ed pride, from the repetition of such an unfortunate experiment. When, however, more than two centuries after Pompey, the Roman arms were directed against the Persians, the emperors became imitators of oriental splendour in their triumphs; and the elephant-chariot was not unfrequently seen át Rome, bearing the conqueror, who was surrounded by all the magnificence which might command the popular adulation. It is unnecessary to trace these ceremonials with antiquarian minuteness, particularly as we have a description, from the eloquent pen of Gibbon, of the triumph of Aurelian (A.D. 274) after his conquest of Palmyra, which may show the nature of these spectacles, so gratifying to the pride of Rome, and so humiliating to the vanquished nations whom she insulted in the haughty spirit which had so long rendered her supremacy odious:-"The pomp was opened by twenty elephants, four royal tigers, and above two hundred of the most curious animals from every climate of the north, the east, and the south. They were followed by one thousand six hundred gladiators, devoted to the cruel amusement of the amphitheatre. The wealth of Asia, the arms and ensigns of so many conquered nations, and the magnificent plate and wardrobe of the Syrian Queen, were exposed in exact symmetry or artful disorder. The ambassadors of the most remote parts of the earth, of Ethiopia, Arabia, Persia, Bactriana, India, and China, all remark able by their rich or singular dresses, displayed the fame and power of the Roman emperor, who exposed likewise to the public view the presents that he had received, and particularly a great number of crowns of gold the offerings of grateful cities. The victories of Aurelian were attested by the long train of captives who reluctantly attended his triumph,-Gauls, Vandals, Sarmatians, Alemanni, Franks, Goths, Syrians, and Egyptians. Each people was distinguished by its peculiar inscription, and the title of Amazons was bestowed on ten martial heroines of the Gothic nation, who had been taken in arms. But every eye, disregarding the crowd of captives, was fixed on the Emperor Tetricus, and the Queen of the East. The former, as well as his son, whom he had created Augustus, was dressed in Gallic trowsers, a saffron tunic, and robe of purple. The beauteous figure of Zenobia was confined by fetters of gold; a slave supported the gold chain which encircled her neck, and she al

THE STORK.-The stork, in its annual visits to Holland, for it is a bird of passage, is never molested. It therefore does not scruple to build its nest on the tops of trees in the midst of towns and villages, on the towers of churches, and even on the chimney-tops. In our rambles through the streets, some of our party happened to observe a flock of these birds wheeling high in the air over our heads, when a Dutch gentleman told us that, on the following day, or the day after, they would certainly take their leave of Holland, being congregated for their departure; he said it had long been remarked that these creatures knew precisely, and strictly kept, their appointed days of arrival and departure in and from Holland, which were about the middle of February and the middle of August, within a very few days more or less. This is, in fact, just what has been said of this bird in days of old, as we learn from the book of Job, "The stork in the heavens hath its appointed times." It is not exactly known to what parts of the world they migrate from the northern portion of Europe; but they are common to Egypt, Palestine, Barbary, and the plains of Northern Africa ;-why then, it may be asked, do they leave the food they seem most to delight in-such as snakes, frogs, reptiles, and insects-just at the time when they most abound?-and proceed to these sandy and barren

countries, where, it is true, snakes and lizards, and a few venomous reptiles may be equally plentiful, but are, perhaps, the only kind of food which Holland affords. Perhaps they may be possessed of delicate appetites, similar to our own, and have discovered that, like some of our birds and fishes, these aquatic animals of Holland are out of season in the middle of August. The truth is, we know but little of the real history of migratory animals, or of the cause for their migration.

Fortunately for the stork, it is held as a sacred bird, not only by the Dutch and Danes, but also in Asia and Africa; for different reasons, perhaps, in these different regions. In Holland, not so much for any service it may be supposed to render, in cleaning their dykes and ditches,-for the Dutch have no dislike whatever to frogs,-but on account of the alleged filial affection of the young birds for their parents. This trait was so well known to the ancients, that the stork became an emblem, of filial piety.-A Danish author says, that when the storks first make their

appearance in early spring, nothing is
more common than to see many of the
old birds, tired and feeble with their
long flight, supported occasionally on
the backs of the young ones; and the
peasants have no doubt that they are
laid carefully in those very nests, in
which the year before these young ones
had been nurtured. Thus says the poet:
The stork's an emblem of true piety;
Because when age has seized and made his
dam

Unfit for flight, the grateful young one takes
His mother on his back, provides her food,
Repaying thus her tender care of him,
Ere he was fit to fly.

