ed her as she sought her way modestly but gracefully down the scarce open ranks. On the contrary, I observed envious tosses of the head, aversion of the eyes, &c. among the females, and even some unpoliteness on the part of the males in blocking up the way. I endeavoured to ascertain the cause of this. She was the apothecary's daughter, or, in other words, she was nobody. The couple that followed were not so treated; they were somebodies. Said I to myself, Was it so twenty years ago? I felt a sudden glow of indignation, followed by a shivering of disgust. I retired hastily to my humble dwelling (where, come what will, I am somebody); and with a glass of grog and a cegar, sat down to meditate on the scene I had just quitted. The result of my cogitations was, that what I conceived to be an alteration in the world within twenty years, was in fact caused by viewing the same objects through a different medium;

that Mammon always was, and always will be, worshipped to the end of the chapter; that when I first entered the world, being young, handsome, and with good expectations, I experienced no neglect in my own person; that being then gay, thoughtless, and occupied with myself or some other admired object, I took but little notice of what happened to others; that being now comparatively old, and, of course, no longer handsome, with prospects blasted, and, of course, poor, I am become an object of indifference, if not of scorn, to the world; and that, under the influence of disappointment and disgust, I may perhaps view the prac tice and customs of society with a jaundiced eye. I retired to bed, dreamt of the vanities of human life, of Solomon, Socrates, Seneca, &c. &c. and rose in the morning, though only ten hours older, full ten years wiser than I was the night before.

B.

GAELIC RELICS.

No. X.

THE STRANGER GRAVE, OR MACKILDONICH AND THE SON OF ALPIN,

friend, a Macgregor, with the patronymic Mackildonich. Breaking the temporary rest of the living, the dead bewails the estrangement of his mortal remains from the dust of his clan.

THE following fragment represents, of heath where reposed his sworn the vivid and unalterable sentiment of predilection for clinging to their own people in life and in death, which so firmly united the individual attachments of the Gael with the prosperity of their clan. A Macgregor, mortally wounded, escaped from the battle of Methven; and being pursued by a host of foes, retreated towards Glenorchy. He expired in a miserable hovel, and his body being found, was inhumed far from the graves of his fathers. His ghost is supposed to appear beside the bed

Mackildonich removes the bones to the cemetery of his forefathers, and the troubled spirit retires to "his airy cave of peace." The ghost is supposed to say:

"Sweetly slumbers Mackildonich; while low, among the dust of strangers, lies Macgregor of the race of kings. No friend, no kinsman bends

over his unheeded grave. His dwelling is dark and lonely. The dry whistling grass and shaggy heath are the sole companions of mouldering limbs that hewed down ranks of the valiant in battle, and hung up to feed the eagles a host of the foes of Clan Alpin. Pale glimmers the silent moon over the unheaped cairn, where no son of Alpin ever made his narrow house; but he, that restless spirit, still hovers in the clouds of his own land. The blast of the forest drives fiercely; and as drops from the stern rock the living stream, the tears of a gloomy shade pour down for his own people, when he sails through the mist of a land of strangers. His people live among

their own woody hills, or they die and are mingled with the dust of their own tribe; but he that is scattered to the earth of strangers, is rootless as a withered leaf tossed by angry gales."

Faintly over the wild vanished the mighty beam of renown. Mackildonich bore the warrior to the graves of his fathers of old, and in peace he lies in their earth. The nettle gray waves near, and the yew of battle is green at his head. The brave, the sons of the brave, stand around; they have piled his cairn to the skies. The cairn rises moon by moon, and heroes stand around, recalling the voice of his fame.

B. G.

NOBLE EXERCISE OF THE POWER OF BEAUTY. MADAME DESENETAIRE, the widow, liverance of those victims. "Tis true

of the heroic Guy d'Exupiris, retired to her castle of Miramont, determined to pass in retirement the first year of her widowhood; but, superior to prudery, and sanctioned by the company of an aged lady, her aunt, she did not decline visits from the families of suitable rank in its vicinity. After some months, several young gentlemen paid her avowed homage. She was one day in the balcony of her castle with a crowd of admirers, when she saw Mentail, the king's lieutenant, dragging to prison a number of Hugonots. Her eyes were filled with tears; but soon recollecting that briny torrents of compassion could be of no avail to the sufferers, and turning to the preux chevaliers of her circle, she said, "You have often complained that I give you no opportunity to prove your desire to serve me. If you are sincere, you will permit me to lead you to the de

we are Catholics; these unhappy men differ from us in religious tenets, but they are our fellow-beings. It is for us to consider what they suffer, not what they believe." The nobles, thus called upon by all-persuasive beauty, never thought of deliberating.

