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five thousand, and our married couple were people to taste?

"The youth's relations having provided for him an old woman with twenty thousand, thought the election he had made a very silly one; and, as they refused to have any communication with him, the youth began to take up the same opinion, and treated his wife with neglect and brutality. He had at length the kindness to relieve her from his persecutions by quitting England; leaving her clear of the world, with a fortune-of seven pounds and a few shillings.

"The poor girl, then a mother, applied to her relations: they were at first kind, then civil, then cold, then rude, and finally-hoped to be troubled with her no more, and advised her to take in needle-work. She obeyed them; and, by unremitting industry, and the most exact frugality, supported herself and infant for four years. But the constant wearing of grief at length subdued her constitution, and a rapid decline ensued.

"Her landlady having observed that the sewing business was at an end, and having received no money for several weeks, thought such idle husseys a disgrace to her house, and ought to be made an example of. She accordingly sent for a constable, who, as he found his prisoner in bed, was so humane as to retreat whilst she put on her clothes; then, taking her arm, helped her down stairs, pale and speechless, followed by the shrieking Fanny. At this instant I happened to pass the door-it is not necessary to add what ensued. As I found her too ill to be removed, I was obliged to suffer her to return to the beldam's apartment.

"Having in repeated visits satisfied myself of the truth of her story, and learned the name of her husband's friends, I wrote to my sister, whose house is happily in their neighbourhood. She represented the distresses and the merit of the amiable sufferer, and being of rank (for they have connected meanness with riches), she prevailed upon them to receive her as the wife of their unworthy kinsman. An uncle said, if she was a sober body, she should not want encouragement; and a maiden aunt, that girls ought not to be countenanced who had run away with young fellows, but that, if she was really dying, she might come down, and, if she behaved well, should be buried in the family-vault.

"She is not apprised that it is in consequence of my application that these

good people have sent for her. I am persuaded that, when my sister's attention shall have secured theirs, and her mind is at peace, she will have a chance of sending aunt Grissel to the familyvault before her.-You now know all that I can tell you, in answer to your "What the d-Ï.'”

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"It cost you a cool sum ?"—" A trifle, perhaps forty." Green-coat remained silent; began to consider whether Hammersley was in cash for his draft for a hundred; to feel that there were other methods, besides dice, of getting through a morning by getting rid of superfluous money; and that rides in the Park might now and then be omitted, for the pleasure of a walk to the distressed. But he began soon to gape, and to think that all such melancholy subjects ought to be avoided, as hurtful to the spirits. How could a man enjoy life, who was perpetually groping into scenes of distress!-and then, really, one's health! At that thought he turned suddenly round, and with a Good morning, Harry!" was darting across the way

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"Hold;" said his friend, "here is a person a few doors off, whom I cannot omit calling upon; and as you have begun the morning with me-" horses are waiting for me!" said Greencoat.

My

"So are mine," answered Brown, "and I dine to-day twenty miles from town; my visit, therefore, will not be a long one." At this instant, he knocked at the door of a house, of an appearance much like that they had quitted.

"This is rather peremptory," thought Green-coat, with an air of half-pet. He thought it, however, not expedient to take to his heels, and there seemed no other possible method of getting rid of his conductor.

When an Italian countess, in the court of Mary de Medicis, was tried for having bewitched her royal mistress, she told her judges that "she never had employed any supernatural means to govern the mind of the queen; nor had ever possessed any ascendant over it, except that which a strong mind must naturally have over a weak one."-This sort of witchcraft Brown-coat practised to such a degree, that there were few of his intimate companions who were ever hardy enough to maintain an opinion opposite to his own: but not only they did not maintain a contradictory opinion-they insensibly changed their own, their sentiments and their wishes; emulous to be as nearly as possible what he was-whose understanding was

of the first order, whose heart was pure, and who was so far from being puritanical, that his taste lent grace to fashion, and subjected him to a passion for expense, which could only be corrected by his still stronger passion for independence.

