teals, and widgeons, "and often come home with an Essex ague on their backs, which they find a heavier load than the fowls they have shot!" Rather bitter satire this-but probably truthful.

One gets a good idea of what were the chief cities and towns of Great Britain a century ago, by an incidental remark in the third volume, where the country north and south of the Trent is spoken of. He considers the southern towns of Bristol, Exeter, Lynn, Norwich, Yarmouth, &c., "which are large and very populous, and carry on a prodigious trade," to be "pretty nearly equalled by the towns of Liverpool, Hull, Leeds, Newcastle, and Manchester, and the cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow." Norwich seems to have been one of the first places in England, being in the first rank for size, population, and commercial importance. "The walls of this city are reckoned three miles in circumference... an ancient, large, rich, and populous city. If a stranger were only to ride through or view the city of Norwich on ordinary days, he Iwould be induced to think it a town without inhabitants; but on the contrary, if he was to view the city either on a sabbath-day or on any public occasion, he would wonder where all the people could dwell, the multitude is so great." This is explained by the fact that the people are nearly all employed indoors at their looms, &c., on week-days.

Exeter is described as being a fine, pleasant old city, where "the people are industrious and courteous; and the fair sex are truly such, as well as numerous. Exeter is particularly famous for two things, which we seldom find united in the same town; viz., that it is full of gentry, and yet full of trade and manufactures. The serge market held here every week, next to the Brigg market at Leeds, is the greatest in England. The people assured me, that at this market is generally sold from sixty to eighty and sometimes one hundred thousand pounds value, in serges, in a week. The tourist is especially delighted with the cathedral, a "magnificent piece of antiquity," and he speaks with admiration of the excellent manner in which divine service is daily performed in it, and the "grave and pious behaviour of the numerous congregation," which "renders this cathedral a glory to the diocese, the envy of other quoirs, and the admiration of strangers." And in a note he adds-"It is no uncommon thing to see five hundred people here in a morning; which is at least five times as many as attend St. Paul's, or any other six o'clock chapel I was ever at;

and it is commendable that the reader doth not here curtail the morning service, by leaving out any part thereof, as in other places they do." This is really a striking bit of contemporary information, and says much in favor of the character of the people of Exeter. Think of five hundred people attending service at six o'clock in the morning, and behaving in an exemplary manner! We dare say that the morning service is now held at ten o'clock or even later; and how many attend it? Possibly not one hundred on the average! In sad contrast with Exeter, the tourist describes Ely Cathedral (or Minster) as falling into ruin through neglect, "although the revenues of this See of Ely are so very ample that it may be deemed one of the richest in the kingdom;" and he exclaims-" What pity, that ecclesiastical persons of late days seem to think there is no other use to be made of the church revenues, than to raise private and obscure families!"

What was Manchester in 1748? "Manchester is one of the greatest, if not really the greatest mere village in England. It is neither a town, city, nor corporation, nor sends members to parliament; but it is a manor, with courts leet and baron. The highest magistrate is a constable or headborough. Including the suburbs, it is said to contain fifty thousand people. The town is almost double to what it was some years ago, so that it is an open village, greater and more populous than most cities in England. Manchester, for the industry of its inhabitants, is often compared by travellers to the most industrious towns of Holland; the smallest children being all employed and earning their bread."

"Leeds," says our tourist, "is a large, wealthy, and populous town." He gives a long and interesting account of the peculiar manner in which the sale of cloth is there conducted, and says "Thus you see ten or twenty thousand pounds worth of cloth, and sometimes much more, bought and sold in little more than an hour; the laws of the market being the most strictly observed that I ever saw in any market in England." A curious proof of the cheapness of provisions at Leeds is furnished in the incidental notice, that the refreshment usually supplied by inn-keepers to the clothiers, "being a pot of ale, a noggin of pottage, and a trencher of boiled or roast beef," was only charged two-pence!

