RICHMOND CASTLE, YORKSHIRE.

A PORTION of the North Riding of Yorkshire is popularly known by the name of Richmondshire, from having, in very early times, been the entire and undivided property of the Earls of Richmond.

Before the Norman conquest, this great estate was possessed by one great Saxon lord; but when William of Normandy took possession of the English crown, the Richmond estate shared a similar fate to that of most other large estates in the kingdom: it was created an earldom, and given to one of William's favourites.

It must be presumed (says Mr. Whitaker), that the man on whom the Conqueror would bestow such a principality must stand high in his favour. But the estate of Earl Edwin was a gem which must be won before it could be worn, and a charter of feoffment could only confer upon the grantee a title to fight his way into possession. Nay more, after possession was acquired, there was equal difficulty in maintaining it. The ejected possessor was one of the most popu lar as well as powerful men in the kingdom. The Normans were regarded with peculiar detestation in the north of England; and Domesday itself affords a melancholy testimony to the horrible devastation by which alone the native inhabitants could be subdued. A title, however, to subdue so fertile and beautiful a district would not be unacceptable to a Norman soldier. He knew how to curb a wild and disorderly population, without the perpetual necessity of contending with them in the field.

The curb here alluded to was in the shape of a strong castle. In a central situation within the earldom, on the confines of the low country and the mountains, the new possessor selected a rock on the bank of the river Swale, which could not be undermined, and on this spot he lavished all the resources of a great prince, and practised all the skill of Norman fortification, in the construction of a fortress which would at once afford a guarantee to fidelity, and render disaffection and treachery hopeless. Such a structure being both ample and impregnable, would afford protection to the faithful vassals of the earl, who might, by any sudden insurrection, be driven to seek protection within its walls, as well as to accommodate a regular garrison, sufficient to scour the country in every direction. A tumultuary assault, or even a regular siege by such assailants, must, as has been observed by the historian of Richmond, have been despised. But such was the felicity with which a site was chosen for the capital and fortress of the province, that if a disturbance should have happened in the low country, within half an hour a body of horse would be upon the plain, and ready to chase the insurgents ; or if, as was more probable, the ruder and more hardy natives of the valleys, trusting to the fastnesses of their neighbouring mountains, presumed to rebel, an active and hardy body of infantry would have no time to waste in traversing the plains, while their enemies above were gathering strength and courage from delay.

Such are believed to be the causes which led to the construction of that fine old Norman building, Richmond Castle, in Yorkshire, of which our frontispiece represents a view. It is believed that the castle was commenced by the earl to whom William the Conqueror presented the estate, carried on by his successor, and completed by the third earl; so that we may assume the period of 1100 as about the time when the castle was constructed.

There is perhaps not another instance, in the whole of English history, of a great estate changing hands so many times in the course of five hundred years, as that of Richmond. The large extent of the Richmond estate made the early sovereigns glad to seize every pretext for taking it to themselves; and when they possessed it, they were often induced, by policy,

The

to present it to such of their adherents as were most serviceable to them. For a considerable period the estate was possessed by the Dukes of Bretagne, in France, who added to that title the one of Earls of Richmond. It was one of these Dukes of Bretagne who built the great tower or keep of the castle. estate was seized by Richard Cœur de Lion, on a very slender pretext, and retained for some years. His successor, King John, also retained possession of it for some time, but ultimately made it the purchaseprice of the services of Peter de Dreux, who became Earl of Richmond. From this family it was transferred to Peter of Savoy, the uncle to the queen of Henry the Third, but not for any considerable period; for the interests of Henry induced him to manage that the estate should pass into the hands of the Duke of Bretagne, whose ancestors had formerly possessed it.

One of the causes which led to this estate being so frequently passed from one possessor to another was, that the Dukes of Bretagne were, under that title, subjects of the King of France, and, under the title of Earls of Richmond, were also subjects of the King of England; so that whenever the two kings were at war, the possessor retained or lost the estate, according as he sided with or against the King of England. Such an event occurred in the reign of Edward the First. During hostilities with France, Edward took the estate from the Duke of Bretagne, and when peace was restored, gave it back to him again. From this family it passed into the hands of the Countess of Pembroke, and then to Count de Montfort, after that to Edward the Third, and then once again to the Bretagne family. Doomed to perpetual changes of proprietors, the estate was given to the queen of Richard the Second, about the year 1380,-to Ralph Basset in 1391, and to the Earl of Westmoreland in the reign of Henry the Fourth. After remaining several years in this family, it passed to the Dukes of Bedford. From them it devolved upon Henry the Sixth. It was then presented, with the title of Earl of Richmond, to the king's half-brother, whose son Henry defeated Richard the Third, at Bosworth field, and then became sovereign of England, under the title of Henry the Seventh. The estate remained in royal hands till 1613, when James the First created Lodowic Stuart Duke of Richmond.

