wings, is struggling in the small-beer; or a caterpillar, with several dozen of eyes in his belly, is hastening over the bread and butter. All nature is alive, and seems to be gathering all her entomological hosts to eat you up, as you are standing, out of your coat, waistcoat, and breeches. Such are the tropics. All this reconciles us to our dews, fogs, vapours, and drizzle; to our apothecaries rushing about with gargles and tinctures; to our old British constitutional coughs, sore throats, and swelled faces."

PARC-Y-MEIRCH.

At Parc-y-Meirch, or as it is sometimes called, Pen-y-Parch, in Denbighshire, a great battle was fought between Henry II. and Owen Gwynneth, in which the former was defeated.

I STOOD on Parc-y-Meirch, on a glorious day in spring, When buds were breaking into birth, and birds were on

the wing;

The early flowers lay glittering like jewels at my feet, And the linnet trilled beside me, its carol low and sweet. The fields were lapped in sunshine, the rivers and the vales

And not a cloud o'ershadowed the grand old hills of Wales;

There was life and joy and beauty on the face of every thing,

When I stood on Parc-y-Meirch, that glorious day in spring.

Upon that rugged hill, in the ages long ago,

Prince Owen Gwynneth battled with his haughty Saxon foe:

The pines that belt its summit, in gloomy grandeur wave Where conqueror and conquer'd rest, within one common

ORIGIN OF REFLECTING LIGHTHOUSES.

In the last century, at a meeting of a society of mathematicians at Liverpool, one of the members proposed to lay a wager, that he would read a paragraph of a newspaper, at ten yards' distance, with the light of a farthing candle. The wager was laid, and the proposer, having covered the inside of a wooden dish with pieces of lookingglass, fastened in with glaziers' putty, placed his reflector behind the candle, and won his wager. One of the com. pany marked this experiment with a philosophic eye. This was Captain Hutchinson, the dockmaster, with whom originated the reflecting lighthouses, erected at Liverpool in 1763.

PART OF AN EPITAPH.-What I possessed is left to others; what I gave to the poor remains with me.

HE who swears tells us that his bare word is not to be credited.

No one can be said to die suddenly who has lived long. HE who is indifferent to praise is generally dead to shame.

ADVICE should fall as the dew, not overwhelm as the shower.

NOTICE TO CONTRIBUTORS.-It is out of our power to add to multiplied and increasing duties that of sending back to the writers articles unsuited to our pages. Contributions which we cannot use, but which the authors expressly request us not to destroy, will be found at the office of this Journal if claimed within a reasonable time.

Printed by Cox (Brothers) & WYMAN, 74-75, Great Queen Street, London; and published by CHARLES COox, at the Office of the Journal, 3, Raquet Court, Fleet Street.

CHRONICLES OF MY OLD HALL.

CHAPTER I.-I DETERMINE TO SETTLE.

FEW, except those who have bustled about all their lives, and travelled much, who have lived their days packed up with a carpet-bag and despatch-box for Penates, a port manteau and hat-case for a home, can appreciate the delight of settling; to most it is an expression of little signification, a cold word, meaning only a change from one abode, where they have been happy or otherwise, to another, where they will be the same. To them it is a bore, for it involves disturbing the regular every-day routine, packing up, bustle, discomfort, and unpacking: but to one whose lot or will, perhaps both, it has been to pass his life on the march,-all his years on the road, with no dear home as a Keblah, to which he might direct his most sacred thoughts, there is a spell in the word.

Love wandering as the traveller may, there will always be moments in which he wishes once more to be at home; sweet then is it if in the far-off land he may turn his thoughts there, and feel that he has one where old familiar faces dwell, surrounded by familiar scenes; for him the time comes when away, that he longs to be there again amongst his kindred and his childhood's haunts; others will have the wish, also, who have left none such behind, whose home ties are broken, whose home mates are fled; who, as they look back, through the years of the past, see but scattered fragments, yet still beautiful as the patterns in a broken kaleidescope.

