The owld 'oman tuk the whip in her hand, But Tiney winced, and Tiney hunched, And Tiney kicked the pail down, And the milk run auver his hose. And 'tis "Oh, Tiney!" and "Wo! Tiney!" If I milks zich a maggotty runt again, And he vorgot the hank o' yarn, A went to veed the hungry pegs A run his nose agin a pwoast, And amwoast knocked out his eye: "A vine joke, my yead 's broke ! A left the crame to stand in the churm, Lar' a massey haw! there stood the zow A stoop'd to pick a swingein' stick, To gie th' owld zow her hire; Oh drat thee now, vor a plaguy zow, Thy snout it doos mwore harm in an hour Than I can mend in dree!" In coomed th' owld 'oman a wringin' her hands, "The vore hos lays on his back in the pond, And the plough and stilts be broke; And 'tis O Dobbin ! my poor Dobbin !' And what an owld vool was I. If I wears the breeches vor arr'n agen, I wishes as I med die!" Owld Grumbleton zwore by the zun and the moon, And ael the green laves on the tree, If his wife 'ou'd but take to her gear agen Her shou'd never be caddled by he. And 'tis "oh zay no mwore, pray, Vor I hates to be called a vool; But bustle to-night, and put ael thengs right, SENEX. There, what do you think of that? JULIAN. Excellent! a commentary on the trite proverb, "cuique in sua arte credendum est." I shall, as you advise, lay it to heart, in the event of my falling into the snare of Hymen some day. Your instructions in the West Saxon dialect have enabled me to comprehend the song, and I must beg you to obtain me a copy of it. SENEX. I'll take care that you have it. SIMON. [Without.] Will'e plaze to ha' another, zur. SENEX No, not to night, Simon; we must be trudging homeward: it is growing dark. Look to your panniers. Give Mrs. Slater a brace of trouts, and follow us directly. Come along, Julian. [Exeunt. Twilight. The meadows. SENEX, JULIAN; SIMON bringing up the rear. JULIAN. The air smells sweetly now the sun is down. SENEX. "The smell of a field which the Lord has blessed." The daisy and other flowers which turn to the sun, are closed, but the fragrant climbing plants in the hedgerows, teem with their perfume and drink the evening dews. The trouts and swallows have given up their hunting to the night-hawk and the bat, and thousands of beautiful insects fall before these new devourers. The wood-tick's note has commenced, and timid glow-worms venture forth to hold tryst upon the humid green-sward. See, the rising moon is tinging the few light fleecy clouds swept by the gentle south wind along the horizon. Such a night had the blind poet in his mind's eye when he composed those beautiful lines :— "Now came still evening on, and twilight gray Apparent queen, unveiled her peerless light; But see, what with chatting and reciting we have beguiled the time and made our walk a short one; old Fitz's deep voice welcomes us, and we shall eat our supper with a relish which hunger alone can impart. THE HERMIT HEART. On! there are sacred sorrows, and the hermit heart Lone communings it hath, nor findeth any part Were the vext soul forbid to seek the mercy throne. For who to other hath each inmost thought display'd? Pour forth to Him who ever proves our truest friend; C. A. M. W. 607 CAER PERIS.—PORCHESTER CASTLE. BY MRS. WARD. "The Castelle of Porchestre standeth three miles by water from Portesmouth towne."-LELAND. PORCHESTER CASTLE! Verily we believe there be many who pass by this and similar monuments of a gone-by age, without bestowing a thought on them, beyond a transient sentiment of admiration, unmingled with curiosity. With some, such types of the past awaken not merely a local interest, but the very sight of them sends the mind wandering to records of manifold events connected with the age to which they owe their existence, and straightway the inquirer goes to work hunting out every scrap of traditionary lore that may throw light on the subject, and thus beguiled beyond the original intent of tracing names and verifying dates, we are led by degrees into pleasant speculations, only to be cleared up by reference to books of ancient story. Porchester Castle! It lieth like a sleeping lion on the shore. There is something awful in its silent presence, conjuring up as it doth a host of names, remembered by some only as names, but all associated in the thinking mind with those days when Rome was empress of the world, and our ancestors her subjects, nay, her slaves. Intent on learning something satisfactory touching these ruins, we at first found ourselves baffled at all points. Of the origin of the castle, a modern author says, "Not a vestige of a record remains ;" and the assertion by the editor of "Fuller's Worthies," that "Hampshire is destitute of a county historian," has been somewhat, but not quite, disheartening. Circumstances brought us lately into communion with many ancient volumes, in a dim and dusty library of a country house. So down we sat with Camden, and Geoffrey of Monmouth, and Higden the Monk of Chester, and Milton, and Verstegan's "Restitution of decayed intelligence concerning the most noble and renowned English nation," and Leland, and Lambarde, and Lanquette, and a crowd of such "goodly companie," and the result has been, not a positive discovery of the long questioned origin of the still massive fortress at Porchester, but a gathering together in curious array of many contemporaries of an age the most interesting in the world, namely, that sanctified by the light which, so to speak, had been diffused over the earth by the actual presence of God, and which, from the time that the little star was first discovered shining in the East, has increased in strength and brilliancy, and shall continue to do so, "unto the perfect day." And as we write, our mind's eye filled with the picture of that old castle, as the traveller sees it now, lo! the clash of arms, the shouts of barbaric warriors, clad " in the garb of old Gaul," the "We are informed by Cæsar, that the inhabitants of the southern coasts of Britain differed but little from their Gaulish neighbours; and Pomponius Mela asserts that "the Britains fought armed in the Gaulish manner.' The naked savages depicted in our histories of fights with Cæsar's legions, belong to an age some hundred years before Julius had heard of our island; to the first days, in fact, of Caer-Peris. steady tramp of the disciplined Roman legions, the sharp whistle of innumerable arrows through the air, the strife that stirred the bloodstained waters of the "sounding sea," all commingle together