Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

is the case only in the Archipelago. On the northern coast of Australia, where the best trepang is found, it is taken with a sort of diminutive harpoon, sometimes at the depth of seven or eight fathoms. In the Gulf of Carpentaria, the fishermen usually go out at low water, where it is practicable in places to wade out to a considerable distance, and take the fish with the hand. The trepang may almost be compared in consistence and flavour to a lobster, though in form it resembles a huge garden-slug. It is generally from fourteen inches to a foot in length, but runs sometimes to two feet, and eight or ten inches in circumference. The method of curing the trepang, and packing and sending it to China, it would be beside our present purpose to describe; but there is, perhaps, no more striking evidence of the influence exercised by the taste of one luxurious people on the industry of their neighbours than this fishery. It employs thousands of men from the comparatively northern island of Palawan, to the far distant Gulf of Carpentaria, all the strait, inlets, bays and creeks, on every favourable part of the whole ocean between being alive with prahus, divers, slicers, driers, box-makers, and packers; while the shores near the fishing-grounds are dotted with villages of sheds inhabited by this migratory population.

Another and still more important branch of industry carried on in the Indian Archipelago and the seas adjoining, is the whale-fishery, which has been said to occupy nearly 4000 English and American sailors, and to produce returns considerably exceeding a million sterling. Å favourite resort of the spermaceti whale is the vicinity of Sandalwood Island, and the narrow channel which separates Timor from Pantar and Ombai, entering through which it sports in great numbers in the sea of the Moluccas, round Seram, and Banda, and Amboyna, and Gilolo, where the air is sometimes oppressively sweet with perfumes, which when the wind blows off shore are scented far out at sea.

Among the tribes who contribute to impart life and animation to the channels and shores of this Archipelago, is that of the biajus or seagipsies, who, holding the land in

aversion, live perpetually in their prahus, descending from latitude to latitude according to the vicissitudes of the season, and the appearance or disappearance of the fish upon which chiefly they subsist. Generally, however, all the dwellers in the 12,000 islands who enjoy the advantages of a maritime situation, plough the waves with more pleasure than the earth, and are never so happy as when on the deck of a prahu. The navigator, consequently, beholds currents, as it were, of different populations pouring hither and thither perpetually, through the innumerable channels of the Archipelago; the Papuas, or black and crisp-haired race, ascending from more southern latitudes, and from an original seat wholly unknown, and verging constantly westward; while on the other hand, the infinitely varied races of the West, the Arabs, the Malays, the Bugis, and so on, display a decided tendency to push their conquests eastward, not by means of military expeditions, but by infiltrating themselves, as it were, into the thinly scattered communities existing in the farthermost division of the islands.

The soul of all this movement is commerce. No man rows a league without carrying in his boat something to sell or barter with the chance customers he may meet. Every body is a merchant on those seas; and the crews of vessels, instead of being hired servants, as in the West, are rather so many fraternities united by one common interest, each individual having a separate stake in the burden of the vessel he assists to navigate. This system of united adventures prevails so widely in that part of the world, that nearly all forms of industry rest upon it as their sole basis. Thus in the mines, whether of tin, gold, or any other metal, the Chinese who work them are all co-proprietors, and share equally the produce of their labour, shewing that the idea of joint-stock companies exists, however undeveloped, in the least known parts of the East. Nor are morals or manners at so low an ebb as might be supposed, among those remote island

[blocks in formation]

new and rare commodities often tempts his entertainers into acts of pilfering. It would not, of course, be safe to rely on the humanity of persons so little accustomed to ethical discipline; but upon the whole, the least refined races, that is to say, the Papuas, appear to be sociable and well disposed, if treated with the least show of kindness. Nearly all are intrepid navigators, trusting themselves to the most stormy seas in vessels of five or six tons, which are so well built, however, that they float like corks upon the waves. Their courage is no doubt greatly augmented by the immense profits of their rude trade, which often in the course of six or seven months exceed two hundred per cent. One reason of this is, that the adventurers, whatever may be the length of the voyage they meditate, need take with them but little provisions, which are every where so abundant and so cheap, that they may almost be said to cost nothing. Nearly all the islands abound with the sago palms, and loaves made from its delicious pith are every where to be procured baked hard like biscuit. These, with a little rice, are often a prahu's whole stock, as the crew depend for delicacies on the inexhaustible multitudes of fish found on all the coral reefs and shallows in the Archipelago.

