on the morning of St. Mark's day, April 25th, the houses of the new freemen are distinguished by a holly tree planted before each door, as a signal for their friends to assemble and make merry with them. Forthwith the young freemen, accompanied by a numerous cavalcade, and with music playing before them, proceed to the ceremonial well, four miles distant. It is a dirty stagnant pool, nearly twenty yards in length, and is suffered to run out during the rest of the year; but those who are intrusted with this matter take special care that it shall not lose any of its depth or size at the approach of St. Mark's day; and while they are preparing the well for the ceremonial plunge, they use various artful contrivances, making holes and dikes, and fixing straw ropes at the bottom, to entrap the heedless and unsuspecting novices into a miry plight. of its associations with enthusiasm, "with even some of the small evils occasionally arising out of it, I would venture to hope that the revolutionary waves which are sweeping away the customs of olden times may still spare to 'canny Annick and its ten miles round,' the picturesque and joyous spectacle of going through the well"-a hope beneath which we cannot prevail on ourselves to write "Amen.” AN APOLOGY FOR THE ASS. THERE exists in all languages, and probably among all nations upon the face of the earth, certain timehonoured phrases and figures of speech, more sig nificant it may be than refined, the use of which has prevailed from time immemorial, and whose origin, if it could be traced at all, would be found buried in the traditions of a very remote antiquity. What they are we need but intimate to the general reader. They are embodied in the forms of max. ims, axioms, distichs, phrases, and proverbs; and inasmuch as they generally contain a great deal of truth locked up in the compass of a very few sylla bles, and have been characterized by more than one philosopher of note as the quintessence of worldly wisdom, we feel that they are entitled to respect, and respect them accordingly, and pro On arriving at the well, the young freemen equip themselves in a white dress, and prepare for immersion. The sons of the oldest freemen have the honour of taking the first leap. When the signal is given they all plunge in, and scramble through the noisome pool with great labour and difficulty; and after being well drenched and half suffocated in mud, they are assisted out of the puddle at the further end, in a rueful condition, to the great amusement of the spectators. After this aquatic excursion, they speedily resume their former dresses, remount their horses and perambulate the remain-foundly. But not all of them. And hence the der of the large common, of which they are become "free" by this achievement. When within two miles of the town, they arrange themselves in order, and, to prove their equestrian abilities, set off with great speed over bogs, ditches, whins, rocks, and rugged declivities, till they arrive at Rotten Row Tower, on the confines of the town; the foremost claiming the honour of what is termed "winning the boundaries," and of being entitled to the temporary triumphs of the day. The succeeding evening is spent in festivities, which courtesy may call social, but which often become anti-social and immoral. Indeed, the whole affair is disgusting. Tradition ascribes this "passing through the well" to king John. It is said that he was once immersed in the pool now called the "Freemen's Well," while on a hunting party in the forest of Haydon. His attendants could with difficulty extricate the royal rider and his steed, and the surly monarch became so enraged at the inhabitants of the adjoining town for not keeping the adjacent country in a better condition for his favourite sports, that he passed a decree to oblige every man, previous to his being invested with the freedom of the borough, to encounter a danger similar to that which his sovereign had experienced before him. A very sage and John-like decree, certainly; and far more potent it has proved than others from the "Going through the well has lived in unimpaired vigour for more than six centuries, through many political and social changes. And with all its ludicrousness," says one who writes same source. 66 witnessing this singular ceremony. The concomitant oddities also continue to be practised, though perhaps in the attention to these there is not shown the same enthusiasm or zest and The interest felt and displayed in the town depends, I supscrupulousness as to mode which was seen in former years. pose, upon the number who qualify. Last year there were thirty, this year there were only seven; so that perhaps I have not seen the matter to advantage." article which we are going to write, and which is The ass, in whose behalf we desire to plead, however thus associated with terms of contempt in modern times, is never mentioned with disrespect by the most ancient writers. He appears to have been the first animal of burden whom man reduced to subjection, domesticated to his own use, and constituted his property. "His ass" was from the earliest period a portion of a man's worldly goods; and on the tables of Sinai he stands, coupled with his fellow-labourer, the ox, an object of definite, perhaps of equal, value to his owner. To catch, to subdue, and to domesticate the wild horse, was probably an exploit of much later date, and may