Who owns affection for no favourite clime,
Unchilled by absence or the lapse of time;
But few the innate instinct can efface,

Nor own some tie which links the soul to place.

"Say whence the breast with such attachment burns? Whence to its native place with rapture turns? 'Tis fond resemblance gives the feeling birth, And first implants it in the sons of earth. For man, when absent from the scene he loves, In rapt idea o'er all nature roves,

Views his loved haunts in each new object rise,
And every kindred form delights his eyes;
While Contrast flings o'er all the shadowy view
Her sadly-pleasing tints of varied hue,
Bids each fond joy, each sorrow live again,
Nor fears to trace the scenes of former pain.
Such self-created phantoms we pursue,
And, pleased, believe the mental vision true.
To these, when local objects lend their aid
To call each form from pale Oblivion's shade,
And when the tearful eye with joy surveys
Each happier image of its early days,
With sweet delight we view each phantom rise,
Which Memory pictures to our eager eyes;
While Fancy, hovering o'er the form of youth,
Renews each faded line, and tints the whole with truth,

"When Charles withdrew from pomp and regal power
To close, in cloistered gloom, his evening hour,
Unmoved he passed through kingdoms once his own,
And careless viewed an abdicated throne.

The scenes where once his grandeur shone confest
Drew no fond sigh, nor moved his tranquil breast;
But when his eyes surveyed with transient view
Each youthful image which remembrance drew,
Pleased the loved scene, by Time made doubly dear,
He saw, and sighing, dropt the conscious tear.

"In humble breasts-for there no baneful art
Pollutes the genuine impulse of the heart-
All own that tie to place, which glowed refined
In generous Charles' or great Vespasian's mind.
O'er plains ne'er blest by Culture's fostering hands,
O'er Mecca's deserts and its desert sands,
The wandering pilgrim wends his weary way,
And, panting, sinks beneath the noontide ray;
Oft heaves a sigh, and trembles to inhale
The languid poison of each sultry gale;
Or views with speechless horror storms arise
Which whirl the troubled desert to the skies,
And fears lest, hopeless on the desert waste,
His strength should sink before the sandy blast;

Oft mourns his fate when, parched by flaming skies,
The boundless desert melts before his eyes,

And shrinks with horror from the lengthening view;
Scarce dares the wretch his trackless course pursue,
Yet nature vainly with malignant force
Presents each terror to obstruct his course;
In vain she tries his stedfast mind to move,
Or break the firm-wrought ties of local love.
Fond thoughts of Home absorb each lighter care,
Still cheer his bosom and exclude despair ;-
To this grand point his toils, his dangers tend,
Hope soothes each labour with this promised end.
How glows the wanderer's breast when through the trees
The well-known spire and hamlet's smoke he sees,
When his glad eyes review the village green,
And trace each happy spot, each youthful scene,
Which fixed Remembrance calls again to light,
Or Fancy pictures to his eager sight.

Or should he seek, by fond affection led,
The peaceful mansions of the silent Dead,

Where friends, whose kindness cheered the sorrowing eye,
Nameless, unhonoured, undistinguished lie,
Each once-loved image bursts upon his view,
Whilst his fond eyes th' ideal scene pursue.

"Thus to whatever lot in life confined,
This passion grows in each enraptured mind,
This fills the patriot's heart with martial fire,
And bids him in his country's cause expire.
E'en in the humblest of mankind we trace
The same fond feeling which, inspired by Place,
With tenfold vigour warms the generous heart,
By science polished and refined by art.

"R. H. INGLIS."

The allusion to Vespasian is doubtless identical with the anecdote related by Lord Bacon in the third part of the Instauratio :

"Vespasian did attribute so much to this matter that, when he was emperor, he would by no means be persuaded to leave his father's house, though but mean, lest he should lose the wonted object of his eyes and the memory of his childhood; and, besides, he would drink in a wooden cup tipped with silver, which was his grandmother's, upon festival days."

