give me the origin of a female's head being placed in the front of some of the oldest houses in Queen Street, Cheapside? Your's, &c. ANTIQ. Upper Street, Sept. 2, 1821. SUBMARINE ENGINE. ralship would be to commence an immediate retreat. the Sound; but during their absence, The British fleet now lay to the north of Staten Island, with a large SUBMARINE navigation appears to have number of transports, and were the been first thought of by Napier, of objects against which this new mode Merchiston; and Cornelius Debrell, of warfare was destined to act; the who lived in the reign of James I. en- first serene night was fixed upon for deavoured to reduce it to practice on the the execution of this perilous enterRiver Thames; but the most success-prise, and Sergeant Lee was to be the ful attempts have been those of Bushnell and Felton, in America. engineer. for his compass having got out of order, he was under the necessity of looking out from the top of the machine very frequently to ascertain his course, and at best made a very irregular zigzag track. The soldiers at Governor's Island At espied the machine, and curiosity drew vourable night arrived, and at eleven It was during the revolutionary war that David Bushnell, of Saybrook, Connecticut, invented a machine for the purpose of navigating underwater, with a view of blowing up British ships of war in the American ports and har bours. Bushnell has been dead some years, and no satisfactory account of his life has been published; but in a recent number of Professor Silliman's Ame-ther too strong, and before he was rican Journal of Science,' there is an aware, had drifted him down past the interesting description of Bushnell's men of war: he, however, immediately submarine-boat, accompanied by an got the machine about, and by hard laaccount of an attempt made with it to bour at the crank for the space of five destroy a British frigate lying in New glasses by the ship's bells, or two andYork harbour, in the year 1776. The a-half hours, he arrived under the stern account is taken from the mouth of of one of the ships at about slack water. Mr. Ezra Lee, the man who went in Day had now dawned, and by the light the boat under the ship, who is proba- of the moon he could see the people on bly the only person living from whom board, and hear their conversation. This was the moment for diving; he accordingly closed up overhead, let in the water, and descended under the ship's bottom. it could have been obtained. It was in the month of August, 1776, when Admiral Howe lay with a formidable British fleet in New York bay, a little above the Narrows, and a numerous British force upon Staten Island, commanded by General Howe, threatened annihilation to the troops under Washington, that Mr. Bushnell requested General Parsons, of the American army, to furnish him with two or three men, to learn the navigation of his new machine, with a view of destroying some of the enemy's shipping. He now applied the screw, and did all in his power to make it enter, but owing probably in part to the ship's copper, and the want of an adequate pressure, to enable the screw to get a hold upon the bottom, his attempts all failed; at each essay the machine rebounded from the ship's bottom, not having sufficient power to resist the impulse thus given to it. IT has been observed that we live in. an age wherein all kinds of extrava gance are embraced and applauded by the ignorant as well as the learned; but it may be safely affirmed, that in He next paddled along to a different this respect, the neighbouring counGeneral Parsons immediately sent part of her bottom, but in this mancu- tries have been no less remarkable for for Lee, then a sergeant, and two others,vre he made a deviation, and instantly their follies than we for our's, and were who had offered their services to go on rose to the water's surface, on the east there no other instance of it in existboard of a fire-ship; and on Bushnell's side of the ship, exposed to the in-ence, that of the Tulip madness in request being made known to them, creasing light of the morning, and in the seventeenth century would be sufthey enlisted themselves under him imminent danger of being discovered. | ficient. for this novel piece of service. The He immediately made another departy went up into Long Island Sound scent, with a view of making one more with the machine, and made various trial, but the fast approach of day, experiments with it in different har-which would expose him to the enebours along shore, and after having any's boats, and render his escape diffibecome acquainted with the mode of cult, if not impossible, deterred him; navigating it, they returned through and he concluded, that the best gene The love of tulips and the anxiety to possess those which were rare, raged. to such an extent in Holland, from the year 1634 to 1637, that the Dutch of all