INVENTIONS AND USEFUL ARTS OF THE Egyptians, however, carried this art to its high

Glass mosaics and reliefs executed in glass with the highest skill, are described by the celebrated antiquarian, Winkleman. A very beautiful tablet of the latter kindis now preserved in the Vatican. It resembles a large cameo, 8 inches by 6, cut in The invention of the screw, the wheel, the rud-glass; the figures, which represent Bacchus and der, and the double pulley, all of very ancient Ariadne, with two satyrs, are very finely exeorigin, may be compared with any modern in-cuted. ventions in mechanical science.

been found by Layard amongst other wonders amid the ruins of Nineveh. Burning glasses are mentioned in a comedy written by Aristophanes 500 years before the Christian era. Archimedes, the great geometrician, who flourished in the third century B.C., is said to have destroyed the Roman fleet by fire, from the collected influence of the sun's rays, reflected from numerous plain mirrors. According to the written history of the Chinese, silk manufactories were in operation there 2700 years B.C. They were also acquait ted with the art of printing, claiming to have discovered it long before the commencement of the Christian era, and it is denied by none even of the Christian writers, that it was fully established in China early in the tenth century, nearly 500 years before it was contemplated in Europe.

Linen of a fine quality was woven by the Egyptians at a very early date, for their priests wore robes of it at all their religious ceremonies; hence they are styled "linen wearing" by both Ovid and Juvenal-the first of whom wrote before the Christian era. The skill attained by the Assyrians in the manufacture and dyeing of silken, linen, and woollen stuffs, had reached such perfection, that their garments were still a proverb many centuries after the fall of the empire. There are, moreover, numerous passages in the Old Testament, which speak of linen cloths, men ephods, and curtains, and veils of fine linen, which show that the ancient Jews were also well acquainted with its manufacture.

It is difficult to fix the date of the first manufacture of sugar. It was, however, known to the Greeks and Romans, and Herodotus, writing 2300 years ago, tells us that the Zygantes, a people in Africa, made it in large quantities. Strabo also speaks of "India stone sweeter than figs and honey." And Dioscorides, in the first century, tells us that in India and Arabia, they manufacture a kind of concrete honey called sacharon; it is found in reeds, and resembles salt in solidity and friableness between the teeth. Pliny also speaks of it, and Æliar, in the second century, describes the process of manufacture from the juice of the cane.

The peculiar form in which white sugar is crystallized even at the present day, viz., the sugar-loaf or cone is derived from the Arabs, who used earthen moulds of that shape for this purpose many centuries ago; the practice has been transmitted to us through the Spanish and Por tuguese, who derived it from the Moors. In fact, the very name of sugar in English, sucre in French, and azucar in Spanish and Portuguese, is an evident imitation of the Arabic word for the same article-shuker-this was derived from the Sanscrit, sharkara, meaning sweet salt.

The manufacture of cotton was first commenced in Hindostan, from thence was carried by the Arabians: diffused over Africa and fixed in Europe; whence it was brought by an enterprising operative to the United States. And strange as it may seem it is to the Arabs, though half-naked, hard-riding demons, so often employed in stripping unfortunate christians to the skin, that chistendom is indebted for the comfort of a shirt. Such, however, is the fact. The Arabs conferred upon us that grateful and now ornamental garment. Herodotus also informs us that cloth made from

cotton was the common dress of the inhabitants of India, and this as I said before was 2,300 years ago.

The manufacture of woollens and satinets may easily be carried back to 1,500 years B. C., for we read in the Book of Leviticus of woollen garments as common, and also of cloths woven mingled of linen and wool.

Scale armor of steel inlayed with copper has been recently discovered by Layard amid the ruins of Nineveh; beads and ornaments of glass, agate, cornelian and amethyst; silver bracelets and bairpins of elegant construction; spoons, pottery and other household utensils, and bronze ornament, which seem to have been originally the feet of chairs, tables, and other furniture, long since fallen to dust, which Layard declares equal to the workmanship of Greece in execution. It is evident, therefore, that they not only possessed skilful mechanics in those days, but also the requisite knowledge to enable them to work in these various materials, and to produce a degree of finish equal to the finest of modern days; yet these relics cannot be less than 3,000 years old!

