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totally unworthy of a good foldier. When this inftance of fidelity was mentioned to prince Eugene and the duke of Marlborough, the former made the noble foldier a handsome prefent, and the latter prefented him with a captain's commiffion.

II.

OF A FRIAR.

A Carmelite friar in Spain fell desperately in love with a young woman to whom he was confeffor: he tried every art of feduction his defires could fuggeft; but to his unfpeakable vexation, found her vir tue or indifference proof against all his malicious schemes. His defpair was heightened to madness on hearing that he was foon to be married to a perfon of her own rank in life. Jealoufy feized his foul, and ftirred him to the most barbarous of all determinations, that of depriving his rival of the lady, by putting an end to her life. He chofe Eafter week for the perpetrating of his crime. The unfufpecting girl came to the confeffional, and poured out her foul at his feet. Her innocence ferved only to inflame his rage the more, and to confirm him in his bloody purpose. He gave her abfolution and the facrament with his own hand, as his love deterred him from murdering her before he thought he was purified from all ftain of fin, and her foul fit to take its flight to the tribunal of its creator; but his jealoufy and revenge urged him to purfue her down the church, and plunge his dagger in her heart, as fhe turned round to make genu flection to the altar. He was im mediately feized, and foon condemned to die; but left his ignominious execution fhould reflect difgrace on a religious order, which boafts of having an aunt of the king of France among its members, his fentence was changed into perpetual labour among the galley-laves at Porto Rico.

SPEECH

OF HENRY I. TO HIS NOBLES,

[Communicated by G. W.]

THE following speech of Henry I. is the first that ever came from the throne; and is preferved to us by only one hiftorian (Matthew Paris) and taken notice of by fcarcely any other author. Henry I. the Conqueror's youngest fon, difpoffeffed his eldest brother Robert of his right of fucceffion to the crown; the latter afterwards coming to England on a friendly vifit to him, Henry, jealous that this circumftance might turn to his difadvantage, called together the great men of the realm, and made a fpeech to them, of which the following is a copy.

"My friends and faithful fubjects, both natives and foreigners,

"You all know very well that my brother Robert was both called by God, and elected king of Jerufalem, which he now might have happily governed; and how fhamefully he refufed that rule, for which he justly deferves God's anger and reproof. You know alfo, in many other inftances, his pride and brutality; because he is a man that delights in war and bloodshed, he is impatient of peace; I know that he thinks you a parcel of contemptible fellows; he calls you a fet of gluttons and drunkards, whom he hopes to tread under his feet. I, truly a king, meek, humble, and peaceable. will preferve and cherifh you in your ancient liberties, which I have formerly fworn to perform; will hearken to your wife counfels with patience; and will govern you justly, after the example of the bell of princes.

"If you defire it, I will strengthen this promife with a written character; and all thofe laws which the holy king Edward, by the inspira tion of God, fo wifely enacted, I will again fwear to keep inviolably. If

you,

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[From Clarke's Survey of the Lakes of what I picked out of the church re

Cumberland, &c.]

1.

SINGULAR FAMILY.

IN the way to Kefwick is Stain ton, a fingle houfe, where eight years fince the mafter was eighty-fix years of age, the miftrefs eighty-five, a female fervant feventy-nine, a horfe thirty-three, a dog feventeen. The fervant left him at near eightyfix, after having ferved him fixtyfour years, though, after the first four years of her fervice, fhe had every half year given him notice that the would leave his houfe: fhe died two months after her final notice.

This venerable villager is remarkably ftrong built and boney, and has always enjoyed fo good a state of health, that he never paid any thing to either furgeon or phyfician: he is, farther remarkable for his pacific difpofition; never having paid, or caufed any one to pay any thing for law. Though naturally filent and diffident, he is, to this day, an eminent promoter of mirth; and will take his glafs regularly among chearful company till a mode

gifter, and fome memoirs of William Birket, of Troutbeck. He lived in the time of Edward VI. his mother was a poor woman (some fay a nun), and begged from houfe to houfe to fupport herself and fon, and drew to a house upon an eftate called Troutbeck-park which had been forfeited to the crown, and of fo little value that no notice was taken of it for fome time. At last, being granted, the grantee went to take poffeffion, but was prevented by this Cork lad, who was then just come to man's eftate, quite uncivilized, and knew no law but ftrength: he was thereupon fent for to London, and by fair fpeeches and wiles got thither: during his ftay, the king held a day, as he did many, for gymnastic amufements; this Cork lad obferved the feveral combatants, but particularly the wrestlers; at laft he mounted the ftage (in his undyed drefs, which his mother had fpun him) and threw the champion with eafe, and did other feats, fo that the king fent for him, and asked his name, where he came from, &c. He told the king, that himself could neither read nor

