terprize, or undergo any danger. Were I but a Pagan, now, I would implore the aid of Jupiter Mufcarius, and fleep without fear of muskitoes. But as this is the eighteenth century, there are but two fpiritual beings whofe peculiar patronage could be of fervice: Beelzebub, or the Lord of Flies, is one, whom I muft renounce with all his works, even that of fly-flapping; the other power I cannot escape, and muft refign myself to SCRATCH for the night. The walls exhibit faints in profufion. A fculptured crucifix, and a print perhaps worth describing. The Virgin Mary forms the mast of one fhip, and Christ of another, ftanding upon the chapel of Loretto, which probably ferves for the cabin. The Holy Ghost, in the shape of a dove, flies behind, filling the fails, while a gentleman in a bag-wig climbs up the fide of one of the veffels. We are going to fup on our English beef. They have brought us a vinegar veffel, about the fize of a porter pot; excellently contrived for thefe two reafons; on account of the narrowness of its neck, it is impoflible ever to clean it; and being of lead, it makes the vinegar fweet, and of course poisonous ! On entering the room, we defired the boy to remove a vefiel that did not fcent it agreeably. So little idea had he that it was offenfive, that he removed it from under the bed only to place it in the closet! At midnight we heard the arrival of a poft from Madrid, who awoke the people of the house by cracking his whip. I cannot fay he awoke me, for I, like Polonius, was at fupper, not where I eat, but where I was eaten. The ingenious gentleman who communicated his difcovery, to the public, in the Encyclopædia, that nine millions of mites eggs amount exactly to the fize of one pigeon's egg, may, if he please, calculate what quantity of blood was ex tracted from my body in the courfe of feven hours; the bed being fix feet two and a half by four feet five, and as populous as poffible in that given space. I have always affociated very unpleafant ideas with that of breakfasting by candlelight. We were up before five this morning. The two beds were to be packed up, and all our baggage to be replaced in the coach. Our allowance was a fmall and fingle cup of chocolate, fwallowed standing and in haste. This meal is perhaps in England the most focial of the day; and I could not help remembering the time when I was fure to meet a cheerful face, a good fire, and the Courier, at breakfaft. At day-break I quitted the coach. The country was more wild and more beautiful than what we had paffed yesterday. In the dingle below us on the right, at the foot of a dark and barren hill, a church ftood, on the banks of a winding rivulet. The furze, even at this season, is in bloffom. Before us, a little to the left, was a bold and abrupt mountain; in parts naked precipices of rock; in parts richly varied with pines, leaflefs chefnut trees, and oaks that still retained their withered foliage. A ftream, foaming along its rocky channel, wound at the base; intercepted from our view where the hill extended its gradual defcent, and visible again beyond: a tuft of trees, green even from their roots, grew on the banks; on the fummit of the mountain ftands a church, through whose towers the light was vifible: around us were mountains, their fides covered with dark heath, and their fantastic tops richly varied with light and fhade. The country is rude and rocky; the houses all without chimnies; and the appearance of smoke iffuing through their roofs very fingular and very beautiful, as it rose flowly tinged by the rifing fun. In about three hours we began the winding afcent of Monte Salgueira whofe whofe fummit had clofed the morning profpect. By afcending directly, I reached the top long before the mules. There I refted, and looked back on the watch-tower of Coruna, fix leagues diftant, and the Bay of Bifcay. * We proceeded two leagues further to Griteru, over a country of rocks, mountains, and fwamps. The venta there exceeded all my conceptions of poffible wretchednefs. The kitchen had no light but what came through the apertures of the roof or the adjoining tables. A wood fire was in the middle, and the smoke found its way out how it could; of courfe, the rafters and walls were covered with foot, The furniture confifted of two benches and a bed, I forbear