Fam. Lib. vol. 23.

The Note Book.

I will make a prief of it in my Note-book.
M.W. of Windsor.

BRUSSELS has its share of both pumps and fountains; and, among others, there is one of the latter in the corner of a street, of a singular kind, well known by the name of the mannikin-pis. It is the statue of a little boy, beautifully sculptured in black marble by Quesnoy, who sends forth, night and day, without intermission, a copious stream of pure water, to which none of the young women in the neighbourhood make any scruple of resorting for a supply when wanted. It is said that Louis XIV., when in Brussels, was so shocked at the indelicacy (credat Judæus!) of this exhibition, that he ordered a suit of gold-laced clothes to be made for the

ROTTERDAM.-To almost every house in Rotterdam, and sometimes to every window of a house on the first floor, there is fixed a single or double looking-glass or reflector, by means of which a person in the room, sitting before the window, can see by reflection the whole length of the street, the passengers, the trees, the canal, and the shipping.— When two of these reflectors are placed at right angles, and the right angle pointed towards the window, a person within directing the eye to that angle will see the whole street both to the

right and to the left. In some of the towns of England one may now and then observe one of these reflecting glasses, which is generally supposed to be intended to put the inhabitant on his guard against unwelcome visitors, and on that account they have been whimsically called dunner-scopes. In Rotterdam they are universally adopted for the amusement of the ladies, more especially those of the upper classes, who appear but seldom in the streets.

Ib.

WINDMILLS IN HOLLAND-The windmills are remarkable objects on the Boulevards of Amsterdam. There are no less than thirty bastions in the line of fortification on the land side, and on each bastion is a windmill, of a description larger than common, for grinding corn, and other purposes. It is whimsical enough that, surrounded as they are with water on every side, there is not a watermill in the whole country. It suited their purpose better to raise a contention between the elements, by employing the wind to drive out the water. Necessity, indeed, taught the Hollander this; for if it were not for the complete subjection in which the waters are held by this and other means, the city of Amsterdam might, at any one moment, be altogether submerged. The idea of such a calamity happening to a city which is stated to contain near two hundred thousand inhabitants, calls for every precaution that can be put in practice to avert it.

Anecdotiana.

1b.

VANITY OF FRENCH POETS.-Santeul, a French canon, was very vain of his

poetical talents. When he had finished any poem, he used to say, "Now, I will go and put chains along all the bridges of the town, to prevent my brother bards from drowning themselves."

PROBITY OF SIR THOMAS MORE.The scrupulous and delicate integrity of More (for so it must be called in speaking of that age) was more clearly shown after his resignation, than it could have been during his continuance in office. One Parnell complained of him for a decree obtained by his adversary Vanghan, whose wife had bribed the chancellor by a gilt cup. He surprised the counsel at first, by owning that he received the cup as a new year's gift. Lord Wiltshire, a zealous protestant, indecently, but prematurely, exulted. "Did I not tell you, my lords," said he, "that you would find this matter true?" -"But, my lords," replied Móre, "hear the other part of my tale. After having drank to her of wine with which my butler had filled the cup, and when she had pledged him, he restored it to her, and would listen to no refusal." When Mrs. Croker, for whom he had made a decree against lord Arundel, came to him to request his acceptance of a pair of gloves, in which were contained 407. in angels, he told her, with a smile, that it were ill manners to refuse a lady's present; but though he should keep the gloves, he must return the gold, which he enforced her to receive. Gresham, a suitor, sent him a present of a gilt cup, of which the fashion pleased him. More accepted it; but would not do so till Gresham received from him another cup of greater value, but of which the form and workmanship were less suitable to the chancellor. It would be an indignity to the memory of such a man to quote these facts as proofs of his probity; but they may be mentioned as specimens of the simple and unforced honesty of one who rejected improper offers with all the ease and pleasantry of common courtesy.

draught, whereby he reached Tyburn sooner than was usual, and just time enough to get hanged before a reprieve, which had been sent after him, arrived -hence he was said to have been "hanged for leaving his liquor."

THE INTOXICATING QUANTITY. — A late Baron of the Exchequer being of a party where the merits of wine was the subject of discussion, one observed to him, that a certain quantity did a person no harm. This his lordship admitted, but added," that it was the uncertain quantity that did all the mischief."