Such was he who now entered the confined, unwholesome chamber of an old man approaching fast to dissolution. The curtains of the bed were open, and disclosed the venerable object, supported by his nurse. His sand was running low; the pallid hue of Death had already taken possession of his cheek, and the living lustre of the eye began to be dimmed by the deep shade of its approaching night. His faculties seemed yet vivid, and the voice of his benefactor called up a faint flush, which struggled a moment on his pale cheek, and then-subsided for ever.

and the two friends in awful silence entered her apartment.

(To be concluded in our next.)

Miscellanies.

BROKEN METAPHORS. Broken metaphors are not less langhable than ludicrous games of cross-purposes; and the risible public are much indebted to the editor of a loyal journal, who lately informed them that the radicals, by throwing off the mask, had at last shown the cloven foot; congratulated his readers that the hydra-head of faction liad received a good rap upon the knuckles; and maintained that a certain reformer was only a hypocritical pretender to charity, who, whenever he saw a beggar, put his hand in his breeches pocket, like a crocodile, but was only actuated by ostentation. While we are upon this subject, let us not forget our obligations to the country curate, who desir

“Ah! sir,” he said, “you whose soul is so full of benevolence-you to whom the tear that steals from the eye in pity, is dearer than that which gushed his flock to admire the miraculous es thence in rapture-to you this moment will not be unwelcome! I speak not for myself, for the final hour is arrived in which I shall cease to mourn; in which this wearied heart will render forth its last sigh, in prayer to him whose will placed there a nerve to agonise.

force which enabled Sampson to put a thousand Philistines to the sword with the jaw-bone of an ass: nor let us pass over the worthy squire, who being asked by his cook in what way the sturgeon should be dressed, which he had received as a present, desired her to make it into à-la-mode beef; and upon another occasion, when interrogated whether he would have the mutfon boiled or roasted, or how? replied,

"Another child of sorrow will present herself to you. During this long sad night, in which my soul has been departing to meet its God, the inhabit-slow-and let it be well done." ant of the next chamber has delayed its flight; her voice has reached me midst the darkness of the night, and, by some indescribable power, has stay ed my spirit, and kept my languid pulse still beating !"

The person to whom this was addressed, turned towards the nurse for information. All he could learn was, that by her patient's order she had been several times in the adjacent room, to offer consolation and assist ance to a person who seemed resolved to accept of neither. "But you, perhaps, sir," added she, " may be able to speak comfort to the poor thing.'

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A voice now issued from the apart ment; for the partition was so thin, and its apertures so frequent, that every word was distinctly heard. "Whoever you are," said the voice, "come and receive my sad tale, whilst I have yet breath to utter it-in a few moments my lips will close for ever!" This was articulated in a tone so faint, that there could be no doubt that the person who uttered it was indeed expiring,

Talking of incongruities, puts me in mind of the steam-boat, and of a conversation between two parties, one conversing of their children, the other settling the ingredients of a weddingdinner, whose joint colloquies, as I sat between them, fell upon my ear in the following detached sentences: "Thank Heaven! my Sally is blessed-with a calf's head and a pig's face." "Well, if I should have another baby, I shall have it immediately-skinned and cut into thin slices." I do love to see little Tommy well dressed-in the fishkettle over a charcoal fire." To behold the little dears dancing before one

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in the frying-pan." "And to hear their innocent tongues-bubble and squeak." My eldest girl is accomplished-with plenty of sauce." always see the young folks put to bed myself- -and smothered in onions." "And if they have been very good children, I invariably order-the heart to be stuffed and roasted, the gizzard to be peppered and deviled, and the sole to be fried."

MAXIMS ON EARLY RISING. 1. Early rising, by the general consent of physicians, and according to every observation and all experience, is conducive to health.

2. It is conducive to long life in two ways: by increasing the number of our years, and by increasing the number of hours in those years. He who sleeps only eight hours has a longer year than he who sleeps twelve, by the difference of four hours, which is one whole day in six.

3. It is easy to see that four hours additional every day must be a very important acquisition. Men of pleasure may be busy in those hours; and men of business may find time to relax.

4. Those who wish to dedicate some

portion of every day to pleasure, or to some employment distinct from their professional engagements, will, by early rising, be enabled to secure the self-possession of what part of the day

suits them best.

