In the fair vale of Avelon: And the long blaze of tapers clear, Each trace that Time's slow touch had worn; Oblivion's vale its shade has thrown: The faded tomb, with honour due, "T is thine, O Henry! to renew. Thither, when conquest has restored Yon recreant Isle, and sheathed the sword,— There, observant of my lore, The pavement's hallowed depth explore; Dive into the vaults of death. of Malmsbury, who wrote about 1140, describes it minutely,- mentioning pipes of brass, "æneas fistulas," and also, that Dunstan's gift was commemorated by a Latin distich, engraved on the organ-pipes. While on this head, it may not be inappropriate to relate the origin of one of the most noble of human inventions. There were Organs, so styled, two thousand years ago; but these were instruments of very different and humble properties, being portable, and probably not exceeding the classical number of seven pipes, with a small bellows attached, which was worked by one hand, whilst the other struck the notes; thus they seem to have resembled one species of bagpipe. But that magnificent edifice of music, which we now call the ORGAN, was invented in Arabia, in the Eighth century; and the first introduced into Europe, was sent as a present from Constantine V., sirnamed Copronymus, a Grecian Emperor, to King Pepin of France, A. D. 756. It was placed in the church of St. Corneille, at Compeigne, near one of the royal palaces.-ED. There shall thine eye, with wild amaze, There shalt thou find the monarch laid, Nor heed the slings of Ulster's clan: Its shafts in Roderick's heart imbrue." ↑ Amid the pealing symphony, The spiced goblets mantled high; * Dublin. Harald, Harsager, the "Fair-haired," King of Norway, is said, in the Life of Gryffudh ap Conan, Prince of North Wales, to have conquered Ireland, and to have founded Dublin.-W. + Henry is supposed to have succeeded in this enterprise, chiefly by the use of the long bow, with which the Irish were entirely unacquainted. A nearly similar degree of superiority contributed materially to the triumphs of the English over the Scots. ‡ Our ancestors, whose ideas of luxury were principally confined to the solid and the costly, were wont to imbibe divers and sundry mixed and compound potations, of which the principal were pigment (a word of very odd sound!) and hipocras, or ypocras; the latter said to have been originally invented by the great physician Hippocrates, and also to have received its name from the Greek, vπo and kepavνʊμ, to mix ; was introduced into England about the end of the fourteenth century. It consisted of wine, highly medicated, and enriched with various spices and sugar (speciebus et sugur). This expensive delicacy was sold as high as 18d. a quart, an enormous price, at a time when the best German and French wines were sold at 3d.-ED. With passions new the song impressed E'en now with arching sculpture crowned, ATHELGIVA. "THERE remains a tradition," observes Mr. Watkins, the writer of the following legendary tale," that the Abbey of Whitby, on the North coast of Yorkshire, was despoiled during the depredations of the Danes, under the command of Ingua and Hubba, who brought with them the standard on which was embroidered a golden Raven (the work of their sisters), and which was preserved as the Palladium of their security. Edelsteda, who is mentioned in the first stanza, is represented to have been the daughter of Oswin, King of Northumberland, and resided in the Abbey of Whitby. This sanctuary was founded by St. Hilda, sister of King Edwin, who died in 680."-BEDE, and SAX. CHRON. "HERE may'st thou rest, my sister dear! Securely here abide : Where royal Edelsteda lived, Where pious Hilda died. "Here peace and quiet ever dwell! Nor here is heard the trumpet's sound, With voice composed and look serene, Blue gleamed the steel in Edwy's hand, The warrior's vest he bore; For now the Danes, by Hubba led, His summons, at the abbey-gate, “O, take this virgin to thy care; "Know then, by fierce barbarian bands, We, driven from our home, Through three long days and nights forlorn, The dreary waste did roam. "But, I go these towers to save! I haste to seek Earl Osrick's power, He said and turned his ready foot: Now, turning to the stranger dame, For never Whitby's holy fane And true she said-for, on her cheek |