Page:Once a Week Volume 7.djvu/510

502  I have the best reason for knowing that the young gentleman aforesaid was preparing his reply. But he tells me that “Gin a body kiss a body” drove all other thoughts from his brain, and chased away all graver speculations. Concertinas are, however, not like Dutchmen’s cork legs or unruly parish organs, and at length the song ended. “No man is a hero to his valet,” and I have often served this young man in that capacity. Therefore I set no great value on what he says, and if in concluding my narrative, I quote a little from his speech, it is not because I think well of him, but because his remarks will serve for a finish. I shall only quote him upon “Agricultural Associations.” Referring to this subject he said:

“Gentlemen,—I entirely differ in opinion from those who look upon these meetings as useless and unnecessary. In the work of the world man learns of man, and those occupations which necessitate the greatest isolation, lag far behind others in the march of improvement. The work of a blacksmith or a tailor can easily be compared with that of a man of the same trade in the next or in any other parish; but it is not so with the labours of the ploughman. Agriculture is not a manufacture, in which public favour will stir itself uninvited to mark out the greatest merit; true it is that a good farmer gets larger profits than the sloven, and a good master soon finds out the worth of a good ploughman. But we want to make good farmers and good ploughmen, and this can only be achieved by exciting a spirit of emulation. And these Associations have diffused agricultural knowledge among the farmers, and aroused a competitive spirit both among masters and men, without which there can be no progress in any branch of industry.”

About eight o’clock the ladies withdrew, and soon the room grew dim with tobacco smoke. After the list of toasts was ended, and we had proved our familiarity with a “churchwarden,” the President, with myself and another friend, left the room amid general cheering, and in the pleasant fresh air and moonlight found his carriage in waiting.

A. A.

only are rings the most interesting of all personal ornaments, but all personal ornaments were originally rings. Besides finger-rings, ear-rings, and nose-rings, bracelets, armlets, and anklets are merely rings, and the most primitive form of the necklace is probably the famous torquis of the Gaulish chiefs. But this extended view of the subject would exceed our limits, and we must be content to speak of finger-rings, the most honourable of the class.

The ancient Egyptian sovereigns wore rings up to a date that makes us think of Tubal-cain, the great metal-worker, and wonder whether in them we see the traditional descendants of his antediluvian patterns. With these kings the signet-ring was of the same importance as in Europe from the classical times, and to give it to an officer was to delegate to him the royal authority, as in the case of Joseph. It is not generally known that the ovals within which the names of the Pharaohs were written, are merely elongated representations of signet-rings, so that the repetition of these ovals in the inscriptions is like the affixing of a royal seal. Many Egyptian rings have come down to us, some of them having been found on the fingers of mummies. The most beautiful of these was one belonging to the late Dr. Abbott of Cairo, which bore the name of Cheops, (in hieroglyphics Shufu, or Khufu,) the builder of the Great Pyramid, and was long supposed to be his actual signet. But this is not the case, for the inscription, although difficult to interpret, tells us that the owner was a priest of that king, or of his temple, and indicates that he lived about the time of Psammetichus II., the son of Pharaoh Necho, and, therefore, about half-way between us and the old pyramid-builder, quite a late date for Egypt, though before the beginnings of Roman history. The ring is of solid gold, exquisitely engraved; in fact, so well, that a learned German who had not succeeded in discovering anything as fine, asserted that it was too good to be true. Those who have seen the ancient jewellery from Thebes, in the Egyptian Court at the Exhibition, will not be disposed to believe that the moderns have surpassed the ancients. The more common rings are in the form of sacred beetles, scarabæi, made of baked clay, covered with a blue vitreous glaze, and fixed upon a circle of metal. These sometimes bear mottoes conveying the good wishes of the giver, as “A perfect life!” From their fragility it is probable that they were not used as seals, but as ancient Egyptian is written both from right to left, and from left to right, the former by preference, this cannot be decided from the manner in which they were inscribed.

Greek rings are rare, and generally not older than the period of good art, although there are some of Phœnician work that must be more ancient. Homer does not speak of them, but that signets were in use at an early time appears from the mention of a law of Solon, forbidding an artist to preserve the form of a seal he had sold. It has been thought that the custom of wearing signet-rings was derived from Babylon, but it is far more likely to have come from Egypt, to which the art of the oldest rings found in Greece, the Phœnician, may be traced, whereas the Babylonians used cylinders as seals. The famous ring of Polycrates is the first historical one that is mentioned. Herodotus, with whom Pausanias agrees, says that it was an emerald set in gold, the work of Theodorus, son of Telecles; but Pliny and Solinus say that its stone was a sardonyx. Clement of Alexandria tells us that the subject was a lyre, a favourite one on Greek coins, but not occurring on those of Samos of the early period. Perhaps the most common kind of Greek ring was of gold alone, generally with designs in intaglio, sometimes with inscriptions. It is, however, impossible to guess how common were the rings with engraved stones, as the metal must have