The omission of the Chronicler in not informing us of the manner of the Jew's death is luckily supplied by an entry on the Fine Roll of the 48th year of Henry the Third, membrane 7, the translation of which is as follows:

"William de Walworth has made a fine with the Lord the King, by fifty marks, to have the house and tenement in Milk-street, London, which was formerly the property of Bonomye, the son of Cresse the Jew, but now in the king's hands, as his escheat, by reason of the felony of the said Bonomye, who, at the instigation of the devil, did lately slay Albert the Lombard, in Southwark, for which the said Bonomye was burned in the Cheap. And the King's Escheator in London is commanded to give the same William possession of the said house and tenement."

A TRUE HISTORY OF THE CELEBRATED WEDGEWOOD HIEROGLYPH, COMMONLY CALLED THE WILLOW PATTERN.

BY MARK LEMON.

WITH A PLATE.

In the reign of the Emperor Fo (who was nearly as long as his name), the great philosopher Fum, by the introduction of the doctrine of metempsychosis, had set nearly all the pigtails in the Celestial Empire "bolt upright,"-Nature having devised this form of expression for a surprised Chinese. Never was astonishment so general. Wherever you turned,

"Some graceful pigtail pointed to the skies."

It was only to be equalled by the delight occasioned by the new doctrine. Death was now no longer a thing of terrors; but every child of the sun looked forward with joyous anticipation to the time when he should

"Soar the air, or swim the deep,

Or o'er the sephalica creep."

The fear was not that they must die, but that they might not. So anxious, indeed, were many for this transmigration, that, anticipating death, they insisted upon being something else.

Sing-sing, principal tenor to the emperor, fell from the shingled roof of his dwelling, and, becoming impaled on the point of his tail, conceived himself a humming-bird, and would not be quieted. Ti-di, the greatest dandy inside of the greatest wall in the universe, strutted down the principal street of Fou-loo with a water-melon on his apex, which some mischievous urchin had attached to it during his siesta. Ti-di was always so occupied with thoughts of himself, that at any time the sayings and doings of the rest of the world never gave him the least concern. It is therefore not much to be wondered at, that when his brain was being bandied about between self-love and the new doctrine, the jokes and gibes of the laughing people of Fou-loo should have been for a long time unregarded. When he did perceive their merriment, and the cause thereof, he neither

fainted, nor swore, nor ran away, nor did anything else that a Christian fool would have done. No: he was satisfied that he had died without being aware of it, and was now a cockatoo of the first feather. Under this impression, he presented himself to the emperor, and it was not until the bamboo had been liberally awarded that he was convinced that he had feet, and not talons. Si-long, a fulsome flatterer, discovered that he was a creeping thing; Tri-tri, an old courtesan, became a spider; and Nic-quic, a lawyer, was converted into a vulture by the force of imagination, and a devout belief in the new doctrine.

Such was the state of things in the Celestial Empire of the mighty Fo, produced by the eloquence of the philosopher Fum, when our "true history" begins.

[Gentle reader, ring the bell, and desire John to bring you a "willow pattern plate." John has obeyed you, and, with your permission, we will now proceed.]

On the banks of the beautiful lake Flo-slo (see plate) stood the outof-town residence of Chou-chu, a wealthy dealer in areca-nuts and betel-I had written thus far, when, conscious of my own inability to do justice to this part of my narrative, I procured the assistance of a friend. I trust the style will betray the author, for his modesty would not allow me to publish his name. He writes thus:

66 THIS SINGULARLY ELIGIBLE PROPERTY,

which was for a lengthened period

THE ADMIRED ABODE OF CHOU-CHU, vendor of areca-nuts and betel, stands on the margin of that

which, from its waters, colourless and pale as the

LOTUS

which floats upon them, might be called
A GALAXY, OR MILKY-WAY:

a particular desideratum in this land of tea.
The residence itself is of an extraordinary character,
being TWO STORIES HIGH, with a

PORTICO

of lofty pretensions, the ascent to which is by a flight of steps of the most curious

ZIG-ZAG

construction. A bow-window, admirably situated
for FISHING, BATHING, OR SUICIDE,

overhangs the lake. The arrangement of the grounds has
"TASK'D THE INGENUITY OF MAN" (Sophocles).

