1,1", ^ -v'fjt -^ < „ , I Tyennan, Thomas F. Notices of the Life of John ]"^att, [Oxford I ; ^ f '" 4^ 1 t^ / .*) ^ ' f#^5 Jl€ NOTICES OF THE LIFE OF JOHN PRATT (NOW IN HIS 106th YEAR.) BY THOMAS F. TYEEMAN, ESQ. ^ OXFORD: ROSE, 2 & 3, HIGH STREET. 1861. WMMMVMl NOTICES OF THE LIFE OF JOHN PRATT, ERRATUM. Pagel), for " Town Hall" read " Market Place." OXFORD : SLATTER & ROSE, 2 & 3, HIGH STREET. 1861. By 58 NOTICES OF THE LIFE OF JOHN PRATT. Whence is the stream of years ? Whither do they flow along ? Where have they hid in mist their many- coloured sides ? OssiAN TN that somewhat obscure part of the City of Oxford, -^ which is more immediately presided over by the dark gray tower, the remains of its ancient fortress, there lives an aged man. He may be seen in the street on a warm afternoon, with stick in hand, leaning against his cottage wall, while the urchins of the most recent generation are frolicking before him, or playing marbles about his feet, almost heedless of his presence. The young men and matrons respectfully salute him as they pass ; he slowly inclines his head in recognition of their courtesy, and gives them his blessing. Or he may be seen on sun-shiny days standing on one of the bridges, calmly gazing upon the rippled surface of the classic stream, or watching the light craft as they nimbly shoot the arches; while his long, rather scant, and white" hair, is blown about by the freshening breeze. If, at such a time he be accosted, he turns slowly, and attentively surveys the speaker, as if to ascertain whether it be' some ancient acquaintance, or only a curious stranger who thus addresses him. He replies with courtesy, and his thin, small voice, the " childish treble" of decrepitude, mingling with the wind, falls upon the ear as if it came from afar off, whilst his aged aspect is so strongly suggestive of the past, that he appears rather to be the living relic of a bygone age than a man who really belongs to the stage on which he still lingers. While convei-sing with him, a feeling of awe and venera tion steals upon the mind, and the respect is, at once, accorded him, which, in every period of human society, has been in culcated to be due to that " crown of glory, the hoary head." He is somewhat below the middle stature, of dignified appearance, stooping but slightly, and not only affords unquestionable evidence of having been a well favoured man, hut may, even now, be described as handsome. This man is John Pratt. He was born at Grendon- under-Wood, in Buckinghamshire, on the fifth day of Mardi 1 756, and was the eldest of three children. His father, who was a shoemaker, and a diligent man, died at the age of 75. His mother completed her 105th year, and his great grand mother her 111th. We have here, therefore, an example of the hereditary transmission of that kind of constitution which bestows on its possessor a favourable prospect of attaining longevity. At the time we write then, viz. July 1861, John Pratt is in his 106th year, and he was born in the reign of George II., that monarch having yet nearly five years to sway the sceptre of these kingdoms. We cannot help feeling a deep interest in a man, apart from that which attaches to the physiological problem he presents in his own person, who, for such a lengthened period has been toiling over life's uncertain path, and is even still on his weary way. But while we regard him as a very old man, do we seriously reflect on the length of duration comprised in an ^e which exceeds a century of yeare ? In such a time as this a kingly oak might have grown from an acorn. The tower of the village church, seen between the green heads of its elms, would have become old and gray, incrusted with lichens, and tufted with its dark masses of clustering ivy, in which had dwelt innumerable colonies of twittering birds; while its dusky neighbour, the churchyard yew, had grown up with all those melancholy associations which proclaim the alliance of mortality and the worm ; having gathered beneath its gloomy shade a still, mute, harmonious family, with its lowly roofed houses and gray headstones ! How many of the inhabitants of this planet who were dwellers here when he arrived on the scene, supposing that he were commissioned to call the muster-roll, would he find now ? Might he not almost say in regard to all these, as he leans upon his old oak stick, blinking in the declining sun, that he is the last man ? This is indeed a fearful reflection, — the inhabitants of a world swept away ! But besides all these hundreds of millions, what multitudes more, in] that long time, have arrived and taken their departure. Some, to live their little life ; " as a flower of the field" they have shown their timid beauties to the sun, to be seen no more ! Others, tarrying for a longer time, have reached manhood's and womanhood's prime, but " swifter than a weaver's shut tle" even their days have passed away ! Whilst another crowd has not only reached the meridian of life, but has slowly declined ; and abundantly fulfilling the destination of hu manity on earth, has come to the " grave in a full age like as a shock of corn cometh in his season." — .Job 5 c. 26 v. These have all passed away, and yet, there he stands, like a rock grayed over with age, while the living tide is sweeping past him ! What a link might we not establish between the present and the long since past, were we to appeal to the earliest Irving associations of such a man? What voices might he not have heard ! what forms of decrepitude, the trembling representatives of a bygone age, might not have hovered before his infant vision ! Let us suppose then his mother, when she bore her vigorous sapling in her arms, to have been accosted by an aged man, one, we will say, having