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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11322 ***
+
+THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.
+
+VOL. XIII, NO. 359.] SATURDAY, MARCH 7, 1829. [Price 2d.
+
+
+
+
+RUGBY SCHOOL
+
+
+[Illustration: Rugby School.]
+
+
+On the eastern border of Warwickshire, about 13 miles from Coventry, and
+16 from Warwick, stands the cheerful town of Rugby, a place of great
+antiquity, but of little note previous to the erection of a grammar-school
+there, towards the close of the sixteenth century. The circumstances under
+which this school was founded, and the rank it has attained among our
+classical seminaries, may probably be interesting to the reader.
+
+Rugby School was founded in the ninth year of Elizabeth, by Lawrence
+Sheriff, grocer, of London, chiefly as a free grammar-school for the
+children of the parishes of Rugby and Brownsover, and places adjacent. For
+the accommodation of the master, who was, "if it conveniently might be, to
+be ever a Master of Arts," he bequeathed a messuage at Rugby, in which it
+is probable he had himself resided during the last few years of his life,
+and he directed that there should be built, near this residence, a fair
+and convenient school-house, to defray which expense, and of a contiguous
+almshouse, he bequeathed the revenue of the rectory of Brownsover, and a
+third portion of twenty-four acres of land, situate in _Lamb's Conduit
+Fields_, "near London," and termed the Conduit Close. These eight acres
+were of trivial value at the period; and in 1653, the trustees of the
+property paid the schoolmaster a salary of 12_l_. a year, and each of the
+alms-men 7_s_. 7_d_. In 1686, the Lamb's Conduit property was leased for
+fifty years at 50_l_. per annum. The metropolis increased, and stretching
+one of its _Briareusian_ arms in this direction, the once neglected field
+rose in value, and in 1702 (thirty-four years before the expiration of the
+above term) the trustees granted a fresh lease to William (afterwards Sir
+William) Milman, of forty-three years, to commence at the termination of
+the former lease. Building was not then a mania, and Sir William obtained
+his term for 60_l_. per annum; so that until the year 1780, the annual
+produce of the estate belonging to the Rugby charity, was only 116_l_.
+17_s_. 6_d_.! But, shortly after the grant of an extended term to Sir W.
+Milman, handsome streets of family houses sprung up, and it was computed
+that a ground-rent of at least 1,600_l_. would accrue to the charity on
+the expiration of his lease. A much greater income has, in fact, arisen,
+and the revenues will be materially increased on the termination of the
+present leases.
+
+The flourishing finances of this noble institution are well managed by
+twelve trustees, chosen from the nobility and gentry of the country.[1]
+
+The ancient buildings of the Rugby seminary were a humble tenement for the
+schoolmaster, a principal school-room, and two or three additional
+school-rooms, built at different times, as the finances would allow. These
+being found too limited, in 1808 the trustees commenced the erection of
+the present structure, from the designs of Mr. Henry Hakewill. It stands
+nearly on the same spot as the former humble building, and is composed of
+white brick, the angles, cornices, and dressings to the windows and
+openings being of Aldborough stone. The style of architecture is that of
+the reign of Elizabeth, the period at which the school was founded. The
+building is massy, august, and interesting from its graceful disposition
+of parts. The principal front is that represented in our engraving, which
+extends 220 feet.
+
+The schools are entered by a gateway opposite the street, which leads to
+the principal court, a fine area, 90 feet long by 75 feet wide, with a
+plain cloister on the east, south, and west sides. The buildings on the
+south of the court comprise the dining hall, belonging to the boys in the
+head master's house, and three schools for different classes; those on the
+west are occupied by the great school; and on the north are the French and
+writing schools. The east side adjoins the offices belonging to the head
+master's house. About sixty boys are accommodated here; the remainder
+lodge in the houses of the other masters, and in the town of Rugby.
+
+Lawrence Sheriff, the benevolent founder of this institution, was born at
+Brownsover, whence he removed to London, where he kept a grocer's shop in
+Newgate-street. A more gratifying portrait of true beneficence than
+Sheriff's bequest can scarcely be found in British annals; and this
+gratification is greatly enhanced by the justice with which his intentions
+have been carried into effect at Rugby. The alms-houses were originally
+for four poor old men; but the dwellings have been augmented in proportion
+to the increased revenues.
+
+    [1] Their annual meeting is in August, when the examination takes
+        place. Fourteen exhibitions have been instituted, each of the
+        exhibitioners being allowed forty pounds per annum to assist in
+        their support, for seven years, at either university.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+CHOICE HINTS FOR A PLAN TO DISCHARGE THE NATIONAL DEBT.
+
+(_For the Mirror_.)
+
+
+"Great events sometimes spring from trivial causes," of the truth of this
+adage, no man is, I think, so great a _heretic_, as to express any
+doubt--were such the case, it would be by no means difficult to conjure up
+a host of evidence, in support of our proposition; but, seeing that "such
+things are," let us at once to the point.
+
+The present age is so rife in whims and proposals, that I am rather
+apprehensive, some may doubt the _feasibility_ of the following.
+Nevertheless, it is, methinks, quite as good, as many others which
+recently were strangled, in struggling for existence.
+
+In looking over some old pamphlets the other day, I met with the following
+"true and particular account" of Mr. Peter Pounce, Postmaster, of
+Petersham, and his horse, Prance.
+
+Now, according to my author (of whose veracity I entreat the reader to use
+his own discretion) it seems this Mr. Pounce was an exceedingly good kind
+of man, and that his horse, Prance, was also an exceedingly good kind of
+horse; moreover, when the postmaster travelled, he usually put up at the
+_George_, where there is exceeding good entertainment for both man and
+horse. Upon one occasion, being in great haste, Mr. Pounce directed the
+ostler not to put Prance into the stable, but to tie him to the brew-house
+door. Now, as cruel fate would have it, there was just within the nag's
+reach, a tub full of wine lees, which, luckless moment for him, (being
+thirsty) he unceremoniously quaffed off in a trice, without even _here's
+to you_.
+
+The consequence was, Prance fell down dead drunk; nay, he acted death so
+much to the life, that his master, reckoning him absolutely defunct, had
+him flayed, and sold his skin to a tanner, who happened to be drinking in
+the alehouse kitchen. Mr. Pounce then walked in a solitary mood to his
+home, and communicated the melancholy affair to his good lady, who wept
+bitterly at Prance's untimely fate.
+
+But leaving her to dry her eyes, we return to the nag--the weather being
+cold, he was by the loss of his skin, &c. quite sobered, and prudently
+trotted to his master's door, at which he whinnied with much clamour for
+admission.
+
+Bless me, my dear, exclaims Mrs. P. our nag's ghost is at the door--I know
+him by his whinnies; upon which Mr. Pounce runs with alacrity to the
+door, and sure enough there he was--no ghost--but in propriâ personâ
+except his skin. In this exigence, the gentleman had four sheep killed
+forthwith, and covered the nag with a woollen garment. To make short of
+it, the horse rapidly recovered, and bore two tods of wool every year.
+
+From this narration it is proposed to embrace the manifest advantages
+which offer themselves for improving the woollen trade--that great staple
+of Britain's wealth, in manner following:--
+
+First, then, let an accurate estimate be taken of the number of sheep
+annually slaughtered in these kingdoms.
+
+Secondly.--Let proper officers be appointed to collect these skins into
+commodious warehouses.
+
+Lastly.--That such a number of horses, mares, and geldings as the said
+skins will conveniently cover, be flayed (without fear of Mr. Martin!) and
+their backs forthwith enveloped in fleece.
+
+By this arrangement the following benefits will arise to the government
+and community:--
+
+1. Every horse whose hide was formerly only useful after death, will then
+afford an annual profit by producing two tods of wool yearly, without any
+loss to the tanner or shoemaker, who will still necessarily have as many
+hides as heretofore.
+
+2. The health of that useful animal the horse, which is probably liable to
+more disorders than any other (the human species excepted) will be much
+better preserved by woollen than a hairy covering.
+
+3. There will be little occasion for saddles, &c. as the fleece will
+afford a very easy seat, much softer than leather, and well adapted for
+ladies and invalids.
+
+Lastly.--There will be an annual acquisition of about 40 millions
+sterling, from this novel mode of procedure, of which please to accept the
+following algebraical demonstration:--
+
+Let _x_ be the unknown quantity; _a_, the horses; _b_, the sheep; then per
+simple equations _x_, plus _a_, plus _b_, minus tods, plus sheepskins,
+equal one thousand--then minus sheep, plus horses, minus wool, plus tods,
+equal one million. Lastly, horses plus sheep, minus hides, plus fleeces,
+in all equal forty millions.
