breaks, the horses are compelled to gallop sharply. When they have reached the spot where the waggons can run into the camp alone, down the incline, the horses are unyoked in the midst of a gallop. This is effected in a simple and ingenious way, without loss of time or stopping, by a rapid unhooking: the horses dart to the right and left, and leave the laws of gravitation to do their work for them.

In order not to be obliged to import everything from the towns, vegetable gardens have been laid out in the rear of the camp, which are managed by the soldiers themselves. This possesses a twofold advantage : it procures the troops fresh, pleasant food, and occupies a portion of their leisure time, which is thus profitably employed, while otherwise it would be spent in gambling and idleness.

The practical sense of the French troops, which in the strangest manner takes advantage of all the circumstances of life, and manages to derive the greatest amount of profit from them, is also true to itself here. Owing to the lack of trees and bushes, the camp, and consequently the individual tents, are deficient in shade, which is most unpleasant, especially in summer. Every soldier, then, who is unable to erect his tent under or near a tree, finds a remedy by planting rapidly-growing bushes and largeleafed flowers. Where it is possible, the tall-stemmed sunflower is called upon to afford at once ornament and shadow.

Not contented with this, they have also provided for other ornamentation; for at prominent points they have erected stucco statues, which have the special purpose of recalling the numerous victories of the French nation by allegorical allusions.

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A bandsman, who was also slightly favoured by the Muses in the sculptor's art, created all these statues in his leisure hours. His name is Lempereur, and to it we are indebted for a neat anecdote. When the Emperor Napoleon first noticed these artistic productions, he inquired after the modeller and his name. "Who made these statues ?" Lempereur," was the answer. As the emperor was perfectly certain that he had never committed such sins in plaster, he was staggered, and again asked after the modeller. He again and again received the reply, "Lempereur," until it at length came out that this was the name of the modelling bandsman. The emperor smiled, ordered the artist to be brought to him, and encouraged him to go on. Let us trust that he will do so with a better result than he has yet produced.

Everything is neat and pretty; even the drinking-rooms are not deficient in taste: you do not see a single one without a pavilion in front of it.

The head-quarters, to which we must devote a few words, have such a situation that the entire camp can be surveyed from them. They consist of a number of small, stone, almost too foppishly-built houses. The imperial palace, if we may venture so to call the building, is naturally more extensive, but it is also built in the present fashionable, unmeaning railway-station style. It displays the ephemeral duration which is natural in a camp edifice.

These head-quarters, which form a town of themselves in the huge canvas city, contain large rooms for guests, where there is a table d'hôte every day. The excellent military bands, which perform at every meal, elevate the guest for a while above the martial noise of the populous soldiers' colony.

VOL. LV.

P

Towards the end of July the emperor invited a relation of his who resides at Düsseldorf, Prince Antony of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen, to pay a visit to the camp, and he accepted the invitation with his son, Prince Antony.

After races and other amusements had taken place, a review was held on the 22nd in the presence of the guest, which produced a magnificent effect. This is not the place to enter into details, but I cannot refrain from mentioning that the changes of front performed by large bodies of men were executed with a rare precision and speed, and, indeed, the activity of French infantry surpasses that of most continental armies.

The battalion and platoon firing was performed with such calmness and accuracy, that I fancied at times I only heard one discharge.

But the climax was produced by an attack of the Spahis, who suddenly dashed from the reserve through the intervals left by the other cavalry, spread with extraordinary rapidity, and fired at the enemy in full gallop, after the fashion of the Kabyles.

The

The external appearance of the African troops is in the highest degree interesting. When you see these wild sons of a distant glowing zone dash past in swarms, the fancy of even the sober observer sets to work. He involuntarily believes himself transplanted to Africa; he fancies he can see the palm-trees, and hear them waving above his head. forms of dark-bearded emirs appear before his eyes as they dash with fluttering robes and flashing eyes at a mad gallop across the sandy plains, or sit in silent, dreamy contemplation in front of their tents, listening to the distant sound of horses' hoofs or brooding over warlike undertakings. The power of imagination, then, bursts through all the bounds of reality, and springs with a bold leap over all the walls and palisades of practical life, to roam about waterless deserts and green oases, plucking the date, and watching in silent delight the black-eyed daughters of the Prophet.

