anatomizing the criminal.' During the trial in the Hall, the cell to which the prisoner retired was on fire, which, by sawing away some timbers, was put out without any alarm to the Court.1

A singular tradition is current in the Ferrers family. The park of Chartley, in Staffordshire, is a wild, romantic spot, and was formerly attached to the Royal Forest of Needwood and the Honour of Tutbury, of the whole of which the ancient family of Ferrers were the puissant lords. Their immense possessions, now forming part of the Duchy of Lancaster, were forfeited by the attainder of Earl Ferrers after his defeat at Burton Bridge, where he led the rebellious Barons against Henry III. The Chartley estate being settled in dower, was alone reserved, and has been handed down to its present possessor. In the park is preserved the indigenous Staffordshire cow, small in stature, of sandwhite colour, with black ears, muzzle, and tips at the hoofs. In the year of the battle of Burton Bridge a black calf was born; and the downfall of the great house of Ferrers happening at the same period, gave rise to the tradition, which to this day has been current among the common people, that the birth of a parti-coloured calf from the wild breed in Chartley Park is a sure omen of death within the same year to a member of the lord's family; and by a noticeable coincidence, a calf of this description has been born when

1 The Countess of Ferrers, who, after his lordship's death, was married to Lord Frederick Campbell, brother to John fourth Duke of Argyll, was unfortunately burnt to death at her seat, Coomb Bank, Kent, in 1807.

ever a death has happened in the family of late years. The decease of the Earl and his Countess, of his son Lord Tamworth, of his daughter Mrs. William Joliffe, as well as the deaths of the son and heir of the eighth Earl and his daughter Lady Frances Shirley, were each preceded by the ominous birth of a calf. In the spring of 1855, an animal, perfectly black, was calved by one of this weird tribe in the park of Chartley, and it was soon followed by the death of the Countess. (Abridged from the Staffordshire Chronicle.) This curious tradition has been cleverly wrought into a romantic story, entitled Chartley, or the Fatalist.

T

THE HOUSE OF TALBOT.

HE noble family of Talbot, of which the Earl of
Shrewsbury is generally regarded as the head,

though his right was disputed by the Talbots of Malahide, and those of Bashall, in Yorkshire (now extinct in the male line), is of Norman extraction, and from the Conquest has held a foremost place in the annals of English history and of chivalry. The first upon record is Richard de Talbot, who is mentioned in Domesday Book as holding nine hides of land under Walter Gifford, Earl of Buckingham.' His son Hugh, having been governor of the King's Castle at Plessey, or Pleshey, in Essex, assumed the monastic cowl late in life, and died a monk in the Abbey of Beaubeck, in Normandy. His grandson Gilbert was warder of the Castle of Ludlow, and attended the coronation of Richard 1. in a distinguished capacity; and his grandson, another Gilbert, having been placed in command over the marches' of Herefordshire, married Gwendoline, daughter of the Prince or King of South Wales, whose arms his descendants have borne heraldically ever since. His grandson, a third Sir Gilbert, who had

been involved in the execution of Piers Gaveston, Earl of Cornwall, received the king's pardon, and was summoned to Parliament as a baron in 1331. His son and successor, Sir Richard Talbot, was summoned as a baron to Parliament in 1332-55; and being an eminent officer under Edward III., was made by the king a knight-bannaret on the field of battle. He owned large estates on the borders of Wales; among others, Gooderich Castle on the Wye, where he resided in great state and splendour. It was this nobleman's grandson, John Talbot, whom Shakspeare terms the great Alcides of the field,' who became the first Earl of Shrewsbury.

Gooderich Castle, though not of large dimensions, contained all the different works which constitute a complete ancient baronial castle. The general design forms a parallelogram, defended by a round tower at each of the angles, with an Anglo-Saxon keep. The entrance through a dark vaulted passage is the most striking feature. The chapel is graceful, and the hall stately, of the time of Edward I. Another room of almost equal size leads to the Ladies' Tower. The ruin is mantled with ivy and clematis. A castle, which belonged to one Goodric, stood here before the Conquest; the structure underwent alteration down to the reign of Henry VI.

Born towards the close of the thirteenth century, and having married the heiress of the proud house of Furnival, John Talbot was summoned to Parliament in 1409 as 'Johannes Talbot de Furnyvall.' In 1412 he was appointed

Lord Justice of Ireland, and two years later Lord-Lieutenant. This post he held for seven years. But it was

not on the narrow theatre of Ireland that he manifested his great military capacity. It was in France, where he took the field under Henry v., that he displayed those great qualities which made him the terror of the French nation. His earlier feats of arms were shown at the siege and capture of Meaux. He was with Henry v. when he died, and he seems to have inherited the spirit of his royal master. Equally valiant and faithful was he to that master's successor, Henry vi., for whom he gained so many battles on French soil, that the peasant mothers of Normandy hushed their children to rest by the bare mention of 'the dogge Talbot' being near. Checked for a moment at Patay by the Maid of Orleans, he was once taken prisoner; but being speedily exchanged, he soon retrieved the honour of the English arms. In reward, he was created Earl of Shrewsbury in England, and Waterford in Ireland; reappointed to his old viceregal post; and made High Steward of Ireland, the highest honours which at that time were open to a subject.

After this, he went once more to fight in France. We find him in command of the fleet, landing and taking Falaise, and as Lieutenant of the Duchy of Aquitaine, marching to the south, and forcing Bordeaux and other towns in that part to surrender to English arms. Thence he advanced to the relief of Chatillon, and giving the besieging French army battle, 17th July 1453, in the eightieth