feeing the light of the fun, he efcaped from Arran and landed in Ayrshire. As he could not be long there without meeting with some who knew him, he made no delay till he reached the parish of Kirk-bean, in the ftewartry of Galloway, near Dumfries, where he found employment in labours of husbandry, to which, in the early part of his life, he had been accustomed, and in which he was very active. After paffing several years in the southern part of the stewartry, in the fervice of different farmers, he came, a few years ago to St. John's Clauchan, in the parish of Dalry, where he purchased a fen; and having found means of getting himself well recommended, he was employed as a labourer fome years by the minifter of the parish, who at length, however, taking offence at an incorrigible habit of fwearing, which probably he had contracted at sea, befides other immoralities, thought it proper to part with him. Having no longer, it would seem, any apprehenfion of being detected, he then ventured to commence, and fince continued, acting as a carrier to and from Kircudbright, till at Glasgow, feeing two of his old acquaintance from Saltcoats, and at Kilmarnock, one from Arran, he took it for granted that they would give information where he might be found; one of his fifters having alfo, at the fame time come to Kilmarnock to warn him, that without changing the scene of action, he was in danger of being immediately apprehended as a murderer. "Alarmed almoft to diftraction at the thought of his defperate fituation, inftead of endeavouring to escape from juftice, as with amazing dexterity he had formerly done, he feemed to be under fuch difquietude, horror, and remorfe of confcience, as produced, not only a bodily indif pofition, at first apparently dangerous, but either a derangement of his mental faculties (which, however, many of those who visited him are not inclined to admit, or a deliberate and determined refolution to take away his own life, STUPENDOUS THINGS PRODUCED BY ART. 307 which accordingly he effected in a manner fhocking to relate, on Sunday, the 17th of January, 1802, while the woman who attended him happened to be at a diftance, converfing with one of her neighbours, who afforded her affiftance when it was requifite. "Having first, as is with great probability conjectured, cut his throat with a gardener's knife, but not deep enough to accomplish his fatal and horrid purpose, he bound his left arm very tight with a napkin, and cut it almoft quite through at the joint of the elbow; but life not yet departing from him as quickly as he wished, he cut the same arm again above the joint to the very bone; and alfo gave himfelf a wound in one of his fides, near the back. "He confided the history of the murder, and of his escape from juftice, with one man only, a native of the Highlands, who now refides in the village, whom he fent for in his illness, enjoining, and making him promife, to divulge it after, but by no means before his death, which he spoke of as an event which would very foon take place." K. D. STUPENDOUS THINGS PRODUCED BY ART. Ar Strasburg, in Germany, is a clock invented and made by Conradus Dafepodius, anno 1571, before which, on the ground ftands a cœleftial globe, demonftrating the diary and annual motions of the Heavens, Stars, and Planets, with great exactnefs. In the clock the eclipfes of the fun and moon are fhewed in two tables. On a third table, which is fubdivided into three parts, are feen on the first table, the statues of Apollo and Diana, and the annual revolution of the Heavens. The fecond fhews the year of the world, the year of our Lord, the hour and minutes of the day, the great feftivals, and the dominical letter. The third makes a plan of Germany, and more particularly the city of Strasburg. In the middle frame of the clock is an astrolabe, representing the twelve figns of the zodiac, and the planets posited in those houses, as they appear every day. There is likewise a terreftrial globe, where the quarters, the half hour, and the fixty minutes are delineated. There are also the statues of the spring, summer, and winter. In the higher frame of the clock are the statues of four very old men, which strike the quarters of the hour; when also appears a ftatue of Death attempting to ftrike each quarter, but is forced back by a ftatue of Chrift with a fpear in his right hand, for three quarters; but, at the end of each hour, the statue of Christ disappears, and that of Death strikes the hour with a dead man's bone in his hand; and then the chimes play. On the top of the