of your sheeps eyes, that the rot has taken them, drive your flock into a barn, a covered fold, or fome fuch convenient place; around this place let there be wooden troughs, like mangers, in which you should feed your fheep with good, dry, clean oats, for forty-eight hours; then have ready fome bay falt finely powdered and searced, of which you are to sprinkle a little among the oats, increafing the quantity till it difgufts the sheep, and you perceive they fall off their appetites; afterwards, for the two following days, give them again clean, oats; and then mix your falt with them as before, continuing this procefs till. their eyes have recovered their natural. colour, when you will find them perfectly cured; and to be convinced, it will only be neceffary to kill one or two of the flock." To this I fhall add a receipt for the rot in sheep, which was communicated to me by a friend, a man of credit and veracity, who fays he has often tried it with fuccefs: "Steep fame regulus of antimony in ale, adding thereto fome grains of paradise, and a little fugar to sweeten it, Of this infufion fomewhat lefs than a gill is to be given to every one of your affected sheep; they are to have two or three dofes, according as they are more or lefs affected by the diftemper, allowing two days intermiffion between each dofe," This is faid, as I have already obferved, to be a cure almost certain. I just now took notice, that when rain falls in the months of May and June, it is apt to cause the rot in theep; it will be neceffary to add, that folding them in the above months increases the diforder; for after having been deprived of their liberty during the whole night, they bite the noxious grafs the more greedily in the morning, having lefs ceremony in their choice of herbs than if they were not folded. This is a matter of fome confequence, therefore worthy of being attended to. One thing more I muft, on the authority of Mr. Lifle, communicate to your readers, viz, an obfervation of a Lei ceftershire farmer: that sheep, when first touched with the rot, will thrive mightily in fatting for ten weeks; but, if they are not disposed of when they are come up to a pitch, they will, in feven or eight days time, fall away to nothing but skin and bone. The fame farmer observed, that he had often had them. die in the height of their pitch, in half an hour's time, with 27 pounds of tallow in their bellies. From the CoURT MAGAZINE. WAS born on the fide of a moun tain, near a little village of Peru, and made a voyage to England in an ingot, under the convoy of Sir Francis Drake. I was, foon after my arrival, taken out of my Indian habit, refined, naturalized, and put into the British mode, with the face of queen Elizabeth on the one fide, and the arms of the country on the other. Being thus equipped, I found in me a wonderful inclination to ramble, and vifit all the parts of the new world, into which I was brought. The people much favoured my natural difpofition, and fhifted me fo falt from hand to hand, that before I was five years old, I had travelled almost into every corner of the nation but in the beginning of my fixth year, to my unspeakable grief, I fell into the hands of a miferable old fellow, who clapped me into an iron cheft, where I found five hundred more of my own quality, who lay under the fame confinement; the only relief we had, was to be taken out and counted over in the fresh air every morning and evening. After an imprisonment of feveral years, we heard fomebody knock at our cheft, and breaking it open with an hammer : this we found was the old man's heir, who, as his father lay a dying, was fo good to come to our release; he feparated us that very day. What was the fate of my companions I know not; as for myfelf, I was fent to the apotheca A a 2 ry's ry's fhop for a pint of fack; the apothecary gave me to an herb-woman, the herb-woman to a butcher, the butcher to a brewer, and the brewer to his wife, who made a prefent of me to a nonconformist preacher. After this manner I made my way merrily through the world; for, as I told you before, we fhillings love nothing fo much as travelling. I fometimes fetched in a shoulder of mutton, fometimes a playbook, and often had the fatisfaction to treat a Templar at a twelve-penny ordinary, or carry him with three friends to Weftminster. Hall. : In the midft of this pleasant progress, which I made from place to place, I was arrested by a fuperftitious old woman, who shut me up in a greafy purse, in pursuance of a foolish faying, that while the kept a queen Elizabeth's fhiling about her, the should never be without money. I continued here a close prisoner for many months, till at Taft I was exchanged for eight and forty farthings: I thus rambled from pocket to