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basket-work. The common, or white willow, salix alba, takes its specific name from the white silken surface of the leaves on the under side. The bark is used to tan leather, and to dye yarn of a cinnamon colour. It is one of the trees to which the necessitous Kamtschatdales are often obliged to recur for their daily bread, which they make of the inner bark, ground into flour. The bark of this willow has in some cases been found a good substitute for the Peruvian bark. The grey willow, or sallow, salix cinerea, grows from six to twelve feet high. In many parts of England, children gather the flowering branches of this tree on Palm Sunday, and call them palms. With the bark, the inhabitants of the Highlands and the Hebrides tan leather. The wood, which is soft, white, and flexible, is made into handles for hatchets, spades, &c. It also furnishes shoemakers with their cutting-boards, and whettingboards to smooth the edges of their knives

upon.

The weeping willow, salix Babylonica, a native of the Levant, was not cultivated in this country till 1730. This tree, with its long, slender, pendulous branches, is one of the most elegant ornaments of English scenery. The situation which it affects, also, on the margins of brooks or rivers, increases its beauty; like Narcissus, it often seems to bend over the water for the purpose of admiring the reflection:

"Shadowy trees, that lean So elegantly o'er the water's brim."

There is a fine weeping willow in a garden near the Paddington end of the New Road, and a most magnificent one, also, in a garden on the banks of the Thames, just before Richmond-bridge, on the Richmond side of the river. Several of the arms of this tree are so large, that one of them would in itself form a fine tree. They are propped by a number of stout poles; and the tree appears in a flourishing condition. If that tree be, as it is said, no more than ninety-five years old, the quickness of its growth is indeed astonishing.

Martyn relates an interesting anecdote, which he gives on the authority of the St. James's Chronicle, for August, 1801:

"The famous and admired weeping willow planted by Pope, which has lately been felled to the ground, came from Spain, enclosing a present for lady Suf

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folk. Mr. Pope was in company when the covering was taken off; he observed that the pieces of stick appeared as if they had some vegetation; and added, Perhaps they may produce something we have not in England.' Under this idea, he planted it in his garden, and it produced the willow-tree that has given birth to so many others." It is said, that the destruction of this tree was caused by the eager curiosity of the admirers of the poet, who, by their numbers, so disturbed the quiet and fatigued the patience of the possessor, with applications to be permitted to see this precious relic, that to put an end to the trouble at once and for ever, she gave orders that it should be felled to the ground.

The weeping willow, in addition to the pensive, drooping appearance of its branches, weeps little drops of water, which stand like fallen tears upon the leaves. It will grow in any but a dry soil, but most delights, and best thrives, in the immediate neighbourhood of water. The willow, in poetical language, commonly introduces a stream, or a forsaken lover:

"We pass a gulph, in which the willows dip

Their pendent boughs, stooping as if to drink." Cowper.

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Fletcher, a young girl, who loses her wit lows; nay, the smallest tree known, withwith hopeless love for Palamon

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Herrick thus addresses the willow-tree:

"Thou art to all lost love the best,

The only true plant found;
Wherewith young men and maids distrest,
And left of love, are crowned.
"When once the lover's rose is dead,

Or laid aside forlorn,
Then willow garlands 'bout the head,
Bedewed with tears, are worn.
"When with neglect, the lover's bane,
Poor maids rewarded be

For their love lost, their only gain
Is but a wreath from thee.

"And underneath thy cooling shade,
When weary of the light,

The love-spent youth and love-sick maid Come to weep out the night."

out any exception. The herbaceous willow, salix herbacea, is seldom higher than three inches, sometimes not more than two; and yet it is in every respect a tree, notwithstanding the name herbaceous, which, as it has been observed, is inappropriate. Dr. Clarke says, in his "Travels in Norway," "We soon recognised some of our old Lapland acquaintances, such as Betula nana, with its minute leaves, like silver pennies; mountain-birch; and the dwarf alpine species of willow: of which half a dozen trees, with all their branches, leaves, flowers, and roots, might be compressed within two of the pages of a lady's pocket-book, without coming into contact with each other. After our return to England, specimens of the salin herbacea were given to our friends, which, when framed and glazed, had the appearance of miniature drawings. The author, in collecting them for his herbiary, has frequently compressed twenty of these trees between two of the

This poet has some lines addressed to pages of a duodecimo volume." Yet in a willow garland also:

"A willow garland thou didst send

Perfumed, last day, to me; Which did but only this portend, I was forsook by thee.

"Since it is so, I'll tell thee what;

To-morrow thou shalt sec
Me wear the willow, after that

To die upon the tree.

"As beasts unto the altars go

With garlands dressed, so I Will with my willow-wreath also Come forth, and sweetly die."

The willow seems, from the oldest times, to have been dedicated to grief;

under them the children of Israel lamented

their captivity:-" By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept when we remembered Zion: we hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof."

