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+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 10, Issue 284, November 24, 1827, by Various</title>
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+<body>
+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11407 ***</div>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and
+Instruction, Vol. 10, Issue 284, November 24, 1827, by Various</h1>
+<br />
+<br />
+<center><b>E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Chew-Hung Lee, David Garcia,<br />
+ and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</b></center>
+<br />
+<br />
+ <hr class="full" />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a id="page345" name="page345"></a>[pg
+ 345]</span>
+ <h1>
+ THE MIRROR<br />
+ OF<br />
+ LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.
+ </h1>
+ <hr class="full" />
+ <table width="100%" summary="Banner">
+ <tr>
+ <td align="left">
+ <b>VOL. X, NO. 284.]</b>
+ </td>
+ <td align="center">
+ <b>SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 1827.</b>
+ </td>
+ <td align="right">
+ <b>[PRICE 2d.</b>
+ </td>
+ </tr>
+ </table>
+ <hr class="full" />
+ <h3>
+ NAVARINO AND THE ISLAND OF SPHAGIA.
+ </h3>
+ <div class="figure" style="width: 100%;">
+ <a href="images/284-1.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/284-1.png"
+ alt="Navarino and the island of Sphagia." /></a>
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ <span class="pagenum"><a id="page346" name="page346"></a>[pg
+ 346]</span> As our victories, though managed by the hand, are
+ achieved by the head, we feel little disposed to meddle with
+ what Burke calls "the mystery of murder," or "the present
+ perfection of gunnery, cannoneering, bombarding, and mining;"
+ and inveterate as may be the weapon of the goose-quill, we
+ trust our readers will not suspect us of any other policy
+ than that of pleasing them, the <i>ne plus ultra</i> of all
+ public servants. As our title implies, we are bound to
+ present or reflect in our pages certain illustrations of
+ popular topics, <i>veluti</i> IN SPECULUM; accordingly, we
+ hope the accompanying <i>View and Plan of the Bay of
+ Navarino</i> will be received in good season, <i>quod rerum
+ est omnium primum</i>.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Thus far, the political or present interest attached to
+ Navarino: with the recent event which has raised, or we may
+ say resuscitated such interest, our readers have doubtless
+ become familiar, and leaving the ephemeral glory to the
+ <i>Sun</i> of all newspapers, and meaner "chronicles of the
+ times," we shall proceed to the sober duty of describing the
+ Bay of Navarino, as, it will be seen, a place of some
+ interest in the annals of ancient as well as of modern
+ warfare.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ With our usual <i>literary honesty</i>, (we trust a
+ characteristic of our whole conduct,) we have to acknowledge
+ our obligations to the "Travels" of M. Pouqueville for the
+ preceding view. "The port of Navarino, certainly one of the
+ finest in the world," says Sir William Gell, in his
+ interesting <i>Journey in the Morea</i>, "is formed by a deep
+ indenture in the Morea, shut in by a long island, anciently
+ called Sphacteria, famous for the defeat and capture of the
+ Spartans, in the Peloponnesian war, and yet exhibiting the
+ vestige of walls, which may have served as their last refuge.
+ This island has been separated into three or four parts by
+ the violence of the waves, so that boats might pass from the
+ open sea into the port in calm weather, by means of the
+ channel so formed. On one of the portions is the tomb of a
+ Turkish saint, or santon; and near the centre of the port is
+ another very small island, or rock." The modern name of the
+ island is <i>Sphagia</i>.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Navarino, called by the Turks <i>Avarin</i>, and the Greeks
+ <i>Neo-Castron</i>, is the Pylos of the ancients, and the
+ supposed birthplace of the venerable Nestor&mdash;standing
+ upon a promontory at the foot of Mount Temathia, and
+ overlooking the vast harbour of the same name as the town. It
+ is surrounded only by a wall without a ditch; the height
+ commanding the city is a little hexagonal, defended by five
+ towers at the external angles, which, with the walls, were
+ built by the Turks in 1572, but were never repaired till
+ after the war with the Russians in 1770; the Turks having
+ previously taken it from the Venetians in 1499. At the gate
+ of the fortress is a miserable Greek village; and the walls
+ of the castle itself are in a dismantled condition.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "The town within the wall," says Sir W. Gell, "is like all
+ those in this part of the world, encumbered with the fallen
+ ruins of former habitations. These have been generally
+ constructed by the Turks, since the expulsion of the
+ Venetians; for it appears, that till the long continued habit
+ of possession had induced the Mahometans to live upon and
+ cultivate their estates in the country, and the power of the
+ Venetian republic had been consumed by a protracted peace, a
+ law was enforced which compelled every Turk to have a
+ habitation in some one of the fortresses of the country. But
+ the habitatations," says our traveller, "present generally an
+ indiscriminate mass of ruins; they were originally erected in
+ haste, and being often cemented with mud instead of mortar,
+ the rains of autumn, penetrating between the outer and inner
+ faces of the walls, swell the earth, and soon effect the ruin
+ of the whole"&mdash;it must be confessed, but sorry
+ structures for the <i>triple</i> fires of an enemy. Sir
+ William, on his visit, found the commandant in a state of
+ misery not exceeded by the lot of his meanest
+ fellow-citizens, except that his robes were somewhat in
+ better condition. He received him "very kindly in a dirty
+ unfurnished apartment," into which he "climbed by a tottering
+ ladder from a court strewed with ruins;" here he gave him
+ "coffee," after which he took his leave. What would a first
+ lord of the Admiralty say to such a reception? and it must
+ have been somewhat uncourtly to our traveller.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The soil about Navarino is of a red colour, and is remarkable
+ for the production of an infinite quantity of squills, which
+ are used in medicine. The rocks, which show themselves in
+ every direction through a scanty but rich soil, are
+ limestone, and present a general appearance of
+ unproductiveness round the castle of Navarino; and the
+ absence of trees is ill compensated by the profusion of sage,
+ brooms, cistus, and other shrubs which start from the
+ innumerable cavities of the limestone.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The remains of Navarino Vecchio, or ancient Navarino, consist
+ in a fort or castle of mean construction, covering the summit
+ of a hill sloping quickly to the south, but falling in abrupt
+ precipices to the north and east. The town was built
+ <span class="pagenum"><a id="page347" name="page347"></a>[pg
+ 347]</span> on the southern declivity, and was surrounded by
+ a wall, which, allowing for the natural irregularities of the
+ soil, represented a triangle, with the castle at the apex or
+ summit&mdash;a form observable in many of the ancient cities
+ of Greece.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The foundation of the walls throughout the whole circuit
+ remains entire; but the fortifications were never of any
+ consequence, though they present a picturesque group of
+ turrets and battlements from below, and must have been very
+ imposing from the sea,&mdash;an effect which those of the
+ modern city have recently failed to produce. From the top is
+ an extensive view over the island of Sphacteria, the port,
+ with the town of Navarino to the south, and a considerable
+ tract of the territory anciently called Messenia on the east,
+ with the conic hill, which, though some miles from the shore,
+ is used as a landmark to point out the entrance of the port.
+ Mr. Purdy, in his <i>New Sailing Directory for the
+ Mediterranean Sea</i>, says, "from the sea, a frigate might,
+ in two or three hours, batter down the walls (of Navarino);
+ the artillery of the place (in 1825) consisted of forty
+ pieces of cannon; the greater part in the fort, eight on the
+ battery at the entrance of the harbour, and a few in some of
+ the towers along the city." It should be added that the port
+ is said to be capable of containing 2,000 sail; and the
+ population of the town is about 3,000, the most of whom are
+ Turks.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ To the curious <i>dilettanti</i> in dates, &amp;c. (such as
+ our friend <i>P.T.W.</i> &amp;c.) the following almost
+ coinciding circumstances may not prove
+ uninteresting:&mdash;The recent engagement took place on the
+ anniversary of the memorable battle of Salamis, 480 B.C. when
+ the invading army of Xerxes was defeated by the Greeks; and
+ on which day Euripides, the Greek tragic poet, was born:
+ Nestor is said to have been born at Navarino, as we have
+ already mentioned: and, lastly, the attack, of which the
+ subjoined plan is illustrative, was made on the eve of the
+ anniversary of the glorious battle of Trafalgar, in which
+ victory the vice-admiral of Navarino, then captain of the
+ Orient, was engaged.
+ </p>
+ <div class="figure" style="width: 100%;">
+ <a href="images/284-2.png"><img width="100%"
+ src="images/284-2.png" alt="Plan" /></a>
+ </div>
+ <center>
+ REFERENCES.
+ </center>
+ <p>
+ 1. The English Squadron.<br />
+ 2. French Squadron.<br />
+ 3. Russian Squadron.<br />
+ 4. The combined Turko-Egyptian Fleet.<br />
+ 5. The boat sent by the "Dartmouth" to one of the Turkish
+ Fire Ships, in which Lieutenant G.W.H.F. Fitzroy was
+ killed.<br />
+ 6. and 7. Turkish Fire ships.<br />
+ The other figures denote the depth of water in English
+ fathoms.
+ </p>
+ <hr />
+ <p>
+ <span class="pagenum"><a id="page348" name="page348"></a>[pg
+ 348]</span>
+ </p>
+ <h3>
+ SEASONABLE RELICS.
+ </h3>
+ <center>
+ PART OF AN ANCIENT SONG.
