VOL. 4.3 Novel-Reading-Signs of Inns, 63 the qualifications which we are now Random; the society, which must be discussing. For, as an elegant author has truly remarked, in touching incidentally on this topic, frequented, in order to become familiar with the low-lived blackguardism of a Strap or a Partridge; and the total "What habits of quick and intelli- eradication of every modest and degent observation must be formed by the cent idea, which must be accomplished, employment of watching over interest- before we can describe in their naked ing helplessness, and construing ill- colours the adventures of a brothel or a explained wants! How must the per- prison-house, are all circumstances so petual contemplation of unsophisticated discordant to the constitution of the fenature reflect back on the disposition of male mind, as to form an insurmountthe observer a kind of simplicity and able barrier to its success in this deingenuousness! What an insight into partment of fiction. We are glad that the native constitution of the human they are so; because, if they were not, mind must it give to inspect it in the we should have the sex deprived of that very act of concoction! It is, as if a vestal purity, which constitutes its chief chymist should examine young dia- ornament, and which gives us a foremonds in their native dew. Not that taste upon earth of celestial enjoyment. mothers will be apt to indulge in delu- Woman has so many attractions alsive dreams of the perfection of human ready, that she need not seek to obtain mature. They see too much of the more at the expense of decency: she waywardness of infants to imagine has so many realms of the imagination them perfect. They neither find them yet unexplored and yet uncontaminated, nor think them angels, though they often call them so." All this must in some degree contribute to form that species of merit in female authors which we have here thought proper to point out. in which she can expatiate with ease and innocence; that she has no occasion to enter those which are polluted and corrupt; and she has gained such honorable renown in every other province of literature; that she has not the It is only fair, before we conclude, to slightest reason to mourn, that it is destate, that there is one class of novels, nied her in this alone. Since then. in which our sex, beyond all dispute, custom, and modesty, and honor, and bears away the palm from its female religion, each and all, imperiously forcompetitors: but, when we say that it bid her to engage in a combat for such is in that coarse delineation of men and distinction, let her retire from the field manners, in which Fielding and Smol- without discontent or murmuring; or lett so lavishly indulged, no on ewill re- rather let her exult with joy and thankgret that they have neither sought nor fulness, that she is debarred from enobtained so guilty a pre-eminence.— tering into that arena, in which to win The vicious excesses, which must not the highest prize of victory is scarcely only be witnessed, but shared, in order glory, and where to meet with only the to acquire a perfect knowledge of such second, is disgrace indeed.--Brit. Crit. characters as Tom Jones or Roderick June 1818. ORIGIN OF SIGNS OF INNS, &c. CAT AND FIDDLE. From the Gentleman's Magazine, June, 1818. PUSS IN BOOTS. CONTINUED. CAT AND BAGPIPES. to my friend Simplex that I knew an old man who at the age of sixty had cut a I may perhaps be quite as prudent complete new set of teeth, and he immeT always to ascertain the existence of diately wrote an essay of fourteen sheets a presumed fact, prior to reasoning upon upon the subject, which he read with it. I copy the following extract from the infinite applause at the Royal Society. portfolio of a punster in the European It was an erudite production, beginning Magazine: "I happened to mention with Marcus Curius Dentatus and G'ne 64 Signs of Inns, &c.