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A SAFE WAY TO OPEN STALE OYSTERS.

There is an old proverb, viz. “The Mayor of Northampton opens oisters with his dagger.”  The meaning of which is, to keep them at a sufficient distance from his nose.  For this town being eighty miles from the sea, fish may well be presumed stale therein.  “Yet I have heard (says Dr. Fuller,) that oisters put up with care, and carried in the cool, were weekly brought fresh and good to Althrop, the seat of the Lord Spencer, at equal distance; and it is no wonder, for I myself have eaten, in Warwickshire, above eighty miles from London, oisters sent from that city, fresh and good, and they must have, been carried some miles before they came there.”

P.T.W.

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Castellan, in his funeral sermon on the death of his patron, Francis I. modestly expressed his belief that the great prince was in paradise; this gave great offence to the Sorbonne, who complained of it to the court of France.  Their remonstrance was coldly received, and Mendoze, who had been steward to Francis, told them, “that he knew the disposition of his old master better than they, that he never could bear to remain long in one place; and that if he had been in purgatory, he stopped there merely to take a little refreshment, and afterwards went on.”

J.G.B.

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It is not perhaps generally known that there is a peculiar right in the family of the Campbell’s (Duke of Argyle) that when they marry any of their daughters, their vassals are obliged to pay their portions, and are taxed for such, according to the number of their cattle.

This right has not, however, been acted on for a century past.

G.K.

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EXTRAORDINARY DISAPPEARANCE.

Sir Thomas L—­D sometimes, though rarely, lest his veracity should be doubted, mentions in society the following singular incident:—­He once had upon his estate, rearing with great care and tenderness, a young nyl ghaut, an animal rare in England, and very elegant.  One day it was taken from its stable, in order to be exhibited to some of Sir T.L.’s friends, when, escaping from its keeper, it leaped over the park palings, and was never beheld or heard of more.  Horsemen were sent in search of it far and wide, and handsome rewards were, offered by advertisement for its recovery, but it had not, been seen by a single creature in the fields, or on the roads, or in the villages through which it must have passed; and of wood, and water there was not a sufficiency for some miles in the vicinity of ——­ House, to conceal it, living or dead.  So, after incessant, but fruitless efforts to obtain some intelligence respecting his beautiful and valuable favourite, Sir T.L. was at length obliged to desist in the prosecution of his inquiries altogether.—­M.