Ten Thousand Wonderful Things Comprising whatever is marvellous and rare, curious, eccentric and extraordinary in all ages and nations

Coral reefs are produced by innumerable small zoophytes, properly called _Coral-insects_. The Coral insect consists of a little oblong bag of jelly closed at one end, but having...

One of the amusements of 1718 was the juggling exhibition of a fire-eater, whose name was De Hightrehight, a native of the valley of Annivi in the Alps. This tremendous person a...

"A greate nombre of them whyche purchased those superstychouse mansyons (monesteries) reserved of those librarye bookes, some to serve theyr jokes, some to scoure thyr candlesty...

Tertullian says, "If you will not fling away your false hair, as hateful to Heaven, cannot I make it hateful to yourselves, by reminding you that the false hair you wear may hav...

A remarkable instance of the irresistible strength of the ruling passion was to be seen a few years ago in a Londoner, who had kept are retail spirit-shop, and retired into the...

One article in this prodigious booty, before which all others seemed to recede in comparison, was the superb and celebrated carpet of silk and gold cloth, sixty cubits in length...

The watch is of silver, in the form of a skull. On the forehead of the skull is the figure of Death, with his scythe and sand-glass; he stands between a palace on the one hand,...

The print from which the engraving on next page is taken, is one of a set published by Overton, at the sign of the "White Horse" without Newgate; and its similarity to the figur...

The Great Wall is certainly a wonderful monument of ancient times; but it is almost the only one that we read of in China, except a famous Temple, or Tower, partly in ruins, whi...

In 1685 a rhinoceros was captured and brought to England. In 1739 and 1741 two others were exhibited in various parts of Europe. In 1800 a young one was brought from India, inte...

A striking example of the formation of ground-ice is mentioned by the Commander Steenk, of Pillau. On the 9th of February, 1806, during a strong south-east wind, and a temperatu...

Jesse, in his interesting "Gleanings in Natural History," gives the following remarkable instance of an extraneous substance being found imbedded in the solid timber of an ash:-...

The women here are generally more handsome than in other places, sufficiently endowed with natural beauties, without the addition of adulterate sophistications. In an absolute w...

The following anecdote almost places the cat on a level with the dog:--"A physician of Lyons was requested to inquire into a murder that had been committed on a woman of that ci...

Of travelling expenses in the thirteenth century, a roll is in existence, and is too interesting to be passed over. It contains a steward's accompts of the daily expenses of a p...

Mr. Day perished in a diving bell, or diving boat of his own construction, at Plymouth, in June, 1774, in which he was to have continued for a wager, twelve hours, one hundred f...

The cut which we here present to our readers is taken from the English edition of the Janua Linguarum of Comenius, and represents the forms of dining in England under the Protec...

The principal temple of Pou-tou is reached by a long avenue of grand secular trees, whose thick foliage is filled with troops of crows with white heads; and their cawings and fl...

Early on the 24th of January, 1822, the turnpike-house, about four miles from Basingstoke, on this side of Overton, was attacked, with intent to enter, by two men, who had taken...

James Lynch Fitzstephen was mayor or warden of Galway in 1493; he traded largely with Spain, and sent his son on a voyage thither to purchase and bring back a cargo of wine. You...

The quality and colour of the hair was a subject of speculative theory for the ancients. Lank hair was considered indicative of pusillanimity and cowardice; yet the head of Napo...

The month of July 1736 afforded a singular _popular explosion_, contrived in the following strange manner:--A brown paper parcel, which had been placed unobserved near the side-...

_In the Old Testament._| _In the New Testament._| _Total._ Books, 39 | Books, 27 | Books, 66 Chapters, 929 | Chapters, 260 | Chapters, 1,189 Verses, 23,214 | Verses, 7,959 | Ver...

There exists at Pekin a phalanstery which surpasses in eccentricity all that the fertile imagination of Fourier could have conceived. It is called Ki-mao-fan--that is, "House of...

