vengeance seemed to sleep; and the threatened denunciation was forgotten. They made a great feast; at which the whole of their family was present; mirth and jollity prevailed; the cup went round; the joke was passed; the time went merrily on; when suddenly, in the midst of their enjoyment, the sky became dark, the lightning flashed, the thunder rolled, the earth shook, the lofty turrets of the castle tottered, and the whole fabric fell. Their lands sunk, and they and the whole of their posses. sions were whelmed in the waves. thing now remains, save the depth of the destructive waters, and the bare tradition of the catastrophe of which they were the awful instrument.-Palladium. Poetry. ORIGINAL AND SELECT. THE ROSE. No How do I love thee? More than thoug' t Unaided could conceive :* More than wild fancy could define, Or aught but love believe. How do I love thee? Ask the fond Ask my long gazing eyeballs, when How do I love thee? Ask thy heart, Why do I love thee? Dost thou think That Love owns Reason's power? Why do I love thee? I might bring And after straining all his force. No answer true have made. Why do I love thee? When we hear And so with Love, we scarce know why, But yield him up our will. When do I love thee? 'Mid the noise With peaceful sail unfurl❜d.; When do I love thee? From the close Of eve, to rising sun : From the first streak of morning's dawn, When will I love thee? While I share When will I love thee? When old Time R. J. Dr. Pope who attended the princess Amelia, had declined for some time past going out professionally in the night. A man once knocked at his door at midnight, and earnestly requested he would go and see his wife, who was taken dangerously ill. "I cannot, friend,” said the doctor," go to Mr. -"" Ihave," quoth the man," he is out ;""Go then to Mr.-- ""He is out too." "Well then, stop a little, and I will e'en dress and go with thee." After taking the worthy doctor about three miles, the villain turned, and presenting a pistol at his breast demanded his money. "Why friend," said the good man, "could'st thou not have told me thy business without taking me so far from home; remove thy pistol, and I will give thee all I have." He then calmly delivered up his purse, and the man left him. After his purse was gone, the doctor recollected himself, and calling him back, gave him some halfpence that he had found in his coat pocket; the profligate wretch with a vehement oath, flung them at the man's head and escaped. ROOKS SUBJECT TO EPILEPSY. Some years ago there were several large elm-trees in the College garden, behind the ecclesiastical court, Doctor's Commons, in which a number of rooks had taken up their abode, forming in appearance a sort of convocation of aerial ecclesiastics. A young gentleman who lodged in an attic, and was their close neighbour, frequently entertained himself with thinning this covey of black game by means of a cross-bow. On the opposite side lived a curious old civilian, who, observing from his study that the rooks often dropt senseless from their perch, no sign being made to his vision to account for the phenomenon, set his wits to work to consider the cause. It was probably during a profitless time of peace; and the doctor, having plenty of leisure, weighed the matfer over and over, till he was at length fully satisfied that he had made a great ornithological discovery. He actually wrote a treatise stating circumstantially what he himself had seen, and in conclusion, giving it as the settled conviction of his mind, that rooks were subject to epilepsy! CURIOUS CALCULATION RELATIVE TO THE WEIGHT OF BANK NOTES. As two gentlemen, a short time since were settling an account at a coffeehouse, one of them drew out of his pocket-book a great number of bank notes, which induced a gentleman in the next box to exclaim that he wished he had as many as he could carry of them. "Then, sir," replied the other, "how many, and to what amount, do you think you could carry, for all mine 'are 30%. notes?" "Why, Sir," said the other in reply, "I think that I could carry more than the Bank of England 'could supply me with, for I think I could carry in 301. notes more than, or as much as the national debt amounts to;" upon which the other gentleman offered to lay him a wager of twenty guineas, that he and 99 of the strongest men he could select, could not carry the weight of the amount of the national debt, for the distance of half a mile without resting; the wager was immediately accepted, and on a calculation taking place, it appeared that 512 notes weighed exactly 1lb. and that 726 millions, which is computed to be the national debt, in 30. notes weighs 47,265 lbs. which, when divided amongst 100 people, the weight each one would have to carry, would be 472lbs. 6 ounces per man! R. H. T. Printed and Published by CowIE & STRANGE, 61, Paternoster Row, and 24, Fetter Lane. This ancient edifice is situated about one mile and a half south west from Margate. It was formerly the seat of the ancient family of Dent de Lyon, who appear to have flourished here in the time of Edward the First; and who were afterwards called Daundelion, Daundelyonn, Daundeleon, &c. After passing through various hands, the estate was purchased by the late Lord Holland, who transferred it to his second son, the late C. J. Fox, Esq. The gate-house, represented above, is yet THE WIDOW. Hence, cruel life! nor more persist Speechless, they say, benumb'd I seem'd They tell me that my helpless child They tell me, on th' unconscious corse, But, happy state, resembling death, E'en reason says I justly weep, When to my heart my child I fold, And while I from his lisping tongue I think-but O forbear, fond heart; THE CONCERT SINGER. There, perhaps, never has been, in the recollection of the oldest person in existence, so many poor unhappy wights troubled with the chaunting mana, as at the present day. Every tavern, dancing room, public house, private theatre, &c. issues forth weekly to the town its five hundred large bills, headed unprecedented novelty! wonderful