about the same number of years that he himself now boasts of, and the child, looking upward with the curious and widely opened eye of infancy, to have seen between him and the light, an ancient visage with the deeply furrowed brow and the hoary locks of age ; why, such a man as this might have been living when Charles I. was brought to the scaffold ! We may say then that a man is still among us, who might have been grinned at by one who was brought up as a real old puritan, and might even have heard Oliver Cromwel pray ! The mere possibility startles us, and it is almost awful, even in ime^ination, thus to make living men to have held converse with those, who for whole generations have mingled their dust with its parent clay, and for more than a' century have " Iain still and been quiet," How many great events, long ago chronicled in the page of history, have yet happened since the day that he fii-st saw the light ! How many illustrious men, whose fame has long overspread the earth, have come upon the world's stage since that day ! May not such historical references, by carrying our contemplations far back into the past, and by establishing, as it were, fixed points in the waste of years for the thoughts to dwell upon, assist us in our endeavours to grasp the idea of measured time, which, a mere numerical statement of age fails to convey ? Let us call upon a few of these data to help our conceptions of the length of life's journey already travelled. We cast our retrospect then over a long series of years when we associate the name of Clive with Plassey and the early history of our Indian Empire ; but here we see a man ^ho was born before the battle of Plas.sey was fought, who has lived throughout the whole of the prophetic hundred years, and has seen our dominion tremble in the balance, to be once more established ! Then there is a name which has long been known to fame, a name dear to the heart of every Englishman who is a lover of his country ; it is that of the man who raised the naval glory of England to its highest pitch. The reader of modern history may have some difficulty in persuading himself that a man yet lives who was born two years and a half before Lord Nelson ! When the subject of this memoir then came into, the world not only were the Nile and Trafalgar in the " seeds of time," but the hero by whom these glories were to be achieved was still unborn ! For how many years has the name of the first Napoleon belonged to history. We are not a little surprised therefore to find ourselves conversing with a man who was in the fourteenth year of his age when Napoleon was born. He who was one day to fall like a thunderbolt upon Europe and cause mighty nations to develope to the utmost their physical resources, who should see his adopted country rise from her torn and distracted state like a phenix from its ashes, and then carry her eagles into the uttermost parts of the earth; by whom was to be established the Buonapartean dynasty and what we now call the " Old Empire," was a cradled infant in his native isle of Corsica, and surrounded by the blue waf ei-s of the Mediterranean, when the man of whom we write was apprenticed to a trade and gathering experience of the world ! Whilst the hero who was destined to complete the downfal of this great conqueror, and was born in the same year with him; who for so long a time was known among his admiring compatriots by the familiar title of the " iron Duke," was in a similar condition of helplessness and dependence. The glories of Assye were still in the mists of futurity, and the nursling of fortune, whom victory awaited in a hundred fields, 8 had not yet begun to betray those indications, which, even the period of childhood may be fondly thought to have dis covered, of that sagacity, cool judgment, and unflinching courage, which, in after years were to be so nobly exercised for the glory of his country and for the good of mankind. For how many years has the world resounded with the names of the great Earl of Chatham, of Pitt, Fox, and of Burke — a cluster of statesmen of which even the first of Senates might well have been proud. But a man is still with us who was coeval with all these, who even preceded William Pitt by more than three years, and lived throughout the whole period when Pitt and Fox stood before the world rivals in eloquence and rival candidates for power, and whilst Burke led the minds of men captive by the boldness of his imagery although he failed to convince them by the persuasiveness of his rhetoric ! We look to our shelves and observe the honoured names of Samuel Johnson and Oliver Goldsmith, and are almost startled on seeing a man who was living in the time of Dr. Johnson's mother ; who was born before the learned lexico grapher wrote his Rasselas, and before Goldsmith penned the Vicar of Wakefield; and who can say that he was livino- when Johnson's friends Garrick and Sir Joshua Reynolds were in the zenith of their reputation. But when we recorded the birth day of the subject of this history, it was stated that King George II. had still nearly five years to reign. The battle of Minden, then, on which great occasion the English infantry covered themselves with glory. had yet to be fought ; and nearly at the same time. General Wolfe, falling in the arms of victory before Quebec, left a dazzling reputation to the fond care of his countrymen. * Our reflections then, are for a moment carried into the latter years of George II., of which period we still possess a living representative. He who was to become " old Georo* 9 III," and whose well known image we every now and then recognize on some thick, clumsy, old fashioned penny, was the young Prince of Wales of the day, the hope and expec> tation