PITT’S DIAMOND.

(To the Editor.)

Allusion being made the other evening by Sir R. Inglis, in the debate on Lord John Russell’s reform motion, relative to a gentleman of the name of Pitt sitting in that House in right of possessing a very large diamond, the following particulars may not prove uninteresting to the numerous readers of the Mirror:—­

Thos.  Pitt, Esq., anciently of Blandford, in the county of Dorset, afterwards Earl of Londonderry, was, in the reign of Queen Anne, made Governor of Fort St. George, in the East Indies, where he resided many years, and became possessed, by trifling purchase, or by barter, of a diamond, which he sold to the King of France for 135,000l. sterling, weighing 127 carats, and commonly known at that day by the name of Pitt’s Diamond.

JAC-CO.

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ANCESTRY.

It may not be generally known that there is a small town in France which no one can enter without interest, from the consideration that Demetrius Commene once lived there, a man boasting a pedigree that traced him from the line of the Roman emperor Trajan.  He was living in the time of Voltaire, and was a captain in the French army.  His pedigree was the noblest of any man then living, or that has since lived, for he had twenty-six kings for his ancestors, and eighteen emperors.  Of these, six were emperors of Constantinople, ten of Trebizond, and two of Heracleus Pontus; eighteen kings of Colchi, and eight of Lazi.

RAMBLER.

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A LITERARY KISS.

Alian Chartier was esteemed the father of French eloquence; he spoke as well as he wrote.  He flourished about the year 1430.  Margaret of Scotland, first wife to the dauphin, afterwards Louis XI, as she passed through the Louvre, observed Alian asleep, and went and kissed him.  When her attendants expressed their surprise that she should thus distinguish a man remarkable for his ugliness, she replied—­“I do not kiss the man, but the mouth that has uttered so many charming things.”

P.T.W.

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EPITAPH ON A WATCHMAKER,

Copied from a Tombstone in Lidford Churchyard, Devon.

Here lies, in Horizontal position,
The outside case of
George Routleigh, Watchmaker,
Whose abilities in that line were an honour
To his profession;
Integrity was the main-Spring,
And Prudence the Regulator
Of all the actions of his life;
Humane, generous, and liberal,
His Hand never stopped
Till he had relieved distress;
Sincerely regulated were all his movements,
That he never went wrong,
Except when Set a-going
By people