5. The fair sex will find early rising conducive to health, and much more so to beauty, than the vast variety of cosmetics, which in general destroy what they are intended to preserve. There are no other means of preserving the complexion but one, namely, early rising—but there are fifty ways of destroying it and not one of restoring it, when finally gone. Nature herself looks best when she rises early, that is, in summer.

6. Those who indulge much sleep will not become early risers at once; they may be called up three or four hours before their time, but will be drowsy and stupid all day. Such is the

force of habit.

7. Early rising, therefore, is to be acquired by degrees, by a little taken from every morning's slumber. The summer is the proper time to begin this reformation, for then there are no excuses about fire and candle.

8. Ladies who have families will be particularly sensible of the benefit of early rising. When mistresses are asleep, servants consider them as dead in law, and act accordingly.

9. When beginning the practice of rising early, if you awake, never consider whether you shall rise or notrise at once; if you deliberate, you will be sure to decide in favour of "a little more sleep, a little more folding of the hands to sleep."

10. Reading in bed will not answer the purpose. The posture inclines to sleep, and what you read will not be remembered. There are very few

authors that can keep awake a reader who is already on his or her pillow.

11. Never ask "what o'clock it is ?" If you are fully awake and the morning come, you have no occasion for more sleep.

12. Go to bed early and good humoured, and rise with the lark.

The Gatherer.

"I am but a Gatherer and disposer of other men's stuff."-Wotton. ANECDOTE OF THE HABEAS CORPUS

ACT.-This important Act, which is considered as another Magna Charta,

and of which Ministers often make a

jest, was obtained by jest, according to Bishop Burnett. Whatever credit may be due to the story itself, at all events, it proves that a very formidable opposition was made to it at that time. "It was carried (says he) by an odd artifice in the House of Lords. Lord Grey and Lord Norris were named to be the tellers; Lord Norris being a man subjected to vapours, was not at

all times attentive to what he was

doing, so a very fat lord coming in, Lord Grey counted him ten for a jest at first, but seeing Lord Norris had not observed it, he went on with this misreckoning of ten, so it was reported to the House, and declared that they who were for the Bill were the majority, though it indeed went on the other

side;

and by this means the Bill passed."

CONSANGUINITY EXTRAORDINARY.

At a ball in Gloucestershire some years ago, there were a father and mother; a mother, daughter, and three sons; a son and three daughters; a granddaughter and three grandsons; an uncle, three nephews, and one niece; two aunts, a niece, and three nephews; three brothers and one sister; a brother, three sisters, and a grandfather.

has been thus versified by an American rhymster :

A somewhat similar case to the above

A wedding there was, and a dance there must be,

And who should be first? Thus all did agree

Old grandsire, and grandame, should lead the dance down,.

Two fathers, two mothers should step the same ground;

Two daughters stood up, and danc'd with their sires;

(The room was so warm, they wanted no fires,)

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And also two sons, who danc'd with their mothers,

Three sisters there were and danc'd with three brothers;

Two uncles vouchsaf'd with nieces to dance;

With nephews, to jig it, it pleased two aunts;

Three husbands would dance with none but their wives,

(As bent so to do the rest of their lives);

The grandaughter chose the jolly grandson,

And bride, she would dance with bridegroom or none.

A company choice, their numbers to fix, I told them all o'er, and found them but six ;

All honest and true, from incest quite free,

Their marriages good;-Pray, how could that be?

A BULL.--An Irish Gentleman going to the Post-Office, inquired if there were any letters for him?--" Your "There name, Sir," said the clerk. is a good one, now," said the Hibernian; "why! won't you see it on the back of the letter?"

WILD PIGEONS.-The accounts of the enormous flocks in which the passenger, or wild pigeons, fly about in North America, seem to an European like the tales of Baron Munchausen; but the travellers are "all in a story." In Upper Canada, says Mr. Howison, in his entertaining "Sketches," you may kill 20 or 30 at one shot, out of the masses which darken the air. And in the United States, according to Wilson the ornithologist, they sometimes desolate and lay waste a tract of country 40 or 50 miles long, and 5 or 6 broad, by making it their breeding-place. While in the state of Ohio, Mr. Wilson saw a flock of these birds which extended, he judged, more than a mile in breadth, and continued to pass over his head at the rate of one mile in a minute, during four hours thus making its whole length about 240 miles.-Ac cording to his moderate estimate, this flock contained two thousand two hundred and thirty millions, two hundred and seventy-two pigeons.