+ </center>
+ <p>
+ The following is part of an old song which I have faithfully
+ copied; it was, I am told, sung at Wakes in the north of
+ England, and also previous to Christmas: from the appearance,
+ little doubt is left as to its being of northern composition.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I have seen in former volumes of the MIRROR, specimens of two
+ ancient ballads, and as they are a curiosity, I have sent
+ mine as being, I think, equally so. There is an old ballad
+ which I have met with and purchased, entitled "The Outlandish
+ Knight," but it is certainly greatly altered, though the tale
+ is preserved.
+ </p>
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ This ean night, this ean night,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ Every night and awle,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Fire and fleet,<a id="footnotetag1"
+ name="footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a>
+ and candle lyght,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ And Chryst receyve thy sawle.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ When those from hence dost passe awaye,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ Every night and awle,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ To whinnye moore thou com'st at last,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ And Chryste receyve thy sawle.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ If ever thou gav'st either hosen or shune,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ Every night and awle,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Sit thee down and put them on,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ And Chryst receyve thy sawle.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ But if hosen and shune thou never gav'st nean,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ Every night and awle,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The whinnes shall prick thee to the bare beane,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ And Chryst receyve thy sawle.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ From whynne moore then thou may'st passe,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ Every night and awle,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ To brigge of dread thou com'st at last,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ And Christ receyve thy sawle.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ From brigge of dread that thou may'st passe,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ Every night and awle,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ To purgatory fire thou com'st at last,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ And Chryst receyve thy sawle.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ If e'er thou gav'st either meate or drinke,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ Every night and awle,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The fire shall never make thee shrynke,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ And Chryst receyve thy sawle.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ But yf meate and drinke thou never gav'st neane,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ Every night and awle,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The fire shall burn thee to the bare beane,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ And Chryst receyve thy sawle.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ The next I give you is an extract from the Court Rolls of the
+ Borough of Hales Owen, of the
+ </p>
+ <h3>
+ <i>Custom of Bride Ale.</i>
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ "A payne ys made that no person or persons that shall brewe
+ any weddyn ale to sell, shall not brewe aboue twelve stryke
+ of mault at the most, and that the said persons so marryed
+ shall not keep nor haue above eyght messe of persons at hys
+ dinner within the burrowe, and before hys brydall daye he
+ shall keep no unlawfull games in hys house nor out of hys
+ house on payne of 20<i>s</i>."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Besides "Bride Ale," there was the Church Ales, and Easter
+ Ales, Whitsuntide Ales, and a quantity of others which we
+ have no accounts of. I conclude this short notice with the
+ hope of soon supplying you with a fund of information against
+ Christmas.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ W.H.H.
+ </p>
+ <hr />
+ <h3>
+ BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR OF HELEN.
+ </h3>
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ Princess Helen was born of an egg,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ And scarcely ten years had gone by,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ When Theseus beginning to beg,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ Decoyed the young chicken to fly.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ When Tyndarus heard the disaster,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ He crackled and thunder'd like Etna,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ So out gallop'd Pollux and Castor,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ And caught her a furlong from Gretna.
+ </p>
+ <p class="i4">
+ Singing rattledum, Greek Romanorum,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i6">
+ And hey classicality row.
+ </p>
+ <p class="i4">
+ Singing birchery, floggera, borum,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i6">
+ And folderol whack rowdy dow.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ The newspapers puffed her each day,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ Till the princes of Greece came to woo her,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Then coaxing the rest to give way,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ She took Menalaus unto her,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ So said they, "though we grieve to resign,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ Yet if ever you're put to a shift,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Let your majesty drop us a line,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ And we'll all of us lend you a lift.
+ </p>
+ <p class="i4">
+ With our rattledum, &amp;c."
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ Menelaus was happy to win her.
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ But she soon found a cure for his passion,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ By hobbing or nobbing at dinner,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ With Paris, a Trojan of fashion.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ This chap was a slyish young dog,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ The most jessamy fellow in life,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ For he drank Menalaus' grog,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ And d&mdash;me made off with his wife.
+ </p>
+ <p class="i4">
+ Singing rattledum, &amp;c.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ The princes were sent for, who swore
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ They would punish this finikin boy;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ So Achilles and two or three more,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ Undertook the destruction of Troy.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ But Achilles grew quite ungenteel,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ And prevented their stirring a peg,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Till Paris let fly at his heel,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ And he found himself laid by the leg.
+ </p>
+ <p class="i4">
+ With his rattledum, &amp;c.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ The Grecians demolish'd the city,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ And then (as the poets have told)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Dame Helen might still be called pretty,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ Though very near sixty years old.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Menelaus, when madam was found,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ Took her snugly away in his chaise,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ So Troy being burnt to the ground,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ Why the story goes off with a blaze.
+ </p>
+ <p class="i4">
+ And a rattledum, &amp;c.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+ <h3>
+ HORSE-CHESTNUTS.
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ (<i>To the Editor of the Mirror.</i>)
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ In a recent number there was a notice of the uses of the
+ <i>Esculus Hippocastaneus</i>, or horse chestnuts; but a very
+ important <span class="pagenum"><a id="page349"
+ name="page349"></a>[pg 349]</span> one was omitted, namely,
+ its substitution occasionally for Peruvian bark in cases of
+ intermittent fever. This disorder, known better by the name
+ of ague, had been formerly epidemic in Ireland, where the
+ humidity of the atmosphere is continually increased by the
+ exhalation of the lochs and bogs with which the country
+ abounds. In consequence, however, of the formation of the
+ Grand and Royal Canals, and the drainage of the waters in
+ their vicinity, the tendency to this disease was greatly
+ lessened; and about twenty years ago the disorder was so rare
+ in Dublin and the neighbourhood, that the medical students
+ often complained that they graduated without ever having an
+ opportunity of seeing in the hospitals a single case of this
+ once almost universal disorder. In consequence, however, of
+ the extreme wetness of one summer and autumn, agues again
+ resumed their ascendancy, and the hospitals and dispensaries
+ became crowded with intermittent patients, and all the bark
+ of the druggists and apothecaries was put into requisition;
+ but to the surprise and disappointment of all the medical
+ men, this infallible specific was altogether inert and
+ powerless, and after repeated trials and disappointments, it
+ was abandoned as useless. It was now a matter of importance
+ to ascertain the cause of this extraordinary failure, whether
+ it arose from the altered character of the complaint, or from
+ the deteriorated quality of the medicine; and it was found to
+ be the latter. In consequence of the long cessation of
+ intermittent fever, bark had been little used or called for,
+ and the stock had remained so long on hand, that it had
+ become effete and worthless. It was necessary then to try
+ some substitute. Quassia-wood, the acorus calamus, and other
+ bitters and aromatics, were tried; but that which seemed to
+ succeed best was the bark and kernel of the horse-chestnut.
+ The nut was moderately dried in a stove, so as to be capable
+ of being powdered, and in that state was exhibited in
+ substance with cayenne pepper and other aromatics. The bark
+ was taken in infusions and decoctions with quassia, and the
+ effects were sometimes very decided and satisfactory, forming
+ a providential substitute for the only kind of bark then to
+ be procured in Ireland.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ W.
+ </p>
+ <hr />
+ <h3>
+ SONNET.
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ (<i>For the Mirror.</i>)
+ </p>
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ Say what repays the gamester's nightly toil,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ Can hell itself more hideous woes impart?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Can glitt'ring heaps of ill-begotten spoil,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ Appease the cravings of his callous heart?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ For this alone he severs every tie,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ For this he marks unmov'd the orphan's tear,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ E'en nature's charms, a smile from beauty's eye
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ No longer can his blasted prospects cheer.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ But now prevails the dice's rattling sound,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ The loud blaspheming oath, and cry of woe,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ From tables set with spectre forms around,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ Hurrying with frantic haste, th' expected throw!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Than this no greater foe to man remains
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ This is the mightiest triumph Satan gains!
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ E.L.
+ </p>
+ <hr />
+ <h3>
+ ORIGINAL TRANSLATIONS.
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ (<i>For the Mirror.</i>)
+ </p>
+ <center>
+ Horace.&mdash;Ode xxx.&mdash;B. 1.<br />
+ TO VENUS.
+ </center>
+ <p>
+ <i>He invokes her to be present at Glycera's private
+ sacrifice</i>
+ </p>
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ Venus! leave thy loved isle,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ And on Glycera's altar smile;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Breathing perfumes hail the day,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Haste thee, Venus! haste away.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ Bring with thee the am'rous boy;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The loose-rob'd Graces crown our joy!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Youth swell thy train, who owes to thee
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Her charms, and winged Mercury!
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <center>
+ ODE xxvi.&mdash;B. 3.<br />
+ TO THE SAME.
+ </center>
+ <p>
+ <i>He renounces Love.</i>
+ </p>
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ Not without renown was I,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ In the ranks of gallantry.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Now, when Love no more will call,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ To battle; on this sacred wall,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Venus, where her statue stands,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ To hang my arms, and lute commands;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Here the bright torch to hang, and bars,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Which wag'd so oft loud midnight wars.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ But, O blessed Cyprian queen!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Blest in Memphian bow'rs serene,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Raise high the lash, and Chloe's be,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ All e'er proud Chloe dealt to me!
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ W.P.
+ </p>
+ <hr class="full" />
+ <h2>
+ Arcana of Science.
