the golden-minded Mantuan Bard, “Tempus fu- it is hardly probable that he would have expressgit." ed himself in the flowing verses of the translator However we cannot, as the critics of a Re- of Virgil and the author of Absalom and Achitview, published in the capital of New England, ophel. The same incongruity is continued made glorious by revolutionary reminiscences, through every page of these otherwise valuable forbear to dwell in this connection, on that fear-memoirs; for the youthful and truant William is less devotion to patriotism, that ardent love of not only made to quote Shakespeare and Byron country, which induced our illustrious forefathers and Coleridge and Middleton and Otway, but to pour out their heart's blood, like water, on the Nat Lee the mad poet, and the Bohemian Girl. · field of Lexington and the height of Bunker's We need not say to the intelligent reader that Hill. We point with pride and exultation to our these citations betray a depth and variety of liteHancocks and Otises and Quinceys and elder rary information that a mere school-boy like Billy Adamses, and all that congregation of revolu-Vidkins could not have possessed. Indeed, a tionary martyrs, who left a legacy to their de- learned Reviewer does not know half as much scendants that will never be wasted, and whose himself. We are happy, however, to show our monuments are graven with epitaphs that can superiority to William's biographer in one innever be effaced by the corroding tooth of Time, stance. Where on the 4th page he is representwhom the Augustan poet felicitously denomi- ed as returning slowly home, with his flags at nates edar rerum. From the day when Harvard half-mast, which is a metaphorical setting forth University first shed the rays of learning over of his trowsers being torn, the following quotathis land to the present, there has never been a tion from Nat Lee is introduced: period when the chief intelligence and learning and wisdom and education and accomplishment and taste and virtue of this favored country did not concentrate in and about Boston. "There is a kind of mournful eloquence In thy dumb grief, that shames all clamorous sorrow." How much more exquisitely appropriate would Having offered to the calm and serious con- have been these concluding lines of a sonnet by templation of our readers the foregoing appro-Coleridge! priate reflections, let us now turn to "Billy Vid-Still on his thighs their wonted brogues are worn, kins." That there have been more recondite And through those brogues still tattered and betorn, works than this cannot be denied. That there His hindward charms gleam an unearthly white, are few so full of fascinating humor, and that Ah, thus through broken clouds at night's high noon, quality which the French call esprit, cannot be Peeps in fair fragments forth the full-orbed harvest moon." disacknowledged. But, before proceeding with further comments, let us proceed to present our readers with a sketch of this remarkable book. “Billy Vidkins” has evidently been a naughty boy; for, on the very first page of his history, where his "Early Recollection" begins, the artist has portrayed a hand as wonderful as that which astonished king Belshazzar, holding a rod of flagellation, which is applied à posteriori, as certain logicians reason, with this poetical posy "I remember, I remember, Passing over page 5, in which "William on his way to the paternal mansion, is much astonished by the appearance of a singular vision," as utterly unworthy of the genius both of the author and designer, we come to page 6, where “doubtconcludes to reconnoitre." William's head is ing the reception he may meet with, William pictured as looking ruefully over the gate, through which he must pass on his way to the paternal mansion, and his lips are conjectured to exclaim tremblingly, "Let us survey the vantage of the ground." Richard III. The very next page portrays "William newly breeched." Rejoicing thereat, remarks his biog-In the very next pictorial illustration, Billy Vidrapher, he goes to slide upon the boards. And kins encounters his enraged sire. Fearful conhere we must observe that his biographer causes juncture! Well may he sink into his nether inhim to quote from Dryden,-which supposes a teguments and look astonished, when approachdegree of acquaintance with English classical ed by his burly progenitor, Solomon's own discipoetry, that so juvenile an individual could scarce-ple, rod in hand. Well may he exclaim with ly have possessed. Hamlet, "Tune your harps Ye angels, to that sound; and thou, my heart, However elated William might have been at the "My father's spirit in arms! All is not well; I doubt some foul play: would the night were come! By this time we trust that the reader has benear prospect of a delightful slide upon the boards, 'come deeply interested in the thrilling adventures VOL. XV-49 of William Vidkins, who, having played truant school, where, being by chance seated on the and badly rent those garments, with which the cel- same bench with one Mr. Muffin, he incontinentebrated John went to bed, together with one stocking, exhibits a fresh example of how facile it is to take the down-hill to wickedness, and how very difficult to climb back again to the summit of good behaviour. "Facilis est descensus Averni. Sed revocare gradum; superasque evadere ad auras We quote from memory. After receiving due cor- ly