should sing of Harefield with the power of rare fancy
working upon classical models, and who thus makes
the genius of the wood address a noble audience in that
sylvan scene:-

Yet know, by lot from Jove, I am the power
Of this fair wood, and like in oaken bower
To nurse the sapling tall, and curl the grove
With ringlets quaint, and wanton windings weave;
And all my plants I save from nightly ill
Of noisome winds and blasting vapours chill;
And from the boughs brush off the evil dew,
And heal the harms of thwarting thunder blue;
Or what the cross dire-looking planet smites,
Or hurtful worm with canker'd venom bites.
When evening gray doth rise, I fetch my round
Over the mount and all this hallowed ground;
And early, ere the odorous breath of morn
Awake the slumbering leaves, or tassel'd horn
Shakes the highth thicket, haste I all about,
Number my rauks, and visit every sprout

With puissant words, and murmurs made to bloss.' Doubly honoured Harefield! Though the mansion has perished, yet are thy groves still beautiful. Still thy summit looks out upon a fertile valley, where the gentle river wanders in silent beauty. But thy woods and lawns have a charm which are wholly their own. Here the Othello' of William Shakspere was acted by his own company; here is the scene of the Arcades of John Milton."

From Burnham, where she visited Sir William Clarke, who appears to have given little satisfaction, the Queen returned to Oatlands, thence to Richmond, and then to London. On January 21, 1602-3, “in very foul and wet weather," she removed to Richmond, where, on the 24th of March, she died, in the forty-fifth year of her reign and the seventieth of her age.

IN Tyrol, owing to the great unevenness of the surface, the air is in continual motion, and a calm day is a rare occurrence. The southern winds are like the sirocco of Italy, much feared on account of the effect that they produce on the health, especially in the southern valleys. They are most frequent towards the end of summer and in the beginning of autumn, and dissolve in a few hours an immense quantity of snow, which about that season begins to cover the less elevated mountains, and the volume of water which is thus conveyed to the rivers produces extensive inundations in some parts of the valleys. The most fertile lands are in the valleys of the Inn and of the Etsch; the valley of the Etsch is the most fruitful.

Wheat, rye, barley, and oats are cultivated where the climate or stony soil is not unfavourable. In some parts buckwheat is grown to a great extent, and used for bread. Millet is also grown, but not extensively. Indian corn is the principal object of agriculture in the valleys on the border of Italy, and potatoes are nearly as much cultivated as in the northern. Hops grow wild in the southern districts, but they are little cultivated. Tobacco is grown to some extent in the southern valleys. Flax and hemp are cultivated everywhere, but not extensively. Fruit-trees abound in the southern valleys, and large quantities of fruits are exported to Bavaria. Near Trent are plantations of figtrees, and at Roveredo chestnuts are very common. In these parts are also plantations of olive-trees and mulberry-trees. A considerable quantity of silk is annually collected. On the banks of the Lago di Guarda are plantations of oranges, whose fruits get quite ripe. Wine is made in large quantitics, and some sorts are very good, but they do not keep.

than in any other part of Austria, but pigs are not much kept. Fowls, geese, and ducks are not plentiful. There are chamois, hares, marmots, and partridges; and there are some large birds of prey, especially eagles.

Notwithstanding the many little vanities that may have been discerned in the course of our account of her Progresses, no doubt can be entertained of the extraordinary abilities of the Queen. Called to the throne at a period of great difficulty both at home and abroad, and beset with all kinds of seduction arising from her love of admiration and her womanly feelings, she steered her onward course with a strict devotion to what she considered the welfare of her people and Cattle are of middling size and rather numerous; the country at large. Her ministers were chosen for horses are less abundant, and better for the draught their ability, and, while her favourites were frequently than for the saddle. Sheep are very numerous, and in in disgrace and occasionally changed, she continued later times some attention has been paid to the imsteadfast to them, supporting them against all opposi-provement of the breed. Goats are more common tion, and affording them her entire confidence in spite of all sinister influence. Though occasionally guilty of what would now be considered despotic acts, England is greatly indebted to her government for its present position. Under her steady and firm control, the constitution gradually fixed itself into its present form, while her prudent expenditure and the encouragement she gave to commerce and manufactures allowed the industry and resources of the country to expand in a direction that has enabled them to reach their present commanding magnitude. And her Progresses, by encouraging her gentry to keep up large establishments in the country, instead of inducing them to live entirely at court, must have had considerable effect in continuing a class of which England may yet be justly proud, and which no other nation possesses-the country gentlemen; while her presence, and the amenity which she always displayed towards the poorer classes, must have produced the best effects on the intercourse and the feelings between them and their immediate superiors. By these Progresses also she was better enabled to judge of the real situation of her people; and there is little doubt that many important measures of her eign were the results of observations made during her journeys. "Good Queen Bess," and "the

Gold is found in small quantities; silver is somewhat more abundant. Copper also occurs; lead is more abundant: iron also abounds, but it is less worked than would be the case if the mines in Illyria were not much richer. Calamine is found and worked at a few places: coal also is worked to some extent. In the southern districts there is a valuable kind of marble, resembling that of Carrara, which is much worked.

