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+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction, Vol. 14, Issue 400, November 21, 1829, by Various</title>
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11446 ***</div>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and
+Instruction, Vol. 14, Issue 400, November 21, 1829, by Various</h1>
+<br />
+<br />
+<center><b>E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, Keith M. Keckrich, David Garcia,<br />
+ and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team</b></center>
+<br />
+<br />
+ <hr class="full" />
+ <span class="pagenum"><a id="page337" name="page337"></a>[pg
+ 337]</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. , NO. 400.]</b></td>
+
+ <td align="center"><b>SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1829.</b></td>
+
+ <td align="right"><b>[PRICE 2d.</b></td>
+ </tr>
+ </table>
+ <hr class="full" />
+
+ <h2>The Limoeiro, at Lisbon.</h2>
+
+ <div class="figure" style="width: 100%;">
+ <a href="images/400-1.png"><img width="100%" src=
+ "images/400-1.png" alt="The Limoeiro, at Lisbon." /></a>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>Locks, bolts, and bars! what have we here?&mdash;a view of the
+ <i>Limoeiro, or common jail</i>, at Lisbon, whose horrors,
+ without the fear of Don Miguel in our hearts, we will endeavour
+ to describe, though lightly&mdash;merely in outline,&mdash;since
+ nothing can be more disagreeable than the filling in.</p>
+
+ <p>For this purpose we might quote ourselves, i.e. one of our
+ correspondents,<a id="footnotetag1" name=
+ "footnotetag1"></a><a href="#footnote1"><sup>1</sup></a> or a
+ host of travellers and residents in the Portuguese capital; but
+ we give preference to Mr. W. Young, who has borne much of the
+ hard fare of the prison, and can accordingly speak more fully of
+ its accommodations and privations. Mr. Young is an Englishman,
+ who married a Portuguese lady in Leiria, and resided for several
+ years in that town. He was arrested in May, 1828, on suspicion of
+ disaffection towards Don Miguel's government: nothing appears to
+ have been proved against him, and after having suffered much
+ disagreeable treatment in different jails in Leiria and Lisbon,
+ he was discharged in the following September, on condition of
+ leaving the country. He returned to England, and lost no time in
+ publishing a volume entitled "Portugal in 1828;" with "A
+ Narrative of the Author's Residence there and of his persecution
+ and confinement as a state prisoner."</p>
+
+ <p>The prison, says Mr. Young, stands on the highest ground in
+ St. George's Castle, and is the first building on the south side
+ toward the Tagus. Near the entrance it is divided internally as
+ follows below:&mdash;<i>Saletta</i> (the small hall;) <i>Salla
+ Livre</i> (free hall,) so called, because visiters are allowed to
+ go in to see their friends, except when the jailer or intendant
+ orders otherwise; <i>Salla Fechado</i> (the hall shut,) so
+ called, because no communication is allowed with the prisoners in
+ that hall; <i>Enchovia</i> (the common prison,) where thieves,
+ murderers, and vagabonds of every description are confined. This
+ last receptacle is a horrid place; and is often made use of as a
+ punishment for prisoners from other parts of the gaol. Hither
+ they are sent when they commit any offence, for as many days as
+ the jailer may think proper, and are often put in irons during
+ that time.</p>
+
+ <p>Besides these different prisons on the <span class=
+ "pagenum"><a id="page338" name="page338"></a>[pg 338]</span>
+ ground floor, there are eight dungeons in a line, all nearly
+ alike in shape and size; but some are superior to others as to
+ light and air: and in proportion to the degree they wish to annoy
+ the unfortunate victim, so are these dungeons used. A few dollars
+ never fail to procure a better light and air when properly
+ applied.</p>
+
+ <p>Three of these dungeons are about six feet higher than the
+ other five. There is a corridor in the front of them, which is
+ always shut up when any one is confined in them, so that no one
+ can ever approach the door of a dungeon. And to make this a
+ matter of certainty, whenever the jailer or officers of the
+ prison carry prisoners their food, they lock the door of the
+ corridor before they open that of the dungeon.</p>
+
+ <p>The first of the lower five of these dungeons is in the
+ passage leading from, the <i>Salla Livre</i>, and next door to
+ the privy of the prison; so that it is never used as a secret
+ dungeon. The lower four are enclosed as those above, and are much
+ darker than that in the passage. This latter is claimed by the
+ book-keeper as his property, and I hired it of him to sleep in,
+ and to be alone when I wished to be so.</p>
+
+ <p>The dungeons are all bomb proof, and over them is a terrace
+ thickly formed of brick and stone; still I could distinctly hear
+ the sentry walking over my head when all was quiet at night.</p>
+
+ <p>The walls of these cells are about six feet thick, with bars
+ inside and out; the bars in the windows are three inches square,
+ making twelve inches in circumference, and being crossed they
+ form squares of about eight inches; the windows differ very much
+ in size, some not being half so large as others.</p>
+
+ <p>Besides these double bars, there is a shutter immensely strong
+ and close, so that when shut, light is totally excluded; the iron
+ door has a strong bolt and lock, and outside of this there is a
+ strong wooden door; in the front of the windows, and about six
+ feet from them, there is a high wall; so that in the best of
+ these dungeons, there is only a reflected light.</p>
+
+ <p>These are all the prisons on the ground floor, and when full
+ (which they too often are) the wretched prisoners are forced to
+ lie at night in two rows, with their feet to the wall, and their
+ heads to the middle of the room; this position they adopt on
+ account of the cold and damp of the stone walls; they touch each
+ other, and the floor is completely covered. Nay, at times, so
+ full is the gaol, that they are obliged to lie on the corridors,
+ and even on the steps.</p>
+
+ <p>The Saletta will hold forty prisoners, the Salla Livre more
+ than sixty, the Salla Fechado one hundred, and the Enchovia, near
+ one hundred and forty. When one prison becomes too full, they
+ remove some of the victims to another, or send them to the forts,
+ or on board the ships in the river.</p>
+
+ <p>The first floor is divided into two parts, officers' rooms,
+ and the Sallao, (saloon or large hall.) This hall will hold about
+ 150 persons, when full. Besides the Sallao and officers' rooms on
+ the first floor, there is a room set apart for questioning people
+ who are in the dungeons. This room has an entrance from the
+ street, and another through a passage from the dungeons, as well
+ as one from the officers' rooms.</p>
+
+ <p>The magistrate and his clerk enter from the street, and no one
+ in the prison sees them. The prisoner is taken up stairs from the
+ dungeon, and the jailer or book-keeper enters from the officers'
+ apartments. Every thing is done in the most secret manner. If
+ they cannot cause the prisoner to commit himself, by confessing
+ to the offence with which he is charged, they send him back again
+ to the dungeon.</p>
+
+ <p>The gaol of St. George's has a second floor tier of offices;
+ but that belongs to the governor and jailer; there are no
+ prisoners above the ground and the first floor.</p>
+
+ <p>None of the authorities ever inquire whether he has any means
+ of subsistence; there is neither bed blanket, nor even straw,
+ unless the prisoner can buy it, and then he must pay the guards
+ to let it pass to him.</p>
+
+ <p>Amongst the many thousands of unfortunate beings who are now
+ confined in Portugal, great numbers of them are without money or
+ any other means of subsistence; and were it not for the charity
+ of people in general, starvation would necessarily ensue.</p>
+
+ <p>The only authorities employed about the prison are a jailer,
+ secretary, and eight guards; of the latter three are always on
+ duty; one of them being stationed at the first iron gate at the
+ entrance of the prison, another at the second gate, and a third
+ to attend the interior, each with a bunch of keys in his hand,
+ which serve for nearly all the doors. The guards are relieved
+ every night at nine o'clock, when, the man who is posted at the
+ outer door carries a strong iron rod (<i>see the Engraving</i>)
+ with which he strikes every bar in the windows and gates of the
+ gaol; and if <span class="pagenum"><a id="page339" name=
+ "page339"></a>[pg 339]</span> any one of them does not vibrate,
+ or ring, he carefully inspects it to ascertain whether it has
+ been cut with a saw, or corroded by any strong acid. This dismal
+ music lasts an hour. The whole expense of the prison to
+ government does not exceed 16<i>s</i>. per day, and the few
+ officers and guards, when Mr. Young was there, manage upwards of
+ four hundred prisoners. He was confined from June 16, to
+ September 7, and his account of the myriads of bugs, rats, mice,
+ and other vermin is truly disgusting. The reader will however
+ readily credit this report when he has been told of the revolting
+ state of the city itself. Mrs. Baillie, in her recent <i>Letters
+ on Lisbon</i>, says, "for three miles round Lisbon in every
+ direction, you cannot for a moment get clear of the disgusting
+ effluvia that issue from every house." Doctor Southey says "every
+ kind of vermin that exists to punish the nastiness and indolence
+ of man, multiplies in the heat and dirt of Lisbon. In addition to
+ mosquitoes, the scolopendra is not uncommonly found here, and
+ snakes sometimes intrude into the bedchamber. A small species of
+ red ant likewise swarms over every thing sweet, and the
+ Portuguese remedy is to send for the priest to exorcise them."
+ The city is still subject to shocks of earthquake; the state of
+ the police is horrible; street-robbery is common, and every thief
+ is an assassin. The pocket-knife, which the French troops are
+ said to have dreaded more than all the bayonets of either the
+ Spanish or the Portuguese, is here the ready weapon of the
+ assassin; and the Tagus receives many a corpse on which no
+ inquest ever sits. The morals, in fact, of all classes in Lisbon
+ appear to be in a dreadful state.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>THE CARD.</h3>
+
+ <center>
+ A TALE OF TRUTH.
