was built and the top covered with a very light gray, mixed, or white marble. The walls were painted with representations of a light branching shrub hery and birds, such as linnets, &c. Excepting this one instance, we found little or no variation in the houses, until we came to the bottom of the street; there we found a building, wherein were many grotesque representations of the human face, something like what we see on masks. They were in basrelief, raised upon the wall in clay, seemingly in no style of finish, but rough, (though indifferently well proportioned,) and placed without order or taste. [To be concluded in our next.]

AS

To the Editors of the Northern Star.

S observations on Native Plants may tend to enrich our indigenous catalogue, I take the liberty of sending, for insertion in your Miscellany, (as I conceive you have readers to whom it may not be unacceptable,) the following list of what fell under my own observation, on a late visit to Roche Abbey. Yours, &c.

རཙ་་་་་་

T. O. SHELDON.

PLANTS FOUND AT OR NEAR ROCHE ABBEY.

Class 2, Diandria.

Class 5, Pentandria.

Order, Monagynia.

Ligustrum vulgare, Common Privet.

Circea iutetiana, Enchanter's Nightshade.

Class 3, Triandria.

Order 1, Monagynia.

Valeriana officinalis, Great wild Valerian.
Useful in medicine, particularly in the
Epilepsy.

Iris pseudacorus, Yellow Water Flag.The
root is used in the Hebrides for dying black,
and in some parts of Scotland, instead of
galls, for making ink. It likewise cures
the tooth-ache.

Class 4, Tetrandria.

Order 1, Monagynia. Sanguisorba officinalis, Common Burnet. Galium pusillum, Little Goosegrass. Asperula odorata, Sweet Woodroof. Alchemilla vulgaris, Common Ladies' Mantle. A plant of singular elegance. In the north of Europe, it is used in a tincture for spasms and convulsions. Order 3, Trig ynia.

Potamogeton natans, Broad-leaved Pondweed.

Order 1, Monagynia.

Primula veris, Primrose.
Verbascum thapsus, Great Mullein.-It is
given to consumptive cows in Norway.
The down makes good tinder.
Vinca minor, Lesser Perriwinkle.
Rhamnus catharticus, Buckthorn. The
juice of the berries produces sap-green.
It is also good as a purge.
Campanula rotundifolia, Round-leaved
Bell-flower.

Order 2, Digynia.
Sanicula europea, Sanicle.-A French pro-
verb says, "He who is possessed of Bugle
and Sanicle, may dismiss his surgeons."
Order 5, Pentagynia.
Linum catharticum, Purging Flax.-An
excellent purge, and much used by coun-
try people.

Class 6, Hexandria.

Order 1, Monagynia.

Narcissus pseudo-narcissus, Wild Daffodil.
Allium oleracium, Wild Garlic.
Hyacinthus non-scriptus, Wild Hyacinth-

Starch may be made from the roots.

Epilobium parviflorum, Small-flowered Wil- Origanum vulgare, Wild Marjoram. This

FEW

COLLECTIONS AND RECOLLECTIONS.

པཱ་ཝ་ར་་་་་་་་་་་་་་་འ་་

Walter Scott.

NEW travellers come to Edinburgh, without enquiring whether Walter Scott be visible. In a small dark room, where one of the courts is held, he is to be seen every morning in Term time, seated at a small table, with the Acts of the Court before him. He is a short, broad-shouldered, and rather robust man, with light hair, eyes between blue and green, broad uose, round face, with a most sleepy look, dressed in a shabby black gown, his lame leg concealed under the table, and the other extended in such a way as never leg, whether lame or sound, ought to be: a man, forsooth, to whom you would swear that Heaven had just given a good-natured, honest soul, not over burthened with intellect; a jolly loyal subject, who is fond of port. and porter, pays his taxes without grumbling, and can sing, "God save the King." Not a poetic feature, not a ray of genius in his face, except a somewhat animated eye, distinguishes the bust of the author of the "Lay of the Last Minstrel" from the stupid, vacant, unlettered loon. Mr. Scott is

about forty-seven years old, and is descended from an obscure family in Lothian. In his infancy, as he himself relates, the old people took him upon their knees, called him "Little Watty," and told him all sorts of old stories and legends, while his brothers were abroad at work, from which he was exempted on account of his lameness.

Scott has been some time married to a Guernsey lady, a natural daughter of the Duke of Devonshire, with whom he is said to have received a portion of £10,000. He is Sheriff- Deputy of a county, and Clerk of the abovementioned Court; which two places produce him from £800 to £1000 per annum. Though a great number of travellers have letters of recommendation to Mr. Scott, yet his parties are not numerous. His manners are agreeable, untainted with vanity; and the only affectation to be perceived in him is, that he is sollicitous not to appear as a poet. He is very lively and full of anecdote; and though not brilliant in company, is always cheerful and unassuming.

Moorish Superstition.

A traveller entering the public baths at Fez, observed, that in the corners of every room and cabinet were placed pails filled with hot water. He enquired the reason of this. "Do not touch them, Sir," was the answer, "do not touch them!"-Why not?" These pails are for the people below."-Who are they?—“The demons; who come here to bathe themselves at night.”

The Sum of Religion.

