There is a little bit of domestic news chronicled on March 9th, which is interesting when we contrast the prices at which we are now supplied with the same commodities. "Covent Garden Market.—The extreme severity of the weather has rendered all the fruits and vegetables of the season dear beyond all precedent. The following are the prices of some of the articles:—Asparagus, £1 4s. per hundred; Cucumbers, £1 1s. per brace; best Pines, £2 12s. each; Grapes, £3 3s. per pound; Endive, 8s. per dozen; best Brocoli, 16s. per bundle; second ditto, 7s. per ditto; French Beans, 8s. per 100; Mushrooms, 5s. 6d. per pottle; best Kale, 12s. per basket; Nonpareil Apples, 8s. per dozen; Colmar Pears, £1 10s. per dozen; Cos Lettuce, 4s. per dozen; Mint, 1s. 6d. per bunch; Greens, 16s. per dozen; Spanish Onions, 12s. per dozen."
This scale of prices would never have done for the Clergyman mentioned in the next day's paper. "A Clergyman, of the name of Matheson, was minister of Patterdale, in Westmoreland, for sixty years, and died lately, at the age of ninety. During the early part of his life his benefice brought him only twelve pounds a year; it was afterwards increased (perhaps by Queen Anne's bounty) to eighteen, which it never exceeded. On this income he married, brought up four children, and lived comfortably with his neighbours, educated a son at the University, and left upwards of one thousand pounds behind him. With that singular simplicity, and inattention to forms which characterize a country life, he himself read the burial service over his mother, he married his father to a second wife, and afterwards buried him also. He published his own banns of marriage in the church, with a woman whom he had formerly christened, and he himself married all his four children."
On March 31st an illustrious lady, the Duchess of Oldenburgh, sister to the Emperor of Russia, entered London in great state, having been met at Sheerness by the Duke of Clarence on behalf of the Regent, who sent one of his Carriages for her accommodation and use. Ostensibly she only came to pay a complimentary visit to the Regent, but every one surmised that such was merely a blind to cover a political mission, for which she was well adapted.
To show what importance was attached to her visit, I give an official account of her reception.
"The procession entered London, by Parliament Street, at a quarter before four o'clock, in the following order:—
Two Light Horsemen.
The Duke of Clarence's travelling Chariot and four, in which were his Royal Highness and Colonel Bloomfield.
Two Light Horsemen.
Two footmen and an outrider in the Royal liveries.
"The Prince Regent's Carriage, drawn by four bays, in which was her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess, Duchess of Oldenburg, accompanied by the Princess Volochowsky, Madame Aladensky, and the Countess Lieven.