Calendar. But if his verses failed in softening the heart of his mistress, they procured for him, when he soon afterwards removed to London, the substanstantial advantage of an introduction, through his friend Gabriel Harvey, to the admirable Sir Philip Sydney. To that gallant youth he inscribed his poem, in 1579, under the modest name of Immerito, or The Undeserving; and it is certain that he passed some time with his friend and patron, in the classic shades of Penshurst, in Sussex. It is impossible not to dwell with peculiar satisfaction on this passage in Spenser's life: there is scarcely a family in all our national annals, more deserving of admiration than that of Sir Henry Sydney; himself, the highminded statesman and noble,-and the father of Sir Philip, the mirror of chivalry, when chivalry had received its highest polish and refinement,—and of the beautiful and accomplished Mary, afterwards the Countess of Pembroke, and the subject of so much poetical panegyric, and particularly of Ben Jonson's well-known epitaph. It is pleasing to think of Spenser assisting the studies of Sydney, and each nurturing and strengthening in the other that elevated strain of sentiment, which, in the one case, sent forth into active life the "hero of Zutphen," and, in the other, inspired the gorgeous vision of arms and knights and fair dames, which is depicted in the Fairy Queen. It was, however, no part of Spenser's character to live in idle dependence on the great, or to decline the services of real duty and business. He had been introduced by his friend, Sir Philip Sydney, to his uncle, the powerful Earl of Leicester, who seems to have intended to employ him; and probably through the same interest, was recommended as Secretary to Lord Grey of Wilton, when he went in 1580 as Lord Deputy to Ireland. With this nobleman Spenser remained, until he quitted his office; and in 1586 once more went to Ireland as a fixed resident, having received from Queen Elizabeth in the preceding year, a grant of 3028 acres of land, from the forfeited estates of the Earl of Desmond. Our engraving gives a representation of his residence. It was Kilcolman Castle, near Doneraile, in the county of Cork; and it is thus described in SMITH'S Natural and Civil History of the County and City of Cork ;"Two miles northwest of Doneraile, is Kilcolman, a ruined Castle of the Earls of Desmond; but more celebrated, for being the residence of the immortal Spenser, when he composed his divine poem of the Fairy Queen. The castle is now almost level with the ground. It was situated on the north side of a fine lake, in the midst of a vast plain, terminated to the east, by the county of Waterford mountains; Bally-houra hills to the north, or, as Spenser terms them, the mountains of Mole; Nagle mountains to the south; and the mountains of Kerry to the west. It commanded a view of above half the breadth of Ireland; and must have been, when the adjacent uplands were wooded, a most pleasant and romantic situation; from whence, no doubt, Spenser drew several parts of the scenery of his poem. The river Mulla, which he more than once has introduced in his poems, ran through his grounds." Here, with only occasional visits to England, he resided till 1598; and he has described himself, as "keeping his flock under the foot of the mountain Mole, among the cooly shades of green alders, by the shore of Mulla, and charming his oaten pipe (as his custom was), to his fellow shepherd swains." In plainer language, Spenser here employed himself, besides other poetical labours, in advancing his great work of the Fairy Queen, which had been designed and begun long to before. To this poem, on which the fame of Spenser To have reason for my rhyme, I received nor rhyme nor reason,is more than questionable. Spenser was not only styled the Queen's Laureate, but received from her majesty the grant of a pension for 501 a year, no inconsiderable sum in those days; the patent of which grant was discovered some years ago, in the Rolls chapel, by Mr Malone. Spenser, however, did not confine himself solely to the cultivation of the Muses. During this period of time, probably about 1596, he drew up a work in prose, entitled A View of the State of Ireland; a work of which it has been said, that, "it exhibits him as a most interesting writer in prose, as well as a politician of very extensive knowledge, and an antiquary of various and profound erudition.' But the time was now fast approaching, when Spenser's labours, whether in verse or prose, were to come to an abrupt and most unfortunate termination. In 1597, he had returned to Ireland. But in the following year the rebellion of Tyrone burst forth in that country with irresistible fury. All Spenser's property was ravaged; his castle burnt; his papers destroyed; and his youngest child (he had married during his residence at Kilcolman) perished in the flames. Broken-hearted, Spenser repaired to England, and, on the 16th of the following January, died at an inn in King Street, Westminster, in the forty-sixth year of his age. He adds one to the mighty dead, who lie interred in the Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey, where