in a round boss in the middle of the ceiling, like the cords of a tent, on which in relief is the representation of the lamb and pennon, with the words "Ecce Agnus Dei."

In the Church of Buckden the remains of the following Bishops are deposited. William Barlow 1613, Robert Sanderson 1st February 1663, and Thomas Barlow 1691. There is a monument in the chancel to the memory of Bishop William Barlow, repaired by his successor Thomas Barlow; and two cenotaphs, one for Bishop Green, who died and was buried at Bath; the other for Bishop Pelham, who was interred with his ancestors, at Laughton, in Sussex.

Bishop Grey died in the Palace, February 1435. He was a great benefactor to the building of this Church, His armorial bearings-Gules, a lion rampant within a border engrailed Argent, were once in the windows. (B. Willis, Cath. ii. 55.) Probably it was finished by Bishop Alnwick; whose arms, a cross moline, are upon

CAMBERWELL

Feb. 17.

a corbel supporting the roof of the

nave.

On the 10th Jan. 1814, George Prince Regent dined and slept at Buckden Palace, on his return from Belvoir Castle.

There is a view of Buckden Palace - by Buck, about 1720, which affords an adequate idea of its size and general features. A view published in a pocketbook (we think the Suffolk Pocketbook) a few years since, gives a pleasing representation of its peaceful aspect. Seven well executed lithographic plates of Buckden Palace have been recently published, in 4to. by Mr. Rudge of Bedford.

By the late ecclesiastical alterations, the whole of Huntingdonshire has been transferred from the see of Lincoln to that of Ely. The Bishop of Lincoln has removed for his country residence to Willingham House, near Market Rasen, a modern mansion erected in the year 1790, and formerly the seat of Ayscough Boucherett, esq. M.P. for Great Grimsby.

MR. URBAN, ON the evening of Sunday the 7th instant this Church was destroyed by fire. As one of the few remaining village churches in the neighbourhood of the metropolis, its loss will be a subject of regret; but as the edifice had been for the last fifty years subjected to repairs and alterations from the hands of a succession of parish plasterers and bricklayers, very few of its exterior features remained to attract the notice of the antiquary. In the Gent. Mag. for April 1825, p. 297, a view and description of the edifice, as it then stood, were given from the hands of a gentleman from whom we may shortly expect a regular History of the parish. In this view the character of two successive alterations are shown, exhibiting different varieties of the genuine carpenter's gothic. Since then a still further alteration of the structure had been effected, by which the few remains of the original character were totally obliterated.

In the engraving above referred to, it will be seen that the chancel is a semi-octangular apsis, which, however modernized it had been, still preserved the original form which it had borne from a very early period.

An apsis on a polygonal plan is not absolutely unique, but it is very rarely met with in ancient buildings, and it is not improbable that its adoption in this instance arose from its being founded on the walls of a semicircular Norman chancel. But whatever degree of interest it possessed in its former state was entirely done away with at a reparation which occurred about two years since, when the chancel was taken down, and a square one, with a mullioned window, equally poor in design and execution, was substituted for it.

At the same time this very uncalled for alteration was made, a coat of cement (the direst foe to antiquity) was laid over the walls of the north aisle and tower, which were then made to look as smooth and even as could be wished.

The interior retained more of its original features. In the arches between the nave and aisles were seen the architecture of the fifteenth century, and the eastern end of each was formed into a chantrey. One of these chantries had been effaced when the extreme addition shown in the plate was erected. Since the fire the pillars and arches have been taken down, and the external walls alone have been left

been translated to the see of York in 1641. But at an earlier period, when Williams fell ihto disgrace with Charles the First in 1637, it appears that the furniture, if not the structure, of Buckden had suffered materially. In order to enforce the payment of the fine imposed upon him in the Star Chamber, its solicitor, Kilvert, was commissioned to go down to Buckden and Lincoln, with an extent, and the devil, says Hacket, "could do no worse to Job, when he was put into his hands; he seizeth upon all the books he found; movables, goods, plate, furniture, to the value of 10,000l. of which he never made account but of 8001.

He felled the timber, killed the deer of the park, settles in Bugden House for three summers, with a seraglia of quædam, sells an organ that cost 120l. at 10l.; pictures that cost 4001. at 51. Books he filcht what he could, and for four cellars of wine, cyder, ale, beer, with wood, hay, corn, and the like, stored up for a year or two, he gave not account of sixpence, but spent it upon baggage, and loose franions, as prodigally as if he had kept a Shrievalty. Thus a brave personal estate flew away into atoms, and not a tally struck to pay his Majesty."(Hacket, Part ii. p. 128.)

