for his publication of the "Flora Antarc- ' features, to assist the revival of a most imtica "a book which must find its place in portant, though at present, to all appearevery botanist's library, and which contains ance, moribund department of British much matter interesting to other classes of readers.

industry, the Southern Whale-fishery. We care not whether the term be used in that The extracts which we have given may extensive sense which it has derived from save us the trouble of commenting on Sir the circumstance that the vessels destined James Ross's work, as respects literary for it take a southern departure from Engexecution. They will speak better than land, or whether it be used with more we could for the plain, modest, and manly limited reference to the southern circumtaste of the author-which seems entirely polar regions. In the former sense, it may worthy of his high professional character be said to embrace the whole extent of and signal services.

ocean minus the Greenland seas. If the We must beg a parting word with those time should arrive, perhaps some symptoms who persevere in asking the old utilitarian of its approach are discernible, when Eng question, What good is to result from these lishmen can find capital, leisure, and discoveries? What interest shall we re- intellect, for any object and any enterprise ceive for the expense of outfit, pay, and other than that of connecting points in allowances? We are not about to make a space by intervening bars of iron, we beflourish about national reputation, the lieve that few speculations will be found advance of science, or other topics of small more sound, more profitable, and more interest to such questioners. Let them congenial to our national habits than that study the pamphlet of Mr. C. Enderby in suggested by the present grantee of the connexion with the description of the Auckland Islands, which were discovered Auckland Islands given in the sixth chapter under his auspices-the industrious, the of Sir James Ross's first volume. They liberal, and the eminently sagacious and will learn that this little group is singularly practical Mr. Enderby. adapted, by position and other natural

From Fraser's Magazine.

LATHOM HOUSE, AND THE STANLEY FAMILY.

LATHOM HOUSE, seated on a flat, boggy | owners, the De Fitz-Henrys, or De Latract of land, and encompassed by a wall thoms, when an incident is said to have of two yards in thickness, was, in days of occurred, which, whether real or imaginary, yore, as strong a domestic fortress as any seems to be worth describing. armed host might invest, or general view in silent despair. On the wall above mentioned were raised nine towers, each of them planted with six pieces of ordnance, so mounted as to enfilade the country, and command every approach. A moat, twentyfour feet in breadth and six in depth, surrounded this strong wall, between which and the grass was a row of palisades. From the centre of the house rose the Eagle Tower, surmounting the whole edifice, and connected, in the remembrance of the first owners of the heritage, with a tale of no common interest. On each side of the gate-house, at the entrance of the first court, frowned a strong tower, and in these, in time of siege, were stationed the best marksmen to harass the assailants. Thus stood Lathom House in the days of its first

Robert de Fitz-Henry, in the time of the Plantagenets, first adopted the surname of Lathom, from his place of residence. His descendant, Sir Thomas Lathom, in the reign of Henry IV., enjoyed, with one alloy, that inheritance. No son promised to prolong the family honors, which were vested in the fair young Isabel, the heiress of all his broad lands, for whose favor knight and noble humbly proffered suit. One day, however, as Sir Thomas and his lady were walking in their park at Lathom, they were startled by loud cries; the place was solitary, but in no direction could they perceive any object. They soon, however, discovered that an eagle had its nest in that secluded spot, and on searching the eyrie, an infant, in rich swaddling-clothes, was found lying unharmed within its warm

enclosure. Sir Thomas and Lady Lathom | be surrendered to the English crown for the were not devoid of the superstitions of the sum of 70,0001. day, and they had its pious charity, too. It were long to tell the gradual progress The foundling was a boy; they adopted of this great family in honors, wealth, and him, and, bestowing on him the name of fame. One interruption to it happened in Lathom, intended, it is said, to leave him the dark reign of Henry VII., when, despite heir to that estate. So far goes Tradition, his services at Bosworth field, Sir William but Reason steps in, and dispels a portion Stanley, not of Lathom but of Holt Castle, of the romance. Sir Thomas, it appears, Cheshire, lost his head on the scaffold for owned a base-born son, whom he was desir- an idle speech. But it was, in truth, Sir ous to introduce into his lineage. He, William Stanley's great wealth that moved therefore, had the infant conveyed to that the jealousy of the hard-hearted, hardspot, where, by an appointed "chance," if headed monarch; for, says Lord Bacon, in one may so speak, he and his lady walked his Life of Henry VII., Sir W. Stanley just when the child was deposited, as if was the richest subject for value in the dropped from the eagle's nest, in a safe, kingdom, "and for his revenue in land and retired nook. Sir Thomas managed his fee, it was 3000l. a year old rent, a very part well. He pointed out to his dutiful great matter in those times." However, and credulous wife the hand of a Higher he was courageous enough to believe, and I Power in this event, and suggested the pro-am apt to agree with him, that Perkin priety of rearing the little stranger as their Warbeck was no impostor, a conclusion heir. Lady Lathom-excellent Mrs. Shandy as she was-assented, and the child was brought up in all the odor of legitimacy He was christened Oskately, and, at the usual age, knighted by Edward III. He assumed, too, for his crest, an eagle flying from a child which it had left uninjured on the ground; "the fictions of romance" being, as old Collins observes, "sufficient for the whimsical distinctions" of heraldry. (Profanely does he speak!) So far Isabel Lathom ran a narrow chance of being treated with injustice, but Conscience interfered. Sir Thomas, before his death, acknowledged this son to be illegitimate; and, having endowed him with certain manors, bequeathed to Isabel the greater portion of his possessions, and amongst them Lathom House.

