528 Windlass Hall. [MAY, 



most of the other links of which had been found, but which must 

 have ever remained imperfect without this. It would have been a 

 wonder to all ages, had the wisdom, the acute and logical intellects 

 of antiquity, been found not to have conceived the idea of a mixed 

 form of government; and the discovery that there was a theory 

 afloat among them, of which it was supposed they had no notion, is an 

 addition to our knowledge of intellectual history, and of the history of 

 politics and philosophy, of the highest value and importance. With 

 regard to the practical utility of this remarkable work, we have hap- 

 pily long proved the truth of its theoretical statements; and if the 

 spirits of the great and wise of other times are acquainted with what 

 is passing on the earth, Cicero must experience the same delight in 

 contemplating the English constitution, (notwithstanding the corrup- 

 tions which the whole mind of the nation is now employed in clearing 

 away) as Newton in seeing his theories established from year to year 

 in greater strength by the regularity of the planetary system, and 

 the fulfilment of the laws of light and gravitation. 



A deep and painful feeling of solicitude, however, must possess the 

 mind of every Englishman ; and the calmest and least excited, willingly 

 yielding to the influence of Cicero's eloquence, will await with impa- 

 tience the period, when this constitution shall no longer be in danger 

 of degenerating into an oligarchy, and no longer retain the traces 

 of manifest corruption. The remaining portion of the recovered work 

 will be discussed in another paper. 



W. S. 



WINDLASS HALL. 



WINDLASS HALL would be as pleasant a house as any in Kent, but for 

 the singular way in which it pleased nature to model the cranium of its 

 worthy proprietor, my excellent but eccentric old friend, Captain Wheeler, 

 late of the Royal Engineers. His organ of constructiveness is perhaps 

 the largest that any human skull ever exhibited : indeed, it is quite a 

 phrenological " lusus natures," and more than one disciple of the Spurz- 

 heim philosophy on the Continent has visited England for the sole pur- 

 pose of observing and studying it. In consequence of this prodigious 

 development, (for such it truly is,) every part of the establishment at 

 Windlass Hall would furnish ample materials for a course of lectures on 

 the science of mechanics. In fact, I was for a considerable time undeter- 

 mined whether I should offer the following account to the " Monthly Ma- 

 gazine," or reserve it for a memoir in the " Philosophical Transactions." 



To begin with what are called, by a gross misnomer, the pleasure- 

 grounds, it is only just to acknowledge that they are laid out with great 

 taste j the park is a noble one, and no expense has been spared upon the 

 gardens, shrubberies, and orchards. Unhappily, however, the engineer 

 has been employed fully as much as the landscape gardener : every part 

 of the demesne is so full of gins, snares, man-traps, and every possible 

 contrivance for seizing and detaining your person, that, no matter how 

 warily you pick your steps, it is next to a miracle if you do not every five 

 minutes receive some sensible proof of the Captain's skill in practical 

 mechanics. You cannot step into a parterre without imminent danger of 

 falling into a pit ; if you walk through a meadow, and stoop to gather a 



