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EASY LESSONS IN CHESS.

XXIII.

THE QUEEN'S-PAWN-TWO OPENING.

THIS game, which is a branch of the King's Knight's opening, receives its name from the third move of the first player, who sacrifices his Queen's Pawn by playing it two squares. On this account the game is also sometimes called "The Queen's Pawn's Gambit," or "The Central Gambit." It has yet another name, "The Scotch Opening," from the circumstance of its having been adopted in three out of the five games which were played in the year 1824, by correspondence, between the clubs of London and Edinburgh."

This method of opening generally leads to an inte R. resting game, and it is perfectly safe; for the second player cannot preserve the Pawn which he wins at the third move, without loss. After the first few moves the game may branch out into so many ramifications, that we cannot in this short notice pretend to give more than a 3 few specimens.

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Black may also take the P. with his Q. Kt., upon which you play K. Kt. takes Q. Kt., and then take his K. P. with your Q. This course of play was recommended by the Anonymous Modenese; but Mr. Cochrane, (who has greatly improved this opening, and recorded some beautiful illustrative of it,) remarks :-" I object games to this move, [i. e. 3. Black Q. Kt. takes P.,] not because it can actually be proved to entail defeat, but because the White, by taking the adverse Knight with his King's Knight, and afterwards placing his Queen at her fourth square, will (if the situation of the game be considered,) remain with a much better position than his adversary. In the first place, the White has the Queen and his King's Pawn in the middle of the board, the former of which cannot be displaced unless the second player make a feeble move, viz., Queen's Bishop's Pawn two squares. Secondly, the power of action, i. e., the number of squares which the pieces of the White command, is in favour of the first player; and, lastly, the White can castle his King, and secure his game sooner than his adversary. There is nothing in chess so extremely difficult as the proving from any weak move of your opponent, the absolute loss of a game, more especially when one or two minor pieces have been exchanged, the great force of the Queen frequently rendering any determinate calculation next to impossible; the only method we can have of approaching demonstration, is to show that the one player has apparently a more confined game than his adversary."

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If the Black K. capture your Kt., you will play Q. to K. R. fifth square checking; thus securing his K. B. in return; if he play B. home or to Q. Kt. third square, you capture his Q.; therefore,

8. Q. B. P. one sq.

7. K. B. to Q. Kt. fifth 8. P. takes P.

sq. chg.

If you capture his Q. he takes your Q. Kt. P. with the P. discovering check, capturing Q. R. and making a Q. next move; therefore,

9. P. takes P.

10. Q. Kt. takes B.

11. Q. to Q. fifth sq. chg.

9. K. B. takes P. chg. 10. K. takes K. Kt.

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18. Q. B. to Q. sixth sq. 19. Q. B. to K. Kt. third sq.

He dare not capture the Kt. with his K.; for with the assistance of your Rooks and Q. B. you would speedily win.

20. Q. R. to Q. sq. 21. K. R. to K. sq. chg. 22. Q. R. takes B.

19. Q. B. to Q. B. third sq.

20. B. takes Kt.

21. K. to K. B. third sq.

White thus recovers his piece, and cuts off the Black K. from assisting at the attack on the P.

23. Q. R. to Q. R. fifth sq. 24. Q. R. to Q. B. fifth sq. 25. K. R. P. takes Kt. 26. K. R. to Q. sq. 27. K. R. to Q. sixth sq. 28. Q. R. to K. B. fifth sq. chg. 29. K. R. to Q. eighth sq. chg. 30. Q. R. to K. B. eighth sq. chg 81. P. takes R. becoming a Q., checking, and winning.

22. K. Kt. to K. R. third sq. 23. Kt. to K. B. fourth sq 24. Kt. takes B. 25. K. to K. B. second sq. 26. K. R. to K. sq. 27. K. R. to K. second sq. 28. K. home.

