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uniting together to dethrone him. The Earl's eldest son, Hotspur, was to march with a large army from the north of England, and Glendower was to meet him with such forces as he could collect in Wales.

3. As soon as the king was aware of these movements, he marched in all haste, to come up with Hotspur before he was joined by Glendower. The royal army entered Shrewsbury only a few hours before Hotspur arrived at the gates. This was on July 19, and the king was anxious to give battle without delay. Hotspur, however, did not feel himself strong enough for this, having not above 14,000 men in his army, whereas the king had nearly double that number. On the following morning the king's forces marched out of the town, and succeeded in forcing Hotspur to an engagement.

4. The fight began by furious and repeated volleys of arrows from Hotspur's archers, whose ground greatly favoured that kind of warfare; and they did great execution on the royal army. The king's bowmen were not wanting in return, and the battle raged with violence. Hotspur, bent on the king's destruction, rushed through the hostile arrows, and pierced his way to the spot on which he stood. Henry was thrice unhorsed, and would have been taken or slain, had he not been defended and rescued by his own men: and the fortune of the day would have been forthwith decided, if the king's friends had not withdrawn him from the danger;

for the royal standard-bearer was slain, his banner beaten down, and many of the chosen band appointed to guard it were killed. The young Prince of Wales was also wounded in the face by an

arrow.

5. It thus seemed that, notwithstanding all the exertions of the royalists, victory would remain with the rebel army, who fought with renewed ardour, from an opinion, naturally derived from the overthrow of his standard, that the king himself had fallen. They animated each other to the combat with cheering and redoubled shouts of 'Henry Percy, king!' 'Henry Percy, king!'

6. At this critical moment, the gallant Percy, raging through the ranks of the enemy, fell by an unknown hand, alone, and hemmed in by foes. The king lost no time in availing himself of this event. Straining his voice to the utmost, he shouted, Henry Percy is dead!' and the battle soon ended in the king gaining a complete victory. The place where the fight was thickest is about three miles from Shrewsbury, and is still called Battle-field. King Henry built a handsome church there, which is still used as a parish church, though great part of it is in ruins.

7. In the meanwhile, Owen Glendower had marched with a large body of Welshmen to within a mile of Shrewsbury; and if the king had not been so rapid in his movements, Glendower and Hotspur would probably have joined their forces. It was necessary, however, that the Welsh army

should cross the Severn, which, at this place, is a broad and rapid river. It happened also, most unfortunately for Glendower, that the water was at this time exceedingly high. There is a ford at

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Shelton, by which, at other seasons, he would have been able to cross the river, but now it was impossible. The bridges at Shrewsbury were com

manded by the king; and he had nothing to do but to halt his army on the banks of the Severn, though he could see Hotspur's forces quite plainly on the opposite side, and though he knew that the king was wishing to bring on a battle.

8. The tradition of the country says that Glendower mounted the large oak tree,. of which we give an engraving, and that he saw from thence the battle of Shrewsbury. The story is most probably true. If Glendower really arrived at this spot, and could not get over the river on account of a flood (of which fact there seems to be no doubt), it is not at all unlikely that he mounted up into the tree. Battle-field church can now be seen very plainly from the bank of the river. It is not much more than three miles off; and at the time the battle was fought, the country was perhaps much more open than it is at present, and there were few hedges to shut out the view; so that Glendower might easily have seen what was going on between the two armies; and it must have been very mortifying to him to see the troops of his friend Hotspur totally defeated.

9. From the present appearance of the tree, there is no difficulty in believing that it is old enough to have been of a considerable size in the year 1403. Oaks are known to live to a much greater age than this; and there are documents which prove that the Shelton oak was a fine large tree some centuries ago. It is still perfectly alive, and bears some hundreds of acorns every year,

though it has great marks of age, and is so hollow in the inside, that it seems to stand on little more than a circle of bark, At least six or eight persons might stand within it.

MELBOURNE AND ITS

NEIGHBOURHOOD.

1. I LIKED Melbourne very much. From the place where we landed it took us about a quarter of an hour to reach the town by rail. The anchorage was very disagreeable, in consequence of a heavy swell which set into the bay and converted it into a restless sea.

2. Melbourne would be thought a fine town anywhere, but, considering its youth, it deserves to be called a very fine town indeed. The streets are broad, the public buildings are large and handsome, and so are the churches and the banks. In the town, or adjoining it, there are pretty gardens and parks, while the suburbs, largely composed of villas, stretch away to the south and east for a long distance, and are made accessible by constantly running trains.

3. The town is built on the American plan, that is to say the streets run off at right angles to each other. Along both sides of those streets. which look one way, streams of running water flow

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