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Sacheverell's friends, and the interest she showed in his trial was such as amounted to an interference with the course of justice. She was very regular in her attendance on the services of the church, which seems to have given some trouble to the ladies of her court, most of whom were more or less infected with the licentious infidelity which the courtiers of Charles II. had rendered fashionable in England. It was commonly reported that many of the maids of honour had prurient French romances bound as bibles and prayer-books, over which they gloated in their pews, while pretending to be intent on public worship. Sermons were little regarded by the Queen or by her ladies; the courtdivines, when not fulsome flatterers, were very careful "to prophecy smooth things;" a celebrated dean, afterwards a bishop, having had occasion to use the word "hell" in his discourse made a regular apology from the pulpit for having used so coarse a word in so polite an assembly.

Like most women of formal habits and weak minds, Anne was very rigid in insisting on attention to all the minute formalities of courtdress. She was very indignant with Lord Bolingbroke for having appeared in her presence with a plain tie-wig, and said, "I suppose that on his next visit his lordship will come to court in his night cap." Her chief relaxation was a tea-party, usually followed by a game of cards. On these occasions the tone of conversation was dull and constrained; there was a stereotype set of court phrases which did duty night after night, without change or variation, and any departure from its formalities was sure to incur the royal displeasure. It has, however, been insinuated that there was an understood license of whispering at these royal parties, and that scandals, anecdotes, and inuendoes of a very gross description circulated round the rooms; forming an undercurrent of indecency, which strangely contrasted with the trappist sobriety of the surface.

The reign of Anne has been called the Augustan age of English literature, but no portion of its celebrity was derived from the patronage of the sovereign. Her ministers courted the aid of literary men to defend their measures, because the press, though it had not yet risen to be a fourth estate of the realm, was beginning to exercise very considerable influence. But Anne herself showed no taste for poetry and the arts: no one of the great writers who flourished in her age was ever received at court, and a pension bestowed for literary merit was

the last thing likely to occur to the mind of a Queen who thought it an evil sign " to see ladies fond of reading."

It has been very generally asserted that towards the close of her life, Anne was very anxious that her brother should become her successor; but this report appears to have originated rather from her notorious jealousy of the house of Hanover, than from any return of natural affection. Bishop Atterbury always declared that the Queen was opposed to the cause of the Pretender, and that her tory ministry could not have induced her to take any measures in his behalf. There is, however, some reason to believe that she intimated to the court of St. Germains a willingness to favour the Pretender, provided he abjured popery and became a member of the church of England; the answer she received was peremptory and uncourteous, which so vexed her that she would not listen to any other overtures from the exiled family. The Pretender's friends believed that she made some declaration in his favour on her death-bed, but this is clearly an error, for the first symptom of her danger was a lethargy, which incapacitated her from thought, word, and action; "she died and made no sign."

STANZAS.

Oh! wherefore child of earth dost thou
Let every grief thy spirit bow?

Or wherefore build thy hope of bliss
Amid a world of change like this?—
Where hopes are false, and joys allure
To pain;-and nought save death is sure.

Look on yon tranquil firmament
Where loveliest hues are sweetly blent;
Mark that calm ocean's glassy breast
Where peace and beauty make their rest;
Deem'st thou that thus 'twill ever be,
Above-around-tranquillity?

Beneath thy feet behold the flowers-
Children of sunny beams and showers!
In glorious loveliness all clad,

Making the world look bright and glad!
Gaze on, then weep that things so gay
And bright, like thee, must pass away.

Liverpool,

The sunny brow of infancy,

Its fairy dreams,—its laughing glee-
The charm that breathes o'er beauty's face
With all its heart-subduing grace;

Have these eternal bloom?-Alas!
Thou know'st they wither like the grass!

Where are the glorious dreams of youth?
Oh! where its fond wild hope of truth?
Where are the ties of love, that round
Our hearts in early days were wound?
Decay, and change, and death o'er all
Have spread their everlasting pall!

Look round, on earth,-see, canst thou trace
For hope or bliss one resting place;-

One hallowed spot, where change ne'er comes
But happiness for ever blooms;—

Where tears and sighs are all unknown

And changeless joy is felt alone?

Alas! thine own experience tells
How much of woe around thee dwells:
Thy secret tears,-thy quenchless grief,-
Thy heart's vain yearnings for relief,-
Thy discontent with life,-all speak
How idle here for bliss to seek!

Then in life's battle faint not thou,
Nor let its woes thy spirit bow!
Thy triumph here shall be to bear
Calmly its wasting grief and care;
Thy spirit strengthen'd from above,
And arm'd in faith and holiest love :

Love for thy race,-for all like thee
Who err-and need thy sympathy.

Thus shall thy soul have peace, though gloom
And trouble be thine earthly doom!
Thy joy unchanging, and thy hope secure

Fixed on that world of bliss that shall endure !

R. L.

MARPLE HALL,

WITH A SHORT MEMOIR OF JUDGE BRADSHAWE THE REGICIDE.

