wretched pauper by the demand of money. The Etruscans were wealthy, and wealth | ting insolvent debtors to be pursued in the creates in its owners many wants of which streets by groups of children, with empty they would not otherwise be susceptible. purses in their hands, who worried the Their remains disclose to us many of the contrivances by which a wealthy and a lux- That they had a written language is eviurious people are wont to gratify their de- dent from their numerous inscriptions, of sires of amusement and relaxation. They which several may be seen in Sir William were skilled in all the well-known games of Gell's work on the topography of Rome, the circus. The numerous combinations and a few in the volume of our authoress. and varieties of horse and chariot racing They are read from the right to the left, but, were not unknown among them. One of as we before remarked, are utterly uninteltheir vases gives us a perfect racing sketch. ligible, with the exception of a few oft-reWe see depicted thereon-the race-stand, peated words, such as the affecting and the judges, the sporting gentlemen of the almost Christian termination to all their day, the jockeys, "et hoc genus omne," as monumental inscriptions, "Adieu in peace,' if the artist had taken for his subject the or "Rest in peace." The only other sperace-course of Epsom or Doncaster. Boar cimen of their language which has reached hunting was also a favorite amusement, as our times, are those tables of brass which we may see by another sketch, where sports- were dug up near Gubbio, and which are men are seen in all the ardor of the chase; thence called the Eugubine tables; but dogs, seemingly in full cry, and crowds of which, like their sepulchral inscriptions, peasants, armed with axes and poles, hastily cannot be deciphered. The sculptured inkseized on the occasion. They are said to stand which was discovered at Ägylla has, have had two principal meals in the day, we believe, been found of use, in ascertainand to have admitted the fair sex to an equal ing the power and nature of the characters, participation in the honors of the dining- and in enabling them to be copied in Roman table. This singular deviation from the characters, but beyond this, notwithstandpractice of antiquity is found only in Etruing the anticipations of Mrs. Gray, we do ria and Egypt: it is brought very vividly be- not see that it can possibly be of utility. fore us in one of their paintings, where per- What pretensions they had to the possessons of both sexes are at table together. sion of a literature we cannot now ascerOne of the ladies is in the act of breaking an tain. It is a misfortune that they have left egg; another is eating some food, while a no historian to record their achievements, dog is looking up in anxious expectancy for or to chronicle their deeds, for the informaa portion. On these festive occasions, the tion of after times; but it is a misfortune ladies seem to have been far more attentive which it is now useless to deplore. They to the quality, than the quantity of their ha- have left as much "engraved in the hard biliments; some of them appear quite at rock with the pen of iron," but we need a their ease, in a costume which would make Daniel to discover their import and reveal ladies of the present time, to say the least of it to the world. Their history has been an it, exceedingly uncomfortable. The guests eventful one; it has been diversified with were entertained with concerts of instru- many trying incidents by sea and land. mental music. The lyre was in much re- How different would have been their fame, quest, as was also an instrument bearing a had there been a Virgil or a Homer to surclose resemblance to a double flageolet. To round them with a halo of light, or a Thuthe music of those instruments a company cydides to consecrate them with the imof dancers keep time with their feet and mortality of genius! The record of the hands. Some of these are represented in marble, imperishable as it is, forms but a most lively and animated gestures; but, we poor substitute for the undying record of regret to add, that some of the representa- a nation's literature. The sepulchral eulotions confirm the accounts which early wri-gy of the Lucumones, the sculptured obeters transmit to us, concerning the corrup-lisk of the Pharaohs, or the mysterious tion and licentiousness of many of their fes- chronicles of the Persian kings, as seen on tive entertainments. They had also peri- the ruins of Persepolis, have not been able odical assemblies for the arrangement of to preserve their names and deeds from the their public business, as well as for general ravages of time. They cannot compete amusement. One of the most celebrated of with that lustre which the human mind is these was the gathering of the noble fami- able to impart to the hero it embellishes, in lies at the temple of Voltumna. Scenic re- the action it records. Etruscan literature presentations were also in use, and a singu- has left us no trace of its existence. The lar custom prevailed among them of permit-industry of a few Roman writers attempted to supply this deficiency, and the emperor Claudius deemed Etruria a theme not unworthy his imperial pen. But the twentyfour books which were the fruit of his labor, have perished with the exception of one solitary fragment, and the writings of the less noble penmen have not been more enduring than those of their sovereign. The stream of time has washed over them all, and with them have disappeared our fullest sources of information as to the origin and history of the Etruscans. There is a point in connection with this subject to which our authoress has not alluded, but which is well deserving of attention. The Campagna in which the cities of Etruria lay, and which was once crowded with a dense and industrious population, is now