a

Mr. Sedgwick returns to you Deacon; and I am not a little pleas'd with my haveing been Instrumental in the Admission of so good a man into the service of the Church. With God's blessing in the continuance of his health, he's like to make an useful person in the way he has now happily chosen. I can honestly assure you that, in many years, I have not had a more agreable week's conversation than this last; which was chiefly in his company. I heartily pray for more Fellow Labourers of the like excellent accomplishments; and doubt not but herein you'l readily joyn with, Sr, your very affectionate brother and servant,

The fifth Letter is, I imagine, one of a series addressed by Bishop Nicolson to Archbishop Wake, about the time of the Rebellion in 1715. Mr. Ellis has printed several of these letters to Wake, and amongst them one dated four days after this one; series 1. vol. III. p. 360. The superscription is wanting; but I think it is pretty evident that it was written to the Archbishop. By way of illustration, I will give Smollett's account of the transaction to which it alludes. After mentioning the junction of the English rebels with the Highlanders, and their advance into England, he says, "They continued their march into Penrith, where the Sheriff, assisted by Lord Lonsdale, and the bishop of Carlisle, had assembled the whole posse-comitatus of Cumberland, amounting to 12,000 men, who dispersed with the utmost precipitation at the approach of the rebels." The insurgents proceeded onwards to Preston, where they were attacked by General Willis on the 12th of November, but having barricaded the town, they not merely

LETTER V.

In obedience to your Lordship's commands, this comes humbly to inform you that yesterday Mr. Carpenter, and the three regiments of dragoons under his command, marched from Kirkby-Stephen to Kendale. Lord Lonsdale met him in the way thither, with a deal of half-pay officers; for whom his Lordship can readily (in that countrey) raise either Troops or Companies of Voluntiers. We dayly pick up several deserters from the Rebels; some of which have given full informations (on oath) agt the gentlemen chiefly concern'd in raising and supporting the Rebel Forces in Northumberland. Not one protestant of these two counties, saveing a profligate Butcher, went in to them; But the servants of those very popish gentlemen who are now confin'd in Carlile appear'd amongst them.

I am, with great respect, your Lordship's most obedient servant, W. CARLIOL. Carlile, Nov. 10, 1715.

I will merely add that Bishop Nicolson died Feb. 14th, 1727, five days after he was translated from Derry to the Archbishoprick of Cashel.

Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

JOHN BRUCE.

Secktor, near Axminster, April, 25. THE interesting account in your last volume of the paintings connected with the rood-loft in Mitchel-Dean Church, induces me to point out to the notice of your readers the existence of a similar painting, which may fairly lay claim to the merit of having supplied the place of the holy rood itself, and which yet maintains its original situation. The village church of Winsham in Somersetshire, about four miles south-west of Crewkerne, contains this relic of antiquity. The

building consists only of an aile and chancel, with a heavy square tower between them, which is evidently the most ancient part of the structure. The piers of the tower, inside, are relieved by attached shafts with circular laminated capitals, from which spring pointed arches of considerable elevation. The opening on the eastern side towards the chancel is occupied by a screen of carved oak, comprising a range of lights formed by low arches with trefoil heads and quatrefoils above. The spaces are ornamented by angels with expanded wings holding shields, and above them is a range of mouldings representing vine leaves and fruit. Immediately above this screen is the painting abovementioned, which fills the whole of the arch on that side of the tower. It is on pannel, and is executed in a very bold style, and in lively colours. The subject is the crucifixion. Five figures only are represented, and they are of a size sufficiently large to have rendered them distinctly visible to the congregation below. In the centre appears our Saviour on the cross, with the blood trickling from his wounded side. A weeping female stands at a little distance on each side, and beyond them appear the two thieves, who are not nailed to their respective crosses, but hang with their arms bent back over the transverse beams. This picture, like those at Mitchel-Dean, has been long covered with whitewash, and has been recently restored to light; to gain a view of it, the belfry stairs must be ascended, as it is hidden from below by a loft erected for the accommodation of the ringers, who formerly stood on the floor.

