supposes that the observance originated in an ancient Roman superstition of choosing patrons on this day for the ensuing year-a custom which gallantry took up when superstition, at the reformation, had been compelled to let it fall. H. H. PITT'S DIAMOND. "(To the Editor.) ALLUSION being made the other evening by Sir R. Inglis, in the debate on Lord John Russell's reform motion, relative to a gentleman of the name of Pitt sitting in that House in right of possessing a very large diamond, the following particulars may not prove un that has uttered so many charming things." P. T. W. EPITAPH ON A WATCHMAKER, Copied from a Tombstone in Lidford HERE lies, in Horizontal position, George Routleigh, Watchmaker, Whose abilities in that line were an honour To his profession; interesting to the numerous readers of Sincerely regulated were all his move the Mirror : Thos. Pitt, Esq., anciently of Blandford, in the county of Dorset, afterwards Earl of Londonderry, was, in the reign of Queen Anne, made Governor of Fort St. George, in the East Indies, where he resided many years, and became possessed, by trifling purchase, or by barter, of a diamond, which he sold to the King of France for 135,000l. sterling, weighing 127 carats, and commonly known at that day by the name of Pitt's Diamond. ANCESTRY. JAC-CO. Ir may not be generally known that there is a small town in France which no one can enter without interest, from the consideration that Demetrius Commene once lived there, a man boasting a pedigree that traced him from the line of the Roman emperor Trajan. He was living in the time of Voltaire, and was a captain in the French army. His pedigree was the noblest of any man then living, or that has since lived, for he had twenty-six kings for his ancestors, and eighteen emperors. Of these, six were emperors of Constantinople, ten of Trebizond, and two of Heracleus Pontus; eighteen kings of Colchi, and eight of Lazi. RAMBLER. A LITERARY KISS. ALIAN CHARTIER was esteemed the father of French eloquence; he spoke as well as he wrote. He flourished about the year 1430. Margaret of Scotland, first wife to the dauphin, afterwards Louis XI., as she passed through the Louvre, observed Alian asleep, and went and kissed him. When her attendants expressed their surprise that she should thus distinguish a man remarkable for his ugliness, she replied "I do not kiss the man, but the mouth ments, That he never went wrong, Who did did not know, Even then, he was easily He had the art of disposing his Time That his Hours glided away In one continual round Till an unlucky Moment put a period to He departed this Life In hopes of being taken in Hand Thoroughly cleaned, repaired, and set a-going In the world to come.-TIM. HERE is a picturesque contrivance of Art to embellish Nature. We have seen many such labours, but none with more satisfaction than the Grotto at Ascot Place. This estate is in the county of Surrey, five miles south-east from Windsor, on the side of Ascot Heath, near Winkfield. The residence was erected by Andrew Lindergreen, Esq.; at whose death it was sold to Daniel Agace, Esq., who has evinced considerable taste in the arrangement of the grounds. The house is of brick, with wings. On the adjoining lawn, a circular Corinthian temple produces a very pleasing effect. The gem of the estate is, however, the above Grotto, which is situate at the end of a canal running through the grounds.Upon this labour of leisure much expense and good taste have been bestowed. It consists of four rooms, but one only, for the refreshing pastime of tea drinking, appears to be completed. It is almost entirely covered with a white spar, intermixed with curious and unique specimens of polished pebbles and petrifactions. The ceiling is ornamented with pendants of the same material; and the whole, when under the influence of a VOL. XVII. Q strong sun, has an almost magical effect. These and other decorations of the same grounds were executed by a person named Turnbull, who was employed here for several years by Mr. Agace. Our View is copied from one of a series of engravings by Mr. Hakewill, the ingenious architect; these illustrations being supplementary to that gentleman's quarto History of Windsor. We request the reader to enjoy with us the delightful repose-the cool and calm retreat of the Engraving. Be he never so indifferent a lover of Nature, he must admire its picturesque beauty; or be he never so enthusiastic, he must regard with pleasure the ingenuity of the artist. To an amateur, the pursuit of decorating grounds is one of the most interesting and intellectual amusements of retirement. We have worshipped from dewy morn till dusky eve in rustic temples and "cool grots,' " and have sometimes aided in their construction. The roots, limbs, and trunks of trees, and straw or reeds, are all the materials required to build these hallowed and hallowing shrines. We call them hallowing, because they are either built, or directed to be built, in adoration of the 483 " beauties of Nature; who, in turn, mantles them with