The Gatherer.

"'Bout 'taste 9

we will not stickle, Boz,
Since not alone we're noodles;
And 'meanness' is'nt all confined,
It seems, to Yankee doodles! "

Thames Tunnel Fair.-The fair held to celebrate the anniversary of the opening of the Tunnel was well attended. The numbers were-on Monday, 10,178; on Tuesday, 35,440; and on Wednesday, 20,740; making altogether 66,358, persons, producing 2767. 10s. 7d. for the three days.

The Mirror' Abroad. -The following paragraph appears in 'Sam Sly's African Journal of February 8. To us it proves that the civilization of Africa is complete: "The above we glean from the 'Mirror' (Cunningham and Mortimer, London), whose interesting, old-fashioned face we are pleased to find gracing the table of the first library in Africa. It ranks amongst the most abiding of the periodicals, and has lived to witness the death of innumer able, but far less amusing and intellectual rivals. Success to its future career.ED. S. S. J."

a

New French Journal.-We have now 'Courrier de Londres et Paris.' It is a French paper got up in the English form, and in many respects happily combining the attraction of the London and Paris journals. Besides the intelligence of the day, its readers are gratified with romance and history. A history of London, from the revolution of 1688, brings many interesting facts before us. The dissentients, or rather the non-dissentients, of 1844, who find themselves called upon to take three and a quarter per cent. as interest for 100%, will stare to read of a

minister, Sir Robert Walpole, in the last century, having to persuade the reduced creditor to accept of five per cent. !-six having previously been paid.

Artesian Springs.-It seems that Artesian springs are rapidly increasing in the vicinity of this metropolis. The following enumeration is now some years old :-At Hammersmith, six; Brentford, three ; Uxbridge, eight; Rickmansworth, four; Watford, nine, one of which produces 22,500,000 gallons weekly, partly supplying the river Colne; St Alban's, two. In London itself there are one hundred and seventy-four, of which thirty produce 30,000,000 gallons weekly. A new list might be supplied with considerable additions.

The Houses of Parliament. The imCouncil of this nation is fast advancing to mense building preparing for the Great completion. It will afford every desirable accommodation to the members. The late House of Commons measured forty-nine feet by thirty-nine feet; and on frequent occasions above 600 persons demanded admission. It was calculated that each victim in the Black Hole of Calcutta had eighteen inches square to stand upon; a member of that House of 600 being present, had not quite nineteen and a half."

The Tobacco Question. According to Stow, tobacco was introduced into England in 1568. The young courtiers were the first to bring it into vogue. Sir Walter Raleigh, for some time Queen Elizabeth's favourite, and his friend, Sir Hugh Middleton, made it the fashion, by smoking in the streets, and other places of public resort, indulging with apparent ecstasy in the inebriating perfume which they exhaled around them. People stared at them at first, then imitated them; and thus the use of tobacco became at last the fashion even amongst ladies. "Twas at this juncture that the new pleasure became the object of inveterate persecution on the one hand, and irresistible predilection on the other. Stow describes it as "a stinking plant, the use of which is an offence to God;" whilst Spenser, in his Fairie Queene,' denominates it as "divine tobacco !"

An African Grievance.-"I take leave to remark," writes one of Sam Sly's correspondents, "that the Regent street of Simon's Town continues to present a disgusting spectacle, as even pigs, ducks, geese, et hoc genus omne, are roaming, grunting, and quacking at all seasons of the day and night, in parties varying from six to perhaps six dozen. Now, although a nice little roasting pig is really not so bad, when properly dressed and garnished; and ducks, with green peas, help to adorn the second course; and a goose, if tender, is not to be sneezed

at on table; yet, however palatable these things may be in their way, it is not comme il faut, or agreeable to good taste and good breeding, that they should obstruct our fashionable mall."

Mr Thomas Hutchinson.-This gentleman, an eminent railway contractor, recently lost his life, on his way from the Sedgefield station of the Stockton and Darlington railway to Morden, where he lived. He had a few glasses of whiskey at the Sedgefield station, which is a public house, and in less than half an hour after he had left to walk home he was found with his head just within the rails. An engine with a train of thirty-five waggons had gone over his neck, right shoulder, and arm, which killed him in a moment. He has left a widow and six children.

