督 made the wearers look too much like magpies; so that was laid aside. Several courtiers laid bets with the king, according to Evelyn, that he would change his purpose, and lodged stakes accordingly. And in effect those long vests which Dryden says 'did become our English gravity,' soon gave way before French doublets and hose, and other importations of the Duke of Grammont. It is pleasant enough to imagine how a modern drawingroom would look if filled with courtiers peacocking it about in long sweeping trains. Charles intended to shorten the ladies' petticoats in proportion as he prolonged the men's trains. this experiment was disapproved of by Lady Carteret and Pepys.* If the reader be curious in feasts of the ear rather than the palate, he may read Pepys's enthusiastic description of the music in the Virgin Martyr. He undervalues poor Dryden's share of the piece. But that which did please me beyond any thing in the whole world, was the wind-musique when the angel comes down; which is so sweet that it ravished me, and indeed, in a word, did wrap up my soul so that it made me really sick, just as I have formerly been when in love with my wife; that neither then, nor all the evening going home, and at home, I was able to think of any thing, but remained all night transported, so as I could not believe that ever any musique hath that real command over the soul of a man as this did upon me; and makes me resolved to practice wind-musique, and to make my wife do the like.'— vol. ii. p. 201. Again, the curious in musical antiquities may be interested in his censure of the Scottish music which, at a later period in the reign of Charles, was fashionable in London; but which, to the southern ear of Mr. Clerk of the Acts, sounded the strangest airs he ever heard, and all of one cast.' The natives present praised and admired them-all but the Earl (afterwards Duke) of Lauderdale, who declared, 'He had rather hear a cat mew, than the best musique in the world; and the better the musique, the more sick it makes him; and that of all instruments, he hates the lute most, and next to that the baggpipe.'vol. i. p. 434. If the curious affect dramatic antiquities-a line which has special charms for the present age, no book published in our time has thrown so much light upon plays, playwrights, and playactors. There is an account by Killigrew of the improvements which he himself made upon the stage of his time, bringing it, if we may believe him, from tallow candles to wax lights; from two or three fiddlers to nine or ten capital hands; from the late queen's Evelyn's Memoirs, vol. i. p. 378. auspices auspices very rarely vouchsafed, to the constant and regular patronage of royalty. (vol. ii. p. 14.) Then there are anecdotes, not only of Knipp and Nell, but of Kynaston and Betterton, and Lacey and Mohun, and passages concerning Dryden and Cartwright, and Sam Tuke, and we wot not whom besides-annotations, in short, for a new edition of the Roscius Anglicanus. They cannot, for example, but be delighted to meet with the account of the new play, Queen Elizabeth's Troubles, and the History of Eighty-eight,' which is very curious, as it seems to have consisted almost entirely in scenery and dumb show. The Queens Elizabeth and Mary appeared dressed in the costumes of their age; and a prolocutor stood on the stage, and explained the meaning of the action to the audience. Pepys was much affected with the sad story of Queen Elizabeth, which he had sucked in from his cradle, but fully as much so to see Knipp dance among the milk-maids, and come out in her night-gown, with no locks on, but her bare face, and hair only tied up in a knot behind; which he thought the comeliest dress he had ever seen her in. The play, as well as the very peculiar mode of representation, seems to have escaped the industry of Isaac Reed. There is another class of antiquaries, who retire within the ancient enchanted circles, magical temples, and haunted castles, venerated by their forefathers: and here they, too, may find spells against various calamities, as against cramps, thorn-wounds, and the like, (i. p. 323.) and stories respecting spirits, and an account of the ominous tempest of wind which, in the opinion of the Journalist, presaged the death of the queen; but which proved only to refer to that of Sir William Compton; with much more to the same useful purpose. Those who desire to be aware of the earliest discoveries, as well in sciences as in the useful arts, may read in Pepys's Memoirs, how a slice of roast mutton was converted into pure blood; and of those philosophical glass crackers, which explode when the tail is broken off; of aurum fulminans, applied to the purpose of blowing ships out of water; and of a newly contrived gun, which was to change the whole system of the art of war; but which has left it pretty much on its old footing. Notices there are, moreover, of the transfusion of blood; and how many unhappy dogs died in course of the experiment;—in short, we have in this sort the usual quantity of information, partly genuine, partly erroneous, partly perverted and nonsensical, which an amateur man of science contrives to assemble in his head or in his memory. An amateur of the useful arts may also remark that the most successful inventions are not always successful in the commencement. Such was the case with the sort of carriages now most commonly in use, and called, at their first introduction, glass coaches. Lady Ashley dilated upon their bad qualities to Mr. Pepys. Among others, the flying open of the doors upon any great shake: but another was, that my Lady Peterborough being in her glass-coach with the glass up, and seeing a lady pass by in a coach whom she would salute, the glass was so clear that she thought it had been open, and so ran her head through the glass!' (vol. ii. p. 129.) There exists a class of Old Bailey antiquaries-men who live upon dying speeches, sup full upon the horrors of executions, and fatten on the story of gibbetings like ravens on the mangled limbs. Here such readers will find a cake of the right leaven for their tastes. Here is an account of the execution of Sir Henry Vane, as well as several of his associates; and of Colonel Turner, who was in actual life a personification of Cowley's Captain Cutter. No wonder it should be so; for the reader must recollect, that this was the same reign in which Roger Nash records as the greatest inconvenience of his brother Dudley's office as sheriff, the executioner coming to him for orders, touching the abscinded members, and to know where to dispose of them. Once, while he was abroad, a cart with some of them came into the court-yard of his house, and frighted his lady almost out of her wits. And she could never be reconciled to the dog hangman's saying he came to speak with his master."