innumerable curiosities. The spirit of the late worthy owner seems to have been transfused into the present. He spares no pains or expense to augment a collection, before equally elegant and instructive."

Mr. Pennant, in his "History of Quadrupeds," likewise makes mention of the Leverian Museum, as "a liberal fund of inexhaustible knowledge in most branches of natural history," and he especially names" the matchless collection of animals" there exhibited, to which he had recourse while correcting the descriptions for the last edition of his work.

We have gathered from Mr. Pennant, that the Leverian Museum was disposed of by lottery, and his own opinion, as a naturalist, of its merit. The evidence whereon the committee of the house of commons founded its report in behalf of the bill, which afterwards passed and enabled sir Ashton Lever to dispose of his museum in that manner, amply testifies the opinion conceived of it by individuals fully alified to decide on its importance.

Mr. Tennant who had been upwards of twenty years a collector of subjects of natural history, and had seen all the cabinets of curiosities, both public and private, of any note in Holland, France, and Portugal, and those at Brussels, Dresden, Brunswick, and Vienna, and had also seen the Spanish cabinet while collecting in Holland, said, that he had never seen any collection more rare, more curious, or more instructive than sir Ashton Lever's, nor any that could be compared with it; that it exceeded all others in the beauty and preservation of the numerous articles it contained, which were better selected than any he had seen elsewhere; and that it contained many specimens that could not be procured at any expense.

Sir William Hamilton gave similar testimony. Having a particular love for natural history, in different journeys to and from Naples, where he was ambassador from Great Britain, he had seen every public and private museum in Holland, France, Germany, Italy, and Sicily, and he thought sir Ashton Lever's collection was in every respect the finest.

Baron Dimsdale said he had seen the cabinets of curiosities at Moscow and St. Petersburgh, and also those at Paris and Dresden, which are esteemed very curious and valuable, and that they were not, all

November 6, 1778.

If I had Virgil's judgment, Homer's fire,
And could with equal rapture strike the lyre,
Could drink as largely of the muse's spring,
Then would I of sir Ashton's merits sing.
Look here, look there, above, beneath, around,
Sure great Apollo consecrates the ground.
Here stands a tiger, mighty in his strength,
There crocodiles extend their scaly length:
Subtile, voracious to devour their food,
Savage they look, and seem to pant for blood.
Here shells and fish, and finny dolphins seen,
Display their various colours blue and green.
View there an urn which Roman ashes bore,
And habits once that foreign nations wore.
Birds and wild beasts from Afric's burning
sand,

And curious fossils rang'd in order stand.
Now turn your eyes from them, and quick

Dreadful they seem, grim-looking as they lie.
Next various kinds of monsters meet the eye;
What man is he that does not view with awe
The river-horse that gives the Tigris law?
Dauntless he looks, and, eager to engage,
Lashes his sides, and burns with steady rage.
View where an elephant's broad bulk ap-
pears,

And o'er his head his hollow trunk he rears:
He seems to roar, impatient for the fight,
And stands collected in his utmost might.
Some I have sung, much more my muse could

name;

I've gained my end, if you, good sir, receive
A nobler muse requires sir Ashton's fame.
This feeble present, which I freely give.
Your well-known worth, to distant nations -
told,

Amongst the sons of Fame shall be enroll❜d.

Kennington, Nov. 8, 1778.

Gentleman's Magazine.

T.P.*

It seems appropriate and desirable to give the above representation of Mr. Parkinson's ticket, for there are few who retain the original. Besides-the design is good, and as an engraving it is an orna

ment.

And-as a memorial of the method adopted by sir Ashton Lever to obtain attention to the means by which he hoped to reimburse himself for his prodigious outlay, and also to enable the public to view the grand prize which the adventure of a guinea might gain, one of his advertisements is annexed from a newspaper of January 28, 1785.

IR ASHTON LEVER's Lottery Tickets are now on sale at Leicesterhouse, every day (Sundays excepted) from Nine in the morning till Six in the evening, at One Guinea each; and as each ticket will admit four persons, either together or separately, to view the Museum, no one will hereafter be admitted but by the Lottery Tickets, excepting those who have already annual admission.

This collection is allowed to be infinitely superior to any of the kind in Europe. The very large sum expended in making it, is the cause of its being thus to be disposed

of, and not from the deficiency of the daily receipts (as is generally imagined) which have annually increased, the average amount for the last three years being 18331. per annum. The hours of admission are from Eleven till Four.

Good fires in all the galleries.

The first notice of the Leverian Museum

is in the "Gentleman's Magazine" for May, 1773, by a person who had seen it it was first formed. Though many speciat Alkerington, near Manchester, when mens of natural history are mentioned, the collection had evidently not attained its maturity. It appears at that time to have amounted to no more than "upwards of one thousand three hundred glass cases, containing curious subjects, placed in three rooms, besides four sides of rooms shelved from top to bottom, with glass doors before them." The works of art particularized by the writer in the "Gentleman's Magazine," are "a head of his present majesty, cut in cannil coal, said to be a striking likeness; indeed the workmanship is inimitable also à drawing in Indian ink of a head of a late duke

:

NATURALISTS' CALENDAR. Mean Temperature... 62 52.

July 19.

K. George IV. crowned.

Holiday at all the public offices.

"THE GLORY OF REGALITY." This is the title of "A Historical Treatise on the Anointing and Crowning of the Kings and Queens of England, by Arthur Taylor, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries. London: 1820." 8vo. pp.

440.