have been instigated by the angry passions and terrible necessities of war, for the purposes of which, there is little doubt, he was first trained to the service of man. His superior strength and spirit threw the more modest qualities of the ass into the shade; but we know that patriarch, priest, and prophet, made the latter the companion of their travels through the wildernesses of Syria, and that, in enumerating the stores of royal and patriarchal wealth, he held a conspicuous rank in the catalogue. benefactors. The ass, whose unresenting patience Man is ever prone to exercise his wit upon his rarely rebelled against tyranny, naturally fell into discredit among warlike nations, with whom violence was virtue, and became the butt of their These considerations, and many more which the compassionate reader will suggest to himself, will furnish a sound argument for the merciful treatment of our long-eared friend; and they ought to be sufficient of themselves to secure him from unmerited abuse and reproach. But there are reasons of a different class, which we shall adduce in his favour, and which we shall take the liberty of exemplifying by one or two anecdotes of Master Donkey, the authenticity of which there is no reason to question. At a farm in Somersetshire, it happened some years ago that a team of horses, who had been ploughing all day, were turned loose in the evening at the top of a long winding lane, at the bottom of which stood the farm-house; the straw-yard, or "barton," as it is there called, was divided from the lane by a five-barred gate, so hung as to swing to of its own accord if left open, and was fastened, when fastened at all, which was but rarely, by inserting a wooden plug in a staple driven into the side-post. The horses, on being turned loose from work, were daily accustomed to push the gate open with their chests, and walk into the stable to their suppers. On the present occasion the plug happened to be in the staple, and the four horses pushed at the gate in vain. The farmer, who watched them from the parlour window, sat still smoking his pipe, knowing that the ploughmen would be there in a few minutes to look after them. In the meantime, however, a stupid ass" belonging to the farmer's wife, and who had been browsing thistles in the lane, walks up to the gate, whips his thick head over the top bar, and draws out the plug with his teeth, and then, with a "hehaw," as much as to say, "That's the way to do it," throws open the entrance to his burly brethren. In this case, it will be acknowledged that the "stupid ass" was much more wise than the proverbially sagacious horse, to say nothing of the politeness of the act, by which perhaps he profited as much as they. Between five and six-and-twenty years ago, while residing in a country hamlet, we were induced by the entreaties of a poor man, who did not know very well what to do with him, to invest threeand-sixpence in the purchase of a young male ass, whose mother's milk was bespoke for a clergyman's daughter, then in declining health. At first, the creature, not bigger than many a pet-lamb, was treated as a domestic favourite, and passed a good deal of his time within doors, or browsing on the lawn. He soon learned to follow the housekeeper who fed him every morning with milk from which the cream had been taken for breakfastupstairs and down to all parts of the house, and was always found at the pantry-door, awaiting her presence when she came down in the morning. He grew very rapidly, and acquired habits of cleanliness with his growth. But he soon became much too clever for an inmate, and acquired a taste for bread-and-butter, apple-pies, and such delicacies, which led him into a series of experiments upon cupboard-doors, dresser-shelves, and the applecloset in particular, which we felt bound to discourage. He was therefore banished to the stable, and commenced his education. Under proper management, and without stint of food, or illtreatment of any kind, save a little necessary discipline to break him in, he grew up a perfect model of symmetry, excelling the pony, his companion, in the neatness of his legs and feet, equalling him in speed, and far surpassing him in endurance. He never showed the slightest symptoms of obstinacy in his disposition, being ever ready and willing to work; and, so far from being stupid, gave repeated instances of sagacity beyond that of his companion— often helping himself to food while the other fasted. He ran in harness without blinkers or bridle, and run. would quicken his pace if you raised your hand, the animal who arrived last at the goal. Of course and invariably kept an eye upon your motions as the object of each competitor was to urge the anihe trotted along. He would swerve aside gently mal he bestrode in advance of the one which was of his own accord to avoid a rut or a stone, and in- his own property, and in consequence there was stinctively gave a wide berth to everything he met just as keen a strife as there would have been at a or overtook. We rode him daily from ten to race of the ordinary kind. Each ass, upon enter twenty miles through a very hilly country, with- ing for the race a fortnight before, had been transout inflicting any suffering on him. His one vice ferred to the keeping of the man who would ride was greediness, which no doubt he inherited from him, who was also the owner of another who would his