himself alone; he held nothing of any one, and all his rights and all his power centred in himself alone. "What a vast influence must a situation like this have exercised over him who enjoyed it!. "What haughtiness, what pride must it have engendered! . . . No general and powerful law to restrain him, no exterior force to control him, his wishes suffered no checks but from the limits of his power and the presence of danger." But of the descendants of these fierce and lawless men it may with truth be said that, as a class, they have amply compensated to society for the misdeeds of their ancestors, and that they have been among the foremost in acts of piety and kindness and Christian love. 
   To the list of noble names which we have given as associated with this district, we might have added a few years since the illustrious one of Talbot. He who bore it, attracted by the quiet beauties of Cowden and its neighbourhood, came to live there. Gifted with talents which were proved in the struggles of an arduous profession, possessed of energies which were too severely tried, and, what was infinitely better, blessed with a disposition to do all he could to further the best and highest interests of his fellow-creatures, he was taken away from those to whom he would have been a guide and friend: and the church which he built in a distant part of the parish, is his best monument.¹
   "As every change," to use the words of Mr. Hallam, "in the dwellings of mankind, from the earliest cabin built of wood to the stately mansion, has been dictated by some principle of convenience, neatness, comfort, or magnificence, it is interesting to trace them, showing, as they do, accompanying alterations in the tastes and habits of those that built them." Taking these words as our text, let us apply them to some of the buildings
which still exist in this our favourite district, and there
   ¹ The Hon. John Chetwynd Talbot; lie died May 26th, 1852.