Winton V. 9 April. Portchester "Apud Chinomen." p. 87. 11-12 Portsmouth 11 April. "Apud Winton." p. 88. 13 it tau of 29225if $ 26, flu zachatpišus 8 February."Apud Sarebur p994.? rough) Home 2-5 May. Lambeth 11-14- Winton 19 June. Bristol 20 Winter XIV. 20-26 May. Lambeth 1 27 --Wulnemere 24 May. "Apud Odiham." p. 106. 30- Odiham XV. 13-14 June. Audinge burn (Ald-13 June. " Apud Bellum." (Bat 8 May." Apud Porcestre." p. 92. 20 June." Apud Bristol." p. 101. P. 122. 9-12 July. Rupel' (La Ro chelle) 13-19 Coignac 15th July. Apud Rupellam." p. 123. 28 April. "Apud Corf1"” p. 120. In comparing the testes of the various documents cited above, as they stand in the old and new editions of the Fœdera, we have been struck with the great variation in the dates of instruments in the reign of John, in the former and the last edition of that The plates of the "Vetusta Monumenta," which accompany this part of the Archæologia, consist of a plan of the ancient palace of Westminster by the late Mr. Capon; of two plates of the obelisk at Forres, in Morayshire, about which we are told by the director that, "in the absence of all authentic evidence, and of any inscription to guide us, it would be fruitless to inquire at what particular era, or to celebrate what particular event, it was erected," though he does not add of what use it was to engrave two views of it; and of drawings of "two swords of state belonging to the Earldom of Chester," communicated by Mr. Ormerod above nine years ago, but which swords are in no way remarkable. Thus, a Society containing above eight hundred gentlemen, who have each brought forward three or more credible witnesses to attest that he was "well versed in the history and antiquities of this and other countries," and with funds amounting to above two thousand five hundred pounds per annum, has in one year been able to produce only two hundred and three quarto pages, consisting chiefly of mere transcripts of unimportant documents, or of worthless essays upon still more worthless subjects, the mere printing of which, with the plates, have cost more than eight hundred pounds! We are aware that the publications of the Society are about to become the subject of consideration with the officers, for it is idle to work. The utmost attention is said to have been paid by the editors of the edition published by authority of the Government, in comparing the various documents with the originals; hence we suppose the variations are corrections; but it is important that the fact that so much difference exists should be more generally known. Of these variations the following are a few examples: p. 173. De Pecunia in custodia Magistri "Teste, &c. xxii. Junii." Militia Templi posita, &c." Teste meipso, apud Corf, 27 die Junii, &c." p. 173. Litteræ de credentia, Comiti Flan "Teste, &c, xxvi. Junii.” driæ."Teste meipso, apud Beram, 27 speak of the Council, they being the mere automata of the of-" ficers, and we most earnestly entreat them, as the first step towards elevating the character of the institution, to suspend, if not to abolish, the "Archæologia" and "Monumenta Vetusta." If they refer to these volumes, and impartially examine the merits of the various papers inserted, they will find that, with very few exceptions, they have formed the place of refuge for essays of no value to any human being but their authors; that they have been the receptacle for absurd conjectures upon unimportant facts; for ridiculous attempts at deciphering the scribblings, or explaining the rude drawings of some herdsman upon the stone on which he sat to watch his flocks, and which were considered ancient, because they were unintelligible, or, to use the felicitous definition of a Fellow of the Society in the volume before us, because they were " inscriptions not intended to be intelligible." Against the perpetuation of this folly, in the name of common sense, we protest. We entreat the nobleman who condescends,-and we use the term not in reference to his rank or official situation, because these confer no lustre upon literature, but to his talents and character, to preside over the institution, to render its proceedings consistent with the age in which we live. The demand for knowledge of all kinds is loud and irresistible; and history -history not adulterated by the hypotheses or meretricious ornaments of those who write it- was never more fully appreciated, or more ardently sought. The most valuable materials for history are yet in manuscript, or concealed under the repulsive garb of monkish Latin; and it is to the publication of the one, and the translation of the other, that the funds and labours of a Society of Antiquaries ought to be directed. We could cite MSS. of the greatest historical interest, which would employ those resources for many years; and is there any man who will compare the utility of printing them, and of publishing translations of our early chroniclers, with the trash which for more than half a century has been put forth under the title of the Archæologia? We may be told, that for the learned such translations would be superfluous; but have the unlearned, the great mass of the English population, no claims upon a Society instituted for the advancement and diffusion of historical literature? Is it to cater alone for the wants of those who are able to read the early chroniclers in the original, a class from which the most elegant scholars, and those best acquainted with the French language, must