+ </h2>
+ <hr />
+ <center>
+ <i>Smoke of Lamps.</i>
+ </center>
+ <p>
+ A recent number of Gill's "Technical Repository," contains a
+ simple mode of consuming the smoke that ascends from the
+ turner of an argand lamp. It consists of a thin concave of
+ copper, fixed by three wires, at about an inch above the
+ chimney-glass of the lamp, yet capable of being taken off at
+ pleasure. The gaseous carbonaceous matter which occasionally
+ escapes from the top of lamps, is thus arrested beneath the
+ concave cap, and subsequently consumed by the heat of the
+ flame, instead of passing off into the room, in the form of
+ smoke or smut on the ceiling and walls.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ [The "Technical Repository," may
+ <span class="pagenum"><a id="page350" name="page350"></a>[pg
+ 350]</span> have the credit of introducing this contrivance
+ to the British public; but it is somewhat curious that it had
+ not been previously adopted, since scores of lamps thus
+ provided, are to be seen in the caf&eacute;s and
+ restaurateurs of Paris. <i>Apropos</i>, the French oil burns
+ equal in brightness to our best gas, and as we are informed,
+ this purity is obtained by filtration through
+ charcoal.&mdash;ED.]
+ </p>
+ <center>
+ <i>Caddis Worms.</i>
+ </center>
+ <p>
+ The transformation of the deserted cases of numberless minute
+ insects into a constituent part of a solid rock, first formed
+ at the bottom of a lake, then constituting the sides of deep
+ valleys, and the tabular summits of lofty hills, is a
+ phenomenon as striking as the vast reefs of coral constructed
+ by the labours of minute polyps. We remember to have seen
+ such <i>caddis-worms</i>, as they are called by fishermen,
+ very abundant in the wooden troughs constructed by the late
+ Dr. Sibthorp, for aquatic plants, in the botanic garden at
+ Oxford, to the cases of which many small shells of the G.
+ Planorbis Limnea and Cyclas were affixed, precisely in the
+ same manner as in the fossil tubes of Auvergne; an incrusting
+ spring, therefore, may, perhaps, be all that is wanting to
+ reproduce, on the banks of the Isis or the Charwell, a rock
+ similar in structure to that of the Limagne. Mr. Kirby, in
+ his "Entomology," informs us, that these larvae ultimately
+ change into a four-winged insect. If you are desirous to
+ examine them in their aquatic state, "you have only, (he
+ says) to place yourself by the side of a clear and shallow
+ pool of water, and you cannot fail to observe at the bottom
+ little oblong moving masses, resembling pieces of straw,
+ wood, or even stone&mdash;of the larvae itself, nothing is to
+ be seen but the head and six legs, by means of which it moves
+ itself in the water, and drags after it the case in which the
+ rest of the body is enclosed, and into which, on any alarm,
+ it instantly retires. The construction of these habitations
+ is very various. Some select four or five pieces of the
+ leaves of grass, which they glue together into a shapely
+ polygonal case; others employ portions of the stems of
+ rushes, placed side by side, so as to form an elegant fluted
+ cylinder; some arrange round them pieces of leaves like a
+ spirally-rolled riband; other species construct houses which
+ may be called alive, forming them of the shells of various
+ aquatic snails of different kinds and sizes, even while
+ inhabited, all of which are immovably fixed to them, and
+ dragged about at pleasure. However various may be the form of
+ the case externally, within it is usually cylindrical and
+ lined with silk."&mdash;<i>Introduction to Entomology, by
+ Kirby and Spence.</i>
+ </p>
+ <center>
+ <i>Engraving on Glass.</i>
+ </center>
+ <p>
+ Cover one side of a flat piece of glass, after having made it
+ perfectly clean, with bees' wax, and trace figures upon it
+ with a needle, taking care that every stroke cuts completely
+ through the wax. Next, make a border of wax all round the
+ glass, to prevent any liquor, when poured on, from running
+ off. Then take some finely powdered fluate of lime (fluor
+ spar,) strew it even over the glass plate upon the waxed
+ side, and then gently pour upon it, so as not to displace the
+ powder, as much concentrated sulphuric acid diluted with
+ thrice its weight of water, as is sufficient to cover the
+ powdered fluor spar. Let every thing remain in this state for
+ three hours; then remove the mixture, and clean the glass, by
+ washing it with oil of turpentine; the figures which were
+ traced through the wax will be found engraven on the glass,
+ while the parts which the wax covered will be uncorroded. The
+ fluate of lime is decomposed by the sulphuric acid, and
+ sulphate of lime is formed. The fluoric acid, disengaged in
+ the gaseous state, combines with the water that diluted the
+ sulphuric acid, and forms liquid fluoric acid, by which the
+ glass is corroded.
+ </p>
+ <center>
+ <i>Habits of Seals.</i>
+ </center>
+ <p>
+ The brain of this animal, observes Dr. Harwood, is I think,
+ doubtless, of greater proportionate magnitude than in any
+ other quadruped, and not only does it exhibit in its
+ countenance, the appearance of sagacity, but its intelligence
+ is in reality far greater than in most land quadrupeds: hence
+ its domestication is rendered much easier than that of other
+ animals, and it is susceptible of more powerful attachment.
+ The large seal, which was exhibited some time ago at Exeter
+ 'Change, appeared to me to understand the language of its
+ keeper as perfectly as the most faithful dog. When he entered
+ at one end of its long apartment, it raised its body from the
+ water, in which it was injudiciously too constantly kept,
+ supporting itself erect against the bar of its enclosure, and
+ wherever he moved, keeping its large, dark eyes steadfastly
+ fixed upon him. When desired to make obeisance to visitors,
+ it quickly threw itself on one side, and struck the opposite
+ one several times in quick succession with its fore-foot,
+ producing a loud noise. The young seal, again, which was kept
+ on board the Alexander, in one of the northern expeditions,
+ became so much attached <span class="pagenum"><a id="page351"
+ name="page351"></a>[pg 351]</span> to its new mode of life,
+ that after being thrown into the sea, and it had become tired
+ of swimming at liberty, it regularly returned to the side of
+ the beat, to be retaken on board. Such examples might be
+ greatly multiplied; and I cannot help stating, that aware of
+ this disposition to become familiar, and this participation
+ in the good qualities of the dog, it is astonishing that
+ mankind have not chosen this intellectual and finely
+ organized quadruped, for aquatic services scarcely less
+ important than some of those in which the dog is employed on
+ the surface of the land.&mdash;<i>Quarterly Journal.</i>
+ </p>
+ <center>
+ <i>Gas from Resin.</i>
+ </center>
+ <p>
+ Mr. Daniel, the meteorologist, has contrived a process for
+ generating gas from resin; which he effects by dissolving the
+ resin in turpentine, or any other essential oil, and then
+ allowing the fluid to drop gradually in a heated cylinder of
+ iron.
+ </p>
+ <center>
+ <i>Liquorice Paper.</i>
+ </center>
+ <p>
+ A mode has been discovered in France of fabricating paper
+ solely from the Glycyrrhiza Germanica, or liquorice plant. It
+ is said that this paper is cheap, that it is of a whiteness
+ superior to that generally made, and that size is not
+ requisite in its manufacture.
+ </p>
+ <center>
+ <i>Tachygraphy.</i>
+ </center>
+ <p>
+ A mathematical instrument maker at Paris, of the name of
+ Conti, has conceived the notion of a portable instrument
+ which he calls a tachygraph, by means of which any person may
+ write, or rather print, as fast as any other person can
+ speak. M. Conti, however, like many other ingenious men, is
+ not rich; and he has applied to the Acad&eacute;mi&egrave;
+ des Sciences, for pecuniary assistance, and a very favourable
+ report has been made upon his request.
+ </p>
+ <center>
+ <i>Valuable Discovery in Agriculture.</i>
+ </center>
+ <p>
+ One of the most recent of useful discoveries in agriculture
+ is to mix layers of green or new cut clover with layers of
+ straw in ricks or stacks; thus the strength of the clover is
+ absorbed by the straw, which, thus impregnated, both horses
+ and cattle eat greedily, and the clover is dried and
+ prevented from heating. This practice is particularly
+ calculated for second crops of clover and rye-grass.
+ </p>
+ <center>
+ <i>Pine Apples.</i>
+ </center>
+ <p>
+ The largest pine ever grown in this kingdom was cut lately
+ from the hothouse of John Edwards, Esq. of Rheola,
+ Glamorganshire, and was presented to his Majesty at Windsor.
+ It weighed 14 lbs. 12 oz. avoirdupois, was 12-1/2 inches
+ high, exclusive of the crown, and 26 inches in circumference.
+ </p>
+ <center>
+ <i>Sea Couch for preventing Sickness.</i>
+ </center>
+ <p>
+ An elastic or swinging seat, couch, or bed, for preventing
+ the uneasy motions of a ship or a carriage, has recently been
+ invented. To effect this, the frame of the seat or couch is
+ suspended on juribals or joints, turning at right angles to
+ each other, and an elasticity is produced both in the seat or
+ cushion, and in the swinging frames, by the use of spiral
+ metal springs. These springs are made by twisting steel or
+ iron wire into the form of an hour glass, that is, like two
+ cones united at their apices. The lower points of their
+ springs are to be sown to the canvass or webbing, and their
+ upper parts secured in their proper situations and erect
+ positions by pack-thread or small cords, tied or braced from
+ one to the other, crossing like a net. On the tops of these
+ springs the usual covering of canvass is laid, and then a
+ thin layer of horsehair or wool, upon which the outer
+ covering is bitted. Sir Richard Phillips, in the <i>Monthly
+ Magazine</i>, describes the following successful experiment
+ for preventing sea-sickness, made on his crossing from Dover
+ to Calais, a few years since. He caused an armed chair to be
+ placed on the deck of the vessel, and being seated in it, he
+ began to raise himself up and down, as on horseback. The
+ passengers laughed at his eccentricity, but before they
+ reached Calais, many of them were sea-sick, whilst Sir
+ Richard continued to enjoy his usual health and vigour.
