lity of doing it was, under the alarming and hazardous circumstances of his situation, rather a drawback than an aid to the execution of it. He saw how it might be more immediately effected-but dared not proceed in a regular manner. Every thing was to be reversed, and yet to be achieved by the one hand, and its only ally, his teeth. After several trials, he finally succeeded in passing the rope, not only under her arms, but so as to form a cradle to receive her, when she should relax her present hold. Blencow, who had by this time steadied himself in some measure in a line level with the motionless object of their solicitude, secured it again round her legs, and returned it to Percy to make good the master knot. This done-he still dreaded to take the last decisive measure, of either loosening his own hold-or directing her to do so, lest there should be any thing defective in the tackle. He tremblingly called to Blencow to watch his motions, when he should give the signal in the instant "to hoist." He now spoke to his helpless companion, praying fervently to heaven at the moment, that she might hear and be enabled to perform the little she had to do in her own behalf. He bade her, as she hoped for safety, to rouse, for a moment, every energy of her mind and body, to think of nothing but the implicit obedience necessary to the few directions about to be given. Blencow had now hold of the rope by which she was to be suspended in the air: he gently tried it-it answered to the pull from above; then taking the arm, which had so long been pendent at her side, he, by degrees, elevated it to a hold or loop above her head. Percy watched the operation, and hailed its success, when he perceived her delicate fingers close upon it. "Now," said he, in the softest and most steady tone;-" Now-for God's sake attend-raise your other arm-if it has not lost its power-quickly and suddenly not yet," for he felt the slightest motion of the muscles, and had not yet secured his own hold, so as to sustain her full weight, until she had caught the second loop, which Blencow had contrived to lower to within her immediate reach. "Now," Despair gave her momentary strength: he saw her balanced, apparently secured. He still hesitated-he traced the line to the summit-and ran again over every slip and noose of the tackle with his eyes; and, with a palpitating heart, gradually withdrew his supporting arm. The cord tightened with the increasing weight--he trembled to trust the whole to it-the last slight hold was upon her. "God speedGod protect you!" he cried, and she swung freely in her frail cradle, several feet from the station-her eyes brilliant as the morning star, were, for the first time, opened—they seemed bursting from their sockets. "For Heaven's sake be collected!" Percy eagerly cried, as her relaxing hold seemed to indicate inanition, or a failure of intellect. "Shut-shut your eyes-and do not open them until-until Blencow now gave the signal for hoisting to those above. "Do you hear?"-anxiously demanded Percy, "do you hear?-as you value your life, keep your eyes closed two seconds and you are safe." In less than two seconds he saw her disappear over the impending summit of the crag, and he lay motionless, whilst he uttered an inward prayer and thanksgiving to that power who alone, he felt assured, could have saved her, under such a complication of dangers. The weight was off his soul.-He felt himself safe-he had no fears of being dizzied by the horrors, which would appal the imagination of one less experienced or unaccustomed to them.. He boldly caught at the rope, now sent down to him, and only fixing a foot in the loop, caught the main line and launched himself fearlessly into the air with the other-and as this foot spurned the crumbling shelf, which had so long sustained his companion and himself, the shock carried down a large fragment of it, and made even his spirit quail, as the gulf gave up the reverberated echoes of its fall. HAIR. Hentzer, describing Queen Elizabeth, as he saw her going to chapel, says, "she wore false hair, and that red." The ladies in those days caused the graves to be violated, to obtain the hair of the dead, and inveigled children who had fine hair to secret places, to rob them of their locks. They also dyed their hair of various colours, but particularly of a sandy hue, in compliment to the queen, whose natural hair was of that tint. We are told by St. Gregory, that women in his time dressed their heads extremely high; environing them with many tresses of false hair, disposed in knots and buckles, so as to resemble a regular fortification.