the work of it, and as folks say, was called Jesus Hall. One may see the word Jesus thus cut in wood yet over the gate of it in two places, i.h.s. As for the hall, I am apt to think that the present hall and dining-room, and the chamber above it, have been but one room, as is apparent by the work of it, and I believe that the old Vicaridge House, next adjoyning to it, being before united, together made up one house, because one may easily perceive that they were so by the work, and what alterations have been made in some of the windows of the old Vicaridge House. I remember to have seen a branch painted with the letter in the middle of it. I always thought that this was some rebus or device the person had chose to express his name by, who caused those windows to be made, but could not think of any name that it might allude to ; and in one place I could read Orate pro ata, and the churchyard. In 1830 the enlarged building became the goal and house of correction, for the city and county of Coventry. On the 9th of August, 1848, the last execution carried into effect tooks place before its walls, and in 1854, on the right of holding an assize in Coventry being withdrawn, under the effect of the new boundary Act of 1842 (which annulled the old jurisdiction of the county of the City of Coventry, and incorporated it with the County of Warwick), the goal was for the most part rendered useless, except as a place of detention, and entirely so as a house of correction. A few years ago the greater part of the old goal and its site was purchased by John Gulson, Esq., an ex-mayor, and one of the city magistrates. He has liberally given the site, and supplemented the gift by undertaking the main cost of the building (assisted by the donation of £1000 from S. Carter, Esq.), of a new Free Library. The and thus other painted glass put in since; and designs have been prepared by Mr. E. Burgess, presently hujus vicarii fundat; But in the windows of my uncle's part of this ancient house, I well remember that, about three years ago (1690), I saw the same branches and the up and down in them; in one placeOrate pro a'ía Thome Bowde, hujus vicarii fundatoris, architect, adapted from the Gothic, and the building harmonises with the two noble churches with which it is in such close proximity. The northeast corner is purposely kept low so as not to obstruct the view of Trinity Church. The plan embraces a noble reading-room, very lofty, with a high pitched open roof, extending the whole depth of the building; north of this are the reference and circulating libraries, ante-room, and entrance hall over the libraries are committee and other rooms; the ante-room being in the north-east corner, and of one story only, for the object previously alluded to. which proved my conjecture to be true, he using a bough and a to express his name by.' In 1742, it was determined to take down the old Vicarage House and Jesus Hall, a faculty having The structure is of red brick, with Bath-stone been obtained the previous year for so doing; and dressings, and will cost above £4000. The conit appears from the entries in the church books in tractor is Mr. James Marriott, of Coventry, and 1744, that the payments for building the new par- the building will be ready for occupation during sonage house amounted to £572 Is. 4d., exclusive the present month. of the faculty and sundry other expenses, amount- I have thus briefly glanced over the leading ing to £30 75. 7d. The sum of £100 16s. 11d. points of the history of one of our local sites; being received for the old materials. A view of first a miscellaneous pile of private habitations, this new vicarage appears in a print of the date of then a common hall of the priests of the neigh1810, by Mr. James Walker, of the 13th Light bouring church, a vicarage attached to the same Dragoons, then stationed in Coventry. These edifice, subsequently a goal, and now destined to prints are scarce and but little known, and exhibit a panoramic view of the two churches and neigh- not what other useful features may hereafter be serve the purpose of a public library, and we know bouring houses. added to this truly noble educational institution. W. G. FRETTON. In 1824 the necessity for enlarging the adjoining city and county gaol became evident, and a special jury, summoned for the purpose, decided on the purchase of the vicarage house, garden, and appurtenances at the price of £842, to be paid out of the rates. The whole of the premises were taken down in April, 1826, and the cells, yards, and other portions extended to the boundary of the old vicarage property near Trinity Church, leaving a narrow pathway between the high wall of the goal Simon Burton. THE LADIES OF LLANGOLLEN. they looked exactly like two respectable superannuated old clergymen." (The "black beaver N the June No. of LONG AGO it was stated that men's hats," as the writer rather curiously calls Plâs Newydd, the residence of the "Ladies of them, were, it must be remembered, then and until Llangollen," was advertised for sale. "The Ladies recently the custom of the