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Astley's. Equestrian exercises were first introduced at Paris by the elder Astley, whose troop made a winter excursion from the Westminster amphitheatre to the French capital, and performed in a circus lit by 2,000 lamps. To Astley's company succeded that of Franconi. Old Astley is buried in Père la Chaise.

Courtship. We remember a singular courtship between two persons of very opposite dispositions. Although constantly in each other's company, they took little more notice of each other than if they were casual acquaintances, unless perhaps to disagree, and yet, if they were only a mile apart, letters and messages were despatched each way out of number! Nay, the gentleman would frequently sit for hours, after the lady had retired to her bed-room, a distance of 25 feet by 18, writing notes, which he sent up stairs, receiving sundry billets doux in return; and this, long after midnight! We cannot help pitying poor papas and mammas and their household, on trying occasions like these; but, as it must be done, we say-nothing!

Spanish Convents.-In consequence of the royal decree for the suppression of the convents in Spain, there have been immediately suppressed 40 monasteries of different orders, 138 convents of Dominicans, 181 of Franciscans, 77 of barefooted Friars, 7 of Tiercaires, 29 of Capucins, 88 of Augustines, 17 of Recollets, 17 of Carmelites, 48 of bare footed Carmelites, 36 of Mercenaries, 27 of barefooted Mercenaries, 50 of St. John of God, 11 of Premonitaries, 6 of Minor Clerks, 4 of Agonisers, 3 of Servitors of Mary, 62 of Minims, 37 of Trinitarians, and 7 of bare footed Trinitarians.-Paris Advertiser.

A lunar rainbow, a phenomenon seldom seen in Europe, appeared on the 2nd inst. in the department of the Eure, in France.

The rail-road from Brussels to Malines cost 1,224,100fr. and produces immense profit to government, which established it. The receipts from 17th May to 31st July were 106,802 fr. paid by 163,482 passengers. The distance is four leagues, and the journey is made in 35 minutes.-Paris Advertiser.

Talleyrand.-Once when M. de Talleyrand was summoned by Napoleon to Warsaw, his carriage stuck in the mud, and he was detained on his journey for twelve hours. A soldier having asked one of the persons in Talleyrand's suite, who the traveller was, was informed that he was the Minister for Foreign Affairs :-"Ah! bah!" said the soldier, "Why does he come with his diplomacy to such a devil of a country as this."

The most ancient printed book, with a date, is a psalter, printed at Metz, in 1547, by Fust and Schoeffer: it is now in the royal library at Paris.

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Petrifactions.-Remarkable instances of this transformation have been found in different parts of the world, not only of vegetable, but even of animal substances. When the foundations of the city of Quebec, in Canada, among the last beds to which they proceeded. were dug up, a petrified savage was found Although there was no idea of the time at which this man had been buried under the ruins, it is however true that his quiver and arrows were still preserved. In digging a lead mine in Derbyshire in 1744, a human skeleton was found among stags' horns. It is impossible to say how many ages this carcass had lain there. In 1695, the entire skeleton of a crocodile was found in the mines of that county. At the beginning of the last century, John Munte, curate of Slægarp, in Scania, and several of his parishioners, wishing to procure turf from a drained marshy soil, found, some feet below ground, an entire cart, with the skeletons of the horses and carter. It is presumed that there had formerly been a lake in that place, and the carter attempting to pass over on the ice, had by that means probably perished.

Silk. The gathering of the silk is mostly concluded in the south of France, and the branch of trade is annually increasing; spinning mills are in full activity. This in course of formation, and will shortly form numerous plantations of mulberry-trees are the principal wealth of their locality.

Omnibus Riding.-The gross receipts of omnibus carriages for the interior of Paris, in 1834, was eleven millions of francs, or 44,000.

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VIRGINIA WATER.

OUR twelfth volume (p. 220) contains so excellent a description of Virginia Water, that, in presenting to our readers another view of this celebrated retreat, we are little disposed to add "more last words" of its charming scenery. Indeed, the writer of the paper here referred to has so nicely estimated the natural beauties and artificial embellishment of the whole district, that he has left nothing to be described of the attractions or

merits of either.

