The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 325, August 2, 1828

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Various. The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 325, August 2, 1828

TREMENDOUS RAINS

CURIOUS SCRAPS

"THE MOUSE TOWER," A GERMAN LEGEND

PRUSSIC ACID

THE ANECDOTE GALLERY. VOLTAIRE

POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS. WITCHCRAFT

Spirit of Discovery

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS. MEN AND MONKEYS

SONNET WRITTEN IN THE SPRING

THE KING OF ARRAGON'S LAMENT FOR HIS BROTHER.1

A SUMMER TOUR

Notes of a Reader

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There are two English proverbs relative to rain; the first is, "It rains by Planets." "This the country people (says Ray) use when it rains in one place and not in another; meaning that the showers are governed by planets, which being erratic in their own motions, cause such uncertain wandering of clouds and falls of rain. Or it rains by planets—that is, the falls of showers are as uncertain, as the motions of the planets are imagined to be." The second—"It never rains but it pours:" which appears to be the case at present. In the year 553 it rained violently in Scotland for five months; in 918 there was a continual rain in that country for five months; a violent one in London 1222; again 1233, so violent that the harvest did not begin till Michaelmas; 1338, from Midsummer to Christmas, so that there was not one day or night dry together; in Wales, which destroyed 10,000 sheep, September 19th 1752; in Languedoc, which destroyed the village of Bar le Due, April 26th, 1776; and in the Island of Cuba, on the 21st of June, 1791, 3,000 persons and 11,700 cattle of various kinds perished by the torrents occasioned by the rains.

P. T. W.

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The Coin Guinea—In the reign of king Charles II., when Sir Robert Holmes, of the Isle of Wight, brought gold-dust from the coast of Guinea, a guinea first received its name from that country.

A Motto.—A constant frequenter of city feasts, having grown enormously fat, it was proposed to write on his back, "Widened at the expense of the corporation of London."

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