29. R. takes R. 80. K. takes R.

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The introduction of this move at this particular point is due to Mr. Cochrane. Its immediate object is to prevent your K. Kt. from occupying K. B. third square, but its influence may generally be traced throughout the remainder of the game. Q. P. one square is not an unusual answer to it, but such a move is full of danger, because your adversary can play Q. to Q. Kt. third, or Q. B. to Q. R. third, or he can castle and get a Rook into play almost immediately. The safer and bolder course is to play the Pawn to its full extent; you have nothing to fear from his taking it en passant, and should he take it with the B. you play Q. B, to K. third square.

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WHITE.

JOHN W. PARKER, PUBLISHER, WEST STRAND, LONDON.

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I.

THE SOUTH FRONT OF ASHRIDGE.

THE princely residence we are about to describe is situ-
ated on the confines of the counties of Hertford and
Buckingham, at about thirty miles' distance from Lon-
don, and is invested with more than usual interest from
having been the abodes of the Earls of Bridgwater,
and especially of that seventh Earl whose name is per-
petuated in the Bridgwater Treatises, and commands
the respect and admiration of his fellow-men.
noble mansion of Ashridge was entirely rebuilt by this
celebrated individual, and the result has been, the union
of the magnificence and splendour of modern times, with
the venerable and pleasing memorials of the past. The
spectator is still able to recall the stately battlemented
edifice of the sixteenth century; and may exclaim, with
Milton:

Straight my eye hath caught new pleasures
Whilst the landscape round it measures;
Towers and battlements it sees
Bosomed high in tufted trees.

The

Edmund earl of Cornwall, for a rector and twenty brethren or canons, called Bonhommes, of whom thirteen were to be priests. This was the earliest establishment of this religious order in England, and to the Earl in question is ascribed their introduction from the south of France. They appear to have been nearly allied to the Albigenses, and were esteemed a set of mystics. At any rate they were quite opposed to the orders of Preaching Friars and Minorites, then in their prosperity in England, and whose lives of pretended poverty and selfdenial, but of real luxury and excess, were made the subject of ridiculous paintings on the walls of the college at Ashridge. Besides this college of Bonhommes at Ashridge, there was another at Edingdon, in Wiltshire; and these are the only two houses of that order certainly known to have existed in England.

The college of Ashridge was founded expressly in honour of the blood of Christ; to account for which remarkable dedication, Hollinshed gives the following relation:-" Edmund, the son and heir of Richard earl of Cornwall, who was second son to King John, being with In retracing the early history of this interesting spot, his father in Germany, and there beholding the reliques from the notices collected by the chaplain of the late Earl, and other precious monuments of the ancient emperours, he and published in a magnificent work, entitled The His-espied a box of gold, by the inscription whereof (as the tory of the College of Bonhommes at Ashridge, the first point which requires comment is the name; this, however, carries its own explanation, being derived from a hill set with ash trees, the oldest denomination of the place being Aescrugge, from aesc, the ashen tree, and rugge, a hill or steep place.

At this place a college was founded in 1285, by
VOL. XXV.

opinion men then gave) he found that therein was contained a portion of the blood of our blessed Saviour. He therefore, being desirous to have some part thereof, by fair entreaty and money, obtained his desire; and brought over the box with him into England; bestowing a third part thereof at his father's decease, in the Abbey of Hailes, which his father had founded, and wherein his father and mother were both buried; whereby to enrich the said monastery, reserving

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the other two parts in his own custody; till at length, moved upon such devotion as was then used, he founded an abbey at Asserugge, in Hertfordshire, a little from the manor of Bercampsted, in which he placed the monks of the order of Bonhommes (good men), being the first that had ever been of that order in England; and assigned to them and their abbey the other two parts of the sacred blood."

