Pagina-afbeeldingen
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did not appear to affect them so much as the loss of the boy. When his body was committed to the deep, the royal personages and their suite appeared in deep black,

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brewer.
Franklin, a journeyman printer.—
Richardson, a printer.-Bloomfield
and Giffard, originally shoemakers.—

with crape, &c. and the French Euripides, son of a green-grocer.— Interpreter read the service, in Plautus, a baker,—Virgil, son of a potter or pedlar, afterwards a farmer.

-Boccacia, natural son of a merchant. -Columbus, son of a weaver, and originally a weaver himself.-Rabelias, son of an apothecary.-Cervantes, origin not known; but served as a com

Lorraine, was bred a pastrycook.—

Butler, son of a farmer.-Milton, son of a scrivener.-Moliere, son of a tapestry maker.-De Foe, a hosier,

the Sandwich Island lingo.-Just before he began, the Captain inquired if all hands were in attendance. The Mate said, "Yes, all but the Cook,"-So the Cook was called, and as he came aft, mon soldier.-Shakspeare, son of a plastered with grease and as black woolstapler.-Ben Jonson, worked a bricklayer.-Claude as the best of them, the Queen sometime as could'nt help laughing at the ludicrous figure he made; but a nudge from the King brought her to recollection, and the look of son of a butcher.-Pope, son of a linen sorrow was resumed. We got draper.-Guy, apprentice to a silk safe to Portsmouth, and they be- mercer.-Gray, son of a scrivener. gan to rig for going ashore. Boguey was upon deck, when a windmill caught his attention. His surprise was excessive, and he roused all hands on deck to look at it, but none of them could make out was or what made it go round. A steam-vessel was the next object of wonder: they thought at first it was a ship on fire; but when they observed the rapidity of its motion, and were told that it was forced along by boiling water, they thought it was the effect of witchcraft."

A list of eminent persons who have been concerned in or connected with Trade:

Humour.

A joke cannot have a happier effect than in dispelling ill-humour and making a friend. Such was the result of an accidental meeting between a stranger and a crusty old gentleman, who was riding, and his horse made an odd kind of motion with his fore-feet, so as to kick forward." This action of your horse," cried the stranger,

is quite new to me; many a horse have I seen, but I never saw a horse kick before." The old gentleman was so tickled with the pun, that he invited the stranger Cowley, the son of a grocer.-How-to dinner, and ever after made him ard, an apprentice to one--Akenside, a welcome guest.

Parish Learning.-On "examining the parish accounts in a village in Staffordshire, the three following curiosities appeared:-One of the overseers had made sixtythree weeks in the year; an item in the other overseer's accounts, was for money paid in aid of the county rats; this caused much laughter, in which none joined more heartily than the constable, who immediately afterwards produced his accounts, in which was a charge for holding a conquest over a man found dead.

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Poetry.

THE DRAWING-ROOM OF FLORA
-Omnis copia narium

Spargunt odorem.

HORACE.

At Flora's gay Court, on a DRAW-
ING-ROOM day,

Bedizen'd and dight in their trim

mest array,

The Flow'rs were assembled their homage to pay.

On a throne of soft turf, deck'd in sweet rural state,

With chaplets and perfumes her Majesty sate:

A By Corona imperial her tresses were drest,

Employment of Time. gentleman, fond of playing the violin, was one morning practising, when his uncle came in, and the following dialogue took. place : Uncle.-'I fear Charles you lose great deal of time with this fidng.' Nephew.- Sir, I envour to keep time.' Uncle

And Abigail Iris had fashion'd her

vest.

A canopy, form'd by fair Jessamine's aid,

The Woodbine's and Clematis', bow'r-loving maid,

In easy luxuriance hung o'er her head.

ou mean rather to kill time. By his mistress's side, with a star on

phew

his breast,

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Chamberlain Sun-flow'r, sur

veying the rest;

Golden-rod,

Useful Hint.-In the parlour While Sir Clement the Usher, a gay

a public-house in Fleet-street,

ere is written over the chim-Class'd and order'd the guests to re

y-piece the following notice :Gentlemen learning to spell are desired to use yesterday's paper.

SCOTCH WEATHER. Scotland thy weather's like a mo

dish wife,

Thy winds and rains for ever are at strife:

So Termagant awhile her thunder tries, And, when she can no longer scold, she cries.

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1

The Lily came on, with a bashful- Like BRITAIN's bold progeny, train'd to the mast;

alarm, Flinging odours, and graces, and all Thrice-welcom'd were they by the Queen of the Flow'rs,

that can charm:

A neat little rustic, akin to this fair, But order'd to thrive in no region but Who liv'd in a Valley, receiv'd a

due share

Of her Majesty's smiles, and delighted all there.

The lowly, pale Primrose, just start

ing to view,

Came next into notice, but quickly

withdrew.