At this moment, however, Mr. Jesse's Last Series of Gleanings has dropped in opportunely enough, especially as it contains a few pages descriptive of the Royal Parks and Residences, and noticing Virginia Water; the peculiar value of which information arises from Mr. Jesse's sensible admiration of natural scenery, as well as from his official advantages as Surveyor of his Majesty's Parks and Palaces. "From Cumberland Lodge," says Mr. Jesse, "there is a delightful drive to the Virginia Water. This fine lake, which is supposed to be the largest piece of artificial water in Europe, was formed at a great expense, and is fed by a small, running stream which passes through the park. The fishing temple of George the Fourth is the most conspicuous object on its banks. It contains one good room, and would never be supposed to have been erected by a disciple of Izaac Walton. Like the temples of Nankin, it appears covered with gold-leaf. There is also an island which has a fanciful building erected upon it-the Hermitage, and, in the distance, the Belvidere, a triangular edifice, with a tower at each corner, and having a battery of twentyone pieces of cannon. There are numerous pleasure-boats on the water, and a beautiful frigate in miniature. All these boats are kept in the best order, and do great credit to the officer in charge of them.

"Near the Bagshot road, the water from the lake forms a beautiful cascade. On one side of this is a curious cavern, the stone fragments of which were dug up on Bagshot Heath. It still preserves the shape in which it was originally discovered, and is supposed to have been an ancient cromlech, or place of worship. The walk opposite the fishing temple is open to the public, and is a very pleasant one, and of considerable extent. The drives are varied in every direction, and fine views are seen from several parts of them."

We have only two observations to add on this passage. First, according to the paper in our twelfth volume, Virginia Water is not even the largest piece of artificial water in this kingdom, it being exceeded by that at Blenheim. Secondly, a cromlech is not an ancient "place of worship;" but a crooked,

flat stone, supposed to have been analtar for sacrifice before the Christian æa. (See Mirror, vol. xii. p. 227.)

MISS MITFORD.

IN that most interesting theme, the study of the human mind,-endlessly varied in its subjects of inquiry, and affording to the searcher after its diversified shades, an inexhaustible source of speculation,—not the least curious and striking difference is found, in the opposite view taken of the predomninating happiness or misery of human life, by minds of, perhaps, equal powers for settling the question. One views it as altogether, "weary, flat, stale, and unprofitable,” and says with Hamlet:-"This goodly firmament, look you, appears no other thing to me than a pestilent congregation of vapours." We hear such an one exclaim with the melancholy Childe, "I never loved the world.” The Christian philosophy of Johnson did not prevent his coming to the mournful conclusion, that "human life is a scene in which much is to be endured, and little enjoyed." While Pope asserts that—

"life can little more supply, "Than just to look about us and to die." Truth, ever avoiding extremes, inclines us to Southey's view, which at once hushes the of expectation:murmur of impatience, and sobers the flutter

"Nature hath assigned

Two sovereign remedies for human woe,
Religion, surest, firmest, safest, best,
And strenuous action next."

"It is heaven on earth, (said the wise Verulam,) to have one's mind move in charity, rest in Providence, and turn upon the poles of truth."

On the other side of the question are arrayed an equal number, who diffuse the sunshine of their own feelings over every subject they touch upon, who find "all nature music to the ear, and beauty to the eye." Of this happy class is Miss Mitford, to whose sense, nature animate and inanimate, seems arrayed in perpetual charms,-who has the faculty of extracting pleasurable emotions from scenes and subjects which would, to the generality of minds, be most unpromising subjects for interest. From her graphic pen, the homeliest scenes and characters receive a charm they had not before. "Our Village is peopled with rural specimens of humanity, such as may, perhaps, be found in every other village: but, under her painting, nature in her rudest dress, becomes refined simplicity. The vice, ignorance, and depravity too often found in these modern Arcadias, is softened down or altogether hidden, and you ramble with her through the "village," pleased-you know not why. Crabbe was true to nature; but, he copied her sternest realities, and left them in their

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naked dreariness, unsoftened by those mellowing shades which have the power to engage kindness and sympathy for our fellow beings in their rudest form. Abjuring what he called the "tinsel trappings of poetic pride," he declared that "Auburn and Eden were no more below." The fault of engaging us to look with complacency on characters altogether contrary to "that faultless monster whom the world ne'er saw," was equally prominent in the bard of Avon and Sir Walter Scott. It is the magic art which engages our forbearance and amuses us with Falstaff, mine hostess Quickly, Bardolph, Pistol, and the rest of Prince Hal's most faulty associates. Why is it that we weary not of the never-ending officiousness of Caleb Balderson, that even the recklessness of Mike Lambourne revolts not, and that the rough honesty of Dandie Dinmont, and the plain, unadorned worth and persevering affection of Jenny Deans, so much delight us?