Upon the ejection of the Bishops in the Great Rebellion, the Parliamenta rian Commissioners made a survey of the palace, which is still in the Bishop's registry; and from the description therein given, a conclusion may be drawn that the north-west part of the fabric, containing the hall and its appurtenances, as already mentioned, were demolished before the Restoration. For, on the election of Dr. Sanderson to the Bishoprick of Lincoln, he found this the only palace left to it, and in so dilapidated a state as to require extensive repairs. Of this, Isaac Walton in his life of that wise, pious, meek, and innocent prelate, gives the following testimony "The bishop's chief house of Bugden, having been, at his consecration, a great part of it demolished, and what was left standing under a visible de

:

cay, was by him undertaken to be erected and repaired; and it was performed with great speed, care, and charge."+

It continued in this state till the time of Bishop Green, who came to the see in 1761, and who made some slight alterations in the interior of the north-west part of it. Upon the election of Bishop Pretyman (Tomline) in 1787, a further change took place by the addition of a private library and morning-room above it, on the north side of the chapel, and the filling up of the moat on all sides of the house, except the western; which was left, with a bridge of two arches over it, at the chief entrance. Bishop Kaye thoroughly repaired the whole, and added a turret and stairs to the north side of the entrance hall.

The principal portions of Buckden Palace are still standing, although it is unoccupied, with the exception of the dining-room, which is used as a National School-room. There has been a sale of materials, the produce of which has been paid into the hands of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, for the benefit of the See; but the square tower still remains, containing the dining-room, the great chamber (of which the drawing-room was a part), said by the late Mr. Rickman of Birmingham to be of the date of the XIVth century; the chapel, of the date of Henry VIII.; and the gateway, of the same date as the tower.

Bishop Russell (or Bishop Rotherham) from the style of the octagonal buttress at the south-west corner of the garden, surrounded that part with the brick wall now standing. And there is a tradition that at the southeast angle stood the house of the Bishop's Chancellor. Opposite the former is an inn, faced with brick-work, but formerly of timber; which (although now the White Lion has usurped the place of the Lamb) was doubtless anciently known by the sign of the Agnus Dei. The kitchen of this inn affords a remarkable specimen of the domestic architecture of the fifteenth century. The rafters are concentrated

in a round boss in the middle of the ceiling, like the cords of a tent, on which in relief is the representation of the lamb and pennon, with the words "Ecce Agnus Dei."

In the Church of Buckden the remains of the following Bishops are deposited. William Barlow 1613, Robert Sanderson 1st February 1663, and Thomas Barlow 1691. There is a monument in the chancel to the memory of Bishop William Barlow, repaired by his successor Thomas Barlow; and two cenotaphs,-one for Bishop Green, who died and was buried at Bath; the other for Bishop Pelham, who was interred with his ancestors, at Laughton, in Sussex.

Bishop Grey died in the Palace, February 1435. He was a great benefactor to the building of this Church, His armorial bearings-Gules, a lion rampant within a border engrailed Argent, were once in the windows. (B. Willis, Cath. ii. 55.) Probably it was finished by Bishop Alnwick; whose arms, a cross moline, are upon

a corbel supporting the roof of the

nave.

On the 10th Jan. 1814, George Prince Regent dined and slept at Buckden Palace, on his return from Belvoir Castle.

There is a view of Buckden Palace by Buck, about 1720, which affords an adequate idea of its size and general features. A view published in a pocketbook (we think the Suffolk Pocketbook) a few years since, gives a pleasing representation of its peaceful aspect. Seven well executed lithographic plates of Buckden Palace have been recently published, in 4to. by Mr. Rudge of Bedford.

By the late ecclesiastical alterations, the whole of Huntingdonshire has been transferred from the see of Lincoln to that of Ely. The Bishop of Lincoln has removed for his country residence to Willingham House, near Market Rasen, a modern mansion erected in the year 1790, and formerly the seat of Ayscough Boucherett, esq. M.P. for Great Grimsby.

