exists why her posterity should quarter his arms. The present Dukes of Northumberland inherit the estates of the Percies through the line of Seymour, yet I believe the arms of Seymour do not occur among the numerous quarterings of that illustrious house. Child, Lord Castlemain, inherited from the Tylneys of Rotherwick, by a daughter of John Glynne, of Henley Park, Surrey, yet the name and arms of Tylney were assumed by the Child family, without any regard to the name or arms of Glynne. I am aware that the present custom of changing names, and quartering, or altering arms of inheritance by Royal Permission, or by Act of Parliament, proceeds in a manner altogether irrespective of the common heraldic rules of marshalling, yet I think the instances already given will sufficiently prove that the commemoration of the family which an heiress represents, and whose estates she conveys, is the chief object of the quartering, and that the introduction of her own surname, i. e. of her father's shield, is, to say the least, a matter quite immaterial. But your Correspondent very properly observes, that the heraldic rules for marshalling will not, except in extraordinary cases, allow a shield to be quartered by those who do not inherit from its original owner, and from this fact, together with the instances already given, in which the lady's surname, or her paternal arms, are totally omitted, I think we may fairly conclude that the posterity of a lady who was heir to her mother, but not to her father, should quarter only her mother's arins. As to the second question, I confess I have no objection to call the son of a created peeress "the second peer of the family;" for though fashion just now requires the use of the terms beiress and peeress, I see no need for the feminine appellations. The former is frequently, and I think correctly, written heir, "Joan, daughter and heir," "Anne, sister and co-heir," are expressions which convey no idea of impropriety, the gender of the word being fixed by the name of the person. Why the word peer should not be subject to the same rule, I know not, if when used with a female name it sounds less correctly to the ear, it is only, I apprehend, because the cre- I Mr. URBAN, S. J. A. HAVE to apologize to your Correspondent, A. J. K. for suffering so much time to pass without noticing his able reply to my former communications upon the subject of the recent discoveries in the neighbourhood of St. Martin's-le-Grand. (See Part i. p. 608.) In the letter which accompanied the two engraved plates of those antient and very curious crypts (vol. LXXXVIII. ii. 393), I offered all the remarks which I intended to publish relative to the comparative ages of the two structures; avoiding the presumption, and aware of the difficulty, of fixing a period at which it is probable the most Western crypt was erected, chiefly from the absence of such decided characters as arches, groins, and mouldings; these objects are alone able to assist conjecture where uncertainty so extensively prevails as in this instance. A Roman copper coin was certainly shown to me as found by one of the workmen in clearing away the ruins. I took an exact copy of it, and the drawing is now in the possession of Mr. Urban*. I cannot think it derogatory to the transcendent abilities of Sir Christopher Wren, as an architect, to declare that he was totally ignorant of the principles, as well as blind to the beauties, of our antient Church architecture. He did not scruple to express, at every opportunity which offered, his dislike for the style; and he has sufficiently proved his readiness to destroy antient Churches, and certainly his ability to erect some of the most contemptible structures which are to be found in the country. He despised the venerable architecture of which we now boast, and of which so many magnificent examples remain. His opinion, therefore, of this matchless style was like that of a late and deservedly-celebrated Grecian architect, who, when asked by a gentleman of profound learning and acknowledged Paternoster-row, A WISH is expressed in your Ma gazine for Sept. (p. 194) that the work, of which I gave a slight intimation, under the signature of "Bio-Dev." in your last Supplement, should proceed. This your Correspondent may rely upon being accom. plished, should I live so long, in the course of next Spring. Yet I should not have troubled you with this trivial communication, but for the strange coincidence of the initials of that Correspondent's name (or the signature he has adopted) with those of my own proper name, lest it should be conceived to have been sent by myself*. My design is, to print the Lives of celebrated Natives of Devonshire, who have flourished since the time of John Prince; but I have not confined myself merely to Worthies, although I shall adopt the title, and conform myself to the size of my predecessor's work. I have departed from his quaint manner, and hope I have been perfectly tolerant : the number of lives will be greater than Prince's, and the less worthy