but sure and brisk, and very vicious: though they are commonly gentle, yet some are not catched without difficulty. These are usually in good plight when they come from this forest expedition, but the continued labour to which they are put in winter, and the little nourishment given them, soon bring them down again. They roll themselves in the snow as our horses do in the grass, and, in the bitterest cold, stand night after night in the yard as well as in the stable. GREEN PEAS. THE gifts made by rich protectors of Green peas, when scarce and out of season, produce in Paris, as well as London, a great price, and are esteemed delicacies of the first order. A young sprig of nobility, very gallant, lately made a present of three pints of peas to a nymph with whom he was passionately enamoured. They cost him six Louis. The lady considered it a sin to regale upon food so dear. She resolved to sell the peas and apply the money to the purchase of a new pelisse; she sent her maid to sell the peas in the market. The girl fortunately applied to a fruiterer, who was most desirous of getting some for one of his chief cus and returned home, to put them in a basket, and present it in style. The maid went to her mistress, and related the manner in which she had disposed of the article. When she heard the name of the second purchaser, she knew him as one of her admirers, and became jealous, under the idea that he had bought the peas as a present for another woman. This afflicting idea ran in her head, when a footman, from the man in question, brought a basket covered with flowers and ribbands as a present for the damoiselle. Astonished to find the peas which she believed destined for another, intended a second time for herself, the idea occurred of sending them to the kitchen; but her mother, economical as well as speculative, reminded her that it would be more advantageous to let them go to an advocate who was employed to get her divorced from her husband. The advocate, instead of regaling himself, presented the peas to a marquis to whom he was under the greatest obligations. The marquis had just received the present, when the chevalier, who bought the peas for twenty-five Louis, entered on a visit, and beheld the very corbeille which he had taken the pains to ornament with ribbands. At this sight he had no doubt the marquis was preferred by his belle, and he ran to reproach her for perfidy. They disputed without understanding each other. At that moment arrived the valet de chambre of the marquis, who did not dine at home that day, and being also one of the friends of the belle, had sent her the young peas as a scarce thing. After this adventure they did not again change their destination. tomers, a maitre d'hotel. It so happened that another lover, having paid a visit to the object of his tenderness, the conversation turned upon things in and out of season, and judging from the manner in which she spoke of green peas, that she would be delighted to eat a few, he ran off to the market. Chance conducted him to the very shop where the maid, belonging to the frugal belle, offered the present made her mistress for sale. He purchased them CURRANT WINE. out of the hands of the fruiterer, at The samples of wine lately exhibited the moderate price of twenty-fiveLouis, at Exeter, were of white and red, by The lady settled the affair with the chevalier, and eat the peas in his com pany, notwithstanding she had søld them, and given them away. BRAG IS A GOOD DOG, BUT HOLDFAST IS A BETTER. -This proverb is a severe reflection upon braggadochios who talk big, boast and rattle. It is also a memento for those who make abundance of promises to do well in future, but are suspected to want constancy and resolution to perform them. WHAT IS BRED IN THE BONE WILL NEVER BE OUT OF THE FLESH. -This proverb is applied to such as inherit some vice from their parents; and intimates, that persons naturally addicted to any vice will scarce ever be reclaimed afterwards by the art of rhetoric, or the power of persuasion, authority, or command. A BURNT CHILD DREADS THE FIRE. This proverb intimates that it is natural for all living creatures, whether rational or irrational, to consult their own security and selfpreservation; and whether they act by instinct or reason, it still tends to some care of avoiding those things that have already done them an injury. MUCH FALLS BETWEEN THE CUP AND THE LIP. This is a cautionary proverb applicable to those sanguine persons who too confidently depend upon future expectations, unthoughtful of the preventional contingencies that may intervene. I TALK OF CHALK, AND YOU OF CHEESE.