date of which is probably rather early in the fourteenth century, was supported on each side by two circular columns of timber framed into it, and standing about

four feet within the walls."

It is more than probable, that in the late repairs, when the entire floor of Westminster Hall was dug up, that the foundations of the lateral arcades would have been discovered if such had ever existed; but, assuming the roof to have been sustained on columns of timber, similar to Nursted, the absence of the foundations is easily accounted for, and the idea of the subdivision of the Hall into three aisles may be still entertained.

The present example is not a solitary evidence of the ingenuity exerted by the architects of the ancient timber roofs to relieve the side walls from the weight and pressure of the covering. An ancient hall in Lambeth palace, known as the Guard Chamber, has a high-pitched roof, the entire weight of which is sustained on pillars and arches which are situated parallel to the side walls; so much so, that when the outer walls were taken down, during the rebuilding of the palace, under the superintendance of Mr. Blore, the roof remained for some time supported by those pillars and arches; in this case the lateral supporters were attached to the side walls, and did not in consequence form aisles within the building, but with this exception the structure, in common with Nursted, shewed an example of the practice of supporting a roof independent of the walls of the structure.

Another instance of the arrangement seen at Nursted, has been pointed out in an ancient hall at Balsall Temple, in Warwickshire; in which situation the framing of the roof is very similar to that of Nursted, being supported in the manner of the hall of that building, by insulated pillars within the struc

ture.

In the work of Mr. Twopeny before adverted to, two subjects are engraved, which originally belonged to one of the windows of Nursted Court; they are remarkable examples of a species of ornament in which the sculptor, by the means of mouldings alone, gave to a corbel the appearance, or rather the caricature, of a human face. The two specimens in question

"supported the weather moulding of a small window," probably one of the openings in the side walls. From the style of this ornament and the moulding attached to it, it may be questioned whether the work was not commenced by the first Bishop de Gravesend, and completed, with its roof, by his successor, as the ornament in question belongs rather to the century preceding that, in which the building has been supposed to have taken place.

Nursted Court is the principal dwelling in the small parish of the same name. The manorial residence, in common with all ancient houses of magnitude or importance, possessed its chapel, of which no remains exist at present. The parish church is situated about a quarter of a mile from the house, and is dedicated to St. Mildred. The advowson has always been appendant to the manor, and is now held with it by Capt. Edmeades. A church is mentioned in Domesday, but no part of the present structure is of a very early date. It consists of a nave and chancel, without any distinction at present, and a tower at the west end. It probably dates in the period when the manor was the property of the Gravesends. The interior has a plain horizontal ceiling, and possesses no monuments of any great antiquity. Near the east end are several mural tablets of the early part of the seventeenth century, commemorative of some members of the Fitzwilliam family; the late Earl, on the representation of Capt. Edmeades, very liberally gave unlimited authority to that gentleman to repair the monuments at his lordship's expense. E. I. C.

DEAR MR. URBAN, London, Ap.10. I THINK I may use this familiar address. It is more than thirty years since you first assured me my communications were most acceptable; but more than a quarter of a century has elapsed since the date of my last letter to Mr. Urban. I've wandered many a weary foot since "auld lang syne;" yet in all countries, and under all circumstances, Natural History (the subject of our early correspondence) has never ceased to occupy a large share of my attention; and I have filled many a page with note and anecdote,

which I shall try, if time and leisure admit, to put into " ship-shape," as the sailors say, or "Bristol fashion," and give them to the world, like my friend Edward Jesse, as GLEANINGS, "Foreign" and "Domestic "-Hem mihi! When shall I acquire my friend's tact and happy manner of detailing an anecdote? Alas, never. And I sometimes think I had better give him all my budget, as I have already given him a portion of it, and let him tell the stories in his own way, beginning, as he generally does, with a friend writes me."

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I have been induced to take up the pen at this moment in consequence of the letter of J. M. in your February number, addressed to Mr. Jesse on the Migration of Birds. I have been residing in South America for some time past, and at no very great distance from the Equator. I have kept a journal of all that I remarked in the animal and vegetable world, that seemed either interesting in itself or calculated to instruct us in the ways of God and man, or to shew his mercy and his goodness to all created things. I have various notes on the appearance of the Swallow in those regions. In the first weeks of November I find I have noticed their appearance in considerable numbers, apparently weary and wayworn. They generally rested through the greater part of the day on the branches of the large silk cotton trees. Towards evening they would hunt lazily for flies, but they evidently were not stationary in that district, which was on the sea coast. On the 20th January, 1835, I observed, towards the evening, that an immense number had congregated, with the same lively whirl or noise that I have often witnessed on the banks of the Thames in an autumnal evening. They were darting along the surface of a large canal, and resting amongst the brush wood that grew on its banks, just as they do when they are about to emigrate from our shores. They continued their gyrations as long as I could see them, but next morning, and for many days afterwards, not a swallow was to be seen. You may observe swallows occasionally all the year round within the Tropics, but seldom more than three or four at a time, and they never build a nest. The flock I watch

