the upper toothed roller, and is pressed down by a hand-screw so as to securely hold the material being cut, while admitting of considerable alteration according to the nature of the substance acted upon. A travelling web is introduced in place of the ordinary bed of the feeding box, which is a material help to the attendant, particularly in the larger machines, relieving him of the labour of pulling the hay or straw forward, and allowing him to concentrate his entire attention on the feed. A handle is placed at the side of the machine, by which two lengths of cut are obtained, and the same handle acts upon a stop motion to arrest the rollers at any moment.

Messrs. Isaac James and Son exhibited, amongst other things, an excellent manure cart, and a capital roller and clod crusher. Messrs. E. Page and Co. maintained their reputation as manufacturers of agricultural implements; as also did Messrs. Underhill. Mr. Benjamin Edgington, of Duke Street, London Bridge, as usual had to show something useful for farmers in his rick cloths, marquees, tents, &c.; as well as a light, strong, pliable cloth for waggon and cart covers. Messrs. Burney and Co. exhibited some excellent water carts and cisterns.

Carriages may be considered one of the best features at the Smithfield Club Show. In this line Mr. Thorn, of Norwich, showed some first-class workmanship. Amongst other things, we would specially select for commendation his Norfolk shooting cart, with "adjustable shafts." Mr. Inwood, of St. Albans, showed, amongst others, a very pretty dogcart, which attracted much attention. Mr. Ayshford, of Britannia Works, Fulham, exhibited his patent dogcart, which was much admired. Mr. Boxall, of Grantham, also displayed a serviceable shooting cart and very pretty park phaeton. Mr. Samuel Smith, of Suffolk, the inventor of the now well-known Perithreon, exhibited a brougham, possessing a "magic door," capable of being opened and closed by the driver from his seat, by a very simple piece of mechanism. Messrs. Day, Son, and Hewitt, the well-known makers of the "stock-breeder's medicine chests," had many visitors to their stall in search of the panacea for "foot and mouth disease.".

The sewing machines exhibited by Messrs. Newton, Wilson, and Co. attracted much attention from country visitors. The Howe Sewing Machine Company's stand was also a centre of attraction -or, rather, the young lady was, on account of the deftness displayed by her machine in what, we were informed, is technically known as "braiding" amongst ladies. No show could be complete without Bradford's "Vowel" Washing Machines, upon which, as

usual, there was a great "run." In garden furniture and requisites Mr. Alfred Pierce showed some novelties. Altogether, what we "jotted" down at the time as worthy of notice seems upon reading over quite like an account of the contents of an Agricultural Exhibition, which indeed is a true description of this great annual show. No other country could produce anything like it, and Englishmen may well be proud of such an institution, devoted to the development of stock, produce, and agricultural implements. Although the London streets did not appear to us to indicate so many visitors as usual, the show was in this respect one of the most successful on record.

STRANGER THAN FICTION.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE TALLANTS OF BARTON," "THE VALLEY OF POPPIES," &c.

CHAPTER XLII.

OF CERTAIN EMIGRANTS ON BOARD THE HESPERUS; AND CONCERNING A WELL KNOWN MELODY THAT LED TO A DELIGHTFUL DISCOVERY.

Y the kindness of Mr. Williams, Jacob was enabled at once to throw up his Dinsley engagement; and, on the invitation of Mr. Horatio Johnson (with whom Mr. Williams had recently spent a day at Middleton), he took Liverpool on his way into the Principality of Wales, for the purpose of bidding adieu to a party of emigrants in whose welfare he was deeply interested.

It was a calm summer night, when Jacob and the Doctor, and Mrs. Horatio Johnson, and Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Titsy, sat in a corner of the best cabin of the Hesperus, bound to Canada. The moonlight was streaming in upon them through the cabin window; Mrs. Johnson was plying her knitting needles, and looking up occasionally to make a remark; the Doctor was detailing to Jacob his views about the future, and the comparative ease with which money begot money in the colonies; Tom was listening to the Doctor and smiling at Susan; and Jacob was wishing them all sorts of success and happiness, whenever a lull occurred in the conversation, and exacting promises of frequent letters.