+
+    Quod erat demonstrandum.
+
+There, reader, if you are still a sceptic, I cannot help it.
+
+JACOBUS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+ANSWER OF THE LONDON STONE.[2]
+
+(_For the Mirror_.)
+
+
+    Why hast thou mortal, on my slumber broken,
+      And dragged my struggling spirit back to earth?
+    Though "walls have ears," yet stones have never spoken.
+      Why am I made the object of thy mirth?
+    Why am I questioned thus to tell my fate,
+    And primal use? Yet hear--whilst I relate.
+
+    When time was young, and earth was in her prime,
+      Secure I slept within her spacious womb;
+    And ages passed--I took no heed of time,
+      Until some Druid burst my dismal tomb,
+    And dragged me forth amidst the haunts of man.
+    And then, indeed my life of woe began.
+
+    And ere great Caesar in triumphant pride,
+      Led on by conquest, bade Rome's eagles soar
+    To this fair isle; full many a victim died
+      Upon my breast, and I was drenched with gore:
+    For "midst the tangling horrors of the wood,"
+    I stood an altar, stained with human blood.
+
+    I've witnessed scenes, which I now dread to name,
+      I've seen the captive bound in wicker rods
+    Expire, midst shouts, to feed the sacred flame,
+      And glut the fury of offended gods;
+    Those days soon passed--the gospel's milder ray
+    Dispelled the gloom, and spread a brighter day.
+
+    Then superstition tottered on her throne,
+      And hid her head in shades of gloomy night;
+    Quenched were her fires--her impious fanes o'er thrown,
+      Her mists dispersed before the Prince of Light,
+    Then sank my grandeur; in some lonely spot
+    I slept for years unnoticed and forgot.
+
+    Until Vespasian, by Rome's stern command,
+      To quench rebellion in my native isle,
+    Brought his bold legions from a foreign strand,
+      Our land to torture, and our towers to spoil;
+    He hewed me in a fashion now unknown,
+    And dubbed me, what I am, "The London Stone."
+
+    From me, the miles by Britons once were counted,
+      Close to my side were monies lent and paid;
+    If princes died--some gaudy herald mounted
+      Upon my head, and proclamations read;
+    Till Gresham rose; who used me very ill,
+    He moved the place of commerce to Cornhill.
+
+    When reeling homewards from the tavern near,
+      Oft with prince Henry has old honest Jack
+    Sat on my breast, and I've been doomed to hear
+      Him talk of valour, and of unpaid sack;
+    And whilst he talked, the roysterers gave vent,
+    To peals of laughter and of merriment.
+
+    Yes, I'm the hone that "City's Lord" essayed,
+      To make the whetstone of his rebel sword;
+    On me, with mischief rife, rebellious Cade
+      Sat whilst he thought and dubbed himself a Lord;
+    And bade my conduit pipe for one whole year
+    At city's cost, run naught but claret clear.[3]
+
+    I could a tale of harrowing woes reveal,
+      Whilst York and Lancaster for mastery tried:
+    When men the ties of nature ceased to feel,
+      When sires beneath their offsprings' sabres died;
+    And sires 'gainst children clad themselves in arms,
+    And England mourned the din of war's alarms.
+
+    Yes, I beheld the beauteous virgin queen,
+      And all the dauntless heroes of her court;
+    Where danger threatened, 'midst the danger seen,
+      Bending their fearless way to Tilbury Fort;
+    I heard the shouts of joy which Britons gave,
+    When th' Armada sank beneath the wave.
+
+    I mind, Augusta,[4] well that fatal day,
+      When to thy ports with dire contagion fraught.
+    The laden vessel[5] stemmed its gallant way.
+      And to thy sons the plague disastrous brought;
+    Quick through thy walls the foul infection spread,
+    And thou became the city of the dead.
+
+    Scarce ceased the plague--when to my aching sight
+      Appeared a scene of most terrific woe;
+    Around me burnt one monstrous blaze of light,
+      I warmed, and almost melted with its glow;
+    I burst the chains,[6] which bound me fast, asunder,
+    And now remain, to learned men a wonder.
+
+    And when the city from her ruins rose,
+      I soon was left deserted and forlorn;
+    A porters' bench was raised beneath my nose.
+      And I became the object of their scorn:
+    I've heard the rascals, with a vacant stare,
+    Ask, just like you, what business I had there?
+
+    Few years have passed, since I, by parish sages,
+      Was called a monstrous nuisance to the street,
+    And, though I'd borne the brunt of varying ages,
+      Was doomed for pavement 'neath the horses' feet,
+    Until a Maiden,[7] near to Sherborne Lane,
+    Saved me--and rescued London from that stain.
+
+    And now, vain mortal, I have told thee all,
+      My fate, my primal use, the what and which;
+    And though my struggling spirit owned thy salt,
+      Once more I'll slumber in my holy niche,
+    And "Britain's sun may set," what's that to me,
+    Since I, stone-blind and dumb, for aye will be.
+
+                                              J.E.
+
+    [2] See _Ode to London Stone_. MIRROR, No. 357, p. 114.
+
+    [3] See Shakspeare's Henry VI., part 2, act 4, scene 6.
+
+    [4] The ancient name for London.
+
+    [5] The cause of the great plague in 1665, was ascribed to the
+        importation of infected goods from Holland, where the plague
+        had committed great ravages the preceding year.
+
+    [6] Stowe in his history describes the London Stone, "fixed in
+        the ground very deep, fastened with bars of iron and otherwise,
+        so strongly set that if carts do runne against it through
+        negligence, the wheels be broken, and the stone itself unshaken."
+        See No. 64 of the Mirror for an account of London Stone.
+
+    [7] When the church of St. Swithin was repaired in 1798, some of
+        the parishioners declared the London Stone a nuisance which
+        ought to be removed. Fortunately, one gentleman, Thomas Maiden,
+        of Sherborne Laue, interfered and rescued it from annihilation,
+        and caused it to be placed in its present situation.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+HAVER BREAD.
+
+(_To the Editor of the Mirror_.)
+
+
+A correspondent wishes to be informed of the definition of the word
+_avver_. In the 15th volume of the "Beauties of England and Wales," it is
+alluded to thus:--"This county (Westmoreland) being supposed unfavourable
+to the growth of wheat, black oats, called _haver_, and the species of
+barley called _bere_, or _bigg_, were the only grains it produced. Of the
+_haver_, bread was made, or the species of pottage called hasty pudding;
+this bread being made into thin unleavened cakes, and laid up in chests
+within the influence of the fire, has the quality of preserving its
+sweetness for several months; it is still in common use. The _bigg_ was
+chiefly made into malt, and each family brewed its own ale; during the hay
+harvest the women drank a pleasant sharp beverage, made by infusing mint
+or sage buttermilk in whey, and hence called _whey-whig_. Wheaten bread
+was used on particular occasions; small loaves of it were given to persons
+invited to funerals, which they were expected "to take and eat" at home,
+in religious remembrance of their deceased neighbour; a custom, the
+prototype of which is evidently seen in the establishment of the
+eucharist, for in this county it still bears its _Saxon name_, _Arvel
+bread_, from appull, _full of reverence_, meaning the holy bread used at
+the communion."
+
+P.T.W.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE SKETCH-BOOK.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+BATTLE OF QUATRE BRAS.
+
+
+Gray, as one of the party of dragoons who attended the Duke of Wellington,
+proceeded onward at a sharp pace through the marching columns, which his
+grace examined, with a close but quick glance, as he passed on, and after
+a march of seven leagues, came up with the Belgian troops under the Prince
+of Orange, who had been attacked and pushed back by the French. It was
+about seven o'clock; none of the British troops had yet arrived within
+some hours' march of the duke. The party of dragoons were ordered to
+remain in readiness for duty in a cornfield near the road, on a rising
+ground, which commanded a full view of the country in front, while the
+duke and his staff proceeded to the left.
+
+The four biscuits which had been served out to each man at Brussels the
+night before, with some cold beef, and the contents of their canteen,
+helped to regale the dragoons after their long and rapid march, while the
+stout steeds that had borne them found a delightful repast in the high rye
+that waved under their noses. Here they beheld passing on the road beside
+them many wounded Belgians, and could see before them, at the distance of
+a quarter of a mile, the French bayonets glistening over the high fields
+of corn, and hear distinctly the occasional discharges of musketry from
+tirailleurs. Gray's heart leaped with joy, and he thought no more of
+Brussels.
