7. The Court and the City in the Reign of Charles I. 22 8. Heads or Tails 9. Sir Walter Scott's Astronomy 225 27 ib. 10. Pictures of the Manners of Germany during the Fifteenth Century 31 11. Excommunication of Henry IV., Emperor of Germany, by Hildebrand, styled Gregory VII. 32 12. Maria, the last Queen of Georgia 13. Sir John Vanbrugh as a Match-maker 34 39 14. History of the Building of the great Theatre of San Carlo at Naples 15. A Curious Custom. 16. Theodore Beza 17. Machiavelli avenged by the Booksellers 18. Reminiscences of the Marchioness of Crequy 21. Favourites, and Relaxations of James the First, with a word on Court Fools . No. 22. A Pic-nic 23. Archbishop Laud, and Venison Pies 24. Whether Claude Lorraine was a Pastry-cook. 29. A Great Man in Disguise 30. A Few Parallel Passages 66 98 99 34. Whether Adam was created in Spring or Autumn 35. Soldiers must enjoy themselves 36. The real Castle of Otranto 38. Anecdotes of Brunelleschi. 39. Bulls and Barons 40. Royalty and a Wooden Soldier 41. A Few Miracles of the Dark Ages 42. A Few Modern Fanatics 43. Counterfeit Kings 44. Sham Devils no Joke 45. An Irish Maiden Assize 46. Why Great Priests rode upon Mules, and had Mules, 50. Who first doubled the Cape of Good Hope?. 51. Berkeley and the Priests 52. Traits of Louis XIV. 53. A Queer Translation from Vitruvius 54. Theatres at Venice, in 1608 No. 55. The Modern Cornaro 56. On the Decline and Fall of Serenading 57. Common use of Plate in the time of Henry VIII. . 141 58. Waxen Figures of some of the Kings of France ib. 59. Lawyer's Fee . 60. A desultory Chapter on Eating, with Anecdotes of 63. The Ceremonial of making the King's bed 64. The Aphorisms of Hippocrates 65. Straits of Thermopyla 66. Translatable Puns 67. Dialects of the English Language 142 ib. 160 69. Economy in Queen Anne's Dresses, with a Few 78. Pressing to death, and Praying and Fasting. 79. A Merciful Schoolmaster BOOK OF TABLE-TALK. 1. SANDOWNE CASTLE. My limbs are bow'd, though not with toil, For they have been a dungeon's spoil; And mine hath been the fate of those Are bann'd and barr'd-forbidden fare. Prisoner of Chillon. ONE evening in August last I was sitting on the beach close by Sandowne Castle. The evening was so mild that I had come out with the intention of bathing; but as the state of the tide was somewhat unfavourable, I fell into some doubt on the subject; and, while in that state of mind, was amusing myself with looking at the numerous ships then riding at anchor in the Downs, and from time to time gathering pebbles from the countless mass of them around me, and throwing them down the beach; in a vain effort to recover an art in which I had excelled in my boyhood, that of being a good shot with a stone—in technical phrase, of "shying well." While I was thus employed, a man came out of the castle gate, crossed the drawbridge, and passed me. In passing, he stopped a moment, and looking towards the Goodwin Sands lying beyond the Downs, he said,— "The sands are very visible this evening, sir." "Are they more so than usual?” "Yes, sir." "What state are they in now? I mean, firm footing on them ?" VOL. II. is there a B |