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British works near Bittaford Bridge, Devon.

adorn the county of Devon, none exIceeds that on the moor between the village of Bittaford Bridge and Harford Church, in the hundred of Ermington, either in extent or interest. The village of Bittaford Bridge, consisting of a few scattered cottages with a small inn, is situated in a little dell facing the south, thirteen miles from Plymouth, at the junction of the Totnes and Exeter roads. Harford Church is distant from it two miles to the northward.

This hoary monument of the valour of our ancestors commences within a quarter of a mile of the above village. The first thing that attracts the atten. tion are several large stones surrounded by an earthen circle many yards in circumference, and a few inches above the surface of the ground; these are in the north-western corner of a field on the right hand side of the road, near a rivulet: two of them are erect, the others are lying half buried in the soil. The highest is about five feet in height, and three wide at the broadest part; the other, which is closely connected with it, is four feet high and three broad at the top, but gradually increases in breadth towards the ground, and at length terminates in a point; neither of them is more than a foot in thickness. This doubtlessly covers the remains of some chieftain.

Further on are a range of barrows, running nearly in a direct line across the moor, south-west and north-east, when they ascend a hill, on the summit of which are three, giving name to it, "Three-barrow Tor." They are composed of stones of all sizes and weights, from a few ounces to as many pounds, varying from sixty to eighty paces round at the base, and

* This church stands on the east bank of the romantic little river Erme, which is here crossed by an ancient bridge, and is a prominent feature in the landscape. It consists of a nave, chancel, and south aisle, with a neat tower at the west end. The interior cannot boast of much beauty, the windows being entirely stripped of their fretwork, and the only monument a plain tablet on the north wall. The churchyard is pretty, and contains an ancient tomb or two. Yet, however interesting Harford Church may be to the tourist from its picturesque situation and the grandeur of the surrounding scenery, it has but little to recommend it to the antiquary.

[Oct.

from six to eight feet high, and distant from each other about two hundred yards. They are all more or less injured, from the great quantities of stone constantly taken from them by the neighbouring farmers for the purpose of making fences, &c. There are likewise several small circular buildings of rough stones, rudely put together without any kind of cement, standing on low mounds of earth. The wall of the one I examined was four feet high on the outside, and thirty-seven paces in circumference ; but on the inside, from the soil that partly filled it, it was not more than twenty paces round, and two feet high: the hillock on which it stood was about a yard in height, and sixtysix paces round at the base.

Near the northern extremity of the same common is a pile of rocks, perpendicular on the north side, but on the south of rather easy ascent, surmounted by an immense slab, somewhat oblong in form; near the southern margin of which is an irregular, shallow rock-bason, with a channel leading to the edge of the rock: whether this excavation be of Druidical origin or not, I must leave to those who are better able to determine; although I consider it as likely to have been employed in the mystic rites of the hierarchy of ancient Britain, as any of those attributed to that sacred body by Borlase. Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

JOSEPH CHATTAWAY.

Oct. 6.

IN pursuing some inquiries respecting the ill-fated Queen Anne Boleyn, my attention was directed to a passage in Dr. Nott's memoir of Sir Thomas Wyatt, (prefixed to his edition of that accomplished Knight's poems) to this effect:

"It is certain that Wyatt was questioned as to the nature of his intimacy with the unfortunate Queen."—p. xxiv.

the only proof advanced in support of the accuracy of this assertion, being contained in the following note:

1831.] Sir T. Wyatt's presumed intimacy with Anne Boleyn.

brought into great perplexity. It should be remembered, that Anne Boleyn was arrested on the first of May; that she was tried the 12th, and executed the 19th; and that during the whole of that time inquiries and examinations were going forward of all who were in any shape suspected to have had any improper intimacy with her."

Ibid. note.

Now did this sonnet refer only to a danger" he had once incurred in May," it might seem possible that an allusion to Anne Boleyn was intended by its author; but when we meet with such lines as,

"Let me remember the haps most unhappy, That me betide in May most commonly,' and,

"In May my wealth, and eke my life, I say, Have stoud so oft in such perplexity,' it does appear to me, that nothing more was meant than a mere repining that the month generally considered as the most joyous and auspicious throughout the year, should to him have been the season for the occurrence of several of the most unfortunate incidents in his life, extending even so far as to the endangering of his existence. At any rate, how a pointed allusion to a danger once incurred, can be implied from lines which expressly mention several, is, I must confess, beyond my comprehension to discover. Even to become aware that he bewails his misfortunes as the " consequence of some unfortunate attachment," requires a somewhat powerful stretch of the imagination.

Having shown that a reference is made to more than one of these unlucky "haps," as taking place in May, it

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might seem to be left at the reader's option whether he would enumerate as one of these, the enquiry into his conduct with respect to Anne Boleyn; did it not remain to be established on something like respectable authority, that there was such an enquiry. Dr. Nott gives it as certain that he was questioned, and a later biographer, proceeding less cautiously, boldly asserts in the same decisive tone, not that he was examined, but that, “he was accused of being her paramour.” (Aldine Poets, vol. ii. p. 7.) To ascertain how far these charges can be supported, is the object of the present article; and if any other sources worthy of credit, besides the two of which I shall make use, remain to be noticed, (either for or against,) I shall be most happy to be informed of them.

From what is termed "Sir Thomas Wyatt's Oration to the Judges," (Nott, p. 284, Ald. P. p. liii.) we certainly learn that he had been confined in the Tower about this period, and further, that he was not liberated until the latter end of 1536. It is moreover affirmed (Nott, p. xxviii.) that at the commencement of the above-mentioned year, he "stood high in favour with the King, for Henry had bestowed the honour of knighthood upon him a short time previous to his arrestation." Dr. Nott, however (from inattention to the Old Style), has probably antedated this occurrence a twelvemonth; since, in one of the records he quotes, it is stated to have been in the March of the 28th year of the King's reign,t consequently in 1536-7, not 1535-6, and the King's instructions to Sir Thomas for his Embassy to Spain,

*This poem is printed by Dr. Nott, from Sir T. Wyatt's own MS. part of which, including this now mentioned, is in his own hand-writing (Pref. i. ii. Notes, p. 538). It would have been unnecessary to have mentioned this, had it not happened that in the Aldine edition of his Poems recently published, one line of this Sonnet occurs with a different reading to that cited above, apparently following the old printed copies,

"In May my wealth, and eke my wits, I say,'

This has given the editor of that volume occasion to say, that this passage may be supposed with equal if not greater probability to refer to some other circumstance rather than to the accusation that he had been criminally connected with the Queen, for not merely were his wealth and wits' brought into perplexity, but his life itself was then endangered;" thus, though intending to oppose, unconsciously assisting the argument of the learned Doctor, for there can be little doubt as to which is the most correct reading of the two.

"Sir Thomas Wyott. Dubbed on Esterday anno 28, the 18 day of Marche 1536." Cotton. MSS. Claudius, C. iii. There is, it must be remarked, an inconsistency in this eutry, as the festival of Easter cannot in any year occur earlier than the 21st of March. In 1537 it happened on the 1st of April.

Sir T. Wyatt's presumed intimacy with Anne Boleyn.

where he did not arrive until April or May 1537, are directed to Thomas Wyatt, Esquire. The knighthood may have been conferred on his taking leave of the King for this mission.