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that run quite through, perhaps to let the air in for drying the wall, being of so great thickness. Here are several of the circular, or rather elliptic, abutments, as thick as the wall: and are a most unaccountable piece of masonry. They are like round towers or bastions, but solid: and some scarce join to the wall at the sides, but go quite through to the inside. The circuit of this wall is manifest enough on three sides, but that southward is levelled to the ground every where else, where not standing, it lies sideways, flat, close by, in prodigious parcels, or where standing, cracked through the whole solid thickness, as if Time was in a merry humour, and ruined it in sport but is, more probably, the effect of design and much labour, as

is said of Richborough: perhaps the Saxons or Danes thus dismantled it, to render it useless against their incursions.

Dymchurch wall begins about three miles west of Hythe, and extends to the village of Dymchurch. The Circular Redoubt is built at the eastern extremity of this wall, in a line with the Martello towers; a most interesting and ingenious piece of military architecture. Since the completion of Dymchurch Wall, which encloses Romney Marsh, the lands have become highly valuable, being remarkable for the richness of it's soil, and the rearing of cattle of prodigious size. The towns of Romney and Lydd are included in the district of the Marsh.

(To be continued.)

MIDNIGHT IN ELYSIUM.

Now when ambrosial Night with clouds exhaled
From that high Mount of God, whence light and shade
Spring both, the face of brightest Heaven had changed
To grateful Twilight, for Night comes not there

In darker form.

ON the flashing deep

Bright the moon is beaming,

Calm the waters sleep,

Where her rays are streaming:

Could our feet but tread

O'er that golden river,

Sure the path would lead

Where 'tis bright for ever.

There, e'en midnight's cloud

Than our's is so much fairer,
That her dark blue shroud
But adorns the wearer:
Like a flame enshrined
In illumin'd glasses,

Where the light behind,

Through painted splendour passes.

Bright the skies must be,

With that veil before them!

Such Immortals see,

When Night's cloud is o'er them,

But their glowing day,

We cannot conceive it;

Only Angels may,

With the view believe it.

Oh for that fair boat,

Of Egyptian story!

Through the skies to float

In bright and starry glory.
When the Sun's last gleam
From the sea is given,
Could we mount the beam.
We should land in heaven.

MILTON,

Oh for that fair boat. It was the belief of the ancient Egyptians, that the Planets' and other heavenly bodies, performed their revolutions through the skies in boats.

MISCELLANEA.

RECOLLECTIONS OF A GOURMAND.

"AFTER completing an education, the course of which excited uniform disgust, the timely death of my uncle put me in possession of an ample fortune. At the age of twenty-two, I became my own master, and was said to have very respectable connections and valuable friends; all of whom kindly interfered with their advice and experience to direct my mind to proper pursuits, in order, as they professed, to render me a distinguished ornament to society. My relations, who were very pious people, strongly urged me to marry, as an infallible mode of salvation from the pomps and vanities of this wicked world, and all the sinful et ceteras consequent on a single life: but as my father and mother had lived on very indifferent terms, and it was generally supposed that their lives had been curtailed by their incessant disagreements, I had no particular desire to be playing this game over again. The more I reflected on the duties of the conjugal state, the less inclination I felt to embark on that dangerous element. To female beauty I was not insensible; and many of the young ladies who were pointed out as eligible partners, certainly possessed the exterior of angels. While they were angling for me, their tempers were serenely complacent, and they appeared to wear a perpetual smile; indeed, I became so fascinated with their animated conversation, elegant deportment, and pure ethics, that the memorable example of my honoured parents had almost faded from my recollection. One evening, however, I happened to be present when these angelic forms were seated at a party of loo; at the commencement, an anxious solicitude was depicted in their sweet countenances, the bewitching smile suddenly vanished, and they seemed as deeply interested as Jews concluding a bargain. Fortune frowned on two of the most beautiful; and each time they were loo'd, their bright eyes flashed indignation, disappointment, and malignity. In sighs they whispered curses on Pam, who never came within their grasp. As often as they consulted the oracle

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of the pocket for a fresh supply, their ivory teeth were displayed by a snarl, the upper lip curled, and the lower was bitten; and when I retired, with my friend Tickle, I said, Bob, they are all alike; for I see that a trifle will convert an angel into a fury.' In consequence of which important discovery, my matrimonial speculations were adjourned sine die.

