Chapter III: Part 3

‘And when queen Guenever understood that king Arthur was slain, ...
she went to Almesbury, and there she let make herself a nun, and wore
white clothes and black.’

Malory: _Morte d’Arthur_, Book XXI, chap. vii.

_Guinevere_;
_Passing of Arthur_.

ALMSHOUSES AT NOTTINGHAM.

Part shall go to the almshouses at Nottingham, part to the shrine of
our Lady.

_The Foresters._

ALOE.

A genus of plants, some classed as trees, others as shrubs, of considerable medicinal importance.

_The Daisy._

ALPHEGE OF ENGLAND.

Monk of Deerhurst, bishop of Worcester 984; archbishop of Canterbury 1006. Inaugurated the Council of Enham, which made enactments against heathenism and the selling of slaves. By confirming Olaf Tryggwesson in his Christianity and obtaining from him in 994 a promise not to invade England, he incurred the hatred of the Northmen, and during the invasion of the Danes in 1011 was captured, and upon refusing to ransom himself was put to death. His body was translated to Canterbury by Knut, and in 1078 he was canonized (954-1012).

_Becket._

ALPS.

I climb’d the roofs at break of day:
Sun-smitten Alps before me lay.

The great mountain range in Europe, forming the boundary between France, Germany and Switzerland on the north and west, and Italy on the south.

_The Daisy._

ALRASCHID.

_See_ =Haroun Alraschid=.

ALVA (Duke of).

A distinguished soldier and a descendant from one of the ancient families of Spain. When only 17 years of age he was selected for a military command by Charles V, and was present at the battle of Pavia, 1535. In 1547 he gained a victory over John of Saxony at the battle of Muhlberg and subsequently took part in the siege of Wittenburg and presided at the court-martial which tried and condemned to death the Elector. In 1552 he invaded France and was engaged for several months in an unsuccessful siege of Metz. In his campaign against pope Paul IV in 1556, Alva was completely successful and was at the gates of Rome when we was compelled by Philip to negotiate a peace, and to ask pardon for having opposed the pope in the war. In 1567 he was sent to the Low Countries to reduce the Netherlands to the Spanish yoke, which they were attempting to throw off. By his tyranny he filled the provinces with terror and scenes of carnage, for which his memory is held in detestation to this day. In 1573 the oppressed country was relieved of his presence, and on returning to Spain was treated with distinction by Philip. Falling into disgrace he was banished from court, and confined in the castle of Uzeda, where he remained for two years. Appointed in command of an army he invaded Portugal in 1581, defeated Antonio and subdued the kingdom (1508-1583).

_Queen Mary._

AMARACUS.

= Marjoram, a mint-like plant, used as a seasoning in cookery.

_Œnone._

AMARANTH.

The unfading Amaranth, so called because its flowers do not soon wither; early employed as an emblem of immortality.

Immortal Amarant, a flower which once
In Paradise, fast by the Tree of Life,
Began to bloom, but, soon for Man’s offence
To Heaven removed where first it grew,

Milton: _Paradise Lost_, Book III, 353-356.

_Lotos-Eaters_;
_Romney’s Remorse_.

AMARYLLIS.

A genus of bulbous-rooted plants, including the narcissus, jonquil, daffodil, agavè, etc. _Amaryllis_ is the name of a country girl in Theocritus and Virgil.

_The Daisy._

AMAZON.

Glanced at the legendary Amazon
As emblematic of a nobler age:

In Greek mythology a race of warrior females, said to have inhabited the neighbourhood of the Caucasus.

_The Princess._

AMBROSIA.

for her, and her,
Hebes are they to hand ambrosia, mix
The nectar:

The food of the gods which conferred immortality upon those who partook of it.

_The Princess_;
_Demeter and Persephone_.

AMBROSIAL.

With rosy slender fingers backward drew
From her warm brows and bosom her deep hair
Ambrosial,

An epithet used by Homer of the hair of the gods.

_Claribel_;
_Œnone_;
_In Memoriam_.

AMBROSIALLY.

= Delicious.

and opening out his milk-white palm
Disclosed a fruit of pure Hesperian gold.
That smelt ambrosially,

_Œnone._

AMBROSIUS.

A monk.

And one, a fellow-monk among the rest,
Ambrosius, loved him much beyond the rest
And honour’d him,

_Holy Grail._

AMMON.

A tribe, occupying the region to the east of Jordan, who hired Balaam to curse Israel. They were continually at war with the Israelites until subdued by Judas Maccabæus.

‘Moreover it is written that my race
Hew’d Ammon, hip and thigh, from Aroer
On Arnon unto Minneth.’

_Dream of Fair Women._

AMMONIAN OASIS.

Gliding with equal crowns two serpents led
Joyful to that palm-planted fountain-fed
Ammonian Oasis in the waste.

Refers to Alexander’s visit to the famous temple of Jupiter Ammon in the Libyan desert.

_Alexander._

AMMONITES.

Carved stones of the Abbey-ruin in the park.
Huge Ammonites, and the first bones of Time;

Huge fossil snake-shaped stones, known in the middle ages as ‘Cornu Ammonis,’ so-called from the Ammonian Horn of Ammon.

_The Princess._

AMOMUM.

An Indian spice plant. It is mentioned in Virgil’s _Eclogue_.

_The Cup._

AMPHION.

In Greek mythology son of Zeus and Antiope, and twin-brother of Zethus. He was born on mount Citheron, where Antiope had fled to avoid the resentment of Dircê (_q.v._), and the two children were exposed, but were brought up by shepherds. It is said that Amphion invented the lute and built Thebes by the music of it, which was so melodious that the stones danced into walls.

Amphion there the loud creating lyre
Strikes, and beholds a sudden Thebes aspire!

Pope: _Temple of Fame, 85-86._

When the two children had grown to manhood they united to avenge the wrongs which their mother had suffered at the hands of Dircê. They captured Thebes, slew Lycus, and tied Dircê to the tail of a wild bull which dragged her through precipices until she expired. Amphion married Niobe (_q.v._) who, boasting that she was greater and more deserving of immortality than Latona was changed into a stone, and in despair Amphion killed himself.

_Amphion._

AMPHISBÆNA.

so you quash rebellion too
For heretic and traitor are all one:
Two vipers of one breed--an amphisbæna,
Each end a sting: Let the dead letter burn.

A fabled serpent having two heads and able to move either backwards or forwards.

Dreadful was the din
Of hissing through the hall, thick-swarming now
With complicated monsters, head and tail--
Scorpion, and Asp, and Amphisbæna dire,

Milton: _Paradise Lost_, Book X. 521-524.

