The Sun.
London, England, 1863-05-22 00:00:00

Crystal Palace Flower Show.

Very extensive preparations are being made for
the great show of flowers and fruit to-morrow, the
arrangements for which present several novel fea-
tures. Large tent-like awnings are suspended over
the plants the whole length of the Palace, which,
while protecting the flowers from the glare of the
sun, do not interfere with the light and airy effect
of the general view in the centre transept and naves.
The music for the day will be given on the great
orchestra, the band of the Coldstream Guards being
specially engaged for the occasion, in addition to
the band of the company. The exhibition itself,
both for variety and extent, is expected to sur-
pass all others of a like kind. Stove and green-
house plants are well represented ; some very good
collections of fine foliaged and variegated leaved
plants will also be shown, The orchids are nume-
rous, and comprise many exceedingly rare
varieties. In azaleas the show will be unusually
brilliant, this class exceeding in number and dimen-
sions the entries on any previous occasions. Several
fine collections of those delicate and beautiful
plants the Cape Heaths will be shown. Some of
the chief exhibitors and growers of the rose have
sent their best specimens both in pots and cut
flowers--of these there will be a remarkably fine
display. The entries for pelargoniums include the
choicest kinds, comprising many specimens of un-
usually large dimensions. New and rare plants—
caleeolatias, tall cacti, ferns, cut flowers, and a large
miscellaneous class, will cumplete this charming ex-
hibition. The entries for fruit include a large col"
lection of pines, grapes, melons, and vario-,:s others
from the principal growers, in greater number and
finer condition than is usual at this period of the
year. A special announcement has been issued by
the directors that the doors of the Palace will not
be opened to the season ticket holders and the public
until one o'clock, in place of twelve as previously
advertised.

DEATH OF SIR CULLING EARDLEY.--WO regret
to learn that Sir Culling Eardley died yesterday
morning at his seat, Bedwell Park, in the 58th year of his
age. He had been in a declining state of health for some
time past, and the melancholy result we believe was not
un xpected by his friends. Sir Culling was married in
1832 to Miss Carr, the daughter of a Northumberland
squire; and he is succeeded by his son, now Sir Eardley
Gideon Culling Eardley.
THE LATE LORD HATHERTON.—We understand
that a meeting of the magistracy of Staffordshire
will shortly be convened, to take into consideration the
most suitable mode of recognising the public worth and
long services of the late respected Lord Lieutenant of the
county, and of perpetuating the memory of him with the
inhabitants of the county which he so long and faithfully
represented in Parliament.
RECRUITING IN IRELAND FOR THE FEDERAL
ARMY. —The Cork Examiner of Wednesday con-
tains correspondence from :various parts of that county,
which leaves scarcely any doubt that recruiting for the
Northern army is attempted to be carried on on an extensive
scale in the country. It appears that Mitchelstown and
Charleville were visited on Saturday, and Fermoy at the
end of last week, by several American gentlemen of military
aspect, who publicly, from the hotel doors and elsewhere,
offered to give a passage to any number of young men
willing to accept it to New York, for 3d. each, with the
certainty of continuous and remunerative work when they
arrived there, The police were present on several of these
occasions, which obviously discommoded the strangers;
but as there was nothing illegal in the proposition made, no
proceedings could be taken in the matter. Several hundred
young men await the sailing of the early Inman and other
steamers, who, beyond a doubt, have engaged to go to Ame-
rica on the terms offered by the American agents.
A DINNER IN AN OLD MANOR-HOUSE, AS DE-
SCRIBED BY MR. LONGMAN IN HIS LECTURES ON
THE HISTORY OP ENGLAND.—" Let us imagine ourselves
in one of them, as lookers on, and that we see a lord sitting
down to dinner with his guests and his vassals. All are ga-
thered together in the hall. At the upper end, on the dais,
where the ground is somewhat raised and boarded over, sit
the lord and his chief guests. They are protected by a
covering, which, as our host is a great man, is made of silk.
Below, in the marsh,' sit the vassals, farm servants, and
others. The door, which has lately been widened to let in
carts more easily, is closed, to keep out the wind, a dim
light is let in through the canvas windows, and the marsh'
is made tolerably dry and clean by litter and rushes. Fish
in plenty is served up ; eels and pike, and even whale,
grampus, porpoise, and 'sea wolves,' may be had. There
is plenty of beef, and plenty of mutton, but it is
nearly all salted; and the bread is rather black. Vege-
tables are plentiful enough; there are no potatoes, but
there are peas, beans, onions, garlic, and leeks, pot
herbs and sweet herbs. There is fruit enough,
though not equal to what we now have, There are pears,
and particularly one sort, grown by th,l monks of Warden
in Bedfordshire, which are made into Wardon pies. There
are apples, particularly of the sort called " costard." These
cost Is. per 100, or about 12s. of our money. Peaches and
cherries, and mulberries too, are not wanting. If we sup-
pose the entertainment to be given in London, the garden
of the Earl of Lincoln, in Holborn, would be ready to fur-
nish a good supply, for the fruit out of it was sold for abuve
£lOO of our money in one year alone. There is plenty of
claret, or clairets—so called because the wine was sweetened
with honey, and afterwards strained till it became clear-

