is kept up with much spirit: the village presents a holiday appearance, and openhousekeeping, as far as may be, is the order of the day; the bells at intervals send forth an enlivening peal; all work is nearly suspended; gay stalls of gingerbread and fruit, according to the season of the year, together with swings and roundabouts, spread out their allurements to the children; bowls, quoits, and ninepins, for the men; and the merry dance in the evening, for the lasses. Fresh visitors keep dropping in; and almost all who can make any excuse of acquaintance are acknowledged, and are hospitably entertained, according to the means of their village friends. As the week advances, these means gradually diminish; and as an empty house has few attractions, by the end of the week the bustle ceases, and all is still and silent, as if it had never been. Man naturally requires excitement and relaxation; but it is essentially necessary that they should be adapted to his situation and circumstances. The feast week, however alluring it may appear in description, is in reality productive of greater evil than good. The excitement lasts too long, and the enjoyment, whatever it may be, is purchased at the sacrifice of too great expense. It is a well-known fact, that many of the poor who have exerted every effort to make this profuse, but short-lived display, have scarcely bread to eat for weeks after. But there is no alternative, if they expect to be received with the same spirit of hospitality by their friends. The alehouses, in the interim, are too often scenes of drunkenness and disorder; and the labouring man who has been idle and dissipated for a week, is little disposed for toil and temperance the next. Here, then, the illu sion of rural simplicity ends! These things are managed much better where one fair day, as it is called, is set apart in each year, as is the case in many counties; the excitement, which is intense for ten or twelve hour, is fully sufficient for the purpose; all is noise and merriment, and one general and simultaneous burst and explosion, if it may be so expressed, takes place. You see groups of happy faces. Every one is willing to laugh he knows not why, and cares not where fore;" and one day's gratification serves him for every day's pleasing topic of reference for weeks to come. S. P. NATURALISTS' CALENDAR. Mean Temperature ... 35. 62. January 12. Leeches unhurt by Frost. Among the cold-blooded animals which resist the effects of a low temperature, we may reckon the common leech, which is otherwise interesting to the meteorologist, on account of its peculiar habits and movements under different states of the atmosphere. A group of these animals left accidentally in a closet without a fire, during the frost of 1816, not only survived, but appeared to suffer no injury from being locked up in a mass of ice for many days... SWEEPING RHETORIC. Certain rewards allowed by act of parliament to firemen, turncocks and others, who first appear with their engines and implements at premises sworn to be on fire, were claimed at the public office, and resisted on the ground that the Marlborough-street, in this month, 1826, and was more than eighty feet high, was chimney, which belonged to a brewery, not, and could not be on fire. A witness to that end, gave a lively specimen of familiar statement and illustration. He began by telling the magistrate, that he was a sweep-chimney by profession-a piece of information very unnecessary, for he was as black and sooty a sweep as ever mounted a chimney-top,-and then went on in this fashion-" This here man, pointing to the patrol,) your wortship, has told a false affidavit. I knows that knows my foot as well as my own mother. ere chimley from a hinfant, and she The way as I goes up her is this-I goes in all round the boiler, then I twistes in the chimley like the smoke, and then up I goes with the wind, for, your wortship, there's a wind in her that would blow you out like a feather, if you didn't know her as well as I do, and that makes me alisn't a brick in her that doesn't know my ways go to the top myself, because there foot. So that you see, your wortship, no won't let 'em stop: and besides they soot or blacks is ever in her: the wind knows that I go up her regular. So that she always keeps herself as clean as a new pin. I'll be bound the sides of her is as clean this minute as I am (not saying much for the chimney); therefore, your Howard on Climate. wartship, that ere man as saw two yards: of fire coming out of her, did not see no such thing, I say.; and he has told your wortship, and these here gentlemen present, a false affidavit, I say. I was brought up in that chimley, your wortship, and I. can't abear to hear such things said-lies of her; and that's all as I knows at present, please your wortship."