informed was for calling people to work in the morning, the time for dinner, and for leaving work in the evening.

66

66

At

At another town in Dorsetshire, Sherborne, they have an almost endless "dingdong," twing-twang," or bim-bome," throughout the day. Happening to be lately there on a market-day (Saturday) I was awakened in the morning, at four o'clock, by the ringing of the "church treble bell;" at six o'clock the church "chimes" were in play; at a quarter before seven the "almshouse bell" began, and continued to ring till seven, which is said to be for the purpose of calling the scholars of king Edward the Sixth's grammar school to their studies, who were no sooner assembled than the "school bell " announced the master's approach. half-past eight the "almshouse bell" summoned the almsmen and women to prayers; at nine the "chimes;" at eleven the "wholesale market bell;" at twelve the "chimes;" at one the "school bell” for dinner; at half-past one the "retai! market bell;" at three the "chimes," and the church" great bell "* tolled twice at a short interval, when, what is appositely enough called the "tanging bell," rang until the minister and religiously inclined had assembled for prayer; at four the "almshouse bell;" at six the "chimes;" at seven the "school bell" for supper; at eight the "church bell," which rang a quarter of an hour, and concluded by giving eight strokes; at nine the "chimes," and the "school bell" for bed.

So much bell ringing and tolling naturally led to an inquiry of the several causes that gave rise to it. By some, the first morning and eight o'clock bell is called the "curfew beil," and the practice of ringing it is said to have been continued from the time of William the Conqueror, who, by one of his laws, ordered the people to put out their fires and lights, and go to bed at the eight o'clock curfew bell; and others affirmed it to be, for the purpose of summoning the people to their labours.

The practice of ringing a church "bell in the morning and evening is common in

1826.

June 5.

FIRST MONDAY IN JUNE.
Heriot's Hospital, Edinburgh.

A solemn festival in the Scottish me

tropolis is ordained by the "Statutes of George Heriot's Hospital," (cap. ii.) in the following words :-"But especially upon the first Monday in June, every year, shall be kept a solemn commemoration and thanksgiving unto God, in this form which followeth. In the morning. about eight of the clock of that day, the lord provost, all the ministers, magistrates, and ordinary council of the city of Edinburgh, shall assemble themselves in the committee-chamber of the said hospital; from thence, all the scholars and officers of the said hospital going before them two by two, they shall go, with all the solemnity that may be, to the Gray Friars church of the said city, where they shall hear a sermon preached by one of the said ministers, every one yearly in their courses, according to the antiquity of their ministry in the said city. The principal argument of the sermon shall be to these purposes: To give God thanks for the charitable maintenance which the poor maintained in the hospital received by the bounty of the said founder, of whom shall be made honourable mention. To exhort all men of ability, according to their means, to follow his example: To urge the necessity of good works, according to men's power, for the testimony of their faith: And to clear the doctrine of our church from all the calumnies of our adversaries, who give us out to be the impugners of good works. After the ser

For the Curfew Bell," and "Curfew,'

R. T.

see vol. i. p. 242, &c.

By appointment of the governors, Mr. Robert Douglas, one of the ministers of Edinburgh, preached a sermon on the first Monday of June, of the year 1659, in commemoration of the founder; for this sermon he received the sum of one hundred marks "to buy him books," agreeably to the statutes. From that time the usage has been continued annually, the ministers of Edinburgh preaching in rotation, according to their seniority of office, in the old Gray Friars church.

On this occasion the statue of the founder is fancifully decorated with flowers. Each of the boys receives a new suit of clothes; their relations and friends assemble; and the citizens, old and young, being admitted to view the hospital, the gaiety of the scene is highly gratifying.

It was formerly a custom with the boys to dress Heriot's statue with flowers on the first of May, and to renew them on this anniversary festival when they received their new clothes.*

It should seem, therefore, that the floral adornment of the statue annually on this day, is derived from its ancient dressing on the first of May.

The statue stands beneath the centre tower of the north or principal front, and over the middle of a vaulted archway leading to the court-yard of the hospital. Grose says, the Latin inscription above the figure signifies, "that Heriot's person was represented by that image, as his mind was by the surrounding foundatiou."

George Heriot was jeweller to king James VI., subsequently James I., of England. He was born about June, 1563, eldest son to George Heriot, one of the company of goldsmiths in Edinburgh. The elder Heriot died in 1610, having been a commissioner in the convention of estates and parliament of

* Gentleman's Magazine, 1745, p. 686.

Scotland, and a convener of the trades of Edinburgh at five different elections of the council. The goldsmiths were then the money-dealers in Scotland; they consequently ranked among the most respectable citizens, and to this profession the subject of this memoir was brought up by

his father.

It appears that so late as the year 1483, the goldsmiths of Edinburgh were classed with the "hammermen" or common smiths. They were subsequently separated, and an act of the town council on the twenty-ninth of August, 1581, conferred on the goldsmiths a monopoly of their trade, which VI., in the year 1586. was confirmed by a charter from James

A century afterwards, in 1687, James VII. invested the goldsmiths with the power of searching, inspecting, and trying all jewels set in gold, in every part of the kingdom; a license to destroy all false or counterfeit work; to punish the transgressors by imprisonment or fines, and seize the working tools of all unfree goldsmiths within the city.