ranks, from the greatest to the meanest, neglected their occupations and sold their manufactures, and me chanics even their tools, to engage in the tulip trade. Accordingly, we find in those days that they fetched the most extravagant prices: The Viceroy was sold for £250 Greber Schilder Semper Augustus 440 160 148 160 550 INDESRRUCTIBLE WARRIOT. (From Thuanus.) DURING the wars of religion in France, when the Catholics besieged Rouen, in 1562, Francis Civile, one of the bravest gentlemen of the Catholic party, received a wound which made him fall from the rampart into the city, quite senseless. The soldiers, who beWhether there was any thing in the lieved him dead, stripped him and name, or it was the peculiar beauty of then Buried him with that negligence the flower which enhanced the price, which is common on such occasions. does not appear certain; it is enough A faithful domestic, anxious to proto prove the folly of the age, to know cure for his master a more honourable that such prices were obtained. In sepulture, went to see him. Not be1637, a collection of tulips of Wonter ing able to recognise him among many Brockholsmenster, was sold by his ex-mutilated bodies that he found, he coecutors for £9000. Of all the tulips the Semper Augustus was the favourite, and the price we have assigned it was much less than it frequently produced. A fine Spanish cabinet, valued at 1000l. and 3001. besides, were once given for a Semper Augustus; and another gentleman sold three stocks of the same flower for 10001. each. The same gentleman was offered for this flower 1500l. a-year for seven years, and every thing to be left as found, only reserving the increase during that time for the money. Another gentleman, by the sale of his tulips, got the sum of 6000l. in less than four months. The tulip madness at length raged to such a pitch, that the Government deemed it necessary to interfere; accordingly, in 1637, a great check was put to it by an order of the state for invalidating their contracts; so that a root was then sold for 51., which, a few weeks before, produced 5001. As a proof of the extent to which the tulip trade was carried, it is related, that in one city in Holland alone, in a period of three years, they had traded for a million sterling in tulips. It is further related, that a burgonaster had procured a place of considerable profit for his friend, a native of Holland, when the latter offered to make him any amends in his power, which the Burgomaster generously refused, and only desired to see his flower-garden. In about two years afterwards, the gentleman, on a visit to the Burgomaster, perceived in his garden a scarce tulip, which had been clandestinely obtained from him, on which he flew into such a passion that he resigned his place of 1000l. per an, num, went home, tore up his flowergarden, and quitted the country. learned with surprise the death of his wife, and the little attention that had the body disinterred, when, though his been paid her. He immediately had wife was for ever lost to him, he recovered a child in the person of Civile, who was preserved alive! ! Original Poetry. MERLIN'S CAVE. To the Editor of the Literary Chronicle. SIR,-Your favourable reception of my former communication induces me to send you the position of a young friend of mine, now unhapfollowing poetical fragment, which is the compily no more; and, if the partiality of my own judgment has not deceived me, you will agree vered them again in the ground, but with me in thinking it not unworthy of the so that the hand of one of them still certain dates, in the latter part of the year 1816, public eye. It was written, as appears from lay exposed. As he returned, in pass soon after the memorable riot of Spa Fields, ing the last, he observed this hand. and was intended to form the commencement Fearing that such an object might ex- of a poem, which, had the writer lived to comcite the dogs to fall on the dead body, plete his design, (of which I have seen the outlines,) would, I think, have supplied no conhe returned with a view of covering it. temptible specimen of the mock-heroic. But, be At the moment that he was about to this as it may, if you should deem the followexecute his pious office, a moon-beaming fragment to possess sufficient merit for pubenabled him to perceive a diamond-lication, its appearance in your columns would ring that Civile wore on his finger. which the proper illustration of some passages greatly oblige me. I shall subjoin a few notes, Without loss of time, he raised up his master, who still breathed, and carried him to the hospital for the wounded; but the surgeons, oppressed with labour, and considering the man as dead, would not examine his wound. The domestic then found himself obliged to carry him to his inn, where he lauguished four days without any assist auce. About this time, two physicians had the complaisance