talents, she attracted the attention of a very young man from London, of the name of B, who is paymaster to a regiment then lying here. Upon examining into circumstances, the extreme youth of the lady was the only objection; they imprudently, however, permitted them to be very much together. The consequence was what might be expected; impatient of delay, and afraid of separation, they went off and married. This rash act was followed by a very sudden forgiveness, and she still continued the darling of her parents. She came here to be confined in due time, not being then completely sixteen, and became as composed and matronly as if she had been married for years. In little more than four months after, they were alarmed with an order for the regiment to go to Botany Bay, where, it is to be observed, they are likely to stay fifteen years. Careless of consequences, she was ready to go anywhere with her husband; but the fear and fondness of her parents induced them to prevail on him to set off without her, and to conceal his intentions without taking leave. When she came down and discovered the deception, she was almost frantic, and her father was so moved by her agonies, that he was fain to take a post-chaise and go off instantly with his daughter to overtake her mate, who was more pleased than surprised at the occurrence, having an interior persuasion that she could not be detained. She went off, hardly bestowing a look on her infant whom she had been nursing, or on any other of the family. felt so forlorn; to mend the matter, she does not hear SINGULAR MARRIAGE OF COWPER'S COUSIN, THE rev. [A letter from Hayley, the poet, to Miss Fanshawe (1808), was] to announce the marriage of Norfolk Johnny [Cowper's pet name for him] with a lady, young, lovely, and truly amiable; she was an orphan, of independent fortune, well educated in the country, where she lived with her relations. She was elegant, pious, musical, and studied Cowper with ever new delight. Charmed with the playful innocence, cordial friendship, and disinterested kindness that appear in Cowper's sketches of Johnny's character, she sighed and wished that Heaven had made her such a man.' Her worthy and liberal-minded relations, notwithstanding Johnny's confined circumstances and unprepossessing appearance-for he is little, and diffident in manner might try. So he did, and succeeded; for when you know him, he is charming, innocent, sweet-tempered, full of fancy and humour, and a delightful letter writer. They went to Bath about three weeks since to be married, and proceeded straight from the altar to Hayley's cottage, where Johnny's charmer sung and played to the poet every one of Cowper's lyrics, and some he never meant as such; in short, brother William was in as great raptures with Johnny's bride as he himself could be. Now, of all the great and wealthy who read and praised Cowper, not one ever thought of giving their interest to promote this faithful friend of his infirmities, who did for him what no other being would or could; but this sweet creature loved virtue for itself, and rewarded it with herself. After a stormy and dangerous voyage, she arrived at London, and went off after a few days to the Isle of Wight, to be ready to embark. Finding they should be detained there a month, the yearnings of affection became distressing to the young mother, and she and her husband sent a formal requisition for their child. The little creature was by this time become so dear to the good people, that they could not endure the thought-her people, in short, told his people that Johnny of parting with it for so long an exile. They got a surgeon to certify it was not equal to the journey to London, being but five months old, and not robust for its age. Meantime the parents were in the Isle of Wight, where, on Monday morning, they heard the ship would not sail for a fortnight. The little heroine, who wants still some months of seventeen, set out instantly for Portsmouth, went the same night in the mail to London, set out from thence on Tuesday, travelled almost without food or sleep in the coach to Glasgow, and astonished all on Friday morning by her appearance in Melville Place, undaunted and unwearied, without a trace of fatigue in her looks or spirits; and here she is, going off in triumph with her child and this letter! SPEAKERS OUT. He [Sir John Legard, an old gouty gentleman residing near Twickenham] has a certain selfishness with regard to his intellectual luxuries-the only ones he prizes and seems to think that his sufferings and the sincerity of his piety and virtue entitle him to indulge in a kind of sincerity that the world is little inclined to bear-that of declaring his sentiments and emotions just as they rise in his mind, without much regard to common opinion. Whoever does this much, and long, unaware of the deceitfulness of the human heart, will indulge chagrin or fastidiousness, perhaps spleen and passion, when they think they are only sincere: this I have both seen and severely felt in other instances. GOOD TASTE SUPPRESSES MEAN CALCULATIONS. [Speaking of a family, residing in Edinburgh, and a young English gentleman recently introduced to them,] He appears to them a young man very correct in his conduct, and of good disposition, but evidently born in the age of calculation-a propensity of which we Scots, in revenge for the obloquy formerly thrown on us by John Bull, are very apt to accuse his calves. There is no doubt but that there are among the inhabitants of the Northern Athens many who calculate very nicely; but they leave that to be discovered in their conduct, and take care that it does not appear in their conversation. Perhaps there is