instruments had changed their figure, that is, they no longer remained true arcs of circles; hence they gave results, to a certain extent, erroneous. This important discovery justly obtained him celebrity as a practical astronomer, and led Mr. Troughton, in considering of a remedy for the evil, to propose an entirely new instrument for astronomical purposes, which would not be liable to the same objection. This was the mural circle, a truly magnificent instrument, the first of which was set up at the observatory, in 1812. Since which time, another has been added, at the suggestion of Mr. Pond, who has invented a beautiful mode of combining the results of the two instruments, by which their errors for each night's observations are given by the observations themselves, and hence a true result can be obtained. Mr. Pond, ever desirous of promoting the real interest of astronomy, obtained, in 1817, a splendid transit instrument, by the same eminent maker, to be substituted for the old one used by his predecessors, which, together with a zenith micrometer, of twentyfive feet focal length, erected a few months since, enables us to boast the fact, that our national observatory possesses the most perfect set of meridional instruments of any observatory in the world. On the transit instrument is fixed a plate, with the following inscription: "To the President and Council of the Royal Society, this, and the mural circle, being his greatest and best works, are dedicated by the maker." In the autumn of 1833 was set up, on the eastern turret of the central building, a ball, five feet in diameter, which is contrived to slide up and down a perpendicular mast; and by the aid of some machinery, is let fall from the top of the mast at the moment of ONE o'clock every day. This being done with the greatest possible exactness, communicates to all lookers-on the correct time, and so instantaneous, that captains of ships within sight of the Observatory of Greenwich, may, previous to their sailing, by daily observation, determine with great accuracy the error and rate of their chronometers, which is of the utmost importance to them; this being the means by which they generally determine the position of their ship, when traversing the pathless waters. In our next and concluding paper, we purpose introducing an engraving of the ball, and the apparatus by which it is put in action, also a representation of the principal instruments of the observatory, with such particulars as will enable our readers to form some idea of their use and method of employing them. We shall conclude this paper with the following references to our engraved plan of the royal observatory. 10 12 1. The residence of the astronomer royal. 2. The room containing the mural quadrants and the zenith sector of Dr. Bradley, spoken of at page 54. 3. The calculating room. 4. The room containing the new transit instrument, the two former ones, namely, that used by Dr. Bradley and Dr. Maskelyne, as well as the one used by Dr. Halley, are fixed against the wall in the same room, and kept, like the instruments in No. 2, as astronomical curiosities. 5. The room containing the two mural circles. 6 The library, containing an extensive and choice collection of philosophical works. 7. The room containing the new zenith micrometer, of twenty-five feet focal length. 8. The western dome, containing an old equatorial, by Jonathan Sisson, now kept as a curiosity. 9. The eastern dome, containing Sir G. Schuckburgh's equatorial. 10. Ramage's twenty-five feet reflecting telescope, constructed upon the same principle as Sir W. Herschel's forty-feet telescope, at Slough, near Windsor. 11. The room called the advanced building, where telescopes are kept for observing eclipses, occultations, &c. 12. Porter's lodge and gate. HOLY LIFE. We cannot begin to lead a holy life, till we first look to Christ for the pardon of sin. Luke i. 74, 75.—Cole. JOHN DAVIS, 56, Paternoster Row, London. Price d. each, or in Monthly Parts, containing Five Numbers in a Cover, 3d. W. TYLER, Printer, 4, Ivy Lane, St. Paul's. FALCONRY and hawking are terms which in common usage are of nearly synonymous import, though some make a difference, in as much as the former consists in a knowledge of the proper methods to be employed in reclaiming or training the hawk, with rules for its general treatment, while the latter applies to the peculiar business of the chase. Though the amusement of falconry is nearly out of use, yet it has left us remembrances in certain legacies of phraseology, which often puzzle common readers at the present day. A few of these terms will suffice. Beams.-The long feathers of the wings. This term is as appropriate for the feathers in question, as that of primaries and secondaries, and has the advantage of being native. Bate.-To strive to get away. VOL. III. Mantle.-To stretch out one wing, by way of easement or relief. Warble.-To cross the wings upon the back. Rouge. To shake the feathers of the head and body. Feak.-To wipe her bill. The reader may gather from the three or four last terms, that every act, however unimportant, was carefully marked and recorded. Nay, a little acquaintance with the history of the art shows us that a physician never watched the fluctuations of some terrible disorder, with a minuter and more anxious attention, than these besotted falconers did the hourly health and behaviour of a bird. We add a few more words. Truss. To raise a fowl aloft, and then descend to the ground to feed on it. Stooping.