mill is the Linton Free-School, a building of the Elizabethan order. This was once a fashionable seminary, with classical masters; and many have received education within its walls, who afterwards, attained considerable literary eminence. From some cause or other, the endowment grew less and less, and the celebrity of the school declined; masters of inferior attainments became appointed, till at last it was only equalled in respectability by an Irish hedge- school. However, a change for the better has taken place, and it is now a flourishing school, where the children of the poor (for whom no doubt the school was originally founded,) are taught useful knowledge, on a plan in which the excellencies of the Bell and Lancasterian systems are combined. Near the Free-School is a sacred spring, dedicated to the Virgin, and called "Our Lady's Well;" whatever miraculous powers its waters once possessed, have now ceased; but its sweet pellucid waters are still in high repute for culinary purposes; and there are few inhabitants in Grassington who will tolerate any water but that from Lady Well. After crossing the bridge beyond the well, and ascending a steep bank, we arrive at the little town of Grassington, most romantically built on the side of a lofty mountain. Of this place I gave an account in a former volume of the MIRROR, and alluded to the lead mines in its vicinity. These mines are on the summit of a mountain, and extend over a large tract of ground. The gentlemen who have the management pay the greatest attention, and show every civility to a stranger. These gentlemen are called captains; a title which, in all countries where there are mines, seems to be given to those who have the management; in Germany, in Norway, in Russia, in Sweden, we find the same term similarly applied; and looking at the derivation of the word captain, there seems no good reason for applying it exclusively to naval and military officers. When the Grassington mines were first worked, is a matter in dispute; it has been asserted that they were worked in the time of the Romans, bat no antiquities have been found to warrant the conclusion. From the puritanic names which many of them have, such as Glory Mine, one might suppose that several were first worked during the Protectorate. The tourist ought to visit the mines, not only for the sake of their subterranean wonders, but also for an inspection of the machinery; in addition to which they are on every side surrounded by the finest mountain scenery imaginable. There is in the midst of these mines an interesting little valley, called Mossdale; as also a small lake or tarn, called Priest's Tarn, supposed to derive its name from having, in the days of old, been one of the haunts of the monks of Fountains. Having inspected the mines, the tourist may proceed from Grassington, up the valley of Wharf, towards Coniston, &c.; the road is carried through Grass-wood: this forest is several miles in extent; and if the walks in it were kept in proper order, and a few rustic seats erected, after the manner of Bolton, might be rendered an object of equal attrac tion. Who that has wandered amidst its moss-grown walks, now almost impenetrable -who that has looked down its quiet glades -- who that has penetrated to its wild gloomy dells and rocky nooks and chasms, (such as Dibscar,)—who that has climbed its heights, and gazed on the alpine-like character of the surrounding country, and does not regret that its noble proprietor, the Duke of Devonshire, should not expend a trifle in keeping its walks in proper order. I have been told that the Duke never saw the wood; if so, would that I were at his side, to whisper in his ear that he has nothing at Chatsworth or Bolton superior to it. If Grass-wood could be put into a proper state for tourists to visit, great benefit would accrue to the neighbourhood. Should the noble proprietor ever think of what I have suggested, I have no doubt that about Bolton might be found interested individuals, who would endeavour to thwart his intentions. I have heard it said, that if Grasswood became a "show place," Bolton would be injured-why or wherefore I cannot tellthose who never see beyond their noses, may, perhaps, be able to inform me. The tourist having scrambled through Grass-wood, may, after visiting the Ghaistrills, (another vortex in the Wharf,) return to Grassington; why bring him back, shall inform you in my next communication, which will conclude the description of Wharfdale. D. THE ORIGIN OF ST. ANDREW'S UNIVERSITY, SCOTLAND. THE University of St. Andrew's was founded by Archbishop Stewart, natural son to James the Fourth, and was called the college of poor Charles. It appears from the foundation-charter, that there had been an hospital in the same place for the reception and entertainment of pilgrims of different nations, who crowded to St. Andrew's to pay their devotion to the arm of St. Andrew, which