of the people, who rejoiced at length to see the heir to the crown in happy correspondence with the reigning sovereign. It will here be remembered that the Prince, his father, died unforgiven by the enraged King. Then happened October, 1760, the sudden death of George II., when the young Prince ascended the throne of his ancestors. His accession, his marriage with the Princess Charlotte of Meck- lenburgh Strelitz, and the double coronation, happened in rapid succession. The subject of our memoir remembers well the rejoicings on the latter occasion. . He was a little boy at Bicestier at the time. We will here let Senex speak for himself " Ah ! those were glorious times, I question if there have been such times before or since ; the gentry of the town and country round helped the people to make merry ; there was Squire Bullock of Carsfield, Squire Stratton of Chester ton, Dr. Brown of Launton, Coker of Bicester, and Parson Ellis. They set the beer agoing, and had an ox and two sheep roasted whole, while plum puddings were rolled into the Town Hall like skittle balls. I remember seizing one of these puddings and carrying it home in my pinafore to my mother, but my father soon made me take it back again. (Know then, gentle reader, that there was precisely the same affinity between little boys and plum pudding a hundred years ago that there is now.) The streets blazed with illuminations, and bonfires were burning at every corner of the town." The reports quickly reached the provinces of the rejoicings at Court and in the metropolis, and all was revelry and holyday keeping. Then there was the happy peace of Fon- tainbleau, for England had been successful in the wars ; aii€ prices were low. Our narrator goes on to state that fresh butter was only threepence a pound, the nine and a half 10 pound loaf was sixpence, and mutton and beef twopence a pound. There was peace and prosperity then and cheap provisions. So auspicious was the commencement of a reign, which, like many a brilliant morning, was destined to become over cast with gloom and threatening darkness. These were the halcyon days, the lull that preceded a storm ! A few short years, and a cloud appeared above the horizon ; at first it was " no bigger than a man's hand," but men of discernment, and they who look to " the coming on of time," felt their hearts sink within them when they saw the gloom thicken athwart the western wave. Here then were the beginnings of the discontent and spirit of resistance that preceded the American war, a war which, with its European complications, in no great number of years, added a hundred millions to our national debt ! The consequences of war soon came home to every do mestic hearth, and showed themselves in the account books of each thrifty housewife. Butter, continues our reporter, was no longer threepence a pound, but rose to two shillings; the nine and a half pound loaf rose from sixpence to three shillings and sevenpence, mutton and beef to about their present prices! and growing older, he remembers the common talk of the day as anxieties began to increase and one event succeeded another; how at length, the American war led to the French war, and this, being once kindled, to the horrors of the Revolution ; and history now informs us that the financial embarrassment arising from the war, added to that previously existing, led, at length, to the summoning of the third estate; whence followed the jiopular rage, tumult and insubordination, under whose fostering influences were developed the blood-besotted genius of a Danton, of a Robespierre, and of a Marat ! We now pursue the history of the little boy m horn we have 11 already embarked in a pinafore at Bicester. Although the eldest of the family it becomes our duty to report him as the pet of his mother. According to his own account, at this time, and for some years after, his mother indulged him and his father beat him, a not uncommon sequence in the policy of domestic circles. In due time he was sent to school, but his career as a schoolboy was unfortunate. He showed such a spirit of insubordination, such a love of rambling, and such an abhorrence of all restraint, law, and discipline, that, although he undoubtedly possessed a good capacity, he was, in no long time, returned upon the hands of his parents as an incorrigible lad. His father then undertook to teach him, while still very young, the business of a shoemaker, which handicraft, by the aid of a certain natural quickness and sagacity, he was soon enabled to acquire. But the love of freedom still pursued him, and this spirit was attended by a rapidly developing fondness for everything rural and natural ; he even began to notice and collect plants and. flowers, in short, to botanize after his own untutored fashion. He now continually sought the breezy hill, the wild wood, and the river side, and no gipsy could entertain a greater horror of a fixed habitation and a diligent pursuit than did our apprentice ; and he busied himself in casting about for the means of escaping for ever from the mechanical employment to which he ^had been consigned, and which proved to be so littie congenial to his taste. Happily for the indulgence of his propensity, there was still a .calling open to him, by the exercise of which he might obtain an honourable live lihood. In those days when this country had less command of foreign ports and produce than at present, the inhabitants were compelled, fjr the supply of many of their wants, fo place more dependence upon the natural productions of the 12 soil. There was consequently necessitated a class of men who should make it their business to collect, for medicinal and other purposes, our various wild plants. These men were called herbalists or