MY NIECE'S ALBUM.-No. I. MYTHOLOGY MADE EASY! DEAR Minny, mine is but a musty old Muse, Such as flows from the soft Seraph quills of Sky blues If you wish for a tale of a horse with five legs, A Jew boil'd alive, or a doll that laid eggs, Or, supposing we try a short touch at the lore "Sing row-de-dow dow-de-dow, dub-a-dub-dub, Here I come with my club, some dragon to drub, When, a baby in arms, I came first to the scratch, My voice was like thunder, my fist was like steel, If they cribb'd but a grain from my infantine meal, I have made my teeth meet through an oaken joint-stool In my pets, as a two-year-old boy; At four, I was cock of the county free-school, But learning was never my joy. So I grew up a youth of a practical taste, And very soon felt in the mind To knock down the monsters who laid the land waste, And the Ogres that gobbled mankind. The Nemæan lion made havoc and rout, Eating shepherds and sheep far and wide; But I gripp'd him, and squeez'd his tough chitterlings out, And tann'd me a coat of his hide. The boar, Erymanthian,-'twas precious tough work But I stuck piggy-wiggy, and turn'd him to pork, And Cerberus also, the three-headed brute!— I unkennell'd and whack'd him, and tamed him to boot, I twisted the tail of the mad bull of Crete, I clean'd out Augeas's yard, a vile slough But the hunks never paid me a farthing, I vow, I sprain'd both my wrists, and was half stunk to death, But I learn'd, what I'll hold with my very last breath, I bagg'd the great Rocs upon Stymphalus' coast, The Thracian King, Diomed, also I threw And Geryon the bandit, I settled him too, My nerve was most tried by the Hydra, a brute For, as fast as you cut off its heads, they would shoot Iolaus, my tiger,-a staunch little trump, As I dock'd off each head in the lot, Made it hiss a new tune while be sear'd the raw stump The Amazon Queen, (for young girls will be rash,) I whipt off the girdle that held all her cash, I hocuss'd the Dragon, so watchful and grim, I now could afford to get settled in life So I laid in my cellar, and married a wife, This was well, and I ought to have "let well alone," A legal offence, in a whim of my own I married one day wife the second. Young men, be advised, and don't envy a Turk,- One spouse was no tax, but 'twas wearisome work At last, set on fire by a phosphorus shirt, Like a rocket I flew up to Heav'n at one spirt, Divorced by the circumstance,-fortune be praised!- And espoused pretty Hebe, the day she was raised Now I hunt after land and sea-monsters no more, At any spare time, to avoid getting fat I spar against Mars, whom I floor with a pat, By the way, a right honest good fellow is that, Each night tête-à-tête we carouse, smoke, and chat, I could tell you much more that befel me before But I'm one of few words, and long yarns are a bore, Thus spoke a good fellow, the stoutest of men: If you wish to continue the stave, Take, Minny, your pen, and consult brother N. Whate'er you may light on in Lempriere's page, MUSIC IS SWEET! BY MRS. CORNWELL BARON WILSON. MUSIC is sweet, at evening's close, When pale mists skim the azure sky, Music is sweet! when stars shine bright, Like angel eyes, through heaven's blue screen,When pearly dews weep tears of light, As Zephyr sighs, the leaves between! Music is sweet!-when friends throng round, Alluding to a Mahomedan superstition. THE SNUFF-BOX. A TALE OF WALES. Of all the inhabitants of our isles,-and there are still many distinct tribes whose Celtic, Gallic, Danish, Saxon, and Norman descent can be traced in a moment, there are none more peculiar in character than the Welsh, or Ancient Britons. You may gull a Cockney, rob a Damnonian, cheat a Yorkshireman, or out-Jew a Scot; but a Welshman is not to be done: a natural and inborn acuteness protects him from the deepest stratagems, and a leek ought certainly to be the symbol of the Goddess of Wisdom. This is a brief preface to the brief history of a tour of pleasure made by a very accomplished English gentleman into Wales; the interesting mining operations of which country he was desirous to investigate, not only for the promotion of a great scheme in which he was himself engaged, but for the patriotic purpose of rendering them more extensively useful, and disseminating their products of wealth more diffusely over the empire. Mr. George Hampden was a man who, yet in the early prime of life, for he was little more than thirty,-had seen a great deal of the world. His fund of information was prodigious; yet so simple was he in speech and manners, and so readily did he lend his ear to what others might truly think the insignificance of common-place intelligence, that no one could suspect his depth, or fancy that he was ought above those easy, good-humoured listeners who, destitute of any precise object of their own, are readily seduced into a passing interest in the concerns of the communicative who choose to make everybody that comes near them a confidant in their bosoms' business and