APY INDIANA UNIVERSITY LIBRARY LONDON: J. B. NICHOLS AND SON, PRINTERS, 25, PARLIAMENT STREET. 3-1-60 PREFACE. WE have little to communicate to our readers in our present half-yearly address, but to ask a continuation of that confidence and assistance which is the best reward of our diligent and continued occupation. We cannot, however, pass over in silence the sudden and awful change that has taken place in almost every part of the civilized world. As great convulsions of nature extend their fatal influence even to the remotest shores, so the late political tempests that have swept away with terrific violence the "thrones and dominations" of the earth, have not failed to reach every humbler place, and to affect every local and personal interest; to disturb the calm pursuits of philosophy, and even to invade and break up the accustomed channels of literature. The same causes which have diminished the desire to possess and the power to purchase old books, have also prevented or greatly diminished the publication of new ones. The great printing press of the world of letters is almost standing still, or is only engaged in the daily propagation of political news,—in stimulating the curiosity of those who hope to profit by disturbances, or in tranquillizing the fears of others who tremble for the possessions they have already acquired. Occupied, therefore, as the general mind is at this awful moment with anxieties both of the present and the future, it is in vain to hope that literature in any of its varied branches will re-assume its wonted activity till these commotions and changes have subsided, and the disturbed waters of strife have returned into their proper channel; till those who write can expect a just reward for their labour, and those who read can bring to their studies minds freed from the personal anxieties and dangers that surround them; for, in the language of the poet,-Res est imperiosa timor. It is therefore very possible that as less knowledge reaches us, we may have less also to communicate to our readers; but we will do what we are able, and our readers may rely on our continued exertions to supply them with notices of those publications which mark the progress of literature, and of the proceedings of those societies which are periodically diffusing fresh information on science and on art. We wish our materials to be useful, we hope that our criticisms are just, and we shall continue to adhere to that maxim which has always been our guide, "That it is better to know something thoroughly, than every thing superficially." S. URBAN. June 30, 1848. E PLURIMUS UNUM. MINOR CORRESPONDENCE.-Family of Sancroft Colonel Barré and Mr. Great- rakes-Ecclesiastical Council-Statistics of Mortality.. Literary and HISTORICAL MEMORIALS OF LONDON Original Notes on Dodsley's London, by Horace Walpole Aubrey's Wiltshire-Phenomenon at Dundry Hill, Somerset THE HEPTAMERON OF MARGARET DE VALOIS Remarks on two passages of the Liturgy ...... ...... H. Jesse The Chapel on Wakefield Bridge (with Exterior and Interior Views) .... .... Ancient Fireplace in the Deanery, Lincoln (with an Engraving) The Ecclesiastical History Society-Works of Strype-The Materials of Eccle- ................ Napier's Florentine History, 49; Hare's Mission of the Comforter, 52; Fran- cis's History of the Bank of England, 57; Stolberg's and Stuart's Costume of the Clans, 58; Poste's History of Maidstone College, 60; Akerman's Archæological Index, 63; Goodwin's Life of St. Guthlac, 64; Miscellaneous ...... LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.-Royal Society. ARCHITECTURE.-Oxford Architectural Society ANTIQUARIAN RESEARCHES.-Cambridge Antiquarian Society, 68; Numismatic Society-Recent Excavations at Pompeii, 69; Leaden Coffin at Gloucester-Tombs at Jerusalem, &c. HISTORICAL CHRONICLE. - Proceedings in Parliament, 71; Foreign Promotions and Preferments, 75; Births and Marriages OBITUARY: with Memoirs of the Archbishop of York; Rev. Sir W. N. Gresley, Bart.; Sir Fitzroy Maclean, Bart.; Rear-Adm. Shirreff; Lieut.