that, is brittle when chewed. It of a hazel nut. It was used in medicine only. is beneficial to the bowels and sto. mach, if taken dissolved in water; and is also useful in diseases of the bladder and kidneys, Being sprin. kled on the eye, it removes those substances that obscure the sight." The above is the first account I have seen of the medicinal virtues of sugar. Galen appears to have been well acquainted with sugar, which he describes, nearly as Dioscorides had done, as a kind of honey, call. ed Sacchar, that came from India, and Arabia Felix, and concreted in reeds. He describes it as less sweet than honey, but of similar qualities, as detergent, desiccative, and digerent. He remarks a difference, however, in that sugar is not like honey injurious to the stomach, or productive of thirst. If the third book of Galen, "Upon medicines that may be easily procured," be genuine, we have reason to think sugar could not be a scarce article, as it is there repeatedly prescribed. Lucan alludes to sugar, in his third book, where he speaks of the sweet juices èxpressed from reeds, which were drank by the people of India. Seneca, the philosopher, likewise speaks of an oily sweet juice in reeds, which probably was sugar. Pliny was better acquainted with this substance, which he calls by the name of Saccaron; and says, that it was brought from Arabia and India, but the best from the latter country. He describes it as a kind of honey, obtained from reeds, of a white colour, resembling gum, and brittle when pressed by the teeth, and found in pieces of the size Salmatius, in his Plinianæ Exercitationes, says, that Pliny relates, upon the authority of Juba the historian, that some reeds grew in the Fortunate Islands, which increased to the size of trees, and yielded a liquor that was sweet and agrecable to the palate. This plant he concludes to be the sugar cane; but I think the passage in Pliny scarcely implies so much.Hitherto we have had no account of any artificial preparation of sugar, by boiling or otherwise; but there is a passage in Statius, that seems, if the reading be genuine, to allude to the boiling of sugar, and is thought to refer immediately thereto by Stephens in his The. Arrian in his Periplus of the Red Sea, speaks of the honey from reeds, called Sacchar (Eaxag) as one of the articles of trade between Ariace and Barygaza, two places of the hither India, and some of the ports on the Red Sea. Elian, in his Natural History, speaks of a kind of honey, which was pressed from reeds, that grew among the Prasii, a people that lived near the Ganges. Tertullian also speaks of sugar, in his book De Iduicio Dei, as a kind of honey procured from canes. Alexander Aphrodisæus appears to have been acquainted with su gar, which was, in his time, regarded as an Indian 'production. He says, "that what the Indians called sugar, was a concretion of honey, in reeds, resembling grains of salt, of a white colour, and brittle, and possessing a detergent and purgative power like to honey, honey; and which being boiled, in the same manner as honey, is rep dered less purgative, without im pairing its nutritive quality." Pauius gincta speaks of sugar, as growing, in his time, in Europe, and also as brought from Arabia Felix; the latter of which he seems to think less sweet than the sugar produced in Europe, and neither injurious to the stomach nor causing thirst, as the European sugar was apt to do. Achmet, a writer, who, accord. ing to some, lived about the year 830, speaks familiarly of sugar, as common in his time. Avicenna, the Arab physician, speaks of sugar as being a produce of reeds; but it appears he meant the sugar called Tabaxir er Tab. barzet, at he calls it by that name. It does not appear, that any of the above mentioned writers knew of the method of preparing sugar, by boiling down the juice of the reeds to a consistence. It is also thought, the sugar they had was not procured from the sugar cane in use at present, but from another of a larger size, called Tabbarzet by Avicenna, which is the Arundo Arbor of Caspar Bauhin, the Succa Mambur of later writers, and te Arunb Bambs of Linnæus. This yields a sweet milky juice, and oftentimes a hard crystallized mat. ter, exactly resembling sugar, both in taste and appearance. The historians of the Crusades make the next mention of sugar, of any that have fallen under my observation. The author of the Historia Hierosolymitana says, that the Cru. şaders found in Syria certain reeds called Canameles, of which it was reported a kind of wild honey was made; but does not say that he saw any so manufactured. Albertus Agnensis relates, that about the same period, "the Crusaders found sweet hopeyed reeds in great quantity, in the meadows about Tripoli, in Syria, which reeds were called Zucra. These the people (the Crusaders army) sucked, and