THE KNICKERBOCKER MAGAZINE, EDITED BY LOUIS GAYLORD CLARK. THE number for January, 1856, begins the FORTY-SEVENTH VOLUME of the KNICKERBOCKER MAGAZINE. Since the price of subscription has been reduced from FIVE to THREE DOLLARS a year, the circulation of the KNICKERBOCKER has been increased nearly four to one. In many places ten are sold where there was but one before, and through the year it has been steadily increasing. It is now offered as cheap as any of the Magazines, all things considered. Instead of making new and prodigious promises, we submit a few extracts from notices of late numbers, which we might extend to a number of pages. · Those familiar with the Editor's monthly Gossip with his readers, have doubtless, with ourselves, admired the perennial source of its plesant wit and joyousness. In this number The Gossip' holds on its way like some fair rivulet glancing and dancing in the sunshine of a May morning. We used to wonder how Mr. CLARK held out, expecting he must certainly snow brown' in the coming number; but this number gives no sign of exhaustion.-National Intelligencer. Washington. 'Pleasant, genial, delightful Old KNICK.!' Thy name is a suggestion of all things delectable; tee sight of thy modest, fresh cover, a balm to spiritual sore eyes; a glance within thee, best antidote for the blues. Thou hast given to kindly humor, to piquant delineation, and to side-splitting fun, a 'local habitation,' without which they might go wandering over the domain of letters, calling now and then where a friendly door opened to them but refusing to be comforted for the loss of their old dear home.-Courier, Burlington Vt. 'The great care evinced in the selection of articles that adorn its pages, is a sufficient guaranty that no contribution meets the eye of the reader but those which are known to be worthy of his perusal. When storms and wild tempests are sweeping o'er our hill-side village in these chill winter hours, and all is drear and desolate without, we ask for no more agreeable companion than the 'KNICKERBOCKER;' for while its contents impart valuable information, its sallies of genuine wit are a sovereign specific for all fits of the blues or attacks of the horrors, and time passes merrily on.'Democrat, Doylestown, Pa. "The KNICKERBOCKER has been and will be a fact of its own; a genuine living thing, all the more desirable now that the new crop of magazines, filled with articles pirated from English authors, makes fresh home creations more conspicuous and welcome.'-New-York Christian Inquirer. 'No one ever rose from the perusal of the KNICKERBOCKER & disappointed reader. Whatever may have been his anticipations, they have always been rewarded. When he took up a new number, he felt sure of a literary treat; it was no mere showy repast he was invited to. Did he seek the grave or didactic essay, the touching story, poetic gems, or the humorous tale, he was always sure of finding the object of his search. And then, besides, there was the Gossip' of Old KNICK.,' always looked to with eagerness, never put down except with regret that there were not more pages of inimitable random sketches-the Knick-nacks of that repast.'-Courier, Natchez, Miss. THE KNICKERBOCKER. New-York; Samuel Hueston. This best, decidedly best, of the American magazines seems to have improved in appearance and in the quality of its literary matter-always good-even upon its reduction in price. It is a luxury of which no man who hes three dollars to spare-and who that has a taste for good reading has not should deprive himself, to sit down in a retired corner, when the mind has been wearied with the perplexities of every day pursuits, and pore over the well-stored pages of "Old Knick." We even now read the old volumes of this work, of a dozen years ago, with more real pleasure than half the new publications of the day. Each number will "bear the wear and tear of half a dozen readings," and then the volume be "worthy of good binding and a place on the shelves," and that is what can be truly said of but few of the magazines of the present day. The contents of the Knickerbocker are so varied, that almost every one will find something in its pages to please him-to instruct and amuse. The articles are marked by the highesl order of merit, and in a long series of years we have found nothing in this work to which the most fastidious could object. It is a work which should be on the centre table of every family.