Such were the mutations which this great estate suffered in early times; we must now speak of the castle itself. In this as in many other cases, the baronial castle led to the construction of a town near it: Richmond Castle did not owe its existence to Richmond town, but the town to the castle.

Our early topographer, Leland, speaking of Richmond town and castle in his day (1540), says:—

Richemont towne is waullid, and the castel on the river side of Swale is as the knot of the cumpace of the waulle. In the waul be 3 gates. Frenchegate yn the north parte Fuikel-streate gate. Bargate. Al 3 be downe. Vestigia of the towne, and is the most occupied gate of the towne. yet remaine. In the market-place is a large chapel of the Trinite. The cumpace of the ruinus waulles is not half a mile about. So that the towne waulle cumpaseth litle but the market-place, the howses about hit, and gardens behind them. There is a suburbe withowt Frenchegate. Fuikelstreat suburbe, strayt west from the market-place, and Bargate suburbe. But Frenchegate suburbe is almost as bygge as bothe the other suburbes. In Frenchgate suburbe is the paroch chirche of al the hole towne. A litle beyonde the ende of Frenchegate streate is, or was, of late, a chapel of a woman anchorete. Bargate suburbe cummith downe to the bridge ende of Swale, the wich bridge is sumtime chayned. A this side the bridge is no building. In this Frenchgate is the Grey Freres a little withowt the wawllis. suburbe is a chapel of S. James. At the bakke of the Their howse, medow, orchard, and a litle wood, is waullid yn. Men go from the market place to hit by a posterne

gate. There is a conducte of water at the Grey Freres els there is none in Richemont. Not far from the freres waul is a chapel of S. Anthony. Al the towne and suburbes be on the farther side of Swale. The Castel is nere hand as much yn cumpace as the circuit of the town walle, but now it is in mere ruine.

If the castle was in ruins three hundred years ago, its present appearance may be guessed at :-it is, in truth, one of the finest Norman ruins in the kingdom. The name Richmond is supposed to have been derived from Rich mount, in allusion to the spot selected for the castle; and the same reason led to the naming of Richmond in Surrey, which also belonged to the Earls of Richmond about four centuries ago. The town of

Richmond in Yorkshire first consisted of the habitations of the immediate dependants of the earl: those who were in the castle attended divine worship in an oratory, while the townsmen erected a church near the castle; and it is supposed that the present Trinity chapel was the original church of Richmond.

In process of time various monastic institutions sprang up in the neighbourhood of the castle, which owed their origin to the officers and dependants of the earls. The cell of St. Martin arose in the very infancy of the castle; and, in the opinion of Mr. Whitaker, displays at this moment some vestiges of architecture more ancient than any remaining about the castle itself. A drawing of Richmond Castle, such as it probably appeared about the reign of Edward the Third, has been discovered, and has enabled antiquaries to compare its former with its present appearance. In the drawing, besides the great tower, the general circuit of the building appears nearly as at present. Scolland's hall seems to have undergone no change; but the chapel, a small building then standing near the southwest corner, is now dilapidated and almost gone. As an outpost to the great tower, and in the weakest part of the precinct, was a small barbican and outer gateway of two cylindrical towers, now destroyed. The moat on the same side is now filled up. The lowest story of the keep has been groined, as usual in the great Norman keeps, upon a central octagonal pillar. Mr. Whitaker remarks, that

Such are the changes of all earthly things, that all this mighty apparatus, intended for the defence of a prince and a province, which has sustained the shock of hostile invasion, and resounded with the mirth of assembled multitudes, now serves only to enclose a green area of about five acres, and to secure a few sheep which quietly graze upon its herbage. The feudatories of the earldom beheld in these impregnable walls, and under these floating banners, security had no other defence. The modern inhabitant of Richmond, and protection against predatory warfare, from which they however, while he beholds them dismantled and untenable as an ordinary dwelling-house, rejoices that no such protection is now wanted, that his lot has fallen upon better days, when rapine and hostile alarm have ceased, and when the settled administration of law neither craves nor allows of aid from feudal power.