pocket till the beginning of the civil wars, when (to my shame be it spoken) I was employed to raise foldiers against the king for being of a very tempting breadth, a ferjeant made ufe of me to inveigle country fellows, and lift them in the fervice of the parliament: as foon as he had made one man fure, his way was to oblige him to take a fhilling of a more homely figure, and then practife the fame trick upon another; thus I continued doing great mischief to the crown, till my officer, chancing one morning to walk abroad earlier than ordinary, facrificed me to his pleafures, and made use of me to feduce á milkmaid. This wench bent me, and gave me to her fweetheart, applying, more properly than fhe intended, the ufual form of, To my Love and from my Love. This ungenerous gallant, mar. rying her within a few days after, pawned me for a dram of brandy, and drinking me out the next day, I was beaten Aat with an hammer, and again fet à running. After many adventures, which it would be too tedious to relate, I was fent to a young spendthrift, in company with the will of his deceased father: the young fellow, who I found was very extravagant, gave great demonstrations of joy at receiving of the will: but opening it, he found himself difinherited, and cut off from the poffeffion of a fair eftate, by virtue of my being made a prefent to him. This put him in to fuch a paffion, that after having taken me into his hand, and curfed me, he fquirred me away from him as far as he could fling me; I chanced to light in an unfrequented place under a dead wall, where I lay undiscovered and uselefs, during the ufurpation of Oliver Cromwell. About a year after the king's return, a poor cavalier that was walking there about dinner-time, fortunately caft his eye upon me, and, to the great joy of us both, carried me to a cook's fhop, where he dined upon me, and drank the king's health. When I came again into the world, I found I had been happier in my retirement than I thought, having probably by that means escaped wearing a monftrous pair of breeches. Being now of great credit and antiquity, I was rather looked upon as a medal than an ordinary coin; for which reafon a gamefter laid hold of me, and converted me to a counter, having got together fome dozens of us for that ufe. We led a melancholy life in his poffeffion, being bufy at thofe hours, wherein current coin is at reft, and partaking the fate of our mafter, being in a few moments valued at a crown, a pound, or a fix pence, according to the fituation in which the fortune of the cards placed us. I had at length the good luck to fee my master break, by which means I was again fent abroad under my primitive denomination of a fhilling. I fhall pafs over many other accidents of lefs moment, and haften to that fatal catastrophe, when I fell into the hands of an artist, who conveyed me under ground, and with an unmerciful pair of fheers cut off my titles, clipped my my brims, retrenched my shape, rubbed me to my inmost ring, and in short, fo fpoiled and pillaged me, that he did not leave me worth a groat. You may think what a confufion I was in to fee myfelf thus curtailed and disfigured. I should have been ashamed to have fhewn my head, had not all my old acquaintance been reduced to the fame fhameful figure, excepting fome few that were punch'd thro' the belly, In the midst of this general calamity, when every body thought our misfortune irretrievable, and our cafe desperate, we were thrown into the furnace together, and (as it often happens with cities rifing out of a fire) appeared with greater beauty and luftre than we could ever boaft of before. What has happened to me fince this change of fex which you now fee, I fhall take fome opportunity to relate. In the mean time I fhall only repeat two adventures, as being very extraordinary, and neither of them having ever happened to me above once in my life. The firft was, my being in a poet's pocket, who was fo taken with the brightness and novelty of my ap. pearance, that it gave occafion to the finest burlesque poem in the British language, intitled, from me, The Splendid Shilling. The fecond adventure, which I must not admit, happened to me in the year 1703, when I was given away in charity to a blind-man; but indeed this was by mistake, the perfon who gave me having heedlefly thrown me into the hat among a pennyworth of farthings. 