visited for some months of the year by a pestilential malaria, which is destructive of human life, and which makes even the natives desert it for a season. The few shepherds, who remain in charge of the cattle, may be known by their wan and emaciated features; for even they are not exempt from its influence. Yet was this country once the abode of a numerous population, and covered with busy and thickly peopled cities. Veii was as large as Rome, and the size of Tarquinia may to some extent, be inferred from the magnitude of its necropolis, which is said to contain no less than two millions of sepulchres. But there can be little doubt that the climate of the Campagna is not now the same as it was in times of old. Had it been then as subject to the malaria as it is at present, the fact would have been mentioned by some of the Roman writers. Yet, while they expressly mention the unhealthiness of particular districts, they are silent on that of the entire country. The virulence of the malaria, nay, its existence, arises from the absence of moisture, for while the wet grounds are comparatively free from it, the dry and sandy downs are particularly unhealthy. Not alone in the Campagna di Roma, but in every country in Europe subject to its influence, a wet summer is proved to neutralize its noxious properties. It is probable that the climate of Italy, two thousand years ago, was more exposed to cold and wet than it is now. The uncleared forests of Germany, and of Italy itself, must have contributed powerfully to this effect, by preventing evaporation from the surface of the earth, as in America at this day. The temperature and the dryness of the atmosphere depend much less on the degree of latitude than on local peculiarities, which are always liable to change. Many of the VOL. I. No. II. 24 rivers of Europe which at one time were frozen every winter, are now never closed up for a day. So late as the time of the Roman empire, the barbarians were wont each winter to avail themselves of the freezing of the Danube and the Rhine, to make predatory incursions on the northern provinces; and Pliny says, that the severity of winter was such in Rome, that the olive could not be cultivated in the open air. Nothing is more usual, at the present day, than to see the olive growing in the open air in the vicinity of Rome. But even admitting it to have been as unhealthy as now, is it certain that, despite its unhealthiness, it could not be thickly peopled? It was the native soil of the millions who dwelt there. It was the air they were from infancy accustomed to inhale; and from the power of habit it is likely that the malaria would have lost much of its malignity. The shores of Africa are unhealthy beyond comparison, as are the islands of the West Indies, yet these are not the less thickly peopled. Even the collieries and manufactories of England are known to shorten considerably the average duration of human life, yet are there thousands who are willing to brave all dangers, and to encounter, for subsistence, the perils of the factory and the mine. Peculiarities of diet and of dress, with which we are not now acquainted, may have been of use in enabling the inhabitants to defy its noxious influence; and much, also, may have been done by the general cultivation of the soil and the spread of human dwellings. Were its rich plains to be divided among a hardy and industrious peasantry, and covered with crops of golden grain, its effects on the human constitution might be very different from that of the present dreary solitude. We have seen that the Etruscan power included nearly the entire of central Italy, and extended from Naples to the Alps. There was a time too, though not acknowledged by her chronicles, when Rome itself was numbered among its dependencies. It is now the most probable opinion, that the reigns of the three later kings was a period of Etruscan domination; and it may be, that even these kings are, as Müller supposes, but representatives of three Etruscan dynasties, who succeeded each other in regular order. It was during this period that those great architectural works were executed, whose magnitude and solidity have scarcely been exceeded by the later works of the empire. The Cloaca Maxima, which may be called the "Thames Tunnel" of the ancient world; the temple of Jupi leon. In another of her contributions, Victoria opening the Parliament of 1841, the earnest and kind-hearted spirit will also be much admired. But there is in this latter poem an expression difficult to understand. Beauty, says Mrs. Sigourney, speaking of the 'Scene of Pomp," Beauty lent her charins, For with plum'd brows, the island-peeresses Bare themselves nobly. That the island-peeresses of 1841 did any such thing, we will not believe, and we hope that no caustic commentator of 1941 will be permitted to say so. To us, Mrs. Sigourney's phrase is at present quite unintelligible; we will look for its meaning in the next American Dictionary. The veteran James Montgomery still ter, on the Capitoline hill; the walls of and animated lines on the Return of NapoServius, which continued to be the walls of the city for eight hundred years, down to the time of Aurelian; all combine to demonstrate the power and extent to which it attained under Etruscan sway. They are collateral testimony to the certainty of that evidence which their sepulchral monuments afford. But like every earthly institution, Etruria was doomed to decay. In the arrangements of Providence it was to give way to its more fortunate rival. Its maritime strength was destroyed by its defeat at Cuma; its internal strength was wasted away by internal disunion, as well as by outward hostility. When the Gauls poured forth from the defiles of the Alps, in the northern cantons of the Etruscan confederation, the southern states were solicited for aid, but the appeal