ed on the evening of the 20th of January, consisted of many thousands, all strong and vigorous. Had those noticed in the beginning of November arrived from Europe? Were the thousands congregated on the 20th of January preparing to return thither? These are queries for reflection.

With regard to the P.S. to J. M.'s letter, and the extract from Mr. Lewes's Journal in the West Indies, I have to observe, that the Hawk of Jamaica is not the only bird "that never loses an opportunity of being rude." But as God has wisely ordained that Nature shall not deviate from her established path, and that her limits are as fixed as are the bounds of the sea, it is an established fact that, whether rude or soft the embrace, neither birds nor beasts will procreate if they are of different kinds; the seminal fluid, instead of acting as a vivifying principle, becomes a deadly poison, and being quickly absorbed into the system, in no long times kills the female. In the country the carion crow frequently insults a timid solitary hen, but, like the turkey in Jamaica, she always dies. I think I have proof that unnatural connections in animals have led to the same result. The species may be varied ad infinitum, but the genus never can change; and death is the penalty which every female will pay for any deviation (forced or otherwise) from the established order of Nature.*

Adieu, dear Mr. Urban, no more at this present from one of your oldest correspondents, A. M'THOMAS,

P.S. When a cock pheasant or partridge falls in love with the common hen, the lady's habits become changed; she selects some secret corner in the open field to lay her eggs, or some well-concealed bed of nettles or brush wood.

Can any of your readers explain why, or are many of them aware that, the position of the air bubble within the shell of the egg, will infallibly indicate the sex of the chick. I will engage to select a hundred eggs and place them under different hens, yet every one will produce a cock bird. And I

*Yet the cow breeds with the horse and the ass. Is not that fact against the writer's position? The newt and toad breed, but not the toad and frog.-ED.

IN Lord Wharncliffe's recent edition of the Letters and Works of Lady Wortley Montague (vol. 1. p. 53.), an imputation is apparently cast on the veracity and good-faith of Dr. Johnson, which a more attentive consideration of the passage in Boswell's biography, to which reference is made, would have proved to his Lordship was wholly destitute of foundation. Lord Wharncliffe proposes your Journal as the field of controversy likely to arise on the subject: and a more appropriate one could not be chosen on a question involving the character of one of its earliest and most celebrated contributors.

which of these two conscientious people (Mrs. Astell and Dr. Johnson) could be guilty of purloining their neighbour's goods, and passing them off for their own?" The noble Baron then proceeds to show that, from a comparison of dates, Johnson could hardly have been the author; and adds, "that the pro and con of the affair might find the Gentleman's Magazine in matter of controversy for a twelvemonth."

But, as far as Johnson is concerned, there can be no ground for controversy; for he never claimed the composition and, therefore, was no purloiner of his neighbour's goods. It was attributed to him by his biographer on the authority of Mr. Hector (Mr. Croker's edition of Boswell's GENT. MAG. VOL. VII.

Johnson, vol 1. p. 134, 8vo.), but it never appeared in any collection of his poetry, nor was asserted by him to be his own; and, surely, the ascription of it to him by another cannot fairly subject him to the censure of plagiarism. It first appeared in print in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1743, and, subsequently, in a miscellaneous volume published in 1796, by Mrs. Williams, the blind lady, in which were inserted some pieces of Johnson and other authors; but, in alluding to them (Boswell, vol. 11, p. 25,), it is marked with an asterisk (*), the sign denoting the supposition, not the acknowledgment, of its authorship. The comparison of dates, on which Lord Wharncliffe relies, does not, however, warrant his conclusion; for in 1730, Johnson was twenty-one, and in 1732, when Mrs. Astell died, he was twentythree years old-an age by no means premature for such a poetical effort, beautiful as it is, and certainly much above the apparent capacity of the lady. In Johnson's recitation, he, as usual, embellished it, as may be seen by comparing Boswell's copy with that of Lady Mary's Album; for, what he expressed of Goldsmith, was peculiarly applicable to himself" nihil quod tetigit non ornavit.”