simplers ; and, attracted by the natural char acter of their pursuit, which appeared to lead to a roving, exploring, kind of life, next in freedom to that of the gipsies, our rambling apprentice determined to adopt their profession. The herbalist was even then looked upon as a man of mystery ; the wayfarer stopped on his journey, and the husbandman paused in his labour, to wonder at the proceedings of a man who was so busily employed in hunting amongst weeds ; and as the latter spoke but little, and the few words he uttered appeared to have some deep and obscure signification, he came to be universally regarded as a man who occupied himself with secret arts and occult sciences. No sooner had our newly enlisted simpler determined upon his calling, than he became the most diligent of men; and having been so fortunate as to possess himself of the works of Nicholas Culpeper, he occupied himself with assiduity in collecting specimens and comparing them with the de scriptions of his master, until he had acquired a know ledge of several hundreds of our species. As it was his intention to make himself eminently practical, he troubled himself very little about the superior associations, or government of plants, so formally propounded in the pages of that eminent herbalist and philosopher of the old school ; in whose day the doctrine of herbs, which deserved not the name of botany, was shrouded in the mysterious g'arb that ignorance delights in, and in which it finds its resource. Exact science had little to offer, and it became necessary, in order to captivate the minds of men, and ensure their belief in medicinal virtues which were very imperfectly understood, or altogether imaginary, to find godfathei-s and godmothei-s who might be answerable for these sanative properties of herbs ; 13 and thus to establish by authority what experience failed to prove. In imitation therefore of the classic fable which assigns the poplar to Hercules, the oak to Jupiter, the olive to Minerva, attd to Cybele the pine, plants were ranged under the the government of Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, Mercury, and Venus according to the will of the founder of the alliance. Some again belonged to the Moon and others to the Suii. Retaining only'^so much of these learned associations as might serve for his amusement, or to raise him, as occasion might require, above the illiterate vulgar, our student set to work in earnest to become, not only a skilled herbalist, but a trust-worthy collector. As he was very careful to obtain the best specimens, and to cull them at the proper time, he soon obtained a good reputation, and plenty of work, his employers being the various druggists, and the Society of Apothecaries, for which latter body he laboured during a great many years. He now pursued his avocation with all that eagerness and and delight which men experience when they are employed m searching out and discovering the secret treasures of nature ; and as he began to obtain an excellent livelihood, there was every inducement to diligence. He was never happy unless he was breaking new ground, planning expeditions, or making discoveries; and when he received a commission, neither distance nor labour were any object to him. He has often walked fifty, and sometimes sixty miles a day. In this manner he travelled into every county in England, and even found his way into Scotland and Wales. His territorial knowledge expanding, he began to map out the ground be had explored according to the habitats of plants and the abundance of their production. The preparation for his jotiraeys, the occurrences of the road, the occasional difficulties he met with, the very storms 14 he encountered, all became a source of delight to him, and proved to be the natural mode of relief to his active and restless spirit. The herbarizing operations did not cease with the summer and autumn months, but were continued far into the winter, in which latter season he sought the roots, and sometimes the herbaceous parts of plants ; but when the ground was covered with snow, or when it was " baked with frost," he was glad to occupy some of his time with the much despised trade of shoemaking; no sooner, however, had the dissolving snows revealed the first green leaf, and long ere the fields were decked with the " first born flowers" of spring, than he was afoot again to examine and explore, and his thoughts were forward with the opening year. Becoming a master of his subject, he found abundance of leisure to enjoy the various scenes through which he passed, and he appears to have been alive to the more tender expressions, as well as moved by the bolder phenomena of nature. His active observing-faculty, aided by a retentive memory, furnished him with abundance of conversation for the amusement and gratification of his friends. In the descriptions of nature in which he indulges, bis enthusiasm kindling, he even transcends his subject, becoming as it were " infected with the style of the poets"* ; when he can talk of the pathless forests through which he has found his way, where not a solitary sunbeam could penetiate the dense entanglement of leaves ; this natural roof, being borne aloft by the stately trunks of oaks, some adorned with moss and lichens, others wreathed by close clinging-ivy, niaking- them resemble spacious temples reared by the hand of nature. where the solitary wanderer becomes deeply impressed with the feeling that he is in some awful and mysterious allhouoh invisible presence; and of such solemn stillness, that you might hear an acorn-cup fall to the earth, or a decayed leaf, in its hesitating descent, light upon the trembling fern- * Bacon. 