Brechin Castle; Sir Alexander Muir Mackenzie's, at Delvine; Sir Alexander Ramsay's, at Faskey; Mr Lyall's, at Kinnordie; Earl Mansfield's, at Scone; Lord Gray's, at Kinfauns, and many others, deserve particular mention. Those here named may indeed be accounted some of the first-rate gardens in every respect; and they are perhaps superior to those in England of the same rank. The collection of exotic heaths at

Lord Douglas's, at Bothwell Castle; and at Lady Moncreiff's, near Perth; and of curious plants in general, at

Lady Elcho's, near Haddington, Lady Callender's, at Prestonhall, and Lady Camegie's, at Kinnaird, must not be omitted. At Mr Liston's seat of Milburn Tower, near Edinburgh, an American garden has been formed, in which every transatlantic plant which that gentleman (or his lady, who is a distinguished botanical amateur) could collect during his embassy to America, is carefully cultivated. At Dalbeith, near Glasgow, Mr T. Hopkirk has formed nearly a complete collection of the herbaceous piants which are indigenous to Great Britain.

Anecdotes of the Carnival at ROME.

(From the German of GÆTHE.) THE Roman carnival is a festival rather given by the people, than by the government. The latter takes only a slight share in it; makes few preparations, few expences. Pleasures arise of themselves, and the police direct them in a manner almost imperceptible.

At the carnival, the simple sound of a bell announces to the people the hour of joy and pleasure; it lets them know, that they have a right to be as mad and as extravagant as they please; and that, with the exception of blows with the fist or knife, every thing is allowed. The inequality of ranks disappears; the different classes of society are confounded; the mutual licence is tempered only by good humour, which, becoming general, teaches each to pardon in others excesses of which he himself is guilty.

Before the new year, the theatres are open, and the carnival has already begun. You see here and there in the boxes, a fair one who, disguised as an officer, shews with the greatest complaisance her epaulets to the public. The promenade on the Corso is more crowded than usual; nevertheless, the universal expectation is fixed on the last six days. At length, a little after mid-day, a bell from the capitol gives the signal so much desired, by virtue of which every one is allowed to act the madman in open day.

At this moment, the Roman suddenly lays aside his accustomed gravity and circumspection. The masons, who, till the last moment, never ceased to carry on their noisy employment, collect their tools, and withdraw smiling. All the balconies, the scaffolds, the casements, are successively adorned with carpets; chairs are set out on the pavement; the common people, the children, come into the street, which then resembles rather a great festive hall, a vast decorated gal

lery, than a public passage. You do not appear to be in the open air among strangers, but in an apartment amid your acquaintances.

By degrees, the number of masks increases. Young person's adorned with the best dress of women of the lower class, with a naked breast, and an air of effrontery, usually appear the first. They caress the men, assume a familiar tone with the women, and abandon themselves in general, to whatever good humour, gaiety, and frivolity can inspire. We recollect among others a young man who acted, in a superior manner, the part of a violent and passionate woman, quarreling all along the Corso, and throwing her packet to every one, while her companions seemed to take the greatest pains to appease her.

Women, curious in their turn to figure in the costume of men, frequently adopt the favourite dress of punchinello, and it cannot be denied that many of them appears very attractive under this equivocal appearance.

An advocate, holding forth as to an audience, rapidly pierces the crowd; he cries up to the casements, attacks the walkers, masked or not masked, threatens them all with a lawsuit. Sometimes he recounts to one, a long roll of ridiculous crimes, to another an exact list of his debts. Women are scolded on the subject of their cicisbei, girls on that of their lovers. He appeals to his pocketbook, produces the writings, and furnishes his proofs with extreme volubility. All his efforts tend to embarrass, to mortify, to excite a blush. When he appears to be at the end of his discourse, he only enters upon the subject; when he seems to depart, he suddenly returns. He advances straight to one without accosting him ; he attaches himself to another who

has already passed. If by chance he meets a comrade, he then reaches the summit of his art. Nevertheless, they cannot fix long the attention of the

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public; one folly banishes another; the scenes are infinitely varied, and follow with rapidity.

The quacqueri make less noise, but more stir than the advocates. The facility with which old-fashioned clothes can be produced at the brokers, has particularly multiplied this species of mask.

