The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction - Various
THE MIRROR
OF
LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.
324.] SATURDAY, JULY 26, 1828. [Price 2_d_.
Vol. XII
[Illustration: KINGSTON NEW BRIDGE]
KINGSTON NEW BRIDGE.
Through many a bridge the wealthy river roll'd.
SOUTHEY.
The annexed picturesque engraving represents the new bridge[1] from
Kingston-upon-Thames to Hampton-Wick, in the royal manor of Hampton
Court. It is built of Portland stone, and consists of five elliptical
arches, the centre arch being 60 feet span by 19 in height, and the side
arches 56 and 52 feet span respectively. The abutments are terminated by
towers or bastions, and the whole is surmounted by a cornice and
balustrade, with galleries projecting over the pier; which give a bold
relief to the general elevation. The length of the bridge is 382 feet by
27 feet in width. It is of chaste Grecian architecture, from the design
of Mr. Lapidge, to whose courtesy we are indebted for the original of
our engraving. The building contract was undertaken by Mr. Herbert for
L26,800. and the extra work has not exceeded L100. a very rare, if not
an unprecedented occurrence in either public or private undertakings of
this description. The first stone was laid by the Earl of Liverpool,
November 7, 1825, and the bridge was opened in due form by her royal
highness the Duchess of Clarence, on July 17, 1828.
Kingston is one of the most picturesque towns on the banks of the
Thames; and its antiquarian attractions are of the highest order. It was
occupied by the Romans, and in aftertimes it was either a royal
residence or a royal demesne, so early as the union of the Saxon
Heptarchy; for there is a record extant of a council held there in 838,
at which Egbert, the first king of all England, and his son Athelwolf
were present; and in this record it is styled _Kyningenstum famosa ilia
locus_. Some of our Saxon kings were also crowned here; and adjoining
the church is a large stone, on which, according to tradition, they were
placed during the ceremony. Many interesting relics have from time to
time been discovered in illustration of these historical facts, and till
the year 1730, the figures of some of the above kings and that of king
John (who chartered the town) were preserved in a chapel adjoining the
above spot. In that year, however, the chapel fell, and with it were
demolished the royal _effigies_.[2] Mr. Lysons, with his usual accuracy,
enumerates nine kings who were crowned here.
Kingston formerly sent members to parliament, till, by petition, the
inhabitants prayed to be relieved from the burden!
At Hampton Wick, the village on the opposite bank, resided the witty but
profligate Sir Richard Steele, in a house which he whimsically
denominated "the hovel;" and "from the Hovel at Hampton Wick, April 7,
1711," he dedicated the fourth volume of the _Tatler_ to Charles, Lord
Halifax. This was probably about the time he became surveyor of the
royal stables at Hampton Court, governor of the king's comedians, a
justice of the peace for Middlesex, and a knight.
* * * * *
ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY.
The first Archbishop of Canterbury was Austin, appointed by King
Ethelbert, on his conversion to Christianity, about the year 598. Before
the coming of the Saxons into England, the Christian Britons had three
Archbishops, viz. of London, York, and Caerleon, an ancient city of
South Wales. The Britons being driven out of these parts, the
Archbishoprick of London became extinct; and when Pope Gregory the Great
had afterwards sent thither Augustine, and his fellow-labourer to preach
the Gospel to the then heathen Saxons, the Archiepiscopal See was
planted at Canterbury, as being the metropolis of the kingdom of Kent,
where King Ethelbert had received the same St. Augustine, and with his
kingdom was baptized, and embraced the doctrines of Christianity before
the rest of the Heptarchy. The other Archbishoprick of Caerleon was
translated to St. David's in Pembrokeshire, and afterwards wholly to the
See of Canterbury; since which, all England and Wales reckon but two
Archbishops, Canterbury and York. The following Archbishops have died at
Lambeth Palace;--Wittlesey, in 1375; Kemp, 1453; Dean, 1504; all buried
in Canterbury Cathedral: Cardinal Pole, 1558, after lying in state here
40 days was buried at Canterbury; Parker, 1575, buried in Lambeth
Chapel; Whitgift, 1604, buried at Croydon; Bancroft, 1610, buried at
Lambeth; Juxon, 1663, buried in the chapel of St. John's College,
Oxford; Sheldon, 1667, buried at Croydon; Tillotson, 1694, buried in the
church of St. Laurence Jewry, London; Tennison, 1715; and Potter, 1747,
both buried at Croydon; Seeker, 1768; Cornwallis, 1783, and Moore,
1805, all buried at Lambeth. In 1381, the Archbishop, Simon of Sudbury,
fell a victim to Wat Tyler and his crew, when they attacked Lambeth
Palace.
