Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

houses should be licenced at the general quarter-sessions of the peace for the Conaty within which they are to be kept. In 1675, King Charles issued a procla-, mation to shut up the coffee-houses, but in a few days suspended that proclamation by a second. They were charged with being seminaries of sedition.

The first European author who has made any mention of coffee, is Rauwolfns, who was in the Levant in 1573; but the first who has particularly described it, is Prosper Alpinus, in his History of the Egyptian Plants, published at Venice in 1591, whose description we have in Parkinson's History of Plants, p. 1622, chap. 79, as follows: Arbor Bon cum fructu suo bund, the Turks berry drink. Alpinus in his first book of Egyptian Plants, gives us the description of this tree, which he says he saw in the garden ut a captain of the Janissaries, which was brought out of Arabia-Felix, and there planted as a rarity never seen grow ing in those places before. The tree, saith Alpinus is somewhat like Euonymus, or Spindle-tree, but the leaves of it were thicker, harder, and greener, and always abiding on the tree. The fruit is called Buna, and is somewhat bigger than au hazel nut, and longer, round also and ported at one end; furrowed likewise, on both sides, vet, on one side, more conspicuous than the other, that, it might be parted into two: in each side whereof lieth a small oblong white kernel, flat on the side they join together, covered with a yellowish skin of au acid taste and somewhat bitter, and contained in a thin shell, of a darkish ash colour. With these berries in Arabia and Egypt, and other parts of the Turkish dominions, they generally make a decoction or drink, which is in the stead of wine to them, and commonly sold in their taphouses or taverns, called by the name of case; Paludamus says choavu, and Rauwalfus chauke. This drink has many good physical properties; it strengthens a weak stomach, helping digestion,, and the tumours and obstructions of the liver and spleen, being drank fasting for some time together. It is beld in great estimation among the Egyptian and Arabian Women in common feminine cases, in which they find it does them eminent

service.

Lord Chancellor Bacon likewise makes mention of it in 1624: he says, that the

*This description is evidently taken from a dried berry, and not from the ripe fruit.

Turks have a drink called coffee, mads with boiling water, of a berry reduced into powder, which makes the water as black as soot, and is of a pungent and aromatic smell, and is drank warm. The celebrated John Ray, in his Ilistory of Plants, published in 1620, speaking of it as a drink very much in use, says, that this tree grows only within the tropics, and supposes that the Arabs destroy the vegetable quality of the seeds, in order to confine among themselves the great share of wealth, which is brought thither from the whole world for, this commodity; from whence he obscrves, that this part of Arabia might be. truly styled the most happy, and that it was almost incredible how many millions of bushels were exported from thence into Turkey, Barbary, and Europe. He says, he was astonished that one particular. nation should possess so great a treasure, and that within the narrow limits of one, province; and that he wondered the, neighbouring nations did not contrive to, bring away some of the sound seeds or living plants, in order to share in the advantages of so lucrative a trade,

We now come to shew by what means this valuable tree was first introduced into Europe, and thence into America.

The first account of this tree being. brought into Europe, we have from Boerhaave, in his Index to the Leyden Garden, part 2, p. 217, which is as follows:,

66

Nicholas Witsen, Burgomaster of Amsterdam, and governor of the East India' Company, by his letters often advised and desired Van Hoorn, governor of Batavia, to procure from Mocha in Arabia-Felix some berries of the coffee-tree to be sown at Batavia, which he having accordingly done, and by that means about the year 1690, raised many plants from seeds, he sent one over to Governor Witsen, who immediately presented it to the garden at Amsterdam, of which he was the founder and supporter; it there bore fruit, which in a short time produced many young plants from the seeds. Boerhaave then concludes that the merit of introducing this rare tree into Europe, is due to the care and liberality of Witsen alone.

In the year 1714, the magistrates of Amsterdam in order to pay a particular compliment to Louis XIV. King of France presented to hin an elegant plant of this rare tree, carefully packed up to by water, and decided from the weather by a curious machine, covered with glass.

