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theism. Not seeming to understand the meaning of this word, spoken in English, Bertrand remarked-" Pluralité de Dieux." "Ah! pluralité de Dieux," said Bonaparte. "Do they believe in the immortality of the soul?"-" I think," replied Mr. Griffith, "they have some idea of a future state.""Well," said Napoleon, "when you go home, you must get a good living; I wish you may be made a prebendary, Sir."He then went round to the whole circle, and had something obliging to say to every one, and bowed very politely to each of the party as they retired. He was, by no means, so corpulent as he has been represented.

school days. Disgusted by his unsightly || what religion the Chinese profess?"—Mr. form, she had a personal aversion to him, Griffith replied that it was somewhat difnor could the beautiful verses he addressed || ficult to say; but it seemed a sort of polyto her on receiving from her a sprig of myrtle, teach her to endure him: she, at length, returned to her parents in Birmingham, and was soon forgotten. Business taking Johnson to Birmingham, on the death of his own father, and calling upon his coy mistress there, he found her father dying. He passed all bis leisure hours at Mr. Porter's, attending his sick-bed, and, in a few months after his death, asked Mrs. Johnson's consent to marry the old widow. After expressing her surprise at a request so extraordinary, "No, Sam, my willing consent you will never have to so preposterous a union. You are not twenty-five, and she is turned fifty. If she had any prudence this request had never been made to me. Where are your means of subsistence? Porter has died poor in consequence of his wife's expensive habits. You have great talents, but, as yet, have turned them into no profitable channel.""Mother, I have not deceived Mrs. Porter: I have told her the worst of me; that I am of mean extraction; that I have no money; and that I have had an uncle hanged. She replied, that she valued no one more or less for his descent; that she had no more money than myself; and that though she had not had a relation hanged, she had fifty who deserved hanging."

RECENT PARTICULARS RELATIVE TO

BONAPARTE.

THEATRICAL ANECDOTE.

At the time when Lee was manager of the Edinburgh Theatre, he was determined to improve upon stage thunder. For this purpose he procured a quantity of ninepound shot, and putting them into a wheelbarrow he affixed thereto a nine-pound wheel; this done, ridges were placed at the back of the stage, and one of the carpenters was ordered to trundle this wheelbarrow, so filled, backwards and forwards over those ridges. The play was Lear, and in the two first efforts the thunder had a good effect: at length, as the King was braving the pelting of the pitiless storm," the thunderer's foot slipped, and down he came, wheel-barrow and all: the stage being on a declivity, the balls made their way towards the orchestra, and meeting but a feeble resistance from the scene, laid it flat. This storm was more difficult for Lear to encounter than that tempest of which he had so loudly complained, the balls taking every direction. The fiddlers were alarmed, and hurried out of the or

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WHEN Mr. Cooke, who was in the suite of Lord Amherst on his return from China, was introduced to Napoleon, he asked Mr. Cooke if he was descended from the celebrated navigator?" You had a Cook," || added he, "who was, indeed, a great man." When Dr. Lynn was presented, he asked him at what university he had studied? and on being told at Edinburgh, he repeat-chestra, while, to crown the scene of coned, "Ah! Edinboorg." He then, after innumerable questions, asked him if he bled and gave as much mercury as our St. Helena Doctors?

Mr. Griffith, the chaplain to the embassy, was next introduced, whom Bonaparte termed l'aumonier, pronouncing at the same time in English, clair-gee-man.—“ Well, Sir," he continued, "have you found out

fusion, the sprawling thunderer was discovered lying prostrate, to the great amusement of the audience.

AUTHENTIC ANECDOTE RELATIVE TO THE
AUTHOR OF THE CELEBRATED GERMAN
NOVEL OF CAROLINE DE LICHTFIELD."
A rich widower, of fifty-three, on the
confines of Germany, respectable in rank

and character, whose children were mar ried and settled at a distance from him, read the novel of Caroline de Lichtfield, and felt its influence. Personally unknown to the author, he inquired into her situation, and found her of acknowledged merit and spotless reputation. He had the good sense to believe that the acquisition of a

companion for life, whose talents and sensibility had produced that work, would prove a surer source of happiness to his remaining years than youth, which, with her, was past, than beauty, which she had never possessed; and he accordingly married her.

A CONCISE ABRIDGMENT OF NATURAL HISTORY;

IN A SERIES OF LETTERS FROM A LADY TO HER DAUGHTER.

LETTER XIV.

