The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 336, October 18, 1828

In the reign of Charles II. a physician to the court was walking with the king in the gallery of Windsor Castle, when they saw a man repairing a clock fixed there. The physician knowing the king's relish for a joke, accosted the man with, "My good friend, you are continually doctoring that clock, and yet it never goes well. Now if I were to treat my patients in such a way, I should lose all my credit. What can the reason be that you mistake so egregiously?" The man dryly replied, "The reason why you and I, Sir, are not upon a par is plain enough—the sun discovers all my blunders, but the earth covers yours."

G.I.F

EPITAPH

On a tablet in the outside wall of the old church, at Taunton, in Somersetshire, is the following on "James Waters, late of London, aged 49."

Death traversing the western road,
And asking where true merit lay,
Made in this town a short abode,
Then took this worthy man away.

W.R

LIFE

Grass of levity,
Span in brevity,
Flower's felicity,
Fire of misery,
Wind's stability
Is mortality.

NOTICE FROM THE PUBLISHER

Purchasers of the MIRROR, who may wish to complete their volumes, are informed that the whole of the numbers are now in print, and can be procured by giving an order to any Bookseller or Newsvender.

Complete sets Vol I. to XI. in boards, price £3. 19s. 6d half bound, £3. 17s.

LIMBIRD'S EDITION OF THE

Following Novels are already Published:

s.d

Mackenzie's Man of Feeling .............. 0…6

Paul and Virginia ....................... 0…6

The Castle of Otranto ................... 0…6

Almoran and Hamet ....................... 0…6

Elizabeth, or the Exiles of Siberia ..... 0…6

The Castles of Athlin and Dunbayne ...... 0…6

Rasselas ................................ 0…8

The Old English Baron ................... 0…8

Nature and Art .......................... 0…8

Goldsmith's Vicar of Wakefield .......... 0..10

Sicilian Romance ........................ 1…0

The Man of the World .................... 1…0

A Simple Story .......................... 1…4

Joseph Andrews .......................... 1…6

Humphry Clinker ..........................1…8

The Romance of the Forest ............... 1…8

The Italian ............................. 2…0

Zeluco, by Dr. Moore .................... 2…0

Edward, by Dr. Moore .................... 2…6

Roderick Random ......................... 2…6

The Mysteries of Udolpho ................ 3…6

notes

1

Mrs. A.T. Thomson, in her Memoirs of the Court of Henry the Eighth, says, "On the night of the Epiphany (1510), a pageant was introduced into the hall at Richmond, representing a hill studded with gold and precious stones, and having on its summit a tree of gold, from which hung roses and pomegranates. From the declivity of the hill descended a lady richly attired, who, with the gentlemen, or, as they were then called, children of honour, danced a morris before the king. On another occasion, in the presence of the court, an artificial forest was drawn in by a lion and an antelope, the hides of which were richly embroidered with golden ornaments; the animals were harnessed with chains of gold, and on each sat a fair damsel in gay apparel. In the midst of the forest, which was thus introduced, appeared a gilded tower, at the end of which stood a youth, holding in his hands a garland of roses, as the prize of valour in a tournament which succeeded the pageant!"

2

The Comet which appeared in 1759, and which (says Lambert) returned the quickest of any that we have an account of, had a winter of seventy years. Its heat surpassed imagination.