Most curiously that bower was built
Of stone and timber strong,
One hundred and fifty doors
Did to this bower belong,

And they so cunningly contrived

With turnings round about,

That none but with a clue of thread
Could enter in or out.

Though the authorities differ upon the point, whether this fair lady was poisoned by Queen Elianor, all agree that the Queen discovered her retreat. Higden, the monk of Chester, whose account is followed by Stowe, says, "the Queen came to her by a clue of thread or silk, and so dealt with her, that she lived not long after." Holinshed says, "it was the common report of the people, that the Queen found her out by a silken thread, which the King had drawn after him out of her chamber with his foot, and dealt with her in such sharp and cruel wise, that she lived not long after." Speed says, that the Queen "discovered her by a clue of silk, fallen from Rosamond's lap as she sat to take air, and suddenly fleeing from the sight of the searcher, the end of her silk fastened to her foot, and the clue still unwinding, remained behind, which the Queen followed, till she had found what she sought, and

upon Rosamond so vented her spleen, as the lady lived not long after." Upon the dissolution of the religious houses, her tomb at Godstow, as we have already stated, was examined, and attracted some attention, and a cup being found upon it, the popular notion that she was poisoned was either originated, or acquired additional strength. However this may be, it is certainly worth notice that none of the old historians attribute her death to poison, and that the oldest ballads and poems made upon her sad fate with which we are acquainted, only date as far back as the reign of Elizabeth.

The popular ballad of Thomas Delone, already quoted, appears not to have been published till 1612, as may be seen from the introduction to it by Bishop Percy, in his "Relics of Ancient Poetry:" Daniel's "Complaint of Fair Rosamond" was published somewhat earlier. There is this to be said in favour of the popular version,-found popular, and made still more so by the poets,-that there is nothing improbable in the story of her poisoning. Queen Elianor is allowed on all hands to have been a jealous, violent, and bad woman. Poor Rosamond had but one sin to answer for, but her rival Elianor had many. She led a

life of promiscuous gallantry before her marriage with Henry, and afterwards excited his sons to rebel against him, and distract the kingdom.

No traces of this famous bower and labyrinth have existed for centuries, but the concurrent testimony of all the historians impel us to believe that they did exist as represented. Some slight remains of a bath, amid the groves on the northern part of the park, are pointed out, which are believed to have formed part of the bower of Rosamond.

66

In Woodstock park resided for many years the father of English poetry, venerable, wellbeloved, most worthy Geoffrey Chaucer. Many have asserted that he was born in Woodstock. The learned Camden once countenanced this opinion, for, speaking of Woodstock, he says having nothing in it else remarkable, it can boast of having produced our English Homer, Geoffrey Chaucer." Leland doubted whether he were born in Berkshire or Oxfordshire; but if we may judge from the poet's own words, that great honour belongs to the city of London. Speaking of the disturbances in London, when the mob destroyed the Savoy palace, where he long resided with his royal friend, John of Gaunt, he says, "The city of London that is

to me so dear and sweet, in which I was forth grown, and more kindly love have I to that place than to any other on earth, as every kindly creature hath full appetite to that place of his kindly engendering." However this may be, Woodstock is nevertheless classic ground, for if Chaucer were not born there, he resided there. "His house," says Dr. Urry," was a square stone house, near the park gate, which still retained its name in 1721. Many of the rural descriptions in his poems appear to be representations of the actual scenery of the park. Thus,

"And right anon as I the day espide

Ne longer would I in my bedde abide,
But unto a woode that was mee fast by
I went forth myself alone and boldily,
And held the way downe by a brooke side
Till I came to a land of white and grene,

So fair an one had I never in bene,

The ground was grene, ypowdered with daisye
The flouris and the grevis alike hye,

Al grene and white was nothing ellis sene."

These lines appeared to Dr. Urry to be an exact portraiture of the way from Chaucer's house down by the brook side, through part of the park to the vale, under Blenheim Castle. The nightingale in that poem is represented as saying to the sleeping bard that it would sing

"The morrow after St. Valentine's day
Under a maple that is fair and grene,
Before the chamber window of the Quene
At Wodestocke upon the grene laye."

The scene of his poem of the Dream is also laid in Woodstock Park, where it appears, when not engaged in study, his favourite diversion was to walk. Yet perhaps these morning walks among the trees, which he describes in various parts of his works with such luxuriance of poetry, were the times when he studied most. He made acquaintance with nature in her solitudes, studied her sweet face in his early rambles, and was thereby enabled to paint her so well. Chaucer, from the busy life he led in London, being mixed up so intimately with all the affairs of the powerful John of Gaunt, shared naturally the evils of that prince's fortunes. In the troubles that ensued in London, after the citation of Wickliffe, and the arrest of Comberton, late Mayor of London, Chaucer became obnoxious to the King, and was obliged to fly to the Continent to avoid imprisonment. On his return, he determined to mix himself up no more in political questions, and John of Gaunt, being then absent on his expedition to recover the kingdom of Castile and Leon,