to some of those dis-interments, who says that, “among a great number of rotten carcases, were found caskets full of Pardons, safely folded and lapt together, at the bottom of their graves."—Dr. Haddon's testimony is so respectable as not to admit of a doubt; neither could he have hazarded a bare assertion of this kind, when he was engaged in a controversy with Osoriò, Bishop of Silva, in Portugal, for the support of the Protestant Religion, the Professors of which were, till then, ignorant that the credulity of the people and the arrogance of the Church of Rome were carried to so great an extent. Hence, I am afraid, that when Pope Leo X. exultingly, though unguardedly, consoled himself with the wealth which The legendary Tale of Jesus Christ,' as he termed it, (his expression was “Quantas nobis divitias comparavit ista fabula Christi,") had brought to the Castle of St. Angelo, he spake the sentiments of every occupier of the Papal Chair:

Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum!"

LONDON FASHIONS,RAINBOW ruffs.

In a Sermon preached at Whitehall, before King James the First, on the occasion of the nuptials of James, Lord Hay, with the only daughter of Lord Denny, on Twelfth Day, 1607-8. The author, Robert Wilkinson, derived his text from the Proverbs, chap. xxxi. verse 14, namely, She is like a Merchant's Ship, she bringeth food from afar;'-and the grand object of his discourse was to trace points of resemblance between a Woman and a Ship. The following extract, having a direct reference to the female fashions of that period, will exemplify the manner in which this comparison was made.

"But of all qualities, a Woman must not have one quality of a Ship, and that is too much rigging. Oh! what a wonder it is to see a Ship under full sail, with her tacklings and her masts, and her tops and top gallants, with her upper decks and her nether decks, and so be-deckt with her streamers, flags, and ensigns, and I know not what: yea, what a world of wonders it is to see a Woman created in God's image, so miscreate oft times with her French, her Spanish, and her foolish fashions, that he that made her, when hee looks upon her shall hardly know her, with her plumes, her fannes, and a silken vizard, with a ruffe like a saile, yea, a ruffe like a Raine-bow, with a feather in her cap like a flag in her top, to tell (I think) which way the wind will blow."

LONDON SIGHTS. THE GIANT AND DWarf.

Stow, in his "Chronicle," under the date 1581, (24th of Queen Elizabeth) has recorded the extraordinary exhibition of two Dutchmen in London, in that year, one of whom was seven feet seven inches in height, and the other only three feet. Speaking of the former, he says, he was, " in breadth betwixt the shoulders, three quarters of a yard and an inch, the compasse of his breast one yard and a halfe and two inches, and about the wast one yard, quarter and one inch; "the length of his arm to the hand, a full yard." From these ineasurements we may assume that he was well proportioned; the Chronicler, indeed, adds that he was

a comely man of person, but lame of his legges," which he had broken "with lifting of a barrel of beer." The Dwarf was without knees, and had “never a good foot, and yet could he daunce a galliard."

He had no arms, "but a stumpe to the elbow, or little more, on the right side, on the which, singing, he would daunce a cup, and after tosse it about three or four times, and every time receive the same upon the said stumpe: he would shoote an arrow neare to the marke, flourish with a rapier, throw a bowle, beate with a hammer, hew with an axe, sound a trumpet, and drinke every day ten quarts of the best beere,if he could get it." Stow thus finishes his relation : "I myselfe, on the seventeenth of July, saw the taller man sitting on a bench, bare-headed, and the lesser standing on the same bench, and having on his head a hat with a feather, was yet the lower. Also the taller man standing on his feet, the lesser with his hat and feather on his head, went upright between his legs and touched him not."

SERJEANTS AT ARMS, ATTENDANT ON THE

LORD MAYOR.

In the late Mr. Pegge's very curious Dissertation on the Ancient Establishment and Functions of the Serjeants at Arms, which forms the 5th Part of the "Curialia," are some interesting particulars respecting the Serjeants anciently attendant on the Lord Mayor, but who, in more modern times, appear to have lost their original appellation for that of Serjeants at Mace.

That the Chief Magistrates of London were very anciently attended by Serjeants at Arms, as well as by various other officers, which the lapse of centuries and the alteration of customs have now rendered ob

solete, is unquestionable. The Serjeant is mentioned in a record of as early a date as the 20th of Edward the Third, anno 1346, who in answer to a Petition, (probably from the King's Serjeants,) representing that the Mayors of some Corporations, instead of Maces of Copper, had made use of Silver Maces, issued a command "that no person, belonging to any corporate body, within city, town, or elsewhere, should carry Maces of Silver except the King's Serjeants, and those of the City of London," and as a still greater honour, the latter were allowed to "carry their Maces of Silver before the Mayor, within the Liberties of London, in the presence of the King." This privilege was extended by the Letters Patent of the same monarch, in the 28th of his reign, which empowered the City to have Maces of Gold or Silver or silvered, or garnished, borne by its Serjeants before the Mayor, Sheriffs, and Aldermen, every where within the City, its Suburbs, and Liberties, in the County of Middlesex; and also without the City when attending the King, or any of the Royal Family, or when executing the duties of their office, in the same manner as the King's own Serjeants were privileged to carry them. It was probably on this occasion, or in consequence of this grant, that our City Magistrate was first dignified by the title of Lord Mayor;-a supposition which receives support from the circumstance of Richard the Second having or

• Vide Cotton's "Records," edit. 1657; and Coke's " In stitutes," Vol. iv. p. 252.

dered the Mayor of York to be styled the Lord Mayor when he presented that city with his own sword, to be borne as a mace, in 1389; which was about four years before he granted the liberty of carrying the Mace itself to that corporation.*

Mr. Pegge, after speaking of the Serjeants at Arms, attending on the Lord Chancellor, the Lord Treasurer, and the Speaker of the House of Commons, refers to the permission granted to the City of London of having its Mace borne before the Mayor in the presence of the King, and proceeds thus:

"This was a very high and exclusive privilege; for none of the Great Officers, before-mentioned, have the Mace borne in the Royal Presence, and though King Richard II. granted to the Mayor of York, the honour of having a Mace borne before him on common occasions, withit his jurisdiction, yet the grant says that, 'when the King is present, the Mayor shall bear the Mace himself, in quality of a Serjeant at Arms,' Here we see the Lord Mayor of York himself, occasionally a Serjeant at Arms; but, afterwards, in the reign of King Richard III., the Lord Mayor, for the time being, was actually appointed chief Serjeant at Arms to the King, with the fee of 181. 5s. per annum, (or ls. per diem,) the then salary of all the King's Serjeants. This, it must be confessed, was a high honour conferred upon the Lord Mayor of York: but, at the same time it falls very short of the antient dignity which belonged to the Lord Mayor

Vide Drake's "Eboracum," and Torr's "Antiquities of York."

+ This grant to the Lord Mayor of York, may be seen in Rymer's "Fœdera," tom. xii. p. 258.