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of fable, changed its name to Messina, (from Messis, a harvest,) because of the great fertility of its fields. It is certainly one of the safest harbours in the world after ships have got in; but it is likewise one of the most difficult access. The celebrated gulf or whirlpool of Charybdis lies near to its entry, and often occasions such an intestine and irregular motion in the water, that the helm loses most of its power, and ships have great difficulty to get in, even with the fairest wind that can blow. This whirlpool, I think, is probably formed by the small promontory I have mentioned; which contracting the Straits in this spot, must necessarily increase the velocity of the current; but no doubt other causes, of which we are ignorant, concur, for this will by no means account for all the appearances which it has produced. The great noise occasioned by the tumultuous motion of the waters in this place, made the ancients liken it to a voracious sea-monster perpetually roaring for its prey; and it has been represented by their authors, as the most tremendous passage in the world. Aristotle gives a long and a formidable description of it in his 125th chapter De Admirandis, which I find translated in an old Sicilian book I have got here. It begins," Adeo profundum, horridumque spectaculum, &c." but it is too long to transcribe. It is likewise described by Homer, 12th of the Odyssey; Virgil, 3d Æneid; Lucretius, Ovid, Sallust, Seneca, as also by many of the old Italian and Sicilian poets, who all speak of it in terms of horror; and represent it as an object that inspired terror, even when looked on at a distance. It certainly is not now so formidable; and very probably, the violence of this motion, continued for so many ages, has by degrees worn smooth the rugged rocks and jutting shelves, that may have intercepted and confined the waters. The breadth of the Straits too, in this place, I make no doubt is considerably enlarged. Indeed, from the nature of things it must be so; the perpetual friction occasioned by the current must wear away the bank on each side, and enlarge the bed of the water. The vessels in this passage were obliged to go as near as possible to the coast of Calabria, in order to avoid the suction occasioned by the whirling of the waters in this vortex; by which means when they came to the narrowest and most rapid part of the Straits, betwixt Cape Pelorus and Scylla, they were in great danger of being carried upon that rock. From whence the proverb, still applied to those, who in_attempting to avoid one evil fall into another.

There is a fine fountain of white marble on the key, representing Neptune holding Scylla and Charybdis chained, under the emblematical figures of two sea-monsters, as represented by the poets.

The little neck of land, forming the harbour of Messina, is strongly fortified. The citadel, which is indeed a very fine work, is built on that part which connects it with the main land. The farthermost point, which runs out to sea, is defended by four small forts, which command the entry into the harbour. Betwixt these lie the lazaret, and a lighthouse to warn sailors of their approach to Charybdis, as that other on Cape Pelorus is intended to give them notice of Scylla.

It is probably from these lighthouses (by the Greeks called Pharoi) that the whole of this celebrated Strait has been denominated the Faro of Messina.

According to Brydone, the hazard to sailors was less in his time than the Nestor of song, and the poet of the Eneid, had depicted in theirs. In 1824, Capt. W. H. Smyth, to whom a survey of the coast of Sicily was intrusted by the lords of the Admiralty, published a "Memoir" in 1824, with the latest and most authentic accounts of these celebrated classic spots-viz.:

SCYLLA.

As the breadth across this celebrated strait has been so often disputed, I particularly state, that the Faro Tower is exactly six thousand and forty-seven English yards from that classical bugbear, the Rock of Scylla, which, by poetical fiction, has been depicted in such terrific colours, and to describe the horrors of which, Phalerion, a painter, celebrated for his nervous representation of the awful and the tremendous, exerted his whole talent. But the flights of poetry can seldom bear to be shackled by homely truth, and if we are to receive the fine imagery, that places the summit of this rock in clouds brooding eternal mists and tempests-that represents it as inaccessible, even to a man provided with twenty hands and twenty feet, and immerses its base among ravenous sea-dogs;-why not also receive the whole circle of mytho logical dogmas of Homer, who, though so frequently dragged forth as an authority in history, theology, surgery, and geography, ought in justice to be read only as a poet. In the writings of so exquisite a bard, we must not expect to find all his representations strictly confined to a mere accurate

