have seen some grains and seeds taken out of the sepulchres, which were so far from being injured by being kept for three thousand years, that they still retained their germinating power, and we have actually seen a plant grown from one of them.

It was Joseph's policy to make the sovereign lord of the soil of Egypt, with the single exception of the land belonging to the priests. Hence the rental of Egypt was identical with its taxation; the sum paid for the support of the government being twenty per cent, or one-fifth of the entire produce. The existence of this singular system is confirmed by the monuments, for we find a superintending secretary present at the winnowing and measuring of the corn, as was shown in an earlier part of this series.

Both Jacob and Joseph were embalmed after their death, the body of the former was immediately removed to the land of Canaan, but Joseph's remains were not borne to the sepulchre of his fathers, until the Israelites entered the land of Canaan, after their departure from Egypt and wanderings in the desert. It is unnecessary to dwell upon the care with which the Egyptians preserved their dead; the mummies are too well known to require description. There are, however, one or two circumstances mentioned in the Scripture narrative which require a few brief observations. When the Israelites had brought Jacob's body over the river Jordan, they made a halt for seven days to indulge their sorrow," and when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians; wherefore the name of it was called Abel-mizraim, (sorrow of the Egyptians,) which is beyond Jordan." (Gen. L. 11.) In confirmation of this narrative, we find that no nation, ancient or modern, carried their lamentations for the dead to such an extravagant length as the Egyptians. We see the mourners at funerals depicted on the monuments rending their garments, casting dust upon their heads, beating their breasts, and using gestures that seem to belong to almost hopeless despair. Historians assure us, that during the period of mourning, which varied with the rank of the deceased, the relatives and dependents abstained from the use of meat and wine, neglected their persons, and went about singing plaintive songs in honour of the departed. The Israelites adopted this custom, and it was retained by the Jews for many centuries after it had been disused in Egypt. But such a practice was looked upon as unmanly by warlike and nomade races, and hence arose the surprise of the Canaanites, who regarded such grief as so great a novelty, that they perpetuated its memory by giving a new name to the place in which it occurred.

It is particularly mentioned that Joseph" was put in a coffin;" among the Egyptians, coffins were used only in the burial of people of distinction; but when they were used, great care was taken in ornamenting and decorating them. The wood from which they were formed is of so lasting a nature, that some of those Egyptian coffins now to be seen in the British Museum, and other collections of antiquities, seem as fresh as if they had just come from the hand of the maker. Hence we see, that there was no very great difficulty in the children of Israel bearing with them the body of Joseph at the time of the Exodus, and carrying it about with them during their wanderings in the desert. It was not until the conquest of Canaan was completed, indeed, that the body of the patriarch was committed to its final resting place; for we read in the book of Joshua, "And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of

ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem, for an hundred pieces of silver; and it became the inheritance of the sons of Joseph." (Josh. xxiv. 32.)

We have now gone minutely through the entire history of Joseph and his family, and have shown how fully every particular is confirmed by existing testimony, brought to light within our own day. We have next to investigate the history of the Israelites under altered circumstances, when "another king arose who knew not Joseph."

HISTORY OF WRITING MATERIALS. THERE are few subjects capable of affording more interesting details than the history of the origin, progress, manufacture, and use of those articles or substances with which we are most familiar; and yet it happens that these are precisely the very subjects about which least is known. Whether the old adage that "too much familiarity breeds contempt," applies to a contempt for the knowledge of things familiar to us, we know not; but we certainly cannot understand the feeling which seeks for information respecting objects new and strange, and disdains to inquire into the many curious properties and useful facts concerning familiar things. The very circumstance of familiarity and utility ought, we think, to afford an additional reason for acquiring information concerning such articles. We propose, therefore, to lay before our readers the history of those familiar and useful articles-Writing Materials. Having already introduced cursory notices concerning some of them, more especially those of the ancients, our chief business will now be with those of the moderns.