no place where gossipping discussions respecting the amount of individual incomes, and the prices of articles of luxury, are so seldom heard; yet people here think of these things, She [a Miss Fraser, who took Mrs Grant home from and struggle to attain them, as much as others. Good Birmingham, in her post-chaise, at the intercession of taste keeps many things out of sight, which good feelsome common friends] was occupied with giving direc-ing in a high-toned mind would not suffer to exist. tions to her servants, and scarce withdrew her attention when I entered. I was nervous and exhausted after the last night's watching and fatigue, and felt beyond measure timid and embarrassed. Her manner at first appeared to me cold, haughty, and abstracted, though polite. I went into the carriage in a tremor, and never KINDNESS UNDER AN UNPROMISING EXTERIOR. ADVANTAGES OF OLD MAIDENHOOD. I think you must know something of six fair vestals, none of them young, who live in Edinburgh with a mother of most venerable antiquity. What a history is theirs! Two distinguished beauties, two wits, and two ingenious damsels full of rare devices, who drew, THE DUCHESS OF GORDON'S RELIGIOUS FEELINGS The duchess said that on Sunday she never saw company, nor played cards, nor went out; in England, indeed, she did so, because every one else did the same, but she would not introduce those manners into this country. I stared at these gradations of piety growing warmer as it came northward, but was wise enough to stare silently. ECONOMY IN COMPANY-KEEPING. WARNING OF YOUNG GENIUS. Talking of genius leads me to congratulate you on the awakened brotherly feelings of that young Theodore, for whom I know your sisterly concern is restless and extreme. [Mrs Grant here refers to Theodore Hook, then (1809) the youthful brother-in-law of her correspondent. How much her warning proved a prophecy, need not be told.] You may believe I rejoice over the capture of this shy bird, for his own sake as well as yours: I do in my heart love genius in all its forms, and even in its exuberance and eccentricity. You will teach him, for his own good, to make a due distinction between living to please the world at large, and exerting his powers in a given direction for his own benefit, and the satisfaction of his real friends. The uncultured flowers, and even the early fruit of premature intellect, form an admirable decoration for a dessert; but wo to him who would expect to feast on them daily and only. Of a person depending merely on talents and powers of pleasing, what more brilliant example can be given than Sheridan? and who would choose to live his life, and die his death? I talk of his death as if it had already taken place, for what is there worth living for that he has not already outlived? and who, that ever knew the value of a tranquil mind and spotless name, would be that justly admired, and as justly despised, individual? And if the chieftain of the clan be such, what must the tribe be of those that live by crambo clink'-as poor Burns called those hapless sons of the muses who, without an object or an aim, run at random through the world, and are led on by the unfeeling great and gay, to acquire a taste for expensive pleasures and elegant society, and then left to languish in forlorn and embittered obscurity, when their health, and their spirits, and their means ebb together. Raise, then, your voice of truth and affection, and outsing all the syrens that, on the coast of idleness, strive to attract Theodore by the songs of vanity, pleasure, and dissipation; teach him to love those that love him-independent of all that flatters or pleases-for himself; and make auxiliaries of all those kindred among whom you are now placed, to make him know something of more value than empty admiration. ANECDOTES OF KISSING HANDS. I have this morning [Edinburgh, Nov. 20, 1811] the muddiest head you can suppose, having had a party of friends with me on the last two evenings. To understand the cause of all this hospitality, you must know that, being a very methodical and economical family, every cow of ours, as we express it in our rustic Highland dialect, has a calf; that is to say, when we have a party, which in Edinburgh includes a cold collation, Judge my confusion and astonishment when, calling we are obliged to provide quantum sufficit for our guests, one day lately [1816] at Lady Charlotte Campbell's, who, being of a description more given to good talking a very handsome fashionable young man asked if I than good eating, are content to admire and be admired, was Mrs G. of Laggan. Hearing I was, he flew across and have little time to attend to vulgar gratifications; the room-said I was one of the persons in Scotland he of consequence, the more material food, after contri- most wished to see, and kissed my hand rapturouslybuting, like the guests, to embellish the entertainment, yes, rapturously. I looked at him to see whether folly remains little diminished. As our wide acquaintance or vanity had prompted this flourish-that is, whether includes the greatest variety of people imaginable, there he was foolish enough to think me what I was not, or are among them a number of good kind people that vain enough to suppose this would pass for a fine flight dress finely, laugh heartily, and sing merrily, and have, of enthusiasm. I saw so much sanguine simplicity in in some instances, genealogy besides; yet on these his countenance, that I concluded it to be a boyish flight. good people the lions and lionesses of literature would He then descanted on the poem of The Highlanders, as think their roaring very ill bestowed. These, however, awakening his feelings and enthusiasm