+
+"What's this place called?" inquired one of the dragoons, generally of his
+comrades.
+
+"Called!--Oh, some jaw-breaking Dutch name of a yard long, I suppose,"
+replied another. "Ax Gentleman Gray--he'll tell you."
+
+"Well, Mr. Gray, do you know the name of this here place?"
+
+"I believe," replied Gray, "we are near a point called _Quatre Bras_, or
+the four roads."
+
+"Well," rejoined the other, "if there were half-a-dozen roads, it wouldn't
+be too much for these here Flemingers--yon road's not wide enough for
+them, you see. Look, here's a regiment o' them coming back!"
+
+"Ah! poor fellows--we might be in the same situation," observed Gray;
+"remember that their force is not strong in comparison with the French, by
+the accounts that have been received; better to fall back at the first of
+a fight than at the last."
+
+"I say, Jack," said another, with his mouth full of biscuit, "did you ever
+meet with such a devil of a roadster as the _carpolar_ there with the
+glazed cocked hat?"
+
+"Who do you mean?" said Jack.
+
+"Why the dook, to be sure--how he _did_ give it us on the long road
+through the forest."
+
+"Ay--he's the lad; well, here's God bless his jolly old glazed hat any
+way," cried the trooper, swallowing a horn of grog; "he's the boy what has
+come from the Peninsula just to gi' 'em a leaf out of his book. He was a
+dancing last night--riding like a devil all the morning--and I'll warrant
+he'll be fighting all the afternoon by way of refreshing himself."
+
+"He look'd serious enough this morning though, Master Tom, as he was
+turning out."
+
+"Serious! and so did you; hasn't he enough to make him look serious? Bony,
+and all the flower of the French before him. I like to see him look
+serious; he's just a thinking a bit, that's all. Look, look, look! where
+he is now pelting away up the hill there. My eye! but he's a rum on'."
+
+"Ay, just as he was in the ould ground," cried an Hibernian. "'Pon my
+sowl, I think I'm in Spain agin. There he is, success to him!--an' the
+smell o' the powther too so natural."
+
+"The light troops are pushing on towards that wood," said Gray, fixing his
+eyes on a particular spot.
+
+"Sure enough they are. Ah! we'll soon have the boys up who will set them
+off with a flea in their ear."
+
+"Look--on the rising ground there, about half a mile away, how they are
+moving about--that is a train of artillery--see the guns--there is a
+regiment of infantry going to the left--do you see their bayonets? A fine
+open place here for a battle."
+
+"Not so good as that which we passed--the plain fields we crossed
+immediately after we left the forest of Soignes," said Gray: "however,
+that little wood on our right, in front, which runs along the road, is a
+good flank, and the village before us is a strong point."
+
+"Ay, but you see the Belgian troops couldn't keep it; the French have
+pushed them out of it."
+
+"We'll soon have it again, I'll warrant; our men have a fine open ground
+here, to give the French a lesson in dancing," cried the corporal of the
+party, throwing himself down on his back in the corn. "Here I'll lie and
+rest myself; and I don't think I shall be disturb'd by the buzzing of the
+blue flies! I'll have a snooze, until the Highlanders shall come up."
+
+The party remained undisturbed, as the last speaker had intimated, until
+about half-past one o'clock; nothing having been done in the way of attack
+by the French. During the interval, Gray employed himself in watching
+closely the scene around him, and mentally discussing the chances of the
+now inevitably approaching fight.
+
+The hour of struggle was near--the pibroch burst upon the ears of the
+troopers, and up they started.
+
+"Here they come," cried one.--"Here they come," cried another--"the
+gallant 42nd; look at the petticoat-devils, how they foot it along!"
+
+All stood on the highest part of the ground, to witness the arrival of the
+troops, who were now within a quarter of a mile of them on the main road.
+A hum arose. Belgian officers galloped down the road, and across the
+fields in all directions; the duke was seen riding towards his expected
+soldiers, and the scene was life at all points. The pibroch's sound grew
+louder; and now the bands of the more distant regiments were heard; and
+the harmonious bugles of the rifle corps, mingled their sounds with the
+others. The long red line of Britons is fully before the sight, like a
+giant stream of blood on the ripe and mellow bosom of the earth. Picton is
+at its head, and the duke greets the heroic partner of his glory. The
+first of the regiments passes close to the troopers, and receives a cheer
+from them, which found a return in the relaxing muscles of the hardy
+Scots.
+
+"What corps is that?" inquired one of the group.
+
+"The Royal Highlanders, the 42nd--don't you see they are turned up with
+blue and gold?" replied another.
+
+"And what's this with the yellow facings?"
+
+"The old 92nd."
+
+"And the other Scotch regiment, with the green and gold?"
+
+"The 79th; three as good kilted corps as ever crossed the Tweed. And
+there's the 95th rifle boys, as green as the wood they are going to take.
+And there see the 28th,--and the 44th,--and the 32nd;--that's Picton's
+division; a glorious set of fellows as ever slept."
+
+"And who are the fellows all in black?"
+
+"The bold Brunswick corps, with death's head on their caps--the
+_undertakers_ of the French," cried the corporal.
+
+Never did a young hero gaze on a gallant army with more enthusiastic
+feelings, than did Gray upon the troops before him--the sight stirred his
+heart-strings. They were within shot of their foe, and half an hour should
+see them in the bloody contest. He sighed to think that his own regiment
+was not yet come up, with which he might share the glory of the fight.
+
+One after the other, the corps entered the fields, across the high corn,
+from the road, to take up their positions for the battle. Neither cavalry
+nor artillery had they to support them--their bayonets were their hopes;
+and their wise general placed them accordingly in squares, and at such
+distances as that one might support the other, while each would protect
+itself, independently, if necessary. The rifle corps now advanced, to open
+the business of the day by firing into a field of tirailleurs. The French
+were not idle at this time; they advanced in masses--cavalry and infantry;
+while a roar of cannon, that almost deafened every ear, covered the
+attack.
+
+"They are coming on the centre," cried Gray: "see the cuirassiers--what a
+body of men! Oh! where is our cavalry?"
+
+"Ay," cried a trooper; "and look, what columns of infantry!"
+
+All now remained in breathless anxiety, gazing on the approaching masses
+of the enemy; not a word was spoken amongst the well-planted squares of
+the British. The French are within fifty yards of them, and the battle
+begins.
+
+"There," cried a trooper; "how our men give it to them!--there's a
+volley!--look how the horses fall!--see, they can't stand it--hurra!--the
+rascals are staggered--the 27th are after them--they deploy into line;
+there the French go, with the bayonet at them, helter-skelter. But
+observe, at a little distance from them, the enemy's dragoons are at the
+42nd--the Scotch open and let them pass; but now they get it right and
+left. Down they go; bravo! old Scotland."
+
+"By heaven!" cried Gray, "here come the Brunswick horse in confusion,
+pursued by the cuirassiers along the road, near the village."
+
+All turned to gaze at the point: it was too true: their leader had fallen;
+they had advanced too incautiously, and were therefore obliged to fall
+back.
+
+"Here they come, and the French cavalry are close upon them. But see the
+Highlanders in the ditch. Hark! there--they give them a volley. Down
+tumble the horsemen!--look! they are in a heap on the ground."
+
+A shout from the troopers acknowledged the glorious truth. It was the fire
+from the 92nd that achieved the triumph.
+
+The artillery, the musketry, and the shouting of the combatants, became so
+deafening, that even the group of troopers unoccupied in the fight, and in
+the rear, could scarcely hear each other's voice. Gray's party mounted
+their horses now, in order to have a better view of the battle, and from
+the situation of the ground on which they were standing, they beheld, in
+awful anxiety, rush after rush made against the British infantry, whose
+duty was evidently that of firm defence; they beheld wave after wave of
+blue ranks advance over the rising bosom of the ground, and saw them
+successively battered by the rocks they assaulted--the ground covered with
+men and horses by the well-directed fire of the squares. The other
+divisions of the English army were fast arriving, and taking up ground on
+the left, in spite of the efforts of the French to prevent it, and thus
+divide them from their comrades engaged. A "lull," (as the sailors say,
+when the storm pauses a little,) took place, and both armies stood, as it
+were, looking at each other. But another and more desperate attack soon
+followed; the tempest returned with double violence. The mouths of Ney's
+numerous cannon opened again; the smoke drifted over on the English, and
+under its cover were seen advancing an immense force, for another struggle
+with the right of the duke's line, in order to turn it, and possess
+themselves of the village. The duke and his staff were in front of the
+92nd regiment, and the balls playing on them had knocked down several of
+his aides-de-camp. As the foe came near, the artillery ceased, the close
+fight began, and several regiments at once poured in their fire: both
+sides kept their ground, and hundreds fell at every discharge of musketry.
