turned to the stocking-frame, and for several years entirely neglected composition. In 1817 he was placed on the staff of his old regiment, which was then called the Royal Sherwood Foresters; and in the following year he became a married man. The cares of providing for a family now increasing his necessities, he turned his thoughts to publishing, and, not having sufficient already written, he resolved to attempt something of more importance than he had hitherto done; and in February, 1819, he began the poem of "Vicissitude." By the end of October, 1820, poor Millhouse completed his work, which was approved of by Col. Cooper Gardener, who, with those kindly and benevolent feelings by which he was so much distinguished, exerted himself to promote the welfare of the poet, and succeeded in procuring the valuable patronage of the late Duchess of Newcastle. In 1832, he gave up the labour of the loom, and applied himself to composition; and, his first wife dying, he was left with five children; but through the kind assistance of Mr. Wakefield, some other friends, and that excellent institution, the Literary Fund, he was enabled to provide for his family. The fate of the poet is now shortly to be told; he struggled hard to maintain a large family, and produced several volumes of poetry, which bear the impress of genius, strong talent, and a reflective and discrimina ting mind. The assertion that he was for some time previous to his death in a state of destitution, is contradicted by the Literary Gazette, which says, that he lived in a very comfortable house, decently furnished; and though naturally anxious, yet he never suffered privation or want. He was an eccentric man, of an unbending disposition and irritable temper. He died on Saturday, April 19th, 1839, leaving a wife and seven children, in indigent circumstances; but, we trust, not without friends, who will rescue them from want and penury. ADVICE TO THE LADIES. A PRETTY hand and a pretty foot always go together when we speak of the one we always think of the other. For this reason, stepping on a woman's foot is equivalent to squeezing her hand, and equally proper, but sometimes more convenient, as it can be done under the table. Be careful, however, never to attempt it at a crowded table for fear of making a mistake. We once saw a lady very much confused, who was trying to give a signal to a gentleman opposite, and instead of his, she trod and pressed on the corn-covered toes of an old bachelor. He bore it as long as he could, and then very quietly remarked, "Madam, when you wish to step on a gentleman's toes, be particular and get the foot that belongs to him-for the last five minutes you have been jamming my corns most unmercifully." CADIZ. CADIZ still bears on her shield the effigy of Hercules grappling with two lions, Gadis Fundator Dominatorque.' The fancy of a herald is all that remains of his substantial power, while Venus his foe, the Omphale, the Dalilah of strength and reputation, rules, and will rule, triumphantly in Cadiz, so long as the salt foam, from whence she sprung, whitens the walls of her sea-girt city. These walls offer the first resistance which breaks the heavy swell of the vast Atlantic. The waves undermine them while the Spaniards sleep. They have gained much ground since the days of Pliny, and are a continual source of anxiety and expense. New Books. Cheveley, or the Man of Honour.-By Lady Lytton Bulwer. Edward Bull, ['CHEVELEY' is the story of an amiable, accomplished, and beautiful woman, married to a self-engrossed, pedantić, shallow coxcomb, and of the natural consequences of such an ill-assorted union. The bad treatment of the wife by the husband, and her unhappiness, as these are too conspicuous to escape the observation of intimate acquaintances, lead on the part of one of them, to commiseration for the sufferer; and commiseration under such circumstances very soon merges into love. But in this instance the lover is a 'man. of honour,' not in the modern sense-one who first seduces his friend's wife, and then is willing to kill the said friend in a duel, by way of satisfaction,-but a 'man of honour' properly so called, one who yields obedience to a purer and sterner law than that of selfgratification. And the lady, too, albeit not unsusceptible of pretty compliments, still less of the value of genuine affection, is withal sincerely a woman of virtue. The authoress, therefore, with due regard to the demands of poetical justice, generously so frames her story as to let the ill-natured husband break his neck, at a juncture when the reader can afford to part with him without any severe tax on his sympathy; and then, as a matter of course, there being no other "let or impediment," the man of honour' is forthcoming, and "what oft was thought, but ne'er so well expressed," is