--Josephus reports, that the Jewish ladies powdered their hair with gold dust; a fashion that was carried from Asia to Rome, and from the adoption of which the hair of the Emperor Commodus is said to have become so bright, that when the sun shone upon it, his head appeared as if on fire. ON INDEPENDENCE. FROM PERCY MALLORY The notion of independence is one of those chimeras which germinate upon the pride of man. Even the Eastern mythologist, when he had acknowledged the earth to be dependant upon the elephant, who bore it on his back'; and he again dependant upon the tortoise, who performed the part of a double atlas, was yet unable to make out a reasonable tale of independence in favour of the latter. There is, in fact, no such thing-surrounded by all that riches, rank, and health can supply, still is man dependant upon his fellow men, for all that essentially contributes to make up the sum of human happiness. This is too self-evident to require any illustration-but there is a species of dependence which is not so apparent to the common observer, and which peculiarly attaches to those who value themselves upon the power of rendering the world-politically or domestically speaking-subservient to their wishes and control. We have all read of tyrants and conquerors, who mowed down nations, or heads, or whatever else might seem to stand in the way of their power but if we look a little further, and penetrate behind the scenes, we shall generally find a minion, a favourite, or a mistress, who has firm hold on some one string, by which the despot himself is held, and worked at the will and pleasure of one of those his chief dependants! We need not be learned on the subject by displaying all that has been said or written by historians and poets, ancient or modern, in corroboration of the opinion. It is in every school-boy's hands, and if it were not, we have only to open our eyes to see the same thing-though not exactly pari passu-every day passing in the world before us. Open them wide, and you shall see tyrannical husbands in leading-strings with their mistresses-domineering fathers led by the nose by a young pet-straining landlords under the control of a steward, who knows exactly where the shoe pinches and a pedagogue, who flogs twenty boys per diem, submitting with patience to the master spirit of a wife. ANTIQUARIAN REMINIS CENCES OF LONDON. London, in the Saxon times, was chiefly situated from Ludgate westward, and was but thinly built where the city, properly so called, now stands. This appears by what Fabian, the chronicler, found in an old record called Doomsday, belonging to the city, who writes, that in King Ethelred's reign, about the year 981, the metropolis had most buildings or houses from Ludgate to Westminster? and few or where the heart of the city now is; not, he says, but there were dwellings, but they were scattered and stood without order: so that many other places, as Canterbury, York, and others, excelled London in building in those days; but after the conquest it increased, and soon surpassed all others. none In numerous places in the immediate suburbs, though now thickly populated, there were not, however, any dwellings, or very few, at least, for many ages after. WAPPING, and its immense neighbourhood, may, perhaps, be mentioned as one of the most remarkable of these. From the precinct of St. Katherine to Wapping in the Wash (or marsh) and Wapping itself (the usual place of execution for pirates), there was, according to Stowe, not a house standing within forty years of the period at which he wrote, or at the early part of the reign of Queen Elizabeth, the whole being before one great wash, covered with the water of the Thames. Afterwards, he adds, it was, by pains and art, gained from the river, and made a marsh or meadow ground, commonly called Wapping Marsh, and was defended from the irruptions of the Thames by walls. Yet so few buildings were there in that part of the town in 1629, that King Charles the First having hunted a stag from Wanstead, in Essex, killed him in a garden in Nightingale-lane. RATCLIFFE-HIGHWAY, the same writer tells us, he remembered a large highway, or road, with long rows of elm and other trees on both sides. On the spot the Romans appear to have had a burying-place. Sir Robert Cotton, the antiquary, discovered in Ratcliffe-fields, in the year 1614, the monument of a pro-prætor's wife, of which he has left a particular description: the coffin was enclosed in a chest of lead, the upper part being garnished with scallop shells, and a crotister border. At the head of the coffin, and at the foot, there were two jars of three feet high standing, and on the sides a number of bottles, of red shining earth, some painted, together with several large glass phials, filled with a whitish liquor. Within the coffin was the skeleton of a female (as was supposed by the skull); on either side of her were two sceptres of ivory, eighteen inches long, and on her breast a little figure of Cupid, neatly cut in white stone; and amongst the bones two pointed pieces of jet, with round heads in form of nails, three inches long. There was also found near it the body of a man in a stone coffin. These bodies, in the opinion of Sir Robert Cotton, had been buried there about the year 239, there being found with them various coins of Pupienus Gordian, and the Emperors of that time. On the shore at Ratcliffe-highway there was formerly fixed a long