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Beautiful martyr! widowed by the hand

That reft thee of thy life, ere yet 'twas thine;

Thy grave to find beneath a guilty land,

Thou hast no need of gilded niche or shrine !
Fond recollections round thy memory twine-

A sacred halo circles thy brief years:

'Tis thine, redeemed from sin and death, to shine Eternally above this world of fears,

Where Christ himself, thy king, hath wiped away all tears.--

Farewell, thou mouldering relic of the past!

An hour unmeetly was not spent with thee:
Events, as rapid as the autumn's blast,

Have hurried onward, since 'twas thine to see
The fairest flower of England pensively

Expand and blossom, 'neath thy rugged shade;

And here thou stand'st, while circling seasons flee,
A monumental pile of that sweet maid,
Whom men of bloody hands within the charnel laid.
Farewell! Farewell!-Again a long farewell,
With lingering footstep and unwilling tongue,

I bid to thee,-thou most secluded cell,
In my poor lay too ill and weakly sung!
But could my lyre to bolder hands have rung,
A worthier tribute justly thou might'st claim :—
Thou, with unfading wreaths around thee flung,
By mystic influence of a deathless name,
The brightest and the best upon the scrolls of Fame.

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lings of the KNIGHTS TEMPLARS, as worthy of the attention of the reader, and which we propose to make the subject of this paper;---hoping, by the aid of collateral observations, to make it both interesting and instructive.

THE industrious and careful researches of the anti-be called, we may instance the Preceptories or Dwelquaries of the last and present century directed chiefly among the castles and larger edifices, military and ecclesiastical, common in this country, have been attended with considerable and deserved success;--but although so much has been performed with respect to the more magnificent architectural remains, and But before we consider these dwellings, it may be such great light has been thrown by those ingenious as well to say a few words concerning their former persons upon what may be called the public archi- inhabitants, their growth, grandeur, and decay, until tecture of our Saxon and Norman progenitors, yet they passed away, like a ship upon the waters, leaving there remain a number of less important but, never-scarcely a track behind. The society of Knights

every country, and in every country held ample possessions. At a very early period they possessed nine thousand manors, and at the time of their abolition that number had been augmented to sixteen thousand.

Templars (or, of the Holy Temple) was the latest | Temple were widely scattered through every Christian formed, and the earliest abolished, but by far the nation. Their fraternity embraced valiant men of wealthiest and most powerful of the two great military orders, so conspicuous during the Crusades. It took rise in the year 1118, at Jerusalem, during the period of the first crusade; and its style and title is supposed by the best authorities to have been derived from the accidental occupation of some chambers adjacent to the Temple of Jerusalem, by those who were the original members of the order.

The Knights Templars were ecclesiastics, differing in this particular from the brethren of St. John, or the Knights Hospitallers, who were always laymen. Their dress, in peace, consisted of a long white robe, bearing the cross of St. George upon the left shoulder, and worn something after the fashion of a cloak, or mantle; a cap, turned up, covered the head; and the staff or abacus of the order, bearing at its extremity an encircled cross, was borne in the right hand. In war, their panoply does not appear to have differed in any important particular from the knightly harness of the period. The Agnus Dei, still visible over the portal of the Temple, in Fleet Street, (which originally belonged to them) was blazoned upon the bannerol. Their vows were very strict, and comprehended celibacy, poverty, humility, and inveterate war against the infidels, to which last indeed they adhered pretty steadily, but some other injunctions were interpreted with great laxity.

Their Superior, elected by the Order for life, was styled the Grand Master of the Temple, and took rank as an independent prince. Immediately beneath him were the Preceptors, each ruling over his preceptory, and subject to the will of the Grand Master, and the statutes of the Order. Each knight companion was attended by two esquires, who were usually candidates for admission into the Order.

Few in numbers, and destitute of power or possessions, the members of this Order were at first exposed to bat little temptation to break their vows of humility and poverty; by degrees, however, their splendid military achievements, and their high sense of chivalry and honour, attracted multitudes to their standard, and heaped upon them those riches which finally became the occasion of their dissolution. Pride, luxury, and cruelty were their distinguishing characteristics; and losing, with the exception of their valour, all those virtues which had caused their elevation, they were cut off, even in their highest and most palmy state, by the general detestation of Christendom, aided however, no doubt, and directed by the avarice of its needy monarchs. The Knights of the

England was their stronghold, owing probably to the distracted state of the country; but as they were able to preserve a considerable force in each of their foreign territories, and as they were accounted the best lances in the world, they were not only respectable, but formidable to the most powerful sovereigns of their time.

The order having existed nearly two hundred years, was finally abolished in 1312, by the concurrence of the Pope, the Emperor, and the King of France. The Grand Master and several of the Knights were burnt, at Paris, on charges of sorcery; and in England their possessions (at a period shortly subsequent) either reverted to the representatives of the donors, or were appropriated by act of parliament to their more fortunate rivals the Knights of St. John.

