THE ENGLISH COURT COSTUME.

Colonist, Issue 97, 24 September 1858, Page 4

THE ENGLISH COURT COSTUME.

|The London Times is almost as happy as \Punch in ridiculing; the court costume in 'England, ;which "has just drifted down jto the servant's hall and the carriage 'board." . The " Thunderer' 5 says :-—

There can be no objection to the Herald's tabard, to the time-honored custom of the Elizabethan Beeefeater, and to many other waifs and strays of antiquity that have been bequeathed to us by the older dynasties which have held sway in these realms. They add a certain degree of picturesque quaintness in our own court ceremonies, and are at least harmless and inoffensive.^ We would, not see ; a levee ;at St. James's, nor- a state reception at Palace, modielled upon the newest; fashion from Washington. : ilt must, however, be admitted that in England our practice involves a confusion, pf principles. Take, for instance, the dress which an English gentleman is bound to wear when he presents himself before his sovereign.* If this were an affair of trunk hose and slashed doublets, as in the days of .Elizabeth,- or of pointed shoes fastened up to the knees, as in still older times, at least we should" have:,gained something. A court" reception, as far as costume went, would be nearly as grand a sight as one of Mr. Charles Kean's happiest revivals at the Princess's Theatre. Besides Ithis immediate gain by the marked distincjtion drawn between the actual dress of the period and the dress which was obligatory upon courtiers on parade, we should certainly add greater statelmess and dignity .to the court ceremonies. This, however, is not; pur practice. On the other hand, we might sink all considerations which s lead to jiHe. adoption of an exceptional upon occasions ; of; court pageantry,; and English gentlemen Vto enjoy the ease'and com fort which they would derive from the use •of their ordinary dress—such dress as any% one of ; a;)dpzen dukes would wear in his own1 pajace. J This, hbweiver, is,riot our practice. .We neither ■} fall back upon antiquity,1 iior we enjoy the advantages of modern5 comfort. We don't go back two or thfee' ' centuries to find a really' beautiful Costume, nor are we content with the jdres's of an English gentletnan' such as iscpmpionly. worn by persons of that class in the year 1858: • -.!• 'A: ~ ;•■ ■.7 i '."- ': -.-■ . j For some years,past we have adhered,jtp a hybrid something, which is neither old nor neWi and which is pre-eminently; unsightly and ridiculous. The court dress, or; indeed the ordinary evening dress, of the early

George—is not a time-honored costume.:; It is, however, so remote from the ordinary form and fashion of the days in which we live, that it is an anomaly. It is so far from our customary habit, and yet it was worn so recently by all, that it has just drifted down to the servants hall and the carriagebdard; The masters have done with it— the rapier apart, it has been imposed upon; our footmeri. This is true as far as form is concerned'; in the bright and- dazzling; choice of colors, the footmen have' the advantage. But why should an English gentleman be compelled to to wear a rapier at the court of his sovereign, when, if he wore it anywhere else, it would constitute a very sound link in the chain of evidence which would consign him to a lunatic asylum? Nothing can be more ridiculous than the aspect of a poor unfortu-i nate individual who is compelled to' wear this ludicrous appendage twice or thrice a year, but who never wears it save on compulsion. Englishmen don't carry arms now-a-days; save at seasons of alarm about burglaries and garotte robberies,, and then they carry a revolver. Our cavalry do not carry svvords by their sides when they run in to se& the evening papers; why should a plain country gentleman be forced to. carry arms,.even; though they be arms of ceremony, when he presents himself at court? =