All, even the most light-hearted amidst life's varied scenes, must oft turn away and think back, if not of their own will, they step aside and reflect, yet of necessity must they; the thought will come; and on those whom it falls the least, often deeper will be its intensity; and then if their home is gone, bitter will the recollection be unless they have striven to build it up, to join and bind it, and when it fell, closed its scenes, and mourned the fall they had endeavoured to avert.

But for the full enjoyment of the settling, it is necessary perhaps that home, the home of youth and boyhood, and most cherished recollections, should be gone, scattered, and lost, home no more; hope no longer to hope, home alone to memory and regret. An eldest son of an hereditary house could hardly feel the word: he has a perspective home, his own in certainty,-long his own by anticipation; full of all he holds dear,-kept, cared for,

[PRICE 1 d.

and rendered more valuable, by the very expectancy he is held in.

Yet to him, perhaps, if his mind is properly constituted, home would be the dearest, the place of generations of recollections,-the scenes where his race have put off the mask and dress worn before the world, and lived their inner but real lives, each spot almost their own creation, here, while they moulder in the dust of that quiet church, hard by, remain their acts, their pictures hang upon the walls, keeping them living and present; the trees they planted renew their good at each spring-time, and mourn their sower in the fall of every year. This was their taste, that their fancy; here the one outstripped the age, there the other shows the fashion of the times; that gap in yonder dell was where a spendthrift robbed the scene to satisfy his extravagance; that broad mass of wood the good man sowed, who denied himself to keep this spot for his descendants; there is not a brick or stone but has a tale; there is no tree not hung with thoughts, no leaf but bears a memorial of the past: the rooms have heard their words; the fires burnt to their hospitable welcome; the door never saw the poor man's back while his hands were empty; the very birds are posterity to those long sheltered here in safety.

The younger brother, brought up and nurtured as a tender shoot, recollection and pride all fostered, then cast out on the world to make his way, and float or sink as fate ordains, he may feel the want in all its intensity.

After long years of wandering, after the very scent of home had grown faint, it was to me indeed a pleasure to find the time had come when it was practicable to settle: life had been tried in every phase, each had been used and had palled, and here, as the threshold of old age was reached, seemed a new hope, a quiet seat where one might rest awhile, and pause until life's course beckoned on; where, as far as mortals may, rest might be found, time to think and to digest, to ponder and consider; where memories and recollections might be sorted and arranged; where from the top of life's hill the past road might be reviewed, its pleasant spots recalled, its thoughts thought over, and the downward course before one considered; where its dangers might be scanned, its course chosen, and the way to the valley far beneath yet plainly visible, so selected, that naught might come on unawares or hap befal unprepared. Now then might be executed the many projects conceived in wandering, the plans hitherto postponed until this

period, the hopes born before, kept slumbering until

now.

All hail, new hope! as others set out with buoyant hearts to roam, to see new scenes, new life, new places, so sit we down to rest and pause. No more tours, no more packing, burn the box and fire the bag. Now let us halt, drive deep the tent-peg, to be struck no more, fix up the Penates, hang up our thoughts, and let us watch our lives and see the world pass on before us!

CHAPTER II.-HAVING DETERMINED TO SETTLE,
HOW I SET ABOUT IT.

THE intending to settle was, we found, but a small step towards its accomplishment; unnumbered things had to be determined before that could be arrived at: first, whether our location should be in town or country. Johnson hath it that London is the only spot for a rational being to live in,-ponderous authority!-but others, numerous and trustworthy, advocate the country; so casting our own tastes into the scale, up flew the London end of the beam, and we decided the point in favour of the green fields and pure air. London truly has sights and society, libraries and literature, but then the country too has its pleasures, and its one great book ever open, ever amusing, the largest and best, the oldest yet freshest, the deepest yet the lightest, the great book of nature, the Almighty's own daily journal of good works. This point decided, another arose; -the country is large-where? became the question: hilly or in plain, swamp or mountain, fen or moor, myrtle-land or pine-forest, Wales or Norfolk, Scotland and its healthy sharp bracing air, or Devonshire and its mild genial climate, at home or abroad, east or west? These considerations all presented themselves, until a vaster field of travel opened in searching for a home, and a more dubious route than were a traveller to set out in search of the lost pillars of Seth, on which are engraved all the knowledge of the preAdamite races. Let me then try the Virgilian lottery; Chance, open the book; Fortune, lift thy eye-cloth, and direct the choice!

