The Press.
London, England, 1856-08-30 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

Brizbam, of Brizham•gnay, for shortness Brizham. See
Bridport, Abbotabury with its monastery, and Charmonth,
placed hack from the sea. Our old cinque.port and sea-
side towns were willed, and they needed that protection.
The assimilation between Greek and Eng-
lish towns is too hasty. Mr. Roberts ought
to reflect that other causes besides dread of
pirates or invasion made churches built "from
the sea "—by which he means (we suppose) at
a distance from the shore. Churches were
used as seamarks and landmarks. In his
" Tourist's Companion" Mr. Charles Knight
writes of " Trinity Church," in the Isle of
Thenet, " towards the creation of which the
" Trinity Company largely contributed, it
" being intended to serve the purpose of a
" seamark." And we could cite several in-
stances of a similar kind, in our own know-
ledge, bath of old and new churches, built on
elevations to help mariners.
Mr. Roberts, after writing of the laceruakers,
says :

Her present gracious Majesty's bridal dress was of
Honiton sprigs, connected together by a variety of open
works, &c., and all worked on the pillow.
. . .

Her Majesty's order found only a few hands employed
lbout the country, none in Lyme or in D•wset, bat in Devon
over a tract that might be inclosed by a line from Seaton to
Exmouth, up the river Exe to Exeter, back the London
road to Honiton, thence to Seaton. The trade revived, and
affords a good livelihood to many thousand hands, the ma-
jority of the female labouring population.

Silmonth, Beer, Branscmite,'Colyton, and Honiton, are
the residences of many workers and dealers, some of whom
travel through England; but of late, at one time, the de
mend has far exceeded the supply. Some years ago poverty
and lace•making were associated. Such is not now the case.

The West of England has lost the woollen trade. Is it
that tir genius for manufacturing is wanting? Mrs. Tread-
win's skilled remarks would make as believe this is the ease,
Here we have an author of " social history "
accusing the West of England of wanting
" genius for manufacturing." The true state
of the case is, that the " social " development
of the North of England and elsewhere has
tempted capitalists, to whom the localities are
more " socially " favoured. Machinery can be
made and repaired more easily, and a greater
rapidity of skilled labour at low rates
obtained in certain districts. How this state
of things was brought about, Baines's " His-
tory of Lancashire" would help to explain.
But it certainly was not because the West of
England wanted " genius for manufacturing."
On running footmen, Mr. Roberts writes :

The very bad roads. and zonsequent comparative slowness
in performing a journey, allowed the use of running foot-
men, a class of retainers, however admired by the great,
doomed to extinction when the state of the roads was inn-
proved. Some of the performances of these men were
very great. They carried a tall c.tne or pole with a silver
ball at the top, in which was white wine and ergs. The
Duke of Marlborough drove his phaeton and four to Wind
soy only just besting one of three men, who died soon
after. These runners wore so trousers, but only a short
silk petticoat with a broad fringe, remind one of the Ile-
merodromi, or day-runners of the Greeks, one of whom
was sent to Sparta from Athens to announce the landing of
the Persians. In some parts these running footmen sup-
ported their master's coach when likely to overturn. With-
out them a jonrrey could not bare been undertaken.
Running footmen are among the several particulars that
served as a mark to distinguish the very rich from those
simply rich.

The best description we have ever seen of the
running footmen is in that highly curious
work. " The Recollections of John Olieeffe,"
the dramatist. A reader of the ab. ye passage
would be apt to col.found running foot-
men with servants for retinue, who Recoil'
panied carriages like javelinmen after the
carriages of judges of assize. We believe
that " running footmen " were not much used
in the " southern counties of England." They
were frequently used as postmen "unattached ";
and in Scotland and Ireland were much em-
ployed RS messengers, where mountains and
bad roads prevented fast, travelling except at
risk to valuable horses. The pole to which
Mr. Roberts refers was used as an assistance
in leaping streams or clearing hedges at a
bound. They were also employed by the
" simply rich."
But though Mr. Roberts does not scienti-
fically arrange or accurately weigh the induc-
tive value of his facts, we may pronounce his
work to be interesting, and valuable in some
respects. It is a book like an olla podrida,
such as may be selected from " Sylvanus
Urban," yet much of the matter is extremely
fresh. It might be truly called "Odds and
Ends about the Way s and Means of our
Forefathers." Civic feasts, cider, prawns and

