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nature keeps a good deal of the soil in her own hands. Perhaps the genius of our poetry has more of Pan than of Apollo; but "Pan is a god, Apollo is no more."

WILLIAM COBBETT.

WILLIAM COBBETT (born A.D. 1765, died 1832), a political writer of extreme views, and somewhat virulent expression, deserves a niche in the gallery of English prose writers for the idiomatic purity of his style, as in his Rural Rides, Cottage Economy, etc.

A VISIT TO HIS BIRTHPLACE.

AFTER living within a few hundred yards of Westminster Hall, and the Abbey, and the Bridge, and looking from my windows into St James's Park, all other buildings and spots appear mean and insignificant. I went to-day to see the house I formerly occupied. How small! It is always thus: the words large and small are carried about with us in our minds, but we forget their real dimensions.

When I returned to England in 1800, after an absence from the country parts of it for sixteen years, the trees, the hedges, even the parks and woods, seemed so small. It made me laugh to hear little gutters that I could jump over called rivers. The Thames was but a "creek." But when, in about a month after, I went to Farnham, the place of my birth, what was my surprise? Everything was become pitiably small.

I had to cross in my post-chaise the long and dreary heath of Bagshot; then to mount a hill called Hungry Hill; and from that hill I knew I should look down upon the beautiful and fertile vale of Farnham. My heart fluttered with impatience, mixed with a sort of fear, to see all the scenes of my childhood; for I had learned before the death of my father and mother.

There is a hill not far from the town called Crooksbury Hill, which rises up out of a flat in the form of a cone, and

is planted with Scotch fir-trees. Here I used to take the eggs and young of crows and magpies. This hill was a famous object in the neighbourhood. It served as the superlative degree of height. "As high as Crooksbury Hill" meant with us the utmost degree of height. Therefore the first object that my eyes sought was this hill. I could not believe my eyes. Literally speaking, I for a moment thought the famous hill removed, and a little heap put in its place; for I had seen in New Brunswick a single rock ten times as big, and four or five times as high.

The post-boy, going down hill, and not a bad road, whisked me in a few minutes to the Bush Inn, from the garden of which I could see the prodigious sand-hill, where I had begun my gardening work. What a nothing! But now came rushing on my mind, all at once, my pretty garden, my little blue smock-frock, my little nailed shoes, my pretty pigeons that I fed out of my own hands, the last kind words and tears of my gentle and tender-hearted and affectionate mother. What a change! I looked down at my dress. What scenes had I gone through! How altered my state! I had dined the day before at a Secretary of State's, in company with Mr. Pitt, and had been waited on by 'men in gaudy liveries. I had had nobody to assist me in the world; no teachers of any sort; nobody to shelter me from the consequences of bad, and no one to counsel me to good behaviour. I felt proud. The distinctions of rank, birth, and wealth, all became nothing in my eyes; and from that moment, less than a month after my arrival in England, I determined never to bend before them.

The landlady sent her son to get me some cream, and he was just such a chap as I was at his age, and dressed just in the same sort of way; his main garment being a blue smock-frock, faded from wear, and mended with pieces of new stuff, and, of course, not faded. The sight of this brought to my recollection many things very dear to me. This boy will, I dare say, perform his part at Billinghurst, or at some place not far from it. If accident had not taken me from a similar scene, how many villains and

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fools, who have been well teased and tormented, would have slept in peace at night, and have fearlessly swaggered about by day! When I look at this little chap, at his smock-frock, his nailed shoes, and his clean, plain, coarse shirt, I ask myself, Will anything, I wonder, ever send him across the ocean to tackle the base, corrupt, perjured, republican judges of Pennsylvania? Will this little, lively, but at the same time simple boy, ever become the terror of villains and hypocrites across the Atlantic?

HENRY HALLAM.

HENRY HALLAM, born A.D. 1778, is the author of a View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, Constitutional History of England, from the Death of Henry VII. to that of George II., and Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the 15th, 16th, and 17th Centuries.

FALCONRY.