ENGLISH FOGS.-The fogs of England have been at all times the complaint of foreigners. Gondomar, the Spanish Ambassador, when some one who was going to Spain waited on him

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to know if he had any commands, re-
plied, "Only my compliments to the
sun, whom I have not seen since I came
to England."-Carraccioli, the Neapo-
litan Minister here, a man of a good
deal of conversation and wit, used to
say, that the only ripe fruit he had
seen in England. were roasted ap-
ples; and in a conversation with
George II. he took the liberty of
preferring the Moon of Naples to the
Sun of England.

CHINESE WOMEN.-The idolators of beauty, the Chinese, are for ever at the feet of the beings whom they persecute. When any of their wives are indisposed, they fasten a silken thread, round her wrist, the cord of which is given to the physician, and it is only by the motion which the pulsation communicates to it that he is allowed to judge of the state of his patient. This precaution of jealousy is almost unique in its kind.

field

"

< PUNNING PREACHER.-A preacher, who had been a printer, obe: "that served in the usual harangue youth might be compared to a comma, manhood to a semicolon, old age to a colon; to which death puts a period.”,

At Hamburgh there is an annual festival, in which troops of children pa-: rade the streets, carrying green gar-! lands, ornamented with cherries, to commemorate a remarkable event which occurred in 1432. When the Hussites menaced the city with immediate destruction, one of the citizens proposed, that all the children, from 7 to 14 years of age, should be clad in mourning, and sent as supplicants to the enemy. PROCOPIUS NASUS, the Hussite Chief, was so touched with this spectacle, that he received the young supplicants, regaled them with cherries and other fruit, and promised to spare the city. The children returned crowned with leaves, holding cherries, and crying Victory.

A correct and spirited Engraving. of Fonthill Abbey, with a full account of that splendid Mansion, in our next,

**We have to apologise to our readers for the paper of this Number, being somewhat inferior instead of better, as was our intention; our Stationer having sent it by mistake, which was discovered too late to remedy.

Published by J. LIMBIRD, 355, Strand, (East end of Exeter 'Change); sold also by all Newsmen and Booksellers. Printed by. T. DOLBY, 299, Strand,

OF

LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.

No. IV.]

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1822.

Fonthill Abbey.

[PRICE 2d.

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THIS splendid Mansion, of which the above engraving is a very correct and spirited representation, justly ranks as one of the grandest structures in the United Kingdom; combining all the elegance of modern architecture with the sublime grandeur of the conventual style. Fonthill Gifford, so called in contradistinction to the adjoining manor of Fonthill Bishop, is situated in the South Western part of Wiltshire, and in the hundred of Dunworth. At the period of the Domesday survey, it was held by the ancient family of Gifford, from whom it passed into the possession of the noble family of Delawar, and successively through other owners, including Bradshaw, who presided on the trial of Charles the First, who held it during the time of the Commonwealth. It next fell into the possession of the family of the Cottingtons, of whom it was purchased by William Beckford, that public spirited Lord Mayor of London, whose statue now stands in Guildhall, with a copy of the memorable speech and remonstrance which he addressed to his late Majesty, in 1770.

VOL..

Mr. Beckford possessed immense treasures in Jamaica. At the time of his death, his son, William Beckford, the late proprietor of Fonthill, was a minor. Succeeding to almost boundless wealth, nearly £100,000 a-year, endowed with an extraordinary mind, literary talents of the highest order, and an exquisite taste for the arts, the young owner of Fonthill commenced his career. Alderman Beckford, in the plenitude of his fortune, had, when the former mansion was destroyed by fire, built a noble house; but it fell far short of the ambition of his successor, who reared the splendid structure which we now have to describe.

Fonthill Abbey is situated near to the Great Western road from London, and stands nearly due West from Salisbury spire. The inner grounds of the Park in which it stands are about seven miles in circumference; and these are so ingeniously laid out, that a ride of seven and twenty miles may be enjoyed without retracing a single path or walk into which they are arranged; each with characteristic differences of tree, shrub, and flower, from the hardest

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