An immense bason of copper, and its iron shaft, or foot, clothed with two thousand four hundred pieces of glass, construct a vase fourteen feet high, and twelve feet wide across the brim, weighing upwards of eight tons, and capable of holding eight pipes of wine. Each piece of glass is richly cut with mathematical precision, and is beautifully colored; the colors are gold, ruby, and emerald, and they are enamelled upon one side of the glass. These colored sides being cemented upon the metal body, and rendered perfectly air-tight in that junction, the exterior is a gem-like surface of inconceivable splendor.

On entering the room in which it is exhibited, I was not so much struck by the first sight of the vase, as I expected to be from the account I had received respecting it. The room being small, a few steps from the entrance door had brought me too near to the object, and the eye sought relief from a mass of brilliancy. On continuing to look at it, the strong light of a sunny summer afternoon, commixing with the full blaze from several gas-burners, made out the details too clearly. Ascending a small gallery at the back of the apart ment, 1 saw down into the concavity of the immense vessel. After admiring, for a few minutes, the Thyrsis-like ornaments of the interior, and then proceeding to descend the stairs, my eye was caught by the effect of shadow which dimmed a portion of the exterior, and rendered more lustrous gleams shining from other parts. It seemed to me that this was a good place for a view; and, lingering on the stair-case, the beauty of the vase, as a whole, appeared to gradually enfold; but, upon reaching the floor of the room, the .sudden drawing of a curtain obscured the day-light, and the vase, by the illumination of gas alone, glittered like diamonds upon melting gold. From a remote corner I observed the magic splendor at leisure, and watched the , varying effects of different degrees of the light, as it was heightened, or lowered by a valve regulating to the burners of the surrounding lamps. Waiting till the visitors had retired, who were better pleased with its full lustre; the doors were closed, and I was then allowed half an hour's contemplation in a partial and subdued light. By causing some of the gas-burners to be extinguished, and the flame in the others to be reduced to a finger's breadth, one side of the room was

darkened; parts of the vase were in deep shadow, while the rest seemed a glowing golden fire, silently consuming precious gems; and the transparent edges of the encircling rim above became a sparkling nimbus of starlight. I coveted to be shut up with the stillness, and banquet my eyes through the night upon the gorgeous vision. By elevating and adjusting my hands to exclude the illuminating burners from my sight, the colossal gem appeared through the gloom mysteriously self-lighted, and I gazed and mused till I might have imagined it to be the depository of the talismans of Eblis, which disclosed forbidden secrets and exhaustless treasures, to the impious caliph who preferred knowledge to wisdom, and who discovered too late that the condition of man is to be humble and ignorant.

This gorgeous wonder produced only by native art, at the opening a new and auspicious æra in our history, should be destined to the palace of a King who holds the hearts of the people to his own, and rules by the law of kindness. Let them respectfully tender it to His Majesty, as the splendid first fruit of British ingenuity, in the first year of his benef cent reign, in testimony of their un nimous sense of his natural purposes, and of their sincere affection to his person. To a subscription properly originated and conducted, the poorest man that could spare a mite would doubtless contribute, and the "Royal Clarence Vase" may be an acceptable present from the nation to William the Fourth.

July, 1831.

WILLIAM HONE.

To MR. JOHN GUNBY,
On his resplendent Glass Vase.
[From Cowper.]

O! worthy of applause! by all admired,
Because a novelty, the work of one
Whose skill adds lustre to his country's fame!
Thy most magnificent and mighty freak,
The wonder of the arts.-No forest fell,
When thou wouldst build; no quarry sent its
marble,

T'enrich thy walls; but thou didst form thy
VASE

From molten masses of the glassy wave.
Silently as a dream the fabric rose,

No sound of hammer or of saw was there;
Glass upon glass the well adjusted parts
Were nicely join'd, with such cement secur'd,
Experience taught would firmly make them

one.

Colors of various hues, with gold emboss'd,
Illumine all around; a dazzling light
Shoots thro' the clear transparency, that seems
Another sun new risen, or meteor fallen
From heaven to earth, of lambent flame

serene.

So stands the splendid prodigy-A scene
Of individual and of British glory-
And the rich meed has GUNBY nobly earn'd.
JAMES LUCKсоск.

Edgbarton, July 1, 1831.

ACCOUNT BY MR. REINAGLE. The present era is distinguished by the grand and rapid progress made in the sciences and in arts, which multiply to infinitum things to fill us with astonishment. But up to the present day no part of the world has produced a genius of sufficient power of mind to conceive even the possibility of fabricating in cut glass an object of such wonderful magnificence, and of a size so immensely colossal, as the Vase of which we are about to paint, in description, a feeble portrait.

The human mind, in all its extensive range of thought, is not able to conceive a splendid Glass Vase, cut in the most elaborate and novel way, and embellished with enamel all over its surface, as this presents itself to the beholder.

