to us, we indulged in a passing remark on the discrepancies of the building-the hall and west wing of the Elizabethan age; the east wing in the Vanbrugh style; and the gallery differing from each. Alighting, just beyond, at the end of the old road, and crossing to the new one in the same line, we diligently perused an awful notice from the parochial authorities against offenders, and acquainted ourselves with the rewards for apprehending them. The board seemed to be a standing argument in behalf of reading and writing, in opposition to some of the respectable inhabitants of Dulwich, who consider ignorance the exclusive property of labourers and servants, which they cannot be deprived of without injury to their morals.

Ascending the hill, and leaving on the left hand a large house, newly built by a rich timber-merchant, with young plantations that require years of growth before they can attain sufficient strength to defend the mansion from the winds, we reached the summit of the hill, and found a directionpost that pointed us to a choice of several roads. We strolled into one leading to Penge Common through enclosed woodlands. Our ears were charmed by throngs were in a of sweet singing birds; we cathedral of the feathered tribes, where every denomination" chanted rapturous praises and thanksgivings; the vergerrobins twittered as they accompanied us with their full sparkling eyes and bright liveried breasts.

66

Chiefs of the choir, and highest in the heavens,
As emulous to join the angels' songs,

Were soaring larks; and some had dared so far
They seem'd like atoms sailing in the light;
Their voices and themselves were scarce discern'd
Above their comrades, who, in lower air
Hung buoyant, brooding melody, that fell
Streaming, and gushing, on our thirsty ears.
In this celestial chancel we remain'd

To reverence these creatures' loud Te Deum-
A holy office of their simple natures
To Him-the great Creator and Preserver-
Whom they instinctively adored.

A gate in the road was opened to us by a poor woman, who had seen our approach from her road-side dwelling; she had the care of collecting the toll from horsemen and carriage-drivers-we were foot-passengers, and credited our tailors for the civility. At a few yards beyond this turnpike we stopped to read a dictatorial intimation :-"All trespassers on these woods will be prosecuted, and the constables have orders to take them into custody." I am not sure that there is a "physiognomy of hand-writing," but I am a believer in the physiognomy of style, and the features of this bespoke a Buonaparte of the hundred who had partaken of the carvings under an enclosure-act. No part was fenced off from the common road, and the land had been open to all till spoliation deprived the commoners of their ancient right, and annexed he common soil to a neighbouring domain. Whose it now is, by law, I know not, nor inquired. I look around, and cottages have disappeared, and there are villas instead; and the workhouses are enlarged,

and, instead of labour, tread-mills are provided. According to a political economist of ancient times, "There is much food in the tillage of the poor;" and "He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent." To whom of old was it said, "The spoil of the poor is in your houses?"

We lingered on our way, and passed a bridge over the canal, towards a well-looking public-house, called "the Old Crooked Billet." Before the door is, what is called, a "sign," which, according to modern usage, is a sign-post, with a sign-board without a sign, inscribed with the name of what the sign had been. Formerly this was a little ale-house, and to denote its use to the traveller, the landlord availed himself of one of the large old trees then before the door, and hung upon the lowest of its fine spreading branches not the "sign" of the billet, but a real " crooked billet:" this was the origin of "the Old Crooked Billet" on (what was) Penge Common. We had set out late and loitered, and after a brief reconnoitre entered the house in search of

sired to obtain a near view of a church that neightened the cheerful character of the landscape. It will form another article➡ perhaps two.

Witchcraft.

THE MOUNTAIN ASH.

To the Editor.

Witherslack, near Milnthorpe,
Westmoreland.

Sir, I think you have not celebrated in the Every-Day Book the virtues of the mountain ash, or as it is called in the northern counties, the Wiggen Tree. -Its anti-witching properties are there held in very high esteem. No witch will come near it; and it is believed that the smallest twig, which might cross the path of one of these communers with the powers of darkness, would as effectually stop her career, however wild it might be, or however intent she might be on the business of evil, as did the "key-stane" of the bridge of Doon stop the fiendish erew, that pursued poor Tam O'Shanter and his luckless mare Maggie.

