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at each interior corner of the barrier. There is a tradition that many of the larger stones were taken in the reign of Henry VI. for repairing Kendal Castle.1 Local rumour lends probability to the belief that the place was converted into an arena for gladiatorial combat, in the time of the Romans; it is thought, that the obelisks then served as places of respite, where the human combatants might shelter themselves from the onslaught of the wild beasts brought hither to satiate the barbarous taste of a people whose favourite pastime had its source in the pangs and groans of God's creatures.

The present name, "Mayborough," is Saxon, as the termination" burgh," evidently demonstrates: the "Virgin or Maiden Fortress," is the signification of the term. This would lead us to imagine that it was used in Saxon days as a military rampart. Some, however, suppose it to be a contortion of an earlier appellation, "Myfirion," a "place of study and contemplation," which appear much more applicable to the purposes of Druidic solemnity, whether religious or judicial, or both, to which the erection owed its foundation: it would seem that the original Druidic name has been lost in the darkness of antiquity.

TADMOR IN THE WILDERNESS.

NOTE.-The facts here alluded to are derived from the splendid work on Palmyra, published by Wood and Dawkins, and also from Dr. Halley's history of the city, in the Philosophical Transactions.

WHO has not marked, as dimly fades away

The last faint glimpse of life's declining day,
How joys the soul, in fancy's golden dream,
To gaze anew on morning's fitful beam,

1 Dr. Burn.

And doubly sanctifies each distant scene,

While memory dwells where youthful hope had been?

Cradle of infant science! Thus to you
Time-tutored Genius pays the homage due,
Flies from the world, where life and glory reign,
To eastern climes and early hopes again,-
To where (as shines their Fire-God in the skies,)
Land of the Palm, they giant-ruins rise
Lords of the silent waste-an empire's grave-
Records of power they knew but ill to save;
As ocean's tide-deserted shores unfold
Where erst his wide, o'erpowering billows rolled!

Nursed by the hand of Wisdom's wisest child,
Here first the sister-arts benignly smiled,

In strength mature and beauty, birth divine!
Where infant-science reared the gorgeous shrine,
And breathing sculpture's earliest gifts were poured
To grace the fane of grateful Judah's LORD.
When Rome in embryo lay, and Greece was young,
Here monarch-bards the harp of Sion strung;
Here daring commerce spread her snow-white wing,
To swell thy pomp, Arabia's Genii-King!

Time fleeted: centuries revolving o'er,

Still found thee lovelier, mightier than before;
What time yon towering shafts, in proud array,
Sprang to salute their dawning god of day,
And haughty Persia's turbaned despot paid
Unwilling homage 'neath their victor shade!
What time, with trophies piled those walls among,
Zenobia's triumphs swelled the tide of song;
Her widowed might war's swiftest thunders hurled,
And shared the sceptre of a subject world!

How changed the scene! O'er Tadmor's peopled plain,
Primeval silence holds her lonely reign!

Hushed are those arms, quick-mustering for the fight;
Quenched are those fires, that scared the gloom of night;
While swells the whirlwind-demon of the blast,
In solitary grandeur of the past;

Save where by yonder cliff's sepulchral show,
The bandit spurs his curbless steed below,

Or lurks the wandering Arab by the pile,

Where gods have dwelt, while nations bowed the while!

What boots thee now, one mountain granite all,
Thy storied obelisk's unbroken fall;

The bold arcade, the widening vista's grace,
Where Parian marble mocked life's fairest face;
Where colour's magic charm of thousand dyes,
Bade at each touch fresh ripening beauties rise;
And rich Corinthian twined the wreath of flowers,
Culled from her own Achaia's loveliest bowers?
All, all are fled! In beauty's native clime,
Gaunt rapine speeds the conquering shaft of Time ;
And bigot zeal, impatient of delay,1

Prevents the labouring strides of slow decay.
"Insatiate fiends, avaunt!"-"Tis Genius calls-

"Oh! spare these ruined shrines, these crumbling walls!" In haughtier mien, see Fame her ægis rear;

"Hence, vanquished foes, your shafts are pointless here!"

КАРРА.

THE ALDER-STICK.

(From the German of Krummacher.)

A HUNTER was wandering over the plains with his son; and it chanced that a deep brook divided them. The boy wished to return to his father, but could not, for the stream was wide. So he cut himself a stick from the tree, placed the end of it in the brook, leant boldly on it, and gave a spring. But see! it was the branch of an alder-tree; and while the boy was jumping over the brook, the stick broke, and the child fell into the water,-which made a great noise and splashing, and then closed over him.

1 Most of the statues are said to have been destroyed by the Turks in their zeal against idolatry.

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A shepherd saw all this from a distance, and gave the alarm; but the boy threw the water from him, and swam laughing to the bank.

Then the shepherd said to the hunter, "You appear to have taught your son many things very well; but one thing you have forgotten. Why did you not accustom him to examine well the intrinsic value of things, before he trusts confidently to their outward appearance? If he had looked well at the white pith inside the stick, he would never have trusted to the deceptive bark.”

"My friend," answered the hunter, "I have made his eyes sharp, and have well exereised his strength. Now, therefore, I can trust him to his own experience: suspicion he will learn soon enough. But he will courageously and safely make the experiment, for his eye is clear, and his strength well proved."

The Editor's Desk.

It is really marvellous to see what a glorious spirit is pervading the country, reaching even to far-off country villages, and how the work of Church restoration is going on. In illustration of this we may point to the chapel of S. James, Winterbourne, Newbury, Berks, where extensive works have been carried on for some time past under the direction of J. W. Hugall, Esq. Architect, of Cheltenham. The fabric was in a most unsightly condition, the pews and other fittings were of the worst possible description, and the accommodation far too limited for the population of the district. The Rev. J. E. Robinson, Vicar of Chievely, in whose parish this chapel stands, determined in conjunction with his zealous

chapel-warden, W. Fisher, Esq., to restore the south aisle of the nave, and to build a corresponding north aisle and vestry. All the pews and a western gallery have been removed; the two aisles have been erected with arcades of Bath stone, of early Decorated character, the details of the south aisle having been closely copied; the floor is paved with Staffordshire tiles. The benches and roof are of deal, slightly stained and varnished. The ancient font is set upon a new base; and in some of the windows is stained glass by Wailes, of Newcastle. The effect of the nave and aisles is very good, but there still remains much to be done, The roof of the nave should be removed, and give place to one of open timbers to harmonize with the roof of the aisles. The pulpit is a miserable thing, and the chancel is in a wretched condition. The pavement is common red brick; the plaister of the walls is rotten with damp and green mould; and there is much cause for regret that the Rector does not place this part of the Church in such order as to render it adapted for the high and holy offices to which it is set apart. This Church was re-opened for Divine Service on Thursday, the 30th of March. The sermon was preached by the Bishop of Oxford from S. Luke vi. 49. The Holy Eucharist was offered. There were about seventy communicants, and the offerings amounted to above £70. Many of the clergy and gentry of the neighbourhood attended. There is still a large field for the employment of the architect's skill in the Parish Church of Chieveley, and we shall be glad to hear that it has been called into requisition.

At Rugby the Church of the Holy Trinity has just been completed, and was consecrated by the Lord Bishop of Worcester, on Thursday the 20th of April. The service was of the ordinary character; the consecration sermon

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