battle of Cressy, so that the leek may be deemed a memorial, and the only one still worn, of two of the most glorious victories that ever graced the British arms, as well as of the part which the Welsh had the honour of bearing in the success.

MATERNAL TENDERNESS.-A sparrow, which had built her nest on the thatch roof of a house, was observed to continue her regular visits long after the time when the young birds had taken their flight. This unusual circumstance continued throughout the year, and in the winter, a gentleman who had long observed her, determined on investigating its cause. He therefore mounted a ladder, and found one of the young ones detained a prisoner by means of the worsted which formed part of the nest, having become accidentally twisted round his leg. Being thus incapacitated from procuring its own subsistence, it had been fed and sustained by the continued exertions of its mother. If this be mere instinct, what is reason?

Customs of Various Countries.

Anecdotiana.

Eldin, were, when young men, from having the one to buy expensive colours, and the other costly books, so poor, that they scarcely knew how to live till more money came in. On one of these occasions Raeburn received an invitation to dine with Clerk; and, hastening to his lodgings, he found the landlady spreading a cloth on the table, and setting two dishes, one containing three herrings, and the other three potatoes. "All," "And is this all ?" said John. said the landlady. "All! did I not tell ye, woman," he exclaimed, "that a gentleman was to dine with me, and that ye were to get six herrings and six potatoes?" The tables of both were better furnished before the lapse of many years; and they loved, it is said, when the wine was flowing, to recall those early days, when hope was high, and the spirit unrebuked by intercourse with the world.

ROYAL CONDESCENSION. As his Majesty George III. invariably presented portraits of himself and the queen to all his ambassadors and governors of colonies, Ramsay, his principal painter, had a busy time manufacturing these royal effigies. The king sat for his coronation portrait, as it was called, in Buckingham Palace: in this piece he appeared in his royal robes; and in the like costume were all the succeeding pictures painted. It often happened that the king desired the painter to convey his easel and canvas to the dining-room, that he might observe his progress, and have the pleasure of his conversation.

The painter, a bold, spirited, well informed man, perfectly conversant with the state of the various kingdoms of Europe, spoke freely and without disguise; and as he was the only person about the court, save the domestics, who could speak German, the queen more especially found it an agreeable variety to chat with him in her native language. Ramsay, in short, When the king was a great favourite. had finished his usual allowance of boiled mutton and turnips, he would rise and say, "Now Ramsay sit down in my place and take your dinner." This partiality produced, of course, abundance of enemies; but they could do him no harm, for he was not dependent upon royal favour; and the extent of his fortune was at least as well known, and as sincerely envied, as either his accomplishments or his courtly success.

Wednesday, Feb. 29.

St. Oswald, b. of Worcester, and Archbishop of York, A. D. 992.

High Water, Oh. 37m. Morn. 4h. Om. aftern. St. Oswald was educated by his uncle, St. Odo, and made Dean of Winchester. He afterwards took the monastic habit at Fleury, in France.Having succeeded St. Dunstan in the see of Worcester, and subsequently, been made Archbishop of York, he fell sick at St Mary's in Worcester, belonging to the Benedictines, among which monks he died, after extreme unction, exclaiming, "Glory be to the Father," in the year 992.

Thursday, March 1.

St. David, archbishop and patron of Wales, A. D. 544.

Sun rises 35m, aft. 6-Sets 26m, aft. 5. March, month of " many weathers," wildly comes

In hail, and snow, and rain, and threatening hums,

And floods ;-while often at his cottage-door,
The shepherd stands, to hear the distant roar,
Loosed from the rushing mills and river-locks,
With thundering sound and overpowering shocks
From bank to bank, along the meadow lea,
The river spreads, and shines a little sea;
While in the pale sunlight, a watery brood,
Of swopping white birds flock about the flood.

The origin of Welchmen wearing Leeks this day, is explained in the following ancient lines found in an old MS. in the British Museum.

LINES ON THE LEEK.

I like the Leeke, above all herbes and flowers, When first we wore the same the field was ours;

The Leeke is white and greene, whereby is ment
That Britaines are both stout and eminent,
Next to the Lion, and the Unicorn,
The Leeke the fairest emblyn that is worne.
In CAMBRIA, 'tis said Tradition's tale
Recounting, tells how famed Menevia's Priest
Marshalled his Britons and the Saxon host
Discomfited, how the green Leek the bands
Distinguished, since by Britons annual worn,
Commemorates their tutelary saint.

