To heighten the festivities of Christmas, 1825. the good folks of " London and its environs" were invited to Sadler's Wells, by the following whimsical notice, printed and distributed as a handbill

"SOVEREIGNS WILL BE TAKEN, during the Christmas holidays, and as long as any body will bring them to SADLER'S WELLS; nay so little fastidious are the Proprietors of that delectable fascinating snuggery, that, however incredible it may appear, they, in some cases, have actually had the liberality to prefer Gold to Paper. Without attempting to investigate their motives for such extraordinary conduct, we shall do them the justice to say, they certainly give an amazing quantum o amusement, All in One Night, at the HOUSE ON THE HEATH, where, besides the THREE CRUMPIES, AND THE BARON AND HIS BROTHERS, an immense number of fashionables are expected on MERLIN'S MOUNT, and some of the first Cambrian families will countenance HARLEQUIN CYMRAEG, in hopes to partake of the Living Leek, which being served up the last thing before supper, will constitute a most excellent Christmas carminative, preventing the effects of night air on the crowds who will adorn this darling little edifice. In addition to a most effective LIGHT COM

Cold, colourless, and dead.

think on many a wasted hour,
And sicken o'er the void;
And many
darker are behind,
On worse than nought employ'd.
Oh Vanity! alas, my heart!

How widely hast thou stray d
And misused every golden gift
For better purpose made'

think on many a once-loved friend

As nothing to me now;
And what can mark the lapse of time
As does an alter'd brow?

PANY engaged here, a very respectably I sized Moon will be in attendance to light home a greater number of Patrons than ever this popular petted Palace of Pantomime is likely to produce. We say nothing of warmth and comfort, acquired by recent improvements, because these matters will soon be subjects of common conversation, and omit noticing the happiness of Half-price, and the cheering qualities of the Wine-room, fearful of wounding in the bosom of the Manager that innate modesty which is ever the concomitant of merit; we shall therefore conclude, by way of invitation to the dubious, in the language of an elegant writer, by asserting that the Proof of the Pud ding is in-VERBUM SAT."

NATURALISTS' CALENDAR.
Mean Temperature - - - 37 · 12.

Perhaps 'twas but a careless word

That sever'd Friendship's chain;
And angry Pride stands by each gap,
Lest they unite again.

Less sad, albeit more terrible,

To think upon the dead,
Who quiet in the lonely grave

Lay down their weary head.

For faith and hope, and peace, and trust,
Are with their happier lot:
Though broken is their bond of love,

At least we broke it not.

Thus thinking of the meeting years,
The coming and the past,

I needs must ask the future one,
Wilt thou be like the last?

*See vol. i. p. 61

There came a sound, but not of speech,

That to my thought replied, “Misery is the marriage-gift

That waits a mortal bride :

"But lift thine hopes from this base earth,
This waste of worldly care,
And wed thy faith to yon bright sky,
For Happiness dwells there!"

NATURALISTS' CALENDAR. Mean Temperature . . . 35 · 85.

January 8.

1826. First Sunday after Epiphany. CHRONOLOGY.

MONEY AND THE MOON.

Gentle reader,

If thou art not over-much prejudiced by the advances of modernization, (I like a long new-coined word,) so that, even in these "latter days," thou dost not hesitate to place explicit reliance on ancient, yet infallible" sayings and doings," (anL. E. L. cient enough, since they have been handed down to us by our grandmothers-and who would doubt the weight and authority of so many years?—and infallible enough, since they themselves absolutely believed in their "quite-correctness,") I will tell thee a secret well worth knowing, if that can be called a secret which arises out of a well-known and almost universal custom, at least, in "days of yore." It is neither more nor less than the possession throughout" the rolling year" of a pocket never without money. Is not this indeed a secret well worth knowing? Yet the means of its accomplishment are exceedingly simple (as all difficult things are when once known.) On the first day of the first new moon of the new year, or so soon afterwards as you observe it, all that you have to do is this:—on the first glance you take at " pale Luna's silvery crest" in the western sky, put your hand in your pocket, shut your eyes, and turn the smallest piece of silver coin you possess upside down in your said pocket. This will ensure you (if you will but trust its infallibility!) throughout the whole year that "summum bonum" of earthly wishes, a pocket never empty. If, however, you neglect, on the first appearance of the moon, your case is hopeless; nevertheless and notwithstanding, at a future new moon you may pursue the same course, and it will be sure to hold good during the then current month, but not a "whit" longer.

