1824.] r 249 ] 



VARIETIES, LITERARY AND MISCELLANEOUS; 



Including Notices of VVorlis in Hand, Domestic and Foreign. 



THE presses of Loiulon were never 

 more active than (iuiing tlie pre- 

 sent winter. Parlour-window reading 

 has appeared in abundance ; and every 

 Saturday now produces its fil'ty or sixty 

 tsvo-penny adventures, many of them 

 lii?lily attractive, at least in wood cuts. 

 Tbere is, however, a deficiency in the 

 tsolid departments of literature, and not 

 more than twenty works have appeared 

 in the season worthy of a settled station 

 in a library. Our monthly lists are the 

 best general guide in this respect. The 

 most respectable enterprises of the sea- 

 son have been the commencement of a 

 translation of Cuvier's "Natural His- 

 tory," and the publication of Shaw's 

 *' Nature Displayed," in six volumes ; 

 and this latter work, at least, will mark 

 the season in which it appeared. In the 

 Philosophy of Literature, we may also 

 congratulate the public on the appear- 

 ance of Mr. Landor's " Imaginary 

 Conversations ;" in Topography, we 

 may quote Mr. Dyer's long-promised 

 *' History of Cambridge ;" and, in His- 

 tory, Mr. Brlsham's " Last Years of 

 George III." 



Wesfminstcr-hridgc is undergoing the 

 M'Adam process ; and the wretched 

 road from Hyde Park Corner, by the 

 same means, has been rendered the 

 most j)erfect round London. Otiicr 

 roads and great thoroughfares arc also 

 preparing for this great reformation. 



In connexion with road-miiking, we 

 may mention, as important information 

 to clay districts, that a plan is adopted 

 near London of btirning clay in the mass 

 for roads and foot-paths. A bottom is 

 formed of shavings and faggots, with 

 side-flues; and over this, clay is distri- 

 buted in layers a foot thick, on «hich 

 small coal is scattered. Fire is then 

 applied to the flues, and in a few days 

 the whole mass is kindled, and several 

 load.s of dry reddish earth produced, 

 adapted for the surface of paths and 

 M'Adamised roads. 



Bcsiilcs these improvements, the 

 foundations of the fiew London-bridge 

 have been driven ; and a bill has been 

 hroiight into i'arliament to remove the 

 gros« luiisance of Pleel-market, with an 

 ulterior view to a continuation of that 

 line from Bhiokfriars'-bridgc to the 

 North road. 



It is intenOed to apply to Parliament 

 3 



for a bill to erect a patent wrought-iron 

 bar Bridge of Suspension over the 

 Thames for carriages, from below tiie 

 Tower of London on the Middlesex side 

 to the opposite shore ; such bridge to be 

 of sufficient height to admit ships to 

 pass under it at all times. 



Mr. Bkunel has issued proposals for 

 raising 160,000/. for opening a roadway 

 under the Thames, from near the cast 

 end of the London Docks to the parish 

 of Rotherhithe. 



Several Pictorial Exhibitions now 

 ornament the metropolis worthy of the 

 attention of strangers. The British 

 Gallery exposes some fine pictures by 

 British artists; and, the subjects being 

 chiefly in landscape and history, the 

 collection is as interesting as any afiford- 

 ed by the Royal Academy itself. The 

 Diorama in the Ilegcnt's Park conti- 

 nues too, most deservedly, to attract 

 large companies: its present subjects 

 arc Canterbury Cathedral and a Swiss 

 mountain scene, neither of which is it 

 necessary to visit after viewing such 

 genuine fac-similes of the originals;— 

 the Diorama is, in truth, the last great 

 application of art, and ranks with the 

 Panorama for justness of effect. The 

 Cosmorama is another pleasing exhibi- 

 tion, which draws crowds of visitors, ' 

 and tends to enlarge the minds of the 

 untravelled public ; while the Pano- 

 rama in the Strand brings before the 

 spectator exact representations of the 

 wonderful curiosities exposed to modern 

 eyes by uncovering the buried city of 

 Pompeii. Miss LiN wood's Exhibition 

 continues a permanent wonder, vvhicli 

 we have often noticed as honourable at 

 once to female talents and ingenuity, 

 and to the nation, and it still draws all 

 strangers to Leicester-square. 



Mr. Perkins has not yet finished his 

 steam-engine, but he has accidcnIaKy 

 discovered, that the force of the steam, 

 as it escapes from his generator, is 

 greater than the explosion of gunpowder. 

 Ho has therefore applied it to the dis- 

 charge of bullets from gun-barrels, and has 

 found that he thus can discharge bullets 

 as fast as they can be dropt into the line 

 of force ; and, by using more than one 

 barrel, his generator has discharged 30() 

 bullets |)Cr mimite. This apijcarsto be 

 a iliscovcry pregnant with important 

 couscqucnccs. 



Ml. 



