SEQUEL OF THE CASE OF ANNE CHANDLER. "Feet was I to the lame."-JOB. Abbotts Roding, Aug. 18. Mr. URBAN, FROM ROM the publicity of the severe distress which befel Anne Chandler, with the narration of which you indulged me (see Part i. p. 518), I am desirous of circulating this public acknowledgment,-in order that it may meet the eye of many, to whom I cannot by any other means express how much I feel myself indebted to them for their humanity and benevolence upon this truly melancholy subject. I deem it to be satisfactory to observe, that as the greater part of my charitable Correspondents wished to conceal their real names, not suffering their left hand to know what their right hand doeth ;-and, since many, whose liberality I should have been happy to have announced, as a light shining before men, leading them to exemplary imitation, did express their positive desire, totidem verbis, not to be publicly known; I shall not only strictly comply with their request, but shall forbear from bringing forward to public notice any other memorial, than what I hope may be indulged to me as a feeling of gratitude, proclaiming the secret and inward pleasure of my mind. Though nothing that I could say in praise of the humane and liberal manner in which my Diocesan answered my request, can add to the real and genuine worth of character so deservedly due to his Lordship, yet I should ill reconcile to my own feelings a passive silence on this occasion. With great pleasure I acknowledge the act itself, and the courteous manner in which it was done. Not less obliged do I feel to one of our spiritual Lords in Langhamplace, distinguished by great worth of character. To a Peer of the Realm, in the county of Gloucester, I am equally indebted; and not less so, for his commendation and approbation of the act in question. For, freely do I confess, that exquisite is the gratification of pleasure a viro laudato laudari. The Rector of the parish (Beauchamp Roding), whom the Poor have reason to bless, claims his reward; and I trust in God, that he will abun dantly receive it. [In like manner our benevolent Correspondent enumerates α very considerable number of other Benefactors, which would fill some pages ; and thus concludes his eventful Nar rative.] Did I here close this address of Thanks to the numerous friends of humanity, it would be highly unsatisfactory, were I not to add something relative to the state and condition of the unhappy sufferer, since the sad operation which has disabled her for life. Hitherto the end has been answered in the fullest measure' of relief. It has contributed literally to raise an unhappy fellow-creature from the dust of the earth to some degree of comfort and happiness. Her comparative state at this present time, with what it was some few weeks ago, is that of comfort and support from a condition of extreme poverty and want, of pain and suffering. Under this happy change of circunstances, when I took my leave of her on the preceding day of her being removed to Yarmouth, there was visibly an air of health, a countenance of expressive pleasure, gratitude at heart, and a mind, I trust, sincerely devoted to God. Three weeks had now scarcely passed since the amputation of her legs,—and this at the advanced age of sixty-two, when she performed this journey of more than one hundred miles. same long journey she was obliged, in a few days, again to undertake, and a further journey back again to Yarmouth, comprehending altogether above three hundred miles. The To explain the cause of this painful and arduous undertaking, which opened those sores which had scarcely been cicatrized, I have to observe, that the parish of Yarmouth brought her to the Quarter Sessions at Chelmsford, on an appeal, endeavouring to prove that, as a parishioner, she did not belong to Yarmouth. Dispensing, as the steward of your Charity, the riches of your benevolence to her comfort, I indulge the hope that she may pass the remaining years of her life, be they few or many, in rest and quietness; and end her days in peace with Heaven. WILLIAM CHARLES DYER. Doctors' Commons, Mr. URBAN, Sept. 14. O Happiness! our being's end and aim! Good, pleasure, ease, content, whate'er thy name. As Happiness is the professed obr S Happiness is the professed ob various or mistaken may be the means pursued towards its attainment: to those, who do not seek it in the intoxicating cup of pleasure, the allurements of ambition, or the indulgence of appetite, the following opinions on the subject, collected from some of the most eminent modern philosophers, may not be uninteresting: HUTCHESON." In virtuous action alone we can find the highest happiness; but to make it complete, there must be a moderate degree of external prosperity." FERGUSON." Happiness is not that state of repose or freedom from care, but arises more from the pursuit than the attainment of any end, and depends more on the degree in which our minds are employed, than in the circumstances in which we are destined to act; it consists in a candid, active, and strenuous mind." PALEY." Happiness consists, 1. In the exercise of social affections.