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BORDER HOSPITALITY.

An inedited letter of Sir Walter Scott.

RAPHAEL AND THE LOGGIE OF THE VATICAN. SURELY those august colonnades, seen nowhere but in MY LORD DUKE,-I am equally flattered and ashamed Italy, and in Italy distinguished by the unpretending of the trouble which your Grace has had the great good-name of Loggia, are the very poetry of architecture; ness to take in order to gratify my idle curiosity. I creations of the Sun's own climate, they are pavilions own my curiosity was very much fascinated by the of the Sun himself. Upon the highest terrace of the report of a memoir found in the Bastille, and written, as Palace, upon the pinnacle of the green olive hill, glistenwas alleged, by one of an ancient family, with which I ing above the verdurous canopy of the great pine groves, have the honour to be connected. But the sense of your aloft they poise their stately arches, as if to meet their Grace's kindness, and the honour of your acquaintance welcome guest the Lord of day. Alas! that storm and with which you condescend to offer me, would be a rain should ever be their uninvited visitors. compensence for a far greater disappointment.

I should not have ventured, considering that our accommodations cannot be of the first class, to offer the Duchess of Buckingham any convenience that these can afford her Grace, had I not been sensible that the Duchess's goodness will consider the meaning of the invitation, and compare them not with those her Grace is most accustomed to, but to such as are afforded by a Scotch Inn. It is true, our late much lamented friend the Duchess of Buccleugh* used to make our roof her home occasionally, but as the Lady of my Chief, she was bound to think herself well entertained, providing on our part there was nothing omitted which could show our sense of her kindness.

We do not live in the most romantic and picturesque part of Scotland, but the country round us is very pleasant, and full of romantic traditions and historical recollections, besides having to boast of the ruins of Melrose and other objects of antiquarian interest. I can only add, that if your Grace should accompany the Duchess on her proposed tour, it will give us a double honour and pleasure to see the Lord of the far-famed Stowe, among our wild hills and moors. Also, that we have room enough, such as it is, for any friends who may belong to the Duchess's party, and that we have enough of hard beds, forest mutton, and tolerable claret, which are the chief ingredients of Border hospitality, including always the sincere and respectful welcome, which the Duke and Duchess of Buckingham are sure to find wherever they visit.

I have the honour to be, with a sincere sense of your Grace's goodness,

My Lord Duke,

Your much obliged

And most respectful, humble servant,
WALTER SCOTT.

Edinburgh, June 17, 1824.

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Among the mirabilia of the Vatican, the Loggie immortalized by Raphael and his pupils, are much more talked of than they are either felt or understood. In many melancholy instances, it is to be apprehended, they are confounded with the four stately Stanze embellished by the same illustrious school.

Erecting their triple tier about the Court of San Damaso, and approached by all the old Italian pomp of staircase, these regal Porticoes scarcely required the exquisite elaborateness of Raphael's fancy, or the masterly creations of Raphael's mind to illustrate the naked glory of Bramante's beautiful designs.

The noble Corridors command the most enchanting prospect of this thrice built city of Mars, besides the mountains, the pine-woods, the castles, and the towns of its delightful Contorni; and when satiated with the voluptuous view, you turn from the harmonious colourings of Nature to the more brilliant but not less finely modulated decorations of Art, amazement is impelled by the prodigal luxuriance with which Painting opens up her every fountain there. Story, Design and Colour join in august alliance to decorate the proud projections of her sister, Architecture. Vaults radiant with arabesques; Panels glowing with Landscape; Medallions, each a masterwork, and each a drama in itself; and Pilasters variegated with delightful imageries of Genii. Birds, Flowers, and Fruits, worthy of their presumptive origin, from the Baths of Titus, absolutely bewilder with the admiration which they excite.

That Raphael should condescend to luxuriate in these most elegant yet trivial intricacies of Art, is a proof of the elasticity of true Genius! Men so great can well afford to be little, but alas! before the first flood of enthusiasm has ebbed away, comes the heart-sinking conviction, that all this beauty, all this grandeur, all this that ought to be Immortality, consigning a hundred great Names to the Archives of the world, is already irremediably a ruin.

Yes! amidst all the sunshine that irradiates the

distant landscapes, and floats over their pillared pavements; amidst all the soft airs that advance wooingly upon the brow, along their shadowed colonnades you look upon these tarnished, mildewed, and dilapidated triumphs of Art, and fancy you hear the Tempest howling, the Rain streaming, the Snow and Hail rattling, or the Lightning and Thunder holding their terrific revels amid these elegant Corridors, already bearing vestiges of the

pitiless havoc of the Spanish soldiery, whose wanton violence, anticipating time, seems to have envied the very seasons their charter to destroy.

