these she adds, of ■mbines, jonquils, ladyver white," lilies of the nis, fumitory, alysson llas, pulsatillas, mothgalum, saxifrage, stocks, Fimson pæony, or piony, nough to give a glowing e to twenty of the white Shakspeare seems to have gular beauty of this conpeaks of ionied and lilied brims.' à is fine, and the places planted favourable, and e delicate sprouting green d shrubs is now interblossoms of the barberry, lum, of the double-flowe bird cherry, the sweetveet-named honeysuckle, e black-thorn or sloe, lad-chain (truly so called,) orb-apple, scorpionsenna, ustrum of Virgil,) the , and nectarine, lilacs, the laurel vulgarly so operly the lauro-cerasus,' real laurel of old, or baye Greeks associated with of victory, which Sophoinondas thought of with h Cæsar wore day by day, Petrarch was crowned in whom the Greeks used h a popular song, re-apbeginning of this month. = of passage follow by dethe singing birds are now nd saturate the trees with lark, climbing up above that if the lauro-cerasus, or re not always suffered to run bby, it would make a handstem, with a head resembling ce writing this note, we have inexhaustible song; and, about the middle of the month, the lover of nature, who ventures among the hedges and fields to see how the wild flowers get forward, is happily startled with the voice of the invisible cuckoo, repeating at intervals its two fluty notes. The Greeks had songs also for the cuckoo; and now that our days of poetry have returned, we too have a song for it as genuine as any of theirs : O blithe new comer! I have heard, While I am lying on the grass, Thy loud note smites my ear! At once far off and near! The same which in my school-hoy days Which made me look a thousand ways, In bush, and tree, and sky. And I can listen to thee yet; Can lie upon the plain 'That golden time again.* April however is proverbial for its fickleness. All its promises may sometimes be retarded, sometimes blighted, by the return of frosty winds; and the agriculturist the more exuberant the season is, thinks with greater anxiety of the next that depends upon it. The domestic cultivator of flowers should still take particular care of them. Hardy annuals may still be planted; anemone, ranunculus, and hyacinth roots, past flowering, should be taken up to be preserved; and autumnal flowering bulbs be taken up and transplanted. Shrubs on very fine days may now be brought into the balconies, in order to refresh the eyes with the sight of the spring-green; but the balconies should be defended from cutting w behold rising e, for Spring has ds and meadows, were uninviting 11 covered with a ous hues, among en, so refreshing -e tints of winter, The trees and delightful blosthe hedges disof wild flowers, ng fragrance on - truly delightthe little flowerthe daisy, the k violet, all riuty, now excite while the tulip, nation, scent the -, for the cheerreturned to gild and to make living thing. of the grove are collecting tolittle nests, and eir young ones. rustic sower is he seed in the n the glorious ork : man ng breezes, blow! showers descend! #iving Sun.” most interesty of the whole exhilarates the and the aged. membered with n years, on the recollect their leasures, and their present children, and vaginatus.* laurifolius. incanus. purpureus.* villosus. Cneorum tricoccum.* thyoides. who lived in the reign of King Stephen, wo the time of Richard I., is the author of a treatise, in which he gives an account of the several diversions which were countenanced in his time. The play at ball, derived from the Romans, is first introduced by this author as the common exercise of every school-boy. The performance was in a field, where the resort of the most substantial and considerable citizens, to give encouragement and countenance to this feat of agility, was splendid and numerous. The intention of this amusement, at this period of time, was to make the juvenile race active, nimble, and vigorous; which qualities were requisite whenever their assistance should be wanted in the protection of their coun try. The next species of diversion, indeed, does not seem to have this tendency; but it was only, as it seems, an annual custom: this was cock-fighting. The author tells us, that in the afternoon of Shrove Tuesday, on which day this custom prevailed, they concluded the day with throwing at ball; which seems to insinuate, that the cock-fighting was merely in conformity to ancient usage, and limited only to part of the day, to make way for a more laudable performance. We may reasonably suppose, although this author is entirely silent upon this head, that while cock-fighting was going on, cock-throwing was the sport of the lowest class of people, who could not afford the expense of the former. This kind of diversion has happily, of late years, been laudably abolished, for it was a species of cruelty towards an innocent * Bale, in his writings, draws a pleasing portrait of him. He is likewise sketched in strong and forcible outlines of praise and commendation, by Leland. Bale says thus of him :-"The time which other people usually misemployed in an idle and frivolous manner, he consecrated to inquiries which tended to increase the fame and dignity of his country; in doing which, he was not unworthy of being compared to Plato; for like him, he made the study of men and heaven and useful animal; and such a cruelty as would have kindled compassion in the heart of the rankest barbarian. · The other diversions which Fitzstephen relates, were truly martial, and evidently intended to qualify the adventurers for martial discipline: "Every Friday in Lent, a company of young men comes into the field on horseback, attended and conducted by the best horsemen : then march forth the sons of citizens, and other young men, with disarmed lances and shields, and there practise feats of war. Many courtiers, likewise, when the king is near the spot, and attendants upon noblemen, do repair to these exercises; and while the hope of victory does inflame their minds, they show, by good proof, how serviceable they would be in martial affairs." This, no doubt, is of Roman descent, and corresponds with the Ludus Troja, supposed to be the invention, as it was the common exercise, of Ascanius. The common people, in this age of masculine manners, made every amusement where strength was exerted the subjectmatter of instruction and improvement: instructed to exert their bodily