were much pleased with the sweet taste of them, with which they could scarcely be satisfied. This plant (the author tells us) is cultivated with great labour of the husbandmen every year. At the time of harvest they bruise it, when ripe, in mortars; and set by the strained juices in vessels, till it is concreted in form of snow, or of white salt. This, when scraped, they mix with bread, or rub it with water, and take it as pottage; and it is to them more wholesome and pleasing than the honey of bees. The people who were engaged in the sieges of Albaria Marra, and Archas, and suffered dreadful hunger, were much refreshed hereby." The same author, in the account of the reign of Baldwin, mentions eleven camels, laden with sugar, being taken by the Crusaders, so that it must have been made in considerable quantity. Jacobus de Vitriaco mentions, that in Syria reeds grow that are full of honey, by which he under stands a sweet juice, which by the pressure of a screw engine, and concreted by fire, becomes sugar." This is the first account I have met with of the employment of heat or fire in the making of sugar. About the same period, Willermus Tyrensis speaks of sugar as made in the neighbourhood of Tyre, and and sent from thence to the farthest parts of the world. Marinus Sanutus mentions, that in the countries subject to the Sultan, sugar was produced in large quantity, and that it likewise was made in Cyprus, Rhodes, Amorea, Marta, Sicily, and other places belonging to the Christians. Hugo Falcandus, an author who wrote about the time of the emperor Frederic Barbarossa, speaks of sugar being in his time produced in great quantity in Sicily. It appears to have been used in two states; one wherein the juice was boiled down to the consistence of honey, and another where it was boiled farther, so as to form a solid body of sugar. The foregoing are all the passages that have occurred to my reading on this subject. They are but few and inconsiderable, but may save trouble to others, who are willing to make a deeper inquiry into the history of this substance. Jan. 24, 1790. Account of Poetry in Scotland, during the Sixteenth Century. From Dr. Henry's History of Great Britain. In Scotland, poetry, such as Chaucer might acknowledge, and Spenser imitate, was cultivated in a language superior to Chaucer's. Dun. bar and Douglas were distinguished poets, whose genius would have reflected lustre on a happier period, and whose works, though partly obscured by age, are perused with pleasure even in a dialect consigned to rustics. Dunbar, an ecclesiastic, at least an expectant of church preferment, seems to have languished at the court of James IV. whose marriage with Margaret of England he has celebrated in the Thistle and the Rose; an happy allegory, by which the vulgar topics of an epithalamium are judiciously avoid. ed, and exhortation and eulogy delicately insinuated. The versification of the poem is harmonious, the stanza artificial and pleasing, the language copious and selected, the narrative diversified, rising of ten to dramatic energy. The poem from its subject is descriptive, but Dunbar improves the most luxu riant description by an intermixture of imagery, sentiments, and moral observation. The following is a specimen : The purpour sone, with tendir bemy's reid, In orient bricht as angell did appeir, Throw goldin skyis putting up his heid, Quhois gilt, tressi schone so wondir cleir, That all the world tuke comfort, The Golden Terge is another al legorical poem of Dunbar's, constructed in a stanza similar to Spenser's, but more artificial, and far more difficult. In description perhaps it excels, in sentiment it scarcely equals the Thistle and Rose. Its narrative is not intercharged with dialogue; its allegory refers to the passions, the dominion of beauty, the subjection of reason, and is less fortunate than the This de and Rose, whose occult and secondary signification is an histori. cal truth, that subsists apart, and however embellished, cannot be ob. scured by the ostensible emblem. When the passions, or the mental powers are personified and involv. ed in action, we pursue the tale, forgetful of their abstraction, to which it is relative; but to remedy this, the Golden Terge has a merit in its brevity which few allegorical poems possess. The allegorical genius of our ancient poetry dis. covers often a sublime invention; but it has intercepted what is now more valuable, the representation of genuine character and of the inancers peculiar to ancient life. These manners Dunbar has sometimes delineated with humour, in poems lately retrieved from oblivion t; and from them he appears in the new light of a skilful satirist and an attentive observer of hu man nature. Gawin Douglas, his contempo. rary, was more conspicuous by the rare union of birth and learning, and is still