I that did lend, and yearly spend,

Thousands out of my purse-a ;

And gave the King, O wondrous thing,

At once a hundred horse-a.

And he wished to make out that this dashing body, as with Pecksniff's steed in our times, was "all action and no go.'

From the Life of Suckling, published by the Rev. Alfred Suckling in 1836, it is clear that the knight was grossly misrepresented. He wrote from the Trent side, whither he had led his company of splendid horsemen, that the war was in the state of that portion of the twenty-four hours which we can neither call night nor day. He believed the political question to be, rather, king or no king, than bishop or no bishop. The cavalry was commanded by Lord Holland, "fitter for a show than for a field," who ordered the retreat of Dunse without striking a blow. Mennis's ballad owed its popularity to Suckling's being obnoxious to the Parliamentarians; for it is certain he was in such general high repute, that he continued to enjoy the King's favour, and remained with the army till the negociation with the Scotch was effected. Yet the scurrilous ballad is thus closed :

And now there is peace, he 's return'd to increase

His money, which lately he spent-a,

But his lost honour must still lie in the dust,

At Barwick away it went-a.

But the disputed verse!

After I had in vain searched for it in the British Museum, and elsewhere, the subject was brought forward by some of Mr. Thoms's correspondents, in the periodical named "Notes and Queries." It was suggested that the navy surveyor might have borrowed the hint-for its being his was not questioned from a work called " Apophthegmes, &c. gathered and compiled in Latine by the right famous Clerke, Maister Erasmus, of Roteradame. And now translated into Englyshe by Nicolas Udall, 1542:" in which the couplet is thus expressed :

That same man, that renneth awaie,

Maie again fight, an other daie.

This work and its translation were published early enough for both Mennis and Butler to have seen, had it been necessary to borrow an image which must have been common for ages. Where Erasmus first picked up his story it matters not, for the passage is cited as a well-known proverb in the Noctes Attica of Aulus Gellius. But nil sub sole novum. In the "Apophth. liber iv. Demosthenes Orator," Erasmus shews that, in his judgment, it was a common saying many ages ago: "Demosthenes clypeo suo literis aureis inscripserat ayaf rúxn, id est, Bona Fortuna. Attamen cuum ad pugnam ventum esset, illico projecto clypeo aufugit. Id quum illi probro daretur, quod í aos esset, elusit vulgato versiculo:

Ανὴρ δὲ φεύγων καὶ πάλιν μαχήσεται,

id est,

Vir qui fugit, rursum integrabit prælium

Mortuus enim non

judicans utilius esse patriæ fugere, quam in prælio mori. pugnat, at qui fuga quæsivit salutem, potest in multis præliis patriæ usui fuisse." This will answer for an age of one thousand two hundred years. Need we penetrate further into Ogygian mist for authority?

4. THE LIBRARY.

Having, in our tour of the rooms, merely passed through the library, we will now return for a more deliberate view, as its contents are of considerable importance to the adjoining observatory; of which a separate description must be given. In doing this, the reader shall not be detained with the paintings of old astronomers, the various busts, nor the portraits of Dr. Lee's learned friends; but an exception may possibly be made in favour of the fine marble

bust of the immortal Newton, sculptured for the Doctor from the well-known one by Roubilliac in Trinity College, Cambridge. The large bust of Laplace, which was kindly forwarded by Madame Laplace with another copy for the Bedford Observatory, also merits mention; and, though the names of other gentlemen be omitted as lesser lights, the busts of Mrs. Somerville and Mrs. Smyth, with the portrait of Miss Herschel, should be noticed in deference to the fair sex. These, however, as above said, shall not retard our progress; the return to this spacious room being to catch a glance at its more scientific furniture.

Perhaps the magnificent terrestrial globe, five feet in diameter, with a polaraxis mounting, which graces the south bay-window, the south bay-window, as well as the celestial globes near it, might merit a particular record, were it not that every suitable visiter is tolerably well acquainted with their uses. There is also a very elegant and efficient instrument called a Jupiter's Satellitian, invented by the late Dr. Pearson, and made for him by Fayrer; as well as an excellent Tellurian and Lunarian, by the same persevering astronomer, in which the motions given to the Earth and Moon, as well as those of the inferior planets, Venus and Mercury, are, with extremely well-arranged wheel-work, driven by a watch movement. These instruments have been so fully described by Nicholson, Brewster, and Dr. Pearson himself—by the latter in Rees's Cyclopædia, as to require no further mention. Proceed we therefore to the books.

It should be remarked, that, from the union of the Hartwell, Colworth, and Totteridge libraries, together with the constant additions which have been made by Dr. Lee, the collection is very extensive and valuable. It comprises, in a word, all the best works in the ancient and modern languages in every department of intellectual culture; as well in divinity, history, and law, as in poetry, belles lettres, fine arts, antiquities, natural history, and voyages and travels. Hence the accumulation has been so great, that Dr. Lee has been driven to distribute his books in classes among the various apartments of the house; and, besides those in the principal bedrooms, there is a suite of six airy attics devoted to that object. But our present attention must be directed only to the graver order of books before us; for, since the observatory has been attached,

this room has become the principal depositary of ready reference and mental aid for that establishment.

The portion of the library now treated of, consists therefore of mathematical and philosophical works in their various forms and applications, both English and Foreign, from the earliest period to the present time; among which are many of rare occurrence. The astronomical branch-with its dependent mathematics, optics, and mechanics-is especially rich, both in standard publications and periodicals there are moreover copies of the best sidereal atlases; astronomical observations and catalogues of the Observatories of Greenwich, Cambridge, Oxford, Edinburgh, Göttingen, Dorpat, Madras, Cadiz, and the Cape of Good Hope; and the transactions of Academical Societies in London, Paris, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Turin, Leipsig, Philadelphia, and other places. It may therefore aid consultation to give an alphabetical roll of the host of authors in this scientific treasury:

Adams, George

Airy, George Biddell

Apollonius Pergaus

Arago, F. I. D.

Aratus Solensis

Archimedes Syracusanus

Argelander, F. G. A.

Argoli, Andreas

Aristarchus Samius

Assemanni, Simon

Atwood, George

Babbage, Charles

Bacon, Francis

Bagay, V.

Bagwell, William
Baily, Francis

Bailly, John Sylvanus

Baker, Henry

Bamfield, Samuel

Barlow, Peter

Barret, John

Barriffe, William

Beaufoy, Mark

Beccaria, Giambatista

Beer, William
Belidor, Bernard

Benese, Syr Rycharde
Berkeley, George

Bernouilli, Daniel

Bernouilli, John

Berthoud, Ferdinand

Bessel, F. W.
Bion, Nicolas

Biot, Jean Baptiste
Bisset, Charles
Blagrave, John
Blanchino, Francisco
Bland, Miles
Bode, John Elert
Bonnycastle, John
Borelli, Pietro

Bradley, James
Brahe, Tycho
Brent, Charles
Brewster, David
Bridge, Benj.
Briggs, Henry

Brisbane, Thomas MacDougal

Brinkley, John

Bryan, Margaret

Burckhardt, J. C.

Burg, M. de
Burnet, T.

Cacciatore, Nicolò
Cagnoli, Antonio
Calandrelli, Giuseppe
Calemand, M. N.
Callet, François
Carnot, L. M. N.
Carr, Rev. John