P. T. W.
* * * * *
DAYS OF FLY FISHING.
That an ex-president (Sir Humphry Davy) of the Royal Society should
write a book on field sports may at first sight appear rather
_unphilosophical_; although it is not more fanciful than Bishop
Berkeley's volume on tar water, Bishop Watson's improvement in the
manufacture of gunpowder, Sir Walter Scott writing a sermon, or a Scotch
minister inventing a safety gun, and, as we are told, _presenting_ the
same to the King in person. Be this as it may, since our first
acquaintance with the "prince of piscators," the patriarch of anglers,
Isaak Walton, it has seldom been our lot to meet with so pleasant a
volume as _Salmonia, or Days of Fly Fishing_, to whose contents we are
about to introduce our readers.
In our last number we gave a _flying_ extract, entitled, "Superstitions
on the Weather," being a fair specimen of the very agreeable manner of
the digressions in the above work, which is, perhaps, less practical
than it might have been; but this defect is more than atoned for in the
author's felicitous mode of intermingling with the main subject, some of
the most curious facts and phenomena in natural history and philosophy
so as to familiarize the angler with many causes and effects which
altogether belong to a higher class of reading than that of mere
amusement. All this, too, is done in a simple, graceful, and flowing
style, always amusive, and sometimes humorously illustrative--advantages
which our philosophical writers do not generally exhibit, but which are
more or less evident in every page of Sir Humphry Davy's writings.
_Salmonia_ consists of a series of conversations between four
characters--Halieus,[3] Poietes, Physicus, Ornither. In the "First Day"
we have an ingenious vindication of fly fishing against the well-known
satire of Johnson[4] and Lord Byron, and the following:--
_Halieus._--A noble lady, long distinguished at court for pre-eminent
beauty and grace, and whose mind possesses undying charms, has written
some lines in my copy of Walton, which, if you will allow me, I will
repeat to you:--
Albeit, gentle Angler, I
Delight not in thy trade,
Yet in thy pages there doth lie
So much of quaint simplicity,
So much of mind,
Of such good kind.
That none need be afraid,
Caught by thy cunning bait, this book,
To be ensnared on thy hook.
Gladly from thee, I'm lur'd to bear
With things that seem'd most vile before,
For thou didst on poor subjects rear
Matter the wisest sage might hear.
And with a grace,
That doth efface
More laboured works, thy simple lore
Can teach us that thy skilful _lines_,
More than the scaly brood _confines_.
Our hearts and senses too, we see,
Rise quickly at thy master hand,
And ready to be caught by thee
Are lured to virtue willingly.
Content and peace,
With health and ease,
Walk by thy side. At thy command
We bid adieu to worldly care.
And joy in gifts that all may share.
Gladly with thee, I pace along.
And of sweet fancies dream;
Waiting till some inspired song,
Within my memory cherished long,
Comes fairer forth.
With more of worth;
Because that time upon its stream
Feathers and chaff will bear away,
But give to gems a brighter ray.
And though the charming and intellectual author of this poem is not an
angler herself, yet I can quote the example of her lovely daughters to
vindicate fly fishing from the charge of cruelty, and to prove that the
most delicate and refined minds can take pleasure in this innocent
amusement.
Gay's passionate love for angling is well known; it was his principal
occupation in the summer at Amesbury; and "the late excellent John
Tobin, author of the _Honey Moon_, was an ardent angler." Among heroes,
Trajan was fond of angling. Nelson was a good fly-fisher, and continued
the pursuit even with his left hand; and, says the author, "I have known
a person who fished with him at Merton, in the Wandle. Dr. Paley was so
much attached to this amusement, that when the Bishop of Durham inquired
of him when one of his most important works would be finished, he said,
with great simplicity and good-humour, 'My lord, I shall work steadily
at it when the fly-fishing season is over.'"--Then we have a poetical
description of river scenery, till two of the party arrive at the
following conclusions:--
I have already admitted the danger of analyzing, too closely, the moral
character of any of our field sports; yet I think it cannot be doubted
that the nervous system of fish, and cold-blooded animals in general, is
less sensitive than that of warm-blooded animals. The hook usually is
fixed in the cartilaginous part of the mouth, where there are no nerves;
and a proof that the sufferings of a hooked fish cannot be great is
found in the circumstance, that though a trout has been hooked and
played for some minutes, he will often, after his escape with the
artificial fly in his mouth, take the natural fly, and feed as if
nothing had happened; having apparently learnt only from the experiment,
that the artificial fly is not proper for food. And I have caught pikes
with four or five hooks in their mouths, and tackle which they had
broken only a few minutes before; and the hooks seemed to have had no
other effect than that of serving as a sort of _sauce piquante_, urging
them to seize another morsel of the same kind.--The advocates for a
favourite pursuit never want sophisms to defend it. I have even heard it
asserted, that a hare enjoys being hunted. Yet I will allow that
fly-fishing, after your vindication, appears amongst the least cruel of
field sports.
