the name of it was called Abelmizraim, which is beyond Jordan.”— Gen. i, 7—11. THE DUC DE SAINT SIMON. The memoirs of this remarkable person, now well known to every reader of French history, was long kept from the public. When the duke died, in 1755, the original manuscript, written entirely in his own hand, was deemed of such importance by his family, and the custody of it so delicate a matter, that they applied for a lettre de cachet, by authority of which it was taken possession of, and deposited, for preservation, among the archives of the state. They did not, however, cease to regard it as their property, and when the death of most or all of the persons mentioned in it, had removed the difficulty which had been originally felt, they made various applications for its restitution, which were always neglected. One of these applications was made shortly after Louis XVIth's accession to the throne, and probably led to that examination of the Memoirs,' which was the indirect cause of their first imperfect appearance before the world. The task of their examination was committed to the Abbé Voisenon, who made very copious extracts from them; from which extracts considerable portions were subsequently copied, and by the infidelity of a domestic, one of these copies got into hands by which they were finally committed to the press at the beginning of the Revolution.

The Gatherer

Boyton Church.-The following is an inventory of the church plate, seized at Boyton under the commission of Henry VIII, in 1553" Delive'de to Thomas Harvey and John Sly, won cupp or challis by indenture of x ounce, iij bells. In plate to the king's use, ii ounce.'

Improvement in Agriculture and Manufactures.-If we look at Cornwall we shall see that, whereas at the beginning of the present century it could not feed a population of 188,000, it now supports a population of 350,000, and actually exports food. The contract for supplying the navy at Portsmouth with meat is held by Falmouth butchers, and provided for chiefly with Cornish cattle, not to speak of the large supplies required by vessels which daily arrive at and sail from our ports. The same fact applies to the whole kingdom. The population has increased twofifths in the present century, and the land still feeds them, and that with better food, and at a cheaper rate than it did forty years ago.-Berwick Warder.

Railway Speculation.-A Perth and Stirling line is projected for the professed purpose of extending the communication now

in process of completion between Edinburgh, Glasgow, and London, beyond the Forth, but obviously in opposition to the line through Fife, with which the interests of the east coast of Scotland are so much bound up. The total expense is estimated at 330,000l. for lines from Stirling to Perth, Glasgow, and Edinburgh; the annual traffic at 60,1947. 15s. 34d.-Ibid.

Ancient Monuments.-The sculptor of our time is one of those who profits largely from the more general diffusion of wealth among the various classes of society. We find but few old Gothic monuments that, for their small size and moderate cost, could be classed with the tablets now in common use. The feudal system so divided the population into the high and the low, that there was scarcely a middle rank answering to that class in modern life which hang the tablets on church walls. Those who could aspire to more than the sod or the headstone, claimed the altar-tomb or shrine at once.

Mr O'Connell before the House of Lords.

The first time that he appeared to argue in the House of Lords there was a great anxiety among the English lawyers to hear him, and even Lord Eldon shared in the excitement. He sat near one of the bishops. When O'Connell opened the case he was all cold attention, neither approving or disapproving. When, however, Dan got fast in the argument his lordship grew fidgetty, drumming on the bench with delight at O'Connell's masterly argument, and in the height of his enthusiasm, stooping to the Rt. Rev. Father in God next to him, he said, Do you know what, my Lord? That is a d―d clever rascal."Biography of O'Connell.

From the an

Trade and Navigation. nual returns presented to parliament the gross amount of duty received during the past year (1843) on articles imported into the United Kingdom was 22,636,659l., showing an increase over the year 1842 of 40,3961. A sensible decrease has occurred in the quantity of live stock imported. The number of oxen and bulls imported in 1842 amounted to 3,156, and in 1843 only to 1,114; the cows amounted in 1842 to 1,038, and in 1843 only to 367. The sheep amounted to 634 in 1842, and to 210 in 1843.

Hospitals.-The number of ancient hospitals mentioned in the Monasticon' as existing at the era of Henry VIII, is 387. The earliest hospitals were probably nothing more than houses on the roadside, at which the chance traveller might obtain refreshment. Of this original design some traces were preserved until a late period. For instance, in the hospital of St Cross, near Winchester, the porter is still furnished, according to statute, with a certain quantity of bread and beer, of which any

traveller who knocks at the lodge and calls for relief is entitled to partake gratis.

