writer was accordingly arrested and kept in close confinement, until at the earnest intercession of his friends, he was permitted to leave this country under a promise not to return during the war.

DEAR FRIEND,

LONDON, April 6th, 1798.

As I find there is an opportunity,
I write to say how we are. My daughter Mary,
who was seventeen last week, has an offer; the man
is a sail maker, honest and industrious; he is very
sober and of respectable family; as to the trade, we do
not object, since workmen in that line are sure of
employment. My wife has been almost ready to go
distracted with pain at her stomach; after suffering
for some days, she spit up some sharp matter,
which greatly relieved her head; then became again
afflicted, and how long her illness may continue, Heaven
knows. Any commands you may have to execute will
be carefully attended to by,
Yours truly.

The contents of the second letter were simply the following figures :

The figures in the first column denote the words which, put together form the real purport of the letter, and the figures in the second column, the lines. By this means it was intended to convey to the French authorities the information that, "There are seventeen sail of the line at Spithead, Howe commands."

THE ROYAL WRESTLERS.

AT the celebrated interview which took place between Henry VIII. and Francis I., near Ardres, in France, in 1520, where they and their attendants displayed the greatest magnificence during eighteen days, which were passed in feats of chivalry, exercises, and pastimes, the following singular circumstance is described by the Marshal Fleuranges -who was present-to have taken place : "After the tournament, the French and English wrestlers made their appearance, and wrestled in the presence of the kings, and the ladies; and as there were many stout wrestlers there, it afforded excellent pastime; but as the king of France had neglected to bring any wrestlers out of Bretagne, the English gained the prize. After this, the kings of France and England retired to a tent, where they drank together, and the king of England seizing the king of France by the collar, said, 'My brother, I must wrestle with you;' and endeavoured once or twice to trip up his heels; but the king of France, who is a dexterous wrestler, twisted him round, and threw him on the earth with prodigious violence. The king of England wanted to renew the combat, but was prevented."

A GIGANTIC BOWL OF PUNCH.

ON the 25th October, 1694, Admiral Edward Russell, then commanding the Mediterranean fleet, gave a grand entertainment at Alicant. The tables were laid under the shade of orange trees in four garden walks meeting in a common centre, at a marble fountain, which last was for the occasion converted into a Titantic punchbowl. Four hogsheads of brandy, one pipe of Malaga wine, twenty gallons of limejuice, twenty-five hundred lemons, thirteen hundredweight of fine white sugar, five pounds weight of grated nutmegs, three hundred toasted biscuits, and eight hogsheads of water, formed the ingredients of this monster brewage. An elegant canopy placed over the potent liquor prevented much evaporation or dilution by rain; while, in a boat built expressly for the purpose, a ship-boy rowed round the fountain to assist in filling cups for the six thousand persons who partook of it.

ORIGIN OF THE CUSTOM OF WATCHING THE DEAD. If a corpse were left in a house with the door ajar, it was supposed to be at the hazard of its being carried off by malevolent spirits. The spiritual parts being separated from the corporeal, and the latter no longer hallowed by the blessing pronounced at baptism, it was supposed to be incapable of invoking the aid of higher powers, and was therefore exposed to the machinations of the imps of darkness, unless carefully watched and guarded by the living. The custom, once established, continues, though people are no longer under the influence of the superstition from which it originated.

THE PEDAGOGUE AND THE PEDANTIC MONARCH. LINLITHGOW exhibited its loyalty in a very remarkable manner in the year 1617, when King James touched at his mother's birthplace in the course of a progress through his kingdom of Scotland. James Wiseman, the schoolmaster of the town, was inclosed in a large plaster figure representing a lion, and placed at the extremity of the town in order to address his majesty as he entered. However ridiculous this exhibition may now appear, it no doubt pleased the grotesque fancy of the king, especially as the speech was highly laudatory, and composed in that peculiar style of poetry suited to the pedantic taste of the monarch. It was as follows:

"Thrice royal sir, here do I you beseech,
Who art a lion, to hear a lion's speech-
A miracle for since the days of Esop
No lion till these days a voice dared raise up
To such a majesty!. Then, king of men,
The king of beasts speaks to thee from his den:
Who, though he now enclosed be in plaster,

When he was free was Lithgow's wise schoolmaster."

