that Mr. Pepys does not appear to be devoid of that spirit of credulity which accompanies an eager and restless curiosity. He who is willing to listen must naturally be desirous to believe. If a lover of antique scandal that taketh away the character, and committeth scandalum magnatum against the nobility of the seventeenth century, should desire to interleave a Granger, or illustrate a Grammont, he will find in these volumes an untouched treasure of curious anecdote for the accomplishment of his purpose. If the progress of the fine arts is the subject of investigation, the Memoirs abound with circumstances interesting to the amateur; there are anecdotes of Lely and Cooper and Fairthorne, and an account of ill usage offered to Holbein's painting in the ceiling at Whitehall, with notices of medals and coins and medallists, and much more equally to the purpose. If anecdotes of great persons, or of persons of notoriety are in request, you have them untouched by either D'Israeli or Seward, from Oliver Cromwell down to Tom Killigrew. Jests lurk within these two quartos, unprofaned by Joe Miller, notices of old songs which Ritson dreamed not of.-Here may the ballad-monger learn that Simon Wadlow, vintner, and keeper of the Devil's Tavern, did on the 22d April, 1661, lead a fine company of soldiers, all young countrymen in white doublets; and who knows but that this might have been either Old Sir Simon the king, Or young Sir Simon the squire ; personages who bequeath names to the memorable ditty beloved of Squire Western The students of political economy will find a curious treat in considering the manner how Pepys was obliged to bundle about his money in specie, removing it from one hiding-place to another during the fire, concealing it at last under ground, and losing a great deal in digging it up again. Then he hit on the plan of lodging it with a goldsmith; and his delight on finding he was to receive £35 for the use of £2000 for a quarter of a year, reminds us of the glee of Crabbe's fisherman on a similar discovery: 'What! five for every hundred will he give Beside the hundred ?—I begin to live.' But his golden visions were soon disturbed by a sad conviction not unlike that which lately passed over our own money-market, that bankers were but mortal men, and that they could not pay interest for money and have the full sum at the same time lying by them ready on demand. A run upon Lombard-street in the days of Charles II. is thus described: - 'W. Hewer hath been at the banker's, and hath got £500 out of Backewell's VOL. XXXIII. NO. LXVI. X Backewell's hands of his own money; but they are so called upon that they will be all broke, hundreds coming to them for money and they answer him, "It is payable at twenty days-when the days are out we will pay you ;" and those that are not so they make tell over their money, and make their bags false on purpose to give cause to retell it, and so spend time.'--vol. ii. p. 67. Thus truly speaks Chaucer : 'There n'is ne new guise but it hath been old.' But we stop abruptly, or we might find a difficulty in stopping at all, so rich is the work in every species of information concerning the author's century. We compared the Diary to that of Evelyn, but it is as much superior to the latter in variety and general amusement, as it is inferior in its tone of sentiment and feeling; Pepys's very foibles have been infinitely in favour of his making an amusing collection of events; as James Boswell, without many personal peculiarities, could not have written his inimitable life of Johnson. be We ought to mention some curious and valuable letters which occupy the latter part of the second volume. The reader may amused with comparing the style of Pepys and his sentiments as brushed and dressed, and sent out to meet company, with his more genuine and far more natural effusions of a night-gown and slipper description. This, however, he must do for himself; we have not leisure to assist him. The circumstances which induced Mr. Pepys to discontinue his diary, we lament as a great loss to posterity. True, the days which succeeded were yet more disastrous than those he commemorated. The Popish plot had not, when he ceased his record, dishonoured our annals;-England had not seen her monarch a pensioner to France, and her nobles and statesmen at home divided into the most desperate factions which sought vengeance on each other by mutual false accusation and general perjury. Yet considering how much of interest mingled even in that degrading contest, considering how much talent was engaged on both sides, what a treasure would a record of its minute events have been if drawn up by 'such a faithful character as Griffiths !' ART. II.-Wanderings in South America, the North-west of the United States, and the Antilles, in the Years 1812, 1816, 1820, and 1824. With original Instructions for the perfect Preservation of Birds, &c. for Cabinets of Natural History. By Charles Waterton, Esq. London. 1825. ON NE fine morning in the early part of the year 1812, Charles Waterton, Esq., of Walton Hall, near Wakefield, a Catholic gentleman of very considerable property, left his house and home, aud 6 and all the comforts and conveniences which a Yorkshire esquire may be supposed to enjoy, (if we except those of a wife and children,) to wander, as he tells us, through the wilds of Demerara and Essequibo, with the view to reach the inland frontier fort of Portugueze Guiana; to collect a quantity of the strongest Wourali poison; and to catch and stuff the beautiful birds which abound in that part of South America;'-all which objects we are happy to find were accomplished at the trifling inconvenience, for so our 'Wanderer' seems to consider it, of a severe tertian ague,' that stuck by him for three years only after his return to England. In proof that the effects of this disease were not very serious, we find him setting out a second time, in the spring of 1816, for Pernambuco. He once more betook himself to his favourite woods of Guiana, and after spending six months among them, returned home enriched with above two hundred specimens of the finest birds, and a pretty just knowledge formed of their haunts and economy.' This second expedition was even more happy than the first, since nothing intervened to arrest a fine flow of health, saving a quartan ague, which did not tarry, but fled as suddenly as it appeared.' Accordingly, almost as little disposed as the quartan was Mr. Waterton to tarry at home; Guiana, he says, still whispered in his ear; and off he set, the third time, for Demerara, in the early part of 1820. From thence, in due season, he returned to Liverpool, safe and sound, bringing with him a valuable collection in the various departments of