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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11540 ***
+
+THE MIRROR OF LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.
+
+VOL. XIX, NO. 536.] SATURDAY, MARCH 3, 1832. [PRICE 2d.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+ENTRANCE TO THE BOTANIC GARDEN, MANCHESTER.
+
+
+[Illustration: Entrance to the Botanic Garden, Manchester.]
+
+
+Manchester is distinguished among the large towns of the kingdom for
+its majority of enlightened individuals. "The whole population," it
+has been pertinently observed by a native, "seems to be imbued with a
+general thirst for knowledge and improvement." Even amidst the hum of
+its hundreds of thousand spindles, and its busy haunts of industry,
+the people have learned to cultivate the pleasures of natural
+and experimental science, and the delights of literature. The
+Philosophical Society of Manchester is universally known by its
+excellent published Memoirs: it has its Royal Institution; its
+Philological Society, and public libraries; so that incentives to this
+improvement have grown with its growth. Among these is the Botanical
+and Horticultural Society, formed in the autumn of 1827, whose primary
+object was "a Garden for Manchester and its neighbourhood." Previously
+to its establishment, Manchester had a Floral Society, with six
+hundred subscribers, which was a gratifying evidence of public taste,
+as well as encouragement for the Garden design.
+
+We find the promised advantages of the plan thus strikingly
+illustrated in an Address of the preceding date, "The study of Botany
+has not been pursued in any part of the country with greater assiduity
+and success than in the neighbourhood of Manchester. Far from being
+confined to the higher orders of society, it has found its most
+disinterested admirers in the lowest walks of life. Though to the
+skill and perseverance of the cottager we are confessedly indebted
+for the improved cultivation of many plants and fruits, an extensive
+acquaintance with the choicest productions of nature, and a
+philosophical investigation of their properties, are very frequently
+to be met with in the Lancashire Mechanic. But whilst some knowledge
+of the principles of Horticulture is almost universal; and the
+inferior objects of attention are readily procured, it is obvious that
+the difficulty and expense which attend the possession of plants of
+rare, and more particularly of foreign growth, form a natural and
+insurmountable obstruction to the researches of many lovers of the
+science...." "Whatever regard is due to the rational gratifications
+of which the most laborious life is not incapable, there is a moral
+influence attendant on horticultural pursuits, which may be supposed
+to render every friend of humanity desirous to promote them. The most
+indifferent observer cannot fail to remark that the cottager who
+devotes his hours of leisure to the improvement of his garden, is
+rarely subject to the extreme privations of poverty, and commonly
+enjoys a character superior to the circumstances of his condition. His
+taste is a motive to employment, and employment secures him from the
+temptations to extravagance and the natural consequences of dissipated
+habits."[1] Further, we learn, one great object of the society is to
+educate a certain number of young men as gardeners. As "an inviting
+scene of public recreation," it is observed, "those who are little
+interested in the cultivation of Botany, and who may regard the
+employments of Horticulture with disdain, may still be induced to
+frequent the Botanical garden, for the beauty of the objects, the
+pleasures of the society, and the animating gaiety of the scene."
+
+    [1] How pleasingly is the substance of these observations embodied
+        in one of our "Snatches from _Eugene Aram_:"--"It has been
+        observed, and there is a world of homely, ay, of legislative
+        wisdom in the observation, that wherever you see a flower in a
+        cottage garden, or a bird at the window, you may feel sure that
+        the cottagers are better and wiser than their neighbours." Vol. i.
+        p. 4. Yet with what wretched taste is this morality sought to be
+        perverted in an abusive notice of Mr. Bulwer's _Eugene Aram_, in
+        a Magazine of the past month, by a reference to Clark and Aram's
+        stealing flower-roots from gentlemen's gardens to add to the
+        ornaments of their own. The writer might as well have said that
+        Clark and Aram were fair specimens of the whole human race, or
+        that every gay flower in a cottage garden has been so stolen.
+
+The Manchester Garden, we should think, must, by this time, have an
+Eden-like appearance. The Committee began fortunately. Mr. Loudon, in
+one of his valuable Gardening Tours,[2] refers to "a few traits of
+liberality in the parties connected with it; the noble result, as we
+think, of the influence of commercial prosperity in liberalizing the
+mind. Mr. Trafford, the owner of the ground, offered it for whatever
+price the Committee chose to give for it. The Committee took it at its
+value to a common farmer, and obtained a lease of the 16 acres (10
+Lancashire) for 99 years, renewable for ever at 120l a year." He
+describes the donations of trees, plants, and books, by surrounding
+gentlemen, as very liberal. Mr. Loudon does not altogether approve of
+the plan, and certainly by no means of the manner in which the Garden
+has been planted, yet he has no doubt it will contribute materially to
+the spread of improved varieties of culinary vegetables and fruits,
+and to the education of a superior description of gardeners. He
+commends the hothouses, which have been executed at Birmingham;
+especially "the manner in which Mr. Jones has heated the houses by hot
+water; though a number of the garden committee were at first very much
+against this mode of heating. Mr. Mowbray (who planned the Garden)
+informed us that last winter the man could make up the fires for the
+night at five o'clock, without needing to look at them again till the
+following morning at eight or nine. The houses were always kept as
+hot as could be wished, and might have been kept at 100° if thought
+necessary. A young gardener, who had been accustomed to sit up half
+the night during winter, to keep up the fires to the smoke flues
+(elsewhere) was overcome with delight when he came here, and found how
+easy the task of foreman of the houses was likely to prove to him, as
+far as concerned the fires and nightwork."
+
+    [2] Gardeners' Magazine, No. XXXIII. August, 1831.
+
+As a means of social improvement, (a feature of public interest, we
+hope, always to be identified with _The Mirror_,) we need scarcely add
+our commendation of the design of the Botanic Garden at Manchester,
+and similar establishments in other large towns of Britain. What can
+be a more delightful relaxation to a Lancashire Mechanic than an hour
+or two in a _Garden_: what an escape from the pestiferous politics of
+the times. At Birmingham too, there is a Public Garden, similar to
+that at Manchester, where we hope the Artisan may enjoy a sight at
+least of nature's gladdening beauties.
+
+In the suburbs of our great metropolis, matters are not so well
+managed; though Mr. Loudon, we think, proposes to unite a Botanic with
+the Zoological Gardens. Folks in London must study botany on their
+window-sills. The wealthy do not encourage it. Their love of the
+country is confined to the forced luxuries of kitchen-gardens,
+conveyed to them in wicker-baskets; and a few hundred exotics hired
+from a florist, to furnish a mimic conservatory for an evening rout.
+They shun her gardens and fields; but, as Allan Cunningham pleasantly
+remarks in his Life of Bonington: "Her loveliness and varieties are
+not to be learned elsewhere than in her lap. He will know little of
+birds who studies them stuffed in the museum, and less of the rose and
+the lily who never saw anything but artificial nose-gays."[3]
+
+    [3] Family Library, No. XXVII.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+TO A SNOWDROP.
+
+_A Translation._
+
+(_For the Mirror_.)
+
+
+First and fairest of flowery visiter--through the dark winter I
+have dreamed of thy paleness and thy purity--youngest sister of the
+lily--likelier, thou art to be loved for thine own sake. Can so
+delicate a thing spring from an Earthly bed? or art thou, indeed,
+fallen from the heavens as a Snowdrop? Thus I pluck thee from thy
+clayey abode, in which, like some of us mortals, thou wouldst find an
+early grave. I place thee in my bosom, (oh! that it were half so pure
+as thou), and there shalt thou die. Thou comest like a pure spirit,
+rising from thy earthly home unsullied and unknown. No longer a child
+of the dust, thou steppest forth almost too delicately attired at
+such a season as this. Ye winds of heaven: "breathe on it gently."
+Ye showers descend on my Snowdrop with the tenderness of dew. Little
+flower, I love thy look of unpretending innocence: thou art the child
+of simplicity. Thou art a _flower_, even though colourless. Wert thou
+never gay as others? Where are the hues thou once didst wear? Hast
+thou lent them to the rainbow, or to gay and gaudy flowers, or why
+so pale? Dost thou fear the winter's wind? Canst thou survive the
+snow-storm? Tell me: dost thou sleep by starlight, or revel with
+midnight fairies? My Snowdrop, I pity thee, for thou art a lonely
+flower. Why camest thou out so early, and wouldst not tarry for thy
+more cautious spring-time companions? Yet thou knowest not fear, "fair
+maiden of February." Thou art bold to come out on such a morning, and
+friendless too. It must be true as they tell me, that thou wert once
+an icicle, and the breath of some fairy's lips warmed thee into a
+flower. Indeed thou lookest a frail and fairy thing, and thou wilt not
+sojourn with us long; therefore it is I make much of thee. Too soon,
+ah! too soon, will thy graceful form droop and die; yet shall the
+memory of my Snowdrop be sweet, while memory lasts. I know not that I
+shall live to see thy drooping head another year. A thousand flowers
+with a thousand hues will follow after thee, but I will not, I will
+not forget thee my Snowdrop.
