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Two Godlike youths § the grand retinue grace,
Alike in valour, as alike in face:

There too the Reverend Sage||! whose studious head
Gave to ten thousands (yet unborn) their bread:
Thrice happy we-who o'er the spacious earth
Boast such unrivalled dignity and worth!
Again, self-pleased, industry deigns to smile,
Elate with joy, and cheers the British isle:
Borne on her soaring wings, immortal FAME
Shall waft to every state Britannia's name;
While we the joyous call of mirth obey,

And crown with jovial glee th' auspicious day.

On the back of the above bill is the following programme:

ORDER OF THE PROCESSION.

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In a Phaeton drawn by Six Horses.
Standard of the City.

Page.

The Book-keepers, Shepherds and Shepherdesses belonging to the different Societies of Combers-Twelve Companies-Seven Companies on Foot-Five ditto on Horseback.

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In a Christian country (observes our Huntingdonshire correspondent) we should have thought there were characters which might have been introduced more appropriate than Hercules, Orpheus, Jason, Castor and Pollux, and the Argonauts. Abel was a keeper of sheep;' so were Jacob, Moses, and David. We know that garments were made of woollen in the time of Moses, (Levit. xiii, 47, 48, 52). It is part of the character of Solomon's excellent wife, that 'she seeketh wool and flax, and worketh willingly with her hands.' And, she is not afraid of the snow for her household; for all her household are clothed with scarlet' (Prov. xxxi, 13, 21), or, as the margin has it, 'double garments,' that is, probably, garments double the usual thickness. But the Israelites were not allowed to mix threads of wool and of flax or hemp together (Levit. xix, 19; Deut. xxii, 11), to make what we call linseywoolsey, probably as an emblem of the separate or unmixed state which they were to observe in respect to the heathen. Ram-skins, dyed scarlet, formed one of the coverings of the tent of the tabernacle, (Exod. xxxvi, 19). The Israelites traded with Damascus for wool, which was very celebrated (Ezekiel xxvii, 18). See an Essay on the Agriculture of the Israelites, in the Investigator, vol. vi, p. 45.

5.-SAINT AGATHA.

She was a native of Sicily, and martyred by order of Quintianus, A.D. 251.

*7. 1828.-HENRY NEELE DIED.

He claims some record on the roll of Fame,
And Rumour for a season learns his name,
And Sorrow knows the prison where he lies-
Mortality's cold signet on him set.

Neele: Sonnet, 1820.

Henry Neele, son of the late respectable map and heraldic engraver, was born January 29, 1798, at the house of his father, in the Strand. His parents soon afterwards settled at Kentish Town, where Henry was sent to school as a daily boarder. The academy wherein he imbibed all the instruction he possessed previous to his entrance into life, did not offer much towards the attainment of a liberal education. Henry Neele, therefore, left school, possessing, as Dr. Johnson would say, little Latin, and scarcely any Greek, but capable of reading and enjoying the best French writers. He added afterwards, by his own unassisted efforts, some acquaintance with Italian literature. Neele displayed no extraordinary application to study, no talent for mathematical or other science, but he evinced an early inclination for poetry; and he wrote, at that period, unnoticed but not unnoticing, verses, which would bear a comparison with those of the most precocious poet on record. His genius was purely lyrical, and Collins was his chief model. The Ode to Enthusiasm (the earliest of his printed poems) contains more natural images, and natural expression, than are ordinarily found in the productions of a boy of fifteen. Neele's father, a man of fair natural talents, had the discernment to perceive, and the good taste to encourage, his son's genius. The Ôdes and other Poems, published in 1817, were printed at his expense.

On quitting school, Mr. Neele was articled to an attorney; and though at times he penned a stanza when he should engross,' he nevertheless, we believe, did not neglect the opportunities afforded of obtaining experience in his profession. At a later period, he practised as a solicitor in Great Blenheim Street. In 1821, the Odes and Poems were reprinted, with a frontispiece, and attracted much notice from Dr. Drake, and other critics of repute. Our author then began to be sought after by booksellers, and became a regular contributor to Magazines, the Forget-MeNot, &c. &c. The great success that had attended the Dramatic Scenes of Barry Cornwall gave rise to the composition of Poems, Dramatic and Miscellaneous, published in 1823; but Mr. Neele had evidently no talent for dramatic poetry. The Miscellaneous Poems in this second volume are written with more attempt at polish than his earlier productions, and are very beautiful specimens of his genius, especially the Songs. We have a melancholy pleasure in transcribing the following from the Fragments, which close the volume :

That which makes women vain has taught my heart
A deeper lesson; and my weary spirit

Looks on this painted clay but as the night garb
Which the soul wears while slumbering here on earth,
And, at its waking, gladly throws aside

For brighter ornaments.

