GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE. SEPTEMBER 1837. BY SYLVANUS URBAN, GENT. CONTENTS. MINOR CORRESPONDENCE.-Recollections of Eugene Aram.-Tacitus in Ireland -Family of Furbour, &c. &c. .... PAGE 218 Ancient Seal found near Bedford (with a Cut) 239 Account of Darenth Church, Kent (with a Plate of the Font) 240 On Surnames terminating in "Cock". 246 Authorship of the Hymn to Hermes.. 247 Ancient Tomb in Rochester Cathedral (with a Cut) 248 Hume and Gibbon refuted; and Caledonia vindicated ib. History of Balloons and Parachutes ..... Prolixity formerly characteristic of the Venetians, and Piracy of Devonshire. Description of the Library of Mafra, in Portugal O'Rourke's Voice from Ireland; Macnaghten on the present State of Ireland, FINE ARTS.-Societies for the Encouragement of British Art, 286.-New Pub. LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 323 Bill of Mortality-Markets-Prices of Shares, 327.-Meteorological Diary-Stocks 328 Embellished with Representations of the FONT in DARENTH CHURCH, Kent; an ANCIENT TOMB in ROCHESTER Cathedral; and a SEAL found near BEDFORD. MINOR CORRESPONDENCE. CERGIEL states; "In the month of March I was at Wisbeach, and happening to hear that an old woman in the almshouse had been present when Eugene Aram was apprehended at Lynn in the year 1757, I paid her a visit. She informed me, that at the time of his being apprehended, she was a girl of eleven years of age; that he was put into the chaise handcuffed, and that the boys of the school were in tears; that he was much esteemed by them, having been used to associate with them in their playhours. Perhaps, as usher, this was part of his office. I merely give her words. She said, that the picture of his person in the Newgate Calendar, is the express image of him; and she mentioned (what I had heard before, but not with her peculiar phrase) that he always wore his hat bangled, which she explained 'bent down, or slouched.' In Bailey's Dictionary, (my constant resource in difficulties,) I find Bangle-eared, hanging down, flag-eared.' One remark she made, which I think very interesting, and worthy of record. She said, that it had been observed, that in looking behind him he never turned his head or his person partly round, but always turned round at once, bodily. I give you her very words. Has any poet, any observer of nature, ever depicted this instance of fear mustering up resolution? I do not remember any description of the kind. How thankful would Mr. Bulwer have been for the anecdote, could he have received it in time! How quickly would Sir Walter Scott have noted it down! Few people in a morning gossip learn a new anecdote of human nature; and, grateful for it, I record the old lady's name-Beatley. In C. W. L. remarks: "In your last number, (p. 144,) was a dissertation on a passage respecting Ireland in the Life of Agricola, by Tacitus. It may be worth while to mention the reading in other editions than those there quoted. that without date, but assigned to 1470, it stands. "Solum cœlumque et ingenia cultusque hominum haud multum a Britannia differt. In melius aditus portusque per commercia et negociatores cogniti." The edition of 1515 has the same reading, except there is a comma at 'differt; and in both, 'in melius' clearly refers to aditus portusque;' and that the harbours of Ireland were more frequented than those of this country, if we consider the quantity of gold it produced, is very probable; but when the whole passage is considered, it can by no con struction be made to confer the praise of superior refinement on either country." W. remarks: "In June, p. 688, you have recorded the death of the Hon. Randal Plunkett, eldest son of Lord Dunsany. There was certainly a rumour some time since circulated in the Newspapers of this gentleman's death, but it turned out to be without foundation. Another error to which I would direct your attention is, that of calling (July, p. 98) the late Mr. Thomas Cayley Shadwell, of Gray's Inn, a Barrister. This gentleman was a Solicitor, and I believe, half brother to the Vice-Chancellor." INDAGATOR HERALDICUS inquires for any information respecting the family of Furber, and particularly what arms they bore. It appears that a family of this name antiently existed in the county of Cumberland; for I find Alan and Henry le Fourbour mentioned as holding lands in that county. (Rotul. Orig. temp. Edward III.) and Henry le Fourbour is therein also stated to have held a messuage, with appurtenances, in the town of Berwick. The Calendar of the Patent Rolls, (19 Edward III. part. 3, m. 24,) states, that the king confirmed to Robert le Fourbour, in tail general, one bovate of land, two messuages, and forty-three acres of meadow in Ouchthorp, in the ville of Stanleigh, to hold of the king by the service of one rose. And I find in Palgrave's Parliamentary Writs, that Henry de Furber was manucaptor of Robert de Grenesdale, citizen returned for Carlisle, 24 Edw. I. It seems that some of the same name existed also in the West of England; for Robert le Furbour was manucaptor of various persons returned to Parliament for Malmsbury, in the 1st, 7th, 15th, and 33d Edw. I. Thomas le Fourbour was manucaptor of Angerus Bustard, burgess returned for Totnes, 15 Edw. II.; and one of the same name was appointed Collector of the Customs upon Wool, &c. in the port of Exeter, by commission tested at Westminster, 16th July, 20th Edw. II. If I am not misinformed, a family of this name still existed at no very remote period, of whom I find