GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE. OCTOBER 1837. BY SYLVANUS URBAN, GENT. CONTENTS. MINOR CORRESPONDENCE.-Family of the Rev. Stebbing Shaw, of Staffordshire. Influence of the Moon's beams.-Offertory Dish at Corbridge.... SLADE'S TRAVELS IN TURKEY, GREECE, &c. PAGE NOTES TO BOSWELL'S LIFE OF JOHNSON.. Homer, Gifford's Tour in Greece, and the Quarterly Review Tessera of Wood on Græco-Egyptian Mummies French Campaigns of Edward III. and the Conduct of Eustace de St. Pierre .. Roman Sepulchral Stone found in London (with a Cut).. MEMORIALS OF LITERARY CHARACTERS, No. XX. Letters from George Stepney to Jacob Tonson 330 331 341 346 349 352 354 356 357 361 362 365 366 Letters of Sir Godfrey Kneller and the Rev. Basil Kennett CHARACTERS, BY SIR HUMPHRY DAVY. Sir Joseph Banks, 366.-Dr. Thomas Young; Dr. Beddoes; Dr. Wollaston; POETRY.-The Owl, 370.-Song, suggested by one in Mackneil's Poems; REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 370 372 376 393 396-400 401-409 • New Publications, 401.-Proceedings of the British Scientific Association- OBITUARY; with Memoirs of the Duchess of St. Alban's; Earl of Cardi- And of a ROMAN SEPULCHRAL STONE found in London. MINOR CORRESPONDENCE. A GENEALOGIST asks for "any particulars respecting the family and relatives of the Rev. Stebbing Shaw, the Historian of Staffordshire. The little I have been able to collect has been principally from your Magazine, and the fullest account in print is that by Sir Egerton Brydges, in vol. LXXIII. i. p. 9. There is also some mention of him in Sir EgerHis father, ton's Autobiography, vol. 1. the Rev. Stebbing Shaw, was of St. John's College, Cambridge, and took his degree Qu. where was he of A. B. Dec. 1758. born, and what county did his family originally belong to? what were their arms? and in what way did they come by the name of Stebbing? also, when was he presented to the Rectories of Hartshorn, co. Derby, and Seckington, co. Warwick? He purchased two turns of right of presentation to the Rectory of Hartshorn. His first wife was named Hyatt; and Stebbing Shaw, jun. her only child, inherited from her a small estate near Stone, co. Stafford. By his 2nd wife he had three or more children, viz. Mr. Robert Shaw, ob. 5 Aug. 1792, a youth, at Hartshorn, see Gent. Mag. LXII. p. 771; Miss Mary Shaw, youngest daughter, ob. 6 Aug. 1797, at Hartshorn, in the meridian of her youth, see LXVII, p. 803; and Miss Elizabeth Shaw, the last survivor of the family, attended her brother Stebbing in his last illness, 1803. She afterwards was married to Capt. John Gillam; but, it is believed, did not survive her brother many years (vide Sir Egerton Brydges's Autobiography). When and where did she die? Stebbing Shaw, jun. died in London, 28 Oct. 1802, in his 41st year, born in the spring of 1762. His will was dated, 4 Oct. 1800, and proved in the Prerogative Office, Doctors' Commons, 8 Nov. 1802, in which he bequeathed his whole property to his sister Elizabeth, including the right of presentation for one turn to the Rectory of Hartshorn, with the exception of a 501. share in the turnpike of Hartshorn, to the churchwardens in trust for the good of the poor of the parish. The articles relating to the personal history of the family in Gent's Mag. are vol. LXII, p. 771; vol. LXVII, p. 803; vol. LXXII, p. 1074; vol. LXXII, p. 9. See also Memoir of Rev. Bagshaw Stevens, who died in 1200." C. W. L. remarks, This passage in the Psalms of David, so that the sun shall It not burn thee by day, nor the moon by We feel obliged by the Drawing sent us WART: DER: I: NFRIBGEь· (engraved in Gent. Mag. March 1786). Mr. Gustavus Brander had one which had the same design of Adam and Eve; and one with the Israelites bearing the grapes from the valley of Eskcol, is engraved in the Gent. Mag. for March 1783. An essay on these dishes was read before the Literary and Philosophical Society of Hull a few years ago by Charles Frost, Esq. F.S.A. but we are not aware whether it has been printed. Errata. In the Review of Bethlehem, a Poem (July, p.61), the author's name should be BENETT. In stanzas for "you shelving sides," read "your ;" and for "when the lovely palm," read "where the lonely palm." GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE. TURKEY, GREECE, AND MALTA. BY ADOLPHUS SLADE, ESQ. R.N. F.R.A.S. AUTHOR OF "TRAVELS IN THE EAST.' 2 vols. 8vo. Saunders and Ottley. WE do not call the attention of the public to this work for the elegance of its execution, nor will it recommend itself to the favour of the reader by the simplicity of its expression, or the ease and accuracy of its style. The author has lived so long abroad among turbans and trowsers, as to have imbibed insensibly a manner very different from the plain broad cloth expression of his native country. He has talked Lingua Franca till he has half forgotten English, and has engrafted the verbosities, the sesquipedalia verba of the Oriental Nations into our Northern Tongue. His sentences roll forth like the clouds of smoke from his amber chibouque. At each puff, a gigantic metaphor or sounding hyperbole breaks out, spreads itself in huge volumes of half-finished sentences, and gradually disappears in its own darkness. Mr. Slade writes like a diplomatist seated in the flowery pavilions of Tabriz or Teheran. His sayings are round and capacious as the gourds and water-melons of Cassaba or Astrachan; and his descriptions are brilliant as the flowery vallies of Buyukdereh and Kady Keuy. We can hardly give an accurate idea of his style. How he got it, Allah bilir (God knows); for sometimes it rises like a swelling page of the Koran, and then anon it sinks into œcumenical and statistical calculations, in the manner of one of Mr. Hume's choice speeches. Yet, after all, these are but superficial faults, and with them our critical censure is at an end. When the reader has dug through this mass of puff-crust, he will find some valuable viands below. In short, Mr. Slade has not written a book without