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who was mistress of the chandler's shop I ftood against-Upon my honour, Madam, if you but please to truft me with the fix and nine-pence, I'll bring you change. But this woman indeed for feited her honour, fhe came not back. It was base, but where money is put in the oppofite scale, feveral female honours have kicked the beam.

There was a club fome years ago at the cock and bottle, Charing Crofs: all the members whereof were men of honour, each having killed his man and no one could be admitted into this bɩnourable fociety, without having performed the fame; previous to his being examined for any other qualifications.

A most notorious fellow, honfe-breaker, street-robber, and highwayman, petitioned the club to be admitted as a member; for he had killed his man, having turned evidence, and hanged his companion.

At Naples there was a very particular man of honour, whofe name was Bandoli. He was the greatest bravo of his time; and it was faid that he had, with his own hand, dispatched upwards of eighty perfons by affaffination; for that was the profeffion he got his bread by. He made ufe occafionally of piftol, fword, ponyard, and stilletto; but he fcorned to poison any one he was hired to make away with, alledging, that there was fomething unmanly in it. That it was not an action any person of honour would be guilty of; and that it was as much beneath a bravo to turn poisoner, as it would be for a regular-bred-phyfician to turn quack-doctor.

Two Neapolitan gentlemen quarrelled one evening at an affembly, and, according to the honourable custom of the times, each sent separately for Bandoli, and gave him fifty piftoles a-piece, to make quick work with each other. The laft man he dispatched as foon as he had paid him, and then returned to the first perfon, who, on hearing Bandoli relate how he had flaughtered his adverfary, commended the bravo greatly for his dexterity in his buánefs. Yes, Sir, replied Bandoli, every one who employs me

fhall always find me punctual; for I ain a man of honour, Sir; and to con vince you I would not forfeit it, the gentleman whom I have just sent home, by your order, gave me fifty pistoles to make an end of you; now, altho' he is dead, and cannot call me to an account for not doing what he employed me in; yet, Sir, I am so much a man of honour, that I fcorn to be guilty of a breach of promife to any gentleman; and immediately thrust his ftilletto into the other's. breast.

From the UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE.

An

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Account of the extraordinary and Judden Growth of a Child. AMES VIALA, a native of the hamlet of Bouzanquet, in the diocefe of Alais, tho' of a strong conftitution, appeared to be knit and stiff in his joints till he was about four years and a half old. During this time nothing farther was remarkable of him than an extraordinary appetite, which was fatisfied no otherwife than by giving him plenty of the common aliments of the inhabitants of the country, confifting of rye bread, chefnuts, bacon and water; but, his limbs foon becoming fupple and pliable, and his body beginning to expand itfelf, he grew up in so extraordinary a manner, that at the age of five years he measured four feet three inches; at five years and fome months, he was four feet eleven inches; and, at fix, five feet, and bulky in proportion. His growth was fo rapid, that one might fancy he saw him grow; every month his cloaths required to be made longer and wider; and, what was still very extraordinary in this growth, it was not preceded by any fickness, nor accom panied by any pain in the groin or else. where, and no complaint was made of any inconveniency but hunger, which the child was very fenfible of from one meal to another.

At the age of five years his voice changed, his beard began to appear,

and

under the middle fize, and their growth had nothing particular in it.

Noel Fifchet, of whom an account was given in this hiftory for 1736, began to grow fooner but not fo rapidly, for he was twelve years old, before he measured five feet; his figns of puberty were at the age of two years, which makes between them a very remarkable difference; and the flower progrefs of his growth was perhaps the caufe of his not experiencing the bad confequences that attended on Viala.

