in

warm corners and dark recesses of buildings, and survive our coldest winters; and are, at the opening of each spring, the prolific parents of our numerous swarins, which, though some instances annoying and troublesome, are needful in the scale; and their busy hum, in the shady coverts of woods and green hedges, is a pleasing accompaniment of the varied sounds and circumstances of an autumnal evening's walk.

Of Swallows much has been said and written; little doubt remains of their annual migration, excepting a few instances of late hatches. On the 30th of March last, mid-day, I observed a single house martin, hawking apparent. ly after its prey, rather irregular in its motions-a moist gloomy day, moderate in temperature; this was in Norbury Park, near Box-hill, Surrey. Yours, &c. R. C.

Mr. URBAN, Birmingham, Jan.1. INCLOSED is a sketch of the Staque erected to the memory of the immortal NELSON, in the centre of the market-place of this town, executed in bronze, by Westmacott, a statuary of the first eminence. For this patriotic testimony of grateful veneration, a subscription of upwards of 3000l. was raised among the inhabitants, at the period when the glorious victory of Trafalgar animated the breast of every Briton with joy and gratitude.

In this work, intended to perpetuate the greatest example of Naval genius, Simplicity has been the chief object in the arrangement. The Hero is represented in a reposed and dignified attitude, the left arm reclined upon an anchor. He appears in a costume of his country, invested with the insignia of those honours by which his Sovereign and distant Princes distinguished him. To the right of the Statue is introduced the grand symbol of the Naval profession: Victory, the constant leader of her favourite Hero, embellishes the prow. To the left is disposed a sail, which, passing behind the statue, gives breadth to that view of the composition. Above the ship is the fac-simile of the Flag Staff truck of the L'Orient, fished up by

Sir S. Hood the day following the

battle of the Nile, presented by him to Lord Nelson, and now deposited at GENT. MAG. May, 1812.

Milford, as a trophy of that evermemorable action. This groupe is surmounted upon a pedestal of statuary marble. A circular form has

been selected as best adapted to the situation.

To personify that affectionate regard which caused the present patriotic tribute to be raised, the Town of Birminghani, murally crowned, in a dejected attitude, is represented mourning her loss. She is accompanied by groupes of Genii, or Children, in allusion to the rising race, who offer her consolation by bring ing her trident and rudder. In the front of the pedestal is an inscription. (See Plate II.)

Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

ROGER

JOSEPH WILDAY.

Chelsea, May 3. OGER ASCHAM was horn at Kirby-weik in the county of York, and was buried in St. Sepulchre's church in London. His wife, whose maiden name was How, is also interred there; but Stowe mentions no monument erected to their memory.

Stephen Gardiner was supposed to In answer to your Correspondent B. be the illegitimate son of Dr. Lionel Woodville, Bishop of Salisbury, brother to Elizabeth, Edward the Fourth's Queen; he went by the name of Stephens till after he became Bishop of Winchester, when he assumed the (Gardiner), whom his mother married, arms and name of his reputed tather ceal the incontinence of the bishop. though in a menial situation, to con

He is said to have died above half a Protestant, though the promoter, if not abettor, of the many and cruel sanguinary acts in the reign of Queen Mary.

He died at Whitehall of the gout,and refused to subscribe to the lawfulness we must suppose uumarried, since he of clergy men's marriage, when urged Lord Protector, after two years conso to do with other articles by the finement in the Tower.

A CONSTANT READER.

age,

Disdain to dance but in a man's em

brace."

SHERIDAN.

But now-a-days,and I glow with shame as I record it, Fashion has conspired with Folly in making us brutish and cruel-I am alluding to the rage for races against time, and the disgraceful mania for boxing matches. The first may be very fairly classed as a species of cool and deliberative cruelty, and to serve the worst of. purposes, avarice and pride. When we are stak ing large sums on the speed of our horse, and back him to go a distance greater than nature can sustain; does it not shew a mind devoid of the feeling of humanity, which blindly sacrifices the life of au useful animal (for they frequently have died in the trial) for the petty pride of proving he is fleet of foot, and of filling your pockets with the gold his exertions have earned for you. "The butcher relenteth not at the bleating of the lamb; neither is the heart of the cruel moved with pity."-But the boxing mania is, if poss ble, more disgraceful, and more dangerous in its Consequences. When we not only tolerate, but with feelings of delight go any distance to behold, two champions of the fistic art,bruise each other with the inveteracy of sworn foes, we cannot say much for our taste; but, on the contrary, cannot but allow it to be sunk very, very low, in the

scale of wisdom and morality. But this is not the worst of the matter; we less we bet, learn the slang, and be are not considered imen of spirit unable to “mill, fib, or give a cross buttock," with the best of them, and in time this disgraceful mania grows on us, we neglect our occupations, and become associated with some of the most worthless of society.

