Being upwards of 33 per cent. increase of the first six months of the
year, and upwards of 135 per cent. increase on the travellers between
the two towns during the corresponding months, previously to opening
the railway.--_Gordon, on Steam Carriages._
_Caliga._--This was the name of the Roman soldier's shoe, made in the
sandal fashion. The sole was of wood, and stuck full of nails. Caius
Caesar Caligula, the fourth Roman Emperor, the son of Germanicus and
Agrippina, derived his surname from "Caliga," as having been born in
the army, and afterwards bred up in the habit of a common soldier; he
wore this military shoe in conformity to those of the common soldiers,
with a view of engaging their affections. The caliga was the badge, or
symbol of a soldier; whence to take away the caliga and belt, imported
a dismissal or cashiering. P.T.W.
_The Damary Oak-tree._--At Blandford Forum, Dorsetshire, stood the
famous Damary Oak, which was rooted up for firing in 1755. It measured
75 feet high, and the branches extended 72 feet; the trunk at the
bottom was 68 feet in circumference, and 23 feet in diameter. It had
a cavity in its trunk 15 feet wide. Ale was sold in it till after the
Restoration; and when the town was burnt down in 1731, it served as an
abode for one family.--_Family Topographer_, vol. ii.
_Brent Tor Church, Devonshire, situate upon a rock._--On Brent Tor is
a church, in which is appositely inscribed from Scripture, "Upon this
rock will I build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail
against it." It is said that the parishioners make weekly atonement
for their sins, for they cannot go to the church without the previous
penance of climbing the steep; and the pastor is frequently obliged to
humble himself upon his hands and knees before he can reach the house
of prayer. Tradition says it was erected by a merchant to commemorate
his escape from shipwreck on the coast, in consequence of this Tor
serving as a guide to the pilot. There is not sufficient earth to bury
the dead. At the foot of the Tor resided, in 1809, Sarah Williams,
aged 109 years. She never lived further out of the parish of Brent
Tor, than the adjoining one: she had had twelve children, and a few
years before her death cut five new teeth.--Ibid.
_The Dairyman's Daughter._--In Arreton churchyard, Isle of Wight, is
a tombstone, erected in 1822, by subscription, to mark the grave of
Elizabeth Wallbridge, the humble individual whose story of piety and
virtue, written by the Rev. Leigh Richmond, under the title of the
"Dairyman's Daughter," has attained an almost unexampled circulation.
Her cottage at Branston, about a mile distant, is much visited.--Ibid.
_Singular distribution of common land in Somersetshire_.--In the
parishes of Congresbury and Puxton were two large pieces of common
land, called East and West Dolemoors (from the Saxon word dol, a
portion or share,) which were occupied till within these few years in
the following manner:---The land was divided into single acres, each
bearing a peculiar mark, cut in the turf, such as a horn, an ox, a
horse, a cross, an oven, &c. On the Saturday before Old Midsummer
Day, the several proprietors of contiguous estates, or their tenants,
assembled on these commons, with a number of apples marked with
similar figures, which were distributed by a boy to each of the
commoners from a bag. At the close of the distribution, each person
repaired to the allotment with the figure corresponding to the one
upon his apple, and took possession of it for the ensuing year. Four
acres were reserved to pay the expenses of an entertainment at the
house of the overseer of the Dolemoors, where the evening was spent in
festivity.--Ibid.
_Anna Maria, Countess of Shrewsbury._--At Avington Park, in Hampshire,
resided the notorious and infamous Anna-Maria, Countess of Shrewsbury,
who held the horse of the Duke of Buckingham while he fought and
killed her husband. Charles II frequently made it the scene of his
licentious pleasures; and the old green-house is said to have been the
apartment in which the royal sensualist was entertained.--Ibid.
* * * * *
_Erratum_--In the lines, by J. Kinder, on a Withered Primrose, in our
last, verse ii. line 2--for "gust of the storm" read "_jest_ of the
storm."
* * * * *
_Printed and published by J. LIMBIRD, 143, Strand, (near Somerset
House,) London; sold by ERNEST FLEISCHER, 626, New Market, Leipsic;
G.G. BENNIS, 55, Rue Neuve, St. Augustin, Paris; and by all Newsmen
and Booksellers._
* * * * *