THE GATHERER.

Crusades.—Mr. Hallam, in his excellent History of the Middle Ages, (vol. iii. p. 359), gives the following view of these misconceived glories of history:—"The crusades may be considered as martial pilgrimages on an enormous scale; and their influence upon general morality seems to have been altogether pernicious. Those who served under the cross would not indeed have lived very virtuously at home; but the confidence in their own merits, which the principle of such expeditions inspired, must have aggravated the ferocity and dissoluteness of their ancient habits. Several historians attest the depravation of morals which existed both among the crusaders, and in the states formed out of their conquests."

Slave Trade in England.—In England it was very common, even after the conquest, to export slaves to Ireland; till, in the reign of Henry II., the Irish came to a non-importation agreement, which put a stop to the practice. William of Malmesbury accuses the Anglo-Saxon nobility of selling their female servants as slaves to foreigners. In the canons of a council at London, in 1102, we read—"Let no one from henceforth presume to carry on that wicked traffic, by which men of England have hitherto been sold like brute animals." And Giraldus Cambrensis says that the English, before the conquest, were generally in the habit of selling their children and other relations, to be slaves in Ireland, without having even the pretext of distress or famine, till the Irish, in a national synod, agreed to emancipate all the English slaves in the kingdom.

Opulent English Merchants.—Some idea of the ancient commercial wealth of Great Britain may be gathered from a glance at the rapid increase of English trade from about the middle of the fourteenth century. Thus, in 1363, Ricard, who had been lord mayor, some years before, entertained Edward III. and the Black Prince, the Kings of France, Scotland, and Cyprus, with many of the nobility, at his own house in the Vintry, and presented them with handsome gifts. This eclipses the costliest entertainments of our times, at the public expense. Philpot, another eminent citizen in Richard II.'s time, when the trade of England was considerably annoyed by privateers, hired one thousand armed men, and dispatched them to sea, where they took fifteen Spanish vessels with their prizes. We find Richard obtaining a great deal from private merchants and trading towns. In 1379, he got 5,000l. from London, 1,000 marks from Bristol, and in proportion from smaller places. In 1386 London gave 4,000l. more, and 10,000 marks in 1397. The latter sum was obtained also for the coronation of Henry VI. Nor were the contributions of individuals contemptible, considering the high value of money. Hinde, a citizen of London, lent to Henry IV. 2,000l. in 1407, and Whittington one half of that sum. The merchants of the staple advanced 4,000l. at the same time. Our commerce continued to be regularly and rapidly progressive during the fifteenth century. The famous Canynges, of Bristol, under Henry VI. and Edward IV. had ships of 900 tons burden.

Gold-beating.—Reaumur asserts, that in an experiment he made, one grain of gold was extended to rather more than forty-two square inches of leaf-gold; and that an ounce of gold, which in the form of a cube, is not half an inch either high, broad, or long, is beat under the hammer into a surface of 150 square feet. The process is as follows:—The gold is melted in a crucible, and taken to the flattening mills, where it is rolled out till it becomes of the consistence of tin; it is then cut into small square pieces, and each piece is laid between a leaf of skin (known by the name of goldbeaters-skin); two parchment bands are then passed over the whole, and each band is reversed; it is then hammered out to the size of the skin, taken out, cut and hammered over again, and so on till it is sufficiently thin; when it is placed in books, the leaves of which are rubbed with red ochre, to prevent the gold adhering to them. There are gold leaves not thicker, in some parts, than the three hundred and sixty thousandth part of an inch. BURTON.

Ancient Pitch-in-the Hole.—A soldier was brought to Alexander to exhibit a trick which he had acquired, of pitching a pea into a distant hole, which just fitted it;—when the reward which the great conqueror bestowed upon the soldier for his useless application of time was a peck of peas. P.T.W.

Pekin.—Balducci Pegalotti, a Florentine writer upon commerce, about the year 1340, describes Pekin (under the name of Cambalu) the capital city of China, as being one hundred miles in circumference. He also states the journey from the Genoese territories to Pekin as of rather more than eight months, going and returning; and he assures us it was perfectly secure, not only for caravans, but for a single traveller, with a couple of interpreters and a servant.

Mercers and Drapers.—Among the trading companies into which the middling ranks were distributed on the continent, in the twelfth century, those concerned in silk and woollens were most numerous and honourable. None were admitted to the rank of burgesses in the towns of Aragon who used any manual trade, with the exception of dealers in fine cloths.

