6 small furze brake, and for the purpose of better threading it, the gentleman dismounted, and gave the bridle of the mare to the next horseman. Puss was soon started; the halloo' was given; the person who held the mare, in the eagerness of sport, forgot his charge, loosed his hold, and, regardless of any other than his own steed, left the mare to shift for herself. To the astonishment of all, instead of attempting to bend her course homewards (and she was in the immediate neighborhood of her stable), she ran the whole course at the tail of the dogs; turned, as well as she could when they brought the prey about; and stopped only at the death of the hare, when she suffered herself to be quietly taken and remounted. What rendered the circumstance the more remarkable was, that she had only twice followed the hounds previous to this event, which strongly indicated her natural love of sport. While I am on the subject of horses, I will introduce to your notice another curious incideut, that occurred a few years since, which I call pretty remarkable. The late Duke of Richmond kept some hunters in the county of Sussex. A monkey, which was kept in the stable, was remarkably fond of getting on the backs of the horses, skipping from one to the other, and teasing the poor animals incessantly. The groom made a complaint to the duke, who immediately formed a plan to remedy the evil. If he is fond of riding,' replied his grace, 'we will endeavor to give him enough of it;' and accordingly gave orders to provide a complete jockey dress for the monkey. The next time the hounds were out, Jocko, in his uniform, was strapped to the back of one of the best hunters. The view halloo being given, away they went, through thick and thin. The horse being fond of the sport, and carrying so light a weight, soon left all the company Some of the party passing by a Many instances of a similar kind might be given; for example, I believe it is no unfrequent occurrence for hunters, when no longer fit for the hunting-field, and turned to other employment, to fire at the sound of the chase, and be with difficulty restrained from joining. A remarkable instance of this, in which however the animals were not restrained, occurred in 1807, when the Liverpool mail was changing horses at the inn at Monk's Heath, between Congleton and Newcastle-under-Line. The horses which had performed the stage were taken off and separated, when Sir Peter Warburton's behind. farm house, inquired of a countryman I hope, from my heart, the young gentlewhether he had seen the fox? Ay zure,' said the man,' he is gone over yon fallow.' And was there any one up with him?' " Ay, zure!' said John," there be a little man in yellow jacket just gone by, riding as though jehu be in him. man mayn't meet with a fall, for he rides most monstrous bold.' The experiment had the desired effect; Jocko was sufficiently chafed by his exercise to make him dislike the sight of the stable ever afterwards." PUZZLES. THE following is a very ingenious My laundry's labor I divide with ashes : answer to the Riddle in our last number entitled A LITERARY CHARACTER. A literary character you view, a- -Wasp ; And the death-coldness of th' imperial arm Questions of fact to ask, and cry out-What? It is with them the laundress scours and- Washes: I am a word of twelve letters. My 8th, 9th, and 3d is the name of a mischievous animal. My 5th, 12th, and 2d, is a useful article. My 10th, 1st, 2d, and 7th is one of the nine digits. My 8th, 9th, 11th, 4th, and 8th is an appellation for a horse. My 1st, 5th, and 6th is a name for an ugly boy. My 10th, 7th, and 3d is an article used by a fisherman. My whole is a perfect curse on any community. Boston, Sept. 1840. MAXIM. C. B. F. Knowledge is treasure, but judgment is the treasury. A NARROW ESCAPE. WHILE sitting at dinner in the cabin we heard many anecdotes of the dangers encountered by fowlers in scaling the rocks of Shetland and Feroe, where fatal accidents are so frequent, that the people sometimes say to each other, 'Your grandfather fell, your father fell, and you must follow too.' Others boast over their companions, saying, 'Your father died in his bed, but mine went off like a man!' The governor mentioned that lately, at Feroe, a fowler descended safely by the usual conveyance of a rope, but, when about to be drawn up again, owing to some awkward entanglement, he arrived at the surface with his feet upwards. His alarmed friends thought his head had been cut off, and felt so relieved to discover their mistake, that the whole party burst into a simultaneous peal of laughter, while the adventurer was very glad he had any face to put on the matter at all, and laughed heartily also. The upper part of these cliffs generally overhangs the base; therefore the rockmen, when desirous to obtain a footing, are obliged to swing themselves many yards out in the air that the reaction may shoot them back in contact with the precipice, when they instantly cling to any little projection that offers, and, after landing on it, anchor the end of their rope to a stone, and proceed with a small hand-net, stretched on a hoop, to spoon the eggs out of the nests, depositing them carefully in a sack which they carry behind, and, when the unlucky bird sees her loss inevitable, by a curious insinct she often pushes out the egg to save herself. An enterprising fowler standing on the projection, once, with a sheer precipice both above and below him of sever al hundred feet, observed the end of his evitable; therefore, perceiving that the rope become suddenly disengaged from rope, before it finally settled, would swing its moorings, and swing like a pendulum once more almost within his grasp, he far into the distant space. If it escaped earnestly watched the moment of its reentirely away, he knew that death, either turn, made a desperate spring forward in by a fall or by the slower and more dread- the air, clutched it in his hand, and was ful process of starvation, must become in- saved.