corner, thirty feet in diameter, and rising sixteen feet above the walls, which, as well as the towers, are embattled. The walls are six feet thick; the offices are underground, arched with stone. The house has three stories, but the towers four in each front are three rows of four windows; in the towers are four rows, of three each, exclusive of the offices. The hall and diningroom are large; and the rooms are in general eighteen feet high. In the apartments are some family portraits, executed by the celebrated Sir Peter Lely. The principal front is on the east, and faced with Chilmark stone; before it was a large court, now laid into a lawn leading to the landing-place, which is guarded by a balustrade of stone (which, in the late Edward Weld's time, only extended along the east front), called the Cloisters, because paved with the stones from the cloisters of Bindon Abbey. Over the doors are statues of two ancient Romans, in their gowns. On each side of the door, which is supported by four pillars of the Ionic order, is a large niche, and over them two shields, on which are the arms of Weld properly blazoned. In the niches are the statues of Music and Painting."

In the year 1789, during the residence of George III. and Queen Charlotte at Weymouth, Mr. Weld was honoured with several royal visits, the particulars of which are perpetuated in two inscriptions over the entrance to the castle.

The manor of East Lullworth, in which this edifice stands, came into the possession of the Welds, with the castle, in 1641. They are one of the first Roman Catholic families in England; and the present representative has recently been raised to the rank of Cardinal. About the commencement of the present century, they erected an elegant little chapel, at a short distance from the Castle, for the convenience of the family and dependants. Its interior, from the following description, must resemble a museum of curiosities:

"This structure is of a circular form, increased by four sections of a circle, so as to form a cross, and finished with a dome and lantern. It contains a welltoned organ, a copy of Raphael's Transfiguration, and two other scriptural pieces lately brought from Italy. The altar-piece is decorated with very costly ornaments, disposed with much taste and effect; it is chiefly composed of the richest and most curious marbles. The front and outside panels of the two supporters of the altar-table are of * Beauties of England and Wales, vol. iv.

beautiful oriental rose alabaster, having mouldings of giallo de Sienna; within the former are two angels of bronze, in postures of adoration; between them is a vase, composed of one piece of ambercoloured transparent alabaster; the platform on which the latter is placed, is of porphyry, with a base of brilliant brescia corallina: the back part and two sides of the space wherein the vase and angels stand, are of a brescia antiqua, so variegated as to throw a kind of splendour about the urn; the panels of the altar-steps are of plasma di smeraldo, set in giallo antico; the small step that projects immediately on the altar-table, is of choice pecorella minuta alabaster; the door of the tabernacle, and its frame, are composed of lapis lazuli, amethyst, verde di Corsica, bianco e nero antico, verde d'Egitto, and other choice stones. The pedestal of the crucifix is composed of plasma di smeraldo and verde antico; the entire sides of the cross are incrust ed with lapis lazuli: the Saviour is carved in ivory, and the Magdalen is of gilt bronze.

"In a magnificent folio Psalter, made by order of Geoffery, Lord Louterell, last baron of that family, who died in the twenty-fifth of Edward I., now in the possession of Mr. Weld, is a most beautiful and curious illumination, an accurate engraving of which is given by Mr. Carter in his Specimens of Ancient Sculptures and Paintings.' It represents a knight arming for a tournament, or some martial exercise, the particulars of whose dress are highly curious, and most minutely delineated: two ladies, apparently his wives, assist him. As he sits on his steed, a lady, habited in curled hair, with a fillet, a veil thrown back, and a wimple, her surcoat charged with his arms, lifts up to him, with her right hand, a close pointed helmet; and in her left hand she holds a pennon of his arms round the point of a spear. Behind her is another lady, in the same dress, holding in her right hand a pendant shield of his arms, which are likewise on her surcoat; and on her left arm is hanging, as it may be presumed, the embroidered collar, an usual prize or favour given by some lady to her favourite knight, as a charge to him to meditate some feat of chivalry, which collar was generally fastened above the knee, by some of the lady's female attendants. The ladies' dresses are alike, the hair combed back on the head, and curled at the ears; a fillet of gold beads encircles the head: a red band edges the veil, as a stiff kind of ornament does the ears. Their boddice, or un

der dress, is red, with the surcoat of their arms over it."

