a-trembling, and kicked and plunged franticly, till he got quit of the corpse. - An incident not worth the notice, but for the moment of its occurrence, and the trouble it caused to those immediately near. "Under this cannonade General Wellesley formed up his people in three lines; two of infantry, the third of his cavalry which, as soon as the columns had crossed the ford, rode smartly down from their position, and took battle station in reserve. As a watching check upon the enemy's right, were left the Mysore horse and some cavalry of the Peish wah's, which marched with our army; but though useful here, they could not be ventured in the fight. "The order of battle being thus skilfully changed, the infantry of Scindia was compelled to present a new front. They did so with greater ease than was expected. The line they now formed rested with its right upon the Kaitna, and its left upon the village of Assaye and the Juah. The front now presented by the enemy was one vast battery, especially towards the left, so numerous and weighty were the guns, and so thickly were they disposed immediately near the village. "The fire was rapid, furious, and terrible in execution; the British guns, few in number, opened as the line advanced, but were almost on the instant silenced. Their gunners dropped fast, and the cattle fell lacerated or killed beside them. With the fierceness of the struggle, and the fearfulness of the hazard, the undaunted spirit of the general rose. He at once abandoned the guns, and directed an advance with the bayonet. With the main body he soon forced and drove the enemy's right, possessing himself of their guns by a resolute charge. "During this movement, the pickets and 74th regiment were losing men so fast by the fire from Assaye, that a body of Mahratta horse, which, hastening to that flank, bad moved round the village, charged them, and with severe effect; though the heart or centre of the 74th still held gallantly together, Maxwell, with his dragoons, rode swiftly to their rescue, and spurring hard upon their assailants, drove them, with great slaughter, across the Juah. Amid a shower of musketry and grape, this leader and his cavalry rode on through the enemy's left; the gallant remnant of the pickets and 74th pressed on, and the battle was already won. The sepoys of the main body possessed in great part the very ground on which the enemy had stood, and the guns, which he had fought to the last; the gunners, in many instances, actually suffering themselves to be bayonetted at their posts, in others, lying dead, as it seemed, under their cannon. These sepoys rushed on in pursuit. Their officers could not control their elated ardour; but happily the 78th British, upon the left of all this early exultation, stood firm and steady, with unbroken ranks. Å cloud of the enemy's horse hung dark upon the hill above, ready to burst, like a torrent, upon the brave confusion, but they durst not dash and break, as they must have done, upon that rock. "Some of Scindia's routed battalions clustered confusedly near Assaye, where numbers of the infantry and gunners, who had cast themselves upon the earth to avoid the sabres of the cavalry, by feigning death, started up, and joined them. This body attempted a new formation, again opened the guns, and renewed the battle. "A large column of the enemy, already in full retreat, rallied at the hopeful sound, turned, and formed again. These the brave Maxwell checked by a gallant charge, and in this good service, closed his honourable life. Among the last efforts of a day of efforts, was a second attack of the formidable artillery near the village of Assaye. This General Wellesley led up in person, at the head of the 78th and 7th native cavalry. The enemy fled without awaiting the shock; but as the general was advancing, his horse, struck by a cannon-shot that carried away its leg, fell under him. A field, flowing with blood, black with abandoned cannon, and covered with slain, remained in possession of the British. It was near dark when the firing ceased. That night Wellesley lay down and slept upon the field of battle. For a time, this day the die had spun doubtful;' but the secret impulse which had prompted him to give the battle, did still, through all its thunder, whisper in his ear, Victory!' The toss and fiery tramp of his favourite Arab were stilled in death, but the spur of the rider was not cold. A favouring Providence had shone kind on his bold hopes, and covered his head in battle. This success involved mighty consequences. 'Never,' says Dr Southey, was any victory gained under so many disadvantages. Superior arms and discipline have often prevailed against as great a numerical difference, but it would be describing the least part of this day's glory to say, that the number of the enemy were as ten to one; they had disciplined troops in the field under European officers, who more than doubled the British force; they had a hundred pieces of cannon, which were served with perfect skill, and which the British, without the aid of artillery, twice won with the bayonet." In his present volume Captain Sherer brings us down only to May 1810, at a time when the army of Portugal was concentrated under Massena, and the fate of that country and Spain was still uncertain. Perhaps our biographer may improve as he proceeds, and we must say there is urgent need of it, for the present is but an inauspicious commencement of Lardner's Cabinet Library, which is intended as a sort of jolly-boat to follow in the wake of his larger vessel, the Cabinet Cyclopædia. Poems, Sacred and Miscellaneous. By Charles Gilborne Lyons. Dublin. William Curry, jun., and Co. 1831. 