MY DEAR CHILD,-The earth, the sur rounding air, and the unfathomable ocean, are all replete with the wonders of creation: there are animals also partaking of two natures, inhabiting by turns the land and the water, and these are, by naturalists, termed amphibious. Among these I shall commence with those that are, from their size and nature, amongst the most stupendous belonging to this class; and as I commenced my history of land quadrupeds with the horse, so, amongst the amphibious, I shall first introduce to your notice

THE HIPPOPOTAMUS, OR RIVER HORSE.

THIS creature has a great resemblance to the horse; and is found chiefly among the floods of Asia and the rivers on the coast of Africa he keeps under water almost the whole of the day, and feeds on fish. At night he quits his watery abode, and wanders through those fields which are in the highest state of cultivation, where he makes dreadful havock amongst the rice, the millet, and every kind of vegetable. Timid to a degree when he is on land, as soon as he finds himself pursued, notwithstanding his enormous bulk, he does not offer to defend himself, but plunges into the bosom of the waters. There, conscious of that amazing strength with which nature has endowed him, he is always ready to sustain || that combat which seems to ensure to him || victory. If he chance to be wounded, he is only the more irritated; he sets up his ears, his eyes become threatening and inflamed, he plunges with fury against the vessels of his pursuers, sets his teeth in them, tears out the different pieces of wood that hold them together, and often causes

them to disappear for ever beneath the

waves.

The flesh of the hippopotamus is in great estimation at the Cape of Good Hope, and the natives of that place regard it as an exquisite dainty: his fat is eagerly sought after, and is made use of in the place of butter.

The skin of the river horse is used by some of the natives of Asia and Africa for shields and bucklers; being so impenetrable that neither ball nor arrow can pierce it.

THE CROCODILE.

THIS enormous and voracious animal is found on the shores of the Nile, and other great floods in Egypt, in Africa, and in the Indies. Its power is equally felt by land and by sea. Urged on by the most imperious wants, resulting from its extraordinary size, which is seldom less than twenty feet in length, he devours not only the larger fishes of the sea, and the cattle on the earth, but he is at perpetual war with men, women, and children. Sometimes this animal has been known to leap into a boat, and carry off one of the passengers without his companions being able to afford the unhappy wretch the smallest succour or consolation.

In the mean time there are countries where this formidable creature is treated with a degree of adoration. On the slave coast in Africa, the King of Saba regards it as no small proof of his luxury and state, to have two ponds filled with crocodiles, to whom it is expected divine honours will be ascribed; and in the ages of ignorance and superstition the terror that these ani mals inspired caused the people to erect altars to their worship. The inhabitants

in proportion, than that of an ox; but, from its strong connexion with the sides of the lower jaw, it seems, as it were, tied down, so as to be incapable of being stretched forwards, as in other animals.

of the city of Arsinoë, near the lake Mœris, || when, in reality, it is very large, more so, paid divine honours always to the croco dile; and the following is a brief account of their ceremonies: they first bound the crocodile by confining his four feet, and then adorned his ears with magnificent jewels; they then fed him with meat that had been previously consecrated. When the sacred crocodiles died, their ashes were THIS creature so nearly resembles the collected together, and put into an urn, crocodile, that many naturalists seem to which urn was deposited in the sepulchres consider them as one and the same species. of their Kings. And the city of Arsinoë| The leading difference is, that the snout is obtained the honourable title of The City considerably flatter and wider, as well as of the Crocodiles.

The armour which envelopes the body of the crocodile is, to use the words of Dr. Shaw, "the most elaborate piece of na ture's mechanism;" it is capable of repelling a musket ball. The colour of this animal is of a blackish kind of brown above, and a yellowish white beneath; the upper part of the legs and sides is varied with deep yellow, tinged in some parts with green. The eyes have a transparent membrane, as in birds, which is moveable. The mouth is of a prodigious width, and each jaw is furnished with very sharp-pointed teeth; the number in each jaw is about thirty or more. The legs are short, strong, and muscular. The fore-legs are five-toed and unwebbed; the hind feet have only four toes, which are united by a strong web. The tail is remarkably long.

When the crocodile is young, it is by no means an animal to be dreaded; it is then too weak to injure other animals, but contents itself with fish and other trifling prey. In Africa, when it arrives at its full growth and strength, it becomes the most formidable inhabitant of the rivers; lying in wait on its banks, where it attacks dogs and other land animals, swallowing them instantly, and then plunging into the flood. The egg of the common crocodile is very little larger than that of a goose: these eggs are numbered among the delicacies of an African table.