_Queen Mary._

AMURATH.

The Third, sixth sultan of the Turks (1574-1595). His first act on ascending the throne was to invite all his brothers to a banquet and strangle them.

This is the English, not the Turkish court;
Not Amurath an Amurath succeeds,
But Harry Harry.

Shakespeare: _2 Henry IV._ Act v. Scene 2.

In 1579 a commercial treaty between Amurath and Elizabeth was ratified.

_Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham._

AMY.

The fiancée of an impetuous boy lover--her cousin--who found that his love had been disdained. Amy forsook him to satisfy the wishes of her father, and married for money. On account of his unhappy love affair he spoke of flight into a far country, and a marriage amid some savage tribes, but the bonds of culture and comfort were too strong for him, and the project of wild adventure was abandoned as quickly as it was formed. Amy died at the birth of her first child, and sixty years afterwards her once boy lover says:

All in white Italian marble, looking still as if she smiled,
Lies my Amy dead in child-birth, dead the mother, dead the child.

* * * * *

I this old white-headed dreamer stoopt and kiss’d her marble brow.

_Locksley Hall_;
_Locksley Hall Sixty Years After_.

ANAKIM.

I felt the thews of Anakim,
The pulses of a Titan’s heart;

Sons of Anak, a race of giants inhabiting the mountains of Hebron, and who were conquered by Joshua. _Joshua xi. 21-22._

The Israelites said they were grasshoppers as compared with the Anakim. _Numbers xiii. 33._

_In Memoriam._

ANATOLIAN GHOST.

Anatolian spectre stories.

_To Ulysses._

ANEMONE.

A plant of the crowfoot family.

_Dream of Fair Women_;
_To the Rev. F. D. Maurice_;
_City Child_.

ANDREW, SAINT.

_See_ =St. Andrew=.

ANGELO (Michael).

A famous Italian sculptor, painter and poet.

_In Memoriam._

ANGLE.

A German race of people who invaded Britain in the fifth century and settled in Northumbria and East Anglia. From them the name of England was derived.

_Battle of Brunanburh_;
_Harold_;
_Becket_.

ANGUISANT.

King of Erin, subdued by king Arthur, fighting on behalf of Leodogran, king of Cameliard.

_Coming of Arthur._

ANGLIA.

Eques cum pedite
Præpediatur!
Illorum in lacrymas
Cruor fundatur!
Pereant, pereant,
Anglia precatur.

_Harold._

ANGLIAE.

Hostis per Angliae
Plagas bacchatur;
Casa cremator,
Pastor fugatur
trucidatur--

_Harold._

ANGLIAM.

Hostis in Angliam
Ruit prædator,
Illorum, Domine,
Scutum scindatur!

_Harold._

ANJOU.

An ancient province of France. In 1127 the eleventh count of Anjou married Plantagenet, the daughter of Henry I of England and became the father of Henry II, who took it from his brother Geoffrey in 1156. It was taken from king John by Philip Augustus of France in 1205, and united to the French kingdom in 1328 by Philip VI, son of Charles of Valois.

_Becket._

ANLAF.

A Danish king who invaded England and, joining forces with Constantius, king of the Scots, was defeated by Athelstan (_q.v._) and his brother Edmund Atheling (_q.v._) at the battle of Brunanburh, +A.D.+ 937.

_Battle of Brunanburh._

ANNE.

The warrior Earl of Allendale,
He loved the Lady Anne;
The lady loved the master well,
The maid she loved the man.

_The Foresters._

_See_ =Allendale (Earl of)=.

ANNE (Queen).

_See_ =Boleyn=.

ANNE. ANNE WHARTON.

Wife of lord Wharton, and a friend of lady Jane Grey.

she was passing
Some chapel down in Essex, and with her
Lady Anne Wharton, and the Lady Anne
Bow’d to the Pyx;

_Queen Mary._

ANNE--ANNIE.

For, Annie, you see, her father was not the man to save,
Hadn’t a head to manage, and drank himself into his grave.

An old woman--who had survived all her children--relates to her grandchild Annie the story of her life.

_Grandmother._

ANNIE.

An’ es for Miss Annie es call’d me afoor my awn foälks to my faäce
‘A hignorant village wife as ’ud hev to be larn’d her awn plaäce,’

Eldest daughter of the village squire.

_Village Wife._

ANNIE.

‘He says I shall never live thro’ it, O Annie, what shall I do?’
Annie consider’d. ‘If I,’ said the wise little Annie, ‘was you,

One of the inmates of a children’s hospital, who suggested to one of her fellow sufferers who was about to undergo an operation, that she should pray for help to ‘the dear Lord Jesus.’

_In the Children’s Hospital._

ANNIE. ANNIE LEE.

_See_ =Enoch, Enoch Arden=.

ANSELM.

Archbishop of Canterbury. Born at Aosta in Piedmont. In 1060 entered the monastery of Bec, and in 1063 was installed as prior in succession to Lanfranc, and fifteen years later was elected abbot. Visited England in 1092, and in the following year accepted the archbishopric of Canterbury from William II who was lying ill at Gloucester. Consecrated the church, erected by William I in 1094 on the field on which he defeated Harold. In 1494 he was canonized (1033-1109).

_Becket._

ANT.

A small insect.

_Pelleas and Ettarre_;
_Vastness_;
_Queen Mary_.

ANTIBABYLONIANISMS.

_See_ =Boanerges=.

ANTIOCH.

Ancient capital of the Greek kings of Syria, built by Seleucus 300 +B.C.+ It was famous in the early history of the Church as the seat of several ecclesiastical councils, as well as for being the birthplace of Chrysostom. In 635 +A.D.+ it fell into the hands of the Saracens, who held it until 969 +A.D.+ when it came under Roman dominion and retained till 1084 +A.D.+, when it fell into the hands of the Turks, from whom it was captured by the Crusaders +A.D.+ 1098.

_Becket._

ANTON.

A Knight of the Round Table, and, according to Tennyson, the foster-father of king Arthur.

Wherefore Merlin took the child,
And gave him to Sir Anton, an old knight
And ancient friend of Uther; and his wife
Nursed the young prince, and rear’d him with her own;
And no man knew.

Malory in his _Morte d’Arthur_ says: ‘So the child was delivered unto Merlin; and so he bare it forth unto Sir Ector, and made an holy man to christen him, and named him Arthur.’

_Coming of Arthur._

ANTONIUS.

A Roman general, but evidently not meant to be identified with any Roman general known to history.