The reputation derived from this supposed treasure brought numbers of deluded people to the two monasteries. The state of ignorance in which the generality of people lay at that time, was favourable to the success of the imposition; but at the Reformation the cheat was discovered and exposed, and the venerated relic proved to be nothing more than clarified honey, coloured with saffron, as was openly shown at Paul's Cross by the Bishop of Rochester on the 24th February, 1538. Bishop Burnet, speaking of that portion of the supposed blood of Christ which was deposited at Hailes, says that it was shown in a vial of crystal, and sometimes the people could see it, and sometimes not: "so they were made to believe that they were not capable of so signal a favour, so long as they were in mortal sin; and so they continued to make presents, till they bribed Heaven to give them the sight of so precious a relic. This was now discovered to have been the blood of a duck, which they renewed every week; and the one side of the vial was so thick that there was no seeing through it, but the other was clear and transparent; and it was so placed near the altar that one in a secret place behind could turn either side of it outward. So when they had drained the pilgrims that came thither of all they had brought with them, then they afforded them the favour of turning the clear side outward, who upon that went home very well satisfied with their journey and the expense they had been at."

Soon after the foundation of the college of Ashridge, it was distinguished by Edward the First holding a parliament in it. A great debate was there agitated in 1291 respecting the original and necessary use of fines. After largely endowing this college, and building several other religious edifices, the Earl of Cornwall died on the 'st of October, 1300, in his college of Ashridge. His bones were deposited with those of his ancestors in the Abbey of Hailes.

The rector and brethren of Ashridge held this college until the twenty-sixth year of Henry the Eighth, when they were visited by the commissioners of his Majesty, and made their recognition of the royal supremacy. After the dissolution of monasteries, Ashridge became the residence of royalty, being bestowed by Edward the Sixth on his sister, the Princess Elizabeth, who took up her abode there, and occupied Ashridge during a portion of Mary's reign. It was her chosen retreat, when suspected by her imperious sister of conspiracy, and from this place was she forcibly torn, though weak and ill, by the Queen's messengers, and conveyed in a litter, by slow journeys, to London, to answer the charges against

her.

An existing document proves that the Princess Elizabeth assigned in 1556 many parcels of the land and demesnes belonging to the late college, to Richard Combe, of Hemelhemsted, gentleman. Elizabeth, as Queen, in the fourteenth year of her reign, granted Ashridge to William Gorge, one of her gentlemen pensioners; and in the seventeenth of her reign, to John Dudley, and John Ayscough, and their heirs. In the second year of James the First's reign, Ashridge came into the possession of Sir Thomas Egerton, Lord Ellesmere, the founder of the house of Bridgwater. This nobleman died at Dublin Castle, and Ashridge became the property of his eldest surviving son, who, almost immediately after the death of his father, was created Earl of Bridgwater. In 1631 he was promoted to the presidentship of Wales and the Marches, and it was to his acquisition of this honourable post that the mask of Milton's Comus owes its foundation. Mr. Todd (the author of the work already noticed) says: "He had probably been long acquainted with Milton, who had before written Arcades for the Countess of Derby, and who, as it

has been supposed, wrote also, while a student at Cambridge, his elegiac ode to the Marchioness of Winchester, in conse quence of his acquaintance with the Egerton family. 'I have been informed from a manuscript of Oldys', says Warton, that Lord Bridgwater, being appointed Lord President of Wales, entered upon his official residence at Ludlow Castle with great solemnity. On this occasion he was attended by a large concourse of the neighbouring nobility and gentry. Among the rest came his children, in particular Lord Brackley, Mr. Thomas Egerton, and Lady Alice,To attend their father's state And new-intrusted sceptre.

They had been on a visit at the house of their relations in Herefordshire; and in passing through Haywood Forest, were benighted, and the Lady Alice was even lost for å short time. This accident, which in the end was attended with no bad consequences, furnished the subject of a mask for a Michaelmas festivity, and produced Comus.' Lord Bridgwater was appointed [rather installed] Lord President May 12, 1633. When the perilous adventure in Haywood Forest, if true, happened, cannot now be told. It must have been soon after. The mask was acted at Michaelmas, 1634."

The first Earl of Bridgwater, who thus did honour to his name by patronizing the illustrious Milton, lived to the age of seventy, and died "an example of patience and piety." His acquirements were varied and extensive; his manners graceful; his "discourse" fluent and polished, so that he seldom spake, but he did either instruct or delight those who heard him." In fact, he is said to have earned the character of being a profound scholar, an able statesman, and a good Christian.

