of the law, in whose possession it has continued ever since. Tower (White,) was founded by William the Conqueror in 1078, and in 1190 it was compassed with a wall and ditch. It was almost new built in 1637-8. Wild beasts were first kept there in 1285; three leopards being then sent by the emperor to Henry the Third. Gold was first coined there in 1344, and criminals were first executed on Tower Hill in 1466. Westminster Abbey, (See Frontispiece,) was built by Henry the Third, and finished after fifty years' labour, in 1220. Henry VII. built his chapel on the east side in 1502, at 14,000l. expense. It was made a collegiate church by Queen Elizabeth, in 1559, who at the same time founded the school. Westminster Hall was built by William Rufus, about 1097. The king's palace, of which this was a part, was burnt in 1512. The courts of law were fixed there in 1224. Whitehall was so named by Henry the Eighth, on its being forfeited to him by Cardinal Wolsey's attainder. It was before called York Place, and was the palace of the Archbishop of York. It was the resi dence of the king till 1697, when it was burnt down. Whitehall Chapel was formerly the king's banqueting house, and is all that remains of the palace there, to which it was added by James the First, according to a design of Inigo Jones. Ash-Wednesday. This particular day was termed Ash-Wednesday from the custom which was observed in the ancient church, of penitents' appearing publicly in sackcloth and ashes, in token of their humiliation. In the time of Henry the Eighth, it is remarked in Fuller's Church History, that the custom of giving ashes on Ash-Wednesday, to put every man in remembrance that he is but ashes and earth, and thereto shall return, was almost the only Catholic superstition which survived the shock of Reformation. Muck, or running a Muek, Is a practice that has prevailed time immemorial in Batavia. To run a muck, in the original sense of the word, is to get intoxicated with opium, and then rush into the street with a drawn weapon, and kill any one that comes in the way, till the party is him self either killed or taken prisoner. If the of ficer takes one of these amocks or mohawks (as they have been called by an easy corruption) alive, he has a considerable reward, and the unhappy wretches are always broken alive on the wheel: but such is the fury of their desperation, that three out of four are necessarily destroyed in attempting to secure them. From this horrid custom, most probably originated the common vulgar expression of muck sweat, applied to persons when in a grest heat of body, occasioned by exercise, &c. Palm-Branches, ancient custom of wearing. The palm branch, or palm tree, was anciently used as an emblem of victory, being carried before the conqueror in processions and rejoicings for having overthrown thefenemy. It was also presented to the kings of Syria as a token of submission, or a kind of present, or token. This tree was very common about Jericho; from one common root it produces a great many suckers, which, by their spreading, form a small forest upwards, to which the prophet alludes, when he says "The righteous shall flourish like a palmtree." It produces its leaves like hair upon the top of its trunk: there are two sorts, the male and female; the male renders the other fruitful by means of a flower which is enclosed in its fruit; the leaves turn round like curls in hair, and their extremities hang down towards the ground. Newspapers, when first published. Newspapers were first published in England August 22d, 1642. Journal des Savans, a French paper, was first published in 1665, though one was printed in England under the title of the Public Intelligencer, by Sir Roger L'Estrange, 1663, which he dropped on the publication of the first London Gazette. Newspapers and pamphlets were prohibited by royal proclamation, 1680. Though at the revolution prohibitions of this kind were done away, and the press set at liberty; yet newspapers were afterwards made objects of taxation, and for this purpose were first stamped in 1713, and the number of them has been gradually increasing ever since. |