but in the month of February, they were more frequent; and one day it was so dark, that almost all business was, for a considerable time, suspended. March was remarkable for the heaviest fall of snow during the whole winter, which was succeeded by a vast quantity of rain. May was a mild and very pleasant month. June was cold, the wind chiefly in the north-east: we usually have in the spring of the year from five to seven or eight weeks in which the easterly winds prevail. This month was so dry that a scarcity was apprehended, and even predicted by a writer of popular talents; but who was fortunately mistaken in his views. Owing to the vast drought at this period of the year, the crop of hay was short, and its price has kept up, to the present time, to nearly ten pounds a load. In no part of the summer had we what nay be denominated sultry weather. The hottest day was on the 25th of June, and on that the mercury was not higher than 80°. In August even, the mornings and evenings were complained of as cold and chilly; and so much rain fell about this season, as to alarm the public at large, as well as the farmers, lest they should have no means of housing a very abundant harvest. The rains however ceased in good time, and by their long continuance a plentiful second crop of hay crowned the hopes of those whose farms are chiefly meadow-land. In September the weather was cold and wet for the season; but October was a beautiful month, as it usually is in this part of the island. November and December were, as we have observed, noticed for their large quantities of rain. The weather was mild to the end of the year; but towards the close, violent winds did much mischief in various parts of the country: and on the night of Christmas-day, there was a deal of lightning for several hours; in some quarters during the whole night. Highgate, Jan. 3, 1811. J. J. For the Monthly Magazine. METEOROLOGICAL ABSTRACT for the last TWELVE MONTHS at CARLISLE. An. Mean. 17,37 Annl. Mean. 29,8565| 28,73 161 214 | 151 General Remarks on the Weather, &c. observed at Carliste, during the Year 1810. JA ANUARY was remarkably mild till the 13th, the 1st, 11th, and 12th, were rather stormy; afterwards, moderate frost with light showers of snow. The weather was, on the whole, unusually fine for the season. February. The former half of this month was fair, mild, and exceeding pleasant; the remainder was variable, and often very stormy, with heavy falls of snow, when all the surrounding moun tains were perfectly white. March was a very wet and gloomy month, the quantity of rain, 3,8 inches, is nearly equal to that which fell here in the corresponding month during the last five years: the weather was cold, and the mountains were generally covered with snow. April was dry, but, on the whole, seasonable and pleasant; the weather, during the last week of the month, was very warm, with a serene and cloudless sky. sky. The first swallows this season were seen on the 6th; they were numerous on the 18th. May. The mean temperature of this month, 480 4', is extremely low for the season. The weather was uniformly cold and dry, with brisk parching easterly winds, which proved very unfavourable to vegetation. The mountains were frequently covered with snow. June. The extreme drought which prevailed during this, and the two preceding months, was severely felt here as well as in every other part of the kingdom, The weather this month was generally bright, the days hot, and the nights cold and frosty. The quantity of rain, 1,6 inches, fell chiefly on the 28th and 29th. July. The moist and showery weather experienced this month was productive of the most beneficial effects to the grain crops. The highest degree of temperature, 71°, is unusually low for the season, yet the average for the whole month is nearly equal to that of the same period of former years. August. The weather this month was, on the whole, very favourable for the season. On the 3d and 4th we had some vivid lightning and loud peals of thunder; also on the 31st, a dreadful storm of thunder and lightning, which commenced in the evening and continued nearly all night; during the former part of the storm, rain, mixed with hail, fell in torrents. September. On the 1st of this month we were visited by another violent storm of thunder, lightning, and rain. Two women were struck down by the lightning, and stunned for several hours, but for tunately recovered; four cattle were killed by the electric fluid in this neighbourhood. A monument in Stanwix church-yard was struck by the lightning and much shattered; two massy stones cramped together, of which the pedestal was composed, were separated to up wards of a foot distance. The torrents of rain and hail which fell at the time deluged the streets of this city to such a degree, that many of the ground-floors were covered with water. During the night of the 2d, the sky was illuminated with incessant gleams of lightning, when at the time it was quite serene and cloudless. The heat of this and the preceding day was uncommonly oppressive. The weather afterwards continued fair, calin, and brilliant, and extremely fine throughout the whole of the month. The days were hot and the nights cold, with heavy dews. The hirundines disappeared the beginning of this