there is a bowling-green, which formerly belonged to the Earl of Carlisle."*

harold's Tomb.

We come now to the supposed spot where the remains of Harold were interred. Taylor in his Eve of the Conquest says—

"In Waltham Abbey on St. Agnes' Eve

A stately corpse lay stretched upon a bier.
The arms were cross'd upon the breast, the face,
Uncover'd by the tapers trembling light,

Showed dimly the pale majesty severe

Of him whom death, and not the Norman Duke
Had conquered; him the noblest and the last
Of Saxon Kings; save one the noblest he;
The last of all." †

Both history and tradition determine

the

sacred place of Harold's burial as being about one hundred and twenty feet from the present east end of the church (the place of sepulture of ecclesiastics and men of high repute in the Middle Ages) and near the graves of J. Jessopp, Esq.; and Col. Edenborough. All that part of the churchyard on which the ancient choir of Harold's Church stood, and now called "the new ground,' was evidently used as a garden by the Earl of

"History of Waltham Abbey."

+ Edinburgh Review, vol. lxxxix., p. 358.

Carlisle and Sir Edward Denny after the fall of the centre tower in the reign of Philip and Mary. This additional part of the churchyard was first used for interments early in the present century by permission of Sir William Wake, lord of the manor of Waltham Holy Cross.

Not a vestige of the tomb remains beyond the fragment on Robert Smith's marble tomb in the north aisle of the Abbey Church. The supposed inscription on Harold's tomb, expressive of the two words, Harold infelix, appears in the Harl. MSS. 3776, and is quoted by Weaver. The lines although not elegant are worth preserving here

"beu cadis boste fero, Rer, a Duce Rege Futuro,
Par paris in gladio, Milite et valido,
Firmini justi lur est tibi, luce Calixti ;
Pronior binc superas, binc superatus eras,
Ergo tibi requiem deposcat utrunq; perennem
Sicque precetur cum, quot colit omne Deum.”
Farmer has given the annexed translation—
"A fierce foe thee slew, thou a king, he a king in view,
Both peers, both peerless, both feared, and both fearless;
That sad day was mixed by Firmin and Calixt;

Th' one helpt thee to vanquish, t'other made thee to languish,

Both now for thee pray, and thy requiem say,

So let good men all to God for thee call."

Near the communion rails in the Abbey stone bearing the following

Church is a

inscription

"Hic Haroldi in Cœnobio

Carnis Resurrectionem.

Expectat Jabocus Raphael Gallus *

Demum Scotus demum Anglus,

Denique nihil,

Anno ætat, 70

Obit Mar. 30 Anno 1686."

Rough portraits of Harold appear on the Bayeux Tapestry. Early in the seventeenth century a portrait of Harold adorned one of the windows in the north aisle of the Abbey Church.

* James Raphael was buried, April 1st, 1686, Par. Reg.

St. Osyth's Priory.

BY JOHN T. Page.

N those far off days when England was divided

IN

into the seven kingdoms of the Saxon Heptarchy, Frithewald, the first Christian King of the East Angles, took to wife Walburga, daughter of Penda, King of the Mercians. In due time a daughter was born to them, who received the name of Osyth. During her early girlhood, Osyth's education was entrusted to Elfleda, a sister of Alfred, King of Northumbria, who resided at St. Modwen.* One day the young child accidentally fell into the river and was drowned, and her body lay in the water three days before it was recovered. Notwithstanding this, St. Modwen, the Saxon Saint, from whom the place received its name, came and prayed over it, and life was restored.

Soon after this remarkable episode, Osyth's parents betrothed her to Sighere, King of Essex, but her religious views developed in such a marked

manner that in the end she chose rather to take the veil than to marry her royal lover. Her escape from matrimony was a very narrow one as will be seen. The wedding feast was in progress when suddenly a fine stag was observed to pass by the house. Sighere's enthusiasm for the chase was so great that he could by no means resist the prospect of a fine hunting expedition. Hastily summoning his followers by a blast on his horn, he mounted his steed, and hied him to the woods in pursuit of the stag. When he returned, his bride was missing, she having fled with her maids to the nearest religious house. Sighere, as a wise man, realised his position at once, and so far from resenting the loss of his lady love, he heartily sympathised with her resolve. After she had received the veil at the hands of Bishops Acca and Bedwin, Sighere placed at her disposal certain lands at Chich, where she founded a conventual establishment, into which she retired and became Lady Abbess.

Here with her nuns Lady Osyth peaceably lived until the year 653, when the Danes, under Inguar and Hubba, landed in a creek hard by the convent in search of plunder. Having sacked the convent, they came across the Lady Osyth