EXPENDITURE ON THE NATIONAL GALLERIES AND MUSEUMS. A RETURN has been furnished to the House of Lords, on the motion of Lord Overstone, as to the sums expended on the following Public Galleries and Museums : THE TICHBORNE FAMILY. THIS family was represented on the High Court of Justice which condemned Charles I. to the block. Mr. Robert Tichborne, a member of a younger branch of the family, in his early life carried on business as a linenNational Gallery.-1. Total amount expended on account of pur-disturbances he attached himself to the Parliamentary party, draper in the City of London. At the commencement of the chases from the date of its commencement to the present time, 337,1957. 95. 10d.; 2. Total amount expended during the same period on account of annual cost of the establishment and other outgoings, 133,384 115.; 3. Total amount expended on building account, 102,490. Is. 8d. Note.-The amount of 70147. 6s. 9d. was received by sale of catalogues to March 31, 1871, and paid over to Her Majesty's Exchequer. South Kensington Museum.-1. Total amount expended on account of purchases, from the date of its commencement, in 1853, to the present time (31st March, 1871), 308,6977. 25. 7d.; 2. Total amount expended during the same period on account of annual cost of the establishment and other outgoings (including schools of science and art), 1,133,617. 195. 2d.; 3. Total amount expended on building National Portrait Gallery-1. Total amount expended on account of purchases, from the date of its commencement to the present time (31st March, 1871), 14,4834. 75. 3d.; 2. Total amount expended during the same period on account of annual cost of the establishment and other outgoings, 11,395/. 4s. 9d.; 3. Total amount expended on building account (including rent), 43207. 45. 2d. account, 231,740%. 5s. 9d. British Museum.-1. Total amount expended on account of purchases and acquisitions (including the amount expended in excavations) from the commencement of the year 1824 to the present time (31st March, 1871), 778,8147. 55. 11d.; 2. Total amount expended during the same period on account of annual cost of the establishment and other outgoings, 1,643,7867. 125. 44d.; 3. Total amount expended on building account, including furniture, fittings, and architects' commission, from Michaelmas, 1823 (when new buildings were commenced), to the 31st March, 1871, 1,299,0687. 5s. id. RESTORATIONS. MARTON.-The old church of Marton has been restored. It was found, upon examination of the lower part of the main timbers supporting the tower and spire, that the portions below the surface were completely gone, and it was necessary to renew the four square compound posts at the angles of the tower, which are strengthened by struts in the form of buttresses. The chancel is now of timber and plaster, to correspond with the nave. New steps have also been carried up from the road to the west entrance. open SOUTHAMPTON.-The restoration of St. Michael's church has been pushed forward for completion by Easter. The roofs of the aisles have been strengthened, and the whole of the pews and galleries removed; the aisles will be from end to end, and not blocked up so much as formerly. The old roundabout staircase to the belfry and tower, which previously occupied so much room, has been done away with, and a circular one substituted, and placed in a much more advantageous position. The flooring of the church will not be quite so high as formerly, the original level being taken, while the alterations will give a better interior view of the east window and the altar. YORK MINSTER.-Mr. Street, the architect, has just visited York, and operations have commenced for the rebuilding of the clerestory. The first energies of the Dean and Chapter will be directed to restoring the clerestory and placing the roof in a satisfactory state. This is expected to occupy about fifteen months. Following this will be the restoration of the south front, which will occupy much time and require great care, the original structure having been materially interfered with in former repairs. WAKEFIELD.-The Restoration Committee of the Wakefield parish church are about to commence the restoration of the remainder of the interior of the building, and upwards of 3000l. has been lately obtained towards 5000l., the amount required. It is proposed to remove the two remaining galleries, and so to arrange the floor of the church that additional and commodious sittings may be obtained. The entire floor requires to be levelled and laid with concrete; stalls of uniform style should be substituted for the present irregular and unsightly pews. to whose interests he became entirely devoted. He launched out deeply into the extravagances of the popular party, of whom he became a leader. When the civil war broke out he entered the Parliamentary army, and passing through various ranks to that of colonel, was appointed Lieutenant of the Tower under General Fairfax. In this position his power was very considerable, as he commanded the City at his