month; the preceding year they continued with us till the 22d of October. October continued fair, brilliant, and exceedingly fine, till the 18th, during which period the mid-day heat was uncommonly powerful. From the 18th till the 23d, the weather was very wet and stormy; the remainder was variable, when we had some strong frost in the nights. At the conclusion of this month many of the highest mountains in this neighbourhood were capped with snow; and, with regard to the weather, winter may be said to have commenced its reign. November. In the former part of this month we had some considerable falls of snow, particularly on the ed and 6th; that which fell on the latter day did not disappear from the fields before the 10th. The weather continued variable, with intervals of frost and mild rain; towards the latter end of the month it was sometimes bright and pleasant. The wind, with some trifling exceptions, was moderate, and on eight days we experienced a dead calm: the mountains were generally covered with snow. withstanding the very fine autumn, we never remember a corn harvest continu. ing for so long a period as the present; it commenced in this district the begin ning of August, and was scarcely completed at the end of this month; in the higher districts of this county some fields at this time were not reaped. Not December. The unseasonable mild weather experienced during the greater part of this month, was, as usual, attended with violent winds and much rain, The only frost worth recording, was on the 9th, 10th, and 11th. On the night of the 20th, we had some extremely vivid lightning and distant thunder; on the following day the wind blew a violent hurricane from the S.S.E. from which time till the 26th, the weather continued very stormy, with lightning in the nights; the last three days of the month were calm and pleasant, and inclined to frost. The two extremes of the barometer for the whole year happened this month, within the short period of five days, namely 28'67 on the 25th, and 30-70 on the 30th. The mountains were frequently covered with snow. WILLIAM PITT, Carlisle, January 2, 1811. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. I SIR, FEEL pleasure in complying with the request, in your last Number, of the Rev. Mr. Smyth, "That I would state what I know with respect to an instru. ment invented by Mr. Clagget, viz. his forks struck by hainmers, as on the square piano-forte;" because I conceive practical experience cannot be too frequently, collated with theoretical speculation, in order that their reciprocal advantages may be usefully employed in perfecting sientific and mechanical discoveries. On this particular invention, however, I fear I shall be able to add but little to the information Mr. Smyth already pos sesses. An instrument that would continue always in tune is undoubtedly an important desideratum in the musical world; but the various and expansive experiments of Mr. Clagget, leave but little hope, in my mind, of the speedy accomplishment of an object so desirable. The invention enquired after, Mr. Clagget intended to name the Ever-tuned piano-forte, and it was designed to resemble that instrument in appearance; but instead of strings, a series of metallic forks were arranged in octaves to the same compass and pitch; and the tones were intended to be produced by striking them with hammers, for which purpose the usual movement attached to the keys was employed. It was found, however, that the force with which they could be struck, was inadequate to produce the desired effect. To obviate this difficulty, the weight of the hammers was consider ably increased, and their extremities rendered less elastic, by which means the 'tone came out, but it was preceded by one discordant and insufferably distinct, occasioned by the necessary momentum of the blow. This objection has been hitherto found insuperable; as every attempt to overcome it has proportionably Jessened the audibility of the true tone of the fork. Experience seems to indicate that, to produce a full tone from these metallic substances, the vibratory cause must be continued one, as in the aieuton. If, indeed, percussion could be employed at all, its momentum on every note must be proportioned to its relative quantity of matter; which would render the fingering unpleasantly difficult. And I know, although contrary to some established theories of musical sound, that, in this instrument, the gras vity and acuteness of the tones were so much affected by the variable force of the blow, as to be clearly apparent to every musical ear; and accounts for that inequality of voising noticed by Mr. Smyth. I must observe that there was no difficulty whatever in the application of dampers; but it was unnecessary to attend to these particulars, while the essential requisites of the invention remained unaccomplished. Upon the whole, it attained but a small degree of relative perfection with the aieuton; and although Mr. Clagget generally adhered, with a ruinous tenacity, to his inventions, yet he was induced to give up this from a reluctant conviction of its impracticability. This is all the information I am able to give, in answer to Mr. Smyth's enquiry. It is extremely superficial; but, perhaps, it may reach the extent of his curiosity. E. LYDIATT. London, Jan. 14, 1811. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. SIR, THE HE amusement, if not the profit, derived by many from the breeding and management of the silk-worm in England, has induced me, through the medium of your much-circulated miscellany, to make known the best substitutes for mulberry-leaves. In the year 1747, and following years, some curious particulars were published respecting the breeding of silk-worms; I have read nothing which does not give the preference to mulberry-leaves, as their food; but should that foliage fail, Nature has still furnished a supply by the buds of the elm, lettuce-leaves, and even the leaves of poplar, oak, apple-tree, crab-tree, cherry, and plum-tree, bramble, dandelion, young nettles, &c. taking care to gather all your forage dry and clean. Thus the important obstacle of your correspondent, Pamphila," may possi bly be wholly removed, as she admits that our climate is favorable to the breeding, but despairs of bringing them to any perfection, as far as relates to a sufficiency of food, or the manufacture of their silk. It seems that a gentleman, who was particularly curious in experiments on these worms, wound the silk with great facility on a card, after dipping the bottoms into warm water, mixed with a little spirits of wine: the chrysalis, placed erect on the smallest end, in clean paper pans, afterwards assumed its new state, as well I January 25, 1809. SHALL never have done saying something about churches: besides the new cathedral, as it is called, which I described to you the other day, there is another, wherein service is regularly performed. The building is very gloomy, -rather small, and excepting the principal entrance, very little of the outside is to be seen. The door-way is loaded with a variety of sculptured marble, coats of arms, cherubs, &c. The high altar is, as asual, dazzling with gilded ornaments, and the walls crowded with pictured saints, hanging in darkness. The occasion of my seeing it to-day, arose from the circumstance of paying funeral honours to the memory of the late president of the Junta, Count Florida Blanca. The ceremony is called a function, a term applied by the Spaniards to almost every public entertainment, and answers to the French spectacle. This function was attended by the governor, the members of the Junta, the magistrates of the city, the heads of the various convents, foreign ambassadors, consuls, &c. the officers of the army and marine, several British naval and military officers, merchants, &c. who met at the town-hall, and paraded through the streets, which were lined by the volunteers, who stood with their arms reversed. The crowd of people was immense, the windows and balconies were filled with beautiful females; but the greatest order and silence prevailed, and added -to the solemnity of the occasion. On entering the church, I was struck with the vast blaze of light caused by an -innumerable quantity of large wax flambeaux in massy silver and gold candlesticks, some of them being eight or more feet in height; which were burning at the altar, and around a temporary pyramidal monument, the front of which bore an incription descriptive of the character of -the count. The service was chaunted, accompanied by very sublime music on an organ, and a numerous orchestra of vocal and instrumental performers, which lasted three hours without the least intermission: during this time, at intervals, the bells were tolled amid the discharge of artillery and musketry. There appeared to be a deal of piety mingled with the ceremony, and numberless were the times that the congregation fell on their knees, muttered prayers, and counted their string of beads. Nearly at the close of the service I was surprised to observe a man busily delivering to certain persons one of those large wax flambeaux, to be held lighted in the hand. He distributed perhaps a hundred or inore to the convivados or guests who were the most distinguished in the procession; when ha had done, the ministers advanced from the altar to the body of the church, and chaunted the requiem for the dead. The flambeaux were then fetched, and the people retired, I believe heartily glad to be released from so tedious a ceremony. The death of the count had been formally noticed by the firing of minute- . guns for several days after his demise, which was on the 30th of the last month. He was a man universally esteemned, but his great age of eighty-two years had naturally rendered him incapable of supporting the fatigues and troubles attending the important office he had just held as president of the Supreme Junta; but as a name only has often great weight at the head of large assemblies, and the count being so highly venerated by the court party, he was, at the moment, considered to be a fit person for their leader. The precipitate movement of the Supreme Junta in the last month from Ma drid to Aranjuez, their subsequent retreat, and temporary dispersion, before the central Junta at Seville could resume its sitting, produced such an effect on the count as to hasten his death. The uncertainty of their movements was then so great at this place, that the governor published an address to the people, saying that he was without intelligence of their