Coiffures de Ferd. Hamelin pass du Jaumen, 21-Fleurs de Chagon.

Passementeries de Richeuer Bayard.r.

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Chaussures de Baptiste

Graham's Magazine.

2.

GRAHAM'S MAGAZINE.

PHILADELPHIA, FEBRUARY, 1848.

STOKE CHURCH AND PARK.

THE SCENE OF GRAY'S ELEGY, AND RESIDENCE OF THE PENNS OF PENNSYLVANIA.

THE Manor of Stoke, with its magnificent mansion | time of William the Conqueror, A. D. 1086, to Wiland picturesque park, is situate near the village of Stoke Pogeys, in the county of Buckingham, four

walls embattled, and imparke the woods; also that it should be exempt from the authority of the marshal of the king's household, or any of his officers; and in further testimony of the king's favor, he had summons to Parliament among the barons of the realm. During the wars of the rival Roses, the place was owned by Sir Robert Hungerford, commonly called Lord Moleyns, by reason of his marriage with Alianore, daughter of William. Lord Moleyns.

Lord George Hungerford succeeding his father, was advanced to the title of Earl of Huntingdon by King Henry the Eighth, in 1529. He died the 24th of March, 1543, and lies buried in the chancel of Stoke Pogeys. Edward, his second son, was a warrior with King Henry the Eighth, and during the reign of Henry's daughter, Queen Mary, 1555, declared his testament, appointing his body to be buried at Stoke Pogeys, and directing his executors to build a chapel of stone, with an altar therein, adjoining the church or chancel, where the late Earl Huntingdon and his wife (his father and mother) lay buried; and that a tomb should be made, with their images carved in stone, appointing that a plate of copper, double gilt, should be made to represent his own image, of the size of life, in harness, (armor,) and a memorial in writing, with his arms, to be placed upright on the wall of the chapel, without any other tomb for him. He died without issue. Earl Henry was the last of the illustrious family of Huntingdon who possessed the manor and manor-house of Stoke; and the embarrassed state of his affairs compelled him to mortgage

This Lord Robert, siding with the Lancasterians, or the Red Roses, upon the loss of the battle of Towton, fled to York, where King Henry the Sixth then was, and afterward with him into Scotland. He was attainted by the Parliament of Edward the Fourth; but the king took compassion on Alianore, his wife, and her children, committing her and them to the care of John, Lord Wenlock, to whom he had granted all her husband's manors and lands, granting them a fitting support as long as her said husband, Lord Robert, should live. But the Lancasterians making head in the north, he "flew out" again, being the chief of those who were in the castle of the Percys, at Alnwick, with five or six hundred French-the estate to one Branthwait, a sergeant at law, in men, and being taken prisoner at the battle of Hexham, he was beheaded at Newcastle on Tyne, but buried in the north aisle of the cathedral of Salisbury.

Lady Alianore, his widow, lies buried in the church of Stoke Pogeys; and her monument may still be seen, with an epitaph commencing thus:

1580, during which period it was occupied by Lord Chancellor Sir Christopher Hatton, the fine dancer, one of the celebrated favorites of Elizabeth, the lascivious daughter of King Henry the Eighth-a woman as fickle as profligate, as cruel and hardhearted, so far as regarded her numerous paramours, as her brutal father was in respect to his wives.

This historical detail, gathered from Domesday Book, Dugdale, and other authorities, is narrated in consequence of its bearing upon some celebrated poems hereafter to be noticed, and is continued up to the present period for a like reason.

Hic, hoc sub lapide sepelitur Corpus venerabilis Domina Alianora Molins, Baronissia, quam prius desponsavit Dominus Robertus Hungerford, miles et Baro. &c. &c. Notwithstanding the grant to Lord Wenlock, Thomas, the son and heir of Lord Robert HungerSir Christopher Hatton died in 1591, and settled ford, succeeded to the estate. For a time he sided with the famous Earl of Warwick, the king-maker, became the second wife of Sir Edward Coke, Lord his estate on Sir William Newport, whose daughter who took part with Edward the Fourth, but afterChief Justice of the Court of King's Bench, who purward "failing off," and endeavoring for the restoration of King Henry the Sixth, was seized on, and chased the estate of Stoke. After the dissolution of the Parliament by King Charles the First, in March, tried for his life at Salisbury, before that diabolical tyrant, crook-back Duke of Gloucester, afterward 1628–9, Sir Edward Coke being then greatly advanced in years, retired to his house at Stoke, where he spent Richard the Third, where he had judgment of the the remainder of his days in a quiet retirement, unideath of a traitor, and suffered accordingly the next day. But during the reign of Henry the Seventh, in 1485, versally respected and esteemed; and there, says his when the Red Roses became triumphant at the de-epitaph, crowned his pious life with a pious and cisive battle of Bosworth, and these unnatural and bloody wars which had devastated England for nearly thirty years, being brought to a close, by the union of Henry with Elizabeth of York, representative of the White Roses, the attainder of Thomas, as well as that of his father, Lord Robert, being reversed in Parlia-Purbeck, elder brother of Villiers, Duke of Buckingment, his only child and heir, called Mary, succeeded ham, who perished by the hand of the assassin, Felton.

Christian departure, on Wednesday the 3d day of September, A. D., 1631, and of his age 83; his last words, "THY KINGDOM COME, THY WILL BE DONE!"

