And fraud in kings was held accurst, And falsehood sin was reckoned, And mighty chargers bore my First, And fat monks wore my Second ! Oh, then I carried sword and shield, And casque with flaunting feather, And earned my spurs in battle field, In winter and rough weather; And polished many a sonnet up To ladies' eyes and tresses, And learned to drain my father's cup, And loose my falcon's jesses: But dim is now my grandeur's gleam; The mongrel mob grows prouder; And everything is done by steam, And men are killed by powder; And now I feel my swift decay, And give unheeded orders, And rot in paltry state away, With sheriffs and recorders. II. He talked of daggers and of darts, Of weeping eyes and wounded hearts, He said, though Love was kin to Grief, And swore by yea and nay, And all that he could say. He said, my First, whose silent car Through the unfathomed sky, And swore by yea and nay, And drew his rapier from its sheath, Uncouth was I of face and form, Not a warrior went to the battle plain, My rude adorers knelt; And ever the shriek rang loud within, My priests are rotting in their grave, No crown upon my brow; Of all that was divine; My name and my memory pass away;—– IV. When Ralph by holy hands was tied That day, my First, with jovial sound With pleasure, or with ale. Where it was day before 1 I graced Don Pedro's revelry, Were met to feast together; He vowed a vow, that noble knight, His only couch the stable, A banquet would be reckoned,Through deserts where to quench their thirst Men vainly turn my Second ;- VI. Row on, row on!-The First may light Row on, row on!--The Second is high Row on, row on!-When the Whole is The song will be hushed, and the rapture. dead; . And I must go in my grief again To the toils of day, and the haunts of men, To ride through mountains where my And memory's dream of the things that First were. [DR. JOHN SCOTT, the Author of "The Christian Life,' from which the following is an extract, was born in Wiltshire, in 1638, and died in 1694. He was a Canon of Windsor.] The goods and evils which befall us here are not so truly to be estimated by themselves as by their effects and consequents. For the Divine Providence, which runs through all things, hath disposed and connected them into such a series and order, that there is no single event or accident (but what is purely miraculous) but depends upon the whole system, and hath innumerable causes antecedent to it. and innumerable consequents attending it; and what the consequents will be, whether good or bad, singly and apart by itself, yet in conjunction with all those consequents that will most certainly attend it, the best event, for aught we know, may prove most mischievous, and the worst most beneficial to us. So that for us boldly to pronounce concerning the good or evil of events, before we see the train of consequents that follow them, is very rash and inconsiderate. As, for instance, you see a good man oppressed with sorrows and afflictions, and a bad man crowned with pleasures and prosperities; and, considering these things apart by themselves, you conclude that the one fares very ill, and the other very well; but did you at the same time see the consequents of the one's adversity and the other's prosperity, it is probable you would conclude the quite contrary, viz., that the good man's adversity was a blessing, and the bad man's prosperity a curse. For I dare boldly affirm that good men generally reap more substantial benefit from their afflictions than bad men do from their prosperities. The one smarts, indeed, at present, but what follows? Perhaps his mind is cured by it of some disease that is ten times worse to him than his outward affliction; of avarice and impatience, of envy or discontent, of pride or vanity of spirit; his riches are lessened, but his virtues are improved by it; his body is impaired, but his mind is grown sound and hale by it, and what he hath lost in health, or wealth, or pleasure, or honour, he hath gained with vast advantage in wisdom and goodness, in tranquillity of mind and self-enjoyment, and methinks no man who believes he hath a soul should grudge to suffer any tolerable affliction for bettering of his mind, his will, and his conscience. On the other hand, the bad man triumphs and rejoices at the present; but what follows? His prosperity either shrivels him into miserableness, or melts him into luxury; the former of which impoverishes, and the latter diseases him; for, if the former be the effect of his prosperity, it increases his needs, because before he needed only what he had not, but now he needs both what he hath not and what he hath, his covetous desires treating him as the falconer doth his hawk-luring him off from what he hath seized, to fly at new game, and never permitting him to prey upon his own quarry; and if the latter be the effect of his prosperity, that is, if it melts him into luxury, it thereby wastes his health to be sure, and commonly his estate too, and so whereas it found him poor and well, it leaves him poor and diseased, and only took him up from the plough, and sets him down at the hospital. In general, while he is possessed of it, it only bloats and swells him, makes him proud and insolent, griping and oppressive; pampers and enrages his lust, stretches out his desires into insatiable feeling, sticks his mind full of cares, and his conscience of guiles, and by all those woeful effects it inflames his reckoning with God, and treasures up wrath for him against the day of wrath; so that, comparing the consequences of the good man's adversity with those of the bad man's prosperity, it is evident that the former fares well even in his worst condition, and the latter ill, in his best. "It is well for me," saith David, "that I was afflicted, for before I was afflicted I went astray, but now I have kept thy commandments." But, on the contrary, when the wicked spring as the grass, saith the same author, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish, then is it that they shall be destroyed for ever! If, then, in the consequents of things, good men are blessed in their afflictions, and bad men plagued in their prosperities, as it is apparent they generally are, these unequal distributions are so far from being an argument against Providence, that they are a glorious instance of it. For wherein could the divine Providence better express its justice and wisdom together, than by benefiting the good, and punishing the bad, by such cross and unprobable methods ?" 