he was buried near to Chaucer, and a monument was erected to his memory by the countess of Dorset. Although the last days of Spenser were, unquestionably, clouded by severe misfortune, it may not be quite useless to add, that Mr. Todd, in his valuable life of the poet, has quite disproved the commonly received notions of his having struggled through life in unmerited neglect and poverty. He had scarcely appeared on the public theatre, when he was patronized by the Sydney family; and, beside the advantage of his secretaryship, and his pension from the Queen, it was not long before he acquired no inconsiderable property in Ireland. After his decease, part of his estate of Kilcolman was restored to one of his sons or grandsons; and, in 1751, some of his lineal descendants were remaining in the county of Cork. The fame of Spenser must be built upon his Fairy Queen. He wrote several other poems, mostly of the pastoral character; but, though abounding with beauties, they are now, we suspect, not often read. Even his great work was unfinished, as only the first six books, with some fragments of a seventh and eighth, were published. It is an allegory throughout, and, according to his own account, his design was "to represent all the moral virtues, assigning to every virtue a knight, to be the patron and defender of the same; in whose actions, and feats of arms, and chivalry, the operations of that virtue, whereof he is the protector, are to be expressed; and the vices and unruly appetites that oppose themselves against the same, to be beaten down and overcome." sistible natural power thus accomplishing, almost without any trouble, and at no expense, an operation which, from the peculiar hardness and texture of the stone, would otherwise be impracticable but by the most powerful machinery, or the most persevering labour. The great fault of this poem is its design. An Abundant examples might be cited of cases where allegory long sustained will ever be tedious and un- the remarks of experienced artists, or even ordinary interesting; and, moreover, in this particular in- workmen, have led to the discovery of natural quastance, the covert meaning is often involved in so lities, elements, or combinations, which have proved much obscurity, that it cannot easily be traced. It of the highest importance. Thus (to give an inis also unfortunate for the general popularity of stance), a soap-manufacturer remarks, that the resiSpenser, that he studiously affected language which | duum of his ley, when exhausted of the alkali, for verged toward antiquity even in his own day, and which he employs it, produces a corrosion of his which is uncouth and often obsolete now; a point copper boiler, for which he cannot account. He in which we cannot but contrast him with his great puts it into the hands of a scientific chemist for contemporary, Shakspeare, who seems to have gone analysis, and the result is the discovery of one of before his own day in point of diction, and in whose the most singular and important chemical elements, works we often read long passages without a single iodine. The properties of this, being studied, are word, that, after the lapse of two hundred years, found to occur most appositely, in illustration and sounds strange in our ears; indeed, we cannot but support of a variety of new, curious, and instructive think that the writings of Shakspeare have co-ope- views, then gaining ground in chemistry, and thus rated with our received version of the Bible, in exercise a marked influence over the whole body of fixing, as much as the thing is possible, a standard that science. Curiosity is excited; the origin of the of our language. Still, in spite of these drawbacks, new substance is traced to the sea-plants, from whose the Fairy Queen is a poem of the very highest excel- ashes the principal ingredient of soap is obtained, lence. Milton, Cowley, Dryden, Pope, Thomson, and, ultimately, to the sea-water itself. It is thence Gray, and almost every English poet who has since hunted through nature, discovered in salt-mines and written, have found it a mine from which to extract springs, and pursued into all bodies which have a ore, which they, perhaps, have polished into greater marine origin; among the rest into sponge. A mebrightness and beauty. It has such an inexhaust-dical practitioner (Dr. Coindet, of Geneva,) then ible store of fancy, such a profusion of imagery, such richness and sweetness of poetical diction, and, above all, it breathes a spirit so gentle, so pure, so elevated in morals, and so fervent in piety, that it deserves, as it enjoys, one of the very highest niches in our temple of Fame. CURIOUS DISCOVERIES IN PRACTICAL In the Granite Quarries, near Seringapatam, the most Hardly less simple and efficacious is the process used in some parts of France, where mill-stones are made. When a mass sufficiently large is found, it is cut into a round form, several feet high, and the question then arises how to divide this into pieces, of a proper size for mill-stones. For this purpose grooves are chiseled out, at distances corresponding to the thickness intended to be given to the