Mackie's Castles, etc., of Mary of Scotland.

CURIOUS LETTER OF INTRODUCTION. THE following is the translation of a letter said to be from Cardinal Mazarin to the French ambassador at Rome. Read across the line, the letter, it will be observed, speaks of the bearer in terms of high eulogy. The real purport of the letter will be found by reading only what is on the left side of the line :

:

"SIR,-Mr. Campy, a Savoyard Friar
is at present to be the bringer to you
of this letter. He is one of the most
vicious persons that ever I yet
knew. He has earnestly desired me
to give him a letter to you of
recommendation, which I have granted to
his importunity for believe me, Sir,
I should be very sorry if you should be
mistaken in not knowing him well:
as a great many other persons have been
who are of my very best friends here.
I am
very desirous to advertise you
to take particular notice of him,
and to say nothing in his presence
in any sort. For with truth I do
assure you there cannot be a more
unworthy person in the whole world.
I am certain that as soon as you
have occasion of knowing him, you
will thank me for this advice.
Civility will not permit me to
say any more on this

subject.

Saint Benedict, from me and

of the order of
of particular news
wise, discreet, and least wicked or
amongst all I have conversed with,
to write to you in his favour, and
credence on his own behalf, and my
his merit, I do assure you, more than to
he is one that deserves the best esteem.
wanting to oblige him by your being
I should be much afflicted if you were,
on that account, who now esteem him, and
Sir, for this, and for no other motive,
that you are most particularly obliged
and to give him all imaginable respect;
that may offend or displease him
say, I love him as I love myself, and
strong or convincing argument of an
than to be willing to do him an injury.
cease to be a stranger to his virtue and
will love him as much as I do, and
The assurance I have of your great
write any further of him to you, or to
I am, etc.,
MAZARIN.

TRADITIONS OF MICHAEL SCOTT THE WIZARD. HE was chosen, it is said, to go upon an embassy, to obtain from the King of France satisfaction for certain piracies committed by his subjects upon those of Scotland. Instead of preparing a new equipage and splendid retinue, the ambassador retreated to his study, opened his book, and evoked a fiend in the shape of a huge black horse, mounted upon his back, and forced him to fly through the air towards France. As they crossed the sea, the devil insidiously asked his rider, What it was that the old women of Scotland muttered at bedtime? A less experienced wizard might have answered, that it was the Paternoster, which would have licensed the devil to precipitate him from his back. But Michael sternly replied, "What is that to thee? Mount, Diabolus, and fly!" When he arrived at Paris, he tied his horse to the gate of the palace, entered, and boldly delivered his message. An ambassador, with so little of the pomp and circumstance of diplomacy, was not received with much respect; and the king was about to return a contemptuous refusal to his demand, when Michael besought him to suspend his resolution till he had seen his horse stamp three times. The first stamp shook every steeple in Paris, and caused all the bells to ring; the second threw down three of the towers of the palace; and the infernal steed had lifted his hoof to give the third stamp, when the king rather chose to dismiss Michael with the most ample concessions, than to stand the probable consequences.

Upon another occasion, the magician having studied so long in the mountains that he became faint from want of food, sent his servant to procure some from the nearest farm-house. The attendant received a churlish denial from the farmer. Michael commanded him to return to the rustic Nabal and lay before him his cap, or bonnet, repeating these words :

"Master Michael Scott's man

Sought meat and gat nane."

When this was done and said, the enchanted bonnet became suddenly inflated, and began to run round the house with great speed, pursued by the farmer, his wife, his servants, and the reapers who were on the neighbouring har st rigg. No one had the power to resist the fascination, or refrain from joining in pursuit of the bonnet, until they were totally exhausted with their ludicrous exercise.

art.

Michael, like his predecessor Merlin, fell at last a victim to female

His wife, or concubine, elicited out of him the secret that his art could ward off any danger except the poisonous qualities of broth made of the flesh of a breme sow. Such a mess she accordingly administered to the wizard, who died in consequence of eating it; surviving, however, long enough to put to death his treacherous confidante.-Sir Walter Scott.

