We have 'Testimonia veterum'

in mention of the ancients; and why not apply the practice to the moderns? Warburton has preserved an amusing cento of characters of Dryden and Pope, from the abuse of their contemporaries, after which period the subject would become uninteresting. Of the earlier writers, however, it is pleasing to see the opinions (however candid or biassed) of the times, and would prove highly useful, were it brought to any completion.

Should these few notices of Shaks peare meet the eye of your well-informed Readers, I trust they will not neglect the hints I have thrown out in this Letter.

P. S. In an anecdote of Shaks

peare in your CENSOR, is the expression I'll give him a dozen Latin spoones, and thou shalt translate them.' Can you, Mr. Urban, or any of your Correspondents, expound this knotty passage? Yours, &c.

TALPA.

MR. URBAN, London, May 8. T HE want of religious instruction for the natives of the Principality of Wales resident in the Metropolis, and some of the great towns in Eng land, who have not a knowledge of the English language, has been long experienced. Many thousand Cambrians are utterly deprived of any opportunity of attending Divine Worship, while many others are compelled to quit the Established Church to seek for the performance of religious offices among Sectarians.

Several praiseworthy attempts have been made to remedy this evil, but

have generally failed for want of cooperation among those interested. Allow me, therefore, to propose to the numerous natives of Wales which you number among your readers, the the purpose of bestowing religious foundation of a general society for instruction upon those Welsh people who are now resident in parts of the Kingdom where they are deprived of the advantages of the performance of religious ordinances. The objects of the Society would be the erection of places of Worship, the support of the clergymen, and other necessary offices, and the education of the children of Welsh parents.

If, in order to further this desirable object, those of your Correspondents who possess information on the subject will make it public through the medium of your Magazine, they will materially contribute towards the success of this projected Society. The points upon which information would be most useful, are,-1. the number of Welsh residents in any large town; 2. the probability of their affording assistance towards this object; and, 3. are there any dissenting or other places of worship already established, and how are they attended.

AP RHYS AP HOWELL.

MR. URBAN,

July 16. ANSWERS to the following enqui ries would greatly oblige me, and contribute towards the accomplishment of a scientific object.

1. Is there any work which contains a regular account of the height of the Thermometer daily for a whole year*?

2. Is there any existing account of the course and termination of the Rivers Ancover and Volta on the Gold Coast of Africa, as there a doubtless some gentlemen among your readers who have visited the Gold Coast. I should be glad to receive information of any kind respecting these Rivers, or the country, and European settlements in their neighbourhood; and I am persuaded that many of your readers would be gratified by its insertion in your Magazine. Yours, &c.

R. P.

*This new Correspondent seems to have overlooked our regular Monthly Thermometrical Observations by Mr. Cary.

1. The Antient History of Wiltshire. By Sir Richard Colt Hoare, Bart. Vol. II. Part II. Roman Era. 1821. Folio. pp. 134, and XXXIII Plates. Lackington and Co.

MONGST the Topographical va

satisfaction to announce the termination of this splendid Work in two folio Volumes, embellished with numerous Views, Plans, &c. &c. and which the benevolent Author announces as the labour of 20 years. Though in vol. LXXXIX. ii. p. 329, we have noticed the First Part of the Second Volume, we will here give a brief account of the contents and nature of the entire Publication.

The First Volume is confined to South Wiltshire, and to British Antiquities. The system of the antient mode of interment in barrows has been minutely investigated, and the different forms of tumuli described, together with their contents. All the numerous barrows, opened under the direction of the Author and his assistants, prove to a certainty that these mounds were raised either by the Celtic or Belgic Britons, previous to the arrival of the Romans in our island; which is ascertained by the circumstance of every urn that has yet been found, being of unbaked pottery, or unturned by the lath.

Another very important discovery has been made, and which the Author attributes to his predecessor, Mr. W. Cunnington of Heytesbury; viz. that of the numerous British settlements and habitations dispersed over the bleak and extensive downs of Wiltshire, and which throw a light upon the early inhabitants of our island.

The First Volume also contains several plans, elevations, &c. of that interesting monument Stonehenge, which no passenger can view without wonder and admiration. On perusing this part of the Work, we cannot omit mentioning a circumstance at tending the opening of a barrow near this fine retreat of antiquity; viz. that of finding chippings from the stones, intermixed with the mould which was heaped up over the mound: GENT. MAG. July, 1821.

thus proving the tumulus to have been raised subsequent to the erection of the stone circle.

