Star.
London, England, 1821-12-08 00:00:00

DUMFRIES, DECEMBER 4:

Wednesday lait was What is called out Martinrnas
Fair ; but the day was so wet and stormy, that many
of our ploughmen lads had to forego the pleasure of
meeting their sweethearts, and inviting, or rather
dragging them into the nearest house that furnished
an antidote to the winter's cold. On the Thursday
and Friday following, however, the weather was more
favourable, and the drapers and other shopkeepers
were kept pretty busy. To have judged by their
ruddy, healthful, and smiling countenances, the ser-
vant lasses seemed to have felt very little of the pres-
sure of the times ; and although their " penny fee"
has been somewhat reduced of late years, this reduc-
tion has been more than compensated by the fall in
Glasgow muslins and every other description of fe.
male gear. Cotton goods, in fact, never were so
cheap as at the present moment, and it is astonishing
how small a sum will rig out a girl, in a style which
to our hodden-grey ancestors would have appeared
the height of extravagance. Some of our merchants,
who probably depend more on the masters than on
the servants, complain that their accounts come very
slowly in; and that the circumstances of the farmer,
whether or not they have reached the lowest point of
depression, have not yet begun to return in a con-
trary direction. In the cattle market there was again
a large shew of beeves, consisting of one, two, and
three-year-old Galloways, and a large supply of
Highlanders of all ages. The sale upon the whole
was duller than for some weeks past, and the pikes
also a shade lower. The cattle, however, were mostly
of an inferior description, although there were still
some prime beasts in the market. A butcher in Maxi
welltown bought a fine fat bullock, weighing. 46
stone (of 141b5.), for 6<. id. per stone, sinking offals ;
and a private individual purchased a cow or stbt,
for a mart, for £4 10s. which weighed 25 stone, and
for the skin of which he received £1 4s. 6d. In this
way the beef would stand him in less than 3d. per
pound.—ln the pork market there was something
doing, but Ss. 3d. and 3s. 6d. were almost the highest
prices that were obtained for the best carcases—a
sum, which so far from yielding a profit, will never
pay for the expense of feeding.—Dumfries Courier.

A beautiful tigress whelped two cubs, at Odey,
on Thursday se'anight, which are now suckled by a
terrier bitch !
A srarroto's nest, with three eggs, was found a few
days since in the neighbourhood of Sheerness, a very
unusual circumstance at this' season of the year.
At Mrs. FITZIIRRIIERT93, at Battersea, the Rosen-
burgh sirataberries are growing in the kitchen garden :
the crop is prolific, and of superior flavour..
Monday, several pods of green peas were gathered
in a garden at Wouldham, Kent.
Major BIRD, of Wick, near Hereford, has, at this
time, growing in his garden, polyanthuses in full bloom.
It is remarkable, that since the Ist of Sep:emEet
last there have been but eighteen days without strong
gales and rain, and the wind, in general, has been to
the southward by west.
Saturday evening last, George Haworth, 26 years
of age, living near Blackburn, Yorkshire, while si. ting
by his own tire-sideowas struck dead by lightning.
Thursday, as Mr. J. Drew, a constable of Castle
Coombe, Somersetshire, was in the act of taking a
man into custody who had been ill-using a child, he
fell down and expired.