was again dumb. A sudden pause ensued. The young lady and her companion, startled by the silence, looked up, and looked very foolish

too.

Nothing in t'other ever did!-nothing in t'other ever tried, I should think," observed the Squire, at length, somewhat doubtfully.

His friend winked ;-it was no frivolous, no knowing, no wicked wink, but a wink of deep import and mystery. This was not to be endured; the company burst forth en masse, Miss Caroline being among the most impetuous in demanding an explanation.

"Come, Gervase, I see you are bent upon telling a story," said Mr. Briggs; so we may as well have it at once."

"No, no-really-well, if I must," responded the former, with an air of resignation, "perhaps the sooner it is over the better.-I'll trouble you for one more lump of sugar, Miss Caroline. Thanks.Well, it was about twenty years ago, and a little before the Louth meeting, that a large party assembled at Leybury Grange, the seat of old Squire Markham, my great-uncle. There were Colonel Paunch, Lord Mountmartingale, the Hon. Augustus Legge, and some others, all good men and true coursers; and the Squire was pledged to show them some sport. Everything seemed favourable enough; the day was fine, the dogs in condition, and the country promising.

"Come,' said my uncle, leading the way over a low stile into a large open tract, we shall find on this bit of tilt. Form a line, gentlemen!'

"The line was formed, and on they went, with a long-legged slipper in front, holding a brace of greyhounds; but no hare was 'viewed-back again-still no hare.

"Devilish odd!' said my uncle, a little nettled. • We will try along the brow. There are always six or seven brace to be met with there.'

"The brow was tried; fallows and ploughs, rough grasses, and stubbles, all were tried,-still no hare. Forms there were, indeed, fresh and frequent, but not a hare was to be seen. My uncle swore at the long-legged slipper; and Lord Mountmartingale buttoned up his coat.

"Pon my life, my lord, I am very sorry,' said the Squire; but really I can't understand it. There's not a better preserved country

in all England.'

"I certainly never saw better lying,' observed Colonel Paunch, with a slight shiver."

"Heard better, he means," interrupted Mr. Briggs.

"Well-be quiet, Briggs-up and down, across and back, they rode for another hour, and to no better purpose. Meanwhile most of the party began to grow cold; my uncle grew warm in proportion. "It's enough,' he exclaimed, to make coursers cursers !'

"This was his pet pun, and the kind consideration it met with was sufficient to sustain him a good quarter of an hour longer. But again his spirits flagged under such persevering ill fortune.

"I tell ye what it is, sir,' said the long-legged slipper, at length, stopping suddenly, 'it's all along of that tarnation old Madge Myers; she 's a-field.'

"By the living jingo! Tim, you're right!' said my uncle. Burst my boots!'

"He was a little given to adjurations; which, indeed, were confined, for the most part, to 'dashing his buttons!' blowing his wig!' &c. ; but now he went the length of wishing his boots (a new pair of cream-coloured tops) might be burst, if he did not show a hare in a particular spot.

"Tim,' he continued, 'my head to a haystack, we shall find her by the old elm!'

"Why, sir, you bean't a-going to course the witch, sure-ly?' "Bean't I?' muttered my great-uncle."

"And, pray, who, or what, was Madge Myers ?" inquired Mr. Briggs.

66

Madge," continued the narrator, "was an ugly old crone, whose human dwelling stood at one extremity of the little village hard by the Grange. She was a witch, beyond question. Had other proofs been wanting, her age and ugliness afforded sufficient evidence of the fact; inasmuch as it is well known that the devil takes possession of bodies as well as buildings when they become dilapidated, and fit for no one else. Now, it was one of Madge's constant amusements to assume the appearance of a great grey hare. She had oftentimes been descried by the neighbours, hopping about her garden in this shape. The old woman, indeed, used to persist that it was nothing but a tame rabbit which they saw; and she generally had one at hand, to give a colour to her assertion; but, of course, the good people were not such fools as to believe that. Her great delight, however, was, having worried and chased every other hare off the manor, to squat herself among the roots of an old elm-tree, situate in the middle of a wild common, about a couple of miles from the cottage.

"Hither my uncle now conducted his party. Many a time had he coursed that great grey hare; but without success. She always took towards the village, and was soon lost in the small inclosures, running clear away from the best dogs in the county; indeed, some mischance or another seemed invariably to attend her pursuers. One had broken a rib, others had been lamed, and several severely cut, in the course. "Bring up the brindle-pup,' said my great-uncle solemnly. And now, my lord, I'll back him for a hundred, against your best.'

"The match was made; the dogs coupled; and, they had scarcely reached the spot, when So-ho!' shouted the slipper, as away went

puss.

