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and heap up wheat till the body, to the tail's tip, was covered.

The cat is a fixed and settled domestic animal, attached to the premises, and unwilling to remove; while the dog follows the master and such is the natural antipathy and discordance between these two animals, that, of persons living in no very social harmony, it is said, they lead the life of cat and dog. She has a more voluminous and expressive vocabulary than any other known brute: the short twitter of complacency and affection to her kittens; the pur of tranquillity and pleasure, when seated on the knee of her master; the spit of defiance; the mew of distress; the growl of anger; and the horrible wailings of pain or fighting, which give name to the noisy and discordant instrument of disapprobation, the catcall.

She is the emblem of the moon, from the great changeableness of the pupil of the eye, which in the daytime is a mere narrow line, dilatable in the dark to a luminous globe; and she can, for this reason, like most animals of prey, see best by night.

It was formerly the trick of the countrymen to substitute a cat for a sucking pig, and bring it to market in a bag: so that he who, without careful examination, made a hasty bargain, was said to buy a pig in a poke, and might get a cat in a bag; and a discovery of this cheat gave origin to the expression of letting the cat out of the bag, as a premature and unlucky disclosure.

The fur of the cat was formerly used in the ornamental trimming of coats and cloaks: and in allusion to the unfitness of her flesh for food, it is said of anything confined to one purpose only, What can you have of a cat but her skin? The catgut used by ladies, and for rackets, and also the finer strings for violins, are made from the dried intestines of the cat; and a smaller kind of fiddle is called a kit: the larger strings are from the intestines of sheep and lambs. Her claws are retractile, and can be protruded with great violence in anger. Her scratch is supposed to be venomous, because a lacerated wound is more apt to fester than a definite cut with a sharp instrument. The tenacity of her hold gave origin to many metaphorical expressions and appellations; as the cat, or tackle, for drawing up the anchor of a ship; and a cat-o'-nine tails, or Scourge, so called from the scratches it leaves on the skin like the clawings of a cat. A domestic implement for holding a plate before the fire, with six spokes or radii, three of which rest on the ground in whatever position it is placed, is called a cat, from the belief that, however a cat may be thrown, she always falls on her legs. From her great powers of resistance, she is said to have nine lives. ""Tis a pity you had not ten lives, a cat's and your own," says Ben

Jonson, in Every Man in his Humour. The well-known tale of the monkey seizing hold of the paw of the cat, to get the roasted chestnuts from the hot embers, gave origin to the proverb, "to make a cat's paw of one," or to make another subservient to one's own purposes.*

The cat is very subject to vomitings: and every one too much addicted to excess of wine knows what is meant by shooting a cat. She has been supposed to be particularly fond of fish, giving rise to the poetical simile,

"What female heart can gold despise?

What cat's averse to fish?"

GRAY, Ode on the death of a favourite Cat. But this is not a probable fact: for if a plate of fish, and a plate of meat, either raw or dressed, be placed before her, she will generally prefer the meat. And it would be a propensity not very natural, as she abhors water, and can in a great measure live without it; and is extremely cautious of wetting her feet. It is equally erroneous that she is subject to fleas: the small insect which infests the half-grown kitten being a totally different animal, exceedingly swift in running, but not salient, or leaping, like the flea. She is, however, especially the black kind, highly charged with electricity, visible in the dark, when irritated.

Her attitudes and motions are all of great elegance, in consequence of her being furnished with collar bones; she can, therefore, convey food to her mouth by the paw, like the monkey, can climb and clasp, strike sidewise, toss her prey upwards, and seat herself on an eminence of very confined and narrow surface, as the arm of au elbow chair, or her

This expression is of greater antiquity than many suppose; for we find the story of the cat and the monkey thus related, as an original anecdote, in the Voyage round the World, by Dr. John Francis Gemelli Čareri, in 1695. The Doctor, treating of the kingdom of Canara, in Hindostan, after reciting three anecdotes of monkeys, not distinguished for their delicacy, proceeds as follows:-"D. Antony Machado de Brito, admiral of the Portuguese fleet in India, told me, that one of these creatures continually troubling him, and breaking all it found in the kitchen, he once, to be even with it, ordered a cocoa nut to be put upon the fire, which sort of fruit the monkeys are most greedy of, and hid himself to see how that beast would take it without burning

his paws.