A Husband's care for his Widow.In the chapel of the abbey church of La Couture there was formerly an inscription to the memory of a certain innkeeper and postilion, who, wishing that his name should be handed down to posterity, had set forth the fact of his having conducted the carriages of four kings of France, and after passing sixty-four years as a married man, died in 1509: he added a prayer to this important record, that heaven would provide a second husband for his widow, whose age appears to have reached not less than sixteen lustres.

Tough Pavement.-The Admiralty yard has been paved with India-rubber.

A Scene in the Civil Wars.-The entrance of Prince Rupert's men into Bolton is thus described in tracts lately published by the Chetham Society:-" At their entrance, before, behinde, to the right and left, nothing heard but kill dead, kill dead was the word in the town, killing all before them without any respect, without the town by their horsemen pursuing the poore amazed people, killing, stripping, and spoiling all they could meet with, nothing regarding the doleful cries of women or children, but some they slashed as they were calling for quarter, others when they had given quarter, many hailed out of their houses to have their brains dasht out in the streets, those that were not dead in the streets already pistoled, slashed, brained, or trodden under their horses feet with many insolent, blasphemous oathes, curses, and challenges to heaven itselfe (no doubt) hastening the filling up of their cup, and bringing that swift destruction upon them which they shortly after tasted of (and blessed, blessed ever be the great and just God for it) with many taunts and cruell mockings; as, 'See what your prayers are come to! Where is all your dayes of humiliation? O, that we had that old rogue Horrocks that preaches in his grey cloake.""

Peculiar Feature of Gothic Architecture. -The mixture of jest with earnestness is a striking distinction of Gothic architecture. We commonly find in the details various samples of the ludicrous, the general effect of the whole edifice being serious, and eminently solemn and impressive. Whenever we examine the ornaments closely, we discover ridiculous scenes and characters, and a number of grotesque representations. It has been conjectured that the figures allude to stories that were well known at the time when they were executed, and that by bringing them together and comparing them with whatever information the writings of the day will afford, the whole subject might be made intelligible. They frequently contain satires on the clergy, especially the monks and nuns ; the most frequent subjects of these ludicrous representations, however, are demons. It was natural enough that the churchmen should hold up to scorn and derision their grand adversaries, the spiritual enemies of the human race; that these beings should be gibbeted on the roof, exposed to the wind, the rain, and the frost, impaled in conspicuous situations, and rendered ridiculous, that they might be despised.

66

en rimes

Poets of the Middle Ages. Philippe Monski, Bishop of Tournay, wrote the history of France in Latin verse, dilectables." He begins with the Trojan origin of the Franks. Guillaume-le-Breton's poem on Philip-Augustus contains twelve thousand verses. It is a metrical chronicle, with metaphors and figures borrowed from the classics. Lisyer, in his Literary History of the Poets of the Middle Ages,' counts upwards of one hundred and eighty in these two centuries.

Ancient Legends. In determining the time when legendary fables arose, the greatest assistance is derived from the dates of colonies; for instance, Byzantiam was founded in the 30th Olympiad (about 660 B. C.) by Megarians, with whom were a party of Argives. The fables of Io connected with the worship of Juno (who had a temple on the citadels both of Argos and Byzantium) were local at Argos, and the place was there shown where she had fed in the shape of a cow.

TO CORRESPONDENTS. The continuation of the articles on Fish Breeding, and Life in London in the Eighteenth Century,' through an accident, must be postponed till next week.

Mr Lowe will hear from the editor.

LONDON: Published by JOHN MORTIMER, Adelaide Street, Trafalgar Square; and sold by all Booksellers and Newsmen.

Printed by REYNELL and WEIGHT, Little Pulteney street, and at the Royal Polytechnic Institution.

Original Communications.

