life, public fervice has carried me frequently to the Cape of Good Hope, where it ftruck me as a ftrange fancy, in every family, to fee a fmall land-tortoife in the inclofed yard behind the offices of the house. For fome time I regarded the animal as a kind of univerfal pet; but at length I was told, that it was admitted for the fake of avoiding the peft of rats, which would not approach any place the land-tortoife was harboured in. I remember that one of these creatures was kept in a small backen of a house in Henrietta-ftreet, Covent Garden, for very many years, and poffibly for this very excellence. It retired into the earth during the winter months; and, I believe, was living when the family left the premises. W. P. Mr. URBAN, Ν Bottesford, July 29. IN an excurfion to the North of England, I was cafily prevailed upon to fee the Luck of Edenball*, celebrated in a ballad in Ritfon's Select Collection of English Songs. The only defcription I can give you of it is, a very thin, bellmouthed, beaker glafs, deep and narrow, ornamented on the outfide with fancy. work of coloured glass, and may hold fomething more than a pint. Antient superstition may have contributed not a little to its prefervation; but that it should not, in a more enlightened age, or in moments of conviviality, (fee the Ballad), meet with one gentle rap (and a gentle one would be quite fufficient for an ordinary glass of the fame fubftance), is to me fomewhat wonderful. Superftition, however, cannot be entirely eradicated from the mind at once. The late agent of the family had such a reverential regard for this glafs, that he would not fuffer any perfon to touch it, and but few to fee it. When the family, or other curious people, had a defire to drink out of it, a napkin was held underneath, left any accident fhould befal it; and it is ftill carefully preferved, in a cafe made on purpofc. The cafe is faid to be the fecond, yet bears the marks of antiquity, and is charged with ths. Tradition, our only guide here, fays, that a party of Fairies were drinking and making merry round a well near the Hall, called St. Cuthbert's well; but, • Edenhall,—the antient feat of Sir Philip Mufgrave, near Penrith, Cumberland. GENT. MAG. Auguft, 1791. being interrupted by the intrufion of fome cutious people, they were frightened, and made a hafty retreat, and left the cup in queftion: one of the laft fcreaming out, If this cup fhould break or fall, inferted. It was written by the Duke of "On both fides flaughter and gigantic deeds.” GOD profper long from being broke To chase the spleen with cup and can, The ftout and ever-thirsty Duke Six in a hand went round; The Earl of Harold's ears, And am I (quoth he, with an oath) Thus flighted by my Peers? Saddle my fteed, bring forth my boots, I'll be with them right quick; And, Mafter Sheriff, come you too ; We'll know this fcurvy trick. "Lo, yonder doth Earl Harold come !" Did one at table say: "'Tis well," replied the mettled Duke; When thus the Earl began: "Great Duke, You did not learn in France: I know thee well, a Duke thou art; * A pint bumper at Sir Chriftopher Muf grave's. (N. B. Ancestor of the present Baronet.) As 722 The Luck of Edenhall.-Infulated Diftris, whence? [August, As these companions here may drink Ere they have had their fill. "Let thou and I, in bumpers full, This grand affair decide."- To Andrews, and to Hotham fair, When at the laft the Duke efpied 'He had the Earl secure, He plied him with a full pint glass, Who never spoke more words than these, And doth within me fink; Did never fwallow drink!" With that the Sheriff, in a rage Then stepp'd a gallant 'Squire forth, Lloyd was his name, and of Gang-hall, Faft by the river Swale: Who faid, he would not have it told, That unconcern'd he should fit by,- Now when these tidings reach'd the room, "O heavy tidings!" quoth the Duke, Of fuch account as he." Was fallen from his place: "Now God be with him," faid the Earl, "Sith 't will no better be; I trust I have, within my town, Of all the number that were there, Were quickly carried off to bed, Their fenfes to regain. God bless the King! the Duchefs fat ! Mr. URBAN, NEAR W. M. Llanfoy, July 27. EAR the road leading from Chepflow to Raglan in Monmouthshire, and about five miles from the former place, lies a clofe of land, containing between two and three acres, faid to be part of the county of Hereford, although wholly furrounded by lands lying in the former county, and at the leaft eighteen miles from the confines of Herefordshire. It is faid, that the Leafowes (the birth-place of the elegant Shenstone), and perhaps other fpots in the kingdom, have the fame peculiarity of fituation. The Leafowes, though furrounded by Worcestershire and Warwickshire, belongs to Shropshire, though perhaps thirty-five miles diftant from any other part of it. To what caufe can fuch infuJated districts, lying in one county, yet appended to another, be attributed *? Yours, &c. I Mr. URBAN, C. Aug. 18. MET lately by accident, in your Review of Swinborne's Travels, vol. LVII. p. 320, his short account of the affair of J. Calas; and will copy the