Reckless, indeed, were these Pontiff Princes, even of their own Magnificence. In embellishing their Temples, Palaces and Towns, they gave as much to the Sky, to its Suns and to its Storms, as they bestowed upon the more tranquil penetralia of their Cabinets, and the richest decoration of their Banquet saloons, believing with consummate assurance, that "to-morrow shall be as to-day, and yet more abundant;" they challenged Time and the Tide to do their worst, relying on their own resources against vicissitudes, confident they could soon "repair the golden Flood,

And warm the nations with redoubled ray."

ERASMUS AND LUTHER.

PHYSIOGNOMISTS observe in the visage of Erasmus, When Luther was shewn a portrait of Erasmus, the the strongest indications of good sense, benignity and wit. ascetic reformer observed, "Were I to look like this picture, I should be the greatest knave in the world!" So much for prejudice.

in his sarcasm; ardent and sincere in his great work of Luther was implacable in his resentment, and bitter Reformation, he would maintain no friendly terms with those who would not go the whole length of his zeal: Erasmus and the pious Augustine monk had once been friends.

The rare talents of Erasmus burst forth "when learning was emerging out of barbarism." He was one had not the courage to relinquish. His cupboard, which of the first who dared to attack superstition, which he to the honour of the age was enriched with plate prematch-sented to him by the most illustrious men, as an offering to his talents and private worth, was a subject for invective in the independent spirit of Luther, whose suspicions were excited to the belief of Erasmus' too great devotion to the good things of the world.

Could Julius and Leo but look back upon those mouldering Loggie, and compare them with that glittering illumination of Painting, and Marble, and Gold, less productions of munificence and art, which under their auspices, found in these Arcades an illustrious home; they might groan over their annihilated Pride, or grieve upon the phantoms of their beloved Delights. Speak, ye Sibylline Leaves! how long hence, before the wild fig bursts beneath their crumbling balustrades, or the bright network of the ivy embroiders their pilasters, or the silken moss becomes their tapestry, or the jewelled lichens supplant the marbles of their inlaid pavements? Fate only knows! Rome.

T. H. W.

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ADVANTAGES OF A LIBRARY.

IN the best books, great men talk to us, give us their most precious thoughts, and pour their souls into ours. God be thanked for books! They are the voices of the distant and the dead, and make us heirs of the spiritual life of past ages. Books are the true levellers. No matter how poor I am: no matter though the prosperous of my own time will not enter my obscure dwelling; if the sacred writers will enter and take up their abode under my roof, if Milton will cross my threshold to sing to me of Paradise, and Shakespeare to open to me the worlds of imagination, and the workings of the human heart, and Franklin to enrich me with his practical wisdom, I shall not pine for want of intellectual companionship, and I may become a cultivated man, though excluded from what is called "the best society" in the place where I live.-CHANNING.

"We must carry ourselves according to the times, and hang the cloak according to the wind," said Erasmus mildly; those sentiments, however honest of purpose, were widely different from the straightforward temper of the great apostle of Protestantism.

Rubens, a Papist, in his celebrated picture of the Woman taken in Adultery, has introduced the portrait of Luther, a visage without a single trait that even the devotion of bigotry could convert into a Christian or Cardinal virtue. Calvin is also rendered a prominent figure in the group, conceived in the same spirit of hatred to the reformed religion.

don Magazine, 1765, p. 377, appears to have escaped the notice of the bard's biographers :

SHAKESPEARE.-The following, recorded in the Lon

July 17. The old walnut tree that flourished before the door of Shakespeare's father's house, at Stratford-uponAvon, at the birth of the poet, has lately been cut down, and several gentlemen had images resembling that in Westminster Abbey carved from it.

MAHOMMEDAN GALLANTRY.

IN Hammer-Purgstall's Extracts from Saalebi, printed in the Journal of the German Oriental Society, 1852, vol. vi. p. 511, it is intimated, the proof that women surpass the devil in cunning is derived from the Koran, chap. iv. verse 78, which says, "The cunning of Satan is weak," and chap. xii. verse 28, in the address to women, "your cunning is great."

The advice of women, bad, and to be rejected; so says the Prophet, "Ask their advice, and do the contrary."

S.

IR.

