is kept up with much spirit: the village presents a holiday appearance, and openhousekeeping, as far as may be, is the order of the day; the bells at intervals send forth an enlivening peal; all work is nearly suspended; gay stalls of gingerbread and fruit, according to the season of the year, together with swings and roundabouts, spread out their allurements to the children; bowls, quoits, and ninepins, for the men; and the merry dance in the evening, for the lasses. Fresh visitors keep dropping in; and almost all who can make any excuse of acquaintance are acknowledged, and are hospitably entertained, according to the means of their village friends. As the week advances, these means gradually diminish; and as an empty house has few attractions, by the end of the week the bustle ceases, and all is still and silent, as if it had never been.

Man naturally requires excitement and relaxation; but it is essentially necessary that they should be adapted to his situation and circumstances. The feast week, however alluring it may appear in description, is in reality productive of greater evil than good. The excitement lasts too long, and the enjoyment, whatever it may be, is purchased at the sacrifice of too great expense. It is a well-known fact, that many of the poor who have exerted every effort to make this profuse, but short-lived display, have scarcely

bread to eat for weeks after. But there

These

is no alternative, if they expect to be received with the same spirit of hospitality by their friends. The alehouses, in the interim, are too often scenes of drunkenness and disorder; and the labouring man who has been idle and dissipated for a week, is little disposed for toil and temperance the next. Here, then, the illusion of rural simplicity ends! things are managed much better where one fair day, as it is called, is set apart in each year, as is the case in many counties; the excitement, which is intense for ten or twelve hours, is fully sufficient for the purpose; all is noise and merriment, and one general and simultaneous burst and explosion, if it may be so expressed, takes place. You see groups of happy faces. Every one is willing" to laugh he knows not why, and cares not wherefore;" and one day's gratification serves him for every day's pleasing topic of reference for weeks to come.

S. P.

NATURALISTS' CALENDAR. Mean Temperature ... 35 62.

January 12.

Leeches unhurt by Frost.

Among the cold-blooded animals which resist the effects of a low temperature, we may reckon the common leech, which is otherwise interesting to the meteorologist, on account of its peculiar habits and movements under different states of the atmosphere. A group of these animals left accidentally in a closet without a fire, during the frost of 1816, not only survived, but appeared to suffer no injury from being locked up in a mass of ice for many days.*

SWEEPING RHETORIC.

for

Certain rewards allowed by act of parliament to firemen, turncocks, and others, who first appear with their engines and implements at premises sworn to be on fire, were claimed at the public office, and resisted on the ground that the Marlborough-street, in this month, 1826, chimney, which belonged to a brewery, and was more than eighty feet high, was not, and could not be on fire. A witness to that end, gave a lively specimen of familiar statement and illustration. He began by telling the magistrate, that he was a sweep-chimney by profession-a piece of information very unnecessary, he was as black and sooty a sweep as ever mounted a chimney-top,-and then went on in this fashion-" This here man, (pointing to the patrol,) your wortship, has told a false affidavit. I knows that knows my foot as well as my own mother. ere chimley from a hinfant, and she The way as I goes up her is this-I goes in all round the boiler, then I twistes in the chimley like the smoke, and then up I goes with the wind, for, your wortship, there's a wind in her that would blow you out like a feather, if you didn't know her as well as I do, and that makes me always go to the top myself, because there isn't a brick in her that doesn't know my foot. So that you see, your wortship, no

soot or blacks is ever in her: the wind knows that I go up her regular. So that won't let 'em stop: and besides they she always keeps herself as clean as a new pin. I'll be bound the sides of her is as clean this minute as I am (not saying much for the chimney); therefore, your

Howard on Climate.

wortship, that ere man as saw two yards of fire coming out of her, did not see no such thing, I say; and he has told your wortship, and these here gentlemen present, a false affidavit, I say. I was brought up in that chimley, your wortship, and I can't abear to hear such things said-lies of her; and that's all as I knows at present, please your wortship."❤

AMUSEMENTS.

The London Christmas evenings of 1826, appear to have been kept out of doors, for every place of entertainment was overflowing every night.

At this season, from six o'clock in the evening, a full tide of passengers sets in along every leading street to each of the theatres. Hackney coaches drawl, and cabriolets make their way, and jostle each other, and private carriages swiftly roll, and draw up to the box door with a vigorous sweep, which the horses of hired vehicles are too aged, or too low in condition to achieve. Within a hundred yards of either playhouse, hands are continually thrust into each coach window, with " a bill of the play," and repeated cries of "only a penny!" The coachdoor being opened, down fall the steps with a sharp clackity-clack-click, and the companies alight, if they can, without the supernumerary aid of attendant pliers, who offer their over-ready arms to lean upon, and kindly entreat-" Take care, sir! mind how you step ma'am-this way if you please this way," all against your will, and ending with "I hope you'll please to remember a poor fellow!" the poor fellow" having done nothing but interrupt you. When past the " pay place," great coats, umbrellas, shawls or other useful accompaniments to and from "the house," though real encumbrances within it, may be safely deposited with persons stationed for their reception, who attach tickets to them, and deliver corresponding numbers, which ensure the return of your property on your coming out; sixpence or a shilling being a gratuity for the accommodation. Then, when the whole is over, there is the strict blockade of coaches further than the eye can reach; servants looking out for the parties they came with, and getting up their masters' carriages; and a full cry of hackney coachmen and their representatives, vociferating

"

* The Times, 5th January, 1826.

