1823.] REVIEW.-Archæologia.-Ingram's Saxon Chronicle. hung upon skins of leather, still usual abroad. These also seem to have come up in the decline of the Empire. Ducange (v. Carruca) quotes Paulinus, Epist. 10 ad Severum, as saying, “Circumflui Senatores prosequebantur carrucis nutantibus," and then observes, "Ubi per carrucas nutantes expressit, ni fallor, carrucas hodiernas, quas chariots branslans vocabant Galli nostri, seu currus suspensos." These whole skins seem to have given way to strong leathern straps hanging from wooden or iron uprights, as in the Lord Mayor's State Carriage, and the numerous prints by Kip, in Sir Robert Atkins's Gloucestershire. Domecovered state cars, and caravans open at the sides, appear from the 14th century, but the archetype of the demi-oval modern coach, appears in Mr. Markland's copy, from the title of a curious tract, entitled "Coach and Sedan pleasantly disputing for place and precedence, the Brewer's cart being Moderator." London, 1636. The Coach is engraved, pl. xviii. f. 7, and is thus described, "The other (the coach) was a thick burly square sett fellow in a doublet of black leather, brasse buttoned downe the breast, backe, sleeves, and wings, with monstrous wide bootes, fringed at the top with a net fringe, and a round breech (after the old fashion) guilded, and on his backside an atchievement of sundry coats in their proper colour." The Coachman is next described: "Hee had only one man before him, wrapt in a red cloake, with wide sleeves turned up at the hands, and cudgelled thick on the backe and shoulders, with broad shining lace (not much unlike that which mummers make of strawen hats,) and of each side of him went a lacquay, the one a French boy, the other Irish, all suitable alike." p. 469. It does not appear, from the drawing, that more than one could sit on the box, so that the Lacqueys must have walked by the side of the coach; the Irish servant being, as usual, a running footman, for that was the native country of this kind of domestick. The Sedan, pl. xviii. f. 7, is a small house, with lattices, like a large dogkennel. The tract thus describes it. "The one (the Sedan) was in a suite of greene, after a strange manner, windowed before and behind with Isenglasse (Talc, 45. at this time commonly called Muscovyglass) having two handsome fellowes in greene coats attending him; the one ever went before, the other came behind; their coats were laced down the back with a green lace suitable; so were their halfe sleeves, which persuaded me at first they were some cast suites of their masters; their backs were harnessed with leather cingles, cut out of a hide, as broad as Dutch collops of bacon." p. 468. With this article terminates this valuable and interesting portion of Vol. XX. 2. The Saxon Chronicle, with an English Translation, and Notes Critical and Explanatory. To which are added, Chronological, Topographical, and Glossarial Indices; a short Grammar of the Anglo-Saxon Language; a new Map of England during the Heptarchy; Plates of Coins, &c. By the Rev. I. Ingram, B. D. Rector of Rotherfield Greys, Oxfordshire, and formerly Anglo-Saxon Professor in Oxford. 4to. pp. 463. THE Saxon Chronicle is justly considered to be our only authentic code of Fasti, in respect to the early history of this Ísland, but here its importance terminates. In short, it is the record of the day, to which the Historian refers for authenticity. It was the custom of Government to send bulletins of public events to various great Monasteries, (See MSS. Harl. 791; Cott. Tiber. E. iv.) and these Fasti having in some instances been fortunately preserved, the Saxon Chronicle becomes in consequence a dictionary of reference, as to the veracity of events, narrated by subsequent historians. The text of a mile-stone should always be correct, and this correctness, with regard to the Saxon Chronicle, should be effected by collating the MSS. In speaking thus of the venerable record, we may be supposed not to have a proper literary and archæological feeling; but Mr. Ingram has forced it upon us. As if he was a Triton, ushering in the approach of Neptune, with a Buccina, he has sounded forth the mere chronology of an almanack, a parish-register, as a panorama of the age, &c. &c. &c. (see Pref. ii. iii.); and all this, notwithstanding Mr. Turner's excellent work being the only thing worthy such eulogy, and the Saxon Chronicle containing such uncommon trash, as that Britain was peopled from Armenia, instead of Armorica (p. 1), and that John the 46 REVIEW.-Ingram's Saxon Chronicle. the Baptist showed his head to two Monks in the year 448 (pp. 1, 13). The harsh form in which we have commenced this article, has been also forced upon us, by the pedantick and supercilious manner with which Mr. Ingram, in a preface and observations of twenty-four pages, has insulted his predecessors in this walk of literature, Gale and others, as he calls them. (Pref. xiv.) No doubt can be entertained, but that Mr. Ingram's edition of the Saxon Chronicle is that which ought to have a preference to Bishop Gibson's; nor can there be a doubt but that the text is collated, and the work edited, secundem artem, like the production of a scholar, a true son of our Alma Mater, as well as his--Oxonia, a Panthean deity, with the attributes of Bacchus and Fauns to denote its undergraduates, of Apollo and Hermes to symbolize its first-class men, of Momus to pourtray its wits, and of Hercules and Minerva its Copplestones and Mants. Not