We must, however, confine ourselves to a few colloquial extracts from
the _practical_ portion of the volume; as
_Flies on the Wandle, &c._
_Orn._--Surely the May-fly season is not the only season for day-fishing
in this river? [the Wandle.]--_Hal._ Certainly not. There are as many
fish to be taken, perhaps, in the spring fishing; but in this deep river
they are seldom in good season till the May-fly has been on, and a
fortnight hence they will be still better than even now. In September
there may be good fish taken here; but the autumnal flies are less
plentiful in this river than the spring flies--_Phys_, Pray tell me what
are the species of fly which take in these two seasons.--_Hal_. You know
that trout spawn or deposit their ova, &c. in the end of the autumn or
beginning of winter, from the middle of November till the beginning of
January, their maturity depending upon the temperature of the season,
their quantity of food, &c. They are at least six weeks or two months
after they have spawned before they recover their flesh; and the time
when these fish are at the worst, is likewise the worst time for
fly-fishing, both on account of the cold weather, and because there are
fewer flies on the water than at any other season. Even in December and
January there are a few small gnats or water-flies on the water in the
middle of the day, in bright days, or when there is sunshine. These are
generally black, and they escape the influence of the frost by the
effects of light on their black bodies, and probably by the extreme
rapidity of the motions of their fluids, and generally of their organs.
They are found only at the surface of the water, where the temperature
must be above the freezing point. In February a few double-winged
water-flies, which swim down the stream, are usually found in the middle
of the day, such as the willow-fly; and the cow-dung-fly is sometimes
carried on the water by winds. In March there are several flies found on
most rivers. The grannam, or green-tail-fly, with a wing like a moth,
comes on generally morning and evening, from five till eight o'clock,
A.M. in mild weather, in the end of March and through April. Then there
are the blue and the brown, both ephemerae, which come on, the first in
dark days, the second in bright days; these flies, when well imitated,
are very destructive to fish. The first is a small fly, with a palish
yellow body, and slender, beautiful wings, which rest on the back as it
floats down the water. The second, called the cob in Wales, is three or
four times as large, and has brown wings, which likewise protrude from
the back, and its wings are shaded like those of a partridge, brown and
yellow brown. These three kinds of flies lay their eggs in the water,
which produce larvae that remain in the state of worms, feeding and
breathing in the water till they are prepared for their metamorphosis,
and quit the bottoms of the rivers, and the mud and stones, for the
surface, and light and air. The brown fly usually disappears before the
end of April, likewise the grannam; but of the blue dun there is a
succession of different tints, or species, or varieties, which appear in
the middle of the day all the summer and autumn long. These are the
principal flies on the Wandle--the best and clearest stream near London.
In early spring these flies have dark olive bodies; in the end of April
and the beginning of May they are found yellow; and in the summer they
become cinnamon coloured; and again, as the winter approaches, gain a
darker hue. I do not, however, mean to say that they are the same flies,
but more probably successive generations of ephemerae of the same
species. The excess of heat seems equally unfavourable, as the excess of
cold, to the existence of the smaller species of water-insects, which,
during the intensity of sunshine, seldom appear in summer, but rise
morning and evening only. The blue dun has, in June and July, a yellow
body; and there is a water-fly which, in the evening, is generally found
before the moths appear, called the red spinner. Towards the end of
August, the ephemerae appear again in the middle of the day--a very
pale, small ephemera, which is of the same colour as that which is seen
in some rivers in the beginning of July. In September and October this
kind of fly is found with an olive body, and it becomes darker in
October and paler in November. There are two other flies which appear in
the end of September and continue during October, if the weather be
mild; a large yellow fly, with a fleshy body, and wings like a moth; and
a small fly with four wings, with a dark or claret coloured body, that
when it falls on the water has its wings like the great yellow fly, flat
on its back. This, or a claret bodied fly, very similar in character,
may be likewise found in March or April, on some waters. In this river I
have often caught many large trout in April and the beginning of May,
with the blue dun, having the yellow body; and in the upper part of the
stream below St. Albans, and between that and Watford, I have sometimes,
even as early as April, caught fish in good condition; but the _true_
season for the Colne is the season of the May-fly. The same may be said
of most of the large English rivers containing large trouts, and
abounding in May-fly--such as the Test and the Kennett, the one running
by Stockbridge, the other by Hungerford. But in the Wandle, at
Carshalton and Beddington, the May-fly is not found; and the little
blues are the constant, and, when well imitated, killing flies on this
water; to which may be joined a dark alder-fly, and a red evening fly.