uttered in the ear of the consolable widow, and meets with the desired reception in the acceptance of the usual proposals. As novels go, this is as good a foundation for one as need be, but in the work before us, the conduct of the story is evidently subordinate to another and quite a different purpose; and, therefore, beyond the expression of our opinion, that in Cheveley there is ample evidence of smartness and general cleverness, an estimate of the writer's talent in that line must be reserved until she shall devote herself bona fide to a work of fiction. After the "buz" which preceded and accompanied this publication, it can be treated as no longer a secret, that Lady Bulwer is understood in the guise of a novel to disclose the painful realities of her own experience. In law we are told that there is no wrong without a remedy, and we could wish it were true also in morals; but in the case of domestic disagreements that is notoriously other wise; and many a wrong goes unredressed, and many a sufferer uncommiserated, through the want of discovery of some principle by which the truth in such cases might be ascertained. We heartily wish that Lady Bulwer had discovered such a principle, but in reading Cheveley' the conviction is forced upon us, that whatever purpose that novel may serve, it is wholly objectionable in regard to the one professedly intended. Living characters very thinly disguised, figure through out the work, and often but little to their advantage; but the reader's mind knows not on what to fix as truth, nor what to reject as the adornment or disfigurement of fiction. There are a hundred things alleged against the De Clifford of this story. Is the whole true, or is half, or a quarter? or which half or which quarter? No answer can be satisfactorily given, and the conscientious reader is compelled to condemn that injudicious compound of the real with the fictitious, by which both lose their proper attributes, and the end of neither is attained. In the following extract we steer clear of the staple of the story, and give it merely as illustrative of the authoress's style.] The Climate and Seasons of England. For my own part, there is to me an indescribable charm in the calm, the quiet, the soft, the cultivated, and, above all, the home look of English scenery, which neither the gorgeous and Belshazzar-like splendour of the East, the balmy and Sybarite softness of the South, the wildness of the West, nor the frozen but mighty magnificence of the North, can obliterate or compensate for. England (the country, not the people) is merry England still. There is a youth about England that no other country possesses, not even the new world, for there the vast and hoary forests, the rushing and stupendous torrents-all seem like Nature's legends of immemorial time. It has been beautifully said, that the world of a child's imagination is the creation of a far holier spell than hath been ever wrought by the pride of learning or the inspiration of poetic fancy. Innocence that thinketh no evil; ignorance that apprehendeth none; hope that hath experienced no blight, love that suspecteth no guile; these are its ministering angels, these wield a wand of power, making this earth a para. dise. Time, hard, rigid teacher-reality, When Spring from her green lap throws I like to hunt for those yellow cowslips, and those pale primroses, till I fancy earth has its stars as well as heaven; but the year soon outgrows its infancy, and the innocent wild violets no longer child-like roll along the green; for when The bee goes round to tell the flowers 'tis May, then come those stately nymphs, the blooming lilacs and the graceful acacias, "waving their yellow hair;" but they, like all beauties, alas! have but their day; and are succeeded by rich, blushing, pouting summer, making, with its roses and its cherries, every boy and girl sigh for love of it. After which one feels more sober and sedate, and the golden harvests, and matronly housewifery of autumn, is more attractive; but, these too, with all earthly things, must pass away-the year, like man's life, "falls into the sear and yellow leaf," and for hoary winter's artificial fires, we must turn to the hearts of our own homes. MUSK. Ir is said that a grain of musk is capable of perfuming for several years a chamber twelve feet square without sustaining any sensible diminution of its volume or its weight. But such a chamber contains 2,985,984 cubic inches, and each cubic inch cantains 1000 cubic tenths of inches, making, in all, nearly three billions of cubic tenths of an inch. Now it is probable, indeed almost certain, that each such cubic tenth of an inch of the air of the room contains one or more of the particles of the musk, and that this air has been changed many thousands of times. Imagination recoils before a computation of the number of the particles thus diffused and expended. Yet have they altogether no appreciable weight and magnitude.