will, and swayed the citizens at his pleasure. His consequence and power were so great that he was appointed one of the King's judges, and after presenting a petition from the Common Council of London for the trial, he omitted no opportunity of showing his deep interest in its progress and result. He was only absent from the Court during its entire sitting for two days; and he appended his signature to the warrant for executing Charles. During the Commonwealth he attained high civic and national dignity. In 1650, he was one of the sheriffs of London; and in 1656 he was elected lord mayor of the City, under the appellation of Sir Robert Tichborne, skinner. He was held in such high favour and esteem by the Protector, that he was appointed one of the Committee of State in 1655, knighted, and made one of Cromwell's "lords." After his Ideath, Tichborne attached himself to the interests of his son Richard, but had nevertheless sufficient influence to obtain seats on the Council of State and on the Committee of Safety. He was charged with treason, and with having maliciously At the Restoration he became a prisoner in the Tower. taken part in the trial of Charles I., and signing his death warrant. He was tried at the Old Bailey in 1660. He pleaded that he acted in obedience to the Parliament, in ignorance, and without malice, no doubt in fulfilment of an agreement made between his friends and the Government. No evidence was offered against him by the prosecution, and his life was spared; but he lingered out the remainder of his days in captivity, and died a prisoner in the Tower, of which he was once the commander. In the course of the recent Tichborne trial, the AttorneyGeneral, in the peroration of his great speech, thus alluded to an earlier historical member of this ancient family : "In the time of Queen Elizabeth there was another My spring is past and yet it hath not sprung, I saw the world and yet I was not seen, The Attorney-General, again alluding to him, said :- TWO LETTERS OF CHARLES I. The following is from the Athenæum :-- A KIND friend, who for some months has been patiently ransacking their numerous volumes of "Gondomar Correspondence," in the private library of the ex-Queen of Spain, with the hope of finding something that might relate to the drama, or the dramatists living at the periods when Gondomar was Spanish Ambassador in London, has so far unearthed nothing bearing upon Shakespeare or his works; but among many historical odds and ends he has found two holograph letters of Charles Prince of Wales, written during his stay in the Spanish capital, to Count Gondomar, whom he calls in one of his principal alcahuete (go-between). Gondomar was an eager collector of all sorts of manuscripts and books, and it is an historical fact that the Cottonian Collection very nearly fell into his hands. How keen the mania was is shown in the letter of his librarian at Valladolid, Enrique Teller, who, writing on receipt of a batch of books and manuscripts from London, says: “I will follow your instructions implicitly with respect to the manuscripts, which are many and very rare, including some Spanish, French, and Portuguese; but as for the English, they are the best I have ever seen in my life, as well historical as on other matters, and it is a pity no one understands them; the same I say of a multitude of papers in the same idiom, very curious, and which merit to be placed where they might be understood." I still hope that some of these papers may turn up somewhere in Spain: they can scarcely be those bound up in the many volumes of the private correspondence. It is known that a portion of Gondomar's books, &c., were removed from the Casa del Sol, and deposited in the private library of Charles IV., now forming part of that in the Royal Palace at Madrid, and a careful search may yet produce some result. In the meantime here are Prince Charles's two letters, which may be of interest to some of your wide circle of readers. . 27, Queen's Road, Feb. 19, 1872. F. W. COZENS. "Gondomar: I doe heerby verrie willinglie establis your according to the desyer of your letter, in that honnorable office, of my principall Alcahuete, & for proofe thereof I must now pray you in earnest to retorne my humble and hartie thankes to my Mistres for her kynde & louing message sent me by Cottington who I hope shall proue a faithfull seruant to us both, I leue it to this bearer my seruant to informe you hou thankefullie both the Kinge my father & I takes you honnest & diligent endeuoirs in this greate busin.... which praing God to prosper I bed you hartilie farwell & rest, 66 "Your constant frende CHARLES, P. "In the address: To the Count of Gondomar my principall Alcahuete.” "Gondomar my frend: I have seene Buckinghams Letter to you all in English, I know no reason why I should not use the same freedome since I loue you as will Wee ar forced to take our ease by wryting short letters in regard of the great pains we take in howrlie fyghting for you, for my Mistres sake whom if I shall