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GRAVESEND AND TILBURY FORT.

THE town of Gravesend stands on the Kentish bank of the river Thames, about twenty-two miles distant from London, and exactly opposite to Tilbury Fort in Essex, as represented in the above cut. It is large and populous, but the houses are mean, and the streets narrow. The number of inhabitants was stated in the Return of 1801 to be 2483, in 1811 it had increased to 3119, and in 1821, when the last census was made, to near 4000.

The port of London ending just below this town, there is an office of customs established here, and all outward-bound ships are obliged to anchor in the road, till they have been risited by the inspectors. Most of these ships also complete their cargoes at this place, so that it is generally full of seamen; but this, though beneficial to the tradesmen, is the re

verse to casual visitors, since the incessant demand for provisions occasions the inns and other places of accommodation to be amongst the dearest in England.

Most of the Dutch turbot vessels also lie near the town, whence they supply the London market with their fish; and the greater part of the asparagus consumed in the metropolis is brought from extensive gardens surrounding the place. All these circumstances, added to that of there being a ferry across the river into Essex, bring great profit to the town, and cause a continual bustle.

This place has suffered severely from fires. On the 24th August, 1727, a terrible one happened, which destroyed the church, together with 110 houses; in May, 1731. another happened, of a serious nature, though

not quite so destructive; and on the 9th Nov. 1748, another, which for a long time threatened destruction to the whole town.

These, however, were mere trifles, compared with what Gravesend endured in the year 1380, when a party of French sailed up the Thames in galleys, burned nearly the whole of the town, and carried away great part of the inhabitants as prisoners. To enable the place to recover from this disaster, a charter was granted it by Richard I., conferring upon the towns-people the exclusive right of conveying passengers to and from London in packet-boats, a privilege which they enjoy to this day. The /vessels leave Gravesend every flood tide, and Billingsgate at the ebb, the moment of high-water being announced by the ringing of a bell, when they are compelled to proceed on their way. In 1779, when Hasted published bis History of Kent, the fare to Gravesend was 9d.; it is now Is. 6d., and a cheaper or more pleasant mode of viewing the river-scenery and the forests of shiping which it exhibits, cannot be selected, than by proceeding to Gravesend in one of these boats. The distance by water is 30 miles. Perhaps, also, a more delightful prospect, of a richly-cultivated country, does not exist, than that which may be viewed from the hill in the rear of the town (as shewn in our cut), the favourite resort of all visiters to Gravesend.

The Fort of Tilbury, over against Gravesend, owes its celebrity principally to being the spot selected by Elizabeth for haranguing her troops, when England was threatened with invasion by the Spanish Armada, but the circumstances connected with that event are so universally known, that 'tis quite needless to recapitulate

them here.

SMALL TALK.

However simple the art of general small-talking may seem, and however plain and intelligible the topics may be upon which it is employed; yet, in

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fact, it is more difficult than the special kind. The materials out of which it is formed are few in number, and easily accessible. The following is a pretty complete assortment. weather-the health of your friends— the funds-any accidents which have happened to any of your acquaintances, such as deaths or marriages --the King-Hariette Wilsonthe dearness of meat--any watering-place-the Corn Bill-the Author of Waverley-and the Theatre. These are the coin that will pass current in any society. Thus, in a morning call, if two strangers happen to be left together, how agreeably they may pass the time in enlarging upon the above topics. "A very hot day, Sir!" "Yes, indeed, Sir; my thermometer stood 80 in the shade. Pray, Sir, are you related to the Rev. Jeremiah Jollison? I hope he is well.""I am his brother, Sir: he died two years ago."-" God bless me ! but it's more than two years since I saw him. Pray, Sir, what do you think of Spanish bonds?" &c.

Such is the conversation you generally hear after dinner (before dinner there is none), in stage coaches, at hotels, and at watering places. It is most suitable for adults. The grand difficulty in this kind of small talk is to discover any subject; for as 1 imagine it to be a metaphpsical truth, that the mind cannot, ex mero motu suo, call up any subject it pleases, the dialogue must necessarily depend on the power of association by the brain of the individuals who maintain it, and it requires great presence of mind to call up a sufficient number of topics to meet a sudden emergency. Thus, when you meet a friend in the street, who, in spite of your attempts to pass him with a nod, WILL stop and speak to you, how awkward it is to have nothing to say! This happens to me continually. When you have shaken hands, and the one has said, " a fine day," and the other, yes, very," you stand for a few moments gazing with a vacant sort of look upon one another, shake hands again, and part. The

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same accident sometimes happens in morning calls. After having exhausted all the common-places of civility, you feel yourself suddenly run on shore. It is in vain you attempt to think of some subject of discourse; the longer you search, the further you are from it; except the conviction that you can find nothing to talk about, your mind is a TABULA RASA. Your guest at last rises and puts you out of your agony.

