SNUFFERS.

Perhaps there is no implement of domestic use that we are less acquainted with, in its old form, than snuffers, I have now before me a pair, which for their antiquity and elegant workmanship seem worth attention the engraving on the other side represents their exact size and construction.

After some research, I can only meet

with particulars of one other pair, which

were found in digging the foundation of a granary, at the foot of a hill adjoining to Cotton Mansion-house, (formerly the seat of the respectable family of the Mohuns,) in the parish of St. Peter, Portisham, about two miles north-east from Abbotsbury in Dorsetshire. They were of brass, and weighed six ounces. "The great difference," says Mr. Hutchins, "between these and modern utensils of the same name and use is, that these are in shape like a heart fluted, and consequently terminate in a point. They consist of two equal lateral cavities, by the edges of which the snuff is cut off and received into the cavities, from which it is not got out without particular application and trouble. There are two circumstances attending this little utensil, which seem to bespeak it of considerable age the roughness of the workmanship, which is in all respects as rude and coarse as can be well imagined, and the awkwardness of the form." There is an engraving of the Dorsetshire snuffers in the history of that county.

purchased, with some miscellaneous articles, by a person who has no clue to their former possessors, but who rightly imagined that in an archæological view they would be acceptable to the Table Book.

Garrick Plays.

No. XVIII.

[From "David and Bethsabe:" further Extracts.]

Absalon, rebelling.

Now for the erown and throne of Israel,
To be confirm'd with virtue of my sword,
And writ with David's blood upon the blade.
Now, Jove, let forth the golden firmament,
And look on him with all thy fiery eyes,
Which thou hast made to give their glories light.
To shew thou lovest the virtue of thy hand,
Let fall a wreath of stars upon my head,
Whose influence may govern Israel
With state exceeding all her other Kings.
Fight, Lords and Captains, that your Sovereign's face
May shine in honour brighter than the sun;
And with the virtue of my beauteous rays
Make this fair Land as fruitful as the fields,
That with sweet milk and honey overflowed.
God in the whissing of a pleasant wind
Shall march upon the tops of mulberry trees,
To cool all breasts that burn with any griefs;
As whilom he was good to Moyses' men,
By day the Lord shall sit within a cloud,
To guide your footsteps to the fields of joy;
And in the night a pillar bright as fire
Shall go before you like a second sun,
Wherein the Essence of his Godhead is;
That day and night you may be brought to peace,
And never swerve from that delightsome path
That leads your souls to perfect happiness:

The snuffers now submitted to notice are
superior in design and workmanship to
those found in Dorsetshire. The latter
seem of earlier date, and they divide in the
middle of the upper as well as the lower
part, but in one respect both pairs are
alike they are each "in shape like a
heart," and they each terminate in a point This he shall do for joy when I am King,
formed exactly in the manner shown by the
present engraving. The print likewise shows
that the box of the snuffers bears a boldly
chased winged head of Mercury, who had
more employments and occupations than
any other of the ancient deities. Whether
as the director of theft, as the conductor of
the departed to their final destination, as an
interpreter to enlighten, or as an office-
bearer constantly in requisition, the portrait Fifty fair footmen by my chariot run ;
of Mercury is a symbol appropriate to the
implement before us. The engraving shows
the exact size of the instrument, and the pre-
sent appearance of the chasing, which is in
bold relief, and was, originally, very elegant.

Then fight, brave Captains, that these joys may fly
Into your bosoms with sweet victory.

These snuffers are plain on the underside, and made without legs. They were

Absalon, triumphant.

Proclaim'd thro' Hebron King of Israel;
Absalon. First Absalon was by the trumpet's sound

And now is set in fair Jerusalem
With complete state and glory of a crown.

And to the air, whose rupture rings my fame,
Wheree'er I ride, they offer reverence.
Why should not Absalon, that in his face
Carries the final purpose of his God,
(That is, to work him grace in Israel),

• Jove, for Jehovah.

described by Homer in Pope's transla about with great rapidity, without obeying

tion:

Dire Scylla there a scene of horror forms,

And here Charybdis fills the deep with storms;
When the tide rushes from her rumbling caves,
The rough rock roars; tumultuous boil the waves:
They toss, they foam, a wild confusion raise,
Like waters bubbling o'er the fiery blaze:
Eternal mists obscure the aërial plain,

And high above the rock she spouts the main.
When in her gulfs the rushing sea subsides,
She drains the ocean with the refluent tides,
The rock rebellows with a thundering sound;
Deep, wondrous deep, below appears the ground.

the helm in the smallest degree. When the weather is calm, there is little danger; but when the waves meet with this violent current, it makes a dreadful sea. He says, there were five ships wrecked in this spot last winter. We observed that the current set exactly for the rock of Scylla, and would infallibly have carried any thing thrown into it against that point; so that it was not without reason the ancients have painted it as an object of such terror. It is about a mile from the entry of the Faro, and forms a small promontory, which runs a little out to sea, and meets the whole

Virgil imagines the origin of this terrific force of the waters, as they come out of the

scene:

May 19, 1770. Found ourselves within half a mile of the coast of Sicily, which is low, but finely variegated. The opposite coast of Calabria is very high, and the mountains are covered with the finest verdure. It was almost a dead calm, our ship scarce moving half a mile in an hour, so that we had time to get a complete view of the famous rock of Scylla, on the Calabrian side, Cape Pylorus on the Sicilian, and the celebrated Straits of the Faro that runs between them. Whilst we were still some miles distant from the entry of the Straits, we heard the roaring of the current, like the noise of some large impetuous river confined between narrow banks. This increased in proportion as we advanced, till we saw the water in many places raised to a considerable height, and forming large eddies or whirlpools. The sea in every other place was as smooth as glass. Our old pilot told us, that he had often seen ships caught in these eddies, and whirled

Bourn's Gazetteer.

narrowest part of the Straits. The head of
this promontory is the famous Scylla. It
must be owned that it does not altogether
come up to the formidable description that
Homer gives of it; the reading of which
(like that of Shakspeare's Cliff) almost
makes one's head giddy. Neither is the
passage so wondrous narrow and difficult
as he makes it. Indeed it is probable that
the breadth of it is greatly increased since
his time, by the violent impetuosity of the
current. And this violence too must have
breadth of the channel increased.
always diminished, in proportion as the

rocks that show their heads near the base of
Our pilot says, there are many small
the large ones. These are probably the
dogs that are described as howling round
the monster Scylla. There are likewise
many caverns that add greatly to the noise
of the water, and tend still to increase the
hundred feet high.

horror of the scene.

The rock is near two castle or fort built on its summit; and the There is a kind of town of Scylla, or Sciglio, containing three or four hundred inhabitants, stands on its south side, and gives the title of prince to a Calabrese family.

CHARYBDIS.

The harbour of Messina is formed by a off from the east end of the city, and sepasmall promontory or neck of land that runs the Straits. The shape of this promontory rates that beautiful basin from the rest of is that of a reaping-hook, the curvature of which forms the harbour, and secures it from all winds. From the striking resemblance of its form, the Greeks, who never gave a name that did not either describe the object or express some of its most remarkable properties, called this place Zancle, or the Sickle, and feigned that the sickle of Saturn fell on this spot, and gave it its form. But the Latins, who were not quite so fond