rers

This may be remembered as one of the once popular street songs of the late Charles Dibdin's composition. The dancers wore party-coloured ribands round their hats, arms, and knees, to which a row of small latten bells were appended, somewhat like those which are given to amuse infants in teethcutting, that tinkled with the motion of the wearers. These rustic adventu"upon the many-headed town," came from a village in Hertfordshire. Truly natural and simple in appearance, their features, complexion, dress, and attitude, perfectly corresponded. Here was no disguise, no blandishment, no superhuman effort. Their shape was not compressed by fashion, nor did their hearts flutter in an artificial prison. Nature represented them about twenty-five years of age, as her seasoned sons, handing down to posterity, by their exercises before the present race, the enjoyment of their forefathers, and the tradition of happy tenantry "ere power grew high, and times grew bad." The "set-to," as they termed it, expressed a vis-à-vis address; they then turned, returned, clapped their hands before and behind, and made a jerk with the knee and foot alternately,

"Till toe and heel no longer moved."

Though the streets were dirty and the rain fell reluctantly, yet they heeded not the elemental warfare, but

"Danced and smiled, and danced and smiled again:"

hence their ornaments, like themselves, looked weather-beaten. Crowds collected round them. At 12 o'clock at noon, this was a rare opportunity for the schoolboys let out of their seats of learning and confinement. The occasional huzza, like Handel's "Occasional Overture," so pleasing to the ear of liberty, almost drowned the Morris." But at intervals the little pretty pipe drew the fancy, as it were, piping to a flock in the valley by the shade of sweet trees and the bosom of the silver brook. O! methought, what difference is here by comparison with the agile-limbed aerials of St. James's and these untutored clowns! Yet something delightful comes home to the breas breast, and speaks to the memory of a rural-born creature, and recals at housand dear recollections of hours gone down the voyage of life into eternity! To a Londoner, too, the novelty does

not weary by its voluntary offering to their taste, and apposition to the season.

Lubin Brown, the piper, was an arch dark-featured person; his ear was alive to Doric melody; and he merrily played and tickled the time to his note. Wher he stopped to take breath, his provincia dialect scattered his wit among the gapers, and his companions were well pleased with their sprightly leader. Spagnioletti, nor Cramer, could do no more by sound nor Liston, nor Yates, by grimace. I observed his eye ever alert to the movement and weariness of his six choice youths. He was a chivalrous fellow : he had won the prize for "grinning through a horse collar" at the revel, thrown his antagonist in the "wrestling ring," and "jumped twenty yards in a sack" to the mortification of his rivals, who lay vanquished on the green. The box-keeper, though less dignified than Mr. Spring, of Drury-lane, informed me that "he and his companions in sport" had charmed the village lasses round the maypole, and they intended sojourning in town a week or two, after which the box would be opened, and an equitable division take place, previously to the commencement of mowing and hay-harvest. He said it was the third year of their pilgrimage; that they had never disputed on the road, and were welcomed hone by their sweethearts and friends, to whom they never omit the carrying a seasonable gift in a very humble "Forget me not!" o. "Friendship's Offering."

Mr. Editor, I subscribe myself,
Yours, very sincerely.

J. R. P.

NATURALISTS' CALENDAR. Mean Temperature... 58.55

June 16

CHRONOLOGY.

June 16, 1722, the great duke c Marlborough died. (See vol. i., p. 708. Among the "Original Papers," published by Macpherson, is a letter of the duke's to king James II., whom he "deserted

in his utmost need" for the service ot king William, wherein he betrays to his old master the design of his new one against Brest in 1694. This communication, if intercepted, might have termi. nated the dukes career, and we should nave heard nothing of his "wars in Flanders." It appears, further, that the duke's intrigues were suspected by king William, and were the real grounds of his imprisonment in the Tower two years before.

NATURALISTS CALENDAR.

Mean Temperature ... 59.12.

June 17.

ST. BOTOLPH.

This English saint, whose festival is on this day, with his brother Adulph, another saint, travelled into Belgic Gaul, where Adulph became bishop of Maestricht, and Botolph returned home with news of the religious houses he had seen abroad, and recommendations from the two sisters of Ethelmund, king of the south Saxons, who resided in France, to their brother in England. Ethelmund gave him a piece of land near Lincoln, called Icanhoe, "a forsaken uninhabited desert, where nothing but devills and goblins were thought to dwell: but St. Botolphe, with the virtue and sygne of the holy crosse, freed it from the possession of those hellish inhabitants, and by the means and help of Ethelmund, built a monasterie therein." Of this establishment of the order of St. Benedict, St. Botolph became abbot. He died on this day in June, 680, and was buried in his monastery, which is presumed by some to have been at Botolph's bridge, now called Bottlebridge, in Huntingdonshire; by others, at Botolph's town, now corruptly called Boston in Lincolnshire; ard again, its situation is said to have been towards Sussex. Boston seems, most probably, to have been the site of his edifice.

called Thorney, from its having been covered by briars; and that the lastwritten History of Boston" refers to Capgrave, as saying, "that in the book of the church of St. Botolph, near Aldersgate, London, there is mention how a part of the body of St. Botolph was, by king Edward of happy memory, conferred on the church of St. Peter in Westminster." Father Porter, in his "Flowers of the Saincts," says, "it hath been found written in the booke of St. Botolphe's church, near Aldersgate, in London, that part of his holy bodie was by king Edward given to the abbey of Winchester." The editor of the EveryDay Book possessed "the register book of the church of St. Botolph, near Aldersgate," when he wrote on "Ancient Mysteries," in which work the manuscript is described: it wanted leaves, and neither contained the entry mentioned by Capgrave, nor mentioned the disposition of the relics of St. Botolph. Besides the places already noticed, various others throughout the country are named after St. Botolph, and particularly four parishes of the city of London, namely, in Aldersgate before mentioned, Aldgate, Billingsgate, and Bishopsgate. Butler says nothing of his miracles, but Father Porter mentions him as having been "famous for miracles both in this life and after his death."