QUIN'S CRITICISM ON MACKLIN.When Macklin first performed his great part of Shylock, Quin was so struck with the ability he displayed in it, that he could not help exclaiming, "If God Almighty writes a legible hand, that man must be a villain!"-And when Macklin, without due consideration, performed the character of Pandulph in King John, Quin, on being asked what he thought of it, said, “ He was a cardinal who had been originally a parishclerk." But his best joke on Macklin was in reply to some one, who remarked that he might make a good actor, having such strong lines in his face: "Lines, sir," cried Quin, "I see nothing in the fellow's face but a d-ned deal of cordage!" In fact, if we may venture to judge by the freedom with which Quin occasionally treated him, considering that actor's true character, Macklin, with all his eccentricities, must have been a favourite with him.

One of the many squibs in the mouths of the populace of Belgium against the De Potter faction is the following:

When Orange ruled, as our head,
We butter had to smear our bread:
But since the day we hail'd De Potter,
We've neither tasted bread nor butter.

EPITAPH ON AN INNKEEPER AT EXON.

Life's an inn-my house will show it,-
I thought so once, but now I know it,
Man's life is but a winter's day:
Some only breakfast and decay;
Others to dinner stay, and are full fed;
The oldest man but sups, and then to bed.
Large is his debt who lingers out the day;
He who goes soonest has the least to pay.
EPITAPH ON AN INFANT EIGHT MONTHS
OLD.

Since I have been so quickly done for,
I wonder what I was begun for.

Wednesday, August 17.

St. Mamas, Mar. A.D. 275. High Water, 15m aft 8 Morn-49m after 8 After. FAIRY RINGS.-According to Howitt, "these singular appearances in the grass are never more conspicuous than in the Autumn months. Even when all other grass is brown, they exhibit a welldefined and bright green circle. The production of these remarkable circles, and the property which they possess of every year becoming larger, have, of late years, been the subjects of various theories. They have been attributed to lightning, to fungi, which every year grow upon the outer margin of the circle, and then perishing, cause, by the rich remains, a fresh circle of vivid green to appear, somewhat wider of course than the former one. They have also been attributed to insects. The least plausible theory is that of lightning; the most plausible that of fungi. Insects are a consequence of the fungi, rather than a cause of the circle; for where there are fungi, there will be insects to devour them. Fungi are also always found more or less about them. I have seen them of so large a species, that in their growth they totally destroyed the grass beneath them, dividing the green ring into two, and leaving one of bare rich mould between them. The origin of these circles, too, which has escaped the eyes of the naturalist, but which is nothing more than a small mushroom-bed, made by the dung of cattle, lying undisturbed in the grass where first deposited, till it becomes completely incorporated with the soil beneath, favours more than all, the theory of the fungi. Every one knows that where this occurs, a tuft of rank grass springs up, in the centre of which a crop of fungi sometimes appears, and again perishes. There then is the nucleus of a fairy-ring. The next year the tuft is found to have left a green spot, of perhaps a foot and a half diameter, which has already parted in the centre. This expansion goes on from year to year; the area of the circle is occupied by common grass, and successive crops of fungi give a vivid greenness to the ring which bounds it. That only a few tufts are converted into fairy-rings, may be owing to their not being sufficiently enriched to become mushroom-beds; but that all fairy-rings which exist have this origin, will be found to admit of little doubt. This, though true, is a humiliating expose of the charmed fairy-rings;" but Do not all charms fly

At the mere touch of cold philosophy?
There was an awful rainbow once in Heaven;
We know her woof, her texture; she is given
In the dull catalogue of common things:
Philosophy will clip an angel's wings;
Conquer all mysteries by rule and line;
Empty the haunted air, and gnomed mine;
Unweave a rainbow, as it erewhile made
The tender-personed Lamnia melt into a shade.
Thursday, August 18.

St. Helen, Empress, A.D. 328. Sun rises 47m after 4-sets 12m after 7. August 18, 1793.-Upon this day a remarkable meteor, or bali of fire, was seen to pass from N. to S. about half-past eight in the evening. This meteor was seen all over Britain, and in many places upon the continent of Europe. This phenomenon happened much about the time of the termination of the volcanic eruption in Iceland, and it is remarkable that this meteor was first seen to the north-west of the Shetland and Orkney islands, in the quarter of Iceland.

Friday, August 19.

