our next, we shall be able to lay before our readers one or two of their felect pieces in this way. A plan is formed for the conduct and operations of the club during paffion-week, when there is no plays at the two houfes. They mean to troll within the diftance of ten miles round London, and they have formed the plan of a dramatic entertainment, which we think cannot fail of producing much delight. In this jaunt, they mean to come as clofe to the true undifguifed character of the ftroller as poffible. They are to walk on foot; to have their baggage carried in a cart; but none of them to have more baggage than can be contained in the foot of an old thread stocking. They have limited the number of the club, and every new admitted member is bound to Fronounce one initiation-fpeech. Several comic and facetious harangues have been mode in confequence of this injunction; and we think, that one of the belt of them was the following parody on the fpeech of Othello. It must be remarked, that it is neceffary for the new member to prove his qualification; that is, to prove that he has been a ftroller. Moft potent, gay, irreverend, feigniors, hiffes; And, therefore, little fhall I grace my cause In fpeaking for myfelf: yet, by your gracious patience, I wilǝ round, unvarnish'e, tale deliver Of my whole courfe of life, what corks, what brick-duft, What poverty, and what mighty shifts, (For fuch calamities I've met withal,) Rank me with your honours. A DESCRIPTION of the HOLOPHUSICON, or, SIR ASHTON LEVER'S MUSEUM. F all the fpectacles contained in this for fuch an exhibition. one Opulent is range. in the from are not one more worthy the attention of a curious and intelligent perfon than the Holophuficon. It is, as the name implies, a difplay of nature, and a very fuperb and diverfified one. Nothing farther, it is prefumed, will be expected here, but a collective account of the place, and the effect it produces on those who vifit it from motives of general and not particular curiofity. The fubjects are fo numerous and diffufive, that volumes of natural history might be written, and the lives of many perfons, with the most comprehenfive and laborious faculties employed, in a minute and individual defcription. The Museum is deposited in LeicesterHoufe, Leicester-Square. This houfe, though the property of the Leicester family, has often been, at different periods, the refidence of fome part of the Royal Family. George the Second, when Prince of Wales, lived there; and there his prefent Majefty did his first acts of royalty. The rooms are larger and, by fituation and communication, are as well adapted for the purposes of a Museum as it is proba ble any building could be found to be, which has not been intentionally erected EUROP. MAG. feen quite through, the door having been removed, and arches turned. Nothing can have a finer effect than the richness of this view at first entrance. The length of the profpect, the variety of the objects, and the beauty of the colours, give fenfations of furprize and delight, that muft be felt before they can be conceived. The defcriptions of the enchanted palaces of the Genii, the Fairies, and the other fabulous beings of the eastern romance, though they amaze for a moment, have a famencfs and an improbability that very soon disgust. But here all is magnificence and reality. The wandering eye looks round with attonifhment, and, though almot willing to doubt, is obliged to believe. There are fixteen apartments in which this collection is depofited, befide the ftaircafe, and the out-houfe where the elephant and zebra ftand. Twelve of thefe are above and four below. Each contains a variety of fubjects, but is diftinguined by fome appellation, expreffive either of the general ufe it is applied to, or of fome particularly triking obe. The usual mode of viewing them is as follows: The following is a very curfory and general account of each of thefe, a particular one perhaps will never be given. 