lation of a Christian institution. From this polluted stock branched out variety of unseemly and immoral sports; but none of them more daringly impious, and outrageous to common sense, than the festival of fools, in which the most sacred rites and ceremonies of the church were turned into ridicule, and the ecclesiastics themselves participated in the abominable profanations. The following out-, lines of this absurd diversion will no doubt be thought sufficient. "In each of the cathedral churches there was a bishop, or an archbishop of fools, elected; and in the churches immediately dependent upon the papal see a pope of fools. These mock pontiffs had usually a proper suite of ecclesiastics who attended upon them, and assisted at the divine service, most of them attired in ridiculous dresses, resembling pantomimical players and buffoons; they were accompanied by large crowds of the laity, some being disguised with masks of a monstrous fashion, and others having their faces smutted; in one instance to frighten the beholders, and in the other to excite their laughter and some, again, assuming the habits of females, practised all the wanton airs of the loosest and most abandoned of the sex. During the divine service this motley crowd were not contented with singing of indecent songs in the choir, but some of them ate, and drank, and played at dice, upon the altar, by the side of the priest who celebrated the mass. After the service they put filth into the censers, and ran about the church, leaping, dancing, laughing, singing, breaking obscene jests, and exposing themselves in the most unseemly attitudes with shameless impudence. Another part of these ridiculous ceremo nies was, to shave the precentor of fools upon a stage erected before the church, in the presence of the populace; and, during the operation, he amused them with lewd and vulgar discourses, accompanied by actions equally reprehensible. The bishop, or the pope of fools, performed divine service habited in the pontifical garments, and gave his benediction to the people before they quitted the church, He was afterwards seated in an open carriage, and drawn about to the different parts of the town, at. tended by a large train of ecclesiastics and laymen promiscuously mingled together; and many of the most profligate of the latter assumed clerical habits, in order to give their impious fooleries the greater effect; they had also with them carts filled with ordure, which they threw occasionally upon the populace assembled to see the procession. These spectacles were always exhibited at Christmas-time, or near to it, but not confined to one particular day. When the ceremony took place upon St. Stephen'sday, they sang, as part of the mass, a burlesque composition, called The Prose of the Ass, or The Fool's Prose. It was performed by a double choir, and at intervals, in place of a burden, they imitated the braying of an ass. Upon the festival of St. John the Evangelist they had another arrangement of ludicrous sentences, denominated The Prose of the Ox, equally reprehensible. "Grotesque ceremonies, some thing similar to those above mentioned, certainly took place in England; but probably they were not carried to that extent of imN 2 piety, piety, nor so grossly offensive to in the thirty-third year of Henry decency. We had a king of the VIII.; the concluding clause of fools, but his office was suppressed the ordinance runs thus: Whereas at an early period, and not, that I heretofore dyvers and many suremember, revived in the succeed- perstitious and chyldysh obsering times. The election and the vances have been used, and yet investment of the boy-bishop was 'to this day are observed and kept certainly derived from the festivalin many and sundry places of this a realm upon St. Nicholas, St. Ca'therine's, St. Clement's, and Holy Innocents, and such like holy-daies; children be strangelic decked and apparayled to counterfeit priests, bishops, and women, and so ledde with songs and dances from house to house, blessing the people, and gathering of money; and boyes do singe masse, and preache in the pulpits, with such other unfitinge and inconvenient usages, which ⚫tend rather to derysyon than enie of fools. In all the collegiate churches, at the feast of St. Nicholas, or of the Holy Innocents, and frequently at both, it was customary for one of the children of the choir, completely apparelled in the episcopal vestments, with a mitre and crosier, to bear the title and state of a bishop. He exacted a ceremonial obedience from his fellows, who, being dressed like priests, took possession of the church, and performed all the ceremonies and offices which might have been celebrated by a bishop and his pre-true glorie to God, or honour of bendaries. Colet, dean of St. Paul's, who, though he was wise and good man,' countenanced this idle farce; and, in the statutes for his school at St. Paul's, expressly orders that the scholars shall, every Childermas, that is, Innocent's-day, come to Paule's churche, and hear the childe by-church, with his company,' were shop's sermon, and after be at hygh masse, and each of them offer a penny to the childe byshop; and with them the maisters and surveyors of