to the Ram, and the chimney to the Lion, as to the Bull, the Crab, the Virgin, or the Fishes. We shall now give a specimen or two, from the same authority (Lilly), of the influence possessed by the signs in giving personal character and appearance to man:"Capricornus, the Goat, gives a person of an indifferent stature, not very tall; his body is dry and spare; his visage long, lean, and slender; his chin is long and narrow; his beard (if he have any) is very thin; his hair black or dark brown; the neck long and thin, and the chest narrow." Saturn, the lord of the house, bestows, according to Blagrave, a personal form and appearance that agree, in some respects, with what Lilly ascribes to the sign. "Saturn gives a person of a middle stature, with a swarthy, pale, and muddy complexion, little eyes, unpleasant down-cast look, lowering eyebrows, broad forehead, flat nose, and thick lips; he goes with his head stooping, and with his feet shovelling; he hath great lop-ears, black, lank, greasy, or shining hair, thin beard, spare body, and is every way a heavy, unpleasing, peevish, melancholy, and lumpish person: this of himself. But you must mix his or any other planet's significations, according as they are conjoined with others." Saturn, in his other house-Aquarius, the Waterpourer" gives a full-bodied person, of the middle stature, inclined to corpulency, a clear complexion, brown hair, and a graceful deportment; he is affable, courteous, of an excellent prying fancy, and a proficient in what he undertakes in sciences and arts, but subject to be conceited, yet a person of a pregnant genius." Mine is the privy pois'ning: I command That sweeps at once the people and the prince." The planets, besides being the special significators of those who are born when the constellation which constitutes their house is rising, are the general significa tors of various kinds of persons and professions. They have also dominion over plants and herbs, and are the indicators of different diseases. The kinds of persons and professions denoted by Saturn are ancient people in general, husbandmen, day-labourers, beggars, plumbers, colliers, scavengers, miners, sextons, monks, and sectaries. The next planet in astrological order is Jupiter, the most exalted in benignity of the astral heptarchy. He is called, on account of his beneficence, the greater fortune, and is the causator of justice, honour, mercy, moderation, sobriety, temperance, and magnanimity. "He denotes a tall handsome person, a ruddy complexion, an oval face, high and large forehead, grey eyes, soft auburn or chestnut-coloured hair, and much beard." Under the patronage of Jupiter are kings, princes nobles, judges, senators, bishops, clergymen, and civilians. The oak is under the dominion of Jupiter. The third in order, but second in malignity, is Mars : "Mad furious pow'r, whose unrelenting mind No god can govern and no justice bind." Here it may be observed that the abstract or eleIt is useless, however, to go through all the planets, mentary power given by Lilly to the signs, and by Bla- enumerating the absurd appropriations that are made grave to the planets, as it is never exercised simply or to each-of emperors, kings, coppersmiths, and pew alone, being always combined with and tempered by daisies to Venus; of philosophers, astrologers, printers, terers to the sun; of painters, players, cowslips, and other influences, could only be known to the professors and tailors to Mercury. All of them appear to have of astrology by inspiration, for that which never makes been derived from some fancied approximation to poetitself manifest under any circumstances can never be ical descriptions, or to the old mythological characters discovered by observation. And it may be further remarked, that the early astrologers, in assigning power named. Not the slightest attempt seems to have been given to the deities after which the planets had been to the constellations, seem to have imagined that their made to found any of the principles of the art on obnames were indications of their several offices and spe-servation of facts; it was probably felt that any such cifications of their influence. We proceed to the asserted nature, power, and influence of the planets. The names and characters of the seven old planets are, Saturn h, by nature cold, dry, and melancholy; Jupiter 2, hot, moist, and temperate; Mars, hot, dry, and choleric; Sol O, hot, dry, and temperate; Venus, cold, moist, and phlegmatic; Mercury, cold, dry, and variable; Luna D, cold, moist, and phlegmatic. These seven planets are all that can be considered as belonging to astrology; Uranus