king's majesty now. He married my sisters with five pound, or twenty nobles, a piece; so that he brought them up in godliness and fear of God. He kept hospitality for his poor neighbours, and some alms he gave to the poor; and all this he did of the same farm; where he that now hath it, payeth sixteen pound by the year, or more, and is not able to do any thing for his prince, for himself, nor for his children, or give a cup of drink to the poor."

MANUFACTURING CELERITY.

Some years ago a gentleınan made a bet of one thousand guineas, that he would have a coat made in the course of a single day, from the first process of shearing the sheep, to its completion by the tailor. The wager was decided at Newbury, on the 25th of June, 1811, by Mr. John Coxeter, of Greenham Mills, near that town. At five o'clock that morning, Sir John Throckmorton, Bart, presented two Southdown weather sheep to Mr. Coxeter. Accordingly the sheep were shorn, the wool spun, the yarn spooled, warped, loomed, and wove; the cloth burred, milled, rowed, dyed, dried, sheared, and pressed, and put into the hands of the tailors, by four o'clock that afternoon; and at twenty minutes past six, the coat, entirely finished, was presented by Mr. Coxeter to Sir John Throckmorton, who appeared with it before an assemblage of upwards of 5000 spectators, who rent the air with their acclamations.

EMBANKING.

Mr. Harriot, the founder of the Thames police, though not the most successful, was certainly one of the most patient and industrious adventurers that ever attempted to rise in the world by his own talents and exertions; his spirit always rose against emergencies, and his exertions were increased in proportion to the resistance by which they were opposed. A remarkable instance of this occurs during his residence in England, before he went to America. His house was on the banks of a navigable river, near which was a sunken island containing between two and three hundred acres of land, which was covered by the sea at half tide. Mr. Harriot conceived the possibility of wresting this island from the dominion of the ocean; and purchasing it at an auction for forty pounds, strenuously set about an embankment, in which he adventured the greatest part of his property. The embankment was begun in July; and in the December following, a wall of earth was raised more than two miles and a half in circumference, thirty feet thick at its base, declining at an angle of forty-five degrees, till it was six feet thick at top, and eight feet high. The two ends of the wall were about one hundred and forty feet apart, separated by a deep ravine, through which the tide ebbed and flowed with a current stronger than that under the great arch of London Bridge. The most hazardous part of the undertaking yet remained. The struggle must be strong against a powerful foe, and decided in a few hours. Mr. H. had in vain persuaded his con

tractors to use timber in the work, although he offered to supply them with it gratuitously. On Christmas Day this ravine was to be filled up with a mound of earth. The exertions of manual labour were vast. The tide rose, but found its passage stopped. The mound kept rising; but at last, for want of timber, mole ruit suá! its own weight broke it down. On the sixth spring tide, all this great body of earth was swept away, scarcely a vestige of it was to be seen; and the difficulty of another attempt was much increased, from the greater distance it was necessary to go for the earth. The contractors ran away, indebted one hundred and twenty-five pounds to the men to whom they had under-let the work. But all these difficulties only stimulated a courageous spirit. The work was begun again, under the direction of Mr. H. himself, who contracted with the men on the same terms as before; and as an encouragement to steady exertion, promised them the hundred and twenty-five pounds as a bonus if they succeeded in shutting out the tide. Of his success in the first instance he shall be his own narrator.

"The season of the year," says he, was much against me. I had to fell my timber in a wood, thirteen miles from my island. I cut down trees from ten to fifteen inches in diameter, making piles of them from twelve to twenty-four feet in length. With an engine, I drove them in two rows, fifteen feet apart, across the ravine, or deep outlet, and as close together in the rows as we could drive them. I secured them together by girders, or beams, across, within five feet of the bottom, and three feet of the top, keyed and bolted on the outside. This was my coffre dam to

hold the earth in the centre of my mound, as a strong core, or heart, to the whole.

By the 17th of January, all was ready for another sharp contest with the sea, to determine, by force of arms, who should conquer and keep posses. sion of the disputed property. I took the command myself. My troops were all stationed before daybreak; our enemy then retreating, in order to advance again with greater force, (the neap-tides being over, and the spring tides commencing).

"The morning was cold and frosty. A dram and three cheers was the signal for attack. Knowing the obstinate perseverance of my foe, and that our contest would be long and strong, I repressed the ardour of my troops a little at the onset. Every half hour I suspended the attack; and, from several barrels of strong porter ammunition, which I had provided ready on the spot, and elevated on a small tower made of earth, I issued out half a pint to each man; and to such of them as had not provided better for themselves, my bread, butter, and cheese were welcome. I served it all out myself, with a cheering kind of language suited to the people; by which, I verily believe what one of my officers (a master carpenter) for the time said, viz. That I had more work done for a few barrels of porter, with a little management and address, than many men would have obtained for as many hundred pounds.'

"The enemy advanced against us, and persevered in the attack for several hours; when, having proved the strength of our works, and failed, he retreated. At the severest part of the struggle, (high water) I advanced in front, with a waller's tool in one hand,

and a pot of porter in the other; when, repeating the words that are related of King Canute, I said, 'Thus far shalt thou go, but no farther;' adding, as he began to retire, that although a conquered foe, I bore him no enmity. We then gave him three lusty cheers, drinking the king's health on such an accession to his majesty's agricultural dominions."

After this noble triumph, for which Mr. Harriot most deservedly received the gold medal from the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, &c. he built a farm house, &c. on the island, and began to cultivate the land. For the first six or seven years, the expences were considerably greater than the profits; but the crops afterwards began to repay his industry, by an annual and rapid increase in their value. Every thing appeared prosperous; when early in the spring of 1790, a fire broke out in the dead of the night, by which his house, barn, and out-houses were burnt to the ground, and but little of the furniture saved. The only part of the premises saved, was an old brick wash-house at the bottom of a yard, and part of the stable. The wash-house was now fitted up as a temporary residence, and it was determined to rebuild a cheap substantial dwelling-house as soon as possible. This was completed before the winter, and the crops on the island seemed to promise they would pay the expense. "In the January following our calamity," says Mr. H., "I would not have sold these expected crops for less than £600." But adversity rarely comes unattended with a train of misfortunes: within eleven months after this destruction of a considerable part of his property by the flames, he was destined to see the remaining all of it swallowed up by the ocean. With