WILLIAM HUTTON'S STRONG WOMAN.' William Hutton, the quaint but sensible Birmingham manufacturer, was accustomed to take a month's tour every summer, and to note down his observations on places and people. Some of the results appeared in distinct books, some in his autobiography, and some in the Gentleman's Magazine, towards the close of the last century and the beginning of the present. One year he would be accompanied by his father, a tough old man, who was not frightened at a twenty-mile walk; another year he would go alone; while on one occasion his daughter went with him, she riding on horseback, and he trudging on foot by her side. Various parts of England and Wales were thus visited, at a time when tourists facilities were slender indeed. It appears from his lists of distances that he could do' fifteen or twenty miles a day for weeks together; although his mode of examining places led to a much slower rate of progress. One of the odd characters which he met with at Matlock, in Derbyshire, in July 1801, is worth describing in his own words. After noticing the rocks and caves at that town, he said: "The greatest wonder saw was Miss Phoebe Bown, in person five feet six, about thirty, well-proportioned, roundfaced and ruddy; a dark penetrating eye, which, the moment it fixes upon your face, stamps your character, and that with precision. Her step (pardon the Irishism) is more manly than a man's, and can easily cover forty miles a day. Her common dress is a man's hat, coat, with a spencer above it, and men's shoes; I believe she is a stranger to breeches. She can lift one hundredweight with each hand, and carry fourteen score. Can sew, knit, cook, and spin, but hates them all, and every accompaniment to the female character, except that of modesty. A gentleman at the New Bath recently treated her so rudely, that "she had a good mind to have knocked him down." She positively assured me she did not know what fear is. She never gives an affront, but will offer to fight any one who gives her one. If she has not fought, perhaps it is owing to the insulter being a coward, for none else would give an affront [to a woman]. She has strong sense, an excellent judgment, says smart things, and supports an easy freedom in all companies. Her voice is more than masculine, it is deep toned; the wind in her face, she can send it a mile; has no beard; accepts any kind of manual labour, as holding the plough, driving the team, thatching the ricks, &c. But her chief avocation is breaking-in horses, at a guinea a week; always rides without a saddle; and is supposed the best judge of a horse, cow, &c., in the country; and is frequently requested to purchase for others at the neighbouring fairs. She 1s fond of Milton, Pope, Shakspeare, also of music; is self-taught; performs on several instruments, as the flute, violin, harpsichord, and supports the bass-viol in Matlock church. She is an excellent markswoman, and, like her brother-sportsmen, carries her gun upon her shoulder. She eats no beef or pork, and but little mutton; her chief food is milk, and also her drink-discarding wine, ale,

and spirits.'

JOHN BROUGHTON.

BISHOP WATSON.

Richard Watson was eminent as a prelate, politician, natural philosopher, and controversial theologian; but his popular fame may be said to depend solely on one little book, his Apology for the Bible, written as a reply to Paine's Age of Reason. A curious error has been, more than once, lately promulgated respecting this prelate. At a telegraphic soiree, held in the Free-trade Hall, Manchester, during the meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, at that city, in 1861, it was confidently asserted that Bishop Watson had given the first idea of the electric telegraph. The only probable method of accounting for so egregious an error, is that Bishop Watson had been confounded with Sir William Watson, who, when an apothecary in London, conducted some electrical experiments in 1747, and succeeded in sending the electric current from a Leyden-jar through a considerable range of earth, or water, and along wires suspended in the open air on sticks. But, even he never had the slightest idea of applying his experiments to telegraphic purposes. In his own account of these experiments, he says: 'If it should be asked to what useful purposes the effects of electricity can be applied, it may be answered that we are not yet so far advanced in these discoveries as to render them conducive to the service of mankind.'

Bishop Watson was elected professor of chemistry at the university of Cambridge in 1769; and he gives us the following statement on the subject: At the time this honour was conferred upon me, I knew nothing at all of chemistry, had never read a syllable on the subject, nor seen a single experiment in it!' A very fair specimen of the consideration in which physical science was held at the English universities, during the dark ages of the last century. After studying chemistry for fourteen months, Watson commenced his lectures; but in all his printed works on chemistry, and other subjects, the word electricity is never mentioned !

JULY 5.

once

St Modwena, virgin, of Ireland, 9th century. St Edana or Edæne, virgin, of same country. St Peter of Luxemburg, confessor, cardinal, and bishop of Metz, 1387.

Born.-John Broughton, noted pugilist, 1704, London; Mrs Sarah Siddons (née Kemble), tragic actress, 1755; C. A. Stothard, antiquarian draughtsman, 1786, London.

Died.-Queen Magdalen of Scotland, 1537; Cardinal Passioney, librarian of the Vatican, 1761; Sir Robert Strange, the 'prince of British line-engravers,' 1792, London; Mrs Dorothea Jordan (née Bland), comic actress, 1816, St Cloud.

JOHN BROUGHTON.

