Throwing at cocks on Shrove Tuesday was a parochial custom. In the hamlet of Pinner, at Harrow on the Hill, it was a public celebration, as appears by an account of receipts and expenditures; and the money collected at this sport was applied in aid of the poor rates. "1622. Received for cocks at Shrovetide.

1628. Received for cocks in towne

12s. Od.

19s. 10d. Out of towne Os. 6d." Hogarth satirized this barbarity in the first of his prints called the "Four Stages of Cruelty." Dr. Trusler says of this engraving, "We have several groupes of boys at their different barbarous diversions; one is throwing at a cock, the universal shrovetide amusement, beating the harmless feathered animal to jelly.'

Mr. Brand, in 1791, says "The custom of throwing at cocks on Shrove Tuesday is still retained at Heston in Middlesex, in a field near the church. Constables have been often directed to attend on the occasion, in order to put a stop to so barbarous a custom, but hitherto they have attended in vain. I gathered the following particulars from a person who regretted that in his younger years he had often been a partaker of the sport. The owner of the cock trains his bird for some time before Shrove Tuesday, and throws a stick at him himself, in order to prepare him for the fatal day, by accustoming him to watch the threatened danger, and, by springing aside, avoid the fatal blow. He holds the poor victim on the spot marked out, by a cord fixed to his leg, at the distance of nine or ten yards, so as to be out of the way of the stick himself. Another spot is marked at the distance of twenty-two yards, for the person who throws to stand upon. He has three Ishys,' or throws, for two-pence, and wins the cock if he can knock him down and run up and catch him before the bird recovers his legs. The inhuman pastime does not end with the cock's life; for when killed it is put into a hat, and won a second time by the person who can strike it out. Broom-sticks are generally used to 'shy' with. The cock, if well trained, eludes the blows of his cruel persecutors for a long time, and thereby clears to his master a considerable sum of money. But I fear lest, by describing the mode of throwing at cocks, I should deserve the censure of Boerhaave on another occasion: To

teach the arts of cruelty is equivalent to committing them.""

At Bromfield, in Cumberland, there was a remarkable usage at Shrovetide, thus related by Mr. Hutchinson in his history of that county:

"Till within the last twenty or thirty years, it has been a custom, time out of mind, for the scholars of the free-school of Bromfield, about the beginning of Lent, or in the more expressive phraseology of the country, at Fasting's Even, tobar out' the master; i. e. to depose and exclude him from his school, and keep him out for three days. During the period of this expulsion, the doors of the citadel, the school, were strongly barricadoed within and the boys, who defended it like a besieged city, were armed, in general, with bore tree,' or elder, pop-guns. The master, meanwhile, made various efforts, both by force and stratagem, to regain his lost authority. If he succeeded, heavy tasks were imposed, and the business of the school was resumed and submitted to; but it more commonly happened that he was repulsed and defeated. After three days' siege, terms of capitulation were proposed by the master, and accepted by the boys. These terms were summed up in an old formula of Latin Leonine verses, stipulating what hours and times should, for the year ensuing, be allotted to study, and what to relaxation and play. Securities were provided by each side, for the due performance of these stipulations; and the paper was then solemnly signed both by master and scholars.

"One of the articles always stipulated for, and granted, was the privilege of immediately celebrating certain games of long standing; viz., a foot-ball match, and a cock-fight. Captains, as they were called, were then chosen to manage and preside over these games: one from that part of the parish which lay to the westward of the school; the other from the east. Cocks and foot-ball players were sought for with great diligence. party whose cocks won the most battles was victorious in the cock-pit; and the prize, a small silver bell, suspended to the button of the victor's hat, and worn for three successive Sundays. After the cockfight was ended, the foot-ball was thrown down in the church-yard, and the point then to be contested was, which party could carry it to the house of his respective

The

February 5.

1816. February 5. Died at Richmond in Surrey, Richard Viscount Fitzwilliam, of Ireland. This nobleman left to the University of Cambridge (his Alma Mater) his splendid library, pictures, draw ings, and engravings, together with £60,000, for the erection of a museum for In this their reception and exhibition. valuable collection there are more than 10,000 proof prints by the first artists; a very extensive library of rare and costly works, among which are nearly 300 Roman missals finely illuminated. There is also a very scarce and curious collection of the bect ancient music, containing the original Virginal book of queen Elizabeth, and many of the works of Handel, in the hand writing of that great master.*

Mr. Novello, the compser and organist, has recently gratified the musical world with a publication, sanctioned by the University, of some of the most valuable manuscript pieces in the "Fitzwilliam collection of music." On this important work Mr. Novello intensely and anxiously laboured at Cambridge, and bestowed great expense, in order to render it worthy of the esteem it has acquired among professors and eminent amateurs of the science.