distinguished as the first poetical translator of the classics in Britain. Early in youth he translated Ovid's de Remedio Amoris (a work that has perished); at a maturer age, Virgil's Eneid into Scottish heroics ; a translation popular till superseded at the close of the last century by others more elegant, not more faithful, nor perhaps more spirited . His original poems are King Heart and the' Palace of Honour, allegories too much protracted, though marked throughout with a vivid invention; but his most valuable performances are prologues to the books of his Eneid; stored occasionally with exquisite description. As a poet he is inferior to Dunbar, neither so tender nor so various in his pow. ers. His taste and judgment are less correct, and his verses less polished. The one describes by se lecting, the other by accumulating images, but with such success. His prologues descriptive of the winter solstice, of a morning and evening in summer, transport the mind to the seasons they delineate, teach it to sympathize with the poet's, and to watch with his the minutest changes' that nature exhibits. These are the earliest poems professedly descriptive; but in description Scottish poets are rich beyond. belief, Their language swells with the subject, depicting nature with the brightest and happiest selection of colours. language of modern poetry is more intelligible, not so luxuriant, nor the terms so harmonious. De The * Like Spenser's, it consists of nine verses, restricted however to two rhimes in. stead of three, which Spenser's admits of. Vide his poems in Pinkerton's Collection. It was finished in sixteen months; and, till Dryden's appeared, seems to have been received as a standard translation: till then it was certainly the best translation. scription scription is still the characteristic, be much, being in general between and has ever been the principal excellence of Scottish poets; on whom, though grossly ignorant of human nature, the poetical mantle of Dunbar and Douglas has successively descended*. Extract from an account of the Col legiate Chapel of St. Stephen, Westminster. KING William Rufus built the royal palace at Westminster; and, according to Stow, king Stephen erected this religious structure, in honour of St. Stephen, the protomartyr. King Edward I. how ever, seems to have rebuilt this chapel; for, in the 20th year of his reign, the 28th of April, 1292, the works of the new chapel began, and continued for more than two years. An account of the expence of these operations is preserved in roils of weekly payments remaining in the exchequer, which I have been indulged with the perusal of, by our learned brother, Craven Ord, esq. F. R. S. These curious rolls contain the articles purchased with. in the week, and the daily payments to each workman of every deno mination. The several articles bought are stated; then follow the payments to workmen. They are too minute to be here enumerated, but these are apparent-to carpenters five pence each per day;-to other workmen three pence halfpenny; -some three pence ;-some two pence halfpenny each. Although the amount of each separate week does not appear to twenty and thirty pounds, yet, from the length of time which the works continued, the cost of the whole must have been very considerable. Whether king Edward I. com. pleted his designs in beautifying this structure, we are not informed; but if he had, his labours were soon after unfortunately rendered abortive; for, we are told by a very accurate chronicler, Stow-"that on the 29th of March, 1298, a vehement fire being kindled in the lesser hall of the king's palace at Westminster, the flame thereof be ing driven with the wind, fired the monastery adjoining: which, with the palace were both consumed." This disastrous event could not be repaired for some time following: for Edward I. being almost con stantly engaged, in the latter part of his reign, either in external wars, or in the conquest of Scotland, the prevailing object in the mind of that monarch, he cannot be supposed to have had either fei sure or wealth to bestow on works. of art; and the weak and turbulent reign of his son Edward II. did、 not allow much time for domestic improvements. But early in the succeeding reign this building engaged the royal attention; for, on the 27th May, 1330, 4 Edw. III. the works on this chapel again commenced. The comptroller's rol! of the expence of these operations, for near three years, is remaining in the king's remembrancer's office, in the exchequer. The length of this-account will not allow of the whole to be here inserted; but it is extremely curious because, it preserves the Other poets of inferior reputation flourished during this period in Scotland; but it is the purport of this history to record the progressive improvements, not the stationary merit of poetry. names |