we detach a specimen of the author's talent for observation "There can be no better opportunity of observing the population than upon a market-day; that of Launceston appeared to be wholly agricultural. The farmers seemed to be a sturdy race; but the women exhibited no more than ordinary pretensions to beauty. One must be excepted, possessing attractions of which she might well be vain. Eyes dark as death, features nicely chiselled, and of uncommon regularity, hair of jet, and a skin of singular clearness, but white as a marble image'stamped her as one of whom Italy might be proud. She was dressed, if not with pure taste, at least becomingly, indicating that she well understood what was calculated to set her person off to advantage. There is a character of person belonging to the earlier inhabitants of the county, or arising from some connexion with other than Saxon foreigners,' which must strike all who scrutinize them with attention. The introduction of the Saxon breed into Cornwall is evident enough; but there are many who exhibit marks of a southern extraction, in large black eyes, dark hair, and a swarthy complexion; perhaps the descendants of settlers from the south of Spain, at a very remote period. So forcibly was Warner struck by this appearance, upon his tour in Cornwall, thirty years ago, that he pointedly alludes to the ancient intercourse between the people of Cadiz and Cornwall, as the probable origin of a race so distinct from their fellow-countrymen." For the present, we conclude by observing, that the present is a work not merely for the residents or natives of the respective places which it describes, but for the general reader, so as to familiarize him with every part of " England as it is; in its natural scenery, historic memorials, and productive industry." The English, with their natural love of travel, from early times, aided by the appliances of the most enlightened triumphs of science, know comparatively little of their own country,-its matchless beauties of surface, its exhaustless relics of olden glory, and its vast resources of present prosperity; in conveying which desirable information, in a sound, but popular manner, we think the work before us likely to succeed; and the publishers deserve encouragement for the spirit in which they have set about their enterprise. By the way, the wrapper of the work is a clever design, by Harvey, at once emblematic and real, effectively telling its national story, and grouped with the artist's accustomed graceful feeling; though a little more breadth in the engraving would have been an improvement. We notice, with much regret, recorded in The Times of the 4th inst., the death of Mr. Edward Howard, the author of Ratlin the Reefer, and a proprietor of the Metropolitan Magazine. Mr. Howard was introduced to the public by Captain Marryat, who edited his earliest work; when he at once took his station as an original writer of great vigour and graphic skill; which reputation he subsequently maintained, in a rapid succession of nautical and other novels, of high and deserved celebrity.

LAYS OF A LUNATIC.

No. V.-THE DREAM.

I HAD a dream-a horrible dream,
Ha, ha! fair maid, dost hear?

You'll like my theme, 'tis a pleasant theme

For a lovely maiden's ear;

'Tis all of death-corruption-worms,
That merrily feast on putrid forms;
'Tis all of charnel houses-bones,

Of clanking chains, and hollow moans;

'Tis all of dens and dreary caves,

Where the shrieking victim vainly craves For mercy,-what dost fear?

You'll like my tale, 'tis a merry tale; Ha, ha! I laugh e'en now

At the thoughts of it; here, maiden, sit,
With the pearls around thy brow;
With thy rosy cheeks, and the silken flow
Of raven hair, that floateth low;
With the heaving breast so soft and white,
And eyes that swim in love's own light;
I'll speak of one with just such hair,
With eyes as bright, and skin as fair,

Ay, beautiful as thou!

Methought I stood in a lonely wood
Where all was still and dim;
A river by, flowed silently,
With lilies at the brim;
From out the thicket came a doe
All silver white, and stooping low,
Among the sweet flowers at the brink,
Began the crystal wave to drink;
I drew my bow, the arrow flew;
Oh! 'twas a cursed deed to do,

But for an idle whim!

The creature sank upon the bank,
All dabbled in her gore;

A wailing sound went floating round
That forest old and hoar;

I hastened to the spot, and there,
Oh, agony too great to bear!
Amid a pool of life-blood warm,
Beheld my much-loved Anna's form;
She turned on me one pitying glance,
Then quiet lay in death's cold trance,
And never breathed more.

And then methought, to frenzy wrought,
I shrieked and cursed aloud,
While every tree seemed answering me,
And forth there came a crowd
Of demon forms; away I flew
The mazes of the woodland through,
And still where'er I turned, there came
Strange shapes, with eyes of lurid flame,
That glared upon me, as in wrath;
And ever one stood in my path,
Wrapped in a gory shroud.

