THE CHARMS OF EARLY SPRING. BY HELEN HETHERINGTON. Come, Dora dear, and let us rove Where merry milkmaids gaily sing, And tips the verdant hills with beauty. A hope of brighter, happier hours. Then let us share the joy she yields, And in her merry mazes mingle; Chase the wild breeze across the fields, And flow'rets seek in forest dingle. Bright daisies gambol at our feet, And primroses sweet odors fling To court the smiles of lovely Spring. Can infidelity exist, And dare to press this verdant sod? Can man, weak sinful man, resist The mighty voice of Nature's God! The springing corn, the golden sheaves, The little birds His mercies hail, Then let us join their hymn of praise, NOTES ON PHOTOGRAPHY. No. 1.-INTRODUCTORY. THIS VERY INTERESTING subject, in which so many families take delight, is one which I consider peculiarly suited for discussion in your pages; and if you will allow me, my dear sir, I will furnish you with a few short papers thereon, practical, and easy of comprehension. They will refer to the Collodion process, a branch of the Photographic art, decidedly the most simple, and attended with the least possible trouble and expense. Photography, I hardly need remark, is the art of obtaining pictures on various prepared substances, by the agency of light, or perhaps more correctly speaking, by that of the sun. Though the principles of the art were known many years ago, yet the practice of it made little or no advance, till simplified by the constant and arduous labors of Daguerre, Herschel, Talbot, Hunt, Archer, and many others. The difficulties are now, however, so much lessened, that very many ladies and gentlemen practise it as an interesting, scientific, and healthful amusement. From the multiplicity of processes now before the world, the intending beginner is often quite bewildered, and cannot tell which of them to turn to. To obviate this diffi culty, I propose, therefore, in the pages of OUR OWN JOURNAL, to give a simple and succinct account of the Collodion process, and which I have found eminently successful. I hope a perusal of my remarks will induce many to become acquainted with this fascinating art. Who would not be able to take a friend's portrait-to fix indelibly the lineaments of those who are dear to him? What could be a more welcome present to relatives far away than an enclosure of such portraits; calling to remembrance faces they will perhaps never behold or meet again, at least here below? or a picture of the home of their childhood? Oh! happy, happy home,- bringing up with every well-remembered nook, those far-off memories of early days, which lie buried in every human heart. Photography for such a purpose is indeed a blessing. A complete apparatus, and materials for the the Collodion process, will cost from £5 to £10, according to size. These prices are for the smaller sets; some, with expensive lenses, cost as high as £60. After the first equipment the expense, however, is very trifling, and as a very good set for a beginner may be had for £6, I would recommend that at least that amount be laid out in the first instance; as though perhaps no better pictures are produced than with smaller sets, yet the general results are more satisfactory. Any of the respectable dealers in photographic materials (several of whom, I observe, advertise in OUR JOURNAL), will furnish the requirements, and will most likely be able to shew the process of taking a Collodion picture. Indeed, it is indispensably necessary that a beginner should see the mode of coating the glass-plate with Collodion; the dipping the plates in various solutions, exposing them in the camera, &c.: for the manipulation of these cannot be properly communicated in words. For the greater part of the Collodion process, a dark room is required; and perhaps the best way of obtaining this is to stretch three folds of yellow calico over the window, which admits light enough to work by, and yet not of the kind to derange the process. As the reason of this and many other things immediately connected with Photography would involve more space and time than I can spare time to answer properly, I beg to refer all inquirers to "Hunt's Manual of Photography," 4th edition, a most valuable work, which contains a very extended history and account of Photography in all its branches. As much water is used in the process, a room with a sink and water-tap is to be preferred; yet a pail of clean water, and a receptacle for the washings, will suffice very well. I give a detailed list of the apparatus, and materials required for the Collodion process; as some may already possess several of them, or may prefer to purchase them singly. But most makers fit up various-sized sets of every requisite, at prices varying according to size and quality. A rigid camera, with dark cell for glass paper, frames for various sizes of plates, and &c. A