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in the balance of your judgment. deavour to ascertain how much they knew, and how they used their powers. Seek to attain to something like the measure of their acquirements. Pursue this course, even for a brief space, with a conscientious determination, and there is that in the tone and character of your thoughts and lines which forbids us to despair that the world may yet see another Deserted Village. Victory, brother, never preceded struggle. May it be thine !"

The literature of the past month has been principally theological. The Pope, the Cardinal, and our ultra High Church brethren have of course given occasion to many sermons. Besides those we have already mentioned, we may heartily commend" Stand Fast in the Faith, a sermon by Ernest Hawkins, B.D. 8vo. Rivingtons. It has a useful appendix of authorities upon the points on which the churches of Rome and England differ.

Connected with the same subject we have also received "The Bull of Pope Pius IX. and the Ancient British Church. A Letter, by E. C. Harrington, M.A. Chancellor of Exeter. 8vo. Rivingtons,' full of learned details respecting the history of the earliest church in England and the mission of Augustine.

With reference to another class of disputes prevalent at this day,-we allude to those which relate to the question of the Inspiration of Holy Scripture-we may recommend "It is written; or, every word and expression contained in the

Scriptures proved to be from God. From the French of Professor Gaussen. 8vo. Bagster." We have no means of judging of the fidelity of the translation, but the original work is of eminent reputation, and deserves to be universally known.

By the

"The Church and the People. Rev. Christopher Robinson. 12mo. Hamilton," is a temperate and useful exposition of the claims of the established church.

Of works more immediately connected with our principal objects of inquiry we may mention the publication of Mr. Craik's Romance of the Peerage, vol. IV.; Miss Strickland's Lives of the Scottish Queens, vol. I.; and Mr. Cramp's Essay to prove that the Earl of Chesterfield was the author of Junius. These, with other similar works, will receive due attention in our next number.

Amongst charities which appeal to us for a word of recommendation we know no one that we can more safely commend to Christmas liberality than the GENERAL SEA-BATHING INFIRMARY AT MARGATE, founded in 1796. The advantages of sea-bathing, pure air, and proper wholesome food to the poor who may be suffering under scrofula need not be insisted upon. Since its foundation no less than 22,000 persons have obtained relief through this charity, and, were its funds more ample, its usefulness might be considerably enlarged. Amidst the festivities of the memorable season which is now approaching, a mite to such an institution ought not to be forgotten.

Wills and Inventories from the Registers of the Commissary of Bury St. Edmund's and the Archdeacon of Sudbury. Edited by Samuel Tymms. Printed by the Camden Society. 1850. 4to.-Before the dissolution of the monasteries, the town of Bury St. Edmund's was a peculiar, exempt from the jurisdiction both of the Archdeacon of Sudbury and of the Bishop of Norwich. During that period wills of residents in Bury were proved before the Sacrist of the Abbey, and entries of such wills, commencing in 1354, and ending in 1566, remain at Bury, preserved in seven books, in the custody of the register of the court of the Archdeaconry of Sudbury, within the jurisdiction of which court the town of Bury is now locally situated. During the same period wills of persons dying within the Archdeaconry of Sudbury were entered in a set of archdeaconry registers, comprising

twenty-five volumes, and now also pre served at Bury in the same custody as the preceding. From the dissolution of the monasteries down to 1652, wills of residents of Bury, which were then proved before a commissary of the Bishop of Norwich, were entered, together with the wills of persons dying within the Archdeaconry of Sudbury, in a third set of registers, consisting of twenty-seven or twenty-eight volumes, and these also remain at Bury in the same custody as the others.

The volume before us is a selection from these wills, made by the editor "more with a view to illustrate the peculiar customs and language of the period

* Mr. Tymms enumerates only twentyseven volumes, but he publishes wills from "Ashton, pars ii." therefore we presume there are twenty-eight.

than the topology[?] or genealogy of the district."

