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THIS Light-house is built upon a promontory on the coast of Kent, called the North Foreland; it stands at a considerable distance from the edge of the cliff, and is about three miles to the north of the town of Ramsgate. It has been placed in this situation as a warning to sailors of their approach to the dangerous Goodwin Sands. The building itself is 100 feet high, including the small room in which the lights are kept; but, from the elevated spot on which it is placed, it may be discerned at a great distance.

The original building was of timber, and lath and plaster, with a large glass lantern on the top; this was burnt down in 1683, after which a sort of beacon was made use of, on which a light was hoisted: but it was not long before "there was built here a strong house of flint, an octagon, on the top of which was an iron grate, quite open to the air, in which was made a blazing fire of coals." About the year 1732, the top of this Light-house was covered with a sort of lantern, with large sash-lights, and the fire was kept burning by the help of bellows, which the attendants were employed all night in blowing. This was done to save coals; but the sailors complained of it, as being very much to the prejudice of the navigation, many vessels being lost on the Goodwin Sands for want of seeing it; and it was so little seen at sea, that, as some of the sailors asserted, "they had, in hazy weather, seen the Foreland before they had seen the light." VOL. X.

Complaint being made, the lantern was taken away, and the light restored to its original state. In 1793, two additional stories were added to the house, which raised it to the height already stated.

The small room at the summit, may be best described as a dome, raised on a ten-sided wall; it is about ten feet in diameter, and twelve in height; it is coated with copper, in the same manner as the gallery that surrounds it. In each of the sides of this small apartment is a large lens, or bull's-eye, ten inches in diameter, behind which a very powerful lamp is placed, assisted by a large reflector and maguifier.

The view from the gallery is very extensive, and the lights themselves, on a clear night, may be seen as far as the Nore, a distance of more than thirty miles. The Goodwin Sands, the position of which is indicated by the Light-house we have described, consist of a shoal, or sand-bank of quick-sand, about ten miles in length, and two in breadth, extending, from South to North, from the South Sand-head, near Walmer Castle, to the North Sand-head, opposite the North Foreland. The origin of this dangerous sand-bank is variously accounted for; by some it is said to have been an island, the property of Earl Goodwin, and to have been destroyed by the sea in 1097; others consider that the inundation of the sea about the time of William Rufus, which by its extent and violence overwhelmed the greater part of Flanders and the

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Netherlands, was the cause which produced, or rather raised nearer to the surface, the sand of which it is formed.

The Goodwin Sands, although dangerous to navigation during the prevalence of south-westerly winds, form, on the other hand, a kind of rampart or breakwater, when the wind is in the north-east, by which the vessels riding in the Downs are greatly protected from the fury of the storm. History abounds with accounts of the disastrous shipwrecks which have occurred on this spot. On the night of November the 26th, 1702, two third-rates, a fourth-rate, and a mortar bomb, belonging to the Royal Navy, were lost, and all the crews, excepting 70 men from one vessel, and one from another, were drowned.

ACCOUNT OF SOME FUNERAL BARROWS
OPENED IN DORSETSHIRE.

were pierced with holes, they may have been covered with metals, and have formed a necklace, or other ornament. The next day the country people, encouraged by the tradition of a hidden treasure, assembled, and dug to the very bottom of the centre of the Barrow, where they found nothing but a large heap of ashes, probably the remains of a funeral pile. Another small Barrow yielded nothing but bones and broken

urns.

Business calling me home, my friend communicated to me, by letter, the result of his searches during the ensuing week, of which the following is an extract :— On the Thursday after you left us, we pitched our tent near another of those Barrows, and set to work upon it. We discovered, at about the depth of two feet, no less than five distinct skeletons: three of them were in a row, lying on their backs, two of which appeared to be of the common size, but that in the middle was a small one, probably of some young person. The two others were a few feet from breast of the other. Each of the skeletons had an urn upon it; these, of the ordinary size, with the head of one lying on the but these were so perished, that, upon being touched, they fell into earth, except a few pieces near the top rim of one of them. Under the head of one of the three that lay in a row, we found a small earthen urn, about the size of the cup part of an ordinary wine-glass.