12mo. Pp. 118. THIS Volume contains many indications of an amiable, but few of a powerful mind. Mr Lyons is one of that numerous class who have enough of the poetical temperament to make them rejoice in the weaving together of verses, but not enough to enable those verses to soar much above mediocrity. We think, on the whole, it is better for such persons to abstain from publishing. Their poetical effusions will give pleasure to themselves and their friends, in manuscript, but it requires sterner stuff to attract the attention of strangers and the public at large. Mr Lyons divides his volume into the two heads of Sacred and Miscellaneous poems. We shall give an extract from each. The following is one of the best of the sacred poems: OH! STEAL NOT THOU MY FAITH AWAY. But leave this heavenly gift behind :- Lit up amid surrounding gloom,—— "Yet if, as holy men have said, There lie beyond that dreary bourne Some region where the faithful dead Eternally forget to mourn ; Welcome the scoff, the sword, the chain, The burning wild, the black abyss,→→→ I shrink not from the path of pain, Which endeth in a world like this. "But, oh! if all that nerves us here, When grief assails and sorrow stings, Exist but in the shadowy sphere Of Fancy's weak imaginings; If hopes, though cherish'd long and deep, Be cold and baseless mockeries; Then welcome that eternal sleep, Which knoweth not of dreams like these. "Yet, hush! thou troubled heart! be still; The light of Truth will break on thee. The glorious words- Thou shalt not die !"" From the miscellaneous poems we take one, which we consider more spirited than any of the rest : TO A TYRANT. "Thou faithless contemner of compact and vow, The tribes of the fearless may rush to the field, Away!-for thy laurels are blighted and red, All the bloom which they brought from the forest hath fled, They are sear'd with the curse of the chainless and brave, Voyages and Discoveries of the Companions of Columbus. By Washington Irving. (Being the Family Library, No. XVIII.) London. John Murray. 1831. We are here presented with a good addition to Mr Irving's Life of Columbus. None of the disciples of that great man achieved discoveries equal to his, and many of them were actuated by motives more questionable than the desire to extend our knowledge of the globe on which we live. To secure the first fruits of the pearl fisheries of Paria and Cubaga, or to explore the coast of Veragua, which Columbus had represented as the Aurea Cherso nesus of the ancients, contented the ambition of many of his immediate followers. Some there were, however, who did more; especially Vasco Nunez de Balboa, whose discovery of the Pacific Ocean forms one of the most beautiful and striking incidents in the history of the New World; and Juan Ponce de Leon, the conqueror of Porto Rico, and discoverer of Florida. Of all the captains and admirals sent out by Spain to follow up what Columbus had begun, Vasco Nanez is our favourite; and there are points in his history, that make us pause with wonder and admiration at the daring spirit of the man who surmounted, by his courage and perseverance, so many appalling difficulties; not the least of which was the piecemeal transportation across the then untraversed mountains of Darien, of the first European ships that ploughed the waves of the Pacific. Nunez was a follower worthy of Columbus. The most interesting chapter in the whole of the volume before us, is that which describes his DISCOVERY OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN. "The day had scarcely dawned, when Vasco Nunez and his followers set forth from the Indian village, and began to climb the height. It was a severe and rugged toil for men so way worn; but they were filled with new ardour, at the idea of the triumphant scene that was so soon to repay them for all their hardships. About ten o'clock in the morning, they emerged from the thick forests through which they had hitherto struggled, and arrived at a lofty and airy region of the mountain. The bald summit alone remained to be ascended; and their guides pointed to a moderate eminence, from which they said the southern sea was visible. "Upon this, Vasco Nunez commanded his followers to halt, and that no man should stir from his place. Then, with a palpitating heart, he ascended alone the bare mountain top. On reaching the summit, the long-desired prospect burst upon his view. It was as if a new world were unfolded to him, separated from all hitherto known by this mighty barrier of mountains. Below him extended a vast chaos of rock and forest, and green savannas and meandering streams, while at a distance the waters of the promised ocean glittered in the morning sun. "At this glorious prospect, Vasco Nunez sank upon his knees, and poured out thanks to God for being the first European to whom it was