1047] Collectanea of British Antiquities. again at the approaching of the allies, whom likewise they must support for the time!!!" Extract of a Letter from the Rev. Dr. Rein ENDEAVOUR SOCIETY. Having already (page 974) paid our tribute hard, of Dresden, to the Rev. Mr. Stein-of praise to the author of the Manual of Orthodox Divinity, we embrace this opporkopf, dated Heidelberg, April 29, 1806. "What aggravates the misery of the poor tunity of noticing the Society which sanctions mountaineers to the highest pitch, is, the it, and which assumes the humble name of the Endeavour Society," the objects of stagnation of every kind of manufacture. which are so truly characteristic of British Most of the inhabitants of this province are manufacturers; and while the Saxon manu- philanthropy, that we cannot but recommend it to the notice of every friend to relifactures were in a flourishing state, were enabled to obtain, if not always an ample, at gion and humanity. It has been established least a sufficient and respectable subsistence. several years, but in the great and increasing These industrious, active, and honest people multitude of such societies, its name and views have escaped our notice. The objects have now (where the scarcity has become so urgent) no work to do, since all the pro- of this Society are not confined either to the bodies or the souls of men exclusively, both Instruction to the soul, prietors of manufactories find themselves, on account of the total stagnation of trade, under share in its concern. the necessity of confining their business to a medicines for the body, comforts for the fenarrower compass. Whole districts, where male in the most interesting of all situationsformerly every one was employed and earned that of child-birth; and sufferings from pohis subsistence, are now without employment verty-all these circumstances are provided and without bread; and innumerable families for by this Society. Books are circulated, to are, in the strictest sense of the word, des- instruct the ignorant in the established religion; medical attendance at their own houses titute." is afforded to the poor when sick, and to fund will admit of it, to furnish what is still pregnant women; and it is intended, if the month, for mother and child.-The subscripmore useful, in some cases-linen, during the tion is only one guinea per annum! Every subscriber is allowed any number of patients on his list. No delay takes place for want of a vacant letter. Every necessary medical attention is paid to every patient.-Can any compassionate mind refrain from assisting a advantages? Society which endeavours to extend so many Extract of a Letter from the Rev. Mr. 1806. "What a burthen this is, you may easily in the mountainous parts of Saxony. In the preceding pages, the considerate COLLECTANEA OF BRITISH ANTIQUITIES. What was the state of Britain, previous to the time of Cæsar?-This is a question which we have repeatedly put to ourselves, and to others, without being able to obtain a satisCæsar, no doubt, employed factory answer. his means to acquire such information as might answer his purpose; but his purpose was military, in the first place; it was political, in the second place; but domestic it was not. The open and popular customs of the British, such as could be observed by traders, were all that we can suppose were reported to him, and these incidentally only. The coasts of the island were, probably, áll that was known by those who had visited it; the interior, its customs, rites, and rulers, required, not merely the passing observations of a traveller, if such an one was permitted in the country; but the actual participation of a resident for a time, at least; and this the more, because we have every reason from the best information to believe, that he who spent a summer among this people, would find them employed very differently, and inhabiting very different places, from what he would find who wintered among them. Whether a single drop of truly ancient British blood circulates in our veins, we must confess ourselves ignorant; but we are not, therefore, the less interested in behalf of those, whom we venture, with some licence of speech, to call our ancestors. We ac knowledge the impulse of an ardent curiosity, to give it no more honourable appellation; and if our readers partake of this principle, they will not be displeased at finding, from time to time, in our pages, such information as we are able to collect. of deception, that the Romans and the Britons were distinct as people; that there was a sensible difference between the governors and the governed, between the garrisons and the citizens; that, however numerous might be the Britons, and however strong their attachments to their native soil, yet they did not coalesce, did not, as we may say, amalgamate with their masters; but, though politically subjects of the same empire, they were distinct by inclination, by customs, and by hereditary observances. We are not, then, to look to the Romans for a full description of the ancient British. pondence with the learned at home, as the Romans might have done, from which we could hope to pick up scattered spars of intelligence, and unite them into one orderly narration. The same principles apply to the invasion by the Saxons, with this difference against Whether the present Welch are the postethe supposable gratification of our wishes: rity of those who fled from the Romans and that the Saxons did not, in all probability, Saxons, who quitted their native and family concern themselves much about the characsettlements, to establish themselves in dis- ter or manners of those whom they contricts that promised greater security, is a ques-quered; nor did they maintain much correstion which we do not examine. It might be supposed, that only a part of the