relic of the past. Associated as it is, and ever must be, with the histories of two of the queens of England, it will be ever worthy a visit. The charming scenery, too, which surrounds it on all sides, renders it doubly attractive.

The meanderings of the little Eden, with its mossy banks, the magnificent oaks, and the fertile appearance of the fields and pastures, combine to form landscapes of the most sylvan and gentle character, so that the first glance of the castle is quite startling. This gives additional effect to it, and helps the imagination to invest it with charms, that are the fitting inheritance of localities such as Hever.

If aught be in those memories fair,
Aught that 'tis well we should recall,
When saddened by some present care,
These cherished records hold it all!
They hold it all,-I read, and swift
As light, my heart with peace is filled;
1 read, and feel that Heaven's rich gift,
Our early love, has ne'er been chilled.
Dear! let us to ourselves be true,

That, as we thread life's winding maze,
No bitterness may cloud our view
Of those beloved and happy days!

Poetry.

[In Original Poetry, the Name, real or assumed, of the Author, is printed in Small Capitals under the title; in Selections, it is printed in Italics at the end.]

ΤΟ

THE OLD CLERK'S VANITY.

W. BRAILSFORD.

"AMEN," said the clerk, as he closed his book, With a heavy sigh and groan, "In Nature's sweet pages I'll try to look

For feelings like my own.

The mavis sings to his young on the bough,
The linnet to its gentle mate I trow,
But I seem all alone.

"Ah! dear my child, in the merry greenwood Thy form was fair to see;

Full many a prayer in its solitude

Have I offered up for thee.

Full many a prayer, for thou wert so young, Such a halo of beauty o'er thee hung

Yet, 'tis all-all vanity!

My life seems parted from all gentle things,
No joys to me will come,

The thought that ever to my old heart clings,
Is my lone vacant home.

It is as though all kindly natures fled
With the dim shadow of that lovely dead-
So wearily I roam.

"Sweet music have these aged oaks, sweet lays
Are filling earth and air;
Sweet meetings in these pleasant leafy ways,
Sweet thoughts for love to share.
Ah! all too beautiful, ye flowers that seem
As mocking to my sense as some new dream
That wakes me to my care.

'Unclasp, old book, I may not see those trees; I may not list again

The rich-toned melodies that swell the breeze,
For aye it gives me pain.

Still, all is vanity, the Preacher saith,
Even that gentle life, that saint-like death,-
The grave where she is lain."

ON READING SOME OF HER FORMER LETTERS.

BY GRACE.

"TIs not with vain regret I view These records of our earlier time,Unfading violets, with the dew

Still on them, as in morning's prime. In morning's prime, when future fate Without its darker shades appeared; When anger, jealousy, and hate,

Were names we rather shunned than feared.

When all that to our eyes seemed bright
We loved, and never questioned why;

And the quick current of delight

In glad transparency flowed by.

Miscellaneous.

"I have here made only a nosegay of culled flowers, and have brought nothing of my own, but the string that ties them."-Montaigne.

Ir is the prerogative of genius to confer a measure of itself upon inferior intelligences. In reading the works of Milton, Bacon, and Newton, thoughts greater than the growth of our own minds are transplanted inte them; and feelings more profound, sublime, or compre hensive, are insinuated amidst our ordinary train ; while, in the eloquence with which they are clothed, we learn a new language, worthy of the new ideas created in us.... By habitual communion with superior spirits, we ret only are enabled to think their thoughts, speak their dialect, feel their emotions, but our own thoughts are refined, our scanty language is enriched, our comme feelings are elevated; and though we may never attain their standard, yet by keeping company with them, we shall rise above our own; as trees growing in the society of a forest are said to draw each other up into shape y and stately proportion, while field and hedge-row strag glers, exposed to all weathers, never reach their full stature, luxuriance, or beauty.-James Montgomery.

CLEVERNESS is like good nature, a point always brought forward when there are others which it is desirable te keep in the back ground.-Margaret Percival.

I HAVE observed one ingredient, somewhat necessar in a man's composition towards happiness, which people of feeling would do well to acquire; a certain respe for the follies of mankind; for there are so many whom the opinion of the world entitles to regard, wh accident has placed in heights of which they are u worthy, that he who cannot restrain his contemp indignation at the sight, will be too often quarrell with the disposal of things to relish that share which allotted to himself.-Mackenzie's Man of Feeling.