The Welds have not, we believe, for some time past, resided at the Castle, which, till lately, was tenanted by Mr., now Sir Robert Peel, Bart. This circumstance gave rise to the erroneous notion that the ex-King of France was provided with the asylum of Lullworth by our present administration. The ex- King's temporary abode here is more directly explained by the local advantages of the Castle, and the devotion of its sympathizing proprietor. Neither is this a solitary instance of Mr. Weld's philanthropy, since he long accommodated some emigrant monks of the order of La Trappe, in the vicinity of the site of Bindon Abbey-also his property. This order, founded on the discipline of the Cistercians, had its origin in France.

Perhaps DORSET is one of the most interesting counties of England. Its antiquarian treasures are unnumbered. Poole was a place of consequence several centuries ago; and Wareham, though a grass-grown street, has still three churches both these places are parliamentary boroughs. Purbeck has long been famed for its stone quarries; and the Isle of Portland has contributed many embellished piles to our metropolis: witness Whitehall and St. Paul's Cathedral. Weymouth is of other celebrity. Abbotsbury has dwindled to a fishing town, and its magnificent abbey is almost lost. Lyme Regis was a stronghold in the civil wars of Charles I.; and here the ill-starred Duke of Monmouth landed, in 1685. Dorchester, the county town, is of great antiquity; and Wimborne contains in its Saxon and Gothic church, the tombs of Ethelred, brother to the Great Alfred, and of the parents of the mother of Henry VII. Shaftesbury had once a Benedictine nunnery, and the richest and most splendid in the kingdom; and Sherborne was a bishop's see in the time of the Saxon King Ina: part of its castle was built by Sir Walter Raleigh. Milton Abbey, (by name,) and Wolveton, the seat of the Trenchards, in the time of Henry VII.; the Saxon castle of Corfe, and remains of a Roman amphitheatre, barrow, camp, &c. likewise attest what we have said to stimulate the reader's curiosity.

We remember passing a day pleasantly enough in tracing one of the lastmentioned relics of olden time, midway between Blandford and Dorchester, which the people to this day call Castle Rings. Our stay would not allow us much research; but we finished our ex

cursion by starting from Milborne, on foot, across the fine expanse of Dorset, the bold ridges of part of Hampshire, and thus to Southampton, where the artificial luxury of a stage-coach put an end to all our enjoyment of romantic

nature.

THE SLAVERY OF ANIMALS. (For the Mirror.)

THERE is something confined and selfish in the sentiment of liberty displayed by man he is capable of the tenderest sympathy with the sufferings of his fellow creatures in servitude, but his pity rarely extends to the interminable oppression of animals. It would seem that his compassion is excited by the description of grief, rather than by its observation; and that the dumb animals of the creation are deprived of his commiseration, for the want of that eloquence which could portray their situation in its proper colours. Who that ever took a glance with Sterne through "the grated door" of his captive dungeon, did not feel all the amiable and generous feelings of his nature, touched to the extreme? The simplicity of his Calendar of Captivity, a heap of sticks notched with the long days of imprisonment, presents one of the most beautiful and affecting descriptions in our language. The painful emotions the picture excites in our bosoms, seems to arise from the idea that tyranny might place ourselves in the same situation. It is by substituting ourselves ideally in his stead, by lying down in fancy upon his mat, and following the train of his grief and privation in our thoughts, that we are enabled to enter into his soul, and identify ourselves for the moment with his sufferings. But on the other side we can witness the captivity of an animal which nature had formed to roam the forest wild, and feel no other sentiment than wonder while surveying his unfamiliar form. We seldom feel compassion for the Bengal tiger, which we see at our menageries, for ever pacing up and down the limits of his cage, with all the impatience of restraint; no length of time reconciles him to captivity, his sense of confinement like his ferocious nature is untameable.

Our compassion in sympathizing with the captivity of animals is awakened in proportion as we observe in them a consciousness of their situation. We are powerfully affected at the repetition of I can't get out, I can't get out,' by Sterne's stating-we know that it

A practice has lately become very general in London, namely, that of putting dogs to the purposes of beasts of burthen-they are seen every day in our streets, harnessed to loads disproportioned to their strength. Many shopkeepers send home the goods purchased from them, in carriages drawn by these animals. I have seen them panting under the yoke of ponderous loads during the hottest days of this summer, and at a time too when the newspapers were filled with cases of hydrophobia. The perversion of the purposes for which dogs were intended by nature, to labours for which they are physically unequal, must arise from mercenary and unfeeling motives. Their owners are not satisfied that they should be the incorruptible guards of their property at night, but that they must be loaded and driven about during the day. The general manner in which they are used is to have them fastened to the axle of a cart, which has two shafts at the back; a man preserves the equilibrium by holding up the shafts, but all the draught falls on his canine coadjutor. In countries where this paltry economy is not resorted to, the very idea of a man submitting to receive assistance from the strength of a little dog would be treated with ridicule and contempt; but it has become so familiar here that the practice is never considered in this light. I saw a dog a few days since harnessed to a small cart which was filled with parcels; the entire burthen was not too much for the lazy driver, who bore nothing but a whip for the enduring animal; the dog was of the stout mastiff breed, and had that good-humoured expression of countenance which is so often observable in his species; and he tugged his load along at a slow pace, occasionally turning his head round as far as the harness would permit him, to cast a look behind. I turned to see what was the object of his attention, and discovered that his longing looks were directed to the gambols of three other dogs, who were rioting in all the playfulness of a mock encounter. Simple as the incident was, it would have drawn

