same may be said of the greater number of those lying round a rather showy column, sculptured with the emblems of their order, and supporting a really graceful figure, which towers above the other monuments, and signals the place in which the fraternity of "Foresters" are laid to rest.

The aridness of the soil is one of the most noticeable features of the cemetery: the whole surface of the enclosure consists of peaty earth upon a substratum of sand and gravel. The antiseptic qualities of the first are well known, while the latter drain themselves and help to drain the entire of the ground. Hence a turfcovered grave is an impossibility, unless artificially nourished; and the innumerable thirdclass ones are sandy hillocks, overlaid, in many instances, with indigenous heaths, and just now rosy or purple with their blossoms.

Pursuing a wide sweeping path, with numerous smaller ones branching out of it, we find our way back to the higher part of the ground, and, in doing so, note a variety of exotic pines, which appear to be thoroughly acclimatized. Here an avenue of deodars, which, in spite of the unsheltered situation, are evidently flourishing, though the winds have bent their heads a little out of shape. Another avenue of "Wellingtonia gigantea" (an ancestor of which occupies a bay of the Crystal Palace) is also thriving, and the auricaria keeps its ground. Some of the paths are planted with lines of the straight dark Irish yew, whose almost black foliage is at this season lit up with oval waxlike fruit of a bright cherry colour. But the true lovers of the soil are the so-called American plants-the rhododendrons, kalmias, and azaleas, which thrive here as richly as in the neighbouring grounds of Mr. Waterton (to whom the chief beauty of the spring exhibition at the Botanical Gardens is due), and in early summer spread the ornamental parts of the ground with clouds of delicate or vivid colour. At this late period of the year the principal floral beauty of the cemetery consists of the great beds of pelargoniums, petunias, calceolaries, and other late-blooming and hardy plants, which continue in blossom till the frost sets in.

Walking on amongst a number of tombs of a conventional pattern, we meet occasionally with an original or an eccentric one. Not very far from the beautiful Gothic monument of Mr. Bent, of Walton, a huge rough block of serpentine stands up amidst what should have been an entourage of flowers, weird and striking. A beautifully polished portion of the slab tells the usual story of a beloved wife's death, and at the same time shows the capabilities of the serpentine, in which mineral the memorialist has a vital interest. On this discovery, we confess that our sentimentality suffered an eclipse. The innocence of the dove had been stung to death in us by the subtlety of the serpent-or rather of the serpentine-and we were moving away with a little bitterness of heart, over the worldly wisdom of that ingeniously-devised memorial, when our steps were

arrested by the extreme luxuriance and beauty of a garden-grave at the foot of a white beadstone, on which, in a glazed niche similar those so common on the monuments in Frenc cemeteries, was a mediæval representation of i Holy Family, in gilt relievo, and chained to th foot of the stone, a mass of curiously conglons rated materials fused in the great fire of London. 1666, and offered by a collector and antique; in honour of his wife! But his attentions to the remains of a helpmate over sixty years of are at her death does not end in passive sacrifices: the garden and low rail surrounding it, which i freshly painted by his own hands almost once a fortnight, attest to the undying nature of i faithful husband's regard, and served to mod our recent conclusions; especially when, a few yards further on, we observed lying alone in a wide space, which it is intended hereafter to eclose, an elegant coffin-shaped tomb of polished Purbeck and white marble, on which is screwed, at top and bottom of the body-stone, an ornamental cross of gun-metal, in deference to the wishes of a regretted wife, who had desired that the shadow of this emblem might fall upon he grave. The chasteness of the design, and the beauty of the material and workmanship, are remarkable, and the whole looks like an elegant expression of manly but Christian grief.

At a little distance on the other side of a wide path, not far from the heavy-looking mausoleum of the Colquhouns, another grave, more sigular than attractive, may be seen-a vaut, with a cover running on railway principles, se as to enable a visitor to push it back without assistance. A ladder leads to the interior entrance, and through a grating in the door a solitary coffin is visible; and here frequently comes a devoted survivor to grieve over it, and probably anticipate the time when his own (for which a space is left) will rest beside it. There is some little mystery about this tomb, which bears neither name nor inscription. A sister s said to lie there. But brothers do not mourn their sisters, as a rule, with a fadeless grief, cr with a morbid passion continue to visit their remains. We turn away with the words of a remembered song ringing in our ears :

"Gone our happy dream of life,
Like a dried-up river;

I no husband, thou no wife-
Thus we part for ever!"

