---------------- for surely shalt thou now, For thy misdeeds, thy garb of stone assume: which seems to imply, that the tumuli under consideration, were also among the Greeks, appropriated to persons of infamous character. And that this must have been the case too with the Romans, to a certain extent, is sufficiently clear from the following anonymous epitaph on a notorious robber : Monte sub hoc lapidum tegitur Balista sepultus: Nocte, die, tutum carpe, viator, iter. It is impossible, then, not to refer the origin of the Scotch Cairn and the Welsh Carn to a period of high antiquity. VENEDOTA. THE BUT AN' THE BEN.* (For the Mirror.) OUR farmers now brag o their blue sklatet biggins, An' follow the fashion like high gentle fouk Gie me my bit bield wi' its straw theckit riggin, An' muckle mou'd lum to tak off the peat smoke. There is na a man in the fair land o' Fyvie,t Mair happy than me wi' my thriftie wee wifie, A cantie an' couthie guidwife is my Katie, An' a' her delight is to please her ain Patie, An, frae the hen-roost a new egg now an' then, Wi' twa three trouts taen frae yon bickerin burnie, My frien's feast fu' weel in the But an' the Perhaps here an' there springs an anterin flower, That courts the kind kiss o' the soft summer gale. Ilk e'enin frae labour low'st to luve an' leisure, What happiness purer can mortal man ken, While the prospect o' past and the present gies pleasure, O' wha wadna bide in a But an' a Ben! Carburton Street, SAWNEY SIMPSON. Fitzroy Square. 'A But an' a Ben' is the designation generally used in Scotland for a cottage with one ketch. + Fyvie is the name of a very fair and fine country in the north-west part of the county of Aberdeen. DEFENCE OF THE PRESENT STATE OF THE STAGE. (To the Editor of the Mirror.) SIR,-In the last number of your second volume, I read an article "On the Present State of the Stage;" fearing it might not be noticed, and by that means suffer such assertions to go uncontradicted, is the only reason I can assign for so humble an individual as myself opposing your more fluent correspondent G. W. G. W. assigns as the chief reason of the present corrupt state of society: several of the recent productions of the dramatic writers. Now, Sir, I am not so blind an advocate for the stage as to deny there is not plenty of room for improvement. Indeed, what individual thing can be named where there is not? Turn to what subject we may, whether professions or nations, or extending our views to the actions of previous ages, we shall perceive in the whole of them, however grand and noble a part may be that there will always be found a deficiency. Is it then to be expected when every thing else fails in this respect that the stage should be pure and faultless! I perfectly agree with G. W., that such exhibitions as "Tom and Jerry," are a disgrace to the drama; although I am aware that many able arguments are opposed to my opinion but, then, is the whole to be condemned because a part is faulty! As I before remarked, it arises from an impossibility to bring any given thing to a complete state of purity. Besides, how trifling can be the effect of these paltry productions, when on the other hand they are opposed by the grandeur of tragedy. Let those who have read "Pizarro," those who have studied in the closet, or admired in the theatre, the character of the noble-minded Rolla-let those bear witness to the assertion, whether one single representation of that drama would not be sufficient to efface all the effects arising from such insipid exhibitions as above noticed, while Shakspeare is known; while his plays are acted on our stage, no one need fear any revolution in our habits from such dramatic trifles. To all who are capable of understanding, (and thank heaven, few are now to be found who are not). What a grand moral must his Richard III., Hamlet, Othello, &c. &c. furnish. The characters of Othello and Iago are alone sufficient to disclose to our view nearly the whole of the different passions which the human breast imbibes. Having said thus much, I will conclude with the opinion of "La Motte," and which is supported by the most eminent men this country has produced, namely, "If the theatres were to be shut up, the stage wholly silenced and suppressed, I believe the world, bad as it is now, would be ten times more wicked." G. S. ON THE MONTH OF JANUARY. (For the Mirror.) JANUARY is the name of the first month of the year, according to the computation now used in the west. The word is derived from the Latin Januarius, a name given it by the Romans, from Janus, one of their divinities, to whom they attributed two faces; because, on the one side the first of January looked towards the new year; and, on the other, towards the old one. The word Januarius may also be derived from janua, gate; in regard to this month being the first, which is, as it were, the gate of the year. January and February were introduced into the year by Numa Pompilius; Romulus's year beginning in the month of March. The Christians, heretofore, fasted on the first day of January, by way of opposition to the superstition of the heathens, who, in honour of Janus, observed this day with feastings, dancings, masquerades, &c. January is clad in white, the colour of the earth at this time, blowing his nails. The old proverb say, "Janiveer freez the pot by the fire." "If the grass grow in Janiveer, it grows the worse for't all the year." But Ray in his collection of proverbs, says, "There's no general rule without some exception; for in the year 1667, the winter was so mild, that the pastures were very green in January, yet was there scarce ever known a more plentiful crop of hay than the following summer.' "Stern winter's icy breath, intensely