the goodness of their hearts) drowned every former ánimosity, an example worthy modern imitation. Wassel was the word; Wassel every guest returned, as he took the circling goblet from his friend, whilst song and civil mirth brought in the infant year." (BRAND'S Observations by ELLIS, vol. i. p. 3. quoted by Dr. DRAKE, vol. i p. 120). Now here is an opportunity for such of our readers as reverence antiquity, enjoy mirth, and love their friends. If they have no quarrels, so much the better; and if they have, they can make them up, and shew themselves worthy of having none. We cannot also but recommend the other social custom of New Year's Gifts, not to patrons or strangers, but among intimate friends. The gift need not have one of the usual requisites of a present-rarity-which, by the way, is often as equivocal a piece of indispensability as not. It may be very cheap, or otherwise, according to the giver's ability, and to that of his friend to return it; but it should be in as good taste, and as suitable as possible. All these things tend to disseminate kindness, to hinder mistakes, and to keep people from degenerating into that kind of reserve and individuality, which brutalize them before they are aware. And, setting all this aside, the occasion is a most pleasant one for its own sake. Of Twelfth Day, the ceremonies of which have lasted longest among us, and are well known, we shall say something next week. Such was the Christmas of our ancestors, till Puritanism spoiled one half of it, and Money-getting the other, According to these infatuated people, nine parts of all this beautiful world, nay, ninety-nine parts, are of no use but to torment our forbearance, or to fill our pockets with bits of metal or paper; and man is a sheep in a slaughter-house, or at best a mill-horse. Hear, however, what an old Christmas and May-day poet says, who felt the departing warmth of the sunny times of England, and deplored their loss. He is warning a country Is this a life? To break thy sleep? It was after this fashion that our ancestors lived. They were industrious as well as we, but they were wiser and more virtuous, and therefore while they got enough for themselves, they enjoyed and shared their pleasures with others. THEY did not confound industry with a half-dreaming plodding, nor call the world a vile world except now and then in a love-song, nor find it such. They really knew and saw the world, external and internal, country and town, the fields and the heart of man. Their ideas were not circumscribed; and this made them geniuses. Their activity was divided between business and sport, and accordingly it was manly and healthy; their wisdom was various, imaginative, sprightly and profound; their virtue was sprightly also, being of the same growth and hue as their wisdom, and it was social, unaffected, elementary, full of the kind impulses of a healthy body and of the chariy of an all-observing mind. We, of the present day, call ourselves an enlightened age; first, because great numbers of us are alive to the absurdities of superstition ; and, secondly, because having dege nerated from our ancestors into a very bad and sophisticated way of living, we find out certain luxuries connected with it, which they did not possess. But there is reason to believe that the most liberal of our opinions on the former matters do not exceed those of SHAKSPEARE's time, certainly not his own opinions, and those of numbers of great men then living. With the worst and most melancholy diseases of superstition, the more unenlightened part of the community were not even affected to any thing like the extent of the present, indulging themselves in the young, healthier, and more poetical dreams of fairy-land, than in any other very visible species of credulity. And as to luxuries, they had poetry, dance, and song,—the fields, the rural sports, holidays, masks, and merrymakings in plenty; and no more wanted OUR luxuries, then they thought of wishing for our unhappy extremes of dull riches and shocking poverty,-for our methodism or our gin-drinkings, for our crowded smoke, our care-worn faces, our palsied and green-eyed manufacturers, our jobbing and contracting absurdities, and all they have brought upon us. We no more exceed that great age in real luxury, than we do in wit. Nor do we say so, because the age is a past one; for we hold the present to be superior to some past ages (the latter, among others); and what is more, we think it able to catch a turn in the tide now, if it pleases, and be a great deal