Witness the field of Cressy, on that day

When volleying thunders roll'd unheard on high,
For in that memorable fray,

Broken, confused, and scatter'd in dismay,

France had ears only for the conqueror's cry,

"St. George, St. George for England! St. George and victory!"

Bear witness, Poictiers! where again the foe
From that same hand received his overthrow.
In vain essay'd Mont Joye, "St. Denis" rung
From many a boastful tongue

And many a hopeful heart in onset brave;

Their courage in the shock of battle quail'd,
His dread response when sable Edward gave,
And England and St. George again prevail'd.

Bear witness, Agincourt, where once again
The banner'd lilies on the ensanguined plain
Were trampled by the fierce pursuer's feet;
And France, doom'd ever to defeat
Against that foe, beheld her myriads fly

Before the withering cry,

"St. George, St. George for England! St. George and victory!"

Pleasant indeed are the feelings with which, when travelling over the plains and valleys of our dear old England, we see amid the charming varieties of English landscape some noble tower and battlements "bofom'd high in tufted trees." They are the picturesque ruins of the old caftles of the barons-there was a time when there were eleven hundred of these homes of feudal lords in England. Those crumbling walls are the filent chroniclers of bygone years:

R

A horseman darting from the crowd,
Like lightning from a summer cloud,
Spurs on his mettled courser proud,
Before the dark array.
Beneath the sable palisade
That loosed the Castle barricade,

His bugle horn he blew;

The warder hasted from the wall,
And warn'd the captain in the hall,
For well the blast he knew;
And joyfully that knight did call,
To sewer, squire, and seneschal :

"Now broach ye a pipe of Malvoisie,
Bring pasties of the doe,

And quickly make the entrance free,
And bid my heralds ready be,
And every minstrel sound his glee,
And all our trumpets blow;

And from the platform, spare ye not
To fire a noble salvo-shot;

Lord Marmion waits below!"

Then to the Castle's lower ward

Sped forty yeomen tall,

The iron-studded gates unbarr'd,

Raised the portcullis' ponderous guard,

The lofty palisade unsparr'd,

And let the drawbridge fall.

And there we leave the bold Marmion to the welcome provided for him.

Charles Knight tells of other duties and occupations befides those of war, and pastime, and feasting, in which the lordly tenants

of the castle fortreffes of our country were wont to pass their time. The great castle-builder provided his walls and his courts, his keep and his dungeons; but a chapel was no lefs indispensable alike to his station and his actual wants. Beleaguered or free, he must be able at all times to hear the daily mafs, or, more grateful ftill to lordly ears, the pious orifon offered up for his own and his family's welfare; he must be able to fly to the chapel for fuccour when the "thick-coming fancies" of fuperftition prefs upon his imagination, and appal him by their myfterious influence, or when defeat or danger threatens; there too in the hour of triumph must he be found, his own voice mingling with the chant of priest; at births, baptifms, marriages, and deaths, the facred doors must be ever at hand; the child faft growing up to man's eftate, who has spent his entire life within the castle, looks forward to the chapel as the scene that shall usher him into a world of glory,—already he feels the touch of the golden fpurs, the fway of the lofty plumes, the thrill of the fair hands that gird on his maiden fword; already, with alternating hopes and fears, he anticipates his folitary midnight vigil within the chapel walls.

And truly fuch a night in fuch a place as this, to which we have descended below the keep of Newcastle, was calculated to try the tone of the firmeft nerves; for though beautifulexceedingly beautiful it is in all that refpects the architectural style to which it belongs, and of which it is a rare example— there are here no lofty pointed windows, with their storied panes, to admit the full broad beam of radiant fplendour, or to give