c¢?

 
ornell University Library

77

“amu
ESSAYS AND PAPERS.
ESSAYS AND PAPERS

ON

LITERARY AND HISTORICAL
SUBJECTS.

aed BY

H. LONGUEVILLE JONES, M.A.

MEMBRE CORRESPONDANT DU COMI14 HISTORIQUE DES ARTS ET MONUMENTS,

REPRINTED, BY PERMISSION, FROM “ BLACKWOOD’S EDINBURGH MAGAZINE”

AND OTHER PERIODICALS.

LONDON:
J. RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE.

 

1870.

Levy
By |
TT
PRINTED BY T, RICHARDS, 37, GREAT QUEEN SIREET, W.c.

 
PREFACE.

THE Essays and Papers contained in this volume have
already been published, now many years ago, princi-
pally in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, The Gentle-
man’s Magazine, and other periodicals. It was more
consonant to the wishes of the author, on the advice
of some friends, to give them a permanent and uniform
existence : a project which the kindness of his sub-
scribers has aided him in carrying into effect ; and the
result has been the present volume. The circumstance
of their having been originally composed previously
to the year 1848, will account for some of the papers
seeming to be incomplete and deficient in information.
Thus the Paper on the ‘‘ Modern Schools of Art in
France, Belgium, and Switzerland” was first printed
before the invention of photography, the first public
experiments in which marvellous art the author was
allowed to witness, when Daguerre performed them im
presence of the French Institute: otherwise, in the
Essay alluded to, it would have been impossible to
avoid making mention of a discovery that was destined
to revolutionise the whole world of art, by the edu-
cation of the public eye alone. When the author
threw together his observations on Architecture, the
vi PREFACE.

great constructive cera of the Second Empire had not
been called into existence in France: so that much of
what is said in this volume about Paris must neces-
sarily appear crude and incomplete. It has, however,
been considered best to leave these Essays and Papers
in their original shape, as the most genuine expression
of the author’s opinions, while still in the enjoyment of
health and good spirits: the compilation of them in
their present collective form (to be followed, probably,
by a collection of others drawn from similar sources)
has given occupation and amusement for some of the
weary hours, which must always accompany the couch
of the invalid.

The author’s best acknowledgements are due to
Messrs. Blackwood and Sons, and to the Proprietors of
the other periodicals, alluded to above, for their kind
permission to reprint the Papers of these pages: and
also to his subscribers who have enabled him to carry
his wishes into effect. |
I.

II.

IV.

VI.

VIL.

VIII.

CONTENTS.

PAGE
HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE AND LIVE IN IT.

CHAP. I 1

» e si CHAP. II 18

» > 535 CHAP. HI 39
SOMETHING LIKE A COUNTRY HOUSE ‘ 2 “Ov

SKETCHES IN OLD FRANCE:
BIRON AND THE BASTILE 68

s Pe PLACE DE LA GREVE . lod
ar 56 VERSAILLES ; . 136

MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART IN FRANCE, BELGIUM,
AND SWITZERLAND . 4 : C . 170

THE DUTCH CRITICS OF THE SIXTEENTH,
SEVENTEENTH, AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES +

ty
a ke
He He

LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES ne
ESSAYS,

ETC.

I—HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE AND
LIVE IN UE

WeRE a true Beotian people after all: that’s a fact.
We may talk about Attic art and Doric strength; but
in our habits, no less than in our climate, we certainly
belong to the wrong side of the hills. We've a stuffing
and guzzling race, if ever there was one; we doat on
great hunks of meat and flagons of strong drink; and
as truly as every Paddy has got a hot potatoe some-
where in his head, making him the queer, mad chap he
is, So have we got a national brain compounded of pud-
ding, and beef, and sausages, turning us into that stub-
born and stolid people which we know ourselves to be,
Sidney Smith expressed the fundamental idea of the
English nation to a T, when he said that the ultimate
end of all good government was a hot chop and plenty
of claret; but, in saying so, he did no more than re-
echo the burden of the old song, translated into more
modern and fashionable language :—

“ Back and side go bare, go bare ;
Both foot and hand go cold;
But belly, God send thee good ale enough,
Whether it be new or old!”

Ah! he was a splendid fellow that indited this song,
B
2 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

and so was that other clerical wight who broached the
idea :—
“When I go to bed, then of heaven I dream;
That is, of fat pullets and clotted cream i

A real Devonian or Somersetian parson; but they spoke
from the heart,—or rather from the stomach, jolly, good
comfortable souls as they were; and their words go right
home to the stomachs and hearts of all, wherever the
British lion has the privilege of lashing his tail or
shaking his mane.

As to eating, quoad comedendum constipandumque,
we keep up the Beeotic charter to the very letter and
spirit of all its provisions; and in the moistening of our
national clay, we certainly show a praiseworthy dil-
gence; we wet it like bricks—and that’s a fact, too;
but as for doing these important matters in proper
places and at proper times, there, selon nous, we are
lamentably behindhand with the rest of the unfledged,
articulate-speaking, bipedal genus to which we have the
honour to belong. And as it will be elsewhere shown in
our pages, as clear as the sun at noonday (the truth of
which beautiful and rare simile, gentle reader, varies con-
siderably with the place where you may happen to use it
—from Shoe Lane, London, to the Strada di Toledo at
Naples), or as clear as—clear can be, that John Bull
does not know how to put a decent coat on his back
when he goes out to dinner ; so now it is to be essayed
to show, that for all he may think otherwise, John has
not got a comfortable, sensible house to go and eat his
dinner in; that he does not know what a regular, good,
snug, and snoozy chimney-corner is; and that, when he
stumbles up-stairs to bed, he generally puts himself
into a hole, but not what can be called a room—a real
comfortable, respectable bed-room. We do not say that
AND LIVE IN IT. 3

he might not have done so once—we know, on the con-
trary, that he did; all we contend for is, that he does
not do so now, and we don’t think he is in the right
way to mend ; and, as John is a special friend of ours,
—and so is Mrs. Bull, and all the little Bulls, who will
be big, full-grown Bulls some day or other,—and as we
like to make ourselves useful to the present generation,
and hope to be agreeably remembered by posterity,
therefore do we intend to take the Bull by the horns,
and see if we cannot wheedle, coax, pull, push, or bully
him into our way of thinking about rooms and houses.
It is set down as a national axiom at the present day,
that we are at the very head of the world in arts, arms,
manufactures, laws, constitution, Church and State,
literature, science—(any thing else ?—there must be
something more ; to be sure there is)—money and rail-
roads! and he’s no true Englishman, Sir, he’s not one
of the British public, if he does not think so. We see
it in print every day—it must be true; we've read as
much in the Times, Herald, Chronicle, Post, etc.—for
the last twenty years, and what all the world says must
be so. Be it so, honest John, we honour your insular
patriotism ; it’s a glorious principle, old boy, and ’twill
carry you bravely through all the thicks and thins of
life—“ sed audi alteram partem’—do put your nose
outside your own door a bit, now that railroads are
so plenty and cheap—do go abroad a little—just go
and look at some of those foreigners in their own out-
landish countries, and then think quietly over these
matters again. Besides, who’s afraid of change now-a-
days? Are we not making all these splendid mroads
into the country, ay, and into the constitution ’—are
we not going to have corn and cattle, and silk and cot-

ton, and butter and cheese, and brandy to boot, all
B2
4 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

brought to our own doors for nothing? We'll leave
these other things alone—we will not argue about them
now; let us talk about bricks and mortar, and suchlike,
and see if we cannot open your eyes to the light of
reason and common sense.

Now, what is the end, object, and use of all habita-
tions, houses, tenements, and premises whatsoever in
this same united kingdom of our’s, and in this glorious
nineteenth century, except to shelter a man from the
cold, or the heat, or the damp, or the frost, or the wind,
whichever may come upon him, or any part or parcel of
the same ; and further, to give him room to hoard up,
stow away, display, use, and enjoy all his goods, chattels,
and other appurtenances ; and further, wherein to sit
down with a friend or friends, as the case may be, to
any description of meal that his purse can or cannot
pay for, and then to give him room and opportunity
either to spatiate for the good of digestion, or to put
his India silk handkerchief over his bald pate, and snore
away till tea-time? This being the very acme of comfort,
the very object of all labour, the only thing that makes
life worth living for, in the opinion of three-fourths of
Queen Victoria’s loving subjects, it follows, that if they
would spend that money they love so much in a rational
and truly economical way, they should bear such ob-
jects as these constantly in sight. This brings us, there-
fore, to the enunciating, not for the last time, that great
fundamental law of human operations—usefulness first
ornament afterwards, or both together if you please:
and not, as we see the law interpreted now-a-days—
ornament and show in the first place, and usefulness
and comfort put in the background. It is this backward
reading of the great rule of common sense, that makes
men so uncommonly senseless as we often find them to
AND LIVE IN IT. 5

be; and when it comes in the way of building, it turns
us into the least architectural and worst built nation of
any in this part of Christendom. Taking into account
the cost of erecting buildings, and the relative value of
money in different countries, there are no towns in
Europe where so little good building and so small a
degree of architectural effect are produced as in those
of “old England”. Poets and home tourists have af-
fected to fall into rhapsodies of admiration at the beau-
tiful neatness of our small country towns, at the un-
paralleled magnificence of London, at the ostentatious
splendour of our commercial cities, Liverpool, Bristol,
etc. This is all very well for home readers, and for
home reputation ; for there is nothing like a lot of peo-
ple congregating themselves into a nation, and then be-
lauding themselves and their doings up to the skies—
there is nobody to say nay, and they can easily write
themselves down the first people on earth. The fault
is not peculiar to England; that vapouring coxcomb
Crapaud is full of such nonsense; and that long-haired,
sallow-cheeked, quid-chewing Jonathan, is still more
ridiculously fond of indulging in it: but because it is
one of the most offensive weaknesses of human nature,
it is not therefore the less worthy of reprehension, and
the sooner we try to throw off such false and morbid
patriotism the better. The three towns of Great Britain,
which, taking them in the general average of their com-
mon buildings, their citizens’ houses, can be called the
best-looking ones, are these :—first and fairest is dear
Auld Reekie, next is Cheltenham, or rather Bath.
The great metropolis we put out of the comparison, for
metropolitan cities should be compared together ; but
Edinburgh is facile princeps in the list of all habitable
places—(Brighton, Leamington, Clifton, etc., are cer-
6 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

tainly not equal to it in point of good architecture and
general effect); and Bath, now that its fashionable
name has somewhat declined, may be looked on as the
leader of our second-rate quiet kind of towns. Were
we to make a fourth class of comparisons we would take
our cathedral cities, and place Oxford at the head, be-
fore Worcester, Exeter, and so forth. But we revert to
our first proposition; and were we about to show a
foreigner those places wherewith we could desire him
to compare his own distant cities, we should take him
to the three above mentioned. It is in these three
places that the great essentials of use and ornament
seem to us to be the most happily combined ; attempts
are made at them in other quarters with various degrees
of success, but here their union has been the most de-
cided. Bear our opinion in mind, gentle reader ; and,
when next you go upon your travels, see if what we
assert be not correct.

The style of house we most object to is Johnson’s—
you don’t know Johnson! Why, don’t you recollect
the little bustling man that used to live at the yellow
house in the City Road, and that you were sure to meet
every day, about eleven o’clock, in Threadneedle Street,
or by the Bank Buildings? Well, he has been go suc-
cessful in the drug line that he has left the City Road,
and has moved into the far west, Paragon Place, Bryan-
stone Square; and, not content with this, has taken a
house at Brighton, on the Marine Parade, for his “Sun-
day out”, as he terms it. He is a worthy fellow at bot-
tom, but he has no more taste than the pump; and
while he thinks he inhabits the ne plus ultra of all good
houses, lives in reality in ramshackle, rickety, ugly, and
inconvenient dens. The house in Paragon Place js
built of brick, like all others; but the parlour story is
AND LIVE IN IT. v

stuccoed to look like stone, the original brick tint being
resumed at the levels of the kitchen below and the
drawing-room above. There are two windows to the
said drawing-room—one to the dining-room ; and so on
in proportion for the four stories of which the edifice
consists ; but the back is a curious medley of ins and
outs, and ups and downs; single windows to dark
rooms, and a dirty little bit of a back-yard, with a
square plot of mud at the end of it, called “the garden’;
the cook says the “ airey” is in front; and Johnson
knows that his wine-cellar is between the dust-bin and
the coal-hole under the street. If you knock at the
door you are let in to a passage too wide for one, but
not wide enough for two, and you find at once the
whole penetralia of the habitation lying open to your
vision ; dining-room door on right hand, parlour door
behind it; kitchen door under the stairs, and garden
door at the end of the passage. You know the man’s
whole household arrangements in a minute; and if he
is not in the drawing-room (but Johnson never does sit
there, his wife keeps it for company), it is of no use his
pretending not to be at home, when you have your hand
within a few feet of the locks of each door on the
ground-storey. And then, though the passage is dark,
for there is only the fan-light over the entrance, and
the long round-headed window at the first landing, all
full of blue and orange glass, you know that dinner is
preparing ; for you see the little mahogany slab turned
up to serve as a table near the parlour door, and such
a smell comes up the kitchen stairs, that were you at
the cook’s elbow you could not be more in the thick of
it. Well, they tell you he’s in, and you walk up stairs
to the drawing-room ; one room in front and the best