_The Cup._

ANTONY (Mark).

_See_ =Mark Antony=.

ANTONY. ANTONY KNYVETT.

Lieutenant of the Tower of London in the reign of Henry VIII; joined the earl of Devon in insurrection to prevent the marriage of Mary with Philip of Spain; taken prisoner with Wyatt at Temple Bar by sir Maurice Berkeley, and being taken to the Tower was tried, condemned and executed.

_Queen Mary._

ANTWERP.

To Strasburg, Antwerp, Frankfort, Zurich, Worms,
Geneva, Basle--our Bishops from their sees
Or fled, they say, or flying--

_Queen Mary._

APE.

A monkey.

_St. Simeon Stylites_;
_In Memoriam_;
_Making of Man_;
_Queen Mary_;
_Becket_.

APHRODITÈ.

The Greek goddess of love and beauty, and wife of Hephæstus and mother of Cupid. Her sacred bird was the dove. As the queen of beauty she had the golden apple awarded her by Paris, and possessed the power of conferring beauty. In Roman mythology she is identified with Venus (_q.v._).

_Œnone._

APICUS.

A celebrated Roman glutton in the time of Augustus Tiberius. He expended large sums in gluttony and wrote a book upon cookery. It is said that having spent £800,000 in supplying the delicacies of his table and having only £30,000 left, he committed suicide, not thinking it possible to exist on such a miserable sum.

_Becket._

APOLLO.

The chief god of the Greeks; in ancient literature described as possessed of many powers. Tennyson speaks of him as the god of the sun and god of music:

Like that strange song I heard Apollo sing,

_Tithonus._

‘Look where another of our Gods, the Sun, Apollo,’

_Lucretius._

The statue of Apollo at Rhodes, made to commemorate the successful defence of that place against Demetrius Poliorcetes in 300 +B.C.+, was one of the several wonders of the old world. It represented the sun-god with his head surrounded by rays, and with his feet resting one on each side of the entrance to the port. This Colossus of Rhodes, as the statue was generally called, was 105 feet high, and took twelve years to build, at a cost of about £120,000.

_Tithonus_;
_Lucretius_.

APPLE-TREE.

A tree of many varieties.

_Holy Grail._

AQUITAINE.

A province of south-west France. It was conquered by the Romans 57 +B.C.+ under Cæsar, and again in 418 in the reign of Augustus. On the marriage of Louis VII with Eleanor, daughter of William X, it was annexed to the French crown, but upon Henry II of England marrying Eleanor after her divorce, it was added to the English crown. It remained in English possession until 1453, when it was restored to France.

_Becket._

ARAB.

From the delicate Arab arch of her feet
To the grace that,

Refers to the high instep of the Arab, giving swiftness and elasticity to his gait.

_Maud._

ARÂBI.

Leader of the Egyptian Revolt, 1882. As under-secretary for War in the Egyptian government, he adopted a policy which the British government had to meet by armed force. Alexandria was bombarded on July 11, 1882, and on September 13 of the same year the British troops under sir Garnet Wolseley completely routed him at the battle of Tel-el-Kebir.

You saw the league-long rampart-fire
Flare from Tel-el-Kebir
Thro’ darkness, and the foe was driven,
And Wolseley overthrew
Arâbi.

Arâbi fled to Cairo, but surrendering was banished to Ceylon, 1883. In 1901 he was released and granted a pension. He claimed descent from the prophet.

_Prologue to General Hamley._

ARABY.

A poetical form of Arabia.

_Queen Mary._

ARAC (Prince).

A prince, whose hard old father represented in his blunt and violent manner the old-fashioned régime when women were women and knew their place. Since his infancy he had been proxy wedded to a certain princess Ida (_q.v._), with whom he was deeply in love. He is described as a genial giant, with splendid muscles, healthy love of action, and proud devotion to his sister. When Ida reached marriageable age she founded a college for women from which men were excluded. Arac determined to gain access to the college, so with two more friends disguised as girl students, the college portress admitted them. After many adventures his sex was discovered. Arac wooed Ida, this time more successfully, and after many amusing happenings they were married.

_The Princess._

ARAGON.

Once a kingdom, but now divided into three provinces. It was conquered by the Romans, but upon the fall of that empire, it passed into the hands of the Goths; and at the beginning of the eighth century was conquered by the Moors. In 1137 it was recovered by the rulers of Aragon and united with Catalonia, and by the marriage of Ferdinand with Isabella of Castile in 1469 the crowns of Aragon and Castile (_q.v._) were united.

_Queen Mary._

ARBACES.

Name of a horse.

_The Brook._

ARCADY.

And round us all the thicket rang
To many a flute of Arcady.

Represents Greek Idyllic poetry.

_In Memoriam._

ARDEN (Enoch).

_See_ =Enoch, Enoch Arden=.

ARDEN.

A large forest supposed to have been in Warwickshire. It is a place-name in Shakespeare’s _As You Like It_.

_Sisters (Evelyn and Edith)._

ARÊS.

The Greek god of war, called by the Romans, Mars, and son of Zeus and Hera. Was an enemy of Cadmus (_q.v._) on account of his having killed the dragon that guarded the springs of Dircê which were sacred to Mars.

The great God, Arês, burns in anger still
Against the guiltless heirs of him from Tyre,
Our Cadmus, out of whom thou art, who found
Beside the springs of Dircê, smote, and still’d
Thro’ all its folds the multitudinous beast,
The dragon,

His symbols were the spear and the burning torch.

_Tiresias._

ARIMATHÆAN JOSEPH.

_See_ =Joseph=.

ARNO.

An Italian river which flows through Florence.

_The Brook._

ARNON.

A river which formed the boundary between Moab and the Amonites, and afterwards between Moab and Israel.

_Dream of Fair Women._

AROER.

A city on the river Arnon, the southern point of the territory of Sihon, king of the Amorites, and afterwards of the tribe of Reuben, but later in the possession of Moab.

‘Moreover, it is written that my race
Hew’d Ammon, hip and thigh, from Aroer
On Arnon unto Minneth.’

_Dream of Fair Women._

‘And he smote them from Aroer, even till thou come to Minnith.’
_Judges xi. 33._

_Dream of Fair Women._

’AROLD (Harold).

_Promise of May._

AROMAT.

Supposed to have been the native land of Joseph of Arimathæa and the place from which he brought the Holy Grail to Glastonbury.

The cup, the cup itself, from which our Lord
Drank at the last sad supper with His own.
This, from the blessed land of Aromat--

_Holy Grail._

ARTEMIS.

