A SQUIRE OF THE OLDEN TIME.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 420, 16 October 1875, Page 4

A SQUIRE OF THE OLDEN TIME.

In the reign of Charles I, there lived in Dorsetshire “ a fine old English gentleman, one of the olden time,” of whom a singular record has been preserved. In gold letters, under an original portrait of Mr Hastings, at Winborne, St Giles, the following account is said to be “ production of the first Earl of Shaftesbury’s pen.” It gives a curious glimpse into English country life in the early part of the seventeenth century : In the year 1638 lived Mr Hastings, by his quality son, brother, and uncle to the Earl of Huntington, He was peradventure an original in our age, or rather the copy of our antient nobility, in hunting, not in warlike times. He was low, very strong, and very active, of a reddish flaxen hair; his cloaths were green cloth, and never worth when new £5.

His house was perfectly of the old fashion, in the midst of a large park, well stocked with deer, and near the house rabbits for his kitchen. Many £sh-ponds ; great store of wood and timber; a bowling green in it, long but narrow, full of high hedges, it being never levelled since it was ploughed ; they used round sand bowles, and it had a banquetting house, like a stand, a large one built in a tree. He kept all manner of sport hounds, that ran buck, fox, hare, otter, and badger, and hawkes, long and shortwinged. He had all sorts of nets for fish. He had a walk in the New Forest, and the manor of Christchurch; this last supplied him with red deer, sea and river fish ; and indeed all his neighbours’ grounds and royalties were free to him, who bestowed all his time on these sports. Whoever came to his house, found beef, pudding, and small beer in great plenty. The house was not so neatly kept as to shame him or his dirty shoes; the great hall strewn with marrow bones, full of hawkes, perches, hounds, spanniels, and terriers; the upper side of the hall hung with fox skins of this and the last year’s killing; here and there a pole cat intermixed ; gamekeepers’ and hunters’ poles in great abundance. The parlour was a large room as properly furnished. On the great hearth paved with brick, lay some terriers and the choicest hounds and spanniels. Seldom but two of the great chairs had litters of cats in them, which were not to be disturbed ; he having always three or four attending him at dinner, and a little white stick, of fourteen inches long, lying by his trencher, that he might defend such meat as he had no mind to part with to them. The windows, which were very large, served for places to lay his arrows, cross-bows, stone bows, and such like accoutrements; the corners of the yoom full of the best chosen hunting or

hawking poles ; his oyster table at the lower end, which was of constant use, twice a day, all the year round, for he never failed to eat oysters both dinner and supper time, all seasons; the neighbouring town of Poole supplied him with them. The upper part of the room had two small tables and a desk, on the one side of which was a church Bible, and on the other side the “ Book of Martyrs on the table were hawks’ hoods, bells, and such-like; two or three old hats with their crowns thrust in, so as to hold ten or a dozen eggs, which were of the pheasant kind of poultry ; these ho took much care of, and fed himself. Tables, dice, cards, and boxes, were not want ing. In the hole of the desk were store of tobacco pipes that had been used. One side of this end of the room was the door of the closet, wherein stood the strong beer and the wine, which never came from thence but in single glasses, that being the rule of the house strictly observed ; for he never exceeded in drink, nor permitted it. On the other side was the door of an old chapel not used for devotion ; the pulpit, as the safest place, was never wanting of a cold chine of beef, venison pasty, gammon of pasty, or a great apple-pye, with thick crust extremely baked. His table cost him not much, though it was good to eat at. His sports supplied all but beef and mutton, except Fridays, when he had the best of salt tish, as well as other fish he could get ; and this Avas the day his neighbours of the best quality visited him. He never wanted a London pudding, drank a glass or two of wine at meals ; very often put syrop of gillyflowers in his sack, and had always a tun glass without feet stood by him, holding a pint of small beer, which he often stirred with rosemary. He was wellnatured, but soon angry, calling his servants by the most opprobrious epithets. He lived to be 100, never lost his eyesight, but always wrote and read with spectacles, and got on horseback without help ; until past eighty he rode to the death of a stag as well as any.

Many people do not know the reason why some descriptions of soap, when being used, cause the hands to smart and feel sore. It is simply owing to the imperfect knowledge of some soap boilers, who not being thoroughly acquainted with the ingredients the} are using, do not compound them in a scientific manner, or as is more commonly the case, that manufacturers either try to pass off a spurious adulterated article, or else by using an undue quantity of the cheapest commodities, make one of inferior quality. We are aware that the Star Brand Soap is made on the strictest principles of chemical affinity, and that every care is taken by the manufacturers to produce an article possessing the strongest abstergent properties. All persons, whether old colonists or new arrivals, should use the Star Brand Soap, as it is the best in this market. [Advt.]