gresse. Augment the fermentation with some animal substances; stir it up well, and then leave it to settle, and decant it. Carry this liquor into France, and you will present the French with a fair specimen of London porter. EXTRAORDINARY GIANT. Amongst the curiosities which this year presented at the fair of St. Lazaros, at Marseilles, must be noticed the giant Martin Ruboga. His height is seven feet three inches; his chest, hands, and thighs, are in proportion to this high stature, and every thing contributes to make him an extraordinary man. On seeing him, it is easy to perceive that he is possessed of prodigious strength. The most surprising act seems simple to him, and easy. With a single blow of his naked fist he breaks in pieces a mass of marble; and two fingers are sufficient for him to hold in equilibrium a cane with a head of two pounds weight. Martin Ruboga, born in Italy, is a descendant of the famous Gigli, to whom Buffon has devoted an article in his Natural History, as curious as it is interesting. Mechanic's Dracle and Domestic Guide. TONIC TINCTURE. Peruvian bark, bruised, one ounce and a half; orange peel, bruised, one ounce; brandy, or proof spirit, one pint. Let these ingredients steep for ten days, shaking the bottle every day; let it remain quiet two days, and then decant the clear liquor. Dose, one teaspoonful in a wine glass of water twice a day, when you feel languid, i. e. when the stomach is empty, about an hour before dinner, and in the evening. Twenty grains of the powder of bark may be added to it occasionally. If you do not like the trouble of making this, get two ounces of tincture of Peruvían bark, one ounce and a half of tincture of orange peel, and to this you may add two drachins of tinctura ferri muriati: mix. The dose, a teaspoonful in a wine glass of water. To this agreeable aromatic tonic we are under personal obligations for frequently putting our stomach into good temper, and procuring us good appetite and good digestion. LONDON :-WILLIAM CHARLTON WRIGHT, 65, Paternoster Row, and may be had of all Booksellers and Newsmen. [SEARS, Printer, 45, Gatter Lane, Cheapside.] The Portfolio, Comprising I. THE FLOWERS OF LITERATURE. II. THE SPIRIT OF THE MAGAZINES. III. THE WONDERS OF NATURE AND ART. IV. THE ESSENCE OF ANECDOTE AND WIT. V. THE DOMESTIC GUIDE. VI. THE MECHANICS' ORACLE. TWO ENGRAVINGS WILL BE GIVEN IN OUR NEXT, TO MAKE UP FOR THE INFERIORITY OF THE THE ONE NOW INSERTED: ENGRAVER HAVING DISAPPOINTED US WITH THE ONE ORIGINALLY INTENDED. PALACE OF HOLYROOD HOUSE. THE palace of Holyrood-house stands at the eastern extremity of the city of Edinburgh, and at the bottom of that part of the High Street, named the Canongate. It is a beautiful building, of a quadrangular form, with an open court in the centre, ninety-four feet square. The western front consists of two large castellated square towers, four stories in height, which are joined by a lower building or gallery of two stories, with a flat roof and double ballustrade. The towers have each three circular turrets at their exterior angles, rising from the ground to the battlements, the fourth angle of each great tower being concealed by the buildings which surround the inner court. In the middle of the low gallery is the entrance, ornamented by four Doric columns, which support a cupola in the form of an imperial crown. Underneath the cupola is a clock; and over the gateway are the royal arms of Scotland. The front to the east is of equal elegance. Round the area in the inside is a handsome arcade, faced with pilasters of the Doric order. On the entablature of these are cut the ensigns of Scottish royalty; the thistle and the crown, the sword and the sceptre. Between the windows of the second floor are a range of Ionic pilasters; and above these an equal number of the Corinthian order. On a pediment in this area, fronting the west, are the royal arms. At the south west angle of the piazza is the large staircase, which leads to the royal apart ments; and on the north side of the building is the great gallery, which is one hundred and fifty feet long, twentyfour in breadth, and nearly twenty in height. This gallery is hung with the fanciful portraits of one hundred and eleven monarchs of Scotland, by De Witt. Here are held the elections of the Scottish peers. Adjoining to the gallery is a drawing and state bed chamber, wainscotted with oak. The festoons of flowers over the doors and mantle-pieces in the apartment are executed with a considerable degree of elegance, but the stucco ornaments of the roof are rather heavy. Near to this, in what are called Lord Dunmore's lodgings, is a celebrated painting of Charles I. and his queen, going a hunting, painted by Mytons. A horse for his majesty, and a palfrey for the queen, are introduced, and the celebrated dwarf, Jeffrey Hudson, holding a spaniel in a string. The whole is executed in very good style. Here also are full length portraits of Geo. III. and his queen, by Ramsay. Strangers visiting the palace are usually led to Queen Mary's apartments, in the second floor of which her own bed bordered with green silk fringes and still remains. It is of crimson damask, tassels, but is now almost in tatters. The cornice of the bed is of open figured work. Close to the floor in this room is a small opening in the wall, which leads to a passage and a trap-stair, communicating with the apartments below. Through this passage Darnley