Manners & Customs of all Nations. hunted the white hart, and having run ST. NEW-YEAR'S DAY. THIS is a local custom, very faithfully kept in many parts of the two northern counties. Early in the morning of the first of January, the Fax-populi assemble together, carrying stangs and baskets. Any inhabitant, stranger, or whoever joins not this ruffian tribe in sacrificing to their favourite Saint Day, if unfortunate enough to be met by any of the band, is immediately mounted across the stang (if a woman, she is basketed), and carried, shoulder high, to the nearest public-house, where the payment of sixpence immediately liberates the prisoner. No respect is paid to any person; the cobbler on that day thinks himself equal to the parson, who generally gets mounted like the rest of his flock; whilst one of his porters boasts and prides himself in having but just before got the 'Squire across the pole. None, though ever so industriously inclined, are permitted to follow their respective avocations on that day. MARRIAGE FEES. J. G. B. Ar Northwich, in the county of Cheshire, a whimsical privilege is ascribed, by the charter of that church, to the senior scholar of the Grammar-school: namely that he is to receive marriage fees to the same amount as the clerk; or, in lieu thereof, the bride's garters. J. G. B. ORIGIN OF THE FINE CALLED WHITE HART SILVER. BLACKMOOR FOREST, at the spring of the Froome, was once called the Forest of White Hart, and at that time the seat of royalty, and greatly preferred by our kings, on account of the deer with which it abounded. King Henry III., with a mighty train of hunters, having one day entered on the chase in this neighbourhood, roused a milk-white hart. The creature afforded his Majesty so much sport, that at the pulling down, it was the royal pleasure to save the beast, and place round his neck a collar of brass, on which was engraved, "I am a royal hart, let no one harm me." But the king and his retinue having run over and spoiled the lands of a gentleman of the county, named Thomas de la Linde, and refusing, upon remonstrance, to make good the injury, De la Linde imprudently resolved to spite King Henry; when, joining with others, he 1 it down, foolishly took the life of the king's favourite; and making merry over its haunches, was heard in his cups to utter many disrespectful speeches towards his sovereign, which were conveyed to Henry, who presently convinced De la Linde of his presumption, and so highly resented the indignity, that he made every one concerned in the death of the noble animal pay into his exchequer an annual fine, called "White Hart Silver," which was not remitted during the reign of that monarch. This is also the origin of the White Hart for a sign at the different inns and houses of entertainment throughout England. J. G. B. WHITSUNTIDE IN GLOUCESTERSHIRE. On ONE of the most strange customs which time has handed down to us, prevails at St. Briavel's, in Gloucestershire. Whit Sunday, several baskets full of bread and cheese, cut into small squares of about an inch each, are brought into the church; and immediately after divine service is ended, the churchwardens, or some other persons, take them contents are thrown amongst the coninto the galleries, from whence their for it in the body of the church, which gregation, who have a grand scramble occasions as great a tumult and uproar the inhabitants being always extremely as the amusement of a village wake, anxious in their attendance at worship on this day. This custom is held for the purpose of preserving to the poor of St. Briavel's and Hewelfield, the right of cutting and carrying away wood from three thousand acres of coppice land, in Hudknolls and the Meends; and for which every housekeeper is assessed twopence, to buy the bread and cheese given away. J. G. B. DRESSING THE CHRISTMAS TREE IN GERMANY. (From a Correspondent.) THIS is performed with great ceremony elders of the family, without the knowand mystery, on Christmas Eve, by the ledge of the younger members. They deck a large evergreen with presents of various kinds: to toys, bonbons, and such trifles, are added things of more value and use-working materials for the girls, knives, &c. for the boys, and books of amusement and instruction for both. Little tapers are attached to the branches of the shrub; and at break of day the children are roused from their slumber, and when all are ready (for no one is allowed to enter singly) they are admitted into the room, where the illuminated tree greets their eyes. Great is the anxiety of the young party to see who has been provided for, since the idea they are taught to entertain is, that these tempting objects are bestowed by an invisible agent, as a reward for good children, and that the naughty and illconducted will find no share allotted to them. Hêbel, in one of his pretty, simple poems, describes a mother sitting by her sleeping child, as she prepares its morning surprise. She enumerates the various gifts