grasp. Some scanty relics prove that the floor has been tesselated with the remarkable description of tiles, which ornament its stately and venerable sister. The stalls in the chancel, a delicately carved beam, extending over a wooden screen, which has been between the nave and the chancel, and the windows over the communion table, in which are some remnants of stained glass, feebly attest its original beauty. There yet exists in stained glass the re the interesting objects in this parish. This Priory is supposed to have originated in a similar manner, though at a somewhat later period than its more important neighbour. Two brothers, Joceline and Edred, Benedictine monks of Worcester, who had retired to the wilderness of Malvern, are said to have founded it," perforated in the gothic style," into compartments, about the year 1171. The Priory and church were dedicated to St. Giles; and amongst the benefactors at different times we find Kings Henry II. and III. and Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester. "John Alcock, Bishop of Worcester, from 1476 to 1486, Chan-mains of a figure kneeling, to which popular tradition cellor of England, and president of the council, 1st Edward IV., rebuilt the church here, and dedicated it to St. Mary, St. Giles, and St. John the Evangelist." It afterwards became a cell to Worcester. It has been supposed, from the ten seats in the choir, that the foundation was for ten monks, but in Rymer's Fœdera, vol. xiv. we find at the dissolution of the lesser monasteries, in 1538, only John Bristow, the prior, and six others, who subscribed to the king's supremacy una ore At the Dissolution, the annual revenues amounted, according to Dugdale, to £98. 10s. 9d., and as Speed to £102. 10s. 9d. The priory and perpetual advowson of this church were granted (temp. Philip and Mary) to John Russell. The living is a perpetual curacy, endowed with £1200 royal bounty; and has been for about two hundred years in the gift of the family of Lord Somers, Mrs. Wakefield the incumbent and her ancestors (who derived it from the Russells) being Roman Catholics. The ivy-mantled church of Little Malvern, which is partly in ruins, when viewed amidst the foliage around, is singularly picturesque, particularly, as Nash remarks, where the ruins of the cross aisle on each side, with their gothic windows and fine tracery, still remain. Here and there a fragment of stained glass may be discovered amidst the glossy ivy, which clings about the mullions in a way dear to the lover of hoar antiquity. It was originally built in the form of a cross, having an embattled tower springing from the centre: but the nave now forms the chief remain, the transept having fallen into decay. "On each side of the upper division of the tower," says Mr. Moule," is a handsome window, separated into two lights by a mullion, and having a quatrefoil and other tracery, displaying some bold overhanging mouldings.' The stained glass windows are said to have equalled those at Great Malvern, and contained many memorials of Bishop Alcock, the founder; but alas! Time has fallen on them also with his withering and fatal Vide Chambers' Malvern, has given the name of King David: the colour of his "Just peeping from a woody convent near * Cotton's "Malvern Hills."-Malvern may in every respect be called the "British Parnassus," for since the time of Langlande, poesy has paid it many beautiful tributes.-In our Second paper we slightly mentioned the time-worn ruin of Bransil Castle, but omitted to add the following curious tradition, which we extract from Chambers' Malvern, p. 284. "There is a tradition that the ghost of the late Lord Beauchamp, who died in Italy, could never rest until his bones were delivered to the right heir of Bransil Castle; and accordingly they were sent from Italy enclosed in a small box, and are said to be now in the possession of Mrs. Sheldon, of Abberton. The tradition further states, that the old castle of Bransil was moated round, and in that moat a black crow, présumed to be an infernal spirit, sat to guard a chest of money, till discovered by the right owner. This chest could never be moved without the mover being in possession of the bones of Lord Beauchamp.” ON THE RULES OF THE SUCCESSION, IN THE EARLY AND MIDDLE AGES. THE succession to the crown in the kingdoms of Europe during the Early and first part of the Middle Ages, seems rather to have been confined to a particular family, than to the actual succession of an eldest son to the dominions of his father: and, although the instances of the promotion of another to the vacant throne, in the room of the rightful heir, are comparitively scarce; yet there are sufficient to afford a very strong presumption, that such was more in accordance with the opinions and manners of the people, than the strict Rules by which the succession is at present limited. The reason for which the heir was set aside, seems generally to have been, that he was a minor and not known to the nation at