1819.] Nuga Antiquæ.-Bell Tower, Salisbury." The art of making crystal glass for mirrors was practised by the Venetians in the 18th century. A clock that strikes the hours was unknown in Europe till the 12th century. Paper was not made earlier than the fourteenth century and printing in the century following. The art of reading made a very slow progress. To encourage it in England, the capital punishment of death was remitted if the criminal could read, which is termed Benefit of Clergy. -Yet so small an edition of the Bible as 600 copies translated into English temp. Henry VIII, was not wholly sold off in three years. In the age next preceding Queen Elizabeth there were few chimneys even in capital towns; the fire was laid to the wall, and the smoke issued at the roof or door, or window. The houses were wattled and plastered over with clay; and all the furniture and utensils were of wood. The people slept on straw pallets, with a log of wood for a pillow. (Holinshed.) The first silk stockings that were made in France were worn by Henry II. at the marriage of the Duchess of -Savoy. Queen Elizabeth in the third year of her reign received a present of a pair of black silk knit stockings; and she never wore cloth any more.(Howel.) London-bridge was of timber before the Conquest; it was repaired by King William Rufus; and was burnt by accident in 1176, Henry II. The stone bridge was finished in 1212. The art of making glass was imported from France in 674, for the use of monasteries; glass windows in private houses were rare in the 12th century, and held to be a great luxury. Thomas à Becket had his parlour - strewed every day with clean straw ; this was the practice in Queen Eliza -beth's time even in her presence chamber: as industry increased, cleanli-ness improved, and established itself in England. Acbilles himself divided the roasted beef among his guests. Pope, judging it below the dignity of Achilles to act the butcher, suppresses that article, imposing the task upon his .two friends; but " Pope did not con-pider," says Lord Kames, "that from GENT. MAG, October, 1819.. 305 a lively picture of the antient manners proceeds one of the capital pleasures we have in reading Homer;" and he might as well have preserved this passage, as have told us before that they generally killed and dressed their own victuals; Od. 19 and 20. And Achilles, entertaining Priam, slew a snow-white sheep, and his two friends flea'd and dressed it. Rousseau says, that the Macassars never taste animal food, and are acknowledged to be the fiercest of mortals. The first societies were smail-and small states in close neighbourhoods engender discord and resentment without end; the junction of many such states into a great kiugdom removes people farther from their enemies, and renders them more gentle. Before A. D. 1545, ships of war in England had no port-holes for guns; they had only a few cannon placed on the deck. (To be continued.) Mr. URBAN, Sept. 29. T the time of the great altera Ations made in Salisbury Cathe dral, in 1790, or thereabouts, it was judged expedient, in order to obtain a better view of the Cathedral, to remove an antient Building, originally a Bell-tower. As the splendid accounts of Salisbury, recently published by Messrs. Dodsworth and Britton, contain no representation or account of this Building, I beg you to preserve a slight view of it, taken about 1787 (see Plate II.) It stood on the North-west side of the Cathedral. Yours, &c. 66 Mr. URBAN,' B. London, Sept. 18. A MEMBER of the Antiquarian Society," p. 133, after asserting that the reparations now in progress at Winchester Cathedral, "are not of the best taste;" proceeds to observe, that "the roof of that part where the transept is united, is in imitation of Henry VII." &c. With what propriety a work executed by Bishop Fox in the reign of Henry VII. can be said to be in imitation of the style of that period, I leave your Correspondent to explain; the fact is, that the roof is of timber groined and ornamented in the manner prevalent at the period mentioned. On the part between the stalls and the altar, the workmen were employed employed when I saw it on Saturday, Aug. 21, and were doing the whole of it to imitate stone. I will not say there is no blue introduced in the part of the roof towards the West, but I confidently y assert I saw none. Instead of painting that which ought to be so," he adds, "is done with nasty glazy varnish." The stalls in this Chapel, which are of oak, and carved in a very chaste and beautiful manner, have been varnished; and the faint remains of the legendary paintings on the Eastern end of the North and South walls, in order to preserve them, have been varnished also; but 4 cau discover nothing offensively glazy in their appearance, much less any thing to be justly termed "nasty.” It is scarcely possible your Correspondent can wish the stalls to be painted; and the walls could not, without ob. literating the antient legends to which I have alluded, and which I conceive every Antiquary would be anxious to preserve. I am therefore at a loss to discover where this painting is required. With respect to the statues of the four monarchs at the angles of the tower, which possess so little of kingly dignity as to be mistaken for "four Scotchmen playing on bagpipes," it will suffice to say, the blame can only attach to those by whom they were executed, and placed in the situations they occupy. Whether the organ shall remain in its present situation under the Northern arch of the tower, or be placed at the West end of the choir, is not yet (as I understand) finally decided; if it remains, the arch towards the Southern transept must also, I conceive, continue to be stopped up; if it is removed ("a consummation devoutly to be wished"), both the arches opening to the transept will be cleared of their incumbrances; and therefore for this alteration, as well as for taking away the screen ascribed to Inigo Jones at the entrance of the choir, and the opening the first story of the lower (which would give to the choir the sublime and impressive effect so well delineated in the engraving by Radclyffe, in Britton's History of Winchester Cathedral,) I am an ear nest and decided advocate. By the bye, this last alteration, ifs made, would occasion the removal of the offensive statues. 