THE time for reasoning is before we have approach near enough to the forbidden fruit to look at it admire.—Margaret Percival.

HE who is catching opportunities because they sed occur, would suffer those to pass by unregarded, w he expects hourly to return.-Johnson.

THE LIAGH FAIL. OR CORONATION

STONE.

"Hail to the crown by Freedom shap'd to gird
An English sovereign's brow! and to the throne
Whereon she sits! Whose deep foundations lie
In veneration, and the people's love,
Whose steps are equity, whose seat is law."

WE suppose that the greater part, if not all, of our readers have visited Westminster Abbey,-that place dedicated to the great, the good, and the gifted, among England's children; we suppose they have felt the power and strength of human intellect while gazing on the bust of Newton, and called to mind the cutting moral irony of him who asked his country for bread, and received a stone.

We tear ourselves away from this holy spot; and, after admiring that most elegant of female statues, Lady Walpole, and giving a sigh to the memory of the young and royal exile of Twickenham, our attention is requested to an antique, and somewhat clumsy, oaken chair, which our guide, in a tone of mock-heroic dignity, informs us is that in which "all the kings and queens of England have been crowned." He then points to a large misshapen stone under the seat of the chair, and almost hidden by thick old ornaments, acquainting us with the fact that, wherever that stone forms part of the coronation ceremonial, there one of the true race shall reign. We will not question this at present, but assure our readers that the history of this stone, of its adventures and journeyings, is by no means uninteresting, especially to such as love to dive into the dark waters of antiquarian lore.

Toland, in his History of the Druids, calls this Liagh Fail, or Stone of Destiny; "the ancientest respected monument in the world; for, though some others may be more ancient as to duration, yet thus superstitiously regarded they are not." The stone is, therefore, an object of no ordinary interest.

When Edward I. wasted life and treasure in vainly endeavouring to conquer the Scottish nation, (for the country he overran, the houses he destroyed, but the people he could not subdue,) he found in the ancient palace of Scone a chair, in which was embedded a sacred block of stone, to which tradition ascribed marvellous virtues. According to Wintown's Chronicle, the Scotch shall reign wherever that stone stands; but the more ancient legend asserts that the stone has the virtue of discerning a prince" of the true line" from a usurper; and that it gives notice of this by a particular sound. Here is a contradiction at once; as the usurper having been crowned, the mere presence of the stone makes him of the true line, although, perhaps, his legitimate right may not be traceable. However, the same subtlety which dictated Edward's conduct towards the Welsh induced him to remove the Liagh Fail to London; perhaps in the hope of thereby acquiring some power over the minds of the Scotch, perhaps in the expectation of renovating the ardour of his almost wearied soldiers. Thus was the Stone of Destiny brought to London, and placed at the shrine of Edward the Confessor. Its miraculous virtues we must suppose to have been left in Scotland, or surely they would have displayed themselves during the disastrous contests of York and Lancaster; by its aid how many disputed points might have been cleared up to

posterity! but we have no record in history that it added its groans to the stings which must have assailed Richard III., whether he were a murderer of children er not: nor have we ever read that it lent a sigh to the fore boding pangs of Lady Jane Grey. In the worthy House of Stuart it would, of course, acknowledge the "true line:" although, at the period of its removal from Scotland, the founder of that unhappy family had not yet deserted his original occupation for the less peaceful task of governing an unruly people. But was it fear of in harmonious music from the stone which led Cromwel to refuse the proffered crown? After the danger of such an indignity, how must the Liagh Fail have exulted in the coronation of Charles II.! But what was its be haviour at the Revolution of 1688! We must suppose either that it had left its faculty of distinguishing right from wrong at its old abode of Scone, or that its virtues had worn out ;-virtues do wear out, sometimes: that is, we take so much credit for what we have done. that we think it needless to do more. How exquisitely absurd is the whole story!

