the time of the early Saxon invasions (in the fifth century). He is said to have maintained a court of Oriental magnificence at his capital, Caerleon, on the Usk River, in Wales. This is supposed to be the modern Cardiff. Camelot, frequently mentioned in the legends of Arthur, is believed to be Winchester; and Shalott, the town of Guildford. Hamo's Port is doubtless Southampton. Lyonesse was a fabulous region, said to have been contiguous to Cornwall, and at a later time submerged in the ocean. The innumerable tales of the days of Arthur center in his Round Table, and in the Holy Grail, which graced it.

THE ROUND TABLE had seats for thirteen, in memory of the Apostles of the Lord-the seat of Judas being always vacant. A variation of the description represents forty or fifty seats, with one place left vacant in honor of the Grail. The name of each chosen knight was written on the marble.

THE HOLY GRAIL, or Graal, sometimes called Sangreal, was the emerald cup from which, it is said, the Saviour drank at the Last Supper. It was originally brought from Palestine, says the legend, by Joseph of Arimathea, and long remained in England. It disappeared from view, and its absence was attributed to the sins of its custodians. Therefore the Knights of the Round Table set forth as knights-errant, to do good, to work penance, to redress wrong, and to deserve, if possible, a return of the blessed cup.

The stories of the adventures that befell the venturesome souls in this holy quest are innumerable. The Grail was not recovered, though it was granted to some to behold it, generally veiled and borne by angels in the night.

The names of the more prominent of the knights have been rendered familiar by modern authors.

SIR LAUNFAL, in his quest, met in a vision a leper asking alms, to whom he gave a part of his crust and a cup of water.

'Twas a moldy crust of coarse brown bread,

'Twas water out of a wooden bowl,→

Yet with fine wheaten bread was the leper fed.

And 'twas red wine he drank with his thirsty soul.

As Sir Launfal mused with a downcast face,

A light shone round about the place;

The leper no longer crouched at his side,
But stood before him glorified,

Shining and tall and fair and straight

As the pillar that stood by the Beautiful Gate-
Himself the Gate whereby men can

Enter the temple of God in Man.

"Lo, it is I, be not afraid!

In many climes, without avail,

Thou hast spent thy life for the Holy Grail;
Behold, it is here,-this cup, which thou
Didst fill at the streamlet for me but now;
This crust is my body, broken for thee,
This water His blood that died on the tree;
The Holy Supper is kept, indeed,

In whatso we share with another's need."

-Lowell's "Vision of Sir Launfal."

SIR GALAHAD was a pure-hearted knight, with whose death the visions of the Holy Grail ceased forever.

Sometimes on lonely mountain-meres
I find a magic bark;

I leap on board-no helmsman steers,
I float, till all is dark.

A gentle sound, an awful light,

Three angels bear the Holy Grail;
With folded feet, in stoles of white,

On sleeping wings they sail.

- Tennyson's "Sir Galahad."

SIR GAWAIN, or Gawayne, was noted alike for his knightly virtues and for the wonderful strength with which he was endowed at certain hours of the day. He is described by

romancers as the Sage and Courteous Knight.

brother of Agravain, Gaharet, and Gareth.

With so high reverence and observance,
As well in speeche as in countenance,

He was a

That Gawain, with his olde courtesie,

Though he were come agen out of faërie,

Ne coude him not amenden with a word.

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--Chaucer's "Squiere's Tale ”—“ Canterbury Tales."

SIR TRISTRAM (whose name signifies sorrowful) was led into the infamy of betraying the Princess ISEULT, or Isoude, who was committed to his care in making the journey from Ireland to meet her bridegroom, his uncle, the Cornish KING MARK. The queen-mother of Iseult had intrusted to BRANGWAIN, maid of the latter, a secret and magic love-potion, to be drunk by King Mark and his bride. This was unwittingly drunk by Sir Tristram and Iseult, and proved the ruin of both. The hopeless love for the Queen of Cornwall ever burned in the heart of Sir Tristram. Yielding to circumstances, he espoused Isoude of the White Hands, a princess of Brittany. When he was wounded and very ill, his wife sent for the Queen of Cornwall, through whose ministrations he had once recovered from a deadly illness. But in a moment of jealousy Isoude of the White Hands falsely told the hero that the royal lady refused to come. Sir Tristram expired; and the queen, arriving and learning his fate, was stricken with mortal grief, and died holding his dead body in her arms. Tristan and Isolde (other forms of the same names) are the subject of one of Wagner's exquisite operas. Sir Tristram is described in Spenser's Faerie Queene (Book VI), where SIR CALIDORE meets him in a forest. In the Idylls of the King Sir Tristram takes up the harp and sings the admired lay:

Ay, ay, O ay-the winds that bend the brier!
A star in heaven, a star within the mere!

