THE GATHERER.
Reading edition
A snapper up of unconsidered trifles. SHAKSPEARE
EPITAPH ON STERNE.
How often wrongs our nomenclature, How our names differ from our nature, ’Tis easy to discern: “Here lies the quintessence of wit, For mirth and humour none so fit, And yet men call him—Stern—e!”
LADIES FORMERLY IN PARLIAMENT.
(For the Mirror.)
Gurdon, in his Antiquities of Parliaments, says, “The ladies of birth and quality sat in council with the Saxon Wita’s.” “The Abbess Hilda (says Bede,) presided in an ecclesiastical synod.”
“In Wighfred’s great council at Beconceld, A.D. 694, the abbesses sat and deliberated, and five of them signed the decrees of that council along with the king, bishops, and nobles.”
“King Edgar’s charter to the Abbey of Crowland, A.D. 961, was with the consent of the nobles and abbesses, who subscribed the charter.”
“In Henry the Third’s and Edward the First’s time, four abbesses were summoned to parliament, viz. of Shaftesbury, Berking, St. Mary of Winchester, and of Wilton.”
“In the 35th of Edward III. were summoned by writ to parliament, to appear there by their proxies, viz. Mary Countess of Norfolk, Alienor Countess of Ormond, Anna Despenser, Phillippa Countess of March, Johanna Fitz Water, Agneta Countess of Pembroke, Mary de St. Paul Countess of Pembroke, Margaret de Roos, Matilda Countess of Oxford, Catherine Countess of Athol. These ladies were called Ad Colloquium et Tractatum, by their proxies, a privilege peculiar to the peerage to appear and act by proxy.”
P.T.W.
N.B. They no doubt manfully asserted their colloquial rights.
FASTING.
From a very old work, "Noble Numbers."
Is this a feast to keep, The larder leane, And clean, From fat of veales and sheep? Is it to quit the dish Of flesh yet still To fill The platter high with fish? Is it to fast an hour, Or, ragged to go Or show A downcast look or snore? No, ’tis a fast to dole Thy sheaf of wheat And meat Unto the hungry soul. It is to fast from strife, From old debate And hate; To circumcise thy life. To show a heart grief rent, To starve thy sin, Not bin; And that’s to keep thy Lent.
ANNUAL OF SCIENCE.
This Day is published, price 5s.
ARCANA of SCIENCE, and ANNUAL REGISTER of the USEFUL ARTS for 1831.
Comprising POPULAR INVENTIONS, IMPROVEMENTS, and DISCOVERIES Abridged from the Transactions of Public Societies and Scientific Journals of the past year. With several Engravings.
“One of the best and cheapest books of the day.”—Mag. Nat. Hist.
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