But, like an echo, comes back the last verse of the lyric, jubilant and full of hope:

"Those whom God made spouse and wife,
Let no man dare sever;

In the eternal land of Life

Thou art mine for ever."

Other note-worthy monuments, some of them the graves of men of "mark and likelihood" he around, but our space will not allow us to particularize them.

We retrace our steps to the platform, from whence at a glance we review the cemetery, the

"The chemist bee, with busy murmuring,

Extracts the soul of sweetness from each flower," and all is so fresh and sweet, and communicative of a serene enjoyment, that we leave the Necropolis with regret, and resolve at the earliest opportunity to repeat our pilgrimage to Woking Common. C. W.

The celebrated legend of the Wandering Jew, which occupied so large a share of attention in the middle ages, and which is still believed by many of the peasants of Europe, cannot be traced in any chronicle further than the thirteenth century, though kept in a traditional form long anterior to that time. It probably took its rise from some allegory in the mouth of an eloquent preacher, who personified the sufferings of banishment of the whole Jewish nation, under the form of a single man. The decree of Heaven condemning the Jews to drag their deplorable individuality over the whole world, never to be absorbed or effaced among strange nations, is admirably symbolised in the history of the Wandering Jew.

The crusaders were probably the first to bring the story from Palestine, and, at any rate, it attached itself to the terrors of the year One Thousand, which was to be marked as the end of the world, the appearance of Antichrist, and the last Judgment. From this time every imagination was struck with the marvellous history; the theoretical doctors seized upon it, and tried to make it agree with various texts: some asserted he was Malchus, whose ear Peter cut off in the garden; others that he was the wicked thief, who thus received his punishment in the world, or even Pilate himself. The matter was only settled in 1228, when an archbishop, from Armenia, who came to England to visit the relics and holy places, stopped at the monastery of St. Albans, and was questioned about the famous Joseph, who was present at the passion of our Saviour, spoke to him, and is still a witness to the Christian faith. The reply of the archbishop, in his own tongue, was perfectly unintelligible; but a knight of Antioch undertook to translate it, and it has been transmitted to us by the old chronicler, Matthew Paris, as follows:

"After Jesus had been judged in the Prætorium the Jews dragged him out of the hall, and, falling down at the threshold, Cartaphilus, the porter, rudely pushed him, striking him on the back, and with a mocking laugh, said: 'Go forwards, quickly, Jesus, go; why do you stop?' Jesus turning to him, with a severe expression, replied: I am going;' but, as for thee, thou

shalt wait till I return! So he is waiting, and every time he reaches the age of a hundred years he is seized with a strange illness, which seems incurable, and ends in lethargy; after which he becomes as young as he was at the time of the crucifixion-that is, thirty years. He has been baptized, wears the eastern dress, is a man of holy conversation, relating all the particulars of the passion and resurrection of the Son of God, and how the apostles separated to preach the gospel: all this he tells without ever smiling; for, plunged in tears and full of the fear of the Lord, he is waiting until Christ shall come to judge all men. He refuses the presents that are offered to him, contents himself with frugal living and plain attire, and places his hope of eternal salvation in the ignorance in which he stood with regard to Jesus."

After such a testimony on the part of so venerable a prelate, doubt was impossible; the legend passed from mouth to mouth, spread over France, the low countries, and Germany, where it appears to have been received with more faith and sympathy than anywhere else. But one other contemporary historian mentions it-Philippe Mouskes, bishop of Tournay: and he only translates the History of the Monk of St. Albans. We hear nothing more of this wonderful person for three centuries, at which time a letter, dated the 29th of June, 1564, written by some good Catholic at Hamburg, was widely circulated: from it we extract a few particulars.

Paul d'Eitzen, a doctor in theology and bishop of Schleszving, being at Hamburgh, on a visit to his parents, saw standing, opposite a preacher he was listening to, a tall man, with long hair hanging over his shoulders, bare feet, and a mantle reaching over his knees, about fifty years of age. He showed the most marked attention, bowing, beating his breast, and sighing deeply at the name of Jesus. Noticing his strange gestures, d'Eitzen inquired who he was, and was told that his name was Ahasuerus, a shoemaker by trade, who had been present at the crucifixion. The bishop then spoke to him, and heard various particulars of his life. Many persons came over to see him and pass their judgment upon him, the most common being

that he had a familiar spirit. If he heard any one swearing he shewed the greatest excitement and shed tears, saying: “Oh miserable man! how dare you thus take the name of God in vain and abuse it? Had you seen the bitterness and grief our Saviour endured for you and me, you would rather suffer for his glory than blaspheine his name."

