
50 
KIDD’S OWN JOURNAL. 

After waiting five or six minutes, I recom- 
menced my operations; and he again laughed. 
But when he endeavored to draw up the 
quilt, I held it back, and he immediately 
stretched forth his hand to seize that of 
the person whom he supposed to be under 
the bed. Instead of letting him catch mine, 
I put the dead man’s hand into his, taking 
care to keep a strong hold of the arm. The 
Greek made a most violent effort to draw to- 
wards him, by the hand which he had seized, 
the person to whom it belonged, when suddenly 
I let go my hold, and the Greek spoke not a 
word, nor uttered the least cry. Having 
played off my trick, I regained my room, 
and went to bed, thinking that I had given 
him a good fright, and nothing more. 
But the next morning, I was awakened by 
a confused noise of people running back- 
wards and forwards through the house. I 
got up to learn the cause; and on meeting 
the lady of the house, she told me that I had 
carried things too far. 
“Why, what is the matter ?” 
“Mr. Demetrius is dead.” 
“* Well, what have I to do with his death ?” 
She quitted me without making any 
answer; and I, though not a little alarmed, 
went to the Greek’s room fully determined 
to affect the most profound ignorance of this 
adventure. All the inmates of the house 
were assembled there; and I found, besides, 
the curé engaged in a violent altercation 
with the beadle, who positively refused to re- 
bury the arm, which still lay in the room. 
Every one looked upon me with horror, and 
it was in vain that I protested I was a total 
stranger to the affair. From all sides they 
cried out, “It was you, for you alone are 
capable of doing such an act; it resembles 
you in every particular.” 
The curé told me I had committed a very 
heinous crime, and that it was his duty to in- 
form the proper authorities of it. Itold him 
he might do as he pleased, for, as I had no- 
thing to reproach myself with, I had no 
cause to be afraid. At dinner I learned that 
the Greek, having been blooded, had opened 
his eyes, but that he was unable to speak, 
and that all his limbs were paralysed. The 
next day he recovered his speech; when I 
left the house he was still paralytic, and his 
mind in a very enfeebled state, from which 
he never completely recovered during the 
rest of his life. 
The curé had caused the arm to be re- 
buried, and communicated all the details of 
the affair to the episcopal chancelry of Tre- 
visa. 
SELF-INTEREST. 
How difficult a thing it is to persuade a man 
to reason against his own interest; though he is 
convinced that equity is against him !—TRustur,. 


PROPOSED NEW PARK. 
—_———. 
HAMPSTEAD HEATH. 
NOBODY CAN NOW TELL Us where Lon- 
don begins; neither can anybody tell us 
where it ends. It has already swallowed up 
nearly all the suburban villages; and it 
threatens to extend its encroachments far 
and wide into the country. The dwellers in 
the “ City” have long given up all hope of 
ever seeing blue skies and green fields, ex- 
cept on holidays—which, in the City, beyond 
any other place in the world, are few and 
far between. Even those who are privileged 
to reside in the outskirts, which twenty 
years ago were pleasant meadows and green 
lanes, now find they can hardly reach a 
quiet spot in the compass of a summer’s 
evening walk. 
By such persons as these, the value of our 
public parks and enclosures can alone be 
properly estimated; and by them they are 
felt to be essentials of existence. There is 
one lovely rural spot (almost the only one), 
yet left within easy walking distance; and 
that is, Hampstead Heath. Primrose Hill, 
it has been prophesied, will hereafter be the 
centre of London; but though that event is, 
to say the least, a distant one, it requires no 
prophet’s eye to foresee that in two or three 
years it will become the centre of a new and 
populous town, if something be not done to 
arrest the building-enterprises which are 
going on around it. ‘The beautiful spot we 
have mentioned will become almost value- 
less ; and it will no longer afford to the pent- 
up citizen the delightful walks he enjoys 
there at present. Impressed with these 
views, and animated by a philanthropic 
spirit, Professor Cockerell has come forward 
with a magnificent scheme for turning 
Hampstead Heath into a park, to be con- 
nected with- Primrose Hill by a boulevard 
300 feet in width, so as to form one conti- 
nuous promenade with the Regent’s Park. 
With reference to this grand scheme, our 
contemporary the Builder, says :— 

Taking our course from the Regent’s Park, the 
road proposes to pass over the commanding height 
of Primrose Hill, and thence to ascend grace- 
fully by a magnificent park-ride and avenue 
or boulevard—reminding us of the most en- 
chanting continental arrangement—till it enters 
the Hampstead Road, by the existing beautiful 
avenue of Belsize Park, improving the surround- 
ing building land by situations for the most de- 
sirable villas and gardened habitations. 
The course thence is by Hampstead Green, 
passing over another commanding eminence 
known as Traitor’s Hill, from which an admirable 
view of London and surrounding scenery presents 
itself, through land now desired to be built over, 
and which, if so appropriated, would for ever de- 
face the beautiful locality. From this ground the 
road mounts to the Royal Terrace across the 

