tioned; some of the highest arches were seen over and thing? For me, I am the puirest of a' puir bodies, and some through the trees scattered along a lane which led can hardly contrive to keep myself alive in a’ the wee down to the ruin, and the strange fantastic shapes of bit o' ways I hae tell’t ye.” After some more conversaalmost all those old ashes accorded wonderfully well tion, during which I was more and more pleased with with the building they at once shaded and ornamented. the old woman's sensible conversation, and the naïveté The abbey itself, from my door, was almost on a level with of her remarks, she rose to go away, when I asked her the cottage ; but on coming to the end of the lane it was name. Her countenance suddenly clouded, and she said discovered to be situated on a high perpendicular bank, gravely, rather colouring, My name is Helen Walker ; at the foot of which ran the clear waters of the Cluden, but your husband kens weel about me.' when they hasten to join the sweeping Nith,

“In the evening I related how much I had been

pleased, and inquired what was extraordinary in the • Whose distant roaring swells and fa's.'

history of the poor woman. Mr. - said, There

were perhaps few more remarkable people than Helen As my kitchen and parlour were not very far distant, Walker;' and he gave the history which has already I one day went in to purchase some chickens from a been related here.” person I heard offering them for sale. It was a little, The writer continues. “I was so strongly interested rather stout-looking woman, who seemed to be between by this narrative, that I determined immediately to seventy and eighty years of age; she was almost covered prosecute my acquaintance with Helen Walker ; but, as with a tartan plaid, and her cap had over it a black silk I was to leave the country next day, I was obliged to

a hood tied under the chin, a piece of dress still much in defer it until my return in spring, when the first walk use among elderly women of that rank of life in Scot- I took was to Helen Walker's cottage. She had died a land; her eyes were dark, and remarkably lively and short time before. My regret was extreme, and I enintelligent. I entered into conversation with her, deavoured to obtain some account of Helen from an old and began by asking how she maintained herself, &c. woman who inhabited the other end of her cottage. I She said that in winter she footed stockings ; that is, inquired if Helen ever spoke of her past history, her knit feet to country people's stockings, which bears journey to London, &c. Na,' the old woman said, about the same relation to stocking-knitting that cob- * Helen was a wiley body, and whene'er any o' the neebling does to shoe-making, and is, of course, both less bors asked anything about it, she aye turned the conprofitable and less dignified; she likewise taught a few versation.' In short, every answer I received only tended children to read; and in summer she'whiles reared a to increase my regret, and raise my opinion of Helen wheen chickens.

Walker, who could unite so much prudence with so " I said I could venture to guess from her face she much heroic virtue.” had never married. She laughed heartily at this, and This account was enclosed in the following letter to said : 'I maun hae the queerest face that ever was seen, the author of Waverley, without date or signature :that ye could guess that. Now do tell me, madam, how “ Sir,—The occurrence just related happened to me ye came to think sae ? I told her it was from her cheer-twenty-six years ago. Helen Walker lies buried in the fal, disengaged countenance. She said : “Mem, have ye churchyard of Irongray, about six miles from Dumfries. na far mair reason to be happy than me, wi' a gude hus. I once purposed that a small monument should have band, and a fine family o bairns, and plenty o' every. I been erected to commemorate so remarkable a character ;

6

but I now prefer leaving it to you to perpetuate her | reward of goodness :—“That a character so distinguished memory in a more durable manner.”

for her undaunted love of virtue lived and died in po. Mrs. Goldie endeavoured to collect further particular3 verty, if not want, serves only to show us how insigni. of Helen Walker, particularly concerning her journey ficant in the sight of heaven are our principal objects of to London ; but this she found impossible, as the natu. ambition upon earth.” ral dignity of her character, and a high sense of family respectability, had made her so indissolubly connect her sister's disgrace with her own exertions, that none of her neighbours durst ever question her upon the sub- A CHRISTMAS PARTY IN THE COUNTRY. ject. One old woman, a distant relation of Helen's, and who was living in 1820, says she worked in harvest with

