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GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE.

SEPTEMBER, 1839.

BY SYLVANUS URBAN, GENT.

CONTENTS.

MINOR CORRESPONDENCE.-The Future Tense in Hebrew.-Motto of the
Garter.-Etymology of Martinet, &c..

THE CAMBRIDGE PORTFOLIO

Seal of Archbishop Waldeby, for the Lordship of Hexham (with a Plate)
Arms of Archbishops, and of the Church of York.-Fabricated Matrices..
Letter of the Duke of Norfolk, 1472, on the Duchess taking her Chamber
The Saxon Lecture in Tavistock Abbey.-Saxon dialect in Devonshire....
Enigmatical Epitaph at Lavenham, Suffolk

PAGE

218

219

234

....

236

ib.

238

240

241

246

248

251

253

254

The Biographers of Milton

257

MEMORIALS OF LITERARY CHARACTERS, No. XXVII.-Letter of Archbishop
Tillotson, 259.-Memoir of Captain Thomas Savery
POETRY.-Sonnets to Spenser, 262.-To the River Deben, 263.-To Mira....
REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

261

Remarks on the Polytheism of the Ancient Britons, drawn from inscriptions
Notices of the Church and Parish of Pencombe, Herefordshire
The Two Lovers' Hill in Normandy.-The Two Moorish Lovers
Hindoo Pooran and Sciences, from the Selections
Bell-ringing.-Register of the College Youth." Clamour your Tongues
CORRESPONDENCE OF WALTER MOYLE, ESQ.-On Titus's Triumphal Arch.-
Fragment of Polybius regarding the Temple of Jerusalem

...

Sir A. Weldon's Court of King James I. reviewed by Bishop Goodman, 265; Archæologia, Vol. XXVIII. Part I. 273; Bowles's Pudens and Claudia of St. Paul, 278; Catalogues of the Library of Durham Cathedral, 279; Faulkner's History of Hammersmith, 281; Bigsby's Triumph of Drake, 285; Smyth's Law Officers of Ireland, Teulet's Catalogue of Documents relating to the History of Scotland, Sermons by Melville, and by T. Smith, and Miscellaneous Reviews

......

FINE ARTS.-The Daguerrotype, 289.-The Nelson Monument, 290.-The
Wellington Monument..

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LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.-New Publications, 290.
University of London, 291.-The English Agricultural Society ...
HISTORICAL CHRONICLE.-Proceedings in Parliament, 294. — Foreign
News, 299.-Domestic Occurrences..

Promotions and Preferments, 305.-Births, Marriages.
OBITUARY; with Memoirs of the Sultan Mahmoud, 309; the Earl of
Lucan, 310; General Lord Howden, ib.; Le Baron de Prony, 312; Sir J.
G. Crawfurd, Bart. 313; Sir James Montgomery, Bart 314; Rev. Sir E.
Kynaston, Bart. ib.; Sir E. K. Lacon, Bart. ib.; Sir Stephen Gaselee,
Knt. 315; General the Hon. R. Taylor, ib.; General Archdall, ib.; Lieut. -
General Ainslie, 316; Major-General Sir B. C. Stephenson, 317; G. P.
Holford, Esq. 318; F. F. Turvile, Esq. ib.; W. M. Praed, Esq. M.P.
319; Rev. Archibald Alison, F.R.S.

CLERGY DECEASED, &c. &c. ....

306

319

320

Bill of Mortality-Markets-Prices of Shares, 327.-Meteorological Diary—
Stocks...

328

Embellished with a Representation of the SEAL OF ARCHBISHOP WALDEBY, for Hexham; and with Views of the GREAT CEDAR and QUEEN CATHARINE'S BANQUETTING HOUSE at HAMMERSMITH, and the Railroad Bridges at WORMWOOD SCRUBS.

MINOR CORRESPONDENCE.