will inhabit the notes. I have long collected matter, and some is ready. I shall be exceedingly obliged by receiving communications on the subject, and request to be allowed access to Manuscript accounts of the persons named by me in your last volume, page 619, &c. and of all others who come with in the scope of my design. I have received the promise of several original portraits; but am undetermined in what manner to make use of the of fer thus kindly made, being entirely without any personal patronage whatJOHN BADCOCK. ever. "Cahets" of Miss Porter's "Knight of St. John," allow me, through the medium of your pages, to recommend to his examination two works which mention the existing remnant of such a caste of miserable people, yet to be found in the Southern provinces of France, under the nomination of " Cahets," namely, "Ramond's Travels in the Pyrenees," and "De Gebelin's Essai sur la Mineralogie des Pyrenées:" these will direct him to other authors upon the same subject; and to the antient "Tor of Bearne," or Code of its Laws. Miss Porter's attempt to point out their origin is not only ingenious in itself, but, by particularly riveting the attention of her readers, laudably rouses curiosity to search farther into so extraordinary a fact. Indeed this effect is a very marked characteristic of Miss Porter's writings. Her stories excite an interest beyond themselves. Few readers, I believe, lay any of them down without immediately taking up some deeper work to which they refer; and thus the door of romance is made to open, by a variety, of unexpected avenues, to interesting historical facts, and traits of celebrated Biography. E. G. ANCIENT ANECDOTES. (Continued from p. 200.) Mr. URBAN, West-square, October 8. AS you have been pleased to ad mit into your respectable Miscellany my first selection of Ancient Anecdotes from Valerius Maximus, 1 hope you will show equal indulI now send a continuation, to which gence.-On the suggestion of a friend, I have added references to book,, chapter, and section, that the classical reader, if desirous of seeing them in the original, may be enabled to find them without trouble. And, with respect to other readers, I wish to remind them, that my plan of selection from the different chapters in regular succession forbids my giving precedency to the most interesting, which, therefore, must wait for their turn. JOHN CAREY, Yours, &c. After the destructive battle of Cannæ, in which the Romans were defeated by Hannibal, with prodigious slaughter-there being hardly a family in Rome that was not in mourning for the loss of some relative slain on on that disastrous occasion, the SeDate found it necessary to issue an edict, limiting the period of mourning to thirty days *, lest the rites of Cerès should be neglected, for want of a sufficient number of matrons in fit condition to perform them; as the established usage required that the ladies attending her altars should be arrayed in white.-Lib. 1, 1, 15. The Athenians banished the philosopher Protagoras, for having publicly declared in writing, that he knew not whether any gods existed; and that, if any did exist, he knew not what kind of beings they were.-Lib. 1, 1, Ext. 7. In some editions he is named "Diagoras," but, more correctly," Protagoras" in that of Kappius, whose text I have followed in the pocket edition (of the "Regent's Classics") which I have mentioned as lately published under my inspection. -Diagoras, surnamed "the Atheist," was a different person, who explicitly denied the existence of a Deity, as recorded by Cicero, who mentions both those philosophers, and notices their leading tenets (De Nat. Deor. lib. 1, eapp. 1 & 23)-adding, that Protagoras'es writings were publicly burned in presence of the assembled people at Athens. When the sculptor Phidias proposed to the assembled Athenians that their intended statue of Minerva (afterwards so celebrated) should be of marble rather than of ivory, because the marble would much longer retain its original glossy brightness, they so far listened to him with complacent attention. But, upon his further observing that the marble would be the cheaper article, they immediately silenced him, and refused to hear another word on the subject of cheapness.-Lib. 1, 1, Ext. 7. Sertorius, a fugitive from Rome, who, at the head of an army of barbarians, long and successfully opposed the Roman arms in Spain, was accustomed to lead about with him a tame white hind, and made his rude follow ers believe that by her advice (as inspired by heaven) he regulated all his movements.-Lib. 1, 2, 4. Pisistratus, who had seized on the government of Athens, and been, after *Here I beg leave to refer the reader to my hint on "National Mourning". Gent. Mag. vol. LXXXVIII. part ii. P. 484. some time, expelled by his adversaries, contrived to obtain his restoration by the aid of a woman personating the goddess Minerva, the tutelar deity of Athens, and, in that character, con ducting him back into the city, and putting him in possession of the citadel.