Evidence was given, the obnoxious food itself produced in court, and verdict about to be pronounced, when the foreman of the jury, begged that some of the burnt pig, of which the culprits stood accused, might be handed into the jury box. He handled it, and they all handled it, and burning their fingers, as Bo-bo and his father had done before them, and nature prompting to each of them the said remedy, against the face of all the facts, and the clearest charge which judge had ever given-to the surprise of the whole court, townsfolk, strangers, reporters, and all present; without leaving the box, or any manner of consultation whatever, they brought in a simultaneous verdict of Not Guilty. The judge, who was a shrewd fellow, winked at the manifest iniquity of the decision; and when the court was dismissed, went privily, and bought up all the pigs that could be had for love or money. In a few days his lordship's town-house was observed to be on fire. The thing took wing, and now there was to be seen fires in every direction. Fuel and pigs grew enormously dear all over the district. The insurance offices, one and all, shut up shop. People built slighter and slighter every day, until it was feared, that the very science of architecture would in no long time be lost to the world. Thus this custom of firing houses continued, till in process of time, says the manuscript, a sage arose, like our Locke, who made a discovery, that the flesh of swine, or indeed of any other animal, might be cooked, (burnt, as they called it) without the necessity of consuming a whole house to dress it. They commenced with a gridiron; then came the string and the spit. By such slow degrees, continues the manuscript, do the most useful, and seemingly the most obvious arts, make their way among mankind! COUNSELLOR'S FEES. Counsellor's fees were not known till the reign of our Edward 3d. The counsellors up to that period were considered as holding honorary situations. It is true, they had a certain stipend from the crown, but it was "no cure, no pay," as regarded their client. Up to the reign alluded to, the king generally presided, (especially Edward the First, who was called our English Justinian) in the King's Bench; hence the honour of pleading before the sovereign, was considered a measure equivalent to a golden fee. It was at the latter end of this monarch's reign, that giving fees were first practised. The custom, however, had prevailed long before in other countries. The translator of the Hedaya, (a Commentary on the Mussulman Laws) in his preliminary discourse, mentions, among the most celebrated lawyers of India, (native) one Aboo Yoosaf, who flourished about A.D. 750. He not only acquired a high degree of fame by his legal knowledge, but also amassed a very considerable fortune in the space of a few years. He is reported to have been a person of great acuteness, ready wit, and prompt in expedients; of which a remarkable instance is recorded in the Negaristan, whereby he obtained, in one night, fees to the amount of 50,000 gold denars, at a round computation, 20,000l.! What would some of our celebrated lawyers say to this? Their paltry fees of two or three hundred guineas, would have been mere drops in the bucket of Aboo Yoosaf. * See origin of term Banco Regis. DE COURCY PRIVILEGE. The privilege, which this family enjoy, of standing before the king covered, was granted, it is said, by king John, in 1203; in consequence of one of that family having vanquished a foreign knight, who had challenged every court in Europe, and up to that period had carried off every laurel. COURTING ON SATURDAY NIGHTS. Even in cities, amid the more busy haunts of men, on a Saturday evening, we toast "Sweethearts and Wives," and this arose out of the country courtings on the night of the same day. It was an ancient practice to cease from all servile labour at three o'clock on Saturday afternoon, and to attend evening prayers preparatory for the ensuing Sabbath. This vigil offered a convenient opportunity for courting, which custom continued after religious observances had ceased. WILLS. Roman Wills were sealed by seals applied after they had pierced the deeds, and had passed the linen envelope three times through the holes, a method established in the time of Nero, against forgers, and adopted in Germany and Gaul, where it remained till the middle age. Outside the will, were written the names of those who had affixed their seals. Upon the first page, or left hand tablet, were written the names of the principal heirs; upon the second, or right hand tablet, the names of the legatees. To this Horace alludes. The Greek wills were signed and sealed in the presence of the magistrate. Cicero shews how easy of detection were the Roman testamentary tablets. Anglo-Saxon wills were written on three copies, each to match, like a tally, and after being read over in the presence of various persons, were severally consigned to the separate custodies, and this custom continued to the 15th and 16th centuries; for then Lord Maurice Berkeley, before he went abroad, left three several wills in the custody of three several friends, lest any one should be lost. Du Cange, mentions wills written on wood, or bark; the latter in 699. Church chests were the depositaries of wills. From the Norman Conquest, they had been generally written in Latin; but in the reign of Edward the Third, English was used. Wills were made so far back as the reign of Henry 1st, (says another writer) in 1100; there was no law, however, to make them binding. Wills to devise lands were first established by law, in the reign of Henry 8th, and universally so, as to all real and moveable property, at the Restoration. The first will of a Sovereign of England, on record, is that of Richard 2d, in 1399. There is little doubt, but wills originated with the Egyptians, although, not used in Europe till ages after. MOURNING. Mourning, among the ancients, was expressed by very different signs, as by tearing their clothes, wearing sackcloth, laying aside crowns and other ensigns of honour; thus Plutarch, in his life of Cato, relates, that from the time of his leaving the city with Pompey, he neither shaved his head, nor, as usual, wore the crown or garland. A public grief was sometimes testified by a general fast. Among the Romans, a year of mourning was ordained, by law, for womer who had lost their husbands. In public mourning, the shops of Rome were shut up; the senators laid aside their laticlavian robes, the consuls sat in a lower seat than usual, and the women put aside all their ornaments. The colours of the dress, or habit, worn to signify grief, are different in different countries. In Europe, the ordinary colour for mourning is black; in China it is white, a colour that was the mourning of the ancient Spartan and Roman ladies; in Turkey it is blue, or violet; in Egypt, yellow; in Ethiopia, brown; and kings and cardinals mourn in purple. Every nation