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Sicco."

the 'groom' had a livery sort of look, in his knee-breeches......The bride was in high spirits, showed her foot, as she was wont to do, and, as one who heard her, informs us, gave a charmingly distinct 'Yes, I will,' in answer to the allimportant query of the ceremony, which raised a smile on the faces of all around." The article concludes with "the sincere wish that the next Royal bride who may leave the Chapel Royal, supported by her princely husband, may possess, in its utmost fullness, the sole or the crowning happiness which a wife is permitted to enjoylove, in her married state."

The letters which had appeared in the Times on the 16th, 23rd, and 27th of March, 1857, on "Habitans in Preaching and Preaching,' signed "Habitans in Sicco," and dated from the "Broad Phylactery, Westminster," complaining of the mode in which the services were conducted in the Church of England, of the "humbles and mumbles" of many an incumbent, and especially of "the mumbling of the Archbishop of ——,” added to the excitement caused in the south of London by the preaching of the Rev. C. H. Spurgeon, attracted great attention. The writer in one of his letters says: "If I were examining chaplain of the Archbishop of I would say, 'What does your grace think of inviting Mr. Spurgeon, this heretical Calvinist

to the

and Baptist, who is able to draw 10,000 souls after him, just to try his voice some Sunday morning in the nave of St. Paul's or Westminster Abbey?"" This led opening of Westminster Abbey on evenings for services for the working The first was held on the 3rd of January, the working

Sunday Westminster Abbey first classes. sermons for

sermon being preached by the

classes.

1858, the Dean, Dr. Trench. Money was then subscribed to adapt St. Paul's Cathedral for the St. Paul's same purpose, and on Sunday, the 28th of November, the evening service began with a congregation exceeding 4,0co persons.

Cathedral.

The Athenæum of January 30th contains an article on 'A Sunday Night View of West- A Sunday Night View of minster Abbey': "The popular notion of a Westminster Abbey.' Cathedral or Minster in England is that of a grand old fossil or mammoth Church. Bequeathed to us by odd-fashioned forefathers, no doubt good enough for their age, they are ponderous records of piety in stone, outlines of sentiment in endless intricacy of lines and arches. Beautiful to see or to sketch, to fit into a portfolio or light up a history, of what human use are they besides, except perhaps to get persons buried in? Yet who that has been locked in, or still oftener locked out of, their quiet walls but associates a melancholy pleasure with the remembrance? Who, for instance,

that works in populous London, but has a secret liking for those twin towers of Westminster? Even if he has not played hockey in the cloisters, or vanquished an impertinent lad in the square, or done moonlight exploits in the precincts, or in later life passed beneath them jaded and cold after a night of stormy debate in the House, what dweller in Cockayne but loves them? We have watched them looming grey and cold, as the young dawn of a May morning shot silvery arrows along the lake in St. James's Park, and came sparkling under the trees where a poor houseless girl was plying her weary needle within a stone's throw of the Palace. Leagues away at sea the shadow of the Minster towers has risen up into thoughts of England and its Parks, slowly fading in the calm sunset. Cannot these grand old edifices be made useful as well as poetical? They were useful once, and out of their serviceableness grew their sanctity and their attraction. A few years ago, if we remember well, Cardinal Wiseman hinted at the use he would find for Westminster Abbey. And why not others? Why should so much stone religion rear itself apart from the emotions of our daily life? Even to stand beneath its fretted roof is to be impressed with a sentiment of awe and humbleness. Earnest men have said this or something

like this to themselves; and the answer is, that Westminster Abbey is restored to the worship of the multitude......The Dean reads the Lessons and the Bishop preaches an expressive sermon. The Doxology is sung, and the vast throng slowly passes out into the cold night-wiser at the head, warmer at the heart, for a Sunday night spent in Westminster Abbey."

The death of "the poets' publisher" Edward Moxon is recorded on the 12th of June. "His little volume of Sonnets was graciously received, and is not now forgotten. As a personal friend of Charles Lamb (who bequeathed to him his curious and interesting collection of books), and as the publisher and friend of Rogers, Wordsworth, Coleridge and Tennyson, he will keep his place in the literary history of our time,— and many generations of readers will be reminded of his business career by his useful editions of the dramatic works of Shakspeare, his contemporaries and successors."

Edward

Moxon.

The

Athenæum

issued in

volumes.

On June 19th it is announced that "the attention of the proprietors of the Athenæum has been directed to the inconvenience caused by the in- half-yearly creasing bulk of the yearly volumes. It has been represented to them that when the Athenæum started in its career its yearly volume consisted of 840 pages, whilst its contents last year ex

tended to no less than 1,644 pages. To meet the wishes of subscribers, the proprietors have resolved that the Athenæum shall in future be paged in half-yearly volumes, and an enlarged Index given with each volume. An Index for the volume ending on the 26th of June will be published in July."

Autograph of It is stated on the same date that the "autoShakspeare. graph signature of Shakspeare affixed to a mortgage deed of a house in Blackfriars, dated March 11, 1612-13, has been sold during the present week, by Messrs. Sotheby & Wilkinson, for 315. It was bought for the British Museum. It was discovered in the year 1768, by Mr. Albany Wallis, among the title deeds of the same estate in Blackfriars, at that time the property of the Rev. Mr. Fetherstonhaugh, of Oxted, Surrey."

Robert Brown.

The distinguished botanist Robert Brown died on June 12th, at his house in Dean Street, Soho, in his eighty-fifth year. The obituary notice on June 19th states: "Till his time botany can scarcely be said to have had a scientific foundation. It consisted of a large number of ill-observed and badly-arranged facts. By the use of the microscope and the conviction of the necessity of studying the history of the development of the plant in order to ascertain its true structure and relations,

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