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attempted to bring them both, but his one always struggled out of his mouth: he then laid down one, intending to bring the other, but whenever he attempted to cross to me, the bird left fluttered into the water he immediately returned, laid down the first on the shore, and recovered the other; the first one fluttered away, but he instantly secured it, and, standing over them both, seemed to cogitate for a moment: then, although on any other occasion he never ruffles a feather, deliberately killed one, brought over the other, and then returned for the dead bird.'

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We shall conclude with an extract from the treatise by the author of the Oakleigh Sporting Code;' in which we are presented with a short dialogue upon deer-stalking, in the manner of Mr Scrope :

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'Forester. By Jove! we are upon them. Tread lightly, crouch closely, speak lowly, breathe softly, while we examine the situation of the herd with our glasses, and the hill-men go round to give the deer their wind, and drive them to us.

'Southron. - Amongst so many scores of hinds how few harts! there are some large beasts, but not one good head. How can I bear off a trophy from such a herd? I would have the horns of my first hart hung up like monuments » - memorials of what I saw and did in the North-to relieve the tedium of after hours of sluggish ease and inglorious repose. There is nothing here in the shape of horn that a cutler would give you half-a-crown for.

Forester.-Look lower down the glen: there are at least three harts royal; one has a crowned, another a palmed top, and anothermagnificent creature! -his horns are neither crowned, nor palmed, nor yet exactly forked, but irregular, as those of most old harts are. He is so much larger than the rest, that if we wound him, I think I can trace him by his slot, though he keep up with the herd. Now he turns this way. What horns! What a span!- the width between the horns is a sure indication of a well-grown animal. He has a perfect head, «beamed, branched, and summed,» as they would have said in old times. He has brow-antlers, royals, and croches-perfect!

'Southron He has brow, bay, and tray-antlers, and three or four points on the top of each beam. He is grey on the breast, face, haunches, and shoulder! May not that fine fellow be old enough to recollect the war-whoop of Culloden? Many a proud lord and stalwart forester has been laid low since he first browsed on the braes. 'Forester.-Move quietly, or those listening watchful hinds will betray us. Hinds must have been unknown to the ancients; or they would never have invented such a non-descript as Argus, since a twoeyed hind would have answered their purpose as well.

"Southron.-What in the world are the men doing: - do you call this driving deer?-the men are going from them. I do not know how you measure distance in such a country as this, but I should say the men are a mile off the deer-the deer can neither see nor hear them -you are joking when you say they can smell them.

'Forester. The deer must not see them: the men are now manœuvring to give them their wind, without being seen: on their doing so at the right place and time, the chance of our getting a shot depends. No quadruped has so acute a sense of smell as a deer. I will back him against a blood-hound. I have heard of a tame deer that was in the habit of going with a shepherd to the hills: whenever it happened that he went without it, the deer would trace him step by step, though he had five or six hours start of it. Observe how the glens converge to a point about half a mile beyond the deer -a false movement there will be fatal-none but experienced foresters can tell which way the currents pass there-the sentinel hinds on the left, prick their ears to listen, and raise their noses to catch the taint in the air-they suspect danger-the men have given them their wind at the wrong point and now the whole herd are off, they have taken to the plain where they are safe. We must commence another cast.

'Southron. - Not for all the deer in the forest. How many miles have we walked, trotted, run, crawled, and swum already? and how high, as the geographers express it, have we been above the level of the sea? However this is glorious sport! the very possibility of obtaining a shot is enough. We will resume to-morrow.'

The best part by far of the volume, containing the last mentioned treatise, as may be also said of the immediately preceding one, consists of the portion devoted to Angling; a delightful theme, fruitful of good reading, to which we probably shall return on a future occasion.

(THE EDINBURGH REVIEW.)

MEMOIRS OF POPULAR DELUSIONS.

BY CHARLES MACKAY.

A popular name for a book exactly of the kind calculated to be popular; for the subjects are all of a popular character, and Mr. Mackay - has treated them in a popular manner. Some of them, it is true, have been treated seriously, and at large, in many volumes distinctly devoted to them; and in such we can expect to find little new. The chief materials for the others have been derived from various sources; and the whole have been dressed up with much talent, so as to form a very amusing work for readers of every class.

