And it is common tradition that the bells of King's College chapel, in the university of Cambridge, were taken by Henry v. from some church in France, after the battle of Agincourt. They were taken down some years ago, and sold to Phelps, the bell-founder in Whitechapel, who melted them down.

The practice of ringing bells in change is said to be peculiar to this country, but the antiquity of it is not easily to be ascertained; there are in London several societies of ringers, particularly one called the college youths; of this it is said, Sir Matthew Hale, lord chief justice of the court of King's Bench, was in his youth a member; and in the life of this learned and upright judge, written by Bishop Burnet, some facts are mentioned which favour this report. In England the practice of ringing is reduced to a science, and peals have been composed which bear the names of the inventors. Some of the most celebrated peals now known were composed about fifty years ago by one Patrick; this man was a maker of barometers; in his advertisements he styled himself Torricellian operator, from Torricelli, who invented instruments of this kind.

In the year 1684 one Abraham Rudhall, of the city of Gloucester, brought the art of bell-founding to great perfection. His descendants in succession have continued the business of casting bells; and by a list published by them, it appears that at Lady-day, 1774, the family, in peals and odd bells, had cast to the amount of 3594. The peals of St. Dunstan's in the East, and St. Brides's, London; St. Martin's in the Fields, Westminster; are in the number.

ST. CECILIA.

St. Cecilia, among Christians, is esteemed the patroness of music; for the reasons whereof we must refer to her history, as delivered by the notaries of the Roman church, and from them transcribed into the Golden Legend, and other books of the like kind. The story says she was a Roman lady, born of noble parents, about the year 225. That notwithstanding she had been cenverted to Christianity, her parents married her to a young Roman nobleman, named Valerianus, a pagan; who going to bed to her on the wedding-night, (as the custom is, says the book,) was given to understand by his spouse that she was nightly visited by an angel, and

thas he must forbear to approach her, otherwise the angel would destroy him.

Valerianus, somewhat troubled at these words, desired he might see his rival the angel; but his spouse told him that was impossible, unless he would be baptised, and become a Christian, which he consented to; after which, returning to his wife, he found her in her closet at prayer, and by her side, in the shape of a beautiful young man, the angel clothed with brightness. After some conversation with the angel, Valerianus told him that he had a brother named Tiburtius, whom he greatly wished to see a partaker of the grace which he himself had received; the angel told him that his desire was granted, and that shortly they should be both crowned with martyrdom. Upon this the angel vanished, but soon aftor shewed himself as good as his word; Tiburtius was converted, and both he and his brother Valerianus were beheaded. Cecilia was offered her life upon condition she would sacrifiee to the Roman deities, but she refused; upon which she was thrown into a cauldron of boiling water, and scalded to death; though others say she was stifled in a dry bath, i. e. an inclosure, from whence the air was excluded, having a slow fire underneath it, which kind of punishment the Romans sometimes inflicted upon female criminals of quality.

THE GERMAN EMPIRE.

Pepin le Bref, or the short, on account of his courage, had been crowned king of France, and maintained himself on the throne. Charlemagne and Carloman, his sons, divided his estates between themselves. Some of the nobility, who thought that the youth of the two kings afforded a favourable opportunity of shaking off the yoke which Pepin had imposed on them, rose in arms, and caused Aquitaine and the Gascons to revolt: but Charles, equally active, vigilant, and courageous, hastened to march against them. He dispersed their armies, and brought them prisoners to his camp. This victory, which evinced his superior military talents, caused all the sovereigns of Europe to tremble.

Didier, king of the Lombards, sought an alliance with the prince whom he had proposed to attack, and offered him his daughter, Sibille, in marriage. To this effect, he had recourse to the interference of Berthruda, mother to Charlemagne, whom he knew to enjoy a great influence over the

mind of her son; and Charles married Sibille, notwithstanding the efforts of Pope Stephen IV. who, knowing how inimical this alliance would prove to this interest, employed invectives and menaces to bar its execution.

Sibille was subject to certain infirmities, which soon disgusted her husband; he divorced her, and married Hildegarde, who was of an illustrious family among the Sucoes.

Meanwhile Carloman died at Samancy near Laon, leaving two sons, Pepin and Siagre; but all the French, who admired the virtues of Charles, would have no other king. Goberge, the widow of Carloman, apprehensive lest her two sons should undergo a similar fate to that which had befallen the children of several kings, sought a refuge with them in the dominions of the king of Lombardy.

