London was two or three hundred years ago Yet surely this account, supposing it to be as the author whom we have quoted has stated, must be received with great caution, as it is in numerous instances exceedingly exaggerated. The river Anyder may very well represent the Thames, and the other the River of Wells; but certainly the streets of London were not, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, either "very commodious or very handsome:" the line from Charing-cross to Aldgate was in most parts of a sufficient width; and we find by the 24 Hen. VIII, c. 14, that the pavement which had ruu through the city to Strand Cross was extended to that of Charing; but this line of street was, even then, intersected and broken by narrow lanes ‡, not only within the walls, but in the suburb toward the river; nor does any information that we have been able to collect justify the Utopian description of the houses. Glass windows, it appears, were not, even at the dawn of the sixteenth century, very general; they The spot where the tall maypole once o'erlook'd the Strand," and whereon the New Church is now erected. The improvement of paving was also extended to the more northern road, by the 25 Hen. VIII, c. 8, which enacts, that the high street in Holborn, betwixt Holborn Bridge and the Bars, shall he paved on both sides with paving stones." Such as Milford-lane, Strand-lane, IIartshorn-lane, &c. &c. "The houses he of fair and gorgeous buildings, and in the street side they stand joined together in a row through the whole street, without any partition or separation. On the back side of the houses, through the whole length of the street, lye large gardens, which he closed round about with the back parts of the street. Every house hath two doors, one to the street, and a postern door on the back side into the gare den. These doors be made to open with two leaves; never locked or bolted; so easy to be opened, that they will follow the least drawing of the finger, and shut again of themselves."-Grose's version of More's Ute pia, (which, if the whole account is referred to, will be found somewhat different from Burnet's translation,) page 48. were chiefly appropriated to churches, palaces, and the mansions of the nobi lity. The shops of the citizens were (indeed, in many instances, down to our own times,) open; the windows of their dwellings were, like those of Venice and some other cities of Italy, of oiled or varnished linen. Horn plates and lamine of tale or fossil glass were also used. But although many of the houses had gardens, yet so little was horticulture understood, that Queen Katharine herself could not, in 1509, have a salad for dinner, until the King sent to the Netherlands for a gardener to cultivate those herbs and roots, with which we are now better supplied than, perhaps, any other part of Europe. MYRON. An ARABIAN TALE. BY JOSEPH MOSER, ESQ. (Continued from page 25.) Chapter III. AS Abi had augured, soon after Myron had returned to the cottage, and while he was engaged in conversation with Anime and Lydice, he observed, through the vine-branches that overspread the lattices, two persons of a most venerable appearance coming up the grove. These, my good master, are the men whom I mentioned to you!" said Abi, in a tremulous voice. The lovely sisters in an instant caught the alarm. Do you apprehend any danger from their approach?" said they, at the same moment that they clung to the Sage. "Not the least," returned Myron : on the contrary, I am so eager to learn the nature of their business, that I will meet them half way." "Time," said one of the Turks, as "has not so they approached him, altered the features of Myron, but that I knew him instantly: his recollection does not appear to be so good: or, rather, time has had more influence upon me, or he would surely before this have recognized his ancient friend and relation Leontes, the man to where he entrusted great part of his fortune, and all his valuable effects, when he set forth on his travels." "Leontes!" exclaimed Myron, “in the habit of a Turkish pilgrim, and so far from Greece, on a journey to Mecca! Impossible!" "Yet," said the other pilgrim, "however impossible the circumstance, it is as indubitably certain as that Myron has also before him, in the same habit, another friend, whom he seems as shy of remembering." "Alexas!" cried Myron, "the companion of one of my journies. Who could have expected to have seen you here? To what fortunate or untoward accident, my friends, do I owe this reacounter ?" "To a circumstance," replied Leontes, that partakes of both those properties." "Relate it to me," continued the Sage. "You know, O Myron !" added Leontes," that I once had a daughter, dear to me as my own existence, dear to me as-Had-did I say I have She is found!