PENNY SIGHTS AND EXHIBITIONS IN THE REIGN OF JAMES I.
The following curious list may amuse some of your readers. I met with it among the host of panegyrical verses prefixed to Master Tom Coryate's Crudities, published in 1611. Even in those days it will be admitted that the English were rather fond of such things, and glorious Will himself bears testimony to the fact. (See Tempest, Act II. Sc. 2.) The hexameter verses are anonymous; perhaps one of your well-read antiquaries may be able to assign to them the author, and be disposed to annotate them. I would particularly ask when was Drake's ship broken up, and is there any date on the chair[[1]] made from the wood, which is now to be seen at the Bodleian Library, Oxford?
"Why doe the rude vulgar so hastily post in a madnesse
To gaze at trifles, and toyes not worthy the viewing?
And thinke them happy, when may be shew'd for a penny
The Fleet-streete Mandrakes, that heavenly motion of Eltham,
Westminster Monuments, and Guildhall huge Corinæus,
That horne of Windsor (of an Unicorne very likely),
The cave of Merlin, the skirts of Old Tom a Lincolne,
King John's sword at Linne, with the cup the Fraternity drinke in,
The tombe of Beauchampe, and sword of Sir Guy a Warwicke,
The great long Dutchman, and roaring Marget a Barwicke,
The mummied Princes, and Cæsar's wine yet i' Dover,
Saint James his ginney-hens, the Cassawarway[[2]] moreover,
The Beaver i' the Parke (strange Beast as e'er any man saw),
Downe-shearing Willowes with teeth as sharpe as a hand-saw,
The lance of John a Gaunt, and Brandon's still i' the Tower,
The fall of Ninive, with Norwich built in an hower.
King Henries slip-shoes, the sword of valiant Edward,
The Coventry Boares-shield, and fire-workes seen but to bedward,
Drake's ship at Detford, King Richard's bed-sted i' Leyster,
The White Hall Whale-bones, the silver Bason i' Chester;
The live-caught Dog-fish, the Wolfe, and Harry the Lyon,
Hunks of the Beare Garden to be feared, if he be nigh on.
All these are nothing, were a thousand more to be scanned,
(Coryate) unto thy shoes so artificially tanned."
In explanation of the last line, Tom went no less than 900 miles on one pair of soles, and on his return he hung up these remarkable shoes for a memorial in Odcombe Church, Somersetshire, where they remained till 1702.
Another "penny" sight was a trip to the top of St. Paul's. (See Dekker's Gul's Horne Book, 1609.)
A. Grayan.
Footnote 1:[(return)]
The date to Cowley's lines on the chair is 1662.
"An East Indian bird at Saint James, in the keeping of Mr. Walker, that will carry no coales, but eate them as whot as you will."