was given the lift stopped, and we were ushered into the making department.

Here we found ourselves surrounded by a multitude of very nice-looking girls, most of them tastefully dressed, and all of them particularly clean and tidy. The reader can suppose a room-equal in area to the largest class of ball-rooms-beautifully clean and welllighted, and in this room a double row of white deal tables, with four of our female shoemakers comfortably seated at each, and he has thus got the outline at least of our picture. We should like to devote some time to fill in the groups of figures and add a little colouring, but it would be out of place here. As to the wages of the girls, we may state that, after undergoing a nominal apprenticeship of three months, they are paid for what they can earn, which ranges from nine to twelve shillings per week.

One of those young ladies-who, by the way, came from the States-was now selected to shew us the whole process of making a shoe. So far as we could observe at the time, she pursued the following order.

1. She took up a last,

it in; or, in other words, by a constant use of this article of dress, we run the risk of checking the respiratory organs, which is very hurtful. We may mention on this point, however, that the girls in the works who wear the shoes constantly, find no ill effects resulting from this cause.

There are a number of other curious things to be seen at the Castle Mills. For example, the machine for making lasts is a really wonderful piece of mechanism. The steam-engine itself, of one hundred horse-power, is well worth examination; and, indeed, the machinery through the works generally is of a very high order, most of it, we believe, of American origin. We cannot enter at present on the other branches of the manufactory-the machinery bands, tubes, springs, and such things; but we may remark, in conclusion, that the India-rubber manufacture seems to have become established in Scotland, and we wish it all success. We have no jealousy at all that it has been done by American capital and skill-quite the reverse. This circumstance, indeed, will suggest the important reflection, that, after all, the spirit of commerce is the true bond between civilised nations,

3. She then stuck on the insole.

4. And overlaid all the seams with narrow stripes, to make them strong.

5. The quarter or heel-stepping was now added. 6. And then the bottoms were filled in.

7. The upper was now laid over this. 8. And, lastly, the sole was stuck on. The shoe was now finished, and, in almost as little time as it has taken us to write, the raw material transformed into the article of wearing apparel. We never saw or heard of anything like it. The explanation, however, is very simple: there is no sewing or stitching needed. The tools employed resemble book

binders' tools more than those of the shoemaker. Such is the adhesive nature of the substance, that whenever two surfaces are brought together, they unite as firmly as if they had never been separated. The only thing requisite after this is to give them a coat of varnish, and that is effected in a manner equally curious and expeditious. A platform is brought by the lifting machine up to the railway which intersects the floor, and on this platform are stuck some 300 pair of the shoes, by means of spikes passing into the lasts. The whole thing is now rolled into the varnishing apartment, where each shoe is coated with a particular kind of resinous varnish; and then it is thrust into an oven, where it remains until its exterior is thoroughly dried.

To give an illustration of the magical celerity with which those India-rubber shoes are produced, we may state that the sheets are cut up one day, the shoes are made the next, and these are packed ready for the market on the next again. The North British Rubber Company turn out regularly in this manner about 4000 pair every day.

people, and the only legitimate source of national wealth and prosperity.

A DAY WITH THE DIVAN. WE reached the divan before the hour at which Aslan Pacha gave audience; therefore the kaoush who had been sent by the pacha to conduct us to his presence intimated that we were to precede him to the apartment of the chehir ensin, or superintendent. There Aslan Pacha sat, begirt with the robes of office.

'Khosh buldouk!' (Well found!) said my friend and conductor Sarim Bey.

'Bouroum' (You are welcome), answered the pacha. We were beckoned to a seat; we obeyed forthwith. Tchibouks were presented, and for a while the party smoked on with proper Moslem apathy and silence.

'Min hahi?' (How are you getting on ?) asked Sarim at length of the pacha.

Aslan slowly removed his lemon-coloured mouthpiece. Giadilla, Effendim' (Effendim, I am sick). The tchibouk was resumed.

'Min Allâh!' (Heaven forbid), returned Sarim. 'Ol hai!' (It is true), was the pacha's rejoinder. Again there was nothing but tchibouk-puffing and silence.

'What business have you on hand?' asked Sarim, after a long pause.

'Bosh!' (Nothing), was the reply of the pacha, without foregoing his amber mouth-piece for a moment.

