MILVERSTON WORTHIES.

THE Cleverboots family was ever remarkable
for its spirit of research. Guy de Cleverbotes,
secretary to the good Duke Robert of
Normandy, father of William the Conqueror,
was the most renowned antiquary and
genealogist of his time; his celebrated dissertation
on the use of Thumbe Rynges is still a
valued authority amongst learned men.
Longspée de Cleverbotes, whose cross-legged
effigy is to be admired in Framlingham
Church, in a fine state of mutilation, has left
the best work on Ye Druids Temples that
we possess, and also a brief chronicle of the
Holie Warres which is little known except
to historians. Wilfred de Cleverbotes, who
wrote in the early days of the Reformation, has
preserved the traditions of church-decoration,
priestly garments and festival ceremonies.
His treatise is in Latin and in folio, and is
deservedly esteemed a colossal monument of
antiquarian knowledge. It is referred referred to in
all disputed matters of ecclesiastical millinery
as a standard authority. The reign of
Queen Elizabeth, also, boasts its Sir Philip
de Cleverbotes, whose famous translation
from the Saxon of the Romance of Eldegynde
has never been surpassed for accuracy,
grace, and elegance; it preserves all the
spirit of the original and, what is more
remarkable, its peculiar rhythm as well.

As a rule, we have been less remarkable
for the success than for the ingenuity of our labours
: we have ever preferred to be guided
by the erratic promptings of genius, rather
than to follow the common herd through
beaten and useful tracks. This is my own
father's case: after exhausting the whole of
his patrimony and half his life-time on the
invention of a machine for weaving worsted
stockings, he found that a better stocking-
weaving-machine had been constructed fifty
years before, and that it had been improved
to perfection while he was working out its
first principles. My uncles Cyril and Theodore
—both men of original and persevering
talents,—devoted themselves to science; but,
unhappily, their contrivances had been invented
and abandoned as useless, long before
they were short-coated, and all their discoveries
had been doubted, and discussed, abandoned
or adopted at various antecedent dates.
Let them, however, have the honour of their
pure, their noble intentions.

The women of our family have also testified a
lofty superiority of character in many ways.
Aunt Abby constructed a swing for the safe
recreation of infants of tender years, that
the perpetual assiduities of the nurse might
be intermitted, and that they may allow her
to work at more useful matters.  My mother,
a most simple-minded, tender-hearted creature,
devoted to her children, disapproved of
the swing emphatically; although my father
asserted that it was extraordinarily ingenious,
and ought to be patented.  Its efficiency was
first tried on me, then an innocent unweaned
babe, and the effects of this trial remain with
me to the present hour.  I fell upon my face;
and though, of course, my nose was in an
undeveloped stage, its line of beauty was for
ever marred.  Aunt Abby spent many years in
striving to remedy the radical defects of her
invention; and, just when her efforts were on
the point of being crowned with success,
somebody else constructed the baby-jumper.

My two brothers inherit the family talents
in an eminent degree; and, if suitable openings
for their exercise could be found, they
would, doubtless, become as distinguished in
their day and generation as any of our memorable
ancestors.  I, also, the only daughter
of our branch, am of an inquiring mind; and,
if my opportunities equalled my powers, it is
the opinion of our friends that I should do
something remarkable.

MILVERSTON is an old town, not particularly
picturesque, not manufacturing, and not
ecclesiastical; simply retired, cheap, and very
healthy.  You may find hundreds of such
provincial towns in England, each with its
weekly markets, annual fairs, yeomanry ball,
archery meeting, three churches, Dissenting
and Romanist chapels, hordes of small
gentry, and half-pay officers' families.  Milverston
has besides a neat, small theatre and
a handsome subscription-library; which I
take to be rather the exception than the rule
in country towns.

Society in Milverston is very exclusive.  The
shop-keepers are a race apart; a race by many
systematically repressed, lest, in these progress
times, they should attempt to encroach.
Our rector is one of the old school: retired,