There existed altogether, in England, of these Preceptories (or rather garrisons) as near as can be calculated, fifteen, of which the shires of Cambridge, Derby, Hants, Middlesex, Somerset, and Warwick, each possessed one; Lincoln, Yorkshire, and Wales two each; and Leicestershire three. Of these, thirteen passed to the Knights of St. John, by whom it is probable that several of them were suffered to fall into decay.

The new Temple in London was the chief seat of the Order, and in its church, built after the model of the Holy Sepulchre, (that is, partly circular-wise) the effigies of some of the first Knights of the Order are still to be seen. This church was consecrated in

*This, though the currently-received opinion, appears to be a mistake, since one alone of the Knights, whose effigies are nected with the Order of Knights Templars. Vide "Brayley's in the Temple church, has been recognised as in anywise conLondiniana," vol. iii., where further particulars of the Knights, and of their Temple in London, will be found, pp. 272--300.

Ranulph Higden, in his " Poly-Chronicon," relates an anecdote of Richard Cœur de Lion, weich perfectly accords with the haughty character of the Knights Templars as given by Matthew Paris. Richard, he says, having been told by a French priest, that " he had three daughters, namely, Pride, Covetousness, and Letchery, who would subject him to the wrath of God if he did not presently get quit of them," immediately replied, "that he would bestow them in marriage ;-my eldest daughter, Pride, I give to the Knights Templars; to the Cistercians, Covetousand my of the Church, who therein take most pleasure and felicity; and third daughter, Letchery, I commit to the Prelates now you have my daughters bestowed amongst you."—ED.

ness,

1185, by Heraclius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, who came over to offer the dangerous honour of the Crown of the Holy City to the English monarch.

Under the order of St. John the Preceptories took the title of Commanderies, a commander of St. John being equivalent to a preceptor among the Templars. The villages to which they were attached continued, however, in many cases to bear the name of Temple in addition to their own, as Temple-Combe, TempleBruer, and many others. At the Reformation, England ceased to be one of the eight nations of which the order of St. John had been composed; their possessions escheated to the crown, and a small pittance being granted to the English knights, their demesnes were sold or granted away.

The Preceptories, or dwellings, usually surrounded by what is called a peculiar, that is to say, an ecclesiastical jurisdiction, independent of the bishop of the diocess, became private residences, and were often called Temples.

with the mill stream, at £22 annual value; the latter, however, subject to a deduction of £8. 3s. 6d. for the support of two cappelans, or chantry priests. The demesne remained in the hands of the order of St. John until the Reformation, when it was seized by Henry VIII., and in his thirty-fifth year granted, with appurtenances, to Henry Cartwright, one of his favourites; at which time it was, jointly with Dalby and Hether, valued at £231.7s. 10d. per annum. By that person it was sold, together with the Preceptory, church, and several other possessions, to Humfrey Babington, a younger son of the great northern family of that name. In this purchase he was probably assisted by the interest of his elder brother, Sir John de Babington, the Preceptor of Rodeley and Dalby at the time of their escheat to the crown. The said Humfrey married a coheiress of the family of Beaumont, and it is in the possession of his male descendant in the ninth generation, Thomas Babington, Esq. sometime M. P. for the borough of Leicester, that Rodeley, or Rotheley Temple, still remains.

The site of the ancient buildings, usually, was well chosen, near a river, and often on the slope, or at This edifice is situated in the hundred of West Gosthe bottom of an eminence. They were of a moderate cote, about six miles north of Leicester. The house size, accommodating from twenty to thirty knights, is pleasantly placed upon a well-wooded plain, and and rarely built with that jealous attention to security within half a bow-shot of the fertilizing waters of the apparent in the baronial residences of the period. Soar. The front possesses an eastern aspect, and The general dread of the Order probably stood them the abrupt range of the Charnwood or Chorley Hills, instead of walls and moats. There was a chapel forms a sheltering and picturesque back-ground. The always, and sometimes a church attached, a refectory building presents a front of considerable extent, and and hall, kitchens, vaults, and dormitories for the the gothic window delineated on the left, in our knights. The adjacent meadow served for the pur-cut, is that of the chapel, a part of the ancient poses of a tilt-yard and place of exercise. Several Preceptory. such houses remain at the present day, although much altered, and rarely possessing in their structure any considerable remains of the ancient Preceptory. Some, however, are in better preservation, and it is by a description of one of the most perfect of these that we shall conclude this paper.

