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N the 3d of July, being the last Wednesday in Trinity Term, the Gresham Professor of Music concluded his annual course of Lectures, by a dissertation on the composition of Glees; and exemplified the subject of his discourse by the performances of the most eminent vocal abilities in the Metropolis. The Lecturer took occasion to notice a difficulty experienced by professional gentlemen in their historical inquiries, from the circumstance that all new music is undated. It would add materially to the value of a well-established periodical work as a book of reference, if it were to record all Musical publications likely to outlive their respective authors; and I hope, Mr. Urban, you will give me leave to hint, that such a brief notice of meritorious compositions in the Gentleman's Magazine, would be more generally useful than the very scientific criticisms which sometimes appear in your pages; unintelligible probably to all except professional gentlemen, and superfluous, it may be presumed, to thosewho are thoroughly masters of the science.

And now, Sir, with all due humility, I would venture to address a few lines to that redoubtable personage Mr. Bartlemy Birch, who appears in your Number for May, p. 418.

The Literary friend who was in the habit of exclaiming, "Pray, Birch, save me the trouble of going to the Dictionary," would have consulted his Dictionary in vain for the words* cited by the indignant Pædagogue.

Participles are excluded, surely without reason, even from the Dic tionaries and Vocabularies designed especially for young persons, and mere English Scholars, who are thus, in a case of doubt, left completely at a loss for the orthography of those words, which, as your Correspondent acknowledges, have been mistaken by gentlemen of liberal and academic education. Mr. Birch threatens to wield the rod in the true Busbæan style;" and I hope the compilers of Dictionaries and Spelling-books will be the first parties summoned to his Literary tribunal.

Yours, &c.

A. T.

Remarks on the Monumental Bust of SHAKESPEARE, at Stratford-uponAvon. Written by J. BRITTON, F. S. A. to accompany a Portrait engraved by W. WARD, A. R. A. Fagenuine portrait of Alexander, of Homer, or of Alfred, be regarded as a desideratum in the history of art, and in the history of man, so is that of Shakspeare; for though The English Poet is comparatively a modern, yet it is as difficult and doubtful to substantiate the authenticity of a portrait of him, as of the ancient Grecian hero, or poet, or of the more estimable English monarch. There is neither proof nor intimation that Shakspeare ever sat for a picture; and it must be admitted that the whole host of presumed portraits "come in such questionable shapes," and with such equivocal pedigrees, that suspicion or disbelief attach to all. Not so the Monumental Bust at Stratford this appeals to our eyes and understandings with all the force of truth. We view it as a family record; as a memorial raised by the affection and esteem of his relatives, to keep alive contemporary admiration, and to excite the glow of enthusiasm in posterity. This invaluable

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effigy" is attested by tradition, cousecrated by time, and preserved in the inviolability of its own simplicity and sacred station. It was evidently executed immediately after the poet's decease; and probably under the superintendance of his son-in-law, Dr. Hall, and his daughter; the latter of whom, according to her epitaph, was "Witty above her sexe," and therein like her father. Leonard Digges, in a poem praising the works and worth of Shakspeare, and published within seven, years after his death, speaks of the Stratford monument as a well-known object. Dugdale, in his "Antiquities of Warwickshire," 1656, gives a plate of the monument, but drawn and engraved in a truly tasteless and inaccu rate style; and observes in the text, that the poet was famous, and thus entitled to such dist action. Lang baine, in his "Account of English Dramatic Poets," 1691, pronounces the Stratford Bust Shakspeare's "true effigies.”—These are decided proofs

* With the exception of synonyme and bigoted. The other words are sometimes introduced by our great Lexicographer in his quotations, but variously spelled ac Gording to the taste of the original authors.

GENT. MAG, July, 1816.

of

of its antiquity; and we may safely conclude that it was intended to be a faithful portrait of the poet. In the age this was executed, it was customary to pourtray the heads and figures of illustrious and eminent persons by monumental statues and busts. (See Gough's "Sepulchral Monuments," vol. 11.) Many were cut in alabaster, and in white marble, and others were formed of stone. In the reigns of Henry VI. VII. and VIII. some of the English monumental sculpture is remarkable for a fine style; combining the essentials of breadth, simplicity, and nature. During Elizabeth's reign it gradually degenerated; and under the sway of James we find a still greater debasement. Still we have reason to believe that some of the artists studiously endeavoured to perpetuate portraits, or true effigies, of the persons commemorated. Indeed it is quite clear that they aimed rather at likeness than tasteful composition. This is evinced in the statue of Queen Elizabeth, in Westminster Abbey Church; in the bust of Camden, in the same church; the statue of Lord Bacon, at St. Albans; and in several others that might be adduced. All these show that the artists had their prototypes in nature; either by modelling the respective persons while living, or by taking casts after death. It has been deemed advisable to offer these remarks relating to the Stratford Bust; because this has been hitherto wholly neglected by biographers and critics, or treated slightly and superciliously. In Dugdale's Warwickshire, Bell's edition of our poet, in the splendid one of Boydell, in Ire

