own house, a portico, basilica, and curia. It was in the latter that Cæsar was slain, after which it was shut up. It was splendidly ornamented with statues by eminent artists; among them were the images of fourteen nations, those, perhaps, whom he claimed to have conquered. Near it, in later times, stood a remarkable colossal statue of Jupiter, erected by the Emperor Claudius. Being injured by fire in the reign of Tiberius, it was repaired by Caligula, and was again burnt, and restored by Claudius. It was burnt a third time in the reign of Titus. Nero gilded the scene, the theatre, and every thing employed in the performance, to make an exhibition of his magnificence to a royal visitor, Teridates, king of Armenia; the very awning was purple, studded with golden stars, representing the heavens, and in the centre was an embroidered representation of himself, as the Sun guiding his chariot. The next permanent theatre was built by Augustus, and named by him after his favourite, Marcellus, who died before it was finished. It stood on the declivity of the Capitol, near the Tarpeian rock, on the spot where Julius Caesar had proposed to build one of surpassing magnitude. It is called by Ovid the marble theatre, either from being built of that material, or because four columns, of remarkable size, taken from the atrium of Scaurus's house, stood in it. Vitruvius is generally reported to have been the architect of this building, which would contain 30,000 persons. A third theatre was built by Cornelius Balbus, at the instance of Augustus. These three all stood in the neighbourhood of the Circus Flaminius; traces of them still remain, which will be found in the map of ancient Rome. We do not read of any more separate theatres being built; but they were sometimes placed as appendages to the magnificent Thermæ, which about this time it became the fashion to construct. To roof these vast areas was probably beyond the architectural skill of the Romans, nor, if thus covered, could they well have been properly and sufficiently lighted. Smaller theatres, however, were sometimes roofed, as was the lesser one at Pompeii; and the celebrated Herodes Atticus built two roofed theatres, one at Athens, the other at Corinth; this, however, was at a much later period.Originally, the Romans defended themselves from the sun by broad-brimmed hats, called causiæ, or pilei Thessalici; and from the rain by mantles or hoods.

THE AURORA BOREALIS.t-Leland, in his History of the reign of Elizabeth, notices this phenomenon as it appeared flamed with fire in the moneth of Noin 1574; he says "that the clouds vember, streaming from the North into the South; and the next night the heaven seemed to burne, the flames rising from the horizon round about, and meeting in a verticall point." J. S. C.

GREAT DROUGHT.-"1593. This summer there was so great a drought all over England, that not only the fields but the fountains dried up, so much that a great number of beasts died every where of thirst; and on the 5th September, the water in the Thames failed so much, that a man could ride over it near London Bridge, so shallow should think this was at high water; if was the channel." By the following, I so, it was the more singular:-" Whether this was through that drought, or the impetuous violence of a north-east wind which blew furiously two days, driving forward the fresh waters, and keeping back the sea-tide, I cannot say, especially the moon being now at full, and descending southward." J.S.C.

The Note Book.

I will make a prief of it in my Note-book. M.W. of Windsor. THIEVES IN ENGLAND.-It is stated

by Harrison, an old writer of credit, that during the single reign of Henry the Eighth, seventy-two thousand thieves were hanged in England. No fact can exhibit in a stronger light the universal misery that must have existed in those days. The whole kingdom did not contain half a million grownup males, so that about one man in ten must have been, to use the words of the same historian, "devoured and eaten

+ I think in some work I have read, this was

said to be first noticed in England in 17-, but it is not called by Leland by any particular evidently the Aurora Borealis. name, aud only noticed as a prodigy; it was

up by the gallows." In the same reign the first statute against Egyptians (gypsies) was passed. These people went from place to place in great companies -spoke a cant language which Harrison calls Pedlar's French-and were subdivided into fifty-two different classes of thieves. The same race of people prevailed throughout Europe. Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote, says of the Egyptians, or Bohemians, that they seem to have been born for no other purpose than that of pillaging.

PRIDE AND IGNORANCE OF THE NOBILITY. It has always been the fashion of ignorant greatness to despise the mechanical arts. The pride of the Chinese mandarins was to let their nails grow as long as their fingers, to show that they never worked. In France under the old monarchy, no descendant of a nobleman could embark in trade without the highest disgrace; and the principle was so generally recognized as just, that a French writer, even as recently as 1758, reproaches the sons of the English nobility for the contrary practice, and asks, with an air of triumph, how can a man be fit to serve his country in Parliament after having meddled with such paltry concerns as those of commerce?