from our possessions in Gascony, and some sort of sherry
from Spain, for those who sit on the dais, and beer and cider
enough for those who sit in ' the marsh.' Bat the beer is
made of a mixture of barley, wheat, and oats, without hops,
which have not yet been found out.' The insipidity of the
beer is taken off by spices. There is wine too made from
English vineyards, but it must be sour stuff and fit only for
the marsh.' Nobody but the King has glass to drink out
of, and he has none to spare for h a friends; but he has
cups made of cocoanuts, of gourds, of buffalo horns, and of
beautiful agates for his principal guests. The wooden
bowl, the earthern jug, and the 1L athern jack serve well
enough for the great bulk of the assemblage. The tables
are pretty firm, for their legs are well stuck into the mud
flow. Now that the guests are seated, and ready for their
repast, up comes the meat on a spit, served round by the
servants, and each man curs off a Lit with his knife, and
puts into his wooden bowl or on his trencher. Most of the
people have wooden sppoons, but nobody has a fork. The
pitchers and jugs are made of earthenware, but the plates
or dishes are all of wood."

EXTRAORDINARY LONGEVITY.—The obituary of
,he Times of the 20th inst. contains some rare in-

stances of very advanced age, as among others the deaths

of five gentlemen and three 'ladies are reeurded whose united
ages amounted to GB6 years, giving an average of 85 years

and nine mon'hs to each, the youngest being a male aged
79 years, and the eldest, of the opposite sex, being 95 years
of age.

AUNT SALLY ON THE WAR.—One of the New
York Herald correspondents has discovered, near
Rapidan, a veritable Aunt Sally, a slave woman 95 years
old, who has lived all those years on the same plantation,
and remembers the war of the Revolution. He asked her
which was the worse war, and her response was, "This be
body worse war, I reckon, muss, for everybody is killing every-
,"

