have first said how much I am gratified that you are willing to act with me, not only from a regard to my feelings, but also from a sense of the danger of having any thing to do with Church property. The income arising from the impropriate tithes is £400. I have been in possession of the estate nine and twenty years. I have therefore a sum of £11,600 to The interest of this, at 4 per cent. pay at once. amounts to £4,560. Therefore, I ought to reimburse the sum of £16,160 to the Church. The question is, how to employ the money. Now, doubtless, if sacrilege had never been committed, Mr. Wallis would have been in possession of this sum. Yet, I cannot think that I should be justified in putting it into his hands. It is an unfair way, generally speaking, to allow expediency to have any influence in a matter of pure justice, so that I will not argue as to the superior advantage of devoting that sum immediately to the Church: because, if it actually belongs to Mr. Wallis, however good the purpose to which I might destine it, I should only be committing a robbery on him. But, on due consideration of the matter, I am inclined to think, that in viewing him in the light of a steward of the Church's property—as every priest ought to be viewed, though I shall now lose no time in making over to him the future income derivable from the impropriation, I shall be acting more in accordance with Church principles, by devoting the accumulated sum of past years to the immediate furtherance of the interests of the Church,

D

taking care at the same time, to let it be known that I do not consider myself to be doing an act of charity, but a simple act of justice."

And what do you then intend to employ the sum upon?" enquired Robert.

"This parish has of course the first claim upon us. Now at Ayton, we have a population of nearly seven hundred, at the distance of a full mile from the parish church; and who would be unable, if that church were filled as it ought to be, to obtain accommodation there. I propose, therefore, to build and endow a church for them. I shall endow it at first with £200 a year, hoping, if my life be spared, to be able, ere long, to add another hundred: and the £10,000 which will remain will not be at all too much for a church-though not of the largest sizeas it ought to be built."

"I am quite delighted with the plan," cried Robert; "but I want to ask one question: have you mentioned any thing of it to George?"

"No," returned Sir John: "you were the first person to be consulted in the matter, and it was due to you that I should not previously mention it."

"I sadly fear, then," replied the other, "that George will never be vicar,-rector, I should sayof Teynton. I know him well enough to be sure that he would look on the giving up the impropriation as too much resembling a provision for him, if he ever derived any advantage from it. At least he would think that others might regard it in this light."

"I hope that he would not take this view of it: I am sure the world would not; though we may very safely leave it to form its own decision on the matter, without troubling ourselves to enquire what that decision is. But in the first place, Mr. Wallis may live twenty years yet: and in the event, George can only have a life interest in the restored impropriation: so that were my object only to provide for him, I should have gone to work in rather an expensive way."

"I shall be very glad if you can make him see it so; but I am sure he will have some scruples at first."

They were now entering Ayton Park: and the conversation turned on the family who possessed it. "I am sure," said Robert, "if the father be at all like the son, you must find him a great acquisition to the Teynton society."

"It is an odd coincidence, certainly, that you should have been acquainted at college. Yes; Col. Abberley seems a very pleasant gentlemanly man, without any particularly definite view, except on politicks, and there, fortunately, the right way. Young Abberley, of whom, however, I have seen but very little, I much like; indeed, I could hardly help doing so, on account of his very warm friendship to you."

"I do not believe there is a more excellent fellow in the county, be the other who he may; and I am glad, for all our sakes, that they are settled at Ayton."

:

By this time they were arrived in sight of the house and well as they were acquainted with it, the father and son almost involuntarily drew their reins, to admire the beauty of the situation. It was

a lovely morning in June: the remains of the old abbey to the left, the manor-house to the right, and the river seen between the two was bright in the rays of an unclouded sun. There was the gatehouse, built by Prior Kirton, in the time of Henry VII., with its broad Tudor arch, octagonal flanking turrets, and mouldings of vine leaf and roses: the prior's rebus, a dog sitting on a barrel (Cur-ton), was wrought in the spandrels. A honeysuckle climbed up one of the angular turrets, and flung its long sweet arms over the grey stone. Beyond it you might see the smooth turf, once the great courtyard; the ruins of the refectory on one side, and the remains of the church on the other: there were the four massy belfry arches, springing out from a thicket of glossy holly bushes, though their ponderous superstructure had long since fallen in: there were the banded shafts of the nave pillars, with their delicate mouldings, and deeply hollowed bases: the choir arch yet remained perfect, and festoons of the pale flowers of deadly nightshade hung down from it where the high altar had once stood, to which the soft turf still rose in undulating steps, was a black beech, with its smooth white trunk, and dark purple leaves and through the intricate windows of the Lady chapel the flush of a pink Maybush might be

seen, as if in mimicry of the glitter of jewels which had once decked the same spot. There was also the old wall, now ruinous and blocked up with fallen rubbish there was a room, called by tradition the abbat's parlour, there was the abbey barn, a noble cross structure: and the arches of the cloister bridge (mentioned before) that spanned the stream, and in the cool dark shade it threw across the waters, afforded a favorite retreat to trout, and small fish. The ground, as it sloped down to the river, was as soft and smooth as velvet: the water itself was fringed with a thick skirting of bulrushes, sedge, and irises while on its surface floated many waterlilies, some white, with their silver petals and yellow antlers; some yellow, like little knops of gold. The house, a structure of the time of King James the 1st, was of the old red Ely brick, which, when exposed to the sun and storms of two hundred years, assumes so venerable an appearance; but in the wellcarved fragments built here and there into the walls, it bore sad witness that the materials of the House of GOD had been appropriated to the abode of man. Fenced off by a sunk ditch and ha-ha from the rest of the park, it was sheltered behind by a thick wood of chestnuts; while the lawn in front was somewhat formally laid out in beds of various quaint shapes; circular, semi-circular, starlike, crescent-shaped, or diamond festooned. The sweet warm scent of an English June, the hum of bees, the song of larks,