parents, who, like too many of their race, were This exchange had the effect of bringing all half starved. He would eat all day long if he the steeds to the starting-point in good condi could find fodder, and would have grown too fat tion, as no man would expect to distance his own for work had he been allowed his own way. This donkey if mounted upon one suffering from want experiment only confirmed us in an opinion which of food, or overwork. The goose and trimmings we had long entertained, namely, that the ass, if were carried off by a cunning sand-boy, who had justice is dealt out to him, is just as tractable, as taught his daily companion to stand stock-still at sagacious, and, in proportion to his weight, as effi- the sound of a low and peculiar whistle. Though cient a labourer, as the horse. And we have no the swiftest in the whole company, nothing could doubt that if the same pains and attention were induce this creature to move a foot so long as the bestowed upon his breed and education as are well-known sound rang in his ears. It was therelavished upon those of the horse, results no less fore easy for his owner to keep him in the rear till astonishing and advantageous would ensue. Treat all the others had shot past the limits, and then to a child as a dunce, and you inevitably make a fix him to the spot by a final note of warning, dunce of him; treat a youth in your employ as a while he gallopped past him and claimed the prize. knave, and you will as surely render him unworthy Here was a "blundering jackass" for you! Where of your confidence. Is it to be expected that the is the horse who would have shown superior doci ill-treatment of a beast will have no effect in dete-lity, or would have equalled the sand-boy's donkey, riorating his race, and superinducing the very vices attributed to them ? unless he had first gone through the curriculum of a professional trainer? Starting, a few mornings ago, from an inland We forbear to multiply examples to substantiate village, about_day-break, to catch the early rail- the ass's claim to the possession of such reasoning way train to London, we found that we had just powers as Providence has been pleased to bestow nine miles to get over within the hour. This was upon man's four-footed friends and colleagues, the nothing to the horse behind whom we sat in a beasts of the road and the field; and we are not light dog-cart, and, without a hint of the whip, he going to moralize, like a celebrated wit, upon that devoured the way in his usual style. We must very rare spectacle, a dead ass; it is pleasanter to confess to some astonishment, however, upon being contemplate him living. We would, if we could, joined at a union of two roads by a young fellow obtain a reversion of the general decree which in a light cart drawn by a donkey, who retained denounces Donkey as obstinate and stupid, because his position at our side the remainder of the way, he is more long-suffering and patient than his without any extraordinary exertion. The ass was brother brutes; and would arouse mankind to a apparelled in new harness, which he had gained sense of his true value, because we believe that if at a late exhibition of asses, or "donkey show," his merit were rightly appreciated, both donkey in the neighbourhood, got up by a gentleman, a and driver would be far the better for it. Centuries country philanthropist, with a view to promote the of oppression and undeserved contempt have brocultivation and good treatment of asses, by award-ken the spirit of the former and abated his ing a prize of some value to the poor man who, keeping no other steed, could produce the best donkey. We heard with pleasure that the emulation excited by the prospect of such a premium had produced the best effects; and that, besides the winning donkey, to whom the adjudicators had allotted the prize, there were a considerable number of others deserving of " honourable mention," and all evidencing in their appearance a vastly improved state of feeling in reference to dumb creatures, and a higher estimation of the donkey character especially, in the neighbourhood. This circumstance, by the way, reminds us of another proof of donkey intelligence which has come under our notice. A gentleman, desirous of amusing his cottage tenants (though many of our readers will think that recreations of a far healthier order might have been provided for them), set up for competition, in what is termed a donkey race, the prize of a goose and trimmings. By a humane regulation, neither whip nor spur was allowed to the riders, not one of whom rode his own donkey; and the prize was to be awarded to the owner of powers, but they have perfected his patience; and it may be well, in attempting the improvement of his race by the means of kindness above alluded to, or by any other, to take a lesson from the unresenting subject of our speculations, remembering that he is but an ass. THE LATE CENSUS. AFTER the number of families and houses, the Howards and Blenheims, with flags unfurled, proclaiming their owners to be in residence; the halls of the old gentry, each with its groves of elm or beach, and colony of rooks; the country seats of the "merchant princes," with carefully-tended lawns and flower-beds; the homesteads of substantial yeomen, with jasmine-clad trellis-work and wellfilled stack-yards; along with lonely mud-hovels in inland lanes, and solitary