our little wild black, also a dwarf one not exceeding three feet high. Chestnuts. They had six sorts, some more easily separated from the skin than others, and one with a red skin: they roasted them as we do. Figs. They had many sorts, black and white, large and small, one as large as a pear, another no larger than an olive.

Medlars. They had two kinds, the one larger, and the other smaller.

Mulberries. They had two kinds of the black sort, a large and a smaller. Pliny speaks also of a mulberry growing on a brier: Nascuntur et in Rubis. 1. xv. sect 27; but whether this means the raspberry or the common blackberry does not ap

pear.

Nuts. They had hazel nuts and filberds (has quoque mollis protegit barba) 1. 15, sect. 24: they roasted these nuts. Pears. Of these they had many sorts, both summer and winter fruit, melting and hard, they had more than 36 kinds, some were called Libralia: we have our pound pear. Plums. They had a multiplicity of sorts (ingens turba prunorum), black, white, and variegated; one sort was called Asinina, from its cheapness; another Damascena, this had much stone and little flesh from Martial's epigram, xiii. 29, we may conclude that it was what we now call prunes. Quinces. They had three sorts, one was called Chrysomela from its yellow flesh; they boiled

them with honey, as we make marmalade. See Martial, xiii. 24.

Services they had, the appleshaped, the pearshaped, and a small kind, probably the same as we gather wild, possibly the azarole.

Strawberries they had, but do not appear to have prized: the climate is too warm to produce this fruit in perfection, unless in the hills.

Vines. They had a multiplicity of these, both thick-skinned (Duracina) and thin-skinned: one vine growing at Rome produced 12 amphora of juice, 84 gallons. They had roundberried and long-berried sorts; one so long that it was called Dactilides, the grapes being like the fingers on the hand. Martial speaks favourably of the hard-skinned grape for eating, xiii. 22.

Walnuts. They had soft-shelled and hard-shelled as we have. In the golden age, when men lived upon acorns, the gods lived upon walnuts, hence the name Juglans, Jovis glans.

As a matter of curiosity, it has also been deemed expedient to add a list of the fruits cultivated in our English gardens in the year 1573: it is taken from a book entitled Five Hundred points of good Husbandry, &c. by Thomas Tusser.

Thomas Tusser, who had received a liberal education at EtonSchool, and at Trinity hall Cambridge, lived many years as a farmer in Suffolk and Norfolk: he afterwards removed to London, where he published the first edi

tion of his work, under the title of One Hundred Points of good Husbandry, in 1557.

In his fourth edition, from whence this list is taken, he first introduced the subject of gardening, and has given us not only a list of the fruits, but also of all the plants then cultivated in our gardens, either for pleasure or profit, under the following heads.

Seedes and herbes for the kychen, herbes and rootes for sallets and sawce, herbes and rootes to boyle or to butter, strewingherbes of all sorts, herbes, branches and flowers for windowes and pots, herbes to still in summer, necessarie herbes to grow in the gardens for physick not reherst before.

Quince trees.
Raspis.

Reisons.
Small nuts.

Strawberries, red and white.
Service trees.
Wardens, white and red.
Wallnuts.
Wheat plums.

Though the fig is omitted by Tusser, it was certainly introduced into our gardens before he wrote. Cardinal Pole is said to have imported from Italy that tree which is still growing in the garden of the archbishop's Palace, at Lambeth.

fruits:

Cheshire.

[From Messrs. Lysons' Magna Britannia, Vol. II. Part II.]

Of the customs and ceremonies peculiar to certain parts of the kingdom, Cheshire has its full share; we shall notice some of those which are most remarkable. There is a custom among the young men, of placing, on the first of May, large birchen boughs over the doors of the houses, where the young women reside to whom they pay their addresses; and an alder bough is often found placed over the door of a scold.

*

Another singular custom which prevails in this country, is that of lifting at Easter. On Easter Monday, the young men deck out a chair with flowers and ribbands,

and carry it about, compelling every young woman they meet to get into it, and suffer herself to be lifted as high as they can reach into the air, or be kissed, or pay a forfeit. On Easter Tuesday the young women deck out their chair, and lift the men, or make them pay a fine. This custom, which also prevails in some of the neighbouring counties, or something very like it, seems to have been admitted among the highest ranks in the thirteenth century; for it appears from a wardrobe account preserved among the records in the Tower, that king Edward the First in the eighteenth year of his reign, paid a large sum of money, more than equivalent to four hundred pounds at this time, to the queen's seven ladies of the bed-chamber and maids of honour, on a similar occasion.*

Rush-bearing, or carrying rushes to the churches, and there strewing them, was a custom which formerly prevailed generally in Cheshire; but has been much disused for many years, since close pews have been erected in most churches. It took place on the day of the wake, and was attended with a procession of young men and women, dressed in ribbands, and carrying garlands, &c. which were hung up in the

church: we saw these garlands remaining in several churches.

The most prevalent custom of this county is the shouting of the marlers, when any money has been given to them. When a marlepit is to be dug, the set of labourers, or marlers, as they are called, who undertake it, choose one of their number to be lord of the pit. When at work, they never ask for money; but if any is given them, they are summoned together by their lord, and after announcing with great solemnity the donation, and the name of the donor, † they join their arms, forming a ring, and make four bows towards the centre of it, shouting every time; the fourth time they give a lengthened and much louder shout, letting the sound die away gradually: this ceremony is repeated several times, in proportion to the sum given; they shout four times for silver, though only sixpence; sixtimes for a shilling; for half a crown the shouts are continued as long as their breath will hold out. My lord keeps the money till the next Saturday evening, when it is spent at the next ale house, and the shouts are there renewed, as the healths of the givers are repeated in succession. When the marlers have finished their work, they dress up a pole with flowers

the Mosquito Indians.

age. And they may enviably be classed with the very few tribes

Honduras.]

Ta considerable space of country on the continent of America, nearly extending from Point Castile, or Cape Honduras, the south ern point of the Bay of Truxillo, to the northern branch of the river Nicaragua, called usually St. Juan's; and comprehending within these limits nearly 100 leagues of land on the sea coast, from latitude 11 to 16 degrees. A chain of high mountains may be considered as the natural barrier between their nation and the Spanish possessions in this part of the world.

HE Mosquito Indians inhabit

These people have long been in alliance with the King of Great Britain, and entertain generally a most exalted opinion of the justice and magnanimity of the English, and a perfect detestation of their neighbours the Spaniards. A tradition has long prevailed amongst them, that the grey-eyed people, meaning the English, have been particularly appointed to pro

interrupted by European aggression on this side the Atlantic.

The soil they inhabit is abundantly fertile, and capable of many modes of cultivation. Indian corn of the finest quality, plantains, cassava-root, varieties of the yam and sweet potatoe, are plentifully raised from it. The sugar-cane, cotton, and tobacco thrive equally well; and in the mountainous situations, coffee, no doubt, might be produced, not inferior to that which is raised in the West India islands.

In this country there is also plenty of mahogany, and many other kinds of wood, which might probably meet the purposes of ornamental use extremely well. But the entire want of harbours of sufficient depth for any vessels but those of the smallest burthen, must prevent any material advantage resulting from these sources. Several species of dye-wood are likewise found, some of which are used in colouring a coarse kind of cloth, the manufacture of the