BABLAKE HOSPITAL. FEW English cities have more remarkable circumstances connected with their early history than the ancient town of Coventry. To common readers it is perhaps most known by the singular story of Lady Godiva. That the tale of her riding naked through the city is most improbable no one can deny, but many incidents not more likely to have chanced we know to have been true; and though Dr Pegge and others regard the tradition as a mere fiction, numbers still believe all that is recorded of her ladyship and of Peeping Tom, and a procession in honour of the former has been periodically repeated down to the present times, and we do not know that it has yet been finally discontinued.

Hardly less remarkable was the incident which, if it did not originally establish, added to the importance and continues to sustain the charitable institution represented in the cut which appears in our present number.

"Bablake Hospital," says Briton, "founded for old men, in the year 1506, by Thomas Bond, who had been mayor of the city,

No. 1212.]

was enlarged to accommodate a number of boys in 1560. The buildings bound three sides of a quadrangle, and were formerly occupied by the priests of the Trinity Guild. The rooms appropriated to the old men are on the north side of the area, and the enriched gable at the end of that range, with its corresponding bay window beneath, are shown in the engraving. The entrance gateway to the hospital connects one side of the area with the boys' apartments and schoolroom. In the distance, opposite the tower of Bablake, and to the left of St John's church, is seen the spire to the church of the Grey Friars' Monastery.

R

"Bond, the founder of the establishment, placed six poor men, a woman, and a priest in the hospital, the revenues of which were vested in the city after its suppression in the reign of Edward VI. It now receives eighteen old men and a nurse.'

The incident to which we have adverted, and which largely increased its utility, was connected with the extension of Bond's plan, mentioned above to have occurred about the year 1560, and led to its giving education to a number of boys, who are clothed in blue. This is ascribed to the [VOL. XLIV.

"justice and benevolence" of Thomas Wheatley, who was mayor of Coventry in 1556. He had sent persons in his service to Spain to purchase several barrels of "steel gads," who brought home, through some unaccountable mistake, a number of casks filled with cochineal and ingots of silver, which were offered for sale in the open market as the articles before mentioned, and bought as such. This worthy, who was an ironmonger and card-maker, used every possible exertion to discover the owner of the property which had thus strangely come into his possession, but to no purpose. Such being the case, since he could not return the amount to the party to whom it rightfully belonged, he resolved to devote it to charity. He accordingly provided for the education of a number of poor boys, and in doing this not only appropriated all he had gained through the strange accident just described, but added to it considerable sums from his own funds.

ON METALLO-CHROMES AND ANION
DEPOSITS GENERALLY.
No. IV.

(Continued from page 410 of vol. 43.) AFTER a long interval we return to our subject. On reaching the conductors, which are essential to the formation of a voltaic pair, we found that an efficient arrangement might be constructed of a slip of zinc, a slip of platinum, and a solution of diluted sulphuric acid; and the indication that such a combination gave us, of the existence of something more than mere chemical action in the exciting liquid, was the ignition of the fine connecting wire.

It remains now to point out the phenomena which are produced, when some chemical compound is made to form part of the circuit, in the place of the fine wire. If, for instance, a glass be filled with a solution of sulphate of copper, and two copper wires, one coming from the zinc, and the other from the platinum, be made to dip into this solution, the wire attached to the platinum will soon be seen to dissolve away, and that connected with the zinc will increase in size by the acquisition of new copper. However this experiment be varied, the same order of change will prevail. Now, it is thus rendered evident, that the certain something which is called into play by the above combination, and the presence of which was detected by its action on the fine wire, possesses also certain powers over chemical compounds, and that these powers are very definite in their character. When we come to investigate the changes that take place, both in the apparatus which generates the power, and in the solution where the

effects are allowed to be called into play, a very notable analogy is found to exist. But, before this need be further detailed, it will be necessary to describe more fully others of the class of instruments termed voltaic batteries, of which the combination hitherto mentioned is but the elementary type.

