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Western London and the other Railways, and the whole line of the Thames from Chiswick to Wapping.

"At one end, the Thames Junction Railway runs into the London and Birmingham and the Great Western Railways, and the Grand Junction Canal, and at the other end is a short arm of the River Thames, formed into the Kensington Canal. It passes under the Paddington Canal by a gallery of one hundred and twenty feet long, constructed of brickwork, having a handsome front to the south, and collateral corridor or ground arcade, connected with the gallery by open arches, as a footway between the adjacent stations, to facilitate business. Over this

gallery is the line of the new cut of the Paddington Canal, which has been recently formed by the Railway Company, and over both canal and railway the road leading across Wormholt Scrubs from Hammersmith to the Harrow Road is carried by a bridge of seventy feet span; so that three lines of traffic, a railway, a canal, and a carriage-road, pass over the same spot at three different levels, or in three stories.

"The bridge is of peculiar construction, being an iron suspension bridge, or the convex of a chain suspension bridge. It has a carriage way of twenty feet, and two footways of five feet wide, the latter being respectively between the two suspension ribs on each side of the carriage way."

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In 1647, when the King's army threatened London, Hammersmith became the quarters of the republican forces; General Fairfax occupied the mansion of Sir Nicholas Crispe, (subsequently Brandenburgh house,) and the head quarters of the army were at Butterwick-house, near the church, the seat of the Earl of Mulgrave, an old mansion recently taken down.

The loyal Sir Nicholas Crispe is one of the most interesting characters connected with Hammersmith. After ruining his fortune by his loyalty, he embarked in business with renewed energy; and was very instrumental to the restoration of Charles II. on whom he waited at Breda, as one of the city commissioners, to invite him to return. He interested himself in all domestic arts and manufactures, and the present mode of brick-making was introduced

by him. In 1630 he gave, in money and materials, 700l. towards building a new chapel at Hammersmith (now the parish church). When obliged to quit the kingdom, he made his private misfortunes conducive to public benefit, by instituting such inquiries into agriculture, manufactures, and mechanic arts, as enabled him on his return to England to introduce a variety of useful improvements. The gardeners were induced by him to change their old system for a better. At his expense the banks of the river were secured, and the channel cleansed; by his communications, new inventions as to water-mills, and papermills, and powder-mills, came into use. He spent 25,000l. in his noble seat at this place. Here he died, full of honour, Feb. 26, 1666. He was buried with his ancestors at St. Mil

dred's, Bread Street; but his heart Butterwick-house (so called from was sent to Hammersmith Chapel, the family of Sheffield, Earls of Mulwhere it is enshrined under a bust of grave, Barons of Butterwick in LinKing Charles, which he had caused to colnshire,) appears to have been one of be erected in grateful commemoration the oldest in the parish. It was eviof his royal master.* dently older than the church, which was erected in front of it. For many years it has been divided into two mansions, one of which was occupied as a boys' school (under the Rev. Dr. Chisholm), and the other as a girls' school (under the Misses Atwood). The latter, which was the oldest portion, was a red-brick structure, apparently of the time of Elizabeth; it has been recently pulled down, and its site covered with a nest of small houses. At the back of these houses stood two cedars; the larger of which (represented in Plate II.) has shared the fate of the mansion to which it belonged.

The Chapel at Hammersmith was built by subscription about 1629. Archbishop Laud (then Bishop of London) gave the ground, and consecrated it on 7th June 1631, at the request of the Earl of Mulgrave, Dr. Cluet, vicar of Fulham, N. Crispe, esq. Thomas Martin, and others. In consequence of the act of Parliament passed in 1834, it became the parish church; for which it is well suited. On some of the pew-doors are carvings executed in 1631, which form the initial letters of the several chapters in this volume); and there is some very well executed stained glass, representing the arms of the Earl of Mulgrave, the Earl of Bedford, Bishop Laud, and Sir Nicholas Crispe.

