The buttercup blooms in unwonted places. A horse belonging to a farmer near Belford was having an old shoe removed, when a buttercup was found to have taken root between the hoof and the shoe, near the toe. It was in full bloom.
This is the day of rapid travelling. A through railway service has been organised to run from Charing Cross to Constantinople in seventy-six hours. Thus, in three days and a half, one will pass from the city of the Queen to the city of the Sultan.
In England and Wales the receipts for first-class railway season tickets last year amounted to £720,862, for second-class season tickets the receipts amounted to £665,203, and for those of the third-class (including workmen's weekly tickets) the amount was £358,142.
Among the rarities in Dr. Williams' library in Grafton Street, London, is a tiny shorthand Bible, exquisitely written, which is said to have belonged to an apprentice, who, suspicious of James II.'s intentions regarding Protestantism, wrote the whole for himself, fearing that he might be deprived of his printed copy.
Drs. Chauvel and Nimier now announce that, in future warfare with the Lebel rifle, the surgeons will not be perplexed by having to extract balls from wounded soldiers. These projectiles pass through the body, bones, and all, even when fired at a distance of from 1,800 to 2,000 metres (1,980 to 2,200 yards).
A Fortunate Cobbler.—It is announced that a Blackburn cobbler has just come in for a windfall in the shape of property valued at £40,000. He saw an advertisement some time ago with regard to some property in America, to which he has proved himself sole heir. He has left for the New World to take possession of his unexpected wealth.
One day last August a boy, nine years old, went to a school treat, and ran in several races. On returning home he complained of headache, and next morning was seized with pains and became insensible, dying an hour afterwards. The post-mortem examination showed that death was the result of syncope, brought on by fatigue and excitement.
A statement was made at the Spanish Armada Convention at Exeter Hall, recently, to the effect that, during 1878, "in the poor country of Ireland there had been bequeathed to the Roman Catholic Church no less than £750,000 for masses for the souls of the departed." Doubtless Mr. Isaacs had proof of this, for he referred to it as "an ascertained fact."
A papyrus of extraordinary beauty and completeness, of the fourteenth century before our era, has been added to the British Museum. It contains certain chapters of the "Book of Death," carefully copied out by a scribe of Thebes. Its remarkable feature are the illustrations. The colouring of these is as vivid as if the work had been done yesterday, instead of more than thirty centuries ago.
An interesting discovery has just been made by Dr. Tschakort, Professor of Church History in the University of Konigsberg, who has found in the library there numerous manuscript sermons and commentaries by Luther, hitherto absolutely unknown. They were written in the years 1519 to 1521—that is, at the very culminating period of Luther's work as a Church Reformer, after the burning of the Papal bull, and before the Diet of Worms.