475

Museum. At its date, which was long
before "the troubles of England," where
in he bore a distinguished part, it
appears that he was absorbed by
constant avocation, and attention to the
The letter has been
business of others.
obligingly transcribed and communicated
by our kind correspondent, T. A. It is
curious from its style and sentiments,
and is here printed, because it has not
before been published. The commencing
and concluding words are given fae-
simile, from the original. It is addressed
thus,

To my honoured and
deare friend Sr.
JOHN ELLIOTT at

his lodging in
the Tower.

Addit. MSS. 5016

Tis well for mee that letters cannot blush, else you would easily reade mee guilty. I am ashamed of so long a silence and know not how to excuse it, for as nothing but businesse can speake for mee, of wch kinde I have many advocates, so can I not tell how to call any businesse greater than holding an affectionate correspondence with so excellent a friend. My only confidence is I pleade at a barr of loue, where absolutions are much more frequent then censures. Sure I ame that conscience of neglect doth not accuse mee; though euidence of fact doth. I would add more but y entertainment of a straunger friend calls upon mee, and one other unsuitable occasion hold mee excused: therefore, deare friend, and if you vouchsafe mee a letter, lett mee begg of you to teach mee some thrift of time; that I may imploy more in yor service who will ever bee

Hampd. March 31, 1631.

THE SUN IN MARCH.
We may now see the great luminary

Seffampden

Command my service to

y souldier if not gone

to his colours.

at half-past five in the morning if "we shake off dull sloth," and set our faces

477

to be greeted by his, at his rising, in the open air. Lying a bed is a sad destroyer of health, and getting up early a vast improver of time. It is an old and a true saying, that "an hour in the morning before breakfast, is worth two all the rest of the day."

In "The Examiner" of the 31st of March, 1822, there is the following pleasant little

story.

THE WONDERFUL PHYSICIAN. One morning at daybreak a father came into his son's bedchamber, and told him that a wonderful stranger was to be seen. "You are sick," said he, "and fond of great shows. Here are no quack-doctors now, nor keeping of beds. A remarkable being is announced all over the town, who not only heals the sick, but makes the very grass grow; and what is more, he is to rise out of the sea." The boy, though he was of a lazy habit, and did not like to be waked, jumped up at hearing of such an extraordinary exhibition, and hastened with his father to the door of the house, which stood upon the seashore. "There," said the father, pointing to the sun, which at that moment sprung out of the ocean like a golden world, "there, foolish boy, you who get me so many expenses with your lazy diseases, and yourself into so many troubles, behold at last a remedy, cheap, certain, Behold at last a physiand delightful. cian, who has only to look in your every morning at this same hour, and you will be surely well."

face

PROVINCIAL MEDICAL PRACTICE. Country people who are unusually plain in notion, and straight forward in conduct, frequently commit the care of their health to very odd sort of practi

tioners.

A late celebrated empiric, in Yorkshire, called the Whitworth Doctor, was of so great fame as to have the honour of attending the brother of lord Thurlow. The name of this doctor was Taylor: he and his brother were farriers by profession, and to the last, if both a twolegged and a four-legged patient were presented at the same time, the doctor always preferred the four-legged one. Their practice was immense, as may be well imagined from the orders they gave the druggist; they dealt principally with

Ewbank and Wallis, of York, and a ton
of Glauber's salt, with other articles in
proportion, was their usual order. On a
Sunday morning the doctors used to bleed
gratis. The patients, often to the number
of an hundred, were seated on benches
round a room, where troughs were placed
to receive the blood. One of the doctors
then went and tied up the arm of each
patient, and was immediately followed by
the other who opened the vein. Such a
scene is easier conceived than described.
From their medical practice, the nice
formality of scales and weights was ba-
nished; all was "rule of thumb." An
example of their practice may elucidate
their claim to celebrity: being sent for to
a patient who was in the last stage of a
consumption, the learned doctor prescribed
a leg of mutton to be boiled secundum
artem, into very strong broth, a quart of
which was to be taken at proper inter-
vals: what might have been its success
is not to be related, as the patient died
before the first dose was got down. As
bone-setters they were remarkably skilful,
and, perhaps, to their real merit in this,
and the cheapness of their medicines, they
were indebted for their great local fame.