THE ALLIGATOR.

more rounded at the extremity.

The largest alligators inhabit the torrid zone, though many are found in North Carolina; aud in Jamaica they have been seen above thirty feet in length. They are formidable in their appearance, and fierce and mischievous in their natures. They subsist chiefly on fish; and a kind Providence, ever awake for the preservation of its creatures, has so constructed this animal that it can neither swim nor run any way than strait forward; so that he is utterly unable to catch his prey by pursuit if obliged to turn round; but nature has gifted him with a power of deceiving and catching his victims by a peculiar sagacity, and also in the colour of his body, which resembles an old trunk of a tree; and by floating on the surface, and concealing his head and legs, fish, fowl, turtle, and other animals are often swallowed by this voracious creature.

When I have the pleasure of seeing you at Beech Farm, I will take you to see the museum that Lady S has collected of natural curiosities for the private amusemeut of herself and friends; a young alliga tor stuffed, and in fine preservation, has lately been presented to her by her brother. He has had much raillery on the occasion from your father and uncle; but though it was certainly too large for the little elegant articles Lady Shad collected together, the biggest of which is a beautiful gazelle from the Eastern shores, she feels much obliged to her brother, and happy in any way to add to her charming collection of

A vulgar error has long prevailed that the crocodile only moves his upper jaw, but the scientific authors of natural history have discovered that the articulations of each jaw are the same as in other quad-creation's wonderous works.-Adieu. Your rupeds. Another error has been main-affectionate mother,

tained, that the crocodile has no tongue,

No. 112.-Vol. XVIII.

B

ANNA.

TOPOGRAPHICAL MUSEUM-No. XIX.

||

When England, in 1457, had been expelled its ancient domains in France, it received additional mortification by a petty invasion from Normandy. Pierre de Breze collected out of the French garrisons four thousand men, and landed at Sandwich, putting the inhabitants to the sword, and pillaging the town without mercy.

SANDWICH. Is raised on the ruins of a commodious harbour. In 1216, Louis the place called Richborough, in the parish of Dauphin, afterwards Louis VIII. sailed into Ashe; the precise time of the foundation this port with six hundred ships and eighty cannot easily be traced, but it was probably || boats, landed, and continued at Sandwich before the Britons were driven out by the till he was joined by the discontented Saxous: the Welch called it the Sandy Barons. Ford, of which the modern name is only a translation. Its form alone seems sufficient to excite the suspicion that Sandwich had been a Roman station; but there are not the least vestiges of Roman architecture; nor are any coins or antiquities ever dug up belonging to the Romans: it may, therefore, be justly concluded to have been of Saxon origin. It is built on a flat, elevated about fifteen feet above the rest of the plain, in a town containing about six thousand inhabitants; the streets are numerous, narrow, and irregularly disposed. Over the river is a bridge of two stone arches: prior to this bridge was a ferry of very remote antiquity; having been granted by Eadbert, King of Kent, who died in 748, to the Abbey of St. Augustine, in Canterbury. In 1949 it was bestowed by Edward III. on the Hospital of St. Bartholomew, at Sandwich, till the building of the bridge, || in 1755, by virtue of an act of parliament, which secures sixty-two pounds per annum to the Hospital, being the greatest rent ever made by the ferry.

This once important port is now contracted to a very inconsiderable stream; the date of its destruction to its present state must be confined to the space between 1457 and 1573. The town of Sandwich is large, but contains little worthy the researches of the curious. The Hospital of St. Thomas was founded in 1992, by Thomas Ellis, a drafter in this town, for twelve poor persons. This hospital is still kept || up, and comfortably supports eight brothers and three sisters, having a revenue of one hundred and sixty-two pounds eleven shillings. The founder is recorded to have been so opulent as to have lent to that spendthrift monarch, Richard II. forty pounds!

Many of the posterity of the Flemish refugees are still inhabitants of this town, and carry on the business introduced by their ancestors, who had set up manufactures of flannel, baize, and sayes, which trade was once very considerable, but at present totally lost. The staple for wool was placed here by Edward I.; removed, and again restored by Richard II. As an idea of its ancient opulence, in the reign of Edward IV. the customs yielded annually between sixteen and seventeen thousand pounds, and even in that of James I. near three thousand. Sandwich is one of the Cinque Ports, and in the reign of Edward || IV. had ninety-five ships belonging to it, and above fifteen hundred sailors.