millstones, into which grooves wedges of dried wood are driven. These wedges are then wetted, or exposed to the night-dew, and next morning the block of stone is found separated into pieces of a proper size for mill-stones, merely by the expansion of the wood, consequent on its absorption of moisture; an irre calls to mind a reputed remedy for the cure of one of the most grievous and unsightly disorders to which the human species is subject, the goitre*, which infests the inhabitants of mountainous districts, to an extent that in this favoured land we have, happily, no experience of, and which was said to have been originally cured by the ashes of burnt sponge. Led by this indication, he tries the effect of iodine on that complaint, and the result establishes the extraordinary fact, that this singular substance, taken as a medicine, acts with the utmost promptitude and energy on goltre, dissipating the largest and most inveterate in a short time, and acting (of course, like all medicines, even the most approved, with occasional failures,) as a specific, or natural antagonist against that odious deformity. In needle-manufactories, the workmen who point the needles are constantly exposed to excessively minute particles of steel, which fly from the grindstones, and mix, though imperceptible to the eye, as the finest dust in the air, and are inhaled with their breath. The effect, though imperceptible on a short exposure, yet being constantly repeated from day to day, produces a constitutional irritation dependent on the tonic properties of the steel, which is sure to terminate in pulmonary consumption; insomuch that persons employed in this kind of work, used scarcely ever to attain the age of forty years. In vain was it attempted to purify the air, before its entry into the lungs, by gauzes, or linen guards; the dust was too fine and penetrating to be obstructed by such coarse expedients, till some ingenious person bethought him of that wonderful power, which every child who searches for its mother's needle with a magnet, or admires the motions of a few steel-filings on a sheet of paper held above it, sees in exercise. Masks of magnetized steel-wire are now constructed and adapted to the faces of the workmen. By these, the air is not merely strained but searched in its passage through them, and each obnoxious atom arrested and removed. • Large wens, or swellings about the neck and throat. Who would have conceived that linen-rags were capable of producing more than their own weight of sugar, by the simple agency of one of the cheapest and most abundant acids (the Sulphuric)? That dry-bones could be a magazine of nutriment, capable of preservation for years, and ready to yield up their sustenance in the form best adapted to the support of life, on the application of that powerful agent, steam, which enters so largely into all our processes, or of an acid at once cheap and durable? that saw-dust itself is susceptible of conversion into a substance bearing no remote analogy to bread; and though certainly less palatable than that of flour, yet no way disagreeable, and both wholesome and digestible, as well as highly nutritive?HERSCHEL'S Natural Philosophy, in the Cabinet Cyclopædia. ANNIVERSARIES IN MAY. MONDAY, 20th. 1506 Expired at Valladolid, in Spain, Christopher Columbus, the first discoverer of America, or the New World. 1558 Sir Hugh Willoughby sailed from London with three ships, on a voyage to discover a north-east passage to China. He perished with the crews of two of his ships, by frost and hunger on the shores of Lapland. 1799 Buonaparte, after repeated assaults, in which he lost the flower of his ariny, was obliged to raise the siege of St. Jean D'Acre. TUESDAY, 21st. The Sun enters the constellation Gemini, or the Twins, at eight o'clock in the morning. On this day, in the year before Christ 216, the Romans sustained a signal defeat from the Carthaginians, under Hannibal, at Canne, a town in what is now the kingdom of Naples. 1420 The Treaty of Troyes, by which the crown of France was settled on King Henry V. of England and his heirs, after the death of Charles VI., then King of France. In pursuance of this treaty the infant, Henry VI. of England, was crowned m Paris the 7th of December, 1431. 1720 The Mississippi Scheme, or Mr. Law's Bubble, burst in France, by which thousands were reduced at once from affluence to the most hopeless penury. 1809 On this and the following day Buonaparte was defeated by the Archduke Charles, and forced to repass the Danube. WEDNESDAY, 22nd. On this day, in the year before Christ 234, was fought the battle of the Granicus, (a river in Asia Minor,) in which Alexander the Great, with 30,000 Macedonians, defeated 600,000 Persians. A. D. 337 Constantine the Great, the first Christian Emperor, died. 1455 The first battle of St. Alban's, in which King Henry VI. and his partizans were defeated. 1782 The Island of Formosa, lying off the coast of China, was nearly destroyed by a hurricane and inundation of the sea. THURSDAY, 23rd. 1533 Sentence of Divorce between Henry VIII. and Catherine of Arragon, his first wife, was pronounced by Archbishop Cranmer in the Priory of Dunstable. 