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GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE.

DECEMBER, 1844.

BY SYLVANUS URBAN, GENT.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

MINOR CORRESPONDENCE.-Site of the manufactory of Faience-Roman relics at Kingston-Origin of Chelsea and Greenwich Hospitals-Stulp or StoopThe Ballad of Earl Oswald..

POEMS OF RURAL LIFE IN THE DORSET DIALECT: by W. Barnes.

On the Site of Anderida: by the Rev. Beale Post
Mistaken Date at Fittleworth, Sussex, (with a Cut)
Examination of Lord Keeper Littleton

....

Letter of Lord Sinclair, from Newcastle, in 1644
Biddulph Hall, Staffordshire (with a Plate)

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562

563

577

582

583

584

ibid.

ON ACADEMIES (concluded) — Agassis, Balfe, Handel, Herschel, Brunel, &c. -Voltaire's sojourn in England-Richelieu's Policy towards the French Academy-Molière-Monuments to Illustrious Frenchmen-General Bertrand -Latter History of the French Academy, and Great Names excluded...... 585 THE THREE SHIRLEYS (concluded)`..

.....

The Prince of Wales's Plume-Badge of the Ostrich Feather-The Black Prince's
Epitaph-Badge of the Gorget.

.....

Sale of the Duke of Sussex's Collection of Manuscripts
RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW.-Stanyhurst's First Four Books of Virgil.
REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

....

Letters of Mary Queen of Scots, edited by Miss Agnes Strickland, 609; Hewitt's
History of the Hundred of Compton, 610; Dunkin's History of Dartford,
612; Fitchett's King Alfred, 616; Thomas's Psychologist, 617; Johns's
Anglican Cathedral Church, Jerusalem, 618; Flower's Sunday Evening
Musings, 619; The Forget Me Not, 620: Miscellaneous Reviews
LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.
New Publications, 622; University of Cambridge
FINE ARTS.-Historical Album-The Earliest Engraving, 628; Statue of
Alderman Rowney, at Oxford, 629; Monument to Bishop Butler, 630;
Foreign Statues.
ARCHITECTURE.-Oxford Architectural Society-St. Edmund's Chapel,
Walpole, 631; English Church at Malta, 632; Restoration of Church of
St. Mary, Bury, 633; New Churches..
ANTIQUARIAN RESEARCHES.-Cambridge Camden Socity, 634; Roman
Ruins near Weymouth....

594

598

599

603

621

627

630

634

635

638

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HISTORICAL CHRONICLE.-Foreign News, 637-Domestic Occurrences
Promotions and Preferments, 639; Births and Marriages ....
OBITUARY; with Memoirs of Lord Western; Sir Thomas Tancred, Bart. ; Sir
James Martin Lloyd, Bart.; Adm. Sir John P. Beresford; General Dunne;
Major-Gen. E. R. J. Cotton; Col. Deshon; C. E. Branfill, Esq.; Arthur
Atherley, Esq.; F. L. Holt, Esq.; E. E. Deacon, Esq.; Adam Bromilaw,
Esq.; Dr. Hodgson, Dean of Carlisle; Rev. Henry Card, D. D.; Ven. Arch-
deacon Bathurst; George Lloyd, Esq.; Peter Coxe, Esq.; Rev. George
Coxe; Mrs. Henry Siddons; Mr. Gattie..

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Registrar-General's Returns of Mortality in the Metropolis-Markets - Prices of Shares, 671; Meteorological Diary-Stocks..

Embellished with a View of BIDDULPH HALL, Staffordshire.

MINOR CORRESPONDENCE.

An Old Correspondent would be thankful to be informed where he will be likely to find any account of the establishment or existence of a manufactory of the earthenware commonly called Faience, in the island of Majorca. Tradition in Italy commonly asserts the fact, and places the manufactory in the 11th century; and the name, Majolica, seems to bear testimony to the truth of the tradition.

J. P. suggests that the Roman weapons found near Kingston, and mentioned by Mr. Roots in his letters inserted in the 30th volume of the Archæologia, may have been the remains of some conflict between the Britons and the Romans, upon the latter's invasion under Claudius. Other weapons, &c. found near Kingston, have been referred, with great probability, to that period: and exuviæ of warfare have also been found in the neighbourhood of Coway Stakes-the most probable place of Cæsar's passage (See Manning and Bray). Moreover, we may presume that wherever Cæsar passed the Thames, he was not, after having so done, much resisted by the Britons; who, it would seem, were astonished at the daring courage shown by the Romans in crossing

the river.