As some proof that these are something more than bare assertions, I have to relate, that the swarthy champion of Pugilism, Molyneux, and the sparring Powers, have been exhibiting the noble art of self defence, as they term it, in Salisbury and its vicinity; the consequence of which has been that not a night elapsed, but the house the champions took up as their abode, levee had been held there, and happy was besieged as though the Regent's and proud was that man, who had the honour of sparring with these men of wonder and admiration; nay not even the Persian ambassador himself had more respect shewn him, than have these fashionable nuisances.

The result of all this has been, and will be, the neglect of business; every one, in the hopes of becoming an amateur, has become a bruiser, and the glovers have already reaped a golden harvest, through the foily of their towns en, in supplying the numerous demands for those necessary badges of the art, Boxing-gloves.

Surely then it will not now be urged that this is an amusement worthy of Englishmen, or that it becomes us to patronize that as a manly and useful science, which undoubtedly shews the depravity of our taste, or to encourage that as useful which will as undoubtedly prove a misfortune.

I have, I perceive, now to beg pardon to a numerous party of the sons of Folly, whom I have passed by without mention; I allude to the Don Whiskerandos of the day; but as silence has ever been a mark of contempt, and as they have very lately sustained a defeat in losing their leader Baron Geramb, I will not now glory over their misfortunes - sed tamen in pretio-as they still have a value in serving as land-marks to war the unwary to steer clear of the shoals of folly, foppery, and impu

dence.

LETTER IV. on ACOUSTICS. Addressed to Mr. ALEXANDER, Dur

ham-place, West Hackney.

IN delivering a Course of Lectures on Experimental Philosophy, the lecturer illustrates his principles by example. Words convey a very inadequate idea of the sensation experienc d by an electric shock: and in Musick, to give one, who has never heard the result, any clear idea of the effect of an interval a comma out of tune, is impossible. Wishing, therefore, to unite practice with theory, I would advise you, before you read the observations I am going to offer on the diatonic scale, to tune fifteen notes of your piano forte, by making the chords of C, F, G, with a major third, perfect; and comparing, during the process of tuning, the intervals with each other; and tune the remaining notes of the scale to the notes already obtained. This will answer a valuable purpose; because, when you come afterwards to alter the arrangement of the intervals, or change the pitch of a string previously tuned, you will hear how much it deviates from the pitch required; and thus be convinced, for example, that if A vibrates only 400 times in a second as major sixth above C, and must-vibrate 405 times to make a perfect fifth above D, how very great an alteration is produced in pitch by so small an increase of vibrations, as the adding of 5 to 400.

Of the Diatonic Scale.
The scale called by the Greeks the
Diatonic Scale, probably received
E D

Key Tone Tone
Note Greater Lesser

F Sem.

300 320 Now suppose, instead of taking the third tone less from the second of the key, we take it tone greater; see what will be the consequence.

I must observe, Sir, by the way, that the addition of musical intervals is effected by multiplying the nume rators (that is, the upper figures of the

this appellation, because it contains a greater number of tones in the octave than the Chromatic, which proceeded (with them) by three semitones and a minor third; or the Enharmonic, which consisted of three dreses or quarter tones, after a wide gap, to a similar arrangement.

The modern Diatonic scale consists of the elements (or component parts) tone greater, tone less, and semitone. It is the collocation of the two semitones in the octave which constitutes the mode of the key; that is, whether it is a major or minor key; in other words, a key with a major or minor third.

15

In perfect tune, or the Diatonic Scale perfectly in tune, there is no such thing as a semitone; because 1, the ratio of the semitone, is neither the half of tone greater, the ratio of which is, or tone less, the ratio of which is *.

But, as you, Sir, are not a Mathematician; before we proceed, i will again advert to ratio or proportion.

I said above that the ratio of tone greater was . Now if in the same time that the lower sound makes 8 vibrations, the upper sound makes 9 vibrations, these sounds will be in the ratio of 8 to 9.

The Diatonic major scale requires the following arrangement of the tones greater and lesser and semitones. The upper line gives the proportional length of a string, and the lower the vibrations of each interval, assuming 240 vibrations for C, at concert pitch.

tervals