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Ebook has 308 lines and 30568 words, and 7 pages

King Arthur, 210

Alchemy, 213

Account of several Noble Families, in England, who owe their elevation to the Peerage to their Ancestors having been engaged in Trade, 214

Last Moments of Queen Caroline, 220

The Britons, according to the Greek and Latin Classics, 221

The Seven Sleepers, 227

John Ray, the Naturalist, 230

London Bankers and their Origin, 233

Elucidation of the Ornaments with which the Greeks and Romans adorned the Human Head on Coins & Medals, 237

The Tradescants, 243

Orange Trees, 249

Articles of Use and Luxury introduced into Europe by the Romans, 251

Account of the Escape of the Earl of Nithsdale from the Tower, in 1716, 255

Account of the first rise of Fairs in England, and the Manner of Living, in the 16th and 17th Centuries, 269

Sir Richard Clough, 277

Royal Clemency, 279

Lotteries, 280

Herculaneum Manuscripts, 283

Wolves in England, 286

Professor Porson, 288

History of Sepulchral Monuments, 297

Dr. KENNICOTT.

Dr. Kennicott was the son of the parish clerk of Totness, once master of a charity school in that town. At an early age young Kennicott took the care of the school, and in that situation wrote some verses, addressed to the Hon. Mrs. Courtenay, which recommended him to her notice, and to that of many neighbouring gentlemen, who laudably opened a subscription to send him to Oxford.

As Virtue should be of good Report, Sacred be this humble Monument to the Memory of BENJAMIN KENNICOTT, Parish Clerk of Totness, and ELIZABETH his Wife; The latter an example of every Christian Duty, The former animated with the warmest zeal, regulated by the best good sense, and both constantly exerted for the salvation of himself and others. Reader! soon shalt thou die also; And as a Candidate for Immortality, strike thy breast and say, "Let me live the life of the righteous,that my latter end may be like his." Trifling are the dates of Time, where the subject is Eternity. Erected by their Son, B. Kennicott, D. D. Canon of Christ Church, Oxford.

It is said that when Dr. Kennicott took orders, he came to officiate in his clerical capacity in his native town,--when his father, as parish clerk, proceeded to place the surplice on his shoulders, a struggle ensued between the modesty of the son and the honest pride of the parent, who insisted on paying that respect to his son which he had been accustomed to shew to other clergymen; to this filial obedience he was obliged to submit. A circumstance is added, that his mother had often declared she should never be able to support the joy of hearing her son preach; and that on her attendance at the church, for the first time, she was so overcome as to be taken out in a state of temporary insensibility.

"Rev. and Hon. Sir,

"Gratitude to benefactors is the great law of nature, and lest I should violate what was ever sacred, I presume to lay the following before you.

"There are, Sir, in the world, gentlemen who confine their regards to self, or the circle of their own acquaintance, and there are who command their influence to enlarge and exert itself on persons remotely situate, both by fortune and education. To you, Sir, belongs the honour of this encomium,--to me the pleasure of the obligation, and as I am now first at leisure in the place whither your goodness has transplanted me, I lay this acknowledgment before you, as one of the movers in this system of exalted generosity; for when I consider myself as surrounded with benefactors, there seems a bright resemblance of the now exploded system of Ptolemy, in which, Sir, the heavenly bodies revolved around the central earth which was thus rendered completely blest by the contribution of their cheering and benign influence.

"And now, Sir, the sentiments of duty rise so warm within me, that every expression of thanks seems faint, and I am lost in endeavours after a suitable acknowledgment of my obligations.

"But I know, Sir, whom I am now addressing; I know those who most deserve can least bear praise, and that your goodness is so great, as even to reject the very thanks of the grateful; like the sun in its splendour, which forbids the eye that offers to admire it.

"That Heaven may reward yourself and Mrs. Daddo with its best favours, and console you under your parental sorrows, is my daily and fervent prayer; and I shall esteem it one of the great honours of my life to be favoured at your leisure with any commands or advices you shall condescend to bestow on

Rev. Sir,

Your dutiful and obliged Servant,

BENJAMIN KENNICOTT."

The Rev. William Daddo was for many years head-master of Blundell's Free School, in Tiverton, where young Kennicott received the rudiments of his classical education. Mr. Daddo having acquired a considerable fortune from the emoluments of his school, quitted Tiverton, and retired to Bow-hill House, in the neighbourhood of Exeter, and there died many years ago, leaving a daughter, an only child, afterwards married to the Rev. Mr. Terry.

REMARKABLE HISTORICAL COINCIDENCES.

Among the curiosities in the British Museum are shewn two helmets; the one Roman, found in the ground on which the battle of Cannae was fought, 216 years before Christ, and the other made of feathers, brought from one of the South Sea Islands, by Captain Cook. On comparing these helmets, the shape will be found exactly similar, though the latter was made by an uncivilized people living at the distance of more than 2000 years since the battle of Cannae was fought, and who had never even heard of the Roman name.

A second coincidence is found in the same collection. Two breast-plates are shewn to the visitors, exactly corresponding in uniformity of shape, though made of different materials, the one taken from the bosom of an Egyptian Mummy, which had been dissected, if I may be allowed to use the term, in the Museum, and the other brought by Captain Cook, among various other curiosities, from the South Sea Islands.

