received any remittances of money from the court of St. Germains.

Lord Lovat used to send one of his numerous retainers to Loch Ness, a distance of eight miles, every day for the water he drank.

When Lord Lovat was confined to the Tower, previous to his trial, his lady, forgetting all her injuries, and thinking only of her duty as a wife, proposed to come to London and attend him in person. But he returned an answer, in which, though he expressed gratitude and affection, he positively rejected her offer; which, he said, he could not take advantage of, after what had happened. This, her ladyship afterwards said, was the only occasion of his ever addressing her in language appropriate to the conjugal relation which she bore to him.

After his death there arose some demur about her jointure, which was only 1907. per annum. It was not paid to her for several years, during which time, being destitute of other resources, she lived with one of her sisters. Some of her numerous friends-among the the rest, Lord Strichen, offered her the loan of money to purchase a house, and suffice for present maintenance. But she did not choose to encumber herself with debts, which she had no certain prospect of repaying. At length the dispute about her jointure was settled in a favourable manner, and her ladyship received, in a lump, the whole amount of past dues; out of which she expended 5007. in purchasing a house at the head of Black friars Wynd, and a further sum upon a suit of plain substantial furniture for the same. Her ladyship was charitable in the highest degree; and it would astonish a modern dowager to know how much good she contrived to do with her small jointure. With 1907, it is said, she was much more generally admired for her benevolence, than the succeeding lady of Lovat, who had a jointure of 4,000l. Had not the necessaries of life been nuch cheaper in those days than in surs, it is impossible to imagine the means by which she contrived to be so universally liberal. She kept a waiting-maid, a cook, and a footboy, and gave protection to all the destitute ladies of rank, who pleased to come about her. Scarcely a day passed without its guest; and she, in a manner, kept open house for all sizes, sexes, and descriptions of Highland cousins, even unto the tenth generation, who happened to visit Edinburgh. All were sure of a good homely

dinner at Lady Lovat's; and not only was her tea-table accessible to every stupid old crone about town, but whenever her ladyship heard of any respectable gentlewoman who had the misfortune to be left unprovided for by her relations, she would seek them out, offer her house as their future home, and treat them quite as her equals or friends. Lady Lovat's character was strongly marked by enthusiastic piety, and a reliance upon the doctrine of predestination, amounting almost to fatalism. Under the severe and manifold afflictions which it had been her lot to experience, she did not seem to feel much annoyed; and it is said that this did not arise, as many supposed, from stoical indifference or physical want of sensibility, but from a notion she entertained of all her calamities being sent by heaven as trials or tests; in which light she considered that they ought to be received with patience and resignation.

When a tenement nearly opposite to her's, in Blackfriars Wynd, took fire, in 1791, and threatened destruction to all around, her ladyship did not think it incumbent upon her to make any attempt to save either herself or her dwelling, but sat at a window, in her usual quiet manner, knitting a stocking, and watching the progress of the flames. The magistrates and ministers came in person, with a sedan, and beseeched her to remove; but she said, "that if her hour was come, it would be vain to think of eluding her fate; and if it was not come, she was quite safe where she was." All that they were permitted to do for her, was to get wet blankets hung over her windows, by which means the house was protected from the sparks.

She attended the Tron kirk, in which she had a seat for many years. She always went to the preachings throughout the week; and if ever by any chance she was kept from church, she was sure to put a penny, instead of her customary half-penny, into the brod, next time she went. Her ladyship never once varied from this practice for fifty years!

THE ORIGIN OF CHIVALRY. BY J. F. PENNIE.

The military diversions of tournaments are not as they have generally been imagined to be, the invention of these later ages. They were customary among the Britons, as they remained

.

Who can be so weak as to believe, with de St. Palaye, that chivalry cannot be traced further back than the 11th century, or that such a system should spring up all at once, among so many nations of Europe, if they will but attend to what Tacitus says of the customs of the Germans? "As noble youths, advance in age, and acquire esteem, other young warriors attach themselves to them, and swell their retinue."

Nor does any one, blush to be seen among these attendants and followers. Palaye, in his Memoirs of Chivalry, says, "To be thus attached to some illustrious knight had nothing in it degrading." Again, Tacitus says, "There is great emulation among the followers, who shall stand highest in the prince's or chief's favour, and among the chiefs who shall have the most numerous and valiant attendants." This was exactly the case among the barons of the middle ages. It is also as plain "that vassalage and feudal tenure were established among the Goths, as among the Romans, their descendants; for if the Gothic chiefs gave not their retainers lands, they gave the war-horses every kind of arms and 'money-gifts,' and always feasted them at their plentiful tables.' It is therefore as silly to suppose chivalry a comparatively modern institution, as it is to believe that armorial bearings were never used previously to the crusades.

We are indebted for the above highly valuable information to the notes to the National Tragedies, noticed by us in our last.

ZOOLOGY.