The volume opens with an inventory of the effects of Adam de Stanton, a chaplain of the abbey of Bury St. Edmund's in 1370, one of the questionable race of clergymen who performed ecclesiastical duties in the churches belonging to the abbey for a small stipend. We find here an enumeration of his stock in trade, his little pots and pans to hold his holy oil and his consecrated wafers, with the furniture of his humble residence, and the few books at his bed's head. They consisted of his portiforium or port-hose, which was valued at the large sum of 10s. one book of the law of the land (a Bracton or Fleta), a collection of the then few statutes, and a book of romances ;-Sir Tristrem, or the Morte d'Arthur. The last three books have no value set upon them; but the sum total of the account is 18. more than the amount of the separate items. It argues but badly for the bibliographical knowledge of the sacrist of Bury if that sum was his assessed value for these little treasures. The chaplain's girdle, with its attached purse and knife, were valued at 58.; his table knife at 12d.

The early wills are remarkable for the numbers of bequests to the religious part of the community, and such bequests are generally in money, whilst relatives and friends come off with a division amongst them of shabby pots and pans, blankets and coverlids, dishes and platters, tunics and gowns. In this respect the present volume is curious as exemplifying the result of living in the immediate neighbourhood, if not in actual connection with the great abbey of Bury.

In a will of the date of 1448, we find probably the earliest notice of the great name of Shakspere. It makes its appearance in literature in humble form, and in a part of the country where it has not hitherto been supposed likely to be found. Alice Langham, after many curious bequests for the comfort of one of her children who had taken the veil at Swaffham, and two legacies to persons who had probably supplied the child's place to the doubly-widowed Alice, thus proceeds, "Also, I leave to WILLIAM SHAKESPERE, a poor man of Snayleswell, 12d. Also, I leave to Agnes, wife of the said William, one second best tunic or gown at the discretion of my executors underwritten." We suppose the registers of Snailwell, a parish not far from Newmarket, have been searched for traces of these Shaksperes.

The first will here published, written (with a small exception) in English, bears date in 1463, and the last written in GENT. MAG, VOL. XXXIV.

Latin in 1473. The first English will is in our judgment one of the most curious in the book. It is extravagantly longoccupying nine-and-twenty pages - but well deserved printing, and contains matter for a volume of comment. The testator, John Baret, was an officer, probably treasurer or chamberlain, of the abbey, a very methodical, business-like person, well-to-do in the world, friendly with all the inhabitants both of the abbey and the town, fond of good living, and prudently fortified against the troubles of conscience in this world, and the pains of purgatorial fires hereafter, by a complete library of indulgences, authenticated by all the seals that were likely to gain respect in the world to come. His bequests are most minute, and many of them extremely singular. No document of the kind has lately occurred to us which more curiously illustrates the status and character of the testator, the costume and paraphernalia proper to various classes of society, the funeral and memorial customs of the time, and the various articles of clothing and furniture in use amongst persons of the moderately wealthy class. We could willingly extract a variety of curious passages, but we must confine ourselves to a few words relating to the funeral feast, which will be found to give a very definite notion of what sort of man the testator was, especially if it be borne in mind that the will was written with his own hand.

men,

"I will the aldermen, burgesses, gentleand gentlewomen have a dinner the same day that I am interred, with other folks of worship, priests, and good friends, and also my tenants, to which I am much beholden to do for them all, for they have been to me right gentle and good at all times, and therefore I will each of them all have 4d. to drink when they pay their ferme [rent]. Also, such persons as my executors will bid to dinner beside, I fully commit it unto their discretion. Also, forasmuch as I lived well, even I will they have enough."

This worthy gentleman was distinguished by the privilege of wearing "a collar of silver of the King's livery," and a figure carved on his tomb, which is still remaining in a chapel attached to St. Mary's church, Bury St. Edmund's, and which figure is supposed to be designed for a portraiture of John Baret himself, exhibits him wearing his long furred gown and hood, and a collar of Esses. same ornament is also represented in compartments of the roof of his monumental chapel. The volume before us contains wood-cut representations of these collars, which should be consulted by all who are interested in the vexed and disputed 4 M

The

question of their nature. The passage in his will relating to them stands thus:-"I will both my collars of silver, the King's livery, be sold, and the money disposed in alms for Edmund Tabowr's soul and his friends, to recompense broke silver I had of his to [i. e. towards] one of the collars and other things, with other stuff beside which I took to myn own use." The two collars are thought by the editor to be the collars respectively of Henry VI. and Edward IV.