be so happie as to obtaine, I shall thinke my selfe largelie rewarded for all my labors which I wryt not for formalities sake, but doe indede fynd my selfe ingaged both in honnor & affection; but if you wonder how I can loue before I see; the troth is, I have both seene her picture and hard the report of her verteus by a number whom I trust, so as her Idea is ingrauen in my hart wher I hope to preserue it till I enjoie the principall: all particulars I refer to the King my Fathers directions, & to the trust of the bearer my seruant, onlie I pray you not to looke now so much to the bonum publicum which the Pope so earnestlie preases to be added but rather to looke backe & consider how much we have alredie granted and to remember that ye euer promised that the King father should be no farder preaced in matters of religion, them his owen weal & good reason might perswad him though ther wer no matche & upon the other side to consider what malum publicum must of necessitie enferr upon our Roman Catholiques if my matche should be broken ofe (which God forbid) upon thease now nyce points. And so God blesse you and all your labours. "Your faithfull frend "CHARLES, P." "Cartas y Provisiones Reales," in-fol. Bibl. de PalacioMadrid; Sal. 2a; Est. C.-pl.-8. MISCELLANEA. These "6 PAROCHIAL REGISTERS. - The Rev. Thomas Hugo, rector of West Hackney, with reference to a letter by "Oxoniensis," in the Times, writes to that journal that it was not "Parochial Registers," but "Records denominated Bishops' Registers," for which a place of safe custody was intended in Lord Shaftesbury's Bill. Bishops' Registers" are MS. volumes, which contain the various acts of our Bishops, diocesan affairs in general, institutions to benefices, matters connected with religious houses, &c., from the 13th century downwards. They are, in fact, the key to our ecclesiastical history for many hundred years. Mr. Hugo remarks, that it is high time these invaluable records should be deposited in a central institution, where they will be sure of careful custody, and where literary inquirers will be as sure of easy access. Their transfer to the safe keeping of the Record Office will, he adds, be hailed with the liveliest satisfaction by every ecclesiastical antiquarian in England. IN 1596, the Dutch explorers in Nova Zembla constructed a small wooden hut. Captain Carslen, in a fishing expedition, between the 9th of September and the 4th of November last, made the tour of Nova Zembla, during which he discovered this house fallen to ruins and completely covered with ice. In it he found 150 objects of interest; amongst other things, books which, after nearly 300 years, are in a good of Amsterdam. state of preservation. The collection is placed in the museum more ancient portion of Invercauld House is being pulled AN HISTORICAL BUILDING.-A considerable part of the down in order to make room for the erection of a new wing. The plan of the projected extension is intended to be in better harmony with the other architectural features of the mansion than the old portions in course of demolition. Among these are the apartments which were occupied by the Earl of Mar, and from which he issued his famous letters in 1715, relative to the Jacobite rebellion, a few days prior Braemar. to the unfurling of the royal standard at Castleton of THE Corporation of Sheffield have purchased a plot of land for 9210l., whereon to erect a public museum and free library. THE office of York Herald, vacant by the death of Mr. Thomas W. King, has been conferred upon Mr. John von Sonnentag de Havillard, Rouge Croix Pursuivant of Arms. M° OST of us are familiar with the romantic circumstances that attended the creation of the title of Prince of Wales, but I would just remind you of the leading features. Edward I, was a monarch of unbounded ambition, and somewhat unscrupulous as to the manner in which he satisfied his desire for dominion, and while he was remarkable for the strict justice with which he conducted his home government and administered the law in England, he was also noted as an aggressive and tyrannical monarch in all that referred to the neighbouring weaker princes, to whom his name was a terror, and his vicinity a cause of constant fear and dread. He had not long occupied the throne of England when he turned his attention to the Principality of Wales, and in defiance of national laws, almost inaccessible mountain fastnesses, and the indomitable spirit of the Welsh, after a series of engagements in various parts of Wales, the last native prince, Lewellyn, was slain at Builth, in 1282. The next year saw Wales annexed to the dominions of Edward, and witnessed the fearful deed that stamped with infamy the name of the English Justinian, the massacre of the Welsh bards. In 1284 we find Edward and his queen keeping house in the newly erected fortress of Carnarvon; and on April 25, nearly 588 years ago, in the Eagle Tower, the good Queen Eleanor gave birth to a young prince, whose unhappy fate seems one of retributive justice