-She is recovered!" he cried, starting from his friends, and catching in his arms Lydice, who had just left the cottage, and was coming towards them. "She is found! she is found again!" exclaimed the almost frantic Leontes, pressing her to his bo som. The lovely virgin, astonished at the embrace and the exclamations of a pilgrim totally a stranger to her, struggled and shrieked. Anine, who was at a short distance, flew to the place. Astonishment possessed her also: but as the first idea that darted into her mind was, that the Turks had seized her sister for a slave, she cried to Myron, to Abi, and Coltor, "Help! help! save, oh save, my dear, my beloved Lydice!" At the sound of her enchanting voice, Leontes released Lydice from his embrace, and clasping his arms around Auime, he, with the utmost fervour, ejaculated, Holy St. Basil! are these angelic allusions? No! they recede not from my grasp. What, then, have i found? Another Lydice! Hast thou restored to me two daughters for the one that I lost?" "What, my dear friend!" said Myron, interposing, "can these frantic actions mean? How can we possibly interpret these incoherent exclamations?" "Leontes will soon be able to explain them," added Alexas. "Knowing," he continued, "the circumstances that led to this pilgrimage, and his motives for undertaking it, I little wonder that he is so agitated by the appearance Europ. Mag. Fol. LI, Feb. 1807. of those beautiful objects, both of whom he now again embraces. But a few minules' reflection will convince him that he was, in the first instance, mistaken, and that the second rather tended to clear than increase the delusion." "You say true, my friend Alexas!" said Leontes, who had now folded an arm around each of the virgins: "Time, ever ductile to the human imagination, had, in the first ebullitions of my ecstacy, receded from my mind. I had totally forgotten that more than eighteen years have elapsed since I lost my Lydice. Yet such she was in form, in features, nay even in dress." "Our mother's name," said Anime, trembling, “was Lydice." "Was!" exclaimed Leontes, in the greatest emotion, “Where is she?” "I must answer that question," said Myron, "if it is not already answered by the tears of these her lovely representatives." 66 "Oh heaven!" cried Leontes. "You say right," added Myron. "She is now with the holy matrons and virgins, saints and martyrs, ministering before the throne of the Omnipotent!" A pause ensued. "You are! you are indeed!" continued Leontes, "the true representatives of my loved and lovely Lydice. Overpowered by this awful event, my spirits sink, my brain whirls round-Lead me to your abode, my children.-Are you, Lydice, the eldest?" "A few minutes only," said Lydice. "We are twins." "You are, indeed, the semblance of cach other, and of your once beautiful mother. Such, once, was my Lydice. How could she leave me? Where is your father?" he "He is absent,” said Lydice. "Is he a Greek?" "He is!" 66 I thought so!" said Leontes: "Will ever return?? Return!" replied Lydice, in great agitation; "he is the best of fathers; he was the best of husbands. We every hour expect him." Well! lead me to your dwelling!" Chapter IV. "While Leontes endeavours to repress the ebullition of his grief," said Myron," and in the company of his lovely grand-daughters consoles himself for those misfortunes which he has so feelingly deplored, as from his emotions I first learned those circumstances, I must, therefore, O Alexas! request that you would further inform me of the events that have occurred during my long absence from my native land. My brother?". Cleon," said Alexas, "sleeps with his forefathers; two years are passed since he paid the great debt to nature." "His son Philip," continued Myron, "had a passion for travelling; and, twenty years since, when I was making preparation for my journey to Persia, he most ardently entreated that he might accompany me; however, I hope that the reasons which I urged against granting his request, repressed that enthusiastic curiosity, the frequent concomitant of juvenile minds, which is sometimes engrafted in the system for the most laudable purposes, and that, in consequence, his father's declining age, and last hours, were irradiated and consoled by his dutiful attention and company. You sigh, my friend. Sure he did not abandon his paternal mansion?" "He did indeed," said Alexas, "soon after he had received that share of fortune which his father had allotted him.” "Then that must have been about two years after I left Greece." "It was." "Ah, headstrong youth!" exclaimed Myron, "to leave his friends and connexions, and to become an outcast from society, and probably a wanderer upon the face of the earth." "How little, O sage Myron!" said Alexas, "when we retrospectively view in our mental mirrors objects, though they are perhaps exactly similar, are we inclined to believe that comparison reflects our own juvenile likeness! For those irregularities of which he was guilty, Philip, were he here, might, perhaps, plead prescription, or, with greater effect, rest his defence upon the example of his uncle.” "True, my friend! he might in some degree; but then so young, so thought less a being!" We were once young and thought less beings ourselves,” said Alexas, "Be it so; but, dreading the power of