Greek numerical figures. The Iron Crown of Lombardy. offering various readings unknown to former editors. The most important fact was, that it contained upwards of seventy manuscripts written earlier than the twelfth century. Amongst these, a Commentary of the Venerable Bede on St. Mark, written by an English scribe in the eighth century, sold for 124/. A copy of Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica, written at the end of the tenth or beginning of the eleventh century, brought 40/-A Latin Bible, of the close of the eleventh century, 110. Sancti Cypriani Opera, written about the year 700, brought 170/.; and a copy of his Epistolæ, written about the year 850, sold for 84/. This last contained some valuable various readings, unknown to Dr. Routh, the late President of Magdalen, and most important as containing Greek numerical figures, showing that their was known in England long antecedent to the date fixed by Mr. Hallam, who attributes to John Basing, in the thirteenth century, the first bringing of the knowledge of them from Greece." The entire sale produced 6,7837. Is. use On the 23rd of April the Iron Crown of Lombardy was solemnly removed by the Austrians, under the protection of a strong body of horse, from Monza to the fortress of Mantua, and the Athenæum of the 14th of May contains the following historical note: "The little town of Monza was the spot on which Theodoric the Great (the Dietrich of Bern, of the German Hero-Legend) had a palace built, and on which Theudelinde, wife of the Longobard King Agilulf, had a magnificent church erected. To this church Theudelinde presented the Iron Crown, which she had had made for her husband. Our authority for this is the historian of the Longobards, Paul Warnefrid. The crown is made of gold, but has inside an iron ring, of which the legend relates that it has been forged from the nails of our Saviour's cross. Charlemagne was crowned with this Iron Crown, -after him all the German Emperors who were likewise Kings of Lombardy. On the 26th of May, 1805, Napoleon put it on his head, with the words of renown: 'Dieu me l'a donnée; gare à qui y touchera.' This threat became afterwards the motto of the Order of the Iron Crown, which Austria, with a few slight alterations, allowed to continue in existence.” The closing of the gardens at Vauxhall called forth an historical sketch from Dr. Doran, which appeared on the 16th of July. "We cannot let Vauxhall expire without a word of notice. The old manor ground of the mercenary Fulke de Breauté,-the 'henchman,' as he may be called, of King John,-is about to be covered with bricks and mortar. Previous to this, the gardens Vauxhall Gardens, The old manor-house. are to be open to the public for a week, by way of dying out gaily. The land on which Fulke erected his hall now belongs to Canterbury Cathedral, by a very ordinary process. The manor of Fulkeshall fell, by attainder, to the crown. It was successively held by the Despencers and the Damories; but the latter exchanged it with Edward the Third for an estate in Suffolk; and the manor was conferred on Edward the Black Prince, who piously left it to the Church of Canterbury. This bequest was respected by a monarch who upset more wills than all the Ecclesiastical Courts together; and Henry the Eighth left the little estate to the gratified Dean and Chapter. "The old manor-house, like the gardens in its vicinity, served many purposes; and these were not always of a gay aspect. Saddest of sad young ladies, Lady Arabella Stuart, was confined here, under the guardianship of Sir Thomas Parry. The house was then known as Copt Hall. Some years later, there was some doubt whether a college of artizans or a public garden and assembly' would be ultimately established here. The pleasureseekers were delighted by the establishment of a place of gaiety and dissipation; and, wearied with the stale yet lively pleasures of that very rustic locality, 'Spring Gardens,' Charing Cross, they flocked, with the glad eagerness of unhappy idlers in search of a new sensation, to the 'New Spring Gardens,' The "New Spring on the Surrey side of the Thames. This was Gardens." about the year 1661. So that, in round numbers, the place may be said to have had a reign-a reign of vicissitudes - which has lasted two centuries. "From the very first the seasons were uncertain. In sickly years they were ill-attended; but, generally speaking, under the Stuarts they were resorted to by the 'quality' of a very bad sort, in very great numbers. The richer, not the better class of citizens, imitated the people of quality, and here they plucked cherries, and gallants broke a cheese-cake with their ladies; lovers sipped and looked foolish over their syllabubs; while amateurs of the faster school fluttered about, scattering compliments among the flame-coloured petticoats. But there were faster gentlemen there than these in the Stuart days; gay ruffians of the Killigrew stamp; all plume, velvet, gold lace, and bad principles, with swords to support them. These town rogues were the terror of 'civil ladies' in masks; and were sometimes not less so to the ladies of a less 'civil' quality. The gardens must have presented a strange sight in those days; for while the hot-brained young 'rogues' were assaulting the arbours, and dragging the women away from them, at the sword's point, a more orderly public might have been seen in another part, listening with rapture to the nightingales, or, elsewhere, beating time to the fiddles and Jews' trumps, while walking about, laughing, talking, and mightily diverting themselves...... "Early in the reign of the Second George, Mr. Tyers. Mr. Tyers opened them, with much addition to their old routine of feasting and flirting. He had good luck enough to win the presence of the Prince of Wales, occasionally;-a very good representative of the royal and noble ruffianism of the olden time. Around the Prince gay crowds of masks, dominoes, and lovers of a Ridotto al fresco, nimbly trooped; and high Art had, in good time, its cunning to add to the attractions, for Hogarth glorified much canvas or pannel there, and Roubiliac set up the statue of Handel, -great Master of that Art of which Apollo was only the god. Small, however, were the influences of the deity about the Rotunda, where he was practically worshipped in those famous 'Vauxhall Ballads,' — sublime namby-pamby of text, to a stupendous unmeaningness of tune...... Foxhall. "Foxhall was commonly spoken of in the time of old Tyers. Walpole, in 1750, in company with Lady Caroline Petersham, |