gift, if he be a knight, ten marks; and if he be an esquire eight marks, or at the least one hundred shillings: and the king's mother one hundred shillings; and those that come from the king's brothers and sisters, each of them, six marks and to every duke and duchess, each of them, five marks; and every earl and countess forty shillings. These be the rewards of them that bring year's gifts. Whether the king will do more or less, this hath been done. And this done the king goeth to make him ready, and go to his service in what array he liketh.

The queen, in likewise, to sit at her foot-schete, and her chamberlain and ushers to do as the king's did. Her rewards to them that bring her gifts shall not be so good as the king's.*

The receiving and giving of New-year's gifts by the king is discontinued. The only remains of this ancient custom at court now is, that the two chaplains in waiting on New-year's Day have each a crown-piece laid under their plates at dinner.t

PLAY AT THE GROOM PORTER's.

On New-year's Day, 1668, Mr. Pepys, in his diary, says that after dinner he went to the Duke's Theatre, and "Thence to Whitehall, and then walked up and down the house awhile. By-and-by I met with Mr. Brisland, and having it in my mind this Christmas to do, what I never can remember that I did, go to see the gaming at the Groom-Porter's, he did lead me thither; where, after staying an hour, they began to play at about eight at night. And to see the formality of the groomporter, who is the judge of all disputes in play, and all quarrels that may arise therein, and how his under-officers are there to observe true play at each table, and to give new dice, is a consideration I never could have thought had been in the world, had I not now seen it."

Mr. Evelyn saw Charles II. play at the groom-porter's on Twelfth Night, 1662. He speaks of the excess with reprobation. For his observations, and an account of the office of groom-porter, see further on, in this month.

PRINCE OF MISRULE.

1662, January 1, Mr. Evelyn says, in his Diary, "I went to London, invited to

Antiq. Rep.

+ Mr. Nichols, Progresses Q. Eliz. pref.

the solemn foolerie of the Prince de la Grainge, at Lincoln's Inn, where came the king (Charles II.), the duke, &c. It began with a grand masque, and a formal pleading before the mock princes, grandees, nobles, and knights of the sun. He had his lord chancellor, chamberlain, treasurer, and other royal officers, gloriously clad and attended. It ended in a magnificent banquet. One Mr. Lort was the young spark who maintained the pageantry."

NEW YEAR'S DAY IN FRANCE.

As early in the morning as people can possibly dress themselves in proper attire, they set out on a round of visits to relations and friends, to wish them a happy new year and to present them with bonbons. The relations are first visited, beginning with those nearest in affinity, then those that are further removed, and lastly come the friends and acquaintances. It is a contest of politeness on this occasion who shall start first, and anticipate the call of a relation or friend.

The shops of the confectioners are dressed up on the day before with looking-glasses, intermixed with festoons of silk or muslin, and bunches of ribands or flowers. The counters are covered with clean table-cloths, and set out with cakes, sweetmeats, dried fruits, and bonbons, constructed into pyramids, castles, columns, or any form which the taste of the decorator may suggest; and in the evening the shops are illuminated for the reception of company, who come to buy bon-bons for the next day. Endless are the devices for things in which they are to be enclosed; there are little boxes or baskets made of satin ornamented with gold, silver, or foil; balloons, books, fruit, such as apples, pears, oranges; or vegetables, such as a cauliflower, a root of celery, an onion; any thing, in short, which can be made of confectionary, with a hollow within, to hold the bon-bons. The most prevailing device is called a cornet, which is a small cone ornamented in different ways with a bag, to draw over and close the large end. In these contrivances, the prices of which vary from one livre to fifty, the bon-bons are presented by those who choose to be at the expense of them; by those who do not they are only wrapped in a piece of paper; but it is indispensable that bon-bons in some way or other be presented. In the se visits to friends, and in gossiping at the

January 2.

On the 2d of January, 1756, about four o'clock in the afternoon, atTuam in Ireland, appeared an unusual light, far beyond that of the brightest day. It faded away by sensible degrees, and about seven o'clock a sun of streamers crossed the sky, which undulated like the surface of a rippling water, and caused great alarm. In about eighteen minutes the streamers became discolored. The edges were first tinctured with a bright cerulean, then with a fine azure, and lastly with a flame color. The phenomenon discharged itself in a blaze towards the north. It is stated that a very uncommon shock immediately succeeded, but no danger ensued. Some of the terrified inhabitants of Tuam left the city, and the frightened villagers flocked into it. The account adds that about the same time seven acres of ground were laid under water at Ballimore, and two hundred head of cattle were drowned by the deluge. From the description it is presumable that this remarkable appearance was merely the aurora borealis, or northern lights.

Oft in this season, silent from the north,
A blaze of meteors starts; ensweeping first
The lower skies, they all at once converge
High to the crown of heaven, and all at once
Relapsing quick, as quickly reascend,
And mix, and thwart, extinguish and renew,
All ether coursing in a maze of light.
Thomson.

LINCOLN'S INN PRINCE OF Misrule.