to visit him; they dressed his wound, and, by their kind attentions, he soon began to recover. The city being taken by assault, the conquerors had the barbarity, on finding Civile, to throw him out of the window. Fortunately, he fell on a dung-hill, where, abandoned by all the world, he passed three days more. His father, Ducroiset, finding him, had him secretly removed, during the night, to a country house, where he was properly taken care of. There, after so many species of deaths, he recovered his health so perfectly, that he survived all these accidents forty years! Thuanus, who gravely relates this anecdote, says the peculiar providence which preserved this man from so many perilspresided also at his birth. His mother dying enceinte during the absence of her husband, was buried without attempting to abstract the child by the Cesarian operation. The day after the funeral the husband returned, and seems to require. I remain, sir, London, Aug. 25th, 1821. MERLIN'S CAVE*, OR A TALE OF SPA FIELDS: A Fragment. Argument:-Midnight-Spa Fields and its Enchanted Castle-march of the pilgrims-the ancient Spa and the wizard's cave-Merlin's prophecy-modern temple described, together with the divinity and his votariesapproach of the pilgrims to the templetheir entrance therein their chieftain pourtrayed-the sacred orgies and sacrifices of the pilgrims-the propitious omen of the divinity. CANTO I. 'Twas midnight, and o'er all the town * The celebrated mansion of this name, which opened wide its hospitable portals to the thirsty traveller, cannot fail to be fresh in the recollection of all, who took any interest in the glorious events of Spa Fields at the period to which in five short years, it has fallen a sacrifice to this poem refers. I much fear, however, that, the destroying hand of Time. At least, in a pilgrimage, which I recently made to this me morable field, I could discover no traces of it nor was I able to identify the spot, which had eloquence. The H-ts, the W-ts-s, the erst been the birth-place of so much patriotic Ge J-s's, the W-dd-t-n's, and the H-rr-s-ns, where are they all, thought 1 ? Their voice hath passed away with the breeze, and their place knows them no more. The consecrated ground, where once stood the Res Save where was heard the watch-dog's howl, Or where Grimalkin's wanton yell Save whom fell Conscience conjured nigh, And then they muttered curses deep Gloria Teucrorum!· * This building has had the good fortune to survive the work of revolution, which has taken place in its vicinity; and, however obnoxious to certain pilgrims, who have the misfortune to be inveigled within its enchanted precincts, it promises, from its strength, to bid a long defiance to the assaults of Time. Ont of the boundaries of Paruassus it is known by the unmusical name of Cold-Bath Fields... Had my lamented friend, the author of this immortal effusion, lived to this day, he would, no doubt, have made an improvement on this illustration, by adopting, instead of the super-migrating fogs, the bogs of Hibernia themselves, which have recently evinced so marvellous a disposition to look out for new quarters. In such proud meed as war may claim, Avaunt, avaunt, ye race impure,' I * For a full account of this celebrated cave, must beg to refer the reader to that high and learned authority, Lempriere's Classical Dictionary, not having the necessary time to transcribe it here. Since to the winds old Merlin's cell And governs, with all potent spell, Though many hold, that at his shrine Where, eager all for dark debate, The pilgrims crowd in solemn state. Not Eleusinian rites of yore, Though thick the mystic veil they wore, must be considerable hazard in any attempt to Renown so mystic or so bold, + After the lapse of so many centuries, there Not modern masonry may claim, Nor aught of late or ancient fame, unfold the mysterious import of this ancient prediction, the terms of which, in this line, As what the muse shall now unfold. friend of mine has, however, suggested, that Their souls on dark designs are set; seem to be so contradictory. An ingenious Here then, in secret conclave met, the falling and soaring, here applied to the Not Pandemonium's crew might boast same individuals, may be perfectly consistent, A deadlier plot—a wilier host; as illustrated in the case of a convict at the authorities, in the sixth century. Respecting Old Bailey, who first falls in his adventurous his connection with the locus in quo (as a lawcareer, and afterwards soars to public distinc-yer would say) of this epic effusion, history is tion on the pillory or the scaffold. But I leave silent; the poet must, therefore, have colto the learned in such matters the final solu- lected his information, as he professes to have tion of this abstruse question, if they should done, from the traditionary lore of the spot, not be satisfied with my friend's