of their wool and the excellence of their mutton. Indeed, the production of wool, the sale of wool, the manufacture of wool into stockings, are the chief characteristics of Leicestershire life.

In a county containing only 200 parishes, it would seem easy to have found a distinct name for every village in it; yet we see the same name occurring again and again. Thus we have Ashby Folville, Ashby Magna, and Ashby Parva, and Ashbyde-la-Zouch. Great and Little, Over and Nether, Magna and Parva, are used all over the county to distinguish places that otherwise bear the same name. Newton, Burton, Stanton, we are constantly meeting with; twenty villages have the word "Thorpe" as all or part of their name; sixty end in "by;" and 125 have on as their termination.

The town of Leicester is not only in the centre of the kingdom, but it is the centre of the hosiery trade, Market Harborough, Lutterworth, Hinckley, Market Bosworth, Loughborough, and Melton Mowbray lying at an average distance of twelve or fifteen miles round it, and looking to the county town as the centre of their operations. Nearly everything in Leicester is connected with wool; its chief buildings are warehouses, mills, framehouses; its workmen are worsted-spinners and woolstaplers, or framesmiths and needle makers; and the chief noises heard in passing through the streets are the clack and rattle of the stocking frame; about 12,000 of these machines being worked in the private houses of the inhabitants.

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In historical associations, Leicester is extremely rich, but we must content ourselves with saying that it retains traces of Roman, Saxon, Danish, and Norman occupation here Richard III. slept on his way to Bosworth Field; and here, on 25th August, 1485, he was buried; here Wolsey died, on 29th November, 1530, leaving that remarkable testimony, "Had I served my God as faithfully as I have served my prince, he would not have forsaken me in my old age."

Leicester is noted for the architectural beauty of its churches; but, when the religious census was taken in 1851, it was found to provide less accommodation than most of the

large towns of England. Taking the whole county, the comparison was more favourable, only eleven counties standing before it. Dissent is rather strong in the county, about onehalf of the attendants at public worship being Protestant Dissenters, the other half belonging to the Church of England. In one of my visits to this district, being anxious to see as much of the county as possible without unnecessary fatigue, I secured a place in a carrier's van, where I found myself in the company of a farmer, a stockinger, a tailor, two market-women, and a delicate-looking young man wearing blue spectacles. Every one in the company seemed anxious to bring down his own personal history to the most recent date, entering into the most trifling details, making the most outrageous digressions, and yet receiving as much attention from the others as if the account had been full of wild adventure. The stockinger was a tall man, rather gray, and of intellectual look. He delivered his statements in a loud voice, in good language, with his eyes closed and his arms folded. One of his utterances was as follows:

"I've had a famous treat to-day, for it's many a long year since I was at Leicester; indeed I never was farther from home but once in my life, and I'm sixty years old come next Heather wake Monday. When I was a young man, matter of two or three and twenty, I'd saved two or three pounds, for stockinging was uncommonly good when we were at war with Napoleon, so I thought I'd go to see my friends at Market Harborough. I started on the Friday morning before Leicester Michaelmas fair, from Earl Shilton, went round by Enderby, then to Knighton, where I stayed all night. Next morning I got on the turnpike road, and Saturday night I got to Harborough. Well, my friends were Baptists, and I was a Methodist; but that didn't matter, for we all meant to get safe to heaven, so we agreed very well, and I went with 'em on the Sunday to some charity sermons at Bowden, two miles farther off, and that was the farthest I ever was off home in my life; and I suppose I didn't go above thirty miles after all.”

The only disagreeable person in the company was the tailor, who called himself John Drakes. He was short, wore drab breeches, blue worsted stockings, and heavy shoes. His nose looked as if it had been shaped with his own scissors, his ratlike eyes moved uneasily about him, and his mouth was always half-open, as if waiting to speak. At last, securing a favourable moment, he said,—

"Well! I've bin i' Markfield now for twenty 'ears, an' I've worked a good deal at Newton Linford, but I niver know'd a man as could beat John Drakes at sewing! An' I can say this, -when I was a young man, nobody ever walked up the church aisle with brighter shoe-buckles, or hung his coat-lap over his arm better nor John Drakes! And at this day I'll undertake to say as nobody can break coal and make less sleck nor John Drakes!"