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of

John, second Earl of Bridgwater, possessed many his father's excellences. He is commended as having been true to his word, faithful to his friend, loyal to his prince, wary in council, strict in his justice, and punetual in all his actions. At the early age of nineteen he married the Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, daughter to the Duke of Newcastle, a lady in whom uncommon piety was united with beauty and rare accomplishments, conspiring to render her one of the best and most lovely of women. A collection of prayers and meditations of this countess are still in the possession of the family.

This worthy pair appear to have patronised learning, and to have exercised the charity and hospitality becom ing their station. At the same time they were desirous of conducting their household with economy, and in accordance with religious principles. The household roll written by this nobleman affords an interesting pic-1 ture of his establishment, and will repay the curiosity of those who are able to peruse it at length in Mr. Todd's

After commanding, first, that all the servants in his house be ready "att the ringinge of a bell, or other warnings given," to attend morning and evening prayers or sermons in the chapel, coming thither with reverence and devotion, and not absenting themselves without special and urgent cause; he then gives rules for the deportment of those who wait at table, of which we

select a few.

All both gentlemen and yeomen are in a willing and decent manner to bringe up the first course to the table, and because the attendance of the gentleinen cannot afterwards be spared from thence duringe the meale, the yeomen are afterwards to bring up the second course and the fruite; and all take care not to use any uncivill, careless, slightinge, or unseemly demeanour in their attendance at the table, and particularly to show respect and curtesie to strangers.

All are diligently to attend their service at the table, without gazinge about, (so blindinge their owne eyes from finding what is fitting for them to doe, without being called,) or listening too earnestly to what is said (so stoppinge their owne ears against the call of such as shall have occasion to make use of them.)

None is to carry out of the dininge-room any napkin, spoone, knife, glasse, or any thing else belonging to the service of the table, but by the privity or appoyntment of the buttler, that soe nothinge of that nature may be sett in windowes, or by-corners there to adventure breakinge,

stealinge, or being purloyned away, upon payne that he,
who is soe found offendinge, doe pay for what is so lost or
imbezled.
All are to notice that the meate taken from the table is

to be delivered into the clarke of the kitchen's hands
againe, without any imbezlinge or takinge away any part
of it, that soe such care may be taken that the meate pro-
vided may suffice the family.

For the deportment of the servants towards each other there are the following rules:

Civill and sober demeanour is to be used by all the servants, one among another at their meals, at their several tables, where they are appointed to sitt; and all unseemly and rude deportment to bee avoyded both in words and actions; and none are to rise from table untill thanks be first given to God.

All quarrelling, brawling, and fightinge is to be forborne and avoyded by all the household servants, but upon occasion of wrong profered, they are to make it known to myselfe or my officers, that soe speedy redress may be had.

Then follow directions to the steward, the "gentlemen of my horse," to the gentlemen ushers, yeomen ushers, clerk of the kitchen, butler, wardrobe keeper, and porter, with general directions to all the servants. Among the latter is the following, which shows that the article particularized must have been thought worthy of especial attention.

That in all things care be taken to avoid wasteful expence; and that more particularly the clerke of the kitchen, the cooke, and the larder maid be watchfull to prevent the wastefull expence of butter, which hath hithertoo beene both too little considered, and too little valued, and too much wasted.

This earl was in person of a middling stature, in his latter years somewhat corpulent. He had a round face, black hair, and a very pleasing expression of countenance. He possessed a considerable library, in which he took much delight, and he gave free access to all who had any concerns with him. The loss of his beloved countess, which he suffered in 1663, was a deep and lasting affliction. Though he survived her long, he never ceased to deplore her with unaffected sorrow. He died in 1686, and on his monument is an inscripthan this, namely, that having in the nineteenth year of his age married the Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, he did enjoy (almost twenty-two years) all the happiness that a man could receive in the sweet society of the best of wives, till it pleased God, in the forty-first year of his age, to change his great felicity into as great misery, by depriving him of his truly loving and entirely beloved wife, who was all his wordly bliss; after which time, humbly submitting to and waiting on the will and pleasure of the Almighty, he did sorrowfully wear out twenty-three years, four months, and twelve days, and then in the sixty-fourth year of his age, yielded up his soul into the merciful hand of God who gave it.