pair of compound achromatic lenses, mounted in brass, with rack work adjustment about 2 inches diam., and costing, say £4 4s. Two porcelain trays (rather wider and longer than the largest-sized picture the camera will take), one gutta percha dipping bath, same breadth and width as the trays, with dippers. One pair of scales, with glass or bone trays, one 10 oz graduated glass measure, one glass funnel, three 10-oz. bottles, ground-glass stoppered. Glass plates to suit the frames of the camera. The various sizes required are kept in stock by many glaziers, and at all the photographic shops. I prefer patent-plate glass; although flattened crown-glass suits very well, and is considerably cheaper. One gallon distilled Water. All the above (except the water) must be kept in glass-stoppered bottles, as some are volatile, whilst others absorb moisture from the atmosphere. They must all (but particularly the collodion and the nitrate of silver,) be kept away from a strong light. I will now give the formulas for the solutions required, which are all to be made in proportion to the quantities mentioned, more or less, as wanted. For instance, when I say nitrate of silver 30 grains; distilled water 1 oz., you will take, say 8 ozs. of water; and of course eight-times 30 grains of silver, i.e. 240 grains. No. I. Iodised Collodion.-This is prepared by dissolving gun cotton in ether, which is afterwards iodised; but as it is much preferable for beginners to buy it fresh in small quantities, as wanted, I will not detail the manufacture. No. II. The Sensitive Solution.-To distilled water, 1 oz., add Cryst. Nitrate of Silver, 30 grains. No. III. The Developing Solution. - Distilled Water, 10 ozs.; Proto-Sulphate of Iron, 3 oz., Sulphuric Acid, 6 minims; Acetic Acid, 6 minims.-Filter through bibulous paper. No. IV. The Fixing Solution.-A saturated solution of Hypo-sulphite of Soda in filtered rain or river water. If these solutions be prepared in time for next month, I hope we shall then be enabled to take a picture together. all One word more. Let me impress upon beginners the imperative necessity for the most scrupulous cleanliness in manipulation. The least speck of dirt, or grease, on a glass plate, will spoil the future picture; or a drop of one solution may do serious injury to another. Any questions addressed to me or the subject, may be forwarded through you. I shall be most ready and happy to reply to them. GLENELG. IF I WERE A VOICE. BY CHARLES MACKAY, If I were a voice, a persuasive voice, That could travel the wide world through, I'd fly on the beams of the morning light, And speak to men with gentle might, And tell them to be true. I'd fly, I'd fly o'er land and sea, Wherever a human heart might be, Telling a tale or singing a song, In the praise of the right, In the blame of the wrong. In the blame, in the blame of the wrong. If I were a voice, a consoling voice, I'd fly on the wings of air; The homes of sorrow and guilt I'd seek, And teach them to rejoice again. If I were a voice, an immortal voice, I'd make their error clear. THE LITTLE SEED. A LITTLE seed, at random thrown The seed lay there for many days, Amid those cold and rugged ways, By briars overgrown ; Yet rain from Heaven, and balmy air, It rooted in the solid ground, Put forth its stem and leaf, It blossom'd there so sweetly mild Produced so fair a sight; But Winter came with storm and snow! And the briars dash'd it to and fro Until they deem'd it dead; Dismay'd were they when Spring appeared, Defied their rugged powers. The flowers now climb the mountain side, Whilst o'er the plain in modest pride They bloom for many a mile; And thus a thought may live and grow, Yes! it will smile and spread its flowers, And mid the tempest and the showers Like many a truth which smiles serene Thus breathing to the world around It shall adorn the humblest ground, THE RULING PASSION, OR THE "WILL OFFICE," DOCTORS' COMMONS. IF WE WOULD SEE HUMAN NATURE in its foulest aspect, let us go any morning to the door of the Will Office, Doctors' Commons. A glance at the folk going in and out, lets us into a secret which they take little care to hide. If our pen were to pursue the subject, we fear we should get ourself into a scrape. We therefore use the milder language of a contemporary, called "London," who lays bare sufficient to give an outline of the vermin that haunt this building. The curious can go and examine further for themselves. But now for the Will Office : WHAT business of life and death have we here! The weeds of the widow jostle with the ribands of the bride; expectancy going in, meets disappointment coming out; miserly greed and poverty's need cast their shadows on thy flags, oh, lottery house of joy and despair!