The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1843-08-08 00:00:00

CHAPTER IV

ACCOUTREMENTS CONTINUED.—CAP A PIED
Coat, Pantaloons, Knapsack, Hat, Stick, and Gloves
41. Most men are accustomed to wear a frock coat,
and beyond all question it is the neatest and hest style of
coat, and therefore, though we shall take occasion to sug-
gest another kind as presenting on the whole more advan-
tages for the traveller, yet we do not mean to say any-
thing against the frock coat as such. Colonel Shaw re-
commends it : " For a coat nothing is so good as a sur-
tout, made of the finest cloth ; it should button up close
to the neck to avoid cold." This requires, however,
from its limited accommodation in the pocket way, the
use of a knapsack for stowing away your linen and gene-
ral travelling baggage in case you are going to exceed
a couple or three days. What we are going to recom-
mend will carry three days change, &c., without encum-
bering you in your tour. We mean the adoption of a
42. Velveteen Shooting Jacket as being capitally
suited for walking in—fine or wet, windy or frosty.
There are many kinds of material now introduced, such
as the plaids and similar manufactures, any of which
will keep you warm enough in winter, or in summer as
cool as can be accomplished consistently with anything
like provision against showers of rain, and windy wea-
ther. The velveteen is the most durable for wear—
there is no end in fact to such a jacket—the colour va-
ries —the lighter colours have the advantage of freedom
from smell—which particularly when wet the black dye
is always irremovably subject to. On the whole we are
inclined to think the plaided jackets the best, all reasons
considered. You don't get so soon chilled by wind or wet
in this woollen as you do in the cotton (velveteen) mix-
ture. This remark of course does not apply to any such
luxurious dress, as velvet itself which is silk, and no
doubt unexceptionable save on the score of expense—to
which some don't hesitate to go. It would he foreign to
the direct object of this little treatise were we to digress
into the various scientific reasons for every suggestion.
Most of readers know that the fact of an article being a
conductor or non-conductor of caloric and electricity regu-
lates the choice of its use in the variations of climate—
the object being generally to keep in the animal heat by
winter's clothing, and to keep out the heat which is ex-
ternal to the body in summer : the body neither relishing
an external absence of heat, (cold) which deprives it too
rapidly of its own by conducting away its caloric—nor an
external presence of heat, which is so great as to equal,
or ever so little exceed the temperature of its own blood
—that heat being oppressive to people in general which
approaches blood heat. Woollen garments fulfil the
greatest number of these desiderata for the body's self
defence. They do not chill the body, though they may
become moist—they retain air in their interstices, and
do not condense moisture.
43. Waterproof dresses have called forth considerable
attention latterly, from the elaborate eulogies of various
interested patentees, and their frequently-trumped up
authentications as to their waterproof qualities. We
do not mean to deny that such may be more or less the
case, but we do assert that a great oversight has occurred
on the part of both patentees, experimenters and the
public, regarding the point, or points rather, to be kept
in view. It is just because these articles, as Indian rub-
ber, oil, silk, chemically-prepared cloth, &c., are ren-
dered impermeable that they are on this very account in-
jurious in their use to the health of the body. We must
explain this, by going on to state, that the impermeabi-
lity to external wet is not at all required in a dress, but
also a transpirability of insensible perspiration from
within, which requires to be kept in view—both which
conditions it will probably never be practicable to accom-
plish thoroughly, as the article must acquire the nature
of a (safety) valve, permitting escape of vapour from
within—refusing the entrance of water from without. If
any one has possession of such an inestimable coat, let
him enjoy it ; until he does get such, let him take our
word for it, that mere waterproof garments are prejudi-
cial for any length of wear ; they may do for a short
time, as during a passing shower, but not for a long walk
in a settled rain—the perspiration freely generated,
though in an insensible form in its nascent state, under
strong exercise, is retained by the waterproof clothing,
and being thereupon condensed, not only actually com-
municates a chill to the body, from the water so con-
densed inside the waterproof', but moreover presents a
source of danger to the constitution, from the fact of this
condensed perspiration being a real and energetic virus,
the poisonous nature of which, in developing the worst
types of fever, has long been known to the medical pro
fession as so subtle an agent that, though refractory as yet
to the tests of the chemist, it is yet so active as to be de-
tected by our nervous system in the short space of a few
hours—whose precursory monitions of alarm at the self-
born foe most readers may have had more or less occasion
to observe, in their own personal experience of headache,
languor, faintness, &c. after a close-fastened waterproof
coat or cloak—compared with the evil results of which a
simple good wetting from the penetrating rain would be
an evil almost to be dignified with the name of good!