On the 5th of February, 1751, were interred, at Stevenage, in Hertfordshire, the coffin and remains of a farmer of that place, who had died on the 1st of February 1721, seventy years before, and bequeathed his estate, worth £400 a-year, to his two brothers, and, if they should die, to his nephew, to be enjoyed by them for thirty years, at the expiration of which time he expected to return to life, when the estate was to return to him. He provided for his re-appearance, by ordering his coffin to be affixed on a beam in his barn, locked, and the key enclosed, that he might let himself out. He was allowed four days' grace beyond the time limited, and not presenting himself, was then honoured with christian burial.+

REMARKABLE NARRATIVE.

A more wonderful account than that concerning Elizabeth Woodcock, is subjoined upon indisputable authority.

Butler's Chronological Exercises.
Gents. Mag.

Related in the. Every Day Book, ii. 175.

On the 19th of March, 1755, a small cluster of houses at a place called Bergemotetto, near Demonte, in the upper valley of Stura, was entirely overwhelmed by two vast bodies of snow that tumbled down from a neighbouring mountain; all the inhabitants were then within doors, except one Joseph Rochia, and his son, a lad of fifteen, who were on the roof of their house, clearing away the snow which had fallen during three days, incessantly. A priest going by to mass, having just before observed a body of snow tumbling from the mountain towards them, had advised them to come down. The man descended with great precipitation, and fled with his son; but scarcely had he gone forty steps, before his son, who followed him, fell down: on which, looking back, he saw his own and his neighbours' houses, in which were twenty-two persons in all, covered with a high mountain of snow. He lifted up his son, and reflecting that his wife, his sister, two children, and all his effects were thus buried, he fainted

away; but, soon recovering, got safe to his friend's house at some distance.

Five days afterwards, Joseph, being perfectly recovered, got upon the snow with his son, and two of his wife's brothers to try if he could find the exact place where his house stood; but, after many openings made in the snow, they could not discover it. The month of April proving hot, and the snow beginning to soften, he again used his utmost endeavours to recover his effects, and to bury, as he thought, the remains of his family. He made new openings, and threw in earth to melt the snow, which on the 24th of April was greatly diminished. He broke through ice six English feet thick with iron bars, thrust down a long pole, and touched the ground; but, evening coming on, he desisted.

His wife's brother, who wed at Demonte, dreamed that night that his sister was still alive, and begged him to help her: the man, affected by his dream, rose early in the morning, and went to Bergemotetto, where Joseph was; and, after resting himself a little, went with him to work. Upon opening the snow which covered the house, they in vain searched for the bodies in its ruins; they then sought for the stable, which was about 240 English feet distant, and, to their astonishment, heard a cry of "help, my brother." They laboured with all diligence till they made a large opening,

through which the brother, who had the dream, immediately went down, where the sister, with an agonizing and feeble voice, told him, “I have always trusted in God and you, that you would not forsake me." The other brother and the husband then went down, and found, still alive, the wife, about forty-five, the sister, about thirty-five, and a daughter about thirteen years old. These they raised on their shoulders, to men above, who pulled them up, as if from the grave, and carried them to a neighbouring house; they were unable to walk, and so wasted that they appeared like mere skeletons. They were immediately put to bed, and gruel of rye-flower and a little butter was given to recover them. Some days afterwards the intendant went to see them, and found the wife still unable to rise from her bed, or use her feet, from the intense cold she had endured, and the uneasy posture she had been in. The sister, whose legs had been bathed with bot wine, could walk with some difficulty. The daughter needed no further remedies. On the intendant's interrogating the women, they told him that on the 19th of March they were in the stable with a boy of six years old, and a girl of about thirteen. In the same stable were six goats, one of which, having brought forth two dead kids the night before, they went to carry her a small vessel of rye-flower gruel. There were also an ass and five or six fowls; they were sheltering themselves in a warm corner of the stable till the church-bells should ring, intending to attend the service, but the wife going out of the stable to kindle a fire in the house for her husband, who was cleaning the snow away from the top of it, she perceived an avalanche breaking down towards the east, upon which she ran back into the stable, shut the door, told her sister of it, and, in less than three minutes the mass descended, and they heard the roof break over their heads, and also part of the ceiling. They got into the rack and manger. The manger was under the main prop of the stable, and resisted the weight of the snow above. Their first care was to know what they had to eat the sister said she had fifteen chesnuts in her pocket: the children said they had breakfasted, and should want no more that day. They remembered that there were thirty or forty cakes in a place near the stable, and endeavoured to get at them, but were not able to penetrate the snow. They called often for help, but

received no answer. The sister gave two chesnuts to the wife, and ate two herself, and they drank some snow-water. The ass was restless, and the goat kept bleating for some days, after which they heard no more of them. Two of the goats being left alive, and near the manger, they expected to have young about the middle of April; the other gave milk, and with this they preserved their lives. During all this time they saw not one ray of light; yet for about twenty days they had some notice of night and day from the crowing of the fowls, till they died.

