The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 13, No. 355, February 7, 1829Various
History
The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 13, No. 355, February 7, 1829
Various
Popular literature -- Great Britain -- Periodicals
Of an opposite character, but equally useful, and more attractive for
the general reader, is the second,--_The Spoilsman's Pocket Book_, by a
brother of the author of the preceding. Here are the usual pocket-book
contents, and the laws, &c. of British sports and pastimes--as
shooting, angling, hunting, coursing, racing, cricket, and _skating_:
from the latter we subjoin a hint for the benefit of the _Serpentine
Mercuries_; which proves the adage _ex liguo non fit Mercurius_:--
"Care should be taken that the muscular movements of the whole body
correspond with the movements of the skates, and that it be regulated
so as to be almost imperceptible to the spectators; for nothing so much
diminishes the grace and elegance of skating as sudden jerks and
exertions. The attitude of drawing the bow and arrow, whilst the skater
is forming a large circle on the outside, is very beautiful, and some
persons, in skating, excel in manual exercises and military salutes."
The whole series of pocket books by the Messrs. Adcocks, extend, we
believe, to eight, adapted for all descriptions of _industriels_, as
well as for the less occupied, who are not "the architects of their own
fortunes."
* * * * *
Dr. Parr was the last learned schoolmaster who was professedly an
amateur of the rod; and in that profession there was more of humour
and affectation than of reality, for with all his habitual affectation
and his occasional brutality, Parr was a good-natured, generous,
warm-hearted man; there was a coarse husk and a hard shell, like the
cocoa-nut, but the core was filled with the milk of human
kindness.--_Quarterly Review._
* * * * *
CRANIOLOGY.
On a celebrated craniologist visiting the _studio_ of a celebrated
sculptor in London, his attention was drawn to a bust with a remarkable
depth of skull from the forehead to the occiput. "What a noble head,"
he exclaimed, "is that! full seven inches! What superior powers of mind
must he be endowed with, who possesses such a head as is here
represented!" "Why, yes," says the blunt artist, "he certainly was a
very extraordinary man--that is the bust of my early friend and first
patron, John Horne Tooke." "Ay," answers the craniologist, "you see
there is something after all in our science, notwithstanding the scoffs
of many of your countrymen." "Certainly," says the sculptor; "but here
is another bust, with a greater depth and a still more capacious
forehead." "Bless me!" exclaims the craniologist, taking out his rule,
"eight inches! who can this be? this is indeed a head--in this there
can be no mistake; what depth of intellect, what profundity of thought,
must reside in that skull! this I am sure must belong to some
extraordinary and well-known character." "Why, yes," says the sculptor,
"he is pretty well known--it is the head of Lord Pomfret."
* * * * *
PRYNNE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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