convent in the empire. It is not her crime that he instigated foreign sovereigns and Russian renegadoes to assassinate his father, depose his motherin-law, and expel his kindred. Neither is it her crime that her father was the dupe of a faction, whose only purpose was to elevate a man fond of the vices of the lowest herd, and therefore fit to be their leader. Nor can a woman, bold enough to risk the life of her husband, blame a father whose justice required him to sacrifice his son. He spared him the shame of a public execution, and gave him a title to the tears of a lawful widow." Thus perished Alexis, heir-apparent of the widest empire and the most celebrated sovereign then existing in Europe. The decree that consigned him to death was passed in the senate house of Moscow, by all the chief nobility and clergy, the high officers of the army and navy, the governors of provinces, and others of inferior degree, unanimously; but referring the mode to his sovereign and father, whose extraordinary character, combining the sternness of a Junius Brutus with the romance of a Haroun Alraschid, enabled him to fulfil the terrible office of his son's judge. But even Peter the Great had not hardihood enough to be a public executioner; and his unhappy son, though his sentence might have been justified by the baseness of his habits and associates, was never openly abandoned by his father. His death was ascribed to apoplexy, caused by shame and fear at the reading of his sentence; and the Czar, with his Czarina Catherine, attended the funeral. Feodorowna died in the convent of Susdale, of which the former Czarina, mother of the Czarowits, was abbess when he perished; and Usbeck, her faithful servant, easily escaped from the prison of the emperor, who did not forget his blow. Once, on his way from Moscow to Novigorod, attended only by four servants, Peter was stopped by a party This unfortunate young prince abandoned himself to the lowest society and to brutal in temperance, notwithstanding the careful education bestowed on him. By the intrigues of the chancellor, Count Golofkin, and his son, he married a princess of Wolfenbuttle, sister to the Emperor of Germany, whose aid he sought in hostilities against his father. She died sometime before him, and his body was placed in a vault The trial lasted from the 25th of June till the 6th of July. Alexis expired in convulsions, as an eye-witness has recorded, about five o'clock the next day. near hers. of Rasbonicks, and leaping from his sledge with his pistol cocked, demanded to know what they desired. One of the troop replied, he was their lord and master, and ought to supply the wants of his destitute subjects. The emperor knew Usbeck's voice, and giving him an order for a thousand roubles on the governor of Novigorod, badę him go and remember how Peter of Russia paid his debts, either of honour or of justice. INJURED INNOCENCE. About the year 1766, a young woman who lived servant with a person of very depraved habits in Paris, having rejected certain dishonourable proposals that he made her, became the object of his revenge. He clandestinely put into the box where she kept her clothes, several things belonging to himself, and marked with his name; he then declared that he had been robbed, sent for a constable, and made his depositions. The box was opened, and he claimed several articles as belonging to him. The poor girl being imprisoned, had only tears for her defence; and all that she said to the interrogatories was, that she was innocent. The judges, who in those days seldom scrutinized any case very deeply, pronounced her guilty, and she was condemned to be hanged. She was led to the scaffold, and very unskilfully executed, it being the first essay of the executioner's son in this horrid profession. A surgeon bought the body; and as he was preparing in the evening to dissect it, he perceived some remains of warmth; the knife dropt from his hand, and he put into bed the unfortunate woman he was going to dissect. His endeavours to restore her to life succeeded. At the same time he sent for an ecclesiastic, with whose discretion and experience he was well acquainted, as well to consult him on this strange event, as to make him witness of his conduct. When this unfortunate girl opened her eyes, and saw the figure of the priest (who had features strongly marked) standing before her, she thought herself in the other world. She clasped her hands with terror, and exclaimed, "Eternal father! you know my innocence, have mercy on me!" She did not cease to invoke the ecclesiastic, and it was long before she could be convinced that she was not dead, so strongly had the idea of punishment in Rotten Row, Old Street. Others contend that it derived its name from a small river or brook once running near it, and called by the Romans Tyburnia, the latter we are disposed to consider the more correct. LONDON. Gilt Spur Street-this street was formerly called Knight Rider Street, as well as that immediately contiguous to the Doctors' Commons, in consequence of the knights, with their gilt spurs, riding that way from the Tower