+The duke now, in the pithy and familiar language of the soldier, cried out
+to the Scots, "Ninety-second, you must charge these fellows."
+
+The word was magic; the kilts rushed against the blaze of the tirailleurs!
+Their leader and their officer fell amongst them: but, alas! their blood
+only enraged the men; fiercely as tigers they rush, and their bayonets
+sink into the mass before them. The whole fly before them, while the
+victorious Highlanders pursue them almost out of sight of their general.
+Alas! many of these heroes fell in their gallant work.
+
+This glorious charge was beheld by Gray and his comrades with delight;
+their shacos waved over their heads, and their cries of exultation fully
+showed what a catching thing is the fever of the fight. One of the
+dragoons now turned his eyes to the wood on the right, which the French
+had possessed themselves of, and exclaimed, "But look, the guards have
+come up, and are in the wood. Where did they come from? I didn't see them
+before. Hark! how they shout; they are all amongst the trees."
+
+"Yes, and they'll not soon come back; they'll keep their ground, I'll
+warrant," cried the corporal.
+
+At this moment the troopers were somewhat disarranged by a part of the
+earth suddenly flying upwards in a cloud; it was the effect of a
+cannon-ball which had struck the ground. They started a few paces
+backwards, wiped their faces, and having all passed their jocular
+sentiments on the occasion, coolly united again to view and comment on the
+action.
+
+They continued to gaze on the busy and bloody scene, with but few
+observations. Mass after mass was advancing against the steady squares of
+infantry, and received with roars of musketry; the cavalry of the enemy,
+desperate and disappointed, galloped about the close and well-guarded
+Britons, cutting at the ranks, and dropping as they cut. Artillery
+bellowed upon the unyielding heroes, whose ranks closed up at every point
+where the dead had opened them; they cried aloud for the order to advance;
+but received the cool and prudent negative of the watchful chief, who,
+during the action, was moving from rank to rank, encouraging and elevating
+the energies of his men.
+
+The repeated unsuccessful attacks of the French wore out the patience of
+their general, and so thinned his ranks, that he at length ceased to
+contend, and drew off his troops from the field, leaving the English
+masters of it, and holding every point of the position which they had
+taken up in the early part of the day.--_Tales of Military Life_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+RETROSPECTIVE GLEANINGS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+CHURCH SPIRES.
+
+(_For the Mirror_.)
+
+
+Mr. Bentham, in his "History of Ely Cathedral," says, that one of the
+earliest spires of which we have any account, "is that of old St. Paul's,
+finished in the year 1222." This spire was of timber covered with lead;
+"but, not long after, they began to build them of stone, and to finish all
+their buttresses in the same manner." Mr. Murphy observes that spires were
+introduced in the 12th century, about the time that the practice of
+burying in churches became general over Europe; and he supposes that the
+pyramidal form of the spire, was used as the denotation of a church
+comprising a cemetery. This representation he imagines to have been
+borrowed "from the ancient Egyptians, who placed the pyramid over their
+cemeteries, as denoting the soul under the emblem of a flame of fire,
+(whence it is supposed to derive its origin) thus to testify their belief
+of its immortality." There are other opinions respecting the origin of
+spires. It may appear probable (says Mr. Brewer,) to many persons, that
+such an elevated feature of our ancient churches was merely designed in
+the simplicity of its first intention, to act as a guide to the place of
+worship, when rural roads, throughout the whole country, were devious, and
+rendered more obscure by thick masses of forest and woodland.
+
+P.T.W.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+LEAD MINERS.
+
+[Illustration: Lead Miners.]
+
+
+Lead is found in many countries, but is particularly abundant in England.
+The lead-mines in Derbyshire are many, as the Odin, Speedwell, Tideswell
+Moor, Dirtlow, &c.; and the ore is not only found in various soils, but
+mingled with a variety of substances. The Odin mine, at the foot of Mam
+Tor, and near it to the south, is the most celebrated and ancient of any
+in the county, being worked by the Saxons, from whom it received its name,
+whilst most of the mineral terms used there are of Saxon origin. The
+Speedwell mine did not repay the cost of working it; and, therefore, after
+an expense of 14,000_l_., and eleven years assiduous labour, was
+abandoned. Its interior is worthy the attention of the tourist.
+
+Our engraving endeavours to represent the costume of women who work in
+some of the Derbyshire lead-mines; they are capital figures, to which the
+pencil can scarcely do justice; indeed, though this sketch was drawn from
+nature, it conveys but an imperfect idea of beings, (_nondescripts_,) who
+would assuredly delight Cruikshank. The dress of these women, of whom the
+writer saw several emerged from mines a few miles from the Peak, seems
+contrived to secure them from the cold and wet attendant upon their
+employment. The head is much enwrapped, and the features nearly hidden, in
+a muffling of handkerchiefs, over which is put a man's hat, in the manner
+of the _paysannes_ of Wales, but not near so neat and stylish; besides,
+the Welsh women are generally handsome, and become the hat; but the case
+is far different with the _fair_ miners of Derbyshire, at least those whom
+I saw, who were complete harridans. A man's coat, of coarse gray or dark
+blue cloth, defends the arms, back, throat, and bosom of each _lady_ from
+the cold; beneath it, but tucked up all round so as to form a kind of bag,
+appears a gown of red stuff, which, set off by a bright green petticoat,
+produces an effect singular and amusing; then come the shoes, at least
+three inches thick, and long in proportion, bound on to the feet, in some
+instances, with handkerchiefs, and thongs, and cords: it is a wonder that
+the women can stir in such unwieldy slippers. Our party had stopped to
+collect specimens of the lead ore, when the carriages were instantly
+surrounded by these females, offering ore, zinc, slick-and-slide, and
+various quartz crystals and fluor spars for sale; some of the women were
+very old, and one in particular, who had worked in the mine from her
+youth, was nearly a hundred years of age, yet she was upright and active,
+and wrinkles alone betrayed the fact.
+
+M.L.B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+SPIRIT OF DISCOVERY.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+_The Colosseum_.
+
+
+The curious mechanism by which it is proposed to elevate the visiters at
+this emporium of wonders, is as follows: A large bucket or tank of water
+will be connected with a movable platform that any number of persons may
+be placed in equilibrium with its fluid contents, and directly a
+sufficient quantity of water is introduced to produce a preponderance in
+the tank, the persons stationed on the platform will ascend.--_The
+Atlas_.
+
+
+_Spots on the Sun_.
+
+
+An ingenious individual in Providence has very recently succeeded, by
+means of a seven-feet telescope, constructed by himself, on a new
+principle, in bringing the entire image of the sun into a darkened room,
+upon a white screen, to the size of eight feet in diameter. He writes us
+that his astonishment was great when he perceived that every spot now upon
+the face of the sun, nine in number, was distinctly transferred to the
+screen, and was so plain that he could see every movement of them in their
+various and sudden changes. He says he could plainly discover that those
+spots were immense bodies of smoke, apparently issuing from volcanoes; and
+as they seem occasionally forced upward from the craters, now forming
+dense clouds, and now dispersing, considers those phenomena as accounting
+for the rapid changes of those spots. The escape of such a vast quantity
+of gas from the interior of the body of the sun would, he observes, as it
+surrounds that luminary, produce that bright and dazzling appearance which
+is the atmosphere of the sun. This theory may not accord with the opinions
+of others who have made observations on the subject; but the writer, at
+any rate, entertains the strongest belief of its truth. With the same
+instrument, which is but just finished, he has also examined the moon, and
+states his conviction that that body is covered with perpetual snow and
+ice, the dark spots discoverable on its surface being frozen seas, and the
+lighter spaces land covered with snow. Those circular places, which have a
+rising cone in the centre, he thinks are extinguished volcanoes, as no
+clouds are perceptible over the moon's face; which being covered with snow
+and ice, accounts, as he imagines, for its clear atmosphere, or for the
+absence of an atmosphere. This vast accumulation of ice and snow upon the
+moon's surface may be explained, the writer conjectures, by the nature of
+the moon's revolutions. He offers to construct instruments of the above
+description, by which these phenomena may be observed, at prices from 50
+to 100 dollars; and at the same rate to furnish solar microscopes, on a
+new principle, with a magnifying power at 12 feet distance, of
+5,184,000.--_Boston Bulletin_.