conjecture. which, in all such cases, is sufficient autho rity. Old Merlin lived, according to the best Not Pandæmonium's prince might claim While Pleasure lured him to his fall, But chief the fiend of frantic eye, O'er them than live another's tool. Whose only solace rested there, Prepare ye now. for grave debate,' But, though so like in mien and air, In either hand a vessel teems The board is spread, the rites commence, 'Non nostrum tantas componere lites.' Each zealot thus the omen cheers; While thus, with frautic voice and mien, *I leave it to the learned in Potology to ex- ་ quor quaffed by the father of gods and men, while enjoying his compotations with his broOf the fate of this hero, after he had distinguish-Olympus. For my own part, I can only aver, ther godships on the summit of Cloud-capt ed himself as here set forth by the poet, I have with great sincerity, that such a beverage as best proof Hodges,' is not once mentioned by no certain account. The most plausible rumour that has yet reached me, states, that, after having again signalized himself on another feld, he retired from the world, with all the modesty of Cincinnatus, secluding himself within the walls of a remote castle, where, 'The world forgetting, by the world forgot,' Homer throughout the twenty-four books of his mention of it occurs in an ancient and elaborate he continues to spend his days with the dignity work entitled, Annals of St. Giles', and of a patriot and the privacy of a philosopher.. Tothill Fields."' Dim and more dim the lights appear, And now the chief, with ravish'd glance, [Cætera valdè desiderantur.] The Drama. ...... DRURY LANE.-On Saturday, a new melodrama was produced at this theatre, entitled Giraldi Duval. It is a new version of Mrs. Opie's tale of the Ruffian Boy, which was very successfully dramatized by Mr. Thomas Dibdin, about eighteen months ago. The story is founded on an event which occurred at Brussels, about twenty years since; but as its present dramatizer, (who we understand to be Mr. P. Walker, the author of Wallace,) has entirely changed the story, and added characters and incidents neither to be met with in the original nor in the fiction of the novelist, we shall give a brief sketch of the plot of the melodrama: Geraldi Duval, (Mr. Cooper,) who, fos a supposed insult, has vowed revenge on Ethelind, Countess of Altenburg, (Miss Smithson,) is the leader of a band of rob bers. In pursuance of this scheme, he makes Count Altenburg a prisoner, and hastening to the abode of his wife Ethelind, seizes her, and, though he has an opportunity of immediately satiating his revenge, yet he prefers bearing her away to his cavern, whence her husband has just escaped, and, collecting a guard of soldiers, returns, attacks the haunt of the banditti, and shoots Geraldi dead at the moment he is going to stab Ethelind, who is thus restor ed to her husband. What could have induced Mr. Walker to select, for a new melodrama, a subject which had been already in such good hands, we know not; but the reat least injudicious, for though the thing sult must convince him that, it was is well enough for a melodrama, yet it falls short, very far short indeed, of the Ruffian Boy of the Surrey Theatre, Mr. T. P. Cooke, in the hero, and which, with the excellent acting of Miss Taylor, in the Countess, was powerfully interesting. Geraldi DüFeal was, however, received with ap plause, and has been performed nightly ever since it was first produced: HAYMARKET THEATRE.-A more intimate acquaintance with the new Belvidera of this theatre, makes no alteration in the opinion we expressed last week. Her feeble voice must be a serious obstacle to her appearing in one of the larger houses, and there is a little awkwardness in her manner, which, however, experience will soon correct. She possesses many qualifications for the higher walks of the drama; and we confess we think it would have been more judicious to have tried her first in Juliet, which, we have no doubt, she could play admirably. The Marriage of Figaro has been produced at this theatre, with great success. It is a charming comic opera, and the parts were generally very well sustained, particularly by Jones, who is always excellent as the Count. De Camp was a good Figaro, and Tayleure a tolerable Antonio. Miss Carew, Miss Corri, and Mrs. Chatterley, played their respective parts delightfully. We are very happy to find that the new theatre is likely to become as great a favourite as the old one, for it is nightly crowded. If, however, it is intended that the whole of the audience should get a glimpse of the stage, it will be necessary that a great alteration should be made in the side boxes. This, we doubt not, will be attended to before another season. ENGLISH OPERA HOUSE.