+
+MAJOR CONVOLVULUS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+OUR LADY'S CHAPEL, SOUTHWARK.
+
+
+It may not plainly appear to some readers that our Engraving of this
+fine vestige of ancient art, is from a View taken in the year 1818.
+The Bishop's Chapel, which is there shown, was demolished about twelve
+months since, at whose bidding we know not; perhaps of the same party
+who now contend for the destruction of the Lady Chapel.
+
+By the way we referred to the Altar Screen, of which we now find the
+following memorandum in a _History of St. Saviour's Church_, published
+in 1795:[4]
+
+    "Anno 1618. 15 Jac. I.
+    "The screen at the entrance to the chapel of the Virgin Mary was
+    this year set up."
+
+In the same work occur the particulars of the repairs of the Lady
+Chapel in 1624:
+
+    "Anno 1624. 21 Jac. I.
+    "The chapel of the Virgin Mary was restored to the parishioners,
+    being let out to bakers for above sixty years before, and 200_l_.
+    laid out in the repair. Of which we preserve the following extract
+    from Stowe:
+
+    "But passing all these, some what now of that part of this church
+    above the chancell, that in former times was called Our Ladies
+    Chappell.
+
+    "It is now called the New Chappell; and indeed, though very old,
+    it now may be called a new one, because newly redeemed from such
+    use and imployment, as in respect of that it was built to, divine
+    and religious duties, may very well be branded, with the style of
+    wretched, base, and unworthy, for that, that before this abuse,
+    was (and is now) a faire and beautifull chappell, by those that
+    were then the corporation (which is a body consisting of thirty
+    vestry-men, six of those thirty, churchwardens) was leased and let
+    out, and the house of God made a bake-house.
+
+    "Two very faire doores, that from the two side iles of the
+    chancell of this church, and two that thorow the head of the
+    chancell (as at this day they doe againe) went into it, were
+    lath't, daub'd, and dam'd up: the faire pillars were ordinary
+    posts against which they piled billets and bavens: in this place
+    they had their ovens, in that a bolting place, in that their
+    kneading trough, in another (I have heard) a hogs-trough; for the
+    words that were given mee were these, this place have I knowne
+    a hog-stie, in another a store house, to store up their hoorded
+    meal; and in all of it something of this sordid kind and
+    condition. It was first let by the corporation afore named, to
+    one _Wyat_, after him, to one _Peacocke_, after him, to one
+    _Cleybrooke_, and last, to one _Wilson_, all bakers, and this
+    chappell still imployed in the way of their trade, a bake-house,
+    though some part of this bake-house was some time turned into a
+    starch-house.
+
+    "The time of the continuance of it in this kind, from the first
+    letting of it to Wyat, to the restoring of it again to the church,
+    was threescore and some odde yeeres, in the yeere of our Lord God
+    1624, for in this yeere the ruines and blasted estate, that the
+    old corporation sold it to, were by the corporation of this time,
+    repaired, renewed, well, and very worthily beautified: the charge
+    of it for that yeere, with many things done to it since, arising
+    to two hundred pounds.
+
+    "This, as all the former repairs, being the sole cost and charge
+    of the parishioners."
+
+    [4] By M.M. Concanen, jun. and A. Morgan.
+
+A correspondent, E.E. inquires how it happens that the Chapel of St.
+Mary Magdalen, shown in all old plans of the Church, has likewise
+disappeared within the present century? This Chapel adjoined the
+South transept, and was removed during the repairs, under the able
+superintendence of Mr. Gwilt. It was thus described by Mr. Nightingale
+in 1818:
+
+    "The chapel itself is a very plain erection. It is entered on the
+    south, through a large pair of folding doors, leading down a
+    small flight of steps. The ceiling has nothing peculiar in its
+    character; nor are the four pillars supporting the roof, and
+    the unequal arches leading into the south aisle, in the least
+    calculated to convey any idea of grandeur, or feeling of
+    veneration. These arches have been cut through in a very clumsy
+    manner, so that scarcely any vestige of the ancient church of St.
+    Mary Magdalen now remains. A small doorway and windows, however,
+    are still visible at the east end of this chapel; the west end
+    formerly opened into the south transept; but that also is now
+    walled up, except a part, which leads to the gallery there. There
+    are in different parts niches which once held the holy water, by
+    which the pious devotees of former ages sprinkled their foreheads
+    on their entrance before the altar, I am not aware that any other
+    remains of the old church are now visible in this chapel. Passing
+    through the eastern end of the south aisle, a pair of gates leads
+    into the Virgin Mary's Chapel."
+
+From what we remember of the character of this Chapel, the lovers of
+architecture have little to lament in its removal. Our Correspondent,
+E.E., adds--"This, and not the Lady Chapel, it was, (No. 456 of _The
+Mirror_,) that contained the gravestone of one Bishop Wickham, who,
+however, was not the famous builder of Windsor Castle, in the time
+of Edward III., but died in 1595, the same year in which he was
+translated from the see of Lincoln to that of Winchester. His
+gravestone, now lying exposed in the churchyard, marks the south-east
+corner of the site of the aforesaid Magdalen Chapel."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+SCOTTISH ECONOMY.
+
+
+SHAVINGS _V._ COAL AND PEAT.
+
+(_To the Editor_.)
+
+
+Without intending to be angry, permit me to inform your well-meaning
+correspondent, _M.L.B_. that his observations on the inhabitants of
+"Auld Reekie," are something like the subject of his communication
+"Shavings," _rather_ superficial.
+
+Improvidence forms no feature in the Scottish character; but your
+flying tourist charges "the gude folk o' Embro'" with monstrous
+extravagance in making bonfires of their carpenters' chips; and
+proceeds to reflect in the true spirit of civilization how much better
+it would have been if the builders' chips had been used in lighting
+household fires, to the obviously great saving of bundle-wood, than to
+have thus wantonly forced them to waste their gases on the desert air.
+But your traveller forgot that in countries which abound in wheat, rye
+is seldom eaten; and that on the same principle, in Scotland, where
+coal and peat are abundant, the "natives," like the ancient Vestals,
+never allow their fires to go out, but keep them burning through the
+whole night. The business of the "gude man" is, immediately before
+going to bed, to load the fire with coals, and crown the supply with
+a "canny passack o' turf," which keeps the whole in a state of gentle
+combustion; when, in the morning a sturdy thrust from the poker,
+produces an instantaneous blaze. But, unfortunately, should any
+untoward "o'er-night clishmaclaver" occasion the neglect of this duty,
+and the fire be left, like envy, to feed upon its own vitals, a remedy
+is at hand in the shape of a pan "o' live coals" from some more
+provident neighbour, resident in an upper or lower "flat;" and thus
+without bundle-wood or "shavings," is the mischief cured.
+
+I hope that this explanation will sufficiently vindicate my Scottish
+friends from _M.L.B_.'s aspersion. Scotchmen improvident! never: for
+workhouses are as scarce among them as bundle-wood, or intelligent
+travellers. Recollect that I am not in a passion; but this I will say,
+though the gorge choke me, that _M.L.B._ strongly reminds me of the
+French princess, who when she heard of some manufacturers dying in the
+provinces of starvation, said, "Poor fools! die of starvation--if I
+were them I would eat bread and cheese first."
+
+The next time _M.L.B._ visits Scotland, let him ask the first peasant
+he meets how to keep eggs fresh for years; and he will answer _rub a
+little oil or butter over them, within a day or two after laying, and
+they will keep any length of time, perfectly fresh_. This discovery,
+which was made in France by the great Reamur, depends for its success
+upon the oil filling up the pores of the egg-shell, and thereby
+cutting off the perspiration between the fluids of the egg and
+the atmosphere, which is a necessary agent in putrefaction. The
+preservation of eggs in this manner, has long been practised in all
+"braid Scotland;" but it is not so much as known in our own boasted
+land of stale eggs and bundle-wood.
