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THE carvings here represented are now placed as brackets in the vestry of the church of the Holy Sepulchre at Northampton.

The third and smallest has on his head what might be taken for a cap, but which is apparently only architectural mouldings.

The first, which is drawn in profile, is evidently intended for the head of a King, and its companion might be supposed to be a Bishop: but the mitre which he wears is unlike the usual episcopal mitre, whilst the cross in its front is especially remarkable. This cross was produced by the sculptor

sinking the circular background on which it is placed.

It has been conjectured that this head may represent one of the Canons of the order of the Holy Sepulchre. Canons it is well known were distinguished from other ecclesiastical orders by wearing a cap, and it is probable this peculiarity existed from

early times, though we are not immediately able to refer to any representation of a Canon of so early a date as the sculpture before us.

A friend who has paid considerable attention to monumental sculpture, has favoured us with the following remarks on the present subject.

"I was led to think the ecclesiastic's head might not be a Bishop's, not only by the form of the supposed mitre, but also by the absence of both "titulus" and "circulus," and by the presence of the cross where a part of the "titulus" (the upright ornament usual on mitres) would have come, and somewhat by the beard and the peculiarity of the cross: and, supposing it not episcopal, I thought it might represent the Prior or other superior of the Canons of the Order of the Holy Sepulchre. However, from the chessmen in the British Museum and other examples, I afterwards came to the conclusion it was more likely to be meant for a Bishop. The date is a little puzzling, for the

form of the mitre seems to indicate an earlier period than the ornamental carving above it. I think it must be carried as far back as that carving will allow, say about 1200.

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Krazer, in his work De Liturgiis, edit. 1786, p. 338, speaking of the forms of mitres in paintings and on coins and seals of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, says, 'Visuntur ibi episcopi mitris quidem bifidis ornati, sed nostris longe humilioribus; cornua sunt obtusiora et aliquando fere nulla.'

"Besides various seals of early Bishops showing the forms of low mitres, of which that of Becket in the Gentleman's Magazine for November last is an example, I would call your attention to the original mitre of the same prelate preserved at Sens in France, and to a mitred head at Wells (see Glossary of Architecture, vol. iii. p. 81); which also is bearded, though not so fully as this; and there are two

* Of this mitre, Mr. H. Shaw, in his "Dresses and Decorations of the Middle

Ages," vol. I. plate 13, has given a highly finished engraving from a drawing made by himself, with his accustomed fullness of detail, from the original in the sacristy of the cathedral of Sens; where some other portion of Becket's vestments is also preserved.

examples of low mitres on the monument of King John at Worcester engraved in Stothard's Monumental Effigies. Then there is a mitred head terminating a dripstone at Merton College Chapel, Oxford (see Glossary of Architecture, vol. ii. pl. 52), which, though late in the thirteenth century, seems nearly if not quite as low as this, though the form is more modern. If these heads at Northampton are as late as 1200, they could hardly have formed part of the original structure, which must, I think, be referred to the reign of Hen. II. at the latest; but the choir is, if I mistake not, perpendicular, and if so, a building of the Transition or the Early-English period may have been removed to which these heads once belonged.”

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MR. URBAN, Pendleton, May 10.
Oak House,

IN the amusing article on Hume's Life in your Magazine for April you

allude to the account of Wedderburn's brutal and disgraceful tirade against Dr. Franklin, and refer to the recent legal biographies of Lord Campbell and Mr. Townshend. Now, as your illustrations and references to contemporary or explanatory authorities are in general so copious and satisfactory, I felt somewhat surprised that you left your readers equally as uninformed as

those two learned writers avow themselves to be, on a point which excited much attention at the time; and I regret that you did not furnish us with any source or means of answering Hume's question of "How is it supposed he (Franklin) got possession of

these letters?"

Lord Campbell says Franklin "had got possession of certain letters by mysterious and probably unjustifiable means," but does not trouble himself by explaining why he makes so unqualified and grave a charge.

Townshend tells us 66 some letters came into the possession of Dr. Franklin, in some mysterious manner that was though rarely backward at vituperaNEVER explained." Lord Brougham, tion, scarcely notices the event.

Let us see how far these learned writers are borne out in what they assert. In a very amusing volume, which has not yet any pretence to be

classed amongst the very rare or scarce works, published nearly thirty years ago, there is a full account of this mystery never explained." The work is entitled "Relics of Literature, by S. Collet, Lond. 1823," 8vo.; at p. 200 of which we find "Political mystery unravelled," wherein we are informed that in a pamphlet containing a biographical memoir of the late Dr. Hugh Williamson of New York, by Dr. Hosack, the whole secret regarding these letters is explained.

