"You are right, and a death will follow authority in Craven matters, Dr. Whitaker, his last night's appearance.' "Whose death?' "Not yours.' "As Bertha refused to make any further communication, I left her. In less than three hours after I quitted her I was in formed that my friend N, whose figure I had seen enveloped in the mist of the caldron, had that morning committed suicide, by drowning himself at Arncliffe bridge, in the very spot where I beheld the disturbance of the stream!" Such was the story of my companion; the tale amused me, but by no means in creased my belief in witchcraft. I told the narrator so, and we again entered into a serious discussion, which continued till the inn clock struck seven, when the stranger left me, saying, that he could not stay any longer, as he had a distance of ten miles to travel that evening along a very lonely road. The belief of witchcraft is still very prevalent in Craven; and there are now residing in different parts wise men and wise women, whom the country people consult when any property is stolen or lost, as well as for the purpose of fortune-telling. These impostors pretend generally to practise divination by the crystal, as in the tale -a mode of deception which Moncrieff has very ingeniously ridiculed in his "Tom and Jerry." Witches and wizards are not so common as they were a few years ago amongst us. The spread of education, by means of National and Sunday Schools, goes a great way to destroy superstition. Few witches were better known in Craven than Kilnsay Nan, who died a few years ago. This old hag travelled with a Guinea pig in her breast, which she pretended solved questions, and used at times to open a witchcraft shop in Bag's-alley, Skipton: her stock of spells was not very large, for it only consisted of her Guinea pig, and about half a pack of dirty cards. Littondale, the romantic valley which forms the scene of the above tale, is at the extremity of the parish of Burnsal, where Wharfdale forks off into two great branches, one whereof retains the name of Wharfdale to the source of the river; and the other, which is watered by the Skirfare, (some times called the Litton and Litton Bech,) is called Littondale. The ancient name was Amerdale; and by that designation Wordsworth alludes to it in his "White Doe," The deep fork of Amerdale." The whole of the dale is in the parish of Arncliffe ; so called, according to my great from Eann, an eagle, and clyff, a rock; i. e. the eagle's rock; "as it afforded many secure retreats for that bird in its ridges of perpendicular limestone." The western side of the valley extends to Pennigent; on the skirts of which mountain are many ancient places of interment, called “Giants' Graves," thought to be Danish. During the last summer I took a ride up Littondale, principally with a view of inspecting Arncliffe church, on the venerable tower of which I had frequently gazed at a distance. Alas! it is the only venerable thing about the church, all the rest of which has been rebuilt in a most paltry and insignificant style-not an ornament about it, inside or outside: as Dr. Whitaker truly says, "it has been rebuilt with all the attention to economy, and all the neglect, both of modern elegance and ancient form, which characterises the religious edifices of the present day." It is indeed, as the same historian observes, " a perfect specimen" of a "plain, oblong, ill-constructed building, without aisles, choir, column, battlements, or buttresses; the roof and wainscotting of deal, the covering of slate; the walls run ning down with wet, and the whole resembling a modern conventicle, which this year may serve as a chapel, and the next as a cockpit." The remarks that Arncliffe church leads the doctor to make ought to be thundered in the ears of every "beautifier" from Cornwall to Berwick upon Tweed : "Awakened by the remonstrances of their ecclesiastical superior, a parish discovers that, by long neglect, the roof of their church is half rotten, the lead full of cracks, the pews falling down, the windows broken, the mullions decayed, the walls damp and mouldy. Here it is well if the next discovery be not the value of the lead. No matter whether this covering have or have not given an air of dignity and venerable peculiarity to the church for centuries. It will save a parish assessment; and blue slate will harmonize very prettily with the adjoining cotton-mill! The work of renovation proceeds the stone tracery of the windows, which had long shed their dim religious light, is displaced, and with it all the armorial achievements of antiquity, the written memorials of benefactors, the rich tints and glowing drapery of saints and angels-but to console our eyes for the losses, the smart luminous modern sash is introduced; and if this be only pointed at top, all is well; for all isstill Gothic!