On our descent we were shown a lake of an oval form, called the Blue Lake from the water being of that colour, but from what cause I am unable to say. Several other matters of inferior note claimed our observation, but which I either thought unworthy of record, or omitted through inattention; indeed that writer will find but little inclination for detail, who, previous to entering on the subject, performs so laborious a task as that of climbing the steepy sides of Mangerton.

At three o'clock we sat down to dinner at our inn, after which we went a few miles on our way towards Cork that evening; but, as this seems the proper place for such a digression, I shall postpone my narrative to give an account of the usual expences incurred by a visit to this place: English Money,

Lord Kenmare's boatswain, who attends with the six-oared

barge for the company

Band of music for two days

Six men at oars, each per day

81b. of powder produces 32 charges, cost Gardener or guide at Mucrus

1. s. d.

o 16 à

о 5

Guide to describe the Lakes, Mangerton, &c. &c. per day o I 6 A company of six persons (with the attendants) may be plentifully supplied with wine, cold beef, fowls and ham, with other articles of provision, for about one guinea per day, when they chuse to take their stores with them.

In fine weather the whole may be easily seen in three days, divided as under:

1st day, Killarney town, its environs, and the Lower Lake, 2d,-Upper Lake.

3d,-Mucrus and Mangerton.

The accommodation which the M'Carthy's arms afforded us, was in general very good; and I did not observe, in one single instance, that extortion and rapacity of which a former tour-writer has so loudly complained. It is a pity that this gentleman did not adhere to that candour and impartiality which at the beginning of his book he professes to esteem, instead of erecting the fortress of satire upon the ruins of philanthropy. Invidious comparison, and ill-natured remarks, on a people who are really polite and hospitable to an extreme, whilst it yields a momentary gratification to malignancy, is sure to give offence where, instead of censure, the tribute of gratitude is due. I have heard in several places complaints of his illiberality, and in this city have seen it revenged in a manner both singular and humorous. A dealer in earthen-ware made a large importation from Liverpool of certain chamber furniture, with the head of the tour-writer painted at the bottom; under the head is a poetical invitation which (though delicacy forbids me to quote) I may inform you, is readily accepted; for nymphs and swains, and, in short, every description of resentful Hibernians, pour the willing yet indignant offering on the effigy of Tw-ss.

[To be continued.]

THE LIFE OF

MRS. ANNE AYSCOUGH, OR ASKEW.

HE man who shall endeavour to depreciate the female character discernment, or in the extensiveness of mental power, will incur my pity for his ignorance, or contempt for his prejudice. The pen of faithful history has registered so many brilliant examples of female integrity, strength of mind, and acuteness of intellect, as for ever to shame the attempt of those who shall strive to lessen the general merit of the sex. The field of science has not received all its cultivation and improvement from the labours and vigorous understanding of the masculine part of the human kind alone; nor has the history of human nature recorded instances of unshaken firmness of soul, in the midst of the most perilous scenes, and the most terrible tortures, on the side of man only. With all his mighty consequence and fancied superiority as the head of the creation, she who was formed flesh of his flesh, and bone of his bone, to be his solace and his joy, has borne her part also of suffering and honour. In the various degradations and exaltations of human nature, which, ever since the fall, have been perpetually taking place, woman has shared her equal portion with man.

If many of the daughters of Eve have been eminent in turpitude, still more have shone conspicuous by the splendor of their virtues and their talents. But I am not here going to adduce a catalogue of female worthies; such a work would be ample in its magnitude, and illustrious in its contents.

I shall here bring forward a female with whom the history of this country is honoured. One whose magnanimity was only equalled by her piety, and whose talents were proportioned to her virtues. Let my fair readers contemplate her character with an emulous desire, and her conduct with a virtuous pride.