+ </center>
+
+ <p>(<i>For the Mirror</i>.)</p>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Young Lady Giddygad, came down</p>
+
+ <p>From spending half a year in town,</p>
+
+ <p>With cranium full of balls and plays,</p>
+
+ <p>Routs, f&ecirc;tes, and fashionable ways,</p>
+
+ <p>Caus'd in her country-town, so quiet,</p>
+
+ <p>Unus'd to modish din and riot,</p>
+
+ <p>No small confusion and amaze,</p>
+
+ <p>"Quite a sensation," is the phrase,</p>
+
+ <p>Like that, which puss, or pug, may feel</p>
+
+ <p>When rous'd from slumber by your heel,</p>
+
+ <p>Or drowsy ass, at rider's knock,</p>
+
+ <p>Or&mdash;&mdash;should you term him block;</p>
+
+ <p>Quoi qu'il en soit, first, gossips gape,</p>
+
+ <p>Then envy, scandalize, and ape!</p>
+
+ <p>Quoth Mrs. Thrifty: "Nancy, dear,</p>
+
+ <p>My Lady sends out cards I hear,</p>
+
+ <p>With, I suppose, 'tis now polite,</p>
+
+ <p>Merely 'At Home,' on such a night,</p>
+
+ <p>Now child, altho' I dare not say</p>
+
+ <p>We can afford to be so gay,</p>
+
+ <p>We're as well born as Lady G&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>And may be, as well bred as she!</p>
+
+ <p>That is, quite in a sober way</p>
+
+ <p>So as we've nothing more to pay:</p>
+
+ <p>For instance, when folks choose to come,</p>
+
+ <p>And I don't choose to be 'At Home,'</p>
+
+ <p>I'll have a notice stuck, you know,</p>
+
+ <p>On the hall door, to tell them so:</p>
+
+ <p>'Twill save our Rachel's legs you see,</p>
+
+ <p>And soon the top will copy me!</p>
+
+ <p>But, Nancy, d'ye hear, now write</p>
+
+ <p>That I'm 'At Home' on Thursday night;</p>
+
+ <p>'Tis a good fashion, for 'tis what</p>
+
+ <p>Most fashions in this age are not</p>
+
+ <p>A saving one: ah, prithee think,</p>
+
+ <p>How it saves time, and quills, and ink!"</p>
+
+ <p>So, duteous Nancy seiz'd a pen,</p>
+
+ <p>To ladies, and to gentlemen</p>
+
+ <p>Sent quickly out the cards; as quick</p>
+
+ <p>Came one again: "Poh! fiddlestick</p>
+
+ <p>An answer, yes?&mdash;come, let me see,</p>
+
+ <p>My spectacles!" cried Mistress T&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>"Hum&mdash;Mrs. Thrifty,&mdash;Thursday
+ night&mdash;'At</p>
+
+ <p>Home'&mdash;oh malice! fiendish spite,"</p>
+
+ <p>(Quoth the good dame in furious ire,</p>
+
+ <p>Whilst the card, fed the greedy fire)</p>
+
+ <p>"No, never, never, will I strive</p>
+
+ <p>To be genteel, as I'm alive,</p>
+
+ <p>Beneath my own 'At Home' was cramm'd,</p>
+
+ <p>There stay, good madam, and be d&mdash;d!"<a id=
+ "footnotetag2" name="footnotetag2"></a><a href=
+ "#footnote2"><sup>2</sup></a></p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>M.L.B.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>MAHOMET THE GREAT AND HIS MISTRESS.</h3>
+
+ <center>
+ <i>An Anecdote</i>.
+ </center>
+
+ <p>(<i>For the Mirror</i>.)</p>
+
+ <p>After the taking of Constantinople by the Turks, in the year
+ 1453, several captives, distinguished either for their rank or
+ their beauty, were presented to the victorious Mahomet the Great.
+ Irene, a most beautiful Greek lady, was one of those unfortunate
+ captives. The emperor was so delighted with her person, that he
+ dedicated himself wholly to her embraces, spending day and night
+ in her company, and neglected his most pressing affairs. His
+ officers, especially the Janissaries, were extremely exasperated
+ at his conduct; and loudly exclaimed against their degenerate and
+ <i>effeminate</i> prince, as they were then pleased to call him.
+ Mustapha Bassa, who had been brought up with the emperor from a
+ child, presuming upon his great interest, took an opportunity to
+ lay before his sovereign the bad consequences which would
+ inevitably ensue should he longer persevere in that unmanly and
+ base course of life. Mahomet, provoked at the Bassa's insolence,
+ told him that he deserved to die; <span class="pagenum"><a id=
+ "page340" name="page340"></a>[pg 340]</span> but that he would
+ pardon him in consideration of former services. He then commanded
+ him to assemble all the principal officers and captains in the
+ great hall of his palace the next day, to attend his royal
+ pleasure. Mustapha did as he was directed; and the next day the
+ sultan understanding that the Bassas and other officers awaited
+ him, entered the hall, with the charming Greek, who was
+ delicately dressed and adorned. Looking sternly around him, the
+ Sultan demanded, <i>which of them</i>, <i>possessing so fair an
+ object</i>, <i>could be contented to relinquish it</i>? Being
+ dazzled with the Christian's beauty, they unanimously answered,
+ that they highly commended his happy choice, and censured
+ themselves for having found fault with so much worth. The emperor
+ replied, that he would presently show them how much they had been
+ deceived in him, for that no earthly pleasure should so far
+ bereave him of his senses, or blind his understanding, as to make
+ him forget his duty in the high calling wherein he was placed. So
+ saying, he caught Irene by the hair of her head, which he
+ instantly severed from her body with his scimitar.</p>
+
+ <p>G.W.N.</p>
+ <hr class="full" />
+
+ <h2>Select Biography.</h2>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>JUVENILE POETESS.</h3>
+
+ <center>
+ MEMOIR OF LUCRETIA DAVIDSON,
+ </center>
+
+ <center>
+ <i>Who died at Plattsburgh, N.Y., August 27, 1825, aged sixteen
+ years and eleven months</i>.
+ </center>
+
+ <p>[We hardly know how to give our readers an idea of the intense
+ interest which this biographical sketch has excited in our mind;
+ but we are persuaded they will thank us for adopting it in our
+ columns. The details are somewhat abridged from No. LXXXII. of
+ the <i>Quarterly Review</i>, (just published), where they appear
+ in the first article, headed "Amir Khan, and other Poems: the
+ remains of Lucretia Maria Davidson," &amp;c., published at New
+ York, in the present year. Prefixed to these "remains" is a
+ biographical sketch, which forms the basis of the present memoir,
+ and from the Poems are selected the few specimens with which it
+ is illustrated.&mdash;ED.]</p>
+
+ <p>Lucretia Maria Davidson was born September 27, 1808, at
+ Plattsburgh, on Lake Champlain. She was the second daughter of
+ Dr. Oliver Davidson, and Magaret his wife. Her parents were in
+ straitened circumstances, and it was necessary, from an early
+ age, that much of her time should be devoted to domestic
+ employments: for these she had no inclination, but she performed
+ them with that alacrity which always accompanies good will; and,
+ when her work was done, retired to enjoy those intellectual and
+ imaginative, pursuits in which her whole heart was engaged. This
+ predilection for studious retirement she is said to have
+ manifested at the early age of four years. Reports, and even
+ recollections of this kind, are to be received, the one with some
+ distrust, the other with some allowance; but when that allowance
+ is made, the genius of this child still appears to have been as
+ precocious as it was extraordinary. Instead of playing with her
+ schoolmates, she generally got to some secluded place, with her
+ little books, and with pen, ink, and paper; and the consumption
+ which she made of paper was such as to excite the curiosity of
+ her parents, from whom she kept secret the use to which she
+ applied it. If any one came upon her retirement, she would
+ conceal or hastily destroy what she was employed upon; and,
+ instead of satisfying the inquiries of her father and mother,
+ replied to them only by tears. The mother, at length, when
+ searching for something in a dark and unfrequented closet, found
+ a considerable number of little books, made of this
+ writing-paper, and filled with rude drawings, and with strange
+ and apparently illegible characters, which, however, were at once
+ seen to be the child's work. Upon closer inspection, the
+ characters were found to consist of the printed alphabet; some of
+ the letters being formed backwards, some sideways, and there
+ being no spaces between the words. These writings were
+ deciphered, not without much difficulty; and it then appeared
+ that they consisted of regular verses, generally in explanation
+ of a rude drawing, sketched on the opposite page. When she found
+ that her treasures had been discovered, she was greatly
+ distressed, and could not be pacified till they were restored;
+ and as soon as they were in her possession, she took the first
+ opportunity of secretly burning them.</p>
+
+ <p>These books having thus been destroyed, the earliest remaining
+ specimen of her verse is an epitaph, composed in her ninth year,
+ upon an unfledged robin, killed in the attempt at rearing it.
+ When she was eleven years of age, her father took her to see the
+ decorations of a room in which Washington's birthday was to be
+ celebrated. Neither the novelty nor the gaiety of what she saw
+ attracted her attention; she thought of Washington <span class=
+ "pagenum"><a id="page341" name="page341"></a>[pg 341]</span>
+ alone, whose life she had read, and for whom she entertained the
+ proper feelings of an American; and as soon as she returned home,
+ she took paper, sketched a funeral urn, and wrote under it a few
+ stanzas, which were shown to her friends. Common as the talent of
+ versifying is, any early manifestation of it will always be
+ regarded as extraordinary by those who possess it not themselves;
+ and these verses, though no otherwise remarkable, were deemed so
+ surprising for a child of her age, that an aunt of hers could not
+ believe they were original, and hinted that they might have been
+ copied. The child wept at this suspicion, as if her heart would
+ break; but as soon as she recovered from that fit of indignant
+ grief, she indited a remonstrance to her aunt, in verse, which
+ put an end to such incredulity.</p>
+
+ <p>We are told that, before she was twelve years of age, she had
+ read most of the standard English poets&mdash;a vague term,
+ excluding, no doubt, much that is of real worth, and including
+ more that is worth little or nothing, and yet implying a
+ wholesome course of reading for such a mind. Much history she had
+ also read, both sacred and profane; "the whole of Shakspeare's,
+ Kotzebue's, and Goldsmith's dramatic works;" (oddly consorted
+ names!) "and many of the popular novels and romances of the day:"
+ of the latter, she threw aside at once those which at first sight
+ appeared worthless. This girl is said to have observed every
+ thing: "frequently she has been known to watch the storm, and the
+ retiring clouds, and the rainbow, and the setting sun, for
+ hours."</p>
+
+ <p>An English reader is not prepared to hear of distress arising
+ from straitened circumstances in America&mdash;the land of
+ promise, where there is room enough for all, and employment for
+ every body. Yet even in that new country, man, it appears, is
+ born not only to those ills which flesh is heir to, but to those
+ which are entailed upon him by the institutions of society.