The "Public Ledger" of the 31st of March, 1825, contains

A crooked Coincidence.

A pamphlet published in the year 1703, has the following strange title:— "The deformity of sin cured, a sermon, preached at St. Michael's, Crooked Lane, before the Prince of Orange; by the Rev. James Crookshanks. Sold by Matthew Dowton, at the Crooked Billet, near Cripplegate, and by all other Booksellers.' The words of the text are, "Every crooked path shall be made straight." The Prince before whom it was preached was deformed in his person.

479

On April, in old kalendars, is drawn
A gallant hawker, pacing on a lawn,
Holding a bell'd and hooded fowl of prey,
Ready to loose him in the airy way.
For daily, now, descends the solar beam,

And the warm earth seems in a waking dream;
Insects creep out, leaves burst, and flowers rise,
And birds enchant the woods, and wing the skies;
Each sentient being a new sense receives,
And eloquently looks, to each, it lives.

The name of this month is before observed to have been derived from the verb aperire, which signifies to open, because Vol. i. p. 407

seeds germinate, and at this season flowers begin to blow; yet Macrobius affirms that it is derived from a Greek word signifying aphrilis, or descended

SPRING.

The beauties of the seasons are a constant theme with their discoverers-the poets. Spring, as the reproductive source of "light and life and love," has the preeminence with these children of nature. The authors of "The Forest Minstrel and other poems," William and Mary Howitt, have high claims upon reflective and imaginative minds, in return for the truth and beauty contained in an elegant volume, which cultivates the moral sense, and infuses a devotional spirit, through exqui

site description and just application. The writers have traversed "woods and wilds, and fields, and lanes, with a curious and delighted eye," and "written not for the sake of writing," but for the indulgence of their overflowing feelings. They are "members of the Society of Friends," and those who are accustomed to regard individuals of that community as neces sarily incapable of poetical impression, will be pleased by reading from Mr. Howitt's "Epistle Dedicatory" what be says of his own verses, and of his helpmate in the work:

And now 'tis spring, and bards are gathering flowers;
So I have cull'd you these, and with them sent
The gleanings of a nymph whom some few hours
Ago I met with-some few years I meant---
Gathering" true-love" amongst the wild-wood bowers;
You'll find some buds all with this posy blent,
If that ye know them, which some lady fair
Viewing, may haply prize, for they are wond'rous rare.

Artists have seldom represented friends -"of the Society of Friends,"-with poetical feeling. Mr. Howitt's sketch of himself, and her whom he found gathering "true-love," though they were not clad perhaps "as worldlings are," would inspire a painter, whose art could be roused by the pen, to a charming picture of youthful affection. The habit of some of the young men, in the peaceable community, maintains its character, without that extremity of the fashion of being out of

fashion, which marks the wearer as remarkably formal; while the young females of the society, still preserving the distinction prescribed by discipline, dress more attractively, to the cultivated eye, than a multitude of the sex who study variety of costume. Such lovers, pictured as they are imagined from Mr. Howitt's lines, would grace a landscape, enfoliated from other stanzas in the same poem, which raise the fondest recollections of the pleasures of boyhood in spring.

Then did I gather, with a keen delight,
All changes of the seasons, and their signs:
Then did I speed forth, at the first glad sight

Of the coy spring-of spring that archly shines
Out for a day-then goes-and then more bright
Comes laughing forth, like a gay lass that lines
A dark lash with a ray that beams and burns,

And scatters hopes and doubts, and smiles and frowns, by turns.

On a sweet, shining morning thus sent out,

It seem'd what man was made for, to look round
And trace the full brook, that, with clamorous route,
O'er fallen trees, and roots black curling, wound
Through glens, with wild brakes scatter'd all about;
Where not a leaf or green blade yet was found
Springing to hide the red fern of last year,

And hemlock's broken stems, and rustling rank grass sere.

But hazel catkins, and the bursting buds

Of the fresh willow, whisper'd "spring is coming;"

And bullfinches forth flitting from the woods,

With their rich silver voices; and the humming