Amid these beauties of nature, the most wonderful work of art is the military road over the Stelvio (a part of the Ortler Spitz), the highest road in Europe, the summit being nine thousand one hundred feet above the level of the Mediterranean, two thousand three hundred feet higher than that of the Simplon, and one thousand feet higher than that of Mount St. Bernard; the crest of the Pass of the Simplon being estimated at about six thousand seven hundred feet, that of the Stelvio at about nine thousand. Murray's Handbook of Southern Germany thus describes it :—

vellous."

"It was constructed by the Austrian government, in | evolutions with an agility and perseverance truly mar order to open an additional line of communication between Vienna and the centre of Lombardy, and was completed in 1824. It was planned by the chief engineer Donegani, and executed, under the inspection of the engineer Domenici, by the contractor Zalachini. Whether we consider the boldness of the design, the difficulties of its execution from the great height and exposure to storms and avalanches, or the grandeur of the scenery through which it passes, the route of the Stelvio is the most remarkable in Europe. The galleries cut for miles through the solid rock, along the margins of the Lake of Como, those higher up built of massive masonry strong enough to resist the fall of avalanches-the long causeways carried over morasses the bridges thrown across torrents-the long succession of zigzag terraces, carried up with so gradual a slope that an English mail-coach might trot up on one side, and scarce require to lock a wheel on the other, which nevertheless scale and surmount one of the highest ridges in the Alps-these are works which, without exaggeration, deserve to be called stupendous. But the works and agencies of nature, with which they come in contact, reduce them to comparative insignificance. This road, upon which so much labour and treasure have been expended, is seldoin passable for more than four months in the yearfrom June to October. Every spring, when the snow disappears, the ravages of the winter's storm and avalanches are disclosed to view: wooden galleries broken through, large tracts of the road swept away, others overwhelmed with rubbish and fragments of rock; injuries annually occurring; to be repaired only at a vast expense (11,000 florins a year), and after the lapse of a considerable time." In more recent accounts it is said to be now abandoned, as it was found impossible to keep it safe and in repair.

·

The town of Hall, of which a view is given at the head, is the principal place in the country for the manufacture of salt. It is situated about five miles below Innsbruck, on the north side of the Inn, which is navigable up to it for barges, and at the foot of Mount Sollstein, and contains about 4800 inhabitants. "Its appearance," says Barrow, in his Tour to Austrian Lombardy and the Northern Tyrol,'" is that of a cluster of dark and gloomy buildings, blackened with smoke and soot, partly from coal, but chiefly from wood, used in the salt-boiling houses; the pitch-pine is probably that most in use, though all the fir tribe give out smoke enough. Large piles of this or other kinds of wood were heaped up for boiling the brine, which is sent down in tubes or troughs from the mine in the mountains behind Hall, a distance of five or six miles, and accessible only by a steep and rugged road." Inglis, in his Tyrol,' says:-" From Ambras I descended the hill, and gained the road to Hall, passing through fine meadows and fields of Indian corn, and through several villages charmingly situated in little amphitheatres at the foot of the mountains; and after an hour and a half's walk, I reached the ancient and smoky Hall, than which there is no town more smoky and dark either in Staffordshire or Lancashire. In the interior, as well as outside, Hall bears upon its front the appearance of great antiquity. Gloomy old houses flank narrow winding streets; scarcely one modern building is to be seen: the ancient wall, dark towers, and little gates, yet remain, as well as the deep ditch, and recall to mind the wars of early times, of which Hall was so often the scene. One of the gates bears an inscription in which the year 1351 is distinctly visible." It has, however, some good old churches, in one of which is buried the brave Spechbacher, the companion of Hofer in the war against the French and Bavarians, and to whose memory there is a monument, bearing an urn unattached to the outer wall.

The manufacture of salt and the economy of the adjacent mine are curious, but as they closely resemble those of Salzburg, of which we have given an account in No. 194, we shall not need here to repeat the description.

