now," and the head did so fall, and she carried it in her "lappe" until she placed it in her husband's, son Roper's" vault, at Canterbury. 66 The king took possession of these fair grounds at Chelsea, where had so frequently been gathered "a choice company of men distinguished by their genius and learning," and by him was presented to Sir William Pawlett, and ultimately to Sir Hans Sloane, who obtained it in 1738, and after keeping it but two years razed it to the ground; an unhappy want of reverence on the part of the great naturalist for the home of so many great men. There is a print of it by J. Knyff, in 1699, which we copy; it shows some old features, but it had then been enlarged and altered. Erasmus has well described it as it was in More's lifetime. It had a "chapel, a library, and a gallery, called the New Buildings, a good distance from his main house, wherein his custom was to busy himself in prayer and meditation whensoever he was at leisure." Heywood, in his Il Moro, (Florence, 1556,) describes "the garden as wonderfully charming, both The Ropers lived at Canterbury, in St. Dunstan's-street. The house is destroyed, and a brewery occupies its site; but the picturesque old gateway, of red brick, still remains, as seen in the above engraving. Margaret Roper, the noble-hearted, learned, and favorite daughter of More, resided here with her husband until her death, in 1544, nine years after the execution of her father, when she was buried in the family vault at St. Dunstan's, where she had reverently placed the head of her father. The story of her piety is thus told by Cresacre More, in his life of his grandfather, Sir Thomas: "His head having remained about a month upon London Bridge, and being to be cast into the Thames, because room should be made for divers others, who in plentiful sort suffered martyrdom for the same supremacy shortly after, it was bought by his daughter Margaret, lest, as she stoutly affirmed before the council, being called before them after for the matter, it should be food for fishes; which she buried where she thought fittest." Anthony-a-Wood says that she preserved it in a leaden box, and placed it in her tomb "with great devotion;" and in 1715 Dr. Rawlinson told Herne, the antiquary, that he had seen it there "enclosed in an iron grate." This was fully confirmed in 1835, when the chancel of the church being repaired, the Roper vault was opened, and several persons descended into it, and saw the skull in a leaden box, something like a bee-hive, open in the front, and which was placed in a square recess in the wall, with an iron grating before it. ROPER'S HOUSE. from the advantages of its site, for from one part almost the whole of the noble city of London was visible; and from the other the beautiful Thames, with green meadows and woody eminences all around; and also for its own beauty, for it was crowned with an almost perpetual verdure." At one side was a small green eminence to command the prospect. After confiscating the remainder of his property, the king indulged his petty tyranny still further by imprisoning Sir Thomas's daughter Margaret, "both because she kept her father's head for a relic, and that she meant to set her father's works in print." We were calling to mind more minute particulars of the charities and good deeds of this great man, when, standing at the moment opposite a grave where some loving hand had planted two standard rose-trees, we suddenly heard a chant of children's voices, the infant scholars singing their little hymn-the tune, too, was a well-known and popular melody, and very sweet, yet sad of sound-it was just such music as, for its simplicity, would have been welcome to the mighty dead; and as we entered among the little songsters, the past faded away, and we found ourselves speculating on the hopeful present. FLORAL FESTIVAL AT THE CRYSTAL PALACE, SYDENHAM. FLORAL FESTIVAL AT THE CRYSTAL LA PALACE, SYDENHAM. ATE English papers give accounts of a remarkable Horticultural Exhibition at the Crystal Palace, which has been removed from Hyde Park, and is to remain permanently at Sydenham. The flower-show, it is said, was unequaled in the number of specimens exhibited, their rare beauty, and the admirable arrangement of the different classes, which the capabilities of the building permitted the managers to achieve. For the accommodation of these precious gems from Flora's casket, the two naves, a portion of the transept, and the long open corridor facing the terrace, had been laid under contribution; and on every side the eye was dazzled with a perfect sea of color, and the sense almost oppressed with the fragrant odors of the products of every clime. The splendid azalia-fit ornament for regal vestibule - glowed literally in piles upon the stands; and the stalwart cactus in all its varieties bristled in its best attire, attracting