16 top, and where the mind is relieved from a not unpleasing sense of oppression, which is heightened by the uncertainty of the way, when the distant note of the cuckoo falls upon the ear, or the eye catches a glimpse of the blue wreath, as it slowly ascends from the roof of the woodcutter's cottage ! Escaping from the woods, he has broken out upon the " rude wild common," as it lay broadly open to the sun, the distant horizon being seen softening into blue above golden patches of faintly-odourous furze-bloom, the short and well cropped grass, looking brown and dry on the tops of knolls,. fresh and green where the little hollows nestle, being diver sified with the purple heath plant, the yellow bird's foot, and the nodding bell-flower, whilst, dotting the wide expanse, are seen the various cattle, here solitary and there grouped into little knots, — all looking languidly in the noontide sun. Sometimes, oppressed with heat during the " long burning day," he has sought the shade of a solitary tree, or vainly endeavouring to stifle the sensation of thirst by keeping in his mouth the aromatic roots he has dug up, he has been over joyed on reaching the cool, clear, refreshing spring, as it gurgled forth amid sand and stones. Now, he might have been seen tramping over the high downs, meeting the breeze, with distant prospects of the sea, where the little white sails, looking no bigger than birds, appeared to be suspended between sky and ocean; and then, threading his way through a woody vale, where he followed the course of a winding brook, which pursued its way noiselessly where it flowed over the deeper hollows, but " brawled," where, its channel narrowing, it urged its way over a stony bed. Here he has seen the otter sport with his prey, and leave his " bit." Many a time, finding a welcome meal, has he taken from a cool, rocky slab, the plenteous remnant, which, the amphibious fisher, grown wanton with abundance, has left behind him. And we will now watch him as he toils across a sunny flat 16 to scan the leafy margin of a stream, which is here seen flowing smoothly in the open plain, and there trembling and glittering between the dark stumps of a pine wood. Here grow the myrtle flag, the broad leaved burdock and the gredt water dock; the purple loose-strife rears its noble spikes, to be reflected in the flood ; the meek, blue eyed veronica peeps forth from out the crowd, inviting praise ; the dropwort of the streams presents its white umbels to the sun, and tufted meadow sweets bend from the watered bank. At length, sweet eventide approaching, he throws down his well earned heaps, the green trophies of the day, and reposing his weary limbs on the soft, grassy bank, he listens to the evening gale as it sighs through whispering reeds. His work was carried on at all hours ; often has he snufltd the fragrattce of the morning, when the odours of a thousand herbs, and shrubs, and flowers, were bursting, by the sun beams' aid through their moist, fresh trammel of midnight dew ; and many a moonlight search has he undertaken, when the dim landscape is thrown into vast breadths of a yellow light and a dusky shade ; and while imagination labours to fill up the uncertain forms, the faint prospect, where it dies away, is enlivened by the broad sheet of silvery light reflected from the smooth bosom of a sleeping lake or calm river-bend. But the) operations of our traveller have not always been carried on under such favourable auspices. If, on the one hand, in days of sunshine and in moonlight nights, he has seen nature smile, he has, on the other, seen her, with clouds and storms, wear an angry aspect. Often has he hurried from his labour to seek some covert where he might crouch till the pelting shower had passed ; or, avoiding the fatal shelter of the groves when the sudden peal has told him that thunder was abroad, he has resolved to venture all in the open plain. Then, the blackening shadows and busy whirlwinds, which snatched up decayed leaves and dust, and carried 17 them aloft, warning him that the storm was about to burst, his quickening footsteps have hurried him forward, but too late; the lightning has begun to play around him, the thunder to roar overhead, and the " big torrent to burst." Now he sees the shepherd leave his flock and hasten to the nearest tree, a firm-set oak, which had stood unscathed through so many storms that it held out no friendly warning to the wayfarer of the treacherous shelter it offered ; but the " fiery bolt" descending, the unhappy shepherd is, in a trice, laid dead at the root of the riven tree ; his faithful dog, unconscious of his master's fate, patiently waits his commands, while the untended flock straggles over the heath, or drives before the storm ! Or, he has met the hurricane's tumultuous rage; when the clouds, breaking in quick succession from the tangled mass in the south west, hurry up from the horizon, and sweep across the blue fields of heaven, as if they flew on the very wings of the wind. The noble forest, "strained to the root" is belaboured by the assailing foe, now breaking into loud fury, and then subsiding in a hollow moan. In a moment the ground is strewn with leaf covered twigs, whilst the clatter of torn, and splintering branches, reaches the ear through the din and tumult of the storm. Many a proud stem has laid its length along, not without tearing huge chasms in the earth to mark its unwilling fall. The bewildered traveller knows not whether to double himself together and stem the fury of the blast, or, lying down, to cling to his mother earth till its rage has swept over him ! Sometimes, having sought a woody shelter from the summer rain, he has crept from under dripping leaves just as the sun, beginning to reassert his power, has darted forth his hot beams through a rent in the clouds; when the glittering foliage, from millions of bright points, has glinted back to the eye the living ray ; then, marching onward over the guttered path, . 