garret: a teacher of primitive christianity is not to be confounded with a patriarch of Alexandria." This is a very different picture from that of the "great church" represented by Butler. In truth, the early christian pastors were poor and lowly men, and hence the ideas we affix to the denominations which they and their flocks receive from catholic writers should be derived from plain common-sense views of their real situations, so far as they can be ascertained. SHOES AND SANDALS. East, but sandals, which leave the toes bare, very seldom. The Egyptians made their shoes of papyrus or palm leaves. The Greeks and Romans of both sexes wore rich sandals of gold, silk, or other precious stuffs; the soles were of cork, which for that reason was called sandal wood, and they were, in general, at least one finger thick; sometimes they sewed five soles one over another. They were covered within and without with leather broader than the cork. Sandals were among the early, but not the later, Anglo Shoes or slippers were worn in the Saxons.* The preceding cut is of a "very curious sandal," in three different views, from one made of leather, partly gilt, and variously coloured. It was formerly in the possession of Mr. Bailey, leather-stainer, Little Wild-street, Drury-lane, and afterwards in that of Mr. Samuel Ireland, of Norfolkstreet, by whose permission, an engraving on copper was made by Mr. J. T. Smith, of the British Museum, and from this the present representation is given. The age of the sandal is not by the writer determinable, but as a remarkable relic of antiquity, its form and make deserve preservation. It will be observed, that it belonged to the left foot of the wearer; so that if other evidence could not be adduced, this is proof that "rights and lefts" are only 66 an old, old, very old" fashion revived. The shoes of Bernard, king of Italy, found in his tomb, were "right and left" the soles were of wood, the upper part red leather, laced with thongs, and they fitted so closely, that the order of the toes, terminating in a point at the great toe, might easily be discovered. Stubbs, the satirist in Shakspeare's time, describes cork shoes or pantofles, (slippers) as bearing up their wearers two inches or more from the ground; as of various colours, and raised, carved, cut, or stitched; as frequently made of velvet, embroidered with the precious metals; and when fastened with strings, covered with enormous and valuable roses of ribband curiously ornamented. "It is remarkable that, as in the present age, both shoes and slippers were worn shaped after the right and left foot. Shakespeare describes his smith as 'Standing on slippers, which his nimble haste Had falsely thrust upon contrary feet : and Scott, in his Discoverie of Witchcraft,' observes, that he who receiveth a mischance will consider, whether he put not on his shirt wrong side outwards, or his left shoe on his right foot.”+ Some light may be thrown on the engraving by an extract from an heraldic writer: "He beareth or, two sandals sable, buckles or tyes argent. This was the ancient way of securing the feet of travellers from the hardness of the country passage; and consisted of nothing else but a sole, (either of leather or wood) to which *Fosbroke's Dict. Antiq. Dr. Drake'a Shakspeare and his Times, was made fast 2 or 3 tyes or latches which was buckled on the top of the foot; the better sort adorned these latches with imbrauthered (embroidered) work, and set them with stones." Whence it appears that the engraving represents such a sandal "of the better sort." The same author mentions three sandals sable, buckled and adorned or, on a field azure "borne by Palmer."* Ladies may be amused by looking at the form, as placed before his readers, of a shoe which the author just cited says was "of the gentest (genteelest) fashion" of his time. This was the fashion that beautified the feet of the fair in the reign of king William and queen Mary. The old "Deputy for the kings of arms" is minutely diffuse on the "gentle craft:" he engraves the form of "a pair of wedges," which he says "is to raise up a shooe in the instep when it is too straight for the top of the foot;" and thus compassionates ladies' sufferings.