it is about as far from Frogmill as it is from Cheltenham-four miles. The springs are close by the road side, in a considerable angular glen, the point of which reaches the road side, and at the bottom, about fifteen feet below the surface of the road, the Seven Springs almost imperceptibly make their way through so many crevices of what might be termed unhewn flag-stones, piled rudely one above another, and covered with a hill. There is no regular way down to the springs; no pathway, no railing; you scramble down as well as you can, or as the cattle would do.

The considerable hill, or embankment, over the Seven Springs, is surmounted with many ash and other trees and shrubs; and as those products are on the side, which is almost perpendicular, of such place, they naturally recline over the springs, thus forming a wild and imposing umbrageous shade over the unquestionable source of the Thames. Though there are seven springs, united they form a small current, which winds its way along a fine picturesque and secluded valley; so small, even at a considerable distance from the source, that I with ease stood astride this portion of the River Thames; and its appearance for a great way is so peculiar, bushes growing on each side of it, and forming over it a protecting arcade, as it were, that in many places it was requisite to put aside the bushes to discover that stream about which only we felt anxious. In this romantic manner, so guarded by the growing over of the bushes, it continues for about half a mile; and then a mill suddenly and provokingly burst on the view, destroying the charm produced by the extraordinary seclusion, by displaying wheels, which the stream thus early in its career works.

These Seven Springs unquestionably constitute the highest source of the Thames. The stream forms a junction with the Isis at Salperton, about six miles off; and this junction was completed so recently as 1786. The views of the springs and their neighbourhood were so interesting and new to me, according to all the Gazetteer accounts that I had read, that I have with great pleasure to myself written this description.

OF THE EXECUTION, &c. OF KING CHARLES I. FROM THE PUBlic papers of the time. Moderate Intelligencer, January 25 to February 1, 1648.

Jan. 25.-The commissiones for tryall of the king, did further proceed this day, in examination of witnesses for proof of the charge (since in print), the substance whereof we gave in our last. The things proved were such as were not denied by the king, as done onely for a good end, he said.

Jan. 26. They did little in regard of the businesse of the king. The proofs were ended, and the votes thereupon put, none dissenting, viz.-That the king had exercised tyrannical government, was a tyrant, a murtherer, and a traytor; after which it was agreed to draw up the sentence of condemnation against him.

Jan. 27.-The Committee, who had been with the judges at Serjeants' Inn about the writs (who, as it's said, gave no advice in the thing, the death of the king making null all their commissions, except the lord chief justice, who holds by writ), and made their report. Whereupon it was resolved, that the Act of State passe as before, and without the lords. And in regard upon the death of the king, it is usuall to proclaim the next heire king, they order that a committee draw up a proclamation, which is to be published throughout the kingdome, declaring it high treason for any person or persons to proclaim any King of England without the consent of Parliament; a most necessary thing for preventing new troubles in the kingdome, which must inevitably follow thereupon; and that none, under paine of imprisoment, speak or preach against the proceedings of the supreme authority of this nation, the Commons in Parliament.

The finall sentence being this 27 of January to be pronounced against the king, the lord president, and 67 commissioners appeared, and the king was brought (who, as at other times, kept his hat on). He would have spoke, but was not now permitted. The lord president said-The prisoner at the bar hath been here formerly, and instead of answering hath disputed the jurisdiction of the court; but being interrupted in that, refused to answer; the consideration whereof, with the facts

merly King James had all the fencers in London encountered, in their school way, for content of the King of Denmark, who came out of his kingdom to visit him, the scaffold being made from the same window, and in the same manner, only larger. But to come to what passed between his sentence and execution, as he was passing after sentence to his lodging, there was a cry of "Execution," upon which he turning towards them smiling, spake to one of his attendants, saying, poore creatures, for sixpence they would say as much of their commanders. Entering the house, one of his servants departed weeping, which he seeing said, you can forbid their attendance, not their tears. That night he commanded his dogs should be taken away, and sent to his wife, as not willing to have any thing present that might take him off of serious consideration of himself. "The Bishop of London sat up with him all Saturday night. Sunday he dined and supped in his bed-chamber. Monday night he lay at St. James's; being told the next day was for his execution, he declared a great deal of readinesse to come to it. He walked through the Park, as his former use was, very fast, and called to his guard in a pleasant manner march apace,' that he might make haste. The scaffold was laid with black baize, also the rails about it; the block, a little piece of wood, flat at bottom, about a foot and a half long. (After mentioning the substance of his speech, &c. as before it adds)-" His speech upon the scaffold ended, he prepared for death, putting on his cap, and off his doublet, and presently he laid his head over the block, which was at one blow struck off by one in disguise, and taken up by another in disguise also, which held up his head, but said nothing."