It appears from a record (12 Edw. I.) quoted by Burton, that, in 1284, certain privileges of a market and fair were granted to the village of Rodeley, in the county of Leicester, then in the possession of the Knights Templars; to whom the manor and church had been granted by Henry III. No further mention | of much importance appears of this place until 1371, (45 Ed. III.) about sixty years after the abolition of the Templars, when it is spoken of as a Commandery, pertaining, together with Dalby in the same county, to the Knights Hospitallers of St. John, at that time ruled by the celebrated Raymund de Bèrenger, Grand Master. The lordship and soke of Rodeley were then rated at £6.9s. 9d.; and the mill, lately destroyed,

The portions of the original edifice still remaining, are a crypt, or vault, of early pointed architecture, and the chapel, a large and lofty building of a somewhat later date. It is to be lamented that this latter, one of the most spacious private chapels in the county, should be mulcted of a moiety of its proportions by a brick wall across its centre. Within the chapel are

a few family monuments, and a genealogical escutcheon in carved oak. There are also some remains of armorial bearings on the windows, viz. Babington quartering Beaumont, with the ancient crest of the latter, an Elephant.* In the hall are some pieces of ancient armour, back and breast plates, and morions, probably of the date of the civil wars, in which the family espoused the cause of the Parliament. The neighbouring church is a very curious edifice.

J. J.

*The Babington arms are, Arg. ten torteauxes, in chief a label of three points, Azure,

EXTRACTS FROM THE PORTFOLIO OF A TRAVELLER.-No. IV.

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The Hall, where oft in feudal pride
Old England's peers to council came;
When Cressy's field spread far and wide
Edward of Windsor's warlike fame;
Whose rafter'd roof, and portals long,
Rung while unnumber'd harps awoke ;
Now echoes but the thresher's song,

Or the sad flail's incessant stroke.
"ELTHAM," by the Rev. S. S. ALLEN.

IT was with feelings of high interest that we approached this venerable pile, still uprearing its head beyond the storms of ages; and while the numerous political convulsions it has witnessed have passed away, like the " baseless fabric of a vision," it yet stands a visible relic of the past, telling of the glories

and hospitalities of the olden time. The approach to the Palace, which lies about a quarter of a mile to the south of Eltham, still possesses, in a certain degree, its original character. Lofty forest trees rise in all their beauty on either side of the road, and the grouping of the noble oaks and elms on the left, in Lord Rivers' park, confer additional interest on the scenery as we advance towards the bridge. On emerg

The park and pleasure grounds occupied by Lord Rivers extend over about sixty acres, adjoining which is a park of seventy-four acres, occupied by a Mr. Green, which are but shall shew. On the right of the road to the bridge, are several poor representations of the ancient royal demesnes here, as we houses of some antiquity; one of which, constructed of brick and wood, was the chandry or storehouse of the palace, accord

ing from the avenue, the shattered remains of this | ings, with an effect which was heightened by the once extensive palace stood before us; the elevated waning season, and our own peculiar reflections on roof of the Hall appearing over the surrounding build- sublunary changes.

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On reaching the ivy-mantled Bridge, which is sup- | tower at the north-east end of the moat, remained posed to be coeval with the hall, and still the only entrance to the palace on the north, we paused, and examined with attention a structure, over which time It is of has, comparatively, had little influence. stone, with a strong abutment and four groined arches, varying in size, and of a massive yet beautiful design, the piers being strengthened by angular buttresses. It probably replaced the drawbridge in the reign of Edward IV., a period when it was considered that comfort could be combined with security in the defences of this castellated mansion. The moat is now partly occupied with a pond, partly used for grazing, and also laid out as a pleasure ground and garden; ornamental shrubs and flowers clustering around in picturesque beauty. The Bridge was originally defended by a gateway, which, with a

ing to the plan in Hasted's Kent. Nearly opposite, and extending east of the palace over five acres, is the original garden, the 'massive walls, and lofty arched entrance to which are in good preservation. The latter is deserving of, and has excited much observation. In the garden wall, to the west, are traces

of triangular apertures, supposed for the exercise of archery. The ancient house in the garden merits the notice of the curious; it is occupied by Mr. Mc. Clean, to whose politeness we are indebted for several particulars.

VOL. I. DEC. 1, 1832.

entire at the date of the view published by Samuel and Nath. Bucke, in 1735,-but it has since progressively disappeared; two dilapidated stacks of brick chimneys remained, one on each side, till 1813. This gateway, according to Harris and Philipott, was of stone, and probably the work of Bishop Beke, "who repaired, rebuilt, and beautified," the palace, at great cost, at the latter end of the thirteenth century. According to the plan published by Hasted, it consisted of a large arch, a postern, and two towers, flanked by some buildings comprising the northern front of the palace, which are described as "decayed lodgings:" two modern-looking houses, which stand on either side of the bridge, harmonize but very ill with the desolation which has fallen on all around.

It has been well remarked, that the existing historical records of Eltham Palace are scanty and imperfect. Its origin is lost in obscurity; and the absence of data respecting a place which for centuries was a favourite abode of English monarchs, cannot but be considered as very remarkable. The notice which appears in the "Perambulation of Kent" is slight and meagre. Lambarde seems to have imbibed the

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