337. ANCIENT LONDON. FITZ STEPHEN. [WILLIAM STEPHANIDES, or Fitz Stephen, a monk of Canterbury, was born in London; lived in the reigns of King Stephen, Henry the Second, and Richard the First; and died in 1191. He wrote a description of his native city in Latin. Stow, the antiquary, printed this very curious tract, with a translation, in his Survey of London; and it has since been reprinted several times. The translation of this passage which we give is more modern than that of Stow; and we take it from a very elegant and accurate edition of the Survey, edited by Mr. Thoms, the learned and accomplished secretary of the Camden Society. There are few things of antiquarian value more curious than this picture of London and its manners, written more than six centuries and a half ago.] Of the manner in which the Affairs of the City are disposed.-The artizans of the several crafts, the vendors of the various commodities, and the labourers of every kind, have each their separate station, which they take every morning. There is also in London, on the bank of the river, amongst the wine shops which are kept in ships and cellars, a public eating-house; there every day, according to the season, may be found viands of all kinds, roast, fried, and boiled, fish, large and small, coarser meat for the poor, and more delicate for the rich, such as venison, fowls, and small birds. If friends, wearied with their journey, should unexpectedly come to a citizen's house, and, being hungry, should not like to wait till fresh meat be bought and cooked: "The canisters with bread are heap'd on high; The attendants water for their hands supply:"-DRYDEN'S Virgil. meanwhile some run to the river side, and there every thing that they could wish for is instantly procured. However great the number of soldiers or strangers that enters or leaves the city at any hour of the day or night, they may turn in there if they please, and refresh themselves according to their inclination; so that the former have no occasion to fast too long, or the latter to leave the city without dining. Those who wish to indulge themselves would not desire a sturgeon, or the bird of Africa, or the godwit of Tonia, when the delicacies that are to be found there are set before them. This indeed is the public cookery, and is very convenient to the city, and a distinguishing mark of civilization. Hence we read in Plato's Gorgias, "Juxta medicinam esse coquorum officium, simulantium et adulationem quartæ particulæ civilitatis." There is, without one of the gates, immediately in the suburb, a certain smooth field in name and in reality. There every Friday, unless it be one of the more solemn festivals, is a noted show of well-bred horses exposed for sale. The earls, barons, and knights, who are at the time resident in the city, as well as most of the citizens, flock thither either to look or to buy. It is pleasant to see the nags, with their sleek and shining coats, smoothly ambling along, raising and setting down alternately, as it were, their feet on either side: in one part are horses better adapted to esquires; these, whose pace is rougher but yet expeditious, lift up and set down, as it were, the two opposite fore and hind feet together in another the young blood colts, not yet accustomed to the bridle, 4TH QUARTER, Ꮮ "Which upright walk on pasterns firm and straight, Their motions easy, prancing in their gait."-DRYDEN's l'irgil. In a third are the horses for burden, strong and stout-limbed; and in a fourth the more valuable chargers, of an elegant shape and noble height, with nimbly moving ears, erect necks, and plump haunches. In the movements of these the purchasers observe first their easy pace, and then their gallop, which is when the fore feet are raised from the ground and set down together, and the hind ones in like manner, alternately. When a race is to be run by such horses as these, and perhaps by others, which in like manner, according to their breed, are strong for carriage and vigorous for the course, the people raise a shout, and order the common horses to be withdrawn to another part of the field. The jockeys, who are boys expert in the management of horses, which they regulate by means of curb-bridles, sometimes by threes, and sometimes by twos, according as the match is made, prepare themselves for the contest. Their chief aim is to prevent a competitor getting before them. The horses, too, after their manner, are eager for the race; their limbs tremble, and, impatient of delay, they cannot stand still; upon the signal being given, they stretch out their limbs, hurry over the course, and are borne along with unremitting speed. The riders, inspired with the love of praise and the hope of victory, clap spurs to their flying horses, lashing them with their whips, and inciting them by their shouts. You would think with Heraclitus, that all things were in motion, and that Zeno's opinion was altogether erroneous, when he said that there was no such thing as motion, and that it was impossible to reach the goal. In another quarter, apart from the rest, stand the goods of the peasants, implements of husbandry, swine with their long sides, cows with distended udders― "Oxen of bulk immense, and woolly flocks." There, too, stand the mares fitted for the plough, the dray, and the cart, of which some are big with foal, others have their frolicsome colts ruuning close by their sides. To this city, from every nation under heaven, merchants bring their commodities by sea : Norway's warm peltries, Russia's costly sables, "Arabia's gold, Sabra's spice and insense, Scythia's keen weapons, and the oil of palms From Babylon's rich soil, Nile's precious gems, According to the evidence of chroniclers, London is more ancient than Rome: for, as both derive their origin from the same Trojan ancestors, this was founded by Brutus before that by Romulus and Remus. Hence it is that, even to this day, both cities use the same ancient laws and ordinances. This like Rome, is divided into wards; it has annual sheriffs instead of consuls; it has an order of senators, and inferior magistrates, and also sewers and aqueducts in its streets; each class of suits, whether of the deliberative, demonstrative, or judicial kind, has its appropriate place and proper court; on stated days it has its assemblies. I think that there is no city in which more approved customs are observed-in attending churches, honouring God's ordinances, keeping festivals, giving alms, receiving strangers, confirming espousals, contracting marriages, celebrating weddings, preparing entertainments, welcoming guests, and also in the arrangement of the funeral ceremonies and the burial of the dead. The only inconveniences of London are, the immoderate drinking of foolish persons, and the frequent fires. Moreover, almost all the bishops, abbots, and great men of England, are, in a manner, citizens and freemen of London; as they have magnificent houses there, to which they resort, spending large sums of money, whenever they are summoned thither to councils and assemblies by the king or their metropolitan, or are compelled to go there by their own business. Of the Sports-Let us now proceed to the sports of the city; since it is expedient |