They were soon accoutred, and the widow, equipped as an Amazon, was the first to mount her milk-white charger. Her golden-hilted brand gleamed in the sun, waving her followers to spur their steeds against Mentail. His troops were dispersed, and the captives set free. Enraged that a band led by a woman should compel him to resign his prey, Mentail collected a force of two thousand men to besiege the castle of Miramont. He was again defeated. Henry III. violently incensed by the disgrace of his officer, sent a chosen detachment of troops, with orders to

raze the castle of Miramont to the ground. When this news spread through the province, the nobility, gentry, and peasantry confederated to assist Madame de Senetaire, who was universally beloved. Henry, being apprized of the associations for

her defence, coolly reflected upon the hazard of embroiling his subjects for an unmanly vengeance against a woman, whose offence originated in humanity, the loveliest charm of her sex. He withdrew his squadrons, and the lady remained unmolested.

TIMBER-RAFTS ON THE RHINE.

THE most important branch of trade carried on at Dordrecht is that in timber, which is floated down the Rhine. The arrival of such a float affords an extraordinary and interesting sight to the stranger. Let the reader figure to himself, in the middle of a wide river, a raft composed of thousands of trunks of trees, large and small, and among them oaks which have attained the age of two hundred years, fastened together, and covered with a floor so as to present one level surface. Let him imagine this floating island inhabited, not by a handful of men who work it down the river by means of wind and tide, but by upwards of a thousand persons, having each their respective occupation. This enormous naval caravan is supplied with all sorts of provisions requisite for a passage of some weeks, and the duration of which is always uncertain. The captain and his family have a habitation commodiously arranged, and suitable to his rank and functions; while several other apartments, formed of deal planks, contain a greater or less number of the other persons. These

apartments are contrived with reference to their employments, in which the fair sex bears its part; and every possible provision is made for the general safety, especially in case of storms. As soon as this floating caravan has reached the place of its destination, the raft is taken to pieces and the timber sold. Some of these rafts sell for not less than 30,000. sterling. The captain, who is generally commissioned to dispose of the timber, is of course detained some time, but his people immediately set out on their return on foot, in high spirits, and buoyed with the hopes of soon obtaining another job.

The consumption of provisions on board one of these rafts during the voyage from Cologne to Dordrecht is from fifteen to twenty thousand pounds of fresh meat, forty to fifty thousand of bread, ten to fifteen thousand of cheese, twelve to fifteen hundred of butter, eight hundred or a thousand of smoked meat, and five or six hundred casks of strong beer. The wages of each man is about thirty shillings, besides his keep.

ANECDOTES, &c.

HISTORICAL, LITERARY, AND PERSONAL.

FONTENELLE.

FONTENELLE was an admirable instance of literary longevity. In the

year 1751, after he had attained the age of ninety-two, he conspicuously sparkled among the beaumesprits of

Paris. His attentions to the fair were enhanced by the vivacious gallantry of juvenile manners, and he often complimented them by repeating his own poetry, or extracts from other writers, with a fluency and precision which shewed that his memory was unimpaired.

ORACULAR SAYING OF THOMAS DE
RYMER.

HUMAN STATURE.

Mr. Hennan, of the French Academy, wrote an elaborate dissertation, to prove that our primogenitor Adam measured 123 feet, and Eve 118 feet, and that the human stature was by slow degrees diminishing. According to this hypothesis, the Esquimaux and other nations of the lowest stature must be the aborigines of the globe.

BRITISH CEDARS.

(From the Inverness Courier.) What Gael is unacquainted with the oracular saying of Thomas de The power of cultivation appears Rymer? or has not heard many of in a remarkable manner, from the various interpretations assigned to his fact that Great Britain now contains warning words, "When the cock of more cedars than the country to the north has feathered his nest, let which that wood is indigenous. The the eagles of the isles whet their durability of that species of wood beaks and talons?" In former times, has been established by the fact, that the growing power of the Gordon on the discovery of a temple of Apolchief was supposed to occasion this lo at Utica, near Carthage, cedar premonition of the sage; but some of timber was found in perfect preserour rustic politicians have lately disco-vation, though above two thousand vered, that the Emperor of Russia years old. was denounced by Thomas de Rymer as the cock of the north, whose acquisitions should excite vigilance in the eagles, or the chiefs or rulers of the isles, the united kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

ELASTICITY OF THE FLEA.

STATUE OF PETER THE GREAT.

The vast block of stone, weighing more than 1339 tons, which now forms a statue of Peter the Great of Russia, was conveyed to Petersburgh, a distance of two hundred and eightythree miles, upon thirty-two brass balls of five inches diameter, on moveable hollow railways, of the same composition as the balls, by sixtyfour men working two capstans.

A flea will spring two hundred times as high as itself. This astonishing power it derives solely from the peculiarly elastic structure of its members. Supposing a greyhound three feet long could spring in proportion as far as a flea, he would encompass the globe in 219,642 leaps. If he took one second to each leap,quette of the court of Florence rehe would complete the journey in a few seconds more than two days and a half; but allowing fifteen seconds to each, it would take him 383 days.rance, were permitted to bow.

ETIQUETTE OF FLORENCE.

So late as the year 1786, the eti

quired the noblemen to courtesy to the grand-duke and duchess. Only foreigners, in consideration of igno