392 



The Review of Reviews. 



October 1, l-i 



THE STORY OF DUNMOW FLITCH. 



Everybody knows that the Dunmow Flitch is a 

 reward of connubial felicity and fidelity. But not 

 all know the story of its origin as told in the Young 

 Womati for August : — 



The legend runs that over six hundred years ago there 

 •ame to Dunmow a noble gentleman. Sir Robert Fitzwalter. 

 Se came not in his true colours, but as a humble peasant, 

 ind while in this guise he fell in love with a handsome 

 leasant maid. To his joy the peasant maid was as much 

 enamoured of him as he w;is of her. but he breathed never 

 a word of his proper station. The two lovers married, 

 and still he kept his secret close. 



But at the end of a year he told all. and it came about 

 in this wise. Not om e during the first twelve months had 

 they resrett«d their « dding. and Sir Robert went to the 

 abbot at the Priory -K -e by and told him of their happi- 

 ness and asked for his ule-ssing. The abbot at once showed 

 his pleasure in meetin'; so worthy a couple, and blessed 

 them gladly. The cereinouv was hardly over when a ser- 

 vant passed by carrying on his shoulder a side of bacon. 

 The abbot called the man t" him. and at once gave it to 

 the happy pair as a worldly gift " tor their constancy. 



Then it was that Sir EoDert told the truth as to his real 

 position, and to celebrate his happy marriage settled many 

 fat and broad acres on the Priory on condition that " what- 

 ever married couple will go to the Priory and. kneeling 

 on two shari>pointed stones, will swear that they have 

 not quarrelled nor repented of their marriage within a 

 year and a day after its celebration, shall receive a goodly 

 flitch of bacon." 



At the present time there is a jury of si.\ bachelors 

 and six spinsters, generally young people, and a 

 judge. There is counsel for the prosecution and 

 counsel for the defence, who is to rebut all asper- 

 sions on the character of the couples that present 

 themselves. The proceedings seem to be turned 

 into good-humoured farce, ending in the happy 

 couples being chaired and cheered. 



THE COMPARATIVE SCIENCE OF HATS. 



Hats and their temperature form the subject of a 

 curious study by Mr. H. J. Holmes in the Windsor 

 Magazine. Stirred to inquiry- by the No. Hat Cru- 

 sade, the writer proceeded to test_ scientifically the 

 temperatures of different kinds of hats. On the 

 same afternoon, with the thermometer registering 92 

 degrees in the sun, a man " sat for a quarter of an 

 hour in the sun while wearing different forms of 

 headgear, inside of which a sensitive thermometer 

 was fixed within an inch of the crowii of the head. 

 Each test was made on the same day, whilst the 

 heat of the sun remained practically unchanged.' 

 The results giv^n mav be placed in columnar 

 form : — 



Yachting and motor cap 96 degrees 



Policeman's helmet ■ 97 



Tweed cap ■• 94 



Bowler ■■ 92 



Mortarboard 92 



Silk hat ■•■ 89 



White felt Hombursr ■■ 35 



Boater ' ^ " 



Straw Bomburg 8^ 



Panama "^ 



The most surprising fact is that the tall silk hat 

 is proved to be not by any means the peculiarly 

 " sweltering form of headgear " it is popularly sup- 

 posed to be. 



MOUNTING BIG ANIMALS. 



How It is Done. 

 In a record issue of the World's Work some in- 

 teresting particulars were given about this by Mr. 

 Harold J. Shepstowe. A successful taxidermist, he 

 contends, must be something of a painter, sculptor, 

 modeller, carpenter, and blacksmith all in one. He 

 then gives an account of the mounting of a gigantic 

 rhinoceros recently added to the National Museum 

 at Washington : — 



Wiien alive the great animal weighed three tons. It 

 took a truck and four horses to bring him from the Zoo 

 to the academy, where he was at once attacked by the 

 taxidermists and skinned. Pete, for that was the animal's 

 name, died of cancer at the Philadelphia Zoo, and as he 

 was the largest rhinoceros in captivity in the United 

 States, if not in the world, it was decided that his skin 

 should be preserved in the X.itional iluesum. 



It took more than two weeks to skin the great animal, 

 gallons of embalming fluid l>eing injected into the veins in 

 the meantime to preserve the mass of flesh from decom- 

 position. The hide of the monster was found in plaoes 

 to be three inches in thickness, requiring the combined 

 strength of six men, with a number of mechanical con- 

 trivances, to disengage it from the flesh. Only by cutting 

 the skin in three sections could it be removed. It was 

 then sent to one of the largest tanneries in Philadelphia; 

 the process of tanning occupied two months, as many aa 

 fifty men handling it at different stages. ' 



Before the skinning, over loo carefu'.ly-recorded 

 measurements were taken. 



The real labour in connection with the mounting of the 

 rhinoceros was that involved in building a suitable frame- 

 work, of " manikin " to receive the skin. To accomplish 

 this a large iron framework was forged and bolted to a 

 stout platform; around the ironwork was built a wooden 

 skeleton, conforming roughly to the general shape of the 

 rhinoceros. This, when completed, was padded with ex- 

 celsior and tightly wound round with brass wire. On top 

 of the excelsior was laid a thick layer of modelling clay. 

 This latter was a close copy of the real animal, on a 

 slightly smaller scale, to ensure a perfect fit of the huge 

 skin. 



When the skin was stretched and stitched on the clay 

 model the task was bv no means finished. The stuffed 

 animal did not have the appearance of the animal in real 

 life. A papier-mttehe tusk was made, as Pete had rubl>ed 

 his own off on the iron bars of his cage. The ears, which 

 drooped, were stretched into proiier shape, and given a 

 forward alertness hr means of thin sheets of lead inserted 

 from the inside. Finally the body was tinted with several 

 coats of filler, and ten pounds of pigment afterwards ap- 

 plied. 



The nine months taken over this work appeared 

 to experts a very short time. Two or three years is 

 not an unusual time for a set group of deer or other 

 wild animals to take before they are all in perfectly 

 natural and life-like poses. 



The largest animal ever mounted is the Siberian 

 mammoth in the Zoological Museum in St. Peters- 

 burg. He was accidentally discovered, it may be 

 remembered, by a Cossack in 1901, in a marvellous 

 state of preser\ation ; and in the remarkable story 

 of the mounting of the huge beast is also told. 



The second volume of " The Cathedrals of Eng- 

 land " (Dennis and Sons, 20 Cheapside. Large 4to, 

 art cloth gilt. los. 6d.) has appeared. It contains 

 sixfv'-four artistic photographs of Ely, Chester, Ox- 

 ford, Bangor, and St. Asaph's, Lichfield, Xewcastle- 

 on-Tvne, Worcester, and St. Paul's, London, with 

 useful historical notes bv. Arnold Fairbairn. 