bed-room behind; and Mr. and Mrs. Johnson’s up-
8 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

stairs again over the drawing-room ; and the children’s
room behind that—you can hear them plain enough ;
and above all, no doubt, is the maid’s room, and the
servant-boy’s who let you in; not so, the boy sleeps in
the kitchen, and the front attic is kept for one of John-
son’s clerks, for you might have seen him going up the
second pair; and if he wasn’t going to his bed-room
what business had he up-stairs at all? So that, though
you have been in the house only five minutes, you know
all about it as well as if Mortice, the builder, had laid
the plans on the table before you. Well, Johnson won
a picture in the Art Union some time since, and deter-
mined to stick it up in the drawing-room, against the
wall fronting the windows; so up came the carpenter ;
and, as the picture was large, away went a tenpenny
nail into the wall; and so it did go in, and not only in,
but through the wall, for it was only half a brick
thick; and, what with repeated hammerings, the bricks
became so loose that the picture could not be safely
hung there. So it was ordered to be placed against
the wall opposite the fireplace—the wall of the next house
in fact—and the same operation was going on, when
old Mrs. Wheedle, the next door neighbour, sent in
her compliments to beg that Mr. Johnson would have
some regard for her hanging bookshelves, the nails of
which had been all loosened by his battering-ram, and
the books were threatening to fall on her tableful of
china—she called it ““cheyney”—below. Again, on the
other side lives, or rather lodges, Signor Bramante, the
celebrated violoncello, and he practises in what he has
made the back drawing-room, equivalent to Johnson’s
best bed; but, the other day, when Smith came up
from Birmingham to see Johnson, he could get no
sleep for the first half of the night, Bramante having
AND LIVE IN IT. )

occasion to practise till nearly one o'clock, for the
Stabat Mater of next morning’s concert. So much for
the substantiality of Johnson’s town-house. His rooms,
too, to our mind, are of bad proportions, and most in-
conveniently situated ; they are so low that it is im-
possible to ventilate them properly ; he has always a
flight or two of stairs to go up when he retires to bed,
and his servants might as well live in a treadmill, for
the quantity of step-treading that they have to per-
form. There is no possibility of sitting in any one
room out of a draft from either door or window, and
there is not a single good cupboard in the whole
house. As for ornament, there is none outside save
the brass-knocker on the street door, for the windows
are plain oblong holes in the walls; and, as for the in-
side, the only attempts at it are the cheap and meagre
stucco patterns of the cornices, and the somewhat
tawdry designs of the paper-hangings. He pays seventy
pounds a-year rent for it, however, and sets himself
down as a lucky man, because with his rates, etc., he
comes within the hundred.

After all, when he goes to Brighton he is not much
better off ; though, as he likes fresh air, he gets plenty
of it there, through every window, door, and chimney
of the house—for there the bow-windowed projection
in front is made of wood, coated over with tiles, to
look like bricks. There he never attempted any pic-
ture-hanging fancies, the partition-walls would stand
no such liberties being taken with them; there he can-
not complain of not knowing what is going on in the
town, for he can hear all that is said in the next house,
by merely putting his ear to the wall. The most serious
drawback, however, to his comfort in his marine resi-
dence is, that while there he can never have a good-
10 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

sized dinner-party, inasmuch as his landlord made it
a stipulation of the lease, that not more than twelve
people should be allowed to meet in the drawing-room
at the same time, and that no dancing whatever should
be attempted within the dwelling. The Brighton man
only built the house for fifteen years; whereas the
London one was more provident, he guaranteed his for
thirty.

Johnson’s bed-rooms are, even the best of them, of
moderate size, while the small ones are very small in-
deed ; and into these small rooms he has stuck large
four-post beds, that make them darker and more in-
convenient than they naturally are, and leave room for
hardly any of the usual evolutions of the toilette.
What, indeed, with the big chest of drawers, like the
big sideboard in the dining-room, it is as much as you
can do to get about conveniently between the bed and
the side walls; though one good thing the builder
and furnisher have certainly effected—you can open
the bed-room door, and you can stir the fire, and you
can almost pull up the window-blind, without quitting
the protection of the counterpane ; and this on a cold
morning is something.

Mrs. Johnson says that the arrangement of the
area gate in Paragon Place is perfection itself; for she
can see the butcher's boy, as he comes for his orders of
a morning, while sitting at the breakfast-table, through
the green blinds; and that the policeman dares not
stop there, during daylight at least—she should be
much too sharp upon him; so that the cook is twice as
punctual as when they lived in the city. True; these
are points of household management that have their
weight ; but then Mrs. J. forgets that the dustman
rings his bell there at most inconvenient hours, that
AND LIVE IN IT. 11

the dirty coalheaver spoils the pavement once a month,
and that it is a perpetual running up and down those
stone steps, to shut the gate and keep dogs and
beggars out, all day. However, the railings and the
gate are not part of the house ; and, if people like to
have their back-doors under their eyes, why, there is
no accounting for their taste.

We could not help thinking, the last time we went
over to Paris, that our friend Dubois, the wine-merchant
—he from whom we get our Chambertin, and who
has about the same relative income as Johnson—was
much better housed. His cellars are down at the
Halle aux Vins, like every body else’s; and he is shut
up there in his little box of a counting-house nine
hours every day of his life; but he lives, now that he
has moved from the Marais, in the Rue Neuve des
Mathurins, which leads out of the Chaussée d’Antin.
Here he has a premier, as they call it in Paris—or a
first-floor, as we should term it in London; and he
pays 2000 francs, or £80 a-year for it, with about 100
francs of rates and taxes. For this he has two drawing-
_rooms, a dining-room, a study, six bed-rooms, kitchens,
and cellars; some of the rooms look into the street, the
rest run round the ample court-yard of the house. To
get at him, you go up a flight of stone stairs that four
people can easily mount abreast; when you enter his
door, from the little hall paved with stone and marble,
you pass from the sitting-rooms one into the other—
for they all form a suite; while the bed-rooms lie
mostly along a corridor, into which they open. Once
up the two flights of stairs that lead to the doorway,
and the mounting, whether for masters or servants, is
done with. The kitchen is at the furthest end, away
from the other rooms, and is approached by a back
12 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

staircase from the court-yard. There are no beggars
nor dogs, nor butcher’s boys, nor other bores, except
what the concierge at the gateway allows to come in;
and though the street is rather noisy, being in a
fashionable quarter, yet the court-yard is perfectly
quiet, and free from all plagues of organs, singers, ete.
The rooms are, one and all, twelve feet high; their
windows down to the ground ; the floors of solid oak,
polished till you can slide on them; the doors are in
carved oak, painted white and richly gilt; the chimney-
pieces are all marble—none of the flimsy thin slabs of
Paragon Place, but good solid blocks, cut out from the
red quarries of the Pyrenees; with polished brass dogs
in the fireplaces, and large logs of flaming wood across
them. The drawing-rooms are hung in silk on the
walls ; the other rooms are tastefully papered. There
is abundance of good furniture, which, from the ample
size of the apartments—the principal room being thirty
feet by twenty—-sets off the proportions of the dwell-
ing without blocking it up. Dubois has not a four-
post bed in his house ; no more has any man in France.
They are all those elegant and comfortable things
which we know a French bed to be; and the long
sweeping folds of the red and white curtains that
come down to the floor from the ceiling, form a grace-
ful contrast to the curves of the other furniture. The
walls are all of good solid stone, two feet thick on the
outside; the house has been built these fifty years, and
is of a better colour than when first put up; the
windows are richly ornamented in their frames with-
out, and form commodious recesses for settees within.
You may dine twenty, and dance forty people here!
or you may throw your rooms open, give a soirée (no
boiled mutton affair, remember ; but music, dancing,
AND LIVE IN IT. 13

and cards ; coffee, ice, and champagne), and cram each
room full of people, and the landlord will never fear
for the safety of his building.

Now, there are three other sets of apartments in the
same house, and above Dubois, not so lofty as his, but
nearly as commodious, and all with their proportionate
degree of elegance and solid comfort. Dubois has not
got a house at Dieppe, it is true; but then, like all
Frenchmen, he is so absorbed in his dear Paris, that he
hardly cares to stir out from it. If ever he does, he
runs off to Vichy or Mont Dor for a fortnight in the
saison des eaux, and he is contented.

But then, you will say, Dubois lives, after all, in
another man’s house—he is only a lodger; whereas
Johnson dwells in what the law calls his “castle.” Be
it so; for the same money we would rather have the
positive advantages of the one, en société, than the
tasteless and inconvenient isolation of the other.

And, after all, is Johnson more decidedly at home in
his own house, than Dubois is in his “ appartement’ ?
What does it matter whether you have people living on
each side of you, with their street doors so close to yours
that their wives or their daughters pop up their noses
above the green blinds every time a cab or carriage
drives up; or whether you have people who come in at
the same gateway with yourself, and go up the same
stairs, it is true, and who live either above or below you,
and who can, if they like, run out on their landings to
see who is thumping at your door panels? Upon our
conscience as honest folks, who have lived in half the
capitals of Europe, to say nothing of those of our own
islands, we never found the slightest intrusion on privacy
arising from the collecting of several families in the same
house, in Paris, Rome, Florence, or Vienna. All we
14 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

know is, and we often think of it agreeably, that these
continental houses seemed to us like so many social
colleges, and that the having a set of rooms with a
common staircase, used to put us in mind of dear old
Christ Church, and of Garden Court in the Temple. ’Tis
true that in the one set of rooms we had no fellow-inmates
except our scout and dog, and every now and then a
joyous set of fellows that would have made any place
tolerable ; that in the other there was our old laundress
and bed-maker, and our “boy,” and for a short time our
“man,” and actually, upon our honour it is true, we did
once see a client in them! whereas, in our continental
suites of chambers, we were en faitile with wife, bairns,
and “bonnes” to boot, and that we did purfois try the
elasticity or the stretching powers of our camere pretty
considerably, and did cram therein no end of guests.
But on the whole, we have fairly made the experiment
in propria persond ; we have weighed well friend John-
son’s castellated independence, and U’am? Dubois’s social
contignation ;—and, rent for rent, we prefer the latter.
If we must live with two neighbours within a few feet
of us, we would rather have one under us on the ground
floor, and one above us on the second, and ourselves in
the midst on the first, and all three clubbing together
to live in a little palazzo ;—we would rather have this,
than be crammed in between Mr. A. and Mr. B., each of
us in a third or fourth-rate kind of house, with poor
thin walls, small low rooms, dirty areas, melancholy
gardens, shabby-genteel fronts, ugly backs, and little
comfort.

It may be said, and justly, that the idea of a man
living in his own castle is applicable only to that state
of society when large towns do not exist, inasmuch as the
idea can be nothing more than an idea, and can hardly
AND LIVE IN IT. 15

ever approach to a reality, the moment men begin to
congregate themselves together in cities. Doubtless it
is indispensable to all our notions of comfort, and of the
due independence of social life—it is, indeed, one of the
main elements of the constitution of a family, that a
certain degree of isolation should be maintained and re-
spected ; but we submit to the candid observer that the
only difference between English cities and continental
ones in this respect is, that Englishmen aim at “hori-
zontal” independence, foreigners at “ vertical.” English-
men form their line of location every man shoulder to
shoulder, or rather elbows in ribs; foreigners mostly
-get upon one another’s backs and heads,and form a living
pyramid, like the clown and boys at Astley’s. By this
arrangement, however, it comes to pass that for the same
number of inhabitants much more ground is occupied by
an English than by a continental town ; and also that
each single dwelling is of mean, or, at the most, moderate
architectural appearance, the great condition of elevation
being wanting, and the power of ornamentation being
generally kept closely under by the limitation of each
individual’s pecuniary resources. Practically, we con-
tend, there is quite as much comfort (we think, indeed,
in many cases more) in the continental manner of ar-
ranging houses as in the English one: while the former
allows of and encourages architectural display, and in-
deed requires a much more solid system of construction ;
but the latter leads to the running up of cheap, slight,
shabby-genteel houses, and represses all attempts at ex-
ternal ornament as superfluous from its expense. Upon
this subject we appeal to the experience of all who have
dwelt for any length of time on the Continent; not to
those who merely run across the water for six weeks or
so, and come back as blind as they went, but rather
16 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

to those who have given themselves time and oppor-
tunity enough for the film of national prejudice to wear
away from before their eyes, and have been at length
able to use that natural good sense with which most
Englishmen are blessed by Providence. To them we
would say that the plan of several families tenanting one
large dwelling, clubbing together, as it were, for the
erection of a handsome and commodious edifice, and just
so far sacrificing their independence as to consent oc-
casionally to run up against their neighbour in the
common courtyard, or perchance to see his coat-tails
whisking by their door up or down stairs, is the more
sensible of the two. There is practically a great saving
of walls, of spaces of support, as the architects term it,
in this plan : great saving in roofing ; and, from the mere
dimensions of the building, a certain degree of grandeur
is necessarily given to it. This plan requires the edifice
to be built court-fashion, and sometimes will admit of a
good garden being appended: it also requires that a
most useful servant, a porter, in a suitable lodge, should
be kept by the little social community ; and everybody
knows what an useful body the porter, or concierge, as
the French call him, may be made. Just as bachelors
join together in clubs, to the great promotion of their
individual comfort, and certainly to the outward ad-
vantage of a city, so should families join together for
their civic residences ; they would all derive benefit from
their mutual support, and the appearance of a town
would be immediately improved.

