of different coloured cloth, strung on them: I was born in a rocky country, where the whole has a very smart effect. there was no wood to make me a cradle; Father Christmas is personified in a I was rocked in a stouring bowl, which grotesque manner, as an ancient man, made me round shouldered then, and I wearing a large mask and wig, and a am round shouldered still. huge club, wherewith he keeps the by- [He then frisks about the room, until he standers in order. The doctor, who is generaliy the merry thinks he has sufficiently amused the andrew of the piece, is dressed in any ri spectators, when he makes his exit with this speech, diculous way, with a wig, three-cornered hat, and painted face. Who went to the orchard, to steal The other comic characters are dressed apples to make gooseberry pies against according to fancy. Christmas ? The female, where there is one, is [These prose speeches, you may suppose, usually in the dress worn half a century depend much upon the imagination of agn. the actor. The hobby-horse, which is a character Enter Turkish Knight. sometimes introduced, wears a represent. Here comes I, a Turkish knight, ation of a horse's hide. Come from the Turkish land to fight, Besides the regular drama of “St. And if St. George do meet me here George," many parties of mummers go I'll try his courage without fear. about in fancy dresses of every sort, most Enter St. George. commonly the males in female attire, and Here comes 1, St. George; vice versa. This Christmas play, it appears, is, or that worthy champion bold, And, with my sword and spear, was in vogue also in the north of Eng I won three crowns of gold. land as well as in Scotland. A corres I fought the dragon bold, pondent of yours (Mr. Reddock) has al and brought him to the slaughter, ready given an interesting account of By that I gained fair Sabra, that in Scotland, and a copy of that acted at Newcastle, printed there some thirty or the king of Egypt's daughter. T. K. Saint George, I pray be not too forty years since, is longer than any bold, I have seen in the west. By some the If thy blood is hot, I'll soon mahe it play is considered to have reference to cold. ihe time of the crusades, and to have St. G. Thou Turkish knight, I pray been introduced on the return of the ad forbear, venturers from the Holy. Land, as typify; I'll make thee dread my sword and spear. ing their battles. Before proceeding with [They fight until the 7. knight falls. our arama in the west, I have merely to observe that the old fashion was to conti St. G. I have a little bottle, which goes nue many of the Christmas festivities till by the name of Elicumpane, Candlemas-day, (February 2,) and then If the man is alive let him rise and fight “throw cards and candlesticks away," again. Battle of St. George. [The knight here rises on one knee, and endeavours to continue the fight, but [One of the party steps in, crying out is again struck down. « Room, a room, brave gallants, room, T. K. Oh! pardon me, St. George, oh! Within this court pardon me I crave. I do resort, To show some sport Oh! pardon me this once, and I will be thy slave. And pastime, Gentlemen and ladies, in the Christmas St. G. I'll never pardon a Turkish Knight, time Therefore arise, and try thy might. [ After this note of preparation, old Father Christmas capers into the room, [The knight gets up, and they again saying, fight, till the knight receives a heavy Here comes I, old Father Christmas, vlow, and then drops on the ground Welcome, or welcome not, as dead. I hope old Father Christmas St. G. Is there a doctor to be found, W'ill never be forgot. To cure a deep and deadly wound ? and gout, Enter Doctor. son, &c.; but they are all of them much Oh! yes, there is a doctor to be found, in the style of that I have just described, To cure a deep and deadly wound. varying somewhat in length and number St. G. What can you cure? of characters. Doctor. I can cure the itch, the palsy, I am, Sir, Your constant reader, W. S. NATURALISTS' CALENDAR. Mean Temperature 36. 20. January 27. The rohete eare Tog grayuće takes off the body. maketh pop Pte of a penny The Conagely ofy'mynte. fonet araynce maketb the wrry piolo penny [These characters serve a sort of WEIGHTS AND MEASURES. 1826. The alteration of the standard the light of an anti-masque. this year, in order to its uniformity Enter the Bor-holder. throughout the kingdom, however inconHere comes I, great head and little wit, venient to individuals in its first applicaPut your hand in your pocket and give tion, will be ultimately of the highest what you think fit. public advantage. The difference between Gentlemen and ladies, sitting down at beer, wine, corn, and coal measure, and the difference of measures of the same your ease, Put your hands in your pockets give me denomination in different counties, were what you please. occasions of fraud and grievance without St. G. Gentlemen and Ladies the sport remedy until the present act of parliais almost ended, ment commenced to operate. In the Come pay to the box, it is highly com twelfth year of Henry VII. a standard was mended. established, and the table was kept in the The box it would speak, if it had but a treasury of the king's exchequer, with tongue; drawings on it, commemorative of the reCome throw in your money, and think it gulation, and illustrating its principles. The original document passed into the collection of the liberal "Harley, earl of The characters now generally finish Oxford, and there being a print of it with with a dance, or sometimes a song or two some of its pictorial representations, an is introduced. In some of the performances, engraving is here given of the mode of two or three other tragic heroes are brought trial which it exhibits as having been used turward, as the king of Egypt and his in the exchequer at that period. no wrong. From the same instrument is also taken terest, and daily experience