that John Furber, esq. was appointed Major in the 3d Foot Guards, on the 30th Sept. 1760." The acceptable communications of G. M. have been received. The Corbridge latten dish was of foreign manufacture: we will explain further next month. GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE. ILLUSTRATIONS OF HUMAN LIFE. BY THE AUTHOR OF "TREMAINE" AND "DE VERE." 3 VOLS. 1837. AMIDST the multitudinous host of writers, male and female (without mentioning maids of honour*), who pour out their shoals of novels, romances, and every variety of fictitious history, and who are commonly believed to receive a richer reward for their labours than any other class of the proletari of the publishers; there is no one, we think, who has brought to his pleasing occupation a mind more enriched with the best knowledge, drawn from the study of books; an experience of life more various and mature; an observation more attentive, or a taste more elegant and exact, than the author of Tremaine; if the test of merit in a work be that decies repetita placebit; that it often recalls us to its pages, and by a kind of intellectual fascination compels us to wander again and again over scenes that are familiar to us; if we can draw instruction and delight from its passages of moral wisdom and well-selected description, long after the outline or even details of the story have ceased to interest or surprise; if the sentiments please, the opinions instruct, and the arguments convince; if we can find an amusement in tracing the favourite studies and pursuits of the author, sometimes in his language (perhaps a word dropt from Shaftsbury or Temple); by his quotations (a sentiment from Montaigne, in his quaint, picturesque style); sometimes by a casual hint, and sometimes by a well-sustained opinion; if the moral landscape which we have contemplated recurs to the mind with all the dewy freshness and vernal bloom in which we first beheld it; if the pictures of society are such as to draw us again into their pleasing circle, and are not seldom recalled to memory by associations apparently casual, and resemblances suggested by the activity of a delighted fancy;-the work of such an author may be considered as a valuable and authentic addition to our stores of amusement and instruction, And hence the charm historic scenes impart, Aërial forms, in Tempe's classic vale, Glance through the gloom, and whisper in the gale. The volumes that are now before us yield, we think, neither in justness of design nor happiness of execution, to their predecessors: various pictures of human life, and different portraits of characters, are drawn, parts of which their leading features-have been evidently suggested by the observation of the writer,-characters whom he has met with in the saloon, or in the senate house, in the varied walks of public or private life, and which are not distorted and disfigured by exaggerated attempts at effects and contrasts too violent to be true. Nor is our pleasure, as they pass in review before us, at all diminished by believing that here and there we discover the real features of some character not unwelcome to our recollections, under the half-transparent mask of a graceful fiction, and recognize the well-known outline of the form beneath the opening foldings * Horace Walpole divided mankind into Males, Females, and Maids of Honour. of the robe. Are we wrong in our surmise, when we imagine that we see, under the character of the Master of Littlecote, the amiable, the enlightened, the injured Hastings? And are there not some features, but perhaps too severe, that seem drawn for the late Mr. Coleridge, in the tutor of Lord S. and which, if it be so, is the solitary passage we would willingly see removed. Upon the whole, Mr. Ward (for why should we conceal from public gratitude a name that cannot be mentioned without respect, as well for the refinement of the mind of the writer, the elevation of his sentiments, and the purity of his taste, as for the sober and sound religious views that harmonize the whole), has in the present work fully sustained his previous reputation, and has given a work to the public, which deserves to be remembered, long after the great mass of creations contemporary with his have melted into obscurity; and which will be found on our shelves beside the honourable names, we know none higher, yet all females, of Inchbald and Austin, of Burnet and of Ferriar. We will now turn our attention to one or two of the tales. The first story is called Atticus, or the Retired Statesman, and the interest of it turns on the endeavour to recall to the duties of active life, and to the support of a disorganized and divided party, one who had once filled honourable employments in the service of his sovereign; but who, guided by his characteristic moderation, had taken leave of his former pursuits, and retired into the privacy of a country life, to cultivate his quiet tastes and the natural and philosophic disposition of his mind, and to prepare himself for a better world. It was believed by his friends that he would not be proof against the usual temptations of power and interest, which had seduced other statesmen back to a world they had professed to abandon. He chides the tardiness of every post, 'Tis criminal to leave a sinking State: Flies to the levee, and, receiv'd with grace, Kneels, kisses hands, and shines again in place. The description of the rural mansion which Atticus had selected for his residence, and which he had called Llirias,' from Gil Blas, with the