1. Around the Staircase are difperfed various weapons of war, of different nations, chiefly Eastern and European, skins of ferpents, horns, bones, teeth, and heads of animals, sharks jaws, an elephant's tufh, weight one hundred and thirteen pounds, manati, crocodile, and fea-lionefs, &c. &c. Among these are the following curious articles: The foffil head and horns of an animal, faid to be a fpecies of the elk or moofe deer, that is now extinct, dug from the bogs of Ireland, where they are very common. The weight and fize of thefe, but more particularly of fome others that have been found, is fo prodigious, that, confidering the form of the animal that was to carry them, his height must have been exceffive. Not lefs, as Pennant allows, if we judge by analogy, than 12 feet. The head and tufhes of a Norwal whale, from Greenland. It is now fuppofed by naturelifts, that it was the head of this animal, which is ufually found with only one tuh, and which is very long and fpiral, that has given birth to the fabulous unicorn, or that has at least occafioned many modern writers to credit the ancient fables concerning that animal. The head, here fpoken of, has both the tufhes in great prefervation, and is the only one known at prefent in any cabinet or mufeum. The manati, a large docile, amphibious animal, that inhabits the rivers of Africa and South America. The following remarkable tale of one of this fpecies is taken from the laft edition of Pennant's hiftory of quadrupeds. "I shall conclude this account with the following extraor dinary hiftory of a tame manati, preferved by a certain Prince of Hifpaniola, at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards, in a lake adjoining to his refidence. It was, cn account of the gentleness of its nature, called, in the language of the country, MATUM. It would appear as foon as it was called by any of its familiars; for, it hated the Spaniards on account of an injury it had received from one of thofe adventurers. The fable of Arion was here realized. It would offer itself to the Indian favourites, and carry over ten at a time, finging and playing on its back. It was particularly enamoured of one youth, which reminds me of the claffical parallel in the Dolphin of Hippo, fo beautifully related by the younger Pliny. The fates of the two animals were very different; Matum efcaped to his native waters, by means of a violent flood; the Hipponenfian fish fell a facrifice to the poverty of the retired colonists." This story was originally extracted from Peter Martyr's decades of the Indies. The curious workmanship of the fwords, fhields, &c. difperfed around, fill the mind with ideas of the great ingenuity and industry of man. 2. The first room you enter is the native foffil room, confifting of foffils below and birds above, all in glass cases, as are almost all the fubjects of every clafs, and in every room, which must have been a very heavy article of expence to the proprietor. The fofils are fpars, ores, ftones, pebbles, chryftal, mundic, &c. in most of which England abounds, and which occafions the learned foreigners who vifit our museums to behold them with rapture and astonishment. As this room is the beginning of the birds, which are difperfed through almoft every room above ftairs, it is necessary here to obferve, that they are fo numerous, are in fuch fine prefervation, and by their infinitely variegated and beautiful plumage, produce fuch a charming effect, that nothing but actual inspection can give any adequate idea of the pleasure and furprize the mind receives at the view. The occafional mention of a few, as we proceed, must not therefore make the reader fuppofe, that thofe are the only ones worthy notice. The obferver hardly knows where to reít, or which to felect. The exact number is not known; but it is fuppofed there are five thousand birds, from all countries, and above fixteen hundred different species. Among many others, there are in this room the rhinoceros bird, fo called from the the large and hornified configuration of its beak, and pied pea-hen, which, at eleven years old, put forth the plumage of a cock. 3. The next is the extraneous Foffil Room, containing, as the former, birds and extraneous foffils. Among the birds are the African flamingo, humming-bird, king bird of paradife, pelican, &c. &c. &c. The pelican is a water-fowl, preys on fifh, and is remarkable for a bag or bladder under his throat, in which, after driving the fmall fry in thoals before it into fome hole convenient for feizing them, it depofits a number of them, which it devours at leifure, or carries to its young, which it feeds by bending its neck, preffing the bag against its breaft, and forcing the fish out. This gave rife to the ancient fable of the pelican's picking its breaft, and feeding its young with its own entrails. pa