the distance of a few yards, devoured its prey, and returned to the same hole; or, if it had not perceived any more fish, flew only a few yards over the many pots there, marked a likely one, and alighted a little distance from it.. It then squatted, moved slowly towards the edge, and lay as before, watching for an opportunity. Whenever a fish of any size was hooked, as I may say, the owl struck the other foot also into it, and flew off with it to a considerable distance. In two instances of this kind, I saw the bird carry its prey across the Western or Indiana Shute, into the woods, as if to be quite out of harm's way. I never heard it utter a single note on such occasions, even when two birds joined in the repast, which was frequently the case, when the fish that had been caught was of a large size. At sunrise, or shortly after, the owls flew to the woods, and I did not see them until the next morning, when, after witnessing the same feats, I watched an opportunity, and killed both at one shot. THE MARTIN. DR. FORSTER describes the martin, or martlet, as being rather less than the swallow, and easily distinguishable from it, by the bright, white colour of all the under parts of the body. It builds under the eaves of houses, in crags of rocks and precipices near the sea, has sometimes three broods in the year, and constructs its curious nest like that of the swallow, with mud and straw, lined with feathers on the inside. In heraldry, the arms of a fourth child are known by the addition of a martin. LOVE-NOTE OF THE WOODPECKER. Ir is not a little singular, (says a recent writer,) that the love-note of the woodpecker about sixty nests of rooks. These birds produce about five young ones each. A great difference of opinion exists, whether the rooks are useful or injurious to the farmer. It is stated by Pennant, that the rook, instead of being proscribed, should be treated as the farmer's friend, as it clears his ground of caterpillars, that do incredible damage by eating the roots of the corn. In Suffolk, and in some parts of Norfolk, the farmers encourage the breed of rooks, as the only means of freeing their lands from the grub which produces the cockchafer, and which, in this state, destroys the roots of corn and grass to such a degree, that Mr. Stillingfleet says, that he has seen a piece of pasture land where the turf might be turned up with the foot. NEST OF THE MAGPIE. THE magpie excels all our large birds in its architectural skill, though several of the olden naturalists were inclined to attribute to it more ingenuity than facts will corroborate. Albertus Magnus says, that it not only constructs two passages for its nest, one for entering, and another for going out, but frequently makes two nests on contiguous trees, with the design of misleading plunderers, who may as readily choose the empty nest as the one containing the eggs. Others maintain that the opening opposite is for the tail of the bird while hatching; but before we speculate upon the use of this second opening, it would be well to ascertain its existence. Among the numerous magpie's nests which I have seen, (says Mr. Rennie,) a second opening is by no means apparent, though, in some instances, the twigs may appear more loosely woven than in others, but seldom so much as to admit a passage should not be a voice like that of most other to the bird. constructed, that it can repeat the strokes of UTILITY OF ROOKS. In an ash-tree on a farm near Oswestry, A FLIGHT OF CROSSBILLS. Ar West Felton, Shropshire, (says a recent observer,) in July, 1821, this rare and beautiful bird was seen, in a flight of about eighteen trees and larch; the cone of which it opens or twenty, alighting on the tops of pinewith adroit neatness, holding it in one claw like a parrot, and picking out the seeds. They also eat excrescent knobs, or the insects formed therein, by the cynips, at the ends of the young spruce branches. They were of crimson, and some entirely of the most lovely various colours; brown, green, yellow, and rose-colour; hanging and climbing in fanciful attitudes, and much resembling a group of small paroquets. Their unusual note, somewhat like the quick chirp of linnets, but much louder, first attracted attention. The same mandible of the bill crossed on the right side in some birds, and on the left in others. These birds are natives of Ger many and the Pyrenees, and are very rarely excite the fatigue of reflection: topographical seen in England. MIGRATION OF THE WOODCOCK. ACCORDING to a recent writer, the woodcock, during summer, is found in Lapland, Norway, and Sweden. In the markets of the latter country, their eggs are exposed for sale, and are considered a great dainty, by which means, the number of these birds are greatly reduced. Many are lost on their passage from one country to another. Mr. Travers, of Cornwall, when at a great distance from land, where the feathered tribes are seldom met with, observed a woodcock hovering over the ship; when first discovered, it was high in the air, but gradually descended, until it reached the deck, where it suffered itself to be taken by the hand. In 1799, during a gale of wind, a couple of woodcocks alighted upon the deck of the Glory man-of-war, whilst cruising in the Channel.