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Which, onward hurling, makes the circling groupe
Quick start aside, to shun its reckless force.
But more and still more skilful arms succeed,
And near and nearer still around the tee,
This side, now that, approaches; till at last,
Two, seeming equidistant, straws, or twigs,
Decide as umpires 'tween contending coits.

Keen, keener still, as life itself were staked,
Kindles the friendly strife: one points the line
To him who, poising, aims and aims again;
Another runs and sweeps where nothing lies.
Success alternately, from side to side,
Changes; and quick the hours un-noted fly,
Till light begins to fail, and deep below,
The player, as he stoops to lift his coit,
Sees, half incredulous, the rising moon.
But now the final, the decisive spell,

Begins; near and more near the sounding stones,
Some winding in, some bearing straight along,
Crowd justling all around the mark, while one,
Just slightly touching, victory depends
Upon the final aim: long swings the stone,
Then with full force, careering furious on,
Rattling it strikes aside both friend and foe,
Maintains its course, and takes the victor's place.
The social meal succeeds, and social glass;
In words the fight renewed is fought again,
While festive mirth forgets the winged hours.---
Some quit betimes the scene, and find that home
Is still the place where genuine pleasure dwells.

NATURALISTS' CALENDAR.

Mean Temperature ... 36.85.

January 31.

King George IV. proclaimed.-Holiday at the Exchequer.

Wakes.

A newspaper of this day, in the year 1821, relates the following anecdote :

All through Ireland the ceremonial of wakes and funerals is most punctually attended to, and it requires some sçavoir faire to carry through the arrangement in a masterly manner. A great adept at the business, who had been the prime mapager at all the wakes in the neighbourbood for many years, was at last called away from the death-beds of his friends to his own. Shortly before he died he gave minute directions to his people as to

* New Times.

Grahame.

the mode of waking him in proper style. "Recollect," says he, "to put three candles at the head of the bed, after you lay me out, and two at the foot, and one at each side. Mind now, and put a plate with the salt on it just a top of my breast. And, do you hear? have plenty of tobacco and pipes enough; and remember to make the punch strong. And-but what the devil is the use of talking to you? sure I know you'll be sure to botch it, as I won't be there myself."

MR. JOHN BULL, an artist, with poetical powers exemplified in the first volume by a citation from his poem entitled "The Museum," which deserves to be better known, favours the Every-Day Book with the following original lines. The conflict between the cross and the crescent, renders the communication peculiarly interesting to those who indulge a hope that the struggle will terminate in the liberation of Greece from "worse than Egyptian bondage."

* P. 299.

THE RAINBOW IN GREECE.

By Mr. John Bull.

Arch of peace! the firmament
Hath not a form more fair
Than thine, thus beautifully bent

Upon the lighten'd air.

Well might the wondrous bards of yore
Of thee so sweetly sing;
Thy fair foot on their lovely shore
Returning with the spring!

An angel's form to thee they gave,
Celestial feign'd thy birth,

Saw thee now span the light green wave,
And now the greener earth.

Yet then, where'er thy smile was seen,
On land, or billowy main,
Thou seem'd to watch, with look serene,
O'er Freedom's glorious reign.

Thy brilliant arch, around the sky,
The nurse of hope appear'd,

Sweet as the light of liberty,

Wherewith their souls were cheer'd!

But ah! if thou, when Greece was young,
Didst visit realms above;

Go and return, as minstrels sung
A messenger of love:

What tale, in heaven, hast thou to tell,
Of tyrants and their slaves-
Despots, and soul-bound men that dwell
. Without their fathers' graves!

Oh! when they see thy beauteous bow,
Surround their ancient skies,
Do not the Grecian warriors know,
'Tis then their hour to rise?

Let them unsheath the daring sword,

And, pointing up to thee,
Speak to their men, one fiery word,

And march to set them free

Upon thine arch of hope they'd glance, And say, "The storm is o'er!! "The clouds are breaking off-advance,

We will be slaves no more!"

The Mirror of the Months" represents of the coming month, that :

Now the Christmas holidays ate over, and all the snow in Russia could not make the first Monday in this month look any other than black, in the home-loving eyes of little schoolboys; and the streets of London are once more evacuated of happy wondering faces, that look any way but straight before them; and sobs are heard, and sorrowful faces seen to issue from sundry post-chaises that carry sixteen inside, exclusive of cakes and boxes;

and theatres are no longer conscious of unconscious éclats de rire, but the whole audience is like Mr. Wordsworth's cloud, "which moveth altogether, if it move at all."

