to be his jailor on the occasion. "Lady Arabella was so subdued at this distant separation, that she gave way to all the wildness of despair; she fell suddenly ill, and could not travel but in a litter, and with a physician. In her way to Durham, she was so greatly disquieted in the first few miles of her uneasy and troublesome journey, that they would proceed no further than to Highgate. The physician returned to town to report her state, and declared that she was assuredly very weak, her pulse dull and melancholy, and very irregular; her countenance very heavy, pale, and wan; and though free from fever, he declared her in no case fit for travel. The king observed, It is enough to make any sound man sick to be carried in a bed in that manner she is; much more for her whose impatient and unquiet spirit heapeth upon herself far greater indisposition of body than otherwise she would have.' His resolution however was, that she should pro ceed to Durham, if he were king! We answered,' replied the doctor, that we made no doubt of her obedience.' Obedience is that required,' replied the king, which being performed, I will do more for her than she expected." Yet he consented to her remaining a month at Highgate. As the day of her departure approached, she appeared resigned. "But Arabella had not, within, that tranquillity with which she had lulled her keepers. She and Seymour had concerted a flight, as bold in its plot, and as beautifully wild, as any recorded in romantic story. The day preceding her departure, Arabella found it not difficult to persuade a female attendant to consent that she would suffer her to pay a last visit to her husband, and to wait for her return at an appointed hour. More solicitous for the happiness of lovers than for the repose of kings, this attendant, in utter simplicity, or with generous sympathy, assisted the lady Arabella in dressing her in one of the most elaborate disguisings. She drew a pair of large French-fashioned hose or trowsers over her petticoats; put on a man's doublet or coat; a peruke, such as men wore, whose long locks covered her own ringlets; a black hat, a black cloak, russet boots with red tops, and a rapier by her side. Thus accoutred, the lady Arabella stole out with a gentleman about three o'clock in the afternoon. She had only proceeded a mile and a half, when they stopped at a poor inn, where one of her confederates was waiting with horses, yet she was so sick and faint, that the ostler, who held her stirrup, observed, that the gentleman could hardly hold out to London.' She recruited her spirits by riding; the blood mantled in her face, and at six o'clock our sick lover reached Blackwall, where a boat and servants were waiting. The watermen were at first ordered to Woolwich; there they were desired to push on to Gravesend, then to Tilbury, where, complaining of fatigue, they landed to refresh; but, tempted by their freight, they reached Lee. At the break of morn they discovered a French vessel riding there to receive the lady; but as Seymour had not yet arrived, Arabella was desirous to lie at anchor for her lord, conscious that he would not fail to his appointment. If he indeed had been prevented in his escape, she herself cared not to preserve the freedom she now pos sessed; but her attendants, aware of the danger of being overtaken by a king's ship, overruled her wishes, and hoisted sail, which occasioned so fatal a termination to this romantic adventure. Seymour indeed had escaped from the Tower; he had left his servant watching at his door to warn all visiters not to disturb his. master, who lay ill with a raging toothache, while Seymour in disguise stole away alone, following a cart which had just brought wood to his apartment. He passed the warders; he reached the wharf, and found his confidential man waiting with a boat, and he arrived at Lee. The time pressed; the waves were rising; Arabella was not there; but in the distance he descried a vessel. Hiring a fisherman to take him on board, to his grief, on hailing it, he discovered that it was not the French vessel charged with his Arabella; in despair and confusion he found another ship from Newcastle, which for a good sum altered its course, and landed him in Flanders." On the lady Arabella's escape, " couriers were despatched swifter than the winds wafted the unhappy Arabella, and all was hurry in the seaports. They sent to the Tower to warn the lieutenant to be doubly vigilant over Seymour, who, to his surprise, discovered that his prisoner had ceased to be so for several hours, James at first was for issuing a proclamation in a style so angry and vindictive, that it required the moderation of Cecil to preserve the dignity while he concealed the terror of his majesty. By the admi ral's detai! of his impetuous movements, he seemed in pursuit of an enemy's fleet; for the courier is urged, and the postmasters are roused by a superscription, which warned them of the eventful despatch, Haste, haste, post haste! Haste for your