Mary, was doomed to death as a sacrilegious robber. But he denied the commission of any theft, saying, that the Virgin, from pity to his poverty, had presented him with the offerings. The affair was brought before the king, who asked the Popish divines whether, according to their religion, the miracle was impossible?-who replied, that the case was extraordinary, but not impossible. "Then," said the king, "the culprit cannot be put to death, because he denies the theft, and because the divines of his religion allow the present not to be impossible; but we strictly forbid him, under pain of death, to receive any present henceforward from the Virgin Mary, or any saint whatever." This was answering fools according to their folly, and is an instance of wisdom as well as wit.

Customs of Warious Countries.

SUPERSTITIOUS CUSTOMS AND SAYINGS. The custom of pairing nails at certain times, is a relic of ancient superstition, derived from the Romans, who would never pair their nails upon the Nundina, observed every ninth day, and other certain days of the week.

The custom of saying "God bless you," when a person sneezes, is generally derived from a disease which occurred in England about 1450, in which those who sneezed commonly died: but this account must in some measure be devoid of truth, as we are assured by many ancient writers, that this custom was observed in the days of Nero; and it was found by our first navigators in the remotest parts of Africa and the East: therefore the ground of this ancient and extensive custom was, probably, that the ancients held sneezing to be a good or bad sign, and consequently used to congratulate the one, and deprecate the other, by this salutation. According to Plutarch, Aristotle, and other celebrated Grecians, sneezing was at certain times deemed lucky. St. Austin writes, that the ancients were wont to go to bed again, if they sneezed while they put on their shoes.

Perhaps the origin of nailing a horse shoe on the threshold of doors, though now pretended by the credulous to keep ont witches, might be from the like custom practised at Bungley House, near Oakham, in Rutlandshire, which lordship was enjoyed with the following privilege:-"That if any nobleman came within the liberty at that lordship,

they should forfeit, as a homage, a shoe from the horse on which they rode, or else redeem it with a sum of money." H. B. A.

Anecdotiana.

JOHNSON and Pinkethman were two

actors in the time of George II. Johnson dabbled a little in picture dealing, and wished very much to get possession of a painting of a macaw which he had remarked at a broker's shop near Drury Lane, but for which, from its excellence, he feared a high price would be asked. He accordingly laid a little plot with his friend Pinkethman, which was developed in the following scene.

JOHNSON. (alone, and seemingly attracted by the picture for the first time -in a careless, off-hand manner.)— Pray what do you ask for this fish?

BROKER.-Fish, sir! You mistake; that's a bird.

JOHN.-Poh! nonsense, bird-I tell you it's a fish.

BRO.-I say, sir, it's a bird-and if you say it is not, you know nothing of the matter.

JOHN.-It's a fish

BRO.-It's not, sir; and I believe you know better when you say so.

JOHN.-I know better than you, if you mean that-it's a fish.

BRO. (enraged.)-It's false, sir, and you ought to be ashamed of yourself.

JOHN.-Come, come, man-don't be angry-I want to deal, not to quarrel with you; -what do you ask for the fish?

BRO. It is not a fish, sir-it's a bird and the price is ten guineas.

JOHN.-You're a very obstinate man, and the price is high; but if you have a mind for a wager, I'll bet you ten guineas against the picture itself, that it is a fish.

BRO.-With all my heart, who shall decide it?

JOHN.-Oh, I don't care-anybody(raising his voice that his cue may be heard,)—the first man who passes by.

BRO.-Agreed; here comes one. (To Pinkethman, who is seen approaching, with a demure step, and apparently lost in thought,)-Sir! sir! come here sir, if you please

JOHN.-Ay, sir, pray do.

PINKTHERMAN. (with affected astonishment.)-Good heavens! gentlemen-what can you want with me? there anything the matter?

Is

BRO.-No, sir-nothing the matter;

only we want you to be so good as to decide a bet for us. This gentleman says that this is a

JOHN.-Stop, Mr. Broker! I insist upon it that you don't put words into the gentleman's mouth--it's not fair; ask him simply what it is that picture represents ?

BRO.-Well, just as you like—be it so. Pray, sir, what does that picture represent?

PINK. (Takes out his spectacleswipes them deliberately, and puts them on; then looks attentively at the object for two or three minutes.)-Bless my soul! it's very strange, now-I can't, for the life of me, recollect what it is they call it—but I certainly have seen the fish somewhere.

