lately in the Torrid Zone, but the captain being familiar with such instances, sailed through them without apprehension. The first consisted of myriads of small orbicular medusæ, about the size of a pea, of a purple hue; the other patch of a reddish-brown colour, was produced by small mollusca, the size of a needle, and about a line in length. The Gatherer. A snapper up of unconsidered trifles. CURIOUS SIGN. THE following is on a violin maker's sign-board, at Limerick :- "New Villins mad here and old ones rippard, also new heads, ribs, backs, and bellys mad on the shortest notice. N. B. Choes mended, &c. "Pat O'Shegnassy, painter." ANCIENT PROPHECY. THE author of "The Blasynge of Armes," at the end of Dame Julian Berners's celebrated Treatise on Hawking, Hunting, and Fishing, has informed us that "Tharmes of the Kynge of Fraunce were certaynly sent by an angel from heven, that is to saye, thre floures in manere of swerdes in a feld of azure, the whyche certer armes were given to the forsayd Kynge of Fraunce in sygne of everlastynge trowble, and that he and his successours alway with batayle and swerdes sholde be punysshyd." BATHOS AND PATHOS. (To the Editor.) PERCEIVING that you sometimes admit curious and eccentric epitaphs into your very amusing and instructive periodical, if the enclosed is worthy a place, it at least has this merit, if no other, that it is a literal copy, from a tombstone in St. Edmund's churchyard, Sarum ;— In Memory of 3 Children of Joseph and Arabella Maton, who all died in their Infancy, 1770. 1. Innocence Embellishes Divinely Compleat To Prescience Coegent Now Sublimely Great In the Benign, Perfecting, Vivifying State. This book was printed at St. Albans in the year 1486, and afterwards reprinted by Wynkyn de Worde, in 1496. PROPHECY OF LORD BYRON. In his journal, under the date of January 13, 1821, Lord Byron writes: "Dined-news come-the powers mean to war with the people. The intelligence seems positive-let it be so-they will be beaten in the end. The Kingtimes are fast finishing. There will be blood shed like water, and tears like mist; but the people will conquer in the end. I shall not live to see it-but I foresee it." HARDHAM'S 37. SNUFF-TAKERS generally, especially the patrons of Hardham's 37 will read the following record of benevolence with distinctly saw objects which he and all on board took to be the pinnacles of several rocks of a black and white colour: in a short time, however he discovered this formidable danger to be nothing more than a company of dancing grampuses with white bellies: as one disappeared, another rose, so that there were at least five or six constantly above the surface! The uncertainty attending the visual organ during the continuance of the aurora and of the twilight, must have been noticed by all those persons who have frequented the ocean. Most sailors have the power of eye-sight strengthened from constant practice, and from having an unobstructed view so generally before them; yet I have known an officer, who was famous for his quickness of sight, declare that in the evening and morning he found it difficult to retain sight for more than a second or two at a time, of a strange sail; at night, even with an inverting glass, his practised eye could retain the object more steadily. The public were amused for some time, a few years ago, by the tales of brother Jonathan respecting the huge sea-serpent. Without at all disputing the existence of creatures of that nature in the ocean, I have little doubt that a sight I witnessed in a voyage to the West Indies, was precisely such as some of the Americans had construed into a "sea-serpent a mile in length," agree ing, as it did, with one or two of the accounts given. This was nothing more than a tribe of black porpoises in one line, extending fully a quarter of a mile, fast asleep! The appearance certainly was a little singular, not unlike a raft of puncheons, or a ridge of rocks; but the moment it was seen, some one exclaimed, (I believe the captain)" here is a solution of Jonathan's enigma"-and the resemblance to his "sea-serpent" was at once striking. Ice, sometimes, when a-wash with the surface of the sea may be mistaken for breakers; and that which is called "black ice" has, both by Capt. Parry and Mr. Weddell, been taken for rocks until a close approach convinced them of the contrary; and, I dare say, others have been in like manner deceived, especially near Newfoundland. A scole of or indeed, a single, devil fish (Lophius) when deep in the water, may appear like a shoal; and I think, that of all the various appearances of strange things seen at sea, this monstrous animal is more likely to deceive the judgment into a belief of a submarine danger being where none actually exists, than any other. I have watched one of these extraordinary creatures, as it passed slowly along, occupying a space twothirds of the length of the ship (a 32gun frigate ;) its shape was nearly circular, of a dark green colour, spotted with white and light green shades, like the ray, and some other flat-fish. Mr. Kriukof gave a curious description to Capt. Kotzebue of a marine serpent which pursued him off Behring's island it was red and enormously long, the head resembling that of the sea-lion, at the same time two disproportionately large eyes gave it a frightful appearance. Mr. Kriukof's situation seems to have been almost as perilous above the surface of the sea, as Lieutenant Hardy's Spanish diver's was, with the tintererò underneath! In the History of Greenland, (which, by the by, may with propriety be called Parrynese,) I think there is a well authenticated account of a large sea-serpent seen upon the coast of that vast insular land in Hudson's sea. Sea-Devil.