country.) Matthews of Llangollen" It is a story of "long ago"-so accepted their pressing invitation, and paid them a long ago, that perhaps the memories of our readers visit, which he humorously describes in a letter will bear a little refreshing on the subject. Lady dated October 24th. Among other visitors, they Eleanor Charlotte Butler, daughter of the sixteenth entertained Sir Walter Scott and Mr. Lockhart, Earl of Ormond, was born in Ireland in the year Miss Seward, Madame de Genlis, and in fact all the 1739. Among the friends of her youth was a child most eminent of the tourists who in those days some sixteen years her junior, named Sarah Pon- risked the dangers of a trip to Llangollen. Perhaps sonby. A most close and romantic attachment the most interesting description of the ladies and grew up between the two, so that the idea of a their surroundings is preserved in the "Tour of a possible separation became unendurable to both. German Prince" (Puckler Maskau, of Prussia), This close attachment was viewed with great dis- who visited them in 1828. Lady Eleanor was then favour by the Ormond family, who attributed to it "a short, robust woman" of eighty-three- Miss Lady Eleanor's peremptory rejection of five suc- Ponsonby "a tall and imposing personage" of cessive and eligible offers of marriage, and an at- seventy-four. (The respective ages are thus given tempt was made to separate them. In vain! They by the Prince, who was clearly misinformed.) "No eloped were tracked — overtaken- and brought one who is presentable," he adds, “travels in Wales back. A short time afterwards, however, they dis- without an introduction to them;" but not having appeared again, together with a female servant, and provided himself with one, he determined "to the place of their retreat was not discovered for storm the cottage ;" but on the simple presentation some years. of his card, the garrison surrendered at discretion, and he became a welcome guest. His description of "the ladies" in their old age calls up a strange picture before our eyes:-" Both wore their still abundant hair, combed straight back and powdered, a round man's hat" (this is as bad as Matthews' "black beaver men's hats"), "a man's cravat and waistcoat; but, in the place of inexpressibles, a short petticoat and boots--the whole covered by a coat of blue cloth, of a cut quite peculiar—a sort of middle term between a man's coat and a lady's Meanwhile they had purchased the estate and riding-habit. Over this Lady Eleanor wore, first, caused a cottage to be built after their own tastes, the Grand Cordon of the Order of St. Louis across surrounded by gardens, pleasure-grounds, rural her shoulders; secondly, the same order around her walks, grottoes, temples, conservatories, rustic neck; thirdly, the small cross of the same to her bridges, and ornamented with wood carvings button-hole; and, pour comble de gloire, a golden and other perhaps somewhat incongruous adorn- lily, of nearly the natural size, as a star-all, as she ments. On the whole, it was, however, a delightful said, presents of the Bourbon family. So far the retreat, although our two heroines ceased in a few whole effect was somewhat ludicrous. But now years to be recluses in the strict sense of the word. you must imagine both ladies with that agreeable They never, it is true, slept from home, but they aisance-that air of the world of the ancien régime, received and returned visits, and kept up a lively courteous and entertaining, without the slightest correspondence with the principal celebrities of the affectation, speaking French as well as any Englishperiod. In 1820, they even travelled as far as woman of my acquaintance; and above all with Oswestry to see a performance of the elder Mat- that essentially polite, unconstrained, and simply thews, returning home, a distance of fourteen miles, cheerful manner of the good society of that day, after the close of the theatre at twelve o'clock. which, in our serious hard-working age of business, The celebrated comedian thus describes them in a appears to be going to utter decay. I was really letter to his wife, dated September 4th, 1820:- affected with a melancholy sort of pleasure in con"As they are seated, there is not one point to dis- templating it in the persons of the amiable old tinguish them from men. The dressing and pow- ladies who are among the last of its living repredering of the hair; their well-starched neck-cloths; sentatives, nor could I witness without lively symthe upper part of their habits, which they always pathy the unremitting, natural, and affectionate wear, even at a dinner-party, made precisely like attention with which the younger treated her somemen's coats; and regular black beaver men's hats, what infirmer friend, and anticipated all her wants." The minds of the simple villagers of Llangollen, in North Wales, were much exercised nearly a hundred years ago by the sudden appearance in their midst of three mysterious female strangers. Mr. Lockhart, on authority which is open to doubt, says that Miss Ponsonby was dressed "in the garb of a smart