When duty is ended, in the evening after a hot day, you can find the sons of Africa collected at their coffee-houses, where, in accordance with the custom of their country, they sit with crossed legs and swallow their coffee. Here every type of the South is represented: you see noble, picturesque forms, worthy subjects for the artist's pencil, but, at the same time, figures which at the first glance raise a doubt as to whether they should be classified among civilised beings.

The Turcos, Spahis, or by whatever name they may be called, have their own music. Although, according to our ideas and habits, it is not at all in the style of the conservatoire, the Africans consider it first-rate, and will listen to a concert performed by these musicians for hours, almost motionless, with folded arms and sparkling eyes. In order that my readers may also form an idea of its quality, I will remark that the chief instruments consist of two kettle drums, a pair of cymbals, and a chain of four connected drums, which are also taken on horseback.

When this musical entertainment, with its ear-splitting noise, begins, everybody who is not a native makes a bolt for it; the latter stick to their seats all the more firmly, and cannot suppress a smile of compassion at the spoiled taste of the French.

A truly comical sight is afforded by the nature of the morning toilet of these sons of glowing Africa. As the top-knot in the centre of the head

has alone a right to remain permanently, while the other parts of the skull must be bare of hair, a fresh shaving is requisite every morning; but this is managed without the assistance of a modern barber. Some comrade who understands how to wield the razor better than the others performs this duty of friendship without expecting any payment.

The shavee sits down on a kettle, or some other article which is not in immediate use, and confidently offers his head to the knife. The barber now makes long strokes, which bear a considerable resemblance to the widely-extending movements of a sickle, and which would assuredly cause a European mortal terror. The African, however, endures it with stoical equanimity, and does not move a feature either in laughter or in serious objection. The man is used to it, and can stand a good deal. In this he resembles his noble steed. It lies day and night without straw on the hard ground, but it is not ruined by this: on the contrary, it becomes equally hardened, and learns to endure privations in which our cavalry horses would perish, as the Crimea sufficiently proved to us.

On Sundays there is a solemn high mass in camp, which all the general officers, and the emperor, when he is present, attend. The Prince of Hohenzollern and his son were also present at it.

In conclusion, I am bound to mention the imperial prince, on whom the hopes of the Napoleonic dynasty are based. Although still a child, he has his part allotted him to play in the great camp-life. It chiefly consists in rendering himself popular and laying up capital for the future. And, in truth, the lad understands his duty thoroughly: he must have been carefully instructed in it. Every movement, every look, every smile, is a mark on the Grand Rue Napoléon, which runs through the heart of the camp, and thence to the throne of France.

Wherever a sentry is posted he suddenly appears, stands before the man with a laughing face, and hands him a ticket for the lottery, which is drawn every evening at head-quarters. The fortunate man knows he must win, for was not the successful ticket given him by the hand of the imperial prince?

In conclusion, I may say, without fear of contradiction, that a visit to the camp of Châlons is not time thrown away, for it affords a closer insight into the policy of Napoleon than the most careful study of his manysided character can afford. After visiting it, the question naturally occurred to me, For whom is this preparation ?-and lo! almost as I write, the Schleswig-Holstein absurdity supplies me with the answer.

CHARTERHOUSE AND ITS FOUNDER.

ABOUT the year 1361, in the era of feudal castles and foreign wars, when monastic zeal and ecclesiastical splendour were at their height, the monastery of the Carthusians was founded upon the site now occupied by the more famous Charterhouse-a spot which has been truly described as being at this day a fortified position in the heart of London, inclosing gardens and cloisters sacred from the tumult of the city, and almost as quiet now as they were five centuries ago when they were solemnly dedicated for the Carthusian monks, the memory of whose parent house of Chartreuse still lingers, though corrupted, in the modern name.

Some years after the dissolution of this rich monastery, it became the palace of that popular and powerful but ill-fated nobleman Thomas, fourth Duke of Norfolk, and from him acquired the name of Howard House. The manes of the prior who was slaughtered by Henry VIII., and of the dispossessed fraternity, had been avenged by the death upon the scaffold of the lay-grantees-two nobles of the highest rank and power, who had acquired the monastery from the crown-when the wealthy London merchant, Thomas Sutton, whose memory is dear to all Carthusians, came hither to dedicate those lands anew to religion, charity, and learning. The duke's second son, Thomas Howard, afterwards Earl of Suffolk (founder of Audley End), to whom the Charterhouse property was granted by Queen Elizabeth, the murderer of his noble father, was living there when James I. entered London; and he, in 1611, sold it to Thomas Sutton, who thereupon constituted and endowed what is styled "the Hospital of King James in Charterhouse."