Friday, March 2.

St. Charles the Good, E. of Flanders. m.

New Moon, 14m af. 3 after.

March 2, 1791.-The Rev. John Wesley died.One who knew this eminently pious leader of the sect called Methodists, speaks of him thus:"If usefulness be excellence, if public good is the chief object of attention in public characters, Mr. John Wesley will long be remembered as oue of the best of men, as he was for more than fifty years the most diligent and indefatigable.” Saturday, March 3.

St. Winvalv, ab. 529. High Water 50m, aft 2. Mor.-8m. aft. 3 after. The whistle of the blackbird from the bush, and the mellow note of the throstle perched on the naked bough of some lofty tree, are heard from the beginning of the month; at the same time, the ring-dove cooes in the woods. The rookery is now all in motion with the labour of building

and repairing nests'; and highly amusing it is to observe the tricks and artifices of this thierish tribe, some to defend, and others to plunder, the materials of their new habitations. These birds are falsely accused of doing much injury to the farmers, by plucking up the young corn and other springing vegetables; but this mischief is fully repaid by their diligence in picking up the grubs of various insects, which, if suffered to grow to maturity, would occasion much greater damage.

Sunday, March 4.

QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY.

Lessons for the Day.-9 ch. of Genesis, to vër. 20, morn. 12 ch. of Genesis, even.

SPRING COLDS. There cannot be much fear of the person, who like Spenser's March (Faerie Queene, vii. 7.) shall bend his brow to the blast, and shall dig his rood of land, and sow his bushel of seed, whether the bleak North or the biting East wind scatter consumption and death among the feeble inmates of the parlour, or the half famished tenants of the hut or the garret.Free exposure to every wind that blows, provided always that requisite clothing and active exercise be attended to, will do more to banish coughs and consumptions, than all the fox-glove or Iceland-moss that ever grew, or all the bleeding, blistering, or Long rubbings that were ever tried. Confine yourself to a warm parlour, and you will shudder at every blast, and probably catch a bad cough or a cold fever at every slight change of weather, and will find it dangerous to venture out of doors; during the cold and chilly days of winter and spring; but by free exposure and brisk exercise, you may learn to set the weather at defiance, and put on the vigorous and healthy look of the young Spring, instead of the church-yard cough and undermining fever of age and debility.-PROFESSOR RENNIE'S NOTES OF A NATURALIST.

Monday, March 5.

St. Roger, conf. A. D. 1236.

Sun rises 27m. aft. 6 Morn.-Sets 34m. aft. 5. There are frequently mornings at this season of the year when a lover of nature may enjoy, in a strole, sensations not to be exceeded or perhaps equalled by any thing which the full glory of summer can awaken: mornings which tempt us to cast the memory of winter, or the fear of its return, out of our thoughts. The air is mild and balmy, with, now and then, a cool gush by no means unpleasant, but, on the contrary, contributing towards that cheering and peculiar feeling which we experience only in Spring.

Tuesday, March 6.

Vesta festum. Cathedra Julii.-Rom. Cal. High Water 35m. aft. 4 Mor.-51m. aft. 4 after. This feast day of Vesta must not be confounded with the Vestalia celebrated June the 9th. There seems some confusion about the identification of this goddess. Considered as Patroness of Vestal Virgins, and Goddess of Fire, she is said to be daughter of Saturn and Rhea. Æneas first introduced her mysteries into Italy; and Nu na made a temple to her, in which none but virgius entered. Hence cloistered Catholic 'virgins are by some people metaphorically called Vestals,

Illustrated Article.

THE DREAM.

BY JOHN MALCOLM.

"Twas but a dream," exclaimed young Blanch, starting from sleep upon the cold ground, where we bivouacked, on the night before the storming of Badajos. And can man sleep soundmethinks I hear the reader ask-in such circumstances as these? Yes, if mind and body be as they ought, the soldier on his clay couch on the battle eve, and the sailor cradled on the surge, and rocked by the storm, enjoy a repose which luxury never knew, and which monarchs sigh for in vain.

VOL. IX.