and at fix he had as much as a man of thirty; in short, all the unquestionable marks of puberty were visible in him, It was not doubted in the country but that this child was, at five years old, or five and a half, in a condition of begetting other children; which induced the Rector of the parish to recommend to his mother that the would keep him from too familiar a converfation with children of the other fex. Though his wit was riper than is commonly obferv. able at the age of five or fix years, yet its progress was not in proportion to that of his body. His air and manner ftill retained fomething childish, tho' by his bulk and ftature he refembled a complete man, which at first fight produced a very fingular contraft. However, it might be faid that all was uniform in him, and he might be confidered as an adult, though ftill far from being fo; his voice was ftrong and manly, and few heard him speak without fome emotion and surprise. His great ftrength rendered him already fit for the labours of the country. At the age of five years he could carry to a good distance three measures of rye, weighing eighty-four pounds; when turned of fix, he could lift up eafily on his shoulders, and carry loads of a hundred and fifty pounds weight, a good way off; and thefe ex-XXXXXXXX*XXXXX ercifes were exhibited by him, as often as the curious engaged him thereto by fome liberality.

Such beginnings made people think that young Viala would foon fhoot up into a giant. A mountebank was already folliciting his parents for him, and flattering them with hopes of putting him in a way of making a great fortune. But all these fine hopes fuddenly va nished. His legs became crooked, his body fhrunk, his ftrength diminished, and his voice grew fenfibly weaker. This fad alteration was attributed to the imprudent trials he was let to make of his ftrength; perhaps alfo it was occafioned by nature's fuffering in fo rapid an extenfion. He is now juft as he was at the age of fix or feven years, and in a kind of imbecility. His parents were rather

It is aftonishing that children of so prodigious and early a growth, do not afterwards become giants; yet it is not perhaps fo fingular, if they have at the fame time the figns of puberty. These fhew in all animals that they are approzching their state of perfection. Thus, when they appear in children at the fame time that they shoot up in fo extraordinary a manner, they prove perhaps nothing more than a mere rapid expansion, as in hot climates; but not that the individual will be of a gigantic ftature. For this purpose, it would be neceffary that puberty, instead of accompanying this great growth, should not manifeft itself till the ufual time, or perhaps after.

From the UNIVERSAL MAGAZINE.

Letter on the Damage of too much Rain,

Wet, &c. to Farmers; and containing two Remedies for curing the Rot in Sheep.

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too much moisture, or perifh for want of fodder.

The wheats, in many places, will be washed out of the ground, and the flat lands will be fo wet, that the fpringcorn season will of course be backward. We receive thofe things at the hand of God, and fhould not murmur; yet human prudence may often apply a palliative at least, if not a remedy:

The damages done to our crops by land-floods is chiefly owing to the want of proper drains to carry off the water, when it comes fuddenly down upon us; and to the flovenly custom many farmers have of not scouring their ditches for many years together: a ditch, properly difpofed, ferves as a drain to a field; but then there fhould always be a fall for the water, and a channel to give it paffage into the lower grounds.

Moft wonderful things have been done in the draining way. It was at one time thought impracticable to drain the extenfive level between Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, as the great river Idle, na vigable of itself, paffed, with its deftructive land-floods, through the vast level on the Yorkshire fide of the ifle of Axholm; yet was this river, by the skill of the undertakers, carried through a new cut into the Trent, on the other fide the ifle by this happy thought the draining was greatly facilitated, and a large tract of land recovered from the waters.

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When land is hurt by floods, the first thing neceffary is to fee where the water enters, and whether its course may not be diverted into another channel, fo as to carry it either round or through the land, without much damage.

Where this can be done, if the land is not in its own nature wet, much loss may be prevented; but, if the floods 'come down fo fudden and violent that there is no ftopping them, the next remedy is to give them as eafy a paffage as poffible for this purpofe, we must find the lowest part of the land, and bring the fall of the water all that way, if practicable, opcuing channels to carry it off.

These main channels, or drains, fhould always be made large enough to carry off the body of water; and in fact there is very little land so absolutely flat and level, as to have no fall: the great art is to discover it, and make a proper use of it.