Few of the legacies are more interesting than those of books, and it is curious to observe in what way they evidence the growth of literature and the changes of the time. We have seen what was the library of a chaplain in 1370; the respectable John Baret makes mention of two books. One is the "Siege of Thebes," in English, a poem, by John Lydgate, who was a monk of the abbey of Bury St. Edmund's. He died two years before the date of Baret's will, and it is probable, as the editor has remarked, that the copy in question was presented to the testator by the author. Baret bequeathed that book to Sir John Cleye, his cousin, and a priest. The other book mentioned by Baret is entitled "Disce Mori," respecting which the editor has not been able to furnish any information. William

Place, a priest, bequeaths in 1504 his book "Of the Doubts of Holy Scripture" to remain in the cloister of the monastery of St. Edmundas long as it will there endure," and gives his book "Of the Expositions of Holy Scripture to a fellow priest. A correspondent of that great oracle of our times, Notes and Queries, suggests that the former of these was the "Liber questionum veteris et novi Testamenti," formerly ascribed to St. Augustine. In 1537, a vicar of Hawgley, in Suffolk, bequeaths all his "play books," which were probably books of moral plays, to his brother. In 1552, John King, a learned schoolmaster, of Bury, a true predecessor of Dr. Donaldson, bequeaths to the school his Pliny, Virgil, Horace, and Ovid, and gives to a friend his copy of Eusebius. Giles Levyt, who seems to have been a lawyer, disposes in 1552 of his admirable lawyer's library, consisting of "The Bible and the New Testament, with the book of the King's Statutes." In 1614 another lawyer marks the increase of legal learning by his mention of "all his books concerning the common law or statutes of this realm of England." In 1647 a third lawyer mentions his respectable library thus:-"I give unto Richard Gardner, my cousin and clerk, all my books, papers, and parchments unsealed, excepting such English books as

Mary my wife and Mary Browne my daughter shall make choice of, and excepting six of my best books in folio, which I give to the said Thomas Browne, and also my 'dictionary in quarto.'" In the same year the Reverend James Bacon makes "his books of Mr. Perkins's works," being contained in three volumes (fol. 1606), the subject of a special bequest. In the year following (1648) a Suffolk gentleman marks the character of the studies of the time by bequeathing another copy of "Perkins's Works," 4 vols. of "Purchas's Pilgrims," the "Synopsis Papismi" of the learned puritan, Dr. Andrew Willet, and " Expositions of the Book of Revelations," by Mr. Dent and Mr. Barnard, and "Rodolph Gualter's Homilies on the Acts." (1572, fol.) In the same year Sir Edmund Bacon specifically bequeaths "Parkinson's Herbal " (1640, fol.), bound in leather. The Expositions of the Revelations just_mentioned were probably "The Ruin of Rome, or an Exposition upon the whole Revelation," by Arthur Dent, of which there were many editions in various sizes, and "A key for opening the mysteries of the Revelation of St. John," by Richard Bernard, Rector of Batcombe, Somersetshire, Lond. 1617, 4to.

As connected with literature we may mention that, in one of these wills, that of John Wastell, of Bury, dated in 1515, there is the following mention of Pynson: "I will that Richard Pynson of London, printer and Frenchman, have, in recompense for reckonings between him and me, 338. 4d." The next bequest is "to Nicholas Colyn, Frenchman, in Cambridge, in like manner, 10s." Mr. Tymms queries whether this may not have been a relative and agent of Colinæus the printer of Paris. Pynson it is known was born in Normandy.

There are many curious legacies of works of art, and amongst them several of the "stained cloths" which were used for the hangings of rooms. Our acquaintance, John Baret, bequeaths in 1463, his "stained cloth with vij. ages," one of the designs then common from which Shakspere derived the idea of his description in As You Like it; and also the stained cloth of the Coronation of Our Lady. The same lady whom we have before mentioned as giving a legacy in 1448 to William Shakspere, bequeathed a similar cloth painted with the history of Robert the Devil; and other cloths are mentioned in the course of the book with representations of the Saviour's five wounds (in 1538); with an image of death (1504); and with "running verses and leaves with beasts and birds" (in 1522). Another work of art