+ Lucretia's mother was confined by illness to her room and bed for
+ many months; and this child, then about twelve years old, instead
+ of profiting under her mother's care, had in a certain degree to
+ supply her place in the business of the family, and to attend,
+ which she did dutifully and devotedly, to her sick bed. At this
+ time, a gentleman who had heard much of her verses, and expressed
+ a wish to see some of them, was so much gratified on perusing
+ them, that he sent her a complimentary note, enclosing a
+ bank-bill for twenty dollars. The girl's first joyful thought was
+ that she had now the means, which she had so often longed for, of
+ increasing her little stock of books; but, looking towards the
+ sick bed, tears came in her eyes, and she instantly put the bill
+ into her father's hands, saying, "Take it, father; it will buy
+ many comforts for mother; I can do without the books."</p>
+
+ <p>There were friends, as they are called, who remonstrated with
+ her parents on the course they were pursuing in her education,
+ and advised that she should be deprived of books, pen, ink, and
+ paper, and rigorously confined to domestic concerns. Her parents
+ loved her both too wisely and too well to be guided by such
+ counsellors, and they anxiously kept the advice secret from
+ Lucretia, lest it should wound her feelings&mdash;perhaps, also,
+ lest it should give her, as it properly might, a rooted dislike
+ to these misjudging and unfeeling persons. But she discovered it
+ by accident, and without declaring any such intention, she gave
+ up her pen and her books, and applied herself exclusively to
+ household business, for several months, till her body as well as
+ her spirits failed. She became emaciated, her countenance bore
+ marks of deep dejection, and often, while actively employed in
+ domestic duties, she could neither restrain nor conceal her
+ tears. The mother seems to have been slower in perceiving this
+ than she would have been had it not been for her own state of
+ confinement; she noticed it at length, and said, "Lucretia, it is
+ a long time since you have written any thing." The girl then
+ burst into tears, and replied, "O mother, I have given that up
+ long ago." "But why?" said her mother. After much emotion, she
+ answered, "I am convinced from what my friends have said, and
+ from what I see, that I have done wrong in pursuing the course I
+ have. I well know the circumstances of the family are such, that
+ it requires the united efforts of every member to sustain it; and
+ since my eldest sister is now gone, it becomes my duty to do
+ every thing in my power to lighten the cares of my parents." On
+ this occasion, Mrs. Davidson acted with equal discretion and
+ tenderness; she advised her to take a middle course, neither to
+ forsake her favourite pursuits, nor devote herself to them, but
+ use them in that wholesome alternation with the every day
+ business of the world, which is alike salutary for the body and
+ the mind. She therefore occasionally resumed her pen, and seemed
+ comparatively happy.</p>
+
+ <p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page342" name="page342"></a>[pg
+ 342]</span> How the encouragement which she received operated may
+ be seen in some lines, not otherwise worthy of preservation than
+ for the purpose of showing how the promises of reward affect a
+ mind like hers. They were written in her thirteenth year.</p>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Whene'er the muse pleases to grace my dull page,</p>
+
+ <p>At the sight of <i>reward</i>, she flies off in a
+ rage;</p>
+
+ <p>Prayers, threats, and intreaties I frequently try,</p>
+
+ <p>But she leaves me to scribble, to fret, and to sigh</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>She torments me each moment, and bids me go write,</p>
+
+ <p>And when I obey her she laughs at the sight;</p>
+
+ <p>The rhyme will not jingle, the verse has no sense,</p>
+
+ <p>And against all her insults I have no defence.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>I advise all my friends who wish me to write,</p>
+
+ <p>To keep their rewards and their gifts from my sight,</p>
+
+ <p>So that jealous Miss Muse won't be wounded in pride,</p>
+
+ <p>Nor Pegasus rear till I've taken my ride.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>Let not the hasty reader conclude from these rhymes that
+ Lucretia was only what any child of early cleverness might be
+ made by forcing and injudicious admiration. In our own language,
+ except in the cases of Chatterton and Kirke White, we can call to
+ mind no instance of so early, so ardent, and so fatal a pursuit
+ of intellectual advancement.</p>
+
+ <p>"She composed with great rapidity; as fast as most persons
+ usually copy. There are several instances of four or five pieces
+ on different subjects, and containing three or four stanzas each,
+ written on the same day. Her thoughts flowed so rapidly, that she
+ often expressed the wish that she had two pair of hands, that she
+ might employ them to transcribe. When 'in the vein,' she would
+ write standing, and be wholly abstracted from the company present
+ and their conversation. But if composing a piece of some length,
+ she wished to be entirely alone; she shut herself into her room,
+ darkened the windows, and in summer placed her Aeolian harp in
+ the window:" (thus by artificial excitement, feeding the fire
+ that consumed her.) "In those pieces on which she bestowed more
+ than ordinary pains, she was very secret; and if they were, by
+ any accident, discovered in their unfinished state, she seldom
+ completed them, and often destroyed them. She cared little for
+ any of her works after they were completed: some, indeed, she
+ preserved with care for future correction, but a great proportion
+ she destroyed: very many that are preserved, were rescued from
+ the flames by her mother. Of a complete poem, in five cantos,
+ called 'Rodri,' and composed when she was thirteen years of age,
+ a single canto, and part of another, are all that are saved from
+ a destruction which she supposed had obliterated every vestige of
+ it."</p>
+
+ <p>She was often in danger, when walking, from carriages,
+ &amp;c., in consequence of her absence of mind. When engaged in a
+ poem of some length, she has often forgotten her meals. A single
+ incident, illustrating this trait in her character, is worth
+ relating:&mdash;She went out early one morning to visit a
+ neighbour, promising to be at home to dinner. The neighbour being
+ absent, she requested to be shown into the library. There she
+ became so absorbed in her book, standing, with her bonnet
+ unremoved, that the darkness of the coming night first reminded
+ her she had forgotten her meals, and expended the entire day in
+ reading.</p>
+
+ <p>She was peculiarly sensitive to music. There was one song (it
+ was Moore's Farewell to his Harp) to which she "took a special
+ fancy;" she wished to hear it only at twilight&mdash;thus, with
+ that same perilous love of excitement which made her place the
+ windharp in the window when she was composing, seeking to
+ increase the effect which the song produced upon a nervous
+ system, already diseasedly susceptible; for it is said, that
+ whenever she heard this song she became cold, pale, and almost
+ fainting; yet it was her favourite of all songs, and gave
+ occasion to these verses, addressed, in her fifteenth year, to
+ her sister.</p>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>When evening spreads her shades around,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And darkness fills the arch of heaven;</p>
+
+ <p>When not a murmur, not a sound</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">To Fancy's sportive ear is given;</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>When the broad orb of heaven is bright,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And looks around with golden eye;</p>
+
+ <p>When Nature, softened by her light.</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Seems calmly, solemnly to lie;</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Then, when our thoughts are raised above</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">This world, and all this world can give,</p>
+
+ <p>Oh, Sister! sing the song I love,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And tears of gratitude receive.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>The song which thrills my bosom's core,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And, hovering, trembles half afraid,</p>
+
+ <p>Oh, Sister! sing the song once more,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Which ne'er for mortal ear was made.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>'Twere almost sacrilege to sing</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Those notes amid the glare of day;</p>
+
+ <p>Notes borne by angels' purest wing,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And wafted by their breath away.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>When, sleeping in my grass-grown bed,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Shouldst thou still linger here above,</p>
+
+ <p>Wilt thou not kneel beside my head,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And, Sister! sing the song I love?</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>To young readers it might be useful to observe, that these
+ verses in one place approach the verge of meaning, but are on the
+ wrong side of the line: to none can it be necessary to say, that
+ they <span class="pagenum"><a id="page343" name="page343"></a>[pg
+ 343]</span> breathe the deep feeling of a mind essentially
+ poetical.</p>
+
+ <p>"Her desire of knowledge increased as she grew more capable of
+ appreciating its worth;" and she appreciated much beyond its real
+ worth the advantages which girls derive from the ordinary course
+ of female education. "Oh!" she said one day to her mother, "that
+ I only possessed half the means of improvement which I see others
+ slighting! I should be the happiest of the happy." A youth whom
+ nature has endowed with diligence and a studious disposition has,
+ indeed, too much reason to regret the want of that classical
+ education which is wasted upon the far greater number of those on
+ whom it is bestowed; but, for a girl who displays a promise of
+ genius like Lucretia, and who has at hand the Bible and the best
+ poets in her own language, no other assistance can be needed in
+ her progress than a supply of such books as may store her mind
+ with knowledge. Lucretia's desire of knowledge was a passion
+ which possessed her like a disease. "I am now sixteen years old,"
+ she said, "and what do I know? Nothing!&mdash;nothing, compared
+ with what I have yet to learn. Time is rapidly passing by: that
+ time usually allotted to the improvement of youth; and how dark
+ are my prospects in regard to this favourite wish of my heart!"