footman, in buckskin breeches;" scandal was rife and busy, and it was many years before the unostentatious charities of the two ladies silenced the wicked tongue of slander. * "Not only the venerable ladies, but their house was full of interest; indeed it contained some real treasures. There is scarcely a remarkable person of the last half century who has not sent them a portrait, or some other curiosity or antique, as a token of remembrance. The collection of these, a well-furnished library, a delightful situation, an equable, tranquil life, and perfect friendship and union-these have been their possessions; and, if we may judge by their robust old age, and their cheerful temper, they have not chosen amiss." Death was as tender as Time had been with the good old ladies, and did not attack the happy cottage till June 2nd, 1829, when he carried off Lady Eleanor Butler at the ripe old age of ninety. Two years and a half afterwards, Miss Ponsonby, who had lived in strict seclusion after her friend's death, succumbed to the effects of grief, and died on the 9th of December, 1831, aged seventy-six. They both lie in the churchyard of Llangollen, under a stone monument bearing touching testimony to their long friendship, and also recording the long-previous death of the faithful domestic who accompanied them from Ireland, Mary Carryl, who died on the 22nd of November, 1809. On their death the cottage and estate came into the hands of the far-famed auctioneer, George Robins, for disposal by public sale. The bill and catalogue are before us, and are couched in the florid style which Robins had made his own. They are too long to reprint, observe as an indication that the two "recluses" were not above an appreciation of the creature comforts, that their cellar comprised old Port, Sherry, Madeira, Lisbon, Bucellas, Vidoria, Mareschino, Noyeau, Eau de la Reine, and other estimable Liqueurs." but we The property and many of the relics were purchased by two friends of the deceased, Miss Lolly and Miss Andrew, who, to some extent, copied their mode of life; but as the shrubs grew into trees and many of the alterations and "improvements" were conceived in bad taste, and out of character, Plâs Newydd soon ceased to be the pretty retreat which it was in the days of "the ladies." It is now only a memory of Long Ago. Stoke Newington. A. A. THE CHEVALIER QUIRINO BIGI has published at Correggio a very curious memoir of the famous painter, Antonio Allegri, surnamed Correggio, and which completely contradicts the previous notions concerning his career and circumstances. The information given in the memoir, has, says the Architect, been derived from documents found in the depositories of the little town of Correggio and the city of Parma. ANCIENT CUSTOMS OF THE LAND OF A CONTEMPORARY with the very type of whose plays his translations of ponderous chronicles are composed-bewails the birth and early life of Henry the Fourth of France, in that he had then a fate so" abject and contemptible as to be shut up in the Pyrenean dens or grottes." Yet that life in the rugged highland region fitted the vert galant for his after hardships. French romancists, Dumas and Soulie, amongst the first, would have been grieved not to have had that rugged realm as a field of action for their heroes. If M. Paul Raymond, keeper of public records in the department of the Lower Pyrenees, does not furnish them with many incidents for novels, he supplies us, at least, with some interesting notes upon the manners and customs of the Béarnese in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. In every one of the musty documents which his diligence has unearthed, the ramifications of the church are seen to extend. Priests of all degrees figure as often in the criminal accusations for defendants as for arbiters and witnesses. The fines of offenders, whether in money or kind, help to maintain, repair, or build sacred edifices, and pledges, oaths, and vows are made upon relics and other holy objects, which are, as a matter of course, in the hands of the religious officials. In the papers curious names crop up, part French, part Spanish, all stamped with Basque variations, such as, among those of females, Amadine, Audine, Bibentoo, Blanquine, Domengine, Guirantine, Prosine; and among the men's-Arnautuc, Arnautuquet, Berdolet, Bernat, Guilhemolo, Goathoart, Johnænico, Monantolo, Perarnaud, Peyrolet, Sansolet -none of that sweetness which would draw a dolphin ashore, as the ancient said "Simon" had the power to do. Gambling seems to have been the worst of the Seven Deadly Sins, in that day. The remedy speaks well for the belief in personal honour, or the impossibility of carrying on a system of deceit undiscovered in a small community. Lords and louts were alike charmed by the rattle of the Satanic "bones," or the flapping of cards. A coppersmith's 'prentice hastens to vow that during his four years' training in that noble craft, he will not gamble, unless it were in a company where much wine was drunk, and where, consequently, temptation might come upon him when he was