church which was standing within recol- "Come gentle Reader you shall know what is The saint's companion, But now laid to sleepe Pregnant in learning. memory Retent, Should I say All (was truly good) in him bore Now if yould know who 'tis deserues this Reade the next lines And's name and vertues "Here lyes Thomas Garnet, eldest sonne of Kathirine, the wife of William Garnet, of Lond: gent., one of the daughters of Thomas Foxall by Elizabeth his wife, late of this parrish. He departed this life the day of December 1648, being not fully ten years of age and his grandmother Elizabeth before named (* illegible) in her love to him and for the imitation of his vertues in others cavsed this inscription." Buckestone's Pound.-at Bedford, may be seen an antique window of the pointed form, probably part of some ecclesiastical edifice; it graces the time-worn front of a little inn in an obscure part of the town, but, as little attention appears to have been paid to it, it is now in a mutilated state; it however retains the remains of same curious tracery, and the following inscriptive memorial, which is engraven deep on its massive stone sill: "Mary Wryte and her mother Inn Buckstones povnde. October 17. Fox hunting begins to take place regularly or the 17th of October. THE HUNTER'S SONG. Give me the naked heavens above, If I am hungry, I can wing The wild bird as he flies; Or thirsty, yonder crystal spring My vig'rous limbs to don; My fearless brows upon. 18 October 1564, captain, afterwards sir John Hawkins, the first Englishman that gave countenance to the slave trade, sailed from Plymouth, his native place, for Cape Verd, on the coast of Africa; being the first ostensible voyage in that most iniquitous commerce. The negroes were sold to the Spaniards in Hispaniola, in the West Indies. According to Anderson it was in 1562, two years earlier that, "Assisted by the subscriptions of 6 Febrry: An. Dm. (date of the year illegible.) several gentlemen he (Hawkins) fitted O GODD out three ships, the largest being 120 tons, and the smallest but forty tons burthen; and having heard that negroes were a very good commodity in Hispaniola, he sailed to the coast of Guinea, and took in negroes, and sailed with them for Hispaniola, where he sold his negroes-returning in the year 1563, after making a * Butler's Chronological Exercisen. prosperous voyage. This," says Anderson, "seems to have been the very first attempt from England for any negro-trade." Upon this adventure, Hill says, in his naval history, "Here began the horrid practice of forcing the Africans into slavery: an injustice and barbarity which, so sure as there is vengeance in heaven for the worst of crimes, will some time be the destruction of all who encourage it."* Vigorous efforts are in progress on the part of the legislature and numerous individuals to redeem our country from the nation-sinking sin of a trade in human beings, which has worked evil in the end to our slave-populated colonies, by entailing upon slave-proprietors and the owners of West India property embarrassment and ruin. Our hearts are cheered by the knowledge that later navigators, and adventurers, have speculated in unfurling the flag of peace and good will to the ignorant natives of other climes. Below are some exquisite verses by Andrew Marvell, "supposed to be sung by a party of those volunteers for conscience sake, who, in a profligate age, left their country to enjoy religious freedom in regions beyond the Atlantic; the scene is laid near the Bermudas, or Summer Islands, as they were then called," where Berkeley, the good bishop of Cloyne, proposed to found a university of himanity. THE EMIGRANTS. Where the remote Bermudas ride "Where He the huge sea-monsters racks, "He gives us this eternal spring, "He hangs in shades the orange bright, Hist, of Commerce, ai. 117, "He makes the figs our mouths to meet, "He cast-of which we rather boast- Thus sang they in the English boat, It is due to Mr. Montgomery to add that the preceding poem aptly occurred to recollection by seeing them in his "Christian Poet," a four shilling household book of beautiful verse. 19 October, 1645, the Scots took Newcastle by storm. The town was held by the royalists for Charles I. After a siege of ten weeks, Leven the Scottish general began a furious cannonade from his several batteries against the town wall. About three o'clock in the afternoon the garrison, by countermines, had nearly approached two of his mines for blowing up the walls, which being signified to Leven, he ordered these two mines, to be fired. About nightfall breaches being made, though not so large and passable as was needful, the rest of the mines were exploded, the Scottish regiments advanced all at once to the assault, and, after two hours' desperate fighting upon the breaches, they forced their first entry at the mine sprung on the west side of the town, near to Close-gate. The cavalry of the garrison repulsed them with three brave charges, till the Scottish reserve came up, when the garrison, seeing farther