"No man," says another paper (Perfect Weekly Account), "could have come up with more confidence and appearance of resolution than he did; viewing the block (with the axe lying upon it) and iron staples in the scaffold to bind him down upon the block, in case he had refused to submit himself freely, without being any ways daunted; yea, when the deputies of that grim tyrant death, appeared with a terrifying disguise, the king, with a pleasant countenance, said he freely forgave them."

Weekly Intelligencer, Feb. 3.-The king's body is embalmed, the head sewed on, and removed to St. James's.

It is referred to a committee, to consider of the time, manner, and place of his buriall. "And in regard, this is the last time that mention will be made of him as a king, it will be pardoned to say something more than usuall. He was the third sonne of his father King James, born in Scotland, Nov. 19, 1600, and was created Duke of York, at Whitehall, the 6th Jan 1604; and on the 4th of Nov. 1616, he was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, and began his reign over Great Britain the 27th of March 1625, and reigned 23 years."

The Moderate tells the following curious anecdote :

"A gentlewoman big with childe, some days before the king's execution, pretended she longed to kisse the king's hand; which, after some denials of the officers that attended him, was at last (considering her condition, though contrary to their instructions) admitted. After she had greedily kissed the king's hand, his majesty as eagerly saluted her lips three or four times. This gentlewoman is reported, by some that then knew her, to be formerly the black handsome maid that waited on him at the Isle of Wight."

A

SINGULAR ACCOUNT OF RICHARD BRANDON, THE EXECUTIONER OF CHARLES I. The History of England being altogether silent as to the discovery of the executioner, who gave the fatal blow to the decollation of the unfortunate king, the following short account, from undoubted authority, must be highly acceptable to the public.

Richard Brandon, a common executioner or hangman at that time, died on Wednesday, the 20th of June, 1649, five months after the king's death. The Sunday before Brandon died, a young man of his acquaintance asked him how he did, and whether he was not troubled in conscience for cutting off the king's head; Brandon replied, yes, because he was at the king's trial, and heard the sentence denounced against him, which caused Brandon to make this solemn vow; viz. wishing God to perish his body and soul, if ever he appeared on the scaffold to do the act, or lift up his hand against him. And he farther declared, that he had no sooner entered upon the scaffold to do the wicked act, but he fell a trembling, and ever since to his death continued so. He likewise confessed that

he had 301. for his pains, paid him all in half-crowns within half an hour after the blow was struck; and that he had an orange stuck full of cloves, and an handkerchief out of the king's pocket. As soon as he was carried off from the scaffold, he was offered 20s. for the orange by a gentleman in Whitehall, but refused it, and afterwards sold it for 10s. in Rosemary-lane. About six o'clock that night he returned home to his wife, at that time living at Rosemary-lane, and gave her the money, saying, it was the dearest money that he ever earned in his life, which prophetical words were soon made manifest. About three days before he died, he lay speechless, uttering many sighs and heavy groans, and in a most deplorable manner departed from his bed of sorrow. At his burial, great store of wines, &c. was sent by the Sheriff of London, and a great number of people waited to see his corpse carried to the church-yard, some crying out, bury him on a dunghill, others, hang the rogue, and some were for quartering him for executing their king. The enraged mob was so great that the officers could scarcely suppress them, and it was with great difficulty he was at last conveyed to Whitechapel church-yard. There was a bunch of Rosemary at each end of the coffin, and on the top, a rope tied across from one end to the other. The man that waited upon this executioner when he gave the fatal blow, was a ragman of Rosemary Lane.

CW

TOBACCO.

A pleasant kind of tale, but for one item of the veracity of which I will not vouch, is given in the Athenian Oracle, by way of accounting for the frequent use and continuance of taking tobacco. "When the Christians first discovered America, the devil was afraid of losing his hold of the people there, by the appearance of Christianity. He is reported to have told some Indians of his acquaintance, that he had found a way to be revenged upon the Christians for beating up his quarters, for he would teach them to make tobacco, to which, when they had once tasted it they should become perpetual slaves."

Ale-houses are at present licensed to deal in tobacco; but it was not so from the beginning; for so great an incentive was it thought to drunken

ness, that it was strictly forbidden to be taken in alehouses, in the time of James the First.

There is a curious collection of proclamations, prints, &c. in the archives of the Society of Antiquaries of London. In vol. 8, lettered on the back, "Miscel. K. James I." is an ale-house license granted by six Kentish justices of the peace, at the bottom of which the following item occurs, among other directions to the inn-holder:

"Item. You shall not utter, nor willingly suffer to be utter'd, drunke or taken, any tobacco within your house, cellar or other place thereunto be longing."

