in the course of a few days he generally returns to his owner again. When the owner does not wish to be followed by his dog, he ties the fore-leg of the latter to the neck with a band of rushes, and leaves the animal in a shady place. Sometimes he carries his dog on his shoulders. These dogs seldom bark, but bite very sharply, snapping like a fox. They are excellent watch dogs, and will attack strangers. In the wild state they are sometimes killed and eaten by the natives, but no use is made of their skins.

The following mode is followed in hunting the kangaroo: the natives assemble in small parties at a time when the rain is pouring heavily, or the wind blowing hard, to prevent the noise of their approach from being heard, for the kangaroo is very quick of hearing, and always on the alert. The hunter creeps upon them with the greatest caution, and generally succeeds in approaching them unobserved. They always, if possible, keep the wind in their face, and when one is observed, they take off their cloak, and watching when the animal stops or turns his back on them, they hastily advance, keeping a bush between them for concealment. As they approach their prey, they move very lightly in a stooping posture, and only at a time when the noise of the wind prevents their footsteps from being heard. Should the kangaroo turn round and observe them, they instantly stop and remain perfectly motionless until he resume his feeding. In this way they get within a few yards of their prize, and then pierce him with their spears. The instant he falls they run up and dispatch him with their hammers by blows on the head. The first operation is to extract the two front teeth of the lower jaw, which they use to sharpen the spear points; then they seize the tail, and taking the end in the mouth, bite off the tip, and, by pulling, extract the sinews which are inserted in it; these are bound round a stick and dried for use, either for the purpose of stitching the mantles, or tying the barbs on the spears. When the hunters are numerous, they completely surround the game, and advance from all quarters until they get within a spear's throw of it.

The emu, as well as the kangaroo, affords a favourite article of diet; and at some seasons, lizards form a considerable portion of the food. The eggs and young of birds, principally of the parrot tribe, but also of hawks, ducks, swans, pigeons, &c., are eagerly sought after in the spring of the year. The fishing exploits of the natives have been already alluded to. Fish being very plentiful, they often kill more than is wanted for immediate use. In this case they roast the fish, and, separating the flesh in large flakes from the bones, they pack it carefully up in soft bark, in which way it will keep good for several days. Oysters and other shell-fish are to be obtained in large quantities; but the natives never made any use of them previous to the formation of the colony. They have now learned to esteem them as excellent food. Women are employed in the procuring as well as the preparation of much of their food. Also in preparing the clothing, building the huts, and similar offices. They possess few utensils, and these are of the rudest construction. A piece of soft bark, tied at each end, serves for a drinking cup; the claw of a kangaroo is used for a needle; and through a hollow rush, or the wing-bone of a bird, they suck the water, when it cannot conveniently be reached with their mouths. Although the women are thus useful to their husbands, they do not always receive kind treatment. The men are very fond of their children, and seldom chastise them; but many of the women have spear-wounds in the legs or thighs, inflicted by their husbands. The general practice of polygamy is a fruitful source of quarrels. The husband is very jealous of his wives, (who sometimes give him reason to be so,) and if he finds any excuse for his suspicions, he punishes them very severely. A young woman sometimes runs away from an aged husband, to whom she has been assigned; but

he generally recovers her. and punishes her either with a severe beating, or more frequently by spearing her through the thigh. When a man dies. his wives remain for the period of mourning with their fathers' tribe. The wives generally descend to the nearest relatives of the husband as their undoubted property; but were they to go and live with their new owners, immediately on the death of the husband, it would be considered as a shameful act, and would meet with severe punishment. Thus a sense of propriety and decorum is to be found among this untutored race. The women are extremely hardy. On the birth of a child the mother goes out the next day as usual to seek food. In cases of twins, one of the children is immediately killed, (if of different sexes, the female is preserved,) because, they say, a woman has not sufficient milk for two children, neither can she carry them both, while seeking her food. As soon as the little ones can walk, they are placed under the care of a girl nine or ten years old, who takes them out, each provided with a little stick, to grope for roots in the neighbourhood of the encampment. If a stranger comes in sight, the little ones hide among the grass, lying as close as a hare in its form. Thus the women are left at liberty to carry on their laborious occupations, assisted perhaps by the elder children.