This letter made the Wandering Jew once more the fashion, and every vagabond beggar who asked for alms, reciting prayers and singing psalms, was taken for him. A few years after, the Wandering Jew presented himself to the magistrates of Strasburg, saying that he had passed through their city two hundred years before, which was verified by the public registers. He spoke such good German that he was asked to explain this suspicious circumstance; his reply was that, by God's permission, he could understand and speak the native tongue as soon as he set foot in any country. His stay in Strasburg was short, and he expressed some regret that he could not return, since his pilgrimage would be ended when he had traversed the West Indies, and that the last day was near at hand. In the course of the year 1604 he was seen three times in France, and, as his appearance was coincident with tempests and storms, which blew down steeples and trees, the people drew the conclusion that he was carried from one place to another on a whirlwind: giving rise to a proverb still in use among the peasants of Brittany and Picardy, who, in the midst of a sudden storm cross themselves and say, "C'est le juif-errant qui passe !"

During one of his journeys through the valley of the Elbe, he left a prophecy, which is still repeated. On one of the highest points of the Saxon mountains, the Matterberg, now covered with snow, there was formerly a flourishing town, of which the Jew spoke in these terms: "The first time I come here I find a town: the second time that I shall come, there will be nothing but wood; and at my third visit I shall see nothing but snow and blocks of ice."

Ocular witnesses spoke to the fact of his being at Leipsic in 1642. Yet holy persons, coming from Palestine, asserted that he was a prisoner there under the Turks, who kept him in a subterranean dungeon, having no other recreation than walking up and down between the four walls. He still wore his Roman costume, which was wonderfully good, considering that it had been worn for sixteen hundred years. This incredible story came to France in the reign of Henry the Fourth, and being repeated at the Court of Margaret de Valois, the wise Pierre Louvet did not forget to give it a place in his history. In any case, two citizens of Brussels met him in the forest of Soigné, clothed in a very ragged dress, cut after an ancient fashion; he went into an auberge with them, drank something, but would not sit down; told them his history, called himself Isaac Laquedem, and left them greatly alarmed.

His appearance was anxiously looked for

during the remainder of the century, the German students at the universities made many festivals, in his honour, and drank their beer to his health; essays were written in the schools, but he was no doubt far away in some sixth hemisphere, to us unknown. It was on the 22nd of April, 1774, at six o'clock in the evening, the date being exactly registered, that the Wandering Jew made his last appearance, passing through Brussels into Brabant. Some peasants who saw him remarked the immense length of his beard, and the worn-out dress that he wore, and to them he repeated the well-known story. For nearly ninety years he has not deigned to show himself among a people who might now give him the benefit of the Mendicity Act, but literature and poetry have given him no rest: ten French plays are founded upon the legend; Schubart, the German poet, Edgar Quinet, and Beranger have made him the subject of poems; our own Dr. Croly has written his "Salathiel," and Eugène Sue his "Juif Errant," as the vestiges of a tradition which will soon be effaced.

WATCHING THE ROAD.

BY ADA TREVANION.

The harvest-fields and coppices
Are radiant in the sun;
The waves seem liquid diamonds,
And glitter everyone.

In the distance past the village,

And the church and mill and stile, Creeps the high-road, hot and dusty, Winding on mile after mile.

Further still, the park's acacias

Lift their graceful boughs on high, And the calm, fair lake reposes,

Sapphire-blue as summer sky. There he roves, the past forgetting,

By the close-clipped walls of yew; There she moves in robes of satin, O'er the soft grass bloomed with dew.

Down the road come happy children, Who have roamed by brake and beck, And have woven wilding flowers

Into wreaths for brow and neckDainty travellers in their carriage; Dusty travellers out of breath; Bridal coach, with snowy favours; Hearse, with sable plumes of death.

Now the golden day is waning,

And the reapers come in sight; And the road no longer glaring

Grows a line of misty white:
Yet I watch it, watch it ever,

Though I know it is in vain,
For a black horse and a rider
I shall never see again!

Ramsgate.

