St. Martin's-day to Afcenfion they were liable to those customs in the fame manner as thofe of the king and the earl. The Welsh ufed to fupply themfelves from thefe pits, before the union of their country with England. Henry III. in order to diftrefs them, during the wars he had with them, took care to put a stop to the works, and deprive them of this necessary article. All these falt-works were confined between the river and a certain ditch. If any person was guilty of a crime within thefe limits, he was at liberty of making atonement by a mulet of two fhillings, or thirty boilings of falt; except in the cafe of murder or theft, for which he was to fuffer death. If crimes: of that nature were committed without the precinct, the common ufage of the county was to be observed. In the time of the Confeffor, this place yielded a rent of twenty pounds, with all the pleas of the hundred ; but when earl Hugh received it, it was a waste. The Germans had an idea of a peculiar fanctity attendant onfalt-fprings; that they were nearer to heaven than other places; that the prayers of mortals were no where fooner heard ; and that, by the peculiar favour of the gods, the rivers and the woods were productive of falt; not, as in other places, by the virtue of the fea, but by the water being poured on a burning pile of wood. Whether this notion might not have been delivered from the Germans to their Saxon progeny; and whether they might not, in after-times, deliver their grateful thanks for thefe advantages, I will not determine; but certain it is, that on Afcenfion-day. the old inhabitants of Nantwich piously fang a hymn of thankigiving, for the bleffing of the brine. A very antient pit, called Old Brine, was also held in great veneration, and, 'till within thefe few years, was annually, on that feftival, bedecked with boughs, flowers, and garlands, and was encircled by a jovial band of young people, celebrating the day with fong and dance. This festival was probably one of the relics of Saxon paganifm, which Mellitus might permit his profelytes to retain, according to the political inftructions he received from Gregory the Great, on his miffion; left, by too rigid an adherence to the purity of the chriftian religion, he should deter the English from accepting is doctrine. Iu fact, falt was, from the earliest times, in the highest esteem, and admitted into religious ceremonies: it was confidered as a mark of league and friendship. "Neither fhalt thou (fays the Jewish legiflator) fuffer the falt of the covenant of thy God to be lacking from thy meat-offering. With all thy offerings, thou fhalt fhalt offer falt." Homer gives to falt the epithet of divine. Both Greeks and Romans mixed falt with their facrificial cakes. In their luftrations they made ufe of falt and water; which gave rife, in after-times, to the fuperftition of holy water; only the Greeks made ufe of an olive branch instead of a brufh, to sprinkle it on the objects of purification. "Next, with pure fulphur purge the houfe, and bring, "The pureft water from the fresheft spring; "This, mix'd with falt, and with green olive crown'd, "Will cleanfe the late contaminated ground." Theocritus, Idyl. 24. Stuckius tells us, that the Mufcovites thought that a prince could not fhew a gueft a greater mark of affection, than by fenda ing to him falt from his own table.-The dread of fpilling of falt is a known fuperftition among us and the Germans, being reckoned a prefage of fome future calamity, and particularly that it foreboded domeftic feuds ; to avert which, it was cuftomary to fling fome falt over the fhoulder into the fire, in a manner truly claffical : Molibit et averfos penates The HISTORY of CELINDA and ARISTOBULUS: Or, The WIDOWED WIFE. Written by a LADY. A RISTOBULUS was a nobleman of great accomplishments, who had made many conquefts, without the artil lery of fighs and proteftations. Celinda, to his great misfortune, was among the number. Celinda, of illuftrious race, heirefs of vaft poffeffions, and endued with many perfections of mind and body; yet Celinda, whofe love has been the bane of all his happiness,-long did fhe conceal the fecret of her paffion from the whole world, as well as from him who was the object of it; yet, indulging the plea fare of feeing him as much as poffible, frequented all places where there was a probability of meeting him; 'till, finding that he paid her no other civilities than what her rank demanded, thofe foft emotions, which in the beginning afforded only de lightful images, now degenerated into horrors, as they approached nearer to defpair.She fell fick,-the phyficians foon perceived her diforder was of the mind, and perfuaded those about her to use their utmost endeavours for discovering VOL. I. 3. the H the caufe. In vain were all the entreaties of her friends; in vain the commands of the moft tender father; her modesty refifted all; and it was not 'till fhe was judged by every one that faw her, as well as by herself, to be at the point of death, that fhe was prevailed upon to confefs that she defired life only to behold Aristobulus. Her father, who had before fufpected the disease, though not the perfon from whom the infection came, was rejoiced to find that her inclinations had not difgraced his dignity; and affured her, that if to fee Ariftobulus was of fo much confequence, the fhould not only fee, but live with him, 'till death fhould put a period to their happiness. He made this promife, in confidence that the father of Aristobulus would gladly accede to the union of their families: nor was he deceived in his conjecture; the propofal he made was received with the utmost fatisfaction, and the marriage writings were drawn between them, before the young lord, who hap pened at that time to be on a party of pleasure in the country, knew that any fuch thing was in agitation. Celinda was immediately made acquainted with this agree ment, and from that moment the long abfent rofes refumed their places in her cheeks, her wonted ftrength and vivacity returned, and she was again the joy of all who knew her. But a far different effect, alas! had the news of this affair on him, who was with fo much vehemence beloved by her. A special meffenger being difpatched to bring him up to London, he no fooner was informed of the occafion, than he was feized with the most mortal anguish :—he