Royal, to entertain the king and his nobles with justs and tournaments in Smithfield. They rode from the Tower Royal, through Great and Little Knight Rider Streets, up Creed Lane to Ludgate, and thence up Gilt Spur Street to Smithfield. Charing Cross-was so denominated from a cross set up by Edward the Third, in memory of his queen, upon the spot where King Charles's statue now stands; Charing was then a village. Cripplegate-was built before the Conquest, and took its name from the cripples who used to beg there. Gracechurch Street-formerly Grass Church Street, derived its appellation from the grasses or herbs which were once sold there. Bread Street-took its name from the ancient bread market which was held there, the bakers being obliged to sell their bread only in the open market, and not in shops. Who would have imagined that Piccadilly, the residence of many of our nobility, and one of the proudest streets in the metropolis, should have derived its name from the stiff collars of a tailor? but such was the fact; one of the knights of the thimble, having acquired sufficient money by making Pecadillos (stiff collars) to build the first house there. Vintry Ward-was so called from the wine merchants of Bordeaux being obliged to land their wines on the spot, and to sell them in forty days. Shooters' Hill-takes its name from the archers that formerly frequented it to exercise themselves in their favourite diversion. King Henry the VIIIth, and his queen Catherine, came hither from Greenwich on May-day, and were received by two hundred archers clad in green, one of them personating Robin Hood, as their captain, and all of them displaying before their majesties their several feats of activity. POPULARITY. The gratitude of the Parisians, during a severe winter, for the succours poured forth by Louis the XVIth, and his royal consort, was so lively and sincere, that pyramids and obelisks of snow (of which there was a prodigious fall) were erected in different parts of Paris, expressive of the feelings of the people. The pyramid in the Rue d'Angiviller was particularly deserving of attention: it was supported by a base of five or six feet high, by twelve broad; it rose terminated by a globe. Four posts, to the height of fifteen feet, and was placed at the angles, corresponded with the obelisk, and gave it an "appearance not devoid of elegance: upon this monument was inscribed: TO MARIE ANTOINETTE. Lovely and good, to tender pity true, Queen of a virtuous king, this trophy view; Cold ice and snow sustain its fragile form, But ev'ry grateful heart to thee is warm. Oh, may this tribute in your hearts excite, Illustrious pair, more pure and real delight, Whilst thus your virtues are sincerely prais'd, Than pompous domes by servile flatt'ry rais'd. The etymology of the word Tyburn, according to many, proceeds from tye and burn, in allusion to the old method of executing traitors at that place. It can be traced to the year 1529; before that time the place of execution was able and as valueless. The snow had hardly melted until the "illustrious pair" became the victims of democratic fury. Popularity could not find a more appropriate tablet than a pillar of snow; it is as perish CONGREVE. Mr. William Congreve was the son of a younger brother of a good old family in Staffordshire, who was employed in the stewardship of part of the great estate of the Earl of Burlington in Ireland, where he resided many years. His only son, the poet, was born in that country, went to school at Kilkenny, and from thence to Trinity College, Dublin, where he had the advantage of being educated under a polite scholar and ingenious gentleman, Doctor St. George Ashe, who was afterwards Bishop of Derry. This prelate had the good fortune of having two pupils, the most famous poets, and most extraordinary men of their own, or any other age, Dr. Swift and Mr. Wm. Congreve. The latter was entered of the Middle Temple. His first performance was a novel called the Incognita; then he began his play called the Old Bachelor. Having little acquaintance with the traders in that way, his cousins recommended him to a friend of theirs, who was very useful to him in the whole course of his play. He engaged Dryden in its favour, who, upon reading it, said he never saw such a first play in his life; but, the author not being acquainted with the stage, or the town, it would be a pity to have it miscarry for want of a little assistance; the stuff was rich indeed; it wanted only the fashionable cut of the town. To help that, Dryden, Arthur Mainwayring, and Southern, did it with care; and Dry EXECUTION OF ANNE BOLEYN. In Houssaie's Memoirs, vol. I, page 435, a little circumstance is recorded concerning the decapitation of the unfortunate Anne Boleyn, which illustrates an observation of Hume. Our historian notices, that her executioner was a Frenchman of Calais, who was supposed to be uncommonly skilful; it is probable that the following incident may have been proved by tradition in France, from the account of the executioner himself. Anne Boleyn being on the scaffold, would not consent to have her eyes