whole country were controlled. It is not indeed with the father as it is with the son. Lord Fairfax's share in the military transactions of the period cannot be represented in an outline of the actions in which he was personally engaged, but must be traced in his organisation of the forces placed at his disposal, and his disposition of their movements. All these details are fully embraced in the very remarkable correspondence now laid by Mr. Bentley before the public. It may be remarked here, that the care with which the family records of the Fairfaxes were preserved is almost without a parallel. In no other collection are there to be discovered such a mass of letters and documents, public and private; pedigrees, not only of the different branches of their own family, but of all the families with whom they were connected by intermarriage; seals, mottoes, arms, and the varied paraphernalia of heraldic honours. All the Fairfaxes contributed something towards that curious depositary, the "Analecta Fairfaxiana," which covers a period little short of two

centuries.

But it was in Leeds Castle, Kent, that the mass of correspondence from which the volumes about to be given to the public by Mr. Bentley have been mainly compiled. The circumstances under which the MSS. were discovered are so curious, that although previously laid before the Archæological Association at Winchester, we shall extract them here.

Mr. Martin having occasion to make some alterations in the Castle in the spring of the year 1822, set apart for sale a quantity of useless furniture; and amongst the lumber which was thus to be swept away was an old oaken chest, filled apparently with Dutch tiles. It was purchased for a few shillings by Mr. Gooding, a shoemaker, in the neighbouring village of Lenham. Upon the inspection of its contents, expecting, perhaps, to light upon treasures of another kind, Mr. Gooding found an enormous quantity of MSS., carefully arranged and deposited beneath the Dutch tiles, which were piled up to the lid of the box. Mr. Gooding, not attaching any special value to treasures of this description, consigned the papers to a cellar to be destroyed, as occasion served, for waste paper.

It was fortunately suggested to Mr. Gooding to offer the MSS. to Mr. Newington Hughes, a banker at Maidstone, and well known as a collector of antiquities. By this lucky accident the whole collection was preserved, Mr. Hughes becoming their purchaser. But in the meanwhile some havoc had been committed amongst them. "Some of the parchments," says Mr. Johnson, under whose editorship the first two volumes of the "Correspondence" are now issued, "had been cut into strips for shoemakers' measures; and a fragment of one, a grant of lands to Sir Anthony Saint Leger, is now before me in the form of a child's drum pelt. Some of the letters Mr. Hughes recovered from the thread-papers of the village mantua-makers; others had been taken by a gentleman's servant, and had found their way into the collections of Mr. Jadis, of the Board of Green Cloth, and of Mr. Upcot, the wellknown collector of autographs. These were nearly all recovered; and the whole form that valuable and richly illustrated series of manuscripts from which this work has been prepared."

This correspondence, which extends over two centuries, is so full of interest in all that concerns the affairs of the Civil War and of the persons engaged therein, that we might have taken it up even in its earliest portions, as far as now published, under a variety of agreeable and instructive aspects. The early Parliamentary Struggles-Charles I. and Queen Henrietta-The Successors of Buckingham-The Star-chamber

Prosecutions-The Scotch Rebellion-The Fall of Strafford and LaudThe Encroachments of the Puritans-The Attempts of the King to get up an Irish and Scotch Party, and the Commencement of Hostilities, beyond which the correspondence of the first two volumes does not extend. Upon all these subjects there is a great deal of curious and interesting detail, which will for the future be indispensable to the student of the most remarkable times in the history of his country. These details are also so mixed up with notices of persons, that the correspondence may be made to furnish much additional light upon the history of the landed and other gentry of the time. It struck us, however, that the fighting propensity of the Fairfaxes was the true key to the history of the untoward part which that family took in the great rebellion, and for which, as might naturally have been expected, as their aristocratic blood and feelings could never be forgiven by a democracy, the greatest of them all, suffered ultimately only obloquy and persecution.

It is a curious circumstance in the history of the Fairfaxes, that the first Lord, a short time before his death (1640) prophesied in express words that his grandson would destroy his house. This curious fact is preserved by Charles Fairfax, as a postcript to the "Analecta,” where it is designated

MEMORANDUM BY CHARLES FAIRFAX, OF MENSTON.

Having made some few entries of the most remarkable of the family that have come to my view or certain knowledge, I am now, for a sad epilogue, enforced to insert the passages of a discourse betwixt my dear father Thomas, first Lord Fairfax, and myself, which I dare not omit, by reason of a solemn engagement imposed upon me by him, with a quadruple charge, as 'tis hereafter specified, not many months before his death, the substance thereof, with some of the circumstances, was to this effect.