St. Cumin, bish, in Ireland, 7th Cent. High Water 43m after 10 Mor-21m after 11 After. The death of Augustus Cæsar, A.D. 14. The death of any great man naturally brings the recollections of his character into one's mind; that of Augustus seems to have been pleasing, affable, and good-humoured. Among other good traits of his character was one in particular worthy the imitation of crowned heads in general. He so disliked prostration and adulation from his subjects, that he ridiculed it, and has been known to ask a beggar, who approached in a humble and trembling manner, whether he thought him an elephant? Louis XVI. of France, Frederick II. of Prussia, Joseph, Emperor of Germany, and Napoleon, forbade their subjects to kneel before them, mindful of the sentiment that Shakespeare has so well expressed

"Mock not flesh and blood

With solemn reverence," &c.

Saturday, August 20.

St. Bernard.

Sun rises 50m after 4-Sets 9m after 7. August 20, 1672.-Torn in pieces by an enraged Dutch mob at the Hague, the famous De Witt and his brother. De Witt was the zealous patron of the glory of his native country; the greatest genius of his time; the ablest politician in war as well as in peace; and the Atlas of the commonwealth.

Sunday, August 21.

TWELFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. Lessons for the Day.-2nd book of Kings, 10 ch. Morn.-2nd book of Kings, 18 ch. Evening. Birth-day of his Majesty King William the Fourth (born 1765.)

August 21, 1485.-BoswORTH FIELD.-This was the auspicious moment when the two armies of Richard the Third, the usurper, and Henry Tudor, Earl of Richmond, encamped upon this common, now three hundred and forty-six years since. The conflict commenced with great fury at the break of morning, and continued until noon, when Richard lost his life, and his crown was placed upon the victor's head in the field of battle. Henry's subsequent marriage with Elizabeth, the only surviving branch of the house of York, united the two roses, and put a final end to those dreadful and sanguinary wars for the suc cession, which had covered the face of England with blood during five kings' reigns.

Monday, August 22.

St. Hippolytus, Mar. 3rd Cent. High Water 16m aft 1 Morning-39m aft 1 After. August 22, 1350.-Died Philippe VI., King of France, surnamed De Valois. This king who was destitute of judgment or decision of character, yielded himself blindly to the will of treacherous courtiers. By his impolitic conduct, he lighted up a war between England and France, which gave birth to evils that endured for several centuries. In 1343, and the following year, he beheaded or banished many powerful knights, upon the charge of treason, and thereby increased the number of his enemies. In 1336, he engaged in a crusade, and, for the expense of that expedition, levied by the pope's authority, considerable sums upon the property of the clergy; and, although he never set out, the sums were not restored.

Illustrated Article.

THE DEATH OF DA VINCI. AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

THE morning sun was breaking brightly over the woods of Fontainbleau; the dew-drops were glittering on the pendant branches, as if each trembling bough was jewelled, like the tiara of a monarch; and the matin-song of the little birds was sounding merrily in the green-wood: but brighter far shone the eyes of the fair maidens of France, and sweeter sang the minstrels who were assembled in the glades of the forest. Francis, the "King of Gentlemen," was holding high festival at Fontainbleau, with the noblest and brightest of his court.

Certes it was a noble and a stirring sight to view the gallant array of warriors and princes, of spearmen and arbalisters, with their banners and their pennons, waving and flashing their many-coloured hues to the full blaze of the morning. All of every degree, from VOL. VIII. F

See page 82.

the proud noble in his furred gown and golden chain, to the shouting peasant with his thrum cap and leathern jerkin, were thronging round their sovereign. Here rode the portly citizen on his sober pacing steed-there ambled the court maiden on her playful jennet, jingling the milan bells of her hooded merlin in the ear of the citizen's horse, to the no small discomfiture of his rider. Here stood the veteran cavalier, stiff and straight as the old elm against which he leant, casting a wrathful eye upon the wayward caracolings of the lady's palfrey, and there the bashful country damsel, half smiling, half pouting at the plumed gallant, who, bending from his pawing Arabian, is whispering the newest romaunt of the troubadours in her ear. The beautiful, the brave were gathering round their king.

Beneath a splendid canopy, erected in the court of the palace, stood Francis, his bright joyous eye glancing with pleasure on the gay scene around him,

not so much distinguished by the richness of his habit as by the beauty of his person and graceful deportment,

202