* Next are condemned the • Rylstone chapel has been “beautïïed" in this way. THE TABLE BOOK, 4 massy oaken stalls, many of them capable of repairs, many of them wanting none: these are replaced by narrow slender deal pews, admirably contrived to cramp the tall, and break down under the bulky. Next the fluted wood work of the roof, with all its carved enrichments, is plastered over. It looked dull and nourished cobwebs! Lastly, the screens and lattices, which, from a period antecedent to the Reformation, had spread their light and perforated surfaces from arch to arch, are sawn away; and, in the true spirit of modern equality, one undistinguishing blank is substituted for separations which are yet canonical, and to distinctions which ought to be revered.", In Littondale is the celebrated cave Doukerbottom Hole: the road leading to it is steep and difficult to travel for one unused to hilly countries; but the tourist will receive an ample recompense for the badness of the road, by the splendid views obtained from all parts of it of Whernside and the neighbouring hills. It is some years since I saw Doukerbottom Cave; and at this distance of time I fear to attempt a description of its wonders; but I remember that the entrance is steep and rather dangerous; the first chamber very spacious and lofty, and the roof starred with beautiful stalactites formed by the dripping of the limestone; that then the cavern becomes narrower and lower, so much so, that you have to stoop, and that at the end the ear is stunned by a waterfall, which discharges itself into some still lower cave. I remember, too, that I visited it in company with an amiable dissenting minister, and that we were highly amused at the jokes and tales of our one-eyed guide, Mr. Proctor, of Kilnsay. I have just been inquiring after that worthy and eccentric old fellow, and find that he is dead. I am sorry for it; and if my reverend friend should see this article, I doubt not but he will lament with me, that poor old Proctor is gone. For many years he had been guide to Doukerbottom Cave and Whernside. In Littondale is a ridge of rock, called Tenant's Ride, from one of the Tenant family having galloped along it while hunting. A dangerous feat truly, but not so daring as is generally supposed; for I am given to understand the ridge is seven yards wide, and perfectly level. There are fine waterfalls in the valley. I trust that a time will come when Littondale will be more frequented than at present. December, 1827. T. Q. M. HAGBUSH-LANE. 784 Corrall's cottage time to reflect, and make From desire to afford the destroyers of reparation for the injury they had inflicted on the old man and his wife; and wishing making, the topic has remained till now to abstain from all appearance of strifeuntouched. the agent of a respectable clergyman On the 28th of November Mr. S., as whose sympathy had been excited by the statements of the Table Book, called on me to make some inquiries into the case, and I invited him to accompany me stage to the "Old Mother Red Cap," to Corrall's shed. We proceeded by a Camden-town, and walked from thence till we came to the spot at the western along the New Road, leading to Holloway, side of the road. We had journeyed for corner of Hagbush-lane, on the left-hand nothing-the shed had disappeared from the dreary line of road, and the adjacent the clay swamp whereon it stood. Along meadows, rendered cheerless by alternate frosts and rains, there was not a human being within sight; and we were at least be made, with a chance of success, respecta mile from any place where inquiry could ing the fugitives. As they might have retired into the lane for better shelter during the winter, we made our way across the I soon recognised the little winding grove, quaggy entrance as well as we could, and so delightful and lover-like a walk in days gloomy and forbidding. The disrobed trees of vernal sunshine. Its aspect, now, was looked black, like funeral mutes mourning the death of summer, and wept cold drops upon our faces. As we wound our slippery way we perceived moving figures in the up to a comfortless man and woman, a distance of the dim vista, and soon came poor couple, huddling over a small smouldering fire of twigs and leaves. They told down their shed and moved three weeks us that Corrall and his wife had taken the new buildings in White-conduit fields. before, and were gone to live in some of The destitute appearance of our informants in this lonely place induced inquiry respecting themselves. The man was a London labourer out of employment, and, for two days, they had been seeking it in the country without success. not relieve them; and they were withwere able to work, parish-officers would Because they out a home and without food. They had walked and sauntered during the nights, for want of a place to sleep in, two A last Look at Hagbush-lane. and occasionally