VOL. 4.] Dispersion of Seeds-The Gossamer. 81 ply the place of the parent tree. Thus turned out one of those most lovely is Britain, in some measure, indebted to ones which no season but the autumn the industry and bad memory of a produces; cloudless, calm, serene, and squirrel for her pride, her glory, and worthy of the south of France itself. her very existence ! + About nine an appearance very Horse-beans are set by jays and pies, unusual began to demand our attention, who hide them among the grass and a shower of cobwebs falling from very moss, and afterwards, most probably, elevated regions, and continuing, without forget where they had stowed them. any interruption, till the close of the Horse-beans and peas sprang up in Mr. day. These webs were not single White's field walks in the autumn, and filmy threads, floating in the air in all he attributes the sowing of them to directions, but perfect flakes or rags; birds. Bees, observes the same natural- some near an inch broad, and five or ist, are much the best setters of cucum- six long, which fell with a degree of bers. If they do not happen to take velocity that showed they were conkindly to the frames, the best way is to siderably heavier than the atmosphere. tempt them by a little honey put on the male and female bloom. 'On every side, as the observer turned his eyes, might he behold a conSome seeds lie dormant for a long tinual succession of fresh flakes falling time, and do not vegetate till the sun into his sight, and twinkling like stars and air are admitted. When old beech as they turned their sides towards the trees are cleared away (says Mr. White), sun. How far this wonderful shower the naked ground, in a year or two, be- extended would be difficult to say; comes covered with strawberry plants, but we know that it reached Bradley, the seeds of which must have been in Selborne, and Alresford, three places the ground for an age at least. which lie in a sort of a triangle, the shortest of whose sides is about eight miles in extent. The gleamy gossamer now spreads The ground is covered about this 'At the second of those places there time, with spiders' webs, crossing the was a gentleman (for whose veracity path from shrub to shrub, and floating and intelligent turn we have the greatin the air. This gossamer appearance est veneration,) who observed it the is thus noticed by Mr. White;-On moment he got abroad; but concluded September 21, 1741, being then on a that, as soon as he came upon the hill visit, and intent on field-diversions, I above his house, where he took his rose before daybreak: when I came morning rides, he should be higher into the enclosures, I found the stubbles than this meteor, which he imagined and clover-grounds matted all over with might have been blown, like thistlea thick coat of cobweb, in the mashes down, from the common above: but, of which a copious and heavy dew to his great astonishment, when he rode hung so plentifully, that the whole face to the most elevated part of the down, of the country seemed, as it were, cov- three hundred feet above his fields, he ered with two or three setting-nets found the webs, in appearance, still as drawn one over another. When the much above him as before; still desdogs attempted to hunt, their eyes were cending into sight in a constant successo blinded and hoodwinked that they sion, and twinkling in the sun, so as to could not proceed, but were obliged to lies down and scrape the incumbrances from their faces with their fore-feet; so that, finding my sport interrupted, I As the morning advanced the sun draw the attention of the most incuri ous. • Neither before nor after was any such fall observed; but on this day the flakes hung in the trees and hedges so thick, that a diligent person sent out might have gathered baskets full. The remark that I shall make on these cobweb-like appearances, called 82 Autumn Scenery-Flowers-Fruits-The Cider Harvest. [VOL. 4 gossamer, is that, strange and supersti- fleece; but when a ruder breath had tious as the notions about them were forced open its virgin modesty, and formerly, nobody in these days doubts dismantled its too youthful and unripe but that they are the real production of retirements, it began to put on darkness, small spiders, which swarm in the fields and to decline to softness and the sympin fine weather in autumn, and have a toms of a sickly age; itbowed the head, power of shooting out webs from their and broke its stalk; and, at night, tails, so as to render themselves buoyant, having lost some of its leaves, and all and lighter than air. But why these its beauty, it fell into the portion of apterous insects should that day take weeds and outworn faces.'--TAYLOR.