833

punch, preparations to oppose the Spanish
Armada, Poole and the pirates, pilgrimages to
Spain, gaol government in past times (on
which his facts' are of little value), charges
of building, gipsies, funerals, pitching and
paving, introduction of coal, smuggling,
rage for lotteries, coat of travelling, the post-
office, thieftaking, decline of coast towns,
something about everything, with much ado
about nothing, are amongst the topics on
which Mr. Roberts has jotted down his end-
less ants. We give the work its praise when
wo write that Sir Walter Scott for his fictions,
or Isaac Disraeli for his " Curiosities of
Literature," would have been glad to use this
volume as a ready-made commonplace book
pour servit.
In extracting from such a miscellaneous work
one page is as good as another From the
chapter on the " cost of travelling," we
select the following page. which faithfully
shows the mode of composition followed by
the author:—
The traveller on his way to Ireland before the intriduc•
tion of steam took ship, and might be several days on the
water, when there was no steward ready to supply all ordi-
nary wants. This traveller had probably arrived at the sea-
port after a long journey, and the precise time fur sailing
depended upon wind and heather. Hence the necessity
fir being supplied with $ basket of provisions for the voyage.
This was a source of considerable profit to the landlords of
the inns of seaports. The charges were exorbitant. The
bottle of brandy—an invariable accompaniment of each
basket—was charged one guinea.

A diary is preserved of a journey to Dublin from Grosve-
nor Square, 12th June, 1787, in a coach-and.l.wr, accompa-
nied by a post-chaise and pair, and five outriders. The
party reached Holyhead in four days at a cost of 751. 116.3 d.
The state of the intercourse between this country and the
sister island at this part of the account is strikingly set
forth in the following entries :—Ferry at Bangor, 11. 101. ;
expenses of the yacht hired to carry the party across the
channel, 281. 7s. 9d.; duty on the coach, 71. 13s. 4d. ; boats
on shore, 11. ls.—total, 1141. 3s. 41. _ _ _

Visitors to the metropolis had much to Pay about the lions
and their keepers, the beefeaters of the Tower. This was
the London sight must famed. To show a country person
the lions, or to lionise, has become a common form of ex-
pression.
At length came the four-horse mails to Bristol in 17514,
and the " Quicksilver mail," to be in turn superseded by the
railway locomotive. Some see no occasiDn for any railway s,
upon which the Exeter people travel or fly to London in
six hours, instead of being so many days and nights.

, _
What can ever compare with thewell-appointed mad•
coaches, the " Quicksilver mail, " &e., in outward display ?
Their speed was thought to be surprising. Was there is
the world a prettier sight than the summer procession of
mail coaches in London—such horses, such neatness ? _

At mail-speed, if anything untoward happened. an mei-
dent occurred, as on the rail: but not to so many indivi•
duals, though dangerous to the passengers, and generally
fatal to some. A coachman, instituting a comparison
between the two modes of travelling, thus summed up:
" I know that if an, thing goes wrong, there you are, "
making a sign of 'limiting ; " hut by the rail, if you meet
with an : o •idetv , where arz you ? "

There are some chapters in this volume
whose matter is similar to what we Lase
already in other works But it is readable.
gossippy, and authentic The antiquary wa
do well by placing the volume on his shelves,
and the book-clubs will not make a bad choice
if they select it as an ainu,,ing book.

The Camp and the Cutter. By Edwin Galt.
London: Hodgson.
SOMEWHAT mere than a hundred pages of this
little volume are occupied with a description of
what the author. a " T G.," saw in the Crimea
after the fall of Sebastopol. He spent his
Christmas last year in the camp, and remained
a fortnight in the tent of a friendly officer,
during which time he closely examined the
ground. From what he saw and from what he
heard, he satisfied himself that the success of
the French in holding the Ilalakoff, and the
failure of the British to hold the Redan, were
fairly attributable to the different nature of
the works :
The wonderful strength of the Malakoff was its weak-
ness'—the place had been overdone—the high mounds of
earth and traverses that intersected it gave to ti,e be-
sieger* the fame advantages, when they had once got
possession of one of these compartments, as the besieged
theniseltes bad. It was like a ni.ze of embenkmenu,
that could with difficulty be threaded ; but as the French
in their assault bad surprised the Russians in their lurking-
places, and put a guard over each doorway, they sera
wound their way along without much obstruction. They
did not lose a man in taking the place ; it was iv its aft, r
defence that the slaughter was caused. How d'fferent yr) s
the Redau! Shaped like the letter V, and in the rear
eatirely open, it was impossible for our brave fellows to
maintain their position, against a converging fire, with
the small number they attacked with. liesidea this,
there was a three-gun battery, built up between the dock-

834

yard and the barrack wall, only 400 yards in the rear, which
would have swept the place—in nautical phraseology—en-
tirely, fore and aft.
- - - - -

