Leadenhall market with a piece of candle in his hat and No. 554 on his arm, is the first great parent and 
original of all authoritative staves from the beadle’s cane wherewith he terrifies little-boys who eat bull’s eyes 
in church-time, up to the silver mace of the verger; the wands of parishes and governors; the tasseled staff, 
wherewith the Band-Major so loftily picks out his measured way before the musicians, and which he holds 
up when they are to cease; the White Staff of the Lord Treasurer; the court-officer emphatically called the 
Gold Stick: The Bishop’s Crozier (Pedum Episcopale) whereby he his supposed to pull back the feet of his 
straying flock ; and the royal and imperial sceptre aforesaid, whose holders were formerly called shepherds of 
the people. The Vaulting Staff, a luxurious instrument of exercise, must have been used in times immemorial 
for passing streams and rough ground with. It is the ancestor of the staff with which Pilgrims travelled. 
The Staff and Quarter-Staff of the country Robin Hoods is a remnant of the war-club. So is the Irish 
Shilelah, which a friend has well defined to be “a stick with two butt-ends.” The originals of all these, that 
are not extant in our own country, may still be seen wherever there are nations uncivilized. 
But sticks have been great favourites with civilized as well as uncivilized nations; only the former have 
used them more for help than ornament. The Greeks were a sceptropherous people. Homer probably 
used a walking-stick, because he was blind; but we have it on authority that Socrates did. On his first 
meeting with Xenophon, which was in a narrow passage, he barred up the way with his stick, and asked 
him in his good-natured manner, where provisions were to be had. Xenophon having told him, he asked 
again, if he knew where virtue and wisdom were to be had; this reducing the young man to a non-plus, he 
said, “ Follow me, and learn;” which Xenophon did, and became the great man we have all heard of. The 
fatherly story of Agesilaus, who was caught amusing his little boy with riding on a stick, and asked his 
visitor whether he was a father, is too well known for repetition. 
There is an illustrious anecdote connected with our subject in Roman history. The highest compli- 
ment, which his countrymen thought they could pay to the first Scipio, was to call him a walking-stick; for 
such is the signification of his name. It was given him for the filial zeal with which he used to help his old 
father about, serving his decrepid age instead of a staff. But the Romans were not remarkable for sentiment. 
What we hear in general of their sticks, is the thumpings which servants get in their plays ; and above all, 
the famous rods which the lictors carried, and which being actual sticks, must have inflicted horrible dull 
bruises and malignant stripes. They were pretty things, it must be confessed, to carry before the chief 
magistrate; just as if the King or the Lord Chancellor were to be preceded by a cat-o’-nine tails. 
Sticks are not at all in such request with modern times as they were. Formerly, we suspect, most of 
the poorer ranks in England used to carry them, both on account of the prevalence of manly sports, and for 
security in travelling: for before the invention of posts and railroads, a trip to Marlowe or St. Albans was 
a thing to make a man write his will. As they came to be ornamented, fashion adopted them. The Cava- 
liers of Charles the First’s time were a sticked race. Charles the First, when at his trial, held out his stick 
to forbid the Attorney-General’s proceeding. There is an interesting little story connected with a stick, 
which is related of Andrew Marvell’s father, (worthy of such a son), and which as it is little known, we will 
repeat; though it respects the man more than the machine. He had been visited by a young lady, who in 
spite of a stormy evening persisted in returning across the Humber, because her family would be alarmed 
at her absence. The old gentleman, high-hearted and cheerful, after vainly trying to dissuade her from 
perils which he understood better than she, resolved in his gallantry to bear her company. He accordingly 
walked with her down to the shore, and getting into the boat, threw his stick to a friend, with a request, in 
a lively tone of voice, that he would preserve it for a keepsake. He then cried out merrily “Ho-hoy for 
Heaven!” and put off with his visitor. They were drowned. 
As commerce increased, exotic sticks grew in request from the Indies. Hence the Bamboo, the 
Whanghee, the Jambee which makes such a genteel figure under Mr. Lilly’s auspices in the Tatler; and 
our light modern cane, which the stroller buys at sixpence a piece, with a twist of it at the end for a handle. 
The physicians, till within the last few score of years, retained the wig and gold-headed cane. 
Canes became so common before the decline of the use of sticks, that whenever a man is beaten with a 
stick, let it be of what sort it may, it is still common to say that he has had “a caning.” Which reminds 
us of an anecdote more agreeable than surprising ; though the patient doubtless thought the reverse. A 
gentleman, who was remarkable for the amenity of his manners, accompanied by something which a bully 
might certainly think he might presume upon, found himself compelled to address a person who did not 
know how to “translate his style,” in the following words, which were all delivered in the sweetest tone in 
the world, with an air of almost hushing gentility : — “ Sir, — I am extremely sorry — to be obliged to say, — 
that you appear to have a very erroneous notion of the manners that become your situation in life; — and I 
am compelled, with great reluctance, to add,” — (here he became still softer and more delicate,) that if you 
do not think fit, upon reflection, to alter this very extraordinary conduct towards a gentleman, I shall be 
under the necessity of caning you.” The other treated the thing as a joke; and to the delight of the. 
bye-standers, received a very grave drubbing.” 
