with transparent ice. A bason of ice filled with wine was also handed to him, and he was informed that to prepare all these things in summer was a new art. A few years after the publication of the book just mentioned, a new beverage was introduced, called lemonade, which soon came into high repute, and was recommended by physicians against putrid diseases. About the year 1660 an Italian from Florence, having learnt a process of freezing confectionary, which had been before employed only by jugglers, conceived the happy idea of converting such beverage entirely into ice. This found a ready sale, and was the occasion of so great an increase in the number of sellers of lemonade, that, in the year 1676, the lemonadiers of Paris were formed into a company, and received a patent from the government. In the beginning of the next century, the principle of congealing water by the mixture of salt or nitre with ice and snow was so well known, that it was then become, in Paris and elsewhere, a common amusement for children, who had a trick of placing a jug containing a mixture of snow and saltpetre on a table over which water had been poured, and agitating the mixture with a stick, till the jug became firmly frozen to the table'. Towards the end of the month, the wild orach (chenopodium album), the wild clary (salvia verbenaca), the sweet gale (myrica gale), the golden rod (senecio paludosus), the milk-thistle (carduus marianus), and ladies-traces (ophrys spiralis), have their flowers in full bloom. Several maritime plants flower this month ;-glasswort (salicornia herbacea), and grass-wrack (zostera marina), on sea-coasts; the samphire (crithmum maritimum), and the asparagus officinalis, among 'See Mr. Parkes's Chemical Essays, vol. i, p. 239; Rees's Cyclopædia, art. Cooling of Liquors; and Beckmann's History of Inventions, vol. iii. rocks. On sandy shores may be seen the sea campion, or catchfly (silene maritima), sea spurge (euphorbia paralia), and lavender cotton (santolina maritima). On sea shores are found the sea-stock (cheiranthus sinuatus), and sea wormwood (artemisia maritima). In this, and the succeeding month, much knowledge may be gained of marine plants, shells, &c. &c., by those who visit the sea-coast. The healthful amusement of wandering over the sands or beach, and among the caverns of our sea-girt isle, may easily be rendered improving to the mind, as well as the body, by bringing us acquainted with the great Author of Nature, in the apparently most insignificant, but wonder-fraught, works of his almighty hand. See an interesting narrative of the examination of some shell-fish (echini marini) in our last_volume, p. 250. The best live shells are collected by means of a trawling-net, such as are used by fishermen, if the depths will permit; they are also brought up by the cable in weighing anchor, and the log-line in sounding. After a storm, good shells may be picked up on the sea beaches, or shores, as the violent agitation of the water in a tempest separates them from their native beds, and often casts them on the shore; but such as have been exposed for some time to the heat of the sun, or beaten by the waves, are of little value, as their colours will be faded, and the shells worn and broken choose, therefore, always such shells as lie in the deepest parts of their resorts and under water, whether taken up by the drag-net, from the sides of rocks, or bottoms of ships, &c. Pilchards are taken in great quantities in this month. INSCRIPTION for a TABLET on the BANKS of u STREAM. Stranger! awhile upon the mossy bank Recline thee. If the sun rise high, the breeze, That loves to ripple o'er the rivulet, Will play around thy brows, and the cool sound Of running waters sooth thee. Hark!. how clear Where o'er its surface wheels, with restless speed, How the swift shadow flies. The stream is pure Bends o'er its course, and drinks the vital waves; SOUTHEY. SEPTEMBER. SEPTEMBER is composed of septem, seven, and the termination ber, like lis in Aprilis, Quintilis, Sextilis. This rule will also apply to the three following months, Octo-ber, Novem-ber, Decem-ber. Our Saxon ancestors called it Gerst-monat, for that barley which that moneth commonly yeelded, was antiently called gerst.' 6 Remarkable Days In SEPTEMBER 1818. 1.-SAINT GILES. GILES, or Ægidius, was born at Athens, but, after he had disposed of his patrimony in charitable uses, came to France in the year 715. He lived two years with Cæsarius, Bishop of Arles, and afterwards retired into solitude. Charles Martel, when hunting, found him in his hermit's cell, and, pleased with his unaffected piety and sanctity of manners, erected an abbey for him at Nismes, of which he was consituted abbot. He died in the year 795. *1. 1715. LOUIS XIV Died. The age of Louis XIV will always be a memorable period in history, and his personal character, as great ly influencing its events, will continue to be an interesting object of speculation. Yet he had none of the commanding qualities which create a nation or an æra, and would not have been distinguished from common princes under common circumstances. His natural good sense, and sedateness, would have made him respectable, though not brilliant, in an inferior situation; and it may be said in alleviation of his faults, that never was any man more exposed to moral perversion by a bad education, and the extravagant flattery of a whole people, who indulged their own vanity in deifying their monarch. He was perpetually told that he was the greatest of all mortals, and he believed it; he saw every thing bowing at his feet, and he thought that his will ought to be the sole law on earth. That he was not an insupportable tyrant could only be owing to something radically good in his disposition. His nation made great advances in his reign, for which, however, it was no further obliged to him, than as he was a general encourager of every thing which could contribute to his own glory. One of his ablest panegyrists has summed up his character by saying, that, if he was not a great king, he was at least a great actor of royalty. His plan of pensioning all the eminent men of letters throughout Europe, secured to him, at a very small expense, more erudite adulation than any prince in modern times has received. 2.-LONDON BURNT. The fire of London broke out on Sunday morning, September 2d, 1666, O.S.; and being impelled by strong winds, raged with irresistible fury nearly four days and nights; nor was it entirely mastered till the fifth morning after it began. This most destructive conflagration commenced at the house of one Farryner, a baker, in Pudding lane, near [New] Fish-street Hill, and within ten houses of Thames-street, into which it spread in a few hours; nearly the whole of the contiguous buildings being of timber, lath, and plaster, and the whole neighbourhood presenting T little else than closely confined passages and narrow alleys. The fire quickly spread, and was not to be conquered by any human means. The immense property destroyed in this dreadful time cannot be estimated at less than ten millions sterling. Amid all the confusion and multiplied dangers that arose from the fire, it does not appear that more than six persons lost their lives. Calamitous as were the immediate consequences of this dreadful fire, its remote effects have proved an incalculable blessing to subsequent generations. To this conflagration may be attributed the complete destruction of the PLAGUE, which, the year before only, swept off 68,590 persons!! To this tremendous fire we owe most of our grand public structures-the regularity and beauty of our streets—and, finally, the great salubrity and extreme cleanliness of a large part of the city of London. For an interesting account of this fire, written by an eye-witness, see T. T. for 1816, p. 249-258. 7.-SAINT EUnerchus. Eunerchus, or Evortius, was Bishop of Orleans, and present at the council of Valentia, A. D. 375. The circumstances of his election to this see were considered as miraculous, and principally ascribed to a dove, which alighted upon his head in consequence of the prayers of the electors. Other wonderful effects of his own prayers are attributed to him; such as extinguishing fire in the city almost instantaneously; finding a large pot of gold, which had long lain concealed under the ruins of a church, and which proved nearly sufficient to defray the expenses of rebuilding it; the conversion of 7000 infidels in the space of three days only; and, lastly, foretelling not only the time of his own death, but nominating a successor in the person of Arianus. 8.-NATIVITY OF THE VIRGIN MARY. A concert of angels having been heard in the air to solemnize this important event, the festival was appointed by Pope Servius about the year 695, |