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wariness in the Sparrow, that it has no good results; while eggs or nests destroyed are replaced within a week. Man ought to have some sympathy for the Sparrow, whose indomitability is so like his own. The Twite troubles the crofter in the Hebrides and the Orkneys, attacking his turnips and cabbage seed. No remedy for this, it is said, but close watching of the crop. The last finch in this little survey is the Lesser Redpoll, nowhere plentiful enough to have economic weight, but so far as its numbers permit, useful in destruction of insects.

Mr. Bond, in October on the Farm,' reminds us of the heavy rainfall to be expected, the occasional night frosts, the coats of the cattle beginning to thicken for the winter. He also mentions the tradition that

a warm October presages a cold winter, and

a cold October a mild one.

We observe that the Ministry has been informed that, as result of a Conference called at Washington last June by the Federal Horticultural Board of the United States Department of Agriculture, Apple, Pear, Quince and Mazzard Cherry Stocks will be excluded from entry into the United States on and after July 1, 1930. Rose stocks are not to be any further restricted until another Conference has been called to consider sufficiency of domestic supplies.

ON Monday last The Times gave particulars of two interesting sales to be held within a short time. One is to take place at Amsterdam on Nov. 13-14, when F. Muller and Co. will disperse one of the collections of M. Marczell de Nemes of Budapest. Of the 132 lots the chief, described in a part of the magnificent catalogue produced under the direction of Professor Lionello Venturi of Turin, are examples of early Italian masters -some works dating back to the fourteenth century. Other pictures are an El Greco; two Goyas; some eighteenth century French works (Nattier and Fragonard among them); a Hans Dürer (brother of Albrecht); and among Dutch pieces a reputed Vermeer. English art is represented by a Constable and a Hoppner.

Then the Shipdam rectorial library is to be sold by Messrs. Hodgson at some date this autumn - a collection of over a thousand volumes, all in perfect condition. An illuminated thirteenth century English Psalter done for the monastery of Campsea Ash, Suffolk; and the hitherto unknown first edition of 'Lycidas' are the two treasures that will draw principal public attention.

(0) UR correspondent, MR. P. B. E. BINNALL, writes to say that in our notice of the Master Glass-Painters' Journal, at ante p. 217, we were in error in saying that William Fowler was father of our old correspondent, CANON J. T. FOWLER. As a fact, he was his grandfather; William had three sons, of whom Joseph was father of the greatly respected and much missed Lincolnshire antiquary. We thank MR. BINNALL for the correction.

Two Hundred Years Ago.

From the Daily Journal, Saturday, October 12, 1728.

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The Rev. Dr. Barkeley, Dean of Derry, who obtained a Patent of his late Majefty, to erect a College in Bermudas, like that in

Dublin, for Inftruction of Youth in all manner of liberal Sciences and learned Arts, failed a few Weeks fince for the Weft-Indies, in a Ship of 250 Tons, which he hired. He took feveral Tradefmen and Artists with him. Two Gentlemen of Fortune (James and Dalton) are gone, with all their Effects, to fettle in Bermudas. The Dean married an agreeable young Lady, about fix Weeks before he fet Sail; the Lady's Sifter is gone with them. They had 40001. each to their Fortune, which they carried with them. They carried alfo Stores and Goods to a great Value: The Dean embarked 20,000 Books, befides what the two Gentlemen carry'd.

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They fail'd hence for Rhode Island, where the Dean intends to Winter, and to purchase an Estate, in order to fettle a Correfpondence and Trade, between that Island and Bermudas, particularly for fupplying Bermudas with Black Cattle and Sheep. Dean's Grant of 2,0001. on St. Chriftopher's, is payable in two Years Time, and the Dean has a Year and a half allow'd him afterwards, to confider whether he will stick to his College in Bermudas, or return to his Deanery of Derry.

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Notes.

ALYGGER."

