the day of the month, the yeere of our Lorde, and the reigne of the Queene: and at Hampton-Court hee presented the same to the Queene's Majestie, in the heade of a ringe of golde, covered with a chrystall, and presented therewith an excellent Spectacle, by him devised, for the easier reading thereof, wherewith hir Majestie reade all that was written thereon, and did weare the same upon hir finger.* About the same time, Marke Scaliot, blacksmith, borne in London, for trial of workmanship, made one hanging locke of yron, steele, and brasse, a pipe-key filed threesquare, with a pot upon the shafte, and the bowe with two esses, al cleane wrought, which weied but one grain of golde, or wheat corne; he made also a chain of golde of 43 linkes, to which chaine the locke and key being fastned, and put about a flea's neck, shee drew the same; all which locke, key, chaine, and flea, weied but one graine and a half, as is yet to be seene upon Corne-hill, by Leaden-hall, at the sayde Marke's house.-Stowe. Bristol. GEORGE PRYCE. CURIOUS CAVERN. THERE is at Blackheath-hill, in the county of Kent, about one hundred yards from the main Dover road, a curious and very large subterraneous cavern, hewn through a solid chalk-stone rock, I think nearly one hundred feet below the surface. It was discovered in the year 1780. The internal structure, it is said, is similar to the cave under the ruins of Rygate Castle, built by the Saxons; where the Barons of England, in the year 1212, with their followers, held their private meetings. It is supposed that the Saxons, on their entrance into Kent, excavated several of these cavities; and that in the Peter Bales was born in 1547, and besides being very clever in the above-mentioned species of penmanship, he was exceedingly dextrous in imitating hand-writing; and about 1586, was employed by Secretary Walsingham in certain political manœuvres. He died reign of Henry VI. Blackheath was infested by several banditti, called Levellers. There are four very lofty and extensive rooms in this cavern. I observed at the entrance of one of the rooms, part of a side-post of the door-way yet remaining it was a piece of oak, let into the rock; and the room is supposed to have been intended for the confinement of prisoners. In one of the principal rooms, at the extremity of the cavern, is a well of soft and pure water. There are forty-two steps leading down, on an easy descent, into the first room. The rooms are dry, and are illuminated with candles. It is supposed that the cavern will hold about 1200 people. THANKFUL CROOKENDEN. Lewisham, Nov. 5th, 1832. A MAHOMETAN FABLE. THE Mahometans have invented many fabulous accounts concerning the Prophets and Patriarchs of the Old Testament: amongst the rest, they tell us, that Moses having preached a long time to King Pharaoh, who was an atheist and a tyrant, on the existence of one eternal God, and on the creation of the world, and finding that he made no impression either upon Pharaoh or his courtiers, ordered a fine palace to be erected privately, at a considerable distance from the country residence of the King. It happened that the King, as he was hunting, saw this palace, and inquired by whom it had been built. None of his followers could give him any information. At length Moses came forward, and said to him, that the palace must certainly have built itself. The King fell a laughing at his absurdity; telling him that it was a pretty thing for a man who called himself a Prophet, to say that such a palace had built itself in the middle of a desert. Moses interrupted him by saying, "You think it a strange extravagance to affirm, that this palace built itself; the thing being impossible; and yet you believe that the world made itself. If this fine palace, which is but an atom in comparison, could possible is it, that this world, so solid, so great, so admirable in all its parts, could be made by itself; and that it should not, on the contrary, be the work of an Architect wise and powerful!" The King was convinced, and worshipped God, as Moses had instructed him to do.Bishop Watson. THE SIN OF UGLINESS. WE have heard and seen some creatures sentenced to a fatal doom for what was termed their ugliness. A beast or a reptile is ugly, and therefore worthy of death! Admirable reason! The most irrational of creatures, if gifted with speech, could not utter language more absurd. Who made you a judge of beauty? Are your ideas of it the true criterion? We should suppose that the form and the dress which the Creator gave it are the most suitable