long coat. Had this been done to conceal the inward inclination of the captain's knees, it would have been creditable to Mr. Ranson's delicacy; for there is a sentiment connected with the meeting of the knees, in the owner's mind, which he who knows human nature and has human feelings, knows how to respect; and no one either as a man or an artist is better acquainted with the "humanities" than Mr. Ranson. But that gentleman drew the captain from the life, and the captain's coat is from the coat he actually wore when he stood for his picture. There is a remarkable dereliction of the nose from the eyebrows. It was a practice with the race of nurses who existed when the captain's nose came into the world, to pinch up that feature of our infant ancestors from an hour old, till "the month was up." This was from a persuasion that nature, on that part of the face, required to be assisted. A few only of these ancient females remain, and it does not accord with the experience of one of the most experienced among them, that they ever depressed that sensible feature; she is fully of opinion, that for the protrusion at the end of the captain's, he was indebted to his nurse "during the month ;" and she says that, "it's this, that makes him look so sensible."

According to captain Starkey's narrative, when "learning to walk alone," he unfortunately fell," and so hurt his left arm, that it turned to a white swelling as large as a child's head." The captain says, "my poor parents immediately applied to two gentlemen of the faculty, at the west end of the town, named Bloomfield and Hawkins, physicians and surgeons to his then reigning majesty, king George the Second, of these kingdoms, who declared that, they could not do any more than cut it off; unto which my tender parents would not consent." A French surgeon restored to him the use of his arm, and gave him advice "not to employ it in any arduous employment." "I, therefore," says the captain, as my mother kept a preparatory school, was learned by her to read and spell." At seven years old he was put to a master to learn to write, cipher, and the classics." After this, desiring to be acquainted with other languages, he was sent to another master, and "improved," to the pleasure of himself and friends, but was "not so successful" as he could wish; for which

66

66

he says, "I am, as I ought to be, thankful to divine providence." With him he stayed, improving and not succeeding, till he was fourteen, "at which age," says the captain, "I was bound apprentice to Mr. William Bird, an eminent writer and teacher of languages and mathematics, in Fetter-lane, Holborn." After his apprenticeship the captain, in the year 1780, went with his father, during an election, to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, his parents' native town. Returning to London, he, in 1784, went electioneering again to Newcastle, having left a small school in London to the care of a substitute, who managed to reduce twenty-five scholars to "although he was paid a weekly allowten, ance." Being "filled with trouble by the loss," he was assisted to a school in Sunderland; "but," the captain remarks, "as the greatest success did not attend me in that, I had the happiness and honour of receiving a better employment in the aforesaid town of Sunderland, from that ever to be remembered gentleman, William Gooch, esq., comptroller of the customs, who died in the year 1791, and did not die unmindful of me: for he left me in his will the sum of 107., with which, had I been prudent enough, and left his employ immediately after his interment, I might have done well; but foolishly relying on the continuance of my place, continued doing the duties for nine months without receiving any rem uneration; and at last was obliged to leave, it not being the pleasure of the then collector, C. Hill, esq., that I should continue any longer in office." Great as the sensation must have been at Sunderland on this important change office," the fact is entirely omitted in the journals of the period, and might at this time have been wholly forgotten if the captain had not been his own chronicler. On his forced "retirement" he returned to Newcastle, willing to take "office" there, but there being no opening he resolved once more to try his fortune in London. For that purpose he crossed the Tyne-bridge, with two shillings in his pocket, and arriving at Chester-le-street, obtained a subscription of two guineas, by which, “with helps and hopes," and "walking some stages," and getting "casts by coaches," he arrived in the metropolis, where he obtained a recommendation back, to the then mayor of Newcastle. Thither he again repaired, and presented his letter to the mayor, who

"in

QUATRAINS

TO THE EDITOR OF THE EVERY-DAY BOOK.

[From the London Magazine.]

I like you, and your book, ingenuous Hone!
In whose capacious, all-embracing leaves

The very marrow of tradition's shown;

And all that history-much that fiction-weaves.

By every sort of taste your work is graced.
Vast stores of modern anecdote we find,
With good old story quaintly interlaced-
The theme as various as the reader's mind.

Rome's lie-fraught legends you so truly paint--
Yet kindly-that the half-turn'd Catholic
Scarcely forbears to smile at his own saint,
And cannot curse the candid Heretic.

Rags, relics, witches, ghosts, fiends, crowd your page;
Our father's mummeries we well-pleased behold;
And, proudly conscious of a purer age,
Forgive some fopperies in the times of old.