淡淡 From the COURT MAGAZINE. Natural Hiftory of the Sea-horse. HE Hippopotamus, or Sea-horfe, by fome called a Sea Elephant, is an animal which feeds upon grafs on the banks of rivers; but frequently hides himself under water, where he will continue for fome time. When he lifts his head out of the water, he looks about every where to fee if there is no danger, and he can fmell a man at a confiderable distance. If any thing frightens him he plunges into the water again, and will continue there three hours longer without stirring, infomuch that a hunter who waits for him, must be very patient till he rifes a fecond time and fhews his head. As foon as he begins to appear, the hunter muft take his aim at the fide of the head, but if he fhould chance to be seen by this animal he finks in an inftant. When he is killed in the water the blood will difcover the place where he lies, and then with a boat, hooks, and cords, he is dragged to the bank. This done, they take off his skin, turn out his bowels, and throw him on a waggon to carry him home. His weight, when full grown, is from 2500 to 3000 pounds. The Sea-horfe for colour and fhape refeinbles a Rhinoceros, only his legs are a little shorter. The head pretty much resembles that of a common horse; but the mouth is much larger, as well as his noftrils. His ears and eyes are very fmall, and his legs short, grofs, and of the fame thicknefs from the top to the bottom. His hoof is not cloven like that of an ox, but is divided into four parts at the extremity, and on each of thefe parts there are fmall furrows, which turn like thofe of a screw. The tail is fhort like that of an Elephant, and has a little fhort hair thereon; but he has none any where else. The udder of the females hangs between the hind legs, like that of a cow, but they are very finall in proportion to the bulk of the body. They have been often feen to fuckle their young ones of the fize of a fheep. The hide of a Sea-horfe is above an inch thick, and is fo hard, that it fcarcely can be penetrated with a mufket ball; for which reafon the hunters always aim at the head. A Sea horfe has nothing more remarkable than his tusks, which are four in number, that proceed from the lower jaw, and rife out of the mouth to a confiderable height. They are as thick as an ox's horn, and about a foot and a half long, weighing ten pounds each. each. They are extremely white, and always keep of the fame colour, whereas ivory is apt to grow yellow. For this reafon they are greatly in request among mathematical inftrument-makers, for fcales, fectors, and the like. However, he has forty-four teeth in all, that is, eight incilors, four in each jaw, four dog teeth, two on each fide, which are all in the shape of cylinders, and thirtytwo grinders, of which there are eight above and below in each jaw. The flesh of this animal is very fine eating either roafted or boiled, and is highly esteemed at the Cape of Good Hope, where it is fold for fix-pence a pound. The fat is as dear as the lean, being exceedingly wholesome, and it is used in making puddings, inftead of butter. The hiftory of this animal has been very imperfect till of late, for formerly they could only be feen at Cairo in Egypt, and that very feldom. Mr. Ray could only give an account of one from Columna, and that was very young; for his teeth were not above fix inches long, and they were hid within the mouth. Likewife from the head to the tail he was only thirteen feet long, and the diameter of his body was no more than four feet fix inches.. The Hippopotamus delights in rivers where the water is quite fweet, and chufes thofe parts of them where there is grafs on the banks, and confequently he is improperly called a Sea-horse, because he is never met with even in falt water. He does not fleep in the water as fome have affirmed, but always among reeds, buthes and thickets, that are on the fides of the rivers; and then he fnores fo loud that he discovers himself to the hunters, who then take an opportunity of killing him, which they may eafily do, if they can get near him without making any noife; for he is very quick of hearing, and when he is disturbed immediately jumps head foremost into the water. They bring forth their young on the Jand, where they fuckle them and bring them up, unless they are disturbed, and then they all take to the water. Some fuppofe that they bring forth four at a time every year; however, this is not very certain. The negroes that build their huts on the fides of the rivers, are obliged to guard their fields and gardens night and day, making fires about them to keep off the Seahorfes and Elephants, otherwise they would do a great deal of damage among the rice and corn, not only by eating it, but by trampling it with their feet. The Portuguese are allowed to eat the flesh of this animal in Lent, to which, they give the name of fish, though it is very certain nothing can be more unlike it; but the reason is their being very fond of it; and fo are willing to, have it go under that name, that the eating of it may not disturb their con(ciences. HõõõьõõĎ: ĎĎÓÓ The 釀 From the BRITISH MAGAZINE. Hiftory