+ At another time she said&mdash;"How much there is yet to
+ learn!&mdash;If I could only grasp it at once!"</p>
+
+ <p>In October 1824, when she had just entered upon her
+ seventeenth year, a gentleman, then on a visit at Plattsburgh,
+ saw some of her verses&mdash;was made acquainted with her ardent
+ desire for education, and with the circumstances in which she was
+ placed; and he immediately resolved to afford her every advantage
+ which the best schools in the country could furnish. This
+ gentleman has probably chosen to have his name withheld, being
+ more willing to act benevolently than to have his good deeds
+ blazoned; and yet, stranger as he needs must be, there are many
+ English readers to whom it would have been gratifying, could they
+ have given to such a person "a local habitation and a name." When
+ Lucretia was made acquainted with his intention, the joy was
+ almost greater than she could bear. As soon as preparations could
+ be made, she left home, and was placed at the "Troy Female
+ Seminary," under the instruction of Mrs. Willard. There she had
+ all the advantages for which she had hungered and thirsted; and,
+ like one who had long hungered and thirsted, she devoured them
+ with fatal eagerness. Her application was incessant; and its
+ effects on her constitution, already somewhat debilitated by
+ previous disease, became apparent in increased nervous
+ sensibility. Her letters at this time exhibit the two extremes of
+ feeling in a marked degree. They abound in the most sprightly or
+ most gloomy speculations, bright hopes and lively fancies, or
+ despairing fears and gloomy forebodings. In one of her letters
+ from this seminary, she writes thus to her mother: "I hope you
+ will feel no uneasiness as to my health or happiness; for, save
+ the thoughts of my dear mother and her lonely life, and the idea
+ that my dear father is slaving himself, and wearing out his very
+ life, to earn a subsistence for his family&mdash;save these
+ thoughts (and I can assure you, mother, they come not seldom), I
+ am happy. Oh! how often I think, if I could have but one-half the
+ means I now expend, and be at liberty to divide that with mamma,
+ how happy I should be!&mdash;cheer up and keep good courage." In
+ another, she says: "Oh! I am so happy, so contented now, that
+ every unusual movement startles me. I am constantly afraid that
+ something will happen to mar it." Again, she says: "I hope the
+ expectations of my friends will not be disappointed: but I am
+ afraid you all calculate upon <i>too much</i>. I hope not, for I
+ am not capable of much. I can study and be industrious; but I
+ fear I shall not equal the hopes which you say are raised." The
+ story of Kirke White should operate not more as an example than a
+ warning; but the example is followed and the warning overlooked.
+ Stimulants are administered to minds which are already in a state
+ of feverish excitement. Hotbeds and glasses are used for plants
+ which can only acquire strength in the shade; and they are
+ drenched with instruction, which ought "to drop as the rain, and
+ distil as the dew&mdash;as the small rain upon the tender herb,
+ and as the shower upon the grass."</p>
+
+ <p>During the vacation, in which she returned home, she had a
+ serious illness, which left her feeble and more sensitive than
+ ever. On her recovery she was placed at the school of Miss
+ Gilbert, in Albany; and there, in a short time, a more alarming
+ illness brought her to the very borders of the grave. Before she
+ entered upon her intemperate course of application at Troy, her
+ verses show that she felt a want of joyous and healthy
+ feeling&mdash;a sense of decay. Thus she wrote to a friend, who
+ had not seen her since her childhood:&mdash;</p>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <span class="pagenum"><a id="page344" name="page344"></a>[pg
+ 344]</span>
+
+ <p>And thou hast mark'd in childhood's hour</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The fearless boundings of my breast,</p>
+
+ <p>When fresh as summer's opening flower,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">I freely frolick'd and was blest.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Oh say, was not this eye more bright?</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Were not these lips more wont to smile?</p>
+
+ <p>Methinks that then my heart was light,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And I a fearless, joyous child</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>And thou didst mark me gay and wild,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">My careless, reckless laugh of mirth:</p>
+
+ <p>The simple pleasures of a child,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The holiday of man on earth.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Then thou hast seen me in that hour,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">When every nerve of life was new,</p>
+
+ <p>When pleasures fann'd youth's infant flower,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And Hope her witcheries round it threw.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>That hour is fading; it has fled;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And I am left in darkness now,</p>
+
+ <p>A wanderer tow'rds a lowly bed,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The grave, that home of all below.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>Young poets often affect a melancholy strain, and none more
+ frequently put on a sad and sentimental mood in verse than those
+ who are as happy as an utter want of feeling for any body but
+ themselves can make them. But in these verses the feeling was
+ sincere and ominous. Miss Davidson recovered from her illness at
+ Albany so far only as to be able to perform the journey back to
+ Plattsburgh, under her poor mother's care. "The hectic flush of
+ her cheek told but too plainly that a fatal disease had fastened
+ upon her constitution, and must ere long inevitably triumph." She
+ however dreaded something worse than death, and while confined to
+ her bed, wrote these unfinished lines, the last that were ever
+ traced by her indefatigable hand, expressing her fear of
+ madness.</p>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>There is a something which I dread,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">It is a dark, a fearful thing;</p>
+
+ <p>It steals along with withering tread.</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Or sweeps on wild destruction's wing.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>That thought comes o'er me in the hour,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Of grief, of sickness, or of sadness;</p>
+
+ <p>'Tis not the dread of death,&mdash;'tis more,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">It is the dread of madness.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Oh, may these throbbing pulses pause</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Forgetful of their feverish course;</p>
+
+ <p>May this hot brain, which burning, glows,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">With all a fiery whirlpool's force,</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Be cold, and motionless, and still</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">A tenant of its lowly bed;</p>
+
+ <p>But let not dark delirium steal&mdash;</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <p>The stanzas with which Kirke White's fragment of the
+ "Christiad" concludes, are not so painful as these lines. Had
+ this however been more than a transient feeling, it would have
+ produced the calamity which it dreaded: it is likely, indeed,
+ that her early death was a dispensation of mercy, and saved her
+ from the severest of all earthly inflictions; and that same
+ merciful Providence which removed her to a better state of
+ existence, made these apprehensions give way to a hope and
+ expectation of recovery, which, vain as it was, cheered some of
+ her last hours. When she was forbidden to read it was a pleasure
+ to her to handle the books which composed her little library, and
+ which she loved so dearly. "She frequently took them up and
+ kissed them; and at length requested them to be placed at the
+ foot of her bed, where she might constantly see them," and
+ anticipating a revival which was not to be, of the delight she
+ should feel in reperusing them, she said often to her mother,
+ "what a feast I shall have by-and-bye." How these words must have
+ gone to that poor mother's heart, they only can understand who
+ have heard such like anticipations of recovery from a dear child,
+ and not been able, even whilst hoping against hope, to partake
+ them.</p>
+
+ <p>When sensible at length of her approaching dissolution, she
+ looked forward to it without alarm; not alone in that peaceful
+ state of mind which is the proper reward of innocence, but in
+ reliance on the divine promises, and in hope of salvation through
+ the merits of our blessed Lord and Saviour. The last name which
+ she pronounced was that of the gentleman whose bounty she had
+ experienced, and towards whom she always felt the utmost
+ gratitude. Gradually sinking under her malady, she passed away on
+ the 27th of August, 1825, before she had completed her
+ seventeenth year. Her person was singularly beautiful; she had "a
+ high, open forehead, a soft, black eye, perfect symmetry of
+ features, a fair complexion, and luxuriant dark hair. The
+ prevailing expression of her face was melancholy. Although,
+ because of her beauty as well as of her mental endowments, she
+ was the object of much admiration and attention, yet she shunned
+ observation, and often sought relief from the pain it seemed to
+ inflict upon her, by retiring from the company."</p>
+
+ <p>That she should have written so voluminously as has been
+ ascertained, (says the editor of her Poems), is almost
+ incredible. Her poetical writings which have been collected,
+ amount in all to two hundred and seventy-eight pieces of various
+ length; when it is considered that among these are at least five
+ regular poems of several cantos each, some estimate may be formed
+ of her poetical labours. Besides there were twenty-four school
+ exercises, three unfinished romances, a complete tragedy, written
+ at thirteen years of age, and about forty letters, in a few
+ months, to her mother alone. To this statement should also be
+ appended the fact, that a great portion of her writings she
+ destroyed. Her <span class="pagenum"><a id="page345" name=
+ "page345"></a>[pg 345]</span> mother observes, "I think I am
+ justified in saying that she destroyed at least one-third of all
+ she wrote."</p>
+
+ <p>Of the literary character of her writings, (says the editor),
+ it does not, perhaps, become me largely to speak; yet I must
+ hazard the remark, that her defects will be perceived to be those
+ of youth and inexperience, while in invention, and in that
+ mysterious power of exciting deep interest, of enchaining the
+ attention and keeping it alive to the end of the story; in that
+ adaptation of the measure to the sentiment, and in the sudden
+ change of measure to suit a sudden change of sentiment; a wild
+ and romantic description; and in the congruity of the
+ accompaniment to her characters, all conceived with great purity
+ and delicacy&mdash;she will be allowed to have discovered
+ uncommon maturity of mind, and her friends to have been warranted
+ in forming very high expectations of her future distinction.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>Curious Dial.</h3>
+
+ <div class="figure" style="width: 50%; float: left;">
+ <a href="images/400-2.png"><img width="100%" src=