No. II. her, but that she never ventured to ask her about her

When Alleyn had finished reading, all agreed that sister's trial, or her journey to London. “ Helen," she said, was a lofty body, and used a high style o' lan- Rosaline had a right to love her herbal, and Cyril guage.” The same old woman says

, “ that every year pronounced his sister “a very Sappho !” Helen received a cheese from her sister, who lived at

“No, no,” said Mrs. Martha Loraine,“ Sappho was Whitehaven, and that she always sent a liberal portion a heathen, and, thank God, Rose is a Christian. I am of it to herself or to her father's family." The old per- most pleased with the last verse, for I do indeed often son here spoken of must have been a mere child to our rejoice at the vicinity of that church, and think it heroine, who died in the year 1791, at the age of eighty.

looks down blessings on our ancient hall.' I love to one or eighty-two; and this difference of age may well account for any reserve in speaking on such a subject, remember the time when I was led there by my own making it appear natural and proper, and not the result dear mother, the oldest of a family which soon became of any undue "loftiness” of character. All recollections so numerous, and has now dwindled down to your father of her are connected with her constant and devout read and myself. I can remember your mother, Justine, ing of the Bible. A small table, with a large open Bible, when first allowed the privilege of attending the serinvariably occupied one corner of her room; and she vice, clinging to my arm, and restraining her buoyant was constantly observed stealing a glance, reading a text or a chapter, as her avocations permitted her time; step to suitable serenity, her sweet blue eyes wandering and it was her habit, when it thundered, to take her to the curious monuments of our ancestors, until recalled work and her Bible to the front of the cottage, alleging to her book by my father's whisper, “This is none other that the Almighty could smite in the city as well as the than the house of God, this is the gate of heaven!' field.

Yes, and I remember her standing before the venerable An extract from a recent letter says, on the subject of vicar to be examined amongst the candidates for conour heroine_“I think I neglected to specify to you that firmation, and all the holy aspirings she then poured Helen Walker lived in one of those cottages at the Che into my anxious ear. I can remember her again, dar Mills which you and your sisters so much admired ; Justine, little older than you are-at this moment you and the Mr. Walker who, as he said himself, “laid her remind me of her, yet those black eyes belong to head in the grave,' lived in that larger two-storied house l’Estrange—and your father stood beside her under that standing high on the opposite bank. He is since dead, roof, and she went from it his wife, never to return or I might have got the particulars from him that we again. She took a blessing with her, and from a wanted : he was a respectable farmer."

foreign land wrote me that she was often with me in The memorial which Mrs. Goldie wished to be raised spirit, once more worshipping in our own time-honoured over her grave has since been erected at the expense of church. My dear, dear Justine, may the blessing which Sir Walter Scott. The inscription is as follows : was your mother's rest upon you, and may you seek it This stone was erected

where she sought it in that church !” by the Author of Waverley

The solemnity of aunt Martha's manner was felt by to the memory of

all the party, but by none more than by Frederic and HELEN WALKER,

Justine, who had been taught to revere the memory of who died in the year of God MDCCXCI.

the mother they had lost so early. The entrance of This humble individual

Mr. Loraine and Mr. Barlow broke the silence, and practised in real life

Lucy soon asked for the verses promised by her mother. the virtues

Are they quite new, mamma?” with which fiction has invested

“Quite new, I only received them this morning." the imaginary character of

“This morning! By the post ?" JEANIE DEANS :

“Yes, by the post. Agnes was wondering about my refusing the slightest departure

three letters, and I expected her to inquire whom they from veracity,

were from ; but Edmund's epistle put all other things eren to save the life of her sister,

out of her head, so I kept my own secret; and now hear she nevertheless showed her

what our Laureat has sent us." kindness and fortitude

“James Hamilton, mamma! can he not come? What in rescuing her

keeps him away? Rose! Rose ! did not mamma tell

you James Hamilton had sent some verses for us!" from the severity of the law, at the expense of personal exertions

exclaimed three or four voices at once. which the time rendered as difficult

“Gently, gently, my good people. James is kept as the motive was laudable.