having something to impart. He has often visited and long resided on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean; the country of rising interest to every state of Europe. He has formed valuable acquaintances among the natives; has observed much of the aims and policy of the different nations whose interests or whose ambition are connected with Turkey and Egypt; has estimated their resources and power; has watched narrowly their aims; and has displayed much intelligence and information in the conclusions he has drawn of the development of their future projects. Mr. Slade, indeed, is at home in the East;-is handin-glove with the chief of the black Eunuchs; talks familiarly of the Seraskier Pasha-the Talleyrand of Turkey; is a great man with the Kodgia Bashi, and the Khandgi of the village; calls an ill-tempered Aga a Pezaveng, and is in raptures, as becomes a young gallant officer, with the gazelle-eyed daughters of Milo. He counts his fortune in piastres and Venetian sequins. Talks of Avanias and Arpaliks for robberies and districts; thinks Sir Thomas Maitland and Kourshid Pasha much greater men than Spring Rice, or even the great O'Connell; and considers the suppression of the office of Grand Vizier more fatal than the sequestration of ten Irish Bishoprics. His imagination and sensibilities are all in the East. What to him are the patronesses of Almack's, or the ladies of the Queen's Bedchamber, compared to the fat beauties of the Bosphorus, who take their airing in carts drawn by cows! What is Lady Jersey or Lady Londonderry (great names in the roll of fashion), when he thinks of Madam de Bouteneff and Madame Sturmer! What is Meux's porter (the English arpa soui) to lips used to the perfume of Sherbet; or a smoky mutton-cutlet and the Satirist newspaper, to one who sighs for the figs and melons of Smyrna, the intrigues of Greece, and the fresh butter of Odessa! But to be serious ;-there are some very important subjects treated of in these volume swith sense and information; such as the comparative ease and comfort of the lower orders in Turkey; the true causes of the Greek revolt; a comparison (and one that it would behove the Admiralty to attend to) between the navy of Russia and our own; the defects of our nautical system as relates to officers of the navy; the plague and quarantine; the personal character of the Sultan; the Russian policy in Circassia; the perseverance of Russia, cemented by Russian discipline and guided by a Venetian depth of counsel; the alliance we should form with Egypt and Mahomet Ali against the designs of Russia; and the plan of making Syria the theatre of war, with the assistance of Egypt and the Pasha of Bagdad, against Russian aggression. These most important subjects are canvassed with considerable knowledge and sound reasoning; and we think it would be advisable for Mr. Slade to print in a separate form that part of his work, a little new modelled, which relates to the future designs and present influence of Russia in the East. It is there that apparently the next great European struggle will take place; and the fleets of Sheerness and of Sevastopol will meet in deadly conflict on the shores of the Bosphorus. "O RUS quando te aspiciam," is our motto. We will begin our Mediterranean voyage at Malta, of which island Mr. Slade remarks, that no acquisition could have proved so valuable to England. Position, towns, harbour, industry-all perfect. Taking possession of Malta might be compared to a man espousing a widow with a good house ready furnished. "Little intercourse exists between English and Maltese families, the one or two exceptions proving the rule. Lord Hastings endeavoured to promote union by having all parties frequently and unformally at the palace, thus raising the natives in their own estimation; but since his lordship's death, separation again widened. In part, I should say, we are to blame. As superiors, it is our duty to make first advances; as superiors, we should drop the national feeling, exclusiveness, which broke up more than one public amusement where the English and natives might mingle without etiquette, without feelings of condescension on one side or the other. Our customs, diametrically opposed, offer, it must be confessed, a bar to sociality. We dine at six; they dine at two. We associate through the instrumentality of cookery and wine; they are satisfied with simple conversazioni. The Maltese, also, are greatly to blame in refusing to learn English; for English people seldom speak other languages with pleasure; for to the employés the Italian language is merely a temporary convenience, is not, as English to a native, of lasting utility. They should have perceived this. Nor have they an excuse. Thirty-six years under our rule, twenty one years annexed to our empire-yet not more than twenty of the natives speak English perfectly. "We may express our regret at the acquisition of English not having always been a sine qua non of public employ, at English not being the authoritative text of the law. Sir John Stoddart (chief justice) argued in favour of the latter; but his opinion was, I think ill-advisedly, overruled, and in 1836 the king's government declared Italian the authoritative text. Forcing one's language may be termed arbitrary; it is nevertheless highly politic and beneficial to the sufferers. We may repent not having done so in Canada. But in Malta the hardship is partial, not involving, in the first place, the sacrifice of a national dialect, and affecting only a small portion of the people. Italian is spoken by about one-tenth only of the population; by one-thirtieth only fluently; by these regarded in the light of an accomplishment, as in their domestic circles (saving in five or six families,) and to their servants, Maltese is used. In law proceedings, the examination of witnesses is conducted in Maltese. If, therefore, a foreign language is to be official in Malta, why should Italian be preferred to English? Why should we, |