Sunbury American And Shamokin Journal

The Cardinal Spider.—A large breed of spiders abound in the palace of Hampton Court. They are called there "cardinals." in honor, I suppose, of Cardinal Wolsey. They are full an inch in length, and many of them of the thickness of a finger. Their legs are about two inches long, and their body covered with a thick hair. They feed chiefly on moths, as appears from the wings of that insect being found in great abundance under and amongst their webs. In running across the carpet in an evening, when the light of a lamp or candle has cast a shade from their large bodies they have been mistaken for mice, and have occasioned no little alarm to some of the more nervous inhabitants of the palace. A doubt has even been raised whether the name of cardinal has not been given to this creature from an ancient belief that a ghost of Wolsey haunts the place of his former glory under this shape. At all events, the spider is considered as a curiosity and Hampton Court is the only place in which I have met with it.—Foreign Ex. paper.