demolished, and this was to a great extent carried out. Buckingham repaired the portion used as a dwelling-house, and here he resided till his death, entertaining his friends in his usual hospitable fashion, and apparently winning the good opinion of the neighbourhood, for even in the present day his memory is kindly cherished by Yorkshire sportsmen. At all events he abandoned Court intrigue and the philosopher's stone for a much more wholesome pursuit. He kept the Bilsdale hounds, which claim to be the oldest pack of fox-hounds in England. He hunted the dale, together with what is now the Sinnington country and the whole of Bransdale and Farndale, and hunted fox and stag alternately, showing much skill and energy in the chase, as he had done in other spheres.' Mr. Dixon, in his North Countree,' tells a story in point :— 'About two miles from Chop Gate, a public-house with a blacksmith's shop and two or three cottages to bear it company, is Buckingham Stone, where tradition tells us that a fox was killed at the end of a severe run of some three hours' duration. The Duke and Forster, his huntsman, were the only two who got to the end, and the Duke's horse died on the place, whilst Forster's succumbed at Slapeworth, about a couple of miles on the homeward road. "T" lord" (Lord Feversham), said Bobby Dowson, who has whipped in to the Bilsdale for fifty years, "owt to be prouder o' that steean than o' all his possessions; " and then, after a few moments thought he added, "ah should." As Buckingham must have been about sixty years old at this time, and is described by his biographers as having retired to his estates with a body worn out by dissipation, this three hours' run was rather a feat. Up to the present day a hound descended from the Duke of Buckingham's pack is specially valued in Bilsdale, and one of the family of his huntsman, H. Forster, has always been huntsman or whipper-in, or has taken an active part in the management of the pack. The following fragments of a Yorkshire song (of which the remainder is unfortunately lost) also preserve the memory of those days: "In Riccul Dale Scroggs We threw off our dogs; There never was place more likely . . We never found a fox more quickly. Chorus. Dido and Spandigo, And Gentry was there O, And True-love, that never looks behind him; BonDy Bonny Lass and Bowler, Dairymaid and Ruler; And those were the Dogs that did find him. And other noble gentlemen. Oh but we had some fine hunting.' He In the chase Buckingham ultimately met his death. caught a chill while superintending the digging out of a fox, and took refuge in a tenant's house, still called Buckingham House, which stands in the Market Place at Kirkby Moorside, a manor which had been presented to his father by James I. The house, which adjoins the present King's Head hotel, now belongs to Mr. George Frank, author of 'Ryedale Antiquities,' and since it remains in much the same condition as at the time of the Duke's death, the poetic licence of Pope's well-known description is easily demonstrated : 'In the worst inn's worst room, with mat half hung, says the poet. The house was, on the contrary, a very respectable one, and the oaken beams and wainscoting may still be seen by the tourist. Pope probably took his picture from expressions in a pathetic letter written by the dying man to his intimate friend Dr. Barrow, in which anguish of mind and body evidently led him to exaggerate the misery of his surroundings: 'DEAR DOCTOR,-I always looked upon you to be a person of true virtue, and know you to have a sound understanding; for, however I may have acted in opposition to the principles of religion, or the dictates of reason, I can honestly assure you I have always had the highest veneration for both. The world and I shake hands, for I dare affirm we are heartily weary of each other. Oh! what a prodigal have I been of that most valuable of all possessions, Time! To what a situation am I now reduced! Is this odious little hut a suitable lodging for a prince? Is this anxiety of mind becoming the character of a Christian? From my rank I might have expected affluence to wait upon my life; from religion and understanding, peace to smile upon my end; instead of which I am afflicted with poverty, and haunted with remorse; despised by my country, and I fear forsaken by my God! I am forsaken by all my acquaintances; utterly neglected by the friends of my bosom and dependents on my bounty; but no matter! I am not fit to converse with the former, and have no abilities to serve the latter. Let me not, however, be forsaken by the good. Favour me with a visit as soon as possible. I am of opinion this is the last visit I shall ever solicit from you; my distemper is powerful; come and pray for the departing spirit of the poor unhappy 'BUCKINGHAM.' A near relation of the Duke's, Lord Arran, hearing of his illness, hastened to his bedside, and remained with him till his death. He writes to Spratt, Bishop of Rochester, the Duke's former chaplain, on April 17th, 1687, the day after the end came: 'Mere chance having thrown me into these parts by accident, as I was at York, in my journey towards Scotland, I heard of the Duke of Buckingham's illness here, which made me take a resolution of waiting upon his Grace, to see what condition he was in. I arrived here on Friday, in the afternoon, where I found him in a very low condition; he had long been ill of an ague, which had made him weak; but his understanding was as good as ever, and his noble parts were so