population of any conquered country could leave it: those who by arms vindicated their freedom, or those who by property redeemed it; but, certainly, the mass of the people did not forsake every part which the victor subdued, leaving the country a desart. Moreover, some submitted by inclination, some by composition, some by indifference; and the policy of the conquerors would forbid them from expatriating all whom they found on the lands, in the towns, or under the governments which they overrun. Nevertheless, we hear so little of the affairs of Britain from the Roman writers, after the Romans had included the whole island, in a manner, under their power, as may convince us, that the intimacy between the victors and the vanquished was not extremely close, nor did they form those endearing alliances which might induce a free disclosure of national and familiar manners by one party, or excite an interest in examining and recording particularities by the other party. We may illustrate our meaning by facts which are well known in the present day. There are many districts in the East Indies, held by British power, of which we know nothing. The customs of Calcutta we are indeed acquainted with, though in all probability not completely; but what do we know, except the name, of many provinces remote from the seat of government? Yet the curiosity, and the spirit of observation, of the British, are surely more alert than ever were those of the Romans; and the free circulation of books among us, by means of the noble art of Printing, is an incalculable advantage in favour of the gratification of a liberally inquisitive turn of mind. We may therefore infer, without hazard We are restricted, therefore, in our inquiries on this matter, to what memorials may have been preserved among the British themselves, in those parts where the Roman arms did not penetrate, or where, if they did penetrate, they were less effectual than elsewhere. The mountains of Wales afforded retreats, of which, no doubt, many natives availed themselves. The storm which drove them thither did not always rage with equal fury, and after the violence of it was over, the refugees might return to their friends and connections. Neither did the commercial productions of this part of the island offer any very great temptations to the avarice of the ruling powers; the revenues could not be very rich in gold, nor the imposts extremely productive of the precious metals. The riches of the people were corn and cattle; but neither of these was capable of being hoarded, and remitted to Rome in the shape of a fortune. They were the support of man, but nor of pride; supplies for necessity, not for luxury. Where so little profit accrued, the station was not solicited; and fewer troops would be cantoned in a district which did not pay its expenses, than in those where commerce was more flourishing, and maintained, at the same time, an intercourse with friends at home on the Continent, and the hopes of one day returning to those friends not empty handed. In fastnesses thus comparatively free, the national character and manners would continue, if not unmolested, yet uncontaminated; pure, in proportion to the slighter interference of strangers, and delivered down by tradition, among a people almost confined to their mountains, almost secluded from their neighbours, almost a world of their own. An advantage not easily calculable has attended the transmissions of the Welch, in the preservation of their language. Nobody affects to doubt whether the language still extant be the same, as to its essence and principles, which was spoken in the days of Agricola and Cæsar. It boasts a still deeper antiquity; and though we do not incline, as is sometimes facetiously done, to carry it beyond Noah, or Adam, yet, so far as we can judge, from its analogy to other languages of deep antiquity, it may vie, in this respect, with any which have come to our knowledge. In this language, different from that of the major part of our island, whatever learning was extant in Wales, was, as it were, locked up from general acquisition. Many learned Englishmen wished, but their wishes were unproductive; they made a few efforts, but these terminated without effect. Of late, a better spirit has begun to operate; and in the course of the last fifteen or twenty years, more communications have been made from the principality, in a manner intelligible to Englishmen, than for centuries before. Of these, and other documents, as they occur, we mean to avail ourselves, in conducting the Panorama. Convenience must, no doubt, controul the extent of the articles; but the nature of our work allows us occasionally to postpone what we cannot insert, and to restime at more favourable opportunities, what circumstances did not perinit us, when we wished, to gratify our wishes by admitting. Specimens of some of the Welch Laws. Extracted from the CAMBRIAN REGISTER, 1795-1796. 66 Howel, the good, King of Wales, sucseeded to the principality of South Wales in 907, of all Wales in 940, died 948.