THE NOBLE HOUSE OF BYRON. THE Byrons appear to have held extensive possessions in Yorkshire at the time of the Conquest. Ralph de Buron, when the survey was made, held divers manors in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. Among those in the latter county Horsely is mentioned, in the park of which stands a castle called Horestan Castle, which became the chief seat of the early Burons. The grandson of Ralph Hugo de Buron, feudal Baron of Horestan, retired from secular affairs in the time of Henry I, professed himself a monk, and held the hermitage of Kersale, belonging to the priory of Lenton. He left a son named Roger, whose descendant, Sir Richard Byron, Knight, married Joan, second daughter of William de Colewick, of Colewick, in Northamptonshire, by which all his large estates came into the family. The grandson of this marriage, Sir Nicholas Byron, Knight, of Clayton, county of Lancaster, was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir John, who received the honour of knighthood from Henry VII, for the great service he had rendered in Bosworth field. He died without issue, May the 3rd, 1488, and was succeeded by his brother, Sir Nicholas, who was made one of the Knights of the Bath at the marriage of Arthur, Prince of Wales, November the 11th, 1501. On his death, 1503-4, he was succeeded by his eldest son, Sir John, who obtained a grant, May the 28th, 1540, of the Priory of Newstede, with the manor of Papilwick, and rectory of the same, with all the closes about the priory. His son, Sir John Byron, K.B., was succeeded by a son of the same name, who was also a K.B. He married Anne, the eldest daughter of Sir Richard Molineux, Bart., by whom he had a family of ten sons and a daughter. He was suc ceeded by his eldest son, Sir John, who represented the town of Nottingham in the time of James J, and the county of Nottingham in the succeeding reign. Faith

ful to the cause of Charles I, he commanded the reserve at the battle of Edgehill, and in the victory of Roundaway Down, July the 5th, 1643, where Sir William Waller was routed mainly through the skill and intrepidity of Byron, who, at the head of his regiment, charged Sir Arthur Hasilrigg's cuirassiers, and after a fierce encounter, in which Sir Arthur received many wounds, compelled that celebrated regiment to retreat. Sir John Byron having given such distinguished proofs of courage and devotion, and six valiant brothers having followed the same loyal example, he was in consequence advanced, October the 24th, 1643, to the dignity of a baron of the realm, by the title of Lord Byron, of Rochdale, in the county Palatine of Lancaster, with limitation in default of his own male issue to each of his brothers. He married twice, but dying without issue, in 1652, the barony came to his brother Richard. This gentleman, one of the gallant colonels who fought at Edgehill, received the honour of knighthood from Charles I, and was subsequently appointed Governor of Appulty Castle, in the county of Westmoreland. Lloyd says of him, "he deserves to be chronicled for his government of Newark, and many surprises of the enemy." He married Elizabeth, daughter of John Viscount Chaworth; and at his death, November the 13th, 1695, was succeeded by his son William, fourth baron, who became husband to Mary, daughter of John, third Earl of Bridgewater. By that lady he had no issue. In 1706 he married a second wife, Frances Williamina, third daughter of William, first Earl of Portland, by whom he had three sons and one daughter, all of whom died unmarried By a third wife, Frances, daughter of William, Lord Benteley, and by her who afterwards, in 1740, married Sir Thomas Hay, he had four sons, William, John, Richard, and George, and a daughter.

CENTURY.

CHAPTER IV.-HIGHWAYMEN AND ROBBERS.

(Continued from page 200.)

