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not read Lalla Rookh, for two very sufficient reasons; first, the story was Eastern; and secondly, it was published in quarto! However she praised Moore's articulation" as a vocalist, and added that "in spite of her objection to Eastern things, she must some time or other read Lalla Rookh herself!" As little encouraging was "my lady" on Moore's intended prose works. Fancy the courteous hostess turning to the author at her own dinner-table, and exclaiming, "this will be a dull book of yours, this Sheridan,' I fear !" and then to Lord Porchester, who was on the point of bringing out his poem of "The Moor,"—" I a am sorry to hear you are going to publish a poem. Can't you suppress it?" Poor Lord Porchester! perhaps it would have been as well if he had. As to the more gifted poet, it was not Lady Holland's sallies that could depress him. "You couldn't make Moore miserable," said Lord Holland, " no, not even by inflicting a dukedom on him." He could be happy in all situations, except once indeed when he went to "those Hollands," sat down at their breakfast table, was talked to, but not invited to partake, and was driven at last to buy his own repast at the nearest house of entertainment he could find! With traits de société of this character the diary of the Poet abounds.

We have already alluded to his contempt for money. He refused valuable government appointments which would have compromised his independence, when he had not six pence in his pocket. He cared perhaps too little for money. This was amply proved by his conduct respecting the autobiographical papers given him by Byron. For these papers (to be published after Byron's death) Mr. Murray gave him 2,000 guineas. On the demise of the noble author his family opposed, on moral grounds, the publication of the papers. They were destroyed, and Moore restored the purchase money, Mr. Murray even accepting interest. It was suggested to Moore that he might have retained the money on consideration of his wife and children. No! exclaimed the noble-hearted fellow; "more mean things have been done in this world under the shelter of 'wife and children' than under any other pretext that worldly-mindedness

can resort to." To this remark, Rogers, who made the suggestion, emphatically answered: "Well, your life may be a good poem, but it is a d-d bad matter of fact." It was contempt for mere lucre that induced him to decline the Laureateship, also the secretaryship to Admiral Douglas on the Jamaica station, which made him moreover refuse a lucrative offer to connect him with the Times, and which accounts for his lukewarmness touching the halfproposed editorship of the Edinburgh Quarterly, the proprietors of which do not seem to have been unwilling to have agreed to his suggested terms of 1,000l. per annum.

It is curious that his worst patrons in the early part of his career were in Ireland. His works found but scanty sale there till England had pronounced him "famous." As for his method of labour whereby he achieved his fame, he did not, as is generally imagined, compose entirely in bed, although he found that the clockwork of the head and the activity of his fancy went best in that reclined position. He indulged therein accordingly, but with judgment. Some of his Bermuda verses were written in his cot, at sea, during a storm. Perhaps the best of his melodies were struck off in his garden when the genial current was more influenced by the sunshine. On the other hand, much of the warmest portions of Lalla Rookh were executed during a hard winter in a cold and smoky cottage in Derbyshire. More than once we find him penciling down a sacred song during a heavy sermon, in church time; and now a "melody' is completed while he is walking from Bellevue to St. Cloud, where he "had a couple of cutlets on the way." We may add his confession that, generally speaking, he "had that kind of imagination which is chilled by the real scene, merely taking it from the descriptions of others." This is especially told him of Savory, but his own honest comment on it is that "it is very much the case with myself." Certainly he composed as much, and that as finely walking as lying; and, finally, it may be remarked of him that under heaven's own sky and glorious sunshine, he deemed it a sort of desecration to be employed on merely trifling compositions. The divine influences of the

hour were, in his opinion, worthy of better application.

From such brief notice as we have been enabled to give of these volumes, a very fair guess may be made of their quality. They are affording present amusement to a world of readers. Their real use will appear hereafter. They will be a mine of treasure to the future biographer, and out of the materials here profusely strewn in most admired disorder, a moderately skilful hand might construct without difficulty a "life" that should be popular, especially with the millions who may lack opportunity to peruse the mass of documents edited by Lord John Russell. A graceful writer could hardly find a hero more appropriate;-as child, he was loving and precocious; as youth, fulfilling the promise of his childhood, nor in his maturity belying the expectations formed of his youth. He was a brilliant scholar, a poet unrivalled for sweetness, and in patriotic lays not exceeded in vigour. Better than these, he was essentially a true-hearted, honourable, and honest man. Not

without faults, but with virtues in whose lustre they were hidden and forgotten. If he had to acknowledge "time mis-spent," he has also left works to prove how much of it was well employed. If, in early days, his adoration was now and then "cast like Israel's incense on unworthy shrines," he never failed in true homage when heaven had provided for him love's saving ark of his own dear home. We have yet to come to the record of the storms that blew around that ark, and of the anguish which visited those who had hoped to build up in that home an altar of happiness from which their surviving children should take the sacred fire. If that altar was thrown down and that fire extinguished, and if hope fled from the poet's hearth and lay buried in the graves of his children, he could still say to the dear mother of those lost ones, "Lean on God, Bessie, lean on God;" and he could turn in majestic sorrow to assure the world that (saving her) there was nothing true, nothing calm, nothing bright, but heaven.