Influence of SCIENCE UPON NAVIGATION.-There was a time when ships could hardly venture to leave the shore. In the days of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors, a man who had made three voyages across the Straits was entitled to rank as a thane, or nobleman. This feat, then held of so much difficulty, and therefore so highly honoured, is now as easy as crossing the Thames from Westminster to Lambeth. Long after this early period of England's navigation, voyages across the Atlantic could never have been attempted. That was before the invention of the mariner's compass; but even after that invention, when astronomy was not scientifically applied to navigation, long voyages were considered in the highest degree dangerous. The crews both of Vasco de Gama, who discovered the passage to India, and of Columbus, principally consisted of criminals, who were pardoned on condition of undertaking a service of such peril. The discovery of magnetism, however, changed the whole principle of navigation, and raised seamanship to a science. If the mariner's compass had not been invented, America could never have been discovered; and if America, and the pas

sage to India by the Cape of Good Hope, had never been discovered, cotton would never have been brought to England; and if cotton had never been brought to England, we should have been as badly off for clothing as the people of the middle ages, and the million of working men and women, manufacturers of cotton, would have been without employment.

THE FIRST FIRE-SHIPS ever seen, were employed by Elizabeth for the destruction of the Spanish Armada, as it lay off Calais waiting to be joined by the Prince of Parma. The Spaniards were so alarmed, that they immediately cut their cables, (not having courage to stay to weigh anchor,) and put to sea. Eight of those ships were used on that occasion. J. S.C.

LAPIS CALAMINARIS was first discovered in England in the year 1561, as well as a vein of pure and native brass, near Keswick, in Cumberland. These proved of great use in founding cannon, in the wars between Elizabeth and the Spaniards. At that time, gunpowder was first manufactured in this kingdom, in any quantity, previous to which it was procured from abroad, at a considerable expense to the nation.

J.S.C.

Customs of Warious Countries.

SINGULAR CORNISH CUSTOMS.
For the Olio.

Every butcher carrying on trade in the Hundred of Penwith, that is, in the towns of Penzance, St. Ives, &c. by an ancient regulation are required to give a marrowbone each at Christmas to the

poor prisoners confined in the gaol of the said Hundred. This is now commuted into a payment of one shilling each, though the gaol no longer exists.

GODOLPHIN (the ancient seat of the Godolphin family in Cornwall,) and which afforded refuge to Charles II. in the wars between him and the Parliament, is held under the following singular tenure: -The lord of the manor of Lambourne*, (of which this place forms a part,) by his reeve appears at Godolphin on the morning of Candlemass-day, before sunrise, and knocking at the three entrance doors of the mansion, repeats at each door as follows:

"Here I come, the reeve of Lambourne, to demand my lord's dues ; eight groats and a penny in money, a

At present, Sir J. Aubyn, Bart. is the Lord of the Manor, and the Duke of Leeds is proprietor of Godolphin.

Wednesday, Nov. 23.

St. Clement, pope and mart. A. D. 100. High Water 10m after 4 Mor.-33m after 4 Aftern. Plott, in his history of Staffordshire, describing a Clog Almanack, says, "A pot is marked against the 23rd of November, for the feast of St. Clement, from the ancient custom of going about that night to beg drink to make merry with.

23rd Nov. 1552.-Ancient Punishment of For nicators and Adulterers.-As early as the year 1383, being the seventh of Richard the Second, persons found guilty of incontinence in the city, were imprisoned in the Tunne (a jail in Cornhill) by the Court of Aldermen, and before they were liberated they were exposed with some ceremony through the city. The disgraceful parade attending the punishment will be seen from the following extract:-" Proceedings of the Court of Aldermen, (under the above date). Item, it was

orderyd and agryed, that Sir Thomas Sowdeley, clerk, who did not deny, but playneley confess this day in the full corte, that he hath kept and viciously and carnally used an harlot in his howse a long tyme, namynge her to be hys wyfe, shall to-morrowe be caryed abowte the cytie in a carte, with a ray hoode on hys heade, a whyte rode in his hande, and basons and pannes rynginge before hym, according to the lawes and ancient customes of this cytie in such case made and provyded and used."

Thursday, Nov. 24.

Sts. Flora and Mary, Vir. and Martyrs at Cordova, A. D. 851.