1 I now proceed to consider the strange suggestion of your Corres pondent, for the removal of the whole Choir to the East of the transept; because to form an entire Choir, Eust ward of the transept, of the same dimensions as the present (and he does not intimate any desire that it should be, curtailed) the Altar would block up the entrance to the Chapel of the Virgin; while the great East window, which terminates the present would be about half way down the proposed Choir, the height of which, in the Eastern half, would be thereby reduced from 78 to 44 feet. Nor is this all, for the tombs of William Rufus, De Lucy, De Foix, and several others, must be removed, and the chantries of Beaufort, Waynfleet, Fox, and Gardiner, (the combined effect of which in their present relative situations is asserted to exceed any thing in this country, if not in Europe,) must be destroyed, or at least exected in other, and less eligible places. The altar-screen too, so justly admired, must be taken down, and the height of the Eastern end of the proposed Choir would not admit of its being replaced, even if it could be effected without mutilation; besides which, another screen, placed at the Eastern extremity of the Presbytery, which has on its Eastern front nine niches enriched with ele gantly-sculptured canopies, formerly containing statues of eighteen saints and monarchs, must be also displaced and rendered useless. The persons who are now directing the repairs of the Cathedral are, the Rev. Dr. George Frederick Nøtt, one of the prebendaries, and William Garbett, esq. architect, of Winchester. The grand principle by which they have been hitherto guided, is renovation in preference to alteration, and their primary object appears to be to reduce every thing (as far as circumstances will permit) to its pristine state, by removing all anomalous and incongruous ornaments and rappendages, which vitiated taste has at different intervening periods introduced.- In elucidation of this remark, I beg to observe, that they are at this time restoring with great care, and a scrupulous adherence to the original design, the mutilated parts of the altar screen while some urns, which a former 1819.] Discovery of King John's Body at Worcester. former member of this Church, whose liberality is more to be commended than his taste, had introduced into the niches formerly occupied by sta tues, as well as a gorgeous canopy of wainscot profusedly ornamented and gilt, of the time of the first Charles, are to be removed; and the whole of this elaborate and beautiful piece of antient sculpture exposed to view, devoid of every incumbrance, its centre being adorned by Watt's picture of "Christ raising Lazarus.” The concluding paragraph of your Correspondent's letter I consider as a most unjustifiable and illiberal attack on the character of the gentle men I have alluded to; of whom I know nothing except from report, and an inspection of their works; but from which I have formed this (in my opinion) just conclusion that their skill is unquestionable, and their arrangements extremely judicious. X. X15538. PARTICULARS OF THE DISCOVERY OF CESTER. antient City.) 807 inspection, leaving our readers to "The body, or rather the skeleton, was found to have been adjusted in the stone coffin, precisely in the same form as the figure on the tomb, but the scull, which was loose, instead of being placed with the face in the usual situation, presented the foreamen magoum, or that opening from which the spine proceeds, turned upwards; or, in simple terms, the scull was detached or lying on its crown*, The lower part of the os frontis was so much perished as to have become nearly of an even surface with the bottoms of the sockets of the eyes. The upper jaw contained four teeth, in very good preservation, and free from caries,-two of them were dentes molares, and two biscupides. The lower jaw was separated from the scull, and found near the right elbow; the coronoid processes were very perfect, as well as the condyles; there were no teeth in this jaw; the ulna Extracted from Chambers's History of that of the left arm was detached from the skeleton, and lying obliquely on the breast; the ulna of the right arm lay R. CHAMBERS, having made Jative to the state of the skeleton of King John, thus proceeds to correct the inadvertencies which he has fallen into, and which he was thoroughly enabled to do, from the very polite assistance afforded by Mr. Sandford, Surgeon, of Worcester; that gentleman, as Mr. Green justly observes, being convened with the Dean and Chapter, &c. on the opening of the tomb. "We shall keep Mr. Sandford's remarks wholly distinct from those obligingly sent us by another gentle man, present on the same occasion, son whose accuracy we can depend, as also the memoranda of the late Mr. Jeal, sexton of the Cathedral, who -made his notes before the Dean and Chapter were admitted, and consequently before the crowd of people were so great as to prevent a minute in proper place, dius of each arm, and the bones of each hand, were missing; the bones of the ribs, pelvis, &c. were so much covered with dust, and the foldings of the decayed robe, as not to be clearly distinguishable; part of the tibia of the right leg lay in nearly its proper position, and was exposed to view; the knee of this limb appeared to have been contracted t, and not lying so straight down as the left. The bones of the toes were in good preservation, more particularly those of the right foot. The rest of the bones, more especially those of the lower extremities, were nearly perfect, and on the whole appeared to lay as they might naturally have done in the living subject. Some large pieces of mortar were found with the skeleton in the stone coffint, and vast quantities of dry skins of * "Mr. Stafford, the present sexton, who was present at the opening of the tomb, ⚫ assured me that the scull was found lying nearly on the right shoulder, where it was placed, as Mr. S. describes it, by some one before the Dean and others were admitted." +"Could this have been occasioned by any adventitious circumstance ?" maggots*: these are supposed to have been produced by some part of the original body having gone into pu trefaction (a circumstance imagined sometimes to have happened notwith. standing the precaution of embalming) previous to its removal. The bowels and heart of King Juhu were buried in Croxton Abbey, in Staffordshire, the abbot of which had been his physician, and performed the operation of embalming him. (See Holinshed.) Thus the maggots, having remained undisturbed, were, upon the present discovery, seen in such great numbers: or, that some part of the dress, being of leather, they might have been produced by the natural putrefaction of that animal substance. The skeleton measured 5 feet 6 inches and a half t. "The Dress in which the body of the King was found, appears also to have been similar to that in which his figure is represented on the tomb, excepting the gloves on its hands, and the crown on its head, which on the scull in the coffin was found to be the celebrated monk's cowl, which was whole, in which he is recorded to have been buried, as a passport through the Regions of Purgatory. This sacred envelope appeared to have fitted the head very closely, and had been tied or buckled under the chib by two straps, parts of which remained, but the buckles or clasps, which were probably of great value, were gone. The body was covered with a robe, reaching from the neck nearly to the feet; it had some of its embroidery still remaining near the right knee; it was apparently of crimson damask, and of a strong texture: its colour, however, was so totally discharged from the effect sof time, that it is but conjecturally it can be said to have been of any, but what has now pervaded the whole object; namely, a dusky brown the cuff of the left arm, which had been laid on the breast, remained. In that hand a sword, in a leather scabbard, had been placed on the tomb, parts of which, much decayed, were found at intervals down the left side of the body, and to the feet, as were also parts of the scabbard, but in a much more perfect state than those of the sword. The legs had on a sort of ornamented covering, which was tied round at the ancles, and extended over the feet, where the bones were visible through the decayed parts; the string about the left ancle still remained I. The upper part of those coverings could not be traced, and it is undecided whether they should be termed boots, or whether they were a part of the under dress, similar, to the modern pantaloons. It would have been fortunate had it been determined whether they were of leather, or of what sort of drapery; most probably composed of undrest leather.. "The Coffin is of the Higley stone of Worcestershire, white, and chisel levelled; wholly dissimilar iu its kind to either that of the foundation of the tomb, its pannels, covering, or figure of the king. A very considerable fracture runs through it, in an oblique direction, one foot six inches from the left shoulder, to two feet nine inches from the right. The *" The durability of these little semi-transparent animal substances was absolutely surprising they bore some resemblance to the covering, taken from the tale part of the shrimp, but not more than a quarter of the size. It is reported that some person intruded in this skin a live maggot, which he used as a bait in fishing, and from this originated the silly tale of a person fishing with one of the maggots found in the body of King John." {@ 5] +Although the body measured 5 feet 6 inches, and the coffin 5 feet 7 inches at the longest extremity within, there is no reason to suppose he could be so tall by several inches." buil mɔon plius,suga hidow drumu 69 ad$ 978ď K Certainly not tied." "Jeal. Mr. Stafford informs me it was so strong, as with difficulty it could be rent. This statement and that of Mr. Jeal is corroborated by Mr. Sandford.' 28 ||The fragments of the sword scarcely retained the appearance of ever having been metal, being corroded completely through, and reduced to a kind of soft brown earth; Dry as Butler observes, 2970 916 29.291q 0s; aut 10 Had eat into itself for lack of dis in sidact smse edi Of somebody to hew and hack! K. boudi.so aitor “The feet were in a wrapping of the same as the under robe, and tied round the leg with a lace of the same!"&"Jeal's MS, !! 1M coffin |