small edition, the preservation in print of a relic which, even in the mere commonplace power of giving amusement, exceeds the majority of circulating novels; while readers whose appetites are more discriminating, and the students of the past, to whom the productions of their ancestors have a memorial value for themselves, may find their taste gratified at least with some fragments of genuine beauty equal to the best extant specimens of early English poetry. In the hope of contributing to such a result, I am going to offer to the readers of Fraser a few miscellaneous selections from different parts of the volume; and as in the original they are thrown together without In the Library at Balliol College, Oxford, there is a manuscript which, for want of a better name, I may call a Commonplace Book of an English gentleman who lived in the beginning of the sixteenth century. Its contents display, beyond any other single volume which I have met with, the mental furniture of an average-educated man of the time. There are stories in prose and verse, collections of proverbs, a dissertation on Horticulture, a dissertation on Farriery, a treatise of Confession, a Book of Education, a Book of Courtesy, a Book of "the Whole Duty" of Man; mercantile entries, discourses of arith-order-the sacred side by side with the prometic, recipes, prescriptions, marvels of science or pseudo-science, conundurums, tables of the assize of food; the laws respecting the sale of meat, bread, beer, wine, and other necessaries; while above and beyond all are a collection in various handwritings of ballads, songs, hymns, and didactic poems of a religious kind, some few of which have been met with elsewhere; but of the greater number of them no other copy, I believe exists. fane; the devotional, the humorous, and the practical reposing in placid juxtaposition-I shall not attempt to remedy a disorder which is itself so characteristic a feature. Let us commence, then, as a fitting grace before the banquet, with a song on the Nativity. The spirit which appears in many of the most beautiful pictures of medieval art is here found taking the form of words: "Can I not sing Ut Hoy, When the Jolly shepherd made so much joy. "The shepherd upon a hill he sat, The owner and compiler was a certain Richard Hilles. From the entries of the births and deaths of his children on a fly-leaf, I gather that in 1518 he lived at a place called Hillend, near King's Langley, in Hertfordshire. The year following he had removed to London, where he was apparently in business; and among his remarks on the management. of vines and fruit trees in his "Discourse on Gardens," he mentions incidentally that he had been in Greece and on the coast of Asia Minor. A brief "Annual Register" is carried down as far as 1535, in which year he perhaps died. One of his latest entries is the execution of Bishop Fisher and of Sir Thomas More. Some other facts about him might perhaps be collected; but his personal history could add little to the interest of his book, which is its own sufficient recommendation. It will be evident, from the description which I have given, that as an antiquarian curiosity this manuscript is one of the most remarkable of its kind which survives. The public, who are willing to pay for the production of thousands of volumes annually, the value of which is inappreciable from its littleness, may perhaps not be unwilling to encourage, to the extent of the purchase of a He had on him his tabard and his hat; Ut Hoy, For in his pipe he made so much joy. For in his pipe he made so much joy. For in his pipe he made so much joy. For in his pipe he made so much joy. For in his pipe he made so much joy. "When Wat to Bethlehem come was,! He swat: he had gone faster than a pace. For in his pipe he made so much joy. For in his pipe he made so much joy. And farewell, Joseph, with thy gown and cap; For in his pipe he made so much joy. For in his pipe he made so much joy." Hilles was perhaps himself a poet, or so I gather from the phrase, "Quoth Richard Hilles," with which more than one piece of great merit terminates. He would scarcely have added his own name to the composition of another person. Elizabeth, queen of Henry VII., died in childbirth in February, 1502-3. The following "Lamentation," if not written by Hilles himself, was written in his lifetime: THE LAMENTATION OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. "Ye that put your trust and confidence In worldly riches and frail prosperity, That so live here as ye should never hence; Remember death, and look here upon me; Insample I think there may no better be: Yourself wot well that in my realm was I Your Queen but late; Lo, here I lie, "Was I not born of worthy lineage: Was not my mother Queen, my father King; Was I not a king's fere in marriage; Had I not plenty of every pleasant thing? Merciful God! this is a strange reckoning; Riches, honor, wealth, and ancestry, Hath me forsaken; Lo, here I lie. "If worship might have kept me I had not go; If wealth might have me served I needed not so; If money might have held I lacked none. "Yet was I lately promised otherwise This year to live in wealth and in delice, Lo, whereto cometh the blandishing promise? Oh, false astrology diminatrice Of Goddes secrets, making thee so wise! "Caput apri refero, Resonans laudes Domino, "The boar's head in hand I bring, "The boar's head I understand, Is chief service in all this land, "The boar's head, I dare well say, He taketh his leave and goeth away, Four of the following verses are on a tombstone, I believe in Melrose Abbey, and are well known. Few if any persons