The wicker-baskets made by our forefathers are the subject of an epigram by Martial :

"From Britain's painted sons I came,
And basket is my barbarous name;
Yet now I am so modish grown,
That Rome would claim me for her own.'

It is worthy to be recollected, that some of the smallest trees known are wil

The Psalms.

the great northern forests, Dr. Clarke found a species of willow" that would make a splendid ornament in our English shrubberies, owing to its quick growth, and beautiful appearance. It had much more the appearance of an orange than of a willow-tree, its large luxuriant leaves being of the most vivid green colour, splendidly shining. We believed it to be a variety of salix amygdalina, but it may be a distinct species: it principally flourishes in Westro Bothnia, and we never saw it elsewhere."

So much, and more than is here quoted, respecting the willow, has been gathered by the fair authoress of Sylvan Sketches.

In conclusion, be it observed, that the common willow is in common language that name it is mentioned by Chaucer :— sometimes called the sallow, and under

"Whoso buildeth his hous all of salowes, And pricketh his blind hors over the falowes,

And suffreth his wife for to seche hallowes,

He is worthy to be honged on the gallowes.' Chaucer.

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St. Lawrence.

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His name stands in the church of England calendar. He suffered martyrdom at Roine, under Valerian. Mr. Audley relates of St. Lawrence, " that being peculiarly obnoxious, the order for his punish. ment was, Bring out the grate of iron; and when it is red hot, on with him, roast him, brail him, turn him : upon pain of our high displeasure, do every man his office, O ye tormentors.' These orders were obeyed, and after Lawrence had been pressed down with fire-forks for a long time, he said to the tyrant,‘This side is now roasted enough; O tyrant, do you think roasted meat or raw the best?' Soon after he had said this he expired. The church of St. Lawrence Jewry, in London, is dedicated to him, and has a gridiron on the steeple for a vane, that being generally supposed the instrument of his torture. The ingenious Mr. Robinson, in his Ecclesiastical Researches,' speaking about this saint, says, 'Philip II. of Spain, having won a battle on the 10th of August, the festival of St. Lawrence, vowed to consecrate a PALACE, а CHURCH, and a MONASTERY to his honour. did erect the ESCURIAL, which is the largest Palace in EUROPE. This immense quarry consists of several courts and quadrangles, all disposed in the shape of a GRIDIRON. The bars form several courts; and the Royal Family occupy the HANDLE.' ' Gridirons,' says one, who examined it, are met with in every part of the building. There are sculptured gridirons, iron gridirons, painted gridirons, marble gridirons, &c. &c. There are gridirons over the doors, gridirons in the yards, gridirons in the windows, gridirons in the galleries. Never was an instrument of martyrdom so multiplied, so honoured, so celebrated: and thus much for gridirons.'"*

CHRONOLOGY.

He

On the 10th of August, 1575, Peter Bales, one of our earliest and most eminent writing-masters, finished a performance which contained the Lord's prayer, the creed, the decalogue, with two short prayers in Latin, his own name, motto, the day of the month, year of our Lord, and reign of the queen, (Elizabeth,) to whom he afterwards presented it at Hampton-court, all within the circle of

* Companion to the Almanac.

a single penny, enchased in a ring with borders of gold, and covered with a crystal, so accurately wrought, as to be plainly legible, to the great admiration of her majesty, her ministers, and several ambassadors at court.

In 1590, Bales kept a school at the upper end of the Old Bailey, and the same year published his "Writing SchoolMaster." In 1595, he had a trial of skill in writing with a Mr. Daniel (David) Johnson, for a "golden pen" of £20 value, and won it. Upon this victory, his contemporary and rival in penmanship, John Davies, made a satirical, illnatured epigram, intimating that penury continually compelled Bales to remove himself and his "golden pen," to elude the pursuit of his creditors. The particu lars of the contest for the pen, supposed to be written by Bales himself, are in the British Museum, dated January 1, 1596.

So much concerning Peter Bales is derived from the late Mr. Butler's "Chronological Exercises," an excellent arrangement of biographical, historical, and miscellaneous facts for the daily use of young ladies.

Peter Bales according to Mr. D' Israeli," astonished the eyes of beholders by showing them what they could not see." He cites a narrative, among the Harleian MSS., of "a rare piece of work brought to pass by Peter Bales, an Englishman, and a clerk of the chancery." Mr. D'Israeli presumes this to have been the whole Bible, "in an English walnut no bigger than a hen's egg. nut holdeth the book: there are as many leaves in his little book as the great Bible, and he hath written as much in one of his little leaves, as a great leaf of the Bible." This wonderfully unreadable copy of the Bible was seen by many thousands."

