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OCTOBER, 1844.

BY SYLVANUS URBAN, GENT.

CONTENTS.

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MINOR CORRESPONDENCE.-Organ of St. Luke's, Old Street-Lockhart's
Bernal Diaz-House of Peers temp. Hen. VII.-Descendants of Lloyd Bp.
of Worcester-Outward Confessionals-Christ crucified on a Bush

PRESCOTT'S HISTORY OF THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO

Sedilia in Leominster Church, Herefordshire (with Cuts)

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Epitaph of the Black Prince at Canterbury

Epitaph of Curran at Clifton

REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS.

Mrs. Houston's Texas and the Gulf of Mexico, 385; Erdeswick's Survey of

Staffordshire, and Garner's Natural History of the County of Stafford, 388;

Brockedon's Italy, 390; Miss Strickland's Lives of the Queens of England,
Vols. VI. and VII. 392; Barry Cornwall's English Songs, 393; Weale's
Quarterly Papers on Architecture, 395; Lord Leigh's Walks in the
Country, 397; Fosberry's Hymns and Poems for the Sick, ib.; Archæo-
logia, Vol. XXX. Part. II.

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LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.

New Publications, 402; Mechanics' Institute, Devonport

FINE ARTS.-Modern Race-cups..

ARCHITECTURE.-Temporary Church at Kentish Town

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Embellished with a View of a DRUIDICAL TEMPLE near SHAP; and with an
Engraving of SCULPTURED FIGURES on a SHRINE found at YORK.

MINOR CORRESPONDENCE.

Amongst the Organs mentioned in our last Magazine was that at St. Luke's, Old Street, which has lately undergone very considerable additions and improvements, so as to place it among the first in London. We are now informed by the Rev. Benj. C. Sangar, M.A. Curate and Evening Lecturer of St. Luke's, that the money which was required for this purpose was not raised by the sale of tickets, (for not one was sold,) but by the voluntary contributions of the parishioners and freeholders-varying from 201. to 51.

Mr. JOHN INGRAM LOCKHART, editor of the translation of the Memoirs of Bernal Diaz del Castillo, has addressed to us a letter explaining that the slight variation of the number of chapters in his translation from those in the original Spanish edition of 1632, has been occasioned by the erroneous numeration of one of the chapters in the latter. Mr. Lockhart's division is therefore only a proper correction of the original. He also offers some notes explaining why he has called the cannon presented to the Emperor, Charles V. a silver cannon, instead of gold, silver, and copper, as it certainly is described in the passage pointed out by our reviewer. (After all, we suggest that it was a brass cannon, inlaid with gold and silver ornaments.) Also why he suppressed some passages of the original Spanish, as redundant and superfluous; and why he followed Torquemada instead of the author he was translating, Bernal Diaz, in calling the Emperor Montezuma, Motecusuma and not Montecuma, as Diaz constantly styles him. All our reviewer has observed is substantially correct, according to Mr. Lockhart's own showing.

In Coningsby " we are told, that "when Henry the Seventh called his first Parliament there were only twenty-nine Temporal Peers to be found, and even some of them took their seats illegally, for they have been attainted. Of those twenty-nine not five remain, and they, as the Howards for instance, are not Norman nobility." If any correspondents would take this as a text, "One who is no Antiquary, but a Politician," thinks that his discourse would be generally interesting.

In the pedigree which accompanies a memoir of Bishops Lloyd and Morgan, in our Volume for 1826, it is stated, that the Rev. William Lloyd, D.D. son of William Bishop of Worcester, died without issue. Mr. EDWARD PROTHEROE, jun. states that this is an error. He was twice married, and had issue by

both wives. His male descendants became extinct on the death of John Lloyd his son; but his representative in the female line is Thomas Barwick Lloyd Baker, Esq. now of Hardwick Court near Gloucester.

W. S. is indebted to the article in July No. on the subject of "Confessionals still existing in English Churches," for the suggestion that a circular aperture in the southern chancel wall at Coombes in Sussex (which during a recent visit attracted the notice and roused the conjectures of himself and a companion) was formerly used as an outward confessional. The aperture is close by the small door, formerly called the priest's entrance to the chancel. The village itself, consisting of but some half dozen cottages, though from its extreme seclusion but little known, is one of the most picturesque and romantically situated of our English hamlets. The church, or rather chapelry, is said to have been a dependency on the neighbouring priory of St. Botolph's.

