curious lathes, as well as clocks and musical instruments of every description, which were no less admired for the sweetness of their tone than the elegance of their work nanship. He excelled, too, in the construction of optical instruments, and made some reflecting telescopes, the specula of which were not inferior to those finished by the most eminent London artists. He likewise suggested some important improvements in the machinery for spinning flax; and, as before stated, he was the first who made the wooden-jointed snuff-boxes, generally called Laurence-Kirk boxes, some of which, fabricated by this self-taught artist, were purchased and sent as presents to the royal family. To his other endowments he added an accurate knowledge of drawing and engraving, and in both these arts produced specimens of great merit. For upwards of fifty years Sandy quitted his bed only three times, and on these oc casions his house was either inundated with water, or threatened with danger from fire. His unbounded curiosity prompted him to hatch different kinds of birds' eggs by the natural warmth of his body, and he reared his various broods with all the tenderness of a parent. On visiting him it was no unusual thing to see singing birds of different species, to which he may be said to have given birth, perched on his head, and warbling the artificial notes he had taught them. Naturally possessed of a good constitution, and an active, cheerful turn of mind, his house was the general coffee-room of the village, where the affairs of church and state were freely discussed. In consequence of long confinement his countenance had rather a sickly cast, but it was remarkably expressive, particularly when he was surrounded by his country friends. This singular man had acquired by his ingenuity and industry an honourable independence, and died possessed of considerable property. About three weeks before his death he married. coach, in order to pay a long-promised visit to my friend and schoolfellow T. My feelings were any thing but enviable. They were in a state of seasonable and almost intolerable irritation, resulting from all successive evils of a shivering and early resignation of enveloping bed-clothes, a hurried dressing, (productive of an utter failure in the arrangement of the bow of my neckcloth,) a trembling hand that caused a gash in my chin with a blunt razor, (all my others had been officiously packed up by Mrs. Sally,) a breakfast swallowed standing, (which I abominate, as it stands to reason it must be unwholesome,) tea that seemed "as if it never would grow cool," though poured out in the saucer, and sundry admonitory twitchings of the bit of court-plaster on my sliced chin, threatening the total discomfiture of my habilimentary economy. All these things tended but little towards rendering my frame of mind peculiarly equable, while hurrying forward towards the point of destination, gulping down fresh (no not fresh) mouthfuls of the thick yellow atmosphere, at each extorted exclamation of disgust and impatience. At last I arrived in the inn-yard, fully prepared for an expected look of surprise, and accompanying exclamation of "The coach, sir! why, Lord bless you, sir, it's off long ago; it leaves here at seven precisely, and it's now nearly half past.” Conceive then what was my agreeable astonishment when I learned that the real time was only half past six! I found that, owing to my anxious fears lest I should be too late, I had neglected to perceive that my watch had gained half an hour in the course of the night; and the shame I now felt at having thus suffered my irritability to get the better of me, led me to reflect upon the patient gentleness of the mild and amiable Fanny, (my friend's wife,) who is indeed a perfect specimen of a delightful woman. În her are joined those two qualities so rarely united (yet, which, when they are so, form a gem)-a truly feminine and gentle heart, and a strong and wellinformed mind. It is truly delightful to see her blend the domestic duties of a housewife, (the fulfilment of which is ever graceful in a female,) and the affectionate attentions of a mother and wife, with literary information and attainments. I was called off from this pleasing subject of reflection by a view of the scene before me. The coach, a handsome, wellbuilt vehicle, stood on one side of the yard in all the brilliancy of a highly-varnished claret ground, and burnished gilt letters The four beautiful, spirited animals belonging to it, with their glossy bright skins covered with cloths till the moment of "putting to," were then led forth by a fellow in corduroy breeches, laying in massive rolls on his large muscular limbs, and terminating in a pair of dull and never-shining, top-boots-a waistcoat which had been of red plush, spotted with black; but the glories of its gules and sable were well nigh effaced by the long line of successive cross-quarterings of grease and mud-a face hard and liny, that looked impenetrable, and certainly conveyed no idea to my mind of a "Robin Ostler," who " never joy'd since the price of oats rose," much less could it have ever been " the death of him." He came forward with that