Brian Fitz-Count: A Story of Wallingford Castle and Dorchester Abbey

It was the evening of the 30th of September in the year of grace 1139; the day had been bright and clear, but the moon, arising, was rapidly overpowering the waning light of the...

The merry sound of horns blowing the _reveillée_ greeted the sleepers as they awoke, lazily, and saw the morning dawn shining through their windows of horn, or stretched skin, o...

Forth he and his dog bounded from the thick covert in which their cottage was concealed, and emerging from the tall reeds which bordered the brook, they stood beneath the shade...

The return of Brian Fitz-Count and his companion from their stroll in the woods probably saved our aged friend Sexwulf and his grandson from much rough treatment, for although i...

It was a wild and lonely spot, eight hundred feet above sea level, the highest ground of the central downs of Berkshire, looking northward over a vast expanse of fertile country...

We fear that Brian Fitz-Count must have sunk in the reader's estimation. After the perusal of the last chapter, it is difficult to understand how a doughty warrior and belted kn...

The Abbey of Dorchester stood on the banks of the river Tame, a small stream arising near the town of the same name, and watering the finest pasture land of the county of Oxford...

When Brian Fitz-Count returned to his castle it was buried in the silence and obscurity of night; only the sentinels were awake, and as they heard his password, they hastened to...

The scene was the bank of a large desolate pond or small lake in Northamptonshire. It was on high table-land, for the distant country might be seen through openings in the pine-...

It was the day of St. Calixtus, the day on which, seventy-three years earlier in the history of England, the Normans had stormed the heights of Senlac, and the brave Harold had...

Amidst a scene of great excitement, the party of Brian Fitz-Count left Wallingford Castle, a hundred men, all armed to the teeth, being chosen to accompany him, while at least f...

For many days Evroult and Richard, the sons--unhappy, leprous sons--of Brian Fitz-Count, bore their sad lot with apparent patience in the lazar-house of Byfield; but their minds...

It is not our intention to follow Osric's career closely during the early period of his pagehood under the fostering care of Brian Fitz-Count and the influence of Alain, but we...

Nothing is more incomprehensible to the Christians of the nineteenth century than the lives of the hermits, and the general verdict passed upon them is, that they were useless,...

The whole land lay under a covering of deep snow, the frost was keen and intense, the streams were ice-bound when they could be seen, for generally snow had drifted and filled t...

Meanwhile Brian Fitz-Count himself, with Osric by his side and a dozen horsemen, rode to and fro on the road to Oxford, which passed through the forest of Bagley; for to halt in...

In sketching the life of a mediæval castle, we have dwelt too much upon the brighter side of the picture. There was a darker one, contrasting with the outward pomp and circumsta...

From the abode of strife and turmoil to the home of peace, from the house of the world to the house of religion, from the Castle of Wallingford to the Abbey of Dorchester, do we...

The morning watch looked forth from the summit of the lofty keep, which rose above Wallingford Castle, to spy the dawning day. From that elevation of two hundred feet he saw the...

We are loth to leave our readers too long in the den of tyranny: we pant for free air; for the woods, even if we share them with hermits and lepers--anything rather than the tow...

An excessive rainfall during the late summer of this year destroyed the hopes of the harvest,--such hopes as there were, for tillage had been abandoned, save where the protectio...

Sad and weary were the hours to Osric which intervened between the death and burial of his grandfather. He gazed upon the dear face, where yet the parting look of love seemed to...

The time had passed away slowly at the lazar-house at Byfield. Life was tedious there to most people, least of all to the good Chaplain, Father Ambrose; for he loved his poor le...

Great was the surprise and anger of Brian Fitz-Count that his favourite page should dare to tarry, even to bury his grandfather, much less to fulfil an idle vow, when he had bid...

The night continued intensely dark, a drizzling rain fell; but all this was in favour of the escape. Upon a moonlight night this large boat must have been seen by the sentinels,...

The reader may feel quite sure that such a nature as Evroult's was not easily conquered by the gentle influences of Christianity; indeed, humanly speaking, it might never have y...

Had the Abbot of Reading seen fit, or rather had the business on which he came to Lollingdune allowed him to return home on the day in which he had decorated Osric with the red...

Meanwhile Osric was brought back as a prisoner to the grim stronghold where for years his position had been that of the chartered favourite of the mighty Baron who was the lord...

Our tale is all but told. Osric reached the Holy Land in safety, more fortunate than many of his fellows; and there, hearing Brian's recommendations and acknowledged as his son,...

The Right Eye and the Right Hand--Temptation treated as Opportunity--The Influences of Habit on Devotion--Thought for the Morrow--The Relief of Utterance--Seeking a Sign--David...

Collects--On the Origin of the word Collect--On the Structure of a Collect, as illustrated by the Collect in the Burial Service--Of the Sources of the Collects: Of the Sacrament...

III.--_On the Collects after the Offertory._ APPENDIX A.--_Collects in the First Reformed Prayer Book of 1549 which were suppressed in 1552_--The Collect for the First Communion...

Primitive Fathers--The Intermediate State--Change in the Intermediate State--Prayers for the Dead: Reasons for Our Lord's Silence on the Subject--The Testimony of Holy Scripture...

Saints--Primitive Testimony to the Invocation of the Saints--The Trustworthiness of the Patristic Evidence for Invocation tested--The Primitive Liturgies and the Roman Catacombs...

APPENDIX--ILLUSTRATIONS OF PART I. FROM THE EARLY FATHERS:--On the Evidence of God's Existence--On the Divinity of Christ--On the Doctrine of the Atonement--On the Procession of...