'Na tu ni' (There it is), said the cadi. (The cadi is an inferior judge, to whom the pacha surrenders the business of the court in his absence.) My lord is the master, and I am his slave. Have we not the rogue that imitated the bokshaliks ?**

Mashallah! what is the profit of such a cause except 'Benezer, you are an ass!' was the flattering reply. the labour? I question whether the Greek dog does not carry all his piasters on his back. Our exchequer is low, and we have need of such as can pay their avaniast with a full purse. Once more I tell you, Benezer, that you are an ass, and the son of an ass!'

"There is, I hear, a wealthy pacha coming here to demand the help of the favourite of the padishal—even

yourself, my lord,' replied the obsequious cadi, without for a moment venturing to question the authenticity of that paternity which the pacha had just fastened on him. I know not what his wants are, that he invokes the condescension of my lord. May it be blessed! But I am told that he is as rich as King Karoon,* and scatters about his piasters as though they were but fig-dust.'

'Chok chay' (That is much), replied Aslan. And you think he will leave money behind him?' 'My lord is wiser than a karabash! His penetration reaches to the centre of all things, and nothing is hidden from his eye!' was the answer. 'It is even as he has spoken!'

'Pek ahi' (It is well), returned the pacha. 'Few are the piasters that of late have found their way into the treasury. Inshal'lâh! (I trust in God) it is as you say, Benezer. The respect for justice must be on the decline, or we should not be in receipt of such meagre presents. A boksha or an anali (a handkerchief or a hand-mirror), such are now thought fitting offerings to the representative of the Lord of the Three Seas!' 'But was it not yesterday that my lord received two hundred piasters from -?' interposed the unfortunate cadi. He was instantly stopped.

'Benezer, you are a fool! Had you been wise, you would long ere this have filled your pockets with jebkarji (pocket-money), instead of keeping your purse empty, and being reckoned unfit to dip your spoon in the same tchorba (soup) as a mere khawaji in the Tsharshi. But why talk I? I have said that you are an ass, and I repeat it! It is time. Gel' (Come).

The pacha rose as by a great effort to his feet, being assisted so to do by two nefers,† who each put a hand beneath his shoulders. Having gently lifted him to stand upon his feet, with as much care as though he had been a chandelier or a German doll, they placed one hand beneath his elbows, whilst with the other they held up his robes. He leaned upon them, panting and tottering, as if crushed beneath the weight of the dignities he sustained, as is usual with all great persons on occasions of state in the east. The 'favourite of the padishah' was followed by six soldiers of the guard with their officer; his selictaraga, or sword-bearer; his kahvedji-bashi, or chief of the coffee-makers; his odossi-bashi, or the keeper of his seal and purse; his tchibouk-bashi, or holder and filler of his tchibouk; two chokadars, or cloak-bearers; one kirkeji-bashi, or large mantle-bearer; his merak bah, or chief guard of his stables; and the tarafhani, or inspector; the chehir ensin, or superintendent; the djillat, or executioner; and various subordinate officers closed up the rank.

Slowly and stately the nefers placed him to sit upon the yielding cushions of the divan at the upper end of the Hall of Audience. The crowd of applicants, who stood with their hands meekly folded upon their bosom, just within the doorway, spread the palms of their hands upwards, and prostrated themselves till their forehead touched the earth. The officers who kept guard over the door, pressed forth to make their obeisance by kissing the hem of the pacha's robe; but the pacha, with a condescension which brought out a burst of applause, prevented them from doing so, and offered them his hand. Each one took the proffered and distinguished boon, stooped forward, and placed it for a moment upon his head.

'Lah il'lâh el il l'Allâh! Muhammed il resoul Allah! (There is no God but God; and Muhammed is the prophet of God), cried Latija, the secretary of the court. 'Allâh shekier! (Praise be to God), all the earth is to come for justice to this its asylum in

*The Cræsus of the east.

+ The nefers are supposed to be men of especial purity. As a sign of this, they wear women's hair upon their neck and around their shoulders.

Let

the presence of the Shadow of the Padishah! all who want justice now ask, and they shall have the gift!'