given to make that great discovery. He then called his people to ascend: Behold, my friends,' said he, that glorious sight, which we have so much desired! Let us give thanks to God, that he has granted us this great honour and advantage. Let us pray to him to guide and aid us to conquer the sea and land which we have discovered, and which Christian has never entered to preach the holy doctrine of the Evangelists. As to yourselves, be as you have hitherto been, faithful and true to me, and, by the favour of Christ, you will become the richest Spaniards that have ever come to the Indies; you will render the greatest services to your king that ever vassal rendered to his lord; and you will have the eternal glory and advantage of all that is here discovered, conquered, and converted to our holy Catholic faith.' "The Spaniards answered this speech, by embracing Vasco Nunez, and promising to follow him to death. Among them was a priest, named Andres de Vara, who lifted up his voice and chanted Te Deum laudamus-the usual an them of Spanish discoverers. The rest, kneeling down, joined in the strain with pious enthusiasm and tears of joys and never did a more sincere oblation rise to the Deity from a sanctified altar, than from that wild mountain summit. It was, indeed, one of the most sublime discoveries that had yet been made in the New World, and must have opened a boundless field of conjecture to the wondering Spasplendid confusion of their thoughts. Was this the great The imagination delights to picture forth the niards. Indian ocean, studded with precious islands, abounding in gold, in gems, and spices, and bordered by the gorgeous lonely sea, locked up in the embraces of savage, uncultivatel cities and wealthy marts of the East? or was it some continents, and never traversed by a bark, except the light pirogue of the savage? The latter could hardly be the case, for the natives had told the Spaniards of golden realms, and populous, and powerful, and luxurious nations, upon its shores. Perhaps it might be bordered by various peoples, civilized, in fact, though differing from Europe in their civilisation; who might have peculiar laws and customs, and arts and sciences; who might form, as it were, a world of their own, intercommuning by this mighty sea, and carrying on commerce between their own islands and continents, but who might exist in total ignorance and independence of the other hemisphere. "Such may naturally have been the ideas suggested by It was the prevalent bethe sight of this unknown ocean, Christians who had made the discovery. Vasco Nunez, lief of the Spaniards, however, that they were the first therefore, called upon all present to witness that he took possession of that sea, its islands, and surrounding lands, in the name of the sovereigns of Castile; and the notary of the expedition made a testimonial of the same, to which all present, to the number of sixty-seven men, signed their names He then caused a fair and tall tree to be cut down, and wrought into a cross, which was elevated on the spot from whence he had first beheld the sea. A mound of stones was likewise piled up, to serve as a monument; and the names of the Castilian sovereigns were carved on the neighbouring trees. The Indians beheld all these ceremonials and rejoicings in silent wonder; and while they aided to erect the cross and pile up the mound of stones, marvelled exceedingly at the meaning of these monuments, little thinking that they marked the subjugation of their land. "The memorable event here recorded took place on the 26th of September, 1513." The subsequent fate of poor Nunez was most melancholy, and, as his biographer observes," might furnish a theme of wonderful interest for a poem or a drama." On the whole, Washington Irving has done well in rescuing from oblivion, and introducing to the acquaintance of the English reader, the names and fortunes of many enterprising adventurers, who were fast passing into neglect, with the ancient Spanish chroniclers who tell their eventful stories. MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE. A LEGEND OF THE PYRENEES. By the Author of “ An Autumn in Italy,”* WHOEVER has visited the picturesque scenery of the Pyrenees, must allow that the epithet of la belle France, which our lively neighbours, with characteristic national Constable's Miscellany, Vol. 38. vanity, bestow on their native land, though not applicable turesque ruin on the pinnacle of an eminence on the to it as a whole, justly appertains to a part. right, is called La Tour des Anglés, once the residence of the barons of that title. Bagneres, situated in one of the finest valleys of the Upper Pyrenees, is resorted to, chiefly in the autumn, from Barrèges and Cauterets, famed for the marvellous .properties of their mineral waters. Many inhabitants of crowded cities derive enjoyment at these pleasing retreats, in the stillness and tranquil grandeur of the beautiful valley of Campaus, classically termed the Vale of Tempe, where they inhale the invigorating breezes from the Pic | du Midi, or contemplate the glittering summits of the wild mountain scenery, dark pine forests, and sublime cascades. A more distant ride is the fertile valley of Ossun, its verdant meadows watered by the