A CHARACTER OF THE ENGLISH. THE following remarks on the English character, are extracted from A Constitutional English Catechism, published in 1766 :What kind of people are the English? nation generous, brave, free, and restless. Are they happy? Excessively: and most so when they think they are on the brink of ruin.-How do you class them? The most general and natural division is into rich and poor, wise men and fools.-Is England fertile in statesmen? No country is more so Where do they inhabit? In the day-time behind a counter; in the evening, at a coffee-house, tavern, or ale-house.Are there many patriots in England? Many pretended ones. How many real ones? One in a century. What is fashion? An agreeable tyrant.--What is its progress? It begins with the vain, is improved by the silly, and stops with the wise.-What does it regulate The dresses of the ladies; the philosophical and political tenets of the men; the hour of meals; and the value of toys. Besides which, it regulates and fixes the taste of the town. Are there many laws in this country? So many that they serve to perplex one another. What is the duty and business of an officer in the army? In time of peace to saunter from tavern to tavern, and from coffee-house to coffee-house; from the court to the play, from the play to Vauxhall, from Vauxhall to Ranelagh, and from Ranelagh to Hyde Park.-What is their duty in time of war? To be ready to go to the freezing regions of Newfoundland or Hudson's Bay, or to the burning climes of Senegal or Granada; and, when there, for a certain daily stipend, to stand patiently as a mark to be shot at, until he is bid to move, and then to kill as many people, whose faces he never saw before, as he possibly can.What is good nature? Squandering one's fortune on gamblers, and intimate friends of half a day's standing; and finally reducing one's self from a state of ease and affluence, to one of indigence and beggary.- What is good fellowship? Being drunk every night, and shortening one's small portion of life, at least a dozen years, by various excesses.— What profit does it bring to a man? He is called a jolly dog, an honest fellow, and has not the trouble of thinking. What is politeness? Swearing with a good grace; never giving the lie; forgetting one's old acquaintance: and spending twice one's income. What are the chief curiosities in England? An author with a second suit of clothes, an economical theatrical hero, an honest lawyer, and a man of parts, wit, and learning, with a thousand a-year. W. G. C. CURIOUS BEQUESTS. From the Reports of the Charity Commissioners. BUCK'S CHARITY. ROBERT BUCK, by his will, bearing date 17th and 16 others, members of the Draper's ComNovember, 1620, gave to Martin Lumley, any, his messuage called Caring, in the parish of Leeds, or Langley, in Kent, and eight acres of land there in trust, to permit the company of Drapers to receive the rents, and apply the same as follows, viz.-that the after Michaelmas, pay to the two younger masrenter-warden should yearly, within 40 days ter-wardens, 207. at the least, who should thereof decent mingled colour, at 10s. a yard, or with purchase 13 yards of broad Kentish cloth, thereabouts; 16 yards of Devonshire kersey, of mingled colour, of 6s. d. a yard, or there2s. 6d. a yard; 15 yards of black cotton, of abouts; 15 yards of broad baize, black, of 8d. a yard; 9 leather sheepskins, dressed in oil, of the price of 12d. a piece; 6 yards of slac cloth, of the price of 16d. a yard; 44 ells of brown holland, of 3s. 4d. per yard; 21 ells of roan canvass of 10d. an ell; 3 Monmouth caps, of 2s. 6d. each, and 3 felt hats for women, of 6s. 8d. each, or thereabouts; all which cloth, &c. with 37. in money, he directed the two younger master-wardens should bestow as follows; namely, that they should send the said cloth, &c. and money from London, to Bollington Hall, in the parish of Ugley, in Essex, where he was born, there to be delivered to such of the surname of Buck as should be owners of, and inhabit the said Hall; and that he or they, with the churchwardens of Ugley, should divide the same in six parts, and bestow the same the first year to the three poor men, and three poor women, of the parish of Ugley, who should have dwelt there for four years preceding; namely, to each of the said three men 14 yard of broad cloth, and one for lining for coats, 2 yards of Devonshire kersey, to make long slops or breeches, and 4 yards of black cotton, and 3 sheepskins, to line the same, 14 ell of brown holland, to make them doublets, and 3 yards of Jean fustian, and of an ell of roan canvass, to line the same; one Monmouth cap, and 10s. a piece to make up their apparel, and to buy them hose and shoes; and to each of the said three poor women the residue of the said clothing, in the manner therein particularly specified, together with 10s. each in money; and he directed that the same should be given the second year by persons of the surname of Buck, with the assistance of the churchwardens and overseers of the parish of Manendine, in Essex, to three poor men and three poor women who should have dwelt there for four years preceding, in the same manner as directed to the parish of Ugley; the third year to the three poor men and 3 poor women of Stanstead Mountfitchett, in Essex, and so in suc cession yearly for ever. And it was provided, that in case there should be no person of the name of Buck at Bollington Hall, the persons of that name