* * * *

THE GATHERER.

_Marriage Tree_.--A marriage tree, generally of the pine kind, is
planted in the churchyard, by every new-married couple, in the parish of
Varallo Pombio, in the Tyrol. A fine grove of pines, the result of this
custom, now shades this churchyard.

W.G.C.

_Slippery Love_.--Thevenard was the first singer of his time, at Paris,
in the operas of Lulli. He was more than sixty years old when, seeing a
beautiful _female slipper_ in a shoemaker's shop, he fell violently in
love, unsight, unseen, with the person for whom it was made; and having
discovered the lady, married her. He died at Paris in 1741, at the age
of 72.

P.T.W.

Character of England.

Anglia, 1 Mons, 2 Pons, 3 Fons, 4 Ecclesia, 5 Faemina, 6 Lana.

(That is to say:)

For 1, Mountains; 2, Bridges; 3, Rivers; 4, Churches faire; 5, Women;
and 6, Wool, England is past compare.

G.K.

_On our Lady Church in Salisbury_.

How many dayes in one whole year there be,
So many windows in one church we see,
So many marble pillars there appear,
As there are hours throughout the fleeting year.
So many gates, as moons one year do view,
Strange tale to tell, yet not so strange as true.

G.K.

_Astronomical Toasts_.--Lord Chesterfield dined one day with the French
and Spanish ambassadors. After dinner, toasts were proposed. The Spanish
ambassador proposed the King of Spain under the title of the Sun. The
French ambassador gave his king as the Moon. Lord C. then arose, "Your
excellencies," said he, "have taken the two greatest luminaries, and the
Stars are too small for a comparison with my royal master. I therefore
beg to give your excellencies, Joshua."

_Talleyrand._--(The following _bon mot_ is worthy of extract from the
_Literary Gazette_, and smacks of the raciest days of the noble
utterer.) M. Talleyrand was enjoying his rubber, when the conversation
turned on the recent union of an elderly lady of respectable rank.
"However could Madame de S------ make such a match? a person of her
birth to marry a valet-de-chambre!" "Ah," replied Talleyrand, "it was
late in the game; at nine we don't reckon honours."

_Remarkable Circumstance._--William Coghan, who was at Oxford in the
year 1575, when the sweating sickness raged at that place, and who has
given a brief account of its ravages, says, "It began on the sixth day
of July, from which day to the twelfth day of August next