The founder's history is sufficiently well known, yet the following brief outline of a very remarkable life may be acceptable to the reader. Thomas Sutton, who was a descendant of the old Lincolnshire family of Sutton, was born in that county in 1532. He was educated at Eton, and afterwards at Cambridge, but he went abroad soon after the accession of Queen Mary, and did not return until he was thirty years of age, when by the death of his father he had become the successor to considerable property. His character and acquirements obtained for him the confidence and regard of more than one great nobleman, and he acted as secretary to the Earl of Warwick and to his brother the Earl of Leicester. By the former, as Warden-General, he was appointed Master of Ordnance at Berwick-upon-Tweed, in which capacity he took part against the northern earls on the rising in 1569. He was subsequently much employed in military affairs; but in 1582, at the sober age of fifty, we find him residing in London, and greatly augmenting his fortune by marrying Elizabeth, daughter of John Gardiner, Esq., a Buckinghamshire gentleman, and widow of John Dudley, of Stoke Newington, a scion of his noble patron's family, and whose manorial mansion at that suburban place Sutton thenceforth made his country house. He not only ventured into matrimony but into mercantile speculations, and he used his commercial influence abroad for the advantage of England. Besides being one of the Victuallers of the Navy, he was an owner of ships; he sent his barque The Sutton to attend the English fleet against the Armada, and he is said

to have himself gone to sea with letters of marque, and to have made prize of a Spanish ship worth 20,000%.

After the death of his wife (who left him childless), he began to retire from worldly affairs, and to devote his thoughts to the disposal of his great property for charitable uses, and he was heard to pray that his heart might be inclined to dedicate his riches for God's glory. He seems to have been at this time the richest untitled subject in the realm. Besides his personal property, which at the time of his death was estimated at 60,000l.—an enormous amount in the money of those days-he was the owner of goodly estates in his native county of Lincoln, and in Cambridgeshire, Essex, Wilts, and Middlesex, and his landed property appears to have yielded 5000l. a year. His wealth had been augmented by a fortunate speculation in coal mining, which was in Elizabeth's reign a comparatively new branch of industry on the Tyne. The Bishop of Durham, as lord of the manor, had granted a lease of the manors and royalties of Gateshead and Whickham, which Queen Elizabeth had transferred to the favourite, Leicester, who assigned the property to Sutton; and he, some time afterwards, sold it to the mayor and burgesses of the adjacent town of Newcastle for 12,000l.-a sum only a thousand pounds less than the purchase money he paid shortly afterwards for the old monastic buildings and lands of the suppressed Carthusian monks.

In the year 1609, when he had been for seven years a widower, he had resolved to found, at Hollingbury, in Essex, a college which should be at once a hospital for decayed gentlemen and a free grammar school; but the house and lands of the Carthusians being (as Howel says in his "Londinopolis") "sweetly situated, with accommodations of spacious walks, orchards, and gardens, with sundry dependencies of lands and tenements thereunto belonging, they gave occasion to that worthy and welldisposed gentleman to alter his resolution;" and accordingly, in 1611,— only a few months before his death-he bought this old historic house for the site of his intended college. He endowed it so munificently with his estates in land that the yearly income of the foundation at this day may be stated in round numbers at 25,000l., and every year increases the value of some part of the property. With his care for his new foundation, a house which was a few years ago somewhat famous as a place of popular resort for Londoners is associated, for, on rising land to the north of London, then occupied by rural fields, he constructed a conduit for the use of the Charterhouse, which stood near the antique low-roofed building that became known as White Conduit House. The buildings of the monastery had been greatly altered in the Duke of Norfolk's time, but some portions of the ancient walls are still standing, and the stately "Great Chamber," now used as the governors' room, is a relic of the Duke of Norfolk's splendour.

It was only a few days before his death that Thomas Sutton completed the foundation and endowment of his hospital and made his will; and having thus been spared to perform the noble deed which has made his uame illustrious (Bacon's attempt to defeat his intentions having, happily, been futile), he died in peace and honour at the age of seventy-nine, on the 12th of December, 1611. On that day-as all Carthusians and the distinguished visitors who have the privilege to be their guests well the commemoration of the founder is annually kept "with

know