the schole*.' After having performed the divine service, the bishop and his associates went about to different parts of the town, and visited the religious houses, collecting money. These ceremonies and processions were formally abrogated by proclamation from the king and council, his sayntes.' This idle pageantry was revived by his daughter Mary; and in the second year of her reign an edict was issued from the bishop of London to all the clergy of his diocese, to have a boy-bishop in procession. The year following, the child bishop, of Paules admitted into the queen's privy. chamber, where he sang before her on St. Nicholas'-day and upon Holy Innocents-day. Again the next year, says Strype, On Saint Nicholas-even, Saint Nicholas, that is, a boy habited like a bishop in pontificalibus, went abroad in most parts of London, singing after the old fashion; and was received with many ignorant but well-disposed people into their houses, and had as much good cheer as Knight's Life of Colet, p. 562; to which Warton adds, "I take this opportunity of intimating, that the custom at Eton of going ad montem, originated from the ancient and popular practice of these theatrical processions in collegiate bodies.' Hist. Poet, fut supra." ever was wont to be had before*.' mummery was totally discontiAfter the death of Mary this silly nued." ACCOUNT of SoнO, BIRMINGHAM. [From SHAW'S HISTORY OF STAFFORDSHIRE, Vol. III. Part I.] "SOHO a warrener. "The transformation of this place is a recent monument of the effects of trade on population. A beautiful garden, with wood, lawn, and water, now covers one side of this hill; five spacious squares of building, erected on the other side, supply workshops, or houses, for above six hundred people. The exten. sive pool at the approach to this building is conveyed to a large water-wheel in one of the courts, and communicates motion to a prodigious number of different tools. And the mechanic inventions for this purpose are superior in multitude, variety, and simplicity, to those of any manufactory (I suppose) in the known world. Toys, and utensils of various kinds, in gold, silver, steel, copper, tortoise-shell, enamels, and many vitreous and metallic compositions, with gilded, plated, and inlaid works, are wrought up to the highest elegance of taste, and perfection of execution, in this place. "Mr. Boulton, who has established this great work, has joined taste and philosophy with manufacture and commerce; and, from the various branches of chemistry, and the numerous mechanic arts he employs, and his extensive corre spondence to every corner of the world, is furnished with the highest entertainment as well as the most lucrative employment. "About the year 1745, Mr. Boulton, then of Birmingham, invented, and afterwards brought to great perfection, the inlaid steel buckles, buttons, watch-chains, &c. which Dr. Johnson mentions in one of his papers in 'The World' as becoming fashionable in this country; whilst they were re-purchased from France, under the idea of their being the production of that kingdom. "In the year 1757, John Wyrley, of Hamstead, esq. lord of the manor of Handsworth, granted a lease to Messrs. Edward Ruston and Eaves, of these tracts of common ; viz. Handsworth-heath, Moneybank-hill, Crabtree-bank warrens, for ninety-nine years, with certain inclosed lands; with liberty to make "We may observe that most of the churches in which these mock ceremonies were performed, had dresses and ornaments proper for the occasion, and suited to the size of the wearers, but in every other respect resembling those appropriated to the real dignitaries of the church; hence it is we frequently meet with entries of diminutive habits and ornaments in the church inventories, as una mitra parva cum petris pro episcopo puerorum, that is, a small mitre with jewels for the bishop of the boys, Invent. York Cathedral. See also Dugdale's Hist. of St. Paul's, p. 205," some additions to the same, and to make a cut for the turning of Hockley-brook, to make a pool, with powers to build a water-mill. In consequence of which a small house and feeble mill were erected, for the purpose of rolling metal. On Lady-day 1762, Mr. Boulton purchased the aforesaid lease, with all the premises and appurtenances, to apply the same to such branches of the manufactory established at Birmingham as would tend to diminish expense and labour. "In order to prosecute his designs and improvements, he soon after enlarged and rebuilt those premises, and then transplanted the whole of his manufactory from Birmingham to Soho; and, though he had made very considerable additions to these buildings, he found them not sufficient for his great designs: he therefore, in 1764, laid the foundation of the present superb manufactory, which was finished in the following year, at the expense of 9000l. From that period he began to turn his attention to the different branches of manufactory; and, in conjunction with Mr. Fothergill, then his partner, established a mercantile correspondence throughout Europe; by which means the produce of their various articles was greatly extended, and the manufacturer, by becoming his own merchant, eventually enjoyed a double profit. Impelled