and country gave a reason for their wearing the particular colour of their mourning: black, which is the privation of light, is supposed to denote the privation of life; white is an emblem of purity; yellow is to represent, that death is the end of all human hopes, because this is the colour of leaves when they fall, and flowers when they fade; brown denotes the earth, to which the dead return; blue is an emblem of the happiness which it is hoped the deceased enjoys; and purple, or violet, is supposed to express a mixture of sorrow and hope. The custom of mourning for the dead in shrieks and howlings, is of great antiquity, and prevails almost universally among the followers of Mahomet. INTERMENTS AND CHURCH-YARDS. "We read their monuments-we sigh—and while Agreeably to the Old Roman Law of the Twelve Tables, the places of inhumation of the ancients, were universally excluded from the precincts of their cities. In England, church-yards for burial, are not of earlier date than the year 750, and the moderns would have done well if they had followed the custom of the ancients, in burying not within the city, but without its walls. Clemens is of opinion, that the tombs of the Atheneans, (see article Mausoleum) were the origin of all their temples. He says, the first place of worship in the Acropolis of Athens, was the Sepulchre of Cecrops; upon which spot the Parthenon was afterwards erected. The ceremonies of sepulture vary with most nations, and have undergone various changes even in this country. Spelman says. "much more joyous was the ceremony of sepulture among the AngloSaxons than that of marriage. The house in which the body lay till its burial, was a perpetual scene of feasting, singing, dancing, and every species of riot. This was very expensive to the family of the deceased; and in the north it was carried so far, that the corpse was forcibly kept unburied by the visiting friends, until they were certain that they had consumed all the wealth that the deceased had left behind him, in games and festivity. In vain did the church exert itself against such enormities. The custom had prevailed during the times of Paganism, and was much too pleasant to be abandoned by the half Christians of the early centuries." One extreme, however, begets another; symbols, relics, and miracles followed. Happily, enlightened Christianity has, in a great measure, abolished the frequent representations of mortality in all its shapes, and the silly ornaments of "death's head and marrow-bones," adopted by former ages in the decorations of their sculptured mo numents, and of their ecclesiastical buildings. These arose in the zonkish days of bigotry and superstition; the deluded people terrified into a belief, that the fear of death was acceptable to the great author of their existence; contemplating it amidst the ideas the most horrid and disgusting; excited gloom and melancholy in their minds, and altogether losing sight of the consolatory doctrines of the gospel, which regard death in no terrible point of view whatever. Were every place of sepulture like unto the celebrated one of Pere la Chase, (see article under this head) at Paris, how much more consistent and conformable they would be with the mild spirit of Christianity; instead of the disgusting receptacles which disgrace every large town in England, and which are strong evidences that bigotry and superstition have still their strong hold in this boasted land of liberty and freedom. HEARSES. Du Cange says: hearses erected in the church were anciently common, and the term signified a candlestick, furnished with different lights, and erected at the head of the cenotaph We are told also, that about the time of Edward 3d, began the use of hearses, composed entirely of wax lights, called castra doloris, (keeps of grief). Hearses over the grave for a continuance, and with lights, occur long before and after. As to moveable hearses, they were of different forms, and not of so early an origin. The term, as applied to the vehicle containing the body, was first used in the reign of William and Mary. So late as the reign of Charles 2d, at the burial of a peer, the body was borne on men's shoulders to the grave. BILLS OF MORTALITY. Bills of Mortality took rise (says Pennant) in 1592; in which year began a great pestilence, which continued till the 18th of December, 1595. During this period they were kept, in order to ascertain the number of persons who died; but when the plague ceased, the bills were discontinued. They were resumed again in 1603. At the original institution there were only 109 parishes; others were gradually added, and by the year 1681, the number was 132. Since that time 14 more have been added, so that the whole amounts to 146, viz. 97 Within the Walls. 16 Without the Walls. 23 Out Parishes in Middlesex and Surrey. DIVORCES. ""Twas Parisian aspect which upset old Troy And founded Doctor's Commons: I have conned Rabbi Hillet, (says Basnages, in his History of the Jews) maintained, that if a wife let the meat be too much roasted, it was a sufficient reason for a husband to divorce her! JUDGE'S BOUQUETS. The practice of judges having a nosegay placed before them, is not, as is generally imagined, a mere preservation against the close air of a crowded court, but is the relic of a primitive and antient custom of the judge holding the bough, or scepter of justice, in his kand: it was formerly called a bouquet, or little bough, whence the French took their word bouquet for a nosegay. SECTION X. ERAS, MONTHS, WEEKS, DAYS, &c. SUMMER. "Now cometh welcome Summer with great strength, Conferring on us days of longest length, For rest or labour, in town, field, or wood;" The word Summer is derived from Sun, or rather from its prevalence at the season of the year so named. It was originally Sun-ner, or Sun-mer; the latter syllable as in many other instances, being introduced for the sake of harmony. WINTER. The word Winter is derived from the Wind, i. e. the time of year when the wind is most prevalent, or boisterous: the t having taken place of the d; and the er being merely added to harmonize the word. MONTH, This term, as applied to the twelve divisions of the year, is derived from our Saxon ancestors, who called it Monat or Monath. JANUARY. This is the first, and generally the coldest day in the year, says Hone, in his "Every Day Book." It derives its name from Janus, a deity represented by the Romans with two faces, because he was acquainted with past and future events. FEBRUARY. Then came cold February, sitting In an old waggon, for he could not ride, Spenser. This month has Pisces, or the fishes for its zodaical sign. Numa, who was chosen by the Roman people to succeed Romulus as their king, and became their legislator, placed it the second in the year, as it remains with us, and dedicated it to Neptune, the lord of waters. Its name is from Februa, or Feralia, sacrifices offered to the gods at this season. |