strength in the maintenance of their country's rights, and their minds improved, by such exertion, into every manly and generous principle. In the vacant intervals of industry and labour, commonly called the holiday, indolence and inactivity were found only in those whose lives were distempered with age or infirmity. The view which our author gives us of the Easter holidays is animated :-" In Easter holidays they fight battles upon the water. A shield is hanged upon a pole, fixed in the middle of the stream. A boat is prepared without oars, to be borne along by the violence of the water; and in the forepart thereof standeth a young man, ready to give charge upon the shield with his lance. If so be that he break his lance against the shield, and doth not fall, he is thought to have performed a worthy deed. If without breaking his lance he runs strongly against the shield, down he falleth into the water; for the boat is violently forced with the tide : but on each side of the shield ride two boats furnished with young men, who recover him who falleth soon as they may. In the holidays all the summer the youths are exercised in leaping, dancing, shooting, wrestling, casting the stone, and practising their shields; and the maidens trip with their timbrels, and dance as long as they can well see. In winter, every holiday before dinner, the boars prepared for brawn are set to fight, or else bulls or bears are bated." These were the laudable pursuits to which leisure was devoted by our ancestors, so far back as the year 1130. Their immediate successors breathed the same generous spirit. In the year 1222, the sixth of Henry III. we find, that certain masters in exercises of this kind, made a public profession of their instructions and discipline, which they imparted to those who were desirous of attaining excellence and victory in these honourable achievements. In this reign, the persons of better rank and family introduced the play of tennis, and erected courts, or oblong edifices for the performances of the exercise. This was likewise a great amusement of the reign of Charles II., and one at which his majesty himself frequently played. In Henry III.'s time, or about the year 1253, the quintain was a sport much in fashion in almost every part of the kingdom. This contrivance consisted of an upright post fixed firmly on the ground; upon the top of which was a cross piece of wood, movable upon a spindle; one end of which was broad, like the flat part of a halberd, while at the other end was hung a bag of sand. The exercise was performed on horseback. The masterly performance was, when, upon the broad part being struck with a lance, which sometimes broke it, the assailant rode swiftly on, so as to avoid being struck on the back by the bag of sand, which turned round instantly upon the stroke being given with a very swift motion. He who executed this feat in the most dexterous manner was declared victor, and the prize to which he became entitled was a peacock. But if, upon the aim taken, the contender miscarried in striking at the broadside, his impotency of skill became the ridicule and contempt of the spectators. M. Paris, speaking of this manly diversion, says, The London youths made trial of their strength on horseback, by running at the quintain; in doing which, whoever excelled all the rest was rewarded with a peacock." This sport is observed in Wales; and being in use only upon marriages, it may be considered as a votive diversion, by which these heroic spirits seem to wish, that the male issue of such marriage may be as strong, vigorons, and active, as those who are at the time engaged in the celebration of this festive exertion of manhood. F. R. Y. DELAMAINE, a mathematican, made a ring dial for king Charles I., which his majesty valued so much, that on the morning before he was beheaded, he ordered it to be given to the duke of York, with a book showing its use. ing assernblage of stones Salisbury Plain, about two mesbury, and seven miles alisbury. It is generally ve been a British temple, e sun, in which the Druids is supposed to have been 420 years before Julius 1 Britain. It was the meple in this island, and was Britons, Ambers, or Main h signifies anointed stones, rated or sacred stones, and ids were driven from hence they, well knowing its use, Er Gaur, meaning the great à the monks latinized into tum, the Giants' Dance. ame was given it by the were entirely ignorant of e, as is evident from their nehenge, that is the HangStone Gallows. structure was composed of nd forty stones, including trance, forming two circles s, respectively concentric; ounded by a circular ditch, y feet broad. The vallum ards, and forms a circular gh which was the entrance ast. The outer circle, when ted of sixty stones, thirty I thirty imposts, seventeen ts remain standing, and six he ground, either whole or 1 one leaning at the back of these twenty-four unrighte the outer circle. The upright stones are from eighteen to twenty feet high, from six to seven broad, and about three feet in thickness, and being placed at the distance of three feet and a half from each other, were joined at the top by mortise and tenon, to the imposts or stones laid across like architraves, uniting the whole outer range in one continued circular line at top. The outsides of the imposts were rounded a little to favour the circle, but within, they were straight, and originally formed a polygon of thirty sides. A little more than eight feet from the inside of the exterior circle, is another of forty smaller stones, which never had any imposts. The stated proportion of these stones appears to have been about half the size every way of the uprights, though that measure has not been precisely attended to in the execution of them. There are only nineteen of the forty stones remaining, of which only eleven are left standing. Within this second circle stands that part of the structure called the cell, Adytum, or Sanctum Sanctorum: it is composed of five compages of stones, having one impost covering them both; these are all remaining, but only three of them are perfect. On the inside of the greater oval is another arrangement of nineteen smaller stones coinciding in form with the outer oval. Of these there are only six remaining upright. Near the upper extremity of this inside oval is the altar, which lies flat on the ground and is nearly husind by some of the fallen stones it |