I could detail the ceremonies on many other feasts during the year, but such, perhaps, will be sufficient to show that our ancestors thought

"Enjoyments gentle essence,

Is virtue's godlike dower;
Its most triumphant presence,

Illumes the darkest hour." BARTON.

The mace is much in use by ecclesiastical, civil, and civic dignitaries. All the corporations have them, and there are some curious customs respecting them. At Nottingham, there are two, one with a sergeant for the mayoress. When the

old

mayor goes out of office, his mace is buried, that is, covered with sprigs of rosemary and bay, then covered over with crape on a table; the new mayor receives it with a kiss, on its being presented to him.

Some of them are very valuable from the metal. In 1652, the corporation of Coventry paid £38 15s. 6d. for merely exchanging the old mace for the new one, it is of silver, richly gilt; and all of them are variously and elegantly ornamented. But at Landilloes, in Wales, there were two old maces of lead; and at Loughor, two of wood and tin, which have been replaced by brass ones. At Bridgenorth, and Carlisle, the tops are convertible into drinking cups.

I wonder how many times those jovial blades, the mace bearers, with these cups, have imitated with kindred spirit, the honest speaking steward of the prodigal in " Timon of Athens," who says of himself:

When chambers reeled

"With drunken spilth of wine, when every room
Has blazed with light, and brayed with minstrelsy,
I have retired me to a wasteful cock

And set mine eyes at flow."

SHAKSPEARE.

In 1677, Thomas Sadler was hanged for stealing the lord chancellor's mace out of his bed-room; the great seal was saved from being under the pillow.

A mace seems to have been an usual gift from noblemen or gentlemen connected with corporate bodies. In 1609, the honourable Edward Talbot, gave a mace to the corporation of Pontefract. In 1636, Sir T. P. Hoby, made a like present to the town of Scarborough. Sir T. Williams, a secretary of state, of Charles II., gave a mace to Thetford. The mace belonging to the corporation of the Bedford level, was given by the first governor, William, Earl of Bedford. In 1670, Lord Henry Howard, gave to the city of Norwich a mace of silver gilt, weighing above 167 ounces.

The pioneers of the London trained bands, or city militia, used to bear staves, at the end of which were suspended by iron chains, iron or leaden balls, armed with spikes. They resembled the ancient maces, and were called " Morgan-sterns," or morning stars; this was a formidable weapon, to suppress street rowdyism, to quell all larking propensities in those who are vexing with mirth the drowsy ear of night;" during these reigns, there were unfortunate instances enough, when

"Some frolic drunkard reeling from a feast,
Provokes a broil, and stabs you in a jest."

TRADING TOWNS.

To enable the reader to form an idea of the manufacturing and commercial system during these reigns; I have selected the following account, partly from Pigott's "Commercial Directory," 1822, and also from my own observations, having travelled into nearly all the places enumerated.

If the reader should consider, I give a very meagre account of some places. I request him to bear in mind, that manufacture and commerce was at a very low ebb: and not much approved of, for Drayton, a poet, a cotemporary, and countryman of Shakspeare, writes thus of them :

"The gripple, (gripe all) merchants, born to be the curse

Of this brave isle."

BIRMINGHAM. This important town, which Burke emphatically denominated "the toy shop of Europe," in the year 1700, consisted of only one parish, with 28 streets, 2504 houses, and 15,032 inhabitants.

The following picturesque account of the rise and progress of the trades of this now corporate town, is as graphic as if drawn by the graver of an Hogarth. "The sons of the hammer were once her chief inhabitants; but that great crowd of artists is now lost in a greater. Genius seems to increase with the multitude. Part of the riches, extension, and improvement of Birmingham, are owing to the late John Taylor, Esq., who possessed the singular power of perceiving things, as they really were, the spring and consequence of action were open to his view. He rose, from minute beginnings, to shine in the com

mercial world, as Shakspeare did in the poetical, and Newton, in the philosophic, hemisphere.

To this uncommon genius, we owe the gilt button, the japanned and gilt snuff boxes, at which one servant earned three pounds ten shillings per week, by painting them at a farthing each. One of the present nobility of distinguished taste, examining the works of art with the master, purchased some of the articles, among others, a toy worth eighty guineas value; and while paying for them, observed with a smile, "he plainly saw he could not reside in Birmingham for less than £200 a day." Mr. Taylor died in 1775, at the age of 64, after acquiring a fortune of £200,000.

The active power of genius, the instigation of profit, and the affinity of one calling to another, often induce the artist to change his occupation. There is nothing more common among us; even the divine, and the lawyer, are prone to this change. Thus the church throws her dead weight into the scale of commerce, and the law gives up the cause of contention; but there is nothing more disgraceful, except thieving, in other places. I am told, says an elderly gentleman, as he amused himself in a pitiful bookseller's shop, (by the by it was his own,) "that you are a stocking-maker by trade!" The humble bookseller, half confused, and wholly ashamed, could not deny the charge. 'Ah !' cried the senior, whose features were modelled between the sneer and the smile, 'there is neither honour nor profit in changing the trade you were bred to. Do not attempt to sell books, but stay at home, and pursue your own business.' The dejected bookseller, scarcely one step higher than a "walking stationer," lived to acquire a large fortune. Had he followed the senior's advice, he might, like a common foot soldier, have starved upon eightpence a day. He says, toy trades first made their appearance in Birmingham, in the beginning of Charles II.'s reign, in an endless variety, attended with all their beauty and their grace.

