Latin, Greek and Hebrew. He was moreover the intimate friend of Bishop Horne, Parkhurst, and Jones of Nayland. His Treatise on the Nature and Constitution of the Christian Church, in the List of Books by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, is a valuable work. *8. 1750.-EARTHQUAKE ÎN LONDON. *9. 1665. STATE OF ST. JAMES'S PARK. Some curious information respecting the state of this agreeable promenade, more than 150 years since, is to be found in Mr. Evelyn's Memoirs. went,' says he, to St. James's Parke, where I saw various animals, and examined the throate of y Onocratylus or Pelican, a fowle betweene a Stork and a Swan, a melancholy water-fowl brought from Astracan by the Russian Ambassador: it was diverting to see how he would toss up and turn a flat fish, plaice or flounder, to get it into its gullet at its lower beak, wch being filmy, stretches to a prodigious wideness when it devours a great fish. Here was also a small water-fowl not bigger than a morehen, that went almost erect like the penguin of America; it would eate as much fish as its whole body weighed, I never saw so unsatiable a devourer, yet ye body did not appear to swell the bigger. The Solan geese here also are greate devourers, and are said soon to exhaust all ye fish in a pond. Here was a curious sort of poultry not much exceeding the size of a tame pidgeon, with legs so short as their crops seemed to touch ye earth; a milk-white raven; a stork which was a rarity at this season, seeing he was loose and could flie loftily; two Balearían cranes, one of which having had one of his leggs broken and cut off above the knee, had a wooden or boxen leg and thigh, with a joynt so accurately made that ye creature could walke and use it as well as if it had ben natural; it was made by a souldier. The Parke was at this time stored with numerous flocks of severall sorts of ordinary and extraordinary wild E fowle, breeding about the Decoy, which for being neere so greate a citty, and among such a concourse of souldiers and people, is a singular and diverting thing. There were also deere of severall countries, white; spotted like leopards; antelopes; an elk; red deere; roebucks; staggs; Guinea goates; Arabian sheepe, &c, There were withy-potts or nests for the wild fowle to lay their eggs in, a little above ye surface of ye water.'-Evelyn's Memoirs, vol. i, p. 373. *11. 1622.-LONDON BRIDGE BURNT. QUINQUAGESIMA SUNDAY. See SEPTUAGESIMA, p. 23. 14.-SAINT VALENTINE. Valentine was an antient presbyter of the church: after a year's imprisonment at Rome he was beaten with clubs, and then beheaded, in the Via Flaminia, about the year 270, under Claudius II. The modern celebration of this day, with young persons, is well known. See T.T. for 1814, p. 32 and p. 33, note, for an elegant jeu d'esprit on this subject; T.T. for 1815, p. 52; and T.T. for 1817, p. 40. 15.-SHROVE TUESDAY. This is called Fastern's Een' and Pancake Tuesday. Shrove is the preterite of shrive, an antiquated word, which signifies to hear or make confession. See T.T. for 1814, p. 35, and for 1815, p. 45. The Popish Carnival commences from Twelfth-day, and usually holds till Lent. At Rome, the Carnival lasts for nine days, and it is nowhere seen in such perfection as at this place. See it described at length in our volume for 1815, p. 48. 16. ASH WEDNESDAY. Formerly Lent began on the Sunday after Quinquagesima, i. e. our first Sunday in Lent, and ended at Easter, containing in all 42 days; and subtracting the six Sundays which are not fasts, there remained only 36 fasting-days, the tenth part of 360, the number of days in the antient year, then considered as a tythe of the year consecrated to God's service. To these 36 fasting-days, however, of the Old-Lent, Gregory added four days more, to render it equal to the time of our Saviour's fasting, causing it to begin on Ash Wednesday, three days after Quinquagesima; and thus it has remained ever since. Lent is not of apostolic institution, nor was it known in the earlier ages of the Christian church. *16. 1710.-M. FLECHier died, The eloquent and benevolent Bishop of Nismes, on whose promotion Louis XIV passed this satirical compliment: 'I should have rewarded you much sooner, but I was afraid of losing the pleasure of hearing your discourses:' as if Bishops could not preach after their consecration! *17. 1796.-JAMES MACPHERSON Died. *17. 1793.-FRENCH INVADED HOLLAND. *18. 1478.