having rubbed her body with the excrements of a the palm of her left hand, on the wrist, on the elbow, toad, a crow, and of several other reptiles, she flew away through the air, in order to reach the place where she wished to do mischief. According to their own confession they had caused the deaths of three or four persons by poison, in obedience to the commands of Satan, who introduced them into the houses, and opened the doors and windows for them, which he took care to shut when the evil effects of the charm had operated. It was their custom to hold general assemblies the night before Easter, and on the other great holidays of the year, where they performed a great number of acts contrary to propriety and religion. When they were present at mass, the host appeared black, but when they relinquished their diabolical pursuits it appeared of the usual colour." The historian who narrates the above, adds further, that "the Commissary wishing to assure himself of the truth of these relations by his own experience, caused an old witch to be brought to him, to whom he promised her pardon, on condition of her exhibiting before him all the operations of sorcery, and permitting her to escape during their performance, if it were in her power. The old woman having accepted the offer, asked for a box of ointment which had been found upon her, and ascended with the Commissary into a high tower, where she placed herself with him before a window. She then, in the sight of a great number of persons, began by rubbing some of the ointment on under the arm, on the haunch, and on the left side; she then exclaimed in a very loud voice, "Art thou there?" and all the bystanders heard, in the air, a voice which answered, "Yes, here I am." The witch then began to descend along the exterior wall of the tower, with her head downwards, holding on by her hands and feet, after the manner of a lizard; when arrived about half way down she took a sudden flight in the air, in sight of the spectators, who continued to watch her till she was beyond the bounds of the horizon. The astonishment which this prodigy caused in every one induced the Commissary to declare that he would give a large sum of money to any person who would bring back the witch. At the expiration of two days she was brought in by some shepherds, who had found her. The Commissary demanded of her why she had not flown far enough to escape from those who sought her? Upon which she replied, that her master would not carry her farther than three leagues, and that he had left her in the field where the shepherds had found her."---Sandoval Hist. The civil judge having pronounced upon the affair of the hundred and fifty witches, they were delivered up to the Inquisition of Estella; and neither the ointment, nor the devil, could give them wings to fly away from the punishment of two hundred lashes, and several years' imprisonment, which they were compelled to undergo. D. C. REMAINS OF THE STATUE OF ST. ETHELBERT, KING OF THE EAST ANGLES, IN THE CATHEDRAL CHURCH OF HEREFORD. On the south side of the Chapel dedicated to the | sculptured in stone, as dressed in a Saxon surcoat Virgin Mary, formerly called our Lady's Chapel, and robes, and having a regal crown on its head. but now used as a Library, is a mutilated effigy of ST. ETHELBERT, King of the East Angles, whose murder by Offa, was the first great cause of the historic importance of the Church of Hereford. This figure, which is about five feet in length, was dug up some years ago at the entrance to the Chapel; it is On the surcoat appear to have been painted the arms of Ethelbert, and it has been illuminated in different places with gilt Saxon characters. On the crown, surcoat, and robes, are the traces of rich gilding and colouring, and the whole figure very much resembles the one carved on the shrine which for merly stood on the high altar,* of which Duncumb has given a representation. The feet of the figure rest on a pediment or projection of stone; the under part of which being left in a rough state, renders it evident that it was intended to stand upright against a wall. The figure is much mutilated: the lineaments of the face are completely obliterated, the head is separated from the shoulders, and part of the hands are gone; but enough remains of this once worshipped image to render it an object of extensive interest. 