NOTICES OF BIRDS, BY PROFESSOR
RENNIE.
For the Olio.

So many superstitions have, in times past, been interwoven in the histories

of Birds, that it requires laborious investigation to separate error from truth. Nature is infallible in her operationsthe genus has its peculiar and instinctive faculty-differing in specific instances, so as to determine to which, the bird belongs, and the result of diligent inquiry, generally, proves satisfactory. In the laudable pursuit of Zoology, Professor Rennie has recently delivered a course of Lectures at the King's College, in the interim of the vacation, on the subject of Birds.' This course is intended to form a volume for the 'Library of Entertaining, Knowledge,' shortly to be published. The Professor is, evidently, a Bird Fancier,' in heart and mind, and acquainted with the 'habits,' the 'languages,' the origins of the fabulous,' and the purposes of the singing birds,'. whether the gregarious, or those of simple, lonely, song. Naturalists, from Aristotle down to Buffon and others, have asserted many erroneous opinions respecting the fear-the sympathy-the calls and the causes of joy and painthe objects of the songs which the feathered choirs express. For instance, the fall of a leaf will create fear, by an imparted sympathy, from the parent to its young, though the same feeling is not communicable by the hen to the ducklings she vainly strives to educate, or she would not cluck and pace the margin of a pond by way of caution, while the young truants dive in ecstacies and bathe their forms in the waves, unconscious they are acting disobediently, and search after the food their parents indulged in, to satisfy their hunger. The caution a 'cock' communicates to all his subservient race, is strictly attended to.* A hawk, hovering in the air, or any common foe, will draw forth an utterance from the throat of the lord and master,' as

It occurred to us during our visit, the reason boys fail in rearing their pet birds to stature and perfection, like as when reared by their parents, arises from their cramming the young, who open their bills at sight, with worms and maggots, fearing they would starve -not considering that it is necessary they should first be killed and prepared for eating, an operation which is done effectually by those whom instinct has taught. Only imagine a dozen of garden worms, or slugs, writhing in the stomach of a young black bird, and cease to wonder it dies. Observe a hen, when she leads forth her chickens, and she comes in contact with a worm in her path, how she cries to her young take care.' They stop and gaze at the reptile-she clips it in her beak-destroys its power, and then permits them to enjoy the repast, by dividing it be tween them.

also he resolved to remedy, and forthwith boring a hole through the partition wall, he introduced a long hollow cane, by which he could reach the cooking apparatus, and in the absence of the good housewife, down this pipe he sent such a superabundance of salt into her dinner pots. that poor Capo d'Oca on his return, could touch neither soup, fish, flesh, nor pudding, so horribly were they salted. Again and again he entreated she would not put so much salt in his provisions, and finding the evil only grow worse, in a fit of passion he one day gave her a sound beating. The neighbours hearing her cries ran to the place, and Buonamico was among them. On hearing the merits of the case the cunning painter exclaimed, "My good Sir, you have no right to complain, it is only a wonder how your wife can do anything like another woman when I can witness she does not get a single hour's rest of a night. It is enough to make any one's head light spinning as she does from three in the morning till night-fall. Pray let her have her natural rest and she will no longer make these strange blunders I will be bound for her, you see how pale and wild she looks!" The whole company cried out shame on Messer Goosehead. "She may be in bed till noon for me," cried the indignant husband, 66 provided she will not salt me till I am nearly pickled and preserved-nay, ready for hanging. Buonamico and the neighbours laughing heartilytook themselves off, and when any undue repetition of the spinning-jenny perplexed him a new prescription of salt remedied the evil, for Messer Capo d'Oca then insisted on his wife's keeping her bed.

Bishop Guido, lord of Arezzo, employed Buffalmacco to paint one of his churches. During the progress he frequently came, accompanied, not by a courtier, but by a tame baboon, a very intelligent animal, who, perceiving the interest his master took in the pictures, evinced much the same sort of admiration. Intent upon the whole process, the ape would often remain watching the painter after the bishop departed, and one Saturday evening, Buffalmacco having concluded his work retired, when Messer Jacko instantly seized the brush. With a daring hand he first made a union of all the colours he could find, which he applied to the canvas with so much energy and rapidity, using all the strangest gestures and grimaces, that in a few minutes not a piece of the original was to be seen.

What was the horror of Buffalmacco, who had so often passed his jests upon others, when he came on the Monday morning and witnessed the catastrophe. Secretly determined to discover the author of so atrocious an act, he hid himself in the chapel, nor did he wait long, before Messer Jacko, tripping into the place, ran up the ladder, and recommenced his labours on the scaffold. Buffalmacco went forthwith to the bishop and tendered his resignation: "Your reverence I find is already provided with a court painter and one I cannot pretend to compete with," and after presenting the bishop with a painting of the lion tearing an eagle, instead as he had been told with that of an eagle on the back of a lion, he hastily left Arezzo.