At the first sight one is confounded with astonishment, and knows not whether what we see is real, or whether we have not been transported, on a sudden, to another globe, to be surrounded by miraculous things. The spectacle is one of the most surprising that can be exhibited.

To England is due the honor of its production; and it comes from the hand of one of its numerous celebrated artists, MR. GUNBY. The precious metal, gold, glitters in all its glory, intermixed, or rather united, with extraordinary beauty of cutting, and rich and splendid enamel painting-in colors the most vivid and imposing. The genius that is observed in the design of the ornaments, and in the novel beauty of the coup d'œil, is remarkable in all its details, and leaves the spectator bewildered.

One is at a loss whether mostto admire the shape the gorgeous brilliance-the sparkle of the gems-the beauty of the cutting-the enamelling-the general conception-or the immense bulk of this magnificent and astounding work of

art.

We have seen China vases of a form and size very large, but never of a decidedly fine contour.

Up to the present day all cut glass vases have been limited to a scale of about two feet, the pedestal included; but here is a cut glass vase, not only the most embellished and the most beautiful in shape possible to be conceived, but of a magnitude beyond all previous calculation or conception. One is tempted to believe that some supernatural inspiration had developed to the mind of the distinguished artist the plan, and the means to construct what no being of this globe, since the creation, had ever seen. Such is the truth. We know of no description in history that indicates any similar effort; and this precious colossal vase must be seen to have any just idea of it.

We have fill'd many a goblet high,
We have drain'd right many dry;
We have trolled the merry glee
In tuneful company;

We have laughed the night away,
And stood the morning's bay;
We have joy'd in the same sun,
By the same moon woo'd and won;
We have together conn'd the page
Of the poet and the sage;
Made record of our sighs,
And our vows to ladies' eyes;
Scorn'd the world, and the vain,
And the proud of its train;
And reveal'd cach to the other,
As an infant to its mother,
All the cares and the joys
That befel us men and boys.
But these shall never be again,——
For thou art not now of my },—
But the heart that lov'd thee here
Will ever hold thee in its sphere.
Joy yet may be with me,
And I will think it is with thee.
When I tread our haunts of old,
I will forget that thou art cold;
I will place thee by my side,
As though death had but lied;
And curl my lip again
At life and at men:
And our words shall be gay,
As they were in thy life's May;
And my heart shall be bared,
As to none but thee it dared:
And who will tell me then,
That thou art not of men?

S. H. S.

Olaus Magnus, archbishop of Upsal, cites a certain noble Englishman as saying

"In the month of August, 1532, our seas cast upon the shores of Tinmouth a dead beast of a vast magnitude, now greatly wasted, yet there remains still as much of it as 100 great waggons can draw. It was about ninety feet long as it lay in the sands, about twenty-five feet in thickness; some conjecture that his back was nine feet or more under the sand. -I came thither the 27th of August. He had thirty ribs of a side, most of them twenty-one foot long a-piece; three bellies like vast caves, and thirty throats, whereof five were very great; and two fins, each of fifteen foot long; ten oxen could scarcely draw one of them away. He had no teeth; there grew to his palate above 1000 plates of horn; hairy on one side; the length of the head, from the crown to the chaps, was twenty-one feet: his eyes and nostrils were like to an ox's, and far too small for so great a head, which had two great holes, whereby it was supposed this monster cast up water. A man rending away his share of the prize, and falling into the inside of the animal, was nearly drowned."

The archbishop has a marvellous chapter" Of the many kinds of whales." He says, "some are hairy, and of four acres in bigness; the acre is 240 feet long, and 120 broad." Another kind" hath eyes so large that fifteen men may sit in the room of each of them, and sometimes twenty, or more; his horns are six or seven feet long, and he hath 250 upon each eye, as hard as horn, that he can stir stiff or gentle, either before or behind." He has another chapter, "Of anchors fastened upon whales' backs," in which he tells, "The whale hath upon his skin a superficies like the gravel that is by the sea-side; so that, oft-times, when he rais

eth his back above the water, sailors taketh it to be nothing else but an island, and land upon it, and they strike piles into it, and fasten them to their ships: they kindle fires to boil their meat, until, at length, the whale, feeling the fire, dives down suddenly into the depth, and draws both man and ships after him, unless the anchor breaks."

Olaus tells of fish on the coast of Norway, of horrible forms, having very black square heads, of ten or twelve cubits, with huge eyes, eight or ten cubits in circumference; the apple of the eye being of one cubit, and red and fiery colored, which, in the dark nights, and in the deep waters, appears to fishermen like a burning lamp; and on the head there being hair like long goose-feathers hanging down in manner of a beard: the rest of the body, small in proportion, not being more than fourteen or fifteen cubits long. "One of these sea-monsters," says Olaus, "will easily drown many great ships with their mariners. The long and famous epistle of Ericus Falchendorf, metropolitan archbishop of Norway to Leo X., about the year 1520, confirms this strange novelty and to this epistle was fastened the head of another monster seasoned with salt."