William, the fifth Buron. He was born November the 5th, 1722. He fought a duel with a Mr William Chaworth, in which his adversary lost his life (January 26, 1765). For this he was tried, in Westminster Hall, by his peers, on the 16th and 17th of April in the same year, and found guilty of manslaughter; but claiming the benefit of the statute of Edward I, he was discharged, paying his fees. He had married, March the 28th, 1747, Elizabeth, daughter of Charles Shaw, Esq., of Besthorpe Hall, by whom he had one son, who was killed in Corsica, and two daughters. He died, May the 19th, 1798, and was succeeded by his great nephew, George Gordon, the late Lord Byron. He was the son of Captain Byron, the son of John, the Admiral, brother to the fifth Lord. His mother was the Captain's second wife, Catherine Gordon, lineally descended from the Earl of Huntley and the Princess Jane, daughter of James II of Scotland. George Gordon was born January the 22nd, 1788. He gained great fame as a poet, which was unhappily dreadfully interfered with through his weaknesses as a man. His history presents a melancholy romance, in which generous enthusiasm, fearful virulence, and mean pursuits, are strangely mingled. He undertook to engage personally in the struggles of the Greeks for liberty, and died from fatigue and excitement, April the 19th, 1824, in the thirty-seventh year of his age. He married, January the 2nd, 1815, Anne Isabella, only daughter of Sir Ralph Millbank Noel, Bart., and coheir of the barony of Wentworth (through her late mother the Honourable Judith Noel, eldest daughter of Edward, first Viscount Wentworth, and co-heir of her brother Thomas, second Viscount and ninth Baron Wentworth, a barony created by writ in 1529). By this lady his lordship had one daughter, Ada Augusta, born December the 10th, 1815, and mar ried, in 1835, to William, Earl of Loudon. Lord Byron separated from his lady soon after the birth of his child, not through any alleged misconduct on her part, but from his own wayward courses. On his marriage he had assumed the additional name of Noel before that of Byron. At his death the barony devolved upon his first cousin, George Anson, another descendant from the Admiral.

THE want of an efficient police in the illlighted streets of the city and the rural and uninhabited lanes of the suburbs rendered outrages of the most serious description of frequent occurrence in London during the last century, and highwaymen and thieves were constantly committing daring robberies with the utmost impunity, and in the very neighbourhood of the city.

It will appear extraordinary to us children of the days of gas lamps, new police, and railroads, to hear that a 66 gentleman was stopped by two footpads in Holborn, and robbed of all his property," or that "a female was found murdered near St Clement's church, in the Strand." Equally strange will it appear to us to read of the depredations committed upon passengers by "the mounted highwayman who infests the fields in the neighbourhood of Clerkenwell," seeing that in that particular vicinity the grass has long been covered with paving stones and the fields with houses. Yet such outrages were of frequent occurrence only a century ago, and that pilgrim must have possessed more than the usual degree of human courage who would venture to traverse the environs of the city unattended and after nightfall. So late even as the year 1772 the notorious Doctor Dodd was stopped, fired at, and robbed "near Pancras" by a single highwayman, who was executed for the offence at Tyburn, on the 20th of January, 1773.

Dick Turpin, Jack Sheppard, Jonathan Wild, or "Sixteen-String Jack" were ever uppermost in the imagination of those whose business compelled them to cross the fields which skirted London eighty years ago; for then London was surrounded by fields, and not, as at present, by a mass of buildings the very counterpart of itself; and, notwithstanding the degree of confidence which a trusty sword at one's side or a brace of pistols in one's pocket are calculated to inspire, many a nervous glance or half-suppressed exclamation of terror did the distant sound of footsteps or the slight rustling of a tree excite. But, if the Strand, and Holborn, Whitechapel, and Clerkenwell were considered dangerous, Finchley common, Hounslow heath, Epping forest, and Bagshot were absolutely impassable, for these were the notorious haunts of the most daring highwaymen and desperate robbers of the time. These were their strongholds, full, said tradition, of subterranean caves and places of ambush. Every tree was an object of suspicion, every bush was supposed to be the lurking place of half-a-score of robbers,

and the hardy traveller who dared to cross the haunts of these banditti after darkness had set in was momentarily affrighted from his propriety by a mysterious shadow or an inexplicable sound.

There were gentlemen highwaymen, flying highwaymen, and generous highwaymen. Highwaymen who took to the road for pleasure and for "glory"-highwaymen who had appeared at half a dozen different places in as many minutes-and highwaymen who, like Rob Roy MacGre gor, levied contributions from the rich to bestow upon the poor. In short, the tales which were told of the mounted robbers of the eighteenth century were innumerable; each had some mysterious air of romance connected with his history, and each rode a bold-faced nag, and carried a brace of pistols.

