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Lift of Books,-with Remarks.

however, by the Italians: but an Italian who fhould think no better of him than I do, would certainly fay, that he deferved his Laura better than bis Lauro; and that wretched quibble would be reckoned an excellent piece of Italian wit.

"The Italian profe writers (of invention I mean) which I would recommend to your acquaintance, are Machiavello and Bocaccio: the former for the established reputation which he has acquired of a confurimate politician, whatever my own private fentiments may be of either his politics or his morality; the latter for his great invention, and for his natural and agreeable manner of telling his ftories.

"Guicciardini, Bentivoglio, Davila, &c. are excellent hiftorians, and deferve being read with attention. The nature of history checks, a little, the flights of Italian imaginations; which, in works of invention, are very high indeed. Tranflations curb them ftill more; and their tranflations of the claffics are incomparable, particularly the first ten, tranflated in the time of Leo X. and infcribed to him under the title of the Collana. That original Collana has been lengthened fince; and, if I mistake not, confifts now of one hundred and ten volumes."-And again,

"Whereabouts are you in Ariofto? Or have you gone through that most ingenious contexture of truth and lies, of ferious and extravagant, of knights errant, magicians, and all that various matter which he announces at the be

ginning of his poem:

Le donne, i cavalier, l'arme, gli amori,

Le cortefie, l'audaci imprefe io canto."

"I am by no means fure that Homer had fuperior invention, or excelled more in defcription than Ariofto. What can be more feducing and voluptuous than the defcription of Alcina's perfon and palace; what more ingeniously extravagant, than the fearch made in the moon for Orlando's loft wits, and the account of other people's that were found there? The whole is worth your attention, not only as an ingenious poem, but as the fource of all modern tales, novels, and romances; as Ovid's Metamorphosis was of the ancient ones; besides, that, when you have read this work, nothing will be difficult to you in the Italian language. You will read Taffo's Gierufalemme, and the Decamerone di Bocaccio, with great

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facility afterwards; and when you have read those three authors, you will, in my opinion, have read all the works of invention that are worth reading in that language; though the Italians would be very angry at me for laying fo."

56. GOSTLING'S WALK in and about Canterbury. (Continued from p. 433.)

In

N this entertaining walk we fhall now make a few refting-places, but must premife, that, in some material inftances (which we fhall briefly (pecify), our communicative peripatetic diffents, for good reafons, from all who have made this tour before him, the learned Camden, as well as Somner, not excepted. But Mr. Gottling very properly trufts more to his own eye sight, memory, and obfervation, than to hear fay, authority, and report. particular, he fuppofes that the accounts of this church having been "entirely rebuilt" by Archbishop Lanfranc, are false; as fo great a work, together with the palace and monastery, could never have been executed "in feven years," and as the vault under the choir (now the French church) exaly agrees with the defcription and prints of the crypt under St. Peter's ancient church in Oxford, built by Grymbald, in K. Alfred's reign, about the year 900. Mr. G. therefore, conjectures, that Lanfranc, in his grand repair of the church, near 200 years after, made ufe of Grymbald's walls,and topped up the old windows, or made new ones, without regarding their irregular appearance. He is alfo of opinion, that the hiftory of the fire in 1174, given by Gervas, an eye-witnefs (which fee in our Mag. Vol.XLII. P. 259) is rather over told," the timber work only of the church (from evidences now extant) being then confumed; and alfo that great part of the western cross-ifle was not

rebuilt from the foundation," but only "cafed," by Archb flop Sudbury. The hiftory and defcription of the painted windows, (communicated by another hand) particularly of the great northern, for which, in its glory, 10,000 pounds are faid to have been offered by a Spanish Ambaffador, will gratify every lover of the ftaining art. This window, being given by King Edward IV, befides the figures of ten prophets, the twelve apoftles, fourteen bishops, and feven angels, bearing

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Lift of Books,with Remarks.