was made in vain, and one half of Etruria was forever blot-writes in the Forget-Me-Not. His lines on ted from the page of history. The other The Press are full of manly thought and continued to maintain an unequal contest poetic fancy. with the encroaching power of Rome. The name of Porsenna alone stands out in bright relief from the darkness that hangs over his people, and surrounds with a passing glory the period of their decline. The cities of Veii, and Tarquinia, and Clusium, and Agylla, sunk one by one; Roman colonies occupied their ruins for a time: some preserve a sickly existence over the graves of the Larthia and the Lucumones; but the sites of others are no longer known. They are looked for in vain through the dreary solitude of the Campagna, and save the sepulchral remains of their past greatness, Tarquinia is but a name, and Veii but a recollection of the past. We have gone with Mrs. Gray through five hundred pages of a narrative equally instructive and interesting, pleased with her antiquarian zeal, profiting by her judicious and often profound observations, and amused with the lighter incidents which she occasionally relates. Should she venture before the public again, we should with much pleasure hail her appearance amongst us. She is an authoress of much promise, and literature has a claim on her services. FORGET-ME-NOT. For 1843. Ackermann. From the Examiner. MRS. SIGOURNEY, an American lady, is a very graceful writer of verse in the school of Mrs. Hemans. She has contributed, to this now venerable annual, some striking Think me not the lifeless frame I live and move throughout the whole, Whose source and issues are unknown, Myself withdrawn from mortal sight, CURIOUS DOCUMENT. From the Athenæum. tile, such is his bottomless divine providence. THE following curious document may be Item, that the King's Highness for the added to the series which formerly appearspecial trust his Grace hath conceived of ed in this Journal. Mr. Devon, to whom his trusty servant Sir Wm. Sidney, Knight, we are indebted for it, has written the ab- hath constrained him to be Chamberlain to breviated words at length, and adopted the the said Prince's Grace, and hath committed modern spelling. The passages in italics and appointed to him, as well to have the are, in the original, interlineations, in the keeping, oversight, care, and cure of his handwriting of Cromwell, then Vicar General, Maties and the whole realm's most precious Lord Privy Seal, and Master of the Rolls. jewell the Prince's Grace, and foresee that Instructions given by the King's Highness un-persons and casual harms (if any be), shall all dangers and adversaries of malicious to his trusty and well-beloved Servant, Sir be vigilantly foreseen and avoided, as also Wm. Sidney, Knight, Chamberlain of the such good order observed in his Graces Household of the most Noble and Right Ex- household as may be to his Maties honor and cellent Prince Edward, Prince of Wales, assured surety of the Prince's Grace's perDuke of Cornwall, Earl Palatine of Ches- son, our most noble and precious jewell: ter, &c. and to Sir John Cornwallis, Steward for which good order in the said Household the said Sir John Cornwall, being Steward, together with Vice Chamberlain and Comptroller shall always join together. to his Grace. The King's Highness willeth that his said trusty and well-beloved servants shall conceive in their minds that like as there is nothing in the world so noble, just, and perfect but that there is something contrary that evermore envieth it, and procureth the destruction of the same, insomuch as God himself hath the devil repugnant unto him, Christ hath his antechrist and persecutors, and from the highest to the lowest after such proportion; so the Prince's Grace for all nobility and innocency, albeit he never offended any man, yet by all likely hood he lacketh no envy nor adversaries against his Grace, who, either for ambition of their own promotion or otherwise for to fulfil their malicious perverse mind, would perchance, if they saw opportunity, (which God forbid,) procure to his Grace displeasure. And although his excellent, wise, and prudent Majesty doubteth not but like as God for his consolation and comfort, of all the whole realm, hath given the said Prince, so of his divine providence he will in the point of all danger preserve and defend him. Yet, nevertheless, all diligent and honest heed, caution, and foresight ought to be taken to avoid (as much as man's wit may) all practices and evil enterprises which might be devised against his Grace or the danger of his person. For, although Almighty God is he that taketh care and thought for us, and that he furnisheth us of all necessaries, and defendeth us from all evil, yet this divine providence will have us to employ our diligence to the provision and defence of ourselves, and of such as be committed to our charge, as though it should not come of him, and that it notwithstanding we should know that without his helping hand our labor is inu Item, that for their best information, and for the first part of their instruction, they and every of them shall foresee that no manner stranger, nor other person or persons, of what state, degree, dignity, or condition soever they be, except the said Chamberlain, Steward, the Vice Chamberlain, Comptroller, the Lady Mistress, the Nurse, the Rocker, and such as be appointed continually to be in the Prince's Grace's private chamber and about his proper person, and officers in their offices, shall in any manner wise have access ordinary to touch his Grace's person, cradle, or any other thing belonging to his person, or have any entry or access into his Grace's privy chamber, unless they shall have a special token or commandment express from the King's Majesty, in the which case they shall regard the quality of the person, and