In common with these great names, Miss Mitford has opened a mine of unlooked-for interest, in the characters with which she has peopled "Our Village:" they have, it would seem, afforded her a "perpetual feast of nectar'd sweets, where no crude surfeit reigns." Could any character be more unpromising as a subject for her pen, (to the common eye,) than Sam Page, the Proteus many avocations? How faithfully drawn from life is her washerwoman, Nanny Sims, beguiling her humid existence with neverending tea and scandal! One of the striking excellencies in Miss Mitford's style is a rich vein of comic humour, a harmless satire, which, as the clown said of his in the forest of Ardennes, "like a wild goose, flies unclaim'd of any one." Its point is occasionally directed against herself, as when she so laughably describes her day of petty annoyance, when the "lost keys" involved her in so much perplexity, "traversing house and garden four hours for the intolerable keys;" the arrival of a professed teadrinker, (Lady Mary H.,) at the close of this miserable day, one who required to have the "gentle stimulant in full perfection, obliged to send for tea to the village-shop! it was the very extremity of small distress." Amusing as are her descriptions of village life, making due allowance for the softening hues which her benignant and glowing fancy spreads over scenes and characters of homely, and, in some cases, revolting coarseness, she is lappier, because nearer to reality in her sketches of a country town. In accompanying her through the streets of "Belford Regis," you hear nothing of its inhabitants that can alarm the most zealous lover of probability who ever abjured a novel for its departure from matter of fact.

Miss Mitford is a instance of that versatility of genius, whh delighting to depict

the simplest traits in rural life, and which can paint with irresistible comic force every day feelings and associations, can yet sound the depths of tragic poetry, and unveil those darker shades of human feeling, which, alas! in too many cases, "hold the mirror up to nature." Rienzi abounds with strong and masterly touches, displaying that searching knowledge of poor humanity so indispensable in a dramatic writer. Is this dark assertion of Rienzi true?—

"Fear and old hate,

They are sure weavers, they work for the storm, The whirlwind, and the rocking surge: their knot Endures till death."

How beautiful is the yearning of Claudia after her former home!

"Mine own dear home! Father, I love not this new state-these halls Where comfort dies in vastness-these trim maids, Oh! mine old home,

Whose service wearies me.
My quiet, pleasant chamber, with the myrtle
Woven round the casement, and the cedar by,
Shading the sun; my garden overgrown
With flowers and herbs, thick-set as grass in fields."

Highly, however, as Miss Mitford ranks in the literary world, and deservedly so, as a writer of richly-varied genius, there is, to our eyes, one trait wanting throughout her writings, which no admiration of her brilliant talents can prevent our regretting. It is the almost total absence of allusion to that future and eternal state of things, with its immortal hopes and heavenward aspirings, in which the dwellers in hall or cottage, village or town,

are alike interested. We would not advocate

that misjudging spirit, which would intrude high and holy themes where merely human feeling should alone have place; but, we verge on the other extreme, when what ought to be the pervading spirit is so quenched and kept out of sight. We shall be suspected of a wish to spy out spots in the sun, when we thus presume to discern a flaw in writings so redolent of all that charms the fancy. Still, we must think those authors the most admirable, who, without fanatical parade, let this soul-exalting principle pervade the motives, actions, and characters they portray; and, through the various paths which genius treads, for ever bear in view, that hope of brighter worlds, which tells the mourner that "The storms of wintry time will quickly pass, And one unbounded spring encircle all.' Kirton-Lindsey.

ANNE R.

EXTRAORDINARY HEAT AND

DROUGHT.

IN 763, the summer was so hot that the springs dried up.

In 860, the heat was so intense that, near Worms, the reapers dropped dead in the fields.

In 993, and again in 994, it was so hot that the corn and fruit were burnt up.

The year 1000 was so hot and dry that, in Germany, the pools of water disappeared,

and the fish, being left to stink in the mud, bred a pestilence.

