Fifth these better skill'd and deeper read in Greek, From various books can various beauties seek. The sixth, in every learned classic skill'd, Near these the Shell's* high concave walls appear, Eastward of the passage leading to the school, there is a long ancient building, having the basement story roofed with semicircular groined arches, rising from pillars with handsome capitals. At the north end the regalia is said to have been formerly kept. At the east is a complete altar-table, erroneously called the tomb of Hugolin. The upper story is used as the School-room. The Dormitory is a spacious and elegant building erected for the scholars on the foundation, at the time when the celebrated Bishop Atterbury was dean of Westminster. A thousand pounds had been left for this purpose by Sir Edward Hannes, one of the physicians in ordinary to Queen Anne, who had received his education at this school. But this legacy was not sufficient to meet the estimated expense, and the Domitory, in consequence, remained unexecuted until Atterbury revived the project, and procured a memorial to be presented by the Chapter to George the First, running thus: "The Bishop of Rochester, Dean of Westminster, and the Chapter of that church, humbly represent to your Majesty, that Queen Elizabeth, of glorious memory, founded the college of Westminster, which has in all times since been highly favoured by your Majesty's royal ancestors, and has bred up great numbers of men, useful both in church and state; among whom are several who have the honour to serve your Majesty in high stations: That the domitory of the said college is in so ruinous a condition, that it must of necessity be forthwith rebuilt, the expenses of which building (besides other charges that may thereby be occasioned) will, according to the plan now humbly presented to your Majesty, amount to upwards of 5000l. As a foundation for raising this sum, a legacy has been left by one who was a member of this college; and there is good reason to believe that divers persons of quality, who owe their education to this place, may be disposed to favour this design, if they shall be incited by your Majesty's royal example. The said Bishop and Chapter therefore humbly hope that your Majesty will, as an encouragement to learning, be pleased to bestow your royal bounty on this occasion, in such measure as to your Majesty's high wisdom shall seem proper." The monarch was pleased to respond to this memorial by the gift of 1000l. towards the desired object; the Prince of Wales gave 500l.; the parliament voted 1200, and William Maurice, Esq., gave 500l. The new building was at length commenced, on the west side of the college gardens, from the design of Lord Burlington, who personally superintended the works. It is in a portion of this building, fitted up as a theatre, that the Latin plays are annually represented by the King's Scholars. The former appropriate scenery, contrived under Garrick's directions, was the gift of a master of the school, Markham, archbishop of York. The present scenery was the gift of the highly respected Dean of Westminster, Dr. Vincent. The Westminster plays have attracted a number of distinguished persons as auditors. The pit is set apart for "Old Westminsters," who contribute liberally to the collection which is made at the close of the performance. On some occasions nearly 2001. have been thus collected, and after all expenses are paid, the remainder is divided among the Senior * A class so called. King's Scholars, who have taken part in the perform ance. The number of boys at Westminster has in past years ordinarily varied from three hundred, to three hundred and fifty, of whom rather more than two-thirds were in the upper school. This division contains four out of the eight forms into which the school is divided, namely, the sixth, the shell, the fifth, and the fourth. The under school has also four forms; the third, the second, the first, and a small class called the petty. Each of the forms is again subdivided into an upper and an under part, the period requisite for passing through each part being half a year. This time may, however, be shortened or prolonged according to the master's pleasure. A considerable number of hours in the week are passed in school; Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, are whole school days: the other three week-days are halfholidays. School-hours begin at eight o'clock in the winter, and seven in the summer, and, with the exception of an hour for breakfast, continue till twelve, The school opens again at two, and closes for the day at five. But the pupils are not occupied the whole time of their remaining in school, with repeating and construing les sons already learned: they also prepare their lessons for the next day, and themes and versions may be done in taken in all parts of the school beneath the sixth form, school. In construing the appointed lessons, places are and emulation is purposely excited among the scholars. Whole holidays are