The religion of the Tyrolians is Catholic, and the people are remarkably devout, and are accustomed to keep all the feasts of the church as holidays. Rifleshooting and dancing form their principal amusements. "No fête-day," says Murray's 'Handbook,' "holiday, or marriage passes off without a rustic ball; such entertainments afford the traveller insight into the manners and customs of the people, and an opportunity of observing the varieties of costume, &c. Those, however, who have formed their notions of a Water-holes of Port Phillip.--However deserted by its current, Tyrolese dance from a ballet at the Opera, will be it is rare to find the channel of one of these streams without some much disappointed. They will find the dancers as- portion of its contents remaining in those deep pools of water sembled in the close low room of an inn, so thronged that occur at greater or less intervals in its course, and in cothat it would appear impossible to move, much less lonial phrase are termed 'water-holes.' That these water-holes dance, among the throng; yet no sooner does the form one of the most extraordinary features of this new world music strike up, than the whole is in a whirl; no must, I think, be the impression of every stranger. Often in jostling and confusion occur, and the time of the taking my course along the grassy bed of what in winter is a waltz is kept with most unerring precision. Instead basin of water, deep and clear, and in a situation where no running stream of no great depth, I have come upon a natural of the elegant costume of the theatre, with its short winding or abrupt declivity might show it to be the effect of an petticoats and flying ribands, they will find the lasses eddy in the current. This is a water-hole; and many of them decked out in pointed hats, or round fur or woollen attain the size of ponds, the contents of which seldom become caps, or in handkerchiefs tied under their chins, and stagnant, while the depth ranges from ten to twenty feet, and with waists reaching up nearly to their necks. The diminishes but little during the summer. Not a few are so remen often wear Hessian boots, which they strike to- gularly shaped as to appear the work of art; their margin formgether with great clatter by way of beating time, every ing a complete circle, at the brim of which you find the water now and then uttering a shrill cry, and leaping round as deep as in the centre. To what they owe their origin it is in the air exactly in the manner of the Highland fling. difficult to conjecture: it is probable their formation may be The enthusiasın, almost approaching to frenzy, with traced to the unseen springs by which they are fed, whose feeble which the dance is kept up, in spite of the heat and such as these from the soil around them. But however mysefforts during the course of ages may have scooped out cavities crowd, from noon till night, is truly surprising. The teriously excavated and supplied, we cannot fail to arrive at the partners often seize each other by the shoulders, in an conclusion that they constitute a wonderful provision for retainattitude not unlike hugging; they do not always following an element, the want of which would render large tracts of the same monotonous revolution, but at one time the great fruitfulness, and now abounding in flocks and herds, as man steps round his partner; at another, lifting her devoid of life as a desert.-A Summer at Port Phillip, by the Hon. arm high in the air, he twirls her round on her heel R. D. Murray. with a rapidity that makes her appear to spin, and then, quickly re-uniting, they resume their circular

[Gentile Bellini.]

scarcely known till his time; then, and afterwards, | it as a honey prepared from a reed without the aid of every noble Venetian sat for his picture, generally the bees. From India the sugar-cane was introduced into head only or half-length. Their houses were filled with Arabia, Egypt, and the western parts of Asia; and it family portraits, and it became a custom to have the is slightly mentioned by several of the early writers, effigies of their doges and those who distinguished among whom were Varro, Dioscorides, Pliny, Arrian, themselves in the service of their country painted by and Theophrastus. It was spoken of by one as "a order of the state and hung in the ducal palace, where sweet fluid expressed from a reed;" by another as many of them are still to be seen. Up to the latesta concrete honey obtained from reeds, having a saltperiod of his life Gian Bellini had been employed in like consistency, and crushing between the teeth." painting for his countrymen only religious pictures or Pliny spoke of the Indian sugar being superior to the portraits, or subjects of Venetian history; the classi- Arabian; and Arrian states that it was an article of cal taste which has spread through all the states of commerce in the Erythræan Sea. Italy had not yet penetrated to Venice: but towards the end of his life, when nearly ninety, he was invited to Ferrara to paint in the palace of the duke a dance of bacchanals. On this occasion he made the acquaintance of Ariosto, who mentions him with honour among the painters of his time.

Gian Bellini died in 1516. He had formed many disciples, and among them two whose glory in these later times has almost eclipsed that of their great teacher and precursor-GIORGIONE and TITIAN. Another, far less famous, but of whom some beautiful pictures still exist at Venice, was Curia da Carnegliano. There is at the palace of Hampton Court a very curious little head of Bellini, certainly genuine, though much injured: it is inscribed underneath, Johanes Bellini ipse. In the Louvre at Paris are three pictures ascribed to Gian Bellini: one contains his own portrait and that of his brother Gentile, heads only; the former is dark, the latter fair; both wear a kind of cap or beret. Another, | about six feet in length, represents the reception of a Venetian ambassador at Constantinople. A third is a Virgin and Child. The first-mentioned is by Gentile, and the two last uncertain. In the Berlin Museum are seven pictures by him, all considered genuine, and all are painted on panel and in oils; they belong therefore to his latest and best period.