If, in any particular cafe, we find it out of our power to make a paffage deep enough to carry off the water from the bottom of the drain, either by reafon of our being prevented from cutting through another perfon's land, or that the paffage is long, or in the neighbourhood of fome river, which may be apt to revert upon the works; it is then beft to erect an engine, which will be found to be of great ufe, and do that which could by no other method be done. If the water is not raised to any great height, the engine need not be large, and of courfe will not be expensive.

Some have an objection to engines, if the ufe of them can be avoided, as there may not always be wind to move them; but this is little to be feared; there will always be wind fufficient, at one time or other, to keep the drains empty; for during the greatest calms are always the greatest droughts, and in the wettest feafons winds are feldom wanting, espe cially on flats or levels. So much for draining.

I fhall next take notice of some of the effects of too much wet. In the first place over much moisture generally proves very injurious to corn: the ufual remedy, efpecially in cold clays, and ftiff loams, is to lay the fand in high ridges, and cut drains at the ends of the furrows, to carry off the fuperfluous water this method I approve of, and have often to advantage practifed.

It has been remarked by many, as well as myfelf, that, after a wet fummer, corn is apt to be blighted. This is, I think, eafily accounted for: the reafon is, that the fuperabundant moifture, which lies at the roots of the corn, makes it run much to straw, and little to corn; and, at the time the corn fhould kerne, the moift vapours exhaled from the wet grounds by the fun dew,

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in the nature of a mildew, prevent the due growth of the grain in the ear.

It is neceffary to take notice of one very remarkable circumftance, which has been very often obferved, and is I laid down as a maxim by husbandmen; which is, that when thefe mildews arife, or blights fall, they infect one fort of grain generally, as fometimes only wheat; at other times oats, &c. The fame thing happens in fruits: fometimes apples are generally blasted; at other times only pears; and often only cherries, walnuts, filberts, plumbs, &c. like the murrain in cattle, infecting one fpecies. This is a thing I have never been able properly to account for, and thould therefore be glad of the fentiments of fome of your more able correfpondents on the fubject.

The greatest enemy the husbandman ufually finds, in time of harvest, is rain, againit which the beft remedy is expedition: he should remember the old proverb, and "make hay whilft the fun shines,”

I have often been furprised that in large farms, where they have a confiderable distance to carry their corn when cut, they do not erect here and there, in their fields, temporary fhelters, in which the wheat at least might be preferved from damage by rain, till opportunity served to cart it home. This would be almost every year of great fervice, but more particularly fo in drip. ping harvests. I could with my brother farmers in Ireland, where they have more rain in proportion than we have, would take the hint. The expence of erecting fuch a shelter, capa. ble of containing a large quantity of corn, would be trifling, when compared to the many advantages that would refult from the practice of this method. Thefe fhelters would be far from ufe. lefs the remainder of the year: they might be fo contrived as to fcreen the cattle, during the winter feafon, from the feverity of the weather; they might be made to ferve as covered folds for VOL. III.

sheep, than which nothing can be more ufeful; befides many other purposes, too tedious now to mention.

In different counties the farmers have different methods. In Somersetshire, in order to preferve their wheat from damage by rain in harvest, they lay their fheaves in very large fhocks, or heaps in the field; and they contrive to cap them in such a manner, that they will not in a long time take damage.

This is certainly a good practice, and worthy of imitation! Yet in Wiltshire, and fome more fouthernly counties, they leave most of their corn, without care, to the chance of good or bad weather, though the fields are often at a great diftance from the barns; and this negligent practice is fometimes of course to their very great detriment.

In the west of England, in the champaign countries, where the lands fometimes lie two or three miles from the barns, the reek staval is of great use; the corn is much fooner laid fecure, and long draughts are faved, which is a matter of great importance at fo bufy a time.

