architects; but as Vanbrugh dealt in quarries, and Kent in lumber, Adam, our most admired, is all gingerbread, filigraine, and fan-painting. Wyat, less fashionable, has as much taste, is grander, and more pure. We have private houses that cost more than the Palace Pitti. Will you never come and see your fine country before it is undone?" We make our last extract from the letters describing the death of Walpole's oldest and most intimate friend, Mr. Chute, of the Vine, in Hampshire; he was also the friend of Gray, and from his house, near Basingstoke, some of Gray's letters are dated. His character will be best given in Walpole's own words, still warm with the glow of affection, and painting strongly the severity of his loss. to have here, as our friendship was so entire, and we knew one another so entirely, that he alone never was the least constraint to me. We passed many hours together without saying a syllable to each other-for we were both above ceremony. I left him without excusing myself, read or wrote before him, as if he were not present. Alas! alas! and how self presides even in our grief! I am lamenting myself, not him! no, I am lamenting my other self. Half is gone; the other remains solitary. Age and sense will make me bear my affliction with submission and composure-but for ever-that little for ever that remains, I shall miss him. My first thought will always be, I will go talk to Mr. Chute on this, the second, alas! I cannot; and therefore judge how my life is poisoned! I shall only seem to be staying behind one who has set out a little before me." "This fatal year (1776) puts to the proof the nerves of my friendship! I was disappointed of seeing you when I had set my heart on it, and now I have lost Mr. Chute! It is a heavy blow; but such strokes reconcile one's-self to parting with this pretty vision, life! What is it, when one has no longer those to whom one speaks as confidentially as to one's own soul? Old friends are the great blessing of one's latter years-half a word conveys one's meaning. They have memory of the same events, and have the same mode of thinking. Mr. Chute and I agreed invariably in our principles; he was my counsel in my affairs, was my oracle in taste, the standard to whom I submitted my trifles, and the genius that presided over poor Strawberry! His sense decided me in every thing; his wit and quickness illuminated every thing. I saw him oftener than any man; to him in every difficulty I had recourse, and him I loved Here follows a description of his disease and death. "And why should I lament? His eyes, always short-sighted, were grown dimmer, his hearing was grown imperfect, his hands were all chalk-stones and of little use, his feet very lame-yet how not lament? The vigour of his mind was strong as ever; his power of reasoning clear as demonstration; his rapid wit astonishing as at forty, about which time you and I knew him first. Even the impetuosity of his temper was not abated, and all his humane virtues had but increased with his age. He was grown sick of the world; saw very, very few persons; submitted with unparalleled patience to all his sufferings; and, in five-and-thirty years, I never once saw or heard him complain of them, nor, passionate as he was, knew him fretful. His impatience seemed to His dis "Sir, nounced without the respect due to one of the first of our native sculptors. At the sale of his models, Mrs. Siddons and Flaxman were seated near the auctioneer, when he expatiated on the beauty of an antique figure which stood beneath his hammer, saying, "Behold where the deceased artist found some of his beauties." exclaimed Flaxman, with more warmth than was usual," you do Mr. Banks much wrong, he wanted no assistance." In one of his lectures Flaxman said, that "Banks excelled most, if not all, his continental contemporaries." him, and always saw truth in a stronger and more summary light. His possession of the quintessence of argument reduced it at once into axioms, and the clearness of his ideas struck out flashes of the brightest wit. He saw so suddenly and so far, that, as Mr. Bentley said of him long ago, his wit strikes the more you analyse it, and more than at first hearing; he jumps over two or three intermediate ideas, and couples the first with the third or fourth. Don't wonder I pour out my heart to you; you knew him, and know how faithfully true all I say of him. My loss is most irreparable. To me he was the most faithful and secure of friends, and a delightful companion. I shall not seek to replace him. Can I love any that are old, more than I have had reason for loving them? and is it possible to love younger, as one loved an habitual old friend of thirty-five years' standing? I have young relations that may grow upon me, for my nature is affectionate, but can they grow old friends? My age forbids that. Still less can they grow companions. Is it friendship to explain half one says? One must relate the history of one's memory and ideas; and what is that to the young, but old stories? No, my dear sir, you could be that resource, but I must not think of it-I must not be selfish. I must do what I ought to do, while I remain here; pass my time as amusingly as I can; enjoy the friends I have left; drink my grief in silence-it is too sincere for parade; and what cares the world about my private sensations? Or what has an old man to do but to be forgotten; and to remember how soon he will be so? Forgive this expansion of my heart; it was necessary to me. I will not often mention poor Mr. Chute even to you. His loss is engraven on my soul, and real grief does not seek for applause. Could the world's plaudit comfort me, sit with me, hear me, advise me? Did it know Mr. Chute's worth as well as I did? Does it love me as well? When it does, I will beg its compassion. I have done, and will now show you that I am master of myself, and remember you, and consider that at this distance of time you cannot feel what I do, and must be anxious about public affairs. If I indulged my own feelings, I should forswear thinking of the public. He is gone to whom I ran with every scrap of news I heard; but I promised to forget myself: I will go take a walk, shed a tear, and return to you more composed." SYON MONASTERY. (With a Plate.) THE monastery of Syon was founded by Henry V. in 1415, within his manor of Isleworth, co. Middlesex. It was the