+
+In Edinburgh, I mean the Scottish and not the Irish capital, _M.L.B._
+may actually eat _new laid_ eggs a _year old!_ How is it that this
+great comfort is not practised in the navy? The Scotch have also a
+hundred other domestic practices for the saving of the hard earned
+"siller;" and are far from the commission of any such idle waste as
+_M.L.B._'s story exhibits. S.S.
+
+P.S. Tinder-boxes are unknown in Scotland, and I am sure _M.L.B._ if
+he wants a business would as readily make his fortune by selling them,
+as the Yorkshireman who went to the West Indies with a cargo of great
+coats.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+LINES
+
+ON MY FORTY-NINTH BIRTHDAY.
+
+(_For the Mirror_.)
+
+
+  On the slope of Life's decline,
+  The landmark reached of _forty-nine_,
+  Thoughtful on this heart of mine
+  Strikes the sound of forty-nine.
+  Greyish hairs with brown combine
+  To note Time's hand--and forty-nine.
+  Sunny hours that used to shine,
+  Shadow o'er at forty-nine.
+  Of youthful sports the joys decline,
+  Symptoms strong of forty-nine.
+  The dance I willingly resign,
+  To lighter heels than forty-nine.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Yet, why anxiously repine?
+  Pleasures wait on forty-nine.
+
+  Social pleasures--joys benign--
+  Still are found at forty-nine.
+  With a friend to go and dine,
+  What better age than forty-nine?
+  Ladies with me sip their wine,
+  Though they know I'm forty-nine.
+  Tea and chat, and wit combine,
+  To enliven musing forty-nine.
+  Let harmony its chords untwine,
+  Music charms at forty nine.
+  O'er wasting care let croakers whine,
+  Care we'll defy at forty-nine.
+  Fifty shall not make me pine--
+  Why lament o'er forty-nine.
+  Joys let's trace of "Auld Lang Syne,"
+  Memory's fresh at forty-nine.
+  Then fill a cup of rosy wine,
+  And drink a health to FORTY-NINE.
+
+W. W.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PHILOSOPHY OF LONDON.
+
+
+_The Quadrant_
+
+The principle of _suum cuique_ is felicitously enforced in that
+ostentatious but rather heavy piece of architecture, the Regent
+Quadrant, the pillars of which exhibit from time to time different
+colours, according to the fancy of the shop-owners to whose premises
+respectively they happen to belong. Thus, Mr. Figgins chooses to see
+his side of a pillar painted a pale chocolate, while his neighbour
+Mrs. Hopkins insists on disguising the other half with a coat of light
+cream colour, or haply a delicate shade of Dutch pink; so that the
+identity of material which made it so hard for Transfer, in Zeluco,
+to distinguish between his metal Venus and Vulcan, is often the only
+incident that the two moieties have in common.
+
+
+_Squares_.
+
+The few squares that existed in London antecedent to 1770, were rather
+sheep-walks, paddocks, and kitchen gardens, than any thing else.
+Grosvenor Square in particular, fenced round with a rude wooden
+railing, which was interrupted by lumpish brick piers at intervals of
+every half-dozen yards, partook more of the character of a pond than
+a parterre; and as for Hanover Square, it had very much the air of a
+sorry cow-yard, where blackguards were to be seen assembled daily,
+playing at husselcap up to their ankles in mire. Cavendish Square was
+then for the first time dignified with a statue, in the modern uniform
+of the Guards, mounted on a charger, _à l'antique_, richly gilt and
+burnished; and Red Lion Square, elegantly so called from the sign of
+an ale-shop at the corner, presented the anomalous appendages of two
+ill-constructed watch-houses at either end, with an ungainly, naked
+obelisk in the centre, which, by the by, was understood to be the
+site of Oliver Cromwell's re-interment. St. James's Park abounded in
+apple-trees, which Pepys mentions having laid under contribution by
+stealth, while Charles and his queen were actually walking within
+sight of him. The quaint style of this old writer is sometimes not a
+little entertaining. He mentions having seen Major-General Harrison
+"hanged, drawn, and quartered at Charing-Cross, he (Harrison) looking
+as cheerful as any man could in that condition." He also gravely
+informs us that Sir Henry Vane, when about to be beheaded on Tower
+Hill, urgently requested the executioner to take off his head so as
+not to hurt a seton which happened to be uncicatrized in his neck!
+
+
+_Modern Building_.
+
+We are the contemporaries of a street-building generation, but the
+grand maxim of the nineteenth century, in their management of masonry,
+as in almost every thing else, as far as we can discover, appears to
+lie in that troublesome line of Macbeth's soliloquy, ending with,
+"'twere well it were done quickly." It is notorious that many of the
+leases of new dwelling-houses contain a clause against dancing, lest
+the premises should suffer from a mazurka, tremble at a gallopade, or
+fall prostrate under the inflictions of "the parson's farewell," or
+"the wind that shakes the barley." The system of building, or rather
+"running up" a house first, and afterwards providing it with a false
+exterior, meant to deceive the eye with the semblance of curved stone,
+is in itself an absolute abomination. Besides, Greek architecture, so
+magnificent when on a large scale, becomes perfectly ridiculous when
+applied to a private street-mansion, or a haberdasher's warehouse. St.
+Paul's Church, Covent-Garden, is an instance of the unhappy effect
+produced by a combination of a similar kind; great in all its parts,
+with its original littleness, it very nearly approximates to the
+character of a barn. Inigo Jones doubtless desired to erect an edifice
+of stately Roman aspect, but he was cramped in his design,
+and, therefore, only aspired to make a first-rate barn; so far
+unquestionably the great architect has succeeded. Then looking to
+those details of London architecture, which appear more peculiarly
+connected with the dignity of the nation, what can we say of it,
+but that the King of Great Britain is worse lodged than the chief
+magistrate of Claris or Zug, while the debates of the most powerful
+assembly in the world are carried on in a building, (or, a return to
+Westminster Hall,) which will bear no comparison with the Stadthouse
+at Amsterdam! The city, however, as a whole, presents a combination of
+magnitude and grandeur, which we should in vain look for elsewhere,
+although with all its immensity it has not yet realized the quaint
+prediction of James the First,--that London would shortly be England,
+and England would be London.
+
+
+_Morning_.
+
+The metropolis presents certain features of peculiar interest just at
+that unpopular dreamy hour when stars "begin to pale their ineffectual
+fires," and the drowsy twilight of the doubtful day brightens apace
+into the fulness of morning, "blushing like an Eastern bride." Then it
+is that the extremes of society first meet under circumstances
+well calculated to indicate the moral width between their several
+conditions. The gilded chariot bowls along from square to square with
+its delicate patrimonial possessor, bearing him homeward in celerity
+and silence, worn with lassitude, and heated with wine quaffed at his
+third rout, after having deserted the oft-seen ballet, or withdrawn in
+pettish disgust at the utterance of a false harmony in the opera. A
+cabriolet hurries past him still more rapidly, bearing a fashionable
+physician, on the fret at having been summoned prematurely from the
+comforts of a second sleep in a voluptuous chamber, on an experimental
+visit to
+
+  "Raise the weak head, and stay the parting sigh,
+  Or with new life relume the swimming eye."
+
+At the corners of streets of traffic, and more especially
+
+  "Where fam'd St. Giles's ancient limits spread,"
+
+the matutinal huckster may be seen administering to costermongers,
+hackney-coachmen, and "fair women without discretion," a fluid "all
+hot, all hot," ycleped by the initiated elder wine, which, we should
+think, might give the partakers a tolerable notion of the fermenting
+beverage extracted by Tartars from mare's milk not particularly fresh.
+Hard by we find a decent matron super-intending her tea-table at the
+lamp-post, and tendering to a remarkably select company little, blue,
+delft cups of bohea, filled from time to time from a prodigious
+kettle, that simmers unceasingly on its charcoal tripod, though the
+refractory cad often protests that the fuel fails before the boiling
+stage is consummated by an ebullition. Hither approaches perhaps
+an interesting youth from Magherastaphena, who, ere night-fall, is
+destined to figure in some police-office as a "juvenile delinquent."
+The shivering sweep, who has just travelled through half a dozen
+stacks of chimneys, also quickens every motion of his weary little
+limbs, when he comes within sight of the destined breakfast, and
+beholds the reversionary heel of a loaf and roll of butter awaiting
+his arrival. Another unfailing visiter is the market-gardener, on
+his way to deposit before the Covent Garden piazza such a pyramid
+of cabbages as might well have been manured in the soil with Master
+Jack's justly celebrated bean-stalk. Surely Solomon in all his
+glory was not arrayed like one of these. The female portion of
+such assemblages, for the most part, consists of poor Salopian
+strawberry-carriers, many of whom have walked already at least
+four miles, with a troublesome burden, and for a miserable
+pittance--egg-women, with sundry still-born chickens, goslings, and
+turkey-pouts--and passing milk-maidens, peripatetic under the yoke of
+their double pail. Their professional cry is singular and sufficiently
+unintelligible, although perhaps not so much so as that of the Dublin
+milk-venders in the days of Swift; it used to run thus,--
+
+  "Mugs, jugs, and porringers,
+  Up in the garret and down in the cellar."
