a cutting, in 1758, and as the species will not easily bear the open air, it was planted in the hothouse; though, without any preparation of soil, which in those grounds is a stiff loam, or rather clay. The hothouse is seventy feet in the front; and the vine, which is not pruned in the common way, extends two hundred feet, part of it running along the south wall on the outside of the hothouse. It annually produced about four hundred weight of grapes; which used formerly (when the hothouse was kept warm) to ripen in March; though usually they did not ripen till June, when they sold at 4s. a pound, aud produced about 801. This account I had from Mr. Eden himself, the gardener, who planted the vine. With regard to the profits of it, I think it probable, from the accounts I have had from other hands, that when the grapes ripened earlier, they produced much more than 801. Sir Charles Raymond, after supplying his own table, made 1201. a year of the grapes; and the fruit-dealers say that in some years, they suppose the profits have not amounted to less than 300l. This does not contradict Mr. Eden's account, who said, that the utmost he ever made of it, that is, I suppose when the grapes sold for 4s. per pound in June, was 841. The stem of this vine was, in 1789, thirteen inches in circumference."

In one of his Majesty's hothouses at Hampton Court there is a vine measuring seventeen inches in circumference and which has been known in one year, to have hanging on its branches two thousand two hundred and thirty-two bunches of grapes, each bunch averaging one pound! The soil of Dorking and its neighbourhood is highly congenial to the growth of grape vines. Hence almost every house in this district has its vine; and some of them are very productive. The cottages of the labouring poor are not without this ornament, and the produce is usually sold by them to their wealthier neighbours, for the manufacture of wine. The price per bushel is from 4s. to 16s.; but the variableness of the season frequently disappoints them in the corps, the produce of which is usually laid up as a set-off to the payment of rent.

HE who hath bent him o'er the dead,
Ere the first day of Death is fled;
The first dark day of nothingness,

The last of danger and distress;

(Before Decay's effacing fingers

Have swept the lines where beauty lingers)
And mark'd the mild angelic air-
The rapture of repose that's there-
The fixed yet tender traits that streak
The langour of the placid cheek,

And-but for that sad shrouded eye,
That fires not-wins not-weeps not-now-
And but for that chill changeless brow,
Whose touch thrills with mortality,
And curdles to the gazer's heart,
As if to him it could impart

The doom he dreads, yet dwells upon--
Yes-but for these, and these alone,
Some moments-aye, one treacherous hour,
He still might doubt the tyrant's power,
So fair-so calm-so softly seal'd
The first last look-by death reveal'd!
Such is the aspect of this shore-
'Tis Greece-but living Greece no more!
So coldly sweet, so deadly fair,
We start-for soul is wanting there.
Hers is the loveliness in death,

That parts not quite with parting breath;
But beauty with that fearful bloom,
That hue which haunts it to the tomb-
Expression's last receding ray,

A gilded halo hov'ring round decay,
The farewell beam of feeling past away!
Spark of that flame-perchance of heavenly birth-
Which gleams-but warms no more its cherish'd earth!

SCEPTICISM.

WHEN men meddle with the literal text of the Bible, the question is, where they should stop: in this case a man must venture his discretion, and do his best to satisfy himself and others in those places where he doubts; for, although we call the Scripture the Word of God, (as it is) yet it was written by a man, a mercenary man, whose copy, either might be false, or he might make it false; for example, there were a thousand Bibles printed in England with the text thus: (Thou shalt commit Adultery) the word not being left out: might not this text be mended?

Again, the Scripture may have more senses besides the iteral; because God understands all things at once; but a man's writing has but one true sense, which is that which the author meant when he wrote it.

THE PASSIONS.