in vivid contrast with those now silent and crumbling walls, those sloping downs, those daisied meadows, and the busy but peaceful scene in the foreground; the yachts, the fisher's wherry, and the dark colliers "floating double,"-ship and shadow,-in the calm haven, undisturbed in its repose, save occasionally by the rush of steamers, or the sailors' song from the deck of his outward-bound craft, slipping lazily, but skilfully, through the motley fleet of vessels, great and small, into the open space beyond. Yes, although a matter rest but on tradition, there is great pleasure in a research which brings us acquainted with things hitherto unknown or unconsidered; and in order to prove this, we will presume to offer own idea of the first foundation of that identical Roman wall which still defies the elements, and has done so for nearly two thousand years. We must confess to being somewhat impressed with what Geoffrey of Monmouth says in the matter, albeit Milton, in his " History of England," disdains to quote the story of " Hamo, the Roman Captaine; Guenissa, the Emperor's Daughter, and such like stuff, as palpably untrue." We do not find that Higden the Monk of Chester, in his "Polychronicon," treated Geoffrey's authority with contempt; at any rate, as one tradition is as good as another, and as we think we can, by "contemporaneous attestations," bring reason and fact to support our theory, we are inclined to abide by Geoffrey, at least as surely as by later chroniclers. "After Kymbelinus's death," says Geoffrey, "the_government (of Britain) fell to Guiderius, his son. This prince refused to pay tribute to the Romans, for which reason Claudius, Emperor of Rome, marched against him;" and next, Hamo, the commander of the Roman forces, made his attack on Caer Peris, and "began to block up its gates with a wall," denying its citizens all liberty of passing out. In the battle that ensued, Guiderius fought with such spirit that Claudius made up his mind to retire to his ships; but "the crafty Hamo, throwing aside his own armour, put on that of the Britons, and, as a Briton, fought against his own men." Having been educated among the British hostages at Rome, he was acquainted with their language and habits. By these means he reached Guiderius by degrees, stabbed him, as he believed, unseen, and thought to return to his own party; but a brother's watchful eye detected the assassin, and Arviragus, the second son of Kymbelinus, doffed his own habiliments, and, assuming his dead kinsman's, took Guiderius's place, and, by his praiseworthy deception, made the Britons stand their ground. Unaware of the death of their king, they fought desperately, and drove off the Romans, Claudius Cæsar retiring with one body of his troops to the ships, while Hamo, unable to escape by sea, fled to the woods. Believing that Claudius had borne his general company, Arviragus followed, and never gave up the chase till he overtook Hamo, whom he "came upon unawares," as he was on the point of escaping to some merchant ships lying at anchor in a convenient haven, which, from that day, was named Hamo's Port, and is now called Southampton. Now, although Claudius, with his remaining forces, assaulted Caer Peris again, and "presently levelled the walls," we may still believe they were not destroyed. Claudius finding Arviragus a difficult man to deal with, they came to terms. At Winchester, the daughter of Claudius was sent for, to be married to Arviragus, the latter, by the advice of his nobles, consenting to acknowledge the supremacy of Rome. Claudius, however, had not long left Britain, ere Arviragus, albeit attached to his beautiful wife, began to “rebuild cities and towns, and to exercise so great authority over his own people, that he became a terror to the kings of remote_countries;" next, "disdaining any longer subjection to the Roman Senate, he assumed to himself the sole authority of everything." Vespasian was then sent by Claudius to effect a reconciliation. After a drawn battle, Queen Guenissa induced the two leaders to send their men over to Ireland. Vespasian returned to Rome, but Arviragus remained in Britain. 66 Now, although in his old age, Arviragus maintained a respectful bearing towards Rome, it is quite reasonable to premise that in his plan of rebuilding cities and towns," the fortifications of Caer Peris, which had been levelled by the forces of Claudius, were renewed, and made stronger than ever, and that by Roman artificers, as we propose to show. As regards the power and position of Arviragus, Milton agrees with Geoffrey of Monmouth in the mention of this prince by Juvenal; and notwithstanding the sturdy opposition of Cromwell's secretary to some of Geoffrey's assertions, other historians of weight, such as Lanquette, Higden, the ancient poet, who records the fact in that rare and curious work, "A Mirour for Magistrates, published in 1586, by the compiler, John Higins ;" and others bear testimony to the bravery and determination of the British ruler, who "stood so well in his resistance," observes even Milton, "as not only to be talked of at Rome, but to be held matter of glorious triumph if Domitian could take him captive, or overcome him." On such evidence the fact is established, that Arviragus must have entrenched himself very strongly; and there is every to conclude, that as the Romans introduced their arts into Britain, and erected cities and fortifications under the orders and direction of Claudius, and as, moreover, Arviragus was "loved and feared by the Romans, and became the subject of their discourse more than any king in his time," both Britons and Romans were employed by him in raising the structure which forms the interesting object of our present research. We may add, that the fortifications may afterwards have been strengthened by British princes who had been brought up at Rome, by Maximian, whose parentage was of Rome and Britain, and after his death, by the Romans, who were summoned to the aid of our ancestors, to assist them against their northern neighbours; for, after reproaching the Britains for their want of energy, and in utter disgust at their repeated demands for help, the Romans remitted the tribute, and "likewise commanded towers, having a prospect towards the sea, to be placed at proper distances all along the south coast, where their ships were, and from whence they feared the invasions of the barbarians." The great tower at the north-west angle of the inner fortification, says the modern |