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-There is nothing new under the -Sun," said Solomon; but if the wisest Loman the world e'er saw,' had lived in the nineteenth century, and beheld men ofdiving to the bottom of the ocean or ascending in the air: if he had seen Ivessels crossing the Atlantic propelled by steam, and regardless of wind or tide, and shad his splendid Temple lighted with gas: or, last not least, if he could have got our two-and-thirty leolumns of " Literature, Amusement, and Instruction," and an Engraving to boot, for two-pence, he would, perhaps, have qualified the assertion. There is, however, no doubt that the proverb is good in a general sense, and that many inventions which are deemed original, are but improvements on former suggestions: and the public will, perhaps, be surprised to learn, that the "much-talked-of tread-mill, of which we have so accurate an engraving and description, in the First Number of the Mirror, is borrowed from the Chinese. We would not have our readers to mistake us, or to suppose that the Chinese are so depraved as to require VOL. I.

such steps as those of a tread-mill to be taken for the reformation of, offenders. To cast such an imputation on this singular people, would be enough to make them refuse sending us another pound of tea, or at least to require that we should be sent to the Emperor to expiate our offence by the kouto, or some much worse humiliation. In saying that the tread-mill is borrowed from the Chinese, we allude to the mechanical principle on which it is constructed. This principle is applied by the Chinese to a chain pump, and is one of the modes used for raising water from rivers for irrigating their lands.

The Chinese, ignorant of the principle of the common pump, raise water either by a machine resembling the Persian wheel, or by a chain pump, the chambers of which, instead of being cylindrical, are universally square. Of this puinp, the Engraving in our present number is a correct representation, and the slightest glance will show its similarity to the Tread-Mill.

In the Chinese Tread-Mill or Tread

L

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Pump, the inside of a hollow wooden trunk is divided in the middle by a board into two compartments; a chain made to turn over a small wheel or roller at each extremity of the trunk, is fastened to flat and square pieces of wood, nicely fitted to the capacity of the cavity. These, called lifters, move with the chain round the rollers, and raise a volume of water proportionate to the dimensions of the hollow trunk. The power to work this machine may be applied different ways. When it is intended to raise a great quantity, sets of wooden arms, in the form of the letter T, are affixed to the lengthened axis of the rollers, and smoothed for the foot to rest upon. The axis is made to turn upon two wooden uprights, rendered steady by a piece of timber stretched across them. Men, by treading upon the projecting parts of the wooden arms, supporting themselves at the same time by a cross beam, give a rotary motion to the chain, and the lifters, being attached to it, raise up a constant and abundant stream of water,

Having thus stated the origin of the Tread-Mill, which is evidently Chinese, we have to notice a new application of its powers, by Mr. Van Heythuysen, to the propelling of barges on canals. The object is to obviate the use of horses. The apparatus is made light, and separable from the barge; and it is found that two men can propel a barge by it, at the rate of five miles an hour. The saving of the expense of horses and track roads promises to make this application of human power very valuable.

THE LAPLANDERS.

In our last we gave a description and engraving of the Rein-deer, and we now proceed to give a brief notice of the Laplanders. These innocent people devote their whole care to the manage ment of the rein-deer, occasionally housing and herding their herds in winter, and attending them, during the summer, to the tops of the mountains. They understand all the arts of the dairy, and from the milk of their deer prepare many of their most nourishing and agreeable repasts. In their houses the Laplanders make the fire in the centre of the floor, and round it are spread the rein-deer skins on a few birch twigs, on which they sit in the day and sleep at night.

The Laplanders wear on their head a small cap, made with eight seams, covered with strips of brown cloth, the cap itself being of a greyish colour.

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This reaches no lower than the tips of the ears, Their outer garment, or jacket, is open in front half way down the bosom, below which part it is fastened with hooks. The jacket, when loose, reaches below the knees; but as it is usually tied up with a girdle, it scarcely reaches so far, and is sloped off at the bottom. The collar is of four fingers' breadth, thick, and stitched with thread. They wear no stockings. Their breeches, made of the coarse and slight woollen cloth of the country, called walmal, reach down to their feet, tapering gradually to the bottom, and are tied with a bandage over their half-boots.