These few facts gathered promiscuously and presented in no regular order, have been hastily thrown together as they came to hand; many other and more striking instances might be found, serving as examples to show how many of the most useful and ornamental articles of the present day, which we are apt to consider of quite modern invention, were brought to a perfect state of developement many thousand years ago. Nor, while regarding the stupendous monuments of ancient glory, which after having outlived their written history, and the memory of the deeds they were intended to commemorate, still speak to our outward senses, like dim shadowy ghosts from the forgotten dead. Can we avoid the reflection that many wonderful and useful inventions must have flourished among such a nation, though time hath long ago swept to everlasting oblivion every trace by which they might be discerned.

A PENNY SAVED AND A PUNCH GOT.-Mr.

Punch presents his compliments to Mr. Planché,
and will trouble that gentleman to request Mre
Stirling to make a slight addition to an exceed
ingly proper observation she offers, as
66 Comedy,"
in the very pleasant piece, the Camp of the Olym
pic. Mrs. Stirling remarks, in her very happiest

stage manner,

"And who for wit in comedy would seek, When Punch Himself is but a groat a week?” To prevent unhappiness and misconception, would Mr. Planché add something of this kind? "Fourpence, I mean to country friends supplies him, The favoured Londoner for threepence buys hin.” With this addition the Camp will become a char ming little piece.

THE TYPE OF CONCEIT.-An author having his love-letters printed.

In olden times he was accounted a skillful per son who destroyed his victims by boquets of lovely and fragrant flowers; the art has not been lost,-nay, it is practised every day by the world.

THE BLANKSHIRE HOUNDS.

I HAD passed the College, and taken out my degree; I was M.R.C.S. and M.D. of Edin: My mother was delighted-my uncle was disgusted. My mother's ambition was satisfied, and she felt herself amply repaid for her long years of shabby stuff gowns and sugarless tea when my diplomas, framed and glazed, were hung up in her parlor; while my uncle, frowning indignantly, asked, "who would be fool enough to give a guinea to a whipper-snapper fellow, as pale as a ghost, as thin as a whipping-post, and without even whiskers ?" He was quite right. I invested the legacy of my aunt Podsleigh in genteel apartments and a brass plate in the principal street of Jennyton. I wore a white cravat, and walked about with a book seriously bound in my hand. A carriage I could not afford. It was before the days of broughams; but no one came with a fee, and the poor patients -chiefly old women who had been the round of all the medical staff in Jennyton-treated me with almost a patronising air.

Fortunately my uncle who had quarrelled with my mother, his sister, because she would make me a physician-was solicitor and agent to the Dowager Countess of Bullrush; and, about the time that my legacy was reduced to a very minute balance which I feared to draw out of the Old Jennyton Bank, the young Earl, who had been brought up on the coddling principle-two nurses and a governess until he was thirteen; then a private tutor, and two grooms, one to ride behind and the other beside him; three glasses of wine at dinner, and a select library, chosen by the bishop of the diocese, the popular Bishop Flam, celebrated for his melodious voice and accommodating opinions-I say the young Earl suddenly broke out of bounds, first accepted an invitation from the Bishop's wife's nephew, the Honorable Frank Fastman, without consulting the Countess; staid away a fortnight; returned driving a tandem and smoking a cigar; and then, after purchasing a stud of hunters from Mr. Thong, the celebrated dealer, on credit, accepted the mastership of the Blankshire Hounds, which had been offered by a gentleman he met at Mr. Fastman's table, on the strength of Lord Bullrush having an estate in that county, which neither he nor his father had ever seen.

The Dowager had hoped to lead her son through life in the same pleasant and easy way that she had led him through the castle gardens when he was in frock and trousers, rewarding him from time to time with a peach or a bunch of grapes. But when he took to horse-flesh she preached, raved, fell into hysterics, and finally sent for my uncle.

My uncle was not taken by surprise; but set out at once, and took me with him. We rode his two Norfolk cobs, presents from Lord Holkham. The family physician, Dr. Fleme, had been sent for; also Sir Albert Debonair, from London; but Dr. Fleme was attending the Duchess, and Sir Albert was at Brighton, waiting for a bow from royalty; so I felt the Countess's pulse; and, with much trepidation, made up, on my suggestion, a prescription consisting chiefly

of sugar, hot water, and old Cognac. I then retired.

