The following is an early specimen of that system of poetical advertising which in recent times has become so common. It is always interesting to note the origin of customs with which we subsequently become familiar:-- _Notice to the Public, and especially to Emigrants, who wish to settle on Lands._--The Subscriber offers for Sale, several Thousand Acres of Land, situated in well settled Front Townships, in Lots to suit Purchasers. Particulars about Location, May be known by application. For quality of soil, and so forth, Buyers to see, on Nag must go forth. This much I'll tell ye plainly, Of big trees ye'll see mainly. 'Bout Butter Nut and Beach, A whole week I could preach; But what the plague's the use of that? The lands are nigh, low, round, and flat. There's rocks and stumps, no doubt enough, And bogs and swamps, just _quantum-suff_ To breed the finest of Musquitoes; As in the sea are bred Bonitos, No lack of fever or of ague; And many other things to plague you. In short, they're just like other people's, Sans houses, pigsties, barns, or steeples What most it imports you to know, 'S the terms on which I'll let 'em go. So now I offer to the Buyer, A Credit to his own desire, For butter, bacon, bread, and cheese, Lean bullocks, calves, or ducks and geese, Corn, _Tates_, flour, barley, rye, Or any thing but _Punkin-Pie_. In three, four years, _Aye, five or six_, If that won't do, why let _him_ fix. But when once fix'd, if payment's slack, As sure as Fate, I'll take 'em back. THOMAS DALTON. Kingston Brewery, (Canada,) Nov. 2, 1821. MAGNIFICENCE OF FORMER TIMES. _Account how the Earl of Worcester lived at Ragland Castle in Monmouthshire, before the Civil Wars, which began in 1641._ At eleven o'clock in the forenoon, the Castle gates were shut, and the tables laid; two in the dining-room; three in the hall; one in Mrs. Watson's apartment, where the chaplains are, (Sir Toby Mathews being the first;) and two in the housekeeper's room for the lady's women. The Earl came into the dining-room attended by his gentlemen. As soon as he was seated, Sir Ralph Blackstone, Steward of the house, retired. The Comptroller, Mr. Holland, attended with his staff, as did the Sewer, Mr. Blackburne; the daily waiters, Mr. Clough, Mr. Selby, and Mr. Scudamore; with many gentlemen's sons, from two to seven hundred pounds a year, bred up in the Castle; my Lady's Gentleman Usher, Mr. Harcourt; my Lord's Gentlemen of the Chamber, Mr. Morgan and Mr. Fox. At the first table sat the noble family, and such of the nobility as came. At the second table, in the dining-room, sat Knights and Honourable Gentlemen, attended by footmen.