mass was said, and the requiem sung,
And the priests, with book and stole,
The body bore to its cold still bed,
"Gramercy on his soul!"

[6] "Thomas, first Earl of Derby, as a compliment
to his royal relative, Henry VII., on his visit to Lathom and
Knowsley in 1496, built the bridge at Warrington; and by this
munificent act conferred a benefit upon the two palatine
counties, the value of which it is not easy to
estimate."--Baines's _Lancashire_.

[7] The Butlers, it is conjectured, were patrons of
the priory of the hermit friars of St Augustine, founded before
1379, near the bridge. In 32 Henry VIII., this institution was
dissolved, and its possessions were granted to the great
monastic grantee, Thomas Holcroft.--_Vide_ Tanner's _Not. Mon._
About forty years ago the remains of a gateway of the priory
stood on Friar's Green, and some years after that period a
stone coffin was dug up near the same place.

[Illustration: THE BLESSING]

THE BLESSING.

"I had most need of blessing, and amen
Stuck in my throat."

--_Macbeth._

We have been unable to identify the spot where the occurrence took
place, the subject of the following ballad. It is in all likelihood
one of those wild and monkish legends that may be fitted or applied to
any situation, according to the whim of the narrator. Many such
legends, though the number is lessening daily, are still preserved,
and an amusing volume might be made of these unappropriated wanderers
that possess neither a local habitation nor a name.

The chase was done--the feast was begun,
When the baron sat proudly by;
And the revelry rode on the clamouring wind,
That swept through the hurtling sky.

No lordly guest that feast had blessed,
No solemn prayer was said;
But with ravenous hands, unthankfully,
They brake their daily bread.

The chase was done--the feast was begun,
When a palmer sat in that hall;
Yet his pale dim eye from its rest ne'er rose,
To gaze on that festival!

The crackling blaze on his wan cheek plays,
And athwart his gloomy brow;
While his hands are spread to the rising flame,
And his feet to the embers' glow.

For the blast was chill, o'er the mist-covered hill,
And the palmer's limbs were old;
And weary the way his feet had tr