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VOL. 2.]

Nature's Diary for March.-Singing Birds.

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What instinct is it that can induce a lit- The instinctive attachment, indeed, of tle defenceless bird to venture over vast the female skylark to her offspring, often tracts of land and sea? If it be said, that precedes the period when she is capable by their high ascents into the air, they of being a mother. A young hen bird,' can see across the seas; yet what shall says Buffon, was brought to me in the instruct or persuade them, that another month of May, which was not able to land is most proper for their purpose feed without assistance. I caused her to than this? That Great Britain,for instance be educated; and she was hardly fledged should afford them better accommoda- when I received from another place a tions, than Egypt,the Canaries,Spain, or nest of three or four callow skylarks. To any of the other intermediate countries? these strangers she contracted a strong What lover of nature's music, but is liking; she attended them night and day, charmed with the various notes and mo- though nearly as old as herself, cherishdulations of our English singing birds? ed them beneath her wings, and fed them The sweetness of the throstle;-the with her bill. Nothing could interrupt cheerfulness of the sky lark;-the mel- her tender offices. If the objects of her lowness of the thrush, building near the regard were torn from her, she flew back misletoe;-the imitative talent of the to them as soon as she was liberated, bull-finch; the varied and familiar lan- and disdained to think of effecting her guage of the red-breast, endeared to us, own escape, which she had frequent opfrom our youth, by so many agreeable portunities of doing, while they remained associations; the wood-lark, priding in confinement. Her affection seemed to herself in being little inferior to the night- deprive her of every concern for self preingale, and making her home in lair- servation; she neglected food and drink, ground, under large tufts of grass to and though now supplied the same as shelter her from the cold;-the vivacity her adopted offspring, she expired at last, of the wren, forming her nest with dry leaves and moss, among hedges and shrubs encircled with ivy;-the solemn cry of the owl;-and the soft note of the linnet, building upon heaths with roots, and among thorns with moss, and subject to the disorder of melancholy!— Not one of these birds breathes a single note,that is not listened to with pleasure;

Happy commoners!

That haunt in woods, in meads, in flowery gardens,

Rifle the sweets and taste the choicest fruits,
Yet scorn to ask the lordly owner's leave.--Rowe.

quite worn out with maternal solicitude. None of the young ones long survived her, but died one after another; so essential were her cares, which were equally tender and judicious to their preservation.

The melody of the lark continues during the whole of the summer. It is chiefly, however, in the morning and evening that its strains are heard; and as it chaunts its mellow notes on the wing, it is the peculiar favourite of every person who has taste to relish the beauties of

Among the numerous songters of this nature, at the most tranquil season of the

month we must not omit to name the

Early, cheerful, mounting lark,

Light's gentle usher, Morning's clerk,

In merry notes delighting,

day, particularly at dawn, when he
'warbles high.'

His trembling-thrilling-ecstasy ;
And lessening from the dazzled sight,
Melts into air and liquid light.

The lark mounts almost perpendicularly, and by successive springs, into the air, where it frequently hovers over its nest, and the objects of its dearest affections, at a vast height, without once losing sight of them. Its descent is in an oblique direction, unless when it is alarmed or attracted by its mate, when it drops be to the earth like a stone.

and bearing up its hymn to heaven.' The skylark commonly forms its nest between two clods of earth, and lines it with dried grass and roots. In this she lays four or five eggs, and her period of incubation is about a fortnight, which office she generally performs twice a year. Her maternal affection is extremely interesting, both to the eye and to the heart. When her young are callow, she may seen fluttering over their heads, directing their motions, anticipating their wants, and guarding them against the approach of danger.

So the sweet lark, high poised in air,
Shuts close his pinions to his breast,
If chance his mate's shrill call he hear,
And drops at once into her nest.

472

Destruction of Birds.-Garden and Field Flowers.

When it begins to rise, its notes are feeble and interrupted; but they gradually swell, as it ascends, to their full tone, and delight every ear that is enamoured

of nature.