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6

ROMAN PAVEMENT AT DORCHESTER. LAST week while breaking the ground for building the new gate and improvements of the Dorset County Gaol, about two feet below the surface, a portion, four or five feet wide, of a Roman pavement, or opus tesselatum,' was exposed. Dorchester and its neighbourhood has much to interest the archaeologist; named by the Romans Durnovaria,' a word derived according to Hutchins from the British; Ptolemy calls it Dunium (Aavtov), which he says was the town or city (olis) of the Durobriges; it was fortified by the Romans, and Lal part of the wall is yet standing in "The Walks" at the western end of the town. At different times many similar pavements have been found; the part here drawn

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is apparently the ornamental portion of the border, in which the tessera of white, black, blue, and red, are just one-fourth of the size of the red, employed in the inner surface. As so small a fragment remains it is impossible to decide as to what was its form or dimensions. The colours, though clear, are not very bright; but hitherto I have not found any other specimen discovered here of a similar pattern. A single brass coin of Vespasian, Emperor A.D. 69-79, was found at the same time. The whole has been carefully raised, and set in two parts, one is to be laid down in the entrance hall of the Governor's residence, and the other, it is presumed, will be deposited in the Dorset County

Museum.

Dorchester, August 18.

JOHN GARLAND.

THE UNCERTAINTIES OF HISTORY. HENRY IV. of France, after the victory of Aumale, in which he was wounded, ordered the attendance of his Generals to his bedside, to render him an account of what had occurred after his being carried from the field; but no two agreed on the course of the events in which they had been the actors, and the king, struck forcibly with the difficulty of ascertaining facts so evident and so recent, exclaimed, Voila ce que c'est que l'Histoire?'

PHARMACEUTICAL.-Current Notes, p. 64. Sir F. Kelly's opinion was in favour of the hardc,' which the judicious remarks of your correspondent A. B. E. proves to be anything but correct. S. M.

PHOENICIAN TAVERN SIGN. POWNALL in his Treatise on the Study of Antiquities, p. 234, notices the following inscription that appears to have been placed over the door of a Tavern.

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While adopting the above communication from a respected correspondent, the editor submits one or two observations. Since the above was engraved, the same inscription has been discovered in the Cabinet de Pierres Gravées, Paris,

1778, vol. ii. pl. ccvi. fig. 387, as the reverse of a gnostic gem. Mixed inscriptions like the present are extremely problematical, and the attempt to explain Gnostic Mysteries is generally unsatisfactory. The idea of reading from the left to right, and the referring to mixed alphabets, in aid of elucidation, have found objectors, while strong doubts are also entertained that the caravansaries of the East were at any period the places of such specific general entertainment as our respected correspondent has concluded.

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GIAOUR AGGRESSIONS IN THE East.

66

EUROPEAN intercourse has greatly changed affairs at Constantinople. An Englishman or a Frenchman may now by merely taking off his shoes, sans firman, sans everything," enter without let or hindrance the mosque of Santa Sophia itself, and, again taking off the shoes, though retaining the hat, may also stroll into that of Sultan Achmet during "Divine service," listen to the monotonous chant of the Imaums, and observe the prostrations of the worshippers. Continuing his walk, he may wander about the Seraglio Gardens without suspicion. The officers of the guard, it is true, may stop him, but it will be merely to offer pipes and coffee, and to chat about the war; and then, disregarding a doubtful shake of the head from an old Mussulman, he may walk into the courts of the Seral itself, and criticise the odd heterogeneous mass of splendour, exhibiting a little taste, with much barbarity. The splendour is in the profuse gilding, now in a state of rapid decay. Pera, too, has its attractions-in the evening bands of music may there be heard, and good beer may be obtained. The Bosphorus is in all its beauty, shining like silver in the bright sun, except where the highlycoloured houses contrast in reflection with the tall black cypresses, and where its surface is varied by the passage of numerous merchant craft and huge transport steamers, such as the Orinoco and Himalaya, or the swift little Turkish steamers with their odd mixture on board of pretty Greek faces, Turkish yasmacks and their fezzed brethren, a few English and French officers on leave being intermingled, and a pretty fair sprinkling of travelling Englishmen, dressed in a mixture of straw hat and turban, and a sort of style oscillating between the West and the East most surprising to behold. The Turks are much improved in civility; the women wear their yasmacks generally smaller and thinner, and one may prophesy the time not far distant when that article may become merely a fashionable custom in dress, an air-woven web, and used to set off to advantage that which it is now supposed to conceal.

Constantinople, August 19.