The second day, when very hungry, they ate all the chestnuts, and drank what milk the goat yielded, being very nearly two pounds a day at first, but it soon decreased. The third day they attempted again, but in vain, to get at the cakes. They resolved to take all possible care to feed the goats; but just above the manger was a hay-loft, whence, through a hole, the sister pulled down hay into the rack, and gave it to the goat, as long as she could reach it; and then, when it was beyond her reach, the goats climbed upon her shoulder, and reached it themselves. On the sixth day the boy sickened, and six days after desired his mother, who all this time had held him in her lap, to lay him at his length in the manger; she did so, and, taking him by the hand, felt it was cold; she then put her hand to his mouth, and, finding that cold likewise, she gave him a little milk; the boy then cried O, my father is in the snow! O father, father!"-and then expired.

In the mean while the goat's milk diminished daily, and, the fowls dying soon after, they could no longer distinguish night from day. Upon the approach of the time when they expected the other goat to kid, they killed her, to save the milk for their own subsistence. This necessity was painful in the extreme, for whenever they called this goat it would come and lick their faces and hands. had given them every day two pounds of milk, and they bore the poor creature great affection.

It

They said that, during the entire time of their confinement, hunger gave them but little uneasiness, except for the first five or six days. Their greatest pain was from the extreme coldness of the melted snow-water which fell on them, and from the effluvia of the dead ass, goats, fowls, &c. They likewise suffered great bodily inconvenience from the very uneasy posture they were confined to; for the

manger in which they sat, crouching against the wall, was no more than three feet four inches broad. The mother said she had never slept, but the sister and daughter said they had slept as usual. They were buried in the snow for five weeks. The particulars related were obtained and attested on the 16th of May, 1755, by the intendant authorised to take the examination.

THE SEASON.

The sunbeams on the hedges lie,

The south wind murmurs summer soft;
The maids hang out white clothes to dry
Around the elder-skirted croft:
A calm of pleasure listens round,

And almost whispers Winter by;
While Faney dreams of Summer's sound,
And quiet rapture fills the eye.

Thus Nature of the Spring will dream

While south winds thaw; but soon again Frost breathes upon the stiff'ning stream, And numbs it into ice: the plain Soon wears its mourning garb of white; And icicles, that fret at noon, Will eke their icy tails at night Beneath the chilly stars and moon. Nature soon sickens of her joys,

And all is sad and dumb again, Save merry shouts of sliding boys

About the frozen furrow'd plain. The foddering-boy forgets his song,

And silent goes with folded arms; And croodling shepherds bend along, Crouching to the whizzing storms. Clare's Shepherd's Calendar.

Fabruary 5. Day breaks

Sun rises

sets

h. m.

5 25

Twilight ends. .

A few crocuses are usually in flower on warm banks, and in sunny places.

February 6.

1685. February 6th. King Charles II. died, aged 54. On the 2nd he was seized in bed with an apoplectic fit, of which he had instantly died had not Dr. King incurred the penalty of the law by bleeding him in the very paroxysm, without await ing the coming of the other physicians. For this service the privy council ordered the doctor £1000, which was never paid to him.*

When the king's life was despaired of,

Evelyn. Granger.

two bishops came to exercise their function by reading the appointed forms of prayer. When they read to the part exhorting a tick person to make a confession of his sins, one of them, Kenn, bishop of Bath and Wells, told Charles "it was not an obligation," and enquired if he was sorry for his sins; Charles said he was, and the bishop pronounced the absolution. He then asked the king if he pleased to receive the sacrament, but he made no reply; and, being pressed by the bishop several imes, only gave for answer, that it was time enough, or that he would think of it, His brother, and successor to the throne. the duke of York, stood by the bedside, desired the company to stand away, and then asked the king whether he should send for a priest, to which he replied, "For God's sake, brother, do, and lose no time." The bishops were dismissed; father Huddleston was quickly brought up a back stair-case; and from him the head of the church of England received the host, and was "houselled" according to the ritual of the church of Rome. He recommended the care of his natural children to the duke of York, with the exception of the duke of Monmouth, who was then under his displeasure, in Holland. "He entreated the queen to pardon him," says Evelyn," not without cause:" but the anxieties he expressed on his death bed were chiefly in behalf of abandoned females whom his profligacy had drawn to his licentious court.

"Thus," says Evelyn, "died king Charles II. ;" and a week after the proclamation at Whitehall, of James II. he adds-" I can never forget the inexpressible luxury and profaneness, gaming, and all dissoluteness, as it were total forgetfulness of God (it being Sunday evening) which this day se'nnight I was witness of; the king (Charles II.) sitting and toying with his concubines, Portsmouth, Cleveland, and Mazarine, &c., a French boy singing love songs in that glorious gallery, whilst about twenty of the great courtiers and other dissolute persons were at basset round a large table, a bank of at least £2000 in gold before them; upon which two gentlemen, who were with me, made reflections with astonishment. Six days after all was in the dust!-God was incensed to make his reign very troublesome and unprosperous, by wars, plagues, fires, loss of reputation, by an universal neglect of the public, for the love of a voluptuous and sensual life."