THE LADY IN HER CHAIR. 173 



and as we wander afield we often apply the words of Horace to 

 our own little spot, as from some neighbouring height we view it 

 cozily nestling in the sunlight — 



/He terrarum mihi prater omnes 

 Angulus ridet ; 



which may be rendered — 



Whate'er the beauties others boast, 

 This spot of ground delights me most. 



Or, as we prefer putting it in our own case — 



Of brighter skies and .sunnier climes let others boast and jabber, 

 Give me the sunny, southern shores of mountain-girt Lochaber ! 



Or yet again, if you will have it still more literally in Gaelic — 



'S anns' leam na spot eil' fo 'a ghr^in, 

 M' oisinneag bheag, ghrianach f fin. 



During the present clear, cold spring nights the starry heavens 

 are very beautiful. Jupiter, just below Castor and Pollux, is at his 

 brightest, and very favourably situated for observation, his cloudy 

 belts and bright diamond-point-like satellites being visible in an 

 instrument of very moderate powers. If between nine and ten 

 o'clock the reader will turn to the north-east, he will find a con- 

 stellation pretty high up in the heavens, and consisting of five or 

 six principal stars, none of them, however, of the first magnitude, 

 opening towards the pole star in the form of a widely spread-out 

 W. This constellation wUl be an object of toore than usual interest 

 during the present year. It is Cassiopeia, or The Lady in her Chair, 

 the scene of a very startling and strange phenomenon in 1572, 

 which, it has been asserted with some confidence, is not at all 

 unlikely to be repeated in 1872. In 1572 a new star of great 

 splendour appeared iu Cassiopeia, occupying a place that had 

 hitherto been blank. It was first observed on the 6th August, by 

 Schuler, of Wittemburg, shortly after which it arrested the 



