This great man was the eldest son of Pepin the Short, and grandson of Charles Martel, and was born at the castle of Ingelheim, near Metz, in the year 742. His father dying in 768 he succeeded to the crown in conjunction with his brother Carloman, whose death in 771 left him sole monarch of the Franks. By his alliances, negociations, and principally by his numerous and glorious wars, he so enlarged his dominions, that at length they extended from the Ebro to the mouth of the Elbe, from the Atlantic to the mountains of Bohemia and the Saal, and from the British Channel to the Volturno. In the year 800 he was crowned at Rome, as Emperor of the West, by Pope Leo III., and died of a pleurisy in 814, at Aix-la-Chapelle, in the cathedral of which city he was buried with extraordinary magnificence. Equally illustrious in the cabinet and in the field, a wise legislator, and a great warrior, the patron of men of letters, and the restorer of learning, Charlemagne has united in his favour the suffrages of statesmen and soldiers, and of ecclesiastics, lawyers, and men of letters, who have all vied with one another in bestowing the homage of their praise on the celebrated founder of the Western Empire.
The crown of this illustrious man, of which our engraving is a correct representation, is now preserved at Vienna in the Imperial Treasury. It is composed of eight plates of gold, four large and four small, connected by hinges. The large ones, studded with precious stones, form the front, the back, and the intermediate points of the crown; the small ones, placed alternately with these, are ornamented with enamels representing Solomon, David, King Hezekiah seated on his throne, and Christ seated between two flaming seraphim, such as the Greeks usually represent them. The costume of the figures resembles that of the Emperors of the Lower Empire, and although the inscriptions which accompany the figures are in Latin, the whole bears the impress of Greek workmanship. The ground of the figures is formed by the metal itself, which has been hollowed out to receive the enamel; but all the details of the design are traced out with fine fillets of gold. The flesh-tints are in rose-coloured enamel; the colours employed in the draperies and accessories are deep and light blue, red, and white. The crown has unquestionably been retouched at various periods, but yet there is nothing to invalidate the tradition which assigns the more ancient portions to the time of Charlemagne. The enamels must belong to the same early period.
SPENT BY THE CORPORATION OF COVENTRY AT THE ENTERTAINMENT OF KING JAMES II. IN HIS PROGRESS THROUGH COVENTRY, 1687.
(Mr. Richard Haywood, Treasurer.)
| £ | s. | d. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gave a gold cup | 171 | 17 | 6 |
| Mr. Septimus Butt, mayor, for sweetmeats | 27 | 17 | 0 |
| Meat | 13 | 14 | 0 |
| Wine | 21 | 12 | 6 |
| Homage fee | 41 | 6 | 8 |
| King's cook | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| City cook | 9 | 8 | 6 |
| Steward Fielding, for making a speech to his Majesty | 5 | 7 | 6 |
| For linen spoiled, borrowed of Mrs. Smith, Spon-street | 2 | 12 | 6 |
| The aldermen that went to Worcester to invite him | 3 | 18 | 9 |
| Several companies for waiting on the King | 27 | 9 | 4 |
| Alderman Webster, for meat | 3 | 6 | 0 |
| Alderman Bradney for corn | 3 | 5 | 6 |
| His Majesty's clerk of the market | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| The King's trumpeters | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Richard Howcott, for carrying the city streamer | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| The city bailiff's bill for fish, fowl, and wine | 88 | 18 | 2 |
| —— | —— | —— | |
| £434 | 2 | 9 | |
| —— | —— | —— |
TRAVELLING EXPENSES IN THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
Of travelling expenses in the thirteenth century, a roll is in existence, and is too interesting to be passed over. It contains a steward's accompts of the daily expenses of a person of rank in the reign of Edward I, on a journey from Oxford to Canterbury, and during his sojourn in London, about the year 1289; while the record throws much light upon the mode of our ancestors' living, at a period concerning which we have very few similar memorials. One day's expenses are as follow: "In bread, sixpence. Two gallons of wine, a gift of hospitality from the rector of Berton. Item in bread, sixpence. Two gallons of wine, a gift of hospitality from the rector of Mistern. Beer, sixpence. Herrings, threepence. Stockfish, fourpence. Porpoise and fish, fourpence. Perch and roach, seven-pence. Large eels, seven-pence. Vegetables, threepence farthing. Figs and raisins, twopence. Fuel, five-pence. A bed for two nights, twopence. Hay for seven horses, seven-pence. A bushel of oats, twenty-pence. Apples, a halfpenny. Sum, six shillings and eight-pence halfpenny." The most expensive day in the roll is on a Sunday, "in expenses of my lord at Westminster, when he held a breakfast there for knights, clerks, and squires. Bread, two shillings. Beer, twelve-pence. Wine, three shillings and eight-pence. Half a salmon, for the standard, with the chine, three shillings and eight-pence. A fresh conger eel, three shillings. Three fat pikes, five fat eels, and twenty-seven fat roaches, twelve shillings and fourpence. Half a hundred lamprorns, twelve-pence. Oysters, threepence. Vegetables, twopence. The hire of a boy to prepare the breakfast, one penny. Fare to Westminster, one penny. A basket, one penny farthing. On the same day at the inn: bread, five-pence farthing. Beer from the store. Two gallons of beer for the boys, twopence. Fish from the store. Candles, a halfpenny. Fuel, a halfpenny. Hay bought, five-pence three farthings. Straw, sixpence. Two bushels of oats, eight-pence. Two pair of shoes for my lord, twelve-pence. Sum, thirty shillings and threepence farthing."
DUNS IN THE MAHRATTA COUNTRY.
The Mahratta mode of recovering debts is curious. When the creditor cannot get his money, and begins to see the debt as rather desperate, he sits dhurna upon his debtor; that is, he squats down at the door of the tent, and becomes, in a certain mysterious degree, the master of it. No one goes in or out without his approbation. He neither eats himself, nor suffers his debtor to eat; and this famishing contest is carried on till the debt is paid, or till the creditor begins to feel that want of food is a greater punishment than the want of money. This curious mode of enforcing a demand is in universal practice among the Mahrattas; Scindiah himself, the chieftain, not being exempt from it. The man who sits the dhurna, goes to the house, or tent, of him whom he wishes to bring to terms, and remains there till the affair is settled; during which time, the one under restraint is confined to his apartment, and not suffered to communicate with any persons but those whom the other may approve of. The laws by which the dhurna is regulated are as well defined and understood as those of any other custom whatever. When it is meant to be very strict, the claimant carries a number of his followers, who surround the tent, sometimes even the bed of his adversary, and deprive him altogether of food; in which case, however, etiquette prescribes the same abstinence to himself: the strongest stomach, of course, carries the day. A custom of this kind was once so prevalent in the province and city of Benares, that Brahmins were trained to remain a long time without food. They were then sent to the door of some rich individual, where they made a vow to remain without eating, till they should obtain a certain sum of money. To preserve the life of a Brahmin is so absolutely a duty, that the money was generally paid; but never till a good struggle had taken place, to ascertain whether the man was staunch or not; for money is the life and soul of all Hindoos.