justify their dread at this Just Spirit. The trio bore a desire for spoils similar to that characterizing their employers, and had determined upon peculation and spoliation for their own private accounts. Apparently having correct opinions about each other's honesty, they had, in order to prevent loss among themselves, made a signed compact for due distribution of any accruing gains. This document was hidden in a flower-pot. But the Just Devil, whose operations had caused them so much tribulation, at last induced them to assemble certain grave and virtuous men to consider the phenomena that had occurred. While these and other witnesses were present, the retributive agent, who had gotten them into a finely effective dramatic position, caused certain fireworks to explode the flowerpot, and thus throw the scandalous compact among those who would be variously and particularly distressed by it.

The story itself opens in the parish church at the old town of Woodstock, "on a morning in the end of September, or the beginning of October, in the year 1652, being a day appointed for a solemn thanksgiving for the decisive victory at Worcester." A curiously assorted audience of dissenters had assembled in the then half-dismantled edifice, where a Presbyterian, the Rev. Nehemiah Holdenough, attempted to hold forth, but was served as his sect had served its liturgical predecessors in that place. He was rudely expelled by a representative of a newer schism, an Independent, who preached vehemently to his own heart's content. The edifice in which was this opening scene has been much altered; and although there are fragments of ancient workmanship apparent about it, its general appearance dates only from a "renovation effected during the latter part of the last century." From this church attention is led to the royal lodge, or manor-house, in the great park, perhaps half a mile distant. On the way, the story introduces, in a woodland, the stout-hearted, gray-bearded keeper, Sir Henry Lee, of Ditchley, head ranger, and his daughter Alice. To them appeared a soldier-like person, Joseph Tomkins, Cromwell's secret agent, who presented to the knight a warrant of parliament for surrender to it of the lodge. This presentation elicited a fight, in which the fiery old cavalier, however, did not have the better, but that resulted in his agreement to the surrender.

The lodge, now destroyed from its very foundations, stood in Woodstock Park, - now called Blenheim Park, -on the western side of a lake or river near where that is crossed by a grand stone

bridge, over which passes the avenue from Woodstock town to Blenheim Palace. It occupied the brow of a low hill, -a "site... now covered with verdant sward, and browsed by deer," and was "a magnificent and extensive structure, ... the residence of several ... monarchs, from the time of Henry I. to Charles I. It was not entirely destroyed until 1723, ... when two sycamore-trees were planted to mark its site." Connected thus with much that is historic and romantic, it is readily remembered for its associations with King Henry II. and Rosamond de Clifford, for whom he constructed the celebrated "Bower," either among the recesses of the pleasure grounds, or among the intricacies of the manor-house. The gardens then probably "consisted chiefly of the Topiary work, so usual with the fanciful gardeners of that era ;" and among these, some writers think, was that “Labyrinth, so artfully contrived that no stranger could possibly unthread its mazes," in which the royal favorite 66 was hidden from the jealous queen," and in which she was finally discovered and killed by "that dreaded personage." We are told, "that some of the entrenchments thrown up during the civil war in the time of Charles are still visible on the brow of the hill [already mentioned] above Queen Pool; and the parterres and knots of the ancient gardens are distinctly to be traced on the lawn in front of Churchill's Pillar." Scott places the labyrinth within the walls of the house itself. This, Scott wrote, was, at the time of his story, a "gothic building, irregularly constructed, and at different times," "comprehending a nest of little courts, surrounded by buildings which corresponded with each other, sometimes within doors, sometimes by crossing the courts, and frequently in both ways. . . . The varied and multiplied fronts of this irregular building... contained specimens of every style which existed, from the pure Norman of Henry of Anjou, down to the composite, half gothic, half classical architecture of Elizabeth and her successor." The secret passages that are so important in the mysterious machinery of this novel, and of the "Just Devil's" operations, must all now be imagined. Entrance was had to them, it has been said, through the usual movable panels, and through a framed portrait, moving like a turnstile, above one of the chimney-pieces. They also were, according to Scott, traditionally reported to have been connected with "the oldest part of the structure, . . . named . . . Fair Rosamond's Tower," solid below, and having a room at its lofty top, "accessible only by a sort of small drawbridge" from a

corresponding but a little lower tower, "containing only a winding staircase, called in Woodstock Love's Ladder; because, it is said, that by ascending this staircase to the top of the tower, and then making use of the drawbridge, Henry obtained access to the chamber of his paramour.” But as precision in these important details is now difficult, one may be permitted to read Sir Walter's story without becoming perplexed among any such mazes. We can thus experience, in the interest of that story, and the picturesque tribulations of Cavaliers and Loyalists during the times it represents, how "rich the treasure" of our entertainment, and how "sweet the pleasure" to us, after their pain. As before noted, the ancient and curious house that has so entirely disappeared, and that has just been sketched, is the chief scene of the story. A brief visit, by one of the minor characters, to Cromwell, at Windsor Castle, is described; but the incident does not associate that vast pile sufficiently with this work to render an account of it necessary here. The visit, however, introduced a short scene that is one of Scott's most dramatic and effective, when, in an apartment of the Castle, in which were many pictures turned towards the walls, Cromwell, while wishing to describe another, exposed to full view, accidentally, the portrait of the sovereign he had done so much towards destroying.