It is certainly a commendable thing to aim at being first in something. We would recommend our young friends to take John Drakes's principle, and apply it to high and noble resolves, and they may depend on it they will take an honourable position in the world.

Come, Mr. Blue Spectacles," said the farmer, "aren't we to have something out of you?"

The young man referred to replied that he had read a good deal about the neighbourhood, and would put in a word now and then as we went along. From him we learned that Bradgate Park, where Lady Jane Grey formerly lived, lay about a mile to our right, when we were at Grooby Pool; that the high land a little farther on was part of Charnwood Forest ; that Bardon Hill on our right hand was so called because the last bear in the neighbourhood was killed there; that Markfield Hill was being rapidly reduced in consequence of the value of the stone composing it; that Thornton reservoir on our left hand covered fifty acres, and was capable of holding 200,000,000 gallons of water, and that from this reservoir, the town of Leicester, though ten miles off, was supplied. Thus our company moved pleasantly on; when the road was level

the men rode; when it was uphill they walked, here and there, in the steepest parts, putting a friendly shoulder to the back of the van to help the jaded horse. In Bardon Lane the carrier's son met us with another horse, and so we managed to reach Ibstock. This village has a look of respectability beyond the average of Leicestershire villages; it possesses several chapels, and a church, in which tradition says Archbishop Laud formerly preached, and where a thoroughly evangelical clergyman at present supplies the pulpit. Ibstock, Bagworth, Whitwick, and Coalville are all noted for the coal they produce, much of which finds its way to London.

In a walk from Ibstock to Measham I was reminded, as I passed through Heather, of a conversation I once had with a returned convict. I was endeavouring to allure him to the house of God, when he made the following statement:—

"I doubt I'm too far gone to be cured. I begun my pilferin' at Heather when I was a lad; success made me try again an' again, till I became the head of a gang. For many years I escaped the hands of the law, but at Heather I got caught at last. I was transported to Bermudas for fourteen years, an' when I came off, I received a full pardon for the past. I'll tell you a lot of my old done deeds some day, for I've been pardoned, as I said. I'll go with you to chapel, and you may come again an' read to me when you like; but I doubt I'm too far gone to be cured."

On another occasion the poor sinner did tell me his career of sin and sorrow, but its relation would be out of place here. Measham is partly in Derbyshire. The leading tradesmen of this village are intelligent men, and are specially noted for their musical talent; their "Concerts" and " Penny Readings" are sources of great interest and benefit to the neighbourhood. Three miles north of Measham stands Ashby-de-la-Zouch, noted for the ruins of a castle in which Mary Queen of Scots was imprisoned; and near the town the tournament, celebrated in Scott's "Ivanhoe," took place. A ramble from Ashby to Hinckley led me by Willesley, the seat of the Marquis of

Hastings, and, at a distance of about seven miles, by Gopsall Hall, the family mansion of Earl Howe. The neighbourhood is well wooded, the villages on the way being almost hidden till they are entered. A further walk of an hour long brought me to Market Bosworth, so noted in history as the scene where, on Monday 22d August, 1485, the Wars of the Roses were brought to a close by the death of Richard III. Elmesthorpe and Stapleton are known as places where the tyrant passed the two days preceding the battle, and Dadlington ast the place where many of the dead were interred. Another walk of about six miles brought me to Hinckley, a town thoroughly connected with the hosiery manufacture. Pass where you will you will hear the peculiar clack of the stocking frame, there being nearly three thousand frames in and near the town. Leicestershire is thoroughly well cultivated, its hills are ploughed and sown to their very summits, and few parts of our country present more interesting scenes for a ramble. W. H.

Herbert's Doubts.

Ir was an evening in January, clear, cold, still. Herbert had drawn aside the crimson curtains which enclosed the baywindow of the parlour, and stood looking on the darkness without. The garden lay in gloom, except where a streak of light, thrown from the parlour lamp, silvered the glossy leaves of laurel and holly. Beyond the shrubs and low trees bounding the garden could be just distinguished the church spire and the rectory, with their yews and tall elms; and above all shone the starry sky, in all its winter glory of startling distinctness and bewildering brilliancy.

For a time Herbert fixed his eye on the steady light of a planet, then watched the twinkling of some star, then let his gaze wander on and on amid the dazzling brightness, while his thoughts turned to the wonders taught by astronomy. "Could it be that this mere point of light was indeed a sun, vaster