the slightest disrespect do we feel for Mr. Ingram as a scholar; and if he has fallen in love with his wrinkled old woman, the Saxon Chronicle, so as to parade her about, and laud her as a juvenile beauty, that also is venial; but we will not patiently endure the manner in which he has treated literary Westminster-abbey men, his Gale and others; and were it not for the decorum, which we think due to all scholars, and Mr. Ingram, as one, we would exclaim, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who, &c. Not in Mr. Ingram's manner do the learned Germans, and the celebrated Hickes, treat their eminent brethren; but it is clarissimus hic, and eruditissimus ille; no Gale and others, &c. &c. We now proceed to the work. The blame attending the Saxon Chronicle in the first edition was, that Bishop Gibson, by omitting most interesting particulars, or neglecting the best manuscripts, reduced this work to bone and skin, without muscle; i. e. has included within 244 pages, what Mr. Ingram says, (Pref. ii.) could not be compressed within a shorter compass than 374 pages." Our opinion is, that every thing legendary and silly, as St. John showing his head, should have been rejected with as much disdain, as is bestowed (Pref. iv. v.) upon "the simpleton Samuel, and his master Beulan," who interpolated the MS. of Nennius; and not a [July, syllable have been omitted, which is historical; but Mr. Ingram admits (Pref. ii.) that there has been compression; i. e. alteration of the text, or omission. Now this, in either view, with regard to the Saxon Chronicle, is much the same thing as delivering a nest of weights, and altering or leaving out pounds, half-pounds, and ounces; or instead of records, giving abstracts, where the grand concern is authority and evidence. We do not blame Mr. Ingram, for he must submit to necessity, but we are of opinion, that the nine original manuscripts should be published by Government, with collations only from the copies which are marked in Arabick numerals by Mr. Ingram, in his synopsis (Pref. xviii.), legendary trash excepted. Tautologies may occur; but the Saxon Chronicle, though a Calendar only, is the bible of early English history, and a wrong word, or turn of a sentence, may vary the account of an historical fact. It appears, however, that [Bishop] Gibson [we add the prefix with pleasure, not plain Gibson, as Mr. Ingram], then a bachelor of Queen's, of twenty-three years of age, used in the main only transcripts in the Bodleian; viz. Jun. 66. ii., Laud. G. 36., the Peterborough Chronicle, supposed to be lost, Laud. X. 80 (only a copy of older Chronicles), and collations by Junius, inserted in his copy of Wheloe, of the Cott. MS. Domit. A. viii. The fact, therefore, appears to be, that Bishop Gibson knew nothing of the originals in Bennet College, Cambridge Library, the Cotton MSS. Tiber. B. I. and B. iv. Bishop Gibson's book is therefore an imperfect one; but as Mr. Ingram, in the graciousness of his condescension, acknowledges (Pref. ii. note) that it was an extraordinary work for a young man of twentythree, we beg to add, that it was exceedingly meritorious in him, with such imperfect aids, and in such au age, to get up the language in a manner sufficiently complete for so laborious an undertaking*. At the same time, as our difference with Mr. Ingram, turns only upon points of manners, it is merely just to say, that no comparison can be made between the two works. We shall exhibit this in a striking instance. Hardicanute died *See Hickes's Pref. to the Grammat. Anglo. Sax. &c. v. Videram mihi, &c. unpaged. of 1823.] REVIEW.-Ingram's Saxon Chronicle. of apoplexy, under which he lingered in a state of insensibility, till the Ides of June. The statement of this event, as given by Bishop Gibson, p. 156, is as follows. An MXLI. Hep rope-rende Harbacnut cyng Here went-forth Harthacknut King ær Lamb-hyde on vi. 18. Jun. 1 at Lambhithe on 6. Id. Jun. and he pær cyng oren eall Engla land he was King over all Angles-land tpa gear buton x. nihtum, 1 heir two years except ten months, and he is bebynges on ealdan mynrepe on buried in Old Minstre in þæpe corðan mid egerlicum anginne. the there earth, with a horrible at first struggle, ac hine pa gelæhton þe pæn neh but him them took up who there nigh pæpon he reodan nan pond ne were, and he said none word nor gecpæ ac gepat on vi. 18. Iun. spoke, but died on 6 Id. Jun. We have given a literal verbal translation, according to what is, in our opinion, the real meaning of the original, in order to show the peculiar idiom of the language. We have translated þæpe eopðan, the there earth, because, we presume, that it was a pleonasm, meaning the ground there, and do not think Ɖæpe to be a simple representative of the article; and though the translation by Mr. Ingram of egerlicum anginne, tremendous struggle, is perfectly correct, yet as anginne signifies initium as well as conamen, we conceive that a further, or rather a joint meaning, as we have rendered it, was intended. On, we do † i. e. died. See Lye v. Dæp adv. redundans, et passim; whence we draw this hypothesis. 