+ </p>
+ <center>
+ <i>Bites of Venomous Reptiles.</i>
+ </center>
+ <p>
+ M. le D'Record, sen. discovered, during a long residence in
+ America, what he considers a sure mode of preventing mischief
+ from such bites. "It is sufficient," he says, "to pour a few
+ drops of tincture of cantharides on the wound, to cause a
+ redness and vesiccation; not only is the poison rendered
+ harmless, but the stings of the reptiles are removed with the
+ epidermis that the bladder raises."&mdash;<i>Med.
+ Journal.</i>
+ </p>
+ <center>
+ <i>Naval Schools of France.</i>
+ </center>
+ <p>
+ In France, the system of mutual instruction among the working
+ classes prospers in the bosoms of the ports, and schools are
+ founded for the particular instruction of the sons of the
+ inferior officers of the arsenals, in the elements of
+ calculation, of geometry, and of design, as far as necessary
+ for the plans of ships; also the principles of statics, so as
+ to enable them to judge of the action and effect of
+ machinery. Prizes of gold medals and special promotions are
+ the rewards of the most deserving students. Brest was
+ <span class="pagenum"><a id="page352" name="page352"></a>[pg
+ 352]</span> formerly the only port furnished with these
+ schools; since the peace, however, libraries are forming in
+ each of the others; and in almost all, cabinets of natural
+ history and botanical gardens are enriched at every voyage
+ undertaken by French ships, either to foreign coasts, or to
+ those of the French colonies. An observatory has been given
+ to Toulon and Rochefort. In both these ports naval museums
+ are formed, in order to preserve types of the most eminent
+ vessels, whose originals either have been, or soon will be,
+ destroyed by time. Models of ingenious machines,
+ representations of interesting manoeuvres, a methodical
+ collection of raw materials, of tools, and of the product of
+ all the arts exercised in a dock-yard&mdash;Such are the rich
+ materials collected in these interesting
+ repositories.&mdash;<i>From the French of M. Dupin.</i>
+ </p>
+ <center>
+ <i>Antiquity of Locks.</i>
+ </center>
+ <p>
+ Locks were known in Egypt above four thousand years since, as
+ was inferred by M. Denon, from some sculptures of the great
+ temple of Karnac, representing locks similar to those now
+ used in that country. A lock resembling the Egyptian is used
+ in Cornwall, and the same has been seen in the Faro Islands;
+ to both which places it was probably taken by the
+ Phoenicians.&mdash;<i>Quarterly Journal.</i>
+ </p>
+ <center>
+ <i>To increase the odour of Roses.</i>
+ </center>
+ <p>
+ Plant a large onion by the side of the rose-tree in such a
+ manner that it shall touch the root of the latter. The rose
+ which will be produced will have an odour much stronger and
+ more agreeable than such as have not been thus treated; and
+ the water distilled from these roses is equally superior to
+ that prepared by means of ordinary rose leaves.&mdash;<i>From
+ the French.</i>
+ </p>
+ <hr class="full" />
+ <h2>
+ The Selector;<br />
+ AND<br />
+ LITERARY NOTICES OF<br />
+ <i>NEW WORKS</i>.
+ </h2>
+ <hr />
+ <h3>
+ THE SPECTRE'S VOYAGE.
+ </h3>
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ "I see a hand you cannot see,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ That beckons me away,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ I hear a voice you cannot hear,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ That will not let me stay."
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ There is a part of the river Wye, between the city of
+ Hereford and the town of Ross, which was known for more than
+ two centuries by the appellation of "The Spectre's Voyage;"
+ and across which, as long as it retained that appellation,
+ neither entreaty nor remuneration would induce any boatman to
+ convey passengers after a certain hour of the night. The
+ superstitious notions current among the lower orders were,
+ that at about the hour of eight on every evening, a female
+ was seen in a small vessel sailing from Hereford to
+ Northbrigg, a little village then distant about three miles
+ from the city, of which not even the site is now discernible;
+ that the vessel sailed with the utmost rapidity in a dead
+ calm and even against the wind; that to encounter it was
+ fatal; that the voyager landed from it on the eastern bank of
+ the river, a little beyond the village; that she remained
+ some time on shore, making the most fearful lamentations;
+ that she then re-entered the vessel, and sailed back in the
+ same manner, and that both boat and passenger vanished in a
+ sudden manner as they arrived at a certain part of the river,
+ where the current is remarkably strong, within about half a
+ mile of the city of Hereford,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ This singular tradition, like most stories of a similar
+ character, was not without a foundation in truth, as the
+ reader will perceive who takes the trouble to peruse the
+ following narrative.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ In the turbulent reign of Edward the Second, when the whole
+ of England was one theatre of lawless violence, when might
+ was constantly triumphant over right, and princes and
+ soldiers only respected the very intelligible, if not very
+ equitable principle,
+ </p>
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ "That they should take who have the power,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ And they should keep who can,"
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ the city of Hereford was distinguished by the zeal and
+ patriotism of its citizens, and by the unshrinking firmness
+ with which they adhered to the cause of queen Isabella, and
+ the young prince her son, afterwards the renowned king Edward
+ the Third, in opposition to the weak and ill-fated monarch
+ who then wore the crown, and his detested favourites the
+ Spensers, father and son. Sir Hugh Spenser, the younger, was
+ a man of unquestionable talents, and possessed virtues which,
+ during a period of less violence and personal animosity,
+ might have proved honourable to himself, and useful to his
+ country.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The discontents of the queen and the barons were not vented
+ in fruitless complaints or idle menaces. They flew to arms.
+ The king of France, the queen's brother, assisted them with
+ men and money; the Count of Hainault, to whose daughter
+ Philippa, the young prince had been contracted, did the same.
+ The king was driven from London, and forced, with the elder
+ Spenser, whom he had created Earl of Winchester, to take
+ refuge in Bristol. Being hotly pursued to this city by the
+ Earl of Kent and the Count of
+ <span class="pagenum"><a id="page353" name="page353"></a>[pg
+ 353]</span> Hainault, at the head of a formidable army, he
+ was obliged to flee into Wales, leaving the elder Spenser
+ governor of the castle of Bristol. This fortress was
+ immediately besieged, and speedily taken, as the garrison
+ mutinied against their governor, and delivered him into the
+ hands of his enemies. This venerable noble, who had nearly
+ reached his ninetieth year, was instantly, without trial, or
+ witness, or accusation, or answer, condemned to death by the
+ rebellious barons; he was hanged on a gibbet; his body was
+ cut to pieces and thrown to the dogs; and his head was sent
+ to Winchester, the place whence he derived his title, and was
+ there set on a pole, and exposed to the insults of the
+ populace.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ When the news of this catastrophe reached the younger
+ Spenser, he was at the head of a fine army, which had sat
+ down before the city of Hereford, for the purpose of reducing
+ it to obedience to king Edward. The formidable force which he
+ commanded had struck terror into the hearts of the citizens,
+ so that notwithstanding their attachment to queen Isabella,
+ and their detestation of Spenser, they had shown symptoms of
+ their willingness to yield to the latter upon reasonable
+ terms; and he, desirous of obtaining possession of the city
+ without any unnecessary effusion of blood, had granted a
+ truce of a week's duration, to give them time to decide upon
+ what conditions they would open their gates to him. The
+ disastrous intelligence which he received from Bristol,
+ however, made him doubtful whether he should hold inviolate
+ the truce which he had granted to the besieged. He did not
+ doubt but that the Earl of Kent and his troops, flushed with
+ conquest, would hasten to his destruction, and to the relief
+ of Hereford, and that unless he could possess himself of the
+ city and castle, and by shutting himself up in the latter be
+ enabled to bid defiance to his enemies, the fate of his
+ father must inevitably be his own.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The favourite recreation of the inhabitants of Hereford was
+ then, as it is now, to make excursions either alone, or in
+ parties, upon their beautiful river. This amusement had
+ become so much a custom with them, that the most timid
+ females were not afraid to venture alone and at night in a
+ small skiff, with which almost every family of respectability
+ was provided; and on a bright moonlight night, the bosom of
+ the river was beautifully diversified by the white sails
+ glittering in the moonbeams, while sweet female voices would
+ be heard warbling some popular melodies, the, subjects of
+ which were usually the praises of prince Edward, or
+ execrations of Spenser and those who had corrupted the king.
+ It was on such a night, that the incident with which our
+ narrative commences occurred. The moon was riding in an
+ unclouded sky&mdash;unclouded except by those light fleecy
+ vapours which hovered round the form of the queen of night,
+ increasing rather than diminishing her beauty. The river
+ seemed one sheet of silver, and numerous little vessels
+ passing and repassing, gave it a delightfully animated
+ appearance. In one, which seemed to be venturing nearer to
+ the camp of the enemy than the others, might be seen a light
+ and delicate female form, and on the shore which she was
+ approaching, a little above the village of Northbrigg, stood
+ a soldier, whose accoutrements bespoke him to belong to the
+ army of Sir Hugh Spenser.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The lady landed, and the soldier hastened to meet her.
