in a free state, for any citizen to extend his body. Those who dared to grow too fat, or too soft for military exercise and the service of Sparta, were soundly whipped. In one particular instance, that of Nauclis, the son of Polytus, the offender was brought before the Euphori, and a meeting of the whole people of Sparta, at which his unlawful fatness was publicly exposed; and he was threatened with perpetual banishment if he did not bring his body within the regular Spartan compass, and give up his culpable mode of living; which was declared to be more worthy of an Ionian than a son of Lacedæmon.

THE STARS AND STRIPES.

The American Congress, on the 14th of June, 1777, "Resolved that the flag of the thirteen United States be thirteen stripes, alternately red and white; that the Union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation." As to the origin of the combination, and who first suggested the idea, some have supposed that it might have been derived from the arms of General Washington, which contains three stars in the upper portion, and three bars running across the escutcheon. There is no means of knowing at this day whether this conjecture. is correct, but the coincidence is rather striking. There were several flags used before the striped flag by the Americans. In March, 1775, a union flag with a red field" was hoisted at New York upon the liberty pole, bearing the inscription "George Rex and the liberties of America," and upon the reverse, "No Popery." On the 18th of July, 1778, Gen. Putnam raised, at Prospect Hill, a flag bearing on one side the Massachusetts motto, “Qui transtulit sustinet," on the other "An appeal to Heaven." In October of the same year the floating batteries at Boston had a flag with the latter motto, the field white with a pine-tree upon it. This was the Massachusetts emblem. Another flag, used

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during 1775 in some of the colonies, had upon it a rattlesnake coiled as if about to strike, with the motto "Don't tread on me. The grand union flag of thirteen stripes was raised on the heights near Boston, January 2, 1776. Letters from there say that the regulars in Boston did not understand it; and as the king's speech had just been sent to the Americans, they thought the new flag was a token of submission. The British Annual Register of 1776 says:-"They burnt the king's speech, and changed their colors from a plain red ground, which they had hitherto used, to a flag with thirteen stripes, as a symbol of the number and union of the colonies." A letter from Boston about the same time, published in the Penna Gazette, for January, 1776, says:"The grand union flag was raised on the 2d, in compliment to the united colonies." The idea of making each stripe for a State was adopted from the first; and the fact goes far to negative the supposition that the private arms of General Washington had any thing to do with the subject. The pine tree, rattlesnake, and striped flag were used indiscriminately until July, 1777, when the blue union with the stars was added to the stripes, and the flag established by law. Formerly a new stripe was added for each new State admitted to the Union, until the flag became too large, when by act of Congress the stripes were reduced to the old thirteen; and now a star is added to the union at the accession of each new State.

ANTIQUARIAN DISCOVERY.

A few weeks ago, in clearing out the ruins of an old chapel at Nuneham Regis in Warwickshire, which had been pulled down (all but the belfry tower) about forty years since, we thought it necessary to trench the whole space, that we might more certainly mark out the boundaries of the building, as we wished to restore it in some measure to its former state; it had been used as a

stackyard, and a depository of rubbish by the tenants of the farm on which it was, ever since its dilapidation. We began to trench at the west end, and came on a great many bones and skeletons, from which the coffins had crumbled away, till, finding the earth had been moved, we went deeper, and discovered a leaden coffin quite perfect, but without date or inscription of any kind; there had been an outer wooden coffin which was decayed, but quantities of the black rotted wood were all round it. We cut the lead and folded back the top so as not to destroy it; beneath was a wooden coffin in good preservation, and also without any inscription. As soon as the leaden top was rolled back, a most overpowering aromatic smell diffused itself all over the place; we then unfastened the inner coffin, and found the body of a man embalmed with great care, and heaps of rosemary and aromatic leaves piled over him. On examining the body more closely, we found it had been beheaded, the head was separately wrapped up in linen, and the linen shirt that covered the body was drawn quite over the neck where the head had been cut off; the head was laid straight with the body, and where the joining of the neck and head should have been, it was tied round with a broad black ribbon. His hands were crossed on his breast, the wrists were tied with black ribbon, and the thumbs were tied together with black ribbon. He had a peaked beard, and a quantity of long brown hair curled and clotted with blood round his neck: the only mark on any thing about him was on the linen on his chest, just above where his hands were crossed; on it were the letters T. B. worked in black silk. On trenching towards the chancel we came on four leaden coffins laid side by side, with inscriptions on each: one contained the body of Francis, Earl of Chichester and Lord Dunsmure, 1653; the next the body of Audrey, Countess of Chichester, 1652; another the body of Lady Audrey Leigh, their daughter, 1640; and the fourth, the body of Sir John Anderson, son of Lady Chichester, by her first hus