The funeral solemnities of these people are accompanied by loud lamentations. A grave is dug about four feet long, three wide, and three deep. The earth that is removed is arranged on one side of the grave, in the form of a crescent; at the bottom is placed some bark, and then small green boughs, and upon this the body, ornamented and enveloped in its cloak, with the knees bent up to the breast, and the arms crossed. Over the body is heaped more green boughs, and bark, and the hole is then filled with earth; green boughs are again spread, and upon them are deposited the spears, knife, and hammer of the deceased, together with the ornaments that belonged to him; his throwing stick on one side, and the curl or torok on the other side of the mound. When a female is interred, her implements are in like manner deposited in the grave. The mourners then carve circles in the bark of the trees that grow near the grave, at the height of six or seven feet from the ground, and make a small fire in front of the grave. They then gather small boughs, and use them in carefully brushing away every particle of the earth of the grave which may adhere, to their own persons. It frequently happens that two individuals bear the same name, and in this case, should one of them die, the other changes his name for a certain period, in order that the name of the deceased should not be uttered. Immedi ately after a burial, the encampment is broken up, and the people quit the neighbourhood, never once allowing the name of the deceased to pass their lips. If relating the occurrence, the names of the survivors are alone mentioned, and by the omission of the name of the deceased, his fate is told. When asked the reason of this silence, they said it was not good to speak of his name, lest they should see his gnoit, or ghost.

There is no doubt but that these people have some idea of a future state. Mr. Nind says that they have adopted an idea of late that they shall go to the moon after death; but this does not appear to have been their prior opinion, for when asked where their fathers had gone, they pointed westward. It is melancholy to think, that if their intercourse with our countrymen will increase their knowledge of good, it will also add to their temptations to evil. Mr. Nind says, "They once saw some of our people in a state of inebriety, one of them quite unable to stand; upon which they came to me in great alarm, under strong apprehension that he would certainly die before the following day: adding, that black men were sometimes taken so, and died. I endeavoured to ascertain the nature of the disease, and think they must have meant a coup de soleil.”

JOHN W. PARKER, PUBLISHER, WEST STRAND, LONDON.

This castle was noted as one of the two (Nottingham gham being the other,) which held out against Richard the First on his return from Palestine. During his absence it had been in the possession of his brother John, and on his unexpected arrival in England, the garrison affected to disbelieve the news, and defended themselves with great obstinacy. They were finally forced to surrender, and many of the offenders were hanged on a gibbet by Roger de Laci.

war.

The castle of Tickhill underwent another great siege in the reign of King Edward the Second, when the barons rose under Thomas, earl of Lancaster. This very formidable rising took place in the winter of 1321 and 1322, and was the result of accumulated dissatisfactions. The Earl of Lancaster took upon himself to summon a parliament, which was to meet at Doncaster at the end of November. The king prohibited the meeting; but there was a considerable resort of disaffected barons, and on both sides open preparations for The first hostile movement of the party in the north was to attack the castle of Tickhill, and the first assault appears to have been made about the beginning of February. The castle was besieged during three weeks; but appears to have been ably defended by William de Anne, the constable, though with much loss of life. Meanwhile the king had been collecting a considerable force, and before the end of February marched northward with the intention of attacking the insurgents. This movement occasioned them to raise the siege of Tickhill. They met the king at Burton-upon-Trent, and for three days hindered his passage over the river. This was about the 8th of March; but at length the king passed the river, and driving the rebel army before him, came to Doncaster by the 18th. The next day he removed to Pontefract, where he took quiet possession cession of events well known as recorded by our historians, he was beheaded on the 22d day of the same month*.

of the Earl of Lancaster's castle; but where, after a suc

In the construction of the ancient castle of Tickhill, advantage was taken of a natural hill, round the base of which a moat was drawn. On the summit an elliptical area was fenced in by a wall placed on a mound of earth, which in its circuit met a tumulus supporting a circular

keep. To the area there was but one entrance, and that strictly defended. This entrance was directly through a gateway tower, the passage along which was defended by four doors and a portcullis. This gateway is now the only part of the ancient castle which has not been suffered to fall into decay, or which has not been removed. It is therefore chosen as the subject of our engraving. Over the entrance to this gateway there is a handsome apartment, with a window towards the area, to which there was admission only within the walls. The area was surrounded by the single wall, which formed, with the moat, the defence of the whole.

The exact extent of the whole hill, including the area, the ascent, and the moat, is six acres, three roods, and thirteen perches. Within this area were Queen Eleanor's chapel, and various other edifices for the use of the former royal occupants. If any vestige of the chapel remains, it is the old door-way, over which are the words, Peace and Grace

Be in this place.

Of the building now within the area, there is little that can be supposed to have belonged to the original edifice. The principal building is a house situated on the left of the area as we enter the gateway. Perhaps this is the edifice referred to by Leland as the "old haulle," which was the only building remaining in his time within the spacious court; "al the buildings within the area be

In the Saturday Magazine, Vol. XXIII. p. 209, the reader will find a Supplement devoted to the interesting history of Pontefract Castle.

bited by those who held the castle by lease from the crown. The arms of Hansby, on a part of the house, show who built it, or at least who re-edified a considerable portion of it; and to the same family, who were zealous Catholics, are to be referred sundry crucifixes and superstitious paintings which once decorated its walls, but of which no vestiges now remain.