his father, what man durst accompany him?" "No man, except his slaves, did accompany him,” "I am glad of it." returned Myron : "indeed, it would have been difficult to bave found any Grecian that would have abetted so flagrant an act of disobedience. In that land of filial piety, such a monster could not have existed. No one, I am assured, would have shared the contamination of his crime. If I had met the reptile, I would, if possible, have sent him home in chains-1 would have chastized him on-Why do you start, Alexas?" "We are," replied Alexas, "overheard, and consequently shall be betrayed. This disguise "Overheard! When? Where? How?" "The man that now approaches us from the end of the walk,” continued Alexas, I am positive that I saw lurking in the bushes and shrubs on our right hand. If the reasons for our assumption of the disguise of pilgrims were hinted to the Turkish Cadi, he would deem these Mahometan habits too serious to be trified with, and, I fear, make us exchange them for some still more degrading.' "Fear nothing," said Myron; "the person now before us looks more like a Grecian than a Turk." "And a Grecian he certainly is. Most venerable and honoured uncle!” said a man who rushed forward, and prostrated himself at the feet of Myron, you will, when he assigns his reasons for his flight" 66 "Send him back to his country in chains," cried Alexas, interrupting him. "Surely," he continued, "forgive your nephew Philip." "It is indeed iny nephew; I now perfectly recollect his features," exclaimed Myron, raising and embracing him. "Send him back in chains!" repeated Alexas. I would not do it were it in my power," said Myron. "My dear nephew! the master of yonder cottage, the father of two of the loveliest virgins." The headstrong youth," cried Alexas, that abandoned his parental roof." "He might have reasons for his flight. I believe he had." "So do 1," said Alexas. tial, I am certain that his wandering emanated from untoward circumstances at home, and that he could not himself be guilty of any one fault." 66 Yet," cried Alexas, assuming a solemn tone, 66 standing before us as he now does, I charge him with two." "Of what nature?" said Myron. "Disobedience; for which, indeed, I must observe, you have furnished him with an excuse; and seduction, the consequences of which I can prove by two ) witnesses, whom, it is certain, you have already tampered with. These are crimes, my friend, that can hardly be deemed truly Grecian; but how they will fare before your impartial tribunal, it is impossible for me to say," แ If," said Myron, by witnesses you mean the beautiful virgins of the cottage; when they appear, they are likely to have strong influence upon the mind of a judge: but how can they be acquainted with seduction ?" "Heaven forbid!" returned Alexas, "that they should ever be acquainted with seduction, although they are, as I have hinted, its consequences. I therefore charge the culprit, Philip, with having persuaded, enticed, or enforced, Lydice to leave her father, and abandon her native land." “To a part of this charge, O Alexas! for I know you well," cried Philip, "though the purpose for which you came here is a mystery to me, I plead guilty." "I thought so," said Alexas to Myron; "therefore you had better, upon his own confession, send him back in chains." "First," added Myron, "let me hear him out." "You know, my honoured uncle," continued Philip, the intimacy of our family with that of Leontes. You also know the freedom allowed to the Grecian virgins, and that Lydice and myself were companions, even in our infancy; that we were brought up to gether; but you do not know that we loved each other before we knew the meaning of the word, and that with our years our attachment increased." "Why did you not obtain your father's sanction" said Myron, "Our early years had hitherto restrained me," continued Philip; " but, glowing with passion, I was upon the point of mentioning our love to my father; and, if it had met his approbation, to hers; and of asking their consent to our union." "That," said Myron, "would have been both sensible and dutiful. What hindered you from carrying your design into effect ?" "A circumstance which I am about to relate. You remember the beautiful colonade, and the detached columns that are said to be the vestiges of an ancient bath." 66 Perfectly!" returned Myron: "they stand in the cedar grove at the back of your late father's mansion," "In this place, the most sequestered part of the vicinity of Larissa, Lydice and myself delighted to walk. Here, under the shade of the magnificent foliage that so highly embellished the landscape, we interchanged our mutual VOWS. These we every day repeated; when one afternoon, as we were thus engaged, Georgias, the merchant, approached: he seemed to pay particular attention to Lydice, which, I must confess, by no means pleased me. Duty called me to attend my father, and therefore he conducted her home. The next day, when I met her in the same place, she informed me that he had, to her parents, made proposals