Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

munication with the Lord Treasurer Burleigh, and had frequent correspondence with him, I applied through a friend of the Marquis of Salisbury to have access to the Burleigh Papers, at Hatfield house, or to know what was the nature or extent of the documents relating to Drake. The reply was, that it would be a long time before the catalogue was finished, and that his lordship must decline to let any person have unlimited access to the papers (which was not exactly asked), but as soon as they are completely arranged his lordship would let me know how far he could contribute to my object. My next application was to the Marquis of Exeter, who was supposed as likely to be in possession of documents connected with Drake or his family; his reply was, that he had sent all his papers to Lord Salisbury. Thus, then, these memorials, whatever they may be, are and have been closed up for two centuries and a half since the death of this extraordinary man, as it were, in a mare clausum, in or out of which he, when living, never suffered himself to be confined or excluded."

PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS.-The following account appears in one of the Indian papers received by the overland mail :-There has been a vast flight or flights of locusts, which have apparently laid waste a belt of country extending from the right bank of the Ganges across the Dooab, and penetrating over the Jumna into Gwalior. They committed dreadful ravages in the districts of Furukabad, Etawah, on both banks of the Jumna, and at Dholpore in the Gwalior State; and it was feared later accounts would show much more damage to have been committed. The following are the particulars :-On the 16th September, about five P.M., they came over to Futteghur, the principal city of the Furukabad district, and in an hour's time they had stripped every vestige of cultivation, breaking down large branches of trees with their weight. From Etawah a traveller going down the river Jumna writes on the 17th, that the ravages committed have extended for miles. In passing over the boat the noise is described as being like distant thunder. But a letter just received from Dholpore states that the flight passed over it on the 14th, that it came from the eastward, and after remaining twenty-eight hours took its departure in the same direction; so that there must have been more than one flight to have been simultaneously at Etawah and at Futteghur, distant nearly one hundred miles. The destruction to the crops in that portion of the north-west provinces, through which in a month or two troops will be passing, is stated to be

enormous.

THE ENGLISH YEOMAN.-There is no class of men, if times are but tolerably good, that enjoy themselves so highly as farmers.

They are little kings, their concerns are not huddled into a corner, as those of the town tradesmen are. In town, many a man who turns thousands of pounds per week, is hemmed in close by buildings, and cuts no figure at all. A narrow shop, a contracted warehouse, without a yard of room besides to turn in, on any hand, without a yard, stable, or outhouse of any description, perhaps hoisted aloft up three or four dirty pair of stairs, is all the room the wealthy tradesman often can bless himself with; and there, day after day, month after month, year after year, he is to be found, like a rat in the hole of a wall, or a toad in the heart of a stone or of an oak tree. Spring and summer and autumn go round, sunshine and flowers spread over the world, the sweet breezes blow, the sweetest waters murmur along the vales; but they are all lost upon him; he is the doleful prisoner of Mammon, and so he lives and dies. The farmer would not take the wealth of the world on such terms; his concerns, however small, spread themselves out in a pleasant amplitude, both to his eye and heart; his house stands in its own stately solitude; his offices and outhouses stand round extensively, without any stubborn and limiting contraction; his acres stretch over hill and vale; there his flocks and herds are feeding, there his labourers are toiling; he is the king and sole commander there; he lives among the purest air and most delicious quiet. Often, when I see those healthy, hardy, full-grown sons of toil going out of town, I envy them the freshness and repose of the spots where they are going to. Ample old-fashioned kitchens, with their chimney-corners of true projecting-beamed and seated construction still remaining; blazing fires in winter, shining on suspended hams and flitches. Guns supported on hooks above, dogs basking on the earth below. Cool shady parlours in summer, with open windows, and odours from garden and shrubbery blowing in. Gardens wet with purest dews, and humming at noontide with bees; and the green fields and verdurous trees, or deep woodlands, lying all around, where a hundred rejoicing voices of birds or other creatures are heard, and winds blowing to and fro, full of health and life and enjoyment. How enviable do such places seem to the fretted spirits of the towns, who are compelled not only to bear their burdens of cares, but to enter daily into the public strife against selfish, evil, and ever-spreading corruption ! - Howitt's Book of the Seasons.

The Gatherer.

The Toad.-Much prejudice is evinced to this harmless animal. The vulgar is, that it is venomous, which is not the case.

It may be handled with as much safety as the frog. It is of great use in gardens, and should never be destroyed. When placed in a melon or cucumber frame, the wood lice, beetles, ants, slugs, and other destructive insects, disappear, being the food on which the toad exists. The mode by which the toad takes small insects is by a very sudden elongation of the tongue from the mouth, and, touching the insect, it at taches itself to the tongue, and is drawn into the mouth of the toad. So sudden is the movement, that the insect disappears from the surface as if it had jumped down the throat of its destroyer.