18 the glorious rainbow has displayed itself before him on a back-ground of dark retiring clouds; nobly reminding man of the promise of its Designer. Or, an unlooked-for glory would await him; as when, towards the close of a day of clouds, and rain, and storms, when, not a break in the heavens has relieved the universal gloom, he has toiled up a long ascent ; and on reaching its crest, has been astonished to see a golden sunset look forth from under the ragged edge of the storm ; and the drenched and flooded landscape, amply spread out below him, gleaming and glistening in the fiery effulgence. We are not to suppose, however, that the rambles of ou r enterprising pedestrian have been without human interest. Always ready to seize the opportunity of acquiring local information, and glad to diversify his labours by making friends and acquaintance, he has met with numerous com panions of the road. Often has he spent an hour with the shepherd, attracted by his picturesque seat on the slope of a hill, or in the small shade of a lone thorn-tree, which looked ragged with little tufts of wool torn from the fleecy backs of sheep ; his flocks around him, eifld their faithful guardian, the «I:.§-, keeping his " unwinking watch," while the silence that reigned was only interrupted by the occasional tinkling of a sheep-bell. Curious to ascertain what kind of knowledge or thoughts such an isolated being could possess, and whether he still belonged to human society, he presses him with questions; but the tardy replies, and the staid and rigid features, too surely tell of the dulness that reigns in the poor shepherd's breast. His little cottage, with its plot of garden ground for a few beans and potatoes, his wife and children, his master and wages, the sheep he looks after and his dog, make up his little world, and circumscribe his every thought. The long, weary hours of watching and tending, fructify in no new emotions or ideas, and life passes in somnolency and langagr. 19 Sometimes, glad to snuff the freshly turned earth, he has walked with the ploughman as he drove his team in the furrow, folloM'ed in his wake by a long line of rooks, which, emboldened by hunger, hovered on the wing, ready to dip into the new made trench. Then he has sat with him in the cool shade of the hedge-row elms, when he has produced his mid-day meal ; his table being his knees, and his only instru ments, a clasp knife and his own good teeth. Many a time has he lent a hand to the haymakers, and joined in their merry talk and gossip, as, ranged in loose line, they tossed their prongfuls in the sun, being rewarded for his labour and good company by a draught from the keg. Nor has he despised the good cheer of a harvest-home, or of a Norfolk sheep shearing of the " good old times," with their songs and games, and mazy dances of swains and village maidens. Here again he has walked with the waggoner, and listened to his dronish tales: or, falling in with a merry group of peasants, on their way homeward from the fields, he joins in their hilarity, and listens to their village scandal ; whilst on their part, they are glad of the company of a man who has seen the world, can talk of his journeys, and throw in a good tale of his own. Gaining the confidence of the party, he shows his adroitness and awakens a general shout, by selecting the twain that are destined, ere long, to become one. At length they reach the comer of the lane that leads down to the village; mutual civilities and good wishes are exchanged, the voices of the joyous company become iainter and fainter as they go singing down the lane, and the solitary traveller proceeds on his way. Our pedestrian has also something to say about the gipsies, which people he was in the habit of meeting or reconnoitering in all kinds of places : sometimes, encamped near the border of a wood, in the open spaces left by the ferns, where the 20 dead branches supplied them with fuel, and the near neigbour- hood of rabbit-holes held out a fair prospect of provisions during their stay ; or, to the great horror of the farmer, in suspicious vicinity to his farm premises, when new-laid eggs would suddenly become very scarce, and the well being of all poultry and straggling sucking-pigs would be imniinentl} jeopardized ; sometimes, in a warm, sheltered nook, where the rising banks and bushes screened them from the cold winds : or he would recognize their recent track by the charred spots and embers left on the open sward. These wanderers were not then, as now, mere travelling tinkers, hucksters, and menders of rush-bottomed chairs, with a dirty looking woman to do the fortune-telling, but gene ral dealers in spells, incantations, and all magical arts, in little verses and short sentences, in which fetes were wrapped up, and placed, like Sibylline leaves, at the entrance of their tents. The men were all wizards, and the women were witches ; and such was the influence they possessed over the imagination, that no man dared to thwart or oppose them. Without force, or violence of any kind, they made their request equivalent to a command. They often became rich, hoarding their money ; at the same time they were fond of display, the ladies sometimes wearing gold watches and bracelets, and the men indulging in some extravagant article of costume. It becomes, without doubt, a charming feature in an English landscape, when we can obtain a peep through ^ green lane, with its lofty, untrimmed hedges where the bryony clings, and the scrambling bramble strives to invade the territory of the dog rose, that peeps forth in