flag towering on high, when she appeared to be in the flames of the Mole itself; and never was a ship nearer burnt; it almost scorched me off the poop; we were obliged to haul in the ensign, or it would have caught fire. Every body behaved nobly. Admiral Milne came on board at two o'clock in the morning, and kissed my hand fifty times before the people, as did the Dutch Admiral, Van Capellan. I was but slightly touched in thigh, face, and fingers,-my glass cut in my hand, and the skirts of my coat torn off by a large shot; but as I bled a good deal, it looked as if I was badly hurt, and it was gratifying to see and hear how it was received even in the cockpit, which was then pretty full. My thigh is not quite skinned over, but I am perfectly well, and hope to reach Portsmouth by the 10th of October. Ferdinand has sent me a diamond star. Wise behaved most nobly, and took up a line-of-battle ship's station;-but all behaved nobly. I never saw such enthusiasm in all my service. Not a wretch shrunk anywhere; and I assure you it was a very arduous task, but I had formed a very correct judgment of all I saw, and was confident, if supported, I should succeed. I could not wait for an off-shore wind to attack; the season was too far advanced, and the land-winds become light and calmy. I was forced to attack at once with a lee-shore, or perhaps wait a week for a precarious wind along shore; and I was quite sure I should have a breeze off the land about one or two in the morning, and equally sure we could hold out that time. Blessed be God! it came, and a dreadful night with it of thunder, lightning, and rain, as heavy as I ever saw. Several ships had expended all their powder, and been supplied from the brigs. I had latterly husbanded, and only fired when they fired on us: and we expended 350 barrels, and 5,420 shot, weighing above 65 tons of iron. Such a state of ruin of fortifications and houses was never seen, and it is the opinion of all the consuls, that two hours' more fire would have levelled the town, the walls are all so cracked. Even the aqueducts were broken up, and the people famishing for water. The sea-defences, to be made effective, must be rebuilt from the foundation. The fire all round the Mole looked like Pandemonium. I never saw any thing so grand and so terrific, for I was not on velvet, for fear they would drive on board us. The copper-bottoms floated full of fiery hot charcoal, and were red-hot above the surface, so that we could not hook on our fire-grapnels to put the boats on, and could do nothing but push fire-booms, and spring the ship off by our warps, as occasion required." Lord Exmouth's services, and those of his fleet were acknowledged as became such a victory; he was created a viscount, with an honourable augmentation to his already so honoured escutcheon, and the word Algiers as an additional motto; he received from his own sovereign a gold medal struck for the occasion, and from the kings of Holland, Spain, and Sardinia, the stars of their orders -a sword from the City of London;—and, finally-what was likely to please such a man most of all-an unusually large proportion of distinction and promotion acknowledged the merits of the brave men who had served under him. Antiquariana. -- ANTIQUE TABLE. (From a Correspondent.) THIS relic of olden hospitality is at StauntonHarold, Leicestershire, a seat of Earl Ferrers, about two miles from Ashby-de-la-Zouch. It is of oak, and is richly carved and ornamented in the taste of the sixteenth century, having been made about the time of Henry VIII. With that quaint whimsicality which is so predominant a feature in antique articles of taste, the table is constructed of as many pieces as there are days in the year, and ornamented with twelve heads as supporters, representing, it is said, the twelve apostles; but, for my part, I think, they are, more probably, the representatives of the twelve months, particularly as they are encircled with wreaths of fruits and flowers. The legs are still farther enriched with elegant scrollwork, and on the sides of the supporters are richly carved panels, &c., each of a different pattern, exhibiting a series of beautiful designs. An ornamental band runs the whole length of the top, which measures ten yards and a quarter in length, by one yard and a half in breadth; the table standing one yard from the floor. the noble family on festive occasions; and, This curious relic of antiquity was used by at Christmas-"the merrie Yule-tide"-the tenantry seated around it, partook of the good cheer of the "good old times;" the