FEW victims of a harsh and cruel exercise of the laws of treason have excited more interest than Lady Jane Grey. Her entire innocence of all personal guilt, her devotion to her ambitious parents, and her position as a young and tender bride, all combine to render her story one of the saddest of those which stain the annals of the Tower. That her father was, to all intents, guilty of a deliberate and determined act of treason, cannot be questioned, nor that he deserved a traitor's doom; but it seems to have been a needless severity to involve her in the same fate as her father, when no other crime could be alleged against her, than a reluctant obedience to the solicitations and authority of her parents. The extraordinary learning and acquirements of Lady Jane Grey increased the general sympathy for her fate, nor is it very easy in these days to realise the early progress of so young a lady in classical studies. But so many other women of high rank, who lived about that period, were distinguished for what would now be regarded as an abstruse education, that it may be permitted to offer a few observations on this interesting point.

The lives of the nobility and gentry of England in the sixteenth century, with exception of such as were employed in offices of state, or attached to the Court of the Sovereign, were chiefly passed on their estates, in a state and grandeur almost resembling that of petty princes. Hunting and warlike exercises, especially manege horsemanship, were the ordinary occupation of the young men, and many of the ladies took part with them, in the pleasures of the chase. But such ladies as had less taste for outdoor exercises were either devoted to household cares, the management of their large establishments, and the arts of embroidery and the needle, or betook themselves, from early years, to such studies as suited the fashion of the time, and could be attained by study of that narrow compass of literature, which the scanty libraries of their castles and mansions afforded. But a far wider field lay open to them, in the classical and theological collections of books and manuscripts, which were to be found in the monasteries and ecclesiastical establishments of England of that period. The constant discussions and arguments which attended the progress of the Reformation, brought forward a number of men who applied their extensive knowledge of the dead languages, to theological and controversial writing. Many of those, who took leading parts in these learned discussions, were received as honoured guests in the houses of the great; and the poverty of others rendered such asylums their resource and refuge, in distress or persecution. It was natural for their hosts and protectors to avail themselves of the services of such learned persons for the

These and other causes, too long to enumerate, will account for the surprising degree of classical knowledge attained by a girl of such tender age as Lady Jane; and will remove the impression which might at first present itself of any conceit or pedantry in this unfortunate young lady's display of her learning, at a time when the preparation for death in so religious and pure a mind might be supposed to engross every thought. But the calm resignation aud unaffected piety with which she prepared for her doom, show that her presence of mind never deserted her, or threw her mind off that natural and equal balance, to which the religious books with which she was familiar, probably contributed.

The ill-concerted Insurrection, generally known as Sir Thomas Wyatt's Rebellion, was the immediate ground upon which Queen Mary and her Council resolved

After some hours wasted in this idle bravado in Southwark, Wyatt marched up the Surrey side of the river to Kingston, which must have been, at that time, the first practicable place for fording the Thames. The now populous district through which he passed, by Wandsworth, Battersea, Wimbledon, &c., was then a tract of rough commons, with scarce any roads, and must have been in winter a most harassing march. Notwithstanding all difficulties, Wyatt and his army made their appearance

The trial of Lady Jane, if such it could be called, had taken place before Wyatt's outbreak, and, had it not been for his wild attempt on London and the Tower, it has been supposed Mary would have spared her life, and been content to keep her in close imprisonment; but those were not times when much scruple was made of taking life of any one who might be regarded as a pretender to the Crown. As if in mockery of the known Protestant feelings of Lady Jane, Mary's Confessor, Feckenham, was sent on the 8th of February to prepare her for death, and to exhort her husband and her, to die in the Catholic faith. Four days after this visit, was the day fixed for their execution. Tower Hill was at first intended for the fatal scene; but it was afterwards determined to behead them separately, for fear of the excitement which might be expected from so cruel a spectacle as the simultaneous execution of two young and interesting persons only lately united in marriage.

It was therefore determined that Lady Jane should suffer on Tower Green (within the fortress), and Lord Guildford Dudley upon the Hill, outside. Before his death, he sent to her to desire a last interview, but she entreated him to give up this wish, as liable to produce feelings which might unfit them both for their last hour. He consented to her wish, but begged she would give him a token as he was to pass under the window of " Partridge's house," where she had probably been removed that morning from the Beauchamp Tower, to make her preparations for death. Lord Guildford Dudley was led out to Tower Hill, and suffered with all the firmness and resignation which might be expected from

As the cart passed under Lady Jane's window, she discovered at once the form which the cloth thrown over it but partially shrouded, and exclaimed, " Oh ! Guildford, Guildford, the ante-past is not so bitter that thou hast tasted, and which I shall soon taste, as to make my flesh tremble; it is nothing compared to the feast we shall partake this day in heaven."

When Sir T. Bridges, the Lieutenant of the Tower, appeared to conduct her to the block, she presented him her tablets to keep in acknowledgment of his kindness to her. Arrived on Tower Green, only a short distance from her prison door, she addressed a few modest and simple words to those present, to the effect that, although she had most reluctantly accepted the short-lived dignity forced upon her by the entreaties of her relations, she freely admitted she had no real right to the crown, and that the sentence therefore, under which she suffered, was not an unjust one. Hollingshed's account of her end is very touching. " She prayed fervently, and then stood up and gave to Mistress Ellen, her maid, her gloves and handkerchief, and her book to Master Bridges, the Lieutenant's brother, and so untied her gown. The executioner pressed to help her off with it; but she desired him to let her alone, and turned toward her two gentlewomen, who helped her off therewith, and with her other attire, and gave her a fair handkerchief to put about her eyes. Then the executioner kneeled down and

Her body was interred with that of her husband under the altar in St. Peter's Chapel. It has been mentioned above that she was in " Partridge's house" when she gave the token just before his execution to Lord Guildford Dudley; and it may therefore be well to explain, that it was not uncommon to remove prisoners of high rank from the Beauchamp Tower, which was the usual state prison, to the Lieutenant's or to one of the Warders' quarters, in order to make their immediate preparation for death, and more conveniently to receive and bid farewell to such friends and relations as were at the last moment permitted to see and attend them to the scaffold.

The word "Jane," inscribed on the north wall of the Beauchamp Prison Tower, has been always attributed to the hand of this unfortunate young lady, and there is no reason to question it, any more than the inscriptions of other prisoners upon those gloomy walls. Bailey and