the subsequent gradual improvement introduced in the lapse of time, by the active energies of the human mind, we may be indulged in saying, that every nation may apply to its own age and generation, the words of Augustus with respect to Rome:" he found it brick, and he left it marble:"

"lateritiam invenit, marmoream reliquit."

The editors being desirous to avoid expatiating in the wide and barren fields of metaphysical abstraction, amidst so vast a collection of important materials, have taken care to enrich the work with designs and engravings executed by the first artists in Italy, in order to convey to the reader the exact representations of the dwellings, dress, the implements of war and industry, the principle masterpieces of art, the emblems of religion, and even those plants and animals which, by their singularity, have merited the attention of the observer. Nothing seems to have been omitted, to render the work both curious and interesting, and make it a species of descriptive encyclopædia for this branch of the history of human society. The editors originally drew up the publication in Italian, in order thereby to erect a monument of glory to their own country; and we must acknowledge, that with respect to style, though it is uniformily elegant and correct, yet it betrays the operation of different hands, and the peculiarities of the various authors who have united in the composition. For the Italian language possesses a wonderful flexibility, that lends itself to all the modifications of style; and it may be said, that every writer of that country has a manner of his own, appropriate entirely to himself, and easily to be distinguished from the literary efforts of other authors. As, however, the promotion of general information was the object of the editors, they have also published the work in French, which is now the most universally diffused of all modern languages, especially, as governments in general have adopted it as the best medium of diplomatic correspondence; and as it appears that there is only one translator, in the present instance, we discover more uniformity in the style, and a more consistent and regular hue in the composition.

The very extensive nature of this publication prevents us from giving any specimens of its matter, as they would lead us beyond our due limits. We have described it sufficiently to afford a general knowledge of its objects and its utility. To English readers it has been hitherto unknown, but we doubt not that it will in time obtain that degree of attention from them which it well deserves, and that it will not fail to find its place in the library of every man of taste.

For the French edition.

335

ART. IV. The Life, Diary and Correspondence of Sir William Dugdale, with an Appendix containing an account of his published works, an Index to his manuscript collections, copies of monumental inscriptions to the memory of the Dugdale Family, and heraldic grants and pedigrees. Edited by William Hamper, Esq. E. S. A. 4to. pp. 259. 21. 8s. Harding, Lepard & Co.: 1827.

In

THERE is something so venerable in the character of Dugdale, so pleasing are the associations connected with his name, and so unmixed is the remembrance of him with those base alloys to reputation, which too often intrude themselves upon the memory in derogation even of the wise and good, that we feel every wish to regard the publication before us with peculiar favour and indulgence. the works of Dugdale, the glories of past ages rise full and vivid to the imagination; we see revived in their pristine splendour those monasteries now in ruins; those abbies long levelled with the dust; and those once magnificent monuments, now, as impalpable as the ashes of the dead whose memories they were erected to perpetuate. Of episcopal grandeur and wealth, of ecclesiastical authority and power, of religious communities and their sanctity, of military orders and their gorgeous and gallant pride, he was the voluminous and accurate historian. The high-born pride of ancestry found, and still finds, gratification from the labours of his pen, and to him is heraldry, in all its pomp of blazonry, indebted for copious and learned illustration. In times when loyalty was a crime, his attachment to the throne and person of his sovereign stood fixed and unimpeachable; amidst the distractions of civil war, the intrigues of party, and the rancorous bickerings of political and religious controversy, he held "the noiseless tenor of his way," devoted to the cause of solid useful learning. Though the servant, of a court in which vice too often led to preferment; in which, religion was mere form, and morals totally disregarded; he persevered in a beautiful simplicity and innocence of life, with a mind untainted and a heart uncorrupted by the baneful influence of unsound principle and loose example.