she hangs on the tree, pausing in her pleasing task as a moral reflection is suggested by any of the objects she has collected, and concluding by a prayer for the future welfare of her darling. Would not the Christmas-tree be a pleasant addition to our juvenile amusements? The Twelfth-night King and Queen might plant such a one in their royal domain, and graciously conclude their merry reign by distributing amongst those who have served them as liege subjects for the evening, the motley fruits that grace it. Each should be previously marked to correspond with the character to be drawn, which would secure a token of their majesties' favour for each individual of the sportive train. SPIRIT OF THE Public Journals. ST. JOHN LONG HAS distanced the majesty of British justice in the persons of the coroner, the bailiffs, and the Bow-street magistrates, after all. We knew that he would do so; but in this we take no possible credit to ourselves, for every one knew that he would do so. Public opinion is, we must confess, still divided as to the place of his retreat, some pronouncing it America, where his purpose is, to set up a bank with Rowland Stephenson; others, New South Wales, by a natural and pleasant anticipation; and others, Paris, which of late years has superseded Philadelphia, and even New York, as the general receptacle of "the unfortunate brave," the asylum of those men of genius, who have too much talent to live in England, the favoured spot of regeneration for those brilliant speculators whose conceptions equally outrun their credit and their age. However, the majority are clearly for Paris; and the objects of the visit are said to be political, and not personal. The friends of the ex-ministers, it is understood, have succeeded in engaging him; and he is about to put in operation a very extensive system of counter-irritation among the canaille of the French capital. Should his exertions be attended with success, he will, on his return, be retained by the Homeoffice, and despatched into the disturbed districts to counter-irritate the erring disciples of "Swing." On the whole, we are convinced that St. John Long will be seriously missed at the West-end. His house was a pleasant lounge; his chocolate was unimpeachable, whatever his honesty might be; no one could ever question the strength of his coffee, whatever might be surmised of his science; and the sandwiches which promenaded the rooms regularly every half-hour, were a triumphant answer to all the aspersions that his patients lived upon air. We have no doubt that it was a much pleasanter place than the bazaars, to which such hosts of old peeresses order their carriages every day at one, with such matchless punctuality, to buy sixpenceworth of ribbon, and kill three hours. To this, St. John Long's promenade was a paradise. The comfortable manner in which all the comforts of the old ladies were provided for; the pleasantries arising from the nature of the scene between the various rubbed the files of young women, with their mouths fixed to gas-pipes, and imbibing all sorts of vapours; and, never to be forgotten in the catalogue of attractions, the men of all ages who came to learn the art of being cured of all calamities, that of the purse inclusive. Then, too, St. John's own judicious generosity; the presents of invaluable snuff, of firstgrowth Champagne, of Mocha coffee to one, and of gunpowder tea to another, showed a knowledge of women and human nature, that must, but for the malice of justice, inevitably have led to fortune. What will now become of the countess, who led her daughters to this palace of Hygeia as regularly as the day came; and with a spirit worthy of the great cause, declared that, if she had twenty daughters, she would take every one of them every day to the same place, for the same rubbing? What will become of the heavy hours of him who declared St. John's gas a qualification for the Cabinet, and that a sick minister applying to this dispenser of all virtue, would be on his legs in the House, and making a victorious speech What within the twenty-four hours? will become of the battalion of beauties who, at every puff of the gas-pipe, ran to their mirrors, and received the congratulations of the surrounding dandies, or the revived carnation of their cheeks?" Othello's occupation's o'er." But a St. John Long, of some kind or other, is so essential to the West-end world, that a successor must be rapidly erected in his room. Every age has its St. John Long, formed by the mere necessities of the opulent and idle. A new Perkins, with a packet of metallic tractors on a new scale would be extremely acceptable in any handsome street in the neighbourhood of Grosvenor-square. Animal magnetism would thrive prodigiously between this and the dustmonths, when London is left to the guardsmen and the cab-drivers; and when, as Lady Jersey says, nobody who is anybody to be seen in the streets from morning till night, that is, from three till six. But the true man of success would be Dr. Graham, of famous memory; the heir of his talents would make a fortune in any season of the year; and now that St. John Long has vacated the throne, nothing could be more favourable for his ambition, than to take advantage of the interregnum, and make himself monarch of charlatanry without loss of time. - From "Notes of the Month," by far the most piquant portion of the Monthly Mag. BEAR them not from grassy dells, Kindred to the breeze they are, Hush! 