By deed, executed the first of May, 1662, between Sir Edward Nicholas, lord of the manor of Gillingham, and the mayor and burgesses of Shaftesbury, the time of observance was altered from the Sunday after Holy Rood day to the Monday before Holy Thursday, on which day it has ever since been celebrated in the manner following:

The mayor, on behalf of the inhabitants of the town, dresses up the Besome, or Byzant, which somewhat resembles a palm-tree, surmounted by а crown, gilded, and ornamented with the arms of the corporation and town; of which the former are, a cross between two fleurs-de-lis, and as many leopards faus; those of the town, a lion rampant, pawing against a tree, with a dove on the top of it. The branches of the palm-tree are hung with peacocks' feathers, like a May-day garland; to which are added gold rings, medals, plate, coin, and jewels, often to the value of £1,500 or £2,000, principally borrowed from the neighbouring gentry. This device, preceded by a band of music, is carried in procession by the sergeant-at-mace, after whom follow a man and woman, gaily and fantastically attired, in the characters of Lord and Lady, who perform the dance to a tabor and pipe. The Byzant is presented to the steward of the manor upon Enmore Green, together with the appurtenances enjoined. The former he immediately restores,-usually with a donation of bread and beer for the populace. The procession then returns, in the same order and solemnity as it arrived, to the Town Hall. For many years the corporation, as well as the highest families for many miles round, used to attend a ball and teaparty at the principal inn of the town; but these festivities have for some time past been discontinued. Q.

THE BEGGARS' OPERA. UPON no production of dramatic literature has there been so virulent an out

pouring of puritanical zeal as upon the Beggars' Opera, one of the most extraordinary combinations of wit, humour, and pungency, ever written or enacted. Its success appears to have astounded the public monitors of every shade of opinion; for, however various their creeds, they all seem to have concentrated their fury upon this severe lampoon upon the vices of the great; thereby heightening its effect upon the public mind, and reminding one of a rough simile employed many years ago, in speaking of the prosecution of certain infidels and political rogues-they are like cabbages-the oftener you cut them down, the more vigorously will they grow.

Of the Beggars' Opera, we find the following record in the Gentleman's Magazine, Sept. 15, 1773:

"This day Sir John Fielding informed the Bench of Justices, that he had last year written to Mr. Garrick concerning the impropriety of performing the Beggars' Opera, which never was represented on the stage without creating an additional number of real thieves; he begged, therefore, the gentlemen present would join with him in requesting Mr. Garrick to desist from performing that Opera on Saturday evening. The Bench immediately consented to the proposal; and a polite card was despatched to Mr. Garrick for that purpose. To which Mr. Garrick returned for answer, that his company was so imperfect and divided, (many of the performers being yet in the country,) that it would be exceedingly inconvenient, if not impossible, for him to open with any other piece than that he had already advertised; but added, that he would, in future, do everything in his power to oblige them.

"It must be confessed, that although the Beggars' Opera abounds with wit, humour, and the most poignant satire, it is, notwithstanding, very ill calculated to mend the morals of the common people, who are pleased to find all ranks and degrees, the highest and most respectable characters, brought down to a level with themselves. The Beggars' Opera is, in truth, the Thief's Creed and Common Prayer book, in which he fortifies himself in the most atrocious wickedness, from the impunity and triumph of his great exemplar, Macheath; and comforts himself, that, notwithstanding he may be hanged for his robbery, he is no worse than his betters.

"Mr. Gay's intention in writing that admirable dramatic Opera, was to lash the vices of the great; it was chiefly meant to be a very severe satire upon the Ministry of that time, and particularly levelled at

Sir Robert Walpole, who had greatly offended the author and his friends. Thus, what proceeded originally from private resentment, produced, in its event, very great and manifest injury to the public.

"The worthy Archbishop Herring foresaw the consequences which this admired Opera would produce; and, in a sermon at Court, very strongly pointed out the pernicious tendency of it to destroy morality in the lower class of the community: for this he was severely handled in a paper called the Intelligencer, said to be written by Dr. Swift, who, forgetting all temper and moderation, represented Dr. Herring as a most prostitute Divine, because his zeal animated him to preach against the Beggars' Opera." X.

ANCIENT FAIR.