On the 8th of January, 1753, died sir Thomas Burnet, one of the judges of the court of Common Pleas, of the gout in his stomach, at his house in Lincoln's-inn fields. He was the eldest son of the celebrated D. Gilbert Burnet, bishop of Salisbury; was several years consul at Lisbon; and in November, 1741, made one of the judges of the Common Pleas, in room of judge Fortescue, who was appointed master of the rolls. On November 23, 1745, when the lord chancellor, judges, and association of the gentlemen of the law, waited on his majesty with their address, on occasion of the rebellion, he was knighted. He was an able and upright judge, and a great benefactor to the poor.†

THE NEW YEAR NEW MOON

To the Editor of the Every-Day Book.
Sir,

Encouraged by your various expressions of willingness to receive notices of customs not already "imprinted" in your first volume, I take the liberty of presenting the first of several which I have not yet seen in print.

This mention of the new moon and its crest brings to mind a few verses I wrote some time ago, and having searched my scrap-book, (undoubtedly not such a one as Geoffery Crayon's,) I copied them from thence, and they are here under. Although written in the merry merry month of May," they may be read in the "dreary dark December," for every new moon presents the same beautiful phenomenon.

A Simile.

Hast thou ne'er marked, when first the crescent moon
Shines faintly in the western horizon,

O'er her whole orb a slight soft blush o'erspread,

As though she were abashed to be thus seen
From the sun's couch with silver steps retreating?
Hast thou ne'er marked, that when by slow degrees,
Night after night, her crescent shape is lost,
And steadily she gains her stores of light,
Till half her form resplendently proclaims

An envious rival to the stars around

Then mark'st thou not, that nought of her sweet blush
Remains to please the gazer's wistful sight,
And that she shines increasingly in strength,
Till she is full-orb'd, mistress of the sky?—
So is it with the mind, when silently

Into the young heart's void steals timorous love.
Then enter with it fancy's fairy dreams,
Visions of glory, reveries of bliss;

And then they come and go, till comes, alas!
Knowledge, forced on us, of the "world without!"
How soon these scenes of beauty disappear!
How soon fond thought sinks into nothingness!
How soon the mind discovers that true bliss
Reposes not on sublunary things,

But is alone when passion's blaze is o'er
In that high happy sphere, where love's supreme.
Here it may not be out of place to en-
deavour to describe, as familiarly as pos-
sible, the cause of the lunar appearance.
Hold a piece of looking-glass in a ray of
sunshine, and then move a small ball
through the reflected ray: it is easy to
conceive that both sides will be illumined;
that side towards the sun by the direct
sunbeam, and the side towards the mirror,
though less powerfully, by the reflectea
sunbeam. In a somewhat similar manner,
the earth supplies the place of the mirror,
and as at every new moon, and for several
days after the moon is in that part of her
orbit between the earth and the sun, the
rays of the sun are reflected from the
earth to the dark side of the moon, and
consequently to the inhabitants of that
part of the moon, (if any such there be,
and query why should there not be such ?)
the earth must present the curious appear-
ance of a full moon of many times the
diameter which ours presents..

J. O. W.

NATURALISTS' CALENDAR. Mean Temperature . . . 36. 05.

January 9.

1826. Plough Monday. The first Monday after Twelfth day.* CHRONOLOGY.

On the 9th of January, 1752, William Stroud was tried before the bench o

* See vol. i. p. 7.

justices at Westminster-hall, for personat-
ing various characters and names, and
defrauding numbers of people, in order to
support his extravagance. It appeared
by the evidence, that he had cheated a
tailor of a suit of velvet clothes, trimmed
with gold; a jeweller of upwards of 1001.
in rings and watches, which he pawned;
a coachmaker of a chaise; a carver and
cabinet-maker of household goods; a
hosier, hatter, and shoemaker, and, in
short, some of almost every other business,
to the amount of a large sum.
He some-
times appeared like a gentleman attended
with livery servants; sometimes as a no-
bleman's steward; and, in the summer
time, he travelled the west of England, in
the character of Doctor Rock; and, at the
same time, wrote to London for goods, in
the names of the Rev. Laroche, and the
Rev. Thomas Strickland. The evidence
was full against him; notwithstanding
which, he made a long speech in his own
defence. He was sentenced to six months'
hard labour in Bridewell, and, within that
time, to be six times publicly whipped.