We have, after all, digressed perhaps a little but it
may be of service to have given this explanation for
those readers who have not access to other medical dis-
cussions of the subject. The remark has a general bear-
ing on the question of dress, and the reader can apply it
in many ways if he will take the trouble. It is for this
very reason that under garments especially should be
changed frequently, and washed, even if a few days they
may not appear sullied at all—viz. on account of retained
perspiration.
44. It is for the convenient arrangement of the pockets,
further, that the style of shooting-jacket is so good, for in
these wallet-like recesses you can stow away things suffi-
cient for two or three days' tour, without needing such a

but pleasingly, described, so that this part of the work
would form a useful guide to strangers visiting that splen-
did metropolis, which has few or no equals in Europe, if
we combine its architectural adornments, with the beau-
ties of its noble bay and its romantic environs. As a spe-
cimen of our authors powers. we extract thp fnllnwina

passage, almost at random :
" Carlisle Bridge, the most frequented passage between
the northern and southern sides of the city, forms the
limit of the navigation of the river,—vessels of consider-
able burthen being able to come close up to it at higb-
water. The panorama of the river, and the city which
encircles the spectator on this bridge, is unequalled in
grandeur and beauty, by the noblest prospects which
could be obtained from any single point in any other
European city. I remember, several years ago. having
been so struck with the splendid but solitary picture
which presented itself to me while standing on Carlisle
Bridge, soon after sunrise on a glorious summer morn-
ing, that I committed to paper at the time my impres-
sions of the scene. I have the pages containing them
now before me, from which I shall extract so much as
may be relevant to my present purpose. " Philosophers
and writers have, according to their temperament or ca-
price, selected for themselves different places for medita-
tion. Some have chosen to bury themselves in the deep
recesses of an ancient wood, where day's garish eye'
could scarcely penetrate the thick canopy of leaves which
overshadowed them : some have delighted to fling their
' listless length' beside a babbling stream, lulled by the
murmur of its gentle song : some have wandered, rapt in
fancy's dream, in the delicious wilderness of a flower-
garden ; some have mused by the wave-beaten shore, and
others in the deep seclusion of a cobwebbed library. But,
for my part, I know of no situation more calculated to
awaken feelings of deep awe, or to call up images of uni-
versal desolation, than the silent solitary streets of a great
city viewed through the purplish haze of an early sum-
mer's morning. Almost every person living in Dublin
has, at one time or another, experienced the solemn effect
produced on the mind while standing on Carlisle Bridge
at daybreak on a calm morning in June. How full of
strange beauty is the scene !—all is hushed and still as
death—not a sound disturbs nature's profound repose,
save at intervals the shrill bark of a watch-dog from the
decks of some of those numerous vessels lying below the
bridge, whose taper masts shoot like a forest of leafless
pines into the cloudless sky, which has already began to
assume the lady Aurora's livery. Far as the eye can
stretch on the other hand, the silent quays and bridges
reflect their shadowy outlines in the still waters that
sleep within their bosom ; or if a dimpling circle should
break the mirror-like surface of the tide, it is but caused
by the rapid wing of some hungry swallow pursuing his
insect prey. Behind us lies Westmorland-street, termi-
nated by the ancient walls of Trinity College, and the
noble Corinthian portico of the Bank of Ireland ; on the
opposite side of the river, Sackville-street extends its full
perspective of architectural beauty—uninterrupted, save
by the memorial of the brave Nelson, whose pillar seems
to have been dropped there in defiance of all the laws of
good taste. Let us walk up this beautiful street—we are
now opposite the Post-office, and who can say that the
republic of letters is declining, when they look upon that
magnificent pile? But allons ! for while we remain here
we are preventing the poor pigeons, who are fluttering
about the cornices and pillars of the portico, from seeking
for their early meal in the silent streets. Before us lies
the Rotunda, where revelry so often holds its court, while
meek-eyed charity' extends its hand to succour the chil-
dren of misery. Let us now turn round, and survey from
this eminence the splendid scene which lies before us :
the deserted streets, like the exhumated cities of Pompeii
and Herculaneum, seem but as the monuments of de-
parted splendour. Where is now the dark line of moving
forms that a few hours since thronged these footpaths ?
