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affectionate remembrance of a cow to a young lady who had petted it two years before, when a calf. A more curious one may be placed at its side, which Mr. Forbes mentions in his Oriental Memoirs. In a voyage home from Bombay, they brought in the ship a large species of Indian crane, or stork, we forget which. Mr. Forbes used to feed it occasionally, and visit it. A year or two afterwards, he went with a party to see Lord Malmsbury's grounds at Henley. They were shown a sort of menagerie, or aviary. What was the surprise of Mr. Forbes, to see a large bird, struggling, and chattering, and putting its head through the bars, and fluttering with its wings, and endeavouring to get at him. He approached, and recognised at once his fellow-voyager, who, however, was the first to recall the old familiarity to mind. To all other persons he was as shy and timid as those birds usually are.

P. 117. With regard to the discovery of toads in trees and blocks of stone, we are inclined to credit the fact, though we know that Sir Joseph Banks disbelieved it to the last, and said that he never met with a well-authenticated account, notwithstanding he had taken infinite trouble. The toad almost embedded in the bark of the tree, is very singular; as in the first place he was not torpid; in the second, would not the growth of the bark and wood have 'cabin'd, cribb'd, and confin'd' him, as the moving walls of the dungeons of Venice are said to close in on their unhappy inmates? A toad that is torpid ten years, may be torpid ten centuries without increasing the difficulty.

P. 196. "The captain of a vessel picked up a dog at sea, 20 miles from land;"-very curious indeed! An acquaintance of ours, in a homewardbound East Indiaman, about four years since, mentioned that when a hundred miles or more from land, an owl, the brown, flew on board, and was caught and lived with the sailors.

P. 208. An old sportsman, who hunted for many years with the Berkeley hounds, has often mentioned a fox which was lost three or four times, always near the same spot. The huntsman suspecting some vulpine trick, set a countryman to watch, and Reynard was seen to jump up the boughs of a GENT. MAG. VOL. I.

beech-tree, and ascend till he found a covert.

P. 228. Mr. Jesse believes in the truth of the common observation, that an unusual number of hawthorn berries foretell a hard winter. But does not Mr. Jesse know that these berries are soon frozen and destroyed; that the harder the winter, the sooner they perish; and that they speedily disappear? Therefore, the general remark is not founded so much on fact, as on feeling. The ivy-berries do not freeze, nor those of the holly. Besides, it is only certain species of birds that feed on the berries of the hawthorn. The fact is, all fruit-bearing trees are uncertain in their produce, even independent of the season; and one fruitful year often leads to the barrenness of the next.

P. 236. "Young chickens will take shelter under their mother's wings at the sight of a hawk." Some years since, two fine bustards, male and female, caught separately, were domesticated in the gardens of the Hospital at Norwich. The female was timid and shy, but the male was a fine bold bird, apparently fearless of any thing. He would walk round the grounds with strangers, and take them by the coat; but at the sight of the smallest hawk overhead, he crouched and cowered in the grass, with every mark of fear. These curious birds were the property of the apothecary, and were subsequently changed away to some nobleman, for some birds from South America. The bustard, though very scarce, is still to be seen about Kilverstone in Norfolk. A friend of ours once, when partridge shooting, came suddenly on a whole covey or pack of them, which rose from a gravel-pit. He was an old Norfolk sportsman, and was pointed out long after, as that lucky and enviable man who had seen so many bustards at a flight. The turnpike keeper at Mildenhall used to bring up young bustards under hens. Those days are over! The late Lord Rivers knew the fate of the last bustard on Salisbury Plain.

P. 243. Squirrels so gnaw off the tops of shoots of firs, that in spring we have seen the ground covered with them; and, in order to save the trees, the destructive little animals were ob liged to be shot,

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P. 245. On the tortoise. Does Mr. Jesse know whether the tortoise is still found wild in the woods of Devonshire? Whence comes that immense one in the Zoological Gardens?

P. 250. The spring of 1822 was the earliest we ever remember. On March the 15th, the hedges were in leaf in the Canterbury road. A few days after, the chesnuts, limes, and elms at Paris were in leaf in the Boulevards; they were weeks earlier than the trees in the north of Italy, where we observed that the trees do not leaf in the same order that they do here. The pseudo acacia was in blossom, when its leaves were hardly to be seen, and before the sycamore was out. So says our journal.

Vol. ii. p. 34. Mr. Jesse seems to consider the cornix and corvus of Virgil as both applying to the raven; that is not the case, the former alone is the name of that bird.

P. 94. This year 1834, a gardener in Suffolk saw two swallows on the 14th of March, near a pond. None have been seen since; it was during a few hot days. This day, the 20th of April, in this part of England, the wryneck and redstart are seen; but neither the cuckoo or the nightingale.

