It is always casier to repeat a falsehood than first to tell it; and if Mrs. Herbert had one reason to tell hers once, she had a dozen reasons now. Still this was so solemn an occasion-for now she saw her father must die—that the pang it gave her almost rent her heart in two. But wonderful is the bravery of women, passing all understanding. Bracing up her heart in iron bands, she answered"It is all nonsense, father!"

"That is enough, my child. Now I tell you what you shall do. You shall just write a little note to Mr. Herbert. There are writing-materials."

“O father—why? What can I say?"

"Take your pen-only a few words, which I'll dictate. Come!" he added, seeing that Charlotte made no sign of obeying. "I tell you I cannot rest about this matter!"

Clearly there was no help for it. But by this time Charlotte's heart was numb: there was no more feeling in it. She arranged the writing-materials in a perfectly methodical way, and wrote as her father dictated.

"DEAR MR. GROVELLY,-My father desires me-as he is too ill to write himself to say that he has just heard a rumour which gives him great concern. Gossiping tongues, it seems, are hatching mischief out of the kindness which you, with all your honoured family, have ever treated him and me. You are aware how little reason there is for such an idle tale; but idle tales are often very serious, and he throws himself on your generosity to contradict the story that I am intriguing to enter your family; and while he begs on his sick bed that neither my lady nor Sir Thomas will ever withdraw their favour for such nonsense, he relies with perfect security on your honour and kind sense never to countenance it even by the most innocent attentions, that may be twisted awry by scandalous people. My father has no doubt that you will be as much surprised by this ruinour as he has been; but he is hurt into the bargain, and trusts that will be an excuse for his writing to you.

"Ever your obedient servant,

"CHARLOTTE LEESON."

"That will do," added Mr. Leeson, with almost childish satisfaction. "It is killing two birds with one stone: answering Sir Thomas, and putting a check on Master Herbert. Here I have a seal, given to me by your poor mother, dead and gone, to hang at my watch-ribbon. Seal it with that."

Here he rang a bell, and a porter entered. "Post this letter in the morning," said he to the man, "and mind there is no mistake about it."

The letter was gone!

"And now Charlotte, good night! There may have been a little sweethearting, but no matter! We have settled it for the best, and now I am easy again. Kiss me, my dear! God bless you! Good night'

In the morning he was found dead, with one hand in the black box holding the wedding-ring and the coral. The other rested on his daughter's shoulder, as she sat by the bedside: and she was insensible.

THE DOMESTIC HISTORY OF ENGLAND.

FIFTEENTH CENTURY.

THE fifteenth century is, we presume, par excellence, the transition period of English history; for pilgrims and printing, migratory parliaments and paid representatives, manor-halls and stained-glass-windowed chapels, tell pretty plainly that cap-à-pie warriors, illuminated missals, and castellated iron-barred towers, are quietly passing away, and will henceforth only be known in history-in ruins or on the shelves of national museums. So be it; and may we never meet with any worse changes than these in our historical survey of home-life in England!

From no point of view, perhaps, can we trace the change in the character of the age more clearly than in watching that gradual transition which occurred during this and the next century, of castles into embattled mansions, and of embattled mansions into manor-halls. Of the castles that rose and studded the land, from the time of the Conqueror to the age of which we are now writing, it is dangerous to particularize any, when Tonbridge and Rochester, Lincoln and Norwich, Conway and Carnarvon, Windsor and Warwick, Ludlow and Ragland, Kenilworth and Middleham, with many, many more, each and all present themselves as candidates for our admiration and astonishment. Yet we dare not altogether omit some slight notice of these strongholds of our land; for even a domestic history would be incomplete without such a sketch.

It has been supposed that the defenceless condition of this island at the time of William the Conqueror was one of the great causes that rendered it so easy a prey to that warrior, who lost no time, after he made himself master of the island, in erecting strong castles in all the principal divisions of his kingdom, for the double purpose of strengthening the towns and keeping the people in awe. The Conqueror's followers, among whom he parcelled out the lands of the English, imitated their master's example by building castles on their estates; and so rapidly did they increase, that by the reign of Stephen, or within a century after the arrival of the Conqueror, there are said to have been 1115 castles completed in England alone; indeed, the whole kingdom was covered with military towers, and the people worn out with building them. At last the evil grew to so great a pitch, that a law was passed forbidding the erection of any more without an express license from the King.