Ay, ay, O ay-a star was my desire,

And one was far apart, and one was near!
Ay, ay, O ay-the winds that bow the grass!
And one was water and one star was fire
And one will ever shine and one will pass.
Ay, ay, O ay-the winds that move the mere.
-Tennyson's "Last Tournament."

SIR LANCELOT DU LAC was a bold and courageous knight, but the betrayer of his queen, the beautiful GUINEVERE, or Geneura, wife of King Arthur.

SIR GERAINT was a valorous knight, the slayer of giants. His wife ENID, is a type of conjugal fidelity and love.

SIR BEDIVERE was one of the most faithful and the last of the Knights of the Round Table.

Then loudly cried the bold Sir Bedivere:

"Ah! my Lord Arthur, whither shall I go?
Where shall I hide my forehead and my eyes?
For now I see the true old times are dead,
When every morning brought a noble chance,
And every chance brought out a noble knight.
Such times have been not since the light that led
The holy Elders with the gift of myrrh.
But now the whole Round Table is dissolved,
Which was an image of the mighty world,
And I, the last, go forth companionless,

And the days darken round me, and the years
Among new men, strange faces, other minds."

-Tennyson's "Morte d'Arthur."

MERLIN was a famous enchanter, who figures prominently in the legends of Arthur. With him was associated VIVIEN, the Lady of the Lake, whose palace was in the midst of a mystic lake of marvelous and unreal properties.

Besides Guinevere, the faithless queen, Enid, the devoted wife, and Vivien, the enchantress, there was ELAINE, the Maid of Astolat, who died from unrequited love for Sir Lancelot.

EXCALIBUR was the name of King Arthur's famous sword, which he alone, of more than two hundred nobles, was able to detach from a miraculous stone. It was because of this feat that Arthur was chosen king. As he drew near death, he commanded an attendant to hurl the weapon into a lake. This was done with reluctance, but a hand and arm arose from the water and waved the blade thrice before it sank.

FINGAL and TEMORA are chief among the heroes of some compositions purporting to be translations of ancient Celtic.

lays of Ossian, a traditionary bard of North Britain, who is believed by many to have lived in the fourth century of the Christian era. These poems-for such they are called, though they are without rhyme or meter-were given to the public by James Macpherson, a Scotch writer, who failed to give any satisfactory account of the alleged originals. They attracted much attention in the latter half of the last century, when they appeared. They are now regarded as forgeries. Their singular and impressive style is in keeping with their mysterious origin.1

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'Reyno. The wind and rain are over; calm is the noon of day. The clouds are divided in heaven; over the green hill flies the inconstant sun; red, through the stony vale, comes down the stream of the hill. Sweet are thy murmurs, O stream. But more sweet is the voice I hear. It is the voice of Alpin, the son of song, mourning for the dead. Bent is his head of age, and red his tearful eye. Alpin, thou son of song, why alone on the silent hill? Why complainest thou as a blast in the wood, as a wave on the lonely shore?

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'Alpin. My tears, O Reyno, are for the dead; my voice for the inhabitants of the grave. Tall thou art on the hill; fair among the sons of the slain. But thou shalt fall like Morar; and the mourners shall sit on thy tomb. The hills shall know thee no more; thy bow shall lie in the halls unstrung.

"Thou wert swift, O Morar, as a roe on the hill; terrible as a meteor of fire. Thy wrath was as the storm; thy sword in battle as lightning in the field. Thy voice was like a stream after rain; like thunder on distant hills. Many fell by thy arm; they were consumed by the flames of thy wrath. But when thou didst return from war, how peaceful was thy brow! Thy face was like the sun after rain; like the moon in the silence of night; calm as the breast of the lake, when the loud wind is hushed into repose."-Macpherson's “ Translation of Ossian.”

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ST. PATRICK'S PURGATORY is the name applied in legend to an islet in Lough Derg, in Ireland. The tradition relating to the locality dates from early Norman days, at leastprobably from an era much more remote.

1 Sir James Mackintosh, in his "History of England," says of the Ossianic compositions, "No other imposture in literary history approaches them in the splendor of their course."