divided the world in twain, and that none living might cross it. The mythical island of St. Brandon is found in various positions on the early maps; it disappeared from one position only to reappear in another. The Toscanelli map, which was in existence in 1474, and from which Columbus drew an inspiration, shows an island marked "St. Brandon,' and the island is also shown on Martin Behaim's globe, 1492. The Spaniards had a legend that their Rodrigo retreated to this island, and the Portuguese believed it to be the retreat of their Don Sebastian. Many stories were told as to the island having been reached by various persons, none of whom were ever allowed to return therefrom.

Matthew Arnold, in right of poetic licence, takes the saint on a northern voyage

"Saint Brandon sails the northern main ;
The brotherhood of saints are glad.

He greets them once, he sails again;
So late!-Such storms!-The saint is mad!

He heard, across the howling seas,

Chime convent bells on wintry nights;
He saw on spray-swept Hebrides

Twinkle the monastery lights;

But north, still north, Saint Brandon steer'd-
And now no bells, no convents more!

The hurtling Polar lights are near'd,

The sea without a human shore.

1 This part of the story is probably derived from the ancient fable relating to Charon, the ferryman, who, according to the fable, transported the shades in a boat over the Styx. In order to reward the ferryman, the ancients used to put a piece of money in the mouths of the dead.

2 Both Toscanelli's map and Behaim's globe contain an island marked "Antilia," and Toscanelli's map also represents "Brazil " as an island lying at some distance in the Atlantic beyond a portion of the coast of Ireland. Behaim's ideas were founded upon Toscanelli's map.

At last (it was the Christmas night,
Stars shone after a day of storm)—
He sees float past an iceberg white,
And on it-Christ! a living form.

That furtive mien, that scowling eye,
Of hair that red and tufted fell-
It is—oh, where shall Brandon fly?—
The traitor Judas, out of hell!

Brandon Hill is 250 feet above the level of Bristol; from the summit a grand panoramic view of the city and its surroundings may be obtained. It derives its name from "St. Brendan," who, on his return to Ireland, according to tradition, sailed for Britain with a large company of disciples. There was a hermit's cell or chapel on the top of Brandon Hill. Dallaway1 says that the Irish mariners resorted to this chapel upon their reaching the port of Bristol. William Worcestre, a fifteenth-century chronicler, describes the chapel, which was dedicated to St. Brandon ("Sancti Brandani "),—and the hill was described as "Mons Sancti Brandani." Worcestre says: "The height of the hill of St. Brandon's chapel, as the hermit of that chapel told me, is supposed by sailors and well-judging men to be higher than any spire either of Redcliff or any other church by eighteen fathom of height, and each fathom measures six feet." ["Altitudo montis capella Sancti Brandani dicitur, ut heremita ibidem miehi retulit, quod nautæ et discreti homines dicunt esse alciorem alicujus pinaculi sive ecclesiæ de Radclyff quam aliarum ecclesiarum per spacium altitudinis 18 brachiorum anglice a vathym, et quodlibit brachium continet 6 pedes."] (Itiner

1 Dallaway's Antiquities of Bristol, p. 46,

[A Section of an Ancient Map of Bristol.}

arium Willelmi de Worcestre,1 Nasmith's edition, p. 241.)

In the register of William of Wickham, Bishop of Winchester, is the following particular of the chapel of St. Brendan: "Ibidem 14 die Augusti 1403 dominas concessit, etc., he granted to all benefactors to the chapel of St. Brendan nigh Bristol, and to Reginald Taillor, the poor hermit of it, forty days of indulgence by his letters for one year only to continue"; by which it appears there was an

1 William Wircestre, or Worcestre, popularly, but erroneously, known as "William of Worcester," who, as it will presently appear, was the chronicler of the first English attempt to sail in search of the island, was the son of a person of the same name, who was a worthy burgess of Bristol, and engaged in trade. He was born at a house in a very ancient street, called St. James's Back, in 1415. His mother was Elizabeth Botoner, of an opulent family settled in Coventry. After having passed four years as a student of Hart Hall, in Oxford, he became a retainer to Sir John Falstaff, of Caistre Castle, in Norfolk, and, in process of time, his secretary, physician, and finally was appointed one of his executors. It appears that Wyrcestre occasionally assumed the designation of W. Botoner, otherwise Wyrcestre, preferring his mother's name to that of his father. In the decline of life he established himself in Bristol, having a house and garden near St. Philip's churchyard gate. His chief amusement in his old age was most minutely to survey his native town by paces and measurements, committing the result of such investigation daily to his notebook... He died about the year 1484 (Dallaway's Antiquities of Bristow). The Worcestre family was for a long period connected with the ancient parish of St. James in Bristol. In the will of John Pedewell, burgess, proved in the year 1385, who desired to be buried in the cemetery of the parish church of St. James of Bristol, we find that "William Worcestre " was appointed one of the executors, and Richard, the prior of St. James, overseer of the will. In the will of Henry Calf, burgess, proved in 1394, the testator appointed Richard "Wircestre," prior of St. James of Bristol, to be overseer. John Fluyt, burgess, who died in 1398, desired to be buried in the parish of St. James of Bristol, in the chapel of the Blessed Mary there, and he appointed "Sir Richard Wircestre, prior of St. James of Bristol," one of the overseers of his will. By his will, dated October 20, 1420, William Worcestre expressed a wish to be buried in the east corner of St. James's cemetery at Bristol, beside Sir Richard, formerly parish chaplain of that church.