1617 Elias Ashmole, the clebrated antiquary, and founder of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, was born at Lichfield. Though a learned man, he was deeply infected with a belief in judicial astrology. 1829 Captain Ross, who had been unsuccessful in his first voyage of North-western discovery, sailed in a steam-ship, called the Victory, to attempt the discovery at his own expense. FRIDAY, 24th. 1153 David I., King of Scotland, died, universally regretted by his subjects, who looked up to him as a father. He was found dead in a posture of devotion. 1357 Edward the Black Prince made his public entry into London with his prisoner, John, King of France, taken at the battle of Poictiers. 1543 Died Nicholas Copernicus, the eminent astronomer, who revived the Pythagorean System of the Universe, which is now universally received. The room in which he was born is still preserved by the inhabitants of his native city, Thorn, in Poland. 1689 The Act of Toleration passed. 1814 The Pope restored to his dominions by the Austrians. 1819 The Princess Victoria of Kent, heiress presumptive to the crown of the United Kingdom, born. SATURDAY, 25th. 1720 The Plague brought to Marseilles, in France, by an infected merchant-vessel from Sidon. It raged chiefly during August and September, in which months it carried off 18,000 victims. 1805 Died at Carlisle, aged sixty-three, the learned and devout Dr. William Paley, Archdeacon of Carlisle, author of those invaluable works,--A View of the Evidences of Christianity -Natural Theology-Moral Philosophy-and Hora Paulina, proving the truth of the Scripture History of St. Paul. SUNDAY, 26th. WHIT SUNDAY, or PENTECOST.-The Christian Church, at a very early period, set apart this day as a solemn festival, in perpetual commemoration of the miraculous descent of the Holy Ghost on the Apostles then assembled together in one place, when" suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the house where they were sitting; and there appeared to them cloven tongues as of fire, which sat upon each of them; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.' The origin of the appellation of Whit Sunday has given rise to much learned and minute discussion; but the common derivation of White Sunday, from the candidates for baptism being clothed in white, seems the most probable. This day is also the Anniversary of ST. AUGUSTINE, who was deputed by St. Gregory to be the converter and apostle of the English. He succeeded in impressing the truth of the Christian Religion on Ethelbert, King of Kent, and many of his subjects, and became the first Archbishop of Canterbury. After many years preaching and labour, he died May 26, about 610, and was afterwards canonized. On this day constant twilight commences in this climate, and continues till the 18th of July. 1805 Napoleon crowned King of Italy in the Cathedral of Milan. LONDON: PUBLISHED IN WEEKLY NUMBERS, PRICE ONE PENNY, AND IN MONTHLY PARTS, JOHN WILLIAM PARKER, WEST STRAND Saturday No 57. RATURE& OF GENE MAY PRICE ONE PENNY. ΙΟΝ UNDER THE DIRECTION OF THE COMMITTEE OF GENERAL LITERATURE AND EDUCATION, APPOINTED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE. 'NATIONAL STATUES. No. II. STATUE OF KING CHARLES THE SECOND, In the centre of the large court of the Royal Hospital at Chelsea, is a bronze statue of King Charles the Second, in the costume of a Roman emperor; it would, however, have been more valuable, as an historical monument, had it represented him in the dress of his own time and country. This statue is the work of Grinling Gibbons, and was the gift of Mr. Tobias Rustat, under-keeper of Hampton-court palace, and yeoman of the robes to the above king. We shall have to speak, in a future number, of Rustat, and his many loyal and liberal benefactions, as well as of Gibbons the sculptor: we will, therefore, take for our present subject, some striking events in the life of the Monarch whose figure is given in the wood-cut. Great was the delight shown by the English nation at the return of their banished sovereign; the popular frenzy, which had caused his father's murder, and his own absence in a foreign land, being then at an end. We are told of men, particularly of Oughtred, the mathematician, who died of pleasure when informed of this happy event. On looking into the reasons for such amazing proofs of joy, we find that they existed, not so much in any particular esteem for the person or character of Charles, as in the cheering prospects opened to the country, by the restoration of peace, of law, and justice, and of a lawful Monarch. For many years preceding, England had suffered dreadfully from the calamities of civil war, in which every man's hand was against his neighbour and his brother. In this state of things, private property could not be secure; and, amidst the ever-shifting scenes of anarchy and confusion, loyal men, whether or not they had the additional ties of families and fortunes, were in constant doubt and dread of what might happen next. From such an unsettled condition of affairs, the change to security and order was most welcome, and the proclamation of King