covered with a bandage, saying that she had no fear of death. All that the minister who assisted at the execution could obtain, was, that she would shut her eyes. But, as she was opening them every moment, the executioner was fearful of missing his aim, and was obliged to invent an expedient to behead the queen. He drew off his shoes, and approached her silently; while he was at her left hand, another person advanced at her right, who made a great noise in walking, so that this circumstance drew the attention of Anne; she turned her face from the executioner, who was enabled by this circumstance to strike the fatal blow without being disarmed by that spirit of affecting resignation which shone in the eye of the lovely but unfortunate victim. ENGLISH. CHARLES THE FIRST. den put it into the order in which it ANCIENT COSTUME OF THE was played. Southern obtained of Davenant, who then governed the playhouse, that Congreve should have the privilege of the theatre half a year before his play was acted, which had never been allowed before. Lord Halifax put Congreve into the commission for hackney coaches, and then into the pipe office, and afterwards into a patent Custom House place of 6001. a year. THE FLOWERS. With each expanding flower we find Love in the Myrtle's bloom is seen, springs; In this reign the hat continued to be worn with much such a sort of crown as that described in the reign of Elizabeth; but the brim was extended to a reasonable breadth. Hats inclining to a cone, a figure very ill adapted to the human head, occur in the portraits of this time. The hair was worn low on the forehead, and generally unparted: some wore it very long, others of moderate length. The king, and consequently many others, wore a love-lock on the left side, which was considerably longer than the rest of the hair. The unseemliness of this fashion occasioned Mr. Prynne to write a book in quarto against love-locks. The beard dwindled very gradually under the two Charles's, till it was reduced to a slender pair of whiskers. It became quite extinct in the reign of James the Second, as if its fatality had been connected with that of the house of Stuart. The ruff, which of all fantastic modes maintained its influence the longest, was worn for some time after the accession of Charles; but it had almost universally given place to the falling band, when Vandyke was in England. Slashed doublets, doublets with slit sleeves, and cloaks, were much in fashion. Trunk breeches, one of the most monstrous singularities of dress ever seen in this or any other age, were worn in the reigns of James and Charles the First. The points, which formerly used to be seen hanging about the waist, are observed dangling at the knees, in some of the portraits of this period. Little flimsy Spanish leather boots and spurs were much worn by gentle. men of fashion. It was usual for the beaus in England and France, to call for their boots, and some think their spurs too, when they were going to a ball, as they very rarely wore the one without the other. Mr. Peck, the Antiquarian, informs us, that he had in his possession a whole-length portrait of Charles; the dress of which he thus describes: "He wore a falling band, a short green doublet, the arm-parts towards the shoulder wide and slashed; zigzag turned up with ruffles; very long green breeches, (like a Dutchman) tied far below the knee with long yellow ribband, red stockings, great shoe-roses, and a short red cloak, lined with blue, with a star on the shoulder." Ladies wore their hair low on the forehead, and parted in small ringlets. Many wore it curled like a peruke, and some braided and rounded in a knot on the top of the crown. They frequently wore strings of pearls in their hair. Ear-rings, necklaces, bracelets, and other jewels, were also much in fashion. Laced handkerchiefs, resembling the large falling band worn by the men, were in fashion among the ladies. Many ladies, at this period, are painted with their arms and their bosoms bare; and there is no doubt but they sometimes went with those parts exposed. Cowley, in his Discourse of Greatness,' thus censures some enormities in the dress of his time, "Is any thing more common than to see our ladies of quality wear such high shoes as they cannot walk in without one to lead them? And a gown as long again as their body; so that they cannot stir to the next room without a page or two to hold it up?" The citizens' wives, in this reign, seem to have had their domestic sumptuary laws, and to have adopted the frugal maxims of their husbands. There appears, from Hollar's habits, to have been a much greater disparity in point of dress, betwixt them and the ladies of quality, than betwixt the former and the wives of our present yeomanry. The dress of religion gave the highest offence to some gloomy zealots in this reign, who were determined to strip her of her white robe, to ravage the ring from her finger, to despoil her of every ornament, and to clothe her only in black. [To be continued.] EXPEDITIOUS TRAVELLING IN DAYS OF YORE. Sir Robert Cary, afterwards Earl of Monmouth, tells us