We began with two Barrows of no great dimensions, opposite to East Lulworth, on a level piece of ground in the ascent up a steep and lofty mountain, the top of which is crowned with a bold double intrenchment, of Roman or Barbaric workmanship, and which is known by the name of Flower's Barrow. In these two Barrows we found, promiscuously scattered, The small urn just mentioned, which was of the perfect human teeth, burnt human bones, together same shape with the rest we found, that of a truncated with those of animals, such as pieces of the jaw-cone, was about two inches high, and one in diameter, bones, and the teeth of horses or oxen, tusks of boars, small round stones of the Portland kind, not bigger than children's marbles, pointed stones that possibly have been the heads of weapons, lumps of corroded metal, seemingly iron, a few particles of yellow metal, some crumbling pieces of dark-coloured unburnt urns, together with a few lumps of brick or earthenware. We observed also a quantity of fine, rich, black earth, with a certain white mouldiness between the particles, which must have been brought from a considerable distance. The bottom of one of these graves was paved with large, round stones, that had been worked smooth by the action of the sea, and which had, apparently, been brought from the adja

cent shore.

*

From the confused state in which we found the contents of these Barrows, we were satisfied they had been previously disturbed. We therefore determined to make our next search in a more remote situation. With this view, we pitched upon a large Barrow, twelve feet high, and 200 in circumference, situated at the highest point of a lofty mountain, about midway between the points of Portland and Purbeck Islands. This Tumulus is known by the name of Hambury Taut, or Toote, the first of which words may be the name of the chieftain there buried, while the other two appear to be a corruption of Saxon and British words expressive of a Barrow. Many articles were found, similar to those in the former Barrow; but on our approaching to the centre, at about the depth of four feet from the surface, a skeleton appeared, in perfect preservation, lying with its head to the north, but so decayed, as to crumble into dust with the least pressure; its position, which was that of a person sleeping on his side, with the feet rather drawn up, one hand resting on its breast, the other on its hip, prevented it from being accurately measured. One of the leg-bones appeared to have been fractured. the breast of the skeleton was deposited a rude urn, too much decayed to be handled without falling to pieces, of about the measure of two quarts, but empty of everything except the same fine mould that covered the skeleton. Near the neck of the latter were found many of the round stones, of different sizes. As they

• See Saturday Magasine, Vol. IX., p. 103.

On

and, though nicely covered with the shell of a limpet, it was quite empty. The broken pieces of urn were ornamented by being rudely indented in a zig-zag fashion. The five skeletons were not all exactly on the same level in the Barrow, the two last seeming to have been deposited in the side of the Barrow, without taking it to pieces.

Five or six other Barrows have since been opened in the same neighbourhood; but I shall confine myin my presence. self to an account of one of them which was opened It was one of three which stood in

a line, at about the distance of 150 feet from each other, being about the same number of feet in circumference, and about ten in perpendicular height. On a shaft being cut to the centre of the Barrow, we found a kind of rude vault, or kistvaen, formed with unhewn stones, enclosing an urn capable of holding two gallons, and full of burnt human bones, being covered at the top with a thin flat stone, and having a quantity of the roots of quitch-grass undecayed near it. The urn was composed of a coarse black clay, merely hardened by fire, or the heat of the sun.

The uniformity observed in the Barrows described, in shape, situation, apparent antiquity, and, to a certain degree, in contents, seems to argue that these, at least, were the work of one and the same people. Who these were, remains now to be considered. I think they could not have been Romans; for though that people were in the practice both of burying and burning their dead, yet the rudeness of the urns, so unlike those of the Romans; the situation of these sepulchres, on lofty mountains and sequestered downs, whereas the Romans used to bury near cities and close to highways, and there being no sepulchral lamps, lacrymatories, coins, or other tokens of Roman sepulture,-point out Barbarians, and not Romans, as the constructors of these Barrows. We may therefore ascribe them to the Britons, the Saxons, or the Danes, and attribute these works to one of those nations previously to the conversion of its people to Christianity; as, wherever the Christian religion prevailed, it immediately banished the pagan rite of burning the dead, and introduced the use of consecrated cemeteries. The Danes have the weakest claims to these Barrows, as they never appear to