In the Avon, at Ringwood and Fordingbridge, the May-fly is likewise a
killing fly; but as this is a grayling river, the other flies,
particularly the grannam and blue and brown, are good in spring, and the
alder-fly or pale blue later, and the blue dun in September and October,
and even November. In the streams in the mountainous parts of Britain,
the spring and autumnal flies are by far the most killing. The Usk was
formerly a very productive trout-stream, and the fish being well fed by
the worms washed down by the winter floods, were often in good season,
cutting red, in March and the beginning of April: and at this season the
blues and browns, particularly when the water was a little stained after
a small flood, afforded the angler good sport. In Herefordshire and
Derbyshire, where trout and grayling are often found together, the same
periods are generally best for angling; but in the Dove, Lathkill, and
Wye, with the natural May-fly many fish may be taken; and in old times,
in peculiarly windy days, or high and troubled water, even the
artificial May-fly, according to Cotton, was very killing.
Here we must end, at least _for the present_; but there is so much
anecdotical pleasantry in _Salmonia_ that we might continue our extracts
through many columns, and we are persuaded, to the gratification of the
majority of our readers. Even when we announced the publication of this
work a few weeks since, we were led to anticipate the delight it would
afford many of our esteemed correspondents, especially our friend
_W.H.H._, who has "caught about forty trout in two or three hours" in
the rocky basins of Pot-beck, &c.[5]
Sir Humphry Davy mentions the Wandle in Surrey, as we have quoted; but
he does not allude to the trout-fishing in the Mole, in the Vale of
Leatherhead in the same county. There are in the course of the work a
few expressions which make humanity shudder, and would drive a
Pythagorean to madness,[6] notwithstanding the ingenuity with which the
author attempts to vindicate his favourite amusement.
* * * * *
SHROPSHIRE AND WELSH GIRLS.
There are few Londoners who in their suburban strolls have failed to
notice the scores of _female_ fruit-carriers by whose toil the markets
are supplied with some of their choicest delicacies. As an interesting
illustration of the meritorious character of these handmaids to luxury,
I send you the following extract from Sir Richard Phillips's _Walk from
London to Kew_.
PHILO.
In the strawberry season, hundreds of women are employed to carry that
delicate fruit to market on their heads; and their industry in
performing this task is as wonderful, as their remuneration is unworthy
of the opulent classes who derive enjoyment from their labour. They
consist, for the most part, of Shropshire and Welsh girls, who walk to
London at this season in droves, to perform this drudgery, just as the
Irish peasantry come to assist in the hay and corn harvests. I learnt
that these women carry upon their heads baskets of strawberries or
raspberries, weighing from forty to fifty pounds, and make two turns in
the day, from Isleworth to market, a distance of thirteen miles each
way; three turns from Brentford, a distance of nine miles; and four
turns from Hammersmith, a distance of six miles. For the most part, they
find some conveyance back; but even then these industrious creatures
carry loads from twenty-four to thirty miles a-day, besides walking back
unladen some part of each turn! Their remuneration for this unparalleled
slavery is from 8_s_. to 9_s_. per day; each turn from the distance of
Isleworth being 4_s_. or 4_s_. 6_d_.; and from that of Hammersmith 2_s_.
or 2_s_. 3_d_. Their diet is coarse and simple, their drink, tea and
small-beer; costing not above 1_s_. or 1_s_. 6_d_. and their back
conveyance about 2_s_. or 2_s_. 6_d_.; so that their net gains are about
5_s_. per day, which, in the strawberry season, of forty days, amounts
to 10_l_. After this period the same women find employment in gathering
and marketing vegetables, at lower wages, for other sixty days, netting
about 5_l_. more. With this poor pittance they return to their native
county, and it adds either to their humble comforts, or creates a small
dowry towards a rustic establishment for life. Can a more interesting
picture be drawn of virtuous exertion? Why have our poets failed to
colour and finish it? More virtue never existed in their favourite
shepherdesses than in these Welsh and Shropshire girls! For beauty,
symmetry, and complexion, they are not inferior to the nymphs of
Arcadia, and they far outvie the pallid specimens of Circassia! Their
morals too are exemplary; and they often perform this labour to support
aged parents, or to keep their own children from the workhouse! In keen
suffering, they endure all that the imagination of a poet could desire;
they live hard, they sleep on straw in hovels and barns, and they often
burst an artery, or drop down dead from the effect of heat and
over-exertion! Yet, such is the state of one portion of our female
population, at a time when we are calling ourselves the most polished
nation on earth.