The plant was about five feet high, and an inch in diameter in the stem, and was in full foliage, with both green and ripe fruit. It was viewed in the river with great attention and curiosity, by several members of the academy of sciences, and was afterwards conducted to the royal garden at Marly under the care of Monsieur de Jussieu, the king's professor of botany, who had the year before written a memoir, printed in the History of the Academy of Sciences of Paris, in the year 1713, describing the characters of this genus, together with an elegant figure of it, taken from a smaller plant, which he bad received that year from Monsieur Pancrass, burgo-master of Amsterdam, and director of the botanical garden there.

Iu 1718, the Dutch colony at Surinain began first to plant coffee, and in 1722, Monsieur de la Motte Aigrou, governor of Cayenne, having business at Surinam, contrived by an artifice, to bring away a plant from thence, which in the year 1725, had produced many thousands.

In 1727 the French, perceiving that this acquisition might be of great advantage in their other colonies, conveyed to Martinico some of the plants; from whence it most probably spread to the neighbouring islands, for in the year 1732, it was cultivated in Jamaica, and an act passed to encourage its growth in that island —— Thus was laid the foundation of a most extensive and beneficial trade to the European settlements in the West Indies,

To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.

T

SIR,

It may interest some of your readers

to be informed that the tea-tree is now in blossom here, in our parlour, and has been ever since the 18th (inclusive) of this month, notwithstanding the extreme severity of the weather, and that the thermometer within doors at halfpast nine this morning, in a southern aspect, was at 28. Another bud has even opened since the frost.

Petals 6, (one smaller and shorter than the rest); concave, obtusely heart-shaped. Stamens very numerous (probably above 200), with golden summits. The whole appearance of the flower like the single broad-leaved myrtle; but longer, and more brilliant, from the multiplicity of the stamens, texture of the petals, stronger colour, not quite so white. Calyx: stellate, quinquefid, about one-fourth the length of the petals.

The scent of the flower delicate and

evanescent; resembling that of fine green tea dried.

There seems little doubt that this charming plant would bear a warm and sheltered exposure in the south-west of our island, like the broad-leaved myrtle. Its affinity to the myrtle is indeed very striking: so much, that many species having been lately transferred from the genus Myrtus to other genera, so that it is now very thin. I doubt whether this might not be annexed to it under the denomination of Myrtus Thea, changing its elegant generic name, which it ought not wholly to lose, into its specific. Fond as I am of plants, I have never till now seen it in bloom.

It is long in coming into blossom. The buds appeared early in September. The season of its flowering renders it peculiarly valuable. And had the weather been mild, I have no doubt that in some few days it would have been covered with bloom.

The flowers proceed from near the extremities of the branches, on solitary footstalks, some opposite, others alternate. My plant is near three feet high, and came from Mr. Mackie, nurseryman, Norwich, the year before this. In close moist weather it requires air, and some heat, to absorb the damp: otherwise its blossoms fall without opening. This I experienced last year.

I cannot imagine that its beauty in a good greenhouse would be at all inferior even to the myrtle itself. It seems to form the intermediate link in the botanical chasm between the myrtle and the orange.

It is curious, that plants of so extensive use as the coffee and tea trees (the coffee perhaps one of the greatest blessings, among those that are not really necessaries of life, that Providence has indulged to mankind, considering its heneficial qualities in use as well as its agreeable) should be among the most elegant of plants in foliage and blossom; and the coffee in fruit also. It is impos sible not to rejoice that the present cheapness of coffee, though it is to be feared a short-lived cheapness, has made it, to a considerable degree, the beverage of the poor. It is strengthening, where tea is not; it is even nutritive, while tea certainly is not. Tea, however, itself, should not be without much commendation. Moderately taken, and not too hot, it may be regarded as not only innocent, but salutary. It is favourable to temperance and to tranquillity of

mind. And perhaps, of all our daily repasts, it constitutes the most generally and unexceptionably agreeable, from which even reading is not excluded, and where conversation can be most itself.

