I do not see them here; but after death In these strong lines there is but little of the mysticism of the middle ages, though there is all of the Greek teaching of the inevitable Nemesis that stalks behind those whom Ruskin so well terms the destroyers rather than the makers of that which is good and blessed. This is the strong direct teaching that appeals so powerfully to the mind and intellect of the energetic and the bravely persevering of the ever present Now. And in so many of his other poems, which space forbids that I should quote, he gives his students all the hope and all the inspiration that lies contained within the doctrine that Eternal Right shall ever conquer Passing Wrong, and Love shall triumph over spiteful transient Hate. RAYMOND BLATHWAYT. MY HOME. Ан me! ah me! I think I see thee now A little red-brick, ivy-covered house, While roses, climbing round their casements deep, Slow, 'neath the shady trees the cows do pass, While wood-doves coo their drowsy notes and low And rabbits sport them in the long green grass, Or swiftly to their burrows fly. Harebells do bloom upon the mossy banks, While every leaf and every flower Hangs quiv'ring in the summer glow, And scarce across the long hay-meadows Breezes faintest, softest, blow. So does it come to me once, once again, While still I shall keep in my heart of hearts 'Till the day is o'er and the morn breaks fair, And I meet them all at last. M.T. ON THE HISTORY AND ANTIQUITIES OF LYME. PART III. THE 5th year of Edward III. marks another important era in the history of the borough. The king granted to the burgesses the town at a fee-farm rent of 32 marks, as has been already stated. That meant the entire control of the local revenue subject only to this payment, and was a distinct step in advance. The city of Oxford was let in the same reign at a rent of 60 marks. It has been calculated on what seem to be good grounds, that at a period not much later, the population of Oxford amounted to between 5,000 and 6,000 souls. If these figures are accepted and the proportion holds good, we may infer that the population of Lyme was at least as numerous then as now, and its relative wealth and trade much greater. In fact Lyme was the port of supply and exportation for all the country at its back as far at least as Sherborne and Taunton. The chief commerce was with Gascony, the principal import Bordeaux wines, the principal export wool. In the 14th year of Edward III. the burgesses petitioned for and obtained a grant licensing them to build a Water Mill in the Mullehulle or Mill hollow, the aptness of which name must strike everyone who knows the site, and to make a trench to convey the water to drive the Mill. The basement of the Mill, which is very massive and solid, is apparently the work of this time; and the watercourse running for a long way parallel to the river with its intermediate causeway and little stone bridges is among the remarkable features of the town. As the name Mulle-hulle is older than the grant, a Mill must have existed at some earlier date upon the same spot, and at the time of Domesday there was a Mill upon the Belet Manor. The king did not make this grant without receiving some valuable consideration. The Mulle-hulle had been previously rated in the king's rent roll at 2s. out of the whole rent-charge for the town of 32 marks or £21 6s. 8d. In return for the privilege it was stipulated that the burgesses should thenceforth pay an additional 7s. yearly to the crown. This payment to the exchequer is still made by the Corporation, though the Town Mill has ceased in this century to be corporate property. In their Petition for the Mill, the burgesses had stated that they were oppressed with so many continually increasing causes and adversities. This was no figure of speech or rhetorical embellishment, for in this year, 1340, as appears from an inquisition held at the time by the king's commissioners, a very considerable portion of the town was grievously damaged or destroyed by a great storm and sudden irruption of the sea. Item maxima pars terræ et ten' ville de Lym attract' est et destructa p. tempestatem et super undacom maris. It took Lyme some time to recover from that blow. Though 30 burgesses are stated here to have paid their ninths and only 22 at Weymouth, the latter port sent 15 ships to the siege of Calais and this place only 4. Sidmouth sent 3 and Seaton 2 to the same siege. The usual proportion of Lyme ships was very much greater. According to a tradition, which I believe however is apocryphal, a mound in the churchyard marks the burying place of the victims of the terrible Black Death. Dorset was the first county in England where the plague broke out, it having been imported as supposed from France. The scared survivors began to convert their property into money and sought to flee the contagion-smitten country. This brought down a peremptory order from the Court to the bailiffs of Lyme. Vobis mandamus, districtius injungentes, quod homines ad arma, vel peregrinos, aut aliquos alios de dicto regno nostro, vel aliunde, cujuscumque status vel conditionis fuerit, nisi fuerit mercator, notarius, aut nuncius notus, in dicto portu, clam vel palam, ex nunc nullatenus transire permittatis, sine mandato nostro speciali; talem et tantam diligentiam in hac parte apponentes, ne de ficto gestu vestro inde coram nobis puniri debeatis in futurum. They were to suffer none to cross the sea without a special permit from the king, except merchants, notaries and accredited messengers. The bailiffs were to see to this at their peril, |