In the gardens of our habitations, and the immense tracts that provide great cities with the products of the earth, the cultivator seizes the first opportunity to prepare and dress the bosom of our common mother. "Hard frosts, if they come at all, are followed by sudden thaws; and now, therefore, if ever, the mysterious old song of our school days stands a chance of being verified, which sings of

Three children sliding on the ice,
All on a summer's day!'

Now the labour of the husbandman recommences; and it is pleasant to watch (from your library-window) the ploughteam moving almost imperceptibly along, upon the distant upland that the bare trees have disclosed to you.-Nature is as busy as ever, if not openly and obviously, secretly, and in the hearts of her sweet subjects the flowers; stirring them up to that rich rivalry of beauty which is to greet the first footsteps of spring, and teaching them to prepare themselves for her advent, as young maidens prepare, months beforehand, for the marriage festival of some dear friend.-If the flowers think and feel (and he who dares to say that they do not is either a fool or a phi losopher-let him choose between the imputations!)-if the flowers think and feel, what a commotion must be working within their silent hearts, when the pinions of winter begin to grow, and indicate that he is at least meditating his flight! Then do they, too, begin to meditate on May-day, and think on the delight with which they shall once more breathe the fresh air, when they have leave to escape from their subterranean of this month, they are all of them at prisons; for now, towards the latter end least awake from their winter slumbers, and most are busily working at their gay toilets, and weaving their fantastic robes, and shaping their trim forms, and distilling their rich essences, and, in short, getting ready in all things, that they may be duly prepared to join the bright procession of beauty that is to greet and glorify the annual coming on of their sovereign lady, the spring. It is true none of all this can be seen. But what a race should we be, if we knew and

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FEBRUARY.

When, in the zodiac, the Fish wheel round,
They loose the floods, and irrigate the ground.
Then, husbandmen resume their wonted toil,

Yoke their strong steers, and plough the yielding soil:
Then prudent gard'ners seize the happy time,
To dig and trench, and prune for shoots to climb,
Inspect their borders, mark the silent birth
Of plants, successive, from the teeming earth,
Watch the young nurslings with paternal care,
And hope for "growing weather" all the year.
Yet February's suns uncertain shine,
For rain and frost alternately combine

To stop the plough, with sudden wintry storms-
And, often, fearful violence the month deforms.

February 1.

Flowers.

A good garden in a sunny day, at the commencement of this month, has many delightful appearances to a lover of na ture, and issues promises of further gratification. It is, however, in ball-rooms and theatres that many of the sex, to whose innocence and beauty the lily is likened, resort for amusement, and see or wear the mimic forms of floral loveliness. Yet this approach to nature, though at an awful distance, is to be hailed as an impulse of her own powerful working in the very heart of fashion; and it has this advantage, that it supplies means of existence to industry, and urges ingenuity to further endeavour. Artificial wants are rapidly supplied by the necessity of providing for real ones; and the wealthy accept drafts upon conditions which

indigence prescribes, till it becomes lifted above poverty to independence.

The manufacture of artificial flowers is not wholly unknown in England, but our neighbours, the French, eclipse us in the accuracy and variety of their imitations. Watering-places abound with these wonders of their work-people, and in the metropolis there are depôts, from whence dress-makers and milliners are supplied by wholesale.

The annexed literal copy of a French flower-maker's card, circulated during the summer of 1822, among the London shopkeepers, is a whimsical specimen of self-sufficiency, and may save some learners of French from an overweening confidence in their acquisition of that language, which, were it displayed in Paris, would be as whimsical in that metropolis as this English is in ours.

M. MARLOTEAU et Cie.

Manufacturers from Paris,

37, MONTMORENCY-STREET,

To London 14 Broad street, Oxford street.

Acquaint the Trade in general, that they have just established in LONDON.
A Warhouse for FRENCH FLOWERS, for each Season, feathar from
hat ladies of their own Manufacture elegant fans of the NEWEST TASTE.
And of Manufactures of PARIS, complette sets ornaments for balls, snuff
boxes scale gold and silver, boxes toilette, ribbons and embroidered, hat
et cap,
from Ladies of the newest Taste, China, all sorts, etc.

He commit generally the articles from Paris, Manufacturers.

And send in all BRITISH CITY.

Attandance from Nine o'Clock in the Morning till five in the Afternoon.

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