will prove its the smaller diagram. They are curious wisdom and justice. It would be obvispecimens of the care used by our ances- ously inexpedient to state any of the par tors to establish and exemplify rules by liamentary provisions in this work, which which all purchases and sales were to be now merely records one of the most reeffected. In that view only they are in- markable and laudable acts in the history truduced here. Conformity to the new of our legislation. stand ırd is every man's business and in not a peculiar of either Farringdons, noring refreshment! He looks like a whole nim of Cripplegate, or St. Giles in the parish, full, important - but untaxed. Fields, or of any ward or precinct within The children of charity gaze at him with the bills : not this or that “good man"- a modest smile. The straggling boys out the universal parish beadle. “ How look on him with confidence. They do Christmas and consolatory he looks ! how not pocket their marbles. They do not redolent of good cheer is he! He is a Ay from their familiar gutter. This cornucopia--an abundance. What pud- red-letter day; and the cane is reserved ding sleeves !--what a collar, red, and tor tomorrow.” üke a beef steak, is his ! He is a walk For the pleasant verbal descrip 2 VOL II. 65 F are tion we are indebted to an agreeable on the oath of the notorious Johnson, and writer in the “ London Magazine ;"* his fined ten shillings each.” Next to the corporal lineaments “ borrowed” barber's is “the Star eating-house," with (with permission) from a new caricature, † “ Ladies School” on the first-floor caseif it may be given so low a name, wherein ment, and “Mangleing took in." At the this figure stands out, the very gem and angle of the penthouse roofs of these jewel, in a grouping of characters of all dwellings “ an angel's head in stone with sorts and denominations assembled with pigeon's wings” deceives a hungry cat “intinite fancy” and “fun," to illustrate into an attempt to commit an assault the designer's views of the age. It is upon it from the attic window. Opposite a graphic satire of character rather than the cook's door an able-bodied waggoner, caricatura; mostly of class-characters, with a pennon from his whip, inscribed not persons; wherein the ridicule' bears “ Knowledge is Power," obscures part of heavily, but is broad and comprehensive another whereon all that remains is enough to shift from one neighbour to NICK'S INSTITUTION.” A "steeled butanother. cher," his left hand resting at ease within his apron, cleaver hung, and carelessly capped, with a countenance indicating no The print, wherein our beadle is fore- other spirit than that of the still, and no most, though not first, is one of the plea- disposition to study deeper than the botsantest“ drolls" of the century, and seems tom of a porter pot, carries the flag of the to hit at all that is. In this whimsical “ London University :" a well-fed uichin, representation, a painted show-board, his son, hangs by his father's sleeve, and at the window of a miserable garret; de- drags along a wheeled toy, a lamb-emclares it to be “ The Office of the Peru- blem of many a future“ lamb his riot vian Mining Company.” On the case- dooms to bleed." A knowing little Jew, ment of the first floor, in the same here- boy, with the flag of the Converted ditament of poverty, is a bill of “ Eligant Jews,” relieves the standard-bearer of the rooms to let." Wigs in the shop-win- « School for Adults” from the weight of dow illustrate the punning announcement his pocket handkerchief, and his banner above it—“Nature improved by Rickets,” hides the letter “d" on another borne by which is the name of the proprietor, a capital barber, who stands at the door, and hence for “The Church in danger,' a person of uneven temper in canonicals, and points to a ragged inscription de we read “ The Church in anger.” Close pending from the parti-coloured pole of at the heels of the latter is an object alhis art, from whence we learn that “ No- most as miserable, as the exceedingly mibody is to be s( )aved during di( )ine serable figure in the frontispiece to the service, by command of the magistracy.” “ Miseries of Human Life." This rearHe enforces attention to this fact on an ward supporter of “the church in danunshaved itinerant, with “Subscription for putting down Bartlemy fair" placarded on Sized, famine-worn, badged charity boy, ger," alias in “anger,” is a poor, underhis back. This fellow has a pole in his with a hat abundantly 100 large for its right hand for “The preservation of public hydrocephalic contents, and a coat to his morals," and a puppet of punch Tolling heels, and in another person's shoes, a from his left coat pocket. An apple-stall world too wide for his own feet-he carries is taken care of by a fat body with a a crooked little wand with “No Poscreaming child, whose goods appear to pery" on it; this standard is so low, that be coveted by two little beings untutored it would be lost if the standard-bearer in the management of the eye. We were not away from the procession. A gather from the “New Times," on the passionate person in a barrister's wig, ground, that the fruit woman is Sarah with a shillelagh, displays “Catholic Crumpage, and that she and Rickets, the Claims." "Opposite to a church partly former for selling fruit, and the latter for built, is a 'figure clearly designating shaving on the Sunday, were convicted a distinguished preacher of the established church of Scotland in London, planting the tallest standard in the scene upright • For December, 1822. on the ground, from whence is unfurled The Progress of Cant; designed and etched “ No Theatre”--the flag-bearer of “The .y one of the authors of "Odes and Addresses to reat People;" and published by I. Maclean, Caledonian Chapel," stands behind, in the Haymarket, L. Relfe, Cornhill, and Dickenson, act of tossing up a halfpcany with the New Bond-street, |