"Some disinterested friends, who had a seat to dispose of, earnestly advised me to be in parliament; they said, it was the honourable and dignified occupation of a gentleman of fortune;—the country wanted men of independent principles to stand forward;—parliament was the school of eloquence, and the high road to fame and distinction.' This proposition I settled off-hand, by immediately applying the extinguisher. I told them, that I never could be prevailed on to go into the gallery, much less into the body of the house-I hated squabbling, never wrote letters, and therefore did not want franks ;—if invited to dinner, I felt a serious objection to attend a call of the house, and still greater aversion to be appointed on a committee. Perhaps, indeed, there is only one subject on which I could have voted with a clear conscience, and that is against the Bill for General Education: for I always detested school, and whenever I am ill, still constantly dream of learning a lesson! My friends, finding that I had a will of my own, gave me up as a lost young man; and to manifest their zeal for my welfare, scandalized me in every direction. For this calumny, however, they will always be entitled to my grateful acknowledgments; for I have discovered that new acquaintance are preferable to old friends, and strangers very frequently more to be depended on than relations.

"Divers authors have maintained, that every person has a ruling passion; a propensity to some particular object. The acuteness of my palate and vigour of digestion disposed me to conceive that I should excel in the fraternal sciences of eating and drinking, and I entertained no doubt but my sapid organs would be consider

ably improved by frequent exercise. Taste has her various departments, of painting, architecture, and sculpture, but

The proper study of mankind is Food.'

"Solemnly impressed that my office in this world was to invent new dishes, and devour them, I collected all the culinary writers from the time of Caxtou, down to the last editions of modern celebrity. At starting, I frequented coffee-houses and taverns, to initiate myself in the correct nomenclature of different dishes, and to judge of their skilful preparation; but I soon discovered that these victuallers, on account of those numerous visitants who are disposed to eat much and pay little, could not afford to furnish the most exquisite entrées. -Sometimes I found that the same turkey had been twice subjected to the spit;-a sole, that had been boiled the day before, underwent the operation of frying on the following;-cold meat appeared as a hot pie, with many other curious and ingenious devices. Then the wine was adulterated, compelled, like a melancholic patient, to look old before it's time, and fitted like a pauper with a ready-made coat, perceptibly im pregnated with bad brandy, and tasting of every thing but grapes ;-so that in about six months I sickened, and no longer fréquented these tasteless and inhospitable retreats for the hungry.

"Next I became a member of a fashionable dinner-club, managed by a superintending committee who purchased their own wine, and engaged a culinary artist of established reputatian. This was a diversified assemblage, consisting of some sprigs of nobility, and a few old standards; several members of parliament, who became very troublesome by repeating what had been uttered in the house, and were, besides, always attempting to reform us; though indeed this was less offensive to me than others, as I make it a rule never to attend to conversation, excepting it relates to improvements in cookery; the remainder of our club was composed of a few hungry and querulous lawyers, and two or three doctors, who had encreased the means of gratifying their own appetites, by destroying the digestive faculties of their

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patients. There is nothing permanent in this world, therefore in about two years the club dwindled away; a set of rascally economists complained of expense: - the cook, a very honest man and skilful professor, was accused of peculation by the reformers, and turned adrift for modestly demonstrating that he could not make turtle out of tripe, nor convert sprats into red mullet. Several of the members moved off without paying up their arrears. The managing committee disposed of the premises, plate, furniture, and wines, and pocketed the money; and thus the club was dissolved!

"At this time it is highly important to mention, that I had gained four stone and eleven pounds, horseman's weight; and then

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Methought I heard a voice cry, eat no more."