Such offences are familiar to tradesmen of the present times, through many perpetrators of the like stamp; but all of them are not of the same audacity as Stroud, who, in the month following his conviction, wrote and published his life, wherein he gives a very extraordinary account of his adventures, but passes slightly over, or palliates his blackest crimes. He was bred a haberdasher of small wares in Fleet-street, inarried his mistress's sister

before his apprentices..ip determined, set up in the Poultry, became a bankrupt, in three months got his certificate signed, and again set up in Holborn, where he lived but a little while before he was thrown into the King's Bench for debt, and there got acquainted with one Playstowe, who gradually led him into scenes of fraud, which he afterwards imitated. Playstowe being a handsome man, usually passed for a gentleman, and Stroud for his steward; at last the former, after many adventures, married a girl with 40001., flew to France, and left Stroud in the lurch, who then retired to Yorkshire, and lived some time with his aunt, pretending his wife was dead, and he was just on the brink of marrying advantageously, when his real character was traced. He then went to Ireland, passed for a man of fashion, hired an equipage, made the most of that country, and escaped to London. His next grand expedition was to the west of England, where he still personated the man of fortune, got acquainted with a young lady, and pursued her to London, where justice overtook him; and, instead of wedlock, bound him in the fetters of Bridewell.

On the 24th of June, 1752, Stroud received" his last and severest whipping,

On the 10th of January, 1812, it is observed, that London was this day involved, for several hours, in palpable darkness. The shops, offices, &c., were necessarily lighted up; but, the streets not being lighted as at night, it required no small care in the passenger to find his The sky, way, and avoid accidents. where any light pervaded it, showed the aspect of bronze. Such is, occasionally,

the effect of the accumulation of smoke

between two opposite gentle currents, or by means of a misty calm. The fuliginous cloud was visible, in this instance, from a distance of forty miles. Were it not for the extreme mobility of our atmosphere, this volcano of a hundred thousand mouths would, in winter, be scarcely habitable !t

Winter in the Country.

All out door work

* Gentleman's Magazine.

+ Howard on Climate.

Now stands; the waggoner, with wisp-wound feet,
And wheelspokes almost filled, his destined stage
Scarcely can gain. O'er hill, and vale, and wood,
Sweeps the snow-pinioned blast, and all things veils
In white array, disguising to the view
Objects well known, now faintly recognised.
One colour clothes the mountain and the plain,
Save where the feathery flakes melt as they fall
Upon the deep blue stream, or scowling lake,
Or where some beetling rock o'erjutting hangs
Above the vaulty precipice's cove.

Formless, the pointed cairn now scarce o'ertops
The level dreary waste; and coppice woods,
Diminished of their height, like bushes seem.
With stooping heads, turned from the storm, the flocks
Onward still urged by man and dog, escape

The smothering drift; while, skulking at a side,
Is seen the fox, with close downfolded tail,
Watching his time to seize a straggling prey;
Or from some lofty crag he ominous howls,
And makes approaching night more dismal 'all.

Grahame.

LETTER

from

"Just popp'd in, you know!"

PAUL PRY.

To the Editor of the Every-Day Book.
Sir,

if I was in business! I wish to acquaint every body, that I am not in business, and never was in business, though I've a dea of business to do; but then it's for my own amusement, and that's nobody's business, you know-as I also told 'em. They say it's impossible to describe the I hope I don't intrude I have contents of the book, but that all the parcalled at Ludgate-hill a great many ticulars are in the Index; that's just what times to see you, and made many kind I inquiries, but I am always informed you are" not at home;" and what's worse, I never can learn when you'll be " at home;" I'm constantly told, "it's very uncertain." This looks very odd; I don't think it correct. Then again, on asking your people what the Every-Day Book is all about? they say it's about every thing; but that you know is no answer-is it? I want something more than that. When I tell 'em so, and that I'm so much engaged I haven't time to read, they say the book is as useful to people engaged in business as to people out of business-as

wanted; but behold! it is "not out"that is, it is not in-I mean not in the book-you take. Excuse my humorsomeness: I only wish to know when I can get it? They say in a few days, but, bless you, I don't believe 'em; for though I let 'em know I've a world of things to communicate to you, when you've time to see me, and let me ask you a few questions, they won't credit me, and why should I credit them-I was not born yesterday, I assure you. I'm of a very ancient stock, and I've some notion you and I are kinsmen-don't you think we are? I dare say there's a likeness, for I'm sure