+
+
+_National Repository_.
+
+
+Nearly two hundred specimens of curious works in arts and manufacture have
+already been laid before the committee of this establishment; the opening
+of which will take place in a few days.
+
+
+_Iron Trade_.
+
+
+In 1820, the whole iron made in Great Britain was 400,000 tons: in 1827,
+it had increased to 690,000 tons, from 284 furnaces. About three-tenths of
+this quantity are of a quality suitable for the foundry, which is all used
+in Great Britain and Ireland, with the exception of a small quantity
+exported to France and America. The other seven-tenths are made into bars,
+rods, sheets, &c., of which a large quantity is exported to all parts of
+the world.--_Repertory of Arts_.
+
+
+_Indian Claystone_.
+
+
+In some parts of India, the claystone contains numerous small _nodules_ or
+lumps of clay iron-stone, which seldom exceed the size of a walnut. These
+are picked up by the natives, and are smelted by means of charcoal in a
+very small, rude furnace, blown by the hand-bellows, common all over
+India, and still used in Europe by the Gipsies. Many of the hills composed
+of claystone are neatly devoid of vegetation; their surface being bare and
+smooth, and of a red or black colour. The soil produced by the action of
+the atmosphere is not very productive; and so liable is it, in some
+places, to consolidate, when deprived of its moisture, that, if it be not
+constantly cultivated, it soon becomes hard and bare, and checks all
+vegetation.
+
+
+_Public Improvement_.
+
+
+The spirit of general improvement pervades every part of the continent,
+and is even more active in France than in Britain. In Britain, the spirit
+of improvement is chiefly evinced in public works, and in the useful arts
+and manufactures, and its efforts are characterized much more by
+superfluity of wealth than by science or refinement: in Germany this
+spirit is evinced in public buildings, in a superior taste, in
+agriculture, and education--_Gard. Mag_.
+
+
+_The Himalaya Mountains_.
+
+
+This vast accumulation of sublime peaks, the pinnacles of our globe, is so
+extensive, that a plane, resting on elevations 21,000 feet, may be
+stretched in one direction as far as the Hindoo Cosh, for upwards of 1,000
+miles, above which rise loftier summits, increasing in height to nearly
+6,000 feet more.
+
+
+_To make Gold Size_.
+
+
+Melt one pound of asphaltum, and pour into it another pound of linseed
+oil, rendered drying by litharge; add also to it half a pound of red lead
+or vermilion. When the varnish becomes thick or pasty, thin it by adding
+one pound, or a pound and a half of spirit of turpentine; as more is
+required in winter than in summer.
+
+
+_Indian Corn_.
+
+
+Mr. C. Hall Jessop, of Cheltenham, asserts that he "was the first who
+recommended the Indian corn for field culture in this country," which he
+did "in a letter to G. Talbot, Esq., of Guiting, seven years ago."
+
+
+_Polishing Stones_.
+
+
+The Hindoos polish all kinds of stones by means of powdered _corundrum_,
+mixed with melted lac. The mixture being allowed to cool, is shaped into
+oblong pieces, of three or four inches in length. The stone is polished by
+being sprinkled with water; and at the same time rubbed with three oblong
+masses; and the polish is increased by masses being used successively with
+finer grains.
+
+
+_Sensitive Plant_.
+
+
+Mr. Burnet and Mr. Mayo have found, that at the moment the sensitive plant
+is touched, so as to occasion motion, it _changes colour_. They have also
+found that when a sensitive plant has been made to droop, the part in
+which the moving power resides is blackened, so as to absorb the light of
+the sun; the restoration of the plant to its natural state is much longer
+in taking place.
+
+
+_Indian Mills_.
+
+
+In India, granite is hewn into hand-mills for grinding corn; two or four
+of which are a load for an ass or a bullock, and are thus carried to the
+bazaar for sale. These are the primeval mills of all countries, which are
+mentioned in Scripture, and are still common among all uncivilized
+nations.
+
+
+_Musk_.
+
+
+Dr. Davey, by some recent experiments, has proved that when musk, in
+admixture with quicklime, smells of ammonia, it is impure or adulterated;
+and further, that, to preserve it well, it should be made perfectly dry;
+but when it is to be used as a perfume, it should be _moistened_.
+
+
+_Loch Lomond_.
+
+
+Mr. Galbraith has recently determined the quantity of water annually
+discharged by the river Leven from the basin of Loch Lomond to be about
+59,939 cubic feet per minute. Now, as 36 cubic feet of fresh water are
+very near equal to a ton, this gives 1,665 tons per minute; and, supposing
+the year to be 365 days, 5 hours, 40 minutes, the annual discharge, at
+that rate, will be 877,295,085 tons. But as the river was rather below its
+average height, one-third may be added to this result; and we have about
+1,200,000,000, or twelve hundred millions of tons per annum.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+MANNERS & CUSTOMS OF ALL NATIONS.[8]
+
+    [8] From sources entirely original.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SCOTCH MARRIAGES.
+
+
+Our English love-smitten lads and lasses are pretty generally aware of the
+facility with which the most awful and holy of all engagements may be
+contracted in North Britain. They sometimes make the experiment in their
+own persons; and, "by the simplicity of Venus' doves," old boys and old
+girls have been known to follow, as fast as post-chaises, horses, and lads
+could carry them, close upon the heels of their juniors, (bound on the
+same errand,) to the blissful land o' cakes and matrimony. An English
+gentleman, known to the writer, was making a few purchases in a shop,
+wherein stood three or four other customers. A man and woman entered, and
+the former, addressing the master of the shop and his aforesaid customers,
+used, as he took the woman's right hand, words to this effect:--"Witness,
+ye that are here present, that I (N. or M.) take this woman (N. or M.) for
+my wedded wife." In like manner the _sposa_ desired all present to witness
+that she took the man for her wedded husband, with her own full
+acquiescence in, and approbation of, his determination. The English
+gentleman who had witnessed, in silent amazement, this (to him) novel
+engagement, was informed, after the departure of the happy couple, that
+the marriage was to all intents and purposes valid by Scotch law, having
+been solemnized as effectually as if by religious rites, in the presence
+of respectable _housekeepers_, who, as such, were efficient witnesses, and
+all that were requisite of _ceremonial_ to make the marriage good!
+
+I give this anecdote as related to me by the gentleman who saw the
+incident mentioned; should there be any discrepancies in his relation, I
+shall feel obliged by a _correct_ account of the manner of contracting
+marriages in Scotland, from any of your correspondents capable of giving
+such.
+
+
+CAPUCHIN INTERMENT.
+
+
+A gentleman, who had resided many years abroad, and particularly amongst
+the Italian Catholics, once described to me the manner in which the
+Capuchins inter the brethren of their order. These defunct _freres_ are
+embalmed, arrayed in their peculiar habits, as when living; and in the
+vaults of their monastic churches or chapels, ranged upright in niches
+formed for this purpose. On certain days, particularly on the Feast of All
+Souls, the doors of these cemeteries are opened to the public, who, as a
+religious duty, flock in to view these singular and affecting relics of
+mortality. The bodies undergo but little alteration in appearance for
+centuries; but Mr. M. being tempted to touch the very long nose of one old
+fellow, who _looked_ "a leathern Pharoah, grinning in the dark," it
+disappeared in a shower of dust beneath his fingers.
+
+
+A PARTY AT PALERMO.
+
+
+"Palermo," said a lady whom I saw immediately after her return from a tour
+in Sicily, "is indeed a beautiful city; but I thought some things strange
+in the manners of the inhabitants. Mr. H. and myself were invited to a
+music-party, at the house of a person in the best society, whereat
+appeared most of the ladies in coloured and high morning dresses. Two
+_tallow_ candles and a small lamp stood on the piano-forte in the
+music-room, and from this room we descended by three or four steps into
+another, containing a bed, over which was a shelf; upon the shelf was
+placed one bottle of wine and a few glasses; and this being intended
+expressly for the ladies, they were expected to go and help themselves
+when they pleased; but a fresh bottle of wine was brought when the first
+was exhausted."