We have received the letters of GOMER and of CYMRO; but the Gaelic Controversy has already occupied so much of our pages that we must put an absolute veto to any arguments that are merely personal, whether referring to real or assumed signatures; and to every repetition of what has been already said on the subject. The same reply must be given to MR. FORBES, from whom we have received a Postscript, in which he states that the paragraph of his letter (p. 154) should have come in before the last sentence of the next-after the words "human natur." He begs leave further to state, respecting the first verse of the 25th Psalm (mentioned in p. 151), where the Gaelic version uses the verb togam, "I lift up," in the present tense, that he considers this a sufficient proof that there is such a tense in Gaelic. "That the tense is present, also, in the Hebrew, admits of no doubt; for the Psalmist states what he habitually does, not what he is about to do. The form of the tense in Hebrew is what some grammarians have loosely called the future; but, for all that, the meaning is present. In numerous other instances the same form of the verb expresses present time, and not future. Hence our best Hebrew grammarians, Professors Lee and Ewald, have very properly ceased to call it future. Should it be asserted that in the above verse the sense is future and not present, I would ask how came the various polished languages of Europe to use the present in their respective versions? But, to set the matter at rest, the Septuagint and the Arabic versions,-Rome, 1614, and London, 1822,-make use of the past tense, which is much nearer the mark, and furnishes the best possible proof that the sense in the Hebrew is not future. I may also mention, that of all the languages into which Hebrew may be translated, the Arabic is that which will do it most justice. They are both sister dialects; with this difference, that the Arabic has been cultivated almost to a fault, and the Hebrew has remained nearly in its primitive state. To the Hebrew scholar, a knowledge of Arabic is essential, and to this latter acquirement Professors Lee and Ewald owe their eminence as authorities in Hebrew scholarship."

Mr. JOHN S. BURN (Secretary of the Registration Commission) having now the custody of many of the Registers of the Foreign Churches in England, proposes to write the history of those churches, and will be glad of any information respecting

them, or any reference to any of their Registers which may now be in private hands.

T. D. F. remarks, "In your Magazine for July, p. 35, mention is made of the ejection from our modern Dictionaries of many old words to be found in Cotgrave, &c. The following paragraph from Howell's epistle dedicatory to Cotgrave's Dictionary, fol. 1650, seems to show that a similar veil of oblivion has overshadowed the original import of the motto of the Order of the Garter. "I will add hereunto another proverb which had been quite lost had not our Order of the Garter preserved it, which is-Hony soit qui mal y pense; we English it, Ill be to him who thinks ill; though the true sense be, Let him be beray'd who thinks any ill, being a metaphor taken from a child that hath berayed his clouts; and in France there is not one in a hundred who understands this word now-a-days."

J. I. remarks:-" The word Martinet is well known as applied to a pedant in discipline, and I have recently heard the feminine, Martinette; applied to the other

sex.

I am induced to advance a conjecture as to the origin and meaning of this term of reproach. I find the French etymologists of little service. None of Richelet's interpretations seem applicable. I suspect, therefore, that the term became proverbial for a deceitful and slippery person, soon after the notorious treachery of JACOB MARTINET, who was executed at Sluys in 1690 for conspiring to betray the town to the French. By degrees the same term of reproach, which was at first applied to the more public and notorious instances of treachery, was used as a familiar soubriquet in the daily intercourse of society, whenever a want of confidence was intended to be attached to any per.. son, in the most trivial matters,' Si quid novisti rectius-Candidus imperti.'"' The word is not in Johnson's Dictionary, nor in Richardson's; but in Webster's we find, " MARTINET, MARTLET, n. in military language, a strict disciplinarian; so called from an officer of that name. never before met with "Martlet" in this sense the swallow is in French called indifferently Martinet or Martlet.

We

Erratum, p. 212.- Lady Charlotte Sophia Martin was the third daughter of William second Earl of St. German's by his first wife Lady Georgiana Augusta Leveson Gower. (Lady Jemima Cornwallis is the wife of Lord Eliot, son of Earl St. German's.)

THE

GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE.

name.

THE CAMBRIDGE PORTFOLIO. No. I.-VI. 4to.