P. 124. We believe that the observation on nature perpetuating the alterations that the caprice of man occasionally makes on animals, as in shortening the tails and ears of dogs, is not warranted by physiologists. The sports of NATURE are oftener inherited by the offspring, as in the case of persons with six fingers or toes; but not so with the changes or mutilations made by us. If so, would not the children of those who lost arms and legs at Waterloo, or Trafalgar, be mutilated from the womb; and a wooden legged ancestor would perpetuate his 'heart of oak' to distant generations? The peculiarities of the maternal constitution are not inherited like those of the father.

P. 131. The writer of this article inquired often in Hampshire, where cray-fish abound, concerning the belief he had elsewhere heard, of their being found only in streams running east and west; but in that country, no one seemed ever to have heard of the supposition.

P. 135. "Various attempts have been made by persons to propagate the

misletoe, by depositing the seed between the forks of trees, &c. and by inserting it in the bark, but the attempt has hitherto failed." Not exactly so. The late Sir James Smith showed the writer a misletoe growing healthily, which he had inserted in the bark of a mountain ash in his garden at Norwich. Misletoe is scarce in Suffolk; much more plentiful in France than in England. We have seen it covering the orchards in Normandy and Picardy.

P. 137. The oldest plant known to have vegetated, and whose age can be ascertained, is the lily found in the hand of a mummy at Thebes. The bulb must be full three thousand years old. It was sent to the Horticultural Gardens, and grew, and blossomed!!*

P. 169, How extraordinary, that Mr. White should have persevered in his belief that swallows do not migrate, and that bats do!

P. 240. In speaking of owls catching fish; the same huntsman of the Berkeley hounds, Oldacre, whom we mentioned before, used often to express his surprise, how the fores caught the wild wood pigeon? That they did, he said no doubt could be entertained, as the feathers, &c. were often seen by him in their holes; but how they managed it, he could not devise.

P. 281. On rats removing eggs.— The writer's gardener once saw a weasel roll or push an egg (a hen's egg) with its nose, shoving it across a grass field, and take it to its hole in the bank or hedge.

P. 284. The bean-field in Oxfordshire covered with aphides in the night, does not necessarily prove a migrating instinct it probably declares an immense contemporaneous birth.

P. 286. On the flight of woodcocks.-A neighbour of ours, a Baronet and a sportsman, told us, that it once happened to him to do what probably few sportsmen have ever done. He was walking with his gun on the Suffolk shore, not far from Yarmouth; and he saw a woodcock coming over sea towards the land.

* De Candolle and other botanists consider the baobab trees of Senegal to be between five and six thousand years old. It is our intention soon to give a notice on the antiquity of trees, if we can procure the necessary works.

He fired and killed it. It was late in the autumn; and thus he probably killed a bird in the act of migration, just before he landed,-a most inhospitable reception on the shores of a moral country!

P. 295. The way in which the writer of these remarks accounts for the fact (for a fact it is), that the rabbit, which will run briskly before a dog, is terrified and paralysed by a weasel, stoat, or polecat, is that the rabbit does not know where to fly, and loses his instinct. To avoid a dog he hastens to his burrow, where he is safe; but he knows that the stoat or weasel would secure him there, and that it would be only running into the jaws of destruction: hence his little store of instinct is exhausted, his simple arts are baffled, and like a confused general, il a perdu sa tête, and perishes. The sight of a Stoat hunting is delightful. His wonderful agility, his sudden turns, leaps, curvets, frisks, and bounds, almost baffle the pursuit of the eye; and a greyhound is quite clumsy in comparison. The escape of a rabbit from such a foe, must be next to impossible. Mr. Jesse says nothing of the curious changes of colour in the stoat in winter; which when white is called, in Suffolk, a'lobster' by the keepers and peasants, and is then the true Ermine.

P. 315. Rats have been known to gnaw through leaden pipes of considerable thickness. The account given by Mr. Jesse of those at Montfaucon, is wonderfully curious: and so we conclude our few hasty remarks on a very ingenious and interesting work, for which we return our thanks, in common with all other naturalists, to the author: but we venture to hope, that no more of White's MSS. will be printed. His work of Selborne unites the accuracy of the naturalist to the elegance of the scholar; and it is not fair to bring forward the rude, unhewn materials, the blocks and rough stones, of which this beautiful and finished edifice was composed. Much

The use of this word in a volume of scarce old English poetry, enabled the writer of this note to trace to Suffolk a poet, whose county and parentage were previously unknown; and his volume proved that the word 'lobster' was used for the white stoat' more than 200 years ago.

that Mr. Jesse has printed, is in substance in White's own work; and the rest was only meant as hints for his own use. We suppose that the volumes belong to Mr. Murray. We remember seeing them at Selborne, in the library of his nephew, years before they were generally known. We hope now that they may again repose in peace.