fhields of that monarch's arms, contains the figures of the King himself, Edward Prince of Wales (afterwards Edward V.), Richard Duke of York, and the Queen, Elizabeth Woodvile, with the five Princeffes. A large crucifix, towards which they were all kneeling, together with feveral pictures of the bleffed Trinity, and of the Virgin Mary in feven glorious appearances, many Popish faints, and Archbp. Becket, in full proportion, were de troyed in 1643, by Richard Culmer, commonly called Blue Dick, a Puritanical minifter, of which he himself published an account. The great

western window, in the fame ftyle, but inferior in the richness of its colouring, was built about the year 1400, and contains the arms of K. Richard II. and his two wives, with the figures of 'ten faints, the twelve apoftles, and feven of our Kings, under Gothic iches.

For a fpecimen of the work, we shall now extract the beginning of chapter XXIX, and the defcription of the Black Prince's monument in chapter XXXV.

"We now enter the body of the church, by the porch at the foot of the Oxford fteeple, in company, I will fuppofe, with fome of our colonifts just arrived from America, in their first visit to England; perfons bleffed by Providence with a capacity to be ftruck with the fight of what is grand and beautiful, without troubling themselves to consider whether the grandeur and beauty, with which they are charmed, be owing to the Jules of Grecian or Gothic architec

tu:e.

"At the fit entrance with fuch into this noble structure, how have I enjoyed their attonishment! how have I feen the countenances, even of their negroes, fpikle with raptures of pleature and admiration! raptures, which no language but that of the eyes is capable of expreffing.

"The fine arches over head, fo moderately adorned with well propor tioned ornaments; the lofty pillars fo well difpofed for diftributing that light which the windows adimit in great plenty, and the agreeable length of the walk between them, which augments the pleature of it, till we arrive at the fights of steps which lead up to the door of the choir, and give us a

Entitled, Dean and Chapter News from
Canterbury,

view of the rich fcreen at the entrance into it, as well as of the cross-ifles on each hand, built in much the same style with the body, and the dazzling height of the infide of the noble tower, called Bell-Harry feeple (perhaps the moft perfect thing of its kind any where to be feen); all thefe particulars, fo finely adjusted, can hardly fail of giving great pleasure to those who furvey them with any degree of attention.

"Can the admiration of thefe beauties, and being charmed with them, be owing to the want of tafte? No, furely one inftance, to which I myself was witness, puts this out of ali difpute, with me at leaft. I fhall give it here.

"Many years ago I had the pleasure of taking a walk with an eminent builder in this part of our cathedral: the perfon was Mr. Strong, fon of him who was mafter mafon at St. Paul's, in London, during the conftruction of that justly admired fabrick, brought up under his father to the fame bufinefs, and his fucceffor in the works of the royal hofpital at Greenwich.

"He could hardly be prejudiced in favour of the Gothic taite, and was, undoubtedly, a competent judge how ftrength and beauty were properly confidered in works of fuch magnificence.

"When he came to make his obfervations here, and especially in the upper works, I was prefently convinced that an artist fees with other eyes than they do who are not fuch; and the eagerness of every step he took in examining and noting down the proportions of what he faw, with his paffionate exclamation at my not being able to fatisfy him who was the defigner of that stately tower, in one of the galleries whereof we were ftanding and admiring i', fhewed fufficiently how worthy he thought this forgot. ten architect of all the honour that could be paid to the memory of fo exalted a genius.

"But we will leave those who can fee no beauties in architecture, except fuch as they can tell the rules and proportions of, to the enjoyment of their own delicacy, and begin our walk as they who thew the church to strangers usually do....

"Of the Monuments in the eastern Part of the Church.

