Notes On Literature Science, And Art.

About twenty tons of grapes are sent every year from Jersey to Covent Garden Market . In Mr . Robert White ' s pleasing book on Worksop , the Bakery and Sherwood Forest , the library chimney-piece at Thoresby , which , he tells us , "is 14 feet 6 inches highand 10 feet wide" is described as follows : — " The principal subject of the design

, , is a scene in Sherwood Forest , magnificently carved by Robinson , of Newcastle , in Birkland oak , introducing that monarch of the forest the Major or Queen Oak , a herd of deer , with a foreground of beautifully rendered fern , & c , supported on either side of the fireplace by statuettes of Robin Hood and Little John . "

The " Major Oak " above alluded to—which Spencer Hall calls " that king of all the forest "—stands near one of the footpaths from Budley to Edwinstowe . "The late Christopher Thompson generated name ) , " he says , " made a special measurement of the Major Oak . A considerable portion of its tendons are seen above ground , and measuring these half-way between their trunk ancl their insertion in the ' earth , they gave a circumference of nearly thirty yards ; the circumference of the trunk at nearly six

feet from the ground—the height at which begin the branches—was thirty feet ; the circumference of one of the arms , at a distance of four feet from the trunk , was twelve feet ; the circumference of the out-spread tree at the utmost extent of its branches , was two hundred ancl forty feet . The recess in its trunk—for , with all its superincumbent mass of branch and leaf , it is quite hollow—afforded a diameter of nearly seven feet , ancl a heig ht of fifteen feet—was , in short , not unlike one of those dark circular fcnvers

we sometimes find in ruined castles . Seven persons at once have been known to partake a meal in it ; while , no doubt , with a little contrivance , it might have accommodated more . This cavity has a narrow but convenient opening , to the south , and commands a p leasant look-out into the forest , whilst affording excellent shelter . It was at one time called the Goclc-pen tree , from its interior being occupied as a hen-roosfc . Many a poor wanderer has passed a winter ' s night in a worse place ; and yet , notwithstanding its internal decay , it is externally one of the most noble and perfect trees in the kingdom . "

Only the other clay , I measured the trunks of two decayed oaks , in what was formerly the park of Skelton Castle , and found one to be twenty-one feet in circumference , and the other twenty-two feet six inches . They are close to the footpath leading from Skelton Ellers to Slapeworth , and must have been spreading their boughs to the breeze in the days when the De Bruses or the Falconbergs were the lords of the soil in which they flourished . Would that they could write their reminiscences of the events that have happened within a moderate distance of the ground they have grown upon What a valuable contribution it woidd be to my People ' s History of Cleveland 1—worth all the dry dusty documents I can examine in a life time .

The late Sir Francis Goldsmid , M . P ., has left to University College , London , and its Hospital , to both of which institutions he was treasurer , the princely sum of . £ 50 , 000 . I am glad to see also that a new Supplemental Charter has been granted by the Crown , to enable this non-sectarian University to bestow its honours and privileges on female students . An address , signed by 1 , 960 women , ' has ' been presented'to the Senate , expressing their "heartfelt gratitude for the noble part it has taken in coming forward

first among the Universities of Great Britain to propose to open all its degrees to women , and thereby to place them in the position so long coveted , of free intellectual activity , alike unhindered by mistaken protection , and unfettered by ancient prejudice . "

A correspondent of the Scientific American says : — "I have found the convolvulus major , or ' morning glory / of considerable practical value as a test for acids and alkalis . In the first place the flower itself is very sensitive , indicating the trace of nitric acid in