Rapidity of Communication.^—The 4ifference in the rapidity with which news is transmitted in the present day and formerly, is . strikingly exhibited in the following instances:—" The battle of Fontenbyj. in: j Louis the Fifteenth's time, was fought on 11th of May, 1745; the news.of it wa,s not known in Paris until; the 15th, four days after. The battle of Austerlitz, fought on the 2nd of December, 1805, was only announced in the MonUeur on the 12th,-the 'account having been brought to Paris by \ Colonel Lebrun, aide-de-camp to the. EmNapoleon the First, and the.detailed I report/ was riot published until the 16th.' :The' capiture /of Algiers took place on the 15tn , July, 1830, but was not' known" in I Paris until' the everjihgof the 13th. : • Thus, ■in 1745, it required four days/ to, know the result of an important battle fought at I only 75. leagues from the capital; [in; 1805 jit, took ten days to hear of: the (battle of .! Austerlitz; fought at a distance of about |400 leagues j.'anfcl in 1830 it required weight' jdays to receive intelligence from' Algiers; iln 1855 thirteen hours were sufficient-to rei ceive the news at Paris of tlie result of the isiege of Sevastopol, a place about 900 ! leagues; arid in 1858, only twenty-five 'days !to know in London what is taking place in India; at a distance of 5000 leagues, and two hours to transmit the Emperor's speech at the-opening of the Chambers, of unusual length, from Paris to Algiers." : . . ; ... ■ • JSjctmne Old Age. —There are certainly more things in old age than are dreamt 'of in our. philosophy. Flourens says 'riian is naturally a > centenarian, who may double : his term '- of life. "Old Pair" died by; accident, sounds hale v and hearty,; at the age of 152. The fact rests upon the most competent testimony possible—the public and scientific report of Dr. Harvey, the discoverer of the circulation of the blood,, and the founder of the science of ovology. And the other day one, James Nolan, is reported to have died in Ireland at the age of 115 or 116 years ot age. :• Now* very important physiological, moral, and social results; would be obtained were cases of this kind made the subjects' of scientific investigation jby physical and metaphysical ..students.' iThe following are the facts'asrecord^i in the, inewspaper paragraphs t-^Mr: James Nolan ■ jdied upon tne7;24tti ; of '[ April, . 185&. ."afc" iAuchmdrane, Carlow, Ireland, ..having jreached the age of 115 years;, and, nine jmonths. He was born in 1742. rAllihis faculties were preserved -to him until his death', his sight being nearly, perfect, and only his hearing.1 defective. There is something more interesting in these facts !than merely the oldest subject';of Her, Majesty, who had lived in the reigns of five Sovereigns of England.; No doubt it is curious to be carried back by two lives ;—Mr. Nolan and his father-—tothe reign of Charles Ili, ancl almost to the times of Cromwell. . But ftjlr. James Nolan, in as far as longevity is concerned, is the most extraordinary specimen of the; nominal species in our times and,island. And. very useful hints-for the guidance of human life iriight be: obtained from the complete investigation'Of the facts of the lives of men and women like him. The means, moreover, of satisfying a wholesome and useful1 curiosity exist in the case upon the s'potj for. it has been well said, all human knowledge, is represented in every village or parish in which there resides a clergyman a lawyer,; ancl a doctor. The lawyer could tell us the proofs which'establish the date of the birth of Mr. James Nolan in 1742; the doctor could describe to us his constitution, habits, diet, and precautions; and lastly, the clergyman could give us,an account of his moral dispositions—the most important considerations of all in regard to longevity. The remarks we have.made upon the case of Mr. James Nolan apply equally to the case of a woman who, according to the report of the RegistrarGeneral for the first quarter of this year, died the other day at Cawdor, in the county of Nairn, at the patriarchal age of 110 years. — Ghsgoiv Mail.

Snapdragons. —Human worldly iife is a game at snapdragons! Reader, cast up a few of your acquaintance on your fingers and thumbs, and say,—have we not propounded a truth subtle as light, and " deep almost as life"? Have we not,' by the magic of the sentence, brought to your memory the pushing, elbowing, scrambling, successful folks, who, intent upon the plums, have dashed their hands into the world's bowl, and clutched the savoury fruit ? And do you not now remember the weak and luckless,;whohave been pushed and pushed away from the feast, who havfe how plucked'up heart, and tried to scramble to; the bowl-^have now - gretspe&'^he htft plums, have carried them within hair's

— "■ ■ - & ~>- r• ' . breadth of their lips,—and- lo 1- they have been suddenly jerked, or pushed, or elbowed hence; the plums have dropped from their fingers, and, dejected and worn out, they have retired from the struggle, feeling that it was not for them that plums were gathered and the bowl was filled?— Douglas Jerrold.

Rarey Outdone. —Amongst the herd of remounts that were brought to Kirkee, arid Poonah, lately, was one most obstreperous little nag. A tall, six-feet, front-rank man, of the 3rd Dragoon Guards—a splendid specimen of the " old plunger," Vittoria an<] Albuera action boys—stepped up to the fractious little brute, and without much ado tucked the struggling creature under his brawny arms, and, amidst the cheers and laughter of the whole corps, carried him round the parade-ground, and set thfe astonished animal down again, as tamo as ever Mr. Rarey could have made him.— United Service Gazette.

