210 New Entrance to the House of Lords. times, and much difference of opinion has been entertained respecting their retreat. I hope, however, in a subsequent communication, to be able to show that they retire from Europe at the approach of winter, to the warmer parts of the old Continent, and return in spring. T. FORSTER. Mr. URBAN, A Feb. 3. NEW entrance for the King has been recently made to the House of Lords. It is well known that the late Mr. Wyatt made many alterations and additions to the two Houses of Parliament, and intended to adopt his designs to the Gothic structures around -i.e. the Abbey Church, Westminster Hall, and St. Stephen's Chapel. These are certainly all very interesting national edifices, each dissimilar to the others, and each a valuable and important specimen of the architectural style of the times when they were respectively raised. Connected with these buildings are various others of a public and private nature, only one of which, on the West side of the Hall, is worthy of preservation. This is a large structure, faced with Portland stone, and built after the Palladian style. Mr. Wyatt's new works, to the South of the latter, have turrets, battlements, oriels, niches, and a cloister; and therefore enter into comparison, and competition with, the neighbouring antient, ecclesiastical, and palatial edifices. This comparison, however, is much to its disadvantage; for its parts are small and meagre, and its general style will not bear analysis. Had the same forms and parts been applied to "a Gothic villa," to "a citizen's cottage," or to some humble dwelling, we might have passed the building without censure, though we could not have praised it. Here, as constituting the exterior of the Houses of Parliament, we are offended rather than pleased. We are inclined to impeach the liberality or taste of the country, and involuntarily say that this is not worthy of England, or its place of application. It is time, therefore, to see architectural reform; and to see something like art and science combined in the public edifices of the nation. With these feelings, we cannot but hail with exultation and pleasure, the new æra that has commenced with the present Parliament. In the King's entrance we see the exercise [March, and exertion of talent, in giving beauty, variety, and picturesque effect to a comparatively small passage, or staircase. It is an approach from the former cloister, leading out of Palace-yard to the Painted Chamber, and to other rooms connected with the apartment in which the Peers, &c. assemble to discharge their parliamentary duties. As some erroneous statements have been published respecting the spaces, or areas of this entrance, it is but justice to correct these, and thus record facts. The new works may be said to consist of a projecting porch, beneath which the Royal carriage is to be conveyed, and under the shelter of which his Majesty is to alight. The arches of this porch are 14 feet high by 11 feet wide, fully as large as the arched carriage-way at the Horse Guards, from St. James's Park to Parliament-street. The porch is connected with an inclosed cloister, which is 10 feet wide by 12 feet in height, one end of which joins the old cloister, of smaller dimensions, and the other end with the new staircase. This is 10 feet in the narrowest part, from 14 to 20 feet in height, and about 60 feet in length, from the cloister to the Painted Chamber. The ascent is by 21 steps, each five inches in height, and arranged in three tiers of seven steps each. large door-way, with double doors, terminate each end of this apartment. About midway between these two doors, are two large Venetian shaped windows, with Ionic columns, entablatures, &c.; and above these is a lanthorn light, rising from a highly decorated dome. A The ceiling of the staircase is arched; the sides are ornamented and relieved by pilasters, hollows, and various mouldings; and the whole surface is much enriched with roses, genii, foliage, &c. whilst the light is admitted through stained glass of different hues, to produce pleasing tints and fine effect. As a specimen of elegant architectural design-as adapted for a Royal entrance, and leading to the House of Peers of England, which ought to display every thing replete with taste and splendour; the present design, by Mr. Soane, will at once reflect credit on his professional talents, and on the council or committee who have thus given scope to these talents, in such a place, and on such a subject. Let us hope, however, that this is only the beginning Account of the Island of Iona. 1823.] beginning of a great and skilful work; for the House of Lords, and all the connecting apartments, are disgraceful to the wealth, the taste, and arts of our country. J. BRITTON. Mr. URBAN, Feb. 8. AMONG the antient religious in, tablishments now falling to ruin, is the celebrated Nunnery of Iona, or I-colm-kill, one of the Hebrides. A considerable part of the roof has fallen in,and buried the greater number of the beautiful and antique tomb-stones of the sisterhood who are interred beneath. The church of this Nunnery is 58 feet by 20. The floor was thickly covered with cow-dung, except at the East end, which Mr. Pennant had caused to be cleared, and under which the tomb of the last Prioress was discernible, though