If our author could not excel in dramatic poetry, he had a keen perception of dramatic excellence in others. He studied minutely the productions of (what is termed) the Elizabethan age, and was an enthusiastic admirer of Shakspeare. He pleased himself with composing a series of lectures on the works of the great bard, and undertook (in 1819) a pilgrimage to his shrine.

In the winter of 1826, Mr. Neele completed a series of Lectures on the English Poets, from Chaucer to the present period. These Lectures be read at the Russell, and afterwards at the Western Institution. They are described by one who heard them as 'displaying a high tone of poetical feeling in the lecturer, and an intimate acquaintance with the beauties and blemishes of the great subjects of his criticism.' The public prints mentioned them in terms of approbation; and profit, as well as praise, accrued to our author by this undertaking.

At the commencement of the year 1828, appeared his Romance of History, in three volumes, dedicated to the King. This production greatly enhanced Mr. Neele's fame as a writer of a higher order than the mere contributor to periodical publications. The object of the author was to prove, as his motto stated, that Truth is strangeStranger than fiction;

and that tomes of romance need not alone be ransacked for the marvellous in incident. His compilation embraces tales of every age, from the Conquest to the Reformation, extracted from the chronicles and more obscure sources of historical information. As a book of instruction, it is invaluable to readers who cannot be persuaded to sit down to the perusal of history in a legitimate form; for each tale is preceded by a chronological summary of the events referred to, arranged in a brief and accurate form. The narratives themselves are highly attractive, teeming with interest, and interspersed with lively and characteristic dialogue. The idea was a happy one, and capable of almost boundless extent. The early history of France, of Spain, of Italy, would have furnished fresh materials, and the excitement would have been renewed at every recurrence to the novel habits of a fresh people. The author had begun to avail himself of this advantage: he had commenced a second series of Romances, founded on the history of France. Known and appreciated, he was beginning to rear his head as a lion of the day. His poetical works had been collected, in two volumes, with a portrait; but, alas!

Scarce had their fame been whispered round,
Before its shrill and mournful sound
Was whistling o'er (his) tomb:
Scarce did the laurel 'gin to grow
Around (his) early honoured brow,
Before its grateful bloom

Was changed to cypress, sere and brown,
Whose garlands mock the head they crown.

Neele's Odes.

The following beautiful stanzas were communicated by Mr. Neele to the European Magazine some time since, and have been reprinted by Mr. Watts, in his 'Poetical Album.'

'Man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?'
And where is he?' Not by the side
Of her whose wants he loved to tend;
Not o'er those valleys wandering wide,
Where, sweetly lost, he oft would wend!
That form beloved he marks no more;
Those scenes admired no more shall see ;
Those scenes are lovely as before,

And she as fair,-but where is he?

No, no, the radiance is not dim,

That used to gild his favourite hill;
The pleasures that were dear to him,
Are dear to life and nature still;
But, ah! his home is not as fair,
Neglected must his garden be;
The lilies droop and wither there,
And seem to whisper, where is he?'
His was the pomp, the crowded hall-
But where is now the proud display?

His-riches, honour, pleasures, all

Desire could frame;-but where are they?
And he, as some tall rock that stands

Protected by the circling sea,
Surrounded by admiring bands,

Seemed proudly strong,-and where is he?

The church-yard bears an added stone,
The fire-side shows a vacant chair;
Here sadness dwells, and weeps alone,
And death displays his banner there;
The life has gone, the breath has filed,
And what has been no more shall be ;
The well-known form, the welcome tread,
O where are they, and where is he?

*7. 1828. ALEX. CAMERON, D.D. DIED, ÆT. 80, Bishop of Maximianopolis, and Vicar Apostolic of the Lowland District of Scotland. The venerable

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