DOMESTIC RECEIPTS. Shrewsbury Cakes.-Half a pound of flour half a pound of sugar, half a pound of butter; the white of one egg, mixed well together, rolled out very thin, cut into rounds, and baked in a quick oven. Strengthening Jelly for Invalids. -Take two pounds of gravy beef cut into small pieces; put the pieces into a jar, cover close, and stand the jar in a saucepan of water; let it simmer from four to six hours. This I have made from either beef or veal. I have found it invaluable in cases of sickness, and it will be found that the real essence of the meat is extracted.-J. C. C. To wash Hair-brushes.-Never use soap. Take a piece of soda, dissolve it in warm water, stand the brush in it, taking care that the water only covers the bristles; it will almost immediately become white and clean; stand it to dry in the open air with the bristles downwards, and it will be found to be as firm as a new brush.-A RIGID ECONOMIST, Guernsey. A Seed or Plum-loaf.-The same as the receipt given for the seed-biscuits, but adding, of course, fruit for the latter; and also for either a little larger spoonful of soda, and making the paste quite soft, so that you may pour it into your tin, which should be buttered; bake an hour and a half in a brisk oven.-A SUBSCRIBER. Beet-root.-All my friends like the way my beet-root is dressed. Let the roots be carefully washed so as not to break the skin; have some boiling water ready; boil one hour; when cold skin them, and cut in slices in a dish; pepper and salt each layer; when all cut, pour over some vinegar, with a little Cayenne pepper; after a few hours pour over an equal quantity of water. H. D. C., Gardeners' Chronicle. Pickled Oysters in the French way. A supperdish.Take four dozen oysters. Strain the liquor, add six blades of mace, twelve peppercorns, a little grated lemon-peel, and two or three bay-leaves. Put the liquor to boil; when boiling, add the oysters for two minutes. (Some persons put half vinegar, half liquor.) When cold, strain off the liquor. Place the oysters in a small dish, and garnish with parsley.-A RIGID ECONOMIST, Guernsey. To salt Meat quickly.-This receipt has been given to me by a very elderly lady, who has, she assures me, always found it successful. Two pounds of bay-salt, two pounds of common ditto, a small quantity of saltpetre, mix them well together. Then place the meat on a small tripod in a basin of water, taking care the meat does not touch the water; lay the salt on the top of the meat. It is said that it will be sufliciently salted in forty-eight hours.-A SUBSCRIBER. Keeping Apples.-When there is a frost, all that you have to do is to keep the apples in a state of total darkness until some days after a complete thaw has come. In America they are frequently frozen as hard as stones; if they thaw in the light, they rot; but if they thaw in darkness, they not only do not rot, but lose very little of their original flavour. This may be new to the English reader; but he may depend upon it that the statement is correct. Mock Suet Pudding.-A piece of good dripping about the size of a walnut, as much carbonate of soda as will lie on a sixpence, flour and buttermilk, sufficient to fill a pint basin rather more than half with thick batter; boil two hours. This makes good meat-pie-crust when made stiff enough to roll out; of course, a little more lard or dripping may be added if approved; they are very wholesome; it also makes nice short cakes, and may be used without lard, as the buttermilk will shorten them.-A SUBSCRIBER To keep Chesnuts.-To preserve chesnuts, so as to have them to sow in the spring, or to eat through the winter, you must make them perfectly dry after they come out of their green husks; then put them into a box or a barrel mixed with, and covered over by, fine and dry sand, three gallons of sand to one gallon of chesnuts. If there be maggots in any of the chesnuts, they will come out of the chesnuts and work up through the sand to get to the air; and thus you have your chesnuts sweet and sound, and fresh. Savoury Jelly,-Take half a pig's head, boil it for one hour, then cut the meat into small pieces, put it again into the saucepan with half the liquor it was boiled in, add a little seasoning of pepper, salt, and mace, boil another hour; turn it into a mould to get cold. The above is excellent made from calves' head, which in many country-places can be bought for a trifle; but the mould should then be lined with hard boiled eggs, cut into slices, and a little parsley added to the seasoning. This is an economical breakfast or supper-dish.-A RIGID ECONOMIST, Guernsey. an onion or two. Giblet Pie.-Take two or three sets of goosegiblets, clean them well, and stew them till tender, with some black pepper-corns, salt, and When done, take them out, cut the legs in two, the wings and necks into three, and the gizzards into four pieces. Set them by till they are cold, that the heat of the giblets may not spoil the paste you cover the pie with. Lay a moderately thick beef-steak in the bottom of the pie-dish, put in the cut giblets; strain the liquor over in which they were stewed. Season with pepper and salt, and cover the whole with a crust of ordinary paste, ornamenting it to your fancy. Some people add a layer of sliced boiled potatoes over the top, and some omit the beef-steak altogether: but neither of these are recommended.