and decorous. It is not ugly in the eyes of its own kind, of its conjugal mate, or its young progeny; not so ugly, peradventure, even in your estimation, as you in theirs. If seen with kindred eyes, or with microscopic, philosophic, or religious eyes, it might disclose a thousand marks of beauty which escape the observation of those who judge only by the first impression of sense. But granting it ugly, is ugliness a crime, or is beauty a virtue? Are you yourself an angel of beauty, and therefore worthy of salvation? If so, prove it by exhibiting those graces of the mind of which external beauty has been deemed the index. Nothing is so deformed as cruelty. Personify it, and you cannot give it form or features too disgusting, or too revoltingly odious.The Voice of Humanity. CONSISTENT HUMANITY. THE following observations from the Rev. Rowland Hill, in behalf of the toad, which occur in his "Journal of a Tour through the North of England,” indicate an amiability of disposition worthy of commendation:-" An un They are supposed to be poisonous: this is quite a vulgar error. They are useful reptiles; and are even capable of the knowledge of our attention and humanity. It is wanton cruelty to destroy them. In my country abode, I even attempted to make them a place of retirement, and called it a toadery. Every creature that God has sent we should protect; and, in a subordinate degree, they demand our attention. It is no disgrace to the Christian character to plead the persecuted cause of the harmless toad."-Disgrace! no, verily!-The Voice of Humanity. ** THE APPEARANCES OF THE PLANETS. THE times of the planets' rising, southing, and setting, together with their conjunctions with the Moon, &c., I insert in the monthly Astronomical Notices; but that the juvenile lover of astronomy may distinguish the planets from the fixed stars, and from one another, I make the following remarks. The fixed stars all seem to twinkle, but the planets give a steady light. MERCURY emits a bright white light; but keeps so near the sun, that he is very seldom visible; and when he does make his appearance, his motion towards the sun is so swift, that he can only be discerned for a short period. He appears near the horizon, either a little before sun-rise, or after sun-set. VENUS is the most beautiful star in the heavens, known by the names of the morning and evening star. Like Mercury, she keeps near the Sun, though she recedes from him much further; but never like him appears in the eastern part when the sun is in the western. Venus always follows the sun in the evening, or, rising before him, gives notice of his approach in the morning. MARS is of a fiery red colour, giving a much duller light than Venus, though he sometimes appears almost equal to her in size. He is not subject to the same limitations in very near the sun; at other times at such a distance as to rise when the sun sets, and to set when the sun rises. JUPITER and SATURN likewise often appear at great distances from the Sun: the former shines with a bright light, the latter with a pale faint one. The motion of Saturn among the fixed stars is so slow, that unless carefully observed, and that for some time, he will not appear to move at all. The GEORGIUM SIDUS (the planet discovered by Dr. Herschel) cannot be readily perceived without the assistance of a telescope. From the preceding observations, any person may easily learn to distinguish all the planets: for if after sun-set he sees a planet nearer the east than the west, he may conclude that it is neither Mercury nor Venus; and may determine whether it be Saturn, Jupiter, or Mars, by the colour and light; by which also he may distinguish between Venus and Mercury. Besides the motions which we observe in all the planets, their apparent magnitudes are very different at different times. Every one must have observed that Venus, though she constantly appears with great splendour, is not always of the same size; but this difference of magnitude is most conspicuous in Mars: it is remarkable in Jupiter, but less so in Saturn and Mercury. W. ROGERSON. NOTICES OF ANIMATED AND VEGETABLE NATURE. FOR JANUARY, 1833. "I can see A beauty in that fruitful change, when comes O'er the dead face of the' undistinguished earth." 1ST WEEK. Shell-less snails and earth worms appear. Laurustinus remains in blossom; and now and then, in mild seasons, a daisy or a snow-drop breaks forth: but there are fewer wild flowers in this month than in any other period of the year. 2d Week. The wagtails, white, grey, and yellow, are seen by |