With failing strength, I reached at length
The borders of the wood,

A river rolled like molten gold,
Where pantingly I stood;

To quench my thirst, and cool my brain,
I stooped me to the wave; a stain
Spread over it from shore to shore,
Till it became a flood of gore;
And as in horror back I drew,
The shouting demons came in view,
And still their cry was "blood!”

I plunged me in, and strove to win
The shore at farther side;
'Twas all in vain; on me seemed lain
A hand, beneath the tide;
The sanguine waters bubbled o'er,
And in mine ears a deaf'ning roar
Was heard, as of a thunder-peal,
And then I ceased to think or feel;
Why was that deep trance ever broke,
And I to suffering awoke?

Oh, that I then had died!

List, maiden, list! I prithee, list
To what I next shall tell;
Ha, ha! dost hear that shriek of fear?
Dost hear that frantic yell?
'Twas that which broke my slumber deep,
Rare sport it was to see them leap,

Those skinny hags in yonder glen,
Where dwells the she-wolf in her den;
Rare sport it was, in vaulted tomb,
To sit me down amid the gloom,
And list the tolling bell.

Nay, nay, sweet maid! be not dismayed!
Thy cheek is deadly pale;
Come, smile on me, that I may see

Thou lov'st to hear my tale :

That smile-that smile! there was but one
That e'er looked so, and she is gone
To rest within the silent tomb,--
She brightened all my world of gloom;
The light is quenched, and I am left
Of every hope and joy bereft

To wander in life's vale.

Alone alone! all, all-alone!

She's melted into air;

There's no one near, my soul to cheer,
Or soothe my dark despair;

Ab, ah! why, what a fool am I,
Thus like a peevish child to cry
At that which should but give me joy!
Here no one cometh to annoy
With flatteries, and specious lies,
And fair smooth-tongued civilities,
To catch me in a snare.

H. G. ADAMS.

CURIOSITIES OF SCIENCE.

Sir Isaac Newton's Magnet.-The smallest natural magnets generally possess the greatest proportion of attractive power. The magnet worn by Sir Isaac Newton, in his ring, weighed only three grains, yet it was able to take up seven hundred and forty-six grains, or nearly two hundred and fifty times its own weight; whereas magnets weighing above two pounds, seldom lift more than five or six times their own weight.

Polarised Carriage Wheels.-The uppermost part of the iron wheel round a carriage-wheel attracts the north end of the magnet, and is, consequently, a south pole; while the lower part of the same iron, in contact with the ground, attracts the south end of the needle, and is, therefore, a north pole. Turn the same wheel half round a circle, and these poles will immediately become reversed.

Marvels of Modern Science. The practical results of the progress of physics, chemistry, and mechanics, are of the most marvellous kind; and to make them all distinct would require a comparison of ancient and modern states. Ships that were moved by human labour in the ancient world, are transported by the wind; and a piece of steel touched by the magnet, points to the mariner his unerring course from the old to the new world: by the exertions of one man of genius, aided by the resources of chemistry, a power which, by the old philosophers, could hardly have been imagined, has been generated, and applied to almost all the machinery of active life; the steam-engine performs not only the labour of horses, but of man, by combinations which appear almost possessed of intelligence; waggons are moved by it, combinations made, vessels caused to perform voyages in opposition to wind and tide, and a power placed in human hands which seems almost unlimited. To these novel and still extending improvements may be added others, which, though of a secondary kind, yet materially affect the comforts of life; as the collecting from fossil materials the elements of combustion, and applying them so as to illuminate by a single operation, houses, streets, and

even cities.

Freezing produced by Motion.-Dr. Dalton has succeeded in cooling water five degrees below its freezing point, 320, without rendering it ice. In this case, it is necessary to keep the water in a state of the most complete rest; for the least agitation either prevents it from falling lower than 32°, or if it be brought down below this point, it instantly begins to freeze, and the fluid part rises to 32°.

Power of the Lever.-Archimedes said, "Give me a lever long enough, and a prop strong enough, and with my own weight I will move the world." But he would have required to move with the velocity of a cannon-ball for millions of years, to alter the position of the earth a small part of an inch. This feat of Archimedes is, in mathematical truth, performed by every man who leaps from the ground; for he kicks the world away from him whenever he rises, and attracts it again when he falls.-Arnott.

