In the Reign of King Henry II. anno. 1089, the bones of King Arthur, and his wife Guenevor were found in the vale of Avalon, under an hollow oak, fifteen feet under ground, the hair of the said Guenevor being then whole and fresh, of a yellow colour; but as soon as it was touched, it fell to powder, as Fabian relateth: this was more than six hundred years after his death. His shin bone, set by the leg of a tall man, reached above his knee the breadth of three fingers. _Baker’s Chronicle._ * * * * * The body of Albertus Magnus was taken out of his sepulchre, to be re-interred in the midst of the chancel in a new tomb for that purpose, it was two hundred years from the time wherein he had been first buried; yet was he found entire without any kind of deformation, unless it was this (says a celebrated historian) that his jaw seemed to be somewhat fallen. * * * * * Mr. Brydone in his travels, speaking of a Sicilian Convent, says, the famous convent of Capuchins, about a mile without the city of Palermo, contains nothing very remarkable but the burial place, which is indeed a great curiosity. This is a vast subterraneous apartment, divided into large commodious galleries, the walls on each side of which are hollowed out into a variety of niches, as if intended for a great collection of statues. These niches, instead of statues, are filled with dead bodies set upright upon their legs, and fixed by the back to the inside of the niche. Their number is about three hundred. They are all dressed in the clothes they usually wore, and form a most respectful and venerable assembly. The skin and muscles, by a certain preparation, become as dry and hard as a piece of stock fish: and although many of them have been here upwards of two hundred and fifty years, yet none are reduced to skeletons. The muscles indeed, in some, appear to be a good deal more shrunk in some than in others; probably because these persons had been more extenuated at the time of their death. Here the people of Palermo pay daily visits to their deceased friends, and recall with pleasure and regret, the scenes of their past life. Here they familiarize themselves with their future state, and choose the company they would wish to keep in the other world. It is a common thing to make choice of their niche, and to try if the body fits it, that no alterations may be necessary after they are dead; and sometimes by way of a voluntary penance, they accustom themselves to stand for hours in these niches. The bodies of the princes and first nobility, are lodged in handsome chests, or trunks; some of them richly adorned. These are not in the shape of coffins, but all of one width, and about a foot and a half or two feet deep. The keys are kept by the nearest relations of the family, who sometimes come and drop a tear over their departed friends. Some of the Capuchins sleep in these