Besides the house, which was still inhabited in 1828, there are within the area various detached offices, and flower and kitchen gardens. The sides of the tumulus on which the keep formerly stood are planted, but the upper part of it is plain, and from it may be attained an agreeable view of the country. But, as Hunter justly remarks, "nothing can compensate for the wrong which some person (the hand is unknown, but probably acting under the commission of parliament for sleighting the northern castles) has done in depriving the antiquary of the opportunity of examining the keep itself, the most interesting part of all such edifices. This is the more to be regretted, as we can almost with absolute certainty fix the age of this keep, and the nation of the person by whom it was erected. But instead of its aspiring walls, its dark apartments, its winding stairs, and perchance, some of the architectural decorations of that rude age in which it was erected, we have a smooth-shaven lawn, with nothing to show that here frowned the strongest hold of him who was lord of so noble

a domain."

In a view of the castle as it appeared about the reign of Elizabeth, published by the Society of Antiquaries from an old survey, the keep is represented as if in the centre of the area, whereas its real position was in the line of the circumscribing wall. In this print it is represented as a cylindrical edifice, placed on a circular A perforation resembling a cross, the extremities of the mound, and having a small unornamented entrance door. upper limbs ending in circular openings, suggests the admission of light; and the two windows are narrow idea of a loop-hole connected with openings for the orifices, scarcely to be distinguished from loop-holes themselves. Part of the circumscribing wall still remains, with its battlements appearing here and there among the trees with which the moat and the sides of lords of the honour of Tickhill, the castle has furnished the mount are planted. No longer the abode of the for some of the principal families of the deanery. It at different periods a romantic and beautiful residence family through the whole of the seventeenth century. was held under successive leases granted to the Hansby The castle, with the demesne lands, were leased in 1719 had also the office which usually accompanies it, of for fourteen years to William Lord Fitz-William, who bailiff of Strafford and Tickhill. The next lessee was Sir Thomas Saunderson, of Sandbeck, brother to the Earl of Scarborough; and the leases have from time to time been renewed to the Lumley family, by some of whom the castle has usually been tenanted, though it has been sometimes held by tenants under them.

The

The town of Tickhill was a place of considerable commerce about the time of the Norman conquest. Saxon name of the place was Dadesley, and there is no satisfactory reason given for the change of name, nor for the origin of the word Tickhill. Hunter supposes it to be a corruption of Wick Hill, wick being the name "The Wick hill commonly given to a fortified mount. is what the inhabitants of Dadesley would necessarily call the mount at the extremity of their town. This would become Th'Wick Hill, and that term might easily glide into Tickhill. When, soon after the Conquest, the Wick Hill became the permanent abode of the great Norman baron, and the head of an extensive honour, the fame and name of Dadesley might become lost in its superior importance."

The church at Tickhill was built in the reign of Richard the Second, and appears to have been either wholly or in part erected by merchants. The tombs of several who lived about that time still remain in it.

"how that," have been much used by old authors, and Michael Drayton, reputed no mean poet in the days of Queen Elizabeth and her successor, uses "as how" in his Polyolbion. The enlargement of this expression into "if so be as how," has no poetical or prose licence, and is certainly a most unnecessary cockney addition.

a

Another odd expression attributed to cockneys, is " few while." "Stay a few while, and I will go with you." Nothing can be said to justify this ungrammatical expression, but it may be remarked that "few" has a singular application in our northern counties, where, when speaking of broth, the common people say, "Will you have a few broth ?-they are very good." This ludicrous use of the word "few" is confined to broth, for the people are never heard to say "a few ale," "a few milk," or a few of any other liquid. Perhaps they mean, with respect to the broth, "a few spoonsful of broth." There is likewise another provincial use of few; for many persons will be even bold enough to say "a good few," instead of "a good many," thereby, as it would appear, completely contradicting themselves. But that they do not intend anything of this sort is apparent when we find them expressing a contrary meaning by "a little few," which, as a double diminutive, corresponds to the French expression, "un petit peu de."

In the dialect of the uneducated, "comed" is used both for "came" and "come." "I comed," and "I have comed," are commonly heard, and however we may regret the irregularity of our verbs, which has been the cause of many of the errors respecting them, it must be acknowledged that the above inaccuracies are among the most grating to the ear and taste. A very common London mode of inquiry after any missing person is, "What is gone with such a one ?" or, in speaking of a distant period, "What went with such a one?" while the received phrase on such occasions is, "What is become of such a one?" In the former cases we may suppose the question to imply, "What good or ill fortune has gone with, or has attended such a person since we last saw him?" but the mode of expression is decidedly vulgar.

