The Express.
London, England, 1851-01-11 00:00:00

VISIT TO RUNYANS COTTLGZ.

Although the shadows of evening were drawing is more
elowly, the women were etW plying their busy bohlau over
heir lea cu,hions, iv tits y oats at the," cottage doom; the
miller, is as rumbling arid as richer qee it, a village tea be,
that has no beek•ground ; although the cottages most ban
been nearly all nbe,it sine Bilayan's time, some are even
now as old as to need repair to prevent their fa/ling to
decay; thus the anociaolote between put and present are
arocisoiagly close, and contribute much to the actual feeling
that this is really the Deity of Bonne's time.
We must passe at the threshold of his nun', for though
so vestige renaming of the angel lulls that bead his infant
yea. wnee he entered tiro this world of strife and tumult,
~ t the site and matorials c e undoeslated'y the tans ; for no
bo.;der of median cottages world have bestowed suck
Lewin beams on ouch a structure.

A it rJup of women reuse 'rum their lace pillows that we
might eater the one o dwellirg of him who, according to an
old chrookle, wit ore of te. men "that in thews time were
enabkd of God to adventure fame in eh,* ing their detestation.
of thatishops and theft mpentitions ;" he was bore wedge •
taw feet of where we stood, in 1628; the dates be has immor-
talised mewed to our memory one by one. 11. Depot t
preach 'host the year 106, was ordemed stator 21st of Op
totter, IGil,aad 're oa the 31st of August, ICA& West •
marvellous chart In the circumstances of the ticker's child,
whostriresl,3l into 'testatee temisath se humble a roof, and
the terininati4m of his life,Mbo triumphed over most tett.r
petmeutions, rod bequeathed to the world, for all time,
monument each es the " Prostate." The essay
raced rpm the ruins of that which hi walked it of the
pis,rest discripth is, with the empties of the beam, which,
in their thicken" and thelowtmos of the melees, reminded as
oldie cottage at Cos! oat. whom Wilton 'lmitated duress the
plater; it te is notkirg remediable, 'leapt, poetspa, being
more sumpadated tea many of tho seighboartag cottages.
-- • • - - -

Besides Bunyan's birth-place, we have sketch,
verbal and pictorial, of 'otiose other 's
er Mica, including
his house it Bedford, his disk, his cabinet, and his
jug—for honest Juba, se everybody knows, was a
hearty drink. r in his younger days, at least before
their honours, the kieg's justices, became so fond of
locking him up in jail for preaching against bishops.
There is a suggestim, too, about Howard, who was •
Redford man also, and many bin., and much gossip
to guide future visitors to the place, cr to amuse those
who may choose to travel only through the lug, id
the book.

Trip the *mad takes am to a holier spat Ullllll that
haeociated wnh the aathotahip W "Pilgtha's Prc •
firer"—to burial-place of John Hampden —amass
the green fickle tad lanes a datk;aAhastehme.

♦ TILSIT TO 111PD[N.

Lily le the Mon .ai selfaiag we 1,4 t 'As pasty v"lese
of Aldbuy ear brtiod. parsed ON telba of Trine, and drove
tloesthth s rt.s Mao's.* et old tint", unearned ti
Otrir qetint tmes, Astra enrage," sad Weston-
Trrtilo " waif* the cot,sise ars sasdrd by cools tr ter
wp,l.ke toy hoes-s, out of boons. is of moulltly rows sad
Ito:Jorkr, and sJ,lsraar. tof ekmv.. We wrosily
• td to spend an hour is the loaut,'ut church of Klabk,
_ . . .

