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line of boundary between two Anglo-Saxon estates, and, therefore, became a marked object. In the deed of conveyance of the estate in which this monument is mentioned, of a date some time previous to the Norman Conquest, it is called Welandes Smiththan, which means Weland's Smithy, or forge, so that its modern name, which is a mere slight corruption from the Anglo-Saxon one, dates itself from a very remote period. In the time of Lysons, to judge from his account of it, it was still known merely by the name of Wayland Smith, so that the further corruption into Wayland Smith's Cave appears to be of very recent date. It is also worthy of remark, that the Anglo-Saxon name appears to prove that in those early times the monument had been already uncovered of its earth, and was no longer recognised as a sepulchral monument, for the Anglo-Saxons would hardly have given the name of a forge, or smithy, to what they knew to be a tomb; so that we have reason for believing that many of our cromlechs and monuments of this description had already been uncovered of their mounds in Anglo-Saxon times. They were probably opened in search of treasure.

But, perhaps, the most curious circumstance of all connected with this monument is its legend. It has been the popular belief among the peasantry in modern times, that should it happen to a traveller passing this way that his horse cast a shoe, he had only to take the animal to the cave,' which they supposed to be inhabited by an invisible, to place a groat on the copestone, and to withdraw to a distance from which he could not see the operation, and on his return, after a short absence, he would find his horse properly shod, and the money taken away. To explain this, it is necessary only to state that, in the primitive Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic mythology, Weland was the mythic smith, the representative of the ancient Vulcan, the Greek Hephaistos. We have a singular proof, too, of the extreme antiquity of the Berkshire story, in a Grecian popular legend which has been preserved by the Greek scholiast on Apollonius Rhodius. We are told that one of the localities which Hephaistos, or Vulcan, especially haunted was the Vulcanian islands, near Sicily; and the scholiast tells us, that it was formerly said that, whoever chose to carry there a piece of

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unwrought iron, and at the same time deposit the value of the labour, would, on presenting himself there on the following morning, find it made into a sword, or whatever other object he had desired.' We have here, at this very remote period, precisely the same legend, and connected with the representative of the same mythic character, as that of the Berkshire cromlech; and we have a right, therefore, to assume that the same legend had existed in connection with the same character, at that far-distant period before the first separation of the different branches of the Teutonic family, and when Weland, and Hephaistos, and Vulcan were

oné.

All our readers know how skilfully our great northern bard, Sir Walter Scott, introduced the Berkshire legend of Wayland Smith into the romance of Kenilworth, and he has thus given a celebrity to the monument which it would never otherwise have enjoyed. Yet, although in his story the mythic character of Wayland Smith is lost, and he stands before us a rather commonplace piece of humanity, yet every reader must feel interested in knowing something of the real character of the personage, whose name is famous through all medieval poetry in the west, and who held a prominent place in the heathen mythology of our early Saxon forefathers. His story is given in the Eddas.

Weland, as we have said, was the Vulcan of the Teutonic mythology. He was the youngest of the three sons of Wade, the alf, or demi-god; and when a child, his father intrusted him to the dwarfs in the interior of the mountains, who lived among the metals, that they might instruct him in their wonderful skill in forging, and in making weapons and jewellery, so that, under their teaching, the youth became a wonderful smith. The scene of this legend is placed by the Edda in Iceland, where the three brothers, like all Scandinavian heroes, passed much of their time in hunting, in which they pursued the game on skates. In the course of these expeditions, they settled for a while in Ulfdal, where, one morning, finding on the banks of a lake three Valkyrier, or nymphs, with their elf-garments beside them, they seized and took them for their wives, and lived with them eight years, at the end of which period the Valkyrier became tired of their domestic life, and flew away during the absence of their husbands. When the three brothers returned, two of them set off in search of their fugitive spouses; but Weland remained patiently at home, working in his forge to make gold rings, which he strung upon a willowwand, to keep them till the expected return of his wife. There lived at this time a king of Sweden, named Niduth, who had two sons, and a daughter named Baudvild, or, in the Anglo-Saxon form of the name, Beadohild. The possession of a skilful smith, and the consequent command of his labour, was looked upon as a great prize; and when Niduth heard that Weland was in Ulfdal, he set off, with a strong body of his armed followers, to seek him. They arrived at his hut while he was away hunting, and, entering it, examined his rings, and the king took one of them as a gift for his daughter, Baudvild. Weland returned at night, and made a fire in his hut to roast a piece of bear's flesh for his supper; and when the flames arose, they gave light to the chamber, and Weland's eyes fell on his rings,

