two Spanish galleons, and two London galleys, all lost in the space of twenty years, on many of them with good success, but that he had been very near drowning in the engine five times. The apparatus about twenty years ago was at Governor Holdsworth's, at Dartmouth, but it was then in a decaying state. Mr. Lethbridge is thus noticed in the register of the parish of Wolborough: "Dec. 11, 1759, buried Mr. John Lethbridge, inventor of a most famous diving-machine, by which he recovered from the bottom of the sea, in different parts of the globe, almost 100,000l. for the English and Dutch merchants, which had been lost by shipwreck." There is reason to suppose that Mr. Lethbridge was the first person, who, by his ingenuity and intrepidity, succeeded in recovering goods from wrecked vessels. There is I believe no record of Phipps' bell, which was of prior invention, having been used successfully for that purpose. THE EMIGRANT: A SKETCH FROM LIFE. WELL, sir, the beds were put up, || these calls; and to tell the truth, the the chairs placed, the books found reception we met with afforded us themselves comfortably arranged, much more amusement than did the statues from the antique ascended whole of their company. I should their brackets, the pictures were hung also have said that the clergyman in the best possible light, yet nobody made his call; but as it is not my came. We appeared at church, but || wish to bring any part of a profesno one knocked at the door. Nay, sion for which I have the highest opithe garden was nearly finished à la nion into contempt, I shall not state Repton, but still no one arrived. | the result of this gentleman's acThey order this matter better in Lon-quaintance. don, thought I. At length an elderly At Mr. Snitcher's we were receivgentleman, under four feet, who haded with much overstrained politeshewn me some civilities at a sale of household furniture, did call, but it was at half-past four o'clock, in the middle of my dinner. Frightened at the cloth he beheld on the table, he bowed an adieu through the glass window. I guess, as the American says, he came to smoke his pipe; but, like Monsieur Tonson, he was never seen again. We now were in a fit mood to visit our relations, and when we returned, we were blessed with the signs of something like society; for we found cards from Mr. and Mrs. Glum, Mr. Snitcher, and the two Misses Drinkwater. We returned ness, proffered in all the agonies of mauvaise honte. The relief on our departure which played on this gentleman's countenance, sufficiently informed us how rejoiced he felt to see our backs. At Mr. Glum's we were greeted with the most adumbrating coolness; the conversation was carried on so agreeably, that I believe neither party cast their eyes towards the door more than once in a minute. However, some of these good folks did muster a dinner; the decanters. circulated rather heavily: we returned the feeds. Again all was quiet, and I found myself in a solitude in the centre of society. Alas! sir, I had indeed reckoned without my host, when I flattered myself, from the society I had been used to in London, that on some topic or other I might come recommended to the Goths of C****; but I soon found, that to harangue on the merits of a good picture, was to them to speak in an unknown language. The accounts of the theatre or opera were deeper and deeper still. Books, except Taplin's Farriery, or The Cattle-Doctor, they never read. The price of turnips, of wheat, the changes in the weather, were all they cared about; and if I came across a gentleman of birth or education, he had sunk to the level of those around him, and with them talked the same jargon, while to his equals he held forth on turnpike-roads, parish settlements, and appeals on the tythe-laws. As a new-comer, I became the depositary of all their secrets, their little heart-burnings and jealousies, and had I believed half the insinuations thrown out for my acceptance, I should have found that every inhabitant bore a complete opposition to the honourable character of the Howards, of whom I think it was said, "that all the sons were brave, and all the daughters virtuous." Once or twice we determined to be at home: we sent out the most humble invitations, for fear of alarming the natives; for in a place where etiquette is not known even by name, this was no very easy business. We did now and then conjure up a few spirits, for whom preparations were made as for a genteel party, and when I saw who was arriving, my heart sunk with chagrin. heaven, it was the last! But to describe it. There were Mr. and Mrs. Calvin, who never touched a card; Mr. Glum, who doted on a rubber, his wife ditto, daughters ditto dittothey sat gaping and casting anxious sidelong glances at the