In January, 1587, George Heriot married Christian, the daughter of Simon Marjoribanks, an Edinburgh merchant. On this occasion, his father gave him 1000 marks, with 500 more to fit out his shop and purchase implements and clothes, and he had 1075 marks with his wife. Their united fortunes amounted to about 2147. 118. 8d., which Heriot's last biographer says, was "a considerable sun in those days; but rendered much more useful by the prospect of his father's business, which would at this time naturally be transferred to the younger and more active man.”

In May, 1588, Heriot became a member of the incorporation of goldsmiths. "Scotland which was then an independent kingdom, with a court in the metropolis, though poor in general, was probably in a state not less favourable to the success of Heriot's occupation than at present. A rude magnificence peculiar to the age, atoned for want of elegance, by the massy splendour of its ornaments. The nobles were proud and extravagant when their fortunes would permit; and Ann of Denmark, the reigning queen, was fond of show and gallantry." During this period, Heriot was employed by the court. In 1597, he was made goldsmith to the

queen, and so declared "at the crosse, be opin proclamatione and sound of trumpet. Shortly after, he was appointed jeweller and goldsmith to the king, with a right to the lucrative privileges of that office.

Heriot rose to opulence, and lost his wife; he afterwards married Alison, eldest daughter of James Primrose, clerk to the privy-council, and grandfather of the first earl of Roseberry. On the accession of James to the throne of England, he followed the court to London, where he continued to reside almost constantly. He obtained eminence and wealth, and died there on the twelfth of February, 1624, in the sixtieth year of his age, and was buried at St. Martin's in the Fields.

Queen Ann of Denmark's Jewels.

In a volume of original accounts and vouchers relative to Heriot's transactions with the queen, there are several charges which illustrate the fashion of the times in these expensive decorations, viz.—

For making a brilliant in form of a ship.

For gold and making of a Valentine. A ring with a heart and a serpent, all set about with diamonds;

Two pendants made like moore's heads, and all sett with diamonds;

A ring with a single diamond, set in a heart betwixt two hands.

Two flies with diamonds.

A great ring in the form of a perssed eye and a perssed heart, all sett with diamonds.

One great ring, in forme of a frog, all set with diamonds, price two hundreth poundis.

A jewell in forme of a butterfly.

A pair of pendentis of two handis, and two serpentis hanging at them. A parrate of diamondis.

A ring of a love trophe set with diamondis.

Two rings, lyke black flowers, with a table diamond in each.

A daissie ring sett with a table diamond.

A jewell in fashione of a bay leaf, opening for a pictur, and set with diamondis on the one syde.

A pair of lizard pendantis, set with diamondis.

A jewell for a hatt, in forme of a bay leafe, all set with diamonds.

A little watch set all over with diamonds, 170l.

A ryng sett all over with diamondis, made in fashion of a lizard, 1207.

A ring set with 9 diamonds, and opening on the head with the king's picture in that.

MARGARET HARTSYDE.

In an account of "jewells and other furnishings," which were "sould and deliuered to the Queene's most excellent matie. from the xth. of April, 1607, to the xth. of February followinge, by George Heriote, her Highnes' jewellor," there is the following

"Item, deliuered to Margarett Hartsyde a ring sett all about with diamonds, and a table diamond on the head, which she gaue me to vnderstand was by her Mats. direction, price. xxx li."

This item in reference to Margaret Hartsyde is remarkable, because it ap pears that this female, who had been in the royal household, was tried in Edin. burgh on the 31st of May, 1608, for stealing a pearl, worth 1107. sterling belonging to the queen. She pretended

An anker sett with diamonds. A jewell in form of a honey-suckle. A pair of pendants, made lyke two drums, sett with diamondis.

A jewel, in forme of a jolley flower, sett with diamonds.

A jewell in forme of a horne of aboundance, set with 6 rose diamondis, and 12 table diamondis.

A ring of a burning heart set with diamondis.

A ring, in forme of a scallope shell, set with a table diamond, and opening on the head.

dolls for the amusement of the royal infants, and believed that the queen would never demand them; but it appeared that she used "great cunning and deceit in it," and disguised the jewels so as not to be easily known, and offered them to her majesty in sale. The king by special warrant declared her infamous, sentenced her to pay 4007. sterling as the value of the jewels, and condemned her to be imprisoned in Blackness castle till it was paid, and to confinement in Orkney during her life. In December, 1619, eleven years afterwards, "compeared the king's advocate, and produced a letter

London. It does not appear that he had childreh by either of his wives, but he had two illegitimate daughters. To one of these, named in his will as "Elizabeth Band, now an infant of the age of ten years or therabout, and remaining with Mr. Starkey at his house at Windsor," he gave his copyholds in Roehampton. To the other, whom he mentions as "Margaret Scot, being an infant about the age of four years, now remaining with one Rigden, a waterman, at his house in the parish of Fulham," he left his two freehold messuages in St. George's in the Fields, which he had lately purchased of sir Nicholas Fortescue, knight, and William Fortescue, his son: his leasehold terms in certain garden plots in that parish, held of the earl of Bedford, he bequeathed to Margaret Scot; and he directed 2001. to be laid out at interest, and paid to them severally when of age or married. He gave 10l. to the poor of St. Martin's parish, 201. to the French church there, and 30l. to Gilbert Primrose, preacher at that church; and after liberally providing for a great number of his relations, he bequeathed the residue of his estate to the provosts, bailiffs, ministers, and ordinary town-council of Edinburgh, for the time being, for and towards the founding and erecting of a hospital in the said town, and purchasing lands in perpetuity, to be employed in the main