-Descending to strike. Check. - To forsake its proper object I 1 or quarry, and turn aside to follow crows, &c. thrice round to recover herself, after stooping and missing her aim. Canceliering.-Turning twice or Ruff-To hit without trussing. In the language of falconry, the word "mews" was used to denote the place where hawks were kept at the moulting season. In the reign of Henry VIII., the royal hawks, which had been kept many years at the "mews," at Charing Cross, were removed from thence, and the place was turned into stables. Hence, when ranges of stables were subsequently built at the backs of houses, they were called "mews." It is common in some parts of the country for the people to say of a dull, unobservant man, "He can't tell a hawk from a hand-saw." This proverb ought to be thus read: "He can't tell a hawk from a hernshaw, or hensaw;" this word having been in former years the popular name for "heron." 6 An amusing blunder, arising from the use of one of these technical terms, is recorded by a writer of the seventeenth century :“Thomas Jermin, going out with his servants and brood-hawks one evening at Bury, they were no sooner abroad, but fowl were found, and he called out to one of his falconers, Off with your jerkin.' Jerkin was the term for the sort of hawk the man carried. The fellow being to the wind, did not hear him, at which he stormed and called out, Off with your jerkin, you knave, off with your jerkin.' Now, it fell out that there was at that instant a plain townsman of Bury, in a freeze jerkin or close jacket, stood between him and his falconer, who seeing Sir Thomas in such a rage, and thinking he had spoken to him, unbuttoned himself immediately, threw off his jerkin, and besought his worship not to be offended, for he would off with his doublet too, to give him content." May not this little anecdote convey a hint to many among us at the present day, who "off with the jerkin," turn plain words into slang language, and puzzle many of their simple hearers, and perhaps make themselves liable to misrepresentation? HISTORY OF FALCONRY. There are only two countries as to which we have any evidence that the exercise of hawking was very anciently in vogue. These are Thrace and Britain. In the former, it is pursued merely as the diversion of a particular district, according to Pliny, whose account is rendered obscure by the darkness of his own ideas of the matter. The primeval Britains, with a fondness for the exercise of hunting, had also a taste for that of hawking; and every chief among them maintained a considerable number of birds for that sport. It appears, also, that the same diversion was fashionable at a very early period in Scotland. To the Romans, this cruel diversion was scarcely known in the days of Vespasian; yet it was introduced immediately afterwards. Most probably they borrowed it from our ancestors. In after times, hawking was the principal amusement of the Saxons and English : a person of rank scarce went abroad without a hawk in his hand, which in old paintings is made a criterion of nobility. Harold, afterwards king of England, when he went on a most important embassy into Normandy, is painted as embarking with a bird on his fist, and a dog under his arm; and in an ancient picture of the nuptials of Henry VI., a nobleman is represented in much the same manner; for, in those days, it was thought sufficient for noblemen to wind their horn and to carry their hawk fair, and leave study and learning to the children of mean people! In the reign of James I., Sir Thomas Morison is said to have given £1000 for a cast of hawks: we are not therefore to wonder that many evils attended a pleasure that was carried to such a pitch of extravagance. In the reign of Edward III., it was made felony to steal a hawk; to take its eggs, even on a person's own ground, was punishable with imprisonment for two years and a day, besides a fine at the king's pleasure! In Elizabeth's reign, the imprisonment was reduced to three months; but the offender was to find security for his good behaviour for seven years, or be in prison till he did! It was then customary for the gentry to dedicate the day to the fowls of the air and the beasts of the field, and to spend the evening in carousing and celebrating their exploits, with the most abandoned sottishness. This pursuit, however, became neglected from the use of fire-arms, and the disgrace which attached to it, as, like modern horseracing and cock-fighting, it was cruel in itself, and united with much that was vicious and evil. We would express an earnest hope, that these barbarities may also in their turn become extinct, and be almost wholly forgotten. W Fig. 1. No. IV. (Continued from page 64.) 刊 W E Fig. 3. Every age is accompanied with its pe- THE ROYAL OBSERVATORY, GREENWICH. culiar vices, and each change in outward circumstances, owing to the perverse tendency of the human mind, leads directly to some developement of evil practices. When the wicked habits which prevail in our own times, by appealing at once to our judgments and to our feelings, through their nearness to us, make a deeper impression upon our minds, than those things of which we read or hear, we are apt to speak in accents of regret about the good old times of other years. But when we see more pains bestowed upon the feeding and taming a single hawk, than would be required to teach ten poor children to read their Bible, we shall not only see the folly of such pursuits, but be thankful that we live in better days. A well-regulated mind, to whatever subject it be directed, though it will not dwell on such as are useless and