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Peter Huet, the celebrated bishop of Avranches, long doubted the story of an eminent writing-master having comprised "the Iliad in a nut-shell," but, after trifling half an hour in examining the matter, he thought it possible. One day, in company at the dauphin's, with a piece of paper and a common pen, he demonstrated, that a piece of vellum, about ten inches in length, and eight in width, pliant and firm, can be folded up and enclosed in the shell of a large walnut; that in breadth it can contain one line of thirty verses, perfectly written with a crow-quill, and in length two hundred

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of Latin to cast at a dog, or say 'Bo!' to a goose!" The goose was mentioned, perhaps, in allusion to Michaelmas-day, 1595, when the trial commenced before five judges; an "ancient gentleman" was intrusted with "the golden pen." The first trial was for the manner of teaching scholars; this terminated in favour of Bales. The second, for secretary and clerk-like writing, dictated in English and in Latin, was also awarded to Bales; Johnson confessing that he wanted the Latin tongue, and was no clerk. On the third and last trial, for fair writing in sundry kinds of hands, Johnson prevailed in beauty and most "authentic proportion," and for superior variety of the Roman hand; but in court-hand, and set-text, Bales exceeded, and in bastard secretary was somewhat perfecter than Johnson. For a finishing blow, Bales drew forth his "master-piece," and, offering to forego his previous advantages if Johnson could better this specimen, his antagonist was struck dumb. In compassion to the youth of Johnson, some of the judges urged the others not to give judgment in public. Bales remonstrated against a private decision in vain, but he obtained the verdict and secured the prize. Johnson, however, reported that he had won the golden pen, and issued an Appeal to all impartial Penmen," wherein he affirmed, that the judges, though his own friends, and honest gentlemen, were unskilled in judging of most hands, and again offered forty pounds to be allowed six months to equal Bales's " masterpiece." Finally, he alleged, that the judges did not deny that Bales possessed himself of the golden pen by a trick: he relates, that Bales having pretended that his wife was in extreme sickness, he desired that she might have a sight of the golden pen, to comfort her, that the "ancient gentleman," relying upon the kind husband's word, allowed the golden pen to be carried to her, and that thereupon Bales immediately pawned it, and after"wards, to make sure work, sold it at a great loss, so that the judges, ashamed of their own conduct, were compelled to give such a verdict as suited the occasion. Bales rejoined, by publishing to the universe the day and hour when the judges brought the golden pen to his house, and painted it with a hand over his door for a sign.* This is shortly the history of a

and fifty lines; that one side will then
contain seven thousand five hundred
verses, the other side as much, and that
therefore the piece of vellum will hold the
whole fifteen thousand verses of the Iliad.
The writing match between Peter Bales
and David Johnson, mentioned by Mr.
Butler, was only traditionally known,
till, with my own eyes," says Mr. D'
Israeli," I pondered on this whole trial
of skill in the precious manuscript of the
champion himself; who, like Caesar, not
only knew how to win victories, but also
to record them." Johnson for a whole
year gave a public challenge, "To any
one who should take exceptions to this
my writing and teaching.' Bales was
inagnanimously silent, till he discovered
that since this challenge was proclaimed,
he" was doing much less in writing and
teaching." Bales then sent forth a chal-
lenge, "To all Englishmen and strangers,"
to write for a gold pen of twenty pounds
value, in all kinds of hands, "best,
straightest, and fastest," and most kind
of ways;
a full, a mean, a small, with
line and without line; in a slow-set
hand, a mean facile hand, and a fast run-
ning hand;" and further, "to write
truest and speediest, most secretary and
clerk-like, from a man's mouth, reading
or pronouncing, either English or Latin."
Within an hour, Johnson, though a young
friend of Bales, accepted the challenge,
and accused the veteran of arrogance.
"Such an absolute challenge," says he,
"was never witnessed by man, without ex-
ception of any in the world!" Johnson,
a few days after, met Bales, and showed
him a piece of "secretary's hand," which
he had written on fine parchment, and
said, "Mr. Bales, give me one shilling
out of your purse, and, if within six
months you better or equal this piece of
writing, I will give you forty pounds for
it." Bales accepted the shilling, and the
parties were thereby bound over to the
trial of skill. The day before it took
place, a printed paper posted through the
city taunted Bales's "proud poverty,"
and his pecuniary motives as 66 ungentle,
base, and mercenary, not answerable to
the dignity of the golden pen!" Johnson
declared that he would maintain his chal-
lenge for a thousand pounds more, but
that Bales was unable to make good a
thousand groats.
Bales retorted by af-
Sirming the paper a sign of his rival's
weakness, "yet who so bold," says Bales,
as blind Bayard, that hath not a word

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Mr. D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature

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"Few men rightly temper with the stars."-Shakspeare.

Flamsteed was the first astronomerroyal, and from him the Observatory at Greenwich derives its popular name, "Flamsteed-house." His Scheme of the Heavens," may be found there in a folio vellum-bound manuscript on the second page. Opposite to it, also drawn by himself, with great exactness, and signed by his own name within it, is a

ground plan of the Observatory. On the following, being the fourth page, is a list of "Angles, betwixt eminent places observed with the sextant in the months of February and March, 1679-80." The remainder of the book consists of about one hundred and seventy pages of "Observations," also in Flamsteed's hand-writing. Whatever astrological judgment he may

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