commences to instruct that young gentleman in the recondite art of making scratch-cradles. But our hero is suddenly and rudely compelled to leave his cradle and think of his latter endwhere the incensed pedagogue bestows certain smart blows. In subsequently recounting this rude attack, the accomplished Vidkins is presumed to have quoted from "The Revenge”— "One day, may that returning day be night; For something or for nothing in his pride, He struck me." He is made to exclaim, with Lady Macbeth, for Yet the victim did not long defer retaliation; for that he really did so the most credulous will re-no sooner did the pedagogue repose briefly from fuse to believe "Wash your hands, Put on your night-gown; look not so pale. To bed-to bed; what's done cannot be undone; his cares, by indulging in slumber, than William began shooting him in the face by a pop-gun applied to the mouth. This was certainly an ungentlemanly procedure, but not more so than the exasperated pedagogue himself, (Ne tantis animis celestibus iræ!) We hurry over the ensuing three pages of this admirable work, in which William, with singular force and elegance, is represented, first as dream-who took the mean vengeance of chastising his ing, second as donning his brogues, third as re-spirited pupil-the latter rejoining with furious ceiving an unexpected ablution from a hydrant. bravery— The fourteenth page exhibits our charming hero mounted magnificently on the dorsal portion of a female swine, who is followed screamingly by her astonished offspring. "Away away! my breath was gone, Магерра. But suddenly, "swift as the flash," William's porcine female courser with her "nine farrow" disappear, having tumbled their rider in the mud to wonder with Macbeth, "Whither are they vanished? Into the air; and what seem'd corporal melted It is not for us to linger over the ensuing scene. "Slave do thine office! The interest of this delightful narrative continues to increase, and culminates towards the conclusion. How forcible and impressive is that passage, illustrated by that picture, where Vidkins makes an experiment with a crooked pin! The scene is deeply dramatic. Mr. Muffin has scarcely risen from his seat by the side of his treacherous friend, when the latter placed a crooked pin, with the point upwards, on the very spot upon which Mr. Muffin was about to sit again. To this picture there is appended no quotation from any author-only a stage direction from the Midsum mer Night's Dream-"Enter Bottom." We are at a loss to conjecture the meaning of this, and it seems open to fundamental objections. "With pathless wound it pierced him to the heart. Was there some magic in the elfin's dart? Or did he strike my heart with wizard lance? For straight so fair a form did upwards start." Coleridge. William next enters heels over head into the sugar business, by tumbling into an empty hogs- Through perilous ventures and hair-breadth eshead. After getting out of that, he prepares to capes did the redoubtable Billy Vidkins pursue lick lasses from another hogshead, but the lasses his way-now horsed upon the back of Mr. Mailicked him—that is, two damsels, one of whom fin to receive more castigation, now perched upon is colored, (there are no black persons in Massa- the dunce's stool with an enormous pointed pachusetts,) approached and drove away our hero per cap on his caput. At length, slowly, but with sticks. After amusing himself with the in- surely, the day for vengeance came for ventellectual game of leap-frog, Billy, in consequence geance on Mr. Muffin, who, being like himself, of the early development of genius, is taken to about seven years of age, might be considered as one of his size, weight and metal. In the happy language of his biographer, "William expressed a desire for a small fight, at the same time requesting, as a particular favor, the removal of that chip from his head," and vociferating with hump-backed Richard, "Of one or both of us the time is come!" VARIETIES OF HISTORY. land after his last and disastrous expedition to Sir Walter Raleigh upon his return to EngGuiana, was arrested by the orders of King James and re-committed to the Tower, from which he was only released by the axe of the exAs when two puppy-dogs of minute dimensions ecutioner. In the Harleian Miscellany there is encounter accidentally in street or door-yard, an account of "The Demeanor and Carriage" they first stare fiercely at one another, curl more of Sir Walter about the time of his arrest, from tightly upwards their tails, display their dental which the following extracts are taken :-" for ivory, snarl, snap, walk in circles and approach soon after his coming to Plymouth, before he sideways, till both eager for the fray and neither was under guard, he dealt with the owner of a daring to begin, one rubs himself against the French barque, pretending it was for a gentleother and thus they both rush together in fero- man, a friend of his, to make ready his barque cious rage, they fight, they tumble, they yelp, for a passage, and offered him twelve crowns for they raise a dust,—so at it tumultuously went his pains. And one night he went in a little boat these two small chaps, whose anxious mothers, to have seen the barque that should have transalas! little dreamed of the fearful contest in ported him, but the night being very dark he which their darlings were engaged. But Vid- missed of the barque and