The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 20, No. 575, November 10, 1832

Ancient Pitch-in-the Hole.—A soldier was brought to Alexander to exhibit a trick which he had acquired, of pitching a pea into a distant hole, which just fitted it;—when the reward which the great conqueror bestowed upon the soldier for his useless application of time was a peck of peas. P.T.W.

Pekin.—Balducci Pegalotti, a Florentine writer upon commerce, about the year 1340, describes Pekin (under the name of Cambalu) the capital city of China, as being one hundred miles in circumference. He also states the journey from the Genoese territories to Pekin as of rather more than eight months, going and returning; and he assures us it was perfectly secure, not only for caravans, but for a single traveller, with a couple of interpreters and a servant.

Mercers and Drapers.—Among the trading companies into which the middling ranks were distributed on the continent, in the twelfth century, those concerned in silk and woollens were most numerous and honourable. None were admitted to the rank of burgesses in the towns of Aragon who used any manual trade, with the exception of dealers in fine cloths.

Usury.—The interest of money was exceedingly high throughout the middle ages. At Verona, in 1228, it was fixed by law at 12-1/2 per cent.; at Modena, in 1270, it seems to have been as high as 20. The republic of Genoa, towards the end of the fourteenth century, when Italy had grown wealthy, paid only from 7 to 10 per cent. to her creditors. But in France and England the rate was far more oppressive. An ordinance of Philip the Fair, in 1311, allows 20 per cent. after the first year of the loan. Under Henry III., according to Matthew Paris, the debtor paid 10 per cent. every two months; but this is absolutely incredible as a general practice.

Worsted.—Blomefield, the historian of Norfolk, thinks that a colony of Flemings settled, as early as the reign of Henry II., at Worsted—a village in that county—and immortalized its name by their manufacture. It soon reached Norwich, though not conspicuous till the reign of Edward I.

The Lord's Prayer in Arawaak. 21 —Kururumanny—haamary caleery oboraady—bachooty deweet bossa—baynse parocan, bayin so pareeka—yahaboo ororoo adiako—meherachehbeyn dacotooniah—Ebehey nebehedow wakayany odomay—Mayera toonebah dayensey—Boboro talidey.—Hedouainey.—Jour. Geog. Soc.

*** Our Correspondent E. has been misinformed. The translation of the Letter of Lord Byron, inserted in our Number 575, as the first, will be found in Moore's Life of Byron, vol. vi. p. 147, new edit.—but without the subscription of "Peer of England."

1

Gentleman's Mag. vol. vii.

2

Postman, No. 441.

3

Postmaster, No. 449.

4

Nestesuranoi. Mottley.

5

Author of "Wonders of the little World."

6

Master of University College.

7

There are among our countrymen those who are scarcely outdone by the Tzar of Russia and his companions. At the same place, and probably at the same house, long known as Moon's, two noble dukes, the one dead, the other yet living, stopped, as they intended, for a moment, while sitting in their carriages, to eat a mutton chop, which they found so good that they each of them devoured eighteen, and drank five bottles of claret.

8

It is presumed some notorious place of ill fame.

9

Ballard's Collection. Bodleian.

10

Lord Dartmouth.—Note in Burnet's History of his own Times.

11

Ballard's Collection. Bodleian. With plain downright simplicity and free from all ostentation Peter carried this valuable ruby to the king in his waistcoat pocket, and presented it wrapped up in a piece of brown paper.

12

No. 442.

13

Mr. James Sibbon, who was a journeyman shipwright in Deptford yard when the Tzar was there; he died in 1769, aged 105 years.—Annual Register for 1769.

14

Postman, No. 136.

15

We are aware that the destruction or total extinction of any of the species of animals of contemporaneous creation with man, is a point of much controversy among philosophers. The best reply to this doubt is the repeated discovery of the fossil remains of animals entirely different from the existing species; proving their extinction to form a part of the scheme of creative wisdom.

16

Vol. i. p. 442.

17

Voyage de François Leguat, Gentilhomme, Bressan, 1708.

18

The precise spot is controverted, as will be seen in an extract from the ingenious work on Scriptural Antiquities, quoted in vol. xix. of the Mirror, p. 382; where are notices of the mountain by Morier and Sir Robert Ker Porter. The latter describes Ararat as divided, by a chasm of about seven miles wide, into two distinct peaks, and is of opinion that the ark finally rested in this chasm.

19

Edin. New Phil. Journ. By Professor Jameson. No. 23, p. 156.—Note to a paper by Humboldt, on the Mountain Chains and Volcanoes of Central Asia. Ararat is referred to in Genesis, viii. 4. Its distance and bearing from Jerusalem, 650, N.E.b.N.; Lat. North, 39.40. Long. East, 43.50. Country, Erivan; Province, Mahou.—From the General Index to the Biblical Family Cabinet Atlas.

20

This peculiar effect of the setting sun on snow-covered mountains has been observed by other travellers in other regions. In Switzerland the phenomenon is by no means rare.

"And sun-set into rose hues sees them wrought."Byron.

21

An Indian nation, settled in British Guiana.