Scotland had this for their burial place, and the body of Alexander II. and the heart of Robert Bruce here found their last resting-place. The Monks' Walk is said to have been a favorite resort of Sir Walter Scott.

On the following morning we were driven three miles to Abbottsford, Sir Walter Scott's large mansion, and were shown through the house. It is finely situated on the Tweed. His study, we were assured, remains very nearly as he left it. It is a small room, containing his books of reference in galleries on two sides, his writing-desk, arm-chair, and other furniture. The library is much larger, and is said to contain 20,000 volumes. What most interested us here were the clothes he last worea broad-brimmed, white fur hat, plaid pantaloons, striped vest, thick leather shoes, and gaiters. A cast of his head taken after his death also attracted our special attention. In one room, called the armory, are numerous weapons and other curiosities, among which are Rob Roy's musket, bearing the initials R. M. C.; a sword presented by Charles I. to the Marquis of Montrose; a hunting-flask of James VI.; Roman spears; two pistols found in Napoleon's carriage after the battle of Waterloo, supposed to have belonged to him; the huge key of the old Tolbooth at Edinburgh; and an axe presented by Washington Irving. In a case are a large number of valuable presents of various kinds from distinguished persons. In the dining-room and library are many handsome portraits and pictures, among them a portrait of Sir Walter's eldest son, represented as a dragoon standing by his horse, and another of Cromwell. In the drawing-room we saw an ebony chair, presented by George IV.

Bidding adieu to Melrose, we took the express train at half past eleven A. M. and reached Leamington, via Carlisle, Lancaster, Crew, Stafford, Rugby, and Kenilworth, by ten P. M. Leamington is quite a summer resort, and is probably the best place to stop for the purpose of visiting Kenilworth and Warwick Castles and Stratford-on-Avon. It is ten miles from here to Shakspeare's birth-place, and we went there the next day, taking Warwick on our way back. We passed one or two hours in Shakspeare's house, which looks just as represented by the pictures we often see of it. It is a very rough structure, coarser inside even than on the exterior. The old kitchen fire-place takes up a great part of one side of the room, which has a stone floor. The rough-plastered walls and ceilings of the rooms are scribbled over with the names of visitors-a fashion of leaving one's card which was prohibited many years ago. The small window-panes are scratched in like manner, and on one of them we read the name "W. Scott," showing that Sir Walter approved of the fashion. In one of the chambers there is a portrait of Shakspeare, said to be authentic. The engraved likenesses we see of him, we should think, were taken from it. One or two of the larger rooms are devoted to a Shakspearian museum, which contains many most interesting relics, of which, among some of the most prominent, are the following: Deed made in 1596, proving that John Shakspeare, the father of the poet, resided in this house; the letter from Richard Quyney to Shakspeare, in 1589, asking for a loan of £30, the only letter addressed to Shakspeare known to exist; Shakspeare's gold signet ring, with the initials W. S. and a true-lover's knot between; his ancient desk from the grammar school;

his jug, from which Garrick sipped wine at the jubilee in 1769; a specimen from an original copy of the "Merry Wives of Windsor;" a sword, said to have belonged to Shakspeare, and a sign of the Falcon Inn, where he is said to have imbibed too freely. From a curiously printed old pamphlet, containing his portrait and one of his plays, we copied the following, attributed to Ben Jonson:

"TO THE READER.

"This Figure that thou seest put,

It was for gentle Shakspeare cut;
Wherein the Grauer had a strife
With Nature to outdoo the life:
O, could he have but drawne his wit
As well in brasse, as he hath hit
His face, the print would then surpasse
All that was ever writ in brasse.

But since he cannot, Reader looke

Not on his Picture, but his Booke.

B. I."

Hanging framed in the museum is the following verse, written by Lucien Bonaparte during his visit here many years ago:

"The

eye

of genius glistens to admire

How memory hails the sound of Shakspeare's lyre;

One tear I'll shed to form a crystal shrine

For all that's grand, immortal, or divine.”

From Shakspeare's house we walked to the old church on the banks of the Avon, where he was buried. His grave and that of his wife are in the chancel, and over his is a plain slab bearing these lines cut in old Roman letters:

"Kind Friend, for Jesus sake forbeare

To dig the dust enclosed heare;
Blest be ye man yt spares thes stones,

And cvrst be he yt moves my bones."

In the side wall above is a Latin inscription and a

bust of Shakspeare. The sexton showed us an old parchment book, in which we read the record of the birth of William Shakspeare, April 23, 1564; of his baptism, April 26, 1564; and of his death, April 23, 1616. This unpretending building, called the Church of the Holy Trinity, dates back to the eleventh century. We passed, without entering, the Red Horse Hotel, celebrated as the house where Washington Irving put up when he was here.

Warwick Castle, the residence of the Earl of Warwick, is a noble structure and is kept in good repair. The rooms shown to visitors are filled with a great variety of rare and curious things, including costly inlaid tables, one of which is valued at $50,000; weapons of various descriptions - a gun-barreled revolver made two hundred years before Colt ever thought of such a thing; a valuable collection of paintings, etc. We saw in the porter's lodge some of the most wonderful things which belonged to Guy, the giant Earl of Warwick, (tenth century,) who measured eight feet, eleven inches from head to foot, and whose breast-plate weighs fifty pounds, his shield thirty pounds, and his two-handed sword, five feet, five inches long, twenty pounds. His tilting spear, halberd, chain coat-of-mail, cane, and horse's armor are likewise preserved here; also, his porridgepot, or punch-bowl, made of bell metal, said to hold one hundred and two gallons. Here, too, are cannon balls which were fired at the Castle by Cromwell. We have a fine photograph of this old Castle as we viewed it from a bridge over the Avon, which runs at the base of the rock on which the Castle is built.

On the 11th we took the train, five miles, to Kenilworth, and walked along the country road, enjoying the scenery, to Kenilworth Castle, about one mile

and a half beyond. The ruins of this famous old Castle are scattered over an extent of an eighth of a mile or more, and the only part inhabitable is what is called the Gate House, a building one or two hundred feet square with four towers. Here the keeper resides with his family. The detached portions are every where covered with ivy. Originally there was "a pool, containing one hundred and eleven acres, well stocked with fish," and its waters could be let into the moat, sections of which still exist, around the Castle. The Park, in which this pool or lake was located, but which was drained in the time of Cromwell, contained a large extent of territory with forests well stocked with deer and other game. It was in this Castle that the Earl of Leicester, in 1575, entertained Queen Elizabeth and her Court seventeen days at a cost of $85,000, a pretty large sum in that period.

On the morning of the 12th we left Leamington for London, stopping over one train to visit the Colleges of Oxford, of which there are nineteen in all, called collectively, the University of Oxford. From our carriage our guide informed us of the names of the various Colleges, all the buildings of which look very dingy. In one of them, specially noted on that account, Cromwell kept his horses. In the Bodleian Library we were greatly interested in several very ancient books and manuscripts shown to us. This Library is said to contain 240,000 volumes; and there is also a picture Gallery here, where we saw what is considered one of Van Dyck's oldest and best pictures. In the Museum, among other interesting relics, we saw the lantern carried by Guy Fawkes when he undertook to blow up the British Parliament buildings.