thither I resorted early every morniog, after visiting the Cathedral, 

 for the sake of a, glass of new milk, and a lesson in Spanish from 

 her two little daughters aged respectively nine and ten, Incar- 

 naciou (the last o pronounced th) and Salud. Commend me to two 

 chattering little girls, when their shyness has once worn off, as the 

 best teachers of a new language. One glorious morning I was 

 sitting on the edge of the aforesaid tank, inhaling the delicious 

 perfume of the orange blossoms, when a Frog struck up his 

 "Brekekekex, Coax Coax" from the still water, and at the same time 

 the air was resonant with the sweet song of the Nightingale. I 

 pride myself on knowing somewhat of the languages of Birds, 

 Beasts, and (Fishes ? No ! they are mutum pecus, but let us say) Bull 

 Frogs so I Listened attentively, and found the Nightingale and Bull 

 Frog, were each of them serenading his own wife, arboreal, and 

 aquatic. Each wife thought her husband the very best singer in 

 the world : that not a note of his song could be altered for the 

 better ; and both Nightingale and Bull Frog thought the other singer 

 a bore. I noted down the whole of this musical contest at the time. 

 It is quite in the way of one of Virgil's Amoeboean Bucolics. Not 

 Corydon and Thyrsis, but Batrachos and Philomela were contending 

 for the prize. It is too long to insert here, but may be had of my pub- 

 lishers, under the title of " Bull Frog and Nightingale ;" an Apologue, 

 price 6d. But the sum of the whole matter is this : I do not 

 believe, "pace Darwinii nostri dioatur," that natural selection, and 

 conjugal preference has had the effect of altering or improving the 

 Nightingale's song in the last two thousand years. It could not be 

 louder or better, and I trust may last my time unchanged, whilst on 

 the evidence of Aristophanes' chorus we know that Bull Frogs, then, 

 as now, sang "Brekekekex, Coax, Coax,'' and that song only. 



The Honey Pot. — Fage 47-52. — This Fytte, comical as it is in itself, is 

 particularly valuable as instructing the untravelled Britisher in the 

 peculiarities of a German bedstead ; far too short for all who have 

 not by some Proorustoean process been reduced to the normal height 

 of iive feet, no inches ! the upper sheet sown to the coverlid, 

 with no possibility of tucking it in, and liable to fall off the sleeper 

 altogether. No blankets, but a mountain of feather-bed piled above, 

 which either stifles you in summer, or rolling off, leaves you to 

 freeze in the winter. Yet in such a bed as this what wonderful 

 positions Mr. Dull managed to assume under the influence of fear. 

 Imitate him, my gentle reader, if you are still young and active, 

 and then you will appreciate his coutortious. 