I find, by Professor Martyn's valuable edition of Miller, that Linnæus received the true tea-tree from Earl Gustavus Ekeberg, October 3, 1763, the captain of a Swedish East-Indiaman, who raised it from seed during the voyage. Into England it was introduced by Mr. Ellis, about 1768. It was first treated as a

store-plant: and its first flowering in this country was in the stove of the Duke of Northumberland. Perhaps even the coffee-tree may in time be brought to endure the green-house, instead of being confined to the stove. Troston-hall, near Bury. Your's, &c. Dec. 21, 1808.

CAPEL LOFFT.

P. S. An oil thermometer, which serves as a kind of register of great degrees of cold, by so slowly recovering its temperature, is now only at 17, in the same aspect and Upon the same scale.

For the Monthly Magazine.
THE ANTIQUARY.-No. XVI.

ANALYSIS OF CURIOUS BOOKS.

TIM IME has veiled so large a portion of former learning from our view, that the recovery of its more valuable fragments may be deemed a work of almost equal importance with the prosecution of new inquiries.

In this view the attention of the Antiquary has been more than once turned to the analysis of curious books, in which the history or the manners of former riods are illustrated.

pe

Among those which relate to rural sports, scarcely any will be found more interesting than the work

"Of Englishe Dogges, the Diversities, the Names, the Natures, and the Properties. A short Treatise, written in Latine, by Johannes Caius, of late memarie, Doctor of Phissicke in the Unisersitie of Cambridge, and newly drawne into Englishe by Abraham Fleming, Student. Imprinted at London by Rycharde Jones," 1576. 4to.

At the back of the title-page is, "A Prosopopoicall Speache of the Booke. "Some tell of starres th' influence straunge, Some tell of byrdes which flie in th' ayre, Some tell of beastes on land which raunge, Some tell of fishe in riners fayre. Some tell of serpentes sundry sortes, -Some tell of plantes the full effect, Of Englishe dogges-I sound reportes, Their names and natures I detect.

My forhed is but baulde and bare,
But yet my body's beutifull,
Fur pleasaunt flowies in me there are,
And not so fyne as pleatifull.
And though my garden plot so greene,
Of dogges receaue the trampling feete,
Yet is it swept and kept ful cleene,
So that it yeeldes a sauour sweete.

AB. FLE."

Followed by a Latin dedication, in Fleming's name, to Dr. Perne, dean of Fly.

The book itself appears to have been written at the express request of Conrad Gesner, whose name has been so long and so well known to readers of natural history.

"All Englishre dogges," says Caius, "be cyther of a gentle kinde, seruing the game; a homely kind, apt for sundry necessary uses; or, a currishe kinde, meete for many toyes." The treatise, however, is divided into five sections, in ing to their employments, are enumewhich the different sorts of dogs, accord

rated.

The first section contains the Canes Venatici," which serve the game and disport of hunting; comprising, the harrier, the terrar, the bloudhounde, the gasehounde, the grehounde, the leuiner, or lyemmer, the tumbler, and the stealer.”

The second section comprises the Ca nes Aucupatorii, or "gentle dogs, which serve the disport of fowling, including the land-spaniel, or setter; the waterspaniell, or finder; and the fisher."

The third section treats only "of the delicate, neate, and pretty kind of dogges called the Spanish gentle, or comforter," appear to have been the lap-dogs of the time.

which

The fourth includes the Canes Rustici, or coarser dogs" the shepherd's dogge, and the mastive, or baudogge; which last," says the author, hath sundry names deriued from sundry circumstan ces, as, the keeper, or watchinan,, the butcher's dogge, the messinger or carrier, the mooner, the water-drawer, the tin ker's curr, and the fencer,"

And the fifth section contains the " cutres of the mungrell and rascall sort, -the wappe, or waruer; the turnespete, and the daunser;" followed by a short the time are enumerated, viz. conclusion, in which the cross breeds of

"Three sortes of them.