Upon the death of Sir Edward Coke, the manor and estate of Stoke devolved to his son-in-law, Viscount

Lord Purbeck, upon the death of his wife, daughter of Sir Edward Coke, married Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Sling-by, by whom he had a son, Robert, John Danvers, one of the judges who sat on the trial which Robert, marrying the daughter and heir of Sir of King Charles the First, obtained a patent from Cromwell, Protector of the Commonwealth. to change his name to Danvers, alledging as the reasons for his so doing "the many disservices done to the commonwealth by the name of the family of Villiers."

In 1657, Viscount Purbeck granted a lease of the manor and house of Stoke, to Sir Robert Gayer during his own life; and in the same year, his son, Robert Villiers, or Danvers, sold his reversionary interest in the estate to Sir R. Gayer for the sum of eight thousand five hundred and sixty-four pounds. The family of Gayers continued in possession until 1724, when the estate was sold for twelve thousand pounds to Edmund Halsey, Esq., M. P., who died in 1729, his daughter Anne married Sir Richard Temple, created Viscount Cobham, who survived him; and she resided at Stoke until her death in the year 1760.

The house and manor of Stoke were sold in the same year, by the representatives of Edmund Halsey, to the Honorable Thomas Penn, Lord Proprietary of the Province of Pennsylvania, the eldest surviving son of the Honorable William Penn, the celebrated founder and original proprietary of the province.

Upon the death of Thomas Penn, in 1775, the manor of Stoke, together with all his other estates, devolved upon his eldest surviving son, John, by the Right Honorable Lady Juliana, his wife, fourth daughter of the Earl of Pomfret.

In 1789, the ancient mansion of Stoke, appearing to Mr. Penn, after some years absence in America, to demand very extensive repairs, (chiefly from the destructive consequences of damp in the principal rooms,) it was judged advisable to take it down.

The style of its architecture was not of a kind the most likely to dissuade him from this undertaking. Most of the great buildings of Queen Elizabeth's reign have a style peculiar to themselves, both in form and finishing, where, though much of the old Gothic is retained, and a great part of the new style is adopted, yet neither predominates, while both, thus indiscriminately blended, compose a fantastic species, hardly reducible to any class or name. One of its characteristics is the affectation of large and lofty windows, where, says Lord Bacon, "you shall have sometimes faire houses so full of glass, that one cannot tell where to become to be out of the sun."

The new buildings, or, more properly speaking, Palace of Stoke, was begun by Mr. Penn immediately after his return from a long absence in Pennsylvania, and was covered-in in December, 1790. It is scarcely possible to conceive a finer site than that chosen by him for his new mansion, being on a commanding eminence, the windows of the principal front looking over a rich, variegated landscape toward the lofty towers of Windsor Castle, at a distance of four miles, which terminates the view in that direction; whilst about and around the site are abundance of magnificent aged oaks, elms, and beeches.

The poems of Thomas Gray, who was educated at Eton, and resided at Stoke, are perhaps better known, more read, more easily remembered, and more frequently quoted, than those of any other English poet. Where is the person who does not remember with feelings approaching to enthusiasın, the impressions made on his youthful fancy by the enchanting language of the "Elegy written in a Country Church-yard?” Who can ever forget the impressions with which he first read the narrative of the "hoary-headed swain," and the deep emotion felt on perusing the pathetic epitaph, "graved on the stone, beneath yon aged thorn," beginning—

Here rests his head upon the lap of earth.
A youth to fortune and to fame unknown:
Fair science frowned not on his humble birth.
And melancholy marked him for her own.

That exquisite poem contains passages "grav'd" on
the hearts of all who ever read it in youth, until
they themselves become hoary-headed—and then,
perhaps, remembered most.

But it is not the Elegy alone which makes an indelible impression on the youthful reader; equally imperishable are the lines on a distant prospect of Eton College.

Ye distant spires, ye antique towers,
That crown the wat'ry glade,
Where grateful science still adores
Her Henry's holy shade.*

A perfect specimen of this fantastic style, in complete And who can ever forget the Bard—
repair, may be seen in Hardwick Hall, county of
Derby, one of the many residences of that princely
and amiable nobleman, the Duke of Devonshire, and
a perfect contrast to it, at his other noble residence

Ruin seize thee, ruthless King!
Confusion on thy banners wait!
Though fann'd by conquests crimson wing,
They mock the air with idle state.

not many miles distant, in the same county, Chats- Or the lovely Ode on the Spring. worth, "the Palace of the Peak."

It is true that high antiquity alone gives, in the eye of taste, a continually increasing value to specimens of all such kinds of architecture; but beside that, the superiority of the new site chosen by Mr. Penn was manifest, the principal rooms of the old mansion at Stoke, where the windows admitted light from both the opposite sides, were instances, peculiarly excmplifying the remark of Lord Bacon, and countenancing the design to lessen the number of bad, and increase that of the good examples of architecture. But a wing of the ancient plan was preserved, and is still kept in repair, as a relic, harmonizing with the surrounding scenery, and forms with the rustic offices, and fruit-gardens annexed, the villa rustica and fructuaria of the place.

Lo! where the rosy bosom'd Hours
Fair Venus' train appear,
Disclose the long-expecting flowers,
And wake the purple year!

Or those sublime Odes-On The Progress of Poesy.
Awake, Æolian lyre, awake: and the Descent of
Odin:

Uprose the king of men with speed,
And saddled strait his coal-black steed:
Down the yawning steep he rode,
That leads to Hela's drear abode.

Who can ever forget the pleasure experienced on the first perusal, and on every subsequent reading

Eton was founded and endowed by King Henry the Sixth. A marble bust of the poet Gray was presented by Lord Morpeth, in 1846, and placed, amongst many others, in the upper school.