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Sir Humphrey Davy in the euticle of various plants, of the family of grasses, in the cane, a kind of palm, and the rough horse-tail Equisetum, hyemale. In the latter it is very copious, and so disposed as to make a natural file, which renders this plant useful in various manufactures, for even brass cannot resist its action. Commou wheat straw when burnt, is found to contain a portion of flinty earth in the form of a most exquisite powder; and this accounts for the utility of burnt straw in giving the last polish to marble. "How great," says Sir James Smith, in his valuable Introduction to Botany, "is the contrast between this production, if it be a secretion of the tender vegetable frame, and those exhalations which constitute the perfume of flowers! One is among the most permanent substances in nature, an ingredient in the primeval mountains of the globe; the other the invisible, untangible breath of a moment.

"How delightful and fragrant is this breath, when in a calm summer morning or evening, the air is perfumed with the sweet scent of the rose and honeysuckle. The aromatic smell which is observable in piue groves at noon during the heat of the summer months, is also peculiarly agreeable, as well as that of new mown hay. Many associations are connected with them, and they bring before the mental eye scenes of pastoral_simplicity, brighter skies, and more luxuriant shades. It would not perhaps be easy to define the sensible delight which perfumes in general administer. They are grateful to the living, and poets have imagined that they are even delightful to the dead. A Persian poet has celebrated in the following pleasing stanza the odoriferous ringlets of his mistress. "Should the gentle breezes that play around my tomb waft rich odours from the hair of my love, the perfume would recal me to life again, and render me vocal in her praise." The burning of perfumes in ancient times was confined in this country to the great, and a lamp with odours suspended in the sleeping room considered as a peculiar mark of royal favour. The following lines from the poems of an ancient minstrel, particularly notice the fondness of our ancestors for perfumes. It is supposed to be addressed by a monarch to his daughter, who was plunged, in consequence of her attachment to a "squire of lowe degree," into the deepest melancholy, and after presenting a picture of the amusements which he designed to procure her, concludes in the following manner.

"When you are laid in bed so soft,
A cage of gold shall hang aloft,
With long pepper fair burning,
And cloves that be sweet smelling,
Frankincense and olibanum,

That when ye sleep the taste may come.
And if ye no rest can take

All night, minstrels for you shall wake."

Many flowers which are scentless in the day, emit a powerful fragrance as soon as the evening draws in; and this peculiar property does not appear at all dependant on the state of the atmosphere. Such is the case with those which Linnæus has elegantly termed flores tristes, melancholy flowers, belonging to various dissimilar tribes agreeing only in the dusky colour of their petals, and the exquisite nature of their scents. Some of the most conspicuous of foreign growth are the Mesembryanthemum noctiflorum, Cheiranthus tristis, Daphne pontica, Crassula odoratissima. The Epidendrum ensifolium, and Chloranthus inconspicuus, are of this description, and emit a delightful fragrance, similar to the lemon. They are noticed as being great favourites of the Chinese, and form conspicuous ornaments in their public festivals.

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PHILIPS, in his Pastorals, makes shepherdesses tear their hair and beat their breasts at their own deaths:

Ye brighter maids, faint emblems of my fair,
With looks cast down, and with dishevell'd hair,
In bitter anguish beat your breasts, and moan
Her death untimely, as it were your own.

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BARNARD CASTLE, DURHAM. MBOSOMED in a delightful country, in the county of Durham, stands Barnard Castle. It was built by the ancestors of the Scottish royal family of Baliol, and afterwards came into the possession of the renowned "king making "earl of Warwick: from him it desceuded by marriage to Richard III. with whom it was a favourite residence. Here, possibly, the wily monarch might have ruminated on the "bloody deeds" that placed the idol sceptre in his hand, and thought, after the completion of his cowardiy murder of the young princes

"The tyrannous and bloody act is done;
The most piteous deed of cruel massacre,
That ever yet this land was guilty of."

His arms, a "boar's head," are displayed on many parts which he added to the original building. One of the towers still bears the name of "Brakenbury's Tower," given, it is thought, in honour of the Lieutenant of the Tower of London, whose services it is more than probable, the tyrant was obliged to court, to aid his dreadful design against his nephews. This fortress occupies an immense site, and stands boldly on a high rocky eminence, overlooking the river Tees, and commanding all the adjacent country. It does not appear that Barnard Castle ever sustained much warfare; the last event of that nature was the taking of the castle, iu 1750, by the adherents of the Earls of Westmoreland and Northumberland, when the old bridge was broken down.

