which appears to great advantage on stuffs of crimson and green silk. It is not for me to say how far the English wars in India are just, but it is scarcely possible to help pitying the vanquished monarch Hyder; and Tippoo, who was equally heroic, and equally unfortunate as his father.

The mineral collection is extensive. The specimens are uncommonly large and fine, and fill one with astonishment that this rude earth should contain such beautiful things.*

There is in the museum a crocodile from the river Ganges. It is eighteen feet long, and although it differs somewhat in the form of its mouth from the Egyptian crocodile, it is substantially the same with that, and with the American alligator. There is an idea prevalent that the American alligator differs from the crocodile by moving his lower jaw, while the crocodile is said to move the upper; but this is a vulgar error; both animals move the under jaw and this alone.

Our guide was a civil man, and, I persuaded him, although it was strictly, not within rule, to show me some specimens of the royal correspondence; for, among the innumerable manuscripts of the British museum, there is a collection of genuine letters of many of the kings and queens and great men of England, in their own hand writing. You will not doubt that the sight of these was a feast, and I employed the time as assidiously as possible in reading parts of letters written by Henry I. VI. and VIII. by James I. and II. Queen Mary, Queen Ann, Charles I. Lord Bacon, and Queen Elizabeth. Many of

* Since the death of Mr. Greville his superb collection has been purchased by government and added to the British Museum. 1818.

the letters of Queen Elizabeth are in Latin, which language she wrote with great purity and elegance. Her hand writing also was elegant and very legible. Her father Henry VIII. wrote a scrawling illegible hand. sought but in vain for the original of that interesting letter of Ann Boleyn written to Henry, while she lay under sentence of death in the tower, to gratify his jealousy, and to make way for a new favourite and a new victim. What I have said of the British museum must be regarded as merely miscellaneous remarks, for volumes would be necessary to convey an adequate impression of the articles that are there. The museum is now shut for two months.

A grand collection of Roman and Grecian statues and busts, surpassing every thing of the kind in England, was made by the late Mr. Townley, and employed most of his life. This collection has been recently purchased for the British museum, but has not yet been removed from Mr. Townley's house in St. James' Park, whither we next went to see it.

Most of the numerous articles in this collection, which is considered as a cheap purchase at twenty thousand pounds, are the genuine productions of the Roman and Grecian chisel. The late Sir William Hamilton pronounced it the first collection in Europe, and indeed, it is very wonderful that marble can be wrought into forms of such exquisite elegance, and be made to express so perfectly the features of the mind.

In this collection there is a Grecian bust of Homer, and one of Pericles. A statue of Ariadne is very fine, and the pastoral muse Thalia, is exhibited in drapery which seems actually to possess the light airy folds of muslin, and to be at once a transparency, and a veil, for although clad

from head to foot, the lineaments of her person are perfectly visible. The same things may be said of a recumbent statue of Diana. But, it will be useless to enlarge, for I am too little conversant with subjects of this nature to judge correctly, and when I praise or blame it is from feeling, more than judgment. An artist or a connoisseur might decide very differently; but there is, after all, a natural taste in most men which generally decides with tolerable accuracy on the correctness of professed imitations 'of

natu re.

DR. WILLIAM HUNTER'S MUSEUM.*

August 1.-The gentleman with whom I yesterday visited the British museum, went with me this morning to see the museum of Dr. Hunter, an introduction to which was procured for us by Mr. Accum.

The anatomical theatre, which is also the dissecting room, was shown to us by the dissector. It is convenient, but is not particularly interesting, except from its having been the scene of the anatomical labours of the great William Hunter; there he delivered his lectures, and gave his demonstrations.

The museum is probably the first in the world, for the number and rarity of its anatomical preparations. We were indulged with a sight of it. The collection is not confined to anatomy. It embraces other objects, as for instance, antiquities and natural history. There is a collection of medals worth twenty thousand pounds, and a very choice cabinet of minerals and shells.

Every thing is most happily arranged, both for exhibition and instruction. But, the anatomical preparations form the glory of

*1818. This museum is now removed to Glasgow.

this museum, especially those of diseased parts, and monstrous productions. Of these there is an almost endless variety, and in a fine state of preservation. As the spectator passes along the crowded shelves, the preserved remains of thousands of our fellow mortals exhibit, in melancholy array, the host of ills that "flesh is heir to." It is enough to humble the pride of beauty and to make even pleasure sober. I could be particular, but the minds of those who have not been drilled into apathy, by a familiarity with the disgusting lacerated fragments of a dissecting room, cannot bear the exhibition of particular images of these things. I therefore dismiss Dr. Hunter's museum, without mentioning, as I have usually done in similar cases, some of the most interesting objects.

The dissector appears to be about fifty years of age, and has spent his life among bones, skeletons, and dead bodies. So completely has habit extinguished all "compunctious visitings of nature," on this subject, that, it is said, he has actually sold his own person to the anatomical class, and receives an annuity upon condition that preparations are to be made of it, and to be placed in the museum. Thus he is determined that his body, after death, shall still haunt a place, in which, while living, he has delighted to be. You must pardon me for mentioning disagreeable subjects, where they are illustrative of the human character. This man seems, long ago, to have extinguished every thing of that dread, horror, and disgust, with which most people contemplate these subjects, and to have advanced into a new world of enjoyments, unknown to those who have not kept such dreadful society.

Yesterday, news reached town, of the partial defeat of the combined squadrons of France and Spain. The tower and park guns were fired on the occasion, and this evening I heard the park guns again-probably on account of farther good news. But, it is painful to reflect that the peal of triumph is also the funeral knell of multitudes.

No. XXXV.-LONDON.

Incidents-Family of a village clergyman-A mistake-Thunder storm-Fetid gases disengaged in London-Vanity of an author-American ministers-An evening walk--Manufactory of carpets-Lord Bacon's tree-Hatton Garden-Singular invitation to dinner.

INCIDENTS.

August 2.-I have been not a little gratified to-day with a family scene which yet presented nothing new or uncommon, and indeed, it was for this very reason that I have been pleased. I had occasion to visit a village near London, and to make a call at the house of a clergyman. Previous circumstances had made it proper, and not embarrasing, to tell my own name, for, I was, personally unknown to them. The thing which gave me pleasure was the exact resemblance which this family presented to that of any respectable clergyman in Connecticut. I was received with the same open and friendly hospitality, and with the same sedulous attention, and felt actually domesticated within half an hour. The clergyman was at work