We have brought the Stone of Destiny to Londən, and introduced its present form and office; let us now look back to its earlier history. Shall we alarm readers if we refer to the traditions of Ireland, going into the darkness, or, as the Irish would say, the brightback far, very far, beyond the period of accredited facts, ness of the earliest ages after the deluge! Hollinshed, following these legends, says, that Gathelus, the son of Cecrops, brought the Liagh Fail to Egypt, thence to Spain, where he "sat upon his marble stone in Bri gantia," now Compostella. He then passed over to Ireland, bringing the stone with him. Another trac tion is, that it was brought by giants from Africa, which ¦ since, a piece of stone from Stonehenge, highly polished, i touches thus nearly upon modern fact. Some yeas was shown to an eminent geologist, and he was asked whence he imagined it came: he replied that it looked like African stone, but that, if it were British, it came from Anglesey the bit of stone was presented to the arrival of our stone to the sea-kings, or to the Phen Geological Society. Other traditions attribute the cians, who had settlements in the southern part of Ireland: each of these tales becomes probable wher we remember that many colonies settled in that country, distinct in their characters, approaching to each other language. We do not except the African giants in this in their religious observances, and almost identical in as we know that the northern coast of that contine: was inhabited by a race proceeding from a very differe stock to the Egyptians; and that the habits an customs of the Berbers show them to be of Celt the band who recorded on the pillar at Tangier, We origin, nearly related to our Cornishmen. Might not flee from Joshua the robber," have been those Africa | giants, who, driven out of Palestine, fled to ther brethren, the "people great, and many, and tall." the Scriptures? If, pressing westward, as population | has always done, these outcasts reached the Sacred Isle of the West, their previous customs would lead the te do we read this apparently absurd legend. erect a stone as a memorial of their deliverance. The

As to Hollinshed's derivation of the Liagh Fall we are scarcely intimate enough with the family of Cere to decide upon its truth, but we have evidence that Spain and Ireland had some connexion in early times: we see the foot-steps of the Druids among the recesses of the mountains of Estremadura,-this word carries remnant of Celtic population in the Basque pro us very far eastward,-and we find an important vinces.

Mr. Moore, quoting the Book of Hoath, says, that the Stone of Destiny was brought to Ireland by the "Tuath-de-Danaans, a colony of people famed for ne cromancy, which they had learned in Greece." Th taught necromancy to the Greeks, as that people had name is suggestive, and we should rather say that they

not yet perfected the arts which they borrowed from Egypt; and on other grounds we must hesitate as to the probability of truth in Mr. Moore's quotation. Buchanan says, that Simon Brech, a Scythian, brought the stone to Ireland, “amongst other princelie iewells and regall monuments;" and that he was crowned upon it, 700 B. C. In all these tales, one thing is certain, that all traditions, however differing from each other in minor points, agree in mentioning the Liagh Fail as a foreign importation; and this is a matter of some importance. Upon the whole, we imagine that it might be either an altar-stone or sacred pillar belonging to one of the many Druidical temples, whose remains are still visible in Ireland; and, consequently, cotemporary with the first influx of Celts, or whatever else we may call them, who left their common home after the Deluge, spreading over the world in compliance with the divine injunction to replenish the earth. Writers upon this subject have divided the bulk of mankind into three grand streams; one proceeding southwards towards Hindostan, where we trace them by their cromlechs, pallias, and rock-worship, and still more by their astronomical terms; another stream proceeding westward to Phoenicia, where we again, independently of the sacred writings, trace the use of stone memorials; and a third stream to the north-west, from which proceeded the Goths, Scandinavians, Huns, and all the barbarous tribes which anciently troubled Europe.

Man is sadly prone to make to himself visible objects of adoration; and the most obvious substances for this purpose were rocks and stones, which were, from the very earliest period, used as memorials both in religious and civil matters: hence they came to be regarded with religious reverence, and gradually to be worshipped. Perhaps, also, the sacred character of rocks and stones arose from their apparent immutability, which rendered them fit objects for the reliance of man. Trees may change or be destroyed, but a rock remains the same through many generations; and the mind which caught but few and confused glimpses of a future world, was but too much inclined to worship the unchiselled block, or the rude cairn which covered the object of its affection; that affection was felt to be eternal, not to be changed by death or time,-how then could it be more fitly commemorated than by the indestructible pillars of the earth? The Liagh Fail may have fulfilled a two-fold purpose; it may have been an altar of adoration, as well as a place of inauguration for the monarch, who, in those early times, was both priest and king.

"In ancient times, when from the west
The star of science sent its ray

To illuminate Erin's sacred isle,

And change her darkness into day,—

Then from the stone the priest-king taught
The assembled multitudes to bow

Before that glorious orb, from whom

The blessings of existence flow.