-J. JOHNSON. Seed-biscuits. - Take one pound of flour, quarter of a pound of powdered loaf-sugar, a few carraway seeds, and a small teaspoonful of carbonate of soda; mix all well together, and make into a stiff paste, with buttermilk; roll very thin, cut into biscuits and bake in a rather brisk oven; they will keep well in a tin canister. N. B. The soda must be well rubbed down in the palm of the hand, and a little flour mixed well with it, before it is added to the other ingredients; for if not well mixed, every little lump will leave a brown mark in the cake, or pudding &c., after it is baked. Everything made with soda should be mixed with a spoon or knife, and not with the hand; the buttermilk must be acid, and if you have not sufficient, you may add a little old milk, though it does not de so well, but on no account put water in.-A SUB SCRIBER. ENIGMAS. 1. A renown'd Latin poet of oriental extraction, Who died in obscurity, nay, almost distraction : A remarkable general who by songs could assuage, The bites of large serpents, and their horrible rage: A celebrated physician, who, during life's tottering course, Was once cunningly conceal'd in the belly of a horse: An ecclesiastical father, in Cappadocia bred, Who was an eminent scholar and critic 'tis said: A renown'd tragic poet whose fame Athens resounds, Who was dreadfully mangled by ferocious hounds: A famed king of Thrace who was at midnight slain, By two Grecian monarchs on the Trojan plain: An unfortunate shepherd who was in Sicily born: And kill'd by a fragment which from a rock was torn: An emperor of Rome for vilest cruelty famed, By barbarity itself he might justly be named: A courageous Spartan who this apophthegm made, "Tho' their arrows darken the sun we'll fight in the shade." These initials, "my dear friends," if you detach them aright, Will delineate a county which is England's delight. L. J. G. D. Proteus, when in a changing mood, That he has changed as oft as I. There's scarce an object that you've seen, My first is, forsooth, as I steadfastly hold, From which all mankind must confess there have been, Vast riches derived magnâ curâ : My whole, I maintain, when correctly combined. 2. My first is a thing in which my second delights. And may often be seen in brawls and in fights: My second to obtain it doth much labour bestow, And oft causes my first in large torrents to flow: My whole, tho' 'tis strange, yet quite true I declare, Will trace out my first with most vigilant care. L. J. G. D. ANSWERS TO FAMILY PASTIME. HISTORICAL ENIGMA Byng, Admiral-R odney, Admiral-Effingham-Cabot, Sebastian, 1497-K empenfelt, Admiral-N elson, Admiral-O pdam, Admiral-Cook, Captain-K eppel-Brecknock-The Lake is called Brecknock Mere. RIDDLES 1. Because it is always worsted. 2. Because C makes ease cease, and W makes ill will. 3. It always makes a lease please. ENIGMA-Will-o'-th'-wisp, TRANSPOSITIONS 1. Start, Star, Tar, Tart, Art, Rat. 2. Bramble, Ramble, Amble. ELLEN LYNDHURST; A TALE OF TRIAL AND TRIUMPH. (Continued from page 305.) CHAPTER XXI. THE TRIAL. WE will not dwell long upon our mention of the tears of mingled joy and sorrow which were shed, when Ellen laid her heart open to her father, and sought his forgiveness for having withheld from him a matter so vital to her happiness. Mr. Lyndhurst wept like a child, and embraced his daughter with half-frantic caresses. "I forgive you, Ellen," he said, "but never again withhold from your father aught that concerns your well-being in life. You have been saved from almost certain misery by the loving resolution of Alfred, to whom our warmest thanks are due. We will pray to God to sustain you through this trial, and He will hear our prayers." "I am calmer and better now, father," replied Ellen, "than I have felt for a long while. I had not a moment's happiness when I was deceiving you. My soul seemed polluted with falsehood; and every word and look of yours, however kind, seemed to upbraid me." "We will not dwell upon the past," said Mr. Lyndhurst, "but go at once to the Squire, and place him in possession of these facts, which must inevitably break off the intended marriage. Poor old man it will be a sad blow to him, and perhaps we shall sacrifice his friendship for ever. But my daughter is more dear to me than any other earthly consideration." "I will go with you," said Alfred, "because upon my evidence the charges mainly rest; and I must not appear afraid to assert the accusations before him." In a little while they set off together for the Hall, and were soon admitted into the apartment where bright hopes of the future were once cherished by a cheerful group of friends. The Squire rose with his accustomed cordiality to receive his guests, and gave a fond kiss to Ellen. Mrs. Davis caught up her needlework which lay scattered upon the table; and the Squire closed the VOL. VIII.NO. XCVII. large Bible which he had been reading, and set it aside. He