E. B. P. begs to correct a little mistake in Mr. Parry's communication on Church Bells, page 486. In speaking of Nell Gwynne, Mr. P. says, to her spontaneous and disinterested urging charity owes Greenwich if not also Chelsea Hospital." It is supposed (but upon what authority I do not at the moment recollect,) that Chelsea Hospital owes its origin to the persuasive eloquence of Nell Gwynne. This supposition, I remember, formed the groundwork of a very interesting scene, perhaps the most effective one, in Jerrold's clever play of "Nell Gwynne," which was performed at Covent Garden, in Jannary, 1833, with a success that has not of late years attended our dramatic productions. Greenwich Hospital is certainly under no obligation to either Charles II. or Nell Gwynne. The former erected a small portion of the present edifice, with the design of building a palace-not a hospital. It is to William III. (at the instance of his Queen, it is said,) that we are indebted for the completion of this noble building,

and the still nobler purpose to which it is devoted.

GULIELMUS is referred to our September number, p. 302, and our Oct. number, p. 409, or for fuller instructions to the Archæological Journal, No. III. for the method of rubbing impressions of sepulchral plates, or other sculptured surfaces.

T. A. B. observes that Mr. Way, in his notice of a lease from the Earl of Bedford to Sir William Cecill, of a pasture in Covent Garden, informs us, the obsolete term stulp is now retained only in the dialect of Norfolk ;" as quoted in November number, p. 505. It is, however, very generally used in North Lancashire and the adjoining parts of Westmorland, though pronounced stoop, and in the signification of a post for the support of a gate. As late as the beginning of last century I find it written stulp in title deeds of this district. Stolpe, in SuioGothic, is interpreted fulcrum.

J. E. remarks that the same word is the common term for "a post " in the neighbourhood of Halifax, only it is pronounced as if it were written stoop. He remembers very well making use of the word ten years ago, to designate a post in Greenstreet, in Cambridge, when a friend, a native of Berkshire, who was walking with him, was at a loss to know what it meant, and he was obliged to explain.

F. requests information on the following point :-The ballad of Earl Oswald is found in the third volume of Evans's Old Ballads, in the edition of 1784. It is in volume IV. in the edition of 1810.-Is this ballad taken from any old collection ? If not, whence comes it? Is it by Mickle, who has had the credit of being author of several ballads in volumes III. and IV. of Evans's Collection? See Gent's. Mag. O. S., Vol. LXI. p. 628. It is true that Mickle has been vindicated from such a charge; and it has been stated that he had declared that he was not the author of those ballads. See Gent's. Mag. O. S. Vol. LXI. p. 801. F. inclines to think that he must have been the author of the above ballad: if so, his plagiarism is of a most barefaced character, as it is easy to perceive from whence he (Mickle), or whoever was the author of Earl Oswald, borrowed words and sentiments.

GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE.

Poems of Rural Life, in the Dorset Dialect: with a Dissertation and Glossary. By William Barnes.

WITH the same delight with which a botanist discovers a new flower of beauty and fragrance, and draws it from its solitary and unfrequented abode to be known and admired; or as the astronomer, amid the surrounding splendour of innumerable worlds, sees a new constellation of no inferior brilliancy, at once attracting his admiration and rewarding his labours; so we too have felt when unexpectedly we discovered under the rude covering of a primitive and provincial dialect, and in a remote part of a distant county, a vein of poetical feeling which in its kind we can scarcely think surpassed by any previous inspirations of the Muse who presides over the scenes of rural life. We know little of the author,* but, if we judge of him by his work, we can believe that, unknown to the learned, and unpatronized by the great, he has "warbled his native woodnotes wild," winning his way to the hearts of all who heard him, until the fame of his genius spread beyond the limits of the valleys which gave it birth, by the simple sweetness of his verse, the purity of the sentiments, the delicacy of the thoughts, and the elegance and propriety of the imagery. Such are the qualities that distinguish the noble and successful works of genius from the mere desires of the will, the efforts of the memory, or the common power of verbal imitation. We have heard that Mr. Barnes is a person possessing very large stores of self-acquired erudition; but the mention of these is beyond the scope of our present purpose; our business with him is as a poet, and we shall egregiously fail in the estimate we have made, if we do not, in the specimens we are about to produce, satisfy our readers, that in this small and single volume is a strain of poetry abounding in such natural and simple beauties, at once appealing to the understanding and affecting the heart, as would do honour to the greatest names in our poetic annals, such as Crabbe would have delighted to listen to, and even Burns himself would not have disdained to own.