for Scotland at make a greater noise in their own way, and before their a very early age. I resolved to stay him out, and know superior prowess the substantials soon vanish; they are who he was, as I had very imperfectly heard the name in every sense less fastidious, happier because less wise, by which he was introduced. Lady Charlotte told me, and more benevolent because less witty. An assem- to my still greater surprise, that he was of royal lineage; blage of these contented beings, who can amply appre-in short, he is the Duke of Sussex's son by Lady Augusta ciate the value of a custard, a jelly, or a jest on its second appearance, are convenient successors to the refined pretenders to originality, who prefer what is new to what is true, and would not for the world be caught eating blanc-mange while Mr Jeffrey and Dr Thomas Brown are brandishing wit and philosophy in each other's faces with electric speed and brilliance. These good fat people, who sing and eat like canary-birds, come with alacrity the day after, and esteem themselves too happy to be admitted so soon to consume mere mortal aliment in the very apartment where the delicacies of intellect were so lately shared among superior intelligences. Murray. * * I must not omit an anecdote, better than my own, about kissing hands. A young lady from England, very ambitious of distinction, and thinking the outrageous admiration of genius was nearly as good as the possession of it, was presented to Walter Scott, and had very nearly gone through the regular forms of swooning sensibility on the occasion. Being afterwards introduced to Mr Henry Mackenzie, she bore it better, but kissed his hand with admiring veneration. It is worth telling, for the sake of Mr Scott's comment. He said, 'Did you ever hear the like of that English lass, to faint at the sight of a cripple clerk of session, and kiss the dry withered hand of an old tax-gatherer?' Such is the mockery of homage paid to that class of beings who, as Pope justly observes, are envied wretched, and are flattered poor.' SUPERSTITIONS RESPECTING ANIMALS. BEFORE the characters of animals were rigidly investigated, as they have latterly been by men of science, it is not wonderful that they should have been misunderstood in many instances, and thus become the subject of superstitious notions. Even now, when the supernatural is generally abandoned, some of these superstitious notions may be said to have a sort of twilight existence in the form of antipathies and suspicions, the result of which to the animals themselves is far from favourable, while it is, to say the least of it, discreditable to mankind. We propose here to review the superstitions of this class generally, as a curious chapter in the natural history of the human mind, and in doing so, to lay particular stress on such notions as tend in any degree to encourage cruelty or unreasonable fears. There are several animals, perfectly innocent towards man, which have obtained an evil reputation, from apparently no other cause than that which formerly rendered the aged of the female sex of our own race the objects of superstitious dread-namely, their unlovely aspect and solitary mode of life. Such are the owl and the raven, both of them, time out of mind, proclaimed by man to be unlucky birds-birds of evil omen-and so forth. The owl was so reckoned amongst the Romans :Ignavus bubo, dirûm mortalibus omen. old secluded buildings, a habit of seeking its food at night, and its screeching voice, seem to be the causes of its bad reputation. A peculiarly soft noiseless flight, bringing the bird under observation without any warning, may have also helped to fix its terrible character. The eccentric but benevolent Waterton gives a whimsical account of an effort which he made to counteract the common notion in his own place of residence. 'Up to 1813,' he says, 'the barn owl had a sad time of it at Walton Hall. Its supposed mournful notes alarmed the ancient housekeeper. She knew full well what sorrow it had brought into other houses when she was a young woman; and there was enough of mischief in the midnight wintry blast, without having it increased by the dismal screams of something which people knew very little about, and which everybody said was far too busy in the churchyard at night-time. Nay, it was a wellknown fact, that, if anybody were sick in the neighbourhood, it would be for ever looking in at the window, and holding a conversation outside with somebody, they did not know whom. The gamekeeper agreed with her in everything that was said on this important subject; and he always stood better in her books when he had managed to shoot a bird of this bad and mischievous family. However, in 1813, on my return from the wilds of Guiana, having suffered myself, and learned mercy, I broke in pieces the code of penal laws which the knavery of the gamekeeper and the lamentable igno-rance of the other servants had hitherto put in force, far too successfully, to thin the numbers of this poor, harmless, unsuspecting tribe. On the ruin of the old gateway I made a place with stone and mortar, about four feet square, and fixed a thick oaken stick firmly into it. Huge masses of ivy now quite cover it. In a month or so after it was finished, a pair of barn owls came and took up their abode in it. I threatened to strangle the Virgil speaks in like manner of the fatal prognostica- keeper if ever, after this, he molested either the old birds tions of the crow : Sæpe sinistra cavâ prædixit ab ilice cornix. By croaking from the left presaged the coming blow. This great nation even had officers-officers, too, selected from the patrician or aristocratic class-one of whose duties