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and comely; and a soft shower to turn those flowers into a springing memory, or a fair rehearsal." How gratifying to and accordant with a becoming sorrow to reflect that the object of its lamentations was entombed in a spot beautified by the revivifications of nature-where the expanding leaves of spring, their summer bloom, and their autumn sear, would suggest to the weeping visiter a type demonstrating that our own mortality was not unaccompanied by hope; and whence the soothing reflection might arise, that as the decay of the deciduous trees was prefatory to another putting forth, so the wintry trance of death was but a solemn harbinger of a gladsome waking. Our imagination could shape out such an Arcadian rest as would surpass in sentimental investment the noted Pere la Chaise. Such sweet remembrances of relinquished affection as nature would cherish around our final sleep, breathe the spirit of the elegiac bard:

"E'en from the tomb the voice of nature cries; E'en in our ashes live our wonted fires."

** H.

Retrospective Gleanings.

EMBLEMATIC DEVICE OF THE CRUSADES.

(To the Editor of the Mirror.). SOME of your readers, partial to antiquarian relics, graphic or typographic, may perhaps be amused with the following description of an old print, of which, having some pretensions to cleverness and satire, I was induced to commit to paper an account, "once upon a time" when the volume wherein it appears laid before me :

In Fuller's "Holy Warre," or account of the Crusades-2nd edit. (folio) Camb. 1640-may be seen a very curious frontispiece, to which are appended some most cutting verses, too long to be here transcribed, entitled, "A Declaration of the Frontispiece;" but in lieu of these, though not without the intention of presenting to the reader an occasional taste of them, we here attempt a description of this plate (a wood engraving) in hum

ble prose.

The picture is divided, horizontally, into two parts, bearing no proportion to each other-of which, the upper is occupied, in the centre, by the title of the work, and appropriate mottoes from the New Testament. On the one side of this division is seen the half-length of a Christian knight, holding, by way of ensign, a crown upon a pole; and the legend appertaining thereunto is

"No crown of gold, where Christe was crowned with thorns."

On the other is, in like manner, represented a Turkish warrior, bearing, as a banner, a black garment on a pole, with this appropriate legend— "This black shirt is all Saladin, Conqueror of the East, hath to his grave."

The lower, and larger section of the print is thus arranged: It is enclosed between a couple of pillars, and on the pediment of the dexter column is carved the emblematic blazon of the Christian Crusaders, the Cross-(there may be more than one)-motto-

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On the other, a hand holds the coinless bag, turned upside down; motto"But return empty."

From Europe are seen, proceeding towards the Holy Sepulchre (which has place at the bottom of the print) the Crusaders; motto

"Vestigia pauca retro sum."

They march in companies, describing a serpentine track: first, beggars and cripples, as a rear-guard, or it may be a corps-de-reserve; next, children; then, women; then, "the main battalion, straitly knit, into a steady phalanx,” as saith the poetical "Declaration ;" and

further

"These are the only forces-all the rest Impediments, but specious at the best.

Then,

"A bald pate company of friars comes, Whose crowns might serve the army for their drums

And give as full a sound, if you'll confesse The greatest noise t' arise from emptiuesse." Bishops come next, in the order of march; then knights, or commanders, in complete armour; whilst the van is led by mounted kings; in front of whom, may next be beheld, two representations of the celebrated instigator of the crusades, Peter the Hermit, in appropriate costume. One of these effigies shows him standing beside, and facing, the Holy Sepulchre, whilst looking up to heaven, he blows a trumpet; the other presents to us this generalissimo of the "Holy Warre" turning his back on the sacred tomb, and, with the trum

pet still set to his lips, gazing earnestly upon the ground; whilst the following device explains this graphic quiz:

to myself

a

retreat,

I sound

} {

to others

a

march!

And now, gradually to retrograde from "the Holy Sepulchre" to "Europe:" above it appears the Destroying Angel, slaying renegadoes, &c.; above him, the Sultan, standing with a drawn and uplifted sword; one Christian is already lying beside him, dead by his hands, and others are kneeling, petitioning for their lives; and, above this group

"The last of their destroyers that you see Is that same ghastly thing the anatomie Doth represent; -a naked cage of boue, From whence the winged soul long since is flown.

They call it Death," &c. &c.

This descriptive and clever "Declaration of the Frontispiece" bears the initials J. C. The plate itself is engraved by William Marshall, but I do not recollect that it states by whom it was designed. M. L. B.

REFINING SUGAR.