-and the little men at thy gate, with great badges and white aprons, tout on to every face that wears gladness or sadness passing the portal. What a profound knowledge of human motives directs the appeals of those ticketporters! How they discriminate betwixt the apparel of the bridegroom and that of the chief mourner! How singularly appropriate are their interrogations, delivered, as it were, in a breath! "D'ye want a licence, sir?" "Wish to search for a will, ma'am?" "D'ye want a proctor?" But after all, it is their trade; and that is the true secret of nearly every remarkable human instinct. We pass them by, however; for we want no cicerone to direct us along a path that is worn deep by the pilgrimages of the votaries of MAMMON. We leave the hum of traffic in St. Paul's Churchyard, and penetrate the cloister-like interior of Doctors' Commons-passing by gaunt houses, that seem as discolored and shrivelled as the parchment documents they contain; with never a merry sound vibrating their old girders, or a strain of harmony to interfere with the monotonous ticking of the death-watch that prognosticates unceasing fatality from behind their ancient Even wainscots and worm-eaten panels. human nature, in this strange place, wears such a stern and rigid garb of decorum that it is a wonder how it exists. The aliments, the pleasures, and the luxuries of ordinary mortality, it is plain, can never interfere in the composition of such faces as one sees here, strained to a more than stoical imper Whilst they who shunn'd the budding flower turbability. Shall praise it in its blooming hour. EDMUND TEESDALE. But we are forgetting our destination, which is a little doorway labelled, "The Prerogative Office of the ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY." A dark passage leads from this opening into an oblong room, lined with bookcases, so heavily burthened that they groan again under the excessive weight. Their contents, also, are a noticeable feature. These are immense volumes, vellum-bound, with iron rims, and massive back-bands. These last resemble the gnarls on an old oak, now that the lapse of centuries has destroyed the contour they bore when they left the hands of the cunning binders. This assemblage of ponderous tomes forms merely the index to the documentary contents of the place; but it is an index such as no volume of consecutive narrative could rival. Open but one of its fasciculi upon one of those desks that fill the centre of the room-open it at any page, at any letter; and if you do not find your attention immediately riveted by its brief glosses, we are not a true prophet. Had you, then, forgotten that kings and conquerors, poets and orators were, after all, but men with a keen eye to their household gods, and a vulgar concern for the testamentary disposition of their property? Why is it that you pause so abstractedly over the name of NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE; and, again, feel such surprise as you note the entry that relates to one WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE-a poet who has written his name upon the adamantine pillar of immortality? Are your ears so full of the roar of artillery, and your fancies so elevated amidst the pinnacles of poesy, that the details of mere matters of pounds and shillings, and old coats, and best and second best beds and bedding, seem to you but ridiculous themes to occupy the closing thoughts of the great general and the great poet? Alas, for sentimentality! These registers are its saddest enemies. Turning from the consideration of booksmark the characters by which we are surrounded. The ferret-eyed lawyer, poking about that case yonder, with the dexterity of an old practitioner; that sombre widow, who for the past half-hour has been looking through her tears at the volume containing the name of the "dear departed;" the mere youth, with the signs of incipient dissipation, rebellious against his guardian's authority, endeavoring to discover a pretext for open defiance; that pale, attenuated man, who attends regularly every day, and searches till his fingers and his eyes ache, and then leaves, with a sigh, at the hour for departing; that shrewd-looking fellow, who is another constant attendant, and who bears a family resemblance to JOSEPH ADY; and that merry, smiling couple of young lovers, who (for shame! in such a place) are actually carrying on a flirtation over a sheepskin record. What searching is there here! Never did miner scrutinise more laboriously the mass of earth supposed to contain a mineral treasure, than do this assemblage hunt through the manuscript entries of the all-important index. And see, the widow has found all the details she needs to place her in temporary possession of her husband's will. She carries the book to a gentleman seated at a high desk, points out the entry, pays a shilling, and is ushered into an adjoining chamber-there to await the result of another search, which speedily results in the production