pole, with rams-horns upon it, the intention of which, an old traveller informs us, was vulgarly said to be a reflection upon wilful and contented cuckolds. This probably, gave name to Cuckold's Point. LITTLE TOWER-HILL and ROSEMARYLANE were, near this period, unbuilt, the former being called "the King's soil of Little Tower-hill," and the latter "the King's waste of Rosemarylane, or Hog-lane." An adjoining mill and a garden, which belonged to St. Katherine's Hospital, were removed for making the Tower-ditch. EAST SMITHFIELD was a vineyard, belonging to Geoffery de Magnaville, Earl of Essex; and one of the privileges of Knighten Guild was, that a fair should be held there, which was accordingly kept, till the dissolution of monasteries, nearly opposite the present new building of the Mint. The city ditch, which ran down the Minories, lay at this time open, and was so wide and deep that many persons watering horses, where they thought it the shallowest, were drowned, "both man and horse." SPITALFIELDS, so called from its ancient vicinity to the "Spittle," or Hos pital of St. Mary, which stood where is now Spital-square, was, in very old times, called Lolesworth; and is sup posed, like Ratcliffe just mentioned, to have been one of the Roman cemeteries without the city. Stowe relates, that in the year 1576, Lolesworth-fields being broken up for clay to make brick, preparatory to building there, they found many earthen pots, called urns, which were full of ashes and burnt bones of men-to wit, of the Romans inhabiting here anciently. "For it was the custom," says he, "of the Romans to burn their dead, and put their ashes in an urn, and then to bury the same, with certain ceremonies, in some field appointed for that purpose near the city." Numerous coins, some of Claudius, Vespasian, Nero, Antoninus Pius, Trajan, and other Emperors, were found in these urns, together with lachrymatories, and great quantities of earthenware of fine red earth, highly glazed, besides lamps, images, and other antiques. In the same field were also found several stone coffins, containing human remains. The OLD ARTILLERY YARD adjoining, was anciently called Tassel-close, because there were tassels planted in it for the use of clothworkers. It was afterwards let to the cross-bow makers, where they used to shoot for games at the popinjay. This being enclosed with a brick wall, was made use of as an Artillery Yard, where the gunners of the Tower were accustomed to repair weekly on a Thursday, "and there levelling certain brass cannon against a butt of earth, made for that purpose, they discharged them for their exercise." This ground being afterwards called the Artillery Ground, gave name to Artillery-lane. STEPNEY, in the year 1292, was about being inclosed for a park by the Bishop of London, whose manor there had then large woods attached to it, but he was opposed by the citizens of London, who claimed the privilege of hunting there, which they had enjoyed time out of mind. The disaforesting of the forest of Middlesex and the warren of Staines, near this time (2d Hen.III.) first began here, and in the other parts of the east suburbs mentioned, to invite inhabitants, though no buildings of consequence were erected, as we have seen, for several ages afterwards. In the west suburbs of London, the progress of building was still more tardy. Until the time of Henry VIII., 66 all the way leading from Holborn to THE STRAND, from Temple-bar to the Savoy, seems to have been first paved about the year 1385; but the paving went no farther until the latter part of Queen Elizabeth's reign; insomuch that Sir Robert Cecil, when he built his noble mansion a little beyond, called Salisbury House, was obliged to level and pave all the adjoining highway himself. The ancient division of the city, the east from the west, was not, as at present, by streets, but by a large brook which ran from the north fields, through the wall and middle of the city into the Thames, and which, on that account, was called Wall-brook. The course of this stream was from the wall to St. Margaret's Church, Lothbury; from thence beneath the lower part of Grocers' Hall, about the east part of their kitchen, under St. Mildred's Church; from thence under Bucklersbury (by a great house called the Old Bargehouse, because barges out of the Thames were rowed up so far into this brook), on the back side of the houses in the present Walbrook-street, by the west end of the church there, under Horseshoebridge, by Tallow Chandler' and Skinner's Halls, and so behind the houses in Elbow-lane, and thence into the Thames. This current in after times was arched over, and now forms the common sewer. At the corner of Bread-street, in the year 1595, in digging a vault, there was found, at the depth of fifteen feet, a pavement in as perfect a state as that above ground, and a tree sawed into five steps, apparently intended to cross over some small stream running out of the west into this Wall-brook; and by that and other trees, &c. and the nature of the