Intensity and Colour of Ignited Bodies. -Mr. Wedgewood supposes that a body becomes just luminous in the dark at 947; and that a full red heat, visible in open daylight, takes place at 1077°. According to the intensity of the temperature, the colour of the ignited body is altered. At first, it exhibits what has been called a cherry red; afterwards, the red acquires a yellowish tinge; and lastly, all colour disappears, and we have only a brilliant white light.

The Friction upon Railways is calculated by Dr. Lardner to be about 74lbs. per ton. It is curious to contemplate that a piece of common packthread, capable of bearing a strain of 7lbs. is sufficient to draw a weight of one ton on a railway, and to keep it in motion.

Atomic Deposition.-Professor Davy hs found that by repeatedly passing an electric current through: bicarburetted hydrogen, the gas has been deprived of one atom of carbon, which formed a black crust upon the eudiometer, or vessel containing it.

Maturation of Wine.-If diluted alcohol be enclosed in a bladder, it will become highly concentrated; the watery parts escaping, and the spirit remaining almost pure. It has been suggested to take advantage of this process, by closing the mouths of bottles with bladder instead of cork, and thus has

tening the maturation of wine.

Theory of Champagne.--This wine being bottled before the fermentation is complete, part of the sugar remains undecomposed, and the fermentation goes on slowly in the bottle; and being heightened on drawing the cork, the wine sparkles in the glass.

The Sleep of Plants.-The common chickweed with white blossoms, affords a remarkable instance of what is called the sleep of plants; for every night the leaves approach in pairs, so as to include within their upper surface the tender rudiments of the new shoots, while the next under pair at the end of the stalk are furnished with longer leaf-stalks than the others, so that they close on the terminating pair, and protect the end of the branch.

New Books.

THE TOWER: ITS HISTORY, ARMORIES, AND ANTIQUITIES. BY J. Hewitt.

THIS little work, from the official position of its author, and its publication "by authority of the Master General and Board of Ordnance,' will, doubtless, become the accredited guide to "the Tower of London: its Histories, Armories, and Antiquities, before and since the Fire." Respecting this very interesting palace-fortress, much error prevails, notwithstanding the creditable labours of Brayley and Britton, and the more picturesque illustrations of Cruikshank and Ainsworth. History, we know, has been branded as "a great liar;" and popular credulity and love of the marvellous are ever straining to perpetuate the infamy. Almost every castle of the middle ages has its Julius Cæsar's and Devil's towers; and the claims of these personages to such distinction are alike valid; in truth, as Dulaure oddly observes, "every old building, the origin of which is buried in obscurity, is attributed to Cæsar or the devil." The public, in historical education, is like a great child catching at vulgar wonder, and overlooking sober truth. Popular sights, too, are irresistible

temptations to exaggerate. The monk showed the invisible hair to the relic-hunters, who reversed the proverb, and made believing seeing. A few years since we got into a dispute with the guide at the castle keep of Windsor, who, in showing the coats of mail of John, King of France, and David, King of Scotland, would give the fleurs-de-lis to the latter, and the thistle to the former; and our remonstrance drew down the laughter of the visitors and the incivility of the guide, who, he maintained, had shown the place long enough to know" which was which." The warders of the Tower, too, have had their tales of wonder about as accurate as the sobriquet of "beef-eaters." The crowd are not satisfied with Gundulph, bishop of Rochester, for the founder of the oldest parts of the Tower, but have selected the Salt Tower as Julius Cæsar's, and so it certainly was called temp. Henry VIII.; whereas, it is not older than the time of William Rufus. However, the people are not so much to blame here as their leaders in such matters. Leland adopted the tradition, that Cæsar erected a fortress on the site occupied by the Tower, which Pennant, and others equally credulous, have swallowed. This is altogether a gross fallacy, for Cæsar did not remain long enough in this part of the island to have erected any permanent edifice of