pale, sweetly- odourous clustei-s; the ancient ditches being choked with a luxuriant vegetation, and fringed with purple thistles; the ruts and ridges grassed over, and shorn by the nibbling teeth of the cattle that stray there ; while the bordering oaks and ;ksh, between wliich may be seen little patches of tender 21 blue sky, and rounded masses of white, shining douds, by here permitting and there preventing the sun's ray, chequer the green alley with alternate stripes of light and shade< across which the eye is carried to the terminal group of oaks, in the inviting shade of which is snugly established the gipsy encampment ; — the tent, the cross sticks and wood fire, with the huge black pot for everything; the men lying lazily about, the women and girls on the alert; here and there a dog ; and two or three black, rough looking horses stray ing far from the camp, and either pulling at the hedges, or greizing along the ditches. But in those days, when Jemmy the Gipsy King, and his accomplished family were abroad, the pleasure to be derived from such a picturesque addition to the prospect, was not unaccompanied by a vague feeling of apprehension. This may perhaps have been just sufiicient to give an air of spirit or romance to the landscape, for it extended not to life or limb, but rather to the imagination and the purse; to all visible trinkets and personal adorn ments. A word or two more about King Jemmy. He had a very handsome daughter, commonly called, from her pretensions, " fair maid." A certain mason had succeeded in winning the affections of the damsel, and the match was approved by his majesty, who, on the morning of the happy day, produced a huge stocking well charged with the precious metals, all obtained by the honourable exercise of his profession as leading wizard and terrorist; and taking therefrom five hundred " golden guineas," he presented them to the astonished mason as the dowry of his bride. Rejoicings were kept up fo.r a whole week, with good cheer to all comers ; and neither the fair daughter, her royal father, nor the lucky mason, ever had any reason to repent the alliance. Our herbalist's experience taught him, that, if he met gipsies, or even crossed their recent path, his luck entirely 22 deserted him during the remainder of the day ; and he became, at length, so fully assured of this consequence, that he relinquished all further attempts to find the plants he was in quest of, until the morrow's sun should bring him a re newal of his good fortune. He describes himself as having been, on one occasion, under the influence of magical arts : but he does not appear quite to have made up his mind whether the gipsy-sorceress who exercised them was in love with him or not. He was employed, one fine morning in the early part of June, in collecting furze-blossom on a heath, and was showing the earnestness of his endeavours by abundantly scratching his hands and pricking his fingers in his work, when a dark-looking woman approached him. He was so intently occupied that he did not observe her until she had come within a few yards of the place where he stood, and she was then descending towards him upon a sloping pathway. She appeared to be about twenty-five years of age; her oval face was as brown and smooth as a nut, and her hair, which was black as the raven's wing, fell in thick locks over her forehead and face ; and between these her dark, lustrous eyes looked out. She wore a scarlet handkerchief over her shoulders ; and a blue shawl or scarf was tied loosely round her waist, the ends descending low down over a black petticoat. On her left arm she wore a golden bracelet. As she advanced, she smiled, and showed her white teeth ; and when the bloom- gatherer, looking up, saw the unbonnetted brunette before him against a back-ground of dark blue sky, he knew not whether to regard her as a messenger of peace or as a beau tiful fury. At once accosting him, she asked him what he was doing, and then offered to come and help hun gather the bloom. He soon observed, however, that she was strewinif sand upon the ground, and occasionally muttering somethinu- to herself; while, upon various trifling pretences, she Mas gradually describing a circle about him, talking, smilino-, 23 muttering, strewing sand, and now and then picking some of the blossom. When she had, in this careless manner, completed her circle, she said " If you will follow me I will show you where our people dwell," and at once, without waiting for a reply, she strode away, nor did she look back to see if the charmed man followed her. The latter was deprived of all power of resisttmce, he therefore hastily tied up his bundle and followed. After walking for some time, the enchantress led him through some brake, and then across the angle of a wood. On emerging upon the opposite side, they came to an open, unfrequented space, where twelve tents were pitched; and a bull dog was tied up at the entrance of each tent. As they approached, the dogs stood up and looked threateningly, but not one of them barked, — they knew who came. No person was visible; all was silent and mysterious. Was the tribe sleeping in the tents ? or were the people scattered abroad on their several errands? The spell-bound man began to be afraid, although he knew not why, and he entreated his companion to liberate him. She at first hesitated, and darted at him a most terrible glance, but perceiving by his pale lips and trembling form, that her alchymy had been somewhat too potent, she, at length, allowed him to depart, telling him that he was entirely in her power, and would continue to be so until he had crossed the seas, and dwelt on some foreign shore; that, whether he strayed ovei hills, or wandered through vales, whether he betook himself to the tangled wood, or peopled city, his whereabout would be always known, and his lurking place revealed to her. Hurrying from her presence he soon plunged into the wood, where he wandered about for a long time ; he even lost his way in his endeavour to escape from his feelings. On recovering the road, he hastened to a friend whom he believed to be learned in the magical arts, and related his adventure. His friend agreed to conduct him to an old man who lived by himself, and was said to be a chronologist, an astronomer, and a philosopher. 