at Imbert, about a quarter of a league from the town. These are the first fruits of the vintage. 21. 1765.-H. R. H. the Duke of Clarence, LORD HIGH ADMIRAL OF ENGLAND, BORN. Some curious information on the early state of the English Navy, is given in Mr. Ellis's Second Series of his 'Original Letters,' and forms a curious contrast with the present state of Naval affairs, under the auspices of His Royal Highness, whose devotion to the high duties to which he has been called, must elicit the liveliest gratitude from every admirer of Britain's best bulwarks, 'her wooden walls.' The kings of England, in the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries, had occasionally large fleets under their command, but they consisted of merchant ships only, gathered from the different ports of England, or hired from foreign countries; those of England on such emergencies being pressed with their crews into the king's service. In 1304, the largest ship of war in England, according to Dr. Henry, had a crew of only forty men; and in the fleet of Edward the Third at the siege of Calais, in 1346, the complement of each ship, upon an average, must have been under twenty men. Henry the Fifth, as will presently be seen, was the first of our kings who established a permanent navy. A Letter from John Alcetre to K. Henry V, which is given in Mr. Ellis's Letters, (vol. i, p. 69'), details, minutely, the progress of certain workmen at Bayonne in constructing a vessel of considerable size, which the King had ordered to be built. Bayonne was then the last town in the Duchy of Aquitaine. The Mayor and Corporation had contracted with the King for the completion of this vessel within a certain time; but the writer of the Letter thinks it could not be ready, and that it would take even four or five years to finish. The ship, as the timbers had been laid down, was a hundred and eighty-six feet in length. From a passage in a rhyming pamphlet written in 1433, printed by Hakluyt, intitled "The Libel of English Policie,' it appears that Henry the Fifth built other large ships: And if I should conclude all by the King Which passed other great Ships of all the Commons; See also pp. 213-224 of the same volume, for further information on the subject. The Trinitie, the Grace de Dieu, the Holy Ghost, The ships of the King and those of the Commons are here distinguished; the ROYAL NAVY, from the vessels which were supplied by the sea-ports, or hired abroad. The entire list of Henry's own ships, in the fourth year of his reign, is preserved among the proceedings of his Council. They consisted of three vessels of the greater size, three carracks, eight barges, and ten balingers or smaller barges. In a document of the antecedent year, among some of the proceedings of Council, we have the pay of the Officers and Sailors of the King's great ships, employed in keeping the narrow seas. The admiral received for a quarter of a year and thirty-nine days' service, wages for fifty men at arms at xijd. per day each; and for a hundred and fifty bowmen, at vjd. a day each; making a total of 8127. 10s. For the wages, during the same time, of four masters of respective ships, and two hundred and fifty mariners, the former at vjd. a day, and the mariners at iijd, he received 8197. 5s. 24.-SAINT BARTHOLOMEW. This apostle translated St. Matthew's Gospel into the Indian language, and propagated it in that part of the world. He is generally supposed to have been beheaded. See our last volume, p. 274.-The inhuman massacre at Paris and throughout France took place on this day. See T. T. for 1826, p. 200.Some time after this frightful event, the deputies of the reformed were treating with the King, the Queenmother, and some of the Council, for a peace. The articles were mutually agreed on; the question was upon the security for performance. After some particulars propounded and rejected, the Queen-mother said, 'Is not the word of a king sufficient security?' One of the deputies answered, 'No, by St. Bartholomew, madam'.- Walpoliana. Lord Clarendon calls fifteen hundred and seventytwo 'that infamous year,' from the barbarous and inhuman Massacre of Paris which took place in it, more usually, from the day on which the transaction occurred, called the Massacre of St. Bartholomew. An event, he observes, attended and accompanied with as foul dissimulation and as horrid perjury as ever added deformity to wickedness. The reader who would learn the minute particulars of this detested tragedy, may consult Davila's History of the Civil Wars of France; the Memoirs of Margaret Queen of Navarre; the Memoirs of Sully; the Life of Theodore Agrippa d'Aubignè; Thuanus; Mezeray's History of France; Wraxhall's History of the House of Valois; and Lingard's Narrative, in a note at the end of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The Massacre of Paris was subsequently repeated in other towns. Lingard has assembled the dates; at Paris, August the 24th; Meaux the 25th; La Charité, 26th; Orleans, 27th; Saumur and Angers, 29th; Lyons, 30th; Troyes, September the 2d; Bourges, the 11th; Rouen, 17th; Romans, 20th; Toulouse, the 23d; Bourdeaux, October the 3. The numbers of those who perished (and neither age nor sex were spared) are variously reckoned by different writers, from ten to a hundred thousand; but should we take the half of the lowest number, the deed loses nothing of its atrocity. Pope Gregory the Thirteenth had no sooner notice of this deed, than he went in solemn procession to the Church of St. Louis in Rome, to return God thanks for it as for a happy victory, and sent a nuncio to France to congratulate the king. Lord Clarendon thought that Gregory alone paid his devotions for it; but in France its anniversary was long celebrated. William Cecil, writing to his grandfather Lord Burghley, from Paris, 25th Aug. 1583, says, 'Upon St. Bartelmewes day, we had here solemn processions, and other tokens of triumphs and joy, in remembrance of the slaughter committed this time eleven years past. But I doubt they will not so triumph at the day of judgment.' See Ellis's Original Letters, Second Series, vol. iii, p. 23, for a curious letter of Bishop Sandys to Lord Burghley on this subject, in which he recommends to cutte off the Scottish Quenes Heade,' as the first of a series of propositions for the prevention of a massacre in England. 28.-SAINT AUGUSTINE. Saint Augustine was the most voluminous writer of all the Fathers. He was born in the year 354; in 391 was chosen Bishop of Hippo; and died in 430, at the age of 76. For accounts of the life of Augustine, and of his numerous writings, consult Cave, Dupin, and Milner. 29. JOHN BAPTIST BEHEADED. This day was formerly denominated Festum Collectionis Sancti Johannis Baptista; or the feast of gathering up St. John the Baptist's relics. His nativity is celebrated on the 24th of June, which see. Consult also T. T. for 1823, p. 234. *AUGUST 1827.-A LIVING GIRAFFE ARRIVED IN LONDON. It was a present to his Majesty from the Pasha of Egypt, who also sent one to the King of France. This singularly beautiful creature remained only a short time in London, being removed to Windsor, where it is now kept at Sandford Gate, with the other curious animals belonging to the King.—An interesting account of the Giraffe, with a correct portrait, may be seen in the Literary Gazette for 1827, p. 553; we have only room for a poetical illustration from the pen of Mr. PRINGLE: The LION and the CAMELOPARD. Heedless-at the ambushed brink To shake the tyrant to the ground; His flanks are streaked with sanguine stains- Lord Cromwell. Some very curious particulars of Lord Cromwell, as well as a masterly estimate of his true character, which throws considerable light on the cause of Wolsey's disgrace and fall, will be found in Mr. ELLIS'S ORIGINAL LETTERS, Second Series, volume ii, pp. 116-130; 160-173, whence the following fine prayer of Lord Cromwell, before his execution, has been extracted: 'O Lord Jesus, which art the only health of all men living, and the everlasting life of them which die in thee, I, wretched sinner, do submit myself wholly unto thy blessed will; and being sure that the thing |