endless varieties of lichens and mosses. In the Rookery adjoining John Evelyn's "Wotton" were many such temples dedicated to sylvan deities: one of them, to Pan, consists of a pediment supported by four rough trunks of trees, the walls being of moss and laths, and enclosed with tortuous limbs. Beneath the pediment is the following apposite line from Virgil: Pan curat oves oviumque magistros. Pan, guardian of the sheep and shepherds too. Yet the building is not merely ornamental, for the back serves as a cowhouse! Who Pope's love of grotto-building has made it a poetical amusement. does not remember his grotto at Twick enham FAIRY SONG. (For the Mirror.) SLOWLY O'er the mountain's brow Stays its notes of sadness; Or watch the maiden's pillow ;- 'Neath Ocean's deepest billow: Harmless now the dreams that play O'er slumbering eyes, then haste away. Farewell lovely scenes, that here Wait the day god's shining; We must follow Dian's sphere O'er the hills declining. Brighter comes the beam of dayHaste ye, Fairies, haste away. DREAMS PRODUCED BY WHISPERING SLEEPER'S EAR. (For the Mirror.) G. J. IN THE Dreams are but interludes which fancy makes; When monarch Reason sleeps, this mimic wakes. DRYDEN. DR. ABERCROMBIE, in his work on the Intellectual Powers, has recorded several instances of remarkable, dreams.Among them is the following extraordinary instance of the power which may be exercised over some persons while asleep. of creating dreams by whisperAn officer in the exing in their ears. pedition to Lanisburg, in 1758, had this that his companions in the transport peculiarity in so remarkable a degree, were in the constant habit of amusing themselves at his expense. It had more effect when the voice was that of a friend familiar to him. At one time they conducted him through the whole progress of a quarrel, which ended in a duel, and when the parties were supposed to be met, a pistol was put into his hand, which he fired, and was awakened by the report. On another occasion they found him asleep on the top of a locker, or bunker, in the cabin, when they made him believe he had fallen overboard, and exhorted him to save himself by swimming. They then told him a shark was pursuing him, and entreated him to dive for his life; this he instantly did, but with such force as to throw himself from the locker to the cabin floor, by which he was much bruised, and awakened of course. After the landing of the army at Lanisburg, his companions found him one day asleep in the tent, and evidently much annoyed by the cannonading. They then made him believe he was engaged, when he expressed great fear, and an evident disposition to run away. Against this they remonstrated, but at the same time increased his fears by imitating the groans of the wounded and the dying; and when he asked, as he sometimes did, who were down, they named his particular friends. At last they told him that the man next him in the line had fallen, when he instantly sprang from his bed, rushed out of the tent, and was roused from his danger and his dream together, by falling over the tent ropes. By the by, all this is quite contrary to Dryden's theory, who says"As one who in a frightful dream would shun His pressing foe, labours in vain to run; And his own slowness in his sleep bemoans, With thick short sighs, weak cries, and tender groans." And again, in his Virgil « When heavy sleep has closed the sight, The nerves unbraced, their usual strength deny, Now this man seems to have had the use not only of his limbs, but of his faculty of speech, while dreaming; and it was not till after he awoke that he felt the oppression Dryden describes; for it is stated, that when he awoke he had no distinct recollection of his dream, but only a confused feeling of oppression and fatigue, and used to tell his companions that he was sure they had been playing some trick upon him. W. A. R. Views with delight your glassy surface clear, Round him her flowers Parnassian wildly fing. Stream of the Bards! oft Hayley linger'd here; with a tear. The Author of " A Tradesman's Lays." No. 85, Leather Lane. * This charming, accomplished poetess has addressed one of her most beautiful 66 Elegiac Sonnets" to this inspiring River. Her tender image of the "infant Otway" is, however, borrowed from a stanza in Collins's inimitable "Ode to Pity:' "Wild Arun, too, has heard thy strains Retrospective Gleanings. ANCIENT BLACK BOOKS, &c. THE Black Book of the Exchequer is (For the Mirror.) said to have been composed in the year 1175, by Gervase of Tilbury, nephew of King Henry the Second. It contains it then stood, its officers, their ranks, a description of the court of England, as privileges, wages, perquisites, powers, and jurisdictions; and the revenues of the crown, both in money, grain, and cattle, Here we find, that for one shilling, as much bread might be bought as would serve a hundred men a whole day; and the price for a fat bullock was only twelve shillings, and a sheep four, &c. At the end of this book are the Annals of William of Worcester, which