and his accomplices rushed in to murder the unhappy Rizzio, on the 9th of March, 1566. The queen, when this outrage took place, was at supper, in a closet adjoining to her bed-chamber, with the Countess of Argyll, Rizzio, and a few domestics. Rizzio, on perceiving the conspirators enter, headed by Lord Ruthven in complete armour, instantly supposed he was the victim, and took refuge behind the queen. But, in spite of her tears and entreaties, he was torn from her presence; and, before he could be dragged through the next apartment, the rage of his enemies put an end to his life, piercing his body with fifty-six wounds. The closet in which Mary was at supper, when this tragical scene was acted, is about twelve feet square. The more ancient parts of the present palace, consisting of the north-west towers, were built by James V., about the year 1582, as a royal residence, though for ages before the Scottish Kings seem to have occasionally resided at this place, Below a niche in one of these towers his name is still to be scen, JAC. REX V. SCOTORUM. During the minority of Queen Mary, the Palace of Holyroodhouse was burnt, along with the city, by the English forces under the Earl of Hertford. Soon after this period, however, it was repaired and enlarged beyond its present size. At that time it is said to have consisted of no fewer than five courts, the most westerly of which was the largest. It was bounded on the east by the front of the palace, which occupied the same space as it does at present; but the building extended itself further towards the south. At the north-west corner was a strong gate, (the gate of the adjoining abbey,) with Gothic pillars, arched, and towers, which was taken down in 1755. SUSAN COOPER. Original. SUSAN_COOPER. Look on a love which knows not to despair. 259 affection, one who was not worthy of her, for he was gay, thoughtless, volatile. Nearly of the same age, yet differing so much in their dispositions, who could have believed this tender plant in such an ungenial soil could have ripened to the perfection it has? Their attachment began whilst children at school; at the end of the holidays, as I remember well, he came back with his head full of love, romance, and fancy, and by the hour Í have shared his reflections on the "amiable gentleness of her he loved." After he left school, which happened soon after this, he became acquainted with the performers at a private theatre, and unfortunately fell into that unhappy and morbid feeling which is only cured by experience: he too must be a player. The partial approbation of friends, at all times injudicious, hurried him on, and he ventured to perform in public. I will not praise him, but justice lemands that I should say, many others aave cut a far more contemptible appearance on the boards; but as he did not attain instant celebrity, his friends compelled him to abandon this, as it appeared to his wayward fancy, delightful life, but it was too late, his mind was diseased, and his affections were estranged; he began to treat poor Susan, now returned from school, with coldness and neglect; she never complained, she never reproached him, she did not even ask him why he so seldom came to her, but the deep tone of her feelings was evident in her assumed frankness and gladness in his presence. This in any other heart would have worked a reformation, but his only grew more rebellious, and at last he ceased to think of her. This utter neglect continued for some time, when a mark of attention from her to a sister whom he loved tenderly, and who has now, alas! "passed that bourne whence no traveller returns," recalled him to himself. He wrote to her a letter of penitence, and received in return one from her full of kindness and forgiveness. Her gentle bosom was opened again to receive that heart which for months had been fluttering from flower to flower; by degrees he felt the warm influence of her sweetness redeem him from all his follies; since then, he has often by the exuberance of his thoughtlessness implanted many a pang in her bosom, yet she has never changed, and he has not heeded it. This scene of thoughtless cruelty, not the more to be excused because it was thoughtless, might have continued for a long time, had he not one day surprised her in tears: a letter was lying on the sofa beside her. He walked LOVE is the most delightful of human passions; in the heart of the bad it awakens some good feelings, and in that of the good emanates those which raise the mortal to perfection. We all revert to the hours of our early life's fond dream of love with rapture, the pleasing remembrance dwells upon the mind in all the halcyon bliss of unstained purity. What were human life without that feeling? How dull would be its unchanging tide, if love came not with its magic sweetness to charm "life's weariness! Even the very griefs of love are pleasing in retrospection; to remember that sorrows have been, and have not shaken our fidelity; nay, perhaps, have strengthened it; to think that our feelings grow warmer as time matures our passion; to find, that it is not the fleeting vision of the moment, but the never ending soother of our life. These are the thoughts which chain the mind with pleasure to the past, and cheer it with anticipations of the future. Love has been to me a scene of continued pleasure, and now, when time is sprinkling his snows upon my brow, like the cheering sun of a fine