[blocks in formation]

on."

[ocr errors]

Lettish Popular Poetry.

The Double-headed Fly.-At a late meeting of the Entomological Society, it appeared, from an extract of a letter from Colonel Hearsey to Mr Westwood, from central India, which was read, that he had taken an abundance of Diopsis, the doubleheaded fly, at different times and in different places. Mr Westwood described two new species of sacred Beetle, for which he proposed the name Ketocerus. They are most nearly allied to the genius Heleocantharis.

Punning Prisoners.-A petition from the inmates of an American prison was lately presented, praying that the Tree of Liberty might be planted within the yard,

and each allowed to cut his stick.

Transcendentalism. - A young lady astonished a party the other day, by asking for "the loan of a diminutive argenteous truncated cone, convex on its summit and semi-perforated with symmetrical indentations;" or, in other words, a thimble.

Colossal Statue.-At Kowno, on the 10th of November, the colossal statue erected by the Emperor of Russia to commemorate the war of 1812 was inaugurated. On one side appears the inscription, "God is against the aggressor." On the other the following:-" In 1812, 700,000 soldiers of the enemy perished in Russia, and 76,000 only were saved." These were passages in one of the despatches of the Emperor

Alexander written at the time.

Power of Galvanism.—A foreign journal has the following :-"Weinhold cut off a cat's head, and when its arterial pulsation had ceased took out the spinal marrow and placed in its stead an amalgam of mercury, silver, and zinc; immediately after this the pulsation recommenced, and the body made a variety of movements. He took away the brain and spinal marrow of another cat, and filled up the skull

and vertebral canal with the same metallic mixture. Life appeared to be instantly restored; the animal lifted up its head, opened and shut its eyes, and, looking with fixed stare, endeavoured to walk, and whenever it dropped tried to raise itself upon its legs. It continued in this state twenty minutes, when it fell down and remained motionless. During all the time the animal was thus treated the circulation of the blood appeared to go on regularly, the secretion of the gastric-juice was more than usual, and the animal heat was reestablished."-Lancet.

Zinc Labels, to write on with a common Pencil.-Slightly rub with pumice-stone to write, then mark upon it with a common the part of the label upon which you wish lead pencil, and, when the letters have been exposed to the air for two or three days, they are indelible. If you wish to efface the writing, you must rub the label with the pumice-stone, and, if the labels become covered over with earth or oxide, rub your finger, slightly wetted, over them, and they will re-appear. Old zinc is preferable to new for this purpose. M. Paul Manoury, gardener in the Garden of Plants, of Caen, made this discovery several years ago.-Rev. Hort.

ON THE TREATY WITH CHINA OPENING HER PORTS TO ALL NATIONS.

Our game in China is confessed so clever, That few imagined such we could or dare play.

O! may Great Britain act the same part ever, And win both friends and enemies by Fair play!

Fairies.-In Wales there are two distinct

species of fairies; the one of gentle manners, and well disposed towards the human race; the other malicious, and full of mischievous sportiveness. The former is denominated Tylwyth Teg, or the Fair Family; the latter, Ellyllon, elves, or goblins. The Tylwyth Teg are a mild and diminutive race, residing in cool caverns, or in the hollows under sunny knolls, and befriending fond lovers, pretty dairymaids, and hospitable housewives.

Reprobate Females. In the 'Life and Times of the Good Lord Cobham,' just published, it is shown, among other historical curiosities, that the city authorities, in the time of Richard II, punished disorderly females by shaving their heads and parading them through the streets.

TO CORRESPONDENTS. Several communications, intended to appear this week, will be inserted in our next. The "Tale of Espionage" will appear. We think "The Blue Stocking would be better without the chorus, and the stanza with the Greek words.

[blocks in formation]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][graphic][merged small]

Original Communications.

HERNE CHURCH.

THE gay visitor who repairs in the more genial season of the year to Herne Bay may do well to pay a visit to the remarkable memorial of the piety of former ages, represented above. It will, at all events, furnish an interesting contrast to the modern varieties in the neighbourhood of the Bay. The parish is in the Hundred of Blangate lath of St Augustin, county of Kent, being five miles and three quarters from Canterbury, and contains about 1,700 inhabitants-or at least did so before the adjoining spot was patronized as a fashionable watering-place; since that period, as might be expected, great changes have occurred. These it is not our present object to describe. The church given in the cut, a specimen of the early style of English architecture, with additions made of later and more decorated styles, deserves attention. It is a vicarage in the peculiar jurisdiction and patronage of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

A remarkable surmise had been ha-
No. 1199.]

