29.-KING CHARLES II RESTORED. On the 8th of May 1660, Charles II was proclaimed in London and Westminster, and afterwards throughout his dominions, with great joy and universal acclamations. The 29th is still celebrated in some parts of England with considerable pomp and circumstance, gaiety and splendour.-Of the rejoicings which preceded the Restoration of King Charles II, Mr. Pepys gives a curious account, in his interesting 'Memoirs.' 'We were told that the Parliament had sent Scott and Robinson to Monk this afternoon, (February 11th) but he would not hear them. And that the Mayor and Aldermen had offered their own houses for himself and his officers; and that his soldiers would lack for nothing. And indeed I saw many people give the soldiers drink and money, and all along the streets cried God bless them,' and extraordinary good words. Hence we went to a merchant's house hard by, where I saw Sir Nich. Crisp, and so we went to the Star Tavern, (Monk being then at Benson's.) In Cheapside there was a great many bonfires, and Bow bells and all the bells in all the churches as we went home were a-ringing. Hence we went homewards, it being about ten at night. But the common joy that was every where to be seen! The number of bonfires, there being fourteen between St. Dunstan's and Temple Bar, and at Strand Bridge I could at one time tell thirty-one fires. In King-street seven or eight; and all along burning, and roasting, and drinking for rumps. There being rumps tied upon sticks and carried up and down. The butchers at the May Pole in the Strand rang a peal with their knives when they were going to sacrifice their rump. On Ludgate Hill there was one turning of a spit that had a rump tied upon it, and another basting of it. Indeed it was past imagination, both the greatness and the suddenness of it. At one end of the street you would think there was a whole lane of fire, and so hot that we were fain to keep on the further side.' When Charles was received on board Lord Sandwich's ship, on his voyage from Holland to England, Mr. Pepys gives a very interesting account of that remarkable event; from which we take a few particulars. The date is May 23, 1660. "The King, with the two Dukes and Queen of Bohemia, Princesse Royalle, and Prince of Orange, come on board, where I in their coming in kissed the King's, Queen's and Princesse's hands, having done the other before. Infinite shooting off of the guns, and that in a disorder on purpose, which was better than if it had been otherwise. All day nothing but lords and persons of honour on board, that we were exceeding full. Dined in a great deal of state, the Royalle company by themselves in the coach, which was a blessed sight to see. After dinner the King and Duke al tered the names of some of the ships, viz. the Nazeby into Charles; the Richard, James; the Speaker, Mary; the Dunbar (which was not in company with us) the Henry; Winsly, Happy Return; Wakefield, Richmoud; Lambert, the Henrietta; Cheriton, the Speedwell; Bradford, the Successe. That done, the Queen, Princesse Royalle, and Prince of Orange, took leave of the King, and the Duke of York went on board the London, and the Duke of Gloucester, the Swiftsure. Which done, we weighed anchor, and with a fresh gale and most happy weather we set sail for England. All the afternoon the King walked here and there, up and down, (quite contrary to what I thought him to have been) very active and stirring. Upon the quarter-deck he fell into discourse of his escape from Worcester, where it made me ready to weep to hear the stories that he told of his difficulties that he had passed through, as his travelling four days and three nights on foot, every step up to his knees in dirt, with nothing but a green coat and a pair of country breeches on, and a pair of country shoes that made him so sore all over his feet that he could scarce stir. Yet he was forced to run away from a miller and other company, that took them for rogues. His sitting at table at one place, where the master of the house, that had not seen him in eight years, did know him, but kept it private; when at the same table there was one that had been of his own regiment at Worcester, could not know him, but made him drink the King's health, and said that the King was at least four fingers higher than he. At another place he was by some servants of the house made to drink, that they might know that he was not a Roundhead, which they swore he was. In another place at his inn, the master of the house, as the King was standing with his hands upon the back of a chair by the fire-side, kneeled down, and kissed his hand, privately, saying that he would not ask him who he was, but bid God bless him whither he was going. Then the difficulties in getting a boat to get into France, where he was fain to plot with the master thereof to keep his design from the foreman and a boy (which was all the ship's company), and so get to Fecamp in France. At Rouen he looked so poorly, that the people went into the rooms, before he went away, to see whether he had not stole something or other.' On the day of the Proclamation' Mr. Pepys has the following naive description.