THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE. APRIL, 1834. BY SYLVANUS URBAN, GENT. CONTENTS. PAGE MINOR CORRESPONDENCE.-Horace Walpole's Works.-Ancient Needlework.- THE RECORD COMMISSION Highgate Chapel, Middlesex (with a Plate).. The Visions of Piers Plowman Analecta Anglo-Saxonica.... Dagger Sheath designed by Holbein (with an Engraving). 361 364 372 380 385 391 393 394 400 QUESTIONES VENUSINA, No. II. Horace the Poet against Scaliger the Critic 399 Gilpin's Forest Scenery, by Sir T. D. Lander, 401.-Milnes's Memorials of FINE ARTS.-Designs of Cellini... Pictures at Exeter Hall, &c. LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. New Publications, Learned Societies, &c.. ANTIQUARIAN RESEARCHES.-Society of Antiquaries .... 417 418 420 424 425 HISTORICAL CHRONICLE.-Proceedings in Parliament, 429.-Foreign News, 432.-Domestic Occurrences, 434.-Promotions-Births-Marriages..... .... 435 OBITUARY.-Lord Viscount Galway, 437.-Lord Viscount Exmouth, 437.Hon. George Lamb, 437.-Sir W. J. Twysden, Bart. 438.-Sir William Strickland, Bart. 439.-Sir William Clayton, Bart. 439.-Sir William Rumbold, Bart. 439.-William Danby, Esq. 440.-Robert Surtees, Esq. 440.A. B. Drummond, Esq. 441.-William Gosling, Esq. 441.-Gen. Sir Kenneth Douglas, 441.-Major-Gen. Bentinck, 443.-Colonel Cameron, 444.Lieut.-Col. Hart, 444.-Lieut.-Col. W. Irving, 444.-Capt. R. Cathcart, R.N. 444.-Capt. Benj. Carter, R.N. 445.-Capt. Hoppner, R.N. 445.Capt. Skyring, R.N. 446.-M. Dulong, 446.-Gaspar Hauser.. CLERGY DECEASED.. DEATHS, arranged in Counties 447 449 451 Bill of Mortality-Markets-Prices of Shares, 455-Meteorological Diary-Stocks 456 Embellished with a View of HIGHGATE CHAPEL, Middlesex; Representations of a DAGGER SHEATH designed by HOLBEIN; and the SYLVAN GIANTS of the CITY PAGEANTS. MINOR CORRESPONDENCE. G. W. L. remarks, "The interesting notices of the Letters of Horace Walpole to Sir Horace Mann, in the recent numbers of the new series of your valuable Magazine, induces me to inform you that I have a copy of the first edition of the Catalogue of Royal and Noble Authors, printed at Strawberry-hill, MDCCLVIII. On a fly-leaf, the latter has written To Sir Horace Mann, Bart. from the Author'--a small space intervening, 'To his Excellence Count Firmian, from his most humble and most obedient servant, Horace Mann.' I have also a copy of 'Miscellaneous Antiquities, or a Collection of Curious Papers, &c.' 4to. Numbers I. and II. Strawberry-hill, printed by Thomas Kirgate, MDCCLXXII. On a fly-leaf, "This was presented to me by the late Earl of Orford. There were no more numbers printed than the two here given.--MARK NOBLE.' "And now, to refer to Mr. Martin's plate of the fac-simile of the binding of the copy De Antiquitate Ecclesiæ Britannicæ. I have a beautiful small cabinet, formerly belonging to a lady, who set a high value on it, it having been a great many years in the same family. It has been preserved with such care, that the colours are nearly as rich and vivid as when first worked. It is evidently a similar specimen with that in the engraving, and the figures are equal, if not superior, to those in the print. The following description was on a paper within: On the top, on one side of a dessert table, sits a gentleman wearing the red ribband, having on a high-crowned hat with a feather in it. Opposite to him is a lady handsomely dressed. The gentleman is holding up a glass of wine. On the front is a buck-at the back a leopard; on one side a lion-the opposite an unicorn; a variety of butterflies, flowers, &c. all embroidered on white satin; and looks amazingly fresh, considering the number of years it has been done. The height 6 inches, the breadth 7, and it stands on four small legs, which once resembled silver. The inside contains a mirror, inkstand, two private drawers, &c.' The cabinet is richly ornamented with silver thread or lace, and the edges of the drawers &c. inside, are covered with silver paper." Our correspondents, Mr. MILNER and ONE OF THE SCEPTICS, must permit us to defer the discussion of the power of the Bow to another number. I. inquires in what part of Cheshire Lilley Hall is situated. SIR CHARLES MORGAN, 1628.