The principal walk is intersected by an

"IN AND OUT" FENCE,

for which no reason can at present be given; but an inquiring mind must derive enjoyment from the pursuit of the discovery of its utility. The trees and shrubs are RARE and valuable. The PUDDING-TREE of Linnæus overhangs the house (see plate): an invaluable acquisition to a purchaser with A LARGE FAMILY OF SMALL CHILDREN, as that delicious compound will be always READY for the

The humour (if any) of this sketch will be better understood if the above requisition be complied with.

Imme

table. Nor is this the only advantage to the married man. diately in front, and in close proximity to the NURSERY window, grows the BETULA, or BIRCH, whose usefulness needs no commendation from the humble individual who pens this feeble announcement. Among some artificial ROCKS, AS GOOD AS REAL, are two rich specimens of the PYROTECHNIC ARBOR, or the natural Catherine-wheel and fiz-gig (see plate), so celebrated in all books on the ART OF MAKING FIREWORKS, in the manufacture of which the Chinese so pre-eminently excel. The residence is connected by a BRIDGE with the domain. There is

ALSO

a peculiarity about this property unattainable by any other: ITS PRUSSIAN-BLUE COMPLEXION!-an advantage which may not at first strike the casual observer, but which to the deeply thoughtful presents an opportunity never to be met with; for, by a moderate admixture of gamboge, it might be made a second

YUEU-MIN-YUEU, OR GARDEN OF PERPETUAL VERDURE.

This brief statement must convey but a very vague idea of this elysium; and there is one feature which it would be presumptuous to describe, a feature which has given it celebrity as undying as that of the STAFFOrdshire PottERIES:

This feature is its

WILLOW!!! (See plate.)

'The force of language can no farther go.'

"Cards to view, &c."

Now put this in the past tense, and you have a faint picture of the out-of-town residence of Chou-chu, vender of areca-nuts and betel, in the reigns of the Emperor Fo and the Philosopher Fum.

Chou-chu, in addition to his other desirable commodities, had a daughter "passing fayre," i. e. particularly fat, for Chinamen love by weight and measure. She was a perfect beauty, resembling a feather-bed without a string round the middle, a celestial globe,-literally a whole domestic circle in herself. So much loveliness necessarily produced a multitude of sighing swains, and Chou-chu had serious thoughts of abandoning the nut and betel business, and existing entirely on the munificent presents to his magnificent daughter.

the

Si-so (for that was the given name of Miss Chou-chu) had, like other beauties, some very preposterous ideas, and one of them was a supposition that she knew better than her excellent papa the man who was most likely to suit her for a husband. Under this impression, she might have been nightly seen watching, like another Hero, progress of a celestial Leander (in a boat) across the Slo-flo. As the bark drew near the shore, the night-wind bore the indistinct bang-wang of a guitar. Delicious instrument! especially as constructed in China. Three strings tightly strained over a full-blown bladder attached to a cane, constitute this romantic appendage to the serenaders of the Celestial Empire. Ting-a-ting (Si-so's Leander) was one of the sweetest minstrels in Fou-loo; but being profoundly ignorant of those straight-tailed commas by which sound is made visible, I cannot convey to you the melody to which the following stanza was originally sung. The thoughts are beautifully expressed in the original, but, as is generally the case, have suffered much in the translation.

If you 're awake: if not, waken, my love."

Such was the nightly song of Ting-a-ting!-a fitting prelude to that delightful interchange of soul that followed, rendered doubly delightful by the knowledge that it was the forbidden fruit of their young loves.