An Architectural and Historical Account of Crosby Place, London. By Edw L. Blackburn, Architect. 8vo. A former publication on this subject, by Mr. E. I. Carlos, was rather copiously reviewed in our Magazine for 1832, page 435. The historical annals of Crosby Place were its principal feature. The treatise before us is principally devoted to critical remarks on the venerable old Hall in an architectural point of view. At the same time its topographical limits have been accurately defined, and some new particulars relative to its different proprietors brought to light. Very desirable advantages have been afforded to the author for these topics, by access to the original title-deeds of the property; the first of which is the ancient lease from "Dame Alyce Ashfelde, pryoresse of the house or convent of St. Helene," by which she demised, from the feast of John the Baptist, Midsummer day, 1466, 6 Edw. IV. for the term of ninety-nine years, to John Crosby, citizen, and grocer of London,

"All that great tenement with the appurtenances formerly in the possession of Catanei Pinelli, merchant of Genoa (mercatoris de Janua, in the original Latin of the deed), and then in the tenure of the said John, and which the said John held of the demise of Alice Wodehouse, late

Pryoress of the said convent situate in Bishoppesgate-street, in the parish of Saint Helene, London, together with a certain lane (venella), extending in length from the east gate of the said tenement unto the corner or south end of a little lane turning north into the close of the said priory, and nine messuages in the parish of St. Helene, of which six were situate by the King's high way, called Bishoppesgate-strete, &c."

This document shows that the ground leased to Sir John Crosby

"Extended from north to south along the line of the King's strete, † as Bi

+ Vicus regius, regia strata, are terms applied to Bishopsgate - street in the

shopsgate-street was then called, a distance of about 110 feet, having the foregate of the great tenement in which he then lived for its southern, and the house immediately in front of the belfry for its northern boundary."-p. 4.

This belfry was the campanile or isolated bell-tower of St. Helen's Priory Church.

The Oriel, a very striking feature of Crosby Hall, is thus described by the author:

"On the west side, at the upper end of the Hall, stands the Oriel, one of the most beautiful specimens of the kind remaining. It occupies the space of two windows 10 feet 10 inches wide, and 8 feet 5 inches recessed depth, from the face of the wall, rising the whole height of the room. Its interior plan shows 5 sides of an octagon, at the angles of which clustered shafts on bases and octangular plinths, rise to the height of the springing of the hall windows, where they are crowned by similar capitals, from whence main arch lines diverge into all the ramifications of a richly groined roof. That attention to inferior points for which ancient architects were so remarkable, is here strongly instanced; the enriched character in the foliations of the two lower divisions is not repeated in the upper, which are finished after the same fashion as those of the Hall. At every intersection of the ribs of the roof are bosses of sculptured fruit, flowers, and armorial bearings, the centre boss being much larger than any of the others, and enriched with the crest of Sir John Crosby, a ram trippant Argent, armed and hoofed Or. Another smaller boss contains a shield, the charges of which are too imperfect to be recognized. These are the only heraldic remains now discoverable."-p. 31.

The author proceeds to discuss at length the economy and furniture of the larger class of ancient residences. In treating on the Daïs, he follows precisely the same authority, and quotes the same passages which have been already referred to by a correspondent of ours in speaking of the above subject in our volume for 1830, pt. ii. p. 497, note. On that head, we need not therefore enlarge.

original deed. The present street is on the course of a Roman paved way, which lies at about twenty feet under the surface, and was touched upon at the late

excavations for sewers made in the street.

Speaking of the apartment now called the great dining parlour, contiguous to the Hall at Crosby Place, he

says,

"The principal rooms of houses of riods were hung with arras, strewed with corresponding character in the same perushes, and furnished with rude benches

In

and tables. In some stools or fixed seats round the walls were the substitutes for chairs. Arras, however, does not appear to have been used in this room at Crosby Place, as the walls, where any of the original stonework is left, are worked to a fair and smooth surface, and square jointed, as if intended to be uncovered. the Hall, the walls below the windows are of rubble plastered over. This is likewise the case in the throne room, in both of which tapestry was undoubtedly hung. The cornice from which it was suspended is still apparent in the latter, and the quoin stones of the windows are evidently lessened from their usual return, to accord with some decoration of the kind. In some edifices wainscot was made use of to line the walls; but this, according to Aubrey, was not in common use earlier than the reign of Henry VII. or Henry VIII.”—p. 41.

This observation, if meant to convey a general rule, must be read with caution, for we have certain authority that chambers were lambruscated or wainscoted as early as the reign of Henry III. Thus, in the old rhimes cited by the editor of the Glossaire de la langue Romane,

"En une sale lambroisie,

Et dous chaires de boisies,

Sistrent Largesse et Courtoisie."
"Largess and Curtesy seated were,
In a hall of wainscot fair,
And chairs ywrought of wood."

