Part 1
THE PENNY MAGAZINE
OF THE
Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge.
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34.] PUBLISHED EVERY SATURDAY. [October 13, 1832
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TIVOLI.
[Illustration: Temple of the Sibyl at Tivoli.]
Of all the hilly spots in the neighbourhood to which foreign residents or the natives repair to avoid the great heat and malaria of Rome during the summer, none is so beautiful and otherwise remarkable as Tivoli. It is situated at the distance of about twenty English miles from Rome, on the ridge of a high romantic hill, whose sides are covered with olive groves, dotted here and there with convents and villas, and masses of ancient Roman ruins. The still loftier summits of Monte Catily, and a semicircular range of the Sabine mountains shelter it on one side, whilst the other side commands an open and extensive view of the _Campagna_, or great plain in which Rome is situated; and beyond the Campagna the eye reposes on the blue waves of the Mediterranean Sea. Tivoli is a considerable town, having a population of nearly ten thousand souls. It contains some fine stately mansions, but the mass of the habitations being mean and dirty, it cannot be called a handsome town. The transition, however, to it from the magnificence of Rome during the sultry weather is most delightful; and the visitor’s enjoyment is increased by seeing around him, in spite of their idleness, poverty, and rags, a rosy-cheeked, healthy-looking population, altogether different from the inhabitants of the city and the plain he has left. The journey from Rome _is_ performed in good part, and _can be_ performed in its whole length, over an ancient road, whose pavement is in many places in as perfect preservation as when, two thousand years ago, the poet Horace loitered along it on his way to his pleasant Sabine farm. Objects of antiquity and historical interest are crowded on this route; and when the traveller reaches Tivoli, where traditional names identify the sites of the villas of Piso, Varus, Lepidus, Cassius, the poet Catullus, and other great men of old Rome, he is conducted to an inn called “Of the Sibyl,” from the windows of which his eye embraces a magnificent cascade, and the elegant antique temples of the Sibyl and of Vesta. The two temples and the cascade just mentioned are the principal ornaments of Tivoli. The cascade is produced by the river Anio, now called the Teverone, which after winding through the Sabine vales, glides smooth and silently through Tivoli till it reaches the brink of a precipice, where it throws itself in one mighty mass of waters down a deep and dark chasm in the rocks:--there it roars and foams in a narrow channel, till finding an opening in the rocks it rushes headlong through it, and descends into caverns and abysses “deeper and deeper still.” The view of the double fall which is obtained by descending into the narrow dale through which the river flows after the cascade is one of the finest that can be conceived. The whole height of the cataract is about two hundred feet. The rocks that resist this tremendous and never-ceasing lashing of the waters are disposed in a narrow semicircular form; they are in part clothed with shrubs and foliage, and indented with romantic caverns; and in one place the river has worked its way through a rock and formed a natural bridge, which, whether seen from below, or in passing over it, is a most peculiar and striking object in the scene.
On the summit of the lofty and precipitous rock that flanks this gulf on the right, stands the temple traditionally, and most probably correctly, called of the Sibyl, though some antiquaries have chosen to dedicate it to the goddess Vesta. This truly beautiful pile is circular. It was formed of eighteen pillars in the finest style of the graceful Corinthian order, but of these pillars ten only remain with their entablature. Nothing can be more striking and felicitous than its situation, which even surpasses the intrinsic beauty of its structure. The contrast of its placid gracefulness with the turbulence and fury of the water immediately beneath it, also adds to the exquisite effect it produces. “This singular ruin, the most beautiful of them all,” says the acute Forsyth, “has been too often engraved to need any details: yet, though prints may combine it with the immediate landscape, what pencil can reach into the black gulf below?”
The other temple of Tivoli stands very near to that of the Sibyl, whose name it frequently usurps; but time and man have been less merciful to its beauty. Only four pillars are left, and they are embedded in the walls of a parish church, which is itself abandoned and now becoming a ruin.
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THE FLEMISH LANGUAGE.
We happen to have met with a little book printed at Malines (Mechlin), in the province of Antwerp, which contains some dialogues in Flemish with a French translation opposite. As the Flemish may be considered a fair specimen of the spoken language of that province, the reader may be curious to compare it with his mother tongue, to which it is so near akin. If he has paid a visit into Somersetshire, and has learnt a bit of the _Zomerzetshire_ dialect, he will easily recognise many of the words beginning with _z_. Those who have any acquaintance with our country dialects, or the common language of the Scotch lower classes, will easily give the right pronunciation to most of the words which we shall present, and will as readily understand their meanings.
_Flemish._ _English._ Van waer komt gy? From where come ye?