away by his brother's illness, and will be here as soon Respect the grave of poverty,

as he can comfortably leave him. He says he has sent when combined with the love of truth

us a few floral charades, that we may not quite forget and dear affection.

him during his absence, and begs we will only have one

cach evening, and then, perhaps, they will last until he Jeanie Deans is recompensed by her biographer for the makes his appearance." trials through which he leads her, with a full measure “Oh, mamma, how many are there ?-Aunt Martha, of earthly comfort; for few novelists dare venture to do not you know? Mrs. Barlow, has not mamma told make virtue its own reward ; yet the following reflec- you?” tion shows him to have felt how little the ordinary Both ladies shook their heads, and acknowledged course of Providence is in accordance with man's natu- their ignorance on the subject; and at length Mrs. ral wishes, and his expectations of a splendid temporal | Loraine read the following charade, and the remainder

6

of the evening was spent in guessing its meaning, and rambling after fine young men. I am a fine young criticising its structure.

man myself, and, as I am bringing up to the bar, I shall

make you undergo a rigid cross-examination. How “Silently, gently, and lightly descending From heaven, my first may be seen;

many British birds do you know? A turkey ?—with A mantle as soft to the sleeping earth lending,

oyster sauce. A goose 2-with sage and onions. A As yon ermine the breast of fair beauty defending

partridge ?-with crumbs and bread sauce. A pheasant? From the winter's breath chilly and keen.

--ditto. A woodcock ?—with a toast; and a snipe?

because I shot one yesterday.” And look where my second is tremblingly stealing

After a little more joking Justine was obliged to Down the cheek of that beauty so fair;

confess her ignorance of British birds, and Agnes and It comes from the heart's tender fountain of feeling,

Laura were delighted to point out to her the different A treasure more dear to her lover revealing, Than its types the chaste pearls in her hair.

competitors for their crumbs; particularly the little

blue-bird, or Nun, which soon joined the circle. And soon, when my first from the earth is retreating,

“I think your cousin should not begin her ornithoAnd my second begems every spray,,

logical studies before she has made a little more proTo that beauty shall hope, her sweet whisper repeating, grees in botany," said Mrs. Barlow, " or you will frighten Show my delicate rohole, which the spring's smile is greeting, her back to town as soon as the snow is cleared away.” And predict—" He returns, gloomy winter's away!"

My dear madam ! you must not think me so indolent as to take fright at the bare idea of information,

though this is truly very different to any I have received The snow, which had fallen in great quantity during before, because it comes in a practical and amusing shape, the night, still continued to descend, so that the whole instead of being a mere vocabulary of names, which is landscape around Kirkfield was enveloped in its white all I seemed to gain from books in the town.” mantle, the only relief to the eye being from the

“You need not be afraid, Justine," said Mrs. Loraine, numerous hollies and other evergreens, on which it had

“for we are not very learned here; though Agnes talks indeed lodged in ponderous masses, but which still of botanizing, we are not botanists, but lorers of wild showed here and there the bright green leaves and red flowers.” berries. The windows of the saloon, opening to the

“But, my dear mamma, my darling 'Meadow Queen,' ground, were blocked up high as the first pane, and the is a real botanical book, and Lindley's ‘Ladies' Botany,' innumerable tribe of robins, chaffinches, sparrows, &c., and Mrs. Mariat's “Vegetable Physiology,' are very which Agnes Loraine and her little friend Laura Barlow favourite books with my sisters,” cried Agnes. delighted to feed, could not receive the usual bounty

“So they are, my love, and Justine shall read them until a space was cleared away for their accommodation. when she chooses. Still, Justine, the knowledge we can The cold wind and falling snow swept in at the opened impart is chiefly the result of observation on the things window, which Mrs. Loraine and Mrs. Barlow hastily around us, things to which you have never been accusbegged might be closed ; and the girls stood watching tomed; but, as we hope your residence here will not be their feathered friends for some minutes, amused by the of very short duration, we shall be greatly pleased if airs of a robin who seemed to consider himself lord of you can feel an interest in them; and my girls must the feast, driving away the other birds when they look to you for much information which is very desirable interfered with his repast, shaking the snow off his for them, and which they have had no opportunity of wings, pecking at the window, and looking up with his

acquiring here." merry eye as if conscious that he was an established

“My dear Justine," said Sophia, “I have not forgotten favourite.