II, Ceres ?, Pallas, Juno, and Vesta, not having been discovered till after the year 1780. Saturn is the most cruel and malignant of all the planets, and on that account is termed the greater infortune. The opinion respecting his cruelty most probably arose from the circumstance of his having been made the emblem of time, which may be considered as cutting down and devouring its own offspring. The malign nature of Saturn is so well shown by Dryden (himself a believer in astrology), that any prose account of it would be comparatively feeble. Saturn, speaking in his own person, says "Man feels me when I press th' etherial plains, proceeding would destroy it. As a specimen we give "Queen of the mournful night, is so susceptible of the influence of the other plants, "Rules all the sea and half the land, SIR ROCED Ar the time when Addison described the race of forune-telling gipsies for the edification of the London public, there were few travellers for amusement, and ewer who left the din and smoke of the town to wanler through commons and green lanes, the gipsies' baunts. It is remarkable how little change is to be observed in the manners of the vagrant tribe. Addison's description might have been written yesterday. "As I was yesterday riding out in the fields with my friend Sir Roger, we saw at a little distance from us a troop of gipsies. Upon the first discovery of them, my friend was in some doubt whether he should not exert the Justice of the Peace upon such a band of lawless vagrants; but not having his clerk with him, who is a necessary counsellor on these occasions, and fearing that his poultry might fare the worse for it, he let the thought drop: but at the same time gave me a particu No. 737. [Sir Roger de Coverley and the Gipsies.j lar account of the mischiefs they do in the country, in stealing people's goods and spoiling their servants. If a stray piece of linen hangs upon an hedge, says Sir Roger, they are sure to have it; if the hog loses his way in the field, it is ten to one but he becomes their prey; our geese cannot live in peace for them; if a man prosecutes them with severity, his hen-roost is sure to pay for it: they generally straggle into these parts about this time of the year; and set the heads of our servant-maids so agog for husbands, that we do not expect to have any business done as it should be whilst they are in the country. I have an honest dairy-maid who VOL. XII.-3 B crosses their hands with a piece of silver every summer, | millet, and other kinds of grain; from peas, beans and never fails being promised the handsomest young fellow in the parish for her pains. Your friend the butler has been fool enough to be seduced by them; and, though he is sure to lose a knife, a fork, or a spoon every time his fortune is told him, generally shuts himself up in the pantry with an old gipsy for above half an hour once in a twelvemonth. Sweethearts are the things they live upon, which they bestow very plentifully upon all those that apply themselves to them. You see now and then some handsome young jades among them: the sluts have very often white teeth and black eyes. "Sir Roger observing that I listened with great attention to his account of a people who were so entirely new to me, told me, that if I would, they should tell us our fortunes. As I was very well pleased with the knight's proposal, we rid up and communicated our hands to them. A Cassandra of the crew, after having examined my lines very diligently, told me, that I loved a pretty maid in a corner, with some other particulars which I do not think proper to relate. My friend Sir Roger alighted from his horse, and exposing his palm to two or three that stood by him, they crumpled it into all shapes, and diligently scanned every wrinkle that could be made in it; when one of them, who was older and more sun-burnt than the rest, told him, that he had a widow in his line of life: upon which the knight cried, Go, go, you are an idle baggage; and at the same time smiled upon me. The gipsy, finding he was not displeased in his heart, told him, after a farther inquiry into his hand, that his true-love was constant, and that she should dream of him to-night: my old friend cried Pish, and bid her go on. The gipsy told him that he was a bachelor, but would not be so long; and that he was dearer to somebody than he thought: the knight still repeated, she was an idle baggage, and bid her go on. Ah, master, says the gipsy, that roguish leer of yours makes a pretty woman's heart ache: you have not that simper about the mouth for nothing. The uncouth gibberish with which all this was uttered, like the darkness of an oracle, made us the more attentive to it. To be short, the knight left the money with her that he had crossed her hand with, and got up again on his horse. 