slouching gait and hoarse rasping voice, so well personified by the admirable and all-observing Matthews. Then the coachman appeared-well buttoned up to the throat in an enormous boxcoat of a whitish drab colour, fastened with immense mother-o'-pearl buttons-a yellow silk handkerchief round his neck, reaching just under the nether lip, and covering the tips of his ears-a hat with brims, like the walls of Babylon-and an air of affected nonchalance, which tells you, that you are expected to look upon him in a very different light from the attentive "coachee of some few years back. He is now a complete fine gentleman; for as the gentleman affects the coachman, why should not the coachman affect the gentleman? They are now not to be known apart. The "luggage" is then brought forth and "loaded"—and all the passengers installed in their different places. The last directions are given. "More last words," and a paper of biscuits is handed in at the coach-window to the little boy who is going to, under the special care of the coachman, and, as his mamma delightedly observes, is already become a favourite with the "kind-looking lady" opposite to him. The small parcel" to be left at Mr. K-'s at the small white cottage" is snugly slipt into the coach-pocket-and the final "all right" is given from the impatient passengers "behind." How different is the quiet and orderly manner in which a vehicle is thus despatched to go hundreds of miles, from the dire bustle and utter "confusion of tongues" attendant upon the departure of a French diligence.- Imagine a spacious yard, paved with stones shaped like enormous sugared almonds,” jutting out in all directions to the tter annoyance of the five poor animals, 66 or rather skeletons, in rope harness, which are about to be yoked to an uncouth machine, looking the complete antipodes of rapidity of motion-of a colour perfectly indescribable, but something approaching to a dingy red, intermixed with a rusty, dusty black-straw peeping out in every direction; whether from roof, or sides, or entangled among the broken, rickety steps, which project in awful forewarning_of grazed shins and sprained ancles. The Conducteur in his dark blue jacket turned up with scarlet-leather breeches shining with the perpetual friction of the saddleboots, like brewing vats-a hat, very nearly a perfect cone," with a rim, set in the middle of a regular copse-wood of coal black hair, surmounting a face whose dark complexion, fiercely sparkling eyes, and stiff mustachios, help to give force to the excessive tension of muscle in his countenance, which is actually convulsed with ire, as he sends forth volleys of sacrés and morbleus at the maudit entêté on the roof, who persists in loading the different articles in exact opposition to all the passionate remonstrances and directions of poor Monsieur le Conducteur. Femmes de chambres shrieking at the very top of their voices"Garçons of fifty" equally vociferous in bawling "On vient! on vient !" though no one calls-Commissionaires insisting upon the necessity of passports to incredulous Englishmen, with an incessant " Mais que diable donc, Monsieur!"-Hordes of beggars shouting forth their humble petitions of "Pour l'amour du bon Dieu un petit liard, Monsieur." "Ah! Seigneur, qu'est-ce que j'ai fait de mes clefs!" screams the landlady. "Sacré nom de tonnerre! tais-toi, donc," growls the landlord, in a voice like the thunder he invokes. As the "Commissioners" rely on the trust reposed in the "Pikeman," I imagine him to be worthy of being shown in the most favourable colours. Like a good sexton, he must attend to his toll-like alesman, know his head of cattle-like a ottery prize-seeker, be acquainted with his umber-like Fielding's Minos, in his Journey from this world to the next," hut his gate against those who are brought p improperly to the bar. A modern Gilin should scarcely risk a ride unwittingly hrough his demesne. - In the "dead waste and middle of the night," when sleep steals over him wearily, now many calls of the coachman, the chaise driver, the stanhope gentleman, the important bagman, and the drover, is he obliged to obey! The imperative "Pike!". "Gate!"-" Hallo!"-are like so many knells rung in his ear. The clock is a friend to most men in the various occupations of life; the shadow on the grass warns the shepherd and hind to retire to rest; the dial gives the gardener leave to quit his vegetable and floral world in safety till the succeeding morning; but the pikeman finds no solace in the instructive progress of his Dutch-clock, or in the more highly favoured one with a window before its pulselike-pendulum, (as the person with a window in his breast,) or in the weather betokening 66 man and woman," who, like an unhappy couple, never go out together. Who that has looked upon the pikeman's contracted span-his little white-painted hut, like a showman's figured canvass—but shrewdly guesses that the best portions of his sunside of comforts are on the outside? What a Jack in the Box!