+
+
+FRENCH COUNTRY LIFE.
+
+
+"The dinner-hour in the country," said a relation of the writer, who
+spends a great deal of time in France, "is generally two o'clock, even
+when company are invited to partake of the dinner; in which case, the
+whole party has quitted the house by six or seven in the evening,--a
+custom which ill accords with _English_ ideas of sociability. Three
+table-cloths are usually laid upon the table, the first and second of
+which are, or may be, removed during the repast; but the third is _never_
+drawn off, except to be changed for a clean one. In England, we pride
+ourselves upon the fine mahogany of which our dinner-tables are made; we
+endeavour to obtain, in the first instance, an excellent piece of wood,
+and to improve it by assiduous rubbing and polishing. In France, it
+matters not of what material the table is framed; a cloth is always upon
+it; and I have seen the hospitable _board_ of many families of rank
+literally formed of _deal_."
+
+
+A DIFFERENCE.
+
+
+"In this part of the world," says a private letter from India,
+(Hyderabad,) "we do not talk of striking gongs for dinner, but
+_ghuzzies_,--ghong meaning a horse or mare."
+
+
+BOARDING.
+
+
+In Ireland, when a man marries, who cannot afford to treat his friends to
+whiskey upon the occasion, they take the door of his house off the hinges,
+lay him upon it, and carry him thus upon their shoulders all day. In the
+evening he is allowed to return to his deserted bride. This custom is
+called "boarding," and is so frequent, as I myself can attest from
+personal observation, as to attract but little attention from the
+commonalty, and nothing like a mob.
+
+M.L.B.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+THE MAN-MOUNTAIN.
+
+
+We were all--Julia, her aunt, and myself, seated at a comfortable fire on
+a December evening. The night was dark, starless, and rainy, while the
+drops pattered upon the windows, and the wind howled at intervals along
+the house-tops. In a word, it was as gloomy a night as one would wish to
+see in this, the most dismal season of the year. Strictly speaking, I
+should have been at home, for it was Sunday; and my own habitation was at
+too great a distance to justify a visit of mere ceremony on so sacred a
+day, and amid such stormy weather. The truth is, I sallied out to see
+Julia.
+
+I verily believe I could write a whole volume about her. She came from the
+north country, and was at this time on a visit to her aunt, in whose house
+she resided; and in whose dining-room, at the period of my story, we were
+all seated round a comfortable fire. Though a prodigious admirer of
+beauty, I am a bad hand at describing it. To do Julia justice, however, I
+must make the attempt. She was rather under the middle size, (not much,)
+blue-eyed, auburn-haired, fair-complexioned, and her shape was of uncommon
+elegance and proportion. Neck, bosom, waist, ankles, feet, hands, &c. all
+were perfect, while her nose was beautifully Grecian, her mouth sweetness
+itself, and her teeth as white and sparkling as pearls. In a word, I don't
+believe that wide Scotland could boast of a prettier girl--to say nothing
+of merry England and the Isle of Saints.
+
+It was at this time about eight o'clock: tea had just been over, the tray
+removed, and the table put to rights. The star of my attraction was
+seated at one side of the fire, myself at the opposite, the lady of the
+house in the centre. We were all in excellent humour, and Julia and I eyed
+each other in the most persevering style imaginable. Her aunt indeed
+rallied us upon the occasion; and I thought Julia never appeared half so
+beautiful as now.
+
+A servant bouncing by accident into a room where a gallant is on his knees
+before his mistress, and in the act of "popping the question," is
+vexatious. An ass thrusting its head through the broken window of a
+country church, and braying aloud while the congregation are busily
+chanting "Old Hundred," or some other equally devout melody, is vexatious.
+An elderly gentleman losing his hat and wig on a windy day, is vexatious.
+A young gentleman attempting to spring over a stile by way of showing his
+agility to a bevy of approaching ladies, and coming plump down upon the
+broadest part of his body, is vexatious. All these things are plagues and
+annoyances sufficient to render life a perfect nuisance, and fill the
+world with innumerable heart-breakings and _felo-de-sees_. But bad as they
+are, they are nothing to the intolerable vexation experienced by me, (and
+I believe by Julia too,) on hearing a slow, loud, solemn stroke of the
+knocker upon the outer door. It was repeated once--twice--thrice. We heard
+it simultaneously--we ceased speaking simultaneously--we (to wit, Julia
+and I) ceased ogling each other simultaneously. The whole of us suspended
+our conversation in a moment--looked to the door of the room--breathed
+hard, and wondered what it could be. The reader will perhaps marvel how
+such an impression could be produced by so very trivial a circumstance;
+but if he himself had heard the sound, he would cease to wonder at the
+strangeness of our feelings. The knocks were the most extraordinary ever
+heard. They were not those petty, sharp, brisk, soda-water knocks given by
+little, bustling, common-place men. On the contrary, they were slow,
+sonorous, and determinate. What was still more remarkable, they were
+_three_ in number, neither more nor less.
+
+Scarcely had our surprise time to subside, than we heard the outer door
+opened by the servant--then it closed--then heavy footsteps, one, two, and
+three, were audible in the lobby--then the dining-room door was opened;
+and a form which filled the whole of its ample aperture, from top to
+bottom, from right to left, made its appearance. It was the figure of a
+man, but language would sink under his immensity. Never in heaven, or
+earth, or air, or ocean, was such a man seen. He was hugeness itself--bulk
+personified--the _beau ideal_ of amplitude. When the dining-room door was
+first opened, the glare of the well-lighted lobby gleamed in upon us,
+illuminating our whole apartment with increase of lustre; but no sooner
+did he set his foot upon the threshold, than the lobby light behind him
+was shut out. He filled the whole gorge of the door like an enormous
+shade.
+
+Onward, clothed in black, came the moving mountain, and a very pleasing
+monster he was. A neck like that of a rhinoceros sat piled between his
+"Atlantean shoulders," and bore upon its tower-like and sturdy stem, a
+countenance prepossessing from its good-humour, and amazing for its
+plumpness and rubicundity. His cheeks were swollen out into billows of
+fat--his eyes overhung with turgid and most majestic lids, and his chin
+double, triple, ay quadruple. As for his mouth--
+
+    "It was enough to win a lady's heart
+    With its bewitching smile."
+
+Onward came the moving mountain--shaking the floor beneath his tread,
+filling a tithe of the room with his bulk, and blackening every object
+with his portentous shadow.
+
+I was amazed--I was confounded--I was horrified. Not so Julia and her
+aunt, who, far from participating in my perturbed emotions, got up from
+their seats, smiled with a welcoming nod, and requested him to sit down.
+
+"Glad to see you, Mr. Tims," said Julia.
+
+"Glad to see you, Mr. Tims," said her aunt.
+
+"Mr. Tims!" Gracious heavens, and was this the name of the mighty entrant?
+Tims! Tims! Tims!--the thing was impossible. A man with such a name should
+be able to go into a nut-shell; and here was one that the womb of a
+mountain could scarcely contain! Had he been called Sir Bullion O'Dunder,
+Sir Theodosius M'Turk, Sir Rugantino Magnificus, Sir Blunderbuss Blarney,
+or some other high-sounding name, I should have been perfectly satisfied.
+But to be called _Tims_! Upon my honour, I was shocked to hear it.
+
+Mr. Tims sat him down upon the great elbow-chair, for he was a friend, it
+seems, of the family--a _weighty_ one assuredly; but one whose
+acquaintanceship they were all glad to court. The ladies, in truth, seemed
+much taken with his society. They put fifty questions to him about the
+play--the assembly--the sermon--marriages--deaths--christenings, and what
+not; the whole of which he answered with surprising volubility. His tongue
+was the only active part about him, going as glibly as if he were ten
+stones, instead of thirty, and as if he were a _Tims_ in person as well as
+in name. In a short time I found myself totally neglected. Julia ceased to
+eye me, her aunt to address me, so completely were their thoughts occupied
+with the Man-Mountain.