WAYLAND SMITH'S CAVE.

which he took down and counted, and thus found that one was missing. This circumstance was to him a cause of joy, for he supposed that his wife had returned and taken the ring, and he laid him down to slumber; but while he was asleep, King Niduth and his men returned, and bound him, and carried him away to the king's palace in Sweden. At the suggestion of the queen, they hamstringed him, that he might not be able to escape, and placed him in a forge in a small island, where he was compelled to work for the king, and where anybody but the latter was forbidden to go under severe penalties. Weland brooded over his revenge, and accident offered him the first opportunity of indulging it. The greediness of the king's two sons had been excited by the reported wealth of Weland's forge, and they paid a secret visit to it, and were astonished at the treasures which the wily smith presented to their view. He promised that they should have them all, if they would come to him in the utmost secrecy early next morning; but when they arrived, he suddenly closed the door, cut off their heads, and buried their bodies in the marshy ground on which the forge was built. He made of the skulls, plated with silver, drinkingcups for the king's table; of their eyes, gems for the queen; and of their teeth, a collar of pearls, which he sent as a present to the princess. The latter was encouraged to seek Weland's assistance to mend her ring, which had been accidentally broken; and, to conceal the accident from her father, she went secretly to the forge, where the smith completed his vengeance by offering violence to her person, and sent her away dishonoured. While he had been meditating vengeance, Weland had also been preparing the means of escape, and now, having fitted on a pair of wings of his own construction, he took flight from his forge. He halted for a moment on the wall of the enclosure of the palace, where he called for the king and queen, told them all the circumstances of the murder of their sons and the dishonour of their daughter, and then continued his flight, and was heard of no more. The Princess Baudvild, in due time, gave birth to a daughter, who also was a celebrated hero of the early German mythology. It will be remarked, that the lameness of Weland is accounted for in a different manner from that of Vulcan in the more refined mythology of the classical ages.

As the various branches of the Teutonic race spread towards the west, they carried with them their common legends, but soon located them in the countries in which they settled, and after a few generations they became established as local legends. Thus, among the Scandinavians, the scene of Weland's adventures was laid in Iceland and Sweden; while among the earlier Teutons, it appears to have been fixed in some part of Germany; and the Anglo-Saxons, no doubt, placed it in England. We have found the name, and one of the legends connected with it, fixed in a remote corner of Berkshire, where they have been preserved long after their original import was forgotten. It is one of the most curious examples of the great durability of popular legends of all kinds. We know that the whole legend of Weland the smith was perfectly well known to the Anglo-Saxons to a late period of their monarchy.

THE AUTHOR OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN?

THE AUTHOR OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN.'

JULY 18.

Who is there that has not, in his youth, enjoyed The Surprising Travels and Adventures of Baron Munchausen, in Russia, the Caspian Sea, Iceland, Turkey, &c., a slim volume-all too short, indeedillustrated by a formidable portrait of the baron in front, with his broad-sword laid over his shoulder, and several deep gashes on his manly countenance? I presume they must be few.

This book appears to have been first published, in a restricted form, by one Kearsley, a bookseller in Fleet Street, in 1786; a few years afterwards, it was reprinted, with a considerable addition of palpably inferior matter, by H. D. Symonds of Paternoster Row. The author's name was not given, and it has, till a very recent date, remained little or not at all known. There can hardly be a more curious piece of neglected biography.

