The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 327, August 16, 1828

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Various. The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction. Volume 12, No. 327, August 16, 1828

ROSAMOND'S WELL AND LABYRINTH

THE "NAPOLEON" CHILD

PORTUGUESE PRISONS

ADDRESSED TO MISS STREET

CHILDE'S TOMB

REMEMBER THEE

ANCIENT ROMAN FESTIVALS. AUGUST

THE NOVELIST

BEBUT THE AMBITIOUS

NOTES OF A READER

MURDER

WINDSOR CASTLE

THE THREE TEACHERS

IRISH POOR

PSALMODY

FRENCH-ENGLISH

DEBAUCHERIES OF PARIS

LORD COLLINGWOOD

CHANGES OF SOCIETY

BATTLE OF THE HEADS

PORTRAIT PAINTING

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

THE BACHELOR'S VADE-MECUM

LONDON LYRICS.—TABLE TALK

SELECT BIOGRAPHY

LEDYARD THE TRAVELLER

THE GATHERER

POLSTEAD

CONUNDRUM

POETRY AND PAINTING

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Rosamond's Well and Labyrinth at Woodstock.

For the originals of the annexed engravings we are indebted to the sketchbooks of two esteemed correspondents.1 The sites are so consecrated, or we should rather say perpetuated, in history, and the fates and fortunes of Rosamond Clifford are so familiar to our readers, that we shall add but few words on the locality of the Well and Bower. Their existence is thus attested by Drayton, the poet, in the reign of Queen Elizabeth:—"Rosamond's Labyrinth, whose ruins, together with her Well, being paved with square stones in the bottom, and also her Tower, from which the Labyrinth did run, are yet remaining, being vaults arched and walled with stone and brick, almost inextricably wound within one another, by which, if at any time her lodging were laid about by the queen, she might easily avoid peril imminent, and, if need be, by secret issues, take the air abroad, many furlongs about Woodstock, in Oxfordfordshire."

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The bower consists of fine tall trees, whose branches hang entwined over the front of the well. The spring is contained in a large basin, formed by a plain stone wall, which serves as a facing and support to the bank; the water flows from hence through a hole of about five inches in diameter, and is conveyed by a channel under the pavement into another basin of considerable dimensions, fenced with an iron railing. Hence it again escapes by means of a grating into the beautiful lake of Woodstock Park, or, as it is more modernly termed, Blenheim.

In these days of "hobgoblin lore," it may not be incurious to add, that Woodstock is distinguished in Dr. Plot's History of Oxfordshire (the title of which is well known to all readers of the marvellous) as the scene of a series of hoax and disturbance played off upon the commissioners of the Long Parliament, who were sent down to dispark and destroy Woodstock, after the death of Charles I.; and Sir Walter Scott thinks it "highly probable" that this "piece of phantasmagoria was conducted by means of the secret passages and recesses in the Labyrinth of Rosamond"—it must be admitted, a very convenient scene for such a farce. Sir Walter says, "I have not the book at hand"—neither have we; but we may probably allude to this curious affair on some future occasion. In the meantime, if our present reference should kindle the curiosity of the reader, and he may not be disposed to await our time, we beg to recommend him to Glanville's well-known work on witchcraft, which not only contains Dr. Plot's narrative of the Woodstock disturbances, but a multitude of argument for all who are sceptical of this and similar mysteries. This is an age of inquiry, and we do not see why such follies should be left unturned—from Priam's shade to the murderous dreams and omens of our own times.

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