mains of this feudal fortress, but he was delighted with the extraordinary beauty of its situation.

Nothing, indeed, can be well more lovely and romantic than the scenery of which these ruins still form so striking a feature. They are placed on a considerable eminence, and surrounded by a double moat, once filled by the waters of the Rye, but now shadowed by many noble trees; the disposition and effect of which are such, as probably no taste, however exquisite, could improve. It has, in fact, been said, and perhaps justly, that each, when considered, both in relation to its own peculiar form, and to its position with respect to the ruin, forms a perfect picture; so much of richness, solemnity, and awe, do their dark and gigantic branches, especially when agitated by the passing storm, throw over the aspect and impression of the scene.

If a sense of majesty and sublimity, however, be the general emotion felt on contemplating the ruin itself, frowning, as it still seems to do, with baronial grandeur on the subject vale; it is sweetly and gracefully contrasted by the cha

racter of the landscape which enfolds it. Woods sweeping over the neighbouring heights and pendant to their base, vallies green, winding, and sequestered, and rivulets murmuring as they flow, are its prominent features, and communicate to the mind a sensation of inexpressible loveliness and serenity.

as it

In the very front of the castle, and washing, were, the foot of the eminence on which it stands, pass on, clear and rapid in their course, the mountain waters of the Rye, meandering reach after reach, through enclosures of the softest green, and often under the shelter of aged trees, whose boughs, stretched athwart its stream, seem listening to the music which it makes upon its rocky bed.

Such is, at the present hour, the scenery which surrounds this romantic ruin; and such was, with the exception of the trees which now shade the moat, its aspect, when Edward and Hoel passed through it in their way to the great gate of the castle.

"How calm and soothing is this scene," said the latter, as he hearkened to the cadence of the river; and how refreshing to the wearied

spirits! more especially, if we compare its present stillness and repose with what must have been its state in days of yore; for I perceive, that this castle has been a place of uncommon strength; and, no doubt, the object of many a bloody conflict."

"From the era of Sir Walter L'Espec, in the turbulent times of Stephen," replied Edward, "to the period of the late civil war, in the reign of Charles the First, it was, doubtless, considered as a station of great importance, and, therefore, subject to all the vicissitudes of warfare. Of so much consequence, indeed, was it held, as a barrier against the incursions of our Caledonian neighbours, that in the 13th of Edward the Third, that Prince having received intelligence that the Scotch menaced him with another invasion, he immediately commanded William de Roos instantly to repair to his castle at Hamlake (Helmsley), and to remain there with his men during the winter, in order to ensure the protection of these northern districts. Nor has it been less, in days long gone by, the seat of revelry and hospitality; for the Roos's, independent of their wealth, were

highly and extensively connected, not only with some of the first noble families of the kingdom, such as the Warwicks, Northumberlands, &c.; but even with the Royal Houses of England and Scotland; and tradition records them to have lived in a style corresponding with their rank and opulence."

"Then this ancient fortress, whose ruins we are now contemplating," remarked Hoel, "owes its dilapidated state to so late a period as that of the unhappy contest between Charles and his deluded subjects."

"It was after the sanguinary battle of MarstonMoor, on the 2d July, 1644," rejoined Edward, "that Sir Thomas, afterwards Lord Fairfax, taking advantage of a decisive victory which he had obtained on that fatal day, marched directly on the city of York; and having captured that important place on the 15th of the same month, it was thought necessary, towards the subjugation of the north, that a station of so much strength as was then the castle of Helmsley, should be also in the hands of the parliamentary army; and, accordingly, Fairfax, in the September following, sate down before it, and, after a

siege of some length, secured its possession. The attempt, however, had nearly cost him his life; for, whilst engaged in directing the attack, he received a dangerous shot in one of his shoulders, and was carried to York in a state which rendered his recovery for some time a matter of considerable doubt."

"And this was the Lord Fairfax, I presume," said Hoel," to whom the present Duke of Buckingham, having secured the affection of the daughter, was indebted for the restoration of his property."

"It is now but seventeen years since the decease of this celebrated general," rejoined Edward," who died repentant of the part which he had taken in the rebellion, and beloved for his many private virtues. He was, towards the close of his life, a martyr to the most painful of distempers; and absolutely confined to his chair, in which he is said to have sat like an old Roman, his manly countenance striking awe and reverence into all that beheld him; while it was mixed with as much modesty and sweetness, as were ever represented in the