As he finished the words, an elderly Turk detached himself from the crowd, and walking rapidly across the hall, till he reached the open space in the centre, he flung himself upon his knees and murmured: 'Justice! justice! justice!'

The secretary spread the parchment upon his knee, dipped the calam (pen) in the bottle at his girdle, and thus held himself in readiness to obey any commands of the Mirror of Justice who was seated in the divan above him.

'Who calls for justice? Speak!-we listen!' said the pacha.

'May the life of my lord be like his power, without end, and his shadow never be less!' cried the applicant. The fame of my lord has reached even to the portals of El Masr,* and the light of his penetration discovers things hidden in the darkness of midnight. Therefore am I come, I, Suleiman, the essencemerchant in the Divan Yuli (Divan Street) of the Tsharshi, to invoke the judgment of the Reflection of the Padishah upon that Ibn Sheitan,† Kafoor, the black slave who keeps my counter in my absence.'

'Good; and you shall have what is right; for am I not here even as in the stead of the padishah, the Sun of Justice and the Shadow of the Universe?' said the pacha.

'Taibin! taibin!' (Excellent! excellent), said the satellites near; and a low murmur of approbation ran through the court.

'My lord the pacha doubtless has heard the fame of Suleiman, the maker of the imperial essences. I have made the properties of scents my study, until I defy all the competition of the Tsharshi; and the science of the Franks is but as an atom in the beams of my knowledge of all precious perfumes. A few weeks ago, my lord's servant, after a hundred costly experiments, invented a new essence, whose excellence exceeded that of all other essences under heaven if put together. A single breath of it, my lord, was like an entrance into paradise; and but to uncover the flacon of gilded ivory in which this surpassing concoction was contained, gave its possessor a joy as if he had converted the whole race of infidels to the faith of the true believers. It was born of the spirit of a rose; and he who smelt this wonderful compound could hardly regain his breath, so powerful was its sweetness. This son of a burnt father, my lord, stole the box in which the essence was contained from the drawer wherein I had deposited it for safety, and took it to one of the cunning Franks, who, helped by Sheitan, found out the nature of those perfumes of which it was compounded. And it was but yesterday that whilst thinking there was but one flask of it in the whole universe

and that one the flacon, small as a pea, which I possessed—I had a phial of it offered to me for inspection by Namtem, the rival merchant on the opposite side. The villain is this Kafoor! My lord, he has plundered me of piasters sufficient to pave the way from hence to the Kehaba‡ with gold; for this precious perfume would have been welcome to every harem under the sun, and even to the houris in paradise!'

'Kafoor, stand forth!' pronounced the pacha in a voice of authority. An officer led the shrinking Numidian to the centre of the room, and there left him. The negro dashed himself to the earth, and clasping his hands, cried piteously for mercy.

'Give him the bastinado,' was the reply; and the shrieking slave was led to a distant part of the hall, and there, in sight of the pacha, the preparations for the punishment were made. The feet were bared, the

ankles tied to a wooden rod; two men held the ends, one on each side. With the disengaged right hand, each took a thong, and commenced alternately striking a blow. The screams of the black were terrible: he rolled his eyes in agony, he pawed the floor, he bit the ground. The infliction was continued without mercy, till the pacha was pleased to pronounce the emphatic Themum !' (enough). The sufferer was then released, and allowed to crawl home as he could.

'Now, who else would have justice?' asked the secretary.

An aged Jew advanced to the middle of the hall, and throwing himself upon his knees, with one of the lowliest salams of the east, began his complaint.

'I come to the Glory of the Truth for help, and shall I ask aid of the all-powerful pacha, who is as the breath in the nostrils of his slave, in vain? My lord, soon after the Baïram, I bargained with this filthy Greek, Angiolo'

'Angiolo, stand forth!' interrupted the pacha. It was done, and the Israelite proceeded. '

'I bargained with him, O Rose of Justice! to let him become the possessor of two bundles of my finest bokshas* for'

'Had you paid the duty on them?' asked the pacha.

'My lord's wisdom is wonderful!' cried the Jew. 'He thinks all things, and all secrets are plain in his sight, like the heavens at noonday! Who can hide aught from the Favourite of the Padishah? By the bones of Abraham, my great ancestor, should I not be witless as a dog, if I sought to do so, when my lord knows all things, and his servant is less than a slave in his sight?'