A minute account of the old mansions now or lately in the parish, includes of course all the particulars of Brandenburgh House, originally built by Sir N. Crispe, and altered and enlarged by Lord Melcombe. At a subsequent period, when the residence of the Margravine of Anspach, it was the seat of gaiety and fashion. In 1820 it became well known as the residence of Caroline, consort of George IV. and here she ended her eventful life the 7th Aug. 1821.†

"When Lysons wrote, in 1794, the girth of this cedar, at three feet from the ground, was 19 ft. 7 inc.; when measured by the Rev. John Mitford, in the summer of 1835,§ it was found to be 15 ft. 4.in. in circumference in the largest part of the bole; so that, if Lysons measured it in its largest part, its growth since 1794 was very rapid. This remarkable tree was begun to be felled Sept. 1, 1836. It was sold to Mr. Randall, a timber dealer, near the Angel, Hammersmith, for 207. and he was supposed to have made nearly 1007. by the purchase. The following particulars are from the information of Mr. Randall :

* See a representation of the monument in Gent. Mag. for 1813, i. 558. † See a view of Brandenburgh House in Gent. Mag. for 1821.

Mr. Faulkner calls this Bradmore House, which is certainly its present name, though a very modern one; and as it is one which is likely to lead to misapprehensions, the historian of Hammersmith should not have failed to explain its origin. The real Bradmore is in another part of the parish, and is noticed by Mr. Faulkner in p. 260; there Dr. Chisholm first kept his school, and on removing to the house opposite the church he brought the name with him. This mansion is remarkable for a very lofty and handsome state-room, with round-headed doors and windows of the William III. or Hampton Court style: having a garden-front of highly finished and carved brick-work; to which Mr. Faulkner's cut in p. 307 is too small to do justice. This is said to have been built by Henry Ferne, esq. shortly after 1700, in connexion with whom the name of Mrs. Oldfield, the celebrated actress, is mentioned in its annals. It was afterwards the property of Edmund Turnor, esq. (not Turner) of Stoke Rochford, and is now the property of Mr. Simpson, who has repaired the great room and resides in the larger portion; whilst another part is the residence of Mr. T. C. Hofland, the ingenious artist, author of a recent beautiful volume on Angling, and whose excellent lady is known for her Description of White Knights, and enjoys a still more extended fame among juvenile readers.

§ See historical and descriptive notices of remarkable cedars in our Magazine for that year, vol. IV. p. 577. EDIT.

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"Without calculating the smaller top or boughs, or roots, the tree was 60 feet in height; its branches extended eighty feet in diameter. It was sold to Mr. Harris, timber-merchant, 23, Wardour Street, Soho, and was sawn into thin planks for lining drawers. The root was purchased by J. B. Nichols, Esq. F.S.A. and now lies near the Thames, in his grounds at the Chancellor's, near the Suspension Bridge. The boughs and smaller branches were eagerly purchased and carried away as memorials by the inhabitants, among whom a general regret prevailed for the loss of their favourite tree.

"This magnificent tree, says Mr. Strutt, has every way a claim to the title of great, being at this time one of the largest, the stateliest, and the most flourishing in the kingdom. Its stem, at the ground, is 16 ft. 6 in. in circumference, its height is 59 ft. and its branches cover an area of 85 ft. in diameter. When it is in full prime of its summer foliage, waving its rich green arms to the gentle breezes, and hiding the small birds innumerable in its boughs, it affords a fine exemplification of the prophet Ezekiel's comparison of the glory of Agrippa to a cedar of Lebanon," (xxxi. 3.) &c. &c.

Mr. Strutt adds that the house had been "the residence of Oliver Cromwell during the Protectorate ;" and that some had even gone so far as to say that the death-warrant of Charles the First was signed in it! Mr. Strutt's historical credulity must have been great; but our historian is too wise to agree with him; he remarks

that this introduction of his Highness the Protector is purely imaginary, though arising, perhaps, from the known fact, that some of the Parliament's officers were quartered at this mansion. We may add that we remember having seen, when shown over it, some false floors in the closets, resembling the lurking-places used for priests in the Roman Catholic mansion-houses of Staffordshire and Worcestershire.

