wall, and similar works, and especially eminent for an able treatise on the Court of Requests'. He may be deemed to have been the legislator of the town of Birmingham. He entered it a poor boy, and by great industry, undeviating economy, and inflexible integrity, he acquired in it an ample fortune. His own memoirs, edited by his daughter Catharine Hutton, is the most teaching volume of autobiography in the English language. Mr. Hutton left behind him a MS. "Book of Memory." It contains a recollection for every day, except ten, in some one year; the recollections were to be as insignificant and as remote as possible, as the design was to show the powers of the writer's memory. From this MS. the following are Unpublished Extracts. 1732, May 27. Rejcicing at the silk mills [Derby], and I was sent on an errand to Little Chester. I heard the cannon fired for joy, and I wept with vexation. 1734, December 28. One of the masters of the silk mills sent a message to the boys that, as the holidays could not yet be out of their bones, he did not expect much attention to work. Astonished at so unusual a precept, we believed it ironical, and labored with double diligence. 1738, March 1. I first saw a Welchman with a leek in his hat, and thought it would have been better in his porridge. him. Few are so stigmatical as that they 1741, July 21. I saw a running foot- at Nottingham. His cap was of black velvet, his jacket of white dimity, fringed with black. I thought the man enviable, his dress beautiful, and his staff desirable. 1761. March 8. I went to Middleton [about ten or twelve miles] before breakfast, to purchase an ash tree; I left it at noon, and got home at three o'clock; it was still before breakfast. I was surprised the people had not asked me to eat. Their surprise was probably equal to mine, for I afterwards understood it was a public house. No MAN CAN BE GOOD TO ALL. I never yet knew any man so bad but some have thought him honest, and afforded him love; nor ever any so good, but some have thought him evil, and hated Sun rises h. m. 3 53 5250 sets 6 10 Twilight ends 8 7 Green gage and other plums still plentiful. September 21. 21 September, 1327, king Edward II. was murdered in Berkley Castle, Gloucestershire, at the instigation of his queen. She had caused him to be deposed and committed to the keeping of the earl of Leicester, from whom he was taken and imprisoned successively at Kenilworth, Corfe Castle, and in the castle of Bristol, whence he was removed, in disguise, to Berkley Castle; on his way thither, his conductors dismounted him, and, for purposes of concealment, shaved his head MAJOR JOHN BERNARDI. This name is familiar to readers of bookcatalogues as being attached to his Life, published in 1729, written by himself in Newgate, where he was a state prisoner, and had been confined without trial upwards of thirty years. He was then in his seventy-fourth year. His history is no less memorable than melancholy. In 1672, being then eighteen years old, and a cadet at Portsmouth, he was pressed on board the Royal James, at Fareham, but claimed by his captain and dis. charged; had he sailed in that ship he had died when she was blown up the following year. In that year he lost his patron, and was reduced both in prospect and constitution. He was wounded at the siege of Gibraltar in 1674; and again in 1675, while parting two gentlemen who were fighting a duel. At the siege of Maestricht in 1678 he lost an eye, was shot through the arm, and left for dead in the field. He was apprehended in 1696, and accused of being concerned in a plot to assassinate William III. Sufficient evidence could not be brought to prove the fact, and, by the acts of six successive parliaments, he was sentenced with five other persons, to be detained in prison. Under this extraordinary exercise of legislative power he was imprisoned more than forty years, and, surviving all the partners of his punishment, he died in Newgate at the age of eighty-two.* September 23. OBSOLETE CUSTOMS. EMBRACING-PREACHING COVEREDTHE DANCE ON THE GREEN. [From the same Correspondent.] Morley, near Leeds. Mr. HONE, May 4th, 1831. About three weeks ago I sent you a paper upon the similarity of the customs and manners of the French, as now seen, and of our ancient English, in the reign of Elizabeth; and I now furnish you with another authority upon the subject of the embrace." See Ellis's original Letters, p. 211, referred to in vol. 97 of the Gentleman's Magazine, p. 158, from which it appears that, under the Tudor reigns," the women of this country took great offence if they were not saluted in Ellis, vol. iii. p. 214, that the "embrace" the form of kissing." Nay, I find from was not left off, even between men, in the days of James I.; for the Spanish ambassador, being indisposed, it appears "James visited