which amerly helooved to the ilismp lens; for those vii-
lege elauches ate .ell of lateral; trr.--ea and timeaoto
t,mahe area be 'net with in Pak unetuaries; an old motion
abase a attend 11. g, or mime hallowed name 'leaping a
blue slaw volt imusortailey; and Nimble tempted es, look-
ice so toll at conscious glory, spat its steep, above the
twe.top ; but we had • le im day's work before as at Ureat
Hampden. We pared " The Chequers" is Meek self-
denial—for the present; and With we admired the Sated
wends and uprisings of the Chiltern Hills, we became
grievously perplexed by the net-wok of has end drives
that, as we gat duper iaty the covoily,erem and neer%
end .rem to diverge everywhere, and in ell d'reettoni; the
crows evideetly considering their right to the shorn
here. es held indisputable. O,•t di.ver was in happy free-
lance el Hampien, eltbe ine ratios or the house, pot
aflirmed it wee " antewtere hereabout;' and but goy a
pretty clunfel girl, a miracle*, letellieence, at a place we
believe celled " Stockwell Vann," wt might have wandered
vainly anima the Lille, and velem, and pubs, until the day
w. dune. We had not heard that the tine old r. 1 brick
Eiwtsbethen twee or the Hampden% had been stuccoed :vs I
wt. itenees. and we pried it s.thout recognition; for to
e'tureh, which we keew slaa't joined the dwelling, is
coneeakd by trees.
We drove es, however, to what en holiest looking faith,
who wielded his iroa rs lightly es it it were a guerterstat,
told us was the "Patria'a " village, and that the clerk of
the church raided there. Hampden village consists of an
irregular line tal very primitive cotsages,•ingothog along one
aide of • smell coma,., from which their gasdens have lawn
taken bit by hit: it is backed by raw' aid well wooded
grousd. die old and ragged tree, mealy opposite the lea
that eepantes the road from the , imetion, attracted ewe
Manta* and a peasant, whose appearance bespoke little of
what we term " comfort," mated much estontehed at oar
visit to "so pour a place." Us shook tie Lead gravely,
and told as The people deed aid gone said that
tree stood there in the • Patriot's' time, but the clerk of the
church knew it ail; he (meld tell el about the ' Patriot,'
and everything he would r'l him is a 'Wised* ; when
gentry did come to seer so poor a plus, they ought to knew
everything." The clerk soon reine—s tall, thin man, who
stooped rather, and looked perhaps older then his pen..
lila calm intel igent face lit up, when Hampden'a masa was
mentioned, and he knew the intere of oar errant,. " Ay."
he said, "that tree had beard the blast of Ilampdan's
trumpet, sure enough:" No doubt it wt* there, under the'
woody brows of ho own C Ahern', he first iistad the , on.
mud to gather the rrilit a of his own country, which 1144,1
sag before, caught the spirit of its great leader. We iota.
reed the psi ;ghee and hundreds with their preachers at their
bads, sanskalir g op • defile to the right, to meet him who
had so bravely Muscled is their liberty. " Not only the
tree," resumed the worthy clerk," bat the college In white
I live, woastaaJtag then ; sad he invited ro t r look at the
beams, " they were as flask." When we entered, he proud
upon as peers and plows, the fruit of hie garden; and hie
write selected the largest from her store, and took no Wee
pnde in the thickset* of the low oak bfame. She regarded
as with respect when she found we had come from L olden
twits and has all about "The Patriot," which no one, she
assured se' scold tell better than her husband ; " we must
have Brest curiosity." She had heard that Ting wee twelve
miles aft she had lived in this cottage forty pan, bat had
none ban so far. She conflated, s.th a quiet sopa, "she
wee no great traveller." This Dorms had anilines beneath
her white belt, and wan withal kindly, courteoce, sad Intel.
ilent, with abundant health, mid was well learned in simple
'Wen and house mit, and, better still, in that lore which
reader, WIN unto seivation : yet, from the time of her
youth, ohs had suer been twelve mil s from that most
km!, and primitive village in which she was bora.
John Hampden's hotels forms, of course, the subject
of a sketch in the geoid spit it of the lady ~.,ter.

JOIN ■AIPDII'S 'LOUSE.

Lasting the common, and pr—iug grin through the
It,• to lanes, and by the forgo, wa come to lb. gets oPertrS
t.• A minding chive that heads through the pork to tae on-
lance of both choral and thralling*Strludatit War bi •
tattoo rood, over•archad by statsly Mrs sad Want& ra
saugrsoss: oa tbs I=4l isrdsa Os ad-