66

defence; and, if such had been the case, so remarkable a fact would not have passed unnoticed in his Commentaries. But Cæsar appears as the classical progenitor of Britain, in our popular histories, which date every thing from A. D. 55." Stukeley believed a citadel to have been built here in the time of Constantine the Great, and forthwith set it down in his own dear map of Roman London; but he was outstripped by a President of the Society of Antiquaries, who says, "the Tower of London was, undoubtedly, the capital fortress of the Romans; it was their Treasury, as well as their Mint." Now, his only authority for this positiveness was the finding of three Roman coins, and a few other Roman antiquities, in digging foundations for a new Ordnance office. That the Romans were located on or near this spot, is very probable; since it commanded the approach to the station by the Thames, whose antiquity it would be infidelity to question; but the Roman fortress is another matter; and although we hear much of the city, port, and walls of London, in the wars of the Danes and Saxons, there is no mention of the Tower, or any fortress in that situation, previous to the time of the Norman invasion.

It may be interesting to notice another error connected with the Tower. George, Duke of Clarence, in 1478, is said to have been drowned here in a cask of wine, or, as Lord Byron profanely sings,-" maudlin Clarence in a Malmsey butt;" but, as this circumstance is not mentioned in the fullest account of the measures taken against the Duke, the tradition is, probably, erroneous; and the chroniclers upon whom it rests are but doubtful authorities. It is, however, time to return to the little Guide before us, in which there appears a laudable anxiety to disabuse the public mind of that class of errors to which we have adverted. It is, moreover, a good sign that Mr. Hewitt's book has not been written for the nonce, i. e. in consequence of the fire, like the chronicles which were sold by thousands among the crowds of gazers at the smoking ruins, and when more flats were caught upon Tower Hill than ever floated in the moat. This little volume was, we happen to know, undertaken some months previous to the recent conflagration: the manuscript was then in the hands of the printer, and but for the fire, the book would have been earlier before the public. Again, not only the material of this volume relating to the grand storehouse, but an official survey of the stores contained within that building, was completed during the week immediately preceding the

fire.

The means have thus been afforded, of making the accounts, as well of the antiquities, as of the serviceable stores, more exact than could otherwise have been possible. In his Preface, the author states his object to be to supply

"the want hitherto felt, of some volume which, in addition to the catalogue of ancient arms and armour contained in the Tower Museums, should give some account of the uses to which they were applied, the epochs at which they were introduced, and the historical events with which they were associated.

"In visiting a collection of pictures or of sculpture, there are few persons who are not able to view, with a moderate degree of understanding, the works of art placed before them. But of the thousands who pass through the Tower Armories, how many are there who can point out the difference between a cuirass and a coat of mail? Picture Galleries are common; and their contents are reproduced in endless variety by the engraver and the printer. Every one, therefore, has the means of forming a judgment of their merits, and of enjoying their beauties. Armories are rare: and none but the confirmed antiquary or the laborious costumist can hope, in visiting such collections, to return with either increased knowledge or satisfied spirit.

from the high charges of admission, the visiters to the Tower

If this were a source of mortification some years ago, when,

Armories were few, how much more so must it be at present, when it is no unusual thing for upwards of a thousand persons to be admitted in the course of a single day. This great increase of visiters shows at least an inclination in the public to know something of the ancient war costume and weapons of their ancestors; and that there are not many of this large number who would be glad to exchange the satisfaction of understanding for the glitter of a raree-show, we will not be so uncharitable as to suppose. Another great advantage of the reduction of price-the greatest, perhaps, is, that persons of even moderate means may come again and again to study this collection, who before were limited by the expense of the admission to a single view."

This is modestly proposed, and meritoriously executed; and the means kindly placed at the author's disposal, of consulting official documents hitherto unknown to the public, have enabled him to adduce many new facts, and to correct many ancient fables. The descriptions are accompanied by an Essay on English armour, from the time of William the Conqueror to its final disuse; the history of gun-founding and hand fire-arms, and of the Crown Jewels.

At starting, to use a fitting phrase within the Tower, we have a lance to break with Mr. Hewitt: we do not believe the Romans ever to have built a fortress upon the Tower site, for the reasons already adduced. We can only dip here and there for a few notes from the text, as the following, on the Norman Chapel of St. John, containing a suggestion which we hope to see carried out :—

here; but as it is proposed to place the whole of them in the "A portion of the national records are at present kept Victoria Tower of the New Houses of Parliament, it is to be

hoped the opportunity will be taken of throwing open the chapel to the public. Situated immediately over one of the buildings already exhibited-the Queen Elizabeth Armorynothing could be easier than to unite the two by a staircase. Whether we regard this chapel as an architectural curiosity, or as an historical monument, there is not, in the whole country, an object of greater interest."