'tis thou that dreaming art, Therefore, once, and yet again, STANZAS. Oh! ask me not to sing to-night, I sung for friends beloved and dear, Ibid. THE LATE MADAME DE GENLIS. THE following smart account of the late Madame de Genlis, is translated from that very piquant French paper the Figaro of the 4th January : She nearly died the day she came. into the world; a mere chance saved her; and the noble lady lived eightyfive years. What a misfortune, not only for the Ducrest and the Genlis, if the clumsy Bailiff who sat down in the armchair where the infant prodigy had been left by the careless nurse, had crushed under the ample and heavy developement of his various femoral muscles, the hope of French literature! The concussion would have despoiled us of a hundred volumes, and Heaven can witness what volumes! History in romances; morality in proverbs; and religion in comedies. This is what the world of letters would have lost, society would have lost a very different thing. Such a nose as never was possessed before; a nose modelled by Love himself, and celebrated by ten court poets, and which the censer of praise was as unable to improve as a certain tumble which its owner had in infancy. Hands the most beautiful that could be, and which Madame de Genlis put up for exhibition during twenty years, upon the strings of a harp, now passed into a proverb. A form without fault, and which made the delight of the Palais Royal parties in the open air. A foot, alike triumphant at the Court and at the Porcherons. Eyes capable of making an impression upon the running footman of M. de Brancas, and of an innumerable crowd of dukes, lawyers, officers, and -men of letters. A genius!-oh! for her genius, if she had not been encumbered with so much modesty, Madame de Genlis would have shone by it alone in the first rank; through feminine modesty she remained in the second. Philosophy may breathe again. The author of "The Evenings at the Castle" was the Attila of philosophers ;she crushed Voltaire, considering him as a mauvais sujet; pursued Diderot and d'Alembert; breasted Rousseau; refuted the Encyclopædia; and was always of the party in favour of the Altar and the Throne, excepting only the day when the revolution of 1789 commenced. Foul-mouthed people allege Madame de Genlis to have been a great coquette, which is a calumny. She was virtue itself. No doubt she was the object of rude assaults; public declarations, scenes of despair, disguises, eulogies in verse, madrigals in prose-all were employed to seduce her affections; but she resisted always. To revenge her cruelty, they attacked her morals, and epigrams rained on her. She replied by her Memoirs-rather diffuse confessions, which Lavocat (the publisher) contrived to dilute further-but edifying, and which have demonstrated that if Mad. de Genlis was not canonized in her life-time, it was because there is no longer any religion to speak of, or that she neglected to cultivate interest with the Pope. One poet had the audacity to put up Madame de Genlis' honour at the Exchange for a dollar; the ladies of the Directory exclaimed against this; the Countess herself said nothing she despised the exaggeration which nobody could credit. In truth, Madame de Genlis was quite as good as the particular Queen, whose modesty was only to fall before the millions of a CardinalDuke. Mirabeau boasted, in one of his letters, that he had communicated his own tenderness to the charming tigress; but Mirabeau was a vain, good-for-nothing coxcomb, and the boudoir on four wheels which he presented as the theatre of his triumph, was a horrible invention. The proof is, that Madame de Genlis says nothing whatever about it in her Memoirs. Posterity should be just towards the illustrious Countess, and accept, as sincere, her revelations. Let us, then, consider her as the most virtuous of women; as the least arrogant; the most sensible; the most learned ; for all, in fine, that she desired to appear; for Madame de Genlis never said what was untrue; she solemnly declares So. Madame de Genlis had a talent that was very dear to her, but the title of a good housewife was that she coveted above all the rest. I can never forget the following circumstance, exemplifying the naif vanity of the pretension to be without pretension, which the noble lady sometimes assumed. I was anxious to see this celebrated person, and wrote to ask the favour of a brief interview. She appointed the following day. At twelve o'clock I presented myself;Madame