The ordinary fare was about twopence halfpenny a mile in summer, and somewhat more in winter.

7. This mode of travelling, which by Englishmen of the present day would be regarded as insufferably slow, seemed to our ancestors wonderfully and indeed alarmingly rapid.

Macaulay. "History of England.”

The Restoration of Charles II. to the throne of his ancestors was effected in 1660. He landed at Dover on the 26th May of that year, and the event was annually commemorated on that day for many years afterwards.

Oxford is fifty-five miles from London. A fast train now does the distance in about an hour and forty minutes.

Beaconsfield is a small town in Buckinghamshire, standing on an eminence, on which beacon fires were wont to be lighted. The Earl of Beaconsfield took his title from this place, because it was in the near neighbourhood of his country seat, Hughenden Manor.

Cambridge is by railway about fifty-seven miles from London.

Chester may now be reached from London in about four-and-a-half hours, York in little more than four hours, Exeter in about the same time.

1. Give names of all the four-wheeled vehicles you can think of. 2. An express train does 200 miles in five hours, and has twice to stop, ten minutes each time: at what rate does it travel?

3. Give the rule for the comparison of adjectives, and mention exceptions.

Ad-ven'-tu-rous, daring.
An'-ces-tors, forefathers.

In-suf-fer-a-bly, not to be suffered.

Pe'-ri-lous, dangerous.

Rain, from the sky.
Reign, of a sovereign.

So'-lemn-ly, seriously, with gravity.
Ve'-hi-cle, carriage.

THE COMMON LOT.

I.

NCE in the flight of ages past,

There lived a man :-and who was he? Mortal! howe'er thy lot be cast,

That man resembled thee.

2.

Unknown the region of his birth,

The land in which he died unknown; His name hath perished from the earth, This truth survives alone :

3.

That joy and grief, and hope and fear,
Alternate triumphed in his breast;
His bliss and woe,-a smile, a tear!
Oblivion hides the rest.

4.

The bounding pulse, the languid limb,
The changing spirits' rise and fall;
We know that these were felt by him,
For these are felt by all.

5.

He suffered-but his pangs are o'er ;
Enjoyed-but his delights are fled;
Had friends-his friends are now no more;
And foes-his foes are dead.

6.

He loved-but whom he loved the grave

Hath lost in its unconscious womb:

Oh, she was fair!-but nought could save
Her beauty from the tomb.

7.

He saw-whatever thou hast seen,
Encountered-all that troubles thee;

He was

whatever thou hast been ;

He is what thou shalt be.

8.

The rolling seasons, day and night,

Sun, moon, and stars, the earth and main,
Erewhile his portion, life and light,

To him exist in vain.

9.

The clouds and sunbeams, o'er his eye
That once their shades and glory threw,
Have left in yonder silent sky

No vestige where they flew.

IO.

The annals of the human race,

Their ruins, since the world began,

Of him afford no other trace

Than this-There lived a Man!

James Montgomery.

1. Express the sense of the first two verses in your own words. 2. Explain the words mortal, survives, bounding, unconscious, main.

3. Parse the two first lines of the first verse.

Al-ter'-nate, first one, then another.

An'-nals, history.

O-bli'-vi-on, orgetfulness.

Ves'-tige, trace, evidence.

I.

THE ENGLISH BULL.

HE little town of Algeciras is in its best attire. There is to be a funcion, or bullfight, to-day. A broad silken banner, stretched across the principal street, announces it, and from every window flags are fluttering, and in every venta there is the tinkling of guitars and click of castanets, and visitors are streaming in from all quarters. 2. Majos are there in their fanciful costumes, country-folks carrying tall walking-sticks, with women and children on mule-back or on foot, and across the bay, from the opposite shore, where world-famed Gibraltar couches like a lion beside the entrance to the blue Mediterranean, come steamers, with music on board, laden with samples of the motley population -Jews, Turks, Greeks, and Arabians-and with them officers and men of the English garrison, and all are bound for the one centre of attraction.

3. This of course is the Plaza de los Toros, or bullring, a vast amphitheatre, open to the sky, and already filled with thousands of spectators, tier above tier, sitting some in the sombra, or shade, where the price of admission is comparatively high, others in the sol, or sun, where it is low enough.

4. To-day there is unusual excitement, for an English bull is to be baited, which is not an ordinary occurrence, and great is the curiosity expressed both among Spaniards and English to see how he will behave himself.

5. And now the band ceases playing for a while as

with a flourish of trumpets the governor enters and takes up his station with his suite in a state-box in a prominent position in the Plaza, and now another flourish and a door leading into the arena is flung open, and in comes the procession of the bull-fighters: first the picadores on their miserable horses, dressed like knights of the olden time, with long lances in their hands; next the chulos, on foot, figged out as

for a fancy ball, with gaudy cloaks hanging on their arms, and amongst them haughtily, as conscious of his worth, the matador.

6. They arrange themselves in order in the arena, which is like the ring of a circus, and another door is opened, and now behold the bull! What a splendid fellow! In he stalks amidst a roar of plaudits,-for indeed he is a beauty-with plain "North Devon "