+ "images/400-2.png" alt="Curious Dial." /></a>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>This Dial, which was really no common or vulgar invention,
+ formerly stood in Privy Garden, Whitehall, at a short distance
+ from Gibbons's noble brass statue of James II., which, as a
+ waggish friend of ours said of the horse at Charing Cross,
+ remains in <i>statu-quo</i> to this day. The Dial was invented by
+ one Francis Hall, alias Line, a Jesuit, and Professor of
+ Mathematics at Liege, in Germany. It was set up, as the old books
+ have it, in the year 1669, by order of Charles II.; and in
+ addition to the parts represented in the cut, the inventer
+ intended to place a water-dial at each corner, which he had
+ nearly completed when the original Dial for want of a cover, as
+ he quaintly observes, (which according to his Majestie's Gracious
+ Order should have been set over it in the Winter) was much
+ injured by the snow lying frozen upon it. But there was no chance
+ of obtaining this out of Charles's coffers, and the Dial soon
+ became useless. Its explanation was, however, considered by many
+ mathematical men of the period as too valuable to be lost, and
+ the Professor accordingly printed the description at Liege, in
+ 1673, in which were plates and diagrams of the several parts. The
+ matter was too grave for pleasant, anecdotical Pennant, who,
+ speaking of the Dial, in his <i>London</i>, says "the description
+ surpasses my powers:" he refers the reader to the above work, a
+ "very scarce book" in his time, and we have been at some pains to
+ obtain the reprint, (London, 1685,) appended to Holwell's
+ <i>Clavis Horologiae; or Key to the whole art of Arithmetical
+ Dialling</i>, small 4to. 1712.<a id="footnotetag3" name=
+ "footnotetag3"></a><a href="#footnote3"><sup>3</sup></a></p>
+
+ <p>The whole Dial stood on a stone pedestal, and consisted of
+ six<a id="footnotetag4" name="footnotetag4"></a><a href=
+ "#footnote4"><sup>4</sup></a> parts, rising in a pyramidal form,
+ as represented in the Cut.</p>
+
+ <p>The base, or first piece, was a table of about 40 inches in
+ diameter, and 8 or 9 inches thick, in the edge of which were 20
+ glazed dials, with the Jewish, Babylonian, Italian, Astronomical,
+ and usual European methods of counting the hours: they were all
+ vertical or declining Dials, the style or gnomon being a lion's
+ paw, unicorn's horn, or some emblem from the royal arms. On the
+ upper part of the Table were 8 reclining dials, glazed, and
+ showing the hour in different ways&mdash;as by the shade of the
+ style falling upon the hour-lines, the hour-lines falling on the
+ style, or without any shade of hour-lines or style, &amp;c. Upon
+ this piece or table stood also 4 globes, cut into planes, with
+ geographical, astronomical, and astrological dials. From the
+ table also, east, west, north, and south, were four iron branches
+ supporting glass bowls, showing the hour by fire, water, air, and
+ earth.</p>
+
+ <p>The second piece of the pyramid was also a round table
+ somewhat less than the first, with 4 iron supporters, and dials
+ on the edge, showing the different rising of remarkable stars;
+ the style to <span class="pagenum"><a id="page346" name=
+ "page346"></a>[pg 346]</span> each being a little star painted
+ upon the inside of the glass cover. From this piece also branched
+ 4 glass bowls to show the hour by a style without a shadow, a
+ shadow without a style, &amp;c. Upon the upper part of the table
+ were 8 reclining planes, 4 covered with looking-glass, on which
+ the hour-lines, or style of a dial being painted, were reflected
+ upon the bottom inclining planes of the third piece, and there
+ showed the hour. The other 4 had also dials upon them, which were
+ to be seen in a looking-glass placed upon the bottom of the third
+ piece.</p>
+
+ <p>The third piece was a large hollow globe, about 24 inches in
+ diameter, and cut into 26 planes, two of which served for top and
+ bottom. The rest were divided into 8 equal reclining planes, 8
+ equal inclining planes, and 8 equal vertical or upright planes;
+ all of which were hollow. The incliners were not covered with
+ glass, but left open, so as better to receive and show the dials
+ reflected from the second piece. Two of the 8 upright planes
+ towards the north had no bottoms, but were covered only with
+ clear glass, or windows to look into the globe, and thus see the
+ dials as well within as without the same. The other 6 had not
+ only each a cover of clear polished glass, with a dial described
+ on them, like those of the first piece, but had a glass for their
+ bottom; which glass was thinly painted over white, so that the
+ shade of the hour-lines drawn upon the cover, might be seen as
+ well within as without the globe. On these bottom glasses were
+ painted portraits, each holding a sceptre, or truncheon, the end
+ of which pointed to the hour. Two also of the recliners towards
+ the north, had only a glass cover, or window to look into the
+ globe: the other 6 had double glass like the former; their dials
+ being some upon the cover, others upon the bottom; but all so
+ contrived, that the hour could only be known by them, by looking
+ within the globe. From the top of this globe issued 4 iron
+ branches with glass bowls with dials showing the time according
+ to the several ways of counting the hours. These bowls were
+ painted inside so as to keep out the light, except a point left
+ like a star, through which the sun-beams showed the hour; and the
+ place where the hour-lines were drawn, was only painted on the
+ outside thinly with white colour, so that the sun-light passing
+ through the star might be seen, and show the hour.</p>
+
+ <p>The fourth piece stood on the globe, had 4 iron supporters,
+ and was a table about 20 inches in diameter, and 6 in thickness!
+ The edge was cut into 12 concave superficies like so many
+ half-cylinders; on each of which was a dial showing the hour by
+ the shade of a fleur-de-lis fixed at the top of each
+ half-cylinder. From the top of this table issued 4 iron branches,
+ with glass bowls, like those of the first, second, and third
+ pieces, though proportionally less. The dials on these bowls
+ showed only the usual hour, and otherwise differed from the third
+ piece; here the hour-lines being left clear for the sunbeams to
+ pass through, that by so passing, they might exhibit the same
+ dial on the opposite side of the bowl, which was thinly painted
+ white, that the said hours might be seen, and show the hour by
+ their passing over a little star painted in the middle.</p>
+
+ <p>The fifth piece likewise upon 4 iron supporters, was a globe
+ of about 12 inches diameter, cut into 14 planes, viz. 8
+ triangles, equal and equilateral; and the other 6 were equal
+ squares. The dials on these planes showed the usual hour by the
+ shade of a fleur-de-lis fastened to the top or bottom of each
+ plane.</p>
+
+ <p>The last, or top piece of the pyramid, was a glass bowl of 7
+ inches diameter, upon a foot of iron. The north side of this
+ piece was thinly painted over white, that the shade of a little
+ golden ball, placed in the middle of the bowl, might be seen to
+ pass over the hour-lines which were drawn upon the white colour,
+ and noted the hour. The bowl was included between two circles of
+ iron gilt, with a cross on the top.</p>
+
+ <p>Such is a general description of the parts or divisions of
+ this very curious Dial. To which may be added that the first four
+ pieces had all their sides covered with little plates of black
+ glass, first cemented to the said pieces, except those places
+ whereon the dials were drawn; which being also covered with
+ plates of polished glass, nearly the whole of the outside of the
+ dial appeared to be glass; the angles or corners being elegantly
+ gilt, as were in part the iron work of the pyramid, supporters,
+ branches, styles, &amp;c.</p>
+
+ <p>We have abridged and in part rewritten this explanation from
+ upwards of six closely-printed 4to. pages. After the general
+ description, in the original tract, the different sections or
+ parts of the dial, 73 in number, are still further explained, and
+ illustrated by 17 plates, besides a vertical section, of which
+ last our Cut is a copy. Perhaps these details would tire the
+ general reader, and on that account we do not press <span class=
+ "pagenum"><a id="page347" name="page347"></a>[pg 347]</span>
+ them: a few of them, however, may be noticed still further.</p>
+
+ <p>Of these, the <i>Bowls</i> appear to be the most attractive.
+ One on the first piece, <i>by fire</i> was a little glass bowl
+ filled with clear water. This bowl was about three inches
+ diameter, placed in the middle of another sphere, about six
+ inches diameter, consisting of several iron rings or circles,
+ representing the hour circles in the heavens. The hour was known
+ by applying the hand to these circles when the sun shone, when
+ that circle where you felt the hand burnt by the sunbeams passing
+ through the bowl filled with water, showed the true hour,
+ according to the verse beneath it:</p>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Cratem tange, manusq horam tibi reddet adusta.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>The phenomenon is thus explained by the Professor: "the
+ parallel rays of the sun passing through the little bowl, are
+ bent by the density of the water, into a cone or pyramid, whose
+ vertex reaches a little beyond those hour circles, and there
+ burns the hand applied; for so many rays being all united into a
+ point, must needs make an intense heat, which heat is so powerful
+ in the summer-time, that it will fire a piece of wood applied to
+ it."</p>
+
+ <p>To many of the Dials were suitable inscriptions as above, and
+ these with the references must have made the construction of the
+ whole a task of immense labour. It would be absurd to expect that
+ Charles II. had much to do with its completion, for he was, in
+ his own estimation, more pleasantly employed than in watching the
+ flight of time by heavenly luminaries. His attractions were on
+ earth, where the splendour of a wicked court and the witchery of
+ bright eyes eclipsed all other pursuits. Still, the licentious
+ king was not forgotten by the inventer of the dial. Among the
+ pictures on some of the glasses were portraits of the king, the
+ two queens, the duke of York, prince Rupert, &amp;c. In the
+ king's picture, the hour was shown by the shade of the hour-lines
+ passing over the top of the sceptre&mdash;perhaps the only time
+ the royal trifier ever pointed to so useful an end. Prince
+ Rupert, by his contributions to science, had a better right to be
+ there; but Charles was not even grateful enough for the elevation
+ to protect the precious Dial from rain and snow.</p>
+
+ <p>In the list of subscribers for the reprint of the Tract,
+ occurs "Jacob Chandler, basket-maker:" in our times this would be
+ considered a knotty work for any but a professional reader.</p>
+ <hr class="full" />
+
+ <h2>NOTES OF A READER</h2>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>HISTORY OF INSECTS.</h3>
+
+ <center>
+ <i>The Family Library, No. 7.<br />
+ Library of Entertaining Knowledge, Part 6.&mdash;Insect
+ Architecture</i>.
+ </center>
+
+ <p>At present we can only notice these works as two of the most
+ delightful volumes that have for some time fallen into our hands,
+ and as possessing all the merits which characterize the previous
+ portions of the Series. Our cognizance of them, in a collected
+ form, must rest till the other half appears; in the meantime a
+ few <i>flying</i> extracts will prove amusing:&mdash;</p>
+
+ <center>
+ <i>Bees without a Queen</i>.