+ "Dearest Isabel," he said, "blessings upon thy generous
+ trusting heart, for this sweet meeting! I have much to tell
+ thee, but that my tongue dares not utter all with which my
+ mind is stored; and if it dared, it is not on such a night as
+ this, so bright, so beautiful, that tidings dark as mine
+ should be communicated." Isabel, who had laid her head upon
+ his breast when they met, started from him, and gazed with
+ the utmost terror and surprise at the unwonted gloom which
+ darkened his countenance.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Walter, what means this? Come you to break the trusting
+ heart which beats for you alone? Come you to cancel your
+ vows&mdash;to say that we must part for ever? Oh! better had
+ you left me to the mercy of the wave, when its work of death
+ was half achieved, if you reserved me only for the misery
+ which waits upon a broken heart, and blighted and betrayed
+ affections?"
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Sweet, dry these tears!" replied the soldier; "while I have
+ life I am thine. I come to warn thee of sure but unseen
+ danger. The walls of Hereford are strong, and the arms and
+ hearts of her citizens firm and trusty; but her hour is come,
+ and the path of the destroyer, although secret, is like the
+ stream which hides itself for a time beneath the earth only
+ to spring forth more strongly and irresistibly than ever."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Thy words are dark and dreadful; but I do not know of any
+ cause for fear, or of any means of avoiding it, if it
+ exists."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Fly with me, fly!&mdash;with thy heart and hand reward my
+ love, and think no more of those grim walls, and sullen
+ citizens, with souls as iron as their beavers, and hearts as
+ cold as the waters of their river."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <span class="pagenum"><a id="page354" name="page354"></a>[pg
+ 354]</span> "Oh! no, no, no! my father's head is grey, and
+ but for me alone all his affections, all his hopes are buried
+ in my mother's grave. He hates thee and thy cause. When I
+ told him a stranger had rescued his daughter from the wave,
+ he raised his hands to heaven and blessed him. I told him
+ that that stranger was a follower of the Spensers'; he
+ checked his unfinished benediction, and cursed him. But if he
+ knew thee, Walter, thy noble heart, thy constant love,
+ methinks that time and entreaty would make him listen to his
+ daughter's prayer."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Alas! my Isabel, entreaty would be vain, and time is already
+ flapping his wings, loaded with inevitable ruin, over yon
+ devoted city and its inhabitants. Thy father shall be
+ safe&mdash;trust that to me; and trust me, too, that what I
+ promise I can perform. But thou, my loved one, thou must not
+ look upon the horrid face of war: and though my power extends
+ to save thy father from injury, it would be easier to save
+ the wall-flowers on the ramparts of the city from the foot of
+ the invader, than one so fair, so feeble, from his violence
+ and lust."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Whoe'er thou art," she said, "there is a spell upon my heart
+ which love and gratitude have twined, and which makes it
+ thine for ever: but sooner would I lock my hand with that of
+ the savage Spenser himself, when reeking with the best blood
+ of Hereford's citizens, than leave my father's side when his
+ gray hairs are in danger, and my native city, when treachery
+ is in her streets and outrage is approaching her walls."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ These words were uttered with an animation and vehemence so
+ unusual to her, that Walter stood for a moment transfixed
+ with wonder; and before he recovered his self-possession,
+ Isabel, with the velocity of lightning, had regained her
+ skiff, and was sailing before the wind to Hereford. "Curse on
+ my amorous folly!" he exclaimed, "that, for a pair of pale
+ cheeks and sparkling eyes, has perhaps ruined a better
+ concerted stratagem than ever entered the brain of the
+ Grecian Sinon. I must away, or the false girl will wake the
+ slumbering citizens to their defence before the deed is done;
+ and yet, must I devote her to the foul grasp of ruffian
+ violence? No, no! my power is equal to save or to destroy."
+ As he uttered these words he rapidly ascended the rocks which
+ skirted that part of the banks of the river on which he
+ stood, and was soon lost among the wild woods that crowned
+ their summit.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ We shall not enter into any detailed account of the events of
+ that night. The royalists, by means of an unexpected attack
+ during the truce, and aided by internal treachery, hoped to
+ make themselves masters of the city of Hereford. The
+ citizens, however, had by some unknown means obtained
+ intelligence of the designs of the enemy, and were prepared
+ to repel their attacks. Every street was lined with soldiers,
+ and a band of the bravest and most determined, under the
+ command of Eustace Chandos, (Isabel's father,) manned the
+ city walls. The struggle was short but sanguinary&mdash;the
+ invaders were beaten back at every point, their best troops
+ were left dead in the trenches, and above two hundred
+ prisoners (among whom was Sir Hugh Spenser himself) fell into
+ the hands of the citizens. The successful party set no bounds
+ either to their exultation or their revenge. The rejoicings
+ were continued for three successive days; the neighbouring
+ country was ravaged without cessation and without remorse;
+ and all the prisoners were ordered, by a message to that
+ effect received from queen Isabella, to be treated as felons,
+ and hanged in the most public places in the city. This decree
+ was rigorously and unrelentingly executed. The royalist
+ soldiers, without any distinction as to rank or character,
+ suffered the ignominious punishment to which they were
+ condemned, and the streets of Hereford were blocked up by
+ gibbets, which the most timid and merciful of its inhabitants
+ gazed upon with satisfaction and triumph.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Sir Hugh Spenser, both on account of his rank and of the
+ peculiar degree of hatred with which each bosom beat against
+ him, was reserved to be the last victim. On the day of his
+ execution the streets were lined with spectators, and the
+ principal families in the city occupied stations round the
+ scaffold. So great was the universal joy at having their
+ enemy in their power, that even the wives and daughters of
+ the most distinguished citizens were anxious to view the
+ punishment inflicted upon him whom they considered the grand
+ cause of all the national evils. Isabel was not of this
+ number; but her father sternly compelled her to be a witness
+ of the dismal scene. The hour of noon was fast approaching,
+ and the bell of the cathedral heavily and solemnly tolled the
+ knell of the unfortunate Spenser. The fatal cavalcade
+ approached the place of execution. A stern and solemn triumph
+ gleamed in the eyes of the soldiers as they trod by the side
+ of the victim; but most of the spectators, especially the
+ females, were melted into tears when they beheld the fine
+ manly form of the prisoner, which seemed better fitted to
+ adorn the royal levee, or a lady's bower, than for the
+ melancholy fate to which he was about to
+ <span class="pagenum"><a id="page355" name="page355"></a>[pg
+ 355]</span> be consigned. His head was bare, and his light
+ flaxen hair fell in a rich profusion of locks down his
+ shoulders, but left unshaded his finely-proportioned and
+ sunburnt features. He wore the uniform of the royal army, and
+ a star on his breast indicated his rank, while he held in his
+ hand a small ivory cross, which he frequently and fervently
+ kissed. His deportment was firm and contemptuous, and, as he
+ looked on the formal and frequently grotesque figures of his
+ guards, his features even assumed an expression of
+ risibility. The sight of the gibbet, however, which was
+ raised fifty feet high, seemed to appal him, for he had not
+ been apprized of the ignominious nature of his punishment.
+ "And is this," he said, as he scornfully dashed away a tear
+ which had gathered in his eye, "ye rebellious dogs, is this
+ the death to which you doom the heir of Winchester?" A stern
+ and bitter smile played on the lips of his guards, but they
+ remained silent. "Oh, God!" he continued, "in the field, or
+ on the wave, or on the block, which has reeked so often with
+ the bravest and noblest blood, I could have died smiling; but
+ this&mdash;" His emotion seemed increasing, but with a
+ violent effort he suppressed every outward sign of it; for
+ the visible satisfaction which gleamed on the dark faces
+ around him, at the state of weakness to which they had
+ reduced the proud heart of their foe, was more galling to his
+ soul than the shameful death to which he was devoted.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ By the time he reached the place of execution his face had
+ assumed its calm and scornful air, and he sprang upon the
+ scaffold with apparently unconcerned alacrity. At the same
+ moment a dreadful shriek issued from that part of the
+ surrounding booths in which the family of Chandos sat; and in
+ another instant a female, deadly pale, and with her hair and
+ dress disordered, had darted on to the scaffold, and clasped
+ the prisoner in her arms.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Walter!" she cried, "Walter! can it be thou? oh! they dare
+ not take thy life; thou bravest, best of men! Avaunt, ye
+ bloodthirsty brood! ye cannot tear me from him. Not till my
+ arms grow cold in death I'll clasp him thus, and defy the
+ world to sever us!"
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Oh! Isabel!" he said, "it is too much; my soul can bear no
+ more. I hoped thy eyes had been spared this sight&mdash;but
+ the cold tyrants have decreed it thus. On! leave me, leave
+ me!&mdash;it is in vain&mdash;unmannered ruffians, spare
+ her!" While he spoke, the soldiers forcibly tore her from
+ him, and were dragging her through the crowd.&mdash;"My
+ father! save him! he saved thy child!&mdash;Walter!
