world-conquest-all the impulses of which the human heart is capable-have flourished in monasticism's fruitful soil. The study of monasticism is the study, not of a minor movement or of a side eddy within the Christian church, but of Christianity itself, for Christianity was for centuries monasticism. But the study of monasticism is a study not of Christianity alone, but of life, for monasticism was for centuries life at its highest and at its lowest, at its noblest and its basest. A movement rooted, as it has shown itself to be, in the deepest instincts of the human heart, and ministering, as it has ministered, as well in the active and practical West as in the indolent and dreamy East, to a common need of man, may not be lightly spoken of or carelessly ignored. Though in these latter days we have learned a lesson which monasticism could not teach, though we seek in other fashion to meet our spirit's needs, and though its life ideals are no longer ours, we cannot forget that during centuries of sensuality, and centuries more of barbarism, the world felt the reproving, condemning, quickening and restraining influence of an institution which was a constant protest against the reign of the material, and a constant testimony to the power of the spiritual, which was indeed the conscience of the world incarnate."

FEW years ago, whilst staying in the small town of Havant, in Hampshire, I met with, at the Church Institute there, an interesting work called The Mistress of Langdale Hall, written by Miss R. M. Kettle, now deceased, and

dedicated to Mr. John Lister, M.A., a well-known Yorkshire archæologist, residing at and owning Shibden Hall, near Halifax, co. York, where the book was written in 1876. The three principal places described in it are the Hall, the Grange, and Noel Hall which anyone, after having read the work, and being acquainted with the neighbourhood and the large parish of Halifax, would conclude to be Shibden Hall, Shibden Grange and High Sunderland, all situated within a mile of the ancient town of Halifax.

The Lady of Langdale Hall was Miss Lister, who lived a generation ago, and was a great-aunt of Mr. John Lister; and was noted as having written a Diary, which was published by her great-nephew in the Halifax local newspaper a few years ago, giving an interesting account of past customs, manners, and people in the parish of Halifax.

The name Langdale has evidently originated from the marriage of Elizabeth, daughter of Peter Langdale, Esq., of Beverley, co. York, and sister of Marmaduke

Lord Langdale, with Abraham Sunderland, Esq., of High Sunderland, living in 1620.

According to Burke's Extinct Peerage, etc., Charles Phillip, 16th Baron Stourton, born 1752, married, in 1775, the daughter and co-heir of Marmaduke, 5th Baron Langdale, which barony expired in 1774.

Of these three houses the most important one is the Hall, or Shibden Hall.

This is an ancient and picturesque half-timbered house, part of which is fourteenth-century work. It is situated in the township of Northowram. It has been the property, and residence, of the Lister family since 1612. Richard Lister, in 1439, bought land at Hipperholme, about a mile distant from Shibden Hall, on the road to Bradford. He was descended, according to an entry in the History of Hipperholme-cum-Brighouse (in the parish of Halifax) from Bate, le Lister (or Dyer), of Halifax, in the year 1289, whose name was mentioned in the Brighouse Court Rolls as holding lands in the parish of Halifax in 1311. One of the family, John Lister, who was born in 1602, was fined for not attending to receive the honour of knighthood at the Coronation of King Charles I. The receipt for this fine was signed by "Wentworthe, Earl of Strafford."

The Lister family bought Shibden Hall from the Waterhouse family.

The Arms of Lister appear on the inner roof of Halifax Church, and are "ermine, on a fess sable, three mullets or; a dexter canton gules." Without the canton, they are similar to those of Lord Ribblesdale, representative of the Listers of Gisburn, in Craven, seated there, I think, from 1350; and Lord Masham, popularly known in Bradford as "Sam Lister," the representative of the Listers of Manningham Hall, Bradford, where they have been for three hundred years; and the spirited and courageous inventor of the machine for wool-combing, which had hitherto been done by hand; a machine through which, before he perfected it, he lost the large sum of £350,000.

He, at last, succeeded, and by his various operations in