1810.] 
[ 353 ] 
. 
Evtracts from the Portfolio of a Man of Letters. 
> ome ye 
FIGS. 
IGS have, from the earliest times, 
been reckoned among the delights 
of the palate. Shaphan, the scribe, who 
made, for the use of the young king 
Josiah, that compendium of the law of 
Moses, which is called Deuteronomy, 
enumerates among the praises of his 
country, (Deuteronomy viii. 8,) that it 
was a land of figs. And the poetic spi- 
rit of the prophet Amos was formed 
(Amos vii. 14,) under the shade of fig- 
trees, whose fruit it was his profession te 
gather, 
The Athenians valued figs at least as 
highly as the Jews. Alexis, (in the 
Deipnosophists) calls figs “a food for 
the gods.” Pausanias says, that the 
Athenian Phytalus was ‘Yewarded by 
Ceres for his hospitality with the gift of 
the first fig-tree. Some foreign guest, 
no doubt, transmitted to him the plant, 
which he introduced in Attica. It suc- 
eceded so well there, that Athenzus 
brings forward Lynceus and Antiphanes, 
(liv. xiv, p.485,) vaunting the figs of 
Attica as the best on earth. Horap- 
pollo, or rather his commentator Bolzani, 
Says, that when the master of a house is 
going a journey, he hangs out a broom 
of fig-boughs for good luck. Our fore- 
fathers preferred a broom of birch; as if, 
in the master’s absence, it was well to 
remember the rod. 
A taste for figs marked the progress of 
refinement in the Roman empire. In 
Cato’s time, but six sorts of figs were 
known ; in Pliny’s, twenty-nine. (liv. xiii. 
c.7.) The sexual system of plants seems 
first to have been observed in the fig-tree; 
whose artificial impregnation is taught by 
Pliny, under the name caprification. 
In modern times, the esteem for figs 
has been still more widely diffused. 
When Charles V. visited Holland in 
41540, a Dutch merchant sent him, as 
the greatest delicacy which Ziriksee could 
offer, a plate of figs. The gracious em- 
peror dispelled for a moment the fogs of 
the climate, by declaring that he had 
never eaten figs in Spain with superior 
erie, Carter, (p. 367) praises the 
igs of Malaga ; Tournefort, (vol. i. p. 19) 
those of Marseilles; Ray, (p. 436) 
those of Italy; Brydone, (p. 127) those 
of Sicily; Dumont, (p. 150) those of 
Malta; Browne, (p. 144) those of Thes- 
saly ; Pococke, (vol, vi. p. 276) those of 
Mycone; De la Mottraye, (vol. i. p. 431) 
those of Tenedos and Mitylene; Chand- 
ler, (p. 188) those of Smyrna; Maillet, 
(p. 107) those of Cairo; and lady Wort. 
ley Montagu, (vol. il. p. 163) those of 
Tunis. What less can be inferred from 
the conspiring testimony of the most 
learned of the travelled, and of the most 
travelled of the learned, than that wheres 
ever there isa fig there is a feast? 
It remains for Jamaica, and the con- 
tiguous islands, to acquire that celebrity 
for the growth of figs, which yet attaches 
to the eastern archipelago; to learn to 
dry them as in the Levant; and to sup- 
ply the desserts of the food-fanciers of 
London. 
CURIOUS TRADITION. 
Previously to the dissolution of mo- 
nasteries in England by king Henry 
VIII., there was at Cardigan an image of 
the Virgin, which was much resorted to 
by pilgrims, even from distant parts, and 
produced very considerable revenues te 
the church. Tradition asserted, that it 
had been originally discovered swimming 
in the river Teivi, with a lighted wax 
taper in its hand ; that after its removal, 
this taper burnt for several years without 
any diminution of its substance; but that 
on some persons committing perjury, in 
swearing upon it, if was suddenly ex. 
tinguished, and never burned afterwards, 
Hence it became esteemed an invaluable 
relic; and, as such, was declared by the 
monks entitled to receive adoration, 
The dissolution of monasteries, of course, 
put an end to its influence ; and the first 
information was laid against it by Dr. 
William Barlow, bishop of St. Davids, 
who at that time professed the principles 
of protestantism, but who, a few years 
afterward, recanted, and again became 
a catholic. 
The following 1s a copy of his curious let< 
ter, and of the consequent examinations 
respecting the taper, of the prior, and the 
vicar. In Barlow’s letter, he earnestly 
requests to have the see of his bishopric 
removed to Caermarthen. he year in 
which the letter was written is not insere 
ted, but there is reason to suppose it was 
1537. 
‘ & After my right humble commenda- 
tions, the benevolent goodness of your 
lordship toward me appeareth both by 
your lordship’s lettres, and by relacion 
of M. Doct. Barnes concernynge soch 
. somes 
SSS eS 
BSS SEE 
> <a ; 