forth the compassion of a savage for the tantalizing situation of this poor dog;, his heart was with his fellows there at play, but his limbs were doomed to eternal confinement and servitude by his mercenary owner.

It may be asserted in defence of this cruelty, that dogs are used for similar purposes in other countries. It is true, indeed, that the example of the Esquimaux Indians keeps us in countenance, and others equally civilized might be named who share all the credit with us; but in this particular they derive a sufficient apology from the want of horses and oxen, and the supply of animal food they can procure for their dogs.

I dare say that the owners of these unlucky dogs would not refuse to append their names to a petition for the abolition of Negro Slavery; but their compassion for the victims of servitude. is not of that generous kind that would extend to the deliverance of these poor animals from labours disproportioned to their physical capability. But the enemy of slavery should protect every animal subject to the pain of its infliction. We are agreed that providence intended dogs to contribute to the comforts of man, and even formed them of a companionable and faithful nature; but it was never designed that they should endure an existence of torture, to perform offices at variance with their nature, and disproportioned to their exertions.

K.

We find the following note in our drawer, which may not unappropriately be appended to our Correspondent's kindly paper.

Of the contrast the reader may say,

Look here, on this picture, and on this. The other day, looking out of our window, (it matters not where,) we witnessed the following little scene :A handsome carriage rolled by close to the curb-stone at the corner of the street, where stood a wretched woman with an infant at her breast, and two barefooted boys by her side; the whole group was the very extreme of squalid poverty. The carriage passed on, turned, and stopped at the opposite honse. The poor woman curtsied humbly and imploringly to three elegantlydressed ladies within the vehicle-but in vain the miserable creature renewed her silent entreaties-but the carriage again rolled off, not, however, without discovering from one of its windows a lap-dog, which the inmates of the carriage were fondly petting, whilst they turned a blind eye to the suffering and

"In some ancient writings," says Brewer, "possessed by the corporation of the city of London, this marsh is termed the Isle of Ducks, a mode of denomination that has not been noticed by any topographer, but which may readily be supposed to allude to the number of wild fowl which formerly frequented the spot."

"In the Isle of Dogs," says Lysons, "stood an ancient chapel, called the Chapel of St. Mary, in Stepney Marsh. It is mentioned by that name in a will of the 15th century. The object of its foundation does not appear. It is not likely that the Marsh should ever have had many inhabitants. Perhaps it was an hermitage, founded by some devout person, for the purpose of saying masses for the souls of mariners.'

Stowe tells us in his time, "that oxen fed in this marsh had then been known to sell for 347. a piece."

It is reckoned one of the richest spots of ground in England: for it not only raises the largest cattle, but the grass it bears is esteemed a great restorative of all distempered cattle. P. T. W.

The Naturalist.

THE NIGHTJAR, CUCKOO, &c. THE last Magazine of Natural History contains an interesting paper, by J. Rennie, Esq., on the supposed parasite habit of the Nightjar "depositing an egg, like the Cuckoo, in the nest of the hedge-sparrow." "The parasite habit in question," observes Mr. Rennie, "has been ascertained to belong ex

clusively to a singular American bird, the cow-bunting, and to the genuine cuckoos, the observations of the accurate Vaillant, on several species of Southern Africa, proving that it is not confined to our common cuckoo. Vaillant further ascertained that the cuckoo does not sit on the nest in which she lays her egg, but lays it on the ground, and carries it to the nest made choice of in her bill; as our own cuckoo must do, beyond a doubt, when it deposits its egg in the nest of the wren, the chiffchaff, or the red-start, as the narrow entrance of these nests precludes any other mode of introducing it."

EXTENSIVE COAL FIELDS.

