Thus perished, in the vigour of manhood, the first victim, in modern times, to African discovery.  Too many, alas! have since shared the same fate in pursuit of the same object; which, so far from deterring, seems only to stimulate others, and produce fresh candidates for fame to tread the same perilous path.—­Quarterly Review—­Article “Ledyard’s Travels."

    [8] Sir James Hall of Douglass, Bart., the father of Captain
    Basil Hall, R.N., and, till lately, President of the Royal
    Society of Edinburgh.

* * * * *

THE GATHERER.

  “A snapper-up of unconsidered trifles.”

  SHAKSPEARE.

* * * * *

LARGE BONNETS.

(For the Mirror.)

The immense large bonnets which decorate the ladies of the present day are truly “over the borders,” and seem to keep pace with the “march of intellect.”  A garden seems to bloom on their exterior, and roses and lilies vie with each other above and below, for underneath the living roses flourish on the cheeks of the fair.  Perhaps in a few years small bonnets will usurp the day, for

  “Extremes produce extremes, extremes avoid,
   Extremes without extremes are not enjoyed.”

Some years ago, when straw bonnets were all the rage, the following pithy lines were composed by M. P. Andrewes, Esq.:—­

  “Some ladies’ heads appear like stubble fields;
  Who now of threaten’d famine dare complain,
  When every female forehead teems with grain? 
  See how the wheat-sheaves nod amid the plumes! 
  Our barns are now transferr’d to drawing-rooms,
  And husbands who indulge in active lives,
  To fill their granaries may thrash their wives.”

P.T.W.

Our facetious correspondent does not notice the golden oats; but doubtless he recollects the anecdote of the horse mistaking a lady’s hat with a tuft of oats for a moving manger stocked with his natural provender.—­ED.

* * * * *

Printed and Published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, London; sold by ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, Leipsic, and by all Newsmen and booksellers.