The cunning creature, coming at the usual hour, and finding its beloved food on the fire, looked about, and seeing a cat by the chimney, held her head in his mouth, and made use of her paws to take off the cocoa-nut, and, then cooling it in water, ing about all day with the pain it had been put to." ate it; the Portuguese laughing to see the cat mew(Gem. Hindostan, b. ii. chap. 1.) An ancient Latin author, in allusion to this, says: "Simia quam similis turpissima bestia nobis."-W. T.

A cat once kept by my father would jump upon one of his shoulders, pass behind his head, and along the arm on the other side, extended, with the milk jug dangling between the finger and thumb, into which puss, standing upou the hand, would dip his paw, get it suffused with milk, and then lick it for his pains.-J. D.

and

favourite position, the knee of her master. She is fond of looking out of a window, gazing with complacency on the passers by; whence the child's puzzle of, what is most like a cat looking out of a window? but a cat looking in.

The favourite and most usual transformation of witches was into a cat; and as all old or deformed women, particularly single or solitary ones, were suspected for witches, old maids are still called cats or tabbies.Magazine of Natural History.

Select Biography.

EARLY ADVENTURES OF SIR WILLIAM

WALLACE.

PATRIOTISM holds few more celebrated names in her proud roll than that of the Scottish warrior, Wallace-a man whom the extraordinary circumstances of the times called forth from comparative obscurity to direct the councils, and virtually to fill the throne, of his country. At the period to which we allude, Edward I. had so extended his conquests in Scotland, as to march unresist edly as far north as Aberdeen and Elgin;

and John Baliol, whom Edward had nominated King of Scotland, was literally stripped of his royal robes, and confessing his feudal transgression in rebelling against his lord paramount, he made a formal surrender of his kingdom to the victor; who, after appoint ing a guardian, treasurer, and justiciary of the captured kingdom, and placing English governors and garrisons in the Scottish castles-returned to England. Nor was this all for Edward not only destroyed all evidence of Scotland ever having been free, but he carried to London the crown and sceptre surrendered by Baliol, and even the sacred stone on which the Scottish monarchs were placed when they received the royal inauguration. The latter relic is preserved to this day in the coronation chair in Westminster Abbey.

As soon, however, as Edward had crossed the frontiers on his victorious return, the Scots broke out into a number of petty insurrections, unconnected, indeed, but sufficiently numerous to indicate a disposition for hostilities, which wanted but a leader to render it general. They found one in Sir

William Wallace.

This champion of his country was born about the middle of the reign of Alexander III. Though of Anglo-Norman descent, he was not so distinguished by birth and fortune as to enjoy high rank or great honour. He was the second son of Sir Malcolm Wallace of Elderslie, three miles west of Paisley; and his mother appears to have been a sister of Reginald de Crawford, sheriff of Ayr. Winton, his most ancient and authentic biographer, says

He was come of gentlemen,
In simple state he was then;
His father was a manly knight,
His mother was a lady bright;
He was gotten and born in marriage:
And his eldest brother the heritage
Had and joyed all his days.