-Knoxville Times. Rev. F. W. SHELTON, Author of Letters from Up the River, etc., will be a regular contributor. The best talent in the country will be enlisted, and no expense or effort spared, to make the KNICKERBOCKER more than ever deserving of the first position among our original American Magazines. TERMS.-Three Dollars a year, strictly in advance-there will be no deviation from this condition; Two copies for $5 00; Five copies, and upwards, $2 00 each. Booksellers and Postmasters are requested to act as Agents. Those who will undertake to procure subscribers will receive favorable terms. Specimen numbers will be sent gratis on application, post-paid. INDUCEMENTS FOR CLUBBING.-The KNICKERBOCKER and Harper's, Putnam's, Graham's or Godey's Lady's Book will be sent one year for FIVE dollars; the KNICKERBOCKER and Home Journal, for Four dollars a year. POSTAGE-Two cents per number, prepaid at the office where the work is delivered, quarterly in advance. All remittances and all business communications must be addressed, post-paid, to SAMUEL HUESTON, ART. I. PLEASANT MEMORIES OF THE OLD WORLD. BY JAMES W. WALL, II. A HAPPY HEART. BY SURREY KEENE, III. FANTASIE. BY JACQUES MAURICE, IV. THE WIGWAM OF KENDEE: AN INDIAN SONG, V. THE TRANSFORMED. BY LUCY A. RANDALL, VI. THE RAVEN. BY FRANCIS COPCUTT, VII. SONNET TO MY PIPE-PHANTOM, XII. SKETCHES FROM THE COUNTRY. BY W. L. TIFFANY, XIII. BRIEF LINES FOR AN ALBUM, XIV. MY FRIEND, THE FRIEND.' BY WILLIAM PITT PALMER, XV. LETTERS TO ELLA. NUMBER FIVE, XVI. STANZAS: SMILE UPON ME.' BY 'FAUSTA,' XVII. THE OUTLAWS. BY GEORGE ADAMS, 1. THE PATENT BACK-ACTION SELF-OPERATING HEN-PERSUADER: LETTER TOUCHING THE 'THE MYSTIC,' BY BAILEY: HISTORY OF Medford, MASS.; BY CHARLES BROOKS, ESQ. : 104 Is called to the FOLLOWING NOTICES. ALL Subscriptions to the KNICKERBOCKER must be paid in advance. Every subscriber who desires it will receive a Certificate of Membership in the Cosmopolitan Art Association. We sond the Knickerbocker and Harper's Magazine one year for..$5 00 แ Knickerbocker and Putnam's Knickerbocker and Lady's Book Knickerbocker and Home Journal Two Subscribers for the Knickerbocker one year for. Five Copies or more, in clubs, supplied at Two Dollars a year. Portrait Gallery OF AMERICAN AUTHORS. 5 00 The KNICKERBOCKER GALLERY, with FORTY-EIGHT PORTRAITS of American Authors, is one of the finest and most valuable books for a gift-book ever published in America. The Publisher hopes that every reader will order a copy from the bookseller where he resides, that he may be sure to have it in time. See Advertisement on the Cover, for Style and Prices. Cosmopolitan Art Association. SAMUEL HUESTON, 318 BROADWAY, NEW-YORK, Is Secretary and Agent for this Institution, and will receive subscriptions for all the Magazines mentioned in the Advertisement on second page of Cover. The distribution will positively take place on the 31st of January next. All the Magazines will be Delivered in the City Free of Charge. NOW IS THE TIME TO SUBSCRIBE. ANY book in our Advertising Sheet will be sent, postage paid, to those who will send the amount of price to the publisher of the KNICKERBOCKER, SAMUEL HUESTON, 348 Broadway, New-York. HOLYROOD: EDINBURGH CASTLE: MELROSE: ABBOTSFORD: DRYBURGH. THERE is hardly a street in the old town of Edinburgh that has not its traditions, and the entire locality is alive with historical associations of the most intense interest: yet there is no student either of romance or history but gives to the time-honored precincts of Holyrood and its ruined Abbey Church the precedence over all others. How many wanderers from every region of the earth have traversed the old thoroughfare of the Canongate to visit these venerable piles! In the words of one of the sweetest of our own poets: 'PILGRIMS, whose wandering feet have pressed The Switzer's snows, the Arab's sand; Or trod the piled leaves of the West, Holyrood Palace is a gloomy-looking structure, with pinnacled turrets and a dark exterior that sends a chill to the heart. The existing palace consists of the north-western towers, (the remnant of the royal dwelling of Queen Mary,) and the more recent structure erected by