wrought many miracles. At length, however, the arm of St. Andrew being tired with that laborious kind of work, or thinking that he had done enough, the miracles and the conflux of pilgrims ceased, and the hospital was deserted. The prior and the convent, who had been the founders, and were the patrons of the hospital, then filled it with old women. But these producing few of the fruits of devotion, were dismissed. The proprietors next formed it into an University, where the different branches of literature were to be taught. Though there are several revenues belonging to this university, yet it has never arrived at equal celebrity with the other three universities. VERSES, ON BEING DEFIED TO WRITE A POEM ON A SMALL CRUMB OF BREAD. By an eminent Barrister. (For the Mirror.) THOU little fragment of Mau's daily food, I scorn thee not! nor join another's scoff: Things which the proud despise, will oft impart king, "the truth is, I have asked my subjects so often for so much money, that I am really ashamed to look them in the face." THE CHARACTER OF THE FIRST CENTURY. Ar the commencement of the Christian æra, the greater part of the habitable globe was subject to the Roman Empire. The minor nations were governed either by Roman governors, or by their own princes in subordination to the Roman senate. The ambition of Augustus Cæsar had, however, deprived the people of all liberty but the name. The form of government, and the laws of the Romans, were mild and equitable, but the injustice and avarice of the Prætas and Proconsuls were intolerable. The universal dominion, and the general peace which then reigned, gave to that century the appellation of the Pacific Age. The want of records renders it impossible to ascertain, with any degree of precision, what was the state of the other nations who were not subject to the Roman yoke. The eastern regions were strangers to the sweets of freedom, but the northern, in their frozen dwellings, enjoyed the blessings of freedom which their forins of government, their religious systems, and robust constitution united to preserve and maintain. These nations were all sunk into superstitious idolatry of a varied form, the deities of every nation being different, and by consequence their rites of worship. This dif ference, however, produced no wars or religious contentions, but harmony reigned in the region of idolatry. The general tendency of all these religious systems was to encou rage vice and profligacy of manners, by the examples of the actions they attributed to their deities. The Jews, who alone had been favoured with the knowledge of the true God, had also in their period become exceedingly corrupted, erroneous in their principles, and immoral in their lives. Thus the general situation of the nations loudly called for the interposition of God to convey to the human mind true and certain principles of virtue and wisdom, and to recall wandering mortals to the sublime path of virtue. In such circumstances the Saviour of the world appeared, to introduce a new, sublime, and heavenly system of religion, adapted to all the human race, and calculated to produce universal felicity. And though that century is denominated the pacific age, yet if we contemplate the political character of the Romans in the political, and the first teachers of Christianity in the moral world, and reflect upon the boldness, intrepidity, and clemency exhibited by both, that period may with no small degree of propriety, claim the appellation of The Lion Period. Biography. WILLIAM OF WYKEHAM. (Concluded from page 67.) AFTER much deliberation, and devout invocation of the Divine assistance, considering how greatly the number of the clergy had been reduced by continual wars and frequent pestilences, he determined to remedy, as far as he was able, this desolation of the church, by relieving poor scholars in their clerical education; and to establish two colleges of students, for the honour of God and the increase of his worship, for the support and exaltation of the Christian faith, and for the improvement of the liberal arts and sciences. Wykeham appears to have come to this resolution soon after his becoming Bishop of Winchester; for, shortly after that period, he made purchases of several parcels of ground in the city of Oxford, which make the chief part of the site of his college there. His college at Winchester, was part of his original plan; for, as early as the year 1373, before he proceeded any farther in his plan for the latter, he established a school at Winchester, of the same kind as the former, and for the same purpose. He accordingly entered into an agreement with Richard de Herton, for ten years, commencing at Michaelmas, 1373, by which he agreed to instruct in grammatical learning, as many poor scholars as the bishop should send to him, and no others without his consent; that the bishop should provide and allow him a proper assistant; and