mite, by a bagit path, to the home, flower garden, and
where the papist opera his happiest days; ea the left is the
*stelae* to the served &arch, where his remiss ropcia. It
is very rarely that thus, withio, is it were, the compels of a
ring, a great man's first end last are ptkend together. It
is imponible to imagine anything more still than this hal-
lowed spot, hid away et the beck of that chalky range, the
Chiles:es, which booed on one side the rich vele of Ayles
hey. The flower garden, through which we pawed, seemed
es if called late eAstence by the wand of an, enchanter; the
limeeing IOW", the heavy•licaded dahlias, the tinght.
toned autumn downs, joshed so lonely in their beauty.
We almost feared to speak is suck deep eolitnde. A human
footstep, the lurk of a doe, the song of • bird, the tinkle of a
steep bell, would have been a relief—until we bad drunk
deeply of the spirit of the place, and then, es thooghte and
memories crowded around us, we felt the luxury of it' edema
quiet', and that sound here would be as sacrilege. Poising
a low sort of postern entrance we walked beneath an arch,
starred over by jasmine, and stood in front of the extensive
mansion, added to and enlarged by venous proprietors, end
at one use displaying some goodly architectare of the age
of Elisabeth ; tee stucco, ea if sahenicd of its usurpation,
..zgineing to drop away from the red brick, of which the
house is built. Save the "natural decay" which suet
progress in all uninhabited dwellings, we saw nothing that
told of the " ruin " which comes of carelessness or Reelect.
The bail Is of that gloomy character, once considered ne-
estuary for grandeur of effect; the suite of roosne consist
of a library, two dining-rooms, a drawing room, a son of
small presence chamber, at.d a bed room, that enjoys the
reputation of havieg been (scattily furnished for Elizabeth
by Griffith Hampden, when her gracious Mejatv visited this
favoured spot; the gallant high sheriff paid his Queen right
royal homage, minima a paaeaee through the woods, which is
still called " the Queen's gap." The furniture, however, of her
Majesty's bed room, has lathing about it of the Elia anthem
era; it is molder than the time of the second Charles. In
the .ibrary is a curious bible, once the property of Philip,
uncle of Oliver Cromwell; it contains detailed entries of the
births of many of the Cromwell family.
There is a very celebrated portrait of the Protector on the
stair-case, and another of one of the family of Hampden,—
we believe the " Pattfot's " ton—who, wearied of the word
he knew, rushed unbidden to that which he knew not. All
memory of the sleeping-chamber of John Hampden is lost ;
but that of the tragedy is well known ;—what house is there
without its skeleton l—yet what dwelling in England more
sacred than this lonely one to the besets of Egg-
Hamm ? Is me of them retention roosts is the
interwiag portrait, believed to be of the patriot; it hung
unnoticed on the stairs, until Lord Nugent usdertock to
exhume the remains of Hampden, with a view to ascertain
whether he had died by the effect of the bursting of his own
pistol, or from the shot of the cashing, which, according to
other histeriane, shattered the shoulder of the biro on Chid
grove hell'. The body, of which the grave was despoiled in
a ruder manner and for a longer period than appears to
have been at •11 necessary, was Sound perfret, except that a
shattered hand was rolled in a separate cerement be-
side it : the featurts, when discovered, "bore so strong a
resemblance to this hitherto negketed portrait, that it wee
token down and cleaned, and in a earner the name wen die.
covered ;" it has since been plead la a worthier position.
It is deplorable that this noble mansion, hoosured by time
and circumstances, contains no other record et t tee one who
has given it immortality; no papers, no documents, no
scrap of hi• handwriting, no table upon which his hand
rested, no chair, as the master of a household °hes has, sp.
intimately eelled " his own;—no room—nothing eatept a
doubtful portrait; the very character of that dwelling
changed, rendering it a whited sepulchre rather than a glo-
rious mausoleum where everything concreted with him
should be found ; and where the youth of England might
learn bow to live and how to die for their country.
These specimens from Mrs. Hall's volume will
give a more truthful idea of its tone and character
than any description might do, and with them we must
close the subject, having space only to say, in conclusion,
that as she writes of Bunyan, the author, and Hampden,
the patriot, ao also does she visit, and sketch, and
moralise, and pcetiae, and write amusingly about Sir
Thomas Gresham, the merchant prince, and Thomas
(kay, the careful poet; John Stow, the chronicler,
and William Caxton, the first English printer ; An-
drew Muvell, the poet and patriot, and William He-
witt!), the painter and satirise. Many, if not all the
papers, have been published in another form ; but
bound op together, now, they form an elegant
volume fur the table or the hook-shelf, and will, be-
yond doubt, promote, both in fact as well so imagina-
tion, many a plessant summer pilgrimage to many a
worthy English shrine.

