160 Almanac. -Births, Marriages, and Deaths. Births.-At Orton Longueville, Hunts, the Countess of Aboyne, of a son.-10th, at Wolston Manor, the wife of William Wilcox, Esq., of a daughter.-26th Feb., at Queen's-terrace, Bayswater, the wife of Major A. Park, Bengal Army, of a daughter. -6th March, at No. 9, Sheffield-terrace, Kensington, the wife of Capt. Dewaal, 34th Regt. Bengal N. I., of a daughter.-7th, at Amlwch, North Wales, the wife of P. R. Innes, Esq., 1st Lieut. 1st European Bengal Fusiliers, of a daughter. Marriages. On the 7th ult., at the Church of Duisburg, the Rhine, by the Rev. W. E. Krummacher, Mr. S. P. Low, of the Madras Military Fund-office, London, to Hannah, youngest daughter of Mr. Thomas Austin, of Shelford, Cambs.-10th, at St. Mary's Church, Woolwich, by the Rev. Capel Molyneux, Captain N. S. K. Bayly, Royal Artillery, to Henrietta Charlotte, daughter of Colonel H. W. Gordon, Royal Artillery. -14th, at St. Peter's Church, Eaton-square, and at the Catholic Chapel, Cadogan-terrace, J. Marcelino Hurtado, Esq., son of the late Minister Plenipotentiary of Columbia at the Court of St. James's, to Ida, daughter of William Perry, Esq., H.B.M. Consul at Panama. Deaths. On the 22nd February, Mrs. Mary Story, wife of Mr. J. W. Story, of Darlington, many years resident, after a long and tedious illness, aged forty-five years.7th ult., at Stone Ness, Annette C. Rams. den, aged twenty, youngest daughter of the Rev. W. Ramsden, rector of Ashhurst.8th, at No. 36, Charlotte-square, Edinburgh, Mrs. Charlotte Nixon, widow of Capt. Horatio Stopford Nixon, Royal Navy. - 9th ult., at his residence, 13, Great Stanhope-street, General Sir Edward Kerrison, Bart., K.C.B., G.C.H., in his seventy-eighth year. 10th, at Wolston Manor, Harriette, the infant daughter of William Wilcox, Esq. He SIR GEORGE SITWELL, BART.-We regret to announce the demise of this respected baronet, who died at Bognor, on Saturday last, from an attack of gout in the stomach. Sir George was the son of the first baronet by the daughter of Thomas Parks, Esq., of Highfield-house, Lancashire. was born in 1797, and married, 1818, the eldest daughter of Crawford Tate, Esq., of Harvieston, county Clackmannan, by whom he leaves a son, now Sir Sitwell Reresby Sitwell, Sir George was a deputy-lieutenant of Derbyshire, and succeeded his father in 1841. "FAITH! there's nothing like a wedding, anyhow, that's certain!" said Mr. Philip O'Lee, pushing the Madeira towards his friend Jack Wilson, at whose board he sat amid a circle of some dozen companions who had met to discuss the propriety of the said Jack Wilson's approaching nuptials. "You may take my word upon that matter; for having been to church three times I ought to have some experience. What mariner thrice traverses the same sea without knowing the state of its bed? I have read somewhere or other that matrimony is the halfway house on the great road of life; and so it is. But the refreshment received during our rest there gives such a lift to the heart, that we jog through the remainder of the journey with ten times the spirit with which we commenced it. Besides, wedlock is like the N. S. VOL. XXXIV. Y interpreter's house mentioned by Bunyan in his 'Pilgrim's Progress;' it not only furnishes you with entertainment for mind and body, but provides a companion to strengthen, to counsel, and to shorten your otherwise dreary way. 66 'By all means marry. I'll give you a bit of a sketch of my life by way of inducement. You must know that I'm almost an Irishman. In the first place my father was brought up in Cork, and having acquired much of its ran-dan phraseology, he transmitted it to me -though the devil of a bit of anything more substantial did I ever inherit from the old gentleman! In the next place, my patronymic commences with a round 'O'; yet how is 'Lee' affected by Hibernicism? Lee! Lee! never mind, we will cast Lee to windward, and go on to the third place. In the third place, then, I'm mightily given to blundering at times-that's certain! "And now, my boys, attention! Wet your whistles, and keep them silent; for I'm going to begin. My father was owner of three whalers at the time of my birth, and consequently a rich man. But train oil is not the sort of stuff wherewith to polish manners, so I may as well confess that he hadn't a bright spot of gentility the size of a crown piece about him; he was an upright, downright tradesman, and that was all. However great pains were taken to manufacture a gentleman out of me, and I must without vanity observe, that the experiment succeeded to perfection. I might have been a bit of a harumscarum in my hobbledehoyish days, but where is the watch whose materials were not one day scattered over a dirty shopboard? "Our next-door neighbour-we resided in Liverpool-was a Mr. Beaufort, an extensive man amongst metals. He had lead enough to roof half the nation, and sufficient iron to form a railroad round the earth. In addition he had brought his 'pigs' to so good a market, that he kept a fine carriage and a country house, which, together with good society, did for his habits what the Sheffield folks did for his dingy ore, brightened them up and gave them all the brilliance and temper of high-wrought steel. Notwithstanding this disparity of manners, there existed far from unfriendly intercourse between my father and Mr. Beaufort; they had commenced the race of life together, and each, through the industrious exercise of limited means, had at about the same period attained their present opulence. Added to this, while a mere boy I was instrumental in saving our neighbour's eldest daughter, when about six years of age, from perishing by suffocation at the hazard of my life. The accident occurred thus;—at the termination of Beaufort's garden was a deep well, and Miss Frances, girllike, thinking that it would be a fine treat to ride to the bottom, stepped into the bucket one day, and down she went; I was playing in the next yard when this happened, and hearing the whirling of the windlass, turned my head just in time to see the young lady vanish. To immediately leap the dwarf wall that separated us, was an act of impulse. I ran with a speed that would have outstripped the reindeer, and shouted as I went all the murders I could lay my tongue to. On reaching the well I instinctively clutched the rope with both hands and down I slid like a shot, tearing the flesh in ribbons from my bones as I descended. 