Notes On Literature, Science And Art.

who were equally superstitious , it does not the least prove the truth of a single « host story . There is not a single delusion that he can name but some clever man , nay even many clever men , have been deluded by it . As he tells us that , like Cervantes' famous hero of La Mancha , he

has "All that famed mad knig ht ' s aversion Xo wrong and tyranny , where ' er display'd , And shall on all occasions draw the pen , Which is his lance , on recreant modes and men , "

there is good work for him yet to do , and I shall anxiously look to see how he accomplishes it in his second and following cantos . He evidently has true poetry within him . Let hira ever remember the great Wordsworth ' s wise maxim , that

" Nature never did betray the heart that loved her , " and he will not fail . Mr . William Andrews , F . R . H . S ., who lately presided at a revival of the famous Dunmow Flitch of Bacon custom , has in the press a shilling pamphlet on the

subject , giving its history from the commencement , with poems by William Harrison Ainsworth , the Chevalier de Chatelain , the late John Joseph Briggs , Florence Cleveland , R . [ -1 . Home , J . H . Eccles , and myself . William Hone , John Timbs , and others ,

have acted as brave pioneers to clear the way for Mr . Andrews , who is well known in the North of England as a keen student of folk-lore and antiquities . The oath required to be taken by " the pilgrims , " as the applicants for the Flitch were termed , was as follows : —

'' We do swear by custom of confession , That we ne ' er made nuptial transgression ; Nor since we were married man and wife , By household brawls or contentions strife , Or otherwise , in bed or at board , Offended each other in deed or in word :

Or in a twelvemonth ' s time and a day , Repented not in any way ; Or since the Church Clerk said Amen , y ished ourselves unmarried again , -but continue true and in desire As when we joined hands iu holy quire . " Roue Cottac / e , Stokesley .

Taken By Brigands.

TAKEN BY BRIGANDS .

THE SCOTCH SAILOR ' S YARN . ( Continued from page 201 . ) PART III . His lairdship was quite dead , riddled with bullets .

Presently the driver crawled out frae the bushes , wringing his hands , and calling on his saints , and we drove back to Palermo . There was a rare fuss at the hotel when I brought in the lifeless body , you may

well believe , and what with the police , and one thing and another , I was properly bothered ; for the yacht had sailed , and I had all the responsibility . The first thing to be settled was the funeralforin foreign parts , they willna

, , let you keep a corpse sae long as we do in England . The landlord helped me out better than any one , for he had a brother who prepared bodies for a particular sort of Sicilian burying , and he naturally recommended his relation .

By this process the outline and expression of the features was exactly preserved , and then the subject wasna put in a coffin , but dressed in its usual clothes , and set up in a cavern , for all the world like a stuffed animal in a museum .

I liked the notion of this , because when the MacKenzie came back in the yacht , and asked where his friend was , I could say , " Come and see for yourself , " which would be much more satisfactory than just showing him a mound of airth , and

telling him his lairdship was underneath . Eh , well ! I grieved for the puir young mon , when he took his place in the ranks of the dead . To have a title and plenty of siller , and one of the handsomest little schooners afloatand the best of health

, and spirits , and to lose all in a moment , in such a wanton way , just for nothing at all ! The only consolatory reflection was , that he deed vera game , and left his mark on some of the ruffians who slew

him . Though the finding him dead in the chaise was the only impression of what I had witnessed after the firing began , which stuck to me at first , on thinking the matter over at leisure afterward , I re-