Page:Littell's Living Age - Volume 131.djvu/121

Rh Ilfordcomb, Spittlefields, and, more singular still, an instance of Wight Isle instead of the Isle of Wight. Orthography, as all students know, is a very weak point in all books more than a century old. In many works of the seventeenth century the same person's name is frequently spelt in three or four different ways. The disuse and change of meaning of various words is a noticeable feature.

There is, among others, billiard mast for cue, author instead of editor (of a magazine), composure for composition (an author's latest composure), and canal as in the following sentence: "Permit me through the canal of your magazine to make some remarks," etc. "Iller" we find as a comparative to ill, equivalent to worse. In measurements foot is apparently used in the singular and plural indifferently. Thus, something is said to be ninety-two foot in front and one hundred and thirty-two foot in depth. Overset is always employed for upset or overturned, and in the Scots Magazine there is the word machine in the slang sense as a term for a conveyance, a use of the word common in the north, and usually supposed to be modern. "Trap" is the English equivalent. "The Works of William Shenstone, Esq., with Decorations," is an example of an obsolete signification of the latter word.

The mode of inserting the marriages and deaths of wealthy people is amusing to a more reticent age. In their impertinent references to the private affairs of the persons mentioned these notices remind one of an unpleasant feature of American journalism. The following are ordinary specimens of this species of public gossiping: —


 * Mr. John Wilks, jun., an eminent distiller of Clerkenwell, to Miss Hope, of 10000l. Fortune.


 * John Clark of Stratford in Essex, Esq., married to Mrs. Westfield, relict of Mr, Westfield, an eminent Grocer, of 30000l. Fortune.


 * Mr. Walcot, worth 3000l. per annum, to Miss Dashwood, a 12000l. Fortune, niece of Dr. King, Master of the Charter-House.

"Eminent" is a favorite epithet. Besides eminent statesmen, generals, artists, we hear of an "eminent" grocer, an "eminent" butcher. In stating the amount of the "fortunes" the sign for pounds, it will be observed, is always put after the sum, not before. The young and reverend gentleman who figures in the next extract deserves a place among "the posterities," and we have pleasure in passing his name and example on to another century: —


 * The Rev. Mr. Roger Waind of York, about 26 years of age, to a Lincolnshire Lady upwards of 80, with whom he has 3000l. in money, 300l. per annum, and a coach and four during life only.

Sometimes the singularity takes the form of vagueness of detail, as in the following notice of a birth, where there is neither date nor locality: —


 * The Lady of the Lord Viscount Limerick, about this Time, brought to Bed of a Son.

There are some obituary items, curious in their way: —


 * Mr. Home, an eminent banker and chief lamplighter to His Majesty, a place of about 600l. per annum.

The connection between banking and lamplighting is not very obvious.


 * Mrs. Tuckey of Leicestershire, aunt to Mr. Tuckey, of Five-Foot Lane, Southwark, a noted Hog-Butcher. She was possessed of upwards of 3000l. per annum, which she has left to him and his family.


 * Mrs. Newton, a Maiden Lady, vastly rich, in Queen Square.

Obituaries suggest a passing allusion to the extraordinary number of centenarians, and something more, whose deaths are inserted.

It is, of course, highly questionable if all that are mentioned as living so long beyond the allotted span were really as old as they are said to be. Mortality was relatively much greater (from fifty to sixty per cent) than now, but that might co-exist with particular individuals attaining an unwonted age. On the other hand, there was no proper or efficient system of registration of births, and there is a strong tendency in many old people to exaggerate their age. In the Scots Magazine for January 1760 eight deaths are recorded of persons alleged to be over a century, their ages being respectively 121, 105, 104, 101, 104, 100, 115, in. The probabilities are that a large majority of the cases are not authentic, and that the producible proof of their correctness would not be accepted as sufficient by any one qualified to judge of the value of evidence. In February of the same year there are five instances of abnormal longevity, nearly all perfect antediluvians in years. The youngest is 102, and the others range to 105, in, 116, 127. In March there are three about one hundred, and in April six are inserted, all, however, on the Continent. In June 1739 there is an entry of the death of a Scotch woman in St. Margaret's Workhouse, Westminster, at the incredible age of 138,