himself, that when he carried the account of Queen Elizabeth's death to King James in Scotland, he rode from London to Edinburgh, 400 miles, in about sixty hours, a wonderful instance of celerity, even without considering his stops at Doncaster and Witherington,(which latter, particularly, must have been of some hours,) and a bad fall which he had at Norham. But even this is outdone by a worthy, of whom we read in Stowe, who performed 144 miles by land, and two voyages by sea, of about twenty-two miles each, in seventeen hours. For so marvellous a story, let the honest chronicler vouch in his own words: 66 Saturday, the 17th day of July, 1619. Bernard Calvert, of Andover, about three o'clock in the morning, towke horse at Saint George's church, in Southwarke, and came to Dover about seaven of the clocke the same morning, where a barge, with eight oares, formerly sent from London thither, attended his suddaine comming: he instantly towke barge and went to Callice, and in the same barge returned back to Dover, about three of the clock the same day, where, as well there as in divers other places, he had layed swift horses, besides guides; he rode back from thence to St. George's church, in Southwarke, the same evening, a little after eight o'clock, fresh and lusty." All our modern match riders must hide their diminished heads. THE HORSE AND THE MAYOR. The late Dr. Magennis, when a very young man, having occasion to visit Dublin, put up, on his way, at an inn in Drogheda. The mayor of the corporation had inclosed a piece of common contiguous to the town, for his own use, and, in order that he might himself enjoy the full benefit of it, gave public notice that all trespassers should be immediately impounded. The Doctor happened to fall into company with some joyous companions that winged the glass with song and joke, till Morpheus weighed down his eyelids with "soft oppression." When our young traveller was ready the next morning to resume his journey, he called for his horse: the hostler scratched his head, and after some little hesitation, told his honor that the mayor had impounded him. Magennis immediately waited upon the prætor, who heard all that he had to say in favour of the prisoner, when collecting his full stock of official consequence, he assured him that the culprit should not be discharged unless the owner paid down half-a-guinea, which was more, at the moment, than our youthful Esculapius could conveniently spare. "Well, then,” said the suppliant, "if so, it must be so: but I shall have a few verses into the bargain;" and instantly repeated those lines Was ever horse so well befitted? Such was the power of verse even on a city magistrate, that he immediately ordered the rosinante to be delivered up to its owner free of all expense. THE CELEBRATED LORD (FROM AUBREY'S MISCELLANY.) The Lord Roscommon being a boy of ten years, of age at Caen, in Normandy, one day was, as it were, madly extravagant in playing, leaping, getting over the tables, boards, &c. "He was wont to be sober enough," they said, "God grant this bodes no ill-luck to him." In the heat of this extravagant fit, he cries out, 66 My father is dead." A fortnight after news came from Ireland, that his father was dead. This account I had from Mr. Rolles, who was his secretary to the Earl of Stafford; and governor, and then with him, since I have heard his lordship's relations confirm the same. SINGULAR TRIAL AND ACQUITTAL FOR MURDER. (FROM THE TOWer records.) There is an authenticated statement in existence, of a Scotchman having existed without food for upwards of thirty days, but extraordinary as such a fact might be, it is greatly exceeded by the fast performed by a female named "Cecely de Rygeway," in 1347, and which is authenticated by judicial records. The circumstance is thus shortly mentioned in an old work containing the reports of many extraordinary trials. "There is nothing more singular in the whole course of our histories and records, than the following case and manner of the trial of a woman for killing her husband, which in a few words was thus:-In the 31st year of the reign of that glorious Prince, Edward the Third, and that of our Lord 1347, there was one Cecely de Rygeway indicted for the murder of her husband, but she refusing to plead, and continuing mute, notwithstanding all the arguments and threats the judges could use to her, they adjudged her at last to fast forty days together in close all. This she actually did. prison, without any meat or drink at "For proof of this extraordinary abstinence I shall produce a translation of the record lodged in the Tower, which runs thus:— "The King, to all bailiffs, and others his liege subjects to whom these presents shall come, &c. greeting. Be it known unto you, that whereas Cecely, who was the wife of John Rygeway, was lately indicted for the murder of the said John, her husband, and brought to her trial for the same, before our beloved and faithful Henry Grove, and his brother judges at Nottingham, but that continuing mute and refusing to plead to the same indictment, she was sentenced to be committed to close |