-WILL OF SIR THOMAS MORGAN, 1585. A. writes, "I have only recently observed in your number of November, 1832, the query addressed to me by your correspondent A. D. in reference to my memoir of Sir Henry Morgan, the Buccaneer, given in your volume of the same year. I regret that I am unable to affiliate the Sir Charles Morgan, that famous Colonell,' of whom he is in pursuit, and whose daughter and heir he states to have married Walter Strickland. In the lists of knights, I cannot find mention of Sir Charles, neither does his will appear to have been recorded in the Prerogative Court. All I know of his history is from Clarendon, and other writers, who describe his exploits in defending the town of Stoad, on the Elbe, in 1628. There was a Sir Thomas Morgan, a colonel, and emphatically designated as "the Warrior;" but he died in 1595. From his will, it would appear that he married in the Low Countries, as he calls his wife Dame Anna de Merode. The other persons named by him (and his testamentary dispositions are curious) are as follow: His daughter Anna Morgan, and sons Morrice and Edward. To the latter, he bequeaths his sorrell gelding, 157., and also his short shaggy cloak; to Lord Essex, his best rapier and dagger; to Lord Pembroke's son, the Lord Herbert, his best petternal, with a key, flask, and touch box;-to the Lord Chamberlain, his gray hobbie. He also mentions his cousin Proger, and bequeaths his gilt armour to his nephew, Sir Matthew Morgan, Knt.-this Sir Matthew was of Penkarne in Monmouthshire. I have extended my observations to the history of Sir Thomas, from the circumstance of his coat armour being nearly similar to that of the Buccaneer, as described in the Gentleman's Magazine for 1832, and the mention there made of Penkarne.-“ A close examination of what are called the Protheroe Manuscripts, at the Heralds' College, might possibly conduct A. D. to the object of his inquiries." J. B. remarks, "The Author of the book intitled 'The Lord High Steward of England,' (March, p. 269), was Sambroke Nicholas Russell, A.M., of whom see 'Nichols's Illustrations of Literature,' III. 747." The silver coin described by M. is most probably a cast made from a mould of the large brass of Caligula. We have seen many Neros cast in this manner. THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE. CONVERSATIONS OF LORD BYRON, BY THE COUNTESS OF ENOUGH, we think, and more than enough, has been said and written on two subjects connected with Lord Byron, his Poetry and his Life. With regard to the latter, great and indisputable as were its errors, still they are not to pass without censure, who have made those errors public, and given a willing notoriety to his follies and crimes, in order to feed the cravings of their own vanity, or to satisfy feelings still more sordid and despicable. In the present day, if the public will but pay the biographer his price, he will show them not only into the parlour and the study, but into the inmost recesses-the domestic sanctuary-and amid the affrighted and blushing Penates of the household. That, at one time of his life, Lord Byron avowed his libertinage, and rebellion against the decorum of moral life; his contempt of the opinions of his fellows, his disdain of their judgments; and that he carried these his melancholy and mistaken sentiments into practise, all must reluctantly own; his friends and admirers deeply grieved at his aberrations, and Society frowned as it witnessed the degradation of rank and genius; but still we must say, that all did not follow the golden rule of morality that even the Christian might admire and practise, "Hate the sin, but pity the sinner." Goodness, and religion, and morality forbid that we should wish to throw a veil of excuse over those indecencies which so long agitated the minds and alienated the affections of those who would have paid a glad homage to his exalted genius; but let the voice of justice add, that at least the Biographer and the Associate, who were privileged to enter into the secrets of the Symposium and the Harem, have to answer to the public for having admitted them voluntarily to a sight of the loathsome and revolting orgies; and has not the Public to blame itself, for having suffered a prurient and unhallowed curiosity to disrobe what was surely owing to its own dignity and sense of moral purity to conceal? We can only answer for ourselves, and honestly say, that we should not have been acquainted with the impurities