Sed amœna piorum

Concilia, Elysiumque colo. Huc casta Sibylla
Nigrarum multo pecudum te sanguine ducet.

Tum genus omne tuum, et, quæ dentur mænia, disces.

All very well, but though I have thus found it that the fates doom us to Elysian fields, and there will inform us what town the gods assign, with the long glories of our future line, still the result, as far as a practical present is concerned, remains somewhat vague. So let me try again:

Membra quatit, gelidusque coit formidine sanguis.

That looks bad! I will not try Virgil again; Rabelais used up all the lucky cuts in it. Well, what now? Ah, the next book on the shelf is the Koran ! there is as much poetry in one as the other. What says that book, held sacred in the illusions of half a world, so wondrously adapted to the cases it addresses? Come, tome of harmonious jingling of sounds, volume of perfect expressions, unfold thy wisdom, give knowledge to me, all Giaour though I am :

This is paradise, which we will give for an inheritance unto such of our servants as shall be pious.

Still rather indefinite; yet it teaches the true philosophy, and such lessons cannot be learnt too often, that the real heaven is the heart-that time, place, and circumstance matter not, that our happiness is irrelevant of all these, and is to be found alone within ourselves.

But at present we seek a place where we may go with that happiness which is within us, and live-not places in Elysian fields, Unitarian paradises, or Highland Airshires.

Well let me try the ancient Sanhita: I invoke with all reverence, with awe, Conscha-Om-Pascha :

We reverently approach thee, for food to support our strength, and to obtain good fortune,

O thou mighty one of beautiful aspect, possessor of the golden-coloured horses, and who holdest the steel vagra in both thy hands.

Well that brings us no nearer the mark.

I will cast my lot by El Rumsuch, as the Arabs call it, but then the first and mightiest part of the spell is perfect faith; failing that, the magic is of no avail; now, between ourselves, I do not think my wife has quite the requisite amount of belief, and, in fact, I half think, would rather set about settling in the ordinary humdrum manner; but we are still newly married, so I coax her into a litte more patience.

"How very nicely that bonnet becomes you, my love! but then, anything does; I never saw a person who looks so well in everything, always-present beauty, dear. There now, I will try the Shasters ?"

"Folly !"

"Well, the Zand ?"

"Well, now then, spirit of Printing-house Square, attendant devils, assist."

The sixteenth day of the month, and"But stand on the sixteenth square of the carpet from the fire; I am a bit of a Zoroasterite, so revere that element: be it then sixteenth line of the sixteenth column; that will not do, though; for I begin at an elderly lady who merely seeks a permanent home, (and go on to) a young man, of gentlemanly habits, who wishes for lodgings within a mile of a railway, within eight miles of town, in an easterly direction. Sixteenth advertisement, there it is; To be let or sold.' Blessed be lots! Now then, no ill-timed prudence must ruin the chance."

"You had better make inquiries about it," says my wife.

"Of course, dear, the most minute." She goes out, and I write at once, agree to take the place, sign, seal, direct, and despatch the epistle, and then sit down and smoke the pipe of perfect contentment.

Two days elapse, somehow what I have done oozes out to my other half; and she, strangely enough, blamed my rashness. However, a saunter into a jeweller's reassured her of my sanity, and a new bracelet became her very well. I also described the place I had taken in glowing terms, in which each particular exactly met her ideas of what she wished our home to be; this was the more amiable of me, as the advertisement was singularly brief and barren of all description, or even locality, merely saying, "To be let or sold, an old manor-house, standing in its own grounds; apply to Measure'em, Acre, and Co. 22, Puddle-street, London."

My friend Darcy thought he had found me out, for he asked me with a smile, what my new post-town was? But I rather settled him when I said it did not much matter to him, for the postmaster could never make out his writing, so he might direct to me anywhere.

