LEONORA D'ESTÈ. They called me mad-and why? Oh, Leonora! wilt not thou reply? I was indeed delirious in my heart To lift my love so lofty as thou art; I knew my fault, and feel my punishment Not less because I suffer it unbent. That thou wert beautiful, and I not blind, Hath been the sin which shuts me from mankind; But let them go, or torture as they will, My heart can multiply thine image still; The wretched are the faithful; 'tis their fate To have all feeling save the one decay, And every passion into one dilate, As rapid rivers into ocean pour ; But ours is fathomless, and hath no shore. BYRON, Huge Well, for the friars of St. John the Bap- "This church," says Lewis, "is a spacious and magnificent cruciform structure, with a lofty and finely-proportioned tower at the west end, surmounted by the remaining part of the spire, which has not been rebuilt. The interior exhibits a continued series of the richest specimens, in every variety, from the early to the later style of Engage. lish architecture: the roof is elaborately groined, and supported on finely-clustered columns of singular delicacy, and deeply-moulded arches of graceful elevation: all the proportions are grand, and all the details rich and exquisitely finished. The beautiful east window has been blocked up with paintings, which, though from the pencil of Hogarth, cannot atone for the destruction of a feature so essential to the unity of effect that this splendid structure is calculated to produce. At the intersection is a fine brass eagle, formed of the refuse from the pin-manufactory, and presented by the proprietor of that establishment. The north porch, which is entirely in the decorated style, is exquisitely beautiful; and the lady chapel, now used as a school-room, is a fine specimen of the later style." The judgment of Mr. Britton coincides with that just detailed. "As a parochial Christian temple," says he, speaking of this church," it is acknowledged to rank, if not the first, at least in the first class, amongst the many fine sacred edifices of our country. As compared with the cathedral and conventual churches of England, it surpasses most in symmetry of design, in harmony and unity of character, in rich and elaborate adornments, in the picturesque composition of exterior forms and parts, and in the fascinating combination of clustered pillars, mullioned windows, panelled walls, and groin-ribbed ceilings of the interior. Í know of no building to compare with it in all these features in Great Britain; and I feel assured there is none superior in graceful design and beauty of detail in all civilized Europe. Excepting the cathedral of Salisbury, which is nearly of an age and design throughout, the other cathedrals, and indeed most of the large parish and conventual churches, consist of heterogeneous parts, of varied and discordant dates and styles." To a certain extent this observation will apply to the structure now described; for, as Mr. B. afterwards observes, "there are four palpable varieties of Christian architecture in Redcliffe church, manifesting as many architects, and as many different times when they were respectively designed and erected. The inner north porch, or vestibule, the tower and spire, the outer north porch, the body of the church, with the lady chapel, and the south porch, I feel assured were built successively; and it is generally admitted that an older church was removed to give place to the present nave and chancel, with their aisles and the transept. The oldest of these members, i. e., the vestibule, is of a date between A.D. 1200 and 1230. In 1207 lord Robert de Berkeley granted to Redcliffe church, at the request of William, the chaplain, his fountain of water from To me it is quite clear that no part The tower of this church is 120 feet in height, There are three principal entrances, by a north, south, and west door. The north porch was probably that of old chiefly used, being full of gothic work, and niches for figures of saints and kings. Here was also a confessional, the poor's charitybox, and an image of the virgin. There are some singular pillars in this porch, which give out a peculiar tone when struck. They are hence called "dumb organs." The north and west doors are now closed, and the entrance to the church is through the highly-adorned south porch. Immediately over the central doorway is a range of acutely-pointed and crocketed pediments; and at the angles are double graduated buttresses, with sculptured canopies and pinnacles. The interior is very magnificent. The roof is of stone, and richly adorned with tracery: the pillars which support it are lofty, and wrought into the most delicate mouldings: the walls between the arches and the clerestory windows are covered with panelling and pilasters. THE NEW MONTHLY BELLE ASSEMBLÉE. JANUARY, 1848. HOW THEY SPENT THE NIGHT WHO DID NOT GO TO THE BALL. BY P. P. C. "What you, Hannah, here! I thought you had gone to the ball with the rest!" No," said Hannah, casting a dissatisfied look round the apartment-" I sent old Jeanie to bed; she had such sleepy red eyes, they made mine wink for sympathy; and I have promised to sit up for the revellers, who I dare say will not return till skriegh of day;' and so I came here, making sure of your blazing fire and snug arm-chair; but you have let the fire smoulder quite low, and the moon is peering in at that window in a most sepulchral style. I hate seeing the moon at a window, as much as I love walking under its rays out of doors; the two impressions belong to a totally distinct class of sensations. Are you going to bed, Ella dear, or are you too turning night-watcher ?” "I am not sleepy," answered Ella; "and I am very silly to-night, for I cannot help wishing to have gone with inamina to this dance; it seems hard at my age to be confined to two rooms, regulated by thermometer. And I know Harry Vane was to be there, and I did so long to hear his account of Brazil; it is an age since I saw him. Why did not you go, Hannah, who love dancing so much?" Hannah's blue eyes seemed now to be dancing instead of their owner's feet; and the tone was mirthful in which she replied, "Carina, I had excellent reasons for staying away. With all my zest for a good country-dance on a clear frosty night like this, I would rather take to an inclined plane for the rest of my days, and work tapestry in a frame above my head, as you used to do, than go anywhere to meet Charles Macdonald." Ella mused a little. What very different reasons cause people to do similar things! How dissimilar we should find actions which now appear of kindred origin, could we see the inside of the various ininds!" "I am very glad," laughed Hannah, "that we cannot; for Master Charles Macdonald's vanity would receive a sad rebuff could he see into mine. But pray tell me, Ella, what were your thoughts when I entered, and found you gazing so fixedly on the shadowy moonlight. Your face looked so pale and spiritual, I could have taken you for a ghost." "And it was about ghosts I was thinking," said Ella, in a tone very unlike the careless levity of her cousin. "How curious it is, that in all nations and all religions there has been this feeling-I cannot call it belief-that death is not strong enough to quench the passions and memories of the vanished soul; that cold and senseless, and even repulsive, as that dead clay looks to the living, to the separated spirit it is still so endeared by long interlacement, that it is compelled by mysterious sympathy to hover round it! How very, very awfully does it prove our inmortality, that we cannot divest ourselves of this dread that the fugitive spirit, from its unscen retreat, should come back, and mingle in the worldly affairs it once ruled, with every feeling unweakened by the icy handling of Death. Even the ancients, sensual materialists as they were, with little hope beyond the grave, even they had their apparitions "Oh spare me your reminiscences of Lemprière!" interrupted Hannah. "I love to hear you speak your own thoughts, but quotations are my favourite aversion. Tell me rather, my dear moping melancholy owl, sitting winking, in your turret, at the moon-teil me if you really believe in apparitions; or are these cheerful fancies only selected as appropriate in time and place? for lo! there chimes the midnight hour, when yawring graves give up their dead;' and I believe this end of the house is frequently enlivened by a nocturnal visitor, who I suppose cannot sleep in her grassy bed, for the pressure. of certain peccadilloes on her disembodied conscience." B |