CHAP. II. "The Saxon and the Dane, scourged with sharp stcel, (So did the Norman Duke) this beauteous land; A gentler ruling in this change we feel, Our lion comes as meckly as a dove Not conquering us by hurt but hearty love." Ar the period when Englishmen scanned the prophecy of the Italian Monk, it was the fashion for the principal gentry, lords, courtiers, and men of all professions, not merely mechanical, to meet in the middle aisle of St. Paul's church by eleven, and walk till twelve; and after dinner from three till six. As it was in Athens of olden time, so was it here in the beginning of the seventeenth century. In regard to the universal commerce of the world, there happened little that did not arrive in this sacred mart of intellectual exchange. Young men, in general, resorted to the aisle of St. Paul's, for lack of more advantageous employment, at the period of which we write; and associated themselves, at those hours, with the choicest company they could pick out. They who were studious, talked of the histories of past times, as great maps of devastation, which shewed, that if one age did not level what another had erected, variety was lost, and no means left to render the present or future generations famous or infamous. The scientific pilgrims who were drawn thither strove to rival the well-wishers to agriculture and commerce, by discoursing on Thomas Tusser's" Five Hundred Pointes of good Husbandrie." and consoling themselves, "it was no way strange that one who could-build a 'Change could change a building." And if, perchance, they en countered a political disputant-men who in that age were styled "novelants,” they would descant on that statute which contains a phillippic against "certain deceitful stuff called 'logwood, or blockwood,' ," whose colours are represented therein as "false and deceitful at home, and discreditable beyond sea." Others there were who came thither and talked of "marriage as a trap set for flies, ointed at the entrance with a little voluptuousness, under which is contained a draught of deadly wine, more pricking and tedious than the passions it pretends to cure, leaving the patient in little quieter condition in the morning than him that hath over night killed a man to gratify his revenge." And there were those too who in this asylum of the inquisitive cried up travelling into foreign parts as "the best accomplisher of youth and gentry," though detected by experi ence, in the generality, as the greatest corrupter of our national manners. Amongst such as were anxious after affairs of state, many came to "Paul's Aisle," not only boldly to weigh the public-but most secret actions of their governors, which some vain or babbling courtier might chance to betray to society. The crowd of these far outnumbered all the rest, for the times were big with important events. The duty of Parliament during the dynasty of the Tudor family, was canvassed with freedom, because the members had been forbidden to meddle with state affairs, the succession and the church. The last they were expressly directed to avoid in every speech, which, during Elizabeth's reign, opened the session. They might, however, direct the tanning of leather, or the milling of cloth; they might attend to the preservation of game, to the repair of bridges and the highways, and to the punishment of vagabonds and beggars; but the court could do all that was necessary by proclamations, which, without the durability, had, for the time being, all the force of acts of Parliament, 66 Respecting the Prince who had now arrived in the metropolis of England, this crowd of peripatetic politicians entertained opinions, as various as their hopes, and fears, and prejudices were diversified by family, by fortune and by education. About nine in the morning of the 24th of March, 1603, King James of blessed memory," had been proclaimed, and the accession of the family of Stuart to the Throne of England forms at this day, not a more memorable era in the history of Great Britain, than it furnished matter of discourse to the newsmongers of Paul's Aisle. James was the great grandson of Margaret, eldest daughter of Henry VII. so that, on the failure |