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dred, never lost his eye-sight, nor used spectacles.*

He got

on horseback without help, and rode to the death of a stag till he was past eighty years of age. He died 1638.†

In 1769, died, aged 125 years, George Kirton, Esq., at Thornton, near Bradford, Yorkshire. He followed the chase on horseback till he was 80 years of age; from that period till he was 100, he regularly attended the unkenelling of his hounds, at Oxnap Hall, and, if possible, the unkenelling of the fox, in his one horse chaise.

So zealous are some of these men, that the late Daniel Cundy, Esq., of Trewante Hall, Cornwall, a great sportsman, who died 1839, ordered his funeral to be in the following curious manner: He was buried in his best hunting clothes, his whip in his right hand, with gloves, boots, and spurs, and his hat on his head; his favorite horse was to be led after the coffin, with the saddle and bridle covered with crape. All of which was duly observed, showing the ruling passion was strong, while making his will, which often is but a short time before death.

BLIND SPORTSMEN.

"Those are the likest copies which are drawn
From the originals of human life." ROSCOMMON.

THE Rev. Edward Stokes, rector of Blaby, Leicestershire, was blind for 84 years (from the age of 9 ;) he died, aged ninetythree. He was born at Bradgate, and lost his eye-sight by the discharge of a pistol, loaded with shot (May 20th, 1698,) by his brother, which had been carelessly left lying about, not supposed to be charged. His unhappy brother never got over the concern, and died young. Edward, thus rendered blind, was entered at Clare Hall, Cambridge, and was presented, by Lord Hardwicke, to the rectory of Wymondham, and, on his father's death, to Blaby. Notwithstanding this infirmity, he performed the church service for many years, with only the assistance of a person to read the lessons. He was of a disposition uncommonly cheerful, and his spirits never failed.

The writer has oftentimes noticed aged sportsmen with good eyes, particularly coursers. In the Lady of the Lake, perhaps the reader may recollect the following lines, wherein this great faculty is spoken of, as belonging

to Malcolm Graeme :

"Trained to the chase, his eagle eye,

The ptarmigan in snow could spy." SCOTT.

+ Hutchin's Dorsetshire.

the poor of his parish he was a most benevolent benefactor; on whom he expended nearly the whole of a handsome private fortune. About thirty years before his death, he put up a monument in his church to the memory of his father, mother, brother, and sister; on which he also placed his own name. He had the perfect use of his limbs, and to the last walked about his own premises, and with a facility that a stranger might imagine that he was neither old nor blind.*

"The Rev. Edward Stokes used to hunt briskly; a person always accompanied him, and, when a leap was to be taken, rang a bell.

A still more extraordinary man, in this way, that had been blind, (I think, an officer in the army,) figured as a bold rider in the Marquis of Granby's hunt; he had no attendant. I have often been out with him; if any person happened to be near him when a leap was to be taken, they would say, A little farther, sir-now a great leap." Nor did I ever hear of his receiving any harm.

Much the same was said at the time of Lord Robert Bertie, who is represented in Hogarth's view of a cock-pit; and, if I mistake not, the late Lord Deerhurst, who lost his sight by a fall in hunting, still pursues the chase in the same manner."† These men possessed

"That strange knowledge, that doth come

We know not how, we know not where!"

enforcing upon the mind the truth of the following remark of Lord Kaimes: "There is a contrivance of nature, no less simple than effectual, which engages men to bear with cheerfulness the fatigues of hunting, and the uncertainty of capture; and that is an appetite of hunting."

GAMBLING.

'Gaming is a principle in human nature. It belongs to us all." BURKE.

SUCH seems to be the case; for Baker, a writer in 1602, informs us, that the learned" Roger Ascham, born in Yorkshire, notably skilled in the Greek and Latin tongues, who had been sometimes school-master to Queen Elizabeth and her Latin secretary; but, taking too great delight in gaming and cock fighting, he both lived and died in mean estate, yet left † Gentleman's Magazine.

*Hone's Year Book.

behind him sundry monuments of wit and industry." If this selfish love of gambling can triumph over a mind so highly gifted, and so variously stored with learning, the total banishing of such a curse seems a hopeless task indeed!

In an old comedy of 1561, one of the characters say: be fast set at trumps, hard by the fyre!"

"We

It was with drunkenness, the principal vice of the times. "The losing gamester shakes the box in vain,

And bleeds, and looses on, in hopes to gain." Dryden.

The reader, who has read Lady Compton's billet to her "sweet life," must have wondered what she could do with all the pinmoney, or "moderate allowance," which she so resolutely demands, while she is so very explicit about having her servants' wages paid, and all her debts as well; this, therefore, is the cue that will unravel that fearful mystery-gambling was a fashionable frenzy at this period. But perhaps it was at the highest during the reign of Charles II. ; at this time, no wealthy or noble house was considered fit to live in, without a bassettable, and cards, and dice, often cogged, which was called the "four squared sin."

"With dice, with cards, with billiards far unfit,

With shuttlecock, unseeming manly wit." SPENSER.