have been stationary in this part of the kingdom for any considerable time, till their princes, and the nation in general, professed themselves Christians; whereas, there is in the Barrows, some appearance even of family-sepulchres. I think there are stronger arguments for ascribing them to the Britons than to the Saxons; for though both the Celts (or Gauls) and the Germans, were in the practice of, at least occasionally, using funeral piles, barrows, and urns, yet there is this striking difference between the two people, that the former were fond of the pomp of funerals, whereas the latter despised the fruitless ambition, as they considered it, of magnificent funerals; and it was only on some extraordinary occasion, that the warrior's horse was buried with his master.

Some of these Barrows contained nothing but urns full of burnt bones, while in others were entire skeletons, with urns placed upon them, and burnt human bones, charcoal and ashes, scattered throughout the tumulus. To account for this, I must refer to the authorities adduced by the learned and ingenious author of the History of Manchester to prove that the ancient Britons were in the habit of using both rites of funeral; that of burning, and that of burying entire. It is probable that, at Hambury Toote, and such other Barrows as contain vestiges of both practices, the captives, slaves, and animals, destined to appease the manes of the deceased chieftain, or to accompany his departed spirit, were killed and burnt on the spot, and that afterwards a Barrow was raised over their ashes, near the summit of which the body of the chieftain himself was buried entire. The urn placed on the breast of the corpse, probably contained ointments, or, perhaps, some valuable articles belonging to the deceased, in conformity with Cæsar's account of the British funerals. It is possible, that one of those horrid sacrifices which Cæsar describes, might have made part of the funeral rite performed at some of these Barrows, in which a considerable number of human victims were enclosed in a kind of cage, made of basket-work, and burnt alive, in order to render propitious the blood-thirsty deities of the Druids *. [From the Gentleman's Magazine, 1790.]

See Saturday Magazine, Vol. I., p. 73.

OUR existence is dependent on a succession of changes, which are taking place at every moment in ourselves, over which we have no power whatever, but of which, each one involves the necessity of the existence, and the superintending power of the Deity. The existence of the whole material universe is of the same nature. Now, each of these changes is, with infinite skill, adapted to the relative conditions of all the beings whom they affect, and they are subjected to laws, which are most evident expressions of Almighty power, of unsearchable wisdom, and exhaustless goodness. Now, were we merely intellectual beings, it would not be possible for us to consider anything more than these laws themselves; but, inasmuch as we are intellectual and also moral beings, we are capable not only of considering the laws, but also the attributes, of the Creator from whom such laws are the emanations. As everything which we can know teaches a lesson concerning God; if we connect that lesson with everything we learn, everything will be resplendent with the attributes of Deity. By using, in this manner, the knowledge which is everywhere spread before us, we shall habitually cultivate a devout temper of mind. Thus, "the heavens will declare unto us the glory of God, and the firmament will show His handy work; thus, "day unto day will utter speech, and night unto night show forth knowledge of Him.

LAND.

THE FALLS OF THE PASSIAC.

In a wild, tranquil vale, fringed with forests of green,
Where nature had fashioned a soft, sylvan scene,
The retreat of the ring-dove, the haunt of the deer,
Passaic in silence rolied gentle and clear.

No grandeur of prospect astonished the sight,
No abruptness sublime mingled awe with delight;
Here the wild flow'ret blossomed, the elm proudly waved,
And pure was the current the green bank that laved.
But the spirit that ruled o'èr the thick tangled wood,
And deep in its gloom fixed his murky abode,
Who loved the wild scene that the whirlwinds deform,
And gloried in thunder, and lightning, and storm ;
All flushed from the tumult of battle he came,
Where the red men encountered the children of flame,
While the noise of the war-whoop still rang in his ears,
And the fresh bleeding scalp as a trophy he bears:
With a glance of disgust he the landscape surveyed,
With its fragrant wild flowers, its wide waving shade ;-
Where Passaic meanders through margins of green,
So transparent its waters, its surface serene.
He rived the green hills, the wild woods he laid low;
He taught the pure stream in rough channels to flow;
He rent the rude rock, the steep precipice gave,
And hurled down the chasm the thundering wave.
Countless moons have since rolled in the long lapse of
time,-