* * * * *
COLEBROOK-DALE IRON-WORKS--THE REYNOLDS'.
(_To the Editor of the Mirror_.)
In the interesting extract you have given in your excellent Miscellany
(No. 321) from Bakewell's Introduction to Geology, when speaking of the
exhausted or impoverished state of the iron-ore and coals in Shropshire,
&c., an allusion is made in a note to that truly excellent man, the late
Mr. Richard Reynolds, and to the final extinction of the furnaces at
Colebrook-Dale, which is not altogether correct.
I beg leave, therefore, to point out the errors to you, and to add a
fact or two more relating to that distinguished philanthropist and his
family, which, perhaps, will not be unacceptable to many of your
readers.
Mr. Reynolds was by no means the _original_, nor, I believe, ever the
_sole_ proprietor, of the iron-works in Colebrook-Dale, as stated by Mr.
Bakewell; he derived his right in them from his wife's family the
Darbies; and the firm of "Darby and Company" was the well known mark on
the iron from these works for a very long period; more recently, that of
"Colebrook-Dale Company" was adopted.
The Darbies were an old and respectable family of the Society of
Friends, and a pair of the elder branches of it were the original "Darby
and Joan," whose names are so well known throughout the whole kingdom. I
had this anecdote from one of the sons of Mr. Reynolds,[7] and have no
doubt of its authenticity.
It may not be generally known to your readers, perhaps, that the first
iron bridge in England was projected at, and cast from, the furnaces of
Colebrook-Dale, and erected over the Severn, near that place, about the
year 1779; and, considering it to be the _first_ bridge of the kind, I
feel little hesitation in stating it to be, even now, the most beautiful
one. This structure, at that time thought to be a wonderful attempt, was
the entire offspring of Mr. Reynolds' genius; it was planned, cast, and
erected, under his immediate care and superintendance.
I cannot suppose the reason given by your author for the discontinuance
of the works at Colebrook-Dale to be correct, as there is another large
furnace in the immediate neighbourhood, called "Madeley Wood Furnace"
(also belonging to Mr. Reynolds's family), which was allowed to make,
and, I believe, still makes, the best iron and steel in the United
Kingdom. Mr. Reynolds had also other great iron-works at Ketley, since
carried on by his two sons, William and Joseph, and still in high
reputation, as to the quality of the iron made there; these are not more
distant from Colebrook-Dale than six or seven miles, and between the two
there are the extensive and highly valuable works of "Old Park," &c.,
belonging to Mr. Botfield (so that the whole district abounds in the
materials), which not having the advantage of the immediate vicinity of
the Severn for conveyance, would have been more likely to have stopped
from the circumstances stated in your extract; _viz._ the failure in
quality or quantity of iron-stone, coals, or other necessary matter. The
Colebrook-Dale fires must, therefore, I conceive, have ceased to blaze,
and the blast of her furnaces to roar, from some other cause, and from
some private reason of her late proprietors.
Your constant reader,
_Shrewsbury._ SALOPIENSIS.
* * * * *
NOTES OF A READER.
TRAGEDY.
We do not see any necessary and natural connexion between death and the
end of the third volume of a novel, or the conclusion of the fifth act
of a play,--though that connexion in some modern novels, and in most
English tragedies, seems to be assumed. Nor does it seem to follow,
that, because death is the object of universal dread and aversion, and
because terror is one of the objects of tragedy, death must, therefore,
necessarily be represented; and not only so, but the more deaths the
better. If it be true that familiarity has a tendency to create
indifference, if not contempt, it must be considered prudent to have
recourse to this strong exhibition as to drastic remedies in medicine,
with caution and discrimination, and with a view to the continuance of
its effect. We cannot help wishing that our own Shakspeare, who lays
down such excellent rules for the guidance of actors, and cautions them
so earnestly against "overstepping the modesty of nature," and the
danger of "tearing passion to rags," had remembered, that the poet
himself has certain limits imposed upon him, which he cannot transgress
with impunity. We should not then have observed, in the perusal of some
of his plays, the marginal notice of ["_dies_"] with about as much
emotion as a note of exclamation; nor, when at the actual
representation, we behold the few remaining persons of the drama
scarcely able to cross the stage without stumbling over the bodies of
their fallen companions, should we have felt our thoughts unavoidably
wandering from the higher business and moral effect of the scene, to the
mere physical and repelling images of fleshly mortality.--_Edinburgh
Rev._