considerably defaced. The figure is carved praying to the Virgin Mary, with the address under her feet: "Sancta Maria, ora pro me;" and with this inscription round the ledge, in old British characters: "Hic jacet Domina Anna Donaldi Ferleti filia, quondam prioressa de Iona, quæ obiit anno mo. do. ximo cujus animain (altissimo) commendamus." At the first establishment of this religious house by St. Columba, the Nuns resided on a small island near it, still called the "Isle of Nuns." This isle is entirely composed of fine granite, with which all the buildings, afterwards mentioned, have been built. The island of Iona, of which there is a view in vol. LXIII. p. 594, is a small but celebrated island, and was, as Dr. Johnson expresses it, 66 once the luminary of the Caledonian Regions, whence savage clans and roving barbarians derived the benefits of knowledge, and the blessings of Religion." In this Island, and in this most celebrated seat of Religion, was the learned St. Cuthbert educated and brought up in that religion of which he afterwards became such a distinguished ornament. The ruins of its antient religious establishments point out in striking contrast the present state, and its condition when it was the retreat of Learning, while Western Europe lay buried in ignorance and barbarity. When we look on these remains of ancient piety, we must immediately call to mind the 211 sentiments so admirably expressed by the Poet: "I do love these antient ruins; We never tread upon them, but we set Our foot upon some reverend history; And questionless here, in these open courts, Which now lie naked to the injuries Of stormy weather, some men lie interr'd, Who lov'd the Church so well, and gave so largely to't, [bones They thought it should have canopied their Till domesday. But all things have an end. Churches and Cities that have diseases like to men, Must have like death that we have.” The religious edifices in this Island were established by St. Columba about the year 565, who left Ireland, his native country, and landed in the bay of Port-na-currach for the express purpose of teaching Christianity to the Picts. After having converted the Pictish Monarch, he received the property of this Island, where he founded a cell for Canons regular, who, till the year 716, differed from the Church of Rome in the observance of Easter and the Tonsure. The Danes dislodged the Monks in 807, and the Monastery became depopulated for many years; but on the retreat of the Danes, the building received a new order, the Cluniacs, who continued there till the dissolution of Monastic establishments, when the revenues were united to the see of Argyle, and on the abolition of Episcopacy became the property of the Duke. An account of the Cathedral be seen in vol. XLV. p. 166. may On the right of this Cathedral, but contiguous to it, are the remains of the College, some of the cloisters still visible, and the common hall entire, with stone seats for the disputants. This College, or the Monastery, was formerly possessed of a valuable library, which has been destroyed or lost. Boethius tells us that Fergus II. who assisted the Goths under Alaric, at the sacking of Rome, brought away as part of the plunder, a chest of MSS. which he presented to this Monastery; and in former times the archives of Scotland and valuable papers were kept here. Of these, many no doubt were destroyed at the Reformation; but many, it is said, were carried to the Scots College of Douay in France, and the Scots College in Rome; and it is hoped that some valuable papers may yet be discovered. A little to the North of the Cathedral, 212 Iona.-Pew-openers defended.—Agricultural Distress. dral, are the remains of the Bishop's house; and on the South, is a small Chapel dedicated to St. Oran. In this are many tombstones of marble, particularly of the great lords of the Isles. On the South of this Chapel is an inclosure, called Reilia Oran—“the burying-place of Oran," containing a great number of tombs, but so overgrown with weeds, as to render few of the inscriptions legible. A description of this enclosure, in which are buried Scotch, Norwegian, French, and Irish kings, is given in your Magazine, vol. XLIV. p. 510. The reason why Kings of Ireland, Norway, and of France, were ambitious of reposing their bones on this hallowed spot, may be because they would not mix with vulgar dust; but there is a stronger reason than this, and the most probable, as it exists in a belief in the antient Gaelic prophecy, thus translated by Dr. Smith of Camp beltown: "Seven years before that awful day, The green clad Isla too shall sink, This island furnishes many valuable minerals, particularly a beautiful yellow serpentine; and the greater part of it lies upon limestone, which in some places appears in the form of beautiful white marble; in others, dove-coloured; and in some, spotted with green and black spots of a beautiful appearance. In the bay of Portna-currach, there are immense numbers of beautiful pebbles, chiefly serpentine, jasper, granite, marble, lupis nephriticis, nephritic asbestos, violetcoloured quartz, and porphyry. In the bay of Martyrs (so called from its being the place where the dead were landed for interment), is found horn blende, green and red jasper, with specimens of zeolite, &c. The names of this