He

My uncle listened to the Dowager's mingled fears for her son's soul and body; for the Countess fancied a fox hunt was next door to an hospital; not dreaming that the Earl and his tutor had been pretty regular attendants on the Jennythen gently insinuated that, as the young lord ton harriers for the previous three seasons. unfortunately took after his father instead of his mother, and was consequently obstinate, and would be of age in a year, and might then object to certain liberties that her ladyship had taken with the estates, perhaps it would be better to let him have his own way. He mentioned the case of young Lord Modbury, who married the dairym id to spite his father, because he would Eton who went to London and lost forty thounot let him go to Paris; and the Honorable Mr. sand pounds at the oyster club, because Lady Eton objected to his four-in-hand, with many other anecdotes of a like nature. Finally, he advised that the Black Oak Grange, the best house on the Blankshire estate, should be fitted up and filled with a carefully selected staff of servants, and a stud of first-rate hunters, and that her ladyship should withdraw all objections, on condition that his lordship took with him a resident medical attendant. To this conclusion, not without much sighing and sobbing, and pious ejaculations, her ladyship came at length; and this was the way in which I, Adam Mufleigh, who always had the strongest objection to anything beyond nine miles an hour, came to be the medical and daily companion of a fox hunting Earl. Ah, me! The thought of what I have had to do, in my time, even now makes me tremble all over with goose's flesh as I sit in my morocco armchair, and enjoy the fruits of early hardships upon pigskin.

The Dowager took a fancy from the moment she saw me trotting up the avenue-for, as she flatteringly observed, "He rides so badly, he is not likely to lead dear Reginald into mischief."

It was October when this occurred. Down we

went into Blankshire, and took possession of Black Oak Grange, a curious old-fashioned house, which was already scrubbed, warmed, and ventilated, with a corps of the ugliest maidens I ever beheld together. In this house I passed four seasons, and met with many adventures; of which one will be enough for the present.

The Blankshire hounds hunted over one of those old-fashioned sqnirearchial districts, where good fat land, rude cultivation, old families of moderately independent means, and the absence of mines and manufactories, as well as of roads leading to any important town, combined to nourish in great perfection all those John Bull prejudices which rail-roads and high-farming have done much to extinguish. Pig-tails, topboots and buck-skins, four-horse coaches, postillions and out riders, county assemblies, minuets and cotillions, had their last stronghold in Blankshire. The county families seldom travelled to London; even the county members had perpetual leave of absence. The peers who had estates in the county rarely visited them, and if they came for shooting, came as strangers. Manufacturers were looked on and talked of,

much as Southern planters talk of niggers, No those were queer times! Chiefly, the country professional man, except one favourite M. D., had people were puzzled how to treat me; but, as I ever been admitted to the Blankshire assemblies kept in the background, and secured the good held in the rooms of the chief inn-the Bullrush will of the steward and the stud groom, by a Arms--in a decayed cathedral town, where the little timely attention to their wives, and agree. squires had town houses, and spent a portion of able perscriptions for themselves, when they the year (including hard frosts) in a series of din-made too, free with Bullrush claret, which mixed ners and whist-parties with the rosy, port-loving prebends of the old school.

The Blankshire Hounds had been a subscription pack from time immemorial, and had grown imperceptibly from badger and hare-hounds, to fox-hounds. There was a club, and a club uniform, which it is not necessary to describe, although it might fill a few pages for some fashionable sporting writers-at any rate, the whole club and county believed this costume to be perfection, and the utmost possible contempt was felt and shown for any stranger who varied a hair's breadth or a shade from the cut of the clothes or the colour of the tops, of the Blankshire Club. It was the rule of the Blankshire Club that no one appearing in the field should be spoken to unless he was introduced. "Foreigners," that is, persons not belonging to the county were special objects of dislike; and, at varions times, the sons of rich merchants and manufacturers, who had been tempted to bring their studs over hundreds of miles of bad roads, by reports of the famous sport among the ox-feeding pastures of Blankshire, were signally routed, in spite of their first-rate hunters and Meltonian costume, by the combined contempt and studied insults of the old squires and sporting parsons. Gates shut in their faces, loud laughter at mishaps, frequent misdirections, and unmistakable signs that they were not wanted, generally caused a speedy retreat. In fact, as Squire Thicked observed in a loud whisper to parson Bowan, "They didn't want any interlopers, showing off their airs and their horses." And it is a curious fact, that these gentlemen of the old school, who could not be too civil to the friends of their own sect, were as proud of their systematic rudeness as if it had been both wise and witty.

with Blankshire ale rather badly, I had good rooms, good attendance, and the best of the quiet horses to ride. I was supposed to hold a sort of secret-service-post direct from the countess, and the squires were tolerably civil.