scenery around it, is lightly and pleasantly touched off. The stone bridge of four arches with the river rattling below, the adjacent water mill, the long ascent through umbrageous trees, and the group of country girls at the door, form a pretty painter's landscape. "We entered a handsome library, rather large for a hermit, and furnished with all appliances for its purpose; and from its old fashioned windows we beheld a gay and variegated garden, or court of flowers, whose perfume scented the whole air without, and regaled all within. This with a fountain murmuring in the middle, and freshening all with its foam, made me fancy myself in the Temple of Flora." The first conversation turns on gardens, and the pleasure they afford to the natural taste and unembarrassed mind. "The ground immediately under the windows of the library was a perfect paradise of sweets, arising indeed from very simple flowers, but set off too with ornament; partaking more of the Italian style than perhaps would have been approved by Kent or Repton, though by no means of the school of Le Nôtre, between which two schools it puzzled the amiable author of Les Jardins' to decide.* There were "Les "Je ne décide pas entre Kent et Le Nôtre." See the exquisite little poem Jardins" of Delille. If the reader wish to examine the taste of Le Nôtre, let him here some classical urns, statues, marble balustrades, and fountains, giving richness, but without destroying nature; and some, but very few, expensive exotics. In fact, my friend was simple (perhaps too simple), and even frugal in his tastes. To say nothing of the rose, the queen of The mention of Le Nôtre suggested "I was not without the hope that the public character and conduct of that monster of pride, by exciting the public virtue and patriotism of Atticus, might come in aid of my object. At least, I thought it had better chance of doing so than philosophy and gardening, which now seemed so much to absorb him. I had indeed resolved to examine him shrewdly, and search whether something of old ambition, and the raciness of power and party, might not still remain, a lurking ember in his heart, to be blown hereafter into flame. But in vain. All I could get from him was, that Louis was like his prototype Nebuchadnezzar, an image of selfishness, ostentation and cruelty, allowed by Providence, for inscrutable purposes, to be a pest to mankind. He was the Assyrian,' exclaimed Atticus, of Holy Writ; like him the rod of anger' of the Almighty, and like him, perhaps, greeted on his arrival in hell by all other preceding rods,' -who, we are told, rose from their thrones to receive him, and expressed wonder that one so great should be condemned like them.' 6 the garden, he found pleasure in the humble, though gay polyanthus; the still more humble daisy; the ranunculus, auricula, anemony,; the glowing violet, infant of the spring;' and even primroses and marigolds dotted and adorned his many-coloured beds." that of his master Louis XIV. "Seeing me moved with curiosity at this not obvious but forcible allusion, Atticus asked if I did not recollect the sublime imagery of Isaiah, when he recounts the arrival of this Assyrian in Hades. Hell from beneath is moved for to meet thee at thy coming: it stirreth up the dead for thee, even all the chief ones of the earth: it has raised up from their thrones all the kings of the nations. Art thou also become as weak as we? Art thou become like unto us? How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! Our friend repeated these stirring verses in a tone so glowing, and a manner so fervid, that I really felt myself almost as enthusiastic as he; and I thought no more about Louis XIV. except to ponder how he and all other heroes of the world, kings, ministers, partizans, or fine ladies, must sink into nothing under such considerations. It had also another effect; as, when I observed how earnest our friend was in this burst, I began to think in despair of the event of my mission." The love of gardening calls up the recollection of the eminent men who have dignified it by their approbation, and found pleasure in its simple amusements after the ambition of life had faded away; of Addison, the mild and virtuous moralist; of Bolingbroke, of Temple, and of the poet of Chertsey. Le sage à son jardin destine ses vieux ans. And then Atticus moralizes not inelegantly, nor unprofitably, on the fleeting and unsubstantial pageantry of all objects that centre in merely worldly views. "No! no! There are no orators, aristocrats, or exclusives in Heaven, whatever we may think of it.' • All this is incontestible,' said I; but do you mean that, because all must quit the world, we are not to attend to its interests while in it?' 'Clearly not,' he replied; but the difficulty is to distinguish between the world's interests and our own. A grandiloquent minister, finding his grandeur in a little danger, cries out, Vain pomp and glory of the world, I hate you!' He assures his audience that he took office against his will, knowing that he was too old for it; but he must not abandon the king. He therefore remains a little longer; that is, as long as he can. Another grandee has also a duty to perform (of course to the country), and cannot refuse to save that country, by refusing to coalesce with the party that is uppermost. A third suddenly discovers that he has been refresh himself with the plates of "Les belles maisons de la France."-AUTHOR. Or let him go to Kensington Gardens (?) or Greenwich Park, which were laid out by him.-EDIT. |