And now, how did the Stanley family profit by all this? Who were they? Whence came they? How comported they themselves in all the various stages of their greatness-in its dawn-in its zenith?

which Henry's very precautions seem to authorize; for ere he dispersed his band of spies throughout the kingdom, he caused them, says Lord Bacon, to be solemnly cursed at Paul's Cross," in order to destroy any impression that these lofty-minded men. were honored with royal patronage.

Thomas Stanley, the first earl of Derby, was a great man in great times, being the brother-in-law of Neville earl of Warwick, the Kingmaker, and the friend of Hastings. The loyal servant of Edward IV., he loved, for that monarch's sake, the fair and illstarred boy his successor, whose fate is but dimly shadowed in the chronicles of that period. For his sake-that of the fifth Edward-Stanley encountered the hatred. of Richard III. The tragedy of Hastings' death is familiar to every one. Who, indeed, can forget it that remembers the Jane Shore of Miss O'Neill? that powerful, passionate, and finished acting, which gave even the irresolute Hastings' fate so deep They flourished in Plantagenet times by an interest. The night before the death of the appellation of Audleigh, or Audly; the Hastings, a dream visited the slumbers of younger branch took the name of Stanleigh, his friend Stanley. He instantly informed or Stanley, from a Moorland Manor in Hastings of it, and begged him to fly from Staffordshire, and with which they were en- the scene of peril. But Hastings was imdowed; and one of these, a valiant follower practicable. On the following day he was of our most valiant Edward III., won by seized at the council board of the Tower, his gallantry in the lists, the love of the and his head struck off; whilst Stanley heiress of the De Fitz-Henrys. Thus passed with difficulty escaped the blow of a halbert the wide domains of Lathom with the Lord- aimed at him. The portentous dream was ship of Man into the possession of the illus-mournfully recalled, and the rash incredutrious house which still retains the former;lity of Hastings censured; for "a boar" but which conveyed the latter as a woman's (I quote from the authority of Sir Thomas dower to the house of Athole, that it might Moore), "with his tusks had" (in Stan

Woe seemed to betide all of

their fidelity incorrupt; but their fate was adverse. Ferdinando, fifth earl of Derby, became the victim, though not the dupe, of certain political intrigues, the agent of which was one Hesket, a Jesuit, who tempted him, but in vain, to assume the title of king. The youth was wise, and rejected that counsel. He was, however, threatened by Hesket with sudden death if he disclosed the plot,-nay, even if he hesitated to give his compliance to it. The high spirit of the Stanleys rebelled at this menace. Ferdinando gave information, and Hesket was apprehended; but the young earl's doom was sealed from that moment.

ley's dream) so razed them both that the | Richard III. blood ran about their shoulders." Stanley that race. Still their hearts were loyal, escaped with a short imprisonment, and married soon afterwards the justly celebrated Margaret Beaufort, the mother of Henry VII., and the foundress of Christ's and St. John's Colleges in the University of Cambridge; and it became Stanley's fate to pluck the crown from the brow of the usurper Richard, as he lay dead on the field of Bosworth, and to place it on the head of another usurper, namely, his own step-son, of pious and avaricious memory. "Whereupon," writes Arthur Collins, with solemn emphasis, "he was advanced to the dignity of an earl, by the title of Earl of Derby ;" and he went on flourishing and accumulating dignities and wealth until the year 1504, when he was buried in Burscough Priory, adjacent to Lathom, having provided his tomb-the fashion in those days-with a perpetual remembrance to be prayed for.

Of this Sir Thomas there is still a memento at Knowsley in a portrait of a stern man in black, wearing a George. He left a goodly band of sons and daughters, of whom the former maintained the valiant character of the house.

I pass over a track of smaller stars, just here and there noting down some one orb of peculiar brilliancy. By way of instance, bear with me, ye hasty readers, whilst I dwell for one brief page or so on the virtues of Edward, earl of Derby, in Elizabeth's days, one of her privy council, and so chosen, notwithstanding that he had served her royal sister,-a rare instance of that Tudor penetration, which might well be called kingcraft, and which the Stuarts never possessed the liberal selfishness of employing superior men, even though their talents had formerly been engaged in the service of a foe. This nobleman appears to have been a pattern of all the lordly virtues. "His greatness supported his goodness, and his goodness endeared his greatness. His great birth put him above all private respect, but his great soul never above public service. Indeed, he repaired, by ways thrifty yet noble, what his family had impaired by neglect."