66 In the situation in which this figure would stand, if again replaced, it would look directly to the high altar, and occupy a place immediately over the spot where the body of Ethelbert is said to have been deposited. Price says of this figure, a statue of a woman was dug up some time ago, in the entrance to the Library, having on its head something like a ducal coronet." Duncumb likewise calls it "a lady wearing a coronet, on her surcoat were painted the arms of England, but they are now much defaced."It is presumed that the mistake of this figure for that of a female, has been occasioned by its diminutive size; but it is to be observed, that the figure on the shrine of St. Ethelbert; above described, is of the same comparative proportions. Near this statue, under an arched canopy of fret-work, is an altar monument of free stone, erected over Bishop Mayo, or Mayew, who died April 18th, 1516; having his effigy in Pontificals, with the hands elevated. This Bishop in his Will, dated 24th March, 1515, directs that his body be buried "in his cathedral, at the feet of the Image of St. Ethelbert." We have here a clue, by which be ascertained where the image was placed. Behind Mayo's Tomb (now hid by the oak screening under the pillar on the west side of the arch,) is a pedestal, rising about two feet from the floor of the choir. The support of this pedestal has a single pillar in front, on each side of which is an arcade in the pointed style. This pedestal appears to have been the support of the Image in question; as its situation, close at the head of Mayo's grave, clearly indicates; and the under part of the stone, on which the feet rest, being rough, as stated before, as if intended to ⚫stand against a wall, answers more particularly Mayo's appellation of an Image. The pedestal here mentioned, has a fracture on one corner; the pediment, may Late in the possession of the Rev. Canon Russell deceased. A more correct representation has been published by Storer, "Ancient Relics," No. 6. In this plate, the diminutive figure of the young martyr is much more striking than in Duncumb's engraving. or projection on which the foot rests, has likewise a corresponding fracture so as to make it apparent that the same accident affected both. Whether this be the original effigy placed by Offa upon the celebrated shrine which he erected to the memory of Ethelbert, which has been described as "magnificent," we will leave to future inquiry. Thus much appears to be ascertained, that this was the identical figure which Mayo has described in his Will as the “ Image of St. Ethelbert," and which we may suppose to have been placed on the spot which his "magnificent tomb" occupied,-previous to the destroying times of Algar and Griffyth, the eclipsing fame of Cantilupe, and the unrespecting fanaticism of reformation. The traces of rich ornament and studied decoration, which are even now visible, will alone prove it to have been an object of regard, if not of religious veneration. A. EXTRACTS FROM A TRAVELLER'S A WALK TO ELTHAM.-SHOOTER'S HILL.-SEVERN DROOG CASTLE.-CHARLTON. ONE afternoon in that most delightful English month, October, found us on the road to the venerable and time-worn remains of the Royal Palace at Eltham. It had long fallen on evil days, and we were therefore anxious to investigate the true character of its partial and recent restoration. Years had passed since last we viewed the scenes before us. Each step as we proceeded brought home passages of other days, and though it was diverging a little from our path, we determined on once more enjoying the prospect from the summit of Shooter's Hill, whence we could afterwards wander through the woods and fields to the pole-star of our excursion. On the common (long a favourite resort) were several little migratory settlements of that singular race,that anomaly in a civilized country,—the gipsies. In the hollows and chalk-pits of Kent you frequently meet with these colonies of wigwams, with their little tribes of bronzed half-naked urchins roaming over the waste, and assailing the stranger in their queer outlandish language for a halfpenny. What a picture of primitive life did these people present; there were the frail tents or wigwams; there, the little cart; here, the donkeys quietly grazing; there, the "children of a larger growth" either lolling in the sun or preparing their food, but seldom with any visible means of sub- Castle, an elevated tower, or "Folly," built by the late sistence. Lady James, of Eltham Lodge, in 1784, to commemorate the fall of Severn-droog, a hill-fort in the East Indies, which was taken from Angria, a notorious Mahratta pirate, by Commodore, afterwards Sir William James, in 1755. The view from this tower is of great beauty, commanding on every point of the compass an almost boundless prospect over field and flood. The silver expanse of the noble Thames winds majestically through the land, appearing at intervals from London almost to its entrance to the sea at the Nore, some of the reaches indeed have all the effects of inland lakes. No landscape can be considered perfect without this important constituent feature, which is to nature what the eye is to man. The weald of Kent, rich with foliage; sylvan Surrey; a boundless view towards Windsor and the west; the whole of the mighty metropolis; the wide expanse of Essex and glimpses of other counties, with numberless adjuncts and historical recollections of deathless interest, compose a