The general story shows the three commissioners at Woodstock, and their trials and machinations. It shows the difficulties of love between young Parliamentarian and fair Cavalier youth and worth. It shows the plotting Royalist and the watchful Roundhead. It shows, also, at the ancient royal lodge, the vicissitudes and extreme risks of a fugitive King, in episodes that have, however, troubled perhaps several literal readers, one of whom observes that Charles II., during his wanderings after the battle of Worcester, "never once visited Woodstock." Notwithstanding any such fact, the story presents correct portraiture of the "merry monarch" and of his great opponent, "the Lord General," who appear prominent and life-like, as also does that more lovable person, alluded to near the beginning of this chapter, - Alice Lee. "Alice Lee, so sweet, so gentle, so condescending in thy loveliness; . . . no creature wert thou of an idle romancer's imagination; no being fantastically bedizened with inconsistent perfections; thy merits made me love thee well; and for thy faults, so well did they show amid thy good qualities, that I think they made me love thee better." And the

Alice Lee, ever attending her aged father, revealed in the romance Anne Scott in real life watching over her greater father during his greater trials. To him-to the eye and thought of love—she seemed to be, as he described, "a slight and sylph-like form, with a person so delicately made, and so beautiful in countenance, that it seemed the earth on which she walked was too grossly massive a support for a creature so aërial."

And while we wander around the ancient site where this story was enacted, and while we recall its former glories and romance, the incidents of the novel, and the history of the very composition itself, we are pleasantly led among the venerable oaks, and over the green turf of the great Park, through scenery like that beheld by Alice Lee and those about her, to the very woodlands and lawns indeed, over which not only she, but also many a monarch, coursed; where Chaucer lived and wrote and enjoyed during his later life; where indeed no small history of ages of England's domestic character is suggested. And travellers will, of course, so far as able, examine the grand structure that now renders this vast domain famous and that is unsurpassed by any private countryseat in Europe—in the world. Upon a lofty Doric pillar, so prominent that no visitor can fail to see it, may be read Lord Bolingbroke's terse inscription that tells the modern glory of Woodstock in these words: :

"The Castle of BLENHEIM was founded by Queen ANNE,
In the fourth year of her Reign,

In the Year of the Christian Æra

One Thousand Seven Hundred and Five.

A Monument designed to perpetuate the Memory of the
Signal Victory

Obtained over the French and Bavarians,
Near the Village of BLENHEIM,

On the Banks of the Danube,

By JOHN Duke of MARLBOROUGH,

The Hero not only of his Nation, but of his Age," &c.

This former royal manor, after experiencing many vicissitudes, was granted as above expressed; "and half a million of money [sterling] was voted by the House of Commons for the completion of the" palatial "castle," "which took place in 1715, one year after the death of the Queen." As is well known, Sir John Vanbrugh, architect, here raised a massively picturesque and monumental House, that "consists of an oblong grand centre edifice, connected by colonnades to two projecting quadrangular wings, which, on the

principal front, form the three sides of a great court, enclosed by iron palisades, the whole building being in extreme length 850 feet, and covering seven acres of ground," - about as much as Kenilworth Castle. In the centre is the great Hall, 67 feet high; and beyond it, to the right and left, an imposing suite of State Apartments, nearly 350 feet in length, filled with fine paintings, constituting one of the noblest galleries in Britain. At right angles, extending 183 feet, is the Library, “said to be one of the grandest rooms in Europe," containing the Sunderland collection of books, now numbering nearly 20,000, and among the most valuable of private libraries. Many of these books are of extreme rarity. Curiously, perhaps the two finest private libraries, certainly, in Britain, — this and the Earl of Spencer's at Althorp,- were both founded and developed by members of the same family, that of Spencer. A book is needed for description of Blenheim, however; and as these sketches can only give outlines, it may but be added that around this vast and sumptuous residence are correspondingly extensive and beautiful gardens. "The princely district enclosed by walls, as a demesne-appendage to the castle, comprises about two thousand seven hundred acres. The circumference is said to be upwards of twelve miles." This tract abounds in artificial decorations and in exquisite sylvan scenery. The whole domain is, as inscribed, an "Illustrious Monument of Marlborough's Glory and of Britain's Gratitude."

XLIII.

"THE FORTUNES OF NIGEL," AND "SCOTT'S LONDON."

Fifteenth Novel of the Series; Written 1821-22; Published May 30, 1822; Author's age, 51; Time of action, 1620.

TRA

RAVELLERS, after exploring the wonders of Blenheim, and the venerable, half-monastic, gothic quadrangles, the fair and quiet gardens, and the stately streets of Oxford, will naturally be attracted to the great metropolis. "Scott's London" is rather more visible than “Shakspeare's London," yet both are old-world places rapidly passing away in the busy life and change of the largest and