It appears that Dr. Williamson being in London,

"and suspecting that a clandestine correspondence, hostile to the interest of the colonies, was carried on between Hutchinson and certain leading members of the British cabinet, he determined to ascertain the truth by a bold experiment.

"He had learned that Governor Hutchinson's letters were deposited in an office different from that in which they ought regularly to have been placed; and, having understood that there was little exactness

in the transactions of the business of that office (it is believed it was the office of a particular department of the Treasury), he immediately repaired to it, and addressed himself to the chief clerk, not finding the principal within. Assuming the demeanour of official importance, he peremptorily stated that he had come for the last letters that had been received from Governor Hutchinson and Mr. Oliver, noticing the office in which they ought regularly to have been placed. Without a question being

asked the letters were delivered. Dr. Williamson immediately carried them to Dr. Franklin, and the next day left London for Holland."

Collet omits to inform us when this disclosure first appeared, but I fortunately possess the "Essays on various subjects of Medical Science, by David Hosack, M.D. New York, 1824," 2 vols. 8vo. in the first of which is re

printed the memoir of Dr. Williamson, which it is stated was "delivered on the 1st Nov. 1819, at the request of the New York Historical Society," and it appears to have been first printed in 1820. From some additional information which Dr. Hosack seems to have obtained after his tract first appeared, there is no reason to believe that Dr. Franklin knew at the time how the letters were procured, for it seems that Dr. Williamson did not himself deliver them to Franklin, but

placed them in the hands of another person, a Member of Parliament (supposed to be Mr. Hartley), which accords with Dr. Franklin's public declaration that he received them from a Member of Parliament.

Yours, &c. F. R. A.

MR. URBAN,

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48, Summer Hill, Dublin.

I HAVE often in your columns alluded to the vast collections of references and authorities I have made during the last thirty-six years, in aid of historical, topographical, and antiquarian inquiries over Ireland, and of genealogical succession and family achievements throughout the empire. They are of a magnitude that the departed dominie might aptly have designated as prodigious," and had I that tenure of my existence so long reserved in Ireland alone,-for lives renewable for ever, I could scarcely hope even with unwearied perseverance and unchanging devotion to adapt the whole for publication for a long succession of those cestuis que vie. My projected History of the Pale is still on my desk; but, as only one nobleman has proffered to co-operate in the expenses of its publication, I apprehend it will never see the press, and I am sure no other work of length can now be undertaken by me. I would therefore the custody of some public body, or fain place those MSS. collectively in yet perhaps more serviceably in the hands of such respective individuals as would arrange and edit what they might select from the catalogue. They are classified and their contents briefly suggested to the extent of upwards of 200 volumes in the introductory pages "Annals of Boyle," or Early History of Ireland, and are always open to inspection on appointment here, while any inquiry directed to myself upon the subject shall be promptly and fully satisfied.

to my

The first number in that catalogue may be here more fully described than it is there.

No. 1. INDEX, one volume folio, entitled "Antiquarian Dictionary," containing full references for the Diocesan History of Ireland, in which the four provinces, and their suffragan sees, are distinctly noted, and their available records and annals, with the au

thorities (printed or manuscript, public or private,) subdivided, to facilitate research into legal and literary notices; with these are here indexed, similarly subdivided and on like authorities, records and events of the counties of Antrim, Armagh, Carlow, Cavan, Clare, Cork, Derry, Down, Kildare, Limerick, Meath, Tipperary, and Waterford, being those more particularly the seats of sees and sites of their cathedrals. There are also arranged in this volume references to many sources for information on the following amongst other subjects: absentees; agriculture; amusements and games; annals; architecture; arms and armour; arms genealogical and heraldry; arts and sciences; bards; baronages; baronets, knights, &c.; bishops; boroughs; Breton laws; brigade, Irish; coal-mines; coins; crosses; Druidism; ecclesiastical biography, history, ornaments, and revenues; education; fisheries; forfeitures and forfeited estates, subdivided into various eras, as those incurred in the Desmond rebellion in Munster, the Tyrone in Ulster, the Plantations, the civil wars in 1641 and 1688, &c.; funerals and modes of burial; history, &c. of Ireland; legislation, parliaments, &c.; manners and customs; manufactures; measures and weights; music; natural history; general references for pedigrees (subdivided as before into legal and literary, and those deducible from England classed by its counties); peerage; religion; round towers, in which the several essays offered for a prize from the Royal Irish Academy are abstracted; surveys; tithes; togography general of Ireland, subdivided into legal and literary evidences. Likewise some

selected references relative to the reigns of Charles the First, Charles the Second, Mary, and Anne in Ireland; and to the provinces of Leinster and Munster. This volume closes with directions for searches in cases of title, forfeitures, advowsons, pedigrees, peerages, &c. &c.; and, although I consider the volume of most important research, I would assign it for sixty guineas.