BRO. (Snatching down the picture in a rage, aud throwing it at Johnson's head,-D-n you and the fish too-take the picture.

BEN JONSON.-As the great dramatist was walking through a church-yard in Surrey, he saw a company of poor people weeping over a grave. Ben asked one of the women what the occasion should be? She answered, "Ah, alas! sir, we have lost our precious good lawyer, Justice Randal. He kept us all in peace, and from going to law. Certainly he was the best man that ever lived."" Well," said Ben, "I will send you an epitaph for his tombstone;" which was

"God works wonders now and then :

Here lies a Lawyer-an honest man." MUSIC AND MONEY.-A punster, asked by a musician, whether he was not a lover of harmony, replied, "Yes, but I prefer it when it is abridged, for then it is money; and that, my friend, is the better half of it. I have no objection to your notes, but I like those of the Bank of England much better: you may make good tunes, but those make infinitely the best of tunes."-"How so?-that bank notes are good things, I allow; but pray, what tune will they make!" "The best tune in the world-a for

tune."

MACKLIN AND THE SEDUCER.-Miss Macklin had but just appeared on the stage, when a noble Lord well known on the turf, called on the morning of her benefit, as her father was sitting at breakfast, and after praising her in the highest terms, his lordship said to Macklin-"After what I have said of your daughter, Mr. Macklin, you may suppose I am not insensible to her meritsI mean to be her friend; not in the article of taking tickets for her benefit,

and such trifling acts of friendship, which mean nothing more than the vanity of patronage. I mean to be her friend for life."

"What do you allude to?" said the actor, roused by the last expression, and staring at his guest.

"Why," replied the other, "I mean as I say, to make her my friend for life: and as you are a man of the world, and it is fit you should be considered in the business, I now make an offer of 4001. per annum for your daughter, and 2001. in like manner for yourself, to be secured on any of my estates, during both of your natural lives."

Macklin heard him; he was at the time spreading some butter on his roll, and had in his hand a large case-knife, which grasping firmly, and looking at the fellow, desired him instantly to quit the room, telling him how much he was surprised at his attempt at the honour of a child through the medium of a parent. He affected not to heed the reproof, when Macklin springing from his seat, and holding the knife at his throat, bade him make the best of his way down stairs. The noble rascal needed no other admonition, but jumped to the door, and scampered off across the market at full speed.

MAKING A FIGURE.-When a hus

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bandman claimed kinship with Robert Grosthead, Bishop of Lincoln,, and thereupon requested from him an office --"Cousin," said the bishop, "if your cart be broken, I'll mend it; if your plough be old, I'll give you a new one, and even seed to sow your land: but a husbandman I found you, and a husbandman I'll leave you." The bishop thought it far more beneficial to serve him in his way, than to take him out of it.

MATERNAL AFFECTION.-The name of Barneveldt reminds one of a noble trait of his widow, befitting a Roman matron. When her son, to avenge his father's death, had entered into a conspiracy against the government, was tried and condemned, the mother petitioned for his pardon, and on being asked why she had not petitioned for her husband, nobly replied, "I would not ask for my husband's pardon, because he was innocent, and needed no pardon; I ask for my son's, because he is guilty."

ON A GAMING HOUSE.
To this dark cave three gates pertain-
Hope, infamy, and death, we know:
'Tis by the first you entrance gain,—
By the last two alone you go.

Wednesday, August 10.

St. Lawrence, Mar. A.D. 258. High Water, 37m aft 3 Morn-57m after 3 Aftern. Brooks and watery dykes now display a luxuriance of flowers and verdure. The heat, which withered all else, has cherished them, having a constant supply of moisture. Water flags, bulrushes, and reeds, have attained their full growth; the arrowhead grows in large masses, elegantly interspersed with its delicate flowers. The white and yellow water-lilies still flourish, as do those richly blossoming plants, the crimson loosestrife and flowering rush. Willows are still rich in foliage, and to those who love to take a book into some pleasant sylvan nook, it is very charming to stroll during the warmth of the day amongst the willow holts on the banks of rivers. The ground is dry; you may lounge at your ease. There is a grateful freshness in the wilderness of green boughs and leaves that surround you; no tree, saith the venerable Evelyn, affordeth so cool a shade as the willow, and thus agreeably hidden, you may often catch glimpses of the habits of the shyer and smaller animals; traits which yet have escaped the naturalist, and which may tend to eradicate those ignorant prejudices so cruel and oppressive to many of the innocent commoners of nature.

