ook their position as footmen in the
rear of the chariot, Mr. Mellermann cracked his whip, and the royal
chariot drawn by the tigers rolled solemnly round the circus. After
this a curious thing occurred. The entertainment was at an end, the
band quitted the building, and the animals were allowed to play about,
all jumbled up together. They seemed perfectly happy, gambolling with
pure pleasure round Mr. Mellermann and his assistants, between whom
and the animals the strongest affection most evidently exists. After
they had played about for a few minutes, the order was given that they
should retire to their cells, which they did by devious ways and
by-paths, the last glimpse I caught of them being that of a tiger
playfully sparring with a tawny African lion.

JOHN HORSELEIGH, KNYGHT

BY THOMAS HARDY.

Illustrated by Mr. Harry C. Edwards.

In the earliest and mustiest volume of the Havenpool marriage
registers (said the thin-faced gentleman) this entry may still be read
by anyone curious enough to decipher the crabbed handwriting of the
date. I took a copy of it when I was last there; and it runs thus (he
had opened his pocket-book, and now read aloud the extract; afterwards
handing round the book to us, wherein we saw transcribed the
following):

Mast^r John Horseleigh, Knyght, of the p'ysshe of Clyffton was
maryd to Edith the wyffe late off John Stocker, m'chawnte of
Havenpool the xiiij daie of December be p'vylegge gevyn by our
sup'me hedd of the chyrche of Ingelonde Kynge Henry the viii^th
1539.

Now, if you turn to the long and elaborate pedigree of the ancient
family of the Horseleighs of Clyfton Horseleigh, you will find no
mention whatever of this alliance, notwithstanding the privilege given
by the sovereign and head of the Church; the said Sir John being
therein chronicled as marrying, at a date apparently earlier than the
above, the daughter and heiress of Richard Phelipson of Montislope, in
Nether Wessex, a lady who outlived him, of which marriage there were
issue two daughters and a son, who succeeded him in his estates. How
are we to account for these, as it would seem, contemporaneous wives?
A strange local tradition only can help us, and this can be briefly
told.

* * * * *

One evening in the autumn of the year 1540 or 1541, a young sailor,
whose Christian name was Roger, but whose surname is not known, landed
at his native place of Havenpool, on