ppearance, almost every ing the rainbow favour, ick, to show the versaus of Shakspeare, and in line of Dr. Johnsonparty-coloured life he drew."

breakfast at the White cent to the birth-place of exceeded all expectation and respectability of the great room was tastefully Tergreens, and the military most favourite airs, overe arrangements and the ere of the best description. principal families of the cinity were present, and at were 250 persons in the posed, however, that nearly breakfasted. The display fashion was most interest reakfast succeeded recitaMr. Bond again spoke itten by Mr. Serle, and reon the previous day at rth-place. After this seveserious songs were sung, bly did not separate until In the town and its neighic sports took place, and med to celebrate the jubiuse, and strangers might to the various places cone memory of Shakspeare. many relics of Shakspeare such as goblets, drinking c., all formed from the fa

fire-works took place; the little town was splendidly illuminated, and bands of music paraded its streets. On the following day a morning concert was given, and a grand ball in the evening concluded the honours of the Shakspearian Jubilee. Our engraving on the preceding page represents the procession, composed of the principal dramatis persona of Shakspeare's plays. As the pageant moved along the streets, the effect was strikingly magnificent. It is supposed that this part of the proceedings was witnessed by upwards of twenty thousand persons. The whole of the splendid dresses were made by Mr. Palmer, of Tavistock-street, Covent-garden, who entirely superintended the getting-up of this grand affair. For a programme, which may serve as a key to the present illustration, we refer our readers to our last number; and on closing our remarks on this subject, we may probably be allowed to observe, that our engraving may be relied on as being altogether a perfect performance, as Mr. Palmer, with great urbanity, furnished our artist with every information that he required.

ASTRONOMICAL OBSERVA-
TIONS FOR MAY.

(For the Mirror.) THERE is nothing in astronomy which shows the great sagacity of human understanding, and its deep penetration, more than the accurate prediction of eclipses.

If the line of the nodes, like the earth's axis, were carried parallel to itself round the sun, there would be but just half a year between the conjunction of the sun and nodes; but the nodes shift backwards, or contrary to the earth's annual motion, about 19 degrees every year, and therefore the same node comes round the sun nineteen days sooner every year than the

year before · consequently from the time

that the ascending node passes by the sun, as seen from the earth, it is only 173 days till the descending node passes by him; therefore, in whatever time of the year we have eclipses of the luminaries, we may be sure that in about 173 days afterwards we shall have corresponding eclipses about the other node. Place a marble and an apple at a considerable distance from each other, which will represent the earth and sun; then place a hoop round the marble, to represent the monthly orbit of the moon. Now if a thread be extended from the apple to the marble, whenever a pea, or other small object, to represent the moon, came to that part of the hoop crossed by the thread, the apple would be eclipsed; and if the marble, or earth, were stationary, when ever there was an eclipse of the sun at a new moon, there would be a lunar eclipse at the ensuing full moon, the thread being supposed to pass through the opposite point of the hoop; but the earth in that time will have proceeded about one twenty. fourth part of her annual orbit, and will not be at the place where the thread passes through the opposite point of the hoop till 173 days afterwards.

At this rate the nodes shift through all the signs of the ecliptic in 18 years and 225 days, in which there would always be a regular period of eclipses, if any complete number of lunations were finished without a fraction; but this never happens; for if both sun and moon should start from a line of conjunction with either of the nodes, in any point of the ecliptic, the sun would perform eighteen annual revolutions, and 222 degrees over and above; and the moon 230 lunations, and 85 degrees of the 231st, by the time the node came round the same point of the ecliptic; so that the sun would then be 138 degrees from the node, and the moon 85 degrees from the sun. But in 223 mean lunations, after the sun, moon, and nodes have been once in a line of conjunction, they return so nearly to the same state again, as that the same node which was in conjunction with the sun and moon at the beginning of the first of these lunations, will be within 28 m. 12 s. of a degree of a line of conjunction with the sun and moon again, when the last of these lunations is complete, and therefore in that time there will be a regular period of eclipses, or return of the same eclipse, for many ages.

In this period, which was first discovered by the Chaldeans, there are 18 Julian years, 11 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes, 20 seconds, when the last day of February in leap year is four times included; but when it is five times included the period

consists of one day less; consequently, to the mean time of any eclipse, either of the sun or moon, this period is added, you will have the mean time of the return of the same eclipse. But the falling back of the line of conjunction 28 m. 12 s. with respect to the line of the nodes in every period, will wear out in process of time, and after that it will not return again in less than 12,492 years.

Those eclipses of the sun which happen about the ascending node, and begin to come in at the north pole of the earth, will go a little southerly at each return till they go quite off the earth; and those which happen about the descending node, and begin to come in at the south pole, will at each return go a little north, and finally leave the earth at the north pole.