refreshment. The landlord and his family were at dinner in a commodious, respectable bar. He rose to us like "a giant refreshed," and stood before us a good humoured "Boniface "-every inch a man -who had attained to strength and fair proportion, by virtue of the ease and content wherein he lived. We found from his notable dame that we could have eggs and bacon, and spinach put into the pot from the garden, in a few minutes; nothing could have been suggested more suitable to our inclination, and we had the pleasure of being smiled into a comfortable parlour, with a bow-window view of the common. The time necessary for the preparation of our meal afforded leisure to observe the hostel. W. went out to pencil the exterior in his sketch-book. Except for the situation, and the broad, good-humoured, country face of our landlord, we might have imagined ourselves in town; and this was the only uncomfortable feeling we had. The sign-board on the other side of the road revealed the name of our entertainer "R. Harding," and the parlour mantlepiece told that he was a " Dealer in Foreign Wines, Segars, &c." This inscription, written in clerk-like German text, framed and glazed, was transportation against my will, to the place from whence I came. Our attention was diverted by the rolling You are well aware that there are few up of a gig, espied afar off by "mine host," places, especially in the country, in which who waited at the door with an eye to busi- one of these agents of the devil, ycleped ness, and his hands in the pockets of his "witches," does not reside. She may jean jacket. The driver, a thin, sharp- always be known by her extreme penury featured, pock-faced man, about forty, and ugliness. There is generally also a alighted with as much appearance of kindly protuberance of flesh on some part of the disposition as he could bring his features to neck or jaw, by which it is known that she assume, and begged the favour of an order has sold herself to the father of lies. for " a capital article.” His presented card has usually a large black cat, of which she was received with a drop of the landlord's is prodigiously fond, and takes special care. countenance, and a shake of the head. The Some shrewdly suspect this to be the "old solicitor and he looked as keenly as a gentleman" himself. She is very envious, Chancery-lane one-was a London Capil- and frequently makes malicious prognosti laire-maker; he urged "a single bottle;" cations of evil, which subsequent events but the landlord pleaded his usage of sugar too faithfully verify. She must therefore, and demurred, nor could he be urged on to with all these qualifications, be the authoress trial. Our repast brought in, and finished of every mishap, which cannot more reawith a glass of country brewed and a segar, sonably be accounted for. For example, W. completed his sketch, and we paid a should the "auld witch" call at any farmmoderate charge, and departed with "the house during the operation of churning, Old Crooked Billet" as exhibited in the en- and be suffered to depart without a sop graving. The house affords as "good accom- being thrown to her, in the shape of a small modation for man and horse" as can be found print of butter, you will be sure to have in any retired spot so near London. Our many a weary hour of labour the next stroll to it was delightful. We withdrew time you churn, before butter can be obalong the pleasant road to the village of tained. And, therefore, to prevent the old Beckenham. Its white pointed spire, em- beldam introducing herself into the churn, bowered in trees, had frequently caught our the churn-staff must be made of the "Wigsight in the course of the day, and we de- gen Tree," and you will be effectually freed

She

Garrick Plays.

No. XIX.

from her further interference in that case.
The cattle in the stables and cow-houses,
if she takes a spite against you, are fre-
quently found, or dreaded to be found,
(for many an instance of such things is
recorded on undoubted testimony,) in a
morning, tied together, standing on their
heads, the cows milked, and every other
mischievous prank played, which a mali-
cious fiend could invent: and therefore to
prevent all these dire ills, the shafts of
the forks, and all other utensils used in
those places, must be made of the all-
powerful "Wiggen." She frequently does Going to beg. I am with a Beggar met,
the same mischief in places far remote on
the same night; and although old and
crippled, and showing "all the variety of
wretchedness" by day, at night she mounts
her broomstick, and wings her airy course
to the moon, if need be. All honest people,
who have a due regard to undisturbed
slumbers during the night, when all the
world knows that

[From the "Silver Age," an Historical
Play, by Thomas Heywood, 1613.]

Proserpine seeking Flowers.

Pros. O may these meadows ever barren be,
That yield of flowers no more variety!
Here neither is the White nor Sanguine Rose,
The Strawberry Flower, the Paunce, nor Violet ;
Methinks I have too poor a meadow chose:

take special care to have a branch of this never-failing antidote to witchery at their bed heads. This has been the practice of my mother ever since I can remember; she also carries a hare's foot in her pocket, to guard against all attacks in that quarter by day. You will think that these precautions are very uncalled for, perhaps, at this time of day, but such we have been in our generations, and such to a considerable extent we now are, and therefore pray do record us.

That wants as much as I. I should do ill
To take from them that need.-

Ceres, after the Rape of her Daughter.

Cer. Where is my fair and lovely Proserpine?
Speak, Jove's fair Daughter, whither art thou stray'd?
I've sought the meadows, glebes, and new-reap'd fields
Yet cannot find my Child. Her scatter'd flowers,
And garland half-made-up, I have lit upon;
But her I cannot spy. Behold the trace

Of some strange wagon, that hath scorcht the trees,
And singed the grass: these ruts the sun ne'er sear❜d.
Where art thou, Love, where art thou, Proserpine ?—

She questions Triton for her Daughter.
Cer. thou that on thy shelly trumpet
Summons the sea-god, answer from the depth.

