Notes On Literature, Science, And Art.

NOTES ON LITERATURE , SCIENCE , AND ART .

BY BRO . GEORGE JIARKHAM TAVEDDELL . Author of " Shakspere , his Times and Contemporaries , " " The Bards and Authors of Cleveland and South Durham , " " The People ' s History of Cleveland Unci its Vicinage , " " The Visitor ' s Handbook to jRedcar , Coatham , and Saltburn b y the Sea" " The History of the Stockton and Darlington Railway , " etc ., etc .

T REB 1 EMBER , perhaps a quarter of a century ago , the proprietor of some interesting - * - pubEc gardens in Liverpool ( Mr . John Atkins , I believe , was the name ) favouring me Avith a private vieAv and explanation of his method of hatching eggs by artificial heat . I had gone over to make some preliminary arrangements for one of those cheap trips for the toilers in our hives of industry , and admittance for " the cheap trippers " to

the gardens at reduced fares was one of the advantages Ave offered in our posters . There Avas a good model of Shakspere ' s house , but the cotton-spinners said that they had seen scores of "post ancl panel houses" at home ; there Avas a centrifugal railway , Avhich pleased them better ; but the hatching of live chickens from eggs , Avithout either hen or duck to sit on them , seemed to the majority the greatest curiosity about the place . They had never read of the ancient Egyptians 'doing the same thing , though perhaps not Avith the complete apparatus Avhich modern ingenuity had discoA'ered . The Appleby and Kirkby Stephen Herald , of October 19 th , 1878 , hoAA'ever , gives an account of a cat hatchiug . eggs , as foEows : —

" At a farm-bouse not far from Newton Stewart , a rather uncommon circumstance took place recently . A ben ' s nest had been made in an out-of-the-way place , in which eggs to the number of seventeen had been laid . The cat took possession of the nest , covered the eggs with straw , and there brought forth kittens . Puss and the kittens remained in the nest for a considerable time , and the result was that fifteen out of the seventeen eggs sent out birds . The cat was seen lying with its brood , but no one ever saw a hen near the nest , or knew the eggs were there until the birds came out . "

Under the title of The Derbyshire Gatherer , Mr . WiEiaui Andrews , F . R . H . S ., whose pen is never idle , has in the press a collection of Archaeological , Historical , and Biographical Facts , Folklore , etc ., gleaned from aE manner of—sources , I had nearly written , ancl thus committed a bull : for one is so used to that Avord HOAA ' as a matterof-fact expression , that AA'e are apt to forget that it is a figure of speech at all ; and that a source is literally the spring or fountain from AA'hich a stream begins . It is one of the peculiarities of my natureto have an intense love for ing

, pay pil grimages to the graves of the gifted and the good ; to make my " meditations among the tombs , " on the frailty of human We , Avhere the bodies Avhich once enshrined the noblest souls are DOAV mixed AA'ith the dust from which they sprung - . and though it is always a solemn , thing to hear the Avords " Earth to earth , ashes to ashes , dust to dust , " pronounced over the corpse of one Avho , when animated with life , Avas but " of the earthearth" there is to me something more solemn stillto stand bthe last

, y , , y resting place of some gifted brother of the human race , and think that he is now but a portion of the ground on which I tread . One day it may be in a gorgeous cathedral , beneath those fine old Gothic arches Avhich our ancient operative brethren so loved to raise , that always seem to me as if placidly holding their Stony hands aloft iu prayer to the Great Architect of the Universe , for Avhose worship they were erected . Another tune it may be in one of those fine old parish churches Avhich eA'eryAvhere adorn our

land . And sometimes in a quiet rustic churchyard , Avhere " the rude forefathers of the uamlet sleep , " under the grassy hillocks , where the children pause in their innocent play , because they know that they are graves . It Avas in such a mood as this that I -atel y sallied forth , bent on finding , if I could , the pauper grave of poor Chatterton , AA'hom the ever truthful Wordsworth so well describes in a single line , as , — " The mlrveUous boy , -who perish' & in his pride 1 "