Poets, like all other persons, must have their thoughts strongly affected and acted on by the sympathies of their own times, and by the minds of their contemporaries; hence arises imitation, often insensibly acquired, and a kind of conventional manner of thought and expression. The poets of one age take their tone from Cowley or Donne,-of another from Pope or Addison,—and the prevailing spirit of our own time is far too striking and prominent not to be felt by all within its reach; it is too remarkable to be overlooked, perhaps too powerful to be resisted, and in many respects too fascinating not to be willingly obeyed. But we are bound in fairness to say, that in Mr. Barnes's poems we can trace no footsteps of the submissive or sequacious follower of any poetic school or model, but that of true nature and passion. The poet's heart is at home, his scenery is all domestic, his circle of description of home-growth, confined to his own

Although Mr. Barnes has been hitherto unknown to his Reviewer, he has long been a valuable contributor to this Magazine.-EDIT.

fields and boundaries; and the little village scenes, the household cares, and employments, the innocent pleasures, the gentle sorrows and joys, the rural pastimes, the business or the amusements,-he places before us, and throws into a dramatic form, and invests with personal interest, are all drawn from the characters of those familiar to him. His language too is not brought from a distance to decorate or adorn the native complexion of pastoral life; it is twin-born with the subject, and between the thought and expression is nothing discordant or unsuitable. What there is of poetry in this volume is the genuine offspring of poetic sensibility and power; sensibility in seizing the poetic aspect of things, power in expressing it in the truest and most affecting manner, without any artifice to allure, or any trick to surprize,-without undue exaggeration of feeling, without cumbersome or superfluous display of imagery, and without false affectation of sentiment. It is a pure and genuine spring of poetry gushing clear and bright from its native source, rolling along its channel by its own energy and strength, and imparting a real and permanent pleasure by a faithful reflex and mirror of those feelings, images, and associations, which are most in accordance with the best disposition of our minds, with nature, and with truth. The faculty of the poet is to apprehend forcibly and quickly that which is poetic in the varied scenes of life and nature, to feel it deeply, to describe it correctly; while his genius throws its rich unexpected lights upon different parts of the picture; like those bright moments of the varied sky which open for an instant the long-extended landscape, and the prospects that seem at once formed and illuminated by a sudden enchantment. Such as this, are those divine glances of the heart which are received into the inanimate forms of nature, which breathe into the creation a new pulse and life, and which thus form a beautiful chain of impressions and images on the mind. In these poems of Mr. Barnes's there will be found many little home touches and descriptions true to nature, which the poet's observing eye has caught, and his faithful pencil portrayed, which give life and reality to the scene, please by our familiar acquaintance with them, and yet almost startle us like unexpected acquaintance, when we see them in description. Such are the graphic touches of Goldsmith and Crabbe that have given permanent life and charm to their creations of humble life, and such we meet displayed with equal truth in Mr. Barnes's poems. We allude to such little incidents as in the following picture, of a cottage family moving their abode; among the chattels packed,

An' at the very top a-tied,

The childern's little stools did lie,
Wi' lags a-turn'd towards the sky.

Or in the poem of the "Woody Holler."

When whisslen buoys an' rott'len ploughs
Wer still, an' mothers wi' ther thin

Shrill vaices cald ther dāters in

Vrom wa'kèn in the holler.

Again in the poem of Whitsuntide, or the milkmaid's description of the holiday frolics,

And Sammy Stubbs come out o' rank

And kissed I up agien the bank,

A sassy chap; I han't vargi'ed en

Not eet; in shart I han't a-zeed en.

The sly subdued manner in which the "Harèn oon's Fortun a-tould "

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