he next point to be settled was the period in which the action should be laid. t was unfortunate in choosing the period of the Parliamentary Civil War. friend, Mr. Morritt, at once detected the error, and urged him strongly to w back the date of the story to the Wars of the Roses. That would give the 1, he suggested, more freedom in the introduction of ghosts and similar erstitious effects; it would enable him to represent the district at a time when eading men, the lords of Barnard Castle and Rokeby, were playing a nobler and distinguished part t⚫an in the Commonwealth; and, “civil war for civil war, first had two poetical sides, and the last only one; for the Roundheads, though ways thought them politically right, were sad materials for poetry; even Milton not make much of them." One may not be disposed to endorse the view that e was no poetry in the Puritans, but there can be little doubt that Scott's pathies were warped in this respect, and that he did not catch the true spirit of time. It might almost be assumed that he himself was conscious of this, for, ept for a chance phrase here and there, we might read the poem from beginning end without discovering in what period of English history the incidents were posed to happen. There is nothing peculiarly characteristic of either Puritans Cavaliers in the personages introduced upon the stage; and Scott might just as l have taken his friend's advice, and gone back to the feud of the Roses at once. ose who seek for a picture of England in the heat of the great strife between urt and Parliament, will be disappointed. If, however, the reader is willing to e the narrative on its own merits, without reference to its historical value, he I find it by no means destitute of interest and beauty. An author has a right to im that he shall be tested by the standard of what he sought to accomplish; d in this instance it should be remembered that it was character and not history ich Scott applied himself to depict. Mortham and Rokeby, Bertram and Neale, must be taken (to compare small things with great) on the same terms as take Lear and Hamlet, without reference to the exact time in which they lived as studies of that human nature, which is the same in every age.

The dedication of the work to Mr. Morritt, and the elaborate descriptions which contained of the estate and castle of Rokeby, gave rise to some sarcasm on the rt of London wits, who did not know the affectionate friendship which lent the ace an especial charm to Scott's partial eye. Moore, for instance, in his "Twonny Post-bag," has a hit at Scott as a bard who

The only way to rival the enterprising northern Ministrel is, Moore suggests :-
"To start a new poet through Highgate to meet him;
Who by means of quick proofs-no revises, long coaches-
May do a few villas before Scott approaches."

There were, however, as we have seen, many agreeable associations which gave Scott a special interest in Rokeby. Nor were natural attractions wanting. Even ow, when swarthy industry and exacting agriculture have done so much to efface the picturesque features of the country, there is much to charm the lover of natural scenery, and the spirited fidelity of the poet's descriptions can still be recognised. Having outlined his characters, as it were, in the front of his poetical picture, Scott went to Rokeby to fill in the background. He had already visited the spot, and its beauties had made a deep impression on his mind; brightened, doubtless, by the grateful recollections of his host's kindness and geniality. In a letter to Éllis

(July 8, 1809), he describes it as "one of the most enviable places I have ever seen, 28 it unites the richness and luxuriance of English vegetation, with the romantic varie of glen, torrent, and copse, which dignifies our Northern scenery." Rokeby is a modern mansion, on the site of an ancient castle, in the midst of a pleasant park in which two rapid and beautiful streams, the Greta and the Tees, unite their waters The scattered ruins of John Balliol's stately home, Barnard Castle, are to be found on a high bank overlooking the Tees. The castle has a chequered history. Edward! took it from Balliol. It passed in succession to the Beauchamps of Warwick, and the Staffords of Buckingham. Richard III. is said to have enlarged and strengthened its fortifications, and to have made it for some time his principal residence, for the purpose of holding in check the Lancastrian faction of the Northern counties. Subsequently we find it in the possession of the Nevilles, Earls of Westmoreland, ard it was forfeited to the crown after the insurrection against Queen Elizabeth in the eleventh year of her reign, and afterwards passed to Carr, the Earl of Somerset. James's the First's favourite, and Sir Harry Vane the elder. So that it was, doubtless. occupied in the Parliamentary interest during the civil war. Mortham Castle now a farmhouse. It stands on the bank of the Greta, near the point where tha stream issues from a narrow dell into more open country. Traces of a still older time are also to be found in this neighbourhood. Not far from Greta Bridge, there is a well-preserved Roman encampment, surrounded with a triple ditch, lying between the River Greta and the brook called the Tutta. Roman altars and monuments have also been turned up in the vicinity.

Mr. Morritt has left an interesting account of Scott's second visit to Rokeby, when he was collecting materials for his poem. The morning after he arrived, he said, "You have often given me materials for romance; now I want a good robber's cave and an old church of the right sort." So the two friends started on the quest and Scott found what he wanted in the ancient slate quarries of Brignal, and the ruined abbey of Egglestone. Nor did Scott neglect even the minutest features of the scene. He took note of the little plants and ferns that grew about, saying thi in nature no two scenes were ever exactly alike; and that whoever copied truly what was before his eyes, would possess the same variety in his descriptions, and exhibit apparently an imagination as boundless as the range of nature in the scenes he recorded.

Here we see Scott studying from nature—it is interesting to turn to the companion picture of the artificer at work. While composing "Rokeby" Scott gave an occasional hour to the "Bridal of Triermain" and the "Lord of the Isles," and found time for his planting as well. And all the while the clank of the trowel and the hammer were ringing in his ears, and he was fretted with the schemes for his new house, and the means of raising money for them. "As for the house and the poem," he said himself, "there are twelve masons hammering at the one, and a poor noodle at the other." The building being unfinished, he had no room for himself, and sat at his desk near a window looking out at the river, undisturbed by the noise and bustle on the other side of the old bed-curtain, which separated his sanctum from the rest of the only habitable portion of the house.

ROKE BY.