The Tulip soon ́follow'd, and, eager

for praise,

Display'd her fine clothes, to attract the full gaze :

Yet, this when once sated no pow'r

had he more,

For his wardrobe alone Nature emptied her store,

But fragrance denied him, his pride to make lower. Next Heart's-ease approach'd, a con

tented, kind maid,

Whom all much admir'd; and some

swain, it is said,

Intended to woo her, but wealth, or

high birth,

Or beauty stept in, to disparage her worth:

He flatter'd his pride by a splendid alliance,

And the claims of affection put quite

at defiance.

A groupe then appear'd, yclept the
Carnation,

Which Flora hell high in her own
estimation,

And many consider'd as belles of

first fashion.

Yet, 'twas whisper'd in envy, by

some who were there, "No wonder these nymphs are en

chantingly fair,

Since they 've painted their cheeks

with a scrupulous care.

The hardy Marine Plants, which
brave the rude blast,
No. 7, Vol. I.---July 21, 1824.

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TO CORRESPONDENT'. Communications received since our last will meet with early attention. [Printed and Published by F. Trash, Oxford.

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more than 50 years after her death, in which he says, "I had rather possess this portrait than the richest jewel in the British crown; for I loved her with an affection that her death, fifty two years since, has not in the least abated."

William Cowper, when ninę years old, was sent to Westminster school: the literary advantages acquired by him in that celebrated seminary were purchased at the hazard of his future peace. A public school affords great scope

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Few persons, in any age of for the cruelty of the greater boys Christianity, have been equally to their helpless juniors; and eminent for Evangelical devotion, Cowper's tender age and constitu and for literary genius and taste, tional timidity, exposed him to as the subject of the present me- this species of oppression. Ocmoir: his life has become an ob-casional symptoms of derangement ject of great curiosity to all who in his early years may be attributpossess a relish for literature and ed to this cause. humanity; but to a religious mind, especially, if in some measure endowed with a similar taste, the inquiry is greatly attractive. Mr. Cowper's family was illustrious both for rank and talents, and his progenitors for several ages were justly esteemed in their several capacities.

At the age of 18 he was articled to an attorney; and 3 years after he entered as a student of law, in the society of the Inner temple. Being nominated, in his 31st year to the lucrative posts of reading clerk, and clerk of private committees, in the house of Lords, he conceived so great a dread of Time often fills up, by new ob- officiating before the assembled jects, the traces made upon the peers, that notwithstanding the mind by the loss of those whom delay and danger to which it exwe have loved; and nothing re- posed his temporal prospects; he mains, but a recollection that they determined upon relinquishing the once existed; but Cowper possess-appointment. He then severely ed a heart of exquisite sensibility regretted having mis-spent nearly and durable affection, as appears half his past life in amusing, from a letter, acknowledging the instead of useful employment; receipt of his mother's portrait the loss proved irremeable, and

P

morse.

This evil he often deplor- could produce only fruitless reCharity, Conversation, and Retirement," which were subjects either peculiarly familiar, or highly interesting to his mind, succeeded; and having determined upon publishing a volume, by the persuasion

ed in his correspondence, and he doubtless alluded to it in the following beautiful "Comparison;" (Poems, vol. i.)

"The lapse of time and rivers is the same,

Both speed their journey with a rest. of his friends, he introduced it with a Colloquial Poem on popular

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less stream;

The silent pace, with which they steal subjects, and augmented it with a

away,

No wealth can bribe, no prayer per

suade to stay;

Alike irrevocable both when past,

number of smaller pieces, written upon various occasions. The whole, except a few of the latter,

And a wide ocean swallows both at were written during the winter of

last."

The effects of such a conflict in his mind, are pathetically represented in the unpublished verses of Cowper's, which appeared in the Miscellany, page 80,

1780.

The first printed poem which he produced after his volume, was the well known ballad of "John

Gilpin," which resulted from a story that Mrs. Unwin repeated for his diversion during one of his "Doom'd as I am, &c." melancholy relapses. Many short The most happy season of poetical effusions were occasioned Mr. C's life was during the first by his intimacy with Mrs. Unwin; year's of his residence at Olney, among others "The Rose." In in the uninterrupted society of the following year he began, at his pious and affectionate friend, the instance of Lady Austin, his the Rev. Mr. Newton. But the grand work, "The Task;" which malady which had attacked him was finished and committed to the in his early years rapidly increas- press in 1784. Immediately on ed, and from this time several closing it, he wrote his "Tirociyears elapsed before he could re- nium," with a desire to avert from sume his writing, to which he was the rising generation the evils he urged by his kind friend Mrs. had experienced, or observed, at Unwin, and she suggested as a public schools.. His distressing subject, "The Progress of Error;" malady increased, but his friends Truth," as a pleasing contrast, hoped that as the close of life drew became his next topic. "Expos-near he would be re-animated, but tulation," was formed upon the contrary to their expectations, his ground work of a Sermon repeated evening closed in clouds and darkto him by Mr. Newton. "Hope, ness.

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