The word _gy_ is both the singular and plural pronoun _thou_ or _you_: if the _g_ is pronounced like _y_, the resemblance to our own _ye_ is apparent, which word in some parts of England is used for the singular pronoun _thou_. In some parts of this country also, _g_ at the beginning of a word is pronounced like _y_: thus _gate_ is called _yate_.
Ik ken u nu. I ken (know) you now.
This second example will cause no difficulty to a Scotchman.
Waer wilt gy gaen? Where will you go? Wat nieuws? What news? Hoe gaet het met u? How goes it with you?
The dealer in cloth recommends his wares by saying to his customer,
Ik heb van alle soórten. I have of all sorts.
Van wat kouleur wilt gy? Of what colour will ye (have)? what colour do you choose?
The host says to his friend at table,
Zet u daer, Set ’o there. _or_ Zit gy daer. _or_ Sit ye there.
Vergeeft my, ik zal my Forgive (excuse) me, I daer niet zetten. shall me there not sit.
The guest asks for some meat and salad; the host says,
Houd, daer ist ’t enn en Hold (take), there is ’t’ ander. tone and tother.
The expression _tone and tother_, the one and the other, is familiar enough in some parts of this island, and was once used as we have written it, in printed books.
The host and his guests have a friendly altercation about eating and talking:--
Mynheer gy eét niet. Sir, ye eat not.
Ik heb wel gëeéten en wel I have well eaten and gedronken, God zy well drunken, God be geloófd. beloved.
En gy, Mynheer, gy zegt And ye, sir, ye say not a niet een woórd. word.
Gy spreékt niet meer als Ye speak no more than if of gy geene tong had. ye no tongue had.
Again,
De zon is zoo warm dat zy The sun is so warm that brand. she burns.
It should be observed that the Flemings and Germans call the sun _she_, and the moon is made a _he_; which is just the reverse of our practice.
Is het niet tyd van te Is it not time (tide) to bed te gaen? bed to go?
Our word _tide_, which signifies time, is now hardly ever used, except in compounds, such as _noon-tide_, _Whitsuntide_, and in the word _tidings_.
Gy kunt niet beter doen. Ye can’t (can not) better do.
_Do-en_ and _ga-en_ only differ from our _do_ and _go_ in having the _en_ at the end, which, as we have remarked in a former number, still exists among us in such words as _quick-en_, _sharp-en_.
The mother is waking her daughter in the morning:
Myne dogter staet op. My daughter stand (get) up.
et is tyd om naer de It is time near to school school te gaen. to go.
Hoe, myne moeder, is het How, my mother, is it so zoo laet? late?
We recommend those who wish to compare the various dialects of that extensively-spread language, of which ours is one, to see some specimens of the Frisian language in the Westminster Review, No. 23.
“In a large part of ancient Friesland,” says the article alluded to, “the language has left no traces behind it in the present day. In East Friesland it has been superseded by the Low German, and in Groningen by the common Dutch, modified by a few provincial idioms of Frisian character.”
The following specimen of the present state of the Frisian language is from the Westminster Review:--
Lijk az Gods sinne swiet uus wrâd oerschijnt, Like as God’s sun sweetly our world o’ershines,
Her warmte in ljeacht in groed in libben schinkt. Her warmth and light and growth and life gives.
Lijk az de mijlde rein elk eker fijnt, Like as the mild rain ilk (each) acre finds,
So dogt eak dat, wat in uus, minsken, tinkt. So does eke (also) that what in us, men, thinks.
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The Rev. John Hartley, who has travelled as a missionary in Greece, records in his Journal the following interesting scriptural illustration:--“Having had my attention directed last night to the words, (John x. 3.)--_The sheep hear His voice, and He calleth His own sheep by name_, &c., I asked my man if it was usual in Greece to give names to sheep. He informed me that it was, and that the sheep obeyed the shepherd when he called them by their names. This morning I had an opportunity of verifying the truth of this remark. Passing by a flock of sheep, I asked the shepherd the same question which I put to my servant, and he gave me the same answer. I then bade him to call one of his sheep. He did so, and it instantly left its pasturage and its companions, and ran up to the hand of the shepherd, with signs of pleasure, and with a prompt obedience which I had never before observed in any other animal. It is also true of the sheep in this country, _that a stranger will they not follow, but will flee from him; for they know not the voice of the strangers_. The shepherd told me that many of his sheep are still WILD; that they had not yet learned their names; but that by teaching they would all learn them. The others which knew their names, he called TAME.”