life, your life!' To these words, in a letter from the earl of Essex to the lord high admiral at Plymouth, were added the expressive symbol of a gallows prepared with a halter, thus There is no doubt, as is well expressed, that "the union and flight of these two doves, from their cotes, shook with consternation the grey.owls of the cabinet:" even "prince Henry partook of this cabinet panic." Meanwhile "we have left the lady Arabella alone and mournful on the seas, not praying for favourable gales to convey her away, but still imploring her attendants to linger for her Seymour; still straining her sight to the point of the horizon for some speck which might give a hope of the approach of the boat freighted with all her love. Alas! never more was Arabella to cast a single look on her lover and her husband! She was overtaken by a pink in the king's service, in Calais roads; and now she declared that she cared not to be brought back again to her imprisonment should Seymour escape, whose safety was dearest to her!" Where London's Tow're its turrets show So stately by the Thames's side, Fair Arabella, child of woe! For many a day had sat and sighed. And as shee heard the waves arise, And as shee heard the bleake windes roare, As fast did heave her heartfelte sighes, And still so fast her teares did poure!* During a confinement of four years the lady Arabella "sunk beneath the hopelessness of her situation, and a secret resolution in her mind to refuse the aid of her physicians, and to wear away the faster, if she could, the feeble remains of life." The particulars of her "dreadful imprisonment" are unknown, but her letters show her affliction, and that she often thought on suicide, and as often was prevented by religious fortitude. "I could not," she says, "be so unchristian as to be the cause of my own death." "Arabella Stuart," in Evans's Old Ballads; supposed to have been written by Mickle. She affectingly paints her situation in one of her addresses to James. "In all humility, the most wretched and unfortunate creature that ever lived, prostrates itselfe at the feet of the most merciful king that ever was, desiring nothing but mercy and favour, not being more afflicted for any thing than for the losse of that which hath binne this long time the onely comfort it had in the world, and which, if it weare to do again, I would not adventure the losse of for any other worldly comfort; mercy it is I desire, and that for God's sake!" She "finally lost her reason," and died in prison distracted. "Such is the history of the lady Arabella. A writer of romance might render her one of those interesting personages whose griefs have been deepened by their royalty, and whose adventures, touched with the warm hues of love and distraction, closed at the bars of her prison-grate-a sad example of a female victim to the state! Through one dim lattice, fring'd with ivy round, To Successive suns a languid radiance threw, paint how fierce her angry guardian frown'd, To mark how fast her waning beauty flew!'" Her husband, Seymour, regained his liberty. Charles I. created him marquis of Hertford; and, under Charles II., the dukedom of Somerset, which had been lost to his family by attainder for ancient defections, was restored to it in his person. He "retained his romantic passion for the lady of his first affections; for he called the daughter he had by his second lady by the ever beloved name of ARABELLA STUART.”* Nothing remains to mark the character of this noble-minded female, but the scanty particulars from whence the present are gathered, with some letters and a few rhapsodies written while her heart was breaking, and her understanding perishing. At that period she wrote the letter here brought to light towards gratifying a natural curiosity for every thing relating to her character and person; with the same intent her handwriting is faithfully traced, and subjoined from her subscription to the original. LADY JANE DRUMMOND. The lady Arabella's suitor to her majesty, lady Jane Drummond, was third * Mr. D'Israeli. daughter of Patrick, third lord Drummond. She married Robert, the second earl of Roxburghe, and was mother to Hary, lor Ker. She possessed distinguished abilities, was one of the ladies of the queen's bedchamber, and governess to the royal children. She died October 7, 1643. Her funeral was fixed on by the royalists as a convenient pretext to assemble for a massacre of the leading covenanters, but the numbers proved too inconsiderable for the attempt. She was hurried in the family vault in the chapelroyal, Holyrood-house: the vault was long open to public view. The editor of "Heriot's Life," in 1822, gives her autograph as "Jane Drummond," and speaks of having seen her coffin and remains thirty years before, shortly after which period he believes the vault to have been closed. In the "Gentleman's Magazine" of February, 1799, plate II., there is a fac-simile of her autograph, as countess of Roxburghe, from her receipt, dated May 10, 1617, for "500%., part of the sum of 3000l., of his majesty's free and princely gift to her, in consideration of long and faithful service done to the queen, as one of the ladies of the bedchamber to her majesty." NATURALISTS' CALENDAR. Mean Temperature . . . 