o the annual custom. At night their
Majesties played at hazard with the nobility, for the benefit of the
groom-porter; and 'twas said the king won 600 guineas; the queen, 360;
Princess Amelia, twenty; Princess Caroline, ten; the Duke of Grafton and
the Earl of Portmore, several thousands."

Let us glance at the same chronicle, which is of the year 1731, and see
how others of our forefathers were engaged.

"Cork, 15th January.--This day, one Tim Croneen was, for the murder and
robbery of Mr. St. Leger and his wife, sentenced to be hanged two minutes,
then his head to be cut off, and his body divided in four quarters, to be
placed in four crossways. He was servant to Mr. St. Leger, and committed
the murder with the privity of the servant-maid, who was sentenced to be
burned; also of the gardener, whom he knocked on the head, to deprive him
of his share of the booty."

"January 3.--A postboy was shot by an Irish gentleman on the road near
Stone, in Staffordshire, who died in two days, for which the gentleman was
imprisoned."

"A poor man was found hanging in a gentleman's stables at Bungay, in
Norfolk, by a person who cut him down, and running for assistance, left
his penknife behind him. The poor man recovering, cut his throat with the
knife; and a river being nigh, jumped into it; but company coming, he was
dragged out alive, and was like to remain so."

"The Honourable Thomas Finch, brother to the Earl of Nottingham, is
appointed ambassador at the Hague, in the room of the Earl of
Chesterfield, who is on his return home."

"William Cowper, Esq., and the Rev. Mr. John Cowper, chaplain in ordinary
to her Majesty, and rector of Great Berkhampstead, in the county of
Hertford, are appointed clerks of the commissioners of bankruptcy."

"Charles Creagh, Esq., and ---- Macnamara, Esq., between whom an old grudge
of three years had subsisted, which had occasioned their being bound over
about fifty times for breaking the peace, meeting in company with Mr.
Eyres, of Galloway, they discharged their pistols, and all three were
killed on the spot--to the great joy of their peaceful neighbours, say the
Irish papers."

"Wheat is 26_s._ to 28_s._, and barley 20_s._ to 22_s._ a quarter; three
per cents, 92; best loaf sugar, 9-1/4_d._; Bohea, 12_s._ to 14_s._; Pekoe,
18_s._, and Hyson, 35_s._ per pound."

"At Exon was celebrated with great magnificence the birthday of the son of
Sir W. Courtney, Bart., at which more than 1,000 p