that Herton, in case of his own illness, or necessary absence, should substitute a proper master to supply his place. While Wykeham was preparing to carry these generons designs into execution, a party was formed against him at Court, which obliged him to lay them aside for the present." At the head of this party was the Duke of Lancaster, who, in resentment for Wykeham's opposition to his party in the Parliament of 1376, procured eight separate articles of impeachment to be brought against him by certain persons, for divers crimes committed during his administration of the public affairs; of the first seven of these articles no proof was ever made, judgment being given solely and separately upon the last, which runs thus: "That the said bishop, when he was chancellor, by his own authority, often caused fines, after they were enrolled, to be lessened, and the rolls to be erased; and in particular, that of John Grey of Betherfield, who made a fine with the king, in the forty-first year of his reign, of eighty pounds, for licence of feoffments of certain lands and tenements, which was paid into the Hanaper; but the said bishop, on the pretence of some bargain between him and the said John Grey, caused the first writing to be cancelled, by making another writing of the same tenor and date, for a fiue of forty pounds, and made the clerk of the Hanaper repay the other forty pounds to the said John Grey, to the defrauding of the king." The bishop was heard upon these articles before a certain number of bishops and lords, and others of the privy-council, assigned by the king for that purpose about the middle of November; and, in conse quence of the judgment given by them upon the last article, writs were issued from the Exchequer, dated the seventeenth of the same month, to the sheriffs of the several counties concerned, ordering them to seize, into the king's hand, the temporalities of the Bishop of Winchester. The bishop was also forbidden by the Duke of Lancaster, in the king's name, to come within twenty miles of the court. The clergy, however, looked upon these proceedings, not so much in regard to the injury they did Wykeham, as their infringement of the liberty of the church; and, the people considering him as a person uujustly oppressed by the exorbitant power of the Duke of Lancaster, a tumult insued in his behalf, by which means he was restored to the temporalities of his see, and to the king's favour, a few days before the death of that monarch; which took place June 21, 1377. Soon after this event, he commenced the erection of his college at Oxford; the king's patent for the building of which is dated November 26, 1379, by which it is entitled Seinte Maria College of Wynchester in Oxenford. During the building of this foundation, which was begun March, 1380, and finished April, 1386, he established in proper form his society at Winchester, to which, in the charter of incorporation, dated October 20, 1382, he gives the same title as the college at Oxford. As soon as he had completed his building at Oxford, he com~ menced that at Winchester, which he finished in 1393. About this period he determined to rebuild a great part of his cathedral church, the whole of which had been erected by Bishop Walkelin, who began it in 1079. It was of Saxon architecture, with round pillars, or square piers, adorned with small pillars; round-headed arches and windows, and plain walls on the outside, without buttresses; the nave had been for some time in a bad condition. Wykeham, upon a due survey, determined to take the whole down, from the tower westward, and to rebuild it in a more magnificent manner. He commenced this great work in 1395, upon certain conditions, stipulated between him, the prior, and convent, and finished it in the style commonly called gothic, with pointed arches and windows, without key-stones, and pillars consisting of an assemblage of many small ones, closely connected together. This great pile, which took about ten years in erecting, was just finished when the bishop died. He had pro J Vided in his will for the entire completion of his design by his executors, in case of his death, and allotted two thousand five hundred marks for what then remained to be done, and five hundred marks for the glass windows. Besides this great benefaction to his cathe. dral, he purchased estates to the value of two hundred marks a-year, in addition to the lands of the bishopric. While he was rebuilding his cathedral, he was engaged in several great trusts and offices under Richard the Second. The Parliament summoned by Henry IV., a few days after his accession to the throne, was the last he attended in person; he ever after sent procurators to excuse his absence, on account of his age and infirmities. Being blessed with an excellent constitution, he had enjoyed an uncommon share of health, having been Bishop of Winchester thirty years, and in all that period had