Punishment of Henpecked Husbands. Formerly a man who suffered himself to be beaten by his wife, in some places on the continent, had his house unroofed, as a gentle intimation of his unfitness to dwell in the community; in others, he was obliged to lead the donkey upon which his virago partner was seated backwards, holding the tail in her hand. One of the dishonouring inflictions peculiarly dreaded was the burying disgracefully; a very important part of which was not to let the infamous corpse pass over the threshold.

The Laws of Lombardy.-The adoption of a son was formerly effected in Lombardy by the adopter's trimming, for the first time, the beard of the adopted; in Scandinavia, by his giving him his shoe to put on. This form seems to have implied a recognition of the shoe-proprietor's authority; and, as such, was required from a bride, who completed the marriage ceremony by putting on the bridegroom's shoe. Natural children, to be legitimated by the subsequent wedlock of their parents, were placed under the mother's mantle during the marriage ceremony. Taking the keys from a wife was equivalent to a divorce; and a widow freed herself from her deceased husband's debts by throwing her keys into his grave, which was a virtual abandonment of her claims upon his property.

Price of an Annuity.-A person aged twenty-one would have to pay 1471. to purchase a savings bank annuity of 20%., to commence at his forty-first year. He would be allowed to buy a similar annuity for his wife by an annual payment of 10., supposing her age to be the same. To in sure 300l. at his death by a single payment would cost 1087. The purchase of the annuity on his own life and the insurance of his own life would rather exceed the amount of the legacy.

How to quiet a Mussulman's Conscience.The clock in one of the mosques was out of order, and the skill of an European was required to arrange it, but the defilement and pollution of his presence were objected to. At length some one inquired "how the necessary materials to build and repair the mosque had been brought in?"

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By donkeys, shod," was the reply. "Then let the infidel dog be driven in with them," and in such manner did the poor clock maker make his entrance.-Lady Londonderry.

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A Tender Conscience.-A French abbé, calling one afternoon upon a bishop, was invited to stay and dine. 'My lord," replied the conscientious man, with a very demure and scandalized look, "I have already had a good breakfast, a substantial luncheon, and a capital dinner; and besides, I beg leave to remind your lordship of what

you seem to have completely forgotten, that this is a fast day!"

Green Erin.—An ancient Icelandic writer gives this description of our sister kingdom:-"Ireland is nearly the best of all the countries with which we are acquainted, though it does not produce vines. It is in the temperate zone, and has no intolerable heat in summer nor cold in winter, and the oxen and sheep are in the open field the whole year through. It is said that the people who inhabit this country are fierce, murderers, and ill bred—yet none of the many saints that have been among them have been ever sacrificed."

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Going under the Earth."-When two Scandinavians wished to swear brotherhood, a long strip of turf was raised supported by a spear in the middle, and resting upon the ground at both ends: under this turf the intended brothers suffered their blood, drawn from wounds in the palm of the hand or the sole of the foot, to mingle; and they further mixed the blended stream with earth. They then knelt down beside or under the turf, and invoked the gods to attest their oath to avenge each other's death like brothers. Accused persons occasionally swore to their innocence with a similar form; it was called going under the earth, and esteemed peculiarly solemn.

It may not be generally known that boiled nettles are an excellent thing for feeding and fattening ducks.

In marriage prefer the person before wealth, virtue before beauty, and the mind before the body; then you have a wife, a friend, and a companion-Penn.

Wine heightens indifference into love, love into jealousy, and jealousy into madness. It often turns the good-natured man into an idiot, and the choleric man into an assassin.-Addison.

Why are journeymen tailors like tributaries to the Thames?-Because they

Original Communications.

THE LAVATORIES AND CLOISTERS

OF PETERBOROUGH.

THE fragments of ancient architecture which from time to time arrest the eye are viewed by every lover of letters with reverential awe, in some degree approaching to the feelings so finely described by Shakspere, as inspired by contemplation of "Those holy fields,

Over whose acres walked those blessed feet, Which fourteen hundred years ago were nailed,

For our advantage, on the bitter cross." Such remains carry the mind back to pious and illustrious characters who are "no more on earth." The beautiful proportions and the splendid whole of the palace, or the three towers symbolical of the triune Godhead, the transept imaging the cross, the long range of massy columns, and the elevated choir of the cathedral, are not necessary to invite solemn meditation. The mutilated ruin wakes reflection to No. 1207.]

what must have been the splendour and the magnitude of the mouldering edifice in its palmy days, which, even in its subordinate When such meet the eye, we indeed must parts, is found "magnificent in decay." regret that the earnest injunction of Cardinal Baronius, which he caused to be placed in a church he had repaired at Rome, has not been more respected. We mean that which ran thus:"Presbiter, Card., successor quisquis fueris, Rogo te per gloriam Dei et Per merita horum martyrum, Nihil demito, nihil minuito, nec mutato; Restitutam antiquitatum piè servato: Sic te Deus Martyrum suorum precibus Semper adjuvet."

