The unique curiosity, of which the annexed is an accurate representation, was one of the choicest rarities of the Bernal collection, and is, therefore, highly appropriate to our pages. It once belonged to, and was made for, Bogislaus XIV., Duke of Pomerania, in the time of Gustavus Adolphus. On the dial-side there is an engraved inscription of the Duke and his titles, with the date 1627, and the engraving of his armorial bearings; on the back of the case there are engraved two male portraits, buildings, &c.; the dial-plate is of silver, chased in relief; the insides are chased with birds and foliage. This watch has apparently two separate movements, and a large bell; at the back, over the bell, the metal is ornamentally pierced in a circle, with a dragon and other devices, and the sides are pierced and engraved in scrolls. It bears the maker's name, "Dionistus Hessichti."
THE RULING PASSION.
Mr. Henry Stribling, farmer, who died at Goodleigh, near Barnstaple, August 1st, 1800, in the eightieth year of his age, was one of the greatest fox-hunters in Devonshire, and had collected such a number of foxes pads, all of which he had himself cut off when in at the death, that they entirely covered his stable door and door-posts. At his own particular request, a pad was placed in each of his hands in his coffin, and he was attended to the grave by the huntsmen and whippers-in of the packs with which he had hunted.
EDICTS AGAINST FIDDLERS.
An idea may be formed of the strictness with which all popular amusements were prohibited when the Puritans had the ascendancy, from the fact that in 1656-7 Oliver Cromwell prohibited all persons called fiddlers or minstrels from playing, fiddling, or making music in any inn, alehouse, or tavern, &c. If they proffered themselves or offered to make music, they were to be adjudged to be rogues, vagabonds, and sturdy vagabonds, and were to be proceeded against as such.
SCENE OF DESOLATION.
The pass of Keim-an-eigh is one of the numerous wonders of nature. It is situated on the road from Macroom to Bantry, in the county of Cork, and winds through a deep and narrow rocky defile, about two English miles in length. Its name means, in Irish, "The Path of the Deer." Perhaps, in no part of the kingdom, is there to be found a place so utterly desolate and gloomy. A mountain has been divided by some convulsion of nature, and the narrow pass is overhung on either side, as seen in our engraving, by perpendicular cliffs clothed in wild ivy and underwood, with, occasionally, a stunted yew-tree or arbutus growing among them. At every step advance seems impossible—some huge rock jutting out into the path, or sweeping round it, seeming to conduct only to some barrier still more insurmountable; while from all sides rush down the "wild fountains," and forming for themselves a rugged channel, make their way onward, the first tributary to the gentle and fruitful Lee. Nowhere has Nature assumed a more apalling aspect, or manifested a more stern resolve to dwell in her own loneliness and grandeur, undisturbed by any living thing; for even the birds seem to shun a solitude so awful, and the hum of bee or chirp of grasshopper is never heard within its precincts.
THE FIRST ENGLISH NUN.