In turning over the pages of Boswell on this occasion, an error struck me, uncorrected by Mr. Croker, and, as far as I know, unnoticed by any other annotator of the biographer. Adverting to Johnson's indignant rejection of a pair of shoes placed at his door, when at Oxford, by some charitable person who had perceived his want of them, Mr. Boswell observes (vol. I. p. 46.), "We are told by Tursellinus in his Life of St. Ignatius Loyola, that this intrepid founder of the order of Jesuits, when he arrived at Goa, after having made a severe pilgimage through the eastern deserts, persisted in wearing his miserable shattered shoes; and when new ones were offered him, rejected them as an unsuitable indulgence." But the fact is, the founder of the Jesuits never was at Goa, nor in the East beyond Jerusalem. It was his disciple St. Francis Xavier, distinguished as the Apostle of the Indies, of whom the anecdote is related by Tursellinus in his Life of that missionary, of which the first, and 3 B

best edition appeared ot Rome (1546, 4to,). The book is remarkable for its latinity, and was the groundwork of a subsequent biography by Bouhours, translated by Dryden in 1688 (See Scott's Life of Dryden, section vi.), as well as of others, enumerated by Dr. Alban Butler (Lives of Saints, December 3.). Amongst his authorities, Dr. Butler quoted also Ferdinand Mendez Pinto, of veracious memory, but whose testimony, usually ranked with that of Sir John Mandeville, or Munchausen, may, on this occasion, be entitled to more credit; for he accompanied Xavier to Japan. In relation to two such eminent personages as Loyola and Xavier, the comparison drawn by the great Condé may not be misplaced :—

Saint Ignace, c'est César, qui ne fait jamais rien que pour de bonnes raisons. Saint Xavier, c'est Alexandre, que son courage emporte quelquefois ;" and Condé, educated at the Jesuits' college in Paris, indiscriminately with the sons of ordinary citizens, was not only a great captain, but an accomplished man. See " Manière de bien penser dans les ouvrages d'Esprit;" by Bouhour, p. 118, ed. 1692 :-a work recommended by Lord Chesterfield (Letter of 8th February 1750), to his son, and which induced Dryden "to look on the author as the most penetrating of French critics." Yours, &c.

J. R.

Different Styles of European and
Asiatic Monarchs.

WHEN the Imaum of Muscat sent last year four beautiful Arabian horses and mares to England, our King William the Fourth, thanking him through the Foreign Secretary, told him "that the horses were doing well at the studhouse at Hampton Court, and that his Arab grooms would not stay with them, because it rained." But when George the Fourth presented his highness MahaRaja Runjeet Sing, Chief of the Sieks and Lord of Cashmere, with four fine dray-horses, compare the dignified message which that illustrious sovereign returned, with the plain matter-of-fact statement of the English court, and recognize the ancient civilization of Asia:

Jee (i. e. God), there are in my stables valuable and high-bred horses, from the different districts of Hindostan, from Turkistan, and Persia: but none of them will bear comparison with those presented to me by the King, through your Excellency. For these animals, in beauty, stature, and disposition, surpass the horses of every city and every country in the world. On beholding their shoes, the new moon turned pale with envy, and nearly disappeared from the sky. Such horses the eye of the sun has never before beheld in his course through the universe.

Unable to bestow on them in writing the praises that they merit, I am compelled to throw the reins on the neck of the steed of description, and relinquish the pursuit."

Postscript. Being on the subject of Asiatic animals, we shall ask any of our readers who are naturalists, like Mr. Jesse, what is the animal deIt inhabits the counscribed below?

try of the Upper Oxus :

"I heard (says one of our late intelligent travellers), of an animal called 'Rass' by the Kirgizzes, and Kooshgar' by the natives of the Low Countries, which is It is described as peculiar to Pamere. larger than a cow, and less than an horse, of a white colour, with pendent hair under its chin, and crowned with horns of huge dimensions. These are described to be so large that no one man can lift a pair of them; and when left on the ground, the small foxes of the country bring forth their The flesh of the young inside of them. Rass is much prized by the Kirgizzes, who hunt and shoot it with arrows. This animal is said to delight in the coldest climate, and would appear to be, from its beard, of the goat species, or perhaps the Bison; a common-sized 'Rass' will require two horses to bear its flesh from the field."

It is not a goat, evidently, from its size; and no animal like the Bison is known in Asia. It is more probably of the ox-species, like those of Thibet. J. M.