* AMUSEMENTS. The London Christmas evenings of 1826, appear to have been kept out of doors, for every place of entertainment was overflowing every night. At this season, from six o'clock in the evening, a full tide of passengers sets in along every leading street to each of the theatres. Hackney, coaches drawl, and cabriolets make their way, and jostle each other, and private carriages swiftly roll, and draw up to the box door with a vigorous sweep, which the horses of hired vehicles are too aged, or too low in condition to achieve. Within a hundred yards of either playhouse, hands are continually thrust into each coach window, with a bill of the play," and repeated eries of "only a penny!" The coachdoor being opened, down fall the steps with a sharp clackity-clack-click, and the companies alight, if they can, without the supernumerary aid of attendant pliers, who offer their over-ready arms to lean upon, and kindly entreat-" Take care, sir! mind how you step ma'am-this way if you please this way," all against your will, and ending with "I hope you'll please to remember a poor fellow!" the "poor fellow" having done nothing but interrupt you. When past the " place," great coats, umbrellas, shawls or other useful accompaniments to and from "the house," though real encumbrances within it, may be safely deposited with persons stationed for their reception, who attach tickets to them, and deliver corresponding numbers, which ensure the return of your propert yon your coming out; sixpence or a shilling being a gratuity for the accommodation. Then, when the whole is over, there is the strict blockade of coaches further than the eye can reach; servants looking out for the parties they came with, and getting up their master's carriages; and a full cry of hackney coachmen and their representatives, vociferating The Times, 5th January, 1826. pay "Want a coach, sir! Here's your coach, sir? Which is it, sir! Coach to the city, sir! West end, sir! Here! Coach to the city! Coach to Whitechapel! Coach to Portman-square! Coach to Pentonville! Coach to the Regent's Park! This way! this way! Stand clear there! Chariot, or a coach, sir? No chariots, sir, and all the coaches are hired! There's a coach here, sir-just below! Coachman, draw up!" and drawing up is impossible, and there is an incessant confusion of calls and complaints, and running against each other, arising out of the immediate wants of every body, which can only be successively gratified. Pedestrians make their way home, or to the inns, as fast as possible, or turn in to sup at the fish-shops, which in five minutes, are more lively than their oysters were at any time. "Waiter! Waiter! Yes, sir? Attend to you directly, sir! Yours is gone for,, sir! Why, I've ordered nothing! Its coming directly, sir! Ginger-beer-why this is poison! Spruce-why this is ginger-beer! Porter, sir! I told you brandy and water! Stewed oysters! I ordered scolloped ! When am I to have my supper! You've had it, sir I beg your pardon, sir, the gentleman that sat here is gone, sir! Waiter! waiter!" and so on; and he who has patience, is sure to be indulged with an opportunity of retaining it, amidst loud talking and laughter; varied views of the new pantomime; conflicting testimony as to the merits of the clown and the harlequin; the "new scenery, dresses, and machinery;" likings and dislikings of certain actresses; "the lovely" Miss So-and-so, or "that detestable" woman, Mrs. Such-an-one, that clever fellow, "Thing-a-merry," or that stupid dog "What-d'ye-call-um." These topics failing, and the oysters discussed, then are stated and considered the advantages of taking something" to keep 'em down;" the comparative merits of Burton, Windsor, or Edinburgh ale; the qualities of porter; the wholesomeness of smoking; the difference between a pipe and a segar, and the preference of one to the other; whether brandy or rum, or the clear spirit of juniper is the best preservative of health; which of the company or their friends can drink most; whether the last fight was "a cross," and who of all the men in the fancy is most "game;" whether the magistrates dare to interfere with "the ring;" whether if fighting should be "put an end to" Englishmen will have half Ex ipsomet Divino Exemplari AD ABGARUM missa Genuæ in Ecclesia S Bartolomæi Clericorum Reg. S Pauli Summa Veneratione asservato - Accuratissime Expressa. No circumstance is more remarkable than the existence of this pretended resemblance, as an object of veneration in the Romish church. Being one of the greatest curiosities in its numerous cabinets of relics, it has a place in this work, which, while it records manners and customs, endeavours to point out their origin, and the means by which they have been continued. Nor let it be imagined that these representations have not influenced our own country; there is evidence to the contrary already, and more can be adduced if need require, which will incontestably prove that many of our present popular customs are derived from such sources. |