"When we come up hither from the fouth ifle, the first monument we see is that of Edward the Black Prince,

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Lift of Books,with Remarks.

fon to K. Edward III. very entire, and very beautiful; his figure, in gilt brafs, lies on it completely armed, except the head, on which is a fcull-cap, with a coronet round it, once fet with ftones, of which only the collets now remain, and from hence hangs a hood of mail down to his breast and fhoulders. The head of the figure refts on a cafque or helmet, joined with the cap which supports his creft (the lion), formed after the trophies above the monument, where are his gauntlets curiously finished and gilt, his coat of arins quilted with fine cotton, and at least as ich as any of thofe worn by the officers at arms on public occafions, (but much disfigured by time and dult) and the fcabbard of his fword, which could be but a small one. The fword itfelf is faid to have been taken away by Oliver Cromwell. His hueld hangs on a pillar near the head of his tonb, and has had handles to it.... As the choir and eastern parts of our church are built over vaults, the bodies which reft in these parts could not be interred in graves, but are inclofed in altars or table monuments railed above the pavement.

"This of the Black Prince has a long infeription in oid French, profe and verle, on brafs plates (tee it in our Mag, Vol. XXXIII. p 611), and fillets round the border of the stone on which his figure is laid. The fides and ends of it are adorned with efcutcheons alternately placed, one bearing the arms of France and England quarterly, with the file of three points for his diftinction, and a label above it, on which is written houmout; the other his own arms, viz. three oftrich-feathers, the quill-end of each in a focket, with a label croffing thefe, on v ch is his motto Ich dien; a larger label above the eícutcheon, having the fame words on that too. Thefe words, perhaps, were defigned to exprefs the excelient character he bore; boumout, in the German language, fignifying a

From the time of K. John (our author obferves in a note) the head pieces were made fo clofe as not to fhew the face on the feal of King Edward IV. we first find part of his face open to be feen, and that of K. Henry VIII. is the firit that difcovers the whole face by means of a vifor to lift up. There is reafon, therefore, to believe that the Black Prince's armour in the Tower, was never worn by him, nor made till above 300 years after his death.

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baughty spirit, might reprefent him as an intrepid warrior, and Ich dien, 1 ferve, as a dutiful fon †.

"There feems to have been an altar oppofite to this tomb, where affes might be faid for his foul, a ftone step very much worn being under a window there, and within memory his plumes, and the arms of France and England, as on the monument, were in the painted glais here: the efcutcheon with the fathers has long been broken and loft; the other was a few years ago taken away to mend a window at another place."...

On this occafion we cannot help lamenting the inattention too generally fhewn, by the governors of our cathedrals, to thefe and other remains of ancient art, else we fhould never fee fo many flagrant outrages and abfurdities; fuch, for instance, as replacing the heads of Edward V. and his brother (in the window above mentioned) with the fair faces of two mitred faints, filling up the neck and hair of their mother with an arm and uplifted hand, and fupplying the head of her fourth daughter with a man's head, neck, and an ermined collar; and, above all, we should not be perpetually difgufled with that profufion of unmeaning white-wash, which obliterates and deftroys whatever it touches.

The following curious ftory is told from the writer's own knowledge: "St. Anfelm being a native of Piedmont, in King George II's reign, the King of Sardinia defired to have his remains fent over to him, and his Ambaffdor had fucceeded to far as to obtain leave and authority to have a fearch made for that purpose. A perfon commiffioned to make this fearch applied to a member of the cathedral, whom he thought beft able to affift in his enquiry, and inform him whether an old tomb in Becket's chapel might not probably contain the remains of that prelate; but was fo fully convinced that all fearch after any fuch relicks would be fruitless, as his bones were probably burnt with those of Becket, that the monument was left entire, and the design laid aside.”