58 · 15. June 4. REMARKABLE CELEBRATION. This was king George the Third's birthday, and therefore during his reign was kept at court, and in many towns throughout the kingdom. At Bexhill, on the coast of Sussex, where the inhabitants, who scarcely exceed 800, are remarkable for longevity and loyalty, on the 4th of June, 1819, they celebrated the king's birth-day in an appropriate and remarkable manner. Twenty-five old men, inhabitants of the parish, whose united ages amounted to 2025, averaging eighty-one each (the age of the king) dined together at the Bell Inn, and passed the day in a cheerful and happy manner. The dinner was set on table by fifteen other old men, also of the above parish, whose united ages amounted to seventy-one each, and six others, whose ages amounted to sixty-one each, rang the bells on the occasion. The old men dined at one o'clock; and at half-past two a public dinner was served up to the greater part of the respectable inhabitants, to the number of eighty-one, who were also the subscribers to the old men's dinner. The assembly room was decorated with several appropriate devices; and some of the old men, with the greater part of the company, enjoyed themselves to a late hour. BELL RINGING and HAND BELLS IN CHURCHES, To the Editor of the Every-Day Book. Sir,-In pp. 161-2, vol. ii., your correspondent H. H. N. N. of Newark, informs us of the custom of ringing a bell at six o'clock in the morning, and eight in the evening; likewise of a set of "hand bells" kept in the church there; and desires to be informed of their use. Although I cannot inform him of the particular origin of ringing the bell at particular hours in that town, yet by stating the practice in some other towns, it may, perhaps, contribute to unravel its meaning. With regard to the "hand bells," it seems probable that they were originally placed in churches for the use of the ringers, who employed their leisure in practising and amusing themselves in the evenings when not engaged in the belfry, as is the case at the present time in some parts of London. Although I do not recollect where the hand bells are used in town, yet I have more than once lately heard it mentioned in Fenchurch-street and its neighbourhood, that the ringers were in the practice of amusing themselves with hand bells at a public-house where they assembled for the purpose of practising; and it is more than probable, that some of your readers in that neighbourhood can furnish you with further particulars. In most of the towns in the west of England, they have a custom of ringing one of the church bells (generally the treble bell) in the morning and evenings. Among other towns I noticed at Dorchester, Dorset, the practice of ringing a bell at six in the morning in the summer, and seven in the winter, at one o'clock at noon, and at eight in the evening, concluding after ringing at eight o'clock with striking as many strokes as the month is days old; and this practice I was there Sussex paper. informed was for calling people to work in the morning, the time for dinner, and for leaving work in the evening. " At another town in Dorsetshire, Sherborne, they have an almost endless "dingdong," "twing-twang," or "bim-bome," throughout the day. Happening to be lately there on a market-day (Saturday) I was awakened in the morning, at four o'clock, by the ringing of the "church treble bell;" at six o'clock the church ❝ chimes were in play; at a quarter before seven the "almshouse bell" began, and continued to ring till seven, which is said to be for the purpose of calling the scholars of king Edward the Sixth's grammar school to their studies, who were no sooner assembled than the "school bell" announced the master's approach. At half-past eight the "almshouse bell” summoned the almsmen and women to prayers; at nine the "chimes;" at eleven the "wholesale market bell;" at twelve the "chimes;" at one the "school bell" for dinner; at half-past one the "retai! market bell;" at three the " chimes," and the church "great bell "* tolled twice at a short interval, when, what is appositely enough called the "tanging bell," rang until the minister and religiously inclined had assembled for prayer; at four the "almshouse bell;" at six the "chimes;" at seven the "school bell" for supper; at eight the "church bell," which rang a quarter of an hour, and concluded by giving eight strokes; at nine the "chimes," and the "school bell" for bed. So much bell ringing and tolling na turally led to an inquiry of the several causes that gave rise to it. By some, the first morning and eight o'clock bell is called the "curfew bell," and the practice of ringing it is said to have been continued from the time of William the Conqueror, who, by one of his laws, ordered the people to