NEW LLOYD'S COFFEE-HOUSE, 21st Dec. 1807. PREMIUMS OF INSURANCE. The Average Prices of Navigable Canal Shares, Dock Stock, Fire Office Shares, &c. in DEC. 1807; ut the Office of Mr. Scott, 28, New-Bridge-street, London. Coventry Canal, 515l.; the last half-yearly dividend was 141. per share nett.Grand Junction, 911. ex. dividend.--Ashton and Oldham, 921.-Ellesmere, 561.Monmouthshire, 931.-Grand Surrey, 431.-Croydon, 551.-Tavistock Mineral, 51. per share prem.-Ashby de la Zouch, 251.-Kennet and Avon, 201.; subscription shares, 10s. prem-West Inaiu Dock Stock, 149 to 150 per cent.-London Dock Stock, 1121. per cent.-Globe Insurance, 112l. per cent.-East London Water Works, 105l. per share prem. AGRICULTURAL REPORT FOR DECEMBER, 1807. The wheats in the north of England and generally upon cold lands have rather an unfavourable appearance, and look yellow, from the sudden and early commencement of the frost; but on warm and fruitful soils all the winter crops wear a healthy and flourishing appearance. Tu nips are a very light crop, ge nerally running small this season; and as the little frost yet experienced appears to have injured them considerably in many parts, we must expect a great deficit of that valuable article in the spring. They are now worth in Yorkshire from 81. to 10l. per acre.-Beans turn out so extremely bad in various quarters as scarcely to produce seed.---The coleseed crops are variable, some good, but more generally thin and irregular; they are, however, a vast help to eke out the turnips, all our resources, considering the stock of cattle, being likely to run short towards the middle of spring. -The fallows have wrongat well, and all business appropriate to the season has proceeded this year with much spirit and dispatch. Melanoboly Melancholy accounts have been received one on the back of the other, from the North, of the loss of a greater number of sheep in the late snows than were ever before heard of so early in the season. If a writer on cattle may be depended on, there is far more of neglect than misfortune in these losses. A number of cattle have also lately been destroyed by eating of the branches of the yew tree. The stock of wheat is very ample, and the markets fall in most parts of England, but it has lately been upon the advance. Intelligence from without has chiefly occasioned this advance. In all the higher parts of Scotland the wheat crop totally failed, and the oats are a very moderate produce. In many of the lower districts also the mildew did much damage, and it is only in the carses and best grounds of Scotland that the crops are good. The crops both of corn and chesnuts have failed in the southern parts of Europe, and the produce of wheat in the northern parts is said not to equal the former reports. These accounts, together with the impracticability of obtaining any foreiga supply, must necessarily affect our markets in the spring. Cattle, both fat and lean, continue a very heavy article and very low all over the country. The quantity bred is fully up to the demand. In Yorkshire mutton by the carcase is sold as low as 4d. per lb. and beef at 3d.; but in the spring it is probable, from the shortness of keep, that good fat articles will fetch a good price. At Smithfield the markets have been large. 25. 6d. to 4s. Veal, Ss. to 5s. 6d. Lamb, do. Beef, 2s. 6d. to 4s. 6d. Mutton, FROM ANOTHER CORRESPONDENT. The mild and open weather we have had during the greater part of the preceding mouth has been favourable to vegetation, and the winter green crops of wheat, tares, turnips, and rye look kind and flourishing. On dry soils a large breadth of land has been prepared for peas and barley; and the operations usual in this season of the year, of laying manure on the meadows, hedging and ditching, have been carried on to a great extent, and the spare hands are employed in the barns and threshing mills, which last are now come into general use on most large farms, and are almost universally found to answer, doing their work effectually. The wheat and oat crops are found to yield equal to expectation; but barley somewhat deficient.-A scarcity of fodder being generally expected from the shortness of the straw, and that fodder proving small in bulk, lean stock has been offered at the late fairs and markets at very reduced prices, farmers being afraid to make large purchases. Cows and calves have been, from the same cause (scarcity of fodder) sold unusually low.----Fresh horses and porking pigs are the only stock which now obtain good prices, and are nruch in request. A Literary Inquirer is informed that there has been no general collection of the works of the late Gilbert Wakefield, but that a complete list of his publications is annexed to the Memoirs of his Life, 2d edit. Johnson, 1804. The Editor is able to give no other reply to the enquiry concerning an account of Clock and Watch work, than 'a reference to Berthoud's " Essai sur l'Horlogerie," and to the article Clock-work in Dr. Rees's New Cyclopædia. Werter is respectfully informed that his Letter was received, but it was not judged proper to continue the subject. THE ATHENÆUM. No. 14. FEBRUARY 1st, 1808. Sir, GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. ON THE ANTIQUITIES OF CLEVES, &C. To the Editor of the Athenæum. IN reply to the enquiries of your correspondent, D. contained in the Athenæum of the 1st December last, permit me to offer some further observations on those subjects, of which he has requested more particular elucidation. The author, to whom I am chiefly indebted for the account of the "Order of Fools," has rendered a most important service to the lovers of historical and antiquarian memorabilia, not only by contributing in a most essential degree to our acquaintance with the valuable remains of antiquity, once forming the proud boast of Cleves, but also, by preserving an unperishable record of those noble vestiges of past ages, which were totally annihilated by the barbarous and merciless hands of the French revolutionists, upon their first irruption into Holland in the winter of 1794-5. The work in which we find this interesting record is entitled, "Nachrichten über die zu Cleve gesammelten, theils Römischen, theils väterländischen Altherthümer, und andere daselbst vorhandene Merkwürdigkeiten, &c. &c."