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the cornishe over the great door, &c. In all the flank views of this edifice the two towers seem to unite, and appear as one square, low, and heavy steeple."-G.

"Ditto."-"The fine painted window over Edward the Confessor's Chapel, which anciently, when the altar was low, and adorned with the beautiful shrine of that pretended saint, must have afforded one of the finest prospects that can be imagined."-" If the altar was reduced or taken away, for it is in bad taste, and has no affinity to the place it is in, and if the organ was removed to some of the side arches, the Confessor's shrine would be seen from the west end of the church, in an excellent situation, and still above it the fine chantry over Henry the Fifth's tomb, and over this the semicircular ranges of arches, pillars, and painted windows, would form a most singular, majestic, and striking perspective, hardly to be paralelled."-G.

"Ditto." "At the bottom of the walls, between the pillars, are shallow niches, arched, about eight or ten feet high, on which the arms of the original benefactors are depicted, and over them are their titles," &c.— "Many of them are still visible. It is a great misfortune that this arcade, which ranges along all the walls of the side-aisles, has been suffered to be broke and spoiled in many places to make way for tall and ugly modern monuments, which ought to have been circumscribed within the span of the arch, and now, by their different dimensions, destroy the whole symmetry of the building."-G.

"Ditto."-" What is most worthy of observation is an ancient portrait, near the pulpit, of Richard II. sitting in a gilt chair dressed in a green vest flowered with gold, with gold shoes powdered with pearls. This piece is six feet eleven inches in length, and three feet seven inches in width, but the lower part is much defaced."-"It was restored by Vandyke, and again about 1727, so that the outline only can be looked upon as original. There is a print of it published by the Society of Antiquaries."*-G.

"A pavement of Mosaic work, laid at the expense of Abbot Ware in the year 1272, and is said to be one of the most beautiful of its kind in the world. The stones of which it is composed are porphyry, jasper, Lydia, and serpentine."-" He was Lord Treasurer in King Edward the First's reign, and brought both the marble and the workmen from Italy, who made this mosaic, the Confessor's shrine, and the tomb of Henry the Third."-G.

"There are ten chapels round that of St. Edward the Confessor, which stands as it were in the centre."-" All built by Henry the Third, though they made no part of the original designs, but were an after thought."-G.

"This Prince (Richard the Second) was murdered on Valentine's Day, 1399; and on the robing of his effigy are curiously wrought peascod shells open, and the peas out, perhaps in allusion to his being once in full possession of sovereignty, which before his murder was reduced to an empty title."-" So Sandford says, but I never could see them.”†—G.

"St. Michael's Chapel has only one monument worthy of notice, which is that of Sarah Duchess of Somerset, and mother to the last duke of that branch of the family."-" She had no children, but was the wife of John Seymour, Duke of Somerset, who died 1675."-G.

*And another by John Carter, from a drawing by him now in the possession of Mr. Nichols.

Made visible when Mr. Hollis cleaned the effigy in 1840, in order to draw it for his work on Monumental Effigies. See our vol. XVI. p. 395. It is the badge of the planta genista,-REV.

In the chapel of St. John the Evangelist there are also some antique monuments; particularly on the right-hand is that of John de Eastney, one of the abbots, who was a great benefactor to this church, and died on the 4th May, 1438."—" Read 1498, 15 Henry VII. He made the great west window, and the screen of this chapel."-G.

"St. Erasmus, or Islip's Chapel. The other is the tomb of Sir Christopher Hatton, son to Christopher Hatton, Lord Chancellor of England."

He was never married, but settled his estates on this Sir Christopher Hatton, who was his kinsman. His lady was Alice Fanshaw."-G.

"At the corner of St. Benedict's chapel is a plain neat monument to the memory of Mr. Dryden, adorned with no other ornaments than an elegant bust of that great poet."-" It is an Ionic frontispiece of white marble, veined with grey, consisting of an arch, and two pilasters supporting a pediment; under the arch stands the bust."-G.

