Shouldered his crutch and showed how fields were won. 135

And fools, who came to scoff, remained to pray.
The service past, around the pious man,
With steady zeal, each honest rustic ran ;
E'en children followed with endearing wile,
And plucked his gown, to share the good man's

smile. His ready smile a parent's warmth expressed, Their welfare pleased him, and their cares dis

tressed;
To them his heart, his love, his griefs were given,
But all his serious thoughts had rest in heaven.
As some tall cliff that lifts its awful form,
Swells from the vale, and midway leaves the

storm,
Though round its breast the rolling clouds are

spread, Eternal sunshine settles on its head.

140

145

NOTES.

1 Auburn, supposed to be the village is now allowed to be tilled by the

of Lissoy, near Ballymahon, Coun- owner, thus depriving the people
ty Longford, Ireland, where the of a living, and the plain of its

poet's brother was a clergyman. former beauty. 2 Swain, a peasant.

14 Sedges, flags or coarse grass. 3 Green, the village green.

15 Glade, an open space in a wood. 4 Cot, cottage, a small single house. 16 Bittern, a bird of the heron kind 5 Decent, becoming, neat.

which frequents swamps and 6 Remitting, ceasing for a time.

marshes. 7 Train, refers here to a line of the 17 Hastening ills, misfortunes crowdvillage folk.

ing one after another. 8 Sleights, clever tricks.

18 Accumulates, heaped or piled up. 9 Mistrustless, having no suspici.n, 19 Peasantry, the country people. unconscious of.

20 Husband, a verb, meaning to 10 Lawn, bere means a wide tract of manage with care and economy. country.

21 Responsive, answering back by 11 Tyrant, referring to a wealthy singing

landowner who purchased an 22 Sober, referring to the solemn
estate near Ballymahon and looks of cows generally.
evicted many of the tenants near 23 Bayed, barked at.
“Sweet Auburn” for non-pay. 24 Copse, a coppice, or clump of trees.
ment of rent, so that he might 25 Fawn, flatter.
enlarge the park round his man. 26 Vagrant, a wandering beggar.
sion.

27 Endearment, a winning manner. 12 Domain, estate.

28 Allured, :ttracted, enticed. 13 Half a tillage. Only half the land 29 The bed, &c., the deathbed.

*

A VISIT TO HENRY VII.'S CHAPEL,

2

3

1. I stood before the entrance to Henry the Seventh's Chapel. A flight of steps lead up to it, through a deep and gloomy, but magnificent arch. Great gates of brass, richly and delicately wrought, turn heavily upon their hinges, as if proudly reluctant ? to admit the feet of common mortals into this most gorgeous of sepulchres.

2. On entering, the eye is astonished by the pomp of architecture, and the elaborate beauty of sculptured detail. The very walls are wrought into universal ornament, incrusted with tracery and scooped into niches, crowded with the statues of saints and martyrs.

3. Stone seems, by the cunning labour of the chisel, to have been robbed of its weight and density, suspended aloft, as if by magic, and the fretted roof achieved with the wonderful minuteness and airy security of a cobweb.

4. Along the sides of the chapel are the lofty stalls of the Knights of the Bath, richly carved of oak, though with the grotesque decorations of Gothic architecture. On the pinnacles of the stalls are affixed the helmets and crests of the knights, with their scarfs and swords, and above them are suspended their banners. In the midst of this grand mausoleum * stands the sepulchre of its founder—his effigy, with that of his queen, extended on a sumptuous

tomb, and the whole surrounded by a superbly wrought brazen railing.

5. There is a sad dreariness in this magni. ficence; this strange mixture of tombs and trophies; these emblems of living and aspiring ambition, close beside mementoes which show the dust and oblivion in which all must

5 sooner or later terminate. Nothing impresses the mind with a deeper feeling of loneliness, than to tread the silent and deserted scene of former throng and pageant.

6. On looking round on the vacant stalls of the knights and their esquires, and on the rows of dusty but gorgeous banners that were once borne before them, my imagination conjured up the scene when this hall was bright with the valour and beauty of the land ; glittering with the splendour of jewelled rank and military array ; alive with the tread of many feet and the hum of an admiring multitude.

7. All had passed away; the silence of death had settled again upon the place, interrupted only by the casual chirping of birds, which had found their way into the chapel, and built their nests among its friezes and pendantssure signs of solitariness and desertion.

8. When I read the names inscribed on the banners, they were those of men scattered far and wide about the world; some tossing upon distant seas ; some under arms in distant lands; some mingling in the busy intrigues of courts and cabinets; all seeking to deserve one more