land's Tour of the Avon, and in Wheler's pleasing History, &c. of Stratford, it has been published; but in no one of these works has it been correctly delineated. In the two former, indeed, it is done in a vulgar and contemptible manner. The Bust is the size of life; it is formed out of a block of soft stone; and was originally painted over in imitation of nature. The hands and face were of flesh colour, the eyes of a light hazle, and the hair and beard, auburn; the doublet, or coat, was scarlet, and covered with a loose black gown, or tabard, without sleeves; the upper part of the cushion was green, the under half crimson, and the tassels gilt*. Such appear to have been the original features of this important, but neglected or insulted bust. After remaining in this state above one hundred and twenty years, Mr. John Ward, grandfather to Mrs. Siddons and Mr. Kemble, caused it to be "repaired, and the original colours preserved t," in 1748, from the profits of the representation of Othello. This was a generous, and apparently judicious act; and therefore very unlike the next alteration it was subjected to in 1793. In that year, Mr. Malone caused the bust to be covered over with one or more coats of white paint; and thus at once destroyed its original character, and greatly injured the expression of the face. Having absurdly characterized this expression for "pertness," and therefore" differing from that placid composure and thoughtful gravity so perceptible in his original portrait, and his best prints," Mr. Malone could have few scruples about injur

*Although the practice of painting statues and busts to imitate nature, is repugnant to good taste, and must be stigmatized as vulgar, and hostile to every principle of art, yet when an effigy is thus coloured and transmitted to us, as illustrative of a particular age or people, and as a record of fashion and costume, it becomes an interesting relic, and should be preserved with as much care as an Etruscan vase, or an early specimen of Raffael's painting; and the man who deliberately defaces or destroys either, will ever be regarded as a criminal in the high court of criticism and taste. From an absence of this feeling, many truly curious, and to us important subjects have been destroyed. Among which is to be noticed a vast monument of antiquity on Marlbrough Downs, in Wiltshire; and which, though once the most stupendous work of human labour and skill in Great Britain, is now nearly demolished.

Wheler's Guide to Stratford-upon-Avon." 12mo. 1814.

Mr. Wheler, in his interesting Topographical Vade Mecum, relating to Stratford, has given publicity to the following stanzas, which were written in the Album, at Stratford Church, by one of the visitors to Shakspeare's tomb.

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Stranger, to whom this monument is shown,
Invoke the Poet's curses on Malone;

Whose meddling zeal bis barbarous taste displays,
And daubs his tomb stone, as he marr'd his plays!"

ing, or destroying it. In this very act, and in this line of comment, our zealous annotator has passed an irrevo cable sentence on his own judgment. If the opinions of some of the best sculptors and painters of the metropolis are entitled to respect and confidence on such a subject, that of Mr. Malone is at once false and absurd. They justly remark, that the face indicates cheerfulness, good humour, suavity, benignity, and intelligence. These characteristics are developed by the mouth and its muscles-by the cheeks-eye-brows-forehead-and skull; and hence they rationally infer, that the face is worked from nature. Again, Mr. Malone talks strangely of "his original portrait, and of his best prints;" as if there was one authenticated and acknowledged picture, and that, out of the multitude of prints, miscalled portraits of Shakspeare, any of them were good and genuine. It would not be difficult to show, to the satisfaction of every impartial reader, that there is nothing like proof, nor scarcely probability in the genuineness of any of the paintings or prints that have come before the public, as portraits of our unrivalled Bard. That by Droeshout cannot be like any human face, for it is evidently ill drawn in all the features: and a bad artist can never make a good likeness. On such a print Ben Jonson's lines are futile and unworthy of credit. From the time of the publication of that print up to the present, we have been insulted and trifled with by numerous things called portraits of Shakspeare; most, if not all of which are as palpable forgeries as the notorious Ireland manuscripts.