He did not expire suddenly; no, his anguish was prolonged. Cruel pains tormented his numbered days, dark vomitings tortured the ill-fated peer. I abstain from sundry particularities given by Camden, as being more fit for a post mortem narrative than for a work like this. But I must needs recount, though with horror, that even after his dead body was rolled in cerecloth, and wrapped in lead, "there ran such corrupt and stinking humors that no man could for a long time come near the place of his burial." These are old Camden's graphic words. Alas, poor Ferdinando! could not even pious affection shed its dews upon thy hearse? And it was, after all, domestic treason that destroyed him; for his gentleman of the horse fled on his illness, and taking the earl's best horse-not content with the small feat of murdering him—was heard of no more.

An attempt was indeed made to prove that the earl died from the power of witchcraft; and a poor old woman, suspected of being a witch, and told to say the Lord's Prayer backwards, said it well; but being conjured in the name of Jesus that, if she had bewitched his honor, she should be able to say the same, she could never get over that clause, "Forgive us our trespasses,"not even though it was repeated to her. Another poor old crone was found mumbling something in a corner of his honor's chamber, but what, God knoweth.

Lathom.

I pass over Ferdinando's immediate deIt happened, unluckily for the Stanleys, scendants, to hail the hero of the civil that they claimed kindred with the blood-wars, the husband of the great defender of royal. This was through the Nevilles, the Kingmaker's family, the Lady Eleanor Neville, or Alianore, having married the first Earl of Derby. Now Lady Eleanor was aunt to the Princess Anne, the consort of

James, seventh earl of Derby, succeeded his father in 1642. How discriminative is the character of this nobleman, as given by Clarendon ! "He was a man of great ho

proached they had no idea of any other the fire of a mortar-a new engine of war

forces than her own servants being within the house.

in those days-at least to the troops which held Lathom House. But she made light On the 28th of February, 1644, Sir Tho- of every peril which threatened her own mas Fairfax, willing, perhaps, to spare the person, and taught her people, by the exunfortunate countess the horrors of a siege, ample which she set, to prefer death to disdesired a conference. She consented. He honor. These things have occurred elsewas received in the great hall of Lathom. where, therefore we need not dwell upon As he entered the first court, the wary them. But possibly the following little general was struck by the appearance of anecdote may interest, though that, too, what seemed a considerable force. Not might be paralleled, had we leisure, at this only the main guard occupied the first moment, to look about for its fac-simile. court, but men were ranged in open sight, on the tops of the walls, and on the towers, in such a manner as to appear more numerous than they really were.

This was done by the advice of Captain Farmer, not only to prevent a surprise, but to intimidate the enemy by the appearance of strength, for the army which besieged Lathom amounted to 4000 men. Sir Thomas, and a gentleman of quality who accompanied him, were received with a lofty courtesy. But when he offered terms, the lady required a month's delay to consider of them. "Not a day's," was the reply, and Fairfax departed.

It happened, during the progress of the siege, that a dog, belonging to some gentleman in the house, proved himself a friend to man in a very remarkable manner. The chaplain, who managed all correspondence carried on by the garrison with their friends without, by means of ciphers, was in great want of some means of conveying his despatches out of the house, surrounded on every side, as it was, by enemies; till, observing that a dog was in the habit of going to and fro from his master in the house to his mistress, who lived a short distance from it, he determined to make the animal his messenger. Having tied his despatch, He was still uncertain whether to com- tightly rolled, by a thin string, to the neck mence a regular siege, or to attempt to take of the animal, he managed to convey intelthe place by storm; but he was deceived by ligence of it to the gentlewoman, wife of the a mean negotiation between one of his own dog's master, and directed her to forward officers and the chaplain of the house, into all she received, as she best could, to his the belief that the countess had no store of majesty. She did so; and having kept the provisions. He, therefore, decided on a trusty creature by her for a day or so withsiege for fourteen days hostilities were de-out food, she then turned him out of doors, layed-then, supposing that her supplies and he invariably returned to his master in were exhausted, he summoned the countess Lathom House. By this means the poor to surrender. The answer, sent by a trum- besieged inhabitants sent intelligence of peter, was worthy of the heroine who pen- their condition to the king and his friends, ned it. It was this: "That, as she had and received in their turn news back from not lost her regard for the Church of Eng- them. For many months the faithful aniland, nor her allegiance to her prince, nor mal discharged this important office, bringher faith to her lord, she could not, there- ing encouragement to the garrison, enabling fore, as yet, give up the house; that they them to know on what they might depend; must never hope to gain it till she had so that, having accurate information of the either lost all of these, or her life, in de- state of the king's affairs, they were never fence of them." And this reply came after excited by false hope, nor too much cast a torturing continuance of suspense of four-down by the disappointment of ill-founded teen days. expectations. But the fate of the faithful dog The siege now began in earnest, and it was melancholy. One day, when returning continued without let or intermission dur- to the house, laden with tidings as usual, an ing the space of three months. Many idle soldier discharged his loaded musket were the gallant feats of arms which distin- at the poor creature. The dog, true to his guished the sorties made by the garrison; trust, managed to drag himself near the and well was the spirit of the men sustain- gate with his precious cargo, and then laid ed by the heroic courage of their mistress. She feared neither shot nor shell. More than once a cannon-ball passed through the chamber, and much was she annoyed by

himself down and died. His death deprived the garrison of a most sure and trusty friend, and of the greatest comfort and solace of which their condition was sus