The turning of a card often dissipated so much property, that nothing but the levelling of whole plantations of ancient avenues, copses, and woods, could supply the honourable demands. Hence, Lord Carnarvon's profligate, and witty, and time expressive definition, often came into practical application: "Wood," says he, " is an excrescence of the earth, provided by God for the payment of debts." It is recorded by one of the diarists of the day, that £1000, or £1500, was a common bet upon various points of any of the fashionable games. * Evelyn describes, as the greatest gambler, the Duke of St. Albans, who, although more than eighty years of age, and completely blind, still frequented the gambling table, having a friend beside him to tell him the cards as they were played.

*Pepys states, "I was told, my Lady Castlemaine is so great a gamester as to have won £15,000 in one night, and lost £25,000 in another night, at play; and hath played £1000, and £1500, at a cast."

In the year 1670, by which time she had had four or five children, which the king (Charles II.) owned, he elevated her to be the Duchess of Cleveland, with remainder to her natural sons. Burnet says: "She was a woman of great beauty, but most enormously vicious and ravenous, foolish, but imperious, very uneasy to the king, and always carrying on intrigues with other while yet she pretended she was jealous of him. His passion for her, and her strange behaviour toward him, did so disorder him, that often he was not master of himself, nor capable of minding business."

men,

"Mark how the world its votaries rewards,
A youth of follies, an old age of cards."

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So common was this ridiculous habit, that if a shuffling fellow was detected in any sort of trickery, the remark was, you are as false as dicers.'

Bishop Taylor, in his "Rule of Conscience," quotes John of Salisbury, "who allows, of every game, if it can be made to case our griefs, or alleviate our burdens, without the loss of our innocence. The loss of our innocence is the great object, but who is to define that nice point?

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There have been laws in England, many centuries past, against gambling; but, as it " is a principle in human nature, it belongs to us all," and assumes so many, indeed is seen in all, shapes. Statesman should endeavour to regulate it, since it is impossible to suppress it.

An act was passed about it in Queen Anne's reign, which now remains among "the gathered wisdom of a thousand years;" but, oh! curious to relate, there is an exempting clause, in favour of the royal family, in the royal palaces, or wherever they may be for the time being-which shows that this vice was carried on in such quarters, where, of all other places, it ought not to have been. These laws, therefore, remain a dead letter. Magistrates cannot carry them into effect. As a proof of which, there are more gambling h-ls now in London, than in any other city in the world-while there are plenty of severe laws against them.

The following is an historical account of card playing: Gresco is mentioned in Eastward Hoe, 1605; Mount Saint, (like piquet,) 1608; Prime is mentioned by Sir John Harrington, 1615, he also mentions post; heaving of the man; then followed lodam; bank-a-rout, and gleek; new cut, 1617; knave out of doors; double ruff, and English ruff, 1674; ombre reign of Charles II.; bassett, at the close of seventeenth century; whist, the time of Swift; quadrille is a more modern game; then follows putt, high-game, plain dealing, wit and reason, costly colour; five cards, bone ace, queen nazareen, lanterloo, penn-cast, art of memory, beast, cribbage, and all fours. Complete Gamester.

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FESTIVALS, WAKES, AND FAIRS.

"We were not meant to plod along the earth,
Strange to ourselves, and to our fellows strange:
We were not meant to struggle from our birth,
To skulk, and creep, and in one pathway range,
Act with stern truth, large faith, and loving will !
Up and be doing! God is with us still."

From the earliest period of the world, man has kept some peculiar days of festivity; and on these days, if he preserved his innocence, all was well.

In the early period of these reigns, these festivals were kept with great hilarity, which gave much offence to the Puritans. And although many sectarians now cry out against the Catholic festivals, yet they, in their thoughtless zeal, and uncharitable censure, are probably not aware, that the first day of August, the death of Queen Anne, is still kept in England by many dissenters, as a day of festivity; for on that day the "Schism Bill," was to have gone into effect; but on that day she gave up the ghost, to their great joy and satisfaction. That vile act would have debarred every soul, except those who belonged to the "Church of England, as by law established," from educating their own children.*

If it was right then, and since then, to keep this day as a festival, if kept with harmless and sober mirth, surely it may be proper for other classes to keep their festival days.

"these

These events call upon us strongly to exercise our charity. Southey writes: "He who is most charitable in his judgment, is generally the least unjust." And Bickersteth kindly advises us to "be pitiful and compassionate to those in error ;" feelings show a goodness of heart, and teach us to suspend an hasty opinion. Lavater has an aphorism; "The wrath that on conviction subsides into mildness, is the wrath of a generous mind."

At Christmas, there was always great rejoicing, great hospitality for many days; even in the cottages there was good cheer of roast beef, plum pudding, and toast, and ale.

At Houghton Chapel, Nottinghamshire, "the good Sir William Hollis, kept his house in great splendour and hospitality. He began Christmas at All Hallowtide, and continued it till Candlemas, during which time any man was permitted to stay three days, without being asked who he was, or from whence he came."-Graphic Illustrator.

*And if this had been quietly submitted to, a Mr. Bromley, a member of the house of commons, intended to have introduced a bi 1, to prevent any dissenter from voting at future elections.

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