The subsequent numbers of the catalogue I shall not allude to here; they are now equally assignable, as

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WHAT with restorations and dilapidations, the several Societies of Antiquaries would appear to be in a fair way of finding their "occupation gone," through the mere absence of materials with which to build up either a theory or a fact. The votaries of the former, viz. the restorators (and your architect is always of this class, for mere repairs will neither suit his pocket nor his ambition), exert their energies so successfully, that, like the repeated darnings of an old stocking, it frequently occurs that scarce a vestige of the original texture can be detected. agents in the latter case, viz. the dilapidators, some from curiosity, others from cleanliness, sweep off every thing which age and cobwebs may have hallowed. Mrs. A's rock-work at one time, Miss B's museum at another, and Farmer Gubbins's convenience at all times, will shortly relieve the topographic world from the necessity of making further notes in their peregrinations.

The

To which of these classes of dilapidators we are indebted for the present state of the venerable mansion of Crowhurst Place I am at a loss to decide. The once interesting carved cornice of its parlour, (of which, fortunately, a fragment has been lately engraved in Brayley's History of Surrey,) the initials of its early owners, the Gaynesfords their badge the double-fluked grapple, the roof of its ancient hall, have, within the last five years, become the prey of the spoiler. We can now only read of what it was in the volumes of Manning and Bray. Whether the outgoing tenant carried off these carvings as relics, and from motives of respectful affection, or that the incoming parties removed them as worthless rubbish, we know not; but this we do know, viz. that, with the exception of a few coats of arms in stained glass, the clearance is most complete and lamentable, and that five short years have effected it!

Your obedient Servant, L.

REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

The Judges of England, with a Sketch of their Lives, &c. By Edward Foss, Esq. 2 vols.

SOME few years since we were informed by Lord Campbell "that Mr. Foss, editor of 'The Grandeur of the Law,' had amassed a noble collection respecting all English lawyers in all ages," and in the present volumes he has given us that portion of his materials which includes the judges from the reign of William the First to that of Henry the Third, taking in about two centuries. In his introduction, Mr. Foss remarks, "that no separate publication in a comprehensive form of the lives of the judges has ever yet appeared;" and he assigns a reason for the omission in the fact that those who would have been most competent to the task, seldom had leisure for its accomplishment. "Lawyers of any eminence,” he observes, "while in the pursuit of their profession, have little time to spare from their forensic avocations; and when they retire, either for the occasional vacation, or the termination of their busy career, they are either too glad, if any season of activity remains, to throw aside their books entirely and to enter into the relaxations of society, or too anxious to pursue their political promptings, to enter upon a new field of inquiry, the tilling of which must be attended with much toil, and the fruit of which they may despair of seeing harvested." That such a work, however, if well written would be well received, has been shown by the popularity acquired by Lord Campbell's Lives of the Chancellors, and some other works of a similar

nature, and Mr. Foss may be satisfied that the industry and zeal which he shows in these volumes will not be overlooked by those whose praise is of value, and who are able to estimate the labour with which they have been collected, and the skill and talent by which they have been arranged. After some hesitation as to the best and most GENT. MAG. VOL. XXXII.

convenient plan which he could adopt, whether of chronological order or alphabetical arrangement, Mr. Foss judiciously avoided the disadvantages and united the conveniences attendant on both schemes, by keeping each reign separate and distinct. Pursuing then the chronological order, he secured the utmost simplicity of reference to the judges who flourished under each sovereign by arranging their lives alphabetically, so that all the judges of each reign appear in one list, and each individual is classed among his contemporaries. To these lives of the particular judges, is added some description of the nature and progress of each court, and whatsoever appeared interesting, as connected with the judicature of the country. In the course of his investigations Mr. Foss found the lists of the judges hitherto published to be deficient and inaccurate; and of the chancellors, he says, that the majority of works, even the most modern, appear to have followed too closely the first that was compiled, incomplete as it was. Of the late publications by Mr. Duffus Hardy and Lord Campbell, it is said:

"However the learning and industry of the former must be acknowledged from the evidence afforded by the publications of the Record Commission, and with whatever zest the interesting and entertaining pages of the latter must be read, it is impossible not to feel a deep regret that in the earlier reigns both have adopted the names and followed the arguments of their predecessors without inquiry, and that the latter, especially by the popularity of his work, has, to a certain extent, perpetuated errors which a little examination and care might have corrected."

Mr. Foss then mentions that in the first five reigns, from William the First to Henry the Second, no less than thirteen examples of Chancellors are incorrectly, or at all events inconsiderately, introduced, of which he mentions the particular instances, and in

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