THE art of refining sugar appears to have been known, at least as early as the reign of Henry VIII. as a roll of provisions of that period mentions, "two loaves of sugar, weighing 161b. 2oz. at per pound.' A letter from Sir Edward Wotton, to Lord Cobham, dated Calais, March 6th, 1546, informs him that he had taken up for his lordship twenty-five sugar-loaves, at six shillings a loaf, "whiche is eighte pence a pounde.'

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The earliest record of refined sugar we read of, is a quotation in Whitaker's History of Whalley, from a computus of Whalley Abbey, in 1597: "Pro sucare inrolat. et al. spebus xiv. d”

W. C. R. R.

of the suckling and the womb; with the blessings of grapes and apples. And may the blessings of the ancient fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, be heaped upon thee!

"Bless, Lord, the courage of this prince, and prosper the work of his hands; and by thy blessing may his land be filled with apples, with the fruits, and the dew of heaven, and the deep below; with the fruit of the sun and moon; from the top of the ancient mountains, from the apples of the eternal hills, and from the fruits of the earth and its

fulness!

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BAYONETS were introduced into France about 1673; and among the English grenadiers, in the short reign of James the Second. Many such are yet to be seen in the small armoury at the Tower. The use of them, fastened to the muzzle of the firelock, was also a French improvement, first adopted about 1690. It was accompanied, in 1693, at the battle of Marseille, in Piedmont, by a dreadful slaughter; and its use was universally followed by the rest of Europe in the war of the succession. H. B. A.

SLAUGHTERHOUSES.

AMONG the rolls of parliament of the year 1380, a petition occurs from the inhabitants of Smithfield and Holborn,

PRAYER SAID AT THE CONCLUSION OF against the butchers of Butcher Hall

THE CORONATION OF THE ANGLO-
SAXON KINGS.

"MAY the Almighty Lord give thee,

from the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth, abundance of corn, wine, and oil! May the people serve thee, and the tribes adore thee! Be thee lord of thy brothers, and let the sons of thy mother bow before thee. He who blesses thee shall be filled with blessings, and God will be thy helper. May the Almighty bless thee with the blessings of the heavens above, and in the mountains and the valleys; with the blessings of the deep below; with the blessings

Lane, praying that some penal ordnance might be enacted to restrain the nuiof slaughtered animals into the channels sance of throwing the blood and entrails connected with the river Fleet; and that the butchers might be forced to kill "" Knyghtsbrigg, or their beasts at " elsewhere, away from the annoyance of the people, under penalty not only of forfeiting such animals as might be killed in the " butcherie," but of a year's imprisonment. The prayer of the petition was granted, and its penalties enforced for several reigns. W. C. R. R.

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Part II. contains Skiddaw, on clear frosty November morning;" after P. Dewint, and is an exquisite scene.-The picturesque ruins and stupendous craigs of Dunottar Castle, and the stormy stretch of the German Ocean; after W. Daniell.-Loch-Ard, a placid contrast with the previous scene; after G. F. Robson. And the Waste of Cumberland; after Copley Fielding.

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Part III. includes Solway Firth; after Copley Fielding.-Newark Castle, on the Trent, strictly in keeping with Sir Walter's "blackened ruins ; by P. Dewint.-Glasgow Cathedral, whose "sequestered solitude" is admirably made out by the artist, Westall.-And Mirkwood Mere, a poetical scene, after G. Barrett-where

The lake return'd, in chasten'd gleam,
The purple cloud, the golden beam, &c.

Part IV. consists of Durham, with its venerable towers fast fading in evening gloom; after G. F. Robson.-The TolBooth, Edinburgh; after A. Nasmyth; with some admirable points of light and shade.-Caerlaverock Castle, still more picturesque, sparkling, and brilliant; after D. Roberts.-And, London from Highgate, a rich, but delicate scene; after G. Barrett.

The last published part, as we have intimated, is superior to its predecessors; but the delicacy and finish of the whole are highly creditable to the engravers, the Findens. By the way, these views are the most adequate Illustrations of the Waverley Novels. The Character Engravings, designed for similar purposes, are failures; aided as the artists must have been by the exquisite descriptions of the novelist, in person, costume, and action, better things might have been expected.

LANDSEER'S ILLUSTRATIONS OF BURNS' ADDRESS TO THE DEIL.

WE seem to be fast verging to the Satanic age. Painters, Engravers, and Poets appear to be striving for the beau ideal of the King of Terrors; and the pencil and the pen are, by their soft touches and turns, attempting to improve upon the old facilis descensus

Averni. We hope this familiarity will breed contempt.

