es' Diary or the Woman's Almanac,"
containing many delightful and entertaining particulars for the fair
sex. Let us take, for example, a copy of that popular almanac for the
year of grace 1749. On the cover there is a picture of the Queen.
Alluding to the peace then prevailing are the lines:--

"Perch'd o'er this Realm, the ancient seat of Kings,
Now dove-like peace the sprig of laurel brings;
And British fair ones happy days shall see,
While George shall reign, and Britons still are free."

Another George is on the throne, and his consort Queen Mary is an ideal
woman, and what to many is of the highest importance, Peace reigns in
this country and Britons are still free!

Among the contents of that curious almanac are Latin and French enigmas,
mathematical questions and paradoxes. The concluding paragraph for the
dedication of that day is entitled "Truth's Moral Euclid"; the
proposition given being:--

"Virtue promotes happiness, private and public.
Vice is destructive of happiness, private and public.
Honour is the reward of virtue."

One of the finest collections of old almanacs is in the Bodleian Library
at Oxford--chiefly seventeenth-century productions. A still older
almanac was the "Poor Robin" of 1664; another seventeenth-century
almanac being the "Vox Stellarum" of Francis Moore, a quack doctor. In
1733 Benjamin Franklin published in Philadelphia his "Poor Richard's
Almanac," noted for its verses, jests, and sayings. The monopoly once
possessed by the Stationers' Company has long been broken down, and of
later almanacs and calendars there is no end. Among the miniature books,
the collection of which is much favoured now, are some very tiny
almanacs, like the beautiful specimens of such a calendar given in Fig.
80, produced actual size, shown open and closed. This miniature almanac
is printed on satin and is full of pleasing little pictures. It is the
work of a French artist early in the nineteenth century, the pictures
and their descriptions and the monthly calendars occupying alternate
pages. The binding is of mother-o'-pearl, bound in ormolu and richly
gilt and engraved. Some similar calendars in tiny leather bindings,
beautifully tooled and ornamented in gold, are also collectable.

The Writing Table.

The writing table usually occupies an honoured place in the library. It
may be a massive table of oak or a simple writing desk venerated on
account of the great literary w