given at Westminster on Saints' days, and some few other occasions, when all the boys attend morning service in Westminster Abbey. They are not required to attend service a second time in the day, but the substitute for so doing is curious. All the boys, of whatever age and habits, and whatever may be the state of the weather, are locked up, the town boys in their boarding-houses, the King's Scholars in their dormitory, from the hour of two till five. This is designed to keep them from going too far out of bounds. When released, they go out till six o'clock in winter, and halfpast eight in summer. The games and sports of the scholars are reported to be somewhat of a pugnacious character. Not many years ago, there was a regularly established, and well-worn fighting-ground, in which quarrels were settled. An old custom on Shrove Tuesday is worth mentioning, though we have no account of its origin. On that day the under clerk of the college, preceded by the beadle and other officers, advances in due form, and throws a large pancake over the bar that divides the upper from the lower schools. Brand mentions a similar custom at Eton. The course of study at Westminster, as at most other public schools, consists chiefly of the principal Latin poets, portions of the chief Latin prose writers, and or the Greek poets. The books employed in the higher classes are Virgil, Horace, Terence, Cicero's Orations, or the first Decad of Livy, Homer, and some of the Greek tragedies, particularly the four plays of Euripides, published by Professor Porson. For the sixth form must be added the first three books of Euclid, the work of Grotius, and collections of speeches from the Latin and Greek historians. All the boys in the upper school are required to make, every week, twenty Latin hexameter verses on some sacred subject, called the Bible exercise, with a theme or short prose essay, on some moral subject, alternately in English and Latin. Arithmetic, algebra, modern languages, and modern history do not enter into the course of instruction at Westminster; but there are masters to give lessons on By the strict letter of the statutes, the King's Scholars are required to be at some particular place called station,-either the school, or the enclosure in Dean's Yard, or the cricket-ground, or the college, or the hall, the senior boys, who are responsible for this attendance, and bound to at every moment of the day. There are three monitors appointed from preserve due order and discipline. These stations are still enforced upon the lower half of the King's Scholars with considerable strictness. The upper half is by custom excused. these subjects to those who desire them. The repetition of the Catechism, of which an explanation is given, and the turning of the Psalms and Gospels into Latin, form a portion of the religious instruction of the junior classes; the Bible exercise, Greek Testament, and Grotius, that of the seniors. Prayers are read in college and at the boarding-houses. On Saturday in Term, lectures are read to the King's Scholars by a Prebendary. classics. Libraries are attached to each house, and to college. A new boy pays one guinea, and every one 3s. 6d. half-yearly to the support of them. There is also a small school library, containing old editions of the The rewards at this school consist in the distribution of prizes, in the obtaining a higher place in the form in all forms below the two highest, and in the selection of an exercise for its merit by the master. The principal punishments are impositions and flogging. The very objectionable practice of fagging formerly maintained at Westminster, has, we are happy to state, been lately considerably alleviated. "The system never was supported, or even recognised, by the masters, and is now more discountenanced than formerly. The most satisfactory information which can be given on the subject, and which alone will be a practical answer to objections of parents and friends, seems to be this, that there is at present the best possible security provided against this abuse, in the regulations by which all those menial offices, which once fell to the lot of the lower boys, are now performed by servants; and that if fagging does exist at all, it must be confined to a very few, and by them little or nothing remains to be done, except errands to the school-bookseller, and such trifling services as secure patronage to a little boy, without in any degree subjecting him to hardship or ill treatment." DOUBTLESS that religion was from heaven which makes of hope a virtue.-CHATEAUBRIAND. PERCEPTION of distress in others is a natural excitement, passively to pity, and actively to relieve it: but let a man set himself to attend to, inquire out, and relieve distressed persons, and he cannot but grow less and less sensibly affected with the various miseries of life with which he must become acquainted; when yet at the same time, benevolence, considered not as a passion, but as a practical principle of action, will strengthen; and whilst he passively compassionates the distressed less, he will acquire a greater aptitude actively to assist and befriend them.