Another Yorkshire town, Halifax, seems to have been equally prosperous in the manufacturing line. Speaking of the thickly popu

lated neighbourhood, the tourist declares that all the people were employed "from the youngest to the oldest; scarce anything above four years old, but its hands were sufficient for its own support. Not a beggar to be seen, not an idle person, except here and there in an alms-house, built for those that are antient and past working. The people in general live long; they enjoy a good air; and under such circumstances hard labor is naturally attended with the blessing of health, if not riches." The town of Halifax itself he describes as being "the most populous parish, or vicarage, in England; for it is but one [parish], though twelve miles in diameter." He was assured, "that there was one dealer in the vicarage who traded, by commission, for £60,000 a year in kerseys only, to Holland and Hamburg. And of late years it is still more increased, by the people of a neighboring part driving away about four thousand Irish manufacturers, who, with about two thousand others accompanying them, settled here." The following passage casts a very curious light on the domestic life of the worthy clothiers of Halifax :-"The markets in the months of September and October are prodigiously thronged, that being the time when the clothiers buy up as many oxen as will serve their family for the whole year, which they used to drive home, kill, salt, and hang up in the smoke to dry. This was heretofore their common diet, but now they live more upon fresh meats."

The remarks of the tourist concerning Newmarket races, are, we fear, only too applicable to such affairs at this day. He saw the races, "and a great concourse of the nobility and gentry, as well from London as from all parts of England; but they were all so intent, so eager, so busy upon what is called the sharping part of the sport, of wagers and bets, that to me they seemed rather like so many horsecoursers in Smithfield, than persons of dignity and quality, who descend so low as even to circumvent one another, and, if I may speak it, pick one another's pockets." He speaks of the turf practices "to the indelible shame of men of rank and quality, and to the reproach of the nation in general! And yet these races were instituted with a very good intent, to raise an emulation in our nobility and gentry, to keep up and preserve a race of good horses, in honor of the nation in general; but as the institution is debased, it is not the best horse that wins the race, but that which is destined for it by a combination." We thus sec that the very same

complaints were made against the turf a century ago, that yet obtain.

The details given of life at Bath and at Tunbridge Wells are highly amusing. Our satirical friend first tells us that Bath was "of old a resort for cripples and diseased persons; and we see the crutches hang up at the several baths, as the thank-offerings of those who came hither lame, and went away cured. But now we may say it is a resort of the sound as well as the sick, and a place that helps the indolent and the gay to commit that worst of murders-that is to say, to kill time. To such it is, indeed, a constant round of diversion. In the morning, the young lady is brought in a close chair, dressed in her bathing-clothes, to the Cross-bath. There the music plays her into the bath, and the women who tend her present her with a little floating wooden dish, like a basin; into which the lady puts a handkerchief and a nosegay, and of late the snuff-box is added. She then traverses the bath, if a novice, with a guide; if otherwise, by herself; and having amused herself near an hour, calls for her chair, and returns to her lodgings." (We would remark, parenthetically, that almost a precisely similar mode of bathing is yet practised at some of the fashionable continental baths. At Leuk, for instance, if we recollect rightly, both sexes, attired in long woollen bathingdresses, are seated up to the chin in one great bath, where they steam together for six or eight hours at a stretch, with floating dishes before them, containing books, or light refreshments!) After this morning bath, the fashionable people diverted themselves by promenades, and visiting "the Rooms," and booksellers' shops. "In the afternoon there is frequently a play, though the decorations. are mean, and indeed the performances too. In the evening people assemble at the great Rooms; and there are balls twice a week. 'Tis also the fashion of the place, for the company to go every day pretty constantly to hear divine service at the Great Church, and at St. Mary's Chapel in Queen's Square, where are prayers twice a day." Such was life at Bath in 1748! It is added, however, that many great improvements were in progress, and that, although "the several baths are very indifferently kept, the greatest decency is observed here by both sexes; and while Mr. Nash lives, it must be always so." Poor Beau Nash! what a host of recollections are

excited by his name. When he ceased to drive his coach-and-six, the glory of Bath waned in the estimation of our ancestors.

