for alms from the gallery-loungers, who threw down coins of small amount, to enjoy the ensuing scramble.  Flowers were strewn on the surface of the water, and the vaulted roof rang with music, vocal, and instrumental.  Towards noon the company sallied forth to the meadows in the neighbourhood, acquaintances were easily made, and strangers soon became familiar.  The pleasures of the table were followed by jovial pledges in swift succession, till fife and drum summoned to the dance.  Now fell the last barriers of reserve and decorum; and it is time to drop a veil over the scene. Ibid.

* * * * *

THE GATHERER.

Morland.—­George Morland’s brother was telling me the other day, that he well remembered going with his brother in a hack to Smithfield, buying a young donkey there, and bringing it home with them in the coach; his brother laughing almost all the time.  M.L.E.

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The Three Death’s Heads.—­The following words (much altered) are from a poem entitled, “The Thre’ Deid Powis”, (The Three Death’s Heads, by Patrick Johnstoun.)

  “O, lady gay, in glittering garments drest,
  Enrich’d with pearl, and many a costly stone,
  Thy slender throat, and soft and snowy breast
  Circled with gold and sapphires many a one. 
  Thy fingers small, white as the ivory bone,
  Arrayed with rings, and many a ruby red;
  Soon shall thy fresh and rose-like bloom be gone,
  And naught of thee remain, but grim and hollow head. 
  O, woeful pride! dark root of all distress! 
  With contrite heart, our fleshless scalps behold! 
  O wretched man, to God, meek prayers address. 
  Thy lusty strength, thy wit, thy daring bold,
  All shall lie low with us in charnel cold: 
  Proud king, ’tis thus thy pamper’d corpse shall rot;
  Thus, in the dust thy purple pomp be roll’d,
  Mark then, in peeled skull, thy miserable lot.”

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Bushy.—­Bushy, a small village, near Watford, seems to have been very unfortunate in its ancient owners.  Its first Norman possessor, Geoffrey de Mandeville, having incurred the Pope’s displeasure, was obliged to be suspended in lead, on a tree, in the precinct of the Temple, London, because Christian burial was not allowed to persons under such circumstances.  Edmond of Woodstock, was beheaded through the vile machinations of Queen Isabella, and her paramour, Mortimer, on a suspicion of intending to restore his brother, Edward II. to the throne; and so much was he beloved by the people, and his persecutors detested, that he stood from one to five in the afternoon before an executioner could be procured, and then an outlaw from the Marshalsea performed the detested duty.  Thomas, Duke of Surrey, was beheaded at Cirencester, in rebellion against Henry IV.  Thomas de Montacute,