-'At Mr. Bowyer's; a great deal of company, some I knew, others I did not. Here we staid upon the leads and below till it was late, expecting to see the fire-works, but they were not performed to-night: only the city had a light like a glory round about it with bonfires. At last I went to Kingstreete, and there sent Crockford to my father's and my house, to tell them I could not come home to-night, because of the dirt, and a coach could not be had. And so I took my wife and Mrs. Frankleyn (who I preferred the civility of lying with my wife at Mrs. Hunt's to-night) to Axe-yard, in which at the further end there were three great bonfires, and a great many great gallants, men and women; and they laid hold of us, and would have us drink the King's health upon our knees, kneeling upon a faggot, which we all did, they drinking to us one after another. Which we thought a strange frolique; but these gallants continued there a great while, and I wondered to see how the ladies did tipple. At last I sent my wife and her bed-fellow to bed, and Mr. Hunt and I went in with Mr. Thornbury (who did give the company all their wine, he being yeoman of the wine-cellar to the King); and there, with his wife and two of his sisters, and some gallant sparks that were there, we drank the King's health, and nothing else, till one of the gentlemen fell down stark drunk, and there lay; and I went to my Lord's pretty well.' . Some excellent observations, with reference to this day, are quoted in the Aubrey MS. from a contemporary writer: "The Druids performed no sacred services without the leaves of oak; and not only the Germans, but the Greeks adorned their altars with green leaves of oak. In the rites performed to Ceres, they were crowned with oak; in those to Apollo, with bays; in those to Hercules, with poplar; in those to Bacchus, with myrtle. Was not the oak abused by the Druids to superstition? And yet our late Reformers [in Cromwell's time] gave orders (which was universally observed accordingly) for the acorn, the fruit of the oak, to be set upon the top of their crowns instead of the Of happy presage to us that the tree which bore such fruit should (like that in the plains of Mamre) serve for the shelter of our earthly angel King Charles, from the heat and fury of rebellion, till the cross reassumed its place again upon the top of the crown.' *29. 1825.-CORONATION OF CHARLES X, KING OF FRANCE. cross. For an account of this curious ceremony, we must refer to the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. xcv, pt. 1, pp. 552 et seq.: we regret that we have not space to transfer it to our pages. *31. 1669.—THE LAST ENTRY IN MR. PEPYS'S DIARY Is worthy of preservation, as it will teach us to be careful in the use of those precious organs, the eyes, and, like him, resolutely to abandon any pursuit, however dear to us, by which they may be essentially injured. Up very betimes, and continued all the morning with W. Hewer, upon examining and stating my accounts, in order to the fitting myself to go abroad beyond sea, which the ill condition of my eyes and my neglect for a year or two hath kept me behind-hand in, and so as to render it very difficult now and troublesome to my mind to do it; but I this day make a satisfactory entrance therein. Had another meeting with the Duke of York at White Hall on yesterday's work, and made a good advance: and so being called by my wife, we to the Park, Mary Batelier, and a Dutch gentleman, a friend of her's, being with us. Thence to "The World's End," a drinking house by the Park; and there merry, and so home late. And thus ends all that I doubt I shall ever be able to do with my own eyes in the keeping of my Journall, I being not able to do it any longer, having done now so long as to undo my eyes almost every time that I take a pen in my hand; and therefore, whatever comes of it, I must forbear: and therefore resolve from this time forward to have it kept by my people in long-hand, and must be contented to set down no more than is fit for them and all the world to know; or if there be any thing, I must endeavour to keep a margin in my book open, to add here and there a note in short-hand with my own hand. And so I betake myself to that course, which is almost as much as to see myself go into my grave: for which, and all the discomforts that will accompany my being blind, the good God prepare me! M Astronomical Occurrences In MAY 1826. The smiling hours, the lamp of Lucifer PENNIE'S Royal Minstrel. SOLAR PHENOMENA. THE Sun enters Gemini at 8 m. after 4 in the afternoon of the 21st of this month; and he rises and sets on certain days during the same period as in the following TABLE Of the Sun's Rising and Setting for every fifth Day. It often happens in the ordinary concerns of life, that it is desirable to convert apparent into mean time, which may be done by employing the equation of time as directed in the following Table: When the numbers are required for any intermediate days, they must be found by proportion. TABLE Of the Equation of Time for every fifth Day. Monday, May 1st, from the time by the dial sub. m. 8. 3 3 Saturday,...... 6th, 3 35 Thursday,. 11th, ........................................ ...................................... 3 55 |