1828.] 



Domestic and Foreign. 



Precious enfranchisement thy bolts are undone ; 

 Thou art no longer a degraded creature, 

 But loose to roam with liberty and nature ; 

 And free of all the jungles about London 

 All Hampstead's heathy desert lies before thee. 

 Mcthinks I see thee bound from Cross's ark, 

 Full of the native instinct that comes o'er thee, 



And turn a ranger 



Of Hounslow forest, and the Regent's park 

 Thin Rhodes's cows the mail-coach steeds en- 

 danger, 



And gobble parish watchmen after dark ; 

 Methinks I see thee, with the early lark 

 Stealing to Merlin's cave (thy cave) Alas, 

 That such bright visions should not come to pass! 

 Alas for freedom, and for freedom's hero ! 



Alas, for liberty of life and limb! 

 For Pug had only half unbolted Nero, 



When Nero bolted him! 



Mary's Ghost, too, has something of the 

 old spirit. 



Romance of History England. 3 vols. 

 12mo. By Henry Neele This is the first 

 fasciculus of a series of tales, intended to be 

 illustrations of history the present volumes 

 belonging to England. The set begins with 

 William the Conqueror, and ends with the 

 Commonwealth. The " Romance of His- 

 tory " might be interpreted to mean some- 

 thing extraordinary something out of the 

 common course of experience, and yet true ; 

 but the author uses the term with a little 

 more latitude. " The aid of fiction has in- 

 deed," he says, " been made use of, but no 

 important historical fact has been falsified." 

 He will stand upon the word important per- 

 haps ; but he has occasionally taken liberties, 

 which will not fall within the limits he pro- 

 fesses to have observed. We need only ap- 

 peal to Catherine Gray, and Arabella Stuart. 

 Both these ladies are strictly historical, and 

 their singular and hapless fate required no 

 heightening. The main incidents should, 

 we think, have been held sacred, because the 

 unknown of their lives and character their 

 tastes and pursuits was still considerable, 

 and might have been worked up at will 

 ampler space was left for the fancy. Cathe- 

 rine Gray, as every one knows, offended 

 Elizabeth by marrying Seymour, son of the 

 protector Somerset her own favourite. They 

 were both thrown into the Tower, and the 

 marriage declared illegal, and the offspring 

 bastardized. By the connivance of the keep- 

 ers they had frequent interviews ; but on the 

 discovery of the lady's pregnancy, severer 

 measures were taken. Seymour was heavily 

 fined for the new offence, and more strictly 

 guarded continuing so indeed till the un- 

 happy lady died, nine years afterwards. Now 

 what does Mr. Neele make of the story ? 

 After the parties had been long under con- 

 finement, the keeper of the Tower is repre- 

 sented as yielding with difficulty to the im- 

 portunity of the prisoners. But scarcely were 

 they met, when Elizabeth, who was herself 

 residing at the Tower, sends suddenly for the 

 governor, and commands him to conduct her 



forthwith to Seymour's apartment. The un- 

 lucky governor is forced to confess the im- 

 prudence of which he had been guilty. Eli- 

 zabeth bursts into one of her frequent rages, 

 orders the governor into prison, and rushes 

 herself to Catherine's room, where she finds 

 the offending pair and poor Catherine, to 

 save her husband Elizabeth threatens both 

 with instant death stabs herself in the 

 queen's presence. 



Arabella Stuart was the wife of Seymour, 

 the Protector's grandson, who, like Catherine 

 Gray and her husband, were thrown into 

 confinement by the jealousy of the reigning 

 sovereign. They escaped, he from the Tower, 

 and she from the custody of a private gentle- 

 man at Highgate. Seymour reached Calais 

 in safety ; but the lady, though she gained 

 the boat that was waiting for her in the river, 

 yet lingering in the Channel, in the hope of 

 Seymour's joining her, she was overtaken by 

 a pinnace sent in pursuit, and taken back to 

 the Tower when the sense of her hopeless 

 condition deprived her of her reason, and, 

 four years after, of her life. Mr. Neale, 

 after the escape, puts them both into the 

 same boat which was overtaken by the pin- 

 nace. A sharp engagement ensues, during 

 which Arabella rushes upon deck, just in 

 time to see her husband receive a thrust from 

 a sabre in his breast, and sink lifeless on the 

 pile of dead bodies beside him. 



Forgetting these entrenchments upon esta- 

 blished facts, we willingly bear testimony to 

 the ability, judgment, and taste with which 

 the whole series is executed. It consists of 

 about, thirty tales, one, and sometimes two 

 for each reign frequently relative to the 

 sovereigns, and many of them consisting of 

 single incidents, while others are of a more 

 complicated and ambitious cast. Of so great 

 a number, we cannot of course analyze all, 

 and no one in particular seems to claim the 

 privilege of being so far distinguished above 

 the rest ; yet some may be mentioned as 

 presenting points of excellence the little 

 Battle of Chalons, the Spaniard's Ransom, 

 the White Rose of England, the Abbot's 

 Plot for the spirit of their conception, and 

 the distinctness of the details. The Wooing 

 of Grafton is strikingly tender and delicate, 

 and the Countess of Chateaubriant, Francis's 

 first hapless mistress, has something of the 

 same character. Too many of the tales de- 

 pend upon the fulfilment of prophecies as 

 the Starry Tower, in which Don Pedro of 

 Castile was fated to die ; Suffolk's " Dan- 

 gers of the Tower," and Richmond's Three 

 Perils. The whole is worked up with great 

 care nothing like slovenliness appears in any 

 part of them characters and scenes are 

 clearly exhibited, and the little plots unfold 

 themselves without the appearance of effort, 

 and often with great felicity. The writing 

 is remarkably quiet and equable like that 

 of a man who trusts to the strength of his 

 materials, and his skill in working them up, 

 for producing a seleable article. The book 