Marple Hall, in the township of Marple, parish of Stockport, and county of Chester, is situated nearly four miles east of Stockport. It was originally spelt Merpull; and for many generations was a seat of the Stanleys of the Peak in Derbyshire. By an original deed preserved at Marple Hall, and dated June 4, in the fourth year of the reign of James I it appears that Sir Edward Stanley, K. B. of Thonge, county Salop, conveyed Marple Place and the lands adjoining, to Henry Bradshawe, Esq. of Bradshawe Hall, being at that time in the occupation of the said Henry Bradshawe. From that period the Hall and Manor of Marple have descended through successive generations of the Bradshawe family. The present possessor being Thomas Bradshawe Isherwood, Esq., whose great grandfather, Nathaniel Isherwood, married Mary, sole daughter and heiress of Henry Bradshawe, Esq.

The Hall, which is built on the summit of a lofty precipice, with hanging woods extending to the banks of the meandering Goyt, must, in the troublous times of the great Rebellion, when it was much frequented by the Covenanters, and by Cromwell himself, have been a place of great security and seclusion, as it was entirely embosomed in wood, and the only approach to the house was through a ford in the river, which was nearly impassable in winter. The house is a very interesting specimen of domestic architecture of the reign of Elizabeth. It is built of grey stone, within a court, in the shape of the letter E, out of compliment to the reigning sovereign, and is furnished with gables, bay windows, and a tower over the entrance, which formerly supported a bell turret. The visitor is admitted to the mansion through a heavy stone porch, into the entrance hall, a very low apartment for its size, being forty feet long by twenty-two broad, paved with alternate squares of white stone and black marble. This is occasionally used on festive occasions, as a dining-room. It is lighted at each end by a long narrow window extending nearly the whole breadth of the room, divided into ten equal compartments and darkened with stained glass. The roof is flat and traversed with massive oak beams. The walls are hung with pieces of armour, spears, stirrups, &c., and at the extreme end, are two full suits of black mail six feet high. A substantial sideboard of black oak is placed at this end of the Hall, on which stand two tall candlesticks, a black jack, and an ancient christening font of black wood. A very broad oaken staircase, elaborately carved and ornamented, leads from the Hall to the ante-room, an interesting though small apartment wainscoated throughout. Over the fire-place, composed of Dutch tiles, is an ancient gilt carving of the family arms, and the date 1666, the year of the great fire in London. Within this apartment is a small oratory, and when some repairs were being made a few years ago, a

*We have been favoured with the above sketch of Marple Hall, to which we have much pleasure in giving insertion, though some of the opinions expressed in the memoir do not exactly accord with our own.

false floor was discovered, beneath which was a place for secreting treasure, about six feet deep, in which was found some coins, and a roll of papers which were almost illegible from damp and age. A flight of circular steps leads from the ante-room into the drawing-room; an elegant apartment thirty feet by twenty, with an oriel window at the end, from which is seen an extensive and beautiful view of the adjacent country. Opposite the ante-room is a small bed-room, in which it is supposed Judge Bradshaw was born, and where is preserved his bed, which is one of the most interesting objects in the Hall. It is of black oak, exquisitely carved, and round the top is the following quaint inscription:"Fear God, not gold. He that hath mercy, of mercy shall find. He that lacks mercy, of mercy shall want." In the window are

the following prophetic lines in stained glass, which the Judge is said to have scratched, when a boy, upon a tombstone.

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In this apartment is shewn a breast-plate, helmet, and spurs, of the date of Cromwell, said to have been worn by the Regicide. This room, as well as the best bed chamber, are hung with tapestry, and furnished with ancient oak furniture.

Descending again the staircase, on a landing of which is some chain armour with a shield emblazoned with a Crusader's cross, on the left of the Hall is the library twenty feet square. The window similar to those in the Hall is divided into ten compartments of stained glass. The armorial bearings of the successive alliances of the family are placed round the wainscoat, except on the north side which is occupied with a bookcase extending across the apartment. The walls are hung with family portraits, amongst which is one of Colonel Sydenham the cavalier, who married Esther Bradshawe the Roundhead's daughter, and who are the hero and heroine of the romance by Sir Gibbon, called "The Cavalier." The chairs in this room are very ancient, of the date of Queen Elizabeth. Adjoining the library is the dining-room, thirty feet by twenty. The walls of this apartment are completely hung with family and other pictures, many of which came from Harden Hall, the neighbouring seat of the Alvanley family. On the other side of the Hall are two small parlours, but having been much modernized, they possess little interest. In the servants' hall is a quaint moulding in cement of the family crest (a stag at gaze under a vine) arms and motto, Bona Benemerenti Benedictio. A long terrace which intervenes between the mansion and the precipice leads to the offices, which are very numerous, some of which have embattled gables, resembling the Scotch architecture. The extensive stabling, erected during the Commonwealth, are supposed to have been built for the accommodation of the Roundheads by Mr. Henry Bradshawe an adherent of Cromwell.

Marple Hall is famous for having given birth to John Bradshawe, the Regicide, president of the pretended High Court of Justice which condemned to death the unfortunate monarch Charles I. John was the youngest son of Henry Bradshawe of Marple Hall, by Catharine,

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