The whole is of silver, and the leaves appear to have been painted green. On opening it we find in the inside the small skull here represented above the apple. The top of the skull opens like a lid, and inside are two small paintings, representing the Creation and the Resurrection, with the inscription, "Post Mortem, vita eternitas." The external inscription is not gallant. To give the apple externally a more natural appearance, there are marks of two bites on the side opposite that here represented, showing a large and small set of teeth.
STRANGE CURIOSITIES.
In the Anatomy Hall of Leyden is a drinking cup of the skull of a Moor, killed in the beleaguring of Haerlem. Also a cup made of a double brain pan. We observe also that No. 51 is the skin of a woman, and No. 52 the skin of a woman, prepared like leather; No. 53 the skin of a Malacca woman, above 150 years old, presented by Richard Snolk, who probably had her flayed.
THE CROSS OF CONG.
The cross, of which the following is a correct representation, possesses eminent claims to a place among our curiosities, since it constitutes the gem of the Museum of the Royal Irish Academy.
This cross was made at Roscommon, by native Irishmen, about the year 1123, in the reign of Turlogh O'Connor, father of Roderick, the last monarch of Ireland, and contains what was supposed to be a piece of the true cross, as inscriptions in Irish, and Latin in the Irish character, upon two of its sides record. The engraving affords a correct idea of the original, as the extremely minute and elaborate ornaments with which it is completely covered, and a portion of which is worked in pure gold, could not possibly be expressed on so reduced a scale. The ornaments generally consist of tracery and grotesque animals fancifully combined, and similar in character to the decorations found upon crosses of stone of about the same period. A large crystal, through which a portion of the wood which the cross was formed to enshrine is visible, is set in the centre.
FOOT-RACING IN 1699.
A remarkable foot-race was run about the year 1699, which is thus described in the manuscript journal of a lady who was one of the spectators:—"I drove through the forest of Windsor to see a race run by two footmen, an English and a Scotch, the former a taller bigger man than the other. The ground measured and cut even in a round was about four miles; they were to run it round so often as to make up twenty-two miles, which was the distance between Charing Cross and Windsor Cross, that is, five times quite round, and so far as to make up the odd miles and measure. They ran a round in twenty-five minutes. I saw them run the first three rounds and half another in an hour and seventeen minutes, and they finished it in two hours and a half. The Englishman gained the start the second round, and kept it at the same distance the five rounds, and then the Scotchman came up to him and got before him to the post. The Englishman fell down within a few yards of the post. Many hundred pounds were won and lost about it. They ran both very neatly, but my judgment gave it to the Scotchman, because he seemed to save himself to the last push."