—[For this and the six preceding notices, acknowledgment is due to W. G. C.] New Books. RECOLLECTIONS OF AN EXCURSION TO THE MONASTERIES OF ALCOBACA AND BATALHA. [THIS delightful volume is from the pen of Mr. Beckford, the accomplished author of Vathek. It relates Twelve Days' Visit to the interesting monastic piles named in the title-page. The excursion was made forty years ago, or, in June, 1794, though the recollections were written but a month since from very slight notes, which the author met with in examining some miscellaneous papers. "Flattering himself that, perhaps, they might not be totally unworthy of expansion, he invoked the powers of memory-and be. hold, up rose this series of recollections". written, we must add, in the fresh and gay vein of youthful enjoyment. The monasteries of Alcobaça and Batalha are two of the richest and most splendid establishments in the kingdom of Portugal. The former is in a small town to the north of Lisbon, and the latter in a village beyond it, about fifty-two miles from the Portuguese metropolis. Thither Mr. Beckford journeyed, by desire of the Prince Regent of Portugal, with the Grand Prior of Aviz and the Prior of St. Vincent's, as his conductors and companions; the three tourists, with their usual followers, "forming altogether a caravan which, camels and dromedaries excepted, would have cut no despicable figure even on the route of Mecca or Mesched-Ali." The party met at Mr. Beckford's quinta, comimanding in full prospect the entrance of the Tagus." It was settled," says Mr. Beckford," that the Grand Prior should loll in his dormeuse or in my chaise just as he best pleased, and look at nothing calculated to inquiries were to be waived completely, and no questions asked about who endowed such a church or raised such a palace. We were to proceed, or rather creep along, by short and facile stages: stopping to dine, and sup, and repose, as delectably as in the most commodious of homes. Everything that could be thought of, or even dreamed of, for our convenience or relaxation, was to be carried in our train, and nothing left behind but Care and Sorrow: two spectres, who, had they dared to mount on our shoulders, would have been driven off with a high hand by the Prior of St. Vincent's, than whom a more delightful companion never existed since the days of those polished and gifted canons and cardinals who formed such a galaxy of talent and facetiousness round Leo the Tenth."] The First Day. On the first evening the party reached the villa-hermitage of St. Vincent, a portion of the road thither being bordered by aloes, sprouting ten or twelve feet high, in shape and colour not unlike gigantic asparagus. The Second Day Was passed in the grounds of the hermitage. amongst well-cultivated vegetables, fields of Indian wheat as healthy and vigorous as any that ever flourished in the islands which float about like rafts on the Lake of Mexico; and the most extensive orchards of orange, apricots, and other fruit-trees, perhaps, in Portugal. Here also was one of the grandest objects of the vegetable world-a bay-tree, consisting of about thirty stems, from two feet to thirty-eight inches in diameter, springing from one root, and rising sixty-four feet. Their return from this day's ramble lay through shady alleys of curious citron-trees, collected from every part of the Portuguese dominions, divided by tall canes, mantled with vines. The nightingales were singing in the recesses of woods impenetrable to the sun, and frogs were croaking a deep thorough bass to this enchanting melody. In the cool of the evening, they drove to a palace of the patriarch, where was a gallery lined with the richest marbles of Spain and Portugal, disposed in panels, and ornamented with an overwhelming profusion of doubly and trebly gilt bronze ornaments, in that style of lavish expenditure carried to such triumphant excess by the most magnificent of modern Solomons, King John the Fifth. The Third Day. The morning collation was served in a summer pavilion on the banks of a river, and the party was joined by a Chinese missionary, who, on being asked how many words of truth there were in Sir William Chambers's essay on Chinese gardening-replied, “ tentousand-time-ten-tousand ;" adding: " I have seen greater wonders than he-I have seen in the depth of winter a whole extent of garden warmed by a deliciously mild and scented vapour, and all the trees covered with silken leaves and artificial flowers, and, on a pool of water, as clear and transparent as the sky it reflected, hundreds of gaily-enamelled ducks, formed of metal, swimming by mechanism, and by mechanism opening all their bills and uttering their accustomed sound with their usual volubility, and swallowing the food the eunuchs of the palace cast to them,-ay, and returning it again, to all appearance most happily digested, the emperor standing by all the while, laughing at my surprise, and believing himself neither more nor less, I am entirely convinced, than an incarnation of the god Fo!" The conversation being ended, to mass the party