secrets. Quiet, unobtrusive, gentlemanly, and withal good-looking, such was the hero of our tale, Mr. George Hampden. He had travelled far, as we have hinted; but so modest was his nature, that he never intruded the circumstances of his journeys upon society. He had ample materials for the publication of a tour; but he never wrote one. With the views to which we have alluded, he proceeded by the Quicksilver coach to Exeter; and thence, by the branch, to Truro, where he began his explorations of the rich mines, which, since the days when the Carthaginians used to trade with the natives at Market Jew, alias Marazion, were never examined with more philosophical acumen and sagacity. From Falmouth to the Land's-End, and from the Land's-End whither nobody could tell, he descended every shaft, and tried every lode. A dozen of hampers filled with arranged specimens, and a dozen of bags containing the more recent discoveries, vouched for the diligence of his labour, and the extent of his research. He had seen more veins than Mr. Henwood, collected more minerals than Mr. Carne, and examined more mines than Mr. Taylor. He had lead from Llangynog, quartz from Esqyr Mwyry, chlorite from Dolfrwynog, copper from Old Crinnis, silver from Tolcarne, tin from Wheal Vor, fluor from Wheal Gorland, barytes from Lanescol, zinc from Penstruthal, gossan from Gwennap, scovan from St. Austell, capel from Anglesea, iron from Yniscedwin, pyrites from Tresavean, blende from Dolcoath, gold from Glen Turret, shale from Drwysoed, sulphur from Brynfellin, fluccan from Allipies, killas from Llandidno, elvan from Polgooth, plumbago from Coed-y-Crae; besides cobalt, felspar, talc, calc, serpentine, cyanite, lepidolite, prehnite, laumonite, zeolite, zoidite, wavellite, chrysolite, tremolite, hæmatite, syenite, titanite, chlorite, actynolite, lucullite, augite, anthracite, gypsum, trap, mica, zircon, antimony, alum, calcedony, jasper, schorl, manganese, nickel, and a hundred other ites and spars, all labelled in the most precise and curious manner; so that no one could for a moment doubt his prodigious acquirements in the sciences of mineralogy and geology, as connected with the grand operations of mining. Sedgwick's hammer was but an idle toy compared to his: he could have taught Lyell, Phillips, and Murchison, more than they knew. Thus laden and accomplished, Mr. Hampden at length reached Swansea, where he took up his quarters for a season, to observe the nature of the valuable ores which are stamped and sold there, from every quarter of the globe,—from Chili and from Norway, Copiapo and Treloweth, West Cork and Cobre, Ballymurtagh and Cuba, Carn Brea and Valparaiso. With his usual modesty he took genteel and moderate lodgings, and by no means pressed himself upon public notice. He watclifully attended the mart, to be sure; and, like any other common stranger, pretty constantly frequented the newsroom. Here, by degrees, he grew into a slight and partial acquaintance with that class of the inhabitants whose habits led them to a similar mode of passing the time; and, in a few weeks, conversation produced invitation, and he was asked to dine with several of the respectable citizens of the place. Simple in his manners, well-informed and unostentatious, he rose into general favour; and, as familiarity increased, he gradually let out a portion of his private history and present views. One day after dinner, at Mr. Dobbes', he first exhibited the snuff-box which gives a title to our tale, and upon which hinged an event very important to his future destiny. It was indeed a splendid article, shaped like a chest ; it was of the finest gold, and so richly chased that the eye would have delighted in tracing the fanciful arabesques which, as it were, flowed over the shining metal, had it not been prevented by the dazzling enrichment of precious stones which nearly covered the ample surface. On the lid, a very bank of large diamonds was surmounted by a regal crown, where sapphires, amethysts, emeralds, and rubies, of almost inestimable size and value, alternated round the coronet; whilst the centre-top displayed a chrysolite hardly to be matched among the royal jewels of Europe. The touch, by the pressure of which the box opened, was a turquoise of nearly equal rarity; and below it, as if forming part of a lock, was a pearl of price. From this, all about the edge ran a wavy circlet of gems; and the bottom was embellished in a similar manner, only that the broad wreath of diamonds round the brilliant initial letters, "G. H." were let in, and embedded more deeply in the golden matrix. To say that no one in Swansea had ever seen such a box, is to say nothing; we question that Rundell and Bridge ever set eyes on its fellow, or that the Queen of England could have such a treasure made for her from all the jewels belonging to her bright inheritance: that which the Pasha of Egypt gave to Sir David Baird, and which Lady Baird presented to Theodore Hook for his excellent biography of her |