soil, which seemed to have been raised from about 17 feet, it was evident that so much had the level of the city been elevated on that spot from its former height. And Sir Christopher Wren, in re-building St. Paul's, found it to be 28 feet higher than when that Cathedral was first founded. Subsequent discoveries have proved this to be the case with other parts of the city. SHOE POINTS. It was customary during the reign of Henry the Sixth, and several preceding ones, to wear the beaks or points of the shoes so long, as to make it necessary to tie them up to the knees with laces or chains, so as to enable the wearer to walk without stumbling. Gentlemen used chains made of silver or silver gilt, and others laces. This ridiculous custom was in 1467 prohibited, on the forfeiture of 20s., and the pain of cursing by the clergy. NAPOLEON'S TABLE TALK. [Continued from page 262.] MARSHAL NEY.-Ney was a man of courage, his death is not less remarkable than his life. I am sure that those who condemned him did not dare to look him in the face. FRENCH COMMERCE.-I have given a new impulse to the spirit of commerce, in order to give animation to French industry. In the space of ten years, France improved remarkably. To fall back she has nothing to do, but to recur to her old plan of colonization and borrowing. THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON.-Until Waterloo, I thought Wellington was possessed of a military genius. Those of the profession were surprised to see him hold out at Mount Saint Jean; with this error not a single Englishman would have escaped. After fortune, he ought to thank the Prussians. WEAKNESS OF CHARACTER.-We are weak from idleness or from mistrust of ourselves; woe to him who is so from these two causes at once: if he is a private individual, he will be nothing; if he is a King, he is lost. CONNECTION BETWEEN THE GREAT AND VULGAR.-The vulgar seek the great, not for their persons, but for their The following love-letter was forwarded by a farmer's son, in a certain county in Ireland, to a young lady, the daughter of a gentleman of large fortune in the neighbourhood: "Madam-I hope your known goodnis will pardon my extrame bouldnis and grate persumshun in thus darring too adris you on the subject of Luve than miselfalas hevin none can bee more inadeket to plea the Luver-alas i am doomed and decread to adoer the secks -yeyt wanting that effruntery which is requesite necessary too gene there afections-they fire of Luv has long been chooming my hart-that fire was furst kindild when I saw yoar devoted bewtyful fese, and unless yoo own an ekewl fleam they konflagarashun wil sune very sune put a period to your devoted sleave-Never o never did a harmet ofer up at the relix of his feveret seant a hart more sensare than I now ofer you, except of it then my engel and give rume too hope for at laste a share in thyne if i may hope anser I beg to intrate that you will vouchsafe too fever me with it sune as possible-I shal be awl impacience til I no they ishu-every minit seem to me an our every our a day-every day a week, and every weke an ege-mane time I beg lave too sine myself deer madum your devoted umble slave, TIMUTHY SULLEVIN." STOPPELAER. Stoppelaer was an artist, and likewise a player, of whom many whimsical stories are told. The following are said to be from good authority: it was his custom, when any of his brethren died, to assert that he had lent them money during their lives. One night, being at the cider cellar in Maiden-lane, some persons who were acquainted with his foible, told him, on his coming down, that Dunstall, the comedian, who was then in a corner of the room, had died suddenly. Stoppelaer immediately declared that he should lose some money by the supposed dead man, whose memory he began to make so free with, that Dunstall, who heard him with patience for some time, could contain himself no longer, but rushed out and knocked him down. He once received some overtures for an engagement from Rich, the manager of Coventgarden, to whom he sent the following curious answer: SIR,-I thank you for the fever you intended me, but have had a violent cold and hoarseness upon me these twelvemonths, which continued above six weeks, and is not gone yet, and I am apprehensive it will return. I can but just keep my head above water, by painting, therefore do not care to engage in the playhouse any more. I met you last Thursday, according to appointment, but you did not come; but if you please to appoint a time and place, I will not fail to meet you, whether you come or no. I am," &c. Stoppelaer's best performance was the Doctor in Harlequin Skeleton. He has been dead nearly sixty years. THE MUSES' WILD WREATH. THE PEWTER QUART. A new Christmas song to an old tune. Written and composed for the Jollification of Bibbers of Beer, Ale, Stout, Nappy, and all other Configurations of Malt and Hops. Gentle Reader! Poets there were, in ages back, Others tun'd harmonious lays Maidens, who Helicon's hills resort, I. Here, boy, take this handful of brass, |