winter, it sheds a dearer ray over my heart, than when in all its summer heat its bright beams shed its warm influence over me. Time, most often the destroyer of all things, has been to my passion a fostering parent; beneath the shelter of his wing it has grown up to strength and maturity, and as each bright quality became uufolded in the object of my heart's idolatry, my affection received fresh strength and nourishment. Oh, hours of rapture! who would not love? In the tale I am about to narrate I shall not speak with the embellishing fancy of a romance writer, I will but draw a true outline, and leave the characters in all their unadorned truth to the judgment of those who will do them justice. Susan Cooper was not what is generally called a pretty girl, though there was much sweetness in her looks: she was kind, pleasing, modest, and unaffected: she had no brilliant accomplishments, yet in all society she was a great favourite. In such a heart as her's, which was open, warm, and generous, it will readily be believed love soon found a home; yes, she loved, and loved with the most ardent gently to her, she endeavoured to conceal her sobs, and they fell upon his heart with the more bitterness. I have heard him declare, till then he never saw her look so interesting. He asked the cause of her tears; she spoke not; he raised her head, and looked on her countenance; an angel weeping could not have appeared more sweetly sorrowful. He insisted upon knowing the cause of her uneasiness, she pointed to the letter; he read it eagerly; 'twas from one of her female friends to whom he had paid some attention, and who had taken a malicious pleasure in communicating the truth, and more than the truth. His heart was touched, he then felt the full force of her amiable gentleness, and as he pressed her burning brow to his bosom, and kissed the scalding tears from her cheeks, he vowed never again to cause her another moment of sorrow; and by a watchful care over his thoughtlessness, to prevent a recurrence of the scene. He told her not of the vow, she knows it not at this moment, but when this meets her eye, as it will, then will she know at last, her merit has been affection appreciated, and her re turned with all the ardour he is capable of; and time, the true test of affection, will only add blossoms to the already thick blown tree of conjugal affection. Since then many a sorrowful moment has it caused him, to think upon the worthlessness of those feelings which could prompt him so to trifle with such a tender heart. What a friend he would have lost, had she treated him as his conduct had deserved; but she had been heard to say, "There were many sparks of goodness in his heart, and at last I have fanned them into a flame." His vow of love and kindness has been kept most religiously, and for a long time I have seen the bright smile of pleasure and cheerfulness glowing on her cheek. May no mischance e'er wither it; I trust it will not, for her thought and seriousness have taken a tinge from his gaiety; and his exuberant flow of animal sprits has been softened down by the restraining influence of her gentleness and mildness, till, from a giddy and thoughtless coxcomb, he has become a fond and affectionate husband. Such were the leading features in the life of SUSAN COOPER. Dul. Gr. W. H. L. CHRISTMAS BOXES. IT were idle to tell our readers that at this merry and joyous season of the year, when the spirits are all on the wing, and when the imagination is caught by every glittering appearance, it is the custom of reviving and refreshing friendships by some trivial yet Children receive suitable offerings. their wooden horses, their penny trumpets, and Dutch dolls-the charming fair one luxuriates over her "Forget me Not," and her " Hommage aux Dames." and grave and potent Signiors procure their works of edification and instruction. Of what these latter consist it may not be unprofitable to inwe have been favoured quire; and as with a list of the presents which are in course of preparation for some of the ennobled of the land, we shall devote a small portion of our columus for conveying this very seasonable piece of information: "His Most Gracious Majesty receives an Imperial Edition of the Holy Scriptures, with notes critical and expla natory on the Seventh and Tenth Commandments, by William Hone, Esquire." West's superb picture of the spaniel hav"The Marquis of Conyngham receives ing its ears cropped, and bearing the marks of the lash on its sides." "His Noble Marchioness receives the last edition of Horne's Art of Love; printed on Crown paper. 1820.” "The Duke of Gloucester-the last Report of the Destitute Sense Society, bound in calf and unlettered." "The Lord High Chancellor--a beautiful engraving of the celebrated Sphynx, with a full-length portrait of Mr. Williams, M. P. as Oedipus; and bearing the following classical motto:— 'A THING OF DOUBTS AND MYSTERIES.' "Lord Gifford a copy of 'Beattie's Essays on TRUTH,' with the threevolumed novel of 'The Fortunehunter.'" "The Lord Mayor- Lindley Murray's English Grammar,' with the latest impression of The Court Primer.' ” "Mr. Secretary Croker--a fine engraving of a Polar Bear in the act of devouring an Irish Bore.” "Mr. Justice Parke---Dyer's elegant Comedy of 'The Justice run mad, with Mrs. Taylor's tale of The Triumphs Temper." "John Mildmay, Esq. M. P.--- Tom Thumb' with cuts." "C. W. WYNN, Esq. M. P.---A voice from Wales."" |