reached Great Malvern, and from the windows of the "Belle Vue" saw the spot from whence we had started three hours before, distinguishable only by a light blue vapour, hanging over it like a mist. Upon leaving the hotel we were surrounded by a crowd of women and boys, with donkeys, anxiously offering their assistance to convey us to the first object of attraction to strangers, viz. the summit of the "Worcestershire Beacon." Passing the library, the baths, and billiard-rooms, which are united in one handsome range of buildings, we ascended by the winding road made by the Duchess of Kent to St. Ann's Well, and drank of the purest water in the world, where it issues from the rock in a stream scarce thicker than a quill, into a marble cistern below. The hills were glowing with the golden blossoms of the furze, among which were seen a few lingering foxgloves, that in the earlier part of the year empurple all the ground; while the mountain ash, bending beneath the weight of their bright scarlet berries, gave an oriental colouring to the scene. Above our heads were several parties ascending and descending the zig-zag path, having quite a theatrical effect. In half an hour we reached the top, and beheld below a view (in fertility at least) unequalled by any other country in the world; the whole extent, far as the eye could reach, was crowded with corn-fields, hop-yards, and orchards, interspersed with villages and towns, now revealed and now obscured by the ever-changing effect of light and shade. We here dismissed our four-footed attendants, and continued our course along the ridge till we came to the "North Hill," which is covered with a carpet of deep moss softer than the looms of Turkey or Persia ever produced. Scrambling down the side of the hill, we came to a pile of granite, grey with lichens, and crowned with ivy, from whence we had a bird's-eye view of the village in its length and breadth, and returned to the inn with an appetite sharpened by the mountain air for our mountain mutton that awaited our arrival. After dinner we visited the venerable church, with its richly ornamented porch, its battlements and pinnacles-its windows glowing with the brilliant hues of the amethyst and topaz, the sapphire and the ruby-its quaint carvings and its sculptured tombs-a miniature cathedral. Passing under an antique gateway coeval with the church, we entered a farm-yard in which stands a long building formerly the refectory, but now resounding with the thrasher's flail. About a hundred yards below the church is an ornamental piece of water, the chalybeate pump-room, and an archery ground surrounded with borders of flowers and shrubs. Still lower down, the fields are intersected in every direction by pleasant footpaths, leading, by many a deep lane o'erhung by the hawthorn and the hazle, and to many a shady grove melodious with the song of the thrush and the wood-lark, and "where the nightingale sings to the moon." To describe all the walks and rides of a place where all are beautiful, would be an endless task, I shall therefore confine myself to Cowley Wood, as having a distinct character from the rest; from all other spots the views are extensive, here we are shut out from "the garish eye of day;" hills covered with thick wood enclose us on every side-here are "tangled brakes" and "alleys green"-soft swelling banks, matted with wild strawberries-open spaces of velvet turf, where Oberon and Titania might revel undisturbed, while Peasblossom and Moth hang with pearly dew the cowslip's bells, or "Pluck the wings from painted butterflies To fan the moonbeams from their sleeping eyes." Here the elm and the ash are entwined with snow-white honeysuckles, of exquisite sweetness. Here, too, are giant oaks which "that Lob of Spirits, Puck" might climb, and pelt with acorns the brown squirrels from branch to branch-here might our friend have dreamed the following DREAMS. I dreamt that a fragrance arose in air, I fancied myself and love were there In the sun's warm rays we floated light, As side by side we flew ; We sipp'd the rose, and the lily white, And sweets from all we drew; When the bat was heard, and the beetle's horn, In a tulip's cup, We lay till it open'd again in the morn. I dreamt that my love was a violet blue, And I, methought, was a drop of dew, I clasped her form in a fond embrace, Her bosom I made my dwelling-place, Shed a flood of light, Then ascended the air on a golden ray. Again, I was where the dark clouds sail, I fancied myself the lightning, pale, As if she there could could shelter'd lie They fell with a crash, Then roll'd with the thunder away. Here did we linger one evening listening to the "sweet jug, jug," of the nightingale, and the plaintive note of his mate, mingled with a slight breeze in the tree tops, till the broad moon uprose. It was ten o'clock when we reached the village, and even at this early hour, when the streets of Cheltenham are resounding with the roll of carriages rattling from party to party, all was still-silent as a deserted city. I rose early the next morning; the whole valley was filled with a thick heavy vapour directly below the sun, which had just risen; it looked white and woolly, but far away to the right, aided by shade and distance, it presented the exact appearance of a lake, with its promontories, bays, and islands; no Fata Morgana-no desert Mirageever mocked fainting traveller with a more perfect illusion: over head the sky was cloudless, every object bright and sparkling with a lightness and a purity in the air "that might create a soul under the ribs of death." No wonder that so many from the crowded city seek, and find, in this quiet place-in this pure atmosphere that repose and renovation of health so necessary to the enjoyment of the pleasures or the business of life; while some few, perchance, are led by the beauty of the surrounding scenery, to "look through nature up to nature's God." SIR, To the Editor of the Analyst. 