I shall select the one of 1820 for an example :-That eclipse, after traversing the voids of space from the creation, at last began to fall upon the earth, near the south pole, A. D. 1154; every one of the above mentioned periods it advanced more northerly, until, on the 30th of April, 1622, it began to touch the southern part of England about two in the afternoon, the centre then rising in the south sea, traversing the continent of South America, crossing the Atlantic into Africa, and setting near the Red Sea. Its visible returns were 1st of June, 1676, when four digits were eclipsed at London about nine in the morning;-in 1694, in the evening;-4th of July, 1730, when the sun was seen at London above half eclipsed just after sunrise ;-14th of July, 1748;-5th of August, 1766, in the evening, when about four digits were eclipsed;-28th of August, 1802, early in the morning ;-and 7th of September, 1820. It will be no more visible till the 10th of October, 1874. In 1892 the sun will go down eclipsed at London; and November 13th, 1928, the track of the centre will be in void space, though two digits will be eclipsed at London. In the year 2090, the whole penumbra will pass by the earth without touching it. But in 12,492 years, it would return again as at first, if the present order of things were to continue.

Dr. Halley observes, concerning the degree of darkness during that of 1748— "It was such, that one might have expected to have seen many more stars than I find were seen at London. The three planets, Jupiter, Mercury, and Venus, were all that were seen by the gentlemen of the society, from the top of their house, where they had a free horizon; and I do not hear that any one in town saw more than Capella and Aldebaran, of the fixed stars. I forbear to particularize the chill

and damp which attended this eclipse, of which most spectators were sensible; as also the concern that appeared in all sorts of animals, at the extinction of the sun which we ourselves could not behold without some sense of horror."

and 2 minutes.

There will not in England be so great an eclipse as that of 1820 until 1836, and there will not be another of such magnitude visible at Greenwich for eleven years afterwards; both of these are annular. The first falls on Sunday, the 15th of May, 1836; the greatest obscuration at Greenwich will be at 3 h. 18 m. 41 s. afternoon meantime, or 3 h. 22 m. 37 s. solar or apparent time, when the sun will be eclipsed 10 digits and 23 minutes. The other happens on Saturday, the 9th of October, 1847. The greatest darkness at Greenwich at 7 h. 26 m. 53 s. morning meantime, or 7 h. 39 m. 23 s. solar time, when the sun will be obscured 11 digits This will be annular, very near, if not actually at Greenwich. There will also be an annular eclipse eleven years later. This phenomenon will take place on Monday, the 15th of March, 1858; the greatest obscuration at Greenwich will be at 0h. 59 m. 47 s. meantime, the sun being eclipsed 11 digits and 41 minutes. This eclipse will make the nearest approach to a total eclipse of any that will happen in this country for a great number of years. It will be central and annular in Warwickshire, Northamptonshire, Huntingdonshire, Cambridgeshire, and Norfolk, and in these and some of the adjoining counties, two or three of the principal fixed stars may perhaps be seen. The light of the sun is, however, so intense, that even though 999 parts of his disc were covered, out of a thousand, yet the remaining 1,000th part would emit as much light as 300 full moons.

The sun enters Gemini on the 21st, at 9 h. 9 m. afternoon.

The moon comes to an opposition with the sun on the 11th, when she is eclipsed to the extent of 11.8 digits, or nearly total, but as she will be below the horizon at the time, it cannot be visible in this part of the globe.

Mercury arrives at his greatest western elongation on the third, when he may be seen a little before sunrise in 16 deg. of Aries

Jupiter still in a good position for evening observation, being not yet far removed from his nearest approach to the earth; he is visible when the stars first begin to appear in the evening and continues so till they are lost again in the morning twilight; he comes to his highest place in the heavens on the 1st, at 9 h. 51 n. and on the 31st at 7 h. 43 m.

I

whose silent power

Steals o'er creation's bounds, and reigns su

preme,

gladly hail the oft-returning hour

That hastes thee on to shroud the solar beam.

Then let the gay their giddy course pursue, Uncheck'd by Wisdom's mild and genial ray, But Meditation will rejoice to view

Her kindred scene, and own its placid sway. Far o'er th' ethereal space, each radiant train, Sings with its sister orbs their Maker's praise;

And as the wanderer seeks the lonely plain, With ardent search, his philosophic eye Enraptur'd much, and lost in Fancy's maze, Roves thro' the hidden stores of vast immensity. BETA.

SIR,-Your columns never contained a subject of greater wonder, nor a greater riddle, than the extraordinary remains of Stonehenge; and in the present advanced state of topographical and antiquarian knowledge, I feel a pleasure that the judicious selections of the MIRROR extend alike to all objects of interest and study.