only once been interrupted by illness, in the attendance upon his duty in every capacity. At the end of the year 1401, he retired to South Waltham, and, on the January following, he appointed Dr. Nicholas Wakeham and Dr. John Elner, to be his coadjutors in the bishopric. But although he had taken coadjutors to his assistance, he still personally attended and directed his affairs, both public and private, admitting all persons who had any business to transact with him, to his upper chamber. This practice he was able to continue until within a few days of his death, which took place, September 27, 1404. He was buried, according to his directions, in his own oratory, in the cathedral church of Winchester. His funeral was attended by a great concourse of people, many of whom, doubtless, attended out of regard to his memory, but a great number of the poorer sort came to partake of the alms which were to be distributed having ordered by his will, that in whatever place he should happen to die, and through whatever places his body should be carried, between the place of his death and the cathedral church of Winchester, in all these places, to every poor tenant, that had held of him there as Bishop of Winchester, should be given, to pray for his soul, four pence; and to every other poor person, asking alms, two pence, or one penny at least, according to the discretion of his executors; and that on the day of his burial, to every poor person coming to Winchester, and ask ing alms for the love of God, and for the health of his soul, should be given four pence. He appointed his grand-nephew, the Reverend Thomas Wykeham, to be his heir, and one of his executors, with six others, to whom he bequeathed a thousand pounds for their trouble. He had before put him in possession of his manors and estates, to the value of six hundred marks a-year, and he deposited in the hands of the warden and scholars of new college, a hundred pounds for the defence of his title to the said estates, to be kept by them, and to be applied to no other use whatever, for twenty years after his decease; after which term the whole, or remainder not so applied, was to be freely delivered to Sir Thomas Wykeham or his heirs. It may be truly said of the subject of this memoir, that few men ever exceeded him in acts of munificence and charity, among seve ral of which may be mentioned the following: —At his first entrance upon the bishopric of Winchester, he remitted to his poor tenants. certain acknowledgments usually paid, and due by custom, to the amount of five hundred and two pounds, one shilling, and sevenpence. To several officers of the bishopric, who had' become poor, he at different times remitted sums due to him to the amount of two thousand marks. He paid for his tenants, three several times, the subsidies granted to the king by Parliament. In 1377, he discharged the whole of the debts of the prior and convent of Shelborne, to the amount of a hundred and ten marks, eleven shillings, and fourpence; besides making the convent a free gift of a hundred marks. From the time of his being made bishop of Winchester, he provided for, at least, twenty-four poor persons every day, not only in victuals, but also in distributing money among them. He continually employed his friends and attendants to search after those whose modesty would not suffer them to make their distresses known; and to go to the houses of the sick and needy, and inform themselves of their particular calamities. To such as were in prison for debt, he was attentive and compassionate; inquiring into their circumstances, compounding with their creditors, and procuring their release. He expended vast sums in repairing the roads, making causeways, and building bridges, between London and Winchester, and many other places. He likewise repaired a number of churches that were gone to decay, besides furnishing them with books, a hundred pair of vestments, a hundred and thirteen silver chalices, and other ornaments. W. G. C. THE whole structure of our nature, and the whole condition of our being, prove that our Maker intended us not for a life of indolence, but of active exertion. All the organs of the body, and all the faculties of the mind, are instruments of action, and it is only by constant exercise that these powers can be retained in a healthful state, and man enjoy any tolerable degree of felicity. If the body be suffered to remain long inactive, it will lose its strength, and become a prey to disease, at the same time the mental faculties will be gradually enfeebled, and the whole fabric of human happiness be undermined by fretful ness and spleen. It is, ou the contrary, a matter of constant experience, that a regular course of bodily exercise is conducive to health, exhilirates the spirits, and contributes to the easy and successful employment of the intellectual powers. The frequent application of the mind to study establishes