The author of the baron's wonderful adventures is now ascertained to have been Rodolph Eric Raspe, a learned and scientific German, who died in the latter part of 1794 at Mucross, in the south of Ireland, while conducting some mining operations there. Much there was of both good and ill about poor Raspe. Let us not press matters too hard against one who has been able to contribute so much to the enjoyment of his fellow-creatures. But, yet, let the truth be told. Be it known, then, that this ingenious man, who was born at Hanover in 1737, commenced life in the service of the landgrave of Hesse Cassel as professor of archæology, inspector of the public cabinet of medals, keeper of the national library, and a councillor, but disgraced himself by putting some of the valuables intrusted to him in pawn, to raise money for some temporary necessities. He disappeared, and was advertised for by the police as the Councillor Raspe, a man with red hair, who usually appeared in a scarlet dress embroidered with gold, but sometimes in black, blue, or gray clothes.* He was arrested at Clausthal, but escaped during the night, and made his way to England, where he chiefly resided for the remainder of his days.

It will be heard with pain, that before this lamentable downbreak in life, Raspe had manifested decided talents in the investigation of questions in geology and mineralogy. He published at Leipsic, in 1763, a curious volume in Latin, on the formation of volcanic islands, and the nature of petrified bodies. In 1769, there was read at the Royal Society in London, a Latin paper of his, on the teeth of elephantine and other animals found in North America, and it is surprising at what rational and just conclusions he had arrived. Raspe had detected the specific peculiarities, distinguishing these teeth from those of the living elephant, and saw no reason for disbelieving that some large kinds of elephants might formerly live in cold climates; being exactly the views long after generally adopted on this subject. The exact time of the flight to England is not known; but in 1776, he is found publishing in London a volume on Some German Volcanoes and their Productions-necessarily extinct volcanoes thus again shewing his early apprehension of facts then little if at all understood, though now familiar.

Biographie Universelle.

? THE AUTHOR OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN. And in the ensuing year, he gave forth a translation of the Baron Born's Travels in Tameswar, Transylvania, and Hungary-a mineralogical work of high reputation. In 1780, Horace Walpole speaks of him as 'a Dutch savant,' who has come over here, and who was preparing to publish two old manuscripts in infernal Latin,' on oil-painting, which proved Walpole's own idea that the use of oil-colours was known before the days of Van Eyck. He is poor,' says the virtuoso of Strawberry Hill; the natural sequel to which statement is another three months later: 'Poor Raspe is arrested by his tailor.' 'I have sent him a little money,' adds Walpole, and he hopes to recover his liberty; but I question whether he will be able to struggle on here. By Walpole's patronage, the book was actually published in April 1781.

In this year, Raspe announced a design of travelling in Egypt, to collect its antiquities; but while the scheme was pending, he obtained employment in certain mines in Cornwall. He was residing as 'storemaster' at Dalcoath Mines, in that district, when he wrote and published his Travels of Baron Munchausen.† Previously to this time, his delinquency at Cassel having become known, the Royal Society erased his name from their honorary list; and he threatened, in revenge, to print in the form of their Philosophical Transactions the Unphilosophical Transactions of the English savans, with their characters. This matter

seems to have blown over.

And now we have to introduce our hero in a new connection with English literature. The facts are fully known to us, and there can be no harm in stating them. Be it understood, then, that Raspe paid a visit to Scotland in the summer and autumn of 1789, for the professed purpose of searching in various districts for minerals. It was announced in the Scots Magazine for October, that he had discovered copper, lead, iron, cobalt, manganese, &c.; that the marble of Tiree, the iron of Glengarry, and the lead on the Breadalbane property were all likely to turn out extremely well. From Sutherland he had brought specimens of the finest clay; there was 'every symptom of coal,' and a fine vein of heavy spar had been discovered. He had now begun his survey of Caithness. From another source we learn that a white saline marble in Icolmkill had received his attention. As to Caithness, here lay probably the loadstone that had brought him into Scotland, in the person of Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster, a most benevolent gentleman, who, during a long life, was continually engaged in useful projects, chiefly designed for the public benefit, and of novel kinds. With him Raspe took up his abode for a considerable time, at his spray-beaten castle on the Pentland Firth; and members of the family still speak of their father's unfailing appreciation of the infinite intelligence and facetiousness of his visitor's conversation. Sir John had, some years before, discovered a small vein of yellow mundick on the moor of Skinnet, four miles from Thurso. The Cornish miners he consulted told him that the mundick was itself of no value, but a good sign of other valuable minerals not far off.