Anne Ayscough, or, as it has been corruptly written, from a base pronunciation, Askew, was the daughter of Sir William Ayscough, of Kelsay in the county of Lincoln, knight, and, probably, born there about the year 1520. Her descent was noble, and her education liberal. Bishop Burnet, however, was strangely mistaken when he asserted that she was "educated beyond what was ordinary in that age to those of her sex :" a liberal education, on the contrary, was not only common to the ladies of quality at that time, but the turn of their studies was generally to the higher branches of learning. The daughters of Sir Thomas More may be produced as an evidence of this. They were well acquainted with the Greek, and wrote Latin epistles. In the latter accomplishment they were equalled by Catharine of Arragon, the first wife of Henry VIII. by Queen Catherine Parr, and Queen Mary. The literary acquisitions, particularly in Greek, of the amiable and unfortunate Jane Grey have been celebrated by the accurate and erudite Ascham. Queen Elizabeth not only understood Latin, but con

versed in it fluently and elegantly. It fhould seem that a learned education was peculiarly fashionable for females of rank in the reign of Henry.

He was himself a learned prince, which, with the great care he took of the education of his children, renders it by no means surprizing that his court should abound in men of letters, or that there should be so many ladies in England at that period versed in the learned tongues.

The lady who is the subject of the present memoir, had for her tutor a gentleman of the royal household, one Mr. John Lascelles, a secret favourer of the reformation. From him it is probable she received those principles of religion which occasioned her future troubles, and procured her at last the crown of martyrdom and of fame. It is remarkable that both he and his amiable pupil suffered in the same fire.

The injustice and avarice of her father plunged her into the misery of an unhappy marriage. Hard necessity, the effect of paternal tyranny, rivetted those iron bonds which pressed heavy upon her soul. Love lighted not the fire upon the altar, and it is therefore not to be wondered at that such an union should end in a divorce. That zealous and faithful compiler Bishop Bale, who was her cotemporary, and, it should seem, her acquaintance, thus relates this affair: A match was "made, by the power of their parents, between Mr. Kyme his son in "Lincolnshire, and Sir William Ashcough his eldest daughter, who

chanced to die before the completing thereof. Sir William loath to "lose so rich an heir, and having paid part of her portion, compelled this "Anne, his second daughter, to supply her sister's place, and to marry "him against her own will and consent; notwithstanding, the marriage once past, she demeaned herself like a Christian wife, and bare him two children. In process of time, by oft reading of the sacred Bible, "she clearly fell from all papistry to a perfect belief in Jesus Christ. Whereupon her husband was so offended, that (by the suggestion of "the priests) he violently drove her out of his house; and she, on "this occasion, sought from the law a divorce; and, because of his cruel usage, would not return unto him again; thinking herself free from that uncomely kind of coacted marriage, hy the doctrine "of St. Paul: But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart. A brother or sister is not under bond in fuch cases: but God bath called us to peace.” Such is Bale's account of her marriage and separation, as given us by Fuller in his Church History, by way of refuting the slander of that virulent and lying writer Robert Parsons, who had" condemned her "for leaving her husband at home, and gadding to gospel and gossip

it at court." One would suppose that the Jesuit's malignancy had run away with his understanding, as a court at any time is not a very likely place for a religious person to gospel in. That of Henry was far from being a desirable or safe situation for an enlightened Christian, Prudence would have rather repelled such from a spot that was stained deep with the blood both of papists and protestants; the latter for their religion, and the former for their politics. The truth is she visited the court for the purpose of obtaining a divorce from her brutal and

bigotted husband, and, as Dr. Fuller shrewdly observes, perchance "she would only answer to the king for her behaviour towards her husband, as hoping for some tenderness from his Highness, because "of some general conformity in the first part of her case with the king's; as who, for by-respects, was first married, and then divorced "from his brother's wife."

Her many accomplishments, and especially her wit and beauty, recommended her to the notice of the queen, and the acquaintance of the principal ladies of the court. That queen was Catherine Parr, a favourer of the reformation, and possessed of a mind enriched with learning and piety.

While she was soliciting her cause at court, her husband, or his bloody counsellors the priests, followed her with the dreadful accusation of heresy. The famous six sanguinary articles were then flaming in all their terror against the protestants. Nothing could be more dangerous than a charge of disbelieving the dogma of transubstantiation, unless it was the denying of the king's supremacy.