The first bred of a 2 in Latine, bytch and a wolfe, Lyciscus. The second of a 2 in Latine, bytehe and a foxe, Lacana. The third of a bear 2 in Latine, and a bandogge, Preanis. The most curious of Caius's descriptions

tions are probably those of the blood-
hound, the setter, and the mastive, or
bandogge, the second, with a portion
of the last of which we shall extract.
"The Dogge called the Setter, in Latine,

Index.

"Another sort of dogges be there, serviceable for fowling, making no noise either with foote or with tounge, whiles they followe the game.

These attend diligently upon theyr master, and frame their conditions to such beckes, motions, and gestures, as it shall please him to exhibite and make, either going forward, drawing backward, inclining to the right hand, or yealding toward the left. (In making mencion of fowles, my meaning is of the partridge and the quaile) When he hath founde the byrde, he keepeth sure and fast silence; he stayeth his steppes and wil proceede no further; and with a close, couert, watching eye, layeth his belly to the grounde and so creepeth When he apforward like a worme. proacheth neere to the place where the birde is, he layes him downe, and with a marcke of his pawes betrayeth the place of the byrde's last abode; whereby it is supposed that this kind of dogge is called inder, setter, being in deede a name most consonant and agreable to his quality. The place being knowne by the meanes of the dogge, the fowler immediately openeth and spreadeth his net, intending to take them; which being done, the dogge at the accustomed becke or usual signe of his master, ryseth up by and by, and draweth neerer to the fowle, that by his presence they might be the authors of their own ensnaring, and be ready intangled in the prepared net; which conning and artificial indeuour in a dogge (being a creature domesticall or housholde servaunt, brought up at home with offails of the trencher and fragments of victualls,) is not much to be maruailed at, seeing that a bare (being a wilde and skippishe beast) was seene in England, to the astonishment of the beholders, in the yeere of our Lorde God 1564, not onely dancing in measure, but playing with his former feete uppon a tabberet, and observing just number of strokes (as a practitioner in that arte,) besides that nipping and pinching a dogge with his teeth and clawes, and cruelly thumping him with the force of his feete. This

The coincidence between this anecdote and that relating to one of the hares which Cowper the poet endeavoured to domesticate, is remarkable.

is no trumpery tale, no trifling toye (as I imagine) and therefore not unworthy to be reported; for I reckon it a requittall of my trauaile, not to drowne in the seas of silence any speciall thing, wherein the prouidence and effectual working of nature is to be pondered."

In the account "of the mastive or

bandogge, called in Latine, Villoticus, or Cathenarius," we have one or two auecdotes of Henry the Seventh, which are certainly not related by the generality of historians who have written on his reigu.

"Our Englishmen," says Caius," (to th' intent that theyr dogges might be the more fell and fearce) assist nature with arte, vse, and custome, for they teach theyr dogges to baite the beare, to bait the bull, and other such like cruell and bloudy beastes, (appointing an overseer of the game,) without any collar to defend theyr throtes; and oftentimes they traine them up in fighting and wrestling with a man, having for the safegarde of his lyfe, eyther a pikestaffe, a clubbe, or a swoorde, and by vsing them to such exercises as these, theyr dogges become more sturdy and strong. The force which is in them surmounteth all beleefe, the fast holde which they take with their teeth exceed, eth all credit: three of them against a beare, fowre against a lyon, are sufficient, both to trye masteryes with them, and vtterly to overmatch them. Which thing Henry, the seventh of that name, king of England, (a prince both politique and warlike), perceiving on a certaine time (as report runneth) commaunded all such degges (how many soever they were in number) to be hanged, beying decpely displeased, and conceauing greate disdaine, that an yil fauoured rascall curre should with such violent villainy assault the valiaunt lyon, king of all beastes. An example for all subjectes worthy of remembrance, to admonishe them that it is no advantage to them to rebell against the regiment of their ruler, but to keepe them within the limits of loyaltie. I recde an history aunswerable to this of the self same Henry, who having a notable and an excellent fayre falcon, it fortuned that the king's falconers, in the presence and hearing of his grace, highly commended his majesty's falcon, saying, that it feared not to interneddle with an

eagle, it was so venturous a byrde and so mighty; which when the kinge harde, he charged that the falcon should be killed without delay, for the selfe same reason (as it may secme) which was rehersed in

conclusion

conclusion of the former history concerning the same hinge."