CANTERBURY-The capital of Kent, and situated about half a mile distant from a village named Halkington. Canterbury was, without dispute, a Roman city; the form of it is inclined to the oval, and the circuit is one mile five furlongs thirty-two perches and thirteen feet. Many parts of the walls have traces of Roman bricks, which are proofs of the original builders : these marks are certainly becoming very rare, by reason of frequent repairs. On the place where the cathedral now stands, was a Roman Christian church, granted to St. Augustine, in 597, by King Ethelbert. It is built with great simplicity, of Roman brick mixed with flint and stone: this is supposed to be the oldest church in the kingdom now in use; the font is remark. ably curious, and is evidently of Saxon

Edward the Confessor made this town his usual place of residence; in his days the houses in number were three hundred || work. and seven, and it was a most extensive and

The cathedral is in the Gothic style, and

of great beauty and elegance; the elevation of the choir is uncommonly grand, but it is wretchedly fitted up with modern wainscot. Behind the screen is a flight of steps which leads to the chapel of the Holy Trinity; a very curious and elegant piece of work. Between the pillars are frequent tombs; that of Henry IV. and his wife, Queen Joan of Navarre, have their figures represented in a recumbent posture; these figures are formed of alabaster. Henry died in 1414; his Queen erected this monument to his memory, and followed him in 1437. Here also reposes the gallant hero Edward the Black Prince, the valiant son of Edward III.; his figure is in brass, recumbent, with uplifted hands; he is habited in complete armour : he was buried here by his own order.

Beyond is a chapel of a circular form, called Becket's Crown: beneath, in a circular vault, was his place of interment, or rather the spot where the monks hastily deposited his body, for fear it should be exposed to the fowls of the air, as the assassins had threatened: his remains were afterwards translated to the venerable shrine so much spoken of by historians, where they remained till Cromwell, by order of Henry VIII. directed his bones to be taken out and consumed to ashes.

The following description of the shrine, abridged from that authentic topographist, Stowe, cannot fail, we think, of proving interesting to our readers.

without end: a hundred thousand devotees have been known to visit it in one year; even crowned heads fulfilled this duty. Among others Louis VII. came over in 1179 in the disguise of a common pilgrim: he presented a valuable cup of gold, and also the famous jewel called the regal of France, which Henry VIII. afterwards wore as a thumb-ring. Louis granted the monks a hundred tous of wine, to be paid annually in Paris: he kept watch a whole night at the tomb, and in the morning requested to be admitted to the holy fraternity; he was indulged in his demand, together with Henry II.

The chapter-room is ninety-two feet by thirty-seven, and is fifty-four feet high. The pillars of the stalls on the sides are of Petworth marble. In this place Henry II. underwent the severity of his humiliating penance of being scourged by the monks for the murder of Thomas-à-Becket: the sharp penance being over, he returned to the tomb, where he continued all the day in prayer, and all the next night, not suffering a carpet to be spread for his accommodation, but kneeling all the time on the flinty pavement. During all this time he took no food, and, except when he offered his naked body to be scourged, he was clothed in sackcloth; and that he might fully expiate his sin, he assigned a revenue of forty pounds a year to keep lights always burning, in honour of Becket, about his

tomb.

The cloisters remain entire, and form a large square on the west side of the body of this fine cathedral; through them is the entrance into the chapter house.

The shrine was built of the height of an ordinary man, all of stone, then upward of plain timber, within which was a chest of iron, containing the skull and bones of Thomas-à-Becket: on the skull was mark- As soon as King Ethelbert had presented the wound whereby he received his ed the ancient church to St. Augustine, death. The timber-work on the outside that apostle of England founded a mowas covered with plates of gold, damasked nastery at Canterbury, and dedicated it with gold wire, which ground of gold was to our saviour Christ. The Archbishops again covered with jewels set in gold, made it their cathedral, and placed it unand rings, ten or twelve, cramped with der the care of a dean and secular canons. gold wire into the said ground of gold: Ealfric, in 1003, turned them out and rethe stones were of every precious kind, placed them with monks. The seculars with pearls of an immense size, and formed repossessed themselves, till Laufrauc, in into brooches, images, and angels. This 1080, rebuilt the cathedral and adjacent rich spoil, when carried from the shrine buildings, ruined by the Danes, and placed by order of Henry VIII. filled two great in them a hundred and fifty Benedictines, chests, such as six or seven strong men with a prior. The Archbishop being concould scarcely carry. sidered as Abbot, it was called the Priory This shrine was the object of pilgrimage of the Church of the Holy Trinity, or of

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