Juliana Barnes, but Berners was her more proper name. She was an Essex lady, and, according to Ballard, was, probably, born at Roding, in that county, about the beginning of the fifteenth century; being the daughter of Sir James Berners, of Berners Roding, and sister of Richard, Lord Berners. If, however, as is generally agreed, Sir James Berners was her father, her birth could have been very little after 1388; for, in that year, Sir James Berners was beheaded, together with other favourites and corrupt ministers of King Richard the Second.

The education of Juliana seems to have been the very best which that age could afford, and her attainments were such, that she is celebrated by various authors for her uncommon learning and her other accomplishments, which rendered her every way capable and deserving of the office she afterwards bore; which was that of Prioress of Sopewell Nunnery. This was a cell attached to, and very near, St. Alban's; and the remains of it are still standing. Here she lived in high esteem, and flourished about the year 1460, or, perhaps, somewhat earlier.

She was very beautiful, of great spirit, and

loved masculine exercises, such as hawking, hunting, &c. With these sports she used to recreate herself; and so skilled was she in them, that she wrote treatises on hawking, hunting, and heraldry. "From an abbess disposed to

turn author," says Warton, "we might more reasonably have expected a manual of meditations for the closet, or select rules for making salves, or distilling strong waters. But the diversions of the field were not thought inconsistent with the character of a religious lady of this eminent rank, who resembled an abbot in respect of exercising an extensive manorial jurisdiction, and who hawked and hunted in common with other ladies of distinction." So well esteemed were Juliana Berners's treatises, and, indeed, so popular were the subjects on which they were written, that they were published in the very infancy of the art of printing. The first edition is said to have been printed at St. Alban's, in 1481. It was certainly printed at the same place in 1486, in a small folio; and again, at Westminster, by W. de Worde, in 1496, in 4to. At the sale of the late Duke of Roxburghe, an imperfect copy of this edition was sold for the enormous price of £147.

The "Boke of Hunting" is the only one of these treatises which is written in rhyme, and begins as follows:

"Mi dere sones, where ye fare, by frith,* or by fell,†
Take good hede in his tyme how Tristrem wol tell;
How many maner bestes of venery‡ there were,
Listen now to our Dame, and ye shallen here.
Ffoure maner bestes of venery there are,

The first of hem is a hart, the second is an hare;
The boor is one of tho,§

The wolff, and no mo.||

And whereso ye comen in play¶ or in place,
Now shall I tel you which ben bestes of chace :
One of the a buck, another a doo,

The ffox, and the marteryn, and the wilde roo:
And ye shall, my dere sones, other bestes all,
Whereso ye hem ** finde, rascall hem call,
In frith or in fell

Or in fforest, y you tell.

And to speke of the hert, if ye wil hit lere,++
Ye shall call him a calfe at the first yere ;
The second yere a broket, so shall he be,
The third yere a spayard, lerneth this at me
The iiii yere calles him a stagge, be any way,
The fift yere a grete stagge, my Dame bade you say.”

;

* Wood.
|| More.

+ Field.
Plain.

+ Hunting.

** Them.

§ Them. ++ Learn.

MILTON'S WIFE.

MILTON repudiated his first wife for her disobedience, and, immediately after, he resolved to marry again, and, to that end, courted a lady of great accomplishments, daughter of a Doctor Davis. His wife and her friends, hearing this, resolved to effect a re-union. Milton being at the house of a relation in St. Martin's-le-Grand, he was surprised to see his wife come from an opposite room, fall down on her knees, and implore his forgiveness. He was at first inexorable; but her tears and his own generous nature brought about a reconciliation. From this scene, Milton is said to have drawn the character of his Eve, in "Paradise Lost." That their reconciliation was sincere, appears from his afterwards receiving her father and brothers, who were attached to the Royal cause, into his house, at the triumph of the Parliament.

THOMSON'S "WINTER."

SOON after the poet Thomson had published his "Winter," he presented a copy of it to Joseph Mitchell, and, in return, he sent Thom

son his opinion of the poem, in the following couplet :

"Beauties and faults so thick lie scatter'd here,

Those I could read, if these were not so near."

To this hypothetical piece of criticism, Thomson replied:

Why all not faults, injurious Mitchell, why
Appears one beauty to thy blasted eye?
Damnation worse than thine, if worse can be,
Is all I ask, and all I want from thee."

A friend, to whom Thomson submitted his answer, remarked, that the expression, " blasted eye," would look like a personal reflection on Mitchell, who really suffered under that misfortune; and Thomson made the awkward change of the epithet into blasting.

SWIFT'S LAST LINES.

SWIFT, in his lunacy, had some intervals of reason. On one occasion, his physicians took him with them to enjoy the advantages of fresh air. When they came to the Phoenix Park, (Dublin,) Swift remarked a new building, which