that you promised to teach me that beautiful new kind “ Cousin Frederic,” said the saucy Agnes, “ have you of embroidery which is in your work-basket. I fear I any birds except sparrows in London? I always fancy have not all the proper materials, but, if I can find any not.

Do come and look at our country sparrows. They which will put me in the way of acquiring the stitch, I are quite a different colour from yours, are they not? should be glad to learn it this morning; and when we I suspect yours are almost black, and these are beauti- do go to R—, I can then get a proper supply.” fully dressed in various shades of brown. I know you

“What are we poor fellows to do this morning ?' have sparrows in London, because I remember reading asked Charles. in the ‘Peacock at Home,' that

“Cyril has quietly stolen away to his Hisdostanee in "'A London bred sparrow, a pert forward chit,

the library, where I should fancy you might also find Danced a reel with Miss Wagtail, and little Tom Tit.'” something to study,” said his mother.

“ But what is to become of this idle fellow Fred ?" “Upon my word, Miss Agnes, pert forward chits are “Oh! I am going to copy out this little German song not confined to London,” said her cousin, running his for Lucy." hand through her clustering curls, and then spinning Then, as Alleyn is with his father, Neville must be the laughing girl round so suddenly that the whole reader to our circle to-day. What book shall we have? flock of feathered pensioners took flight. They, how. There is the last new parcel from the book-club on that ever, soon ventured to return, and Justine l’Estrange was table: so perhaps Mrs. Barlow or aunt Martha will tempted to look at them, and compelled to declare she make the selection.” was unacquainted with several of the visitors.

Aunt Martha soon fixed upon a work of general Agnes is a saucy girl, Justine, and not at all like interest, and the morning passed rapidly in spite her brother Charles,” said Charles himself; “but, if it of the increasing storm without. Long after the be a fair question, I should like to ask how many usual hour no post had appeared, and it was surmised British birds you do know? Come now, a sparrow we that the cross-roads must be so completely blocked up will presume upon your knowing-what next?" that none could be expected. Agnes petitioned that * I know a swallow, a bulfinch, a canary

James Hamilton's budget might be opened, and an “Oh, but a canary is not a British bird.”

additional charade allowed them, to make up for the loss “ Well, I know å swallow, and a bulfinch.-Lady of the letters and newspapers. Dorrington has a most beautiful bulfinch, which “ They are all about flowers,” said her mother, “and whistles all Strauss’s waltzes; and is such a favourite I fear your cousins will not be able to guess them until with her, because her son, who had been absent many they have increased their acquaintance with the Flora years, an attaché to the Embassy, a fine young man, Kirkfieldensis, yet I really think I will indulge you brought it her from Vienna."

with one, which speaks so much of the delights of “ Then that bulfinch, certainly, was not a British summer weather, that it will perhaps make us forget bird, Mademoiselle Justine. I shall not let you go the cold around us."

6

“ Mamma !

mean time, the landlord, to secure their effects to him.

self, wickedly murdered the youths in their sleep, cut Oh, who can hold a fire in his hand By thinking on the frosty Caucasus ?

them up, salted them, and purposed to sell them for Or stay the hungry edge of appetite

pickled pork. St. Nicholas was favoured with a sight By bare imagination of a feast?

of these proceedings in a vision, and in the morning Or wallow naked in December's snow

went to the inn, and reproached the host for his horrid By thinking on fantastic summer's heat ?'

