There have been travelling wagers, and none of the least singular of such was that of Mr. Whalley, an Irish gentleman (and who we believe edited Ben Johnson's works), who, for a very considerable wager (twenty thousand pounds, it was said,) set out on Monday the 22nd of September, 1788, to walk to Constantinople and back again in one year. This wager, however whimsical, is not without a precedent. Some years ago a baronet of good fortune (Sir Henry Liddel) laid a considerable wager that he would go to Lapland, bring home two females of that country, and two rein-deer, in a given time. He performed the journey, and effected his purpose in every respect. The Lapland women lived with him about a year, but desiring to go back to their own country, the baronet furnished them with means and money.
CONFECTIONERY ART IN 1660.
The following is extracted from a work on Cookery, by Robert May, published in 1660. It is entitled the "Accomplisht Cook, &c., &c.
"Triumphs and Trophies in Cookery, to be used in Festival Times, as Twelfth Day, &c.:—Make the likeness of a ship in pasteboard with flags and streamers, the guns belonging to it of kickses, bind them about with pack-thread and cover them with paste proportionable to the fashion of a cannon with carriages; lay them in places convenient, as you see them in ships of war, with such holes and trains of powder that they may all take fire. Place your ships firm in a great charger; then make a salt round about it, and stick therein egg-shells full of sweet water; you may by a great pin take out all the meat out of the egg by blowing, and then fill it with rose-water. Then in another charger have the proportion of a stag made of coarse paste, with a broad arrow in the side of him, and his body filled up with claret wine. In another charger at the end of the stag have the proportion of a castle with battlements, percullices, gates, and drawbridges, made of pasteboard, the guns of kickses, and covered with coarse paste as the former; place it at a distance from the ship to fire at each other. The stag being placed betwixt them, with egg-shells full of sweet water (as before) placed in salt. At each side of the charger wherein is the stag, place a pie made of coarse paste, in one of which let there be some live frogs, in the other live birds; make these pies of coarse paste, filled with bran, and yellowed over saffron, or yolks of eggs: gild them over in spots, as also the stag, the ship and castle; bake them, and place them with gilt bay leaves on the turrets and tunnels of the castle and pies; being baked make a hole in the bottom of your pies, take out the bran, put in your frogs and birds, and close up the holes with the same coarse paste; then cut the lids neatly up to be taken off by the tunnels. Being all placed in order upon the table, before you fire the trains of powder, order it so that some of the ladies may be persuaded to pluck the arrow out of the stag; then will the claret wine follow, as blood running out of a wound. This being done with admiration to the beholders, after some short pause, fire the train of the castle, that the pieces all of one side may go off; then fire the trains of one side of the ship as in a battle; next turn the chargers, and by degrees fire the trains of each other side, as before. This done, to sweeten the stink of the powder, the ladies take the egg-shells full of sweet waters, and throw them at each other, all dangers being seemed over, and by this time you may suppose they will desire to see what is in the pies; when lifting first the lid off one pie, out skip some frogs, which makes the ladies to skip and shriek; next after the other pie, whence comes out the birds; who by a natural instinct flying at the light, will put out the candles; so that what with the flying birds and skipping frogs, the one above, the other beneath, will cause much delight and pleasure to the whole company: at length the candles are lighted and a banquet brought in, the music sounds, and every one with much delight and content rehearses their actions in the former passages. These were formerly the delights of the nobility, before good house-keeping had left England, and the sword really acted that which was only counterfeited in such honest and laudable exercises as these."
SUSPENDED ANIMATION.
David Beck, the celebrated portrait painter, and pupil of Vandyke, travelling through Germany, was suddenly taken ill, and to all appearance died, and was laid out as a corpse. His servants, sitting round the bed, grieved heartily for the loss of so good a master; and, as grief is thirsty, drank as heartily at the same time. One of them, becoming more fuddled than the rest, then addressed his companions thus: "Our master when alive was fond of his glass, let us now, out of gratitude, then give him one now he is dead." Assent was given, the head of the dead painter was raised up, and some wine poured down or spilt about, the fragrance or spirit of which caused Beck to open his eyes; upon which the servant, who, being drunk, half forgetting his master was dead, forced down the remainder of the glass. The painter gradually revived, and thus escaped a living interment.
FUNERAL OF MARAT.
The funeral of Marat was celebrated at Paris, July 17th, 1793, with the greatest pomp and solemnity. All the sections joined the procession. An immense crowd of people attended it. Four women bore the bathing machine in which Marat was standing when he was assassinated; his shirt, stained with blood, was carried by a fury, in the shape of a woman, at the top of a pike. After this followed a wooden bedstead, on which the corpse of Marat was carried by citizens. His head was uncovered, and the gash he had received could be easily distinguished. The procession was paraded through several streets, and was saluted on its march by several discharges of artillery.
EXECUTION OF ANNE BOLEYN.
In Houssaie's "Memoirs," Vol. I. p. 435, a little circumstance is recorded concerning the decapitation of the unfortunate Anne Boleyn, which illustrates an observation of Hume. Our historian notices that her executioner was a Frenchman of Calais, who was supposed to have uncommon skill; it is probable that the following incident might have been preserved by tradition in France, from the account of the executioner himself. Anne Boleyn being on the scaffold, would not consent to have her eyes covered with a bandage, saying that she had no fear of death. All that the divine who assisted at her execution could obtain from her was, that she would shut her eyes. But as she was opening them at every moment, the executioner could not bear their tender and mild glances. Fearful of missing his aim, he was obliged to invent an expedient to behead the queen. He drew off his shoes, and approached her silently; while he was at her left hand, another person advanced at her right, who made a great noise in walking, so that this circumstance drawing the attention of Anne, she turned, her face from the executioner, who was enabled by this artifice to strike the fatal blow without being disarmed by that pride of affecting resignation which shone in the eyes of the lovely Anne Boleyn.