crowds of spectators by the strange forms which its skillful cultivators had caused it to assume. The pelargoniums were of unusual extent and variety. The orchid family-numerous as that of a Welsh curate, but far more gayly clad-was well represented; and the innumerable tribe of geraniums contributed delicate little gems that sparkled in every convenient corner. The rose -the queen of flowers-the theme of the poet in every clime, and the chartered inamorata of the nightingale in the sunny land of Hafiz-sent representatives fit, though few-the breezes of the last month having been too rough in their wooing for the delicate texture of its corolla. Modest pansies twinkled in trim order; while the gaudy calceolaria flared like a rich burgher's wife in all the splendor of its summer finery. Beauty there was in abundance-grace of form, glow of color, and delicacy of fragrance. 397 show, was an event which could not have hap pened anywhere out of London, and the fact says more for the pecuniary resources of the capital of the world than could be conveyed by the most labored statistical table that ever emanated from the muddled brain of political economist. There they were, hustling each other, as if at the pit door of a theater, every man looking as if his check for a thousand or so would not cause surprise at his banker's." Among other attractions on the occasion referred to was the playing of the fountains, at which John Bull seems disposed to grumble, because they do not equal those of his French neighbors at Versailles. The News says:— "The Crystal Palace Company promised in their prospectus that they would eclipse Versailles; but they certainly have not done so as yet, nor, judging from the appearance of their still incomplete works, are they ever likely to do so. The display of Saturday was from the upper range of fountains; and, as far as it went, had an exceedingly pleasing effect. The jets were of a fair altitude, had a steady and continuous flow, and the play was kept up for nearly an hour without intermission. But they were merely so many gigantic squirts all going together, without the sea and river gods, the Tritons, and other poetic forms that give such infinite and grotesque variety to the Grandes Eaux. At Versailles, the visitor wanders through endless park-like alleys, surprised at every turn by some new device in water, their beauty and extent culminating as he goes along, until at last he comes to the great Basin of Neptune,' the triumph of the artist, where the sovereign of the deep, enthroned in the center of a vast platform, keeps court, surrounded by the lesser marine deities, and all pour forth in an innumerable variety of jets and streams; in short, a complete and beautiful design in water, which could hardly be realized by those who never saw anything beyond the monotonous upright projection of the fluid which formed the display of Saturday last, and seems to be the only thing contemplated in the general design. The Sydenham fountains, then, will not eclipse Versailles; our French friends need not fear the fading of their watery laurels; but they will form a very important addition to the other attractions of the place, and, being the only thing of the kind in England, may possibly draw enough of visitors on their own account to justify the enormous expense of their erection and maintenance. Their gala-days, it is true, will be limited in number, for there is nearly one-third of every summer in this country in As to the visitors to this great fête, the which the suggestion of artificial waterworks, Illustrated News remarks: "We have often heard of the great shilling public, and a great shilling crowd may be collected almost anywhere; but here, a great guinea public awoke from its aristocratic lassitude, pouring itself in thousands upon thousands into the great conservatory. Thirty thousand people to get up one fine morning in one great city, and pay a guinea each to see a flower as an amusement, would be considered an exceedingly unkind cut' by the patrons of that truly English institution, the waterproof umbrella; but, when the day is very hot, and the company very numerous, the pipes all in order, and the aquatic purveyors sufficiently liberal in their supply, there is reason to hope that the fountains at Sydenham will form a welcome addition to the amusements of its fashionable visitors." BUNYAN'S RIVER OF LIFE AND MEADOW OF LILIES. THE great excellence of Bunyan's Prog ress consists not merely in its perfection as a whole, but in its unrivaled individual scenes and pictures. The same may be said of most works of genius, especially such as are dramatic, as is this. Shakspeare is an example throughout; many of his dramas are illustrations of his own "impotent conclusion," though this cannot be said of his greatest works; all of them, too, are interspersed