villany. The man, perceiving that he was discovered,

owned his crime, and entreated the Saint to intercede “ Fye, fye, Rosaline ! surely you will not vote against for his pardon. The Bishop, being moved by his conthe charade. I shall make you read it for doing so."And Rosaline read,

fession and contrition, besought forgiveness for him

and supplicated restoration of life to the children : Oh, who would linger when gay summer calls

whereupon the mangled and detached pieces reunited, From every flowery mead and bosky dell?

and the reanimated youths threw themselves at the feet Oh! who would linger ’neath the city's walls

of St. Nicholas, who raised them up, exhorted them to When waves upon the wind the heather bell ?

return thanks to God alone, gave them good advice for When the green corn-fields' promise 'gins to swell the future, and sent them with great joy to prosecute The filling ear? When silence at high noon

their studies at Athens. This tradition concerning St. Doth of the songsters' callow younglinys tell ?

Nicholas, were there no other, sufficiently accounts for Who can resist the voice of merry June,

the selection of his festival for the commencement of the When Nature in reply doth every heart attune ?

puerile solemnities about to be described. Now ventures forth my first with buoyant grace

Anciently, on this day, the choir boys in cathedral , And light step, wandering thro' the grassy lane; churches chose one of their number to maintain the Ilealth spreads its mantling blushes o'er her face, state and authority of a bishop, for which purpose he And shyness doth her spirits flow restrain;

was habited in episcopal robes, wore a mitre on his Soon as the summit of the hill we gain

head, and bore a pastoral staff in his hand; his fellows And the pure breeze hath fanned her open brow, To check the gay infection were in vain,

for the time being assuming the character and dress of And laughing, warbling, bounding she will go,

priests, yielding him canonical obedience, taking posRacing to reach the brook which cheers the vale below. session of the church, and performing all the ceremo

nies and offices which might have been celebrated by Then bending o'er the streamlet's leaf-fringed side real ecclesiastics. Though the election of the child

To watch the sportive minnows glancing gay, bishop was on the 6th of December, yet his office and
Start back to see my second all untied,

authority lasted till the 28th. On the Eve of the Holy And blush to mark its lawless disarray

Innocents this personage, and his youthful clergy in Reflected there. The wanton zephyrs play

their copes, and with burning tapers in their hands, With cach bright tress, whilst she, with pretty art, The breeze will chide, and turn her head away,

went in procession chanting versicles, made some pray. And rest upon some jutting rock, apart,

ers before the altar, and sang Complin. By the statute To smooth her truant curls, and still her beating heart.

of Sarum no one was to interrupt or press upon the

children during their procession or service in the catheSure 'tis a pleasant picture thus to see

dral, upon pain of anathema. It appears that the boy That sair young creature cast her eyes around, bishop, at Salisbury, held a kind of visitation, and Half-closed, vet sparkling with a covert glee,

maintained a corresponding state and prerogative; and Scanning the summer treasures which abound

he is supposed to have had the power to dispose of preOn the o'erarching rock-its summit crowned

bends that fell vacant during his episcopacy. If he By plume of waving fern, whilst hanging there My vhole in verdant clusters may be found,

died within the month he was buried like other bishops, Scattering all moisture to the thirsty air,

in his episcopal ornaments; his obsequies were solem. And flinging from its leaf each dew-drop glittering fair.

nized with great pomp, and a monument with his effigy}

was erected to his memory. A good deal of discussion followed, and ere long the The juvenile observances, above described, existed not solution was found to be Maiden-bair.

only in collegiate churches, but in almost every parish in England; and, as Walton affirms, even in common grammar-schools. They were suppressed in 1542 by a

proclamation of Henry VIII.; but were revived under POPULAR YEAR-BOOK.

