During the stay of the empress, the shepherds, mounted upon their stilts, much amused the ladies of the court, who took delight in making them race, or in throwing money upon the ground and seeing several of them go for it at once, the result being a scramble and a skillful and cunning onset, often accompanied with falls.

Up to recent years scarcely any merry-makings occurred in the villages of Gascony that were not accompanied with stilt races.  The prizes usually consisted of a gun, a sheep, a cock, etc.  The young people vied with each other in speed and agility, and plucky young girls often took part in the contests.

Some of the municipalities of the environs of Bayonne and Biarritz still organize stilt races, at the period of the influx of travelers; but the latter claim that the stiltsmen thus presented are not genuine Landese shepherds, but simple supernumeraries recruited at hazard, and in most cases from among strolling acrobats.  The stilt walkers of Landes not only attain a great speed, but are capable of traveling long distances without appreciable fatigue.

Formerly, on the market days at Bayonne and Bordeaux, long files of peasants were seen coming in on stilts, and, although they were loaded with bags and baskets, they came from the villages situated at 10, 15, or 20 leagues distance.  To-day the sight of a stilt walker is a curiosity almost as great at Bordeaux as at Paris.  The peasant of Landes now comes to the city in a wagon or even by railway.—­La Nature.

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REMAINS OF A ROMAN VILLA IN ENGLAND.

A correspondent of the Lincolnshire Chronicle writes:  For some weeks past, remains of a Roman villa have been exposed to view by Mr. Ramsden’s miners in Greetwell Fields.  From, the extent of the tesselated pavements laid bare there is hardly any doubt that in the Greetwell Fields, in centuries long gone by, there stood a Roman mansion, which for magnitude was perhaps unrivaled in England.  Six years ago I drew attention to it.  The digging for iron ore soon after this was brought to a standstill by the company, which at the time was working the mines, ceasing their operations.  Then the property came into other hands, and since then more extensive basement floors of the villa have from time to time been laid bare, and from tentative explorations which have been just made, still more floors remain to be uncovered which may be of a most interesting and instructive character.  What a pity it is that the inhabitants of Lincoln have not made an effort to preserve these precious relics of the grandeur of the Roman occupation, an occupation to which England owes so much.  From the Romans the people of this country inherit the sturdy self-reliance and perseverance in action which have helped to make England what it is, and from the Romans too, in a great degree, does England also