superior to what it is. We are speaking of those particular times, of MERRY Old England; and we say, that she would no more want our luxuries, than the trees in the forest want flannel-waistcoats, or the birds want cages and indigestion. To read of the two ages, is just indeed as if all the singing birds in the world had been caught and caged up ;-the one is so hale, so full of song, and so merry, the other so dull and so drooping. But let us now lament; let us reform. The reformation is of a very Pleasant nature; and to say the truth, for our own parts, we have fallen ORIGIN OF WAITS. The following account of the origin of WAITS, may be amusing at this period of the year : Waits originally arose from musicians attending on great personages, mayors, and bodies corporate, generally furnished with superb dresses, or splendid cloaks. In "Rymer's Fœdera," there is an account of the establishment of the Minstrels and Waits in the service of the Court, during the reign of Ed. ward IV. The account of the allowances to the Waits, at this early pe riod, is as follows: "A Wayte nightelye, from Mychelmas to Shreve Thorsday, pipethe watche withen this courte, fower tymes; in the somere nyghtes iij tymes; and makethe bon gayte at every cham bere doare and offyce, as well for feare of ipyckeres and pillers. He eateth in the halle with mynstrielles, and takethe lyverey at nyghte, a loffe, a galone of alle; and for some nyghtes ij candles pich, a bushel of coles; and for wintere nyghtes half a loafe of bread, a galone of alle, iiij candles pich, a bushel of coles; daylye whilste he is presente in Court, for his wages in cheque roale he is allowed iiijd. or else iijd. by the discretion of the stewarde and tressorere, and, after his cominge and diserninge; also cloathinge with the housholde yeomen or mynstrielles, like to the wages than he takethe; and if he be syke, he taketh twoe loves, ij messes of great meate, and one gallone of alle. Also, he partethe with the householde general gyfts, and hath his beddinge carried by the comptroller's asoygonent; and under this yeoman to be a groome watere, Yf he can excuse the yeo man, in his absence, then he takethe for rewarde, clotheinge, meat, and all other things lyke to other grooms of houshold. Also this Yeoman Waighte, at the maknige of Knightes of the Bathe, for his attendance upon them by nyghte tyme, in watchinge in the chapelle, hathe to his fee all the watchinge, clothinge, that the Knight shall wear upon him." Your constant Reader, P. T. W. SONNETTEERS. Sir,-On reading the Sonnet of CURIOSUS, at p. 6, vol. 2, 1 was forcibly struck with his witty and beautiful description of the Sonnetteer's perplexities; it is such as every amateur of poetry must feel to be correct: but few, perhaps, could express themselves so well on the subject as CuRIOSUS has done. It also brought to my recollection a sonnet of my own; in composing which, I met with some of the difficulties which your correspondent describes for the subject, perhaps, is "too grand for human ken." However, I submit it to your judgment, and if you think it worthy of a place in the NiC-NAC, its insertion will please me-if not, I shall sleep never the worse. OMNIPOTENCE. Omnipotence conceiv'd the mighty plan, Admiring angels hail'd its natal morn, man: For, blest it was, ere sin and shame began! But, what's a world to Him, who moves unseen, And guides the planets with a golden rein: The solar system, which the eye beholds, Enteresting Varieties. CHRISTMAS DAY. Why, zounds! here's Christmas come again, Let's have a merry day, With rare good cheer, we'll drown all pain, And laugh the night away. Where's Roger, Thomas, Dick, and And many others too, Why, Roger's gone beyond the sea, And Margaret's mother's like to die, And Sal does little else but sigh Since Roger's been away, Nay, then, from Christmas let me shrink, PUNCH. Come, hand me down the brandy, the And fling some lumps of sugar white in- With acid and with sweetness now, we fill each tumbler fair, Then stir it round, and in the tide pour It sparkles up to meet each lip that doth To Britain, and her patriots firm, who With sighs to bless their memories, we now the goblet raise; And, should their shadows walk the earth, they'll take it not amiss ALPHUS. To be toasted by us Bacchanals in punch so fine as this. Her poets and her warriors brave, come fill up full to them, And he who shrinks from brandy-punch, to water we'll condemn: For SPIRIT suits the spirited, and bards, A brimming bumper still remains, let's quaff it off to-night, And each man drain his goblet deep, till morning meets his sight::'Tis to some forms of wond'rous pow'r, and not for worlds we'd miss To drink the charms by which they reign, in punch so fine as this. 