Labours are not always so happily timed as those of Dugdale; and it is seldom that so much would have remained to be regretted had death frustrated, or accident diverted him from completing, his great designs. Born in the reign of our first James, he witnessed the misfortunes of his unhappy son. He saw churches despoiled, and perverted to the uses of civil war, altars overturned, brazen monuments torn down and converted into coin; he beheld the finest cathedrals assigned to the soldiers of the parliament for barracks; statues and monuments, in stone and marble, beaten to pieces and defaced, and gorgeous windows, the finest specimens of art, destroyed without the slightest regard for their beauty. But previous to these unhappy times, Dugdale made a large portion of those collections which he after

wards embodied in his works; and thus has he been the means of transmitting to posterity the knowledge of a variety of facts, that must otherwise have perished without a record.

The biographical portion of the work now before us is printed from a manuscript in Dugdale's own hand-writing, in the Ashmolean Museum, entitled a "Brief accompt of the Parentage, and what else is memorable of Sir William Dugdale, Kt. Garter Principall King of Armes." It commences with the author's birth; is carried down to his accession to the dignity of garter king of arms, and includes, with a retrospect of his official life, an enumeration of the books and manuscripts "by him given to the Herald's office." When Dr. Maynard, in 1716, published a second edition of the history of St. Paul's Cathedral, he perfixed to it a life of Dugdale, printed most probably from a copy of the above MS., and Maynard then completed the biography to Dugdale's death: this continuation is also comprised in Mr. Hamper's volume. The diary is selected from a series of interleaved almanacks, preserved in a capacious chest, with other relics of his ancestor, by Dugdale Stratford Dugdale, Esq. at Merevale, in Warwickshire. The correspondence consists of two hundred and one letters to, and from, Dugdale; a number remarkably small, when the extensive connection and protracted life of Dugdale are considered; but really numerous, if we consider that it was his usual practice to cut in pieces the letters he received, and write his rough draughts upon them; whilst he kept few copies of his own communications. Those now published are occasionally of great value, and comprise the names of a large portion of the eminent literary characters of Dugdale's time. Two beautiful portraits of Dugdale, at different periods of his life, and several fac-similies of his hand-writing and signatures, form appropriate embellishments of Mr. Hamper's volume.

William Dugdale was born in Warwickshire, in 1605. Of his family nothing authentic appears prior to the mention of his grandfather, "James Dugdale, of Cletherow, in the county of Lancaster, which name and family had been of long continuance in those parts." On which Wood pertinently remarks, that " as concerning matters relating to his own family, he seemed to have but little regard, neither indeed did he take any pains about his own, but rather the pedigrees of others, nor had any account of it laying by him; verifying the Proverb, that none goes worse shod than the shoemaker's wife."

The education of Dugdale in boyhood was in the ordinary routine; but as early as fifteen, he was most characteristically engaged in reading "Littleton's Tenures, and some other law books, and histories. A career of laborious reading thus auspiciously begun, was diligently persevered in. Accident, or more probably predilection, directed his attention to the antiquities of his own country; and by the time he was thirty, we find him in intimacy with most

of the gentlemen of note in the county, and revelling in the dust of those "old deeds and evidences which they did willingly afford him the sight of.' His fondness for these studies never flagged, and he persevered in indulging it, almost to the last hour of his existence.

The veteran Spelman, at an early period, professed himself Dugdale's patron, and his powerful recommendation, backed by the influence of Sir Christopher, afterwards Lord Hatton, obtained for Dugdale' the king's warrant to create him a pursuivant at arms extraordinary, by the title of blanche lyon,' and, subsequently, 'rouge-croix pursuivant in ordinary.'