- Finding the laws of his kingdom in some confusion, he, by the grace of God, prayer, and fasting, when Wales was in his possession, according to its boundary, sumnioned six men out of every comot in Wales, and brought them to him to the White House, together with seven score croziers, i. e. of bishops, archbishops, abbots, and good instructors, to form wholesome laws, to abrogate those that were become bad before his time, and to make good ones in their place; and thus to give stability to his own name. "And out of that number, twelve of the wisest laymen, and one scholar, were selected to make the laws. Thus, when they had finished making the institutes, they imprecated the malediction of God, and of that assembly, and of Wales in general, on whoever should transgress them." These laws begin with the officers of the court; and we learn from them, that these officers received from the King their woollen garments, from the Queen their linen ones, at Christmas, Easter, and Whitsuntide. The. Queen had one-third of the King's income; her officers bore the proportion of one-third to those of the King. Satisfaction also was made to the Queen of one-third of what was made to the King. The privilege of protecting those who sought an asylum, appears to have been of great account; and of the three ways of insulting the King or Queen, one is, the violation of their protection. The presumptive heir is next to the King and Queen; and his place in the hall is opposite to the King, on the other side of the fire. Between the heir apparent, and the pillar next to him, the Judge of the Court shall sit; and the domestic chaplain on the other side of him; and then the chief of song; and then there is no fixed place to any one in the hall. The protection of the Page of the chamber is from the time a person goes for a load of straw to put under the King (as his bed), and while the bed is making, and clothes spread upon it, until he takes them off in the morning. Whoever kills a man, let him in the first place pay his satisfaction for the insult, and then for his death. The judge of the court shall have a linen veil from the Queen at all times.—It is supposed that the judge wore this veil over his face in the execution of his office. But, that this judge was not denied relaxation at other times, appears from his right to receive from the King a chess-board, or backgammon board; literally, a throw-board of the bone of a seaanimal. From the Queen he received a gold ring. The Falconer has a privilege, the day that the hawk shall kill a bittern, or a heron, or a curlew. Three services shall the King per forin for the falconer on such a day: hold his stirrup while he dismounts, and hold the horse while he goes after the birds, and hold his stirrup while he mounts again. Three times shall the King compliment him at table that night. On one side of the chancellor he shall sit at the banquet. A pound is the value of a hawk's nest; six score pence is the value of a hawk before mewing. Should she be white after mewing, she is worth a pound. We may judge from these laws how highly the science of falconry was valued in Britain; for the value of a pound of silver was, in those days, much more than at present. Whoever shall sue the chief Huntsman, must endeavour to take him on his bed, on the morning of May day, before he puts on his boots; for he is under no obligation to answer, unless he be found in that manner. The page of the chamber claims all the King's clothes, except the garments for Lent; all the bed-clothes, his shirt, his coat, his cloak, his breeches, his stockings, and his shoes. We presume that these comprehended all the parts of the King's dress. There might, however, be royal robes. The domestic Bard shall receive a beast of the family out of every spoil in which he shall be present, and a man's share like every domestic: therefore, if there should be fighting, he shall sing the Monarchy of Britain in front of the battle. When a bard shall ask a gift of a prince, let him sing one piece; when he asks of a baron, let him sing three pieces; should he ask of a villain, let him sing till he falls asleep. This may probably be taken as an indication of the progress of generosity: a prince being more easily moved to a gift than a baron; but a villain rather sinking into sleep-sufficient mortification toa bard !—than capable of generosity. The Physician shall sit next to the patron of the family, in the hall. Freely he shall have his land; a horse in attendance he shall have from the King. The physician who could cure a man of wounds in the head, in which his brain was seen; in the body, in which the bowels appeared; in the joints, so that the marrow might be seen-was entitled to three pounds for each of them. The Foot-holder is to hold the King's feet in his lap, from the time he sits down at the banquet, until he goes to sleep; and he ought to scratch the King; and during that period he is to guard the King from every accident. From the same dish with the King he is to eat. He shall light the candles before the King at meat. He shall have a dish of meat, and liquor, though he is not to join in the feast. The Porter, out of every present coming through the gate, shall have a handful; out of every load of fuel passing through the gate, a billet which he can pull without hindering the horse; out of the booty of swine, the sow which he can lift up by the bristles with one hand, so that her feet shall be as high as his knees. Any animal without a tail, passing through the gate, shall belong to him. He should have the remains of the cheese which he shall toast. The Baker-woman is entitled to receive her victuals from the palace, and her clothes and her dish-meat when the King is there; and her cake after baking, cut of every sort of Hour she shall bake of; and her bed in the provision-house. She is not obliged to rise up to any one while she is baking. Her protection extends as far as she can throw with her spatfle. The three indispensables of a King are: his chaplain, to say grace at meals, and to sing mass; the judge of the court, to explain every thing dubious; and his family, to execute his commissions. The three indispensables of a Gentleman: his harp, his cloak, and his cauldron. The three indispensables of a Villain: his trough, his borer, and his fire-hob. A King's buckhound whelp, his value is twenty-four pence, while his eyes are shut; in his kennel, thirty-six pence; while he vaguely hunts, half a pound; when he is well trained, his value is a pound. Whoever shall kill a cat, which guards the house and the barn of the King, her