We have said that, in a voltaic pair, of zinc and platinum immersed in dilute sulphuric acid, the hydrogen is liberated at the platinum ;-an equivalent of oxygen is, in like manner, determined to the zinc: but then in its nascent state it combines with the metal to form an oxide, or does not appear. From this it appears that the source of voltaic action must be eminently due to that body which furnishes these two gases, and that body is the water. But now comes the principle on which all exalted voltaic actions are based. As the resultant oxide is not soluble in water, but is soluble in sulphuric acid, a quantity of the latter is added to the water; and thus the oxide is removed, as fast as it is formed, and an accelerated renewal of the action, by the successive contact of fresh particles of water is thus encouraged.

The intensity of the action is represented by the affinity between zinc and oxygen, under such circumstances; and the perfection of an arrangement consists in the facilities which are given for allowing the utmost development of this action. There are metals having a still higher affinity for oxygen than zinc has, as, for instance, sodium and potassium. Could the nature of these metals allow of their being substituted for zinc, a proportionate increase would occur in the electro-motive force. As they will ignite of themselves when in contact with water, it is obviously impossible to employ them; but they may be used amalgamated, or rather in the form of amalgam, and then the very maximum of power is obtained. Thus much in reference to the metal at which oxygen is determined.

We have used platinum as the metal, at which hydrogen shall be liberated; and for this reason: platinum has no affinity for oxygen. If a metal having an affinity for oxygen were employed, it is manifest that the amount of the force would depend on the difference between the affinity here and that at the zinc plate; whereas with such a metal as platinum there is nothing to deduct from the general effect. Practically, it is often convenient to use copper in this place: it has objections, not on the score of the comparative affinities merely, but for other reasons, which will be apparent hereafter. Like as we desired to get rid of the oxide of zinc as fast as it was formed, so do we esteem it an advantage to provide every means within our power to facilitate the escape of the hy

drogen. Mr Smee was the first philosopher who made any important improvements in this. He had seen, in common with other philosophers, that more hydrogen escapes from the edges and corners than elsewhere; and it occurred to him that if the metal were all edges and corners, much advantage would arise. This idea led to the construction of his "Chemico-mechanical battery," in which the chemical action is allowed its utmost freedom, by means of the mechanical arrangement of the surfaces. He prepares his plates by depositing on their surfaces the finely-divided powder of platinum, so that the whole presents a mass of minute, indeed microscopical points, from which the hydrogen comes off, as he has aptly described it, in floods. His mode of throwing down the platinum in powder will be understood better as we proceed.

A further accession is made to the electro-motive force by preventing the liberation of the hydrogen, and causing a chemical affinity to occur at the platinum, which may be added to that occurring at (To be continued.)

the zinc.

THE PILGRIM'S REMONSTRANCE. (With an Illustration by Mrs Gent.) SORROW not thus for the dead, lady, Sorrow not thus for the dead;

He is gone to his rest,

To the home of the blest,
To the Saviour who for him bled, lady,
To the Saviour who for him bled.

Remember those happy days, lady,
Remember those happy days,

When ye laugh'd and ye sang,
And the echoes rang,

As ye rivall'd the wild birds' lays, lady,
As ye rivall'd the wild birds' lays.

Ay, remember! but not to repine, lady,
Remember, but not to repine,

For tho' heav'n gave
An early grave,

Heav'n's bounty made him thine, lady,
Heav'n's bounty made him thine.

THE PARRICIDE.

THE following very singular adventure is related as a fact; it is said to have happened in one of the provinces of France, half a century ago. It appeared in 'La Nouvelle Bibliothêque de Société ;' related in a letter to a friend.

"The adventure which I am going to relate to you, my dear friend, is of so strange and dreadful a nature, that you are the only person to whom I must ever disclose the secret.

"The nuptials of Mademoiselle de Vildac were celebrated yesterday, at which, as a neighbour, custom and good manners required my attendance. You are acquainted with M. de Vildac; he has a countenance which never pleased me; his eyes have often a wild and suspicious glare, a something which has always given me disagreeable sensations for which I could no way account. I could not help observing yesterday that in the midst of joy and revelry he partook not of pleasure; far from being penetrated with the happiness of his new son and daughter, the delight of others seemed to him a secret torment.

"The feast was held at his ancient castle; and, when the hour of rest arrived, I was conducted to a chamber immediately under the Old Tower at the north end. I had just fallen into my first sleep, when I was awa