KEEPING WHITSUNTIDE AT DURHAM CATHEDRAL.

The following curious account of the consumption of provisions in the cathedral of Durham, during Whitsun week, in 1347, together with the prices of the articles, is taken from the rolls of the cellarer, at present in the treasury at Durham:-six hundred salt herrings, 3s.; four hundred white herrings, 2s. 6d. ; thirty salted salmon, 7s. 6d. ; twelve fresh salmon, 5s. 6d.; fourteen ling, fifty-five "kelengs;" four turbot, 23s. 1d.; two horse loads of white fish, and a "congr," 5s. 10d.; "playe,' "sparlings," and eels, and fresh water fish, 2s. 9d.; nine carcases of oxen, salted, so bought, 36s.; one carcase and a quarter, fresh, 6s. 113d. ; a quarter of an oxe, fresh, bought in the town, 3s. 6d. ; seven carcases and a half of swine, in salt, 22s. 2d.; six carcases, fresh, 12s. 9d.; fourteen calves, 28s. 4d.; three kids, and twenty-six sucking porkers, 9s. 74d.; seventy-one geese with their feed, 11s. 10d.: fourteen capons, fifty-nine chickens, and five dozen pidgeons, 10s. 3d. five stones of hog's lard, 4s. 2d:; four stones of cheese, butter, and milk, 6s. 6d. ; a pottle of vinegar, and a pottle of honey, 64d.; fourteen pounds of figs and raisins, sixteen pounds of almonds, and eight pounds of rice, 3s. 7d.; pepper, saffron, cinnamon, and other spices, 2s. 6d.; one thousand three hundred eggs, 15s. 5d.-sum total, £11 4s. Similar consumptions took place during the week of the feast of St. Cuthbert, and other feasts, among the monks of Durham, for a long period of years.

CURIOUS LAW.

The following curious law was enacted during the reign of Richard I. for the government of those going by sea to the Holy Land :-" He who kills a man on shipboard, shall be bound to the dead body and thrown into the sea; if the man is killed on shore, the slayer shall be bound to the dead body and buried with it. He who shall draw his knife to strike another, or who shall have drawn blood from him, to lose his hand; if he shall have only struck with the palm of his hand without drawing blood, he shall be thrice ducked in the sea."

DECAPITATION BY THE GUILLOTINE.

A gentleman of intelligence and literary attainments, makes, in an account of his travels on the continent, the following most singular remarks on an execution he witnessed, in which the culprit was beheaded

by the guillotine :-"It appears," says he, "to be the best of all possible modes of inflicting the punishment of death; combining the greatest impression on the spectator, with the least possible suffering to the victim. It is so rapid, that I should doubt whether there were any suffering; but from the expression of the countenance, when the exccutioner held up the head, I am inclined to believe that sense and consciousness may remain for a few seconds after the head is off. The eyes seemed to retain speculation for a moment or two, and there was a look in the ghastly stare with which they stared upon the crowd, which implied that the head was aware of its ignominious situation.”

ALDERMAN BOYDELL.

It was the regular custom of Mr. Alderman Boydell, who was a very early riser, at five o'clock, to go immediately to the pump in Ironmonger Lane. There, after placing his wig upon the ball at the top of it, he used to sluice his head with its water. This well-known and highly respected character, who has done more for the British artist than all the print-publishers put together, was also one of the last men who wore a three-cornered hat.

FEATS OF STRENGTH IN 1739.

April 21.-The following notice was given to the public:-" For the benefit of Thomas Topham, the strong man, from Islington, whose performances have been looked upon by the Royal Society and several persons of distinction, to be the most surprising as well as curious of any thing ever performed in England; on which account, as other entertainments are more frequently met with than that he proposes, he humbly hopes gentlemen and ladies, &c., will honour him with their presence at the Nag's Head, in Gateshead, on Monday the 23d of this instant, at four o'clock, where he intends to perform several feats of strength, viz. :— He bends an iron poker three inches in circumference, over his arm, and one of two inches and a quarter round his neck; he breaks a rope that will bear two thousand weight, and with his fingers rolls up a pewter dish of seven pounds hard metal; he lays the back part of his head on one chair, and his heels on another, and suffering four men to stand on his body, he moves them up and down at pleasure; he lifts a table six feet in length, by his teeth, with a half hundred weight hanging at the further end of it; and, lastly, to oblige the publick, he will lift a butt full of water." "Each person to pay one shilling." This "strong man" fell a victim to jealousy, as is proved by the following:-" August 10th, 1749, died, Mr. Thomas Topham, known by the name of the strong man, master of a publick house in Shoreditch, London. In a fit of jealousy, he stabbed his wife, then cut his own throat and stabbed himself, after which he lived two days."

ELEPHANTS FRIGHTENED AT PIGS.

"Then on a tyme there were many grete clerkes and rad of kyng Alysaunder how on a tyme as he sholde have a batayle with ye kynge of Inde. And this kynge of Inde broughte with hym many olyphauntis berynge castelles of tree on theyr backes as the kynde of the is to haue armed knyghtes in ye castell for the batayle, them ne knewe Alysaunder the kynge, of the olyphauntes that they drad no thynge more than the jarrynge of swyne, wherefore he made to gader to gyder all ye swyne that myghte be goten, and caused them to be dryuen as ny the olyphantes as they myghte well here the jarrynge of the swyne, and thenne they made a pygge to crye, and whan the swyne herde the pygges a none they made a great jarrynge, and as soone as the olyphauntes herde that, they began to fle eche one, and keste downe the castelles and slewe the knyghtes that were in them, and by this meane Alysaunder had ye vyctory."-Liber Festivalis, printed by W. Caxton in 1483.