I. THE HISTORY OF A QUILL PEN.

Ir has been said, quaintly enough, that he who first introduced the use of goose-quills for pens, borrowed from the emblem of folly the instruments of wisdom. Without discussing the justice or injustice of this satire upon a poor goose, we cannot deny that quill pens have been the messengers of vast benefit to mankind, insomuch that it has been sarcastically remarked, that "had the ancients been acquainted with the art of employing quills as a material for pens, they would, probably, have dedicated to Minerva, -not the owl, but the goose." But some men have made the mistake of honouring the pen as the cause, instead of the mere instrument, of good. Thus, we have been told of one writer who had the pen with which he wrote one of his works, framed and glazed, and hung up over his mantel-piece; another pen was put into a golden casket by the over-zealous admirer of a celebrated writer; and no doubt it was with a feeling of much complacency and self-satisfaction that Holland, a physician of Coventry, who translated Pliny's Natural History into English, wrote the following lines:

:

With one sole pen I wrote this book,
Made of a gray goose quill.
A pen it was when it I took-
A pen I leave it still.

It appears from the best testimony, that the mode of writing in the earliest times was not by the use of a fluid like ink, but by marking with a blunt point on tablets covered with a surface of wax; but when the Egyptian papyrus was devised, and a coloured liquid found, which could be used as ink, a new mode of procedure was devised, more likely to leave permanent traces of the writing. The instrument em ployed was a reed, the nature of which is not precisely

ascertained. Massey, in his Treatise on the Origin of Letters, mentions the use of reeds for writing among the Turks, Moors, and the oriental nations generally. The same author remarks, that whenever the word pen occurs in our English translation of the Old and New Testament, we must not understand it to mean a quill pen, but as an iron style or a reed, both of which the early nations used: the former was sharp at one end, like a pointed needle, and at the other end broad and blunt, to rub or scratch out what the writer wished to be erased.

Styles were much used among the Romans, they were made of different metals, also of ivory or bone. Wooden styles, or skewers, were found in the ink- horns at Herculaneum. The common material of styles was, however, iron; for we find that, as the Romans were not allowed to wear arms in the city, - they often, in a fit of wrath, wounded each other with the writing-style, which they carried about them; hence the origin of the Italian stiletto. Respecting the reeds which were substituted for the blunt style and wax tablet, they are described as having been small, hard, round canes, about the size of a large swan's quill, and fashioned into shape much as we now do our quills. The supply of them used to be obtained chiefly from Egypt, Cairo, in Asia Minor, and Armenia. Chardin and Tournefort have described in their travels a sort of reed employed for I this purpose, which grows in Persia, and which they considered as the best, at that time. These reeds are not originally hollow, but contain a pith, which, however, afterwards dries up in a manner similar to the membranous film in the barrels of our modern quills. These reeds are collected in some places bordering on the Persian Gulf, whence they are sent to every part of the East. They are said to be deposited for some months after they are cut, under a dunghill, when they assume a mixed black and yellow colour, acquire a fine polish and a considerable degree of hardness; this latter quality, however, is rendered of less value, by the circumstance that it is accompanied with a want of that elasticity which is so valuable a property in quill pens. This we can easily conceive, for although bamboo-reeds, and canes, are, in general, elastic in their complete form, yet when they are deprived of the internal parts by drying or any other process, the shell, or cylinder, is not likely to have much elastic property remaining.

Thus much for reed-pens, our information on which is but limited. Concerning quills, much doubt exists as to when they were first applied to the purposes of pens. An anonymous historian of Constantius says that they were so employed in the fifth century; but the oldest certain account is said to be a passage in some writings of Isidore, who died in the year 636; and who, in an enumeration of the materials used in writing, mentions reeds and feathers. There exists, also, a poem on a pen," written in the same century, and to be found in the works of Adhelinus, who died in 709, and who was the first Saxon who wrote in Latin. We supply the following translation.

66

CONCERNING THE PEN OF THE WRITER.

Strutt gives the annexed representation of the Anglo-Saxon pen and inkstand.