It was astonishing how Lord Bullrush, who had been brought up in a nursery almost all his life, bloomed and flowered into importance. In a month, when the dowager came down to visit him, she found that her influence had faded to a shadow; he came up to her, with his hands in his pockets, smoking a cigar. But to return to the Blankshire squires.

Lord Bullrush would shake hands, and would make friends with all who came out with the hounds; he broke through all the county etiquette; he greeted a hard riding young farmer quite as cordially as Squire Beechgrove or Squire Oldoak; he even asked Sheepskin the young lawyer to dinner, the day he beat all the field and jumped the Gorse Park palings.

One day-it was in December, after three weeks' hard frost-we met at the Three Ponds. When we came up, there was a strange, knowing groom leading two horses about, of a stamp we did not see every day-great well-bred weight carriers, quite fresh on their legs; one of them a black, with a side saddle. Whose could they be? It was not Miss Blorrington; we knew Miss Blorrington's old grey cob; it was not Mrs. Beechgrove she was there, staring with all her eyes. Some one had asked the groom, and he had answered in a sort of Yorkshire accent, "My maister's."

:

"And who is your master, my man," said my lord.

"There he is, a coming," said the man," and perhaps you'll ask him yoursen."

"Fellow," cried Squire Grabble, “do you know who are speaking to? That is the Master of the Hounds, Lord Bullrush."

"I don't care who the hang he be; my orders is to answer no questions and tell no lees."

But, the falling of war rents, and the change of time which brought the corn and cattle of other districts, better provided with roads, to compete with Blankshire; not to mention the inroads which a few generations of four-bottled men had (made on ancestral estates gradu- Up drove a Stanhope, drawn by a fast trotting ally diminished the income of the Blankshire bay; out of it got, first, a tall, broad-shouldered Foxhound Club. As it was impossible to admit young man, dressed in a costume that set the as subscribers any of the new men-sons of whole hunt, except Lord Bullrush, in a ferment. millers, agents and lawyers who had grown up in None of them had ever seen anything like it be a new generation—the suggestion of the Honor- fore; but my lord always liked something new, able Mr Fastman, when on his visit to his uncle and does now. A scarlet single breasted coat the Cannon of the Blankshire Cathedral, of invit- and cap-all the Blankshires wore hats; leathers ing young Lord Bullrush to take the mastership all the Blankshires wore brown cords; hunting of the hounds (then vacant by the death of jack-boots-and all the Blankshires wore mahogSquire Blorrington, of apoplexy, the day after any tops. Worse than all, the stranger wore the Annual Hunt dinner at the close of the sea- moustaches. With a grave bow to the master Bon) was entertained, grumbled at, and finally agreed on with the understanding that my lord was to pay half the expenses, and they were to

manage.

Behold us then installed in the Grange with everything new about us, except the black and white timber-laced house: everybody calling on my lord, and my lord calling on everybody. Oh,

and more ceremony to his companion, he handed out a pretty cherry-cheeked girl, in a black Spanish hat, with plump rosy lips, and nice teeth; a short saucy nose; and a remarkably neat flexible figure.

In an instant they were both mounted; and it did not look likely from their style and seat, that they were French-as Grabble had suggested,

with a contemptuous point at the black boots and moustaches.

that he was not to be noticed, or answered or encouraged, he never gave them a chance of being impertinent, never spoke, never seemed to see any one; rode away the moment it was decided that the hounds were to go home. Some of the younger members of the hunt, thawed by the bright eyes and dashing style of the lady B., attempted a few civilities; but with no sort of suc cess, although she succeeded in getting several into terrible croppers, by leading them over tremendous fences at the end of a hard run. Her favourite bay, thorough-bred, with her featherweight, was what she called him, Perfection.