Mr. Pennant conjectures that the tumbler of Dr. Caius answered to the modern Jurcher; but has no conjecture for the gazebound. The leviner, or lyemmer, he supposes, was the same with what is now called the Irish greyhound,

Our author Cuius, Kaye or Keye (for such was the English of his name) appears in his time, to have united the first homours of literature with those of medicane. He was born at Norwich in 1510; studied, first at Gonville-hall, in Cain bridge; and afterwards became one of the pupils of the celebrated Johannes Montanus, at Padua: where, in 1542, be gave public lectures on the Greek text of Aristotle.

His labours in editing correct editions of Galen and Celsus, gave him a deserved celebrity in his own country, which removed him very early from the practice of a provincial town to the first physician at court, in which capacity he served King Edward VI, and the queens Mary and Elizabeth.

The service which he rendered to the College of Physicians, in which be succeeded Linacré as president, his general patronage of learning, and the munificent protection which be afforded in particular to the house of his education at Cambridge, are all subjects of appropriate panegyric. Fuller says, he bequeathed a medicinal genius to his college. His works are extremely numerous: among which the most interesting to his countrymen, besides the treatise De Canibus, (which first appeared in 1570,) are probably his "Councell against the Disease called the Sweat," 8vo. 1550, and the two editions of his "Historia Cantabrigins Academiæ," 4to. 1568 and 1574. lle died July 29, 1575; and has only this inscription, in Caius-College Chapel, on his tomb-" FUI CAIUS."

Another work deserving the attentun of the antiquary who may turn bus thoughts to rural sports, will be found in

"A Short Treatise of Hunting: com

pyled for the Delight of Noblemen and Gentlemen, by Sir Thomas Cockaine, kmight. Lond. 1591." 4to.

A treatise, more the work of a hunter than of a professed writer. It is short, and has little variety for the general reader,

"Howe to hunt the otter," as practed in the reign of queen Elizabeth, is

perhaps one of the best specimens that can be selected from it.

"Your huntsman early in the morning before he bring foorth your houndes, must goe to the water, and seeke for the new swaging of an otter, and in the mud or grauell finde out the sealing of his foote, so shall he perceiue perfectly whe ther hee goe vp the water or downe: which done, you must take your hounds to the place where he lodged the night before; and cast your traylers off upon the trayle you thinke best; keeping your whelps still in the couples: for so they must be entred.

"Then must there be on either side of the water two men with otter speares to strike him, if it bee a great water: but if it be a small water you must forbear to strike him, for the better making of your houndes.

"The otter is chiefly to be hunted with slow houndes, great mouthed, which to a young man is a very earnest sporte he will vent so ofte and put up ouer wa ter, at which time the houndes will spend their mouthes verie lustely: thus may you have good sport at an otter two or three houres if you list.

"Au otter sometimes wil be trayled a mile or two before he come to the holt where he lyeth, and the earnestnes of the sporte beginneth not till he bee found, at which time some must runne up the water, some downe, to see where he vents, and to pursue him' with great earnestnes till he be kild. But the best hunting of him is in a great water when the banke is full, for then he cannot have so great succour in his holes, as when it is at an ebbe; and he paketh the best sporte in a moon-shine night, for then he will runne much over the land, and not keepe the water as he will in the day."

The work concludes with "Sir Tristram's Measures of Blowyng: the music of the horu being deemed at that period an indispensible qualification for a "compleat gentleman."

Y.

[blocks in formation]
« ZurückWeiter »