only house in England of the modified order of St. Augustine, as reformed by St. Bridget. It consisted of 85 persons, answering to the 13 apostles (including St. Paul), and 72 disciples; viz. 60 nuns, of whom one was abbess, 13 priests, one of whom was to be confessor-general; four deacons, representing the four doctors of the church, Ambrose, Augustine, Gregory, and Jerome; and 8 lay brethren, in all 25 men. The monastery was dissolved in 1539 by Henry VIII.; who retained the property in his own hands; but in the first of Edw. VI. the Protector Somerset acquired it by royal grant; on his attainder the house and estate were confiscated to the crown; and in the next year were granted to John Dudley duke of Northumberland. The fate of the religious community of the monastery of Syon is singular and interesting. After their first dissolution by Henry VIII. the nuns of Syon had resided at Dermond in Flanders, where Cardinal Pole found them; and at his recommendation they were restored to their monastery at Syon; but the enjoyment of their possessions was of short duration, for on the accession of Queen Elizabeth the house at Syon was again dissolved. The nuns did not separate; but returned to Dermond in Flanders, where they lived for some years, but being greatly impoverished, Philip II. granted them a pension. At the same time (1563), the Duchess of Parma, Regent of Flanders, assigned them a monastery in Zealand. They remained there till 1568, when they removed to Brabant, where they dwelt four or five years. The Protestants annoying them, they fled to Antwerp, where they remained a year, and were removed to Mechlin, where they lived seven years under the protection of Sir Francis Englefield. They remained at Mechlin until it was taken by the Prince of Orange, when they went to The convent is still existing, and a view of its exterior is exhibited in the annexed Plate. Antwerp, and then fled to Rouen, where they resided some time, and were much inconvenienced during the siege of that city by Henry IV. They therefore determined to leave Rouen; and arrived at Lisbon, 2d May, 1594. In 1651 both church and monastery were burnt to the ground, and in 1656 they returned to their monastery after it was rebuilt. The monastery suffered much, in common with the whole city, during the dreadful earthquake at Lisbon, in 1756. An interesting picture of this religious society as it existed in 1760 is exhibited by Baretti, in his "Journey from London to Genoa." "It is called the English nunnery, because no girl is admitted in it but what is born a subject of England. It consists of little more than 20. The chief anxiety of the community is to keep their number full. They are liberal to every body of chocolate, cakes, and sweetmeats. Nuns in all countries are soft and obliging speakers; but these are certainly the softest and most obliging that ever fell in my way. "Not a syllable issued from their lips but what was dictated by modesty and meekness, humility and benevolence. The King allows them such a sum as enables them to find themselves in victuals, linen, and raiment. Yet life, even by recluse women, cannot be passed very comfortably with mere necessaries, and some addition is wanting to keep it from stagnating. These minute superfluities, which the French call douceurs, are left entirely to their industry; and these they procure partly by work, and partly by making trifling presents, which are often returned with liberality. Some have small pensions paid by their friends, and whatever is got by one is shared by all." com These nuns continued as a munity at Lisbon till 1809, when a separation appears to have taken place. Some of them sought refuge in England, and were kindly received by Marlow Sidney, esq. of Cowper Hall, John Gage, esq. (after Rokewode), and other friends. They resided first at Walworth, then at Peckham, but, their school not succeeding, they separated. The nuns who remained at Lisbon underwent many privations, the convent having been converted into an hospital for the English army; but after the peace, recovering their landed property, they were comparatively in easy circumstances, when they were again joined by several English ladies. List of the present community: Abbess, Mary Magdalen Smith. Prioress, Ann Bridget Springfellow. Sisters, ConMary Bernard Eccles, Mary Ellen Lawstantia Sorrell, Winifred Teresa Smith, less, Mary Lucy Richmond, Catharine Eliz. Burchall, Mary Winifred Roper, Eliz. Clare Coulston. Lay Sisters, Mary Agatha Carter, Mary Barbara Carter, Anne Agnes Cliffe. "The sisters have a portrait of their founder Henry V. supposed to have been brought from England. They have also a book, entitled, A Catalogue of the Dead, both brothers, sisters, and benefactors, in the Monastery of Syon, from the first founder down to the present time, which House." is read every morning in the Chapter Elizabeth, the nuns took away with them "On the second dissolution by Queen but likewise the keys of Syon House, not only what treasure they could carry, and the iron cross from the top of the church, by way of keeping up their claim veyed with them in all their changes of to this their possession. These they conhabitation, and still retain at their present house of Syon in Lisbon.' The late Duke of Northumberland paid the nuns a visit at Lisbon, and presented them with a model in silver of Syon House at Isleworth. They told him they still had the keys of Syon House: 'But,' said the Duke, I have altered the locks since then.' The history of the estate and buildings at Isleworth, from the dissolution by Elizabeth, is shortly told. It seems to have been retained by the queen in her own hands, and she appointed Sir F. Knollys keeper for life. In 1604, James I. granted Syon House, &c. to the Earl of Northumberland, in whose representatives, through female heiresses, it has descended to its present noble owner. ***For the preceding particulars, as well as for the use of the Plate, we are indebted to Mr. Aungier's History of Syon Monastery and Isleworth; in which valuable work will be found very ample details relative to the monastery, including the rule of St. Saviour, charters, seals, &c., as also many minute and interesting particulars of the peregrinations and personal treatment of the Bridgetine nuns, from the time of their departure from England to their final settlement at Lisbon. EDIT. |