virgins of Great Britain exceedingly nimble-fingered in their business.

There is a memorable custom of the Grecian ladies in this particular preserved in Homer, which I hope will have a very good effect with my countrywomen, A widow, in ancient times, could not, without indecency, receive a second husband, till she had woven a shroud for her deceased lord, or the next of kin to him. Accordingly, the chaste Penelope, having, as she thought, lost Ulysses at sea, she employed her time in preparing a winding-sheet for Laertes, the father of her husband. The story of her web being very famous, and yet not sufficiently known in its several circumstances, I shall give it to my reader, as Homer makes one of her wooers relate it.

Sweet hope she gave to every youth apart,
With well-taught looks, and a deceitful heart:
A web she wove of many a slender twine,
Of curious texture, and perplext design;
'My youths, she cried, my lord but newly dead,
Forbear a while to court my widow'd bed,
Till I have woven, as solemn vows require,
This web, a shroud for poor Ulysses' sire,
His limbs, when fate the hero's soul demands,
Shall claim this labour of his daughter's hands,
Lest all the dames of Greece my name despise,
While the great king without a covering lies.'

Thus she. Nor did my friends mistrust the guile.
All day she sped the long laborious toil :
But when the burning lamps supplied the sun,
Each night unravelled what the day begun.
Three livelong summers did the fraud prevail;
The fourth her maidens told th'amazing tale.
These eyes beheld, as close I took my stand,
The backward labours of her faithless hand :
Till, watch'd at length, and press'd on every side,
Her task she ended, and commenced a bride.

No. 607. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1714.

Dicite Tö Paan: et Iö, bis dicite, Paan:
Decidit in casses præda petita meos.

OVID. ARS. AM. ii. 1.

Now Iö Pæan sing, now wreaths prepare,
And with repeated Iö's fill the air;
The prey is fallen in my successful toils.

66 MR. SPECTATOR,

ANON.

"HAVING in your paper of Monday last published my report on the case of Mrs. Fanny Fickle, wherein I have taken notice that love comes after marriage; I hope your readers are satisfied of this truth, that as love generally produces matrimony, so it often happens that matrimony produces love.

"It perhaps requires more virtues to make a good husband or wife than what go to the finishing any the most shining character whatsoever.

"Discretion seems absolutely necessary; and accordingly we find that the best husbands have been most famous for their wisdom. Homer, who hath drawn a perfect pattern of a prudent man, to make it the more complete, hath celebrated him for the just returns of fidelity and truth to his Penelope ; insomuch that he refused the caresses of a goddess for her sake; and, to use the expression of the best of Pagan authors, Vetulam suam prætulit immortalitati, his old woman was dearer to him than immortality.'

"Virtue is the next necessary qualification for this domestic character, as it naturally produces constancy and mutual esteem. Thus Brutus and Porcia were more remarkable for virtue and affection than any others of the age in which they lived.

“Good-nature is a third necessary ingredient in the marriage state, without which it would inevitably sour upon a thousand occasions. When greatness of mind is joined with this amiable quality, it attracts the admiration and esteem of all who behold it. Thus Cæsar, not more remarkable for his fortune and valour than for his humanity, stole into the hearts of the Roman people, when, breaking through the custom, he pronounced an oration at the funeral of his first and best-beloved wife.

"Good-nature is insufficient, unless it be steady and uniform, and accompanied with an evenness of temper, which is above all things to be preserved in this friendship contracted for life. A man must be easy within himself before he can be so to his other self. Socrates and Marcus Aurelius are instances of men, who, by the strength of philosophy, having entirely composed their minds, and subdued their passions, are celebrated for good husbands; notwithstanding the first was yoked with Xantippe, and the other with Faustina. If the wedded pair would but habituate themselves for the first year to bear with one another's faults, the difficulty would be pretty well conquered. This mutual sweetness of temper and complacency was finely recommended in the nuptial ceremonies among the heathens, who, when they sacrificed to Juno at the solemnity, always tore out the gall from the entrails of the victim, and cast it behind the altar.

"I shall conclude this letter with a passage out of Dr. Plot's Natural History of Staffordshire, not only as it will serve to fill up your present paper, but, if I find myself in the humour, may give rise to another; I having by me an old register belonging to the place here under-mentioned.

"Sir Philip de Somervile held the manors of

Whichenovre, Scirescot, Ridware, Netherton, and Cowlee, all in the county of Stafford, of the earls of Lancaster, by this memorable service: The said sir Philip shall find, maintain, and sustain, one baconflitch, hanging in his hall at Whichenovre ready arrayed all times of the year, but in Lent, to be given to every man or woman married, after the day and the year of their marriage be past, in form following*.

“Whensoever that any one such before named will come to inquire for the bacon, in their own person, they shall come to the bailiff, or to the porter of the lordship of Whichenovre, and shall say to them in the manner as ensueth :

Bailiff, or porter, I doo you to know, that I am come for myself to demand one bacon-flyke hanging in the hall of the lord of Whichenovre, after the form thereunto belonging.'

"After which relation, the bailiff or porter shall assign a day to him, upon promise by his faith to return, and with him to bring twain of his neighbours. And in the mean time, the said bailiff shall take with him twain of the freeholders of the lordship of Whichenovre, and they three shall go to the manor of Rudlow, belonging to Robert Knightleye, and there shall summon the aforesaid Knightleye, or his bailiff, commanding him to be ready at Whichenovre the day appointed, at prime of day, with his carriage, that is to say, a horse and a saddle, a sack and a pryke, for to convey the said bacon and corn a journey out of the county of Stafford, at his costages. And then the said bailiff shall, with the said freeholders, summon all the tenants of the said manor, to be ready at the day appointed at Whichenovre, for to do and per

* There was an institution of the same kind at Dunmow, in Essex.

form the services which they owe to the bacon. And at the day assigned, all such as owe services to the bacon shall be ready at the gate of the manor of Whichenovre, from the sun-rising to noon, attending and awaiting for the coming of him who fetcheth the bacon. And when he is come, there shall be delivered to him and his fellows, chapelets, and to all those which shall be there, to do their services due to the bacon. And they shall lead the said demandant with trumps and tabors, and other manner of minstrelsy, to the hall door, where he shall find the lord of Whichenovre, or his steward, ready to deliver the bacon in this manner.

"He shall inquire of him which demandeth the bacon, if he have brought twain of his neighbours with him which must answer, they be here ready.' And then the steward shall cause these two neighbours to swear, if the said demandant be a wedded man, or have been a man wedded; and if since his marriage one year and a day be past; and if he be a freeman or a villain *. And if his said neighbours make oath that he hath for him all these three points rehearsed, then shall the bacon be taken down and brought to the hall door, and shall there be laid upon one half-quarter of wheat, and upon one other of rye. And he that demandeth the bacon shall kneel upon his knee, and shall hold his right hand upon a book, which book shall be laid upon the bacon and the corn, and shall make oath in this manner :

Here ye, Sir Philip de Somervile, lord of Whichenovre, mayntener and gyver of this baconne : that I A. sithe I wedded B. my wife, and sithe I had hyr in my kepying, and at my wylle, by a year

* i. e. According to the acceptation of the word at the date of this institution' a freeman, or a servant.'