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history; for he wrote on lepidopterous insects, and other subjects connected with his principal pursuit. The productions of Sir J. Smith as an author, during the long space of forty-two years, fill a multitude of volumes, besides tracts, and contributions to scientific journals. He enriched the Philosophical Transactions, Nicholson's Journal, &c. by his pen; but his chief detached labours were given to the Transactions of the Linnean Society, of which he may be said to have been the founder. Besides his Translations from Linné and others, his leading original works are, the English Botany, in thirty-six octavo volumes; the Flora Græca (in conjunction with Dr. Sibthorpe); a Tour on the Continent; and Flora Britannica. When the news of his decease was communicated to the Linnean Society, at its meeting, the members immediately retired, as a tribute of respect to their friend and president. It is a curious but a melancholy coincidence, that on the very day he entered his library for the last time, the packet containing the fourth volume of his English Flora reached him; and he had the gratification of witnessing the completion of a work, upon which his friends have frequently heard him express an opinion, that it was the one which would eventually redound most to the estimation of his knowledge as a botanist and his credit as an author. A pretty correct estimate of Sir James Edward Smith's benevolent views of the power and wisdom of the God of nature (and he had a most perfect and consolatory conviction of the truth of Divine Revelation), may be given with great propriety in his own words, at the conclusion of the preface to the work last mentioned:--' He who feeds the sparrows, and clothes the golden lily of the fields in a splendour beyond that of Solomon himself, invites us, his rational creatures, to confide in his promises of eternal life. The simple blade of grass, and the grain of corn, to which he gives its own body, are sufficient to convince us that our trust cannot be in vain. Let those who hope to inherit these promises, and those who love science for its own sake, cherish the same benevolent dispositions. Envy and rivalship, in one case, are no less censurable than bigotry and uncharitableness in the other. The former are as incompatible with the love of nature as the latter are with the love of God, and they altogether unfit us for the enjoyments of happiness here or hereafter.'

18.-EDWARD, KING OF THE WEST SAXONS, Was stabbed at Corfe Castle, Dorsetshire, on this day, in the year 978, by order of Elfrida, his stepmother. See T. T. for 1824, p. 69.

*18. 1828. REV. EDWARD FOSTER DIED, Chaplain to the British Embassy at Paris, Rector of Somerville Aston, in Gloucestershire, and Chaplain to the Duke of Newcastle, and to the Earl of Bridgewater. He was of St. Mary Hall, Oxford, M.A. 1797; and was editor of the Arabian Nights' Entertainments, translated, embellished with engravings from pictures by Smirke, 1802, 5 vols. 8vo.; Anacreontis Opera, 1802, 8vo.; the British Gallery of Engravings, with descriptions, super-royal folio, published in numbers in 1808, and following years; also of Jarvis's Quixote, Hamilton's Tales, and other works.

21.-SAINT BENEDICT.

An Italian devotee of great austerity of manners : he died in the year 542.

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25.-ANNUNCIATION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY, OR LADY DAY.

For a description of some very singular customs on this day, we refer to T.T. for 1823, p. 63; Т.Т. for 1824, p. 71; and T.T. for 1827, p. 67.

The Rosario de Madrugada, the Dawn Rosary, is one of the few useful and pleasing customs which religion has introduced in Spain. It is an established custom in the country towns to awake the labouring population before the break of day, that they may be early in readiness to begin their work, especially in the corn-fields, which are often at the distance of six or eight miles from the labourers' dwellings. Nothing but religion, however, could give a permanency to this practice. Consequently a rosary, or procession, to sing praises to the Virgin Mary before the dawn, has been established among them from time immemorial. A man with a good voice, active, sober, and fond of early rising, is either paid, or volunteers his services, to perambulate the streets an hour before day-break, knocking at the doors of such as wish to attend the procession, and inviting all to quit their beds and join in the worship of the Mother of God. This invitation is made in short couplets, set to a very simple melody, and accompanied by the pretty and varied tinkling of a hand-bell, beating time to the tune. The effect of the bell and voice, especially after a long winter-night, has always been very pleasing to me. Nor is the fuller chorus of the subsequent procession less so. The chant, by being somewhat monotonous, harmonizes with the stillness of the hour; and, without chasing away the soft slumbers of the morning, relieves the mind from the ideas of solitude and silence, and whispers life and activity returning with the approaching day. Doblado's Letters.

29.-MIDLENT SUNDAY.

A curious ceremony takes places this day in France, for an account of which we refer to our last volume, p. 64.

*MARCH, 1828. JOHN SCOTT DIED,

The celebrated engraver of animals. He was a native of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, and was there apprenticed to Mr. Greenwell, a tallow chandler in the Old Flesh-market. His graphic genius did not discover itself very early; but towards the end of his apprenticeship he began to evince a great attachment to drawing and engraving. Having for some time pursued these employments at his leisure hours, he at length was emboldened to show his performances to Mr. Fisher, who kept a circulating library, and was also clerk to St. Nicholas's Church. Mr. Fisher exhibited the specimens to the gentlemen who frequented his library, and was confirmed in his estimation of the talents of the untaught artist. Mr. Scott, at the recommendation of his friend, now addressed Mr. Robert Pollard, the engraver, who approved of his coming to London, and in consideration

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of his circumstances, and of his being a townsman (for Mr. Pollard was also born at Newcastle), generously waived his claim to a fee, and immediately gave him instruction and employment. The opportunities he enjoyed with Mr. Pollard of attending to the particular branch of the art to which he had addicted himself, namely the engraving of animals and figures, led the way to his high reputation. His principal works were the various characters of dogs and horses, published in royal quarto, with letter-press descriptions of the qualities and properties of the animals. But his master-pieces were the Fox-chase from Reinagle and Marshall's painting, and the Death of the Fox, from a picture by Gilpin, the property of the late Col. Thornton.

In his private character, Mr. Scott was distinguished by unaffected plainness, scrupulous integrity, and general worth. He was one of the eight artists who met together in the year 1809-10 to frame the Artists' Fund, for the benefit of decayed artists, their widows, and children; and it is a pleasing instance of benevolence returning into its own bosom (and several such instances have occurred in the similar society of the Literary Fund), that Mr. Scott himself found assistance, in the hour of need, from the institution he had contributed to establish. Some five or six years since, he served steward, in high spirits and glee, at the Freemasons' Tavern; but he shortly after fell into ill health; and subsequently lost his reason.

Old London Bridge.

From a very curious and entertaining work, the ' Chronicles of London Bridge,' we select the following particulars respecting this ancient structure. By the year 1280 there were many houses on the bridge, as is evident from a patent issued by Edward I, in his 9th year, for its reparation, to prevent not only its sudden fall, but also the destruction of innumerable people dwelling upon it. In the reign of the same Edward, the assize rolls mention the very rents and situations of houses then standing on London Bridge. Richard Bloome, one of the continuators of Stow, observes, on page 62, when speaking of the dreadful conflagration of the bridge in 1632-3, that some of the houses remained unbuilt until the year 1666, when the great fire of London destroyed all the new edifices. But,' rejoins he, 'the old ones at the south end, some of which were built in the reign of King John,' and he died in 1215-'were not burnt.' It is, however, extremely probable, that London Bridge did not, even in 1395, present that form of a continued street which was afterward its most celebrated and peculiar character; there being several places open to the water.

The gates and towers on both ends were striking architectural features of this bridge; and Nonesuch House (about the end of the sixteenth century) was another of its most singular erections.

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