47 not find in Manning's Lye, used as before. Having construed and parsed every word in Gibson's Saxon Chronicle, probably before Mr. Ingram took up that our modern English does not come the study, we have formed an opinion, Saxon expression, and to the compound up to the peculiar energy of Anglomeaning which we think attaches to many of its verbs and substantives. This force we have endeavoured to show, under the words egerlicum Chronicle, without feeling the strongest anginne. No man can read the Saxon points of assimilation between our ancestors and their descendants, now called Englishmen. All of the breed express themselves strongly and concisely. ex Here we shall leave the work for the present, under the full expectation that we shall receive an angry expostulation from Mr. Ingram, on account of the manner in which we have pressed ourselves concerning his Warburtonian mode of treating our departed Literati of the first character. We who delivers lectures, ought to use ask our Readers, whether a Professor, such phraseology as this particularly by a simpleton, who is called Samuel." (Pref. p. iv.) There is a dignity and temper appertaining to all instruction ex cathedra, which it would be no advantage to society to disturb by such colloquial innovations. 66 (To be continued.) 3. History and Description of WestminsterHall. Extracted from the New Times. Dalton. 8vo. pp. 24. TO give a good description of a building is no easy task. It should neither be too brief, nor too laboured: the Reader imperfectly acquainted with if the one, it can rarely escape leaving his subject; and if the other, of oppresseffort of the pencil that pleases in proing him with detail which, unlike an distracts the mind, and diverts the atportion to the labour it has exhausted, tention from those leading features which, if skilfully seized, carry the reader along with the writer, and impress the peculiar form, correct proportion, or elegant enrichment on his imagination. Gibbon's description of the Temple of Diana at Ephesus, is an excellent model; concise, but satisfacHe says, factory. "The arts of Greece, and the wealth of 48 REVIEW.-Description of Westminster Hall. Asia, had conspired to erect that sacred and magnificent structure. It was supported by an hundred and twenty-seven marble columns of the Ionic order. They were the gifts of devout monarchs, and each was sixty feet high. The altar was adorned with the masterly sculptures of Praxiteles. Yet the length of the Temple of Ephesus was only four hundred and twenty-five feet, about two-thirds of the measure of the Church of St. Peter at Rome. In the other dimensions it was still more inferior to that sublime production of modern architecture. The Temple of Diana was, however, admired as one of the wonders of the world." In the pamphlet now before us, which is written with much good feeling, and contains many valuable remarks both historical and descriptive, want of arrangement is observable; but a still more evident defect is the absence of a general introductory description, which if not extending to an enumeration of all the buildings by which Westminster Hall is surrounded and enclosed, should, at least, notice the component members of the design, and mark the singularity of its situa tion with respect to the other parts of the palace, which obliged the architect to expose and adorn its extremities in a manner so unlike the general arrangement of such structures. Unless this system form what may be termed the outline of the subject, we may read of niches, windows, and sculptures, but we can never apply them to their proper stations in the design. The description commences in p. 9; it is excellent, but the reader (for whether he be a stranger or a denizen, he should be told) is left to guess at the composition or groupe of the fabric, an introduction something like the following is absolutely necessary to convey the character of the subject to the mind :— The elevation consists of a centre adorned with a magnificent window, and terminating in a pediment between two projecting square towers, with straight battlemented parapets. The chief adornments appear on the porch, and on the basement of the towers connected with it. Eight of the numerous statues which originally filled the splendid niches in the lower part of the towers, remained till the late reedification: they were then wholly removed, and the recesses rebuilt to remain empty. Although we regret the loss of these decayed sculptures, yet we cannot recommend their restoration to the new building. How well they [July, accorded with the crumbled surface of the venerable pile, is too generally known to be here more particularly noticed, and we regret that the means rather than the inclination, are wanting to occupy niches with figures worthy of their superb canopies. "That the windows of Westminster Hall were once semicircular, was demonstrated when the inside plastering of the Bell Tower was cleared for the away purpose of placing in it a stone staircase for access to the Speaker's suite of state rooms; two external windows of the Hall having been blocked up by this Bell Tower in the time of EDWARD IIl. These are semicircular, bordered with a simple outline of the dog-tooth ornament. It will be perceived by inspection of the window-tops inside the Hall, that they are not materially altered, as a very slight chipping of the old work would produce the obtuse apex by which they differ from a semicircular form." The peculiar ornament often, though not aptly called the " dog-tooth," was unknown in the age of Rufus. Its origin is certainly Norman, but the pure" dog-tooth" is not more ancient than the 13th century. It is doubtful whether the side walls of Westminster Hall, above the foot of the windows, are Norman, but it may be positively asserted that the present windows are not alterations of