-Moseley's Illustrations of Science. SOPHIA TO HER LOVER. I WISH, Horatio, to discover Near hearts, that know not how to range, Ere they are faded-thou wilt change! HER LOVER TO SOPHIA. New wreaths will other springs restore- From Blackwood's Magazine. KYANISED WOOD. [We have received a letter from Mr. Handley, relative to the notice of the Kyanised Wood, men tioued in No. 945 of the Mirror; and in justice to that gentleman we here insert the following sub stance of it.] To the Editor of the Mirror. SIR, With reference to Dr. Moore's statement of experiments upon Kyanised wood, (see Mirror, p. 253) permit me to inform you, that although Kyan's process was never offered as a preventive against marine animalculæ, yet it has most triumphantly repelled their attacks. It should not be concluded that, because in a few places the prepared specimens used in Dr. Moore's experiment were merely dotted with Limnoriæ, they would in a few more months have destroyed the wood. Had they remained exposed to the influence of the salt water as well as the Balani and Flustræ, for seven years, they would have been found perfectly sound; or if animalculæ were found, they would not have been deeper than one inch, and that only where from some cause the solution had not properly acted upon the wood. The gas of the kreosote spoken of in your extract from Barrow's Life of Lord Anson, (Mirror, p. 255) has been repeatedly tried, and has always been found eventually to rot instead of preserve the wood, With respect to his statement that Kyan's patent only penetrates skin-deep, I can assure you that the largest log of wood can be thoroughly saturated with his solution, in one day, by means of the hydraulic press. CHARLES HANDLEY. Lower Heath, Hampstead, DEMOLITION OF THE CHELSEA WE are not aware of any event that has caused, of late, more regret in the antiquarian and topographical world, than the de*molition and sale of the Chelsea Bun-House, which after having enjoyed the favour of the public for more than a century and a half, has been doomed at length to fall under the hammer of the auctioneer, in consequence of the expiration of the original lease granted to the late Mrs. Margaret Hand, and to make way for the projected improvements in this part of Chelsea. This event having been announced by our previous publication, it became known throughout London and its environs, and for several days previous to the sale, the collector and antiquary might be seen vending their way towards this celebrated temple of Apicius, whose hospitable doors and colonade had for so many years afforded shelter, rest, and refreshment to the visitor and grateful traveller. On the morning of the sale, long before the auctioneer made his appearance, the room became literally stopped up with collectors, brokers, and amateurs, all seeming anxious to get a glance of Aurengzebe, the handsome grenadiers, the Duke of Cumberland, the paintings, or some other ancient relique. When the auctioneer took his station af the table, the rush was so great that it resem bled the pit of Drury Lane or Covent Gar den Theatres on the first night of a new performance, and there could not have been less than three hundred persons assembled on the spot upon this occasion. Mr. Haines made some prefatory, pleasant, and pertinent remarks upon the grotesque ap pearanceof the place and the motley assembly, and then he called on the curious articles in the following order: No. 17. Two lead figures-grenadier guards presenting arms:-sold for £4. 10s. Upon examining these beautiful specimens of ancient military costume, the white horse of Hanover appears on the front of the cap, which determines their date to be of the time of George the First; they are admirably executed. No. 18. A figure of the Duke of Cumber land on horseback, in proper colours, and seven Plaster Casts, sold for £2. 2s. Bought by J. B. Nichols, Esq. The two preceding articles were purchased by Mrs. Hand of Mr. Thompson, a celebrated collector, more than a century ago. No. 19. A whole-length portrait of Aurengzebe, second son of Cha. Gehan, Great Mogul, who imprisoned his father, and seized the throne, in 1600. He was a very warlike prince, and conquered the kingdoms of Decan and Golconda. We have no certain information when this curious picture first came into Chelsea; nor is the painter known. It sold for £4. 4s. Bought by C. Crewe, Esq. No. 20. An antique eight-day clock, in a long Chinese case, sold for £2. 