THE object of this entertaining and well-executed miscellany, is to afford a selection of what is most attractive to our curiosity, and most worthy of remark, in that venerable University from which it takes its Whatever in its varied series of architectural decoration-in its rich and numerous libraries—in the pictures and statues which adorn its galleries of art-in the customs, ancient and modern-in the effect of its habits, as developed in the manner, character, and amusements of its members; in fact, whatever objects of historical or literary interest may be found, affording materials either for the pencil or the pen,-it is proposed to assemble and illustrate in the present work.

"What (says the Editor of the work) can be more worthy of the art of the painter and the engraver, than the architecture, here palatial-there monastichere again domestic, of other days; the landscape of shady grove, and quiet stream, and rising towers; the portrait of the severe student-the marble figure of the retired and thoughtful philosopherthe pious founder, or the anxious statesman? The pen may assist the eye and refresh the memory in contemplating all these objects, while at the same time it will

have its own peculiar province, which the artist cannot touch. The delineation of customs, habits, studies, prevalent modes of thought and opinion, and the manifold ways by which a curious system displays itself in the various shades of its development; all these, diversified again by the associations which spring from them, especially those who are versed in the past, and therefore speculative of the future, would seem sufficient to shew the important part it must take in the work now offered to the reader."

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Rich, then, and copious as are the materials which are poured from the storehouse of ages into the author's hands, it was only required of him, that he should draw from out their studious and cloistered cells those who could do them justice, by the correctness and extent of their knowledge, the elegance of their taste, and a kindred enthusiasm for those consecrated bowers" which are the subject of the work: accordingly, we are informed that "the names of the contributors command such respect already for literary exertion and success, that they would alone favourably introduce his work to the public, while no commendations can add to their reputation." We, ourselves, are totally unacquainted, either by internal evidence or by public report, with any of the writers who have united to embellish this work by the productions of their various talents; but we think, upon the whole, that they are worthy of the commendation which they have received in the above passage from their employer; and we now hasten to give some brief specimens of their labours.

The first number of the work, perhaps, ought to be considered as barely introductory—at any rate, it is much inferior to its successors; and the

paper on the Installation, signed Henry Gonville, is both dull, and, “look you, full of affectations." Number II. commences under happier auspices, with an account of the sources of history as regards the Colleges; and it informs us that there exist four instances of a complete history of a private College, viz. I. Of Corpus Christi, by Masters, 1753, re-edited by Dr. Lamb, 1835. II. Of St. John's College, in the hand-writing of Baker, and which is No. 7028 of the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum. It fills 280 leaves, besides an Appendix; and terminates in the time of Peter Gunning, the twenty-second master, elected in 1661. III. Sherman's MS. History of Jesus College, which is said to be less complete and inferior in talent to Masters's History of Corpus Christi College. The IVth is a History of Gonville and Caius College, by Joannes Caius, one of the founders. This volume is a small folio MS. on vellum, written in the form of a Diary, in Latin, the date of the latest entry being 1603; continued by Mr. William Moore to 1648. There is another copy of this history existing in the College, the text of which occasionally differs from that of the former. One instance is worth mentioning; at page 19 of the latter, is this notice, "Una nobiscum per juventutem hujus Collegii pensionarius erat Thomas Gresham, nobilis ille et doctissimus mercator, &c." Upon the last of which epithets, one of his biographers, Dr. Ward, founded a conjecture, that Gresham had resided some time after taking his degree at College; but this theory was overturned by the discovery that the word in the earlier copy was ditissimus. An interesting memorial of the College and its eminent Founder follows, with an account of the numerous physicians of note and figure," who have been members of it, of whom Harvey is the first and foremost; and the illustrious list closes with the name of Wollaston. It appears that this great philosopher was elected to one of the Medical Fellowships founded by Dr. Caius ; that he commenced the practice of his profession, when he was defeated in a contest for the situation of physician to St. George's Hospital; and that this disappointment, joined with his ardent love for scientific investigations, induced him to withdraw, as John Hunter always wished to do, from the practical pursuit of medicine, and devote himself to scientific investigation. His means of support, and his leisure, he owed to the wise forethought and munificent foundation of Caius. We next come to the Life of Bishop Fisher,† as one of the Founders; the account of whose promotion to a Bishoprick is too interesting to omit.