The pacha solemnly nodded his head in a slight approbation, as if the Jew were hardly worthy of his august notice; and a fresh murmur of Taibin! taibin!' ran through the apartment, to the great encouragement of Yousouff, the silver-bearded Jew.

'I took them to the custom-house,' resumed he; 'but Namik, to whom I always pay the tax, was absent. I drew the attention of his secretary to the two bundles of bokshas, and said that as I had an immediate purchaser for them, I would take them away, and return with the money at my leisure.'

the divan with a cause for which there was no grounds. Hebrew, your case is dismissed.'

A burst of applause followed this last display of wisdom by the Sun of Truth, amidst which the discomfited Jew found his way out of court as well as he could.

An officer now led one of those old women who travel with bouquets, charms, and essences for sale before the divan. The official bowed himself to the earth.

'What complaints have you, Saïder,' asked the pacha, against this woman?'

'None, my lord,' said she-'none!'

'My lord,' said the official, 'this is Zeinip Hanoum, who has been several times before you for her misdeeds.'

'Astafa Allah!' (God be praised), cried the pacha, 'I find all of you ready enough to talk of others' deeds, but, Mashal'lâh! there are few amongst you dare speak of his own! What have you done, Zeinip?'

'Nought, Effendimon' (My master), replied she. 'Some daughter of a kamal has of late introduced certain missives to the harem of Saraf Pacha.' 'Did you do it?'

'I? not I!' responded Zeinip. Not that I have not in my day done such works for the young sikdam of the city. I have sold in the best harems toys whereon words of passion were inscribed in gold-dust upon the leaves of roses. I have'

'Mashal'lâh! she tells a tale to which it is a shame to listen!' said the pacha. Do we not talk of woman? and that is bosh' (nothing).

'So you all say,' pursued the imperturbable Zeinip. Look you, my lord; Zeinip has not lived so long but she knows how to discover a diamond from a cinder, and false ire from real passion. See here, my lord, I have all precious things in my basket. What shall I shew you, Effendimon? I have silk-shawls encircled with love-ballads from Hafiz; I have gums of Araby, and spices from the far lands beyond the sea; I have analis whose frames are traced with gentle words; and I have calams whose language, if they be used discreetly, shall be softer than the breath of the rose; I have bouquets to protect from the evil eye; I have charms and rings, and amulets and spells. I have one in particular that I will shew you, Effendimon: it is in the form of a box, containing both essences and philters, and at the bottom is a spell by which, if the box be left uncovered at the fountain for one night at the decline of the moon, on the morrow one hundred piasters will be found at the bottom.'

But the poor Jew now was speechless with vexation; and the whole court, which a moment before exulted in his applause of the pacha, now resounded with a titter of delight at his ill-luck.

'Where did you sell them, infidel?' asked the pacha.

The bargain was made in the bazaar,' replied the unhappy Yousouff, wringing his hands as though he were ruined for ever.

Latija,' continued the pacha to the secretary, "Yousouff, the Jew, is fined fifty piasters for selling bokshas within the city. Hebrew, your cause is done?'

'It is done, my lord.'

'Latija,' said the pacha, write: Yousouff, the Jew, is to pay an avania of one hundred piasters for troubling

*Silk handkerchiefs.

'Inshal'lâh, your secret is well worth the learning, Zeinip,' said the pacha.

'My secret I cannot give-the box I can,' returned Zeinip, handing it up.

This sentence being duly recorded, the Sun of Justice was prepared to lift up the light of his countenance upon some new suitor. One quickly came. A young woman, whose dress and manners evidently betokened that she belonged to the first rank of Osmanli society, was led in by a superior officer from one of the private apartments beyond the hall. There she had been staying till an opportunity for stating her cause arrived, for she was of too high a class to mingle with the indiscriminate throng at the door.

'Holy Prophet!' muttered the pacha to the cadi in an under-tone, but the young houri, after the old one, is like a sight of the seventh heaven! Has she come to complain of her last purchase in the Tsharshi, or to ask for a fitting maintenance from her husband? Bosh der! (No matter.) Bak ahloum!' (We shall see.)