Charles the Second announcing his return, was hailed with shouts of exultation *. When the King entered London, on the 29th of May, 1660, which was also his birth-day, and a day of public thanksgiving †, so great and general was the rejoicing, that, a man could not but wonder where those people dwelt, who had done all the mischief, and kept the King so many years from enjoying the comfort and support of such excellent subjects." A previous occurrence in the life of Charles the Second, of which his recovery of his rightful dominions strongly reminds us, is truly interesting, as exhibiting Royalty in the midst of such dangers and troubles as, if told of a private individual, could not fail to touch our feelings. We allude to his escape from Worcester, which had been the refuge of the young monarch after his unfortunate defeat at Dunbar; when Oliver Cromwell, with an army of about 30,000 men, fell upon that city on the 3rd of September, 1651, and gained a victory, which he afterwards thought proper to call "his crowning mercy." In the following narrative of the circumstances attending King Charles's flight, we shall follow an account which was published, in London, in 1660. The King, having shown great personal courage in the battle, was compelled to quit Worcester, the fidelity and affection of which city deserve to be remembered. He was accompanied by many English The House of Commons voted 500l. to buy a jewel for Sir John Grenville, who had brought them his Majesty's letter from Breda, There was a second thanksgiving, on the 6th of June following. lords and gentlemen, Charles Gifford, Esq., who was presented by the Earl of Derby, being appointed his conductor, Colonel Carlesst, whose name will often occur in this notice, was commanded with a party to bear the brunt of the pursuing enemy, and to keep them off, which he did with prudence and valour. Early on the following morning, the King and his friends, eighty in all, reached a place called White Ladies, a house in the parish of Tong, about twenty-five miles from Worcester. One George Pendrill, living at this house, hearing a knocking at the gate so early as three o'clock, went to the window, and knowing the voice of one of the party, Francis Yates, who answered him, he opened the door, when the king with most of his lords entered the hall. Here the Earl of Derby called for William Pendrill, the eldest brother, and sent George to Tong to see that the coast was clear. In his return, he met with his brother Richard, who by Mr. Gifford's direction made haste and brought with him his best clothes, which were, a jump, (or short coat,) and breeches of green coarse cloth, and a doeskin leather doublet; the hat was borrowed of Humphry Pendrill, the miller, being an old grey one, turned up at the brims; the shirt, made of the coarsest of the hemp, was got of one Edward Martin; the band of George Pendrill, and the shoes of William Creswel; all which the King, having taken off his own clothes, quickly put on. His own suit was buried: the jewels off his arm he gave to one of his lords. Then came Richard Pendrill with a pair of shears, and rounded the King's hair, which Lord Wilmot, having cut before with a knife, had awkwardly notched; and the King was pleased to notice Richard's good barbering as better than my lord's; and now his Majesty was quite the woodman." All that evening they hid themselves in a dry pit, for fear of a troop of horse, which, however, turned out to be a company of friends to the king. The Earl of Derby, with the other lords, then sorrowfully consented to retire; but before he took his leave, he brought William Pendrill to the king, and solemnly committed the care of his most sacred majesty to him and his brothers. The company being all gone, a wood-bill was brought and put into the king's hand, and he went out with Richard into the adjoining woods. William went home, Humphry and George remaining about the woods. But the king had not been an hour out of the house, when a troop of the enemy's horse arrived at White Ladies in search of him. Being told by the neighbours that a number of horsemen, and, as they supposed the king with them, had quitted the village three hours ago, in a certain direction, they instantly left, following that course. The weather happened to be very wet during the first day of the king's being in the wood, upon which a blanket was brought to throw over his shoulders. Francis Yates's wife also came, with a mess of milk, eggs, and sugar, in a black earthen cup, which the king guessed to be milk and apples, and said he liked it very well. After he had eaten and drank, he gave the rest to George. He then exchanged his wood-bill for Yates's broom-hook, which was lighter. They had some trouble, all that day, to teach his majesty the countryman's manner, and to order his steps and straight body to a labourer's gait, and were forced, every now and then, to remind him of it. As to the language of the country, the king's kind conversation with the people, in his journey to Worcester, and while there, had made it easy to him. About five o'clock that evening, they all went Sometimes written Carlis and Carios. |