soon observed from the aspect of his guests, that there was some unusual influence upon them. "How now, my friends! exclaimed he, "you all look dejected -no great disaster I hope ?" "Not precisely a disaster, friend Langford," said Mr. Lyndhurst gravely, "but something worse. We bring you bad news, Squire; and in spite of my fear that I may lose my good old friend, I have come to say that the marriage between my daughter and your nephew can never take place." "What!" exclaimed the Squire and Mrs. Davis simultaneously, as they rose from their chairs. "The marriage," repeated Mr. Lyndhurst, "between Ellen and Charles can never take place with my sanction. There are grave reasons against it, which I have come to state." "Ellen has found another love, I suppose, said the Squire: "it is not the first time that the heart of a good man has been wronged." He thought of his own painful experience, and tears filled his eyes and trickled down the furrows of his cheeks. "I tell you, Lyndhurst," said he with much emotion,-"you know that from the association of years, from our long friendship, from many admirable points in Ellen's character, I had learnt to love her as my child. And I confess I looked forward to her marriage with Charles as a matter of my highest ambition. To have united the daughter of my oldest and dearest friend to the son of my departed brother, whom I loved with unmistakeable affection, was an object which took full possession of my heart, and I looked upon it as all but accomplished. However, I have lived to learn that the quiet of age, as well as the enthusiasm of youth, may be broken in upon by sorrow and disappointment." "You mistake the cause," said Mr. Lyndhurst. "My friendship for you is no less than it has been. I confess that this resolution on our part has cost me a great struggle, and has been a heavy blow to my own and my daughter's hopes. The true cause, however, is that we find your nephew as unworthy of my daughter's love as he is of your confidence." Z "Never!" exclaimed the Squire, with great emphasis. "Friend Langford, much as I regard your friendship, and deeply as I hope that that friendship may attend me to the grave, I cannot allow even you to breathe a reproach against my nephew's name. I have so many evidences of his worth-so many unmistakeable proofs of his piety and goodness-that I feel I must warn you against an illiberal and unchristian credence to cruel slanders which may be levelled against a young man, even on account of the virtues he pos Her tears subdued the Squire's indignation; and he replied, "You may proceed." Alfred then with extreme moderation, but with much clearness, stated the leading features in Charles Langford's career, and the manner in which he had become acquainted with them. All the incidents which our story has supplied to the reader were detailed, and some of them confirmed by letters which Alfred had obtained for the purpose. During the narrative the Squire was sometimes much excited, and at others deeply affected. There was a struggle of doubt, fear, and con"I have no prejudices, friend Lang-fidence raging within him. Charles ford," said Mr. Lyndhurst. "Nor have I listened to slanders. The proofs that have been brought to me are too conclusive-I cannot disbelieve them." sesses." "Allow me to speak, Sir," said Alfred. "I am the cause of this unhappiness. My visit to Windmere thus unexpectedly, has been taken, not merely to persuade my cousin against an ill-advised attachment, but to tell her in plain and unequivocal terms, that her simplicity has been grossly imposed upon that a marriage with Charles Langford offers nothing but disgrace and misery. "I cannot hear this, young man," said the Squire, considerably disturbed, and pacing about the room. "There must be some cause for this sudden and extreme change, and I will probe it to the very core." "That is what I ask you to do, Sir, that you yourself may be relieved from the clever deception now practised upon you," said Alfred. "Oh, leave me to protect myself. As far as your cousin Ellen is concerned you have a right to speak. But, young man, I have not lived to these years to lack a knowledge of human nature." "Let me beg of you to hear what my nephew has to say," said Mr Lyndhurst, "and then you ean form your own judgment." "Do hear him," supplicated Ellen; "I think you know that I would not injure Charles by the breath of calumny. And all that my heart feels now is an earnest and prayerful desire for his reformation and future happiness. You cannot know how painful this struggle is to me."