Mini-Update (Week of June 1, 2009)

June 1 - The month opens with lingering traces of May. "Let all lovers of spring, therefore, be fully persuaded that, for the first fortnight in June, they are living in May," notes Leigh Hunt. A walk is in order, says Hone, in order to "step forward into the glowing presence of summer."



"To saunter, at mid June, beneath the shade of some old forest, situated in the neighborhood of a great town, so that paths are worn through it, and you can make your way ith easy in any direction, gives one the idea of being transferred, by some strange magic, from the surface of the earth to the bottom of the sea!"

Ovid, for some strange reason, assigns the first of June to "Carna," the goddess of the hinge:

" --- upon her power depends

To open what is shut, what's shut unbar"

At least one commentator, notes Hone, wonders about the connection with hinges. Is June the month of new opportunity? Perhaps a chance to correct past mistakes! [EDBv2]

June 2 - In 1759, one William Margarets confesses a crime: trying to raise the price of wheat by offering more dough than the poor can pay. It was done "by offering the sum of Six Shillings a Bushel for Wheat, for which no more than Five Shillings and Ninepence was demanded."

For this offense, Margarets had to proclaim his guilt in a public market. publish the same in several papers and pay a fine. "[I] testify my sincere and hearty sorrow in having committed a crime, which, in its consequences, tended so much to increase the distress of the poor, in the late calamitous scarcity," he wrote.

Why all the fuss about a higher price? In 1759, a drought in England diminished the supply of wheat. The government, having established controls on the price of certain staples of life, looked poorly upon those who would encourage sellers to raise prices. It was certainly not a free market - it had to constrain itself to the general public's purchasing power. Those seeking dominance over supplies, or unhealthy profits from meeting demand, had to stand in the midst of the populace and apologize. [EDBv2]

June 3 - Britain lost talent on this day in 1802. Madama Mara, age 52, sang with majesty, simplicity and melody. "She justly held every species of ornamental execution to be subordinate to the grand end of uniting the effects of sound sense, in their operations upon the feelings of her hearers." In other words, vocal pyrotechnics didn't make her career.

Her one defect was pronunciation. Born in Germany, she retained her accent, which was noticed by English critics. But "the fire, dignity and tenderness of her vocal appeal could never be misunderstood; it spoke the language of all nations, for it spoke to the feelings of the human heart." [EDBv1]

June 4 - Do celebrities truly get royal treatment? Here's one popularity yardstick-the number of old folks at your birthday party. On June 4, 1819, 46 old men feasted and rang bells for King George III. They didn't do it for the attention, as they staged their gathering 86 miles southeast from Windsor Castle, in Bexhill, Sussex.

A numerologist must have arranged the event. "Twenty five old men, inhabitants of the parish, whose united ages amounted to 2025, averaging eighty-one each (the age of the King), dined together at the Bell Inn, and passed the day in a cheerful and happy manner," writes Hone. The table was set by 15 fellows, whose combined ages averaged out to 71, and each of the half-dozen bell-ringers' average age was 61. After the private dinner, the doors were opened to 81 members of the public, who helped carry the celebration well into the night. There were bells on a hill, but George III, deaf and ill, never heard them ringing. [EDBv2]

June 5 - Fondness spurs some to climb about their beloved, and so, two youths climbed All Saints' Church in Stamford on June 5, 1814. A newspaper reported that they "ascended the steeple by means of the crotchets, or projecting stones on the outside of that beautiful and lofty style." It took them about 12 minutes to accomplish the feat, and before descending, young Richards "hung his waistcoat on the weathercock as a memento."

Do banks get this sort of affection? [EDBv1]

June 6 - Today marks the passing of a naval veteran who fought...Spain? In 1762, Admiral George Anson set out to circumnavigate the heavens, having conquered the globe about twenty years earlier. Only a quarter of the original crew returned with him to England, in the flagship Centurion (the other seven ships either turned back, broke down along the way, or were lost at sea).

Anson originally set out to reach the Pacific and capture Spain's territories. Though little was captured, he continued west until he reached the Far East (?) and managed to capture a Spanish galleon near the Phillipines. Upon finally reaching England in 1744, almost four years after his departure, Anson and the remaining crew were greeting with rewards - and alarm. So many men perished from scurvy, that Royal Navy surgeon James Lind launched a series of experiments with citrus fruits. Limey sailors would eventually owe their health to Lind. [EDBv1]

June 7 - TONIGHT! (1826) Fire-lover CHABERT swallows boiling oil, molten lead and relaxes comfortably in oven as rump-steak and leg of lamb roast! "He remained there," says a review in The Times, "for ten minutes, till the steak was properly done, conversing all the time with the company through a tin tube, placed in an orifice formed in the sheet-iron door of the oven. Having swallowed a cup of tea, and having seen that the company had done justice to the meat he had already cooked, he returned to his fiery den, and continued there until the lamb was properly done."

Monsieur Chabert (sometimes spelled "Chaubert"), was known as the Fire King and the Human Salamander - the latter appellation coming from the Greek words for "fire-lover," which had very little to do with the amphibian. Chabert, on the contrary, pursued a great many feats with fire, flammables, and poisonous by-products of fire. Impossible? Unexplainable by science? Hone, among others, had a menu of answers at hand. The "Booke of Secretes of Albertus Magnus" contained hints for such feats as exposure to fire:

Take the juyce of Bismalua, and the whyte of an egge, and the sede of an hearbe called Psillium, also Pulicarius herba, and breake it unto powder, and make a confection, and mixe the juyce of Radysh with the whyte of an egge. Anoynt thy body or hande with this confection, and let it be dryed and after anoynte it againe; after that, thou mayest suffer boldely the fyre without hurt.

This, wrote Hone, shows "that a man may continue to work great marvels in the eyes of persons who are uninformed, by simple processes well known centuries ago." By the way, you can find the juice of Bismalua at your local pharmacy or chemist's shop. [EDBv1]