[VOL?

mighty has not formed any race of be ings whatever, without giving to them an important destination, he would not probably be so anxious for their destruction. It has been satisfactorily ascertained that For nearly three months before Christ- a single pair of sparrows, while their mas, larks lose their voice, begin to as- young ones are in the nest, destroy on an semble in flocks, grow fat, and are taken average above three thousand caterpillars in prodigious numbers by the bird-catch- every week! At this rate, if all the spe ers. As many as four thousand dozen cies of small birds were to be extirpated, have been caught in the vicinity of Dun- what would then become of the crops? stable alone, between September and Fe- Frogs, enlivened by the warmth of bruary; nor are they less an object of spring, rise from the bottom of ponds and pursuit in other districts; so that it is ditches, where they have lain torpid durjustly a matter of wonder that the spe- ing the winter. The smelt (salmo epercies should still remain without apparent lanus) begins to ascend rivers to spawn, diminution. In Germany, such quanti- when they are taken in great abundance. ties of larks are caught that they are sub- On the 20th, the vernal equinox takes jected to an excise duty, which, accord- place. All Nature feels her renovating ing to Keysler, produces to the city of sway, and seems to rejoice at the retreat Leipsic, without noticing other places, of winter. The sallow (salix) now enno less a sum than 900l. sterling a year. livens the hedges; the aspen (populus In France, larks form a common dish, at tremula), and the alder (alnus betula), this time, at almost every table. have their flowers full blown ; the laurusIn this month, trouts begin to rise; tinus (viburnum tinus) and the bay blood-worms appear in the water; black (laurus nobilis) begin to open ants (formica nigra) are observed; the leaves. The equinoctial gales are usu blackbird and the turkey (meleagris gal- ally most felt, both by sea and land, alopavo) lay; and house pigeons sit. The bout this time.

their

bat (vespertilio) is seen flitting about, Our gardens begin now to assume and the viper uncoils itself from its win- somewhat of a cheerful appearance. ter sleep. The wheatear (sylvia anan- Crocuses, exhibiting a rich mixture of the), or English ortolan, again pays its yellow and purple, ornament the borders; annual visit, leaving England in Septem- mezereon is in all its beauty; the little ber. They are found in great numbers flowers with silver crest and golden about East Bourne, in Sussex, more than eye,' the daisies, are scattered over dry eighteen hundred dozen being annually pastures; and the pilewort, (ranunculus taken in this neighbourhood. They are ficaria) is seen on the moist banks of usually sold at six pence a dozen. ditches. The primrose too (primula veris) peeps from beneath the hedge.

In many places, a great havoc is made, in this month, among sparrows and other small birds by the farmer; and rewards are sometimes offered for their destruction. How ignorant are the generality of mankind of their own good! This order includes no fewer than forty different kinds of birds which do not eat a single grain of corn, but which, in the course of the spring and summer, devour millions of insects that would otherwise prove infinitely more injurious to the farmer, than all the sparrows that haunt his fields, were they ten times more numerous than they are. And even with respect to sparrows, which are certainly, in some measure, injurious to the crops, were the farmer seriously to reflect that the Al

A thousand bills are busy now; the skies
Are winnowed by a thousand fluttering wings,
While all the feathered race their annual rites
Ardent begin, and choose where best to build
With more than human skill; some cautious seek
Sequestered spots, while some more confident
Scarce ask a covert. Wiser, these elude
The foes that prey upon their several kinds;
Those to the hedge repair with velvet down
Of budding sallows, beautifully white.
The cavern-loving wren sequestered seeks
The verdant shelter of the hollow stump,
And with congenial moss, harmless deceit,
Constructs a safe abode. On topmost boughs
The glossy raven, and the hoarse-voiced crow,
Rocked by the storm, erect their airy nests.
The ousel, lone frequenter of the grove
Of fragrant pines, in solemn depth of shade
Finds rest; or 'mid the holly's shining leaves,
A simple bush the piping thrush contents,
Though in the woodland concert he aloft

VOL. 2.]

Field Flowers-Elegy on the Approach of Spring.

Trills from his spotted throat a powerful strain,
And scorns the humbler quire. The lark too asks
A lowly dwelling, hid beneath a turf,
Or hollow, trodden by the sinking hoof;
Songster of heaven! who to the sun such lays
Pours forth, as earth ne'er owns. Within the hedge
The sparrow lays her sky-stained eggs. The barn
With eaves o'er pendant, holds the chattering tribe
Secret the linnet seeks the tangled copse:
The white owl seeks some antique ruined wall,
Fearless of rapine; or in hollow trees
Which age has caverned, safely courts repose:
The thievish pie in twofold colours clad,
Roofs o'er her curious nest with firm-wreathed twigs,
And sidelong forms her cautious door; she dreads
The taloned kite, or pouncing hawk ; savage
Herself;-with craft suspicion ever dwells.