The Russians were completely at fault when
they inclosed the rear of the Malakoff, instead
of leaving it open, as in the case of the Redan.
It is singularthat their skilful engineers should
have made so great a mistake.
The " T. G." resolved to see how the High-
land Brigade fared in the hills ; paid them a
visit ; and was hospitably entertained :

We dined in the tent of a captain of the regiment who
possessed a table sufficiently large to accommodate half a
dozen. We sat down to this impromptu dinner with appe•
tites far from quarrelling with the viands. There were
soups of every description ; mulligatawny soup, oyster
soup, gravy soup, a dozen red herrings, bottles of
champagne, pale sherry, and pale ale, with a finale of
currant pudding. At a London clubhouse this might,
perhaps, have been considered a plebeian mixture, but I
am prepared strongly to assert that the veriest gourmande,
under similar circumstances, would have pronounced the
spread most excellent. I slept that night in my friend's
tent. I slept on a board—a piece of board laid upon the
bare earth. He kept up a capital fire, over which we
smoked our pipes, and chatted until rather late. Blankets
were at a discount ; mine came in very useful ; but
although the snow continued to fall the whole night, I
cannot say I felt the slightest cold, for I slept in all my
clothes, excepting my coat ; and besides this, had piled up
on the top of me a singular mass, comprising rugs, forage
sacks, anal all the coats that could be found.

When I awoke in the morning, my face was in contact
with the circular wall of loose earth, forming the hole that
had been dug out after the tent had been fixed. The in-
mate is thus buried four feet under the ground during the
night, and greater warmth is thereby obtained, as the cold
blasts pass over the tent without penetrating below. It
hul been snowing the whole night on the outside, and our
tent was a foot deep in snow. The covennst was thrown
open by the entrance of the servant, and I observed the op-
pisite side of the valley, with the boughs of the forest
trees laden with white flakes ; and turning round upon my
couch, I prosecuted my geological researches, by picking
out specimens of stones and loose pebbles from the wall of
my apartment.

The following is an amusing specimen of the
routine machinery, of pen ani ink work, occa-
sioned by the smallest requisition. An officer
required a pair of gloves from the Government
stores :

The requisition was duly drawn up and signed according
to the necessary form, and then this requisition commenced
its somewhat long and erratical journey. The order for
the gloves of the value of two shillings and eleven pence
was first forwarded to the regimental quartermaster, it was
then sent to the colonel of the regiment, for his endorse-
ment, from him it went to the brigade-major, who trans-
mitted it to the assistant quartermaster-general, and
theme it reached the quartermaster general, at head-
quarters. From him the order came back to the quarter-
master-general of division, then through the brigade-major
to the colonel of the regiment, who directed the quarter
master of the regiment to send it to the quartermaster-
general at Balaklava, when the gloves were issued, and at
length they came back to the officer who made the applica-
tion ! the order having thus travelled the distance of
thirty miles and four-fifths, all for the value of two
shillings and eleven pence. Now, did any one ever hear of
such a perfect piece of absurdity and useless expenditure
of time and labour, just to keep up that silly old routine
of signatures and counter-signatures, which even the wild
Africans in Timbuctoo would have long since abolished
had they been taught the severe lesson of misfortune
aid suffering that we had learned during the preceding
winter ?

The author, like most other of the T. G.'s,
formed an unfavorable opinion of the Turkish
character
As I watch the movements of an allied army like this,
with all its machinery of action, I cannot but reflect on the
motives of this colossal war. It seems apparent to me
that its purpose is to work out far higher and nobler ends
than the mere curtailment of Russian power, for in its
train follow all the arts of the civilisation and commerce of
Western Europe, and the poor indolent Turks, and passive
tribes bordering upon the Black Sea, are completely ridden
over by the restless energy of the Briton and the Gaul.
Oar steamships, railways, and roadways, even now sur-
prise and awe these lazy disciples of Mahomet ; and the
refinement of our manners and habits presents a striking
oontrast to their degraded state. Turkey, indeed, would
be a poor object aloce to fight for. Her existence upon
the map of Europe cannot be for long, for it must be ac-
knowledged teat that nation which has no literature of its
own, which is ignorant of most of the arts and sciences,
which does not reeoguise the influence of woman in so-
ciety, curbing the growth of her intellect, and hiding her
away in solitude, in which no progress has been made for
two or three centuries, and whose whole existence is passed
with a pipe in its mouth, and fanaticism and fatalism in its
temper and its religion—it must be acknowledged that
this nation is not yet fitted to assist in European councils,
when its own exclusive and bigoted customs entirely abne-
gate those social amenities that mark the intercourse of
other States.

A valuable appendix closes the volume,
giving exact particulars as to the strength and
losses of the allied armies during the whole of
the great siege. The total loss by battle,
disease, and famine is set down at :