BY A NAVAL OFFICER.

No danger the heart of a seaman appals,
To fight or to fall he is ready,

The safeguard of Britain is her wooden walls,
While the helmsman cries, Steady, boys,
steady.

See Britannia now moves, a gallant first-rate,
With transport the Blue-jackets hail ber;
'Tis William's right hand holds the helm of the
state,

For our King is a true British sailor.
The wild waves around us may furiously
whistle,

And tempests the ocean deform.
But united, the Red Rose, the Shamrock, and

Thistle,

With our King we will weather the storm. Hard up with the helm! hoist! hoist! how she cracks,

Magna Charta in need will avail her,
And prove she sails better whenever she tacks,
For her pilot's a true British sailor.
Co-equal with red is the gallant true blue,
And nought can its glories o'erwhelm,
Whilst Freeman and Sidney direct a bold crew,
And William presides at the helm.

Then fill up a bumber-Britannia appears,

New rigged, and with joy we all hail her; Here's a health to King William, with three

times three cheer,

And long life to the first British sailor.
British Traveller.

REFLECTIONS ON PINCUSHIONS
AND OTHER CUSHIONS.
For the Olio.

post was, however, otherwise disposed OUR KING A TRUE BRITISH SAILOR. of. The first score of the opera, La Clemenza di Tito, ever known in this country, was obtained from the library at Carlton-house, and, as a signal favour from the prince to Mrs. Billington, was lent by him for her benefit. How worthy that extraordinary woman was of the distinction, she soon displayed in presence of the admiring orchestra and vocal corps of the Opera House, by sitting down to the score, playing the whole opera through, and singing the part of Vitellia at sight! The Prince once received a letter by the two-penny post, which he is said to have kept as a curiosity. It was sent by Griesbach, the German oboe-player, with a simplicity characteristic of the man, to request payment for attendance at some private concerts. The original mode of application caused much diversion to the party addressed, and procured the money instantly. Church music his late Majesty did not encourage so much as might have been beneficial to it. If Handel had, in the preceding reign, found favour to the exclusion of other masters, and consequently to the narrowing of the public taste, in the succeeding one fashion hardly gave him a chance. Under the withering influence of neglect in the higher quarters, and suffering, too, from the introduction of the modern sacred compositions of the Continent, seductive through the effects of light and shade, and the rich and varied employment of instruments, Handel was fast sinking into neglect. The enthusiasm which Germany and France now manifest for the works of this author, the public admiration which Beethoven expressed of him, and the lately published testimonies of Haydn and Mozart, have had their effect upon this country, and the ancient taste is reviving. The latest musical hobby of the deceased Monarch was his private band of wind instruments. This was unequalled in Europe; the performers were picked with the greatest care by Kramer, the master; their allowance was liberal, and their united practice diligent and punctual. The person selected to preside in this department was one who not only knows the full scope and capacity of every instrument, but is an able harmonist, and competent to adapt a composition in its most effective inanner. Not knowing whether the band exists or not under William IV., we can scarcely avoid some confusion of tenses in writing about it.

The Atlas.

Green and blue,
Yellow and red, of tapestry richly wrought,
And woven close, or needle work sublime.

PINCUSHIONS have changed with the taste and fashion of the times, almost as much as buttons. Their varieties of shape, pattern and materials are innumerable. Those of Tunbridge and ivory manufacture are etched, or painted, with views of suburban interest, and describe statistic and ingenious discoveries, as they also answer the use for which they are made. Prior to the improvements in pins, which are patented and wrought to exquisite perfection, they were so large, whether of gold, silver or brass, that it was necessary for their better preservation to keep them in cushions. These cushions were of the most costly description. Ladies spent half their time in giving them finish suitable for presents. They were adorned with emblems, signifying the desires of the donors. The competition between young ladies gave rise to rivalry.

