Varieties.

Cameleon. Though the absurd notion respecting the cameleon's living upon air, has been several years banished from the creed of the philosopher, yet there are many persons of limited reading, who still believe it. We shall, therefore, present our readers with an experiment (cruel enough to be sure, but decisive on the present question) made by that intelligent traveller, Son. nini, when he was at Alexandria.

"I kept," says he, " some cameleons to know how long they could live without nourishment, and took every precaution to deprive them of aliment, without their ceasing to be exposed to the open air. They lived twenty days; but what a life! From being fat as when I caught them, they soon became very lean; with their flesh they lost their agility and colour; their skins became livid and wrinkled, and stuck to their bones, so that they appeared dried before they ceased to exist."

Oxonian Bull.-Some years ago, as the fellows of New-College, Oxford, were discoursing upon the alterations which were at that time projected in the buildings and grounds of that college, a gentleman then present observed that the vista in front would be improved by the removal of a large mound that stood in the centre. The proposal met with the approbation of the persons present, and the only difficulty was to find a convenient place to deposit the earth which should be removed: at last a venerable fellow stood up and proposed a plan to obviate the difficulty, which was-" to dig a hole in the bottom of the garden and put it in there"!

In the first edition of Dr. Adam Littleton's Latin Dictionary (a work which served as the basis of most of our modern ones, not excepting Morell's ponderous work) the meaning of "concurro," is "condog;" the reason for which whimsical interpretation is as follows:

:

Dr. Littleton was blind; and in the compilation of that work was obliged to employ an amanuensis. When they came to the word "concurro," the officious quill-driver, to show his own skill, followed the mention of the word with what he considered to be its English synonime-" concurro, to concur”—

"condog, and be d-d to you," an swered the enraged Lexicographer. The servitor was afraid to speak a word more, and the author in his pettish mood forgot to give any other meaning.

Anecdote.-In some parish-churches it is the custom to separate the men from the women. A clergyman, being interrupted by loud talking, stopped short; when a woman, eager for the honour of her sex, arose and said, "Your reverence, the noise is not among us." "So much the better," answered the priest, "it will be the

sooner over."

There is now living in Elgin, a woman upwards of 90 years of age, wife to a shoe-maker, generally known by the name of Cushney Gordon, who has one new tooth perfectly formed, and another at present perforating the gum.—Aberdeen Chronicle.

A singular obstacle.-It is a remarkable circumstance, that the portrait of Henry VIII. was the means of preventing a commercial treaty between the Portuguese and the King of Borneo. A Portuguese vessel having touched at that place opened a trade there with great success. The King received the strangers with special favour, and they displayed before him the presents with which they were prepared. Among other things was the marriage of Henry VIII. and Catherine, represented in tapestry. When the King of Borneo saw the bluff figure of Henry as large as life, he bade the Portuguese pack up their presents, take them on board and leave his dominions immediately. He knew he said what they brought him those figures for; that ugly man was to come out in the night, to cut off his head and take possession of his dominion. There was no persuading him out of his imagination, and the Portuguese were compelled to abandon a commercial specuÎation which was so auspiciously commenced.

Peculiar Tenure in the Parish of Broughton, Lincolnshire.-The tenure by which lands are held in this parish, consists in the following ceremony, which takes place in the church every PalmSunday:-A person enters the churchyard with a green silk purse, containing ten shillings, and a silver penny, tied at the end of a cart-whip, which he smacks thrice in the porch, and continues there till the second lesson begins;

when he goes into the church, and smacks the whip three times over the clergyman's head. After kneeling before the desk, during the reading of the lesson, he presents the minister with the purse, and then retiring to the choir, waits the remainder of the service.

Credit.-Peter the first, King of Portugal, to restrain luxury, and prevent the ruin of families, absolutely forbade all his subjects to buy or sell any of their commodities without immediate payment, and made the second commission of that offence death.