threw himself at his father's feet, and, with all the moving rhetoric of dutiful affection, conjured him by that paternal tenderness he had ever treated him with, and which he had never been guilty of doing any thing to forfeit, not to infift on his fulfilling an engagement, than which death could not be more terrible. Never was furprize greater than that of the father of Ariftobulus, to hear him speak in this manner; but it yet received a confiderable encreafe, when, on demanding the reasons of his refufal, and what objections he had to make against becoming the hufband of fo well defcended, fo rich, fo virtuous, and fo young a lady, he had none to offer, but that he was not inclined to marry; or, if he were, had fomething in his nature which oppofed any inclination in her favour. The match was too advantageous to their family for the old peer to be put off with what feemed to him fo trifling a motive as mere want of love; he therefore refolved that his fon fhould comply with his commands, and to that end enforced them by the the moft terrible menaces of never feeing him more, and of cutting him off from all his inheritance, excepting what was entailed upon the title, which was very small, and little able to fupport it. This was a very great fhock to one who had the highest notions of grandeur, and a relifh for all the expenfive pleasures of the young and gay.-He knew his father to be rigid and obstinate to be obeyed by all who had any dependence on him, and doubted not but his refentment would fway him to do as he said: he therefore repented he had irritated him so far, and began to feign a lefs averfion to the marriage ;-he begged to be forgiven, and promifed to vifit Celinda, in the hope, he faid, that he should discover more charms in her conversation than he yet had been fenfible of. His father feemed fomewhat pacified with this affurance, and bid him go and offer her a heart fhe well deferved, and he had too long delayed beftowing. He did not, it is certain, deceive his father in this point :-he went, but went with a view very different from what any one could have imagined he would ever have conceived :—in the room of entertaining her with foft profeffions, which, perhaps, are fometimes made by those who mean them as little as himself could have done, he frankly confeffed he had an averfion to the married state; that it was not in his power to make a husband, fuch as she had reafon to expect; and entreated that she would order it fo, that the nuptials, which his father feemed so bent apon completing, might be broke off on her fide. How alarming fuch a request must be to one who loved as she did, any one may judge; but the excefs of her tenderness overruled all that pride and spirit which is fo natural to women on fuch occafions :-fhe paufed a while, probably to fupprefs the rifing fighs; but at length told him, that what he defired was the only thing fhe could refufe him ;-that her father was no lefs zealous than his own for an alliance, and that she had been too much accustomed to obedience, to dare to dispute his will in a thing he seemed fo bent upon. As nothing but his eternal peace could have enforced him to have acted in this manner with a lady of her birth and fortune, and whose accomplishments, in fpite of the little effect they had upon him, he could not but acknowledge, he was aftonished at the calmness with which the bore it; and, judging by that, her affection could not be less tender than he had been told, he left no arguments untried to make that very affection fubfervient to his aim, of being freed from all engagements with her ;- but fhe ftill pleading the duty fhe owed to him who gave her being, he grew quite defperate, and, throwing off that complaifance he H 2 had had hitherto behaved with, told her, that if, for the preservation of his birthright, he were compelled to marry her, he neither could, nor would even endeavour to love her as a wife ;→ that the muft expect only uncomfortable days, and lonely widowed nights and that it was not in the power of ceremony, nor in either of their fathers, to convert an utter dislike into inclination. To this cruel declaration the replied coldly, that as they were deftined for each other by those who had the fole power. of difpofing their hands, it was a very great misfortune their hearts could not comply with the injunction; but, as for her part, he was determined to follow duty, though fhe fell a martyr to it, Though, under the obedience of a daughter, she had the opportunity of veiling the fondness of a lover, the honour of our fex greatly fuffered by fuch a behaviour; but, poor lady, the excess of her paffion hindered her from seeing into the meannefs of it, and at the fame time flattered her with the belief, that in fpite of the averfion he now expreffed, her treatment of him, and the tenderness she should make no fcruple of revealing to him in all its force, when she became his wife, would make an entire change in his fentiments, and it would not be in his power to avoid recompencing, with fome degree of affection, fo pure, fo conftant, and fo violent a flame, as he would then be convinced the long had felt for him. Ariftobulus, after he had left her, again effayed to work upon his father's mind; but all he could urge being ineffectual, he yielded to be a husband, rather than fuffer himself to be cut off from being an heir. A day was appointed for the celebration of their nuptials, and they were married with a pomp more befitting their quality than the condition of their minds.At night they were put to bed with the ufual ceremonies; but the moment the company withdrew, he arose, and chose rather to pafs the hours 'till morning on a couch alone, than in the embraces of a woman who had indeed perfections fufficient to have made any man happy, who had not that antipathy in nature, which there is no accounting for, nor getting rid of. It is not to be doubted but Celinda, not only that night, but for a long time afterwards, continued to put in practice every tender ftratagem, and used every argument that her love, and the circumftances they now were in, could infpire; but all were equally in vain, as the poet fays, Love fcorns all ties, but thofe that are his own." Ariftobulus remained inflexible, and obftinately bent never to be more of a husband than the name: neither time, nor her pa |