Of the tombs of Consular Rome nothing remains except perhaps the sarcophagus of Scipio; and it is only on the eve of the Empire that we meet with the well-known one of Caecilia...

At Ludgate was a gaol, where the prisoners clamoured for alms at the barred grate; and it was here that Sir Thomas Wyatt had been repulsed. The city wall that joined this gate t...

"A Lady who had on a Pink-coloured Capuchin, edged with Ermine, a black Patch near her right eye, sat in a front seat in the next Side Box but one to the Stage on Wednesday nigh...

"This Francis Ravilliac was born in Angoulesme, by profession a lawyer, who, after the committing of that horrid fact, being seized and put upon the rack, May 27; the 25th he ha...

Games of hazard are the favourites of these islanders. Some of them they have learned of the Chinese, the most debauched of gamesters, and others of the Portuguese. The only gam...

The Powerscourt Fall, of which the annexed is an engraving, is formed by the river Dargle, and is situated in the county of Wicklow. When the river is full, it presents a very g...

The sides of the houses are generally closed in with bamboo, opened and rendered flat by notching or splitting the circular joints on the outside, chipping away the correspondin...

"Item, the gentylman-ussher aught to forbede that no manner of man do sett eny dysshe upon the kynge's bedde, for fere of hurtying of the kynge's ryche counterpoynt that lyeth t...

Martin Luther, who was the son of John Lotter or Lauther (which name our Reformer afterwards changed to Luther) and Margaret Lindenen, was born in the little town of Islebern, i...

In the formulae of Marculphus, edited by Jerome Bignon, he tells us, with respect to lights, that the use of them was of great antiquity in the church; that the primitive Christ...

"This festival derives its name from _chakra_, a wheel or discus; in allusion to the circle performed in the act of rotating, when suspended from the instrument of this horrible...

With many savage nations it is a custom when prisoners have been captured in war, to keep them in confinement for some time, till the preparations for a grand festival have been...

Sutton, the pipe-maker of Gravesend, was his rival, and dared the mighty Figg to the combat. Twice they fought, with alternate advantage; but, at the third trial, a considerable...

1252.--Great tempests upon the sea, and fearful; and this year the king (Henry III.) granted, that wheretofore the citizens of London were to present the maior before the king,...

"Maclean of Duart, expecting an invasion of his lands in Mull, by his powerful neighbour the Earl of Argyll, applied to Glengarry for assistance. AEneas of Glengarry marched at...

A Neapolitan soldier who had been bitten by a tarantula, though apparently cured, suffered from an annual attack of delirium, after which he used to sink into a state of profoun...

In abbey-churches of the olden time the Chapter-house was always on the east side of the court. In establishments of secular canons it seems to have been always multisided, with...

It prevailed over the adjoining continent, and produced much fear that the end of all things was at hand. It appeared first at Copenhagen on the 29th of May, reached Dijon on th...

The means by which animals contrive to communicate their ideas to each other is a phenomenon which has never been satisfactorily explained. The two following instances of it are...

"Let me declare to you the manner in general," says the loyal author, "of that stately cedar erected in the Strand, 134 feet high, commonly called the May-pole, upon the cost of...

Atmospheric denudation and weathering have produced remarkable effects on the lower part of the Nonkreem valley, in the Khasia mountains, in India, which is blocked up by a pine...

In the primitive villages of Normandy, on some holidays, it is a pleasing sight to see the dense army of caps, with flaps fanning the air, and following the gesticulatory moveme...

Allusions to standards, banners, and ensigns are frequent in the Holy Scriptures. The four divisions in which the tribes of Israel marched through the wilderness had each its go...

Jeremiah Atkins, of the Scar, near Bromyard, Herefordshire, died in 1796, aged 102. He had been a soldier through all the earlier periods of his manhood, and had seen much servi...

Of Chinese bridges, some have been very much exaggerated in the accounts by Du Halde and the missionaries, as it appears from the later reports concerning the bridge at Foo-chow...

Hawkins, in his "History of Music," says,--"The practice of ringing bells in change, or regular peals, is said to be peculiar to England: whence Britain has been termed the _rin...