natural history, and, among other things, an assortment of eggs of different birds, which he had collected and preserved in a particular manner, with a view to have them hatched in England, and thus obtain new breeds. But some supervising officer of the customs, some 'Argus from London,' it seems, laid his hands upon the whole collection, which was detained until the eggs were spoiled; and it was not till after a long lapse of time and various applications that an order was at last sent down from the Treasury to say that any specimens Mr. Waterton intended to present to public institutions might pass duty free; but those which he intended to keep for himself must pay the duty! We think there must have been some mistake in this; for we know from experience that there is no hesitation on the part of the Treasury to release, on the most easy terms, collections of this nature, and certainly without making any sort of inquiry whether they be intended for private or for public use. This unexpected, and, as Mr. Waterton calls it, vexatious proceeding, had the effect of so entirely damping his ardour, that he could now witness the departure of the cuckoo and the swallow for warmer regions without even turning his face to the south• For x 2 6 For three years,' says he, I continued in this dreary climate;' during which time, he adds,' I seldom or never mounted my hobby-horse.' Fortunately, however, for himself and the lovers of natural history, that admirable work of Wilson on the Ornithology of the United States,' unequalled by any publication in the old world for accurate delineation and just description, fell into his hands: its perusal speedily fanned the almost expiring flame,' and off he once more set, in the year 1824, for New York. In proceeding to the United States, the objects of his research were, he informs us, bugs, bears, brutes and buffaloes,' and our readers will sympathize with him in the disappointment he experienced-for behold, instead of these amiable creatures, the 'Wanderer' found nothing but civilized men and beautiful women. He soon quitted those to him uninteresting shores, and found his way somehow or other, for the fourth time, to his favourite haunts among the forests of Demerara. From thence he has once more returned in safety, and with many precious additions to his museum. Whither the next quadrennial flight of this bird of passage will take him he does not tell us, but the concluding stanza of his book, somewhat in the Sternhold and Hopkins style, gives unquestionable warning of a future migration : And who knows how soon, complaining Of a cold and wifeless home, We must warn our readers, however, not to conclude from the haste in which he fled from the sort of society he fell in with in North America, that Mr. Waterton is of a morose or antisocial disposition; on the contrary, every page of his book breathes such a spirit of kindness and benevolence, of undisturbed good humour and singleness of heart, that we know nothing to compare with it, except the little volume of that prince of piscators the amiable Isaac Walton. We could extract a thousand small touches which prove how lavishly nature has bestowed on him the milk of human kindness. Thus in his address to the 'courteous reader' on the subject of collecting specimens of natural history, he says, 'having killed a pair of doves to enable thee to give mankind a true and proper description of them, thou must not destroy a third through wantonness, or to show what a good marksman thou art.' Surely there are no such things as preserves or battues among the ancestral domains of Walton-Hall. Then again, at the conclusion of his Instructions for the Preservation of Birds,' he says, should they, unfortunately, tend to cause a wanton expense of life; should they tempt you to shoot the pretty songster warbling near your door, or destroy the mother as she is sitting sitting on her nest to warm her little ones; or kill the father, as he is bringing a mouthful of food for their support,--oh, then! deep, indeed, will be the regret that I ever wrote them;' and when he informs the collector of birds that, should evening overtake him in the woods, the fire-fly will serve for a candle, he adds, hold it over thy pocket-book, in any position which thou knowest will not hurt it, and it will afford thee ample light; and when thou hast done with it, put it kindly back again on the next branch to thee, It will want no other reward for its services.' But the following trait even out-tobies Uncle Toby: In all the way from Buffalo to Quebec, I only met with one bug; and I cannot even swear that it belonged to the United States. In going down the St. Lawrence, in the steam-boat, I felt something crossing over my neck; and on laying hold of it with my finger and thumb, it turned out to be a little half-grown, ill-conditioned bug. Now, whether it were going from the American to the Canada side, or from the Canada to the American, and had taken the advantage of my shoulders to ferry itself across, I could not tell. Be this as it may, I thought of my uncle Toby and the fly; and so, in lieu of placing it upon the deck, and then putting my thumb nail vertically upon it, I quietly chucked it amongst some baggage that was close by, and recommended it to get ashore by the first opportunity.'-pp. 258, 259. Our Yorkshire Wanderer' is, notwithstanding, somewhat of a humorist, though not the least of a growler. While in the United States, he finds every thing on a grand scale-except taxation. He is satisfied, in his own mind, that the ideas of one travelling in that country become enlarged in proportion to the magnitude of the objects which surround him; and this theory of his, he thinks, will account for the extreme desire he himself felt of holding a sprained foot (which in England would have been submitted to the pitiful stream of a pump) under the full torrent of Niagara. Perhaps,' he adds, there was an unwarrantable tincture of vanity in an unknown wanderer wishing to have it in his power to tell the world, that he had held his sprained foot under a fall of water, which discharges six hundred and seventy thousand, two hundred and fifty-five tons per minute.' This unlucky foot lost him the opportunity of dancing with a fair lady of Albany who seems to have made an impression on his heart; but that which mortified him the most was, that his lameness was construed by the ladies and gentlemen assembled at Niagara to be the gout-a disease which, recollecting no doubt the old theory that 'Membrifragus Bacchus cum membrifraga Cythereâ Progenerant gnatam membrifragam Podagram,' our sober and single Squire indignantly declares he never had in his life, nor expects to have. An album was luckily on the table, which x 3 |