UNIVERSALITY of assent seems to be founded upon the immutable habitudes of certain bodies when in certain states, and the more or less general concurrence in certain truths to depend upon the more or less immediate decisions of experiment. That fire will burn, no one can deny; but when consequences are remote, we often question their being the result of certain applications, and therefore how far our several appetites and fancies may safely be indulged, is likely to be ever and variously disputed, and the more so, since each peculiar mental and physical constitution, requires some peculiar restraints and gratifications, not only at the different periods, but even under the different circumstances of life; whence we may infer, that we ought not in general, to take the opinions of others upon trust, but to reason and judge for ourselves. LOCKE.

"Each change of many-colour'd life he drew,
Exhausted worlds, and then imagined new ;
Existence saw him spurn her bounded reign,
And panting time toil'd after him in vain.

SHAKSPEARE'S COMEDIES, HISTORIES, TRAGEDIES, &c. Imprinted by Is. Jaggard and E. Blount.

1623.

First Edition. Folio.

Stanley, 1813, (title reprint)

Sir P. Thompson, 1815.

Saunder's safe-room, Feb. 1818, a fine ori

ginal copy of the first edition, in a ge-
nuine state

..

'The condition of so rare a book as the first editton of Shakspeare, is a matter of no little importance to the lover of fine-conditioned and really important books; the apparent difference in the prices for which the various copies before enumerated have sold, may therefore readily be accounted for. The second edition. Folio. 1632.

Third edition. Folio. 1664.

Fourth edition. Folio. 1685.

The third edition is the most valuable of these editions, and a good copy nearly as valuable as the first edition.

Of the second edition, in folio, 1632, it is recorded in Bos. well's Life of Johnson, that it is adultered in every page.

Some curious particulars respecting the various sums paid to the different editors of Shakspeare, may be found in the Gentleman's Magazine.

The most considerable appear to be

Alexander Pope

Theobald

£217 12

0

Of Johnson and Steeven's fourth edit. 15 vols. 8vo. 1793, large paper, on which paper only twenty-five were printed, one sold at Reed's for 291.; and a copy at Mr. Strettel's, in 1820, for 107. 5s. Ritson, 1803, 147. 10s. Bindley, 211. The portrait of Shakspeare, by M. Droeshout, frontispiece to the title to the first folio edition of Shakspeare, served for all the four folio editions; good or first impressions of this portrait, are valued, by judges, at about 51.5s., whilst inferior ones are scarcely worth one guinea, as the lines have been crossed over the face, in order to give strength to the impression; and Mr. Caulfield, a competent authority in these matters, says the only way to discover the genuine state is, by observing the shading in the face to be expressed by single lines without any crossing whatever.

'It was said of Euripides that every verse was a precept; and it may be said of Shakspeare, that from his works may be collected a system of civil and economical prudence. Yet his real power is not shown in the splendour of particular passages, but by the progress of the fable, and the tenour of his dialogue; and he that tries to recommend him by select quotations, will succeed like the Pedant in Hierocles, who, when he offered his house to sale, carried a brick in his pocket as a specimen.""

I

¡N a recent number of our Miscellany we inserted a pen and ink sketch of Box Hill, in Surrey, by the author of the Picturesque Promenade round Dorking, in which the lovers of topographical literature will not fail to recognize the circumstantial and accurate descriptive ingenuity which so happily characterizes the elegant little volume above mentioned. The popularity which Dorking, in Surrey, has attained during the last few years, has rendered every object in that district interesting to all readers. The sublime majesty of Box Hill, and the towering celebrity of Leith Hill, are subjects for the admiration and attention of every lover of nature,and with this impression we have selected the paradise of Tillingbourne, as being in the immediate vicinity of Leith Hill. But we prefer the description by Mr. Timbs:

A narrow and winding road leads to another pleasant dell, in which is placed Tillingbourne, the property of Charles Barclay, Esq. This estate was, for some time, the property of Daniel Franco Haynes, Esq. who, in 1821, disposed of it to Mr. Barclay. The residence, a neat structure, is charmingly situated at an agreeable distance from the public thoroughfare; and the hills in the background, by filling up the scene, give a peculiarly fine