-2. In the exercise of our faculties in pursuit of some end.-3. On the prudent constitution of the habits.-4. In healtb ;-and it does not consist in an exemption from care, labour, pain, or business." BURGH." The foundation of happiness is a conscious being finding itself in that state, and furnished with those advantages which are the most suitable to its nature, and most conducive to its improvement." ADAM SMITH." Happiness consists in tranquillity and enjoyment; without tranquillity there can be no enjoyment; but where there is perfect tranquillity, there is scarce any thing which is not capable of amusing." LORD KAIMES "considered that man finds his chief happiness when he most effectually promotes the welfare and happiness of his fellow-creatures." NETTLETON. -"Happiness consists in a due mixture and alternation of pleasure and pain; without a mixture of the latter, the former would have no relief." FORDYCE. -"Many things must conspire to complete the happiness of man; that state most desirable, in which the fewest competitions and disappointments can happen, which least of all impairs any sense of pleasure, and opens an inexhausted source of lasting enjoyments; this will be found in Virtue-therefore Virtue is the truest happiness." All these authorities, though they may differ in their definitions, we may clearly observe unanimously agree in attributing happiness to the active exercise of our noblest faculties, in which we have not only the fairest prospect of attaining as much happiness here as this world affords, but have the much higher satisfaction of being conscious that we are therein best fulfilling the intentions of our Creator, and fitting ourselves for that state which is promised to those who do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly before their God. Yours, &c. J. S. Lincoln, Aug. 24. THINK I can show that the com the Poet are wrong, but I cannot so confidently promise to say what is the right year; although I have made out a proof to my own satisfaction, and shall now submit it to your judgment, and that of your Readers. Dr. Johnson says, Nicholas Rowe was born at Little Beckford in Bedfordshire, in 1673. He calls his father John Rowe; mentions that he professed the law, and became a serjeant before his death, which happened in 1692; and that he was buried in the Temple Church. . The Compendium of County History in your Magazine gives 1673 as the date of Rowe's birth, but namies the village more properly Little Berkford. Mr. Lysons, in his "Bedfordshire," very strangely makes Rowe to have been born in 1661. All these dates are, I believe, wrong. The name of the village is Berkford, now more ordinarily written Barford, according to the pronunciation, and called Little Barford, to distinguish it from a neighbouring place, of which the real name is Barford. The oldest registers of the parish are nearly all lost or destroyed; but a copy of the fragments was made by the the late rector in 1790, though seemingly with no great accuracy; and to make the matter worse, most of those relics have now disappeared. On a stray leaf of parchment, which formed part of the original document, I find among other marriages, the following: John Rowe of Lamerton in com.' Devon, and Elizabeth the daughter of Jasper Edwards, Esq. were married Sept. 25, anno d'ni 1673."-Now it is very clear, that these were the father and mother of the Poet, because, at the burial of one of their children here (a son named John) in 1679, this gentleman is called “John Rowe, of the Middle Temple, Esq." which fully agrees with Johnson's account. I collect that Jasper Edwards, the father of Mrs. Rowe, was the 'Squire of the parish, and that she used to come down to lie-in at her father's or sister's (for she had a sister married to the rector); since it does not appear that Mr. Rowe had any property here. above given I should judge that it was abbreviated. The point that Nicholas Rowe was born here, seems to be undisputed; and Dr. Johnson, I should think, must have gotten his information from another source, than the Register here;-wretched as the plight of it was, in his day, its blunders make it a still worse source of information now. However, the document of the father's marriage still remains, and this enables us to say, that 1673 is too early a date for the birth of Nicholas; 1674 is a more probable year; but if my conjecture about the errors of the copyist be rejected, it must be put at a still later period. I felt some little gratification at finding the birth-place of this Poet within a small village of which I had lately the care. That it was the native spot of a genius, certainly adds an interest to the scene. Few who have any love for Literature, would disdain to have the claims of their village made valid, when it respects him who gave Lucan with so much elegance an English garb. Few who possess imagination, taste, or feeling, would spurn even this slight relation to him, who with such moral effect placed the story of the unhappy Jane Shore among the most favoured productions of the British Stage; and who displayed there, not with such popular