Post in due time brought a formal letter from the agent; he had applied to his principal, who had accepted me as a tenant; he set forth the unnumbered advantages of the place, its rent, this rather staggered me, but then the hay and orchards, if properly managed, would fully pay it. I told my wife so (but do not think she believed it); then he said pecuniary advantage was not sought so much

as an eligible tenant. A portion of the house was in ruins, "but he felt sure to a person of my taste (come, does he think me a bat, or an owl, or what?) this would but add to the charm, for the ruins were of the most picturesque description, the whole (what, ruins and all?) maguificently furnished, combining feudal splendour with modern luxury."

Well, it was taken: blessed be lots! if I have done wrong, it was decreed against me.

DECISIVE BATTLES.

AN interesting book has been written by Professor Creasy upon "The Decisive Battles of the World"-not so much the greatest battles, the best fought, or in which the greatest number of fighting men have been engaged, as those which have led to the most important consequences, which have stayed the onward march of great despotisms, and settled the constitutions of Europe on their present basis. And as the hosts of civilized Europe are now banding themselves together to stem the tide of invasion in the same quarter, from which Europe has been so often threatened, it may not be unprofitable briefly to review the decisive battles of past times.

The first was Marathon, fought between the Greeks and Persians on the plains situated along the eastern coast of Attica, 490 years before Christ. Though the period at which that battle was fought is very remote, yet its consequences are felt to this day in European civilization. The great empire of the Medes and Persians dominated over the East, from India to the Hellespont. The little republics of Athens and Sparta were but in their infancy, not yet consolidated, and their greatest men had not yet appeared. Athens had given offence to the great king Darius, by extending aid to some of his revolted subjects, on the adjoining continent; and a vast army lay upon the plains of Marathon, ready to march upon Athens, to destroy or to subdue it. The Greek army drawn up oppose them was comparatively few in number; but each soldier was a free man, trained to military duty; and the little army was led by able generals, chief of whom was the valiant Miltiades. The Greeks were to the Persians as only 10,000 to 100,000 men. Yet, inspired by the justice of their cause, and full of the confidence which freedom gives, the little defensive army boldly marched down from the heights and assailed the invaders, and, after a hard day's fighting, utterly overthrew them. The consequences of this battle were most important. Had Athens fallen, there was no other power in Greece or in Europe at the time to stay the onward march of the Persians westward. The infant energies of Europe, then struggling into development at Rome, would have been trodden under foot by Eastern despotism, and the entire future of civilization in the Old World been materially affected. But Persia was beaten back; the West for the first time vindicated its superiority over the East; and the succeeding victories of the Greeks over the Persians, at Platea and Salamis, and afterwards under Alexander the Great, who overran the Persian empire with his armies, served to establish the power of the West, and enable the nations of Europe gradually to found their schools, to cultivate the arts, and to build up free institutions, slowly but surely as the ages rolled on.

Dynasties rose and fell, battles more bloody than that of Marathon were fought, and new rulers sprang into power. The greatest of these was Alexander, whose triumphant progress was never stayed. The great battle of Arbela laid the East open before him; he marched through Babylon a conqueror, conquered Affghanistan, the Punjaub, and the northern provinces of India. Indeed, Alexander irretrievably crushed the great Persian empire, |

which to this day has continued to hold an altogether subordinate place among the nations of the world.

The great struggles which followed were amongst rival European powers. Westward rolled the tide of military conquest. Greece's day was past, and its military reputation a thing of tradition; Rome was gradually rising into prominence, but for long it struggled for its very existence with the neighbouring power of Carthage. Hannibal and Hasdrubal, the sons of Hamilcar, led their victorious armies into Italy, and Rome put forth its utmost effort to repel them. The struggle was again to some extent between East and West-between the heroism, art, and legislation of the Roman and Germanic races; and the industry, commerce, and navigation The of the Arabs, Phoenicians, and Carthaginians. destiny of the Romans prevailed; decisive battle of the Metaurus delivered Italy from the invading armies, and Carthage fell, to give place to the dominion of Rome, which thenceforward spread itself by a career of victories over the then known world, and stood triumphant in Europe, from Britain to the Bosphorus.