* See Index to Walpole's Correspondence. + Gentleman's Magazine, Nov. 1856. Walker's Econ. Hist. of Hebrides, ii, 379.

In

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their peculiar jargon, 'white mundick was a good horseman, and always rode on a good load.'* Sir John now employed Raspe to examine the ground, not designing to mine it himself, but to let it to others if it should turn out favourably. For a time, this investigation gave the proprietor very good hopes. Masses of a bright heavy mineral were brought to Thurso Castle, as foretastes of what was coming. But, in time the bubble burst, and it was fully concluded by Sir John Sinclair, that the ores which appeared were all brought from Cornwall, and planted in the places where they were found. Miss Catherine Sinclair has often heard her father relate the story, but never with the slightest trace of bitterness. On the contrary, both he and Lady Sinclair always said, that the little loss they made on the occasion was amply compensated by the amusement which the mineralogist had given them, while a guest in their house.

Such was the author of Baron Munchausen, a man of great natural penetration and attainments, possessed of lively general faculties, and well fitted for a prominent position in life. Wanting, however, the crowning grace of probity, he never quite got his head above water, and died in poverty and obscurity. It will be observed that, in his mining operations in Caithness, he answers to the character of Dousterswivel in the Antiquary; and there is every reason to believe that he gave Scott the idea of that character, albeit the baronet of Ulbster did not prove to be so extremely imposed upon as Sir Arthur Wardour, or in any other respect a prototype of that ideal personage. Of all Raspe's acknowledged works, learned, ingenious, and farseeing, not one is now remembered, and his literary fame must rest with what he probably regarded I as a mere jeu d'esprit. It may be remarked

that a translation of the Baron into German was published by the ingenious Bürger in 1787. This was very proper, for most of the marvels were of German origin. Some of those connected with hunting are to be found, 'in a dull prosy form, in Henry Bebel's Facetic, printed in Strasburg in 1508; others of the tales are borrowed from Castiglioni's Cortegians, and other known sources.'†

JULY 19.

St Macrina, virgin, 379. St Arsenius, anchoret, 449. St Symmachus, pope and confessor, 514. St Vincent de Paul, founder of the Lazarites, confessor, 1660.

Born.-Conrad Vorstius, or Vorst, celebrated German divine, 1569, Cologne; Gilbert Sheldon, archbishop of Canterbury, erecter of the Sheldon theatre at Oxford, 1598, Staunton, Staffordshire; John Martin, celebrated painter, 1789, Haydon Bridge, Northumberland.

Died.-Dr John Caius, physician and author, founder of Caius College, Cambridge, 1573, Cambridge; William Somerville, author of The Chase, 1742, Edstone, Warwickshire; Nathaniel Hooke, author of the Roman History, 1764, Hedsor; Captain Matthew Flinders, Australian explorer, 1814; Professor John Playfair, writings in natural philosophy, geology, &c., 1819, Edinburgh; Iturbide, Mexican leader, shot at Padillo, 1824.

*Stat. Account of Scotland, xx. 538.

+F. N., in Gentleman's Magazine, Nov. 1856.

BATTLE OF HALIDON HILL.

BATTLE OF HALIDON HILL. July 19, 1333, is the date of a remarkable battle between the Scots and English at Halidon Hill. Stowe's account of the conflict is picturesque and interesting, though not in every particular to be depended on. The youthful Edward III. had laid siege to Berwick; and a large Scottish army, animated, doubtless, by recollections of Bannockburn, came to relieve the town. 'At length,' says Stowe, 'the two armies appointed to fight, and setting out upon Halidon Hill [near Berwick], there cometh forth of the Scots camp a certain stout champion of great stature, who, for a fact by him done, was called Turnbull. He, standing in the midst between the two armies, challenged all the Englishmen, any one, to fight with him a combat. At length Robert Venale, knight, a Norfolk-man, requesting licence of the king, being armed, with his sword drawn, marcheth toward the champion, meeting by the way a certain black mastiff dog, which waited on the champion, whom with his sword he suddenly strake, and cut him off at his loins; at the sight whereof the master of the dog slain was much abashed, and in his battle more wary and fearful; whose left hand and head also afterward this worthy knight cut off. After this combat both the armies met, but they fighting scarce half an hour, certain of the Scots being slain, they closed their army (which was in three) all in one battle; but at length flying, the king followed them, taking and chasing them into lakes and pits for the space of five miles.' The honest chronicler sets down the loss of the Scots infantry on this occasion at 35,000, besides 1300 horsemen, being more than ten times the loss of the British at Waterloo. Such exaggerations are common among the old chroniclers, and historians generally, before the days of statistics. More probably, the slain on the side of the vanquished did not exceed two thousand. It will be heard with some surprise, that there is preserved a song, in the English language, written at the time upon this victory of King Edward. It appears as one of a series, composed upon the king's wars, by one Lawrence Minot, of whom nothing else is known.* It opens with a strain of exultation over the fallen pride of the Scots, and then proceeds to a kind of recital of facts