-All the impertinence in conversation, commerce, or business, is reprehended by this saying, where by a company does not preserve harmony in its discourse, or keep to the point in question. ROCHFORD, ESSEX. On the AT King's Hill, about half a mile north east of Rochford Church, is held what is called the LAWLESS COURT, a whimsical custom, the origin of which is not known. Wednesday morning next after Michaelmas day, the tenants are bound to attend upon the first crowing of the cock, and to kneel and do their homage without any thing of light but such as the heavens will afford. The steward of the court calls all such as are bound to appear with as notice when he goes to execute his low a voice as possible, giving no office; however, he that gives not an answer is deeply fined. They are all to whisper to each other, nor have they any pen and ink, but supply that deficiency with a coal; and he that owes suit and service, and appears not, forfeits to the lord of the manor double his rent every hour he is absent. A tenant of this manor forfeited not long ago, his land for non-attendance, but was restored to it, the lord only taking a fine. W. H. THE TRADITION OF THE DEVIL AND DOCTOR FAUSTUS was derived from the odd circumstance in which the Bibles of Faust, who was the prin ter, appeared to the world. When he had printed off a considerable number of copies, he undertook the sale of them at Paris. The copies were in imitation of manuscript, and it was his interest to pass them off as such. But as he was enabled to sell his bibles at sixty crowns while the scribes demanded five hundred, universal astonishment was excited; and particularly when he produced copies as fast as they were wanted, and even lowered his price. The uniformity of the copies too increased the wonder. Informations were constantly given to the magistrates against him as a magician; his lodgings were searched, and a great number of copies being found they were seized. Faust's red ink, which was peculiarly brilliant, was said to be his blood; and it was. solemnly adjudged that he was in league with the devil. At length, to save himself from a bonfire, Faust disclosed his art to the parliament of Paris, who immediately discharged him from all prosecution, in consideration of the usefulness of his inven tion. LINES On an Hindostan girl, as she was borne up the country in her polanquin, on being separated from the man she loved (an Englishman) who was about to marry. 'Tis thy will, and I must leave thee, And her own desires pursue, But thy Lela, broken hearted. The Wit's Nunchion. When Sir Cloudesley Shovel was only a boy in the navy, under the patronage of Sir John Marlborough, on hearing the admiral express an earnest wish that some papers might be conveyed to the captain of a ship, then engaged in action at a considerable distance, he, with great resolution, undertook to swim with the dispatches in his mouth through the line of the enemy's fire, and this service he actually performed, to the astonishment of all those who were witnesses of his courage. Mr. and Mrs. Liston dined one day with George Colman, when late in the evening Liston said to his wife (who is of exceeding low stature) "Come, Mrs. L. let us be going."—Mrs. L. Mrs. indeed!" said Mr. Colman, INCH you mean." A REBUS. A denial revers'd, when next fifty is plac'd, And when with five hundred the former is grac❜d; With the name that you'll find is the. contra to off, Will shew you a city, I think, plain enough. TO CORRESPONDENTS. The observations of STAR we received with great pleasure, and shall be happy to gain his assistance, as also W. H. J. F. Ferguson, W. Strong, Jones, Wills, W. C., Momus, and Ty, have all been attended to; but we are obliged to reject much of their labour, because many of their articles are either so very stale,or too much gathered from our contemporaries, therefore, unless they can send us greater rarities, they will not find a place in the Nic-Nac. Printed and Published by T. WALLIS, Camden.. Town; and Sold by all Booksellers and Newsmen, in Town and Country--I'rice One Penny. No. XIII. OR, ORACLE OF KNOWLEDGE. SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1823. "Praise us as we are tasted; allow us as we prove: Our head shall go bare till Merit crown it."-SHAKESPEARE. PRICE Id. THESE Sculptures are taken from Mich. Angelo's "Le Gemme Antiche figurate," printed at Rome, 1700, 4to., and represent some antique figures, cut in precious stones, which, by the oddness of their hieroglyphic commixture, are supposed to involve some diculous mysteries of the Priscillianists, those ancient heretics, or, as others imagine, the heathen mythology, in which latter sense they are explained by the author as follows: FIG. I. The ram's head, with an ear of corn in its mouth, signifies corn, which runs into ears, under the sign of Aries, or the ram; the grotesque human head is to be understood of the god Pan, whom the heathens believed to be the same with the sun, the common parent of all things: by the feet of a cock, a very hot bird, and therefore appropriated to the sun, is signified the influence of the sun: the horse's head and breast our author understands of water, according to Homer and Thales, the first principle of this universe; and the acorn is put for any kind of fruit proper for human aliment. FIG. II.