* We read an account lately (but have unhappily mislaid the reference), which showed that the salting and pickling which the abscinded members, since that is the phrase, underwent before exposure, was quite a holiday in the jail: the executioner presiding on the occasion, and distributing refreshments at his own expense among the spectators. To the lover of ancient voyages and travels it may especially be hinted, that Pepys, as befitted a member of the Navy-board, was curious inquestioning every year picked men of countries.' Of course he sometimes met with travellers who had a shade of Sir John Mandeville about them. Such might be the worthy captain who assured him that, as lobsters turn red on being boiled, negroes become white on being drowned; showing that there is at least one extremity of washing which can blanch the Ethiopian. There is also an account of the country above Queensborough, meaning, it would seem, the duchy of Courland, in which, though we can recognize some of the peculiarities of that northern latitude, Mr. Harrington and the east-country (i. e. Baltic) merchants, who were his visitors, have rather extended the travellers' privilege. (vol.i. p. 267.) Indeed it may be observed in general, * Life of Sir Dudley North, 4to. 1774, p. 158. that that Mr. Pepys does not appear to be devoid of that spirit of credulity which accompanies an eager and restless curiosity. He who is willing to listen must naturally be desirous to believe. If a lover of antique scandal that taketh away the character, and committeth scandalum magnatum against the nobility of the seventeenth century, should desire to interleave a Granger, or illustrate a Grammont, he will find in these volumes an untouched treasure of curious anecdote for the accomplishment of his purpose. If the progress of the fine arts is the subject of investigation, the Memoirs abound with circumstances interesting to the amateur; there are anecdotes of Lely and Cooper and Fairthorne, and an account of ill usage offered to Holbein's painting in the ceiling at Whitehall, with notices of medals and coins and medallists, and much more equally to the purpose. If anecdotes of great persons, or of persons of notoriety are in request, you have them untouched by either D'Israeli or Seward, from Oliver Cromwell down to Tom Killigrew. Jests lurk within these two quartos, unprofaned by Joe Miller, notices of old songs which Ritson dreamed not of.-Here may the ballad-monger learn that Simon Wadlow, vintner, and keeper of the Devil's Tavern, did on the 22d April, 1661, lead a fine company of soldiers, all young countrymen in white doublets; and who knows but that this might have been either Old Sir Simon the king, Or young Sir Simon the squire ; personages who bequeath names to the memorable ditty beloved of Squire Western The students of political economy will find a curious treat in considering the manner how Pepys was obliged to bundle about his money in specie, removing it from one hiding-place to another during the fire, concealing it at last under ground, and losing a great deal in digging it up again. Then he hit on the plan of lodging it with a goldsmith; and his delight on finding he was to receive £35 for the use of £2000 for a quarter of a year, reminds us of the glee of Crabbe's fisherman on a similar discovery: What! five for every hundred will he give But his golden visions were soon disturbed by a sad conviction not unlike that which lately passed over our own money-market, that bankers were but mortal men, and that they could not pay interest for money and have the full sum at the same time lying by them ready on demand. A run upon Lombard-street in the days of Charles II. is thus described : 'W. Hewer hath been at the banker's, and hath got £500 out of Backewell's VOL. XXXIII. NO. LXVI. X Backewell's hands of his own money; but they are so called upon that they will be all broke, hundreds coming to them for money and they answer him, "It is payable at twenty days-when the days are out we will pay you ;" and those that are not so they make tell over their money, and make their bags false on purpose to give cause to retell it, and so spend time.'--vol. ii. p. 67. Thus truly speaks Chaucer :— 'There n'is ne new guise but it hath been old.' But we stop abruptly, or we might find a difficulty in stopping at all, so rich is the work in every species of information concerning the author's century. We compared the Diary to that of Evelyn, but it is as much superior to the latter in variety and general amusement, as it is inferior in its tone of sentiment and feeling; Pepys's very foibles have been infinitely in favour of his making an amusing collection of events; as James Boswell, without many personal peculiarities, could not have written his inimitable life of Johnson. We ought to mention some curious and valuable letters which occupy the latter part of the second volume. The reader may be amused with comparing the style of Pepys and his sentiments as brushed and dressed, and sent out to meet company, with his more genuine and far more natural effusions of a night-gown and slipper description. This, however, he must do for himself; we have not leisure to assist him. The circumstances which induced Mr. Pepys to discontinue his diary, we lament as a great loss to posterity. True, the days which succeeded were yet more disastrous than those he commemorated. The Popish plot had not, when he ceased his record, dishonoured our annals;-England had not seen her monarch a pensioner to France,—and her nobles and statesmen at home divided into the most desperate factions which sought vengeance on each other by mutual false accusation and general perjury. Yet considering how much of interest mingled even in that degrading contest, considering how much talent was engaged on both sides, what a treasure would a record of its minute events have been if drawn up by 'such a faithful character as Griffiths !' ART. II.-Wanderings in South America, the North-west of the United States, and the Antilles, in the Years 1812, 1816, 1820, and 1824. With original Instructions for the perfect Preservation of Birds, &c. for Cabinets of Natural History. By Charles Waterton, Esq. London. 1825. ONE NE fine morning in the early part of the year 1812, Charles Waterton, Esq., of Walton Hall, near Wakefield, a Catholic gentleman of very considerable property, left his house and home, aud |