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Spenser's tomb is of grey marble, and has suffered greatly by time. It was erected in an age when taste was in its infancy in England, and yet has something in it venerably plain, and not absurdly ornamental.""It was done about 1620 at the expense of Lady Anne Clifford, Countess of Dorset, &c. by Nic. Stone. It cost her £40."—G.

"Spenser was born in London 1510, and died 1596."-" The date in the inscription is wrong; he was born about 1553.”—G.

“Over the door that opens into the Cloisters, is a noble and elegant monument, erected for General Wade."-"Not far off are the monuments of General Fleming in 1750, and General Hargrave, 1757-both by Roubiliac. The latter is one of his best works, though I do not commend the design, nor any of these allegorical representations. They should be admitted only as ornaments, and always subordinate, as well in their dimensions as positions to the principal figures. If the present taste continues, the whole Abbey will be peopled with heathen divinities."—G.

"Mr. William Congreve died July 19, 1728, aged 56 years; buried near this place. To whose most valuable memory this monument is set up by Henrietta Dutchess of Marlborough," &c.-" Not only at the Dutchess's expense, but in her own spelling."-G.

"On the south side of the great west entrance is a noble monument erected to the memory of the brave Capt. Cornwall."-" Executed by Mr. Taylor, and by no means an extraordinary performance."-G.

"On the back is a lofty pyramid of Egyptian marble beautifully variegated and finely polished."-" Sicilian Jasper. Many of the later monuments have their background of this expensive marble, which with its gay and various colours is very ill adapted to a sepulchre, distracts the eye and the attention from the principal figure and the ornaments of sculpture, and destroys all their effect."-G.

"The next is a monument erected to the memory of Mrs. Mary Beaufoy," &c." It is very poor, though done by the celebrated Grinlin Gibbons."-G.

"We come now to the neat and elegant monument erected to the memory of Dr. Boulter, Archbishop of Armagh, in Ireland. It is of the finest marble, beautified with an admirable new invented polish,” &c. . . . . . “Done by Mr. Cheere. The high polish observable in this and some other late monuments (which is so fine that it resembles the glazing of old china), destroys all the effect of sculpture, and should be reserved for other

uses."-G.

"We come now to the grand and magnificent monument of the great Sir -"Executed by Rysbrach, and designed by Kent."-G.

Isan Newton."

"Over him is a large globe, projecting from a pyramid behind, whereon is delineated the course of the comet in 1680, with the signs, constellations, and planets. On this globe sits the figure of Astronomy, with her book closed, in a very thoughtful, composed, and pensive mood!""The globe and figure upon it are a barbarous addition, put in only to correspond with the Pallas on Lord Stanhope's monument. The bas-relief is in a fine style, like that of Fiamingo, and does great honour to the sculptor."-G. "In the middle of the east end of the nave is situated the magnificent tomb of Henry the Seventh. This is encircled with a screen of cast brass. most admirably designed and executed. This screen is nineteen feet in length, eleven in breadth, and the same in height."—" Executed by Pietro Torregiano, a Florentine artist, at the expense of 1,000l. He was a fellow scholar of Michael Angelo, and died in the prison of the Spanish Inquisition in 1522. The monument was finished in 1519."-G.

"On one side of Henry the Seventh's tomb is a small chapel, in which is the monument of Lewis Stuart, Duke of Richmond, and Frances his wife, whose statues in cast brass are represented lying on a marble table, under a canopy of brass, curiously wrought," &c.-" For Lewis read Ludovice-Frances [Hanno] his wife; executed by Le Sour, the same artist who cast the figure of Charles the First, at Charing Cross."—G.

"Charles Montague, Marquis of Halifax, son to George Montague, of Horton. He was placed at the head of the treasury in the reign of King Charles the First."-" For Charles the First read William the Third. He never was a marquis. Died in 1715."-G.

"Henry the Seventh's Chapel. This chapel is one of the most expensive remains of the ancient English taste and magnificence. There is no looking upon it without admiration," &c.-" Begun in 1502, 17th Henry Seventh. The building cost 14,0007.”—G.