+
+They are in general a hale, comely, well-favoured race,
+notwithstanding the assertion of the author of Trivia to the
+contrary.[5]
+
+    [5] "On doors the sallow milk maid chalks her gains.
+         Oh! how unlike the milk-maid of the plains!"
+
+The most revolting spectacle to any one of sensibility which usually
+presents itself about this hour, is the painful progress of the jaded,
+foundered, and terrified droves of cattle that one necessarily must
+see not unfrequently struggling on to the appointed slaughter-house,
+perhaps after three days during which they have been running
+
+  "Their course of suffering in the public way."
+
+On such occasions we have often wished ourselves "far from the sight of
+city, spire, or sound of minster clock." One feels most for the sheep
+and lambs, when the softened fancy recurs to the streams and hedgerows,
+and pleasant pastures, from whence the woolly exiles have been ejected;
+and yet the emotion of pity isnot wholly unaccompanied by admiration at
+the sagacity of the canine disciplinarians that bay them remorselessly
+forward, and sternly refuse the stragglers permission to make a
+reconnoissance on the road. They are highly respectable members of
+society these same sheep-dogs, and we wish we could say as much for "the
+curs of low degree," that just at the same hour begin to prowl up and
+down St. Giles's, and to and fro in it, seeking what they may devour,
+with the fear of the Alderman of Cripplegate Within before their eyes.
+The feline kind, however, have reason to think themselves in more danger
+at the first round of the watering cart, for we have often rescued an
+unsuspicious tortoise-shell from the felonious designs of a skin-dealer,
+who was about to lay violent hands on unoffending puss, while she was
+watching the process of making bread through the crevices of a Scotch
+grating.[6]
+
+    [6] They say that no town in Europe is without a Scotchman for an
+        inhabitant. This trade in London is generally professed by North
+        Britons, and it is always a cause of alarm to a stranger if he
+        notices the enormous column of black smoke which is emitted from
+        their premises at the dawn, of the morning.
+
+Another animal _sui generis_, occasionally visible about the same
+cock-crowing season, is the parliamentary reporter, shuffling to
+roost, and a more slovenly-looking operative from sunrise to sunset
+is rarely to be seen. There has probably been a double debate, and
+between three and five o'clock he has written "a column _bould_."
+No one can well mistake him. The features are often Irish, the
+gait jaunty or resolutely brisk, but neither "buxom, blithe, nor
+debonnair," complexion wan, expression pensive, and the entire
+propriety of the toilette disarranged and _degagée_. The stuff that
+he has perpetrated is happily no longer present to his memory, and
+neither placeman's sophistry nor patriot's rant will be likely in
+any way to interfere with his repose. Intense fatigue, whether
+intellectual or manual, however, is not the best security for sound
+slumber at any hour, more particularly in the morning.
+
+Even at this hour the swart Savoyard (_filius nullius_) issues forth
+on his diurnal pilgrimage, "remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow," to
+excruciate on his superannuated hurdy-gurdy that sublime melody, "the
+hundred and seventh psalm," or the plaintive sweetness of "Isabel,"
+perhaps speculating on a breakfast for himself and Pug, somewhere
+between Knightsbridge and Old Brentford. Poor fellow! Could he
+procure a few bones of mutton, how hard would it be for his hungry
+comprehension to understand the displeasure which similar objects
+occasioned to Attila on the plains of Champagne!
+
+Then the too frequent preparations for a Newgate execution--but enough
+of such details; it is the muse of Mr. Crabbe that alone could do them
+justice. We would say to the great city, in the benedictory spirit of
+the patriot of Venice,--_esto perpetua!_ Notwithstanding thy manifold
+"honest knaveries," peace be within thy walls, and plenty pervade thy
+palaces, that thou mayest ever approve thyself, oh queen of capitals,
+
+  "Like Samson's riddle in the sacred song,
+  A springing sweet still flowing from the strong!"
+
+_Blackwood's Magazine_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE SKETCH-BOOK.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+SCOTTISH SPORTING.
+
+_From the letters of two sportsmen; with recollections of the Ettrick
+Shepherd._
+
+(_For the Mirror_.)
+
+
+After visiting Thoms, the sculptor, "Burns's cottage," "Halloway
+Kirk," Monument, &c., in Ayrshire, we toddled on over to Dumfries,
+and had a _crack_ with poor "Rabbie Burns's" widow, not forgetting
+McDiarmid the author; thence to Moffat, and up that dismal glen, the
+pass of Moffat, to the grey mare's tail, a waterfall, so called from
+its resembling the silvery tail of a grey mare; and truly, if the
+simile were extended into infinitude, which from its sublimity it
+would admit of, we might compare its waving, silky stream swinging
+over the broad face of its lofty grey rock, to the tail of the pale
+horse of Revelation, over the chaos of time. It was a sombre, solemn
+sort of a day, and the dense clouds hung curtaining down the mountain
+sides, like our living pall as it were--I scarcely know how--but we
+felt dismally until we took a dram and got into a perspiration, with
+tugging up the sinuosities of the cliff's, to the summit of the
+waterfall. Loch Skein, where we were galvanized, electrified,
+magnetized, and petrified, all at once, by the quackery, clackery,
+flappery, quatter, splatter, clatter, scatter, and dash-de-blash, and
+squash, of a flock of wild ducks, on its reedy, flaggy surface; O,
+what a _scutter_ was there! Our hearts, too full, leapt into our
+mouths, but our guns were turned into tons of lead, and ere we could
+heave them up to our shoulders of clay, the thousand had fled into the
+eternal grey mist of the mountain, like the dispersion of a confused
+dream. There we stood like two sumphs, (as Hogg calls those who are
+ganging a bit aglee in their wits) gaping and staring at each other
+with a look which said, why did not _you_ shoot? Our dogs too stood
+as stiff as two pumps, with tails standing out like the handles!
+_Apropos_--talking of Hogg, the poet, we called to see him in his
+half-acre island in Eltrive Lake, and truly we met with that burning
+hot reception which we had anticipated from _Blackwood's Magazine_
+description of him. We had no _notes of introduction_ except the notes
+which our guns pricked upon the echoes of Ettric Forest, and which
+James Hogg heard and answered with a view-hallo, for us to "come awa
+doon the brae an' tak' a dram o'speerits," and so we did, and in true
+Highland style; he met us at the door and gave us a drain from the
+bottle, first gulping a glass himself of that double-strong like &
+fire-eater, without a twink of the eye or a wince of the mouth; and
+then with a grip o' the daddle, which made the fingers crack, he
+pulled us into his bonnie wee bit shooting box of a house, with a
+"Come awa ben ye'll be the better o' a bite o' venison pasty;" so in
+we went, and were introduced to his bonnie wife and sousy barnes,
+which latter, Jammie Hogg nursed as though he lov'd 'em frae the
+uttermost ends o' his sowl.
+
+Campbell has it against Byron, that "the poetic temperament is
+incompatible with matrimonial felicity." Fudge, fudge, Mr. Campbell,
+did you ever visit James Hogg?