Thursday, August 11.

St. Egentius, abb. A.D. 540.

Sun rises 34m after 4-sets 25m after 7. August 11, 1786.-To-day a very alarming shock of an earthquake was felt about two o'clock in the morning, in the north of England, viz. Northumberland, Cumberland, and in Scotland, across the island; and as far north as Argylshire; and in all these places at the same instant of time. This shock extended above 150 miles from south to north, and 100 miles from east to west.

Friday, August 12.

St. Clare, Vir. abbess, A.D. 1253. High Water 52m aft 4 Morning-10m aft 5 After. In fine dry summers the sky is often strikingly beautiful at this time, particularly with light easterly breezes. The clouds then exhibit every conceivable variety of whimsical figures, and are richly coloured with the most natural tints by the setting sun. By moonlight, too, the appearance of the summer clouds at this time of year is excessively elegant. Beds of mottled or fleecy sunderclouds, floating gently along in different altitudes, must have attracted almost every body's notice. The beautiful appearance of these clouds on a moonlight evening has been well described by Bloomfield:

For yet above these wafted clouds are seen,
In a remoter sky still more serene,
Others detached in ranges through the air,
Spotless as snow, and countless as they're fair,
Scattered immensely wide, from east to west,
The beauteous semblance of a flock at rest;
Which to the watchful virgin oft proclaim
The mighty Shepherd's everlasting name.
Saturday, August 13.

St. Eusebius, Mar. 3rd Cent. Sun rises 38m after 4-Sets 21m after 7. August 13, 1792. Birth-day of her most gracious majesty Queen Adelaide. Adelaide Amelia Louisa Teresa Caroline, sister to the reigning Duke of Saxe Meinengen, was marled to his preseut Majesty on the 11th of July, 1818.

Sunday, August 14.

ELEVENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

Lessons for the Day. -2nd book of Kings, 5 ch. Morn.-2nd book of Kings, 9 ch. Evening. August 14, 1829.-Expired Robert Hamilton, L.L.D. ET. 86. This scholar was a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edingurgh, and Professor of Mathematics in the Mareschal College of Aberdeen, in which University he had been the long term of fifty years. His first chair was that of the Oriental languages, from which he was removed to that of Natural Philosophy in 1782, and finally in 1817, to that of Mathematics.

Monday, August 15.

Assumption of Our Lady.

Moon's First Quarter, 24m after 10 Morn. It is a traditionary belief that the body of the blessed Virgin Mary was raised by God soon after her death, and assumed to glory by a singular privilege, before the general resurrection: the numerous authorities for which holy assumption are recorded by the learned Butler in his Lives.

Barnaby Googe, imitating the churlish and illtimed raillery of Naogeorgus, thus describes the ancient ceremonies of this day :

"The blessed Virgin Marie's feast hath here his place and time,

Wherein departing from the earth she did the heavens climb;

Great bundels then of hearbes to church, the peo

For sundrie witchcrafts by these hearbs are wrought, and divers charmes, And cast into the fire, are thought to drive away all harmes,

And every painefull griefe from man, or beast, for to expell,

Far otherwise than Nature or the worde of God doth tell.

Tuesday, August 16.

St. Hyacinth, conf. A.D. 1257. High Water 22m after 7 Mor.-47m after 7 After. As in many parts, the wheat harvest must at this time be completed, a few words upon the custom of suffering" old age and infancy" to "pick up each straggling ear," may not be ill-timed. Tusser says

"Corn carried, let such as be poor go and glean, And after, thy cattle, to mouth it up clean."

GLEANING is a very ancient practice, being founded on the Levitical law; but it has been much perverted from its original design, and has frequently been made an excuse for idleness, or furnished a temptation to pilfering. The poor, however, are very tenacious of their fancied rights; and when the corn is carried off the ground, but not till then, it would be uncharitable and inhuman to turn in cattle, before the aged and the infant paupers have had time" to glean the scattered ears that fall." As for those who are able to work, they ought never to be allowed this privilege, while hands are required.

ANTWERP.

RECENT political changes having made Antwerp a place of great interest, we this week deviate from our usual line of illustration, to present the readers of the OLIO with an Engraving of the Cathedral, &c. as seen from one of the principal streets.