The adjunct be is often a mere redundancy, as in the words "bewitched," "besought," "benumbed," "betook," &c. Shakspeare occasionally employs this adjunct in an unusual manner, as in "be-fortune," "benetted," "be-weep," &c. So among the lower classes it is prefixed to the word "grudge," which is always called "be-grudge." It is used by all classes in the word "beheaded," which in the Paston Letters is several times written "headed." If this adjunct be a redundancy in the above cases, it may appear the more strikingly so in the case of negatives frequently employed by good writers; such as "un-befitting,' ""un-befriended," "un-beseeming," "un-bewailed." If these instances of unnecessary employment of this little word are thus common, and are justified by good authority, we may easily pardon the cockney, who generally uses "unbeknown" instead of unknown. Chaucer employs the word "beknow," and had he found occasion to write it in a negative form, he would doubtless have written it "un-beknow." Similar to this word "unbeknown" is an expression used in some parts of England, where the people say, "I unbethought myself," meaning "I recollected." This is another instance of an apparently contradictory expression, for "unforgot myself" would be nearer the meaning.

It appears that in our common and universally employed word "begin," the first syllable is a superfluous affix, and has no better pretensions than those already mentioned. The verb is "gin," and ought not to be written, as the poets do, with an apostrophe, thus"'gin." But, to revert once more to the words "gone" and "went;" there is a common use of them in London respecting the death of an individual: thus if the question is put, "What is gone of such-a-one ?" the melan

choly answer may be, "He's gone dead;" or in speaking of a more distant event it might be, "He went dead three months ago." Mr. Pegge vindicates the expression in its general extent by the example of Shakspeare, who, in his Timon of Athens, doubtless puts into the mouth of Ventidius the known and familiar phrase of that age, when he makes him say,

It hath pleased the gods to remember my father's age,
And call him to long peace.

He is gone happy, and has left me rich.-Act. i., Sc. 2. There is a strange phrase current among Londoners, which requires explanation. They frequently say "i "I have got a month's mind to do such a thing." According to our author, this metaphorical expression is deduced from old testamentary requisitions in times of rigid popery, wherein the party dying left a sum of money to be appropriated to certain masses, &c., at a or the month's end, for the good of his soul. This being a declaration of the will and mind of the deceased was called his "month's mind." After the Reformation, when the pecuniary part of the custom was forbidden, the custom itself fell into disuse, but the expression arising from it still subsisted to denote any bold inclination towards an act dependent on the will of the party speaking. Dr. Johnson interprets a month's mind merely as expressing a longing desire; and cites Shakspeare, and a passage in Hudibras, but the true meaning lies farther back. A priest has got "a month's mind to perform." See Grey's Notes on Shakspeare, p. 80.

These instances may suffice for specimens of erroneous phraseology in London, common also in other places: the following are a few provincial errors or quaint sayings, which must be enumerated without much comment. In Yorkshire and Derbyshire, to "set anything agate," is to begin it, as "we have brewing agate," "walking agate," &c. In Cornwall, the familiar terms, "aunt" and "uncle," are bestowed on all elderly people. "Barnacles" is a term commonly used for spectacles This is taken from the instrument by which a horse's nose is held when he will not stand still to be shoed, &c. 'Bother," in the sense of "to deafen," is mostly used in Ireland, and is perhaps the same word as "pother," (the noise of thunder and storm,) in King Lear. In Yorkshire, anything quite new is said to be "bran-span-new," and, in many other places, "brand-new." In the same county, land that yields good crops in general, is called "burthensome land." In some places, bad food, or other coarse things, are called "cag-mag," a term which in Scotland is applied to an old goose. At Sedgemoor, if a couple are asked in church, they are said to be "called home." A leading-string for children is termed a "callingband," or sometimes only a "cal.” In Derbyshire, instead of frolicsome, the people say "compersome:" they also term the core of anything "the cowkes." In Lancashire, "to dag a garden" is to water it, and the terms "fadge" and "fair-fall" are used instead of "burthen" and "farewell." In Norfolk and Suffolk, a giddy, thoughtless person is called "dawsey-headed," and the common term, "every now and then," is perverted into " ' every foot anon. In Derbyshire, if it is difficult to make a person understand anything, the the people say, "We could not ding it into him." They also use the term "downdrins" for afternoon's drinking, and "draiting" for "drawling." Generally, in the north, a team of horses in a wagon or cart, is called a "droit;" a person dull of apprehension is said to be 'dunny;" anything with a strong taste is called "feausen-fuzzen" a little pool is a "flash;" a narrow valley is a "gill;" a hand-full of anything is a "goping-full;' playthings are 'gowdies;" and a grind-stone is a grindle-stone." Instead of saying you must bear a thing patiently they also say "you must grin and abide it." In Cheshire, the expression for "surprised" or

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