and indiscretions of Lord Byron's Life, had it not been for the communicative pages of Mr. Moore. We heard indeed rumours and unhappy reports; and sad mementos reached us, that another "star of the morning" had fallen; that another child of genius had perished; that the highest intellect had been dragged down by the fleshly and the sensual; that the distempered mind and debased spirit had gone astray; and we believed that we soon read in his Poetry proofs that confirmed us in our opinion that, as the heart is debased, the mind, and soul, and spirit sink with it. But still the nauseating details were spared us. We cared not to know how "the mighty fell": we wished not to analyse the motives, to watch the debasing progress, to dissect the decomposing mind, or to behold the fallen Samson in the lap of the harlot Dalilah. It was more than the old and unhappy history of Burns over again. Lord Byron left England; left it never to return. He did not afterwards violate the sanctity of its domestic morals; he did not, after he left it, do as some he left behind did, "hold up a torch to show his shame the more." Whatever his life was, wretched, debased, and miserable as we grant it to be, and as he found it-for we said from the first, what we believe some passage, either of his own letters, or some inference of one of his biographers, advances, that he sought the shores of Greece partly to free himself from the ties now grown wearisome to him, that held him in this debasing thraldom on the enervating shores of Italy-yet the deeds of darkness, if such they were, were hidden from English eyes; they were shrouded in the forests of Ravenna, or they were concealed in the marshes of Venice. When he said that he wished to forget England and the English,-the English had nothing more to do with him; he was to them as a stranger and an alien. If, therefore, the example of this ill-fated and highly-gifted son of genius should act not as a warning beacon, but as a false and flattering light, that appears only to mislead and to betray; we must say that the friends and biographers of the Poet must be content deeply to share the blame, and to take their portion of the guilt. Perhaps they may say that they had contending difficulties through which they were to find their way; that the irregularities of the Poet's life were so mixed up with the "fiery outbreaks" of his genius, that, had they concealed or passed over the one, they must of necessity have dimmed or extinguished the other, It may be so his letters may be cited as proofs: but surely it was their duty to make the better choice; to reject the corn, if they could only take it together with the poisonous weed; and rather to leave curiosity ungratified, than to risk a contamination of the moral and virtuous mind. We say this in no excuse for Lord Byron, for we know that he meant to have indulged the public with his full, candid, and authentic memoirs; but the memoirs fortunately did not appear, and are buried, we hope for ever, in the chaste bosom of Lady Burghersh: but the biography did, and we much fear that though the rank voluptuousness of its scenes, and the bold, licentious amours depicted in it, may have disgusted many persons of morals not over strict, and even alarmed the timid with the open account of their licentiousness, yet it is impossible to say how far the voice of the Syren has not reached the hearts of the young, the sensitive, and the impassioned; how many, without his genius, have been willing to conceal themselves under its shadow; and what impure and destructive associations may not descend from generation to generation, of the tender and susceptible, when they read the account of the shameless and unhallowed amours, which might make the waters of the Adriatic blush, and have evoked an indignant groan, from the pure and severe Spirit that lay entombed in the forest of Ravenna. We wish not to be mistaken: we neither desire to palliate errors, nor to point the finger of scorn at them. Ours is the voice of sorrow and lament-of deep sorrow and heart-springing lament—to feel that so much genius, such high intellect, such rich endowments, were bestowed in vain; for in vain are all the costliest gifts of Heaven bestowed, if they answer not the purpose which Heaven intended. More deeply we sorrow to think that the