head shall be put towards the earth, and her tail held upwards, upon an even floor, and then he shall pour wheat about her, until the tip of her tail be covered over. Another cat is worth four pence in law. The required qualities of a cat are: to be perfect eared, perfect eyed, perfect nailed, perfect tailed, unmarked by fire, and killing mice, and that she devours not her kittens. A consecrated yew, its value is a pound. An oak, its value is six score pence; whoever bores it through, shall pay threescore pence. A mistletoe branch, its value is threescore pence. Thirty pence is the value of every princi pal branch in the oak. Threescore pence is the value of a sweet apple-tree. Thirty pence is the value of a sour apple-tree. Fifteen pence is the value of a wood yew-tree. Seven peace halfpenny is the value of a thorntree. Fourpence is the value of every tree after that. Whoever cuts down an oak-tree in the king's highway, let him pay three kine, as a compensation fine, to the King, and the value of the oak, and let him clear the way for the King; and when the King comes by, let him cover the stump of the tree with one coloured cloth. If a tree should fail across a river, and if hitches, or nets, be drawn over the tree, the owner of the stump of the tree owns it, on whichever side of the river shall cast the tree. In order to form some notion of the comparative value of money between that time and the present, we may observe, that the value of seven days' ploughing is two pence: so that, when an apple-tree is valued at threescore pence, it is in fact the value of thirty weeks' labour of a ploughinan; which shews how extremely scarce valuable plants of fruitbearing trees must have been at this period. Six score pence is the value of a gelding. A foal is valued at four pence till August; the first of December, twelve pence; the first of February, eighteen; and its value advances till it is three years old, when it is worth fourscore and sixteen pence. An apple-true, therefore, was worth three-fifths of a horse. The pecuniary satisfactions, or mulets, for homicide, are among the most curious remains of ancient legislation; but these must be postponed for the present. EXCERPTA, From the Report from the Committee upon Expired and Expiring Laws, for the First Session of the Third Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great-Britain and Ireland (47 Geo. III.) Ordered to be printed 22d December, 1806. This is an extremely valuable paper, and must have been drawn up with uncommon labour and attention, and, from its appearance, with corresponding correctness also. The importance attached to it, as it concerns the public, and the whole system of our trade and commerce, excites regret that its circulation cannot be rebus sić stantibus, equal to its consequence. It should lie in every merchant's counting-house, on every manufacturer's desk, and in every lawyer's office. To the public it is necessary; to the author who planned and arranged it, it is highly honourable; to the nation at large, it must be beneficial, particularly to the Boards of Custoin and Excise. It contains, first:-A detailed Statement or Register of all the temporary Laws, of a public and general nature, now in force, which have been enacted by the Parliaments of England, or Great-Britain, or Ireland, or of the United Kingdom, from the commencement of the reign of King William III. to July 23, 1806 (being the last day of the session of Parliament, 46 Geo. III.); specifying the matter, date, chapter, and title of each of the original Acts, and the dates and chapters of the respective subsidiary Acts by which they have been either amended or continued.—In drawing up this Statement or Register, the Committee has proceeded by continuing the Enumeration of Laws contained in the Report of the Committee on Expired and Expiring Laws, ordered to be printed on the 24th day of January, 1806, and adding thereto such temporary Laws as have since been passed, and are now in force; and also, by making such alterations therein as have been rendered necessary by other * We have been told, the Right Honourable Gentleman who now so ably fills the Chair, was the original mover in this business; and of whose labours and extensive knowledge in other public measures we shall have, frequent occasion to take notice. Secondly,An Enumeration of all the public general Laws, of a temporary nature, which have expired between January 21, 1806 (being the first day of the session, 46 Geo. I.) and Dec. 15, 1806, being the first day of the present session. Thirdly,-An Enumeration of all the public general Laws which are about to expire at the end of the present session, or on or before August 1, 1808, or in the course, or at the end, of any session which may commence during that period; arranged chro nologically, according to the dates at which they will expire respectively. Fourthly,-Laws which are of a temporary, but uncertain duration, are distinguished -those which depend on the war, from those which depend on other contingencies. Those depending on the war,-the terms in which their limitation is prescribed are different not only in different Acts, but sometimes also in the title and body of the same Act: in the mode of distinguishing the several phrases applied to their duration, the Committee has followed former piecedents. To the whole is subjoined an Alphabetical Table of Matters.. We submit, by way of specimen, a selection of the information contained respecting. Expiring Acts in 1807-1808. In the present year 1807 will expire : 6th of Ann, 1708, £40,000. per ann. Annuities; also £80,000. same date. 1 Geo. 3. Duties on Malt, Mum, Cyder, 26 Geo. 3. c. 81. For encouraging British 37 Geo. 3. c. 70. Against seduction of soldiers 3. c. 29. 1800. 37. Geo. 3. c. 97. Treaty of Amity and Com→ merce with America. |