"Want a coach, sir? Here's your coach, sir! Which is it, sir? Coach to the city, sir! West end, sir! Here! Coach to the city! Coach to Whitechapel! Coach to Portman-square! Coach to Pentonville ! Coach to the Regent's Park! This way! this way! Stand clear there! Chariot, or a coach, sir? No chariots, sir, and all the coaches are hired! There's a coach here, sir-just below! Coachman, draw up!" and drawing up is impossible, and there is an incessant confusion of calls and complaints, and running against each other, arising out of the immediate wants of every body, which can only be successively gratified. Pedestrians make their way home, or to the inns, as fast as possible, or turn in to sup at the fish-shops, which, in five minutes, are more lively than their oysters were at any time. "Waiter! Waiter! Yes, sir! Attend to you directly, sir! Yours is gone for, sir! Why, I've ordered nothing! It's coming directly, sir! Ginger-beer-why this is poison! Spruce-why this is ginger-beer! Porter, sir! I told you brandy and water! Stewed oysters! I ordered scolloped ! When am I to have my supper? You've had it, sir-I beg your pardon, sir, the gentleman that sat here is gone, sir! Waiter! waiter !" and so on; and he who has patience, is sure to be indulged with an opportunity of retaining it, amidst loud talking and laughter; varied views of the new pantomime; conflicting testimony as to the merits of the clown and the harlequin; the "new scenery, dresses, and machinery;" likings and dislikings of certain actresses; "the lovely Miss So-and-so, or "that detestable" woman, Mrs. Such-an-one, that clever fellow,

Thing-a-merry," or that stupid dog, "What-d'ye-call-um." These topics failing, and the oysters discussed, then are stated and considered the advantages of taking something" to keep 'em down;" the comparative merits of Burton, Windsor, or Edinburgh ale; the qualities of porter; the wholesomeness of smoking; the difference between a pipe and a segar, and the preference of one to the other; whether brandy or rum, or the clear spirit of juniper, is the best preservative of health; which of the company or their friends can drink most; whether the last fight was "a cross," and who of all the men in the fancy is most "game;" whether the magistrates dare to interfere with "the ring;" whether if fighting should be "put an end to" Englishmen will have half

unexpectedly beat to arms, they rowed hastily ashore, and drew their boat high and dry upon the beach. On their return they were greatly surprised to find it in a different position ashore, and some hooks baited which they had left bare. In the end it was ascertained that their pelters while they were fishing were a party of young monkeys. They were driven off by two or three old ones who remained secretly observing the whiting fishing of the officers till they had retired. The old monkeys then launched the boat, put to sea, baited their hooks, and proceeded to work The few fish they caught,they hauled up with infinite gratification, and when tired they landed, placed the boat as nearly as they could in its old position, and went up the rock with their prey. General Elliot, while commander at Gibraltar, never suffered the monkeys with which the rock

abounds to be molested or taken.

The faculty of imitation in monkeys is limited, but not so in man; a remarkable instance of this is lately adduced in a pleasant little story of perhaps the greatest performer on our stage.

Garrick.

At a splendid dinner-party at lord -'s they suddenly missed Garrick, and could not imagine what was become of him, till they were drawn to the window by the convulsive screams and peals of laughter of a young negro boy, who was rolling on the ground in an ecstasy of delight to see Garrick mimicking a turkey cock in the court yard, with bis coat-tail stuck out behind, and in a seeming flutter of feathered rage and pride. Of our party only two persons present had seen the British Roscius; and they seemed as willing as the rest to renew their acquaintance with their old favourite. This anec dote is new: it is related by the able writer of a paper concerning" Persons one would wish to have seen,' as an instance of Garrick's singleness of purpose when he was fully possessed by an idea.

NATURALISTS' CALENDAR. Mean Temperature ... 34. 45.

In the New Monthly Magazine, Jan, 1826.

January 13.

1826. Hilary Cambridge Term begins.

St. VERONICA.

Some curious circumstances are connected with the name of this saint, who appears to have been a poor ignorant girl, born near Milan, where she worked in the fields for her living. Conceiving a desire to become a nun, she sat up at night to learn to read and write, which, her biographer says, for want of an instructor, was a great fatigue to her. He proceeds to tell us, that she was relieved from labour of that kind in the following manner:-" One day, being in great anxiety about her learning, the mother of God, in a comfortable vision, bade her banish that anxiety, for it was enough if she knew three letters." So Veronica

became a nun, seeking "the greatest drudgery," desiring." to live always on bread and water," and dying" at the hour which she had foretold, in the year 1497, and the fifty-second of her age. Her sanctity was confirmed by miracles." We gather this from Alban Butler, who subjoins, by way of note, thus :

"The print of the holy face of our Saviour on a linen cloth is kept in St. Peter's church at Rome, with singular veneration.-Some private writers and churches have given the name of St. Veronica to the devout woman who is said to have presented this linen to our divine Redeemer, but without sufficient warrant."

Before saying any thing concerning the earlier St. Veronica, or "this linen whereon Romish writers allege Christ impressed his own portrait by wiping his face with it, mention may be made of another portrait of him which Romish writers affirm he miraculously executed in the same manner, and sent to Abgarus, king of Edessa, in the way hereafter related. They have further been so careful as to publish a print of this pretended portrait, with representations around illustrating the history they tell of it. An engraving from it immediately follows. The Latin inscription beneath their print is placed beneath the present engraving