* such a wonderful aerial excursion, and why their webs should at once become so gross and material as to be considerably more weighty than air, and to descend with precipitation, is a matter beyond my skill. If I might be allow Ined to hazard a supposition, I should dependently of the qualities of the apple, imagine that those filmy threads, when the superior flavour and richness of first shot, might be entangled in the the liquor greatly depend on the judirising dew, and so drawn up, spiders cious nature of the operations. The and all, by a brisk evaporation into the juice of the pulp alone is inadequate to regions where clouds are formed: and make a good and generous cider; the if the spiders have a power of coiling and thickening their webs in the air, as Dr. Lister says they have (see his Letters to Mr. Ray,) then, when they were become heavier than the air, they must fall. The principal harvest of apples is about the beginning of this month. In the management of the fruit, and subsequent manufacture of cider, considerable variations occur, according as the makers are more or less skilful. qualities of the kernel are wanting to add flavour, and those of the rind to give colour; and hence it is necessary that the juice of both these should be perfectly expressed. The apples should also be properly separated when gathered. Every day in fine weather, in autumn chiefly, do I see those spiders The squash pear, so called from the shooting out their webs and mounting tenderness of its pulp, has probably furaloft: they will go off from your finger nished England with more Champaigne if you will take them into your hand. than was ever imported into it. Cider, Last summer one alighted on my book perry, and very excellent gooseberry as I was reading in the parlour; and, wine, resemble somewhat in flavour the running to the top of the page, and sparkling beverage of our continental shooting out a web, took its departure neighbours. Though the luscious from thence. But what I most wonder- grape' be denied to our variable climate, ed at was, that it went off with consid- yet, besides the apple and the pear, erable velocity in a place where no air was stirring; and I am sure that I did not assist it with my breath. So that these little crawlers seem to have, while mounting, some locomotive power without the use of wings, and to move in the air faster than the air itself.' On our account has God His present thirst, and matter find for toil. Or cherries, or the fair Thisbeian fruit, of sed'lous bees, and, mixing odorous herbs, But if thou'rt indefatigably bent • The beautiful and well known lines of Cowper, The rose had been washed, just washed in a shower, are written in a kindred spirit,and are almost equally touching with the above quotation from the eloquen't Bishop Taylor. FOL. 4.] Varieties-John Adams of Pitcairn's Island. Cursed by unlettered idle youth, distils PHILIPS. 83 prevent the possibility of the birds seeing the decoy-man; and as these birds feed during the night, all is ready prepared for this sport in the evening. The fowler, placed on the leeward side, sometimes with the help of his well-trained dog, but always by that of his better trained decoy-ducks, begins the business of destruction. The latter, directed by his well-known whistle, The taking of wild fowl commences, or excited forward by the floating hempby Act of Parliament, on the 1st of seed, which he strews occasionally upOctober, and the decoy-business is at on the water, entice all the wild-ducks the greatest height about the end of the after them under the netting; and as month. Great numbers of wild ducks soon as this is observed, the man, or his and other water-fowl are annually caught dog, as the fitness of opportunity may in the extensive marsh lands of Lincoln- direct, is from the rear exposed to the shire in this way. The decoys now view of the birds, by which they are in use are formed by cutting pipes, or so alarmed, that they dare not offer to tapering ditches, widened and deepened return, and are prevented by the nets as they approach the water, in various from escaping upwards. They, theresemicircular directions, through the fore, press forward, in the utmost conswampy ground into very large pools, fusion, to the end of the pipe, into the which are sheltered by surrounding funnel, or purse nets there prepared to trees or bushes, and situated commonly receive them, while their treacherous in the midst of the solitary marsh. At guides remain behind in conscious sethe narrow points of these ditches, far- curity. Particular spots, or decoys, in thest from the pool, by which they are filled with water, the fowlers place their funnel nets: from these, the ditch is