Cultivation has softened those features sublime;
The axe of the white man has lightened the shade,
And dispelled the deep gloom of the thicketed glade.
But the stranger still gazes, with wondering eye,
On the rocks rudely torn, and groves mounted on high;
Still loves on the cliff's dizzy borders to roam,
Where the torrent leaps headlong embosomed in foam.
WASHINGTON IRVING.

THE subject of Meteorology in all ages and countries, has attracted the especial attention of mankind. In ruder states of society, empirical prognostics, founded on the aspect of the clouds, on the movements of animals, and on other incidental occurrences, formed the study of those who pretended to a foreknowledge of the weather, while electrical phenomena were objects of superstitious awe. In modern times, much of this wonder and uncertainty has been removed.

The gloom or the clearness of the air; the mists and the halos of a stormy sky; the restlessness and clamour of animals, &c., are now referred simply to that overcharge of moisture, and to that unequal distribution of electricity, which precede a fall of rain. Nay, the very thunderbolt has been arrested in its course, and, being no longer an object of amazement, has been divested of half its terrors.

But is this advance in knowledge calculated to lessen our veneration for the great Author of Nature, or to derogate from His wisdom and His power? On the contrary, our estimate of both must be greatly increased. Of the Deity, infinite as he is, and dwelling in infinity, we, finite beings, can form no conception. What little, therefore, we can know of Him, we know nearly altogether from His works. Consequently, whoever has most studied His works, will be most qualified-nay, will be alone qualified, to form an adequate conception of Him. Thus, to measure, to weigh, to estimate, to deduce, may be considered as the noblest privileges enjoyed by man; for only by these operations, is he enabled to follow the footsteps of his Maker, and to trace his great designs. Instructed by these operations, he sees and appreciates the wisdom and the power, the justice and the benevolence, that reign throughout creation; he no longer gazes on the sky with stupid wonder; nor dreads the thunderbolt, as manifesting the wrath of a vengeful Deity. [PROUT'S Bridgewater Treatise.]

1 -WAY-FACTION is the excess and the abuse of party-it begins when the first idea of private interest, preferred to public good, gets footing in the heart. It is always dangerous, yet always contemptible; and in vain would the men who engage in it hide their designs- their secret prayer is, "Havoc do thy worst."-CHENEVIX, on National

TRUTH appears
the brighter, and acquires a new lustre, by
a free and candid examination; but falsehood hides its
head, and disappears, like the night fleeing before the
rising sun.-TUCKER.

Character.

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MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.
No. III.

STRINGED INSTRUMENTS. HARPS AND LYRES. THE most ancient stringed instruments, whose form is known, are those of the ancient Egyptians; among these the Harp stands pre-eminent. One of the most celebrated representations of an Egyptian harp is that shown in the engraving; it is called the Theban

the performer's guidance to keep it steady: it has thirteen strings.

The back part is the soundingboard, composed of four thin pieces of wood, joined together in the form of a cone, so that as the length of the string increases, the width of the sounding-board increases in proportion. Besides the elegance of its outward form, we must observe, likewise, how nearly it approached to a perfect instrument; for it wanted only two strings of having two full octaves in compass. I look upon this instrument, then, as the Theban harp before and at the time of Sesostris.

Fig. 2

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harp, and is figured from a painting discovered by Bruce during his travels in Egypt. The existence of this painting was for some time doubted, but the researches of later travellers have confirmed his

account.

It was found in one of the excavations in the mountains of Egyptian Thebes, called the tombs of the kings, already described *. The particular cavern, wherein it was discovered, is described as that in which the famous sarcophagus, now in the British Museum, was placed.