scene which for extent and variety has few equals. Having reached the summit of the hill, near the verge of Severn-Droog, after picking our way amongst furze and underwood, we paused and thought of its by-gone history. Shooter's Hill, with its vicinage, particularly to the south and east, was formerly a miniature forest; and the name has probably been derived from archers frequently exercising here. It was occasionally visited by the royal residents at Eltham or Greenwich. The old chronicler saith, " King Henry the Eighth and his Queen Katherine came hither in great splendour from Greenwich on May-day. They were received by two hundred archers, all clad in green, with one personating Robin Hood as their captain. He first shewed the king the skill of his archers in their exquisite shooting, and then leading the ladies into the wood, gave them an entertainment of venison and wine, in green arbours and booths adorned with gaudy pageants and all the efflorets of the romantic gallantry then practised in that luxurious court."*-In consequence of the great road to Dover passing over its summit, like Gad's hill, it was always a place of danger and dread to travellers. The road was narrow, and the thick wood which then skirted it was the continual resort of nests of thieves, who lurked among its recesses ever ready to pounce on the traveller. In order to check this evil, Henry IV. granted leave to one Thomas Chapman to cut down, burn, and fell the woods and coppices on the south side, and to expend the proceeds in the repair of the highway. On the east side, however, it continued to be infested by robbers so late as 1739, when the new road was laid out, and even until a much later period. But the olden exploits of your errant highwayman, gallantly mounted on his bit of blood, have long passed away: the race is extinct. Whirled along at the rate of ten miles an hour, over macadamised roads, (and with the expectation of shortly flying thirty on railways), the romantic traveller passes peacefully-how impressive the silence and the solitude of those through the land, and may now sigh in vain for an adventure to vary his journal. Not a solitary "stand and deliver" is to be found. It was in contemplation sixty years since" to build an elegant town on the summit of the hill, but it "fell through." There is a mineral spring here, which never freezes in the severest winters. The tavern on Shooter's Hill was formerly of note for providing nuptual entertainments for the new-married, on their wedding day. While we marked a dark cloud rising in the west, which threatened to eclipse the flood of radiance shed over the landscape by the rays of the declining sun, we thought of the mighty Babylon,-the little world before us, which almost defied the grasp of the imagination. It is a City of extremes: royalty and rags,— filth and glitter,-mirth and misery,-jostle and jar with one another with a strange and startling sensation. We have sometimes wandered along the " stonyhearted" streets at nightfall, and pondered,—and it is no uninteresting study,-over the ever-varying countenances that hurry along the great thoroughfares like a rushing river. Here, as Johnson truly said, is the "full tide of human affairs;" the endless piles of building; the everlasting roll of carriages; the hum of voices; all is vast and imposing. And then London at midnight,-how deep, how profound the contrast, streets, which perhaps but a brief hour agone, resounded with the confused noises and stir of life: the waves of human passion are hushed; the storm which agitated this human ocean has passed away,---all is silent and in repose. But to return. Amongst the interesting objects in the immediate district, the noble old manor-house at CHARLTON is entitled to a prominent place. It was built by Sir Adam Newton, tutor to Prince Henry, We now entered the grounds of Severn-Droog who obtained a grant of the manor of Charlton from * Vide Harris's Hist. Kent, p. 117. James I., in the beginning of the seventeenth century. through several hands, the manor and property came into the family of the present much-respected proprietor, Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson, of Eastbourne, in the county of Sussex, Bart. The house is in fine preservation; some of the cypress trees in the court are considered to be the oldest in England. Dr. Plot says that "there was a marble chimney-piece in the dining-room of this house so exquisitely polished, that the Lord of Downe could see in it a robbery committed on Shooter's Hill, whereupon sending out his servants, the thieves were taken." In the beautifully situated village of Charlton, Horn Fair,---said to have been granted by King John, as an amende honourable for a licentious outrage,---a "revel" of great antiquity is held, annually, on St. Luke's and two following days. blazing yule-log is banished from our hearths,---the warm welcome and hearty laugh have too often given place to hollow compliments and unmeaning ceremony,---and the groaning tables, and strong ale, or generous sack, of old times are now represented by foreign cookery and thin "soul-less wines." While we contemplate the peace and harmony of nature, we are the more forcibly struck with the discord and tumult of man and his deeds. Yet all is wisely ordered. Life has many shadows, but still there are lights in human existence which cheer us like a beacon on our path.