ry
walking with the feet on the ground, the sides prolonged by the stilts
are five or six feet apart at the base. It will be seen that with steps
of such a length, distances must be rapidly covered.

When, in 1808, the Empress Josephine went to Bayonne to rejoin Napoleon
I, who resided there by reason of the affairs of Spain, the municipality
sent an escort of young Landese stilt walkers to meet her. On the
return, these followed the carriages with the greatest facility,
although the horses went at a full trot.

During the stay of the empress, the shepherds, mounted upon their
stilts, much amused the ladies of the court, who took delight in making
them race, or in throwing money upon the ground and seeing several of
them go for it at once, the result being a scramble and a skillful and
cunning onset, often accompanied with falls.

Up to recent years scarcely any merry-makings occurred in the villages
of Gascony that were not accompanied with stilt races. The prizes
usually consisted of a gun, a sheep, a cock, etc. The young people vied
with each other in speed and agility, and plucky young girls often took
part in the contests.

Some of the municipalities of the environs of Bayonne and Biarritz still
organize stilt races, at the period of the influx of travelers; but the
latter claim that the stiltsmen thus presented are not genuine Landese
shepherds, but simple supernumeraries recruited at hazard, and in most
cases from among strolling acrobats. The stilt walkers of Landes not
only attain a great speed, but are capable of traveling long distances
without appreciable fatigue.

Formerly, on the market days at Bayonne and Bordeaux, long files of
peasants were seen coming in on stilts, and, although they were loaded
with bags and baskets, they came from the villages situated at 10, 15,
or 20 leagues distance. To-day the sight of a stilt walker is a
curiosity almost as great at Bordeaux as at Paris. The peasant of Landes
now comes to the city in a wagon or even by railway.--_La Nature_.

* * * * *

REMAINS OF A ROMAN VILLA IN ENGLAND.

A correspondent of the _Lincolnshire Chronicle_ writes: For some weeks
past, remains of a Roman villa have been exposed to view by Mr.
Ramsden's miners in Greetwell Fields. From, the extent of the tesselated
pavements laid bare there is hardly any doubt that in the Greetwell
Fields, in centuries long gone by, there stood a Roman mansion, which