contain notes on the affairs of his own times. The Black Book of the English Monasteries was a detail of the scandalous enormities practised in religious houses; compiled by order of the visiters, under King Henry the Eighth, to blacken them, and thus hasten their dissolution. Books which relate to necromancy are called Black Books, Black-rent, or Black-mail, was a certain rate of money, corn, cattle, or other allied with robbers, to be by them pro consideration, paid (says Cowell) to men rob or steal, tected from the danger of such as usually P. T. W. ANCIENT STATE OF PANCRAS. BREWER, in his "London and Middle- In some ma Pancras is said to have been a parish before the Conquest, and is mentioned in Domesday Book. It derived its name from the saint to whom the church is dedicated a youthful Phrygian nobleman, who suffered death under the Emperor Dioclesian, for his adherence to the Christian faith. P. T. W. SALT AMONG THE ANCIENT GREEKS. (For the Mirror.) POTTER, in his " Antiquities of Greece," says "Salt was commonly set before strangers, before they tasted the victuals provided for them; whereby was intimated, that as salt does consist of aqueous and terrene particles, mixed and united together, or as it is a concrete of several aqueous parts, so the stranger and the person by whom he was entertained should, from the time of their tasting salt together, maintain a constant union of love and friendship." Others tell us, that salt being apt to preserve flesh from corruption, signified, that the friendship which was then begun should be firm and lasting; and some, to mention no more different opinions concerning this matter, think, that a regard was had to the purifying quality of salt, which was commonly used in lustrations, and that it intimated that friendship ought to be free from all design and artifice, jealousy and suspi ción. It may be, the ground of this custom was only this, that salt was constantly used at all entertainments, both of the gods and men, whence a particular sanctity was believed to be lodged in it: it is hence called divine salt by Homer, and holy salt by others; and by placing of salt on the table, a sort of blessing was thought to be conveyed to them. To have eaten at the same table was esteemed an inviolable obligation to friendship; and to transgress the salt at the table-that is, to break the laws of hospitality, and to injure one by whom any person had been entertained-was accounted one of the blackest crimes: hence that exaggerating interrogation of Demosthenes, "Where is the salt? where the hospital tables?" for in despite of these, he had been the author of these troubles. And the crime of Paris in stealing Helena is aggravated by Cassandra, upon this consideration, that he had contemned the salt, and overturned the hospital table. P. T. W. The Movelist. THE GAMESTER'S DAUGhter. From the Confessions of an Ambitious Student. A FIT, one bright spring morning, came over me-a fit of poetry. From that time the disorder increased, for I indulged it; and though such of my performances as have been seen by friendly eyes have been looked upon as mediocre enough, I still believe, that if ever I could win a lasting reputation, it would be through that channel. Love usually accompanies poetry, and, in my case, there was no exception to the rule. "There was a slender, but pleasant brook, about two miles from our house, to which one or two of us were accus tomed, in the summer days, to repair to bathe and saunter away our leisure hours. To this favourite spot I one day went alone, and crossing a field which led to the brook, I encountered two ladies, with one of whom, having met I had a slight acquaintance. We stopped her at some house in the neighbourhood, to speak to each other, and I saw the face of her companion. Alas! were I to live ten thousand lives, there would never be a moment in which I could be alone-nor sleeping, and that face not with me! each other. I walked home with them "My acquaintance introduced us to to the house of Miss D (so was the strange, who was also the younger lady named.) The next day I called upon her; the acquaintance thus commenced did not droop; and, notwithstanding our youth-for Lucy D- — was only seventeen, and I nearly a year younger-we soon loved, and with a love, which, full it necessarily must have been, was not of poesy and dreaming, as from our age less durable, nor less heart-selt, than if it had arisen from the deeper and more earthly sources in which later life only hoards its affections. "Oh, God! how little did I think of what our young folly entailed upon us! We delivered ourselves up to the dictates of our hearts, and forgot that there was a future. Neither of us had any ulterior design; we did not think-poor children that we were-of marriage, We touched each other's hands, and and settlements, and consent of relations. were happy; we read poetry togetherand when we lifted up our eyes from the page, those eyes met, and we did not know why our hearts beat so violently; and at length, when we spake of love, |