He walking in his great parlour at Denton, I only then present, did seem much perplexed and troubled in his mind, but, after a few turns, broke out into these, or the like expressions :

"Charles, I am thinking what will become of my family when I am gone; I have added a title to the heir-male of my house, and shall leave a competent estate to support it. Ferdinando will keep it, and leave it to his son; but such is Tom's pride, led much by his wife, that he, not contented to live in our rank, will destroy his house.”

Looking now at the history of the family, Nun-Appleton, the estate of the Parliamentary general, sold to pay the debts of the Duke of Buckingham, husband to that little girl who we have seen carried almost in a dying state for forty hours across a country in arms; Denton Hall, built by the first Lord Fairfax when disinherited of Steeton, the ancient manor of the house; Bolton Percy, and other estates in Yorkshire, disposed of to redeem the mortgages of Lord Culpepper, and the gradual dispersion and descent of the family from their former position in England; these circumstances must be felt as fulfilling, in a remarkable manner, the prophetic fears of the founder of the Barony. The title still stands in our peerage books, but the closing line of the record points with startling emphasis to the shores of a distant continent—

Seats-Belvoir and Greenway Court, Virginia; and Woodburne, Maryland, United States.

Nov.-VOL. LXXXIV. NO. cccxxxv.

2 A

TICK;

OR,

MEMOIRS OF AN OLD ETON BOY.

BY CHARLES ROWCROFT, AUTHOR OF “TALES OF THE COLONIES; OR, THE ADVENTURES OF AN EMIGRANT."

CHAPTER XXXVI.

I APPROACH this passage of my early life with considerable reluctance; more than once I have determined to pass over it in silence; but on looking forward I find that it forms so important a link in the chain of my life (I am a little in doubt about the correctness of this simile but I have no time to seek for a better) that I could not omit it without too great prejudice to the narrative; besides as I set out with professing that these confessions should be sincere I consider it a duty not to disguise my faults and follies from the reader, although it occasions me no slight twitches of uneasiness to reveal them. Another reflection aids me to bear the humiliation of their avowal ;—and that is the hope that their revelation may serve to assist to the knowledge of human nature and of the affairs of real life, by showing how much we are all the creatures of circumstances; and, lastly, I console myself in some measure, by the consideration, that the period when the present events occurred was the time of my early youth, when I had neither experience to guide me through the shoals and quicksands of life's course, nor strength of mind to enable me to face the present and lesser difficulty that perplexed me, instead of waiting to be overwhelmed by the greater which was more remote; but in this weakness I may venture to say I was by no means singular; and if the aggregate number of improvident persons in this particular could lessen the smart of the individual consequences to each, mine would have been no great matter.

While I was meditating on these points in the early morning, in the long walk of the shrubbery, I spied a face peering over a gate on the left hand which led to the fields, with which I fancied I was acquainted, and which I presently recognised as that of a lad whom I had observed in the capacity of under-gardener at Willow Lodge. When he saw my attention attracted towards him he beckoned to me mysteriously; and after having looked around, with a comical sort of caution, to see that no one was watching him, he extracted a daintily-folded note from the crown of his hat, and presented it to me with a grin indicative of his being aware that it was a smuggling transaction; and also of his own opinion of his being a person of importance in whom a lady's confidence had been in

trusted.

The letter was addressed to Leander Castleton, Esq., and the word "junior" was annexed in conspicuous characters in order to lessen the chances of mistake, the occasion being both delicate and urgent. My heart told me on the instant from whom it came; besides I could not fail

to recognise the same hand which had addressed to me an epistle of delightful excitement on a former occasion.

The letter was indeed from Lavinia; and it informed me in hurried language of the arrival of the aunt, the nephew, the bridesmaid and the bridesmaid's mamma-all together: it contained no other information; but in a postscript was added, "I think it would be wrong for you to come, but if you should, you will be sure to find me at the garden seat exactly as the clock strikes twelve; my aunt will be engaged then with my father and "him"" (who the 'him' was(--)him I easily guessed), "but I think you had better not come; however you know best, and I look to you to guide me; for in whom else can I place my trust ?" Under the postscript was written, "I wish I was dead!"

of

It may easily be supposed that if any additional stimulus was wanting to rouse me to activity, this was sufficient. I read the letter over, I believe, at least a dozen times, much to the amazement as I presently observed of the messenger; who was lost in wonder how so small a scrap paper could contain such a quantity of writing as to need so long a reading. I hastily told him, "that would do," but as the lad still lingered as if he expected something else, I suddenly bethought me that Cupid's bow was always represented as being tipped with silver; I presented him therefore with a dollar as payment for work and labour done, and then with a second one as an "honorarium" as I expressed it, which he doubtless, translated into the vulgar tongue by the name of that for which he was well aware it was intended.