ill-fitted to resist it. At the other end of the social ladder, the Lord of Lanegaa himself, in consideration of some money lent him, sets his hand to a scroll, by which he is engaged to gamble neither by himself nor an agent for a good two years to come. The penalty is to give his creditor and family board and lodging in his own house. dog Latin and Béarnese French, but are drawn up with a priest's or lawyer's craftiness, as witness the word "day," being taken to include both day and night, and a "year" to be from one day to the end of the same day a twelvemonth distant. The artistes in tric-trac and backgammon can have found but few loop-holes of escape in such forms. The hail-fellow-well-met swagger with which the expectant gamesters come up before the authorities to put their marks to these parchments, reveal a tender state of feeling towards them which could not be termed harsh. A friend of the Lord of Claverie values his life at two hundred pence-as it would appear from his pledge to leap into the river from off Orthez stone bridge, if he should touch cards, dice, or other implements of play throughout his life, or should be unable to pay the sum mentioned. For three golden crowns, another gamester debars himself from his own peculiar weakness for as many years. A more cautious fellow reserves to himself the right to play at bowls, so long as the stake is merely the settling of the score for meat and drink. If he goes beyond that amount, he agrees to pay four florens to the Lord of Béarn, the like to a friend, and as much towards the building of St. Mary's by our industrious compiler, is a variation from Cathedral at Oleron engaging his person. This was no light gage, for servitude worse than imprisonment was to be dreaded in an age when the private secretaryto the famous Gaston Phoebus, Count of Foix and Lord of Béarn, was a slave. The petty farmers and oil-pressers were not often able to command cash for their amendes. In such cases, the church received even oil for its lamps in lieu of silver. The father confessors had much or all to do with the stopping of this flow of loose pence to the hostelries abounding in mares of the push-pin and tarotcard nature. Far otherwise with the unfortunates rejected alike by church and cottage. In "The History of Races under the Ban," by Francisque Michel, the relgulations will be found at length, which excluded from their fellow-man the Cagots, or Chrestians, as they were called in Béarn down to the sixteenth century. The Act discovered those made public. Maestre Ramon, the Cagot, his wife, son, daughter, and all others of his family, are prohibited from herding cattle or doing work as carpenters or otherwise, as had heretofore been permitted them. Thus deprived of their scanty employment-for which human nature tells us they were not overpaid in consideration of their misfortunes-they were forbidden to beg from door to door on the plea of their being Cagots, or to solicit alms anywhere else. They were also ordered not to frequent the neighbourhood of fountains or other watering places, much less to go up to them for water In the worst case of all, a householder had or to wash. To this warrant of destruction of been not only led away by false friends into a family of afflicted beings, for whom no proper wasting his estate in diversions, but into becoming refuge was provided by lord, priest, or farmerbail for his boon companions in their straits. the authorities of Momour set their hands on The rector (as the priest of the parish is called the "1111 day of August, 1471." in these documents) having excommunicated him, Master Goalhart was fain to appear before him and his family council (just as young Parisian prodigals are bound to do this day, under the Code Napoleon) and confess his regret. In the future, so he promises, he will take care to lend no money to anybody but relations or respectable friends. He will pay a fine every time he gambles for more than innocent matters, like a pint of wine-half of which (the priest's finger here evidently points the pen) goes to the reparation of the church at Lucq, and to the treasurer of St. Michel's. There must have been a flock of Master Goalhart's IO U's flying about, since the council cause him to repudiate all his outstanding debts. There was gnashing of teeth over a lost black-sheep in the taverns of Navarreux the day that paper was read in public. All these engagements are in a mixture of At this same time and in this same region, the home to our own days of these lepers, the moral canker in the priesthood was as manifest as hideous. The plentiful proofs of their misconduct are not to be quoted in these pages. What they permitted, sufficiently shows how placidly they gazed upon the world without the monastery. "The noble baron," who steals away a vassal's wife, is compelled by his suzerain, the Count of Foix's solemn sentence, to deliver up the woman, to assure the husband from wrong in person or property, "according to the general custom of the county," and to pay the man a span of beeves. The wife must restore to her husband