success, yet with equal tenderness, the holier sorrows of Lady Jane Grey. Among English Dramatists, he is not, indeed, to be ranked with the greatest of the age of Elizabeth and James; for "there were giants in those days;" but he sits not many steps lower than some even of the chiefs. At least, he is highly worthy of outliving his own dramatic contemporaries. A respectable por tion of fame belongs to him still; and although this reputation flows in no very copious stream, yet it is lively, and will not ever be quite exhausted, "labitur, et labetur in omne volubilis ævum." ROGER. Now, as the parties were married in Sept. 1673, they could not have had any child before 1674. Unfortunately, we are told in the copy, that the Register, from 1668 to 1674, was in a state of sad mutilation and decay; however, in the Copy there is an entry of a baptism in 1674, but the original scrap is now missing :"A. D. 1674, Poore, Christ, son of John Poore, Esq. and Elizat, Augt. 6th." No such name as Poore ever occurs elsewhere in the parish Books. So that there is little doubt that it is a mistake; and it is one not unlikely to be made by a person copying old writing, for Rowe. Observe, too, that the Christian names of the parents suit precisely with those of the Poet. Either then Rowe the Dramatist was born before marriage (a thing never hinted at, and therefore not to be lightly imputed), or he had an elder brother Christopher, or else this is the entry of his baptisın. I firmly believe it to be his, and that both names were mistaken by the modern copyist. If the hand-writing was so bad, or so antiquated, or these about the time of the Con ink so faded, as to cause him to write Poore for Rowe, it might also have led him to write Christr. for Nichs. particularly as from the extract quest. NUGE ANTIQUE. The Barons wore no Coronet until the time of Charles II. Baronets Baronets were instituted by James the First. Charles II. valued Hudibras beyond any English poet that ever wrote. Dr. Hooper, whom King Edward VI. made Bp. of Gloucester, would not be consecrated after the manner still in use, nor would he wear the pall nor Popish vestments. With much difficulty he obtained a dispensation, but to the great disgust of the other Clergy, especially of Dr. Ridley Bp. of London; who both of them afterwards passed through the fire for the same cause, as did Bp. Latimer: and all three, with Cranmer and divers other Bishops, became glorious martyrs for the Protestant faith in Queen Mary's days.-Burnet's Mem1.. The first division among the English Protestants may be dated in a great measure from this difference between Ridley and Hooper.-Ibid. To secure Nicomedia, which had frequently suffered by fire, Pliny suggested to the Emperor Trajan, a fire company of 150 men. So infirm at that period was the Roman Empire, that Trajan durst not put the project in execution, fearing disturbances even from that small body. Although the ruins of Balbec, the Imperial palace, the temple of the Sun, are so exquisite for skill and taste, yet it is equally wonderful that while they remain as testimonies of the splendour and power of the Romans, there is not a hint of them in any Roman historian of the time. The nerves of a philosopher are; a desire undisappointed; au expense not incurred; pursuits duly excited; a careful resolution; and an unerring assent. - Coins. Before the Conquest the only coin in use was a silver penny, and it was broken into halves and quarters. Halfpence were first coined by King John; and farthings of silver by Henry III. who also coined gold. In 1351 Edward III. coined groats and half-groats of silver. Crown-pieces of gold and silver by Henry VIII. Half-crowns and sixpences by Edward VI. Queen Elizabeth coined pieces of three-halfpence and three farthings each. Silver halfpence were discontinued by the Commonwealth. Copper farthings were first circulated by James I. and half-pence by Charles II. in whose reign the guinea was first made. The silver penny of the present reign is of the same weight as that of Elizabeth. Salt. The antients considered salt as something sacred; on which account they commanded that the saltcellar should be always served up at table, and if it had been forgotten the table was profaned, and some misfortune impending. It was also ominous if it was left all night on the table, and not locked up. The Romans derived this superstition from the Greeks—and it still prevails among us, especially when it is spilt, which I take to derive its origin from very early antiquity. Vivitur parvo bene, cui paternum HOR. O. 16. B. 2. Abp. Secker being asked the propriety of a servant's saying his master is not at home when he is at home, replied, "The first man that used this excuse told a lie." The first Gazettes were published during the time of the plague in 1660, and it is very remarkable that notwithstanding its great violence, no mention is made of it in any of them. If any future historian should turn to the Gazettes of that period for authentic information of the metropolis and its most unimportant concerns, will be led to question the truth of the whole which has