300 



TABLE-TALI: AND VAHIETIES. 



all its faculties were appealed to 

 at once, and it sank for a while 

 exhausted, overwhelmed. (War- 

 ren's " Lily and the Bee.") 



KING JAMES I. IN LANCASHIRE. 



On the way from Preston his at- 

 tention was attracted by a huge 

 boulder stone which lay in the 

 roadside, and was still in existence 

 not a century ago. " O my saul 

 (cried he), that meikle stane would 

 build a braw chapping block for my 

 Lord Provost. Stop ; there be let- 

 ters thereon ; unto what purport ?" 

 Several voices recited the inscrip- 

 tion : 



" Turncme o'er and I'll tell thecplaino." 



"Then, turn it ower," said the 

 monarch ; and a long and laborious 

 toil brought to light the following 

 satisfactory intelligence : 



" Hot port-itch makes har.l cake soft, 

 So turne me o'er again." 



"My saul (said the king), ye shall 

 gang roun to your place again ; 

 these country gouks mauna ken the 

 riddle without the labour." (Notes 

 and Queries.) 



RELICS. 



In the grounds of Abbington 

 Abbey, Northamptonshire, stands 

 Garrick's mulberry-tree, with this 

 inscription upon copper attached to 

 one of its limbs : " This tree was 

 planted by David Garrick, Esq., at 

 the request of Anne Thursby, as a 

 growing testimony of their friend- 

 ship, 1778." 



Henry Kirke White's favourite 

 treo, whereon he had cut "H. K. W. 

 1805," stood on the sands a.t Whit- 

 ton, in Northumberland, till it was 

 cut down by the woodman's axe ; 

 but in veneration for the poet's me- 

 mory, the portion bearing his 

 initials was carefully preserved in 

 an elegant gilt frame. 



An English traveller, desirous of 



possessing a memorial of Madame 

 de Sevigne, purchased, for the sum 

 of 18,000 francs, the staircase of 

 her chateau at Provence. 



Sir Isaac Newton's solar dial, 

 which was cut in stone, and at- 

 tached to the manor-house at 

 Woolstrop, Lincolnshire, is now 

 placed in the Royal Society's collec- 

 tion. 



Some years ago, a curious arm- 

 chair, which had belonged to Gay, 

 the poet, was sold at public auction 

 at Barnstable, his native place. It 

 contained a drawer underneath the 

 seat, at the extremity of which was 

 a smaller drawer, connected with a 

 rod in front, by which it was drawn 

 out. 



Benjamin Franklin's " fine crab- 

 tree walking-stick, with a gold 

 head curiously wrought in the 

 form of a cap of liberty," is be- 

 queathed in a codicil to his will, 

 " to the friend of mankind, General 

 Washington ;" adding, that " if it 

 were a sceptre, he has merited it, 

 and would become it." 



Thrope's Catalogue of Auto- 

 graphs (1843) includes a letter 

 from a Miss Smith, of Arundale, 

 forwarding to the Earl of Buchan 

 "a chip, taken from the coilin of 

 the poet Burns, when his body was 

 removed from his first grave to the 

 mausoleum erected to his memory 

 in St. Michael's church-yard, Dum- 

 fries." 



LIBRARY OF THE BRITISH MUSEUM. 



The library of the British Mu- 

 seum ranks third amongst th& 

 national collections in Europe, and 

 is inferior to none in the curiosities 

 and rarities of literature. The fol- 

 lowing notes of a visit to the library 

 may not be unacceptable. The> 

 number of volumes it contains is 

 450,000 ; and one of the librarian? 

 assured us that they occupy fifteen 

 miles of book-shelves ! The position 

 of the British Museum Library 

 among the principal libraries of 