"A very handsome monument erected for that learned grammarian Dr. Busby, master of Westminster school."-" Executed by Francis Bird, who died 1731."-G.

"Mr. Thynne's monument has always been esteemed a fine one.""Done by Quellin of Antwerp."-G.

As regards the grammatical errors, and faults of style, in Mr. Jesse's volumes, we are not willing to rest much upon them, although works of mere amusement like the present should be recommended by all the graces of manner, the amenities of language, and the harmony of periods. Yet we presume they arise in the present instance from haste, and will be corrected in another edition. There is, however, rather too large a crop of them; ex. gr. vol. i. p. 15, "in the days of Charles's time!" P. 17, a Corinthian pillar (it is not Corinthian but upholsterer's architecture) which are the last remains. P. 19, at whose hospitable castle have assembled every person. P. 181, the city of London were subservient, &c. and so on. Such, perhaps, are venial errors, from which, in these days of speed and hurry, no writer is free, who is whirled along by the rapidity of a railroad press to gain as quickly as possible the bank note held in his publisher's hand; but in our cooler moments, and especially when the money is spent, they are unpleasant things to look at; and we ourselves must confess, that, when we cast a reluctant eye on some of our own very imperfect productions, we are willing to agree with the old Roman poet, and wish that we could apply a sponge to the whole work, "Non possunt nostros multæ, Faustine, lituræ Emendare jocos-Una litura potest."

MR. URBAN, Bristol, Dec. 3. YOUR readers will probably feel interested in the following statement of a singular phenomenon, more especially as it authenticates the story narrated by Aubrey, quoted in your last Magazine, p. 567.

About eight years ago (the exact date of the year has passed from my memory), I was returning from the village of Chew Magna, Somerset, on horseback; it was a fine evening in June, between eight and nine o'clock, and therefore in full daylight. Whilst ascending Dundry Hill, from the Wells side, at a slow walking pace, I was roused from a reverie by the sudden plunging and starting of my mare, who, with erected crest and pricked ears, exhibited unequivocal signs of terror. An object resembling in some degree, both in bulk and outline, a human figure enveloped in white gauze, emerged from the hedge on one side of the road, slowly crossed before the horse at a few yards distance, and disappeared in the opposite hedge. The object traversed the road from left to right, with a slow continuous gliding or floating kind of motion, giving me full time for a leisurely survey. Ĭ examined the hedges on both sides of the road, but saw no sign of any similar appearance. It is not a little remarkable that the same appearance should be observed on the same spot, and in the same month of the year, nearly two hundred years after Aubrey's time. Aubrey was descending Dundry Hill from Bristol to Wells. I was ascending from Wells to Bristol. The object, therefore, emerged from the hedge on his right and my left hand; he had dismounted to walk down the steep descent, and no doubt had done so at the crown of the hill, the spot at which the object was seen by me.

I was not a little puzzled as to the nature of this body. The most ready and feasible explanation seemed to be, that it was a mass of vapour condensed by the cool evening air, and thus made visible to the eye. There was no vapour hanging about the hill, however, and the evening was perfectly clear and bright. Nor was it a column of

smoke separated from a couch fire, and floated along by the wind, for there were no fires in any of the neighbouring fields that I could observe. I never could satisfy myself as to the nature of the phenomenon, but supposed what I had witnessed was a column of vapour, for if it was not I did not know what it could possibly be. I did not perceive any odour, as both Aubrey and his groom did. The misty object which the antiquary described arose after a fine shower of rain. I do not remember that rain had fallen during the day, but am certain it was a fair bright evening when I witnessed it.

Can any of your correspondents furnish us with a satisfactory explanation of the matter? Perhaps there may exist hot springs in Dundry Hill (the geological formation is the lesser oolite), from which occasionally jets or columns of steam, mixed with sulphurous gas, escape through the soil, was it such a vaporous column that Aubrey and myself witnessed?