Sun rises 48m after 7-sets 12m after 4. The following Sonnet is well addressed to St. Flora at this season :

Flower of nectar odours, pride of Spain,

Beautie's unvarnished essence, saintlie mayde, Before whose form all earth-born flowers fade, And, blushing, let their petals fall again: How rightly art thou named from the train

Of fragrant crops that catch the morning dew; Thou the chaste Snowdrop's whiteness without stain,

Mixt with the Harebell's deeply purpling blue. Thy care in Spring, wise maid, was to bedew The garden of the soul with heavenly grace, Weeting that all that's earthly wends apace, Into the dark abyss of death and rue.

Well didst thou weave thy crown for that blest place,

Where Virtue's flowers ever keep their hue.

Friday, Nov. 25.

St. Catherine, vir. A. D. 305. High Water, 49m aft 5 Mor-16m aft 6 After. "It is now," observes a pleasing writer, "that the labourer is about to enjoy a temporary mitigation of the season's toil. His little store of Winter provision having been hardly earned and safely lodged, his countenance brightens, and his heart warms, with the anticipation of Winter's comforts. As the day shortens, and the hours of darkness increase, the domestic affections are awakened anew by a closer and more lengthened converse; the father is now once more in the midst of his family; the child is now once more on the knee of its parent; and she, in whose comfort his heart is principally interested, is again

permitted, by the privileges of the season, to increase and participate his happineis. It is now and anxiety,-that, having waited patiently for that the husbandman is repaid for his former risk the coming harvest, he builds up his sheaves, loads his waggons, and replenishes his barns." It is now that men of study and literary pursuit are admonished of the best season for the pursuits of literature, and the snug fire-side, in an armedchair, during a long winter's evening, with an entertaining book, is a pleasure by no means to be despised. There is something, too, very pleasing in the festivals which are now approaching, and which preserve the recollections of the oldentime.

Saturday, Nov. 26.

St. Peter, bishop and martyr.

Sun rises 50m after 7-Sets 10m after 4. Nov. 26, 1703.-To-day began the tremendous wind, attended with lightning, so memorable for the extent of its mischief among shipping: it uncovered the roofs of many houses and churches; blew down the spires of several steeples' and chimnies; tore whole groves of trees up by the roots. The leads of some churches were rolled up like scrolls of parchment, and several vessels, boats, and barges were sunk in the river Thames; but the royal navy sustained the greatest damage, being just returned from the Streights. Four third-rates, one second-rate, four fourth-rates, and many others of less force, were cast away upon the coast of England, and above fifteen hundred seamen lost, besides those that were cast away in merchant-ships. The loss which London alone sustained was computed at one million sterling, and the city of Bristol lost to the amount of 200,0007. Among the persons who were drowned, was Rear-Ad.niral Beaumont.

Sunday, Nov. 27.

TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY AFTER

TRINITY.

Lessons for the Day. -Proverbs, 17 chap. Morning Proverbs, 19 ch. Evening.

London Fogs.-" In a well-mixed metropolitan fog, there is something substantial and satisfying. You can feel what you breathe, and see it too. It is like breathing water-as we may fancy the fishes to do. And then the taste of it, when dashed with a fine seasoning of sea-coal-smoke, is far from insipid. It is also meat and drink at the same time; something between egg-flip and ome. lette soufflee, but much more digestable than either. Not that I would recommend it medicinally-especially to persons of greasy stomachs, delicate nerves, and afflicted with bile. But for persons of a good robust habit of body, and not dainty withal, (which such, by the bye, never are,) there is nothing better in its way. And it wraps you all round like a cloak, too-a patent waterproof one, which no rain ever penetrated.

"No-I maintain that a real London fog is a thing not to be sneezed at-if you can help it.

"Mem. As many spurious imitations of the above are abroad,-such as Scotch mists and the like, which are no less deleterious than disagreeable, please to ask for the True London Partilar,' as manufactured by Thames, Coal-gas, Smoke, Steam, and Co. No others are genuine." C. Lamb.

See page 225

regard." The brow of the Prime Minister of Sweden darkened.

"And pray, who is the favoured Adonis ?" Christina blushed, looked enchantingly simple, and redoubled the caresses she was bestowing upon her dog. The Count repeated the question.

66 My cousin Adolphus Von Hesse." "You have not been so foolish as to fall in love with that boy?"

"Boy, indeed! No, I walked into love with him; for I cannot remember the day when he first appeared lovely in my eyes."

"Nonsense! You have been brought up together. 'Tis a mere sisterly regard."

"I should be very sorry if Adolphus were my brother."

"But the youth is portionless;-has no other maintenance than his commission and my bounty."

"He is handsome and brave; and, when I discovered that he had fine eyes, and that they spoke the most eloquent language in the world, I never examined the depth of his purse."

217