In Greek mythology the daughter of Zeus and Leto. She was twin-sister of Apollo, and was born in the isle of Delos. A virgin goddess, represented as a huntress armed with bow and arrows. The Romans identified Artemis with the old Italian goddess Diana (_q.v._).

_The Cup._

ARTEMISIA (Carian).

_See_ =Carian Artemisia=.

ARTHUR.

‘You know,’ said Frank, ‘he burnt
His epic, his King Arthur, some twelve books.

= _The Idylls of the King_.

_The Epic._

ARTHUR.

Sir Arthur, a local magnate.

_The Brook._

ARTHUR.

Arthur Henry Hallam, son of Henry Hallam, the historian, born 1811. During his residence at Trinity College, Cambridge, Tennyson made the acquaintance of Hallam, with whom he formed an affectionate friendship, and some years later Hallam became engaged to the poet’s sister Emily. His early death, which occurred suddenly at Vienna in 1833, was a great grief to the poet, whose _In Memoriam_ is a noble elegy to his loss.

My Arthur, whom I shall not see
Till all my widow’d race be run;
Dear as the mother to the son,
More than my brothers are to me.

Hallam was buried at Clevedon in Somersetshire, and in the Manor aisle of the church, over the vault of the Hallams, is a tablet, which bears the following inscription:

TO
THE MEMORY OF
ARTHUR HENRY HALLAM
ELDEST SON OF HENRY
HALLAM ESQUIRE
AND OF JULIA MARIA HIS WIFE
DAUGHTER OF SIR ABRAHAM
ELTON BARONET
OF CLEVEDON COURT

+who was snatched away by sudden death
at Vienna on September 15th 1833
in the twenty-third year of his age
and now in this obscure and solitary church
repose the mortal remains of
one too early lost for public fame
but already conspicuous among his contemporaries
for the brightness of his genius
the depth of his understanding
the nobleness of his disposition
the fervour of his piety
and the purity of his life
Vale dulcissime
Vale dilectissime Desideratissime
requiescas in pace
ter ac mater hic posthac requiescamus
tecum
usque ad tubam.+

_In Memoriam._

ARTHUR.

Supposed to have been in the sixth century a war leader of the tribes inhabiting Cumbria and Strathclyde against the Saxons from the East and the Picts and Scots from the North. The name Arthur originally denoted the Bear, and the constellation of that name is called in Welsh the Chariot of Arthur. His father was Uther the pendragon, and his mother Ygernê widow of Gorloïs, duke of Cornwall, and he was born at Tintagel Castle, Cornwall, about the year 500 +A.D.+ Tennyson says that Merlin gave Arthur, when an infant, to Sir Anton to bring him up, and he was brought up as his foster-son.

Wherefore Merlin took the child,
And gave him to Sir Anton, an old Knight
And ancient friend of Uther;

Malory in his _Morte d’Arthur_ says:

So the child was delivered unto Merlin, and so he bore it forth unto
Sir Ector, and made an holy man to christen him, and named him Arthur:

Uther Pendragon dying while Arthur was yet an infant, the succession to the kingdom was in doubt, and in order to prove who was the rightful heir to the realm, the method of drawing a sword from a stone was adopted. This stone, which was in the churchyard of St. Stephen’s, London, was like a marble stone, with an anvil of steel in the middle a foot high, and on it was placed a sword naked to the point, and inscribed thus:

Whoso pulleth out this sword of this stone and anvil is rightful king
born of all England.

Malory: _Morte d’Arthur_, Book I, chap. iii.

Some 200 knights tried to release it but failed. Arthur alone could draw it, whereby proving his right of succession to the kingdom.

And right as Arthur did at Christmas he did at Candlemas, and pulled
out the sword easily, whereof the barons were sore aggrieved,

Malory: _Morte d’Arthur_, Book I, chap. iv.

At the age of fifteen he was crowned at Caerleon-upon-Usk by Dubricius, archbishop of the ‘City of Legions.’ No sooner had he ascended the throne than slanderous statements began to be circulated as to his birth, some maintaining he was not the son of Uther and Ygernê:

‘Away with him!
No king of ours! a son of Gorloïs he,
Or else the child of Anton, and no king,
Or else baseborn.’

Others said that he was cast up from the sea on the ninth wave:

And then the two
Dropt to the cove, and watch’d the great sea fall,
Wave after wave, each mightier than the last,
Till last, a ninth one, gathering half the deep
And full of voices, slowly rose and plunged
Roaring, and all the wave was in a flame:
And down the wave and in the flame was borne
A naked babe, and rode to Merlin’s feet,
Who stoopt and caught the babe, and cried ‘The King!
Here is an heir for Uther!’

Whilst another version says:

Or if some other told,
How once the wandering forester at dawn,
Far over the blue tarns and hazy seas,
On Caer-Eryri’s highest found the King,
A naked babe, of whom the Prophet spake,

A great war took place between Arthur and eleven kings, all of whom were slain. Having defeated his enemies he ruled over the kingdom wisely, establishing order throughout the land, for since the death of Uther, lawlessness had become rampant. Meeting one day king Pellinore, he attacked him, and in the encounter their swords met with such force that the sword of king Arthur was broken in two pieces; but in order to save his life--being now defenceless--Merlin cast an enchantment on Pellinore, and he fell to the earth in a deep sleep, and Arthur was borne away to a place of safety. After three days, when the king’s wounds were healed, Arthur told Merlin he had no sword. So they rode till they came to a lake, and afar out in the midst of the lake, an arm clad in white samite rose from out the water and held up a fair sword. Then came the Lady of the Lake moving upon the water. ‘Enter into yonder barge,’ she said, ‘and row to the sword and take it;’ whereupon the king rowed out in the middle of the lake and seized the sword. The weapon, which was called Excalibur, was possessed with magic power, and gave light equal to thirty torches; and it was with this sword that he defeated all his enemies. He then began his career of conquests. He is supposed to have fought and won twelve great battles over the Saxons, Picts and Scots; the first was fought in Northumberland, by the river Glen; the second, third, fourth and fifth were the four battles of the Duglas; the sixth by the river Bassa; the seventh in the wood Celidon; the eighth at Castle Gurnion,

where Arthur bore the image of the Holy Virgin, Mother of God, upon
his shoulders, and through the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, and
the holy Mary, put the Saxons to flight, and pursued them the whole
day with great slaughter.

