The Sun.
London, England, 1836-10-06 00:00:00

THE HAND.

(From the Morning Post.)
It was during that period of high popular excitement
which followed the commitment of Sir Francis Burdett to
the Tower that the following mysterious circumstance oc-
curred in the metropolis :—lt was thought necessary to pa-
trol some of the streets in the neighbourhood of which any
disturbance was to be apprehended ; and the police force
not being then in existence, this duty was assigned to the
military. It chanced that one day twc men belonging to
one of the cavalry regiments—not the Life Guards—were
on duty together in a street not usually much frequented,
when they were accosted by an individual of gentle-
manly appearance and manners, enveloped in a large
dark cloak. This person entered into conversation with
one of the soldiers, and walked by his side as he rode up
and down the street, conversing on the public events which
were passing, till suddenly, when the man's attention
was for a moment withdrawn, he took from under his
cloak a heavy brick-bat, and with his whole force launched
it at his head. The soldier was stunned by the blow, and
dropped from his horse ; but his comrade, who saw the oc-
currence, gave chace to the miscreant, who was attempting
to escape along the pavement. The stones being slippery,
the soldier was unable to pull up his horse quickly enough
to seize him ; he therefore made a back-banded blow with
his sword, and cut off the stranger's hand ; he then returned
to the assistance of his wounded companion. This circum-
stance caused some conversation at the time ; the apparent
want of reason for such an outrage upon the sentinel, as
well as the subsequent disappearance of the mutilated
stranger, who was never traced, giving it an air of mystery.
Some years afterwards, however, this anecdote was related at
a dinner party, when a clergyman present, as if struck with
some curious coincidence, declared that he believed he could
furnish a sort of sequel to the tale. It was, he said, within
a day or two of the date of the circumstance before men-
tioned that he was requested by a friend to perform for him
the burial service over a person recently deceased, at Bow,
in Essex. He accordingly went, and on his way to the
Church was startled on beholding, in the narrow path before
him, a human hand. The sexton, who accompanied him,.
took it up : it was the hand evidently of a gentleman, beau-
tifully formed, and with a small mourning ring on one of
the fingers ; it appeared to have been severed from the
wrist by a sharp and sudden blow. After some conjectures
and consultation the truant member was deposited in the
consecrated ground whereon it was found ; and until the
former part of this story seemed to afford some clue, not the
slightest reasonable conjecture as to its ownership was ever
formed.

The severe frost of Monday night made sad havoc
among the dahlias and other quick growing and delicate
plants and flowers.
Last week two females were confined in Monmouth
each of twins. This is the third instance which has occurred
in that town within the last three weeks —Bristol Advocate.

ESTIMATES OF s.—Architects have
been accused of exceeding their estimates from the time of
Vitruvius. The Greeks had a law, that, if a clerk undertook
a work, and spent more than the sum which, by his calcula-
tion, he supposed it would amount to, he should be obliged to
make it good out of his own estate. Vitruvius, writing to
Augustus, expressed a wish that the same law were enforced
at Rome also; and about the middle of the last century Van-
vitelli, having estimated the repairs of an aqueduct at a very
trifling
which, however, cost 22,000 crowns, the Judges.
sum,tha he should disburse 5,-000 crowns himself towards
toedeerd
expenditure.—Architectural
i) enditure. —Architectural Magazine.
AN ORIGINAL.—A certain venerable gentleman,
an artist, known to fame, and honoured by the addition of
R.A. to his highly-respectable name, was, a day or two since,
walking in the neighbourhood of Soho-square, and became
much surprised at seeing a wretched daub exhibited at a shop,
window for sale, with a placard fixed upon it saying--"
fine original picture of Bacchus and Ariadne, by (thr.,
artist above referred to), only 20 guineas." This was too mad
—the sight of his name to a production which would almost
have shamed a painter of tea-boards, was too much ',or the
philosophy of Mr. He went into the shop, and was
assured by the proprietor that the picture-was "an original"
" Then, Sir," said the old gentleman, " I will not suffer my
name to be disgraced by such a thing being ascribed to my
pencil." With these words he dashed his stick through the
canvass of the painting, and repeated the dose with such effect
as nearly to destroy it. The picture dealer stormed, the artist
took it quietly, and his leave, first going through the cere-
mony of leaving his card or, the man's counter.
ANECDOTE OF TWO NIGHTINGALES. It is
well known to the natural historian that there are a small num-
ber of birds which will, in case of danger menacing them, rrz...
move their eggs from one nest to another. Among these tire
the hedge sparrow, the quail, and the cuckoo; the last race_
tioned has been observed to perform the task with its beak.
A French gentleman named Deniscaux, recently made known
the following curious and interesting circumstance, which he
'ed by a little bunch of twigs
himself witnessed at the period of an "amndation. He had ob-
served a nest,
only a few inches above the surface of the water, with four
which was support
eggs in it ; but on a seen-A visit he discovered that it then
only contained two
stead of the four which he had seen the
evening previouSfr,. His first supposition was, that they had
fallen udder:
,ally into the water. He walked away, and re-
turned Again in a few minutes, when to his surprise he found
ther-0, was now but one left. Shortly afterwards he saw both
the birds near the ground, making towards another nest with
great precipitation, at a distance of about forty or fifty paces
from the original ; and hastening up to it, he found to his as-
tonishment and joy that it contained all the four eggs front
the nest which had become dangerous from its proximity. to
the rising waters. He had, however, no means of observing
in what way the parental anxiety of the birds bad instructed
them to perform their difficult and dangerous undertaking, not
were after.
having had any suspicion of what the little rogues