The remains of this hallowed edifice measure sixty feet in length, and twenty-one in breadth; the walls are lofty, and were wainscoted. In every part of the building the proportions of the parts, and the beauty of the architecture, demand admiration. In either side are four windows, of a rich character. The great eastern window is admirable for its size and elegance, and was once filled with painted glass, the fragments of which were lately dug up. It was destroyed in the great rebellion by the democratical party, who seem to have hated everything refined or elegant.

The print represents the roofless and moss-grown walls of the Hastings' chapel, which, in its ruins, even now communicates an impressive solemnity to the overtowering masses with which it is associated. History, all through its pages, teaches the same lesson, that the demagogue instinctively hates the ministers of religion, and persecutes them whenever he has the power; and that he wreaks his angry and hateful feelings-as in the case of the chapel of Ashby-on the temples of God, where they are called to exercise their office.

From the amenity* and salubriousness of its situation, Ashby would be selected for the site of a Christian establishment, soon after the Merciant worshippers of Odin had relinquished the practices enjoined by their idolatrous superstition. Like most of the first British churches, that erected here would replace the altar in a circle of Bel or Woden in its shadowy grove; and, like these also, it would be a simple wooden fabric, the defects or discomforts of which would gradually disappear in conformity with the growing power and opulence of its ministers.

We know nothing, however, of the early history of the church of Ashby. Towards the close of the eleventh century, a priest officiated at Ashby; and, fifty-nine years afterwards, the Abbey of Lilleshull, in Shropshire, obtained a grant of the church, and of the chapel at Blackfordby, with the lands " cæterisque perti

nentiis suis."

Saint Helens was the patron saint of the parish church at

Wyrley, in his " Church Notes," p. 36, represents Ashbie-de-la-Zouch as "villa pulchra et amænissima ;" and Camden speaks of it as "a most pleasant town, a beautiful seat of the Hastings' family." See his "Britannia," in the original, or in the translation by Bishop Gibson, vol. i. p. 533, folio. London: 1722.

+ About A.D. 655, Peada, the son of Peuda, king of the Mercians, introduced Christianity into the central dominions of his father, over which he was entrusted with a vice-regal authority. This prince, who was "a youth of royal demeanour and great merit," was persuaded by his wife, Alchfleda, to hear the Christian preachers discourse on their three fundamental topics-the resurrection-the hope of future immortality—and the promise of a heavenly kingdom. He listened and reflected-was convinced, and became a Christian.

Nichols has preserved copies of four deeds relating to this grant. "History and Antiquities of Leicestershire," vol. iii. part. ii. p. 561. See also Dugdale's "Monasticon Anglicanum," vol. ii. pp. 145, 147, folio. Londini: 1661.

The bath pleasure-grounds at Ashby are refreshed by a fountain, whose waters were deemed holy.

*

Ashby. The church has a tower, which is strong and lofty, with pinnacles. It includes a nave, and two aisles with galleries, and the chancel, which has ornamental wainscoting. On one side of this is the vestry; on the other stands a spacious chapel, used by the noble family of Hastings as a cemetery. At the west end of the nave, under the gallery, a singular and ingeniously constructed instrument, named the finger pillory, is placed. It was devised and employed by our forefathers, as a quiet remedy "No for disorderly practices in the time of divine service. doubt," says Carter, quoted by Nichols, p. 618," this mode of punishment was formerly common in such situations, for the prevention of indecorous behaviour; at once efficacious, by detaining the offender in public view; and humane, by not degrading him to the more severe affliction of being set in the stocks, exposed to unrestrained insult and the inclemency of the elements." This appropriate" mode," however, has fallen into complete disuse at Ashby.

Few monuments are preserved in the church of Ashby. That of a pilgrim (a recumbent figure) in a recess of the north wall, is worthy of observation. It represents the usual habit and symbols (as shewn in the print) characteristically assumed by that remarkable class.

It is in the deanery of Ackley, and diocese of Lincoln. The living is a vicarage, of which the Marquis of Hastings is lay impropriator and patron. The vicar's stipend is chiefly derived from glebe lands, consisting of one hundred and eighty

Överlooking the altar from the south, a mural monument preserves the remembrance of Arthur Hildersham, M.A., who was vicar of Ashby for many years in the early part of the seventeenth century. This sincere and laborious pastor obtained considerable popularity in these days; and his writings, which are voluminous, continue to be held in repute by collectors.*

By far the most interesting of these monumental piles, is that erected in the chancel to the memory of the Rev. Robert Behoe Radcliffe, M.A., the late vicar of Ashby, by the parishioners. It is a florid cenotaph, affectionately designed to honour that simplicity of life and doctrine for which their truly-excellent pastor was pre-eminently distinguished.

Several very good monuments have been erected at different periods in the Huntington chapel. One of these is particularly magnificent, and might be advantageously studied in illustration of the co-eval architecture and costume. This mausoleum+ was constructed to the memory of Francis, the second Earl of Huntington, and his countess, both of whom died in the last half of the sixteenth century. The patriotism and virtues of Theophilus, the ninth earl, are recorded on a mural monument, which is surmounted by "a beautifully-executed bust" of Selina, his countess, well known for her zeal in disseminating the religious tenets which she herself conscientiously entertained. On the same tomb there is a sort of inscriptive biography, composed by Lord Bolingbroke; its chief features are prolixity and sententiousness.

