Shakspeare's Jug, of which we here give an engraving, which has been carefully preserved by the descendants of the immortal bard since the year 1616, is, perhaps, the most remarkable example of the Elizabethan pottery now existing. The shape partakes very much of the form of the old German or Dutch ewer, without, however, the usual top or cover; the one now attached to the jug being a modern addition of silver, with a medallion bust of the poet in the centre, beautifully executed and inscribed "Wm. Shakspeare, at the age of forty." It is about ten inches high, and sixteen inches round at the largest part, and is divided lengthwise into eight compartments, having each a mythological subject in high relief. All of these, although executed in the quaint style of the period, possess considerable merit. Some of them, indeed, manifest much masterly grouping of both human figures and animals; and such is the admirable state of preservation of this very interesting old English relic, that as correct a judgment may be formed of its workmanship, as in the days of its first possessor; at all events, as regards the degree of perfection to which English Pottery had attained in the Elizabethan age; an inspection of this jug will justify the presumption, that her Court was not less tastefully provided in that respect than those of the Continent, notwithstanding the obscurity in which the precise locality and extent of the manufactory is unfortunately involved.
PRICE OF MACKAREL.
The price of mackarel, in May, 1807, in the Billingsgate market, was as follows:—Forty guineas for every hundred of the first cargo, which made the fish come to seven shillings apiece! The next supplies were also exorbitant, though much less so than the first, fetching thirteen pounds per hundred, or two shillings apiece. The very next year the former deficiencies were more than made up, for it appears that during the season 1808, mackarel were hawked about the streets of Dover, at sixty for a shilling, or five for a penny; whilst they so blockaded the Brighton coast that on one night it became impossible to land the multitudes taken, and at last both fish and nets went to the bottom together.
POPE'S CHAIR.
In one of the rooms at that stately and picturesque baronial hall, Audley End, the seat of Lord Braybrooke, there is preserved the interesting relic which forms the subject of the annexed engraving. Its history is thus told on a brass plate inserted in the back—"This chair, once the property of Alexander Pope, was given as a keep-sake to the nurse who attended him in his illness; from her descendants it was obtained by the Rev. Thomas Ashley, curate of the parish of Binfield, and kindly presented by him to Lord Braybrooke, in 1844, nearly a century after the poet's decease." It is apparently of Flemish workmanship, and of rather singular design; in the centre medallion is a figure of Venus holding a dart in her right hand, and a burning heart in her left. The narrow back and wide-circling arms give a peculiarly quaint appearance to this curious relic of one of our greatest poets.
FIRST WIND-MILLS.
Mabillon mentions a diploma of the year 1105, in which a convent in France is allowed to erect water and windmills, molendina ad ventum.
Bartolomeo Verde proposed to the Venetians in 1332, to build a wind-mill. When his plan had been examined, he had a piece of ground assigned him, which he was to retain if his undertaking succeeded within a specified time. In 1373, the city of Spires caused a wind-mill to be erected, and sent to the Netherlands for a person acquainted with the method of grinding by it. A wind-mill was also constructed at Frankfort, in 1442; but it does not appear to have been ascertained whether there were any there before.