dwelling in a messuage called Wardes, in the parish of Ugley, with the churchwardens of the parish whose turn it should be to receive the same, should choose the men and women, and divide the gifts amongst them; and that when the name of Buck should cease there also, then that the churchwardens of the respective parishes, together with the four of the most ancient free holders or copyholders in each, should nominate the poor men and women, and distribute the cloth amongst them; and he further directed, that out of the rents of the said lands, the renter of the said company should, monthly, on the 1st, 2nd, or 3rd of every month, pay to eight poor widows inhabiting in the company's almshouse in Beech Lane, 2s. 6d. each; and further, that the said trustees should, out of the rents, pay yearly to the two younger master-wardens for their pains, 10s. a piece, to the clerk of the company, 6s. 8d., to himself, 6s. 8d., to the beadles, 3s. 4d.; and that the remainder, whatever it should happen to be, should be yearly paid over to the four master-wardens, to be locked up in the company's chest, for the repairs of the said estate, when necessary, or to such other charitable uses as to the said master-wardens and assistants should seem expedient. And it was provided, that when the trustees should be reduced to four or five, the survivors should convey the lands to 20 other free drapers, to be nominated by the master-wardens and assistants on the trusts aforesaid, with course, should be holden until the master-wardens and assistants should be pleased to procure the same to be amortized to the said Corporation of Drapers by their proper style of corporation. A copy of a Deed of Feoffment is entered in the minutes of the Court of Assistants, bearing date 24th December, 1644, whereby Sir Henry Garway, one of the trustees named in the donor's will, conveyed the devised premises to Thomas Ádams and 19 others, their heirs and assigns, on the trusts of the said will. It does not appear that there has been any subsequent conveyance, but the company have acted as trustees. The farm at Caring consists of a large old Mansion-house, in a very dilapidated state, and 98 acres of land, let to George Catt, as yearly tenant, at the rent of 140%, at which rent he has held it from 1827. Out of the rent, cloth and other articles are provided annually, under the direction of the wardens for the three parishes of Ugley, Mandendine, and Stansted Mountfitchett, in rotation, and precise articles prescribed by the testator being provided as nearly as possible. On the 5th of November annually the articles are packed up at a meeting of the war dens, with 34. in money, and sent for distri bution to the churchwardens of the parish which may be entitled to the charity in that year. The following payments are also made on account of the almspeople in Beech Lane; viz. towards the stipends of the almspeople 127. a year, which is carried to the account of the charities general, the expense of the repairs of the almshouses, the yearly sum of 21. 8s. for water rate, and the cost of the four chaldron of coals. There is also paid 27. a year, in the propor tions directed by the donor, to the several accounts of the wardens, clerk, beadle, and porter. The residue of the rents, if any, aster these several payments, is carried to the ac count of "The Company's Income;" and if the balance is against the charity, it is carried on to the charity account for the year ensuing. In the six years ending 31st December, 1835, the average cost of the clothing pro. vided for the three parishes in Essex, was 317. 2s. 6d. per annum; of the repairs of the almshouses and the farm, including insurance (but exclusive of about 4807. lately expended in building an oasthouse on the farm), 221. 2s. 6d.; and the average of coals for the almshouses, 77. 88. 5d. In the 10 years from 1820 to 1829, the amount carried to the company's income was 9721. 9s. 9d.; and from 1830 to 1835 (six years,) 2821. 6s. 5d. P. Q. POPULAR VIEW OF NATURAL BY JAMES H. FENNELL. (Continued from page 357.) To persons engaged in the FISHERIES, a knowledge of not only the habits of fish, but of other creatures, is necessary to ensure better success. The fulmar petrels (Procellaria glacialis,) for those birds indicate the spot where the are watched in their flight by the whalers, whales are most numerous, by their crowding to the spot where they first rise on the surface of the water. "In the Isle of Man," says the Rev. W. B. Clarke, "the gull is looked upon as sacred; I remember an instance of the kind, a fine of and there used to be, so late as 1820, when ten shillings levied on all persons who killed self-interest; for herrings are the staple comone. This protection of the bird arose from modity of the island; and the sea-gulls, who are the pilots of the herring fleet, invariably hover over a shoal of herrings, and so direct the fishermen where to cast their nets.”— (Magazine of Natural History, vi., 148.) "The FINE ARTS owe their choicest beauties to a taste for the contemplation of nature. Painting and sculpture are express imitations of visible objects; and where would be the charms of poetry if divested of the imagery and embellishments which she borrows from rural scenes? Painters, statuaries, and poets, therefore, are always ambitious to acknow. ledge themselves the pupils of nature; and as their skill increases they grow more and more delighted with every view of the animal and vegetal world."