But Rome, too, must fall. And already there rose up, at an early period in its history, a strong national spirit of opposition amongst the Germanic tribes--that very portion of them from whom the Saxon English claim to be descended. Their great leader was Arminius, Irmin, or Herman, who summoned his countrymen to take up arms to maintain their independence; fell upon the Roman army under Varus in the marshy glens situated between the Lippe and the Ems, and almost entirely extirpated them. This great and decisive battle secured the liberties of Germany Roman armies were again led against the Germans, but never succeeded in conquering the people; and the Rhine became the acknowledged boundary of the two nations until the fifth century, when the Germans became the assailants, and carried prisoners from imperial Rome into the kingdoms of modern Europe.

:

As the Roman empire declined, irruptions of barbarians from the North and from the East were of frequent occurrence. The most formidable were those of the Huns, who rolled over Europe like a torrent, and under Attilla, had almost succeeded in extending heathenism over the most important and populous parts of it. His vast army was, however, overthrown by the Christian Romans and Franks, near Chalons, in France, about the middle of the fifth century, and the Huns were rolled back again towards the east; but they stopped short before they had passed the frontiers of Europe, and settled themselves finally down in the great plains along the east of the Danube, where they in part formed what is now the Hungarian nation. Strangely enough, these descendants of the Huns were themselves mainly instrumental in defeating another invasion of Europe from the east many centuries later, when they bravely kept the Mahomedan Turks at bay, in their inroads upon the continent of Europe by way of the plains of the Danube; these Turks themselves, according to the best accounts being of direct Hunnish descent.

Another terrible struggle between the East and West, between the Crescent and the Cross, occurred about two centuries later on the plains of France, near Tours. The Saracens had overrun Spain, and crossed the Pyrenees with a prodigious army under Abderrahman, defeating every force that ventured to obstruct their progress, until met by Charles Martel and his army of Franks, near Tours, when the Saracens were decisively defeated, and Europe was thus saved from the religious yoke of the Koran. This was certainly one of the most important battles ever fought in Europe, in respect of its consequences to Christianity and western civilization; Dr. Arnold characterising it as "among those signal deliverances which have affected for centuries the happiness of mankind,"

England had comparatively little interest, save in the results of the earlier decisive battles of the world. It is only during the last 800 years that England can be said to have had a well-defined existence as a nation, and that dates from a battle and a conquest-the battle of Hastings, which terminated the Saxon epoch and introduced the Norman dynasty. The battle of Hastings, though a terrible blow to the Saxons, was a great and, in the end, a most fortunate event for England. It introduced a new life, bolder leadership, broader institutions, a more firmly cemented state. The power of England, as an influential portion of the great European commonwealth, dates from its conquest by the Normans. They were comparatively few in number, but a large portion of the English people belonged to the same race-the Norwegian and Danish. The Saxons, however, constituted the main body of the nation; and though their leaders were stricken down at Hastings, they in due time determined the institutions of the country, its language, its literature, and its laws.

William the Norman still retained large possessions in Normandy and France, which kept him and his successors embroiled in foreign wars; the English won many battles on French soil, as at Cressy, Poictiers, and Agincourt, but they wasted endless lives in the endeavour to reclaim and extend their possessions abroad, and thereby weakened the kingdom of England. This continued for 400 years, until, in 1429, the decisive repulse of the English before Orleans by the army under Joan of Arc, led to the gradual overthrow of their power in France. Our queen may yet boast the title of "Queen of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith," &c. but so far as France is concerned the title is an empty one.

There was another decisive battle in which England suffered defeat, of less importance as regards the political state of Europe, but of much importance as respects England itself, and still more, Scotland. We mean the battle of Bannockburn, in which the Scotch effectually vindicated their right to existence as a nation, and for ever put an end to the dreams of conquest which the kings of England had entertained. What Scotland would have been but for Bannockburn, we may but faintly imagine if we look at Ireland; though Scotland was a poorer country, and much less populous than Ireland, and therefore probably would have suffered more from conquest than even Ireland has done, if that be possible.

