Born: Henry VIII of
England, 1491, Greenwich; Sir Peter Paul Rubens,
artist, 1577, Cologne; Jean Jacques Rousseau, 1712,
Geneva; Charles Mathews, comedian, 1776, London.
Died: Alphonso V of
Arragon, 'the Magnanimous,' 1458; Abraham Ortelius,
Dutch geographer, 1598, Antwerp; Thomas Creech,
translator of Roman poets into English verse, 1701,
Oxford; Maurice, Due de Noailles, French commander,
1766; Francis Wheatley, R.A. (picture of the London
Riots of 1780,) 1801; Charles Mathews, comedian, 1835,
Plymouth; James Henry Fitzroy, Lord Raglan, British
commander, 1855.
Feast Day: St. Irenaens,
Bishop of Lyons, martyr, 202; Saints Plutarch, Serenus,
Hero, and others, martyrs, beginning of 3rd century;
Saints Potamiana or Potamiena, and Basilides, martyrs,
3rd
KING HENRY VIII
Henry's cruelty towards
several of his wives, and to the statesmen who
thwarted him in his views, has left an indelible
impression against him on the minds of the English
people. Our age, however, has seen a man of signal
ability come forward in his defence, and, it must be
confessed, with considerable success.
'If,' says Mr. Froude, 'Henry
VIII had died previous to the first agitation of the
divorce, his loss would have been deplored as one of
the heaviest misfortunes which had ever befallen the
country; and he would have left a name which would
have taken its place in history by the side of that of
the Black Prince or of the
conqueror of Agincourt.
Left at the most trying age, with his character
unformed, with the means at his disposal of gratifying
every inclination, and married by his ministers when a
boy to an unattractive woman, far his senior, he had
lived for thirty-six years almost without blame, and
bore through England the reputation of an upright and
virtuous king. Nature had been prodigal to him of her
rarest gifts. In person he is said to have resembled
his grandfather, Edward IV, who
was the handsomest man
in Europe. His form and bearing were princely; and,
amidst the easy freedom of his address, his manner
remained majestic. No knight in England could match
him in the tournament except the Duke of Suffolk; he
drew with ease as strong a bow as was borne by any
yeoman of his guard; and these powers were sustained
in unfailing vigour by a temperate habit and by
constant exercise. Of his intellectual ability we are
not left to judge from the suspicious panegyrics of
his contemporaries.
His state papers and letters
may be placed by the side of those of
Wolsey or of
Cromwell, and they lose nothing in the comparison.
Though they are broadly different, the perception is
equally clear, the expression equally powerful, and
they breathe throughout an irresistible vigour of
purpose. In addition to this, he had a fine musical
taste, carefully cultivated, and he spoke and wrote in
four languages; and his knowledge of a multitude of
other subjects, with which his versatile ability made
him conversant, would have formed the reputation of
any ordinary man. He was among the best physicians of
his age; he was his own engineer, invented
improvements in artillery and new constructions in
ship-building; and this not with the condescending
incapacity of a royal amateur, but with thorough
workmanlike understanding. His reading was vast,
especially in theology. In all directions of human
activity, Henry displayed natural powers of the
highest order, at the highest stretch of industrious
culture. He was "attentive," as it is called, "to his
religious duties," being present at the services in
chapel two or three times a day with unfailing
regularity, and showing to outward appearance a real
sense of religious obligation in the energy and purity
of his life.
In private, he was good-humoured
and good-natured. His letters to his secretaries,
though never undignified, are simple, easy, and
unrestrained; and the letters written by them to him
are similarly plain and businesslike, as if the
writers knew that the person whom they were addressing
disliked compliments, and chose to be treated as a
man. Again, from their correspondence with one
another, when they describe interviews with him, we
gather the same pleasant impression. He seems to have
been always kind, always considerate; inquiring into
their private concerns with genuine interest, and
winning, as a consequence, their warm and unaffected
attachment. As a ruler he had been eminently popular.
All his wars had been successful. He had the splendid
tastes in which the English people most delighted, and
he had substantially acted out his own theory of his
duty.'
QUICK WORK IN COAT
MAKING
In 1811, Sir John
Throckmorton, a Berkshire baronet, offered to lay a
wager of a thousand guineas to the following effect:
that at eight o'clock on a particular evening he would
sit down to dinner in a well-woven, well-dyed,
well-made suit, the wool of which formed the fleece on sheeps' backs at five
o'clock on that same morning. It
is no wonder that, among a class of persons accustomed
to betting, such a wager should eagerly be accepted,
seeing that the achievement of the challenged result
appeared all but impossible. Mr. Coxetter, of Greenham
Mills, at Newbury, was entrusted with the work.
At five in the morning on the
28th of June he caused two South Down sheep to be
shorn. The wool was washed, carded, stubbed, roved,
spun, and woven; the cloth was scoured, fulled,
tented, raised, sheared, dyed, and dressed; the tailor
was at hand, and made up the finished cloth into
garments; and at a quarter past six in the evening Sir
John Throckmorton sat down to dinner at the head of
his guests, in a complete damson-coloured suit that
had been thus made�winning the wager, with an hour and
three-quarters to spare. Of course every possible
preparation was made beforehand; but still the
achievement was sufficiently remarkable, and was long
talked of with pride among the clothiers.