Your corres

As Stonehenge is a mystery, and ever will be one, every antiquary entertains his own opinions, both as to its date, its purport, and etymology. pondent, Antiquarius, supposes it to have been erected about 420 years before the Roman invasion. I am not aware of any ground for such a precise conclusion, and in all probability it was many centuries previous to that period.

Monuments of stone circles have existed for ages in Persia. They are mentioned by Homer--as in the shield of Achilles, the elders of a nation are represented sitting in a ring on stones in a sacred place:

οι δε γεροντες. Ελαλ' επι ξεστοισι λίθοις ιερῶ ἐνὶ κύκλω. Iliad, lib. 18.

Stone circles are mentioned in the Old Testament; and the result of these analogies must be a much earlier date to Stonehenge than 420 years before Cæsar's visit to these shores.

Engraving and description of Stonehenge, MIRROR, NO 249, p. 256.

I am not aware that the term of Choir Gaur can be fixed by your correspondent as being a new name given to Stonehenge by the Belgæ. The Belgæ had the same creed, and the temples would have continued in all their imposing solemnities. Choir Gaur is thus defined in the Phonician Choir, the concha marina, and Gaur, an assemblage of people. The concha, or circle within circle, very well applies to Stonehenge whence the choir, the sanctum of our cathedrals. Nor can I agree that Stonehenge implies stone fallows; but on being translated, refers to its holy use in former times. The etymology I shall venture at some future period.

There are, however, conjectural opinions. It is evident that a temple of great celebrity existed among the Hyperboreans, the fame of which was known in other climes; and from the magnitude of Stonehenge and Abury, it is probable that these relics existed in their splendour long before the date to which Antiquarius alludes.

As a geologist and rambler through the isle of Purbeck, as well as a visiter to Stonehenge, I can assure Antiquarius that the masses of which this temple was formed were never brought from Purbeck. This I advance as a positive fact, and capable of proof. The Purbeck material is of a very different nature; and Stonehenge is of the same kind of stone as many masses that are frequently to be seen lying scattered over the country, and are commonly called gray weathers; while the Purbeck is the volite formation.

JONATHAN Oldbuck.

CHICKWEED.

(For the Mirror.)

"Come, buy my chickweed for your pretty birds."

"That

THIS humble plant is well known to bird-fanciers; and though looked upon as a lowly weed, yet it has properties which prove the protecting hand of nature for its preservation. This plant is found wild in most parts of the world. It is annual, and flowers almost through the whole year. Dr. Withering says, it grows almost in all situations, from damp and almost boggy woods, to the driest gravel-walks in gardens; but in these various states its appearances are very different; so that those who have only taken notice of it as garden chickweed would hardly know it in woods, where it sometimes exceeds half a yard in height, and has leaves near two inches long, and more than one inch broad. its truly wild state, in damp woods and

In

hedge bottoms, with a northern aspect, it nas almost always ten stamens; but in drier soils and sunny exposures, the sta mens are usually five or three. The flowers are upright, and open from nine in the morning till noon; but if it rains, they do not open. After rain they become pendant; but in the course of a few days rise again. It is a remarkable instance of the sleep of plants; for every night the leaves approach in pairs, including within their upper surfaces the tender rudiments of the new shoots; and the uppermost pair but one, at the end of the stalk, is furnished with longer leafstalks than the others, so that they can close upon the terminating pair, and protect the end of the branch. The young shoots and leaves, when boiled, are similar to spinach, and are equally wholesome. It is a grateful food to small birds and young chickens. It was formerly used for medical purposes, and Dr. Lewis has described its virtues.

P. T. W.

THE MAIDEN FROM AFAR. IMITATED FROM THE GERMAN OF SCHILLER. (For the Mirror.

As soon as in a lonely vale

The lark's first note was heard,

Where harmless shepherds told their tale, A gentle maid appear'd.

From whence she came no soul could tellAnd when she bade adieu,

No cotter of the peaceful dell

Knew where she wander'd to.

She smil'd-and every heart was glad,
Each posom free from pain;

She frown'd-and every mien was sad,
Until she smil'd again.

She brought the choicest fruits and flowers
With her from time to time;
Companions of her happy hours,
Rear'd in a milder clime.

And old and young were sure to get
Some mark of her good will;
A fragrant rose or violet,

Or fruit more fragrant still.
With cheerful look and beaming eye
She welcom'a every guest;
But when a loving pair drew nigh,
That pair she most caress'd.

J. E. S.

VOLUMINOUS WRITERS.

(For the Mirror.)

WE are told that Epicurus left behind him three hundred volumes of his own works, all original, for Aulus Gellius, quoting Varro, says, that there was not a citation among them. Didymus, the grammarian, wrote no less than four