Joan, another daughter, like to her mother in virtues, married Sir Francis Lacon, and died before her. The title did not descend to her issue, but to an elder son by a former marriage, who is described as being tenellus et valetudinarius, and of whom she is said to have been as careful as of her own.

In the chapter devoted to the illustration of her humility, we are told that it was Lady Montacute's constant practice to visit the poor families near her; and that, after her husband's death, her dress was so exceedingly plain that she could scarcely be distinguished from a servant. On ordinary days it is said that she was accustomed to wear a cloth wrapped round her head, after the manner of the female servants in England. The description of her apparel on festival days contains some curious particulars. She wore "noloserici tegumenti genus, quod, quia non nihil ad similitudinem veteris cuculli quo antiquitùs feminæ Angliæ capita tegebant, formatum est, et a Gallis mutuatum, Cucullus Gallicus dici solet. Toga illi in æstate ex saya erat, in hyeme ex panno quem cottonem' Angli vocant, eamque plerumque villosa Hybernica gausapina ad arcendum ab humeris frigus operiebat. Tibialia ex serico aut acu texta nunquam induit, sed ex panno tantum quem carisseam Angli vocant. Interula ei erat ex crasso et denso lino, cujus modi indui nobiliores fæminæ penitentiæ loco ducerent."-Smith mentions with approbation, as expressive of humility, that this good lady never on any occasion dressed by a looking-glass.

From the chapter De egregia illius castitate, we collect that King Philip when in England indulged in freedoms with the maids of honour of Mary's court. In this chapter also the curtain is removed from before the confessional, and we see the priest and the lady in conference upon subjects which are usually passed over even amongst the most intimate friends. We may collect, further, how low an idea the Catholic priesthood of those times must have formed, of what constitutes true female excellence. He praises this lady for that which would now pass unheeded in an estimate of the character of any woman who made the least pretension to a decent reputation and with respect to the" hidden strength" which a great poet has told us accompanies this virtue, Smith appears not to have had the most distant conception of it.

This is probably one of the earliest instances to be found in which cotton is mentioned as an article of apparel: and the manner in which Smith speaks of it, quem cottonem Angli vocant, shows that it was little known at that time in Italy. Camden writes thus: "For sericum, which was a down, kembed off from trees among the sercs in East-India, as bissus was a plant or kind of silk-grasse, as they now call it, were unknowne." Remaines, p. 195. It was used very early in England for the wickes of candles. In the Compotus of Bolton Abbey, 1298, occurs" In sapo et cotoun ad candelam xvii. 1d." Whitaker's Craven, p. 326.

In the same spirit of a simplicity which can hardly be looked upon without contempt, he tells us in the next chapter that this lady was so little an adept in the sublime art of objurgation, that she did not know some words that were used in this species of oratory. Happy ignorance! a lady of quality unschooled in Billinsgate! But such remarks are of importance, inasmuch as they illustrate the characters, not of the persons concerning whom they are made, but of the narrators themselves; for Smith was an influential man in his day, and his estimate of female excellence was probably that to which the Catholic priesthood, his brethren, would endeavour to educate the youth of England. It is proper to bear this in mind whenever we contemplate a portrait drawn by a member of the Catholic priesthood of those times; Caussin, for instance, one of whose biographical treatises relates to a person about whom every Englishman is interested, the unfortunate Queen of Scots.

We pass with more satisfaction to what is related of this lady in the chapter on her beneficence. She was bountiful to a brother, whose name is not given, but it is probable that Leonard Dacre is meant; one of those who made attempts to release the Queen of Scots from her confinement. She had not fewer than eighty persons in family, who were nearly all Catholics. These she supported not so much for show, as, in that un-English spirit which pervades the book, Smith says, was then the custom in England, as for the purpose of keeping them in the profession of the Catholic religion. She gave them abundant food and good wages, taking care that the ordinances of the Catholic church should be properly administered among them, and that they should be protected from any persecution from the heretics. Large alms were given at the door; she redeemed from prison two priests and other Catholics; no priest called at her house without receiving an Angelot at his departure; and she had constantly three priests living in the house with her. Smith, who writes her Life, was one of these; Thomas Smith was another; and the third was Thomas More, the great-grandson and heir of Sir Thomas More. The place of her most usual residence was her house at Battel. Here she built a chapel, with a beautiful altar of stone, to which there was an ascent by steps, and it was surrounded by cancellæ. There was a choir for singers, and a pulpit for the priests, where there was a sermon almost every week: many persons attended. It is said that she did not on such occasions conceal herself, lest she should be betrayed by some false brother, as sometimes happened in England, but appeared openly, to give courage others; so that she was well-known to be a Catholic in all parts of England. She had another house in London, near the bridge, which was a common receptacle for all members of the

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Catholic priesthood passing to or from England, and a refuge for them while remaining in London. The house had formerly belonged to some canons regular.

Out of zeal for the Catholic faith, she proposed to Smith to set up a printing press in her house for printing Catholic works: but this was declined, on the ground that it would have been impossible to have kept it concealed in so large a household.

All this was in the Protestant reigns, but she appears to have suffered little molestation. Once, in the reign of Elizabeth, she was under examination before the archbishop of Canterbury, the pseudo-archiepiscopus Cantuariensis, as Smith describes him: and he says that she was the first illustrious person called in question under the law which imposed fines on those who absented themselves from their parish-church. But as a defence against such accusations she was favoured with a general protection from the council, dated April 19, 1607, on account of her age and her approved loyalty in every thing except her religion. She appears to have been treated with great respect and kindness by the public authorities of the time. This indeed was due to her rank, her virtues, and her conscientious conduct. What little she did suffer in consequence of her catholic predilections appears to have originated rather from some lowminded zealots in her neighbourhood, and this was not much.