Again the pacha looked with furtive and covered gaze upon the fair young creature before him. His

face moved not a muscle, but yet, with Turk-like secrecy, his eyes watched every motion of the picture. She was young, and very pretty, as the wives of those Osmanlis, whose station gives them power to choose, usually are. Her large dark eyes flashed with that brilliance which so fascinates one in the Turkish female; although to any man whose sympathies are at all right, it is painful to know, that to produce this strange brightness, she uses artificial and pernicious means the poisonous essence of belladonna. The cheek was pale and pure, and though so jealously hidden beneath the misty folds of her yashmak, you could easily see the beauty of every feature, and even the pink spot in the centre of each cheek. The long sleeves of her feridje (cloak) had fallen back, thus revealing her arms, which were delicately moulded, and stainless as newly sculptured marble. A wreath of pearls and flower-sprays confined part of her hair behind; but much of it had been suffered to break free, and the long dark curls falling around her shoulders, formed a picturesque contrast to the pale loveliness of her complexion. A pretty little foot, incased in its embroidered slipper, just peeped out from under the folds of her large flowing shalwar (pantaloon) of pale yellow and violet silk.

She was of the highest rank, as has been said; and I noticed that she began her petition very differently from any who had preceded her. She pronounced a dignified 'Salâm Aleikoum!' (Peace be with you) to the pacha, and then commenced her recital-while she held up the forefinger of her right hand in a gesture of pretty command, and emphasising any sentence of special import by slowly moving it.

'My lord the pacha,' began she, 'I claim the protection of your authority against my husband. I' 'Inshal'lâh,' interrupted the pacha, a woman has no right to dispute the wishes of her husband, unless it be a case of devanitij (idiocy) or of scaradam (cruelty). He is her lord and master, and knows all things; and she is as bosh, and less than bosh (nothing, and less than nothing), in his sight.'

'Wal'lâh! and a devani (an idiot) and a scaradi (cruel man), too, he must be, or he would not try to oppose his wife's wants when her cause is just, and she has done nought to offend him. I had a slave, my lord, named Zaida Hanoum. She was mine before I married my husband, and he has no right to her. He began to look upon her with unblushing face and saucy eyes, and I chose it not. I sent her away to the house of my friend, Selima Hanoum, but he found her out, and brought her back!'

"Why did you not shew him the bottom of your slipper?' asked the pacha, much moved at this injustice to the young wife.

'I did, my lord,' replied the Hanoum; and once I was minded to apply it to his ears, but I refrained!' 'Guzel, guzel!' (Very good, very good), replied the pacha. The cause must indeed be serious when a wife can be suffered to apply her slipper to the ears of her husband! By your patience, I know that you are in the right-for such can always keep their temper. I will send a script to your husband,' pursued the pacha, as he saw the Hanoum taking out a well-filled purse. No wife shall be unjustly troubled by her husband's fancies whilst the Favourite of the Padishah sits in judgment here!'

The purse was handed to the secretary, who in turn handed it to the pacha.

I know not what the costs are,' said the arch young Hanoum; but I require no deductions from my gift. If any remains, let it go to the secretary, or any one else in court who may choose it!'

The Hanoum made a dignified salam-the pacha graciously returned it-and then she passed out of court. This case disposed of, the pacha declared that he was so much fatigued with the duties of his office,

that he really could sit in the divan no longer. The cadi therefore took his place. Slowly and solemnly as he had been led there, the nefers now supported Aslan from the Hall of Audience. We followed, perfectly satisfied with our Day at the Divan.

THE HISTORY OF THE FOUR KINGS. WHO is there of us that has been at school who remembers not that terrible question in geometrical progression beginning with 'One Sessa, an Indian,' the black gentleman who invented the game of chess, and demanded of his prince in recompense one grain of wheat for the first square in the board, two for the second, three for the third, and so on, up to the value of more than the royal possessions? It is to this celebrated person, it seems, that we are also indirectly indebted for the game of whist. In the chess of Hindostan, Chaturaji-the four rajahs or kings-the ingenious Sir William Jones discovers the germ of that which delighted the heart of Mrs Sarah Battle more than ten centuries afterwards. In what manner, and at what precise time, coloured cards took the place of carved figures, and the whist-table elbowed out the chess-board, is not known; but a pack of Hindostanee cards in the possession of the Royal Asiatic Society, and presented to Captain Cromline Smith in 1815 by a high-caste Brahmin, were declared by the donor to be actually one thousand years old! Nor,' quoth the Brahmin, 'can any of us now play at them, for they are not like our modern cards at all.' Neither, indeed, do they bear any remarkable resemblance to our own, the pack consisting of no less than eight suits of divers colours, the kings being mounted upon elephants, and the viziers, or second honours, upon horses, tigers, and bulls. Moreover, there are other marks by which the respective value of the common cards may be distinguished, which would puzzle our club quidnuncs not a little-such as a pine-apple in a shallow cup,' and a 'something like a parasol without a handle, and with two broken ribs sticking through the top.'

