The motley crowd busied in their several occupations, cause a vast confusion; while jugglers, ballad-singers, and nostrum-mongers, are encircled by their respective mobs. ITALIAN HORSE-RACING. During the stay of the Allied Sovereigns at Verona, they were treated with an Italian Horse-Race, of so ludicrous a description, that the most grave John Bull in all England could not behold it without laughing. The morning was ushered in as favourably as could be wished; and at an early hour the Place d'Armes, which is close to the Bra, became the general resort of all ranks. During the whole of the preceding week carpenters were employed in confining a place as a circus, and the road did not exceed half an English mile. What an extent of ground for a horse-race! At twelve o'clock precisely, twelve Italian steeds, of matchless shape and symmetry, started together; and--will it be believed? -they started without either riders, bridles, or saddles!-A strong paling of deal boards was intended to prevent them from bolting, but the precaution appeared unnecessary, for, with the exception of some snorting, snuffling, and kicking, they gallopped round with as much docility as Astley's ponies. Close to the Circus a Royal stand was fitted up, and it displayed in gay bendizenment appendages of pink, white, yellow, and blue satin. Farther on the public in general were accommodated on a large platform. The two Emperors and the King of Naples were present. The sapient animals who had to exhibit before the Mighty of the Earth were decked in all the colours of the rainbow; and, to render the display still more farcical, each race-horse carried his number painted on his side, as well as the initials of the owner's name, in large conspicuous characters. About a hundred yards from what was called the winning-post, a large black curtain was drawn across, and a man, standing behind, pulled it to, to stop the horses, after they had gone round six times. Two heats terminated the whole fete-a fete that certainly would have done honour to Bartholomew Fair! The Gatherer. "I am but a Gatherer and disposer of other men's stuff."-Wotton. The wonderful sagacity and discoveries of Sir Isaac Newton being the sub ject of conversation in a mixed company, some knowing person observed, that he thought the Philosopher must have had intercourse with a Demon. "Aye," said a shrewd fellow," that he had, and I can tell you his name, it was Demon-Stration." BEATRU.-When Beatru was in Spain he went to see the famous library in the Escurial, and, on conversing with the librarian, found him to be a most ignorant man. The King of Spain asked Beatru how he liked his library? "It is very handsome, Sir, (he said) but your Majesty should make the person who has the care of it, administrator of your finances." Why so?" said the prince. "Because (replied Beatru) he does not make use of the treasure entrusted to him." 66 ANDREW MARVEL.-Marvel, by managing a very narrow patrimony, kept himself above corruption; and there is a story of him, which, though it may seem but ordinary, deserves to be everlastingly remembered. He dined usually at an ordinary in the Strand, where having eat heartily of boiled beef, and some roast pigeons and asparagus, he drank his pint of port, and on the coming in of the reckoning, taking a piece of money out of his pocket, and holding it between his finger and thumb, "Gentlemen (said he), who would let himself out for hire, while he can have such a dinner for half-a-crown?" LUXURY.-The luxury of Capua destroyed the bravest army which Italy ever saw, flushed with conquest, and commanded by Hannibal. The moment Capua was taken, that moment the walls of Carthage trembled. They caught the infection, and grew fond of pleasure; which rendered them effeminate, and of course an easy prey to their enemies. DEEP PLAY.-The late General Ogle had an unconquerable attachment to play. A few weeks before he was to sail for India, he constantly attended Pain's, in Charles-street, St. James's-square, where he alternately won and lost large sums. One evening there were before him two wooden bowls of gold, which held fifteen hundred guineas each; and also four thousand guineas in rouleaus, which he had won. When the box came to him, he shook the dice, and with great coolness and pleasantry said "Come, I'll either win or lose seven thousand upon this hand; will any Gen- - BLEEDING. One who had an inflammation in his eyes, sent for a surgeon to bleed him, and solicited the operation in these words of Gray: Dear is the light that visits these sad eyes; Dear as the ruddy drops, that warm my heart." THE POET SPENSER-Edmund Spenser, a descendant of his name, was found in Ireland so late as 1724, when he had a suit at law tried before Baron Hall, and knew so little of the English language, that he was forced tohave an interpreter. INDIAN BEARS.