came back again, nothkins was victor and to him be assigned the lau- ing done." rel. "Palmam qui meruit ferat." Then, mournful to relate, our hero was summarily dismissed from school, and received his diploma in the shape of a kick from his tutor, which sent him flying down the stairs. "Last scene of all which ends this strange, eventful history," is Billy Vidkins pensively seated on a two-bar gate, probably ruminating on the issue of his eventful ca reer. "Upon Saturday the twenty-fifth of July, Sir Walter Raleigh, Sir Lewis Stukeley and Manoury went to lie at Master Drake's, where the letters of commission from the privy council were brought unto Sir Lewis Stukeley by one of his majesty's messengers, which caused a sudden departure with much more haste than was expected before, and the countenance of Sir Walter Raleigh was much changed after Sir Lewis We have thus fulfilled the to us grateful task Stukeley had shewed his commission; for Maof reviewing this inimitable narrative. We com- noury saw him from the stair-head, he being mend it to the careful consideration of our read-alone in his chamber, the door standing halfers with the assurance that there are few things open, how he stamped with his feet and pulled a the history of past or present times which himself by the hair, swearing in these wordswake more vivid emotions, or which impress God's wounds is it possible my fortune should he understanding with the exquisite felicity and return upon me thus again?' From Master elevated truth of that elegant adage of the an- Drake's they went on their journey to the house cients, of Master Horsey, distant from thence four miles or thereabouts." * * Sir Walter, it is mentioned, was accompanied at this time by an old domestic, called Captain King. "After dinner, it being Sunday, Sir Walter Raleigh departed from Master Horsey's house and went to Sherburne ; when he came within view thereof, turning to Manoury and shewing him the place and the territory about it, he said unto him sighing that all that was his and that the king had unjustly "Tempora mutantur nos et mutamur in illis." SONNET.-FROM THE FRENCH. Doris, who knows I ape the poet's trade, Fourteen long lines! and they must come from where? taken it from him-he and Stukeley." This Four, notwithstanding, are already made : Of the asked lines, behold the thirteenth one, L. Stukeley was he to whom the infant son of Pocahontas was at first entrusted. [From the Scots Magazine, Vol. 34, p. 512.] "Extract of a letter from Capt. James Wilder, of the Diligence brig, dated at Jamestown, in Virginia, August 19, 1772. "In the month of March last a scheme was proposed by some merchants and other gentle- | May 1792, by the title of Lord Vennen of Kinmen of this place, to fit out a vessel in order to denston in Cheshire. From the same family is attempt the long-wished-for discovery of the descended Abraham Venable, who came from north-west passage. It was soon brought to England into Virginia, and married the widow perfection, and a fine large brig was bought, of John Nix and daughter of — who left issue called the Diligence. Every thing necessary be- one son Abraham, who was born 22d March, ing put on board, and well manned, the com- 1700, (O. S.) died 16th Decr. 1768. This Abramand of her was given to me. Accordingly on ham, son of Abraham, married Martha Davis the 4th of April we sailed on our intended voy-born 14th July 1702, married 1723 daughter of age, and on the 29th entered Hudson's Bay. Obadiah Davis of Hanover County, (died 1765,) We sailed up as far as Churchill river, where and moved and resided in Louisa on Pamunkey we took on board some brandy and tobacco. river. The name being originally French, and On the 5th of May I saw a head-land bear-as the final 'S' is not sounded in that language, ing N. W. by N. in the latitude of 63 deg. 20 m. his father-the first Abraham, dropped the · S' I made a trial of the tides and found them to run from his name when he came to Virginia, as it two miles an hour, close in with the land, which is presumed, to adapt it to the English pronunI believe was the flood. On the 10th day we ciation." sailed through much ice, and were obliged to "John Woodson from Dorsetshire, his wife grapple with a piece; however, at last we were from Devonshire, came into Virginia with Sir totally jammed up, and the wind setting right John Harvey, as Surgeon to a company of solupon us, we were in much danger of being drove diers, in the year 1625. Had sons born in Viron shore; but at last it grew calm, and we con-ginia, Robert and John." tinued our course with much difficulty till we made Cape Dobbs, when we entered Wager river. Here we sailed for four days till we made Cape Hope; and the river here being very clear The monument erected in Westminster Abbey of ice, and a strong current setting in, we were all in honor of Major Andrè is a Sarcophagus, elein hopes that we were now in the desired pas-vated on a pedestal, upon a panel of which is sage. But after bearing to the N. and the W. engraved the following inscription. for two days longer, we found to our disappointment that we were in a spacious bay, as we could find neither ebb nor flood, and very deep water all along the shore. We now imagined that we had overshot the streight; but after seven days' fruitless efforts to find it out, we were obliged to abandon the enterprise, sensible that there is a passage