-The winged young man managing the horse, represents the Demon, or Genius, which Jamblichus and others believe to preside over the generation and actions of men. FIG. III. Supposing the explications given above, the elevation of the cock's foot plainly signifies the heat of the sun raising the foot or stalk of the corn, when he is in the sign of the ram. FIG. IV. This is a very chimerical structure, which was engraved on a cornelian; the author imagines it to involve a symbolical adumbration of the city of Rome and its founders. For by the serpent at the top is denoted the coming of Eneas into Italy, after he had seen a great snake near his father's tomb, in Sicily; the sow which has had litters, indicates the sacrifice offered by Eneas after his arrival at the place where Ascanius afterwards founded the city of Alba; or, since it was customary with the ancients, at entering into leagues or treaties, to sacrifice a sow, perhaps the animal was designed as a symbol of that solemn confederation between Romulus and Tatius, king of the Sabines. The she-wolf suckling two children, literally represents the education of Romulus and Remus, according to vulgar tradition; Hercules' club, and the boar's head at the bottom, are symbols of that valour and resolution for which the ancient Romans were so remarkably eminent, both in conquering their enemies and subduing their own vices and passions. The same, probably, was intended by the head of the ram, a very pugnacious animal, and therefore consecrated to Mars; but our author interprets it as a symbol of Venus, the mother of Eneas, because the Elæenses worshipped her image sitting on a ram. PEVERIL OF THE PEAK. AFTER the Hartley-nick contest, Sir Geoffrey, having been placed in the office of Justice of the Peace, so soon as the king's restoration was put upon a settled basis, soon had Dr. Dummerar replaced in the parish, from which he had been forcibly ejected during the usurpation. Bridgenorth, thus chagrined, entices Deborah Debbitch from Lady Peveril's service, and with her, for the care of his daughter Alice, leaves the country; and, as there was but little matter worthy of mark occurred at Martindale after this, we must pass over the transac tions of several years. About five years after Master Bridgenorth had left the country, a singular incident took place. Sir Geoffrey was absent at the Chesterfield races, and Lady Peveril, who was in the habit of walking around every part of the neighbourhood unattended, or only accompanied by Ellesmere, or her little boy, had gone down one evening upon a charitable errand to a solitary hut, whose inhabitant lay sick of a fever, which was supposed to be infectious. Lady Peveril never allowed apprehensions of this kind to stop devoted charit able deeds;" but she did not choose to expose either her son or her attendant to the risk which she herself, in some confidence that she knew precautions for escaping the danger, did not hesitate to incur. 66 Lady Peveril had set out at a late hour in the evening, and the way proved longer than she expected; several circumstances also occurred to detain her at the hut of her patient. It was a broad autumn moon-light, when she prepared to return homeward through the broken glades and upland which divided her from the castle. This she considered as a matter of very little importance, in so quiet and sequestered a country, where the road lay chiefly through her own domains, especially as she bad a lad about fifteen years old, the son of her patient, to escort her on her way. The distance was better than two miles, but might be considerably abridged by passing through an avenue belonging to the estate of Moultrassie-Hall, which she had avoided as she came, not from the ridiculous rumours which pronounced it to be haunted, but because her husband was much displeased when any attempt was made to render the walks of the castle and hall common to the inhabitants of both. However, although the Dobby's Walk was within the inhibited domains of the hall, the Lady Peveril determined to avail herself of it, for the purpose of shortening her road home, and she directed her steps accordingly. But when the peasantboy, her companion, who had hitherto followed her, whistling cheerily, with a hedge-bill in his hand, and his hat on one side, perceived that she turned to the stile which entered the Dobby's Walk, he shewed symptoms of great fear, and at length, coming to the lady's side, petitioned her, in a whimpering tone,-"Don't ye now don't ye now, my lady, don't ye go yonder." Lady Peveril, observing that his teeth chattered in his head, and that his whole person exhibited great signs of terror, began to recollect the report, that the first squire of Moultrassie, the brewer of Chesterfield aforesaid, who had bought the estate, and then died of melancholy, for lack of something to do (and, as was said, not without suspicions of suicide), was supposed to walk in this sequestered avenue, accompanied by a large headless mastiff, which, when he was alive, and bad his head, was a favorite of the ex-brewer.Continued on page 115.) |