It is dated
July 5, 1766: 'The Seyques, an idolatrous people inhabiting the
neighbourhood of Cachemire, whose name was hardly known two years ago,
have beaten Abdaly and the Patanes whom he commanded.' Modern Cockneys
would stare to read a paragraph like this: 'A great deal of grass hath
been cut down about Islington, Kentish-Town,' &c.
We will conclude our selections, which have now grown quite desultory
and miscellaneous, by the brief obituary of a 'remarkable' man, from
the _Chronicle_ of July 26, 1766: 'Thursday, died at his house near
Hampstead, the Rev. Mr Southcote, remarkable for having a leg of
mutton every night for supper during a course of forty years, smoking
ten pipes as constantly, and drinking three bottles of port.'
GENIUS FOR EMIGRATION.
Lady E. Stuart Wortley, in the account of her journey in America,
mentions that she saw a man proceeding on foot across the Isthmus of
Panama, bound for the Pacific, carrying a huge box on his back that
would almost have contained a house. It was really a dreadful thing to
see the poor man, full-cry for California, toiling along with his
enormous burden, under a tropical sun, the heat of which he required
to endure through forty miles of wilderness, and no chance of relief
or refreshment by the way. Yet this serio-comic spectacle is not
singular. Multitudes seem to have gone to the diggings with every
species of encumbrance, and in a totally unsuitable garb.
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