-As we emerged from the woods looking over Eltham and its venerable palace, the waning splendour of the western sky forcibly recalled to recollection the departed glories of this pile, wherein royalty had its festive abode, and princes have been seated at the banquet table. VYVYAN. We now reluctantly descended from the tower, and entered a narrow path in the woods leading towards Eltham. We thought of the beautiful words of our Saviour," the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth," as the evening breeze stole through the murmuring foliage. All around RICHARD COUR DE LION AND BLONDEL spoke of decay, "For now the leaf Incessant rustles from the mournful grove.— The forest-walks at every rising gale Roll wide the withered waste, and whistle bleak." Autumn is a season that comes home to every heart. The laughing Spring has passed away; the joyous "all beau Summer is no more; and Autumn comes teous in decay," an impressive type of the third stage of human existence. It is at this season that we are most prone to reflection. The mind is lifted up above the cares of this troublous world, and while his fellow creatures pass away like the waves of the ocean, the righteous man contemplates the evening of life with calm tranquillity, and looks cheerfully forward to the everlasting spring of eternity. To the lover of nature, Autumn is a season of varied interest; and the votary of superstition, tinged with melancholy at the desolation which is fast coming over animated and vegetable nature, views every unusual occurrence with dismay, and looks up to the phenomena of the heavens with awe and astonishment. Winter is at hand " sap-checked with frost," cheerless alas! to very many, but still possessing comforts which can be enjoyed at no other season. But the "refinement" of modern times has stripped this " merry season" of half its enjoyments and old English character. The It may be fairly surmised that the decay of old English hospitality is more correctly to be attributed to the long-con DE NESLE. ALTHOUGH the legend of Richard the First's release from his treacherous imprisonment, by Leopold of Austria, through the instrumentality of his favourite minstrel, Blondel de Nesle, is common in every history of England, very few, if any, of the authors have given the chanson itself. It ran in the original thus:-- BLON DEL. Donna vostra beautas, CŒUR DE LION. Si bel trop affansia, tinued pressure of the National expenditure upon the middle ranks of society, rather than to the refinements of the age. The "where-withall" has been extracted from the domestic hearth, whether for purposes of good or ill,-and the glow of every social and generous feeling chilled into a repulsive selfishness by the craving wants of the immediate homestead.---ED. PRIOR to the entire removal of OLD LONDON BRIDGE | able parts, whilst the Romans, in following them, we shall here briefly record the more important circumstances connected with its history;---premising, that the above cut represents the dilapidated remains of this once venerable structure, as they appeared in March 1832, when the original sketch was made by Mr. W. A. Delamotte. were much endangered: upon which, swimming back, another party, crossing by a Bridge a little higher up, overtook and slew many of the Britons, yet pursuing the rest incautiously, were themselves entangled in the marshes, and had a great number lost." But little reliance can be placed upon this informaThe origin of London Bridge is unknown; and, tion, for as Dion Cassius did not write until almost with the exception of Dion Cassius, no mention is two centuries after the invasion by Claudius, and as made by any historian of a Bridge over the River no other authority ever alluded to a Bridge across the Thames in the Roman times; but that writer has in-Thames earlier than the tenth century, the probability cidentally noticed one, when recording the invasion of the Emperor Claudius, in the year 44. His account, in substance, is as follows :---" The Britons, retreating upon the River Thames, where it falls into the sea, (it being from inundation stagnant,) readily passed over, from knowing both the firm and the easily-ford is, that his statement was either founded on incorrect materials, or that he mistook some stream flowing into the Thames for the river itself. The "Saxon Chronicle," in noticing the irruption * Vide Dionis "Historiæ Romanæ," tom. ii. p. 958, lib. l. sect. xx. |