Island are very numerous. At the time of the landing of St. Columba, it was called Inish Druinish"the land of the Druids." The venerable Bede, in his History, calls it H. The Monkish writers gave it the name of Iona, which, if derived from the Gaelic, signifies "the Island of Waves," very characteristic [March, of it in the times of storm; others Mr. URBAN, March 1. N this country there is always a person, till the alleged offence is proved; and even not the less for the humble situation he may hold in society. The situation of the Pewopeners in the Churches of this Metropolis, (see your last Supplement, p. 589.) is a very humble one, but though some may be impertinent, it is hard that no one should vindicate the body of them from a general charge thrown on the whole. It is unjust to charge them with insolence for not opening pews to strangers. Pews in London are let to certain parishioners on their application; a Pew-opener cannot put a stranger into such a pew, without leave of the occupier; and it is well known that many such occupiers will not permit a stranger to be introduced, though there should be only one or two persons in a pew which contains four seats. The abolition of pews is the only remedy. P. 593. That much of the Farmers' distress is owing to the different manner of living which has been adopted by that class of the community, is very true; but it is very untrue that the Landlord should be charged as the cause of it. When the Farmer sold his wheat at 301. 401. or more per load, he paid the same rent during his lease as he paid when 201. a load was deemed a most extravagant price at the commencement of his lease. The Landlord was obliged to pay a highly advanced price for every thing he bought; was it unjust that he should demand a higher rent when the lease expired? but does any Landlord insist on that higher rent, now the price of corn is so reduced? He does not. reduction of rent is, it may safely be said, universal, notwithstanding leases which bind the tenants to pay the high A rent. 1823. Agricultural Distress.—Tithes. Mr. Blair. rent. To treat a reduction of 10 per cent as unworthy of notice, is most highly improper; in many cases, 10 per cent. is as great a reduction as 30 per cent. is in others. But does a reduction, however liberal, insure payment of the remainder? It does not. The Farmer still makes his excuses. His wife and daughters have not left the parlour and the piano-forte for their proper place. One part of what the Farmers feel arises from a circumstance which I have hardly seen noticed. When the wife and daughters attended to the business of the house, the servants were lodged in the house; they consumed part of the produce of the farm in their provisions; they had a good kitchen fire to go to, a comfortable bed to sleep in; they were under the master's eye and controul; -they are now turned out of the house, and day-labourers hired in their room; the consequence is, that when the day's work is done, the young labourer goes to the ale-house; or if he is sober, he gets a room to lodge in, where he has no fire; he looks out for a wife, gets a cottage, and fills it with children, which the Farmer must largely contribute to the keep of, in the shape of Poor Rates. I agree in the propriety of a Property Tax, which must be resorted to, if other taxes are to be repealed; if it could be doubled on those who spend their incomes in France or Italy, so much the better. But the Fundholder possesses property as well as the Landholder, and that not subject to the numberless reductions to which the Landholder is liable, for repairs and loss by tenants, besides the Property Tax, which he would have to pay in common with the Fundholder, whether the rent of the land was paid or not. P. 600. It is unjust to charge all those who wish for a different mode of maintaining the Clergy from that provided for by Tithes, as being inimical to the Established Church. There are few indeed, except Cobbett and the Radicals, who would not willingly pay as good a provision in another shape. The collection of Tithe in kind is attended with numberless vexations; besides, that by carrying away the straw and hay, the manure for the ensuing crop is diminished. A corn-rent has of late been often given on Inclosure Acts, and I have never 213 yet seen a satisfactory objection to it. When that is adopted, the Clergyman is in the same state as the Landlord; it is subject to revisal at short periods; if the price of corn increases, so will his rent; if it falls, he is in the same state as the Landlord; and as to the price, if he collects, when corn is cheap, he must sell it at the lower price. P. 646. Mr. Blair is said to have been Surgeon to the Gerard-street Dispensary. This probably means the Bloomsbury Dispensary in Great Russell-street; in setting which on foot, he and Dr. Pinckard took an active part, offering their gratuitous services. He resigned this situation a few months before his death. Mr. URBAN, NOTATOR. March 5. OBSERVED in your Magazine of January, p. 27, some queries respecting the liability of Glebe Lands to pay Tithes; and finding that no answer is given in the number published this month, I venture to trouble you with a few observations, which, should you not have received others more worthy of insertion, may perhaps afford