paffage, which, I truly fay, made my hair ftand on end. "The true ftate of this melancholy event [the affair of John Calas] is ftill hidden behind clouds of doubts and conjectures; nor have I been able to procure any fatisfactory lights on the subject. A fenfible, uninterested fpectator of the whole tranfaction affured me, that he had ftrong reafons for fufpecting that John Calas had, by fome unlucky blow or pufh, been the innocent caufe of his fon's death: the expreflions uniformly made ufe of by that unhappy parent agree with this furmife." Here is the ftrangeft unworthy para graph that could only have been expected from an interested Papift in England; the bigoted blindnets of Touloufe, and their foily of wanting to ce *This is by no means uncommon, as shail be shewn next month. ED.T. lebrate lebrate a fuppofed Martyr to Popery, make them fet up a proceffion, as if the young man, who manifeftly hanged himself, had been murdered by his father, out of zeal against Popery. There was no fenfible, uninterefed fpectator of the whole transaction at Toulouse. After fuch wicked folly, they were all interefted to maintain that impious proceffion. No worthy mind ever heard before of this ftrange furmife. The pleadings of uninterested Advocates at the revifal of the process at Paris, Mr. Swinborne ought to have feen: they left no doubts nor clouds. The bottom of that column, in Mr. Urban's Review, p. 338, will not prove what it is intended to prove. Yours, &c. HUMANUS. I Mr. URBAN, Auguft 3. HAVE great pleasure in communicating to your correfpondent a receipt for deftroying mice, which I can pronounce to be fuccefsful. I have never had occafion to try it on rats, and fhould rather doubt its efficacy on fo large an animal; but with mice it is never known to fail. Take a quarter of a pound of nux vomica, boil it two hours in three pints of water, then steep in the infusion, after it has been made forty-eight hours, a pint of wheat, firft ftraining off the liquor from the fediment. The wheat must be steeped for forty-eight hours more. Lay a fmall quantity of this every night in plates near the holes of the mice, removing out of their way, as much as poffible, any other food. The effect is rapid; often in a manner inftantaneous, as many of them die in the at of pilfering: and the others, who are not killed immediately, are as infallibly got rid of, fooner or later, if they eat a fingle grain of wheat thus medi cated. I have now a favour to request of your correfpondents in my turn: the communication of a remedy, if remedy there be, against crickets, with which my houfe is infefted to a great degree. Every thing I have as yet attempted has proved fruitlefs. A differtation on this fubject will be a valuable append. age to the memoirs of black beetles which have lately been introduced into your ufeful Mifcellany. Mr. URBAN, G. August 12. the office of confirmation*, "groupes together as many perfons as the rail of the communion-table will hold, instead of addreffing the prayer to each perfon severally." But a very good reafon may be given, and fuch as, I am perfuaded, he will have no objection to, however defirous he may be to fee the forms and ceremonies of the Established Church strictly obferved, viz. that neither time, nor the ftrength of the officiating minifter, would be fufficient to pronounce the bleffing enjoined by the Rubrick to each individual feparately. It is a conftant cuftom in the large and populous parishes of the Northern counties to give the bread and cup to fix or eight at a time, pronouncing the words of adminiftration but once, with the change of plural for fingular CLERICUS. where neceffary. Mr. URBAN, August 13. HERE is no doubt but it is poffible for lightning to happen without being fucceeded by a clap of thunder. Indeed, the evening of every very fultry day in the fummer puts the matter beyond doubt. I will not be pofitive in affert ing, that the reafon I am going to give, why lightning often happens without thunder, is the only true one; but, from the generally-received theory of electri city, I hope your correfpondent J. O. will have no reason to be diffatisfied with it. A flash of lightning may be occafioned two ways: 1. when ftrata of the electric fluid are of unequal quantities, and oppofite qualities, in any part of the earth and the clouds above it; 2. when firata of the electric fluid are of unequal quantities, and oppofire qualities, in different clouds. In the firft cafe, the electric fluid always ftriving to be in equili brio, as foon as the furcharged ftratum is ftrong enough to pals through the air, which, being a non-conductor, makes a very powerful refiftance, the minus quantity of the one is restored to its equilibrium by the redundancy of the other, and the refifting medium of the air occafions the zigzag line of direction, and the explofion which we call thunder. In the. fecond cafe, the fiath is caufed by the fame principle; but the body of air, through which the electric fluid paffes from the furcharged cloud, is fo much Jefs, and its rarity fo very much greater, that we may with reafon fuppofe, that the refiftance is not fufficient to make any YOU may inform yout Conftant Cor-explosion, or fuch an explofion as can refpondent, that there is no autho rity by which the Bishop of London, in reach our ears. CLERICUS. * See the Index Indicatorius, p. 659: BARO June 21. A very fevere froft. 