The parting hour came at last. Mrs. Johnson, though in her heart she could not altogether forgive Jacob, for we know what, united in the general feeling of sorrow at leaving him; but happy in their own goodness and honest affection, not one of the four had any regrets in setting out for a new home far away from scenes which were associated with so many bitter memories. Jacob took his leave with much real emotion; and an hour afterwards stood gazing at a ship that was disappearing in the moonlight, to be followed by other vessels which other people would look after and wave handkerchiefs at, and weep about, and dream of in the silent watches of the night. On the following afternoon Jacob arrived at the first stage in his

Welsh journeying, and found at the post-office, Neathville, according to prior arrangement, a bundle of proofs of his first book. To read these was, at that time, a labour of love indeed, even though the labour continued long after the sun had disappeared, and the moon had risen again-the same moon that was looking down on the emigrant ship, and making long white tracks on the distant ocean which now rolled between Jacob and his old friends.

Neathville was a quiet, mossy old place, with the sea in front, and on every other side a country studded with grey ruins of old walls and castles, the histories of which are a rich mine of instruction, poetry, and romance. The Flemish found the town a fishing village, and, struck with its many natural advantages, settled there, and, assisted by Norman allies, fortified the place; but the Welsh many years afterwards surprised the settlers, put them to the sword, and razed the fortifications to the ground. From that period (somewhere about the eleventh century), until after the advent of Oliver Cromwell, the history of Neathville had been one of great interest-a story of war and tribulation, of piracy and bloodshed, of sack and famine, of heroism and bravery; and in all quarters the antiquary could lay his fingers upon some fine memento of the greatness and the littleness of past ages. There was an old castle; a grey church, filled with quaint memorials; some ruined walls, the remains of a priory; two medicinal springs, and many other attractions; besides the fringe of rocks which skirted the bay and ran out, in picturesque pinnacles, into the sea.

At the period of my story, the fine sandy beach was not the promenade of fast gentlemen from town, looking through eye-glasses at fast ladies from the same place; nor had the donkey driver even made his appearance. At the most fashionable hour in the day Jacob saw only a few groups of people on the immense tract of beach, which stretched away until it seemed to join the clouds at a famous point, where many a ship had been lured to destruction in the dark days of the wreckers.

Musing with his own thoughts, which were chiefly occupied with the design of writing a full explanation of his position to Lucy, and endeavouring to fix an interview which should be final "for weal or woe," Jacob was returning home one evening not long after his arrival in Neathville, when, as if in response to his feelings, there fell upon his ear the faint melody of a strain so familiar to him that at first he thought it but the creation of his own fancy. A treacherous memory and a strong imagination will sometimes play strange tricks with the senses; but Jacob was soon convinced that the music which

he heard was a charming reality. It stole over the rocks, in undulating cadences, and transported him back to days of yore, as completely as though he had been. under some such spell as Mesmer might have worked, taking the reason prisoner, and planting the mind with whatever picture the enchanter willed. Jacob was again in the garden at Middleton, with the morning sun shining upon him, amidst the sounds of falling waters, and the songs of birds.

There is a happy land,
Far, far away.

High over the rocks above him, from a noble half-castellated house, came the well-known music; and, as Jacob listened, all the sensations of hope and fear and doubt and dread which he had felt when he looked on the footprints in the snow at Cartown replaced the first thoughts of the old home and the garden-paradise. There was only one voice which could sing that song so sweetly, so plaintively. A harp accompaniment added to the effect of the dear old melody, and with the murmur of the sea as a deep bass, and Jacob's own strong imagination and memories of happy times, my readers will readily believe that the music was an attraction which Jacob did not desire to resist.

To go round by the regular path, to reach the house situated on the summit of the rocks, were a tedious process indeed for Jacob in his present mood. Straight to the house whence the music came was his only course. Away he went with the alacrity of a practised climber. There had been a time when his mind would not, under similar circumstances, have strayed for a moment from the object of his climbing; but now that he was an author, the demon of "copy," which sometimes startles writers at all hours, suggested to him what a capital situation it would be, supposing he were writing a story out of his own experiences, to make himself fall over the rocks and be discovered by his mistress just in time to save his precious life, and once more swear eternal love to each other.

Jacob did not fall, although his path was made additionally dangerous by the starting up, here and there, of flocks of sea-birds, which filled the air with their peculiar cries, compelling him to pause and listen for the music to the source of which he was hurrying. He had scarcely reached the summit when the melody changed to a new and an unknown one; but, a few moments afterwards, when he had stepped aside from the full view of the room with its tall windows opening out upon a lawn, Jacob detected in the new song some simple words which he had written for Lucy Cantrill when he was a schoolboy and had dreams by the Cartown river.