resistance vain, forsook the walls; and the assailants became masters of the town. The mayor sir John Marley, with others, who had been most resolute in holding out, betook themselves to the castle, and general Leven went to church with his chief officers to return thanks for their success. The next day sir John Marley, wrote a spirited letter to general Leven, requesting liberty to withdraw to some neighbouring garrison of the king. Leven insisted upon a general surrender, and on the day following sir John Marley, with his associates, yielded themselves prisoners to the Scottish army, but were in danger of being torn in pieces by the mob. The Scots, after the capture, are said to have rifled the town's hutch, and destroyed most of the evidences and deeds belonging to the corporation. There is a tradition, that, during the siege, the Scottish general threatened the mayor, that, if the town was not delivered up, the besiegers would direct their cannon so as to demolish the beautiful steeple of St. Nicholas. The mayor instantly ordered the chief of the Scottish prisoners to be taken to the top of the Tower, below the lantern, and returned for answer, that if the structure fell it should not fall alone, as their countrymen were placed in it with a view either to preserve it from ruin or be destroyed with it; this saved the edifice. But St. Andrews church received so much damage, that we find by the parish register: "1645. Ther was no child baptized in this parish for 1 year's tim after the town was taken, nor sarmon in this church for one year's tim."* Northumberland, besieged the said castle of Alnwick: and, now when the keepers of the hold were at point to have made surrender, a certain English knight, conceiving in his mind a hardy and dangerous enterprise, mounted on a swift horse without armour or weapon, saving a spear in his hand, upon the point of which he bore the keys of the castle, and so issued forth of the gates, riding directly towards the Scottish camp. They that warded, warded, mistrusting mi no harm, brought him with great noise and clamor unto the king's tent, who hearing the noise came forth of his pavilion to understand what the matter meant. The Englishman herewith couched his staff, as though it had been to the end that the king might receive the keys which he had brought; and whilst all men's eyes were earnest in beholding the keys, the Englishman ran the king through the left eye, and, suddenly dashing his spurs to his horse, escaped to the next wood out of all danger. The point of the spear entered so far into the king's head that imme. diately falling down amongst his men he yielded up the ghost. This was the end of king Malcolm in the midst of his army." The death of the king occasioned the Scots to raise the siege. They buried him in the abbey of Tynemouth, but afterwards disinterred the body, and reburied it at Dumfernline, before the altar of the Trinity. Edward his eldest son also perished at Alnwick. According to Hollingshed, the knight by whose hand Malcolm fell obtained the name of Percy. "It is said that king William changed the name of this adventurous knight and called him Pers E; and, for that he struck king Malcolm so right in the eye, and in recompense of his service, gave him certain lands in Northumberland, of whom these Percecs are descended, which in our days have enjoyed the honorable title of earls of Northumberland." Unfortunately for the credit of Hollingshed's story, his annotator prints in the margin "The name of the Percees had no such beginning, for they came forth of Normandy at the conquest." In the Harleian collection there is a MS. memoir of the Percy family entitled "Ex Registro Monasterij de Whitbye," which corroborates the note uron Hollingshed. The MS. begins with "William Lord Percye the first founder of Whitbye," and states that he married "Emme of the Porte; which Emme fyrst was lady of Semer besides Skarburgh upon the conquest;" and further that these possessions with other lands William the conqueror bestowed upon this Percy "for his good service," and that Percy wedded Emme of the Porte, "that was very heire to them," in discharging of his conscience." Of this marriage was Alayne Percy who "by Emma of Gawnte his wife" had the second William lord Percy who married " Aliza that lyeth at Whitbye."