-In India Bears will often continue on the road in front of the palanquin for a mile or two, tumbling and playing all sorts of antics, as if they were taught to do so; it seems their natural disposition, for they certainly are the most amusing creatures imaginable in their wild state. It is no wonder, that with monkeys they are led about to amuse mankind. It is astonishing as well as ludicrous to see them climb rocks, and tumble or rather roll down precipices. If they are attacked by any person on horseback, they stand erect on their hind legs, shewing a fine set of white teeth, and making a crackling kind of noise: if the horse comes near them, they try to catch him by the legs, and if they miss him they tumble over and over several times. They are easily speared by a person mounted on a horse that is bold enough to go near them. TO CORRESPONDENTS. A Yorkshire Story, J. A. H. S. E. T. H. Y. The Turkey, and several other articles, shall appear in No. XIH. Will W. S.W. permit us to insert his. communications under such heads as we deem most appropriate? We must prevail on Aunette to give us the conclusion of the Magic Pearl before we can decide upon its merits ;' and in general should prefer shorter tales than it proves to be. A Correspondent complains that the article on the Melancholy of Tailors, in No. IV. of The Mirror, contains some unjust aspersions on that very respectable profession. We are the more surprised at this, as we thought we had done ample justice to the Tailors in the very first number of our work. The of fence, however, is not ours, but that of a certain well known gentleman, whose name is Charles Lambe, but who assumes that of Elia with the readers of the London Magazine. To this gentleman we refer our correspondent, and the useful body he vindicates. Advertisements. This Day is Published, in Demy Octavo, illus trated with Coloured Hieroglyphie Plates, price 1s. or, superior Edition, on Royal Paper, Hot-pressed, 1s. 6d. No. 1, (to be completed in about Eight Numbers) of NAPOLEON THE GREAT!!! THE CHRONICLES OF NAPOLEON THE GREAT, as Recorded in the Egyptian Tomb of Ibrahim Abudan, the MameLuke Bey. "The dewy lotus, prince of flowers, does not disdain the humblest valley, nor the margin of the gentle stream; the sweetest odours, fanned by the desert breeze, evaporate untasted; even so didst thoa, superabundant Nature, with an impartial hand, bestow on lowly Corsica, the most renowned of human creatures." Published by John Fairburn, Broadway, Ludgate-Hill; and by Simpkin and Marshall, Stationers-Court; Sherwood, Jones, and Co. Paternoster-Row: Humphrey, St. James's-Street; and all Booksellers. OUR Engraving this week gives a correct representation of an object of singular interest and curiosity, now exhibiting in London-the ancient vessel which has been recently found buried in an old branch of the river Rother, in Kent. This river, formerly called Lemene or Lemen, takes its rise in the parish of Rotherfield, Sussex, and enters Kent in the parish of Sandhurst ; passes round the North side of the Isle of Oxney, and flowing into Rye Harbour, passes thence into the sea. This river was diverted from its ancient stream so far back as the reign of King Edward the First, a circumstance which is thus recorded by Camden, in his Britannia. Speaking of the town of Romney, he says, "the sea, driven by violent winds, overwhelmed this track, and made great havoc of men, cattle, and buildings; and having destroyed the little populous village of Promhill, changed the channel of the Rother, which here emptied itself into the sea, and filled up its mouth, making it a new and shorter course by Rhie, so that it gradually deserted this town, VOL. I. As this vessel was discovered in a spot which the convulsion of nature to which we have alluded, overwhelmed, we have an assurance that she must have reached that point previously; and it is more than probable that her destruction is ascribable to that event. There are some persons, however, who are of opinion, that from the decayed state of the river towards the haven at Romney, for many years before that tempest happened, she could not have got to the place where she was found within at least these six hundred years. Others have, indeed, given the vessel a much higher antiquity, and suppose it to be one of the fleet abandoned by the Danes, after their defeat in the reign of Alfred. Without, however, N professing any extraordinary knowledge on the subject, we