for the cruel deeds of his father. Now the native chiefs of North Wales were agitating their conqueror to give them a prince born in Wales, who could neither speak English nor French, and it occurred to Edward that he had now an opportunity to grant their desire in such a manner that they could not accuse him with breaking the letter of his kingly word, and at the same time secure to his family a peaceable retention of his vanquished provinces. On a given day then, in May following, Edward exhibited to the assembled princes and nobles of Wales his infant son and namesake, who was not only thus nominated Prince of Wales, but became, by the death of his elder brother Alphonso, heir presumptive to the English crown. This new title in the person of English royalty was not finally confirmed until seventeen years afterwards. And thus arose the style of the Prince of Wales. The first of his title, however, after a childhood of careful training and love at the hands of his excellent mother, was deprived of her guidance at a time when the follies of youth were beginning to attract him. A dissolute career with unworthy favourites disgraced his early manhood, and his subsequent reign, his deposition at Kenilworth, and his melancholy murder at Berkeley, closes the history of the first Prince of Wales. A paper read by Mr. W. G. FRETTON, at the annual meeting of the Warwickshire Naturalists' and Archeologists' Field Club, held at the Museum, Warwick, March 5, 1872. His son and successor in the princely and regal titles had his youthful troubles. His wicked mother, at whose door lay the death of his father, had given herself up to Mortimer, and the country had fallen into a state of anarchy and ungovernable confusion. The young Edward, however, with a display of spirit that foreshadowed his future greatness, took the reigns of government into his own hands, after a period of three years' forced submission to the infamous regency, and, at seventeen years old, imprisoned his mother for life, and hung Mortimer at Tyburn. Edward becomes renowned, both in council and in the field, and we find him, in 1327, marrying Phillippa of Hainault, the fit bride of such a king. The first issue of this union was the celebrated Edward the Black Prince, born in 1330, and it is with this prince that the connection of Coventry with the Princes of Wales first commenced. again some three centuries, to the time of Leofric and Godiva, connected with, the circumstances of Mortimer s crime. It is The intimate connection that Coventry began to possess and we read of a chantry being founded within the limits of with the royal family now began to tell on its fortunes, Cheylesmore manor, to perform daily masses for the departed and for the living benefactors of the shrine. singular to find the names of the cruel Isabel and her manor of Cheylesmore must have been an important posmurdered lord both associated in the sacred offering. The session, as it was surrounded by a splendid park, doubtlessly well stocked with deer, whose limits extended to the village of Stivichall, and to a considerable distance south of the Manor House, which was an extensive castellated residence, erected by the Earl of Chester at different periods, the Broad Gate or principal entrance on the town side still retaining the name. Now, it so happened that John of Eltham died before the queen-mother, and the king having created Edward Prince of Wales Duke of Cornwall, granted to him and his heirs these Cheylesmore estates on the decease of Isabel, in order to enable him the better to maintain his new dignity. The title of duke had lain in abeyance since the Conquest, and this was the first instance of its introduction. This was in 1337, when the prince was only seven Edward did not enter on his possession until twenty years years old, and as it was not until 1357 that Queen Isabel died, after his succession had been secured to him. In 1344 he was elected a brother of Trinity Guild. The walls of Coventry were not commenced until 1355, and we find Edward the Black Prince granting permission for their erection, con tributing materials, and granting licences for taxing and tolling towards the expenses of their construction. As the Black Prince was deeply engaged in the French wars from the age of sixteen to twenty-six, we do not suppose that Cheylesmore had much of his attention until his actual succession to its inheritance, which took place when he was twenty-seven years old, one year after the battle of Poictiers. The period of Edward the Black Prince's association with Coventry, therefore, extends from 1357 to 1376, that is, nineteen years. Prince though he was, his love did not run very smooth, and we see him living in single-blessedness until 1361, when he married his first love, Joan of Plantagenet, his cousin, the "Fair Maid of Kent," as she was called. This, however, did not take place until she had buried two husbands. I do not know whether he kept house at Cheylesmore during his bachelordom or not, nor do I feel sure