"The breaking up of our club, like the dissolution of the monasteries, introduced a new order of things; my appetite was still voracious, and I panted for wine,—also, on the slight est motion, for breath, from a voluminous accession of fat. The amateurs of good cheer were indeed dispersed, but sufficient were to be collected to coalesce by mutual attraction into a select body. What was to be done? Although my constitution was impaired, my fortune had accumulated; and this encrease of wealth had arisen from my own rigid economy in every article, that did not interfere with the gratification of my appetite. I had no amiable weakness in relieving the distressed; their miseries were doubtless extreme, and felt acutely by themselves, but they could not interest me. I possessed no library, excepting cookery books;-on a rainy day, a hackney-chariot set me down where I dined; and, when fine, I waddled to the repast.

"Having become quite corpulent, the ladies did not admire me; and, in return, I did not notice them, no expense in that quarter, Heaven be praised! Much of my time, at my lodgings, was consumed in ruminating on the good things I had enjoyed,—in reflecting on tit-bits that I could swallow, and in sleep. Suddenly a thought traversed my brain, that I should be rendered supremely happy by commencing Amphitryon;-this project

was immediately adopted. I took an elegant house, purchased a stock of the oldest and most delicious wines, and hired a professor of cookery at an enormous salary. My acquaintance was genteel, for I had taken especial care to exfoliate all shabby people, who are burthened with necessities. Twice a week my friends were invited in rotation, for as I am wholly insensible to wit, detest music, and never listen to, nor join in conversation, I made no selection on account of intellectual superiority, or companionable qualifications: indeed, several of my best friends are deaf, and that is a great advantage in society. Our meetings are decorous and silent: we exchange the civilities of drinking to each other at dinner, not by wasting breath to enquire if Mr. G. would do me the honour to take wine, which is extremely vulgar, but by grasping the decanter and looking round; any person feeling a similar inclination does the same; a partner is never wanting, -there is a nod, and it is over. As we say nothing, our conversation cannot be retailed in the kitchen: no man convulsed by a smart repartee bolts out a mouthful of soup, partly on the table-cloth, and considerably in the face of his opposite friend. Thus we propagate no scandal, tell no lies, pay no compliments, palm no stale jokes as a new coinage; and every man becomes wiser by his own reflections. At my table, no one can talk limself drunk; if he really become so, it is the genuine effect of the best wine. When we sit down to our repast, I never speak to a servant,-a footman is unfit for his situation who cannot anticipate his master's wishes, and the requisitions of his guests.

"Perhaps one of the most gratifying scenes in nature, far beyond any thing hitherto conveyed by landscape or historical painting, is to behold my guests in silence sip their wine. As the glass is held up, the eye and the orient liquor reciprocally sparkle; it's bouquet expands the nostril, elevates the eye-brow to admiration, and composes the lips to a smile. Thus we continue passing the bottle, till each guest is satisfied, which is known when he rises,-bows and retires. There are some whirligig people, who dine at one house, drop in at others afterwards; go to the opera, half-play, or same silly conversazioné; my com-. Eur. Mag. Vol. 81. Jan. 1822.

pany scorn such a jumble :—indeed, when they do retire, they are not in a condition to go elsewhere. Like myself, the frequenters of my table are all single gentlemen, or widowers who are not inconsolable: as soon as the marriage of a guest is announced, he is immediately scratched off the list of Invitables. I am not the person to incur the reproach of parting man and wife, no, let him dine with his darling; and in the music of her amiable garrulity, let him sigh for the silence that prevails at my table.

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My dinner is distinguished by the intrinsic excellence of a few choice articles, prepared with consummate skill on tl, genuine principles of culinary science, and served quite hot in regular succession. Two tureens of exquisite soup open the procession: when these are removed, two dishes of fish succeed, according to their season. To enumerate the next order of dishes is impossible: they consist of a tasteful selection of every thing that is delicious in the range of the animal and vegetable kingdom, and dressed by the best, that is, by my own cook. "To view the ordinary arrangements of a modern dinner is a " sorry sight," -a dozen articles placed at once on the table,-then, on the removal of the covers, comes the ferocious onset :some tremulous paralytic serving the, soup, and scattering it in all directions, excepting into the plate where it ought to be delivered:-then an unhappy dandy mutilating the dish, by cutting it in the wrong direction :here an officious ignoramus tears asunder the members of a fowl:-there another simpleton notches a tongue into dissimilar slices, while a purblind coxcomb confounds the different sauces, pouring anchovy on pigeonpie, and parsley and butter on roast beef. All which barbarisms are unknown at my table,