feel no hesitation in expressing a decided opinion, that naval architecture. had not made such progress in the time of the Anglo Saxons, as this vessel, dilapidated as it is, now displays. This point, though one of interest to the antiquary, and a fair subject for discussion, we shall not dwell upon; but proceed briefly to notice the discovery of the vessel, and to give a description of it, and of the articles it contained. About six years ago, when the old channel of the Rother was nearly dry, and a part of the bank had given way, the proprietor's steward or bailiff, Mr. Elphee, observed the ends of some planks projecting out of the side of the bank, some of which he drew out, without taking any further notice of the circumstance until a few months back, when, getting up another plank, he observed some ship fastening in it. He then began to suspect that what he had before considered as an old tank for sheep washing, was really a vessel. Having obtained permission of his employer, J. B. Pomfret, Esq. of Tenterden, he shut out the water, and opening the bank, was astonished to find the upper part of a vessel. The ancient vessel was then dug out, and has since been removed to Waterloo-Road, where it is now exhibited, and is attracting the attention of the curious. It is sixty-three feet eight inch es long, and about fifteen feet broad. At the time it was discovered, the upper part of it was buried ten feet below the earth's surface, which, added to nine feet, her entire height from bottom to gun-wale, make on the whole an accumulation of nineteen feet of sand and mud upon the river since she was lost. For the following more minute description of this vessel, we are indebted to an interesting account of it which is sold at the place of exhibition : "She appears to have been single masted, with a round stern; and bears much the resemblance of the Dutch or Flemish vessels, as they are mostly (as she is) flat-floored, and without a keel, in order that they may skim over the shallows, or flats, which abound along the coast. She is fitted in the following manner:-There are two cabins in her stern; the after one is decked over, with a hatchway for entrance; the other, adjoining it, was covered over with a caboose, which fell in on being exposed, and the sand taken from under it; there is also a short deck forward, with an enclosure beneath it, but, the midship part is entirely open. Her bulwarks and washboards manifest that she has been a sea vessel; and her beams, which are much stronger than would be required for a vessel for inland navigation, prove that our forefathers were not ignorant of apportioning a due strength to the stress upon timber, from the circumstance of their being three times as deep as they are broad: her timbers and planks are remarkably sound and hard, and so completely saturated, as to have becone, in many parts, quite black;— she is caulked with moss, which is considered by ship-builders as very remarkable ;-there is much singularity also, in the method of steering, which Mr. Elphee states, was discovered by a gentleman (whose curiosity led him to the vessel several times during the progress of the excavation) who fixed the beam, and explained how the rudder was acted on; it appears there were rudder bands,* which yoked it, and by an alternate motion of the ropes, which were fixed to the back of the rudder, it was made to revolve on the pinions as a centre of motion, the breadth of the rudder being the leverage; the rudder is, certainly, very broad, which makes the power more effective, and hence the vessel the easier to steer :-ropes have been properly fixed on board her, so that persons may have an opportunity of fully comprehending the plan. "There is a very curious windlass on the aft-deck, which shows, from its contrivance, that they had not much idea of getting rid of friction; and at the fore part of the vessel there had evidently been another fixed from side to side; there are many other curious specimens of rude architecture in her, well worthy of observation, but we must not enter too much into detail; her planks are immensely broad, and of a close and hard texture, and said by some persons to be of oak, and by others of chesnut: we should rather lean to the former opinion, but we leave the decision to those who are well acquainted with the nature of woods. "The wreck of a small boat was dis * We read in the narrative of St. Paul's shipwrecks; of "loosing the rudder bands:" it may, perhaps, then be an interesting query in naval mechanics, to know when the tiller was first used? ENGRAVING. covered by the excavators, near the ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF GEM stern of the vessel; but, the iron fastening being in a very corroded state, she could only be removed piecemeal ; between the edges of the planks were layers of hair, some of which is to be seen, together with the wood, which is uncommonly sound." In this vessel were found a variety of articles, which are also exhibited with her, namely, a large flint and steel, which, although much worn, will still elicit sparks, part of the blade of a sword, with a hollow ball or hilt of yellow metal attached to it, four vases, several bricks of red and yellow colour, the corroded remains of two locks, &c. In the cabin, or cooking room, were discovered a leathern ink-horn, curiously marked, but very similar in shape to those now used by school-boys; part of a brass cock; a sounding lead; several shoes and sandals of curious shape; several bricks and fragments of tiles, bound together with iron; a small glass bottle, erroneously and absurdly supposed by some to have been an hour glass; a small stone, used as a whetstone; several hooks; an oak board about eighteen inches long, and twelve broad, with some curious lines cut on it; and a circular wooden board of oak, perforated with about twenty-eight holes, which was most probably a calendar, by which the progress of the lunar month was marked. It is difficult to trace the origin of Gem Engraving; doubtless the mode of cutting and preparing hard stones was devised by the necessities of the early nations, and employed by them in the formation of tools and military weapons, the knowledge of the superior utility of metals for those purposes being comparatively, if not quite, unknown. The antiquity of this invention is established beyond all question. Mr. Croly, in his remarks on this subject, in the "Gems" so charmingly etched by Dagley, remarks "That India, the common source of all the arts, probably gave birth to it. Signets of lapis lazuli and emerald have been found with Sanscrit inscriptions, presumed to be of antiquity beyond all record. The natural transmission of the arts was from India to Egypt; the whole symbolic mythology of the latter people occurs upon hard stones of almost every description. The stones of the Jewish High Priest's breastplate were engraved with the names of the twelve tribes, and of these stones one was a diamond! "The Etruscans, a singular nation, whose existence is scarcely known but in the fragments of their arts, but who, on the faith of these fragments, `must take a high rank among the polished nations of the old world, have enriched Of the mortal remains," says the our collections with gems of a comprinted description, to which we again pound style. Their general shape is refer, "that have been brought to light, like the Egyptian-that of the Scarawe observe a human skull, that of a bous; and where the shape differs, the man, with a hip bone, several ribs, and Scarabaeus was frequently found enother parts of a skeleton of an adult; graved. The subjects are chiefly Greek, part of the skeleton of a child. The hip but of the more ancient story of Greece; bone, thigh, and several smaller bones the war of the Chieftains at Thebes; have been preserved, together with Peleus devoting his hair; Tydeus after part of the skull; parts of a skeleton of bathing; Hercules bearing the tria dog, which from the roundness of the pod," &c. skull, and length and shape of the upper jaw, is conjectured to be that of a greyhound; the lower jaw of a boar, with its teeth and tusks; parts of two skulls, with the horns of sheep or goats; also the breast bone of a goose, with several bones of some large animals; the skulls, and many of the bones, are much discoloured, and some of them quite black, particularly those of the skeleton of the dog.' Such is the brief notice of the Ancient Vessel of the Rother, one of those curiosities which the antiquary and the philosopher may love to contemplate, and which cannot fail of gratifying all who feel the slightest, veneration for the remains of antiquity. There appears no proof that mechanical skill attained in the infancy of the art any considerable perfection. The Indian characters are sufficiently rude, and most of the Egyptian hieroglyphics are as coarsely indented, as possible: indeed, if we give the case a moment's reflection, it could not be otherwisethe operation must have been chiefly effected, with much labour and loss of time, by the hand. Whatever conjectures might be hazarded upon the subject, it is quite clear that the Greeks have no claim to the invention of the machinery by which the process of gem engraving is effected. The merit of it appears to rest with the Egyptians ; N 2 |