Another writer of the fifth century, quoted by Adrian de Valois, has been considered as affording proof of the use of quill pens at that time, by the following statement:-That Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, was so illiterate and stupid, that during the ten years of his reign he was not able to write five letters (THEOD) at the bottom of his edicts. For this reason the letters were cut for him, (we may suppose like our modern stencil plates,) in a plate of gold, and the plate being laid upon the paper, he then traced out the letters with a pen. The Emperor Justin, who flourished about the same period, is said to have shown a similar specimen of ignorance. Alquin, the friend and teacher of Charlemagne, mentions writing pens in the eighth century. After that time, proofs exist which put the question of their use beyond dispute. Mabillon saw a manuscript Gospel of the ninth century, in which the evangelists were represented with pens in their hands. Calami properly signify the reeds used by the ancients in writing; but modern authors have often used the term as a Latin word for pen, and it has been suggested that that was probably the proper term for quills, before their application to the purposes of pens. Reeds were used for a considerable time after the introduction of pens; and in monasteries and convents were frequently used for initial letters, as they made stronger marks than quills. By some letters of Erasmus to Reuchlin, we learn that the latter sent three writing reeds to Erasmus, who expressed a wish that Reuchlin, when he could procure more, would send some to a learned friend of his in England. Erasmus lived between 1467 and 1536, and it would from this appear that quills were scarce at that time. About the period of 1430, the familiar letters of the learned men of Italy, made mention of two inconveniences to which they were subject at that time, viz.; the difficulty of making good ink, and the scarcity of good quills.

The principal birds from which quills have been obtained for making pens, are the goose, the swan, and the crow. Pelicans, and other birds, have also at different times, helped to furnish a portion of quills; but of all these, the goose has furnished by far the larger portion. So immense has become the number of quills employed, that in 1832, (notwithstanding the large consumption of steel pens,) thirtythree million, six hundred and sixty-eight thousand goose quills, were entered for home consumption, the greater part of which came from the Netherlands and Germany. An immense quantity is also imported from Russia and Poland, where vast flocks of geese are fed for the sake of their quills alone. The quantity exported from St. Petersburg varies from six to twenty-seven millions. We may form some idea of the number of geese which must be required to afford the supply, when we consider that each wing produces about five good quills, and that by proper manage

throat,

year. Hence, it is obvious, that the geese of Great Britain and Ireland could afford but a small supply. The quills are the large feathers taken from the ends of the wing, and have different names according to the quality, which seem to depend principally on the part of the wing from which they are taken. The operation of preparing the quills is called quilldressing, sometimes quill-dutching. The quills as they are taken from the bird, are covered with a

as

called "

membranous skin, and have a toughness and softness which prevents their being easily split. They are also opaque, and the vascular membrane on the interior of the barrel adheres to it so strongly, that it is with difficulty detached. To remedy these defects, and to fit the quills for their destined purpose, is the business of the quill-dresser. He takes a large bundle of the quills, just as they are taken from the bird, and proceeds to separate them into three parcels,—differing from each other in the size and quality of the quills. The value is estimated both by the length and the thickness of the barrel; those having the largest and longest barrels being called "primes," which fetch the highest price in the market; the next best in quality are designated seconds," and the third, or smallest size, are pinions." The process of sorting being completed, the workmen proceed to "clarify" the quills, the principal object of which is to remove the membranous skin. The quills are plunged for a short time into heated sand: the heat of the sand makes the outer skin crack and peel off, which is further aided by scraping them with a sharp instrument; while, at the same time, the internal membrane becomes shrivelled up, and falls down to the point of the quill. The barrel of the quill is also hardened and rendered transparent by this process, in consequence of the heat consuming or drying up the oily matter resident in it. This latter effect is increased by repeated heatings; and when done for the purpose of hardening the quill, is called dutching, probably from the circumstance that the process was first adopted in Holland. (The term Dutch pens, is frequently applied to quills that have been passed through hot ashes, to remove the grosser fat and moisture, and to render them more transparent.) For the best pens, the process of dutching is repeated several times; but care is necessary, in order that the heating should not be carried so far as to injure the barrel. The quills after this process, are either of the colour of fine thin horn, or of an impure white; but before they are brought to market they undergo another process, with the two-fold object of giving them an uniform yellow colour, and to make them split more easily. They are dipped into diluted aquafortis or nitric acid, which has the effect desired. It is however thought by some, that this process, although it improves their beauty, injures their quality by making them too brittle, so that the slit is apt to run up on pressing with moderate firmness; for this reason, many persons who write much, such as clerks in mercantile houses, &c., frequently prefer a quill which has not undergone this process, as being more durable. The quills having been thus dressed and finished, a portion of the barb is stripped off, to occupy less room in packing, and the quills are tied up into bundles of twenty-five or fifty each, for the market.

