"Dame Mary Yate, having asked his majesty's permission to pass beyond the seas, for the recovery of her health, his majesty was most graciously pleased to grant her request, under the usual clauses and provisoes, according to which ye said Dame Mary Yate having given security not to enter into any plott or conspiracy against his majesty or his realms, or behave herself in any such manner as may be prejudicial to his majesty's government, or the religion here by law established, and that she will not repaire to the city of Roome, or return unto this kingdome without first acquainting one of his majesty's principal secretaries of state, and obtaining leave for the same, in pursuance of his majesty's commands in council hereby will and require you to permit and suffer the said Dame Mary Yate to imbarque with her trunkes of apparel and other necessaries not prohibited at any port of this kingdom, and from thence to pass beyond the seas, provided that shee departe this kingdom within 14 days after the date hereof."—April 14.
If the above refers to the celebrated Lady Mary Yate (a daughter of the house of Pakington) who is commemorated on a monument in Chaddesley Church, Worcestershire, as having died in 1696, at the age of 86, she must have been 70 years old when these precautions were taken by the Government against the poor old lady attempting to invade the country, or to comfort the Pope with her presence and support. Dame Mary Yate was no doubt a Roman Catholic, and the permission above referred to was granted under the seventh section of the statute 3rd James I, chap. 5, which was virtually repealed by the statute 33rd George III, chap. 30, which exempted Roman Catholics from all the penalties and restrictions mentioned and enjoined in the older acts, if in one of the Courts at Westminster or at the Quarter Sessions they made a declaration which to them was unobjectionable.
CURIOUS PROVINCIAL DANCE IN FRANCE.
The inhabitants of Roussillon are passionately fond of dancing; they have some dances peculiar to themselves. The men generally commence the country dance by a contre-pas, the air of which is said to be of Greek origin; the women then mingle in the dance, when they jointly perform several figures, passing one among the other, and occasionally turning each other round. At a particular change in the air, the male dancer must dexterously raise his partner and place her on his hand in a sitting posture. Accidents sometimes happen upon these occasions, and the lady falls to the ground amidst the jokes and laughter of her companions. One of these dances, called lo salt, is performed by four men and four women. At the given signal, the cavaliers simultaneously raise the four ladies, forming a pyramid, the caps of the ladies making the apex. The music which accompanies these dances consists of a lo flaviol, a sort of flageolet, a drum, two hautboys, prima and tenor, and the cornemuse, called in the country lo gratla: this instrument, by its description, must somewhat resemble the bagpipes. The dance called Segadilles is performed with the greatest rapidity: at the end of every couplet, for the airs are short and numerous, the female dancers are raised, and seated on the hands of their partners.
ANCIENT INSTRUMENT OF PUNISHMENT.
The instrument which we here engrave is a whip of steel that was made and used as an engine of punishment and torture about the middle of the sixteenth century. It is composed of several truncated cones, grooved with sharp edges, and held in opposite directions, so as to give sufficient oscillation without rising so far as to strike the hand of the executioner. It seems to have been held by a strap; but its barbarity is evident.
PUNISHING BY WHOLESALE.
Henry VIII. is recorded, in the course of his reign, to have hanged no fewer than 72,000 robbers, thieves, and vagabonds. In the latter days of Elizabeth scarcely a year passed without 300 or 400 criminals going to the gallows. In 1596, in the county of Somerset alone, 40 persons were executed, 35 burnt in the hand, and 37 severely whipped.