+
+Well, we sat down to take a snack with James and an extraordinary
+monkey of his, which he has dressed in the garb of a Highland soldier,
+and which too, sat down at table, and played his knife and fork like
+a true epicure. "An extrornry crater is that wee Heelan-man o' mine,
+gentlemen, he can conduc himsel' as weel's ony Christan man at table,
+and aft when I'm pennin' a bit rhyme 'thegither, the crater'll lowp up
+'ith chair anent me and tak' up a pen, in exac emeetation o' me, and
+keck into my 'een in his cunnin way, as if he was speering me what to
+write aboot; he surely maun ha' a feck o' thocht in his heed if are
+could gar him spak it; but ye ken his horsemanship beats a'. I had a
+spire-haired collie, a breed atween a Heelan lurcher, a grew, and a
+wolf, dog, a meety, muckle collie he is for sure--weel, gentlemen, do
+ye ken, he a' rides on him when we hoont the tod (fox), an' to see him
+girt a screep o' red flannin on for a saddle, that the neer-do-weel
+toor fra a beggar-wife's tattered duds ane day; an' then to see him
+lowp on like a mountebank, and sit skreighin an' chatrin, an' cronkin
+like a paddock on a clud o'yearth. O, its a lachin teeklesome sicht
+for sure--an' then hee'l thud, thud, thud his wee bit neive 'ith
+shouther 'oth collie, an' steek his toes in his side, just for a'
+the world like a Newmarket jockey, an' then hee'l turn him roon
+behint-afore an' play treeks, till collie gerns at him; an' then beway
+o' makin friens again, hee'l streek an' pat him, an' peek the ferlie
+oot o' his hurdles; an' then when we're a' ready for gannin awa, to be
+sure what a dirdum an' stramash do they twa keek up; an' then aff they
+flee like the deevil in a gale o' wind, an' are oot o' sicht before ye
+can say owr the border an' far awa. But I ha' just been speerin the
+forester aboot the tod (fox), an' he gars me gang owr the muir to
+Ettric Forest, an' leuk in a cleuch in a rock there is there, an'
+I shall find the half-peckit banes o' a joop o' mine that stray'd
+yestreen. So, gentlemen, if yer fond o' oor kin o' sportin, ye shall
+hae such a sicht o' rinnin an' ridin as ye ne'er saw heretofore we
+your twa een."
+
+We readily accepted the invite, and off we set in company with the
+"Ettric Shepherd" and his monkey, and certainly it was a "_teeklesome
+sicht_" to see him mounted on the long, lank, wire-haired, shaggy
+wolf-dog-grew-lurcher, while he in play was scouring round and round
+the wild and barren moor; away and away as swift as the wind, over
+brae and bourn and bog they went, like a red petticoated witch on a
+besom, flying in the storm.
+
+On our way we fell in with the foresters, who were going a
+deer-stalking; they had a buck to kill for the duke, so we joined
+company, and gave that satisfactory shrug of the shoulders, with the
+expectation of sport, that a spider would feel while sitting in the
+corner of a hollow nut-shell, and seeing his victim already entangled
+in his web, while he was whetting his appetite with suspended hope, in
+dream of anticipated fattenings.
+
+We made the best of our way to the watering-place haunt of the deer.
+Silence was the word, and we crept on tip-toe and tip-toe, scarce
+breathing, keeping ever out of the wind's course; for they have an
+ear of silk, and an eye of light, and a scent so exquisite that they
+could, if it were possible, hear the tread, see the essence, and scent
+the breath, of a spirit. This watering haunt was in a lonely glen,
+which was commanded, within pistol-shot, by a small clump of trees,
+which were under-grown by brushwood and brambles, and wherein we
+ambushed ourselves. Ay, there it was, the "gory bed," where "this day
+a stag must die," just one hundred yards from that said clump. Hush,
+hush, silence, silence, "Swallow your brith," says Jammie Hogg, hush,
+"Heck, cack, a," says the monkey, "the deevil tak' the monkey," says
+Jammie, "whist, whist, hush!"
+
+(_To be concluded in our next_.)
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+THE SELECTOR; AND LITERARY NOTICES OF _NEW WORKS_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+THE GEORGIAN ERA.
+
+(_Concluded from page 124_.)
+
+_Sheridan_.
+
+
+"In early life, Sheridan had been generally accounted handsome: he was
+rather above the middle size, and well proportioned. He excelled in
+several manly exercises: he was a proficient in horsemanship, and
+danced with great elegance. His eyes were black, brilliant, and
+always particularly expressive. Sir Joshua Reynolds, who painted his
+portrait, is said to have affirmed, that their pupils were larger than
+those of any human being he had ever met with. They retained their
+beauty to the last; but the lower parts of his face exhibited, in his
+latter years, the usual effects of intemperance. His arms were strong,
+although by no means large; and his hands small and delicate. On a
+cast of one of them, the following appropriate couplet is stated, by
+Moore, to have been written:--
+
+  Good at a fight, but better at a play;
+  Godlike in giving; but the devil to pay!
+
+"No man of his day possessed so much tact in appropriating and
+adorning the wit of others. He pillaged his predecessors of their
+ideas, with as much skill and effrontery as he did his contemporaries
+of their money. It was his ambition to appear indolent; but he was, in
+fact, particularly, though not regularly laborious. The most striking
+parts of his best speeches were written and rewritten, on separate
+slips of paper, and, in many cases, laid by for years, before they
+were spoken. He not only elaborately polished his good ideas, but,
+when they were finished, waited patiently, until an opportunity
+occurred of uttering them with the best effect. Moore states, that
+the only time he could have had for the pre-arrangement of his
+conceptions, must have been during the many hours of the day which he
+passed in bed; when, frequently, while the world gave him credit for
+being asleep, he was employed in laying the frame-work of his wit and
+eloquence for the evening.
+
+"Like that of his great political rival, Pitt, his eloquence required
+the stimulus of the bottle. Port was his favourite wine; it quickened,
+he said, the circulation and the fancy together; adding, that he
+seldom spoke to his satisfaction until after he had taken a couple of
+bottles. Arthur O'Leary used to remark, that, like a porter, he never
+was steady unless he had a load on his head.
+
+"He also needed the excitement of wine when engaged in composition.
+'If an idea be reluctant,' he would sometimes say, 'a glass of port
+ripens it, and it bursts forth; if it come freely, a glass of port is
+a glorious reward for it.' He usually wrote at night, with several
+candles burning around him.
+
+"The most serious appointments were, to him, matters of no importance.
+After promising to attend the funeral of his friend Richardson, he
+arrived at the church after the conclusion of the burial service;
+which, however, to their mutual disgrace, he prevailed on the
+clergyman to repeat. But, notwithstanding his liability to the charge
+of desecration, even in more than one instance, he professed, and it
+is but charitable to presume that he felt, in his better moments, a
+deep sense of the worth of piety. He had ever considered, he said,
+a deliberate disposition to make proselytes in infidelity, as an
+unaccountable depravity, a brutal outrage, the motive for which he had
+never been able to trace or conceive.
+
+"Sheridan enjoyed a distinguished reputation for colloquial wit. From
+among the best of the occasional dicta, &c. attributed to him, the
+following are selected:--
+
+"An elderly maiden lady, an inmate of a country house, at which
+Sheridan was passing a few days, expressed an inclination to take a
+stroll with him, but he excused himself, on account of the badness of
+the weather. Shortly afterwards, she met him sneaking out alone.
+
+'So, Mr. Sheridan,' said she, 'it has cleared up.' 'Yes, madam,' was
+the reply; 'it certainly has cleared up enough for one, but not enough
+for two;' and off he went.
+
+"He jocularly observed, on one occasion, to a creditor, who
+peremptorily required payment of the interest due on a long-standing
+debt,' My dear sir, you know it is not my _interest_ to pay the
+_principal_; nor is it my _principle_ to pay the _interest_.'
+
+"One day, the prince of Wales having expatiated on the beauty of Dr.
+Darwin's opinion, that the reason why the bosom of a beautiful woman
+possesses such a fascinating effect on man is, because he derived from
+that source the first pleasurable sensations of his infancy. Sheridan
+ridiculed the idea very happily. 'Such children, then,' said he, 'as
+are brought up by hand, must needs be indebted for similar sensations
+to a very different object; and yet, I believe, no man has ever felt
+any intense emotions of amatory delight at beholding a pap-spoon.'
+
+"Boaden, the author of several theatrical pieces, having given Drury
+lane theatre the title of a wilderness, Sheridan, when requested,
+shortly afterwards, to produce a tragedy, written by Boaden, replied,
+'The wise and discreet author calls our house a wilderness:--now, I
+don't mind allowing the oracle to have his opinion; but it is really
+too much for him to expect, that I will suffer him to prove his
+words.'
+
+"Kelly having to perform an Irish character, Johnstone took great
+pains to instruct him in the brogue, but with so little success, that
+Sheridan said, on entering the green-room, at the conclusion of the
+piece, 'Bravo, Kelly! I never heard you speak such good English in all
+my life!'
+
+"He delighted in practical jokes, and seems to have enjoyed a sheer
+piece of mischief, with all the gusto of a school-boy. At this kind of
+sport, Tickell and Sheridan were often play-fellows: and the tricks
+which they inflicted on each other, were frequently attended with
+rather unpleasant consequences. One night, he induced Tickell to
+follow him down a dark passage, on the floor of which he had placed
+all the plates and dishes he could muster, in such a manner, that
+while a clear path was left open for his own escape, it would have
+been a miracle if Tickell did not smash two-thirds of them. The result
+was as Sheridan had anticipated: Tickell fell among the crockery,
+which so severely cut him in many places, that Lord John Townshend
+found him, the next day, in bed, and covered with patches. 'Sheridan
+has behaved atrociously towards me,' said he, 'and I am resolved to be
+revenged on him. But,' added he, his admiration at the trick entirely
+subduing his indignation, 'how amazingly well it was managed!'
