mestic offices. Perhaps the best conception that can be formed of the extent of the old palace is by passing along the tennis-court lane, and inspecting the north front from the gateway to the tennis court. This is all Wolseyan, with the exception of the modern windows and a projecting building. The old chimneys may here be seen, and their ample space and solidity will allow us to form some notion of the hospitably and good cheer which took place in the Cardinal's establishment. Each of these fire-places is large enough to roast an ox, being nineteen and a half feet in width, and eight and a half feet in height. It is evident that the attendants were not allowed to enter the kitchens, as each of them has a large square opening communicating with the several passages, which was closed until the dinners were dressed, when a large wooden flap was let down, and the dishes placed upon it, which were then removed by servants to the outside. When we consider that Wolsey's palace is stated to have contained fifteen hundred rooms, we shall become persuaded that the enormous kitchens and fireplaces were not out of proportion to the number of his attendants and guests.

"This night he makes a supper, and a great one,
To many lords and ladies: there will be

The beauty of this kingdom.

That churchman bears a bounteous mind indeed,
A hand as fruitful as the land that feeds us:]
His dews fall everywhere."-KING HENRY VIII.

The right royal road to Hampton Court is by the "silent highway" of the Thames. Doubtless this was Wolsey's route from his York Palace at Whitehall hither, and the convenience of water transport must have influenced his selection of the spot as the site of the gorgeous and magnificent establishment. It is, however, a good day's journey to and from Hampton Court by the river, and leaves the visitor only an hour or two to see the palace. For an out-of-doors excursion, making the palace the goal, and seeing only its grounds, few things are pleasanter than this trip by water. But when the visit is to Hampton Court, proper and limited to a single day, the speediest way of reaching the place must be the best; for you will have enough to do there without thinking of what may be interesting on the route thither. But we refrain from going farther into econonomical directions, whether as may respect the husbanding of time, or the contents of your pocket, or the article of comfort. Railway and omnibus, inn and hotel must be inquired into for these ends.

SUPERSTITIONS OF SPAIN.

Every country has its proverbs, adages, and superstitions. In no civilized part of Europe are these more numerous than in Spain. It is not our intention to enter largely upon the subject, as volumes would scarcely suffice to embrace it fully, or trace its sources. The following popular superstitions pervade all classes of the Spanish people, and may not be generally known in England.

All persons born in Spain on Good Friday are believed to possess the intuitive faculty of seeing the apparitions of those who have been assassinated, or have perished unfairly by steel. This strange gift is said to have been exercised by Philip the Fourth, who, in his infancy, gave some marvellous tokens of this supposed power. Another much more valuable gift was bestowed, according to the same credence, this was, that all persons born on Good Friday possessed the prerogative of passing through fire and flames unscathed.

The “mal dos ojos” (evil eye) is another strongly prevailing superstition. It is generally believed by the lower classes of Spaniards and many of the higher grades of life, that certain persons have the power conferred on them of casting an evil eye on whom they please-that its fatal influence falls indifferently on all they gaze upon, and without its being exercised as an act of revenge towards any particular object, or in consequence of any personal dislike. Mr. de Bruna, who, within a few years collected many interesting facts respecting the history, manners, and habits of the Spanish people, had pointed to him, at Madrid, a beggar who always wore a black patch over his left eye, which he never removed

that eye being an evil eye, which was the hereditary gift of his family, of such a fatal power that it was believed to occasion death when fixed upon any one.

Much has been written on the subject of the fingers of the hand, and the belief of the Arab on that subject. These superstitious ideas remain undiminished to the present day in their Spanish descendants.. A young woman meeting an old one with whom she is unacquainted, or whose appearance looks witch likė, directly thrusts her thumb between the middle and fore finger of her left hand, and holding it towards the suspected party, says, toma la maro (here's my hand— or, look at my hand-or, take my hand). If the person to whom this is said answers without hesitation, Dios te bendiga! (God bless thee), all is as it should be with the bewitching old woman; but if she for a moment hesitates the consequences may prove fatal to the poor creature, as she would most certainly be hunted and maltreated like a wild beast.

The moors, from whom nearly all these superstitions are handed down, attribute several mysterious significations of the hand. In one sense it signified

Providence; in another it was the prototype or rather the abridgment of the law. The hand has four fingers and a thumb-the first provided with three joints or articulations, the latter with only two-all of them constitute an unity which forms their basis. The law of Mahomet has five fundamental precepts—each of these possess three modifications, except the first, which has only two, answering to the thumb-these are, heart and work-the third signification is purely superstitious. The moors believed that the hand, representing by its structure an abridged representation of the law, became a powerful defence against the enemies of that law. They even thought that it was capable of operating miracles if they could discover in it the favourable signs of the constellations, according to the rules of occult science. And the hand to the present time is traced by the descendants of a moorish or Egyptian race, known in every part of Europe under the names of gitanos or gypsies, when the credulity of weak minds threw away their hard-earned gains to peep into the impenetrable depths of futurity-themselves furnishing at all times sufficient hints to enable the Sybil to fathom, without much celestial wisdom, the secret they most wish to have confirmed.

On the principal gate of the Alhambra is to be seen an open hand, possibly intended to signify that position as being the most favourable to push an enemy away, or to imply a desire that no enemy should approach.

In all parts of Spain old and young may frequently be seen, with little hands, the fingers closed, and the thumb thrust between the middle and fore fingers, sculptured in ivory amber, jet gold, or silver-these are worn as amulets, sometimes on one part, sometimes on another of the body, and frequently applied in cases of local disease to the part affected—it is to be hoped with great efficacy.