a habit of thinking, which renders it easy and pleasing to engage in any kind of scientific or literary pursuit; but a mind which remains long unemployed, loses its delicacy and vigour, and degenerates into languor and stupidity. As the earth, if it be industriously culti vated, will produce fruits in rich abundance; so if it be permitted to remain long uncultivated, it will be covered with weeds, which will be rank in proportion to the richness of the soil. In like manner the human mind, if cultivated with great assiduity, will yield a plentiful harvest of knowledge and wisdom; on the contrary, if neglected, it will gradually be corrupted with the seeds of error and folly, and the noxious weeds will grow up in the greatest abundance in those minds which are by nature capable of producing the most excellent fruits. The obvious and the undeniable fact is, that man was made for action, and not for indolence. Manners and Customs. SKETCHES OF PARIS. An Execution. We were beguiling our time one evening at a small but comfortable café, in the Rue de Vaugirard, sipping our demi-tusse, and reading Galignani's Messenger, to see how things were going on at home, when the proprietor, a civil and intelligent man, informed us, in an under tone, that an execution was to take place the next morning at the Barrière d'Arcueil, but that it was not generally known, as the time and place of the fatal operation of the guillotine are always kept secret. Now this struck us as a singular contradiction. The executions in Paris, as everywhere else, are for the avowed purpose of example, in consequence of which they are generally quite private, in order that nobody may witness them. Anxious to behold so terrible, yet at the same time so novel a spectacle to an English man, we rose early the next morning, and by seven o'clock were on our way to the barrier, where the executions are generally held, since the removal of the scene of blood from the Place de Grève, in front of the Hotel de Ville. The inhabitants of Paris are an early people, and business was quite alive at this hour; but we did not see that tide of spectators pressing towards the spot, as we should have observed in England, until we had passed the Val-de-Grace, when several were evidently bending their steps in that direction; for in the immediate neighbourhood, the erection of the guillotine is a sufficient signal of what is to follow. On arriving at the Place St. Jacques, in the centre of which the scaffold was erected, a moderate crowd had assembled, forming a large semicircle, commencing from the barrier on each side. They were chiefly composed, it is true, of the lower orders, but several very respectable-looking females were amongst them; and we observed three or four decent-looking voitures, drawn up under the trees of the boulvards, and outside the ring of people, filled with spectators. Of course, all the windows commanding a glimpse of the area were fully occupied ; and we were surprised to observe, at many of them, several young girls of seventeen or eighteen, whose dress and demeanour betokened them to belong to a respectable sphere of life, anxiously gazing on the fearful preparations of bloodshed. The crowd were certainly amusing themselves in a most hilarious manner; itinerant venders of cakes and marchands de coco were perambulating amongst them; and a stranger would have thought they were waiting during the entr'acte of an exhibition of mountebanks, instead of being collected together to see a fellow-creature deprived of life. We recognised a municipal guard among the soldiers, with whom we were slightly acquainted, and with his permission we were allowed to approach the scaffold. The guillotine was the ground, resting on an open framework of erected on a platform about seven feet from timber, all of which was painted red. By the side of the plank on which the criminal was to be confined, was a long basket of coarse work, filled, we presume, with sand or sawdust, and the box for the reception of the head was strapped to the uprights between which the ponderous knife was to fall. On one side of the scaffold was a common market cart, in which two men were calmly sitting and smoking their pipes-this was to convey the body away; and on the other machine itself. The circle of spectators was we observed a light waggon to carry off the preserved by the municipal guard stationed d'armes were conversing in different little in pairs at short distances, and the gens knots in the centre. About a quarter to eight the cloud of dust at the end of the Boulvard d'Enfer, proclaimed the approach of the cavalcade, a circumstance which seemed to be hailed with much glee by the mob. A large detachment of horse-soldiers city functionaries, in a lutecienne;* and lastly, came first; then, we presume, some of the the criminal van, in which we were informed A small four-wheeled fly for one horse, containing three persons. |