Lee p. 163

I was then lying close beside Blanch, but had been awake some time before him; and, by the light of a fire which we had kindled previous to repose, I had been watching the face of the fair boy as it expressed the passing emotions of his inind, when lapsing through the mysterious changes of his dream.

At first, his still pale features exhibited the blessed calm of a pure and peaceful sleep. Anon, they became gently moved, like the moonlit lake by the passing breath of night, and at length were gradually lighted up with a smile so celestial, that I could fancy his spirit was basking in the beams of Heaven.

The night-flame played with its wavering glare upon his face, whose beauty

283

thus broke forth in fitful gleams, even as the faces of departed friends come back upon our slumbers in glimpses from the grave.

The sight of the sleeping youth reminded me of that most exquisite of Campbell's lyrics, "The Soldier's Dream." "Happy boy," thought I, "while thy young frame is lying on the cold clay, thy spirit hath a sweet reprieve from the horrors of war, and, is even now, perchance, far away in thy own land, where the smiles of friends, and the caresses of thy little sister, receive thee back to thy father's halls, where there is joy for thy return, and where thy mother is weeping thy welcome home."

My soliloquy was suddenly broken, for Blanch awakened with a start, and looking round him with a wild and forlorn gaze, sobbed out,-" "Twas but a dream."

"It seems to have been a pleasant one, however, if I may judge from the regretful tone of your words on wakening," said I, not without a feeling of curiosity to know in what its happiness had consisted.

"It was indeed," rejoined my friend, "but brief as it was blest-so it is soon told. I am now about that age when it is supposed we are most susceptible of the tender passion; yet have I never felt love for woman till this night, when such a being as seemed wanting to me in the waking world was given to me in sleep. Oh! she was so passing fair, and so seraphlike! Nay, smile not, because it was a dream. I, too, can smile at dreams, but in this instance the form and features of the unknown were so distinctly delineated, and shadowed forth with such arbitrary truth, as never belonged to the formations of mere fancy, and can never be effaced from my brain. I do believe-nay, I feel certain, that such a being somewhere exists; and to see her with waking eyes, and find favour in her sight, I would willingly lay down my life."

I could not help smiling at this burst of boyish enthusiasm, and at what appeared to me the very mockery of imagination-by which the bewitched Blanch had become enamoured of the phantom of his own brain, and was incurably in love with the lady of a dream; but had I been the most incredulous and cruel interpreter of midnight mysteries, I could not have found in my heart to apply the rule of explaining by contraries these dark

hints of the future, and boding ill to poor Blanch, because the vision of a beautiful girl had soothed his slumbers on the eve of storming a city-an event which took place on the following night.

Talk of war-that is, of war in the open field-where man meets man on an equality, where the chances of death are much alike, where valour may avail, and where there is something like fair play-but the storming of strong holds is unmasked murderand the sack of cities the revelry of the furies. That of Badajos was a festival for fiends. The eternal foe himself the immortal enemy of man might have gloated over it, and smiled at his own fair work; and if ever laughter was heard in hell, it was surely on that night of horror.

Bastions and parapets bristled with chevaux-de-frise of sharp-pointed irons bayonets-sword-blades, and every kind of deadly obstruction, which met our troops, as one by one they scaled walls of more than thirty feet high, and in succession were shot, bayoneted, and hurled back into the ditches below.

I have heard it said that Wellington himself appeared much agitated, as by the death-flames which illumined the horrors of the night, he saw his troops foiled in their desperate and successive efforts against almost superhuman obstacles-but that a lightning gleam of triumph flushed over his face, and an exclamation of "Thank God!" escaped him, when an aide-de-camp galloped up with this brief announcement"My lord, General Picton is in the castle with a thousand men.' ""

I said he was enabled to see how matters went on by the death-lights which illumined the darkness-for, from breach and bastion, hand-grenades, blazing bombs, and all manner of combustibles, rolled down like a volcano torrent-while a tempest of shot and shell rung through the air, like the rushing of a mighty whirlwind-and when at length an entrance into the town was forced by our troops, over steel-hedged walls, and breaches vomiting floods of fire-mines ready to be sprung yawned beneath their trembling path, and they swept along through the gloom, amid roaring of cannon, shouts of victory and vengeance, blasts of bugles singing the charge, and shrieks of the sacked city, all rending the midnight sky, like a chorus from hell.