They accordingly took him up for a _magician_ and a _conjurer_, and
one that worked by the _Black Art_, that is to say, by the help of the
devil--and threatened to hang him; commencing a process against him in
their criminal courts; when the fear of the gallows induced Faustus
to _discover the secret_--that he had been a compositor to Koster of
Harlem, the first inventor of printing.
Gardening made a much slower progress among the ancients, than
architecture. The palace of Alcinous, in the seventh book of the
Odyssey, is grand and highly ornamented; but his garden is no better
than what we call a kitchen garden. This also Lady Frances excelled
in. She had also a receptacle for all sorts of animals to retire to
in their old age. It was of old the custom to bury the favourite dog
near the master. To use those of the brute creation who toil for our
pleasure, or labour for our profit, with hard and ungenerous treatment,
is a species of inhumanity which all men allow to be derogatory from
virtue. The authors of wanton cruelty towards the dumb creation, are
justly execrated for their brutality. It is a crime which I believe many
commit, without either considering the misery it _produces_, or the
guilt _it incurs_: and many more, who in fits of causeless or capricious
displeasure intend to inflict the misery, have yet no sense that they
incur guilt. Lady Frances makes use of buffaloes to draw her ploughs.
These animals are far stronger than oxen, and eat less. Why have we not
them in this country, and dromedaries and camels?
She cultivates India corn, which grows with vast reeds, which is of
great use; and has attempted the culture of rice, and some other things
upon boggy ground, with tolerable success. As our cork used to come from
France, and now grows in Italy, she has tried it here, where it thrives
amazingly; it resembles the evergreen oak, and bears acorns. When you
strip other trees of their bark, they die; but this grows stronger, and
produces a new coat. She leaves nothing unattempted which has a chance
of becoming useful. She also procured sheep from Norway, which are
peculiar from having four horns, and being spotted like deer, with a
coat of substance betwixt the hair and wool, which is admirable for many
uses.
Edward IV has been greatly censured, as taking a very impolitic and
injurious measure in making a present to the King of Spain of some
Cotswold sheep; the breed of which has been very detrimental to the
English woollen manufacture, which has been a national branch of trade
ever since. The celebrated Buffon affirms, that our sheep are very far
removed from their natural state; from which it has been the usual
course of things to decline.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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