We do not say that any joining together of houses
should take place in country, or even in suburban resi-
dences. No; there let every man have a house to him-
self; the foundation of the whole system is quite dif.
ferent : and there is also a certain class of persons who
AND LIVE IN IT. 17

should always have separate dwellings in a town ; but
to these subjects we will revert on another occasion.
We will only allude to one objection which the fas-
tidious Englishman will be sure to raise: if you live
under the same roof with one or more families, he will
say, you must necessarily be acquainted with all the
members of the same; you must, in fact, know what
they are going to have for dinner, and thus must be
acquainted with all the secrets of their household
economy. Well, so one would undoubtedly expect to
be the case: unfortunately, however, for the theory,
the practical working of the thing is just the contrary :
we do not know of any town where so much isolation is
kept up as in Paris, though there men crowd together
under the same roof, like bees into the common hive.
We have lived ourselves, between the epochs of our
bachelor or embryo state, and that of our full-blown
paternal maturity, on every floor of a ‘Parisian house,
from the entresol just over the stable, where we could
lean out of our window of a morning, smoke our hookah,
and talk to the ‘Jockey Anglais” who used to rub
down our bit of blood, up to the cinquiéme, where in
those celestial regions we could walk about upon our
little terrace, look over the gardens of the Tuileries,
(‘twas in the Rue de Rivoli, gentle reader !) all the way
to St. Cloud and Meudon, one of the sweetest and gayest
prospects in the world, by the by, and hold soft com-
munings either with the stars or our next neighbours
—(but thereby hangs a tale!) and yet never did we
know the name even of any other soul in the house, nor
they ours. Oh! we have had many an adventure up
and down that interminable staircase, when we used to
skip up two hundred and twenty steps to get to our
eyry; many a blow-up with our old porter:—she was a
U
18 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

good soul, too, was old Madame Nicaise;—many a time
have we seen flounces and redingotes coming in and out
of doors as we went up or down ; but actually we cannot
call to mind the reality, the living vision, of a single in-
dividual in that vasty mansion. On the contrary, we
used to think them all a set of unsociable toads; and, in
our days of raw Anglicism, we used to think that we
might be just as well called in to “assist” at some of
the charming soirées which we used to hear of from the
porter : we did not then know that a Parisian likes to
be “chez lui,” as he calls it, quite as much as an English-
man. We should have lived on in that house, gentle
reader, ad infinitum; but one day, on going up-stairs,
we saw in ominous letters, on a new brass plate, “au
troisiéme, de la cour,” Lecranp, Taitteur. Horror of
horrors! ’twas our own man! we had not paid him for
two years: we gave congé that evening, and were off
to the Antipodes.

CHAPTER II.

WE spent last Sunday at Figgins’s at Brixton, No. 2,
Albert Terrace, Woodbine Lane. A hearty fellow: good
glass of port: prime cigar: snug box in the garden: and
a bus every five minutes at the end of the road: a regular
A. 1. place for a Sunday out, and home again in an hour
and a half to our paradise at ; but we are not going
to give you our address, or we should be pestered to
death with your visits. Suffice it to say that Figgins’s
is a good specimen of a citizen’s villa near London. Now
there are several kinds of villas: there is the villa an
London, and the villa not near: there is the villa ina
row, and the detached villa: there is your lodge, and

 
AND LIVE IN IT. 19

your park, and your grange, and your cottage orneée ;
and best of all, in our opinion, there is—what is neither
the one nor the other of all these—there is the plain
old-fashioned country-house :—once a cottage, then a
farm, then a gentleman’s house : irregular, odd, pictur-
esque, unpretending, comfortable, and convenient. But
Figgins’s is a new slap-up kind of affair; built within the
last two years, and uniting in itself all the last improve-
ments and the most recent elegancies. He has settled
himself in a neighbourhood quite the genteelest of that
genteel district : for, though merchants and men of
yesterday, so to speak, the people of Albert Terrace
show that they have respect for the good times of yore,
and they admire the character of the fine old English
gentleman : they pride themselves, moreover, on being
a steady set of people, and they show their respect for
things ancient even in the outward arrangements of their
dwellings. Thus you enter each of the twenty little
gardens, surrounding each of the twenty little detached
houses, through gates with Norman pillars at their sides,
that would have done honour to Durham or Gloucester:
while the wooden barriers themselves are none of your
radical innovations on the Greek style, nor any of your
old impious fox-hunting five-bars, but beautiful pieces
of fretwork, copied from the stalls of Exeter Cathedral,
painted so nicely in oak, and so well varnished, that
Stump the painter must have outstumped himself in
their execution. Once within the gate, however, and
the connecting wall—capped, we ought to have said,
with a delicious Elizabethan cornice—all Gothic for-
mality ends for the while; and you are lost in astonish-
ment at the serpentine meanderings, the flowing lines,
and the thousand attractions of the garden. An ill-

natured friend, who went with us, took objection to the
c2
20 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

weeping ash, in the middle of the circular grass-plot in
front of the door ; but he altered his mind in the even-
ing, when he found the chairs ranged under its sociable
branches—and the Havannahs and sherry-coblers crowd-
ing the little table made to fit round the central stem.
*T was a wrinkle that, which he was not up to:—he was
a Goth—a cockney. Figgins, though a Londoner, knows
what’s what, in matters of that kind ; and shows his
good taste in such a practical combination of the uéile
with the dulce. On either side of the house the path-
ways ran off with the most mysterious windings among
the rhododendrons and lilac bushes, and promised a
glimpse of better things in the garden behind, when we
should have passed through our host’s atrium, aula,
porticus, and viridarium. Figgins’s house has its main
body, or corps de logis, composed of two little bits of
wings, and a wee little retiring centre. The former have
their gables capped with the most elaborate “ barge-
boards,” as the architects term them, all fretwork and
filagree, and swell out below into bay windows, with
battlements at top big enough for Westminster Abbey.
The centre has a narrow and exceedingly Gothic door-
way, and one tiny bit of a window over it, through
which no respectably-sized mortal has any chance of
getting his head : and again over this is a goodly shield,
large enough to contain the blazoned arms of all the
Figginses. The builder has evidently gone upon the
plan of making the most of his design in a small com-
pass ; but he has committed the absurdity first of allow-
ing subsidiary parts to become principals, and then of
making the ornaments more important than the spaces :
thus the centre is squeezed to death like a nut ina pair
of crackers, and battlements, boards, and shield “ en-
gross us whole,” by the obtrusiveness of their size and
AND LIVE IN IT. 21

workmanship. Nevertheless, this facade, such as it is,
struck us as beating Johnson's house, in Paragon Place,
all to nothing : there was something like the trace of
an idea in it, there was an aim or a pretension at some-
thing : whereas the other is really nothing at all, and
its appearance indicates absolute vacuity in the cen-
tral cerebral regions of its inventor. Figgins has two
good rooms on the ground-floor, a lobby and staircase
between them, to keep the peace between their occu-
pants, three good bed-rooms on his first, and four very
small ones up amongst his gables: add to which, that
he boasts of what he calls his future dressing-room, but
what his wife says is to be her boudoir—we forget where
—but somewhere up the stairs. All this again is much
better than the Paragon Place plan—it shows that men
recover somewhat of their natural good sense when they
get into country air.

Figgins has not got a great deal of room in his villa,
it is true; but he and his nineteen neighbours are all
suitably lodged ; and when they all go up to the Bank
every morning in the same omnibus, can congratulate
themselves on emerging each from his own undivided
territory ; or when they all come down again in the
afternoon, each in a different vehicle—(you never meet
the same faces in the afternoon that you do in the
morning trip ; we know not why, but so it is, and the
fact should be signalised to the Statistical Society)—
they can each perambulate their own eighth of an acre
with their hands under their coat-tails in solemn dig-
nity ; or their wife, while awaiting their arrival, and
listening to the beef-steaks giving an extra fiz, wanders
round and round again, or, like Virgil’s crow,

“ Secum sola in magna spatiatur arena.”

If Figgins had but insisted on having the back of his
22 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

residence plastered and painted to look more natural
than stone, the same as the front—or, better still, if his
ambition could have contented itself with the plain unso-
phisticated original brick, we should say nothing against
his taste—tis peculiar certainly, but he’s better off than
Johnson.

On the opposite side of Woodbine Lane, some wretch
of a builder is going to cut off the view of the Albert
Terrace people all over the narrow field, as far as the
brick kilns, by erecting a row of contiguous dwellings
some three or four storeys high, besides garrets, and they
are to be in the last Italian style imported. One word
is enough for them; the man who knowingly and volun-
tarily goes out of town to live in a house in a row, like
those lines of things in the Clapham Road or at Ham-
mersmith, deserves to be sent with his house to ‘“‘eternal
smash ;” he is an animal below the range of esthetics,
and is not worth remonstrating with.

One of these next days, when we take our hebdomadal
excursion, we intend going to see old Lady de Courtain
at Lowlands Abbey, near ; you can get to it in
about twenty minutes by the Great Western. It is no
abbey in reality, you know ; there never was any Foun-
dation on the spot further than what Sam Curtain, when
he was an upholsterer in Finsbury, and before he got
knighted, had laid down in the swampy meadow which
he purchased there, and then bequeathed to his widow;
but it’s all the same ; it looks like an abbey ;—that is to
say, there are plenty of turrets, and the windows have all
labels over their heads, and there are two Gothic con-
servatories, and two Gothic lodges at each of the two
Gothic gates; and there is a sham ruin at the end of the
“ Lake :” and if this is not as good as a real abbey, we
should like to know what is. Old Lady de Courtain

 
AND LIVE IN IT. 23

was perfectly justified in Normanising her name and her
house :—why should she not ? she had plenty of money:
had she been a man, she could have bought a seat for
half a dozen boroughs, and might even have gone a step
higher ; but, as it is, she has married her eldest daughter
to the eldest son of Sir Thomas Humbug, a new Whig
baronet ; and she calls her house as she pleases. We
applaud the old lady’s spirit ; she has two other daugh-
ters still on the stocks, and she gives good dinners ; we
shall certainly go and patronise her. Comfort for com-
fort, we are not quite sure but that we had rather take
up our quarters with John Bold, Esq., at Hazel House,
on the top of the hill opposite. It is quite a different-
looking mansion, and yet the rooms are laid out nearly
on the same plan: in the one all is Gothic, in the other
all is classic: one is be-fretted, and be-pinnacled, and
be-shafted, and be-buttressed ; but the other has a good
plain Tuscan portico, like St. Paul’s in Covent Garden
—plain windows wide and high, at enormous distances
from each other—sober chimney-pots, that look as if
they were really meant to be smoked, and not a single
gimerack or fanciful device anywhere about the building.
It’s only a brick house plastered, after all; but it has a
certain air of ease and comfort and respectability about
it, that corresponds to a nicety with the character of its
worthy inmate. If the door were wide enough, you
might turn a coach and pair in the dining-room ; there
is a good, wide, low-stepped staircase ; you may come
down it four-a-breast, and four steps at a time, if you
like—and if it were well behaved so to do, but it isn’t;
and your bed-room would make two of Figgins’s draw-
ing-rooms, lobby and all. The house always looks to us
as if it would last longer than Lady de Courtain’s; and
so we think it will; just as we doubt not but that honest
24 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

John Bold’s dirty acres will be all in their proper places
when Lady de C.’s three per cents shall be down at
forty-two again, and her houses in the city shall be left
empty by their bankrupt tenants. They live, too, in
a very different way, and in widely distinct circles: at
the Abbey you meet many an ex-civic notoriety, and
many a rising hope of Lombard Street : it is a perpetual
succession of dinners, dances, and picnics : at the House
you are sure to be introduced to some sober-faced, top-
booted, elderly gentleman or other, and to one or two
rotund black-skirted individuals ; and you find a good
horse at your service every morning, or the keeper is
ready for you in proper time and season; and sometimes
the county member calls in, or a quorum of neighbour-
ing magistrates sit there in solemn conclave. One is
the house of to-day, the other of yesterday : one keeps
up the reminiscences of town, and of a peculiar part of
town, rather too strongly ; the other actually smells of
the country, and, though so near the metropolis, has
nothing with it in common. Their owners, when they
go to town, live, one in the Regent’s Park, the other in
Park Lane.

Another acquaintance of ours—and this we will say
that we are proud of being known to him—dwells in
an old-fashioned gloomy house at Petersham. He is
a respectable old gentleman in a brown coat, black
shorts, white waistcoat, and a pigtail; and is a member
of the Royal Society as well as the Society of Anti-
quaries. The house in question suits him, and he
suits the house; it was built in the time of that wnprin-
cipled intriguing Dutchman who came over here and
drove out his uncle and beau-pére ; and it accordingly
possesses all the heavy dignity of the Dutch houses of
that period. The windows are pedimented and cased
AND LIVE IN IT. 25

with mouldings; they are lofty and sufficiently nume-
rous ; the doorway has two cherubs flying, with cab-
bages and roses round the shell that hangs over it; and
the lawns are still cut square, and have queer-shaped
beds and parterres. There is something dignified and
solemn in the very bricks of the mansion, wearing as
they do a more regular and sombre hue of red than the
dusty-looking things of the present day; and when you
once get into the spacious rooms, all floored and pan-
nelled with oak, you feel a glow of veneration for olden
times—though not for those times—that you cannot
define, but which is nevertheless excessively pleasing.
While sitting in the well-stored library of this mansion,
you expect to see Addison walking in at the one door,
and Swift at another; and you are not quite sure but
that you may have to meet Bolingbroke at dinner, or
take a glass of wine with Prior or Pope. There are
numberless large cupboards all over the place; you could
sit inside any of the fireplaces, if the modern grates
were, as we wish them, removed: and as for opening
or slamming a door in a hurry, it is not to be done ;
they are too heavy; no such impertinences can ever be
tolerated in such a residence. And then our friend
himself—we could tell you such a deal about him, but
we are writing about houses, not men—you must go
and get introduced to him yourself. Let it be put
down in your pocket memoranda, whenever you hear
of a house of this kind to let, either take it yourself or
recommend somebody else, whom you have a regard for,
to do so. It is not a handsome, stylish kind of house ;
but it is one of the right sort to live in.

