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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, drawings, 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 llbrary 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 best 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 composer and organis!, 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,t is subjoined upon indisputable authority.

• Butler's Chronological Exerciscs.
+ Gents. Mag.

Related in the Every Day Book, ii. 175.

On the 19th of March, 1755, a smail 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 folback, he saw his own and his neighbours' lowed him, fell down: on which, looking 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 lived at Demonte, dreamed that night that his sister was still alive, and begged him to help her: the man, affected by his drean', 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 dili gence 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 Toice, 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 hot 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 stabie, 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 soor. 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. It had given them every day two pounds of milk, and they bore the poor creature great affection.

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, gots, 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

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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 in curred 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 10 nim.*

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 sick 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 times, 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."

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Where Venta's Norman castle still uprears

Its rafter'd hall,-that o'er the grassy foss,
And scatter'd flinty fragments, clad in moss,
On yonder steep in naked state appears,-
High-hung remains, the pride of warlike years,
Old Arthur's Board: on the capacious round
Some British pen has sketch'd the names renown'd,
In marks obscure, of his immortal peers.
Though joined, by magpie skill, with many a rime,
The Druid frame, unhonor'd, falls a prey
To the slow vengeance of the wizard, Time,
And fade the British characters away;
Yet Spenser's page, that chants in verse sublime
Those chiefs, shall live, unconscious of decay.

Warton.

It is an ancient legend that the castle of is Arthur's Round Table. It hangs at the Winchester was built by the renowned east end, and consists of stout oak plank, king Arthur, in 523; but Dr. Milner as- perforated with many bullets, supposed certains that it was constructed in the to have been shot by Cromwell's soldiers. reign of the Norman conqueror. In its It is painted with a figure to represent old chapel, now termed the county hall, king Arthur, and with the names of his

twenty-four knights, as they are stated in the romances of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It is represented by the above engraving.

King Arthur's round table was believed to have been actually made, and placed in Winchester castle by himself; and was exhibited, as his veritable table, by king Henry VIII., to the emperor Charles V. Hence Drayton sings

And so great Arthur's seat ould Winchester prefers,

Whose ould round table yet she vaunteth to be hers.

It is certain that among the learned, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, it was not generally credited that this had really and truly been the table of the renowned king Arthur. There is now evidence that it was introduced into this country by king Stephen. In the twelfth and succeeding centuries, knights who were accustomed to perform feats of chivalry used to assemble at a table of this form to avoid disputes for precedency. From this usage, the tournaments themselves obtained the name of the Round Table, and are so called in the records of the times.*

Arthur's round table was mentioned two centuries and a-half ago, by Paulus Jovius, who relates the emperor's visit to it, and states that many marks of its antiquity had been destroyed, that the names of the knights were then just written afresh, and the table, with its ornaments, newly repaired.t

It is agreed that this vestige of former times is of a date quite as early as Stephen, earl of Bologn, and Mortaigne, who, in 1135, achieved the chivalrous feat of seizing the crown of England, which had Leen settled on the empress Maud, as soie descendant of Henry I. The round table at Winchester, therefore, is at least seven hundred years old.

The reign of Arthur, the celebrated "British king," seems to have been taken on the authority of the no less celebrated Geoffrey of Monmouth, the monkish historian, in the reign of king Stephen. On this occasion it is sufficient to add, that, besides the old romance, there is a ballad, called "The Noble Acts of King Arthur, and the Knights of the Round Table; with the Valiant Atchievements of Sir

Milner's History of Winchester. Hist. of Winchester, by Warton.

Lancelot du Lake: to the tune of Flying
Fame." The ballad commences thus:-

When Arthur first in court began,
And was approved king;
By force of arms great victories won,
And conquest home did bring :
Then into Britain straight he came,
Where fifty good and able
Knights then repaired unto him,
Which were of the Round Table.

CHARLES II.

In the diary of Mr. Pepys, who in the reign of Charles II., as secretary to the navy and military secretary, was constantly at Whitehall, and well acquainted with its affairs, there are numerous traits of the king's public and private conduct, and the mauners of the court.

Extracts from Pepys's Diary.

1663. May 15. "The king desires nothing but pleasures, and hates the very sight or thought of business. If any of the sober counsellors give him good advice, and move him in any thing that is to his good and honor, the other part, which are his counsellors of pleasure, take him when he is with my lady Castlemaine, and in a humour of delight, and then persuade him that he ought not to hear nor listen to the advice of those old dotards or counsellors that were heretofore his enemies, when, God knows, it is they that now-adays do most study his honor."

1666. December 8. "Mr. Cowley heard Tom Killigrew publicly tell the king that his matters were coming into a very ill state, but that yet there was a way to help all. Says he,There is a good, honest, able man, that I could name, that if your majesty would employ, and command to see all well executed, all things would soon be mended; and this is one Charles Stuart, who now spends his time in employing his lips about the court, and hath no other employment; but, if you would give him this employment, he were the fittest man in the world to perform it.' The king do not profit by any of this, but lays all aside, and remembers nothing, but to his pleasures again; which is a sorrowful consolation."

14. "Met my good friend, Mr. Evelyn, and walked with him a good while, lamenting our condition for want

Collection of Old Ballads, 1726, ti. 91

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