* BOLTON ABBEY, YORKSHIRE. Under the Saxon dynasty, Bolton had been the seat of earl Edwin's barony. In the twelfth century, Aaliza, the granddaughter of Robert de Romillè, heiress of the castle and honor of Skipton, married William Fitz-Duncan, a chief, who, after laying waste Craven by fire and sword, had been establisned there by his uncle, David, king of Scotland. Aaliza parted with this property to the canons of Embsay, and on the site of an ancient Saxon Church, in one of the most romantic situations in Craven, they built the beautiful structure of Bolton Priory Dr. Whitaker, in his History of Craven, mentions a tragical event, assigned by tradition as the cause for lady Aaliza having parted with Bolton. In the deep solitude of the woods betwixt Bolton and Barden, the Wharf suddenly contracts itself to a rocky channel, little more than four feet wide, and pours through the tremendous fissure with a rapidity proportioned to its confinement. This place was then, as it is yet, called the Strid, from a feat often exercised by persons of more agility than prudence, who s.ride from brink to brink, regardless of the destruction which awaits a faltering step. Such, according to tradition, was the fate of young Romille, who inconsiderately bounding over the chasm with a greyhound in his leash, the animal hung back, and drew his unfortunate master into the torrent. The forester who accompanied Romille, and beheld his fate, returned to the lady Aaliza, and, with despair in his countenance, inquired, "What is good for a bootless bene?" To which the motner, apprehending that some great * Antiquarian Rupertory, iv. 4. calamity had befallen her son, instantly replied, " Endless sorrow." The language of this question, almost unintelligible at present, proves the antiquity of the story, which nearly amounts to proving its truth. But "bootless been" is unavailing prayer; and the meaning, though imperfectly expressed, seems to have been, "What remains when prayer is useless?" This misfortune is said to have oссаsioned the translation of the priory from Embsay to Bolton, which was the nearest eligible site to the place where it happened. The lady was now in a proper situation of mind to take any impression from her spiritual comforters. The views of the parties were different; they spoke, no doubt, and she thought, of proximity to the scene of her son's death; but it was the fields and woods of Bolton for which they secretly languished. Although there is reason for supposing that this tradition may refer to one of the sons of Cecilia de Romillè, the first foundress, and not Aaliza de Romillè, yet Dr. Whitaker is without doubt that the story is true in the main. "This singular occurrence," says Dr. Drake, "which, whether it apply to Cecilia, or Aaliza, Romillè, is of little consequence in a poetical point of view, has furnished more than one of our living bards with a theme for his muse. I annex the lines of Mr. Rogers." THE BOY OF EGREMOND. "Say, what remains when hope is filed?" At Embsay rung the matin-bell, There now the matin-bell is rung; And holy men, in cowl and hood, Shall oft remind thee, waking, sleeping, When red with blood the river roll'd. THE WANDERING JEW. Matthew Paris relates a story which obtained full credit before the year 1228. He circumstantially reports that in that year came an Armenian archbishop into England to visit the shrines and reliques preserved in our churches; and that, being entertained at the monastery of St. Albans, he was asked several questionsrelating to his travels and his country. Among the rest, a monk who sat near him enquired "if he had ever seen or heard of the famous person named Joseph, who was present at our Lord's crucifixion, and conversed with him, and who was still alive in confirmation of the Christian faith." The archbishop answered that the fact was true; and afterwards one of his train, interpreting his master's words, told them in French, that his lord knew the person they spoke of very well; that * History of Paris, iii. 266. he dined at his table but a little while before he left the east; that he had been Pontius Pilate's porter, and was then named Cartaphilus; and that when the Jews were dragging Jesus out of the door of the judgment hall, this Cartaphilus struck him with his fist on the back, saying, "Go faster Jesus, go faster-why dost thou linger:" upon which Jesus looked at him with a frown, and said; "I, indeed, am going; but thou shalt tarry till I come." Soon afterwards he was converted, and baptized by the name of Joseph. He lives for ever, but at the end of every hundred years falls into an incurable illness, and, at length, into a fit of ecstacy, out of which, when he recovers, he returns to the same state of youth he was in when Jesus suffered, being then about thirty years of age. He remembers all the circumstances of the death and resurrection of Christ, the saints that rose with him, the composing of the Apostles' creed, their preaching, and dispersion; and is himself a very grave and holy person. This is the substance of Matthew Paris's account, who was himself a monk of St. Alban's, and was living at the time when this Armenian archbishop made the above relation. Since then several impostors have appeared at intervals, under the name and character of the "Wandering Jew." Mr. Brand says, "I remember to have seen one of these impostors some years ago in the north of England, who made a very hermit-like appearance, and went up and down the streets of Newcastle with a long train of boys at his heels, muttering Poor John alone, alone! poor John alone!' otherwise, Poor Jew alone.' I thought he pronounced his name in a manner singularly plaintive." He adds that sir William Musgrave had a portrait of this man inscribed "Poor Joe alone!" |