+ supplicate him&mdash;he is kind." She turned her eyes to the
+ scaffold as she uttered these words, and beheld the form of
+ Spenser writhing in the air, and convulsed with the last
+ mortal agony. A fearful shriek burst from her heart, and she
+ sank senseless in the arms of those who bore her.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Isabel survived this event more than a twelvemonth; but her
+ reason had fled and her health was so shattered that final
+ recovery was hopeless. She took scarcely any food, refused
+ all intercourse with her former friends, and even with her
+ father, and would sit silent and motionless for days
+ together. One thing only soothed her mind, or afforded her
+ any gratification; and this, as she was an experienced
+ navigator of the river, her friends indulged her in&mdash;to
+ sail from the city of Hereford to that spot on which she used
+ to meet her lover. This she did constantly every evening; but
+ when she landed, and had waited a short time, her shrieks and
+ cries were pitiable. This practice one evening proved fatal.
+ Instead of steering to the usual landing-place, a little
+ above the city, she entered a part of the river where the
+ current is unusually strong. The rapidity of its waves
+ mastered and overturned the frail bark in which she sailed,
+ and the unfortunate Isabel sunk to rise no more!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The tragic nature of these events made an impression on the
+ popular mind which two centuries did not efface. The spirit
+ of Isabel was still said to sail every night from Hereford to
+ Northbrigg, to meet her lover; and the beach across the river
+ which this unearthly traveller pursued, was long
+ distinguished by the name of "The Spectre's Voyage."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <i>Neele's Romance of History.</i>
+ </p>
+ <hr />
+ <h3>
+ IRISH GRANDEES.
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ Conspicuous amongst the most conspicuous of the stars; of the
+ ascendant, was a lady, who took the field with an
+ <i>&eacute;clat</i>, a brilliancy, and bustle, which for a
+ time fixed the attention of all upon herself. Although a fine
+ woman, in the strictest sense of the term, and still
+ handsome, though not still very young, she was even more
+ distinguished by her air of high supremacy, than by her
+ beauty. She sat loftily in a lofty phaeton, which was
+ emblazoned with arms, and covered with coronets; and she
+ played with her long whip, as ladies of old managed their
+ fans, with grace and coquetry. She was dressed in a rich
+ habit, whose facings and epaulettes spoke her the lady of the
+ noble colonel of some provincial corps of volunteers. A high
+ military cap, surmounted
+ <span class="pagenum"><a id="page356" name="page356"></a>[pg
+ 356]</span> with a plume of black feathers, well became her
+ bright, bold, black eyes, and her brow that looked as if
+ accustomed "to threaten and command." The air had deepened
+ her colour through her rouge, as it had blown from her dark,
+ dishevelled tresses the mareschal powder, then still worn in
+ Ireland&mdash;(the last lingering barbarism of the British
+ toilette, which France had already abandoned, with other
+ barbarous modes, and exchanged for the <i>coiffure
+ d'Arippine</i> and the <i>t&ecirc;te &agrave; la Brutus</i>.)
+ Her <i>pose</i>, her glance, her nod, her smile, all
+ conscious and careless as they were, proclaimed a privileged
+ autocrat of the Irish <i>bon ton</i>, a "<i>dasher</i>," as
+ it was termed, of the first order; for that species of
+ effrontery called <i>dashing</i> was then in full vogue, as
+ consonant to a state of society, where all in a certain class
+ went by assumption.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ This lady had arrived rather early in the field, for one
+ whose habits were necessarily on the wrong side of time and
+ of punctuality. She came bowling along, keeping up her fiery
+ steeds to a sort of curvetting gallop, like one deep in the
+ science of the <i>man&egrave;ge</i>&mdash;now deranging the
+ order of march of the troops, by breaking through the ranks,
+ in spite of the impertinent remonstrances of the out-posts
+ and videttes, at which she laughed, at once to show her teeth
+ and her power;&mdash;and now scattering the humble crowd,
+ "like chaff before the wind," as giving her horses the rein,
+ she permitted them to plunge head-long on, while skilfully
+ flourishing her long whip, she made on every side a
+ preliminary clearance. Many among the multitude announced her
+ as the famous Kitty Cut-dash, and nodded knowingly as she
+ passed them; but the greater number detected in the beautiful
+ charioteer, the equally famous Albina Countess Knocklofty,
+ the female chief of that great oligarchical family, the
+ Proudforts&mdash;a family on which the church rained mitres,
+ the state coronets, and the people&mdash;curses.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Beside her sat, or rather lounged, another dame of quality,
+ bearing the stamp of her class and caste as obviously, yet
+ less deeply marked, than her companion. More feminine in her
+ air, more foreign in her dress and entire bearing, her
+ faultless form, and almost faultless face, had all the
+ advantages of the new democratic toilet of Paris, (adopted by
+ its court, when more important innovations were still fatally
+ resisted;) and she appeared in the Phoenix Park, dressed much
+ in the same costume as Marie Antoinette and her female
+ favourites are described to have worn in the gardens of
+ Trianon, or in the bowers of St. Cloud,&mdash;to the horror
+ of all old <i>dames d'atours</i>, and all the partisans of
+ the ancient regime of whalebone and buckram! The chemise of
+ transparent muslin, or <i>robe &agrave; la Poliynae</i>,
+ <i>chapeau de paille &agrave; la bergere</i>, tied down with
+ a lilac ribbon, with
+ </p>
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ "Scarf loosely flowing, hair as free,"
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ gave an air of sylph-like simplicity to one, whose features,
+ though beautiful, were marked by an expression foreign to
+ simplicity, evincing that taste, not sentiment, presided over
+ her toilet, and that, "<i>chez elle, un beau desordre fut
+ l'effet de l'art</i>."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ This triumphal car was followed, or surrounded, by a host of
+ beaux; some in military uniform, and with true English faces
+ and figures; but the greater number in the civil, though
+ uncivilized, dress of the day, and with forms and
+ physiognomies as Irish as ever were exhibited in Pale or
+ Palatine, to the dread of English settlers and Scotch
+ undertakers. Ponderous powdered clubs, hanging from heads of
+ dishevelled hair&mdash;shoulders raised or stuffed to an
+ Atlas height and breadth&mdash;the stoop of paviers, and the
+ lounge of chairmen&mdash;broad beavers, tight buckskins, the
+ striped vest of a groom, and the loose coat of a coachman,
+ gave something ruffianly to the air of even the finest
+ figures, which assorted but too well with the daring, dashing
+ manner, that just then had succeeded, among a <i>particular
+ set</i>, to the courtly polish for which the travelled
+ nobility of Ireland were once so distinguished. Such, in
+ exterior, were many of the members of the famous <i>Cherokee
+ Club</i>, and such the future legislators of that great
+ national indignity, which had procured them a contemptible
+ pre-eminence in the black book of public opinion, by the
+ style and title of the "<i>Union Lords</i>." As they now
+ crowded round the cynosures of the day, there was something
+ too ardent and unrestrained in their homage, something too
+ emphatic in their expressions and gestures, for true
+ breeding; while in their handsome, but "light, revelling, and
+ protesting faces," traces of the night's orgies were still
+ visible, which gave their fine features a licentious cast,
+ and deprived their open and very manly countenances of every
+ mark of intellectual expression.&mdash;<i>Lady Morgan's
+ "O'Briens and O'Flahertys."</i>
+ </p>
+ <hr />
+ <h3>
+ THE WEE MAN.
+ </h3>
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ It was a merry company.
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ And they were just afloat,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ When lo! a man of dwarfish span
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ Came up and hail'd the boat.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <span class="pagenum"><a id="page357"
+ name="page357"></a>[pg 357]</span>
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "Good morrow to ye, gentle folks,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ And will you let me in?
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ A slender space will serve my case,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ For I am small and thin."
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ They saw he was a dwarfish man,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ And very small and thin;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Not seven such would matter much,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ And so they took him in.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ They laugh'd to see his little hat,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ With such a narrow brim;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ They laugh'd to note his dapper coat,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ With skirts so scant and trim.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ But barely had they gone a mile,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ When, gravely, one and all,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ At once began to think the man
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ Was not so very small.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ His coat had got a broader skirt,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ His hat a broader brim,
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ His leg grew stout, and soon plump'd out
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ A very proper limb.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ Still on they went, and as they went
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ More rough the billows grew,&mdash;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ And rose and fell, a greater swell,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ And he was swelling too!
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ And lo! where room had been for seven,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ For six there scarce was space!
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ For five!&mdash;for four!&mdash;for three!&mdash;not more
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ Than two could find a place!
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ There was not even room for one!
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ They crowded by degrees&mdash;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Ay, closer yet, till elbows met,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ And knees were jogging knees.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ "Good sir, you must not sit a-stern.
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ The wave will else come in!"
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Without a word he gravely stirr'd,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ Another seat to win.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ "Good sir, the boat has lost her trim,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ You must not sit a-lee!"
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ With smiling face and courteous grace
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ The middle seat took he.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ But still by constant quiet growth,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ His back became so wide.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Each neighbour wight, to left and right,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ Was thrust against the side.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ Lord! how they chided with themselves,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ That they had let him in;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ To see him grow so monstrous now,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ That came so small and thin.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ On every brow a dew-drop stood,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ They grew so scared and hot,&mdash;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "I' the name of all that's great and tall,
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ Who are ye, sir, and what?"
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ Loud laugh'd the Gogmagog, a laugh
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ As loud as giant's roar&mdash;
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ "When first I came, my proper name
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ Was <i>Little</i>&mdash;now I'm <i>Moore</i>!"
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ <i>Hood's Whims and Oddities Second series.</i>
+ </p>
+ <hr class="full" />
+ <h2>
+ Manners &amp; Customs of all Nations.
+ </h2>
+ <hr />
+ <center>
+ No. XV.
