probably, the queen then knighted her host, Sir Henry Sherington. In the Civil War, 1645, the house was garrisoned for the king, and taken by the opposite party shortly after Cromwell had won Devizes, the Lord of Lacock having previously been sent prisoner to London.

Aubrey relates this romantic story, which has the appearance of authenticity: Dame Olave, a daughter and co-heir of Sir [Henry] Sherington of Lacock, being in love with [John] Talbot, a younger brother of the Earl of Shrewsbury, and her father not consenting that she should marry him, discoursing with him one night from the battlements of the abbey church, said she, "I will leap down to you." Her sweetheart replied he would catch her then, but he did not believe she would have done it. She leapt downe; and the wind, which was then high, came under her coates, and did something break the fall. Mr. Talbot caught her in his arms, but she struck him dead. She cried out for help, and he was with great difficulty brought to life again. Her father told her that, since she had made such a leap, she should e'en marrie him. She was my honoured friend Colonel Sharington Talbot's grandmother, and died at her house at Lacock about 1651, being about an hundred years old. Quære, Sir Jo. Talbot?'

The above anecdote was missed by the venerable historian of Lacock, the Rev. Canon Bowles, to which work we are largely indebted for the materials of this sketch. John Carter, the antiquary, when he visited Lacock in. 1801, was told a tradition, that one of the nuns jumped

6

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then lean destroyed vet si geral tone al es cate In the Sterngroes the proper Joscendol to 8 Anthony Mlimag of Aperoms Northamptons) to deS harge and Grace Snughter Sn Ben She but had no issue ; so that de whole therance of Lacod came to her sister Clove, the wife of John Talbot, Fay of Salwary, county Worcester, found in descent from Jom de second Earl of Shrewsbury, from whom u has descended to Henry Fox Talbet., Esq., who in this delightill retreat, in chemical researches for his own recreation, here worka! out the secret of Photography. He took up the ground to which Davy and Wedgwood had made their way. Paper was the medium, which he made sensitive to light by nitrate of silver, and then fixed the image by common salt. He first called his process Photogenic Drawing, then Calotype, which his friends changed to Talbotype, in imitation of Daguerre's example. Mr. Fox Talbot is stated, in the Quarterly Review, No. ccii., to have sent his method to the Royal Society in the same month that Daguerre's discovery was made known, January 1839; but Sir David Brewster dates Mr. Talbot's communication six months earlier,'

1 As a new art, which gave employment to thousands, Mr. Fox Talbot brought photography to a high degree of perfection. He

Lacock Abbey, as it now exists, consists of the octangular turret, with a gallery, already referred to; and the cloisters, of the time of Henry IV. There are several sepulchral relics, as grave-stones, coffin-lids, etc. The site of the church is now a terrace-walk. The residential portion of the building has handsome bayed windows, pierced parapet, and twisted chimney-shafts. The middle chamber of the tower is reserved as a depository for writings; here is the Magna Charta of King Henry III., of inestimable value, being the only one perfect in the kingdom. It is 12 inches broad; and in length, including the fold, 20 inches: the seal is of green wax, pendent by a skein of green silk. This charter seems to have been designed for the use of the knights and military tenants in Wiltshire, and to have been deposited here by the Countess Ela, who succeeded her husband in the office of Sheriff of Wiltshire.

expended large sums of money in obtaining for the public the full benefit of his invention; and towards the termination of his patent he liberally surrendered to photographic amateurs and others all the rights which he possessed. As Mr. Talbot had derived no pecuniary benefit from his patent, he had intended to apply to the Privy Council for an extension of it; but in this he was thwarted by interested parties.' 'Although,' says Sir David Brewster, 'we are confident that a jury of philosophers would have given a verdict in favour of Mr. Talbot's patent, taken as a whole, and so long unchallenged, yet we regret to say that an English judge and jury were found to deprive him of his right, and transfer it to the public. The patrons of science and art stood aloof in the contest; and none of our scientific institutions, and no intelligent member of the Government, came forward to claim from the State a national reward to Mr. Talbot. How different in France was the treatment of Niepce and Daguerre !'

There is something bayawAVIN fing in the appearance of t ́s dhe aller, aAW H a fertile role, with its old avenue broad terw

extensive cloisters, bruching, as it were, the Bowery P

of those holy spirits that once animated the vestal torens of beauty new mouldered into dust, and of which the protine foot that treads over it takes no account.

The entrance-hall is a magnificent apartment, with a double row of niches round its sides, filled with statues one of a bishop, with a book in hand, is instinct with hie Over the high mantel are the effigies of the Countess of Shrewsbury and her two beautiful nieces, habited as nuns. From a door on one side of the hall you enter the met cloisters, which still bear the name of "the nuns' burying ground." The great dining room has full length portraits painted on panel. There is a gallery hung with pictures, among which is the legendary leap of the nun, who "escaped with her lover, having leaped from the high tower, in which

earldom belonged by hereditary right) on his own nephew Reimund, that he might marry her. The king having yielded to his petition, provided the Countess would consent, the Justice sent Reimund to her, in a noble, knightly array, to endeavour to incline the lady's heart to his suit. But Ela rejected him with majestic scorn, and replied that she had lately received letters and messengers which assured her that the Earl, her husband, was in health and safety; adding, that if her lord the Earl had indeed been dead, she would in no case have received him for a husband, because their unequal rank forbade such a union. 'Wherefore,' said she, you must seek a marriage elsewhere, because you find you have come hither in vain.' Upon the Earl's return, he claimed reparation from the Justiciary, who confessed his fault, made his peace with the Earl by some valuable horses and other large presents, and invited him to his table. Here, it is said, the Earl was poisoned (probably with repletion). He returned to his castle at Salisbury, took to his bed, and died March 7, 1226; and, as already mentioned, was buried in Salisbury Cathedral.

Ela, now a widow, continued firm in her resolution to remain faithful to the memory of her first lord, and to maintain her independence in what was then termed, in legal phrase, a free widowhood.' Her choice, however, was singular; for ladies of large estate, at that period, were seldom permitted to remain either as virgins or widows without a lord and protector, unless they had arrived at an advanced age. Her case is deemed extraordinary in the