Ashby enjoys extensive provisions for instruction of the young. Besides two establishments for educating and clothing boys, and a numerous Sunday-school, there is a free grammar school, possessed of ample endowments, and the privilege of several exhibitions to Emanuel College, Cambridge. It was founded by Henry, Earl of Huntington, in 1567, in order "to teach, instruct, and inform young boys and children in good morals, learning, knowledge, and virtue."

There is a "Clerical Society of Ashby-de-la-Zouch," the affairs of which are conducted with great talent and spirit. The members, consisting of nearly forty of the neighbouring clergy, have an increasing library, and hold meetings at stated intervals for the transaction of business. The principal objects of this useful association are, the discussion of professional subjects, and

three acres. In the parsonage-house there is a considerable library, which was bequeathed by the Rev. Richard Bate for the use of the incumbent and his successors. Some of the books are valuable, and worthy of careful preservation.

Joseph Hall, D.D., Bishop of Norwich, and John Bainbridge, M.D., Professor of Astronomy at Oxford, were natives of this parish.

t It is figured, on a large scale, in Nichols' "Leicestershire," vol. iii. part ii. plate lxxxiii. p. 618; and very accurately described in Wayte's "Ashby Guide," p. 107-a work abounding with useful information, and illustrated with elegant plates.

the promotion of a friendly intercourse amongst the members, which may tend to draw together persons whom slight differences of opinion have often too much separated.

Blackfordby has immemorially been a hamlet of Ashby; and its ecclesiastical endowments, with those of the latter, were given, in A. D. 1145, to the Abbey of Lilleshul, which retained them until the dissolution of monastic establishments. Under the year 1220, it is recorded that the abbot of Lilleshul, who held the patronage of Ashby to his own use "ab antiquo," had also the chapel of Blackfordby, where divine service was performed three times in the week from the mother church.

The Marquis of Hastings is lord of the manor of Blackfordby, and patron of the living. On alternate Sundays, the vicar of Ashby does duty in the chapel, which is a very ancient structure, consisting of a nave and chancel. The lancet windows, the old round font of stone, and the stand for an hour-glass near the pulpit, are objects of interest. Originally, its site must have been chosen on account of its secluded beauties and salubrity. It overlooks an extensive and luxuriant landscape, and rests upon a rock which pours forth a copious spring, whose waters were never known to freeze.

Ashby-de-la-Zouch is the largest parish in the county of Leicester. Anciently it included eight separate hamlets, two only of which-Blackfordby and Boothorpe-now remain distinct. It consists of eleven thousand two hundred computed acres, and

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE AND THE ENGLISH OPIUM-EATER.

15

has nearly six thousand inhabitants; for whom much additional church accommodation is manifestly most necessary. Instead, therefore, of not discountenancing the clamour and rapacity of the church's ill-wishers, as the fashion has been of late years, it would be wise, as well as just, if the British legislature would restore the property of which she had been plundered; or, as an atonement for a nationally sanctioned robbery, to assist this and many other parishes of the empire in obviating the reluctant defection of their people from a venerable mother-church, whose faithful ministers conducted our forefathers and their children's children through the severest trials, to the highest enjoyment of liberty and religion.

SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE* AND THE ENGLISH OPIUM-EATER. THESE two names have long been associated by more than one tie of connexion in the minds of those who are at all familiar with the writings of the latter; and it can scarcely have been without some degree of pleasure that the admirers of Coleridge saw the announcement of an article upon him by the English Opium-eater, in "Tait's Magazine" for the month of September. For the powerful writer, who has unfortunately chosen to designate himself by that ill-boding alias of evil record, is, in many respects, fitted above most other men for comprehending the full stature of the mighty spirit who has just passed away from the earth. If his heart would but give his head fair play, if he would allow a generous love to wean him from the idolatry of his own talents, the self-fascination under which he so often seems to be lying, and to strengthen them with the inspiration which nothing else can bestow, the picture could not fail to be a noble one. Hardly any one owes Coleridge more. Hardly any one has learnt more from him. No one is so well qualified, from his own studies and pursuits, to track him along the endless meanderings of his all-embracing speculations. In almost every thing the Opiumeater has written, one sees marks of the influence that Coleridge has exerted on the shaping of his mind. In fact, it has seemed almost to haunt him like a spell, against which ever and anon he has struggled, and which he would gladly have shaken off; but, in spite of himself, the yoke was upon him; and, though often restive, ere long he was forced to submit to it. He first tried to shove his master out of his chair, and then was fain to sit down at his feet; being constrained by his understanding to yield him an however unwilling homage. These symptoms, it is true, did not promise well. Still one could not but hope that, at a moment when all who knew Coleridge were bowed down in spirit by the loss which Christian philosophy had just sustained-at such a moment one could not but hope that the venerable form of his old teacher would have "come back upon his heart again ;" and that the very consciousness of the wrong he had hitherto done him, would have rendered him the more anxious to make amends for it by a splendid incenseoffering on his tomb.

The first sentence appeared to bid fair that he would do so. It contains an ample acknowledgment-such, indeed, as the Opium-eater has never been

• No reader who is aware how much influence the writings of Coleridge possess on the minds of the best and most promising young men of the day, will think that a defence of the character of this Christian Philosopher is out of place in the British Magazine. The most appropriate place for it appeared to be at the conclusion of the Original Articles.