It is, however, something in a case like that of which we speak, to find the venerated ruins have not been repaired and embellished, like Waltham Abbey Church, in the modern taste.

resque Antiquities of the English Cities' they are thus introduced :

"The buildings of the palace covered a large space, and, as may be reasonably expected, consist of various incongruous parts; for the successive occupants of this, as well as of other episcopal houses, having but a temporary interest in the premises, consulted only their immediate wants or pleasures in the alterations they effected. It is true the abbots did the same in their time, for in the present dwelling we see evidences of three or four different styles or eras of genuine monastic architecture. The oldest part is most probably of the age of Abbot Sais, or Seez, who laid the foundation of the new church in 1117, and in whose time nearly the whole of the monastery of the adjoining village had been consumed by fire. According to the credulous or crafty chronicler, this event was a direct interposition of heaven to punish the blasphemy of the abbot and one of his servants for cursing and invoking the devil to "come and blow the fire." Another part, now the entrance-hall, was probably raised in the time of Henry the Second by William de Waterville, who was certainly the greatest builder and most liberal benefactor to the abbey. This hall is a vaulted room, supported by five columns, with bold ribs springing from circular capitals and from corbels in the walls. An apartment, built by Abbot Kirton, as shown by a monogram or device signifying Kirk-ton, by the figure of a church or kirk, and a cask or ton, bears the name of Heaven-chamber, and is adorned and lighted by two small oriel windows in the north wall, and by one larger and more enriched to the south. The embattled parapet of the chamber is rather singular in design. At the western side of the palace are some ornamental panels, with shields, mitres, &c., marking another style and date of architecture. In the gardens of the palace are some mutilated remains of other palatial buildings. On the south side of the cathedral are the shattered walls of two sides of the cloister, which in former times was not only much ornamented in its order, but its windows were richly adorned with painted glass. These walls have four or five doorways of different dates and of various designs, also numerous architectural mouldings, brackets, columns, &c. Near the south-west angle are two recesses with ornamented panelling, which were formerly used as lavatories. They are stated to have been built by Robert de Lyndesey in 1220, but the ornaments of this part are much later. In the inventory taken at the dissolution of the monasteries is an item of "one conduit or lavatory of tynned, with divers coffers and seats there."

"The walls on the south and west of the cloister quadrangle remain, but those to the east and north are entirely destroyed

except the church wall. In this are two ancient doorways with semi-circular heads, adorned with the chevron and other Norman ornaments. Opposite to these, on the south wall, are two doorways with pointed arches, having enriched mouldings and capitals, indicating the union of the earliest pointed style with that of the circular."

The cloister was once very highly decorated. Gruntou, in his 'History of Peterborough,' says, "The windows were all complete and fair, adorned with glass of excellent painting. In the south cloister was a history of the Old Testament; in the east, of the new; in the north, the "figures of the successive kings from Penda; in the west was the history from the first foundation of the monastery to the restoring of it by King Edgar: at the bottom of each picture was a history of it in verse."

"A HIND LET LOOSE."-Under this title, in 1687, a fierce attack was made on James II. It professed to be written by "A Lover of true Liberty." The writer was a Mr John Shields. His criticism on the doings of James runs thus :-"In the beginning of this killing time, as the country calls it, the first author and authorizer of all these mischiefs, Charles II, was removed by death. Then one would have thought the severity would have stopped; and the Duke of York succeeding, in his late proclamation would make the world believe that it never was his principle, nor will he ever suffer violence to be offered to any man's conscience, nor use force or invincible necessity against any man on the account of his persuasion: smooth words to cover the mischiefs of his former destructions, and the wickedness of his future designs. To which, his former celebrated saying, 'that it would never be well till all the south-syd of Forth were made a hunting-field,' and his acts and actings designed to verify it, since his unhappy succession, do give the lie. For immediately on his mounting the throne, the executions and acts prosecuting the persecution of the poor wanderers, were more cruel than ever. There were more butchered and slaughtered in the fields, without all shadow of law, or trial, or sentence, than in all the former tyrant's reign; who were murdered without time given to deliberate upon death, or space to conclude their prayers, but either in the instant when they were praying shooting them to death, or surprising them in their caves, and murdering them there, without any grant of prayer at all; yea, many of them murdered without taking notice of anything to be laid against them, according to the worst of their oun lawes, but slain and cut off without any pity, when they were found at their labour in the field, or travelling upon the road."