-" Shoomakers love to put ladies in their stocks; but these wedges, like merciful justices upon complaint, soon do ease and deliver them." If the eye turns to the cut-to the cut of the sole, with the "line of beauty" adapted by the cunning workman's skill to stilt the female foot-if the reader behold that asso ciation, let wonder cease, that a venera ble master in coat-armour should bend his quarterings to the quartering of a lady's shoe, and forgetful of heraldic forms, condescend from his "high estate" to the use of similitudes. To the Editor of the Every-Day Book. Sir, In your fourteenth number, you accuse the almanac-makers of having thought good to fix Easter-day on the 3rd of April instead of the 10th, on which day, you say, according to the act of parliament and the rubric of the church, Easterday ought to be celebrated. This statement is calculated to "unsettle the faith of thousands in their almanac-maker;" for, sure enough, the almanac-maker appears to have made Easter-day fall on the day of the full moon, instead of the week after; I therefore fully acquit you of all intention to mislead your readers, and slander the almanac-maker; and yet you most certainly have done both from not suffi ciently taking into your consideration the omnipotence of parliament, especially in astronomical matters. You may possibly recollect, that, even a few years back, parliament, for the purpose I think of protecting game from poachers, declared that night should commence, during the summer month, before the sun thought proper to set. Now, in defiance of those matter-of-fact gentlemen, the almanac makers, the act of parliament for the uniformity of worship, has this year appointed the paschal full moon for the 2d of April instead of the 3rd, and thereby converted the 3rd into Easter Sunday. The statute of 14 Car. II. says nothing about Easter Sunday, but it orders the Book of Common Prayer to be joined and annexed to the act, so that the rubric has the force and omnipotence of an act of parliament to alter the course of the moon, and to regulate its wane and increase. The rubric exercises this power, by compelling you to look out for the full moon in certain tables of its own concocting, and does not allow you to consult the almanac. The paschal full moon must be ascertained by discovering the golden number of the year, (for which a rule is given,) and the day set next that Golden Number, (in the table before mentioned,) is, by the omnipotence of parliament, declared to be the full moon day. The Gelden Number for the present year is acording to the rule 2, and the day fixed ag.inst that number, is April 2d, and is threfore the paschal full moon in spite of the almanac-makers. The full moon being fixd thus by government, Easter-day is asortained by finding the Sunday letter by anther rule, according to which B is the Sunday letter for the present year, and the Your much amused, and constant reader, The next communication is in further support of the almanac-maker's Easter. To the Editor of the Every-Day Book. Sir, It appears the author of the article "Easter," in the Every-Day Book, p. 416, thinks the almanac-makers wrong in fixing Easter Sunday, for 1825, on the 3rd of April, when the full moon took place at 6 h. 23 m. in the morning of that very day. He probably was not aware, that the astronomical day commences at 12 at noon, and ends the next noon. The 2d of April, (as an astronomical day) commenced on the Saturday, and ended on the Sunday at noon. The festivals being regulated according to this astronomical division of time, it follows that the almanac-makers were correct in considering the full moon to take place on Saturday, the 2d of April, and in fixing Easter Sunday for the 3rd of April. I trust you will find it worth while to insert this correction of your statement, from, A CONSTANT READER. To the latter correspondent's observations, this answer has been received from the gentleman to whom it became the editor's duty to transmit it for consideration. For the Every-Day Book. The object of those who fixed the day for the celebration of Easter, was to prevent the full moon being on the Sunday on which the offices for the Resurrection were to be performed, and the custom of astronomers has nothing to do with the question. The full moon according to them might be on the twenty-third hour of the Saturday, but this would be eleven THE AUTHOR OF THE ARTICLE ON EASTER. In this correspondence Easter is disposed of. The rubric clearly states the rule for finding the festival, and the last letter represents the ground whereon it was deemed expedient that the church should celebrate it according to that rule. CHRONOLOGY. 1595. Torquatus Tasso, the poet, died at Rome. He was born, in 1544, at Sorrento in Naples, wrote verses at nine years of age, became a student jat law, and composed the "Rinaldo" at seventeen. Although his celebrated epic "Jerusalem Delivered" is that whereon his poetical fame is chiefly grounded, yet his "Aminta," and other pieces are rich in fancy and beautiful in style; he was also excellent in prose. The most remarkable feature in his character was a hopeless passion for the princess Eleanora, sister of the duke of Ferrara, that he conceived early in life, and nourished till his death. 