+ </center>
+
+ <p>These humble creatures cherish their queen, feed her, and
+ provide for her wants. They live only in her life, and die when
+ she is taken away. Her absence deprives them of no organ,
+ paralyzes no limb, yet in every case they neglect all their
+ duties for twenty-four hours. They receive no stranger queen
+ before the expiration of that time; and if deprived of the
+ cherished object altogether, they refuse food, and quickly
+ perish. What, it may be asked, is the physical cause of such
+ devotion? What are the bonds that chain the little creature to
+ its cell, and force it to prefer death, to the flowers and the
+ sunshine that invite it to come forth and live? This is not a
+ solitary instance, in which the Almighty has made virtues,
+ apparently almost unattainable by us, natural to animals! For
+ while man has marked, with that praise which great and rare good
+ actions merit, those few instances in which one human being has
+ given up his own life for another&mdash;the dog, who daily
+ sacrifices himself for his master, has scarcely found an
+ historian to record his common virtue.&mdash;<i>Family
+ Library</i>.</p>
+
+ <center>
+ <i>Cleanliness of Bees</i>.
+ </center>
+
+ <p>Among other virtues possessed by bees, cleanliness is one of
+ the most marked; they will not suffer the least filth in their
+ abode. It sometimes happens that an ill-advised slug or ignorant
+ snail chooses to enter the hive, and has even the audacity to
+ walk over the comb; the presumptuous and foul intruder is quickly
+ killed, but its gigantic carcass is not so speedily removed.
+ Unable to transport the corpse out of their dwelling, and fearing
+ "the noxious smells" arising from corruption, the bees adopt an
+ efficacious mode of protecting themselves; they embalm their
+ offensive enemy, by covering him over with propolis; both Maraldi
+ and Reaumur <span class="pagenum"><a id="page348" name=
+ "page348"></a>[pg 348]</span> have seen this. The latter observed
+ that a snail had entered a hive, and fixed itself to the glass
+ side, just as it does against walls, until the rain shall invite
+ it to thrust out its head beyond its shell. The bees, it seemed,
+ did not like the interloper, and not being able to penetrate the
+ shell with their sting, took a hint from the snail itself, and
+ instead of covering it all over with propolis, the cunning
+ economists fixed it immovably, by cementing merely the edge of
+ the orifice of the shell to the glass with this resin, and thus
+ it became a prisoner for life, for rain cannot dissolve this
+ cement, as it does that which the insect itself uses.<a id=
+ "footnotetag5" name="footnotetag5"></a><a href=
+ "#footnote5"><sup>5</sup></a>&mdash;<i>Ibid</i>.</p>
+
+ <p>It furnishes a subject of serious consideration, as well as an
+ argument for a special providence, to know, that the accurate
+ Reaumur, and other naturalists, have observed, that when any kind
+ of insect has increased inordinately, their natural enemies have
+ increased in the same proportion, and thus preserved the
+ balance.&mdash;<i>Ibid</i>.</p>
+
+ <center>
+ <i>Gnats</i>.
+ </center>
+
+ <p>There are few insects with whose form we are better acquainted
+ than that of the gnat. It is to be found in all latitudes and
+ climates; as prolific in the Polar as in the Equatorial regions.
+ In 1736 they were so numerous, and were seen to rise in such
+ clouds from Salisbury cathedral, that they looked like columns of
+ smoke, and frightened the people, who thought the building was on
+ fire. In 1766, they appeared at Oxford, in the form of a thick
+ black cloud; six columns were observed to ascend the height of
+ fifty or sixty feet. Their bite was attended with alarming
+ inflammation. To some appearances of this kind our great poet,
+ Spenser, alludes, in the following beautiful simile:&mdash;</p>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>As when a swarm of gnats at eventide,</p>
+
+ <p>Out of the fennes of Allan doe arise,</p>
+
+ <p>Their murmurring small trumpets sownden wide,</p>
+
+ <p>Whiles in the air their clust'ring army flies.</p>
+
+ <p>That as a cloud doth seem to dim the skies:</p>
+
+ <p>Ne man nor beast may rest or take repast,</p>
+
+ <p>For their sharp wounds and noyous injuries,</p>
+
+ <p>Till the fierce northern wind, with blustering blast,</p>
+
+ <p>Doth blow them quite away, and in the ocean cast.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+ <p>In Lapland, their numbers have been compared to a flight of
+ snow when the flakes fall thickest, and the minor evil of being
+ nearly suffocated by smoke is endured to get rid of these little
+ pests. Captain Stedman says, that he and his soldiers were so
+ tormented by gnats in America, that they were obliged to dig
+ holes in the ground with their bayonets, and thrust their heads
+ into them for protection and sleep. Humboldt states, that
+ "between the little harbour of Higuerote and the mouth of the
+ Rio-Unare, the wretched inhabitants are accustomed to stretch
+ themselves on the ground, and pass the night buried in the sand
+ three or four inches deep, exposing only the head, which they
+ cover with a handkerchief."</p>
+
+ <p>After enumerating these and other examples of the achievements
+ of the gnat and musquito tribe, Kirby says, "It is not therefore
+ incredible that Sapor, King of Persia, should have been compelled
+ to raise the siege of Nisibis by a plague of gnats, which
+ attacked his elephants and beasts of burden, and so caused the
+ rout of his army; nor that the inhabitants of various cities
+ should, by an extraordinary multiplication of this plague, have
+ been compelled to desert them; nor that, by their power of doing
+ mischief, like other conquerors who have been the torment of the
+ human race, they should have attained to fame, and have given
+ their name to bays, town, and territories." <i>Ibid</i>.</p>
+
+ <center>
+ <i>Leaf Caterpillars</i>.
+ </center>
+
+ <p>The design of the caterpillars in rolling up the leaves is not
+ only to conceal themselves from birds and predatory insects, but
+ also to protect themselves from the cuckoo-flies, which lie in
+ wait in every quarter to deposit their eggs in their bodies, that
+ their progeny may devour them. Their mode of concealment,
+ however, though it appear to be cunningly contrived and skilfully
+ executed, is not always successful, their enemies often
+ discovering their hiding place. We happened to see a remarkable
+ instance of this last summer (1828), in a case of one of the
+ lilac caterpillars which had changed into a chrysalis within the
+ closely folded leaf. A small cuckoo-fly, aware, it should seem,
+ of the very spot where the chrysalis lay within the leaf, was
+ seen boring through it with her ovipositor, and introducing her
+ eggs through the punctures thus made into the body of the dormant
+ insect. We allowed her to lay all her eggs, about six in number,
+ and then put the leaf under an inverted glass. In a few days the
+ eggs of the cuckoo-fly were hatched, the grubs devoured the lilac
+ chrysalis, and finally changed into pupae in a case of yellow
+ silk, and into perfect insects like their
+ parent.&mdash;<i>Library of Entertaining Knowledge</i>.</p>
+
+ <p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page349" name="page349"></a>[pg
+ 349]</span> The last extract, and all in the Library of
+ Entertaining Knowledge signed J.R. are written by Mr. J. Rennie,
+ whose initials must be familiar to every reader as attached to
+ some of the most interesting papers in Mr. Loudon's Magazines. He
+ is a nice observer of Nature, and one of the most popular writers
+ on her phenomena.</p>
+
+ <p>As we treated the cuts of the last portion of the "Library of
+ Entertaining Knowledge," rather critically, we are happy to say
+ that the engravings of insects in the present part make ample
+ amends for all former imperfections in that branch of the work;
+ some of the pupae, insects, their nests, &amp;c. are admirably
+ executed, and their selection is equally judicious and
+ attractive.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS.</h3>
+
+ <p>Spirit-drinking appears to have attained a <i>pretty
+ considerable</i> pitch in America, where, according to the
+ proceedings of the American Temperance Society, half as many tuns
+ of domestic spirits are annually produced as of wheat and flour;
+ and in the state of New York, in the year 1825, there were 2,264
+ grist-mills, and 1,129 distilleries of whiskey. In a
+ communication to this society from Philadelphia, it is
+ calculated, that out of 4,151 deaths in that city in the year
+ 1825, 335 are attributed solely to the abuse of ardent
+ spirits!</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>WOOD ENGRAVING.</h3>
+
+ <p>In early life Bewick cut a vignette for the Newcastle
+ newspaper, from which it is calculated that more than <i>nine
+ hundred thousand impressions</i> have been worked off; yet the
+ block is still in use, and not perceptibly impaired.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>AUSTRIA.</h3>
+
+ <p>The present Emperor of Austria is a gentle, fatherly old man.
+ We have heard none of his subjects speak of him with anything but
+ love and affection. The meanest peasant has access to him; and,
+ except on public occasions, he leads a simpler life than any
+ nobleman among ourselves. It is, perhaps, less the emperor than
+ the nobility who govern in Austria, and less the nobility than
+ Metternich, the prince-pattern of
+ prime-ministers.&mdash;<i>Foreign Review</i>.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>HANGING.</h3>
+
+ <p>The following letter tends to rectify an error which very
+ generally prevails, namely, that it costs only thirteen-pence
+ halfpenny to be hung. It is copied <i>literatim et verbatim</i>,
+ from one made out by Mr. Ketch himself, and proves that a man
+ cannot be hung for so mere a trifle:&mdash;</p>
+ <pre>
+ "Silvester. s. d.