combination of talent!' with a dozen or two of unmeaning names attached to if not as unmeaning—yet, at least, well hack'd songs and recitations. Music hath charms; so sang the hard,—and he is indeed a brute who denies the assertion. The late dreadful distress, which unfortunately has been felt by most classes of society, may have, in some measure, tended to o'erstock the market with these diverting vagabonds, some of whom, when business resumes its wonted animation, may possibly return again to the paths of virtue at least tis a consummation devoutly to be wish'd.' But there are those (ten) fathom below mediocrity), whose every sense of life and pleasure appears embodied in this lazy and despicable calling. Let us be clearly understood, while deprecating this dastardly system of procuring a meal-alike disgraceful to both male and female that we chastise only those individuals whom nature never designed for greater undertakings than dragging a truck or doing the domestic household offices. A regular Concert Singer, both in appearance and circumstances, is the most unhappy fellow in the world. His meagre and hungry phiz-his 'wellsav'd hose' and threadbare coat tell to the eye of the reasoning man the difficulties and shufflings he must be obliged to submit himself to;- the proud man's contumely,' and the insults he must pocket, as he sneaks through life. The Concert Singer, like the owl, shuns the blessed day. He is incarcerated in some wretched attic till night arrives, when he sallies forth to his professional duties' with as much pride, and infinitely more impudence than the statesman on his way to the senatehouse. Should he be met in his journey by some frequenter of the Room where he exhibits, his mode of salutation is particularly warm, something after this style:-"Well, my dear boy, how are you?" which he quickly follows up with "you'll stand a drop of something to-night." Should he come in contact with some bonnet or mantua maker, 'tis then he shines :-'tis then he ventures to become a critic, and talks of Braham, Sapio, and Paton, with all the familiarity of an equal. He darts into the Assembly Room-but not before he has done ample justice to his laundress, by displaying to the best ad Oh rest thee babe, rest thee babe, and, wishing the noisy nurses who drove sleep from your eye-lids, at some most imineasurable distance, raised yourself from the sofa to vegetate through a listless afternoon, with feelings composed of fatigue, indigestion, and ennai ?— Reader, if thou hast not a perfect horror chill through thy veins, at the re Sketches of Character. membrance of these things, then cer (For the Casket.) No. 11.-BALLAD SINGERS. Sing it; 'tis no matter how it be in tune, so it make noise enough.", A distinguishing feature in the noise that disturbs the streets in the environs of the metropolis, is the plaintive ditty of the ballad singer; which enlivens the otherwise monotonous proceedings of a city scene, and draws the cook maids from their errands to the listening crowd; and their less fortunate fellows, who are confined within doors, to that convenient opening, the chamber window in "the olden time," when they used to chaunt pretty airs to popular tunes, there was in the appearance of these sons and daughters of music, something picturesque and pleasing; but now! now, that they sell songs by the yard, their ambition seems to rest solely in hurrying as quick as possible to the end of the long list, and squalling, with unmusical discord. through the most tuneless rhime it contains. Reader! does not your frame shudder, and " all that is within you" seem ready to leave you senseless, at the recollection of two or three oppositionists in this profession passing the window of your study, and disturbing you from your learned lucubrations by their rival performances? Have you not frequently been roused from a most profound cogitation, by the sound of "Come buy my primroses, Cried Helen the fair" squalled by one of these aspirants to "the tuneful lyre?" or, if not, have you not sometimes been awakened froin your afternoon's nap, at the very mo ment when sleep seemed most refreshing, and you feel least disposed to be roused from slumber, by the more com posing couplet tainly thou dost not possess an' harmonious ear;' and therefore, as thou art most likely to be an admirer of ballad singers,' we will introduce thee to one or two specimens of the caste. The first of these is a tall, goodlooking African, without the least defect of his pronunciation of the English language, and has a tolerably good voice, and when surrounded by the crowd of gaping admirers which usually encloses him, seems at the very zenith of his glory he is the only one of his numerous fraternity that appears a favourite of the god of song : The next is a short, plump looking woman, drest in a blue and white gown, with shoes down at heel, and innumerable holes in her stockings; on her head she wears an old black bonnet, and across her shoulders a faded cotton shawl, which she keeps constantly pinned at her waist, in a complete wind opposing style; when she sings' all the parrots and dogs in the neighbourhood become, as if by common consent, dull and silent; indeed, the noise she makes, is calculated to frighten all reasonless creatures into darkness and quiet; her voice is always fortissimo, and seems scarcely divested of its effect by the rattling of carriages, or the rumbling of heavy laden waggons. It has none of the pathos, which at times renders tolerable the notes of her black competitor; but jumbles through bacchanalian glees, and love lorn sonnets, in the same discordant strain! driving far from the sphere of its extension, all ideas of learning, reflection, or repose. Another is a hump-backed youth with lungs of stentorian power, who with his hand to his mouth roars through the sea song of the sailor boy,*stunning sensitive ears, disturbing the quiet of the sick, and drowning in its din the less offensive noises with which the streets of a great city always abound. |