THE favourite diversions of the Middle Ages were those of hunting and hawking. The former must in all countries have been a source of pleasure; but it seems to have been enjoyed in moderation by the Greeks and Romans. With the northern invaders, however, it was rather a predominant appetite than an amusement; it was their pride and ornament, the theme of their songs, the object of their laws, and the business of their lives. Falconry, unknown as a diversion to the ancients, became from the fourth century an equally delightful occupation. A knight seldom stirred from his house without a hawk on his wrist, and a greyhound that followed him. Thus are Harold and his attendants represented in the famous tapestries of Bayeux. And in the monuments of those who died anywhere but on the field of battle, it is usual to find the greyhound lying at their feet, or the bird upon their wrist. Nor are the tombs of ladies without their falcon; for this sport, being of less danger and fatigue than the chase, was shared by the delicate sex.

It was impossible to repress the eagerness with which the clergy, especially after the nobility had been tempted by rich bishoprics to take upon them the sacred function, rushed into these secular amusements. Prohibitions of councils, however frequently repeated, produced little effect. In some instances a particular monastery obtained a dispensation. Thus, that of St. Denis, in 774, represented to Charlemagne that the flesh of hunted animals was salutary for sick monks, and that their skins were needed to bind the books in the library. Reasons, equally cogent, we may presume, would not be wanting in every other case. As the bishops and abbots were also feudal lords, and often did not scruple to lead their vassals into the field of battle, it was not to be expected that they should debar themselves of an innocent pastime.

Though hunting had ceased to be a necessary means of procuring food, it was a very convenient resource, on which the wholesomeness and comfort as well as the luxury of the table depended. Before the natural pastures were improved, and new kinds of fodder for cattle discovered, it was impossible to maintain the summer stock during the cold season. Hence, a portion of it was regularly slaughtered and salted for winter provision. We may suppose that when no alternative was offered but these salted meats, even the leanest venison was devoured with relish. There was, therefore, more excuse for the severity with which the lords of forests and manors preserved the beasts of chase, than if they had been considered merely objects of sport. The laws relating to the preservation of game were in every country uncommonly rigorous. They formed in England that odious system of forest laws which distinguished the tyranny of our Norman kings. Capital punishment for killing a stag or wild boar was frequent, and warranted by law until the Charter of John. The French code was less severe, but even Henry IV. enacted pain of death against the repeated offence of chasing deer in the royal forests.

This excessive passion for the sports of the field produced the evils which are so apt to result from it; a

strenuous idleness, which disdained all useful occupations, and an oppressive spirit towards the peasantry. The devastation committed under the pretence of destroying wild animals, which had been already protected in their depredations, has been the topic of many popular ballads. What effect it must have had on agriculture it is easy to conjecture. The levelling of forests, the draining of morasses, and the extirpation of mischievous animals which inhabit them, are the first objects of man's care in reclaiming the earth to his use; and these were forbidden by a landed aristocracy, whose control over the progress of agricultural improvement was unlimited, and who had not yet learned to sacrifice their pleasure to their avarice.

ROBERT SOUTHEY.

ROBERT SOUTHEY, born A.D. 1774, died 1843, was perhaps the most prolific author, both in verse and prose, in the first quarter of the 19th century. Of his metrical compositions, the more elaborate, as Thalaba, Curse of Kehama, Don Roderick, have failed in retaining such general acceptance as his shorter lyrics, especially those in the ballad form. Of his prose works, the most interesting to the general reader are his lives of Bunyan and Nelson; to the student, the Doctor.

BATTLE OF ABOUKIR BAY.

THE French fleet had arrived in Alexandria on the 1st of July, and Brueys, not being able to enter the port, which time and neglect had ruined, moored the ships in Aboukir Bay, in a strong and compact line of battle; the headmost vessel being as close as possible to a shoal on the north-west, and the rest of the fleet forming a kind of curve along the line of deep water, so as not to be turned by any means in the south-west. The advantage of numbers, both in ships, guns, and men, was in favour of the French. They had thirteen ships of the line and four frigates, carrying 1196 guns, and 11,230 men. The English had the same number of ships of the line,

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