everywhere represented with an ermin collar. The short dress anciently worn in the country and the camp, came to be the general fashion under Louis XI. but was laid aside under Louis XII. Francis I. revived it, with the improvement of flashes. The favourite dress of Henry II. and his children was a tight, close doublet, with trunk hose, and a cloak scarce reaching the waist. The dress of French ladies, it may be supposed, had likewise its revolutions. They seem for nine hundred years, not to have been much taken up with ornament. Nothing could require less time or nicety than their head-dress, and the disposition of their hair. Every part of their linen was quite plain, but at the same time extremely fine. Laces were long unknown. Their gowns, on the right side of which was embroidered their husband's coat of arms, and on the left that of their own family, were so close as to shew all the delicacy of their shape, and came up so high as to cover their whole breast, up to their neck. The habit of widows was very much like that of the nuns. It was not until Charles VI. that they began to expose their shoulders. The gallantry of Charles the VII.'s Court brought in the use of bracelets, necklaces, and ear-rings. Queen Anne de Bretagne despised those trinkets; and Catherine de Medicis made it her whole business to invent

new.

A LAST CHANCE.

John Jones and Jn. Davis, condemn'd for robberries on the highway, were executed at Tyburn. Davis feign'd himself sick, and desir'd he might not be ty'd in the cart: But when he came to the tree, while the hangman was fastening the other's halter, he jumpt out of the cart, and ran over two fields; but being knock'd down by a countryman, was convey'd back and hang'd without any more ceremony. Jones confessed he had been confederate in several robberies with Gordon, lately executed.-Gentleman's Magazine 1733.

A convict running away over two fields at Tyburn, and then being caught by a countryman! How strange this seems, when we look at the streets and squares which now cover the locality, and when the only countrymen now seen there are those who come up from the rural districts!

YELLOW HAIR IN THE TIME OF THE PLANTAGENETS.

Yellow hair was at this time esteemed a beauty, and saffron was used by the ladies to dye it of a colour esteemed "odious" by modern ladies. Elizabeth also made yellow hair fashionable, as hers was of the same tint. In the romance of King Alisaunder, we are told of Queen Olympias :

"Hire yellow hair was fair atyred
With riche strings of gold wyred,
And wryen hire abouten all
To hire gentil myddel small."

THE CITY OF THE SULTAN.

The Mosques of Constantinople are the most wonderful objects of that renowned city. More than 300 are picturesquely distributed in conspicuous parts, and form a most attractive feature to the eye of the traveller. The city itself is built upon seven gentle hills, which is the main cause

not only of its grandeur of appearance, but also of its salubrity and comparative cleanliness. There are fourteen chief or imperial mosques, all lofty, and magnificent in their general dimensions, and built from base to dome, of enduring materials, chiefly of white marble, slightly tinged with grey. Some of these have two, some four, and one (that of Sultan Achmet) has even six of those light, thin, lofty, arrowy, and most grace

ful towers called minarets. The mosque of Santa Sophia was once a Christian cathedral, and is rich in historical recollections. This mosque ranks as one of the grandest edifices. The ridge of the first hill on which the city stands, setting out from the north eastern part, is covered by the Serai or palace of the Sultan, behind which, a little on the reverse of the hill, the dome of Santa Sophia shows itself. The colleges and hospitals, which are generally attached to or near the great mosques, offer no strik

ing architectural features; but some of the detached chapels or sepulchres (turbés), where sultans, viziers, and other great personages repose, are handsome.

GOLD MASK FROM THE BANKS OF THE EUPHRATES.

This interesting relic of remote antiquity is at present preserved in the Museum of the East India Company. It was found by Colonel Rawlin

son while engaged in prosecuting the discoveries commenced by Layard and Botta, at Nineveh and Babylon; and is supposed to have belonged to King Nebuchadnezzar. In exhuming from the mounds of these long-lost rival cities, the instructive remains of this once gigantic Power, the Colonel discovered, in a perfect state of preservation, what is well believed to be the mummy of Nebuchadnezzar. The face of the rebellious

monarch of Babylon, covered by one of those gold masks usually found in Assyrian tombs, is described as very handsome-the forehead high

and commanding, the features marked and regular. The mask is of thin gold, and independent of its having once belonged to the great monarch, has immense value as a relic of an ancient and celebrated people.

The Arab tribes encamping about Wurka and other great mounds search in the loose gravel with their spears for coffins. Gold and silver ornaments, which have been buried in these graves for centuries, are worn by the Arab women of the present day; and many a rare objeet recovered from them is sold and melted by the goldsmiths of the East. The Arabs mention the discovery, by some fortunate shepherd, of Royal tombs, in which were crowns and sceptres of solid gold.

1

FROST FAIR ON THE THAMES.