Or all the chartered fairs in this country, that upon St Giles's Hill, or Down, near Winchester, was, in ancient times, the most important. The fair itself was first instituted, and its revenues granted, by William the Conqueror, to his cousin, William Walkelyn, Bishop of Winchester, and his successors, to whom the spot of its celebration belonged. At this time, it continued only for one day; but was afterwards prolonged to three days by William Rufus, to eight by Henry I., to fourteen by Stephen, and to sixteen by Henry III.* The jurisdiction of this fair reached seven leagues in every direction from the hill,t and embraced even Southampton, though at that time a large trading town. Any wares offered for sale within that circuit, during fair-time, were forfeited to the Bishop of the diocese: all the shops were closed within the city, and no business transacted beyond the limits of the market. On the eve before the festival of St. Giles, when the fair commenced, the mayor, bailiffs, and citizens delivered up the keys of the four gates of Winchester, and, with them, their privileges, to officers appointed by the Bishop. A court, called the Pavilion, composed of the Bishop's Justiciaries, was invested with authority to try causes of various kinds for the country round about. Collectors were appointed at Southampton, at Redbridge, and on all the avenues to the place of resort, to exact the appointed toll upon every species of merchandise. Some part of this toll became the Bishop's perquisite; other portions were granted to the Priory of St. Swithun, to the Abbey of Hyde, and to the Hospital of St. Mary Magdalene.

* Milner says, Henry II. See History of Winton, vol. ii. p. 211.

According to some, only seven miles.

Numerous merchants, from the Continent, annually visited the scene. Streets were formed, like a temporary city, for the sale of commodities, and "distinguished by their different names; as the drapery, the pottery, the spicery, the stannary, &c." The neighbouring monasteries had also their respective shops, which they held under the Bishop, and often let again, on a term of several years; and to each different county and division a separate station for booths was assigned. "At length," says Dr. Milner, “in the reign of Henry VI., this celebrated mart was perceived to be on the decline; the stand appointed for those who brought certain articles for sale from Cornwall not being occupied." After this period it rapidly declined; though it still remains a market of considerable traffic to the surrounding counties. M.

REPENTANCE.

OH! that each bitter tear I shed,
And sigh incessant, night and day,
Could now atone for hours fled,

And years in follies passed away.
Could innocence again be mine,

Which once I knew in early years, Once more I'd seek my Maker's shrine, To bathe with my repentant tears! But not e'en tears in secret shed,

Or grief-fraught sighs, though breath'd each day, Can e'er atone for hours long fled,

Or years in follies passed away!
Yet still, alas! I mourn and weep,

And count my minutes by my sighs,
And seek my couch, and call on Sleep
In vain to close my tearful eyes;
For Mem'ry brings those hours back
When sunk in Pleasure's listless stream,
I spurned fair Virtue's shining track,
And Fame exchanged for Vice's dream!
But not e'en tears in secret shed,

Or grief-fraught sighs, though breath'd each day,
Can e'er atone for hours long fled,
Or years in follies passed away!

RICHARD RYAN.

WOMAN: A FRAGMENT.

BY THE LATE REV. C. Wolfe,
Author of the "Ode on Sir John Moore."
GONE from her cheek is the summer bloom,
And her breath has lost its faint perfume;
And the gloss has dropp'd from her golden hair,
And her forehead is pale, though no longer fair.

And the spirit that sat in her soft blue eye
Is sunk in cold mortality;

And the smile that played on her lip is fled,
And every grace has left the dead.

Like slaves they obeyed in height of power,
But left her all in her wintry hour;
And the crowds that swore for her love to die,
Shrunk from the tone of her parting sigh,—
And this is man's fidelity!

'Tis Woman alone with a firmer heart
Can see all those idols of life depart;
And love the more, and soothe, and bless
Man in his utter wretchedness.

To a race termed Alfourous, Arafuras, or Alfoors, are to be referred scattered tribes inhabiting the central parts of most of the islands of the Indian Archipelago, and also of Madagascar, where they are called Virzimbirs.* To the same race, also, probably belong the Battas (a cannibal tribe) of the interior of Sumatra, and the wild Dayacks of Borneo. In the Philippine Islands they have been termed Los Indios, by the Spaniards; in Mindanao, Negroes del Monte; and in the interior of New Guinea, Endamênes ("AlfourousEndamênes" of Lesson). The natives of Australia are usually considered, and apparently with justice, as a branch of the Alfourou stock, and are termed, by Lesson, "Alfourous Australien." At some former period, the Alfourou race was widely spread; and it may, perhaps, be regarded as the primitive population both of the Malay Peninsula, and of the adjacent groups of islands; but their territories, for the most part, have been usurped by more powerful races-Papous and Malays, which have either extirpated them entirely, or driven the relics of the broken tribes to seek refuge in the mountains and woods of the interior; where, almost unknown, they still linger, immersed in barbarism. Lesson describes the Endamênes as living in the most miserable manner, and involved in continual warfare with their neighbours, from whose attacks, or snares, they are incessantly occupied in endeavouring to preserve themselves. He observes, "The custom prevalent among the Papous of the coasts, of putting their prisoners to death, and erecting their spoil as trophies, accounts for the difficulty we find in observing them, even in New Guinea; and two or three men, whom we saw in a state of slavery at Dorery, are the only individuals we have met with. The Papous described them to us, as of a ferocious character, cruel and gloomy, possessed of no arts, and passing their whole lives in seeking subsistence in the forests: but we cannot * Virzimbirs, or Ovales.