that he spent his honeymoon at Coventry; but the work of wall building and its consequent tax-inflicting went on in the old city to the discontent of the citizens, who, in 1370, rebelled against the authorities, and were with difficulty appeased. As this was a work which that warlike prince certainly encouraged, I should hardly think that Edward was over popular here; and had his residence at the manor been constant, we should certainly have had locally historical evidence. I only look on him, therefore, as a casual visitor, coming to see after his interests. The importance of Coventry as a possession of the Crown Prince, however, was very great, and we find Sir John Throgmorton, in Queen Elizabeth's time, observing that it hath been of long time considered the third city in the realm, London ranking first as the King's Chamber, Bristol second as the Queen's Chamber, and Coventry next as the Prince's Chamber. Edward the Black Prince dying in 1376, his son Richard became heir to the throne when ten years old; was created Prince of Wales on the death of his father; and succeeded his grandfather the year after. On his accession he ratified the charters of the city, and during his reign the walls were completed, to which he contributed both stone, waste lands, and certain tolls on woollen cloth. Poor Richard frequently honoured Coventry with his notice, and on one notable occasion with his presence, when, in 1397, he selected Coventry for the noted wager of battle between the Dukes of Hereford and Norfolk, which he as unwisely stayed just at its commencement, a step which undoubtedly cost him his life. What a scene Gosford Green must have presented on that memorable day in September! The fair city just below, with its new walls and gates, and that tall steeple only completed two years before. Another two years, and the third Prince of Wales lay a murdered king within the walls of Pontefract Castle, Yorkshire, slain by instigation of the very Hereford he had banished on Gosford Green, and who returned to usurp his crown. We now pass over to the days of Henry Prince of Wales, who, at the time of his father's usurpation, was eleven years old. A wild, racketty youth, who was more than once committed to prison for his violent behaviour, and who on one occasion, in 1411, when he was twenty-three, we find arrested by order of the then mayor of Coventry, John Hornby, at the Priory here, and committed for breach of the peace during some revels held here. This was only a year before he himself became king. In 1421, in an affray with the inhabitants of Coventry, the gardens belonging to the Manor House were destroyed, and in one year after the king died, leaving an infant son, who had not been created Prince of Wales, but whose career and troubles, with the contemporaneous Wars of the Roses, are a matter of history. His son Edward, however, was invested with the title; but we can hardly fancy that he had much pleasure in its honours or inheritance, as he was murdered in cold blood after the battle of Tewkesbury, 1471, when about eighteen years old. He must, however, have been a frequent visitor here with his august parents, who greatly favoured Coventry, which city acquired, from its fidelity to the Lancastrian cause, the name of "The Queen's Retreat." Several instances are recorded in the City Leet Book (a curious record, between 4c0 and 500 years old) of the royal visits of the period, and mention is especially made of a levy of fifty marks, and the preparation of a cup for presentation to him at his coming, which was expected to have taken place in 1455, as the following extract from the pageant performed on the occasion will show. The character named "Prudence" thus addresses the Queen, as she passes by the pageant placed at the Smithford Street Conduit :"I welcome you, Dame Margaret, queen crowned of this land, The blessed babe that ye have borne, Prince Edward is he, Through whom peace and tranquillitie shall take this realm on hand We shall endowe both you and him clearly to understand." He was at this time only two years old. We now go on to the time of the new dynasty, of which Edward IV. was the first king. His son Edward, the sixth Prince of Wales, was born in a troublous time, 1470, and we first come into association with him on the occasion of a visit to Coventry early in 1474, when he was about three years old. An entry in the Leet Book thus alludes to this visit :— "Memorand. That on the 28th day of the month of April came our Lord Prince Edward out of Wales, so by Warwick to Coventry; and the Mayre, with his brethren, with divers of the commonaltie of the saide city, clothed in green and blue, meeting our seyde Lord Prince upon horseback beyond the New Cross in a chayre, being of age of 3 year, there welcoming him to his chamber, and giving him there a 100 marks in a gilt coppe of 15 ounces." The usual pageants were gorgeously appointed. At every place in the route of the procession where a pageant was placed, there was an address appropriate to the