Many of the castles, by the time of Stephen, were of great size. Instead of a single tower, they consisted of several towers, both round and square, united by walls inclosing a space called a court-yard, the entrance to which was usually between two strong towers. The whole building was surrounded by a moat or ditch, across which a drawbridge led to massive doors. These were covered with plates of iron, and in front of them was the ominous grating or portcullis, which could be raised or let down through deep grooves in the stonework; whilst overhead was a projecting parapet, resting on brackets, having openings from which melted lead and hot water could be poured, or stones thrown on the heads of any assailants who should attempt to force an entrance. A principal tower, or keep, rose pre-eminently above the rest, generally from an artificial mound. It contained a well of water, without which the garrison, when besieged, could not possibl hold out. This keep also contained a subterranean prison, and several

storeys of apartments, with which there was a communication either by a staircase built in the walls or on the outside of the tower.

Tonbridge Castle, built by Richard de Tonbridge, a follower of William the Conqueror, is one of the oldest castles we possess, and of this only a fragment of a towered entrance-gate remains. The whole building was surrounded by a moat, and the exterior walls inclosed an area of about six acres. The towers had no other openings than long, narrow slits, called oilets, through which, when besieged, archers shot their arrows.

But we may not linger for this is no military history-or we might tell of Middleham, that most picturesque of castles, in one of the wildest and most

glorious spots in Yorkshire, the birthplace of that Edward Prince of Wales (son of Richard III.), who died before his father, to the great grief of the nation; or of Conway, king of castles still, on the shores of the sandy Dee; or of Carnarvon, and its legendary tale of royal birth-pangs; of Kenilworth, sacred to love and Amy Robsart; of Warwick, with its kingmaker; and Windsor, with its mitred architect, the famous and liberal William of Wykeham-the poor boy of Winchester, whom the lord of the manor so generously placed in the grammar-school of that town, and whom Edward III. ultimately raised to a bishopric, and finally made Lord High Chancellor. It seems scarcely credible that he, while architect to the King, should only have received 1s. a day for his services; yet such is the fact. Labourers were also impressed to build this fine old castle, and compelled to work for their Royal master, whether they liked it or no. These men frequently stole away from their employment; but neither the King nor his councillors could devise any better plan to rectify this miserable state of affairs than a prison for these deserters, and penalties for those who employed them!

But to return to the architect of Windsor, better known, perhaps, as the founder of the free school at Winchester than even for his fine work for royalty. This great school, which, in spite of the innovations of time, still contains its seventy-two poor Wykehamite scholars, its warden, its fellows, and its sixteen choristers, is a standing monument of the nobleness of his character and of bis gratitude for the assistance he received during his own youth.

In one of the rooms belonging to this school there are some ancient admonitory symbols, which offer the scholars three alternatives-viz., a bishop's cap and staff, with a motto in Latin, signifying that he may stay and learn; an inkstand and a sword, with a motto meaning that, if he does not choose to learn, he may leave and, finally, a rod, that has no motto, because it needs none-so unmistakably does it imply that, if he will neither learn nor leave, he must submit to something more disagreeable. Another curiosity is a figure in this college, illustrative of a good servant according to the ideas of our ancestors. It is a compound of a man, a stag, an ass, and a hog; severally representing, it is presumed, the description of intellect, the swiftness of foot, the gentleness of temper, and the accommodating character of appetite that ought to be at a master's service.

The well-known "Dulce Domum" is said to have been composed by a poor Wykehamist, who had been condemned, as a punishment, to remain at school during the holidays. The story goes that, after composing this song and the melody, he sang it incessantly, till, languishing in vain longing for home, he sickened and died.