went; and the evening of this day was like the morning—all warmth, and chat, and idleness. The Fourth Day. The party reached Cadafaiz, an ample domain, like St. Vincent, under the government of Mr. Beckford's hospitable friend. There they found themselves in a most comfortable antiquated mansion; the floors neatly matted, the tables covered with the finest white linen, and in bright clear caraffes of Venetian glass, the most beautiful carnations. The wide, latticed windows of the apartment allotted to the author, commanded the view of a boundless vineyard in full luxuriant leaf, divided by long, broad tracts of thyme and camomile. From this immense sea of green leaves rose a number of plum, pear, orange, and apricot trees; the latter procured by the monks directly from Damascus, and bearing that most delicious fruit of its kind called eggs of the sun" by the Persians ;-even insects and worms seemed to respect it, for no trace could be discovered of their having preyed on its smooth glowing rind and surrounding foliage. Beyond these truly Hesperian orchards, very lofty hills swell into the most picturesque forms, varied by ledges of rock, and completely inclose this calm retirement. The Fifth Day The visiters reached Alcobaça. The first sight of this regal monastery is very imposing; and the picturesque, well-wooded, and wellwatered village, out of the quiet bosom of which it appears to rise, relieves the mind from a sense of oppression the huge domineering bulk of the conventual buildings inspires. They had no sooner hove in sight, than a most tremendous ring of bells of extraordinary power announced their speedy arrival. The whole community, including fathers, friars, and subordinates, at least 400 strong, were drawn up in grand spiritual array on the vast platform before the monastery, to bid them welcome. At their head the Abbot himself, in his costume of High Almoner of Portugal, advanced to give them a cordial embrace. Preceded by the Abbot and his right reverend brethren of Aviz and St. Vincent's, Mr. Beckford entered the spacious, massive, and somewhat severe Saxon-looking church. All was gloom, except where the perpetual lamps burning be fore the high altar diffused a light most solemn and religious. To this altar his high clerical conductors repaired, whilst the full harmonious tones of several stately organs, accompanied by the choir, proclaimed that they were in the act of adoring the real Presence. While these devout prostrations were performing, Mr. Beckford visited the sepulchral chapel, where lie interred Pedro the Just and his beloved Inez. The light was so subdued and hazy, that he could hardly distinguish the elaborate sculpture of the tomb, which reminded him, both as to design and execution, of the Beauchamp monument at Warwick, so rich in fretwork and imagery. Our author's affecting reveries upon this sacred object were broken up by the Grand Priors entering, hand in hand, all three together. "To the kitchen," said they in perfect unison,-" to the kitchen, and that immediately; you will then judge whether we have been wanting in zeal to regale you." The author continues :-" Such a summons, so conveyed, was irresistible; the three prelates led the way to, I verily believe, the most distinguished temple of gluttony in all Europe. What Glastonbury may have been in its palmy state, I cannot answer; but my eyes never beheld in any modern convent of France, Italy, or Germany, such an enormous space dedicated to culinary purposes. Through the centre of the immense and nobly-groined hall, not less than sixty feet in diameter, ran a brisk rivulet of the clearest water, flowing through piereed wooden reservoirs, containing every sort and size of the finest river-fish. On one side, loads of game and venison were heaped up; on the other, vegetables and fruit in endless variety. Beyond a long line of stoves extended a row of ovens, and close to them hillocks of wheaten flour whiter than snow, rocks of sugar, jars of the purest oil, and pastry in vast abundance, which a numerous tribe of lay brothers and their attendants were rolling out and puffing up into a hundred different shapes, singing all the while as blithely as larks in a corn-field." The party were then led to their apartment, which had only bare walls, for the monks had not sufficient notice to put up the hangings. Though the walls were naked, the ceiling was gilt and painted, the floor spread with the finest Persian carpets; and the tables in rich velvet petticoats, were decked out with superb ewers and basins of chased silver, and towels bordered with point lace-a strange mixture of simplicity and magnificence. From this apartment, the Abbot himself came to lead Mr. Beckford to the saloon, superb indeed, covered with pictures, and lighted up by a profusion of wax tapers in sconces of silver. Right in the centre of this stately room stood a most ample table, covered with fringed embroidered linen, and round it four ponderous fauteuils for the guest and the three prelates; so they formed a very comfortable partie quarrée. "The banquet itself consisted of not only the most excellent usual fare, but rarities and delicacies