The following is an extract from the writings of the truly pious and learned Sir Matthew Hale, Lord Chief Justice of England: -"He that fears the Lord of heaven and earth, that walks humbly before him, and thankfully lays hold of the message of redemption by Christ;-that strives to express his thankfulness by the sincerity of his obedience ;-is sorry with all his soul when he comes short of his duty;-that walks watchfully in the denial of himself, and holds no confederacy with any lust or known sinif he fail in

the least measure, is restless till he hath made his peace by true repentance; that is true in his promises, just in his actions, charitable to the poor, sincere in his devotions;—that will not deliberately dishonour God, though with the greatest security of impunity ;-that hath his hope and his conversation in heaven that dares not do an unjust act, though never so much to his advantage: and all this because he sees HIM who is invisible, and fears him because he loves him,—fears him as well for his greatness as his goodness :— Such a man, whether he be an Episcopalian or a Presbyterian, Independant or Anabaptist, he hath the life of religion; and that life acts in him, and will conform his soul to the image of his Saviour, and go along with him to eternity; notwithstanding his practice or non-practice of things indifferent." Chinese Caution.

In the year 1720, an embassy was sent from the court of Russia to that of China. It was met on the frontiers by a conductor, who seeing some women, asked the ambassador who they were, and whither they were going. He was told they belonged to the retinue, and were going along with it to China. He replied, they had women enough in Pekin already; and as there never had been an European woman in China, he could not be answerable for introducing the first, without a special order from the Emperor. But if his Excellency would wait for an answer, he would dispatch a courier to court for that purpose. The return of this messenger could not be sooner than six weeks; it was therefore thought most expedient to send back the women with the baggage-waggons, and proceed forward without them.-- Bell.

The Sword Dance

Is still practised at Knaresbrough, during the Christmas holidays. It is a very ancient custom, and is performed much in the same manner as described by Olans Magnus, in his History of the Northern Nations, as follow:"First, with their swords sheathed and erect in their hands, they dance in "a triple round; then with their swords drawn, held erect as before af"terwards extending from hand to hand, they lay hold of each other's hilt, "and point, while they are wheeling more moderately round; and changing "their order, throw themselves into a figure of a hexagon, which they call "a rose; but presently raising and drawing back their swords, they undo that figure, to form (with them) a four-square rose, that may rebound "over the head of each. At last they dance rapidly backwards, and, vehe"mently rattling the sides of their swords together, conclude the sport." which seems to have been the invention of a warlike people, and probably derived from our Saxon ancestors.

Ox midsummer eve, every housekeeper who has in that year changed his residence into a new neighbourhood, (there being certain limited districts called neighbourhoods.) spreads a table before his door in the street with bread, cheese, and ale, for those that choose to resort to it; where after staying awhile, if the master be of ability, the company are invited to supper, and the evening is concluded with mirth and good-humour. The introduction of this custom is immemorial; but it seems to have been instituted for the purpose of introducing new-comers to an early acquaintance with their neigh

bours: or it may have been with the more laudable design of settling dif ferences, by the meeting and mediation of friends. -Hist. Ripon

Henry Jenkins.

BISHOP LYTTLETON com nunicated to the Society of Antiquaries, Dec. 11, 1766, a paper copied from an old household-book of Sir Richard Graham, of Norton Conyers, the writer of which says, that upon his going to live at Bolton, Jenkins was said to be about 150 years old, and he had often examined him in his sister's kitchen, where he came for alms, and found facts in chronicles agree with his account. He was then 162 or 163: he said, he was sent to Northallerton with a horse-load of arrows for the battle of Flodden Field, with which a bigger boy went forward to the army under the Earl of Surrey, King Henry VIII. being at Tournay; and he believed himself then eleven or twelve years old. This was in 1513, and four or five people of the same parish, said to be 100 or near it, declared Jenkins to have been an old man ever since they knew him.

He gave evidence in court to six score years, in a tithe cause, 1667, between the Vicar of Catterick and William and Peter Mawbank, wherein he deposed, that the tithes of wool, lainb, &c. mentioned in the interrogatories, were the vicar's, and had been paid, to his knowledge, 120 years and more. The writer was present at another cause between Mr. Hawes and Mr. Wastel, of Ellerton, where Jenkins gave evidence to 120 years. The Judge asked him how he lived; he said by thatching and salmon-fishing; that he was thatching a house when served with a subpoena in the cause, and would dub a hook with any man in Yorkshire.

The writer went to him at Ellerton-upon-Swale, and met him carrying a pitcher of water on his head; he told him he remembered the dissolution, and that great lamentation was made; that he had been butler to Lord Conyers, of Hornby Castle; and that Marmaduke Brodelay, Lord Abbot of Fountains, did frequently visit his Lord, and drink a hearty glass with him; and that his Lord often sent him to enquire how the Abbot did, who always sent for him to his lodgings, and after ceremonies, as he called it, passed, ordered him, besides wassail, a quarter of a yard of roast beef for his dinner, (for that the monasteries did deliver their gaests meat by measure,) and a great black jack of strong drink.

Jenkins could neither read nor write: he died December 1670, at Eilerton-upon-Swale, where a monument was erected to his memory in 1743, and an epitaph composed by Dr. Thomas Chadman, master of Magdalen College, Cambridge:

“Blush not, marble, to rescue from oblivion the memory of HENRY JENKINS, a person obscure in birth, but of a life truly memorable; for he was enriched with the goods of nature, if not of fortune; and happy in the duration, if not the variety, of his enjoyments: and though the partial world despised and disregarded his low and humble state, the equal eye of Providence beheld and blessed it with a patriarch's health, and length of days, to teach mistaken man these blessings are entailed on temperance, a life of labour, and a mind at ease. He lived to the amazing age of 169.”