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IF I rightly recollect, in some of the numbers of your valuable Miscellany, a Correspondent deplored, in common with other admirers of what is improperly called the Gothic Architecture, that one of the most beautiful specimens of it, Great Malvern Abbey Church, should have fallen, as to the interior, into utter neglect and decay. It is gratifying, therefore, to have an opportunity of recording, through you, what the zeal of an individual, the influence of example, and the rational appropriation of mo

* See vol. LXXII. p. 923; vol. LXXV.

P. 895.

ney, have effected within the short space of four months, for the renovation of a structure so ornamental to the county of Worcester. To those who remember Malvern Church in its former state, when the Bat made her nest within its sacred walls, and the crumbling roof dropped upon the uplifted eye of devotion-a short representation of the alterations and improvements which have been made, with a view to restore it to something like its pristine character of dignity and magnificence, must be highly satisfactory.

On entering the Church, the first object that now meets the eye, in consequence of the removal of two old screens, is the window at the end of the North aile, which is completely filled up with ancient stained glass. In the approach to the Nave, the two circular ends of the Church, composed of richly glazed tiles, upon which are the armorial bearings of different great families, cannot fail to arrest the attention. The pavement is of stone; and the two sides of the chancel are now occupied with the decorated stalls of the "white-robed Monks," the seats of which are lined with bandsome crimson cloth, corresponding with the Communion-table, the Pulpit, and the state Pews of Earl Beauchamp, and Mr. Foley of Stoke, Patron of the Living; which Pews, from their size, and costly mode of fitting up, make an imposing appearance. The West now rivals the East window in richness and beauty of colours. The Organ is sufficiently enlarged; and, though it has evidently been the great object to keep an uniformity of design throughout, yet the front of the Organ gallery is so conspicuously beautiful, that this alone will attract admiration with many. Still there is nothing in it that can violate the general aspect of antiquity which pervades the Church, for a due regard to the style of the building has been strictly observed in the whole of the ornamental parts. In short, nothing of modern beautification is to be discerned.

Such are the principal improve ments in this magnificent structure (which is a hundred and seventy-one feet in length, and sixty-three feet in breadth, with an embattled and pinnacled tower, rising from the centre to the height of a hundred and twenty-four feet); and so judiciously have

they

they been made, that they must please the most fastidious taste. The principal benefactors towards these repairs and improvements are the Earls of Bristol and Hardwicke, Lord Dudley and Ward, the Honourable Mrs. Yorke, Mrs. Waldo, Mr. Foley, Mr. Temple West, and Mr. Vansittart; names well entitled to respect, either for public virtue or private beneficence. But the exertions of the Rev. Henry Card, the present Vicar, under whose personal direction the whole has been conducted, are above all praise. This Gentleman, well known to the literary world from his various productions, seems to have determined that no impediment should have retarded or defeated his pious efforts for the restoration of this monument of the zeal and munificence of our forefathers; and accordingly raised above .500 in a very short time, without causing a single levy to be made on the parish; which, as the Worcester Journal justly observes, "is an instance, in these times, of rare and successful exertion that reflects the highest credit on the character of Mr. Card as a Clergyman, and ought to ensure the lasting gratitude of his Parishioners."

AN OLD VISITOR OF MALVERN.

Mr. URBAN, Liverpool, July 12.

ANY illustration of our ancient

Manners or Customs to me is exceedingly interesting; and, think ing myself in this sense of feeling not alone, for such gratification I beg to

line is marked on the ground, each takes a different side, then commence by catching hold of each other's hands or legs, and drawing them over the line, until one of the contending parties are all captured, when the game ends. Though, during the play, any one may run over his adversary's boundary, and if he can touch his captured partner before any one ticks him, as it is said, he redeems him; if not, he becomes a prisoner himself. When any one is thus caught by the hand or otherwise, and only half drawn over the line, another of his side may run, if not himself engaged, and assist him; equally so may the other add strength to insure their capture; and it often happens that the one in dispute has the pleasure of having his joints considerably extended before the contest is over. ver look upou this game playing, without a melancholy pleasure, arising from the recollection of Homer's beautiful description of the contention for the bodies of the fallen heroes the animated group in active struggle, seizing on every tangible part for a strong hold; whilst the one in dispute, from extreme tension cannot exert himself, and gives an apparent reality of the dead body, that almost realizes the scene to the imagination. In Strutt's plate, two are in the

I ne

struggle, two approaching with ex

treme caution, much depending on the first hold. INDAGATOR.