residence, and that be did not, literally, know where to find them; and our consul had not for twelve days received any advices from the English ambassador, nor did he know where he was. Such was the scattered copfusion among the protectors of this country! I was informed that Spain has scarcely to boast of another man who applied himself so much for the good of his country as did Count Florida Blanca: he seemed to wish to place it on a footing with the other nations of Europe, in respect to the happiness of the people, by the just administration of the laws, and by the encouragement couragement of learning. He was also the chief means of making the few good roads that I am told are in Spain; and he endeavoured to provide more accommodation to the traveller at the inns or ventas, than which worse cannot be found in Europe. I will extract from the Seville Gazette, which I have received since I began this, a few paragraphs more descriptive of his character; it will give you an idea of Spanish newspaper biography. "The study and exercise of jurisprudence, in which he shewed his talents and exquisite erudition, opened to him a career of public employment, and the deserved fame which he attained. His name, accompanied every day by new honours acquired in the delicate undertakings of the crown, drew him from the narrow limits of the tribunal; and he was appointed by the wise choice of Charles III. to be minister plenipotentiary to the court of Rome, where his name and his politics will ever be indelibly established. The king called him from thence to be his first secretary of state, and to him are indebted the arts, sciences, industry, and all the branches of public felicity which his beneficent hand had erected, and which twenty years of neglect, disorders, and anti-national tyranny, could not destroy. The envy of the man, who from a favourite became a despot, drove him from the court; but the count showed that fortitude could not be separated from wisdom. Retired, but not forgot. ten, the count lived until the necessity of the monarchy and a national voice called him to Aranjuez to form the Supreme Central Junta, of which he was chosen president. In this elevated situation, he dedicated his care, his zeal, and his patriotism, which the weight of his years could not extinguish, to consolidate the national representation, which was to save the country from the invasion of the tyrant, and from the consequences of anarchy, more powerful and terrible than his arms. In Seville is his tomb, and with it remains the memory of the affectionate regards with which he left his afflicted country, and the deceitful world." January 28, 1809. This morning I had a cruise in the bay, and visited Port St. Mary, which is eight miles across. My friend F-accom panied me, but we had a tedious passage. The morning was delightfully fine and the wind fair, (Fahrenheit was 66° at eight o'clock); but when we got about half way over, the atmosphere became suddenly clouded, it rained a torrent, and the wind opposed us. The oars were then used until we came near some breakers, when all at once the boatmen ceased rowing, folded their arms, and were silent. It was explained to us that at this moment we were crossing the bar, which is always considered dangerous to pass, and that the sailors were praying, according to invariable custom, when they get on it. I own I did not like this suspension of labour, for the breakers were foaming around us; and instead of the boatmen being careful to avoid ac cident, it should seem that by their neg lect they rather sought for it. The English sailors often have a ducking when they go to Port St. Mary for water; owing, no douht, to their not being acquainted with the bar; and it has happened often since I have been here; particularly the other day, when Captain ------ of the frigate, was conveying home some Spanish ladies whom he had entertained on board his ship; his boat struck on the bar, it was upset, and the cockswain was drowned. The captain, and his fair companions, were saved by the sailors, and some boats that put off from the shore, and landed amid the smiles of the Spaniards, who imputed this circumstance to heresy. We entered the town by a flight of wooden steps, where there is a barrier attended by priests and officers, who examine passports and search luggage: we We were paid a small fee, and went on. soon surrounded by crowds of beggars; and we could easily admit their impor tunities when we had walked through the town. Although a governor resides there, and it is an important place, being the first that communicates immediately with the interior from Cadiz, it is a most wretched dirty town, and almost deserted by the male inhabitants; groupes of men, wo men, and children, were basking in the sun in filth and misery. The surrounding country is rather pic. turesque, and interspersed with the ver dure of the olive and the fir; quantities of vegetables and fruit are produced in the neighbourhood for the supply of Cadiz; but it has no manufactures. Here is an amphitheatre for the bull-fight, a town-hall, (a large building of a mean appearance) and a convent of Carthusian friars. This fraternity is not numerous, there being only about thirty now belonging to the order. Their income in considerable |