wood-cabins on the seashore. The associated habitations are often arranged in rows along the high-roads, or they cluster around centrally-situated spires and towers, or form a complex and irregular aggregation, as if the buildings had been tossed from the skies in a tempest, and had courts, alleys, lanes, and streets struck out in their midst as an after-thought. These connected or proximate dwellings constitute hamlets, villages, towns, boroughs, cities, and the metropolis. The number of all the small groups of houses in Great Britain, answering to the idea of a "hamlet," is not stated, but the number of places which have defined boundaries, and are separately returned in the population tables, is 17,150, to each of which, it may be assumed, there is a church or chapel, with an aggregation of families, forming a village. The towns of England and Wales are 580; of Scotland, 225; and of the Channel islands, 10; making a total for Great Britain of 815, of various magnitude, wealth, character, and social activity. They are either market-towns, county-towns, or cities, sea-ports, watering-places, or the seats of manufacturing, mining, and trading pursuits. ts. Some are of old establishment, and are known to historic fame, as Canterbury, York, and Chester. Others are of comparatively modern origin, and were mere villages or small places a century ago, but have acquired extraordinary importance with the development of industry, as Manchester, Birmingham, and Sheffield. There is a much larger proportion of towns in Scotland than in England, but they are of smaller size, containing only an average population of 6654, while to each English town there is an average of 15,501. The population in the 815 towns amounted to 10,556,288, standing on an area of 3164 square miles. The remainder of the people, or the inhabitants of the isolated houses, hamlets, villages, and small places without markets, was 10,403,189. Thus, at the present era, there is so little difference in numbers between the town and country populations of Great Britain, that they may be considered equal. But how widely they differ in density! In the towns there were 52 persons to an acre, and 3337 persons to a square mile: in the country there were 53 acres to a person, and but 120 persons to a square mile. The distinction between town and country dwellers is far less marked with us than in many parts of the continent. The walls of the towns were either destroyed in the civil wars, or remain in fragments, preserved as curious relics of a by-gone age; the gates, by which alone they could be entered, have shared the same fate; the ancient moats have disappeared, or are only to be traced by the antiquary; while no battlemented lines of stone have been drawn round the extended or the new populations. It is otherwise in France and Germany, where the towns maintain largely the defensive aspect and jealous spirit which marked them in the middle ages. "Each," says Mr. Laing, "is like a distinct island, or small nation, with its own way of living, ideas, laws, and interests, and having little or nothing in common with the country population around it. The country girl's basket is opened at the town gate, to see if it contains any bread, cheese, beer, or other articles subject to town dues. The peasant's cart, loaded with hay or straw, is half unloaded, or is probed with a long rod of iron by the city official, to discover goods which ought to have paid town dues. The city on the continent sits like a guard-ship riding at anchor on the plain, keeping up a kind of social existence of her own, shutting her gates at sunset, and having privileges and exactions which separate her from the main body of the population." This system not only renders the two classes more distinct, but antagonistic by its vexations, and those without the walls keep apart from the civilization within, as much by preference as necessity. There are tolls, indeed, collected in our market-places, but they are levied indiscriminately upon those who occupy the ground, whether belonging to town or country. Unlimited freedom of intercourse, and great facilities to maintain it, contribute to draw the two populations together; and they are united by the operations of commerce, the interchange of intelligence, the ties of neighbourhood and relationship. No inconsiderable number of those born in the towns settle in the country, and a very large proportion of those born in the country migrate to the towns. London exhibits the representation of the village in its churches and chapels, of the town in its markets, of the county-town in its courts of justice, of the sea-ports in its tidal river, of the sites of artisanship in its varied manufacture, and has in addition, the seat of the legislature, the offices of government, and the palace of the sovereign, with the head-quarters of the learned professions and scientific bodies. It extends over an arca of 78,029 acres, on both sides of the Thames, into three counties, and contained within these limits, on the day the Census was taken, a population of two millions, three hundred and sixty-two thousand, two hundred and thirty-six. This is an increase in half a century, or since 1801, of 1,403,373, and the increase is continually progressing. tropolis comprises the largest congregate mass of human life, power, opulence, enterprise, and mechanic skill, that ever has existed in the