Among the followers of Pizarro, in his Peruvian campaign, was Hernando De Soto, a Spanish gentleman of high birth and great wealth, the latter principally achieved upon this expedition. Returning to Spain, De Soto could not rest quietly upon his wealth and laurels, but, having interest at the Court, had his request to Charles V. granted, making him governor of Cuba and Florida, the last of which be was to conquer and add to the colonies of Spain, at his

own cost.

On the 6th of April, 1538, there sailed from the port of San Lucar, of Barrimeda, a grand armament, in which was invested all the wealth of De Soto and his followers, many of whom, like himself, had achieved riches in former expeditions. With bands playing and streamers flying, they sailed out from the harbour, and bore away for Cuba, where they remained long enough to make all arrangements for the governiment of the isle during their absence, and then went onward to Florida, reaching the desired land, and casting anchor in a bay, which he named Espiritu Santo, but now known as Tampa Bay, in the month of May, 1539.

On this spot, before untrodden by the foot of the white man, he landed six hundred and twenty men, two hundred and twenty-three of whom brought horses, and on the following first of June set forth upon his march to the interior. Never before in the history of fillibustering was such a sight seen. Over six hundred men, many of whom were gentlemen of education, refinement, and wealth, setting forth with a poetical enthusiasm to penetrate an unknown land, and carrying with them all the grandeur of materiel to which they had been accustomed in courtly Spain. With the clash of arms and armour were mingled the gay strains of music; the lowing of the cattle intended for stocking such parts of the country as they might conquer and colonize; the hoarse baying of the bloodhounds, to hunt down the opposers of their progress; and over all, the tolling bell and loud prayers of the monks, who were to shed Christianity over the minds of the pagan captives. Notwithstanding all the show of arms and offensive demonstration, there is good authority for believing that Hernando De Soto started with pacific intention. He held certain enthusiastic ideas of civilizing the natives of the soil, and adding almost a continent to Spain, and wealth almost undreamed of to his own future; but the Indians, true to their traditions, refused conciliation, and impeded his march by every possible means.

He bent his course to the north-east from Tampa, towards the spot where now stands Fort King. Near this point he met with a Spaniard, Juan Ortis, who had twelve years before been left upon the coast by Pamphilo de Narvaez, and,

having been captured by the natives, was carried into captivity. This man was a valuable addition to the party; he having learned their language, could act as an interpreter. Up to the point where Fort King now stands they fought their way, sealing every step in the blood of their opposers, with little loss to themselves. They crossed the With-la-coochee and the Su-wa-nee, and then De Soto, finding it impossible to conciliate the people, commenced a war of devastation. He destroyed every native, and burned every dwelling, their occupants disdaining to ask for quarter. In this way he forced his course to what is now the Georgia border, when, from the tales of some of his captives, who related wondrous stories of yellow metal, he changed his course westward, bringing up finally on the Apalachee Bay. By this time, winter approaching, De Soto determined to remain at that spot until spring. He fortified himself, sent out exploring parties, discovered the harbour of Pensacola, built a vessel, dispatched it to Cuba for supplies, to be brought the following year to Pensacola, or Ochouse Bay, and on the 3rd of March, 1540, broke up his quarters, and started once more for the place pointed out by the natives, where he was to find gold, silver, pearls, and gems. Under this hope they marched with the enthusiasm of old, and, as of old, battling their way on, burning and slaying whatever opposed their progress. They journeyed up the western bank of the Flint River, crossing it into Georgia, and passing over the ground where now stands Macon and Milledgeville, and finally, after fearful perils, reached Cofachiqui, on the head waters of the Chattanooga, the land where they had expected to find these vast treasures, to see only an abundance of copper, as a reward for their toil and peril. The only treasure they did get was an abundance of fine pearls, but not enough to satisfy the cupidity that had brought them there. These pearls were obtained in great quantities from the streams flowing about the neighbourhood of Chattanooga, probably the Lookout and Chattanooga creeks, and the Chickamauga river.

On the second of July they once more started upon their march, and before evening encamped by a village called Acoste. Here De Soto was met by their chief and fifteen hundred warriors, in a friendly spirit, which was almost immediately ended by some of the Spaniards attempting to pillage the houses. De Soto at once saw the overwhelming peril, and seizing a club, he rushed upon his own men, driving them before him out of the village. The act was taken by the chief as a proof of amity, and the difficulty was at once stilled, and he was invited to visit the encampment of the Spaniards. Once there, he was made captive, and held until the Indians