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the hope of repayment, either in the same kind or in admiration. Owing to the selfsame cause, moreover, the mass of ignorance which each of us is necessitated to hide is much more vast than the information he can display; and hence converse has become a diplomatic act, in which weak points are to be kept concealed, and strong ones rendered prominent.

School Days.

School, say grey-beards, afforded the happiest of our days. How wretched and beset with mean cares must have been their manhood-how unwarmed by passionate, how uncheered by intellectual enjoyments, when a mere state of thoughtless, and yet neither painless nor restraintless gaiety, is marked by them as the most regretted portion of existence ! Boyhood, 'tis true, hath its dreams, its air-built castles; but these are of puerile stuff, and those of card, surely not worth the retrospect of manhood. It is only when we advance into youth, when the flame of the heart begins to kindle, and when love first rises as the day-star of the imagination, that our hopes and visions begin to assume that brightness, that charm, that fervid reality and promise, for all whose bitter and inevitable disappointments the mere recollection is sufficient to repay

us.

The Naturalist.

ENCROACHMENT OF THE SEA.

Chronological Table of the most important known encroachments made by the Sea, since the Eighth Century. By M. Arien Balbi.

A. D. 800. About this period, the sea carried off a great part of the soil of the island of Heligoland, situated between the mouths of the Weser and the Elbe.

800-900. During the course of this century, many tempests made a considerable change in the coast of Brittany; valleys and villages were swallowed up.

900-950. Violent storms agitated the lakes of Venice, and destroyed the isles of Ammiano and Constanziaco, mentioned in the ancient chronicles.

1044-1309. Terrible irruptions of the Baltic Sea on the coasts of Pomerania, made great ravages, and gave rise to the popular tales of the submersion of the pretended town of Vineta, whose existence is chimerical, notwithstanding the imposing authority of Kant and other learned men.

1106. Old Malamocco, then a very

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1277, 1278, 1280, 1287. 'Inunda

tions overwhelmed the fertile canton of Reiderland, destroyed the city of Torum, fifty towns, villages, and monasteries, and formed the Dollart; the Tiam and the Eche, which watered this little country, disappeared.

1282. Violent storms burst the isthmus which joined northern Holland to Friesland, and formed the Zuyderzee.

1240. An irruption of the sea changed considerably the west coast of Schleswig; many fertile districts were engulphed, and the arm of the sea which separates the isle of Nordstrand from the continent was much enlarged.

1300, 1500, 1649. Violent storms raised three-fourths of the island of Heligoland.

Fortis, the town of Ciparum, in Istria, 1300. In this year, according to was destroyed by the sea.

1303. According to Kant, the sea raised a great part of the island of Rugen, and swallowed up many villages on the coasts of Pomerania.

1337. An inundation carried away fourteen villages in the island of Kadzand, in Zealand.

1421. An inundation covered the Bergseweld, destroyed twenty-two villages, and formed the Biesbosch, which extends from Gertruydenberg to the island of Dordrecht.

1475. The sea carried away a considerable tract of land situated at the mouth of the Humber; many villages were destroyed.

1510. The Baltic Sea forced the opening at Frisch-Haff, near Pillau, about 3,600 yards broad, and twelve to fifteen fathoms deep.

1530-1532. The sea engulphed the town of Kortgene in the island of North Beveland, in Zealand. In the latter year, it also raised the east part of the isle of S. Beveland, with many villages, and the towns of Borselen and Remerswalde.

1570. A violent tempest carried off half of the village of Scheveningen, N.E. of the Hague.

1625. The sea detached a part of the peninsula of Dars, in Pomerania, and formed the isle of Zingst, N. of Barth.

1634. An irruption of the sea submerged the whole island of Nordstrand; 1,338 houses, churches, and towns were destroyed; 6,408 persons and 50,000 head of cattle perished. There only remained of this island, previously so fertile and flourishing, three small islets named Pelworm, Nordstrand, and LütjeMoor.

1703-1746. In this period, the sea raised the island of Kadzand more than 100 fathoms from its dikes.

1726. A violent tempest changed the saline of Arraya, in the province of Cumana, part of Colombia, into a gulf of many leagues in width.

1770-1785. Storms and currents hollowed out a canal between the high and low parts of the island of Heligoland, and transformed this island, so extensive before the eighth century, into two little isles:

1784. A violent tempest formed, according to M. Hoff, the lake of Aboukir, in Lower Egypt.

1791-1793. New eruptions of the sea destroyed the dikes and carried away other parts of the island of Nordstrand, already so much reduced.

1803. The sea carried away the ruins of the Priory of Crail, in Scotland.-Edinburgh Journal of Natural und Geographical Science.