All authorities combine in explaining the low Latin term lambruscare, the French lambrisser, to mean covering walls and ceilings with joiner's work. This was no unusual mode of ceiling employed in very ancient rooms. We believe that the reference to the inaccurate Aubrey, as conveying information when wainscot was really first employed, must be given up.

The will of Alderman Bonde (20 Oct. 1574), one of the successive proprietors of Crosby Place, is an interesting specimen of the testamentary devises of a pious and opulent mer

chant of the 16th century. We give Knt. Lord Darcye of Chule, 1549 to a few extracts:

"Item, to the ii sisters in Kent, v marke a pece, yf they be living; to her mayde that cometh to London, v marke."

Query, who were the two sisters in Kent designated in the above mode only?

"Item, to fortie mayde marriages to be given to them" that hath dwelte five yeare in a house, either in St. Margaret's parish or St. Dunstan's parrishe, or in my ward, nine and twentie shillinge a pece.

"Item, to have twelve sermonde preached for me in iii yeare, and the preacher to have a blacke goune, and xs. for a sermon."

This seems to have been a substitute for the masses said in Romish times. Then follow bequests of 40 pounds for poor scholars at Oxford; to Christ's and St. Thomas's hospitals, 40 marks each; 40l. to the release of poor prisoners in Ludgate, confined for debts under five marks each; to all his English tenants one year's remission of rent; to 40 poor men 40 black gowns of Bristowe frise; to the haberdashers 20 marks, to make them a dinner; the lease of the house to be delivered, "that longe to the Crowne in new Fishe-streete." What was this house? Did it appertain to the Crown property, and was it the house which was formerly the Black Prince's at the corner of Eastcheap on Fish Street Hill? Sir Thomas Gresham is one of the witnesses to the above document.

A table, No. IV. of the Appendix, exhibits at a glance the proprietary history of Crosby Place, and is a compression of information from various sources, at once succinct and valuable. Possessors and Occupiers of Crosby Place.

Sir John Crosby, knt. from 1466 to 1475; his executors, 1475 to 1501. Bartholomew Reed and wife, 1501 to 1507. John Best, Alderman,

Sir Tho

mas More, Under Treasurer (afterwards High Chancellor of England,) to 1523. Antonio Bonvisi, merchant of Lucca, 1523 to 1539, as a leaseholder under the Priory of St. Helen (as were all the preceding); from 1539 to 1542, under King Henry VIII. who had seized the Priory; and, from 1542 to 1549, as a freeholder by purchase of Sir Edward Northe, Treasurer to the King. Sir Thos. Darcye,

1553, by grant from King Edward VI.
to whom Bonvisi's property had escheat-
ed. Antonio Bonvisi, May to June,
1553; by grant from Lord Darcye, on
accession of Queen Mary. Peter Croule,
1553 to 1560; by inheritance, and will of
Bonvisi. German Cyoll and wife, 1560
to 1566, by purchase. William Bond,
Alderman, 1566 to 1576, by purchase.
William and Martin Bond, sons of the
Alderman, 1576 to 1594; by inherit-
ance. Sir John Spencer, Knight, Lord
Mayor 1594, 1594 to 1609, by purchase.
Sir Wm. Compton, Knt. Lord Compton,
afterwards Earl of Northampton, 1609 to
1630, in right of his wife Elizabeth, daugh-
ter of Sir John Spencer. Spencer, Earl
of Northampton, 1630 to 1642. James
Earl of Northampton, 1642 to 1678. Ed-
ward Cranfield, 1678 to 1692; by pur-
chase. Freeman family, from 1692, also
by purchase. The most remarkable in-
termediate or subtenants were Richard
Duke of Gloucester, afterwards King Ri-
chard III. from 1483 to .... under Cros-
The dowager Countess
by's executors.
of Pembroke, 1609 to 1615, under Wil-
liam Earl of Northampton. Sir James
Langham, Knt. 16.. to 1674, under the
Earls of Northampton.

Mr. Blackburn has brought forward in his little Tract of 90 octavo pages, much that is worthy of record relative to Crosby Place, a subject which we had thought, till this publication appeared, exhausted, by the occasional notices in our own pages, and by Mr. Carlos's clever compilation. We are glad to see it kept alive, and still before the public. The work of restoration has made considerable progress, since our attention was last called to the matter; the Hall has been disencumbered of its floors, the elegant oriel restored, and nothing is wanting but sufficient funds to complete what has been so judiciously begun; and thus to add another renovated architectural gem to London; to ensure to this and succeeding ages the pleasure of contemplating a magnificent example of the old English domestic hall, in which some remarkable characters of our history have kept their household state.

Poems. By Ebenezer Elliott. Second Volume. The Village Patriarch.

THERE is no want of good poetry in this volume; but a great want of good temper, good taste, and good

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