Sometimes they carry along with them tea and coffee, and occasionally a supply of arrack, though the more prudent avoid this source of dissension and bloodshed.

From what has been said, it may, we think, be very fairly inferred, that the new emporium on Pulo Labuan will be flocked to by innumerable native traders, desirous of obtaining for purposes of traffic those useful wares which we alone can conveniently supply. For although the Dutch have in some instances set aside the rules of their exclusive commercial system, in the hope of enticing the Bugis to their ports, it is not to be expected that they can altogether throw off the habits of centuries in a day, and adopt that wise and liberal policy which has raised Singapore to opulence, which has attracted 30,000 Somáli and Arabs to the barren rock of Aden, and which has triumphed even over the dread of pestilence at Hong Kong. We expect great things from our new relations with the Indian Archipelago, where we shall, in the first place, find a prodigious outlet for our own manufactures, and, in the next, shall be able to strengthen greatly the impulse of civilisation, which already obviously exists through all the scattered races of that wonderful division of Asia.

HAM HOUSE IN THE DAYS OF THE CABAL.

Ir was a dreary summer, that of 18-, which I passed in a lodging at Petersham. My domicile was a carpenter's house close to Sudbrook Park, then the residence of Lord Huntingtower, since the Earl of Dysart, now the charming receptacle of decayed constitutions, the refuge of the dyspeptic, who fly to Dr. Ellis and his water-cure; and a fine English place it is, with its green lawns, and its cedars, and its noble planes, and its tulip-trees, and magnolias; and a fine place it was then.

Not far from the Teddington Ferry, a superb avenue of elms intersects the green meadow which reaches down to the strand.

Gates

there were and are; but these, whether from custom immemorial, or from the benignity of the then great lady of the precincts, these, at the period of which I speak, were left open; and boldly, yet silently, I treaded the pathway down the avenue.

I always paused in the centre, for thence was a view of the stately mansion of Ham. Now Ham, be it remembered, in Saxon, means mansion; and another celebrated old place, mouldering to decay, bears the same name at Chertsey, in Surrey. That, too, was a residence of Charles II., and it is often confounded with Ham and Hatch. That, too, sheltered the second James when he meditated his flight from England; and in its roof contained a chapel, and holes in its massive walls for his guards. But Ham, the abode of the Lauderdales and Dysarts, is as yet-Heaven knows how long it may be soin all its integrity, a wellconditioned tenement, the memento of things long passed by, the relic of the ambitious.

Day after day have I trampled down the autumnal leaves which bestrewed the pathway of that avenue, and walked musingly on until I came opposite to the mansion. It stands facing the river, a deep-sunk fence separating it from the field along which the avenue stretches. This house, still fresh in its red-brick hue as if erected yesterday, was built in 1610. Two

projections at either end contain the principal dwelling-rooms, the centre being occupied by the hall. The base of these projections opens into a sort of cloister, and probably in former times steps were there, leading into the flat garden or to the broad terrace below: but these no longer exist. Along either side of the house are walls, ornamented with bustsof the Cæsars, of course—in round niches, and behind the northern wall are extensive flower-gardens. But the front, old but not antique, complete in design, lofty and commanding, as it were, even the subsidiary avenue, arrest the attention, and fix it strongly upon that middle period when chivalry and feudalism had expired, when Rebellion had recently burnt out her last brand, and when the arts of faction had succeeded to the bold efforts of the warlike. I could stand there for a good half-hour, gazing upon the changeless busts, and upon the withering flowers below. All was then still as the grave, not an object was ever seen flitting across those latticed windows or standing within the cloisters; the voice of a peacock, within the walled gardens, startled me, I remember, as if James II. had called me; or, as if on the wave not afar off, the emissaries of William had summoned me to their barge.

