Page 1 Advertisements Column 6

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 7, Issue 341, 30 April 1863, Page 1

Verulam House. —ln the bright country air, among his books, fish, flowers, collections, and experiments, with his house, his dogs, his pipe, and his game at bowls, Bacon slowly recovered some part of his lost health, if not his ease of .mind. When Chancellor, he had built a summer-house, about a mile from St. Alban’s, near the famous Byzantine ponds. The gothic pile, enlarged by Sir Nicholas for Lady .Anne, which had come into his possession on his brother’s |death, stood high and dry above the Jwatei;; as the stream would not flow up .to his house, he took his house |d.own to the stream. Avenues of stately trees sloped from the hall-door to the little lakes, which, four or five acres in extent, were kept bright as crystal, filled with brilliant fish, and paved with pebbles of various hues. On the bank of one of these lakelets he had built Yerulam House, a tiny but enchanted palace, one front leaning on the water, the other glancing, under oak and elm, up the long leafy arcade to his mother’s house. This p’ace was furnished and complete. The larders and kitchens were under ground ; through the centre of the block ran a stah'case, delicately carved ; on the rests and landings a series of figures, a bishop, a friar, a king, and the like, not one repeated either in idea or execution; on (the door of the upper storey statues of ! Jupiter, Apollo, and the round of gods. Beauty and luxury combined. Chimneypieces prettily wrought, rooms lofty and wainscotted, baths, oratories, divans. Shafts from the chimneys ran round the l’oom, with cushions on these shafts so as to garner up the heat. The roof, which was flat and leaded, in the eastern manner, commanded views of wood and water, plain and upland, with the square plain Saxon tower of St. Alban’s abbey high above all. In the centre pond rose a Roman temple or banquetting-room, paved with black and white marble. One ' of the doors bad a device' of mirrors,* so that a stranger fancied' he was looking into the garden when the door was closed. —-The Story of Lord Bacon's Life. Novel Way of Destroying Bats.— Take a barrel, say a flour or herring barrel, and fill it about one third its height. with water. Put a bit of wood, a foot long and ten or twelve inches in diameter into the water, so that the end of it will just rise above the surface; Make the lid or cover of the barrel a little too small to fit, and suspend it by two pins to the inside of the top of th,e barrel, so that it will hang as if on- a. pivot, and easily dip by touching either side. On the lid thus suspended secure a piece of savoury meat. The first rat that scents it, to get the meat, will leap on the barrel cover. The lid will tip, or tilt, and 11 down the fellow will go into the water and the lid will resume its position. The rat in the water will swim to the log, get on the top, and squall most vociferously. His cries will bring other rats, all of which will be tilted into the water, and all will be fighting for the only dry spot in it, namely the end of the log. As only one rat can hold it, the victor will drown all the rest, and in the morning n be drowned himself. More than thirty rats have beon caught in one night by this trick.—Correspondent of Belfast News Letter. A Slight Mistake.. —A vulgar , and > conceited female, who had arrayed herself in fine attire, went to the church for the purpose of showing it. As she passed down the aisle, the choir struck up Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah,” She immediately turned round and made a low courtesy to the performers under the impression that they recognised i her in her finery, and were singing “ I hardly knew you.” 9 A Cheerful Heart. —I once heard a young lady say to an individual, “ Your countenance to me is like the rising sun, for it always gladdens me with a cheerful look.” A merry or cheerful countenance was always one of • the tilings which Jeremy Taylor said bis enemies and persecutors could not take away from him. * There are some persons who spend their lives in this world as they would spend their lives shut up in a dungeon. Everything is made gloomy o and forbidding. They- go mourning and 1 complaining from day to day that they 1 have so little, and are constantly anxious t lest what little they have should escape s. out of their hands. Thay look always - on the dai-k side, and can never enjoy 3 the good that is present for tlieci il that o is to come. This is not religion. Bclie gion makes the heart cheerful ; and t when its large and benevolent principles e are exercised, men will be happy in spite e of themselves. The industrious bee does * not complain that there are so many 3 poisonous and thorny branches in his ? road, but buzzes on, selecting the honey 1 where he can find it, and passing quietly I by the places where it is not. There 5 1 enough in this world to complain aoo.n 3 and find fault with, if men have flic dm 3 1position. We often travel on a hard and kjuneven .road; but with a cheerful h spirit, we may walk therein with comfort, 1 and come to the end of our journey in 1 ' peace.—Dewey.