6 "It was a mercy my weight did not crush the poor little girl to death; however-Heaven knows how-she escaped, and, in half a moment, I held her in my arms. The water was not more than eighteen inches deep, so there was no fear of drowning; but I don't know an office in Great Britain that would have insured us against choking. Frances, the darling! was first to feel the effects of the confined airshe leaned against my breast, and rested her head upon my shoulder, whilst her warm breath became colder and colder against my cheek. 'Courage, courage,' said I; don't faint yet awhile. But she didn't heed me, and went off all of a sudden, just murmuring as sense departed, Good bye, Philip, I am going to our Father which is in heaven!' At this distance of time, friends, I shudder, as I recall the sensations of that moment! I imagine the horror of fancying that I held a corpse within my embrace, of finding that when I attempted to climb the rope, I had neither strength nor ability to do so, and of experiencing a difficulty in breathing which I believed to be the precursor of death. In this terrible exigency I collected sufficient power to utter one cry, and then fell against the rope, round which I twined my disembarrassed arm with nervous tenacity. Everything now appeared to swim around me I felt like one being strangled-cold drops of perspiration ran over my entire frame-a thousand veins seemed to start into my eye-balls, charged to bursting with blood; I felt each precious hold relaxing-another instant and destruction would have ensued-but, no! a cheer from above shot new life into every fibre, and the next breath I drew was an inhalation of the pure air of the upward atmosphere. 66 "On what a chance does life at times depend! Without my exclamations, as was afterwards proved, the household would not have received a timely alarm; and had I not, by the one shout I gave below, attracted attention to the well, we should have remained undiscovered till too late-that's certain. "After this adventure, I made Frances my inseparable companion. Her sister Bertha frequently joined our sports, but in her I had no interest save what was reflected by the light she gathered in her sister's presence. My own little girleen was a sun that warmed my heart as it shone there; while Bertha, in comparison, was cold, like the moon, which glitters but in borrowed beams, without admitting one genial spark. Oh, those days of innocence and joy! The slave who finds a gem of value to purchase freedom, fondles not his treasure with more delight than I did the fairy being I had snatched from death! and was it not natural? To me she was indebted for life, and when we see the interest we attach to a simple flower which we have preserved from fading, who can wonder if we idolize creation's fairest blossom when it owes its bloom to us? For my own part, I prize nothing but what costs me tro uble. "Well, after a few years spent in this delectable manner, I was ent to college, and some of these days I'll make you laugh finely at n account of my adventures there-for I led a roystering, frolicsome life, and many's the jovial, frolicking son of mischief could tell you the same. Anyhow, I passed through the furnace without much damage, and when I returned home, which I did at twenty-one, it was with principles untouched with profanity; feelings unblunted by wantonness or fun; and a breast which libertinism had not rendered heartless. How well can I recollect the dear, gay party that collected at our house to welcome me once more amongst them. There was my father and my mother (God rest her!) and all my sisters; who formed a capital muster-roll of affectionate relations. Then there was my cousin Alfred, and a schoolfellow of his, named Tim Lackington, a young fellow of good property; and, lastly, there was Mr. Beaufort, with Bertha and my own bewitching Frances by his side. I rushed into the thick of the group, and was welcomed with acclamations by all; but cold and dead in my grave must I lie, before the soft notes in which one voice uttered welcome fades upon my delighted me mory. "It was spoken by the girl for whose presence the world was indebted to me. I flew to her rapturously, and while I did so, lads, I learned to prize the unbought pressure from the lips of purity—far, far beyond the hollow blandishments of hireling wantons! "Frances blushed, but immediately she laughed, and said, with all her sweetest playfulness of manner, Come, come, Master Philip; remember I am not now the little goose-cap whose inquiries after truth led her to the bottom of a well! "What! you still remember that?' said I, as delighted as if somebody had proved his remembrance by a good, fat legacy. "Yes,' returned she, laughing, and I also recollect how a certain person, a little given to blundering, took a flight after me, when, by simply winding up the bucket in which I stood, he might have saved himself the trouble.' "That was in order to die with you, if we could not live together,' said I, taking both her hands. She made no reply to this, but a tear, bright as an angel's glance, spoke folio volumes. "There was an enchantment in her look at that moment, and only then did I discover how surprisingly she was altered and improved. The innocence of childhood still shed vestal light over her features, but the fires of intellect blended with the flame, and exalted their character so highly, that a Pagan would have taken her for Diana, beautified by a resemblance to the god of Genius, with whom she was twin-born! Added to this, her eye was a heaven in itself, and her mouth the most perfect thing in nature; as to the nectar on her lips-pass the wine, boys! "Her stature was tall and sylph-like! but if any of you can form a notion that a fairy ought to be, you will at once draw her portrait. We now renewed our old confidential intercourse: when I walked, |