multitude; and the fear of punishment for as the wood grows together, so And I stood

in another world, for crimes wrought in this, was still the whip to hold men in order, which the poet has imagined. The tragic close of the line of Neyland was dramatised by the active imaginations of the peasantry. One had seen strange lights-a second had heard strange noises-and a third had seen a shape so questionable, that he had no doubt the spirit of old Neyland, invoked by the powers of Ruth Rushbrook, had come back to earth to punish a disobedient son.

will my child recover.

and blessed the tree, as the old story bids us-and looked upon it, that I might know, it again. The church clock had warned twelve, when an owl flew by, and a bat followed-and a cloud came over the moon, and thick rain fell, and the wind was loosed, and thunder was heard, and fire from heaven ran along the ground. I trembled for my babe. But that was nought. What think ye I saw? Nay, I am not sure that I saw it, either-and yet Several of the ruling names of the how such a vision should come into my district-the Chiltons, the Peytons, the brain, unless it passed before me, I Malets, the Winthorps, and Gurdons, know not. Suppose that I saw it. were there along with Mr. Horegrove, Then ye may suppose me half way the divine, when an old man came from Coldengame to the church-yard pressing forward, with the sweat of -and that, as I stood with my babe fear, as well as of haste, on his brow in my arms, I saw a fearful light_runhe looked on the body, and said, ning upon the "Who doubts that a supernatural hand the shapes or shadows of men coming And then I saw grass. was here? I myself have seen a sight they were shadows if shadows can which will be ever before me, were I to be without bodies, and they came all live these threescore years and seven." muttering, and muttering, and mutter"Old man," said the divine, "re- ing-making a noise-like the twitter member that you stand before a body of wild geese when they hear a distant on which the hand of God hath this sound. I may not, dare not name evening been, and that your words are them-for there I saw all the evil dofor the ears of devout men-speak, ers of the district-some dead many therefore, advisedly---we seek for years, and some dead, as it were, but truth-we wish not to find romance." yesterday, and they went sweeping "Romance !" said the old man, away towards Coldengame-and who "what's that? But if it be ought of a d'ye think was the hindmost? man's invention, then I tell ye that but old Ned Neyland himself. who truth is wilder than the wildest roWhy, the wickedest spirits should be last, let mance-truth, and truth only, shall I the divines tell ye-but there he was much the same griping and deceitful look that he had when living. Had there been justice among the damned, he would have been at the head of them. I followed with my child-for why should I fear these babes of darkness?-and then I heard the cry that young Coldengame was killed on his own threshold. And now ye know as much as I do." And when he had done speaking, he departed.

tell you.

"Look at this child ;" and he held up an infant, which he had folded up very carefully in a long mantle; "and wonder not that I love it. The child grew weak, and began to fade away, and I wrapt it up as you see, and came to pass it through a cloven ash at Coldengame, as my fathers have done before me, when something evil had breathed upon their babes. I singled out a fair tree-a stripling ash-I cleft it with my own hands-and having blessed my babe, first I passed it eastward, with a prayer-then I brought it westward, with another prayer-and each time that I slipt it through, it laughed, and leaped for joy. So I tied up the young tree with a careful hand

conjectures, and the superstitious imWhen all present had exhausted their pulse was beginning to abate, they removed the body into a little chamber, with a window which opened upon the lawn; and returning to the wine, circulated the cup with a grave and a silent rapidity. The storm had for some

ling." "It is fulfilling, indeed," said an old pious man, whose white hairs had not been abroad in the night damp for fifteen years. "Here stood the landmark of Ruth Rushbrook; and here have I seen her kneeling, crying for heaven's vengeance on the spoiler of the widow and the fatherless. We buried the father yesterday, and here lies his only son to-night-his life's blood marking the boundary, and staining the stone land-mark, which in a fatal hour he removed. Let us carry this youth home; and when we see an evil deed done, and him that did it flourishing, let us think on the name of Neyland, and on the curse of Coldengame."

time flown by, the moon had resumed her reign, and you might have seen the rooks pluming their drenched wings, on the pine-trees, for a mile around. All the marvellous stories of the dead and the wicked, which the district contained—were told with many a comment it was still two hours from the morning light. "There was wild Tom Grimstone," said one, "you know Tom(Why this wine grows better) he was passing through Dowsley church-yard, when his foot took an old skull, and Tom tumbled. (This is what I call right stuff.) So he turned round, and gave it a blow with his foot. I would come and sup with ye to-night for all that has passed,' said Tom to the skull, "if ye had the grace to ask me.' Now In the course of this wild story the at midnight-(Another cup of wine, current of the narrative has been allowGilsington, for I tell this story badly)-ed to meander according to all the va

At midnight a voice came crying Come sup with me.' And Tom's grandame rose from her knees, and said, 'What voice is that?'-and the voice answered, "Ah! had it not been for thy prayers, Tom Grimstone should have supped with me in hell.' It's a true story-I have heard it a hundred times."