narration of facts. Moderns of intelligence, in visiting this spot, have gratified their imaginations, already heated by such descriptions as the escape of the Argonauts, and the disasters of Ulysses, with fancying it the scourge of seamen, and that in a gale its caverns 'roar like dogs;' but I, as a sailor, never perceived any difference between the effect of the surges here, and on any other coast, yet I have frequently watched it closely in bad weather. It is now, as I presume it ever was, a common rock, of bold approach, a little worn at its base, and surmounted by a castle, with a sandy bay on each side. The one on the south side is memorable for the disaster that happened there during the dreadful earthquake of 1783, when an overwhelming wave (supposed to have been occasioned by the fall of part of a promontory into the sea) rushed up the beach, and, in its retreat, bore away with it upwards of two thousand people.

CHARYBDIS.

Outside the tongue of land, or Braccio di St. Rainiere, that forms the harbour of Messina, lies the Galofaro, or celebrated vortex of Charybdis, which has, with more reason than Scylla, been clothed with terrors by the writers of antiquity.

To the

undecked boats of the Rhegians, Locrians, Zancleans, and Greeks, it must have been formidable; for, even in the present day, small craft are sometimes endangered by it, and I have seen several men-of-war, and even a seventy-four gun ship, whirled round on its surface; but, by using due caution, there is generally very little danger or inconvenience to be apprehended. It appears to be an agitated water, of from seventy to ninety fathoms in depth, circling in quick eddies. It is owing probably to the meeting of the harbour and lateral currents with the main one, the latter being forced over in this direction by the opposite point of Pezzo. This agrees in some measure with the relation of Thucydides, who calls it a violent reciprocation of the Tyrrhene and Sicilian seas; and he is the only writer of remote antiquity I remember to have read, who has assigned this danger its true situation, and not exaggerated its effects. Many wonderful stories are told respecting this vortex, particularly some said to have been related by the celebrated diver, Colas, who ·lost his life here. I have never found reason, however, during my examination of this spot, to believe one of them.

For the Table Book. A FRAGMENT.

FROM CORNELIUS MAY'S "JOURNEY TO
THE GREATE MARKETT AT OLYMPUS"-
"SEVEN STARRS OF WITTE.”

One daye when tired with worldly toil,
Upp to the Olympian mounte

I sped, as from soul-cankering care,
Had ever been my wonte;
And there the gods assembled alle
I founde, O strange to tell!
Chaffering, like chapmen, and around

The wares they had to sell.
Eache god had sample of his goodes,
Which he displaied on high;

And cried, "How lack ye ?" "What's y're neede ?"
To every passer by.

Quoth I, "What have you here to sell?

To purchase being inclined;"

Said one," We've art and science here,

And every gifte of minde."

"What coin is current here?" I asked,
Spoke Hermes in a trice,
"Industrie, perseverence, toile,

And life the highest price."

I saw Apollo, and went on,
Liking his wares of olde;

"Come buy," said he," this lyre of mine,

I'll pledge it sterling golde;

This is the sample of its worthe,

'Tis cheape at life, come buy!"

So saying, he drew olde Homer forth,
And placed him 'neath my eye.

I turn'd aside, where in a row

Smalle bales high piled up stood;
Tyed rounde with golden threades of life,
And eache inscribed with blood,
"Travell to far and foreign landes ;"

"The knowledge of the sea;"

"Alle beastes, and birdes, and creeping thinges, And heaven's immensity;"

"Unshaken faithe when alle men change,"

"The patriot's holy heart;" "The might of woman's love to stay

When alle besides departe."

I next saw things soe strange of forme,
Their names I mighte not knowe,
Unlike aught either in heaven or earthe,

Or in the deeps below;

Then Hermes to my thoughte replied,

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Next look'd I in a darksome den,'

Webbed o'er with spider's thread,
Where bookes were piled, and on eache booke
I" metaphysics" read;
Spoke Hermes, "Friend, the price of these
Is puzzling of the brain,

A gulf of words which, who gets in,
Can ne'er get oute again."

I then saw "law," piled up alofte,
And asked its price to know;

"Its price is, conscience and good name,"
Said Hermes, whispering low.
Nexte," Physic and divinity,"

I stood as I was loth,

To take or leave, with curling lip,

Said Hermes, "Quackery, both!" "Now, friend," said I, " since of your wares You no good thing can telle,

You are the honestest chapman
That e'er had wares to selle."