mentioned in the will last referred to is thus described, "St. John's head in alabaster, with St. Peter and St. Thomas and the figure of Christ." The same lady also bequeathed "a little St. John's head of alabaster, with a scripture [i. e. a motto or writing] Caput Sancti Johannis Bap tiste." In a note upon the former of these passages (p. 255) Mr. J. G. Nichols has pointed attention to several examples and existing specimens of these carvings, the use of which has not been discovered. In all of them, he says, the head of St. John the Baptist of a large proportionate size occupies the centre; it has been mistaken for the portrait of Edessa, for that of St. Veronica, and for the first person of the Holy Trinity. The figure placed beneath appears to have been generally Christ rising from his tomb; but in several instances it is the Holy Lamb instead of the figure of Christ. The saints on either side, figured at whole length, are, in every known instance but one, those above mentioned, St. Peter and St. Thomas of Canterbury. The exceptional instance is an engraving, in which St. Paul has been represented, probably by mistake of the artist, instead of St. Thomas. In the rear of the male saints are customarily represented St. Katharine and St. Helena, and at the summit of the whole design is an infant, being the representation of a soul, conveyed to heaven by angels. The attention of antiquaries being directed to these curious relics, we hope their use and purpose will be discovered. We shall be glad to receive any communication on the subject.

So far as we can tell, Mr. Tymms has made his selection of wills with judgment. It comprises examples from persons of many classes of society, and will be found to illustrate many interesting subjects in every branch of historical inquiry. The class of documents of which his book is made up are far too little known as historical materials, and must remain so as long as the present illiberal policy distinguishes the majority of the persons in whose custody they are placed. addition to this branch of our antiquarian literature is under such circumstances to be prized highly. The present volume is on that ground alone, if there were no other, a cause of thankfulness both to the Camden Society and to the editor.

Every

We wish the book had not been deformed by the marks to indicate contracted words, which abound throughout it. Such marks are often nothing more than shelters for ignorance, and their occurrence in a book of the Camden Society is a breach of the rule which we understood they had adopted, to print in extenso. We can

understand that cases may occur in which a competent editor may doubt as to the proper extension of a contracted word. In such cases by all means print that word in the contracted form. But the indiscriminate use of marks of contraction, as in the book before us, is useless, expensive, and ridiculous, and, moreover, often leads to errors instead of enabling the editor to avoid them. The whole book, in its contracts and amplification of indexes, reminds us too much of the pedantic publications of the Record Commissioners. The editor has evidently bestowed great pains in making his book as perfect and useful as possible, and should have been kept by the Camden Council from the mistake of following so bad an example. We think it an advantage in first publications from MSS. of considerable age to preserve the spelling of the original, but to retain the mere common marks of contraction seems extremely unnecessary and objectionable.

London and its Celebrities: a second series of Literary and Historical Memorials of London. By J. Heneage Jesse. 2 vols. 8vo. Lond. 1850.-London is particularly fortunate in its recent historians. Mr. Charles Knight's "London" is one of the pleasantest collections of sketches in our language; Mr. Peter Cunningham's Handbook is, as Mr. Jesse very properly remarks, "the most valuable work on London which has appeared since the time of Stow ;" and now we have from Mr. Jesse a second series of his Historical Memorials, full of amusing and interesting matter, brought together with praiseworthy diligence.

Mr. Jesse commences at the Tower and its neighbourhood; proceeds westward by Billingsgate, Queenhithe, and London Bridge; gives a narrative of the Great Fire; ascends Fish Street Hill to Aldgate; proceeds thence by Cornhill to the Mansion House; returns to Crosby Hall; goes along the course of the City Wall to Smithfield, the Charter House, and Clerkenwell; and thence by Holborn to the British Museum. He then returns to Cheapside and St. Paul's, and passes westward by Fleet Street to the Temple, and so by the Strand to Somerset House. He then crosses the Thames to Lambeth and Vauxhall, and closes his route and book with a visit to Southwark. Throughout this long peregrination there is indeed much to tell; much of historical, biographical, and poetical illustration; and many a history and anecdote of joy and sorrow, of suffering, cruelty, and oppression. There is scarcely a step of the way that is not consecrated by some event

which has conduced to the present renown of our great metropolis. Mr. Jesse picks up these reminiscences as he passes on, and relates them in a way which will interest and instruct many a reader. If his narrative wants the preciseness of detail which antiquaries love, he is not to be blamed on that account, for his object has been to attract the general public more than the historical student.