In the entrance-chamber, which leads sloping gently down into the chamber where is the sarcophagus, there are two panels, one on each side on that of the right is the figure of the Scarabaeus Thebaicus, supposed to have been the hieroglyphic of immortality; on the left is the crocodile, fixing on the Apis with his teeth, and plunging him into the waves; these are both moulded in basso-rilievo, and worked in the stucco itself.

This is a sufficient indication of the grotto to those who may be inclined to examine it again. At the end of the Dassage on the left hand, is the picture of a man playing on the harp, painted in fresco and quite entire. He is clad in a habit made like a shirt, such as the women still wear in Abyssinia, and the men in Nubia. This seems to be white linen or muslin, with narrow stripes of red. It reaches down to the ancles, his feet are without sandals and bare, his neck and arms are also bare.

If we allow the performer's stature to be about five feet ten inches, then we may compute the harp, in its extreme length, to be something less than six feet and a half; it seems to support itself on its foot or base, and needs only See Saturday Magasine, Vol. VIII., p. 87.

a

The Welsh harps appear to have been of three different descriptions; namely, the single harp, with only one string to each note,-the double harp, with two, and the triple harp, (that shown at fig. 4,) with three strings. The harp was of very high antiquity in Britain: it was a favourite instrument with our Saxon ancestors; and the celebrated Alfred entered the Danish camp disguised as harper. The same deception was practised by several Danish chiefs in the camp of Athelstan, who wrote in praise of the Saxon. An old poet this instrument, declares it to be an instrument too good to be profaned in taverns, and places of that kind, saying, "that it should be used by knights, esquires, clerks, persons of rank, and ladies with plump and beautiful hands, and that its courteous and gentle sounds should be heard only by the elegant and good."

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WELSH TRIPLE HARP.

In modern times, no nations have been more famous for their harps and harpers, than the Welsh and Irish. The harpers of Britain were formerly admitted to the banquets of kings and nobles: their employment was to sing or recite the achievements of their patrons, accompanying themselves on the harp: by degrees, the manners of courts became too refined for their rude minstrelsy, and the harper became a wandering minstrel, subsisting on the casual charity of the community. This fallen condition is thus alluded to by Sir Walter Scott, in his Lay of the Last Minstrel :

The way was long, the wind was cold,
The minstrel was infirm and old,
His withered cheek, and tresses gray,
Seemed to have known a better day;
The harp, his sole remaining joy
Was carried by an orphan boy.
The last of all the bards was he
Who sang of Border chivalry.
For, well-a-day! their date was fled;
His tuneful brethren all were dead;
And he, neglected and oppressed,
Wished to be with them, and at rest.
No more, on prancing palfrey borne.
He carolled, light as lark at morn;
No longer courted and caressed,

High placed in hall, a welcome guest,
He poured, to lord and lady gay,
The unpremeditated lay:

Old times were changed, old manners gone;
A stranger filled the Stuart's throne.

The bigots of the iron time

Had called his harmless art a crime.

A wandering harper, scorned and poor,
He begged his bread from door to door;
And tuned to please a peasant's ear,

The harp a king had loved to hear.

The Lyre was a famous instrument among the ancient Greeks, by whom the invention of it was ascribed to their most celebrated deities. The invention, or rather discovery, of this instrument, has Deen thus told by Apollodorus:

Fig. 5.

The Nile, after having overflowed the whole country of Egypt, when it returned within its natural bounds, left on the shore a great number of dead animals of various kinds, and among the rest a tortoise, the flesh of which being dried and wasted by the sun, nothing was left within the shell but sinews and cartilages; and these being braced and contracted from their dryness, were rendered sonorous. Mercury, in walking along the banks of the Nile, happening to strike his foot against this tortoise, was so pleased with the sound it produced, that it suggested to him the first idea of a lyre, which he afterwards constructed in the form of a tortoise, and strung it with the dried sinews of dead animals.

Fig. 5 is a very ancient Grecian lyre, or testudo.

THE WINTER TRAVELLER.