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_Effect of Music in the Conversion of Savages._--Nolrega (a Jesuit) had a school, where he instructed the native children, the orphans from Portugal, and the _mestizos_, or mixed breed. Reading, writing, and arithmetic were taught them; they were trained to assist at mass, and _to sing_ the church service, and frequently led in procession through the town. This had a great effect, for the natives were passionately fond of music, so passionately, that Nolrega began to hope the fable of Orpheus was a type of his mission, and that by songs he was to convert the pagans of Brazil. This Jesuit usually took with him four or five of these little choristers on his preaching expeditions; when they approached an inhabited place, one carried the crucifix before them, and they began singing the Litany. The savages, like snakes, were won by the voice of the charmer; they received him joyfully, and when he departed with the same ceremony, the children followed the music. He set the catechism, creed, and ordinary prayers to _sol fa_; and the pleasure of learning to sing was such a temptation, that the little Tupis sometimes ran away from their parents to put themselves under the care of the Jesuit.--_Southey’s History of Brazil._
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_Fossil Remains of the Elephant in New Holland._--In a pamphlet published last year at Sydney, New South Wales, by the Rev. J. D. Lang, detailing the steps which had been taken for the establishment of an Academical Institution, or College, in that Colony, we find the following curious statement: “A collection of fossil bones which had been discovered in a lime-stone cave at Wellington Valley, by George Rankin, Esq. of Bathurst, and to the discovery of which the writer had the honour of calling the attention of the Colonial public, in an anonymous letter published in the _Sydney Gazette_, about eighteen months ago, was entrusted to the writer by Mr. Rankin, for Professor Jamieson, of the University of Edinburgh. One of the bones had evidently belonged to some large animal; and Professor Jamieson and an eminent naturalist of the College of Surgeons in London, to whom it had afterwards been forwarded, coincided in regarding it as a bone of the hippopotamus. Not satisfied, however, with their own opinion concerning it, it was subsequently sent to M. Le Baron Cuvier of Paris; and that distinguished naturalist (Professor Jamieson informed the writer just before leaving Scotland) had ascertained that it was the thigh-bone of a young elephant; thereby establishing the interesting and important fact, that the wilds of Australia were once traversed by that enormous quadruped.”
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THE DIVING BELL.
The Diving-bell is an apparatus extensively employed by the engineer in many difficult operations connected with his arduous pursuits. Not only are rocks blasted by the force of gunpowder _above_ the water, but below; and the spirit-level of the plumb-line, and the nicely fitted joints of the stone-mason, are quite as much attended to at any reasonable depth below the surface of the _sea_, as in the mightiest works on the _land_. Low water-mark is no longer a limit to the operations of the engineer; and he now lays his foundations on the edge of a sub-marine precipice, with the same security and precision as characterise his noblest operations on the ground.
The diving-bell commonly in use resembles nearly a large box deprived of its bottom. Its ordinary length is about six feet, its breadth five and a half, and its height four feet and a half. To avoid the necessity of fastening weights to make it descend, it is formed of cast-iron; and being made in one piece, and very thick, there is no danger of the water forcing itself through the sides or top. It is also air-tight. The thickness of the sides of the bell prevents also its being fractured, should it by any accident receive a heavy blow.
In the top of the diving-bell is a round aperture, communicating by a number of small circular holes with the interior, where the holes are all covered and closed by a piece of thick leather, which acts as a valve, and admits air. A strong leather hose is screwed on to the external aperture, and from two holes near its sides rise two strong chains, uniting in a ring, by which the whole machine is to be suspended. In the top also are cemented twelve very thick lenses, for the purpose of admitting light. At the ends of the bell are two seats, placed at such a height, that the top of the head is but a few inches below the upper part of the bell; and in the middle, about six inches above the lower edge, is placed a narrow board, on which the feet of the divers rest. On one side, nearly on a level with the shoulders, is a small shelf, with a ledge, to contain a few tools, chalk for writing messages, and a ring, to which a small rope is tied. A board is connected with this rope; and after writing any orders on the board with a piece of chalk, on giving it a pull, the superintendent above, round whose arm the other end is fastened, will draw it up to the surface, and, if necessary, return an answer by the same conveyance. “Our compliments to our friends above water,” was the little memorandum written by the author of this brief notice, when he formed one of a happy party at the bottom of the sea. “Health and prosperity to the ladies and gentlemen inhabiting the region of fishes,” was the answer which was received to it in less than three minutes.
On the top of the bell, on the inner side, it is usual to have some contrivance, by which stone or other bodies may, if necessary, be suspended from the bell. The weight of the whole apparatus is about four tons. The leather hose is connected with a double condensing pump, usually worked by four men. In order to give motion to the bell, it is suspended by a windlass purchase-tackle, which is fixed on a moveable platform, having four wheels; these wheels move along an iron railway, which is itself fixed on another platform, having by the same means a motion in a direction transverse to the former, at right angles to each other. Thus by two iron railways, established on beams and supported by piles the lower being fixed in the direction of the length of the wall, and the upper being on the lower moveable plane, it is possible to give the bell any position that may be required.