hall ringing with the merriment of the lighthearted, happy peasantry; mayhap, laughing at the gibes of his lorship's jester, or at some merry Christmas gambol : The huge hall table's oaken face, At the present season of the year, when its services would have been in request, the reader of imagination, assisted by the cut before him, and a remembrance of the vivid descriptions of many a writer on the subject of Christmas merry-making in by-gone ages, may find amusement in picturing forth in his own mind its old occupants, and thus again "set the table in a roar !" F. W. FAIRHOLT. The Public Journals. SNARLEYYOW: OR, THE DOG-FIEND. It was in the winter of 1699, that a onemasted vessel, with black sides, was running along the coast near Beachy Head, at the rate of about five miles per hour. The wind was from the northward and blew keenly, the vessel was under easy sail, and the water was smooth. It was now broad daylight, and the sun rose clear of clouds and vapour; but he threw out light without heat. The upper parts of the spars, the hammock rails, and the small iron guns which were mounted on the vessel's decks, were covered with a white frost. The man at the helm stood muffled up in a thick pea jacket, and mittens, which made his hands appear as large as his feet. His nose was a pug of an intense bluish read, one tint arising from the present cold, and the other from the preventive checks which he had been so long accustomed to take, to drive out such an unwelcome intruder. His grizzled hair waved its From the Metropolitan; the Editor's Contri bution to his New Year's Number. locks gently to the wind, and his face was distorted with an immoderate quid of tobacco which protruded his right cheek. This personage was second officer and steersman on board of the vessel, and his name was Obadiah Coble. He had been baptized Obadiah about sixty years before, that is to say if he had been baptized at all. He stood so motionless at the helm, that you might have imagined him to have been frozen there as he stood, were it not that his eyes occasionally wandered from the compass on the binnacle to the bows of the vessel, and that the breath from his mouth, when it was thrown out into the clear, frosty air, formed a smoke like to that from the spout of a half-boiling tea-kettle. The crew belonging to the cutter, for she was a vessel in the service of his Majesty, King William the Third, at this time employed in protecting his Majesty's revenue against the importation of alamodes and breakfasts, with the exception of the steerslutestrings, were all down below at their man and lieutenant-commandant, who now walked the quarter-deck, if so small an extent of plank could be dignified with such a name. He was a Mr. Cornelius Vanslyperken, a tall, meagre-looking personage, with very narrow shoulders and very small headperfectly straight up and down, protruding in no part, he reminded you of some tall parish pump, with a great knob at its top. His face was gaunt, cheeks hollow, nose and chin showing an affection for each other, and evidently lamenting the gulf between them which prevented their meeting, both appeared to have fretted themselves to the utmost degree of tenuity from disappointment in love as for the nose, it had a pearly, round tear hanging at its tip, as if it wept. The dress of Mr. Vanslyperken was hidden in a great coat, which was very long, and buttoned straight down. This great coat had two pockets on each side, into which its owner's hands were deeply inserted; and so close did his arms lay to his sides, that they appeared nothing more than as would battens nailed to a topsail yard. The only deviation from the perpendicular was from the insertion of a speaking trumpet under his left arm at right angles with his body. It had evidently seen much service, was battered, and the black Japan worn off in most parts of it. As we said before, Mr. Vanslyperken walked his quarter-deck. He was in a brown study, yet looked blue. Six strides brought him to the taffrail of the vessel, six more to the bows, such was the length of his tether --and he turned, and turned again. But there was another personage on the deck, a personage of no small importance, as he was all in all to Mr. Vanslyperken, and Mr. Vanslyperken all in all to him moreover, we may say, that he is the hero of the TAIL. This was one of the ugliest and most ill-conditioned curs which had ever been produced from promiscuous intercourse ugly in colour, for he was of a dirty yellow, like the paint served out to decorate our men-of-war by his Majesty's