suggested to Mr. Parr, Proprietor of the Equitable Office, Holborn-hill, that a complaint prevails among Servants, owing to the adulteration of Brimstone, and the badness of Wood, in consequence of which, they cannot get their Fires lighted in proper time, which obliges many of their Masters to go to business without their breakfast. Such imposition having proved very injurious to a number of servants, by being discharged for neglect of duty, has induced Mr. Parr, in conjunction with six eminent Timber Merchants, to purchase those extensive Premises in Gunpowder-alley, near Shoe-lane, formerly occupied by the Saltpetre Company, for the sole purpose of a Genuine Match Manufactory. The Public may be assured that this laudable undertaking is countenanced by some of the first characters in the United Kingdoms. The Managers pledge themselves to employ the best work-people, both men, women, and children, that can be procured, which will amount to 1500 persons and upwards, as they conclude, by the large orders already received, that a less number will procrastinate the business. Each Subscriber to have the privilege of recommending two, who are to bring certificates from the Minister of the Parish where they reside, of their being sober, honest, and industrious persons. The Managers further engage to make oath before the Lord Mayor every three months, that the matches are made of the most prime new yellow Deal, and also that the Brimstone is without the least adulteration. Not less than 12 penny bunches can be had. Any order amounting to 1. will be sent free of expense, to any part of the town, not exceeding two miles from the Manufactory. The Capital first intended to be raised is Two Millions, in 50%. Shares, 27. per Share to be paid at the time of subscribing, 3. that day month, 47. in six weeks, 57. in two months, and so on regularly until the whole is sub scribed. Holders of five shares to be on Committees, and holders of ten will qualify them for Direc tors. Although this plan has not been set on foot more than a week, it is presumed the call for Shares has been equal to a month's demand for Shares in any of the late Institutions. Schemes at large may be had, and Subscriptions received by Mr. Tinder, Secretary, at the Counting-house, from ten till two; also at his Residence, near the Turpentine Manufactory, St. John-street-road, from four to six; likewise by Messrs. Sawyer, Memel, and Tieup, Solicitors, Knave's-acre, Westminster. NATURALISTS' CALENDAR. Mean Temperature... 41. 27. November 26. THE SEASON Autumnal appearances are increasing, and occasional gales of wind and interchanges of nipping frost hasten the approaching winter. The following passage seems to allude to the wintry garb of nature:"The earth mourneth and languisheth; Lebanon is ashamed and withereth away; Sharon is like a wilderness; and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits."-Isaiah, xxiii. 9. Soon shall we be compelled to exclaim with the poet, in reference to this, generally speaking, gloomy season, That time of year thou mayest in me behold, When yellow leaves, or none, or few do hang On those wild boughs which shake against the cold, Bare ruined quires, where late the sweet birds sang. November, however, has its bright as well as its dark side. "It is now," observes a pleasing writer, "that the labourer is about to enjoy a temporary mitigation of the season's toil. His little store of winter provision having been hardly earned and safely lodged, his countenance brightens, and his heart warms, with the anticipation of winter comforts. As the day shortens and the hours of darkness increase, the domestic affections are awakened anew by a closer and more lengthened converse; the father is now once more in the midst of his family; the child is now once more on the knee of its parent; and she, in whose comfort his heart is principally interested, is again permitted, by the privileges of the season, to increase and to participate his happiness. It is now that the husbandman is repaid for his former risk and anxiety-that, having waited patiently for the coming harvest, he builds up his sheaves, loads his waggons, and replenishes his barns." It is now that men of study and literary pursuit are admonished of the best season suited for the pursuits of literature; and the snug fireside in an armed chair, during a long winter's evening, with an entertaining book, is a pleasure by no means to be despised. There is something, too, very pleasing in the festivals which are now collection of olden time.** approaching, and which preserve the re NATURALISTS' CALENDAR. Mean Temperature . 41 · 52. • Dr. Forster's Perennial Calendar. Respecting this Saint, the patron of Scotland, there is a notice in vol. i. 1536. THE MODEL LOTTERY. For the Every-Day Book. A Model Lottery is drawn on the 30th of November, at Mr. Oldershaw's office, Lower-street, Islington. Several capital prizes are made, the principal of which is Fonthill Abbey, valued at 57. There are others less valuable, Islington church, Cannonbury Tower, the Queen's Head, Sir William Curtis's villa, at Southgate,the house in which Garrick was born, many Italian buildings, and a variety to the number of 500. Each adventurer, by paying three shillings, draws a share which is equal, in the worst chance, to the deposit. The scheme is contrived by an ingenious artist and his wife, whose names are Golding. Previously to the drawingday, three days are allowed for friendly inspection. It is laudable to see this Bradenstoke was not an abbey, but a priory. He might have inquired some further particulars of the Golden Image, said to have been found. In whose possession it now is? It is believed the circumstance, if true, is not generally known in the neighbourhood. Query, the name of the Carpenter? The idea of a subterraneous passage from Bradenstoke