GOD help thee, Traveller, on thy journey far;
The wind is bitter keen,-the snow o'erlays
The hidden pits, and dangerous hollow ways,
And darkness will involve thee. No kind star
To-night will guide thee, Traveller,-and the war
Of winds and elements on thy head will break,
And in thy agonizing ear the shriek
Of spirits howling in their stormy car
Will often rage appalling-I portend

A dismal night-and on my wakeful bed Thoughts, Traveller, of thee will fill my head, And him who rides where wind and waves contend, And strives, rude cradled on the seas, to guide His lonely bark through the tempestuous tide.

KIRKE WHITE.

A CONSTANT governance of our speech, according to duty and reason, is a high instance and a special argument of a thoroughly sincere and solid goodness.-DR. I. BARROW.

POPULAR LEGENDS AND FICTIONS. No. IV.

MYTHOLOGY OF THE NURSERY.

JACK THE GIANT-KILLER.

FROM Tom Hickathrift and Thor, we proceed to the renowned JACK THE GIANT-KILLER, in whose memoirs may be discovered an indubitable resemblance to the fictions of the Edda* of the Northern nations. Jack, as we are told, in the English story, "having got a little money, travelled into Flintshire, and came to a large house in a lonesome place; and, by reason of his present necessity, he took courage to knock at the gate, when, to his amazement, there came forth a monstrous giant with two heads; yet he did not seem so fiery as the former giants, for he was a Welsh giant." This Welsh giant was rendered less " fiery" than he would naturally have been, in consequence of breakfasting," as the story goes, on a great bowl of hasty-pudding," instead of keeping to the warm invigorating national dish, toasted cheese. To this low feeding may also be attributed the want of sagacity which enabled Jack" to outwit him," notwithstanding his two heads. The history states that Jack undressed himself, and as the giant was walking towards another apartment, Jack heard him say to himself:Though here you lodge with me to night, You shall not see the morning light,

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My club shall dash your brains out, quite. Say you so? (says Jack ;) is that one of your Welsh tricks? I hope to be as cunning as you." Then getting out of bed, he found a thick billet, and laid it in the bed in his stead, and hid himself in a dark corner of the room. In the dead time of the night came the giant with his club, and struck several blows on the bed where Jack had artfully laid the billet, and then returned to his own room, "supposing," as the romance writer observes with emphatical simplicity, "that he had broken all Jack's bones. In the morning early, Jack came to thank the giant for his lodging. 'Oh!' said he, how have you rested, did you not see anything last night?' -'No,' said Jack, but a rat gave me three or four slaps with his tail.'

To this adventure, though the scene of action is placed in Flintshire by the English writer, we find a parallel in the device of the Northern giant Skrimner, when he and Thor journeyed to Skrimner's castle of Utgaard, and which is related at large in the twelfth chapter of the Edda of Snorro. At midnight, the mighty son of the earth laid himself to sleep beneath an oak, and snored aloud. Thor, the giant-killer, resolved to rid himself of his unsuspicious companion, and struck him with his tremendous hammer. "Hath a leaf fallen upon me from the tree?" inquired the giant. He soon slept again, and "snored," as the Edda says, as loudly as if it had thundered in the forest." Thor struck the giant again, and, as he thought, the hammer made a mortal indention in his forehead. "What is the matter ?" quoth Skrimner; "hath an acorn fallen on my head?" A third time

The Edda was a system of the ancient Icelandic or Runic mythology, containing many curious particulars of the theology, philosophy, and manners of the Northern nations, or Scandinavians, chiefly derived from their ancestors, who, in earlier days, migrated from Asia. From these sources, as has been already observed, our British and Saxon ancestors derived much of the materials which, in process of time, and by transmission, were converted into the popular tales and fictions now under consideration. The ancient book, properly called The Edda, consisted of two parts; the first being a brief system of mythology; and the second contained poetry only, and was called Scalda, or Poetics; the national poets were cailed Scalds. This Edda was composed by Soemund the Learned, who was born in Iceland, about 1057, and was hence afterwards, this Edda was abridged, and rendered more intelligible called The Edda of Soemund. About one hundred and twenty years and popular by Snorre, whose version was called, after him, The Edda of Snorre

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