WANDERINGS OF AN ANTIQUARY.
BY THOMAS WRIGHT, F.S.A.
X.-FROM YORK TO GODMANHAM.

YORK is in many respects one of the most interesting cities in England, and it has held a very prominent position in history from the time when under the name of Eburacum it was the residence of Roman emperors to the present day. Situated in the middle of a wide fertile plain, its position is one which naturally offers itself for the site of an important military town; and, preserving this importance in after times, it was at one period the great seat of learning in Saxon England. Of its earlier importance we need only say that it was the residence of three Roman emperors, Hadrian, Severus, and Constantius Chlorus; that the greatest of the Roman lawyers, Papinian and Ulpian, gave their judgments within its walls; and that it was the school of the celebrated Saxon scholars, Egbert and Alcuin. With such reminiscences we might naturally expect to find

many monuments of ancient greatness; but unfortunately the great destroyer, Time, has here been a busy worker, and we are left rather to muse over what has been than to rejoice over what remains. Even the noble cathedral, which naturally arrests first the attention of the visitor, has suffered so much from modern incendiarism that it is no longer what it was. The great attraction of York, however, for all who possess any taste for the antiquities of their country, is the museum of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society.

By a singularly happy reunion of circumstances, the grounds of the Philosophical Society, which are beautifully situated on ground sloping toward the river and laid out picturesquely, contain within their circuit several of the most remarkable of the earlier monuments of the city. Near the entrance stand the remains of the Hospital of

St. Leonard, a religious house said to Lave been founded by the Anglo-Saxon King Athelstan, in the year 936. The ruins consist chiefly of what are supposed to have been the ambulatory and chapel of the infirmary, the architecture of which is of the style generally denominated Early-English, that is, of the earlier part of the thirteenth century. Close behind these remains we come upon the Roman town wall, and that remarkable portion of the fortifications of ancient Eburacum which, from the circumstance of its consisting of ten sides of a nearly regular thirteen-sided figure forming nine very obtuse angles, has received the name of the Multangular Tower. It is internally at the base upwards of thirtythree feet in diameter, and the wall is of an immense thickness. This imposing mass of masonry is built in the usual Roman manner, with stringcourses of flat bricks. After leaving the Multangular Tower, we come immediately upon the site of the once noble abbey of St. Mary, about one half of the enclosure of which, including a large part of the site of the church, is included within the Society's grounds. The ground belonging to the Society has been carefully explored and excavated, and a large portion of the foundations of the ancient church and other monastic buildings, with much interesting and some beautiful sculpture, have been uncovered, and add to the attractions of the place. The handsome modern building which contains the Society's museum stands on the site of what is supposed to have been the library or the scriptorium of the abbey. Nearly westward from the modern building just alluded to, and still within the grounds of the Philosophical Society, is an ancient building which is supposed to have been the hospitium of the abbey, or the building set apart for the entertainment of strangers. It consists of a lower room, which was probably the refectory, and an upper room, which is supposed to have been the dormitory. In these two rooms have been arranged, by the care of the distinguished, and now venerable, curator of this museum, the Rev. Charles Wellbeloved, and his not less learned son-in-law the Rev. John Kenrick, the principal Roman antiquities found on this site and in the neighbour

hood, and a very nice descriptive account of them, drawn up by the former gentleman, will assist the visitor in their examination. It is by much the best local museum in this country. The room below contains the larger Roman monuments, such as votive altars, sepulchral monuments, and stone coffins, many of them with very interesting inscriptions, pieces of sculpture and architectural ornaments, &c., with a considerable number of mediæval remains, many of them dug up in the Society's grounds. The smaller antiquities are arranged in cases and drawers in the upper room of this building. They consist of Roman pottery in vast variety, glass, inscribed bricks and tiles, domestic utensils, personal ornaments, and a tolerably nume rous collection of early Anglo-Saxon remains, obtained from barrows in Yorkshire. There are also some of what are generally considered as British remains, also from Yorkshire barrows, with a collection of Egyptian antiquities, and a very interesting assortment of medieval articles. A few of the larger Roman antiquities, especially the celebrated sculpture representing the sacrifice and mysteries of Mithras (dug up in York in 1747), will be found in the hall of the modern building; and a few Roman stone coffins have been deposited within the Multangular Tower. The numismatic department of this museum is especially rich in Anglo-Saxon coins. I will not venture to give any more particular account of the varied contents of this museum. To describe the Roman antiquities would be to write the history of the celebrated city to which they belonged, and this task has been admirably performed by Mr. Wellbeloved himself, in his "Eburacum: or York under the Romans;" to which, and to the descriptive account of the museum just alluded to, I would refer every one who takes an interest in the early history of our island.