'Tis WOMAN! draw the corks, my boys, and hand about the store Of sweets and sours, and thus compose ONE bowl of nectar more, To drink dear woman's eye of light, and honied lip of bliss, In goblets deep, and running o'er with punch so fine as this.* CORK, 1823. The wit's Nunehiou. R. R. DR. MONSEY.-An intimacy between Dr. Monsey and Garrick was at one time much cultivated by both parties, and continued with apparent sincerity, and without abatement for a considerable period. It had its commencement from a whimsical incident, On a crowded night at the theatre, Dr. Monsey was in the pit, and being much incommoded by the pressure of some persons upon him, he exclaimed with great vehemence, "Were I not the greatest coward in his Majesty's dominions, no one would dare to treat me in this manner." The acquaintance, once commenced, soon led to familiarity, which in the end broke down the barriers of good-breeding, and introduced liberties which both parties were offended at. To create a laugh at the Doctor's credulity, Garrick told him, that on a night in which he performed, wishing to see a * Such of our readers as may feel inclined to obey the precepts inculcated in this song, and enjoy PUNCH in perfection, are recommended to turn to page 58 of our first volume, where they will find an invaluable receipt for composing it. particular scene at Covent Garden, he left a performer called Mar to take his place on the stage, and returned before it was necessary for his repretime enough to resume his character sentative to utter a syllable. He also contrived to send the Doctor to inquire after a machine for shaving two persons at once; which he assured him was to be seen at a house which he named, the owner of which was prepared to give his visitor an unpleasant reception. As a retaliation, the Doctor ridiculed Garrick's foibles with no sparing hand. On a report that he meant to quit the stage, Monsey said, "He will never do it as long as he knows a guinea is cross on one side and pile on the other." This sarcasm was reported to Garrick; he resented it; and the cordiality which had subsisted between them was entirely destroyed. An anonymous letter was said to have been sent by the manager, which contained the frequently quoted extract from Horace : Absentem qui rodit amicum, &c. &c. 66 THE PRAYING MANTIS. THE Mantis, a genus of insects, of which sixty-four species have been noticed by naturalists, scattered over various parts of the globe, but principally found in South America, Asia, and some parts of Africa, is considered one of the most singular of the whole class of insects, and the imagination can hardly conceive shapes more strange than those exhibited by some particular kinds. Their general appearance is not very dissimilar to that of a cricket, but the shape and colour of the different species are of course modified by a variety of circumstances. Two or three of them are worshipped by the Hottentots, as the ibis and ichneumon were of old by the Egyptians. Some of these insects are known in India by the name of walking leaves, from their exact resemblance in shape and colour to a dried leaf. Another species, one of which our cut represents, is called the Praying Mantis. It is of a beautiful green colour, nearly three inches in length, and in its sitting posture is observed to hold up the two fore-legs slightly bent, as if in the attitude of prayer; hence the common-people have conferred upon it the reputation of a sacred creature, and a popular notion prevails, that a child or traveller having lost his way, may regain it by following the direc tion to which the insect points when taken into the hand. It is, however, in reality of a very voracious nature, devouring all smaller insects that fall in its way, for which it lies in wait with patient assiduity. It is also very quarrelsome, and when kept with others of its species in a state of captivity, will attack its neighbour with the utmost violence, till one or the other is destroyed. Among the Chinese this pugnacious propensity is made the source of an entertainment similar to that produced in Europe by the fighting of cocks and quails. Barrow, in his Travels in China, says, "The Chinese have discovered a species of insect which will attack each other with such ferocity, as seldom to quit their hold without bringing away |