yet, nevertheless, to suffer no such person to touch his Grace, but only kiss his hand, and that no personage under the degree of a yet knight to be admitted thereunto-and in this case the said Steward, Chamberlain, Vice Chamberlain, and Comptroller, or one of them at the least to be ever present, and to see a reverent assay taken in due order, ere any such person shall be admitted to kiss his Grace's hand. Item, that they shall at all times cause good, sufficient, and large assayes of all kinds of bread, meat, and drinks, milk, eggs, and butter prepared for his Grace, and likewise of water and of all other things that may touch his person or ministred to him in any wise duly to be taken. To see his Grace's linen, rayment, apparel whatsoever belonging to his person, to be purely wash ed, clean dried, kept, brushed, and reserved cleanly by the officers and persons appointed thereunto, without any intermeddling of other persons having no office there, in such wise as no danger may follow thereof, and before his Grace shall wear any of the same, assayes to be taken thereof as shall appertain, and that the Chamberlain, Vice Chamberlain, or one of them, shall be daily at the making ready of the Prince as well at night as in the morning to see the assayes taken as is aforesaid. Item, that whatsoever new stuff, apparel, or rayment shall be brought of new, to and for his Grace's body, be it woollen, linen, silk, gold, or other kind whatsoever, or be new washed, before his Grace shall wear any of the same, shall be purely brushed, made clean, aired at the fire, and perfumed thoroughly, so that the same way his Grace may have no harm nor displeasure, with assayes taken from time to time as the case shall require, and that in the presence of the Chamberlain, Vice Chamberlain, or one of them. Item, that no manner other persons or officers in the house shall have access to the said privy chamber, but only such as be appointed to the same, and that other which be appointed to bring in wood, make the fires, and other offices there as the pages of the chamber incontinent as they shall have done their offices shall depart and avoid out of the same, till the time they shall be called for the doing of their offices again. Provided always, that those pages shall not resort to any infect or corrupt places, and that also they shall be clean and whole persons, without diseases. Item, that forasmuch as the officers and other servants of his Grace in the household, as well of kitchen, butter, pantry, ewery, wood-yard, cellar, lardry, pultry, skaldinghouse, sawcery, yomen, and grooms of the hall have under them as it is informed sundry boys, pages, and servants, which with out any respect go to and fro, and be not ware of the dangers of infection, and do often times resort into suspect places. Therefore, the King's gracious pleasure is, that for the consequence which may follow of them, they shall be restrained from having any servants, boy, or page, and none to be admitted within the house. Item, that such provision shall be taken as no infection may arise from the poor people, sore, needy, and sick, resorting to his Grace's gate for alms, and for that purpose there shall be a place afar off, appointed a good way from the gates where the said poor people shall stay and tarry for the alms to be distributed there by the almoners, and after that distribution to depart accordingly; and if any beggar shall presume to draw nearer the gates than they be appointed, to be grievously punished to the example of other. Item, that the said Steward and Chamberlain shall see good order to be kept in that household without any superfluous charges or waste, which is utterly to be avoided, so that the King's Highness may in all points be put at the least charge that can be for that household, (so that, nevertheless, the same may always be honorably kept, as appertaineth,) and that no manner of persons, of what degree soever he or they be, shall have any more servants allowed within the Prince's house than to him shall be limited and appointed by a checker roll by the King's Maties hand to be signed. Item, that every officer within the Prince's household shall be sworn that they shall not serve the Prince's Grace with any manner meat, drink, fruit, spice, or other thing, whatsoever it be, for his own person, but such as they shall serve, every man in his own office, in his own person, suffering none other to meddle therewith, and before he or they shall Item, for to avoid all infection and danger of pestilence and contagious diseases, that might chance or happen in the Prince's household, by often resorting of the officers or servants of the same to London, or to some infect and contagious places, his Maties said servants shall provide and put such order, as none of his Grace's privy chamber, none of the officers that have any office about his Grace's person or in his household shall resort to London or to any other place during the summer or contagious so serve the Prince, shall as well themselves time; and if they shall for some necessary as well as all other coming and having charge things have license so to do, yet neverthe- of the same, take and cause to be taken large less after their return they shall abstain to assayes from time to time, as the case shall resort to the Prince's Grace's presence, or require, and that the Chamberlain for the chamto come near him for so many days as by ber and the Steward for the household shall the said Chamberlain and Steward shall be cause newly to be sworn, all the Prince's serthought convenient; and if by chance happen vants at their first entry, of what condition, to any person to fall suddenly sick, that then degree or estate soever they be, of the due conwithout tract (treat) or delay of time to be re-servation of their offices and duties as appermoved out of the house. taineth. |