D

Palmer's Glyphography.

zarded from discoveries made in this vicinity; nothing less than that the Romans were in the habit of exporting crockery ware in vast quantities to Britain. This inference has been drawn from the numerous fragments of Roman earthenware which have, from time to time, been-found in the channel near the Bay, the presumption being, that some enterprising merchant from "the Eternal City" had here the misfortune to suffer shipwreck, and lose at once both his vessel and his cargo.

The church of Herne was anciently accounted one of the chapels belonging to Reculver, which was parcel of the possessions of the See of Canterbury. The inconveniences arising from the distances of those chapels from the mother-church, among other reasons, induced Archbishop Winchelsea, in 1296, to institute perpetual vicarages in them.

The whole roof of the church is covered with lead. It is dedicated to St Martin, and is a spacious and handsome building, consisting of three aisles and three chancels, having a well-built square tower at the west end, in which are six bells.

[VOL. XLIV.

The stone font is an octagon, and is known to be of great antiquity. In each compartment is a shield of arms:-1st, the See of Canterbury impaling Arundel; 2nd, arms which time or accident has obliterated; 3rd, France and England; 4th, three crescents within a bordure; 5th, three wings, two and one; 6th, three pelicans, with other heraldic devices.

On the pavement there is a figure of a priest in brass, in memory of John Darley, a former vicar. A number of old tombs will be found within the walls.

THE PRIZE PLAY HUMBUG. WHEN Some of the wiseacres of the daily press took it into their sage heads to imagine it was vastly to Mr Webster's honour that he should have offered to give 5001. for a comedy on modern manners, to be ready for acting about this time, it was shown off-hand in the Mirror' to be a ridiculous, claptrap humbug. Other persons are now beginning to say the same thing. They want to know when the motley crew-the critico-vagabond parliament, that was to sit in judgment upon this "all-absorbing question," are to meet, and where? No satisfactory answers can be given to these very natural questions. It has been announced by the 'Observer' that no known dramatist of talent is among the candidates. That, perhaps, is not to be regretted, as the door would be opened all the wider for rising unfriended talent, if fair play were to be looked for.

But

the whole affair was so preposterous from the first, with the jury or committee of authors and critics, and Mr Webster, as the presiding Solomon, to give the casting vote, that few could entertain the thing seriously, more especially those who knew how scurvily authors had been treated at the Haymarket Theatre during his manage. ment, to say nothing of the few behind the scenes who had had the advantage of hearing from head quarters that a good play, i. e., a play pronounced to be good, must remain shelved twelve or eighteen months before it could possibly be produced in consequence of existing arrangements.

How the matter will end is a matter of speculation. It is supposed some inex. perienced gentlemen have started for the 500%. We wish they may get it, but are fearful they have some time to wait, whatever their merit, for the realization of their hopes. If, indeed, an idea should be entertained that two or three overflowing houses would be obtained by acting this prize comedy, it would do something towards encouraging a move, and in that case a brisk patchwork translation of French slang might gain the casting vote, and the umpire sitting alone in his glory, the cloud-compelling

Jupiter, would be content to pay something, unassisted by the counsel of players, as in the ordinary course of business he would have done, without the flashy announcement in which he puffed himself off as the fostering patron of struggling talent.

THE BLUE IMMORTAL STOCKING!
Air-" The Green Immortal Shamrock."
My wife is of the middle size,

Her form, tho' round, is slender;
Her lofty brow and soft blue eyes,
Show feelings high and tender.
But woe is me, the idle jade
(Truth must bid shame defiance)
Hath very little progress made
In scholarship or science!
Her piety, I freely grant,

For I'm not prone to grumble,
Is free from vanity or cant,

Is pure, sincere, and humble;
But if polemics constitute

A part of orthodoxy,
On these, alas! my wife is mute,
I'm forc'd to be her proxy.
In each great character of life,

As mistress, friend, or mother;
But oh! supremely as a wife,

I ne'er knew such another!
In every graceful art she shines,

That e'er her sex was pat in;
But oh! that I should write these lines,
She knows not Greek or Latin.
Withal, if firmness, eloquence,
Or talent is required,

This dunce displays such wit and sense,
You'd swear she was inspired.
Persuasion from her tongue or pen
Flows-certain to entwine us;
And yet I'll take you ten to one,

She ne'er hath seen Longinus.
Of learning fit she hath some share,
Part serious, part amusing;
For little reading with much care,
Informs without confusing;

But though she quotes both verse and prose
With apt discrimination,
I'm very doubtful if she knows

The rules of punctuation.

And now to close this culprit's case,

In spite of all apologies—
My wife, I fear, must hide her face,
If tried on "ics" and "ologies;
But, not to lengthen her distress,
Though some will deem me mocking,
I vow I love her not the less

Though she wears no blue stocking! "So then this trial's all in sport,"

Cry some pedantic misses;
"To silence these, in open court,

She must be fined two kisses!"
And now the blues may rail at will,
My wife has my permission
To be a dunce, if she but still
Act right-by intuition.