-ARCHBISHOP WHATELY. BE HUMBLE. TRIUMPH not, frail man; thou art Thou seem'st most proud of thine offence; Triumph not, though nothing warns A pleasant morn, a sultry noon, But triumph, if thy soul feels firm In faith, and leans on God; If woe bids flourish love's warm germ, And thou canst kiss the rod; Then triumph, man; for this alone JONES. "THE LOST FARM." The western winds assail the western shore- WHILST "old ocean" is, on some of the shores of our "sea-girt isle," undermining our foundations, and precipitating acres of land into the sea; in other places, the land is encroaching upon the waters; and, whether aided or not by man, is occupying the place where the sea once rolled its foaming billows. The former operations may be traced on the high coasts of Yorkshire, where the dashing of the waters against the shore gradually wears away the yielding material; and the ground being undermined, the superincumbent mass, in smaller or greater quantities, is ultimately precipitated into the sea. On the flat beaches of Lincolnshire, on the contrary, large tracts of land have been reclaimed from the sea by human industry and ingenuity; and houses now occupy the sites which were once the dwelling-places of the inhabitants of the deep. If we turn to the western side of our island, we shall find that the flat sandy coast of some parts of Lancashire bears indications of having been once covered by the sea, which, from some cause or other, has receded from its former limits. In Morecambe Bay, a little north of Lancaster, both processes are going on within a very short distance. On the opposite side of the bay, a little south of Ulverston, if we may credit tradition, the sea has made great inroads: "for great part of the parish of Aldingham has been swept away within these few centuries. There is a tradition in Furness, that the church of Aldingham stood in the centre of the parish: at present it is within reach of a high tide." Two villages, "which the first Sir Michael de Fleming exchanged with the monks for Bardsea, are only known in record." The soil here is a pliable loam, which readily yields to the action of the waves. Passing south of the Ribble, we come to the now the mouth of that river or estuary, about twenty miles considerable bathing-place, called Southport, situated at north of Liverpool, and nine north-west of Ormskirk, in the parish of North Meols* (pronounced Mails). "Prior to 1792, the site of this improving village was a dreary sank-bank, at the lower end of a bay seventeen fathoms deep, which is now choked up with sand." In 1809, the number of houses was thirty-eight; in 1842, the number was upwards of a thousand: and during the summer season it is crowded with visitors. The shore is exceedingly flat. At low water the sea recedes several miles; and during neap-tides, it is hardly visible even at high water. On approaching from Ormskirk, we pass through a couple of miles of peat-moss, which, within a quarter of a mile of Southport, is covered some depth with sand. "The lost farm" is the name given to one of the very few attractions within reach of the visitors of this socalled "Montpelier of the coast of South Lancashire." It is situated two miles and a half south of the town, and about a quarter of a mile inland. It is lost and desolate enough; but not, on this account, less an object of interest to the curious or the contemplative. This now barren spot is separated from the sea by the range of low sand-hills that run along this part of the coast. It may, therefore, be readily conceived that the breezes from the Atlantic, or rather from the Irish "From the Teutonic word Melo, farina, are derived the Saxon terms Mell, Meol, and our Meal, which have each been figuratively employed to designate this parish, in consequence of the number of sand-hills which it contains-BAINES's History of Lancashire, vol. iv., p. 273. Channel, would be likely to drive a portion of the sand from the hill into this once cultivated little valley. It is so. The sand rises in the air, is carried inland on the breeze, and falls on the earth a shower of desolation. An east wind comes in its turn; but, less frequent and less powerful than the western gales, it repels not the destroyer; and the result is, that the sand gradually accumulates in depth, and the cultivated farm becomes a barren and dreary waste. Year after year has added to these accumulations, until the sand is become several feet in depth. It is a striking illustration of the uncertainty of terrestrial tenure. To be sure, this silent and gradual accumulation of sand is not to be compared with those fearful sand-storms of the desert, where mountains of sand, literally flying on the wings of the wind, prostrate whole caravans to the earth, and involve man and beast in one common ruin: "The Lord shall make the rain of thy land powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou be destroyed." But these miniature storms are not less destructive of vegetable life, or at least of agriculture, than are the whirlwinds of the desert destructive of animal life. When we visited this solitude, some eighteen or twenty years ago, part of a building was still to be seen, which was filled with sand to the depth of three or four feet; and we understood that many acres of land had been "inundated" to this depth within a few years. We saw two or three small trees, and a few remaining bushes of hawthorn, which had once formed part of a fence. And even these were in unison with the surrounding scene. They bloomed not: there was none of the "May's" delicious perfume To waste its sweetness on the desert air. The recollection of this scene brings vividly before our view that beautiful sentence, which has ever clung to our memory, since we first saw it in one of our school-day reading books: "If the spring puts forth no blossom, in summer there will be no beauty, and in autumn no fruit; so, if youth be trifled away without improvement, manhood will probably be contemptible, and old age miserable." To prevent the further progress of the sand, two fields, formerly the richest land in the neighbourhood, had been sown with a sort of rushy grass called star, which grows plentifully on the margin of the shore. This plant, "the star or sea-reed, the roots of which penetrate deep into the sand, and offer a fixed point round which it may collect," is considered so valuable a barrier against these sandy inundations, that in the reign of Queen Elizabeth an Act of Parliament was passed making it penal to destroy this useful plant; and at various times, motives have been held out for its cultivation. At low water there is a pleasant ride on the shore to Liverpool, turning inland a short distance to cross the Alt, a small stream that runs into the sea a little south of Formby Point. There is not, at least there was not, much of peculiar interest to the traveller; but he must be of a very dull imagination, or of a very grovelling mind, who can take a first ride along the sea-shore, whatever the shore may be, and find no amusement, and pick up no instruction." WE should learn to be just to individuals. Who can say, in such circumstances, I should have done otherwise? Who, did he but reflect by what slow gradations, often by how many strange concurrences, we are led astray; with how much reluctance, how much agony, how many efforts to escape, how many self-accusations, how many sighs, how many tears-who, did he hut reflect for a moment, would have the heart to cast a stone? Fortunately these things are known to Him, from whom no secrets are hidden; and let us rest in the assurance that His judgments are not as ours are.--ROGERS. LAMBY'S CONDUIT, AS REBUILT IN 1667, FROM A DESIGN BY PURE water being one of the necessaries of life, the means for obtaining an abundant supply have in all ages been an object of great solicitude. We learn from the earliest records, that wherever any advances had been made in civilization, wells were dug and fountains formed. The contrivances mentioned by ancient writers are still the subject of comment by modern travellers, especially in those countries where even a scanty supply of water is often of the utmost importance to the migratory pastoral tribes, and, in some cases, to the residents in towns and villages. In the sacred records, the wells of Abraham and Isaac are mentioned, with the contentions which they occasioned. (Gen. xxvi.) The well of Jacob is rendered memorable by the conversation of our Lord with the woman of Samaria. (John xiv.) The supply of water to the population of a large city. requires much scientific knowledge and skill. A notice of the different schemes adopted at various times, will serve to exhibit the progress of improvement in other respects. We have already noticed the introduction of pavements into public streets; and some of the methods of lighting our cities and townst; and on the present occasion, the reader may find some amusement in the inquiry as to the supply of water in London, previous to the construction of water-works at London Bridge and the New River. In this and another article on the same subject, our information is chiefly derived from an amusing and instructive work by Mr. Matthews, entitled Hydraulia. In a description of London, written by Fitz-Stephens in the reign of Henry the Second, the author states, that "Round the city again, and towards the north, See Saturday Magazine, Vol. XIII., p. 219. + See Saturday Magazine, Vol, XIII., p. 140. arise certain excellent springs at a small distance, whose waters are sweet, salubrious, clear, and whose runnels murmur o'er the shining stones!' Among these, Holywell, Clerkenwell, and St. Clement's well, may be esteemed the principal, as being much the best frequented, both by scholars from the schools, and youth from the city, when in a Summer's evening they are disposed to take an airing." In Stow's Survey of