IR William Nottingham's will (1470:

Sciences, inghirteen years before his decease (1483), contains two points of Italian literary interest, which I do not think have hitherto received any notice. First of all it discloses that this notable representative of a Gloucestershire wool-merchant family (who was also a Baron of the Exchequer), was visited by a Florentine friend, Gherardo Canigiani (probably at Cecily Hill, Cirencester), to whom he makes a bequest. This, in itself, is of a certain interest: for Cirencester was then a rich wool-centre, and the Canigiani were of the Bardi Association, who had a house of business in Lombard Street. Nottingham founded an almshouse for poor weavers in Battel Street, Cirencester. It now bears the dedication of St. Thomas, the Martyr: for whom the founder and his parents entertained special devotion. The Canigiani were not only deeply associated with Florentine foreign trade, but had their palace (in which the writer has stayed, during the last owner's life of that family) in the Via dei Bardi; but they are still specially proud of the fact that Eletta dei Canigiani gave birth to Petrarch.

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Secondly, in his will, Nottingham leaves to his wife Elizabeth evi evidently rather precious literary object-', a certain boke called Alygger.'"

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My neighbour, Mr. T. D. Thorp, of Coates Manor, near Cirencester, having appealed to me as to the significance of this, I have ventured (until better light may befall) to reply that the reference may possibly be to one of the few copies of Dante's poems mentioned before 1500: and probably then in MS., for I have previously met elsewhere with spellings of Alighieri quite as eccentric: Alygher: and although Chaucer quaintly speaks of the poet as simply "Dant," a copy of one of his works may quite well have been labelled "Alygher," for better, Alighieri." On the other hand I have somewhere once met with an early spelling of our word "ledger rather like it. The "certain boke" is specially not to be bestowed with his Mass-book and Chalice on my servants."

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Gherardo Canigiani had married Elizabeth Stockton, Lady Nottingham's mother, as her third husband.

ST. CLAIR BADDELEY.

BERKELEY HUNTING PAPERS.

MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS.

(See ante p. 201 and references there given). Henry Lord Berkeley to his receiver John Trottman of Cam.

Trottman. These are to let you to understand that I have bought a horse of Guy Goode the price is foure poundes seven shillings and tenn pence. My pleasure is that you paie the same unto him and this my letter shalbe a sufficient discharge for you in that behalf. But I would not have you to enter the same in your booke but to keepe a note thereof and when you bring my rents I will give you my acquittance for the The reason is because I would have the same put in my books of accompt and also to paye his bill xvs. viiid. and so in hast I end. Calowdon the 3rd of October, 1505

same.

Yor loving master

HENRY BERKELEY.

Post Script. I would have you to make all the hast you can with my rents for that I know not how soone I shall go to London. Also to get me keeping amongst my tenants for three cople of buck hounds And if they keepe them well I will bestow some venison on them

The ranger of Micklewood's Acquittance for his fee.

Received by me Anthony Hungerford, gent Ranger of Mychelwood of John Trotman of Cam gent the some of fyue pounds due to me at the Annunciation of our Lady last past before date hereof from the Right Honorable my Lo and mr the Lord Henry Berkeley for my fee for Keping the chase of Mlychellwood for one yere in wyttnes whereof I have to this acquittance sett my hand and seale the 19th of Aprill

1596

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THE PLAGUE AT MARSEILLE.

(See ante p. 240).

IN 1720 the Pest returned with such dreadful violence, and lasted so long, that, whether because we have fuller records of it or from any other cause, its ravages and the terrors it inspired may be thought to have surpassed those of any previous visitation.

