asked him, as if there was but one death-bed in London, 'Do you know, sir, if this is the street where he is lying?'

WILLS. The last wills of our ancestors used invariably to begin, "In the name of God," &c. It was remarked as a novelty, that the will of Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, who died in 1744, had not the usual preface. In Sir John Cullum's " History and Antiquities of Hawsted," we have the following remarks :—“The thanking the Almighty for the blessing of a sound understanding, when a man was about to perform one of the most serious acts of his life, was surely not an ill-timed gratitude. Not less proper seems to have been the commendation of the soul to those powers who were supposed to be the guardians and patrons of human happiness, when a deed was to be executed which was to take effect immediately upon the separation of that soul from the body; an event of the utmost importance to man, and which generally was likely soon to take place. It seems as if we now thought that these were the effusions of an excessive devotion. Even a bishop (Cornwallis, Archbishop of Canterbury) can now make his will without mentioning the name of God in it; while, by a strange perverseness, a treaty of peace between two belligerent powers, which they and all the world know is nothing but a rope of sand, begins, In the name of the holy and undivided Trinity.'

PEWS.-In the pages of the agreeable local historian just cited, we find the following remarks on a subject which has excited a good deal of controversy in our immediate day There are some pews for the principal inhabitants towards the east end (of Hawsted church) in the neighborhood of the pulpit. The rest of the seats are probably coeval with the church, being regular benches, all alike, with a low backboard to each. Pews, that so much deform our Protestant churches, were not common till the beginning of the last century; but, however uniform and undistinguished the ancient seats were, and however peculiarly improper subjects to excite any of the ungentle passions, they were very early the causes of contentions, which the synod of Exeter endeavored to obviate, in 1287, by declaring, that all persons, except noblemen and patrons, when they came to church to say their prayers, might do it in what place they pleased. Early in the last century, there seem to have been some disputes about the seats in this church;

for, from a decaying paper, some years ago in the church chest, it appeared that Richard Pead, Reg'rar'us, directed an instrument to the churchwardens, charging and commanding them to place the inhabitants in such seats in the church as they should think proper, according to their estates, degrees, and callings; but their power was not to extend to seats belonging to houses of note and worship. Returns were to be made of those that were refractory: dated 1 December, 1623. Is there any strife or contention about seats in the church?' is still an article of official inquiry."

DESTRUCTION OF THE MONASTIC LIBRARIES.-John Bale, Bishop of Ossory, who was nevertheless a furious enemy of the Roman Catholics, has the following curious picture of the detestable plunder of the monasteries by the headlong Reformers. This was written in 1549: "Covetousness was at that time so busy about private commodity, that public wealth, in that most necessary and of respect, was not anywhere regarded. A number of them which purchased those superstitious mansions, reserved of those library books some to serve their jakes, some to scour the candlesticks, and some to rub their boots; some they sold to the grocer and soap-seller; and some they sent over sea to the bookbinders, not in small numbers, but, at times, whole ships full; yea, the universities of this realm are not at all clear in this detestable fact. But cursed is that belly which seeketh to be fed with so ungodly gains, and so deeply shameth his natural country. I know (says he) a merchantman (which shall at this time be nameless) that bought the contents of two noble libraries for forty shillings price: a shame it is to be spoken! This stuff hath he occupied instead of gray paper by the space of more than these ten years, and yet he hath store enough for as many years to come; a prodigious example is this, and to be abhorred by all men which loved their nation as they should do. Yea, what may bring our realm to more shame and rebuke, than to have it noised abroad that we are despisers of learning? I shall judge this to be true, and utter it with heaviness, that neither the Britons under the Romans and Saxons, nor yet the English people under the Danes and Normans, had ever such damage of their learned monuments as we have seen in our time. Our posterity may well curse this wicked fact of our age, this unreasonable spoil of England's most noble antiquities."