The origin of Antwerp is obscure, and involved in fable: its name is derived from two Flemish words, Handt, hand, and werpen, to cast-from a legendary ale, that Salvius, a Brabanter, cut off the and of a giant named Antigonous, and VOL. VIII.

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cast it into the river near the place where he dwelt; and certain festivals observed by the common people, in which they carry about the representation of a castle, and the figure of a giant, are by some gravely adduced as evidences of the fact, and still further corroborated by two hands in the armorial achievement of the city.

Antwerp is situate in that part of Brabant named the marquisate of Antwerp, on an extended plain on the eastern side of the Scheldt, which is here of sufficient depth to enable ships of large burden to discharge their car

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goes at the quay; being 360 fathoms wide, 30 feet deep at low water, and rising 15 feet at the height of the flood. The city owed the commanding position which it long held in the commercial world to the decline of Bruges towards the close of the fifteenth century, and from the English merchants fixing their staple in it. Its commerce and consequent wealth were also increased by other circumstances:-the one, the grant of free fairs for commerce, of which there were two peculiarly remarkable; these lasted for six weeks, and were of such extended celebrity, that merchants from all parts of Christendom carried their goods thither the other arose from the Portuguese using the town as a kind of emporium or half-way port between the northern and southern parts of Europe, to which they sent the rich produce of India that they had previously imported into Lisbon. At the commencement of the reign of Charles V. it was computed to contain 100,000 inhabitants: and such was that monarch's opinion of its power and influence, that when he had resolved upon establishing the tribunal of the inquisition in it, he was deterred by the information, that if he persisted in his resolution, all the English merchants would leave the country; for, upon enquiry, the emperor found that the English merchant adventurers employed or maintained at least 20,000 souls in Antwerp alone, besides 30,000 throughout the surrounding country.

The union of the Seven United Provinces may be looked on as the era of the commencement of the decline of Antwerp. The persecutions of the merciless Duke of Alva; the siege and sacking of the town by the Spaniards in 1572, when it was given up to, plunder for three days and nights, and 7000 citizens were slaughtered; and afterwards its protracted siege of more than a year's duration by the Duke of Parma-forced much of its wealth and independence to seek an asylum in Holland, and more particularly in Amsterdam. The closing up of the river Scheldt completed its commercial ruin. The loss of their trade led the remaining inhabitants to turn their thoughts to manufactures, in many branches of which they have been very successful. Antwerp underwent its full share of the vicissitudes of war during the last two centuries. After the battle of Ramillies, it surrendered to the Duke of Marlborough: it was subsequently taken by the French, but restored to the Austrians by the treaty of Aix-la

Chapelle. In the revolutionary war, it was twice taken by the French, and retained by them till the termination of the imperial government of that country. One of the first acts of the conquerors, after they had secured the occupation of the town, was to throw open the navigation of the Scheldt, by clearing away the obstructions placed there by the Dutch, and by declaring it to be a free port in future. The project was followed up by extensive preparations for enlarging the harbour, in order to make it a naval arsenal; docks and other extensive works were carried on with great vigour during the whole period of its connection with the French, notwithstanding an attempt made by the English in 1809 to destroy them. 1814, it was a second time attacked by the English, who met with an obstinate resistance from the commandant, the celebrated Carnot. The docks suffered greatly during this last attack, but have since been repaired and carried on according to the original plan. One of the basins is capable of containing forty ships of the line.

In

The magistracy of Antwerp is selected out of seven noble families; and consists of two burgomasters, eighteen echevins, and other inferior officers. Among the privileges of the city is one of some singularity, which gives its freedom to every individual born within its precincts, without any regard to the descent or birthplace of the parents.

The city is nearly a semicircle, of about seven miles round. It was defended by the citadel, built by the Duke of Alva to 'overawe the inhabitants. The whole appearance of its public buildings, streets, and houses, affords the most incontestible evidence of its former splendour. Many instances of the immense wealth of its merchants are recorded: among others, it is said that when Charles V. once dined with one of the chief magistrates, his host immediately after dinner threw into the fire a bond for two millions of ducats, which he had received as security for a loan to that monarch, saying that he was more than repaid by the honour of being permitted to entertain his sovereign.

The most remarkable of the streets is the Place de Mer, said to be unequalled by any in Europe for its great length, its still more unusual breadth, and the extraordinary sumptuousness of its houses. A crucifix, thirty-three feet high, made from a demolished statue of the Duke of Alva, stands at one end of the street; but the eye of taste is offended here and elsewhere by