23. Bees begin to fwarm. 25. Birds ceafe to fing in the middle of the day. 26. Extremely hot. 27. Wheat in bloom. 29. Thunder storm. 5. 1 hunder at a fmall diftance. 9. Very cold. to. Turnips de15. Remarkable honey-dews ever fince the beginning of this month. 17. Swarms of bees, late, few, and not strong. 18. Corn not forwarder than last year. July 4. Thunder form. Aroyed by the fly. At a village, fituated about 30 miles March 13. A pair of white wagtails. of the Thames, the undermentioned held on the days fpecifically noted: Very fine day, W. from London, and in the vicinity birds were this year first heard and be April 3. A pair of fwallows. Wind E. Great blight.-N. B. Perhaps thefe birds were tempted out by the myriads of infects. April 8. Wryneck. Wind NE. Fine warm day. April 1o. Cuckow. Wind SE. Cloudy and oppreffive. April 11. Nightingale. Wind ditto. Weather ditto. Redftart. April 20. Martins building. The number of fmall birds is unufually great this year; a circumftance probably owing to the mildness of the two laft winters. Qu. Are the hirundos uncommonly numerous this fummer? If they are, the fact will be an argument against the fuppofition of their autumnal retreat to Senegal, though it will not prove that they do not retire to some part of Europe. As the Memoirs of the Lausanne Phyfica Society are not likely to fall into the hands of your readers, Mr. Urban, I wish that either your Reviewers, or one of your correfpondents, would favour us with a tranflation of the paper on "the Redstart," inferted in the last volume published by that Society. Qu. What bird did Edwards (fee Preface to first vol.) mean by "the Greater Redftart?" Did that indefatigable Naturalift notice more than one fort of that elegant bird? A FAUNIST. P. S. Yellow lilies thrive well in a London garden.-Spread birdlime upon boards for beetles. July 31. To the particulars already furnished Mr. URBAN, you refpecting Dr. Robert Greene, vol. LIII. pp. 226, 657, you may add, from a letter of Mr. Tho. Baker to Mr. Thomas Hearne, dated 1730, and preferved in the Bodleian library at Oxford, "Dr. G, author of the philofophy, who died in Staffordshire, ordered his body to be diffected by a skilful furgeon, his skeleton to be hung up in King's College library, for public ufe, without a monument. The furgeon declined the work; and the Provost refusing to admit the body, it was buried in All Saints at Cambridge. His will, in nine or ten theets, appointed for his executors the heads of Clare hall, St. John's, Trinity, Jefus, Sidney, and Chrift's colleges; moft of his effects to his own college; but, if his will was not executed in every particular, to the above colleges in fucceflion." In another letter, dated 1734, Mr. Baker fays of Bishop Burnet's 2d volume of the "Hiftory of his own Time,” which he had juft read, that "it is not fo entertaining as the first, being less inftructive, and written with more temper and referve. His life, by his fon, is the beft part of the book; which, if it may be depended on, fhew him to have been a great, and no bad, man; and I cannot forbear thinking that his enemies have blackened him beyond what he deferved. I have reafon to fpeak well of him, for he treated me with great humanity, as his letters to me will fhew." The editor of Mr. Bigland's "Glouceftershire Collections" mistakes in fay ing of the ornaments of Eikeftone church, YOUR correfpondent D. N. will find P. 559, that "accurate drawings and degreat fervice in frequently washing feriptions of thefe discoveries were com well with clear water (from the rofe of a municated to the Society of Antiquaries watering-pot) the young leaves of his by Samuel Lytons, Efq. F.A.S. and plants, as it takes off all infects, eggs, published in the "Archæologia," vol. &c. As foon as the flowers of carnations IX. p. 819, Mr. L's communication beare become withered they fhould be pulling of Roman difcoveries at Comb-end ed out, but not fo as to injure the pod, farm near Cirencester. Elkeftone is where the feed grows, that place being a published in the fecond number of his very fine harbour for earwigs, and then Views and Antiquities *." they may be eafily got the better of. Carnations require but little water; they grow beft in a foil made of loam, earth dug out of the ground when diging for a cellar, and aried hoife-dung. But Nature is the best inftru&tor. Let him fee where the plant grows wild, obferve it, and he need not fear of foon being able to cultivate it to perfection. A CULTIVATING FLORIST. Speaking of Beckford church, of Glouceflerfbire, p. 146, Mr. B, or his editor, fays, "over the North door remains a curious hieroglyphick;" which, we fuppofe, is like thofe at Quarrington, in the fame county. In defcribing the monuments of James Lord Berkeley and his grandton Tho * See our Review, p. 744. EDIT. mas, |