All the needle-work is performed by the women. They make their thread of the sinews in the legs of the reindeer, separating them, while fresh, with their teeth, into slender strings, which they twist together.

The Laplander is said to consume ten times more flesh than a Swedish peasant; a family of four persons devour a deer in a week: they eat the glutton, squirrel, bear, martin, beaver, and, in short, every living creature they can catch, except wolves and foxes, “Every day (says Von Buch), I have seen rein-deer flesh cooked in their huts for the whole family, and generally of young fawns, in large iron kettles. When the flesh was cooked, it was immediately torn asunder by the master of the house with his fingers, and divided among the family; and the eager ness with which each person received his allowance, and the rapidity with which they strove, as for a wager, to tear it with their teeth and fingers, are almost incredible. In the meantime the broth remains in the kettle, and is boiled up with thick rein-deer milk, with rye or oatmeal, and sometimes, though seldom, with a little salt. This broth is then distributed, and devoured with the same hungry avidity. The SeaLaplander, on the other hand, has only fish, or fish livers with train oil, and never has either the means or opportunity of preparing such costly soups. The former not only relishes his flesh, but finds in it a strong nourishment. In fact, how few boors in Norway or Sweden, or even in Germany, can compare their meals, in point of nutrition, with this! In winter, the food of the Laplanders is more multifarious. They then catch an incredible number of ptarmigans, wood grouse, and a number of other wild birds, partly to eat, and partly to sell. They not unfre quently also shoot a bear, which they eat like the Norwegian peasants. They

love with Rowena, the niece of Hengist, the Saxon warrior. She presented the Prince with a bowl of spiced wine, saying in Saxon, "Waes Heal Hlaford Cyning," which signified, "Be of health, Lord King." Vortigern married her, and thus his kingdom fell to the Saxons. Waes-heil thus became the name of the drinking cup of the AngloSaxons, and those cups were afterwards constantly used at public entertainments. In parts of the country remote from the metropolis, the singing of Christmas carols yet usher in the morning. After breakfast the busy housewife prepares her plum-puddings, mince-pies, and confectionary, which she decorates with the emblems of the time; a scratch in the dough in the shape of a hay-rack, denoting the manger of the infant Saviour, is one of those emblems most commonly in use. The younger part of the household hunt the garden for evergreens to decorate the interior of the apartments; and the woods are sought to bring home the misletoe, which is to be suspended in the room where the pleasures of the evening are to take place, and beneath which the "sighing lips," as Moore calls them, of many a lovely girl still continue to be pressed, despite of that coy resistance and those blushes that so much heighten the charms of beauty. They also paint can dles of different colours to be lighted up in the evening; a custom, perhaps, borrowed from ancient Romish practice; though some imagine that lighting up houses formed a part of the worship of the Teutonic God, Thor, being one of the ceremonies observed at Juultide, or the feast of Thor, from which it was introduced into the Christian feast of Christmas. Thus, if some part of our Christmas ceremonies was derived from the Saturnalia, another was evidently of Northern origin. The misletoe was a plant held sacred by the Druids. The Christmas carols also were, it is probable, Juul or Ule-songs first sung in honour of the heathen deity; and the use of evergreens may be ascribed to the same origin. In the evening, the Ule-log, or Christmas-stock, as at present denominated, is placed on the fire in the principal apartments of the house. The company seat themselves round it, and the cheerful cup is yet handed about, which often contains nothing more than ale in the cottages of the peasantry.

What remains to modern times of Christmas gambols then commences, and ancient Christian plays are even still plainly to be traced among them.