This time the Pest would appear to have been brought by a certain ship, the Grand St. Antoine, whose master was laid up with it at the time she sailed into what is now called the "Vieux Port." In spite of the usual precautions of quarantine being duly taken, the infection got into the town through the cargo, which the cupidity of merchants secretly landed, sold and dispersed. the malady suddenly broke forth in the town with all its accustomed violence. The authorities, on this occasion, seem to have acted with initiative, energy and determination. But it was too late! The scourge swept through the streets, and house after house was struck as with lightning, and in the course of but a few days. Even the suburbs along the sea-shore on either side did not escape its fury, and rich as well as poor soon paid tribute to its irresistible power. seille presented the aspect of a vast charnelhouse, except that the bodies lay everywhere unburied in the houses, and in heaps where they had been thrown out into the narrow streets, sickening effluvia rising everywhere in the stagnant air and carrying the infection in all directions whenever the wind rose. Under the awful pressure of the calamity the natural bonds of relationship were torn asunder in the roughest way. Husbands fled from their stricken wives with faces livid with terror; wives from their husbands; lovers and their mistresses from one another; children rushed into the scarcely safer streets, leaving their parents to breathe their last moments in utter desertion; and parents flung their infected offspring in horror from their arms and vainly rushed along the shores of the Mediterranean, seeking for some desolate spot where the Plague had not yet penetrated, and where they hoped against hope that it might not come; even mothers tore the babe from their breast and dashed it to the ground, when they saw upon his skin the now only too well known "token." Almost immediately the hospitals filled to overflowing; and, though a steady procession wended from them day and night to the cemeteries, another ghastly procession stood at the same time at their doors awaiting admittance with the sick. Soon even this was not enough, and the nurses fell so fast victims of the illness they always failed to cure that not one of them remained alive; and the hospitals, abandoned by all but the dying and the dead, were shunned by everyone as spots whence the contagion spread the most rapidly, for the deserted sick in them soon died, and the dead remained to putrify in the infected beds. Until they were exterminated, the nurses went about their duties in black hoods which fell down before their faces like masks, and through which the only opening was two small holes for their eyes, and they went about with a pan of burning charcoal and sulphur held before them, as contemporary pictures of them have come down to our own times to attest. wretches, also, whose poverty or rapaciousness forced them to the carrying of the dead, heaped up in carts, to the cemeteries, where they flung them promiscuously into pits, were doubtless similarly attired, since they bore the gruesome name of ravens ("corbeaux") among the populace. At that time theirs was the only industry which remained in this great commercial capital; and this was so active that those who followed it for lucre were soon only too few for its ever increasing demands, and the authorities unchained the galley-slaves and forced them to the task, which soon enough freed them altogether from their servitude.

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In the midst of these scenes, which showed up human nature in so revolting a light, it is refreshing to read that the Bishop of the diocese, Belsunce, and his priests, particularly

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certain Père Millay, remained at their posts as long as life was in them, caring for the sick and giving the consolation commanded by their Church to the dying. The Bishop himself set the example of shepherd to his flock, and, remaining always outside his palace in what were then the outskirts of the town, he went continually through the streets, distributing alms to the needy, whose necessities forced them to throng these places in spite of the presence of the heaped-up corpses, and using up the ample revenues of the wealthy diocese in this admirable way.

Nor were the clergy alone in their zeal to succour their suffering townsmen. The sheriffs (échevins) of the City, Estelle, Moustier, Audimar, Dieudé; the bailiff De Langeron, the archivist Capus, and the town secretary Pichatty de Croissainte (it is pleasant to record their quiet names amid the glamour of those more in the limelight of the

period) brought well-earned laurels to their civic offices by the way in which they interpreted their duty to their fellow-townsmen in this trying-out episode. Particularly did the chief magistrate, the Marquis de Pille, prove himself worthy of his double dignity, municipal and aristocratic, by wholesale devotion

to the town in his charge. The physicians, too, Bruno-Garnier, the director of the Hospital, and his colleagues Peyssonnel and Bertrand, stand out conspicuously for the devotion they showed in their own calling; while the lieutenant of the Admiralty, GérinRicard, and the painter Serre are names never to be forgotten. There appears to have been no limit to their activities; no rest from their unwearying energies; not the least dread either of the malady or of desperate man in the exemplary way in which they held order, and punished pillage and worse crimes entailed by the confusion which necessarily followed in the train of the Pestilence. They organized the help needed by the sick, besides tending them personally; administered the distribution of food and other necessities amongst them; kept the normal mercantile life of the town going as far as the unusual circumstances permitted; maintained its necessary communications open with the outside world as far as that was possible, and desirable; wrote endless letters abroad for succour to places the Plague had not visited, or where its ravages had subsided and life more or less taken its usual course again; heedlessly exposed their own persons to the greatest risk as they organized on the spot the removal of the corpses which in all directions littered the streets, and had them flung into the sea; calmed the delirious population by the influence of expiatory ceremonials, which took their thoughts away from the prevailing calamity, at least to a certain extent; and in every imaginable way sacrified their own safety and ease to a never-ceasing devotion to their duty as magistrates and good citizens; until the Plague, after having claimed no fewer than 39,055 victims, at last, doubtless mainly through their heroic defence of the town, abated its ravages and removed from the desolated site.