As a fitting companion-picture to the above, let us turn to our tourist's description of Tunbridge Wells. He makes the preliminary observation that he had particularly noticed "that those people who have nothing to do anywhere else, are the busiest people at Tunbridge!" The company walk upon the hills "after they have drank the waters, and divert themselves with bowls, dancing, or other exercises, as the weather will permit, and the physicians prescribe. There are also rooms to drink coffee or chocolate, and to play at cards, &c. After the appearance is over at the wells (where the ladies are all in deshabille), and at the chapel, the company go home; and, as if it was another species of people, or a collection from another place, you are surprised to see the walks covered with ladies completely dressed, and gay to profusion; where rich clothes, jewels, and beauty, dazzle the eyes from one end of the range to the other. As for gaming, sharping, intriguing, as also fops, beaux, and the like, Tunbridge used to be as full of these as most other public places; but the Act lately passed against gaming has, in a great measure, cured this evil."

Now for the sea-ports. "Bristol is the greatest, the richest, and the best port of trade in Great Britain, London only excepted." "No cargo is too big" for the Bristol merchants. But the tourist draws a distinction (and we believe a very fair one) between the London and Bristol merchants. The former he compares to the merchants of Tyre of old, calling them princes of the earth; but the Bristol merchants, being "raised by good fortune, and by the prizes taken in the wars, from masters of ships and blunt tars, have imbibed the manners of these rough gentlemen so strongly, that they transmit it to their descendants, only with a little more of the sordid than is generally found among the British sailors," and he accordingly advises them to visit London to learn politeness and generosity! At the metropolis, he tells them, they will "see examples worth their imitation, as well for princely spirit as upright and generous dealing." Excellent advice this; but we fear the Bristolians did not care to adopt it. They were noted (although our tourist does not allude to the fact) for being the greatest fitters-out of slavers in Great Britain. But, whatever their faults might be, he tells us that "a great face of seriousness and religion appears in Bristol, and the magistrates are laudably strict in exacting the observation of the sabbath, con

sidering the general dissoluteness that has broken in almost everywhere else. One thing they deserve high commendation for, and that is, the neatness observed in keeping their churches, and the care they take in preserving the monuments and inscriptions of those buried in them; a practice so scandalously neglected almost everywhere in England, and even at places we might mention where money (another scandalous practice) is exacted for seeing them." As to the size of Bristol in 1748, it was calculated to contain nine thousand houses, and seventy thousand inhabitants; and three thousand vessels belonged to the port. Many of the latter, we should presume, were merely coasters.

Next to Bristol, Hull was the greatest port, "nor have the merchants of any port in Britain greater credit, or a fairer character, than the merchants of Hull, as well for the justice of their dealings as the greatness of their substance." Liverpool was the fourth port of the kingdom, and our tourist declares it to be " one of the wonders of Britain, because of its prodigious increase of trade and buildings, within the compass of a very few years." Yarmouth is decribed as a rich, populous, and prosperous place, whose merchants have a 66 very good reputation for fair and honorable dealing, and their seamen, as well masters as mariners, are justly esteemed among the ablest and most expert navigators in England." Some of the merchants' houses there "look like little palaces, rather than the dwelling-houses of private men." From Yarmouth to Cromer, he was surprised to see "that the farmers and country people had scarce a barn, shed, stable, or pales to their yards and gardens, but what was built of old planks, beams, wales, timber, &c., the deplorable wrecks of ships, and ruins of merchants' fortunes; and in some places were whole yards filled, and piled up very high, with the same stuff laid up for the like building purposes." He mentions that in the vicinity above two hundred sail of ships, and above one thousand people were lost in the disaster of one miserable night.' ." To this we may add, that the coast in question, as well as the adjoining one of Lincolnshire, is to this day notorious for the great number of shipwrecks that annually take place, and we can bear personal testimony to the fact that all sorts of outbuildings -and we almost may say houses also-are erected from the materials of wrecked ships. A more pleasing novelty, however, was seen by our tourist-but never will be seen by us! Between Cromer and Norwich he saw "phea

