angels very rarely speak to any operator or master; and when they do speak, it is like the Irish, much in the throat*." In 1647, he finished a book which he arrogantly and impiously called " Christian Astrology;" but this work does not evince the possession of angelic inspiration. Perhaps the angels either turned a deaf ear to the author's prayers, or dictated in such guttural and Irish tones, as not to be understood by him. It is evident that he considered judicial astrology as a science; and it is equally evident, that he exercised his pen in behalf of Cromwell and the parliament †. Astrological predictions and prophesies were well suited to the bigotted phrenzy and folly of those times; and Lilly had enough human cunning to know how to adapt them to the capacities of the populace. Like all other dealers in destiny, he was generally ambiguous and oracular, and amused his disciples with unintelligible hieroglyphics. Many of those, says Aubrey, he stole from a Monkish manuscript. These have again been stolen by Francis Moore, the almanack maker, and by other makers of the same contemptible pamphlets. Lilly, though known to be an imposter, had a pension of 100l. a year granted him by the council of state‡. Butler characterizes him under the name of Sidrophel; and Sir John Birkenhead satirized his almanack, by calling it "the Art of discovering all that never was, and never shall be." Lilly's almanack maintained as high degree of reputation for many years, as the present popular, and almost equally silly annual publication, called "Vox Stellarum." "By the profit arising from his great practice among the vulgar in the profession of conjurer, prophet, physician, &c. he acquired a sum sufficient to enable him to purhase a considerable estate at Walton upon Thames, where he died, and was buried in the chancel of the church there. A slab was placed over his remains by Elías Ashmole."

* Lilly's Life by himself, last edit. p. 88.

"When Cromwell was in Scotland, a soldier stood with Lilly's (Mer linus) Anglicus in his hand, and said to the several troops passed by him, "Lo! hear what Lilly saith, you are promised victory, fight it out brave boys," and then read that month's prediction.-Life, p. 83.

Ashmole." A portrait of him is preserved in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford. Besides his almanack, which was published for thirty-six years successively, he printed several other works on Astrology, &c. Mr. Nichols gives a list of twenty.

GARENDON, the seat of Thomas March Phillips, Esq. is about four miles north of Loughborough. The present mansion occupies the site of an Abbey, which was founded by Robert Bossu, the good earl of Leicester, in 1133, for Cistercian, or White Monks. This abbey was very liberally endowed and supported, as may be inferred from the number of granges attached to it. These were at Dishley, Burton, Goadby, Ringlethorpe, Sysonby, Aulton, Staunton, Ravenston, and Haliwell in the county of Leicester; Rampeston and Cortingstock in Nottinghamshire, and Heathcote in the Peak of Derby.

The church belonging to the abbey was demolished soon after the dissolution, and all its furniture and materials sold. The following are the prices given for some articles:

"Item, 2 Wyndowes glasyd with old glasse in the quyer, 120 fott-11. 0. 0.”

By the inventory, there appears to have been twelve more windows, the glass of which sold at the same rate. There were also six altars, or "Auters," and a chapel.

"A monument of alabaster, Ol. 10s. Od. The pavement of the quyer with bryke, 13s. 4d.

"A Masse boke and a bell, 1s.—An Auter Stone, 1s. Od.”

The Lordships of Garendon and Shepeshed were purchased in 1683, by Ambrose Phillips, Esq. an eminent counsellor of the Middle Temple, for the sum of 28,000l. This gentleman was knighted by King James, and was buried at Shepeshed Church, `where an handsome monument is erected to his memory. Ambrose Phillips, a nephew of the above knight, after travelling over several parts of the Continent, settled at Garendon, and built in the park here an handsome gateway, in imitation of a triumphal arch, also a Circular Temple to Venus and an Obelisk. He

* Nichols's Hist. of Leicestershire, III. p. 752.

designed

designed the magnificent garden front of the present House, which was built by his brother and successor Samuel Phillips, Esq. merchant; on the death of whose widow it passed to his maternal cousin, the present Mr. T. M. Phillips.

LOCKINGTON HALL, the seat of the Rev. Philip Story, is a modern mansion situated near the turnpike road, about two miles north-west of Kegworth. Here are several good family portraits and some other pictures.

The late and present posses

sors have greatly improved the scenery of the place.