Nennius: _Six Chronicles._

It is however supposed to have been the head of the Virgin Mary engraven on the shield borne by Arthur.

and again
By castle Gurnion, where the glorious King
Had on his cuirass worn our Lady’s Head,
Carved of one emerald center’d in a sun
Of silver rays, that lighten’d as he breathed

_Lancelot and Elaine._

Athwart his brest a bauldrick brave he ware,
That shind, like twinkling stars, with stones most pretious rare.
And in the midst thereof one pretious stone
Of wondrous worth, and eke of wondrous mights,
Shapt like a Ladies head, exceeding shone,
Like Hesperus amongst the lesser lights,
And strove for to amaze the weaker sights:

Spenser: _Faerie Queene, Book I. Canto vii._

Amazement runs before the towering casque
Of Arthur, bearing through the stormy field
The virgin sculptured on his Christian shield:

Wordsworth: _Ecclesiastical Sonnets, Part I. Stanza x._

The ninth battle was at Caerleon, or the ‘City of Legions’; the tenth by the river Trath Treroit, the eleventh near Agned Cathregonion, and the twelfth--the greatest victory of all--near Badon Hill. Some authorities consider his kingdom embraced Devon, Cornwall and part of Wales; others that it extended as far as the Orkneys, for we find that the king of those islands was married to Arthur’s sister. Leodogran, king of Cameliard, then appealed to Arthur to assist him in clearing his kingdom of wild beasts and heathen hordes that swarmed from overseas. Arthur accepted the call and leading all his knighthood threw the

kings
Carádos, Urien, Cradlemont of Wales,
Claudias and Clariance of Northumberland,
The King Brandagoras of Latangor,
With Anguisant of Erin, Morganore,
And Lot of Orkney.

Meanwhile Arthur had fallen in love with king Leodogran’s daughter, Guinevere, and from the battle-field sent three of his knights--Ulfius, Brastias and Bedivere--to Leodogran, saying:

‘If I in aught have served thee well,
Give me thy daughter Guinevere to wife.’

but Leodogran, having heard of the suspicion attached to his birth hesitated, but eventually satisfying himself gave his consent. The marriage was however delayed as Arthur was compelled to enter upon a campaign abroad, with the result that Ireland and Iceland, as well as Norway and Gaul, were added to his conquests. Returning, he was married by Dubric the high priest, amid great splendour, to Guinevere at Camelot, in the church of St. Stephen’s.

St. Dubric went before Christ had chosen him.
The Archbishop of London walked by his side
And fifteen bishops chosen from many lands.
They were all hung about with very rich clothing
That was all embroidered with burnished gold.
Trumpets were blowing, bells were ringing,
Knights were riding, women forth gliding.

Kirtlan: _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight._

Leodogran gave Arthur for a wedding present the famous Round Table with 100 knights, which tradition says is still preserved at Winchester. Arthur then established his new Order, known as the Knights of the Round Table, and made his knights swear to live lives of purest chastity, to love one maiden only, to redress human wrongs, and to reverence their king as their conscience. To accommodate the magic table a magnificent castle was erected, in the centre of which was a banqueting hall.

‘O brother, had you known our mighty hall,
Which Merlin built for Arthur long ago!
For all the sacred mount of Camelot,
And all the dim rich city, roof by roof,
Tower after tower, spire beyond spire,’

Holding a royal feast and Table Round at Camelot there came into the hall twelve men, ambassadors from Lucius, emperor of Rome, demanding that Arthur should acknowledge him as his lord, and pay tribute as his predecessors had done. Arthur met it with a counterclaim to the empire for himself as being the real representative of Constantine, and receiving promise of help from the knights and lords, held a Privy Council at York to make the necessary arrangements for his departure, and leaving his nephew sir Modred in charge of the kingdom, sailed from Sandwich in Kent. Arriving in Brittany he met the united forces of the Romans and Saracens, and in a great battle slew the emperor and his allies, the sowdan of Syria, and the kings of Egypt and Ethiopia, sent their bodies to the Senate at Rome, and marching over the Alps, through Lombardy and Tuscany, arrived at Rome, where he was crowned king by the pope. After sojourning in Rome for a short time, a message was brought to him that his nephew Modred, whom he had left in charge of his kingdom, had traitorously proclaimed himself king, and had seized Guinevere and kept her a prisoner. Without delay Arthur returned home, and landing at Dover was met by Modred, who being defeated fled with his forces to Winchester. Arthur pursued after him, and joined forces with him near the river Camel in Cornwall, where they fought all the day long. As night drew nigh, and some 100,000 lay dead upon the field, Arthur took his sword, held it with both hands, and ran towards sir Modred, calling out ‘Death to thee, traitor!’ ‘pierced the helmet and the brainpan, and sir Modred fell stark dead to the earth. And the noble Arthur fell in a swoon to the earth.’

And uttering this the King
Made at the man; then Modred smote his liege
Hard on that helm which many a heathen sword
Had beaten thin; while Arthur at one blow,
Striking the last stroke with Excalibur,
Slew him, and all but slain himself, he fell.

Not one of sir Modred’s men remained alive, and of Arthur’s noble men, sir Bedivere alone had escaped. Finding his end drawing nigh, he commanded sir Bedivere to return his sword to the Lady of the Lake.

‘But now delay not: take Excalibur,
And fling him far into the middle mere:
Watch what thou seëst, and lightly bring me word.’

Twice did sir Bedivere go to the mere, and twice did his heart fail him, for instead of flinging the brand into the water he hid it in the waterflags about the marge. Returning to the dying king and being questioned as to what he had seen, replied:

‘I heard the ripple washing in the reeds,
And the wild water lapping on the crag.’

Perceiving the knight’s deception, Arthur in wrath commanded him to fulfil his task:

‘Unknightly, traitor-hearted! Woe is me!
Authority forgets a dying king,

* * * * *

get thee hence:
But, if thou spare to fling Excalibur,
I will arise and slay thee with my hands.’

whereupon the knight quickly rose, and going to the water side took the sword with both hands and flung it in mid-stream, when an arm rose up from out of the lake, caught it, and it disappeared for ever:

Then quickly rose Sir Bedivere, and ran,
And, leaping down the ridges lightly, plunged
Among the bulrush beds, and clutch’d the sword,
And strongly wheel’d and threw it. The great brand
Made lightnings in the splendour of the moon,
And flashing round and round, and whirl’d in an arch,
Shot like a streamer of the northern morn.
Seen where the moving isles of winter shock
By night, with noises of the Northern Sea.
So flash’d and fell the brand Excalibur:
But ere he dipt the surface, rose an arm
Clothed in white samite, mystic, wonderful,
And caught him by the hilt, and brandish’d him
Three times, and drew him under in the mere.