Ere he had done speaking, a voice, to which two or three were instantly joined, cried, "In heaven's name, come here! Elias is up and gone, body as well as soul." All rushed into the chamber-it was floating with blood, but no body was to be found. "An evil spirit has entered the body, and walked away with it into the bottomless pit," said one.-"It is the hand of heaven," said a second. "The hand of the fiend, rather," said a third. "He has gone forth at the window," said a fourth, leaping into the lawn; "and here's his blood staining all the grasslike the blood of a wounded deer." "I have lost the trace now," cried a fifth; "he has sunk into the earth here the blood is scarce cooled on the grass." "And here he lies," cried a sixth, "on this small narrow ridge and half-a-dozen cows are running snuffing and marvelling round him; he's cold and stiff.” "And there's a carved stone under him," said a seventh; "his blood has run freely over it-the curse of Coldengame's fulfil

rieties of popular belief. In telling a tale which is old and mysterious-and perhaps can never be unravelled-it is best to relate all the various versions and comments in the order in which they come : it forms a curious history of traditional belief, and affords an opportunity to a reader desirous of signalizing his own sagacity of coming to a conclusion satisfactory at least to himself. I have not ventured any opinion of my own-I wish not to be wiser than other men-such a distinction would be exceedingly painful; and I am quite willing to believe with all the varying traditions in the dairy district of Suffolk. Once indeed, in my youthful and undiscerning days, I had the hardihood to endeavour to draw aside the supernatural veil which belief had extended over the catastrophe of the house of Neyland-it was looked upon as an insult to the country-and I lost many a choice and wonderful legend— for the flowing founts of ancient stories instantly dried up-and I lost an annual present of two noble cheeses, which the rich pastures of Coldengame produced. When I had written thus far, I submitted my narrative to a worthy old pastoral proprietor of Suffolk, who was pleased to commend the spirit in which I had united all the circumstances and opinions together. The landmark, he assured me, is still pointed out by the peasantry, stained with

blood-no one presumes to touch itfor the spirits of the two Neylands are laid below it-and they would be let loose again on earth, were it removed. He had the charity to assure me, that he thought good old feelings and beliefs, and salutary terrors of evil, and dread of the invisible world, would be cher

WE

ished and strengthened by the publication of this legend-and he bade me hope that the proprietors of the butter and cheese portion of Suffolk would reward my desire to signalize their country by a mark of their respect worthy of my merit, and of their own unrivalled pastoral productions.

PERKINS'S STEAM ENGINE.
(Mon. Feb.)

E have seen many attempts to explain the principles of Mr. Perkin's new steam-engine, but none which is more likely to render them plain to every capacity than the observations contained in the Four Dialogues just published between an Oxford Tutor and a Disciple of the Common Sense Philosophy. Many of our readers will therefore thank us for giving place to the passage:

"The basis of Mr. Perkins's improve ment consists in his bringing water into ac tual contact with the metal, by which the excitement is directly communicated to the water, which excitement, heretofore, has been allowed to dissipate itself by the sim ultaneous generation of steam. The atomic motion, transferred by the fixation of the gases in the process of the external combustion, passes through the substance of the vessel containing the water, and its first effect has been to convert the adjoining liquid into steam. Room being allowed in ordinary boilers for the expansion of this steam, the ultimate force consisted only of the first simple force; or, if accelerated, the acceleration depended on the vague dimensions and decreasing strength of an extended surface of boiler. But Mr. Perkins has contrived to press his liquid into his boiler, or generator, home to the interior surface of his generator, and to keep it full, so that no steam can be simultaneously generated, and hence, as the motion transferred by the fixation of the gases in the adjacent combustion is not simultane ously distributed in steam, the contained water receives all the acceleration of ex

citement of which it is susceptible. This accumulated excitement, does not, how ever, burst the generator, because the strength, other things alike, is inversely as the dimensions, and the thickness can conveniently, in so small a bulk, be increased to any required degree; thus, less of the

motion transferred from the combustion is lost, than when, by the old system, steam was simultaneously generated; and the continued addition accelerates the excitement of the water, on the principle of accelerated motion in falling bodies. From this effect of acceleration, which cannot be complete in an ordinary expanded boiler, Mr. Perkins obtains great excitement with

much less fuel, or less gas-fixing, by com bustion. He loses no motion, and he appropriates the whole by an accelerated result. The expansive force is all the motion of the gases fixed by the combustion; than the expansive force, no explosion can and, as long as the strength of cohesion in the materials of the generator is greater ficiently excited his water, he allows some take place. But, as soon as Mr. P. has sufof it to escape, and every drop then evolves in steam many hundred times the original bulk. The excited atoms, of course, pertherefare, a perception of coldness to the form large orbits, creating a local vacuum, evaporating hand plunged into it, and a force of expansion equal to any required, as 500lbs. or 20,000lbs. to the square inch. confined atoms of water are not to be supIt is a case of motion compressed. The posed at rest; on the contrary, no motion is lost or gained in the whole process. It previously existed in the gases of the attion, which is a mere process of gaseous mosphere; these are fixed by the combusfixation; the generator and its contained water are placed in contact; the atoms in for want of space, to exhibit any of it in water receive the motion, but are unable, forming steam; the continuance of the transfer of motion causes acceleration, and a violent tendency to escape, which, howficient to evolve gas of the required power. ever, is prevented, till the excitement is sufRationally explained, Mr. P.'s machine is founded on principles strictly philosophical-he has safely generated a force beply it with skill, his past reputation, as a fore unknown; and, if he had failed to apmechanic of the first order, would have been undeserved. Till we have fallen upon a medegrees of condensation, as contrasted with thod of applying gases themselves in various mechanical powers, we must be content to regard Mr. Perkins's contrivance for producing the same power with one gallon of water as with sixty, and with one bushel of coals as with four, as the limit of human in

At

genuity in this branch of human art. plication of the force transferred by comthe same time I am persuaded, that the apbustion through water, for the purpose of arriving at mechanical power, will by posterity be considered as a very bungling procedure; and I think that it has been conconfounded by the nonsense about caloric. tinued merely because mankind have been

THE GRACES; OR LITERARY SOUVENIR.

(Blackwood's Mag.)

(Lit. Gaz.)

NOVELTIES! NOVELTIES!