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THIS celebrated cavern is vifited without danger, and with much lefs trouble than may be imagined by those who have not gone into it. The mouth, in which are a few huts of fome packthread fpinners, is forty yards wide, and fourteen high. Immediately within this arch is a cavern of the fame height, forty yards wide, and above one hundred in length. At one hundred and fifty yards the roof flopes down to about two feet from the furface. Here you come to the first water fourteen inches deep, which is croffed 'in a boat or kind of trough about a foot deep, and just fifteen inches and a half long, filled with ftraw, on which the paffenger muft lie down on his back, the rock not allowing him to fit upright. This is pushed forward by a man who wades through the water. There is a way by the fide through which one may pafs ftooping very low, but often stopped with floods. This river is fixteen yards over, and the rock beyond it

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rifes two yards and a half, to the height of forty yards, and feventy wide, having feveral high openings in its roof. The ftream is croffed feven times before reaching the extremity; fometimes on stepping ftones, once on men's backs. In one place the ftream is loft in a quickfand, but emerges again. The deepest part of the cave is two hundred and feven yards from the furface of the hill above. After croffing on the guide's back a fecond water, nine yards and a half broad, eighty-feven yards from the first you come under three regular natural arches to a third cavern called Roger Rain's House, because of the perpetual dropping. About the midway is a lofty vault on the right called The Chancel, nineteen yards from the furface, on coming to which you are furprised with a number of lights above you, and a fong by feveral men who have taken another path to it. At the fide of this cavern, at the top of a steep rugged ftony afcent, a fmall irregular hole leads into a long, narrow, and very high cavern, which has furprizing openings of various fhapes on the top, but is not vifited by the generality of travellers. The fecond river is seventeen yards over, and four feet deep, fordable by great stepping stones, or at most only ancle deep, over which you are carried on the guide's back. Beyond this is a bank of brown fand, or clayey mud, floping down for fifty yards to a cavern called The Devil's Cellar, in the roof of which is a large opening, through which the smoke of fires made in it has been seen to escape out of the rock above ground. Hence you advance under a low roof to an opening in the roof like a bell, and called Tom of Lincoln, and others fimilar: at the farther end of which is the fwallow that drinks the water that runs along the cave fide, then to a channel with a clear stream, which

Cotton

1

Cotton calls the third river, whofe bank is a narrow flippery rock of the fame fand, on which you walk ftoop ing. This leads to lower ground, over which the rock is fo formed as to prefent a view through piazzas feventy yards long, terminating at the third river, where the rock clofes, and the water beat back by the guide is heard after fome interval to rebound from it very loudly. The proprietor of this curious cavity, having concluded from the found that there is another at no great distance, is endeavouring to effect a communication by gunpowder. In the rainy season the water rifes in it above fix feet. These rivers are fupplied by a stream which rifes without the cavern, and may be heard falling into it near the bell. The length of the whole cavern is four hundred and eighty yards, the narrowest part three yards, the thicknefs of ground above it feventy yards. At the diftance of about feven hundred and fifty yards from the entrance, the rock comes down fo close to the furface of the water, that it precludes all further paffage. Not long fince a gentleman determined to try if he could not dive under this rock, and rife in the cavern which is fill fuppofed to be beyond it. He plunged in, but, as might be expected, itruck his head against the rock, and fell motionless to the bottom, from which the attendants, with difficulty, dragged him out.

REMARKABLE RECORD, LODGED IN THE TOWER.