London, written in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the following notices occur: Anciently, until the Conqueror's time, and for two hundred yeares after, the Citie of London was watered, (beside the famous river of the Thames on the south part,) with the river of Wels*, as it was then called, on the west; with water called Wallbrooke, running through the midst of the citie into the river of Thames, serving the heart thereof; and with a fourth water or boorne, which run within the citie through Langbourne Ward, watering that part in the east. In the west was also another great water called Oldborne. Then were there three principal fountaines or wels in the other suburbs: to wit, Holywell, Clement's Well, and Clerke's Well. Neare unto this last fountaine, were divers other wels; to wit, Skinner's Well, Fag's Well, Tode Well, Loder's Well, and Radwell. All which said wells, having the fall of their overflowing into the aforesaid river, much increased the streame, and in that place gave it the name of well. In West Smithfield there was a poole, in records called Horsepoole; and another near to the parish church of St. Giles', Cripplegate. Besides which they had in every gate and lane of the citie, divers faire wels, and fresh springs, and after this manner was this citie then served with sweet fresh waters; which being since decayed, other means have been sought to supply the want, as shali be showed; but first of the aforenamed rivers and waters is to be said as followeth : commonalty to lay down a leaden pipe of six inches bore, from six fountains or wells in that vicinity; and as this useful work was expensive, the principal citizens contributed liberally. This large pipe did not, probably, extend further than the western boundary, for it is stated by Stow, that in 1432, Tyborne water was laid into the Standard, Cheapside, at the expense of Sir John Wells, lord mayor; and likewise in 1438, by another lord mayor, Sir William Eastfield, from Tyborne to Fleet Street and Aldermanbury; and from Highbury to Cripplegate. According to Mr. Nelson, the historian of Islington, the conduit formed at Highbury was opposite Highbury Place, but is now arched over with brick, its situation being marked by an upright stone, which points out the direction of the springs on the higher ground, from which it receives its supply. From this ancient conduit, which remained open as a watering place for cattle before the building of Highbury Place, many of the houses there are now served with water, a proper com→ munication having been made, on building them, for that purpose. By these means it flows into wells or reservoirs behind the houses, which also communicate with each other, the lower well receiving the surplus water when the upper one is filled. These means for supplying London with water, extensive as they were esteemed then, were inadequate to their intended purpose. The citizens still continued to adopt a very primitive method of supplying their wants, fetching it from the Thames "by many lanes that led to the water side in divers wards of the citie. But in time," continues Stowe, "many of these lanes were stopped who would suffer none to pass without paying a duty. This became a great grievance, insomuch, that in the seventeenth of Edward the Third, (1342,) the Maior, Aldermen, these lanes and passages to the Thames. and Commonalty, received great complaints of stopping up Upon this an inquisition was made, and divers persons of the several and of all the lanes that were common passages to the wards sworn to make diligent inquiry into these grievances, Thames, who brought in presentments of them, and of the annoyances and stoppages of them in several wards." The said river of Wels, the running water of Wall-up by those that dwelt thereabouts, for their own gain, brooke, the boornes, &c., and other fresh waters that were in about the citie, being in process of time, by incroachments for buildings, and heightening of grounds, utterly decayed; and the number of citizens mightily increased, they were forced to seek for waters abroad, whereof some, at the request of King Henry the Third, in the twenty-first yeare of his reigne, were for the profit of the citie, and good of the whole realme thither repairing, to wit, for the poore to drink, and the rich to dress their meate. The first cisterne of lead, castellated with stone in the citie of London, was called the Great Conduit, in Westcheap, which was begun to be builded in the yeare 1235, Henry Wales being then mason. The water-course from Paddington to James' head, hath 510 rods; from James' head on the hill to Mewsgate, 102 rods; from the Mewsgate to the Crosse in Cheape, 484 rods. This appears to have been the first attempt made to supply London with water by means of metal pipes; and the work appears to have been regarded, at the time of its execution, as one of the greatest magnitude and importance; a work which could now be executed with ease in a few weeks, occupied the long period of fifty