the city. Moors in Spain, having endured seven hundred seventy-eight years from the memorable defea Roderick, the last of the Goths, on the banks the Guadalete. The authentic Agapida is unc monly particular in fixing the epoch of this ev This great triumph of the holy Catholic faith, cording to his computation, took place in the be ning of January in the year of our Lord 1492, ing 3,655 years from the population of Spain the patriarch, Tubal; 3,797 from the general delu 5,453 from the creation of the world, according Hebrew calculation; and in the month Rabic, the eight hundred and ninety-seventh year of Hegira, or flight of Mohammed; whom may confound! saith the pious Agapida. Thus ended also the dominion of IN PRIMITIVE HABITS IN NEW (From "A History of New York ") N those happy days a well-regulated family ways rose with the dawn, dined at eleven, a went to bed at sun-down. Dinner was invarial a private meal, and the fat old burghers show incontestable symptoms of disapprobation and easiness at being surprised by a visit from a neig bor on such occasions. But though our worthy & cestors were thus singularly averse to giving di ners, yet they kept up the social bands of intima by occasional banquetings, called tea-parties. These fashionable parties were generally confin to the higher classes, or noblesse, that is to sa such as kept their own cows, and drove their ov tle earlier, that the ladies might get home before rk. The tea-table was crowned with a huge rthen dish well stored with slices of fat pork ied brown, cut up into morsels, and swimming in avy. The company being seated around the genia ard, and each furnished with a fork, evinced eir dexterity in lanching at the fattest pieces ir is mighty dish-in much the same manner as ilors harpoon porpoises at sea, or our Indians ear salmon in the lakes. Sometimes the table was aced with immense apple-pies, or saucers full of eserved peaches and pears; but it was always re to boast an enormous dish of balls of sweeted dough, fried in hog's fat, and called doughts, or olykoeks—a delicious kind of cake, at prest scarce known in this city, excepting in genuine utch families. The tea was served out of a majestic delft teat, ornamented with paintings of fat little Dutch epherds and shepherdesses tending pigs-with ats sailing in the air, and houses built in the uds, and sundry other ingenious Dutch fantasies. e beaux distinguished themselves by their adroitss in replenishing this pot from a huge copper a-kettle, which would have made the pigmy maronies of these degenerate days sweat merely to ok at it. To sweeten the beverage, a lump of gar was laid beside each cup-and the company ernately nibbled and sipped with great decorum til an improvement was introduced by a shrewd d economic old lady, which was to suspend a ge lump directly over the tea-table by a string om the ceiling, so that it could be swung from >uth to mouth-an ingenious expedient which is 11 kept up by some families in Albany; but which villages. At these primitive tea-parties the utmost priety and dignity of deportment prevailed. flirting nor coqueting-no gambling of old la nor hoyden chattering and romping of young -no self-satisfied struttings of wealthy gentler with their brains in their pockets-nor amu conceits and monkey divertisements of smart yo rentlemen with no brains at all. On the contr the young ladies seated themselves demurely their rush-bottomed chairs, and knit their woollen stockings; nor ever opened their lips, epting to say yaw Mynher, or yah yah Vrouw, any question that was asked them; behaving all things like decent, well-educated damsels. to the gentlemen, each of them tranquilly smok his pipe, and seemed lost in contemplation of t blue and white tiles with which the fireplaces we decorated; wherein sundry passages of Scriptu were piously portrayed--Tobit and his dog figur to great advantage; Haman swung conspicuous on his gibbet; and Jonah appeared most man ful bouncing out of the whale, like Harlequin throug a barrel of fire. The parties broke up without noise and withou confusion. They were carried home by their ow carriages, that is to say, by the vehicles Natur had provided them, excepting such of the wealth as could afford to keep a wagon. The gentleme gallantly attended their fair ones to their respectiv abodes, and took leave of them with a hearty smack at the door; which, as it was an established piece of etiquette, done in perfect simplicity and honesty of heart, occasioned no scandal at that time, nor should it at the present-if our great-grand fathers approved of the custom, it would argue a great RURAL LIFE IN ENGLAND (From "The Sketch Book") HE stranger who would form a correct opinion must servations to the metropolis. He must go fort to the country; he must sojourn in villages and mlets; he must visit castles, villas, farm-houses ttages; he must wander through parks and gardens ong hedges and green lanes; he must loiter about untry churches; attend wakes and fairs, and other ral festivals; and cope with the people in all thei nditions, and all their habits and humors. In some countries, the large cities absorb the ealth and fashion of the nation; they are the only ced abodes of elegant and intelligent society, and e country is inhabited almost entirely by boorish asantry. In England, on the contrary, the me opolis is a mere gathering-place, or general renzvous, of the polite classes, where they devote a all portion of the year to a hurry of gaiety and ssipation, and having indulged this carnival, rern again to the apparently more congenial habits rural life. The various orders of society are erefore diffused over the whole surface of the ngdom, and the most retired neighborhoods afford ecimens of the different ranks. The English, in fact, are strongly gifted with e rural feeling. They possess a quick sensibility the beauties of nature, and a keen relish for the easures and employments of the country. This ssion seems inherent in them. Even the inhab ints of cities, born and brought up among brick alls and bustling streets, enter with facility into ride and zeal in the cultivation of his flow arden, and the maturing of his fruits, as he d the conduct of his business and the success s commercial enterprises. Even those less f nate individuals, who are doomed to pass th ves in the midst of din and traffic, contrive to ha mething that shall remind them of the gre spect of nature. In the most dark and din arters of the city, the drawing-room window r embles frequently a bank of flowers; every sp apable of vegetation has its grass-plot and flowe ed; and every square its mimic park, laid out wi cturesque taste and gleaming with refreshin erdure. Those who see the Englishman only in town a pt to form an unfavorable opinion of his socia aracter. He is either absorbed in business, istracted by the thousand engagements that diss ate time, thought, and feeling, in this huge me opolis: he has, therefore, too commonly a look o urry and abstraction. Wherever he happens t e, he is on the point of going somewhere else; a he moment he is talking on one subject, his min wandering to another; and while paying a friendly isit, he is calculating how he shall economize tim o as to pay the other visits allotted to the morn g. An immense metropolis like London is calcu ted to make men selfish and uninteresting. In heir casual and transient meetings, they can but cal briefly in commonplaces. They present but he cold superficies of character-its rich and genial ualities have no time to be warmed into a flow. It is in the country that the Englishman gives cope to his natural feelings. He breaks loose gladly rom the cold formalities and negative civilities of |