Fotheringhay Castle.

that lends an imperishable interest to Fotheringhay . Most men , whatever their politics or creed , find a charm in the ground she trod , the scenes she looked upon , the palaces she dwelt in , and the strongholds "against whose bars she beat out her tameless life . " That it was in this diocese the last scene of the tragedy was enacted , that it was in the now vanished fortress of a neighbouring countMary Stuart spoke her last wordsbreathed her last

y , prayers , and yielded up her last sigh ; that it was in the Cathedral of Peterborough she lay for ' a time in the dishonoured majesty of death , revived in me the purpose of my youth to see the place where she suffered and the shrine where she lay .

That shrine I have visited ; and , now settled within a day ' s drive of Fotheringhay , I said to some of rny neighbours , " Let us go to Fotheringhay . " " Fotheringhay ! Why go there ?—there is nothing to see ! " No , there may be nothing outside the Church to see ; the Castle may have passed away , but the ground is still there on which it stood ; the river still winds b y the meadows on which it looked , and the woods still dream on the landscape that

saw its grandeur and its gloom . Accompanied , then , by some members , of my own family , I set out . Arrived at the village , we went at once to the Castle . The Castle ! it is true , then , there is nothing to see ! Not one stone is left upon another to mark even its outlines ! The mound with two small plateaus —both covered with deep verdure—we soon climbed and looked wistfully around . It was a beautiful afternoon . The sun , like a great eye , shone down from a sky clad in a white veil of lawn , delicate as that which the " Queen of

the Castle " wore over her fair form three centuries ago . In the air , bright , pure , and still , lay the village with its church , asleep ; not a child ' s voice wakeel the echoes of the one deserted street ; not even a peasant was seen to toil in the quiet fields ; the Nen flowed , or rather stood , in glassy curves at our feet , and the woods shone dark in the distance , crowned with sunshine . Nature , man , and even time , seemed asleep in stillness and repose . The eye resting at last

on a huge , boulder-like , lump of masonry near the river , awoke imagination and memory , and , silently as Amphion ' s walls , arose the mass of limestone and mortar to its ancient place in the restored fortress . There , then , stands the work of De St . Liz ( or de Senlis ) , second lord of Northampton and Huntingdon . Maud , daughter to the Countess Judith , niece of the Conqueror , and wife of Waltheofthe stout Earl of Northumberlandtakes her leasure with

, , p her ladies in those flower-decked meads by the river , or sits amidst them in the hall , laughing and gossiping , as their bri ght needles glitter and fly over the tapestry destined to clothe its cold bare walls . The great baron and founder of the Castle passes among the shadows . His place is taken by David L , King of Scotland , who , by his marriage with Maudbecomes the lord of

, " Fodringey " Manor and Earl of Huntingdon . They also pass , and on their steps comes David ' s son , Henry , Earl of Huntingdon , whose sons , Malcolm the Maiden , and William the Lion , afterwards Kings of Scotland , with another David , inherit the Castle and Manor . As these figures glide past us we cannot resist the reflection how strange it seems that , with a connection so close anel so earl y between the royal families of England and Scotland , the two nations

should have remained so long apart in deadly hostility as the opening of the seventeenth century 1 National antipathies die slowly . John de Balliol and Devorgnilla de Balliol next emerge—the Balliols , whose descendants played such an important yet base role iu the history of Scotland . With them pass Mary Aylmer de Valence ( de Valentia ) , wife of the Earl of Pembroke , who made a fi in the Scottish A important life stirs in

gure wars . more now Fothering hay . After ' the decease of John de Bretagne , Earl of Richmond , who preceded Mary de Valence , Edmund of Langley , fifth son of Edward III ., and created Duke of York , is in possession . The Castle of De St . Liz is talhng into decay ; but under his auspices it rises in greater magnificence and splendour . He adds the keep , built in the shape of a horse fetterlock ,