The process of preparing the quills is, however, subject to some variation. Some dressers adopt the following mode. The quills are first moistened, not by immersion, but by dipping their extremities into water, and allowing the remaining parts to absorb moisture by capillary attraction. They are then heated in the fire or in a charcoal chaffer, and are passed quickly under an instrument with a fine edge, which flattens them in such a manner as to render them apparently useless. They are then scraped and again exposed to heat, whereby they assume their original form. This is a remarkable fact, and may be illustrated by taking a feather and crushing it with the hand so as to destroy it to all appearance; if we now expose it to the action of steam or a similar temperature, it will speedily assume its former condition.

Many of the quills after this preparation are cut into pens by means of the pen-cutter's knife, and are also trimmed. A pen-cutter will cut in a day two-thirds of a long thousand, consisting of 1200 according to the stationer's computation. A house in Shoe-Lane, London, cuts generally about 6,000,000 of pens yearly; and during the year 1834, notwithstanding the introduction of steel pens, it cut many more than it had done in any previous year. It is calculated by penmakers, not more than one pen in ten is ever mended. Swan-quills, which are very large in the barrel, are sometimes employed for pens, and though expensive at first, are, perhaps, not dearer ultimately than the smaller quills, their length and capacity of barrel compensating for the larger charge. Crowquills are generally employed in drawing and designing, on account of the fine point to which they can be brought. They are particularly useful in that kind of etching which is intended to imitate prints. Quills may be hardened by steeping them in alumwater, at a boiling temperature for a few minutes.

There is a modern contrivance by which six or eight pens may be made out of one large quill. The narrow end, and also the stalk of the pen being cut off, leaving the barrel only remaining, the latter has a cylinder inserted through it, a little smaller than its own diameter. It is then placed in a machine in such a way that two cutting edges pass along the barrel, one on each side, by which the quill is cut longitudinally into two semi-cylindrical halves. These pieces are then placed in a groove with the convex side undermost, and the edges are made straight and smooth by having a plane run along them. These half-cylinders of quill are then cut into three or four pieces, according to their length, and each piece is operated on by the nibbing-machine, which is a sort of cutting press. A few strokes with a pen-knife then brings each little piece to the form of a pen, which, fixed in a handle, is fit for use.

THE VILLAGE CHURCH. MINE be the rude and artless pile,

The ivy-mantled turret gray,
Within whose old unsculptured aisle,

The toil-worn peasant kneels to pray.
The whitened wall, the latticed pane,
The rustic porch, the oaken door;
Above, the rafters huge and plain,
Beneath, the footstep-graven floor.
Not here, where few could pomp admire,
The sons of wealth their pomp display;
They throng not here in gay attire,

Who come to gaze and not to pray :
No high-tuned choral peals surprise,
Enchanting fashion's languid train,
With arts ingenious to disguise

The bard of Sion's raptured strain.
But here, where lowly hearts are bowed,
By toil and sorrows gentler made,
Nor earth-born schemes, nor visions proud,
The unambitious breast invade;
More nearly is His Presence felt,

For whom the Heaven of Heaven expands
Its arch in vain, who never dwelt
In temples built by human hands.
By viewless Spirit of the air,

The soul's mysterious depths are stirred,
More fervent soars the heavenward prayer,
More deeply sinks the engrafted word:
O could my heart, in darker hour,

That calm and reverent mood recall, How weak were then temptation's power

How frail the world's unhallowed thrall! R

LONDON:

JOHN WILLIAM PARKER, WEST STRAND. PUBLISHED IN WEEKLY NUMBERS, PRICE ONE PENNY, AND IN MONTHLY PARTS PRICE SIXPENCE.