Usury.—The interest of money was exceedingly high throughout the middle ages. At Verona, in 1228, it was fixed by law at 12-1/2 per cent.; at Modena, in 1270, it seems to have been as high as 20. The republic of Genoa, towards the end of the fourteenth century, when Italy had grown wealthy, paid only from 7 to 10 per cent. to her creditors. But in France and England the rate was far more oppressive. An ordinance of Philip the Fair, in 1311, allows 20 per cent. after the first year of the loan. Under Henry III., according to Matthew Paris, the debtor paid 10 per cent. every two months; but this is absolutely incredible as a general practice.

Worsted.—Blomefield, the historian of Norfolk, thinks that a colony of Flemings settled, as early as the reign of Henry II., at Worsted—a village in that county—and immortalized its name by their manufacture. It soon reached Norwich, though not conspicuous till the reign of Edward I.

The Lord's Prayer in Arawaak.[²¹] —Kururumanny—haamary caleery oboraady—bachooty deweet bossa—baynse parocan, bayin so pareeka—yahaboo ororoo adiako—meherachehbeyn dacotooniah—Ebehey nebehedow wakayany odomay—Mayera toonebah dayensey—Boboro talidey.—Hedouainey.—Jour. Geog. Soc.

*** Our Correspondent E. has been misinformed. The translation of the Letter of Lord Byron, inserted in our Number 575, as the first, will be found in Moore's Life of Byron, vol. vi. p. 147, new edit.—but without the subscription of "Peer of England."

Footnote 1: [(return)]
Gentleman's Mag. vol. vii.

Footnote 2: [(return)]
Postman, No. 441.

Footnote 3: [(return)]
Postmaster, No. 449.

Footnote 4: [(return)]
Nestesuranoi. Mottley.

Footnote 5: [(return)]
Author of "Wonders of the little World."

Footnote 6: [(return)]
Master of University College.

Footnote 7: [(return)]
There are among our countrymen those who are scarcely outdone by the Tzar of Russia and his companions. At the same place, and probably at the same house, long known as Moon's, two noble dukes, the one dead, the other yet living, stopped, as they intended, for a moment, while sitting in their carriages, to eat a mutton chop, which they found so good that they each of them devoured eighteen, and drank five bottles of claret.

Footnote 8: [(return)]
It is presumed some notorious place of ill fame.

Footnote 9: [(return)]
Ballard's Collection. Bodleian.

Footnote 10: [(return)]
Lord Dartmouth.—Note in Burnet's History of his own Times.

Footnote 11: [(return)]
Ballard's Collection. Bodleian. With plain downright simplicity and free from all ostentation Peter carried this valuable ruby to the king in his waistcoat pocket, and presented it wrapped up in a piece of brown paper.

Footnote 12: [(return)]
No. 442.

Footnote 13: [(return)]
Mr. James Sibbon, who was a journeyman shipwright in Deptford yard when the Tzar was there; he died in 1769, aged 105 years.—Annual Register for 1769.

Footnote 14: [(return)]
Postman, No. 136.

Footnote 15: [(return)]
We are aware that the destruction or total extinction of any of the species of animals of contemporaneous creation with man, is a point of much controversy among philosophers. The best reply to this doubt is the repeated discovery of the fossil remains of animals entirely different from the existing species; proving their extinction to form a part of the scheme of creative wisdom.

Footnote 16: [(return)]
Vol. i. p. 442.

Footnote 17: [(return)]
Voyage de François Leguat, Gentilhomme, Bressan, 1708.

Footnote 18: [(return)]
The precise spot is controverted, as will be seen in an extract from the ingenious work on Scriptural Antiquities, quoted in vol. xix. of the Mirror, p. 382; where are notices of the mountain by Morier and Sir Robert Ker Porter. The latter describes Ararat as divided, by a chasm of about seven miles wide, into two distinct peaks, and is of opinion that the ark finally rested in this chasm.

Footnote 19: [(return)]
Edin. New Phil. Journ. By Professor Jameson. No. 23, p. 156.—Note to a paper by Humboldt, on the Mountain Chains and Volcanoes of Central Asia. Ararat is referred to in Genesis, viii. 4. Its distance and bearing from Jerusalem, 650, N.E.b.N.; Lat. North, 39.40. Long. East, 43.50. Country, Erivan; Province, Mahou.—From the General Index to the Biblical Family Cabinet Atlas.

Footnote 20: [(return)]
This peculiar effect of the setting sun on snow-covered mountains has been observed by other travellers in other regions. In Switzerland the phenomenon is by no means rare.

"And sun-set into rose hues sees them wrought."

Byron.

Footnote 21: [(return)]
An Indian nation, settled in British Guiana.

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