it was to study the omens of the owl, crow, and other birds, and interpret them to the people-man thus placing himself, it may fairly be said, in a position the subjects of their observations. Our poet Butler has touched off this institution' of the masters of the meaner than that of the humble animals which were ancient world : The Roman senate, when within From doing town or country hurt. The prevalence of this superstition respecting the owl in England is shown by the frequent allusions to it in the works of our poets-as where Shakspeare says The owl shrieked at thy birth, an evil sign. or their young ones; and I assured the housekeeper that I would take upon myself the whole responsibility of all the sickness, wo, and sorrow, that the new tenants might bring into the hall. She made a low courtesy, as much as to say, "Sir, I fall into your will and pleasure;" but to do with things of fearful and portentous shape, and I saw in her eye that she had made up her mind to have to hear many a midnight wailing in the surrounding woods. lady's death, which took place in her eighty-fourth year, I do not think that, up to the day of this old she ever looked with pleasure or contentment on the barn owl, as it flew round the large sycamore trees ton adds, that the barn owl, so far from being in any which grow near the old ruined gateway.'* Mr Waterway a noxious, is a highly useful bird, on account of the vast quantity of mice which it destroys. When it has young, it will bring a mouse to its nest every twelve or fifteen minutes. Some country people think it attacks pigeons in their houses, but it only goes there for repose and concealment, when its perfectly harmless conduct is fully evidenced by the tranquillity with which the pigeons regard it. There is the same error respecting the crow. The portentous character of this bird is probably owing, in the first place, to its uncommonly harsh voice, and, secondly, to its carnivorous habits. Shakspeare says and applies it metaphorically to an inauspicious person of an army Thou ominous and fearful owl of death, Our nation's terror, and their bloody scourge. -Ibid. Their executors, the knavish crows, Fly o'er them all, impatient for their hour. It can scarcely be necessary to quote the equally signi- It has often occurred to me,' says an observer of nature, ficant exclamation of Lady Macbeth The raven himself is hoarse That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan These notions respecting the owl and raven still have a considerable hold of the English rustic mind, and cause many most superfluous cruelties; for these creatures are doomed to destruction wherever they can be found. It is the barn owl (Strix flammea) which is thus ill regarded. A solitary mode of life, generally amongst 'when exploring the more inaccessible parts of the British mountains (though without any feeling of superstitious dread on the occasion), that the ravens, whose "ancient solitary reign" I had invaded, uttered their harsh croak, as they soared over my head, in expectation, and of their chance of becoming my "executors," and as it were, of my falling down the ravines and precipices, having to feed on my lifeless carcass.' Now, granting that several of the crow tribe gluttonise over dead bodies, * Loudon's Magazine of Natural History, v. 12. whether of human beings or of the inferior animals, whether of men killed in battle or men accidentally killed in solitary places, what harm is there in it? Are not these animals, on the contrary, performing a useful service to the living, in removing what is so offensive to sense, and often so injurious to health? Justly regarded, the crow is an emissary of Providence, which ought to call forth feelings of admiration towards that great power, instead of exciting sentiments of disgust or antipathy towards itself. A few of this class of superstitions seem at first sight rather amiable. The smallness of the wren, and the repose in human generosity shown by the redbreast, have disarmed even boys, and established an immunity of their nests from plunder. The juvenile remark is, The robin and the wren are God's cock and hen:' it is therefore under a religious impression that they abstain from an act of cruelty in the case of these birds. The innocence of the dove has also made a powerful appeal to the rustic bosom, but only to this unexpected We shall vary our theme by adverting next to a set effect, that it is not good to use its feathers in a bed, of superstitions respecting bees, which have an element as they prolong the sufferings of those who die upon it. of beauty in them. It is a custom still pretty pre- The raven, too, notwithstanding its unluckiness, is safe valent in the more rural districts of England to in- from rustic fowling-pieces-it is held to be extremely form bees of any death that takes place in the family; unlucky to kill this bird. The reason is said to be a and this is done in a formal manner, a person going consideration of the services of the raven to the prowith the house-key and tapping three times every phet Elijah, when he fled from the rage of Ahab. A hive, and then whispering the communication. It is humane spirit would be thankful for the feeling shown thought that, if this is not done, the bees will desert the in these popular notions, if they were consistently supplace, and seek out other quarters. For the same rea- ported; but who ever heard of any one sparing a blow son, when the funeral is to take place, the bees are put to the unfortunate ass, from a consideration of the into mourning, by the hanging of a piece of black cloth several remarkable appearances which that animal from their hives; and a service