one volume of which was published, James Gillman occupies a position almost unique among the trusted and reposeful friends of poets. The pictures of the residence-Coleridge's, not Gillman's, mind, in the world's eye-the portraits of Coleridge with the curious drooping mouth, on which he himself comments, of his friends and hosts, and the letters and extracts, some of them previously unpublished, render this portion of the work a distinct contribution to literature. Without recanting a word I have previously said concerning the friends of poets, I quote with approval from the book before me the words of Lamb on the death of Coleridge: "Never saw I his likeness [parallel], nor probably the world can see it again. I seem to love the house he died at more passionately than when he lived. I love the faithful Gillmans more than when they exercised their virtues to him living." SYLVANUS URBAN. WITH LARGER ANGLE, INCREASED FIELD AND IMPROVED DEFINITION. AN ACHROMATIC COMBINATION, COMBINING THE DEFINITION OF A MICROSCOPE WITH THE PORTABILITY OF A POCKET LENS. If you carry a small Platyscopic Pocket Lens (which every observer of Nature ought to do).-GRANT ALLEN in Knowledge. The Platyscopic Lens is invaluable to botanists, mineralogists, or entomologists, as it focuses about three times as far from the object as the Coddington Lenses. This allows opaque objects to be examined easily. The Platy scopic Lens is made of four degrees of power, magnifying respectively 10, 15, 20, and 30 diameters; the lowest power, baving the largest field, is the best adapted for general use. The Lenses are set in Ebonite Cells, and mounted in Tortoiseshell Frames. Price of the Platyscopic Lens, mounted in Tortoiseshell, magnifying either 10, 15, 20, or 30 diameters, 188, 6d. each power. ILLUSTRATED DESCRIPTION SENT FREE. JOHN BROWNING, Opbtbalmic Optician, 63 STRAND, LONDON, W.C. Punctually on 25th of each Month. Price SIXPENCE. SCIENCE-GOSSIP. NEW SERIES. NEW EDITORS. NEW CONTRIBUTORS. All communications and Subscriptions (5s. per annum, from any date, including postage) to JOHN T. CARRINGTON, 1 Northumberland Avenue, London. Publishers, SIMPKIN, MARSHALL & CO., London. CHATTO & WINDUS'S com- CORNS, BUNIONS, AND CHIL plete CATALOGUES will be sent free upon application.-214 Piccadilly, London, W. BLAINS instantly relieved and rapidly cured by FOWLER'S celebrated PLAISTER-1s. 1d. per box, by post 15 stamps-which has been extensively used in Royal and distinguished circles for nearly half a century. Can be worn with tightest boot. Prepared only by Mr. SMITH, M.P.S., 280 Walworth Road, London. Of all Chemists, and at 2 Winsley Street, and 7 Cheapside. HOLLOWAY'S OINTMENT Is the most Reliable Remedy for SORES, ULCERS, OLD WOUNDS, Chest and Throat Affections, Gout, Rheumatism, Stiff Joints, and all Manufactured only at 78 NEW OXFORD STREET, LONDON, Advice Gratis, at the above address, daily, between the hours of 11 and 4, or by letter. T was a cold evening in the latter part of December some thirty years ago. IT Hour after hour the snow had been falling in big heavy flakes, and when night came on the incessant storm continued to rage in Boat o' Bruar hamlet. The woods which rose from behind the little knot of cottages, in rocky shelves of beech and birch and elm, now carried their full share of the sudden snowfall. In the glen, the roads were blocked and travelling dangerous; the new railway, running along a high bank above the Carglen burn, was crossed by frequent wreaths; the deep river, farther down, which at all times raced past the hamlet with a noisy roar, was now swollen into rage by large quantities of melted snow from its tributary hills; and the broad plain of Dunderkeith, on the opposite side of the stream, showed to the gleams of a sickly moon which now and again peeped through the storm clouds a long expanse of country on whose breast winter had laid its iciest hand. The wind blew from the north, smiting the little village with all its force, and driving forward the snow showers that swept from the open plain. In every dwelling careful hands had heaped upon the hearth a huge evening fire. But the cosiest of all cottages in the highland hamlet was that known as the "Bruar Inn," a tempting place of call for man and beast, standing at the foot of a towering cliff just where the main road joined a long suspension bridge which led across the river. In those days, people making use of the bridge had to pay their toll-fares. Foot passengers were allowed to escape with a moderate fee, but the farmers and others who rode in their vehicles were heavily mulcted ere they passed the gate. To "Lang Johnnie Auld," the landlord of the Bruar Inn, was entrusted the task of minding the bridge and gathering in the money. The inn consisted of a "butt" and a "ben," with a large closet placed between. The "butt" was the kitchen and place of general resort, the "ben" was the parlour or best room, and the closet was a place for odds and ends, serving the purpose also of a beer and spirit cellar. The ancient eight-day clocks throughout the hamlet had just sounded the stroke of seven, and still the "on-ding" fell. One after another, village friends and cronies began to forgather around the ingle in the cheery "Bruar." Lang Johnnie himself sat in his armchair at the snuggest side of the chimney. "Haith, sirs, it's a snaw," said he, by way of conversation. "A gey snaw it is," cried Andrew Steenson, known as a hewer of wood in Airton Forest. "Few fowk 'll pass the brig the nicht," was a remark hazarded by Jeems o' the Loch, an old man who had done many a hard day's darg" in the course of his eighty winters, but now lived at his ease, concerned only with tending a certain boat-house on the Loch o' Dwynie, where his lord and master, the Earl of Braefield, came at times for the fishing. "I mind a snaw jest like this in the year thirty-an'-twa," said Granny Auld, the mother of Lang Johnnie, a grim and wrinkled dame, in a clean starched "mutch," pulling hard at a seasoned pipe. "Hoot, fie, woman," cried Jeems o' the Loch, who, in the long ago, had spoken words of love to Granny (a brave lassie then). "Hoot, fie, wife," said he, "what's the need for gangin' back to the year thirty-an'-twa to find a snaw like that oot by? Mony and mony's the ane that we ha'e seen since then." "Ay, nae doot," Granny replied. "Bit ye see, Jeems, the year thirty-an'-twa was a time the likes o' which comes to a woman bit aince in a life." 'Haud yer bletherin' tongue, mither," cried the landlord, her |