When he wrote, he ranked as first in pre-eminence the BUTTON. This beautiful ornament, says our author, appears with infinite variations; and though the original date is rather uncertain, yet we well remember the long coats of our grandfathers, covered with half a gross of high tops, and the cloaks of our grandmothers, ornamented with a horn button, nearly the size of a crown piece," (about the size of a silver dollar,) "a watch, or a John-apple, curiously wrought as having passed through the Birmingham press.

Though, continues Hutton, the common round button keeps on with the steady pace of the day, yet we sometimes see the oval, the square, the pea, the concave, and the pyramid, flash

into existence. In some branches of traffic, the wearer calls loudly for new fashions; but in this, the fashions tread upon each other, and crowd upon the wearer. The consumption of this article is astonishing: and the value, in 1781, was, from threepence a gross to £147.

In 1818, the art of gilding buttons was arrived at such perfection, that three penny worth of gold was made to cover a gross of buttons; these were sold at a proportionably low price. The experiment has been tried to produce gilt looking buttons without gold but it was found not to answer, the manufacturer losing more in the consumption than he saved in the material. There seems, says Hutton, to be hidden treasures couched within this magic circle, known only to a few who extract prodigious fortunes out of this useful toy, while a far greater number submit to a statute of bankruptcy. Trade, like a restive horse, can rarely be managed; for where one is carried to the end of a successful journey, many are thrown off by the way.

The next trade to which our intelligent historian calls our attention, is the BUCKLE. Perhaps the shoe, in one form or other, is as ancient as the foot. It originally appeared under the name of Sandal; this was no other than a sole without an upper leather. That fashion has since been inverted, for unfortunately our feelings are now often excited by seeing an upper leather without any sole. But whatever was the cut of the shoe, it always demanded a fastening. Under the Plantagenets, the shoe shot horizontally from the foot, like a Dutch skate, to an enormous length; so that the extremity was fastened to the knee, sometimes with a silver chain, a silk lace, or even a packthread string, rather than avoid genteel taste.

This thriving beak, drew the attention of the legislature, who determined to prune down the exhorbitant shoot; for, in 1465, we find an order of council, prohibiting the growth of the shoe toe beyond two inches, under the penalty of a dreadful curse from the priest-and a payment of twenty shillings to the king.

This fashion, like every other, gave way to time; and, in its stead, the rose began to bud upon the foot, which, under the Tudors, opened its splendour in great perfection. No shoe was fashionable without being fastened with a full blown rose. Ribbons of every colour, except white, the emblem of the depressed house of York, were held in high esteem; but the red, like the house of Lancaster, held the pre-eminence. Under the Stuart's, the rose withered, which gave rise to the shoe-string. The beaux of that age ornamented their lower tier with double laces of silk, tagged with silver, and the extremities were beautified with a fringe of the same metal. The inferior class

wore laces of plain silk, linen, or even a thong of leather; which last is yet to be met with in the humble plains of rural life. Charles II.'s reign began the small buckle.

But the revolution was remarkable for the introduction of the larger buckle, William III., and national debts; and the tiny one began to enlarge and spread from its minute form, not differing much in shape and size from the horse bean.

This offspring of fancy, like the clouds, is ever changing. The fashion of to-day, is often thrown into the casting-pot to

morrow.

The buckle seems to have undergone every figure, size, and shape of geometrical, and in some degree, of mathematical invention. It has certainly passed through every form that figured in the brain of Euclid. The large square shoe buckle, plated with silver, was the ton of 1781. The ladies also adopted the reigning taste; it was difficult to discover their beautiful little pattering feet, covered with an enormous shield of buckle; if the heart had lain there, it would have been invulnerable from Cupid's dart; and we wondered to see the active motion under the massive armadillo-like load.

In 1812, the whole generation of fashions in the buckle line, was extinct; a buckle was not to be found on a female foot except at court, nor upon any foot out of the purlieus of royalty, except that of old age.

GUNS.-William III. was once lamenting, "that guns were not manufactured in his dominions, but that he was obliged to procure them from Holland, at a great expence. Sir Richard Newdigate, of Arbury hall, one of the members for the county being present, told the king, that genius resided in Warwickshire, and that he thought his constituents would answer his majesty's wishes. The king was pleased with the remark, and the member posted to Birmingham. Upon application to a person in Digbeth, the pattern was produced with precision; and, when presented to the royal board, gave entire satisfaction. Orders were immediately issued for large numbers, which have been so frequently repeated, that they never lost their road; and the ingenious artists were so amply rewarded, that they have rolled in their carriages to this day.

It seems that the word " London,"† marked upon guns, is a better passport than the word "Birmingham ;" and the latter *In vol. i. page 32, I stated that Charles I. incorporated the gun makers' company. In 1813, there was manufactured for the ordnance department, 320,643 stands of arms, at 36s. each.

+ The London gun maker of most repute was Manton, his guns were known as far as winds can carry, or as waves can roll;" he had an active and talented partner for forty years, of the name of Hudson, who died 1841. The price for one of their double guns was £42.