to fay how clean. The inhabitants of the ftable were a mule and a cow; of the kitchen, a miferable meagre cat, a woman, and two pigs, who were as familiar as a young lady's lap-dog. I never faw a human being disfigured by fuch filth and fqualidnefs as the woman; but fhe was anxious to accommodate us, and we were pleafed by her attempt to please us. We had brought an undreffed rump of beef from Corunna, and fried fome fteaks ourselves; and, as you may suppose, after having travelled twenty miles, at the rate of three miles an hour, almost breakfaftlefs, we found the dinner excellent. I even began to like the wine; fo foon does habit reconcile us to any thing. Florida Blanca has erected a very good houfe at this place, defigned for a pofada, but nobody will tenant it! The people here live in the fame ftyle with their fwine; and feem to have learnt their obftinacy as well as their filth. After dinner we went to look at an arch that had ftruck us as we entered the village. The lane that leads to it seems to have been paved with ftones from the ruins. We were told that the place belonged to Conde Aminanti, and that the arch had led into the court-yard in the time of the Moors. Evidently, however, it was not Moorish. The few fences they have are very unpleasant to the eye; they are made with flate ftones, about three feet high, placed upright. The diftance from Griteru to Bamonde is two leagues. Half the diftance we went by a wretchedly rugged way, for the new road is not completed. It is a great undertaking; a raised terrace, with innumerable bridges. We faw many birch trees, and a few hedges of broom. I was reminded of the old perfonification of economy, by feeing two boys walk by the carriage barefooted, and carry their fhoes. Near Bamonde is fome of the most beautiful fcenery I ever beheld. There is an old bridge, of four arches, almost covered with ivy, over a broad but fhallow ftream, that within a few yards makes a little fall, and circles a number of iflets covered with heath and broom. Near it was a fmall coppice of birch, and a fine fingle birchtree hung over the bridge, waving its light branches. The hill on the oppofite fhore rifes abruptly, a mass of rock and heath. About two hundred yards behind, on a gentler afcent, ftands a church. The churches are fimple and friking; they have no tower, but the bells are hung in a fingle wall, which ends in a point with a crucifix. The sheep on the hills were, as they generally are in this country, black, and therefore did not enliven the landscape as in England; but this was well supplied by a herd of goats. It was evening when we reached the pofada. I fhould think Griteru the worst place in Europe, if we were not now at * At a pofada you find beds. A venta only accommodates the traveller while he refts by day. at Bamonde. Judge you how bad that place muft be, where I do not with you were with me! At none of these houses have they any windows, and if you would exclude the air, you must likewife exclude the light. There are two beds in the room. Their high heads fanctified with a crucifix, which M. obferved must certainly be a monumental cross to the memory of the last traveller devoured by the bugs. The mafter of the pofada here is a crazy old prieft; very inquifitive, and equally communicative,who looked into all our books, and brought us his breviary, and fhewed us that he could still read it. The woman was very anxious to know if they were at war with England. She faid how forry the should be if fuch a war should take place; becaufe fo many good things came from England; and particularly fuch beautiful muflin; and this woman, fo interested left muflin fhould be scarce, had scarcely rags enough to cover her! We have warmed ourfelves by NEAR dreffing our own fupper. The kitchen, as ufual, received its light thro' the ftable, and is without a chimney; fo you may eafily guess the complexion of the timbers and the bacon-faced inhabitants. We were affembled round one of the largest fires you ever faw, with fome of the men of the village in wooden fhoes-three or four children-the mayoral and zagal-the mad prieft-the hoftefs, and the pigs, who are always admitted to the fire-fide in this country.So totally regardlefs are they of danger, that there was a large heap of dry furze within fix feet of the fire! and