But the attempt before us deserves more sober notice. It consists of eleven first-rate engravings, after designs by Thomas Landseer. The Frontispiece is terrific. Below is "the enemy," turning his victim on a spit, and basting him with as much culinary care as Ude or Kitchiner could wish, and watching him with more anxiety than an alderman

would a haunch of venison. To the

right, another "busy devil” is cramming a luckless body into a copper or caldron, and preparing him for another course of the infernal banquet. Flames with unquenchable fury all rage around, whilst the Scotch poet, from an overhanging crag, addresses the inthe illustrated points of the poem, nor We cannot enumerate fernal agents. would our description convey any idea of their spirited execution. has Milton for the authority of his vigwith the Garter intertwined. nette, the Infernal Crown and Sceptre,

The artist

Burns, it appears, wrote his "Address to the Deil," by "running over in his mind the many ludicrous accounts and representations of this august personage." The artist has here aimed at not be attained until it be too late for personal identity, but we fear this will good account. The Notes to the reprinted poem are not worthy of their place: they pull in everything, as though the annotator thought the Deil concerned every body: probably he may be right.

THE FAMILY CABINET ATLAS,

We are glad to see, proceeds; and we doubt not its success will repay the immense labour of its indefatigable engraver. We consider it the most elegant atlas yet produced; and its perspicuity must delight every one.

The Naturalist.

LUMINOUSNESS OF THE SEA.

(By a Correspondent of the Magazine of Natural History.)

It is an opinion held by sailors, and which is to be found as having prevailed amongst that class of people from the earliest times, that the luminousness of the sea is a forerunner of stormy weather; and this opinion has even been taken up and defended by several authors, who have written upon this subject. The fact of the matter is, that very frequently

these little animals seem, like many others of the animal kingdom, to be aware of the change of weather; and, instead of giving warning by their shining brighter at such times than they did before, they disappear altogether, no doubt taking refuge from the agitation of the waves by descending to a more secure situation deep in the water; and even when at times, as it no doubt occasionally does happen, the sea in bad weather is particularly luminous, it is evidently produced by large Medusa, such as the M. pellucens of Sir J. Banks, and other large animals, and only takes place when the gale has already arrived, being nothing more than a concomitant, not the forerunner, of an agitated sea. From my own observations upon this subject, were I to say that it is at all connected with meteorological appearances, I should be disposed to believe that it is more brilliant and more generally diffused over the surface of the water, immediately before, or during very light rain, not absolutely during a calm, but when there is only a gentle breeze at the time. I have frequently observed at such times the sea particularly luminous, and have also heard it remarked by seamen as a forerunner of rain. This, however, like every other prognostic, frequently fails, only showing how little all such prognostics are to be

attended to.

THE FROG TAKING ITS FOOD.

A CORRESPONDENT of the Magazine of Natural History says-The friend to whom I am indebted for having first called my attention to this amusing exhibition happened to be re-potting some green-house plants; and meeting with a moderate-sized worm among the roots of one of them, he carelessly threw it aside, into a damp corner near the greenhouse. Almost immediately a frog issued from his lurking-place hard by, commenced his attack upon the worm, and soon despatched it. Another worm was thrown to him, which he treated in the same manner. But the amusing part of the business is to watch the manner in which the frog first notices his prey; and this I can compare to nothing so aptly as to what, indeed, it very much resembles, a pointer-dog setting his game; he makes, in short, a dead set at it, oftentimes, too (if the relative position of the two animals so require it), with a slight bend or inclination, more or less, of the fore part of the body to one side, just as we often see a pointer turn suddenly when the game is on one

side of him, and he has approached very near before he has perceived it. After a pause of some seconds, or more, the frog makes a dart at the worm, endeavouring to seize it with his mouth. In this attempt he frequently fails more than once, and generally waits for a short interval, acting the pointer, as it were, between each attack. Having succeeded at last in getting the worm into his mouth, if it be a large one, he is unable to swallow it immediately, and all at once; and the portion of the worm which yet remains unswallowed, and extends out of the mouth of its destroyer, of course wreaths about, and struggles with a tortuous motion. With much, but somewhat grotesque, dexterity, the frog then employs his two fore feet, shoving and bandying the worm, first with one, and then with the other, in order to keep it as nearly as may be in the centre of his mouth, till the whole is swallowed.

THE SNAIL FORMING ITS SHELL.