of Eudocius and Selinda. houfe in the country, I took one OME time ago, being at a friend's day a ride out, in order to divert myfelf while my friend made a vifit, in which I did not incline to accompany him. As I was returning in the afternoon towards home, I caft my eyes on a fmall houfe, at a little distance from the road: the elegance of its structure, the beauty of its fituation, and the neatnefs of the gardens that surrounded it, all confpired to make me turn a little out of my way, in order to take a nearer view of it. As I drew towards the entrance of a fhady avenue of trees, which led directly up to the house, a gentleman who was walking there with a book in his hand, approached me very civilly, and enquired my business: I told him, that coming down to spend the fummer at Mr. Such a-one's, I had made a little excurfion, in order to fee the country, and could not pafs by fo charming a feat, without indulging my curiofity fo far as to take a nearer look at it. "The gentleman you mention, faid Eudocius, (for fo I thall call him) is a perfon for whom whom I have a very great esteem; be fo good, Sir, as to alight, and if there is any thing about my houfe you think worthy of your obfervance, I affure you, you are very welcome to the fight of it." I complied with his requeft; and he himself shewed me all the principal rooms of the house, which were hung with good paintings, and fo exactly furnished, that they had in them every thing that was plain and useful, with out containing any thing either fuperAuous or gaudy. He conducted me next into his gardens, which were every way extremely elegant; and particularly were adorned with feveral excellent antique ftatues. At the bottom of his parterre ran a beautiful canal, on the other fide of which lay a park, where the eye, after being entertained with a multitude of agreeable objects, had its views terminated at a confiderable diftance by a lovely grove of trees. Hither infenfibly we wandered in the middle of the grove stood a little marble edifice, whose fituation might be properly ftiled fweetly melancholy. In this was contained a collection of the best authors, and it was especially well furnished with the poets. Here Eudocius drew out of his bofom the book which he had in his hand when I firft faw him: it was a Virgil, which opened of itfelf at the story of Orpheus and Eurydice. : But night coming on, we returned to the house, where, after taking a glafs or two of wine, I took my leave; though not without my being obliged to promife to make him a fecond vifit, as foon as I had an opportunity. As foon as I came home I related this adventure to my friend, and entreated him, if it was in his power, he would acquaint ne with the hiftory of Eudocius. Accordingly, in order to fatisfy my defire, he proceeded in the following manner. Mentor, who had been alfo his father's tutor : Mentor managed both his pupil's education and estate with the utmoft prudence, 'till Eudocius reached his eighteenth year, when Mentor dying, left every thing entirely to his own management; in which, notwithstanding his youth, he demeaned himself so prudently, that he justly gained the reputation of being one of the finest gentlemen of the county. In fhort, every body loved him as a good neighbour, and every body esteemed him as a judicious friend. About three miles from Eudocius lived Severus, a morofe old man, of about two thousand pounds a year real, befides an immense personal eftate; all which, at his decease, would defcend to his only daughter, Selinda, a young lady, who, both by her beauty and merit, more than deserved it. Eudocius, by education, family, and in erest, was attached to one party; and Severus, by a natural obftinacy in his temper, violently bias'd to the other. This occafioned the families having little intercourfe one with the other, except their fometimes vifiting at the fame places. on. It was at one of thefe accidental meetings, that Eudocius first faw Selinda. This fift interview created in him a ftrong concern, which ripened by degrees, into a violent and lafting paffiIt would be needlefs for me to give you an unneceffary detail of the feries of this amour; it is fufficient for me, that I inform you, that the love of Eudocius was received with reciprocal tenderness by Selinda, and that Severus's confent was only wanting to make them happy. A friend, whom Eudocius had made his confidant in this affair, was employ ed to found the old gentleman's inclinations upon this head. But no fooner was it mentioned to Severus, than with his ufual vehemence of temper, he pofitively declared, that if his daughter wedded Eudocius, he would not only immediately turn her out of doors, but at his death, would deprive her both of his blefling and estate. Too |