when one of the men wanted a little light without, he seized a handful of ftraw, and carried it blazing through the ftable. We fupped again on beaf-fteaks, and manufactured the remainder into foup, to carry on with us. They raise good potatoes and turnips here, and have even promised us milk in the morning. They boiled fome wine for us in an iron ladle. Bread is almost as dear as in England. ACCOUNT OF A BANIAN TREE IN THE PROVINCE OF BAHAR. NEAR Manjee, a small town at the confluence of the Dewah (or Gogra) and the Ganges, about twenty miles weft of the city of Patna, there is a remarkably large tree, called a bur, or banian tree, which has the quality of extending its branches, in a horizontal direction, to a confiderable distance from its stem; and of then dropping leaflefs fibres, or fcions, to the ground, which there catch hold of the earth, take root, embody, grow thick, and ferve either to fupport the protracted branches, or, by a farther vegetation, to compofe a fecond trunk. From these branches, other arms again fpring out, fall down, enter the ground, grow up again, and constitute a third ftem, and fo on. From the oppofite pretty high bank of the Ganges, and at the diftance of near eight miles, we perceived this tree, of a pyramidical fhape, with an eafy-fpreading flope from its fummit to the extremity of its lower branches; and mistook it, at firft, for a fmall hill. We had no quadrant to take its height, but the middle, or principal fem, is confiderably higher, I think, than the higheft elm or other tree I ever faw in England. The following comprise fome other of its dimenfions, which were taken with a cord of a given length: Diameter of the branches, rds. Feet 121 or 363 125 or 375 Circum *One of these measurements, we prefume, must have been taken from east to west. Circumference of the shadow of the extreme branches, taken at the meridian Circumference of the feveral bodies, or items, taken by carrying the cord round the outermost trunks rds. Feet tre of a banian tree, looks extremely grand; and yet none of the European landscape painters who have delineated views of this country, have in372 or 1116 troduced this characteristic object into their pieces. I frequently obferved it also shooting from old walls and running along them. In the infide of a large brick well, it lined the 307 or 921 whole circumference of the internal fpace of it, and thus actually became a tree turned infide out. The feveral trunks may This tree, as well as the peepel, and many other large trees in India, is a creeper. It is often seen to spring round other trees, particularly round every species of the palm. The date, or palmyra, growing through the cen Under the tree fat a fakir, a devo He had been there twenty-five years; but he did not continue under the tree throughout the year, his vow obliging him to lie, during the four coldeft months, up to his neck in the Ganges, and to fit, during the four hotte months, clofe to a large fire." CONTEMPORARY ACCOUNT OF THE MURDER OF JAMES I. UPON his exile this Sir Robert Grame toke his (way) ynto the countreis of the wild Scottis, wher that he conspired and ymagynd how that he myght deftruye his kyng. And furthwith he renounfed his legeance, and by wordes, and by writyng, he defied hem, feying that he had deftruyd him, his wif, and his childerne, his haritages, and all his other godes by his cruell tyranny. Wherefor he faid he would flee hym (with) his owne handes as his mortall enmye, yf ever he myght fe tyme, and fynd wais and meanes. Therto the kyng, hugely vexid in his fpretes with the traturous and malicious rebellion of the faid Sir Robert Grame, did mak an opwn proclamacion by all the reyme of Scotteland, that whofo myght flee or tak hyme, and bryng hym to the kynges prefence, fhuld have iii thoufand demyes of gold, every pece worth half an English noble. Nocht long after this the kyng lete fo ordeyne his parliament yn due forme at Edenbourghe, fomunde yn Ed. Mag. May 1797. the yere of oure Lord a thoufand, foure, hundreth, fix and thirtye, yn the feft of All Hallowen. To the which parliament the faid Sir Robert Grame ftired a full cruell vengeance ayene the kyng, fent privie meffages and letturs to certayne men and fervantes of the Duke of Albayne, whome the kyng a litill afore hade done rigoruly to