maiden aunts, and the seven tall single sisters; then the pelican put its beak on the child's head for a night cap, and the monkeys and bears looked, grimaced and danced, to the three dogs in red jackets, with short pipes in their mouths; and the climbing cat" ascended the "maypole," and returned into its master's box at a word. This year's attractions chiefly were three booths for gingerbread and hard ware-a raree show! a blind fidler-the E. O. table-the birds, rats, and kittens in one cage and a song sung here and there, called the "Bulleyed Farmers," attributed to Bowles of Brinkworth, but who disclaimed like Coleridge, the authorship of a satiric production. Thus, fairs, amusements and the works of mortals, pass away-one age dies, another comes in its stead-but who will secure the sports of ancestry inviolate? who search into the workings of the illiterate, and hand them down to posterity, without the uncertain communication of oral tradition, which often obscures the light intended to be conveyed for information. Thanks be to the art of printing, to the cultivation of reading, and the desire which accompanies both. November 4. KING WILLIAM LANDED. On the day appointed for the commemoration of the landing of king William III. (who in fact landed on the 5th*) it may be worth notice, that its centenary in 1788 is thus mentioned in the "Public Advertiser" of that year-"This day is appointed to commemorate an event, which, if deserving commemoration, ought never to be forgotten, and yet it is probable it will produce as much good moral or political effect as the events which distinguish Christmas, Good Friday, or Easter, from other days of the year. However, we are not disposed to quarrel with the scheme, the events of a day are few, the remembrance cannot be long. In the City, in Westminster, and in many of the principal towns in England, societies have been formed, cards of invitation sent, sold and bought, and grand dinners are prepared, and have this day been devoured with keen revolution appetites. Not to exclude the females, in some places balls are given; and that the religious may not wholly be disappointed, revolution sermons were this morning preached in several chapels and meeting-houses. Scotland is not behind hand in zeal upon this occasion, although a little so in point of time. To-morrow is their day of commemoration. Over all the kingdom a day of thanksgiving is appointed." KING WILLIAM'S PEERS. For the Every-Day Book. The essential services of king William III. to the cause of civil and religious liberty, his perseverance and prowess as a warrior, his shrewdness and dexterity as a statesman, adapting the most conciliatory means to the most patriotic ends, have been repeatedly dilated on, and generally acknowledged. Here, is merely purposed to be traced how he exercised one of the most exclusive, important, and durable prerogatives of an English monarch, by a brief recapitulation of such of his additions and promotions in the hereditory branch of our legislature as still are in existence. The ancestor of the duke of Portland was count Bentinck, a Dutchman, of a family still of note in Holland; he had bee vol. i. col. 1428, been page of honour to king William, when he was only prince of Orange. He made him groom of the stole, privy purse, a lieutenant-general in the British army, colonel of a regiment of Dutch horse in the British pay, one of the privy-council, master of the horse, baron of Cirencester, viscount Woodstock, and earl of Portland, and afterwards ambassador extraordinary to the court of France. His son was made duke of Portland, and governor of Jamaica, by George I. William Heury Nassau, commonly called seigneur, or lord of Zuletstein in Holland, was another follower of the fortunes of king William; he was related to his majesty, his father having been a natural son of the king's grandfather. He was in the year 1695 created baron of Enfield, viscount Tunbridge, and earl of Rochfort. Arnold Joost Van Keppel, another of Williams's followers, was the second son of Bernard Van Pallant, lord of the manor of Keppel in Holland, a particular favourite of his majesty, who, soon after his accession to the throne, created him baron of Ashford, viscount Bury, and earl of Albemarle. Earl Cowper is indebted for his barony of Wingham to queen Anne, and for his further titles of viscount Fordwich, and earl Cowper, to George I.; but he derives no inconsiderable portion of his wealth from his ancestress in the female line, lady Henrietta, daughter and heiress of the earl of Grantham, descended from monsieur d'Auverquerque, who was by that prince raised to the dignity of an English earl, by the title of Grantham, being representative of an illegitimate son of the celebrated shadthalder, prince Maurice. The heroic marshal Schomberg, who fell in the memorable battle of the Boyne when upwards of eighty years of age, had previously been created by king William, a duke both in England and Ireland. His titles are extinct, but his heir general is the present duke of Leeds, who is at the same time heir male to the celebrated earl of Danby, who cuts so conspicuous a figure in the annals of Charles II., and was by William III. advanced to a duke dom. The dukedom of Bolton was conferred by William on the marquis of Winchester, whose ancestors had for a century stood enrolled as premier marquisses of England. Long before they were advanced by William III. to dukedoms, the houses of Russell and Cavendish had been noted as two of the most historical families in the English peerage. Their earldoms were respective creations of Edward VI. and James 1. The individual of each house first ennobled, died possessed of the bulk of the extensive landed possessions, and strong parliamentary influence with which his representative is at the present moment invested. The character and military achievements of John Churchill stand so preeminent in the history of Europe, that it need here only be remarked that from a baron, king William conferred on him the earldom of Marlborough, again advanced by queer Anre to a dukedom, carried on by act of parliament, after his victory of Blenheim, to the issue male of his daughters, and now vested in the noble family of Spencer, earl of Sunderland. Lord Lumley, advanced to the earldom of Scarborough, was one of the memorable seven who signed the original lette of invitation to the prince of Orange. Lord Coventry, descended from a lord keeper of the great seal to Charles I., was promoted by William III. to an earldom. Sir Edward Villiers, a courtier, of the same family as the celebrated duke of Buckingham, received the earldom of Jersey. The