That regulated system of combat with the closed fists, which bears the name of Boxing, and which may be said to be peculiar to England, dates only

1861.

SIR THOMAS MORE.

When Sir Thomas More was installed as lord chancellor, in the room of Cardinal Wolsey, the Duke of Norfolk, by the king's express command, commended him unto the people, there with great applause and joy gathered together,' for his admirable wisdome, integritie, and innocencie, joined with most pleasant facilitie of witt; praise which perfectly suited its subject.

Sir Thomas More united prudence with pleasantry, great and singular learning with simplicity of life, and unaffected humility with the proudest temporal greatness; he preferred the love of his family, and the quiet pleasures of his own household, to the favours of kings or delights of courts. It was only after the repeated urging of Henry, that at last he consented to relinquish his studious and secluded life at Chelsea; and it may truly be said that he was never happy after; for, besides his natural shrinking from public responsibility, and his disregard of worldly notoriety, he had a remarkably clear insight into Henry's character, and never put much faith in his abundant favours. More was retained in the king's household like a personal friend, except that there must have been a degree of tyranny in his being kept thus continually from his own family. But his pleasantries amused the king and his queen, and his learning was useful to a monarch, who was writing a book which was to be the wonder of Christendom, and which had to be looked over, corrected, and arranged by Sir Thomas, as Sir Thomas himself admits, before Europe could be honoured with a glance at it. He was employed on several embassies alone, and in company with Wolsey; and finally, much against his will, he succeeded in 1529, to the highest honours, upon Wolsey's fall. He filled the office of chancellor with a wisdom and unspotted integrity which were unexampled in his own time; and yet united with these virtues such graceful ease and agreeable manners, that it seemed to him no effort to be honest, and no difficulty to be just. When one woman sought to bribe him, by presenting him with a valuable cup,

SIR THOMAS MORE.

he ordered his butler to fill it with wine, and having drunk her health, returned it; and when another presented him with a pair of gloves, containing forty pounds, he accepted the gloves and returned the gold, declaring that 'he preferred his gloves without lining?'

The

More, though liberal-minded, was a stanch believer in the pope's supremacy, and had a great dread of heresy; and when Henry opposed the pope's will and decree by marrying Anne Boleyn, More resigned his chancellorship. He did not do so ostensibly on that account, but the king was shrewd enough to surmise his true reason. Henry really loved his servant, and did his utmost to ex-chancellor preserved a discreet silence. obtain his approval of the new marriage, but the king, piqued by the neutrality of one whose opinion he valued, and on whom he fancied he had bestowed so many inestimable benefits, determined to make the late favourite acquiesce in his sovereign's will. More was invited to the coronation, and urged to appear, but he refused. He was threatened, but he only smiled. His name was put in the bill of attainder against the supposed accomplices of Joan of Kent, and then erased as a favour. But when the oath was put to him, which declared the lawfulness of the king's marriage, he would not take it, and so was committed to the Tower; and after many attempts, first to change him, and then to make him betray himself, so as to afford just ground for condemnation, he was tried and condemned unjustly, and beheaded, to the regret and shame of the whole nation, and all the world's astonishment and disgust.

The body of Sir Thomas More was first interred in St Peter's Church, in the Tower, and afterwards in Chelsea Church; but his head was stuck on a pole, and placed on London Bridge, where it remained fourteen days. His eldest and favourite daughter, Margaret Roper, much grieved and shocked at this exposure of her father's head, determined, if possible, to gain possession of it. She succeeded; and, according to Aubrey, in a very remarkable manner. 'One day," says he, as she was passing under the bridge, looking on her father's head, she exclaimed: "That head has lain many a time in my lap, would to God it would fall into my lap as I pass under!" She had her wish, and it did fall into her lap!' Improbable as this incident may appear, it is not unlikely that it really occurred. For having tried in vain to gain possession of the head by open and direct means, she bribed or persuaded one of the bridgekeepers to throw it over the bridge, as if to make room for another, just when he should see her passing in a boat beneath. And she doubtless made the above exclamation to her boatmen, to prevent the suspicion of a concerted scheme between her and the bridge-keeper. However some of these particulars may be questioned, it appears certain that Margaret Roper gained possession of her father's head by some such means, for when summoned before the council for having it in her custody, she boldly declared that her father's head should not be food for fishes!' For this she was imprisoned, but was soon liberated, and allowed to retain her father's head, which she had enclosed in a leaden box, and preserved it with the tenderest devotion. She died in 1544, aged 36, and was buried in the Roper vault, in St Dunstan's Church,

Canterbury; and, according to her own desire, her father's head was placed in her coffin. But subsequently, for some cause not now known, it was removed from its leaden case, and deposited in a small niche in the wall of the vault, with an iron grating before it, where it now remains in the condition of a fleshless skull.