Bidlake.

The leaves of honey suckles are now nearly expanded; in our gardens, the buds of the cherry-tree (prunus cerasus), the peach (amygdalus persica), the nectarine, the apricot, and the almond (prunus armeniaca), are fully opened in this month. The buds of the hawthorn (crataegus oxycantha) and of the larchtree (pinus larix) begin to open; and the tansy (tanacetum vulgare) emerges out of the ground; the daffodil (pseudonarcissus) in moist thiekets, the rush (juncus pilosus), and the spurge laurel (daphne laureola), found in woods, are now in bloom. The common whitlow grass (draba verna) on old walls; the yellow Alpine whitlow grass (draba aizoides) on maritime rocks; and the mountain pepperwort(lepidum petræum) among limestone rocks, flower in March.

The sweet violet (viola odorata) sheds its delicious perfumes in this month.

Though the striped tulip, and the blushing rose,
The polyanthus broad, with golden eye,
The full carnation, and the lily tall,
Display their beauties on the gay parterre,
In costly gardens, where th' unlicensed feet
Of rustics tread not; yet that lavish hand,
Which scatters violets under every thorn,
Forbids that sweets like these should be confined
Within the limits of the rich man's wall."

The gannets, or Soland geese (pelicanus bassanus), resort in March to the

To,

Wrapped round a Nosegay of Violets.
Dear object of my late and early prayer!
Source of my joy, and solace of my care!
Whose gentle friendship such a charm can give,
As makes me wish, and tells me how, to live!
To thee the Muse with grateful hand would bring
These first fair children of the doubtful spring.
O may they, fearless of a varying sky,

473

Hebrides,and other isles of North Britain,
to make their nests, and lay their eggs.

We shall conclude with a beautiful
John Scott, of Amwell.
Elegy on the approach of Spring,' by

Stern Winter hence with all his train removes,
And cheerful skies and limpid streams are seen;
Thick-sprouting foliage decorates the groves;

Reviving herbage clothes the fields with green.
Yet lovelier scenes th' approaching months prepare;
Kind Spring's full bounty soon will be displayed;
The smile of beauty every vale shall wear;

The voice of song enliven every shade.
O Fancy, paint not coming days too fair!
Oft for the prospects sprightly May should yield,
Rain-pouring clouds have darkened all the air,
Or snows untimely whitened o'er the field:

But

If

I

should kind Spring her wonted bounty show'r, gloomy thought the human mind 'erpow'r,

The smile of beauty, and the voice of song;

Ev'n vernal hours glide unenjoyed along.
shun the scenes where maddening passion raves,

Where Pride and Folly high dominion hold,

And unrelenting Avarice drives her slaves

O'er prostrate Virtue in pursuit of gold.
The grassy lane, the wood-surrounded field,
The clay-built cot, to me more pleasure yield
The rude stone fence with fragrant wall-flowers gay,

Than all the pomp imperial domes display:

And yet ev'n here, amid these secret shades,

These simple scenes of unreproved delight,
Affliction's iron hand my breast invades,
And Death's dread dart is ever in my sight.

while genial suns to genial showers succeed,

(The air all mildness, and the earth all bloom);

While herds and flocks range sportive o'er the mead,
Crop the sweet herb, and snuff the rich perfume;
O why alone to hapless man denied

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To taste the bliss inferior beings boast?
O why this fate, that fear and pain divide
His few short hours on earth's delightful coast?
Ah cease-no more of Providence complain!
'Tis sense of guilt that wakes the mind to woe,
Gives force to fear, adds energy to pain,
And palls each joy by Heaven indulged below:
Why else the smiling infant-train so blessed,
Ere ill propension ripens into sin,
Ere wild desire inflames the youthful breast,
And dear-bought knowledge ends the peace within?
As to the bleating tenants of the field,

As to the sportive warblers on the trees,
To them their joys sincere the seasons yield,

And all their days and all their prospects please.