The Aphis. —The ravages of this destructive insect are not so general in this neighborhood now as they were two months ago. Some fine patches of turnips, cabbage plants, radishes, &c, are totally free from damage, and it is hoped that the cereal crpps wilj also escape. Mr. D. Judsop, of St. John? street, some time back; tried an experiment for destroying the aphis in his garden, which has turned oufc perfectly; successful/as an inspection of the fine healthy plants .now ia his garden would" prove' to the satisfaction of those who are -waging a war of extermination against the whole/race of aphides. The remedy Mr. .Judson found effectual was to bake in an oven a quantity of river sand, which he scattered, while hot^ over the aphis on the blighted plants; next day life in the aphis was extinct, and .they gradually dropped from the plants, in which vegetation has progressed very.rapidlyever since. Several other.persons have tried the same remedy, and' with " equal success.-— Launceston Examiner..

Adventure in the Bush. — A few weeks ago' (says the Border Post) a man named James Heskett, went "on the spree," in Beechworth, arid dissipated a sum of £80. He was discharged from the lock-up, a poorer, if not a better man; and made his way to Bungoona station, where, he received temporary employment. iv lt; is supposed that his intellects had not yet sufficiently recovered the effects of his drinking 1 bout, fpr after working a day at Bungoona, 'he took to the bash; clad only in 1 a shirt and trousers. He • wandered about for' eleven days in a state of great suffering, subsisting entirely on water and the leaves, of the marsh mallow. Fortunately this' experience brought him to his senses,' and he' was attracted by smoke to,a spoj were sawyers were at work. On, reaching the sawyer's hut he was much' exhausted^-his feet severely lacerated, and the cold exercised a powerful effect on his system. The spot where he was picked up was only five miles distant from the corner of Mr. Bar-1 ber's fence, where Heskett had been' last seen before losing himself in' tne bush. The adventures of this man should operate as a " caution to sinners," and we leave the matter in the hands of the editor of the Temperance Times. '~.*-■< Curious Statistics. — The Liverpool AntiVermin Office. —Some idea ofthebusiness transacted in this establishment, „ and ata appreciation, may be gleaned from the fact that during the past year 2107 dwetlinghouses (including hotels and public institutions) and 397 ships or vessels,-were examined, contracted - for, .and cleared of vermin, (insect and quadruped vermin), 3650 letters were received and replied'to 3200 packages of goodsl were exported to' order thoughout the United Kingd&fi stn'd the Continent, and upwards' of 100,000' purchasers were'supplied with goocfe'at^the counter. The .ramifications of this extra-' ordinary department, heing" various,, and! extensive, branch offices being sesj^iblislied in almost all parts of Great Britain .and Ireland; if," therefore, the, aggregate; number of purchasers were known,, the total would appear enormous: It tnay.be observed that the Anti-Vermin office has actually received royal patronage,' and has had extended to its proprietor 1 a certain royal privilege. Its - numerous: patrons comprise all classes, of "whom' upwards of 50,000 have tenderedj their grateful; acknowledgments in favoVoftfre' utility and results of the anti T vermin'remedies, all of which are highly Mattering to Mr.1 Greer, the originator. - , i The celebrated painter and engraver, the veteran John Burnett, told the Philosophical Society, Newcastle-on-JJpyne,.recently, that if the profiles of Shajtspeare, Scott, .arid Burns were drawn, one could riot say which was which, so close would be the resemblance of the three. The necessity for waiter ing' the very' ridiculous old court costume was neveririore1 apparent vthan at "the last levee,' v^Hen'a' certain eccentric nobleman (but an especial' favorite at Court), entered the .'drawingroom in a scarlet lapelled coat, with large silver buttons the size of a jbalf-crown,, white satin waistcoat t embroidered -with ■ sprigs of jasmine, a pair ,of • black satin small-clothes with diamond' knee buckles, - liquid dye pink silk-stockings,1 with, did Devonshire clocks, long-quartered 'i shoes • with large square brilliant buckles {which' covered the whole of the lower* front'oorf r his' instep down to his toes) of Jimriiense 'value,' a shirt with a frill and ruffles "of lace,', his' hair pomatumed and ' powdered,' wiiji a grotesque toupee, three curls' pn^a side! and* tied up with a tremendous club behind! " ' The following dialogue is, reported ito' r have passed at the Queen's County! Assizes, between a medical witness and a barrister: —Mr. Hayes (tlie barrister) : "If a^pe*-. son lying, on wet straw were/deprived of all the comforts or necessaries iof Hfe^would it not hasten death ?"—Dn Edge V* 1 That * would greatly; 'depend oft wliejherjhfc lad ' * been accustomed»to them^WMri^HaVes: • «j Da you mean to tell'us rt|ia^fja^[son' r " lived in a horsepond.it would notbe^iWrioiis to him?"— Dr. Edge:" "I th^nog)f he' had lived for sixty or seventy years-Wit j" i