+
+"He once took advantage of the singular appetite of Richardson for
+argument, to evade payment of a heavy coach-fare. Sheridan had
+occupied a hackney-chariot for several hours, and had not a penny in
+his pocket to pay the coachman. While in this dilemma, Richardson
+passed, and he immediately proposed to take the disputant up, as they
+appeared to be going in the same direction. The offer was accepted,
+and Sheridan adroitly started a subject on which his companion was
+usually very vehement and obstinate. The argument was maintained with
+great warmth on both sides, until at length Sheridan affected to lose
+his temper, and pulling the check-string, commanded the coachman to
+let him out instantly, protesting that he would not ride another
+yard with a man who held such opinions, and supported them in such a
+manner. So saying, he descended and walked off, leaving Richardson to
+enjoy his fancied triumph, and to pay the whole fare. Richardson, it
+is said, in a paroxysm of delight at Sheridan's apparent defeat, put
+his head out of the window and vociferated his arguments until he was
+out of sight."
+
+The minor or appendix biographies are not so neatly executed as the
+more lengthy sketches. It is rather oddly said, "that Alderman Wood
+shortly before the demise of George the Fourth, obtained leave to
+bring in a bill for the purpose of preventing the spread of canine
+madness." Again, as the Alderman is a hop-factor, why observe "he
+is said to have realized a considerable fortune by his fortunate
+speculations in hops." This describes him as a mere speculator, and
+not as an established trader in hops.
+
+The present volume of the Georgian Era is handsomely printed, and is,
+without exception, the _cheapest book of the day_, considered either
+as to its merit or size--quality or quantity: what can transcend
+nearly 600 pages of such condensed reading as we have proved this work
+to contain--for half-a-guinea! Were it re-written and printed in the
+style of a fashionable novel, it would reach round the world, and in
+that case, it should disappear at _Terra del Fuego_.
+
+The embellishments of the Georgian Era are not its most successful
+portion; but a fine head of George I. fronts the title-page. The
+anecdotes, by the way, will furnish us two or three agreeable pages
+anon.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+FINE ARTS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+PATRICK NASMYTH.
+
+(_For the Mirror_.)
+
+
+This distinguished landscape-painter was the son of Mr. Alexander
+Nasmyth, an artist who is still living and well known in Edinburgh, at
+which city Patrick was born about the year 1785. His education appears
+to have been good, and he was early initiated in the art of painting
+by his father, who constantly represented to him the many great
+advantages to be derived from the study of nature rather than from the
+old masters' productions, the greater portion of which have lost their
+original purity by time and the unskilful management of those persons
+who term themselves _picture restorers_. Far from confining himself to
+the usual method adopted by most young artists of servilely imitating
+old paintings, young Nasmyth very soon began to copy nature in all
+her varied freshness and beauty. Scotland contains much of the
+picturesque, and from this circumstance he seized every opportunity
+to cultivate his genius for landscape-painting. With incessant
+application he studied the accidental formation of clouds and the
+shadows thrown by them on the earth; by which practice he acquired the
+art of delineating with precision the most pleasing effects. His style
+appears very agreeable and unaffected; he excelled however, only in
+rural scenery, in which his skies, distant hills, and the barks of the
+trees, are truly admirable. His foregrounds are always beautifully
+diversified, and every blade of grass is true to nature. He is not
+equal in every respect to Hobbima, yet certainly approximates nearer
+to that celebrated master than any English artist.
+
+In 1830, Mr. Nasmyth sold his valuable collection of original sketches
+and drawings for thirty pounds to George Pennell, Esq., who also
+purchased several of his exquisitely finished pictures, one of
+which--a View in Lee Wood, near, Bristol--is now in the possession of
+Lord Northwick. Nasmyth was a constant exhibitor at the Royal Academy,
+the British Institution, &c., and his performances delighted the
+uninstructed spectator as well as the connoisseur.
+
+In person, he was of the middle stature, and possessed a manly
+countenance with an agreeable figure. In conversation he was vivacious
+and witty, especially when in company with a convivial party. His
+character, in some respects, was similar to that of George Morland;
+he was rather too much addicted to convivial pleasures, yet was ever
+solicitous to mix with the best company, and his polite manners always
+rendered him an acceptable guest; in this respect he was _unlike_
+Morland, who, it is well known, loved to select his companions from
+the lowest class of society. Although Nasmyth obtained considerable
+sums for his pictures, he was never sufficiently economical to save
+money; on the contrary his private affairs were in a very deranged
+state. He was never married, and during the last ten years of his life
+resided at Lambeth.
+
+Towards the end of July, 1831, Mr. Nasmyth, accompanied by two of his
+intimate acquaintances, made an excursion to Norwood for the purpose
+of sketching. Much rain had fallen the day before, and the air was
+still chilly; the artist, however, commenced his drawing, and remained
+stationary for about two hours, when, the sketch being finished, he
+rejoined the friends whom he had left at an inn. He then complained of
+being excessively cold, but on taking something warm his usual spirits
+returned, and the party passed the rest of the day pleasantly. On the
+following morning, however, Nasmyth felt considerably indisposed,
+and it appeared evident he had taken a violent cold. Notwithstanding
+medical assistance, his indisposition daily increased; and on the 18th
+of August he breathed his last, in the 46th year of his age.
+
+He died in extreme poverty, and a subscription to defray the expenses
+of the funeral was raised among his friends. Wilson, Stanfield, and
+Roberts subscribed, and followed the remains of their late talented
+friend to the grave in St. Mary's churchyard, Lambeth.
+
+G.W.N.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+PORTRAIT OF CHRIST.
+
+
+(_To the Editor_.)
+
+The document giving an account of Jesus Christ, which is referred to
+by _Veritas_, in No. 533 of _The Mirror_, has been long since known
+to be a glaring forgery. It is one of many stories invented in the
+second, third, and fourth centuries, by the early Christians; for
+a full account of whose forgeries in such matters, you may consult
+Mosheim, Lardner, Casaubon, and other ecclesiastical writers. The
+latter says, "It mightily affects me to see how many there were in the
+earliest times of the church, who considered it as a capital exploit
+to lend to heavenly truth the help of their own inventions, in order
+that the new doctrine might be more readily allowed by the wise among
+the Gentiles. These officious lies, they were wont to say, were
+devised for a good end. From which source, beyond question, sprung
+_nearly innumerable_ books, which that and the following ages saw
+published by those who were far from being bad men, under the name
+of the Lord Jesus Christ, and of the Apostles, and of other
+Saints."--_Lardner_, vol. iv. p. 524.
+
+Dr. Mosheim, among his excellent works, has published a dissertation,
+showing the _reasons_ and _causes_ of these supposed letters and
+writings respecting Christ, the Apostles, &c., to which I would beg to
+recommend your correspondent _Veritas_. JUSTUS.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+NOTES OF A READER.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+DEATH OF JOHN HAMPDEN.
+
+
+The last days of the patriot Hampden are thus graphically told in the
+_Edinburgh Review_ of Lord Nugent's recently published "Memorials." We
+need scarcely observe, by way of introduction, that Hampden fell in
+the great contest between Charles and his parliament; and that when
+the appeal was to the sword, Hampden accepted the command of a
+regiment in the parliamentary army, under the Earl of Essex; the Royal
+forces being headed by Prince Rupert.
+
+"In the early part of 1643, the shires lying in the neighbourhood
+of London, which were devoted to the cause of the Parliament, were
+incessantly annoyed by Rupert and his cavalry. Essex had extended
+his lines so far, that almost every point was vulnerable. The
+young prince, who, though not a great general, was an active and
+enterprising partisan, frequently surprised posts, burned villages,
+swept away cattle, and was again at Oxford, before a force sufficient
+to encounter him could be assembled.
+
+"The languid proceedings of Essex were loudly condemned by the troops.
+All the ardent and daring spirits in the parliamentary party were
+eager to have Hampden at their head. Had his life been prolonged,
+there is every reason to believe that the supreme command would have
+been entrusted to him. But it was decreed that, at this conjuncture,
+England should lose the only man who united perfect disinterestedness
+to eminent talents--the only man who, being capable of gaining the
+victory for her, was incapable of abusing that victory when gained.