occasion made to the infant prince, who would doubtless wonder what it was all about, and scarcely keep awake. At Bablake Gate a character, representing King Richard, thus commenced his address: "Welcome full high and noble Prince, to us right special, To this your chambre, so called of antiquitie," &c. The pageant in the Cross Cheaping was somewhat attractive, as we learn from this quaint entry— "Also, at the Cross in Cross Cheaping were iij prophets standing at the Cross seynsing, and upon the Cross above were children of Issarell synging and casting out wheteobles (honey cakes) and flowers, and four pipes running wine. At the Conduit here there were also minstrelsy and organ pleyinge, and a figure of St. George also did honour." addresses the Prince again. Another close by, at the Panyer Inn, On this occasion the young prince kept house at Cheylesmore, and during his stay stood godfather to the mayor's child, and received the homage of that dignitary, and his fellow members of the corporation. In 1477 the prince came a second time, and was then made a brother of the Trinity and Corpus Christi guilds. This time, too, he kept his court at Cheylesmore; but the accommodations of this house could not have been very "royal," as we find that the king on his visit lay at the Priory. Indeed, if conjecture is allowable in a strictly historical subject, I should fancy that the glory of Cheylesmore had already departed, and that it began to show signs of decay. Six short years pass away, and Edward IV. goes the way of all flesh, and his sons soon after sleep their last sleep in each others arms, beneath the stairs of the White Tower, London. The next Prince of Wales was the son of Richard III., created in the same year his usurping father became king, I do not find any account of his visiting Coventry, though his father came to see the Corpus Christi plays in 1483. The next of the Princes of Wales was the talented and popu lar Prince Arthur, son of Henry VII. and eighth of his degree. He also honoured Coventry with a visit in 1498, and great were the preparations for his reception and entertainment. The gates by which he entered were decorated with pageants, and the streets in like manner. The conduits ran wine. Minstrelsy, organ playing (as it is again quaintly recorded), and speechifying, with special ballads in his honour, were among the various methods by which the citizens and the "A gowne and poll axe for Pilate's son, a sceptre for Herod, repairing the Devil's head, 4 hats for the Tormentors, paid the Devil and Judah, xviijd.," &c. of the Hertford family for over seventy years, the estate was sold last year to H. W. Eaton, Esq., M.P. for the city. A great portion of the park is laid out in gardens, which have been for many years a source of great accommodation to the citizens; the remainder is divided into small farms, &c. Of all the trees which once adorned the park, only one of any note remains, and it is known as the Mount Tree;" it is an elm of very large size, and was planted in 1626. It is that Charles I. sent his herald to summon the city to surtraditionally reported that it was from this elevated spot render, in August, 1642. these are incorporated in some cottages built upon the site. Very few traces of the Manor House now remain, and An archway exists, said to have been the entrance to the tilt yard; and here and there are fragments of thick stone walls. I have thus endeavoured to lay before you the leading points of the associations of the Princes of Wales with Coventry. The subject is one which, I think. is not devoid of interest, more especially at the present time, when the sympathies of the nation have been so fully drawn forth on behalf of the heir to the British throne. The stay of the prince was at the Priory for the few days he was here. Four years go by, and this promising young man is no more. He died the year after his marriage, in 1502, and Henry, afterwards the VIII, became the ninth Prince of Wales. I do not find that he was intimately connected with our city during his princedom; but after he became king there is the account of a visit by him and his queen; and in 1525, fifteen years afterwards, Mary, the Princess Royal, came for a similar purpose, viz., to see the celebrated pageants. On both these occasions the Priory was their place of abode, from which we may infer the decreasing favour of Cheylesmore Manor House. Mary was the only female who enjoyed the title of Princess of Wales in her own right, having been so created by Henry VIII. to conciliate the Welsh. Edward VI., her brother, born in 1537, was never styled Prince of Wales, only Duke of Corn: ANTIQUARIAN GOSSIP OF THE EASTERN wall. On his accession to the throne, however, we find him exercising manorial rights here as Lord Paramount, by granting the manor and park of Cheylesmore to the Duke of Northumberland, who let it again on lease for 99 years, the particulars of which are contained in the charter, on brass, in St. Mary's Hall. On this duke's attainder, in 1553, it