will have seen the poem of which they form a part. So far as I am aware no other copy survives : * "Vado mori Rex sum, quid honor quid gloria mundi, Est vita mors hominum regia-vado mori. Vado mori miles victo certamine belli, Mortem non didici vincere vado mori. Vado mori medicus, medicamine non relevandus, Quicquid agunt medici respuo vado mori. Vado mori logicus, aliis concludero novi, Concludit breviter mors in vado mori. "Earth out of earth is worldly wrought; Earth hath gotten upon earth a dignity of nought; Earth upon earth has set all his thought, How that earth upon earth might be high brought. "Earth upon earth would be a king, But how that earth shall to earth he thinketh no thing. When earth biddeth earth his rents home bring, "Earth upon earth winneth castles and towers, Then saith earth unto earth this is all ours; But when earth upon earth has builded his bowers, Then shall earth upon earth suffer hard showers. "Earth upon earth hath wealth upon mould; Earth goeth upon earth glittering all in gold, Like as he unto earth never turn should, And yet shall earth unto earth sooner than he would. "Why that earth loveth earth wonder I think, Or why that earth will for earth sweat and swink. For when earth upon earth is brought within the brink, Then shall earth for earth suffer a foul stink. "As earth upon earth were the worthies nine, And as earth upon earth in honor did shine; But earth list not to know how they should incline, And their gowns laid in the earth when death had made his fine. "As earth upon earth full worthy was Joshua, David, and worthy King Judas Maccabee, They were but earth none of them three; And so from earth unto earth they left their dignity. "Alisander was but earth that all the world wan, And Hector upon earth was held a worthy man, And Julius Cæsar, that the Empire first began; And now as earth within earth they lie pale and wan. "Arthur was but earth for all his renown, No more was King Charles nor Godfrey of Boulogne; But now earth hath turned their noblenes upside down, And thus earth goeth to earth by short conclusion. "Whoso reckons also of William Conqueror, King Henry the First that was of knighthood flower, Earth hath closed them full straitly in his bower, So the end of worthiness,-here is no more succor. "Now ye that live upon earth, both young and old, Think how ye shall to earth, be ye never so bold; Yo be unsiker, whether it be in heat or cold, Like as your brethren did before, as I have told. Then shall earth from earth have a hard "Now ye folks that be here ye may not long enparting. *Since this was written I have learned that a version, with important differences, has been printed for the Warton Club, from a MS. in the possession of Mr. Ormsby Gore. dure, But that ye shall turn to earth I do you en sure; And if ye list of the truth to see a plain figure, Go to St. Paul's and see the portraiture. L "Now sith by death we shall all pass, it is to us certain, For of earth we come all, and to the earth shall turn again; Therefore to strive or grudge it were but vain. For all is earth and shall be earth-nothing more certain. "Now earth upon earth consider thou may How earth cometh to earth naked alway, Why should earth upon earth go stout alway, Since earth out of earth shall pass in poor array? "I counsel you upon earth that wickedly have wrought, That earth out of earth to bliss may be brought." Of songs, nursery rhymes, and carols, there are very many, of which the next three are specimens :- 'Lulley, lulley, lulley, lulley, The falcon hath borne my mate away, Lulley, lulley, lulley, lulley, The falcon hath borne my mate away. "In that orchard there was a hall, That was hanged with purple and pall, "And by the bed side there standeth a stone, The falcon hath borne my mate away." "I have twelve oxen, and they be fair and brown, And they go a grazing down by the town, Sawest thou not mine oxen, thou pretty little "I have twelve oxen, and they be fair and white, And they go a grazing down by the dyke, With haye, with howe, with hoye! Sawest thou not mine oxen, thou pretty little boy? "I have twelve oxen, and they be fair and black, And they go a grazing down by the lake, With haye, with howe, with hoye! Sawest thou not mine oxen, thou pretty little boy? "I have twelve oxen, and they be fair and red, And they go a grazing down by the mead, With haye, with howe, with hoye ! Sawest thou not mine oxen, thou pretty little boy?" "Make we merry in hall and bower, This time was born our Saviour. "In this time God hath sent "In this time that is befal, A child was born in an ox stall, "In this time an Angel bright To God that is our Saviour. "In this time now pray we And how exquisitely graceful too is this :- The root of it is called Jesse, There is none such in Paradise. "Of Lily white and Rose of Ryse, To help our souls both great and small. That ever was or ever be shall." Mr. Hilles was a good Catholic. Amidst a multitude of religious poems of a Catholic kind, there is not one which could be construed as implying a leaning towards the Reformers; while under a certain legend of St. Gregory some indignant Protestant of the next generation has written a passionate anathema calling it lies of the devil and other similar hard names. A private diary of such a person therefore, of the years in which England was separated from the Papacy, is of especial interest :— "1533. Stephen Peacock, haberdasher, mayor. "This year, the 29th day of May, the Mayor of London, with the aldermen in scarlet gowns, went in barges to Greenwich, with their banners, as they were wont to bring the Mayor to Westminster and the |