To pass our tedious hours away,

We throw a merry main; Or else at serious ombre play;

But why should we in vain Each other's ruin thus pursue? We were undone when we left you. With a fa, &c.

you,

But now our fears tempestous grow,
And cast our hopes away;
Whilst regardless of our woe,
Sit careless at a play :
Perhaps permit some happier man
To kiss your hand, or flirt your fan.
With a fa, &c.

When any mournful tune you hear,

That dies in every note;

As if it sigh'd with each man's care,
For being so remote;

Think how often love we've made
To you, when all those tunes were play'd,
With a fa, &c.

In justice you cannot refuse

To think of our distress;
When we for hopes of honor lose
Our certain happiness;
All those designs are but to prove
Ourselves more worthy of your love.
With a fa, &c.

And now we've told you all our loves,
And likewise all our fears;
In hopes this declaration moves

Some pity from your tears;
Let's hear of no inconstancy,
We have too much of that at sea.
With a fa, &c.

January 3.

Jan. 3, 1805, Charles Townley, Esq., of Townley, in Lancashire, died at the age of 67. He had formed a valuable collection of ancient statuary bronzes, medals, and manuscripts, and coins, which, by a parliamentary grant of £20,000, were purchased and deposited in the British Museum, and form that portion of the national property in the British Museum usually called the Townley collection. The Etruscan antiquities had been described some years before, in two vols. 4to., by M. D'Ancarville.*

ALCHEMY.

On the 3rd of January, 1652, Mr. Evelyn, being at Paris, visited a certain Marc Antonio, an ingenious enameler. "He told us great stories," says Evelyn, "of a Genoese jeweller who had the great arcanum, and had made projection before him several times. He met him at Cyprus travelling into Egypt, on his return from whence he died at sea, and the secret with him-all his effects were seized on, and dissipated by the Greeks in the vessel, to an immense value. He also affirmed that, being in a goldsmith's shop at Amsterdam, a person of very low stature came in and desired the goldsmith to melt him a pound of lead, which done, he unscrewed the pummel of his sword, and taking out of a little box a small quantity of powder, and casting it into the crucible, poured an ingot out, which, when cold, he took up, saying, Sir, you will be paid for your lead in the crucible, and so went out immediately. When he was gone, the goldsmith found four ounces of good gold in it, but could never set eye again on the little man, though he sought This Antonio all the city for him. asserted with great obtestation; nor know I what to think of it, there are so many impostors, and people who love to tell strange stories, as this artist did, who had been a great rover, and spake ten different languages."

The most celebrated history of transmutation is that given by Helvetius in his "Brief of the golden calf; discovering the rarest Miracle in Nature, how, by the smallest portion of the Philosopher's Stone, a great piece of common lead was totally transmuted into the purest transplendent gold, at the Hague in 1666." The marvellous account of Helvetius is thus rendered by Mr. Brande.

Gents. Mag. lxxv.

place.

"The 27th day of December, 1666, in the afternoon, came a stranger to my house at the Hague, in a plebeian habit, of honest gravity, and serious authority, of a mean stature, and a little long face, black hair, not at all curled, a beardless chin, and about forty years (as I guess) of age, and born in North Holland. After salutation he beseeched ne, with great reverence, to pardon his rude accesses, for he was a lover of the Pyrotechnian art, and having read my treatise against the Sympathetic powder of Sir Kensulm Digby, and observed my doubt about the philosophic mystery, induced him to ask me if I was really a disbeliever as to the existence of a universal medicine which would cure all diseases, unless the principal parts were perished, or the predestinated time of death come. I replied, I never met with an adept, or saw such a medicine, though I had fervently prayed for it. Then I said, surely you are a learned physician. No, said he, I am a brass-founder and a lover of chemistry. He then took from his bosompouch a neat ivory box, and out of it three ponderous lumps of stone, each about the bigness of a walnut. I greedily saw and handled, for a quarter of an hour, this VOL. I.-2

