OF

WAT TYLER,

THE GOOD AND THE BRAVE.

"Farewell, ye gilded follies, pleasing troubles!
Farewell, ye honoured rags, ye glorious bubbles!
Fame's but a hollow echo-gold, pure clay-
Honour, the darling but of one short day-
.Beauty, the eye's idol, but a damask'd skin-
State, but a golden prison, to live in,

And torture free-born minds-embroider'd trains,
Merely but pageants for proud swelling veins—

And blood allied to greatness is alone

Inherited, not purchased, not our own,

Fame, honour, beauty, state, train, blood, and birth,
Are but the fading blossoms of the earth."'

LONDON:

H. G. COLLINS, PATERNOSTER ROW.

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MDCCCLI.

DA

Dir
Franklin

1-12-53 81488

PREFACE.

THE following pages contain the Life and Adventures of one of the most surprising men "the world e'er saw "—one of "Nature's noblemen"-who, though of lowly birth, raised himself solely by his own merits, to rank among the noblest of the land, and become the confidant and adviser of his prince in times of danger, when those "noblemen of royal manufacture" shrunk from their post. The honours poured upon him, however, did not cause our hero to for get his former companions; on the contrary, having experienced that to be rich was to be

hated,-wise, suspected- scorn'd if poorGreat, fear'd-fair, tempted-high, still envied more: I have wished all; but now I wish for neither,

Great, high, rich, wise, nor fair-poor I'll be rather;"

and he voluntarily relinquished all those "glorious bubbles" which royalty was anxious to confer upon him, choosing rather to retire to his humble home, and spend

the remainder of his days in peace and quietness, in the bosom of his family. But even this was denied him, and he was once more called to the field, in opposition to that government he had formerly so freely shed his blood to support. He was now the friend of the poor, and supported their cause against the tyranny of their oppressors. In this cause he lost his life, and gained the name of REBEL, with what justice we will leave our readers to judge.

LIFE OF WAT TYLER.

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WALTER HILLIARD, commonly called Wat Tyler, the only son of Martin Hilliard, was born, in the year 1320, in the little village of Broxley, in the county of Kent. Of the earlier years of Wat little is known, except that his father, being among the better class of peasants, our hero was permitted to spend his time much as he pleased, and became expert in all the youthful sports of the period; and while he increased in stature, he surpassed all his village competitors in the more athletic amusements, and became by general consent the leader in all their juvenile expeditions, for which he was eminently qualified, not only by the moral qualities of undaunted courage, by a genius naturally sagacious, fertile, and expedient, and a readiness of eye and retentiveness of memory, but