-(Dr. Perceval's Moral and Literary Dissertations.) To painters of landscapes, animals, or of plants, a knowledge of Natural History and a habit of observation, would be highly useful. "There is no defect so common," observes Mr. Loudon, " in painted or engraved landscapes, as the want of distinctive characters in the representation of trees. With the exception of Constable, Nasmyth, Robson, Strutt, and a few others, most artists appear to content themselves with producing variations of a few general and vague forms of masses of foliage, trunks, branches, and spray; it seems to be enough for them to produce a tree, without attempting to represent any particular species, or considering that to give a true idea of nature, the spectator ought to be able to distinguish the sort of tree in the picture with the same facility with which he distinguishes it in reality. Why trees should not be represented with the same truth and fidelity as animals, buildings, or other objects, there can be no good reason assigned; and the only way of accounting for it is, by the general residence of the landscape-painter in cities, and the very little attention paid by most of them to Natural History as a science. Were this study to enter into the education of the landscape-painter, as much as that of general history enters into that of the historical. painter, we should not so frequently have to regret, in the works of our first artists, not only violations of truth and nature in the kind of trees, but in their situations in regard to soil, surface, water, and other trees or plants. A little knowledge of botany would prevent artists putting spring and autumnal plants in flower or fruit in the same picture, placing the plants of woods and shady places in open sunshine, and committing a number of similar violations of nature. The combined knowledge of indigenous zoology, geology, and botany, ought to be considered as essential to the landscape-painter as it is to the cultivator."-(Magazine of Natural History. i., 37.) Another excellent writer, when speaking of the importance of botany to artists who give pictorial representations of trees, well observes, that, "As every genus, and even every species of tree, has its peculiar port or general aspect, it is highly desirable that artists, and young persons who have a taste for sketching from nature, should make themselves acquainted with the especial characters by which trees are distinguished from each other, so as to be enabled to recognise them at a distance. This is best attained by making an individual tree of each genus, most likely to be met with in the scenery in which the artist is placed, the subject of a particular study, not only when in full leaf, but when entirely deprived of foliage. Let us, for instance, contrast the port of the elegant birch, 'the Lady of the Woods,' with that of the horse-chesnut; what a difference do we observe between the slender and graceful twigs of the former, and the stout, but beautifullyarranged branches of the latter! Paintings which in other respects may be considered as excellent productions, are often deprived of much of their beauty and perfection from the artist not having been able to convey, with accuracy, the different characters of the trees which he has introduced.”—(Mirhet's General Observations on Vegetation, p. 91, note.) When the elephant walks, it does not simultaneously move its right fore-leg and left hind-leg, or its left fore-leg and right hind-leg, as the horse and most other quadru peds do when they walk; but it advances the left fore and hind legs, or the right fore and hind-legs together at each step. Thus, in short, it moves both legs on the same side at once. This is one among many facts in natural history which should be remembered by the sculptor and the painter From an ignorance of this fact the artists employed to illustrate Daniell's Oriental Annual, and Jardine's Naturalist's Library, (plate 3,) have represented the elephant in the attitude of trotting like a horse. Artists unacquainted with the forms and habits of living creatures may, in spite of these arguments, continue to draw paradoxical beings existing only in their crude imaginations; but such productions, they may be assured, will ever be unpleasing and disgusting to those who admire things that exist in nature. It is only by a careful examination of animated beings in their native haunts, and the entertainment of a laudable desire to pourtray them with strict fidelity, that artists can ever expect to gain such high praise, such warm encouragement, as is bestowed on an Audubon, and on other artists who, after attentively and closely observing Nature, represent her with the utmost adhe rence to truth.