12s. 6d. No. 24. A model of an interior, in a glazed case, over the door. This was an exact model of the interior of the ancient Bun-house, ornamented by various figures, turned by a vertical movement with birds. Sold for £1. Bought by J. B. Nichols, Esq. No. 25. A Political Subject: very old painting: 6 ft. 6 in. by 4 ft. 4 in. Upon a partial cleaning, this appeared to be a highly-finished and fine picture, and represented either George II. and his Queen Caroline, or Frederick Prince of Wales and his Princess; among the many figures was certainly Earl Bute: the figure of Time in the foreground was finely painted; the whole of what could be discerned was vigorously coloured the artist was unknown; but certainly it was very Hogarth-ish. Most likely it was by John Collet, who painted many pictures in the manner of Hogarth: he lived and died in Chelsea. It was sadly mutilated, and fetched only £2. 10s. In one of the other paintings, nailed up against a door, was a portrait of Miss Chudleigh, as she appeared at Ranelagh Gardens. No. 26. A Garden Engine, of the date 1742. Sold for £1. 14s. No. 27. A curious and elaborate model of Ratcliffe Church, in a glass case. Sold for £2. 28. probably on account of the glass case. No. 28. A small brass mortar on a car riage, very 'ancient. Sold for £1.2s. No. 30. Ten curious old wood-seat chairs. Sold for £3 13s. 6d. No 31. A railed-back elbow gardenchair, shewn in our engraving of the interior of the Bun-House. Sold for 1 17s. The whole of the curiosities and buildings produced £140. It may be observed, that a greater part of the curiosities that had been collected by the elder Mrs. Hand, and which ornamented the interior, had, since her decease, gradually disappeared; thus, in latter times, the interior of the frabric presented only the shadow of what it was in its pristine state. During the prosperous times of the late Mrs. Margaret Hand, upwards of two hundred and fifty pounds have been taken on a Good Friday for buns, the making of which were begun more than three weeks before the day of sale, in order to prepare the necessary quantity for the public demand; they were kept moist, and were re-baked before being sold. During the palmy days of Ranelagh, the neighbouring Temple of Fashion and Pleasure, the Bun-house enjoyed a great share of prosperity, which very much fell off upon the termination of that institution, and it continued to decline while under the management of the late occupier; notwithstanding, it appears that he sold on last Good Friday, April 18th, 1839, upwards of 24,000 buns, which consisted of the following quantities, viz. :-eight sacks of fine flour, butter, sugar, and new milk. The sale of which produced upwards of one hundred pounds. The old building, which has been taken down and cleared away in the space of four days, is not destined to lose its name, for immediately upon its site a new Bun-house will be erected, of a handsome elevation. The lessees, who have taken the ground of the Marquiss of Westminster, intend that the new building shall be ready for occupation in the course of a few months, and this im provement, when completed, will form a handsome addition to the appearance of Grosvenor Row, and will evince that the lessees are determined not to be behind their neighbours in the modern improvements of this interesting vicinity. We hope shortly to be able to present our readers with a view of the Chelsea New Bun-house. COCHIN CHINA. Ir would appear that the kingdom of Cochin China exhibits despotism in its worst forms. The only rich man is the king; he has fine palaces, large treasures, excellent fortresses, and vessels far superior to the navy of the Celestial Empire. The officers share little in this splendour, but are the mere puppets of one man. The nation at large is in the most squalid condition, poor, wretched, and filthy in the extreme, and forced to give onethird of its labour, or an equivalent, to the king. Few have more than a bare subsis tence, and even if superior industry would enable them to amass a little property, the mandarins would soon take possession of their trifling hoards. Yet this country professes to be under the transforming influence of the Celestial Empire, and to be imbued with the true principles of civilization. Confucius is there as much conned as in the Celestial Empire, and, notwithstanding the many radical notions of the sage, many of the people labour under grinding tyranny. It is really extraordinary that a monarch, who, by sending down his ships to the Straits, and even to Calcutta, and thereby giving a practical proof that he is fond of commercial intercourse, still proves hostile to ships which visit his ports. Though fear is at the bottom of all this, yet, if he would only take the trouble to survey the state of the world, for which he has the most ample means in his well-stored library, he would find little reason to fear an attack upon his paltry dominions. It is as if all the nations which use the Chinese character had combined to exclude all the remaining part of the world from