large :-as in the case of John, who supplanted his nephew Arthur, and the people at that time seem to have been very well satisfied with him. Another reason for the acquiescence of the people might have been the reflection, that an adult was more able to hold the reins of government with a firm hand, (so requisite in those turbulent times,) than a minor who was obliged to be under the guidance of some one else. Sometimes another son stepped in, if the heir chanced to be absent from the country; as in the case of William Rufus, and of Henry I., who both supplanted their elder brother Robert. During the Anglo-Saxon period, we also see instances of the same. Alfred the Great reigned when his elder brother Ethelward was living; and Ethelstan succeeded Edward, the Elder, although an illegitimate son, solely (as it appears,) because the legitimate sons of the late king were minors. In Castile, till about the eleventh century, we read, "that upon the death of the king, the nobles together with the clergy, assembled in common council to appoint a successor." In Germany, although we may now and then see an instance of a son succeeding his father for two or three generations, yet upon the whole the government might be styled elective. The grand principle of government in all Europe seems to have been, that if no impediment lay in the path of the heir, he succeeded; but if absent, or any other cause hindered him from taking immediate possession, the people had not sufficient love for his person to scruple at quietly obeying whoever seized the crown. In the history of the kingdom of Israel, as recorded in the sacred writings, we have a remarkable instance of indifference as to which son succeeded. Upon the death of Ahab, Jehu wrote letters to the keepers of the seventy sons of Ahab, and his letters run in this style--" Look even out the best and meetest of your master's sons, and set him on his father's throne, and fight for your master's house." He does not say crown the eldest, but the one most proper to succeed to the vacant throne. S. THE BIRTH-PLACE OF THE LADY JANE GREY. "This was thy home then, gentle Jane ! This thy green solitude ;-and here At evening, from thy gleaming pane, Thine eye oft watch'd the dappled deer, While the soft sun was in its wane, Browsing beneath the brooklet clear :The brook runs still, the sun sets now, The deer yet browseth; where are thou?" IN the midst of the most sequestered part of Leicestershire, deserted and solitary, backed by rude eminences, and skirted by lowly and romantic valleys, stands BRADGATE, the birth-place and abode of the beauteous LADY JANE GREY, the accomplished, but unfortunate daughter of the House of Suffolk. The approach to this spot from the little village of Cropston, is particularly striking. On the left stands a group of venerable trees, at the extremity of which rise the remains of the once magnificent mansion of the Greys of Groby. On the right is a hill, known by the name of the Coppice, covered with slate, but so intermixed with forest-fern and flowers, as to form a beautiful contrast with the deep shade of the adjoining wood. To add to the loveliness of the scene, a winding trout-stream finds its way from rock to rock, washing the once festive walls of the building, until it reaches the more fertile meadows of Swithland. Nor ought we to omit the beautiful vale of Newtown, the romantic loneliness of which would be worthy even the pen of a Scott. In the distance, situated upon a hill, is a tower, yclept OLD JOHN, commanding a magnificent view of the adjacent country, including the far-distant castles of Nottingham and Belvoir. Leland has given the following description of the place, as it appeared in his time;-" From Leicester to Brodegate by ground welle woodded 3 Miles. At Brodegate is a fair Parke and a Lodge lately builded there by the Lorde Thomas Gray, Marquise of Dorsete, Father to Henry that is now Marquise. There is a fair and plentiful spring of Water brought by Master Brok as a Man wold juge agayne the Hille thoroug the Lodge, and thereby it dryvitt a Mylle. This Parke was part of the olde Erle's of Leicesters' Landes, and sins by Heires generales it cam to the Lorde Ferreres of Groby, and so to the Grayes. The Parke of Brodegate is a vj Miles cumpace.' Bradgate is situated on the border of the ancient forest of Charnwood, in the hundred of West-goscote, about two miles from Groby, and four from Leicester. A park was enclosed here as early as the year 1247, as appears from an agreement made between Roger de Quincy, Earl of Leicester, and Roger de Someroy, Leland's "Itinerary," vol. i. p. 14. Baron of Dudley, respecting their mutual hunting in Leicester forest, and Bradgate park. As a parcel of the manor of Groby, Bradgate, formerly belonged to Hugh Grandmeisnell,† and with it, passed by the marriage of his daughter and co-heir, Petronilla, to Robert Blanchmaines, Earl of Leicester; and afterwards, by marriage also, to Saker de Quincy, Earl of Winton. In the reign