Lord Thomas Howard the elder. And lastly, came many ladies and gentlemen.

When the childe was come to the church doore, the Byshop of London* met it with divers byshoppes and abbots mitered, and beganne the observances of the sacrament. The god-father was Lorde Thomas Archbyshoppe of Canterburie ; the god-mothers were the olde Dutchesse of Norfolk and the olde Marchionesse of Dorset, widdowes; and the child was named ELIZABETH: and after that all things were done at the church doore, the child was brought to the font and christned; and that done, Gartar chiefe king of armes cryed aloud, "God of his infinit goodnesse send prosperous life and long to the high and mighty princess of England, ELIZABETH!" And then the trumpets blew; then the childe was brought up to the altar and the Gospell said over it. After that, immediately the Archbyshop of Canterburie confirmed it, the Marchionesse of Excester being god-mother: then the Byshop of Canterburie gave unto the Princesse a standing cup of golde; the Dutchesse of Norfolke gave to her a standing cup of golde fretted with pearle; the Marchionesse of Dorset gave three gilt boles pounced with a cover; and the Marchionesse of Excester gave three standing boles graven all gilt with a cover. Then was brought in wafers, confects, and ipocrasse, in such plentie, that every man had as much as hee coulde desire: then they set forwarde, the trumpets afore going in the same order towards the Kinges pallace, as they did when they came thitherwarde, &c.

The mayor and aldermen received the King's thanks in his chamber through the dukes of Suffolk and Norfolk; "and from thence they were had to the seller, and dranke, and so went to their barge."

Elizabeth was not three years old when her mother was beheaded. It was on the 19th of May, 1536, that Queen Anne Boleyn was executed on the green before the Tower of London; the marriage of Henry the Eighth with Jane Seymour taking place on the next day. Very soon after the birth of Elizabeth, an Act of Parliament had been passed, declaring that if her mother should die, without leaving any male issue, the crown should descend, on the death of the king, to her and her heirs; thus the princess was placed in the order of succession, not only before the Princess Mary, the daughter of the degraded Queen Catharine, but likewise before even any male issue of the king by a future queen. This arrangement was speedily disturbed upon the death of Queen Anne Boleyn; an act being passed soon after the king's marriage with Jane Seymour, annulling his second marriage as well as his first, and consequently rendering the Princess Elizabeth, as well as the Princess Mary, incapable of succeeding to the crown, which it settled upon Henry's issue by Queen Jane or by any future wife whom he might marry.

After the execution of her ill-fated mother, the young Princess Elizabeth seems to have been greatly neglected by her father. Some very curious information concerning the condition to which she was then reduced, and the "ill case," to use Strype's expression, in which she was left, has been handed down to us in a letter printed by Sir Henry Ellis, in his second series of Original Letters. It is addressed by Lady Brian, the governess of the Lady Elizabeth, to Lord Cromwell, from Hunsdon, for instructions concerning her after the death of Queen Anne, her mother. After some preliminary remarks, the Lady Governess thus proceeds:

My Lord, when my Lady Marys Grace was born, et pleased the King's Grace to appoint me Lady Mastres; and made me a Barones. And so I have been our .... to the Cheldern hes Grace have had sens.

Now et es so my Lady Elizabethe is put from that degre she was afore: and what degree she is at now I know not bot be heryng say; therefor I know not how to order her

* Dr. John Stokesley, who held the see from 1530 to 1540.