+
+In about half an hour I began to feel confoundedly uncomfortable. I was a
+mere cipher in the room; and what with the appalling bulk of Mr. Tims, the
+attention the ladies bestowed upon him, and the neglect with which they
+treated me, I sunk considerably in my own estimation. In proportion as
+this feeling took possession of me, I experienced an involuntary respect
+for the stranger. I admired his intimate knowledge of balls, dresses,
+_faux pas_, marriages, and gossip of all sorts--and still more I admired
+his bulk. I have an instinctive feeling of reverence towards "Stout
+Gentlemen;" and, while contrasting my own puny form with his, I laboured
+under a deep consciousness of personal insignificance. From being five
+feet eight, I seemed to shrink to five feet one; from weighing ten stones,
+I suddenly fell to seven and a half; while my portly rival sat opposite to
+me, measuring at least a foot taller than myself, and weighing good thirty
+stones, jockey weight. If any little fellow like me thinks of standing
+well with his mistress, let him never appear in her presence with such a
+gentleman as Mr. Tims. She will despise him to a certainty; nor, though
+his soul be as large as Atlas or Teneriffe, will it compensate for the
+paltry dimensions of his body.
+
+What was to be done? With the ladies, it was plain, I _could_ do nothing:
+with Mr. Tims, it was equally plain, I _ought_ to do nothing--seeing that,
+however much he was the cause of my uneasiness, he was at least the
+_innocent_ cause, and therefore neither morally nor judicially amenable to
+punishment. From respecting Mr. Tims I came to hate him; and I vowed
+internally, that, rather than be annihilated by this enlarged edition of
+Daniel Lambert, I would pitch him over the window. Had I been a giant, I
+am sure I would have done it on the spot. The giants of old, it is well
+known, raised Pelion upon Ossa, in their efforts to scale the throne of
+heaven; and tossed enormous mountains at the godhead of Jupiter himself.
+Unfortunately for me, Mr. Tims was a mountain, and I was no giant.
+
+I accordingly got up, and, pretending it was necessary that I should see
+some person in the next street, abruptly left the room. Julia--I did not
+expect it--saw me to the door, shook hands with me, and said she hoped I
+would return to supper when my business was finished. Sweet girl! was it
+possible she could prefer the Man-Mountain to me?
+
+Away I went into the open air. I had no business whatever to perform: it
+was mere fudge; and I resolved to go home as fast as I could.
+
+But I did not go home. On the contrary, I kept strolling about from street
+to street, sometimes thinking upon Julia, sometimes upon Mr. Tims. The
+night was of the most melancholy description--a cold, cloudy, windy, rainy
+December night. Not a soul was upon the streets excepting a solitary
+straggler, returning hither and thither from an evening sermon, or an
+occasional watchman gliding past with his lantern, like an incarnation of
+the Will-o'-wisp. I strolled up and down for half an hour, wrapped in an
+olive great-coat, and having a green silk umbrella over my head. It was
+well I chanced to be so well fortified against the weather; for had it
+been otherwise, I must have been drenched to the skin. Where I went I know
+not, so deeply was my mind wound up in its various melancholy cogitations.
+This, however, I do know, that, after striking against sundry lamp-posts,
+and overturning a few old women in my fits of absence, I found myself
+precisely at the point from which I set out, viz. at the door of Julia's
+aunt's husband's house.
+
+I paused for a moment, uncertain whether to enter, and, in the meantime,
+turning my eyes to the window, where, upon the white blind, I beheld the
+enormous shadow of a human being. My flesh crept with horror on witnessing
+this apparition, for I knew it to be the shadow of the Man-Mountain--the
+dim reflection of Mr. Tims. No other human being could cast such a shade.
+Its proportions were magnificent, and filled up the whole breadth of the
+window-screen; nay, the shoulders shot away latterly beyond its utmost
+limits, and were lost in space, having apparently nothing whereon to cast
+their mighty image. On beholding this vast shade, my mind was filled with
+a thousand exalted thoughts.
+
+I paused at the door for sometime, uncertain whether to enter; at last my
+mind was made up, and I knocked, resolved to encounter the Man-Mountain a
+second time, and, if possible, recover the lost glances of Julia. On
+entering the dining-room, I found an accession to the company in the
+person of our landlord, who sat opposite to Mr. Tims, listening to some
+facetious story, which the latter gentleman seemed in the act of relating.
+He had come home during my absence, and, like his wife and her niece,
+appeared to be fascinated by the eloquence and humour of his stout friend.
+At least, so I judged, for he merely recognised my presence by a slight
+bow, and devoted the whole of his attention to the owner of the mighty
+shadow. Julia and her aunt were similarly occupied, and I was more
+neglected than ever.
+
+Perhaps the reader may think that there was something ludicrous in the
+idea of such a man being in love. Not at all--the notion was sublime;
+almost as sublime as his shadow--almost as overwhelming as his person.
+Conceive the Man-Mountain playing the amiable with such a delicate young
+creature like Julia. Conceive him falling on his knees before
+her--pressing her delicate hand, and "popping the question," while his
+large round eyes shed tears of affection and suspense, and his huge sides
+shook with emotion! Conceive him enduring all the pangs of love-sickness,
+never telling his love; "concealment, like a worm in the bud, preying upon
+his damask cheek," while his hard-hearted mistress stood disdainfully by,
+"like pity on a monument, _smiling_ at grief." Above all, conceive him
+taking the lover's leap--say from Dunnet or Duncansby-head, where the
+rocks tower four hundred feet above the Pentland Firth, and floundering in
+the waters like an enormous whale; the herring shoals hurrying away from
+his unwieldy gambols, as from the presence of the real sea-born leviathan.
+Cacus in love was not more grand, or the gigantic Polyphemus, sighing at
+the feet of Galatea, or infernal Pluto looking amiable beside his ravished
+queen. Have you seen an elephant in love? If you have, you may conceive
+what Mr. Tims would be in that interesting situation.
+
+Supper was brought in. It consisted of eggs, cold veal, bacon-ham, and a
+Welsh rabbit. I must confess, that, perplexed as I was by all the previous
+events of the evening, I felt a gratification at the present moment, in
+the anxiety to see how the Man-Mountain would comport himself at table. I
+had beheld his person and his shadow with equal admiration, and I doubted
+not that his powers of eating were on the same great scale as his other
+qualifications. They were, indeed. Zounds, how he did eat! Cold veal,
+eggs, bacon-ham, and Welsh rabbit, disappeared "like the baseless fabric
+of a vision, and left not a wreck behind;" so thoroughly had nine-tenths
+of them taken up their abode in the _bread basket_ (vide Jon Bee) of the
+Man-Mountain; the remaining tenth sufficed for the rest of the company,
+viz. Julia, her aunt, her aunt's husband, and myself.
+
+Liquor was brought in, to wit, wine, brandy, whisky, and rum. I felt an
+intense curiosity to see on which of the four Mr. Tims would fix his
+choice. He fixed upon brandy, and made a capacious tumbler of hot toddy. I
+did the same, and asked Julia to join me in taking a single glass--I was
+forestalled by the Man-Mountain. I then asked the lady of the house the
+same thing, but was forestalled by her husband.
+
+Meanwhile, the evening wearing on, the ladies retired, and Mr. Tims, the
+landlord, and myself, were left to ourselves. This was the signal for a
+fresh assault upon the brandy-bottle. Another tumbler was made--then
+another--then a fourth. At this period Julia appeared at the door, and
+beckoned upon the landlord, who arose from table, saying he would rejoin
+us immediately. Mr. Tims and I were thus left alone, and so we continued,
+for the landlord, strange to say, did not again appear. What became of him
+I know not. I supposed he had gone to bed, and left his _great_ friend and
+myself to pass the time as we were best able.
+
+We were now commencing our fifth tumbler, and I began to feel my whole
+spirit pervaded by the most delightful sensations. My heart beat quicker,
+my head sat more lightly than usual upon my shoulders; and sounds like the
+distant hum of bees, or the music of the spheres, heard in echo afar off,
+floated around me. There was no bar between me and perfect happiness, but
+the Man-Mountain, who sat on the great elbow-chair opposite, drinking his
+brandy-toddy, and occasionally humming an old song with the utmost
+indifference.
+
+It was plain that he despised me. While any of the others were present he
+was abundantly loquacious, but now he was as dumb as a fish--tippling in
+silence, and answering such questions as I put to him in abrupt
+monosyllables. The thing was intolerable, but I saw into it: Julia had
+played me false; the "Mountain" was the man of her choice, and I his
+despised and contemptible rival.
+
+These ideas passed rapidly through my mind, and were accompanied with
+myriads of others. I bethought me of every thing connected with Mr.
+Tims--his love for Julia--his elephantine dimensions, and his shadow,
+huge and imposing as the image of the moon against the orb of day, during
+an eclipse. Then I was transported away to the Arctic sea, where I saw him
+floundering many a rood, "hugest of those that swim the ocean stream."