reverted to the crown; but by the instrumentality of Robert Dudley Earl of Leicester, it was granted in fee ferme in the year 1568 for ever to the mayor and corporation of the city, for the benefit of the citizens, under certain stipulations, at a nominal payment of 97. per annum. COUNTIES. [FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.] THE following account of "A Holiday at Ely," from the pen of "L.," in the Rock, will be read with interest by many of your readers. F. E. S. "A flat melancholy country, intersected by water-courses, studded by Dutch windmills, and crossed and re-crossed by endless lines of pollarded willows; vast fields of monotonous green, vast patches of black soil: such is the landscape In 1611 we find Henry, tenth Prince of Wales, entertained through which the Great Eastern Railway runs to Camat St. Mary's Hall, together with a train of nobility, on bridge and Ely. Yet unattractive as the scenery is, the Isle which occasion 50/ was presented to the prince. On the of Ely is rich in historical associations. We cannot forget morrow they resumed their journey In 1619, we have an that it was the last refuge held by the English against the account of another lease being effected on the Cheylesmore Norman invaders, in the days when these fertile lands were estate, in which the mayor, &c., are the tenants at 37. 8s. reedy pools. We remember the long resistance of Hereward for 21 years. This concession is granted by Prince Charles, and his men; the fierce fights which were fought in vain; who on the death of Henry was created eleventh Prince of the noble blood that was shed for nought. And then, as Wales. On news being brought to this city of the ill-we draw near the city of Ely, we think of the false monks success of the king's wooing in Spain, great rejoicings took who betrayed it, that they might keep the wealth of their place, a large bonfire in Cross Cheaping, and bells ringing convent secure. Well was their treachery punished, for the till four o'clock in the morning. In 1628, the lease of the Normans were not behind them in faithlessness; they Cheylesmore estate was renewed by the Prince of Wales for stripped the great church of St Etheldreda of much of its eighteen years. We pass over the troublous times of the gold and silver; and took also, says the chronicler, remainder of the Stuart dynasty, which reached their cul- notable cope which Archbishop Stigand gave, which the minating point at the execution of the king. In 1650, how-church hath wanted to this day.' ever, the king's fee ferme rents were sold to the corporation, and in 1657, the Little Park was separated from the Great Park of Cheylesmore The next Prince of Wales is George Augustus, afterwards George II. I do not find any visit of either him or his son, the unfortunate Frederic, or his son George, successively Princes of Wales. In 1795, in the time of the late Prince of Wales, the enclosure of the park was begun. Three years afterwards it was sold to the late Marquis of Hertford, in liquidation of certain liabilities incurred by the prince; and thus, after 438 years, Cheylesmore ceased to be asso ciated with the Princes of Wales. Whether the power to sell existed is another matter. I think I have shown that the grant of Edward III. expressly states that the manor was to be a possession of the Princes of Wales for ever. Under these circumstances, therefore, it is my conviction that the lordship and estates of Cheylesmore ought not to have been alienated from the Princes of Wales. Another consequence of the sale was, that the claims and rights of the citizens were utterly disregarded in the transaction, and the privileges they enjoyed in connection with Coventry Park have been entirely lost. After remaining in possession a "Ely, or Elige, the willow Island, was settled upon Etheldreda, as a dower, by her husband Tonbert. Three years after her marriage, this princess was left a widow, in sole possession of the island, and leaving her domains in the hands of her steward, Ovin, she gave herself up to religious meditation. But her uncle Ethelwold, King of East Anglia, had no mind that so rich a prize should be unappropriated, and Egfrid, son of Oswy, King of Northumberland, became the second husband of the reluctant saint The prince must have found his wife's sanctity a sore hinderance to his domestic peace. For twelve years did Etheldreda weary him with her prayers to be set free from the marriage yoke; and few modern husbands would, we think, have withstood her entreaties so long. She gained her point at last, and was permitted to retire to the abbey of Caldingham, where she took the veil. Egfrid, however, repented of his consent, and sallied forth to snatch her from her retreat, but she fled southward, and succeeded in escaping him. Then, coming to Ely, and finding herself secure in that almost inaccessible isle of the fens, she commenced the foundation of her famous monastery (for both sexes) about A D. 673. "In common with many other saints of that era, Ethel |