"In the Histoire Generale de l'Empire du Mogol, (_T._ 1, _p_, 327,) compiled by Catrou the Jesuit, from Manouchi's papers, this perfume is said to have been discovered by accide...

The staff was a weapon long before flint-headed arrows and such-like instruments were invented. Sheriffs, and others high in authority, have wands or staffs borne before them on...

In addition to the regular theatres, there were many places of amusement, such as the Vauxhall and Ranelagh Gardens, the site of the latter being now occupied by the houses that...

"The steward is again pillowed on his beloved salt fish, and our only companion is a Malacca cat, who has also an attachment for the steward's pillow. Puss is a tame little crea...

The Mosques of Constantinople are the most wonderful objects of that renowned city. More than 300 are picturesquely distributed in conspicuous parts, and form a most attractive...

The various species of papyrus plants belong to the natural order "Cyperaceae," or sedges, of botanists; a main characteristic of which is a certain triangularity of stem. The m...

The nobleman portrayed here is Count Eberhard the elder, first Duke of Wurtemberg, in a festival habit at Stuttgardt, in the year 1492, on the occasion of his receiving the orde...

Their wickedness is very great. It is their chief delight to get the heads of their enemies. There are a great many different tribes of Dyaks, and each tribe tries to cut off th...

"The fishermen are, almost without exception, Bulgarians--a population at once maritime and agricultural, very closely resembling, in race and costume, the Bretons of France--an...

Joseph Battaglia, a surgeon of Ponte Bosio, relates the following case: Don. G. Maria Bertholi, a priest of Mount Valerius, went to the fair of Filetto, and afterwards visited a...

A bird-catcher, wishing to increase his stock of bullfinches, took out his caged bird and his limed twigs, and placed them in such a situation of hedge and bush as he judged fav...

Mester Knoleis, y heuv har (I have heard) sum neus from Scotland; y send zou the double off them y vreit (wrote) to the quin (queen) my gud Sister, and pres (pray) zou to du the...

William the Conqueror permitted great numbers of Jews to come over from Rouen, and to settle in England in the last year of his reign. Their number soon increased, and they spre...

In 1791, a child was born at Lubeck, named Henri Heinekem, whose precocity was miraculous. At ten months of age, he spoke distinctly; at twelve, learnt the Pentateuch by rote, a...

James I., and his subjects who wished to clothe themselves loyally, wore stupendous breeches. Of course the "honourable gentleman" of the House of Commons were necessarily follo...

The oaks most remarkable for their horizontal expansion, are, according to Loudon, the following:--"The Three-shire Oak, near Worksop, was so situated, that it covered part of t...

Ombre, Basset, Whist, Costly Colours, and Five Cards, were, we believe, of later introduction. Of our period, are Ruff, Bone, Ace, Pult. The great game in the West of England wa...

The perfection which is bestowed on the organs of sense in insects, especially when we consider their minuteness, is calculated to fill us with adoring admiration of the skill o...

The style of decoration in this ware is unique. Patterns or arabesques, are engraved on the paste, and the indentures filled with coloured pastes, so as to present an uniform, s...

The following, and we believe they are unique, are Sir John Wynne of Gwedir's instructions to his chaplain, the Rev. John Pryce. "First, you shall have the chamber I showed you...

The insects that frequent the waters, require predaceous animals to keep them within due limits, as well as those that inhabit the earth; and the water-spider (_Argyroneta aquat...

Tradition ascribes its commencement to two merchants, who raised it to the height of 12 cubits at an age slightly subsequent to that of Buddha himself. Successive kings of Pegu...

Produced by Chris Curnow, Christian Boissonnas and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available...

Among the fine arts of India, music holds a distinguished place; and although its cultivation has declined, and but few are now found who have attained to eminence either in the...

By the sea, the quay offered a convenient spot. The barbican, at Plymouth, was a locality, doubtless terrible to offenders, however careless of committing their wordy nuisance o...