years. The pipes were not simply imbedded in the earth, as is the present custom, but inclosed within a capacious arch of brickwork, into which workmen could descend, when necessary, to repair any damage. About the year 1236, another scheme was adopted for supplying water to London, as appears by a proposal made by some foreign merchants, who were desirous of landing and housing their wares; for this privilege they agreed to pay fifty marks yearly, and to give one hundred pounds towards the expense of the operations then going on, for conveying water from Tyborne to the city. This important undertaking originated in a grant from Gilbert de Sandford, enabling the lord mayor and * Pennant states that "the river of Wells, or Wal-brook, is mentioned in a charter of William the Conqueror to the College of St. Martin's-le. Grand, and it rose to the north of Moorfields, passed through London Wall between Bishopsgate and Moorgate, and ran through the city for a long time quite exposed, having several bridges erected over it. Two or three centuries ago it was vaulted over with brick, paved at the top, and formed into a street now called Walbrook." He also remarks that "formerly barges of considerable burden flowed up the river Fleet as high as Holborn Bridge; over it were four stone bridges, on its sides extensive quays and warehouses, and it was scoured and kept open at a vast expense, nearly twenty thousand pounds having been applied to that purpose in 1606." That encouragement was given to persons who proposed to increase the supply of water to London, will appear from the following statement:-In 1439, the Abbot of Westminster granted to Robert Large, the lord mayor, and the citizens of London and their successors, one head of water containing twenty-six perches in length, and one in breadth, together with all the springs in the manor of Paddington, in consideration of the city paying for ever to the said abbot and his suc cessors, on the feast of St. Peter, two peppercorns. But if the intended work should draw the water from the ancient wells in the manor of Hida, then the grant to cease and become entirely void. This grant was confirmed by Henry the Sixth, and likewise a writ of Privy Seal issued, allowing the lord mayor and citizens power to purchase two hundred fodder (loads or tons) of lead, for the intended pipes or conduits; and also to impress plumbers, labourers, &c., for carrying on the said work, provided always that their wages be punctually paid thereon. These useful works seem to have been carried on during several successive years; for Stowe records, that in 1441, William Combes, sheriff, gave ten pounds to the works of the conduits; and that in 1442, the conduit in West Cheape was built; and the one in Aldermanbury, as well as the Standard in Fleet Street, in 1471; also, that in 1476, Richard Rawson, one of the sheriffs, gave twenty pounds towards the work of the conduits; and that in 1478, a cistern was added to the Standard in Fleet Street, another at Fleet Bridge, and another without Cripplegate. The conduit in Gras Street was built in 1491, and Oldborne Cross about 1498. Many facts have been collected which indicate the anxiety of the corporation, as well as of private individuals, to benefit their fellow citizens by contributing to the supply of water. In 1546, the common council voted a sum of money for the purpose of erecting a conduit at Lothbury, the water to be supplied from Hoxton Fields. During the same year, another conduit was constructed near the church in Coleman Street. The conduit erected by Mr. William Lambe merits particular notice. Mr. Lambe is said to have been a gentleman of the chapel royal, in the time of Henry the Eighth. At the place named after him, Lambe's Conduit, he caused several springs to be so connected as to form a head of water, which was conveyed by a leaden pipe, about two thousand yards in length, to Snow Hill, where he rebuilt a conduit which had long been in a ruinous state and disused. He is said to have expended a very large sum of money upon these structures, and thus, by his benevolent efforts, conferred an important advantage on a populous neighbourhood. His benefactions for other purposes were also numerous. He was buried in St. Faith's Church. Over his tomb was inscribed an epitaph, written in the quaint punning language of the times, of which the following is the conclusion: LOGIC is the art of thinking well. The mind, like the body, requires to be trained before it can use its powers in the most advantageous way. A man may be strong and brave without having learnt the military exercise; but he will be able to exert his natural strength and courage to much more advantage after he has been trained as a soldier: and so, a man whose understanding has been regularly taught and exercised in the art of thinking, will be able to employ his natural powers more quickly, easily, and certainly, than he could otherwise have done. A multiplicity of unmeaning or unimportant distinctions were