The church of Winsham contains some monumental inscriptions for the respectable family of Henley of Leigh, and those of several vicars of the раrish; but it offers nothing else peculiarly worthy of notice, if we except an ancient lectern, to which is affixed by a chain a black-letter copy of Fox's Martyrs in tolerable preservation.

It may be observed that several of our Devonshire churches still retain their chancel screen and rood-loft. Those of Honiton and Collumpton are fine specimens of art; and in the lastmentioned church a portion of the rood itself remains, consisting of a mound or calvary carved in wood, on

which the crosses and figures were set up.

The painted walls and storied windows, which formerly adorned our churches, appealed to the eyes and the hearts of the ignorant and unlearned, and impressed facts as well as legends upon their memories, at a period when the clergy, if they had the will, possessed not the means of putting the scriptures into the hands of the people. The happiness of living under a better dispensation cannot be estimated, and it is well to snatch from oblivion any such remaining relic of the piety or the superstition of our forefathers; for the time may come, and that shortly, when sacrilegious hands shall again invade the sanctuary, and sweep away all traces of their existence. It is but a step from the bishop's palace to the cathedral, or from the parsonage to the church.

NOTES ON THE ANTIQUITIES OF
BRITTANY.

(Continued from vol. CL. part 11. p. 217.)

IN the parish of PLOUDIRY, there is a spot called Merzer Salaun, or martyrdom of Solomon, from a king of that name, who was killed in a popular tumult in 435.

Mi-voye (half-way) between Josselin and Ploermel, is the scene of the famous Battle of the Thirties, which took place in 1351, between thirty Bretons and the same number of English. The Bretons conquered, through a manœuvre of Guillaume de Montauban.

The heath between Eoran and Becherel is the scene of the partition treaty, made between Jean de Montfort and Charles de Blois, in 1363, by which the territory of Britanny was to be divided between the two claimants, but it was broken by the latter.

The tower of CESSON, on the river Gouet, near St. Brieux, was built in 1395, and dismantled by order of Henry IV. in 1598. The cement by which the stones are joined is of a remarkable hardness; it is supposed to have been made of pulverised shells.

The castle of LE GUILDO, (which is now about to be entirely demolished,) derives a melancholy renown from being the place where the unfortunate prince Gilles of Britanny was imprisoned in 1446.

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BLAIN is remarkable for being the first authorised Church of Protestants in Britanny. The Viscountess of Rohan, daughter of the king of Navarre, having obtained liberty of conscience for herself and her household, designated all the inhabitants of the neighbourhood as her servants, because they were her vassals, and formed them into a congregation in the great hall of the castle.

A great part of Britanny is heath; indeed one third of the department of Ille and Vilaine is computed to be still in that state. When Henry IV. saw the uncultivated tracts between Rennes and Nantes, he exclaimed, "Where can the poor Bretons find the money they have promised me?"

The present Cathedral of QUIMPER was built with the produce of indulgences, and finished in 1501. An equestrian statue of King Grallon formerly stood over the gateway, which on every St. Cecilia's eve, one of the bell-ringers used to climb; he presented the king with a glass of wine, and then threw the glass among the crowd; if any one caught it whole, he took it to the chapter-house, where he claimed the reward of a louis-d'or. The custom seems to have been early abolished. The statue of Grallon was thrown down in the beginning of the French Revolution.

*

The inhabitants of LE CROISIE have retained the Gaulish usage of commencing the day, the month, and the year, from the hour of sunset. Newyear's night is one of their festivals.

There is a tradition that the castle of ST. NAZAIRE, on the Loire, the remains of which are near the Church, was built by Brutus, and some attribute it not to the Roman, but the Trojan.

PONT-CHATEAU was visited in 1709 by Grignon de Montfort, a home missionary, whose labours were so gratefully appreciated, that the peasantry raised a hill which cost them fifteen months' toil, on the top of which they placed three crosses, and purposed to build fifteen chapels around it. But Louis XIV. fearing that the place might be used as a fortress in case of civil war, caused it to be destroyed.

*Those who have been at Westminster School, will naturally compare this custom with the ceremony of throwing the pancake over the bar on Shrove Tuesday.

311

The remains are still discernible, and a cross and chapel were erected on the site about seven years since.