band. We opened the coffin of Lady Audrey Leigh, and found her perfectly embalmed and in entire preservation, her flesh quite plump, as if she were alive, her face very beautiful, her hands exceedingly small and not wasted; she was dressed in fine linen, trimmed all over with old point lace, and two rows of lace were laid flat across her forehead. She looked exactly as if she were lying asleep, and seemed not more than sixteen or seventeen years old; her beauty was very great; even her eyelashes and eyebrows were quite perfect, and her eyes were closed; no part of her face or figure was at all fallen in. We also opened Lady Chichester's coffin, but with her the embalming had apparently failed; she was a skeleton, though the coffin was half full of aromatic leaves her hair, however, was as fresh as if she lived; it was long, thick, and as soft and glossy as that of a child, and of a perfect auburn color. In trenching on one side of where the altar had been, we found another leaden coffin with an inscription. It contained the body of a Dame Marie Browne, daughter of one of the Leighs, and of Lady Marie, daughter to Lord Chancellor Brackley. This body was also quite perfect, and embalmed principally with a very small coffee-colored seed, with which the coffin was nearly filled, and it also had so powerful a perfume that it filled the whole place. The linen, ribbon, &c., were quite strong and good in all these instances, and remained so after exposure to the air: we kept a piece out of each coffin, and had it washed without its being at all destroyed. Young Lady Audrey had earrings in her ears, black enamelled serpents. The perfume of the herbs and gums used in embalming them was so sickening, that we were all ill after inhaling it, and most of the men employed in digging up the coffins were ill also. The chapel is on the estate of Lord John Scott, who inherited it from his paternal grandmother the Duchess of Buccleuch, daughter of the Duke of Montagu, into whose family Nuneham Regis and other possessions in Warwickshire came by the marriage of his grandfather with the daughter of Lord Dunsmure, Earl of Chichester.

STERNE IN PARIS.

The following is a copy of an autograph letter of Sterne's, written when at Paris. It is very tained among his published letters. ble, and several of the proper names

interesting, and is not conSome few words are illegimay be inaccurately copied. PARIS, March 15, 1762.

MY DEAR :-Having an opportunity of writing by a physician, who is posting off for London to-day, I would not omit doing it, though you will possibly receive a letter (which is gone from hence last post) at the very same time. I send to Mr. Foley's every mail-day, to inquire for a letter from you; and if I do not get one in a post or two, I shall be greatly surprised and disappointed. A terrible fire happened here last night, the whole fair of St. Germain's burned to the ground in a few hours; and hundreds of unhappy people are now going crying along the streets, ruined totally by it. This fair of St. Germain's is built upon a spot of ground covered and tiled, as large as the Minster Yard, entirely of wood, divided into shops, and formed into little streets, like a town in miniature. All the artisans in the kingdom come with their wares-jewellers, silversmiths-and have free leave from all parts of the world to profit by a general licence from the Carnival to Easter. They compute the loss at six millions of livres, which these poor creatures have sustained, not one of which have saved a single shilling, and many fled out in their shirts, and have not only lost their goods and merchandise, but all the money they have been taking these six weeks. Oh! ces moments de malheur sont terribles, said my barber to me, as he was shaving me this morning; and the good-natured fellow uttered it with so moving an accent, that I could have found in my heart to have cried over the perishable and uncertain tenure of every good in this life.

I have been three mornings together to hear a celebrated pulpit orator near me, one Père Clement, who delights me much; the parish pays him 600 livres for a dozen sermons this Lent; he is K. Stanislas's preacher-most excellent indeed! his matter solid, and to the purpose; his manner, more than theatrical, and greater, both in his action and delivery, than Madame Clairon, who, you must know, is the Garrick of the stage here; he has infinite variety, and keeps up the attention by it wonderfully; his pulpit, oblong, with three seats in it, into which he occasionally casts himself; goes on, then rises, by a gradation of four steps, each of which he profits by, as his discourse inclines