66 As we were riding away, Sir Roger told me, that he knew several sensible people who believed these gipsies now and then foretold very strange things; and for half an hour together appeared more jocund than ordinary. In the height of his good humour, meeting a common beggar upon the road, who was no conjurer, as he went to relieve him he found his pocket was picked that being a kind of palmistry at which this race of vermin are very dexterous." PRODUCTS OF THE POTATO. THERE are few circumstances connected with the chemistry of vegetable substances more remarkable than the production of three or four apparently very different bodies from the same plant. That the potato yields a nutritious and highly-valued article of food as a table vegetable, is well known; yet it may seem strange to many that the dry substance starch can be procured from it; and still more strange that sugar can be extracted from it; and, perhaps, most strange of all, that it can be made to yield alcohol, or spirit. All this is, however, strictly true; and there are many vegetable substances, beside the potato, of which the same may be said. Starch, whether it be procured from one or another vegetable substance, is a whitish powder, composed of very minute globules or spheroids. It is obtained from wheat, rye, barley, oats, buckwheat, rice, maize, lentiles, &c.; and from such vegetables as polato Out of every hundred parts in weight of potato, there are on an average about fourteen of starch; the remaining solids, consisting of fibre, vegetable albu men, gum, sugar, and salts, averaging about twelve parts; and water forming the remainder, or threefourths of the whole. A writer on the culture of the potato, while speaking of its starch, says, "The farina of the potato, properly granulated and dried, is sold in our shops as tapioca, to which it bears the closest resemblance in appearance and in essential properties. For con fectionary the flour is so delicately white, and it is so digestible and nutritious, that it ought to be in more general use among the children of the poor, especially in the winter season, when they so rarely enjoy the luxury of milk; and the cost is not more than a sixth or seventh of the price of tapioca or arrow-root, if it be made at home. Few housewives are ignorant of the method of obtaining it by the use of the common hand-grater and sieve; but for yielding larger sup plies some machinery is necessary.' In agricultural works relating to Ireland the importanee of potato-starch, or farina, is dwelt upon more pointedly than in England, in obvious connection with the extensive use of the potato in the former country. Thus Martin Doyle says:- The starch of the potato -for the term farina is scarcely correct, as it is def cient in the gluten which flour possesses-is an excellent substitute for arrow-root or tapioca, and with sugar or salt is admirably suited to the nourishment of the young children of the poor, and to the stomachs of persons of debilitated digestive organs. In winter, when milk is scarce, it is truly valuable, yet little used; when wheat is dear, and potatoes are cheap in 10 aparison, a thrifty housekeeper will find it good nomy to grate the potatoes, after a perfect cleansing, extract the starch, either for cakes or puddings, or the laundress." Again, Mr. Poole, secretary to the Agricultural iety of Ireland, in a paper communicated to the ish Farmers' Magazine, makes the following rerks on the conversion of potato-starch into wholene food:-"Flour and meal from grain contain, in edition to their nutritious qualities, certain other indients, which serve to give adhesiveness and a kind | mechanical structure to the dough. The potatour possesses only the nutritive principle, and is deent in the others; hence its mechanical unfitness to converted into light or spongy bread. In a pure te, some extremely palatable cakes have, however, en made of it in our house, with no other addition in that of a little salt. By adding about one-fifth of weight of wheaten meal, and a very minute portion butter, to render it short and brittle, we have had a ality of bread which was preferred by nearly all the nily to Manders's sweet and wholesome loaves. To ips and broths we have found it a valuable addition; d that cheap and excellent puddings may be made m Irish tapioca there can be no doubt." In France potato-flour forms an exceedingly valuable od in the French marine, where, with the addition of ortion of wheaten flour, it is