MR. URBAN, ON the evening of Sunday the 7th instant this Church was destroyed by fire. As one of the few remaining village churches in the neighbourhood of the metropolis, its loss will be a subject of regret; but as the edifice had been for the last fifty years subjected to repairs and alterations from the hands of a succession of parish plasterers and bricklayers, very few of its exterior features remained to attract the notice of the antiquary. In the Gent. Mag. for April 1825, p. 297, a view and description of the edifice, as it then stood, were given from the hands of a gentleman from whom we may shortly expect a regular History of the parish. In this view the character of two successive alterations are shown, exhibiting different varieties of the genuine carpenter's gothic. Since then a still further alteration of the structure had been effected, by which the few remains of the original character were totally obliterated.

In the engraving above referred to, it will be seen that the chancel is a semi-octangular apsis, which, however modernized it had been, still preserved the original form which it had borne from a very early period.

An apsis on a polygonal plan is not absolutely unique, but it is very rarely met with in ancient buildings, and it is not improbable that its adoption in this instance arose from its being founded on the walls of a semicircular Norman chancel. But whatever degree of interest it possessed in its former state was entirely done away with at a reparation which occurred about two years since, when the chancel was taken down, and a square one, with a mullioned window, equally poor in design and execution, was substituted for it.

At the same time this very uncalled for alteration was made, a coat of cement (the direst foe to antiquity) was laid over the walls of the north aisle and tower, which were then made to look as smooth and even as could be wished.

The interior retained more of its original features. In the arches between the nave and aisles were seen the architecture of the fifteenth century, and the eastern end of each was formed into a chantrey. One of these chantries had been effaced when the extreme addition shown in the plate was erected. Since the fire the pillars and arches have been taken down, and the external walls alone have been left

standing. The very elegant stone seats on the south side of the chancel appear to be uninjured, and being the only relic of the old church which has retained anything like originality, we may hope they will be retained in some part of the new structure.

However greatly the alterations of this Church had lessened the value of the structure in the eye of an antiquary, it must be a subject of regret to witness the carelessness with which our ancient churches are regarded, and the little attention which is bestowed to protect them from destruction by fire, notwithstanding so many have been destroyed or endangered by the same cause within the last few years.

Yours, &c. E. I. C.

Feb. 8.

MR. URBAN, CIRCUMSTANCES have enabled me to do what is barely possible to a clergyman or organist, viz. hear the music usually performed in nearly all the churches (with a dozen of the chapels) in London and the suburbs-on the whole, I doubt not, more than 150.

The result is, according to my powers of judging, and general experience in England, a vexatious monotony and poverty of selection, especially from the rich variety of chants, beyond be. lief. The proofs and details I may, with your permission, submit to you very shortly.

I do not think it is generally known that there is one chapel in London in which the whole of the psalms are always chanted, antiphonally. I allude to that in Gray's Inn Lane, under the ministry of the Rev. T. Mortimer, B.D. of Queen's College, Cambridge. The choir consists of twenty boys, wearing surplices, who are regularly taught music by the organist, and sing in parts. No doubt four or six "men "voices would be a happy addition; but, from the number and training, the effect is very good. The interior of this chapel is worth inspection; there is some good carving, in the sterling Louis quatorze style, and the altar recess is a perfect morceau, which would not disgrace a nobleman's chapel.

The following is my original plan for a small paid musical choir, for a

These could chant the Psalms,* and the other portions or "services," and occasionally sing an anthem, as the majestic one of Dr. Clarke, “in Jewry." The "charity children

should not lose their honours and associations: they should be generally employed in the "singing psalms. I know the "pay" appears very small; but it will be recollected that they would have the week at their disposal. And if competent men could be found amongst those who have

seen better days," and boys amongst "orphans," widows' children, &c. it would add a very important object, which ought to stand first charity.

Having opened this new page, allow me to make it the corona operis. I should earnestly rejoice to see in churches generally that pleasing and most legitimate-I would say, essential object-the Poor's Box, more prominently and handsomely placed, with an appropriate text near it, in gold letters; and that the clergyman should not unfrequently remind the congregration of "dropping a trifle" therein. This, as Mrs. Barbauld (if I recollect right) says "is a thing in which all men were made to agree." The times, I believe, have been, when a wealthy citizen or thriving tradesman, on receiving any new piece of good-fortune, would, even if he were not a regular frequenter of the church, put thing more" than a mite in the "Poor box," both as an offering of gratitude to God, and of social duty to his fellow men, which is his Creator's essential service. And I would candidly and very amicably ask him to try whether he would be less happy in mind by doing so now. Yours, &c. P.

some.

