BLIND JACK.

The streets of London, in the reigns of Queen Anne and Georges I. and II., were infested with all sorts of paupers, vagabonds, impostors, and common adventurers; and many, who otherwise might be considered real objects of charity, by their disgusting manners and

general appearance in public places, rather merited the interference of the parish beadles, and the discipline of Bridewell, than the countenance and encouragement of such persons as mostly congregated around common street exhibitions. One-eyed Granny and Blind Jack were particular nuisances to the neighbourhoods in which the first practised her mad

drunk gambols, and the latter his beastly manner of performing on the flageolet. John Keiling, alias Blind Jack, having the misfortune to lose his sight, thought of a strange method to insure himself a livelihood. He was constitutionally a hale, robust fellow, without any complaint, saving blindness, and having learnt to play a little on the flageolet, he conceived a notion that, by performing on that instrument in a different way to that generally practised, he should render himself more noticed by the public, and be able to levy larger contributions on their pockets.

The manner of Blind Jack's playing the flageolet was by obtruding the mouth-piece of the instrument up one of his nostrils, and, by long custom, he could produce as much wind as most others with their lips into the pipe; but the continued contortion and gesticulation of his muscles and countenance rendered him an object of derision and disgust, as much as that of charity and commiseration.

THE YORKSHIRE TIKE.

Ah iz i truth a country youth,
Neean us'd teea Lunnion fashions;
Yet vartue guides, an' still presides,
Ower all mah steps an' passions.
Neea coortly leear, bud all sincere,
Neea bribe shall ivver blinnd me,
If thoo can like a Yorkshire tike,
A rooague thoo'll nivver finnd me.
Thof envy's tung, seea slimlee hung,
Wad lee aboot oor country,

Neea men o' t' eearth booast greter
wurth,

Or mare extend ther boounty.

Oor northern breeze wi' uz agrees,
An' does for wark weel fit uz;
I' public cares, an' all affairs,
Wi' honour we acquit uz.

Seea gret a moind is ne'er confiand,
Tu onny shire or nation;

They geean meeast praise weea weel
displays

A leearned iddicasion.

Whahl rancour rolls i' lahtle souls,
By shallo views dissarning,

They're nobbut wise 'at awlus prize
Gud manners, sense, and leearnin.

TWO OF THE FATHERS ON FALSE HAIR.

Tertullian says, "If you will not fling away your false hair, as hateful to Heaven, cannot I make it hateful to yourselves, by reminding you that the false hair you wear may have come not only from a criminal, but from a very dirty head; perhaps from the head of one already damned ?" This was a very hard hit indeed; but it was not nearly so clever a stroke at wigs as that dealt by Clemens of Alexandria. The latter informed the astounded wig-wearers, when they knelt at church to receive the blessing, that they must be good enough to recollect that the benediction remained on the wig, and did not pass through to the wearer! This was a stumbling-block to the people; many of whom, however, retained the peruke, and took their chance as to the percolating through it of the benediction.

FOOD OF ANIMALS.

Linnæus states the cow to eat 276 plants, and to refuse 218; the goat eats 449, and declines 126; the sheep takes 387, and rejects 141; the horse likes 262, and avoids 212; but the hog, more nice in its provision than any of the former, eats but 72 plants, and rejects 171.

SLAVE ADVERTISEMENTS.

The following announcements are curious, as showing the merchandise light in which the negro was regarded in America while yet a colony of Great Britain :

FRANCIS LEWIS, Has for SALE,

A
Choice Parcel of Muscovado and Powder Sugars, in Hogsheads,
Tierces, and Barrels; Ravens, Duck, and a Negro Woman and
Negro Boy. The Coach-House and Stables, with or without the Garden
Spot, formerly the Property of Joseph Murray, Esq; in the Broad Way,
to be let separately or together:-Inquire of said Francis Lewis.

Thi

New York Gazette, Apr. 25, 1765.

his Day Run away from John M' Comb, Junier, an Indian Woman, about 17 Years of Age, Pitted in the face, of a middle Stature and Indifferent fatt, having on her a Drugat, Wastcoat, and Kersey Petticoat, of a Light Collour. If any Person or Persons, shall bring the said Girle to her said Master, shall be Rewarded for their Trouble to their Content. American Weekly Mercury, May 24, 1726. Female Negro Child (of an extraordinary good Breed) to be given away; Inquire of Edes and Gill.

A

Boston Gazette, Feb. 25, 1765.

To be Sold, for want of Employ.

A Likely Negro Fellow, about 25 Years of Age, he is an extraordinary good Cook, and understands setting or tending a Table very well, likewise all Kind of House Work, such as washing, scouring, scrubbing, &c. Also a Negro Wench his Wife, about 17 Years old, born in this City, and understands all Sorts of House Work. For farther Particulars inquire of the Printer. New York Gazette, Mar. 21, 1765.