covered by a continual arch of netting, supported by hoops, to the desired distance; and all along both sides, skreens formed of reeds are set up, so as to the fen countries, are let to the fowlers at a rent of from five to thirty pounds per annum; and Pennant instances a season, in which 31,200 ducks, including teals and wigeons, were sold in London only, from ten of these decoys, near Wainfleet in Lincolnshire. PITCAIRN'S ISLAND AND CAPT. BLIGH. S your readers must have felt deep narrative, he was much affected; said, he accompanied him on board the Bounty at Deptford, but he entered in the name of Smith; and this accounts Aly interested in the short account for the name of Adams not being found rendered of Pitcairn's Island, by Lieu- in the Bounty's list of her crew; that tenant Shillibeer,* I presume the few he has a sister living, older than either, lines in addition to this may not be un- who is married to a decent Tradesman acceptable. at Derby that he himself has a large Having been informed that John family. I said, "I sent for you to say, Adams, the last survivor of the Boun- if you will write to your brother in a ty's crew on the Island, had a brother, few days, I think I shall have the I desired to see him he called on me, means of transmitting it to him; and is a waterman at Union Stairs, wears as you have a large family, will you let the fire coat of the London Assurance, your eldest son go out?" He thanked and is of course a steady character. me for the offer of sending the letter, On reading to him the Lieutenant's and willingly would have sent his son, but an objection would lie with some • See Atheneum, vol. 2, p. 419. 84 Varieties. [VOL 4 body else. Now we all know who ter; we see it the ground-work of evthis somebody else is, and the influence ery good to man. Dolly has on Johnny Bull. From the New Monthly Magazine, August 1813,, THE FATE OF GENIUS. The letter is gone-and with it several others; but when I reflect on the surprizing escape of Captain Bligh and By what a strange fatality a great his Barge's crew, and of the events that have followed, I am not surprized that proportion of the writers of antiquity the whole is a series of interesting cir- were prematurely cut off from existence.-Menander was drowned in the cumstances. Adams's brother proceeded to say, harbour of Piræus, at a time of life when A❝ We are natives of Hackney, and he had done enough for immortality, but were left orphans, being brought up while the powers of his mind were yet in the poor house." Here it was, then, unimpaired by age, and his genius suffithat they were taught the first princi- ciently ardent to do still more. Euripides ples of our holy religion; here they and Heraclitus were torn to pieces by Theocritus ended his career by learned, what it appears Adams in due dogs. time recollected, the Catechism he had the halter. Empedocles was lost in the been taught to repeat, that excellent crater of Mount Etna. Hesiod was Catechism which every child should be murdered by his secret enemies: Architaught also to say ;-and although we lochus and Ibyeus by banditti. Sappho have been in the present day wondrous threw herself from a precipice. Eschywise in giving surprisingly quick in- lus perished by the fall of a tortoise. struction to children, yet, I must con- Anacreon (as was to be expected) owed fess, I cannot but feel partial to those his death to the fruit of the vine. Craold-fashioned habits, where the groundwork must have been carefully, attentively, and progressively laid. Lu tinus and Terence experienced the same fate with Menander; Seneca and Lucan, were condemned to death by a tyAnother observation I beg to sub- rant, cut their veins, and died repeating mit to your readers, that Adams adopt their own verses; and Petronius Ared and inculcated from that sublime and biter met a similar catastrophe. admirable introduction to our service, cretius, it is said, wrote under the deone of the sentences, and that one the lirium of a philter administered by his most affecting and impressive. No mistress, and destroyed himself from its doubt, in his childhood, he was obliged effects. Poison, though swallowed unto attend with the other children of the der very different circumstances, cut poor, in this place at church: here then short the days both of Socrates and we may date the impression that was Demosthenes; and Cicero fell under made and which, when he came again the proscription of the Triumvirate, to reflect seriously, occurred with full It is truly wonderful that so many men, force on his mind. And permit me to the professed votaries of peace and reask those who are in the habit of attend- tirement, should have met with fates so ing public