Returning again to the king he told him what he had seen, and taking the king upon his back, placed him in a barge in which were three queens--Queen Morgan le Fay; the Queen of Northgales; and the Queen of the Westerlands--who wept over him on account of his grievous wound. Elsdale in his _Studies of the Idylls_ represents the three queens as Faith, Hope and Charity. Then sir Bedivere seeing his noble master about to leave him, asked permission to accompany him:

Ah! my Lord Arthur, whither shall I go?
Where shall I hide my forehead and my eyes?
For now I see the true old times are dead,

and Arthur slowly answered:

‘The old order changeth, yielding place to new,
And God fulfils Himself in many ways,

* * * * *

Comfort thyself: what comfort is in me?
I have lived my life, and that which I have done
May He within Himself make pure! but thou
If thou shouldst never see my face again,
Pray for my soul.

* * * * *

But now farewell. I am going a long way
With these thou seëst--

* * * * *

and the barge with oar and sail
Moved from the brink,

With the three mourning queens he passed up the Bristol Channel and hence

To the island-valley of Avilion:
Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow,
Nor ever wind blows loudly; but it lies
Deep-meadow’d, happy, fair with orchard lawns
And bowery hollows crown’d with summer sea,
Where I will heal me of my grievous wound.

And in the _Palace of Art_ the scene is pictured:

Or mythic Uther’s deeply-wounded son
In some fair space of sloping greens
Lay, dozing in the vale of Avalon,
And watch’d by weeping queens.

According to tradition, king Arthur is not dead but rests in Glastonbury, ‘till he shall come again, full twice as fair, to rule over his people.’ Cervantes in his _Don Quixote_ says:

that he did not die, but that, by magic art, he was transformed into
a raven: and that in process of time, he shall reign again, and
recover his kingdom and sceptre; for which reason it cannot be proved
that, from time to time, any Englishman hath killed a raven.

Some authorities contend that the mystery of his grave remains unsolved, for

where is he who knows.
From the great deep to the great deep he goes.

Sharon Turner in his _History of the Anglo-Saxons_ says:

In 1189--in the reign of Henry II--the body of king Arthur was found
in Glastonbury Abbey sixteen feet under the surface. It was found
under a stone, bearing the inscription: _Hic jacit sepultus inciltus
rex Arthurus in Insula Avallonia_. The body was crumbled to dust, but
a lock of golden hair was found, supposed to be that of his wife.

In the British Museum is a fifteenth century MS., containing annals of the Cistercian Abbey of Meaux, and a chronicle of events connected with it from its establishment in 1150 to the reign of Henry VI. In this MS., occurs the following:

In the twenty-third year of king Henry, the bodies of Arthur, some
time king of the Britons, and of Wenevere his wife, were found
at Glastonbury, between two stone pyramids formerly erected in
the sacred cemetery. They were hidden by a hollow oak, lay about
fifteen feet deep in the ground, and were distinguished by the most
unmistakeable marks; for Arthur’s thigh-bone, when examined, exceeded
by three fingers in length the tallest man’s thigh-bone that had
ever been found, when measured down to the knee. Moreover, the space
between his eyebrows was of the breadth of the palm of a man’s hand.

King Arthur has been made the hero of many adventures by romancers and poets of the Middle Ages. The earliest legends are found in the Welsh Tales, the three Welsh poets, Taliesin, Aneurin and Llywarch Hen being the first to celebrate his deeds. In the twelfth century Geoffrey of Monmouth introduced the legends into his Latin _History of the Britons_. In 1196 archdeacon Map introduced the legend of the _Quest of the Holy Grail_, and in 1485 sir Thomas Malory published his _Morte d’Arthur_. It is from this work that Tennyson derived most of the incidents narrated in his _Idylls of the King_, and his _Morte d’Arthur_. Spenser introduced Arthur in his _Faerie Queene_, and Blackwood wrote two epics, and Dryden produced a dramatic opera entitled _King Arthur_. Later sir Walter Scott edited the old romance of _Sir Tristram_, and in 1838 lady Charlotte Guest published a translation of the mediæval Welsh tales, known as the _Mabinogion_. It is from the latter work that Tennyson derived his characters for his Idyll of _Geraint and Enid_.

_Morte d’Arthur_;
_Coming of Arthur_;
_Gareth and Lynette_;
_Marriage of Geraint_;
_Geraint and Enid_;
_Balin and Balan_;
_Merlin and Vivien_;
_Lancelot and Elaine_;
_Holy Grail_;
_Pelleas and Ettarre_;
_Last Tournament_;
_Guinevere_;
_Passing of Arthur_;
_Becket_;
_Merlin and the Gleam_.

ARUNDEL (Thomas).

Archbishop of Canterbury. Became bishop of Ely when only twenty-one years of age, and was Lord Chancellor five times under Richard II and Henry IV. In 1388 he was created archbishop of York, and translated to Canterbury in 1396; banished for conspiracy against Richard II in 1397, but returned to crown Henry IV in 1399. He was a vigorous persecutor of the Wickliffites (1353-1414).

_Sir John Oldcastle, Lord Cobham._

ARVIRAGUS.

Younger son of Cymbeline, a king of Britain from the time of the invasion of Claudius to the reign of Vespasian. Upon the arrival of Joseph of Arimathæa (_q.v._) Arviragus gave him permission to settle, and presented him with land upon which to erect a church.

‘From our old books I know
That Joseph came of old to Glastonbury,
And there the heathen Prince, Arviragus,
Gave him an isle of march whereon to build;
And there he built with wattles from the marsh
A little lonely church in days of yore.’

Arviragus is one of the characters in Shakespeare’s _Cymbeline_.

_Holy Grail._

ASAPH.

The Levite, chief musician to king David. Considered to have been the founder of a guild of singers in the second Temple.

I have built the Lord a house--sing Asaph! clash
The cymbal, Heman! blow the trumpet, priest!
Fall, cloud, and fill the house--lo! my two pillars,
Jachim and Boaz!

_Harold._

ASCALON.

A city of the Philistines. The Egyptian army, sent by the Sultan of Egypt to recapture Jerusalem, was defeated near this town by the Crusaders under Godfrey of Bouillon, August 12, 1099. Recaptured by the Moslems, it was retaken in 1157 by Baldwin III, and in 1192 was the scene of a great victory gained by the Christians under Richard I, over the Saracen army under Saladin. Its fortifications were demolished by the Sultan Bibars, in 1270.

_The Princess._

ASH. ASHTREE.