Didier conceived that this step of the widowed queen afforded him a pretence to avenge the insult offered to his daughter; and, he therefore, welcomed the fugitive queen with great satisfaction. He levied an army, and endeavoured to procure such allies as were capable of seconding him in his enterprize. When his measures appeared to be well concerted, he demanded of the Pope to crown Carloman's sons kings of Austrasia. The papal chair was held at the time, by Adrian 1. a man of great abilities and firmness. This pontiff, who knew what a difference was to be made between Charles and Didier, constantly refused to comply with the king of Lombardy's proposal, and sent to request assistance from Charles. Didier, at the head of a formidable army, marched to besiege Rome. Charles, at the head of the French, defeated the Lombards, who attempted to oppose his passage over the Alps, cut them to pieces, pursued Didier, who had retreated to Pavia, took him prisoner, assumed the title of king of the Lombards, and confirmed the donation made by Pepin to the Pope, retaining, however, for himself, the sovereign authority in Rome, and in the other parts of Italy. His power, his zeal for the religion, and his respect for those who occupied the chair of St. Peter, suggested to the Pope the idea of proclaiming him Emperor of the West. Pope Leo 111. seized the opportunity of that monarch visiting Rome, to place the imperial crown on his head, and to proclaim him Emperor of the Romans, a ceremony which was performed with the unanimous consent of the people and of the clergy. Such was the origin of the German Empire.

POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS.

The feathers of a dove are supposed to possess a very par ticular power of resisting death; a person laying his head upon a pillow, stuffed with them, cannot die, but continues struggling with the agonies of death till it is removed. On this account the pillows of dying persons are frequently taken away lest they should contain pigeon's feathers.

Fern-seed is imbued with very important magical properties, and the spirits are so very tenacious of it, that they will not suffer any person to gather it in quiet. A woman, who was sent to gather some, reported that the spirits whisked by her ears, and sometimes struck her hat, and different parts of her body; and when, at length, she had collected a considerable quantity, and, as she thought, secured it, the box proved to be empty.

Many people destroy the egg-shells after they have eaten the meat; this custom originated from a desire of preventing witches from using them as boats.

A Manuscript in the Cotton Library, marked Julius, f. 6. has the following superstitions, practised in the Lordship of Gasborough, in Cleveland, Yorkshire.

"Any one whistling after it is dark, or day-light is closed, must go thrice about the house by way of penance. How this whistling becomes criminal is not said.

"When any one dieth, certain women sing a song to the dead body, reciting the journey the deceased must go.

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They esteem it necessary to give, once in their lives, a pair of new shoes to a poor person; believing that, after their decease, they shall be obliged to pass bare-foot over a great space of ground, or heath, over-grown with thorns and furzes ; unless, by such a gift, they have redeemed this obligation; in which case, when they come to the edge of this heath, an old man will meet them, with the self-same pair of shoes they had given, by the help of which they will pass over unhurt; that is, provided the shoes have no holes in them; a circumstance the fabricator of the tale forgot to stipulate.

"Between the towns of Aten and Newton, near the foot of Rosberrye Toppinge, there is a well, dedicated to St. Oswald. The neighbours have an opinion that a shirt, or shift,

taken off a sick person, and thrown into that well, will shew whether the person will recover or die; for if it floated, it denoted the recovery of the party; if it sunk, there remained no hope of their life and to reward the saint for his intelligence, they tear off a rag of the shirt, and leave it hanging on the briars thereabout." These wells, called rag-wells, were formerly not uncommon. Something like them is mentioned by Mr. Hanway, in his Travels in Persia, vol. 1. p. 177; where he says, "After ten days' journey we arrived at a desolate caravansera, where we found nothing but water. I observed a tree covered with rags tied to the branches : these were so many charms, which passengers coming from Ghilan, a province remarkable for agues, had left there, in a fond expectation of leaving this disease also on the same spot."

A WITCH.

A Witch is almost universally a poor, decrepit, superannuated, old woman; who being in great distress, is tempted by a man clothed in a black coat or gown; sometimes, as in Scotland, wearing also a bluish band and hand-cuffs, that is, a kind of turn-up linen sleeve; this man promises her, if she will sign a contract to become his, both soul and body, she shall want for nothing, and that he will revenge her upon all her enemies. The agreement being concluded, he gives her some trifling sum of money, from half-a-crown to fourpence, to bind the bargain; then cutting or pricking her finger, causes her to sign her name, or make a cross as her mark, with her blood, on a piece of parchment: what is the form of these contracts is no where mentioned. In addition to this signature, in Scotland, the Devil made the witches put one hand to the sole of their foot, and the other to the crown of their head, thereby signifying they were entirely his. In making these bargains there is sometimes a great deal of haggling, as is instanced in the account of the negotiation between Oliver Cromwell and the Devil, before the battle of Worcester, published in Echard's History of England. Before the Devil quits his new recruit, he delivers to her an imp or familiar, and sometimes two or three; they are of different shapes and forms, some resembling a cat or kitten, others a mole, a miller fly, or some other insect or animal; these are to come at her call, to do such mischief as she shall direct