—Puss in Boots-Whittington. ius Papyrius Carbo, who were born with all their teeth; quoting the cases of Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, and Prussias, son of the King of Bithynia, who had only one continued tooth, reaching the whole length of the jaw; noticing the assertions of Mentzahus a German physician, and our English Dr. Stare, who state instances of a new set of teeth being cut at the ages of 80 and 110; and embracing in the progress of the discussion, all the opinions that had been expressed upon the subject from Galen down to Peyer, Dr. Quincey, M. de la Harpe, Dr. Derham, Riolanus, and others. I omitted at the time to mention one circumstance which might have saved Simplex a deal of trouble, and the Society a deal of time: the man to whom I alluded was a combcutter." It was Dean Swift, who, when a lady had thrown down a Cremona fiddle with a frisk of her Mantua, made the happy quotation : "Mantua væ miseræ nimium vicina Cremona !" Hardly, if at all inferior, was the exclamation of Warton, when he snuffed out a candle : "Brevis esse laboro: Obscurus fio." I shall not enter into the surprizing history of puss in boots, as I think there are very few above six years old who are not thoroughly acquainted with the great services she rendered to her Mas ter," My Lord the Marquess of Carabas," and who do not know that, after he had married the King's daughter, Puss lived in great pomp, and only caught mice now and then, just for amusement. WHITTINGTON AND HIS CAг. Another Cat of equal celebrity claims some commemoration, though I am not aware that her whiskers have ever fig ured on a sign-board. At Islington stands an upright stone, inscribed, "Whittington-stone," which marks the spot where tradition says Whittington sat down when he had run away from the cruelty of the cook-maid, and where he thought that be heard the bells of Bow church, then in full peal, ring merrily in his ears, "Turn again, Whittington, [VOL. 4 ton, obedient to the sound, returned to his master's house, and reluctantly parted with his sole possession, a favourite Cat, on an adventure in his master's vessel :how the ship arrived in a strange country, where the King and Queen had their meat snatched from table as soon as it was put on by innumerable rats and mice:-how Puss killed or drove them all away :-how the King sent immense presents to Whittington in lieu of his Cat, which, being fortunately in the family way, stocked the whole country :-how Whittington married his master's daughter-and finally, "How London city, thrice beneath his sway Return thrice Mayor, return, O Whittington." BISHOP Foot, in his Comedy of the Nabob, makes Sir Matthew Mite thus address the Society of Antiquaries: “That Whittington lived, no doubt can be made; that he was Lord Mayor of London, is equally true; but as to his Cat, that, Gentlemen, is the Gordian knot to untie. And here, Gentlemen, be it permitted me to define what a Cat is. A Cat is a domestic, whiskered, fourfooted animal, whose employment is catching of mice; but let Puss have been ever so subtle, let Puss have been ever so successful, to what could Puss's captures amount? No tanner can curry the skin of a mouse, no family make a meal of the meat; consequently no Cat could give Whittington his wealth. "From whence then does this error proceed? Be that my care to point out. Sir Richard Whittington was Lord Every child will tell, how Whitting- verted into an alms-house for 13 paor VOL. 4.] Origin of Signs on Inns, &c. 65 men, and vested in the Mercers' com- the rise of the phrase is very intricate, pany) on the hill, thence called Collegehill; and lies buried in the church of St. Michael Pater Noster Royal, which he had rebuilt. THE CAT AND HECATE. When Typhon forced all the gods and goddesses to conceal themselves in the form of animals, Diana assumed the shape of a Cat, as Ovid informs us: "Fele soror phobi latuit." Hence the the Cat was considered as sacred to her, and as the characters of Cynthia or Luna, and Proserpine or Hecate, are appropriated by mythologists to this goddess, whose triple name and office is described in the memorial lines, "Terret, lustrat, agit, Proserpina, Luna, Diana, Ima, superna, feras, sceptro, fulgore, sagittis." "Earth, Heaven, Hell, is hunted, lighted, aw'd By Dian's, Luna's, Hecate's, dart, ray, rod." all owing to a corruption of speech, for the word no doubt is cate, which is an old word for a cake, or aumalette, which being usually fried, and consequently turned in the pan, does therefore very aptly express the changing of sides in politics or religion, or, as we otherwise say, the turning of one's coat." In the first Shakspeare frequently uses the now "Kate of Kate-hall, my superdainty Kate, The Vicar of Bray in Berkshire, whose name was Simon Aleyn, and who died in 1588, was alternately roman catholic and protestant in the reigns of Henry VIII. Edward VI. Mary, and Elizabeth; but the unknown author of the celebrated ballad, above quoted, has modernized the vicar, and brought down his versatility to later times. Epigram addressed to the Landlord of the Oakly Arms, near Bray : "Friend Isaac, 'tis strange,you that live so near Bray, And as Hecate peculiarly presided Over witchcraft, we may with great probability conjecture, that hence arose the invariable association of a Cat as the agent and favourite of witches. Thus Mr. Brand says," Cats were antiently revered as the emblems of the Moon, and among the Egyptians were on that account so highly honoured as to receive sacrifices and devotions, and had stately temples erected to their honour. It is said that in whatever house a cat died, all the family shaved their eyebrows. Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus relate that a Roman happening ac"the Cat cidentally to kill a Cat, the mob immediately gathered about the house where loves fish, but dares not wet her feet ;” he was; and neither the entreaties of which is alluded to by Lady Macbeth, some principal men sent by the King, in that exquisitely fine speech to re-excite nor the fear of the Romans, with whom in her husband a determination to murthey were then negociating a peace, der Duncan : could save the man's life." THE CAT IN THE PAN.' There is a common adage, "to turn Cat in the pan," to forsake your principles for advantage, tergiversation ; and it is thus used in the well known song of "the Vicar of Bray," a man whose conduct eminently exemplified its meaning: "When George in pudding-time came o'er, And moderate men look'd big, Sir, I turn'd a Cat in pan once more, And so became a whig, Sir. "There being no connexion," says Dr. Pegge," between a cat and a pan, ATHENEUM. Vol. 4. To stay, like a booby, and lounge at the door "Art thou afraid Like the poor cat the adage." Gray has written a pleasing Ode on a Cat drowned in a tub of gold fishes. Huddesford, in his Salmagundi, has a humorous quibbling monody on Dick, an Academical Cat, to which he has prefixed the motto, from Horace, "Micat inter omnes ;" and pathetically deplores his want of "No Doctor fee'd, no regimen advis'd, NARRATIVE OF A VOYAGE TO SENEGAL IN 1816, &c.; COMPRISING AN ACCOUNT OF THE THE HE fatal wreck of the Medusa, three survived when a vessel came to and a series of horrors almost un- their rescue. The boats soon forsook the paralleled in the history of human suf- Raft, which became the theatre of the ferings which ensued thereafter, are gen- desperation and wickedness and misery erally known through the medium of so well known to the public. Only fifthe newspapers, which at the time were teen souls remained at the end of thirfilled with the circumstances of that teen days, the rest being either swept dreadful story. We should therefore off by the sea, destroyed in contests for have abstained from our present subject, sustenance, or thrown overboard by had not this new edition brought to their stronger companions, in order to light some curious facts relative to the leave a larger supply of support for the interior of Western Africa, and the survivors. Hell itself could not display French establishment at Senegal, and more diabolical passions than were manfurnished topics of scarcely inferior in- ifested, or deeper guilt than was executerest to those which have already at- ted on this little floating theatre of destracted such universal regard. olation. Five died of fatigue shortly By the treaties of 1814-15, the French after arriving at Senegal. Of the boats, settlements from Cape Blanco to the two reached port in safety; the others Gambia were restored to that country, were forced by the weather to make the and the Medusa and three other vessels land, and it is the adventures of their sailed to take possession of the cession crews which form the newer portion of in June 1816. On the 2d of July the this volume to which we shall turn our Medusa stranded with 400 souls on attention. board. The recital of the ignorance From the long-boat 63 of the most and misconduct which led to this catas- resolute were landed with arms to the trophe, are in the French style, but suffi- north of Cape Merick, 80 or 90 leageus ciently natural to convey an afflicting from the settlement, which they picture of the consternation which en- marched to seek along the sea-coast. sued. On the 5th, the Frigate having The crews of the great boat, the Senebroken in two, about 150 persons em- gal port boat, the smallest boat, and barked on board a raft which had been 25 men from the long-boat, debarked prepared; 35 were put on board the about half way nearer St. Louis, where barge; 42 in another boat; 28 in the they arrived on the 13th, after endurcaptain's barge; 88 in the long-boat; ing much hardship during the five days 15 in the smallest boat; and 25 in an they wandered over the barren desart, eight-oared boat, which was to be left But the adventures of two of the sixtyfor the service of the port at Senegal. three before mentioned, form the most Seventeen poor wretches were left to curious recital of this calamitous extheir fate in the wreck, of whom only pedition. They had about 90 leagues YOL. 4.] Shipwreck of the Medusa.. 