In the same No. p. 77, is mentioned a drawing from a fresco in Godshill Church, Isle of Wight, exhibited at the meeting of the Society of Antiquaries, June 20th, representing Christ crucified on a bush. It seems to me that by this (as it appears) unusual peculiarity of detail, the artist may have desired whilst representing the sacrifice of our Saviour, the antitype, to recall to the mind and place before "the eyes of the faithful" the prophetical one of Isaac, the type. St. Ambrose, (lib. 1, de Abraham Patriarchâ, c. 8), says, "Et ecce aries unus suspensus cornibus, in virgulto Sabec. Aries hic cornibus hærens et suspensus inter vepres significat Christum in cruce suspensum virgultum illud, patibulum crucis est." Procopius says of the ram, that it appears "instar ascendentis in arbore Sabec; nec tantum cornibus sed pedibus etiam anterioribus iniquum hæsisse in illius arboris ramis, eâque figurâ Christum in arboris crucem ascendentem, et in eâ pendentem, repræsentasse." Athanasius, (lib. Quæst. ad Antiochum, q. 98,) says, there is also a mystical meaning in the name of the bush, Sabec, which may be translated remission, obtained for us by the Cross of Christ. "Planta Sabec est veneranda crux. Juxta Hebræos videtur Sabec remissio esse, et condonatio."

ERRATA. P. 208. Rear-Admiral Wise died on the 29th April.

At page 137, line 9 of the note, 211 should be 411. And in page 140, line 24 of the note, after the word-" called "by Burke, should have been added.

THE

GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE.

History of the Conquest of Mexico. By William Prescott. 3 Vols. 1843.

THOUGH all histories coincide in their general purpose and aim of imparting to us a knowledge of some portion of mankind, during a certain period of their existence; yet, in effecting this, they may vary their style and manner, according to the genius of the writer, the particular purpose he has to accomplish, or the nature of his subject. What may be called the general style of historical writing, which is more usually adopted than any other, is when the writer, enumerating the facts that occur, separating what is essential and important from what is accidental or trivial, then reasons on what are the probable causes connected with them. Thus history becomes philosophical, drawing general inferences, revealing important truths, and obtaining instruction for the future from the experience of the past. In this manner of writing, among the Greeks, Thucydides stands pre-eminent; and Tacitus among the Romans. We see in them the great masters of political wisdom; judging, as from a higher survey of good and evil, of wisdom and of folly, of moral strength or weakness; connecting causes with events, tracing back important results unto their secret springs, and penetrating into those remote doctrines of the future which an ordinary eye would fail to reach. In the same class, in later times, we should reckon Davila, and Hume, and Gibbon, and others of no inferior claims in our own times. At one of the two extremes of this division, lies that species of history which in the hands of Machiavel became purely philosophical or didactic; in which the facts are used as mere illustrations of the principles, and comprehensive conclusions are drawn from certain events, and the consequences that have resulted from them, and in which the clear and comprehensive mind of the philosopher fixes its attention solely on the general results for the just deduction of inferences. At the opposite extreme is seen what may be called the picturesque narrative, in which class the old chroniclers for the most part will be found, and such histories as that of Froissart and Monstrelet; which style has lately been revived under the eloquent pen of Mr. Barante, in his "History of the Dukes of Burgundy," and of Chateaubriand in his "Genius of Christianity." Here, dismissing all fine and subtle analysis of motives, or remote deduction of consequences, or logical inferences, or penetrating criticism, or ingenious and probable theories, the writer simply mentions his field of action, produces his characters, and gives life to his picture, by the skilfulness of his grouping, the animation of his action, and the variety and splendour of his colouring. With such a pencil as this, the Greek historian already alluded to has described that memorable expedition of the Athenian army to the conquest of Sicily, from its commencement, when it left the harbour of the Piræus, like a triumphal procession, and the inspiring sounds and melody of musical in

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