+ Dr. Thomas Cranmer, who was primate from 1532 till 1553, and in 1556 suffered at the stake under Mary,

nor my self, nor none of hers that I have the rewl of; that is her women and har gromes: besychyng yow to be good Lord to my Lady and to al hers: And that she may have som rayment; for she hath neither gown, nor kertel, nor petecot, nor no manner of linnin for smokes, nor cerchefes, nor sleves, nor rayls, nor body-stychets, nor handcerchers, nor mofelers, nor begens. All thys har Graces Mostake, I have dreven of as long as I can, that be my trothe I cannot drive it no longer, besechyng yow, my Lord, that ye wel see that her Grace may have that is nedful for har, as my Trost es ye wel do. Beseeching yow, my owen good Lord, that I may know from yow be conting how I shal order my self; and what es the kyng's Graces pleser and yours, that I shal do in every thing. And whatsom ever it shall ples the kyng's Grace or your Ludship to command me at all teyms, I shal folfel et, to the best of my power.

There appears to have been some misunderstanding between the Lady Governess and one Mr. Shelton, who was chief of the house at Hunsdon. Lady Brian seems to press very strongly for the interference of Lord Cromwell.

My Lord, Mr. Shelton saythe he es Master of thys Hows; what fashion that shal be I cannot tel: for I have not sen et afor. My Lord, ye be so honourable your self, and every man reportethe your Lordsychep lovethe honour that I trust your Lordship will se thys Hows honerabely ordered, how som ever it hath been aforetime, and ef it be not performed, I shal sertify to your Lordship of it. et plese yow, that I may know what your Order is, and if For I fear me it wil be hardly inow performed, for ef the head of ... ... knew what honour meaneth, et wel be the beter ordered: ef not it will be hard to bring it to pass.

as

The next paragraph of the letter displays strongly the anxiety of the "discreet lady Governess,' Strype calls her, for the health of her charge, and the extreme imprudence of Master Shelton in meddling with matters which did not concern him.

My Lord, Master Shelton wold have my Lady Elizabeth to dine and sup every day at the bord of Astat [board of estate.] Alas! my Lord, it is not meet for a child of har ag [her age], to kepe such rewl yet. I promes you, my Lord, I dare not take et upon me to kepe har Grace in helthe and she keep that rule; for ther she shal se dyvers mets and freuts, and wine: which would be hard for me to

refryn her Grace from et. Ye know, my Lord, there is no place of corekcyon ther. And she es yet to young to correct greatly. I know wel, and she be ther I shal nother bryng her up to the king's graces honour nor hers; nor to har helthe nor my pore honesty. Wherfore I shew your Lordship this my descharg, besy cheyng you, my Lord, that my Lady may have a mess of met to har owen logyng, with a good dish or two that is meet for her Grace to et of: and the reversion of the mess shal satisfy al her wemen, a gentleman usher and a groom. Which been eleven persons on her side. Suer I am et wil be (in to right little) as great. profit to the king's Grace this way as the t'other way. For if al this should be set abroad, they must have three or four mess of meat, where this one mess shal suffice them al with bread and drink, according as my Lady Maries Grace had afore; and to be ordered in al things, as her Grace was afore.

The description which is contained in this letter of the manners and disposition of the young princess at so early an age, is assuredly not the least interesting

part of it.

God knoweth (says the governess) my Lady hath great pain with her great teeth, and they come very slowly forth:

and causeth me to suffer her Grace to have her wil more than I would; I trust to God and her teeth were wel graft, to have her Grace after another fashion than she is yet: so as I trust the King's Grace shal have great comfort in her Grace. For she is as toward a child, and as gentle of conditions as ever I knew one in my leyf. Jesu preserve her Grace. As for a day or two at a hey teym or whan som I trost so to indever me, that shee shal so do as shal be to ever it shal please the King's Grace to have her set abrod, the King's honeur and hers: and then after to take her ease again.

The letter then concludes thus :

I think master Shelton wil not be content with this. He