Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1888-08-12
TIGu-PRICED CURlOS.
london Telegraph

HfG IL fEItED "a hAOSs
london Telegraph
Archaeology offers some analogy to a
stately MEDIEVAL banquet, at which APP
peared not only "porDus" and "stur-
geon ryall, "ogret and "cygnet rost, "
"yenyson iImmen,e, -" canyon dc hault
greece, ""p igge farced, aud peacock
in his pryde, but also divers pretty tiny
kicksbaws and ingenious "sottilities, "
such as "blaunche mango" "appii-
nose" "creme in purpull. "iiam-
payne" and "Leshe LOmbarde When
the guests had filled themselves with
meats which, to their thinking, were
no doubt highly delicious, but which
the majority Of modern epicures would
be inclined t. think intolerably nasty,
they dallied with the minor yiands aud
the sweets, which they deemed all the
more succulent Tor being seasoned with
cannelle" and nightingale, " rosewater,
taiiron, verjnice, honey and assafGtlda.
So il il with study Of the rohcs of an
tiquty, such rs has feen most inStruc-
lively illustrated IL the recent sale OF
the LondesborOugh collection Of arms
and armor. The austerer students bid
high for the acquisition OF cap-a-pie
suits, morions, and shields, exc
cunoners' swords, and curtal-axes
but when these "pieces dc re-
sisiance" had been disposed OF there re-
NAMED plenty OF entertainment IN the
wav Of odds and ends, entremets and
TRIES, once unconsidered, perhaps, Int
now held Justly valuable in consequence
OF their beauty or their rarity. Of this
description were the old iyory-frGmed
amputat.ng-saw, which might have been
used by AMBROSE Pare ; tue triangular
metal begging-box the carved FOOLS
bauble from Cardinal IOrks collection,
which, by the way. fetched 100 guineas,
more than double the sum paid for Louis
XII. S "main de justice" or ivory scep-
tire and the ivory tenure-hoTn OF the
Forest of Dean. Perhaps, however, the
most interesting OF the smaller
"curios brou. Int to DC hammer at
the memorable fale just mentioned was
the famous magic spectrum OF DIR. Dee,
who Is somewhat unJustly described as
1.-the notorious charlatan ana coniurer
Of the time OF Queen Elizabeth. but
who was a great deal more than q
charlatan or a cOuiurer, being indeed,
mathematician OF huge learning and
profoundly yeTsed in the aDstruse II nse-
less science Of astroiOgy. This speca-
lum has been known through the ages rs
DIR. Does Black Stone" IN reality
it is only a piece of cannel-cOal hewn
into . circle, with 2 kind of handle at
one extremity, with u hole by which
to attach 1t by string or on
peg. it is fixed IN round leather-case
with a label on the back in the hand
writing of Horace Walpole. and signed
with his initials, setting forth that the
Black Stone was the one into which
Or. Dee used TO summon his spirits,
and that tho speculum Was cited
in the catalogue of the collection
OF the Earls of Peterborough. from
whom it passed TO Lady Betty Germaine.
1t 10 not every relic Of the bygone art
OF magic that has so fnll a pedigree rs
this piece of coal. From the Lady Betty
the spectrum Was transferred to john,
the great Duke of Argyll aud Green
wich, whose sou, Lord Frederick Camp
bell, presented it to Horace Walpoie
At the Strawberry Hill sale it was sold
for twelve guineas TO the Lord Of Brock
lev Hall. Somerset, at whose sale in
1853 il WIS bought 10y Lord Londes
borough, and at It's latest appearance at
Christies this veritable "biack dia-
mond was knocked down for tie COM
paratively amazing sum OF seventy gui-
meas, the purchaser being, 1t IS stated,
IA well-kuown arch@ologist in the west
of England.
10 be in perfect accordance with the
fitness of things, the "Black Stone"
should have been bought by an arch@o-
logist in the Northwest of England, and
by a Lancashire man, for Dr.
John Dee. although he was born III Lon
don and died at Mortlake, III Surrey,
was in the latter part OF his long and
mysterious life closely associated with |
the city Of Manchester. Ia 1895. being |
then IS years OF age, he WAS installed |
with great solemnitv Warden of the Col |
legiate church, Manchester, bat he had |
frequent quarrels with the fellows Of
the college, ana In 1904 quilted the |
town in dudgoon, although he /
held his preferment until bis death IN
1908, when he past away, at the advanced |
age of elghty-one, at Mortlake, as afore- 4
said, aud in extreme poverty. The cause
of the indulgence ia which his late years
were passed has never been asceftained,
for at one period he enjoyed great opu- (
lenee, aud formed a magnificent libra /
nv and an almost unique cabinet OF I
curiosities. He was not only astrologer .
in ordinary to Queen Bess, but had /
served in the same occult capacity the (
Emperor Rudolf III. and Stephen, King .
Of Hungary. His learning appears to have .
been prodigious; but, like many of the
men OF science of his time, he strayed .
into the tangled paths OF Judicial
astrology and futile research OF the phi
losophers stone, from which quest bis
to imagined intercourse Win
the world of spirits was easily compre-
lensible. This supposed intercourse he
has chronicled III a ponderous folio vol
lime. published fifty years after his death
~ Meric Casau5on. DR.. Dee's diary has
been printed by the Camden Society,
bat rather inaecurately, and the portions
relating TO Manchester have recently
oeen carefully re-edited, while bis auto
tracts have been repnb-
ished by tho Cheetham Society. Dee
Vas somewhat OF an obscure writer, but
lis works do not bear any traces of
downright madness, still less do
hey exhibit evidence of wilful i'm
posture. He was certainly not so arrant
charlstan as Csrdsn. who declared that
lis father had ccnjured up seven devils in
ireek apparel, about forty years Of age,
ONE ruddy of complexion and some pale,
ybo, being Intercepted, said that they
we're aerial devils, that they lived and
lied as men did, only they were longer
ived, their span OF existence ranging.
rom seven hundred to eipht hundred !