BURON, in the parish of Vigneux, near Nantes, was for some time the residence of the celebrated Madame de Sévigné. It was sold by her son in 1700 to a family in whose possession it still remains. The avenue, which was planted in 1750, passes for the finest in Britanny.

The castle of CLISSON was burnt in 1794, in the revolutionary war. M. Le Mot, the celebrated sculptor, bought it as it was, with the view of preserving it from total destruction. He has left it in the same state, making only such repairs as are necessary to prevent further decay.

The inhabitants of MACHECOUL made a regulation among themselves in 1603, that whoever broke the third commandment should receive a slap on the face from such as heard him, without liberty of resenting it. As it produced ill blood among neighbours, it was at length dropped. Machecoul was the residence of the brave but profligate and sanguinary Gilles de Retz, commonly called Gilles de Laval, who put several wives to death, and is supposed by some to be the original of Bluebeard. He was accused of dealing with the devil, of murdering above a hundred children; and for these and other crimes he was burned alive at Nantes in 1440. Before the Revolution, his sabre was shown in the castle of Machecoul; it was of an extraordinary size. His name was still pronounced with horror among the peasantry, when Ogée wrote his description of Britanny.

In 1700, there was an ancient tree growing in the cloister of the convent of VERTOU, which was said to be the staff of a St. Martin, planted in that spot. The monks sold slips of it at a high price. According to the legend, it must have been more than a thousand years old.

The lake of GRANDLIEU, near Machecoul, has a curious tradition connected with it. St. Martin de Vertou, preaching the gospel in the environs of Nantes, came to a town called Herbadilla, the inhabitants of which were extremely profligate, and treated him with contempt. In punishment of their crime, a vast chasm opened, and torrents of fire gushing out of it, consumed the guilty city. Two only of

its inhabitants, who had received the Saint hospitably, were saved; but one of them, a woman, returning to witness the devastation, in spite of his prohibition, was changed into a stone. The lake of Grandlieu now occupies the site of Herbadilla, but the name of the place is found in the neighbouring village of Herbauges. Every one will be struck with the resemblance of this story to those of Lot's wife, and Baucis and Philemon.

The town of CARHAIX is supposed to take its name from Ahès, the daughter of King Grallon. (Caer-Ahès, the city of Alès.) Tradition is loud on the subject of her crimes and cruelties; and it is said that the noises which are frequently heard in one of the caverns of the mines at Huelgoet, are the groans of her lovers, whom in her fits of rage or inconstancy, she caused to be precipitated into the abyss.

Not far from Quimper, in the bay of Douarnenez, are the supposed ruins of the ancient town of Ys. The encroachments of the sea, and a great inundation, destroyed the town in the fifth century, but its vestiges are still considered discernible; and the boatmen profess to distinguish its former streets among the several shoals and difficult places.

The coast of Britanny is so dangerous, that a former Viscount of Leon used to say that a certain rock, notorious for shipwrecks, was a more valuable stone to him than the most precious jewel.

At LE ROUVRAY is a covered gallery called La Roche-aux-Fées, composed of forty-two large blocks of reddish schiste, and divided into two chambers. The gallery is 28 feet 7 inches in length, by 12 feet 4 inches in breadth and height, according to the Almanac of St. Malo, but other admeasurements differ.

The view from Mont St. Joseph, near ST. MALO, at high water, and at sunrise or sunset, is mentioned by Buffon as the finest he had ever seen. The seamen of St. Malo are among the most celebrated in France; they bombarded Tunis in 1609, took Rio de Janeiro in 1711, and gave the name of Malouines to the Falkland Islands. The merchants formerly enjoyed the whole of the Peruvian trade, and in the flourishing time of their commerce sent a hundred vessels yearly to the

Newfoundland fishery. It is said that Henry VII. of England saved himself here from the messengers of Richard III. by the rights of asylum which the town had enjoyed for several centuries. Charles II. is also said to have resided here during his exile. At St. Servan, in the immediate neighbourhood, James 11. resided, at his arrival in France after his abdication.* The Castle of St. Malo, which was built by Anne of Britanny, has some resemblance to the shape of a coach; a large square area within constitutes the body; two small towers in the fore-part answer to the fore wheels of the carriage, as two others of a larger size do to the hinder ones; a projection in front forms the pole, and an arched niche behind corresponds to the place where the servant was used to stand." The story is, that her carriage happening to be overturned, she determined to have one built which could not be liable to the same accident.