dock-yards-ugly in face, for he had one wall-eye, and was so far underjawed as to prove that a bull-dog had had something to do with his creation-ugly in shape, for although larger than a pointer, and strongly built, he was coarse and shambling in his make, with his forelegs towed out. His ears and tail had never been docked, which was a pity, as the more you curtailed his proportions, the better-looking the cur would have been. But his ears, although not cut, were torn to ribands by the various encounters with dogs on shore, arising from the acidity of his temper. His tail had lost its hair from an inveterate mange, and reminded you of the same appendage in a rat. Many parts of his body were bared from the same disease. He carried his head and tail low, and had a villainous, sour look. To the eye of the casual observer, there was not one redeeming quality that would warrant his keep; to those who knew him well there were a thousand reasons why he should be hanged. He followed his master with the greatest precision and exactitude, walking aft as he walked aft, and walking forward with the same regular motion, turning when his master turned, and, moreover, turning in the same direction; and, like his master, he appeared to be not a little nipped with the cold, and, as well as he, in a state of profound meditation. The name of this uncouth animal was very appropriate to his appearance and to his temper. It was Snarleyyow. At last, Mr. Vanslyperken gave vent to his pent-up feelings. "I can't—I won't stand this any longer," muttered the lieutenant as he took his six strides forward. At this first sound of his master's voice, the dog pricked up the remnants of his ears, and they both turned aft.-" She has been now fooling me for six years ;" and as he concluded this sentence, Mr. Vanslyperken and Snarleyyow had reached the taffrail, and the dog raised his tail to the half cock. They turned, and Mr. Vanslyperken paused a moment or two, and compressed his thin lips-the dog did the same."I will have an answer by all that's blue!" was the ejaculation of the next six strides. The lieutenant stopped again, and the dog looked up in his master's face; but it appeared as if the current of his master's thoughts was changed; for the current of keen air reminded Mr. Vanslyperken that he had not yet had his breakfast. The lieutenant leant over the hatchway, took his battered speaking trumpet from under his arm, and putting it to his mouth, the deck reverberated with "Pass the word for Smallbones forward."-The dog put himself in a baying attitude, with his fore-feet on the combings of the hatchway, and enforced his master's orders with a deep-toned and measured bow, wow, wow. Smallbones soon made his appearance, rising from the hatchway like a ghost; a thin, shambling personage, apparently about twenty years old-a pale, cadaverous face, high cheek-bones, goggle eyes, with lank hair very thinly sown upon a head, which, like bad soil, would return but a scanty harvest. He looked like Famine's eldest son, just arriving to years of discretion. His long, lanky legs were pulled so far through his trousers, that his bare feet, and half way up to his knees, were exposed to the chilling blast. The sleeves of his jacket were so short, that four inches of bone above his wrist were bared to view-hat he had none— his ears were very large, and the rims of them red with cold, and his neck was so immeasurably long and thin, that his head appeared to topple for want of support. When he had come on deck, he stood with one hand raised to his forehead, touching his hair instead of his hat, and the other occupied with a half-roasted, red herring.—" Yes, sir," said Smallbones, standing before his master. "Be quick!"-commenced the lieutenant; but here his attention was directed to the red herring by Snarleyyow, who raised his head and snuffed at its funies. Among other disqualifications of the animal, be it observed, that he had no nose except for a red herring, or a post by the wayside. Mr. Vanslyperken discontinued his orders, took his hand out of his great coat pocket, wiped the drop from off his nose, and then roared out, "How dare you appear on the quarter-deck of a king's ship, sir, with a red herring in your fist ?" 