deth, lich as hit is entitild here afore, opynly, that if thay confent and faver hym, he wold uttirly take upon him for to flee the kyng, left thurgh his tyrannye and covetife he would deftruy this reame of Scotteland: and the corone of the land fhall be yovon to Sir Robert Stuard, which is the kyng's cofyn, and next of the right of the corone, bot yf the kyng had a-fune. the fame Robert's fadir thenne liggyng in hoftage to the kyng, of England, for the faid James kyng of Scottes, yn the toure of London, till that his fynaunce were fully content and paid. And the faid Sir Robert's grantefire, Erle of Atheelles, of that treifon and counfell as hit was faid; and by hymX x felfe cautreth of the wild Scottes; where, yn a close of Blackfriars withowt the faid towne, the kyng held a gret fest. "I fhall ordeyne for my fure kepyng "fufficiently, I trust to God, so I am "undir youre kynghood and in the "fervice of love." And thus the kyng yn his folas plaid with the knyght. felfe fecretly defirid and covetid to have the corone. For which caules the fame Sir Robert Grame was half the better confentid to beying thaire Where upon a day, as the kying purpos to effecte. For this Sir Ro- plaid at the cheffes with oone of his bert Stuard did ever abide yn the knyghtis, whome yn playing wife he kynge's prefence, full famulier aboute clepid kyng of love, for he was a hyme at all houres, and most privey lufti man, full amorous, and much above all other; and was a full gen- medeled hym with loves' arte. And till fquyer, fresh, lufty, and right a- as hit came the kyng to mynd of the myable. Whome the kyng entierly propheci fpokyne before, the kyng loved as his owne fones; and for the faid to this knyght, "Sir kyng of tendure love that he had to hyme, he "love," quod he, "hit is nat long made (hym) constable of all his hoft, "agone fith I redd a propheci, fpoand.... at the fege of Edenbourgh. "kyne tofore, that I faw how that After this the kyng fodenly avifid "this yere fhuld a kyng be flayn yn made a folempne feft of the Criftyn- "this land. And ye wot well, Sir mes at Perth, which is clepid Sant "Alexander, there be no mo kyngs Johns towne, which is from Eden-“ yn this realme bot ye and I; and bourgh on that other fide of the Scot- "therefor I cownefell you that ye tesh fee, the which is vulgarly clepid" be well ware, for I let you wit that the Water of Lethe. Yn the myddis of the way thare arose a woman of Yreland, that clepid herfelfe as a futhfayer. The which anone as fhe faw the kyng, fhe cried with lowde voife, faying thus, "My lord kyng, and ye pase this water, ye shall never turne ayane on lyve." The kyng heryng this, was aftonyed of her wordis; for bot a litill to fore he had red yn a prophefie, that yn the felfe fame yere the kyng of Scottes fhuld be flayne. And therwithall the kying as he rode clepid to him oone of his knyghtis, and gave him yn comaundment to torne ayane to fpeke with that woman, and afk of here what fheo wold, and what thyng fheo ment with her lowd crying? And fheo began, and told hym as ye hafe hard of the kynge of Scottes, yf he paffed that water. As now the kynge afkid her how fheo knew that? And fheo faid that Huthart told her fo. Sire,' quod he, men may calant y tak non hede of yond woman's wordes, for theo nys bot a drunkine fule, and wot not what fheo faith.' And fo with his folk paffid the water, clepid the Scottishe fee, towards Saynt Johnnes towne, bott iiii myles from the Withyn fhort tyme after this, the kyng beyng in his chambur talkyng and playng with the lordes, knyghtis, and fquyers, that were aboute hyme, fpak of many dyvers maters. Amonges was there a fquyer that was right acceptable to the kyng, that speke, and faid," For fothe my lord," quod he, "6 me dremed varelye to nyght that "Sir Robert Graham fhuld hafe layne you." And that heryng the Erle of Orkeney, thoo warnyd the fquyer that he thuld hald his peace, and tell nane fuch tales yn the kynges prefence. And therwith the kyng herying this fquyer's dreme, remembred hymfelfe how that fame nyght how (heo) had a fweyvyn flepyng; and femyd to hym varaly that a cruell ferpent, and an horribill tode, affailed him furiously yn his kynges-chambur; and how he was fore afright and aferd of hym, and that he had nothyng wherwith he myght focoure and defend hymfelfe, but oonly a |