THE CULTIVATION OF THE SUGAR-CANE
IN SPAIN.

Ir is perhaps not generally known that Spain possesses
a soil and a climate fitted to the production of sugar;
and that, if peace and industry could be once again
restored to that beautiful but distracted country, this
product might possibly become an article of import-
ance in relation to national wealth. In our fourth
number, where a wood-cut of the sugar-cane is given,
it is briefly stated that "early in the fifteenth century
the sugar-cane first appeared in Europe; Sicily took
the lead in its cultivation; thence it passed to Spain,
Madeira, and the Canary Islands; and shortly after
the discovery of the New World by Columbus, this
plant was conveyed to Hayti and Brazil, from which
latter country it gradually spread through the islands
of the West Indies." Since then, however, Dr. Traill
has communicated to the Edinburgh Philosophical
Journal' a paper which was read before the Royal
Society of Edinburgh, detailing a number of curious
and interesting circumstances connected with the cul-
tivation of the sugar-cane in Spain, derived apparently
from authentic sources. The first portion of the paper
relates to the early introduction of this branch of agri-
culture into Europe, especially Spain; and the rest
to the progress of the Spanish attempts in modern
times.

Dr. Traill suggests that the appellations by which sugar is known might in itself almost lead to a conjecture of the source whence different countries o tained their knowledge of the plant; for the Sanser.. name Sarkara, corrupted in various Indian dialects into Sakkara, Sakar, and Sukir, is evidently the root whence the name of the product of the cane among all European nations is derived, -exemplified in the Latin saccharum, the Italian zucchero, the Spanish azucar, the Russian sachar, the German zucker, the French sucre, and the English sugar. In Sumatra, Java, the Malayan peninsula, the Sandwich and Friendly Islands, the Isle of France, and other parts of the East, the names by which sugar is known, though bearing some resemblance one to another, seem to belong to a stock different from those above mentioned; Taba, Tubbu, Tebu, Tan, Too, To, and Tang, being some of these varieties. From these circumstances Dr. Traill conjectures that all the Western nations owe their knowledge of the sugar-cane to the peninsula, while the smaller islands of the Pacific, and perhaps also China, received it originally from the Malayan Archipelago.

At what date the introduction of the sugar-cane into Europe should be fixed, seems to be a doubtful point, but it was certainly known in the Morea, Rhodes, Malta, and Sicily before the Crusades. There is evidence that it was cultivated in Egypt, around Assouan, as early as the year 766; that it was first introduced into Sicily between 1060 and 1090, and had become in that island a considerable agricultural object in 1166, when a sugarmill is mentioned in a charter quoted by Father Lafitau in his 'Histoire des Découvertes et Conquêtes des Portugais."

There is reason to believe that the sugar-cane was introduced into Spain by the Moors soon after their settlement in the peninsula in the year 714. Certain it is that cultivation of sugar was greatly fostered by the Moors of Spain, and most successfully pursued by that active and enterprising race, who long held the foremost place in the prosecution of arts and learning. These sugar-plantations extended over a great part of the eastern shores of Valencia and Granada; and where the soil or climate was less fitted for this species of husbandry, the rearing of silk-worms, the cultivation of the fig, the orange, the lemon, and the olive, with wheat and barley of the finest quality, gave full employment to Moorish agricultural industry. For some time after the final subjugation of the Moors of Spain, large tracts of land in Valencia and Eastern Andalusia were still planted with the sugar-cane. The first severe check it received was from the extension of sugar cultivation in the West Indian Islands, and its second from the barbarous and impolitic expulsion of the Moors from Spain in 1609. The cultivation almost entirely ceased in Valencia, but it sustained itself feebly in Andalusia. In 1814 Dr. Traill found sugar a considerable article of agricultural industry in the eastern parts of Andalusia, notwithstanding the destructive effects of the Peninsular War.

The cultivation of the sugar-cane is supposed to have originated in India or in China; for the first distinct account of it in classic authors is derived from the discoveries of Nearchus, the officer sent down the Indus by Alexander the Great, to explore the Indian Seas, The sugar-district of Andalusia is described as a in the year 325 B.C. According to Strabo, he describes | narrow tract between a chain of rugged mountains and