Besides many other objects of antiquarian interest in the country about York, it is surrounded at no great distance by rather numerous sites of Roman towns. At a distance of nine miles to the south-east, the quiet town of Tadcaster occupies the site of the Roman Calcaria, of which no very distinct remains can now be traced;

but about sixteen miles to the northwest, at Aldborough, we still find imposing remains of the great Roman city of Isurium. Very interesting re

mains of another Roman town are found at Old Malton, some seventeen or eighteen miles to the north-east of York, which I am inclined to think may represent the Derventio or the Delgovitia of the Romans. All these places are now approached directly or indirectly by railway. Another line, which runs eastward from York, will take us to a spot which possesses a peculiar interest in connection with the conversion of our Saxon forefathers to the faith of the Gospel.

As we leave York by this line, we pass at first through a flat and not very interesting district, but fertile, and tolerably well wooded. The view is, as might be supposed, restricted on both sides. Further on, between Stamford Bridge and Fangfoss stations, the land loses its rich character and its trees, and takes for a short distance the character of a low barren moor, producing little but furze-bushes and peat.

We cannot pass the village of Stamford Bridge without a glance at its interesting reminiscences. It was here that Harold, the last of the Saxon monarchs, gained, on the 23rd of September, 1066, the sanguinary victory which relieved him at once, by their slaughter, of his turbulent brother, Tosti, and a fierce invader Harald Harfager king of Norway, but which, by distracting his attention and weakening his forces at this momentous epoch, no doubt contributed to his own defeat and death in the battle of Hastings, on the 14th of October following. At that time the river Derwent was here crossed by a bridge, which was not improbably a Roman one; and, as the river separated the two armies, Harold, who was aware of the dangers that threatened in the south, and that he had no time to lose, was obliged to force this bridge before he could bring his enemies to a regular engagement. A powerful Norwegian warrior is reported to have defended the bridge single-handed, until he had killed forty of his assailants, and not to have given way until he was slain himself. The tradition of the place, where a fete is still held on the 23rd of Sep

tember in commemoration of the battle, is that the Norwegian was slain by a Saxon boatman, who rowed himself under the bridge, and thrust his spear up through the woodwork, and in memory of the exploit they still at the fête just mentioned make and sell cakes in the form of a boat.

As we pursue our course along the railway line, we now come in sight of a range of hills running in a southeasterly direction, which we approach continually nearer as we proceed. This is the edge of the eastern wolds, which extend for some miles in a northerly direction. The country again becomes fertile and well-wooded, and as we advance it is more and more picturesque. From Shipton station, where the railway approaches near to the foot of the hills, a fine old avenue of trees leads through the park of Londesborough up to the site where once stood the house. The village of Shipton, which is said to have been the birthplace of the celebrated witch Mother Shipton, is twenty-one miles from York by the railway.

The position of Londesborough is singularly beautiful. The house stood upon an elevated platform, protected on the north and east by the hills which rise immediately behind it. The park lies chiefly below it, on the slope of the hill, and presents a great variety of fine prospects, the beauty of which is increased by the fine old trees which are thickly scattered through it. The view from the site of the house commands a magnificent panorama. In front, at a distance of about twelve miles, the Humber is distinctly visible, and the prospect is bounded by the distant hills of Lincolnshire. To the westward it extends over the vale of York. Eastwardly it is bounded by the hill which rises up immediately from the park; but to the south-east we look down upon the town of Market Weighton, at a distance of about two miles, and our view stretches far over the low country beyond, till at times we may even trace the smoke of Hull.

Londesborough appears to have been the site of a Roman settlement of some kind or other-perhaps a villa. The Roman road, which proceeds from Brough on the Humber (the site of the Roman landing-place from Lincolnshire, called in the old Itinerary Ad

Petorariam), has been traced through the park, or, at all events, from what is known of its line before and after, it must have passed through it. Roman coins and other antiquities, as well as sepulchral deposits, have been frequently found in the village and gardens, and in the park. The estate was long the property of the great family of the Cliffords, and it was carried by a daughter of the last Earl of Cumberland of that family to the Boyles Earls of Cork, from whom it descended to the Dukes of Devonshire. The house was a large solid building, apparently of the reign of James I. (or of the end of that of Elizabeth), but, having fallen into neglect, the present Duke of Devonshire, for some reason or other which is variously stated, caused it to be pulled down about thirty years ago, so that now nothing remains of it but the terrace and steps in front, the extensive cellaring, and

the gardens and shrubberies. A few years ago the estate was sold by the Duke to the celebrated George Hudson, from whom it was purchased by the present noble proprietor, who takes from it his title of Lord Londesborough.

We must descend into the picturesque valley below the house, and then mount the opposite hill, up the greater part of which the park extends. On reaching the top of the hill we have before us another valley or comb, and another chalk hill (for all these hills are chalk) rising behind it. In this hollow, at a short distance before us, the church and village of Godmanham occupies a prominent position. The ground is here bare of trees, except a few about the village just mentioned, which occupies the slope of the hills, hardly a mile above Market Weighton. The church of Godmanham stands on a high tump of ground

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