1800. William Cowper, the poet, died at Dereham, in Norfolk; he was born November, 26, 1731, at Berkhamstead, in Hertfordshire. When a child he was shy and diffident. "His own forcible expression," says Hayley, "represented him at Westminster-school as not daring to raise his eye above the shoe-buckle of the elder boys, who were too apt to tyrannize over his gentle spirit." Fear of personal publicity increased with his years. At thirty-one it was necessary that he should appear at the bar of the House of Lords, to entitle himself to the appointment of clerk of the journals which had been obtained for him, he was incapable of the effort, his terror overwhelmed his reason, and he was subjected to confinement till his faculties recovered. Morbid glooms and horrors of the imagination clouded his mind throughout life, and he more than once attempted self-destruction. When not subjected to these dreadful affections he was cheerful and amiable. Innocence of heart and extreme modesty were the most remarkable features in his character. His poetry is in the hands of every body; its popularity is the best praise of its high merits. He was enabled by his fortune to indulge his love of retirement, surrounded by a few friends whom he ardently loved. He speaks of himself, in a letter to Mr. Park, so as to exemplify his usual habits-"_From the age of twenty to thirty-three I was ocstudy of the law; from thirty-three to cupied, or ought to have been, in the where my reading has been only an aposixty I have spent my time in the country, logy for idleness, and where, when I had not either a magazine or a review, I was sometimes a carpenter, at others a birdcage maker, or a gardener, or a drawer of landscapes. At fifty years of age I comserved me longest and best, and will promenced an author:-it is a whim that has bably be my last." A little volume entitled the "Rural Walks of Cowper," illustrates his attachment to the country, by a series of fifteen views from drawings made and engraved by Mr. James Storer; they exemplify scenery in Cowper's poems, with descriptive sketches; it is an agreeable assistant to every one who desires to know something of the places wherein the poet delighted to ramble or meditate. There is a natural desire to become acquainted with the countenance of a man whose writings we love or admire, and the spots that were associated with his feelings and genius. Who can read Cowper's letter to his friend Hill, descriptive of his summer-house, without wishing to walk into it? "I write in a mer-house not bigger than a sedan chair; nook that I call my boudoir; it is a sumis now crowded with pinks, roses, and the door of it opens into the garden that honeysuckles, and the window into my neighbour's orchard. It formerly served an apothecary as a smoking-room; at sublimer uses; here I write all that I present, however, it is dedicated to write in summer time, whether to my friends or to the public. It is secure trom all noise, and a refuge from all intaken by Mr. Storer's permission fro trusion." The present engraving of it is his design made on the spot. It was here, perhaps, that Cowper sung with a thorn in her breast, an afwrote his poem on a nightingale, that fecting allusion to the state of his own feelings. There is another of his productions on the same "sweet bird," whom all poets wait on, which is subjoined by way of conclusion to this brief notice of a bard honoured for his talents, and revered for his love of virtue, St. Mark's Day, or Ebe. This was a great fast-day in England during the rule of the Romish church. An old writer says, that in 1589, "I being as then but a boy, do remember that an ale wife, making no exception of dayes, would needs brue upon Saint Marke's days; but loe, the marvailous worke of God? whiles she was thus laboring, the top of the chimney tooke fire; and, before it could bee quenched, her house was quite burnt. Surely," says this observer of sainted seasons, a gente warning to them that violate and pro fane forbidden daies." Another writer observes, that although there was not anciently any fast-day between Easter and Whitsunday, yet, besides many days in the Rogation week, the popes had devised "a monstrous fast on Saint Marke's day." He says, "all other fastinge daies are on the holy day Even, only Saint Marke must have his day fasted." He asks why and by what decree of the church, or by what general council the fast was ordained? He inquires why one side of the street in Cheapside being in *Vaughan's Golden Grove. |