[Tranfmitted by T. W.] "The king, to all bailiffs and other his liege fubjects, to whom thefe prefents fhall come, greeting :"BE it known unto you, that whereas, Cecily, who was the wife of John Rydgeway, was lately in

went

dicted for the murder of the faid John her husband, and brought to her trial for the fame, before our beloved and faithful Henry Grove, and his brother judges, at Notting. ham; but that continuing mute, and refufing to plead to the faid indictment, the was fentenced to be committed to clofe cuftody, without any victuals or drink, for the space of forty days; which fhe miraculoudly, and even contrary to the courfe of human nature, through, as we are well and fully affured of, from perfons of undoubted credit. We do, therefore, for that reafon, and from a principle of piety, to the glory of God, and of the bleffed Virgin Mary his mother, by whom, it is thought, this miracle was wrought, out of our fpecial grace and favour, pardon the faid Cecily from the further execution of the faid fentence upon her; and our will and pleasure is, that the be free from the faid prifon, and no further trouble given her, upon account of the faid fentence.

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OF A SINGULAR FESTIVAL, HELD AT MONTPELLIER.

THE young people of Montpellier celebrate an annual festival, called "The Feast of the Horfe:" the origin is fingular. It has been established ever fince Peter II. king of Arragon, who efpoufed Maria, only daughter of William, count of Montpellier.

This prince fell deeply in love with a young woman of that city, named Catherine Rebuffie; a paffion which caufed him to neglect the queen his wife. His averfion to his wife daily encreafing, there was reason to fear the king would have

na

no heirs,, but for a fratagem made ufe of by the beautiful Catherine. She put the queen in her bed, on a night in which the expected the king. Peter did not distinguish the difference, and was afterwards highly pleased with an innocent device, to which he was indebted for the birth of a fon who fucceeded him, under the name of James II.

Catherine was too much attended to by the people, and too well beloved by the king. He carried his paffion fo far as to enter the city of Montpellier publicly on a white palfrey, carrying his niftrefs behind him. The inhabitants, flattered with the honour bestowed on their fair countrywoiran, requested a gift of the palirey' and having obtained it, impofed on their city the tafk of taking care and providing for it. It lived twenty years, and made its public appearance only on the anni verfary of the day on which the king had made his public entry. It was led round the city, the way frewed with flowers, and attended by the young people finging and dancing. The inhabitants grew infenfibly attached to this kind of feftival. After the death of the horfe, they took care to have its skin ftuffed, and continued the fame ceremony annually...

ton comes into the church-porch at Caifter, having a green filk purfe, containing two fhillings and a filver penny tied at the end of a cart whip, which he cracks three times in the porch, and continues there till the fecond leffon begins, when he goes into the church, and cracks it three times over the clergyman's head, and kneeling before him during the reading of the leffon, he prefents the minifter with the purfe, and then goes into the choir, and continues there during the rest of the fervice.

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OF A SOLDIER, IN THE TIME OF
OLIVER CROMWELL.

COLONEL Titus was author

of a famous pamphlet against Oliver Cromwell, intituled "Killing no Murder," publifhed under the name of William Allen, in which was plainly fhewn, that one who had violated all laws could derive protection from no law. Cromwell got intelligence of this, and determined to destroy him, The royalifts ufed to meet at a certain tavern in London, and Cromwell knew of it. He fent a trufty officer with a party of foldiers to feize Titus and Firebrace of Suffolk. The officer ordered his men to halt at the door till he went

It is from this circumftance the in for information. He privately Feast of the Horfe had its rife. Aafked the matter of the houfe whe young man mounted on an artificial horfe, properly caparifoned, moves on, attended by the found of hautboys and tambourines; one of the attendants with a tambour dances round the horse, and feems to feed the horse with hay. Twenty other dancers attend it, dancing likewife.

SINGULAR CUSTOM.

SOME lands are faid to be held at Broughton, near Brig, by the following tenure:-Every year on Palm Sunday, a perfon from BroughVOL. II.

ther they were there, telling him that he came not to take away, but to fave their lives. The mafter went with him to the room; the officer entered, but took care first to throw his red cloak over his head. His fpeech was very concife. "If Titus or Firebrace are in the room, let them escape for their lives this inftant." He directly retired, and called in his foldiers to take them. The two gentlemen efcaped out of the window, mounted their horfes that night, and made the best of their way to general Monk in Scotland. With 3 K

him

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