In the Chinese dictionary called Ching-toye-tung, it is asserted that dotted cards were invented in the reign of Seun-ho, A.D. 1120, and devised for the amusement of his numerous wives: there are thirty cards in each of these packs, three suits of nine cards each, and three single cards superior to all the others. The name of one of the suits is Kew-ko-wan-that is to say, nine ten thousands of kwan, strings of beads, shells, or money; and the titles of the other two are equally concise and sensible. These cards, however, have an advantage over those of Hindostan in being oblong instead of circular; both, however, are remarkable for being emblematic in a very high degree; some of the Hindoo packs illustrating the ten avatars or incarnations of the deity Vishnu; and the so-called paper-tickets' of the Chinese typifying the stars, the human virtues, and, indeed, almost anything you please.

Cards do not appear to have been known in Europe until towards the end of the fourteenth century. 'In the year 1379,' writes Carelluyzo, was brought into Viterbo the game at cards, which comes from the country of the Saracens, and is with them called naib;' whence afterwards, perhaps, Jackanapes, Jack of Cards. In 1393, this entry occurs in the accounts of the treasurer of Charles VI. of France: 'Given to Jacquemin Gringonneur, painter, for three packs of cards, gilt and coloured and variously ornamented for the amusement of the king, fifty-six sols of Paris.'

The clergy, it seems, took to their quiet rubber, or, as I am afraid it was, to that ungenteel game all-fours, very speedily after this, for they were forbidden these little amusements by the synod of Langres so early as 1404.

Card-making grew to be a regular trade in Germany fourteen years after this, where it, as well as cardpainting, seems to have been for some time carried on exclusively by females; the wood engraving of cards, however, did not begin until some time afterwards. The pips were then very prettily imagined, the suits consisting of hearts, bells, acorns, and leaves. The place of her majesty the queen was filled by a knight or superior officer; and it is to Italy, and not to Germany or France, that the glory of giving place aux dames at all must be conceded. There was alsoimagine it, shade of Major A. !-no ace whatever. By 1420, gambling by means of cards had got to such a pitch as to provoke St Bernardin to preach against it at Bologna; and so eloquently, as to cause his hearers to make a fire in the public place, and throw all the cards in their possession into it-a proceeding which must have been enthusiastically applauded by the Messrs De la Rue of that period. We doubt whether Mr Spurgeon now-a-days would produce an equal effect in St James's Street.

In the books of the worshipful guild of cobblers, at Bamberg, there is a bye-law of 1491, which imposes a fine of half a pound of bees-wax, for the company's holy candle to burn at the altar of their patron saint, upon any brother who, being excited by bad luck, should go so far as to throw the cards out of window. The signs upon Italian cards, which seem to have been the first imported into England, were cups, swords, money, and clubs; but in the third year of Edward IV., their further importation was forbidden, and the hometrade of card-making protected. Cards were played by that time, we learn, in all places of worship' in this country, which, however, simply means in the houses of all worshipful people, such as lords, knights, and justices of the peace.

Henry VII. was a card-player; and there are not a few entries in that beggarly monarch's privy-purse account of his majesty's little losings: the sly old fellow never seems to have won anything. His daughter, Margaret, at the age of fourteen, was found by James IV. of Scotland-the first time he ever saw her in the act of playing cards; and it was most probably écarté, for he seems to have at once proposed to her, and she to have accepted him. He was himself a great card-player, and had delivered over to him at Melrose, on Christmas-night 1496, 'thirty-five unicornis, eleven French crowns, a ducat, a ridare, and a leu'-in all forty-two pounds, to spend at cards.