The Gatherer.

"A snapper-up of unconsidered trifles." SHAKSPEARE.

THE BONASSUS.

Copy of a Letter intended to have been sent to the "Annoyance Jury." March 28, 1822.

GENTLEMEN

I Am sorry to trouble you but I Am so Anoyd By next Door Neighbour the Bonassus and with Beasts that I Cannot live in my House-for the stench of the Beast is So Great And their is only A Slight petition Betwixt the houses and the Beast are continually Breaking through in to My Diferent Rooms And I am always loosing my lodgers in Consequence of the Beast first A Monkey made Its way in My Bedroom next the Jackall came in to the Yard and this last week the people in My Second floor have been Alarmed in the Dead of the Night By Monkey Breaking through in to the Closset and Are Going to leave in Consequence this Being the third lodgers I have lost on

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*The Editor of the Court Journal has treated us somewhat uncourteously, by copying from The Mirror, of July 3, without a single line of acknowledgment, the Description of His LATE MAJESTY'S BEDCHAMBER It deserves notice, that in our Memoir of the King, we have been more mindful of our aid from the Court Journal. In the Bedchamber description we explained the exclusiveness of the information, a d the pains taken to obtain it for our columns. Such conauct, therefore, to say the best of it, appears ungrateful.

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FUNERAL OF KING GEORGE

THE FOURTH.

IN conformity with the intention expressed in No. 437 of The Mirror, it now becomes our duty to present the reader with the details of the splendid obsequies of his late Majesty. This we hope to accomplish in the present and Two succeeding Numbers. The annexed page, therefore, represents the ceremonial of the Royal Body LYING IN STATE; a Supplementary Sheet, also now publishing, contains a half-sheet Engraving of the PROCESSION; and the Number to be published on Saturday next will complete our design, with a View of the INTERIOR of ST. GEORGE'S CHAPEL during the CEREMONY of the INTERMENT. The considerate reader need not be told that the preparation of these three engravings has been attended with much expense and personal fatigue. The requisite sketches were made expressly in the respective places; the first being copied in the State Apartment, and subsequently examined; the Procession and Chapel ceremonies sketched during their progress; and the canopies, costumes, and decorative emblems having since been compared and revised by access to the several originals. The results are now presented to the public, with the anticipation of their accuracy being duly appreciated; in which case we hope to get more than "our labour for our pains," by the enjoyment of the further confidence and good opinion of each reader of The Mirror.

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The subject of the immediate Engraving is

THE LYING IN STATE IN WINDSOR

CASTLE.

The visiters to this part of the ceremony were divided into two classes: such as were admitted by privilege tickets from the Lord Chamberlain's office; and the public, who were admitted by the facile passport of decorous behaviour. The official order required persons to appear in "decent mourning," but many whose wardrobe would not allow this outward woe were admitted to the royal chamber.

The entrance for the ticketed, or privileged, visiters, was by the way of the temporary gate opposite the Long Walk, and up the ascent to George the Fourth's Gate, into the great quadrangle. For the public generally (those admitted without tickets) the course was by Henry the Eighth's Gate, into the Lower Court, in which St. George's Chapel is situated; and from thence

ascending the hill in front of the houses of the Poor Knights, they crossed the platform, down which the procession afterwards moved, into a space close to the Tower occupied by Sir Jeffrey Wyattville, where an iron gate opens upon the Castle Terrace. Through this gate the public passed along the terrace to a temporary staircase, and were thus led by different avenues through the State Apartments; and again crossing the platform in the Upper Court, retired by St. George's Gate, to the left of George the Fourth's Gate; thus avoiding all contact with those who had not yet witnessed the solemn scene.

Whoever has paced this magnificent Terrace, may form some idea of the effect of passing from its splendid prospect to the gloomy chambers of death. The day was one of unclouded sunshine, and while numbers pressed on to the goal of their melancholy curiosity, not a few lingered by the parapet-wall of the Terrace, to enjoy the richly-variegated scenery of the subjacent landscape. The grand features of the prospect are too well known to require quotation; yet, probably, never did we contemplate them with greater interest. We halted to enjoy the "summer livery" of its smiling meads; the sylvan beauty of its forest glades, and verdant portico of woods; the grey towers of Eton, and the silver, silent stream of the Thames meandering through the cultured vale; whilst beside us

Majestic Windsor lifts his princely brow,
In lovely contrast to this glorious view,
Calmly magnificent,

To linger on such an occasion, and contrast the never-ending luxuriance of nature, with the frailty and perishable trappings of art, were, indeed, no unseemly association with the memory of the most illustrious of men.