Priory to Malmsbury Abbey, a distance of eight or ten miles, intersected by a deep valley, through which the Avon meanders, is absurd, and can only be conceived as one of the wild traditions derived from monkish times. Can your correspondent furnish further particulars of the horrible story of the boy murdered by his schoolmaster, when and whom? His account of "Joe Ody's" exploits may be very correct. He is well remembered by the elder peasantry. It is presumed, your correspondent meant to say, that the song was attributed to Bowles of Bremhill, not Brinkworth. The Rev. W. L. Bowles is rector, or vicar, of Bremhill, about five or six miles from Clack Brinkworth, about the same distance in the opposite direction. Your correspondent might have noticed the mound called Clack Mount. Perhaps he will favour you with further recollections of the localities of Clack, and its vicinity. The remains of a may-pole are visible at Clack; but the pole itself is believed not to be remembered by any person now living, or, if remembered, by very old persons only. A READER Batman's Doome. In this, the last, month of the year "the beautiful Spring is almost forgotten in the anticipation of that which is to come. The bright Summer is no more thought of, than is the glow of the morning sunshine at night-fall. The rich Autumn only just lingers on the memory, as the last red rays of its evenings do when they have but just quitted the eye. And Winter is once more closing its cloudcanopy over all things, and breathing forth that sleep-compelling breath which is to wrap all in a temporary oblivion, no less essential to their healthful existence than is the active vitality which it for a while supersedes." Yet among the general appearances of nature there are still many lively spots and cheering aspects. "The furze flings out its bright yellow flowers upon the otherwise bare common, like little gleams of sunshine; and the moles ply their mischievous night-work in the dry meadows; and the green plover whistles o'er the lea;' and the snipes haunt the marshy grounds; and the wagtails twinkle about near the spring. heads; and the larks get together in companies, and talk to each other, instead of singing to themselves; and the thrush occasionally puts forth a plaintive note, as if half afraid of the sound of his own voice; and the hedge-sparrow and titmouse try to sing; and the robin does sing still, even more delightfully than he has done during all the rest of the year, because it now seems as if he sang for us rather than for himself-or rather to us, for it is still for his supper that he sings, and therefore for himself."* Yes-we acknowledge what thy prowess can, The peasants to thy mercy now resign December 1 OBESITY. Mr. Edward Bright, of Maldon, in the county of Essex, who died at twenty-nine years of age, was an eminent shopkeeper of that town, and supposed to be, at that time, the largest man living, or that had ever lived in this island. He weighed six hundred, one quarter, and twenty-one pounds; and stood about five feet nine inches high; his body was of an astonishing bulk, and his legs were as large as a middling man's body. Though of so great a weight and bulk, he was surprisingly active. After Bright's death, a wager was proposed between Mr. Codd and Mr. Hants, of Maldon, that five men at the age of twenty-one, then resident there, could not be buttoned within his waistcoat without breaking a stitch or straining a button. On the 1st of December, 1750, the wager Iwas decided at the house of the widow Day, the Black Bull in Maldon, when five men and two more were buttoned within the waistcoat of the great personage deceased. There is a half-sheet print, published at the time, representing the Winter may be now considered as having set in; and we have often violent winds about this time, which sweep off the few remaining leaves from the trees, and, with the exception of a few oaks and beeches, leave the woods and forests nothing but a naked assemblage of bare boughs. December, thus robbing the woods of their leafy honours, is alluded to by Horace, in his Epod. xi.: Hic tertius December, ex quo desti; Picture to yourself, gentle reader, one of shutters which defy the penetration of Eolus and all his excarcerated host; the table set for tea, and the hissing urn or the kettle scarce heard among the fierce whistling, howling, and roaring, produced alternately or together, by almost every species of sound that wind can produce, in the chimneys and door crannies of the house. There is a feeling of comfort, and a sensibility to the blessings of a good roof over one's head, and a warm and comfortable hearth, while all is tempest without, that produces a peculiar but real source of pleasure. A cheerful but quiet party adds, in no small degree, to this sitting up over a good fire to a late hour, pleasure. Two or three intelligent friends and interchanging their thoughts on a thousand subjects of mystery,-the stories of ghosts-and the tales of olden times,may perhaps beguile the hours of such a stormy night like this, with more satisfaction than they could a midsummer evening under the shade of trees in a garden of roses and lilies. And then, when we retire to bed in a room with thick, woollen curtains closely drawn, and a fire in the room, how sweet a lullaby is the piping of the gale down the flues, and the peppering of the rain on the tiles and windows; while we are now and then rocked in the house as if in a cradle !" I love to hear the high winds pipe aloud, Then softly sobbing to unquiet rest, Then wildly, harshly, breaking forth again As if in scorn at having been represt, With marching sweep careering o'er the plain And, oh! I love to hear the gusty shower Against my humble casement, pattering fast, Nor, while my cot thus braves the storm and blast • Perennial Calendar, Dec. 2. |