* He seems in his room like a singing-bird in a cage. His cat and dog are his companions, save when the newsman, postman, or any man, in short, arrives. Munden's "Crack" is not to be seen at every turnpike gate. A magpie, or blackbird, often hangs and whistles, like himself, in stationary captivity. Yet he is a man of some information. The waggoner, the duellist, the huckster, and the Gretna folks, in pursuit of romantic happiness, sometimes make him useful. The horse patrol consults him in the way of business; few fights occur without his knowledge; and even the political express gives him broad hints as to the secret operations of his majesty's ministers. He completely au fait in all common concerns in his vicinity-a local "finger-post." Occasionally, I have seen a chubfaced, curly-headed child playing near his "box" on the roadside, like idleness in ease, with rushes and flags round its brow, enjoying The original" Jack in the Box," with the nutmeggrater at the bottom, has disappeared with its contemporary, the "Horn Alphabet," to the no small loss of all good young people, 66 the luxuries of fancied greatness, and twisting leaves and weeds together emblems of our varied and united virtues. And I have beheld a pikeman's housewife (if her dwelling may be called a house) busily employed within her narrow sphere to keep things straight," and "make both ends meet," with an understanding, that "all's well that ends well."* And I have observed her lovely child, kneeling before its mother on a stool, with its palms pressed together, in the grateful attitude of an acknowledged beneficent Providence. I once knew an upright and a civil pike man. He had seen better days.-One of the beauties of education is, that it distinguishes a man, however he is placed.-He was planed down, as a carpenter might say, from the knots of pride, to smooth humanity. To use a beautiful, though much quoted, apostrophe by Avon's bard, "I shall not look upon his like again!" All good characters give useful example: -they teach as they live, and win inferiors in virtue by the brightness and placidity of their decline and fall. There is a difference between a Tyburngate official, and a promiscuous sojourner, who guards the pass of a new, lone road, through which scarcely a roadster trots. The cockney keeper of cockney riders, is rarely without "short cut" and the "ready" in word and deed. In his short-pocketed white apron he stands defiance, and seems to say, "Who cares?" His knowing wink to the elastic arrn of the coachee, which indicates the "all right!" has much meaning in it. His twirl of the sixpence on his thumb nail, and rattle of "coppers" for "small change," prove his knowledge of exchange and the world. The pikeman out of town is allowed a scrap of garden-ground, which he sedulously cultivates. In town, he has not the liberty of a back door-to be acquainted with his boundaries, you need only look at the "Farthing pie gate" for an example. He may be sometimes seen in a chair, in front of his domicile, making remarks on men and manners.' His name hangs on a thread over his door: if he is an honest man, equestrians will appreciate his merits, and do well if they imitate his philosophy. morning he resumed his usual seclusion for the ensuing twelvemonth. He lived many years in full expectation of the commencement of the millennium. But that which has given celebrity to the name of the late "Robert North, Esq." at Scarborough is the founding, in the year 1728, of a very useful institution, called "The Amicable Society," for clothing and educating the children of the poor; which under the government of a president, four trustees, and four wardens, annually elected, with a fund for its support, arising from the weekly subscriptions of the members, collections made in the church, and other voluntary donations, continues to flourish. The number of children thus clothed and educated, now in the school, is sixty, and the number of members two hundred and sixty-five. This institution has preserved many children from the contagion of evil example, and enabled them to follow useful occupations in life with credit and advantage. Several, who, by their early education at this seminary, attained a competent know ledge of navigation, became mates and commanders of vessels, and eventually benefactors and patrons of the institu tion. not appear; The exact day of Mr. North's death does but his interment is dated in the parish-register of Scarborough, 14th October, 1760. Mr. North, by a singular codicil to his will, gives one pair of his silver candlesticks to the celebrated Dr. Young, author of the poem on the Last Day, &c.; and the other pair to the Rev. James Hervey, author of the Meditations among the Tombs, &c. "I call these," he says, "in some measure legacies to the public, having given them to persons so well able to employ them for the benefit of mankind." * and humour. In pursuance of an old pro- The other legacies by this codicil are which two last legacies I leave, as the best method I know, though not an exact one, of making restitution for the injustice I may have done, in buying (inadvertently) The Whole Works of the Rev. Thomas Adam have been lately first collected in three vols. by the Rev. W. Smith. † A brave man thinks no one his superior who does him an injury, for he has it then in his power to make Testator |