Although the town of Richmond stands on very uneven ground, and could not be approached but by a very inconvenient road, until within a few years town, maintaining with proper dignity the appearance back, yet it is a pleasant, well-built, and handsome bears its name, and was once in a state of feudal deof a capital over so extensive a district as that which pendence upon it.

Richmond has never been made the seat of any particular manufacture, to much extent; and it therefore presents much of the simple and rural appearance which a non-manufacturing town usually exhibits.

We are what we are made by the objects that surround us; to expect that a man who sees other objects, and who leads a life different from mine, should have the same ideas that I have, would be to require contradictions. Why does a Frenchman resemble another Frenchman more than a Because these two nations, by their education, and the reGerman, and a German much more than a Chinese? semblance of the objects presented to them, have an infinitely greater connexion with each other than with a Chinese.- -HELVETIUS.

No radiant pearl which crested fortune wears,
No gem that sparkling hangs from beauty's ears,
Not the bright stars which night's blue arch adorn,
Nor rising sun that gilds the vernal morn,
Shine with such lustre as the tear that breaks,
For others' woe, down virtue's lovely cheeks,

annuals, the tree bearing Jesuits' bark, which has done such wonders in quartan agues. What was very ingenious, was the subterranean heate, conveyed by a stove under the conservatory, all vaulted with brick, so as he has the doores and windowes open in the hardest frost, secluding only the

snow.

Both at the gardens of Chelsea and Kew, there are at present very superb collections of plants, and the advance in horticultural knowledge has been exceedingly rapid throughout our country. The simple herbs which find a place alike in splendid botanical gardens, and in the little plat of ground allotted to the humble cottager, and which we intend separately to describe, have many of them received most appropriate and significant names in times past, by which they are still recognised among the lower class of people. The following amusing extract from the Journal of a Naturalist, will give a pretty good notion of the old-fashioned plan of naming herbs and plants:

In ages of simplicity, when every man was the usual dispenser of good or bad, benefit or injury, to his own household or his cattle,-ere the veterinary art was known, or the drugs of other regions introduced,--necessity looked up to the products of its own clime, and the real or fantastical

16

virtues of them were called to the trial, and manifests the reasonableness of bestowing upon plants and herbs such names as might immediately indicate their several uses, or fitness for application; when distinctive characters, had they been given, would have been little attended to; and hence the numbers found favourable to the cure of particular complaints, the ailments of domestic creatures, or deemed injurious to them. Modern science may wrap up the meaning of its epithets in Greek or Latin terms; but in very many cases they are the mere translation of these despised "old vulgar names." What pleasure it must have afforded the poor sufferer in body or in limb-what confidence he must have felt of relief, when he knew that the good neighbour who came to bathe his wounds, or assuage his inward torments, brought with him such things as all-heal, bruise-wort, gout-weed, fever-few,” (fugio,) and twenty other such com fortable mitigators of his afflictions; why their very names would almost charm away the sense of pain! The modern recipe contains no such terms of comfortable assurance: its meanings are all dark to the sufferer; its influence unknown. And then the good herbalists of old professed to have plants which were " all-good;" they could assuage anger by their "loose-strife;" they had "honesty, true-love, and heart's-ease." The cayennes, the soys, the ketchups, and extra-tropical condiments of these days, were not required, when the next thicket would produce "poor man's pepper, sauce-alone, and hedge-mustard ;" and the woods and wilds around, when they yielded such delicate viands as "fat-hen, lambs-quarters, way-bread, butter and eggs, with codlins and cream," afforded no despicable bill of fare. No one ever yet thought of accusing our old simplers of avarice, or love of lucre, yet their "thrift" is always to be seen: we have their humble" penny-wort, herb-two-pence, moneywort, silver-weed, and gold." We may smile, perhaps, at the cognomens or commemorations of friendship or worth, recorded by the old simplers,-at the herbs "Bennet, Robert, Christopher, Gerard, or Basil;" but do the names so bestowed by modern science read better, or sound better? it has Lightfootia, Lapeyrousia, Hedwigia, Schkuhria, Scheuchzeria;" and surely we may admit, in common benevolence, such partialities as "Good King Henry, Sweet William, Sweet Marjory, Sweet Cicely, Lettuce, Mary-gold, and Rose." There are epithets however so very extraordinary that we must consider them as mere perversions, or at least incapable of explanation at this period. The terms of modern science waver daily; names undergo an annual change, fade with the leaf, and give place to others; but the ancient terms, which some may ridicule, have remained for centuries, and will yet remain till nature is swallowed up by art. No; let our ancient herbalists, "a grave and whiskered race," retain the honours due to their labours, which were more needful and important ones at those periods: by them were many casualties and sufferings of man and beast relieved; and by aid of perseverance, better constitutions to act upon, and faith to operate, than we possess, they probably effected cures, which we moderns should fail to accomplish if attempted.