'A little fro that foresaid town [Berwick],
Halidon Hill, that is the name,
There was cracked many a crown

Of wild Scots,t and als of tame.
There was their banner borne all down,
To mak sic boast they war' to blame;
But, nevertheless, ay are they boune
To wait England with sorrow and shame.

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JULY 19.

With dole are dight that they must dwell.'

The bard then changes to another strain, in which he joyfully proclaims how King Edward had revenged Bannockburn:

'Scots out of Berwick and of Aberdeen,
At the Bannockburn war ye too keen;
There slew ye many saikless, as it was seen,
And now has King Edward wroken it, I ween:
It is wroken, I ween, weel worth the while,
War it with the Scots, for they are full of guile.

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LETTER FRANKING.

for the small sum of twenty baiocchi a day, out of which they manage to save in order to carry home a little treasure. The Roman Campagna is by no means an uncultivated desert; the greater part is ploughed, and produces wheat, but, on account of miasma, it is uninhabited and uninhabitable, and the cultivators of the ground are obliged to come from great distances. On Sunday, the priests attend and perform mass for the reapers in a kind of movable church drawn by oxen, and provided with all the necessary apparatus for the celebration of the service. Mass in the Campagna is a very picturesque scene: strong brawny men in their shirt-sleeves and short trousers; women in the satin dress which was the one worn at their marriage, and is used for the Sunday costume ever after; children of every age, from the nursling playing on its mother's breast or peacefully sleeping in the cradle; hunters, who sometimes join the assembly with their dogs; the priest officiating in the wooden chapel suspended between the twowheeled wagon; still further, the tents supported by two poles; the horses tranquilly grazing; the harnessed oxen, which will soon carry away the nomade edifice to another spot; the beautiful blue hills which surround the verdant, golden landscape; the burning sun shedding torrents of light and fire over all nature; the deep silence, scarcely interrupted by the words of the priest, the prayers of the crowd, the neighing of the horses, or the humming of insects-all unite to form a scene interesting both in a physical and moral sense.

When the reaping is over, then comes the operation of thrashing, which they call la trita. For this purpose, they prepare a level thrashingfloor on which to spread the sheaves; fasten together six horses, and make them tread over the straw until the grain has all fallen out. When finished, they rake up the straw, stack it, and pile up the grain into heaps, on the top of which they place a cross.

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LETTER FRANKING.

Long before the legal settlements of the postoffice in the seventeenth century, the establishment of the post was kept up at the instance of the reigning sovereign for his special service and behoof. Under the Stuarts, the postal resources of the kingdom were greatly developed, and all classes were made to share alike in the benefits of the post. Cromwell made many improvements in the post-office, though the reasons which he assigned for so doing, 'that they will be the best means to discover and prevent many dangerous and wicked designs against the commonwealth,' are open to exception and censure, viewed as we view postoffice espionage at this date. In the reign of the second Charles, the post-office for the first time became the subject of parliamentary enactments, and it was at this time that the franking privilege, hitherto enjoyed by the sovereign and the executive alone, was extended to parliament. A committee of the House of Commons, in the year 1735, reported that the privilege of franking letters by the knights, &c., chosen to represent the Commons in parliament, began with the creating of a postoffice in the kingdom by act of parliament.' bill here referred to was introduced into the House of Commons in 1660, and it contained a proviso

The

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