THE ABBOT OF READING.-King Henry VIII., as he was hunting in Windsor Forest, either casually lost, or (more probably) wilfully losing himself, struck down about dinner time to the Abbey of Reading, where, disguising himself, (much for delight, more for discovery, to see, unseen), he was invited to the abbot's table, and passed for one of the king's guard; a place to which the proportion of his person might properly entitle him. A sirloin of beef was set before him (so knighted, saith tradition, by this King Henry); on which the king laid on lustily, not disgracing one of that place for whom he was mistaken. Well fare thy heart, quoth the abbot; and here, in a cup of sack, I remember the health of bis grace your master. I would give an hundred pounds, on the condition I could feed so heartily on beef as you do. Alas! my weak and queasy stomach will hardly digest the wing of a small rabbit or chicken. The king pleasantly pledged him, and heartily thanked him for his good cheer; after dinner departed, as undiscovered as he came hither. Some weeks after, the abbot was sent for by a pursuivant, brought up to London, clapt in the Tower, kept close prisoner, fed for a short time on bread and water; yet not so empty his body of food as his mind was filled with fears, creating many suspicions to himself when and how he had incurred the king's displeasure. At last a sirloin of beef was set before him, on which the abbot fed as the farmer of his grange, and verified the proverb, that two hungry meals make the third a glutton. In springs King Henry out of a private lobby, where he had placed himself, the invisible spectator of the abbot's behavior. "My lord," quoth the king, "presently deposit your hundred pounds in gold, or else no going hence all the days of your life. I have been your physician, to cure you of your queasy stomach, and here, as I deserve, I demand my fee for the same.” The abbot down with his dust, and, glad he had escaped so, returned to Reading; as somewhat lighter in his purse, so much more merrier in heart, than when he came thence.-FULLER'S Church History.

167.-LUXURY OF THE ROMAN NOBLES.

AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS.

[AMMIANUS MARCELLINUS lived in the fourth century, and wrote a history of the emperors, from the accession of Nerva to the death of Valens, A.D. 378. The earlier part of the history is lost. Gibbon, in the 31st chapter of his "Decline and fall of the Roman Empire," has translated with some freedom the passage which we now extract. Hs says, "Ammianus Marcellinus, who prudently chose the capital of the empire as the residence best adapted to the historian of his own times, has mixed with the narrative of public events a lively representation of the scenes with which he was familiarly conversant."]

The greatness of Rome was founded on the rare and almost incredible alliance of virtue and of fortune. The long period of her infancy was employed in a laborious struggle against the tribes of Italy, the neighbors and enemies of the rising city. In the strength and ardor of youth she sustained the storms of war, carried her victorious arms beyond the seas and the mountains, and brought home triumphant laurels from every country of the globe. At length, verging towards old age, and sometimes conquering by the terror only of her name, she sought the blessings of ease and tranquillity. The venerable city which had trampled on the necks of the fiercest nations, and established a system of laws, the perpetual guardians of justice and freedom, was content, like a wise and wealthy parent, to devolve on the Cæsars, her favorite sons, the care of governing her ample patrimony. A secure and profound peace, such as had been once enjoyed in the reign of Numa, succeeded to the tumults of a republic; while Rome was still adored as the queen of the earth; and the subject nations still reverenced the name of the people and the majesty of the senate. But this native splendor (continues Ammianus) is degraded and sullied by the conduct of some nobles, who, unmindful of their own dignity and of that of their country, assume an unbounded license of vice and folly. They contend with each other in the empty vanity of titles and surnames; and curiously select or invent the most lofty and sonorous appellations, Reburrus, or Fabunius, Pagonius or Tarrasius, which may impress the ears of the vulgar with astonishment and respect. From a vain

ambition of perpetuating their memory, they affect to multiply their likeness in statues of bronze and marble; nor are they satisfied unless those statues are covered with plates of gold; an honorable distinction first granted to Acilius the consul, after he had subdued, by his arms and counsels, the power of King Antiochus. The ostentation of displaying, of magnifying, perhaps, the rent roll of the estates which they possess in all the provinces, from the rising to the setting sun, provokes the just resentment of every man, who recollects, that their poor and invincible ancestors were not distinguished from the meanest of the soldiers, by the delicacy of their food or the splendor of their apparel. But the modern nobles measure their rank and consequence according to the loftiness of their chariots and the weighty magnificence of their dress. Their long robes of silk and purple float in the wind; and as they are agitated, by art or accident, they occasionally discover the under garments, the rich tunics, embroidered with the figures of various animals. Followed by a train of fifty servants, and tearing up the pavement, they move along the streets with the same impetuous speed as if they travelled with post-horses; and the example of the senators is boldly imitated by the matrons and ladies, whose covered carriages are continually driving round the immense space of the city and suburbs. Whenever these persons of high distinction condescend to visit the public baths, they assume, on their entrance, a tone of loud and insolent command, and appropriate to their own use the conveniencies which were designed for the Roman people. If, in these places of mixed and general resort, they meet any of the infamous ministers of their pleasures, they express their affection by a tender embrace; while they proudly decline the salutations of their fellow-citizens, who are not permitted to aspire above the honor of kissing their hands or their knees. As soon as they have indulged themselves in the refreshment of the bath, they resume their rings, and the other ensigns of their dignity; select from their private wardrobe of the finest linen, such as might suffice for a dozen persons, the garments the most agreeable to their fancy, and maintain till their departure the same haughty demeanor, which perhaps might have been excused in the great Marcellus, after the conquest of SyraSometimes, indeed, these heroes undertake more arduous

cuse.