him, and gave him a hearty embrace in bed." Now, as to France, I am assured, by those who have lived many years there, that were a friend or an acquaintance to omit the customary salutation, the father, brother, or friend, of the lady so slighted, would resent it highly. The change of religion, from catholic to protestant, no doubt produced a great change in our national manners and habits, which our neighbours, still adhering to the old religion, have retained. It is very curious, however, to observe how little they have improved in regard to their vehicles, of one of which you have favored the public with an acceptholiday sports and pastimes of the French, able engraving. In short, between the their spectacles and shows, and habits in church, and those of our forefathers in times long subsequent to the reformation, there is, I fancy, a very striking resem blance. In 1564 a priest, preaching before Elizabeth at Cambridge, and having made her the obeisance of three bows, as was customary, she sent Sir Christopher Hatton to him, in the middle of his sermon, willing him to put on his cap, which he did, keeping it on to the end. In this reign an ordinance was made that at the name of Christ every woman curtsey and every man take off his cap. In 1603 was an order that all persons be uncovered in the churches. On the restoration of Charles I., there were attempts made to restore the ancient usage, but they made little impression upon the public at large. Permit me to conclude with an extract from Whitaker's History of Craven, page 467, not doubting that the custom to which he alludes was universal throughout England in former times. The passage has just struck my eye, and it illustrates my subject very appropriately. "Once every summer was good cheer and glee upon the village green; vast syllabubs being mixed in pails at the place of milking, to which all the inhabitants contributed, and of which, if they thought proper, they partook; at the same time the young people danced upon the greensward, and the public intercourse of the two sexes, promoted by these means, was favorable to the morals of both." I remain, Sir, N. SCATCHERd. QUALIFICATIONS of a Wife. These are set forth in the "Worcester Journal 1761" to the following effect.Great good-nature, and a prudent generosity. A lively look, a proper spirit, and a cheerful disposition. A good person, but not perfectly beautiful,-a moderate height,-complexion not quite fair, but a little brown. Young by all means-old by no means. what is generally call'd stopping) by no means conversant. A proper knowledge of accounts and arithmetic; but no sort of skill in fractions. A more than tolerably good voice, and a little ear for music-a capability of sing ing (in company), but no peculiar and intimate acquaintance with minims, crotchets, quavers, &c. Ready at her needle, but more devoted to plain work than to fine-no enemy to knitting. Not always in the parlour, but sometimes in the kitchen-yet more skilled it the theory, than in the practice of cookery. Fonder of country dances than minuets. An acquaintance with domestic news, but no acquaintance with foreign. Not entirely fond of quadrille, but a little given to whist. In conversation a little of the lisp, but not of the stammer POETRY. BY FROISSART, XIV. CENTURY. Parting. The body goes, the spirit stays; Dear lady, till we meet, farewell! But sweeter thoughts that in me dwell Invitation to Return. Return my love, thou stay'st too long. For nothing, wanting thee, consoles, Or can console till thou art nigh: Return, my love, thou stay'st too long, And grief is mine till thou be by. Sun rises - sets A decent share of common sense, just September 24.—Day breaks. seasoned with a little repartee -a small modicum of wit, but no learning: no learning, I say again and again (either ancient or modern) upon any consideration whatever. Well, but not critically, skill'd in her own tongue. In spelling a little becoming deficiency; and in the doctrine of punctuation (or Twilight ends 7 58 Guernsey lilies, and other amaryllides, blow in the green-house, and in the open air. • Lays of the Minnesingers. DOWIE'S TAVERN, LIBBERTON'S WYND, EDINBURGH, FREQUENTED BY THE LATE ROBERT BURNS. Edinburgh, May 10, 1831. I have sent you a sketch of a Tavern, which, for the last quarter of the last century, was the resort of all the revelling wits of our "Gude Town." Robert Burns was one of its constant-poor fellow--too constant frequenters; so much so that, when he died, his name was assumed as its distinguishing and alluring cognomen. Until it was finally closed, lately, previous to being taken down (it being immediately in the line to the new South bridge), it was visited nightly by many a party of jolly fellows, whose admiration of the poet, or, more probably, whose predilection for the 66 gousty