List of the Game.

54,87824,02937,20919,932
37,16027,01342,90227,164
58,71226,40531,62030,429
39,89233,05525,99430,859
32,47050,81218,47925,813
39,89340,23418,55050,666
32,47026,26726,37113,304
16,18625,95319,77417,566

Now let us give (of birds and beasts) their bill of mortality; that is the numbers, in detail, of each specific description, registered as below, and detailed to have been killed at Chantilly, in the above-mentioned series of years. Hares, 77,750; rabbits, 587,470; partridges, 117,574; red ditto, 12,426; pheasants, 86,193; quails, 19,696; rattles (the male quail), 449; woodcocks, 2,164; snipes, 2,856; ducks, 1,353; wood-piquers, 317; lapwings, 720; becfique (small birds like our wheatear), 67; curlews, 32; oyes d'Egypte, 3; oyes sauvage, 14; bustards, 2; larks, 106; tudells, 2; fox, 1; crapeaux, 8; thrushes, 1,313; guynard, 4; stags, 1,712; hinds, 1,682; facons, 519; does, 1,921; young does, 135; roebucks, 4,669; young ditto, 810; wild boars, 1,942; marcassins (young boars), 818. A magnificent list of animal slaughter, carefully and systematically recorded as achievements.

BRITISH PEARLS.

The river Conway, in North Wales, was of considerable importance, even before the Roman invasion, for the pearl mussel (the Mya Margaritifera of Linnæus) and Suetonius acknowledged that one of his inducements for undertaking the subjugation of Wales was the pearl fishery carried forward in that river. According to Pliny, the mussels, called by the natives Kregindilin, were sought for with avidity by the Romans, and the pearls found within them were highly valued; in proof of which it is asserted that Julius Cæsar dedicated a breastplate set with British pearls to Venus Genetrix, and placed it in her temple at Rome. A fine specimen from the Conway is said to have been presented to Catherine, consort of Charles II., by Sir Richard Wynne, of Gwydir; and it is further said that it has since contributed to adorn the regal crown of England. Lady Newborough possessed a good collection of the Conway pearls, which she purchased of those who were fortunate enough to find them, as there is no regular fishery at present. The late Sir Robert Vaughan had obtained a sufficient number to appear at Court with a button and loop to his hat, formed of these beautiful productions, about the year 1780.

FUNERAL ORATION OF FRANCIS THE FIRST.

Pierre Duchatel, in a funeral oration on the death of Francis I., published 1547, took upon himself to affirm, that the soul of the king had gone direct to Paradise. This passing over of purgatory gave offence to the doctors of the Sorbonne, who sent a deputation to warn him of his error. The prelate being absent, one of his friends received them, and, in reply, gaily said—"Be not uneasy, gentlemen, every one knows that the late king, my master, never stopped long in any one place, however agreeable. Supposing, then, that he went to purgatory, be assured that his stay would be very short." This pleasantry disarmed the severity of the doctors, and the affair went no farther.

GRAVES OF THE STONE PERIOD.

Stone Chambers, which once formed places of interment, are frequently discovered within large barrows of earth raised by the hands of man. They are to be referred to the period of the Danish Invasion, which is generally termed among antiquaries the "Stone Period," because the use of metals was then in a great measure unknown; and while a few are to be found in Great Britain, there are many more of them in Denmark. These tombs, which are covered with earth, have most probably contained the remains of the powerful and the rich. They are almost all provided with long entrances, which lead from the exterior of the mound of earth to the east or south side of the chambers. The entrances, like the chambers, are formed of large stones, smooth on the side which is turned inwards, on which very large roof-stones are placed. The chambers, and even the entrances, which are from sixteen to twenty feet in length, are filled with trodden earth and pebbles, the object of which, doubtless, was to protect the repose of the dead in their graves, and the contents which are found in them consist of unburnt human skeletons (which were occasionally placed on a pavement of flat or round stones), together with implements and weapons, and tools of flint or bone, ornaments, pieces of amber, and urns of clay. In some cases smaller chambers have been discovered, annexed to one side of the passage which leads to the larger chamber, and one of these smaller chambers we have engraved as a specimen of the sort of tombs we are now describing.