the original ones, but were entirely re-built in Richard the Second's reign. The writer, we think, has indulged himself rather too freely in remarks on the turret of the North gable. If he means to say that such terminatious are not characteristic of the period, he is mistaken, and he has made no attempt to prove what he almost ventures to assert (pages 16 and 17), that it was added in the reign of Henry VII. Whether the gable would be improved by the absence of the turret is another question. Our author admits that it had a prescriptive right to be restored with the rest of the building, and we are not authorized in any violent alteration of an ancient design. As not a single crochet remained on the slopes of the gable, and the proof that they never existed at Westminster Hall, is as positive as that they did: surely taste might be exercised on the occasion, and we agree with the writer in censuring their addition. We also perfectly accord with him in his strictures on the "renovated lanteru," though we cannot agree to an exchange of the pinnacles with that of the southern 1823.] REVIEW.-Westminster Hall-Points of Humour. southern gable: 1st. because it is a 4. "Let us imagine the Spectator placed in Old Palace-yard, and prepared to imbibe a useful lesson from things to be avoided. Such an exhibition of the vagaries of the human mind, when under the hallowed influence of taste, can never be surpassed. Some PIDCOCK should be employed to dilate upon the beauties of the surrounding objects. To the West, he might say, you see HENRY the VII.'s Chapel, with its fantastic outline and its excess of ornament-over the building on the North side of the Yard, you see the Hall Lantern, and (it is hoped you will hereafter see) the Turret pinnacle, both of them ultra-florid, surpassing the Chapel itself.-The Northern structure, about fifty years of age, intended for the House of Commons' Committee Rooms, is wonderfully contrived—a height of forty-two feet being so distributed into three stories, that the top and bottom rooms are low and dark, candles being requisite for reading and writing in the inner part of them at noon-day, while the middle story (twenty feet high) is almost as objectionable from the echo produced by disproportionate altitude. For the East side of the Yard you have the plaster screen of the House of Lords (about twenty years of age), which, when first finished, was so ridiculously like a Lancashire cottonfactory, that a charitable Peeress, in 1806, had to supply a central tower front, studded with oriel windows and a Saintly niche, garnished with Watch Turrets, round and square, crenellated but inaccessible (unless by monkeys) from their slender size. But all this very well breaks the objectionable continuity of the façade.-Newest of the new, and scarcely finished, inclining to the South (towards Abingdon-street), you have the Royal entrance to the House of Lords, beautiful and appropriate in itself; but the amiable architect, too good-naturedly accommodating his work to the motley assemblage of buildings around him, leads his Sovereign through a gorgeous passage and pinnacled gateway to a Palladian window and Ionic portico and beyond that, in succession, to the Prince's Chamber, with its lancet windows the most undoubted vestige of the Old Palace of Edward the Confessor!-Fit consummation of the architectural menagerie of Old Palace-yard. "Humano capiti cervicem Pictor equinam Spectatum admissi risum teneatis, amici ?” 49 Points of Humour; illustrated by the Designs of George Cruikshank. 8vo. pp. 47. 18 Engravings. Baldwyn. THE literary part of this work is modestly stated to be an explanatory catalogue of the designs by Cruikshank, whose illustrations of Grimm's Tales we lately had the pleasure of noticing. They excel that whimsical selection, as being larger in size, more natural in representation, and possessing more of character than caricature. Eight of these are tail-pieces on wood, and display in burlesque what Gribelin exhibits in reality, an exquisite attention to particles. The "Point of Honour" is too crowded (the same blemish which Rota, in the last edition of Hudibras), appears in Thurston's vignette of the but "Yes, or No? "Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, was so remarkably fond of children, that he suffered the sons of the Prince Royal to enter his apartment whenever they thought proper. One day, while he was writing in his closet, the eldest of these Princes was playing at shuttlecock near him. The shuttlecock happened to fall upon the table at which the King sat, who threw it at the young Prince, and continued to write. The shuttlecock falling on the table a second time, the King threw it back, looking sternly at the child, who promised that no accident of the kind should happen again; the shuttlecock however fell a third time, and even upon the paper on which the King was writing. Frederick then took the shuttlecock and put it in his pocket: the little Prince humbly asked pardon, and begged the King to return him his shuttlecock. His Majesty refused; the Prince redoubled his entreaties, but no attention was paid to them: the young Prince at length tired of begging, advanced boldly towards the King, put his two hands on his side, and tossing back his little head with great haughtiness, said in a threatening tone, will your Majesty give me my shuttlecock, Yes, or No?' The King burst into a fit of laughter, and taking the shuttlecock out of his pocket, returned |