keen Now chills the blood, and withers every green; Bright shines the azure sky, serenely fair, On driving snows obscure the turbid sky." And Cowper has beautifully described a frost scene at this period, thus"Here glittering turrets rise, upbearing high (Fantastic misarrangement) on the roof; Large growth of what may seem the sparkling trees ST. WINIFRED'S WELL. To the Editor of the Mirror. SIR,-In your last account of St. Winifred's Well, there is a deviation or two from your usual correctness, which I beg leave to point out, for the sake of precision and information, trusting that your candour and kindness will not allow the readers of the Mirror to remain long in mistake; it states that the Well gives the name to the town, hence we would suppose the town's name to be Winifred, but such is not the case. The Well is mostly called Holy-well, which is the real name of the town. The account also says, that the spring pours forth twentyone tons of water each minute; the fol The lowing extract I take from a minute description of it, given to me on the spot, a short time back: "One circumstance asserted of this spring, which to some may seem incredible, will at any time be demonstrated to the curious. By the gauge, the bason will hold about 240 tons of water, which, when emptied, is filled again in less than two minutes. experiment was tried for a wager_on Tuesday, the 12th July, 1731. Mr. Price the rector of Holy-well, Mr. Williams, Mr. Wynne, Dr. Taylor, and several other gentlemen being present, when to the surprise of the company, the Well filled again in less than two minutes. The bason is six feet deep and yet the water is so clear that a pin may be seen at the bottom." A second bason is formed outside for use of male bathers, dresses being always provided on the spot, by a person who rents the premises and derives a handsome profit in the summer season. I remain, your's &c. T. TENNENT. THE SHORTEST DAY. To the Editor of the Mirror. MR. EDITOR,The pleasure and in formation derived from the perusal of the Mirror, has induced me to request as favour, the insertion of an explanation why the Almanacks for the present year have the shortest day on the 22nd of December, instead of, as is usual, the 21st; it having given rise to much curious arguments without arriving at any satisfactory reason, is the motive of my request; the cause appears to me generally unknown, the explanation will therefore be useful. It is by some asserted to be an error of the printer, in not placing a crotchet, shewing it to belong to the preceding line; by others, that it occurs once in forty years, and again once in a THE TREAD MILL. As the theory of prison discipline becomes better understood, the mode of punishing offenders will be less repugnant to feeling, though equally conducive to the great object reformation. Among other improvements, it has been discovered, that to the indolent no punishment is so severe as hard labour; and modern engineers have been employed on the best means of compelling prisoners to work. For this purpose a machine has been invented, called the tread-mill, which has obtained unprecedented notoriety, and been adopted in several prisons in London, and various parts of the country. It resembles the fabled punishment of Sisyphus, who was compelled to the interminable labour of rolling to the top of a hill a large stone, which no sooner reached the summit than it fell down, and his labour was to be renewed. In the tread-mill, the prisoners ascend an endless flight of stairs, and by their combined weight acting upon a stepping board, produce the same effect that a stream of water does upon a water-wheel. Although the latter might very easily have suggested the tread-mill, yet it was boasted as a new invention, until it was discovered to be but an adaptation of the Chinese tread-wheel, which is used for the purpose of raising water. The tread-mill is not, however, new even as an instrument of prison discipline; but has been used in England two centuries and a half ago, though the circumstance has escaped all who have written on the subject. The tread-mill of the sixteenth century had, indeed, an advantage over that of the present day; it was a combination of the tread-mill and the hand-crank-mill, which has been suggested as its substitute by Sir John Coxe Hippisley, as less prejudicial to the health. In Seymour's "Survey of the Cities of London and Westminster," a work said to have been written by John Mottley, the son of Colonel Mottley, there is a description of this mill so explicit, that there was no necessity to adopt the idea from the Chinese, when we had it so much nearer home. "In the time of Queen Elizabeth," says the writer, "about the year 1570 and odd, one John Pain, a citizen, invented a mill to grind corn, which he got recommended to the Lord Mayor for the use of Bridewell. This mill had two conveniences; the one was, that it would grind a greater quantity considerably than other mills of that sort could do; and the other (which would render it useful to Bridewell) was, that the lame, either in arms or legs, might work at it, if they had but use of either; and, accordingly, these mills were termed hand-mills, or foot-mills. "This mill he shewed to the Lord Mayor, who saw it grind as much corn with the labour of two men, as they did then at Bridewell with ten-that is to say, two men with hands, or two men with feet, two bushels the hour. If they were lame in their arms, then they might earn their livings with their legs; if lame in their legs, then they might earn their livings with their arms. One mill would grind twenty bushels of wheat in a day; so that by computation it was reckoned, that one of these would supply a thousand persons." From this account of the tread-mill of the sixteenth century it will be seen, that, considering the rude state of the mechanical arts at the period, Mr. Pain must have been a mechanist of more than ordinary ingenuity.