Another Cure of Hydrophobia.-Mr. Marochetti, surgeon of an hospital at Moscow, being in the Ukraine, in 1813, was requested to attend fifteen persons who had been bit by a mad dog. While he was making the necessary preparations, a deputation of several old men came to request him to let the patients be attended by a peasant, who had for many years enjoyed the reputation for the cure of the Hydrophobia, to which he consented upon certain conditions. The peasant gave to the fourteen pa.. tients intrusted to him (the fifteenth, a girl of sixteen, was treated according to the usual manner) a pound and a half, daily, of a decoction of the flowery tops of yellow broom, and examined twice a day the underpart of the tongue, where he said little pustules would be formed containing the poison. These pustules in fact appeared from the third to the ninth day, and were observed by Mr. Marochetti. In proportion as they were formed they were cauterised with a needle made red hot; after which the patient gargled himself with the decoction of broom. The result of this treatment was, that the fourteen patients recovered in six weeks, while the young girl who was excepted from this mode of cure, died on the seventh day, in the convulsions of Hydrophobia. Three years afterwards Mr. Marochetti again saw the fourteen patients, who were all doing very well. The same physician, being in Podolia in 1818, had another

opportunity of confirming the efficacy of this interesting discovery on twenty six persons who were bitten by mad dogs.

Longevity.-There is now living at Hill-head, near Bingley, a widow wo man, of the name of Mary Waterhouse, who has attained the age of one hundred

and two years. Notwithstanding this

advanced age, both her hearing and her sight are perfect, and her mental powers are very little impaired.

The Parody on Mr. Southey's Vision of Judgment, from the powerful pen of Lord Byron, has, we understand, been received in London; it is said to be a most severe and spirited effort of his Lordship's muse, but not calculated for publication.

The Clerical almanack of France, for 1822, states the number of priests in actual employment to be 35,286, of whom 14,870 are above 60 years of age 4,156 have been ordained during the last year.

To Correspondents.

We are reluctantly obliged to postpone "Biblical Literature for the Ninth Century," until our next.

We hope to be able to insert "The last Visit to West Point Garden, Halifax," next Week.

Our limits oblige us to defer the inser

tion of "EPITAPHIUM" Original, but

it shall positively appear in our next publication.

Although we did not insert "ROWLAND

PARK" by a Manchester Correspondent, yet we shall be glad to hear from him again.

We hope the Communication of Marm. Tulket, O. S. B. will not be injured by being divided; our only object is to present our readers with as great a variety as possible.

Price 3 d.]

[No. 15. Vol. I.

WE frequently hear it asserted by

men who have been thwarted in some of their favourite pursuits-that mankind is in a state of degeneracy, and that whatever unlucky circumstance chance may lay in their way, it is intended to aggravate their calamities. Whether or not this be a mark of a refined sensibility, easily touched at the fluctuations of fortune, I shall not undertake to explain ; but it will require little argument to unfold that a mind thus influenced must be radically discontented. If it really indicates excessive delicacy, which cannot brook an occasional disappointment. we should expect to see a diminution of it in men whose minds are constantly occupied in some active employment; but, on the contrary, we perceive that it increases with their years, every day adding some little fuel to their dissatisfaction. Men, who are biased by this unbridled disposition, seek to effect a remedy of the disease by the very means which bring it on. As the evil advances, they grow sullen and morose,-loose and irregular in their habits, and at length give themselves up to a kind of despondency, which renders them totally unfit for common society. Happiness is their object; but while in the fancied pursuit of it, they are hourly receding from its path. Their search is impeded by the numerous obstacles discontent strews in their way; and thus when their desires are frustrated, attribute their misfortunes to the predestined will of Heaven.

This is one, amongst the innumerable evils which showers down misery upon its possessor, without offering the smallest gratification in its course. Itpossesses not the enticing qualification of some 'vices which have the effect of 2G

VOL. I.

Dryden.

Virg.

retaining their votaries by their allurements, but spreads a blank over man's existence, which renders him insensible to every enjoyment. Rather than comfort himself in the possessions which his situation holds over the poverty-stricken beings which surround him, he builds his desires on the specious comfort of his superiors, and thus renders up his heart as the seat of envy and malignity.

However reproachable this portion of mankind may appear in supporting such false notions, we nevertheless experience much dissatisfaction when we have accomplished the object which has employed our greatest exertions to attain. Our desires are often blighted just when we are entering on the enjoyment of them; and these disappointments, operating successively, may be offered as a pretext why the minds of most men are clouded with discontent. But this is not the only cause: contentment is not allied to disappointment; when the smiles of the former are observed to play, the stings of the latter loose their effect. There are other motives more hurtful in their influence, and of longer duration than disappointment. Covetousness and ambition are inseparable companions to a discontented mind; indeed, it is from them it primarily takes it source; and as long as they are suffered to operate, misery must be the never-failing portion of the individual who harbours them. Until a man has outstripped his neighbour in the number of his possessions, contentment is aloof from his mind, the present state of his existence always wears an insipidity scarcely supportable, and so damps every pleasurable propensity as to render his life a scene of complete

WALTON LE DALE. (Written expressly for the Babbler.)