sants (which was very pleasant to behold) in such great plenty, as to be seen in the stubble like cocks and hens; a testimony, by the way, that the county had more tradesmen than gentlemen in it!" A few other items respecting sea-ports may be grouped together. Newcastle" is a large and exceedingly populous town, defended by an exceeding strong wall, wherein are seven gates, and as many turrets, and divers casemates bomb-proof." Harwich "is the port where the packet-boats between England and Holland go out and come in. The inhabitants are far from being famed for good usage to strangers; but, on the contrary, are deemed a little extravagant in their reckonings"-a fact that had encouraged the Londoners to start packets in opposition. Ah, well! the day of Harwich is now gone by for ever, thanks to steamboats. Ipswich "is one of the most agreeable towns in England," and "no place in England is qualified like Ipswich for carrying on the Greenland fishery;" yet it "was formerly much more considerable for trade than at present.' It is somewhat strange to read that Ipswich has a "noble hospital for the maintenance of poor children, old persons, and maniacs; and in it rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy beggars are kept to hard labor!" One great recommendation of Ipswich seems to have been "the coach going through to London in a day." In describing Chatham, the worthy tourist is lost in admiration of the marvels of the royal dockyards.

We may

quote a single passage:- "The expedition that has sometimes been used here in fitting out men-of-war, is scarce credible; for the workman told us that the Royal Sovereign, a first-rate of 106 guns, was riding at her moorings entirely unrigged, and nothing but her three masts standing, as is usual when a ship is laid up; and that she was completely rigged, all her masts up, her yards put to, her sails bent, anchors and cables on board, and the ship sailed down to Blackstakes in three days, Sir Cloudesley Shovell being then her captain. Certain it is, the dexterity of English sailors in those matters is not to be matched by any in the world." In describing Cornwall, towards the Land's End, the tourist relates how the people, after a stormy night, "run to and fro to see if the sea has cast up anything of value. This the seamen call going a-shoring, and it seems they often find good purchasers." What follows is noteworthy. "Nor is it seldom that the savage country-people scuffle and fight about the right to what they find, and that in a

VOL. VII. N. S.

desperate manner; so that this part of Cornwall may truly be said to be inhabited by a fierce and ravenous people, like those on the coast of Sussex; for they are so greedy and eager for prey that they are charged with strange, bloody, and cruel dealings, even sometimes with one-another; but especially with poor distressed seamen, when they are forced on shore by tempests, and seek help for their lives, and where they find the rocks themselves not more merciless than the people who range about them for their prey!" We are far from impugning the accuracy of this appalling statement; the character of Cornish wreckers has been proverbial for many centuries, and we believe that it is yet popularly held unchanged; but we rejoice to be enabled to authoritatively assert, that at the present day it is not applicable to the people on any part of the Cornish coast. To the reverse, they now will aid the shipwrecked mariner, and save his property instead of plundering it. Here is an illustrative verse from one of the manly poems of our friend the Rev. R. S. Hawker, vicar of Morwenstow, in Cornwall:

"Her race is run: deep in that sand

She yields her to the conquering wave, And Cornwall's sons-they line the strandRush they to plunder? no! to save!"

We will now glean, from various parts of the volumes, a variety of isolated facts, which we shall select solely with a view to show what changes generally for the better-a century has made; or, in some instances, because the incidents are curious and interesting in themselves. In the marshes of Essex, the tourist says, that "it is very frequent to meet with men who have had from five or six to fourteen or fifteen wives!" This he explains by the men being bred in the pestilential marshes, and therefore seasoned to them; but they brought their wives from the healthy uplands, and the latter rarely survived above a year,

"

so that marrying of wives was reckoned a kind of good farm to them!" (on account of the dowries they brought, we presume.) High Suffolk, he says, produces "the best butter, and the worst cheese, in England;" and he has known "a firkin of Suffolk butter sent to the West Indies and brought back to England again, perfectly good and sweet, as at first." The Suffolk turkeys were equally famous; as many as 150,000 being sent in a single season to London by one road only, and much greater numbers by other routes. He remarks that Cambridgeshire "has no manufacture at all; nor are the poor, except