-Lib. 1, 2, Ext. 2. About a hundred and forty years prior to the Christian æra, the Prætor of the foreign department + at Rome ordered all the astrologers to quit the city, and depart from Italy within ten days.-Lib. 1, 3, 2. The elder Tarquin proposing to make certain innovations in the form of the Roman state, the augur Attius Navius publicly declared that he must not proceed, unless authorised by a sign from heaven [the flight of birds]: whereupon the king, to put the birdseer's augurial skill to the test, asked him, whether a certain thing, which he had in contemplation, could be accomplished? The augur answering in the affirmative, the king ordered him to cut a whetstone in two with a razor: when (wond'rous to relate! and much too wond'rous to believe) the augur immediately achieved the exploit, and thus proved the reality of his pretensions to infallibility in divination. Lib. 1, 4, 1. (Thus far history. But the reader, I presume, will readily agree with me, that, although there was but one Navius in the business, there were two knaves, who colluded together, to impose on the ignorant multitude.-The stone, no doubt, was previously divided; and the two confederates had slightly stuck or laid the parts together, so that they should (miraculously!) come asunder at a touch of the bird-seer's razor.) After the almost total destruction of Rome by the Gauls (about 390 years before the birth of Christ), a motion was brought forward for abandoning the ruined city, and emigrating to Veii; a measure, to which the populace were strongly inclined. But an accidental expression(apparently accidental, at least, though most probably preconcerted by those who were averse to the plan of emigration)— that expression, I say, prevented the adoption of the scheme. For, a body of soldiers returning from duty at The Prætor peregrinus, who took cognisance of all causes and affairs relating to foreigners. some some of the out-posts, and marching through the Forum at the very time when the business was in debate, their commanding officer called out to the ensign, "Plant your standard! here let us halt" [literally, "here we shall best remain"]-which words reaching the ears of the Senate, who were then in session near the spot, they immediately exclaimed, that they accepted the omen" and, the populace imitating their example, the project of emigration was laid aside.-Lib. 1, 5, 1. (To be continued.) Mr. URBAN, 66 Sept. 16. IN your last Supplement (p. 612), Clericus Britannicus questions the expediency of the formation of the Cambrian Society, and censures and disapproves its objects. From the result he anticipates, one would expect that the achievements of Caractacus or of Owen Glendower had been proposed. But let it be recollected that the subjects for the Welsh Odes were-the Death of our late yenerated Queen, and the Death of Sir T. Picton-of that Queen who sat on Eng. land's throne, and of that Picton who so nobly and so gloriously terminated his mortal career on the plains of Waterloo, fighting for our present revered Monarch. Are such subjects, with all the lofty conceptions which they involve, at all calculated to alienate the affections of the Welsh from the English? To wish the extirpation of the language and customs of one's country, shows a narrowness of mind, that will be found only among Cambria's more degenerate sons. Is it possible that the cultivators of Literature can wish the annihilation of a language, which, baving survived the convulsions of empires and the changes of time, is at this day as purely spoken, as correctly written, as it was 3000 years ago? No: the Nobility of Wales, and every one in whose veins there flows one drop of Gomer's blood, will warmly and strenuously labour for the preservation of a language which his fathers, amid all their misfortunes and all their privations, have handed down to him unmixed and unpolluted. There is, respecting the Welsh, a remarkable prophecy of Taliesin, a bard who flourished in the year 545, the translation of which into English, by an eminent Welsh scholar, is as follows: "Still will they chant their great Creator's praise, [lays, Still, still retain their language and their But nought preserve of all their wide do mains, Save Wallia's wild uncultivated plains.” This prediction has hitherto wonderfully borne, and as far as human calculation can go still bears, the stamp of an everlasting truth. Of their poetry the Welsh are enthusiastically fond; and thus do they deliver down from father to son, in its pristine purity, this venerable language. My feelings were more than ordinarily moved, on bearing, at the recent Eisleddfod, an old gentleman, greatly labouring under bodily infirmities, thus exclaim, "I shall not heed the sufferings of another year in hopes to have a repetition of this mental feast." The objects of the Cambrian Society are, to search into the beauties of the antient Bards-to see what sublimity of ideas and originality of conceptions may be discovered in the writings of those who had no acquaintance with Grecian or Roman