ENGLAND-1679. THAT national amusements and objects of general interest are characteristic of the manners of any age, caunot be disputed; an enquiry into these, therefore, is by no means an uninteresting or unprofitable pursuit. The noble biographer of Locke has inserted in his memoirs a document, setting forth the sports and customs generally in use in his time, and the most remarkable objects and persons connected with them, which, although possessing none of profundity for which its author is celebrated, are, nevertheless, judged worthy of a place in the biography of a man who derived some of his most accurate hypotheses from apparent trifles. This paper, bearing the title of 'Directions to a Foreigner for seeing the Wonders of England;' and is as follows: "The sports of England, which, perhaps, a curious stranger would be glad to see, are horse-racing, hawking, and hunting. Bowling. At Marebone and Putney he may see several persons of quality bowling two or three times a week all the summer; wrestling, in Lincoln's Inn Field every evening all the summer; bear and bull-baiting, and sometime prizes, at the Bear-Garden; shooting in the longbow and stob-ball, in Tothill Fields; cudgel playing, in several places in the country; and hurling, in Cornwall.' LONDON:- See the East India House, and their magazines; the Custom-House; the Thames, by water, from London Bridge to Deptford; the sawing windmill; Tradescant's garden and closet; Sir James Morland's closet and waterworks; the iron-mills at Wandsworth, four miles above London, upon the Thames; or rather those in Sussex; Paradise by Hatton Garden; the glass-house at the Savoy, and at Vauxhall. Eat fish in Fish-street, especially lobsters, Colchester oysters, and a fresh cod's head. The veal and beef are excellent good in London; the mutton better in several counties in England. A venison pasty and a chine of beef are good every where; and so are crammed capons and fat chickens. Railes and heath-polts, ruffs, and reeves, are most excellent meat wherever they can be met with.Puddings of several sorts, and creams of several fashions, both excellent, but they are seldom to be found, at least in their perfection, at common eating-houses. Mango and saio are two sorts of sauces brought from the East Indies. Bermuda oranges and potatoes, both exceeding good in their kind. Chedder and Cheshire cheese. Men excellent in their Arts : Mr. Cox, in Long Acre, for all sorts of dioptical glasses. Mr. Opheel, near the Savoy, for all sorts of machines. Mr., for a new invention he has, and teaches to copy all sorts of pictures, plans, or to take prospects of places. The King's gunsmith, at the yard by Whitehall. Mr. Not, in the Pall-Mall, for binding of books. The fire-eater. At an ironmonger's near the Maypole in the Strand, is to be found a great variety of iron instruments, and utensils of all kinds. At Bristol see the Hot-well; St. George's Cave, where the Bristol diamonds are found; and at Kingwood the coal-pits. Taste there Milford oysters, marrow-puddings, cock-age, metheglin, white and red muggets, elvers, sherry, sack, (which with sugar is called Bristol milk;) and some other wines, which, perhaps, you will not drink so good at London. Home-made drinks of England are beer and ale, strong and small; those of most note, that are to be sold, are Lambeth ale, Margaret ale, and Derby ale; Hertfordshire cider, perry, mede. There are also several sorts of compounded ales, as cockale, wormwood-ale, scurvygrass-ale, lemon-ale, college-ale, &c. These are to be had at Hercules Pillars, near the Temple; at the Trumpet, and other houses in Sheer Lane, Bell Alley, and, as I remember, at the English Tavern, near Charing Cross. Foreign drinks to be found in England are all sorts of Spanish, Greek, Italian, Rhenish, and other wines, which are to be got up and down at several taverns. Coffee THE COLISEUM AND OMNIUM. As though the immatured inventions and inconvenient practices of antiquity were to take place of the whole mass of wisdom and improvement so laboriously pursued and tenaciously preferred, to all that our forefathers in the early ages had devised, that, which of itself is simply a rotunda, is to bear the name of that gigantic building in Rome to which it bears no similitude, either in form, size, or object, and a leathern convenience,' constructed, it appears, to facilitate the migration of wonder-mongers to this eighth wonder of the world, is 'yclept 'Omnibus!' which, if it signify anything with regard to its occupants, operate very much to the discredit of those who would be thought to mix with none but the best society. That this may be drawn as classically as it named, three horses are harnessed abreast, after the good old fashion of the times when a victorious general drove into his country's must capital with kings in chains, and citizens destined for slavery or immolation. Quære 1st.-Are we inferior to the ancients in judgment and invention? 2ndly-Should we attempt to increase the reputation and chocolate, at coffee-houses, of a good thing by giving to it the Mum at the mum houses, and other places; and Molly, a drink of Barbadoes, by chance at some Barba does merchants. Punch, a compounded drink, on board some West India ships; and Turkish sherbet amongst the merchants. Manufactures of cloth that will keep out rain; flannel, knives, locks and keys; scabbards for swords; several things wrought in steel, as little boxes, heads for canes, boots, riding-whips, Rippon spurs, saddles, &c. &c. At Nottingham dwells a man who makes fans, hatbands, necklaces, and other things of glass, drawn out into very small threads. name of that which is totally different or inferior? 