A court, which doubtless was formerly the back entrance, is now the approach to the house, the grand approach having been manifestly from the avenue which intersects the common. Shameful innovation !— Our ancestors never slank into their homes, but drove proudly up to them, their outriders blowing their horns, as we learn from one of the letters imputed to the bad Lord Lyttelton, who pretended to regret having turned the corner on his uncle the bishop's coach, owing to the prelate's having no horns after him. And in dark nights, how fine must it have been to see a train of some half-dozen of flambeaux, held by running footmen,

carried after my lady, or her grace of Lauderdale, on her return from some gorgeous dinner or fashionable drive in the metropolis! But to return to the court. Most ignoble is it, turfed over with a pavé, exactly like a French road, in the centre. Some ancient trees grow in the enclosure, the ilex there displays its mournful verdure, and an ash of prodigious size throws up its branches even almost to the roof. A mean door, and a low step or two, form the entrance to the house.

"And this," thought I, "is the door of Ham House, where Clifford, and Ashley, and Buckingham, and Arlington, and Lauderdale, met in infamous communion; and where Heaven knows what of diablerie went on." I mused in the sunshine for awhile; my eyes rested on an old sun-dial, set there probably to mark the time to the grooms and hostlers, and conjectured that that instrument, too much disused in our modern pleasure-grounds, had probably stood there when the deist Shaftesbury or the debauchee Buckingham had dwelt at Ham their eyes had gazed upon it; and that pare and that tranquil court had been paced by quick footsteps, and those walls had echoed to the whispers of their plotting tongues; and here was the old house, in the nineteenth century, tenanted only by an aged lady, soon to be gathered to the home of her fathers.

We talk of the Cabal confidently, and the names of Shaftesbury and of Buckingham are as familiar to us as any in English history. Well, here in that old house were their meetings held, their schemes contrived. What, however, was the history of the structure in which the voices of the reprobate, and the casuistry of the profligate politicians of the seventeenth century were heard? Knowest thou, gentle reader? No. Neither did I, until I learned from long looking upon the old place to desire some knowledge of its origin, its rise; so that I yearned to penetrate into the very secrets of those ancient chambers which, in the days of the venerable countess, were so carefully immured from public inspection.

To begin from the very beginning. The manor of Ham has not, it seems, the honour of being mentioned in the Conqueror's survey of England.

King Athelstane had, indeed, granted lands there to his minister, Wulgar; but, in the reign of John, these reverted to the crown, and were given to Godfrey, bishop of Winchester. It was then valued at 67. per annum. In the reign of Edward I. another bishop (of Bath and Wells) had a certain interest in the warren of Ham; then a long period of darkness as to the fate of the manor, owing to the deficiency of records, succeeds; but, in the reign of James I., we find that it was again in possession of the crown; and that a fair mansion, built for the residence of the heir-apparent, Henry prince of Wales, was erected, and Ham House raised its stately head upon a plain meadow near the river tide. Wherefore Hach or Hatch was coupled to Ham does not appear. Now hach signifies in Saxon a gate; and it is conjectured that that part of Ham thus called took its name from a gate into the ancient park of Shene, for all about the place was royal: to the north was Richmond Park, and close by was Shene. Combe was also a royal demesne; and yet Ham was then, and still is, only an appendage-a hamlet to Kingston, just at two miles' dis

tance.

In the course of centuries, Ham owned a great variety of masters, mostly favoured servants of the monarchs, who gave away leases of the lands; and then, by some mysterious process, recovered them. It was tenanted by the Lords Lovel, the last of whom, a partisan of the house of York in the affair of Lambert Simnel, was slain at the battle of Stoke in 1487. It was bestowed by Henry VIII. on Anne of Cleves, for the maintenance of her royal dignity; she resigned it, however, to King Edward VI., dying calmly and respectably at Chelsea in 1537. (How much she must have laughed in her sleeve at her escape from the tyrant!) Ham was never graced, it seems, by her presence as a resident. It is, however, recited as a parcel of her jointure, in a decd whereby James II. conferred it on his eldest born, Henry, and to his heirs for ever.