add my mite. In Strutt's Sports AS

and Pastimes of the People of England,' page 297, plate 38, he says, the representations there given, are all unknown to him. Now, Mr. Urban, in Lancashire we have a game, for which I can procure no other name than Steal Coat (evidently a modern one), but of which the first four figures in the aforesaid plate is a most correct representation. The manner in which it is performed is this; first, the contending parties that are to be, are divided equally as to number, say four, six, or eight of a side; then as to the bodily strength of the parties, making their powers as even as they can, although at times, when a stronger boy than common joins the game, they allow two smaller ones to the opposite party, as an equivalent in strength; after proceeding thus, a

Mr. URBAN, Highgate, July 18. SI am not a regular Reader of your Magazine, I shall make no apology for replying, at this time, to an article in your Number for April last. In your extracts from Lysons's Britannia, page 332, you give an account of the Church at Toddington, in Bedfordshire, and the transepts, which Mr. Lysons found in a very dilapidated state. You commence with this observation, “With regret we read." I cannot suffer this remark to pass, without observing that it is now ten years since that Volume was published; and by your insertion of extracts from it at this time, in connexion with the " gret" you feel, you are leading the publick to suppose that they still continue in that state. That this is not a mere supposition, you will be cou vinced, when I inform you that the

re

remark

remark was made to an intimate acquaintance of the writer's in a public company, and that the reflection of Lysons upon the Lord of the Manor was thrown upon the present proprietor; in short, it was through this medium I heard of you. publication. That the two transepts were in "a most shameful state of dilapidation," when Mr. Lysons surveyed them, is undoubtedly true; and any reflection upon the Lord of the Manor at that time cannot apply to the present Lord, who had not been in possession many months when that work was published. I have, however, the satisfaction of informing you, that both transepts are now repaired; the North by the representatives of the Strafford family, whose burial-place it has been; and the South at a very considerable expence by the present Lord of the Manor, who had no claim upon him of relatives or ancestors lying there, but merely from a feeling of regret that the place should continue in so ruinous and deplorable a state.

Your insertion of this in your Magazine, will, I am sure, give satisfaction to those of your Readers who have any knowledge of the place and its owner, and who, like yourself, feel a regret when they hear of ancient buildings going to decay; and will be but an act of justice to the Lord of the Manor...

Yours, &c.

WM. D. C. HEAP.

Mr. URBAN,
July 12.
Nable Correspondent of yours

A
highly respectable labours of a vete-
ran Artist, who is most able to do
justice to the venerable remains of
our National Antiquities; I mean
Mr. John Carter. Will you permit an
admirer of the Arts to recommend to
the notice of your Readers (many of
whom no doubt would be glad of an
opportunity to patronize rising me-
rit) a work calculated to interest the
Antiquary in a very high degree? I
need not observe that our Cathedrals,
&c. are a source of wonder and admi-
ration to every person possessed of a
taste to discern their superlative me-
rits: and that, although these beanti-
ful structures are delineating and
illustrating in a very able manner by
Mr. Britton and other respectable
authors, yet something of a more
moderate publication, in a pecuniary

point of view, is desirable to suit the circumstances of many individuals, who are desirous of possessing representations of these most magnificent edifices. Such a desideratum, I am happy to state, is now to be procured, executed in a very accurate style, in the etchings of our Cathedral and Collegiate Churches, by Mr. Buckler, jun. who appears to be a genuine son of Science, and bids fair to tread in the steps of the venerable Champion who has so long enriched your pages with his valuable remarks on Architectural subjects. I am fully persuaded that a close inspection of these etchings will set their merits in a highly-respectable point of view, and are calculated to reflect credit on an Artist who promises to be an ornament to his profession.

I am induced to trouble you with these few observations, from a desire to make your Readers more generally acquainted with a publication highly useful and meritorious in itself, and well calculated to gratify the taste of a numerous class of persons who may not find it convenient to purchase more expensive works, It may be proper to state that the Writer has no interest whatever in the above work, beyond that of seeing merit liberally rewarded. Yours, &c.

Mr. URBAN,

M

PHILO-JUNIUS.

July 20. UCH has been said lately in Parliament, and out of Parliament, on the subject of the Clergy; and many legislative provisions have been made, to accomplish their residence on their benefices. It does not, however, appear that the object has been accomplished to any considerable extent, beyond what it was antecedent to those provisions. New powers have, indeed, been given to the Bishops, but the exercise of those powers has been left to their discretion. The consequence has been, such as is now manifest in the Church: private convenience has been listened to, to the injury of public good; and all the weakness of man has been seen, as it ever will be seen, under the operation of power to be exercised at the discretion of fallible mortals.

This is a subject that certainly calls for the most patient consideration of the most able men, since nothing could tend more to the public ad

vantage

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