E

the husbandmen, noted for anything so much as sloth, to their scandal be it spoken!" He gives a long account of the enormous fair at Stourbridge (long since abolished), which he thinks is the greatest in Europe. We have not space to do more than allude to it; but the reader may refer to Hone's "Year Book" for an animated account of this wonderful fair at a later period. He laments the system of bribery at country elections, and broadly hints that he who spent most was always sure to carry his election." At Winchelsea, a Colonel Draper spent £11,000, and yet lost his election-because he did not bribe so highly as his opponent! The Isle of Wight, he learns, "is so fruitful, that one year's crop will serve the inhabitants for seven years;" and "on the pleasant downs" round Dorchester, "they told me, there were 600,000 sheep fed within six miles of the town every way. At Guildford, in Surrey, he found the gallows so conveniently placed on the summit of a hill, "that the townspeople, from the High Street, may sit at their shop-doors, and see the criminals executed!" A luxury they had pretty frequent opportunities of enjoying in the reign of George the Second, we fear! At Godalmin, in the same county, he relates, that in 1739, "the small-pox carried off, in this town, upwards of 500 persons in the space of three months, which was more than a third part of the inhabitants." On a piece of water, on the coast of Dorset, he saw seven to eight thousand swans-"a continual assembly: here they live, breed, and feed." Where, in England, could we now see even 200 swans together? Blandford, he says, is noted for manufacturing the finest bone-lace in England; he was shown some "exquisitely fine, and which, they say, they rated at above £30 sterling a yard!" In several parts of the country he speaks of the extreme cheapness of salmon, and at Totness he bought six goodsized ones (such as he had seen sold for 68. 6d. each in London market) for a shilling! This reminds us of the well-known fact that in Scotland salmon, 100 years ago, were so cheap and abundant, that it actually was a common things for servants, on being hired, expressly to stipulate that they should not be compelled to eat salmon more than on two days in the week! Small need for such a stipulation nowadays! At Taunton, in Devizes, the traveller was assured that there was so much work at the looms, &c., "that there was not a child in the town, or in the villages round it, of above five years old, but, if it was not neglected by its parents, and un

taught, could earn its own bread. This was what I never met with in any place in England, except at Colchester, in Essex." At Chedder, in Somersetshire, he remarks, that the cheese is so excellent that it will sell for 6d. to 8d. per pound, "when the Cheshire cheese is sold but from 2d. to 24d." Near the ruins of Donnington Castle, in Berkshire, which "had been the seat of Sir Geoffrey Chaucer, father of English poetry, they show us a place here, where in his days, as well as many years since, even down to the memory of some of the inhabitants now living, florished a great oak, called Chaucer's Oak, where, they tell you, he used to sit, and compose his poems. Well may the tourist call Brightwell, in Oxfordshire, a "famous parish," for “there had not been an ale-house, nor a dissenter from the church, nor any quarrel among the inhabitants that rose so high as to a suit of law, within the memory of man! But they could not say it was so still, especially as to the ale-house part." We may safely conclude that no lawyer resided within ten miles of Brightwell-otherwise the story is incredible! In speaking of Newcastle-under-Lyne, the ungallant tourist very complacently records-" And here is an excellent device for the TAMING OF SHREWS: they put a bridle into the scold's mouth, which deprives her of the power of speech, by which she is led about the town, and exposed to public shame, till she promises amendment !!!" This was so late as 1748! His opinion of the Fen country is curiously indicated in the following sentence:-" From the Fens, longing to be delivered from fogs, and stagnate air, and water of the color of brewed ale, like the rivers of the Peak, we first set foot on dry land, as I called it, at Peterborough." At Okeham, in Rutlandshire, he says a custom compels any nobleman who visits the town on horseback, "to pay homage of a shoe from his horse, or to commute for it in money." And here is a very curious anecdote of Wandsworth, in Huntingdonshire :-"A great flood coming hastily down the river Nyne, in haymaking time, a country fellow having taken up his lodging on a cock of hay, in the meadow, was driven, on the hay, down the stream in the night, while he was fast asleep, towards Wisbeach in the Fens; when, being wakened, he was seen and taken up by some fishermen, almost in the open sea; and being asked, where he lived? he answered, At Wandsworth,

Query, Has this interesting anecdote ever been mentioned in any of the popular editions of Chaucer?