At this very time Gardiner bishop of Winchester, and several of the lay lords, were devising every measure to procure the destruction of queen and Cranmer.

the

Observing, therefore, the attention that was paid to Mrs. Ayscough, the frequency of her attendance upon the court, and her familiarity with the Duchess of Suffolk and other ladies of rank, those murderous harpies immediately determined to lay their talons upon this unfortunate victim, to draw from her such information as might serve to accomplish their purpose.

She was accordingly apprehended, and underwent several examinations, in which neither threats nor allurements could draw from her any thing to prejudice her noble friends.

She was examined first in March 1545, by Christopher Dare, inquisitor; and afterwards by different ecclesiastical officers, chiefly upon the article of the real presence. Her first place of confinement was the Compter, where she was severely kept eleven days. At last, after considerable pains and difficulty, her friends obtained permission to bail her, Mr. Britayne her cousin, and Mr. Spelman of Gray's Inn, being her sureties.

Before this favour was granted the weakness of human nature had sunk under the terrors that surrounded her, and she was prevailed upon to sign a recantation before that bloodhound Bonner, then Bishop of London. In this instrument she acknowledged, "That the natural

66

body of Christ was present in the sacrament after the consecration, "whether the priest were a good or an ill man; and that, whether it was presently consumed or reserved in the Pix it was the true body "of Christ," Yet, as bishop Burnet observes, notwithstanding this apparent defection, she guarded her subscription by the addition,

that she believed all things according to the Catholic Faith, and not "otherwise." Bonner was dissatisfied with this, and could hardly be prevailed upon by close and powerful application to permit her to be bailed at all.

But her liberty was of short duration; for she was again apprehended by order of council, and examined at the board then sitting at Greenwich. Here he was closely and severely interrogated by the Chancellor Wriothesly, the bishop of Winchester, Dr. Cox, and Dr. Robinson; but neither their menaces nor reasonings could draw from her a recantation of her religious sentiments, nor any confession prejudicial to the queen or the ladies of the court. She replied very smartly and pertinently to the arguments of her examiners, and was particularly witty upon Gardiner. Some were pleased with the wit and freedom of her discourse, but others thought she was too forward. The council ordered her to be committed to Newgate, though at the same time her health was in a very declining state.

In this dismal situation, and with nothing but the flames in view, this extraordinary woman employed her time in writing devotional pieces and letters, the perusal of which cannot but excite in the reader. the most lively surprize and admiration.

It

The first of these that striktes our attention is her confession of faith, than which few divines of that period could have framed a better. runs in the following terms: "Concerning my belief, I find in the Scriptures that Christ took the bread, and gave it to his disciples, saying: “Take, eat, this is my body which shall be broken for you, meaning, in substance, his own very body, the bread being thereof an only sign or sacrament. For after like manner of speaking, he "said he would break down the temple, and in three days build it up again, signifying his own body by the temple, as St. John declareth it, John ii. and not the stony temple itself. So that the bread is but a remembrance of his death, or a sacrament of thanksgiving for it, whereby we are knit unto him by a communion of Christian love. Although there may be many that cannot perceive the true meaning "thereof; for the veil that Moses put over his face before the children " of Israel, that they could not see the clearness thereof, Exod. xxiv. " and 2 Cor. iii. I perceive the same veil remaineth to this day. But when God fhall take it away then shall these blind men see. For it is plainly expressed in the history of Bell in the Bible, that God dwelleth in no thing material. O king (saith Daniel) be not deceived, e for God will be in nothing that is made with the hands of men. Dan. xiv. Oh what stiff-necked people are these, that will always resist the Holy Ghost? But as their fathers have done so do they, because they have stony hearts. Written by me Anne Askew, that neither wish"eth death nor yet feareth his might, and as merry as one that is "bound towards heaven."

I am struck with awful respect at the dignity of soul expressed in the concluding sentence of this confession. Persisting thus zealously in the profession of what she esteemed the truth of Christianity, her persecutors, for the benefit of her soul, passed sentence of death upon her as a contumacious heretic.

Of this condemnation she herself has left an account, which it would be unjust not to give exactly in her own words: