May 17. St. Paschal Babylon, A. D. 1592. St. CHRONOLOGY. 1817. Died at Heckington, aged sixtyfive, Mr. Samuel Jessup, an opulent grazier, of pill-taking memory. He lived in a very eccentric way, as a bachelor, without known relatives; and at his decease possessed of a good fortune, notwithstand ing a most inordinate craving for physic, by which he was distinguished for the last thirty years of his life, as appeared on a trial for the amount of an apothecary's bill, at the assizes at Lincoln, a short time before Mr. Jessup's death, wherein he was defendant. The evidence on the trial affords the following materials for the epitaph of the deceased, which will not be transcended by the memorabilia of the life of any man:-In twenty-one years (from 1791 to 1916) the deceased took 226,934 pills, supplied by a respectable apothecary at Bottesford; which is at the rate of 10,806 pills a year, or twenty-nine pills each day; but as the patient began with a more moderate appetite, and increased it as he proceeded, in the last five years preceding 1816, he took the pills at the rate of seventy-eight a day, and in the year 1814 he swallowed not less than 51,590. Notwithstanding this, and the addition of 40,000 bottles of mixture, and juleps and electuaries,extending altogether to fifty-five closely written columns of an apothecary's bill, the deceased lived to attain the advanced age of sixty-five years. times mayor of the borough; and a magistrate of the county, for which he also served the office of sheriff in 1784. His name is here introduced to commemorate an essential service that he rendered to his country, by his mild and judicious conduct during the mutiny at Spithead, in the spring of 1797. The sailors having lost three of their body in consequence of the resistance made to their going on board the London, then bearing the flag of admiral Colpoys, wished to bury them in in procession through the town of PortsKingston churchyard, and to carry them mouth. This request was most positively refused them by the governor. They then applied to sir John Carter to grant their governor of the propriety and necessity request, who endeavoured to convince the of complying with it, declaring that he town, and the orderly conduct of the would be answerable for the peace of the sailors. The governor would not be prevailed on, and prepared for resistance; and resistance on both sides would most probably have been resorted to, had not ance of sir John Carter at length comprothe calmness, perseverance, and forbearmised the affair, by obtaining permission for the sailors to pass through the garrison of Portsmouth in procession, and the bodies to be landed at the Common Hard in Portsea, where the procession was to join them." a So great was sir John Carter's influence over the sailors, that they most scrupulously adhered to the terms he prescribed to them in their procession to the grave. Two of their comrades having become " little groggy" after they came on shore, they were carefully locked up in a room by themselves, lest they should become quarrelsome, or be unable to conduct themselves with propriety. It was a most interesting spectacle. Sir John accompanied them himself through the garrison, to prevent any insult being offered to them. At the Common Hard he was joined by Mr. Godwin, the friend and associate of his youth, and also a most worthy magistrate of this borough. They attended the procession till it had passed the fortifications at Portsea: every thing was conducted with the greatest decorum. When the sailors returned, and were sent off to their respective ships, two or three of the managing delegates came to sir John, to inform him that the men were all gone on board, and to thank him for his great goodness to them. Sir John seized the opportunity of in- nor was he ever deterred by persona. difficulties or inconveniences from a faithful, and even minute attendance on his widely extended duties. The poor in him ever found a friend, and the unfortunate a protector. The peace, comfort, and happiness of others, and not his own interest, were the unwearied objects of his pursuit. Never was there a character in which there was less of self than in his. MANURES. Rambling in cultivated spots renders one almost forgetful of cultivating friends. On the subject of "manure," the editor of the Every-Day Book has no competent knowledge; he has not settled in his own mind whether he should decide for "long straw or short straw," and as regards himself would willingly dispose of the important question by "drawing cuts;" all he can at present do for his country readers, is to tell them what lord Bacon affirms; his lordship says that "muck should be spread." This would make a capital text or vignette for a dissertation; but there is no space here to dissertate, and if Messrs. Taylor and Hessey's London Magazine, for May, had not suggested the subject, it would scarcely have occurred. There the reviewer of "Gaieties and Gravities" has extracted some points from that work, which are almost equal to the quantity of