But the name of all others which has come down to us from this heroic defence against a foe far more dreadful that the worst of hostile armies is that of the Chevalier Roze, who carried on his seemingly superhuman activities mainly at Tourette in the neighbourhood of Marseille, where, besides personally performing many of the splendid deeds which

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the men we have mentioned performed in the larger but not more afflicted town, he stood forth in the midst of the most dreadful anarchy, and in opposition to the most desperate of the worst of population notorious for depravity even for the neighbourhood of Marseille, and assumed absolute authority over the town. By the sole weight of his own personality and moral force he compelled those not yet stricken to obey his orders and attend to the needs of their unfortunate fellow townsmen, even to the extent of persuading them to carry the dead out of the streets, in sheets since there were not carts and barrows enough, and bury this infection beneath the waters of the Mediterranean. Happily we possess a contemporary print of this last scene, an example of which is in the collection of the author. Two others may be seen in the respective museums of the Vieux Marseille and Longchamp. They are extremely rare. There is also a monument to the Chevalier Roze at Marseille, and we possess a contemporary portrait of him in a print of great rarity.

Two years later the Plague once more broke out at Marseille, but the excellent defence before organized by the heroic men we have named above, again proved so efficacious that the scourge was only able to secure the comparatively trifling number of 260 victims, while its ravages at the same time swept along the coast and penetrated far into the interior of Provence, with the most deadly effect, Toulon, Aix, Avignon and Arles being the centres of the greatest suffering.

The epoch of the Revolution, in which Marseille played so fierce a part on both sides, passed without any return of these chronic epidemics to the birthplace of the "Marseillaise," whether happily or not the political troubles of the times, which such a timely disaster might have made to take a very different course, must perhaps leave us in doubt.

The Napoleonic régime, in which the governor of the City, the famous Maréchal Masséna betrayed the master to whom he owed his

elevation from obscurity, and then the party

for which he had committed his treason,

wise passed off without the Old Enemy of the place making its reappearance. The same was the case during the Bourbon Restoration, known, because of the massacres of Bonapartists there, locally by the name of la Terreur Blanche.

In the times following down to the present day the Old Foe under the former names and

to the same extent has never again entered Europe through its accustomed gate, and continually greater precautions have contributed to render its return less and less likely: nevertheless the City has more than once during this time acted as the gangway into Europe of only less devastating epidemics. Leprosy has never quite become extinct in this quarter; "the white plague" has been only too frequent; "the Yellow Jack" has not always been hoisted when entering the two ports which now distinguish the place, and that with disastrous and far-reaching effects; and, last but not least, Asiatic cholera has rather too frequently found Marseille a convenient port of entry, and her illkept and still narrow sunless streets, in spite of her unsurpassed opportunities of health-giving sunlight, a site where the germs can attain a sufficient footing for rendering their propagation further inland infinitely the more difficult to combat. In 1884 an epidemic of cholera in the City and its immediate surroundings alone took a toll of no less than 1,800 victims, 1,215 dying in a single month! The following year reappeared and claimed an additional 1,260, raking in 950 in one month's time. visitations of a new form of their Old Foe gave the municipal authorities a very healthful fright; yet, with characteristic Southern indolence, nothing really effective against the return of these epidemics was done until 1906, when the Municipal Council at last came to the fundamentally essential decision of demolishing a part of those narrow streets which act as death-traps for the unfortunate dwellers in them, usually far too ignorant to realize their perpetual danger, and menace to the whole of Europe besides. Forty-four million francs were accordingly voted to undertake the work, and the demolition slowly began. They are still at it, and the work proceeds remarkably leisurely even for a highly-needful sanitary reform in the South.

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A. H. COOPER-PRICHARD.

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SWALLOWING THE MOON. It was once believed that when an eclipse was taking place a very large dog was jumping through the clouds trying to seize the moon and swallow it. People would bring out their kettles, drums, and saucepans and beat them, making as much noise as they could, thinking they would frighten the dog away. This was told to me in the neighbourhood of Sheffield thirty or forty years ago.

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