The Queen Dowager of Charles II. resided at the Upper Mall, Hammersmith, in the summer season. The mansion was pulled down in 1808. At a short distance from its site is the

Banquetting House, of which the annexed vignette (PlateII.) represents the south front. It was, probably, built as a ball-room. The upper story contains five circular-headed recesses, each of which originally contained a figure cast in lead. Above is a moulded cornice with dentills, surmounted by a blocking-course.

There are several amusing articles of the biography of the eminent individuals connected with Hammersmith; and on the wholet the volume is as creditable to the industry of Mr. Faulkner as it is acceptable to the inhabitants of this populous parish.

The Triumph of Drake; or, The Dawn of England's Naval Power, A Poem. By R. Grymbald Bigsby, D.C.L. F.R.S. F.S.A., Chevalier du Temple, &c. 8vo.

DR. Bigsby was formerly the owner of that very curious and elaborate piece of workmanship, the astrolabe of Sir Francis Drake, now preserved in the Upper Hall of the Picture Gallery at Greenwich Hospital. It came from the family of the Earl of Chesterfield, by gift, to Dr. Bigsby's uncle and was presented by Dr. Bigsby himself ‡ to King William the Fourth in

* Sylva Britannica, a work which may be supposed to have been partly composed, if not suggested, under the shade of this cedar, as its author, a few years ago, resided in Butterwick House, his lady (the authoress of " Six Weeks on the Loire," &c.) for a short time continuing the ladies' school therein.

Be

We are sorry that the pages are deformed by so many typographical errors. sides those corrected in the errata, the following are of a graver kind :-P. 115, Marquis of Normandy for Normanby; p. 300, cottages for colleges; p. 302, Kitelly for Kittleby; p. 313, Southampsted, Barrister for Sulhampsted Banister.

;

Another very liberal act of this gentleman was his presentation to the Society of Antiquaries of an original and very interesting picture of Burton the Leicestershire historian; a sketch of whose life he is now about to publish.

1831. This circumstance appears to
have inspired his muse to the present
effort;
of which the following extract,

describing the knighthood of the hero, will be a fair specimen :

"Conducted by her household lords, 'mid forms of regal pride,
The Queen, with firm and graceful step, ascends the vessel's side.
Upon the laurelled deck she stands ! fierce bursts the tumult wide,
Of cannons, blent with hoarse huzza's, and music's shriller tide!
With smiles she views the eager crowds that press around the ship,
'I thank you, my good people!' oft escapes her gracious lip.
Now on a throne-like seat she rests, with tissued state o'er-hung;
Hushed is each boisterous note of joy-deep silence sways each tongue;
And lowly bends the intrepid Drake at his fair sovereign's feet,
While thus, in accents sweetly bland, she doth the hero greet:
Thou art welcome home, brave subject, thy dread task of peril o'er,
Long hath thy glad return been watched by anxious hearts ashore :
When tempest winds have howled around our turrets' lofty height,
We marvelled if thy gallant ship still braved the sea's dark might.
A glorious act was thine to grasp this wide-orbed planet's bound,
And, long as ocean's waves exist, thy name shall be renowned.
To grace such worth with due reward our royal cares enjoin;
Fair knighthood's honour well accords with heart as bold as thine.
She raised the jewelled sword of state, while valiant Drake knelt low,
Then o'er his shoulder promptly dealt the honour-yielding blow;
Whereat, with truly gracious smile, the formal words she spake :
'Be thou a knight, in God's high name! Rise up, Sir Francis Drake !'"'

