rd of Woodbridge; and should
this brief account excite the interest of our readers to become better
acquainted with this "living author," we refer them to the whole-length
portrait painted by himself, and held up to view in every page of his
poems.

[1] _Poems_, by B. Barton, p.190, 3rd edit.

[2] One of these sisters is the present _Mrs. Hack_, favourably
known as the authoress of several useful and highly interesting
works for children. See some introductory verses to her, prefixed
to the third edition of Mr. Barton's "Poems." His brother John
has also distinguished himself by one or two judicious pamphlets
on the situation and circumstances of the poor.

[3] _Poems_, by B. Barton, p. 133, 3rd edit.

[4] _Time's Telescope_, p. 18, vol. xi.

* * * * *

RETROSPECTIVE GLEANINGS.

* * * * *

THE GREAT FIRE OF 1666.

The fire of London broke out on Sunday morning, September 2, 1666,
O.S., and being impelled by strong winds, raged with irresistible fury
nearly four days and nights; nor was it entirely mastered till the fifth
morning after it began. The conflagration commenced at the house of one
Farryner, a baker, in Pudding-lane, near [New] Fish-street-hill, and
within ten houses of Thames-street, into which it spread within a few
hours; nearly the whole of the contiguous buildings being of timber,
lath, and plaster, and the whole neighbourhood presenting little else
than closely confined passages and narrow alleys. The fire quickly
spread, and was not to be conquered by any human means, "Then, (says
a contemporary writer,) then the city did shake indeed, and the
inhabitants did tremble, and flew away in great amazement from their
houses, lest the flames should devour them: _rattle, rattle, rattle_,
was the noise which the fire struck upon the ear round about, as if
there had been a thousand iron chariots beating upon the stones. You
might see the houses _tumble, tumble, tumble_, from one end of the
street to the other, with a great crash, leaving the foundations open
to the view of the heavens."[5]

The destructive fury of this conflagration was never, perhaps, exceeded
in any part of the world, by any fire originating in accident. _Within
the walls_, it consumed almost five-sixths of the whole city; and
_without_ the walls it cleared a space nearly as extensive as the
one-sixth part