THE Lady to whom the Duchess of Kingston addressed her letter, published in your Magazine for May 1829, p. 411, was Miss Isabella Chudleigh, the eldest daughter of Col. George Chudleigh, of Chalmington, co. of Dorset. This lady had one brother, Sir John the sixth Bart. (who was killed at Ostend in 1745), and several sisters; and was first cousin to the Duchess. Duchess of Kingston was a daughter of Col. Thomas Chudleigh, of Chelsea College, and had one brother, Colonel Sir Thomas, the fifth Bart. who died at Aix la Chapelle in 1741.

The

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The style of ROBERTSON has few positive beauties and few faults. Its great merits are those of animation and rapidity, perspicuity and correctness, polish and modulation. Robertson is said to have formed his style on the style of Swift, yet so little resemblance do his periods bear to those of Swift, that no man would have suspected him of having taken them for his models. He has, however, one quality that distinguishes Swift; he puts" proper words in proper places;" and he may perhaps be said to have kept in mind Swift's precept, rather than to have imitated Swift's example. He is never obscure; he never stops his reader for a moment to consider the sense of a passage; nor does he ever disgust, like Gibbon, with a vain affectation of fine writing, or an offensive ambition of ornament; he never aims at elegance and fails. He is censured by Dr. Knox for being too vehement and declamatory; but, whatever blame his declamation may deserve, it must be acknowledged respecting his vehemence, which might perhaps with greater propriety be called energy, that it has the eminent merit of carrying us swiftly through his pages; and the writer, especially the historian, who enables us to read him rapidly, is entitled to our warmest gratitude. Johnson's remark concerning him, that he " is like a man who packs gold in wool, the wool occupying much more room than the gold," is unjust and malicious.

Yet Robertson must be pronounced inferior to Hume in the power of moving and interesting his reader, and to Gibbon in that of entertaining and surprising him. He is remarkable rather for equality of spirit and accuracy, than for any eminently pathetic or striking paragraphs. He has no passages equal in interest to the best passages of Hume, nor in splendour to the best of Gibbon. He has fewer acute, useful, or philosophical reflections, than either.

Perhaps his character of Queen Eli

a Letter from Hume to Robertson, in Stewart's Life of Robertson, Sect. II. b Essay 28.

GENT. MAG. April, 1832.

zabeth, and his comparison of Francis and Charles V. display greater abilities than any other passages in his Histories.

His masterpiece is his Charles V. Of his History of America, the introductory remarks, as well as the books in which he describes the country and the inhabitants, are somewhat in the German style. He is resolved to say all that can be said, and in consequence says much that need not be said. What he tells his reader is all true, but is neither new nor surprising; his reader knew it before he became his reader. His History of Scotland, his first performance, is also his most inferior.

Yet when this work first appeared, it surprised the English public with the beauties of its style. "The town will have it," says Humec to him, "that you was educated at Oxford, thinking it impossible for a mere untravelled Scotchman to produce such language." The readers of Scotland were disposed to exclaim still more loudly in its praise. "At Edinburgh,' says Dr. Beattie," "it is currently said by your critical people, that Hume, Robertson, &c. write better English than the English themselves." Beattie himself, however, had the good sense to be of a contrary opinion, and his observations on the subject show that he could distinguish the qualities of a Scotchman's style very accurately. We who live in Scotland," he remarks, are obliged to study English from books, like a dead language." Accordingly, when we write, we write it like a dead language, which we understand, but cannot speak; avoiding, perhaps, all ungrammatical expressions, and even the barbarisms of our country, but at the same time without communicating that neatness, ease, and softness of phrase, which appear so conspicuously in Addison, Lord Lyttelton, and other elegant English authors. Our style is stately and unwieldy, and clogs the tongue in pronunciation, and smells of the lamp. We are slaves to the language we write, and are

Stewart's Life of Robertson, Sect. I. d Letter to Lord Glenbervie, in Forbes's Life of Beattie.