CURIOUS CUSTOMS AND FACTS EXPLAINED.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 118, 6 September 1876, Page 2

CURIOUS CUSTOMS AND FACTS EXPLAINED.

[Compiled for The Evening Mail.] ♦ The House of Lords.—The House of Lords, in January, 1868, consisted of four Princes of the Blood, three archbishops, twenty dukes, twenty-one marquisses, 128 earls, thirty viscounts, 231 barons, and twenty-seven bishops; in all, 464. Even since that time the number has been ■increased, for there have been more titles created than those becoming extinct. It will be somewhat interesting to note the gradual increase of the Upper House from the time of Charles 11. In that monarch's reign, or about 1685, there were 176 peers ; while William HI. held sway the number was 192 ; when Qaeen Anne occupied the throne they had swollen to 209, to be further increased during the reigns of her successors in the following manner: — George 1., 216 ; George 11., 229 ; George lU., 339 ; George IV., 396 ; William IV., 456 ; and up to the thirty-second year of

the reign of Her Majesty, the Lords had increased to the number of 464. Gloves.—ln the Middle Ages, the giving a glove was a ceremony of investiture in bestowing lands and dignities ; and two bishops were put in j>ossession of their Sees by each receiving a glove, in 1002. In England, in the reign of Edward H., the deprivation of gloves was a ceremony of degradation. Lunacy and its Causes.—ln the cases of a thousand male lunatics, into whose diseases an eminent authority made minute inquiries with the view of .tracing the primary causes, the following was the result:— Drunkenness, 110 ; consequences of disease, 100 ; epilepsy, 78 ; ambition, 73 ; excessive labour, 73 ; born idiots, 71; misfortunes, 69 ; old age, 69 ; chagrin, 54 ; love, 47 ; accidents, 29 ;. religious enthusiasm, 29 ; unnatural practices, 27 ; political excitement, 26 ; poisonous effluvia ; 17 ; ill-usage, 12 ; crimes, remorse, and despair, 9 ; malformation of the skull 4 ; other and unknown causes, 88. Till the end of the last century lunatics were treated with brutality and cruel severity, and at one time the insane were exhibited at Bethlem as a show for one penny. This was as late as 1770. Even as late as 1815 horrible cruelties were practised on the unfortunate inmates at Bethlem Hospital, but an exposure which took place in that year led to a mitigation „of the atrocities, which culminated in the total abolition of all mechanical restraints in 1837. Curious Custom.—Mrs. Elizabeth Montague (who died in 1800) gave for many years on May-Day, an entertainment in her house in Portman-square, to the chimney-sweepers of London. They were regaled with roast beef and plum pudding, after which she joined them in a dance. On their departure every guest received a shilling from the mistress of the feast. The entertainment was instituted to commemorate the circumstance of Mrs. Montague having once found a boy of her own, or°that of a relation, among the sooty tribe. A story resembling the adventures of this lost child is pathetically related by Montgomery in " The Chimney Sweeper's Mourning for the Dead. —_ The Israelites neither washed nor anointed themselves during the time of mourning. The Greeks and Romans fasted. White was used as mourning for the Imperial family of Constantinople. The ordinary color for mourning in Europe is black, the custom being introduced by Anne of Brittany, who grieved successively for two husbands, Kings of France ; up to her time white was the color in use. The Chinese mourn their dead in white ; the Turks use violet ; and the Ethiopians brown.

Why Sr. Cecillia is the Patroness of Music. —St. Cecilia, a Roman lady who died in the third century, is said to have excelled so eminently in music, that an angel was enticed from the celestial regions by°t!ie fascinating charms of her melody. "The Doctrine of Pythagoras.—The doctrine of Pythagoras supposes the transmigration of the soul of one body to another. The Egyptians, who were followers of his, would eat no animal food, lest they should devour the body into which the soul of a deceased friend had passed. They also had an idea that as long as the body of the deceased was kept entire, the soul would not transmigrate, which was the reason for embalming their dead.

The London Monument. —It is over two hundred years since the Monument was first commenced, under the superintendence of Sir Christopher Wren. The pedestal is forty-feet high, and the edifice altogether 202 feet, that being the distance of its base from the spot where the fire which it commemorates commenced. Its erection cost £14,500. The staircase is of black marble, consisting of 345 steps. And is the loftiest isolated column in the world. Several accidents having occurred, a railing was put round the gallery in 1839. The pillar originally bore an inscription intimating that it had been erected to commemorate the burning of the City by a horrid Pop'sh plot in 1666; but it was erased by order of the Common Council in 1831. Oyer and Terminer, and O Yes.— The first is a commission directed to the Judges of the Courts, by virtue of which they have power to hear and determine treasons, felonies, &c. 0 Yes is a corruption of the French oyes, hear ye. The ancient term is still used by the public crier and by the usher of courts of justice to enjoin silence and attention. Meaning and Origin of the Word Ostracism. —The word itself is derived from the Greek ostrakon, a shell, a mode of proscription in practice at Athens five hundred years before the Christian era. The people wrote the names of those against whom they had- a grudge, upon small shells. These they put into an urn,

or small' box, and presented to the Senate. Upon a scrutiny, he whose name was oftenest written was sentenced by the Council to be banished from his altar and his hearth; to do this, however, 6,000 votes were required. Aristides, noted for his justice, and Militiades, for his vie. Tories, were ostracised. The custom, after being in force for upwards of two hundred years, was abolished by ironically proscribing Hyperbolus, a mean and insignificant person. Celebrated Racehorses. —Flying Chil. ders, bred in 1715 by the Duke of Devonshire, was allowed by sportsmen to have been the fleetest horse that ever ran at Newmarket, or that was ever bred in the world. He ran four miles in six minutes and forty-eight seconds, or at the rate of thirty-five miles and a-half an hour, carrying nine stone two pounds. He died ia 1741, aged twenty-six years. Eclipse was the fleetest horse that ran in England since the time of Flying Childers. He was never beaten, and died in February, 1789, at the age of twenty-five. His heart weighed fourteen pounds, which, no doubt, accounted for his wonderful spirit ani

courage. The Incomes of English Bishops.The Archbishop of Canterbury has L 15,000 a-year, the Archbishop of York hai LIO,OOO, and the Bishop of London LIO,OOO. Durham has LB,OOO. Wii. chesteiv receives at present L 7,000, but after the next avoidance of the see the in. come of the Bishop will be L 6,500, instead of L 7,000, and the saving of LoOO a-year will go towards the income of tie Bishop of St. Albans. Ely receives L5,50(] a-year. The Bishops of Oxford, Gloucester, Worcester. Rochester, Lincoln, Salisbury, Exeter, Bath, and Wells, L 5,000 a-year, Ripon, Norwich, Peterborough, Chester, Lichfield, and Carlisle get L 4,500. Hen. ford, Llandaff, Manchester, Chicheste, and St. Asaph receive L 4,200. Bangs only receives L 4,000. Rochester will Is L 4,500, instead of L 5.000, at the net avoidance of the see, the LSOO saved goiji towards the income of St. Albans. The Cornwall Bishopric Bill will place anotls mitre at the disposal of the Premier.