Ten Thousand Wonderful Things: Comprising whatever is marvellous and rare, curious, eccentric and extraordinary in all ages and nations
History
Ten Thousand Wonderful Things: Comprising whatever is marvellous and rare, curious, eccentric and extraordinary in all ages and nations
Curiosities and wonders; Encyclopedias and dictionaries; Folklore
The following is extracted from the register of St. Andrew's, in
Newcastle:--"April 24th, 1695, wear buried, James Archer and his son
Stephen, who, in the moneth of May, 1658, were drowned in a coal-pit
in the Galla-Flat, by the breaking in of water from an old waste. The
bodys were found intire, after they had lyen in the water 36 years and
11 months."
THE QUEEN BEE.
Reaumur relates the following anecdote of which he was a witness:--A
queen bee, and some of her attendants, were apparently drowned in a
brook. He took them out of the water, and found that neither the queen
bee, nor her attendants were quite dead. Reaumur exposed them to a
gentle heat, by which they were revived. The plebeian bees recovered
first. The moment they saw signs of animation in their queen, they
approached her, and bestowed upon her all the care in their power,
licking and rubbing her; and when the queen had acquired sufficient
force to move, they hummed aloud, as if in triumph!
DREAM OF KING HENRY I.
A singular dream, which happened to this monarch when passing over
to Normandy in 1130, has been depicted in a manuscript of Florence
of Worcester, in Corpus Christi College, Oxford. The rapacity and
oppressive taxation of his government, and the reflection forced on
him by his own unpopular measures, may have originated the vision. He
imagined himself to have been visited by the representatives of the
three most important grades of society--the husbandmen, the knights,
and the clergy--who gathered round his bed, and so fearfully menaced
him, that he awoke in great alarm, and, seizing his sword, loudly
called for his attendants. The drawings that accompany this narrative,
and represent each of these visions, appear to have been executed
shortly afterwards, and are valuable illustrations of the general
costume of the period. One of them is introduced in this place.
[Illustration: [++] King Henry I. Dreaming.]
The king is here seen sleeping; behind him stand three husbandmen,
one carrying a scythe, another a pitchfork, and the third a shovel.
They are each dressed in simple tunics, without girdles, with plain
close-fitting sleeves; the central one has a mantle fastened by a
plain brooch, leaving the right arm free. The beards of two of these
figures are as ample as those of their lords, this being an article
of fashionable indulgence within their means. The one with the scythe
wears a hat not unlike the felt hat still worn by his descendants in
the same grade: the scroll in his left hand is merely placed there to
contain the words he is supposed to utter to the king.
SEPULCHRAL BARROW OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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