-Extract from the logbook of the ship Douglas." Sailed May 3rd from Curaçoa. May 6th, at three P.M. in lat. 35 long. 68.40, made, as we supposed, a vessel bottom up, five or six miles distant-proceeded within forty feet of the object, which appeared in the form of a turtle—its height above water ten or twelve feet; in length twenty-five or thirty feet, and in breadth twelve feet, with oars or flappers, one on each side; twelve or fifteen feet in length, one-third of the way from his tail forward, and one on each side near his tail five feet long. The tail twenty to twenty-five feet long,-had a large lion face with large eyes. The shell or body looked like a clinker-built boat of twenty-five or thirty tons, bottom up, and the seams of the laps newly paid. There were some large branches on him. This animal was standing south-east, and in the course of Bermuda, and his velocity about two knots per hour. A vessel running foul of this monster might be much injured. New York Paper, May 22. Spawn of fish, minute mollusca, the small classes of squilla and cancer, are known to voyagers as causing a discolouration of the sea in particular places. Patches and lines of these are often seen within the tropics, of a brown colour, and sometimes of a yellow, and of a red shade, floating upon the sur face of the ocean, which, to those unused to such sights, are considered as indications of danger beneath. I met with two patches of this description lately in the Torrid Zone, but the captain being familiar with such instances, sailed through them without apprehension. The first consisted of myriads of small orbicular meduse, about the size of a pea, of a purple hue; the other patch of a reddish-brown colour, was produced by small mollusca, the size of à needle, and about a line in length. The Gatherer. A snapper up of unconsidered trifles. CURIOUS SIGN. THE following is on a violin maker's sign-board, at Limerick :-"New Villins mad here and old ones rippard, also new heads, ribs, backs, and bellys mad on the shortest notice. N. B. Choes mended, &c. "Pat O'Shegnassy, painter." ANCIENT PROPHECY. THE author of "The Blasynge of Armes," at the end of Dame Julian Berners's celebrated Treatise on Hawk ing, Hunting, and Fishing, has informed us that "Tharmes of the Kynge of Fraunce were certaynly sent by an angel from heven, that is to saye, thre floures in manere of swerdes in a feld of azure, the whyche certer armes were given to the forsayd Kynge of Fraunce in sygne of everlastynge trowble, and that he and his successours alway with batayle and swerdes sholde be punysshyd." BATHOS AND PATHOS. (To the Editor.) PERCEIVING that you sometimes admit curious and eccentric epitaphs into your very amusing and instructive periodical, if the enclosed is worthy a place, it at least has this merit, if no other, that it is a literal copy, from a tombstone in St. Edmund's churchyard, Sarum:In Memory of 3 Children of Joseph and Arabella Maton, who all died in their Infancy, 1770. 1. Innocence Embellishes Divinely Compleat To Prescience Coegent Now Sublimely Great In the Benign, Perfecting, Vivifying State. THE LETTER B. "Or like a lamb, whose dam away is fet, He treble baas for help, but none can get." SIDNEY. ITs pronunciation is supposed to resemble the bleating of a sheep; upon which account the Egyptians represented the sound of this letter by the figure of that animal. It is also one of those letters which the eastern grammarians call labial, because the principal organs employed in its pronunciation are the lips. With the ancients, B as a numeral stood for 300. When a line was drawn above it, it stood for 3,000, and with a kind of accent below it, for 200. A DOUBLE. P. T. W. HARDHAM'S 37. SNUFF-TAKERS generally, especially the * This book was printed at St. Albans in the patrons of Hardham's 37 will read the year 1486, and afterwards reprinted by Wynkyn de Worde, in 1496. following record of benevolence with some gratification:-"In 1772, Mr. John Hardham, a tobacconist, in Lon don, a native of Chichester, left by his will the interest of all his estates to the guardians of the poor, to ease the inhabitants in their poor-rates for ever.' This valuable legacy amounting to 6537. per annum was subject to the life of the housekeeper of the testator, so that it was not till 1786 that it reverted to the city."