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MANNERS OF LONDON MERCHANTS

A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. Tempore mutato de nobis fabula narratur. Decio, a man of great figure, that had large commissions for sugar from several parts beyond sea, treats about a considerable parcel of that commodity with Alcander, an eminent West India merchant; both understood the market very well, but could not agree. Decio was a man of substance, and thought nobody ought to buy cheaper than himself. Alcander was the same, and not wanting money, stood for his price. Whilst they were driving their bargain at a tavern near the Exchange, Alcander's man brought his master a letter from the West Indies, that informed him of a much greater quantity of sugars coming for England than was expected. Alcander now wished for nothing more than to sell at Decio's price, before the news was public; but being a cunning fox, that he might not seem too precipitant, nor yet lose his customer, he drops the discourse they were upon, and putting on a jovial humour, commends the agreeableness of the weather; from whence falling upon the delight he took in his gardens, invites Decio to go along with him to his country house, that was not above twelve miles from London. It was in the month of May, and as it happened upon a Saturday in the afternoon, Decio, who was a single man, and would have no business in town before

Tuesday, accepts of the other's civility, and away they go in Alcander's coach. Decio was splendidly entertained that night and the day following; the Monday morning, to get himself an appetite, he goes to take the air upon a pad of Alcander's, and coming back meets with a gentleman of his acquaintance, who tells him news was come the night before that the Barbadoes fleet was destroyed by a storm; and adds, that before he came out, it had been confirmed at Lloyd's coffee-house, where it was thought sugars would rise twenty-five per cent. by change time. Decio returns to his friend, and immediately resumes the discourse they had broke off at the tavern. Alcander

who, thinking himself sure of his chap, did not design to have moved it till after dinner, was very glad to see himself so happily prevented; but how desirous soever he was to sell, the other was yet more eager to buy; yet both of them afraid of one another, for a considerable time counterfeited all the indifference imaginable, till at last Decio, fired with what he had heard, thought delays might prove dangerous, and throwing a guinea upon the table, struck the bargain at Alcander's price. The next day they went to London; the news proved true, and Decio got five hundred pounds by his sugars. Alcander, whilst he had strove to overreach the other, was paid in his own coin: yet all this is called fair dealing; but I am sure neither of them would have desired to be done by, as they did to each other.

Fable of the Bees, 1725.

CHILTERN HUNDREDS.

The acceptance of this office, or stewardship, vacates a seat in parliament, but without any emolument or profit. Chiltern is a ridge of chalky hills crossing the county of Bucks, a little south of the centre, reaching from Tring in Hertfordshire to Henly in Oxford. This district belongs to the crown, and from time immemorial has given title to the nominal office of stewards of the Chiltern hundreds. Of this office, as well as the manor of East Hundred, in Berks, it is remarkable, that although frequently conferred upon members of parliament, it is not productive either of honour or emolument; being granted at the request of any member of that house, merely to enable him to vacate his seat by the acceptance of a nominal office under the crown; and on this account it has frequently been granted to three or four members a week.

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Tommy Bell of Houghton-le-Spring, Durham.

This is an eccentric, good-humoured character-a lover of a chirruping cup-and a favourite with the pitmen of Durham. He dresses like them, and mixes and jokes with them; and his portrait seems an appropriate illustration of the following paper, by a gentleman of the north, well acquainted with their remarkable manners.

THE PITMAN.

For the Table Book.

"O the bonny pit laddie, the cannie pit laddie,
The bonny pit laddie for me, O!~
He sits in a hole, as black as a coal,

And brings all the white money to me, O !"
OLD PIT SONG.

Gentle Reader, Whilst thou sittest

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grate, watching in dreaming unconsciousness the various shapes and fantastic forms appearing and disappearing in the bright, red heat of thy fire-here a beautiful mountain, towering with its glowing top above the broken and diversified valley beneath-there a church, with its pretty spire peeping above an imagined village; or, peradventure, a bright nob, assuming the ken of human likeness, thy playful fancy picturing it the semblance of some distant friend-I say, whilst thou art sitting in this fashion, dost thou ever think of that race of mortals, whose whole life is spent beyond a hundred fathoms below the surface of mother earth, plucking from its unwilling bosom the materials of thy greatest comfort?