of Edward I., it came into the family of the Ferrers, by the marriage of Margaret, daughter and co-heir of Roger de Quincy, with William de Ferrers, second son of William de Ferrers, Earl of Derby, whose son and heir, William, was in 1293, created Baron Ferrers of Groby. In 1444, on the death of William Lord Ferrers, of Groby, who died without any surviving male issue, Bradgate descended to Sir Edward Grey,‡ knight, in right of his wife, Elizabeth, sole daughter and heir of Henry, the son of the last mentioned William, (who had died during his father's life time) and he was accordingly, on December 14th, 1446, summoned to parliament, under the title of Sir Edward Grey, his grandson, was in 1471, created Earl of Huntingknight, Lord Ferrers of Groby.§ Sir Thomas Grey, don, and a knight of the garter; and in 1475, was he married a second wife, Cicely, daughter and heir advanced to the higher dignity of Marquis of Dorset ; of William, Lord Bonville and Harrington. Henry, his grandson, the third Marquis of Dorset, succeeded to the title in 1530, and married the Lady Frances, eldest daughter and co-heir of Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk, and of his illustrious consort, Mary, Queen Dowager of France, and youngest sister of Henry *Nichols'"Leicestershire," vol. iii. p. 681. + This manor, with other lands in the county, was given by William the Conqueror, to Hugh Grandmeisnell, a Norman, created Baron of Hinckley, and High Steward of England, by William Rufus.-Burton's "Leicestershire," p. 122. The family of Grey was of Norman origin; their arms, Barry of six, Argent and Azure, in chief three torteauxes, Ermine; the motto, A ma puissance. Rollo, or Fulbert, the chamberlain of Robert, duke of Normandy, was possessed, by gift from Robert, of the castle and lands of Croy, in Picardy, The first notice we find of this family in England, is shortly from whence he took the name of de Croy, afterwards de Gray. after the Conquest, when Arnold de Gray, grandson of the above-mentioned Rollo, became Lord of Water Eaton, Stoke, and Rotherfield, in right of his wife, Joan, daughter and heiress of the Baron de Ponte de l'Arche. § Vide Dugdale's "Baronage," vol. i. p. 719. Sir John Grey, their son, who succeeded as Lord Ferrers of Groby, was slain daughter and co-heir of Richard Widvile, Earl of Rivers; who after his death became the Queen of Edward IV. He left two sons, Sir Thomas and Sir Richard Grey.-Polydore Virgil, p. 513, at the battle of St. Alban's, in 1460; he married Elizabeth, # VIII, by whom he had issue, three daughters, the | Thomas Grey, the second Marquis of Dorset, princiLADY JANE GREY, Catherine, and Mary.† Having arrived at that period in the history of Bradgate, when it became celebrated as the birthplace of the greatest ornament of the age, it behoves us to describe the Mansion itself, which became the scene of the childhood, and early studies of this incomparable woman. "This fair, large, and beautiful palace," to use the words of old Fuller, was erected in the early part of the reign of Henry VIII., by pally of red brick,* of a square form, with a turret at either corner. It became the favourite residence of the Dorset family, more especially that of Henry, the father of the Lady Jane, of whom it has been observed, that he loved to live in his own way, and was rather desirous to keep up that magnificence, for which our ancient nobility were so much distinguished, in the place of his residence in the country, than to involve himself in the intrigues of a court. † Of this once princely mansion, which has for many years, with the exception of the chapel and kitchen, been a complete ruin, scarcely enough of the walls Her two brothers dying without issue, the Marquis of Dorset was, in favour to her, though otherwise, for his harmless simplicity, neither misliked, nor much regarded, created duke of Suffolk, 11th Oct. 5th Edward VI.-Dugdale's Baronage," vol. i. p. 721. On the death of the Duke of Suffolk, (who was executed shortly after Lady Jane Grey,) the Lady Frances married Adrian Stokes, Esq.; she lies buried in St. Edmund's chapel, Westminster Abbey, where an alabaster monument was erected to her memory. The male heir of the family was continued by his younger brother John, ancestor of the present Earl of Stamford and Warrington. The Lady Katherine married Lord Herbert, eldest son of the Earl of Pembroke; and the Lady Mary, Martin Keyes, Esq., of Kent, sergeant porter to Queen Elizabeth. Brooke's "Catalogue of Kings," p. 310. Fuller's "Worthies," p. 127. entire. remain to assist the careful observer, in designating the several apartments; but a Tower yet stands, which tradition assigns as that occupied by the Lady Jane. Traces of a bowling-green, which Nichols imagines to have been the tilt yard, are visible, and the garden walls, with a broad terrace are nearly The ruins of the water-mill, mentioned by Leland, may still be seen; and also, the little stream, near which stands a magnificent group of chestnut trees. The spot occupied by the pleasure grounds can also be traced, and though, observes Nichols, they have now somewhat the appearance of a wilderness, yet they strongly indicate, that once, 66 The materials were principally brought from the manor house of the Earl of Warwick, at Sutton Colfeild.