* It is so common to see paintings of small birds and insects nowhere to be found in nature, though bearing some slight resemblance to existing species, disgracing public exhibitions and private collections, that one would almost believe that the designers of them ignorantly supposed that A flippant writer in the Library of the Fine Arts thus speaks of those who would have fidelity in zoological drawings:-" To paint to please the mul titude, namely, the senseless little and the igno rant great,' it is encumbent on the painter to repre sent nature so ably, that if the picture pourtray a cat, a dog will snarl at it; or if it represent a dish of fish, a cat will pounce upon it." the colours and forms of real humming birds, real butterflies, &c., are accidental rather than alike and hereditary in the offspring of every species. Drawings of ideal beings, possessing no attractions whatever, save their gaudy colours, dishonour the designer, who can thus abuse his noble art by painting imaginary monstrosities, while Nature is everywhere displaying pleasing and beautiful realities. These remarks, which trust will not be deemed offensive, for though they censure they convey advice, are equally applicable to the productions of the sculptor and others, who would evince more taste were they to endeavour to transmit to posterity, accurate models of beings co-existent with themselves, than of brain-born things, likely to elicit in future ages, much idle and profitless discussion on the probability of their having once existed.* POETS who would attempt descriptive sketches of nature, or to decorate their pieces with similes derived from, or allusions to, natural objects and occurrences, should most certainly possess a knowledge of natural history, or a habit of correctly observing for themselves the objects on which it treats. It is strange that the grand and beautiful objects of nature everywhere surrounding them, and the most obvious to their senses, have been so neglected by the poets. I say it is strange, because things which Nature herself has made poetical, are surely those which are the most appropriate for the pen of the poet, certainly more so than the art of gardening, which Darwin and Mason have treated of in poetry, or agriculture, and agricultural implements, which are the subjects of Virgil's Georgics. The mere sight of the beauties of Nature and of natural scenery, while it creates a feeling of wonder and delight, imparts to us a desire of giving utterance to our enraptured feelings; and if they be happily expressed, we have poetry, though perhaps not verse. If such things are to be described in poetry, they must be seen, they must be enjoyed; for though scenery, and the sensations it might create, may be imagined, and described from the imagination, yet how poor and insignificant they are when compared to the real scenes of Nature, and the real enjoyment of them! Some of those poets, whose minds have not been attuned to the enjoyment of nature, and have, therefore, been more successful in compositions relating to very different subjects, have asserted that natural descriptions are not best adapted to poetry. But one of the best and most original poems in our language,―Thomson's Seasons, proves that a good poet, who is also an original I learn that at the congress of the German naturalists, at Bonn, in Sept. 1835, Dr. Froriep read a memoir on Natural History as applicable to the fine arts.-J. H. F. observer, can treat such subjects with the utmost felicity. But there can be little doubt that Thomson, when we consider his almost unexceptionable accuracy, had actually observed and studied the works of nature in her own woods and fields. Dr. Aikin observes, that "The animal race, who, in common with man, have intellectual character; whose motions, habialmost universally somewhat of moral and tations, and pursuits, are so infinitely and curiously varied; and whose connection with man arises to a sort of companionship and mutual attachment, seem on these accounts peculiarly adapted to the purposes of poetry. Separately considered, they afford matter for pleasing and even sublime speculation; in the rural landscape they give animation to the objects around them; and viewed in comparison with human kind, they suggest amusing and instructive lessons." (Essay on the Application of Natural History to Poetry, 1777, p 33.) Many animals and plants are hardly ever noticed in poetry, while the nightingale, the lark, the rose, and the lily, and some few others, are frequently the subjects of poetry, and afford it many similes, so frequently, indeed, as to sicken the reader. This sameness of subbe ascribed to the circumstance of the poets ject, and this monotony of simile, can only servile copyists of the descriptions of their not being original observers of nature, but predecessors. "If poets have been inattentive to the real state of nature in their own country, it cannot be expected that their pictures of foreign regions should be accurate and characteristic. Yet were they sufficiently qualified by their own observation, or the authentic accounts of others, for the attempt, it is obvious that no source could be so productive of novelty, as the description of countries where almost every object is new. Such to the inhabitant of a temperate climate, are the polar and tropical parts of the globe. It is highly to the credit of Virgil's genius, that he first among the ancient poets ventured to transport his reader into a new world, and place the soft Italian amid the rigours of a Scythian winter. His description of this dreary scene has been thought so just and lively, as to be very closely imitated by the natural Thomson; who has, however, according to his usual manner, greatly improved upon it, by the addition of new cir. cumstances. *Every scene of nature, foreign or domestic, affords objects from whence an accurate survey may derive new ideas of grandeur or beauty. Where a careless eye only beholds an or dinary and indistinct landscape, one accus tomed to examine, compare, and discrimi nate, will discern figures and groups, which, • Georgic. iii. v. 349. et seq. • *** Judiciously brought forward, may be wrought into the most striking pictures." (Aikin's Essay, p. 139.