cntire, that though I saw death in his looks at first sight, he could by no means think of it.' He was, however, told that his case was hopeless, and the ministrations of a Roman Catholic priest were suggested; these were rejected, and the clergyman of the parish was summoned. Lord Arran also sent for the principal magistrate of the neighbourhood, Mr. John Gibson of Welburn Hall, who, together with Colonel Liston, an old servant of the Duke's, received the last sacrament with the dying man. Some attempt seems to have been made in after years to assert that he after all died in the Romish Communion, and a letter describing his end was in 1706 written by Mr. Gibson to Brian Fairfax, who had evidently asked for a certified contradiction of false 'As it fell to my share to know as much of the last moments of the late Duke of Buckingham as any then about him, so at your instance I shall readily give answer to satisfy any that he died in the best house in Kirkby Moorside (which neither is, nor ever was, an alehouse); and that when he was moved to receive the Sacrament he consented to it, and received it from the hands of the minister of the parish with great decency and seeming devotion; while we, who received with him, were somewhat doubtful of his swallowing the bread, because of his weakness and pain. Hence we had reason to conclude he died in the communion of the Church of England, and none about him at that time ever questioned it that I heard of. ... I omit at present many particulars which I could give some account of, as to making his will, his naming his heir, &c., which his Grace could not be persuaded to. If you please to commana any further account of the very last passages of his life, the respect and honour I had from him and for him, engage me to answer you in favour of his memory. I had not the honour to converse with him any long time before his dying days; but, so far as I ever had any discourse with his Grace, he was always pleased to express a love for good men and good things, how little able soever he was to live up to what he knew.' May we not almost describe his death in his own words, written long before?— a lasting sleep, A quiet resting from all jealousy, A thing we all pursue; I know besides 'Tis but the giving up a game which must be lost.' In an old Register-book belonging to the parish of Kirkby Moorside is this entry :— 'Burials.-1687, Apl. 17th, Gorges viluas, Lord dooke of book ingham.' This must have been a temporary interment, as Lord Arran tells us that he ordered the body to be embalmed and taken to Helmsley Castle, to await the pleasure of the Duchess. It was finally removed to Westminster Abbey, and buried in Henry VII.'s Chapel, in the vault of his family. Above his father's tomb a statue of himself, a blooming child, kneels by those of his brother and sister, and seems to pray for the repose of the murdered man's soul. The orphans had even more need to implore succour for themselves in the thorny paths of their after lives. The Duchess of Buckingham, whose virtues and piety are extolled by Brian Fairfax, died seventeen years later at her house near the Mews at St. James's, and was interred near her husband. ART. ART. V.-1. The Life and Letters of Dr. Samuel Butler, 3. Education and School. By the Rev. Edward Thring. Cambridge and London, 1864. 4. Edward Thring, Teacher and Poet. By H. D. Rawnsley. London, 1889. THE HE system of Aristotelian categories might be applied, if it were thought worth while, to the different types of character which find their place in the conduct of human affairs. We might describe statesmen according to the types illustrated by Chatham, Walpole, Mazarin, Melbourne, and Bismarck, by the qualities of genius, common-sense, finesse, tact, mastership. The soldiers would range from Napoleon, the man of great designs and methods, to Wellington, the man of practical wisdom and means suited to his needs. The judges would be reckoned as men of principles, of practice and of learning. The bishops would be ranked under the heads of piety, learning, orthodoxy, timidity, worldliness, business. If we applied this method of generalization or outlining to schoolmasters, we should be led to the conclusion that a single type is no more desirable in this department than in any other. An Arnold might be as much out of place at Harrow as a Vaughan at Rugby. At different periods in the life of a school a different type is required; though the choice is always limited by the field, and sometimes is only that of Hobson. A headmaster may be wanted to brace up discipline, or to improve the moral and religious tone, or to clear away rubbish, or to raise the standard of scholarship, or to inspire public confidence by a reputation for practical wisdom; and if all the corresponding qualities could be combined in one person, that person would be the ideal head-master. But we must take men as we find them. As a rule the system is stronger than the man, and his individuality is absorbed in the school; even in cases where (as often happens) his first years of office are a time of new devices, and experiments disturbing old routine. The best schoolmaster is not always he who makes the fewest mistakes, but rather he who has the most positive qualities. It is not high praise to say of a minister or a head-master that he can steer the ship in quiet times. Weather is uncertain, whether the sea is large or small, and a storm in a tea-cup, fluctus in simpulo, may capsize a head-master before he has time to right |