by an ardent attachment to the arts, and by the patriotic ambition of bringing his favourite Soho to the highest degree of perfection, the ingenious proprietor soon established a seminary of artists for drawing and modelling; and men of genius were now sought for and liberally patronised, which shortly led to a successful imitation of the Or Molu. These metallic ornaments, consisting of vases, tripods, candelabras, &c. by the superior skill and taste bestowed upon them here, soon found their way, not only to the admiration of his majesty, and to the chimneypieces and cabinets, &c. of the nobility and curious of this kingdom; but likewise to France, and almost to every part of Europe. From this elegant branch of the business the superior skill of Mr. Boulton led his artists, by a natural and easy transition, to that of the wrought silver; upon which he soon found the necessity of applying to parliament for, and establishing, in 1773, an assay office at Birmingham. About this time that ingenious art of copying pictures in oilcolours, by a mechanical process, was invented at Soho; and, under the patronage of the above proprietor, was brought to such a degree of perfection as to be taken for originals by the most experienced connoisseurs. This extraordinary piece of art was principally con ducted by the ingenious Mr. F. Eginton, which led him to that of painting upon glass, now carried on at his neighbouring manufac tory. "Mr. Boulton, finding from experience that the stream of water which had induced him to build a mill, and transplant his manufactory to Soho, was insufficient for its purposes, applied horses, in conjunction with his water-mill; but finding that both troublesome, irregular, and expensive, in 1767 he made a steam-engine, on Savery's plan, with the intention of returning and raising his water about twenty-four feet high; but, this proving unsatisfactory to him, he soon after formed an acquaintance with his present partner and friend, Mr. James Watt of Glasgow, who in 1765 had invented several valuable improvements upon the steamengine, which in fact made it a new machine. "The application of this improved steam-engine at Soho, to raise and return the water, extended the powers of the water-mill; which induced Mr. Boulton to rebuild it a second time, upon a much larger scale; and several engines were afterwards erected at Soho for other purposes, by which the manufactory was greatly extended, the source of mechanical power being thus unlimited. "Amongst the various applications of the steam-engine, that of coining seems to be of considerable importance, as by its powers all the operations are concentred on the same spot; such as rolling the cakes of copper hot into sheets; 2dly, fine-rolling the same cold in steel polished rollers; 3dly, cutting out the blank pieces of coin, which is done with greater ease and rapidity by girls than could possibly be done by strong men; 4thly, the steam-engine also performs other operations, such as shaking the coin in bags; and, 5thly, it works a number of coining machines, with greater rapidity and exactness, by a few boys of twelve or fourteen years of age, than could be done by a great number of strong men, without endangering their fingers, as the machine itself lays the blanks upon the die perfectly concentral with it, and when struck displaces one piece and replaces another. "The coining-mill, which was erected in 1788, and has since been greatly improved, is adapted to work eight machines, and each is capable of striking from seventy to eighty-four pieces of money per minute, the size of a guinea, which is equal to between 30,000 and 40,000 per hour; and at the same blow which strikes the two faces, the edge of the piece is also struck, either plain or with an inscription upon it, and thus every piece becomes perfectly round, and of equal diameter; which is not the case with any other national money ever put into circulation. "Such a coining-mill, erected in the national mint, would, in cases of emergency, be able to coin all the bullion in the bank of England, at a short notice, without the neces sity of putting dollars, or other foreign coin, into circulation; and by erecting double the number of presses a double quantity may be coined. "It is worthy observation, that the ground of the silver moncy coined by this machine has a much finer and blacker polish than the money coined by the common apparatus. "In consequence of Mr. Boulton's money being perfectly round, and of equal diameter, he proposed the following coincidence between money, weights, and measures, in the copper coin, part of which he hath lately executed for the British government; viz. a two-penny piece to weigh two ounces; and fifteen of them to measure two fect, when laid flat in a straight line: one penny piece to weigh one ounce; and seventeen of them to measure two feet: a half-penny to weigh half an ounce; and ten of them to measure one foot: a farthing to weigh a quarter of an ounce; and twelve to measure one foot. This plan of coincidence was prevented from being put into execution by the sudden advance of the price of copper. "In the year 1788 Mr. Boulton struck a piece of gold, the size of N4 a guinea, |