families of Cholmondeley, Fermor, and Ashburnham, were each raised by William III. to the dignity of English barons. They were each of considerable antiquity and extensive possessions. Each was, moreover, peculiarly distinguished for devoted attachment to the cause of Charles I., even when it stood in the extremest jeopardy. These baronies are now vested respectively in the marquis of Cholmondeley, and the earls of Pomfret and Ashburnham. The possessions, the influence, the connections of the male representative of the able, the restless, the unfortunate sir Harry Vane, were still of weightier calibre. He received from king William the barony of Barnard, now vested in the earl of Darlington. NATURALISTS' CALENDAR. Mean Temperature. .43·27. P. Then hollo boys! hollo boys! shout and nuzz Hollo boys! hollo boys! keep up the day, Hollo boys! hollo boys! let the bells ring, Down with the pope, and God save the king Huzza! Huzza! Huzza! There was a publication in 1825, of similar character to the preceding. "Guy" was the subject of the cut, and the topic of the verses was a prayer for "a halfpenny to buy a faggot, Though it is not requisite to relate more particulars of the "gunpowder treason' than have been already mentioned,* yet a friendly finger points to a passage in an old writer, concerning one of the conspirators, which is at least amusing: -"Some days before the fatal stroke should be given, Master Keys, being at Tichmersh, in Northamptonshire, at the house of Mr. Gilbert Pickering, his brother-in-law, (but of a different religion, as a true protestant,) suddenly whipped out his sword, and in merriment made many offers therewith at the heads, necks, and sides of many gentlemen and gentiewomen then in his company. This, then, was taken as a mere frolic, and for the present passed accordingly; but afterwards, when the treason was discovered, such as remembered his gestures, thought thereby he did act what he intended to do, (if the plot had took effect,) hack and hew, kill and slay, all eminent persons of a different religion to themselves."+ A modern writer observes:-" It is not, perhaps, generally known, that we have a form of prayer for prisoners, which is printed in the Irish Common Prayer-book,' though not in ours. Mrs. Berkeley, in whose Preface of Prefaces to her son's poems I first saw this mentioned, regrets the omission, observing, that the very fine prayer for those under sentence of death might, being read by the children of the poor, at least In vol. i. col. 1438. † Fuller's Church History. VOL. II. 689 2 Y keep them from the gallows. The remark is just. If there be not room in our prayer-book, we have some services there which might better be dispensed with. It was not very decent in the late abolition of holydays, to let the two Charleses hold their place, when the Virgin Mary and the saints were deprived of the red letter privileges. If we are to have any state service, it ought to be for the expulsion of the Stuarts. There is no other part of their history which England ought to remember with sorrow and shame. Guy Faux also might now be dismissed, though the Eye of Providence would be a real loss. The Roman catholics know the effect of such prints as these, and there can be no good reason for not imitating them in this instance. I would have no prayer-book published without that eye of Providence in it."* PURTON BONFIRE. To the Editor of the Every-Day Book. Dear Sir,-At almost every village in England, the fifth of November is regarded in a very especial manner. Some pay greater attention to it than others, but believe it is invariably noticed by all. I have been present at Old Purton bonfire, and perhaps the following short notice of it may not be uninteresting. I before stated (col. 1207) that the green, or close, at Purton, is the spot allotted for amusements in general. This is also the place for the ceremonies on this highly important day, which I am about to describe. Several weeks before, the boys of the village go to every house begging faggots; and if they are refused they all answer together If you don't give us one And worse for you. They were once refused by a farmer, (who was very much disliked by the poor for his severity and unkindness,) and accordingly they determined to make him repent. He kept a sharp look out over his faggot pile, but forgot that something else might be stolen. The boys got into his backyard and extracted a new pump, which had not been properly fixed, and bore it off in triumph to the green, where it Dr. Aikin's Athenæum. was burnt amidst the loud acclamations of the young rogues generally. All the wood, &c. which has been previously collected, is brought into the middle of the close where the effigy of poor Guy is burnt. A figure is made (similar to one of those carried about London streets,) intending to represent the conspirator, and placed at the top of a high pole, with the fuel all around. Previous to lighting it, poor Guy is shot at by all who have the happiness to possess guns for the purpose, and pelted with squibs, crackers, &c. This fun continues about an hour, and then the pile is lighted, the place echoes with huzzas, guns keep up perpetual reports, fireworks are flying in all directions, and the village bells merrily ring. The fire is kept up a considerable time, and it is a usual custom for a large piece of "real Wiltshire bacon" to be dressed by it, which is taken to the publichouse, together with potatoes roasted in the ashes of the bonfire, and a jovial repast is made. As the fire decreases, successive quantities of potatoes are dressed in the embers by the rustics, who seem to regard them as the great delicacies of the night. There is no restraint put on the loyal zeal of these good folks, and the fire is maintained to a late hour. I remember, on one occasion, hearing the guns firing as I lay in bed between two and three o'clock in the morning. The public-house is kept open nearly all night. Ale flows plentifully, and it is not spared by the revellers. They have a noisy chorus, which is intended as a toast to his majesty it runs thus: My brave lads remember The fifth of November, Gunpowder treason and plot, We will drink, smoke, and sing, boys, And our bells they shall ring, boys, And here's health to our king, boys, For he shall not be forgot. Their merriment continues till morning, when they generally retire to rest very much inebriated, or, as they term it, merry," or "top heavy." I hope to have the pleasure of reading other communications in your interesting work on this good old English custom; and beg to remain, October 20, 1826. Dear Sir, &c. C. T. If the collections formerly published a |