LORD CLYDE.—It affords us much
pleasure
earn that Field-Marshal Lord Clyde is much improvecLo
health, and not the remotest danger is anticipated. P
illness has been greatly exaggerated.
st
WRECK OF A FRENCH SCHOONER AND
,e
STEAMTUG NEAR CARDIFF.—On Tuesday t''r.
French schooner Marie Rosa, of Vannes, bound from 0
diff to Alicante, aith coals, was driven ashore on
Penarth Head, near Cardiff, during the violent gale from
the N.B. The steamtug Spirit of the Times went to her
assistance, and, after an ineffectual attempt to get the ship
off, was also stranded. Both became wrecks, but the ereW
were saved by the Coastguard. The gale continued blow'
ing until about midnight, when it gradually abated. Seve-
ral other vessels wera slightly damaged.
BOAT ACCIDENT IN PENARTH ROADS.—Three
lives have been lost by an accident near the Holniei:
in Penarth-roads. The captain of a vessel lying in the
roads and four of his crew were returning in a boat to the .
vessel on Wednesday evening, the wind blowing fresh
when the boat was swamped by coming in contact with.,
mooring shackle, and the five men were seen struggling:
the water. The captain and one man had a hairbreaa
escape, succeeding in catching a rope thrown to them hovi
ts,
the ship, and were hauled on board in an exhausted 0.4
The ship's boat was instantly manned, and sent to rescue
the three other s, but the poor fellows had all sunk.
bodies have not yet been recovered.
thaw
GAROTTE ROBBERY.—John Wilson was cue-F
at the Manchester police-court on Wednesday will,
robbing Mr. Walter Chapell, coach painter, ofa purse loy
taining 2s. and some pence. About 11 o'clock on Stl:fje.
night the prosecutor stopped to strike a match in
is
street, Mosley-street, when he was seized round the "90-
by the prisoner with two other men, and thrown down
to
robbed. He followed them into Oxford •street, where 40
prisoner was captured by a policeman, but the other
30
escaped. Mr. =son, the presiding magistrate, said t
et
the prisoner was not known to the police, and as he did
think a jury could be convinced of his identity he Would
discharged.
ANOTHER OVERFLOW OF THE THAMES.—Seo.f
terdey another high tide overflowed the bank°
the Thames ; several of the low lying wharfs in Leraibeto
Southwark, and Shadwell were laid under water, an'oor
basements of water-side premises were inundated.
_.(O.
afternoon's tide was also unusually high, but not stir,
ciently so to occasion much damage. It was, howeverrcetv,
sidered prudent to construct dams and take other pre,,
tions to prevent damage, should another overflow °°!
This extraordinary rise in the tide at new moon oprieP ire
to be attributed to the north-easterly gales, which b:to
driven immense bodies of water from the North SO
the estuary of the Thames.
COST OF LIVING IN ENGLAND.—The follow be
account of the value of labour and the prices oft
til
necessaries and luxuries of life in the early part of the '-ary,
century is from papers in the Record-office The Chi
cellor's salary was £2OO per annum. Speaker of the 0
bp
of Commons, £lOO. The king's chief carver had £5; „n,
chief surgeon 40 marks per annum ; librarian, £lO ; °7(l
bearer, £2O . , . . Minstrels were paid 6d a daY 0
the marshal of the minstrels, 4id a day, and 10 marks K'
annum. . . . Superior workmen, or freemasons, brie
layers, plumbers, joiners, had in the long months Gd a °a
raj,
in the short, 5d ; if on board wages, 4d and 3d. The °
nary agricultural labourer was paid from Easter to Michtl
mas 4d without meat and drink, and 2d with, and the other
part of the year lid with his board. . . The yearly
o
cl,,thing of a chief shepherd is valued at 55., of a Weetoe
servant, 4s, and the same for a woman or child. . • 'A.
price of gunpowder was 32d or 4d per lb; saltpetre, 4d.
ro
hand gun cost Os ; a great copper gun with two chatehe,
£35 ; two iron guns, £25 6s Bd. . . The price of Pre
sions for the navy was estimated as follows : biscuits, 59 tvio
..
24 ;
100; beer, 6s 8d the pipe; dried cod, 38s 4d the 114,41
salt, 5d a bushel ; oatmeal, 10d and sew°, boa
a bushel; oil, 10d a gallon. In the navy the adraire.;oo,
lOs a day; captains and treasurer, 3s 6d; under caPt;
is 6d ; clerks, Bd, and some is ; master and pilot, ''4es,
month; master surgeon, 13s 4d a month ; quarterra;9o,
7s 6d; quartermaster gunner, 63 8d; soldiers and Met
58. Coats for the navy, 4s, jackets, 200.
atilt
SILK.—It is an interesting historical fact el.
although the rearing of silkworms and the nor
ling of the thread from them to be manufactured int°,..,lltro'
Iles of dress, was first practised by the Chinese, thecro to
duction of this branch of industry into Europe Was „Iva
Justinian, who in the year 550 first succeeded in
the eggs brought to Constantinople. Mulberry trees”to
planted and every attention bestowed on the rearing„ of
boen
insects, In a subsequent reign, we are informed by
c.
that such was the progress made, that China silk 10eacia
cessfully competed with by the new industry.sPte turf,
into Greece, it did not extend further till the 12th ceniiijog
s
when, on the sacking of Corinth and Athens by
_in
of Sicily, it was introduced into Italy, and from thence
th 4 latter part of the 15th century, the rearing of silkwite:Tos
was first prosecuted in the south of France. There_ardea
deemed of such imp rtance by Henry IV. that he rry_iik for
persons who had been engaged in the manfacture
12 years with patents of nobility, The value of silk .at
in Julius Ca3Aar's time was that of gold—a pouna.
a.
being worth the same weight of the precious metal,
tiniates labour was not in vain, as Europe has since !idol
its advantages, and it is now a remarkable, but fort the
economists a gratifying, fact that at the present teY,,roa,
district of Brousa occupies the foremost rank
we_ r
duction of this valuable filament.—Levant Bei
In the United Kingdom it is believed shad
many tia 30,000 perowi gWs