Queen Mary, and seem to have been exhibited in counDecember 6.-St. Nicholas' Day.

try villages till the latter end of the reign of her suc

“We may observe,” remarks Strutt,“ that most St. Nicholas, who is commemorated on this day by of the churches in which these mock ceremonies were the Latin and English Churches, was born at Patura, a performed, had dresses and ornaments proper for the city of Lycia, of reputable parents, who early initiated | occasion, and suited to the size of the wearers, but in him into the doctrines of Christianity, which he prac-every other respeçt resembling those appropriated to tised in so exemplary a manner as to receive the pa- the real dignitaries of the church.” Brand is of opinion tronage of Constantine the Great, through whom he that the montem at Eton is only a corruption of the became Bishop of Myra. He was present in the Council ceremony of the boy bishop and his companions, wbo, of Nice, where, it is said, he gave Arius a box on the upon being prevented from mimicking any longer their ear. According to legendary story, he was disposed so ecclesiastical superiors, “gave a new face" to their festi: early in life to obey the directions of the Church, that, vity, and began their present play at soldiers and when an infant at the breast, he fasted on Wednesday electing a captain. Within the memory of persons alive, and Friday, sucking but once on each of those days, when the above antiquary wrote, the montem was kept and that towards night. This circumstance, and a mi- in the winter time a little before Christmas : a passage racle which we shall immediately relate, caused him to was cut through the snow from Eton to Salt-hill, upon be regarded as the peculiar pattern of the “rising gene- which, after the procession had arrived there, the chap ration” under the endearing title of “Child Bishop." lain and his clerk (Etonians thus disguised) used to The miracle is as follows. An "Asiatic gentleman read prayers; and then, at the conclusion, the chaplain sent his two sons to Athens for education, and ordered kicked the clerk down the hill. The present MONTEM them to call on St. Nicholas for his benediction. is generally celebrated on Whit-Tuesday, and honoured On arriving at Myra with their baggage, they took up their lodging at an inn, intending, as it was late in the day, to defer their visits till the morrow; but, in the (1) Such an one is preserved in Salisbury Cathedral.

1

99

by the presence of royalty. It is triennial, and consists | lished in 1667. He died in 1874, and was interred near at present of a procession of the boys to Salt-hill, his father in the chancel of St. Giles's, Cripplegate. where money is collected for the captain" as a kind December 13.-St. Lucy's name occurs in the Kalendar of provision against his going to the University. The of the Church of England on this day. She was a young youths begin to assemble at about nine o'clock in the lady of Syracuse, who preferring a religious single life morning, and at half past there is what is termed, in to marriage, gave away all her wealth to the poor. the Etonian phraseology, an "absence;" that is,-the Having been accused by the nobleman who sought her boys, in order, march three times round the playing or hand, to the Pagan Proconsul Paschasius, for professing school-yard, and are each successive time called over by Christianity, she obtained the crown of martyrdom, the head master, who stands at his “chamber door.” A. D. 304. Her remains long reposed at Syracuse. They Behind each“ fifth-form boy” marches a "lower boy,” are now preserved in the Church of St. Vincent, at Metz. carrying a white pole, and hence this portion of the school receive the name of “pole-bearers." After this part of the ceremony, sundry stout fellows are placed at all places of exit, armed with staves. At ten, the boys LOUISE, OR THE FAIRY WELL.' begin to set out for Salt-hill, and “dire is the rout, and dreadful is the squeeze,” since the only permitted way

AFTER pausing for a moment to admire the delicate is through the cloisters, and thence into the playing tracery and the foliage of the sculptor, and dwelling fields; and the latter passage is narrow in the extreme. for some moments on the maxims over her head, When the crowd is fairly out, the “pole-bearers" pre- she tripped forth lightly into a conservatory filled sent their poles to be cut in two by the swords of the ith rare plants and curious shrubs, the splash of “fifth form,” girded on for that sole purpose. The fol-water falling continually into hollowed basins of lowing personages figure in the procession: a “marshal,” | pure white marble filled her with delight; here who wears the uniform of his assumed rank, and is several large bees, such as she had previously seen, attended by several pages in dresses of different nations; a “captain,” (who is a king's scholar, the head boy of

were flitting about, and many birds of bright pluthe school, and for whose benefit the montem is held,) mage had built their nests in the taller shrubs. On attired in the usual regimental costume ; a “ lieute her approach, the birds nestled down in their nests, nant," in the usual dress; an “ensign,” to whom is en

and covered their little heads with their wings; and trusted the college flag; “serjeants” and “ corporals,

the bees alighted on the different flowers, and found in their proper uniforms; and the “salt-bearers" and a shelter in their wide spreading cups. “Oh, how their servitors, scouts or runners, who wear every kind charming !” said Louise, “ I will catch one of these of fancy apparel, and carry large embroidered bågs for little birds, to see the bright colours of his plumage.” " salt," i.e. “ voluntary contributions." The proper She raised herself up to the lowest shrub, and as number of the salt-bearers is only two, but they are soon as she put her hand into the nest, the little aided by several of their schoolfellows.