It was hardly to be supposed that she would escape molestation in the time of the gunpowder treason. Information was given to the council that a person suspected, but falsely, to have been engaged in that conspiracy had been seen to enter her house. A warrant was issued from the council to cause a strict search to be made; but no suspected person was found. Soon after this she was favoured with a second privilege by an order of the council, namely, that hereafter no person should be allowed to search any place of her residence but four, to be nominated by herself. When, in that time of dreadful alarm, she was warned by a friend of the danger of keeping any of the priesthood in her house, she paid no attention to the warning, but said, Recitemus Litanias, ac totam rem hanc Deo committamus.

In the chapter on the wonderful providence of God towards her, we are told, that about the time of her marriage she fell into great trouble and sadness of mind on account of the ruin which she said was brought upon her family by the man in whom they had placed their hope of help. We suppose she alluded to the Duke of Norfolk, whose name is suppressed, as he was a martyr, in some sense, to the Catholic interest, and as he was represented by the Earl of Arundel when this book was written, who professed himself a Catholic. This trouble neither medicine nor friends could remove; but, such was the weak and

childish superstition of the times, that she is said to have been taught in a dream what she should do to free herself from it.

We come now to the chapter in which is described the happy passage of this lady to God. She had lived seventy years: she had seen thirty persons descended from her, all professors of the Catholic faith; when, in January, 1608, a time of great frost in England, so severe that men and horses might pass over the Thames, and there was feasting on the river, she was seized with a palsy, and died on the eighth of April following. During the whole progress of her disease she was patient and religious, often contemplating a crucifix of silver gilt which hung at the foot of the bed. This crucifix had belonged to her grandmother, the pious and celebrated Countess of Shrewsbury, who must have been the daughter of Lord Hastings, who was put to death by Richard III. She was buried at Midhurst, in the tomb of her husband; and we have the common conceit of the sweet odour issuing from her body.

Her death was much lamented. The arch-presbyter of England, Dr. George Birchede, wrote of her as a mother in Israel; her step-son, the Viscount Montacute, a zealous Catholic, on which account he had often been in prison, bore testimony of her great merits. Queen Elizabeth entertained a high opinion of her; but King James said of her, after she was dead, that she was vehemens Papista.

We have a minute description of her person, which must not be passed over. She was very tall, so that amongst women of the middle stature she appeared higher than the rest by the head and shoulders; and was very erect to the last. Her head was round, and it appeared small on account of the great size of her body. In her youth her hair was beautiful, her face fair and oblong, her forehead smooth, her eyes colore caprino and sharp; her nose straight and sharp, and rather small; her chin large; her whole countenance grave and venerable. Her eyes were so good that in her old age she could distinguish a tower at the distance of fifteen miles, and with perspiciliis, which we suppose means spectacles, she could see to cut the finest linen by a thread. In her walk she was full of majesty; her genius was acute; her memory most happy; her judgment profound.

Such is the tribute paid, by one who knew her well, to the memory of a lady who sprung from the ancient nobility of England, and who was for so many years the wife of the first possessor of an eminent dignity amongst us. We have been the fuller in our notice of this work from a conviction that it is little known, and from a wish to extend the knowledge of the biographical notices contained in it. Those who are less curious

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about the minute circumstances of the lives of those who, in times long gone by, formed the illustrious body of the baronage of England, may yet find something to gratify them in the picture which is here exhibited of Catholic feeling and action, as well in the lady who is the subject of the work, as in the priest who has undertaken to do this justice to her memory. We see them both slaves to a childish and mischievous superstition we see in the priest an inveteracy of feeling towards the new system, and, generally, towards the land of his birth, fifty or sixty years after the fires of Smithfield had ceased to burn, which seem to excuse, if not to justify, the strong precautionary measures of the Protestant reigns. As we think that, in the point of puerile superstitions, there is little resemblance between the English Catholic priesthood of the present day, we therefore believe that they are not influenced by the same violent and vindictive spirit.

Anecdotes of Painting in England; with some Account of the principal Artists, and incidental Notes on other Arts: collected by the late Mr. Geo. Vertue; digested and published from his Original Manuscripts, by the Honourable Horace Walpole; with considerable Additions, by the Rev. James Dallaway. London: printed at the Shakspeare Press, by W. Nicoll, for John Major, Fleet-street. 1826-7. 4 vols. royal 8vo.

FEW people have reflected on the difficulty of writing the history of an art. The progress of science is marked by steps which are easily recorded; and the acts of men afford tangible subjects to the narrator: but how shall the historian display the successive stages of an art? If he aims at describing them by resolving its practice at different epochs into different sets of rules, he will compose a technical history, which can only be understood by proficients in the art, and which, while it may tend to the instruction of the future, throws but little light on the results of the past. If he would aim at conveying an idea of that which has already been done by characterizing in general terms the productions of different ages, his work would be almost unintelligible, and certainly uninteresting. In the history of all arts there is a certain progression from stiffness to ease, from inaccurate to accurate imitation, which may be either described technically or critically; and in either case might nearly as well be let alone for all general purposes of utility. In painting, for instance, the manual operations of the rude painter may be described; the superiority of the next, whose style became more polished, may be pointed out; the difference between him and his successor

VOL. I.-PART III.

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