-Dugdale's "Warwickshire," p. 667. + Howard's "Lady Jane Grey," p. 79. The Chapel, a small building adjoining the Lady Jane's tower, and the only part of the mansion on which any care for its preservation has been bestowed, contains a handsome monument (in alabaster,) commemorative of Henry, Lord Grey of Groby, (cousin to the Lady Jane Grey,) and his wife; whose effigies lie recumbent, beneath an arched canopy supported by composed Ionic columns. The former is encased in armour, and robed; round the neck is a high collar; the hair is cut short but the beard broad; the head resting on a helmet, with the gauntlets placed at the feet. His lady is clothed in a gown and a short jacket, and suspended from a waist-belt is a chain, with tassels at the bottom; a long ruff covers the neck. The whole is surmounted by the family arms and supporters. In a vault in the middle of the chapel, made to contain three coffins, repose the remains of Lady Diana Grey, daughter of Thomas, Earl of Stamford, by his first wife, Elizabeth; Thomas, Earl of Stamford; and Mary, Countess Dowager of Stamford, for whom there is the following inscription on a large blue slate on the floor; where the nettle and the thistle now reign in peace, I sent day, if not authenticated by several whose veracity was as unquestionable as their judgment, would the rose and the lily sprang luxuriantly.” be wholly incredible.+-But the history of her eventful life has engaged the attention of so many writers, and is so generally known, as to render its repetition unnecessary; we cannot, however, entirely pass over in silence the period of her education, nearly the whole of which she resided at Bradgate. Burton, in his additions to Leicestershire, calls her "that most noble and admired Princess Jane Grey; who being but young, at the age of seventeen years, as John Bale writeth, attained to such excellent learning, both in the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin tongues, and also in the study of divinity, by the instruction of Mr. Aylmer, as appeareth by her many writings, letters, &c., that, as Mr. Fox saith of her, had her fortune been answerable to her bringing up, undoubtedly she might have been compared to the house of Vespasians, Sempronians, and Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi in Rome, and, in these days the chiefest men of the universities." It was at Bradgate that Roger Ascham paid her that visit, which he describes with so much pleasure in his "Scholemaster," and which we cannot refrain from quoting. "Before I went into Germanie, I came to Brodegate in Leicestershire, to take my leave of that noble Lady Jane Grey, to whom I was exceeding much beholding. Her parentes, the Duke and the Dutchesse, with all the householde, Gentlemen and Gentleweemen, were hunting in the Parke: I found her in her chamber, reading Phædon Platonis in Greeke, and that with as much delite, as some gentleman would read a mery tale in Bocase. After salutation, and duetie done, with some other talke, I asked her, why shee would leese such pastime in the Parke. Smiling shee answered mee: I wisse, all their sport in the Parke, is but a shadow to that pleasure, that I finde in Plato: Alas good folke, they never felt what true pleasure ment. And how came you Madame, quoth I, to this deepe knowledge of pleasure, and what did chiefly allure you vnto "D. G.-The Right Honourable THOMAS GREY, Baron of Grooby, Viscount Woodvil, and Earl of Stamford, late Lord-Lieutenant of Devonshire and Somersetshire, died January the 31st, 1719, aged 67 years. The Right Honourable MARY, Countess Dowager of Stamford, died November 10th, 1722, aged 51 years." The melancholy associations connected with the name of Lady Jane have given to Bradgate an attraction, which, notwithstanding its picturesque beauty, it would doubtless never have otherwise possessed. The story of this lady's "almost infancy," as it has justly been observed by a writer of the pre * This Chapel was formerly used as a place of shelter by the cattle, but has since been repaired, and newly paved. The key is in the charge of the keeper at the lodge. Viz. quarterly, 1. Grey, as before; 2. Hastings, or, a maunch, gules; 3. Valence, barry of ten, argent and azure, eight martlets in orle gules; 4. Ferrers of Groby, vaire, or, and gules; 5. Astley, azure, a cinquefoil, ermine; 6. Widvile, arg. a fess and canton, gules; 7. Bonvile, sable, six muflets, argent; 8. Harrington, sable, a fret, argent. Crest, on a wreath, a unicorn erect, ermine, armed, crested, and hoofed, or; a full sun behind it, whose rays are resplendent all round him, proper. Supporters, two unicorns, ermine, armed, crested, and hoofed, or; Motto, A ma puissance. |