We turned and ascending the temporary stairs, passed through a long, circuitous, and dimly lamp-lit passage, the walls and ceiling of which were covered with black cloth, into the King's Guard Chamber. The transition from the sunshine of open day to the sombre hue of these passages was, indeed, painfully sudden, gladdened as had been our eyes with the joyous scene from the Terrace.

In the King's Guard Chamber, which was narrowed into a passage by black ́ draperies, stood a number of the Horse Guards. This chamber was lit with wax, in silver sconces, scattered here, and there along the walls, and the dim light from which faintly glanced on the polished helmets and cuirasses of the

soldiers. Thence we entered the Presence Chamber, hung with black in the same way, and lined with Yeomen of the Guard, their partisans clothed with black crape. The lights in this apartment were rather more numerous than in the preceding one. The company then came at once into the "King's Drawing-room-where the mortal remains of George the Fourth were reposing.

The State Apartment was fitted up with suitable and solemn grandeur, and our Engraving is from the exact point at which the public entered. In the centre is raised a canopy of rich purple cloth, decorated in front with four small Escutcheons of the Royal Arms. Beneath is the Royal Coffin, placed on trestles, about three feet high, and covered with a purple velvet pall, ornamented on each side by ten escutcheons of the Royal Arms, and edged with silver, the ornaments at the foot of the coffin being only exposed. On the top of the coffin are placed the Imperial Crown of the United Kingdom, and the Crown of Hanover, on two large purple velvet cushions." Beneath the coffin in front is a large escutcheon of the Arms of England. At the head of the corpse is a Lord of his late Majesty's Bedchamber, between two Grooms of the Bedchamber. At the foot stand two Pursuivants bareheaded, in their emblazoned tabards; and on each side are three stupendous wax-lights, in massive silver gilt candelabra, of the richest chased workmanship, three feet in height, and elevated upon black cloth covered pedestals also three feet high. These beautiful candelabra were removed for this purpose from the Altars of Whitehall Chapel, the German Chapel of St. James's, and St. George's Chapel, Windsor. On each side of the coffin are also arranged the Gentlemen Ushers and members of the Band of Gentlemen Pensioners supporting the Union Banner, and the banners of St. George of Scotland, of Ireland, of Hanover, and of Brunswick; and pendent beneath the canopy, above the coffin, hangs the richly embroidered Royal Standard of England. The Royal Arms are magnificently emblazoned in a lozenge-shaped frame above the coffin; and this escutcheon is illuminated by silver sconces, with one wax-light in each. Yeomen of the Guard with their halberts covered

These were the actual crowns brought from the Regalia Office in the Tower of London. They were afterwards returned there; the crown placed on the coffin in the vault is of silver gilt.

with black crape, flank the apartment on each side.

The apartment is draped with fine black cloth; the ceiling with gussets diverging from the centre in the manner of a marquee, and the walls festooned in columns extending from the floor to the ceiling. On each side are two rows of sconces with wax-lights, between which, the insignia of the Star, the Crown, and the Garter are multiplied in small escutcheons with considerable taste.

The light was properly kept down in all the ante-rooms and avenues, so that its full effulgence was preserved for the State Apartment, and even there its distribution was so managed as merely to illuminate the principal parts or objects, and leave the rest in gloom. Thus the gorgeousness of the trappings was, to use a familiar phrase, brought out with uncommon effect. The richness of the purple canopy, the superbness of the coffin and its costly covering, the pall; the splendid masses of bright and flaming hues from the golden drapery of the Royal Standard, the Crowns, and Heralds' uniforms--imparted a deathlike and spectral paleness to the heads of the household mourners, which had an intensely interesting effect. They stood perfectly motionless, and like statues upon a sepulchre. The atmosphere of the apartment rose at times to a stifling heat; in short, the minutest details added to the sombre character of the whole scene, and its oppressive effect was even heightened by the still flame and faint smell of the wax-lights. It was the chamber of mortality and mute woe. The public passed through in one continuous stream, from ten in the morning until four in the afternoon. They moved along in a slow, stealthy pace, the murmur of breathing, or the rustle of sable suits, being scarcely heard in any of the avenues of the apartment. The pageant and its paraphernalia reminded us of one " that spake only as a philosopher and natural man," when he said—

Pompa mortis magis terret quam mors ipsa.

The pomp of death is more terrible than death itself.

Through the outer circle of the En graving, the public were admitted to pass through the apartment. Behind this passage is the raised platform, to which persons were admitted by the Lord Chamberlain's tickets. They entered and retired by the grand staircase, which was divided by a railing, to prevent confusion; the company ascending on one side, and descending by the other.

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