We chanced to fall upon the Shepherd's allusion to the liberties taken with his name in _Blackwood's Magazine_, which work owes its establishment and much of its early success to Mr. Hogg's co-operation. We believe it to be pretty well known that the offensive language attributed to the Shepherd in the "Noctes" has no more to do with Mr. Hogg than by attempting to imitate his conversational style. This impropriety, which is beyond a literary joke, was reprobated some months since by the _Quarterly Review_, but here the offending parties are properly visited with a burst of honest indignation which may not pass unheeded. Mr. Hogg says "For my part, after twenty years of feelings hardly suppressed, he has driven me beyond the bounds of human patience. That Magazine of his, which owes its rise principally to myself, has often put words and sentiments into my mouth of which I have been greatly ashamed, and which have given much pain to my family and relations, and many of those after a solemn written promise that such freedoms should never be repeated. I have been often urged to restrain and humble him by legal measures as an incorrigible offender deserves. I know I have it in my power, and if he dares me to the task, I want but a hair to make a tether of." The Shepherd appears to have written since 1813, fifteen volumes of poetry and as many volumes of prose, besides his contributions to periodical works; and, what is not the less extraordinary he was forty years of age before he wrote his first poem. The Tales in the present volume are the Adventures of Captain Lochy, the Pongos, and Marion's Jock. * * * * * THE GATHERER. _Marriage Tree_.--A marriage tree, generally of the pine kind, is planted in the churchyard, by every new-married couple, in the parish of Varallo Pombio, in the Tyrol. A fine grove of pines, the result of this custom, now shades this churchyard. W.G.C. _Slippery Love_.--Thevenard was the first singer of his time, at Paris, in the operas of Lulli. He was more than sixty years old when, seeing a beautiful _female slipper_ in a shoemaker's shop, he fell violently in love, unsight, unseen, with the person for whom it was made; and having discovered the lady, married her. He died at Paris in 1741, at the age of 72. P.T.W. Character of England. Anglia, 1 Mons, 2 Pons, 3 Fons, 4 Ecclesia, 5 Faemina, 6 Lana. (That is to say:) For 1, Mountains; 2, Bridges; 3, Rivers; 4, Churches faire; 5, Women; and 6, Wool, England is past compare. G.K. _On our Lady Church in Salisbury_. How many dayes in one whole year there be, So many windows in one church we see, So many marble pillars there appear, As there are hours throughout the fleeting year. So many gates, as moons one year do view, Strange tale to tell, yet not so strange as true. G.K.