The extraneous foffils are faid to be one of the first collections in the world, and confift of woods, plants, bones, bivalve fnells, horns, entrochi, echini in chalk and flint, belemnites, pediculi, teeth and lates of fish, nauticuli, &c. &c. &c. all which are none of them mineral productions, but, by fome great revolution in the fyftem of the earth, have been buried in it, and lain there for ages. 4. The Shell Room contains birds, and a moft beautiful collection and arrangement of cowries, fea eggs, clamps, muffels, limpets, cockles, harps, mufics, fpikes, initres, fnails, fpirals, dippers, olives, liveries, figs, turnips, barnacles, funs,conchs, tuns, trumpets, helmets, and numerous other fhells. Likewife, the bird of paradife, filver pheafant from China, cormorant, &c. &c. &c. and a brood of partridges, confifting of the cock, the hen, feventeen chicken, and two eggs, in the utmost per fection of prefervation. ཤྭ 5. The Argus Pheafant Room contains birds, beasts, and feveral cafes of Italian, German, and Bristol, marble, granite, &c. and fome beautifully manufactured fluors of Derbyshire. Among numerous other birds, are the peacock, pea-hen, Jamaica flamingo, vulture from Gibraltar, large cockatoo, nondefcript hawk, fwan, male and female, eagle, white pea-fowl, Guinea fowl, demoifelle of Numidia, zebra bird, curaffo, Stc. &c. &c. with a bird newly inferted, called the argus pheafant, from Pekin in China, very remarkable for the beauty of its plumage, and the elegance and majesty of its form. The beafts confift of---the large Greenland bear, royal tiger, leopard, Persian cat, Perfian lynx, Mexican hog, beaver, otter, badger, martin, fulimart, opoffum, &c. &c. &c. and the Ichneumon, a fpecies of weefel, formerly worshipped by the Egyptians, on account of its ufe and friendly difpofition to man. It is the mortal enemy of that most fatal of serpents, the Naja, which it attacks without dread, and, fhould it receive a wound in the combat, is faid to retire instantly to eat a certain herb, which is an antidote to poifon; after which it returns to the attack, and seldom fails of victory. Rumphius obferves with what fkill it feizes a ferpent by the throat, fo as to avoid receiving any injury, and Lucan beautifully defcribes the address of this animal, in conquering the Egyptian afp, thus tranflated by Rowe. "Thus oft th'ichneumon, on the banks of Nile, Invades the deadly afpic by a wile; Full on the throat the nimble feizer flies. wound, This animal is domefticated both in India and Egypt, it becomes very tame, and is more ufeful than a cat in deftroying rats and mice; it likewife digs the eggs of crocodiles from the fands and deftroys them. Vide Pennant's History of Quadrupedes? The four rooms described above are in front, and, though not more curious than the fucceeding, have the finest effect on the eye. 6. You then turn on the right, and enter the Infect or Hippopotamus Room, where you find-a young hippopotamus, and a young African rhinoceros, two animals remarkable, when full grown, for bulk and ftrength as well as form; old Hector from the Tower, shamoise, a kind of goat, from the hide of which is made fhamoife, or fhammy, leather---Armadillo, flying fquirrel from the Eaft-Indies, porcupine, taillefs maucau, petril-nofed bat, the great ant-eater from South America, an animal almoft as large as, and fomething like, the brown bear, that lives entirely on ants, which it catches by the affiftance of a fharp oblong nofe, and an exceedingly long glutinous tongue. The fpecimen here preferved is very valuable, on account of its fize and fcarcity; with many others. The infect clafs contains fome beautiful cafes of butterflies, moths, fcorpions, beetles, grafshoppers, tarantula, ipiders, locufts, &c. &c. 7. In the Antique Room are various fpecimens of Roman, Perfian, German, Old English, &c. antiques in iron, brafs, and pottery; together with a bofs buffalo, an Angora goat, and a few other beasts; and a remarkably fine Roman font, or bafin, of earthen ware, on which is painted a representation of a fea engagement, and various emblematical figures confonant to the fubject. 