But it is over Rylfton Fells that falls the deepest enchantment of poetry. It was over these heathery fells that the White Doe used to take her way. On them ftands the remains of the old tower of the Nortons, where the ftout Richard Norton gave to the winds his standard, furrounded by his nine fons, in "The Rising in the North." Thence he bore the banner wrought by his only daughter, on which were displayed the cross,

And the five wounds our Lord did bear.

In this poem Wordsworth has put forth a chivalrous strength and drawn a picture of devotedness in the father and in his fon Francis, which, though opposed in its object, is equally noble.

Such are the memories which have caft their golden glory over Bolton Priory; the Vale of Wharf; over the Strid; over Barden Tower and Norton Tower on the grim Rylston Fells, and invefted them with an intereft to all time.

Glastonbury Abbey.

CLASTONBURY ABBEY, now reduced

to a few ruined walls, had the distinguished

honour of being the first church founded in Britain. "Eft enim," fays John of Glaf

tonbury, "omnium in Anglia ecclefiarum prima et vetuftiffima, primo ex virgis torquatis facta, ex qua virtus divinæ fanctitatis jam inde à principio redolevit fpiravitque in omnem patriam." It is the first and most ancient of all churches in England, originally constructed out of twisted withes, but from which the virtue of divine fanctity has already from this beginning breathed its fragrance over the whole country. This monkish hiftorian of the then proud abbey, in the fifteenth century, tells us that it was called by the English EALDECHIRCHE, that is the ancient church, and that the people of that province found nothing by which they might swear an oath so sacred that they should fear to break it, as the ancient church; and that it was equally eminent by the reverence of its antiquity and of its magnificently exalted fanctity. "It was called a fecond

Rome."

John of Glaftonbury-whose chronicle was edited by Hearne, the antiquarian, from the MS. in the Afhmolean Library-tells us that he availed himself of the labours of William of Malmsbury, who wrote the chronicle of the abbey from its foundation by Joseph of Arimathea, in the fixty-third year of our Lord's

incarnation, the thirty-first after his paffion, to the time of the Abbot Henry Bleys, bishop of Winchester, in the year 1126; of the brother Adam of Domerham, a monk of this houfe, down to the time of John of Tantonia, the lord abbot, in the year 1290; interfperfing certain matters from Giraldus Cambrenfis and Radulph of Chefter; that he abbreviated the prolixity of the said Adam, omitting, adding, and reducing facts to their proper order; that he had endeavoured to follow the truth, though in a rude style and with uncultivated language" Rudi quidem ftilo, et fermone inculto,”—rightly thinking that "melior is veritas in fimplicibus verbis, quam fit mendacium in venuftate fermonis.”

And truly, if the veracity of our hiftorian is equal to the rudeness of his Latin, more reliable narrative was never written. He gives us ulcio for ultio, eciam for etiam, wayviatores for viatores; in fact, in almost every place fubftituting c for t, with phrases oft recurring of tolerable English with Latin terminations; with michi for mihi, nichil for nihil. And with what a fimple faith our good chronicler relates his carefully-fifted facts. This is his account of the circumftances which led Jofeph of Arimathea to Glastonbury:—The Lord being crucified, and all things accomplished which were foretold by the prophets, Jofeph of Arimathea, that noble decurion (a commander of ten men, about equivalent to a corporal,) went to Pilate and begged the body of Jesus, and wrapped it in fine linen, and laid it in a monument in which no man had yet been buried. Now the Jews hearing of this, fought "apprehendere eum ;" and with him Nicodemus and others. These all hid themselves except Jofeph and Nicodemus, who appeared, and demanded why they were angry because they had buried the Lord, and whether they had not yet reflected how much good he had done, and how ill

they had done in crucifying him? Whereupon they seized Jofeph and Nicodemus and fhut them up in a chamber without a window, and gave the key to Annas and Caiaphas, and placed guards at the door. Nicodemus they soon set at liberty; but they determined to put Jofeph to death because he had begged the body of Jesus, and had been the chief instigator of his burial. Being affembled to determine what death he should die, they commanded Annas and Caiaphas to produce him; but on opening the chamber they found that he was not there. In great confternation they fent messengers everywhere to learn news of him, and he was found quietly refiding in his native city of Arimathea.

At this wonderful difcovery the chief priests confulted how they were to induce him to come back; and "tollentes thomum cartæ,”—which, in Glastonbury Latin, means taking a sheet of paper,—they wrote to him confeffing their great fins against him, and imploring him to come to his fathers and to his fons, who were all filled with admiration of his divine affumption; adding " Peace be with thee, Joseph, honoured of all the people." And they chose seven men, friends of Joseph, to carry this epiftle, and honourably to falute the holy man on delivering it. Joseph kissed the messengers, took them into his house, and thanked God who had thus changed his enemies and the crucifiers of Christ. "Alia autem die afcendit fuper afinum fuum, et ambulavit cum illis, et venit Jerufalem." That is, the next day he got upon his afs, and ambled with them, and came to Jerufalem. The Jews affembling all kiffed Jofeph, and Nicodemus received him into his house, and made him a feast, and Annas and Caiaphas in full Sanhedrim inquired respectfully by what means he had been conveyed away from the chamber that was fo well locked and guarded. Whereupon Jofeph informed them that, as he was at his devo

tions in the prison, at midnight, the house was suspended in the air by four angels, and the Lord Jefus appeared to him in a glory of light, and lifting him from the earth to which he had fallen, took him by the hand, washed him with rofe-water, wiped his face, kissed him, and said to him (dixit michi), “Be not afraid Jofeph, I am Jesus.” He then showed Jofeph the place where he had buried him, and the linen in which he had wrapped him, and the napkin in which he had folded his head, as a proof that he was the Lord; and then conducted him home to his houfe in Arimathea, bidding him not to go. out for forty days, and so disappeared.

This account seems to have charmed the Jews; and as for Jofeph, he betook himself to the evangelift Philip, and was baptised with his fon Jofeph. Afterwards he was delegated by St. John, whilst he was labouring among the Ephefians, to become the Para-nymph or devotee of the blessed and perpetual Virgin Mary, and of her glorious virgin affumption. And he joined St. Philip and other difciples who had seen and known the Lord Jefus and his mother Mary, and they preached through various regions, converting and baptizing many people, till, in the fifteenth year after the affumption of the bleffed Virgin, he came with his fon Joseph, whom the Lord Jesus had confecrated as bishop in the city of Shiraz, to the apostle Philip in Gaul. Philip, defirous to preach the gospel, sent twelve of his disciples, including his beloved friend Joseph and his fon Jofeph, into Britain, Joseph being put at their head. Five hundred men and women set forth with Joseph under vows of chastity, which however they broke, and only a hundred and fifty were allowed to accompany the faint. These by the command of the Lord fet fail on the night of the Lord's afcenfion, on Joseph's fhirt, which he spread for them, and arrived in Britain the next morning. But the finners having repented,