surely here might at last be discovered a permanent haven of refuge from the incessant platitude and triviality of ordinary experience and the strife and din of the world. [Illustration: WOOTTON-WAWEN CHURCH] Wootton-Wawen church is one of the numerous Roman Catholic buildings of about the eleventh century that still survive in this realm, devoted now to Protestant worship. It has been partly restored, but most of it is in a state of decay, and if this be not soon arrested the building will become a ruin. Its present vicar, the Rev. Francis T. Bramston, is making vigorous efforts to interest the public in the preservation of this ancient monument, and those efforts ought to succeed. A more valuable ecclesiastical relic it would be difficult to find, even in this rich region of antique treasures, the heart of England. Its sequestered situation and its sweetly rural surroundings invest it with peculiar beauty. It is associated, furthermore, with names that are stately in English history and honoured in English literature,--with Henry St. John, Viscount Bolingbroke, whose sister reposes in its ancient vaults, and with William Somerville [1692-1742], the poet who wrote _The Chase_. It was not until I actually stood upon his tombstone that my attention was directed to the name of that old author, and to the presence of his relics in this remote and lonely place. Somerville lived and died at Edston Hall, near Wootton-Wawen, and was famous in his day as a Warwickshire squire and huntsman. His grave is in the chancel of the church, the following excellent epitaph, written by himself, being inscribed upon the plain blue stone that covers it:-- H. S. E. OBIIT 17. JULY. 1742. GULIELMUS SOMERVILE. ARM. SI QUID IN ME BONI COMPERTUM HABEAS, IMITATE. SI QUID MALI, TOTIS VIRIBUS EVITA. CHRISTO CONFIDE, ET SCIAS TE QUOQUE FRAGILEM ESSE ET MORTALEM. Such words have a meaning that sinks deep into the heart when they are read upon the gravestone that covers the poet's dust. They came to me like a message from an old friend who had long been waiting for the opportunity of this solemn greeting and wise counsel. Another epitaph written by Somerville,--and one that shows equally the kindness of his heart and the quaintness of his character,--appears upon a little, low, lichen-covered stone in Wootton-Wawen churchyard, where it commemorates his huntsman and butler, Jacob Bocter, who was hurt in the hunting-field, and died of this accident:-- H. S. E. JACOBUS BOCTER. GULIELMO SOMERVILE ARMIGRO PROMUS ET CANIBUS VENATICIS PRAEPOSITOR DOMI. FORISQUE FIDELIS EQUO INTER VENANDUM CORUENTE ET INTESTINIS GRAVITER COLLISIS POST TRIDUUM DEPLORANDUS. OBIIT 28 DIE JAN., ANNO DNI 1719. AETAT 38. [Illustration: _Beaudesert Cross._]