Ir is confidently believed in the United States, that beds of coal, of various qualities, extend from the central parts of Pennsylvania westward for four hundred miles, and to a great distance north and south. At present, the flourishing manufactures of glass, iron, &c., at Pittsburgh, are supplied from the mines in the neighbourhood, which appear exhaustless. To this great repository of coal the United States must look forward for their future prosperity and comfort, as a manufacturing nation: for the immense forests that once covered the eastern states have almost disappeared. The nearest considerable extent of woodland to Philadelphia is one hundred and twenty miles distant from that capital.

HERON SWALLOWING A RAT.

A CORRESPONDENT of the Magazine of Natural History, in a list of birds shot and collected last winter, near Dartford, mentions the following extraordinary fact:-" Ardea Major, Heron. A fine full-plumaged male. I particularly enumerate this bird (which was run down by a boy, and captured in Bexley marshes), from discovering in his stomach a very large-sized mature male water-rat. It had been lately swallowed, occupying, even to distension (with portions of partially digested fish), the ventriculus of the heron. The only apparent injury to the animal was, a puncture made by the beak of the bird in the frontal part of the skull, by which life was destroyed.'

NATIVE GOLD.

THE late Mr. Ireton, of Ireton Hall, in Cumberland, in carving a pullet, which had been reared on his farm, discovered

a pallet of native gold in contact with the breast-bone it was nearly half an inch square; and the probability is, that the fowl had picked it up from the bed of a rivulet which flowed through part of his estate.-Mr. J. Murray.

LONGEVITY IN WALES.

CATHERINE HUGHES, of Corwen, 85; William Prichard, Anglesey, 92; Sir W. C. De Crespigny, Blaenpadernyn, 97; Rev. E. Herbert, Caernarvonshire, 83; William Rowland, Caernarvonshire, 88; Robert Owen, Caernarvonshire, 91; John Jones, Brecknock, 92; Dorothy Jones, Denbigh, 104; Hugh Rowlands, Esq. Caernarvon, 80; Jane Hughes, Beaumaris, 87; Arabella Jones, Anglesea, 82; Mary Jones, Glamorganshire, 97. These are all copied from the provincial Welsh papers as they severally appeared. In looking over the list of deaths in the principality which occurred within the present quarter, and are noticed in the Cambrian quarterly, out of 40, there were 3 above 20, 6 above 30, 2 above 40, 7 above 50, 3 above 60, 8 above 70, 6 above 80, 4 above 90, and 1 above 100; giving to each of the 40 an average of 64.-Mag, Nat. Hist.

CROCODILES SWALLOWING STONES

MR. AUDUBON, of Louisiana, says"In those alligators that I have killed, and, I asssure you, I have killed a great many, if opened, to see the contents of the stomach, or take fresh fish out of them, I regularly have found round masses of a hard substance, resembling petrified wood. These masses appear to be useful to the animal in the process of digestion, like those found in the craws of some species of birds. I have broken them with a hammer, and found them brittle, and as hard as stones, which they resemble outwardly also very much." Speaking of the extreme gentleness of alligators during the summer and autumn months, Mr. A. observes"At this period of the year, to sit and ride on one would not be more difficult than for a child to mount his wooden rocking-horse. This statement fully corroborates the curious account given by Waterton, in his Wanderings in South America.

SKATE SPAWN.

THE "Fairy Purses" found in abundance along the sea-shore, are the ovaria of the skate; but it is very rare to find an imperforated specimen: they are

generally rent, and the young animal has made its escape. Mr. J. Murray has two beautiful specimens from the Indian Seas: both contain the perfect "animal" within, and distinctly percep tible through the envelope. He selected them from a great many: all the rest were empty cases: the threads proceeding from the angles form beautiful curled tassels.-Mag. Nat. Hist.

LEATHER-COAT JACK.

THE grub of Elophilus tenax (a dronelooking fly) affords a surprising instance of the power of counteraction: an inhabitant of muddy pools, it has occasionally been taken up with the water used in paper-making; and, strange to say, according to Linné, has resisted without injury the immense pressure given to the surrounding pulp ;-like Leather-coat Jack, who, from similar form of muscle, could suffer carriages to drive over him without receiving any injury.-Kirby and Spence.

CUSTOM OF KISSING HANDS.

As there has lately been much kissing of hands at court, the following may not be uninteresting

This is not only a very ancient and nearly universal custom, but it has alike been participated by religion and society. From the remotest times, men saluted the sun, moon, and stars, by kissing the hand. Job assures us, that he was never given to this superstition (chap. xxxi. ver. 26). The same honour was rendered to Baal (1 Kings xix. 18.) Other instances might be adduced as far as connected with religion.

In Greece, all foreign superstitions were received. Lucian, after having