There are many prejudices against diving-bells, just as there were once against stage-coaches, steam-boats, and travelling by the power of vapour on rail-roads Some of our readers, who have possibly misgivings respecting the safety of a descent in a diving-bell may be induced to enter one, after they have read the following account by Mr. Babbage of his descent with Mr. Harvey in a diving-bell at Plymouth:--“To enter the bell, it is raised about three or four feet above the surface of the water; and the boat, in which the persons who propose descending are seated, is brought immediately under it. The bell is then lowered, so as to enable them to step upon the footboard within it; and having taken their seats, the boat is removed, and the bell gradually descends to the water.
“On touching the surface, and thus cutting off the communication with the external air, a peculiar sensation is perceived in the ears; it is not, however, painful. The attention is soon directed to another object. The air rushing in through the valves at the top of the bell overflows, and escapes with a considerable bubbling noise, under the sides. The motion of the bell proceeds slowly, and almost imperceptibly; and on looking at the glass lenses close to the head, when the top of the machine just reaches the surface of the water, it may be perceived, by means of the little impurities which float about in it, flowing into the recesses containing the glasses. A pain now begins to be felt in the ears, arising from the increased external pressure; this may sometimes be removed by the act of yawning, or by closing the nostrils and mouth, and attempting to force air through the ears. As soon as the equilibrium is established the pain ceases, but recommences almost immediately by the continuance of the descent. On returning, the same sensation of pain is felt in the ears; but it now arises from the dense air which had filled them endeavouring, as the pressure is removed, to force its way out.
“If the water is clear, and not much disturbed, the light in the bell is very considerable; and, even at the depth of twenty feet, was more than is usual in many sitting-rooms. Within the distance of eight or ten feet, the stones at the bottom began to be visible. The pain in the ears still continued at intervals, until the descent of the bell terminated by its resting on the ground.
“Signals are communicated by the workmen in the bell to those above, by striking against the side of the bell with a hammer. Those most frequently wanted are indicated by the fewest number of blows; thus a single stroke is to require more air. The sound is heard very distinctly by those above.”
Considering the extensive employment of the diving-bell, few serious accidents have occurred. Some years since, the bell at Sheerness rested on the top of an old pile. The men within repeatedly gave the signal to lower instead of to raise the bell. This being obeyed, it fell over, and two out of three who were in it, were drowned; the third came to the surface, and was saved. On another occasion at Blackwall, a bell, of which trial was being made on ship-board, was mismanaged. There were three persons below when the water began to fill it. One of them, with great presence of mind, dived underneath the edge, came to the surface, gave the alarm, and saved his companions.
Several diving-bells have been constantly employed during the last five or six years at Plymouth, at every variety of depth, and no accident whatever has happened with them. The truth is, the whole apparatus is now so admirably constructed, and the mode of applying it so perfectly understood, that nothing but the grossest ignorance and mismanagement could produce inconvenience. The workmen constantly enter it without fear, and remain several hours at the bottom of the sea, adjusting stones of enormous weight, with the same accuracy and precision as they would do above. There is even a rivalry among the men who shall descend on account of the very small extra pay allowed for working in it. In South America, a large proportion of the treasure sunk in the Thetis has been recovered by means of the diving-bell.
The following is a description, abridged from Brewster’s Cyclopædia, of Spalding’s Diving Bell, which is represented in the following cut:--
A, B, C, D, represents the body of the bell, which is suspended by four ropes, _a_, _a_, uniting together at their junction with the great rope E. _b_, _b_, ballast weights; these keep the mouth of the bell, C, D, always parallel to the surface of the water. By these weights alone, however, the bell would not sink; another is therefore added, F, which by means of a pully can be raised or lowered at pleasure. In descending, this balance weight hangs considerably below the bell. In case the edge of the bell is caught by any obstacle, the balance weight is immediately lowered down, so that it may rest upon the bottom. By this means the bell is lightened, and all danger of oversetting is removed; for being lighter without the balance weight than an equal bulk of water, it is evident that the bell will rise as far as the length of rope affixed to the balance weight will permit. This weight, therefore, will serve as a kind of anchor, to keep the bell at any desired depth. Instead of wooden seats, ropes are used suspended by hooks across the bottom of the bell; and on these the diver stands. Two windows, made of strong thick glass, are fixed near the top of the bell, G, H, two air-casks with their tackle, and _c_, _c_, the flexible pipe, through which air is admitted to the bell; each cask contains forty gallons. I, is a cock by which hot air is discharged as often as it becomes troublesome, and a fresh supply is obtained from the air-casks.