approach them fearlessly. A man then goes into the water up to the
chin, with one of these pots over his head, in the centre of which two
small holes are made for him to see through; and when he gets into the
midst of the birds, he pulls them by the legs under water, fastening
them to a girdle round his waist.--T. GILL.

_Hampden._--Lord Nugent, in his _Memorials of John Hampden_, relates
the attack of Rupert's troops upon the village of Chinnor. A local
tradition of the affair has been related to me by an old inhabitant.
In the room of a house, until lately occupied as a boarding-school,
two of Rupert's soldiers are said to have evinced great brutality. On
entering the house, they demanded a flitch of bacon, hanging up in the
room; one of them held up a child which he had taken from a cradle,
and crossing a sword over it, threatened its immediate destruction if
their demands were not instantly complied with. There appear to
have been sharp hostilities in the vicinity of Chinnor, and more
particularly on the hills, as military buttons, sword handles, &c. and
other vestiges of war are frequently found there.--W.H.

_Parody on Scott's Lines "Breathes there the Man," &c._

Breathes there a cit, with taste so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
"This haunch surpasses all the rest;"
Whose mouth hath ne'er within him burn'd,
Whene'er his footsteps he hath turn'd
From home, to Guildhall's civic feast?
If such there breathe, go mark him well--
For him no portly paunch can swell;
Large though his shop, his trade the same,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim,
Despite his shop, his trade, his cash,
The wretch who knows not ven'son hash,
Living, shall forfeit civic fame,
And dying, shall descend with shame,
In double death, to Lethe's pools,
Despis'd by epicures and fools. REX.

_Alchemy and Printing._--Antimony, once celebrated in the laboratories
of the alchemists, who hoped to discover in it the philosopher's
stone, is now employed in the casting of types for printing.--There
is much food for reflection in this curious fact in the history
of science. How has this simple substance originated dreams of
spell-bound ignorance, and realities of godlike intelligence. Nay,
we are almost persuaded that the hopes of the alchemists were not
altogether unfounded--that antimony is indeed what they hoped to
find it--that the invention of printing was the finding of the
philosopher's