-She leant upon her father's breast and wept. concluded his denunciation with these emphatic words, for his own feelings of indignation had been kindled; "I pronounce your nephew, Sir, to be an impostor, a gambler, a spendthrift, and in every other respect an immoral character. One whose touch is pollution to the virtuous, whose word bears the poison of flattery and deceit-with neither religion in his soul, or integrity in his heart; he mocks God, and wrongs his fellow-creatures every day of his existence, and is utterly unworthy the love and confidence of those who have hitherto trusted in him." "Oh, misery! misery!" exclaimed Mrs. Davis, as she dropped back in her chair, while the suspicions she had previously entertained came back to her memory. "I feared much of this, but I could not have believed it all." "Believe it all, No!" said the Squire, nor anybody else in their sober senses. One tenth of these charges would prove my nephew to be a villain. But I will sift it deeply, and not an hour shall be lost. I will set out for London at once-this very moment." And he began to pace about the room in an anxious state of mind, and to catch up articles of apparel as though he was bent upon immediately leaving the house." "Oh dear, oh dear!" cried Mrs. Davis, "that ever this trouble should have come upon him in his old age. Where are you going, Squire? and what do you intend to do?" "I shall go to London," said the Squire, "and see the fiend that has been painted to me. I will track him through every path, old as I am-and if I find." The old man's feelings quite overcame him, and he was seen tottering to the ground, when Alfred rushed towards him and caught him in his arms. It was a painful but picturesque scene. The old confiding uncle, burning with indignation at the slanders hurled against his idol-yet with a mind awakening to conviction, but struggling stubbornly against it. The old housekeeper trembling from head to foot lest the excitement should kill her aged benefactor, and believing that she saw death already written in his countenance. The weeping daughter, suffering from the pangs of a blighted heart, leaning upon her father's neck and hiding her tears, pressing her parent's hand and begging him to be calm. The two old friends looking at each other with mingled feelings of doubt and love, and fear lest the ties of a long and honourable friendship might be broken up by this sad event. And, lastly, Alfred, calm and dignified, with a pallor spread over his youthful face, yet with an inflexible earnestness written upon his intellectual brow, and sparkling from his large dark eyes! At length, when the Squire had revived he became calm, and with sorrowing but subdued feelings it was resolved-for the Squire would hear of no other proceeding that himself and Mr. Lyndhurst should return with Alfred to London, and that the latter should adopt such means as might enable them to judge for themselves of the truth or falsehood involved in the accusations which had been made. The next morning, a post-chaise drew up before the door of the Hall. It had rattled down through the village, and already excited the curiosity of the villagers. Some of them strayed to the spot, and loitered about until the boxes were placed upon it, and the passengers were taking their seats. They then ran on to the village, spreading rumours of what they had seen, so that when the chaise drove through Windmere, the excitement was at its height. Groups of people gathered around; and before an hour had passed away, ingenious speculations had been created upon the causes of the sudden departure of two of the oldest inhabitants of the place. The most popular story was, that Miss Lyndhurst had gone off to be married; that she had left by an earlier conveyance. "That can't be," said some, "for the countenances of the passengers were sad; and when Mrs. Davis took leave of the Squire, she wept bitterly." Then a death was rumoured; but the villagers scarcely knew whom to kill, to support this theory. There were some who even entertained suspicion that as Miss Lyndhurst had not been seen, she must have fled from her father's house, and that the party in the chaise were proceeding in pursuit of her. There were many who stoutly denied this they pleaded her Christian purity, and her childlike love and submission to her father. Pure indeed, however, must he be whom the tongue of slander will not assail, and blessed met be the spot untainted by its blighting influence. Neither the virtue of Ellen, nor the beauty and peacefulness of Windmere, were proof against this moral pestilence. CHAPTER XXII. THE CONFIRMATION. "It is all too true," said Mr. Montague to Squire Langford, as the whole party sat in an apartment in Dr. Montague's house; "and you have only to adopt a simple process to have everything confirmed." By these remarks of Mr. Montague, and the circumstances under which they were delivered, it will readily be discovered by the reader, that through Alfred's influence Mr. Lyndhurst and the Squire had been introduced to Dr. Montague's family, and that the charges against Charles Langford had formed the topic of conversation. The Squire's prejudices in his nephew's favour were already beginning to yield, and he listened with painful interest to the various facts related. "The plan I suggest," said Mr. Montague, "is, that you go at night to the Parthenian Club, where he may be found nightly, surrounded by his gambling associates. I can procure for you an introduction ther; and when fresh with wine, and excited by the game, he is indifferent to what may be passing around him you will have an opportunity of reading his character, and judging for yourself." "No, no!" said the Squire, "whatever |