In China precisely the same amulets are worn against witchcraft, and it may be a curious matter of research to trace how such a similarity of superstitious feeling should exist in nations differing so widely in every other matter of cre→ dence, or if the expression may be allowed, of faith. That is, however, a specúlation not adapted to these pages.

THE PEDLAR'S STORIES.

Passing in the course of our trafficking travel through a thriving seaport, Simon turned into a large shop to make some purchases. At a desk behind the counter there sat a weather-beaten rough little man, who was too much occupied with his day-book and ledger to observe us. While the shopman was supplying our wants, Simon hailed him with "Well captain, how goes it?" Up, or rather down, started the stumpy bustling man from his tall three-legged stool, and blythely returned the salutation. Balancing himself on his two feet, as if he had

been fixing himself on deck in a stiff breeze, and pulling up at each side what no man dare to call by the right name, as sailors are wont to haul up their trousers at the end of a job, he clapt both hands into his waistcoat pockets, end clearing his throat, with an emphatic wag of the head and a wink with one eye, he went on to answer the pedlar's queries after his welfare, in a few common-place phrases which conveyed but little information. He was evidently not in the habit to give other than indefinite answers to such every-day questions; and the sight of a stranger with his old friend most probably occasioned him just as much concern as what to say about his own well-being. "Thank ye, Mr. Simon, thank ye, Frazer, safe at anchor now; had my day of it—a rough day; am now in port; try to do my best; hard lines these, though; poor sales, sir, poor sales, I assure you; worse pay," &c. &c. He was full of civility, and bustle, and anxiety to serve us; asked Simon to his house to dine, to sleep, and so forth, but we only staid to pay what was purchased, and to have the goods packed for our carrying.

The instant we were fairly out of the shop, Simon observed that "it is worth walking five Scotch miles to see that man, if it were no more than to teach everybody, that no man born in this country, if he is blessed with an ordinary share of and number of years, need despair in respect of getting on in the world.

"Who is he?" I naturally inquired.

"Who is he?" Simon repeated. "Indeed, my boy, not many can tell you that; bnt I'll give you all I know of him.

"About forty years ago, he was put into the basket of the Foundling Hospital in Edinburgh, with a ten pound bank note, and a scrawl pinned to his breast, stating his name should be Charles Galloway. I have no power, whatever might be the wish, to lay open the secrets of the prison-house, or even of those places which are founded on the principles of pure philanthropy and Christian charity. I cannot, of my own knowledge, tell whether the poor infants whom fathers and mothers forsake, find that mercy and kindness under the hands of hired strangers which their parents have utterly denied. Certain it is, however, this singular man's appearance now bears heavy marks of severe accidents, or of great misusage at some period, no doubt of an early date in his life. Still sad injuries may be sustained in spite of the most vigiiant care of nurse or mother. At the same time I must mention that I have learnt, that when apprenticed, which was at a very early age, to be a sea-boy on board a Leith trader, he there received the mast cruel treatment from the savage master and the senseless crew; which indeed became at length so intolerable, that, driven to absolute despair, he made his escape in the night, while the vessel was lying at Bristol, with no other possession than the ragged clothes on his person. He ran for his life through the

unknown city, thinking no doubt every sound he heard was a pursuer; and having by the time day dawned reached the open country, he hid himself in a hole till it was dark again, so as to screen him from his tormentors.

Again, he set forward, wandering he knew not whither, along cross-roads and through by-ways, till about noon he came to a farm-steading, when, exhausted with hunger, fatigue, and misery of heart, he staggered into an open out-house, and sinking down upon some straw, fell asleep. When he awoke, he found several people standing around him, and his dirty ragged appearance exciting suspicion, they were about to tumble him into the road. But starvation and the woe-begone in spirit are eloquent pleaders! He implored in accents of resistless earnestness that he might have a morsel of bread, and told his story with all the evidences of unvarnished home-telling truth. Instantly a prompt-hearted Irishman, nearly as naked as himself, started up in his behalf, and by his intercession, not less straight-forward and eloquent, procured the boy plenty to eat from the well-fed English servants; and following up the impression he had made on the sympathies of his fellow-labourers, he succeeded so well as to gather among them half-a-crown, which he presented to the little wandering out cast. He then set him on his road to London, giving the poor boy kind words, hearty good wishes, and some honest counsel at parting. So that, as the little captain himself has told me, while tears were chasing down his cheeks, he never sees an Irishman but he feels his better nature stirred up, and that his ears tingle at the sound of the thorough brogue.

"On and on wandered and toiled the poor little, naked, and unprepossessing creature. And what greater punishment could one have wished to see visited upon his unnatural parents than to have met and recognised their child in this forlorn condition? But no one knew him, no one was likely frankly to proffer, him succour; so that he entered the wilds of London, altogether friendless, and nearly as wo-worn as before,--without one earthly possession to command aid or notice, excepting the Irishman's half-crown, which, rather than break upon, he had begged and starved on the road. But he had received kindness, had heard the words of compassion, sympathy, and honest affection, and he was no longer desperate, he no longer hated and feared his species,—a fountain of love and liberal thinking was opened up in his soul, that will never, it is hoped, be shut or able to send forth the waters of bitterness.

"By cleaning himself, and by means of the precious well-hoarded half-crown,making the utmost of his appearance, he got the master of a vessel to admit him on board as a sea-boy; and being once there, he took excellent care so to conduct himself that he should never be turned out, or regarded by any man that had not monstrous points about him with other than kindly feeling. By serving and obliging the sailors, taking their jokes and reckless thumps with good