Such mine, when first, from London's crowded streets,
Roved my young steps to Surry's wood-crowned hills
O'er new blown meads, that breathed a thousand sweets,
By shady coverts and by crystal rilis.

O happy hours, beyond recovery fied!
What share I now that can your loss repay,
While o'er my mind these glooms of thought are spread
And veil the light of life's meridian ray?

Bloom on thy breast, and smile beneath thine eye; Is there no Power this darkness to remove ?

In fairer lights, their vivid blue display,

And sweeter breathe their little lives away!

3N

ATHENEUM. Vol. 2.

The long-lost joys of Eden to restore,

Or raise our views to happier sents above,

Where fear and pain and death shall be no more?

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JOANNA SOUTHCOTT's Followers.
From the Literary Panorama, Nov. 1817.

THE

HE following instance of horrible superstition is almost incredible in these enlightened times; it is, however, well authenticated:

SACRIFICING A BLACK PIG.

"Tuesday the 14th alt. about 100 persons, 18 of whom were women, calling themselves the followers of Joanna Southcott, assembled in the wood at Forest hill, near Sydenham; their purpose was, apparently, some act of religious worship, and the following account will give you some idea of the infatuation of these poor deluded people :--

figures of our Saviour, so the miracles he per-
formed were only types of the Shiloh they ex-
pect. I then found that the burning of the pig
was, in other words, the burning and binding
of Satan, and intended the miracle in the 8th
of Luke, so that that morning their prophet
had cast the evil spirit out of each of their

hearts, and it had entered the swine.---Various
other absurdities were related to me, which it
would be only wasting time to mention : after
hearing all they had to say, I endeavoured to
point out their errors from Scripture, and to
direct their attention to that Almighty Saviour,
whose is the only name given under Heaven
by which men can be saved; and pointed out
the danger I apprehended they were in. But
they laughed at my fears, and with branches
in their hands, and bows of ribands on their
breasts, returned towards London, triumphing
in their folly. They all consisted of poor work-
ing men, and the man they called their Proph-
et, or the shadow of the Shiloh, was in appear-
ance a discharged seaman.
"J. A.”

46

From the Monthly Magazine, Oct. 1817.
GOTHIC THEATRES.

Forsyth, in his Italian Tour thus criticises the opera-house at Caserta:The theatre is perhaps too splendid for its own exhibitions. Its form is the usual horse-shoe, encircled with grand alabas. ter columns: but columns of the Greek orders are generally too many for separating such pigeon-holes as play-house boxes;-their shafts incommode the

On arriving at a spot suitable for their purpose, and having formed a circle, they began by singing and prayer, which they continued for a considerable time. They then drew from the bag a small live black pig, and having secured its legs, the women divided into two companies, and each female gave the animal nine distinct blows on the head with a chopper. This done, the men proceeded to beat it with poles, sticks, &c. till it was quite dead; they bound it with a strong iron chain, and having hoisted it up, they placed a tar barrel underneath, and with the aid of furze, &c. they soon had a blazing fire. Having done their utmost to burn the pig to ashes, they scattered the remains over their heads, and trampled it under their feet. This was succeeded again by singing and prayer. Upon first view ing their brutal behaviour, I was induced to interrupt them; but considering they were in an act of religious worship (although so contrary to humanity and reason), and remembering the religious liberty it is my privilege to cooped spectators, and their capitals obenjoy, I deemed it right they should enjoy the struct his view. Would not the Gothic same. Being anxious, however, to know the enter more intimately into the minute dimeaning of the ceremony that had been performed, I addressed myself to one who seemed visions of a modern theatre? The Gotha principal speaker, but whose profession in ic excels in little details, it loves little life appeared to be that of a journeyman blacksmith; I told him I feared they were in great compartments; its long slender shafts are error,and expressed a wish that God would be finely formed to part off the boxes, its flat pleased to open their eyes to understand the arches to surmount them, its fan-tracery truth. I was immediately surrounded, and requested to state what I considered the truth, to face them; and on the grander parts, and where they erred. I begged first to have such as the stage-front, or the state-boxtheir explanation of what I had seen; and was es, an artist might pile all the pinnacles informed they had copied from the Scriptures 1115 verses, which prove the truth of their doc- and enrichments of an old cathedra! trines. The daughter of Zion" (as they call throne. A theatre, however, is the only Joanna) is gone to heaven, they said, till the structure to which I have never seen the coming of the Shiloh; and as types and shadows were used under the Mosaic dispensation as Gothic applied.