viver," and the exhilarating potions, which were ministered to them, drew them "nothing loth" to its "douce couthie cozy canty ingles." Few strangers omitted to call in to gaze at the coffin of the bard-this was a small dark room, which could barely accommodate, even by squeezing, half a dozen; but in which Burns used to sit. Here he composed one or two of his best songs, and here were preserved, to the last, the identical seats and table which had accom modated him. The house is situated in a steep lane, Scottice "Wynd," but which was a place of niga note when its neighbourhood was the court end of the town. Now, its shut windows, and the forsaken houses beside it, must in the minds of those who remember the mirth and madness which were here ever at home-the roaring and roysting of its ever-coming customers-awaken the sober reflection, that time is quickly passing on, and making the things that were as though they had not been. There are notices of the place in "Chambers' Traditions of Edinburgh." I am, &c. DOWIE'S TAVERN. Dowic's tavern in Libberton's Wynd, well known as the resort of Burns, is said by the able recorder of the "Traditions of Edinburgh," to have been formerly "as dark and plain an old-fashioned house as any drunken lawyer of the last century could have wished to nestle in; but it is now (adds Mr. Chambers, in 1825, hinc illæ lachrymæ ! )painted and lighted with gas; while the room in which Burns sat with the Willie' and Allan' of his inimitable bacchanalian lyric, and where he scribbled verses upon the walls, has been covered over with elegant green cloth and fitted up with a new table." Dowie's was one of the most popular taverns of its day, and much resorted to by the Lords of Session, after leaving the Court, for "meridians," as well as in the evening, for its admirable Edinburgh ale. The ale was Younger's. That brewer, together with John Gray, city-clerk of Edinburgh-Mr. John Buchan, writer to the Signet-Martin the celebrated portrait-painter and the master of Sir Henry Raeburn-and some others, instituted a club here, which, by way of a pun upon the name of the landlord, they called the "College of Doway.". Mr. Younger's ale alone was always sold in the house; as it also was at Maut Ha', a snug old tavern, kept by one Pringle, in the Playhouse-close, Canongate; and it was owing to the celebrity which it acquired in these two establishments, that "Edinburgh ale " attained its present high character. Johnnie Dowie was the sleekest and kindest of landlords. Nothing could equal the benignity of his smile, when he hrought in a bottle of "the ale," to a company of well-known and friendly customers. It was a perfect treat to see his formality in drawing the cork, his precision in filling the glasses, his regularity in drinking the healths of all present in the first glass (which he always did and at every successive bottle,) and then his douce civility in withdrawing. Johnnie lived till within the last few years, and with laudable attachment to the old costume, always wore a cocked hat, and buckles at knees and shoes, as well as a cane with a cross top, somewhat like an implement called by Scottish gardeners" a dibble." DRUNKEN LAWYERS. Any drunken lawyer of the last century-" says Mr. Chambers. His mearing shall be illustrated by examples from the bench and bar of Edinburgh, set forth by himself,-viz. : The late lord Newton was one of the ablest lawyers, and profoundest drinkers, of his day. He had a body of immense breadth, width, and depth, which could hold (without affecting in the least degree the broad, wide, and deep head attached to it) six bottles of port. He was never so able to do business as after drinking that enormous quantity of liquor. Upon one occasion, after having dined with two friends, and, to use his own phrase, drunk them both under the table, he dictated to his clerk a law-paper of sixty pages, which that gentleman has since declared to be one of the ablest and clearest he had ever known his lordship produce.Lord Newton often spent the night in all manner of convivial indulgences, in a tavern somewhere in the High street; at seven in the morning he drove home; slept two hours, and, mounting the bench at the proper time, showed himself as well qualified to perform his duty as if his fancy had been on this side, instead of beyond the Pole. Simond, the French traveller, tells in his book (1811), that he was quite surprised, on stepping one morning into the Parliament house, to find in the dignified capacity, and exhibiting all the dignified bearing of a judge, the very gentleman with whom he had just spent a night of debauch, and from whom he had only parted an hour before, when both were excessively intoxicated. The following story was told of lord Newton by Dr. Gregory, to king George III., who laughed at it very heartily. |