TOKENS.

IN the year 1653 private persons had the liberty of coining pennies, halfpennies, and farthings, with their own device upon them, for the convenience of trade. Tokens issued by cities or villages generally expressed the name of the place and value of the piece on one side, and on the other, the arms of the city or town, or some other device. When, however, they were coined by private individuals, they expressed the town or street where the proprietors lived, together with their sign or trade. They were of different sizes or forms; and in general shamefully light. They continued current till the year 1672, when the king's copper halfpence and farthings took place of them. Copper money was first used in Scotland and Ireland in 1340; in France in 1581; and in England in 1609.-Fenoway.

A DESPERATE ENCOUNTER.

THE celebrated Sir Ewan of Lochiel, chief of the clan Cameron, called, from his sable complexion, "Ewan Dhu," was the last man in Scotland who maintained the royal cause during the great civil war; and his constant incursions rendered him a very unpleasant neighbour to the republican garrison at Inverlochy, now Fort William. The governor of the fort detached a party of three hundred men to lay waste Lochiel's possessions, and cut down his trees; but in a sudden and desperate attack made upon them by the chieftain, with very inferior numbers, they were almost all cut to pieces. The skirmish is detailed in a curious memoir of Sir Ewan's life, printed in the appendix of Pennant's "Scottish Tour :"—

"In this engagement Lochiel himself had several wonderful escapes. In the retreat of the English, one of the strongest and bravest of the officers retired behind a bush, when he observed Lochiel pursuing, and seeing him unaccompanied with any, he leaped out, and thought him his prey. They met one another with equal fury. The combat was long and doubtful. The English gentleman had by far the advantage in strength and size, but Lochiel, exceeding him in nimbleness and agility, in the end tripped the sword out of his hand. They closed and wrestled till both fell to the ground in each other's arms. The English officer got above Lochiel, and pressed him hard, but stretching forth his neck by attempting to disengage himself, Lochiel, who by this time had his hands at liberty, with his left hand seized him by the collar, and jumping at his extended throat he bit it with his teeth quite through, and kept such a hold of his grasp that he brought away his mouthful, This, he said, was the sweetest bite he ever had in his lifetime!"— Scott.

TOUCHING FOR THE KING'S EVIL.

JULY 6, 1660. His Majestie [Charles II.] began first to touch for the evil, according to costome, thus: his Majestie sitting under his State in the Banquetting House, the chirurgeons cause the sick to be brought or led up to the throne, when, they kneeling, the King strokes their faces or cheeks with both hands at once, at which instant a chaplaine in his formalities says, ' He put his hands upon them and healed them.' This is sayed to every one in particular. When they have been all touched they come up again in the same order, and the other chaplaine kneeling, and having Angel* gold strung on white ribbon on his arme, delivers them one by one to his Majestie, who puts them about the necks of the touched as they passe, whilst the first chaplaine repeats, 'That is the true light that came into the world.' Then follows an epistle (as at first a gospel) with the liturgy, prayers for the sick, with some alteration, lastly a blessing; and the Ld. Chamberlaine and Comptroller of the Household bring a basin, ewer, and towell, for his Majestie to wash.-Evelyn's Diary.

THE FLITCH OF DUNMOW.

DUNMOW is a manor in Essex, remarkable for the custom of delivering a gammon, or flitch, of bacon to any married couple who would take a prescribed oath. The custom is supposed by some writers to have originated in the Saxon or Norman times. However this may be, the earliest delivery of bacon on record was in the twenty-third year of Henry VI., when Richard Wright, of Bradbourg, in Norfolk, having been duly sworn before the prior and convent, had a flitch of bacon delivered to him agreeably to the tenure. The ceremonial established

*

Angels were pieces of money, so called from having the figure of an angel on them. Queen Anne seems to have been the last of the English sovereigns who actually performed the ceremony of touching for the evil. Dr. Johnson, in Lent 1712, when he was three years of age, was amongst the persons touched by the queen.

H