-THE DUKE OF CLARENCE, Brother to Edward IV, being condemned for treason, had the option of selecting the instrument of his death, and chose, therefore, to be drowned in a butt of wine. While we condemn the conduct of Clarence, and the cruelty of Edward, we cannot but lament that so many should have voluntarily inflicted the same death upon themselves-by wine and other inebriating liquors. 23.-EMBER WEEK. There are four Ember Weeks in the year, namely, after the first Sunday in Lent, after the feast of Pentecost, after the 14th of September, and after the 13th of December. It is enjoined by a canon of the church, that Deacons and Ministers be ordained, or made, but only on the Sundays immediately following these Ember feasts.'-(Nelson.) 24.-SAINT MATTHIAS. Matthias was, probably, one of the seventy disciples, and was a constant attendant upon our Lord, from the time of his baptism by St. John, until his ascension. The gospel and traditions published under his name are considered spurious. *26. 1797, CASH PAYMENTS PROHIbited. *27. 1705. JOHN EVELYN DIED, ET. 85, Author of the Sylva; or, a Discourse of Forest Trees, and of the most interesting piece of autobiography, ever laid before the public. The greater part of the woods which have been raised in consequence of Evelyn's writings, have been cut down: the oaks have borne the British flag to seas and countries which were undiscovered when they were planted, and generation after generation has been coffined in the elms. The trees of his age, which may yet be standing, are verging fast toward their decay and dissolution: but his name is fresh in the land, and his reputation, like the trees of an Indian Paradise, exists and will continue to exist in full strength and beauty, uninjured by the course of time. Thrones fall and dynasties are changed; Empires decay and sink Beneath their own unwieldy weight; The imperishable mind Survives all meaner things. No change of fashion, no alteration of taste, no revolutions of science have impaired or can impair his celebrity. Satire, from which nothing is sacred, scarcely attempted to touch him while living; and the acrimony of political and religious hatred, though it spares not even the dead, has never assailed his memory, How then has he attained this enviable inheritance of fame? Not by surpassing genius; not by pre-eminent powers of mind; not by any great action, nor by any splendid accident of fortune, but by his virtue and his wisdom; by the proper use of his talents, and of the means which God had entrusted into his hands; by his principles and his PRACTICE. The Abbé Boileau, in that far-fetched strain of flattery for which the French are remarkable, pro posed once to the Academy, that the word bonheur should be proscribed from all panegyrics upon Louis XIV, parceque son bonheur étoit son propre ouvrage, son application au travail, son génie qui prévoit tout, qui pourvoit à tout, &c.: it was disparaging a prince, he said, whose success was owing to himself, to speak of his good fortune. More truly might this be said of EVELYN. The circumstances in which he was placed were all fortunate; but how many men in every generation are placed in circumstances equally propitious and with equal talents, who yet for want of the same prudence and the same principles have gone through the world without being either useful to others or happy in themselves, with no other respectability than mere wealth, and talents unemployed or misemployed could command; and sometimes perverting both, so as to be the pests, the fire-brands, and the disgrace of their country! And this has happened even to men who have set out in life with generous feelings and good intentions; for evil principles end in corrupting both, and like diseased and putrid humours carry with them the curse of assimilating to their own nature the subject into which they are introduced. The youth who looks forward to an inheritance which he is under no temptation to increase, will do well to bear the example of Evelyn in his mind, as containing nothing but what is imitable and nothing but what is good. All persons, indeed, may find in his character something for imitation; but for an English gentleman he is the perfect model. Neither to solicit public offices, nor to shun them, but when they are conferred to execute their duties diligently, conscientiously and fearlessly; to have no amusements but such as being laudable, as well as innocent, are healthful alike for the mind and for the body, and in which, while the passing hour is beguiled, a store of delightful recollection is laid up; to be the liberal encourager of literature and the arts; to seek |