ment, and munificence. His Christian Researches' in Asia is a most interesting work; and his prizes for promoting a knowledge of the state of India, by calling attention to the country and its circumstances, evinced a princely generosity. His Three Discourses on the Jubilee show him to have been the christian and the patriot. *12. 1814.-CUSTOM-HOUSE DESTROYED BY FIRE. In a very few hours the destruction of this old but useful pile of building was complete. The first custom-house built in London was in 1559; which was burnt down in 1718, and rebuilt the same year: and it was on Saturday, the above date, again totally consumed by fire. The first custom-house, therefore, stood 159 years; the second 96 years. The present building, recently finished, is in a style of magnificence worthy of the immense metropolis and the noble river to which it forms so conspicuous an ornament. 14.-SEXAGESIMA SUNDAY.-See Septuagesima, p. 38. 14. SAINT VALENTINE. Valentine was an antient presbyter of the church; he suffered martyrdom in the persecution under Claudius II, at Rome. Being delivered into the custody of a man named Asterius, one of whose daughters was afflicted with blindness, he restored the use of her sight, and, by this miracle, converted the whole family to Christianity. They afterwards suffered martyrdom. Valentine, after a year's imprisonment at Rome, was beaten with clubs, and then beheaded, in the Via Flaminia, about the year 270.-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. *14. 1780.-SIR WILLIAM BLACKSTOne died, The learned author of Commentaries on the Laws of England,' which are at once celebrated for the perspicuity and elegance of their style, and (generally speaking) for their sound and constitutional principles. He is charged, however, with softening some passages in his first edition, to make them more agreeable to the crown lawyers. His Farewell to the Muse' contains some pleasing lines. We select the following:As by some tyrant's stern command, A wretch forsakes his native land, In foreign climes condemned to roam, An endless exile from his home; Pensive he treads the destined way, And dreads to go, nor dares to stay; Till on some neighb'ring mountain's brow He stops and turns his eyes below; There, melting at the well-known view, Drops a last tear and bids adieu; So I thus doomed from thee to part, Gay queen of fancy and of art, Reluctant move with doubtful mind, Oft stop and often look behind! Companion of my tender age, Serenely gay and sweetly sage, How blithesome were we wont to rove, Where fervent bees with humming voice In sweet society with thee! Then all was joyous-all was young, But now the pleasing dream is o'er, These scenes must charm me now no more! Me wrangling courts and stubborn law There selfish faction rules the day, In frighted streets their orgies hold; *15. 1708.-JOHN PHILIPS DIED, Author of 'The Splendid Shilling,' 'Blenheim,' and Cyder;' which possess considerable merit as poems: and he is a strenuous advocate for smoking, to which he was himself much addicted. *17. 1571.-REMOVAL OF MARCLEY HILL. On this day, an earthquake in Herefordshire removed Marcley Hill to a considerable distance from the place where it stood. It continued in motion two or three days, and either carried away or overturned every thing which impeded its progress. The ground thus moved was about twentysix acres. (Speed and Camden.) And in 1583, according to Stow, a similar prodigy happened in Dorsetshire. The sylvan scene Migrates, uplifted; and, with all its soil, COWFER. Philips, in his Cyder,' thus notices the removal of Marcley Hill: I nor advise nor reprehend the choice Of MARCLEY HILL; the apple nowhere finds A kinder mould: yet 'tis unsafe to trust Deceitful ground: who knows but that once more And settle on a new freehold, AS MARCLEY HILL had done of old. HUDIBRAS. For law debates? If therefore thou incline Thus piteous heaven may fix the wand'ring glebe. The above, however, are not solitary instances of these phenomena, as will be seen from the following extracts from the Annual Register for 1764 and 1773: 'At Ashton, in Gloucestershire, a large tract of land, of near sixteen acres, slipt lately (1764) from that side of Breedon Hill, in the parish of Grafton, and has entirely covered several pasture grounds, and a considerable space of the common field at the bottom of the hill. Some stiles, that were in the foot-way to Ashton, and are left standing, are now seventy paces distant from the paths to which they belonged. The tops of trees, twenty feet high, which grew at the lower part of the hill, are now scarcely two feet above ground; from whence it is thought the moving earth was near twenty feet in depth. This very extraordinary accident is attributed to the incessant rains, as the soil, now uppermost, is of a boggy nature.' Amsterdam, May 10 (1773).-Letters from Batavia, of the 16th of September last, advise, that on the 11th of August was observed, at midnight, a bright cloud that covered the mountain in the district of Cheribon, and that, at the same time, several reports were heard like those of a gun; that the people, who dwelt on the top and at the foot of the mountain, not being able to fly fast enough, a great part, almost three leagues in circumference, detached itself under them; that afterwards it was seen rising and falling like the rolling waves of the sea, and emitting globes 2 Butler's Chronological Exercises, p. 52, an extremely useful and pleasant work. of fire so luminous that they were seen from afar, and rendered the night as clear as day; that the losses occasioned by this phenomenon were most considerable and melancholy, 2140 persons, foreigners and natives, with 1500 head of cattle, besides a great number of horses, goats, and fowls of every kind, having perished; that thirty-nine negro habitations were destroyed, and the plantations of coffee, indigo, &c., buried in the earth; that in the district of Panimbam, where this mountain is situated, there remained only a fifth part of the inhabitants; and that the devastation occasioned by this accident was felt at the distance of seven leagues round.' *18. 1546.-MARTIN LUTHER DIed. While the bull of Leo X, executed by Charles V, was thundering throughout the empire, Luther was safely shut up in his castle (of Wittemberg, where he had been secreted by the Elector of Saxony), which he afterwards called his Hermitage, and his Patmos. Here he held a constant correspondence with his friends at Wittemberg, and was employed in composing books in favour of his own cause, and against his adversaries. He did not, however, so closely confine himself, but that he frequently made excursions into the neighbourhood, though always under some disguise or other. One day he assumed the title and appearance of a nobleman: but it may be supposed that he did not act his part very gracefully; for a gentleman who attended him under that character to an inn upon the road, was, it seems, so fearful of a discovery, that he thought it necessary to caution him against that absence of mind peculiar to literary men; bidding him keep close to his sword, without taking the least notice of books, if by chance any should fall in his way.' He used, sometimes, even to go out a hunting with those few who were in his secret; which, |