of past seasons and distant countries; exquisite sausages, potted lampreys, strange messes from the Brazils, and others still stranger from China (edible birds' nests and sharks' fins), dressed after the latest mode of Macao by a Chinese lay brother. Confectionery and fruits were out of the question here; they awaited the party in an adjoining still more spacious and sumptuous saloon, to which they retired from the effluvia of viands and sauces." In this apartment were ten or twelve principal personages of the neighbourhood, most eager to enjoy a stare at the stranger whom their lordly habit delighted to honour. The table being removed, four lads of fifteen or sixteen, came in, bearing cassolettes of Goa filigree, steaming with a fuming vapour of Calambac, the finest quality of wood of aloes. The saloon was next cleared, and a crowd of clarionet and guitar players, dressed in silk dominoes, like the serenaders in Italian burlettas, followed by a posse of young monks and young gentlemen in secular dresses as stiff as buckram, began an endless succession of the most tiresome minuets, ten times longer, and alas! ten times less ridiculous than even the long minuet at Bath. Tired to death of remaining motionless, and desirous of exhibiting something a little out of the common way, Mr. Beckford gently hinted a wish to dance, and that he should have no objection were one of the three right reverend priors to take him out. It would not do-they kept their state; so that our author was happy when the blessed hour of rest came. The Sixth Day. Our tourist rose early, slipped out of his pompous apartment, and strayed about endless corridors-not a soul stirring; a gloomy hail, encumbered with gilded ornaments, and grim with the ill-sculptured effigies of kings; and another chamber, with white walls, and pictures in black lacquered frames. One portrait, the full size of life, by a very ancient Portuguese artist, represented St. Thomas à Becket, and looked the character in perfection:" lofty in stature and expression of countenance; pale, but resolute, like one devoted to death in his great cause." From this chamber, our author wandered down several flights of stairs to a cloister of the earliest Norman architecture, having in the centre a fountain of very primitive form, spouting forth clear water abundantly into a marble basin. "Twisting and straggling over this uncouth mass of sculpture were several orange-trees, gnarled and crabbed, but covered with fruit and flowers, their branches grotesque and fantastic, exactly such as a Japanese would delight in, and copy on his caskets and screens; their age most venerable, for the traditions of the couvent asserted that they were the very first imported from China into Portugal. There was some comfort in these objects; every other in the place looked dingy and dismal, and steeped in a green and yellow melancholy." Continuing his solitary ramble to the refectory, Mr. Beckford was there invited to breakfast, though but by one of the fathers. The Prior of Aviz having supped too amply the night before, did not appear; but he of St. Vincent's, all kindness and good digestion, did the honours with cordial grace, and made tea as skilfully as the most complete old dowager in Christendom. My lord of Alcobaça was absent,-engaged, as was stated, and readily believed, upon conventual affairs. Breakfast finished, but not soon, the whole morning was taken up with seeing sights-as a most gorgeous and glistening sacristy, worthy of Versailles itself, adorned with furbelows of gilt bronze, flaunting over panels of jasper and porphyry; copes and vestments, some almost as ancient as the reign of Alfonso Henriquez, and others embroidered at Rome with gold and pearl, by no means barbaric. One of the sacristans produced from an elaborately carved press, the identical rock crystal candlesticks and cross, studded with sapphires, which were taken by John I. from the King of Castile's portable chapel, after the hard fought conflict of Aljubarota; and several golden reliquaries, wrought by St. Eloy one of the latter, in particular, the model of a cathedral, was admirable. The hour of siesta having arrived, the sacristan could no longer keep his eyes open; not so our visiter, who longed for rural scenery, trees and rocks, and running waters. The sleepy sacristan, accordingly, called a young monk, who was sitting in a nook, peeling walnuts, to attend the stranger through the domain. "No human being was to be heard or seen; no poultry were parading about: and except a beautiful white macaw perched on a broken wall, and nestling his bill under his feathers, not a single member of the feathered creation was visible. There was a holy calm in this mid-day silence—a sacredness, as if all nature had been fearful to disturb the slumbers of universal Pan." At last, the monk could proceed no further, and lay down to sleep under a cypress-tree. Mr. Beckford rambled on alone, and attracted to a secluded garden-house by music, reconnoitred a delightful Brasileira, at a latticed window. The gallant is admitted, and the mother of the beauty tells her tale of love, until he is warned to quit by the cry of "Jesu Maria José! he comes! he comes!" It was now half-past one, and the world of Alcobaça was alive again :-the peasant had resumed her distaff, the monk his breviary, the ox his labour, and the sound of the nora, or water-wheel, was heard in the land. Upon Mr. Beckford's return to the monastery, the party was again assembled, and off they started for Batalha. Taking the route of Aljubarota, and having reached a table-land, "here, on this very plain," says the author, was fought in 1385 the fierce battle which placed the diadem of Portugal on the brow of the glorious and intrepid bastard. It was down that ravine the Castilian cavalry poured along in utter confusion, so hotly pursued that three thousand were slain. On yonder mound stood the King of Castile's tent and temporary chapel, which he abandoned, with all its rich and jewelled furniture, to the conquerors, and scampered off in such alarm that he scarcely knew whether he had preserved his head on his shoulders, till safe within the walls of Santarem, where he tore his hair and plucked off his beard by handfuls, and raved and ranted like a maniac." Towards night-fall, the party reached Batalha, in a solitary vale, bounded by shrubby hills; a few huts peeping out of dense masses of foliage; and high above their almost level surface, rose the great church, with its rich cluster of abbatial buildings, buttresses, pinnacles, and fretted spires, towering in all their pride, and marking the ground with deep shadows that appeared interminable, so far and so wide were they stretched along. Lights glimmered here and there in various parts of the edifice, but a strong glare of torches pointed out its principal entrance, where stood the whole community waiting to receive the visiters. After an enormous supper, the party retired, Mr. Beckford to a pleasant chamber, with clean white walls, checkered with the reflection of waving boughs, and within sound of a rivulet softened by distance. Seating himself in the deep recess of a capacious window which was wide open, the balsamic air and serene moonlight quieted his agitated spirits: one lonely nightingale had taken possession of a bay-tree just beneath him, and was pouring forth its ecstatic notes at distant intervals. In a long pause, the sound of a loud but melancholy voice echoing through the arched avenues of the vast garden, caught his ear, pronouncing distinctly these appalling words: Judgment! judgment! tremble at the anger of an offended God! Woe to Portugal! woe! woe!" The writer's hair stood on end, and there issued forth from a dark thicket, a tall, majestic, deadly pale old man, who moved slowly on, his eye fixed as stone, sighing profoundly, and at fifty paces distance, renewing the doleful"Woe! woe!" Mr. Beckford adds, "Shall I confess that my blood ran cold-that all idle, all wanton thoughts left my bosom, and that I passed an hour or two at my window fixed and immovable. Just as day dawned, I crept to bed, and fell into a profound sleep.' [Next morning this mystery was solved; but we must keep the reader on the tenters of suspense for a week, when we shall return to this very charming work.} Domestic Hints. THE BRUGES STOVE. THE following improvement in the construction of a cooking-stove, is at once so simple and important as to induce us to recommend it to special attention. By this stove a joint of meat may be roasted, two good-sized pies baked, a pudding, and two sorts of vegetables boiled, and sufficient room and heat left to prepare half a dozen sorts of sauces or gravies, all at one and the same time, with an expenditure of 6lbs of coke and 2 lbs. of coal, the value of which would not exceed one penny. The oven, too, remains in a state to bake any other articles, when the pies and meat are withdrawn. At this rate, the cost of roasting a leg of mutton would not exceed one farthing. This stove is portable, requires no setting, and may be placed in any apartment where there is a chimney or flue for the reception of the funnel. The following sketches, the one a perspective view, and the other a section, will at once explain the manner of its construction. A ▲ are two doors to the oven, which is heated by a conical furnace (d) in the centre; this furnace becomes after a time, red hot, or at least sufficiently so to furnish heat for roasting. The hot air and smoke pass off from the furnace through the aperture h, and are made to circulate round the oven by means of the flue ff; after which they escape by the funnel in the atmosphere or chimney of the room where the stove is placed. The conical shape of the furnace, besides being that which on scientifical principles is best suited to combstion, is attended with this advantage, that by having two or three movable grates, of sizes corresponding to the conical diminution, you can increase or diminish the fire at pleasure. The furnace as made by Messrs. Cottam and Hallen, has three ledges for this purpose, but this it will be seen is not necessary, and as receptacles for dust they are objectionable. B is the ash-drawer, and in front of this there is an aperture for conveying a stream of fresh air to the furnace. c and E E are sauce |