But, alas! the poor prince had no heirs, but died only two years after the pompous settlement of this scrap of crown lands, and with its dependency, Crowel, a wooded islet

[ocr errors]

on the river, with its weir on the Thames, valued at 6s. yearly;-its windmill, valued at 17.; its dove-cot, at 5s., and its acres of rich pastureland, all mentioned in the various surveys taken: it was put into the hands of trustees in behalf of Charles prince of Wales, after the death of his brother.

It did not long continue in the hands of Charles; after his accession a wily Scotsman, William Murray, a descendant of a Lord Tullibardine, son of the rector of Dysart in Fife, obtained a grant, or a lease, of it from the king; he was raised to the dignity of a peer of Scotland, by the title of Baron Huntingtower and Earl of Dysart. Now, therefore, we approach the intelligible part of this annal, though I protest between the Dysarts, and the Tallemaches, and the Lauderdales, there seems, at first sight, a mighty confusion.

Elizabeth, the eldest daughter of the first Earl of Dysart, having married a Tallemache, took upon herself to produce all this ambiguity, by assuming the title of Countess of Dysart, and hence the family name was altered; and her marrying Sir Lionel Talmache was, it seems, altogether a mistake, her father having designed her for Sir Robert Murray, afterwards justice-clerk, and one of the original projectors of the Royal Society. Her husband did not live long enough to enjoy the reflected honour of her rank, nor to contend with what appears to have been an artful and imperious temper. He left her a widow, and a widow she long remained, until John carl of Lauderdale (represented by the letter L. in Cabal), to his sorrow, undertook the management of this clever, ambitious shrew.

The acquaintance between this well-matched, worldly couple began (no offence) years before the death of Sir Lionel Talmache, the first husband. The Earl of Lauderdale was married, it is true, to a daughter of the Earl of Home, and had a daughter; but, Scotchman and Presbyterian as he was, he was not so saintly as to abstain from a platonic with the Countess of Dysart, who had an absolute dominion over him. They quarrelled, it is true, for friendships of a questionable character are like a rope of sand; but upon the death of

Sir Lionel Talmache, Lady Dysart made up all differences, and lived on such terms with Lauderdale, that she broke, according to the slanderous Bishop Burnet, his poor wife's heart, and was successful enough both to drive her to Paris and to kill her by jealousy-a very sure poison. Lady Dysart then married Lord Lauderdale, whose history, by the way, requires some comment before I finish my vituperations against the countess. Yet, first, it is worth mentioning that Oliver Cromwell is said to have visited her in her husband's old house of Helmingham, not always in the most saintly spirit; and her influence over the Protector was supposed not to be the result of the highest virtue possible. But this may be the tale of party writers.

As a Maitland, the Earl of Lauderdale might be supposed to possess the integrity of that loyal race. He had, at all events, its ability. "He was," writes old Burnet, "a man of parts and learning, not of morals or imputed integrity; of an impetuous. spirit, a great promoter of arbitrary power, and, indeed, the underminer of episcopacy in Scotland, by laying it on a new foundation, the pleasure of the king." He was as universally hated and feared in England as in Scotland. Such was the public character of the man to whom Lady Dysart allied herself: and she did not improve his code of doubtful morality.

To go through the details of this unprincipled statesman's life were tedious. To be brief, he was a party to the bargain wherein Charles I. was sold by the Scots, though he afterwards inveighed against that transaction when it suited his purpose. He was the betrayer of that monarch at Carisbrooke, where, in one of his moments of weakness and despair, Charles, whose movements were well compared to the "doublings of the hunted hare," signed the Engagement. Latterly, however, Lauderdale suffered for the cause of Charles II. He accompanied that king on his march to England, was taken prisoner at the battle of Worcester, and underwent a confinement of nine years in the Tower, whence he was released in 1660 by General Monk. As a reward for his sufferings in the royal cause, he was

« AnteriorContinuar »