been said and written upon the subject. be Tyndal's translation of the Bible was done at Antwerp, A. D. 1526-the first time that any part of it was printed in English: it was proscribed by Cardinal Wolsey, and burnt by Bp. Tunstal and Sir Thomas More, at Paul's Cross; some copies were_sold at 3s. 6d. and the venders were fined, and made to ride with their faces to their horses' tails, and to cast the copies into the fire. A Bible was presented to Queen Elizabeth in her procession to her Coronation, which she received with reverence, and ordered a translation. King Edward III. invited three clockmakers of Delft in Holland, to settle in England. The currant shrub was brought from the Island of Zourt in 1533; and cherry-trees from Flanders were first planted in Keut in 1540. Knives were first made in England in 1563. [To be continued.] REVIEW REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 27. Memoirs, illustrative of the Life and Writings of John Evelyn, Esq. FR.S. Author of the "Sylva," &c. comprising his Diary, from the year 1601 to 1705-6, and a Selection of his familiar Letters; to which is subjoined the private Correspondence between King Charles I. and his Secretary of State, Sir Edward Nicholas, whilst his Majesty was in Scotland, 1641, and at other times, during the Civil War; also between Sir Edward Hyde, after wards Earl of Clarendon, and Sir Richard Browne, Ambassador to the Court of France in the time of King Charles I. and the Usurpation. The whole now first published from the original MSS. In Two Volumes. Edited by William Bray, Esq. Fellow and Treasurer of the Society of Antiquaries of London. 4to. Colburn. T is common, after the perusal of History, to feel dissatisfaction. Men are described as if they were playing a game, in perpetual tension of intellect; and, except the account of the tricks which are won or lost, there is a tiresome identity of attitude, manner, and portrait, in all the characters, or at least the variation is unimpressive. Biography is somewhat more lively, but still it is inferior to Diaries of the kind under consideration. The one is, at the best, judgment of the man by his letters; the other, by his conversation. The one is a statue or a bust, where the expression of the eye and the shifting features of animation are lost; the other, a view of the man himself, seen in his domestic, companionable, serious, and moral character; and surely every one would prefer hearing Handel in person playing his own musick, to simply being presented with it in written score. There cannot be a question but that Boswell's Life of Johnson is a dramatic representation of that great Writer, where, if it may be so said, the hero himself both composes the play and performs his own character. The Historian is merely a shorthand writer. And there is a charm in such kind of writing which is and must be peculiar to itself, viz. that it assimilates conversation. This is known to be a melange of variety, which excludes dissertation and declamation; and there is this characteristic of the superior power of conGENT. MAG. September, 1819. versation to every other kind of communication, that men may and do live pleasantly without reading, often without letter-writing, except on subjects of business, but never without society. Such being the distinctive, and, in its way, superior character, as to effect, of this kind of writing; we may add its instructive operation on readers of light minds. It would be vain to present to them any other book than a Novel, a Play, or a Magazine; and if, through a casual incident, they wish to know any thing of a scientific subject, they are content with referring to an Encyclopædia. A lounging-book of this description, not being confined to continuity of narration, or deep in subject, may be taken up in a wet morning, or winter evening; and, if the book be instructive, the author has the chance of working a kind of pleasing needlework - pattern upon the flimsy gauze of such intellects; and this may be worn by them, as thus promoted to the rank of male bas bleues, for ruffles, in dinner dress. Add to this, the inestimable acquisition of anecdotes, bon-mots, and pithy remark from these ready-made literary linen-shops, without fear of suspicion that they were brought from the fripierie of Joe Miller, with its elegant phraseology of one said,-as one was going along, &c. An important eulogy may be justly bestowed on this very entertaining Book. Mr. Evelyn was by profession and wealth a gentleman, regularly so bred. Of course his principles are settled and fixed, according to the usual ideas of that rank of life. We have no serious points doubted or brought into disputation, notwithstanding the times; such, we mean, as loyalty or adherence to the Established Religion. Men of Mr. Evelyn's station are in the habits of knowing the leading characters for wisdom in all departments, as well as the real political grounds, concealed from the world at large, upon which measures are founded: and therefore such men wisely conclude, that the best is done which circumstances require, though the interposition of Providence, |