-Shetland, by Catherine Sinclair. STEPHEN. A NEW HISTORY OF ENGLAND FOR CHILDREN. STEPHEN was nephew to Henry the First, and son of Adela, William the First's daughter, so that William the First was his grandfather. They say that he was very generous, and very likely he did give away a great deal of money; but I do not think he was generous, but quite the contrary. I will tell you what he did. You may remember he had promised Henry the First, that he would try to make Maud the queen, but, instead of doing so, the very minute that he heard that his uncle was dead, he went to London, and got himself made king. It is said in the word of God, "he that speaketh lies shall perish." Yet Stephen was not afraid. Maud fought many battles with him, and sometimes she was successful, sometimes Stephen. Matilda was daughter and heir to Henry I. and beloved by the Saxons, because of her descent on the mother's side from the ancient Saxon kings. As soon therefore as the Earl of Glocester, brother-in-law of Maud, attempted to place her on the throne, the foreign soldiers, the Barons, and their licentious retainers either joined king Stephen or the army of Matilda. They claimed the right of building and fortifying their castles, fifteen hundred of which were soon garrisoned with their own soldiers and vassals. The country was laid waste, the land was uncultivated, the most shocking cruelties were exercised, a famine ensued, and to complete the public distress a civil war soon succeeded. Maud was often in danger of captivity, but was saved by her general, the Earl of Glocester, who gained a great battle, and took Stephen prisoner. This did not, however, end the war. She was again besieged in Winchester, by the king's brother, his queen, and son; and only escaped by her troops cutting a way thro' to Wallingford on the same night. The the besiegers. Unfortunately her general, king was very much surprised and disapGlocester, in saving her, was himself pointed. Meantime, Prince Henry her captured. Meantime, Maud escaped to son, and the Earl of Glocester, who were the Castle of Lutgershall, where she re- just arrived in England, proceeded to posed herself, thinking she had time to meet her, where the sight of her son blotreach the city of Glocester. But, when ted out, for a time, all remembrance of she resumed her flight, found the road her misfortunes. The king continued to lined with the king's soldiers, and is said be successful, and the death of the Earl to have escaped their vigilance only by of Glocester caused Matilda to relinquish being carried to the city in a coffin, which England and retire to Normandy, which had been wrested from Stephen. no one attempted to search. Strange as it may seem, Maud was now under the necessity of exchanging king Stephen for the Earl of Glocester, who was not only her general, but minister; and the war was renewed, so much to the advantage of the king, that Maud, who had grown unpopular, was in a fair way of being driven out of the kingdom. In order to retrieve her cause, the Earl of Glocester went to Normandy for aid. During his absence, Maud retired to Oxford, thinking herself safe till Glocester's return, as it was not probable the king would besiege the place in winter. In this she was mistaken, and the city surrendered. When the terms of capitulation were about to be signed, Maud took advantage of a dark night, and went out of the city dressed in white, and passed the sentinels unseen, the ground being covered with a deep snow. She passed the Thames on the ice, and walked about six miles on foot, with the snow beating in her face the whole distance. In spite of these difficulties, she reached Abington, and from thence rode on horseback King Stephen's peace continued but a few years; for Prince Henry, now arrived at manhood, and in possession of Normandy and other rich provinces in France by the death of his father, invaded England, and was soon joined by many of the barons. Just as a battle was about to be fought by the young Duke of Normandy and King Stephen, the king's counsellors settled all differences, by agreeing that "when he died, Henry should be king," and Henry agreed on his part to let Stephen reign; but the king only lived one year afterwards. "Truly, it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow, because he feareth not before God." STEPHEN. Character-Ungrateful, and deceitful. Children-Eustace, who died before his father; and William, earl of Boulogne, in right of his mother. .. Remarkable events-A new crusade A fire in London was undertaken. which destroyed the city from Aldgate to St.Paul's, and burnt London bridge. |