Gave, and varied by a succession of stately chateaux and massy grey ruins, overshadowed by extensive woods; every baronial castle having its legend, like those on the banks of the Rhine, and "the dark-rolling Danube." I remember, some years ago, in the month of October, taking an excursion, accompanied by a friend, and attended by a guide, to the Breche de Roland, and the majestic amphitheatre of rocks, which forms the bold natural barrier that separates France from Spain. We were overtaken by one of those violent storms so common in that wild romantic region, where only deep ravines and frightful precipices are seen on every side. We entered a village church, as much for the sake of shelter-for we were neither armed with patience nor umbrellas-as to see the skulls of half-a-dozen Templars, which have ornamented an equal number of niches in it ever since the feudal ages, when the entire surrounding district belonged to the knights of that powerful and licentious order. Being little skilled in the science of phrenology, our examination of the crania was soon over;—not so the rain, which fell in torrents; and never were two unlucky wights more completely saturated than we were, before we reached the miserable auberge at Gavernie, worse than Horace's "Hospitio modico." We found a party of swarthy Spanish contrabandistas already in possession, some of whom were smoking cigars by the kitchen fire, and others were busy unloading their mules. Ascertaining that their cargo consisted of grapes, we soon became purchasers, It and they proved the most delicious I ever tasted. must, however, be allowed, that the brawny Arragonese seemed as little regardless about the price of the ostensible objects of their traffic as we did—the real one being of a much more hazardous nature, which they were preparing to smuggle across the mountain passes. During six-and-thirty hours of mist and perpetual rain, without a gleam of sunshine to enliven us, my companion and I, having exhausted every topic of conversation, were beginning to give way to the English malady of ennui, Anglicé, blue devils, when we were aroused by the chattering of a loquacious French woman, the mother of our host, who, with all the garrulity of age, told us an interminable story about Madame la Dauphine and her suite, who had honoured this same auberge with a compulsory residence of a day the preceding summer, assuring us that we had the felicity of inhabiting the identical room where that illustrious lady had slept on that ever-memorable occasion. Being desirous of obtaining some local information, I discovered that the old dame was versed in legendary lore, and as she seemed too happy to secure a couple of willing listeners, we were favoured with the following tradition, which she related with much circumlocution : "When you passed through the valley of Ossun," said the old lady," you must have remarked the inhabitants of the town of the same name, for they have ever been distinguished from their neighbours by the singularity of their dress, manners, and language. The chateau which crowns the summit of a hill on the left, coming from Pau, formerly belonged to the noble family of Benac, one of the most ancient in Bearn, allied by marriage to the illustrious houses of Noailles and Elbeuf: the pic "When the crusade, which proved fatal to St Louis, and to so many gallant knights, was about to leave the shores of France for the Holy Land, the Marquis of Benac, who had been only a few months married to a young and beautiful lady, thought that his religion and his honour imposed on him the sacred duty of participating in the glorious perils of the East, notwithstanding his previously well-earned military fame, and recent nuptials. The Marquis told his fair spouse, when about to set off for Palestine, that if she received no tidings of him for seven years, she might avail herself of the privilege of marrying again, on condition that the young and handsome Baron des Anglés-already too much esteemed by the Marchioness, to be viewed with a very friendly eye by her husband-was not selected in his place. not only promised never to renew her marriage vows, but even added, that if she should be induced to alter her intention, the Seigneur des Anglés would certainly not be the happy man of her choice. Thus re-assured, the brave knight took an affectionate leave of his lovely companion, who had scarcely wiped the tears from her eyes, when she forgot her promise; and the Baron's visits became rather too frequent at the castle. The lady "In the meantime, the valiant crusader, more favoured by Mars than Venus, distinguished himself in many battles against the infidels, but had the misfortune to be taken prisoner at Damietta, and his glorious career was closed by a long captivity. Seven years thus elapsed, and the Marchioness, either forgetting, or wishing to forget, the injunctions of her absent lord, prepared to give her hand to his rival; but an extraordinary incident occurred, which raised an unlooked-for obstacle to their happiness. "The Devil, who never sleeps, appeared to the warrior in his dungeon, announcing the agreeable intelligence of the projected union; adding, however, a tempting proposal, to transport the Marquis to his own castle before the consummation of the marriage, on the trifling condition of obtaining (by voluntary cession) control over his soul. 