"

In another chapter, "Of the whirlpool, and his cruelty against the mariners,' Olaus treats of this 66 whirlpool" as a stupendous fish. He says, "the whirlpool, or prister, is of the kind of whales, 200 cubits long, and very cruel. This beast hath a large and round mouth like a lamprey, whereby he sucks in his meat or water, and will cast such floods above his head, that he will often sink the strongest ships. He will sometimes raise himself above the sail-yards, and cruelly overthrow the ship like any small vessel, striking it with his back or tail, which is forked, wherewith he forcibly binds any part of the ship when he twists it about." Olaus affirms that a trumpet of war is the fit remedy against him, by reason of the sharp noise which he cannot endure, or the sound of cannon with which he is more frightened, than by a cannon-ball, "because this ball loseth its force by the water, or wounds but a little his most vast body, being hindered by a mighty rampart of fat.'

These relations of the worthy prelate are for the reader to determine upon, according to liking; but it must not be forgotten that the archbishop concludes his

account of the last described "beast," as he calls him, by saying, "Also I must add that, on the coasts of Norway, both old and new monsters are seen," which usually inhabit" the inscrutable depth of the waters;" and that in these great deeps "there are many kinds of fishes that seldom or never are seen by man."

Among the wonderful inhabitants of the ocean, observed upon its surface, are snakes or serpents. Olaus Magnus says, "There is on the coasts of Norway a worm of a blue and gray color, above forty cubits long, yet hardly so thick as the arm of a child. He goes forward in the sea like a line, that he can hardly be perceived how he goes. He hurts no man, unless he be crushed in a man's hand; for, by the touch of his most tender skin, the fingers of one that touches him will swell. When he is vexed and tormented by crabs, he twines himself about, hoping to get away but cannot; for the crab with his claws, as with toothed pincers, takes so fast hold at him, that he is held as fast as a ship is by an anchor. I oft saw this worm," says Olaus, "but touched it not, being forewarned by the mariners."

Again, he says, They who employ themselves in fishing or merchandize on the coasts of Norway, do all agree in this strange story, that there is a serpent there which is of a vast magnitude, namely 200 feet long, and twenty feet thick, which is wont to live in rocks and caves towards the sea-coast, and will go in a clear night in summer, and devour calves, lambs, and hogs; or else he goes into the sea to feed. He is black, hath hair hanging from his neck a cubit long, sharp scales, and flaming eyes. This snake disquiets the sailors he puts up his head on high like a pillar, and catcheth away men, and he devours them. There is also another serpent, of an incredible magnitude, that lifts himself high above the waters, and rolls himself round like a sphere."

If these things be credible, so may the accounts of the American sea-serpent.

of Kingston, a woman celebrated for beauty and profligacy. She was a native of Devonshire. Her father, a colonel in the English army, died whilst she was very young. Her mother, supported solely by a slender pension from government, frequented the heartless society of fashionable life, and through Mr. Pulteney, afterwards earl of Bath, procured her daughter to be appointed lady of honor to the princess of Wales. Miss Chudleigh attracted many admirers. The duke of Hamilton obtained the preference, and it was fixed that, upon his return from a continental tour, the marriage should be celebrated. Mrs. Hanmer, aunt to Miss Chudleigh, intercepted the letters addressed to her niece by the duke, and succeeded in per suading her to privately marry captain Hervey, afterwards earl of Bristol. On the day after the nuptials, Miss Chudleigh resolved never to see her husband again, and they separated. The duke, upon returning to England, offered his hand to Miss Chudleigh, of whose marriage he was ignorant, and to his astonishment was refused. To escape his reproaches, and the resentment of Mrs. Chudleigh, who was likewise a stranger to the secret engagements of her daughter, she embarked for the continent in a style of shameless dissipation; and, as Miss Chudleigh, so wrought upon Frederick the Great that he dispensed with all etiquette, in consequence of her request, that "she might study at her ease a prince who gave lessons to all Europe, and who might boast of having an admirer in every individual of the British nation." During her residence at Berlin she was treated with the highest distinction. She afterwards went to Dresden, where she obtained the friendship of the electress, who loaded her with presents. Upon returning to England she resumed her attendance upon the princess of Wales; and continued to be the attraction of the court. Her marriage with Captain Hervey perpetually annoyed her, and to destroy all trace of it she went with a party to the parish, where the marriage was celebrated, and, having asked for the register-book, tore out the register of her marriage, while the clergyman was in conversation with the rest of the party. Shortly afterwards, captain Hervey becoming earl of Bristol by the death of his father, and a rumor prevailing that he was in a declining state of health, Miss Chudleigh, now countess of Bristol, hoping to be soon a wealthy dowager, obtained the restoration of the