worship in due time, what widely different from that to which the is the impression on our minds, after common casualties of life should seem sitting a few minutes in our Parish to expose them. Church in solemn silence, when the minister begins, and every soul rises, THE THREE EMBLEMS OF UNCERTAINTY. and hears him say: "I will arise, and In some dull and ill-written letters go to my Father!" When the mind re- by one Wickford, a singular passage flects on who said it, the occasion, and occurs. Speaking of English politics, our dutiful repetition of it; cold in- and the approach of the Princess from deed must be the heart of him, that England to Holland to espouse William does not glow with a "celestial fire." the Stadtholder, he observes: "but this We see the effect in a poor ignorant depends on three things most uncertain, child; we see the benefits arising from viz. the wind, a woman's mind, and a a recollection of those feelings years af- British Parliament !" VOL. 4.] THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. honours would only have drawn down vengeance; but the spirit of the people was not to be totally quenched, and the actions of this gallant officer were recorded in all the more secret and The Jewish doctors report that the Ten Commandments were written in such a manner that not one single letter more could have had place on the tablets. It would be well if the laws of safer forms of memorial A pillar in morality were so amply engraved on the human beart as to preclude the possibility of immoral thoughts finding an entrance there. EMULATION. Aristotle has happily defined emulation to be a certain painful solicitude occasioned by there being presented to our notice, and placed within our reach, in the possession of those who are by nature our fellows, things at once good and honourable; not because they belong to them, but because they do not also belong to us. In moden practical systems of education, emulation is generally made the main spring, as if there were not enough of the leaven of disquietude in our natures without inoculating it with this dilutement. Emulation, by creating contention and envy, is a stimulant to the heart rather than the talents; and the effect of such a stimulant is commonly to cramp and dwarf the human mind: even allowing it all the success which has injudiciously been ascribed to it, it will but purchase a little knowledge at the expense of virtue! CHARACTERISTIC TRAITS. Every nation has its traits the Spaniard sleeps on every affair of importance; the Italians fiddle upon every thing; the Germans smoke upon every thing; the French promise every ting and do nothing: the British islanders eat upon every thing; and the windy subjects of American colocracy talk upon every thing! MAJOR SCHILL. The exploits of the combined armies in the campaign of 1814 and 15, have naturally thrown into the shade the services to which Germany owed her fame in former wars, and might have, under a wiser conduct, owed her independence; but the memory of Schill is still honoured as that of the most distinguished and gallant partizan that all those wars produced. As he died under the reign of Buonaparte, all public an open field near Stralsund, bore an inscription in German, of which the following is a translation. The popular attention was too strongly attracted to it, and it was shortly removed. INSCRIPTION. Who rests this nameless mound beneath, More nobly pour'd than when he dï'd :~ BOILEAU AND RACINE Praise no person's verses but their own. They assume the character of universal critics, and not a ballad escapes their censure. Their powers of versification are good, but their erudition very superficial. Boileau fancied he possessed a secret worth knowing in the composition of poetry; he always made the second line of his couplet before the first, in order, as he said, to infuse greater energy and compression by confining the sense to narrow limits. It is, perhaps, the adoption of this plan which has given such epigrammatic turns to many passages in his writings. NATURAL HISTORY-WHALES. Extract of a letter from Stornaway, dated June 22,1818:--"I had a very fine sight here yesterday afternoon. No fewer than 209 whales, called the bottle-nose, came into this harbour, when a desperate battle ensued bearmed with axes, swords, and knives, so that tween them and the inhabitants of the place, I suppose very few of those extraordinary visitors escaped. I measured some of them circumference."---An immense schoal of this morning, above 20 feet long by 15 feet in Finners, very large whales, have also appeared in these northern seas. Are these phenomena connected with the disruption of the Greenland ices ---Gent. Mag. |