The following ironical encomium on, and serious invective against, tobacco, occurs in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, 4to. Oxford, 1621, page 452: "Tobacco, divine, rare, super-excellent tobacco, which goes far beyond all their panaceas, potable gold, and philosopher's stones, a sovereign remedy to all diseases. A good vomit, I confesse, a vertuous herbe, if it be well qualified, opportunely taken, and medicinally used; but as it is commonly used by most men, which take it as tinkers do ale, 'tis a plague, a mischiefe, a violent purger of goods, lands, health, hellish, devellish, and damned tobacco, the ruin and overthrow of body and soule."

In the Apophthegms of King James, &c. 12mo. London, 1608, p. 4. I read as follows:-" His majesty professed, that were he to invite the Devil to a dinner, he should have these three dishes; 1, a pig; 2, a poll of ling and mustard; and 3, a pipe of tobacco for digesture.

The following quaint thought is found in an old collection of epigrams: "All dainty meats I do defie,

Which feed men fat as swine:
He is a frugal man indeed,

That on a leaf can dine.
He needs no napkin for his hands,
His fingers' ends to wipe,
That keeps his kitchen in a box,

And roasts meat in a pipe." In the Hymnus Tabaci, by Raphael Thorias, made English by Peter Hausted, Master of Arts, Camb. 8vo. Lond. 1651, we meet with the strongest invective against tobacco:— "Let it be damned to hell!! and called from thence, Proserpine's wine, the furies frankin

cense,

Our British Solomon, James the First, who was a great opponent of the Devil, and even wrote a book against witchcraft, made a formidable one also upon his "Invention of Satan," in a learned performance, which he called a "Counterblaste to Tobacco." It is printed in the edition of his works by Barker and Bill, London, 1616.

He concludes this bitter blaste of his, his sulphurous invective against this transmarine weed, with the following peroration: "Have you not reason then to be ashamed, and to forbear this filthy novelty, so basely grounded, so foolishly received, and so grossly mistaken in the right use thereof! In your abuse thereof sinning against God, harming yourselves, both in person and goods, and taking also thereby (lock to it ye that take snuff in profusion!) the marks and notes of vanity upon you; by the custom thereof, making yourself to be wondered at by all foreign civil nations, and by all strangers that come among you, to be scorned and condemned; a custom loathsome to the eye, hateful to the nose, harmful to the brain, dangerous to the lungs, and in the black stinking fume thereof, nearest resembling the horrible Stygian smoke of the pit that is bot

tomless."

If even this small specimen of our learned monarch's oratory, which seemed well adapted to the understanding of old women, does not prevail upon them all to break in pieces their tobacco pipes, and forego smoking, it will perhaps be impossible to say what can.

The subject, as his majesty well observes, is smoke, and no doubt many of his readers will think the arguments of our royal author no more than the fumes of an idle brain; and it may be added too, of an empty head!

WARRIORS.

FROM NAPOLEON'S MEMOIRS OF FRANCE. Julius Cæsar.

Cæsar was 41 years of age when he commanded in his first campaign in the year 58, before the Christian era, 140 years after Hannibal. The people of Helvetia had left their country to settle on the shores of the ocean, to the number of 300,000; they had 90,000 in arms, and were crossing Burgundy. The people of Autun called Cæsar to their assistance. He left Vienne, a fortress of the Roman province, marched up the Rhone, passed the Saone at Chalones, came up with the army of the Helvetians a day's march from Autun, and defeated them in a long disputed battle. After forcing them to return to their mountains; he repassed the Soane, took possession of Besancon, and crossed the Jura to fight the army of Ariovistus, which he met a few marches from the Rhine, defeated it, and forced it to re-enter Germany. At this battle he was 90 leagues from Vienne; at the battle with the HeleIn this campaign vetians 70 leagues. he constantly kept six legions which composed his army joined in a single corps. He left the care of his communications to his allies, having always a month's psovision in a fortress, where, like Hannibal, he kept his hostages, On the magazines, and hospitals. same principles he conducted his seven other campaigns in Gaul. During the winter of 57, the Belgians raised an army of 300,000 men, which they placed under the command of Galba, King of Soissons; Cæsar having received intelligence of this event from Rhemi, his allies, hastened to encamp on the Aisne. Galba, having no hopes to advance on Rheims; but Cæsar of forcing his camp, passed the Aisne frustrated his manoeuvre, and the Belgians disbanded; all the towns of this line submitted in succession. The people of Hainault surprised him on the Sombie, in the vicinity of Mauberge, before he had time to draw up in line; out of eight legions, which he then had, six were engaged in raising the intrenchments of the camp, and two were still in the rear with the baggage. Fortune was so adverse to him on this day, that a body of cavalry from Treves deserted him, and spread a report of the destruction of the Roman