soul, ever more precious than the intellect, came not forth purged and pure out of the furnace of earthly passions. Yet God will judge; it is for man to feel and to fear. Something even Lord Byron may say he may allege the fiery temper of his nature-his early wayward passions unchecked, his mind undisciplined, his imperfect education-his fond but failing parent-his lack of discipline, his uncontrolled youth-the ardent temperament of poetic genius-the fascinations of rank : One and fashion, and the allurements of a flattering and admiring world-the temptations of titled beauty, the voice of the syren ;-then the disappointment of blasted hopes-the unequal struggle of duty and evil habits-the consequences of long and headstrong imprudence-the scorn and triumph of the malignant, the envious, and the weak-the alienation of the good-the sorrow and despondence of the affectionate and attached -the daring defiance to society-the defeat-the flight-the rancour and the revenge. Of the poetry of Lord Byron, it is quite enough to say, if the inspiration of his Muse be ever held in question, that it retains the hold it originally made on the public mind. Lord Byron lived among great Poets, and he remains as one of them. If it should be asserted that his popularity will be transient, and his name early forgotten, so it may be predicated equally of any other poet of the present day. But we think he rather rises than falls, at least we can perceive no visible symptoms of decay whatever; so imperfect are judgments, so mixed are human opinions, so fickle are tastes, so strong are rivalries, and jealousies, and conflicting interests, that time can alone impartially decide upon what is truly excellent. would think that in an age of cultivated taste, having examples of excellence before them, it would be an easy task to sift the good from the evil, and at once set the seal of approbation on the productions of genius. But we must consider how few are the real judges, and that the judges of Parnassus, unlike their brethren of the King's Bench, are not sworn to impartiality in their great office. It has been said, we do not know how truly, that the Edinburgh Review kept Wordsworth poor for years. It has been said, we cannot avouch for the truth of the tale, that the Reviewer of that eminent Poet, while he ridiculed and degraded him in writing, praised, read, and enjoyed his poetry in private. We know how all the Lake School, indiscriminately, was laughed at and condemned; but we know too, how, like the Cygnet of its own waters, it rose triumphant over all attacks, and saw its enemies joining, though late, in its triumph. We know learned Oxford Professors, and those now Bishops, who absolutely despised and sneered at Wordsworth's poetry. The Bishop of Down and Connor* wrote some foolish verses against it. Coleridge's Christabel was as a "fool's bauble" for any child to play with. What a difference in those rash judgments have a few years made! Why? -Because the impetus and effect of party feeling has ceased, and left the unbiased judgment to declare its conviction. Scott was pronounced the greatest living poet of Britain :-Where is he now ? and what comparison bear his spirited and picturesque melodrames, to the depth, the power, and the poetic wisdom of some of his cotemporaries? Darwin was once a poet exceedingly popular and admired; and now seldom heard of, and never read. The causes of his popularity, and its decline as rapid as its growth, it would not be difficult to assign, but it is beyond our present view. All, therefore, we mean to allege is, that we believe Lord Byron's poetry to be as much in the favour of men as it ever was, barring that froth and foamy curl which rise with the first breath of public applause, and are soon blown away; and we can say no more of any other contemporary poet. What he excels in is, a bold delineation of character, a powerful description of passion-a vivid, graphic expression-strong lights and shadows-rich veins of of nature, and often the noble and inspired inventions (if such they may be Let the matter be fairly judged: read Wordsworth's Ecclesiastical Sonnets, and those of the Bishop, and judge! A fairer trial between the accuser and the accused could not be the Bishop descended from his tribunal as a critic, to enter the arena as a poet. : |