[5] The paste formed of these materials was spread upon broad cabbage leaves, which came out of the oven covered with a slight golden crust, composing the mias cakes.--Tristan le Voyageur. [6] Tristan le Voyageur. Boiled radishes, it may be important to know, are an excellent substitute for asparagus! [7] Forks did not come into use till the time of Charles V. in the latter half of the fourteenth century. In France, these instruments, both in silver and tinned iron, are made so as to bear some resemblance to the fingers, of which they are the substitutes, and they are used exclusively in the business of conveying food to the mouth; while the knives, being narrow and sharp-pointed, can answer no purpose but that of carving.--In England the case is different. The steel forks, in common use among the people, are incapable of raising thin viands to the mouth: while the broad, round-pointed knife was obviously intended for this business. [8] The vin d'Aï, in Champagne, according to Patin, was called "Vinum Dei," by Dominicus Bandius. It was the common drink of kings and princes.--Paumier, Traité du Vin. [9] Mabillon, Annales Benedictines. * * * * * THE GATHERER. A snapper up of unconsidered trifles. SHAKSPEARE. A clergyman of the name of Mathson was minister of Patteesdale, in Westmoreland, sixty years, and died at the age of ninety. During the early part of his life, his benefice brought him in only twelve pounds a-year; it was afterwards increased (perhaps by Queen Anne's bounty) to eighteen, which it never exceeded. On this income he married, brought up four children, and lived comfortably with his neighbours, educated a son at the university, and left behind him upwards of one thousand pounds. With that singular simplicity and inattention to forms which characterize a country life, thus he himself read the burial service over his mother, he married his father to a second wife, and afterwards buried him also. He published his own banns of marriage in the church, with a woman he had formerly christened, and he himself married all his four children. W.G.C. * * * * * THE POPE PUZZLED. Pope Alexander the sixth asked the Venetian ambassador at Rome, "What right his republic had to the dominion of the Adriatic See?" "It will be found," replied he, "on the back of the donation of the patrimony of St. Peter to his successors." W.A.R. * * * * * CHANGING SIDES. "I am come from Naples to support you," said one of the old opposition one night to a member on the ministerial benches. "From Naples!" was the ready rejoinder; "much farther--you are come from the other side of the House!" * * * * * TO MOLLY.