'My soul,' exclaimed the Christian knight, belongs to God!' 'Your heart, then?' 'That belongs to my king and country; but I will give you my supper, which is now before me untouched.' "The Marquis's Satanic ally consented, placed him on his black shoulders, and darted off through the air, at a quicker rate than ever Mercury carried the messages of Jupiter. "Our two lovers, equally anxious to have the ceremony performed, had prepared a splendid banquet, and invited many guests for the occasion, the most important of whom was the Bishop of Tarbes, who had already arrived, and was proceeding to the chapel, in order to bestow the Episcopal sanction, when the Syrian warrior was set down from his aerial voyage at the door of his own castle. But such was the length of his beard, disfigured features, and altered appearance, from suffering and imprisonment, that even the menials in the hall repulsed their old master. He insisted, however, on being brought before his faithless wife, and succeeded just before her wishes were crowned at the altar. 'Madam,' he said, in a voice of thunder, here is one half of your wedding-ring; have you preserved the other?" "Upon this the Marquis was instantly recognised by all; his old dog died at his feet, and his steed neighed in the stable. The bishop, whose services were thus rendered unnecessary, mounted his mule and rode off. The baron made an unceremonious retreat, forgetting in his hurry to congratulate the unwelcome guest on his safe return from the wars. But no one enjoyed the festive board more than the crusader, particularly as he was conscious the feast had not been destined for him; and, in the ex-works, which have not yet arrived; but it will open cess of his generosity, he threw a flask of old vilandric over his shoulder to his cloven-footed assistant, to wash down the supper he had left for him in the dungeon at Damietta. "You may believe this or not as you please," said our Gavernie hostess, observing an incredulous smile on our countenances, "but I can assure you that I have actually seen the Marquis de Benac's helmet and spurs in the mairie of Tarbes, where they remain to this day, for the brave Marquis deposited them himself in the church of the Cordeliers of that town, on his return from the Holy Land." So convincing a proof of her veracity, of course, dispelled all doubt from our minds on the subject. immediately. The catalogue, which we have seen, promises highly. There are in all twenty-nine pictures, mostly by eminent masters, among whom are Vandyke, Titian, Paris Bordone, Sebastian del Piombo, Woovermans, Gaspar Poussin, Tintoretto, Michael Angelo, Carravagio, and Georgione. All the paintings have been purchased by the Institution, and are to form the commencement of a national public Gallery. In reference to the Royal Institution, we may further remark, that it was with sincere pleasure we lately learned that Mr Francis Grant had been chosen a director. An artist himself, he may be of vital use in teaching that body what they owe to artists. We should like to see more artists amongst them; and, in particular, we cannot fancy why the Rev. Mr Thomson has not long ago been elected. Such an We have seen a good many of the paintings preparing office is certainly as compatible with the clerical characfor the Exhibition of the Scottish Academy, and would ter as those of president of a curling-club, or judge at a have no fear of its being more than usually brilliant, but cattle-show,-offices which we know to be most ably and for one circumstance. We do not know who are at pre-efficiently filled by some of his professional brethren. NEWS OF THE FINE ARTS. sent the members of the hanging committee, but we know that those of last year discharged their duty in a bungling and inefficient manner. There were many excellent paintings in the Exhibition, which, from the manner they were hung, were entirely without effect; and we remember more than one instance in which individuals whom we know to possess a just and delicate sensibility to the beauties of art, left the rooms under the impression that there was scarcely a good picture in them. Another misfortune of last year's exhibition was the quantity of trash admitted, lowering its character, and, at the same time, over-crowding the walls. As, however, we are not certain whether the power of admission and rejection rests in the same committee to whom are intrusted the care of hanging the pictures, and as we are unwilling to attribute undeserved blame, we pass over this subject at present. Our object is to impress upon the hanging committee of this year, the importance of their duties, and their heavy responsibility. It is an unfortunate circumstance that none but an artist can know what pictures may be safely hung near each other, and that suspicions, not always unjustified, necessarily attach to one who is himself an exhibitor. We do not revert to the past, but if we find such pictures as those which we have seen in the ateliers of Simpson, Lauder, Gordon, and Thomson, (we hope, though we are not certain, that the last will exhibit,) hung so as not to tell in the exhibition, we propose to speak out, and that seriously. ΤΑ ΣΠΟΡΑΔΗΝ, OR MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES OF ANTIQUITY, APOTHEGMS, By William Tennant. I HAVE not heard of a more ingenious argument proposed for the exercise of unanimity and good agreement, than that made use of by the pinguid orator of Byzantium among his divided fellow-citizens. The forum of Byzantium was raging with faction; the good-humoured orator ascended the tribune, and addressed the people in the following strain :-" Fellow-citizens, ye behold how fat I am!"