- Col. George Hibbert, C.B.; William Wells, Esq.; Rev. T. F. Dibdin, D.D.; Professor M'Cullagh, F.R.S.; Alfred Hardwick, M.D.; George B. Whittaker, Esq.; Heinrich Heine; Mr. Andrew Brown; Miss Grace Embellished with Exterior and Interior Views of WAKEFIELD Bridge Chapel, and 2 MINOR CORRESPONDENCE. We have to express our sincere regret at a mis-statement made in our last Magazine, at p. 626, where, among the recent failures of leading commercial houses, the name was introduced " of an East India director, Henry Alexander, esq." This misapprehension must have arisen from the stoppage of the house of Lesley Alexander and Co. merchants, which has been much before the public in the newspapers. We have also to contradict the supposed death of the Rev. J. C. Meadows, in our Nov. number, p. 549. It appears that the Rev. gentleman was married on the 14th July (as duly recorded in p. 422 of last volume); and his name has been erroneously inserted among the Deaths, first in the Ecclesiastical Gazette, and thence in other publications. "In the Magazine for July, 1841, pp. 23, 24, there is an account by A GLEANER of the family of Sancroft; in which the writer supposes that Mr. James Sancroft of Yarmouth, then lately deceased, may have been descended from Dr. Wm. Sancroft, Master of Emanuel coll. Camb. who died in 1637. This, however, could not have been the case; for it appears from the court books of the manor of Shelton Hall in Stradbrook, Suffolk, that on the 24th Oct. 1637, the death of Dr. Sancroft was presented by the Homage, who at the same time found that his brother, Francis Sancroft, esq. was his next heir, and as such was admitted to the lands which Dr. S. held of the manor. Dr. Sancroft certainly had a son William, who was six years old in 1627; but he, as appears from the above court books, must have died before his father."-D. A. Y. Can any of our readers inform us where the letters of Dr. Bentley to Professor Sike, printed in vol. ix. p. 323 of Nichols's Literary Anecdotes, are now deposited? Mr. BRITTON solicits information on the following subjects:-1. LIEUTENANTCOLONEL ISAAC BARRE. If this gentleman left any will? Who were his executors, or immediate descendants? To whom did he leave his personal and other property? He left a large sum to the Marchioness Townshend. He was a violent partisan in the House of Commons from 1761 to 1784, when he retired from all public occupation, and died in London in 1802, aged 76. 2. WILLIAM GREATRAKES, who died at Hungerford in Berkshire in 1781, and was buried in the churchyard, where his friend Captain Stopford raised a head-stone to his memory; and after his name, age, &c. is the motto from the title to Junius's Letters "STAT. NOMINIS UMBRA." A trunk was packed up at Hungerford, and directed to a sister of the said William Greatrakes at or near Cork; and in the "Cork Mercantile Chronicle" of April, 1803, was a letter describing the contents of that trunk. I have made inquiry without success for a copy of that paper, or if there be any relatives or immediate descendants of the said Mr. Greatrakes. The communication of any hints or facts relating to the private lives, property, or letters of either Barré or Greatrakes would greatly oblige Mr. Britton, who is printing "An Elucidation of the Authorship of the Letters of Junius," and is enabled to show that the two persons above named were intimately concerned in the mysterious correspondence with "The Public Advertiser. If any of our readers will point out at what period the Sovereigns ceased to exercise their ecclesiastical patronage without the advice of their Ecclesiastical Council, and in what work any account of it can be found-for it is certain in former times their political adviser did not presume to interfere-it will oblige a VERY OLD SUB SCRIBER. Finding that the Table of Mortality in the Metropolis given in our Magazine was capable of some improvement, we have taken the opportunity afforded by the commencement of a new volume to make the required change. Instead of the aggregate deaths in four weeks, the result of each week will now be separately given. The weekly fluctuations will thus be more clearly indicated, and means afforded for a comparison of the relative mortality in particular seasons of the year. The interest attaching to these returns during the prevalence of epidemics, and in times of unusual mortality, entitles them not only to temporary attention, but to the advantage of being put fairly on record in our pages, in which, if we mistake not, the consecutive details of the old bills have been, since the fire at the Parish Clerks' Hall, almost exclusively preserved. Of the recent mortality some report will be found under the head of Domestic News in our present Number. |