Very little is to be said in blame, much in praise, of
the majority of English country gentlemen’s houses ; if
atrocities of taste be committed anywhere, it is princi-
26 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

pally near the metropolis, where people are only half-
and-half rural, or rather are of that rus-in-urbe kind,
which is in its essence thoroughly cockney. There is
every variety of mansion throughout the land, every
combination of style, and more often the absence of all
style at all; and in most cases the houses, at least the
better kind of them, are evidently made to suit the pur-
poses of the dweller rather than of the architect. This
ought to be the true rule of building for all dwellings,
except in the cases of those aristocratic palaces or
chateaux, where the public character of the owner re-
quires a sacrifice of private convenience to public dig-
nity. Houses that are constructed in accordance with
the requirements of those that are to live in them,
and are suited to the exigencies of their ground and
situation, are sure to please longer, and to gratify the
taste of a greater number of persons, than those which
are the mere embodyings of an architect’s portfolio.
This, however, requires that the principles of the archi-
tect should be allowed to vary from the strict propor-
tions of the classic styles ;—or rather, that he should
be allowed to copy the styles of civil architecture,
whether of Greece or Rome, or ancient Europe. The
fault hitherto has been, that designers of houses have
taken all their ideas, models, and measurements from
the religious rather than the civil buildings of antiquity;
and that they have thought the capitals of the J upiter
Stator more suited to an English gentleman’s residence
than the capricious yet elegant decorations of a villa at
Pompei. In the same way, until very lately, those
who call themselves “Gothic Architects” have been put-
ting into houses windows from all the cathedrals and
monasteries of the country, but have seldom thought of
copying the more suitable details of the many mansions
AND LIVE IN It. 27

and castellated houses that still exist. Better sense
and better taste are now beginning to prevail, and we
observe excellent houses rising around us. Of these,
by far the larger proportion are in the styles of the
Middle Ages; and for this reason, that the architects
who practise in those styles have a wider field to range
in for their models, and have also more thoroughly
emancipated themselves from their former professional
thraldom. There is also a very decided reaction in public
taste in favour of the arts of the Middle Ages, or rather
let us say, in favour of a style of national architecture ;—
and as the Greek and Roman styles have little to con-
nect them with the historical associations of an English-
man’s mind, they have fallen into comparative disfavour.
For one purely classic house now erected, there are three
or four Gothic. The worst of it is, however, that from
the low state into which architecture had fallen by the
beginning of the present century, and even for some
time afterwards, there has been no sufficient space and
opportunity for creating a number of good architects
adequate to meet the demands of the public; and hence,
the greatest barbarisms are being daily perpetrated,
even with the best intentions of doing the correct
thing, both on the part of the man who orders a
building and of him who builds. Architecture is a
science not to be acquired in a day, nor by inspiration ;
—nor will the existence of one eminent man in that
profession immediately cause a hundred others of the
same stamp to rise up around him. On the contrary,
it requires a long course of scientific study, and of
actual scientific practice; it demands that a great quan-
tity of traditional precepts be kept up, and handed
down from master to pupil through many generations
of students and practitioners; it requires the accumu-
28 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

lation of an enormous number of good instances and
examples ; and in most cases it is to be polished by
long foreign travel. Now, all this cannot be accom-
plished in an impromptu, off-hand manner: the profes-
sion of architecture requires to be raised and kept
up at a certain height of excellence through many long
years: it is like the profession of medicine, of law, or
the study of all scientific matters: when once the
school of architecture declines, the practice of it de-
clines in the same ratio, and the resuscitation of it
becomes a work of considerable time. Such a regene-
rating of architecture is going on amongst us: com-
paratively more money is now laid out on buildings
than at any preceding period for the Jast hundred
years ; our architects are becoming more scientific and
more accomplished : the profession is occupying a higher
rank than it has lately done; and we may, therefore,
hope for an increasing proportion of satisfactory results.
If only the public eye be cultivated and refined in a
similar degree, we may reasonably expect that some
beautiful and notable works will be executed.

Not, however, to launch forth into the wide question
of architectural fitness and beauty, we will confine our
observations to two special topics; one concerning the
ornamentation of architectural objects, the other con-
cerning the materials used in private dwellings.

Thank goodness for it! but people are now begin-
ning to see rather further than six inches beyond
their noses, and to find out that if they adopt orna-
ment as the starting point, and usefulness as the goal
of their architectural course, they are likely to end in
the committing of some egregious folly. Private per-
sons are more convinced of this truth than public ones :
and the unprofessional crowd more than professed
AND LIVE IN IT. 29

architects. In the one case, as ornament costs dear,
the pocket puts an effectual drag on the vagaries of
taste ; whereas, in the other, public money is most
commonly spent without any virtual control: and
again, all architects are liable to descend to the pretti-
nesses of their profession rather than abide by the
great qualities of properly balanced proportion and de-
sign, A bad architect, too, is always seeking after or-
nament to conceal his mistakes of construction. In
private houses, therefore, the superabundance of bad
ornament, that was adopted after a period of its almost
total disuse, is now giving way to a moderate employ-
ment of it; but, in public buildings, the rage for cover-
ing blank spaces, and for getting rid of sharp edges or
corners, still continues. Persons who have not inquired
practically into the matter can hardly believe how very
meagre is the stock of ornament, with which nine archi-
tects out of ten set up in their trade; looking at what
they usually employ in the Greek or Roman styles, we
observe that the details are generally debased clumsy
copies of antiques, jumbled together with much incon-
gruity, and commonly altered in proportions. We do
not apply this to capitals and bases, which are now
worked with tolerable precision, though even in these
we observe a heaviness of hand and eye that detracts
greatly from their effect ; we refer more particularly to
mouldings, and to the decorations of cornices and friezes.
Any one who has visited the galleries of the Vatican,
or wandered over the Acropolis of Athens, will recollect
the broad freedom and spirit with which the most
graceful details are treated, and the total absence of
stiffness or heaviness in any of the designs; whereas,
whoever takes the trouble of lounging about London
must prepare his eye for that overload of thick heavy
30 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

ornament which characterises what is now called the
English style. The foliage of Greece and Italy was
well worked in those countries, because the objects re-
presented by the architectural sculptor were familiar to
his own and to the public eye; his own eye committed
no blunder, nor would the public eye have tolerated it.
In the application, too, of the human form to sculptured
ornament, the proportions and harmonies of the body
were too well known and felt to allow of any egregivus
errors taking place; hence, even in the decorating a
frieze, the wonderful taste and skill of the Greek and
Roman artists fully appear; whereas, in the hands of
the English sculptor, such objects are purely mythical
—he knows them only by imagination, not by reality,
and he properly designates them as “fancy objects.”
Hence their clumsiness, their heaviness, and their in-
congruity. In all the ordinary details of modern com-
mon house-building, the mouldings and enrichments
ordinarily used are a very poor description ; decorators
lived for a long time on the slender stores of the puerile
and meretricious embellishments adopted from the
French, and translated, if we may so say, for the use of
the English public ;—they had lost the boldness and
originality which made the style of Louis XIV tolerable,
or rather agreeable ; and they had substituted in its
place the poorest and the cheapest kind of details that
could be worked. Let anyone go and find out a house
in London, built between 1780 and 1810, and he will
instantly remark the meagreness of which we are speak-
ing. Grosvenor Square and the adjacent streets abound
with houses of this kind; so does Portland Place.
Carlton House was one of the most notable examples.
In the stead of this, after the War, came in a flood of
Greek ornament; every thing Roman was thrown aside;
AND LIVE IN IT. 31

all was to be either Doric or Attic, with an occasional
admixture of the Egyptian: the Greek zig-zag, the
Greek honeysuckle and acanthus, Dorie flutings and
flat bands for cornices, swarmed all over the land.
Many an honest builder must have broken his heart on
the occasion, for his old ornament-books were no longer
of use; and he had, as it were, to learn his trade all
over again. From poor Batty Langley, with his five
orders of Gothic architecture, who was the type of ar-
chitects towards the end of the last century, down to
Nash, Smirke, and Wilkins, who had it all their own
way at the beginning of the present, such was the com-
mutation and revolution of ornamental propriety. These
styles were not the only ones that had to go through
changes of accessory parts, and to suffer from the
caprices of those that dressed them up for public exhi-
bition; the revivers of the medizval styles, the new and
old Gothic men, ran also their race of absurdity and
clumsy invention. It was long—very long, before they
could make any approach towards a proper understand-
ing of the spirit of their predecessors: all was to them
a thorough mystery : and it is actually only within the
last twenty years that any tolerable accuracy has been
attained in such matters. Norman capitals used to be
put on shafts of the fifteenth century, and perpendicu-
lar corbels used in early English buildings: as for the
tracery of windows, it was “confusion worse confounded”
—architects there ran quite mad. In these classes of
ornamental forms, the faults of awkward and ignorant
imitators have been equally apparent: for just as Eng-
lish sculptors have made the Greek acanthus and olive
twine and enwreath themselves like Dutch cabbages
and crab-trees, so the modern Gothics have made their
water-lily, their ivy, their thistle, and their oak-leaves
32 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

twist and frizzle in preeternatural stiffness—while their
griffins and heraldic monsters have ramped and regarded
and displayed in the most awful and mysterious man-
ner. Gothic decorators, too, fell into the mistake of
over-ornamenting their objects far more than the pseudo-
classical men did: what used to be called Gothic orna-
ment in 1820—no longer ago than that—is now so in-
tolerable that many an expensive building requires to
be re-erected ere it can square with the laws of common
sense and good taste. Gothic furniture-makers went
wild in their peculiar art ; and there are still number-
less magnificent drawing-rooms that require to be en-
tirely refurnished ere their owners can lay claim to any
portion of decorative discernment. Eaton Hall and
Fonthill (while the latter stood) were two notable in-
stances of this lamentable excess of Guthic absurdity.
Windsor Castle is by no means free from blame; and
in fact there is hardly a Gothic house in England, of
modern date, that does not require the severe hand of
the architectural reformer.

To hit the due medium in such matters is not easy ;
and the reason is, that in architecture we are all imita-
tors, not originators: we are all aiming at renovating
old things and restoring old buildings, rather than at
inventing new ones: and the result is, that architectural
genius and invention are thereby closely cramped and
thwarted. To imitate all the details of an old style in
the closest manner is indispensable when ancient build-
ings are to be restored, or when an exact facsimile is to
be produced in some new work; but for the ornamental
powers of the architect to be perpetually tied down to
one set class of forms, is to lower him to the level of a
Chinese artist.

Unless we are mistaken, it appears to us that the
AND LIVE IN IT. 33

Greeks imitated nature in her most perfect and abstract
forms of beauty: and that they, with their successors
the Romans, or rather the later Greeks, sought for
beautiful objects as adapted to architectural ornament,
wherever they could find them. They were not pre-
vented by any traditional or conventional proprieties
from imitating and using the beautiful and the natural
wherever they might exist: all the varied forms of
nature would have come right to them had they been
willing. They seem, however, not to have taken so
wide a range as we should have expected; or else their
works that have come down to us are so few in number
that their choice seems to have been rather restricted.
The Middle Age architects also took a wide or rather a
free range in the forms of the vegetable and animal
world : but they worked with barbarous eyes and stiff
hands; nor till the twelfth century do they seem to
have arrived at that artistical freedom and correctness
which are requisite to interpret and to imitate the mul-
tiplex forms of the natural world. As for the human
figure, they confined themselves principally to draperied
forms; and they imbued these with considerable ele-
gance ; nevertheless, through all their operations, we
trace a want of anatomical knowledge, which not all
their ready invention can conceal, and which is scarcely
compensated by the value of their sculpture, as a con-
temporaneous illustration of medizeval history. Her-
aldry seems always to have been a mystic and a mythic
art ; and hence heraldic forms have a certain privilege
of caricature and distortion from which it is in vain to
try to emancipate them.