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Wallace was, however, born in a rank which insured him a martial education; and the condition of his father entitled him, if not to claim an equality, yet certainly to associate with the proudest of the land. Popular Scottish tradition," says a fascinating historian, "which delights to dwell upon the beloved champion of the people, describes William Wallace as of dignified stature, unequalled strength and dexterity, and so brave, that only on one occasion, and then under the influence of a supernatural power, is he allowed by tradition to have experienced the sensation of fear."*

A sense of private injuries as well as of public wrongs appear to have stimulated His father, upon the first publication of the Wallace to vengeance upon the English. orders for all to come in and take their oaths of allegiance to Edward I., had fled from the Lennox, accompanied by his eldest son; and it is said, (though upon questionable authority,) that he was, not long afterwards, slain in an encounter with the English at Kyle, in Ayrshire. His mother, meanwhile, and Wallace, now advancing into manhood, had taken refuge with her father's relations; found himself driven from his paternal home, an object of suspicion to the government, and shunned by cautious and timid friends who regarded Scotland as lost.

Elderslie into the mountainous district of

"Over all this," says one of Wallace's biographers, “his mind, pent up in a silent restraint, which, for a season, he was compelled to observe, brooded and rankled in secret; but, an event now took place, which settled his destiny, and drove him into open rebellion. It appears that he had formed an

attachment to a beautiful woman who resided

in the town of Lanark, and that, in passing through the streets of that burgh, well armed, and somewhat richly dressed, he was recog nised by a troop of English soldiers, who Wallace, surrounded and insulted him. at first, would have prudently got clear of their insolence, but a contemptuous stroke which one of them made against his sword, provoked him to draw, and the culprit was laid dead at his feet. A tumult now arose, when, almost overpowered by numbers, he escaped with difficulty into the house of his mistress, and through it by a back passage, into the neighbouring woods. For this ready aid, the unfortunate girl was seized next day by William de Heslope, the English sheriff, and with inhuman cruelty, condemned and executed. But Wallace's revenge, when he

* Sir Walter Scott. Hist. Scotland, vel. i. 71

heard of her unmerited fate, was as rapid as it was stern. That very night he collected thirty faithful and powerful partisans, who, entering the town when all were in their beds, reached the sheriff's lodging in silence. It was a room or loft, constructed, like most of the buildings of those times, of wood, and communicating with the street by a high stair. Up this Wallace rushed at midnight, and. beating down the door, presented himself in full armour, and with his naked weapon, before the affrighted officer, who asked him whence he came, or who he was? I am William Wallace,' he replied, whose life you sought yesterday; and now thou shalt answer me for my poor maiden's death." With these words, he seized his naked victim by the throat, and passing his sword through his body, cast the bleeding wretch down the stair into the street, where he was immediately slain. He then collected his soldiers, and, as the stir and tumult arose, drew off through the streets into the woods which surrounded the town."* There he lay concealed for some time, and tradition points out one of his hiding-places, which is still called Wallace's Cave, and is a small slit in the western face of the chasm of Cartlane Crags, near Cora Linn waterfall on the romantic Clyde. (See the Cut.)

Proscription and outlawry followed this audacious murder; and, from this period we must date Wallace's systematic and determined resistance to England. "It was from this time," says an ancient historian, "that all who were of bitter mind, and who had become weary of the servitude which was imposed by the domination of the English, flocked to this brave man like bees to their swarm, and he became their leader."

Long after this adventure at Lanark, Wallace and his men lived by plunder, retreating, when pursued, to the woods and fastnesses, from which they again issued to attack the convoys and foraging parties of the English. All the soldiers who fell into their hands were instantly put to death; the arms and harness which they wore, and the stores of flour, wine, and other provisions which they were accompanying to the different castles and garrisons being immediately appropriated to the use of the band, and divided by Wallace with a liberality which left little or nothing for himself. On other occasions, when they were either unsuccessful in their attacks, or too small in numbers to venture against the enemy, the chase afforded them a livelihood; whilst the skins and furs of the animals which they slew, supplied them with clothing against the inclemency of a cold and damp country, and with warm bedding and carpeting for the

Wynton, ii. 95. Fordun, ii. 170.-Quoted by Mr. P. F. Tytler, in his entertaining Lives of Scot

tish Worthies.

caves and rocky retreats where they concealed their plunder and had their only home.