+
+"In the evening of the 17th of June, Rupert darted out of Oxford with
+his cavalry on a predatory expedition. At three in the morning of the
+following day, he attacked and dispersed a few parliamentary soldiers
+who were quartered at Postcombe. He then flew to Chinnor, burned the
+village, killed or took all the troops who were posted there, and
+prepared to hurry back with his booty and his prisoners to Oxford.
+
+"Hampden had, on the preceding day, strongly represented to Essex
+the danger to which this part of the line was exposed. As soon as he
+received intelligence of Rupert's incursion, he sent off a horseman
+with a message to the General. The cavaliers, he said, could return
+only by Chiselhampton Bridge. A force ought to be instantly dispatched
+in that direction, for the purpose of intercepting them. In the
+meantime, he resolved to set out with all the cavalry that he could
+muster, for the purpose of impeding the march of the enemy till Essex
+could take measures for cutting off their retreat. A considerable body
+of horse and dragoons volunteered to follow him. He was not their
+commander. He did not even belong to their branch of the service. But
+'he was,' says Lord Clarendon, 'second to none but the General himself
+in the observance and application of all men.' On the field of
+Chalgrove he came up with Rupert. A fierce skirmish ensued. In the
+first charge, Hampden was struck in the shoulder by two bullets, which
+broke the bone, and lodged in his body. The troops of the Parliament
+lost heart and gave way. Rupert, after pursuing them for a short time,
+hastened to cross the bridge, and made his retreat unmolested to
+Oxford.
+
+"Hampden, with his head drooping, and his hands leaning on his horse's
+neck, moved feebly out of the battle. The mansion which had been
+inhabited by his father-in-law, and from which in his youth he had
+carried home his bride, Elizabeth, was in sight. There still remains
+an affecting tradition, that he looked for a moment towards that
+beloved house, and made an effort to go thither to die. But the enemy
+lay in that direction. He turned his horse towards Thame, where he
+arrived almost fainting with agony. The surgeons dressed his
+wounds. But there was no hope. The pain which he suffered was
+most excruciating. But he endured it with admirable firmness and
+resignation. His first care was for his country. He wrote from his bed
+several letters to London concerning public affairs, and sent a last
+pressing message to the head-quarters, recommending that the dispersed
+forces should be concentrated. When his last public duties were
+performed, he calmly prepared himself to die. He was attended by a
+clergyman of the Church of England, with whom he had lived in habits
+of intimacy, and by the chaplain of the Buckinghamshire Green-coats,
+Dr. Spurton, whom Baxter describes as a famous and excellent divine.
+
+"A short time before his death, the sacrament was administered to him.
+He declared that, though he disliked the government of the Church of
+England, he yet agreed with that Church as to all essential matters of
+doctrine. His intellect remained unclouded. When all was nearly over,
+he lay murmuring faint prayers for himself, and for the cause in which
+he died. 'Lord Jesus,' he exclaimed, in the moment of the last agony,
+'receive my soul--O Lord, save my country--O Lord, be merciful to--,'
+In that broken ejaculation passed away his noble and fearless spirit.
+
+"He was buried in the parish church of Hampden. His soldiers,
+bareheaded with reversed arms, and muffled drums, and colours,
+escorted his body to the grave, singing, as they marched, that
+lofty and melancholy psalm, in which the fragility of human life is
+contrasted with the immutability of Him, in whose sight a thousand
+years are but as yesterday when it is passed, and as a watch in the
+night.
+
+"The news of Hampden's death produced as great a consternation in his
+party, according to Clarendon, as if their whole army had been cut
+off. The journals of the time amply prove that the Parliament and all
+its friends were filled with grief and dismay. Lord Nugent has quoted
+a remarkable passage from the next _Weekly Intelligencer_. 'The loss
+of Colonel Hampden goeth near the heart of every man that loves the
+good of his king and country, and makes some conceive little content
+to be at the army now that he is gone. The memory of this deceased
+colonel is such, that in no age to come but it will more and more be
+had in honour and esteem;--a man so religious, and of that prudence,
+judgment, temper, valour, and integrity, that he hath left few his
+like behind him,'
+
+"He had indeed left none his like behind him. There still remained,
+indeed, in his party, many acute intellects, many eloquent tongues,
+many brave and honest hearts. There still remained a rugged and
+clownish soldier,--half-fanatic, half-buffoon,--whose talents
+discerned as yet only by one penetrating eye, were equal to all the
+highest duties of the soldier and the prince. But in Hampden, and in
+Hampden alone, were united all the qualities which, at such a crisis,
+were necessary to save the state,--the valour and energy of Cromwell,
+the discernment and eloquence of Vane, the humanity and moderation of
+Manchester, the stern integrity of Hale, the ardent public spirit of
+Sidney. Others might possess the qualities which were necessary to
+save the popular party in the crisis of danger; he alone had both the
+power and the inclination to restrain its excesses in the hour of
+triumph. Others could conquer; he alone could reconcile."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+SNATCHES FROM EUGENE ARAM.
+
+
+_Love_.--What a beautiful fabric would be human nature--what a divine
+guide would be human reason--if Love were indeed the stratum of the
+one, and the inspiration of the other.
+
+_The Pathetic and Sublime_.--What a world of reasonings, not
+immediately obvious, did the sage of old open to our inquiry, when he
+said that the pathetic was the truest source of the sublime.
+
+_Fortune-telling by Gipsies_.--Very few men under thirty ever
+sincerely refuse an offer of this sort. Nobody believes in these
+predictions, yet every one likes hearing them.
+
+_Gardening_.--'Tis a winning thing, a garden! It brings us an object
+every day; and that's what I think a man ought to have if he wishes to
+lead a happy life.
+
+_Knaresbro' Castle_.--You would be at some loss to recognise now the
+truth of old Leland's description of that once stout and gallant
+bulwark of the north, when "he numbrid 11 or 12 toures in the walles
+of the Castel, and one very fayre beside in the second area." In that
+castle, the four knightly murderers of the haughty Becket (the Wolsey
+of his age) remained for a whole year, defying the weak justice of the
+times. There, too, the unfortunate Richard the Second,--the Stuart of
+the Plantagenets--passed some portion of his bitter imprisonment.
+And there, after the battle of Marston Moor, waved the banner of
+the loyalists against the soldiers of Lilburn. It was made yet more
+touchingly memorable at that time, as you may have heard, by an
+instance of filial piety. The town was straitened for want of
+provisions; a youth, whose father was in the garrison, was accustomed
+nightly to get into the deep, dry moat, climb up the glacis, and put
+provisions through a hole, where the father stood ready to receive
+them. He was perceived at length; the soldiers fired on him. He was
+taken prisoner, and sentenced to be hanged in sight of the besieged,
+in order to strike terror into those who might be similarly disposed
+to render assistance to the garrison. Fortunately, however, this
+disgrace was spared the memory of Lilburne and the republican arms.
+With great difficulty, a certain lady obtained his respite; and after
+the conquest of the place, and the departure of the troops, the
+adventurous son was released.... The castle then, once the residence
+of Pierce Gaveston,--of Hubert III,--and of John of Gaunt, was
+dismantled and destroyed. It is singular, by the way, that it was
+twice captured by men of the name of Lilburn, or Lilleburne, once
+in the reign of Edward II., once as I have related. On looking over
+historical records, we are surprised to find how often certain great
+names have been fatal to certain spots; and this reminds me that we
+boast (at Knaresbro',) the origin of the English Sibyl, the venerable
+Mother Shipton. The wild rock, at whose foot she is said to have been
+born, is worthy of the tradition.
+
+_Consolation for the Loss of Children._--Better that the light cloud
+should fade away into Heaven with the morning breath, than travail
+through the weary day to gather in darkness, and end in storm!
+
+_Bells before a Wedding._--The bells were already ringing loud and
+blithely; and the near vicinity of the church to the house brought
+that sound, so inexpressibly buoyant and cheering, to the ears of the
+bride, with a noisy merriment, that seemed like the hearty voice of
+an old-fashioned friend who seeks, in his greeting, rather cordiality
+than discretion.
+
+_The Murderer's Unction._--Ay, all is safe! He will not again return;
+the dead sleeps without a witness.--I may lay this working brain upon
+the bosom that loves me, and not start at night and think that the
+soft hand around my neck is the hangman's gripe.