clock is a cock, which every twelve hours claps his wings and crows au dibly. Morrifon's Itinerary, part I. Ch. 3. p. 31. At Trivoli, an ancient city in Compagna di Roma, on the river Tevirone, eighteen miles from Rome, in the gardens of Hippolitas d'Efte, Cardinal of Ferrara, there is a lively figure of feveral forts of birds, perching on the tops of trees, which, by a water-organ conveying water through the body and branches of the trees, makes the birds for fome time chant melodiously; but, as foon as an owl appears out of a bush, by the fame hydraulic art, the birds are, all of a fudden, hufhed and filent. Claudius Gallus, as Poffevine reports, was author of this curiofity. Hift. Man. Arts, Ch. 3. p. 37. Proclus, whofe fame in mathematical performances equalled that of Archimes, made burning glaffes in the reign of Anastatius Decorus, of fuch wonderful efficacy, that, at a great diftance, he burnt and deftroyed the My fian and Thracian fleet of fhips that had blocked up Byzantium, now Conftantinople. Zonar. Ann. tom. 3. p. 126. Sir Chriftopher Wren found out the way of making diaries of wind and weather, and the different reprefentations of the air in respect to heat, cold, drought, and moifture, in every day in the year, and this, in order to the history of seasons, with obfervations which are the most healthful or contagious to man or beaft. To this end he alfo contrived a thermometer to be its own register. He has also made inftruments to fhew the mechanical reason of failing to all winds, with several other curiofities as useful as admirable, when they fall into the hands that have fenfe enough to know the ufe of them. The honourable Mr. Boyle was the inventor of the barometer, commonly called the weather-glass, which is now of general use to the world, which, before being only filled with water, was a mere whim without use; but now being filled with quickfilver, the degrees exactly calculated, and made portable by an ingenious artist, will never fail to make a true discovery of the weather for many years together, as has been experimented by the learned Dr. Wallis, of Oxford. Tranfactions of the Royal Society, An. 1647, p. 382. And whilst I am mentioning the name of that learned perfon, Dr. Wallis, Doctor in Divinity, Geometry, Profeffor in Oxford, and Fellow of the Royal Society, let me not forget that he was the firft in England that made art fupply the defects of nature, in learning perfons that were deaf and dumb to speak and write diftinctly and intelligibly; as, for example, Mr. Nathaniel Whaly, born in Northampton, of reputable parents, was taught by him in Oxford at twenty-fix years of age, (who had been deaf and dumb above twenty years) in the year 1662, and that in the space of one year. At the fame time the Doctor taught a fon a fon of the Lord Wharton's, that was born deaf and dumb, and afterwards Mr. Popham; but Dr. Holder laying (though unjustly) fome claim to the last performance, and the strangeness of the thing being the difcourfe of all England, Mr. Whaly was had before the Royal Society, and there difcourfed to their entire fatisfaction. King Charles II alfo hearing of it, defired to fee Mr. Whaly, who appearing before him, his Majefty afked him feveral questions, and was fatisfied with his pertinent answers; among others, he asked Mr. Whaly, who taught him to Speak and write? to which he replied, Dr. Wallis did. This worthy doctor, in a treatise entitled De Loquela, has given us the method how to teach deaf and dumb folks to speak and write a language, and more particularly, in a Letter to Mr. Thomas Beverly, Secretary to the Royal Society, dated September 30, 1698, and printed in the Philosophical Tranfactions for October 1698, No. 245, p. 349. It is a great pity that this letter is not printed in latin, for the benefit of foreigners, and better known among the English; for the method the Doctor prescribes is fo plain, familiar, and demonstrative, that any person of common ingenuity might attain this art with ease and abundance of pleasure. Tranf. of the Royal Society, An. 1678, No. 142, p. 1035. "Remarkable ANECDOTES of LONGEVITY. ON Thursday, December 7, 1732, died at Lishaskea, aged 140 years, William Leland, Gent.; fome time before his death, he delivered to feveral gentlemen the following account: "That he was born in Warrington, a town in England, in 1593: that he perfectly remembered the coronation of King James I. which happened in 1602; that he lived in Warrington till about the year 1664, and then came to this kingdom, and has lived ever fince in good credit. |