card-table, which stood quietly closed up in the corner of the room; but the Miss Calvin's spoke of the charms of conversation, yet they got no further than how very cold the weather was for the season, and hoping as the summer arrived it would be finer. Mr. Snitch talked of the marriages and deaths of a circle ten miles round. I introduced a few print-books, but they spilt coffee on the embellishments, and toasted the letter-press. At length, sir, the hour came when they were to depart. Oh! what joy could exceed ours when we heard the clatter of their pattens dying away upon the breeze! The animal flow of spirits, which had been thus corked up, began to effervesce, and burst forth in peals of laughter. My wife echoed my Io triumphes! at the finish of this evening. We danced about the room with delight, and while my better half was laughing loud and long at the ridiculous caricatures of our ludicrous friends, the two Misses Drinkwater, who, un known to us, had been detained in the hall, hunting for their pincushion, and had overheard all, burst with an air of indignation into the room. I made them as low a bow as I thought became me, and they disappeared; while our mirth, by no means diverted at this mal à propos intrusion, burst forth louder still. I remember my father, good Mr. Lawyer Trusty of Lyons Inn, informThe last coterie of these enlight-ing me, that he once sold a house, ened ones was delightful. Thank and the good-will of an excellent can relish them no longer. "Roses now unheeded lie," for my wife is tired of gathering them; and disgusted with the vulgarity around me, to which novelty was the only china - shop, for a painstaking couple, who becoming tired of being happy, longed for retirement and a cottage. The shop was sold, and the couple emigrated to a pigeon-house at Peckham-Rise. Scarcely, how-recommendation, I pine for civiliever, had they enjoyed the sight of the stage-coaches passing the door every quarter of an hour, when they became fatigued with the monotony of their lives, and longed once more to deal in china utensils. The old man came soon after to my legal parent, with tears in his eyes, and conjured him to reinstate him in his old shop, ere his old woman and himself gave up the ghost for want of employment. His appearance corroborated this statement; but the new occupier, lothe to leave a good thing, which he now found coveted by another, demanded a considerable sum for his accommodation. The old man readily complied with this demand, and himself and wife speedily overcame the illness which ennui alone had caused, and they lived to a great age, enjoying themselves to the last in their old concern. I had often laughed at this old couple, but I now found myself in a similar situation. I have eaten cabbages out of my own garden, until I zation and society: in other words, I ANECDOTES, &c. HISTORICAL, LITERARY, AND PERSONAL. IRISH KEENS. HAVING a curiosity, says Mr. Croker, to hear the keen more distinctly sung than over a corpse, when it is accompanied by a wild and inarticulate uproar as a chorus, I cured an elderly woman, who was renowned for her skill in keening, to recite for me some of these dirges. This woman, whose name was Har pro rington, led a wandering kind of life, and travelling from cottage to cottage about the country, found every where not merely a welcome, but had numerous invitations, on account of the vast store of Irish verses she had collected and could repeat. Her memory was indeed extraordinary; and the clearness, quickness, and elegance with which she translated from was gone! the renowned 'Squire Cox! "My love and darling, you were nearly related to the Lord of Clare and to O'Donovan of Bawnlehan; to Cox with the blue eyes, and to Townsend of White Court. This is the appointed day for your funeral, and yet I see none of them coming to place even a green sod over you." the Irish into English, though unable to read or write, is almost incredible. Before she commenced repeating, she mumbled for a short time, probably the beginning of each stanza, to assure herself of the arrangement, with her eyes closed, rocking her body backwards and forwards, as if keeping time to the measure of the verse. She then began in a kind of whining recitative, but as she proceeded, and as the composition required it, her voice assumed a variety of deep and fine tones, and the energy with which many pas-cal picture of the punishment of a sages were delivered, proved her culprit who had been convicted of perfect comprehension and strong theft: feeling of the subject; but her eyes always continued shut, perhaps to prevent interruption to her thoughts, or her attention being engaged by any surrounding object. The following keen was composed on Sir Richard Cox, the historian, who