of the first boroughs summoned to return a representative to Parliament, in the reign of Edward I. A palace of the West-Saxon kings conferred dignity upon it twelve hundred years ago; and a miracle that took place here four hundred years afterwards, decided two of the most important questions that ever agitated the Anglo-Saxon church. This was the celibacy of the priests, and the confirmation of the monks in the benefices of the secular clergy; both supported by the influence of the ambitious fanatic Archbishop Dunstan, and at length established by his violence and cunning, by his bold eloquence and lying miracles. The most impudent of these was played off at Calne, when a grand council was appointed to meet to determine the dispute subsisting between the monks and the priests in 977. Dunstan, with his accustomed arrogance, had delivered his sentiments on the subject, and the advocates for the unfortunate seculars were combating his arguments, when Heaven, displeased with the impious doctrine of the legality of priests aspiring to conjugal felicity, suddenly caused the supporting beams of the apartment to give way, the floor to fall in, and all the company to be buried in its ruins, except the Archbishop, who sat quietly on his throne, under which the flooring was entirely uninjured. The superstition of the

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times immediately translated the event into a visible manifestation of the ALMIGHTY's favouring the Archbishop's cause; though we, who are not fond of allowing these supernatural interpositions, nisi dignus vindice nodus, are rather inclined to unite in opinion with those historians, who believe that Dunstan had previously arranged a part of the miracle, by sawing nearly asunder all the beams of the flooring, except that which supported his end of the room, and trusting to the weight and agitation of the company to perform the rest. Calne, however, has been more indebted to a manufacture of broad-cloth than to palaces and councils; they have raised it to happy independence and general comfort, blessings that seldom associate with courtly parade or ecclesiastical squabbles.

We now passed through Corsham, and ascending Box hill, caught a view of the higher buildings of that city from which we had departed nearly three months ago. The pleasing vision flashed delight upon our hearts, but it was only a transient impression; for the next moment imagination conjured up a thousand apprehensions of intermediate disastrous changes and chances, that might have taken place in our domestic circle, during an absence which, by man, who is but of few days,' may well be reckoned as long. An hour was passed

in these pardonable fears and anticipations, at the end of which I had the satisfaction of ascertaining that, like most of our alarms, they had been all unfounded, and the happiness of finding myself (by the blessing of GoD) once more in the arms of my family.