+ Executioner's Fees............ 7 6
+ Stripping the Body............ 4 6
+ Use of Shell.................. 2 6
+ 1813. ______
+ Nov. 10. 14 6"
+</pre>
+
+ <p><i>Blackwood's Magazine</i>.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>SCOTTISH POETRY.</h3>
+
+ <p>The passion of the Scots, from whatever race derived, for
+ poetry and music, developed itself in the earliest stages of
+ their history. They possessed a wild imagination, a dark and
+ gloomy mythology; they peopled the caves, the woods, the rivers,
+ and the mountains, with spirits, elves, giants, and dragons; and
+ are we to wonder that the Scots, a nation in whose veins the
+ blood of all those remote races is unquestionably mingled,
+ should, at a very remote period, have evinced an enthusiastic
+ admiration for song and poetry; that the harper was to be found
+ amongst the officers who composed the personal state of the
+ sovereign, and that the country maintained a privileged race of
+ wandering minstrels, who eagerly seized on the prevailing
+ superstitions and romantic legends, and wove them in rude, but
+ sometimes very expressive versification, into their stories and
+ ballads; who were welcome guests at the gate of every feudal
+ castle, and fondly beloved by the great body of the
+ people.&mdash;<i>Tytler's History of Scotland</i>.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>TO CONSTANTINOPLE,</h3>
+
+ <p><i>On approaching the city about sun-rise, from the Sea of
+ Marmora</i>.</p>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>A glorious form thy shining city wore,</p>
+
+ <p>'Mid cypress thickets of perennial green,</p>
+
+ <p>With minaret and golden dome between,</p>
+
+ <p>While thy sea softly kiss'd its grassy shore.</p>
+
+ <p>Darting across whose blue expanse was seen</p>
+
+ <p>Of sculptured barques and galleys many a score;</p>
+
+ <p>Whence noise was none save that of plashing oar;</p>
+
+ <p>Nor word was spoke, to break the calm serene.</p>
+
+ <p>Unhear'd is whisker'd boatman's hail or joke;</p>
+
+ <p>Who, mute as Sinbad's man of copper, rows,</p>
+
+ <p>And only intermits the sturdy stroke</p>
+
+ <p>When fearless gull too nigh his pinnace goes.</p>
+
+ <p>I, hardly conscious if I dream'd or woke,</p>
+
+ <p>Mark'd that strange piece of action and repose.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>BERWICK.</h3>
+
+ <p>In the thirteenth century Berwick enjoyed a prosperity, such
+ as threw every other Scottish port into the shade; the customs of
+ this town, at the above date, amounted to about one-fourth of all
+ the customs of England.</p>
+ <hr class="full" />
+
+ <p><span class="pagenum"><a id="page350" name="page350"></a>[pg
+ 350]</span></p>
+
+ <h2>SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.</h2>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>THE LORD MAYORS DAY.</h3>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"Spirit of Momus! thou'rt wandering wide.</p>
+
+ <p>When I would thou wert merrily perch'd by my side,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">For I am sorely beset by the <i>blues</i>;</p>
+
+ <p>Thou fugitive elf! I adjure thee return,</p>
+
+ <p>By Fielding's best wig, and the ashes of Sterne,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Appear at the call of my muse."</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>It comes, with a laugh on its rubicund face;</p>
+
+ <p>Methinks, by the way, it's in pretty good case,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">For a spirit unblest with a body;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">"On the claret bee's-wing," says the sprite, "I
+ regale;</p>
+
+ <p>But I'm ready for all&mdash;from Lafitte down to ale,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">From Champagne to a tumbler of toddy.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"Then I'm not over-nice, as at least <i>you</i> must
+ know,</p>
+
+ <p>In the rank of my hosts&mdash;for the lofty or low</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Are alike to the Spirit of Mirth;</p>
+
+ <p>I care not a straw with whom I have dined,</p>
+
+ <p>Though a family dinner's not much to my mind,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And a proser's a plague upon earth.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"But where, my dear sprite, for this age have you
+ been?</p>
+
+ <p>Have you plunged in the Danube, or danced on the
+ Seine?</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Or have taken in Lisbon your station?</p>
+
+ <p>Or have flapped over Windsor your butterfly-wings,</p>
+
+ <p>O'er its bevy of beauties, and courtiers, and
+ kings&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The wonders and wits of the nation?"</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"No; of all climes for folly, Old England's the clime;</p>
+
+ <p>Of all times for fully, the present's the time;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And my game is so plentiful here,</p>
+
+ <p>That all months are the same, from December to May;</p>
+
+ <p>I can bag in a minute enough for a day&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">In a day, bag enough for a year.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"My game-bag has nooks for 'Notes, Sketches, and
+ Journeys,'</p>
+
+ <p>By soldiers and sailors, divines and attorneys,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Through landscapes gay, blooming, and
+ briary;</p>
+
+ <p>And so, as you seem rather pensive to-night,</p>
+
+ <p>To dispel your blue-devils, I'll briefly recite</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">A specimen-leaf from my diary:&mdash;</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+
+ <center>
+ "'THE NINTH OF NOVEMBER.
+ </center>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"'Through smoke-clouds as dark as a forest of rooks,</p>
+
+ <p>The rich contribution of blacksmiths and cooks</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">From the huge human oven below,</p>
+
+ <p>I heard old St. Paul's gaily pealing away;</p>
+
+ <p>Thinks I to myself, 'It is Lord Mayor's Day,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">So, I'll go down and look at the Show.'</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"'I spread out my pinions, and sprang on my perch&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>'Twas the dragon on Bow, that odd sign of the church,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The episcopal centre of action;</p>
+
+ <p>All Cheapside was crowded with black, brown, and fair,</p>
+
+ <p>Like a harlequin's jacket, or French rocquelaire,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">A legitimate Cheapside attraction.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>Then rung through the tumult a trumpet so shrill,</p>
+
+ <p>That it frightened the ladies all down Ludgate Hill,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And the owlets in Ivy Lane;</p>
+
+ <p>Then came in their chariots, each face in full blow,</p>
+
+ <p>The sheriffs and aldermen, solemn and slow,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">All bombazine, bag-wig and chain.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"'Then came the old tumbril-shaped city machine,</p>
+
+ <p>With a Lord Mayor so fat that he made the coach
+ <i>lean</i>;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Lord Waithman was scarcely a brighter man;</p>
+
+ <p>The wits said the old groaning wagon of state,</p>
+
+ <p>Which for ages had carried Lord Mayors of such weight,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">To-day would break down with a <i>lighter
+ man</i>.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"'Then proud as a prince, at the head of the band</p>
+
+ <p>Rode the city field-marshal, with truncheon in hand,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Though his epaulettes lately are gone;</p>
+
+ <p>But he's still fine enough to astonish the cits,</p>
+
+ <p>And drive the economists out of their wits,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">From Lords Waithman and Wood, to Lord John.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"'But I now left the pageant&mdash;wits, worthies, and
+ all&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>And flew through the smoke to the roof of Guildhall,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">And perched on the grand chandelier;</p>
+
+ <p>The dinner was stately, the tables were full&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>There sat, multiplied by three thousand, John Bull,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">Resolved to make all disappear.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"'And then came the speeches; Lord Hunter was
+ fine&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>Lord Wood, finer still&mdash;Lord Thompson, divine,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The sheriffs were Ciceros a-piece;</p>
+
+ <p>Lord Crowther was sick, though he managed to eat</p>
+
+ <p>What, if races were feasts, would have won him the
+ plate;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">But he tossed off a bumper to Greece.</p>
+ </div>
+
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"'Then all was enchantment&mdash;all hubbub and
+ smiles&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>The wit of Old Jewry, the grace of St. Giles,</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">The force of the Billingsgate tongue:</p>
+
+ <p>Till the eloquent Lord Mayor demanding 'Who
+ malts?'&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p>The understood sign for beginning the waltz&mdash;</p>
+
+ <p class="i2">In a fright through the ceiling I sprung.'"</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr class="full" />
+
+ <h2><i>Monthly Magazine</i>.</h2>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A LANDAULET.</h3>
+
+ <p>(<i>Concluded from page 302</i>.)</p>
+
+ <p>It happened to be a dull time of year, and for some months my
+ wheels ceased to be rotatory: I got cold and damp; and the moths
+ found their way to my inside: one or two persons who came to
+ inspect me declined becoming purchasers, and peering closely at
+ my panels, said something about "old scratch." This hurt my
+ feelings, for if my former possessor was not quite so good as she
+ might have been, it was no fault of mine.</p>
+
+ <p>At length, after a tedious inactivity, I was bought cheap by a
+ young physician, who having rashly left his provincial patients
+ to set up in London, took it into his head that nothing could be
+ done there by a medical man who did not go upon wheels; he
+ therefore hired a house in a good situation, and then set
+ <i>me</i> up, and bid my vendor put me down in his bill.</p>
+
+ <p>It is quite astonishing how we flew about the streets and
+ squares, <i>acting great practice</i>; those who knew us by sight
+ must have thought we had a great deal to do, but we practised
+ nothing but locomotion. Some medical men thin the population, (so
+ says Slander,) my master thinned nothing but his <span class=
+ "pagenum"><a id="page351" name="page351"></a>[pg 351]</span>
+ horses. They were the only <i>good jobs</i> that came in his way,
+ and certainly he made the most of them. He was obliged to
+ <i>feed</i> them, but he was very rarely <i>feed</i> himself. It
+ so happened that nobody consulted us, and the unavoidable
+ consumption of the family infected my master's pocket, and his
+ little resources were in a rapid decline.</p>
+
+ <p>Still he kept a good heart; indeed, in one respect, he
+ resembled a worm displayed in a bottle in a quack's shop
+ window&mdash;he was never out of spirits! He was deeply in debt,
+ and his name was on every body's books, always excepting the
+ memorandum-books of those who wanted physicians. Still I was
+ daily turned out, and though nobody called him in, he was to be
+ seen, sitting very forward, apparently looking over notes
+ supposed to have been taken after numerous critical cases and
+ eventful consultations. Our own case was hopeless, our progress
+ was arrested, an execution was in the house, servants met with
+ their deserts and were turned off, goods were seized, my master
+ was knocked up, and I was knocked down for one hundred and twenty
+ pounds.</p>
+
+ <p>Again my beauties blushed for a while unseen; but I was new
+ painted, and, like some other painted personages, looked, at a
+ distance, almost as good as new. Fortunately for me, an elderly
+ country curate, just at this period, was presented with a living,
+ and the new incumbent thought it incumbent upon him to present
+ his fat lady and his thin daughter with a leathern convenience.