67. to traverse of the burning waste of brought to the same camp by another Zaara. Having met with some Moors, party, and in the evening they arrived they took them for guides, and the at the camp of King Zaide, who was main body, after long marches and the however absent, having gone to the cruellest privations, reached Senegal on coast to look after the wreck. the 23d. Some, however, perished for Of the customs and appearance of want; while others, having strayed this tribe-" They observed that the from the mass, were carried up the children imperiously command their country to the Moorish camp, where fathers and mothers; but especially the one officer remained a month; and two latter, who never oppose their inclinaothers, the naturalist Kummer, and a tions.-The Moors are, in every reM. Rogery, were forced to wander spect, much superior to the negroes: with the Moors for a considerable braver than they are, they reduce them period ere they could rejoin their com- to slavery, and employ them in the panions. The first horde which the hardest labour. They are in general former met was commanded by Prince tall and well made, and their faces are Fune Fahdime Muhammed, son of very handsome, and full of expression." Liralie Zaide, King of the Trazas, of There seemed, however to be two whom a portrait is prefixed to the vol- distinct races of Moors; one of a The naturalist was astonished noble aspect, and the other smaller, at the care bestowed on their cattle. with different features. "The horses and camels were in a "They hunt lions, tigers, leopards, separate place, and the whole flock was and all other ferocious animals, which on the borders of a salt pond; behind abound in this part of Africa. Their them, the slaves had formed a line of commerce is in furs or skins, and ostrich fires of great extent, to drive away the feathers: they manufacture the leather mosquitoes and other insects, which called basil, in French basane, which torment these animals: they were all they prepare very well; they make this remarkably beautiful. leather into pocket-books. ume. "The manner of cleaning them is re- “But their chief commerce, which is markable. Upon an order of the Prince, very extensive, is in salt, which they the men, charged with this employment, carry to Tombuctoo, and to Sego, large take the strongest oxen by the horns, and very populous cities, situated in and throw them down on the sand with the interior of Africa. Sego (adds our astonishing ease; the slaves then take author) is built on both sides of the the animal, and clear its whole body river Niger, and Tombuctoo not far from the insects, which, notwithstanding from its banks, the former about 500, the fires that surround the flocks get and the latter about 600 leagues east among the hair of the cattle, which they of the island of Goree. The Marabous torment cruelly. After this first opera- (priests) who are almost all traders, fretion, they are washed with care, par- quently extend their journeys into ticularly the cows, which are then Upper Egypt." milked. These various operations generally employ the slaves, and even the masters, till eleven o'clock at night.' We should have been glad if this information had been somewhat more precise, and the sources whence it was derived, particularly stated. 66 The poor traveller was stripped of every thing during his first sleep; and King Zaide was of a lofty stature, tormented while awake to give accounts had an open countenance, and three of the French revolution, intelligence large teeth in the upper jaw, on the left of which had penetrated even to the side, which projected at least two lines Desert. Children of five or six years over the under lip, which the Moors of age wrote Arabic perfectly well, and consider as a great beauty. He was in the characters of this language the armed with a large sabre, a poniard, stranger traced on the sand the history and a pair of pistols; his soldiers had he was so often required to unfold. zagayes, or lances. and little sabres in On the second day M. Rogery was the Turkish fashion. |