Some of them attained to a curious perfection in the art, considered in various periods of history as essential as the knowledge which the Roman ladies possessed in practically exhibiting the moral of the Weird Sisters, or of English housewives who could spin the flax, and make it into a wearable

form and duration. Velvet cushions were made of black when intended for the pulpit to give more impressive ideas of death.* The nations all over the world have varied their ornaments and colours of cushions agreeably with their notions of solemnity and gaiety; and also, have adapted them to the charge which was imposed on them,sometimes a mass of gold, or a writing of sacred and definite importance. The churches in Asia, and those in Europe, have attached an awe to the cushion when connected with divine unction.

The author of Hudibras ridicules the thumping of a pulpit cushion, when he

says

"The pulpit drum ecclesiastic Was beat with fist, instead of a stick.' And Cowper was not less severe :— In the exterior form

And mode of its conveyance by such tricks, As move derision; or by foppish airs And histrionic mumm'ry that let down The pulpit to the level of the stage.' In all processions-the courts of eastern ease, and places of relief, cushions have retained their splendour. So long as luxury reigns and infirmity exists, they will never be out of use. But pincushions are valued more as they are formed in the spirit of superstition. Those particularly we mean which are intended to be placed in the chambers of females approaching their confinement. Witchcraft, the essence of demonology, was, perhaps, the reason so much care was taken in fixing the pins into the cushions that awaited the issue of the infant's birth. As bells were rung in the air to drive evil spirits out of the course in which departed souls were taking flight, so pins were, and are to this day, placed in the cushions with a view of counteracting demoniacal influence. A near female relation, or valued friend, is employed to prick the cushion. Formerly, for every pang the patient sufferer felt, a pin was taken out of the cushion by the female attendant, till the scene of her acute pain subsided. (This custom is more honoured by the omission than the observance.) Then she replaced the pins with the same exactness as first placed, and the charm remained. A verse suitable to the occasion, with sprigs and peace and innocent decorations, obtained the fullest faith and the best esteem. We give a specimen of this kind of composition, in pins, now

The Rev. Mr. Cunningham, we think, wrote a book called the Velvet Cushion, which obtained popularity for the satire it disseminated.

THE knight of Hansacre had been conveyed to his mansion, senseless from the severe wound he had received in the commencement of the affray at the Briggmuln. On the day that Margaret

of Malvesyn made a confidante of the Prioress of Blythburg, Sir William was so much recovered as to quit his bedchamber for the adjoining cabinet,-a beautiful room, with richly carved and gilded pannels of limewood, huge beams crossing each other at stated squares, and bourgeoning with heraldic colours, formed the ceiling, and a single large window, projecting in a deep bay, not only had its lozenge panes gorgeously diversified with mottoes, emblems, and armorial pictures, but also admitted through an ample casement the soft rich verdure, the multitudinous mansions and villages, bridges, meadows, and woods of the vale of Trent.

The fever and temporary delirium ensuing from the anguish of his wound, together with the irritation of his mind on the alarming capture of his darling son, had left him in a state of great exhaustion, and, with the exception of the strenuous measures taken by his kinsmen to fortify his already strong mansion, as little seemed to have resulted in Hansacredom from the late affray, as in the domains of Malvesyn. Sir William was sitting in the wide and deep oriel of the pleasant upper chamber we have mentioned; his eye was fixed on the bright expanse of blue noontide sky, rolling river, and green meads, amidst which, proudly conspicuous, rose the red buildings of that rival mansion, where his only child was confined. His lady stood a little behind him, one arm softly pillowing his wounded shoulder, and the other falling gracefully over the carved and spiry back of the massy chair, while her eye, glazed with brimming tears, pursued the same object as her lord's. A superb chess-board of oak, heavily carved and gilded, inlaid with squares of jasper and ivory, the men being of crystal

and scarlet porcelain, (a newly imported Indian luxury,) stood before them, and a large golden flaggon, embossed on its swelling sides with the labours of Hercules, and its lid surmounted by the glittering tree and truculent dragon of the Hesperides, held (all untasted) the rich posset for the invalid. The midsummer sun flooded with soft splendour this beautiful apartment, its rays reaching even the ponderously sculptured bed-posts and thick velvet draperies of the bed-room within, while the soft air wafting scents from the delightful groves and gardens below, swayed daintily the grizzled curls on the knight's pale cheek, puffed out his lady's embroidered wimple, and undulated the thick red tapestry of the inner room, impictured with the story of Danae's

Tower.