My mother remarked my absence of mind at breakfast, which I explained by assuring her that I was absorbed in the solution of a difficult problem, which in truth it was, but not one of Euclid's; and I accounted for my hurry to get it over by declaring that I was anxious not to lose so fine a day for fishing; on which my mother smilingly remarked that, she hoped I should have better luck than I had before, as it was difficult to make ladies' bonnets palatable cook them how you may. At this my father looked serious. I passed it off, however, with an air of extreme unconcern, although I fancy I had a very red face, for my father looked at me very hard, and I thought, was going to say something; but I interposed so skilful a question on the subject of a new method of draining which he was at that time experimenting on in the four-acre field about half a mile from the house, that I escaped that danger also. Without staying to risk the result of further conversation I quietly withdrew, and in order to avoid the chance of detention, forthwith repaired to the stables and desired my horse to be saddled without delay.

Great men, it may be observed, have had their warnings on the eve of important events. Julius Cæsar had a warning from his wife before he was slain by the Roman conspirators; and Brutus was forewarned of his fate at the approaching battle of Philippi; so did I also receive some cautionary admonitions from my friend the philosophic coachman ; but like the doomed personages referred to, I also neglected the friendly

omens.

"Mr. Leander," said he, as we stood by the pump in the yard, while a groom was getting my horse ready, "if I might make so bold, I should say that you was vexed with summat.

"We have all got our vexations at some times," said I;—“how do Jenny's pups get on ?"

"The pups thrive beautiful; but what I was going to say, Mr. Leander, was this; that when a man is vexed and out of sorts he always rides more reckless, and Sultan is very fresh, and sometimes he takes to wanting his own way; and you ought to be careful."

"Oh!" said I, "I will be careful enough; Sultan has got a good bit in his mouth, and I have good spurs on my heels, and I warrant he shall know that I am his master."

"That's all very well, Master Leander; a bit is a very good thing in its place and so are spurs in theirn; but sometimes you see when we are hot we are apt to pull the bit at the wrong time, and use the spurs when we ought to hold the curb. The great thing is to know when to use them at the proper nick, on horseback, as well as in life, Master Leander."

"Very true," said I, " is my horse ready?"

"He will be ready in one minute; Robert is just combing out his tail.— So as I was saying, take care you ride careful this morning, and don't be too venturesome; and it's a good rule to look before you leap, Master Leander."

"Never fear," said I; "tell him to make haste with the horse."

"He's just dusting the saddle, and giving the stirrup-irons a wipe. And so you see, Master Leander, I've always observed your careless, reckless riders that just ride over every thing and through every thing, and never care for considering what's on the other side-a ditch or a pit may be-they always sooner or later come to a smash. Now I'm sure you'll excuse me, Master Leander, for you know I have the same regard for you as Jenny there for one of her pups; and so I say don't go along so helter-skelter over every dangerous thing you can find-but look before you leap."

My excellent friend the coachman certainly was not invested with the poetic character of Cassandra of old; but on this occasion his words were not less prophetic, and unhappily for me they were destined to the same remark of 66 credita Teucris."-I went on my way. nonunquam How could I think of any other matter or of any one than Lavinia ? Was it not natural that she alone, who was ever present to my thoughts, should on such an occasion entirely engross and absorb them? Was it my fault that one of the most unfortunate mishaps occurred that ever befel a luckless mortal? I arrived at the spot by a circuitous and unobserved route with which I was now well acquainted; I tied my horse to a tree, leaped the ditch which separated the grounds from the meadow; surveyed my ground carefully before I made my way partly over and partly through the hedge which bounded the garden; looked cautiously round; saw that all was clear; and then I hastened to the sheltered spot in which the garden seat stood almost concealed by the overspreading foliage; I beheld through the thickly clustered shrubs the form of Lavinia (as I thought of course) with her back towards me, and with her head leaning contemplatively on her hand, in the accustomed corner; my step was, in prudence, cautious, and my approach noiseless; I sprung towards her and, before she could turn round, clasped her in my arms!

There was no harm in that -were we not betrothed solemnly pledged to each other?-were we not, as lawyers say, in the "inchoate" state of man and wife? Besides-but I need say no more on that point;