PRESERVATIVE POWER OF COAL-PIT WATER.

The following is extracted from the register of St. Andrew's, in Newcastle:"April 24th, 1695, wear buried, James Archer and his son Stephen, who, in the moneth of May, 1658, were drowned in a coal-pit in the Galla-Flat, by the breaking in of water from an old waste. The bodys were found intire, after they had lyen in the water 36 years and 11 months."

THE QUEEN BEE.

Reaumur relates the following anecdote of which he was a witness :A queen bee, and some of her attendants, were apparently drowned in a brook. He took them out of the water, and found that neither the queen bee, nor her attendants were quite dead. Reaumur exposed them to a gentle heat, by which they were revived. The plebeian bees recovered first. The moment they saw signs of animation in their queen, they approached her, and bestowed upon her all the care in their power, licking and rubbing her; and when the queen had acquired sufficient force to move, they hummed aloud, as if in triumph!

DREAM OF KING HENRY I.

A singular dream, which happened to this monarch when passing over to Normandy in 1130, has been depicted in a manuscript of Florence of Worcester, in Corpus Christi College, Oxford. The rapacity and oppressive taxation of his government, and the reflection forced on him by his own unpopular measures, may have originated the vision. He imagined himself to have been visited by the representatives of the three most important grades of society-the husbandmen, the knights, and the clergy-who gathered round his bed, and so fearfully menaced him, that

he awoke in great alarm, and, seizing his sword, loudly called for his attendants. The drawings that accompany this narrative, and represent each of these visions, appear to have been executed shortly afterwards, and are valuable illustrations of the general costume of the period. One of them is introduced in this place.

The king is here seen sleeping; behind him

stand three husbandmen, one carrying a scythe, another a pitchfork, and the third a shovel. They are each dressed in simple tunics, without girdles, with plain close-fitting sleeves; the central one has a mantle fastened by a plain brooch, leaving the right arm free. The beards of two of these figures are as ample as those of their lords, this being an article of fashionable indulgence within their means. The one with the scythe wears a hat not unlike the felt hat still worn by his descendants in the same grade: the scroll in his left hand is merely placed there to contain the words he is supposed to utter to the king.

SEPULCHRAL BARROW OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS.

The engraving on the next page is copied from a plate in Douglas's Nenia and represents one of the most ancient of the Kentish barrows opened by him in the Chatham Lines, Sept. 1779; and it will enable the reader at once to understand the structure of these early graves, and the interesting nature of their contents. The outer circle marks the extent of the mound covering the body, and which varied considerably in elevation, sometimes being but a few inches or a couple of feet from the level of the ground, at others of a gigantic structure. In the centre of the mound, and at the depth of a few feet from the surface, an oblong rectangular grave is cut, the space between that and the outer circle being filled in with chalk, broken into small bits, and deposited carefully and

firmly around and over the grave. The grave contained the body of a male adult, tall and well-proportioned, holding in his right hand a spear, the shaft of which was of wood, and had perished, leaving only the iron head, 15 inches in length, and at the bottom a flat iron stud (a), having, a small pin in the centre, which would appear to have been driven into the bottom of the spear-handle; an iron knife lay by the right side, with remains of the original handle of wood. Adhering to its under side were very discernible impressions of coarse linen cloth, showing that the warrior was buried in full costume. An iron sword is on

the left side, thirty-five and a quarter inches in its entire length, from the point to the bottom of the handle, which is all in one piece, the wood-work which covered the handle having perished; the blade thirty inches in length and two in breadth, flat, double edged, and sharp-pointed, a great portion of wood covering the blade, which indicates that it was buried with a scabbard, the external covering being of leather, the internal of wood. A leathern strap passed round the waist, from which hung the knife and sword, and which was secured by the brass buckle (b), which was found near the

last bone of the vertebræ, or close to the os sacrum. Between the thigh-bones lay the iron umbo of a shield, which had been fastened by studs of iron, four of which were found near it, the face and reverse of one being represented at (c.) A thin plate of iron (d), four and a half inches in length, lay exactly under the centre of the umbo, having two rivets at the and, between which end the umbo were the remnants of the original wooden (and perhaps hide-bound) shield; the rivets of the umbo having apparently passed through the wood to this plate as its bracer or stay. In a recess at the feet was placed a vase of red earth, slightly ornamented round the neck with concentric circles and zigzag lines.

AN OLD GANDER.

Willoughby states in his work on Ornithology, that a friend of his possessed a gander eighty years of age; which in the end became so ferocious that they were forced to kill it, in consequence of the havock it committed in the barn-yard. He also talks of a swan three centuries old; and several celebrated parrots are said to have attained from one hundred to one hundred and fifty years.