"The course of true love never did run smooth"

in Europe; and in Asia it has the same disposition to vagaries. These hours of deep delight could not last for ever. One night Chou-chu had the cholic, and could not sleep. He rolled over and over on his bed, in the vain hope of finding a resting-place. At length, exhausted by pain, he dozed; when the dulcet notes of Tinga-ting's kitar roused him. The lattice of Si-so's chamber wanted oil, and as the fond girl obeyed the injunction of her lover, it squeaked. Chou-chu described an angle, that is, he sat upright in his bed. Something was thrown from above to somebody below. Smack! smack!-somebody was kissing the something. It was a bunch of green-tea sprigs thrown down by Si-so, to show that she was awake. A slight rustling against the wall assured Chou-chu that above was receiving a reply from below. It was the branch of an ice-plant drawn up by a thread, by which Si-so learned that her lover was very cold. The reply was a capsicum, implying that extremes meet, for Si-so was very hot with apprehension, for she fancied that she heard the shuffling of her father's slippers. It was but the pattering of the rain on the shingles. Ting-a-ting put up his umbrella,-spatter, spatter! Chou-chu was convinced that all was not right. Another twinge of the cholic aroused the spirit of inquiry within him. He arose, and tied his tail in a knot, that the rustle of its pendulations on his brocaded gown should not be heard, and with cautious and noiseless steps proceeded to the chamber of his daughter. His hand was on the bobbin which raised the latch, when a report like infant thunder made him start back in terror. The rain had then rendered the planks of Ting-a-ting's boat as slippery as glass, and he had fallen on the bladder of his kitar. In a moment Chou-chu's disorder changed its character: he became choleric, and rushing into the room, he saw- But, like the modest painter of Greece, let me draw a veil over this part of the picture.

In the East, flowers, &c. are often pressed into the service of the immortal little boy Love, and form a language "sweet as the thoughts they tell."

Time passed, and Chou-chu, wisely considering that to find Si-so a husband would release him from the care of looking after her, had selected one from among the richest of her suitors. But Chouchu was mortal, and his hopes were vain; for Love, ever rich in expedients, had conducted Ting-a-ting within hearing of the eloquence of Fum and the new doctrine. His tail was exalted, and he became a Fumite. In the disguise of a pipe-merchant, he had obtained an interview with his beloved Si-so; and having found an opportunity to dilate upon the pleasures of transmigration, he had the gratification of seeing the two little curls on each side of her head break from their gummy bondage, and yield spiral evidence of her conversion to Fumism.

The happy day (as a bridal-day is facetiously called) at length arrived, and all, except the bride, prepared for the pleasing ceremony, when, lo! the presumptuous Ting-a-ting made his appearance. The bridegroom elect turned yellow, Chou-chu fluctuated between that colour and green, and the rest of the Celestials present looked as though they had taken the benefit of the act, and had been whitewashed. Ere any could find words to express their indignation at this intrusion, Si-so had rushed towards her lover, who, kneeling, transfixed her with his tail, and " buried a dagger in his own heart." Amazement for a while blinded the spectators, and when they did recover their perceptive faculties, the bodies of Si-so and Ting-a-ting had disappeared; but perched upon the sill of the window were two doves of extraordinary dimensions.

Chou-chu fled in consternation, followed by the bridegroom and his father (see plate). Fumism had proved the divinity of its origin; for the faithful pair had been transformed into those emblems of love and gentleness which have so long occupied such a conspicuous position in the celebrated Wedgewood hieroglyph, commonly called "The Willow Pattern." (See plate.)

VOL. III.

CUPID AND THE ROSE.

WHITHER, lonely boy of love,
Art thou wandering like a dove,
Seeking in each grove and dell
Some fair form on which to dwell?
Hither hie, and fondly sip
A parting dew-drop from my lip,
Lingering in my morning cup,
Ere saucy Phœbus drink it up.

Too thirsty me!—this dew of thine,
Sweet Rose, is most delicious wine;
So sparkling ripe, so freely given,
Vintage of morning's rosy heaven.

Ah me! would such but flow for ever,

I'd leave thee-Leave thee, love? Oh, never!
As it is, the vessel's empty,-

I'm off-good-b'ye-I've had a plenty

F