For think you the Being, whose throne is above,
The prayers of his children would spurn
Oh, no-the Great Spirit, whose attribute's love,
Ne'er created his creatures to mourn.

When the breezes of commerce our vessels propel,
And our ships to their harbours return,

The fluttering sails, and the ocean's white swell,
Both cry Man was not made to mourn.'

When Phoebus declines on the evening of May,
And his arrows the mountains adorn,
Go, ask yon young lovers who carelessly stray,
They'll say, 'Man was not made to mourn."

When the priest at the altar these lovers unite,
And the vows of religion are sworn,
Oh! who but a cynic could witness the sight,
And deny, Man was not made to mourn.'

But see at the font, in the stoled priest's embrace,
Yon child, the proud father's first-born,

If the mind of a man can be read in his face,
His says, 'Man was not made to mourn.'

When our friends are laid out on the cold silent bier,
And our dearest connexions are torn,

The voice of Jehovah sounds sweet in our ear,
For it says Man was not made to mourn.'

When Azräel* consigns, at Jehovah's behest,
Our bodies to death's final bourne,

The Amaranth crown, and the harp of the blest,
Proclaim, Man was not made to mourn.'

Then say not-oh! say not the Spirit of love
Would the hopes of his children o'erturn:
Methinks I hear angels, in regions above,
As they sing, 'Man was not made to mourn.'
·Halifax, Feb. 1830.
GULIELMUS.

* Azrael the Angel of Death.

THE FALCONER.

Or all the pastimes by which the high-born during the middle ages sought to enliven the gloom (not unfrequent in time of peace) of the baronial castle, none were so fondly cherished, or so eagerly pursued; none held so high a place in their esteem, or maintained it for so long a period, as the royal (for such was its high designation) sporte of hawkynge.' It is singular, too, that no other sport has fallen into such complete desuetude. Chess, and draughts, and most, indeed, of the various games that beguiled the monotony of the castle hall, still amuse the inmates of the modern drawing-room. The athletic sports that delighted our forefathers have not yet lost their charm. Trials of skill in archery, although childish play compared with those of former days, still draw up together a goodly company' clad in Lincoln green (the only characteristic shared in common with the archer-band of yore, whose clothyard shafts flew from the mighty six-feet yewbow); while, year by year, the stag-hounds are still uncoupled, and the merry greenwood, through the bright days of summer, rings with the shrill bugle of the hunter. Every sport and pastime has remained almost unaltered, save that, the knowledge of whose quaint and extensive vocabulary formed the most indispensable part of the noble damsel's education-that sport, into whose mysteries' the proudest noble was honoured to initiate his monarch's son-that' gentle crafte,' whose many fascinations induced the dainty dame, Juliana Berners, prioress of Sopewell, at the birth-time of printing, to lay aside her missal and rosary to indite with her own fair hand the Boke of Seynte Alban,' which is now, save to the antiquary, almost unknown. We will therefore, dear reader, take you into the mews, and give you some notion of that pastime, which, for more than five centuries, was the most cherished sport of our ancestors. When we remember what limited sources of amusement our ancestors possessed, and what peculiar charms all out-door

Published March 1.1830. by James Robins & Co Ivy I anelondon.

sports must have exhibited to the inhabitants of the high-walled, close-pent castle, through whose narrow windows even the bright sunbeam struggled faintly and timidly, it will not appear surprising that a sport which necessarily led them to the fair open plain, or the still out-spread lake, or along the banks of the clear sparkling river, was hailed with delight. The noble unhooded his falcon with ten-fold glee, as his proud eye wandered over the wide expanse that owned him as its lord; and as the knight ambled beside his fair lady, ever on the watch to unloose her merlin when the quarry was in sight, and to replace it on the broidered glove, after taking the prey from its talons, no wonder he exulted in a pastime which combined the in-door pleasures of conversation with the charms of pure air and bright sun-shine. The tastes of the nobles of the middle ages led them to consider wild fowl as the greatest delicacy: now, it was by hawking alone these could be obtained; and what, perhaps, added the highest zest to this favourite food, was the remembrance that it was altogether beyond the reach of the lower orders. The bold outlaw, in despite of a folio of forest laws written in blood, ranged the green-wood, and, almost before the eyes of the feudal lord, bore off the 'hart of Greece,' a trophy of his trusty bow and wellfledged arrow; buthern, perdrich, and plovere' were beyond his aim; and money to buy, and time and skill to train the falcon, were alike denied him. Hawking thus became emphatically the sport of the high-born; and when, subsequently, the various species of hawks were assigned to the various gradations of rank,' the gerfalcon for a king; the falcon gentle for a prince; the falcon of the rock for a duke; the sacret for a knight; the merlin for a lady; the lanere for a squire ;' it became a species of heraldry; and the falcon on the wrist indicated the rank of the noble no less than his armorial bearings.

And intelligent and attached were these feathered favourites, and capable of a high degree of education.