friendly intercourse, and, whilst living like spiders, abhor the contaminating influence of foreigners. Though China still professes more en larged views, especially when compared with Annam (Cochin China), Japan, and Corea, yet it shows its inconsistency, that, whilst admitting the merchant, it forbids all exchange of thought between the flowery native and the outside barbarian. The court of Hue, however, acts more considerately, and, whilst carefully keeping its subjects from all contact with the far-travelled adventurers, it has scrupulously collected all possible know ledge of the west in the records of the palace. Thus we may find the works of Buffon,' with the latest treatises upon tactics, the best geographical works, with maps and charts, while a steam-boat anchors at the water part of the royal abode. Taoukwang 'might as well follow the example of his southern brother, and give, at the same time, his subjects the advantage of obtaining a more libe ral idea of things in general.- Canton Press, Oct. 6, 1838. The Gatherer. It is an exquisite and beautiful thing in our nature, that when the heart is touched and softened by some tranquil happiness or affectionate feeling, the memory of the dead comes over it most powerfully and irresistibly. It would almost seem as though our better thoughts and sympathies were charms, in virtue of which the soul is enabled to hold some vague and mysterious intercourse with the spirits of those whom we dearly loved in life. Alas! how often and how long may those patient angels hover above us, watching for the spell which is so seldom uttered, and so soon forgotten!- Nicholas Nickleby No.xiv. Among the many antiquities lately discovered in excavating the ground for the foundation of the new Houses of Parliament, were the skull of an ox of an undescribed species, and also a large bough of a nut-tree, with se veral nuts upon it, in the highest state of pre servation. The Abyssinians, (says Hasselquist,) make a journey to Cairo every year, for the purpose of disposing of the products of their country; namely, slaves, gold, elephants, drugs, monkeys, and parrots. They had to travel during these journeys, over immense deserts. In 1750, the Abyssinian caravan, consisting of upwards of a thousand persons, having consumed the whole of their provisions two months before they had reached their destination, were compelled to search among their merchandise, for something to support life in this extremity; and, having found a considerable quantity of gum Arabic, they lived entirely upon it until their arrival at Cairo, without the loss of many people, either by hunger or disease. W. G. C. In Malta, small birds, ensnared for the purpose, are kept to free the houses of the intolerable pest of flies, during the summer. season; and by their diligence and activity they are pretty successful, affording no little amusement to the frequenters of some of the crowded cafés, by the capers they cut in the pursuit of their prey, Erratic Blocks of Granite.-Mr. Laing, in his tour through Sweden, Denmark, and Lower Germany, observes, that insulated blocks of granite, and of other primary rocks, are found in immense quantities covering the surface of those countries; but that no clue has yet been discovered as to their origin.— On this subject the German geologists are wholly at fault. Singular Wager.-In consideration of ten guineas received by me this second day of July, 1771, of Francis Salvador, Esq., I promise for myself, my heirs and executors, to pay unto the said Francis Salvador, Esq., his heirs or assigns, the sum of one hundred guineas, that is to say, in case John Wilkes, now alderman of London, shall be hang'd. £105. THO. ROCHE. A Retort.-Count Soissons, one evening at play in a large company, happened to cast his eye upon a looking glass opposite to him, and saw a well-dressed sharper cut off the diamond drop from his hat; he took no notice, but pretending to want something in another room, desired the man to take his cards, which he did. The count stole softly behind him, with a sharp knife in his hand, and cut off one of his ears, and holding it up "Return me my diato the company, said, mond drop, sir, and I will return you your ear. In London there are 227 houses for the reception of stolen goods; 276 for the resort of thieves; 1,781 houses of ill fame, and 221 lodging-houses for beggars. The thieves, de predators, and suspected persons, are divided into three classes-it appears of the first class in the Metropolitan Police district, there are 10,444; of the second, 4,353; of the_third, 2,104; making altogether, 16,901.-Parlia mentary Report, 1839. LONDON: Printed and published by J. LIMBIRD, 143 Strand, (near Somerset House); and sold by all Booksellers and Newsmen -In PARIS, by all the Booksellers.-In FRANCFORT, CHARLES JUGEL. |