-Percy Hist., Part IV. STATE OF CRIME IN THE METROPOLIS. NOTHING is more common than to talk of the good old times of our ancestors, who manifested equal regret that the good old times had passed long before they were born and we might trace the same lamentation backward from one generation to another, to the earliest formation of civilized society: hence it may be inferred, that this beau ideal of perfection, the "good old times," never existed but in the imagination; and, that vice and virtue, good and evil, in each age, are more equally balanced than is generally imagined. Moralists declaim against the increasing depravity of the times, and legislators add new penal laws to the statute book; yet, if we refer back to our early history, we shall find the same catalogue of crimes prevailing; and although, in consequence of the increased population of the metropolis, and the inseparable evils attending a large community, crime and depredations may be more frequent, yet moral, humane, and benevolent institutions have increased in an equal proportion; and if vice abounds more in London than formerly, grace abounds much more" also. In our account of the Police, we have noticed the state of society at different periods; and it would not be difficult to prove, that there are few offences committed, at the present day, which were not frequent some centuries ago, except such as have arisen from the altered state of society. We might, indeed, go much further and assert, that when the police was not so well organized as at present, offences were of a much more flagrant character. What atrocities in the present age can be compared to those of "The Black Boy Alley gang," who so late as the reign of George II. were the terror of the whole city? Hogarth, in one of his prints of the "Idle and Industrious Apprentice," has depicted one of the scenes of this gang; but even his faithful and powerful pencil has failed in giving a true picture of their diabolical deeds. The gang occupied some miserable tenements in Black Boy-Alley, Chick Lane, where the unwary were decoyed by means of depraved females, and when gagged, that they should give no alarm, the wretches dragged their victims to one of the depositories, like a lamb to the slaughter, and having robbed and murdered them, threw the dead bodies into the ditch. To so alarming an extent had this gang carried their atrocities, that government lent its aid to the ordinary police, by means of which the principal members of the gang were apprehended, and nineteen of them executed at one time. Some years ago the metropolis was much alarmed by a person indiscriminately stabbing several females as he met them in the night; he was designated the monster, on account of the abhorrence with which his conduct was viewed. This crime has also, of late years, been frequent in Paris, where the offenders are called piqueurs; but the offence is not of modern date, for in the early part of the last century it was much more prevalent, and was practised by a set of miscreants, denominated Mohawks, who, in 1712, were suppressed by the government. Street robberies, which have always been frequent in London, attained such a pitch in the autumn and winter of 1741, that government found it necessary to offer a large reward for their suppression. A sum of 100l. was given on the conviction of every person found guilty of murder, or assault, with any offensive weapon or instrument, with the intent to rob. Until government thus interfered, gangs of street robbers patrolled the streets with cutlasses and fire-arms, bidding defiance to the police officers, several of whom they wounded. During the last ten years, many valu able reports on the state of crime in the metropolis have been made by committees of the House of Commons, and much interesting information has thus been obtained. In one of these reports it is stated, that there are houses in London where boys are taught how to pick pockets, and other knavish arts; and that a slang language is used by the thieves and pickpockets, is known to every reader of a newspaper, as it has almost become necessary to learn this vulgar tongue, in order to read the police reports that are published. Schools for teaching thieves, and the use of slang language, are not, however, devices of modern times. Stowe relates, that at the July sessions in 1585, the magistracy devoted great attention to the discovery and suppression of houses frequented by thieves; and that Fleetwood, the recorder to the lord treasurer, with others of the bench, discovered sixteen of these houses in London and Westminster, and two in Southwark. In one of these, an ale-house at Smart's quay, Billingsgate, kept by a person of the name of Wotton, "a gentleman born, and once a merchant of good credit, but fallen by time into decay," the art of cutting purses and picking pockets was taught scientifically. Wotton had a regular academy of vice, in which crime was as methodically taught as the mechanical arts. In order to give to the embryo pickpocket the dexterity which was requisite, a pocket with counters, and a purse with silver, were suspended; each of them was hung about with "hawk's bells," and a "little sacring bell" at the top. The pupil was taught to take out the counters and the silver without disturbing the bells, and when he was enabled to do this, he was deemed fit to commence his infamous profession, and was admitted into the association of nyppers and foysters, as the cutpurses and pickpockets were