In consequence of the daring of the gentlemen of the road, strange scenes were sometimes witnessed in London. The following may be taken as a specimen :

The notorious highwayman, Turpin, had formed a sort of partnership with one King; they robbed in concert for some years, but the firm was dissolved rather tragically in consequence of a horse having been stolen from a Mr Major one Saturday night, which, through the exertions of a Mr Boyes, was discovered at the Red Lion, in Whitechapel, on the Monday. The brother of King went for it, was secured, and being alarmed, on being promised his liberty, told his detainers that there was a lusty man, in a white Duffil coat, waiting for the horse in Red Lion street. Mr Boyes went out to look, and recognised King, and attempted to take him into custody. King upon this drew a pistol and presented it at Mr Boyes; it snapped, but did not go off. Turpin, who was close by them, rode up, when King called out to him, "Dick, shoot, or we are taken, by God!" Upon this Turpin fired, missed the intended victim, but shot King, who exclaimed, Dick, you have killed me!" Turpin rode off. King died a week afterwards. This remarkable affair occurred in Red Lion street, Whitechapel.

66

One MacLean, some years later than Turpin, was the great highwayman of the day. His gentlemanly deportment was extolled, and a sort of admiration kindled for him in the public mind; his crimes were gaily recounted by those who did not suffer from them, and the exciting tales told no doubt produced a crop of young aspirants to succeed him on the road and at the gallows. The ladies took great notice of him while he was in Newgate, and kept him well supplied with money. He finally made his exit at Tyburn, with the brief prayer, "O God, forgive my enemies, bless my friends, and receive my soul."

Those were the days when travellers

who lived what is now within a sixpenny ride of the city buckled on their weapons, and were armed cap-à-pie before they left London for their homes-when gentlemen who understood the management of a pistol little better than their horses, persisted in carrying at least a brace in each coatpocket, and sallied forth brimful of courage, and with deadly thoughts of resistance floating in their brains-thoughts which quickly evaporated on the approach of a suspicious-looking horseman or a burly passer-by. Those were the days when fire-side stories all turned upon some midnight encounter with armed and daring robbers; when those old gentlemen who had returned in safety from "business" to their houses in the suburbs, shortened the long winter's evenings with lively tales of the (imaginary, of course) highwaymen and footpads they had encountered, ay, and put to flight, in the course of their homeward journey. Those were the days when old ladies might be seen, just as the clock struck eight, returning from "tea and scandal" with a friend, hurrying through the streets, carefully shunning some dark court or gloomy alley, and raising their little lanterns to reconnoitre a suspicious object, which, perhaps, turned out to be a handpost or a pump.

Exaggerated as were the fears of our grandfathers, they were undoubtedly far from groundless; and swords and pistols might be useful (provided the bearer had sufficient courage to handle them), when a mounted highwayman, or half a dozen footpads, were no uncommon sight within a mile of London-when "Stand and deliver!" or "Your money or your life!" not unfrequently saluted the ears of the passenger in the very outskirts of the town, and when suburban travellers were in a constant state of uncertainty whether a pistol was at their head, or a swordpoint at their breast.

But highway robberies, although the most frequent, were scarcely the most daring offences committed in the town a century ago. Burglaries and murders constantly engrossed the conversation of the city gossips, till some offence of a more desperate (and therefore interesting) character occurred to give them an opportunity of discussing, and illustrating with their imaginative genius. Stabbing in the streets of London was no uncommon occurrence; and now the newspapers announced that "a man, whilst passing over the cellar flap of a house in St Giles's, was let down by the sudden opening of the flap, and it was supposed had since been murdered;" now, that "as a woman was passing through Whitechapel with a bundle of clothes in her hand, some ruffians holding a rope across the road, tripped her up thereby, and robbed her of the parcel."

Yes-reader, start not!-these extracts are taken from the newspapers of the time, and may be found in endless variety on every page and in every column.