Verge of the Prince Albert in search of Sir John Frank'
ha; a Narrative o/ Every day Life in the Arctic Neat.
B dW. PARILZI 8110 W. Lampasas, 1851.
On the 26th of July 1848, sixty-eight days attar
their departure from England, the Erebus and Terror
were seen mcortd to sn iceberg in the middle of
Baffin's Bay. It was not until the 1 :ginning of 1848
that enything like anxiety for their fate wee tilt by
those meat interested in their welfare- at home. The
three years which Franklin had himself indicated as
the maximum term of their absence had expired, and
it was felt that something ought to be done to 'len-
ts/a what bad become of the miming navigators.
Ooverument resolved to send out three expeditions, in
separate tracks; end these, under the respective com-
mands of Captains Austin, Party, and Sir James
Clark 1t0.,, shortly left England. In addition to
these explorations, it was resolved by Lady Franklin
M have the west coast of Regent's Inlet, to the bottom
of the Gulf of Bcothis, together with the western
side of Boothia, into Ross' Strait, thoroughly
searched. It was believed, from Sir John's well-
known character, that in earnestly endeavouring to
follow his instructions, he would, alter attaining the
longitude of Cape Welker, diverge to the mouth and
west, where he would be likely to meet insuperable
impediments, be compelled to abandon his ships, and
make his way as best he could t t Regent's Inlet,
where be knew that a depot of provisions existed.
For the search of this laud of Boothia, Lady
Frsr kiln purchased the Prince Albert, a small vessel
of 90 t ins, at Cewes, and sent her to Aberdeen, to be
fitted for the: service in which she was to be em-
ployed. She was soon doubted and fortified; two
exesllent boats, one of gotta pereha, the other of ma-
hogany, were attached to her ea well as • Mackintosh
boat and • "(Fogey." Provisions for two years were
placed on bleed, end thus equipped she was expected
to convey a boat expedition to the starting point of
the actual rerrch, in Boothia, and to be a depot
on which the excursion parties might fall
back. Of this neat little vessel Captain Charles
Ccdriogton Forsyth volunteered to take the com-
mend, offerMg hie servir-s free of any remuneration.
Mr. Snow, Ow writer of this work, occupied a posi-
tion, width, es he describes it, was not too well de-
fined. Re tells vs that he was not professedly a
nautical men ; he was to take charge of the civil depart-
ment
of the vessel, the superintending and issuing of
stores, the core of ell the scientific instruments
end the medicine chest, and even to act u surgeon to
the crew. His highest office, however, wee to lead
the second of ;the two exploring potties into which
the ship's company was to be divided when the season
arrived for travelling.
The captain and ship having been provided, it was
sow necessary to engage a ship's company. These
consisted of the chief executive officer, or chief mate,
• weather-beaten tar of 53'.; a second mate, boat-
swain, carpenter, steward, cook, and ten reamer, five
of whom had long been semstomed to the ice, and
all inured to a wild sea life. These having produced
the necessary certificates, signed articles, and a paper
drawn up against all future " growling ;" and lastly,
received each man twenty-six weeks' double pay in
advance, prepared to embark in the little ketch. On
the evening before their departure, Lady Franklin
paid them a visit, and talked with each man separately
in the cabin, on the object of their voysge,a converse-
tion often reeelkd with tears as they were afterwards
working in the ice.
On the sth of June, at six o'clock in the evening,
Commander Forsyth went on board, and as soon as
the tide began to make, the Prince Albert moved from
the buoy to the outer harbour of Aberdeen. In a few
minutes the pilot had boarded the vessel, colours
were hoist-d, the word was given, the hawsers passed,
and the Victoty steam-tug took them in tow. As the
verse moved, cheer upon cheer rang through the air
from the hearty Aberdceners who -lined the shore.
The next day they were off Holyhead, and might
Icon be mid to be fairly at sea.
To prepare himself as much as possible for the cli-
mate befote him, Mr. Snow tslls us he used to turn
out at half-past six, and, warm, cold, wet, or dry,
take an ablution in the natural element. He would
then walk helf an hour on deck and examine the men
whether any were sick, have breakfast at eight, at-
tend to the stores, write out accounts and journals,
work up the ship's reckoning., write the ship's log,
dine at nom, stroll en hour on deck, tea at six, read
Punch till ten, take hot grog and turn in for the
night. Very little candle was required, as there was
vlilom more than an hont's darkness per diem during
any part of the voyage, and for a great portion of the
time it was light throughout the twenty-four hours
Owing to the regultuay of their duty, rest, and diet,
the men, instead of dwindling away in the cold, became
more robust and florid. On Saturday evenings glass
of grog was earl out, the fiddle brought on deck;
a cheerful song was heard,. kid no set of fellows was
happier than they.