1823.] Stephenstana, No. XVIII. 



have made with the forty-feet new 

 Speculum. Accordingly, being now 

 authorised, I can only say that this 

 good telescope has pointed out to me 

 a sixth satellite of Saturn. Its orbit 

 is within the other five ; and, if some 

 fine night your time will permit you 

 to step over, I shall be glad to let you 

 have a peep at it. With compliments 

 to Mrs. Lind, I remain. 

 Dear sir. 

 Your most obedient humble servant, 



Wm. Herschel. 

 Sunday Evening. 



LOKU LANSDOVVN AND HJS PATENT 

 COACH. 



A few years before the demise of the 

 Marquis of Lansdown, he had a law- 

 suit with a fashionable coach-maker, 

 respecting the price of a travelling 

 coach, which he directed to be exe- 

 cuted in the plainest style; notwith- 

 standing which order, the bill, when 

 presented, amounted to the extraordi- 

 nary demand of between four and five 

 hundred pounds. This immoderate 

 charge was consequently resisted, and 

 eventually went into Westminster- 

 hall: all the items were tenaciously 

 preserved in the toting up, even to the 

 hanging it on its own springs ; and, in 

 the innumerable catalogue of articles 

 annexed, there were specific charges 

 for patent inventions of every descrip- 

 tion, introduced in the work, to render 

 his lordship's journey as easy and 

 accommodating as suited a peer of the 

 realm. The advantage of all those 

 extra et cceteras were strongly insisted 

 on by the one party ; and their disad- 

 vantages as clearly made manifest on 

 the other side, liut, coming before 

 the decision of twelve honest citizens, 

 — all good men and true, — the chica- 

 fcery and eloquence of lawyers was 

 not to overbalance the unequivocal 

 and fair demand of a respectable 



2S7 



tradesman : the marquis was conse- 

 quently cast, and the lawyer's items, 

 in addition to the original bill, by no 

 means added to his lordship's repose 

 in his new travelling coach ; however, 

 to make the best of a bad bargain, he 

 proceeded on his journey to the prin- 

 cipality of Wales. He had not gone 

 above fifty miles from Hyde Park 

 corner, before a buckle, belonging to 

 one of the spring-braces, gave way. 

 Well, this was unlucky ; but his lord- 

 ship only received a slight contusion 

 on the head, in consequence of the 

 Mudden jolt of the coach against the 

 perch ; and, stuftping at a public- 



house only for half an Jiour or so, all 

 was set to rights by the proper ligature 

 of a sound piece of tar-rope ; but front 

 that moment there seemed an uneasy 

 motion in the travelling machine ra- 

 ther more undulatory than common, 

 till the party arrived at liirmingham, 

 when it was found, on due exami- 

 nation, that the pereli had received a 

 considerable injury, and had rather 

 the appearance of being jointed in the 

 middle. No time was to be lost : mis- 

 fortunes will iiappen. Application was 

 instantly made to one of the gentle- 

 men of the trade, who very sagaciously 

 shook his head, as not approving of 

 the job; and, after strict examination, 

 further injury having been sustained 

 by this misadventure to some of the 

 machinery, his lordship was finally in- 

 formed, that not a single man of the 

 trade would undertake the setting it to 

 rights, as the perch, and all the parts 

 adjacent, were patent inventions! His 

 lordship was therefore obliged to hiro 

 another carriage till he returned. 



POLLY PEACHUM. 



Tlie cause I was never acquainted 

 with, but I am informed that the 

 Duchess of Bolton, who originally 

 played the character of Polly Peacimm, 

 in the " Beggar's Opera," became after 

 her elevation so obnoxious to the lower 

 orders near where she resided, that 

 the populace were with ditficulty pre- 

 vented from dragging her out of her 

 coffin. 



FRENCH ENTHUSIASM. 



In March 1800, while Bonaparte 

 was conducting an army across the 

 Alps, by the pass of the Great St. Ber- 

 nard, General Bethencourt was dis- 

 patched, at the head of a thousand 

 men, to force a passage over the same 

 range of mountains, by the Simplon. 

 Avalanches of snow and rocks had 

 swept away a bridge that formed a 

 communication over a gulph of great 

 depth, and above sixty feet in width. 

 In this diiennna, a soldier undertook 

 and eflTccted an exploit equally difficult 

 and dangerous. Holes had been made 

 in the precipice, to introduce the 

 beams which sn|)ported tlio bridge ; 

 by placing his feet in these holes, and 

 catching hold of the rocky ])rojections 

 above them, he scaled the summit, 

 and, fixing a rope at the opposite side 

 of the precij)ice, at a proper height 

 above the holes, the general was the 

 first to follow him, hanging, as it were, 

 by his hands on the rope, and trying 

 to place his Icct in the holes. In this 



way, 