8. The Bustard Room is diftinguishable for a large cock buttard from Norfolk, that weighed twenty-nine pounds. The throat of the bustard contains a kind of bag, (here extracted and preserved,) which naturalifts do not feem to have determined the use of, though the bird is a native. There is alfo the penguin, from Falkland's ifland, which refembles a fith almost as much as a bird, the velvet-shouldered peacocks from Japan, American man of war birds, cufhew bird, crown bird from Africa, golden bird of paradife, yellow and fcarlet breafted touchan from South America, fpoon-bill, various eagles, falcons, hawks, owls, &c. &c. &c. 9. The Peacock Pheafant Room is a continuation of birds, and contains the peocock pheafant from China, a bird of beautiful plumage; the caffowary from Java, remarkable for being large and ugly, with exceflively strong legs and feet, wings fhort, quills of the porcupine kind, and feathers that look like the hair of bears, Likewife, the albatrofs, from the Cape of Good Hope, confpicuous too for its fize, which, when it spreads its wings, muit look prodigious, they being thirteen feet from tip to tip. And the crowned African crane, the cyrus crane, from Bengal, the golden pheafant, the ring pheafant, and the mandarine duck, all from China, and all remarkable for beauty of fhape and plumage, the American fcarlet curiew, the golden eagle, eagle owl, great crowned Indian pigeon, &c. &c. &c. 10. The Reptile Room contains, among many other fine fpecimens, the rattle fnake, polypus, bull-frog, torpeds, camelion, gana, lizards, ferpents, fnakes, &c. &c. &c. 11. In the Fi and Coral Room are the wolf fith, frog-fifi, monk-fith, needlefih, porcapine fish, toad-fih, file and variegate filth, law-fifh, dolphin, electrical cel, fpider-crab, grampus, fcarlet garnard, remota, &c. &c. &c. with great variety of corals. 12. The Monkey Room is filled with a fine collection of the various fpecies of that animal, among which are a vong male and female orang-outang, confpicuous for thar dugufting and diftorted resemblance to the human form; the large African baboon, the long armed monkey, the dogfaced monkey, the filky or lion monkey, from Brafil, &c. &c. &c. 13. The fubjects in the Oftrich Room are miscellaneous. They confift of mufical inftruments, tobacco-pipes, &c. from China and the East-Indies; fpecimens of fhells, woods, and birds eggs; manufcripts written by perfons born without hands or feet; the male and female oftrich egg and young; fome few cafes of birds; and the painting of a most remarkable horse, with a manufcript account of him, extracted from a book written by George Simon Winter, and printed at Nuremburg, 1687, of which the following is a tranfcript. "This horfe was a fine fnow-white stallion, out of the ftud of the old Count of Oldenburg. The count gave him to the Landgrave of Heffe Caffel. He was kept in the tables of the landgrave twenty years, where he died. He was a horfe of a fine form and movement, his mane was in feveral parts three, four, and four and a half, ells loug, but the hair of his tail was feven, eight, and even nine, ells long. (An ell is near two English feet.) I have feveral fuch hairs now in my poffeffion, which, by the order of the upper mafter of the horfe, were brought me by the groom, George Benden, who had for a long time the care of this horfe. The above-mentioned upper mater of the horfe, when he was a page at court, often rode him in the riding-ichool, as he told me himself. The mane and tail were kept very clean in the ftable, and enclosed in a leathern bag, and he was thus brought into the riding school. But, when the landgrave rode him,the mane and tail were in a red velvet bag; but, if the bags were not ufed, then the fervant carried the mane in his hand, and two other fervants fupported the tail.' The oftrich in this room ftands near feven feet high, and when alive could have extended himself to aimoit nine. There is a pair of humming birds put in the fame cfe, by way of contraft, the one being the leaft, and the other the biggest of birds. 14. From hence the fpectators return and defcend into the Rooms below, the firit of which is the wardrobe, where are depofited dresses of various nations, mens and womens; ladies fhoes from China, flippers, Perfian, Turkish, &c. &c. and Oliver Cromwell's armour and part of his drefs, which denote him to have been both a very large and strong man. 15. The next is the Otaheite Room, where are numerous dreffes, ornaments, idols, idols, domestic utenfils, &c. of the people in the newly-discovered islands, which, to an active imagination, convey a forcible idea of them and their manners. 