-Novelties have been so frequent at this house during the present season, that it almost becomes a novelty to us not to have to announce one this week. So many successful pieces have, however, been added to the stock-list, that a rich and varied treat is furnished nightly. Literature advances rapidly in the by the reflection of the light of the Russian tongue; eight thousand vo-earth from an even and smooth surface lumes appeared in the last twenty years, of a great extent of rock in the moon. whereas, in 1800, only three thousand Apple Bread.-M. Duduit de Maiwere printed. It seems there are no zieres has invented, and practised with less than three hundred and fifty liv-great success, a method of making ing authors in Russia, though their bread with common apples very far works and even their names (except superior to potatoe bread. After havtwo or three) are wholly unknown in ing boiled one-third of peeled apples, England and France. he bruised them while quite warm into two-thirds of flour, including the proper quantity of yeast, and kneaded the whole without water, the juice of the fruit being quite sufficient. When this mixture had acquired the consistency of paste, he put it into a vessel, in which he allowed it to rise for about twelve hours. By this process he obtained a very excellent bread. The Russian frigate, Voslock, Capt. Bellinghausen, and a corvette, are returning from a voyage of discoveries in the Pacific, to Petersburgh. These ships proceeded nearly in the track of Capt. Cook, advancing as far as 70 s. The principal thing discovered is, that Cook's Sandwich Land consists of an island or islands. The Bee. 'Floriferis ut apes in saltibus omnia limant, Omnia nos itidem depascimur aurea dicta.' LUCRETIUS. Cachemere Goats.-The Cachemere New Balloon.-An experiment was Goats imported into France by M. made a few days ago, in the Garden of Ternaux, have been settled at Perpig-Tivoli, with a balloon, which was fitted nan,and are now beginning to propagate. and raised without any combustible After yeaning in March, the down, matter, gas, or apparatus. It was exsome rudiments of which had appeared posed empty to the rays of the sun, in April, began to get intwined, and and their action determined the atmosthis may be looked upon as an ap- pheric air into the balloon, which was proach to maturity. This I had completely filled. It acquired, at the plucked up,' says M. Tessier (in his same time, an essential impetus, and, communication to the Royal Academy when abandoned, rose of itself. The of Sciences), with horn combs, and it construction of the balloon is conwas thus almost pure and free from trived, that it may receive the greatclots.' Each animal furnished, on an est advantage from the action of the average, three ounces and a half; some, sun; the upper part is transparent, the including a large he goat, gave six middle black, and the lower part ounces. There is very little loss, and gilt outside and black within. every thing announces that this race Journal des Debats, Sept. 9. will easily get seasoned to the climate. The she-goats are better for milking than the natives; the large hairs vary much in length, and it has been remarked that the short haired individuals sometimes yield the most down, and it is finest on those of a grey colour. By allotting them a more elevated situation in the Pyrenees they are expected to give more down, and further improvements are contemplated, Mr. Simonde de Sismondi, the well-in the selections for propagation, by a known author of the History of the Italian Republics, is engaged in a work of the first importance, the want of which has been long and universally acknowledged a Complete History of the French Nation. The patience and sagacity displayed by the author in his multifarious researches, his perspicuous style and excellent arrangement, and, above all, the spirit of liberty which never ceases to animate him, afford abundant proof that, if he lives to complete his design, he will raise a literary monument worthy of his own reputation, and of the great nation whose deeds he is about to commemorate, Literature and Science. judicious crossing with such of the in- Rock in the Moon,-Dr. Olbers in- Superstition. From a French Paper. THREE persons, named Ricou, Fayet, and Du Vacher, in the commune du Tremblay, near Segre, were brought up last assizes at Maine et Loire, the two first accused of having wounded and committed other violence on a man named Moreau, by which he was incapable of working for twenty days; and the third of having counselled the other in doing so. In March last, Ricou and his family suffered much from vermin, and could not get rid of them; and the milk of his cows produced no butter. Ricou believed himself under the influence of sorcery, and consulted two learned men of the profession, one of whom advised him to throw salt into the fire, and the other to throw bran in the stable where his cows were kept. Neither had any effect. Ricou then consulted Du Vacher, who, without |