Illio et Tyrium quæ Purpuræ sensit alienum,
Texitur et tenues parvi discriminis umbre;
Qualis ab imbre solet percussus solibus arcas,
Inficere ingenti longum curvamine cœlum;
In quo diversi niteant quam mille colores,
Transitus ipse tamen spectantia lumina fallit,
Usque adeo quod tangit idem est! tamen ulti-
ma distant.

Illio et lentum filis immittitur aurum,
Et vetus in tela deducitur argumentum.

PUB. OVI. NAS. MET. Lib. 6. v. 61.

As the knight and his lady still gazed over the Trent meadows, and the sunlaved turret of their long buttressed bridge, the colour suddenly mantled and fled on the cheek and brow of Sir William; he felt that the dame was trembling behind him, and heard her thickened breath, to which his own violent heart-beating responded; neither spoke, however, till a figure whose apparel, glistening in the sun, bespoke some one of distinction, having crossed the bridge, was now seen ascending the steep path that led through the Hansacredom to the embattled portals of the hall.

Sir William, looking over his shoulder to his wife, who stood with clasped hands, and features deathly pale, pronounced with suppressed emotion,

"A herald from Malvesyn !" "Tidings of our William!" answered the dame," the saints grant they be for good!"

"Add or give us vengeance if they be evil!" answered her lord, "and I will say Amen to thy prayer!"

"Alas, mine husband, I cannot breathe that word, too redly written in blood already; let us pray, rather, that William's life may not have swelled the list of those who have changed the banks of our beautiful river from a place of gardens and groves to a feudal Aceldama !"

De Hansacre answered not, but lifting the pondrous flaggon, quaffed deeply, as the sounding horn, the fall of the drawbridge, the grating of the raised portcullis, and the trampling in the court, announced the admission of the emissary. The knight was soon formally apprized of the herald's arrival ; and while, as a matter of course, refreshments were placed before him, Sir William, throwing off the attire of an invalid, descended into the hall in his robes of ceremony-a low broad cap of scarlet velvet, with a large cluster of pearls in front, and showing its ermine lining here and there; a mantle of the same colour, with what is termed the pudding sleeve, thickly embroidered with his family arms, and lined with rich ermine; this outer robe stretched over his shoulders in a wide and graceful standing collar, while his doublet, cut close so as to show his throat, was of cloth of gold, clasped by a cincture of magnificent jewels; it was, moreover, profusely pinked to show the fineness and whiteness of his shirt; his hose were one side scarlet, the other ermine, so closely fitted as to show every sinew and vein of his muscular limbs; while his shoes, richly embroidered, required from their preposterous length, the The lady of usual gilded chain, &c. Hansacre, at her husband's command, also made her appearance in her habit of state, whose enormous horn headdress and huge train struck even the hostile emissary himself with temporary respect; four maidens followed two by two their mistress into the hall, which was strewn with beautiful fresh rushes of great size, and the glossiest

verdure.

The knight, attended by his Damoiseau, Thomas Agarde, of Hermitage, having taken his state in a huge chair on the dais; his lady, on his sign, occupied a similar throne, one great canopy of silver and silken tapestry overhanging both. The herald of Malvesyn was then ushered with great This personceremony before them.

age was dressed according to the fashion of the time, in an emblazoned coif, a red mantle that reached to his feet, with long sleeves; over this mantle glistened his tabard, two portions of which fell over his shoulders, like two great wings, while two smaller skirts hung upon his breast and back, the whole being profusely embroidered with the various blazons of his master's house.

In spite of Sir William's admonition