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Yet, however successfully the author may have courted the muse, we think there are good grounds to suppose that he considers the notes, which give a full and particular account of the aforesaid astrolabe, as forming a portion of the volume of paramount importance. In short, Dr. Bigsby is not willing that the light of his munificence should be hidden under a bushel; and indeed, we think it is very openly published in a place which is weekly visited by hundreds of his grateful countrymen; but, having now given him all credit for his public-spirited liberality, we must not allow him to throw all for

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tations, he might have found a place for something more than so slight an allusion to "a chair said to have been, presented to the University of Oxford, with appropriate verses on the occasion, by the celebrated Cowley." Why, the chair is daily seen by the visitors of the University; and all its history, with Cowley's verses, are to be found in various books. It is recorded that the chair was made by John Davies, esq. the Commissioner of Deptford dockyard, at the time of the ship's being broken up, and was presented to the University by Mr. Davies. A lithographic print of it accompanies an octavo tractate of the Life of Sir Francis Drake, (extracted from the Biographia Britannica, &c.) which was privately printed (for whom we know not) in 1828.

In p. 70, Dr. Bigsby, quoting Queen Elizabeth's "well known distich" on her four Nottinghamshire Knights, has got a wrong name, "Marchmont the lyon," instead of Markham.

Chronicle of the Law Officers of Ireland. By Constantine J. Smyth, B.A. of Lincoln's Inn, 12mo.-This is one of those useful books of reference to which we are always happy to give our encouragement and our thanks. It contains lists of all the judges, attorneys and solicitors general, serjeants at law, &c. with dates and abstracts of their patents, from the earliest period; and its value both to history and biography need not be pointed out. It is remarkable that no such materials for the legal history of Ireland have been published before. Down to the accession of George the Third, they had been prepared by Mr. Lodge (Keeper of the Irish Records, and author of the Peerage of Ireland), but hitherto they have been printed only in that mismanaged work, the Liber Hiberniæ,-a work which, though produced at the public cost, is at present confined to the use of the officials in Downing Street. In the arrangement of Mr. Smyth's "Chronological Table," however, we must notice a great oversight : namely, that of attaching to the regnal years those years of our Lord, in which the former merely commenced: thus, throughout the reign of George III. the regnal years are connected with those years of our Lord of which little more than two months (or one sixth of the whole year) really belongs to them; the effect is to make nearly all the dates one year too early: for instance, in p. 261, all the appointments headed "45 George III. 1804" actually belong to 1805; and the whole of those headed "46 George III.-1805," belong to 1806; and so in many other pages. Appended to the lists is an outline of the Legal History of Ireland, comprising a sketch of the state of the law and its administrators at different periods, and extending to the year 1806; it was written by Mr. Duhigg, for many years librarian to the King's

Inns.

Inventaire Chronologique des Documents relatifs à l'Histoire d'Ecosse conservés aux Archives du Royaume à Paris: suivi d'une indication sommaire des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Royale. 4to. pp. 132.This is one of the valuable works which the gentlemen of the Abbotsford Club are contributing to the history of their country. The catalogue has been prepared at their expense, by Mons. Teulet, junior; and is sufficiently particular to give an adequate idea of the contents of each document: ranging from the year 1263 to 1666. Among many interesting documents relating to Mary Queen of Scots, (and two especially dated 4th April, 1558, by which she made over to the Kings of France the kingdom of Scotland

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The Example of Christ, a Course of Sermons. By Rev. John Bickersteth. 12mo. The object of the author is to fore his hearers, as that they bring the living example of Christ so beshall, though "absent in the body," be "present in the spirit ;" and thus that the virtues and graces belonging to the Christian character, by being, as it were, embodied and glorified in him, should be the more attractive to his followers. This purpose is attained in some good and forcible discourses.

Thoughts on Religion and Philosophy. By B. Pascal, translated, with introduction, by J. S. Taylor. 1838.-We are glad to see this new and improved translation of one of the most pious and profound works which has ever been produced by the genius of man. Pascal has left two great works behind him. His Provincial Letters, and his Thoughts. The first is, we should think, but little read in the present day, except by a few men of literature, whose curiosity tempts them to those unfrequented paths of research, or by those who enjoy the wit and eloquence of a work which inflicted a very severe blow on the power and influence of the Jesuits. Mr.

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