Margaret Roper was well skilled in Greek, Latin, and other languages; a proficient in the arts and sciences as then known; and a woman of remarkable determination and strength of character. A tradition, preserved in the Roper family, records that Queen Elizabeth offered her a ducal coronet, which she refused, lest it should be considered as a compromise for what she regarded as the judicial murder of her father.

HUMPHRY WANLEY, THE ANTIQUARY. This laborious worker in the field of antiquarianism was the son of the author of that strange collection of curious, but ill-authenticated matters, the Wonders of the Little World, and was born March 21, 1671-2. He was placed to some mechanical business; but all the time he could command, he employed in searching for and reading ancient manuscripts, by copying and imitating which he acquired a particular facility in judging of their authenticity and dates. Dr Lloyd, bishop of Worcester, pleased with this extraordinary taste in so young a person, sent him to Oxford. He was next appointed by Harley, Earl of Oxford, to arrange his valuable collections of manuscripts and books; and his lordship's eldest son allowed Wanley a pension, and continued him in his situation of librarian till his death. His industry as a bibliographer was untiring, and various public libraries and collections of manuscripts benefited from his labours.

Humphry was a very unselfish being, and extremely faithful to his patrons. He was in the habit of collecting scarce articles for Lord Oxford's library. One day, having procured a rarity, he went to his lordship's town-house, where several cabinet ministers were assembled, and Wanley was desired to wait a few minutes. The weather was cold, and he became irritated by the delay; so he determined to retaliate by increasing the price for his treasure. When the ministers departed, Wanley was admitted to Lord Oxford.

"I have, my lord,' said Wanley, 'a most rare article, but it is very dear. It is the property of a widow, who has two daughters; they have seen better days. She would scarcely permit me to bring it, though left a promissory-note for the hundred pounds she demanded, in case I did not return it."

A hundred pounds, Wanley; that is a great sum for so small a thing!'

'It is, my lord; but you have so often asked me to get it, that I thought I could not do less than shew it your lordship, particularly as it is quite perfect, and is the only copy known.'

It is a large sum; however, I must have it. Give me pen, ink, and paper. A draught was drawn for a hundred pounds, in presenting which his lordship said: 'Now, Wanley, perhaps you purchased this at some bookstall!''

Humphry expressed a seeming surprise, shrugged up his shoulders, and left the book with the peer, for what he really did give for it at a bookstall sixpence !

ANDREW CROSSE.

Wanley died July 6, 1726, and was buried in the old church of St Marylebone, under a flat

stone.

ANDREW CROSSE.

Andrew Crosse was a country gentleman, who spent his whole life at Fyne Court, on his patrimonial acres, six miles from Taunton, on the Quantock Hills. His leisure he employed in electrical experiments made on a gigantic scale. Shewing a large party, that had come from a distance to see his apparatus, two enormous Leyden-jars, which he charged by means of wires stretched for miles among the forest-trees, an old gentleman contemplated the arrangement with a look of grave disapprobation, and at length, with much solemnity, observed: Mr Crosse, don't you think it is rather impious to bottle the lightning?'

Let me answer your question by asking another,' replied Mr Crosse, laughing. 'Don't you think, sir, it might be considered rather impious to bottle the rain-water?'

Whilst engaged in the construction of a variety of minerals, by subjecting various matters held in solution to electrical action, he, in 1837, hit on a discovery, which, blazoned abroad in the newspapers, raised round his name a storm of obloquy which happily his hearty good-nature enabled him to endure without discomfort.

Having mixed two ounces of powdered flint with six ounces of carbonate of potassa, fused them together in a strong heat, then reduced the compound to powder, and dissolved it in boiling-water, he obtained silicate of potassa, a portion of which he diluted in boiling water, slowly adding hydrochloric acid to super-saturation. This fluid he subjected to a long-continued electric action, through the intervention of a porous stone, in order to form, if possible, crystals of silica, but this failed. On the fourteenth day from the commencement of the experiment, he observed, through a lens, a few small whitish excrescences projecting from the middle of the electrified stone. On the eighteenth day, these projections had become enlarged, and struck out seven or eight filaments. On the twentysixth day, they assumed the forms of perfect insects, standing erect on a few bristles, which were their tails. On the twenty-eighth day they moved their legs, and soon after detached themselves from the stone, and began to move about. In the course of a few weeks, about a hundred insects had made their appearance. The smaller ones had six legs and the larger eight, and were pronounced as belonging to the genus Acarus.

At first Mr Crosse imagined that these insects must have originated from some ova in the water. He repeated the experiment, taking every conceivable care to subject his materials to processes destructive of life, but the acari duly reappeared under the same conditions. Others tried the experiment, with even more rigid pains to exclude and destroy imperceptible ova, but still acari came to life, walked about, fed, multiplied, and only died after frost, which always proved fatal to them. The discussion which followed these remarkable experiments still continues. Some hold that they are clear proofs of spontaneous generation, and of the possibility of animal creation wherever the requisite conditions are supplied. Others firmly maintain the impossibility of such new creation,