The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 17, No. 482, March 26, 1831

Where BEAUTY, YOUTH, and INNOCENCE repose.

Doth wit adorn thy mind?—doth science pour
It's ripen'd bounties on thy vernal year?
Behold! where Death has cropp'd the plenteous store—
And heave the sigh, and shed the pensive tear.

Does Music's dulcet notes dwell on thy tongue?
And do thy fingers sweep the sounding lyre?
Behold! where low she lies, who sweetly sung
The melting strains a cherub might inspire.

Of YOUTH, of BEAUTY, then be vain no more—
Of music's pow'r—of WIT and LEARNING'S prize;
For while you read, those charms may all be o'er,
And ask to share the grave where ANNA lies.

COLBOURNE

GAMBLING OF HENRY THE EIGHTH

(For the Mirror.)

Stowe, in his Survey of London, says, "Neere unto Paul's Schoole, on the north side thereof, was of old time a great and high Clochier, or Bell-house, four square, builded of stone; and in the same, a most strong frame of timber, with foure bels, the greatest that I have heard: these were called Jesus Bels, and belonged to Jesus Chappell, but I know not by whose gift. The same had a great spire of timber, covered with lead, with the image of St. Paul on the top; but was pulled downe by Sir Miles Partridge, knight, in the reign of Henry the Eighth. The common speech then was, that hee did set one hundred pounds upon a caste at dice against it, and so won the said clochier and bels of the king; and then causing the bels to be broken as they hung, the rest was pulled downe. This man was afterwards executed on the Tower Hill, for matters concerning the Duke of Somerset, the fifth of Edward the Sixth. In place of this clochier, of old time, the common bel of the citie was used to be rung, for the assembly of the citizens to their Folke-motes."

ALDERMAN KENNETT

Passing by Blackfriars Bridge, I missed the magnificent gates (iron) erected by Brackly Kennett, Esq. the inactive Lord Mayor of London, A.D. 1780, during the time of the riots, and who used to pass his time at the "Jacob's Well," Barbican. I could not help remembering these lines, which were related to me long ago—

"When Rome was burning, poets all agree,
Nero sat playing on his tweedle-dee;
So Kennett,[3 - For which he was committed to the Tower, where he died.] when he saw sedition ripe,
And London burning, calmly smoked his pipe."

VALENTINE'S DAY

Had its origin with the Romans, and was fathered upon St. Valentine in the early ages of the Church to christianize it. Brand, in his Popular Antiquities, supposes that the observance originated in an ancient Roman superstition of choosing patrons on this day for the ensuing year—a custom which gallantry took up when superstition, at the reformation, had been compelled to let it fall.

H.H

PITT'S DIAMOND

(To the Editor.)

Allusion being made the other evening by Sir R. Inglis, in the debate on Lord John Russell's reform motion, relative to a gentleman of the name of Pitt sitting in that House in right of possessing a very large diamond, the following particulars may not prove uninteresting to the numerous readers of the Mirror:—

Thos. Pitt, Esq., anciently of Blandford, in the county of Dorset, afterwards Earl of Londonderry, was, in the reign of Queen Anne, made Governor of Fort St. George, in the East Indies, where he resided many years, and became possessed, by trifling purchase, or by barter, of a diamond, which he sold to the King of France for 135,000l. sterling, weighing 127 carats, and commonly known at that day by the name of Pitt's Diamond.

JAC-CO

ANCESTRY

It may not be generally known that there is a small town in France which no one can enter without interest, from the consideration that Demetrius Commene once lived there, a man boasting a pedigree that traced him from the line of the Roman emperor Trajan. He was living in the time of Voltaire, and was a captain in the French army. His pedigree was the noblest of any man then living, or that has since lived, for he had twenty-six kings for his ancestors, and eighteen emperors. Of these, six were emperors of Constantinople, ten of Trebizond, and two of Heracleus Pontus; eighteen kings of Colchi, and eight of Lazi.

RAMBLER

A LITERARY KISS

Alian Chartier was esteemed the father of French eloquence; he spoke as well as he wrote. He flourished about the year 1430. Margaret of Scotland, first wife to the dauphin, afterwards Louis XI, as she passed through the Louvre, observed Alian asleep, and went and kissed him. When her attendants expressed their surprise that she should thus distinguish a man remarkable for his ugliness, she replied—"I do not kiss the man, but the mouth that has uttered so many charming things."

P.T.W

EPITAPH ON A WATCHMAKER,

Copied from a Tombstone in Lidford Churchyard, Devon

Here lies, in Horizontal position,
The outside case of
George Routleigh, Watchmaker,
Whose abilities in that line were an honour
To his profession;
Integrity was the main-Spring,
And Prudence the Regulator
Of all the actions of his life;
Humane, generous, and liberal,
His Hand never stopped
Till he had relieved distress;
Sincerely regulated were all his movements,
That he never went wrong,
Except when Set a-going
By people
Who did did not know
His Key;
Even then, he was easily
Set right again:
He had the art of disposing his Time
So well,
That his Hours glided away
In one continual round
Of Pleasure and Delight,
Till an unlucky Moment put a period to
His existence;
He departed this Life
November 14, 1802,
Aged 57,
Wound up,
In hopes of being taken in Hand
By his Maker,
And of being
Thoroughly cleaned, repaired, and set a-going