*The whole could join in each verse, as is done, on Sundays, with a weak choir, in the nave of the collegiate church, Manchester.

ANECDOTES OF FRENCH AMBASSADORS.

(Continued from p. 144.)

1645-1650." JEAN de Montreuil, one of the members of the French Academy." We learn from his Eloge in Pelisson's "Histoire de l'Académie Française," (1730) tome i. that he had been secretary to Pomponne de Bellièvre; and that from England he proceeded to Scotland, when he used his influence to induce Charles to commit himself to the Scotch; an act, the fatal consequences of which he deeply lamented in after years. His death occurred in 1651.

The simple distinction of Member of the French Academy sufficiently attests the consideration it involved; and it has, consequently, ever been the highest aim of literary aspiration. Instituted in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu, whose eulogy long formed an obligatory part of every new member's address, the number was limited to forty, embracing in their body, from its origin, not only almost every name of eminence in literature, its professed object, but many, such as Buffon, D'Alembert, La Lande, La Grange, La Place, Cuvier, &c. in whom the abstractions of science did not extinguish the culture, or obliterate the taste, of polite letters. But a mighty name, one of the first order, unrivalled, indeed, in a special excellence-which, lustrous and pre-eminent, we should expect to find amidst the fairest monuments and proudest trophies of the society, we miss on the roll of its members. It is that of Molière-a loss, for which the inscription on his statue, the tributary and blended confession of his surpassing glory, and of the Academy's regret for the absence of its reflection on their archives, viz.-" Rien ne manqua à sa gloire-il manque à la tre "-offers a posthumous and expiatory reparation, inadequate, indeed, but the best that words could convey.*

*

* Very recently, M. Boissy d'Anglas, son of the celebrated Conventionalist, at the inauguration of the bust of Molière, on the locality of his birth, (first ascertained by my late friend, M. Alexandre Le Noir, and now forming the number ninetysix, rue St. Honoré, in Paris,) pronounced an eulogy on the poet, in which he laughed to scorn, not only the claim of superiority, but of equality for Shakspere; and this, I know, is the prevalent opinion of his GENT. MAG. VOL. XV.

It was not until 1647 that Corneille-Le Grand Corneille-was admitted. The Cardinal's jealousy had

tension.

countrymen, though certainly now maintained with a daily subdued tone of preAs well may they rank their Mignard, excellent, doubtless, in his kind, and from whom, in consequence, the expression miniature in painting is supposed to be derived, above Raffaelle, or Michel Angelo. But they alone, I believe, of the people of Europe, contest the preeminence of Shakspere; for as, in the classification of human genius, the consentaneous voice of nations assigns the first place, in the transcendant paths of science, to Newton, so an almost equally unanimous assent confesses the precedency of our dramatist as a poet.

"Carmina quinetiam divini pectoris ejus Vociferantur, et exponunt præclara reperta; Ut vix humaná videatur stirpe creatus." Lucret. i. 732.

Molière's powers, on the other hand, though circumscribed within far narrower bounds, must be applauded by every one, cognizant of his language, or who can pursue his penetrating glance into the character of man, its errings, or its foibles, and discern the withering impress of his ridicule on what is affected, perverse, or wayward in the habits of society. Still, immeasurable is his distance from the universal grasp of Shakspere, the truly "affectuum potens dominator," whom, like the assymptote lines, every effort to approach has only tended to make those most competent to appreciate him the more conscious cf their inability to reach. So felt Schiller, and so avowed Goethe. The latter never varied in the expression of his enthusiasm ; but Schiller, similarly to most others, on their first contact with Shakspere, could not, without some difficulty, reconcile to his taste the apparent discrepancies of position and language the approximation and commixture, in the same scene and persons, of the absurd and the sublime, the ludicrous and the dignified,-the ridiculous and the pathetic; but observation and experience soon convinced him, that this great painter of nature was ever faithful to his model, and that, if he did not always choose to array her in her fairest attire, he never failed to present her in a recognizable attitude and genuine forma chequered and dovetailed compound of the great and little-as daily exemplified in the visible bearing and tenor of actual life.

I have above expressed Napoleon's opinion of Corneille, and to Racine it was 2 K