formerly made, and much idle labour was spent in logical studies. The good sense of modern times has brought these useless pursuits into disesteem; but the artificial training and exercise of the intellectual powers is, at present, too little regarded. A modern education stores the memory with a great and various mass of well ascertained and important facts; but it leaves the powers of abstraction and reasoning uncultivated, and only accidentally exercised. In consequence of this system, while extensive information on all those branches of knowledge which consist in mere collections of facts is widely diffused, very few individuals are found who are competent to a continued effort of thought; and very few books are published, which require in the reader more than the lightest exercise of the intellectual faculties.Elements of Thought. CONNAUGHT, particularly the mountainous part, was long a favourite place of refuge for the Celtic Irish, when driven by the English from the eastern districts. It has, therefore, like Wales, retained a more completely national character, the English language being scarcely understood in the more remote regions. Leinster, on the other hand, is almost Anglicized, the Irish language being spoken in only a few out-of-the-way corners. Nearly the same may be said of Munster, though scarcely to the same degree. Of Ulster, the greater part has received a Scottish impression, though Irish is still spoken here and there. Connaught is the only thoroughly Irish province. Leinster may be said to be the province of light; Connaught the province of darkness, to Ireland: in the former is the greatest cultivation, and the lovely land of Wicklow; in the latter, poverty, barbarism, superstition, and the wilds of Connemara. Even in trifles there is a marked difference between the inhabitants of the two provinces. Thus in Leinster, as throughout England, people eat the entrails of the sheep, but never those of the hog; in Connaught it is just the reverse.-KOHL's Ireland. THE KITCHEN GARDEN. V. MAY. Gradual sinks the breeze Into a perfect calm, that not a breath Is heard to quiver through the closing woods, And looking lively gratitude. At last, In large effusion o'er the freshen'd world.-THOMSON SPRING showers, so beautifully described in the above lines, are full of blessings to the earth, and are especially witnessed with delight by agriculturists and cultivators of gardens. To the kindly influence of warm and gentle rains, do we owe the beautiful freshness of our pastures, the rapid growth of the various crops, and the constant succession of wholesome fruits and vegetables which our gardens supply. Among the earliest vegetables sown in May, may be reckoned the dwarf varieties of the kidney-bean, which are followed in the second week by the scarlet and white runners. This kidney-bean (Phaseolus) is a delicate vegetable, as well known, and almost as universal a favourite as the pea. Its botanical name Phaseolus is supposed to allude to the shape of the seed-pod, which resembles a boat first invented at Phaselis, a town of Pamphylia. The English name Kidney-bean was given on account of the seed being of a kidney shape. French-bean is another name given to this vegetable, owing to its long cultivation in France. lands, is said to have taken place about the year 1509, The introduction of this vegetable from the Netherbut the greater number of the present varieties are of much later date. The dwarf varieties are twelve in number; they are of very low growth, and require no support. Of the runners there are six varieties; these ascend to the height of eight or ten feet, and therefore require tall sticks, around which they may wind themselves; or they may be planted near trellis work, where their leaves and blossoms form no inelegant covering. The scarlet runner was formerly in great repute for the beauty of its blossoms, which were added to the nosegays of ladies. The best soil for kidney-beans, especially for the early sowings, is a light mellow loam, inclining to sand; if the seed be sown in wet tenacious earth, the greater part of it generally decays without germinating, and those plants which do contrive to struggle into existence, seldom last long or produce much. From the beginning dwarf varieties may be made, if necessary, every three of May, to the first week in August, sowings of the weeks. If a removal is intended, the sowings should be made in pots, as the roots are less injured in that way, than in being transplanted from a seed-bed. In all cases the seed is buried an inch and a half or two inches deep in the earth. The rows, if of the small varieties, must be a foot and a half apart; if of the larger, two feet. The rows of the earlier crops are best ranged north and south. Kidney-beans, whether dwarf or climbing, are very tender plants, and the early crops frequently fail. In order to get them a fortnight earlier than they could otherwise be procured without the aid of hot-house or pits, a slight hot-bed is sometimes made |