On the origin of the Spanish Armory is the annexed information.

"A very curious and elaborate survey has lately been brought to light by Robert Porrett, Esq., and is still preserved by him at the Tower, in which, for the first time, mention is made of a 'SPANISH WEOPON HOUSE'-that is, a house in which the weapons were of the Spanish fashion or manufacture. "We must not omit to notice either, that in the list of weapons before us, a distinction is made between the 'Spanish Partizans' and the Demi-Partizans.' If these arms had been spoils, the word Spanish would have been equally required in both cases. Another striking particular is, that in all this carefully-arranged catalogue of Spanish weapons, not the slightest hint is thrown out of their having been captured from an enemy.

"The author of an ingenious treatise on ancient armour, lately published, writes: 'To this feeling (the anxiety of Queen Elizabeth to maintain the hardy character of her people), joined to the desire for warlike expeditions to foreign shores, which seemed to actuate the whole British nation in the days of Raleigh, and Essex, and Sydney, may be attributed the many improvements and importations from Italy and Spain,

effected in the fashion of armour and warlike instruments at that period.'

"The 'Spanish Weopons,' then, meant nothing more than weapons of Spanish fashion or fabrication; and for the derivation of the fable touching the spoils of the Armada, we must look to another quarter.

"I believe it is not necessary to look long. The exhibitors of the Armories, finding a 'Spanish Weopon House' in one part of the premises, and a Coller of torment taken from the Spanyard' in another, had no great trouble in bringing the two together; and by a natural process, which cicerones in all parts of the world pretty well understand, formed as engaging an exhibition as can well be imagined."

The anomalies in the Horse Armory, before Sir S. Meyrick's rectification, were really ludicrous. Thus :

"The 'Line of Kings' commenced with William the Conqueror, in a suit of plate armour; and finished with George the First and George the Second, each clad in "Armour capà-pie, with a Turkey bridle and saddle.' Edward V. also appeared in a suit of cap-à-pie; and James I. in the one ornamented with the badges of the Dudley Family, the Bear and Ragged Staff. Both William the Conqueror and William the Third were clad in the plate armour of the age of Edward VI. The suit of Henry V. was composed from parts of three others, of which the upper portion was of the time of Charles L., while the legs, which were not fellows, were of the age of Henry VII. Henry VIII. also had the misfortune to have odd legs. George I. and George II. were armed cap-à-pie in suits of Henry the Eighth's time, and mounted on Turkish saddles, gilt and ornamented with the globe, crescent, and star. John of Gaunt is a knight of Henry the Eighth's reign, and De Courcy a demi-launcer of Edward the Sixth's. The helmet of Queen Elizabeth is of the period of Edward VI.; the armour for her arms, of that of Charles I.; her breastplate goes as far back as Henry VIII., and the garde-de-reins of that monarch covers her majesty's 'abdomen.'

"And it must not be forgotten, that the inclination to indulge in fable is not confined to the Tower of London. At Paris they exhibit the armour of Roland and Renaud de Montauban, the casque of St. Louis, and the panoply of Joan of Arc. In Germany we find the harness of Cunigunda, and of Rudolph of Hapsbourg. And at Naples we are shown the helmet of Attila! After this they must not too warmly reproach us with our John of Gaunt, our William the Conqueror, and our De Courcy."

The following is the actual extent of damage by the late fire :

"The Small-arms Armory was a noble apartment above the Train, occupying the whole length of the building. At the time of its destruction, this room alone contained upwards of sixty thousand stand of arms-musquets, carbines, and rifles. There was also a considerable quantity in the Train below, and in other premises connected with the building. The total amount was about a hundred thousand stand. Of percussion musquets, there were in store, previously to the fire, twelve thousand. Eleven thousand were destroyed.