16. In the Club Room are the warlike weapons of the feveral favage nations of America. The clubs are many of them curioufly carved, and fome require prodigious ftrength to be able to wield with agility. 17. The Sandwich Islands Room is a continuation of the fubjects in the Otaheite Room, being full of curious Indian dresses, idols, ornaments, bows, &c. &c. &c. which exprefs very strongly the character of the people. Befides thefe, there are in an out-house, a full grown elephant and the zebra, which, when alive, belonged to ker Majesty. Those who have feen the Holophuficon, must have very dull faculties indeed, who do not retain a lively impreffion of the pleasure they received. The endless variety difplayed in the beautiful plumage of the birds, and the fparkling colours reflected from the fhells, fpars, ores, &c. &c. their several properties, manners, and difpofitions; the ferocious ftare of animals terrible to man, but here deprived of the power of harm, and fubmitted to the eager infpection of curiofity; the malevolent afpect of the reptile race, that makes the beholder, on feeing himfelf furrounded by them, happy to recollect they are dead; thefe all confpire to imprefs the mind with a conviction of the reality of things, which he had till then almost held vifionary. They fill him with a majestic awe for the power of bones and claws, and a still greater reverence for his own wit, that has taught him to fubdue them. He looks at lions, leopards, bears, tigers, and that most enormous of all reptiles, the crocodile; and meditates on the horrid depredations committed by them and their ancestors. As he proceeds, the objects before him make his active fancy travel from pole to pole through torrid and through frigid zones. He beholds the manners of inen in the forms of their habits; he fees the Indian rejoiced at, and dancing to, the monotonous found of his tom tom; he fighs to recollect the prevalent power of fear and fuperitition over the human mind, when he views the rude deformity of an idol carved with a flint, by a hand incapable of imitating the outline of nature, and that works only that it may worship. In fhort, he looks at the vast volumes of actual information, that every where furround him, and is indeterminate where to begin, or on which to fix his attention moft. Such at leaft were the fenfations experienced by the writer of the prefent account, and fuch he thought it his duty to convey, as far as his plan and abilities permit, to his readers. Aduty which gratitude owes to the publicfpirited proprietor, who has thus given his countrymen an opportunity of furveying the works of nature, and contemplating the various beings that inhabit the earth. To the EDITORS of the EUROPEAN MAGAZINE, &c. Gentlemen, In looking over a Manufcript Copy of Robert of Glocefter's Chronicle of England, written as I fuppofe about the beginning of the fifteenth Century, I found the fol lowing romantic Account how Britain firft came to be inhabited. As no notice is taken of it in the Edition of that Chronicle, published by T. Hearne, nor do I recollect to have feen it in print, I thought it might be agreeable to fome of your Readers, and for that purpofe transcribed it. S. A. In the yer ffro ther was for this Dioclicyan thought to marye oll N the yer ffro the begynnyng off the fair, that ytt was wundir to wete where yn the noble land of Greece, a worthy kyng, & a mighty, or a man of grete renoune, that was callyd Dioclicyan; that thurgh ys noble chyvalrye that conqueryd all the landis aboute ym, fo that almofte all the kyngs of that partye off the world to ym were obediente. Hytt befelle fo, that this Dioclicyan fponfid a gentilwoman, a damfele, wundir fear that was ys Civys doughtir, callyd Labana. And he gate on her xxxiij doughtirs, whereof the eldefte was callid Albyne. And the damfels when they com to age, they be com fo ys doughtirs, or he deid, and commandid by ys letters, that all the kyngs that held of ym, & othir noble & wurthy men fchuld com at a fertayn day, as yn ys lettirs was conteynyd to ys riall ffefte, at wich day they com, & broughte with thaym amyralls, prynces, dukys, and noble men of chy valrye, and the fefte was royally holden. And foytt befelle, that Dioclicyan thoughte to marye ys doughtirs among all thes that were at that folempnyte, and fo ytt was crdeynyd & don, that Albyne the elieft doughtir, and all hur fuftirs wer wurthily maried |