useful information derivable from more solid books-here they are:Gaieties. Residing upon the eastern coast, and farming a considerable extent of country, I have made repeated and careful experiments with this manure; and as the mode of burial in many parts of the Continent divides the different classes into appropriated portions of the church yard, I have been enabled, by a little bribery to sextons and charnel-house men, to obtain specimens of every rank and character, and to ascertain with precision their separate qualities and results for the purposes of the farmer, botanist, or common nurseryman. These it is my pur. pose to communicate to the reader, who may depend upon the caution with which the different tests were applied, as well as upon the fidelity with which they are reported. "A few cartloads of citizens' bones gave me a luxuriant growth of London pride, plums, Sibthorpia or base moneywort, mud-wort, bladder-wort, and mushrooms; but for aburnum or golden chain, I was obliged to select a lord mayor. Hospital bones supplied me with cyclamen in any quantity, which I intermixed with a few seeds from the Cyclades Islands, and the scurvy-grass came up spontaneously, while manure from different fields of battle proved extremely favourable to the hæmanthus or bloodflower, the trumpet-flower and laurel, as well as to widow-wail and cypress. A few sample skulls from the poet's corner of a German abbey furnished poet's cassia, grass of Parnassus, and bays, in about equal quantities, with wormwood, crab, thistle, stinging-nettle, prickly holly, teasel, and loose-strife. Courtiers and ministers, when converted into manure, secured an ample return of jack-in-a-box, service-apples, climbers, supple-jacks, parasite plants, and that species of sun-flower which invariably turns to the rising luminary. Nabobs form a capital compost for hepatica, liver-wort, spleen-wort, hips, and pine; and from those who had three or four stars at the India-house, I raised some particularly fine China asters. A good show of adonis, narcissus, jessamine, cockscomb, dandelion, money-flower, and buckthorn, may be obtained from dandies, although they are apt to encumber the ground with tickweed; while a good drilling with dandisettes is essential to those beds in which you wish to raise Venus's looking-glass, Venus's catchfly, columbines, and love-apples. A single dressing of jockies will ensure you a quick return of horse-mint, veronica or speedwell, and colt's-foot; and a very slight layer of critics suffices for a good thick spread of scorpion seuna, viper's bugloss, serpent's tongue, poison-nut, nightshade, and hellebore. If you are fond of raising stocks, manure your bed with jobbers; wine-merchants form the most congenial stimulant for sloes, fortune-hunters for the marygold and golden rod, and drunkards for Canary wines, mad-wort and horehound. Failing in repeated attempts to raise the chaste tree from the bones of nuns, which gave me nothing but liquorice-root, I applied those of a dairy-maid, and not only succeeded perfectly in my object, but obtained a good crop of butter-wort, milk-wort, and heart's-ease. I was equally unsuccessful in raising any sage, hor esty, or everlasting from monks; but they yielded a plentiful bed of monk's hood, or jesuit's bark, medlars, and cardinal flowers. My mportation of shoemakers was unfor tunately too scanty to try their effect upon a large scale, but I contrived to procure from them two or three ladies' slippers. As school-boys are raised by birch, it may be hardly necessary to mention, that when reduced to manure, they return the compliment; but it may be useful to make known as widely as possible, that dancing-masters supply the best hops and capers, besides quickening the growth of the citharexylum or fiddle-wood. For your mimosas or sensitive plants there is nothing better than a layer of novel-readers, and you may use up the first bad author that you can disinter for all the poppies you may require. Coffee-house waiters will keep you supplied in cummin; chronologists furnish the best dates, post-office men serve well for rearing scarlet-runners, poulterers for hen-bane, tailors for cabbage, and physicians for truffles, or any thing that requires to be quickly buried. I could have raised a few bachelors' buttons from the bones of that class; but as nobody cares a button for bachelors, I did not think it worth while. As a general remark it may be noticed, that young people produce the passion-flower in abund ance, while those of a more advanced age may be beneficially used for the eldertree, the sloe, and snapdragon; and with respect to different nations, my experiments are only sufficiently advanced to enable me to state that Frenchmen are favourable to garlic, and that Poles are very good for hops. Of mint I have never been able to raise much; but as to thyme, I have so large a supply, as the reader will easily perceive, that I am enabled to throw it away; and as he may not possibly be in a similar predicament, I shall refer him for the rest of my experiments