The first requisite of this costume is, that it should be old, but of good and well preserved cloth. Most of the quacqueri, wear coats of velvet or silk, embroidered vests; they have a large belly, a little hat, usually laced, a peruke with odd tresses; a mask complete, swollen, and with small eyes. The quacqueri act the ridiculous and insipid petits maitres. They leap with great lightness on the point of their feet; they have large black circles, which they use like glasses, to examine the casements, and the interior of the carriages. They make low, stiff bows, and mark their joy, above all, at the sight of a comrade, by leaping many times perpendicularly with joined feet, and by uttering a sound shrill, piercing, and inarticulate, which has for its base the consonants brr.

This cry is often a signal, which being repeated from point to point, soon resounds through the whole Corso.

At the same time, certain wags, sounding large crooked shells, wound the ear by the acute and intolerable sounds which they extract from them. It may easily be conceived, that in such a prodigious number of masks crowded together, and in a great measure similar to each other, there will be a few only who have any intention of shining, or even making themselves observed; for there are always two or three hundred punchinellos for a hundred quacqueri.-With the exception of those perhaps who appear first, all are led solely by the motive of diverting themselves, and giving scope to their folly, of en

joying, as they best can, these days of immunity and universal liberty.

The women and girls particularly, seldom miss this opportunity of amusing themselves. They all seek only to escape from home, to disguise themselves in whatever manner they can, and being commonly destitute of the means of any great expence, they exhaust the resources of their inventive genius, in order rather to disguise themselves according to circumstances, than to embellish and adorn their persons.

The parts of beggars are known to be of an easy performance; nothing is wanted but fine hair, a white mask, a little earthen pot attached to a coloured ribbon, a staff, and a hat in their hand. They present themselves with a suppliant air at the foot of the casements, and before the passengers, and receive in alms, nuts and confections.

Others wrap themselves, with less ceremony, in pelisses, or content themselves with a pretty negligé, with a mask on their face. They are seldom accompanied by men, and carry no weapon offensive or defensive except a simple besom made with the flower stalks of the calamus, an instrument somewhat frail, but terrible in their hands. Well were it too if they only used it to drive away the importunate or merely swept the figure of those who dared to present themselves on their road with their face uncovered; but woe to the man whom five or six of these fair sweepers attack at once; there is no safety for him but in absolute resignation. The crowd hinders him from flying; and on whatever side he turns, he is accosted by the hateful besoms which tickle him under the nose. To defend himself seriously against tricks of this species would be very dangerous, as the guard has every where in charge to guard the masks, to maintain their sacred rights.

Some wrap themselves in carpets

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sary.

or in cloths tied above their head.These sort of shades are in the habit of barring the road against the passengers, of stalking before them in the character of ghosts. Witty and satirical masks are very rare, because study and an object are then necesYet a punchinello has been seen furnished with horns; they were moveable, and could be pushed forward or drawn back at pleasure.— Placed under the windows of married persons, by sometimes merely shewing the ends of the horns, sometimes stretching them at full length, and sounding the little shells fixed to the extremity; he never failed to excite the gaiety of the public, and sometimes bursts of laughter.

A man with two faces glides a mong the crowd; you observe him without being able to distinguish the front from the back; he walks, and you do not know if he goes or comes, if he advances or retires.

The foreigner must also consent, on these days, to afford laughter to the public. The long clothes of the northern people, their large buttons, their round hats, strike the Roman by their singularity, and produce upon him the effect of a carnival cos

we could only oppose an occasional want of refinement in the characters, and the employment of too violent instruments for exciting the interest of the reader. The present work we think is better than Self-Control. It posesses the same merits in perhaps a somewhat greater degree, and the same faults in a degree considerably diminished.

The author has here undertaken to exhibit a picture of the change effected by misfortune, leading to religious principle, upon a character which, naturally endowed with many good qualities, had been entirely corrupted by indulgence, flattery, and prosperity. In the first volume, and half of the second, we find exhibited a young lady, whom beauty, fortune, and the excess of parental partiality, have combined to mould into a temper such as, with all our partiality, we are compelled to own, that the fair do sometimes exhibit. Overbearing pride, a determination to have her own will in every thing, and eagerness to mortify every one who appears in the form of a rival, are its leading features. Though sometimes a little overcharged, they are certainly delineated with uncommon force and truth of nature. At length the sudden failure and death of her father reduces her from affluence to a state of destitution: she passes through a series of unparalleled calamities till her mind is at length brought down to a sober and christian tone, Then the lover, whom in the days of pride and prosperity she had first despised, and then offended, seeks her out, and a happy union takes place.

We do not know whether it be the effect of the depravity of the human nature operating within us, or what other cause there may be; but we confess ourselves to have been much more edified by the frailties of the offending fair, than by her ordeal of reform and amendment. The first volume and half is indeed extremely

good;