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Luckily, however, the store of arms was much below the average number, owing to the rapid supply of percussion musquets to the various regiments. This average is about two hundred thousand. Sometimes the amount was much greater. In 1830 the number was six hundred thousand. "There were also about twenty-six thousand bayonets, twenty-two thousand flint locks, seven thousand percussion locks, and a large quantity of belts, slings, and pouches, the whole of which have been destroyed or rendered unserviceable. "The Barrel Room, containing about eighty-five thousand barrels (musquet, carbine, and rifle), being situated in the lower part of one of the old towers, escaped injury.

"The loss, altogether, including arms, accoutrements, ornaments, and miscellaneous stores, with the building itself, may be estimated at about a quarter of a million."

To this succeeds what must now he valuable,—“ a sketch of the disposition of the rooms, previous to the late fire, and of the curiosities they contained, adding such particulars of the present state of the relics, as may enable the visitor to the Tower to recognize them where they lie." We must now conclude. But first, is a corrective note among the Regalia:

"The Golden Saltcellar of State is of pure gold, richly adorned with jewels and grotesque figures in chased work. Its form is castellated, and it has hence been called a ' model of the White Tower,' of which it bears a very slight resemblance."

Throughout the volume are noticed several recent purchases, among them some of the suits of armour worn at the Eglintoun tournament. It is a common cry-what becomes of the admission-money paid at the Tower?-to which we find this very satisfactory reply in the little book before us:

“A large portion of the monies arising from the exhibition of the Tower Armories is applied, by the Board of Ordnance, to the purchase of additional suits of armour, and rare specimens of ancient weapons, hitherto wanting to complete the chronological series. Within this last year, several costly suits, of the ages of Richard III., Henry VII., Henry VIII., and Elizabeth, foreign as well as English, with a great variety of offensive arms and other military implements, have been added. Several valuable additions have also been made by have been sent out to the officers commanding at various the contributions of private individuals; and instructions foreign stations, to neglect no opportunity of securing and forwarding to the Tower such objects of a warlike nature, as may be curious from their construction, or remarkable from their antiquity; so that it is to be hoped, that in a short time the TOWER ARMORIES, already unrivalled in interest, may challenge competition in extent and completeness with any collection of the kind in Europe."

The work is liberally illustrated with wood-cuts, from original drawings; and the cover of the book is "illuminated" by a new printing process. Altogether, there are pains-taking and fairness towards all former labourers in the same field, evident in every page; so that we do not fail to recommend this work as the best cicerone to the Tower. It is characteristically cheap, the price being Half-a-crown.

VARIETIES.

The Ranger's Lodge, in the Green park, will be taken down early in the spring. By the way, the deer upon the gateposterns were modelled from a pair of prints by Bartolozzi.

The Equestrian Statue of the late King George the Fourth, in bronze, by Chantrey, nine feet high, is likely to be placed in he Long Walk at Windsor.-Times.

The Red Sea.-M. Rochet d'Hericourt, in some observations on the different points near Suez, traditionally connected with the name of Moses, considers the spot usually assigned as that whence the Israelites passed the Red Sea, to be too far from Suez; nearer that town there is a sand-bank running into the estuary, by which it is probable the Israelites passed over, and on which the returning tide caught the Egyptian army, and destroyed it.

The Artesian Well at Grenelle, Paris, has cost £12,000; its depth is 1794 feet; and it throws up 880,000 gallons of water per day. Still, this vast work is not likely to prove available for any useful purpose; for, owing to some disturbance in the bore, the lining-tubes cannot be put down, and portions of them are twisted and bent in the passage; and the Paris papers say, by way of badinage we hope, that if the well be abandoned, from the quantity of clay, stones, and sand, which it daily throws up, such will be the excavations and settlements of the ground, that in twenty years a large portion of Paris will have its foundations standing on the edge of a precipice! After all, the Paris bore is a grand failure, and has cost more than three times the sum and time that a similar well has cost in Belgium; indeed it would have been more profitable to send for Chinese borers, who bore wells in the rock to the depth of two or three thousand feet, for from ten to twenty thousand francs, whereas the Grenelle bore cost 302,375 francs. Birds may be said to constitute the poetry of animated nature; and whether we regard the beauty of their forms and colours, the grace and rapidity of their motions when soaring in the sky, or swimming on the surface of the water, the extent of their vision, or their instinctive intelligence, these creatures seem to be of a nature superior to those whose actions are restricted to moving merely upon the earth. What can be more marvellous than that the egg we may take into our hand, and which seems as inert as the pebble at our feet, should, in a few weeks, be transformed into a majestic eagle, flying over the loftiest mountains, and into far distant countries, with the rapidity of an arrow? This transformation may be too common an occurrence to impress our imaginations, and we may deaden the feelings of admiration by the unmeaning words that "this is nothing more than the ordinary course of nature, or an every day phenomenon ;" yet, common as it is, when it is duly considered as an insulated fact, what miracle of creative energy can appear more astonishing? The power of rapid locomotion which birds possess, and their general dread or dislike of man, remove the larger species from populous countries, and make it difficult to obtain an intimate knowledge of their habits and instincts, though this constitutes the most delightful part of natural history.