history of mankind. Some of the capitals of antiquity covered a much wider area, but occupied it far more loosely, and the number of their inhabitants has been enormously over-estimated. Excepting architecture, sculpture, and the fine arts, in every other point London bears away the palm, both from modern rivals and the cities of the antique. The me The results of the half-century may be given with reference to several classes of towns. Twenty-six seaports, excluding Lon don, namely, Liverpool, Hull, Bristol, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Sunderland, Tynemouth and North Shields, South Shields, Hartlepool, Whitby, Scarborough, Birkenhead, Goole, King's Lynn, Grimsby, Whitehaven, Yarmouth, Dover, Portsmouth, Plymouth, Southampton, Poole, Cardiff, Swansea, Greenock, Leith, and Port Glasgow 1801. 1851. 428,767 1,267,236 1851. 278,930 135,002 34,775 31,718 507,886 and the "liberties" of a few other districts. They are finally confined in counties, the largest of the territorial divisions. Counties in England vary in extent from an area of 5983 square miles in Yorkshire to 150 in Rutland; in Wales, from 947 in Caermarthenshire to 289 in Flint; in Scotland, from 4256 in Inverness to 46 in Clackmannan. Excluding the metropolitan shires, the greatest proportion of persons to a square mile was, in England, 1064 in Lancashire, 539 in Warwickshire, 535 in Staffordshire, and 496 in the West Riding of York: the least was 146 in Lincolnshire, 125 in Cumberland, 102 in the North Riding of York, and 77 in Westmoreland. The greatest proportion in Wales was 268 in Glamorgan; the least, 58 in Radnor. In 68,195 Scotland, the proportion of persons to a square mile was 687 in the county of Renfrew, 653 in 227,622 that of Edinburgh, 537 in Lanark, 27 in Argyle, 26 in Ross and Cromarty, 23 in Inverness, and 14,237 14 in Sutherland. The general result was, in England, 332 persons and 60 inhabited houses to a square mile; in Wales, 135 persons and 27 houses; in Scotland, 92 persons and 12 1,220,104 houses. 81,027 The greatest density of population in England 9,955 was found in the east London registration district, St. Botolph and Cripplegate, where it was in the proportion of 185,751 persons on the square mile; 60,200 the least density was eighteen on the same area, in the district of Bellingham, Northumberland. Upon the hypothesis of equal distribution, the people were on an average one hundred and eight yards asunder, and their houses at the mean distance of two hundred and fifty-two yards apart. Proximity of population is one important social element, influencing the extent, intimacy, and number of social relations. Half a century ago, a messenger having to deliver a thousand letters at a thousand houses of average distance from each other, would have had to travel 206 miles. Since 371,032 268,201 368,151 The greatest increase has been in the towns in which straw-plait, cotton, pottery, and iron, are manufactured. The largest English towns, which have a population of a hundred thousand and upwards, within their municipal limits, together with the number of inhabited houses in them, are in that period, the land has become nearly twice as full; the separation has lessened; the proximity has increased; and a messenger on the same errand in 1851 would only have had to compass 143 375,955 miles. 367,232 Pop. 232,841 172,270 137,328 135,310 103,378 Newcastle upon Tyne, Hull, Stoke upon Trent, Brighton, and Portsmouth, rank next. Let us glance for a moment at by-gone times. Bristol is the only place in the above list which has any importance of ancient date. Liverpool, under the Tudors, was a chapelry or hamlet," with a few fishing-smacks and trading-barks, "a castalet," and 66 66 a stone house" belonging to the "erle of Darbe." Birmingham had no market a century and a half ago. Manchester, Leeds, and Sheffield were names unknown to fame when those of Rye, Winchelsea, and the other cinque ports, were celebrated. The towns and villages of England are included generally in "hundreds," minor divisions of the Soil, to which the "wapentakes" of Yorkshire and Lincolnshire correspond: the "wards" of Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Durham: the "lathes" of Kent, the "rapes" of Sussex, Irregularly distributed around the shores of Great Britain, or in the British seas, there are upwards of five hundred islands, exclusive of the Irish main and its adjacent islets. Some are bare or scantily-covered rocks, inhabited by sea-fowl, visited by fishermen in their boats, and tenanted by shepherds in summer, while many have no human occupants. They range from Jersey, latitude 49° 13', through eleven degrees north to Unst in the Shetlands, latitude 60° 49', where the day of the summer solstice is three hours longer than in Jersey, while at Jersey it is longer than in Italy. East and west, the purely British isles extend from Lowestoft Ness, 1° 46′ E. long. on the coast of Suffolk, to St. Kilda, 8° 35' w. long., the most westerly of the Hebrides. These limits are ten degrees of longitude from each other; and hence the sun rises and sets thirty-nine minutes sooner to the Suffolk fishermen than to the birdcatchers of St. Kilda. Of the above-stated number of islands, upwards of two hundred are comprised in the Hebrides, more than one hundred belong to the Shetlands, sixty-seven to the Orkneys, a considerable number to the Scilly group, and |