-This is even better than the plan for snuff-takers paying off the national debt. PRESTON, LANCASTER. PRESTON is a market-town, borough, and parish; situated on the river Ribble, in the hundred of Amounderness, county palatine of Lancaster. It was incorporated by Henry II., in 1160; and the privileges and free customs granted by this and subsequent royal grants were confirmed by Charter of 36th Charles II. The body corporate consists of a mayor, recorder, seven aldermen, and seventeen capital burgesses, who, together, form the common council of the borough. The mayor, two town-bailiffs, and two sergeants are elected annually, upon the Friday preceding the festival of St. Wil frid, who was formerly lord of this town; and they are invested, on the 12th of October following, by a jury of twentyfour guild burgesses. The members of the council, with the exception of the mayor, retain their seats for life, or during the pleasure of a majority, and vacancies are supplied by the remaining members. The town sends two representatives to parliament, and affords the nearest practical example of universal suffrage in the kingdom-every male inhabitant, whether housekeeper or lodger, who has resided six months in the town, and who has not, during the last twelve months, been chargeable to any township as a pauper, having a right to vote for two candidates at elections. This principle was established by a decision of the House of Commons, on an appeal, in the year 1766, and has ever since been acted upon. The burgesses are entitled, by the charter of Henry II., to have a GUILD MERCHANT, with the usual franchises annexed, of safe transit through the kingdom, exemption from toll, pontage, and stallage; liberty to buy and sell peaceably; and power to hold a guild for the renewal of freedom to the burgesses, the confirming of bylaws, and other purposes. This privilege is still made the occasion of great festivity. For a long time after their first institution, the guilds were held at irregular periods, but they have now, for more than a century, been uniformly celebrated every twentieth year, commencing on the Monday next after the Decollation of St. John, which generally happens in the last week of August; the last was held in 1822, and commenced on the 22nd of September. The amusements, which are of great variety, continue for a fortnight; but, for civic purposes, the guild books are open for one entire month. The corporation are obliged to hold this carnival, on pain of ferfeiting their elective franchises, and their rights as burgesses. The guild appears to be of the nature of the ancient frank-pledge: it is of Saxon origin, and derived from the word gile, signifying money, by which certain fraternities enter into an association, and stipulate with each other to punish crimes, make losses good, and acts of restitution proportioned to offences;-for which purposes, they raised sums of money among themselves, forming a common stock; they likewise endowed chantries for priests to perform orisons for the defunct. Fraternities and guilds were, therefore, in use, long before any formal licenses were granted to them; though, at this day, they are a company combined together, with orders and laws made by themselves, under sanction of royal authority. The several trades of Preston are incorporated; twenty-five chartered companies go in procession on the guild festival. W. G. C. EVERY reader at all conversant with the history of the present century, or the past year, will appreciate our choice of the above Engraving. Its pictorial and historical interest will not bear comparison;,unless it be in the strong contrast which the gloomy, wretched-looking building affords with the beautiful paysage of the scene. The spectator may perhaps reflect on the damning deeds which the cruelty and ambition of man have perpetrated in the Castle, then turn for relief to the gaiety-nay, the dancing life and bustle of other portions of the picture-and lastly confess that the composition, slight as it is, abounds with lights and shadows that strike forcibly on every beholder. To be more explicit-the Castle of Vincennes was formerly a royal palace of the French court: it then dwindled to a state-prison; in its fosse, March 21, 1804, the Duke d'Enghien was murdered, the grave in the ditch on the left being where the body of the ill-starred victim was thrown immediately after being shot. The reader knows this act as one of the bloody deeds-the damned spots of Bonaparte's career; that, VOL. XVII. D subsequently, by order of the Bourbons, the remains of the duke were disinterred, and removed to the chapel of the Castle; and that the place has since become interesting as the prison of Prince Polignac and the Ex-ministers of Charles X. previous to their trial after the revolution in Paris, July, 1830. Before proceeding further, we ought to acknowledge the original of the above print. In 1816, a few days after the removal of the bones of the Duke d'Enghien, an ingenious gentleman, Mr. G. Shepheard, was on the spot, and made a drawing for his portfolio. He was interrupted in his task by the guard, and notwithstanding the explanation of his harmless motive, was removed within the Castle: for those were days of political jealousy and suspicion. The Governor of the prison chanced to be acquainted with a friend who accompanied the artist; an explanation was given, and instead of a dreary lodging in one of the cells of the Castle, the "arrested" partook of a substantial dejeuné in one of its best apartments. Mr. Shepheard brought the sketch with him to England, and, upon the frequent mention of the 471 |