A third coincidence is the mode of cookery practised by the South Sea Islanders as described by Captain Cook, especially in roasting their hogs. This is by means of hot stones placed in a hole dug in the ground. In Ossian's Poems the reader will find that the Caledonians of that time made use of the same method in cooking their hogs for the table.

That Charles the twelfth did not fall by a shot from the walls of Fredericshall, as is commonly supposed, but met his death from a nearer and more secret hand, has been fully ascertained; and M. Megret, a French Engineer, who accompanied him, was, no doubt, concerned in the murder. Many years afterwards, one Cronsted, an officer, on his death bed, confessed that he had himself, at the instigation of the Prince of Hesse, brother-in-law of Charles, and whose wife was declared Queen of Sweden, fired the shot that killed the unfortunate monarch.

In the arsenal at Stockholm, the Swedes preserve, with great care, the clothes he was habited in at the time he fell. The coat is a plain blue cloth regimental one, such as every common soldier wore. Round the waist he had a broad buff leathern belt, in which hung his sword. The hat is torn only about an inch square, in that part of it which lies over the temple, and certainly would have been much more injured by a large shot. His gloves are of very fine leather, and as the left one is perfectly clean and unsoiled could only have been newly put on. Voltaire says that the instant the King received the shot, he had the force and courage to put his hand to his sword, and lay in that posture. The right hand glove is covered in the inside with blood, and the belt at that part where the hilt of his sword lay, is likewise bloody, so that it seems clear, he had previously put his hand to his head, on receiving the shot, before he attempted to draw his sword and make resistance.

In the same case that contains his clothes is preserved the cap he wore on the terrible day at Bender, when he so desperately defended himself against the Turks. It is of fur; and has one tremendous cut on the side, which must have been within a hair's breadth of there ending the career of this wonderful man.

BRITISH PEARLS.

PILLARS OF COMMEMORATION.

The erection of a column or pillar, on the highest point of that ridge of hills, called Blackdown, which separates the county of Somerset from that of Devon, in commemoration of the great victories obtained by the Duke of Wellington, is an inducement to look into history, to see how the nations of antiquity, particularly those of Greece and Rome, rewarded their heroes who signalized themselves by the performance of feats of military courage, valour, and skill.

Among the Grecians it was usual to confer honours and rewards upon those who distinguished themselves in battle by valiant and courageous conduct. The ordinary rewards presented to conquerors in all the states of Greece, were crowns, which were sometimes inscribed with the person's name and actions that had merited them, as appears from the inscription upon the crown presented by the Athenians to Conon. The Athenians sometimes honoured those who had performed great actions with permission to raise pillars, or erect statues to the gods, with inscriptions declaring their victories. Plutarch, however, supposes this to have been a grant rarely yielded to the greatest commanders. Cimon, who commanded the Athenian fleet against the Persians, became master of the city of Eion, in Thrace, and was, on account of his not imitating former commanders, by standing upon the defensive, but repulsing the enemy, and carrying the war into their own country, highly respected and admired by his countrymen, who allowed him, in honour of his success over the enemy, to erect three pillars of stone or marble, each surmounted with the head of Mercury; but though they bore an inscription, Cimon was not permitted to inscribe his name upon them. These pillars were considered by his contemporaries as the highest honour which had then been conferred upon any commander.

Trajan's Pillar was erected in the middle of his Forum, and was composed of twenty-four great pieces of marble, but so curiously cemented as to seem but one. Its height is 128 feet. It is about 12 feet in diameter at the bottom, and 10 at the top. It has in the inside 185 steps for ascending to the top, and forty windows for the admission of light. The whole pillar is incrusted with marble, on which are represented the warlike exploits of that Emperor and his army, particularly in Dacia. On the top was a Colossal figure of Trajan, holding in his left hand a sceptre, and in his right a hollow globe of gold, in which his ashes were put, but Eutropius affirms that his ashes were put under the pillar.

The pillar of Antoninus was erected after his death, by the Senate, in honour of his memory. It is 176 feet high, the steps of ascent 106, and the windows 56. The sculpture and other ornaments are much of the same kind with those of Trajan's pillar, but the work is greatly inferior.

Pompey's Pillar, as it is commonly called, in the city of Alexandria in Egypt, is equally celebrated with the two just mentioned. It is composed of red granite. The base is a square of about 15 feet on each side; this block of marble, 60 feet in circumference, rests on two layers of stone bound together with lead. The shaft and the upper member of the base are of one piece of 90 feet long, and nine in diameter. The capital is corinthian, with palm leaves, and not indented; it is 9 feet high. The whole column is 114 feet in height. It is perfectly well polished, and only a little shivered on the eastern side. Nothing can equal the majesty of this column; seen from a distance it overtops the town, and serves as a signal for vessels. Approaching it nearer, it produces astonishment mixed with awe. The eye can never be tired with admiring the beauty of the capital, the length of the shaft, nor the extraordinary simplicity of the pedestal.

Among the first inhabitants of the world after the flood there were pillars erected sacred to the Pythonic god, Apollo, or the Sun. These pillars had curious hieroglyphical inscriptions; they were very lofty and narrow in comparison of their length; hence among the Greeks, who copied from the Egyptians, every thing gradually tapering to a point was stiled an Obelisk.

MASON THE POET.

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