regard this hideous picture, which each people draws of its neighbouring tribes, as authentic. The Endamênes, whom we saw, had a repulsive physiognomy: flat noses; cheek-bones projecting; large eyes; prominent teeth; long and slender legs; very black and thick hair, rough and without being long; their shining, beards were very hard and thick: an excessive stupidity was stamped upon their countenances, probably the effect of slavery. These savages, whose skin is of a very deep, dirty brown, or black colour, go naked: they make incisions upon their arms and breasts, and wear in their noses pieces of wood, nearly six inches long: their character is taciturn, and their physiognomy fierce; their motion is uncertain and slow. The inhabitants of the coasts gave us some details of the Endamênes; but as they seemed to us to be dictated by hatred, and as their accounts differed, either because the sense of what they told us was badly understood, or because they related to us statements which they did not themselves credit, with the intention of inspiring us with fear, we think it useless to make a race of men known, by false or inexact descriptions, whose history is still enveloped in thick darkness."

The same writer supposes that, though confined to the interior in the northern districts of New Guinea, the Endamênes, or Alfourous, are the sole possessors of the southern portion of the island; and that, having crossed Torres Straits, at some remote era, they have spread themselves over the vast regions of Terra Australis: a theory, which appears to be supported by the physical characters, as well as by the customs, of the Australians. The Alfourous-Endamênes" are farther described, as having the skin blackish, the hair coarse and straight, the face broad, the cheek-bones prominent, the beard thick and very black: their manners are savage and repulsive.

In stature, the Australians, or "Alfourous-Australien," are moderate; the limbs are generally slender, and elongated; the face is flattened; the cheek-bones are prominent; the nose is large and depressed, with widely-spread nostrils; the lips are thick; the mouth is of disproportionate width; the teeth are projecting; the eyes are half closed by the upper eyelids, which are lax and heavy; the ears are loose and large; the hair is black, coarse, hard, and worn in rough knots, or masses, often bound round with a fillet, termed cambun, or bolombine; the beard is rough and

*The females use much grease in dressing the hair. The bolombine is sometimes made from the stringy bark of a tree, or from the tendons of the Kangaroo's tail, and daubed with pipe-clay.

THE STAGE. BY ALFRED BUNN.

"BOTH before and behind the Curtain, from Observations taken on the Spot;' by the late Lessee of the Theatres Royal Drury Lane and Covent Garden." Such is the title-page of this extraordinary production-bearing the epigraph:

"I am (NOT) forbid

To tell the secrets of my prison-house."
Hamlet, act i. sc. v.

The appropriateness of this quotation rests entirely upon the author's notions of right and wrong: leaving honour and good faith out of the question, we should say that no man is forbid to tell all he knows; but, in adherence to the general ideas of propriety which are recognised in

*Mr. George Bennett, in his Wanderings in New South Wales, &c., thus describes the natives of the Bugong Mountain in the Tumah country :-" Both males and females were in a state of nudity, wearing the Opossum-skin cloaks only as a protection from the weather; and the septum naris had the usual perforation and ornament through it. Some of the females had tolerably pretty features, with dark hair, short, and having a natural curl; not, however, in any respect like the frizzled hair of the African Negro, or the spiral twist of that race so closely allied to them, the Papuan; but having that curled appearance often seen in the hair of European races. Many of the females wore the front teeth of the Kangaroo as ornaments attached to the hair, and esteemed them for that purpose. The native weapons are clubs, spears, the bomerang, and shields; which latter have rude ornaments, carved with the incisor tooth of a Kangaroo, upon them."

respectable life, there are many things in every man's profession which he is forbid to tell. This may be a piece of moral fustian and stage gag; but, wicked as the world is, these views are pretty general among persons with whom intercourse is worth maintenance. Old-fashioned notions of character deprecate the policy of telling all; and society would be far less manageable than hot water, were every professional man to adopt the principle upon which these three volumes of gossiping adventures have been garnered for the "curious" public. Of the taste of this same public, the author must be owned to have a pretty extensive experience: he ought to be well acquainted with the tether of its morality, and to know how often he may call "sin a fine gentleman," and whom he may fitly designate a "delightful lady:" but, if we are to believe that he praises the virtuous, and censures the bad,-that he licks propriety, and lashes vice, then the morale of his book is frail and sickly throughout, and the phase of society which he seeks to exhibit is obscured with many spots, which had better never been shewn at all.