"I went crosse the Thames," says Evelyn, January 9, 1683-4, "on the ice, which now became so thick as to bear not only streetes of boothes, in which they roasted meate, and had divers shops of wares, quite acrosse as in a towne, but coaches, carts, and horses passed over. So I went from Westminster Stayres to Lambeth, and din'd with the Archbishop. I walked over the ice (after dinner) from Lambeth Stayres to the Horseferry.

"The Thames (Jan 16) was filled with people and tents, selling all sorts of wares as in a citty. The frost (Jan 24) continuing more and more severe, the Thames before London was still planned with boothes in formal streetes, all sorts of trades and shops furnished and full of commodities, even to a printing-presse, where the people and ladyes took a fancy to have their names printed on the Thames. This humour took so universally, that 'twas estimated the printer gained £5 a-day, for printing a line only, at sixpence a day, besides what he got by ballads, &c. Coaches plied from Westminster to the Temple, and from several other staires to and fro, as in the streetes, sleds, sliding with skeates, a bull-baiting, horse and coach races, puppet playes and interludes, cookes, tipling, and other lewd places, so that it seem'd to be a bacchanalian triumph, or carnival on the water."

"It began to thaw (Feb. 5), but froze againe. My coach crossed from Lambeth to the Horseferry at Millbank, Westminster. The booths were almost all taken down; but there was first a map, or landskip, cut in copper, representing all the manner of the camp, and the several actions, sports, and pastimes thereon, in memory of so signal a frost."

THE CHARACTER OF THE MOUTH.

We give the following extract from a very old work; not only because it contains several shrewd observations, but also because it is a good specimen of the spelling and diction which prevailed in the sixteenth century, at which period there is internal evidence that the book was written, though it bears no date on the title page :

"The mouth greate and wyde betokeneth wrath, boldnes and warre. And such men are commonly glottons. A wyde mouth withoute meesure, as thought it were cutte and stretched out, sygnifieth ravening inhumanitie, wickednes, a warlyke hart and cruell, like unto beastes of the

sea. Such men are greate talkers, boasters, babblers, enuious, lyars, and full of follye. The mouthe that hathe but a lyttle closynge and a lyttle openynge, sygnyfyeth a fearful man, quyet, and yet unfaithfull. The mouthe that is verye apparent and rounde with thycknes of lyppes, sygnyfyeth vnclenlynes, follye, and cruelltye. The mouth whyche hath a quantitie in his sytuation with a lyttle shutting, and smylynge eyes wyth the reste of the face, sygnyfyeth a carnall man, a lover of daunces, and a greate lyar. When the mouthe turneth in speakinge it is a sygne that it is infected with some catarre or murre as is manyfest ynough. The long chynne declareth the man to be very lyttle subiecte to anger, and of a good complexion: and yet he is somewhat a babbler and a boaster of hymselfe. They that have a lyttle chinne, are much to be avoyded and taken heede of, for besydes all vices with the whyche they are fylled they are full of impietye and wyckednes and are spyes, lyke unto serpents. If the ende of the chynne be round it is a sygne of feminine maners and also it is a sygne of a woman. But the chynne of a man muste be almoste square.' "The most excellent, profitable, and pleasant booke of the famous doctour and expert Astrologien Arcandam or Aleandrin." ***. Now ready turned out of French into our vulgare tonge, by Will. Warde. Black letter. No date. Printed by J. Rowbothum.

EXECUTION OF EARL FERRERS FOR MURDER, 1760.

Lord Ferrers was hung for the deliberate and cruel murder of his steward, Mr. Johnson, and his execution at Tyburn furnishes a curious instance of the exhibition of egregious vanity in a man who was just about to meet an ignominious death, and of misplaced pride in his family who could actually decorate the scaffold with the emblems of respectful mourning.

His lordship was dressed in his wedding-clothes, which were of light colour, and embroidered in silver. He set out from the Tower at nine o'clock, amidst crowds of spectators. First went a large body of constables, preceded by one of the high constables; next came a party of grenadiers and a party of foot; then the sheriff, in a chariot and six, the horses dressed with ribbons; and next, Lord Ferrers, in a landau and six, escorted by parties of horse and foot. The other sheriff's carriage followed, succeeded by a mourning-coach and six, conveying some of the malefactor's friends; and lastly, a hearse and six, provided for the purpose of taking the corpse from the place of execution to Surgeons' Hall. The procession was two hours and three-quarters on its way. Lord Ferrers conversed very freely during the passage. He said, "the apparatus of death, and the passing through such crowds of people, are ten times worse than death itself; but I suppose they never saw a lord hanged, and perhaps they will never see another." He said to the sheriff, "I have written to the king, begging that I might suffer where my ancestor, the Earl of Essex, the favourite of Elizabeth, suffered, and was in great hopes of obtaining that favour, as I have the honour of being allied to his Majesty, and of quartering part of the royal arms. I think it hard that I must die at the place appointed for the execution of common felons."