lighted a fire for a little we got out of Hagbush-lane it was dark, but we could perceive that the site of Corrall's cottage and ruined garden was occupied by heaps of gas-manure, belonging to the opulent landowner, whose labourers destroyed the poor man's residence and his growing stock of winter vegetables. "A man may see how this world goes with no eyes. Look with thine ears: see how yon' justice rails upon yon' simple thief. Hark in thine ear: change places; and handy dandy, which is the justice, which is the thief? "Through tatter'd cloaths small vices do appear; > We found Corrall and his wife and child at No. 3, Bishop's-place, Copenhagen-street: The overseets would have taken them into the workhouse, but the old man and his wife refused, because, according to the workhouse rules, had they entered, they would have been separated. In "The Form of Solemnization of Matrimony," it is enjoined, after the joining of hands, "Those whom God hath joined together, let no man put asunder" and though this prescription is of the highest order of law, yet it is constantly violated by parochial autho rity. Corrall is sixty-nine years old, and his wife's lungs appear diseased. Were they together in the poor-house they would be as well circumstanced as they can ever hope or wish; but, this not being allowed, they purpose endeavouring to pick up a living by selling ready dressed meat and small beer to labouring people. Their child, a girl about seven years of age, seems destined to a vagabond and lawless life, unless means can be devised to take her off the old people's hands, and put her to school. On leaving them I gave the wife five shillings, which a correspondent sent for their use:* and Mr. S. left his address, that, when they get settled, they' may apply to him as the almoner of the benevolent clergyman, on whose behalf he accompanied me to witness their situa tion. 66 This notice will terminate all remark on Hagbush-lane but I reiterate, that since it ceased to be used as the common high way from the north of England into Lon-. don, it became a green lane, affording lovely walks to lovers of rural scenery, which lawless encroachments have despoiled, and only a few spots of its former beauty remain. It is not waste "of the manors through which it passes, but belongs to the crown; and if the Commis sioners of Woods and Forests survey and inquire, they will doubtless claim and possess themselves of the whole, and appropriate it by sale to the public service. True it is, that on one or two occasions manor homages have been called, and persons I am sorry I cannot remember the initials to this gentleman's letter, which has been accidentally, misfaid. colourably admitted to certain parcels ; but the land so disposed of, a homage could not legally admit claimants into possession of; nor could an entry on the court rolls confer a legal title. Indeed the court rolls them. selves will, at least in one instance, show that the steward has doubted his lord's right; and the futility of such a title has seemed so obvious, that some who retain portions of Hagbush-lane actually decline admission through the manor-court, and hold their possessions by open seizure, deeming such a holding as legal, to all intents and purposes, as any that the lord of the manor can give. Such possessors are lords in their own righta right unknown to the law of Englandfounded on mere force; which, were it exercised on the personalties of passengers, would infallibly subject successful claimants to the inconvenience of taking either a long voyage to New South Wales, or, perhaps, a short walk without the walls of Newgate, there to receive the highest reward the sheriff's substitute can bestow. Discoveries OF THE ANCIENTS AND MODERNS. No. XXXV. ANCIENT CHEMISTRY, &c. Distillation. It has been questioned whether the ancients were acquainted with this art, but a passage of Dioscorides not only indicates the practice, but shows that the name of its principal instrument, the alembie, was derived from the Greek language. Pliny gives the same explanation, as Dioscorides does, of the manner of extracting quicksilver from cinnabar by distillation. And Seneca describes an instrument exactly resembling the alembic. Hippocrates even describes the process of distillation. He talks of vapours from the boiling fluid, which meeting with resistance stop and condense, till they fall in drops. Zosimus of Panopolis, an Egyptian city, desires his students to furnish themselves with alembics, gives them directions how to use them, describes them, and presents drawings of such as best deserve to be employed in practice. Alcalis and Acids. Of the substances promiscuously termed lixivial salt, sal alcali, rock-salt, &c., Aristotle speaks, when he says that in Umbria the burnt ashes of rushes and reeds, boiled in water, yield a great quantity of salt. Theophrastus observes the same. Varro relates of dwellers on the borders of the Rhine, who having neither sea nor pit salt, supply themselves by means of the saline cinders of burnt plants. Pliny speaks of ashes as impregnated with salts, and in particular of the nitrous ashes of burnt oak; adding, that these salts are used in medicine, and that a dose of lixivial ashes is an excellent remedy. Hippocrates, Celsus, Dioscorides, and especially Galen, often recommend the medical use of sal alcali. To the mixture of acids and alcali, Plato ascribed fermentation. Solomon seems to have known this effect of them, when he speaks of "vinegar upon nitre." Cleopatra's Pearl.