Such being the case, it becomes a question—how
should modern ornament be composed? In the classic

styles, are we always to adhere to foreign foliage, foreign
D
b4 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

animals, and mythological figures: and in the Gothic
styles, are we always to preserve the same rigidity and
distortion which prevailed as long as those styles were
in actual practice? We apprehend the true rule of
eesthetics in this case to be, as we implied before, that
for restorations or exact facsimiles of buildings, whether
classical or medizeval, the very form as well as the spirit
of the ornaments contemporaneously used in such build-
ings should be most strictly adopted. An imitation,
unless it is an exact one, is good for nothing, as far as
architecture is concerned. But should we prevail on
ourselves either to depart from these styles, or to carry
out their main principles, so as to form a national style
of our own—not a fixed one, but a style varying through
different ages, suiting itself to the social requirements
of each—then we should be prepared, not only to call
im the aid of natural beauty to the fullest extent, but
also to avail ourselves of all that rich fund of form which
results from the extensive use of scientific knowledge,
and the investigation of physical curves. There is no
reason why such a style, or succession of styles, should
not be formed, if the great principles of science and
utility be taken as the substructure on which imagina-
tion may afterwards raise its enrichment: and, if ever
it come into existence, we have the unlimited expanse
of the universe to range through in search of beauty
and harmony. It is impossible to say what changes the
introduction of new mathematical forms may not pro-
duce, and produce with good effect: thus the beautiful
curve of the catena would not have been known, but
for the introduction of suspension bridges. The appli-
cation of the cycloid is comparatively modern, though
the curve itself is ancient ; and the grand effect of the
horizontal line was not fully known—despite of Greece
AND LIVE IN IT. 35

and Rome—till our interminable lines of railroad had
stretched their lengths across the land. In the same
way, our more extended and more intimate knowledge
of the animal and vegetable kingdoms ought to furnish
us with an immense variety of new and beautiful forms
of ornament—we do not mean of mythic or fanciful
ornament, but of that highest and best kind of decora-
tion,—absolute, and yet partial, imitation of nature.
Thus, for example, have we a blank space, extending
horizontally to a long distance, which we desire to cover
with enrichments? We have our choice, either in mathe-
matical forms and combination of forms, such as me-
dizeval architects might have applied; or else we may
throw along it wreaths and branches of foliage, peopled
with insect life, or enlivened by birds and animals. A
succession of simple oak branches or laurel leaves, or
the shoots of any other common plants, faithfully imi-
tated, and cut into mimic life, from the inanimate stone,
would form an ornament of the most effective kind, and
would constitute a work of art, being an intelligent and
poetical interpretation of natural beauty. In the build-
ing of our houses, why should the straight line and sec-
tions of the circle be the only lines admissible for doors,
windows, and roofs? Why should the Greek and
Roman ovolo, cavetto, and square, be the only combi-
nations that we know of in our common mouldings?
How much richer were the architects of the thirteenth
and fourteenth centuries, who drew with “ free hands”,
and gave us such exquisite effects of light and shade!
We are firmly persuaded, that an architect, deeply im-
bued with the scientific principles of his profession, and
endowed, at the same time, with the hand and the eye
of a skilful artist, might cause a most happy and useful

reformation of our national architecture.
D2
36 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

In our choice of materials for our common buildings,
it appears that we are always struggling with a defi-
ciency of pecuniary means: for we never yet met an
architect whose skill was not thwarted, in this respect,
by the necessities of his employer. Such a man would
have built a splendid palace, only he was not allowed
to use stone; another would have made a magnificent
hall, had he been able to employ oak instead of deal.
Whenever people are so situated that they are restricted
in their choice of materials, they should remember that
they are immediately limited, both in construction and
in decorative forms; and, being so limited, it becomes
an absurdity in them to aim at anything that is unreal,
anything that is in fact beyond their means. This has
been one of the curses of all architectural and ornamental
art in modern times, that everything has been imita-
tive, fictitious, sham, make-believe :—brick is stuccoed
to look like stone, and fir is painted to look like oak.
It is impossible for art to flourish when imitative objects
can be accepted in the place of original ones ; for when
once public taste becomes so much vitiated as to be
easily satisfied with cheap copies of the real instead of
the real itself, the productive faculties of the artist and
the manufacturer take a wrong turn, and go directly to
increase rather than diminish the evil. On architecture,
the effects of a corrupted national desire for the cheap
and the easily made are peculiarly disastrous: this being
the least suited of all arts to anything like deception ;
since, to be good, it must be essentially real and true.
Hence it has arisen, that instead of being content with
humble brick, and learning how to convert that material
to purposes of ornamentation, the use of stucco and ce-
ment has become universal—materials totally unsuited
to our country and climate. The decorative portion of
AND LIVE IN Iv. 37

architecture has fallen into the same track, and elabo-
rate looking things in plaster, and fifty other substances
—in the production of which art has had no share—
have come to cover our ceilings and our walls. Had
not, indeed, the repair and erection of public buildings
called forth the dormant skill of our workmen, decora-
tive art had long since become extinct amongst us. It
may, therefore, be taken as a fundamental rule in archi-
tecture, that the decorations of buildings should be
made either of the same materials as the edifices them-
selves, or that. more costly substances should be com-
bined with the former, and should serve for the decorator
to exercise his skill on. Thus the combination of stone
with brick, an old-fashioned expedient, is good, because
it is justified by all the exigencies of constructive skill,
and because it is founded on common sense. Look for
what effective buildings may be thus produced at Lin-
coln’s Inn, the Temple, St. James’s, and several of our
colleges in the universities: how intrinsically superior
are these to the flimsy shabby buildings of Regent
Street and its Park: even old Buckingham House was
good in comparison with some of these. Or go to
Hampton Court and Kensington, and see how much
grandeur may be produced by proportion and well-com-
bined decoration, without any cement, stucco, or paint,
to bedizen the walls. If a man cannot be content to
adopt plain brick, with such instances as these before
his eyes, let him travel forth a little, and see the effect
of the great brick buildings in Holland, or the south-
west of France, where admirable churches and public
edifices are erected of this material. Sculptured orna-
ment is of course out of the question in such a case as
this: nothing but stone will bear the chisel and mallet,
to produce any effect that shall satisfy the eye and
judgment of the lover of natural beauty.
38 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

We protest strongly against all terra cotta imita-
tions of sculptural forms; but for geometrical figures
they are allowable, and their stiffness, if justified by
sufficient. solidity, will be found highly suitable for
buildings of such a kind.

Whenever the means of the employer are ample
enough, let him make up his mind to sink a little addi-
tional capital, and build a good stone house, that shall
last him and his family for a couple of centuries, instead
of a rickety edifice, that can endure for only a couple of
generations. And, in this case, let him call in the de-
corative aid of the architect, to whatever amount his
taste dictates. Ornament, to be effective, need not be
abundant; it should be employed sparingly rather than
the contrary; and, if kept in its proper place, and limited
to its due purposes, it will reward its owner’s eye, and
will prove a permanent source of artificial satisfaction.
Good stone-work without, and good oak-work within,
will make a house that a prince may live in. A good
house, well built and well decorated, is like a good coat
—there is some pleasure in wearing it; it will last long,
and look well the whole time; it will bear reparation ;
and (though we cannot say the same of any short-cut,
upper Benjamin, or jacket we ever wore—we wish we
could) it will always fetch the price given for it. We
have plenty of the finest stone and timber within this
snug little island of ours, and it is entirely our own
fault that we are not one of the best-built people in
the universe.
AND LIVE IN IT. 39

CHAPTER III.

Havine disposed of two grand categories of mistakes
and absurdities in house-building, viz., lightness of
structure and badness of material, we shall now address
ourselves more particularly to the defects of Arrange-
ment and Form, or, as an architect might term it, to
the discussion of Plan and Elevation. The former task
was ungrateful enough; for therein we had to attack
the cupidity and meanness, and the desire for show and
spurious display, which is the besetting sin of every
Englishman who pays poor-rates; but the present
undertaking is hardly less hopeless, for we have to
appeal to the intelligence, not only of architects and
builders, but also of those who commission them.

Now, there is nothing drier and more unprofitable
under the sun, nothing more nearly approaching to a
state of addle, than a builder’s brains. Your regular
builders (and, indeed, not a few of your architects) are
the sorriest animals twaddling about on two legs; mere
vivified bags of sawdust, or lumps of lath and plaster,
galvanised for a while, and forming themselves into
strange, uncouth, unreasonable shapes. A mere“ builder”
has not two ideas in his head;—he has only one; he can
draw only one “specification”, as he calls it, under dif-
ferent forms; he can make only one plan ; he has one
set of cornices always in his eye; one peculiar style of
panel; one special cut of a chimney. You may trace
him all through a town, or across a county, if his fame
extends so far; a dull repetition of the same notion
characterises all his works. He served his apprentice-
ship to old Plumbline, in Brick Lane; got up the Car-
penter’s Vade Mecum by heart; had a little smattering
40 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

of drawing from Daub the painter, and then set up
in business for himself. As for Mr. Triangle the archi-
tect, who built the grand town hall here, the other day,
in the newest style of Egyptian architecture, and copied
two mummies for door-posts, and who is now putting
up the pretty little Gothic church for the Diocesan
Church-and-Chapel- Building and Pew-Extension So-
ciety, with an east window from York, and a spire from
Salisbury, and a west front from Lincoln—why, he is
the veriest stick of a designer that ever applied a T-
square to a stretching-board. He has studied Wilkins’s
Vitruvius, it is true, and he has looked all through
Hunt’s Tudor Architecture ; but his imagination is as
poor as when he began them; he has never in his life
seen one of the good buildings he is pirating from, bar-
ring St. Paul’s and Westminster Abbey ; he knows no-
thing finer than Regent Street and Pall Mall, and yet
he pretends to be a modern Palladio. It will not do,
all this sham and parade of knowledge; we want a new
generation, both of architects and builders, before we
shall see anything good arising in the way of houses—
but as this new progeny is not likely to spring up within
a few days, nor even years, we may as well buckle to
the task of criticism at once, and find out faults, which
we shall leave others to mend.

And, to lay the foundation of criticism in such matters
once more and for ever, let us hasten to assert that good
common sense, and a plain straightforward perception
of what is really useful, and suited to the wants of cli-
mate and locality, are worth all the other parts of any
architect’s education. These are the great qualities,
without which he will take up his rulers and pencils in
vain ; without them, his ambitious facades and intricate
plans will all come to nothing, except dust and rubbish.
AND LIVE IN IT. 41

He may draw and colour like Barry himself; but unless
he has some spark of the genius that animated old Inigo
and Sir Christopher, some little inkling of William of
Wickham’s spirit within him, some sound knowledge of
the fitness and the requirements of things, he had better
throw down his instruments, and give it up as a bad
job; he'll only “damn himself to lasting shame”.

A moderate degree of science; an ordinarily correct
eye, so as to tell which is the straightest, the letter I
or the letter 8; and a good share of plain common sense;
—these are the rea] qualifications of all architects,
builders, and constructors whatsoever.

One other erroneous idea requires to be upset; the
notion that our modern houses, merely because they are
recent, are better built and more convenient than an-
cient ones. If there be one thing more certain than
another in the matter, it is this; that a gentleman’s
house built in 1700, is far handsomer, stronger, and
more convenient, than one built in 1800; and not only
so, but if it had fair play given it, would still out-
live the newer one, and give it fifty years to boot ;—
and also that another house built in 1600, is stronger
than the one raised in 1700, and has still an equal
chance of survivorship; but that any veteran mansion
which once witnessed the year 1500, is worth all the
other three put together—not only for design and
durability, but also for comfort and real elegance. Pick
out a bit of walling or roofing some four or five cen-
turies old, and it would take a modern erection of five
times the same solidity to stand the same test of ages.

Let it not be supposed that our ancestors dwelt in
rooms smaller, or darker, or smokier, than those we
now cram ourselves into. Nothing at all of the kind;
they knew what ease was, better than we do. They
42 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

had glorious bay windows, and warm chimney corners,
and well-hung buttery hatches, and good solid old oak
tables, and ponderous chairs : had their windows and
doors been only a little more air-tight, their comforts
could not have been increased.

First of all, then, with regard to the plans best suited
for the country residences of the nobility and gentry of
England—of that high-minded and highly-gifted aristo-
cracy, which is the peculiar ornament of this island,—
of that solid honest squirearchy, which shall be the
sheet-anchor of the nation, after all our commercial
gents, with their ephemeral prosperity, shall have dis-
appeared from the surface of the land, and have been
forgotten ;—the plan of a house best suited for the
“Fine old English Gentleman”; and we really do not
care to waste our time in considermg the convenience
and the taste of any that do not rank with this class of
men. It is absurd for any of the worthy members of
that truly noble and generous class of men, to try to
erect reminiscences of Italy, or any other southern clime,
amid their own “tall ancestral groves” at home, here in
old England. They have every right in the world to
inhabit the palaces of Italy, which many a needy owner
is glad to find them tenanting; they cannot but admire
the noble proportions, the solid construction, the mag-
nificent decorations, which meet their eyes on every
side, whether at Genoa, at Verona, at Venice, at
Florence, or at Rome. But it by no means follows,
that what looks so beautiful, and is so truly elegant
and suitable on the Lake of Como, will preserve the
same qualities when erected on the banks of Winder-
mere; those lovely villas that overlook the Val d’ Arno,
and where one could be content to spend the rest of
one’s days, with Petrarch and Boccaccio, and Dante, and
AND LIVE IN IT. 43

Michael Angelo, and Raffaele, will not bear transplant-
ing either to Richmond or Malvern. The climate and
the sky and the earth of Tuscany and Piedmont, are
not those of Gloucestershire and Warwickshire ; what
may be very harmonious in form and colour when con-
trasted with the objects of that country which produced
it, may have the most disagreeable effect, and be exces-
sively inconvenient, in another region with which it has
no relation. Not that the proportions of style and the
execution of detail may not be reproduced in England,
if sufficient taste and money be applied,—but that all
surrounding things are out of harmony with the very
idea and existence of the building. The vegetable world
is different ; the external and internal qualities of the
soil jar with the presence of the foreign-looking mansion.
An English garden is not, nor can be, an Italian one ;
an English terrace can never be made to look like an
Italian one; those very effects of light and shade, on
which the architect counted when he made his plans
and elevations, are not to be attained under an English
sky. The house, however closely it may be taken from
the last Palazzo its noble owner lived in, will only be a
poor-looking copy after all; and he will wonder, as he
paces through its corridors and halls, or views it from
every point of the compass on the outside, what can be
the cause of such a failure of his hopes? He hoped for,
and expected, an impossibility ; he thought to raise up
a little Italy in the midst of his Saxon park. Could the
experiment end in anything else than a failure ?