-" Account of the partly Roman and partly national Antiquities collected at Cleves, as well as of other curiosities extant there, by the ci-devant President of the Chamber of War and Domains, and Minister of State, M. von Buggenhagen. Berlin, 8vo. Maurer, 1795." In regard to Brandt's "Ship of Fools," it may be permitted me to doubt the circumstance of that book being originally written in the German language. For, if we are to place any reliance on the testimony of one, who certainly possesses fair claims to competency of judgment, I think no other evidence is requisite to prove that it is of Dutch origin. The testimony to which I allude, is that of Alexander Barclay, who, in his "Shyp of Folys of the Worlde," printed in VOL. III. Q • Published in the Athenæum of the 1st Sept. 1509, Melancholy accounts have been received one on the back of the other, from the North, of the loss of a greater number of sheep in the late snows than were ever before heard of so early in the season. If a writer on cattle may be depended on, there is far more of neglect than misfortune in these losses. A number of cattle have also lately been destroyed by eating of the branches of the yew tree. The stock of wheat is very ample, and the markets fall in most parts of England, but it has lately been upon the advance. Intelligence from without has chiefly occasioned this advance. In all the higher parts of Scotland the wheat crop totally failed, and the oats are a very moderate produce. In many of the lower districts also the mildew did much damage, and it is only in the carses and best grounds of Scotland that the crops are good. -The crops both of corn and chesnuts have failed in the southern parts of Europe, and the produce of wheat in the northern parts is said not to equal the former reports. These accounts, together with the impracticability of obtaining any foreiga supply, must necessarily affect our markets in the spring. Cattle, both fat and lean, continue a very heavy article and very low all over the country. The quantity bred is fully up to the demand. In Yorkshire mutton by the carcase is sold as low as 4d. per lb. and beef at 3d.; but in the spring it is probable, from the shortness of keep, that good fat articles will fetch a good price. At Smithfield the markets have been large. 25. 6d. to 4s. Veal, 3s. to 5s. 6d. Lamb, do. Beef, 2s. 6d. to 4s. 6d. Mutton, FROM ANOTHER CORRESPONDENT. The mild and open weather we have had during the greater part of the preceding month has been favourable to vegetation, and the winter green crops of wheat, tares, turnips, and rye look kind and flourishing. On dry soils a large breadth of land has been prepared for peas and barley; and the operations usual in this season of the year, of laying manure on the meadows, hedging and ditching, have been carried on to a great extent, and the spare hands are employed in the barns and threshing mills, which last are now come into general use on most large farms, and are almost universally found to answer, doing their work effectually. The wheat and oat crops are found to yield equal to expectation; but barley somewhat deficient.-A scarcity of fodder being generally expected from the shortness of the straw, and that fodder proving small in bulk, lean stock has been offered at the late fairs and markets at very reduced prices, farmers being afraid to make large purchases. Cows and calves have been, from the same cause (scarcity of fodder) sold unusually low.---Fresh horses and porking pigs are the only stock which now obtain good prices, and are much in request. A Literary Inquirer is informed that there has been no general collection of the works of the late Gilbert Wakefield, but that a complete list of his publications is annexed to the Memoirs of his Life, 2d edit. Johnson, 1804. The Editor is able to give no other reply to the enquiry concerning an account of Clock and Watch work, than 'a reference to Berthoud's "Essai sur l'Horlogerie," and to the article Clock-work in Dr. Rees's New Cyclopædia. Werter is respectfully informed that his Letter was received, but it was not judged proper to continue the subject. THE ATHENÆUM. No. 14. FEBRUARY 1st, 1808. Sir, GENERAL CORRESPONDENCE. ON THE ANTIQUITIES OF CLEVES, &C. To the Editor of the Athenæum. IN reply to the enquiries of your correspondent, D. contained in the Athenæum of the 1st December last, permit me to offer some further observations on those subjects, of which he has requested more particular elucidation. The author, to whom I am chiefly indebted for the account of the "Order of Fools,"* has rendered a most important service to the lovers of historical and antiquarian memorabilia, not only by contributing in a most essential degree to our acquaintance with the valuable remains of antiquity, once forming the proud boast of Cleves, but also, by preserving an unperishable record of those noble vestiges of past ages, which were totally annihilated by the barbarous and merciless hands of the French revolutionists, upon their first irruption into Holland in the winter of 1794-5. The work in which we find this interesting record is entitled, "Nachrichten über die zu Cleve gesammelten, theils Römischen, theils väterländischen Altherthümer, und andere daselbst vorhandene Merkwürdigkeiten, &c. &c." -" Account of the partly Roman and partly national Antiquities collected at Cleves, as well as of other curiosities extant there, by the ci-devant President of the Chamber of War and Domains, and Minister of State, M. von Buggenhagen. Berlin, 8vo. Maurer, 1795." In regard to Brandt's "Ship of Fools," it may be permitted me to doubt the circumstance of that book being originally written in the Cerman language. For, if we are to place any reliance on the testimony of one, who certainly possesses fair claims to competency of judgment, I think no other evidence is requisite to prove that it is of Dutch origin. The testimony to which I allude, is that of Alexander Barclay, who, in his "Shyp of Folys of the Worlde," printed in 1509, |