Blindman's-buff, hunt the slipper, the game of the goose, snap-dragon, pushpin, and dancing, form the amusements of the younger part of the assemblage, and cards the elder; though among the more substantial people, as they are denominated in the language of the country-folks, the simpler amusements begin to lose their value. But their very simplicity recalls the memory of past-times; they have a certain charm about them worth all that is artificial, and they would not be bereft of attraction to minds of sensibility, if they were wholly abandoned to the lowly: for they have that in them which is far more endearing than the sordid heart'lessness of fashionable entertainments, and the formality of high life. Bereft of superstition, Christmas is then a season of innocent mirth-a pleasing interlude to lighten and beguile the horrors of our inclement winters. It affords a period for the exhibition of hospitable greetings, and the pleasing interchange of good offices, of which, in the country, opportunities are rare. How many innocent hearts rejoice there at anticipating the season and its festivities, whose feelings have never been chilled by the artificial, circulating, and calculating civilities of Metropolitan intercourse. But the humbler ranks have been accused of superstition because the stocking is still thrown, the pod with nine peas hid over the door, and all the little ceremonies so admirably depicted by Burns in his Hallowe'en still practised. These, however, are now generally looked upon as a diversion, and few have faith in their efficacy; for in our days the poor have as good common sense as their superiors. These diversions come to them but once a year, and it is to be hoped that they may long continue to practise them. There is not, perhaps, any part of Great Britain in which Christmas is kept so splendidly as in Yorkshire. The din of preparation commences for some weeks before, and its sports and festivities continue beyond the first month of the new year. The first intimation of Christmas, in Yorkshire, is by what are there called the vessel-cup singers, generally poor old women, who, about three weeks before Christmas, go from house to house, with a waxen or wooden doll fantastically dressed, and sometimes adorned with an orange, or a fine rosy-tinged apple. With this in their hands, they sing or chaurt an old carol, of which the following homely stanza forms a part :

I 2

God bless the master of this house,
The mistress also,

And all the little children

That round the table go. The image of the child is, no doubt, intended to represent the infant Saviour; and the vessel-cup is, most probably, the remains of the wassail-bowl, which anciently formed a part of the festivities of this season of the year.

Another custom, which commences at the same time as the vessel-cup singing, is that of the poor of the parish visiting all the neighbouring farmers to beg corn, which is invariably given to them, in the quantity of a full pint, at least to each. This is called mumping, as is the custom which exists in Bedfordshire, of the poor begging the broken victuals the day after Christmas-day.

Christmas-eve is, in Yorkshire, celebrated in a peculiar manner: at eight o'clock in the evening the bells greet "old father Christmas" with a merry peal, the children parade the streets with drums, trumpets, bells, or perhaps, in their absence, with the poker and shovel, taken from their humble cottage fire; the yule candle is lighted, and

High on the cheerful fire Is blazing seen th' enormous Christmas

brand.

Supper is served, of which one dish, from the lordly mansion to the humblest shed, is, invariably, furmety; yule cake, one of which is always made for each individual in the family, and other more substantial viands, are also added. Poor Robin, in his Almanack for the year 1676 (speaking of the winter quarter), says, "and lastly, who would but praise it, because of Christmas, when good cheer doth so abound, as if all the world were made of mincepies, plum-pudding, and fermety."And Brand says, "on the night of this eve our ancestors were wont to light candles of an enormous size, called Christmas candles."

To enumerate all the good cheer which is prepared at this festival, is by no means necessary. In Yorkshire, the Christmas pie is still a regular dish, and is regularly served to the higher class of visitants, while the more humble ones are tendered yule cake, or bread and cheese, in every house they

*Furmety, from frumentum, wheat. It is made of "creed wheat, or wheat which, after being beaten for some time with a wooden mallet, is then boiled and eaten with milk, sugar, nutmeg, &c.

mas,

enter during the twelve days of ChristThe Christmas pie is one of the good old dishes still retained at a Yorkshire table; it is not of modern invention. Allan Ramsay, in his Poems, tells us, that among other baits by which the good ale-wife drew customers to her house, that she never failed to tempt them

Ay at yule whene'er they came,
A bra' goose-pie.