'By which means, having a lodging in the Herald's office, and some benefit by funeralls and otherwise, with the yearly salary of twenty pounds out of the king's exchequer, for his support, he thenceforth spent the greatest part of his time in London, in order to the augmenting his collections out of the records of the Tower, and other places about the citty, until the summer of 1641, when taking with him one Sir William Sedgwick, a skylfull armes-paynter, Dugdale repaired first to the cathedral of St. Paul in the citty of London, and next to the abbey church of Westminster, and there making exact draughts of all the monuments in each of them, copy'd the epitaphs, according to the very letter: as also all armes in the windows, or cut in stone. And having so done, he rode to Peterborow, in North'tonshire, Ely, Norwich, Lincolne, Newarke upon Trent, Beverley, Suthwell, Kingston upon Hull, Yorke, Selby, Chester, Litchfield, Tamworth, Warwick; and did the like in all those cathedrall, collegiate, conventual, and divers other parochial churches, wherein any tombes or monuments were to be found; to the end that the memory of them might be preserved for future and better times.'-Life, pp. 13, 14.

The first fruit of these extensive labours was the publication of the Monasticon Anglicanum. In conformity with the universal custom, we speak of this celebrated book, as if Dugdale had been alone concerned in its compilation. But the title page itself of the first and second volumes, ascribes the work equally to Dugdale and a gentleman of the name of Dodsworth*.

We quote Dugdale's account of the circumstances under which the Monasticon appeared.

The collections of the two volumes of the Monastery Foundations being completed, and the publishing of them by the presse desired, an offer was made to severall booksellers, of the copies, upon such indifferent terms as might have defray'd the chardge of those transcripts so made from records and otherwise, as hath been observed. But the booksellers not wishing to adventure thereon, Mr. Dodsworth and Mr. Dugdale joined

* Roger Dodsworth was born in Yorkshire, in 1585. With a natural propensity to histories and antiquities, he began early to make collections of them. "He was a person of wonderful industry, but less judgment; was always collecting and subscribing, but never was publishing anything." -Wood's Fasti Oxon.

together, and hyred severall sumes of money to defray the cost and expence thereof: The first volume being finished in ao 1655, a stop was made for some yeares of bringing the other to the presse, untill the greatest part of that impression was sold off, whereby money might be had to go on therewith.'-Life, pp. 24, 26.

The second volume of the Monasticon did not appear till 1661, six years after its predecessor; and the third, and last, volume of this magnificent record of English ecclesiastical magnificence, was delayed twelve years longer (1673), by continued pecuniary difficulties. This volume bears the name of Dugdale only, on the title-page, and he received a remuneration for it of 507., and twenty books!'-Diary, p. 134.

All the volumes of the original edition of the Monasticon are now scarce, and bear an extraordinary price; and the last, in particular, is of very rare occurrence, a large part of the impression having been destroyed by fire. Two supplemental volumes were published by John Stevens, in 1772; and a splendid reprint of the five volumes entire has been executed within these few years, with an advantage of editorship, which few similar works have ever before enjoyed. A sixth volume is in progress from the same able hands.

The Monasticon originated in the mind of Dodsworth, and the execution devolved only partially on Dugdale. But the Illustration of the Antiquities of Warwickshire was the child of his own fancy; and for upwards of thirty years from the conception of its plan, did he nurse it with the unremitting care and fondness of a parent. Other occupations claimed a large portion of his attention and his time, but this, his favourite work, was never absent from his thoughts; and whether engaged in personal service on his sovereign, or in the preparation of other works for publication, he still found leisure to collect for, or contribute something to, this darling project of his life.

On a work that has survived the better part of two centuries, with increasing reputation, no new eulogy need be attempted; and of all the praise that the world has concurred in pronouncing, none more appropriate, just, or terse, can be selected, than that of Dr. Whitaker:-"There are works, which scrupulous accuracy, united with stubborn integrity, has elevated to the rank of legal evidencesuch is 'Dugdale's Warwickshire!'"-History of Craven-Advertisement.

The times in which Dugdale lived, were not favourable to the indulgence of that lettered ease, which was to him the chief charm of existence. As pursuivant at arms, he could be viewed in no other light than as a dependant on the court; and when the king was constrained to seek safety out of his metropolis, Dugdale was summoned, by his warrant under his royall signe manuall, bearing date the first of June, 1642,' to join the court at York. This was no matter of mere form, as the active service in which he was immediately engaged evinces. We pass over the details of this part