There was a sum regularly allotted to the Princess, afterwards queen, Mary, as pocket-money for this especial purpose; the sums given her at a time for immediate disbursement ranging from twenty to forty shillings, but one entry being so disgracefully low (for a princess) as 'two and tuppence.' It is probable that her indifferent luck at this amusement may have contributed to the burning of not a few poor Christians in later years. Mr Barrington is of opinion that her Spanish alliance made games at cards much more universal in this country; and certainly, Spaniards were early votaries at the shrine of the Four Kings. Cards were especially forbidden to the troops on board of the Armada by the Duke of Medina; but we do not know what authority Mr Samuel Rogers had for making the companions of Columbus

Round at Primero sit, a whiskered band,

So Fortune smiled, careless of sea or land. Queen Elizabeth liked cards as well as her sister did, and, when she lost her royal money, seems generally to have lost her royal temper also. Instead of the white malice which Mary indulged in, however, Queen Bess did but blurt out a harmless oath or two. Sir Robert Carey tells his father Lord Blunsdon, who is procrastinating about his journey to Barwyke, that

he had better set about it at once, 'for when I towlde hyr that you determinde to begyn your jorney presently after Whitsontyd, she grew yntoo a grete rage, begynnynge with Gods words, that she wolde sett you by the feete, and send another in your place yf you dalyed with hyr thus, for she wolde not be thus dalyed withall.' James I. likewise played a good deal, but so sleepily, that he required somebody to hold his cards for him.

About the year 1660, heraldic cards were first introduced into England, the king of clubs being represented by the arms of the pope; of spades, by those of the king of France; of diamonds, by those of the king of Spain; and of hearts, by those of the king of England. In 1679, a pack was published containing the history of all the popish plots, excellently engraved on copper plates, with very large descriptions under each card. Aspersers of this pack,' it is added by their ingenious advertiser-that is, those who don't buy them, we suppose-plainly shew themselves to be popishly affected.'

The French, from whom we derive our ordinary suits of diamond, heart, spade, and club-carreau, cœur, pique, and trèfle-were continually changing their court-cards, and representing on them all sorts of historical characters. In the earlier periods, their kings were Charlemagne, Cæsar, Alexander, and David, or Solomon, Augustus, Clovis, and Constantine; about all of whom and their followers, Père Daniel has the most ingenious information to offer. Troops, says he, however brave and numerous, require to have prudent and experienced generals. The trèfle, a clover plant which abounds in the meadows of France, denotes that a chief ought always to encamp his army in a place where he may obtain forage for his cavalry; piques and carreaux signify magazines of arms which ought ever to be well stored the carreau being a sort of heavy arrow shot from a cross-bow, and which was so called from its head being squared (carré); cœurs, hearts, signified courage of both commanders and soldiers; and so on to any

amount.

Whist was a popular game in England long before it became fashionable. In 1664, the second edition of The Compleat Gamester has this passage: Ruff, and honours (by some called slam), and whist are games so common in England, in all parts thereof, that every child almost of eight years hath a competent knowledge in that recreation; and therefore I am more unwilling to speak anything more of them than this, that there may be a great deal of art used in dealing and playing at these games, which differ very little one from the other.' Another name for this ancient game of 'ruff and honours' was 'whisk and swabbers,' from which title, without doubt, was derived whist, and not, as is popularly believed, from the Irish whisht, 'be quiet.' The game never seems to have been played upon principle much before 1737, about the time that the famous treatise by Edmund Hoyle, Gent., was published by Thomas Osborne at Gray's Inn: it was, however, long before this the peculiar recreation of the clergy and country gentlemen, who left ombre to the ladies, piquet to the bloods, and all-fours, put, cribbage, and lanterloo to the lower orders.

Since then, as we know, the history of the Four Kings has never lacked students. It is probable that during the last hundred years more money has been spent in the encounters of these paper monarchs and their armies than in all the real campaigns which have been entered upon in the same period by fleshand-blood sovereigns; nor, indeed, in so loyal a cause, has life itself been spared, as many duels sprung from cards can testify. Moreover, not a few fanatic persons have absolutely died in harness with cards in their hands; such as the great Bath player Lookup, who