A VISIT TO THE OBSERVATORY OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON.

The memory of a great and good man is imperishable. A thousand years may pass away, but the fame that has survived the wreck of time remains unsullied, and is even brighter with age.

"The actions of the just

Smell sweet, and blossom in the dust,"

In an age of progress like our own we have frequently to regret the destruction (sometimes necessary) of places associated with the genius of the past; but in the case of Sir Isaac Newton we have several relics

INTERIOR OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON'S OBSERVATORY.

existing, none of which, perhaps, are more interesting than the house in which he resided, still standing in St. Martin's Street, on the south side of Leicester Square. The engravings of the interior and exterior of this building have been made from drawings made on the spot. The house was long occupied as an hotel for foreigners, and was kept by a M. Pagliano. In 1814 it was devoted to the purposes of education. The Observatory, which is at the top, and where Sir Isaac Newton made his astronomical researches, was left in a dilapidated condition until 1824, when two gentlemen, belonging to a committee of the school, had it repaired at their own expense, and wrote a brief memoir of the philosopher, which was placed in the Observatory, with a portrait of him.

In this house Sir Isaac Newton resided for many years; and it was here, according to his biographer, that he dispensed, under the superintendence of his beautiful niece, an elegant hospitality. Our sketch gives a good idea of the appearance of the exterior of the house at the present

day; the front, it will be seen, has been well plastered, which, although clean and pleasant-looking to some eyes, seems to us to destroy the character of the building. The old doorway, with a projecting top, has also been removed. The interior of the house is in excellent repair, and has undergone very little change. The cornices, panelling, and the spacious staircase, are not altered since the days of Newton. The rooms

HOUSE OF SIR ISAAC NEWTON, ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LEICESTER SQUARE.

are very large. Tradition states it was in the back drawing-room that the manuscript of his work, the "New Theory of Light and Colours," was destroyed by fire, caused by a favourite little dog in Sir Isaac's absence. The name of this canine incendiary was Diamond. The manner in which the accident occurred is thus related :-The animal was wantoning about the philosopher's study, when it knocked down a candle, and set fire to a heap of manuscript calculations upon which he had been employed for years. The loss was irretrievable; but Sir Isaac only ex

claimed with simplicity, "Ah, Diamond, Diamond, you little know what mischief you have been doing!"

Passing upstairs, and looking slightly at the various rooms, which are all well panelled, but which do not require particular notice, we reached the little observatory shown in the engraving. There, in the room in which Sir Isaac has quietly studied, and in which he may have held conferences with the most distinguished of his contemporaries, we found two shoemakers busily at work, with whom we had some pleasant conversation. Our artist has represented the interior of the observatory, with its laborious occupants, worthy sons of St. Crispin.

Shoemakers are well known to be a thoughtful class of men, although sometimes they unfortunately do not make the best use of their knowledge. Brand, the historian and author of the excellent book on "Popular Antiquities,' was at one time a shoemaker; so was Bloomfield, the poet, who, when working at the "last" in Bell Alley, near the Bank, strung together the charming recollection of his plough-boy life. We could give a long list of shoemakers who have been eminent for talents.

We have not the exact date at which Newton came to reside here, but certainly he was living in this house, at intervals, after 1695, when he was appointed Warder of the Mint, of which establishment he rose to be Master in the course of three years. The emoluments of this office amounted to £1200 a-year, which enabled him to live in ease and dignity.

In 1703 he was chosen President of the Royal Society-an honourable post, to which he was annually elected until the time of his death.

POISONING THE MONARCH.

An idea of the popular notions about poisoning in the middle of the seventeenth century, may be formed from the following extract from an old tract, published in 1652, with the title of "Papa Patris, or the Pope in his Colours" :-" Anno Dom: 1596; one Edward Squire, sometimes a scrivener at Grenewich, afterwards a deputy purveyor for the Queene's stable, in Sir Francis Drake's last voyage was taken prisoner and carried into Spaine, and being set at liberty, one Walpole, a Jesuite, grew acquainted with him, and got him into the Inquisition, whence he returned a resolved Papist, he persuaded Squire to undertake to poyson the pummell of the Queene (Elizabeth's) saddle, and, to make him constant, made Squire receive the Sacrament upon it; he then gave him the poyson, showing that he should take it in a double bladder, and should prick the bladder full of hoales in the upper part, when he should use it (carrying it within a thick glove for the safety of his hand) should after turne it downward, pressing the bladder upon the pummell of the Queene's saddle. This Squire confest. Squire is now in Spaine, and for his safer dispatch into England it was devised that two Spanish prisoners taken at Cales should be exchanged for Squire and one Rawles, that it might not be thought that Squire came over but as a redeemed captive. The Munday sennight after Squire returned into England, he, understanding the horses were preparing for the Queene's riding abroad, laid his hand, and crushed the poyson upon the pummell of the Queene's saddle, saying, 'God save the Queene,' the Queene rode abroad, and as it should seem