A genus of trees of the Olive family.

_Amphion_;
_The Princess_;
_In Memoriam_;
_Harold_;
_The Foresters_;
_Promise of May_.

ASHRIDGE.

_Gardiner._ I think she means to counsel your withdrawing
To Ashridge, or some other country house.

* * * * *

_Elizabeth._ ’Tis mine own wish fulfill’d before the word
Was spoken, for in truth I had meant to crave
Permission of Her Highness to retire
To Ashridge,

Ashridge House, in Buckinghamshire, was founded in 1221 by Edmund, earl of Cornwall, a grandson of king John, for an order of friars, called Bonhommes. After the dissolution of the monasteries it was given to the princess Elizabeth by her brother, Edward VI, after whose death she continued to occupy it during the reign of Mary, and after her retirement from court made it her permanent residence until she was suspected of conniving at sir Thomas Wyatt’s rebellion, when she was removed to the Tower.

_Queen Mary._

ASIA.

_Locksley Hall Sixty Years After._

ASMODEUS.

Devils pluck’d my sleeve,
Abaddon and Asmodeus caught at me.

The angel of the bottomless pit.

_St. Simeon Stylites._

ASPASIA.

The most accomplished woman in Athens during the government of that city by Pericles, whose mistress she was. When Pericles was deposed from the office of General in 430 +B.C.+ Aspasia was, by the poet Hermippus, charged with impiety and brought to trial, but the pleading of Pericles procured her acquittal, and subsequently a decree was passed legitimizing her son.

_The Princess._

ASPEN. ASPEN-TREE.

A species of the poplar; the trembling poplar.

_Lady of Shalott_;
_A Farewell_;
_Lancelot and Elaine_.

ASPHODEL.

A plant of the lily species.

_Œnone_;
_Lotos-Eaters_;
_Demeter and Persephone_.

ASPICK.

A venomous serpent.

_Dream of Fair Women._

ASS.

A well-known quadruped of the horse family.

_The Princess_;
_Last Tournament_;
_Queen Mary_.

ASSAYE.

Against the myriads of Assaye
Clash’d with his fiery few and won;

A small town in the Deccan, India. Here Wellington, with an army of 4,500 English and Sepoy troops defeated the Mahratta army, consisting of 30,000 men, on August 23, 1803.

_Ode on the death of the Duke of Wellington._

ASSYRIAN BULL.

That oil’d and curl’d Assyrian Bull
Smelling of musk and of insolence,
Her brother,

Maud’s brother, with his well-oil’d and groomed curly hair, and his dignified manner, is represented here by the Assyrian Bull, human-headed winged lions and bulls, sculptured in stone as found among Assyrian antiquities.

_Maud._

ASTOLAT.

According to Malory, the town of Guildford in Surrey, thirty miles south-west of London, and situated on the river Wey; a tributary of the Thames.

And then he rode so much until he came to Astolat, that is Gilford.

Malory: _Morte d’Arthur, Book XVIII. chap. ix._

It was the home of Elaine ‘the lily maid of Astolat.’

_Lancelot and Elaine._

ASTRÆAN.

The second-sight of some Astræan age,

Astræa, which means ‘star-bright’ was a daughter of Astræus and Eos, or, according to another account, of Zeus and Themis. She lived among men on earth during the golden age, and in the brazen age was the last to withdraw into the sky, where she shines as the constellation of Virgo. Should the golden age ever return it is believed she will re-establish her home on earth again. Many poets make reference to this theory, but the best known is Dryden’s _Astræa Redux_.

_The Princess._

ATHELING (Edgar).

_See_ =Edgar (the Atheling)=.

ATHELING (Edmund).

_See_ =Edmund Atheling=.

ATHELSTAN.

King of the Mercians and West-Saxons, and afterwards of all the English. Son of Edward the Elder and grandson of Alfred the Great. Defeated the Welsh of Devonshire, Cornwall and Wales, and in 937 in a decisive battle defeated the Welsh, Scots and Danes at Brunanburh. He died at Gloucester in 940, and was buried at Malmesbury (895-940).

Athelstan King,
Lord among Earls,
Bracelet-bestower and
Baron of Barons,
He with his brother,
Edmund Atheling,
Gaining a lifelong
Glory in battle,
Slew with the sword-edge
There by Brunanburh,

_Battle of Brunanburh_;
_Harold_.

ATHENE (Pallas).

_See_ =Pallas, Pallas Athene=.

ATHENS.

Capital of the kingdom of Greece.

_Freedom._

ATHOS.

Signifies ‘Holy Hill.’ A mountain in the peninsula of Salonica, 6,780 feet high. It is celebrated for its twenty large monasteries, built during the ninth and tenth centuries, the first of which is said to have been founded by the empress Helena. The roofs of these monastic buildings sparkle with hues of bronze and purple and gold, and present a very picturesque appearance. There are many legends connected with the mountain.

_To E. L._

ATLANTIC.

The Atlantic Ocean.

_Third of February_;
_The Princess_;
_Columbus_.

AUBREY (Ellen).

_See_ =Ellen, Ellen Aubrey=.

AUDLEY. AUDLEY COURT.

‘Let us picnic there
At Audley Court.’
I spoke, while Audley feast
Humm’d like a hive all round the narrow quay.

A place-name in the poem entitled _Audley Court_. The poem was suggested by Abbey Park, at Torquay.

_Audley Court._

AUGUSTINE.

One of the fathers of the early Church. In 371 he was sent to Carthage, where he became a convert to the Manichæans, and taught rhetoric with great reputation, and on his return to Rome was appointed its professor at Milan. Here the sermons of St. Ambrose effected his conversion, and renouncing his heretical opinions he was baptized, 387. Returning to Africa he was ordained a priest, and subsequently became coadjutor of Valerius, bishop of Hippo, and afterwards his successor. In the church of All Saints, Trull, Somerset, there is a fifteenth century oak pulpit, richly carved. On the pulpit are five figures, one of which represents Augustine of Hippo (354-430).

_Columbus._

AURELIAN.

Lucius Domitius Aurelian, son of a peasant of Pannonia, was elected emperor of Rome 270 +A.D.+, and rendered himself famous for his military character; drove the barbarians out of Italy; defeated Zenobia, queen of Palmyra, and carried her captive to Rome. After a reign of six years, as he was on his way to crush a rebellion in Persia, he was assassinated near Byzantium by his troops, +A.D.+ 275.

with the Palmyrene
That fought Aurelian, and the Roman brows
Of Agrippina.

_The Princess._

AURELIUS.