most noble substance, the value of which might be somewhat about twenty tons of gold; and, having drawn from the owner many rare secrets of its admirable effects, I returned him this treasure of treasures, with most sorrowful mind, humbly beseeching him to bestow a fragment of it upon me, in perpetual memory of him, though but the size of a coriander seed. No, no, said he, that is not lawful, though thou wouldst give me as many golden ducats as would fill this room; for it would have particular consequences; and, if fire could be burned of fire, I would at this instant rather cast it into the fiercest flame. He then asked if I had a private chamber whose prospect was from the public street; so I presently conducted him to my best room, furnished, backwards, which he entered," says Helvetius, in the true spirit of Dutch cleanliness, "without wiping his shoes, which were full of snow and dirt. I now expected he would bestow some great secret upon me, but in vain. He asked for a piece of gold, and opening his doublet showed me five pieces of that precious metal, which he wore upen a green riband, and which very much excelled mine in flexibility and color, each being the size of a small

C

of a wood cup," a writer says, "Of drinking cups divers and sundry sorts we have; some of elme, some of box, some of maple, some of holly, &c.; mazers, broad-mouthed dishes, noggins, whiskins, piggins, crinzes, ale-bowls, wassell-bowls, court-dishes, tankards, kannes, from a pottle to a pint, from a pint to a gill. Other bottles we have of leather, but they are most used amongst the shepheards and harvest-people of the countrey: small jacks we have in many ale-houses of the citie and suburbs, tip't with silver, besides the great black jacks and bombards at the court, which, when the Frenchmen first saw, they reported, at their returne into their countrey, that the Englishmen used to drinke out of their bootes: we have, besides, cups made out of hornes of beasts, of cocker-nuts, of goords, of the eggs of ostriches; others made of the shells of divers fishes, brought from the Indies and other places, and shining like mother of pearle. Come to plate; every taverne can afford you flat bowles, French bowles, prounet cups, beare bowles, beakers : and private householders in the citie, when they make a feast to entertaine their friends, can furnish their cupboards with flagons, tankards, beere-cups, wine-bowles, some white, some percell gilt, some gilt all over, some with covers, others without, of sundry shapes and qualities."* From this it appears that our ancestors had as great a variety of drinking vessels as of liquors, in some of which they were wont to infuse rosemary.

Rosemary.

In a popular account of the manners of an old country squire, he is represented as stirring his cool-tankard with a sprig of rosemary. Likewise, at weddings, it was usual to dip this grateful plant in the cup, and drink to the health of the new-married couple. Thus, a character in an old play, says,

Before we divide

Our army, let us dip our rosemarics
In one rich bowl of sack, to this brave girl,
And to the gentleman.

Rosemary was borne in the hand at marriages. Its virtues are enhanced in a curious wedding sermon.§ "The rose

Heywood's Philocothonista, 1635, Brand.

+ Nares.

f The City Madam.

A Marriage Present by Roger Hackett, D. D. 1607, 4to., cited by Brand.

mary is for married men, the which, by name, nature, and continued use, man challengeth as properly belonging to himself. It overtoppeth all the flowers in the garden, boasting man's rule: it helpeth the brain, strengtheneth the memory, and is very medicinal for the head. Another property is, it affects the heart. Let this ros marinus, this flower of man, ensign of your wisdom, love, and loyalty, be carried, not only in your hands, but in your heads and hearts."

At a wedding of three sisters together, in 1560, we read of "fine flowers and rosemary strewed for them, coming home; and so, to the father's house, where was a great dinner prepared for his said three bride-daughters, with their bridegrooms and company.' Old playst frequently mention the use of rosemary on these occasions. In a scene immediately before a wedding, we have

Lew. Pray take a piece of rosemary. Mir. I'll wear it. But, for the lady's sake, and none of yours.

In another we find "the parties enter with rosemary, as from a wedding."§ Again, a character speaking of an intended bridegroom's first arrival, says, "look, an the wenches ha' not found un out, and do present un with a van of rosemary, and bays enough to vill a bow-pot, or trim the head of my best vore-horse." It was an old country custom to deck the bridal-bed with sprigs of rosemary.¶

How

Rosemary denoted rejoicing. Hence in an account of a joyful entry of queen Elizabeth into the city of London, on the 14th of January, 1558, there is this passage: "How many nosegays did her grace receive at poor women's hands? often-times stayed she her chariot, when she saw any simple body offer to speak to her grace? A branch of rosemary, given to her grace, with a supplication by a poor woman, about Fleet Bridge, was seen in her chariot till her grace came to Westminster."