converted into biscuits, stry, soups, gruel, &c. Considerable quantities are so manufactured into a kind of paste, of which one round is equal to a pound and a half of rice, to a und and three-quarters of vermicelli, or to eight unds of potatoes. More than a hundred thousand ns of potatoes are said to be annually manufactured to potato-flour in the city and vicinity of Paris. esides the flour, too, the French prepare granuted" potato, which is described as being highly nuitious, and which is thus prepared:-The potatoes, ster being washed, are exposed to boiling water just ng enough to enable them to be peeled conveniently, Eit without depriving them of their crispness. They e then put into a tall cylinder, whose curved surface perforated with holes about large enough to allow rains of rice to pass through. A piston, fitted into e cylinder, is then forcibly pressed down upon the otatoes, which are thereby crushed into a pulp, and e pulp is forced through the holes in a continuous ring like vermicelli. In the act of falling into a tin sh beneath, these strings break into little bits about e size of grains of rice. These grains, after being fted to bring them all nearly to one size, are taken a room heated to 85° or 90° Fahr., where they lie posed to the heat, being gently stirred from time to me. The whole of the moisture being thus evapoated, the potato presents the form of a compact, ard, brittle, semi-transparent grain, somewhat reembling rice, and yielding a very fragrant odour. his grain may be packed in bags or boxes, and kept or many years uninjured; and, when wanted, may be sed in the same manner as rice or maccaroni or earl-barley, in any of the ways in which those subtances are commonly used. 66 Cheese is, in Germany, thus made from potatoes. Large and fine potatoes are boiled, then peeled, and eaten to a fine smooth paste in a mortar, with a vooden pestle. From this paste three or four diferent kinds of cheese are made, differing in richness; of which the cheapest will serve to illustrate the chaFive pounds of the paste are put into a cheeseub, with one pound of milk and rennet; to which tre added a little salt, caraways, and cummin-seed, to impart flavour. All these ingredients are well kneaded together, covered up, and suffered to remain three or four days. At the expiration of this time they are acter. again kneaded, the paste put into wicker moulds, and the cheeses left to drain until quite dry. When dry and firm, they are laid on a board, and left gradually to acquire hardness in a place of very moderate warmth. When these cheeses are thoroughly dry and hard, they are placed in barrels with green chickweed between them, where they remain about three weeks, when they become fit for use. We may next glance at the production of sugar from potatoes. Dr. Ure, in a paper published a year or two ago, in the London Journal of Arts,' remarks:"It is only within two years that sugar has been made in this country from potato-starch to any extent, although it has been long an object of commercial enterprise in France, Belgium, and Holland, where the large coarse potatoes are used for this purpose. The raw material must be very cheap there, as well as labour; for potato flour or starch, for conversion into sugar, has been imported from the Continent into this country in large quantities,. and sold in London at the low price of 16s. per cwt." Dr. Ure then states the mode of proceeding to obtain sugar from potato to be nearly as follows:-One hundred gallons of boiling water are mixed with a hundred and twelve pounds of potato starch (for the starch is obtained from the potato as a preliminary to the extraction of the sugar), and two pounds of the strongest sulphuric acid. This mixture is boiled about twelve hours in a large vat made of white deal, having pipes laid along its bottom for containing steam. After this boiling, the acid liquor is neutralized with chalk, filtered, and then evaporated to the density of about 1.300 at the boiling temperature. After this syrup has been left still for several days, it concretes into crystalline tufts, and forms an apparently dry solid. When the syrup is exposed to a heat of 220°, it fuses into a liquid, nearly as thin as water; and on again being cooled to 150°, it takes the consistence of honey, and at 100° that of a viscid varnish. It must be left a considerable time at rest before it recovers its granular state. The sweetening power of potato-sugar is said to be about two-fifths that of cane-sugar. Another product of the potato, viz. spirit, though not much known in that form in England, is known in some other countries. Mr. Laing, in