66 If you please, sir," replied Smallbones, "if I were to come for to go to leave it in the galley, I shouldn't find it when I went back." "What do I care for that, sir? It's contrary to all the rules and regulations of the service. Now, sir, hear me- "O Lord, sir! let me off this time, it's only a soldier," replied Smallbones deprecatingly; but Snarleyyow's appetite had been very much sharpened by his morning's walk; it rose with the smell of the herring, so he rose on his hind legs, snapped the herring out of Smallbones' hand, bolted forward by the lee gangway, and would soon have bolted the herring, had not Smallbones bolted after him and overtook him just as he had laid it down on the deck preparatory to commencing his meal. A fight ensued, Smallbones received a severe bite in the leg, which induced him to seize a handspike, and make a blow with it at the dog's head, which, if it had been well aimed, would have probably put an end to all further pilfering. As it was, the handspike descended upon one of the dog's fore toes, and Snarleyyow retreated, yelling, to the other side of the forecastle, and as soon as he was out of reach, like all curs, bayed in defiance. Smallbones picked up the herring, pulled up his trousers to examine the bite, poured down an anathema upon the dog, which was, "May you be starved, as I am, you beast!" and then turned round to go aft, when he struck against the spare form of Mr. Vanslyperken, who, with his hands in his pocket, and his trumpet under his arm, looked unutterably savage. "How dare you beat my dog, you villain ?" said the lieutenant at last, choking with passion. "He's a-bitten my leg through and through, sir, replied Smallbones with a face Snarleyyow," ," said his master, looking at the dog, who remained on the other side of the forecastle.-"O Snarleyyow, for shame! Come here, sir. Come here, sir, directly." But Snarleyyow, who was very sulky at the loss of his anticipated breakfast, was contumacious, and would not come. He stood at the other side of the forecastle, while his master apostrophized him, looking him in the face. Then after a pause of indecision, gave a howling sort of bark, and trotted away to the main hatchway, and disappeared below. Mr. Vanslyperken returned to the quarter-deck, and turned, and turned as before. AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES CONNECTED I PASS over Corsham House, the seat of the Methuen family, about four miles from Lacock Abbey, as being more fully described in Britton's Beauties of Wiltshire. Also Bowood, the seat of the Marquis of Lansdowne, which, though a noble mansion, is uninteresting to the antiquarian, the Lansdowne family being of very modern rise. Sir William Petty, who made the "Down Survey" in Ireland, was its founder. On that occasion, he very wisely got a grant to him and his heirs, of Dunkerron Castle, the ancient seat of the princely family of O'Sul livan. Thus, owing to the injustice of English rulers, the ancient Irish have been stripped of their ancestral rights, and their noble dwellings and ample heritages given to the stranger. Bowood and Lacock Abbey, stands Spye Half way up to Bowden Hill, and between Park, the seat of the Bayntons, a family of great antiquity, and who formerly made a considerable figure in the county. Nothing can be more delightful than the situation of this old mansion, standing in a fine park, richly wooded, and commanding a most extensive view into (as it is said) ten counties. Waller by the Lord Wilmot, Bromham In 1652, at the defeat of Sir William House, the ancient seat of the Baynton family, situated near to the field of battle, was burnt down; upon which, they removed to Spye Park, and having greatly enlarged and beautified it made it their chief residence. But that they afterwards rebuilt Bromham House, (or Bremhill,) is certain, from a letter I have by me, written fourteen years after the fire, by Sir Edward Baynton, to one of my family. There is now in the Royal Museum, a curious, old pedigree, showing that the Bayntons, in the reign of Henry II., were knights of St. John of Jerusalem. Sir Henry Bayn See an Engraving and Description of Lacock Abbey, in the Mirror, vol. xxvi. p. 369-373. ton held the office of knight-marshal to the King, a place of great authority at that time; and his son, who was slain at Bretagne in the year 1201, was a noble knight of Jerusalem. Sidney, in his treatise on Government, mentions this family as being of "great antiquity; and that in name and ancient possessions, it equals most, and is far superior to many of the nobility." The house at Spye Park always struck me with gloom: but, perhaps, the legends told of it, and the too real events that had happened in it, might throw their shade over its walls. As all antique mansions in the country must be associated with a due portion of the superstitious and the wonderful, Spye Park was not without its