with different ideas. Had they been designed on true Gothic principles the whole would have harmonized into a rich and varied mass, and any amount of difference would only have enhanced the beauty. But this was too good an idea for the middle of the nineteenth century, and so we have a row of broken fragments, with the roofs rising in unequal steps, the string-courses at all sorts of heights, nothing matching, nothing harmonizing a simple and unmitigated chaos. Bad as this is, however, there is something worse behind it. "The Oval" is utterly ruined and disgraced by houses which it would be charity to destroy.

The Pavilion in the Victoria Park is so much better than its predecessor that one is not inclined to find fault with it.

Of the two recent Monumental buildings, the Hollings Memorial and the Clock Tower, Leicester may honestly be proud. They will bear witness to the ages coming up behind that we have had noble and good men amongst us, and have been wise enough to "keep their memories green."

There is no architect

Can build as the Muse can;
She is skilful to select
Materials for her plan;

Slow and warily to choose
Rafters of immortal pine,
Or cedar incorruptible,

Worthy her design.

She threads dark Alpine forests,
Or valleys by the sea,

In many lands, with painful steps,

Ere she can find a tree.

She ransacks mines and ledges,

And quarries every rock,

To hew the famous adamant

For each eternal block.

She lays her beams in music,

In music every one,

To the cadence of the whirling world

Which dances round the sun,

That so they shall not be displaced

By lapses or by wars,

But for the love of happy souls

Outlive the newest stars.

R. W. EMERSON,.-"The House."

GRACEDIEU MANOR.

Gracedieu Priory has fallen to decay, and Gracedieu Manor has risen in its stead. Between the old ruins and the modern mansion there intervene not many yards of space, only three centuries of time, but little difference in the capacities and none in the eternal destinies of the English people, and yet how much in their customs, their ideals, and their forms of life!

Unnatural sanctity, once regnant in these Isles, has lost its crown of honour. We are learning that the laws of matter are as sacred as the laws of soul, and he is now the noblest Englishman who leads the van of science, adds millions to the national wealth, and brings up the largest family in the homeliest virtue.

Our old times and our new
Are brothers, fast and true,

The same in heart, and only changed in feature ;

Each has its bold address,

Its human tenderness,

Its hand of help for every suffering creature.

H