put out their fires and lights, and go to bed at the eight o'clock curfew bell; and others affirmed it to be, for the purpose of summoning the people to their labours. The practice of ringing a church bell in the morning and evening is common in * This bell is said to weigh 3 tons 5 cwt., and to be the treble of a ring of bells brought from Tournay by cardinal Wolsey, whereof one is at St. Paul's, one at Oxford, one at Lincoln, and one at Exeter. The motto on the crown of this bell, which is called the great bell, is said to be "By Woolsey's gift I measure time for all; For mirth, for grief, for church I serve to call." R. T. 1826. FIRST MONDAY IN JUNE. A solemn festival in the Scottish me tropolis is ordained by the "Statutes of following words :-"But especially upon George Heriot's Hospital," (cap. ii.) in the the first Monday in June, every year, shall be kept a solemn commemoration and thanksgiving unto God, in this form which followeth. In the morning, about eight of the clock of that day, the lord and ordinary council of the city of Edinprovost, all the ministers, magistrates, burgh, shall assemble themselves in the committee-chamber of the said hospital; from thence, all the scholars and officers of the said hospital going before them* solemnity that may be, to the Gray Friars two by two, they shall go, with all the church of the said city, where they shall hear a sermon preached by one of the said ministers, every one yearly in their courses, according to the antiquity of their ministry in the said city. The principal argument of the sermon shall be to these purposes: To give God thanks for the charitable maintenance which the poor maintained in the hospital received by the bounty of the said founder, of whom shall be made honourable mention. To exhort all men of ability, according to their means, to follow his example: To urge the necessity of good works, according to men's power, for the testimony of their faith: And to clear the doctrine of our church from all the calumnies of our adversaries, who give us out to be the impugners of good works. After the ser • For the "Curfew Bell," and "Curfew," see vol. i. p. 242, &c. It was formerly a custom with the boys to dress Heriot's statue with flowers on the first of May, and to renew them on this anniversary festival when they received their new clothes.* It should seem, therefore, that the floral adornment of the statue annually on this day, is derived from its ancient dressing on the first of May. The statue stands beneath the centre tower of the north or principal front, and over the middle of a vaulted archway leading to the court-yard of the hospital. Grose says, the Latin inscription above the figure signifles, "that Heriot's person was represented by that image, as his mind was by the surrounding foundation." George Heriot was jeweller to king James VI., subsequently James I., of England. He was born about June, 1563, eldest son to George Heriot, one of the company of goldsmiths in Edinburgh. The elder Heriot died in 1610, having been a commissioner in the convention of estates and parliament of Gentleman's Magazine, 1745, p. 666. It appears that so late as the year 1483, with the "hammermen" or common smiths. the goldsmiths of Edinburgh were classed They were subsequently separated, and an act of the town council on the twenty-ninth of August, 1581, conferred on the goldsmiths a monopoly of their trade, which VI., in the year 1586. was confirmed by a charter from James A century afterwards, in 1687, James VII. invested the goldsmiths with the power of searching, inspecting, and trying all jewels set in gold, in every part of the kingdom; a license to destroy all false or counterfeit work; to punish the and seize the working tools of all unfree transgressors by imprisonment or fines, goldsmiths within the city. In January, 1587, George Heriot married Christian, the daughter of Simon Marjoribanks, an Edinburgh merchant. On this occasion, his father gave him 1000 marks, with 500 more to fit out his shop and purchase implements and clothes, and he had 1075 marks with his wife. Their united fortunes amounted to about 2141. 118. 8d., which Heriot's last biographer says, was "a considerable sum in those days; but rendered much more useful by the prospect of his father's business, which would at this time naturally be transferred to the younger and more active man." In May, 1588, Heriot became a member of the incorporation of goldsmiths. "Scotland which was then an independent kingdom, with a court in the metropolis, though poor in general, was probably in a state not less favourable to the suc cess of Heriot's occupation than at present. A rude magnificence peculiar to the age, atoned for want of elegance, by the massy splendour of its ornaments. The nobles were proud and extravagant when their fortunes would permit; and Ann of Denmark, the reigning queen, was fond of show and gallantry." During this period, Heriot was employed by the court. In 1597, he was made goldsmith to the |