be equally excluded, instead of being animated by that feeling which is every where abroad, and which inculcates, that the streams of knowledge, like the purest element, should be open to all who will drink; that the intellectual thirst shall be as easily slaked as the natural; and that no man may seek and be refused? For this purpose, with respect. to science, societies are daily created; it ought, then, to form the object of the institution incorporated for the promotion of a branch of knowledge honoured in all lands and in all ages-the history of our country-to increase and diffuse it, whilst, by the publication of important MSS., it will augment the stores of the best informed historian and antiquary, Let it do this rather than create an asylum for bricks and potsherds; and by making our countrymen, generally, acquainted with the moral and political condition of their ancestors, teach them, to appreciate the free and liberal government under which they live; to contrast the institutions for improving the minds and alleviating the miseries of their fellow-creatures, for which this age and country are distinguished, with the total want of the one and partial existence of the other in former times; above all, let it enable them to trace the gradual advancement of science and the consequent decline of superstition; the equal progress of education and the fall of bigotry; the general prosperity of the country, and its emancipation from political bondage: to compare the happiness of the community at large, under a popular monarch, with the misery which was experienced under warlike tyrants; and thus convince them, that the "good old times" were times of slavery and ignorance, and that the best "times" this s country ever knew are the present;>>} Let the Society of Antiquaries labour to extend information which must produce such important results; and it will redeem itself from the, obloquy which it has unfortunately deserved. This is a period when to be useless will be deemed to be little short of being mischievous; and its Fellows may rest assured, that the Argus of this country, the press, will not fail to discover, and, when discovered, to expose, in a manner which will command attention, the " laborious nothings" and "learned triflings" upon which so much money is now wasted, and which are published in the name of a Society consisting, it is true, of a great majority of persons, whose names, as individuals, it would be the bitterest satire to speak of in connexion with literature, but among whom are some men whom it is an honour to be acquainted with, and whose literary reputation is established on the firmest foundation. to moianib bie tragaoppybe ad ,, "J zroilstepoll #gma Itineraria Symonis Simeonis et Willelmi de Worcestre: quibus aecedit Tractatus de Metro, in quo traduntur regula a scriptori bus medii avi in versibus Leoninis observata e codicibus MSS! in Biblioth. C. C. C. Cantab. asservatis, primus eruit ediditque Jac. Nasmith, A.M. ejusdem collegii socius. The Itineraries of Simon Simeon and William Worcestre, with a Treatise upon Leonine verse, &c. Cambridge, 1778, 8vo. pp. 388. DR. JAMES NASMITH', during his residence at Corpus Christi or Benet College, Cambridge, examined and classed the very valuable manuscripts bequeathed to their library by Archbishop Parker in 1575; and, in the course of his researches, considered the three articles, in particular, concerning which we are about to treat, as worthy of transcription, and of being published in one volume. Their subjects are different, but each of considerable interest to the antiquarian reader; and as the book itself had a confined circulation, and is become rare, we › do not hesitate to offer a copious analysis of its very curious contents. The first in order is the Itinerary of Simon Simeon, called in English Fitz-Simeon, from Ireland, and probably Dublin, to Jerusalem, where it is concluded, and remains a fragment. He. was a minorite of the rule of St. Francis, of a convent established in Dublin, from which city he tells us that, in company with another friar of the same order, called, from the art he professed, Hugh the Illuminator, he commenced his arduous pilgrimage, on the 15th of April, 13222, and the fifteenth year of King Edward the Second. The journal is written in Latin, with many monkish rather than classical phrases, but which seem to rise to a degree of eloquence, as exerted upon several occasions. He commences his narrative in a style considerably pompous for a humble mendicant and pilgrim, and boasts of "having despised the summit of honour, because he was inflated with the seraphic ardour of visiting the Holy Land'." During the twelfth century, pilgrimages from Europe to Jerusalem had become frequent; and the institution of the That gentleman published a new and enlarged edition of Tanner's Notitia Mona stica in 1787, and died in 1808. 2 xvii Kal. Aprili, A. D. milesimo cccxxii. 3 Under an impression that a translation, rather than quotations from the original, may be more acceptable to many of our readers, we have given the subjoined as a speci men of Simeon's Latin style: "Culmine honoris spreto ac aliis noxiis morarum dispendiis totaliter sublatis, agredi cum idea devotionis, nudum Christum in studio, devotissimæ peregrinationis terræ sanctæ currere atque discurrere cupientibus, &c. Symon Simeonis et Hugo Illuminator, ordinis Fratrum Minorum professores, scraphicis inflati ardoribus versus terram sanctam.' |