The Marquess of Bute, in 1772, gave one gold medal and two silver medals to the school; in 1764 his son, the Hon. William Stuart, afterwards Primate of All Ireland, was a commoner-præfect. In 1761-5 Thomas, Earl of Aylesbury, was the donor; in 1782 George Lord Rivers; in 1787 the Earl of Aylesbury and Lord Rivers were the joint-donors; the former withdrew his prizes when Dr. Warton, in 1793, retired from the headmastership, a circumstance alluded to by Dr. Chandler in these caustic lines:

"When Warton from his mastership retired,
With him the patronage of Bruce expired;

The noble patron's prizes then we find
Not for the boys, but master was designed;
But the more noble Prince the want supplied,

And gave to Genius all that Bruce denied."

In 1816, at the request of the Right Hon. B. Sheridan, the Prince Regent gave two gold medals and two silver medals, a royal gift continued to the present day. It is therefore interesting to find, in the collection from which we have already drawn, the name of "Charles B. Sheridan, 1811," the second son of Mr. Sheridan, attached to a successful poem, On the Retreat of the French from the Heights of Santarem." He gained medals in 1813 and in 1811. He was a commoner-præfect in 1812.

66

ROBERTSON'S BECKET a.

We have recently noticed two new biographies of Becket, but more particularly one in which it is attempted to exhibit him as a Saint from the cradle to the grave; we have also alluded to estimates of his character by such very different writers as Professor Stanley and Dr. Vaughan; and we have now a fresh and masterly work on the same subject, the substance of which appeared thirteen years ago in the "English Review;" that it is again brought forward is probably owing to the appearance of Mr. Morris as a biographer, who has thus the merit of procuring for the world a Memoir that will be read long after his own is forgotten.

The incidents of a life that has been so often canvassed as that of Becket can of course present little novelty, but Mr. Robertson's admirable mode of treating them makes full compensation, and entitles his work to the commendation of one of the very best of its class. Every sentence appears to have been well weighed, and every needful illustration is afforded, whilst the common fault of smothering the main points under a mass of trivial detail is avoided. The mistakes and misrepresentations of Mr. Morris are temperately, but convincingly pointed out, the Saxon theory of Thierry is disposed of, and if a full and candid examination of each debatable point in the archbishop's conduct can enable any man to do it, the concluding chapter may be said to fix definitively Becket's place in history.

Instead, therefore, of again traversing such well-beaten ground as the actions or even the miracles of Becket, we shall confine this notice to reproducing a portion of the just estimate with which the work concludes.

"Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. A Biography. By James Craigie Robertson, M.A., Canon of Canterbury." (Murray.)

b GENT. MAG., May, 1859, p. 459; October, p. 367.

Ibid., Aug., p. 133; October, p. 367.

"If we compare Becket with the two great champions of the hierarchy who within a century had preceded him—Gregory the Seventh and Anselm—the result will not be in his favour. He had nothing of Hildebrand's originality of conception-of his worldwide view of his superiority to vulgar objects-of his far-sighted patience. Doubtless he would have been ready to adopt the great Pope's dying words, that he suffered because he had 'loved righteousness and hated iniquity;' but how much more of selfdeceit would have been necessary for this in the one case than in the other! Hildebrand, while he exalted the hierarchy against the secular power, had laboured with an earnest, although partly misdirected zeal, that its members should not be unworthy of the lofty part which he assigned to it in the economy of this world: in Becket we see the Hildebrandine principles misapplied to shelter the clergy from the temporal punishment of their crimes. Far less will the later English Primate endure a comparison with his illustrious predecessor, Anselm. It is, indeed, no reproach to him that he was without that profound philosophical genius which made Anselm the greatest teacher that the Church had seen since St. Augustine; but the deep and mystical fervour of devotion, the calm and gentle temper, the light, keen, and subtle, yet kindly wit, the amiable and unassuming character of Anselm-the absence of all personal pretension in his assertion of the Church's claims-are qualities which fairly enter into the comparison, and which contrast strikingly with the coarse worldly pride and ostentation by which the character and the religion of Becket were disfigured. Nor in a comparison either with Anselm or with Hildebrand must we forget that, while their training had been exclusively clerical and monastic, Becket's more varied experience of life renders the excesses of hierarchical spirit far less excusable in him than in them.