+
+_Hogarth._--Nothing makes a picture of distress more sad than the
+portrait of some individual sitting indifferently looking on in the
+back-ground. This was a secret Hogarth knew well. Mark his death-bed
+scenes:--Poverty and Vice worked up into Horror--and the physicians
+in the corner wrangling for the fee!--or the child playing with the
+coffin--or the nurse filching what fortune, harsh, yet less harsh than
+humanity, might have left.
+
+_Change of Circumstance._--In our estimate of the ills of life, we
+never sufficiently take into consideration the wonderful elasticity of
+our moral frame, the unlooked for, the startling facility with which
+the human mind accommodates itself to all change of circumstance,
+making an object and even a joy from the hardest and seemingly the
+least redeemed conditions of fate. The man who watched the spider in
+his cell, may have taken, at least, as much interest in the watch, as
+when engaged in the most ardent and ambitious objects of his
+former life; and he was but a type of his brethren; all in similar
+circumstances would have found similar occupation.
+
+_Eternal Punishment._--So wonderful in equalizing all states and all
+times in the varying tide of life, are the two rulers yet levellers of
+mankind, Hope and Custom, that the very idea of an eternal punishment
+includes that of an utter alteration of the whole mechanism of the
+soul in its human state, and no effort of an imagination, assisted by
+past experience, can conceive a state of torture, which custom can
+_never_ blunt, and from which the chainless and immaterial spirit can
+_never_ be beguiled into even a momentary escape.
+
+_Prison Solitude._--I have been now so condemned to feed upon myself,
+that I have become surfeited with the diet.--_Aram_.
+
+_Sensibility._--We may triumph over all weaknesses but that of the
+affections.
+
+_Silence of Cities._--The stillness of a city is far more impressive
+than that of Nature; for the mind instantly compares the present
+silence with the wonted uproar.
+
+_Suspense._--Of all the conditions to which the heart is subject,
+suspense is the one that most gnaws, and cankers into the frame. One
+little month of that suspense, when it involves death, we are told,
+in a very remarkable work lately published by an eye-witness,[7]
+is sufficient to plough fixed lines and furrows in a convict of
+five-and-twenty--sufficient to dash the brown hair with grey, and to
+bleach the grey to white.
+
+    [7] Wakefield on "The Punishment of Death."
+
+_Consolation._--Her high and starry nature could comprehend those
+sublime inspirations of comfort, which lift us from the lowest abyss
+of this world to the contemplation of all that the yearning visions of
+mankind have painted in another.
+
+It is a fearful thing to see _men_ weep.
+
+We are seldom sadder without being also wiser men.
+
+What is more appalling than to find the signs of gaiety accompanying
+the reality of anguish.
+
+_Consolation._--If we go at noon day to the bottom of a deep pit,[8]
+we shall be able to see the stars which on the level ground are
+invisible. Even so, from the depths of grief--worn, wretched,
+seared, and dying--the blessed apparitions and tokens of heaven make
+themselves visible to our eyes.
+
+    [8] The remark is in Aristotle. Buffon quotes it in, I think, the
+        first volume of his great work.
+
+_Progress of Crime._--Mankind are not instantly corrupted. Villany
+is always progressive. We decline from right--not suddenly, but step
+after step.--_Aram's Defence_.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+SKETCHES FROM THE TOUR OF A GERMAN PRINCE, VOL. III.
+
+
+_Mrs. Fitzherbert._
+
+"A very worthy and amiable woman, formerly, they say, married to the
+King, but at present wholly without influence in that quarter, but no
+less beloved and respected, _d'un excellent ton et sans pretension_."
+
+
+_Her Majesty._
+
+"The Duchess of Clarence honoured the feast with her presence; and all
+pressed forward to see her, for she is one of those rare princesses
+whose personal qualities obtain for them much more respect than their
+rank, and whose unceasing benevolence and highly amiable character,
+have obtained for her a popularity in England, of which we Germans may
+well be proud--the more so, since in all probability she is destined
+to be one day the Queen of that country."
+
+
+_The King._
+
+"I had the honour of dining with the Duke of Clarence, where I also
+met the Princess Augusta, the Duchess of Kent and her daughter, and
+the Duchess of Gloucester. The Duke makes a most friendly host, and is
+kind enough to retain a recollection of the different times and places
+where he has before seen me. He has much of the English national
+character, in the best sense of the word, and also the English love of
+domestic arrangement. The daughters of the Duke are _d'un beau sang_,
+all extraordinarily handsome, though in different styles of beauty.
+Among the sons Colonel Fitzclarence is, in many respects, the most
+distinguished. Rarely, indeed, do we meet with a young officer of such
+various accomplishments."
+
+
+_The Duchess Of St. A----._
+
+"According to the earliest recollections or her Grace, she found
+herself a forsaken, starving, frozen child, in an outshed of an
+English village. She was taken thence by a gipsy-crew, whom she
+afterwards left for a company of strolling players. In this
+profession, she obtained some reputation by a pleasing exterior, a
+constant flow of spirits, and a certain originality--till by degrees
+she gained several friends, who magnanimously provided for her wants.
+She long lived in undisturbed connexion with the rich banker C----,
+who, at length, married her, and, at his death, left her a fortune of
+70,000l. a year. By this colossal inheritance, she afterwards became
+the wife of the Duke of St. A----, the third English Duke in point of
+rank, and, what is a somewhat singular coincident, the descendant
+of the well-known actress Nell Gwynn, to whose charms the Duke is
+indebted for his title, in much the same way (though a hundred years
+earlier) as his wife is now for hers.
+
+"She is a very good sort of woman, who has no hesitation in speaking
+of the past--on the contrary, is rather too frequent in her
+reminiscences. Thus she entertained us the whole evening, with various
+representations of her former dramatic characters. The drollest part
+of the affair was, that she had taught her husband, a very young man,
+thirty years under her own age--to play the lover's part, which he did
+badly enough. Malicious tongues were naturally very busy, and the more
+so, as many of the recited passages gave room for the most piquant
+applications."
+
+
+_Fortune-Telling._
+
+"I Dined to-day with Lady F. Her husband was formerly Governor in
+the Isle of France, and she had there purchased from a negress, the
+pretended prophesying book of the Empress Josephine, who is said to
+have read therein her future greatness and fall, before she sailed
+for France. Lady F. produced it at tea, and invited the company to
+question fate, according to the prescribed forms. Now, listen to the
+answers, which are really remarkable enough. Mrs. Rothschild was the
+first--and she asked if her wishes would be fulfilled. Answer: 'Weary
+not fate with wishes--one who has obtained so much, may well be
+satisfied.' Next came Mr. Spring Rice, a celebrated parliamentary
+speaker, and one of the most zealous champions of the Catholic
+Question. He asked, whether on the following day when the question was
+to be brought forward in the upper house, it would pass. I should here
+remark, that it is well known here that it will not pass--but that in
+all probability in the next session it will. The laconic answer of the
+book ran thus:--'You will have no success _this time_.' They then made
+a young American lady ask if she should soon be married. 'Not in this
+part of the world,' was the answer."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+THE GATHERER.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Shakspeare and Garrick._--At the opening dinner of the Garrick Club,
+the company forgot to drink the Memory of Shakspeare; and the health
+of our living dramatists was only proposed when the party had dwindled
+from 200 to 20! Where would be the fame of Garrick but for Shakspeare.
+
+Talent has lately been liberally marked by royal favour. Among the
+last batch of knights are Mr. Smirke, the architect; Dr. Meyrick, the
+celebrated antiquarian scholar; and Col. Trench.
+
+"_Passing Strange_."--The _Court Journal_, speaking of the deputation
+of boys from Christ's Hospital at the Drawing-room, says, "The number
+of boys appointed to attend on this occasion is 40; but, owing to the
+indisposition of one of them, there were _no more than 39 present_."
+
+_Millinery Authorship._--"We must acknowledge our prejudice in
+favour of an opportunity for the display of that most courtly of all
+materials, the train of Genoa velvet; where (as Lord Francis Levison
+expresses it)
+
+  Finger-deep the rich embroidery stiffens.
+_Court Journal._
+
+In a puff precipitate of a play, we are told that M---- "is pleased
+_with his character_."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+  Two cats were placed within a cage,
+  And resolving to quarrel, got into a rage,
+  They fought so clean, and fought so clever,
+  The devil a bit was left of either.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+_Printed and Published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near Somerset
+House,) London; sold by ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, Leipsic;
+G.G. BENNIS, 55, Rue Neuve, St. Augustin, Paris; and by all Newsmen
+and Booksellers._
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Mirror of Literature, Amusement,
+and Instruction., by Various
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 11540 ***