Every climate and every country has its own pecu-
liarities, which the inhabitants are bound to consult,
and which all architects will do well to observe closely
before they lay down their plans. The general arrange-
ment, the plan of a house, will depend upon this class
44 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

of external circumstances more than on any other ; while
the architectural effect and design of the elevation will
have an intimate relation to the physical appearance of
the region, to the ideas, the pursuits, and the history of
its people.

Thus it was with the ancient Greeks and Romans, as
we find their domestic life revealed to us at Pompeii.
In that delicious climate of Campania, where the sun
shines with a whitening and ever unclouded splendour,
and where winter's frosts may be said to be unknown,
the great thing wanted was shady coolness, privacy,
and the absence of all that might fatigue. Hence, in
the arrangement of the Pompeian villa, windows were
comparatively unknown: the rooms were lighted from
above; the aperture for the light was open to the sky;
whatever air could be procured was precious. Colon-
nades and dark passages were first-rate appendages of
a fashionable man’s habitation. His sleeping apartment
was a dark recess impervious to the sun’s rays, lighted
only by the artificial glare of lamps, placed on those
elegant candelabra, which must be admired as models
of fitness and beauty as long as imitative art shall exist.
He had not a staircase in all his house, or he would not
have it if he could help it. The fatigue of lifting the
foot in that hot climate was a point of importance, and
he carefully avoided it. The house was a regular frigi-
duriwin. It answered the end proposed. It was com-
modious, it was elegant—and it was therefore highly
suitable to the people and the place. But it does not,
therefore, follow that it ought to be imitated in a
northern clime, nor indeed in any latitude, we would
rather say in any country, except Italy itself. Few
parts of France and Germany would admit of such erec-
tions—some portions of Spain and Greece might. In
AND LIVE IN IT. 45

Greece, indeed, the houses are much after the same
plan, but in Spain only portions of the south-eastern
coast would allow of such a style of building being con-
sidered at all habitable.

Place, then, a Pompeian villa at Highgate or Hamp-
stead—build up an Atrium with an Impluvium, add to
it a Caldarium, if you please, and a Viridarium, too,—
and omne quod exit in um: but you will not thereby
produce a good dwelling-house ; far from it, you will
have a show-box fit for Cockneys to come and gape at ;
but nothing else.

Now, if we would only follow the same rule of com-
mon sense that the Greek or Roman architect did on
the shores of the Parthenopcean Gulf, we should arrive
at results, different indeed, but equally congruous to
our wants, equally correct and harmonious in idea.
What is it that we want in this foggy, damp, and
cloudy climate of ours, nine days out of every ten? Do
we want to have a spacious colonnade and a portico to
keep off every ray of a sun neither too genial, nor too
scorching? Are the heavens so bright with his radi-
ance that we should endeavour to escape from his
beams? Are we living in an atmosphere of such high
temperature, that if we could now and then take off
our own skins for a few minutes, we should be only
too glad to do so? As far as our own individual sen-
gations are concerned, we would that things were so ;
but we know from unpleasant experience that they are
far otherwise.

We believe that every rational householder will agree
with us, that the first thing to guard against in this

country is cold, next wet, and, thirdly, darkness. A pf

man who can really prove that he possesses a thoroughly

warm, dry, and well-lighted house, may write himself | |
46 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

| down as a rerum dominus at once; a favoured mortal,
one of Jove’s right-hand men, and a pet of all the gods.
He is even in imminent danger of some dreadful calamity
falling upon him ; inasmuch as no one ever attains to
such unheard-of prosperity without being visited by
some reverse of fortune. He is at the top of the fickle
goddess’s wheel, and the least impulse given to one of
its many spokes must send him down the slippery road
of trouble. Nevertheless, though difficult to attain,
these three points are the main ones to be aimed at by
every English builder and architect ; let him only keep
them as the stars by which he steers his course, and
he will come to a result satisfactory in the end.

One other point is of importance to be attended to as
a fundamental one, and indeed as one of superstruction
too. From the peculiarly changeable nature of our
climate, and from the provision that has to be made
for thoroughly warming a house, there is always a
danger of the ventilation and tbe drainage being neg-
lected. Not one architect in a hundred ever allows
such “insignificant” points as these to disturb his re-
veries. All that he is concerned in is his elevation, and
his neatly executed details ; but whether the inhabi-
tants are stifled in their beds with hot foul air, or are
stunk out of their rooms by the eftluvia of drains, are
to him mere bagatelles. No trifles these, to those who
have to live in the house; no matter of insignificance
to those who have an objection to the too frequent visits
of their medical attendant !

In the first place, then, a gentleman’s country house
should be thoroughly warm. Now, of course, a man
may make a fire-place as big as Soyer’s great range at
Crockford’s—poor dear Crocky’s, before it was reformed
-—and he may burn a sack of coals at a time in it; and
AND LIVE IN It. 47

he may have one of these in each apartment and lobby
of his house—and a pretty warm berth he will then
have of it; but it would be no thanks to his architect
that he should thus be forced to encourage his purveyor
of the best Wallsend. No: rather let him see that the
walls are of a good substantial thickness—none of the
thin, hollow, badly-set, sham walls of the general run
of builders; but made either of solid blocks of good
ashlar stone, with well-rammed rubble between, and
this rubble again laid in an all-penetrating bed of pro-
perly sanded mortar with plenty of lime in it, and laid
on hot, piping, steaming hot, if possible—and the joints
of the stones well closed with cement or putty ; or else
let the walls be made of the real red brick, the clay
two years old or more, well laid in English bond, and
every brick in its own proper and distinct bed of mor-
tar, as carefully made as before, and the joints cemented
into the bargain. Nor let any stone wall be less than
thirty-six, nor any brick wall than thirty inches thick ;
whereas, if the house exceeds two stories in height,
some additional inches may yet be added to the thick-
ness of the lower walls. These walls shall be proof
against all cold, and if they be not made of limestone,
against wet also.

“ But all this is horridly expensive! why, a house
built after this fashion would cost three times the
amount of any one now erected upon the usual specifi-
cations!” Of course it would. Materials and labour
are not to be had gratuitously ; but then, if the house
costs three times as much, it will be worth three times
more than what it would otherwise fetch, and it will
last more than three times as long. “ But what is the
use of building for posterity ? what does it matter
whether the house is a good one in the time of the next
48 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

possessor but six? Why not ‘run up’ a building that
will have a handsome appearance in the present, my
own life-time, and if my descendant wishes for a better
one and a warmer one, why let him build another for
himself? Add to which it will grow so dreadfully old-
fashioned in fifty years hence, that it is a hundred to
one if it is not voted a nuisance, and pulled down as an
eyesore to the estate!” Such is the reasoning commonly
used when any architect more honest, more scientific,
and more truly economical in his regard for his em-
ployer’s means, ventures to recommend the building of
a mansion upon principles, and with dimensions, which
can alone fully satisfy the exigencies of his art. We
take leave, however, to observe, that such ought not to
be the reasoning of an English nobleman or gentleman.
In the first place, what is really erected in a proper and
legitimate style of architecture, be it classical: or me-
diseval, can never become “ old-fashioned” or ugly. Is
Hampton Court old-fashioned and ugly? is Audley
End so? are Burghleigh and Hatfield so? If they are,
go and build better. Is Windsor Castle so? Yes, a
large portion of it is; for its architecture is not very
correct ; and though it has been erected only so few
years, in another fifty the reigning sovereign—if there
be a sovereign in England in those days—will pull
down most of it, and consider it as sham and as
trumpery as the Pavilion has at length been found
out to have been all along. True; if you build houses
in a false and affected and unreal style of architec-
ture, they are ugly from the very beginning; and
they will become as old-fashioned as old Buckingham
House or Strawberry Hill itself, perhaps in the life-
time of him who owns them; or else, like Fonthill,
they will crumble about your ears, and remain as monu-
AND LIVE IN IT. 49

ments of your folly rather than of your taste. But go
and build as Thorpe, or Inigo Jones, or Wren used to
build. Or even, if you will travel abroad for your
models, take Palladio himself for your guide, or Phili-
bert Delorme, or Ducerceau, or Mansard; and your
erections shall stand for centuries, and become each
year more and more harmoniously beautiful.

Next, your house should be dry; do not, then, go ©
and build it with a slightly-framed low-pitched roof,
nor place it in that part of your grounds which would
be very suitable for an artificial lake, but not for your
mansion. Do not be afraid of a high roof; but let it
tower up boldly into the air; let there be,as the French
architects of old used to term it most expressively, a
good “forest” of timber in its framing; cover it with
lead, if you can—if not, with flag-stones, or else, if
these be too dear, with extra thick slates in as large
slabs as can be conveniently worked, and as may be
suitable to the framing,—least of all with tiles.

“ But, good gracious! what ideas you have got of
expense! Why, sir, do you know that such a house
would cost a great deal of money! and besides this, I
am almost certain that in ancient Rome, the houses
had quite flat roofs, and even in Italy, at the present
day, the palaces have remarkably low-pitched roofs !”
Rome and Italy go to the —— Antipodes! Did you
not stipulate that the house should be dry? do you
think that the old Italians ever saw a good shower of
rain in all their lives? did they? ‘ Nocte pluit totd,”
is all very well in the poet’s fugitive inscription ; but
did they ever see a six weeks’ rain, such as we have
every autumn and spring, and generally in June and
July, to say nothing of January and February, in
Devonshire? My dear sir, if you wish to lie dry in

E
50 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

your bed, and all your family, too, to the seventh gene-
ration, downwards, make your roof suited to the quan-
tity of rain that falls; pitch up its sides not less steeply
than forty-five degrees, and do not be afraid if it rises
to sixty, and so gives you the true medieval proportion
of the equilateral triangle. Do you consider it ugly ?
Then we will ornament it; and we will make the
chimney-stalks rise with some degree of majesty, into
an important feature of the architectural physiognomy
of the building. Are you grumbling at the expense, as
you did just now about that of the walls? What then!
are you a Brummagem manufacturer, or some dirty cot-
ton-spinner? have you no faith in the future? have you
no regard for the dignity and comfort of your family? are
you, too, bitten with the demoralising commercial spirit
of the age? are you all for self and the present ? have
you no obligations towards your ancestors? and are
you unwilling to leave a name to be talked of by your
posterity ? Why, to be sure it may tighten you up for
five or six years; but then do not stop quite so long in
London: make your season there rather shorter, and
do not go so often to Newmarket; and keep away from
White’s or Boodle’s; and do not be so mad as to throw
away any more of those paltry thousands in contesting
the county. Let the Parliament and the county take
care of themselves; they can very well spare an occa-
sional debater like yourself; the “olorious constitution”
of old England will take no harm, even if you do not
assist in concocting the humbug that is every year
added to its heterogeneous mixture. Lay out your
money at home, drain your land, build a downright
good house for yourself; do not forget your poor
tenants, set them a good example: and let us put a
proper roof on Hambledown Hall
AND LIVE IN IT. 51

Providing, however, that the worthy squire actually
consents to pull out a few more hundreds, for the sake
of having walls of proper thickness and roofs of right
pitch, it does not quite follow that his ground-floor
rooms will be dry, unless the mansion is well vaulted
underneath, and well drained to boot. We have known
more than one ancient manor-house, built in a low dead
flat, with a river running by, and the joists of the
ground-floor resting on the soil, and, yet the whole
habitation as dry as a bone; but still more numerous
are the goodly edifices which we have witnessed, built
on slopes, and even hills, where not a spoonful of water,
you would say, could possibly lodge, and yet their
walls outside all green with damp, and within mildew,
and discoloured loose-hanging paper, telling the tale of
the demon of damp. When you are seriously bent on
building a good house, put plenty of money under
ground ; dig deep for foundations, lay them better and
stronger even than your superstructure; vault every-
thing under the lower rooms—ay, vault them, either
in solid stone or brick; and drain and counter drain,
and explore every crick and cranny of your subsoil ;
and get rid of your land-springs; and do not let the
water from any neighbouring hill percolate through
your garden, nor rise into a pleasing jet-d’eau right
under the floor of your principal dining-room. If you
can, and if you do not mind the “ old-fashioned” look
of the thing, dig a good deep fosse all round your gar-
den, and line it with masonry ; and have a couple of
bridges over it; you may then not only effectually carry
off all intruding visits of the watery sprites, but you
may keep off hares from your flower-beds, two-legged
cats from your larder, and sentimental ‘cousins’ from

your maids. You may thus, indeed, make your Hall
gE2
52 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

or mansion into a little fortified place, with fosse and
counter-scarp, and covered way, and glacis; or at any
rate, you may puta plain English haw-haw ditch and
fence all round the sacred enclosure ; and depend upon
it that you will find the good effects of this extra ex-
pense in the anti-rheumatic tendencies of your habita-
tion.

