404 NOTES AND EVENTS OF THE MONTH. 



A FIVE-GUINEA CUSTOMER. A certain runaway couple were 

 recently married at Gretna Green, and the smith demanded five 

 guineas for his services. " How is this?" said the bridegroom, "the 

 gentleman you last married assured me that he only gave you a 

 guinea." " True," said the smith, " but he was an Irishman : I have 

 married him six times before ; he is a customer you I may never 

 see again.'' 



SWIMMING. Eight of the best swimmers of the Austrian garri- 

 son at Bregenz engaged for a wager to swim across Lake Con- 

 stance, from that town in the Tyrol to Lindau, a distance of six miles. 

 They started at ten o'clock, and at three minutes before three o'clock 

 a private soldier, named Tutaja, reached the bridge at Lindau. 

 In thirty-two minutes afterwards he was followed by Lieutenant Ce- 

 pharowitsch. The six others only went about half the distance, and 

 then were taken into the boats that attended them. The wind was 

 blowing from the west, and the temperature of the water was 17 de- 

 grees of Reaumur, or 70| of Fahrenheit. This is perhaps the greatest 

 distance ever traversed by swimming, in fresh water. The two men 

 who completed their task were perfectly blue when they landed ; 

 their pulse was scarce perceptible, and several hours elapsed before 

 their bodies resumed their natural heat. [Lord Byron's affair across 

 the Hellespont will be held as a trifling effort in comparison. ED.] 



A GENUINE GHOST STORY. The following is from the " Jour- 

 nal of Heart," by the late Mrs. Darner, edited by Lady Charlotte 

 Bury ; it is given as genuine : A Mr. Cox (commonly called 

 Jumper Cox) being at Lady Rother's, near Oxford, was desired by 

 her to pronounce a few Latin sentences, by way of persuading her 

 servants, who supposed the house to be haunted, that he was a con- 

 juror, and had banished the ghost to the Red Sea. " You must ex- 

 cuse me," said he, " for, in truth, I am not myself convinced of the 

 absurdity of such persuasions ; and my reason is, because I once fan- 

 cied that I saw my mother-in-law come to* my bedside and undraw 

 the curtains ; she then told me that my wife would die before the 

 end of the year. 'As for myself,' she added, 'you will never see 

 me again, for I was buried last night : I was not dead but all is 

 over with me now !' The next morning I hastened to Wallingford, 

 where my mother-in-law resided ; I found that she had been seized 

 with a contagious fever, had died, and had been buried immediately, 

 exactly on the night, and at the hour, which the ghost had mentioned. 

 I wished to have had the coffin opened ; but the clergyman repre- 

 senting that it could be of no service, and might create great discon- 

 tent among the populace, I desisted. But what surprised me much 

 was, that, though I mentioned the circumstance to no one but the 

 clergyman, whose interest it was to conceal it, several weeks after- 

 wards a young lady, in a distant part of the county, said to me. 

 ' Bless me, Mr. Cox, I had the strangest dream last night. I thought 

 your mother-in-law came to my bedside, and told me that she had 

 been buried alive at Wallingford.' " 