His friend Bruno one day complaining that he could not throw sufficient expression into his faces, "put it into their mouths, then" replied Buffalmacco, "label your saints and they will speak like Cimabue's " The next exploit of Buffalmacco' shews how far credulity could be carried in a Catholic country, and during the fourteenth century, Calandrino was a man more distinguished at Florence for his excessive bonhommie than for his skill as an artist. Such a character offered too strong a temptation to his friends Bruno and Buffalmacco, to try their favourite art of playing upon the weak points of their companions. Accordingly they gave our hero to understand that at a certain spot near Florence a species of enchanted stones was to be found which gave their possessor the power of making himself invisible. Instances they declared had already occurred, in which the invisibles had pocketed a large sum from the bankers without a cheque and entertained themselves in the first style at a public hotel, without paying the waiters. The simple Calandrino was in raptures and by the promise of a dinner and half-a-dozen of lacrymæ Christi on their return induced Bruno and our painter to accompany him.

On reaching the spot, Calandrino having filled his pockets as directed, reproached his friends for their indolence; and, converting his mantle into a bag, he began to fill it also with the precious stones. When he had gathered enough to load an ass, they helped him with it on his shoulders, and, toiling and panting, the poor Calandrino retraced his steps back to Florence. On their way, Bruno, accosting Buffalmacco, suddenly called out, "What has become

of Calandrino?" The other, looking round in great surprise, replied that he was certainly gone. "I lay you what you please," exclaimed Buffalmacco in an angry tone, " that he has gone home and has made fools of us for our pains." Calandrino hearing this assurance of his invisibility, resolved indeed to go home without say ing another word to his friends. "He is a great villain," exclaimed Bruno, "for acting in such a way; I have long known him; he has more of the knave than the fool:" "Were he only here," returned Buffalmacco, "I would make him feel "at the same time hitting the invisible a severe rap on the legs with a stone," And so would I," said Bruno, launching another, which hit Calandrino on the small of the back, who consoled himself, however, for all, with the consciousness of his invisibi lity. The sufferings of a painter named Spinello Aretino, from the effect of terror on the imagination, were still more remarkable than Calandrino's. He painted the Fall of the Angels, in which picture Lucifer appeared in such hideous colours as even to affect the artist's mind and haunt his sleep. One night he awoke in an agony of terror, exclaiming that the demon had appear ed to him, and demanded how he had dared to paint him in such a horrible shape. This vision repeatedly returned, until the wretched artist, deprived at once of his peace and his reason, fell into a lingering atrophy, and in that state died.

Illustrations of History.

THE INVENTION AND HISTORY OF GLASS. Many authorities concur in assigning the merit of the invention to the Phoenicians; and the assertion of Pliny is often repeated, which attributes the discovery to accident. Some storm-driven mariners were boiling their food on the sands at the mouth of the river Belus-a small stream running from the foot of Mount Carmel in Galilee-where the herb kali was growing abundantly, and are said to have perceived that the sand, when incorporated with the ashes of this plant, melted and ran into a vitreous substance. It is certain that the sand about this spot was well adapted to the manufacture of glass, and probably the glass-houses of Tyre and Sidon were supplied thence with this material, which may have given rise to the tradition.

That the ancient Egyptians were well acquainted with the method of making glass cannot be doubted. The beads wherewith some mummies are adorned, although composed of earthenware, have an external covering of glaze, which is true glass, coloured with a metallic oxide; and recent searchers have discovered among the tombs at Thebes some pieces of glass of a blue colour, similar in their composition to the glazing on the beads just mentioned.

The glass-houses of Alexandria were long famed for the skill and ingenuity displayed by their workmen. The Romans were, at one time, supplied with a great part of their glass ware from that city. A coarse and impure manufacture of drinking vessels had been prosecuted at Rome from the time of Nero; but the art could have made only a slow progress notwithstanding the encouragement offered by the high prices at which glass wares of foreign make were sold in the imperial city.The emperor Hadrian, while at Alexandria, received from a priest some glass cups of various colours, which had been used in the worship of the temple, and transmitted them to Rome as objects of great value and curiosity, with an injunction that they should be used on festivals and other great occasions.

Utensils of glass have been found among the ruins of Herculaneum, which city was destroyed in the reign of the emperor Titus, by the same eruption of Mount Vesuvius which cost the elder Pliny his life. It does not appear that glass was used for admitting light to dwellings in Herculaneum, the lar gest houses having windows made with a species of transparent talc.

In the British Museum are four large cinerary urns made of green glass, which have been pronounced by a very competent authority favourable specimens of the proficiency of the ancients in the art of glass-blowing, These are round vases of an elegant form, furnished with covers and two double handles. The formation of these han dles is, it is said, "such as must convince any person capable of appreciating the difficulties which even the modern glass-maker would have to surmount in their execution, that the ancients, were well acquainted with certain branches of the manufacture."*

* Memoir on Glass Incrustations, by A. Pellatt, Esq.