+ My life was now a rural one, and for ten long years nothing worth
+ recording happened to me. Slowly and surely did I creep along
+ green lanes, carried the respectable trio to snug, early,
+ neighbourly dinners, and was always under lock and key before
+ twelve o'clock. It must be owned I began to have rather an
+ old-fashioned look; my body was ridiculously small, and the
+ rector's thin daughter, the bodkin, or rather packing-needle of
+ the party, sat more forward, and on a smaller space than bodkins
+ do now-a-days. I was perched up three feet higher than more
+ modern vehicles, and my two lamps began to look like little dark
+ lanterns. But my obsoleteness rendered me only more suited to the
+ service in which I was enlisted. Honest Roger, the red-haired
+ coachman, would have looked like a clown in a pantomime, in front
+ of a fashionable equipage; and Simon the footboy, who slouched at
+ my back, would have been mistaken for an idle urchin
+ surreptitiously enjoying a ride. But on my unsophisticated dickey
+ and footboard no one could doubt but that Roger and Simon were in
+ their proper places. The rector died; of course he had nothing
+ more to do with the <i>living</i>, it passed into other hands;
+ and a clerical income being (alas, that it should be so!) no
+ inheritance, his relict suddenly plunged in widowhood and
+ poverty, had the aggravated misery of mourning for a deaf
+ husband, while she was conscious that the luxuries and almost the
+ necessaries of life were for ever snatched from herself and her
+ child.</p>
+
+ <p>Again I found myself in London, but my beauty was gone, I had
+ lost the activity of youth, and when slowly I chanced to creak
+ through Long Acre, Houlditch, my very parent, who was standing at
+ his door sending forth a new-born Britska, glanced at me
+ scornfully, and knew me not! I passed on heavily&mdash;I thought
+ of former days of triumph, and there was madness in the thought I
+ became a <i>crazy</i> vehicle! straw was thrust into my inward
+ parts, I was numbered among the fallen,&mdash;yes, I was now a
+ hackney-chariot, and my number was one hundred!</p>
+
+ <p>What tongue can tell the degradations I have endured! The
+ persons who familiarly have <i>called</i> me, the wretches who
+ have sat in me&mdash;never can this be told. Daily I take my
+ stand in the same vile street, and nightly am I driven to the
+ minor theatres&mdash;to oyster-shops&mdash;to desperation!</p>
+
+ <p>One day, when empty and unoccupied, I was hailed by two
+ police-officers who were bearing between them a prisoner. It was
+ the seducer of my second ill-fated mistress; a first crime had
+ done its usual work, it had prepared the mind for a second, and a
+ worse: the seducer had done a deed of deeper guilt, and <i>I</i>
+ bore him one stage towards the gallows. Many months after, a
+ female called me at midnight: she was decked in tattered finery,
+ and what with fatigue and recent indulgence in strong liquors,
+ she was scarcely sensible, but she possessed dim traces of past
+ beauty. I can say nothing more of her, but that it was the
+ fugitive wife whom I had borne to Brighton so many years ago. No
+ words of mine could paint the living warning that I beheld. What
+ had been the sorrows of unmerited desertion and unkindness
+ supported by conscious rectitude, compared with the degraded
+ guilt, the hopeless anguish, that I then saw?</p>
+
+ <p>I regret to say, I was last month nigh committing
+ manslaughter; I broke down in the Strand and dislocated the
+ shoulder <span class="pagenum"><a id="page352" name=
+ "page352"></a>[pg 352]</span> of a rich old maid. I cannot help
+ thinking that she deserved the visitation, for, as she stepped
+ into me in Oxford Street, she exclaimed, loud enough to be heard
+ by all neighbouring pedestrians, "Dear me! how dirty! I never was
+ in a hackney conveyance before!"&mdash;though I well remembered
+ having been favoured with her company very often. A medical
+ gentleman happened to be passing at the moment of our fall; it
+ was my old medical master. He set the shoulder, and so skilfully
+ did he manage his patient, that he is about to be married to the
+ rich invalid, who will shoulder him into prosperity at last.</p>
+
+ <p>I last night was the bearer of a real party of pleasure to
+ Astley's:&mdash;a bride and bridegroom, with the mother of the
+ bride. It was the widow of the old rector, whose thin daughter
+ (by the by she is fattening fast) has had the luck to marry the
+ only son of a merchant well to do in the world.</p>
+
+ <p>The voice suddenly ceased!&mdash;I awoke&mdash;the door was
+ opened, the steps let down&mdash;I paid the coachman double the
+ amount of his fare, and in future, whenever I stand in need of a
+ jarvey, I shall certainly make a point of calling for number One
+ Hundred.</p>
+ <hr class="full" />
+
+ <h2>THE GATHERER</h2>
+
+ <div class="poem">
+ <div class="stanza">
+ <p>"A snapper-up of unconsidered trifles."</p>
+
+ <p>SHAKSPEARE.</p>
+ </div>
+ </div>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>BELL.&mdash;THE CRY OF THE DEER SO CALLED.</h3>
+
+ <p>I am glad of an opportunity to describe the cry of the deer by
+ another name than <i>braying</i>, although the latter has been
+ sanctioned by the use of the Scottish metrical translation of the
+ Psalms. Bell seems to be an abbreviation of the word
+ <i>bellow</i>. This sylvan sound conveyed great delight to our
+ ancestors chiefly, I suppose, from association. A gentle knight
+ in the reign of Henry VIII., Sir Thomas Wortley, built Wantley
+ Lodge, Warncliffe Forest, for the purpose, as the ancient
+ inscription testifies, of "Listening to the Harts' Bell."</p>
+
+ <p>C.K.W.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>THE CURSE OF SCOTLAND.</h3>
+
+ <p>The origin of the nine of diamonds being called the Curse of
+ Scotland is not generally known. It arose from the following
+ circumstance:&mdash;The night before the battle of Culloden, the
+ Duke of Cumberland thought proper to send orders to General
+ Campbell not to give quarter; and this order being despatched in
+ much haste, was written on a card. This card happened to be the
+ nine of diamonds, from which circumstance it got the appellation
+ above named.</p>
+
+ <p>W.M.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>POLITICAL PUNS.</h3>
+
+ <p>Among the many expedients resorted to by the depressed party
+ in a state to indulge their sentiments safely, and probably at
+ the same time, according to situation, to sound those of their
+ companions, puns and other quibbles have been of notable service.
+ The following is worthy of notice:&mdash;The cavaliers during
+ Cromwell's usurpation, usually put a crumb of bread into a glass
+ of wine, and before they drank it, would exclaim with cautious
+ ambiguity, "God send this Crum well down!" A royalist divine
+ also, during the Protectorate, did not scruple to quibble in the
+ following prayer, which he was accustomed to deliver:&mdash;"O
+ Lord, who hast put a sword into the hand of thy servant, Oliver,
+ <i>put it into his heart</i> ALSO&mdash;to do according to thy
+ word." He would drop his voice at the word also, and, after a
+ significant pause, repeat the concluding sentence in an under
+ tone.</p>
+
+ <p>W.M.</p>
+
+ <center>
+ <i>Erratum</i> at page 306.&mdash;For <i>Hemiptetera</i> read
+ HEMIPTERA.
+ </center>
+ <hr />
+
+ <h3>ANNUALS FOR 1830.</h3>
+
+ <p>With No. 398 was published a SUPPLEMENT, containing the first
+ portion of the SPIRIT OF THE ANNUALS, with a splendid Engraving
+ of the CITY OF VERONA, and Notices of the <i>Gem</i>, <i>Literary
+ Souvenir</i>, <i>Friendship's Offering</i>, and
+ <i>Amulet</i>.</p>
+ <hr />
+
+ <p>LIMBIRD'S EDITION OF THE<br />
+ <i>Following Novels is already Published.</i></p>
+ <pre>
+ s. d.
+ Mackenzie's Man of Feeling 0 6
+ Paul and Virginia 0 6
+ The Castle of Otranto 0 6
+ Almoran and Hamet 0 6
+ Elizabeth, or the Exiles of Siberia 0 6
+ The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne 0 6
+ Rasselas 0 8
+ The Old English Baron 0 8
+ Nature and Art 0 8
+ Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield 0 10
+ Sicilian Romance 1 0
+ The Man of the World 1 0
+ A Simple Story 1 4
+ Joseph Andrews 1 6
+ Humphry Clinker 1 8
+ The Romance of the Forest 1 8
+ The Italian 2 0
+ Zeluco, by Dr Moore 2 6
+ Edward, by Dr Moore 2 6
+ Roderick Random 2 6
+ The Mysteries of Udolpho 3 6
+ Peregrine Pickle 4 6
+</pre>
+ <hr class="full" />
+
+ <blockquote class="footnote">
+ <a id="footnote1" name="footnote1"></a> <b>Footnote 1</b>:
+ <a href="#footnotetag1">(return)</a>
+
+ <p>See "Portuguese Prisons," MIRROR, vol. xii, p. 99.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <blockquote class="footnote">
+ <a id="footnote2" name="footnote2"></a> <b>Footnote 2</b>:
+ <a href="#footnotetag2">(return)</a>
+
+ <p>A fact.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <blockquote class="footnote">
+ <a id="footnote3" name="footnote3"></a> <b>Footnote 3</b>:
+ <a href="#footnotetag3">(return)</a>
+
+ <p>For the loan of which we thank our esteemed correspondent,
+ P.T.W.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <blockquote class="footnote">
+ <a id="footnote4" name="footnote4"></a> <b>Footnote 4</b>:
+ <a href="#footnotetag4">(return)</a>
+
+ <p>It need hardly be explained that the above is a section, or
+ only one half of the dial.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+
+ <blockquote class="footnote">
+ <a id="footnote5" name="footnote5"></a> <b>Footnote 5</b>:
+ <a href="#footnotetag5">(return)</a>
+
+ <p>For a notice of the application of this cement to useful
+ purposes, see No. 396, page 283.&mdash;ED. MIRROR.</p>
+ </blockquote>
+ <hr class="full" />
+
+ <p><i>Printed and Published by J. LIMBIRD 143, Strand, (near
+ Somerset House,) London; sold by ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New
+ Market, Leipsic; and by all Newsmen and Booksellers</i>.</p>
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11446 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
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