his Residence in Norway,' has the following paragraph:-" I went to see the process of distilling brandy from potatoes in a small work at Drontheim. The potatoes are first washed quite clean, then steamed, and crushed between two cylinders. They are then in the state of pulp or soup; which is run off into vats to ferment along with a small proportion of malt. I found that in eight barrels of potatoes, equal to four imperial quarters, they used in this distillery two vogs,' equal to seventy-two pounds weight, of good malt. The fermentation requires generally three days, and is produced by yeast: the process then goes on as in our stills. The produce from this quantity of potatoes and malt varies much, according to the quality of the former. From eight to twelve and even sixteen pots, each pot four-fifteenths of a gallon, is the usual return from one ton or barrel, viz., half a quarter of potatoes. Every farmer is entitled to distil the produce of his own farm; and pays a trifling licence duty, if he buys potatoes, and distils as a trader. A still is kept on every farm, not merely for the sake of the spirits, of which the consumption in a family is very great, but for the refuse or wash for the cattle. The spirit is distilled twice for the use of the family, and flavoured with aniseed. It is strong and fiery, but not harsh or ill tasted. What has been only once distilled has not so raw and unpleasant a taste as new whiskey. The Norwegian gentry seem to prefer it as a dram, when twice distilled, to Cognac brandy. I never saw it mixed with water." There are distilleries for this | elevenths of our excise-proof; or about sixteen pound purpose in Berlin also, and in other towns of Northern Germany. Dr. Ure, in his Dictionary of Arts,' goes into the details of the method by which spirit is distilled from potatoes on a large scale in certain localities where the potatoes abound at a moderate price. He states that one hundred pounds of potatoes yield from eighteen to twenty pounds measure of spirits, nine measure of proof, or a gallon and two-thirds. After the month of December potatoes begin to yield smaller product of fermented spirit; and when the have once sprouted or germinated, they afford ver little indeed. The cost of transporting and the diff culty of keeping potatoes is one reason why th species of distillation is not carried on to much exten in England. LANGDALE, WESTMORELAND. Tagaland b Gay osad ni lord apgola org ban abisit bats wat wyd. dies vins dosd answer thus described by Wordsworth in his poem of the 'Idle "Into a chasm a mighty block ps w IN our paper on the Duddon we said that Wrynose Fell, on which the Duddon rises, should be ascended from Langdale; the ascent may be as conveniently made from this place as anywhere. But it is not ing that direction that our course now lies. Leaving this It is this "mighty block" that principally renders spot, we will cross over at once to the Langdale Pikes, this force so remarkable as it is generally admitted to which the tourist should by all means ascend, both for be. The fall itself is neither so lofty nor striking a the fine view from the summit and for the rough Scale Force by Crummock Lake, and in body of water climb necessary to obtain it. The ascent should be it is inferior to many; yet few visit it on whom it does made from Millbeck, following the little stream that not produce a stronger impression than almost any dashes down the mountain from Stickle Tarn, and other in these parts. You make your way to it along passing a pretty little waterfall. The tarn, with the a little brawling brook, and among lumps of mossy savage crags which overhang it, is a fine object. In crag that have fallen from above, up a narrow, dark order to gain the top of the pikes, leave the tarn on cleft; and the high beetling crags, the strange position the right, and with some rather rough climbing the of the hanging mass, which in the twilight appears summit will be in no long time reached. The view'nodding to its fall,' with the roar of the water, give will amply repay the labour of the ascent; that is, if the pikes be clear of clouds rather an unusual occur rence. On the side of the mountain about a mile from Millbeck, in a deep cleft, is Dungeon Ghyll Force, one of the most singular of those forces (or waterfalls) so common on the mountain sides. It has been an importance to the force hardly due to its size. Seen just as night is creeping on, it is almost sublime. There are two more of these forces in Little Lang dale-Colwith and Skelwith Forces which have been quite sufficiently praised: they are hardly worth going out of the way to visit. |