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My hour of dining is very uncertain: during the summer I never feed till the sun has sunk below the horizon, as it is both brutal and unwholesome to fill the stomach during the time this luminary is in full blaze. Nothing worth eating can be digested during an intensity of heat and flow of perspiration. A man that dines at two o'clock in July, should eat nothing but cos-lettuce, strawberries, and gooseberry-fool.

I controul, climate in the dog

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therefore the business of my serious reflections to counteract the invasions of disease, and provide timely remedies for it's attack. A gold box is always placed on the table with the dessert, containing a store of pills, which are of very moving quality and speedy operation, termed Peristaltic Persuaders :'-in an adjoining room, there is a basin, as large as an ordinary washing-tub, with a copper of hot camomile-tea; and a cupper is in constant attendance till the guests depart. Yet with all these salutary precautions, I have been an occasional sufferer: I have experienced three apoplectic seizures, my right foot is a mass of chalk-stones, and for some unaccountable reason I have been twice tapped for the dropsy."

CHRONOLOGY FOR 1821.

"Thus runs the world away."

8. Sir F. Burdett sentenced to a fine of

JANUARY 1. Refuge for the Houseless £2000, and to be imprisoned for three again opened in the City.

Revolution at Para in the Brazils. 21. Discovery of a new comet by Signor Pons, in the Constellation Pegasus. The town of Paramaribo destroyed by fire.

23. Parliament opened by his MA

JESTY.

24. Petitions first presented to the House of Commons for restoring the late Queen's Name to the Liturgy.

Loyal Declaration of Bankers, Merchants, &c. in the Egyptian Hall, Mansion House.

25. Attempt to destroy the Duke d'Angouleme, in Paris.

26. Installation of the Portuguese Cortes Extraordinary, at Lisbon.

27. Rejection of the Liturgy Claim of the late Queen in the House of Commons, by a majority of 101.

28. Revolution of Madeira.

29. Austrian Army marched for Naples.

30. Conflagration of the Caxton Printing Office, at Liverpool, and impoverishment of 100 Families.

31. Message from the KING, recommending a Provision of £50,000 a year for the late Queen, presented to the House of Commons.

FEBRUARY.

FEBRUARY 2. First Sitting of the Neapolitan National Parliament.

6. Marquess of Tavistock's motion for a Censure on his Majesty's Ministers, with regard to the late Queen, negatived by a najority of 146.

months in the King's Bench, for his letter on the Manchester business.

10. Revolution of Bahia.

13. Mr. John Smith's motion for addressing his Majesty to restore the late Queen to the Liturgy, lost by a majority of 120.

16. Henry Hunt fined £200 by the Court of Exchequer for selling his radical coffee.

Fatal duel between Mr. John Scott and Mr. Christie, near Chalk Farm, by moonlight; Mr. S. killed.

22. The late Queen's Provision Bill passed in the House of Lords.

MARCH.

MARCH 1. Concert at the Mansion House, at which the late Queen was pre

sent.

Sessions of the Spanish Cortes opened by King Ferdinand.

4. Death of the Infant Princess Elizabeth of Clarence, from Convulsions. 5. Revolution at Pernambuco. 7. Mr. Plunkett brought in his Roman Catholic Disabilities Removal Bill.

Cession of Florida to the United States of America.

8. Floating Hospital on the Thames established.

12. Abdication of the King of Sardinia. 24. Entry of 20,000 Austrian Troops into Naples.

APRIL.

APRIL 2. Roman Catholic Disabilities' Removal Bill passed in the House of Commons, by a majority of 19.

3. Mr. Western's Malt Tax Repeal Bill

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