recreant nobles who betrayed their country), was, by him, condemned to die; the king, however, repenting of his determination, despatched a messenger to countermand his execution; but Soulis's executioners, descrying the messenger at a distance, and, being anxious to rid the world of such a wretch, slew the tyrant before they had received the mandate, which was done by putting him into a cauldron of boiling lead. In proof of this, a circular heap of stones, at no great distance off, is to be seen to this day, called, by the peasantry, 'the Nine-stane Rigg,' which is said to have been the resting place of the cauldron.

Various other reports are current among the superstitious peasantry, of supernatural noises and sights, having been seen and heard at various times, which is generally the case in a place celebrated, as this was, for every sort of wickedness.

Gentle reader! Having thus endeavoured to give a brief account of this castle, and its fearful historie,' to the best of my poor abilities. I trust thou wilt pardon any discrepancies which may have arisen in the course of my narration. Relying, therefore, on thy kind indulgence, I respectfully bid thee farewell. January 5, 1829. ANSELM.

TO A CHILD THAT SIGHED IN ITS SLEEP.
Child, as thou slumberest on my knee,
What is it that thus troubleth thee?
Sorrow it cannot-may not be ;

Then prithee whence that sigh?

It is not heaved to mourn the past;
Thou knowest no past; and what thou hast
To come, is hid and overcast,

Then prithee whence that sigh?

It is not present pain, for thou
Sleep'st tranquilly, and placid now,
As Hope's first sunrise, is that brow,

Then prithee whence that sigh?

It is not fear-thou reck'st not why
Man fears-thou'rt guiltless, and thy sky
Glows-a vacuity of joy;

Then prithee whence that sigh?

Love! name it not-oh! name it not!
That bitter interchange of thought,
Thou know'st no love with anguish fraught,
Then prithee whence that sigh?

Nor is it hope--that longing hope,
Viewed through time's flattering telescope,
Which leads us 'mid far years to mope,
Then prithee whence that sigh?

Hope, did they say? how can it be?
Thy only wish is placidly

To slumber on thy mother's knee,

Then prithee whence that sigh?

No! 'tis the feeling, impress'd deep
On nature's breast, which breaks our sleep,
That man, cursed man, is born to weep,
'Tis thence arose that sigh.

Ormskirk.

J. B.

SONNET.

Radiant and glorious be the sunny ray

Of that sweet hour, those bright and balmy skies, That land, that rosy spot, where thy soft eyes, Flashing in love, first glowed upon my way. Hallowed and sacred be the primal day

When I first knew the lover's throb arise

That arrowy bow-those wingless darts-those sighs Which told how my young heart confessed their sway! Eternal be the echoes of that song,

Which whispered to the world my Laura's name, And let those tear-drops ever flow along, While the revealings of my soul, the flame Of mind shall be a star to light the throng, Who worship Laura in her minstrel's fame.

D. S. L.

EXTRACTS FROM THE COMMON-PLACE BOOK OF A LITERARY LOUNGER.-NO. I.

GERMAN-ENGLISH.

THE following hand-bill is stuck up among other notices in the inn at Rastadt:

'Advice of an Hotel.

'The underwritten has the honour of informing the public that he has made the acquisition of the hotel to the Savage, well situated in the middle of this city. He shall endeavour to do all duties which gentlemen travellers can justly expect; and invites them to please to convince themselves of it by their kind lodgings at his house.

'Basil July 1825.

'Jr. Singisem,

'Before the tenant of the hotel to the Stock in this city.'

PHILOSOPHY OF THE STOMACH.

An old English adage says, 'it is the stomach makes the legs amble, and not the legs the stomach.' Shakspeare knew its importance and powers well; Fontenelle magnanimously avowed, that there was no enjoying life without a good one-pour bien jouir de la vie, il faut avoir un mauvais cœur, et un bon estomac ;' and Serenus Samonicus, many centuries before, says

Qui stomachum regem totius corporis esse
Contendunt, vera niti ratione videntur.'

In the vagaries of modern philosophy it contends for the seat of the soul; and naturalists have gone so far as to make it the organ of civilization, from the fanciful hypothesis, that animals submit to domestication in proportion to the subjection in which their will is held by their appetite: certain it is, that the stubborn and rebellious are remarkable for their indifference to the pleasures of the table; and that "short commons" and insubordination are uniform, as cause and effect, upon the principle, no doubt, of Sancho Pancha's reasoning, that when the stomach is full the bones will be resting."

THEATRICAL ETIQUETTE.

Amongst the rules and regulations' which are posted up at the entrance of the Vienna theatres, is the following:-Triple applause—or three distinct rounds of clapping-being due to the emperor and imperial family, it is not proper that it should be bestowed on any actor or actress whatever.'

Does not this breathe the true spirit of despotism?Triple applause being due to the emperor?' To put forth 'rules' of conduct and politeness, seems, also, an avowal that they are not generally known to the audience.

EATING A WARDROBE.

Dr. Miller, of Doncaster, once received a letter from the celebrated lecturer on heads, in which after saying that he was 'about to eat his last waistcoat,' he continues: 'Themistocles had many towns to furnish his table, and a whole city bore the charge of his meals. In some respects I am like him, for I am furnished by the labours of a multitude. A wig has fed me two days; the trimming of a waistcoat as long: a pair of velvet breeches paid my washerwoman; and a ruffled shirt has found me in shaving. My coats I swallowed by degrees: the sleeves I breakfasted upon for weeks; the body, skirts, &c, served me for dinner two months. My silk stockings have paid my lodgings; and two pair of new pumps enabled me to smoke several pipes. It is incredible how my appetite (barometer like) rises, in proportion as my necessities make their terrible advances. I here could say something droll about a good stomach; but it is ill jesting with edge tools, and, I am sure, that is the sharpest thing about me. may think I can have no sense of my condition, that, while I am thus wretched, I should offer at ridicule : but people constitutioned like me, with a disproportioned levity of spirits, are always most merry when they are most miserable; and quicken like the eyes of the consumptive, which are always brightest the nearer the patient approaches dissolution.'

You

BURNS'S JOLLY BEGGARS.

THE above engraving, from a design by Cruikshank, illustrates that inimitable piece of lyric humour-'The Jolly Beggars,' in which the wit is broad, because the characters introduced could not be considered acquainted with either extreme delicacy or sensitive refinement. Most of Burns's editors, from a puerile fastidiousness, excluded it from his works, but Sir Walter Scott does not hesitate to assert that for humorous description and nice discrimination of character, it is inferior to no poem of the same length in the whole range of English poetry.'

The scene, indeed, is laid in the very lowest department of low life, the actors being a set of strolling vagrants, met to carouse, and barter their rags and plunder for liquor, in a hedge ale-house. Yet even in describing the movements of such a group, the native taste of the poet has never suffered his pen to slide into any thing coarse or disgusting. The extravagant glee and outrageous frolic of the beggars are ridiculously contrasted with their maimed limbs, rags, and crutches-the sordid and squalid circumstances of their appearance are judiciously thrown into the shade. Nor is the art of the VOL. 1. March, 1829.

K