by the increase of the tides; but it is in my opinion almost always frozen up, generally impassable. Pursuant to the above resolution we set sail for Churchill again, where we arrived on the 16th of June; and taking some necessaries on board we set off on our return, and after encountering many difficulties arrived safe here on the 29th of July, having sailed as high as 69 deg. 11 min." Extract from a MS. genealogy of the Woodsons and the Venables of Virginia. SACRED to the memory of MAJOR JOHN ANDRE who was raised by his merit at an early period of his life to the rank of Adjutant general of the British forces in America, and employed in an important but hazardous enter On the front of the Sarcophagus, General Washington is represented in his tent at the mo ment when he had received the report of the Court-Martial held on Major Andrè, and at the "William Venables de Vennen assumed this same time a flag of truce arrived from the British army with a letter for the General proposing name from the town or district of Vennen in to treat with him for the Major's life. But the Normandy where he was sole proprietor in 1052. Richard de Vennen, his eldest son, came with sent back, without the hoped-for clemency m fatal sentence being already passed, the flag was William the Conqueror to England, and had his favor. great possessions, from whom descended George Venables, father of the present Lord Vennen, (?) born 9th Feby., 1709, and created a peer 2d "While we were at Rome, we were acquaint ed with the Earl of Huntington, and his nephew, who has since distinguished himself in America, under the title of Lord Rawdon, and is certainly among the most promising officers in the British army. Mr. Izard and myself were too zealous not to encounter the British peer in defence of our country. He argued like a gentleman, but, I thought, not with much ingenuity. Lord Rawdon never disclosed his sentiments."-Memoirs and Correspondence of Arthur Lee. Arthur Lee, together with Silas Deane and Dr. Franklin, American Commissioners at Paris, visited Voltaire during his last illness. As they entered the room he raised himself feebly up in his bed, and in a momentary glow of enthusiasm repeated some beautiful lines from Thompson's Ode to Liberty, "O Liberty, thou Goddess ever bright," &c. THE SELDENS OF SHERWOOD. CHAPTER I. "There blend the ties that strengthen Bernard Burton. James Selden was a Virginia gentleman of the old school; and about the year 1790, the period at which this story commences, this class was ciety; for though emancipated from the governso numerous as to give a distinctive tone to sostill exercised a strong influence on the habits, ment of England, the spirit of her institutions prejudices and feelings of the Virginians. The democratic leaven was infused into the mass, but the changes which it has since effected were gradual. Mr. Selden had inherited Sherwood, the family mansion, and a large landed estate from his faJohannes Von Müller, a celebrated German ther, and though he indulged in the profuse hosHistorian, born 1752, at Schaffhausen,-visiting|pitality which was so distinguishing a characterGeneva became there an inmate in the house of istic in eastern Virginia, his active habits, and Francis Kinloch of Kensington, South Carolina. systematic method of managing his affairs, had In the society of this young gentleman, with whom and with whose relations in England he formed a lasting friendship, he passed what he always regarded as the happiest years of his life. In 1776, when Mr. Kinloch returned to America, Müller became an inmate in the house of Bonnet, the celebrated naturalist. In 1804, passing through Geneva, Müller saw, for the last time, his friend Kinloch.-Mrs. Austin's German Prose Writers. pp 302-3. This Francis Kinloch was the author of a volume of Letters written from Switzerland, and addressed, it is said, to his daughter, Mrs. Eliza Nelson of Belvoir, Albemarle, Virginia. ENIGMA, BY CANNING. There is a noun of plural number, C. C. preserved him from the pecuniary embarrassments so common amongst the gentlemen of his grade in society. He had aided the cause of his country in the revolutionary war, by personal exertions and sacrifices, and he would have resented nothing more warmly than an attack upon the genuine republicanism of his principles, yet it could not be denied that he unconsciously retained many of the aristocratic habits and feelings, in which he had been educated. He had married early in life a lady to whom both nature and fortune had been more than reasonably kind, though, to do him justice, wealth had not the slightest effect in determining his choice. Her family belonged to the class which was once denominated the "grandees of Virginia," and this circumstance was certainly one of the causes which first attracted James Selden's attention towards her as a suitable match. This attention was soon changed into admiration, and admiration into love, by an unusual degree of personal beauty, unaffected manners, liveliness and originality of mind, and an almost unequalled sweetness of temper, a quality which Mr. Selden esteemed more highly in a woman, than all the cardinal virtues and the wisdom of the seven sages united. Mental accomplishments and intellectual superiority, in women, were so far from being held in high estimation at that time, that literary pursuits, or even the habits of inquiry and free dis |