Page:Blackwood's Magazine volume 001.djvu/136

134 curious subject of research, and might throw considerable light on the manners and institutions of our ancestors, to investigate thoroughly the history of this singular fashion, and to mark the different changes which an individual of talent and enterprise was allowed to make in taking up his position at table, according to the increase of his wealth and consequent utility, and the effects of such changes on his general habits, and on the behaviour of those who were formerly his companions in obscurity.

The passages quoted by J. M. from that most curious work, the Memorie of the Somervilles, clearly demonstrate the wide distinction of rank that existed in this country at comparatively a recent period, between noble and ignoble tenures—between the Goodman, Rentaller or Yeoman, and the Laird or Baron. It would be an interesting inquiry, to trace the circumstances which contributed to break down the jealous barriers of feudal honours, and to point out the period and manner in which the nature of the holding came to be at last almost overlooked in augmenting or disparaging gentility.

On a more minute investigation, it would be equally curious to examine the specific distinctions which existed between the two men who were placed together, the one above and the other below the salt-vat, and to study that beautiful combination of character, by which they formed the links in the social chain which united the nobility of one end of the table, with the humble tenants of the other,—leading by an almost imperceptible transition from the meanest appendage of a feudal feast, to the mailed retainer and the plumed baron.

But I am unwilling to anticipate the observations of your correspondent, who will, I trust, make good his promise, of favouring the public with a continuation of his remarks.

In the mean time, to exercise the learning and ingenuity of your antiquarian friends, I beg leave to propose the following queries, the solution of which will tend greatly to facilitate the labours of future inquirers.

1st, Were the two great classes of society assembled at the same table, connected by means of two individuals on each side, seated together, the one as it were placed opposite to the upper or noble half of the salt-vat, the other to the lower or ignoble half, and combining, in their persons, the different characters of both parties? Or, 2dly, Did these opposite extremes unite in the person of an individual on either side of the table, placed immediately in front of the salt-vat? Or, 3dly, Was there no such "union of extremest things" permitted, but a vacant space or gap opposite the salt-vat on both sides, leaving a blank in the fair chain of gradation, similar to that which has been caused in the scale of nature's works by the extinction of the mighty Mastodon, which formerly inhabited the salt-licks of North America?

Hoping that the preceding quotations, observations, and queries, may meet with a favourable reception, if not on their own account, at least from the chance of their exciting the attention of others more able to communicate information on such curious topics, I remain, respectfully, your obedient servant,

Edinburgh, 1st May 1817.

 

,

compliance with your request, I have drawn up a detail of the circumstances (as far as I was an eye-witness) of the fall of volcanic dust in the island of Barbadoes, which occurred on May 1st, 1812, and which was produced by an eruption of the volcano in the neighbouring island of St Vincent, lying to leeward, or to the westward of Barbadoes.

I was at that time resident on the north-east coast of the island of Barbadoes, or in what is termed the windward part of that island, about eleven miles from the principal town. On the shore of this district, it may be proper to remark, there is almost constantly a heavy surf rolling, produced by the trade-wind impelling the sea on a coast completely iron-bound by rocks and rocky shoals.

During the night preceding May 1st, I was awakened by what I took to be signal-guns of distress from some ships wrecked at no great distance; in a very short time the explosions became so frequent, as to induce me rather to believe that they proceeded from two vessels engaging each other. In the town, these explosions, as I 