We cannot conclude, without obferving, that, notwithstanding what our

Our historians fay, that both this motto and the oftrich-feathers were adopted by the Black Prince from the King of Bohemia, a volunteer in the French army, flain at Crefly.

anthor

486

Catalogue of New Publications.

author has advanced in his appendix, the old British chriftians, who lived in the fifth century, many hundred years before the Augsburgh confeffion, cannot, we think, with propriety, be called Proteftants, (as that word was certainly never ufed as a technical term before the days of Luther,) any more than the firft difciples can be properly styled Chriftians, till Barnabas and Saul preached in Antioch, though doubtless they were followers of Chrift long before. Nor can we agree with Mr. G. in calling Richborough Rutupium, in the fingular number, being rather of opinion, that Rutupia, like Delphi, the Dardanelles, &c. though it may probably include the two caftles of Reculver and Richborough, is a always used plurally: Rutupium we never recollect in any author of credit; and, befides, it could not be the fingular of Rutupiæ.

noun

At the fame time that we congratu late the public on this acquifition, and the author on the pleafure which he has here given and received without firring from his elbow-chair, we heartily wish, that, though his feet are crippled, he may long be able to walk thus agreeably on his hands.

Catalogue of NEW PUBLICATIONS. SERMONS.

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in Dorfer. Compiled from Mr. Hutchin's hiftory of that county. 28 6d Payne The history of the town and port of Feverfham, in the county of Kent. By Edward Jacob, Efq; F. S. A. Illuftrated with copper plates. 6s bound White

A fupplement, confifting of corrections and large additions to a biographical hiftory of England, referred to their proper places in that wo k. To which, befides an index to the additional characters, are fubjoined exact emendations and improvements of the index to the former volumes, and a lift of curious portraits of eminent perfons not yet engraved, communicated by the honourable Horace Walpole, to the author James Granger, vicar of Shiplake, in Oxfordshire. 18s boards Davies POETICAL.

Lufus poetici. 18 6d Lewis
POLITICAL.

The freeholder's political catechifm. or the duty of voters for members of parliament: delivered in a plain, clear and concife method. 6d Davies

MISCELLANEOUS.

The articles of the game of cricket, as fettled by the feveral cricket clubs, particularly that of the Star and Garter, in Pallmall, with a neat copper plate of the repref ntation of the game. 6d Williams

Further obfervations upon lightning; together with fome experiments. By Benjamin Wilfon. F. R S. &c. 1s 6d Davis

The fatal effects of inconftancy, or letters of the Marchionefs of Syrce, the Count De Mirbille, and others. 2 vol. 6s bound Bew

Tables for computing the apparent places of the fixt stars, and reducing the obfervations of the planets By the Rev. Nevil Mafkelyne, B. D. F R. S. and astronomer royal. 15s in theets Rivington

Le courier Francois. An account of the regulations concerning the prices and manner of travelling poft in France, with a complete lift of the pofts throughout that kingdom, made and published by order of Mr. Rigoley, in endant-general for the year 1774. is 6d Faden and Jefferies

An account of the proceedings at the India houfe, with refpest to the regulations supposed to be made by bye laws, by a committee of proprietors, elected by ballot for the purpofe, and agreed to by a general court, particularly relative to the fhipping of the company, by which they would have faved above 100,000l. per annum, that were afterwards very illegally rejected. Is Payne

The merchant's guide; confifting of tables for the computation of the duties, and directions for tranfacting the business, of the custom houfe. By Thomas Lowndes and John Smallwood. 4s board Lowndes

Hints from a minifer to his curate, for the management of his parish. 6d Rivington

INSCRIP

Poetical Effays for October, 17/0

IN&CRIPTION in RECULVER Church

H

Yard, KENT.

ERE, as hiftoriographers have faid, St. Ethelbert, Kent's whilome King, was laid; [tain'd, Whom St. Auguftine with the Gospel enterAnd in this land hath ever fince remain'd; Who though by cruel Pagans he was flain, The crown of martyrdom he did obtain. Who died on the 24th of February, in the year 616.

On a Tomb in BECKENHAM Church-Yard.

