Page images
PDF
EPUB

they sow their rice at the beginning of the rainy season. In many places they do not even give themselves the trouble of sowing. They leave some ears standing, the grains of which fall, and sow themselves.

Physicians enjoy great respect in this country, though their science is confined to the knowledge of a few aromatic plants. They are never sent for, however, till the illness becomes serious; and a plaister, made of a very large kind of peas, mixed with lime, has been applied to the part affected, which is their universal remedy. When a person is extremely ill, they suspend the branch of a tree over the door, as a signal that no one will be admitted but the physician, and those whose attendance is necessary.

Sometimes, as a last resource, the doctor has recourse to bleeding, which he performs in a singular manner: he first applies the large end of an ox horn to the part which he supposes to be the seat of the malady; he then, by means of a hole bored in the small end, exhausts the air with his mouth, which attracts the blood to the part; after this he takes a blunt knife, the point of which is bent back, makes several scarifications, and puts on the horn a second time.

The island of Madagascar is divided into a multitude of petty sovereignties; each village has its chief, who is independent, and whose dignity is hereditary.

The dian, or chief, can do nothing without assembling a council, at which strangers, and even enemies, may assist. Every one gives his opinion, speaking according to order of rank, and never are two voices heard together.

If this country were inhabited by Europeans it would,

perhaps, be the finest, richest, and most powerful in the world. Mountains are found in it of quartz and rock crystal; mines of gold, silver, copper, precious stones, and amber; and many beasts, birds, and reptiles, little known to us, as well as vegetable productions, which might be of the greatest service to mankind.

BRIGHTON, AND THE BATHING WORLD.

A leap into salt waters very often gives a new motion to the spirits, and a new turn to the blood.--ADDISON,

ABOUT sixty years ago, Brighton consisted of a few thatched, fishermen's huts, a considerable number of which were in ruins. A Sussex farmer, now living, who at that time had never seen the sea, remembers his journey thither; when his breakfast came only to three pence, an excellent dinner of beef-steaks to sixpence, and the remainder of the shilling went to pay for his horse and the ostler: to use his own expression, "they were so unaccustomed to the sight of a stranger, that they made, Sir, as great to do with me as if I had been the king's son."

The first patron of Brighton was Dr. Russel, who then resided at Malling, near Lewes; and one of the first patients whom he sent to bathe, was the wife of the late Rev. William Clarke, residentiary of Chichester. A letter, descriptive of Brighton at that time, by that learned divine, has been preserved by Nicholls, in his Miscellaneous Tracts, relative to Mr. Bowyer and his friends. Mr. Clarke had the best house in Brighton at the rate of five shillings per week.

The town of Brighton is built on what is called the` waste, and its inhabitants acknowledge themselves to be a lawless set, since they have no act under which any magistrate can think himself sufficiently protected, should he attempt to enforce a little more decorum than at present is observed. The only act they have was passed about forty years ago, when Brighton was little better than a village of fishermen, and, I believe, was principally drawn by Mr. Scrase. Owing to this circumstance the limits of male and female bathing have got strangely blended together; and many other abuses are tolerated, of which all complain, though no one has sufficient courage to oppose them. The late Sir Godfrey Webster endeavoured to remedy some of these evils, and experienced not only opposition, but the grossest

abuse.

The natives of Sussex, as they have been termed by one of their noble magistrates, have a wonderful antipathy to all improvement*; and I really knew a patriotic and zealous country gentleman, whose soul was deliberately sent into the hottest regions of the Enfers, because he attempted to have the children of his parish instructed at his own expence: "it was very hard," they exclaimed, "to have their children obliged to go to school whether they liked it or not:"-while others affirm, "that it was solely done, in order to bring up girls for the squire, and that the boys might be sent to Botany Bay." Not long since some of the Sussex county bankers, wishing to remit a large quantity of

When the turnpikes, for instance, were first introduced, they met in Sussex with a long and decided opposition.

bank notes to town, they very wisely cut them in halves, and then sent them by the same post: unfortunately the mail was robbed, and the poor bankers in jeopardy, resolved to procure wisdom by experience.

The ignorance and selfishness which pervade the greater portion of this part of Sussex has appeared continually in the manners of the inhabitants of Brighton. The country swarms with attorneys, (one small town in the vicinity of Brighton, containing fifteen); it also abounds with democrats*, with opulent, petty shopkeepers, and would-be gemmen. In the Weald hardly a scholar or a man of science is to be found, even among the clergy.

It was the observation of my predecessor, Le Rèveur, "that a celebrated prelate, returning one morning from his usual ride to see what was passing upon the Steine, a gentleman accosted him, and asked what he had seen at Brighton. "Seen!" exclaimed the prelate, "what one always sees there; a number of men looking at their watches and talking about the weather!"

One of the great blessings with those who resort to Brighton, is to be occupied without any determined object of employment. It is contrary to marine ton, to have made the smallest arrangement for the ensuing morning, but to be prepared for any pursuit the vis in-' ertia of the moment may dictate. These busy bodies, (for, in proportion as a man has nothing to do, he al

* Their prevalence in a village not from Brighton was lately mentioned to the lord lieutenant of the county, at one of their public meetings respecting the military.

ways appears most busy), accordingly dresses in trowsers, to be ready for a sailing party; put on gaiters, that the dust may not prove troublesome, should a walk be proposed; and are seldom without their spurs, in case an equestrian lounge should seem preferable.

I remember the time when the library at the end of the Steine was kept in such order, that none of what are now termed Ladies of Fashion were even suffered to subscribe; or, if at any time their names, through inadvertency, had got on the list, their money was immediately returned. I do not mean to assume a sternness inconsistent with the sentimental laxity of the age; but I think these ladies might be kept in a little better order, and not swarm, as they do at present, like the flies with which the place abounds. They even begin to appear in the public ball-rooms, and throng in numbers to the fire-works and dances at the Promenade grove. Venus certainly reigns with too despotic a sway at Brighton....

Every one who has attended it, must remember the harper who formerly resided in the small house at the end of the south Parade. As I had often been delighted with his minstrelsy, I one day enquired for my old acquaintance; and found that, after having carried on a trade in Tunbridge ware in the inland part of the country, by means of a caravan, he next year employed the same caravan to carry off all his effects; leaving his creditors completely in the lurch: however, during a subsequent excursion on the continent, this son of Apollo, or Mercury, met with his deserts, and is now lying peaceably with his wife at the bottom of one of the fords in Holland, in crossing which they were drowned.....

« PreviousContinue »