In 1022, the heat was so excessive, that both men and cattle were struck dead.

In 1130, the earth yawned with drought. Springs and rivers disappeared, and even the Rhine was dried up in Alsace.

In 1159, not a drop of rain fell in Italy after the month of May.

The year 1171 was extremely hot in Germany.

In 1232, the heat was so great, especially in Germany, that it is said that eggs were roasted in the sands.

In 1260, many of the Hungarian soldiers died of excessive heat at the famous battle fought near Bela.

The consecutive years 1276 and 1277 were so hot and dry as to occasion a great scarcity of fodder.

The years 1293 and 1294 were extremely hot, and so were likewise 1303 and 1304, both the Rhine and Danube having dried up. In 1333, the cornfields and vineyards were burnt up.

The years 1393 and 1394 were excessively hot and dry.

In 1447, the summer was extremely hot. In the successive years 1473 and 1474, the, whole earth seemed on fire.. In Hungary, one could wade across the Danube.

The four consecutive years, 1538, 1539, 1540, and 1541, were excessively hot, and the rivers dried up.

In 1556, the drought was so great that the springs failed. In England, wheat rose from 8s. to 53s. a quarter.

The years 1615 and 1616 were very dry over Europe.

In 1646, it was excessively hot.

In 1652, the warmth was very great, the summer being the driest ever known in Scotland; yet a total eclipse of the sun had happened that year, on Monday the 24th of March, which hence received the appellation of Mirk Monday.

The summer of 1679 was remarkably hot. It is related that one of the minions of tyranny, who, in that calamitous period, harassed the poor Presbyterians in Scotland with captious questions, having asked a shepherd in Fife, whether the killing of the notorious Sharp, Archbishop of St. Andrew's, (which had happened in May,) was murder; he replied, that he could not tell, but there had been fine weather ever since.

The first year of the eighteenth century was very warm, and the two following years were of the same description.

It is a singular coincidence, that in 1718, the distance precisely of 100 years from the date of this paper, the weather was extremely hot and dry all over Europe. The air felt so oppressive, that all the theatres were shut Scarcely any rain fell for the

in Paris.

space of nine months, and the springs and
rivers were dried up. The following year
was equally hot. The thermometer at Paris
rose to 98° by Fahrenheit's scale. The grass
In some
and corn were quite parched.
places, the fruit-trees blossomed two or three

times.

Both the years 1723 and 1724 were dry

and hot.

The year 1745 was remarkably warm and dry, but the following year was still hotter; insomuch that the grass withered, and the leaves dropped from the trees. Neither rain nor dew fell for several months; and, on the Continent, prayers were offered up in the churches, to implore the bounty of refreshing

showers.

In 1748, the summer was again very warm. In 1754, it was likewise extremely warm. The years 1760 and 1761 were both of them remarkably hot, and so was the year 1763.

In 1774, it was excessively hot and dry.' Both the years 1778 and 1779 were warm and very dry.

The year 1788 was also very hot and dry; and of the same character was 1811, famous for its excellent vintage, and distinguished by the appearance of a brilliant comet.

ASSASSINATION OF HENRY IV. OF
FRANCE.

An event of such magnitude as the assas
sination of Henry IV. may naturally be ex-
pected to have exercised the industry of
writers living at the very period of its occur-
The facts and details collected are,
rence.
accordingly, very numerous; but, strange to
say, the circumstances are related with little
All of them are of the most
uniformity.
interesting character, connected as they are
with one of the most brilliant epochs in the
history of France, and presenting as they do
a picture of the superstition and fanaticism
of the time. The loss of the king was,
indeed, universally deplored; for he was the
best sovereign France ever had. It is not,
therefore, surprising to find his memory che-
rished in France to this day; as, in the mag-
nificent equestrian statue of Henry, on the
Pont Neuf, at Paris, and, in the house which
marks the spot on which the assassination
was perpetrated. In his fate, too, there is
matter of reflection for those who are interest-
ed in tracing concatenated events in history.
He was the first Bourbon, of the Capetian
race; and with him began that train of mis-
fortunes which has, with few exceptions,
attended this dynasty through the last two
centuries and a-quarter': or, from Henry the
Great to Louis Philippe.; '

In attempting a brief narrative of the above event, we shall commence with the regret Henry at the coronation of Mary de Medicis,

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