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THOMSON'S RESIDENCE AT RICHMOND. THIS unostentatious building, which will always command the veneration and respect of the admirers of sublime poetry and benevolent feelings, is situate in Kew-foot Lane. It was purchased after the poet's death by George Ross, Esq. who, out of veneration to his memory, forbore to pull it down, but enlarged and improved it at the expense of 90001.! Mrs. Boscawen repaired the poet's favourite seat in the garden, and placed in it the table on which he wrote his verses. Over the entrance is inscribed: "Here Thomson sung the Seasons and their Change.“

The inside is adorned with suitable quotations from authors who have paid due compliments to his talents: and in the centre appears the following inscription: "Within this pleasing retirement, allured by the music of the nightingale, which warbled in soft unison to the melody of his soul, in unaffected cheerfulness, and genial, though simple elegance, lived James Thomson. Sensibly alive to all the beauties of Nature, he painted their images as they rose in review, and poured the whole profusion of them into his inimitable Seasons. Warmed with intense devotion to the Sovereign of the Universe, its flame glowing through all his compositions; animated with unbounded benevolence, with the tenderest social sensibility. he never gave one moment's pain to any of his fellowcreatures, save only by his death, which happened at this place, on the 22nd of August, 1748."-Thomson was buried at the west end of the north aisle of Richmond church. There was nothing to point out the spot of his interment, till a brass tablet, with the following inscription was lately put up by the Earl of Buchan: "In the earth below this tablet are the remains of James Thomson, author of the beautiful poems entitled The Seasons, The Castle of Indolence, &c. who died at Richmond on the 22nd of August, and was buried there on the 29th O. S. 1748. The Earl of Buchan, unwilling that so good a man and sweet a poet should be without a memorial, has denoted the place of his interment for the satisfaction of his admirers, in the year of our Lord 1792." Underneath is this quotation from his "Winter:"

Father of Light and Life, Thou God Supreme!
O, teach me what is good! teach me Thyself!

Save me from folly, vanity, and vice,

From every low pursuit; and feed my soul

With knowledge, conscious peace, and virtue pure;
Sacred, substantial, never fading bliss!

SHERIDAN

POSSESSED all the plausibility and finesse requisite for a modern statesman, or theatrical manager, which talent he often turned to good account. On one occasion when he gave a dinner, at the Piazza Coffee-House, CoventGarden, on quitting the room, he desired that the bill might be sent to him next morning, which injunction was punctually obeyed, by one of the waiters, who, after remaining sometime below, was ordered to walk up. Mr. S. then asked him if he was fond of the play, and if he had not a friend or two he should like to take with him?The fellow answering in the affirmative, with many obsequious bows, Mr. S. instantly presented him with half-adozen orders for Drury Lane, assuring him, at the same time, that he had no money just then, and begged he would look in some other day; which request the waiter, in gratitude, was unable to refuse: he quitted the house, and RICHARD was himself again!

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THE DESERT OF SALT.

BETWEEN Teheran and Ispahan, sir R. K. Porter crossed one of those immense deserts of salt which abound in Persia. That which stretches from the banks of the Heirmund, in Seistan, to the range of hills which divide that province from lower Mekran is 400 miles long, and 200 miles broad; another as large is met with to the north, reaching from Koom and Kashan, to the provinces of Mazanderan and Khorassan. This extensive waste encircles the sea of Zercb, and in its dry parts presents to the eye a crusted coat of brittle earth, or a succession of sand bills which assume the appearance of waves, formed of impalpable red particles, that are driven about by the north-west winds which prevail in summer. The countries situated in the vicinity of these dreadful wilds are subject to extreme heat. The thermometer of Fahrenheit sometimes standing at 150 degrees in a tent! Of Persia generally it may be said that its chief features are numerous chains of mountains and large tracts of desert, amidst which, are interspersed beautiful vallies and rich pasture lands. Except in the province of Mazanderan, where extensive forests are found, the mountains are ge nerally bare, or thinly covered with underwood.

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