not only all she has had from him in the way of portion, but as much more out of her own personal property, in one payment, as a fine; until he receives which, he is to hold their house (which was hers) against everybody. The baron and his vassal were present in the Church of Pau to hear this judgment read. Suspected persons could exonerate themselves by swearing that they were innocent upon the holy Evangelists, held in the right hand before the altar. One Guilhem deu Cog, a contractor, who had enriched himself by building churches, signs a very pretty contract on that appropriate day, the 1st of April, 1388. He binds himself, in the event of his wife dying, to take for wife one Gualhardine, who, in return, will gladly accept him, if her husband also shall die timely. (Mr. Charles Reade's "Double Marriage" is feeblenèss itself to this cool proposition.) Meanwhile, Gualhardine is given board and lodging as a servant in the contractor's house. If the notary had executed this agreement in duplicate and served Madame deu Cog with a copy, the probability is that Madame Gualhardine would have led quite a slavey's life of it. Even under such provocations, perhaps, though wives were afraid to murmur loudly when the husbands were as much lords and masters as the Camanche Indian in his lodge. One wife, in question, who had offended her stronger half, was only allowed to return home if her parents paid all the fines that her misconduct had brought upon the husband, and if she, on entering the house, fell upon her knees, and said slowly, one word after another, "I, Domengine, declare that I am a false and bad wife, and have grievously wronged my husband, like the bad woman that I am, and I pray him to forgive me." It is a pity, to point the tale, that this forgiving Benedict was not the Pierre de Sapres, whom we find solemnly promising his wife, Bonine, not to beat her for trivial causes, either with a cudgel or otherwise, unless he can prove her really guilty. If he should thump her unwarrantably, he must pay twenty silver marks to the Count of Foix, besides four calved cows to buy a missal-cape for the abbot elect of Lucq. "ROBIN HOOD'S GARLAND." I HAVE before me a collection of twenty-seven ballads which, under the above heading, chiefly relate to the life and exploits of the once noted Robin Hood, the outlawed Earl of Huntington. On referring to Ritson, I find that "none of these songs, it is believed, were ever collected into a garland till some time after the Restoration ; as the earlyest that has been met with, a copy of which is preserved in the study of Anthony à Wood, was printed by W. Thackeray, a noted ballad-monger, in 1689. This, however, contains no more than sixteen songs, some of which, very falsely as it seems, are said to have been 'never before printed.' 'The latest edition of any worth,' according to Sir John Hawkins, 'is that of 1719.' None of the old editions of this garland have any sort of preface: that prefixed to the modern ones of Bow, or Aldermary Churchyard, being taken from the collection of old ballads, 1723, where it is placed at the head of Robin Hood's birth and breeding. The full title of the last London edition of any note is, Robin Hood's Garland ;' being a complete history of all the notable and merry exploits performed by him and his men on many occasion: to which is added a preface (ie., the one already mentioned), giving a more full and particular account of his birth, &c., than any hitherto published. (Cut of archers shooting at a target.) I'll send this arrow from my bow, It were for fifteen hundred pound. London, Adorned with twenty-seven neat and curious cuts adapted to the subject of each song. printed and sold by R. Marshall, in Aldermary On the back of Churchyard, Bow-lane," 12mo. the title page is the following Grub-street address:"TO ALL GENTLEMEN ARCHERS. "This garland has been long out of repair, Some songs being wanting, of which we give account; For now at last, by true industrious care, The sixteen songs to twenty-seven we mount; This continuous enumeration of the powers of the church makes the last item in our budget the more singular. It is a certificate of just such another civil marriage as the vestry registrars record by scores in our day. In 1369, a hundred years before Luther was born, a loving couple appear before Squire Bernadon de Gerderest, a notary of Gant and a gentleman of noble family, and "in face of all present, they, Bernat and Amadine, come mouth to mouth and foot to foot, and, kissing, vow to be true, good, pure, and loyal one to the other, he taking her to serve him through health and illness, for better and worse, by night and day. Which they do of their own free will and pleasure, +"Robin Hood; a collection of poems, songs, and swearing together on the four holy Evangelists." ballads, relative to that celebrated English outlaw. Edited by Joseph Ritson." Ingram's edition. H. L. WILLIAMS. 1 Parted with their gold, for to increase their store, But never would they rob or wrong the poor."+ *The property of Mr. Jesse Mitchell, of Great Horton, Bradford. |