-A convincing proof of the ability of the ancients in chemistry is the experiment with which Cleopatra entertained Marc Antony, in dissolving before him, in a kind of vinegar, a pearl of very great value, (above 45,450l. sterling.) At present we know not of any "vinegar" that can produce this effect; but the fact is well attested. Probably the queen added something to the vinegar, omitted by the historian. The aid of Dioscorides, surnamed Phacas, who was her physician, might have enabled her thus to gain her wager with Marc Antony, that she would exceed him in the splendour and costliness of her entertainment. But Cleopatra herself was a chemical adept, as appears from some of her performances still in the libraries of Paris, Venice, and the Vatican. And Pliny informs us of the emperor Caius, that by means of fire he extracted some gold from orpiment. Malleability of Glass.-The method of rendering glass ductile, which is to us a secret, was assuredly a process well known to the ancients. Some still doubt of it, as others have of the burning glasses of Archimedes. Because forsooth they do not know how it could be effected, they will not admit the fact, notwithstanding the exact accounts we have of it, till somebody again recovers this lost or neglected secret, as Kircher and Buffon did that of Archimedes's mirrors. Pliny says, the flexibility of glass was discovered in the time of Tiberius; but that the emperor fearing lest gold and silver, those most precious metals, should thereby fall in their value, so as to become contemptible, ordered the residence, workhouse, and tools of the ingenious artisan to be destroyed, and thus strangled the art in its infancy. Petronius is more diffuse. He says, that in the time of Tiberius there was an artificer who made vessels of glass, which were in their composition and fabric as strong and durable as silver or gold; and that being introduced into the presence of the emperor, he presented him with a vase of this kind, such as he thought worthy of his acceptance. Meeting with the praise his invention deserved, and finding his present so favourably received, he threw the vase with such violence upon the floor, that had it been of brass it must have been injured by the blow; he took it up again whole, but dimpled a little, and immediately repaired it with a hammer. While in expectation of ample recompense for his ingenuity, the emperor asked him whether any body else was acquainted with this method of preparing glass, and being assured that no other was, the tyrant ordered his head to be immediately struck off; lest gold and silver, added he, should become as base as dirt. Dion Cassius, on this head, confirms the attestations of Pliny and Petronius. Ibn Abd Alhokim speaks of malleable glass as a thing known in the flourishing times of Egypt. Greaves, in his work on Pyramids, mentions him as a celebrated chronologist among the Arabians, and cites from him that "Saurid built in the western pyramid thirty treasuries, filled with store of riches and utensils, and with signatures made of precious stones, and with instruments of iron and vessels of earth, and with arms which rust not, and with glass which might be bended, and yet not broken, &c." There is, however, a modern chemical composition, formed of silver dissolved in acid spirits, and which is called cornu lunæ, or horned moon, a transparent body, easily put into fusion, and very like horn or glass, and which will bear the hammer. Borţichius, a Danish physician of the seventeenth century, describes an experiment of his own, by which he obtained a pliant and malleable salt: he gives the receipt, and concludes from thence, that as glass for the most part is only a mixture of salt and sand, and as the salt may be rendered ductile, glass may be made malleable: he even imagines that the Roman artificer, spoken of by Pliny and Petronius, may have suc cessfully used antimony as the principal ingredient in the composition of his vase. Descartes supposed it possible to impart malleability to glass, and Morhoff assures us that Boyle was of the same opinion. Painting on Glass.-This art, so far as it depends upon chemistry, was carried formerly to high perfection. Of this we have |