-154.) If it be true that several poets have done much to increase our love of nature, it is equally so that they have been instrumental to the propagation of superstition and error, not always easy to eradicate, particularly when contained in celebrated poems. The productions of some of the best poets, ancient and modern, want much of the force and beauty which it was intended they should possess, owing to a want of truth in their zoological and botanical allusions and similes. The poems of Shakspeare, Spencer, Milton, Pope, Byron, and other bards now at rest in their tombs, though beautifully and minutely true to nature in most instances, do often fail from this cause to make that impression upon the mind of the naturalist, which they make upon the mind of the or dinary reader, unacquainted with natural history, and not in the habit of observing, and who, therefore, is incapable of detecting such errors. Some of our present poets, as Wordsworth, Howitt, and others, appear to be shrewd observers of nature, and their productions consequently obtain the admiration and praise of not only the worldly many, but the philosophic few-the lovers and students of nature. "As it is the business of every figure of comparison either to illustrate or to enforce the simple idea, it is certainly requisite that it should be founded upon circumstances to which the mind of the reader can assent; otherwise it can produce little effect. The writer of the Scribleriad [Mr. Cambridge] gives a ludicrous example of a simile built upon fiction : Thus have I seen in Araby the blest A phoenix couch'd upon her funeral nest; a sight which neither the author, nor any one else, ever did see. Obvious as the absurdity here is, the following passage in Milton's Paradise Lost, though written quite in the spirit of that divine poet, stands upon the very same ground of censure :— 'As when a gryffon thro' the wilderness With winged course, o'er hill or moory dale Pursues the Arimaspian, who by stealth Has from his wakeful custody purloined The guarded gold.' Aikin's Essay, p. 29. Poets who commit these violations of truth and nature, endeavour to defend themselves from censure by referring to what is termed poetic license; "but if we reflect," as Dr. Aikin observes, "on the danger of suffering falsehood and error habitually to intrude even in matters of the slightest importance, we shall scarcely give our assent to a license, as unnecessary as it is hazardous." (Essay, p. 25.) But in these days, when natural history is being so much disseminated, particularly through the medium of perdioicals, from the Magazine of Natural History, the Magazine of Zoology and Botany, the Analyst, and the Naturalist, down to the cheaper works, as the Mirror, the Penny Magazine, the Weekly Visiter, and numerous others, there can be no excuse for the poet who repeats the various errors which are so great a blemish in the poetry of the ancients. The repetition of such errors must either arise from an incapacity for original observation, or the existence of a bad taste,—a taste that delights in ignorance and therefore, despises truth. no "To a poet," says Dr. Johnson, “ thing can be useless. Whatever is beautiful, and whatever is dreadful, must be familiar to his imagination: he must be conversant with all that is awfully vast, or elegantly little. The plants of the garden, the animals of the wood, the minerals of the earth, and the meteors of the sky, must all concur to store his mind with inexhaustible variety; for every idea is useful for the enforcement or decoration of moral or religious truth; and he who knows most will have most power of diversifying his scenes, and gratifying his reader with remote allusions and unexpected instruction." Pennant very justly observes, that the pursuit of natural history "would become no order of men better than our CLERGY, as they are (or ought to be) the best qualified, and the most stationary part of the community; and as this is a mixed species of study, (when considered as physico-theology,) it is therefore particularly pertinent to their profes sion.' And Mr Loudon says, "it would be altogether superfluous to insist on the suitableness of the study of natural history for a clergyman residing in the country; or to draw a comparison between the effects which this taste, and that for sporting, which was formerly prevalent among this class, are likely to have on the happiness of the parishioners. Compared even with a taste for classical studies, for drawing, painting, or any other branch of the fine arts, a taste for natural history in a clergyman has great advantages, both as respects himself and others. It is superior in a social point of view, even to a taste for gardening. The sportsman often follows his amusements to the great annoyance of his parishioners; the horticulturist exercises his gentler pursuit within his garden; and the classical or in-door student of any kind, secludes himself in his closet or his laboratory; but the naturalist is abroad in the fields, investigating the habits of birds, insects, or plants, not only invigorating his health, but affording ample opportunity for frequent intercourse with his parishioners. In this way, their reciprocal acquaintance is cultivated, and the clergyman at last becomes an adviser and friend, as well as a spiritual teacher."-Magazine of Natural History, vol. viii.-Preface. |