LA where, a file, a mother,

A friend, a wife, a mother, fleeps;
A heart, within whofe facred cell
The peaceful virtues lov'd to dwell:
Affection warm, and faith fincere,
And foft humanity, were there.
In agony, in death, refign'd,
She felt the wound fhe left behind.
Her infant image here below
Sits fmiling on a father's woe;
Whom what awaits while here he ftrays
Along this lonely vale of days?
A pang to fecret forrow dear,
A figh, an unavailing tear,
Till time fhall ev'ry grief remove,
With life, with mem'ry, and with love.

EPITAP H S.
In BIRCHINGTON Church-Yard.
I. On two Excifemen.

T

WO gaugers here have met a fatal doom, One in his prime, the other in his bloom, Whofe truth and juftice held an equal feale, And Chriftian virtues did o'er vice prevail. II. On a Child.

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R

The PAIR of BEASTS. A Tale. ALPH CLOD, a yeoman of the Weft, The fun of fcience ne'er had bleft, Yet Fortune manag'd fo his ftore, His flocks increas'd, his bags ran o'er, Refolv'd (tho' Tommy was no fool) To fend his darling fon to fchool, In hafte to Mafter Birch repairs, To fhew the lad, and end his cares. He came, he bow'd, and thus began (For Ralph was a well-spoken man):Why, Mafter Birch, I understand "That learning's better far than land;

And fo I've brought my boy along,

To beg you'll teach him right from wrong: "For Tom, if means are rightly follor'd, "Will make a moft perdigious fchollard.

487

"So, Mafter Birch, as I hate arguing, "'Twere beft 'fore-hand to strike a bargain; "Name you your terms, or high or low, "And then I'll anfwer yes or no." "Sir," fays the fcholar, "if my skill "You'd make fubfervient to your will, "To guide the youth through learning's grounds,

"I for my labour afk ten pounds."

Amaz'd, th' aftonish'd ruftic cries, (Fix'd like the ftatue of furprize) "Ten pounds! Why, what the d-l! what! "Am I awake, or am I not?

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Why, fure, my friend, you do but jeft"Ten pounds!-adzooks! 'twill buy a Beast!" "A Beaft!-the Tutor cried-'tis true! "And in the end you'll find you've two."

To Lady LEWES,

In allufion to the Piece of Plate prefented by the Ladies of Worcester to Sir Watkin Lewes. See p. 386.

WHILST round and round admiring

numbers prefs,

[blefs; Gaze on thy form, and then their fav'rite Whilft honeft praise exults from ev'ry tongue, And grateful ardours fwell the ruftic fong; Accept, bright dame, this tribute of the Muse, Nor this one humble fprig of bays refuse.

In thee, at once, fair excellence, we find True female foftnefs, with an hero's mind; Tho' gentle as the firft fweet breath of fpring, When wanton Zephyrs wave their balmy wing; Tho' milder thou than infants when they fmile,

Form'd as thou art, kind fweet'ner of his toil! To blefs our LEWES; yet thy bofom feels The fame firm purpofe that his foul impels; From thee our Patron's virtues all derive, Glow in thy fpirit, by thine influence live.

His manly breaft thy Fortitude infpires, And breathes into his foul true patriot fires; For thee on Bribery he inflicts new pains, And bids rude Riot clank his galling chains; Whilft Hope fuftains him in the ardent caufe Of Freedom's fons, and Britain's facred laws. His be the heav'n-afpiring breath of Fame, The blaze of Glory, and a deathlefs Name! Laurels and Palms around his temples twine! But be the Dove and Olive wholly thine! When Juftice pours down vengeance on the land, [hand; Thy Temp'rance hall restrain th' uplifted For thine are all the pow'rs his foul to

move,

*

And all thy fpeech the Eloquence of Love. Thus, whilft thy bright perfections shine confeft,

And emulation warms each female breast, VIGORNIA'S Fair the fplendid trophy yield, And trace thy virtues on the Silver Field.

Oh! gentleft partner of the nobleft heart! Whofe fenfe and fweetnefs real blifs impart, May ev'ry calmer joy attend thine hours, And Peace and Plenty ftrew thy way with flow'rs!

Figures on the shield.

And

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