tion which informs us that he desired no other memorial

John, the third earl and son of the preceding, was distinguished by having worthily filled some of the highest offices in the state. His son became fourth earl and first duke of Bridgwater. The fifth earl died unmarried at the age of twenty. The sixth, and brother of the preceding, was that celebrated Francis, duke of Bridgwater, the Father of Inland Navigation, immortalized by the noble canal which bears his name, and by the self-denial with which he gave up luxury and splendour for the completion of that immense undertaking chiefly designed for the benefit of posterity.

This illustrious individual died unmarried, and the dukedom dropped. He was succeeded in the earldom by his cousin, John William Egerton, the late occupant of Ashridge.

The ancient college stood in a noble park, five miles round, abounding in fine trees. This park afterwards received extensive additions. The front of the college was inclosed within a court, to which the entrance was through a handsome gateway, large enough to contain

several good apartments, in which the late Duke of
Bridgwater resided. On entering the court the prin-
cipal front presented itself. Along the middle part ran
the seven high Gothic windows of the hall. On each
side were projecting wings with large embattled bay win-
dows. Smaller wings extended on either side. The
refectory or convent hall was a noble room, with a
beautiful fretted roof, and rich in stained glass. The
quadrangular cloisters of the college had their walls
beautifully painted in water colours, in forty compart-
ments. The conventual church stood near, but no de-
At the upper
scription of it has reached our times.
end of the hall was a door leading to suites of rooms,
which had been long uninhabitable from damp. The
galleries were once adorned with numerous portraits.
In 1800, these were much dilapidated,-pictures hung
without frames, and mouldering frames without pictures.
The principal suites of rooms were over the cloisters;
and the most distinguished was called Queen Elizabeth's
apartment. It had an ancient bed, not only said to
have belonged to her, but to have been most of it her
work. Portions of her toilet, and two pairs of her
shoes, were also remaining. A small chapel adjoined
the cloisters, but this appears to have been built so late
as 1699.

The house was entirely surrounded by walls, within which was a garden where mazes and other conceits might still be discerned. The maze at Ashridge was noticed by a lady in some indifferent lines, where the garden was described as a fit abode for Eve. The bay windows in front of the house were those of the libraries, and of a large and noble room entered from the gallery. The libraries were rich in curious English literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and also in old manuscripts and conventual treasures.

Such was the ancient mansion and college of Ashridge; our next notice will describe it as it now exists, and as it is represented in the frontispiece to this article.

THE LATE LUNAR ECLIPSE.

If we reflect on the

To our minds, few of the phenomena of nature are more
suggestive of pleasing and contemplative thoughts than
is an eclipse of the sun or moon.
unerring precision, the entire certainty, with which the
astronomer foretels the time when the shadow of the earth
shall obscure the silvery face of the full moon; or the
dazzling face of the sun shall be hidden from us by the
dark body of the new moon: if we think of the planet
Jupiter, and of the eclipses and occultations of his satel-
lites; we are at once in the very field of astronomy's

wonders.

We look upon these periodic mutations as the visits of heavenly messengers. When the sun or the moon is thus darkened, we ought certainly to raise our minds to the contemplation of Him who said, "Let there be light, and there was light." In the words of that rapturous hymn of the youthful Ogilvie:

"Ye shades dispel," the Eternal said:
At once the involving darkness fled,
And nature sprang to light.

re

We envy not the feelings of those who can gaze with unconcern on these celestial phenomena. Can the " fulgent lamp of night" be darkened, and we not think of Him who gave "the sweet influence of the Pleiades ?" ? Can the and the influence no less sweet of the moon "golden orb of day" be eclipsed-can it cease, even for a transient season, in

Ever pouring wide,

From world to world, the vital ocean round; and we not think of that hand which decreed the temporary cessation? Can we call to mind the deeds of darkness which, "in the times of ignorance," were enacted on such occasions even in this land, and of those which still occur in less favoured lands, without dwelling on

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