of the desired document. If the room we have just quitted was a scene of active excitement, the present one is its greatest contrast. Here, seated before two or three little tables, are people reading wills; under the supervision of an official, whose duty it is to observe that none of them are mutilated; or, what is scarcely less important, that none are surreptitiously copied. Yet, we observe some strange expedients adopted to evade this prohibition. It is astonishing what a number of pencils are used for toothpicks in this little sanctum; and we would wager that more thumb-nails than one carry away, in black-lead characters, the substance of testaments that have apparently only been subjected to a hasty scan. It is an impressive sight to watch the varied emotions impressed upon the features of the temporary occupants, who here hold, as Here it were, communion with the dead. hopes and fears are realised; here is consummated the triumph of revenge, that may hap lingered in the heart of the dying; here, too, in such strange company, sweet charity This irradiates many a woe-begone cheek. is the counting-house of DEATH. England is a "Protestant Country;" and it vaunts much of its mental superiority over all other countries. But only let a chance of getting gold appear; and then see what a (so-called) Christian's heart is made of. Alas! human nature! poor MUSIC. Is it not sweet, when music's melting tone NOTES ON THE EDIBLE CHESNUT. 137 The horsemen, whence its Italian name. IT IS ONLY RECENTLY, MY DEAR SIR, that I have found leisure to peruse KIDD's The finest specimen of this beautiful tree I OWN JOURNAL. In looking over the pages of the last number, as well as many of those have as yet seen,stands at about half an hour's The steamer was preceding it, I find among the names of the walk up the neighboring mountain from the numerous contributors, your old favorites, town of Evian, in Savoy. making a that "jolly dog BOMBYX ATLAS, and FINO; both of whom seem to be indefatigable in their researches and interesting anecdotes. Bombyx, Now I must aver that I am no yet if I may be allowed to contribute occasionally to Our own JournaL a few remarks on divers subjects of interest, it will I afford me considerable pleasure to do so. have been induced to set about assisting the good work, by noticing the unceasing exertions of many of my old acquaintances and friends, whose names stand so prominent in your pages. Thus let me introduce myself to the readers of OUR JOURNAL. The subject I propose to notice to-day is -the EDIBLE CHESNUT (Castanea vesca). Of all trees which take part in forming the forests and woods of Europe, perhaps none are more strikingly effective than this, for size, stature, and beauty. It is to be met with in all the temperate climates of Europe. The French call it "Le Chataignier;" the Germans, "Castaniebaum; the Dutch, "Kestenbaum" and "Kastanibaum;" the Italians, "Il Castagno;" the Spaniards, "El Castano; and WE call it the "Chesnut tree." In England the Chesnut appears more It is chiefly in the Canton of Tessin, in promenade on the 2nd of August, 1846, to Evian; leaving passengers there in the morning at about 10 o'clock, and coming to fetch them home at about 5 P.M. for Geneva. I made this "promenade" from Geneva on the day I have just noticed, to the town of Evian. This place is very dirty and dull, as are most of the towns in Savoy. I went with a guide on purpose to see the famous chesnut tree, and passed through a narrow path with a broken wall on either side, covered with the fronds of the common polypody (Polypodium vulgare), which, being then quite matured, had a very pretty appearance. Presently we found ourselves in a forest of nothing but noble chesnut trees; the foliage was so thick that the beams of the sun could scarcely penetrate it; and the ground we were walking on was so slippery with Lycopodiums, Sphagnum, and other Musci, that it was troublesome walking. At last we came into a field bordered with these splendid trees, and at one corner stood the specimen I now describe. I measured the circumference of its trunk, and found it to be fifty-four feet. The trunk was perfectly hollow, and yet sound to all outward appearance. I entered it, and am sure it would very comfortably. shelter eight persons The height of the tree is considerable, I am told it is upwards of 85 feet; spreading and well-shaped in proportion to its gigantic size. If any botanists visit Evian, I hope they will pay this tree a visit, and judge for themselves of its beauty, and the adjacent scenery. Stoke Newington, March 2nd. AGLIA TAU. [Most proud are we of this addition to our staff; and we gladly hail you, AGLia Tau, as one of our body-guard. All that proceeds So consider yourself from your pen can hardly fail to please the as "enlisted" under our banner.] readers of OUR OWN. OUR WILD FLOWERS. |