+ </center>
+ <h3>
+ LIVING AT CALAIS.
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ Calais may, for various reasons, be looked upon as one of the
+ dearest towns in France. An excellent suite of furnished
+ apartments may be had in one of the most respectable
+ <i>private</i> houses in Calais, consisting of a
+ sitting-room, three bedrooms, and a kitchen, for twenty
+ shillings a week, and smaller ones in proportion, down to
+ five shillings a week for a bachelor's apartment. This,
+ however, does not include <i>attendance</i> of any kind; and,
+ with few exceptions, the apartments can only be taken by the
+ month. The price of meat is fixed by a <i>tarif</i>, at a
+ maximum of sixpence per pound for the very best. It varies,
+ therefore, between that price and fourpence; and this pound
+ contains something more than ours. Poultry is still cheaper,
+ in proportion, or rather in fact. My dinner to-day consists,
+ in part, of an excellent fowl, which cost <i>8d.</i> and a
+ pair of delicate ducks, which cost <i>1s. 6d.</i> The price
+ of bread is also fixed by law, and amounts to about
+ two-thirds of the <i>present</i> price of ours in London.
+ Butter and eggs are excellent, and always fresh: the first
+ costs from <i>9d.</i> to <i>10d.</i> the pound of 18 ounces;
+ and the latter <i>10d.</i> the quarter of a hundred.
+ Vegetables and fruit, which are all of the finest quality,
+ and fresh from the gardens of the adjacent villages, are as
+ follow:&mdash;asparagus, at the rate of <i>8d.</i> or
+ <i>9d.</i> the hundred, peas (the picked young ones,)
+ <i>3d.</i> per quart; new potatoes (better than any we can
+ get in England, except what they call the <i>framed</i>
+ ones,) three pounds far a penny; cherries and currants
+ (picked for the table,) <i>2d.</i> per pound; strawberries
+ (the high flavoured wood-strawberry, which is so fine with
+ sugar and cream,) <i>4d.</i> for a full quart, the stocks
+ being picked off. (This latter is a delicacy that can
+ scarcely be procured in England for any price.) The above may
+ serve as an indication of all the rest, as all are in
+ proportion. The finest pure milk is <i>2d.</i> per quart;
+ good black or green teas, <i>4s. 6d.</i> per pound; and the
+ finest green gunpowder tea, <i>7s.</i>; coffee, from <i>1s.
+ 3d.</i> to <i>2s.</i>; good brandy, <i>1s. 3d.</i> per quart,
+ and the very best, <i>2s.</i> (I do not mean the very finest
+ old Cogniac, which costs <i>3s. 6d.</i>) Wine is dearer in
+ Calais than, perhaps, in any other town in France, that could
+ be named; but still you may have an excellent table wine for
+ <i>1s.</i> per quart bottle; and they make a very palatable
+ and wholesome beer, for <i>1-1/2d.</i> and <i>2-1/2d.</i> per
+ bottle&mdash;the latter of which has all the good qualities
+ of our porter, and none of its bad. Fish is not plentiful at
+ Calais, except the skate, which you may have for almost
+ nothing, as indeed you may at many of our own sea-port towns.
+ But you may always have good sized turbot
+ <span class="pagenum"><a id="page358" name="page358"></a>[pg
+ 358]</span> (enough for six persons for <i>3s.</i> and a cod
+ weighing from twelve to fifteen pounds,) for half that sum.
+ As to the wages of female servants, they can scarcely be
+ considered as much cheaper, nominally, than they are with us.
+ But then the habits of the servants, and the cost of what
+ they eat, make their <i>keep</i> and wages together amount to
+ not more than half what they do with us.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ It only remains to tell you of what is <i>dearer</i> here
+ than it is in England, I have tried all I can to find out
+ items belonging to this latter head, and have succeeded in
+ <i>two</i> alone&mdash;namely, sugar and fuel. You cannot
+ have brown sugar under <i>8d.</i> and indifferent loaf sugar
+ costs <i>1s. 3d.</i> And as to firing, it is dearer,
+ <i>nominally</i> alone, and in point of fact, does not cost,
+ to a well regulated family, near so much, in the course of
+ the year, as coals do in our houses.&mdash;<i>Monthly
+ Magazine.</i>
+ </p>
+ <hr />
+ <h3>
+ ROMAN FUNERALS.
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ The ceremonial of the funeral of a cardinal is considered as
+ one of the most imposing at Rome, which is a city of
+ ceremonies, and yielding only in magnificence to the
+ obsequies of royal personages. The burial of the Mezzo-ceto
+ classes is conducted rather differently. The body is exposed
+ much in the same manner, at home; but the convoi, or passage
+ from the habitation to the sepulchre, is generally considered
+ as an occasion which calls for the utmost display. Torches,
+ priests, psalmody, are sought for with a spirit of rivalry
+ which easily explains the sumptuary laws of the Florentine
+ and Roman statute-books, and which, unnoticed but not
+ extinguished in the present age, in a poorer must have been
+ highly offensive to the frugality and jealousies of a
+ republic. The religious orders, the Capucins particularly,
+ are in constant requisition; not a day that you may not meet
+ two or three of their detachments in various parts of the
+ city:&mdash;-the religious or charitable fraternities, such
+ as the Fratelli della Misericordia, of which the deceased is
+ generally a brother or a benefactor, or both, think it also a
+ point of duty and gratitude to swell the
+ <i>cort&egrave;ge</i>, and in the greatest numbers they can
+ muster to attend. Their costume, which is highly picturesque,
+ is always a striking feature, and adds much to the brilliancy
+ of the display. They wear a sort of sack robe or tunic, which
+ covers the whole body, girt with a rope round the waist, and
+ with holes pierced in the <i>capuchon</i> for the eyes; their
+ large grey slouched hat is thrown back, much in the manner in
+ which it appears on the statues of Mercury, on their
+ shoulders; their feet are often in zoccoli, or sandals of
+ wood, and sometimes, though rarely, bare. The colour of their
+ dress varies according to the rule of their society; at Rome,
+ I have noticed white, blue, and grey: at Florence they prefer
+ black. The corpse is dressed up with great care, and often
+ with a degree of luxury which would become a wedding; the
+ best linen, the richest ornaments, are lavished; garlands are
+ placed on the head; the hands crossed, with a crucifix
+ between them, on the bosom, and the face and feet left quite
+ bare. Sometimes, through a capricious fit of piety, all this
+ is studiously dispensed with, and the body appears clad in
+ the habit of some religious order, to which the deceased was
+ especially addicted during life. In this manner the
+ procession begins to move after sunset, preceded by a tall
+ silver cross, beadles, &amp;c.; friars, priests, &amp;c.
+ chanting the De Profundis through the principal streets to
+ the church where it is intended it should be interred.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ The effect, with some abatements for boys following to pick
+ up the drippings of the torches, and the perfect indifference
+ of the assistants, for neither friends nor relatives attend,
+ is certainly very solemn. The deep hoarse recitative of the
+ psalm, the strange phantom-like appearance of the
+ fraternities, the flash and glare of the torches which they
+ carry, on the face of the dead; the dead body itself, in all
+ the appalling nakedness of mortality, but still mocked with
+ the tawdry images of this world, in the flowers and tinsel
+ and gilding which surround it; the quick swinging motion with
+ which it is hurried along, and with which it comes trenching,
+ when one least expects it, on all the gaieties and busy
+ interests of existence (for at this hour the Corso and the
+ Caff&eacute;s are most crowded)&mdash;all this, without any
+ reference to the intrinsic solemnity of such a scene, is
+ calculated, as mere stage effect, powerfully to stir up the
+ sympathies and imagination of a stranger. On the inhabitants,
+ as might be apprehended, such pageants have long since lost
+ all their influence; and I have seen a line extending down a
+ whole street, without deranging a single lounger from his
+ seat, or interrupting for an instant the pleasures of
+ ice-eating and punch-drinking, which generally takes place in
+ the open air. Whether this passion for bringing into coarse
+ contact, as is often the case, both life and death, the
+ gloomy and the gay, be constitutional or traditional, I know
+ not; but a traveller can scarcely fail of being struck with
+ the prevalence of the feeling and practice amongst southern
+ nations at all periods of their history, and finding in
+ <span class="pagenum"><a id="page359" name="page359"></a>[pg
+ 359]</span> the modern inhabitants of those favoured regions,
+ frequent resemblances to that strange spirit of melancholy
+ voluptuousness, which travelled onward from Egypt to Greece,
+ and from Greece, together with the other refinements of her
+ philosophy, into the greater part of Italy. On reaching the
+ church, unless the wealth and situation of the departed can
+ permit the consolation or the vanity of a high mass, the body
+ is immediately committed to the tomb. Such at least is the
+ practice at Rome; and there are few who have not witnessed
+ with disgust the indecent haste of the few attendants by whom
+ this portion of the last rites is usually despatched. In the
+ country, and in smaller towns, the corpse is usually exposed
+ for at least a day: I know few exceptions, from Trent to
+ Naples. It is generally an affecting ceremony. One of the
+ most touching instances of the kind I can remember, was the
+ exposure of a young girl, who had just died in the flush of
+ beauty in a small village in Tuscany. I was passing through
+ at the time, and stepped by chance into the church. The
+ corpse was lying on a low bier before the altar; a small lamp
+ burnt above. Her two younger sisters were kneeling at her
+ side, and from time to time cast flowers upon her head.