of marriage." "Who had?" cried Myron. "For himself!" "For himself!" exclaimed Myron. "I did not know that you were talking of a son of Georgias, nor have I ever heard that he had such a relation." "Nor I either," said Alexas. "Nor 1," continued Philip; "the venerable Georgias made proposals in favour of himself." "Venerable indeed!" said Myron. "Why, to my knowledge, he was older than the father of Lydice." "Considerably," continued Philip. "Had the virgin had no attachment, she would unequivocally have rejected him: though, perhaps, her resistance might not have been so firm, her rejection so decisive. Situated as she was, she with energy expressed her abhorrence of Georgias, and at the same time emphatically avowed her passion for me. The word of Leontes had been already given: he insisted that she should enable him to fulfil his promise. In this dilemma, flight appeared to us the only means by which we could preserve our vows to each other inviolato In consequence of this resolution, (for to think upon the subject was to resolve,) we left the mansions of our fathers, and, attended by a few slaves, which the fortune I had just received enabled me to procure, began our journey. We were united at the first village that we came to after we had left Larissa. In a Turkish carriage we proceeded to Salonica, where we took shipping for Alexandria. Soon after we landed we joined a caravan; and, arriving at this place, began to respire from the fatigue and terror of a long and dangerous journey.” "Was it," said Myron, "apprehension of a pursuit that induced you to fly so far from Greece?" "Partly," replied Philip: " but a much stronger motive was a desire to visit those countries that you had so often mentioned. How have I listened to you with rapture when you have repeated the information that you had from books or travellers collected respecting Arabia Felix! In fact, I panted to behold the country which, oh my beloved uncle! glowed in your description." There have, I must confess, been worse excuses for travelling," said My ron. "Besides," said Philip, "I had, perhaps, a foreboding of what has since been realized: I thought, as I knew that you meant to return this way from India, that I might, possibly, one day meet with, and be serviceable to you." "This is still a better reason than the other," said Myron. "About twelve months after we had settled in this place, to which I was induced by the attractive beauties of the neighbourhood, and of the surrounding country, Lydice was delivered of twins, the two virgins whom you have seen. We since had several children, but they died in their infancy." "But your wife?" said Alexas. "Alas!" cried Philip, "the manner in which she had left her father's house had, at times, so operated upon her susceptible mind, and so frequently cast a gloom over her amusements, that, as I knew she longed to visit her native Jand, I was about to make preparations for our return to Greece, when we were informed by a Turkish pilgrim, the only means that we had of hearing of our beloved country, that both may father and Leontes were no more. This dreadful information, while it greatly affected me, acted so forcibly upon her, as to produce a fever and delirium; in consequence of which, the lovely Lydice, after suffering a few days, expired in mine and her daughters' arms. (To be continued.} DESCRIPTION of the GREAT Desert of WESTMINSTER. IN TWO PARTS. BY JOSEPH MOSER, ESQ. Part I. T has, by many that are unquestion ably much wiser than ourselves, been frequently stated, that of all the countries of Europe, there is not one equal to England, for the happy combination of those obvious features of opulence exhibited in the architecture of our cities and towns, with the exuberant marks of fertility displayed in our fields and gardens. This country, to adopt a bold metaphor, may be said to smile with plenty; and its towns, to create one equally as bold, to luxuriate in splendor. Some sterile tracks, specks upon the redundant surface of our happy Island, do certainly here and there appear; and some few ruins are still, at distances remote, to be found; but these are incidentally advantageous, as they serve "to gild our rural scenes," and afford scope to the genius of the painter, and, in some instances, opportunities for a display of the erudition of the antiquary. Of our English plains, that of Salisbury, Bagshot Heath, Marlborough Downs, Sherwood Forest, Sutton Coldfield, Hounslow Heath, and Finchley Common, are some of the principal. But there is not in any part of the Island such immense tracks of sterility and sand as grace, or rather disgrace, the southern part of Germany, the extensive wastes of Bretagne, Anjou, and Mayne; or of stone, as distinguish the toil-provoking acclivities of Switzerland. The yellow sands of Spain, which, in one district only, extend from the romantic Sierra Morena to the Mediterranean, and dye the river Tinto in its course, are also superior to any thing in this country of the same kind. Thus much may serve for deserts; now for |