The first of England's decisive sea-fights occurred as recently as the year 1588, in the reign of Elizabeth, when our fleet chased the famous Spanish Armada, which had been launched from Spain, and Portugal, and the Netherlands, by the great Spanish monarch Philip II. whose aim was to conquer England and re-establish there the religion and the ascendancy of Rome. The first of England's naval heroes were employed in the defence of the English coast,-Drake, Hawkins, Frobisher, Howard, and Raleigh; and though every preparation for defence was made by land, it was felt that the decisive struggle must be by sea. The Armada was defeated by a wellmanned English and Dutch fleet, much smaller in number of men and ships than the Spanish force. The encounter took place off Calais; the Spaniards were defeated and dispersed, and ultimately all but destroyed by a furious storm which raged for some time afterwards in the Northern Seas. Thus England was delivered from that great peril, and its position as a maritime power decidedly advanced.

But the Dutch were then, and they continued for some time to be the rulers of the sea. It was not until the English fleet commanded by Blake routed the Dutch fleet under Van Tromp, that the naval ascendancy of England was established.

The change of the English succession from the Stuart dynasty to that of William, Prince of Orange, was accom

plished without fighting. William invaded England, it is true, with a formidable army; but he was received almost open-armed, and he took possession of the throne without a battle. There were rebellions in Scotland and Ireland, but they were of short duration, and William continued to reign in security. The theatre of war was changed to the continent, and in most of its great wars England continued to take an important part. France was now, under Louis XIV. aiming at ascendancy among the western powers; and his immense armies, led by able generals, overran the Netherlands, North Italy, and a large part of Germany. Then Austria was struggling for existence as an empire. It was harassed, as in modern times, by Hungarian rebellions on one side, and threatened by the victorious armies of France on the other. William of Orange was drawn into a coalition with Austria against France, through his still intimate connection with foreign politics; and a large English army was despatched abroad by Queen Anne, under Marlborough, to take part in continental battles. The decisive victory of Blenheim was the result, which stayed the progress of the French armies, and eventually drew them within their modern boundaries.

About the same time that Western Europe was the theatre of war, a power which had been slowly growing up unnoticed in the north-east came prominently into being. Up to the beginning of last century the empire of Russia can scarcely be said to have had an existence. Its people were a mere horde of barbarians,vast bands of slaves. They had neither nobility nor clergy worthy of the name. The grand-prince was their owner and supreme ruler ; and these grand-princes usually succeeded to power through the butchery of their predecessors. One of these happened to be a very remarkable man, he afterwards became Peter the Great. Travelling about Europe, and working in the dockyards of Holland and England as a common mechanic, he acquired great practical ability, as well as knowledge of men and institutions. Returning to Russia, he resolved to regenerate his country: and before he died he had raised it almost to the position of a first-rate power in Europe. Up to the end of the seventeenth century, the kingdom of Poland domineered over Russia, and Sweden had almost made a conquest of it in 1700. In that year an army of 8,000 Swedes, under Charles XII. fell upon and utterly routed an army of 80,000 Russians under Peter, and the road to Moscow lay open before him; but he missed his opportunity, and turned aside to chastise Poland, occupying the Baltic provinces on his way. Peter the Czar busied himself meanwhile in reorganising his army; and when Charles, after overrunning Poland, marched into Russia some years afterwards to chastise the Czar, the latter had a numerous and well-disciplined army under his control. The rival monarchs met before Pultawa in 1709, and there the Swedish army was almost cut to pieces. This was the turning-point of Russian destiny. Thenceforward its career has been one of conquest, of "protection" ending in annexation, and of rapidly-growing ascendancy in European politics.

The three most important battles which have occurred since that of Pultawa, as affecting the political destinies of the civilised world, were those of Saratoga, in the United States, by which the liberties of the American people were virtually secured, leading as it did to the recognition of the American Congress by France, Spain, and Holland, and thence to the establishment of the independency of the Union; Valmy, the first victory of the French revolutionary party over the veteran troops of the continental royalists, and which proved in fact the turning-point of the revolution; and Waterloo, by which the career of the greatest conqueror of modern timesNapoleon Buonaparte-was finally stayed. There were many other as hard-fought battles as Waterloo in the