ON WAX FIGURES. AMONG the substances which have been employed as materials for forming imitations of animals, flowers, &c., not the least pleasing, in the effects which it produces, is wax. There are at the present day, and have been uninterruptedly for many centuries, persons who devote their attention to imitation in wax, such as we have alluded to. We will say a few words respecting the nature of wax, before we describe the mode of casting figures, &c.

Wax is both an animal and vegetable substance; or rather, the purpose to which bees apply it in the formation of their hives, and the supply which we obtain of it through the medium of bees, lead us to regard it almost as an animal substance. But it will be more correct to call it a vegetable product, since it enters into the composition of the pollen of flowers, covers the envelope of the plum, and of other fruits, especially of the berry of the Myrica cerifera, and in many instances forms a kind of varnish on the surface of leaves. Wax is an unctuous-feeling substance, partaking of the nature of a fixed oil; it is distinguished from fat and resinous bodies by not readily forming soaps when mixed with alkaline solutions.

gas.

As wax possesses both colour and odour in its natural state, means are sought for depriving it of those properties without injuring the peculiar consistence of the wax. This is effected by a process of bleaching in the open air, or sometimes in chlorine To bleach wax, it is gently melted in a caldron, which has a pipe in the bottom through which the melted wax can flow off. From the caldron it passes into a large wooden cylinder, which is kept in constant rotation, and which is also wetted with water: the consequence is that the wax cools in thin layers round the inside of the cylinder, without adhering to it. The thin layers of wax are then taken out, and exposed on frames covered with linen cloth, to the united action of sun, air, and dew. In a few days it will change its colour, and by repeating the same process two or three times, the wax finally becomes entirely white; it is then cast into cakes for use.

This, then, being the substance in question, we find that such a substance was used at a very early period for the preparation of imitative articles. The Greeks employed wax for taking impressions of seals. There was also a separate class of artists called puppet-makers by the Greeks, and sigillarii by the Romans, who worked principally in wax. rooms of the Greeks were often adorned with wax

The bed

figures of boys; but the subjects most frequently represented were branches, fruit, flowers, wreaths, and other objects of the vegetable kingdom. It was customary, at the feast in honour of Adonis, to construct gardens, with ornamental flower baskets, &c.; and as this feast occurred too early in the year to admit of real fruit, flowers, &c., being used, artificial ones, made of wax, were used instead. said that Heliogabalus set dishes of wax before his guests, in order to tantalize them with representations of all the luxuries in which he revelled.

It is

In more modern times wax figures have been principally employed in illustration of anatomical details. In the palace at Florence are imitations of all parts of the human body, in coloured wax, for the study of anatomy: more than thirty rooms are filled with these wax preparations, as well as with others respecting vegetable substances. It is said the first idea of forming figures of wax was conceived by Nones, of Genoa, an hospital physician, in the seventeenth century. He was about to preserve

a human body by embalming it; but not being able entirely to prevent putréfaction, he conceived the idea of having the body imitated, as correctly as possible, in wax.

The Abbate Zumbo, a Sicilian, who understood nothing of anatomy, but was skilled in working in wax, imitated the head so perfectly, under the direction of Nones, in coloured wax, that many who saw it mistook it for the real head. Zumbo secretly made another copy, which he took to France, and gave himself out to be the inventor of the art. After the departure of Zumbo, Nones had the whole body imitated in wax by a Frenchman named Delacroix.

The next instance of the kind, which we find recorded, occurred in the year 1721, when La Courege exhibited similar figures in Hamburgh; and in 1737 others were publicly sold in London. About the same period very beautiful figures in wax were made by three Italian artists, Ercole Lelli, Giovanni Manzolini, and Anna Manzolini, his wife; many fine specimens by these persons are, or were, preserved at Bologna, Paris, Turin, and St. Petersburgh. At a later period other artists in this peculiar line appeared in Italy, which seems as if it had been destined for the cradle of artists; among these were Calza, Fillippo, Balugani, Ferrini, and Fontana. The latter carried the art to a high degree of excellence in Florence. He received so many orders, that he employed a large company of anatomists, model-cutters, wax-moulders, and painters; he generally confined his models to representations of the internal parts of the human body.