Literature-to rescue from oblivion what may be deemed valuable to succeeding ages-and to keep up among the Bards of the present day that emulation which alone can preserve in its primitive purity our antient language. If the Welsh language is possessed of so many hidden charms; if its poetry, in the harmony of its numbers in the nicety of its metrical regulations excels, as the ablest Scholars have advanced, every language under the sun; surely no one, whose study is the cultivation of Literature, can wish to bury in the gulph of oblivion this divine, this sacred language. If, again, there are some individuals on whose ears the numbers of Welsh versification descends in such soothing melody as gives pleasure to their existence; and if their enjoyment of this their delight, as an associated body, neither endangers the public tranquillity, nor intermeddles with the concerns of the world around; what, in the name of reason, is the objection that can for a moment be advanced against this Banquet of the Muses, of which the Sons of Cambria are now invited to partake? Yours, &c. A YOUNG BARD. 47. REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. The History of Antient Wiltshire, Northern District. By Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Bart. F. R. S. & F. A. S. fol. Lackington & Co. N° TOVELTY of information is the great desideratum of all literary publications, and in none is it more wished for than in Topography. We have now before us the continued History of the Northern district of a County abounding in British remains, some of which have been very little known and partially illustrated. The same mode of minute description has been observed in the Northern as in the Southern district; and, if we regard the matter it contains, it may be said to be superior in interest to the former portion of the work. 1. The chief objects of our attention are, a very curious British enclosure at Marden. 2. A British Ridgeway issuing from South Wiltshire, and passing into North Wiltshire, through the whole of Berkshire, to Streatley upon Thames. 3. A long Dissertation on the once celebrated British Circle at Abury, accompanied by Plans and Views. 4. The course of the grand boundary, called Wan's Dyke, through the counties of Somerset and Wilts. Many conjectures have been formed respecting the origin of this grand boundary; and a singular corroboration of opinion which an ingenious antiquary, the Rev. Mr. Leman, had formed, has lately, by means of a track-way cut through Wausdyke on the road between Devizes and Marlborough, been verified; for in this section, of which there is an etching at page 123, the different strata of chalk and vegetable earth clearly demonstrate the subsequent elevation of the boundary, which was probably first raised by the Belgæ. At page 5, our Author describes a British earthen work, but little known hitherto, and unfortunately mutilated within the last year, for the sake of a little paltry soil, on which an enormous tumulus formerly existed. He supposes it to have been one of the loci consecrati (mentioned by Cæsar) GENT. MAG. October, 1819. in which the Druids assembled every year, to decide controversies, &c. &c. At page 18, commences the account of the course of Wansdyke, which is accurately delineated on a sheet map, from its supposed beginning, Westerly, near the Camps on Leigh Down on the Avon near Clifton, and its termination in Berkshire near Intapen; for our author has never been able to discover any further traces of it in an Eastern direction. At page 45, our Author gives an account of the antient British Trackway, proceeding from South Wiltshire, crossing Wansdyke, and then pursuing its course over Hakpen-hill, into Berkshire, as far as Streatley upon Thames. The earth works, &c. on its line, are also noticed. At page 55, we come to the description of Abury, once the most magnificent monument which Britain ever possessed.-To the scrutinizing investigation of this relict of antiquity, we stand most indebted to Dr. Stukeley, who fortunately made his researches at a period when much more remained than at present. But our Author has been fortunate in discovering a curious manuscript, intituled, Monumenta Britannica, and written several years before Dr. Stukeley. His first discovery of the Temple at Abury deserves notice. He tells us that in the year 1648, he was invited to the house of Lord Francis Seymour, and that they met with their pack of hounds at the Grey Wethers, where their sport began, and the chase led them through the village of Abury, where he was wonderfully surprized at the sight of those vast stones, of which he had never heard before, as also at the mighty bank and grass about them. See page 58. In the year 1663, King Charles II. having heard of Abury, commanded Aubrey to write a description of it, as well as of the camps and antiquities of the neighbourhood, and together with the Duke of York, visited it, and walked up to the top of Silburyhill. At page 63, he relates a curious anecdote about Dr. Toope, a physi cian |