IF you will examine the snail of any common Hèlix, you will perceive that where the body rises into the shell there is a fold or membrane, of a semicircular shape. This part is denominated the collar, from the manner in which it surrounds the body, and it is the organ which secretes the shell. The animal is born with the rudiments of its future covering, and by its gradual increase of growth is enabled to push the collar for a space, and from time to time, beyond the original margin. In these operations, a thin layer of membranous and calcareous matter is excreted and deposited, which is gradually thickened by successive layers being laid on within the first, by the repeated protrusions and retractions of the collar. This portion being formed, the animal commences another, and finishes it in the same manner; and the extent of each portion is marked in some shells by an elevated rib, in others by a slight depression. There is not, as the language of some authors would seem to imply, a regular and alternate deposition of a layer of membrane and a layer of lime; but in all shells, the animal and earthy matters are obviously secreted and deposited at the same moment and in commixture.-Mag. Nat. Hist.

THE ORANGE TREE

MAY be considered as one of the graces of the vegetable world, uniting in itself a multiplicity of charms. It is a tree of

handsome growth, with polished evergreen leaves of the most elegant form, a profusion of beautiful and fragrant flowers, and a wholesome and delicious fruit, cased in gold, which has inspired the poets with a thousand exquisite images; yet, not satisfied with all these perfections, it insists upon yet further provoking the genus irritabile, by possessing them all at once; the delicate white blossoms breathing out their sweetness upon the very cheeks of the glowing fruit. Such is the beauty of the tree; ask the feverish invalid if its benevolence be not yet greater.-Miss Kent.

ST. JOHN'S WORT.

THE peasants of France and Germany gather on St. John's day a species of the plant St. John's Wort, and hang in their windows, as a charm against evil spirits. -Mag. Nat. Hist.

ST. JOHN'S BREAD.

THE fruit of the carob tree was supposed to have been eaten by St. John in the wilderness, whence it was named St. John's bread.-Ibid.

THE WINGED LIZARD.

THE Pterodactylus, or winged lizard, one of the most extraordinary productions of the fossil world, is an animal which forms the intermediate link, hitherto deemed to exist only in fable, between birds and reptiles.

This creature, previously known in two formations upon the continent, has been recently recognised in the lias of Dorsetshire.

We cannot resist the temptation to introduce this remarkable animal in the language of Professor Buckland :

"In size and general form, and in the lisposition and character of its wings, this fossil genus, according to Cuvier, somewhat resembled our modern bats and vampyres, but had its beak elongated, like the bill of a woodcock, and armed with teeth, like the snout of a crocodile; its vertebra, ribs, pelvis, legs, and feet, resembled those of a lizard; its three anterior fingers terminated in long hooked claws, like that on the fore finger of the bat; and over its body was a covering, neither composed of feathers, as in the bird, nor of hair, as in the bat, but of scaly armour, like that of an iguana; in short, a monster, resembling nothing that has ever been seen or heard of upon earth, excepting the dragons of romance and heraldry.

Moreover, it was probably noctivagous and insectivorous, and in both these points resembled the bat; but differed from it, in having the most important bones in its body constructed after the manner of those of reptiles. With flocks of such like creatures flying in the air, and shoals of no less monstrous Ichthyosaúri and Plesiosauri swarming in the ocean, and gigantic crocodiles and tortoises crawling on the shores of the primeval lakes and rivers-air, sea, and land must have been strangely tenanted in those early periods of our infant world.”—Mr. R. C. Taylor's Illustrations of Antediluvian Zoology.

DRYNESS OF THE AIR AT FLORENCE.

THE superior dryness of the air in Italy in summer, compared with that of England and many parts of the north of Europe, is well known; but (says Mr. Spence) I was not aware that the difference is equally striking even in the rainy part of winter, judging, for want of a better hygrometer, from the condensation of moisture on the inside of windows in rooms without a fire; which I have always observed to be very considerable in winter, both in England, and also at Brussels during a three years' residence there, whenever a cold night succeeds a rainy or warm day, the condensed moisture often even running down to the floor: whereas at Florence, under precisely similar circumstances, I have never but once observed more than a slight condensation in the middle of the panes, as if breathed on, even in rooms with a north aspect; and only once during the frost, any appearance, and that but slight, of that thick crust of ice formed on the inside of the panes in England and at Brussels whenever a hard frost sets in. Among many other proofs of the greater dryness of the air in winter, one is afforded by the profusion in which grapes are to be had, at less than two pence a pound, at the corners of every street, up to the end of March, quite free from all mouldiness, though cut full four months, and kept merely by being hung at the top of rooms without a fire.-Mag. Nat. Hist.

SPIRIT OF THE

Public Journals.

KISSING.

AIR-"Good morrow to your nightcap."

"BEHAVE yoursell before folk, Behave yoursell before folk, And dinna be sae rude to me,

As kiss me sae before folk.

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