your Correspondent some little information on the subject. One spiritual person does not pay tithes to another, for "ecclesia decimas non solvit ecclesiæ." Hence a Vicar shall pay no tithes to the Rector, nor the Rector to the Vicar. But these personal privileges (not arising from or being annexed to the land) are personally confined to the Clergy, for their tenant or lessee shall pay tithes, though in their own occupation their lands are not titheable. Hence, if the Vicar is endowed with Glebe Lands, and he leases them, the Lessee shall pay tithes of such lands to the Parson. Now the Appropriator, or Impropriator, possesses the same rights as the Rector, although not a spiritual person; hence, I conceive, that when the Vicar leases his Glebe Lands, the Impropriator is legally entitled to the tithes from such Lessee. It appears from a case in Sir F. Moore's Reports, p. 910, that the Parson himself shall pay small tithes to the Vicar if the land comes to the parsonage after the endowment. But by the 55 Geo. III. c. 147, power is given to the Parson or other Incumbent of sinall 214 On Glebe Lands-Wonderful Effect of a Charm. small livings to purchase lands, which lands shall be annexed to and become Glebe of such living to all intents and purposes whatsoever: and by the same Statute the Governors of Queen Anne's Bounty are empowered to lend money for the purpose of buying such additional lands: therefore I conceive that lands purchased by Queen Anne's Bounty, nnder this Act, may be considered in every respect as other Glebe Land. However, it must be remembered, that the rights of the Vicar depend upon his particular endowment, so that there may be exceptions to some of the general rules upon this subject. X. Y. THE days of miracle and chivalry, we are told, have gone by,witches, fairies, ghosts, and goblins, are laid full many a fathom deep in the Red Sea. But charms and amulets, those sacred arcana of superstition, at the disposal of cunning men, are still in full possession of their accustomed powers, and wield an influence over the mind not to be controuled by reason and experience. The following is a true recital of a fact positively within my own knowledge. My brother has a considerable farm in Worcestershire. His tenant is a yeoman of some substance, intelligent, rational, and in common reputation a man of sound sense and good understanding. About two years since, the landlord and the farmer met; questions of kindness and courtesy passed; and the latter expressed himself happy in his children, and prosperous, though things were not as they had used to be. His boys were grown into manhood, and shared in his daily toil. His girls were good housewives, contented and healthy; all, save one, and she had sickened long under a sad disease, which, wasting her strength, had brought her nearly to the grave. The anxious father had consulted every medical practitioner of note the country round, and had sought at Gloucester that certainty of relief, which the high talents of its medical professors so naturally promised. A large glandular swelling on one side of her neck, drained from her the whole strength of life; and still no relief was found; [March, it was pronounced incurable. At this time a cunning man of high reputa tion presented himself, and proposed the experiment of a charm, which, under similar circumstances, had been universally successful. He examined the part minutely, and left the patient, requiring neither the exhibition of medicine, or attention to diet. Nature was to be his only handmaid. Now comes the extraordinary fact. He caught a frog, no matter where; and with his knife inflicted a wound on that part of its neck, corresponding exactly with the seat of disease in the patient's, and then suffered the animal to escape. "If (said he) it lives, the disease will gradually waste away, and your daughter recover: but if the creature dies in consequence of this injury, there is then no hope; the malady will continue to increase, and a painful though it may be a lingering death will be the certain consequence." Some time after this interview, my brother and his tenant met again; and what was the strange result? the charm had prospered, or rather Nature had triumphed; because, perhaps, left to her own powerful resources;— the maid no longer suffered; the disease had dispersed without any medical assistance, and the " cunning man has established a character and a practice which, until Nature plays him some mischievous trick, will crown his name with honour, and fill strong box with more substantial testimonies of the credulity of his THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. A FEW words more on the subject of George Wakefield (see January, p. 14). It is quite clear that he and Edward Moore produced very similar compositions. Which borrowed from the other, may not be so easy to decide. Wakefield outlived Moore, and therefore had the advantage of being able, without contradiction, to assert his own priority of claim. Each has a poem entitled "The Lover and the Friend," and at the end of W.'s is placed this note: "The original copy of this bears date previous to the late ingenious Mr. Moore's production. And, as it was read to him, in an hour of intimacy, perhaps somebody prevailed upon him to write one similar." Possibly |