Occasionally, too, "a hackney coach was driven furiously through the city, containing some motionless object, concealed by a black cloth thrown across it;" or "four men were noticed carrying on their shoulders a sack, which appeared to contain some heavy body." And then follow sundry speculations as to what these "motion less objects" and "heavy bodies" could have been-speculations which usually terminate in the conclusion that they were corpses stolen from some graveyard, or perhaps purchased from the sextons, and being conveyed to the dissecting-room of a surgeon for anatomical examination.

How frequently the Dovor mail was robbed during the last century we are unfurnished with the means of determining; but, judging from the frequent recurrence of the details of those offences which we find in the papers of the day, we may safely conclude that an encounter occurred on an average about twice during each night's journey. The particular mail we have mentioned was especially subjected to robbery; the road was bare, uninhabited, and gloomy, affording the utmost facilities for the depredations and the escape of the thieves; and many and desperate were the encounters on Shooter's hill -now the favoured, healthful, and picturesque retreat of those who covet reposebetween bands of mounted robbers and the guards and passengers of the mail.

The princely style in which these highwaymen were wont to live may in some measure be conceived from the particulars which I have heard related of one Robert Martin, a famous mail-robber of his day. My informant was his wife's god-daughter, and she has frequently told me, that being in the habit of occasionally paying long visits to her god-mother, she was surprised at the magnificence which was displayed. A sideboard of handsome and costly plate, and the constant attendance of a footman during dinner, were among the indications which she enumerated of the possession of an ample fortune. Yet this man, in the midst of all his luxuries, was haunted and distressed by conscience. "I had often remarked," continued my informant, "that Martin was in the habit of leaving his house at night; his wife used in vain to implore him to remain at home. I have seen her cling to him, and with tears in her eyes, exclaim, 'Now, Robert, do not go! You know what all this must end in ;' but, disengaging himself from her, he used to depart, and I saw nothing more of him till the morning. Young as I was, this conduct surprised me, and I was at a loss to account for it; until my mother, having one day called to see

me, observed that whenever the servants were summoned to the door, Martin appeared fidgety and uneasy, and suspecting that something was wrong, she fetched me home; and a short time afterwards we heard that he had been apprehended, tried, and found guilty of a highway robbery. He was hanged at Tyburn, and his wife reduced to the greatest poverty."

It has been observed that while petty larceny and swindling speculations have increased, crimes of a more serious and capital nature have diminished; we now seldom hear of highwaymen or footpads; burglaries, at least in the neighbourhood of the city, are of rare occurrence; and, thanks to the invention of gas-lamps and policemen, we may travel from one end of London to the other without meeting a band of "resurrectionists," with their unlawful spoils from the churchyard and the burial ground. Let us trust that the march of honesty may stride on rapidly, and that the chronicler who records the history of the present century may have to notice a still greater progression in its morals, and a still greater diminution of crime. ALEXANDER ANDREWS.

HISTORY OF THE TROUT; HABITS, VARIETIES, MODE OF TAKING, AND THE ART OF BREEDING THEM. AS ADOPTED BY G. BOCCIUS, ESQ.

(Continued from page 198.)

THERE are but two intestines in fishes, one corresponding with the small, and the other with the large, although the terms should be often reversed, as in this class of animals that which may be termed the lesser is generally the greatest, and the reverse. The liver is large, the size of the fish being remembered, and is situated before the stomach, covering it with its lobes; but in some, such as the genus pleuronectes, and where the abdominal cavity is short, the liver lies between the stomach and first convolution of the intestine. It secretes bile as in other animals, but all fish are not furnished with a gall bladder. The spleen is found in all fish excepting the lamprey. The lymphatics, from the liver, pancreas, and spleen, unite with the absorbents of the stomach and intestines, to carry the nutriment of the food into the circulation. The heart is situated nearer the head than in other animals, the space between the mouth and the belly in fishes being short: this organ is furnished with a pericardium. It has two cavities only, an auricle for receiving the blood from the veins of the body, and a ventricle for propelling it to the bronchiæ; as the heart of fishes consists of only an auricle and ventricle, it can only furnish one artery, which conveys the blood to the organs of respiration, the gills, and resemble the lungs. Thence it is