The Mississippi Scheme, the South-Sea Bubble, the Tulipomania, the Love of the Marvellous and the Disbelief of the True, Follies in great Cities, the O. P., Thugs, the Crusades, Witches, Slow Poisoners, Haunted Houses, &c., fill up the measure, the mere names of which will indicate where the greatest novelty is likely to be found. But we may as well say, that even in the best known there are well-selected anecdotes, and a general aspect of originality, which will make them, like the lamp in Aladdin, a fair exchange for any that have gone before.

VOL. I.

69

We will endeavour to show this in the few extracts we offer from these pages.

When the Tulipomania infected Holland, and single roots were sold for many hundred pounds, we are told

« People who had been absent from Holland, and whose chance it was to return when this folly was at its maximum, were sometimes led into awkward dilemmas by their ignorance. There is an amusing instance of the kind related in Blainville's Travels. A wealthy merchant, who prided himself not a little on his rare tulips, received upon one occasion a very valuable consignment of merchandise from the Levant. Intelligence of its arrival was brought him by a sailor, who presented himself for that purpose at the counting-house, among bales of goods of every description. The merchant, to reward him for his news, munificently made him a present of a fine red herring for his breakfast. The sailor had, it appears, a great partiality for onions; and seeing a bulb very like an onion lying upon the counter of this liberal trader, and thinking it no doubt very much out of its place among silks and velvets, he slily seized an opportunity, and slipped it into his pocket as a relish for his herring. He got clear off with his prize, and proceeded to the quay to eat his breakfast. Hardly was his back turned when the merchant missed his valuable Semper augustus, worth three thousand florins, or about 2801. sterling. The whole establishment was instantly in an uproar; search was every where made for the precious root, but it was not to be found. Great was the merchant's distress of mind. The search was renewed; but again without success. At last some one thought of the sailThe unhappy merchant sprang into the street at the bare suggestion. His alarmed household followed him. The sailor, simple soul! had not thought of concealment. He was found quietly sitting on a coil of ropes, masticating the last morsel of his onion.' Little did he dream that he had been eating a breakfast whose cost might have regaled a whole ship's crew for a twelvemonth; or, as the plundered merchant himself expressed it, might have sumptuously feasted the Prince of Orange and the whole court of the Stadtholder.'

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Anthony caused pearls to be dissolved in wine to drink the health of Cleopatra; Sir Richard Whittington was as foolishly magnificent in an entertainment to King Henry V.; and Sir Thomas Gresham drank a diamond, dissolved in wine, to the health of Queen Elizabeth, when she opened the Royal Exchange but the breakfast of this roguish Dutchman was as splendid as either. He had an advantage, too, over his wasteful predecessors their gems did not improve the taste or the wholesomeness of their wine, while his tulip was quite delicious with his red herring. The most unfortunate part of the business for him was, that he remained in prison for some months on a charge of felony, preferred against him by the merchant.-Another story is told of an English traveller, which is scarcely less ludicrous. This gentleman, an amateur botanist, happened to see a tulip-root lying in the conservatory of a wealthy Dutchman. Being ignorant of its quality, he took out his penknife, and peeled off its coats, with the view of making experiments upon it When it was by this means reduced to half its original size, he cut it into two equal sections, making all the time many learned remarks on the singular appearances of the unknown bulb. Suddenly the owner pounced upon him; and, with fury in his eyes, asked him if he knew what he had been doing? Peeling a most extraordinary onion,' replied the philosopher. dert tausend duyvel!' said the Dutchman; it's an Admiral Van der Eyck.' Thank you,' replied the traveller, taking out his note-book to make a memorandum of the same; 'are these admirals common in your country?' 'Death and the devil!' said the Dutchman, seizing the astonished man of science by the collar; come before the syndic, and you shall see.' In spite of his remonstrances, the traveller was led through the streets, followed by a mob of persons. When brought into the presence of the magistrate, he learned, to his consternation, that the root upon which he had been experimentalising was worth four thousand florins; and, notwithstanding all he could urge in extenuation, he was lodged in prison until he found securities for the payment of this sum.

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The example of the Dutch was imitated to some extent in

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