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Untitled Article
Independent of any high lesson taught , there is an intellectual amusement to be derived from antiquarian research ; and , if we aspire to the high title of historian , an accurate knowledge of past life , and past things , as well as past men , is doubly necessary . How few , in the present day , are conversant with the history of the introduction of some of the staple commodities of life ; take for instance
that of tea . In the Commonwealth Mercury , reprinted by James H . Fenell , 1854 , tea is advertised as " THat excellent and by all Physitians approved China Drink , called by the Chineans , Tcha , by other Nations , Tay or Tee . " This excellent drink is sold , we are further informed , " at the Sultaness head , a Coffeehouse in Sweeting ' s Bents , by the Royal Exchange , London ; ' No dishes of costly sixty shillings per pound tea are drunk now , nor are the leaves brought in ,
as they used to be , as a species ot dessert . Jtiow strange tnat an article of such great luxury as tea was , should have become so soon popular , and considered no longer an article of luxury , but of necessity , by the poorest peasant and artisan in the kingdom . So times change ; and who knows but two hundred years hence , the greatest delicacies of the present may be then cheap as dirt . It is unpleasant to some persons thus to speculate concerning the future ; but moralise or
not , when we are numbered with the past , and our tomb has become the page of the reverent antiquary , the world will be just as busy , and painfully restless and fond of change as it is now—events succeeding one another with the same order and rapidity , as do the colours of the kaleidoscope , or the dyes of heaven ' s majestic rainbow . About the time when this advertisement appeared ( 1658 ) a great improvement was made in the clock , which is said , by the way , to have been found in England by Julius Caesar , when he visited our
shores , 55 n . c . What strange eccentric clocks those must have been , for they possessed no scapement , and no pendulum , much less the power of striking . These were the inventions , Hadyn informs us in his invaluable " History of Dates , " of the years A . n . 1000 , A . n . 1641 , and a . d . 1308 respectively . The invention or improvement to which we refer , was made by Fromantiel , a Dutchman , but here is his advertisement , which we extract also from the Commonwealth Mercury .
THere is lately a way found out for maJcing clocJcs that go exact , and Jceep equaller time titan any now made without this Regulater { examined and proved before his Highness the Lord Protector , by such Doctors whose knowledge and learning is without exception ) , and are not subject to alter by change of weather , as others are , and may be made to go a weelc , or a month , or a year , with once winding up , as well as those that are wound up every day , and keep time as well ; and is very excellent for all House clocJcs , that go either with svrinas or weiqhts : and also steeple clocJcs . that are most subject to
differ by change of weather . Made by Ahasuerus Fromantiel , who made the first that were in England . You may have them at his house on the Banlc-side , in mossesalley , southwark ; and at the sign of the Maremaid , hi lothbuey , near bartho-LOMEW-LANE end , LONDON . Fromantiel ., we take it upon the words of Hadyn , was a Dutchman , though we should have imagined him , and the name Ahasuerus adds strength to our suspicions , to have been of Hebrew origin . But
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
Independent of any high lesson taught , there is an intellectual amusement to be derived from antiquarian research ; and , if we aspire to the high title of historian , an accurate knowledge of past life , and past things , as well as past men , is doubly necessary . How few , in the present day , are conversant with the history of the introduction of some of the staple commodities of life ; take for instance
that of tea . In the Commonwealth Mercury , reprinted by James H . Fenell , 1854 , tea is advertised as " THat excellent and by all Physitians approved China Drink , called by the Chineans , Tcha , by other Nations , Tay or Tee . " This excellent drink is sold , we are further informed , " at the Sultaness head , a Coffeehouse in Sweeting ' s Bents , by the Royal Exchange , London ; ' No dishes of costly sixty shillings per pound tea are drunk now , nor are the leaves brought in ,
as they used to be , as a species ot dessert . Jtiow strange tnat an article of such great luxury as tea was , should have become so soon popular , and considered no longer an article of luxury , but of necessity , by the poorest peasant and artisan in the kingdom . So times change ; and who knows but two hundred years hence , the greatest delicacies of the present may be then cheap as dirt . It is unpleasant to some persons thus to speculate concerning the future ; but moralise or
not , when we are numbered with the past , and our tomb has become the page of the reverent antiquary , the world will be just as busy , and painfully restless and fond of change as it is now—events succeeding one another with the same order and rapidity , as do the colours of the kaleidoscope , or the dyes of heaven ' s majestic rainbow . About the time when this advertisement appeared ( 1658 ) a great improvement was made in the clock , which is said , by the way , to have been found in England by Julius Caesar , when he visited our
shores , 55 n . c . What strange eccentric clocks those must have been , for they possessed no scapement , and no pendulum , much less the power of striking . These were the inventions , Hadyn informs us in his invaluable " History of Dates , " of the years A . n . 1000 , A . n . 1641 , and a . d . 1308 respectively . The invention or improvement to which we refer , was made by Fromantiel , a Dutchman , but here is his advertisement , which we extract also from the Commonwealth Mercury .
THere is lately a way found out for maJcing clocJcs that go exact , and Jceep equaller time titan any now made without this Regulater { examined and proved before his Highness the Lord Protector , by such Doctors whose knowledge and learning is without exception ) , and are not subject to alter by change of weather , as others are , and may be made to go a weelc , or a month , or a year , with once winding up , as well as those that are wound up every day , and keep time as well ; and is very excellent for all House clocJcs , that go either with svrinas or weiqhts : and also steeple clocJcs . that are most subject to
differ by change of weather . Made by Ahasuerus Fromantiel , who made the first that were in England . You may have them at his house on the Banlc-side , in mossesalley , southwark ; and at the sign of the Maremaid , hi lothbuey , near bartho-LOMEW-LANE end , LONDON . Fromantiel ., we take it upon the words of Hadyn , was a Dutchman , though we should have imagined him , and the name Ahasuerus adds strength to our suspicions , to have been of Hebrew origin . But