It is too much the custom, in some very extensive farms, to have only one immenfe barn near the home stall: this is very inconvenient, and it would be much better to have several barns difperfed at convenient distances in the land. The corn would thereby be fooner housed, and better preferved, as well as easier threthed; the foddering the cattle with ftraw would be more convenient, and the muck or dung would be more difperfed, and much cheaper carted for the improvement of the land. In the common way we often fee the fields round the farmer's house, rich and well improved by manure; whereas thofe at a distance are frequently in a wretched ftarving condition, by being conitantly cropped and never mended: did the landlord therefore know his own intereft, he would certainly difperfe his barus over the whole fpace of his land. I know it will be objected, that barns A a

at

This is a term used in the west, and fignifies a frame of wool placed on ftones, on which the mow is raised: this is fometimes año called a rçek itaffold.

at a distance from the farm houfe will.
be more open to the attacks of night
plunderers; but this leads me to make
another obfervation, which is, that the
labourers employed in a farm ought to
live in cottages on the land; and where
can these cottages fo well be difpofed, as
to have one of them near each barn?
in this manner would the farmer's pro-
perty be well guarded, and his labour-
ers would be nearer at hand to do his
bufinefs; whereas now they are often
obliged to go two or three miles to work,
which cannot be for the advantage either
of the labourer or master.

I am now come to the more important part of this letter, meaning to detain your readers fome time longer, till I have faid a word or two on the fubject of the rot in theep, which is almoft always principally occafioned by too much moisture.

But the rot in sheep does not always proceed either from moisture alone, or the nature of the foil alone; for all moist grounds do not cause the rot in fheep, and there are fome lands which rot theep in wet years only.

The rot, in fact, arifes from a certain putrefaction, both in the air, and in the grafs or herbs that usually grow in fuch moift years; thefe, together with their moift food, corrupt their livers, and bring on the disease.

It is indeed very difficult to cure this diforder, unless it is attempted before the liver is too much wafted; where there is a convenience of doing it, the beft remedy is an immediate removal to falt-marshes; but this is far from being in every farmer's power; I fhall endeavour therefore, from my own former experience, to fupply the deficiency.

in fuch cafes as thefe, a prevention of the evil is to be recommended to the practice of every rational farmer.

Some grounds naturally yield a foft, fpungy grafs, which is, more than any other, fubject to breed the rot in fheep; I would therefore advise, that other catile be fed in these grounds, and the fheep kept in the driest, hardest, and, healthieft paftures.

I have known land that has kept sheep in health for many fucceffive years, yet afterwards, when the months of May and June have proved wet, a frimm and frothy grafs has fuddenly fprung up, which, together with the bad air that muft of course follow, has caused a rot in the sheep that were then on it; the evil was obferved in time, the sheep were removed to a dry and almost barren heath, and in the fucceeding winter they were foddered with good, dry, fweet hay, and a great lofs was prevented; this happened to an old friend of mine, fince dead.

This unwholesome grafs is most apt to grow in cold land, and in the fummer time; and it is a general opinion, and well founded on experience, that, if the fummer does not rot fheep, the winter will not, the power of the winter alone not being ftrong enough to begin a rot.

A very fenfible writer, whose book I have juft turned to (I mean Mr. Lifle) fays, that broom is very good for the rot; and indeed I have often experienced it; for in a farm I occupied some years ago there were feveral broom-fields, and I have often obferved, that fuch of my sheep as were part of the year fed in them were never infected with the rot, whilft others in my poffeffion had it to a great degree I profited however by experience, for I took care thenceforward that all my fheep should, by turns, enjoy the advantages to be derived from their feeding on the young fhoots of the broom.

As to what Mr. Lifle fays, on the authority of Mr. Ray, that the marshtrefoil will cure the rot, I cannot, from experience, corroborate it; I have heard its efficacy in this diforder often mentioned, but never yet heard any particu lar fact related fo circumftantially, as to induce me to depend on its effects.

That falt is good, I agree with the above gentleman and Mr. Boyle; and this gives me an opportunity of communicating a receipt which I know to be a good one:

"When you perceive, by the colour

of

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