supposed to be made of gutta-percha, but
ultimately discovered, through the agency of
a precocious philosopher, aged seven—who
ate one of them—to be formed from a
composition of glue, flour, and treacle). Now,
horrible writhing gutta-percha snakes are up,
and now they are down; now popguns go
off and now hang fire.

There are certain toys and fancy
ornaments that always, however, preserve a
healthy vogue, and command a ready sale.
Of the former, the Noah's arks, and dolls'
houses, and India-rubber balls, may be
mentioned; although their nominal nomenclatures
are sometimes altered to suit the exigencies
of fashion. Thus we are enticed to purchase
Uncle Buncle's Noah's ark, Peter Parley's
balls, or Jenny Lind's Doll's mansion. Of
the fancy goods, I may hint fugitively that
some attenuated vases of artificial flowers
under glass shades, I have known as Queen
Adelaide's Own, Victoria's Wreath, The
Jenny Lind Bouquet, and the Eugenia
Vase. These flowrets are much cultivated
as chimney ornaments by maiden ladies in
the neighbourhoods of Peckham Rise and
Muswell Hills. Lastly, there is a model, or
sample piece of workmanship, of which copies
are to this day sold, principally to the ladies,
which I have known for nearly twenty years.
It consists of a hollow cottage of latitudinarian
architecture, composed of plaster of Paris,
with stained glass windows, and with a
practicable chimney. In the hollow part
of the edifice an oil lamp is nocturnally
placed; and the light pouring through
the windows, and the smoke curling up the
chimney (not altogether inodorously),
produce a charming and picturesque effect. This
building has had many names. When I knew
it first, it was, I think, William Tell's Châlet.
Then it was the Birthplace of the Poet
Moore. Then it was Shakspeare's House.
Then Her Majesty's Highland Hut or Shieling,
near Balmoral, in Scotland. And now
it is the birth-place of Mrs. Harriet Beecher
Stowe. House of many names! farewell!
and thou, too, Arcadia! till at some future
day I wander through thy spangled glades
again.

A CHILD'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

ON its being formally made known to
Elizabeth that the sentence had been executed
on the Queen of Scots, she showed the utmost
grief and rage, drove her favorites from her
with violent indignation, and sent Davison
to the Tower; from which place he was
only released in the end by paying an
immense fine which completely ruined him.
Elizabeth not only over-acted her part in
making these pretences, but most basely
reduced to poverty one of her faithful
servants, for no other fault than obeying her
commands.

James, King of Scotland, Mary's son,
made a show likewise of being very angry on
the occasion; but, as he was a pensioner of
England to the amount of five thousand
pounds a year, and had known very little of
his mother, and possibly regarded her as the
murderer of his father besides, he soon took
it quietly.

Philip, King of Spain, however, threatened
to do greater things than ever had been
done yet, to set up the Catholic religion and
punish Protestant England. Elizabeth, hearing
that he and the Prince of Parma were
making great preparations for this purpose,
in order to be beforehand with them, sent
out ADMIRAL DRAKE (a famous navigator,
who had sailed about the world, and had
already brought great plunder from Spain)
to the port of Cadiz, where he burnt a
hundred vessels full of stores. This great
loss obliged the Spaniards to put off the
invasion for a year, but it was none the
less formidable for that, amounting to one
hundred and thirty ships, nineteen thousand
soldiers, eight thousand sailors, two thousand
slaves, and between two and three thousand
great guns. England was not idle in making
ready to resist this great force. All the men
between sixteen years old and sixty, were
trained and drilled; the national fleet of
ships (in number only thirty-four at first)
was enlarged by public contributions and
by private ships, fitted out by noblemen; the
City of London, of its own accord, furnished
double the number of ships and men that it
was required to provide; and if ever the
national spirit was up in England it was up
all through the country to resist the Spaniards.
Some of the Queen's advisers were for seizing
the principal English Catholics, and putting
them to death, but the Queen—who, to her
honour, used to say that she would never
believe any ill of her subjects, which a parent
would not believe of her own children—
rejected the advice, and only confined a few of
those who were the most suspected among
them, in the fens in Lincolnshire. The great
body of Catholics deserved this confidence;
for they behaved most loyally, nobly, and
bravely.

So, with all England firing up like one strong
angry man, and with both sides of the Thames
fortified, and with the soldiers under arms,
and the sailors in their ships, the country
waited for the coming of the proud Spanish
fleet, which was called THE INVINCIBLE
ARMADA. The Queen herself, riding on a
white horse, with armour on her back, and
the Earl of Essex and the Earl of Leicester
holding her bridle rein, made a brave speech
to the troops at Tilbury Fort opposite
Gravesend, which was received with such
enthusiasm as is seldom known. Then
came the Spanish Armada into the English
Channel, sailing along in the form of a half
moon, of such great size, that it was seven
miles broad. But the English were quickly