every shepherd made acquaintance with the stars. If he added a little judicial astrology, and was a seeker for the philosopher's stone, he had the countenance of the wisest of his time for his learned superstition. It is asserted that at the period of his restoration he was almost wholly illiterate. Very probably he was so; but it does not follow that he was ignorant. He might know many things well worth knowing without being able to write his name. He might learn a great deal of astronomy by patient observation. He might know where each native flower of the hills was grown, what real qualities it possessed, and what occult powers, the fancy, the fears, or the wishes of men had ascribed to it. The haunts, habits, and instincts of animals, the notes of birds, and their wondrous architecture, were to him instead of books; but above all, he learned to know something of what man is, in that condition to which the greater number of men are born, and to know himself better than he could have done in his hereditary sphere. Moreover, the legendary lore, the floating traditions, the wild superstitions of that age, together with the family history, which must have been early instilled into him, and the romantic and historical ballads, which were orally communicated from generation to generation, or published by the voice and harp of the errant minstrel, if they did not constitute sound knowledge, at least preserved the mind from unidea'd vacancy. The man "whose daily teachers had been woods and rills,"* must

* See Wordsworth's "Song of the Feast of Brougham Castle," a strain of triumph supposed to be chaunted by a minstrel on the day of rejoicing for the "good Lord's" restoration, in which the poet has almost excelled himself. Had he never written another Ode, this alone would set him decidedly at the head of the lyric poets of England.

needs, when suddenly called to the society of "knights and barons bold" have found himself deficient in many things; and that want was exceeding great gain, both to his tenantry and neighbours, and to his own moral nature. He lived at Barden with what was then a small retinue, though his household accounts make mention of sixty servants on that establishment, whose wages were from five to five and twenty shillings each. But the state of his revenues, after so many years of spoliation, must have required rigorous economy, and he preferred abating something of ancestral splendour, to grinding the faces of the poor. This peaceful life he led, with little interruption, from the accession of the house of Tudor, till the Scotch invasion, which was defeated at Flodden-field. Then he became a warrior in his sixtieth year, and well supported the military fame of his house on that bloody day. He survived

* The enumeration of his followers in the old metrical history of Flodden-field, is curious enough to justify its insertion in a work treating of local heroes:—

From Penigent to Pendle Hill,
From Linton to long Addingham,
And all that Craven coasts did till,
They with the lusty Clifford came;
All Staincliffe Hundred went with him,
With striplings stout from Wharle'dale;
And all that Hauton hills did climb,
With Longstroth eke and Litton dale,
Whose milk-fed fellows, fleshy bred,

Well brawned with sounding bows upbend,
All such as Horton Fells had fed

On Clifford's banner did attend.

Let any person, with a tolerable ear, read these lines aloud, before or after the similar catalogues in Homer, Virgil, Milton, or other poets who have borrowed their nomenclature from the ancient languages, and he will become aware how much our poetic feelings are under the dominion of sound.

the battle ten years, and died April 23, 1523, aged about seventy. By his last will, he appointed his body to be interred at Shap, if he died in Westmorland; at Bolton, if he diedin Yorkshire. He was twice married, first to Anne, daughter of Sir John St. John, of Bletsho, and secondly to Florence, daughter of Henry Pudsay, of Bolton, Esq., and widow of Sir Thomas Talbot, of Bashall.

The old age of this good man was sorely disturbed by the follies and vices of a disobedient son. It is not often that a parent complains publicly of his offspring. The sorrow of a despised father seeks concealment, not pity; and what injury will not an old man endure before he asks redress against his child? Clifford's affliction must have been great indeed, before he was brought to write to a privy councillor such a letter as the following, which we give unaltered, except as to the spelling. It may serve to show what sort of creature was the graceless of the 16th century.

"I doubt not but ye remember when I was afore you with other of the King's highness's council, and

Of the places mentioned in Homer's catalogue, a very considerable number were quite as insignificant as Longstroth or Long Addingham; and yet it is obvious that Homer's self could never make Long Addingham as poetical as Amphigeneia.

It may be worth remarking, that the epithet "milk-fed applied to the Longstrothians and Litton-dales men, (who were no milk-sops notwithstanding,) is strictly Homeric. In the commencement of the thirteenth book of the Iliad, it is applied, with special commendation, line 5th of the original, to the Thracian tribe of Hippomolgi, (milkers of mares,) whom he distinguishes as the longest lived and the most righteous of mankind. Mare's milk is to this day a principal article of diet among the equestrian Tartar tribes.

there I showed unto you the ungodly and ungudely disposition of my son Henry Clifford in such wise as it was abominable to hear it: not only despiting and disobeying my commands, and threatening my servants, saying that if aught came to me he would utterly destroy all, as appeareth more likely, in striking with his own hand, my poor servant Henry Popely, in peril of death, which so lieth, and is like to die; but also he spoiled my houses, and feloniously stole away my proper goods, which was of great substance, only of malice, and for maintaining his inordinate pride and riot, as more speedily did appear when he came out of the court and into the country, apparelled himself and his horse in cloth of gold and goldsmith's work, more like a duke than a poor baron's son as he is. And moreover, I showed unto you at that time his daily studying how he might utterly destroy me, his poor father, as well by slanders shameful and dangerous, as by daily otherwise vexing and disquieting my mind, to the shortening of my poor life. And notwithstanding the premises, I, by the King's command, and your desire, have since given to him 407., and over that my blessing upon his good and lawful demeanor, desiring also that he should leave the dangerous and evil counsel of certain evil disposed persons, as well young Gents as others, which have before this given him dangerous counsel, whose counsels he daily followeth ; and where I showed unto the King's grace and you, that if his shameful dispositions were not looked upon, and something promised by his Highness, to bring him to dreau (as the beginning of all wisdom is to dread God and his Prince), he should be utterly undone for ever, as well bodily as ghostly, as appeareth at large not only by the increase of his evil dispositions, but also seeking further to great lords for maintenance,

wherein he hath taken more boldness, saying, that he shall cast down one of my servants, though they be in my presence; and yet moreover he in his country maketh debate between gentlemen, and troubleth divers houses of religion to bring from them their tithes, shamefully beating their servants and tenants, in such wise as some whole towns are fain to keep the churches both night and day." We are not informed whether the King or his council took any means of reclaiming this aristocratic young robber, who in due time succeeded to his poor father's estates and honours. He is said, however, to have reformed like his namesake Henry the Fifth, whom he probably made his pattern.

We hope his father lived to see his reformation.*

*The Rev. Rector of Whalley seems to have almost forgotten his cloth when he speaks thus slightly of this prodigal son and his sacrilegious robberies: "Indeed the extravagances of a gay and gallant young nobleman, cramped in his allowance by a narrow father, under the influence of a jealous step-mother, were likely to meet with more than sufficient allowance from the world. The method which this high-spirited young man took to supply his necessities is characteristic of the times: instead of resorting to Jews and money-lenders, computing the value of his father's life," (he seems to have computed it at very little) "and raising large sums by anticipation, methods which are better suited to the calm unenterprising dissipation of the present age, young Henry Clifford turned outlaw, assembled a band of dissolute followers, harassed the religious houses, beat their tenants, and forced the inhabitants of whole villages to take sanctuary in their churches." How lamentably dissipation has fallen away from the reverend antiquary's good graces!

As for Dr. Whitaker's conjecture, that Henry Clifford was the hero of the Notbrowne Mayd, because that beautiful ballad was first printed in 1521, and containing the word spleen could not have been composed much earlier, and