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*

"In the archives of St. John's College, a letter is preserved, bearing date the year 1504, (at which time he was in his 45th year,) written from Henry VII. to his mother, and commencing thus,-‘Madam, and I thought I should not offend you, which I will never do wilfully, I am well myndit to promote Master Fisher, youre

confessore, to a byshopric; and I assure you, Madam, for none other cause but for the grate and singular virtue that I know and se in hym, as well in conyng and natural wisdome, and specially for his good and vertuose lyving and conversation.'"'

Accordingly, we find that, shortly after, Fisher was raised to the see of

The last descendant of this honourable name was the late Sir Eliab Harvey, an Admiral, and Member for Essex. With him the family became extinct.

There are two lives of Bishop Fisher in English; one by Hall, edited by T. Baily, D.D. 1655, re-edited by Coxeter, 1740; the other by Chauncy, a monk, who died at Bruges, 1608, which is very scarce. A small fragment of this in Latin exists in MS. in the Public Library, Cambridge.

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:

Rochester, a promotion which was referred at Court to the influence of the Lady Margaret; and this report having been brought to the ear of the King, Indeed, he replied, the modesty of the man, together with my mother's silence, spake in his behalfe." The friend who really exerted himself at Court for Fisher's promotion was Fox, Bishop of Winchester, a warm admirer of Fisher; and the true cause, as our author observes, may, after all, probably be found in the conclusion of Henry's letter. "I have, in my days, promoted mony a man * unadvisidly, and I wolde now make some recompencen to promote some good and vertuose men, which I doubt note shulde best please God, who ever preserve you in good helth and long lyve." We must however observe, that no allusion is made in this historical memorial, to the singular story of the Maid of Kent, which had so strong an influence on Fisher's mind and fate and secondly, that when the author observes, that from the period when Christ announced the doctrine of the Resurrection, it became a christian wish, in death as well as in life, to dwell in the House of the Lord, on which the writer founds an argument in favour of burial in churches, he ought to have recollected that even for some centuries after the introduction of Christianity into our own island, the practice of interment in churches was rarely permitted; nor could the warmest wishes of piety justify the conversion of the Temples of God, which are built for the use of the living, into "whitened sepulchres full of dead men's bones, and all uncleanness." We must confess, that to our minds it has almost the appearance of sacrilege: it was a custom unknown among the Jews. Another statement to which we object, is the following: "There is in the nave of the Cathedral of Rochester, a flag-stone bearing the effigy of an axe, from which the brass has been torn away, and under it tradition says that Fisher was afterwards privately buried by his friends; the body having been first deposited in the church of All Hallows, Barking." This is an idle story, like those told by cunning vergers to credulous spectators, and not worth repeating. There is, in fact, no stone in Rochester Cathedral actually carved with the outline of an axe.

The third number opens with an account of the Botanical Garden, which, it appears, was founded in 1763, by the liberality of Dr. Walker, the Vice Master of Trinity College. The ground selected was the site of the monastery of the Austin Friars, in the parish of St. Edward's, which was purchased for 1,6007. It was laid out by Mr. Loudon, the King's Gardener. Mr. T. Martyn was appointed the first reader, and Mr. Charles Miller the first curator. The Martyns, father and son, held their appointment for nearly a century: the former being appointed in 1732, and the latter dying in 1825. In consequence of the smallness of the present ground, and its inconvenient situation, it is proposed to have a new garden a little out of the town, in the London-road. A field of thirty acres has been chosen, in the midst of which it is proposed to lay out four or five acres as an herbaceous ground, and to arrange the rest as ornamental walks, which will

* There has always appeared to us something peculiarly inconsistent, in the advice given by some Bishops of the present day in their charges to their Clergy, not to inferfere in politics; while they themselves for the most part (see the present Bench), are selected expressly for their political opinions, and persons otherwise most fit for that high office are rigidly and inexorably excluded. What says the Poet:

"And blame for acts, that taught themselves to rise?"

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