-looking down upon his sleek, capon-lined rotundity of abdomen; "yet fat as I am," continued he, "my wife is still fatter; nevertheless, fat though we both be, we both sleep in one bed, and that merely because we agree; were we to differ, the whole house could not contain us!" One of the most extravagant and unseemly entertainments introduced after dinner for the amusement of guests, was that practised at the court of a certain king of Thrace, and recorded by an old Greek writer. The Greeks, it is true, had odd enough amusements after dining; such as the performances of quacks, and miraclemen, who swallowed and vomited fire, and danced on their heads upon the points of poniards and scimitars. But the Thracian amusement possesses more originality and extravagance. It was called The Game of Hanging. They attached a strong cord with a noose to the top of the chamber-ceiling. Into this noose one of the guests, alternately as his turn came, or by lot as his chance fell, thrust his head, supporting his feet at the same time on a large voluble stone, set for the purpose of his elevation; he held, at the same time, his drawn sword in his hand, The system recently adopted by the Board of Trustees is liberal and praiseworthy. Besides being, as formerly, open for two hours in the evening to the students, the public are now admitted three days in every week by an order, which may be procured at the Board's office, No. 81, George Street. Artists are admitted to draw from the casts every Friday, upon procuring a season ticket from the Secretary, Mr Skene of Rubislaw. The Institution has also thrown open its library of engravings to the inspection of the public. We rejoice to see such un-ready for the terrible exigence. When his head was equivocal proofs of the awakening of a liberal spirit; and it is in no captious mood, but solely from our anxiety to purge away every taint of the old leaven, that we advert to the fact, that some of the Directors have been heard to complain, that, now the gallery was opened, the artists did not attend. This is not at all unlikely, for a very simple reason that sufficient pains were not taken to announce the change in the Board's management of its gallery. And even though it had been made more generally known, we were quite prepared to expect that some time must elapse before the majority of our artists became aware of the full worth of the boon that has been conferred upon them. Those who set themselves up to foster infant art and science, must not be testy because they make slow progress. The exhibition of ancient paintings in the building on the Mound, is only delayed on account of some expected adjusted into the noose, another of the guests approached and kicked from under him the voluble stone, so that his body was left to swing suspended on the cord. If he had sufficient presence of mind, and steadiness of nerve, during this suspension, he cut the cord and saved himself; if he could not do so, he was allowed to swing on and agitate himself to death-the company all the while enjoying with laughter his convulsions and strainings to extricate himself.-Barbarous and unnatural as such an entertainment may be deemed in our modern conceptions, it is nevertheless in accordance with the manners of the barbarians who practised it; but how shall we apologize for that polished people, our so much-admired Romans, whose young noblemen, after their bacchanalian dinners, were at times wont to introduce a pair or two of gladiators, who fought in their presence till one of two of the parties fell gasping in blood at their feet, while bursts of applause broke from the admiring revellers? A Roman consul was once, while at a banquet in Gaul, entreated by his mistress to permit her to enjoy the spectacle of a human being beheaded; he ordered a criminal to be led into the dining-room where they sat, and, before the eyes of both, as they reclined at table, the miserable unfortunate was beheaded! Such were some of the fellowcountrymen of the accomplished Cicero, Antoninus, and Seneca. It is remarkable that the liking for fish seems to be the predominant characteristic of every people as it increases In opulence, and refines in luxurious enjoyments. Poor people are generally not very fond of fish. The ancient Greeks, like our lowest Scottish country people, had rather a dislike of fish; they never ate them except when compelled by necessity. Homer, who is very minute in his enumeration of the heroic dishes, excludes them from the tables of Agamemnon and Achilles. In later times, the Greeks became so excessively fond of fish, that their word two-which expresses nearly the meaning of our Scottish word kitchen-denotes fish principally, as