ENGLISH LIFE OF THE EIGHTEENTH

CENTURY.

CHAPTER I.-INTRODUCTORY.

DID any one inquire from what particular source I had obtained the information on which the following remarks are founded, I should be puzzled for a reply. I will, however, give one, and with as little circumlocution as may be. I have not, like the historian, sought for it in musty records or black-letter chronicles; nor have I, like the antiquary, traced it in illegible characters or half-obliterated inscriptions. The critic may smile when I say that it is culled from the magazines and newspapers, the dramas and farces, the prologues and epilogues, of the time. "What!" he will exclaim, "depend on the information which a newspaper contains? And that newspaper, too, one of the fictitious penny-a-line journals of the eighteenth century!" But, most sapient judge, remember that I do not inquire into minute details of occurrences, but into the general manners of the people; and the newspaper which exaggerated the accounts of a battle, or put forth imaginary narratives of an earthquake in a distant land, may be relied on for its accuracy when it alludes to circumstances open to the observation of all its readers. The dramas, too, frequently contained sly allusions to, and pointed satires on, men and manners, and the prologues and epilogues were made the vehicles for describing and ridiculing the prevailing fashions, and exposing the follies and the vices of the age.

From these ample sources and productive materials, then, aided by the reminiscences of certain respectable grandmothers and nurses, we may occasionally obtain a glimpse of the real manners and customs of the last century: and, as most of these sources-newspapers, dramas, and (in my case) grandmothers and nurse-had their origin in London or its neighbourhood, it is principally notices of London life which they furnish. Occasionally I may glean from them details of the general life in England at the time-political, literary, and domestic; anecdotes tending to illustrate the characters of the principal statesmen, poets, or actors; or facts and scraps which may throw some light on the manners and customs of the age.

The eighteenth century was one of the most eventful to England that has revolved. It produced some of the greatest poets, philosophers, and historians that the world ever saw. The drama attained its zenith of popularity, and performers who had never had their equal since the days of Shakspere, trod the English stage. Statesmen and politicians contributed, by their extraordinary talent, towards rendering Britain at once the wonder and the terror

of the world. Military and naval commanders, combining the qualities of bravery and discretion, extended their country's fame and empire to the very limits of the globe; and England stood proudly forth, the queen of nations and sovereign of the world; the measure of her glory was full, and science was making rapid strides to add to her wealth. Triumph succeeded triumph and victory followed victory, and the eighteenth century closed upon as brilliant a train of conquests as gilds the page of our history. But the abstract details of the principal occurrences of the century have already been recorded: the character of the people, their manners and customs; their general tastes and mode of life, of business and of pleasure, yet remain to be described. Under such circumstances an attempt, however humble and however imperfect, to elucidate these particulars, may not prove totally uninteresting; and it is this hope that has encouraged the writer in his task.

Affect not the lofty disdainful smile, ye moderns, for after all that has been said and written, your grandfathers who are gone before, were not so very far behind you. It is true, they had not discovered the various applications of steam and electricity; neither did they practise phrenology or mesmerism: yet, for all that, they were not the uncivilized race which the imagination of some would-be sages of the day would picture them. Barbarous as they were, and refined as we are, we are not ashamed to copy them. We are not ashamed to wear the ruffles, the trains, or the stomachers which our grandmothers wore. Neither are we ashamed to borrow our scheme of an income tax or a penny post from our uncivilized grandsires some of our habits, indeed, we are far behind them; and while they were contented with the rural beauties of "Merrie Islington," and the other suburbs, and considered an evening spent at Copenhagen house a rational enjoyment, we seek for pleasure in the gin shop or saloon; they patronized the legitimate British drama, we encourage foreign puppets; they derived instruction from the books which they read, we seek only for amusement.

In

Whether the colours in which the following sketches are painted are favourable or dark, they are, I hope, just. I have not sought to represent our grandsires anything else than what they were. I have not dared to raise them above, or place them below, their just standard, but have attempted to draw their character as accurately as possible; and if its development be rather favourable than otherwise, I have merely given them their due.

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The observations which I have mademy remarks on English Life in the Eighteenth Century," do not pretend to