HANNAH LAWRENCE'S MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENS OF ENGLAND.
THESE Memoirs display no deficiency in careful reading, or in elegance of composition ; but they have a want that cannot be supplied, in the scanty knowledge of their subjects which has come down to us. A few sentences suffice to tell all that is known of some of the Queens of England ; and that little has nothing of interest. When more has been preserved, the facts are often bar- ren of circumstances, or the incidents disputed or doubtful; and, which is still worse, the more striking changes of fortune, or the
individual traits of character in the Queens, have been already used by our historians. Hence, our author is driven to reverie and digression—to suppose what they did, to fancy what they felt, and to give long accounts of the state of contemporary society, which, however interesting in themselves and elegantly told, are ineffective from being out of place. The principal is sunk in the subordinates—the sun outshone by the planets.
To what extent this prevails, cannot well be believed without an instance; which we will give. MATILDA or MAUDE, by whose marriage with HENRY the First the Saxon and Norman lines were united, was a collateral descendant of EDMUND Ironside. She was born in Scotland, but sent to England on account of the troubles of the kingdom ; and placed in a convent for her education, where, by force or for protection, she assumed the veil. When HENRY, having seized the crown during the absence of his brother ROBERT in the Holy Land, planned this match to gain the favour of his Saxon subjects, the Church lent that aid in suspending her own laws which she never refuses to friendly power, and the mar- riage was solemnized. But HENRY was a connoisseur in beauty, and MAUDE was not handsome : the politic Monarch treated her with every mark of outward respect, awl allowed her ample means to sustain what I'llat,stsituev calls "royal munificence," but lie seldom troubled her with his presence. As the lady was devout and blue, it is probable that she bore his neglect with Christian and philosophical resignation : at all events, she was exemplary in her devotions, and a great patroness of the literature of the times : she founded certain religious houses, built a stone bridge over the Lea, and died in the odour of sanctity and the love of the people.
To tell this, or rather something less than this, our fair writer occupies sixty pages ; and an analysis of their contents is a curio- sity in the art of using a name as a peg. Four pages are given
to an account of the genealogy and mother of MAUDE; her edu- cation in a convent leads to the subject of conventual education, which occupies seven or eight pages; a description of London has eight pages; a characteristic muster-roll of the bishops and nobles present at MatimE's coronation takes eight more; six or seven are devoted to the minstrels of the age, eight to the uses of abbeys and religious houses; and half of the fifteen or twenty pages unaccounted for are occupied with reverie or general history.
Some, perhaps all of these things, are readable and pleasant. Here is a specimen revival of
OLD LONDON.
Nor did London herself present much to attract or delight the eye. The con- ventual establishments were few, the churches scanty, as compared with later times; nor did the tall spire, the traceried window, or the richly-carved door- way, contrast in picturesque variety with the rude low houses around. The materials of the churches were mean and perishable: timber, or rubble, formed the walls; glass windows were but scantily seen; and but one parochial church boasted the unusual splendour of stone arches. This was in St. Mary's in West Cheap, called, from that circumstance, "de incubus," a name retained to the present day, in its Norman designation " Le Bow." The metropolitan cathedral—that venerable structure which in the fourteenth and fifteenth centu- ries stood proudly the most splendid cathedral in the land, without tower or spire, built principally of timber, and yet bearing marks of that fatal and very extensive fire which in 1062 almost levelled it with the ground—rose unwalled in the midst of a desolate area, looking mournfully on the ruined remains of the palace of her Saxon kings, which occupied the site beyond its southward boundary.
Of the form of the private dwellings, and of what materials they were com- posed, contemporary historians afford us no information. As some of the earliest civic enactments are particular in directing that no house shall be thatched, but that each shall be covered with tile or slate, it is probable that straw was the
usual coveting. They also appear to have been very low—the law respecting party-walls, which was passed full eighty years after (a period during which London had been making rapid advances in wealth and civilization), expressly enacting that they shall be carried to the height of sixteen feet only. It is pro. liable that the roof eloped very much, otherwise no house could be above one story high. We must bear in mind, however, that this rule seems only to apply to the common class of houses ; since, within fifty years from the time is which we are now writing, handsome stone houses are mentioned by Pit,. etephen as existing in London. If any such then existed, their number was small and along the irregular and unpaved street, rude dwellings with thatched rod, and wicker-latticed windows would continually meet the eye. Nor did the noble river, at this period spanned only by one fragile wooden bridge, display that forests of masts which have given to London her appropriate designation of the " modern Tyre." Beside the Tower, at the Viotry, and at Edrers-hithe, few small vessels might be anchored; and from time to time some tall Normta galley, or some light osier•hound shallop, might glide by ; but the broad and spacious quays, with the palace-dwellings of their merchants, the stirring life, the busy crowds, the sounds of never•ceasing activity, as yet were not. At either end of the City, and close to the water's edge, arose those equally im. pregnable fortresses the Tower and Castle Baynard ; on the other side of the river, the rude collection of huts marked the site of that general receptacle of thieves and outlaws, the Borough ; close beside them rose the house of nuns and lowly church, dedicated to the Virgin by the grateful maiden of the ferry, Marie; and far beyond, rising conspicuous from among the green marshes, were the towers of the Palace of Lambeth.
The quotations in this volume from the old chroniclers seem to confirm the notion that a kind of rider is needed to Hums, some- times to supply historical, sometimes characteristic omissions. It would appear, for instance, that " the Conquest" was not a conquest after all. WILLIAM'S hereditary right was as geed as HAROLD'S; in addition to which, he held by "appoint- ment" from EDWARD the Confesaor; he came not to conquer, but to claim; and might have governed mildly enough had the Saxons been quiet. Even after their conspiracies and rebellions, his stern heart and strong hand, though tyrannical, were bone- ficial, by compressing the discordant contrarieties of the country into one whole. HUME has noted that HENRY the First was so affected by the death of his son that he was never seen to smile again ; but that historian has omitted to observe, that when the Beauclerc recovered from the swoon into which he fell on hearing the news, he was so mindful of kingly decorum as to discourse learnedly on " chance and change,- and express a resignation to th.t will of Heaven.
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