KEGWORTH,

Anciently written Cogeworde, is a town on the great turnpike road, six miles north of Loughbourgh, and eleven south of Derby. In the year 1289, King Edward the first granted to Robert de Hausted and Margery his wife, the privilege of a market on Tuesdays, and two annual fairs, at this place. It appears that there were only sixty-eight families in Kegworth in the year 1564, and in 1575 a free school was founded here by a decree from Queen Elizabeth. About 2000 acres of land were inclosed in this parish, in consequence of an Act of parliament passed in 1778, when two Miss Bainbrigge's were acknowledged to be ladies of the manor; and the master, fellows, &c. of Christ College in Cambridge (connected with Frederick Augustus, Earl of Berkeley, under certain restrictions), as patrons of the rectory. The market at Kegworth is nearly discontinued. In 1800 the town contained 262 houses and 1360 inhabitants.

The church is a handsome, light building, with a nave, ailes, transeps, chancel, and tower with a spire. Most of the windows are large, with two mullions and tracery; and some of them have pieces and complete figures of painted glass. On the south side of the chancel are three stone seats or stalls, with the seat on one plane, and ornamented with purfled pinnacles, foliated pedi ments, &c.

At

At LANGLEY, "a beautiful sequestered lordship," was founded a priory for Benedictine nuns at a very early period, and at the dissolution the site and demesne lands were demised to Thomas Gray. From a descendant of this gentleman, Langley priory, since called LANGLEY HALL, was bought by Richard Cheslyn, Esq. for 77691. 17s. 6d. and now belongs to Richard Cheslyn, Esq. a descendant of the above. The house is situated in a sequestered spot in a low situation, and consists of three sides of a quadrangle. Parts of the building appear to be remnants of the priory, and withinside are many family portraits.

ROTHLEY is a considerable village on the turnpike road between Loughborough and Leicester, and is distant from each of those towns about five miles. This place anciently belonged to the Knights Templars, who had a temple here. The manor house now called Rothley Temple, belongs to Thomas Babington, Esq. Lord of the manor. This manor is extensive, and is invested with peculiar jurisdiction in ecclesiastical affairs; being free from all higher courts, and, as the lord of the manor can grant licences of marriage, is exempt from the jurisdiction and visitation of the Bishop of the diocese." The custom of Gavelhind prevails throughout the soke; a.sokesman's widow holds all her husband's real property therein, so long as she continues such; and the lord receives an alienation fine for every first purchase made by a foreigner, i. e. a non-sokeman. These several privileges are holden in virtue of a patent of the land heretofore of the Knights Templars, and afterwards of the Knights Hospitalers, who originally enjoyed it by special and express words conveyed by the patent; which, with all its privileges, was conveyed to the ancestor of the present owner. The Soke of Rothley enjoys moreover the privileges of court-leet, court-baron, &c. oyer, terminer, and gaol delivery, independent of the county*."

In 1722, a Roman Pavement, with foundations of a floor, walls

*Nichols's History of Leicestershire, Vol. III. p. 955.

walls, &c. were discovered near Rothley. The church is a large, ancient pile, and in the inside are some curious old monuments; also an ancient low font. In the church-yard is the shaft of a stone cross, the four sides of which are decorated with fanciful sculpture of scrolls, tracery, &c.

At THURCASTON, a small village about four miles from Leicester, in East Goscote hundred, was born, about the year 1470, Hugh Latimer, D. D. This zealous divine was, at the commencement of his ministerial career, an enthusiastic Papist; but deserting the doctrines and tenets of the Catholic church, afterwards adopted and powerfully enforced the Protestant Religion. He was advanced to the See of Worcester, and in 1549 preached a sermon before King Edward the Sixth, wherein he gives the following account of himself, his family, and the value of farms, &c. at that period:

My father was a yeoman, and had no lands of his own; only he had a farm of three or four pounds by the year at the uttermost, and hereupon he tilled so much as kept half a dozen men. He had walk for an hundred sheep; and my mother milked thirty kine. He was able, and did find the king a harness, with himself and his horse, while he came to the place that he should receive the king's wages. I can remember, that I buckled his harness, when he went to Blackheath field. He kept me to school, or else I had not been able to have preached before the king's majesty now. He married my sisters with five pounds, or twenty nobles, a piece; so that he brought them up in godliness and fear of God. He kept hospitality for his poor neighbours, and some alms he gave to the poor; and all this he did of the said farm; where he that now hath it, payeth sixteen pounds by the year or more, and is not able to do any thing for his prince, for himself, nor for his children, or give a cup of drink to the poor."

At the time Latimer excited popular attention in promoting the reformation, Bilney was equally or more zealous in the same cause. These two at length so far provoked the rage of the

intolerant