Elder brother of Uther the pendragon and reigned before him. In Latin he is called Ambrosius. He was the uncle of king Arthur. In 457 he defeated the Saxons who had been invited over by Vortigern, and beheaded Hengist (_q.v._); and by the aid of his magician Merlin, brought the great stones known as the ‘Giant’s Dance’ from Kildare to Salisbury Plain where he erected them as a monument to the 460 British chiefs who had been treacherously slain by Hengist. It is said that upon his death there appeared in the sky a large comet which issued two long and brilliant rays, together with a fairy form like a dragon.

For first Aurelius lived and fought and died,
And after him King Uther fought and died,
But either fail’d to make the kingdom one.

_Coming of Arthur_;
_Gareth and Lynette_.

AURICULA.

A species of primrose, called also, from the shape of its leaves, bear’s ear.

_City Child._

AUSONIAN.

stay’d the Ausonian king to hear
Of wisdom and of law.

Ausonia was the name of Campania, a province of Italy, during its occupation by the Oscans and Etruscans in the eleventh century.

_Palace of Art._

AUSTIN (Augustine).

Did not Great Gregory bid St. Austin here
Found two archbishopricks, London and York?

Prior of the Benedictine monastery of St. Andrew, Rome; sent by pope Gregory I in 596 with forty other monks as a missionary to England. Landing on the Isle of Thanet the missionaries were kindly received by Ethelbert, king of Kent, who subsequently became a convert to Christianity. Founded the See of Canterbury, and became its first archbishop.

_Becket._

AVALON--AVILION.

Avalon or Avilion is supposed to have been an island in the neighbourhood of Glastonbury in Somersetshire, where Joseph of Arimathæa is said to have first landed with his boat with the Holy Grail. It was to this island that king Arthur went to be healed of his wounds, which he had received in the last weird battle in the west.

‘if indeed I go
(For all my mind is clouded with a doubt)--
To the island-valley of Avilion;
Where falls not hail, or rain, or any snow;
Nor ever wind blows loudly: but it lies
Deep-meadow’d, happy, fair with orchard lawns
And bowery hollows crown’d with summer sea,
Where I will heal me of my grievous wound.’

The word means ‘Apple-green Island’ and it has been described as the ‘Island of the blest, upon which Glastonbury stood.’

O three times famous Isle, where is that place that might
Be with thy self compar’d for glory and delight,
Whilst _Glastonbury_ stood?

Drayton: _Polyolbion, Third Song._

_Palace of Art_;
_Morte d’Arthur_;
_Gareth and Lynette_;
_Passing of Arthur_.

AVE MARY.

_See_ =Mary=.

AVERILL.

The Rector of the parish in which Aylmer’s Hall, the residence of sir Aylmer Aylmer (_q.v._) was situated. On the death of Edith, the daughter of sir Aylmer, he was asked to preach the funeral sermon, and taking for his text ‘Behold, your house is left unto you desolate’ he denounced the pride and self-seeking of the Aylmer parents.

_Aylmer’s Field._

AVILION.

_See_ =Avalon=.

AYLMER.

Sir Aylmer Aylmer was a country squire, and was looked upon as the supreme authority in the village in which he resided.

Sir Aylmer Aylmer, that almighty man,
The county God--in whose capacious hall,
Hung with a hundred shields, the family tree
Sprang from the midriff of a prostrate king--

His wife, lady Aylmer, had in her young days been a lady of superior beauty and attraction, but with advancing years had lost some of her good looks.

His wife, a faded beauty of the Baths,
Insipid as the Queen upon a card;
Her all of thought and bearing hardly more
Than his own shadow in a sickly sun.

They had one daughter, Edith, heiress of their wealth and name, and a favourite in the parish, and sir Aylmer’s ambition was, that the man who married her should adopt the name of Aylmer in order that the family name may not become extinct.

His only child, his Edith, whom he loved
As heiress and not heir regretfully?
But ‘he that marries her marries her name.’

The Rector of the parish in which Aylmer hall was situated was named Averill, whose family was on intimate terms with the Aylmers, three generations of each family having followed one another at the rectory and the hall respectively.

Where Aylmer followed Aylmer at the Hall
And Averill Averill at the Rectory
Thrice over: so that Rectory and Hall,
Bound in an immemorial intimacy,
Were open to each other:

Edith was in love with Leolin--a barrister--brother of the rector, who, during the vacations, used to come and stay with his brother at the rectory. On the other hand an Indian kinsman came to visit the Aylmers and made presents to Edith, among them being a jewelled dagger; but as Edith did not care neither for the dagger nor the donor she passed it on to Leolin. Owing to the gossip in the village sir Aylmer’s eyes were opened to the lovemaking between his daughter and Leolin, with the result that Leolin was forbidden to enter his house, and Edith was kept close at home.

‘Boy, should I find you by my doors again,
My men shall lash you from them like a dog;
Hence!’ with a sudden execration drove
The footstool from before him; and arose:

A clandestine correspondence was however carried on, and this being discovered was stopped, and Edith was more closely confined, with the result that she lost her health and eventually succumbed to an attack of fever. When Leolin learned the news he stabbed himself with the dagger that Edith had given him.

The second day
My lady’s Indian kinsman rushing in,
A breaker of the bitter news from home,
Found a dead man, a letter edged with death
Beside him; and the dagger which himself
Gave Edith, redden’d with no bandit’s blood:
‘From Edith’ was engraven on the blade.

On the Sunday following Edith’s death, the rector of the parish was asked to preach her funeral sermon, and taking for his text ‘Behold your house is left unto you desolate,’ he denounced the pride of the Aylmer parents.

Long o’er his bent brows linger’d Averill,
His face magnetic to the hand from which
Livid he pluck’d it forth, and labour’d thro’
His brief prayer-prelude, gave the verse ‘Behold,
Your house is left unto you desolate!’
But lapsed into so long a pause again
As half amazed half frighted all his flock:

In a fainting condition lady Aylmer was carried out of church, followed by her husband, amid the frowns of the congregation.

While thus he spoke, his hearers wept; but some,
Sons of the glebe, with other frowns than those
That knit themselves for summer shadow, scowl’d
At their great lord.

Neither of them entered the church again, for in the course of a month lady Aylmer died.

But nevermore did either pass the gate
Save under pall with bearers. In one month,
Thro’ weary and yet ever wearier hours,
The childless mother went to seek her child;

Sir Aylmer became an imbecile and two years later was laid beside his wife and daughter; the hall was demolished and its place became the haunt of the mole and hedgehog, the slow-worm and the weasel.