And now for the plan of your mansion, for the Ground
Plan—the main part of the business—that, on the pro-
per proportioning and arranging of which the success of
your edificative experiment entirely depends. Here
take the old stale maxim into immediate and constant
use, “Cut your coat according to your cloth”; and, if
you are a man of only £2000 a-year, do not build a
house on a plan that will require £10,000 at least of
annual income to keep the window-shutters open. Nor,
seeing that you are living in the country, attempt to
cramp yourself for room, and build a great tall staring
house, such as would pass muster in a city, but is ex-
ceedingly out of place in a park. Asa matter of do-
mestic eesthetics, do not think of giving yourself, and
still less any of your guests, the trouble of mounting
up more than one set of stairs to go to bed, but keep
your reception and principal rooms on the ground floor,
and your private rooms, with all the bed-chambers, on
the floor above. Since, however, you have determined
on going to the expense of a proper roof, do not suppose
that we are such bad architectural advisers as to recom-
mend that the roof should be useless. No ; here let
the female servants and the children of the family, per-
haps, too, a stray bachelor friend or two, find their
lodging ; and above all, if you are a family man, if you
have any of those tender yearnings after posterity,
which we hope you have, introduce into the roof a fea-
AND LIVE IN IT. 58

ture which we will remind you of by and bye, and for
which, if we could only persuade people that such a
very old and useful idea were a new one, and our own,
we would certainly take out a patent.

There should, then, be only two stories in a gentle-
man’s country residence, and a dormer or mansard story,
if we may so term it, in the root ;—we will not be so
vulgar as to call it a garret,—nor yet so classical as to
resort to the appellation of an attic. If, therefore, you
require a large house, take plenty of ground, and lay
out all your rooms en suzte. Let all the offices, whence
any noise or smell can arise, be perfectly detached from
the dwelling part of the mansion :—such as the kitchens,
sculleries, laundries, ete. They should all be collected
into a court with the coach-houses and stables on the
one side, and the whole range of the domestic offices on
the other. Never allow a kitchen to be placed under
the same roof as your dining-room or drawing-room :
cut it off completely from the corps de logis, and let it
only communicate by a passage ; so shall you avoid all
chance of those anticipatory smells, the odour of which
is sufficient to spoil your appetite for the best dressed
dinner in the world. If you would have any use for
the vault under your house, keep all you cellar stores,
and all your “dry goods” there ;—it will be a test of
your house being well-built if they do not show any
effects of damp after a few months’ stowage, below the
level of the soil, yet in aére pleno. We do not mean
to say that we would put one of our best and newest
saddles, nor our favourite set of harness, in one of the
lower vaults, to judge of the dampness of the house ;
but depend upon it, a pair or two of old shoes form ex-
cellent hygrometers; and you may detect the “dew-
point” upon them with wonderful accuracy.
54 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE

“ But only look at how you are increasing the cost
of the house by thus stretching out the walls, and
really wasting the space and ground!”—What! still
harping on the same string—that eternal purse-string !
—still at the gold and the notes? If you go on at this
rate, my good sir, you will never do anything notable
in the house-line. Take a lesson from Louis XIV, when
he built Versailles ;—that sovereign had at least this
one good quality,—he had a supreme contempt for
money ;—it cost him a great deal no doubt, but it is
“ Versailles!” nec pluribus impar;—why, it is a quarter
of a mile long, and there is, or rather was, room in it to
have lodged all the crowned heads of Europe, courts,
ministers, guards, and all. Never stint yourself for
space; the ground you build on is your own; it is only
the extra bricks and mortar ;—the number of windows
is not increased by stretching the plan out; the internal
fittings are not an atom more expensive. Be at ease
for once in your life, and cast about widely for room.

And now, dear sir, if you can but once remove this
prejudice of cost from your mind, you may set at de-
fiance all those twaddling architects who come to you
with their theories of the “smallest spaces of support”,
and who would fain persuade you that, because it is
scientific to build many rooms with few materials, there-
fore you ought to dwell in a house erected on such
principles,—and that they ought to build it for you.
You may send them all to the right-about with their
one-sided contracted notions : is the house to be built
for your sake or for theirs? who is going to inhabit it—
you or they? who is to find out all the comforts and
discomforts of the mansion—the owner or the architect?
—If you, then keep to your two stories and to the old
English method of building your house round one or
AND LIVE IN IT. 55

more courts. Go upon the old palatial, baronial, or
collegiate plan; no matter what may be the style of
architecture you adopt, this plan will be found suitable
to any. The advantages of it are as follows: first of
all, it gives you the opportunity of having your rooms
all en swite, and yet not crowded together ; next, it is
more sociable for the inmates of a large country mansion
to have the windows of their apartments looking partly
inwards, as it were to the centre of the house, and
partly outwards to the surrounding scenery; and,
thirdly, it requires, and it gives the opportunity of
having, that most admirable and most useful appendage
of any large mansion,—a cloister, or covered gallery,
running round the whole interior of the court, either
projecting from the plane of the walls—and, if so, be-
coming highly ornamental ; or else formed within the
walls,—and, if so, giving an unusual degree of warmth
and ventilation. In this damp and uncertain climate
of ours, just consider how many days there are in the
course of the year, when the ladies and the children of
a family cannot stir out of doors, not even into the
gardens; and then think of what a comfort it would be,
to have a dry and airy and elegant promenade and place
of exercise within their own walls. There the children
may scamper about, if it be a proper cloister external
to the house, and make that joyous noise which is so
essential to their health, without any fear of annoying
even the most nervous of mammas. Within an instant
they may all be under her own personal inspection, and
yet they may have their perfect freedom. Here may
the ladies of the family walk for hours on a wet day,
and enjoy themselves without trouble, and with the
facility of being at home again in a minute. If the
court is well laid out as a flowery parterre, and the
36 HOW TO BUILD A HOUSE.

greenhouse is made to contribute its proper supply of
plants to the cloister, it becomes converted into a kind
of conservatory, and forms of itself an artificial or winter
garden. Both a cloister, and an internal corridor with
windows opening into the former, may very appro-
priately be constructed together, and then the accom-
modation of this plan is complete.

Whoever has lived in a cloistered and court-built
house will know the convenient and comfortable feature
we would here point out :—it is especially suited to the
climate of England, and to the domestic habits of Eng-
lish families ; it is one of the most ornamental features
a house can possess; it gives great facilities to the waiting
of the servants; it makes the house warm rather than
cold; and it adds greatly to the comfort of the whole.
“But, then, the additional cost !’—let the cost be burnt!
have we not entered our caveat against all such shabby
pleas? Take this along with you, good sir,—do the
thing well, or don’t do it at all.
II.
SOMETHING LIKE A COUNTRY HOUSE.*

THERE is an ancient mansion we often go to, just where
the hills of Herefordshire rise confounded with those of
Radnor, built in the reign of James I, and, as common
report goes, due to the genius of Inigo Jones. It is
erected in a long line north and south, with the princi-
-pal fronts east and west; on either side of the mansion
prim-looking gables rise over the windows of the third
storey, and stately chimneys keep guard on the roof
above. The windows are all ample, well and fitly
monialled and transomed. The colour of the stone is a
rich warm-tinted gray, passing on the western front
into orange-shades of glorious hue; and the whole
edifice wears the aspect of nobility and good taste.
Ample gardens with terraces and lawns are spread
around, and the tall avenue of limes that leads down
from the ancient gates on the main road, is answered
by a goodly belt of contemporaneous oaks and beeches
‘circling round the gardens, and shutting them out from
the rest of the estate. When you enter the great hall,
you observe large square bay windows, and, in the re-
cesses, deer skins spread out for carpets, with halberds
and other arms filling up the corners. The lower rooms
are all wainscoted with black oak, and the furniture,
mostly as old as the mansion itself, is of that solid
stately kind, which befitted the dignitied style in which
our ancestors gloried to live. As you mount the ample
stairs, you find yourself amidst an endless series of por-
* A sketch from Nature.
58 SOMETHING LIKE A COUNTRY HOUSE.

traits, from the time of the bluff tyrant King Hal, down
to the homely age of good King George,—stiff gentle-
men and ladies in doublets and ruffs,—others with
cuirasses and long, flowing hair, and black dresses and
love-locks, be-speaking the well known Cavalier prin-
ciples of the House in the times of the Rebellion ; and
ever and anon gentlemen in long, three-quarter frames,
with many a square yard of pink or blue velvet for
their coats, cuffs turned up to their elbows, waistcoats
big enough to make surtouts for any of us degenerate
moderns ; the forefinger and thumb of one hand on the
pommel of the sword, the other gently placed on some
gilded table,—the head turned disdainfully aside, or
else courting with graceful pride some comely dame in
a green negligé, or habited as a shepherdess,—the Cory-
don and Chloe of the court of Queen Anne. The staircase
leads to an enormous drawing-room, that looks as if some
three or four other rooms had been thrown into one, with
two bay windows on one side, and a fireplace—ah! sucha
fireplace !—on the other. But here no personages more
ancient than the days of George the Second are allowed
to show their canvasses on the walls,—the great grand-
fathers and grandmothers of the present possessors,—
the men looking like rakish Quakers, the ladies all in
flimsy white muslin, straw hats, and powdered locks.
They may have more interest for those to whom they
are related ; but we always consider them much worse
company than their progenitors on the staircase,—those
glories and beauties of an earlier day, whom they are
themselves destined to join hereafter, when thrust out
from their present quarters by a future squire. A
stray Sir Joshua may be seen in one corner of the room,
and an early Sir Thomas is by one of the windows,
The furniture here is of that remarkable, rickety kind,
SOMETHING LIKE A COUNTRY HOUSE. 59

which our own dads admired so much, when this nine-
teenth century of ours was making its appearance, and
which—but we may have bad taste herein—we would
willingly consign en masse to the kitchen fire or the
broker’s shop.

Not far from the drawing-room door runs off one of
the many long corridors of the mansion, and there at
the end is the Closed Chamber. It has never been
usedsince the year 1718, when the young lady, one
of the daughters of the house, that used to sleep in it,
lost her lover, who had been out for the “right cause”,
and paid with his head for his loyalty to a dethroned
sovereign; and she, poor girl, walked into the great fish-
pond one night, and was found in the tangled weeds
by the old gardener next morning. The squire of that
day, her disconsolate father, had the pond immediately
drained off, and it is now one of the prettiest flower
parterres of the garden: but the Lady’s Elm is still
pointed out at one end—a shattered, withered trunk—
twas under it the poor thing’s body lay. And now at
nightfall, and in the depth of the night itself, long-
drawn sighs and the rustling of stiff silk may be heard
along the passage and by her room-door, while within,
—but no one knows nor even talks of what is within ;—
all that is really known is, that once in the autumn,
tis now fifty years ago, when the old housekeeper was
alive, on a peculiarly still night, while the family was
away up in London, and no one but two or three ser-
vants left in the gloomy mansion, the door of the cham-
ber burst open with a loud noise, and such a crash was
heard within, followed by an unearthly shriek, that the
people in the servants’ hall below nearly went out of
their minds through fright. Next morning, when the
gardener had called in the village constable and the
60 SOMETHING LIKE A COUNTRY HOUSE.

smith, and all three had mounted the stairs and had
come to the mysterious door, they found, within a
wainscoted room, a worm-eaten bed of ancient form, all
in a heap on the floor; one of the windows was broken
in, the cobwebs were blowing about in the wind that
whistled through the apartment; over the chimney-
piece was a portrait, so black that it could be hardly
made out, only they could see that it had once shown
the lineaments of a young officer’s face: but there
was nothing—absolutely nothing, to indicate the cause
of the disturbance during the night. It is true that
the smith, as he was going out, picked up a ribbon near
the chimney, which he maliciously declared he knew to
be Betty the housemaid’s garter: but nothing more ever
came of it, so the window was mended, the shutters
were closed, and the door has ever since been fastened
up with stout coffin screws. There’s not a servant that
would go to the end of that passage at night, and listen
with her ear at the keyhole (though they all say they
would not mind doing it at any other door in the house),
no, not for a twelvemonth’s extra wages !

We have slept in many a chamber of that goodly and
hospitable mansion: there was the bachelor’s room, a
nice little square apartment, about twice as high as it
was broad, all panelled in oak, which, however, some
Goth of a squire had painted light blue; with a fire-
place that would let not only the bachelor, but eke the
bachelor’s better half, creep inside on a winter’s night ;
and with a curious kind of a bed, not higher from the
ground than your knee, but with thin light posts spiring
up some dozen of feet aloft, and supporting a superfluity
of green damask, enough to make a tent with. In the
panel over the fireplace was an apology for a looking-
glass, once deemed, no doubt, an uncommonly correct
SOMETHING LIKE A COUNTRY HOUSE. 61

thing, all cut in facettes and diamonds at the sides, and
diversified with bouquets of flowers tied by true-lovers’
knots in the middle. “T'was no doubt a bridal gift to
some fair lady in the time of King Charles, and then
might have gloried in a frame of gold; but now its
glories were departed, and, for us at least, it served no
higher purpose than to display the horrors of our bristly
chin. There’s no position in the world more comfortable
for a bedroom mirror than over the fireplace; shaving
can there be conducted with science and with gusto.
And every other panel opened by some wonderful kind
of fastening, into a cupboard big enough to stow away
more habiliments than ever in our bachelor days we
were likely to possess. A quaint little gogele-eyed
commode, tortured into fanciful elegance, filled up one
corner of the room; and a nondescript table de toilette
occupied the other. Here, in a three-cornered arm-
chair, the senior piece of furniture in the whole room,
have we watched over the flickering ashes of the wood-
fed fire for hours; and often when we had shaken hands
with our worthy host at ten, have we prolonged our
vigil till early morn, amused with the acute ribaldry of
Tom Jones, or lost in the intricate wit of Tristram
Shandy. The wintry blasts would make the old case-
ment rattle, but we only gave the flaming log another
turn ;—crack ! crack! would go the wood, over went
another leaf of the book, and so we continued till taper
and eyelid alike failed us.