died in 1773: My love and darling, though I never was in your kitchen, yet I have heard an exact account of it. The brown roast meat continually coming from the fire; the black boilers continually boiling; the cock of the beer-barrel for ever running; and if even a score of men came in, no person would inquire their business, but they would give them a place at your table, and let them eat what they pleased, nor would they bring a bill in the morning to them. A FLOGGING-MATCH. The poet Cowper, in one of his letters, gives the following whimsi He was ordered to be whipt, which operation he underwent at the cart'stail. He seemed to shew great fortitude, but it was all an imposition upon the public. The beadle who performed it had filled his left hand with red ochre, through which, after every stroke, he drew the lash of his whip, leaving the appearance of a wound upon the skin, but in reality not hurting him at all. This being perceived by Mr. Constable Hwho followed the beadle, he applied his cane, without any such management or precaution, to the shoulders of the too merciful executioner. The scene immediately became more interesting. The beadle could by no means be prevailed upon to strike hard, which provoked the constable to strike harder; and this double flogging continued, till a lass, pitying the pitiful beadle thus suffering under the hands of the pitiless constable, joined the procession, and placing herself immediately behind the latter, seized him by his capillary club, and pulling him backwards by the same, slapped his face with a most Amazonian fury. AURICULAR CONFESSION. interrupted in his purpose, he returned, and mounting his horse, rode on to London, and soon afterwards shot himself. - PETER BAJUS, Louis XIV. is related to have once asked a priest, whether, in case a penitent confided to him the knowledge of a plot that was forming to take away the life of his king, he would inform him of the danger. To this question the confessor replied: "No, sire: I would throw myself before your majesty to ward off the blow; but were you certain to fall by the hand of the assassin, I would not be-trians are said to be mere children's tray the confession." JEREMIAH CLARK, If we may credit the accounts we have received from the Continent, there is now living in the grandduchy of Hesse a young man, to whose performances the most celebrated feats of our English pedes play. His name is Peter Bajus; he is twenty-eight years old, upwards of six feet to inches high, slender, but large boned, and has large hands and feet. While a boy he surpassed all his comrades both in strength and swiftness. He will carry two hundred weight above a mile without resting, and three half the distance; and can drive six hundred weight in a wheelbarrow along very dirty roads. Without any particular ex who was organist to the Chapel Royal at the beginning of the last century, had the misfortune to entertain a hopeless passion for a very beautiful lady, in a station far above him. His despair of success threw him into a deep melancholy, and he grew weary of life. Being one day at the house of a friend in the country, he abruptly resolved to return to Lon-ertion, he will run two miles and a don. His friend having observed in his behaviour signs of great dejection, furnished him with a horse and a servant. Riding along the road, he was seized with a fit of melancholy, on which he alighted, and giving his servant his horse to hold, went into a field, in a corner of which was a pond, and also trees, and began a debate with himself, whether he should there end his days by hanging or drowning. Not being able to resolve on either, he thought of making chance the umpire, and drew out of his pocket a piece of money, and tossed it into the air. It came down on its edge, and stuck in the clay. This determination was far from ambiguous, as it seemed to forbid both modes of destruction, and would have given unspeakable comfort to a mind less disordered than his was. Being thus Vol. III. No. XVI. half in eighteen minutes, and thirty at a stretch, which surpasses the ability of our best racehorses. On the 15th of February last he set out at two o'clock in the afternoon from Frankfort for Hanau, and notwithstanding the badness of the roads, and the obstruction he experienced from the curiosity of the immense concourse of the inhabitants of both towns and an intermediate village, through whom he had literally to fight his way, he arrived again at Frankfort in two hours and ten minutes, during which time he had travelled over a space equal to twenty English miles, and taken no other refreshment than a single glass of wine. Bajus has never been ill in his life; he is moderate both in eating and drinking, and of a phlegmatic disposition. I r |