But yet no idol was there framed,

No knee was bent to wood or stone;

They worshipped, by his glorious type,
The One Invisible, alone.

Soon darkness clouds the scene, a barbarous band Expel the sons of peace, and subjugate the land; Beneath the Scythian yoke what monsters rise To claim the sacred rites of deities!" The Scythian tribe here mentioned conquered the earlier inhabitants of Ireland, drove some of them into Scotland-hence the name of that country-but retained a part of the priests as the teachers of youth; many sought their brethren the Culdees of Iona, and how far northward they voyaged, the stones of Stennis The Tuath-de-Danaans had worshipped the sun and planets, the earliest and purest form of idolatry, the religion of Nimrod and Zoroaster; the Scythians or Scots professed Druidism in its corrupted shape, with its attendant jugglery and cruel sacrifices; and, from this time, Ireland seems to have been retained

witness to us.

under the same debasing yoke. The island became the stronghold of the Druidical religion, and most wonderful are the existing remains of it; indeed it appears to be one of the characteristics of Druidism, that its remembrance shall never be lost to the world. The Parthenon is a ruin,-the Cromlech remains entire. We may imagine, that, under the Scythians, inauguration at the sacred stone was still necessary to render valid the election of the monarch; in all cases of conquest it is the policy of the victor to respect the religious prejudices of the conquered; and instances are frequent, in which the customs of the vanquished have, in a short time, become those of the victors. The ceremony of inauguration at the Liagh Fail is by some writers referred to the Scythic colony, which is called the Milesian, from Milesius, king of Spain, whose two sons, Heber and Heremon, (names equally suspicious with our Hengist and Horsa,) were the conductors of the expedition. Heremon became the founder of a long line of monarchs, who have been enthusiastically chanted by the bards, but are dimly shadowed out in history.

Although coming directly from Spain, the bards described this colony, and rightly, as sprung from Phoenician ancestors; they led them into Egypt and Spain, and finally to Ireland, 1300 B. c. In naming Egypt they probably confounded the Scythians with the Tuathde-Danaans. There is reason to think that Ireland was peopled very soon after the deluge; the number of letters in the alphabet, and the sacred or Agham character, show this probability; the latter so much resembling the Persepolitan inscriptions as to suggest a translation by means of the Irish language, which, with the fact that the shamrock was anciently held sacred to the decoration of altars in Persia, its only natural home, may lead to the supposition that the Irish derived their learning, and perhaps their parentage, from Persia rather than Phoenicia. After Heber and Heremon a thick mist hangs over Ireland; the Simon Brech whom we have mentioned might be one of their descendants, but we find few lights amid the gloom. One of these is the "Royal sage Ollamh Fodhla," who instituted a school of general instruction at Tara; and another is "Con of the hundred fights," celebrated by Ossian. From the family of this hero was descended that race of chieftains, the Dalriads, a demi-tribe of Ulster, who supplied Albany, the modern Scotland, with her first Scottish rulers; Carbre Riada, the grandson of Con of the hundred fights, being the chief who, about the middle of the third century, established that Irish settlement in Argyleshire, which, taking the name of its princely founder, grew up in the course of time to the kingdom of Dalriada, and finally became the kingdom of all Scotland. From the decline of Druidism we hear no more of our Stone of Destiny till the time of Carbre Riada, who is said to have carried it with him to Scotland, and this is countenanced by the fact that a "stone of great import and notoriety" was kept in Dunstaffnage Castle, Argyleshire, where it was much venerated by the people, as late as the ninth century. Buchanan, however, attributes the removal from Ireland to Fergus the son of Erck, who, aided by the Nial family, headed a strong reinforcement to the Dalriadic colony, extending the limits of the former settlement, and giving it sufficient stability to throw off its dependence upon Ireland. From Fergus was descended Kenneth M'Alpin, king of the Scots, whom, according to the well known lines of Cowper, we must designate a hero; his slaughter of the Picts being most unmerciful, amounting almost to extirpation. Some old Scotch verses may be thus translated:

"When Alpin this king was dead,
He left a son, was named Kyned;
Doughty man he was, and stout,
All the Picts he put out,
Great battles then did he,
To put in freedom his country."