where the waving plumes and the glittering equipages?
where the merchant's busy face, and the proud beauty's
conquering glance ? All fled ! there is no form of life—
no vitality in the scene—and thus will the resistless scythe
of time sweep these streets of palaces, and the antiquary
Of future ages will seek in vain for some relics of those
noble works of art that we presumptuously hope may out-
live the great destroyer himself."

The New Statistical Account of Scotland. Blackwood
and Sons, Edinburgh.
We have received No. XLIV. of this excellent work, ;
which contains the county of Linlithgow complete, and
a further part of the county of Perth. Although the
principal object is to supply an accurate account of the
topography, natural and civil history, industry, parochial
economy, antiquities, &c. of the respective parishes, there
is (as we have before stated) a mass of interesting histori-
cal and descriptive matter occasionally introduced, which
relieves the book from that dryness which pertains to
mere statistics, however valuable, and renders it agreeable
to the general reader. The articles are all written by
men of talent and research, well acquainted with all the
peculiarities which they describe, and who, moreover,
have entered upon and accomplished their respective tasks
con amore. It is impossible to do justice to a work so
voluminous within the space that can be spared in a news-
paper, but as specimens of the style we submit the fol-
lowing extracts—the first relating to the ancient city of
Linlithgow, the birth-place of the beautiful but unfortu-
nate Mary, Queen of Scots, and of several distinguished
individuals, and also the scene of various meetings of the ,
Scottish Parliament, up to 1646
LINLITHGOW.—" Linlithgow is memorable as the
place where the remarkable apparition warned James IV.
against his expedition into England, which terminated in
the fatal field of Flodden. An aisle in the church, where
the King was, as Pitscottie says, verrie sad and dollo-
rous, makand his prayers to God to send him guid suc-
cess in his voyage,' is shown as the place where the scene
occurred. The probability is, that it was a device of the
Queen, then in the neighbouring palace, abetted by some
of the nobles, in order to dissuade James from an under-
taking to which she and many of the nobility were averse.
The unfortunate issue of the war corresponding with the
warning given, would, in that superstitious age, lead men
to regard the agent in this device as a messenger from
heaven. In the year 1526, the battle of Linlithgow
Bridge was fought between the faction of the Earl of
Angus, who had the possession of the person of James
V., then a minor, and the party which sought to deliver
the Prince from the influence of the Douglases. The
conflict began on the haugh of Manuel, but the main
conflict was close by the village of Linlithgow Budge,
which has given its name to the engagement. The Earl
of Lennox, the chief of the party opposed to Angus, was,
after being promised quarter, slain by Sir Jas. Hamilton.
The place of his interment was long known as Lennox's
Cairn. The Regent Murray was shot in the street of
Linlithgow by Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh. The house
from which the assassin took aim is still shown, though,
from the removal of the old front, which projected con-
siderably further out on the street thifn the present, it
must now present a very different appearance. Situated
in the most narrow part of the town, where the street is
not many feet wide, it presented a most favourable posi-
tion for the execution of the murder, as the Regent, on
horseback, was compelled to advance slowly, owing to
the multitude by which he was surrounded. Hamilton,
it is said, had the walls of the room hung with black
cloth, to prevent his shadow being seen ; and the tradi-
tion of the town is, that the neighbouring lane leading to
the back of the town, where his horse was stationed, was
choked with bushes and other substances, to retard pur-
suit."

