Does Music’s dulcet notes dwell on thy tongue? 
  And do thy fingers sweep the sounding lyre? 
  Behold! where low she lies, who sweetly sung
  The melting strains a cherub might inspire.

  Of YOUTH, of BEAUTY, then be vain no more—­
  Of music’s pow’r—­of WIT and LEARNING’S prize;
  For while you read, those charms may all be o’er,
  And ask to share the grave where ANNA lies.

COLBOURNE.

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GAMBLING OF HENRY THE EIGHTH.

(For the Mirror.)

Stowe, in his Survey of London, says, “Neere unto Paul’s Schoole, on the north side thereof, was of old time a great and high Clochier, or Bell-house, four square, builded of stone; and in the same, a most strong frame of timber, with foure bels, the greatest that I have heard:  these were called Jesus Bels, and belonged to Jesus Chappell, but I know not by whose gift.  The same had a great spire of timber, covered with lead, with the image of St. Paul on the top; but was pulled downe by Sir Miles Partridge, knight, in the reign of Henry the Eighth.  The common speech then was, that hee did set one hundred pounds upon a caste at dice against it, and so won the said clochier and bels of the king; and then causing the bels to be broken as they hung, the rest was pulled downe.  This man was afterwards executed on the Tower Hill, for matters concerning the Duke of Somerset, the fifth of Edward the Sixth.  In place of this clochier, of old time, the common bel of the citie was used to be rung, for the assembly of the citizens to their Folke-motes.”

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ALDERMAN KENNETT.

Passing by Blackfriars Bridge, I missed the magnificent gates (iron) erected by Brackly Kennett, Esq. the inactive Lord Mayor of London, A.D. 1780, during the time of the riots, and who used to pass his time at the “Jacob’s Well,” Barbican.  I could not help remembering these lines, which were related to me long ago—­

  “When Rome was burning, poets all agree,
  Nero sat playing on his tweedle-dee;
  So Kennett,[3] when he saw sedition ripe,
  And London burning, calmly smoked his pipe.”

    [3] For which he was committed to the Tower, where he died.

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VALENTINE’S DAY

Had its origin with the Romans, and was fathered upon St. Valentine in the early ages of the Church to christianize it.  Brand, in his Popular Antiquities, supposes that the observance originated in an ancient Roman superstition of choosing patrons on this day for the ensuing year—­a custom which gallantry took up when superstition, at the reformation, had been compelled to let it fall.

H.H.

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