ing their perturbations. He divested death of its terrors; he alleviated the horrors of guilt; he comforted and supported the dismayed, by dwelling upon that passage in the sacred volume of heaven, which says, a broken and a contrite heart shall not be rejected: ." At his controul "Despair and anguish fled the struggling soul, Previous to his becoming an inhabitant of Wyefield he had mixed a good deal in the busy world, and from what he had seen and suffered during his intercourse therein, he was happy to find himself far removed from it. Few men indeed had ever experienced greater deceit, cruelty, and ingratitude; and independent of the disgust his injuries naturally inspired him with against it, he deemed himself totally unqualified for it, from wanting that" patient merit," so necessary for the indigent and dependent to possess, in order to enable them to bear, with some degree of calmness, the "oppressor's wrong," the proud man's scorn, "the insolence of office," and the various ills and indignities which the unworthy and unfeeling are so apt to heap upon the children of adversity. For a wounded spirit and contracted income, no place could be better adapted than Wyefield. Its inhabitants, with very few exceptions, were simple and good natured, and its luxuriant soil, and vicinity to Chester, rendered the necessaries of life easily attainable; it consisted of houses chiefly in the cottage style, built upon a verdant green, or rather valley, which lay between pleasant hills of easy ascent, and was beautifully planted with elms and chesnuts, round many of whose ponder ous and moss-covered trunks, benches were pla ced for the accommodation of the village politicians; the venerable woods of Gwytherin-hall, which completely embosomed a stately mansion, the ancient seat of the noble family of that name, to whom the hamlet, with an immense tract of adjoining land, belonged, terminated it at one extremity, and at the other it was crossed by a fine trout stream, "In which the willows dipt "Their pendent boughs, stooping as if to drink ;" and o'er which a rustic bridge was thrown, that led into the heart of a highly cultivated country, where neat farms, handsome mansions, rich pastures, and fine woodlands presented themselves in charming variety to the eye. The appearance of Wyefield was altogether neat, cheerful and picturesque; its cottages peeped amidst tufted trees, or rose amidst gardens, rich in the treasures of the flowery as well as vegetable world; and the hills being in many parts too low to exclude the prospect of the adjacent country, it commanded several fine and extensive views, particularly of the sea (enlivened by the beautiful and ever-varying scenery of the waters), and of the mountains of North-Wales...those almost inaccessible retreats of the ancient Britons, dark, congregated, and piled upon each other in rude confusion, like the disjointed fragments of a demolished world. The dwelling of Mr. Greville was only distinguished from the habitations of his neighbours, by the peculiar taste with which the ground be-longing to it was laid out. It stood in the midst 1 of a large garden, which was enclosed from the green by a low hedge of hawthorn, kept in the nicest order; and behind it rose the hill, upon whose summit the village church was built, and up whose gentle acclivity aged trees formed a long cathedral walk, shading with their spreading and intertwisted branches the grass-grown graves of many of the rude forefathers of the hamlet. Flaunting honeysuckles crept o'er the white walls of the cottage, wantoned upon its roof, and in summer cast a delightful shade upon its little casemented-windows, before which clumps of flowering shrubs, and buds of delicious flowers were raised. Here roses and lavender emitted their choicest fragrance; "Here soft carnations shower'd their balmy dews, The luxuriant shades of Gwytherin-hall were immediately stretched before it; and through the parted trees, it commanded several fine and romantic prospects, especially of a noble sheet of water, (dotted with small picturesque islands), which serpentized to a considerable extent, between banks of the most beautiful verdure, till it appeared lost to the admiring eye, in the dark and tangled mazes of a distant grove which skirted the old mansion. This charming seat, notwithstanding the many beauties it possessed, had long been neglected by its owner, who led, as common fame reported, a life of unbounded dissipation and extravagance on the continent. His desertion had caused it to be almost totally neglected, so that many of the ornamental buildings, the proud boast of former days, were falling to decay, and most of the shrubberies were overgrown with weeds and rank luxuriance. Though the inhabitants of the hamlet had free access to the demesne, few availed themselves of the privilege of walking in it, preferring a ramble round their own cultivated fields, or the cottages of their neighbours, to its nearly ruined and solitary grounds. Not so Mr. Greville; he delighted in the solemn grandeur of its woods, the soothing murmur of its falling waters, the deep retirement of its twilight groves, so well calculated to tranquillize the passions, and to peace unfelt before, "To purest harmony attune the soul, "Wean it from earth, and wing its flight to heav'n.” Yet was the pleasure, resulting from profound quiet and uninterrupted meditation, frequently embittered by sadness and regret, at beholding the ruin into which all around seemed hastening, and “indignation at the tastelessness of mortal men, who, in their race through life, o'erlook the real enjoyments of it." Such tastelessness, such folly, he thought, could only be occasioned by a constant residence amidst scenes of dissipation. "Oh! happy am I," he would exclaim, whenever such an idea occurred, "Oh! happy am I at being far removed from such scenes...from a world, whose spells, like those of a fell enchantress, have power to blind the judgment, vitiate the taste, destroy the health, and weaken the understanding! Misguided by it, its votaries forego real enjoyments, such as exalt the soul, compose the feelings, and invigorate the constitution! Of the truth of this, the owner of this lovely and neglected seat is a striking example. Where could he experience such pure and permanent pleasures as would result to him from dwelling among his : 73 cold is crce be more noniy priced, A supporting the tonours of us ment se with becoming dignity, and teng ve enerous spirit of hospitality ven one dissted it, and made the vavring an ind oice whenever they approached Dwers? where, if he merely consulted the gratifica 2 cms senses, could be behold a pace mure cuated to delight and please them Te family of Mr. Greville consisted of a wife our children, a young man who had been signed to his care till he became of age. unt a young gari who had been brought by me and C wire, as their daughter. There was a mystery At Meter T |