The Second Volume commences with North Wiltshire; Part 1. of a full account, which is confined to the British æra;

curate plans and views, is given of that wonderful Circle of Abury, which our Author considers of a much earlier date than Stonehenge.

Part II. of the Second Volume (which is now presented to the Publick), is allotted to the Roman æra, and a very explicit survey of all the Roman roads which are at present known to have traversed the County of Wilts, is handed down to us, by well-executed Maps, in which the actual lines of the Causeway are marked by colour. We have, however, to lament that some earlier Antiquary had not taken this subject into consideration, before the improved system of agriculture had made such havock with the plough.

This Volume is terminated by a description and plates of the various tessellated pavements which have at different times been discovered within the limits of the County.

Such is a brief outline of these interesting Volumes; and we cannot conclude without doing justice in the first place to Mr. Philip Crocker, the draughtsman of all the Plates; and secondly, to Messrs. Basire, G. Cooke, George Hollis, and J. Cary, the engravers employed in the execution of the numerous Plates which adorn and illustrate this Work.

It is rather singular that one County should have produced matter for the formation of two large Volumes; but when we consider the numerous British settlements, and the variety of barrows, with which the downy regions of Wiltshire abound, and add to them the, religious or civil circles of MARDEN, ABURY, and STONEHENGE, -our surprise at the extent of this Publication will cease and we have only reason to rejoice that the subject has occupied the attention of an Author residing within the County, and who had both the

zeal

zeal and means to render it worthy of the notice of his countrymen and the Publick.

In the first Volume there is a Portrait of Mr. William Cunnington of Heytesbury; and in the second, an excellent Portrait of Sir Richard Colt Hoare, engraved by H. Meyer, from a drawing by the late lamented Mr. Edridge.

We are happy to announce, that our Author is actively employed in collecting materials for a Modern History of his County, and that the first Hundred will shortly appear in print.

2. Queen Elizabeth's Progresses, Vol. IV. Part i.-The Queen's Entertainment by the Countess of Derby, at HarefieldPlace, Middlesex, in July 1602. With some Particulars relative to several earlier

Visits at Loseley, Chichester, Southamp

ton, Winchester, Sutton, Barn- elms, Kingston, and Putney; the princely Entertainments at Kenilworth, Coventry, Warwick, Lichfield, Stafford, Worcester, &c. and Extracts from the unpublished Letters of John Chamberlain, Esq. to Sir Dudley Carleton, relative to the Queen's Progresses, her Sickness, and Death. 4to. pp. 100. Nichols and Son. (Reviewed by an old Correspondent.)

:

THERE are two sciences which many unthinking persons deem frivolous, Genealogy and Archæology but it forms the very character of a civilized state of society, to go beyond the humble necessaries of farm-house life; and though Genea logy may not be welcome or important in America, yet estates beyond number have been lost in Great Britain, because families keep no Pedigrees, and do not enter into their Bibles the births, marriages, and burials of themselves and their relatives. Thus, if they have property to claim or to sell, they cannot make out their titles, at least without infinite expense. As to Archæology, it forms a third Grace with Philosophy and History. When a subject of high moment, political or legal, is to be accurately investigated, documents, precedents, and testimonies, as the best modes of obtaining a satisfactory result, are carefully collected. In the same manner, without the accumulations of the patient Antiquary, accurate conclusions cannot be formed, Tacitus may with supreme felicity exhibit the workings of the mind and

passions, in explanation of various actions; yet there are others which Archæology can alone elucidate. Collections, therefore, of the kind now before us are not only interesting and curious, but useful, in a scientific nation.

Hume has drawn the character of Elizabeth in a most masterly manner; but descriptions of Character are much like those of Beauty. They convey no precise ideas, and are therefore unsatisfactory. It is better to say, that she was a very wise Queen. Bred up in adversity, she ascended the throne, surrounded with enemies, foreign and domestic, whom she had either to subdue or conciliate. For the former gentry, to let them know the real power of England, vigorous administration was indispensable; and for the latter, because conciliation of

the people can never be effected but by success, every measure was founded upon caution, which infallibly introduces wisdom. Her execution of Mary is deemed infamous; perhaps is not to be abstractedly vindicated. But business cannot be conducted upon generous and feeling motives. It is, and ought to be, while mankind are what they are, a thing of cool calculating policy, consulting security only; otherwise it is only asking the innocent to suffer. Mary was weak and unprincipled (pudore amisso); and Elizabeth was sore, through endless cabals and conspiracies. Her heart was hardened into that of a police officer. Sovereigns can rarely be held captive without occasioning cabals and conspiracies for their liberation; and often their own destruction, through the intemperate or un

wise measures of their adherents. These cabals did ensue; and Elizabeth might justly suspect that Mary disregarded the sacredness of the persons of Sovereigns. We have a right to think as we have written, because, if she did not spare the beloved Essex, even though his actions were palpably childish, who can believe ber insincere in the following declaration: "Non adeo mentis sum inops, ut pericula mihi objecta non videam, nec tantæ recordiæ ut ferrum ad me jugulaudum exacuam, nec tam supinæ socordiæ, ut vitæ non caveam." (Camdeni Annales, p. 437.) Under the humane refinement of the present day, Mary and Essex might have

becu

bracelet, with a small blew picturecase at the end of it."