LADY'S DRESS IN 1550.

some

The gentleman whose museum furnished the Biddenden cake, obligingly transmits an extract from some papers in his collection, relative to a wedding on this day.

To the Editor of the Every-Day Book. Sir,-Perhaps the following account of the dresses of a lady in olden time may be interesting to your readers :

The wedding-clothes of Miss Eliz. Draper, 1550, a present from her husband, John Bowyer, Esq. of Lincoln'sinn :

"Wedyn-apparrell bought for my wyffe, Elizabeth Draper, the younger, of Camberwell, against 17° die Junii, anno Domini, 1550,

with dispensalls.

chorets. It may here be remarked, how

ever, that Westminster was anciently

Item, 4 yardes of silk Chamlett crymson, at 7s. 6d. the yard, for a kyrtle

Item, one yard and a half of tawney velvet, to gard the Venyce gowne, at 15s. the yard

Item, half a yard of crymsyn satin, for the fore-slyves Item, 8 yards of russel's black, at 4s. 6d. the yard, for a Dutch gowne

Item, half a yard of tawney sattyn Item, a yard and a quarter of vel

vet black, to guard the Dutch gowne

Item, 6 yards of tawney damaske, at 11s. the yard

Item, one yard and half a quarter of skarlett, for a pety cote with plites

Amounting to

S.

22 6

68

50

200

271 4

as

June 5, 1826.

I am, &c.

d. Orphan of China," enabled him to discharge some pecuniary obligations he had incurred, and he made several 52 6 attempts to acquire reputation as an actor; but, though he displayed judgment, he wanted powers, and was brutally attacked by Churchill, from motives of party prejudice. Mr. Murphy in a very humorous ode to the naiads of Fleet-ditch, intituled "Expostulation," vindicated his literary character. He withdrew from the stage, studied 35 0 the law, made two attempts to become a member of the Temple and of Gray'sinn, and was rejected, on the illiberal plea that he had been upon the stage. 178 More elevated sentiments in the members of Lincoln's-inn admitted him to 660 the bar, but the dramatic muse so much engaged his attention, that the law was a secondary consideration. He wrote twenty-two pieces for the stage, most of which were successful, and several are stock pieces. He first started into the literary world with a series of essays, intituled "The Gray's-inn Journal." At one period he was a political writer, though without putting his name to his productions. He produced a Latin version of "The Temple of Fame," and of Gray's "Elegy," and a well-known translation of the works of Tacitus. He was the intimate of Foote and Garrick, whose life he wrote. He had many squabbles with contemporary wits, particularly the late George Steevens, Esq.; but, though he never quietly received a blow, w. he was never the first to give one. Steevens's attack he returned with abundant interest. His friend Mr. Jesse Foot, whom he appointed his executor, and to whom he entrusted all his manuscripts, says, "He lived in the closest friendship with the most polished authors and greatest lawyers of his time; his knowledge of the classics was profound; his translations of the Roman historians enlarged his fame; his dramatic productions were inferior to none of the time in which he flourished. The pen of the poet was particularly adorned by the refined taste of the critic. He was author of 'The Orphan of China,' 'The Grecian Daughter,' 'All in the Wrong,' 'The Way to keep Him,' Know your own Mind,' • Three Weeks after Marriage,' 'The Apprentice,' 'The Citizen,' and many other esteemed dramatic productions." He had a pension of 2001. a vear from go

June 18.

CHRONOLOGY.

Ogborne's print, from whence the preceding engraving is taken, bears this inscription :

"An exact Perspective View of DunMow, late the Priory in the county of Essex, with a Representation of the Ceremony & Procession in that Mannor, on Thursday the 20 of June 1751 when Thomas Shakeshaft of the Parish of Weathersfield in the county aforesaid, Weaver, & Ann his Wife came to demand and did actually receive a Gammon of Bacon, having first kneelt down upon two bare stones within the Church door, and taken the said Oath pursuant to the ancient custom in manner & form prescribed as aforesaid." A short account of this custom precedes the above inscription.

Mr. Brand speaks of his possessing Ogborne's print, and of its having become "exceedingly rare;" he further cites it as being inscribed "Taken on the spot and engraved by David Ogborne." Herein he mistakes; for, as regards Ogborne, both old and mo

dern impressions are inscribed as already quoted in the preceding column: in the old impression "C. Mosley sculpt." stands below "the oath" in verse, at the right hand corner of the plate; and in the modern one it is erased from that part and placed at the same corner above "the oath," and immediately under the engraving; the space it occupied is supplied by the words "Republish'd Oct 28th, 1826 by R. Cribb, 288 Holborn": its original note of publication remains, viz. "Publish'd according to Act of Parliament Jany. 1752." The print is now common.

Mr. Brand, or his printer, further mistakes the name of the claimant on the print, for, in the "Popular Antiquities" he quotes it "Shapeshaft" instead of "Shakeshaft;" and he omits to mention a larger print, of greater rarity in his time, "sold by John Bowles Map & Printseller in Cornhill," entitled "The Manner of claiming the Gamon of Bacon &c by Thơ. Shakeshaft, and Anne his wife" which it thus represents