G. H. C.

The Austrian Army.-In time of peace the Austrian regular army comprehends about 430,000 men.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

Cobham.')

ONE of the exercises of those true to the Holy Catholic Church was, to denounce crimes which in latter years have escaped censure, as conviction has been gained that to perpetrate them by mortal hand is impossible. Four centuries ago our ancestors not only believed in judicial astrology, but witches and necromancers were supposed

to infest every country in Europe. These guilty human beings, from the description given of them, seemed almost to possess the might and authority of the Omnipotent, whom they lived but to affront. Their terrific doings are thus set forth by Cornelius Agrippa, as rendered in the translation of San Gent.

NECROMANCERS AND ENCHANTERS.

A people hateful to the Lord,
Welskilde to staine the skie,
Which nought by nature be, and eke,
They can the things on hie
Subvert as starres and powers of things
Which firm and stable are,

For they know how to stare the poles,
And flashing flames sende farre;
They drive the air downe under earth,
And mountaines rent and marre.
It was understood that men possessed
of superhuman or infernal powers were
numerous, various in those evil doings, and
incessantly at work. There were oriolers,
auspices, augurs, dreamers, and others;
some of them maintained that the history
of every mortal was written in the stars,
and to them was given the knowledge to
read it. They sold charms to relieve from
sickness, and protect from danger, which
were worn about the patient's neck. They
were fiercely denounced by the disciples of
Wickliffe. Admitting that in some cases
they had proved efficacious, they were still
condemned, and it was insisted that any
relief or benefit required should be asked
by the pious believer from God, with the
firm conviction that it would be granted if
good, and ought in no case to be accepted
from the devil, whose devout worshippers
the enchanters were affirmed to be.

To these wild and extravagant ideas may in part be referred the dreadful persecutions which the ill fated Jews were doomed through many centuries to undergo. Their fate was as extraordinary as it was distressing. Good men sincere Christians, as they professed to be, deriving all their hopes of mercy, happiness, and immortality, from the revered book, which described the Jews as the chosen people of God, sought to honour that God by the most heartless persecution of his favoured

race.

Secret horrid rites were said to be connected with the exercises enjoined by their faith, which required the blood of a Christian to render them complete. Charges not less formidable than those preferred against the primitive Christians, on ac

count of their Thyestian feasts, by the orthodox vindicators of the sacred name of Jupiter, were brought with mournful effect against the helpless sons of Abraham. The Jew, it must be owned (such as he had been made by unrelenting cruelty), was necessarily viewed with distaste, and also with suspicion. Poverty seldom renders men amiable, but it often renders them, to common eyes, most odious. Everything was against the poor Hebrew. Denied the privilege of making himself a home in any cising his industry in common with other Christian country, precluded from exermen, with little security for his life, and

none for his property, he of course became

timid, indolent, suspicious, and artful. Obliged to conceal the wealth that he dared not to enjoy, his mean attire and rejected person moved the virulent and scornful Pharisee, the soi-disant "follower of the Lamb," to revile the Hebrew, "to spit on his gabardine," and to outrage him on account of his deplorable appearance; and, when beneath his wretched tatters articles * of value were found, which he could not hope to retain except by his personal guardianship, the discovery, it was thought, proved him a cheat, and all his nation were branded as fraudulent, proclaimed the possessors of unbounded riches, and subjected to the most intolerable exactions.

It is melancholy to trace the course pursued by men who wished to be distinguished as humble and sincere adorers of the true God. Stern zealots loved to denounce Judaism as a religion of blood. In the Old Testament they read, that what was devoted to the Lord might not be redeemed, but should assuredly be put to death; and this declaration, with respect to animal life, and the severe denunciation against certain conquered idolators, were regarded as proofs that the Jews held themselves justified in silently murdering all those who were not of their persuasion. That Jephtha, in fulfilment of a rash vow, had, as they assumed, taken his daughter's life, was construed, by the foes of the Hebrews, to afford the clearest, most indisputable evidence that, because one Jew had sacrificed his own child, every living Israelite would deem it virtue to destroy the children of all Christians! It was pretended that the young victims were put to a most cruel death, being actually crucified, in derision of the sufferings of Jesus Christ.

This horrible calumny was sustained by monstrous inventions. The solemn, peaceful, and interesting festival of the Passover, in which gratitude for past mercies, and an affecting appeal to the God of their fathers, craving his future blessing and support-where rational celebration of former release from bondage, and an anxious petition for future restitution to peace and unity, breathed the pure spirit of true devotion, was denounced as sullied

« AnteriorContinuar »