66 A few days ago, on paying a visit to an old acquaintance of mine, I found him busily employed in digesting a large mass of papers, and placing them in a sort of convenient juxta-position, that the eye might easily catch their several contents. Here," exclaimed he, with an air of self-satisfaction," here is my political thermometer, to ascertain the signs of the times.' Upon inspecting these papers, I perceived that they consisted entirely of Addresses from the late Representatives to their Electors, and of the speeches of their respective supporters. Now, as all prismatic colours blended together make white, so did my eccentric friend conclude, that by this confrontation of different accounts, he should be able to strike out the truth. In looking over this singular collection of documents, I was not a little surprised, aware as I am that ignorance will lead to a confusion of ideas, at a declaration in one of them by a subaltern partizan of the late and present member for Leeds, Mr. Baines, "That the Reform Bill would never be perfected till it gave to females all the rights, privileges, and franchises which they possessed in the states of remote antiquity, and particularly in the polished one of Athens." I suppose it would be considered as discourteous to apply to this champion of the weaker and fairer sex, the indignant terms in which Jeremiah speaks of his countrymen, "Trust not in lying words." But as I am informed your periodical is circulated at Leeds, I conceive an hour will not be ill-spent in refuting this plausible sophistry of the declaimer, as nothing can be clearer to those who have made the slightest researches into the legal antiquities of Greece, that by its laws wretched women were handed over, gagged and manacled as it were, into the clutches of their despot masters-in other words, that they were condemned to the perpetual tutelage of parents, husbands, and guardians. The first and most remarkable instance that we have on record where the law was made rigorous and unfavourable to the female, is in the suit brought by the five daughters of Zelophehad, who died without sons, for a possession among the brethren of their father. True it is, that judgment was given in their behalf; and that it became no longer a question and issue of Jewish law, that if a man died without lawful heirs, his property descended to his daughter; but on remonstrance being made, that if Mablak, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah, Tirzah, were to marry the sons of other tribes, their inheritance would be taken from the tribe of their father, the Mosaic lawgiver replied, "Let the daughters of Zelophehad marry to whom they think best, only in the family of their fathers' tribe shall they marry."* The policy, however, which keeps an estate confined in a single family, will surely never be assumed in these enlightened days, as one of the fundamental axioms of political science. The same narrow juridical principle is traceable in the Athenian laws. In order that estates might remain for ever in the family of the deceased, the Archon (the magistrate to whose jurisdiction belonged all causes concerning inheritances, demises, legacies, portions, marriages, divorces, alimony, widows, heiresses, orphans, and adoptions) appointed, that if a father had disposed of his daughter in marriage to a person who was the object of his own selection, yet should he die without legitimate male issue, the nearest kinsman might take her from her husband, and marry her himself. At Athens, too, no young woman could have the nuptial knot tied without the consent of the next of kin to her, and he who stood in that relation to a widow, might even in the arbitrary exercise of his own will, or fancy, cause himself to be wedded to her, or else transfer her to whom he pleased. But a *See Numbers xxvII. v. 1, and xxxvI. v. 6. + See Potter and Petit on the jurisdiction and laws of Athens. If further instances were wanting to disprove the extravagant assertion of the orator of Leeds, they are to be found in almost every page of the Greek classic writers. Euripides, in particular, makes very frequent allusion to the confined condition of women.See Iphigen. in Aulide, 735-738. Andromache, 876-878. Perhaps, however, by his allusion to the ladies of the polished state of Athens, and their political rights there, the "learned Theban" would vindicate for our English dames of the 19th century, what Aristophanes ludicrously represents his countrywomen as attempting to achieve, viz. to wear beards and breeches, and strut about like men-sed harum ineptiarum satis. still grosser injustice was sanctioned by the code-makers of polished Athens-of Athens where the fine arts were then cultivated to a degree of refinement beyond the reach of other nations. A husband might make his relict part and parcel of his estate, conveying her by his will with other moveables to any man whom he had fixed upon for his successor. In this unjust, tyrannical, but not illegal manner, was the mother of the renowned Orator of Greece actually left by will to Aphobus, with a portion of eighty minas; the form of such a bequest running thus:“This is the last will of Pasio, the Acharnean. I give my wife Archippe to Phormio, with a fortune of one talent in Peparrhethus, one talent in Attica, a house worth a hundred minas, together with the female slaves, the ornaments of gold, and whatever else may be in it.* While for these concomitant acts of oppression which cannot fail to excite our indignation and abhorrence, Solon thought that he made ample reparation, by ordering husbands to sleep three times in the month with their wives; but even this special indulgence was granted only to heiresses.+ Think then of these abominable evils, ye females young and old, and bless your stars that Providence has cast your birth in a country where Christianity has long restored the dignity of marriage, and where neither your property, your liberty, nor your happiness can be ravished from you by cruelty or avarice. I am, Sir, Worcester, February 13, 1835. Yours, &c. MARITUS. During the Assembly of the Diet, in Dresden, Augustus the Strong invited several of the principal members to an entertainment; Champagne was, of course, not wanting; a page stole a bottle of it, and put it into his coat pocket. Being incessantly employed, he was, unhappily, not able to put his booty in a place of security; but his constant motion having caused the wine to ferment, just as he was standing behind the King, it exploded; the cork flew up to the ceiling, and the Champagne rushed out of the pocket, in the direction of the King's wig, and bathed it so effectually, that the wine ran in streams from the curls. One part of the company were frightened, while another part could scarcely refrain from laughter. The page, more dead than alive, threw himself at the King's feet, and his Majesty immediately sent the pilferer away, not from his service, but for a dry wig, advising him, at the same time, never to carry bottles with such liquor so long about him. * See a Commentary on Isæus, in the Works of Sir William Jones. Vol. IV., p. 211, 212. + Plutarchus Solone. |