Verse-honouring Phoebus, Father of bright Days,
Must needs bestow on you both good and many,
Who, building trophies to his children's praise,

Run their rich Zodiac through, not missing any.

In feeling, like a stricken deer, I've been

Self-put out from the herd, friend Lamb; for I
Imagined all the sympathies between

Mankind and me had ceased, till your full cry
Of kindness reach'd and roused me, as I lay
"Musing-on divers things foreknown:" it bid
Me know, in you, a friend; with a fine gay
Sincerity, before all men it chid,

Or rather, by not chiding, seem'd to chide
Me, for long absence from you; re-invited
Me, with a herald's trump, and so defied

Me to remain immured; and it requited

Me, for others' harsh misdeeming-which I trust is
Now, or will be, known by them, to be injustice.

I am "ingenuous:" it is all I can

Pretend to; it is all I wish to be; Yet, through obliquity of sight in man, From constant gaze on tortuosity, Few people understand me: still, I am

Warmly affection'd to each human being;

Loving the right, for right's sake; and, friend Lamb,
Trying to see things as they are; hence, seeing

Some "good in ev'ry thing" however bad,
Evil in many things that look most fair,
And pondering on all: this may be mad-
ness, but it is my method; and I dare
Deductions from a strange diversity
Of things, not taught within a University.

No schools of science open'd to my youth;
No learned halis, no academic bowers;
No one had I to point my way to truth,

Instruct my ign'rance, or direct my powers:
Yet I, though all unlearned, p’rhaps may aid
The march of knowledge in our purer age,"
And, without seeming, may perchance persuade
The young to think,-to virtue some engage:
So have I hoped, and with this end in view,
My little Every-Day Book I design'd;
Praise of the work, and of its author too,

From you, friend Lamb, is more than good and kind : To such high meed I did not dare aspire

As public honour, from the hand of ALLWORTHY ELIA,

As to the message from your friend above :-
Do me the favour to present my best
Respects to old "Dan Phoebus," for the "love
He bears the Every-Day Book: for the rest,
That is, the handsome mode he has selected

Of making me fine compliments by you, 'tis
So flatt'ring to me, and so much respected
By me, that, if you please, and it should suit his
Highness, I must rely upon you, for

Obtaining his command, to introduce me
To him yourself, when quite convenient; or
I trust, at any rate, you'll not refuse me
A line, to signify, that I'm the person known
To him, through you, friend Lamb, as

July 10.

The Seven Brothers, Martyrs, and St.
Felicitas, their Mother. 2nd Cent.
Sts. Rufina and Secunda, V. A. d. 257.
Spider Barometers.

If the weather is likely to become rainy, windy, or in other respects disagreeable, spiders fix the terminating filaments, on which the whole web is suspended, unusually short. If the terminating filaments are made uncommonly long, the weather will be serene, and continue so, at least for ten or twelve days. If spiders be totally indolent, rain generally succeeds; though their activity during rain is certain proof that it will be only of short duration, and followed by fair and constant weather. Spiders usually make some alterations in their webs every twenty-four hours; if these changes take place between the hours of six and seven in the evening, they indicate a clear and pleasant night.

Your Friend

WILLIAM HONE.

Yet still, amid the spreading gloom,
Resplendent glow the western waves
That roll o'er Neptune's coral caves

A zone of light on evening's dome.
On this lone summit let me rest,

And view the forms to fancy dear,
"Till on the ocean's darkened breast,
The stars of evening tremble clear
Or the moon's pale orb appear,
Throwing her light of radiance wide,
Far o'er the lightly curling tide.
No sounds o'er silence now prevail,

Save of the murm'ring brook below,
Or sailor's song borne on the gale,

Or oar at distance striking slow.
So sweet, so tranquil, may my evening ray,
Set to this world-and rise in future day.

FLORAL DIRECTORY.

Yellow Lupin. Lupinus flavus.
Dedicated to St. James.

July 12.

St. John Gualbert, Abbot, A. D. 1073.
Sts. Nabor and Felix, Martyrs, a. D.

304.

In the "Poems" of Mr. Gent, there
are some lines of tranquillizing ten-
dency.
To Mary.

Oh is there not in infant smiles
A witching power, a cheering ray,
A charm that every care beguiles,
And bids the weary soul be gay?

There surely is-for thou hast been
Child of my heart, my peaceful dove,
Gladd'ning life's sad and checquered scene,
An emblem of the peace above.

Great Snapdragon. Antirrhinum purpu- But where's the child his sigh can hear,