One feature of Mr. Jesse's book is a good one. He endeavours to recall the particulars of celebrated interments in the city churches which were destroyed at the great fire. This is a part of his book which will bear considerable enlargement in a future edition, and might be made extremely interesting. It is, too, a portion of the subject in which he will have few competitors. The picturesqueness of the ceremonials, and the heroic characters of the men, of the olden times would enable him, if he would pursue the subject, to give many striking and instructive delineations. Would that the stores of the Prerogative Office could be applied in aid of such a purpose! But, alas! the present generation seems doomed to be excluded from the use of the most valuable historical materials in existence. They are reserved for the destruction which will one day come upon them from accidental fire, or from some outburst of public indignation.

We will give an example of Mr. Jesse's mode of dealing with this part of his subject:

"One of the most sumptuous monuments in the old church appears to have been that of the beautiful Venetia Digby, erected to her memory by her eccentric husband Sir Kenelm Digby. It was believed at the time that he made use of the most singular expedients to increase the lustre of her charms; that he invented cosmetics with this object, and, among other fantastic experiments, supplied her with the flesh of capons which had been fed with vipers. After her death only a small portion of brains having been found in her head, Sir Kenelm attributed it to her drinking viper-wine; but, says Aubrey, spiteful women would say it was a viper husband who was jealous of her.' Pennant, in his Journey from Chester to London,' tells us that the woods in the neighbourhood of Gothurst [in Bucks], once the seat of Sir Kenelm, are the most northern haunt of the great snail, or pomatia, which is of exotic origin; and he adds, 'Tradition says it was introduced by Sir Kenelm as a medicine for the use of his lady.' Digby's well-known jealousy of his beautiful wife, and the application of these strange medicaments, gave rise to a report that he had administered poison

to her.

That he was the murderer of his wife, however, appears to be most improbable; though it is not unlikely that his cosmetics and chemical experiments might have hastened her end. Her monument in Christ Church [Newgate Street] was of black marble, supporting her bust in copper gilt. This tomb was completely destroyed by the Great Fire, and the vault in which she lay was partially broken open by its fall. The bust, however, escaped, and Aubrey informs us that he afterwards saw it exposed for sale in a brazier's stall. Unfortunately he neglected to purchase it at the time, and, when he afterwards made inquiry respecting it, he discovered that it had been melted down. By his will Sir Kenelm desired that he should be buried in the same vault with his wife, but that no inscription should be engraved on the tomb." (ii. 170.)

Gossip of this kind, especially when picked up from sources which are not familiar, makes a very pleasant book.

Notices of Chinese Seals found in Ireland. By Edmund Getty, M.R.I.A. 4to. Lond. and Dublin. 1850.-In various parts of Ireland far distant from one another, for example, near Dublin, and in the counties of Tipperary, Down, Meath, Wexford, Queen's County, Cork, and elsewhere, there have been found within the last eighty years a considerable number of small cubes of porcelain, having by way of handle the figure of a monkey or ape seated upon one side of the cube. On the side of the cube opposite the monkey is invariably an inscription, engraved in characters utterly unlike any which are known to have ever been used in Europe. For some years past the rumour has run that these characters were Chinese, and we learn from the present publicationwhich is a paper recently read before the Belfast Literary Society-that impressions of twenty-nine of these cubes having been submitted to Mr. Gutzlaff, to a Roman Catholic missionary at Hong Kong, to some one at Shanghae whose name is not mentioned, and also to Mr. Thomas Taylor Meadows, interpreter to the British consulate at Canton, they have been pronounced by all these gentlemen to be inscriptions in what is called the Chinese seal character. Further, these gentlemen have all translated the inscriptions, and, although there are occasionally extraor dinary variations between their translations, they all so far support one another as to leave no doubt that, with the occasional exception of one of them, they all really understand the inscriptions. Under these circumstances there can be no doubt that the inscriptions really are in