of wine and cake is, in makes in Scripture? Not even the cross marked on families of good condition, set down for them on that its back-as they think, in consequence of our Saviour occasion. They are also made to participate in the having ridden upon an ass into Jerusalem--seems to family rejoicings; for, when a marriage takes place, a have the least effect in obtaining a decent show of triumphant piece of scarlet cloth is in like manner hung humanity towards this everywhere useful and modest, upon the hives. It appears that this custom, if not the and everywhere buffeted quadruped. The inconsisothers, obtains in Brittany as well as in England. As tency of superstition is further shown in the antipaindications of kind social feeling towards a class of thies contracted against birds equally harmless as any creatures time out of mind the emblems of industry, of the above; for example, the yellow-hammer, which foresight, and good regulation, these practices, it is sub-is persecuted in consequence of an idea that it receives mitted, are highly poetical and redeeming. It is only three drops of the devil's blood on May morning; the unfortunate that, while superstition is sometimes thus fact being that it is a pretty, and also a tame bird, with beautiful, it is most frequently gross and barbarous; so no harm about it whatever. So strong is the prejudice that it never can form a principle to be depended upon. against this innocent warbler of our fields, that many There is another notion very prevalent respecting becs, persons who would not injure the nest or young of any that the death of a hive in the possession of a farmer other birds, will invariably take, and even ill-use, that foretells his speedy removal from the place. Perhaps of the poor yellow-hammer. Sailors are equally unreathere is a natural basis for this supposition. Bees sonable with respect to the well-known storm petrel. usually die only in very wet unfavourable seasons: such This bird is often seen before severe storms, whose utscasons are injurious to the farmer, and very apt (at most rage never seems to disturb it as it breasts the least in a country of yearly leases) to lead to his re- waves and faces the blast, uttering its low cry of weet, moval. weet. The mariner absurdly considers it as raising the storm, which its habits only bring it into connexion with, and he execrates it accordingly. 'As well,' says Wilson, the American ornithologist, might they curse the midnight lighthouse that star-like guides them on their watery way, or the buoy that warns them of the sunken rocks below.' The petrel is in reality a monitor of the approach of stormy weather, perhaps designed to be so by an all-wise Providence. Several other superstitions about animals are probably founded, in like manner, on natural circumstances. This has been remarked by Sir Humphry Davy in his Salmonia. To see one magpie, as is well known, is held to betoken misfortune. Now, there is a natural reason why, to the angler at least, it is not well to see a single magpie. The fact is, that in cold and stormy weather, one magpie alone leaves the nest in search of food, the other remaining sitting upon the eggs or young ones, and such weather is unfavourable for the piscatory AN INVALID'S ADVENTURE AT THE SIEGE sport; whereas in fine mild weather, which is the reverse, both magpies are at liberty to leave the nest together. The notion about the magpie is thus expressed : One's sorrow, two 's mirth. To this is added another line Three 's a wedding, four 's death; which, however, is probably no more than a postscriptive coinage of the popular mind to make out a rhyme. The notion that rooks always leave their haunt near an old house when a death takes place in it, may have its origin in fact, and the cause may be some sense of an unpleasant odour, of which human organs are insensible. A naturalist, speaking of this superstition, states that a medical gentleman of his acquaintance, being in attendance upon a lady during her last illness, some one observing that she had not long to live, said to him, I wonder whether the rooks will leave the rookery on this occasion? they did so on the decease of the late (the former possessor), and likewise on that of his brother who preceded him.' The birds, in the present instance, did quit the house, but thirty-six hours before the death. OF MANHEIM. [Manheim, now a neatly built open town in the grand-duchy of Baden, was exposed to a bombardiment from the French republican army, and almost entirely destroyed. During the siege, many of the unfortunate inhabitants were killed, and others suffered severe injuries, and the loss of all their property. The following adventure of an invalid during the siege, which we copy from the English Journal, will impart a tolerable idea of what we in this country know nothing of-the actual horrors of a state of warfare.] THE siege had commenced, and the firing had begun to wax warm, so that the inhabitants were glad to avail themselves of any adequate shelter from its terrible effects. The batteries en recochet enfiladed every street, and the cellars of the houses became the only secure places of refuge. Thither most persons betook themselves, with what stock of provisions they could muster. These cellars were strongly arched over, and it was a rare circumstance that a bomb, after forcing through the roof and strong floors of a house in succession, had power enough left to penetrate the arches which covered them. An unfortunate accident prevented my affording any aid to the garrison in the defence, having broken my leg by a fall from the ramparts a day or two after the city was invested. I lived in a tolerably broad |