It is a jocular saying, among country people, that, where the rosemary-bush flou

Stow's Survey, by Strype. f Cited by Brand. Elder Brother, a Play, 1637, 4to. Woman's Pride, by Fletcher.

|| Ben Jonson's Tale of a Tub. f Brand.

rishes in the cottage garden," the grey mare is the better horse ;" that is, the wife manages the husband.

Shakspeare intimates the old popular applications of this herb. It was esteemed as strengthening to the memory; and to that end Ophelia presents it to Laertes. "There's rosemary, that's for remembrance; pray you, love, remember." In allusion to its bridal use, Juliet's nurse asks Romeo, "Doth not rosemary and Romeo both begin with a letter?" And she intimates Juliet's fondness for him, by saying," she hath the prettiest sensations of it, of you and rosemary, that it would do you good to hear it." The same play denotes its use at funerals. When friar Laurence and Paris, with musicians, on Juliet's intended bridal, enter her chamber, and find her on the bed, surrounded by the Capulet family, mourning for her death, he sympathises with their affliction, and concludes by directing the rosemary prepared for the wedding to be used in the offices of the burial :

Stick your rosemary

On this fair corse; and, as the custom is, In all her best array, bear her to church. Of a bride who died of the plague on her wedding-night it is said, "Here is a strange alteration; for the rosemary that was washed in sweet water, to set out the bridal, is now wet in tears to furnish her burial."

It was usual at weddings to dip the rosemary in scented waters. Respecting a bridal, it is asked in an old play, "Were the rosemary branches dipped?"

Some

of Herrick's verses show that rosemary at weddings was sometimes gilt.

The two-fold use of this fragrant herb is declared in the Hesperides by an apostrophe.

To the Rosemary Branch.

Grow for two ends, it matters not at all,
Be 't for my bridal or my burial.

One of a well-known set of engravings, by Hogarth, represents the company assembled for a funeral, with sprigs of rosemary in their hands. A French traveller, in England, in the reign of William III., describing our burial solemnities and the preparation of the "when they are ready to mourners, says, set out, they nail up the coffin, and a

Dekker's Wonderful Year, 1603, 4to. ↑ Beaumont and Fletcher's Scornfu Lady, 1616, 4to.

servant presents the company with sprigs of rosemary: every one takes a sprig, and carries it in his hand till the body is put into the grave, at which time they all throw their sprigs in after it."* A character in an old play,† requests

If there be

Any so kind as to accompany

My body to the earth, let there not want For entertainment. Prithee, see they have A sprig of rosemary, dipt in common water, To smell at as they walk along the streets. In 1649, at the funeral of Robert Lockier, who was shot for mutiny, the corpse was adorned with bundles of rosemary on each side, one half of each was stained with blood. At the funeral of a country girl, it is said, that,

To show their love, the neighbours far and

near

Follow'd with wistful looks the damsel's bier; Sprigg'd rosemary the lads and lasses bore, While dismally the parson walk'd before; Upon her grave the rosemary they threw

The funeral use of this herb, and its budding in the present month, are the subject of a poem, transcribed from a fugitive copy, without the author's name.

TO THE HERB ROSEMARY.

1.

Sweet-scented flower! who art wont to bloom
On January's front severe,

And o'er the wintry desert drear
To waft thy waste perfume!
Come, thou shalt form my nosegay now,
And I will bind thee round my brow;

And, as I twine the mournful wreath,
I'll weave a melancholy song;
And sweet the strain shall be, and long,
The melody of death.

2.

Come, funeral flow'r! who lov'st to dwell
With the pale corse in lonely tomb,
And throw across the desert gloom
A sweet decaying smell.
Come, pressing lips, and lie with me
Beneath the lonely alder tree,

And we will sleep a pleasant sleep,
And not a care shall dare intrude,
To break the marble solitude,

So peaceful and so deep.
3.

And bark! the wind-god, as he flies,
Moans hollow in the forest trees,
And, sailing on the gusty breeze,
Mysterious music dies.

Misson, p. 91. + Cartwrights' Ordinary. Gay's Shepherd's Week.