THE HALCYON
(For the Mirror.)
So often alluded to by the poets, is the bird called the King Fisher. It was believed by the ancients that while the female brooded over the eggs, the sea and weather remained calm and unruffled; hence arose the expression of Halcyon days.
R.N.
SIR ISAAC NEWTON.
(For the Mirror.)
Woolsthorp, Lincolnshire, a little village on the great north road between Stamford and Grantham, is memorable as the birthplace of that illustrious philosopher, Sir Isaac Newton. The house in which he was born, is a kind of farmhouse, built of stone, and is, or was lately standing. The learned Dr. Stukely visited it in 1721, and was showed the inside of it by the country people; in a letter to Dr. Mead on this occasion, he says, "They led me up stairs, and showed me Sir Isaac's study, where I suppose he studied when in the country, in his younger days, as perhaps, when he visited his mother from the university. I observed the shelves were of his own making, being pieces of deal boxes, which probably he sent his books and clothes down in upon these occasions."