66

VOL.2.] Antient Scotch Cooking-Vow of the Pheasant-The Golden Torques. 475.

66

From the New Monthly Magazine.
ANCIENT SCOTTISH CUSTOM.

From the Monthly Magazine.

VOW OF THE PHEASANT.

moors that belong to my lord, I ride for a week or perhaps a fortnight together Brantome, in his Vies des Hommes Il- without seeing house or harbour, or even lustres, relates that the Vidame de Char- fire, or any living creature, save the tres, while a prisoner of war in England beasts of the forest; then am I content during the reign of Edward III. obtained with food dressed in this manner, and I permission to visit the Highlands of Scot- should not relish it better out of an emland. After a grand hunting-match, in peror's kitchen." Thus did these two ride which a great quantity of game had been on, talking and eating, till they reached killed, he saw these "Scotch savages" a valley in which was a very fair spring. devour part of their booty raw, without When Estonne saw it, he said to Clauany other preparation than putting the dius, "Let us drink here of this beverflesh between two pieces of wood, which age, which God bestows upon all men, they squeezed together with such violence and which I prefer to all the banquets in as to express all the blood, so that the England." flesh was left quite dry. This they considered as a great dainty; and the Vidame highly ingratiated himself with The pheasant and the peacock were them, because he partook of their fare. considered as sacred birds among our In the old romance, La trés élégante Gothic ancestors; and in the age of chivHistoire du trés noble Roi Perceforest alry, when any solemn agreement was (Paris, 1531,) this practice is described made at table, it was customary to vow with great naiveté in the following epi- it over the pheasant. The lady of the sode, in which Estonne, a Scottish knight, house, or her daughter, carried round the who has killed a deer, addresses his com- dish to the chief guests, and each propanion, Claudius, in these words :-nounced over it his promise. At Lille, Now, Sir, eat as I do."-"So I might, in 1453, as M. de St. Palaye informs us, if we had but a fire."- 66 By my brother's a nobleman induced his principal neighsoul," cried Estonne, "I will cook for bours to vow over the pheasant a crusade you, after the fashion of my country, as against the Turks; however, it did not it befits a knight-errant." Hereupon he take place. drew his sword, went up to a tree, cut off a branch, which he split very deep, two Frequent mention is made in the feet at least; then placed a slice of the works of the most ancient and most celedeer in the cleft, took his horse's bridle, brated of the British bards, of the Torand bound the end of the branch so tight- ques, or golden wreath, worn round the ly, that all the blood and juice spirted neck of their chieftains in the day of batout of the flesh, and it was left quite dry. tle, as an ensign of authority, as well as He then took it and pulled off the skin, a badge of honour, and a mark of noble and the flesh looked as white as that of descent. Aneurin, in his epic poem on a capon. Upon this he said to Claudius: the unfortunate battle of Cattraeth, writ“Sir, I have cooked the flesh after the ten in the sixth century of the Christian manner of my country; you may dine era, describes the march of 363 British daintily upon it,and I will show you bow." leaders to the field of battle, all ornaHe then strewed salt and pepper upon the mented with the golden torques—— flesh, rubbed it, and cut it in two parts: one he presented to Claudius, and began to eat so heartily of the other, that the flew out in clouds. When Claupepper dius observed with what an appetite he ate, he followed his example, and relished his fare so well, that he said to Estonne, Lomarchus Senex, or Llywarch Hên, "Upon my soul, I never ate meat pre- prince of the Cambrian Britons, in his pared in this fashion; but henceforward, elegies on the loss of his sons, and of his I shall never more turn out of my way to regal dignity, written about the year seek other cookery."—"Sir," said Es- 560, asserts that he had four-and-twenty tonne, "when I am on the Scottish sons ornamented with the golden chain.

THE GOLDEN TORQUES.

To Cattraeth's vale, in glitt'ring row,
Twice two hundred warriors go;
Ev'ry warrior's manly neck,
Chains of regal honours deck,
Wreath'd in many a golden link,
From the golden cup they drink, &c.
Gray's Poems.

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