3dly-If the epithet is used with relation to its magnitude, is there no erection in this city more worthy of it? TRANSLATION OF THE BRITISH POETS. The British Poets of the nineteenth century have been published in Germany, including the entire works of the most celebrated; and copious selections from the Mirror. - A taste for English literature has long existed in Austria and the German states. An ignorant person in writing to his gouty friend, concluded with'this leaves me hopping, &c. To which his friend replied, in the true spirit of the gout, -' Yours found me just as it left you-hopping.' Frances Theresa Stuart, Duchess of Richmond, was so idolized by Charles II., that he made her the subject of a gold medal, in which she was represented in the character of Minerva. This was afterwards imitated on the copper coin of the realm, and has continued so to the present time. Queen Elizabeth was in the habit of paying frequent visits to Sir Nicholas Bacon, at Gorhambury. Upon one occasion, she remarked to him that his house was too small for him. ' No, madam,' he replied, 'my house is not too small for me, but your Majesty has made me too great for my house.' Original Poetry. PRIDE AND GLORY. Human pride and human glory, Hides beneath a base alloy. Watch us in maturer years, On a throne, or in a bower? Where is pride, and where is power? Shall Fame's loud trumpet lead the way, What is man? and what is life? T.J.O. NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. The tale by a Half-pay Officer, appears to be too long for insertion. Jota is rather too amorous. A Notice of the Association for preventing the sweeping of Chimnies by climbing Boys, will appear in our next. The Dramatic Poem is too long for in sertion, and, we fear, not adapted to our pages; we are, nevertheless, obliged to A. C. C. for his communications. The suggestions of R. S. is not practicable at present-when an opportunity occurs we shall avail ourselves of them. PRINTED AND PUBLISHED (FOR THE PROPRIETOR), BY J. DUNCOMBE, Where all Communications (post-paid) for the Editor, are requested to be addressed; also by Sherwood, Gilbert, and Piper, Paternoster-row; Mac Phun, Glasgow, Sutherland, Edinburgh; and of all other Booksellers and Newsmen. OF AMUSEMENT AND INSTRUCTION IN History, Science, Literature, the Fine Arts, &c. On the right-hand side of the little by-road which conducts the traveller from the famous bog of Monela to the northern range of the Sliew-bloom mountains, stands the uninhabited mansion of a gentleman named Fitzpatrick, who has, if we believe the neighbouring peasantry, a better apology than many of his country men for being an absentee. The history of his family, as related by the countrypeople, developes the superstitious notion respecting that harbinger of death-the Benshee. The Fitzpatricks of Ossory and the Ormonds of Kilkenny, were, for centuries, deadly foes. More than one of the illustrious house of Butler were prisoners* of their implacable enemies; and, in the No. 170.-3d. S. V reign of Charles the First, the celebrated Duke of Ormond completely destroyed the power of the Fitzpatricks, and annexed Durrow, their patrimony, to his own possessions; since which time, that district, though nearly surrounded by the Queen's County, forms part of the county of Kilkenny. Some ages previous to this period, one of the Butlers having overrun Lower Ossory, and having slaughtered most of the inhabitants, the heir of the house of Fitzpatrick found refuge in the castle of O'More, the chieftain of Leix. * There is an old painting in Trinity College, Dublin, representing the treacherous capture of a Duke of Ormond by the chieftain of Leix, the friend of the Fitzpatricks. 1 The chivalrous spirit of the times inculcated such elevated notions of honour, that friendship and unlimited confidence were synonymous; while the man who was admitted a guest never had his actions regarded with suspicion. Treachery was out of the question for justice was then so summary, that life was the immediate forfeit of an unworthy action. No wonder, then, that O'Moore took no precaution to prevent any improper intimacy between Fitzpatrick and his only daughter-a lady who possessed, in an eminent degree, all those charms which superadd to the attractions of youth and beauty. The consequence of parental neglect on this occasion was fatal; and, as the story goes, continues yet to blast the happiness of one of the party. The chieftain's lovely daughter naturally attracted the attention of her father's guest, who was about her own age; and, as no restraint was placed upon their interviews, they soon learned to feel mutual happiness in each other's company. They were indiscreet-and, to their horror, discovered that a knowledge of their criminal conduct must soon take place, as the daughter of the chieftain was pregnant. There remained for them no expectation of pardon; for they knew with O'More nothing could palliate their crime, and that the lives of both must fall a sacrifice to his wounded honour, unless they escaped from his wrath.Under these circumstances, the lovers agreed to fly from Leix, and appointed an evening to meet at a lonely well, to arrange for their departure. The unhappy lady was punctual; but Fitzpatrick was perfidious; he met her at the well, and, while in the act of caressing her, plunged a dagger into her heart! She fell a corpse-her blood tinged the water of the spring, and the faithless lover returned undiscovered to the castle. The chieftain lamented the fate of his child, but never suspected his guest; and the heir of Ossory, for a time, encountered no reproof but that of his own guilty conscience. In a short time Fitzpatrick was restored by O'More to his possessions in Ossory, where he married, and had a numerous offspring. For twenty years he carried in his bosom the assassin's secret, and the memory of his lovely victim had nearly been forgotten, when one night, as himself and his kerns, during an intestine war, were encamped not far from the fatal spot where he had committed murder, the awful and solemn cry of a benshee was heard to proceed from the well. The guilty chieftain started; but, as if impelled by some supernatural power, he walked towards the spring, and distinctly saw the victim of his treachery, in her ordinary dress of white, sitting beneath the tree that shaded the well, and wringing her hands as if in an agony of grief. He had scarcely gazed on her, when she arose, redoubled her cries, and seemed to approach the place where he stood. At this moment his fears appeared to have overcome him and as he exclaimed, Pardon, oh! pardon your murderer!' the apparition gave a hoarse scream, and vanished, like a shadow of the moon, down the valley, still keeping up the cry of the benshee, which was distinctly heard for several minutes. It had scarcely ceased, when the sentinel gave the alarm of a sudden attack, and the O'Mores in an instant were in the camp of the Fitzpatricks.The battle was long and bloody; but, ere the morning sun arose, the heroes of Leix prevailed, and the chieftain of Ossory fell beneath the weapon of his old protector's son, |