The pitman enables thee to set at toasting thy feet at the glowing fuel in thy nought the "pelting of the pitiless storm,"

and render a season of severity and pinching bitterness, one of warmth, and kindly feeling, and domestic smiles. If thou hast never heard of these useful and daring men, who

"Contemn the terrors of the mine,

· Explore the caverns, dark and drear, Mantled around with deadly dew; Where congregated vapours blue,

Fir'd by the taper glimmering near, Bid dire explosion the deep realms invade, And earth-born lightnings gleam athwart th' infernal shade;"*

-who dwell in a valley of darkness for thy sake, and whose lives are hazarded every moment in procuring the light and heat of the flickering flame-listen with patience, if not with interest, to a short account of them, from the pen of one who is not unmindful of

"The simple annals of the poor."

The pitmen, who are employed in bring ing coals to the surface of the earth, from immensely deep mines, for the London and neighbouring markets, are a race entirely distinct from the peasantry surrounding them. They are principally within a few miles of the river Wear, in the county of Durham, and the river Tyne, which traces the southern boundary of Northumberland. They reside in long rows of one-storied houses, called by themselves " pit-rows," built near the chief entrance to the mine. To each house is attached a small garden,

"For ornament or use,"

and wherein they pay so much attention to the cultivation of flowers, that they frequently bear away prizes at floral exhibitions.

Within the memory of the writer, (and his locks are not yet "silver'd o'er with age," the pitmen were a rude, bold, savage set of beings, apparently cut off from their fellow men in their interests and feelings; often guilty of outrage in their moments of ebrious mirth; not from dishonest motives, or hopes of plunder, but from recklessness, and lack of that civilization, which binds the wide and ramified society of a great city. From the age of five or six years, their children are immersed in the dark abyss of their lower worlds; and when even they enjoy the "light of the blessed sun," it is only in the company of their immediate relations: all have the same vocation, and all stand out, a sturdy band,

• HUDDESFORD.

separate and apart from the motley mixture of general humanity.

The pitmen have the air of a primitive race. They marry almost constantly with their own people; their boys follow the occupations of their sires-their daughters, at the age of blooming and modest maidenhood, linking their fate to some honest "neebor's bairn :" thus, from generation to generation, family has united with family, till their population has become a dense mass of relationship, like the clans of our northern friends, 66 ayont the Cheviot's range." The dress of one of them is that of the whole people. Imagine a man, of only middling stature, (few are tall or robust,) with several large blue marks, occasioned by cuts, impregnated with coaldust, on a pale and swarthy countenance, a coloured handkerchief around his neck, a posied waistcoat" opened at the breast, to display a striped shirt beneath, a short shorter than the jackets of our seamen, blue jacket, somewhat like, but rather untied at the knee, on the "tapering calf " velvet breeches, invariably unbuttoned and and finished downwards by a long, lowa blue worsted stocking, with white clocks, quartered shoe, and you have a pitman before you, equipped for his Saturday's cruise to "canny Newcastle," or for his Sabbath's gayest holiday.

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On a Saturday evening you will see a long line of road, leading to the nearest large market town, grouped every where with pitmen and their wives or "lasses," laden with large baskets of the "stomach's comforts," sufficient for a fortnight's consumption. They only are paid for their labour at such intervals; and their weeks are divided into what they term pay week,' ," and "bauf week," (the etymology of "bauf," I leave thee, my kind reader, to find out.)-All merry and happytrudging home with their spoils-not unfrequently the thrifty husband is seen "half seas over," wrestling his onward way with an obstinate little pig, to whose hind leg is attached a string, as security for allegiance, while ever and anon this third in the number of "obstinate graces," seeks a sly opportunity of evading its unsteady guide and effecting a retreat over the road, and "Geordie" (a common name among them) attempts a masterly retrograde reel to regain his fugitive. A long cart, lent

Quære? Whether some wag has not originally given the pitman the benefit of this term from befler or baffolier, to mock or affront; "aiblins," it may be a corruption of our English term "balk," to disappoint.

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