[Concluded from our last.]

This aforesaid Walton Hall, is built of brick, in a square form, and possesses a quadrangular; within this court-yard of small dimensions, stands a pedestal, on the summit of which is fixed a full length statue of William III. king of England, finely carved, which gives a pleasing effect, as he has all the appearance of being clad in armour; and also holds grasped in his right hand a marshal's baton. Immediately on entering towards this mansion, close by the turnpike road, a neat lodge presents itself, built in a rural style. After passing through the gateways, at the end of the gravel walk, a sun-dial is fixed, on the summit of a fine Ionic pillar, which pillar is placed on a pedestal, serving as an ornament to the entrance. The north front of the hall is lighted by thirteen square windows in all, ornamented by a cornice running from one end to the other, capped with urns, powdered at regular distances. The doorcase is beautified with two Ionic pillars. Immediately over the centre of the pediment of the door, a scutcheon is placed, containing the coat armour of the Hoghtons, curiously carved and blazoned. The large dining-room is diversified, or, in other words embellished, with fifteen family portraits, amongst which are two excellent likenesses of the present Sir H. P. Hoghton, Bart. and his lady, formally Mrs. Parker. This room is lighted by four tall windows, after the pointed style, and looks immediately into the quadrangle, where the statue of William III. stands. The room attiguous is termed the drawing-room, formed after an octagon shape, possessing a fine view westward to the front, of a peagreen lawn, intersected by bosquets of trees at regular distances, together with a S. W. view of the Belvidere, or, the turreted summer-house, of a snowy hue.

These rooms are all tastefully decorated with stucco ceilings, and are superbly furnished. In the fine diningroom there are two bronze figures, placed at the head of the apartment, in the attitude of holding lamps in their hands:

two elegant chandeliers are suspended from the stucco circulary worked from the ceiling, which have a bright appearance when lit up on the nights of entertainment during the winter months.

The Hoghton family are of ancient date, and may claim alliance with the most princely Norman families. Algor, Earl of Leicester, married a daughter of Sir William Mallet, whose son Warine, was Earl of Leicester, during the reign of William the Conqueror. Lucie, the sister and heiress of this Warine, had two husbands; first, Ivo de Talbois, Earl of Angiers, in France, and Baron of Kendal. Soon after the conquest, and secondly, Gerrard, Lord Bolingbroke. By Lucie, Ivo had a son called Chatellus, whose son Gilbert, had two sons, the eldest of whom, William, Baron of Kendal, titled himself William de Lancaster, in the parliament of Henry the Second, bearing the coat armour, which Algor and his predecessors had done. married Gaudreds, Countess of Warwick, and by her had a son, William Lancaster, Baron of Kendal, and a daughter Helewisia, who married Gilbert, son of

He

where our information of this line ends. We w return to Warinus de Lancaster, brother of William Lancaster, that married Gaudreds, which Warinus had a son Henry, who took the surname of Lea, and was called Henry de Lea, 13th of King John, whose son John was Lord of Lea Hall, west of Preston, 27th of Henry III. They bore sable, three bars argent. John's son, viz.-Henry de Lea, was Sheriff of Lancaster, 11th of Edward I. and died 17th of Edward I. leaving a son, William Lea, who married Clemens, daughter of Robert Banester, Baron of Walton in the Dale. This Banester bore for his arms, a cross sable. They had a son and a daughter. Henry de Lea, he having no issue, Sybil, his sister, became heir; she was of age 20th of Edward I. who carried the estate and arms to the 4th Adam de Hoghton, who by her had two sons, viz.-Sir Adam Hoghton, knight, 11th of Edward III. and Sir Henry Hoghton, knight, who married the daughter and heiress of Dicouns de Radcliffe, who was the progenitor of the Pendletons. His brother, Adam's son, Sir Richard Hoghton, founded a chantry in Ribchester church, 7th of Henry IV. Sir Thomas Hoghton, Knight, was killed