hurtful, will not fail to pick up a few hints, which, amid the various exigencies of life, may some time or other be turned to useful account. We may, in a future number, give some of the remarks relative to falconry, made by those who lived when it was eagerly pursued. W Do α d DANGER OF READING IN THE SIX TEENTH CENTURY. THE above engraving represents the ball apparatus, erected in the autumn of 1833, on the eastern turret of the principal building. Figure 1, represents the ball, resting at the bottom of the mast, which is its usual position. Fig. 2, shows the ball raised half-mast high; this is done at five minutes before one, as a preparatory signal for the public to watch the succeeding operation; it is then raised to the top of the mast, as shown at fig. 3; and at the precise moment of one o'clock, it is dropped suddenly, and resumes its former position at the bottom of the mast till the following day. In the year 1532, Thomas Harding, about easter holidaies when the other people went to the church, tooke his way into the woodes, there solitarily to worship the true living God in spirit and truth. It chanced that one came in great hast to the officer of the towne declaring hee had seen Harding in the woodes looking on a Book, wereupon immediatelie ran desperately to his house to search for Bookes, and in searching went so nigh that under the_bords of his floor they found certain English Bookes of holy Scripture, whereupon this godly man with his Bookes was burnt as a relapsed heretic. Such as died in prison, we are told, were thrown out to dogs and birds as unworthy of a christian burial, and yet all this mercilesse commandement notwithstanding, som good men there were which buried those who were thrown out, in take sort whom they were wont privily by night to cover, and many times the archers in the fields standing by and sing-angle formed in that which is actually ing together psalmes at their buriall.Fox Actes and Monuments. The ball, which is five feet in diameter, is a frame of wood, covered with leather and painted: it is perforated for the mast to pass through as it slides up and down. The shape of the mast is shown at fig. 4, supposing it to be sawn quite across, the triangular piece a is moveable in an the mast, namely, the part b. This moveable or sliding rod, is fixed at one end to the ball; and is the means employed to | In order to prevent the ball dropping on the roof of the turret with violence, a cylinder g is placed under the piston, to receive it in descending; the air in the cylinder being thus compressed, and gradually forced by the descending weight out at an aperture near the bottom, allows the ball to come to rest very gently. So satisfactory is the performance of the machinery, that the error of letting off the ball seldom amounts to three tenths of a second. The mast is surmounted by a wind vane, and a cross denoting the cardinal points of the compass. We shall next endeavour to explain the nature of a mural circle, and the following engraving represents one of those magnificent instruments, with the position of the observer. The circles at Greenwich are each of them six feet in diameter, and are con nected with their centres by sixteen conical radii, in the same manner as the spokes of a wheel connect the rim with the nave; indeed, the whole instrument very much remembles, both in shape and motion, a coach wheel. The telescope is attached to the face of the circle, and in its inside near the end to which the observer places his eye, are fixed two spiders' threads, drawn very tight across the diameter, and at right angles to each other; their intersection takes place in (and denotes) the centre of the telescope; these spiders' lines are so magnified by the eye-piece of the instrument, that fine as they are, they appear like stout black threads; any thing really stouter would be much too thick when viewed in the telescope. The axis on which the circle turns passes through a hole in the massive stone pier which supports the instrument, and is fastened on the other side. The divisions of the circle into degrees, minutes, &c., are placed round the edge of the rim, and are so exquisitely fine, that they require a microscope of a peculiar construction to read them off; there are six of these microscopes, placed at equal distances round the circle, and are lettered A, B, C, &c., to distinguish them. The instrument is so fixed as to turn round in one position only, namely, in the plane of the meridian; that is to say, the face of the circle always stands north and south, and the observer waits for the heavenly bodies coming to the meridian (or what is commonly known as their southing) before he makes his observation; he can then measure both their meridional distance from each other, and their distance from the celestial pole, and hence he deduces their declination. Such is the use of the mural circle. Our next engraving represents the transit instrument, which is ten feet long, and is also fixed so as to move only in the plane of the meridian; a clock of a superior construction is placed in view of the observer, to note the instant a celestial object passes the centre of the telescope, (which centre is denoted by spiders' threads, as before explained,) and if the object is a star whose right ascension is known, the error of the clock is at once found; for if the clock was quite right, it would indicate at that instant the right ascension of the star; therefore, what it differs from it will be the error of the clock. It will now be understood, that one capital use of this |