On the 2nd of January, 1662, king Charles II. took his pleasure in seeing the holiday pastimes of the lawyers. Mr. Pepys says of himself, in his diary, that while he was at Farthorne's the fine engraver of old English portraits, whither he had gone to buy some pictures, "comes by the king's life-guard, he being gone to Lincoln's Inn this afternoon, to see the revels there; there being, according to an old custom, a prince and all his nobles, and other matters of sport and change." This prince whom the king visited at Lincolns' Inn was a prince of misrule, respecting which mock-sovereign, and his merry court at Gray's Inn, there is a full and diverting account hereafter.

EARL OF DORSET'S SEA SONG. On the 2nd of January, 1665, Mr. Pepys went by appointment to dine with

Gents. Mag. xxvi

To pass our tedious hours away,

We throw a merry main;
Or else at serious ombre play;

But why should we in vain
Each other's ruin thus pursue?
We were undone when we left you.
With a fa, &c.

But now our fears tempestous grow,
And cast our hopes away;
Whilst you, regardless of our woe,
Sit careless at a play :
Perhaps permit some happier man
To kiss your hand, or flirt your fan.
With a fa, &c.

When any mournful tune you hear,
That dies in every note;

As if it sigh'd with each man's care,
For being so remote ;

Think how often love we've made
Το
when all those tanes were play'd,
With a fa, &c.

you,

January 3.

Jan. 3, 1805, Charles Townley, Esq., of Townley, in Lancashire, died at the age of 67. He had formed a valuable collection of ancient statuary bronzes, medals, and manuscripts, and coins, which, by a parliamentary grant of £20,000, were purchased and deposited in the British Museum, and form that portion of the national property in the British Museum usually called the Townley collection. The Etruscan antiquities had been described some years before, in two vols. 4to., by M. D'Ancarville.*

ALCHEMY.

On the 3rd of January, 1652, Mr Evelyn, being at Paris, visited a certain Marc Antonio, an ingenious enameler. "He told us great stories," says Evelyn, "of a Genoese jeweller who had the great arcanum, and had made projection before him several times. He met him at Cyprus travelling into Egypt, on his return from whence he died at sea, and the secret with him-all his effects were seized on, and dissipated by the Greeks in the vessel, to an immense value. He also affirmed that, being in a goldsmith's shop at Amsterdam, a person of very low stature came in and desired the goldsmith to melt him a pound of lead, which done, he unscrewed the pummel of his sword, and taking out of a little box a small quantity of powder, and casting it into the crucible, poured an ingot out, which, when cold, he took up, saying, Sir, you will be paid fo your lead in the crucible, and so went out immediately. When he was gone, the goldsmith found four ounces of good gold in it, but could never set eye again on the little man, though he sought all the city for him. This Antonio asserted with great obtestation; nor know I what to think of it, there are so many impostors, and people who love to tell strange stories, as this artist did, who had been a great rover, and spake ten different languages."

The most celebrated history of transmutation is that given by Helvetius in his "Brief of the golden calf; discovering the rarest Miracle in Nature, how, by the smallest portion of the Philosopher's Stone, a great piece of common lead was totally transmuted into the purest transplendent gold, at the Hague in 1666." The marvellous account of Helvetius is thus rendered by Mr. Brande. Gents. Mag. lxxv.

place.

"The 27th day of December, 1666, in the afternoon, came a stranger to my house at the Hague, in a plebeian habit, of honest gravity, and serious authority, of a mean stature, and a little long face, black hair, not at all curled, a beardless chin, and about forty years (as I guess) of age, and born in North Holland. After salutation he beseeched ine, with great reverence, to pardon his rude accesses, for he was a lover of the Pyrotechnian art, and having read my treatise against the Sympathetic powder of Sir Kensulm Digby, and observed my doubt about the philosophic mystery, induced him to ask me if I was really a disbeliever as to the existence of a universal medicine which would cure all diseases, unless the principal parts were perished, or the predestinated time of death come. I replied, I never met with an adept, or saw such a medicine, though I had fervently prayed for it. Then I said, surely you are a learned physician. No, said he, I am a brass-founder and a lover of chemistry. He then took from his bosumpouch a neat ivory box, and out of it three ponderous lumps of stone, each about the bigness of a walnut. I greedily saw and handled, for a quarter of an hour, this

most noble substance, the value of which might be somewhat about twenty tons of gold; and, having drawn from the owner many rare secrets of its admirable effects, I returned him this treasure of treasures, with most sorrowful mind, humbly beseeching him to bestow a fragment of it upon me, in perpetual memory of him, though but the size of a coriander seed. No, no, said he, that is not lawful, though. thou wouldst give me as many golden ducats as would fill this room; for it would have particular consequences; and, if fire could be burned of fire, I would at this instant rather cast it into the fiercest flame. He then asked if I had a private chamber whose prospect was from the public street; so I presently conducted him to my best room, furnished, backwards, which he entered," says Helvetius, in the true spirit of Dutch cleanliness, "without wiping his shoes, which were full of snow and dirt. I now expected he would bestow some great secret upon me, but in vain. He asked for a piece of gold, and opening his doublet showed me five pieces of that precious metal, which he wore upon a green riband, and which very much excelled mine in flexibility and color, each being the size of a small