The part of the number descriptive of Perthshire is very
interesting, particularly as relates to Scone, where many
of the Scottish monarchs were crowned, and where they
had a magnificent palace, now decayed. The account of
the coronation, at that place, of Charles 11., is curious.
The following will be read with interest, particularly as it
refers, at the conclusion, to the recent visit to Scone of
our gracious Queen :
SCONE PALACE.—" The present' Palace of Scone,' as
it is now generally called, was built about the beginning
of the present century, having been begun in 1803 and
finished 1808. The design was by the late William At-
kinson, of Grove-end, London, and the erection might
cost about £60,000 or £lO,OOO. The ground on which
the former house stood is occupied by this splendid man-
sion ; but in its imposing Gothic style of architecture,
and magnificent halls and spacious apartments, the mo-
dern palace is incomparably superior. The late Earl of
Mansfield, the grand-nephew of the Chief Justice, spared
no expense on this edifice. In most instances, the walls
of the former house were entirely taken down and re-
built. A new front, facing the river, 240 feet in length,
was an entire addition. The apartments were greatly
enlarged, with the exception of the gallery, which is now
150 feet long, part of it having been taken off for an en-
trance by a porch. It is a very elegant room. The floor
is of tesselated oak, the dark having been found in the
beds of the Tay and the Earn. On the windows, partly
of stained glass, are represented the various coats of arms
of the family. The roof still retains somewhat of an an-
tique form. It is splendidly furnished, having at the
upper end a large and richly-toned organ, and in different
parts of the room several very valuable cabinets, lately
purchased, of the age of Louis XIV. Among the orna-
ments are marble busts and vases of great beauty, both
as to material and workmanship. Almost the only por-
tions of the old walls not taken down, but merely incased,
are in that part of the house immediately under the di-
ning-room and the drawing-room. The dining-room,
music-room, and library, are elegant and spacious apart-
ments, containing, in the midst of many modern orna-
ments, some antique cabinets that had, been in the former
house. In these rooms there are several valuable paint-
ings, by Vandyke, Titian, Guido, Paul Veronese, Teniers,
&c. There is a Dutch Burgomaster' by Rembrandt,
and a portrait of Bassano by himself; a ' Denial of St.
Peter,' and a' Judith and Holofernes,' by two old mas-
ters. There are some excellent portraits by Sir Peter
Lely, exhibiting all the softness, beauty, and delicacy of
his style. Among the family portraits are those of the
first Earl of Mansfield, the second Earl, the late Earl,
the Countess Dowager, &c. As a modern room, the
drawing-room is the finest. It commands one of the
most magnificent views that can be found, from any point,
of the richest parts of Perthshire, and its interior is fitted
up with great elegance.
" There seems to have been an intention to combine,
with the splendour and comfort of the present age, some
remembrance of the simplicity of the past. The entrance,
for example, has an air of antiquity, having an ancient
knocker with the initials D. V. S. The door-way is sur-
mounted with the arms of Lord Mansfield in stone, and
the motto, Uni aoquus virtuti.' The house is partially
surrounded by terrace walls, and bastions, one of which
commands a very extensive view. There are several large
trees at a short distance, one of them an ash, said to have
ofV I
age.., a n d
nmanyOne
s ca so
mh amn
od n
yy cka
nmo owr
ne
tbreeeens planted
about 30130 y 'Tyears s
as Queen Mary's tree. The ground slopesgradually to
the Tay, which flows within about 600 yards of the palace.
The house may be approached either through an ancient
gateway on the east, or by the modern terrace-gate on the
south, to which there isa drive entering the park at the
distance of about a mile from Perth. This new drive
passes over a bridge which crosses a ravine at :no great
distance from the terrace gate. The gardens 11 to the
south-east of the palace. At the recent v