racters of others, they are not quite so careful of their own as the average of mankind; which remark, be it remembered, proceeds from one of the fraternity. Now, to our thinking, Mr. Bunn appears to be somewhat too severe in places. He attacks success unflinchingly: the magnates of the art are most unceremoniously handled; and nearly all the approbation is reserved for Mr. Ducrow and Mr. Thomas Duncombe, the penates of the author's "temple of the drama." He himself is a reformer of the stage, and, like all reformers, everlastingly quarrels with his brethren. A strong torrent of sarcasm, to call it by no harsher name, is directed towards the greatest actor of the day, whose enthusiasm is misrepresented, throughout the work, as vanity and overweening conceit. On the other hand, the rival of this same actor is greatly overrated; and such in defiance of the best judgment-that of the play-goers of the metropolis. Again, men of character and high standing in the art are held up to ridicule, for possessing those very qualities which have enabled them to attain their distinguished position: in short, the ripest fruit is constantly pecked at; majesty is just spared, but royalty is roughly handled; ministers and men in office are arraigned for their misdeeds; chamberlains and their officials are "called over the coals;" parliament-men are not spared; and the author boasts of his influence with "the opposition," to thwart legislatorial amendments, &c. Critics are assailed, save in a few instances, wherein it were better policy to "lick the rod;" and the persons who are designated the author's "friends," perhaps, reasonably enough, come in for the greatest share of his approbation: and joy we wish them of their largess. Moreover, "the Garrick Club," which has ever been regarded as a very inoffensive association, is attacked in such set terms as to have caused the prefix of this note:

In the following work will be found certain remarks upon the Garrick Club. As a member of that society, the publisher thinks it right to say, that the opinions therein expressed are those of the author, not his own, and are adopted, as he conceives, on misinformation.

8, New Burlington-street, June 25, 1840.

The abuse of this association, however, counteracts itself, and is scarcely worse than laughable. We are told that "at its tables congregate some of the soi-disant critics of the day, who gather together what little dramatic intelligence they deal in, from the gabble, and, very frequently, from the hoaxing, of some waggish bystanders; and whose notions of any particular actor's performance are derived from what they have heard that particular self-satisfied actor say of himself." Mr.

Bunn's grievance appears to be the blackballing of "the peerless author of Hohenlinden." Mr. Price, says the author, alleged to me, as a reason for Mr. Campbell's rejection, that, after a certain period of the evening, he was occasionally in the habit of breaking glasses he had emptied, and decanters which had been full; and that, moreover, he was not particularly solicitous for the welfare of any looking-glass that chanced to be casting a reflection on him at the time. Supposing this to be true, (and I pretend neither to question nor advance its veracity,) it appears to me only making matters worse. If "The Garrick" were the most immaculate and strait-laced club of the "village," (as I have heard Mr. George Wombwell, at his pleasantest of all tables, and in his pleasantest of all manners, denominate the British metropolis,) where a pint of wine would be considered a luxury, and a bottle a positive excess, there might be some justice in putting forward such a reason; but, as matters stand, the case is very different.

With all its sins of omission and commission, personalities and partialities, upraising and down-crying, squib, spleen, and retaliation, Mr. Bunn's book is a very amusing one-barring the reprints of the Drury Lane addresses, speeches, and matters of account, about which the public care not a straw. The author's experiences as a manager, who had the hardihood to hire two theatres, when a person could scarcely be found to open onewould be entitled to more respect, did he not set out with the avowed object of paying off" old scores," and of settling a long account with public men. At the same time, he entirely discards sentimental cant, about the "pride of the British stage,' &c., and sets about his work as a matter of pounds, shillings, and pence; in which, as the public have not supported him, he rates them pretty sharply for their apathy and ignorance, and supports his views by statements of facts and figures, some of which are far from complimentary to the taste and perception of the play-going public. In one respect, they will not be disappointed in the work before usnamely, in its rich and racy anecdotes of actors and their patrons, than whom a more pleasant set of fellows do not strut their hour upon the great world's stage.

Our extracts will, of course, be at random strung. From the statistics we quote the following, to shew that, five-and-twenty years since, one swallow did not make a

summer.

Kean's First Season.

In the season 1813-14 (Mr. Kean having made his début on the 27th January, 1814,)