that meat which, above all others, was preferred for being eaten with bread. The seas and shores of Greece and the islands were ransacked for the most delicate fish, and exorbitant prices were paid for them by the city epicures. The fishmongers of Athens were, to judge of them from description, a most opulent and powerful body; they were classed with the bankers of the city, and were alike unpopular, alike unmercifully lashed by the dramatic poets of Athens. There was a strange law at Corinth, one of the wealthiest, as it was the most commercial city, of Greece, that if any stranger appearing among them seemed to live too luxuriously, and was seen too frequently at the market-place purchasing high-priced fish, he was questioned by the magistrates as to his means of being able to maintain his table so expensively; if he showed the means of doing so, he was allowed to remain ; if he could not exhibit his pecuniary capabilities, and persisted to purchase dear fish, he was consigned to the city executioner. So fond were the Athenians of fish, and so nice about the best modes of pickling or preserving them, that they presented with the right of citizenship the two sons of one Chœriphilus, merely because their father had invented a new sauce for scombri, or mackarel; whence an Athenian wit, on seeing the two youths galloping about the streets in their new equestrian dignity, denominated them The two Mackarels on horseback. The rage of the Roman voluptuaries for delicate fish is well known; not only did they bring them from the shores of Britain and the farthest islands, but they endeavoured to colonize the seas in the neighbourhood of Rome with breeds of new fish. Octavius, the admiral of the Roman fleet, brought from some distant sea an immense number of seari, or chars, with which he stocked and peopled the ocean between Ostia and Campania, as a nursery of new scari. What success befell this piscatory sort of colonisation is not recorded. THE FISH-DEVOURER. From the Greek of Alexis. In this our Athens heretofore, But now, since that worst wight of wights, Proud-pursed Phayllus, walks our town, Cursed with a lust of fish, he lights A third storm on our markets down. And for his kitchen up he sweeps Mack'rel and mutton, skate and scar, Each fish that clings, or swims, or creeps, Leaving the fish-stalls pick'd and bare. Why nought is left, except perhaps Some pot-herbs that a cow would slight, Round which, to keep our hungry chaps From famine, we poor fellows fight. There is pretty good evidence for supposing that no less a person than Osiris, the great God of Egypt, was the first distiller of whisky on record. For the Egyptians had, from time almost immemorial, a distillation or brewage from barley, called by the Greeks barley-wine, not inferior, they say, in flavour, and superior in strength, to wine. Allusion is made to this liquor in several passages of ancient writers. The poor people of Egypt drank it instead of wine, and were wont to intoxicate themselves with it, just as our poorer people do with whisky. It seems also to have been no stranger to the Hebrews; for reference is certainly made to it in the Old Testament, under the name of "strong drink," stronger than wine, and resorted to by determined drinkers for the sake of inebriation. Among the Celta in Spain and France, it seems to have been common as a substitute for wine; Polybius speaks of a certain Celtic king of part of Iberia, middle of his hall golden and silver bowls full of this or Spain, who affected great court pomp, and had in the barley-wine, of which his guests and courtiers sipped or quaffed at their pleasure-a custom which, it is said, for many a century prevailed among his Celtic descendants, the reguli of our Scottish Highlands. The antiquity of this distillation is proved by the Egyptian tradition which ascribed its invention to Osiris. It may not improbably be supposed that the Egyptians communicated the invention to the Babylonians and Hebrews, who transmitted it northwards to the Thracians and Celta of Spain and Gaul, who, in their migrations north-westwards, carried it along with them into Ireland and our Scottish Highlands. This barley-wine was called by the Greeks Curov (Qu. brew ?)—which, in all likelihood, was its Egyptian or Celtic name. Aristotle entertained cated with it, he says, fall on the back-part of their heads; an extraordinary notion of this potation. Those intoxiwhereas those drunk with wine fall on their faces! Julian, the emperor, wrote a Greek epigram on this Celtic beverage, which proves in what estimation it was held by the Greeks. We subjoin an attempted translation of it for the benefit of the distillers : Whence art thou, thou false Bacchus, fierce and hot? ST ANDREWS AND THE NEW GAZETTEER. "A FRIEND TO ST ANDREWS" requests us to state, that he" considers it as quite unnecessary to enter into controversy with Mr R. Chambers, one of the Editors of the New Gazetteer of Scotland. That the account of St Andrews, given in that work, contains errors as to matters of fact, which the slightest enquiry might have prevented, Mr Chambers does not, because he cannot, deny; thus admitting that, in what is the proper province of a Gazetteer, there is the most culpable failure. His opinion |