There are some people, however, who have a genius for small talk. Their stock seems boundless. It is no matter where, or with whom, or upon what, they are talking; still it flows on and on " in o one weak, washy, everlasting flood" It is a great infliction to be the only person in company with these inveterate small talkers. Their discourse make one's head ache. It is like the perpetual dropping of water upon the crown of one's pericranium. To me, however, such people, if their conversation is not addressed to me, are a great relief. They save me the trouble of attempt ing to talk, and the mortification of a failure.

Every one must occasionally experience the up-hill; heart-breaking labour of talking to an impenetrable person. "Well, what sort of a day had you!" said I to a lively friend of mine. "Oh! my dear Peter," said he, "I had the ill luck to be seated at dinner next to the DREAREST young lady you ever did NOT talk with. She seeined to be afraid lest, if she opened her mouth, jewels and roses would fall from it, and she should lose them. 'I did do all that might become a man.' I tried her with Lord Byron -I tried ber with Moore-I tried her with the Theatre-I tried her with Walter Scott-1 tried her with the Park-I tried her with Albertwith Noblet-with Mrs. Hannah Moore with the treadwheel-the frost-quadrilles-lancers-Sir Charles Grandison, and Spanish boleros."Ah! but, my dear friend," said I, "did you try her with dress? Did you tell her of the Valenciendes

lace which you brought over the other day in the collar of your coat? I see where your mistake lay. Instead of talking to her of books, you should have talked of book muslin. You should have discoursed of milliners instead of authors, of flounces instead of poems.' You occasionally meet with the same sort of people in stage coaches. Beautiful country this we are travelling through, Sir ?" Yes, Sir," Fine cattle this stage, Sir" "Yes, Sir." Did you get any sleep in the night, Sir?" "No, Sir." "Did you see the Paper before we set off, Sir?" "No, Sir!"and so the conversation terminates.

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ENGLISH DRAMATISTS.

(Resumed from p. 51.)

The tragedy of "Ferrex and Porrex," acted before Queen Elizabeth in 1561, a spurious copy of which was printed under the title of "Gorbodue, is generally considered as the first tragedy which appeared in the English Language. It was the joint production of Thomas Norton and Thomas Sackville, afterwards Lord Buckhurst; the first three acts being ascribed to the former. and the remainder to the latter. This play has been much lauded, and we think far, very far, beyond its intrinsic merit; but it nevertheless possesses the extrinsic value of being the first piece which in plot, incident, and character, is entitled to the name of an English tragedy. Sir Philip Sidney says, it is "full of stately speeches and well-sounding phrases, climbing to the height of Seneca his style, and as full of notable. morality, which it doth most delightfully teach.” Rymer thinks it might have been a better direction to Shakspeare and Jonson, than any guide they had the luck to follow; and Pope praises it for the propriety of the sentiments and perspicuity of the style. It is written in blank verse, and divided into five acts, each of which is proceeded by a dumb-show, typical of the ensuing act, and, ex

cept the last, concluded with a cho

rus.

About the same period, Mr. Richard Edwards produced his comedy of" Damon and Pithias*. It is not divided into acts, and is written in rhymed couplets of different lengths, some of the lines extending to twentyone syllables. The author also wrote a comedy in two parts, called "Palemon and Arcite," which was acted in Christ-church Hall, Oxon, in 1536, before Queen Elizabeth, who sent for the author and promised to reward him for his painst. Wood in forms us that this play was rehearsed before the Queen's arrival, in the presence of certain courtiers, who thought it much superior to DAMON AND PITHIAS, and some of them went so far as to say, that if the author wrote any more plays, he would certainly run inad. We learn, from the same authority, that the cry of the hounds was so admirably performed, as to deceive the young schollars in the remoter parts of the stage, who imagined there was a real chase, to the great admiration of the Queen. Puttenham describes him as eminent for comedy and interlude, and it appears, from the prologue to " 'Damon and Pithias," that he had written things of a less grave description; some of his poems, probably those alluded to, were published after his death in the "Paradise of Dainty Devises."