This would seem to have been the century for establishing schools and colleges. Eton rose at this period; Lincoln College, Oxford, was founded at this time; St. Mary Magdalene's and All Souls', in the same University, were also commenced. The latter was built by Chicheley, the bigoted Archbishop of Canterbury. Having determined to devote his money to pious and charitable uses, his friends, with whom he consulted, advised him to build an hospital for the disabled soldiers who were daily returning from the wars in France. But this good prelate, being more under the influence of superstition than humanity, and thinking it a greater act of charity to relieve the souls of the dead than the bodies of the living, founded a college for a warden and forty fellows, commanding them to put up incessant prayers for those who had fallen in the French wars; from whence it was called Collegium Omnium Animarum, the College of All Souls. The Archbishop expended 4,5451. on the fabric, and procured a considerable revenue for it out of the lands of the alien priories which had been dissolved a little time before.

Who can fail to see how greatly the spirit of the age had changed, now that men built colleges and banqueting-halls, instead of towers and castles? When clustered galleries, and quadrangled court-yards, and cathedral churches were being raised, rather than mounds, and moats, and drawbridges, and other similar instruments of defence, it could no longer be doubted that the dawn of happier and more peaceful times had commenced. However, if we imagine ourselves arrived at that period when the gentry occupied manor-houses, we must not, therefore, conclude that they were lodged in stately or even in well-sized houses. A manor-hall consisted of little more than a great hall, from whence, indeed, it derived its name; there was also another large room, corresponding to our parlour, but the stone hall was certainly the chief feature in the building, and was generally a large, lofty room. with a richly-carved roof, upon which were emblazoned the arms of the

The head table at meal

family. At the upper end, and furthest from the entrance, the floor was generally raised a step, and this part was styled the dais, or high place. The windows usually ranged along the sides of the hall, at some height above the ground, so as to leave room for wainscoting or tapestry below them. The royal arms usually occupied a conspicuous station at either end of the room. time was laid for the lord and the principal guests, on the raised place, and other tables were placed along the sides for inferior visitors and retainers. In the centre of the hall was the rere-doss, or fire-iron, against which faggots were piled and burnt upon the stone floor-the smoke passing through an opening in the roof immediately overhead, which was generally formed into an elevated lantern, a conspicuous ornament to the building. By a record of the year 1511, it appears that the hall-fire was discontinued at Easter-day (then called God's Sunday), and, the fire-irons being cleared away, the space whereon the fire was burnt was strewed with green rushes and flowers.

Stone houses are mentioned as belonging to the citizens of London even in the reign of Henry II., but timber was also very largely used in building for many ages. Early in the fourteenth century, bricks (in the present sense of the term) were introduced, probably from Flanders; but they did not come into general use till a century afterwards. If we try to picture the windows of the houses, we must fancy casements hung on hinges-for sash-windows were not introduced till the reign of Charles I. You will also be pleased to recollect that, at present, there is no glass in the casements-nothing but lattices of wicker, or fine strips of oak, checkerwise, or sheets of horn-for though glass windows have been used in churches for upwards of a thousand years, yet glazed windows were rare even in the time of Henry VIII., and at that time were moveable furniture, and bore a high price; indeed, when the Earl of Northumberland, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, left Alnwick Castle, in 1573, the windows were actually taken out of their frames, and carefully laid by! With regard to beds, too-in those days a gentleman's house that contained three or four was considered well provided for; and it was thought worthy of notice that a certain rich Venetian merchant, residing in the city of London about 1481, was possessed of no less than ten beds; his glass windows were also moveable property, and no mention is made of chairs or looking-glasses. So much for the luxury of the good old times!

A very singular, and not at all well-known fact, has to be related about the beds of those days; viz., that kings and great men carried them whithersoever they went and beds, be it remembered, not like the mattresses and blanket-couches of oriental nations, but massive, polished oaken affairs, so wieldy and cumbersome that the one slept in by Richard III., the night before the battle of Bosworth, is still preserved at the Blue Boar, Leicester. From its great size it has been transmitted from landlord to landlord down to the present time, and is slept on and used by ordinary travellers. About a hundred years after that fatal battle, as a chambermaid was sweeping under the bed, she struck the bottom with her broom, and, in consequence, there fell out some gold broad pieces. She mentioned the circumstance to her mistress, and, on the bedstead being examined, it was discovered to have been the travelling treasury, as well as the sleeping-place, of King Richard. The bottom was found to be double, hollow, and full of gold broad coin of the time of Richard. The head was constructed in the same manner, and equally stored; and even the massive, swelling pillars, whose weight led every