+ Scarcely a peasant entered but immediately came up and
+ touched the bier, and, after kneeling for a few moments, rose
+ and murmured a prayer or two for the spiritual rest of the
+ departed. All this was done very naturally, and with a
+ kindliness which spoke highly for the warmth and purity of
+ their affections. A similar custom still continues at Rome.
+ The day after the execution of the conspirator Targioni, who
+ suffered in the late affair of the Prince Spada, flowers and
+ chaplets, notwithstanding every precaution on the part of the
+ police, were found scattered on his tomb. He has been
+ refused, for his contumacy in his last moments, Christian
+ sepulture, and was buried in a field outside the Porta del
+ Popolo. It is remarkable that, very nearly in the same place,
+ the freedmen of Nero paid a similar tribute of affection to
+ the mortal remains of their master. Garlands and flowers, the
+ morning after his death, were also found upon <i>his</i>
+ tomb.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ <i>New Monthly Magazine.</i>
+ </p>
+ <hr />
+ <h3>
+ SLAVERY IN THE EAST.
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ The slave in eastern countries, after he is trained to serve,
+ attains the condition of a favoured domestic; his adoption of
+ the religion of his master is usually the first step which
+ conciliates the latter. Except at a few seaports, he is
+ seldom put to hard labour. In Asia these are no fields tilled
+ by slaves, no manufactories in which they are doomed to toil;
+ their occupations are all of a domestic nature, and good
+ behaviour is rewarded by kindness and confidence, which
+ raises them in the community to which they belong. The term
+ gholam, or slave, in Mahomedan countries, is not one of
+ opprobrium, nor does it even convey the idea of a degraded
+ condition. The Georgians, Nubians, and Abyssinians, and even
+ the Seedee, or Caffree, as the woolly-headed Africans are
+ called, are usually married, and their children, who are
+ termed house-born, become, in a manner, part of their
+ master's family. They are deemed the most attached of his
+ adherents: they often inherit a considerable portion of his
+ wealth; and not unfrequently (with the exception of the
+ woolly-headed Caffree) lose, by a marriage in his family, or
+ by some other equally respectable connexion, all trace of
+ their origin.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ According to the Mahomedan law, the state of slavery is
+ divided into two conditions&mdash;the perfect and absolute,
+ or imperfect and privileged. Those who belong to the first
+ class are, with all their property, at the disposal of their
+ masters. The second, though they cannot, before emancipation,
+ inherit or acquire property, have many privileges, and cannot
+ be sold or transferred. A female, who has a child to her
+ master, belongs to the privileged class; as does a slave, to
+ whom his master has promised his liberty, on the payment of a
+ certain sum, or on his death.&mdash;<i>Sir J. Malcolm's
+ Sketches of Persia.</i>
+ </p>
+ <hr class="full" />
+ <h2>
+ The Gatherer.
+ </h2>
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ "I am but a <i>Gatherer</i> and disposer of other men's
+ stuff."&mdash;<i>Wotton.</i>
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+ <h3>
+ LEVEES.
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ Secretaries of state, presidents of the council, and generals
+ of an army, have crowds of visitants in a morning, all
+ soliciting of past promises; which are but a civiller sort of
+ duns, that lay claim to voluntary debts.&mdash;CONGREVE.
+ </p>
+ <hr />
+ <h3>
+ PERVERSE PUN.
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ The other day as Kenny was dining at a friend's house, after
+ dinner wine being introduced and Kenny partaking of it, was
+ on the instant observed to cough immoderately, when one of
+ the company inquired if the cause was not owing to a bit of
+ cork getting into the glass; to which Kenny replied, "I
+ should think it was Cork, for it went far to <i>Kill
+ Kenny</i>."
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ P.K.R.
+ </p>
+ <hr />
+ <p>
+ <span class="pagenum"><a id="page360" name="page360"></a>[pg
+ 360]</span>
+ </p>
+ <h3>
+ AUTHORS AND EDITORS.
+ </h3>
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>
+ "Do you hear, let them be well used."
+ </p>
+ <p class="i2">
+ SHAKSPEARE.
+ </p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <p>
+ Accustomed as our readers are to the quips, quirks, and
+ quibbles, of the <i>Gatherer</i>, we doubt whether the
+ following loose reflections will not be received as
+ egotistical, or out of place. But we are induced to the
+ hazard by the recent appearance of "The Tale of a Modern
+ Genius," (stated to be by Mr. Pennie,) and an interesting
+ paper in the last <i>London Magazine</i>, entitled "Memoirs
+ of a Young Peasant:" in which productions the fates and
+ fortunes of genius are set forth with very powerful claims to
+ the sympathy of readers. Indeed, we recommend their perusal
+ to many of our "neglected" correspondents, in the hope of
+ their becoming more reconciled to the justice with which
+ their contributions are rejected. In the comparison, their
+ works will be as "the labours of idleness," listlessly penned
+ under first impressions, or, at best, with the fond
+ anticipation of appearing in print. Vexatious as the
+ disappointment may appear, what is it compared with the bare
+ fate of genius, stripped of the bare means of sustenance by
+ the unsuccessful result of a literary engagement, or the
+ non-completion of a purchase, on which probably depended the
+ very day's existence. The subject is trite and hacknied; but
+ all that has been written about the illusions and misgivings
+ of genius will not alter its complexion. It is true that such
+ details have raised a spirit of sympathetic forbearance
+ towards the distresses of men of letters, except in the
+ breasts of the most barbarous and vulgar. But their
+ sufferings are doubly acute, and their perceptions doubly
+ tender. In their intercourse with mankind, they become
+ <i>flattered</i> by associates, and it not unfrequently
+ happens that men who are the most ready to quote such
+ ascendancy or superiority in society, are the first to break
+ the charm they have created, by some act of extreme rigour.
+ Such conduct is cruel and unchristian.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Again, the sufferings of men of genius are increased by their
+ own reflection on them, and in addition to real woes they
+ thus inflict on themselves thousands of imaginary ones. A
+ loss in trade may be repaired by the profits of the
+ succeeding day, and all be set right, where gain is the sole
+ idol; but when fame is mixed up in the pursuit, there is a
+ suffering beyond the hour, the day, or the year&mdash;mixed
+ up in the defeat. Hope is crushed; and after her flittering
+ shade spring up misanthropy and despair.
+ </p>
+ <p>
+ Light and fickle as is the public taste for literature, we
+ are disposed to think that, (barring the influence of great
+ names) the chances of success are as frequent in this as in
+ any other field of human ingenuity; and we can assure the
+ public that our repose has not always been on a bed of roses.
+ But it seems to be with certain literary candidates as with
+ nations: there is a certain point of fame which men seem
+ content to reach, after which, in return for the darling
+ caresses of the world, they kick at their patrons; and if the
+ maxim work true, that the fame of authors suffers by our
+ known contact and conversation with them, Sir Walter Scott's
+ recent avowal is a dangerous step, unless he was tired of his
+ fame. Of course, we have not yet arrived at the above point,
+ so that our readers need not fear our ingratitude; and we are
+ willing to abide by the condition, that when we forget our
+ patrons, may they forget us.
+ </p>
+ <hr />
+ <h3>
+ CURE FOR ENVY.
+ </h3>
+ <p>
+ Bishop Berkeley (that acute reasoner) contrived a lucky
+ antidote, for the suffering of envy. "When I walk the
+ streets," says he, "I use the following natural maxim, (viz.
+ that he is the true possessor of a thing who enjoys it, and
+ not he that owns it without the enjoyment of it,) to convince
+ myself that I have a property in the gay part of all the gilt
+ chariots that I meet, which I regard as amusement to delight
+ my eyes, and the imagination of those kind people who sit in
+ them gaily attired only to please me;" by which maxim he
+ fancied himself one of the richest men in Great Britain.
+ </p>
+ <hr />
+ <p>
+ LIMBIRD'S EDITION OF THE BRITISH NOVELIST, Publishing in
+ Monthly Parts, price 6d. each.&mdash;Each Novel will be
+ complete in itself, and may be purchased separately.
+ </p>
+ <center>
+ <i>The following Novels are already Published:</i>
+ </center>
+ <pre>
+ s. d.
+ Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield 0 10
+ The Mysteries of Udolpho 3 6
+ Mackenzie's Man of Feeling 0 6
+ Rasselas 0 8
+ Paul and Virginia 0 6
+ The Old English Baron 0 8
+ The Castle of Otranto 0 6
+ The Romance of the Forest 1 8
+ Almoran and Hamet 0 6
+ Elizabeth, or the Exiles of Siberia 0 6
+ Nature and Art 0 8
+ The Italian 2 0
+ A Simple Story 1 4
+ The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne 0 6
+ Sicilian Romance 1 0
+ The Man of the World 1 0
+ Zeluco, by Dr. Moore 2 0
+ Joseph Andrews 1 6
+ Humphry Clinker 1 8
+ Edward, by Dr. Moore 2 6
+</pre>
+ <hr class="full" />
+ <blockquote class="footnote">
+ <a id="footnote1" name="footnote1"></a><b>Footnote 1</b>:
+ <a href="#footnotetag1">(return)</a>
+ <p>
+ Fleet from the Saxon flere, is cremon lactu, hence we have
+ flett or flit, milk.
+ </p>
+ </blockquote>
+ <hr class="full" />
+ <p>
+ <i>Published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, London, and Sold by
+ all Booksellers and Newsmen</i>.
+ </p>
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11407 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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