+Then he was a Kraken fish, outspread like an island upon the deep: then a
+mighty black cloud affrighting the mariners with its presence: then a
+flying island, like that which greeted the bewildered eyes of Gulliver. At
+last he resumed his human shape, and sat before me like "Andes, giant of
+the Western Star," tippling the jorum, and sighing deeply.
+
+Yes, he sighed profoundly, passionately, tenderly; and the sighs came from
+his breast like blasts of wind from the cavern of Eolus. By Jove, he was
+in love; in love with Julia! and I thought it high time to probe him to
+the quick.
+
+"Sir," said I, "you must be conscious that you have no right to love
+Julia. You have no right to put your immense body between her and me. She
+is my betrothed bride, and mine she shall be for ever."
+
+"I have weighty reasons for loving her," replied Mr. Tims.
+
+"Were your reasons as weighty as your person, you _shall not_ love her."
+
+"She _shall_ be mine," responded he, with a deeply-drawn sigh. "You
+cannot, at least, prevent her image from being enshrined in my heart. No,
+Julia! even when thou descendest to the grave, thy remembrance will cause
+thee to live in my imagination, and I shall thus write thine elegy:
+
+    I cannot deem thee dead--like the perfumes
+      Arising from Judea's vanished shrines
+    Thy voice still floats around me--nor can tombs
+      A thousand, from my memory hide the lines
+    Of beauty, on thine aspect which abode,
+    Like streaks of sunshine pictured there by God.
+
+She shall be mine," continued he in the same strain. "Prose and verse
+shall woo her for my lady-love; and she shall blush and hang her head in
+modest joy, even as the rose when listening to the music of her beloved
+bulbul beneath the stars of night."
+
+These amorous effusions, and the tone of insufferable affectation with
+which they were uttered, roused my corruption to its utmost pitch, and I
+exclaimed aloud, "Think not, thou revivification of Falstaff--thou
+enlarged edition of Lambert--thou folio of humanity--thou Titan--thou
+Briareus--thou Sphynx--thou Goliath of Gath, that I shall bend beneath thy
+ponderous insolence?" The Mountain was amazed at my courage; I was amazed
+at it myself; but what will not Jove, inspired by brandy, effect?
+
+"No," continued I, seeing the impression my words had produced upon him,
+"I despise thee, and defy thee, even as Hercules did Antaeus, as Sampson
+did Harapha, as Orlando did Ferragus. 'Bulk without spirit vast,' I fear
+thee not; come on." So saying, I rushed onward to the Mountain, who arose
+from his seat to receive me. The following passage from the Agonistes of
+Milton will give some idea of our encounter:
+
+    "As with the force of winds and water pent,
+    When mountains tremble, these two massy pillars,
+    With horrible convulsion to and fro,
+    He tugged, he shook, till down they came, and drew
+    The whole roof after them, with burst of thunder,
+    Upon the heads of all who sat beneath."
+
+"Psha!" said Julia, blushing modestly, "can't you let me go?" Sweet Julia,
+I had got her in my arms.
+
+"But where," said I, "is Mr. Tims?"
+
+"Mr. who?" said she.
+
+"The Man-Mountain."
+
+"Mr. Tims!--Man-Mountain!" resumed Julia, with unfeigned surprise. "I know
+of no such persons. How jocular you are to-night--not to say how ill-bred,
+for you have been asleep for the last five minutes!"
+
+"Sweet, sweet Julia!"
+
+A MODERN PYTHAGOREAN.
+
+_Blackwood's Magazine_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+SONG.
+
+BY T. CAMPBELL.
+
+
+    'Tis now the hour--'tis now the hour
+      To bow at Beauty's shrine;
+    Now whilst, our hearts confess the power
+      Of woman, wit, and wine;
+    And beaming eyes look on so bright,
+    Wit springs--wine sparkles in their light.
+
+    In such an hour--in such an hour,
+      In such an hour as this,
+    While Pleasure's fount throws up a shower
+      Of social sprinkling bliss,
+    Why does my bosom heave the sigh
+    That mars delight?--She is not by!
+
+    There was an hour--there was an hour
+      When I indulged the spell
+    That Love wound round me with a power
+      Words vainly try to tell--
+    Though Love has fill'd my checker'd doom
+    With fruits and thorns, and light and gloom--
+
+    Yet there's an hour--there's still an hour
+      Whose coming sunshine may
+    Clear from the clouds that hang and lower
+      My fortune's future day;
+    That hour of hours beloved will be,
+    That hour that gives thee back to me!
+
+_New Monthly Magazine_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+THE GATHERER.
+
+
+    "A snapper-up of unconsidered tifles."
+        SHAKSPEARE.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+What will our civic friends say to this, about the date of 1686?--"Among
+other policies of assurance which appear at the Exchange, there is one of
+no ordinary nature; which is, that Esquire Neale, who hath for some time
+been a suitor to the rich Welsh widow Floyd, offers as many guineas as
+people will take to receive thirty for each one in case he marry the said
+widow. He hath already laid out as much as will bring him in 10 or 12,000
+guineas; he intends to make it 30,000, and then to present it to the lady
+in case she marry him; and any one that will accept of guineas on that
+condition may find as many as he pleases at Garraway's
+coffee-house."--_Ellis Correspondence_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+PAT O'KELLY, THE IRISH POET.
+
+
+    Three poets, of three different nations born,
+    With works immortal do this age adorn;
+    Byron, of England--Scott, of Scotia's blood--And,
+    Erin's pride, O'Kelly, great and good.
+    'Twould take a Byron and a Scott, I tell ye,
+    Roll'd up in one, to make a Pat O'Kelly.
+        _Legends of the Lakes_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+IRISH NAMES, MADE ENGLISH.
+
+(_For the Mirror_.)
+
+
+    _Macnamara_, son of a sea-hound.
+    _Macmahon_, son of a bear.
+    _Brien_, the force of water.
+    _Kennedy_, wearing a helmet.
+    _Horan_, the gold of poetry.
+    _Sullivan_, having but one eye.
+    _Gallagher_, the helper of Englishmen.
+    _Riordan_, a royal salmon.
+    _Lysaght_, a hired soldier.
+    _Finnoala_, white-shouldered.
+    _Una_, matchless.
+    _Farrell_, a fair man.
+    _Mohairey_, an early riser.
+    _Naghten_, a strong person.
+    _Trayner_, a strong man.
+    _Keeffe_, mild.
+    _Keating_, a shower of fire.
+    _Kinahan_, a moss trooper.
+    _Kearney_, a soldier.
+    _Leahy_, a champion.
+    _Macaveely_, son of the hero.
+    _Ardil_, of high descent.
+    _Dermid_, a god in arms.
+    _Toraylagh_, like a tower.
+    _Cairbre_, a royal person.
+    _Flinn_, red haired.
+    _Dwyer_, a dark man.
+    _Docharty_, dangerous.
+    _Mullane_, broad head.
+    _Cullane_, broad poll.
+    _Flaherty_, a powerful chief.
+    _Lalor_, or _Lawler_, one who speaks by halves.
+    _Tierney_, a lord.
+    _Bulger_, a Dutchman.
+    _Dougal_, a Dane.
+    _Mac Intosh_, son of the chief.
+    _Mac Tagart_, son of the priest.
+    _Mac'Nab_, son of the abbot.
+    _Mac Clery_, son of a clerk.
+    _Mac Lure_, son of a tailor.
+    _Macgill_, son of a squire.
+    _Macbrehane_, son of a judge.
+    _Mac Tavish_, son of a savage.
+    _Goff_, or _Gough_, smith.
+    _Galt_, a Protestant.
+    _Gillespie_, the bishop's squire.
+
+The whole of the above are literal translations without having recourse to
+_fancy_, or _torturing the originals_; thus, _Macnamara_, called in Irish
+_Mac Conmara_, from _mac_, a son, _con_, the genitive case of _cu_, a
+hound, and _mara_, the genitive case of _muir_, the sea; and so of the
+rest. It is proper, however, to observe, that although the name of
+_Keating_ sounds exactly in Irish a "_shower of fire_" yet as the Keatings
+came at first from England, this cannot be the real origin of that name.
+All the rest are literally correct.
+
+H.S.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+ONIONS.
+
+
+Lord Bacon tells us of a man who fasted five days, without meat, bread, or
+drink, by smelling a wisp of herbs, among which were strong _onions_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
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+
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+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement,
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