for 18_s_. per acre; but buying of land is not one quarter part, for the
land is as full of trees as your woods are of stubs; and they are from
four to ten rods long, and from one to five feet through them. You may buy
land here from 18_s_. to 9_l_. in English money; and it will bring from 20
to 40 bushels of wheat per acre, and corn from 20 to 50 bushels per acre,
and rye from 20 to 40 ditto. You may buy beef for 1-3/4_d_. per pound; and
mutton the same; Irish butter 7_d_. per pound; cheese 3_d_.; tea 4_s_.
6_d_.; sugar 7_d_. per pound; candles 7_d_.; soap 7_d_.; and wheat 4_s_.
6_d_. per bushel; corn and rye 2_s_. per bushel. And I get 2_s_. 4_d_. a
day and my board; and have as much meat to eat, three times a day, as I
like to eat. But clothing is dear; shoes 8_s_.; half boots 16_s_.; calico
from 8_d_. to 1_s_. 4_d_.; stockings 2_s_. 9_d_. to 3_s_. 6_d_.; flannel
4_s_. per yard; superfine cloth from 4_s_. 6_d_. to 1_l_.; now all this is
counted in English money. We get 4_s_. per day in summer, and our board;
and if you count the difference of the money, you will soon find it out;
8_s_. in our money is 4_s_. 6_d_. in your money.

The reader will perhaps think we give only the "milk and honey" of these
letters, but they bear the stamp of authenticity.

* * * * *

KENILWORTH.

Every body knows the delightful romance of Kenilworth,--a tragedy, of
which the dramatis personae are the parties themselves, called up from
their graves by the novelist magician. Students who attend St. Mary's
Church, Oxford, still look out for the flat stone which covers the dust
and bones of poor Amy, and could any sculptured effigies supply the place
of the whole historical picture, then imagined in the mind's eye? More
than once attracted by the old ballad,[1] we have, when undergraduates,
walked to the "lonely towers of Cumnor Hall," fancied that we saw her
struggle, and heard her screams, when she was thrown over the staircase
(the traditional mode of her assassination,) and wondered how any man
could have the heart to murder a simple lovesick pretty girl. Even now,
in sorrow and in sadness, we read this account:--

The unfortunate Amye Duddley (for so she subscribes herself in the
Harleian Manuscript, 4712,) the first wife of Lord Robert Dudley, Queen
Elizabeth's favourite, and after Amy's death Earl of Leicester, was
daughter of Sir John Robsart. Her marriage took place June 4, 1550, the
day follow