She was so sparing of Knighthood, that Welwood tells us (Memoirs, p. 14), that she would not confer the honour upon Walsingham, till after many years service. We have here various instances of disappointed candidates (p. 26). It is also said,

"Her Majesty made the Recorder a Knight, and demanded what lands the Mayor had; for it was thought that if he dispensed 47. a year, he had been knighted also." P. 54.

Thus landed property was essential

to the honour.

"Her Majesty having been taken ill, with a cold, and having been ever forewarned by Dr. Dee to beware of White hall, removed four days after to Richmond." P. 31.

Dr. Dee was a noted fortune-telling, quack-doctoring astrologer, and was a great favourite with the Queen from the time of her accession to the

Throne.

Sheriffs of counties now carry the white wand in cities, which are counties also. The original meaning, that of claiming a right to dominion, is lost. Formerly Bishops could not have their Crosses carried before them, out of their own dioceses, without a disturbance. Her Majesty would allow no cock to crow, but upon his own dunghill.

"Next before the Quene's Majestie was placed the Bailief [of Coventry] in a gowne of scarlet, on the right hand of the Lord Compton, who was then high Shiref of the shire; and therefore would have carried up his rod into the towne, which was forbidden him by the Heralds and Gentlemen Ushers, who therefore had placed the Bailief on the right hand with his mace." P. 62.

We shall now make some remarks upon a passage in page 71, concerning Hock Tuesday. The play there mentioned is said to have been founded on the massacre of the Danes on S. Brice's night, Nov. 13, 1002; and Laneham in his account of the Play certainly alludes to it; but not, as the histories of England make it, viz. that the Danes were passively slaughtered all over the kingdom, like geese, for a Michaelmas dinner. On the contrary, Laneham represents them as fighting desperately, though overpowered, through surprise, disjunction, and numbers. It is still,

however, dubious, whether Laneham or the Play has not brought into hotch-potch, events once distinctly celebrated, without allusion to the massacre for there were two distant Hocking-days.

An old Dictionary in our possession (of which the title-page is lost) says, Hoc-tide, Hocks-tide, q. Hogh-tide D. (a high time or day), Blaze-tide or St. Blaze's Day, observed for the sudden death of Hardacoute, the last King of the Danes, and their fall with him." With this Lexicographer agrees John Rous (p. 105), and Sir Henry Spelman (with others) traces a resemblance to the Roman Regifugium, founded upon the flight of Tarquin. (Archeologus, 355.) Mr. Brand (Popular Antiquities, i. 156,) does not seem inclined to this idea; but it is most certain, that hocking, or men and women catching each other with ropes, is a most antient sport, mentioned in substance by Herodotus, Pausanias, and Vegetius (see Ducange v. Laqueatores). But St. Blaze's Day was on the third of February, and Hardacnute died June 8,

1040. (Chron. Sax. p. 156.) Now there were two Regifugia, like two hockings here, observed at Rome; one in February, and the other on the 26th of May: here are coinci dences; and changes of the days of festivals were frequent. (Popular Antiq. i. 160, not. c.) There seems, therefore, grounds for presuming that the old Regifugia were copied and applied to the cessation of Danish dominion. In the second Regifugium, when the sacrifice was over, the Romans fled with all speed to denote the flight of Tarquin (Danet in Voce); and Ducange, in the passage quoted, says, “Laqueatorum pugna erat, fugientes in ludo homines, injecto laqueo, impeditos consecutosque prostrare:" besides, not in games only, but in serious battles, many antient nations used ropes. (Ibid.) Such an expedient might have been adopted to prevent the flight of the Danes, upon the insurrection of the English in 1002.

The same old Dictionary says, "Hock-Tuesday," the second Tuesday after Easter week, whereon the Danes were mastered. This cannot be a misprint for massacred, because the Saxon Chronicle peremptorily limits that event to S. Brice's day. Hocking,