terrified creature uttered a shrill cry, which was On the morning of Montem day they frequently rise taken up by all the otbers, so that the conservatory as early as six o'clock, and forthwith scour the country, resounded with their piteous notes. Fear for the soliciting or demanding money from every one whom moment proved superior to her other feelings, and they encounter. Having collected the “salt” from the company, the salt-bearers, &c. levy a contribution from

as soon as she felt more confident, she stretched the boys of at least one shilling each, which, in the out her hand a second time, but the nest was gone! whole school, amounts to upwards of thirty pounds. Louise, in astonishment, ran from shrub to shrub, When the procession arrives at Salt-hill, the college flag, peering cautiously into the branches, but the birds inscribed with the motto Pro More et Monte, is waved had all flown, and she could not even discover their three times by the ensign, who stands on the summit nests. This was a great source of wonder, as she of the mound. The fifth form then dine by themselves, could not imagine how they had made their escape, and the lower boys, by themselves : and the procession as the windows that reached from the ribbed ceiling returns to Eton about five. The day after the Montem to the marble floor were all closed, and she could the captain gives an elegant dejeuner a la fourchette, to see no other means of escape. The bees too had the first two hundred boys, in the College Hall. December 9.-The illustrious poet John Milton was

flown away, and she was alone. This circumstance born on this day, 1608, in Bread-street, London. He gave her no uneasiness, on the contrary, the hours received the rudiments' of a learned education at St. glided pleasantly away, as she found new attraction Paul's School, and afterwards studied at Christ's College, in every succeeding flower. Here was the rose in Cambridge, where he was admitted, Feb. 12, 1624, Dr. all its variety of tint, here was the graceful lily, the Johnson is “ ashamed to relate what he fears is true, striped carnation, the star-like primrose, and the that Milton was one of the last students in either delicate snow-drop. Here orange and lemon trees University that suffered the public indignity of corporal bloomed, amid myrtles and acacias; here the most correction.” He was well skilled in Latin, and wrote choice treasures of the Eastern gardens grew in all verses in that language with classical elegance. He be- their luxuriance. When she had feasted herself gan his travels on the death of his mother in 1637, and sufficiently on the sweets around her, she turned passed fifteen months in visiting Paris, Florence, Rome, her eyes to the fountains, in whose waters swarmed Lucca, Venice, and Genoa. On his return home he took myriads of the most tiny fish, frolicking about in a house in Aldersgate-street, London, for the reception the clear glassy element. Soon, however, by deof scholars. In 1641 he began to engage in the controversies of the times, and wrote several polemical treatises. grees, a feeling of languor crept over her frame, and Two years later, he married his first

wife
, the daughter died away, and she longed to see and hold inter-

she lost her former vivacity; the charm of the scene of a country gentleman in Oxfordshire, whom he soon repudiated. After the martyrdom of King Charles I, he course with the bright spirits who dwelt in the was appointed Latin Secretary to Oliver Cromwell. In fairy palace. “What are all the charms "cried she, 1654, or perhaps earlier, he became totally blind, a mis- of so beautiful a spot to me, if there be none else fortune which his enemies considered as a judgment from to enjoy it? what concert so sweet as that of human heaven. At the Restoration he retired into obscurity, and voices? Oh, for my little companions in the forest by the exertion of his friends was included in the general glade!” amnesty. His immortal poem, entitled PARADISE Lost, the copyright of which he sold for only 15l., was pub

(1) Concluded from page 95.

a