The Christmas pie of the present day is like that described by Allan Ramsay, and generally consists of a goose, sometimes two, and that with the addition of half-a-dozen fowls.Such is the existing celebration of Christmas in Yorkshire, and, we believe, in some other parts of England; but these venerable customs are becoming every year less common: the sending of presents also, from friends in the country to friends in town at this once cheerful season, is, in a great measure, obsolete: "nothing is to be had for nothing" now; and, without the customary bribe of a barrel of oysters, or a basket of fish, we may look in vain for arrivals by the York Fly, or the Norwich Expedition:Few presents now to friends are sent, Few hours in merry-making spent; Old-fashioned folks there are, indeed, Whose hogs and pigs at Christmas bleed, Whose honest hearts no modes refine, They send their puddings and their No Norfolk turkeys load the waggon, Which once the horses scarce could drag on;

chine.

And, to increase the weight with these,
Came their attendant sausages.
Should we not then, as men of taste,
Revive old customs gone and past?
And (fie for shame!) without reproach,
With strange old kindness, send up
Stuff, as we ought, the Bury coach?

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With rapture I read when they first met she had as many excuses for frailty as

my sight,

Nor once felt inclined to desist Till I'd swallowed (in fancy, I mean,) with delight,

A full alehouse quart of gin-twist. 'Twas a vision, and soon I awoke all forlorn,

And exclaimed (with raised eye and clenched fist),

Ah! where have I lived? and oh! why

was I born?

Since I can't make a jug of gin-twist. Now Christmas is coming, when care

turns his back,

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secret possess,

And me with his knowledge assist, May he never experience the cutting distress,

Of longing in vain for gin-twist.
H. L. B.

JANE SHORE. Jane Shore was daughter of a citizen of London; her youth and beauty being her chief portion, she was induced to marry, much against her inclination, Mr. Matthew Shore, a goldsmith, in Lombard-street, a person extremely rich, but much advanced in years. The fame of this lady, far from being confined within the limits of the city, soon reached the ears of his Majesty; for Edward IV. made his addresses to her and won her. Her husband left England, she repaired to Court, and shone with splendour in the sphere of gaiety and festivity. Historians represent her as extremely beautiful, remarkably cheerful, and of most uncommon generosity. The King, they further tell us, was not less captivated with her temper than her person, for that she never spoke ill of, nor endeavoured to prejudice him against, any one. She often indeed importuned him, but it was ever in behalf of the unfortunate. She scorned to be rewarded for her good offices, and her riches were therefore trifling, when she came to fall into misfortune. By all the accounts we have of this lady,

With

ever fell to any woman's share. Her mind was formed for magnificence, as her heart was for virtue; both could not be gratified, and virtue sunk in the unequal struggle: yet with so much modesty did she employ the ascendancy she got over Edward, that even the pride of his Queen, the most sensible sufferer, was never offended at their intimacy. had gained by her munificence, her beThe friendship she her considerable, even in the beginnevolence, and affability, had made ning of this reign. Upon the death of Edward it was that her scene of adversity began to shew itself. the amiable Lord Hastings she continued her unlawful intercourse, But so much was this Nobleman devoted to the love of his Royal master, that never till the death of the King did he discover his passion for the favourite mistress. And now, both she and her Noble Lord began to shew themselves so unalterably devoted to the young King and his brother, as to render themselves objects of hatred to the protector, Gloucester, afterwards Richard III. who looked upon them as the main obstacles of his deep-laid ambition. To give some colour to his proceedings against Hastings, whom he caused suddenly to be beheaded, he directed the Sheriff of London to arrest Mrs. Shore as his accomplice, and sent her to the Tower for examination. But nothing, except her unlawful connection with Edward and Hastings, appearing against her, it was matter of indignation and ridicule to the people, to see the formidable charge of treason and witchcraft terminate in a single penance. This, however, she was obliged to perform on the Sunday morning next following; being brought clothed in a white sheet, by way of procession, from the Bishop of London's palace to St. Paul's church, with the cross carried before her, and a wax-taper in her hand. This sentence she underwent with a behaviour so graceful, but so resigned, that the penalty of her crime became as it were a triumph over her beholders hearts. Nor was her punishment confined to her person only; for the Protector seized the little fortune she had made, about two or three thousand marks, and ordered her house to be rifled. It has been said also, that his hatred pursued her to such extremity, that it was dangerous after this for any one to accommodate her with lodging, or the common necessaries of life. Thus

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