share. There was a story told, (and duly credited by the peasantry,) of a knight, clad in armour, haunting one of the chambers, supposed to be the spirit of the gallant Sir Henry Baynton, who was beheaded at Berwick, in the time of Henry IV., for taking part with the rebel Earl of Northumberland. More modern spectres also, were said to trouble the indwellers of Spye Park, for I remember Lady Shrewsbury saying, that old Sir Edward, the father of the late Sir Andrew Baynton, was continually seen at nightfall in the park and grounds; and that the latter had often, (when in company with his mistress,) been startled by the apparition of his father. Sir Andrew, in early life, was remarkable for the possession of every engaging and moral quality; but the misconduct of his first wife, to whom he was fondly attached, altered, it was said, his very nature, and plunged him, in order to banish thought, into the most reckless libertinism. Lady Maria Baynton was the object of his earliest, and, therefore, of his sweetest vows: and when he married her, hope promised him a golden age of wedded happiness. But, unfortunately, the veil which hid Lady Maria's real character was soon drawn aside. A gentleman of great personal attractions, and related to Lady Maria, arrived from abroad on a visit at the house. The wretched wife and mother forgot her twofold duty; and after many stolen meetings amongst the shades of Spye Park, whose beauty and peacefulnes might have awakened purer and holier feelings, she fled with her seducer. Sir Andrew was at first inconsolable; and despite her shameless desertion of him, long lamented the mother of his child. Alas! that sinful mother and guilty wife was speedily visited by an awful retribution! Her infamous seducer, for whom she had outraged the laws of her God, and the delicacy of woman, soon grew weary of the poor victim he had immolated at the shrine of a lawless passion, treating her with the utmost cruelty and brutality. Death at last put an end to her dreadful sufferings: and the young, the elegant, and the accom plished Lady Maria, brought up in the lap of luxury, and nurtured upon the bosom of indulgence, died in a lone house, without a single friend or attendant to administer to her latest wants, or a charitable hand to close her dying eyes. O that the young and thoughtless female would take warning from her fate, and learn to keep in subjection those passions of our frail humanity, that rise up, like the angry winds of the tempest, to make shipwreck of God's glorious creation! Man may redeem his follies: but one false step in woman, and farewell hope! A pretty, affecting tale, under the title of "Maria; or, the Obsequies of an Unfaithful Wife," written, (I forget by whom,) upon the melancholy facts I have just recorded, was one of the first productions of the novel tribe I ever perused, and made a great impression upon me at the time, for I had then to learn of what stuff this world was made.— Metropolitan. New Books. RIENZI: THE LAST OF THE TRIBUNES. (Continued from page 15.) Reforms of Rienzi. A WONDERFUL thing would it have been to a more observant eye, to note the change which two or three short months of the stern but salutary and wise rule of the tribune had effected in the streets of Rome. You no longer beheld the gaunt and mail-clad forms of foreign mercenaries stalking through the vistas, or grouped in lazy indolence before the embattled porches of some gloomy palace. The shops, that in many quarters had been closed for years, were again open, glittering with wares and bustling with trade. The thoroughfares, formerly either silent as death, or crossed by some affrighted and solitary passenger, with quick steps, and eyes that searched every corner,-or resounding with the roar of a pauper rabble, or the open feuds of savage nobles, now exhibited the regular and wholesome and mingled streams of civilized life, whether bound to pleasure or to commerce. Carts and wagons laden with goods which had passed in safety by the dismantled holds of the robbers of the Campagna, rattled cheerfully over the pathways. "Never, perhaps,"-to use the translation adapted from the Italian authorities, by a modern and by no means a partial historian* -"Never, perhaps, has the energy and effect of a single mind been more remarkably felt than in the sudden reformation of Rome by the Tribune Rienzi. A den of robbers was converted to the discipline of a camp or convent. In this time," says the historian,† "did the woods begin to rejoice that they * Gibbon. + Vita di Cola di Rienzi, lib. 1. c. x. |