Allow me to add an observation or two on the same notice of Aubrey's Natural History of Wiltshire. At p. 573, it is stated that Linnæus, on his arrival in England, fell on his knees to thank God that he was permitted to see the furze in blossom. Does not this anecdote belong to Dillenius ?* On the same page it is stated, "Concerning yew-trees, Aubrey rightly says, 'They grow naturally in chalkie countries;' true, but the yew-tree is not confined to chalk districts. It grows abundantly on the rocks of mountain limestone in this district.

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Again, "Holy (holly) is indifferently common in Malmsbury hundred, and also on the borders of the New Forest; it seems to indicate pitt-coale." I have often noticed the frequency of the holly on the pennant formation of the Bristol coal fields. Perhaps, however, it is a dry soil, which suits the natures of these slow-growing, long-enduring trees, rather than any fondness of the first for a calcareous soil, or of the second for the coal measures. Yours, &c.

No: but to Linnæus.-Edit.

HENRY OXLEY STEPHENS.

THE HEPTAMERON OF MARGARET DE VALOIS. "L'Heptameron, qui est un gentil livre pour son estoffe."-MONTAIGNE.

PHILOSOPHERS may ask scornfully "what's in a name," but nevertheless we must confess to a latent weakness in the shape of a partiality for certain titles of books; and this penchant probably rests on much the same grounds as Martial's dislike of Sabidius in his epigram

"Non amo te, Sabidi, nec possum dicere

quare;

Hoc solùm possum dicere,-non amo te." There is a hidden magic in some names, which affects us, without our being able to give any definite reason for it; and the feeling which they excite in the mind may sometimes be quite unconnected with any peculiar interest in the book itself. Thus one

can hardly help feeling a pleasureable sensation at the mention of such titles as Aulus Gellius's "Noctes Atticæ," or Macrobius's "Saturnalia," however dull in themselves these works may be; and I suppose it was with a view to this that a Persian author christened his work on the "art of poetry" as "The Enchanted Gardens." And the feeling that I have alluded to always lingers in my mind round such names as that which stands at the head of this paper. They, as it were, condense into their syllables the pleasures of the space of time to which they refer, and they affect the mind like the memory of a happy visit in days gone by. Boccaccio's Decameron, and, in our own time, Landor's delicious Pentameron thus win their way into our hearts before we have read a line, or even opened a page; and something of the same feeling is excited by the

abovementioned work of the famed sister of Francis I., Margaret of Valois. The Heptameron-or week of pleasure, which is daguerreotyped to us in these pages—can give its readers a pleasant hour's study even in our own day, and the book that delighted Rabelais has not yet lost, by the lapse of time, all that sparkling light foam of humour with which it once effervesced.

It is, as its name implies, an imitatation of Boccaccio's far-famed work, but it is an imitation that displays GENT. MAG. VOL. XXIX.

much merit of its own. The characters of the interlocutors in its little domestic drama are boldly outlined and well sustained, and the dialogue sways with a graceful oscillation from one to another, which is kept up to the very last. A subdued tone of gentle playfulness runs through it all, and this helps to throw out in relief the fine thoughts that are scattered here and there, with no sparing hand. One of the great charms of the book lies, in fact, in the dialogues, which perpetually intervene between the stories; stiffness which necessarily hangs about and the speakers here lose all that them as they repeat their set narratives, and now mingle together in the easy intercourse and light chitchat of common life, and we become personally acquainted with them all.

And, in good faith, we may wander a long time before we find a merrier company than are here met at "Our Lady's of Serrance," in the good keeping of Dame Oisille and her friend the gentle chevalier, Simontault. An air of content and good humour pervades the little party; and the deep piety of the aged widow interposes with admirable art whenever the merriment of her

guests inclines to the uproarious. It is in her lips that Marguerite has put most of the serious reflections with which the book is interspersed, and where we most recognise the true spiritual features of her who was called by her brother Francis I. "la Marguerite des Marguerites," and who was characterised by Rabelais, in the prologue to the third book of his romance,

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