The steady silence of the strangers had its effect. To my great amusement, after a certain

On that morning there was not much time for inquiries. The hounds found a fox five minutes after being thrown into cover, ran him a run of ten minutes back to cover, there changed him for another who put his head straight and gave as (that is to say, those who like riding over hedge, ditch, brook, rail, and gate-I don't) one of the quick things of the season. Here, perhaps, it may be expected that I shall relate how the two strangers took the lead, kept it, and pounded the whole field at some tremendous fence. But they did not do anything of the kind; it is true they did not follow my example, and keep with Farmer Greenleigh and Lord Bull-time it began to be rumoured that they were & rush's second horse man to the high road and the bridle roads; no, they kept tolerably straight, rode a fair second place out of the crowd, and made no display except once, when the old jealous brute, Grabble, let the wicket gate of a covert fly back as the lady was cantering up to it. She never slackened her pace; but with one touch and one word flew it, and the next moment dashed the mud of a heavy ploughed field into the face of Grabble's wheezy mare, with a smile. The kill was a pretty thing, on a steep grass hill side, in view-the strangers fairly up. After the whoo-whoop, they turned their horses' heads and rode off, without giving any one a chance of saying a word.

young couple of high rank living incognito. One day the news came that the gentleman was a French prince of the blood; then he was the grandson of a noble duke; then he was the nephew of an English north-country earl. At length it was settled that they were most distinguished personages, who chose to bear the simple name of Barnard. Toddle's wife went in her new carriage with her best harness to make a call, when she knew they were out hunting, but found no one to answer her questions except stupid Molly Coddlin from our Blankshire charity school, where the smallest quantity of instruction was doled out among large lots of girls in hideous uniforms. Molly knew nothing except that her missis and master were real quality, and that Reuben, the saucy groom at home, had strict orders to let no one in. Mrs. Doddle tried, and called when Mrs. Barnard was at home. Mrs. Doddle had loudly proclaimed, after seeing the mysterious lady at the cathedral in a Parisian

Their departure was the signal for a thousand questions. Who were they? What were they? Where did they come from? Their persons, their horses, their accoutrements, were severely criticised. Their appearance in the field was treated as impudence; the man was a strolling player, if not a Frenchman. Parson Doddle sug-bonnet, that she must be an actress. Mrs. Doddle's gested that he might be an emissary of the Pope; Lawyer Toddle suspected he was a Russian spy rather than otherwise. At length an appeal was made to Lord Bullrush, whom they despised for his youth, his half shyness and his ignorance of fox hunting, and whom they admired for his title and his estate. My Lord gave in against them. He thought "the stranger a neat style of man who rode well, and the girl was monstrous pretty." This changed the current of criticism. Then came the news from Toddle's articled clerk, Bob Sharply, that the strangers had taken the farm-house which formerly belonged to Farmer Cherry, and had six horses there; but only brought two men servants one of whom was a Jokel—and had hired a maid and two understrap-insult me?" pers in the village. They were man and wife, named Burden, or Barden, or Barnard, or some. thing beginning with a B.

cards were received, but "Master and missis were out, they told me to say," was the satisfactory answer. Squire Grabble, full of some private information, so far changed, that he rode up to the unknown horseman and "hoped he'd join a few friends to dinner that evening;" to which the stranger answered loudly, before three or four of Grabble's set, "I have not the honor of knowing you, sir; and you don't know me. I may be a bagman, or a play-actor, or even a newspaper writer, as you observed to my servant the other day; therefore, I beg to decline your invitation."

Grabble grew so blue that I began to feel for a lancet. He spluttered out, "Do you mean to

"Just as you please," said the stranger, laughing, and looking down on the little fuming man. So there the conversation ended.

At length I was sent on an embassy from Lord Bullrush, and got for answer, very civilly, that Mr. B. had come down for amusement and good sport, did not intend to go into society, much obliged, and all that.

The next hunting day-we went out three times a week-the mysterious B's were on the field. This time mounted on two greys, better bred, better broke, and handsomer than anything in Lord Bullrush's stud. Again they rode forward, again disappointed Grabble, and Doddle, and Toddle, by not getting into grief. Ours is a For the rest of the winter these mysterious B's fair country, with stiff hunting fences and some supplied our city with the staple of gossip. Offers water, but it seemed child's play to the lady; to buy their horses were declined with "not at and, as for the husband, he rode like one that had present." In the end, the conclusion come to, been crossing such a country all his life-quite was, that Mr. B. was some great personage in quiet, and as firm as a rock. The vexatious disguise. The majority inclined towards a Russian thing was, that when all the club had decided agent; though Doddle stuck up for the Pope and

VOL. IV.-Y