two feet in diameter, it is suspended in a brass circic, marked with the courses of the winds, with the names and after the notions of classical geographers. The Equinoctal and Zodiac are defined, but there is an utter absence of latitude and longitude. America is of course not there; the ocean flows over that side of the earth, which afterwards belonged to the western world; and the fancy of the artist has depicted some whales spouting in the locality of the United States; and some Spanish caravals are sailing in unknown directions over Mexico. A few mermaids are combing their locks somewhere near modern Greenland, and in old German he has inscribed underneath the intelligence that many of these peculiar animals are to be met with thereabouts. The configuration of Europe is certainly singular; a certain wavy line answers for all coasts; England is about the size of Malta; Germany of modern Russia; Spain, about double the size of France. The Mediterranean dwindles to a small lake; a vast region protrudes into the sea, beyond the Indus; and is described as the domain of the famous Kaiser Prester John. The Antilles are small obscure islands on the west coast of Africa. The Red Sea is a huge ocean, colored red; and Palestine is of the size of modern Turkey. The geographer evidently proportions the countries according to their relative importance. The whole surface is studded with droll figures as specimens of the inhabitants, productions, and distinctive features of the countries with continual inscriptions of their names, character, discovery, etc. : forming a diligent

abstract of the works of the travellers and geographers whose names are quoted as authorities, and thus giving a very complete idea of the state of geographical knowledge of the time.

This rarity, although amusing enough to us, is evidently the work of a man of much reading; and it certainly has an additional interest as showing the state of geographical knowledge existing in Europe at that period, when the great Discoverer of a Western World had at last set forth on the voyage of achievement of the long settled purposes and convictions of his mind. Looking at this relic, one readily sees what vast obstacles were in his path; the causes of the deeply settled unbelief which met him on every appeal for assistance to his project; and how strangely it must have sounded to their ears, when he reasoned of the actual existence of a mighty continent in that waste of waters, which their fancy peopled with mermaids and other denizens of the deep! The Globe bears the autograph of the maker, and the date of its construction, and is of course above all price to the family who still possess it. A few years since the French Academy of Sciences caused a beautiful facsimile in papier mache to be made of it, and one of the copies was presented to the family. The two globes stand together, and are open to examination of any one on application to the family.

I had neither opportunity nor leisure to examine its library,

but it is famious for many MSS. of Luther and Melancthon, and as a depository of much curious antiquarian lore.

Although this sketch has filled its destined limits, it is scarcely a faint outline. To describe the lions of Nurembergh fully would occupy a volume, but its history would be more valuable and interesting. Several antiquarians are now at work in the old library, and very soon, no doubt, the great old town will find itself grown famous through their labors.

R. D.

From the Globe. New York, July 1847,

SKETCHES OF TRAVEL.

EDINBURGH, MAY 6TH, 1847.

MY DEAR FRIEND:-I have now been but little more than a week in the kingdom, and during this brief space have, by deviating from the beaten track and travelling by easy stages, seen more than usually falls to the lot of our countrymen. I arrived at Liverpool very fortunately in the middle of the Chester race week, the spring meeting. Chester is a rare old town within but a half-hour's ride from Liverpool: starting from Birkenhead, the new suburb of fine cottage residences on the north side of the Mersey: it lies upon the beautiful river Dee, and is certainly one of the oldest towns in England. The old walls still surround it; the streets-mere carriage-ways and very crooked and narrow-named, as usual in walled towns, after the names of the Gates. Water Gate street, through which we rode to the course, is lined with the most antique fortress-like houses, gable-wise to the street, with strange and continuous galleries, as they might be called, enclosed with pillars and roofed by the projection of the second stories, whereby you may walk under cover like an old arcade, throughout the street; curious enough. We are here looking up a narrow street and see the old cathedral, hoar with the flight of many centuries.

The town is said to have a population of some thirtythousand; but not a new house is to be seen anywhere; everything is centuries old and no effort of the imagination is required to people these curious old houses with the burghers of the reign of Cœur de Lion, and these old churches, which crowd so thickly around you at every step, with mailed knights, gay esquires and proud dames of the brave old days of chivalry.

But to the races. The course is the most beautiful in England, and these races, having been long well sustained and fully attended, are ranked the third or fourth in order among the great races of the kingdom. Leaving the town Gate, the road leads you at once into a fine amphitheatre. I entered the fine railed park-like enclosure, after the first race called the Corinthian Stakes, for but seven horses, had terminated. The Grand Stand, a beautiful stone structure some eighty feet high, and as many feet long, with balconies and flat roof, was thronged with spectators. Crowds of ladies of the first rank and the best blood of the country, as they say here; their beauty perhaps I should not allude to, but I could not but help thinking that if as many of our own fair countrywomen were assembled on some more appropriate occasion, the comparison would not be acceptable on this side of the water: the places here are held at a guinea each. It was too crowded to attempt a foothold. I stood on the judge's stand upon the course. Behind me, in an elevated sort of tower, stood the Earl of Chesterfield, called here