which pursued him; subsequently, the attacks were renewed, and he sank in July, 1833, after a year's forced retirement, under the weight of mental alienation. His letters, speeches, and writings will doubtless be collected, and such elegant and polished productions will preserve their author's name from oblivion."

Lord Dudley commenced his political career as a Whig and terminated it a Tory. In allusion to this circumstance, Lord Byron being asked what it would take to re-whig Dudley, replied, "He must be first rewarded." Lord Dudley's speeches in Parliament were all elaborately prepared, and his lordship defended the practice by the example of Canning, and of far greater men even than him, in every branch of intellectual excellence. His reflections on the writings of his greatest favourite, Ariosto, in a letter written from Ferrara, are characteristic of his feelings on the point." The inspection of this MS. will greatly confirm the opinion of those who think that consummate excellence, united to the appearance of ease, is almost always the result of great labour. The corrections are innumerable; several passages, where, as they now stand, the words and thoughts seem to flow along with the most graceful facility, and the rhyme to come unsought for, have been altered over and over, and scarce a line of the first draught has been allowed to remain."

Lord Dudley died a bachelor on the 6th of March, 1833, when the Earldom of Dudley, and Viscountcy of Dudley and Ward, expired, while the Barony of Ward devolved upon his second cousin, the Rev. William Humble Ward, who died in two years after, and was succeeded by his elder son, the present LORD WARD.

THE COALSTOUN PEAR.

ONE of the most remarkable curiosities connected with ancient superstitious belief, now to be found in Scotland, is what is commonly known by the name of the Coalstoun Pear-an object whose history has attracted no small degree of interest, though little is popularly known regarding it. An interesting work, "The Picture of Scotland," gives us this curious narrative :"Within sight of the House of Lethington (in Haddingtonshire) stands the mansion-house of Coalstoun, the seat of the ancient family of Broun of Coalstoun, whose estate passed by a series of heirs of line into the possession of the Countess of Dalhousie. This place is chiefly worthy of attention here, on account of a strange heir-loom, with which the welfare of the family was formerly supposed to be connected. One of the Barons of Coalstoun, about three hundred years ago, married Jean Hay, daughter of John, third Lord Yester, with whom he obtained a dowry, not consisting of such base materials as houses or land, but neither more nor less than a pear. • Sure such a pear was never seen,' however, as this of Coalstoun, which a remote ancestor of the young lady, famed for his necromantic power, was supposed to have invested with some enchantment that rendered it perfectly invaluable.

Lord Yester, in giving away his

daughter along with the pear, informed his son-in-law, that, good as the lass might be, her dowry was much better, because, while she could only have value in her own generation, the pear, so long as it was continued in his family, would be attended with unfailing prosperity, and thus might cause the family to flourish to the end of time. Accordingly, the pear was preserved as a sacred palladium, both by the laird who first obtained it, and by all his descendants; till one of their ladies, taking a longing for the forbidden fruit while pregnant, inflicted upon it a deadly bite; in consequence of which, it is said, several of the best farms on the estate very speedily came to the market. The pear, tradition goes on to tell us, became stone-hard immediately after the lady had bit it; and in this condition it remains till this day, with the marks of Lady Broun's teeth indelibly imprinted on it. Whether it be really thus fortified against all further attacks of the kind or not, it is certain that it is now disposed in some secure part of the house [or, as we have been lately informed, in a chest, the key of which is kept secure by the Earl of Dalhousie], so as to be out of all danger whatsoever. The Coalstoun Pear, without regard to the superstition attached to it, must be considered a very great curiosity in its way, having, in all probability, existed five hundred years-a greater age than, perhaps, has ever been reached by any other such production of nature."

THE WHITE DOE OF RYLSTONE.

THE long imprisonment of Mary, Queen of Scots, by her great rival, Elizabeth, had begun to excite a general interest in her favour among the more zealous Catholics of England; more particularly was this the case in the north, where the powerful Earls of Northumberland and Cumberland had been devising all manner of schemes for the release of one who, both on political and religious grounds, was much nearer to their affections than the actual sovereign. In an evil hour for themselves, and for her whose cause they advocated, they conceived the idea of a marriage between Mary and the Duke of Norfolk, a plan which might indeed secure the adherence of the latter, but was not very likely to be palatable to Elizabeth, who, at no time a friend to her favourites marrying, or being given in marriage, would scarce relax from her usual system in this instance, above all others. To Mary herself the project was sufficiently acceptable, as, doubtless, any scheme would have been that promised a release from her wearisome confinement; in addition to which, the widow of three husbands was not like to make grave objections to marriage in any shape. On the part of Norfolk, there was still less inclination to offer the slightest opposition to the wishes of his two friends, who, judging from outward appearances, had full power to carry those wishes

into effect, in defiance of Elizabeth, should she be disposed to reject them. He was weak as well as ambitious, and was alike tempted by Mary's personal charms, and the prospects held out to him, in such a union, of ascending the throne of Scotland, and it might be, that of England also, either by the present queen's death, or by some successful revolution. Confident, however, as all three seemed to feel themselves of the result, none of them liked to break the matter to Elizabeth, and it was only after much debate that Norfolk agreed, as being the person principally interested, to take upon himself the task of bearding the lioness in her den, and stating to her his matrimonial speculations. His confederates were to await his return at Northumberland's splendid mansion, in case he should have the good fortune to escape being sent to the Tower-no improbable termination to such an embassy.

More than an hour had elapsed since Norfolk left the earls, and still he came not, as he had promised. Many an anxious look was cast by either, from time to time, at an old-fashioned clock that occupied a niche in the wall, their conversation being broken by pauses that grew longer and more frequent as the day went on, till it was almost confined to interjections of surprise and impatience. At length, this disagreeable state of suspense was put an end to by the abrupt appearance of Master Theodore Ismay, one of the royal pages, who, having obtained his place by Northumberland's influence, was still disposed to serve him, even at some little hazard to himself.

"Pardon, my lords, this hasty intrusion," he said, on entering the room unannounced; "but the danger is too urgent to allow of a moment being lost in ceremony." Danger!" exclaimed Northumberland. "And in what shape does it come, Theodore? You should know,

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