Trit. On Neptune's sea-horse with my concave trump
Thro' all the abyss I've shrill'd thy daughter's loss.
The channels clothed in waters, the low cities
In which the water-gods and sea-nymphs dwell,
I have perused; sought thro' whole woods and forests
Of leafless coral, planted in the deeps;
Toss'd up the beds of pearl; rouzed up huge whales,
And stern sea-monsters, from their rocky dens;
Those bottoms, bottomless; shallows and shelves,
And all those currents where th' earth's springs break
in:

Those plains where Neptune feeds his porpoises,

Sea-morses, seals, and all his cattle else:

Thro' all our ebbs and tides my trump hath blazed her,
Yet can no cavern shew me Proserpine.

KING JAMES I. AT DURHAM.

To the Editor.

Sir,-If you think the subjoined worthy of a place in your Table Book, I snall feel glad to see it. I believe it has never been in print; it is copied from an entry in one of the old corporation books.

Yours, very truly,

to God to blesse you and all yours in all eternitie."

After which speech the maior was called by his majesties gentleman usher to take his horse, and to ride before his majestie; immediate upon which commandment made by his majesties gentleman usher, there was at the same place, about forty yards distance, certayne verses spoken by an apprentice of this cittie to his majestie, as followeth after which, the maior was placed in rank next the sword, and so rode forward, carring the citties mace, to the church.

:

To the Kinges most Excellent Majestie.

"Durham's old cittie thus salutes our king

With entertainment, she doth homlie bring:
And cannot smyle upon his majestie
With shew of greatness; but humilitie
Makes her express herself in modern guise
Dejected to this north, bare to your eyes.
For the great prelate, which of late adorde
His dignities, and for which we implore
Your highnesse aide to have a continuance
And so confirmed by your dread

Durham, May, 1827. M. J. THE MANNER OF THE KINGES MAJESTY COMING TO THE CITTIE OF DURHAM, ANNO DOM. 1617, AS FOLLOWETH. Upon Good Friday, being the 18th of April, 1617, Mr. Heaborne, one of his majesties gentlemen ushers spoke to George Walton, Maior, that it was his majesties pleasure to come in state unto the cittie, and that it were fitting that the maior and aldermen should be ready upon the next daie following, being Satturdaie, to give their attendance upon his majestie in some convenient place within the cittie; and the said maior to have his foot-cloth horse their ready to attend, which likewise was done upon Elvet Bridge, near the tower thereof, being new rayled, within the rayles of wood then made for that purpose: at which time his said majesties said gentleman usher standing by the said maior and aldermen till his majesties coming, when there was a speech delivered by the said maior to his majestie, together with the maces and staffe; and at time fitting in the same speech so made, a silver bowle gilt, with a cover, was presented by the said By one forc'd will to be depopulate, maior to his majestie, which appeares as followeth :

"Most gracious soveraigne. What unspeakable joy is this your highness presents unto us, your loving subjects; our tongues are not able to utter, nor our meanes to shew you welcome. Your gracious majestie, at your happie cominge hither with much peace and plentie found this cittie inabled, with divers liberties and priveledges, all sovering pittie and power spiritual and temporal being in yourself, gave unto us the same againe; and afterwards, of your gracious bountie, confirmed them under your great seal of England. We humbly beseech your majestie continue vour favours towards this cittie; and in token of our love and loyaltie, crave the acceptance of this myte, and we shall be readie to the uttermost expence of our dearest bloud, to defend you and your royal progeny here on earth, as with our prayers

arm.

Yet what our royal James did grant herein,
William, our bishoppe, hath oppugnant been;
Small task to sway down smallnesse, where man's
might

Hath greater force than equity or right.
But these are only in your brest included
From your most gracious grant. Therefore we pray,

That the faire sunshine of your brightest daie,

Would smyle upon this cittie with clere beams,
To exhale the tempest off insuing streames.
Suffer not, great prince, our ancient state,

Tis one seeks our undoeing: but to you,
Ten thousand hearts shall pray, and knees shall bowe:
And this dull cell of earth wherein we live,
Unto your name immortal prayse shall give.
Confirm our grant, good kinge. Durham's old cittie
Would be more powerful so it has Jame's pittie."

REMARK.

The complaint against the bishop arose from a suit which he had instituted against the corporation in the Exchequer, for taking all the bishop's privileges and profits of the markets and courts into their own hands, and for driving his officers by violence out of the tollbooth on the 3d of October, (7th of James I.,) and preventing their holding the courts there as usual, as well as for several other similar matters, when judgment was given against the corporation on the 24th of June, (8th of James I.,) 1611.