Charles the Second. The palace built by Charles is a quadrangular building, having a square court in the centre. At either extremity is a massive square tower, four stories high, having three circular towers or turrets at its exterior angles, which rise from the ground to the battlements of the main tower, terminating in conical roofs. These two great towers are connected by a receding screen or range of buildings, of mixed architecture, which is considerably lower than the interior sides of the quadrangle, so that the pediment of the eastern side is distinctly visible to one looking at the western elevation. In the centre of this front is the grand entrance, composed of four Roman Doric columns, over which are sculptured the royal arms of Scotland, below an open pediment, on which are two reclining figures, the whole surmounted by a small octagonal tower, terminating in an imperial crown. Passing VOL. XLVII. 1 through the gateway, you enter the inner court, which is surrounded by a piazza having nine arches on each side. For a consideration, (the universal 'open sesame,') we were vouchsafed tickets of admission, and soon were ascending the gloomy staircase, leading to what is known as Darnley's apartments. There is nothing very remarkable in these rooms save some hideous-looking portraits of the Hamilton family, so celebrated in Scottish history. There is in one of these chambers an original portrait of Charles the Second, an ill-looking fellow, upon whose coarse features lust has stamped its unmistakable seal. Returning through Lord Darnley's apartments, and leaving them by the left-hand door of the AudienceChamber, we ascended a still narrower and darker stair-way, to enter what historians, poets, and novelists have combined to render the most interesting suite of rooms in Europe, the apartments occupied by Mary Queen of Scots. The first is the Presence-Chamber, where, on all state occasions, Mary held her receptions. The roof is divided into paneled compartments, adorned with the initials and armorial bearings of royal personages, and the walls are hung with ancient tapestry, the color of which, however, has been almost obliterated by the uncourtly hand of Time. A few of the old embroidered chairs, that once graced the chamber, still stand against the walls. A large double one is shown, with the initials of Mary and Darnley worked at the top by the Queen's own hands, and which once stood upon the raised platform of the throne of Scotland. There is a painting, suspended near the ancient fire-place, said to be of Mary, and taken in the very dress she wore the morning of her execution; but the face is clearly not hers. It looks in its sharpness, and with the red hair curled so primly at the temples, more like the portrait of her hateful rival and persecutor, Elizabeth. An old state-bed, worm-eaten, and with its embossed velvet curtains now mouldering and moth-eaten, stands in one corner of this room it is the one upon which Charles the First slept the night after his coronation in Scotland; and on it, some years after, reposed that graceless young scamp, Prince Charles, who set all the Scottish maidens' hearts a-beating, and Scottish claymores flashing. It was in this chamber that stern reformer Knox had his insulting interviews with Mary, when, to use his own language, he knocked so hastily upon her heart as to make her weep.' Visions of the many thrilling scenes enacted in this old audience-chamber come thronging upon the mind, as you stand within its precincts. Here Mary received the homage from many a noble Scottish heart; but oftener from hearts that even in the presence of their fair Queen were hatching treason against her realm and person. It was over this old floor of oak the ruthless murderers dragged the screaming Rizzio, torn from the private closet of his sovereign, to breathe out his life in the passage adjoining, just at the head of the stair-case. From the audience-chamber you pass by a low door into the Bed-Chamber of Mary. The ceiling is divided into paneled compartments, of diamond form, adorned with the emblems and initials of sovereigns, and the walls are hung with decaying tapestry. The historical and romantic associations connected with this chamber render it undoubtedly the most interesting chamber in the palace, and |