HUDIBRAS.-The couplet referred to by our Correspondent, C.E. was caused by the knight's fondness for vitilitigation,' a term meaning no more than a perverse humour of wrangling

He that complies against his will,
Is of his own opinion still,

are the so often misquoted lines in the edition corrected and amended by the author, 1678, 8vo. Part III. Canto iii. p. 102; or referring to later editions, lines 547-548.

Samuel Butler, the author of Hudibras, a volume that will remain while English literature shall last, was towards the close of his existence maintained by a

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a title that but sparingly is awarded to others of the sepultured dead, who had apparently a better claim.

Zoust's Portrait of Butler, formerly in the Harleian Gallery, was purchased at the sale, March 10, 1741-2, by Lord Coleraine; but in 1744, when engraved for Grey's edition of Hudibras, was then in the possession of Dr. Mead. Five-and-twenty years since it was in the possession of the writer, and was engraved for Baldwin's edition. It is now in Manchester or Liverpool.

Subscriptions are now being made to place an inscription on the outer wall of the church, to mark his last deposit; and also a marble tablet within the church; the Rector, the Rev. Henry Hutton, is very desirous to accomplish these mementoes, and most willingly proffers to head the list of subscribers.

GAZETTE.-Chalmers states, the first papers of news, since termed Gazettes, were produced in Venice in 1536, and were circulated in manuscript long after, as appears from a collection of these Gazettes, in the Magliabechian Library at Florence. Life of Ruddiman, p. 114.

The title of Ghazie, the Victorious, gave the name of Gazetta to the Chronicles of the Wars with the Turks, which were first published in Venice-hence our Gazette?

Traditionally it is said, the small silver coin of Venice at which the printed paper was sold, originated the title of Gazette. Coriate describing its memorabilia, observes, "Whatsoever thou art that meanest to see Venice, in any case forget not to goe up to the top of Saint Markes tower before thou comest out of the citie, for it will cost

but a gazet, which is not fully an English penny." Crudities, 1611, 4to. p. 185.

BRUSSELS GAZETTE.-The newspaper so called in the seventeenth century, was distinguished beyond all other papers of news, for its flagrant falsehoods, or misrepresentation of facts, so much so, that when any information arrived to which doubt was attached, it was instantly ascribed to the Brussels Gazette. Count Zinzendorf in his Lecteur Royale, relates that "When Charles the Second quitted Brussels, he desired his agent there to send him occasionally the news. Being a Spaniard, he asked, Of what kind, Sire, would you have the news? As the king appeared surprised at the question, he replied, Sir, my master, Don Juan, the Governor of the Low Countries, gives me positive orders always to send him good news, whether true or false !" The Journal de St. Petersbourg appears to possess all the excellencies of its predecessor.

H.

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Sweeps chimneys clean, and not to dear;
Smoke-jack cleaner, if required,

Puts chimneys out when they're a-fired.

At the Bee Hive Public House is a nearly similar version of the lines, noticed in Current Notes, p. 68, as being at Morningside, near Edinburgh—

Within this hive we're all alive,

Good ale it inakes us funny,
If you are dry, as you pass by,

Step in, and taste our honey.

The sign of the Three Loggerheads is also among the pictorial embellishments of this town, representing two jovial topers, and below, the usual distich

We three Loggerheads be!

The following inscription, though not strictly poetical, may be mentioned as a curiosity

The Nottingham

Pyflit and Muffin House

Baked and Sold Here
Every Day.

Proof being hereby afforded of the digestive powers of

With glee come
Come to the

Spend each a
Drink to the
Which friendly

And let this motto

Long last the

your wishes,

your greatest joys; and drink like fishes, my jovial boys; of England's glory, s with her increase; each story,

that keeps the peace!

The sign of a gate with the following lines is very common in this part of the country:

The gate hangs well and hinders none,
Refresh and pay, and so pass on!

In a Currier's shop at Burslem is a large sign over the counter, with these words

No trust here, no, not a penny!

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The Engine Public House at Bedworth, near Coventry, a respectable road-side house, for many years kept by Jeremiah Parish, and now by some of his family; had below his sign, moved but a few years sinceI hope my Engine will not fail,

To draw my friends good beer and ale! The Robin Hood at Nuneaton, the last lines having aptly reference to the then landlord

Now Robin Hood is dead and gone,
Come and drink with little John!

The same, I am informed, is at Croydon. Attached to the sign of the Bell, common throughout Warwickshire, within the last forty years was the injunctionThe Bell hangs well, and in there's none: Refresh and Pay, and Travel on!

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