"No law!' cried my uncle; and the dogs were slipped on the instant. The brindle led, and ran well up to the hare. The latter, however, her ears laid flat and her back arched, sped like lightning across the common, making, as usual, for the inclosures: up one of these (a quick-hedge, protected by a low, double rail) she ran; and my lord's dog broke his leg in attempting to follow: still the brindle kept to his work; twice he turned her, and once more she was forced into the common. My uncle, meanwhile, on a thorough-bred chestnut, kept a good place, sweeping over dykes and fences like a professor, as he was. As for Lord Mountmartingale, he soon found himself up to his neck in a drain; while Colonel Paunch was pleasantly located, at no great distance, in the midst of a furze-bush.-The rest were nowhere. -Squire Markham had it all to himself; and, better horse and rider, better dog and hare, never ran a course. Puss, meanwhile, pressed harder than she had ever been before, succeeded with difficulty in

gaining the high-road, and, with "the pup" not a yard behind, dashed gallantly through the village. She reached the low mud wall adjoining the cottage of old Madge, and was in the very act of springing, when the brindle, leaping forward with a tremendous bound, caught her by the scut-off it came! The hare gave a shriek, like a human being, in its agony, and in the same instant disappeared over the garden-fence. The dog followed; but the course was done!

"On my uncle's galloping up, he found the greyhound panting, and dead beat, among the cabbages, with the scut of the lost hare, yet fresh and warm, by his side; but not a trace of puss herself was visible. Next morning most particular inquiries were made concerning the movements, &c. of old Madge. She had not been seen. The same reply was given on the day following.

"Tim,' said my Great-uncle, request Mr. Leach, the apothecary, with my compliments, to call in at Madge's cottage. There must be something the matter with the old lady; and add, that I shall be happy to see him at dinner afterwards.'

"At precisely five minutes to four Mr. Leach made his appearance at the Grange.

"Well, doctor, pray how is Madge Myers?'

"Ah! how is she?' burst from many voices.

"I found the poor old creature,' replied the medical gentleman, rather astounded by the multiplicity of these inquiries, 'in bed, very weak; indeed, almost dead from exhaustion. I have reason to fear the barbarous little wretches in the village have been again maltreating her as a witch;' (your medical men are ever sceptics ;) 'there were evident traces of blood upon her clothes; but she persisted in declining my assistance.'

"Bravo!' said the Squire, looking round in triumph, 'I told you so!'"

"Told them what?" inquired Mr. Briggs, a little pettishly. "Ah! that I can't say; but, soon after, the old woman was seen with a large new cushion in her chair; and was never known, to the day of her death, to sit down without it; and then and then—— Here the old gentleman dropped his voice, and whispered mysteriously, first on his left hand, then on his right.

"Nonsense !"-"You don't say so ?"-" Well, I never !"-" No!" and sundry other ejaculations followed, accompanied by divers nods, shrugs, and other pantomimic expressions of astonishment, as the whisper gradually pervaded the circle.

"Fact!" said the old gentleman aloud, with oracular decision. "And, pray," asked the young lady, who, probably from her proximity to the fire, had acquired an unusual brilliancy of colour, "pray, what became of the brindle-pup?"

"He was bit by a mad dog within the week, and shot, in consequence."

"And you believe all this, do you?" inquired Mr. Briggs.

"Yes, sir, I do," said the old gentleman, turning round very sharply; and, what then?"

"What then?-Oh! nothing-nothing whatever," replied Mr. Briggs, a little startled; "why, then-so do I; that's all!"

His eyebrows attained a perceptible elevation, he tossed off his glass, and here the matter ended.

D. I.

THERE is no use in denying it-the vinous ages of the world seem to be fast drawing to a close-an aqueous one to be rapidly succeeding. Of all the strange revolutions of this time, this is the one I can the least relish or conceive. It is as much of a mystery to me as a grief.

be

Fanaticism I can comprehend, Socialism even, and Chartism,-but Teetotalism I can comprehend as little as I can abide. I can understand how men should make a dead investment of their pleasures in this life, in order to get an usurious profit upon them in the next,-I perfectly conceive how the unlucky man who has nothing should make a good-natured tender of his services, in the way of partition with the lucky man who has much,-I quite comprehend that they who are ill at ease under laws which they do not make should fancy they would very much at ease under laws of their own making,—I comprehend how some men should make foolish combinations to secure new enjoyments, which so many things dispose them to require; but I cannot, for my life, account for the still more foolish combinations of others to annihilate old pleasures, which nothing requires them to destroy. Singular conceit! which, identifying an age of water with an age of gold, would bring back "the nonage of the world, when the only buttery for man or beast was the fountain and the river," change our winecasks into water-butts, and dilute man from a vinous animal into a lymphatic.