In the British Museum is "A new tragicall comedie of Apius and Virginia, wherein is lively expressed a rare example of the virtue of chastitie by Virginia's constancy, wishing rather to be slaine at her owne father's hands, then to be deflowred of the wicket Judge Apius. By R. B. Imprinted at London by William How, for Richard Jhones, 1575." (Black letter.)

The Promos and Casandra" of George Whetstone, printed in 1578, contains a rough sketch of the plot of Shakspeare's "Measure for Mea

• Acted before 1566. Edwards died the same year.

sure," borrowed from an Italian novel. It deserves mention on no other account.

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Robert Greene, the next dramatic author we shall notice, was probably born about 1560; he was educated at Cambridge, and travelled early," says Oldys, "with some wild company to Italy and Spain"-he took his degree of Master of Arts in 1583, and was the following year, presented to a vicarage in Essex, which he shortly afterwards resigned. It is conjectured, that about this time he married.

His wife, an amiable woman by whom he had an only son, he deserted for the embraces of a prostitute, and lived for several years in London a debauched and irregular life. By his licentious and expensive habits, his property was dissipated, and he was reduced to the necessity of writing for a subsistence. He is said to have been the first author who wrote for bread. It is but jus, tice to mention, that Wood says "he wrote to maintain his wife," adding, however, and that high and loose course of living which poets generally follow." A full measure of obloquy has been heaped upon the head of Greene, partly derived from his own works, and much from the representations of his inveterate enemy, Gabriel Harvey, whom, in his character of an almanack-maker. he had ridiculed. Wood descrives Harvey to have brutally trampled over the dead body of this unfortunate Poet, in the grave. His works are very voluminous, and several of a penitential and warning character; for, having learned from his former associates the various arts of cosenage, then termed cony-catching, he was enabled to expose them with effect in his works.

He is said to have died of a surfeit in 1592, a death conformable with the riotous indulgence of his life. Harvey, whose enmity ceased not with the death of our author, wrote the following Epitaph on him.

"Ille ego, cui risus, rumores, festa, puella, Vana libellorum scriptio, vita fuit;

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Although our author wrote seve ral plays, (among them was one entitiled "The Honourable History of Frier Bacon and Frier Bongay.") we are not aware that an account has been given of any of them, whilst his prose works have been sought for with great care.

The play of" A Looking Glasse for London" was written by Thomas Lodge, in conjunction with Greene. The subject is the abominations of Nineveh, which by means of a monoJogue, spoken by the prophet "Oseas," in the nature of a chorus, is made applecable to London. On this foundation, the writers have framed a sort of drama, which they have peopled with divers insane persons. Indeed, we never met with any thing more outrageously extravagant than the greater part of it. The style, which is abundantly metaphorical, is in the most vile and perverted taste. The comic paris are infinitely the best, and are by no means contemptible.

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VIANDANTE. SELVAGGIO.

"Viand. But to return to the point, the excessive price of meat; I pray let us now leave foreign countries, to look a little into our own; and tell me what you think to be the cause, that the prices of things do so far exceed the proportion of ancient times. For have seen in an old evidence, that a good cow was in those days sold for ten or twelve shillings; and at this day.* I dare say such an one will cost thirty or forty shillings, and so likewise of other things.

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"Selv. How sore soever victuallers, inn-keepers, taverners, and such like, gripe their guests and travellers; yet it is worth the examining. whether the prices of things be in any notable excess greater than in ancient times they have been. For if we consider the value of the shilling then, with the value of the shilling now, we shall find that their shilling was in value three of our's. For then, out of an ounce of silver, they coined but five groats, and after (because money was scarce in the land), the king caused ten groats to be made of an ounce.. So that by this means there grew to be twice as much money in the land as was afore, and vet never the more of silver. After, in the 36th of Henry VIII., it was enhanced to four shillings the ounce ; and now lastly unto fire. So that now our five shillings neither weigheth nor is more worth in silver, than their five groats of ancient time. And then it followeth, by necessary consequence, that the cow which you speak of, to be sold for ten shillings, may now be well worth thirty shillings, and yet no difference at all in their prices. For, admit that the custom used in the time of the Conqueror, and since also (as appeareth by Doomsday-book, &c.), had continued until this day, to receive and pay all summs of mony according un

This Dialogue was written in the 36 of Elizabeth.

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