to the records of the Horticultural Society. It is noticed by Dr. Forster, that about this time the purple goatsbeard trago pogon porrifolius and the yellow goatsbeard tragopogon pratensis begin to blow; and that of all the indices in the HOROLOGIUM FLORE the above plants are the most regular: they open thei flowers at sunrise. and shut them so regularly at mid-day, that they have been called by the whimsical name of go tɔ bed at noon. They are as regular as a clock, and are mentioned as such in the following verses:— RETIRED LEISURE'S DELIGHT. To sit and smoke between two rows of Limes, Smell sweetly, and the meads in bloomy prime, To give an idea of the general face of nature at this period, Dr. Forster composed the subjoined Catalogue of Plants which compose the VERNAL FLORA in the Garden. COMMON PEONY Paeonia officinalis in full blow. SLENDERLEAVED PEONY P. tenuifolia going off. CRIMSON PEONY P. peregrina. TULIP Tulipa Gesneriana in infinite varieties. MONKEY POPPY Papaver Orientale. PALE POPPY P. nudicaule. EUROPEAN GLOBEFLOWER Trollius Europaeus. GREAT LEOPARD'S BANE Doronicum pardalianches. LESSER LEOPARD'S BANE Doronicum plantagineum. RAMSHORNS or MALE ORCHIS 0. mascula still blows. FEMALE ORCHIS Orchis morio still flowers. In the Fields. THE HAREBELL Scylla nutans makes the ground blue in some places. BULBOUS CROWFOOT Ranunculus bulbosus. CREEPING CROWFOOT R. repens now common. UPRIGHT MEADOW CROWFOOT R. acris the latest of all. ROUGH CROWFOOT R. hirsutus not so common as the above. The fields are ASIATIC GLOBEFLOWER Trolliur Asia- quite yellow with the above genus. ticus. BACHELOR'S BUTTONS Ranunculus acris plenus. BIFLOWERED NARCISSUS N. biflorus. POETIC NARCISSUS N. poeticus. GERMAN FLEUR DE LIS Iris Germanica, two varieties. LURID IRIS Iris lurida. WALLFLOWER Chieranthus cheiri, numerously, both single and double sorts. STOCK GILLIFLOWER Chiranthus fruticulosus beginning. Of this plant there are red, white, and purple varieties; also double Stocks. YELLOW ASPHODEL Asphodelus luteus. COLUMBINE Aquilegia vulgaris begins to flower, and has several varieties in gardens. GREAT STAR OF BETHLEHEM Ornithogalum umbellatum. PERUVIAN SQUILL Scilla Peruviana. SCARLET AZALEA Azalea nudiflora. PURPLE GOATSBEARD Tragopogon por YELLOW GOATSBEARD rifolius. Tragopogon Hesperis matronalis MEADOW LYCHNIS Lychnis Flos Cu culi. still remain in blow, as violets, hearteases, hepaticas, narcissi, some hyacinths, marsh marigolds, wood anemonies, garden anemonies, &c. &c. The cuckoo pint, or lord and lady Arum, is now in prime. The nations among whom a taste for flowers was first discovered to prevail in modern times, were China, Persia, and Turkey. The vegetable treasures of the eastern world were assembled at Constantinople, whence they passed into Italy, Germany, and Holland, and from the latter into England; and since botany has assumed the character of a science, we have laid the whole world under contribution for trees, and shrubs, and flowers, which we have not only made our own, but generally improved in vigour and beauty. The passion for flowers preceded that of ornamental gardening. The Dutch system of straight walks, enclosed by high clipped hedges of yew or holly, at length prevailed; and tulips and hyacinths bloomed under the sheltered windings of the "Walls of Troy," most ingeniously traced in box and yew. A taste for gardening, which, however formal, is found at length to be preferable to the absurd winding paths, and the close imitation of wild nature by art, which modern gardenmakers have pretended to of late years. The learned baron Maseres used to say, "Such a garden was to be had every where wild in summer, and in a garden formality was preferable." Proverbs relating to May. A cold May and a windy A hot May makes a fat churchyard. Proverbs relating to the Weather and Seasons generally. Collected by Dr. Forster. When the sand doth feed the clay, After a famine in the stall, When the cuckoo comes to the bare thorn, Sell your corn, and buy your sheep. But if the hen moult before the cock, But if there be a rainbow in the morrow, it Is the shepherd's warning; It's in the rain's mouth. When the wind's in the south, It blows the bait into the fishes' mouth. When the sloe-tree is as white as a sheet, FLORAL DIRECTORY. Mouse Ear. Hieracium Pilosella. Dedicated to St. Eric. May 19. St. Peter Celestine, Pope, A. D. 1296 St. Pudentiana. St. Dunstan, Abp. of Canterbury, A. D. 988. St. Dunstan. He was born at Glastonbury, of which monastery he became abbot, and died archbishop of Canterbury in 988.* The legend of St. Dunstan relates many miracles of him, the most popular of which is to this effect; that St. Dunstan, as the fact really was, became expert in goldsmith's work; it then gives as a story, that while he was busied in making a chalice, the devil annoyed him by his personal appearance, and tempted him ; whereupon St. Dunstan suddenly seized the fiend by the nose with a pair of iron tongs, burning hot, and so held him while he roared and cried till the night was far spent. Butler. |