For my own part, I am free to confess, that to me the most unpicturesque and insupportable of reformers is Father Mathew. The very thought of him feels damp to me, worse than that of a wet day, or an unaired bed, or a cold clammy hand-that most formidable variety of humid chill. When he crosses my mind's disc, it is as a vast waterspout, with the form and lineaments of man, ready at any given moment, like Undine's mischievous uncle, to condense into a destroying stream, whirling along with its mad eddies, wine-press and vat,-the fruits of vineyard and orchard, together with the mingled fragments of malt-house and brewery; in a word, with the wreck and garniture of a brave world, once under the hallowed patronage of antique Bacchus, and our own Sir John Barleycorn. Oh! it saddens me to think how soon the time may come when the wine-cup will be nothing more than a symbol of departed joys, and the clustering grape have no higher association than the surfeit of a rich man's feast!-when bottles and decantersthe former, by a caprice of fate, already a mere tradition at the messtable-will sound as strange to unfamiliar ears, as to ours the Mazics, the Noggins, the Whiskins, the Bombards, and Black-Jacks of other days; when Burgundies and Clarets, Ports, Sherries, and Madeiras will be things as ambiguous and dark as the Sack, which has puzzled the wits of contending commentators as much as it ever moistened the clay of our jolly and absorbing sires. Yes! it saddens and maddens me to think that the very language of jollity, as well as its instruments, will soon become nothing more than dry memorials of the past, mere ineffectual fires and glow-worms across the track of antiquarian research.

Not that I am insensible to some slight good which has been achieved; not that I would deny that the tepid sobriety of him whose maximum is a quart is not, on the whole, preferable to the fierce inebriety of him whose minimum was a gallon, or that the march of society is less graceful, or less true, for its being a trifle steadier on its legs: still, I am free to confess that, to my mind, there was something massive and noble, as it were, in the deep carousings of the elder men ; a kind of wild grandeur in their excesses, which harmonises well with their robuster natures, and begets a species of reverence for what old Heywood calls the vinosity of nations. Much shall we misconceive the true character of the colossal orgies of our sires, if we see in them nothing higher than the extravagant forms of a base sensual enjoyment; if we do not respect in them the presence of a powerful energy; seeking in animal excitement, in the stimulus of the grape, as in that of war and the chase, the only outlets which the immaturity of their times supplied. It is a saucy, but shrewd, remark of that jeering fellow, Bayle, that, at the time of the Reformation, Christendom was divided among two classes of people, the intemperate and the incontinent, the votaries of Bacchus and Venus; that the former went over to Protestantism, whilst the latter remained where they were. Now, though as ticklish on this point as any man, yet, as Truth is stated, on unexceptionable authority, to reside in a well, I cannot for my life think it any disparagement to the Reformation to have been fished out of a wineflask. Nay, as Venus herself, its alleged rival, is only the more lovely for having sprung from the foam of the sea, it would not much distress me to learn that it was even born of the foam of a tankard! I therefore accept his remark as indicating an interesting fact, that the nations which have run up the longest scores with the vintners are those which have been the boldest in their wars, and have the largest account in the ledgers of national gr ess; while the people whose infancy was moistened with water he grown up sickly and weak,-plants that must die without propp g

A French writer, who has given an elaborate and interesting illustration of the ancient customs of his country, Le Grand d'Aussy, has not failed to indicate the fierce jollity and exuberant carousings of the Gauls as consequences of their great constitutional energies; and has referred their custom of pledging and challenging each other in their cups, to a proud unwillingness to be outdone in any species of contest. Certain it is, to such a pitch was this noble emulation of having the strongest head carried, that Charlemagne, in his Capitulars, found it necessary to check it, by subjecting the transgressors to a kind of temporary civil sequestration, and, what was much more frightful, and shows the savageness of those times, to a diet of bread and water. This was vindictive enough to satisfy a teetotaller; but it so happens that national habits, or vices, if you will, are not to be corrected by penal edicts, however stringent they may be, and which, indeed, are in general ineffectual in the ratio of their stringency. And so it was that, centuries afterwards, Francis the First was obliged to try his hand in the same way, and with about the same success. In an ordinance of 1534, it was ordained, that every man convicted of drunkenness should, for the first offence, be imprisoned on bread and water Francis begins where Charlemagne ends; for the second, be privately whipped; for the third, publicly; and if he then relapsed, he was to have his ears cut off, and to be banished the kingdom. If persecution