24 It was late in the evening when the two men arrived in the litde town where the philosopher lived. Turning out of the principal thoroughfare, in the lower part of the town, they reached some small, gray houses which stood apart from the rest, and abutted upon the fields. Standing in front of these houses were the large, and almost branchless trunks of two old elms which must have watched the progress of centuries. They were both hollow, and expanded below into a vast mass of smooth nodosities, which shouldered high above the ground ; while several of the roots, in consequence of the gradual removal of the earth, made their snaky convolutions fully exposed to the view. Passing between these guardians, they approached a doorway, above which was one of those meissive, angular projections or porches, which would seem to be placed in such perilous suspension for the express purpose of making the passenger wonder why they dont come tumbling down upon his head. Pushing open an old, un- painted door, which stood ajar, they entered a passage ; and tapping at an inside door, a low, gruff voice bade them enter, when they immediately found themselves in the presence of the old man they sought. He was sitting in an arm chair, the leather covering of which was very much defaced and torn, and on each side of him was a pile of books which rested on the floor and reached quite to his knees. Upon a table before him were spread some loose papers, and lying upon them was a large pair of compasses and a flat ruler. His hair, which was grizzled, was rather short, and it projected at various angles from the scalp. His brow was knit, and his forehead was deeply and permanently wrinkled. The lower lid of each eye was depressed upou the cheek, and presented the inflamed appearance usually called " blear eyed," and he wore, apparently to his great inconvenience, a clumsy pair of white QXetal spectacles. There was at least a fortnight's beard upon his chin. A dirty white neckcloth was tied so loosely that it 25 revealed his throat; it lodged a quantity of snuff, with which his old, black, and faded waistcoat, was also copiously strewed. He might have been taken for a man who had grown old over his desk in a merchant's counting-house; where imagination might readily paint him, in leisure moments, resting upon his elbow, and lightly twirling his pen between his thumb and forefinger, as he gazed upon the well smoked ceiling of the office, and saw there the foreshadowing of nobler things : then, becoming obsolete as a clerk, and retiring upon a small pension, he had taken rank as a specu lative philosopher. The apartment he inhabited, appeared not to have been dusted, cleaned, or rearranged for years. Upon the mantel-piece, associated with much dust, were several snuff boxes, of tin, brass, and horn ; and at one end of it was a huge, old fashioned hourglass. Pasted on the wall above, was a large sheet of paper, on which were represented, in a circle, the signs of the zodiack : they were sketched with pen and ink, and coarsely tinted, and the whole tablature was very much tarnished and discoloured by smoke. Around the room were hung some yellow-looking maps, and plans of the heavenly constellations, with the places of the planets strongly marked, as if for consulting the horoscope. In one corner was a table, black with age, the legs of which were of the old twist pattern. It was covered with loose dusty papers, and under it was a celestial globe. Upon another table was a glass retort and receiver, and several of the upright glass vessels used by chemists, together with a pair of scales. Occupying a recess was a clock with a large dial-plate, and through a little window in the door of its dark, old fashioned case, the pendulum was seen vibrating. Various books, some without covers and much dogs'-eared, were lying about on chairs and on the floor. When the friends entered, the philosopher took off his spectacles, wiped and replaced them ; then pointing to some 26 chairs, he proceeded to take a heavy pinch of snuff, afiter which he folded his hands together, placed them on the table, and looked at his visitors over the tops of his spectacles. Having listened to their recital, he said, addressing him self to the charmed man, " the woman who accosted you is a sorceress, and you are now under a spell." She spoke of the seas; — true, — Neptunus drowns it; — but if you intended to cross the seas you would not come to me. In this case, celestial and terrestrial influences must oppose. The charm was wound up under Sol, — Luna gives no release. He here took up the compasses, and poising them on one of the shanks he described a semi-revolution with the other, and threw them down again, and continued, — it is necessary, therefore, that you should live under ground for eight days and as many nights. — But pray, sir, how can I do that ? — Stay a little young man, and 1 will instruct you, said the seer, who then proceeded to state that he must cut a piece of turf, six inches square, about such a piece, in fact, as is placed in a lark's cage for the bird to stand upon ; and this must be carefully bound to the top of the heart, and not once removed, night or