"An eminent writer, whose position is very different from that of Becket's ordinary admirers, has eulogised him as having contributed to maintain the balance of moral against physical force, to control the despotism which oppressed the middle ages, and so to prepare the way for modern English liberty". And such was, unquestionably, the result of his exertions, as of much besides in the labours of Hildebrand and his followers. But it is rather an effect wrought out by an over-ruling Providence than anything which Becket contemplated, or for which he deserves credit or gratitude. His efforts were made, not in the general cause of the community, but for the narrowest interests of the clergy as a body separate from other men; and it is not to the freest, but to the most priest-ridden and debased of modern countries, that we ought to look for the consequences which would have followed, if the course of things had answered to Becket's intention.

"Least of all does Becket deserve the sympathy of those among ourselves who dread that reversed Hildebrandism which would reduce the Church to a mere function of the secular power. An Englishman ought no more, as a Churchman, to espouse the cause of those who in former times exaggerated the claims of the hierarchy, than, as the subject of a constitutional monarchy, he ought to defend the excesses of despotism. The name of Becket, instead of serving as a safeguard to those who fear encroachment on the Church in our own time, will only furnish their opponents with a pretext for representing the most equitable claims in behalf of the Church as manifestations of a spirit which would aim at the establishment of priestly tyranny and intolerance."(pp. 318-320.)

"Sir J. Stephen, Essays, i. 377-8."

Original Documents.

SYLVANUS URBAN has much pleasure in presenting to his readers four hitherto unpublished documents. The first two relate to manors in the counties of Wilts, Somerset, Dorset, and Hants; the third is signed by several of the most eminent men of the time of James I.; and the fourth gives some intimation of the variety of curious information that lurks almost unknown in the records of public bodies. It is at least remarkable to find the chapter of Westminster venturing to pay for a "bonfire on the king's birthday" (Nov. 19, 1644) at the very time when the attainder of Archbishop Laud was in debate between the two Houses of Parliament.

One valued contributor, whose initials will be readily recognised, thus heartily proffers help, and we doubt not that he will find many imitators.

“MR. URBAN,—Your proposal to devote a portion of your monthly issue to the printing of original documents, is one in which, I trust, you will meet with the aid and hearty encouragement of all who have it in their power to furnish contributions of that character. It will give great additional value to your pages, and most cheering and hopeful it is to see the vigour with which you are commencing your 129th year. This step alone, on which you have so wisely determined, ought to double your circulation, and ensure to you another century of prosperous existence.

"You may depend on my hearty co-operation in keeping you well supplied with original documents of the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth centuries-perhaps earlier ones; and if all who have such at their command would join in the work as heartily as I do, your journal in a few years will be a repertorium or chartulary of incalculable value to all future historians and topographers. I send you two herewith, which I hope will be acceptable to the topographers of Wilts, Dorset, and Hants, and induce them to welcome your Magazine throughout those counties.-I am, &c., L. B. L."

FEOFFMENT FROM SIR ROBERT DE ASHTON, OF MANORS IN WILTS, SOMERSET, AND DORSET.-1374.

SCIANT presentes et futuri, quos ego Robertus de Asshton, miles, dedi, concessi, et hac presenti carta mea confirmavi Johanni Cary, Johanni Bernes, civi Londinensi, Willelmo Mulsho, clerico, et Roberto Brom de Warrewyk maneria mea in Ffenny Sutton, cum suis pertinenciis, in Comitatu Wiltes; quorum unum manerium habeo ex dono et feoffamento Thome de Hongreford, in excambio pro manerio de Assheleye, in eodem Comitatu; et manerium meum de Luddeford, et manerium meum de Knolle, cum corum pertinentiis, in Comitatu Somersetie, et manerium meum de Lytton, et manerium meum de Pouerestoke, cum eorum pertinentiis, in Comitatu Dorsetie. Habendum et tenendum omnia predicta maneria, cum universis suis pertinentiis, una cum visibus franciplegii, advocacionibus ecclesiarum et capellarum, reversionibus, et cum omnibus aliis libertatibus et commoditatibus ad dicta maneria quovismodo spectantibus, prefatis Johanni, Johanni, Willelmo, Edwardo, Johanni et Roberto Brom, et eorum heredibus et assignatis, libere,