Toads in Stone.-A short time since, some live toads were discovered in a cavity at the base of a stone column in Barking church, which, so far as can be ascertained, had been closed up for seventy years.-Times.

Arsenicated Candles are again in the market; the makers employing arsenic to effect what chemists have proved may be as well effected by innocuous means.

Cheap Almanacs.-The quackish cheap almanacs should be examined closely, as every other soi disant cheap article ought to be. In one of these lights of the age, we do not find Lord Melbourne among the Viscounts; the sage compiler, probably, considering retirement from office and the peerage simul

taneous.

Titles.-The number of titled persons in the British Empire, amount, by right, to nearly three thousand; and those by courtesy, about five thousand in number.

Poison Tree.-A camel, after eating the leaves of the Sourami, or poison tree of Adel, always dies within a quarter of an hour. The Arabs make a decoction of the roots of this tree, and after evaporating it, put part of the residuum behind the iron points of their arrows.

Real Poverty. No body is so poor, and so distressed, as men of very large fortunes, who are fond of making an unwise display to the world.-Sydney Smith.

Rather Foggy. In the Sheffield Iris of November 30, the streets are stated to have been, on the previous Saturday, filled with a dirty, damp fog, so thick, you might almost drive pegs into it to hang your hats and cloaks upon.-A Subscriber.

Chaucer. What is the character of Chaucer's diction? A great delusion exists on this point. Some ninety or a bundred words that are now obsolete, certainly not many more, vein the whole surface of Chaucer, and thus a prima facie impression is conveyed that Chaucer is difficult to understand; whereas a very slight practice familiarises his language.— Blackwood's Magazine.

Gravesend.-A third pier is about to be erected at Gravesend, upon the completion of which the present Terrace-pier will be pulled down. It is to be a handsome structure of iron, and will cost about £8,000.

The late Fire at the Tower.-Among the thousand rumours originating in the destruction of the Grand Storehouse (most of them absurdly untrue), one has been extensively circulated, that the whole of the Tower armories, with the antiquities they contained, have become a prey to the flames. To any one at all acquainted with the localities of the Tower, the untruth of this assertion must be evident. The building destroyed, containing chiefly modern arms for the supply of our troops, was situated to the north of the White Tower, while the collection of ancient armour and weapons, for which the either in the White Tower itself, or in the building called the Tower of London has been so long famous, was deposited Horse Armory, on its south side, both of them unapproached by the flames.-Hewitt's "The Tower," &c.

The Steam-Engine.-M. Delecluze has lately made a discovery among the manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci, carrying a knowledge of the steam-engine to at least as far back as the fifteenth century. He has published in the Artiste a notice on the life of Leonardo da Vinci, to which he adds a fac-simile of a page from one of his manuscripts, and on which are five sketches with the pen, representing the details of the apparatus of a steam-gun, with an explanatory note upon what he designates under the name of the "Architonnerre," and of which note the following is a translation: "Invention of Archimedes. The Architonnerre is a machine of fine copper, which throws balls with a loud report and great force. It is used in the following manner :-One third of this instrument contains a large quantity of charcoal fire. When the water is well heated, a screw at the top of the vessel which contains the water must be made quite tight. On closing the screw above, all the water will escape below, will descend into the heated portion of the instrument, and be immediately converted into a vapour so abundant and powerful, that it is wonderful to see its fury and hear the noise it produces. This machine will carry a ball a talent in weight." It is worthy of remark, that Leonardo da Vinci, far from claiming the merit of this invention for himself, or the men of his time, attributes it to Archimedes.-Galignani's Messenger.

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