with marked defects; but how single characters, scenes, or even single passages, overstep all his faults and crown the whole with a glory, which, like the brightness of the sun, hides all spots except to the eye which searches for them through critical glasses! Bunyan's extraordinary work is great as a whole, its narrative never tires; its lessons are a whole system of experimental and practical theology, and its dramatic outline is continuous and complete. These, however, are not what secure RIVER OF THE WATER OF LIFE. its popularity; the popular mind seldom appreciates them, but hastens eagerly from picture to picture of its individual scenes. A golden crown may be perfect and beautiful; but a single jewel in it may be worth all the rest of its precious material a hundred times over. We present a couple of illustrations of one of his charming scenes-The River of the Water of Life with its Meadow of Lilies. It opens as refreshingly on his plain-worded pages as it does beautifully in the pictures of our artist. Bunyan had an adroit skill in introducing such pictures. They almost always have the effect of contrast. Poor Christian and Hopeful have just passed through the trying persecutions of " Vanity Fair." Christian had had a sore time of it there, and his companion Faithful had been "scourged," "buffeted," his flesh "lanced with knives," "stoned with BUNYAN'S RIVER OF LIFE AND MEADOW OF LILIES. stones," "pricked with their swords;" and at last, when they could not well inflict more tortures upon his failing life, he "was burned to ashes at the stake." Christian, terrified at what might await himself, was reserved in prison; but he escaped, and Hopeful, who had witnessed the sufferings and courage of Faithful, professed the faith, and joined Christian on the pilgrim route. Safe from this scene of terror, they journey on, comforting each other. They pass rapidly by the temptations of Byends, Demas, and their comrades, but meet with another alarming scene, "a sudden and amazing sight," which they reason about with anxious It is the petrified body of Lot's wife, with the admonitory inscription, Lot's wife." concern. "Remember Bethinking them of their manifold perils, they converse trem blingly on the subject. 66 Let us," says Chris tian, "take notice of what we see here, for our help for time to This woman come. escaped one judgment, for she fell not by the destruction of Sodom; yet she was destroyed by another; — as we see, she is turned into a pillar of salt." "True," Hopeful replies, "and she may be to us both caution and example: caution, that we should shun her sin, 399 the judgment which overtook her did make her an example within sight of where they are; for they cannot choose but see her, did they but lift up their eyes." "It is a thing to be wondered at," rejoins Christian, and it argueth that their hearts are grown desperate in the case; and I cannot tell who to compare them to so fitly as to them that pick pockets in the presence of the judge, or that will cut purses under the gallows. It is said of the men of Sodom that they were sinners exceedingly, (Gen. xiii, 1013.) because they were sinners before the Lord, that is, in his eyesight, and notwithstanding the kindnesses that he had showed them; for the land of Sodom was now like the Garden of Eden heretofore. This provoked him the more to jealousy, and made their plague as hot as the fire of the Lord out of heaven could make it. And it is most rationally to be concluded, that such, even such as these are, that shall sin in the sight, yea, and that too in despite of such examples that are set continually before them to caution them to the contrary, must be partakers of severest judgments." "Doubtless," says Hopeful," thou hast said the truth; but what a mercy is it that neither thou, but especially I, am not made myself this example! This ministereth occasion to us to thank God, to fear before him, and always to remember Lot's wife." MEADOW OF LILIES. or a sign of what judgment will overtake such as shall not be prevented by this caution. So Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, with the two hundred and fifty men that perished in their sin, did also become a sign or example to others to beware, (Num. xxvi, 9, 10;) but above all, I muse at one thing, to wit, how Demas and his fellows can stand so confidently yonder to look for that treasure, which this woman but for looking behind her after (for we read not that she stepped one foot out of the way) was turned into a pillar of salt; specially since And now, after their perilous escapes and melancholy talks, dawns before them the scene of beauty and repose-the river of the water of life and its tranquil meadow of lilies. God giveth his beloved rest. "I saw then," says the unrivaled old dreamer, "that they went on their way to a pleasant river, which David the king |