The present notice is designed to acquaint inquirers with the most important and satisfactory work regarding our regal ceremonies that exists. Mr. Taylor's volume is a storehouse of information concerning the kingly title and office, the regalia, the assistants at the coronation, the tenants of the crown by grand sergeantry performing services, the ceremonial, the processions, and the feast. That part of the book entitled a "Chronicle of the Coronations," is full of singular details. The "History of the Coronation Oath" is remarkably curious and interesting. There is likewise an appendix of important documents and records, a valuable index, and, according to a good old custom, which modern authors find it convenient to neglect, the reader is referred to every source of information on the subjects treated of, by a list of upwards of two hundred and thirty works resorted to, and quoted by Mr. Taylor, in the course of his labours. Few writers of the present day have achieved a monument of so much diligence as this work. The trifling sum at which it was published can scarcely have remunerated its erudite author, beyond the expense of the paper and print and wood engravings.

Mr. Arthur Taylor is in the foremost rank of learned typographers; and, better for himself in a pecuniary view, he is printer to the corporation of London, to which office he was elected while travelling in Italy, after the publication of his "Glory of Regality."

NATURALISTS' CALENDAR. Mean Temperature ... 63·87.

July 20.

ST. MARGARET.

This saint is in the church of England calendar and the almanacs.

Butler speaks of her merely as a virgin, who is "said" to have been instructed in the faith by a christian nurse, and persecuted by her father, who was a pagan priest; that after being tormented, she was martyred by the sword "in the last general persecution;" that "her name occurs in the litany inserted in the old Roman order," and in ancient Greek calendars; that, from the east, her veneration was exceedingly propagated in England, France, and Germany during the holy wars; that "Vida, the glory of the christian muses," honoured her as

one of the titular saints of Cremona, his native city, with two hymns, begging of God through her prayers" a happy death and a holy life; and that "her body is now kept at Monte Fiascone, in Tuscany."

The Egyptians are not more famous for embalming, than the Romish church is celebrated for the keeping of saints' bodies-with the additional reputation of a peculiar tact at discovering them. It was not at all uncommon to distinguish their bones, from other mortuary remains, a few centuries after death.

We are told that St. Margaret received the crown of martyrdom in the year 278,* therefore her body, "now kept at Monte Fiascone," may be regarded to have been as well kept through one thousand five hundred years, as those of other saints; for it must be observed that none but saints' bodies" keep." There is not an instance of the body of any lay individual, however virtuous or illustrious, having remained to us through fifteen

centuries.

The illustrious father of the order of the jesuits, Peter Ribadeneira, rather confusedly relates that St. Margaret was devoured by the devil; and " in an other place it is sayd that he swalowed her into his bely," and that while in his inside she made the sign of the cross, and she "yssued out all hole and sounde," though it is added that this account" is apocrifum." We are told that a devil appeared to her in the likeness of a man, but she caught him by the head, threw him down, set her right foot on his neck, and said, "Lye still thou fende, under the fote of a woman." In that situation the devil admitted he was vanquished, and declared he would not have cared if a young man had conquered him, but he was very vexed to have been overcome by a young woman. St. Margaret asked him what he was, and he answered that his name was Veltis, that he was one of a multitude of devils who had been enclosed in a brass vessel by Solomon, and that after Solomon's death this vessel was broken at Babylon by persons who supposed it contained a treasure, when all the devils flew out and took to the air, where they were incessantly espying how to "assayle ryghtfull men.' Then she took her foot from his neck, and said to him, "Flee hens thou wretched fende," and behold "the earth opened and the fende sanke in."t

However "right comfortable" this relation may be, there is more "delection" in that of St. Margaret being swallowed by the devil; it is a pity it is crifum

apo

July 21.

ST. VICTOR OF MARSEILLES.

We are informed by Butler that this saint was a martyr under the emperor Maximian. From his silence as to the saint's life, it is to be inferred that biographers of saints were rare, while, from his elaborate account of the saint's death, it is to be inferred that their martyrdoms were attended by able reporters.

The abbey of St. Victor at Marseilles was one of the most celebrated religious foundations in Europe. It claimed to have been the first monastery established in France. Its ruins are striking objects of curiosity to visiters of the town.

St. Victor's monastery was founded by St. Cassien, patriarch of Constantinople, in the fourth or fifth century. The spot was fixed upon by St. Cassien for his new foundation, from the ground being already considered as sacred by the Marseillais, for we are assured that Mary Magdalen and her brother Lazarus arrived in Provence with a cargo of saints, fixed their residence at Marseilles, and converted a great number of the inhabitants; and that Mary Magdalen after remaining there some time, desirous of being more secluded, withdrew to a grotto in the rock on which the abbey of St. Victor now stands. Still, pressed by crowds, she removed a league from Marseilles to the quarter of Aygalades, where afterwards was founded a monastery of the Carmes. Even here she could not find seclusion, and she finally fixed her retreat at the Sainte Beaume, a grotto in the mountain of St. Pilon, in a more remote part of the country where she ended her days.

On the spot sanctified by her first retreat, a chapel was erected and dedicated to the Holy Virgin under the title of "Nôtre Dame de la Confession." A little confusion seems here to have been made between Mary Magdalen, in remembrance of whom the spot was considered as sacred, and the virgin mother; for after the monastery was built, a chapel in it was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, while little notice was taken of Mary the penitent.

The monastery of St. Cassien many years after the body of the celebrated St. Victor was interred there, was called the monastery of St. Victor. His foof was said to have been cut off by order ot Maximian, for having kicked down a