de Genlis was writing; she laid down her pen, and obligingly offered me a seat, then said-" Allow me, sir, to finish my pot au feu; above being a woman of letters, I value myself as a good housewife. And the Countess scraped the carrots and the leeks, tied them up, put them into the soup-kettle, skimmed the meat, and neither forgot cloves nor fried onions. Then taking off her kitchen apron, came with very good grace to offer herself to my curiosity We talked upon art and literature; and I must say that she did not speak of her harp more than twice, of her talent for acting more than once, or of her facility of writing-very much more than six times. Madame de Genlis died almost suddenly, and was employing herself as usual, when death struck her. She leaves two works, which will, no doubt, be published as soon as a bookseller is found to put them together, and idlers seem disposed to read them. The King offered her rooms in the Tuileries, and she had replied to his gracious proposal the evening before she died. Louis Philip never forgot his preceptor-Madame de Genlis is said to have had some desire to be forgotten by her pupil.-New Monthly Magazine. Fine Arts. EXHIBITION OF THE WORKS OF LIVING ARTISTS AT THE BRITISH INSTITUTION, PALL-MALL. (From a Correspondent.) THIS attractive Exhibition opened for the season on Monday, the 31st ult., and contains five hundred and fifty-two works of art. The display of pictures is certainly very splendid; and, as no portraits are admitted, the respective artists have employed their talents in representing pleasing and interesting subjects, some of which contain high poetical feeling while others possess the power of raising our risibility by their novelty and genuine humour-a valuable quality in painting, to attain which, the artist treads an extremely difficult path. We must now select a few of the most sparkling gems of the collection. No. 1. Lavinia, from Thomson's Seasons, painted by Sir Martin Archer Shee, is a chaste production. Lavinia is portrayed as a perfect rustic beauty. 3. A subject from "The Lost Pleiad" of Miss L. E. L. is beautifully embodied by Henry Howard, R. A. 12. Part of the Corn-market at Caen, formerly the Church of St. Sauveur; painted by Roberts, in his peculiar and fascinating style. 36. The Auld Friends"Then here's a fig for snarling time, Wi' features long and grim, Come prime the cup, my rude auld friend, And pledge me brim to brim." Painted carefully by J. P. Knight, son of the late comedian. 59. Titania, Puck, and Bottom; by Mr. Partridge. This is a commanding work, and extremely rich in the colouring. The Queen of the Fairies is represented reposing on a grassy bed, and near her is seated the formidable Bottom, in his ludicrous metamorphosis: he is placed in such a situation, that her majesty must see him before any other object when she awakes. At a little distance Puck is displayed laughing at the trick he has played on the queen, and seems to anticipate with delight the amusement that is to ensue. 95. Falstaff's Assignation with Mrs. Ford from the Merry Wives of Windsor-is remarkably delicate in the execution, possesses good colouring, and is altogether creditable to the painter, Mr. Clint. 153. Interior of the Painted Hall, Greenwich Hospital; by John S. Davis. This is an admirable specimen of rising genius, as it contains much knowledge 462. The Interior of Mr. Pinney's Gallery, Pall Mall; by Mr. Novice.This is doubtless an arduous undertaking; the artist has evinced much skill in the arrangement of the various objects of the piece, and the effect is forcible and good. There is another the exhibition No. 345, but we think it representation of a picture-gallery in wants effect. We are sorry that we can only allude to the names of several other excellent artists. They must not infer, however, that we fail to appreciate their merits; on the contrary, we would most gladly appropriate our time to the extension of this notice, were we permitted sufficient space, for to do ample justice would оссиру several pages. Madame Como lera, Miss E. Drummond, and Miss G. W. N. Notes of a Reader. ROYAL EQUIVOQUE. (From the Life and Reign of George IV.) A WELL-KNOWN individual, some time deceased, who was admitted to the prince's familiarity upon his first entrance into life, and for several years after, described or rather dramatized with much humour a scene which he professed to have had from the prince himself. So much depends upon tone and manner, that the spirit of these pleasantries evaporates on paper. The story was in substance as follows:-A new suit, destined for a ball that night at Cumberland-house, was brought home to the prince, but ordered back by him for the purpose of undergoing immediate alterations. He gave directions that the tailor's return with it should be instantly made known to him. The prince happened to pass the early part of the evening with the king and queen at Buckingham - house. Whilst he was seated in the royal group, a German |