called. Hollinshed, who wrote at a still earlier period, notices the cant or slang language which was used in his day by the beggars. counterfeiting the Egyptian rogues, they have devised a language among themselves, which they name canting, a speech compact thirty years since of English, and a greate number of od words of their owne devising, without all order or reason, and yet such as none but themselves are to understand." "In How little of novelty in crime then has the present generation to answer for ? even blood-money conspirators, who, for the sake of getting the reward of 407. for the conviction of any offender, accuse him falsely, were known so far back as the reign of Edward III., as appears by a statute of that monarch, which complains, that "great damage and destruction" did often happen by sheriffs, jailors, and keepers of prisons, within franchises and without, who have pained their prisoners, and, by such evil means, compelled and procured them to become appellors, and to appeal harmless and guiltless people, to the intent to have ransom of such appealed persons, for fear of imprisonment or other cause."-Percy Histories. TUSCANY. AFTER all I have said of the delights of the south of Italy, I would choose Tuscany for a residence. Its inhabitants are courteous and civilized. I confess that there is a charm for me in the manners of the common people and servants. Perhaps this is partly to be accounted for from the contrast which they form with those of my native country; and all that is unusual, by divesting common life of its familiar garb, gives an air of gala to every-day concerns. These good people are courteous, and there is much piquance in the shades of distinction which they make between respect and servility, ease of address and impertinence. Yet this is little seen and appreciated among their English visitors. I have seen a country woman of some rank much shocked at being cordially embraced in a parting scene from her cook-maid; and an Englishman think himself insulted because when, on ordering his coachman to wait a few minutes for orders, the man quietly sat down; yet neither of these actions were instigated by the slightest spirit of insolence. I know not why, but there was always something heartfelt and delightful to me in the salutation that passes each evening between master and servant. On bringing the lights the servant always says "Felicissima sera, Signoria ;" and is answered by a similar benediction. These are nothings, you will say; but such nothings have conduced more to my pleasure than other events usually accounted of more mo ment. The country of Tuscany is cultivated and fertile, although it does not bear the same stamp of excessive luxury as in the south. To continue my halfforgotten simile, the earth is here like a young affectionate wife, who loves her home, yet dresses that home in smiles. In spring, nature arises in beauty from her prison, and rains sunbeams and life upon the land. Summer comes up in its green array, giving labour and reward to the peasants. Their plenteous harvests, their Virgilian threshing floors, and looks of busy happiness, are delightful to me. The balmy air of night, Hesperus in his glowing palace of sunlight, the flowerstarred earth, the glittering waters, the ripening grapes, the chesnut copses, the cuckoo, and the nightingale,-such is the assemblage which is to me what balls and parties are to others. And if a storm come, rushing like an armed band over the country, filling the torrents, bending the proud heads of the trees, causing the clouds' defending music to resound, and the lightning to fill the air with splendour; I am still enchanted by the spectacle which diversifies what I have heard named the monotonous blue skies of Italy. In Tuscany the streams are fresh and full, the plains decorated with waving corn, shadowed by trees and trellised vines, and the mountains arise in woody majesty behind to give dignity to the scene. What is a land without mountains? Heaven disdains a plain; but when the beauteous earth raises her proud head to seek its high communion, then it descends to meet her, it adorns her in clouds, and invests her in radiant hues. On the 15th of September, 18, I remember being one of a party of pleasure, from the baths of Pisa, to Vico Pisano, a little town formerly a frontier fortress between the Pisan and Florentine territories. The air inspired joy, and the pleasure I felt I saw reflected in the countenance of my beloved companions. Our course lay beneath hills hardly high enough for the name of mountains, but picturesquely shaped and covered with various wood. The cicale chirped, and the air was impregnated with the perfume of flowers. We passed the Rupe de 'Noce, and proceeding still at the foot of hills arrived at Vico Pisano, which is built at the extreme point of the range. The houses are old and surmounted with ancient towers; and at one end of the town there is a range of old walls, weedgrown; but never did eye behold hues more rich and strange than those with which time and the seasons have painted this relic. The lines of the cornice swept downwards, and made a shadow that served even to diversify more the colours we beheld. We returned along the same road; and not far from Vico Pisano ascended a gentle hill, at the top of which was a church dedicated to Madonna, with a grassy platform of earth before it. Here we spread and ate our rustic fare, and were waited upon by the peasant girls of the cottage attached to the church, one of whom was of extreme beauty, a beauty heightened by the grace of her motions and the simplicity of her manner. After our pic-nic we reposed under the shade of the church, on the brow of the hill. London Magazinę. |