In

To gain some knowledge of the strength and resources of the English, Wallace would often assume various disguises, and mingle with their soldiers, and visit the towns in which their garrisons were stationed. districts where he was little known, he ventured in his common dress, with a short dagger or knife at his girdle, and a staff or hunting-pole in his hand; or, he would openly join in the chase, attended by a few followers, in the usual style of a smaller baron or Scottish gentleman. This rashness led him into many encounters, which have been exaggerated by his romantic biographers. Still, his animosity against the English could scarcely be restrained, and his great personal strength made him exceedingly confident; though, to slay a bucklerplayer at Ayr, to attack and put to flight a party of soldiers who attempted to rob him of his day's sport, as he fished on Irvine water; to braid an angry steward of Henry Percy; or repay the rudeness of the Squire Longcastle, by a mortal thrust in the throat with his dagger; were exactly such incidents as might be expected from the situation in which Wallace was then placed. Much as he trusted in his great personal strength, he usually, it seems, took the precaution to wear a light coat of mail under his common clothes. -He wore a habergeon under his gown or mantle; his bonnet, which to common sight, was nothing more than a cap of cloth or velvet, had a steel basnet concealed under it; a collar, or neckpiece, of the same metal, fitted him so closely, that it was hid completely by his doublet; and below his gloves, which, to those who stood by, seemed merely leather or cloth, he took care to have strong gauntlets of plate. Thus, his enemies instead of finding Wallace a quiet traveller, clad "in the summer weeds of peace," had to contend with an assailant in full armour, and of extraordinary personal strength. In all these encounters, his extreme bravery, his hair-breadth escapes, and knightly prowess, commanded the admiration of the people. Hence he trained his followers to imitate these shining qualities; and, in after-times he led them on to battle and victory.

To tell the perils of this patriot's career would occupy more space than we can devote even to such interesting details: how Wallace made himself master of the country beyond the Forth, and took several castles, deserted as he was by the apostate nobility; how he defeated the English at Stirling, then led his forces across the English border, and sweeping it lengthwise from Newcastle to the gates of Carlisle, left nothing behind him but blood and ashes; how he was

Jamieson's "Wallace."

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chosen guardian of Scotland in the Forest church in Selkirkshire; how Edward, alarmed at Wallace's success, hastened to suppress the Scottish revolt with the most superb army that had ever entered Scotland; how Wallace first laid waste the intermediate country between Stirling and the frontiers, and then withdrew to the centre of the kingdom, to receive the English attack, when their army should be exhausted by privation; how Wallace was defeated at Falkirk, notwithstanding his phalanxes of spearmen, with lances like a castle walled with steel ;* how Wallace then disgusted with faction and envy, in addition to his defeat, resigned the guardianship of the kingdom; how the English king renewed hostilities, and the Scottish leaders submitting, a price of 300 marks was set upon the head of Wallace; and how Stirling Castle long held out with a handful of brave men, and was the last for tress which resisted the arms of Edward in Scotland. But what Edward prized more than the surrender of this last fortress, was the captivity of Scotland's last patriot. Mean

Some minute particulars are recorded by an

ancient English historian, whose information regard

ing the Scottish war was evidently derived from eyewitnesses. "Each soldier slept upou the ground, and used none other pillow than his shield; each horseman had his horse bridled and armed beside him; and the horses themselves tasted nothing but cold iron, champing their steel bits for want of better fodder." In the midst of this army lay the King himself, sharing no better couch than the meanest soldier, and sleeping ou the ground in full armour, whilst his single attendant, a page, held his war-horse. As the King slept, the horse put his heavy foot upon his royal master, and wounded him seriously; yet, at day-break, the King mounted his steed, and marched with the army.

while, treachery was at work, and Wallace was betrayed by an apostate Scottish nobleman, Sir John Monteath, who went searching in the wilds where Wallace had been driven for refuge, and seized the patriot at Robroyston, near Glasgow, by the treachery of a servant. Scott tells the sequel:

"Sir William Wallace was instantly transferred to London, where he was brought to trial in Westminster Hall, with as much apparatus of infamy as the ingenuity of his enemies could devise. He was crowned with a garland of oak, to intimate that he had been king of outlaws. The arraignment charged him with high treason, in respect that he had stormed and taken towns and castles, and shed much blood. "Traitor," said Wallace, "was I never." The rest of the charges he confessed, and proceeded to justify them. He was condemned, and executed by decapitation. His head was placed on a pinnacle on London bridge, and his quarters were distributed over the kingdom."

"Thus," A.D. 1305, adds the historian, "died this courageous patriot, leaving a remembrance which will be immortal in the hearts of his

countrymen."+ Tradition has hallowed many a spot, and endeared it with his name. Abbey Craig, near Stirling, the scene of Wallace's signal defeat of the English, is proudly pointed out by the Scottish guides; and, at Elderslie, the paternal seat of Wallace, is the memorial represented on the opposite page. "The castle," says Chambers, "appears to be of later erection than the hero; but the tree, whose branches concealed him on one momentous occasion from the En+ History of Scotland, i. 79.

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glish, yet survives near the wayside, at a short distance from the house." The accompanying vignette shows this interesting tree, as it stood in the year 1792. Through how many ages of rapine war has this venerable lordling of the forest stood firm; and how it seems to mock the vanity of human life!

The Public Journals.

SHAKSPEARE AND MILTON.

THE English flatter themselves by a pretence that Shakspeare and Milton are popular in England. It is good taste, indeed, to wish to have it believed that those poets are popular. Their names are so; but if it be said that the works of Shakspeare and Milton are popular-that is, liked and studied-among the wide circle whom it is now the fashion talk of as enlightened, we are obliged to express our doubts whether a grosser delusion was ever promulgated. Not a play of Shakspeare's can be ventured on the London stage without mutilation-and without the most revolting balderdash foisted into the rents made by managers in his divine dramas; nay, it is only some three or four of his pieces that can be borne at all by our all-intelligent public, unless the burthen be lightened by dancing, singing, or processioning. This for the stage. But is it otherwise with "the reading public?" We believe it is worse; we think, verily, that the apprentice or his master who sets out Othello or Richard at the theatres, does get a sort of glimpse, a touch, an atmosphere of intellectual grandeur; but he could not keep himself awake during the perusal of that which he admires -or fancies he admires-in scenic representation. As to understanding Shakspeare

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-as to entering into all Shakspeare's thoughts and feelings-as to seeing the idea of Hamlet, or Lear, or Othello, as Shakspeare saw it

this we believe falls, and can only fall, to the lot of the really cultivated few, and of those who may have so much of the temperament of genius in themselves, as to comprehend and sympathize with the criticism of men of genius. Shakspeare is now popular by name, because, in the first place, great men, more on a level with the rest of mankind, have said that he is admirable, and his genius, he has presented points to all. also because, in the absolute universality of Every man, woman, and child, may pick at least one flower from his garden, the name and scent of which are familiar. To all which must of course be added, the effect of tion what it may. There are tens of thoutheatrical representation, be that representa sands of persons in this country whose only acquaintance with Shakspeare, such as it is, is through the stage.

dise Lost," wrote to the Duke of Buckingham, Waller, upon the coming out of the "Paraamongst other pretty things, as follows:

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Milton, the old blind schoolmaster, has lately written a poem on the Fall of Manlength!" Our divine poet asked a fit audience, remarkable for nothing but its extreme although it should be but few. His prayer

Lost" has ever been, and at this moment was heard; a fit audience for the "Paradise must be, a small one, and we cannot affect to believe that it is destined to be much increased by what is called the march of intellect.-Quarterly Review.

RECORDS OF A STAGE VETERAN.

Suett.-The actors of a bygone day had a characteristic humour; the public then

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