At Wittenberg, Vogt was accustomed to use, in his lectures, wax preparations in imitation of the fine vessels of the body. In France, Pinson and Laumonier have distinguished themselves in this branch of art. In England, most of our readers are acquainted with exhibitions of wax-work, prepared more for the gratification of public curiosity, than for the advancement or illustration of any particular branch of science. Many of these exhibitions, both in former times, and at the present day, have been distinguished for a good deal of cleverness and ingenuity.

We must now say a few words. respecting the mode of preparing figures in wax; and these modes are different, according to the nature of the figure to be made. For some purposes a composition is made of four parts wax, three parts white turpentine, and some olive oil or hog's lard, suitably coloured. The bulk of the figure is formed out of this substance, with the hands; the finer parts being made by means of instruments of various forms: it is, in fact, a process of modelling.

In other cases the figure is cast; and we may here allude, by way of illustration, to the mode of casting plaster figures. To make a plaster cast,-of the face, for instance, liquid plaster of Paris is poured on the face; and when it has hardened, it forms a mould, which can be removed from the face, and which in its turn, will serve as a foundation on which liquid plaster of Paris can be poured, in order to produce a cast of the face. A process somewhat similar is observed in preparing waxen casts. The following has been given as a mode of imitating fruit, &c., in wax: bury the fruit half-way in clay; oil its edges, and the extant half of the fruit; then carefully pour on it tempered alabaster, or plaster of Paris, to a considerable thickness. When this has hardened, it makes the half mould, the second half of which may be obtained in the same way. two parts of the mould being next joined together, a little coloured wax, melted, and brought to a due

The

heat, being poured through a hole, made in any con venient part of the mould, and shaken round in every direction, will represent the original fruit.

In making wax models of the human frame, or any of its parts, a somewhat similar plan is observed. A mould is made of plaster of Paris, in several pieces, and these pieces being fastened together, melted wax is poured into the internal cavity; and the mould being then placed in cold water, the wax is soon solidified; and upon taking the mould to pieces, the wax figure can be taken out. It is said of M. Benoist, that "being by profession a painter, he found the secret of forming moulds on the faces of living persons, even the fairest and most delicate, without any danger either to their health or complexion; in which moulds he cast masks of wax; to which, by his colours, and glass eyes imitated from nature, he gave a sort of life; insomuch as, when clothed in proper habits, they bore such a resemblance, that it was difficult to distinguish between the copy and the original." .

A composition of wax and other substances is employed for taking impressions of figures cut in stones. It is prepared thus: an ounce of virgin wax, melted slowly in a copper vessel, and a drachm o sugar candy pounded well, half an ounce of burnt soot, and two or three drops of turpentine. The wax is warmed if a cast is to be taken, and the stone, having been a little moistened, is pressed on it. Gem-cutters use this composition.

Sculptors sometimes form their first models of a composition, consisting of sixteen parts wax, two parts Burgundy pitch, or shoemaker's wax, and one part hog's lard: or of ten parts wax, one turpentine, as much shoemaker's wax, and as much hog's lard. This is melted over a slow fire, and afterwards well stirred and strained, so as to expel all the air.

With regard to the effect of large wax figures on the mind, the following remarks of a modern writer are not without their force: "At present wax is used for imitations of anatomical: preparations, or of fruits; it also serves the sculptor for his models and studies; also for little portrait figures in basso relievo. The latter can be executed with delicacy and beauty; but wax figures of the size of life, which are often praised for their likeness, overstep the proper limit of the fine arts. They attempt to imitate life too closely, which, in contrast with their ghastly fixedness, has a tendency to make us shudder. In the genuine work of art there is an immortal life in idea, which speaks to our souls without attempting to deceive our senses. The wax figure seems to address the mortal in us; it is a petrified picture of our earthly part. The line at which a work of art should stop, in its approach to nature, is not distinctly marked; but it cannot be overstepped without affecting us disagreeably. Exact imitations, in wax, of vegetable productions, do not produce the same unpleasant emotions as wax images of men and animals, because they have, by nature, a more stationary character."

Do not suffer your mind to brood over the external distinctions of society.. Neither seek nor avoid those who are superior in fortune; meet them on the same ground as you do the rest of your fellow-creatures. There is a dignified medium between cringing for notice, and acting like a cat distance, though it may have no design of coming near to that puts up her back and spits, when she sees a dog at a her. MRS. CHILD.

LONDON:

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