The Yellow Room was also a capital place to take up
your quarters in for the night; there was very pretty
sleeping in that vasty bed, where some four might
snore side by side, and yet never doubt but that they
were each sole occupant of the couch. But it was some-
what melancholy to turn in there by yourself; your
62 SOMETHING LIKE A COUNTRY HOUSE.

taper, though it burned as bright as wax could make
it, served to illumine only a small portion of the middle
space, while in each corner of the apartment was a mass
of black nonentity, of darkness visible, that might make
you superstitious and ghostlike. It was something like
going to bed in Westminster Hall; and from the fire-
place to the bedside, when in the last stage of des-
habille, was quite a journey. But there was such a
host of arm-chairs with soft, downy cushions, such a
bevy of footstools, such a goodly couple of ottomans,
such a preponderating wardrobe, and such ample splash-
ing-room on the marble surface of the toilette, that here
you could expatiate in the morning, and could walk in
and out and round the chairs and tables and footstools
and ottomans, and back again, for a mile or two before
breakfast, simply while dressing. Here were some
famous pictures of Cupids and Venuses, and a view of
the park gates, and a drawing of the alcove at the end
of the long walk, and an enormous sampler that must
have taken two or three years to work, with B. W. A.D.
1732, ending the series of devices. Here, too, were
some portly bottles of arquebusade and elder-flower
water always kept over the mantel-piece, and a set of
steps, like a small flight of stairs, to mount up into bed
by; but the books on the shelves were of a staid and
approved description,—Dryden’s Virgil, The Spectator,
and The Whole Duty of Man, keeping in countenance
the sober black-letter Bible and Common Prayer, that
held their accustomed station by the bedside. This
was the chamber where the neighbouring squires and
their dames, when they “crossed the country in a car-
riage and four’, coming some five-and-twenty miles to
dinner, used to be lodged for the night. It had once
been the nuptial chamber of our worthy host, but
SOMETHING LIKE A COUNTRY HOUSE. 63

he has long since betaken himself to a quieter and less
expansive berth.

Up above, and on the higher storey of the house,
runs a long gallery, from one end right to the other—
like the corridor of a barrack—with bedroom doors
opening into it on either side at frequent intervals.
Here are lodged the young ladies and gentlemen of the
family ; the governess and the tutor. The nursery is
at one extremity, and the ladies’ working-room at the
other. The gallery is thickly matted all the way along;
and on its walls are hung all those productions of the
arts which are not judged of sufticient excellence to be
admitted down stairs. There is an enormous map of
the estate, and a bird’s-eye view of the house, and the
first Hower-piece by aunt Mary, when she was a little
girl at school in Bath, and Mr. Henry’s black spaniel
stuffed, under a glass case. Here, on a wet day, the
children can take their wonted exercise, and have even
a game at cricket, if necessary; here the lady’s maid
and nurse-maid sit in the afternoon and work; here,
anyone who is a very particular friend of the family is
allowed to come up and “see the children”; here you
may have a swing or a romp according as you are in-
clined; and here, you cannot but confess, that you have
found out one of the most useful and comfortable
features of the whole edifice, an in-door promenade, a
domestic gymnasium.

We have been admitted into every room in the house,
big and little, up stairs and down stairs. We know the
quaint little smoking parlour that was, now turned into
the squire’s “office”, or justice room. Here he meets
his steward and sits at a desk like any wealthy cotton
lord in his factory ; here he keeps his guns and fishing

rods; and here, on a small set of shelves, are his books
64 SOMETHING LIKE A COUNTRY HOUSE.

—Burn’s Justice, and Taplin’s Farriery; here one of
his dogs is sure to be lying before the fire, and some
aged tenant or his wife is ever coming in to ask for some
little favour or other, which the kind landlord seldom
refuses; here he determines what fields shall be put
down in turnips this year, and what vagabonds shall be
put in the stocks; in short, it is the sacrarium of the
house,—the place where the primum mobile of the
whole is stationed ; and, in our eyes, one of the snug-
gest and most useful appendages of the mansion.

Leading out from this room is a door that you might
suppose would conduct you into a closet—but no; it
opens on a flight of steps, down which you descend a
little, and then find yourself at the edge of an opening
that looks like a well. This was part of the ancient
manor house, or castle, which was destroyed in one of
the Border feuds, when the Welsh and English, in the
time of Owen Glyndwr, used to give each other rather
warm receptions. It then formed the dungeon or prison,
which each chieftain of the March country had within
his residence, and where he could detain refractory
tenants or unpleasant neighbours. The worthy squire
has now turned it into his Madeira cellar, and keeps in
it a hogshead of the most particular East India that
ever left the island and crossed the Line. He has it
under his own special lock and key ; tastes it only now
and then, and threatens to keep it in the cask till his
eldest son comes of age.

The real cellars themselves are goodly things to see ;
none of your cramped-up wee bits of things that they
build now-a-days, but where,—besides the usual stock
of beer and strong ale and cyder, for the general run of
the house and neighbourhood,-—there is left room enough
for stowing away a hogshead brewed on the birth of
SOMETHING LIKE A COUNTRY HOUSE. 65

each child of the family, and destined to remain there
till they each attain their one-and-twentieth year.
They are fourteen in number, and bear the names of
those in whose honour they were filled; thus there is
Master Thomas and Miss Lucy, and Miss Susan and
Master William ; and so on, through the whole of the
rising generation. As for the wine-cellar, ’tis an un-
fathomable recess; there is port and claret in it enough
for the whole county; and the fountain in the court
might be made to run sherry for a week before the
stock would be exhausted. A pile of champagne-cases
stands at one end, and some dozen bins of the extra
particulars are built up by themselves. It would do
good to the heart of any man to wander about these
cellars for a morning.

And it is not far to the Church—just beyond the
outer garden-hedge where you cross the deep ha-ha,
made to keep rabbits and cattle out, and close to the
clump of birch trees that rise on the hill,—an ancient
edifice, with a bit of architecture of every period that
English antiquaries can boast of. The tower “ivy-
mantled”, according to the most approved rule; the
peal of bells thoroughly harmonious, and allowing
triple-bob-majors to be rung on them with the full
swing of the lustiest youths of the village. In the
chancel is a formidable-looking pew, put up in Charles’s
time, all in black oak, with quaint figures of angels
and dragons, and fantastic flowers, sprawling over every
vacant space. Within, it is right comfortably carpeted
and cushioned ; in the midst is a stove to keep out the
cool humours of the church, and comfort the squire’s
lady on a Christmas morning; while round the walls of
the little chapel, which it nearly fills, are all the family
monuments, from the stiff-necked and stiff-ruffed knight

F
66 SOMETHING LIKE A COUNTRY HOUSE.

of the days of the virgin Queen, down to the full-
bottomed wig and portentous bands of the judge in
the time of George IT. A little plain white marble
slab in one corner bears the simple inscription, —
MARIA.
1820.

But at this I have often observed that the good lady of
the house never looks; though once, during the sermon,
I saw the squire, while listlessly gazing upon it, allow
the tears to glide down his cheeks as though he were a
child.

There’s a summer-house at the end of the nut walk,
so hidden by bushes and winding paths, that it is hard
to find the entrance,—a low, squat-looking kind of a
place, built in the Dutch fashion, with four windows,
one in each side, and a dome on the top; it stands
close by a pond, and is all grown over with ivy. In-
deed, when you arrive at the door, you have to remove
the clematis and damask rose twigs with your hand,
ere you can obtain an entrance. On the walls are
numerous names commemorated both with pencil and
knife ; and in particular, under a true lover’s knot, are
deeply cut the letters M and H. It is a standing joke
at the squire’s table between himself and the amiable
hostess—but I never could get to the bottom of it—
only if any of the children or the company should by
any chance make even the most distant allusion to their
having been near the summer-house during the day,
the squire immediately calls out, “ Let me have a glass
of that port!—Mary, my love, do you remember the
summer-house ?”—to which the invariable reply is,—
“Henry, dear, I thought you had been more sensible :
you must not, indeed!” However, the gardens are
truly delightfal,—tfull of rich parterres, and clumps of
SOMETHING LIKE A COUNTRY HOUSE. 67

flowering shrubs; with trim-cut walks of yew and beech,
over which the various kinds of the pine tribe and the
cedar of Libanus rear their heads in sombre luxuriance.
You may walk, I forget how many miles, in the garden,
without going over the same ground twice in the same
direction ; but the gardener is apt to exaggerate on
this head. There is enough variety to occupy the most
fastidious for an afternoon, and beauty enough to
gratify the lover of nature for a week.

Time passes happily and swiftly in a home like this ;
rides and field-sports, and public business, take up the
mornings of the gentlemen; the fine arts, the inter-
change of neighbouring courtesies, and the visiting of
the village give occupation to the ladies. Hospitality,
and the sweetest display of domestic elegance, shed an
indescribable charm over the cheerful evenings passed
in their society,—the family are the honour and main
stay of the parish, and, indeed, of many an adjoining
one ; while the house and grounds are the pride and
boast of all that side of the county.

F oo
68

III].—SKETCHES IN OLD : a

BIRON AND THE BASTILE.

A cenTURY ago, Paris was to the antiquary and the
historical visitor one of the most interesting capitals in
this quarter of the globe ; and, next to Rome perhaps,
excited in the minds of those who journeyed to it more
grave and more spirit-stirring recollections than any
other city of Western Europe. It was then in great
part a city of the middle ages, modified, no doubt, by
the capricious changes of later times, and much added
to by the sumptuous taste of the golden era of Louis
XIV ; but still the internal portion of the capital, the
core, the nucleus of the whole, retained most of the
features which the various epochs of the French mon-
archy had successively formed for it. The streets in
the heart of Paris were all, what many still are, ex-
ceedingly narrow and gloomy; the houses lofty and
overhanging ; the pavements dirty and disgusting in
the extreme; for the population of the capital was
always noted for its carelessness, and want of regard to
all decency and cleanliness. Churches swarmed in the
city; and there were numerous monasteries which spoke
of the holy associations of past days, and recalled to
the minds of the giddy, dissolute mob, salutary ideas
of religious and moral restraint. At numerous points
rose buildings, once destined for the external defence
of the capital, but which had long been encased within
the ever-spreading circuit of houses. On the river side
stood the greater and the smaller chdtelet or castellet,
BIRON AND THE BASTILE. 69

erected on the site of earlier fortresses to defend the
bridges which led to the Lutetian Island from the inroads
of the wild Normans; but in after ages, and until the time
of the Revolution, serving as prisons, or as depéts for the
criminal tribunals and their archives. At other points
were ancient gates and towers, which showed where
the fortifications had once been traced; and to the east
of the capital at the end of the Rue St. Antoine, frowned
the much dreaded, the impregnable Bastile. This fort-
ress, which inspired thoughts of horror in the minds of
too many of the inhabitants, was considered by the
mass of the people as the ne plus ultra of all strong-
holds; it was looked on as the embodied representation
of the brute force of public authority ; it was reckoned
impregnable, because believed never to have been taken
by open assault; and it was regarded with supersti-
tious dread as a last bourne from which too many
travellers were known never to have returned. The
Bastile, at all periods of its existence, was the croqua
mitaine of Parisian malcontents. - ¢
In many of the most obscure portions of the city
magnificent mansions still remained, which attested
that courtiers had once resided where then the feet of
nobles seldom deigned to tread; and numerous exqui-
site specimens of the architectural skill of the middle
ages, placed the civil buildings of Paris almost, if not
quite, on a level with its ecclesiastical ones. Thus the
Hotel de Ville, and the former palace of the kings—the
Grand Palais, the Palais de Justice—one on the northern
banks of the Seine, and the seat of the Prévot des Mar-
chands of the capital—the other at the western ex-
tremity of the central island and the seat of the Par-
liament,—presented sumptuous illustrations of the
‘feudal authority of the French monarchy, and the
70 BIRON AND THE BASTILE.

wealth of its principal city. Many an antiquated hotel,
with all the quaint paraphernalia of medizval orna-
ment, rivalled in beauty the elegant mansions which
Mansart and his pupils had subsequently raised in the
Faubourg St. Germain, or along the western verge of
the city: the Hotel de Cluny, the Hotel de Sens, the
Hotel de St. Pol, the Hotel Barbette, the Hétel de la
Tremouille, the Hétel d’Aligre, etc., yielded not in in-
trinsic beauty to the Hétel du Maine, the Hotel Conti,
the Hétel Soubise, the Palais Cardinal, the Hoétel
Mazarin, and all their endless associates; while to the
eye and heart of the antiquary they spoke a language
peculiar to themselves, and from each stone could have
poured forth, if indeed stones could be supposed to
have a tongue, tales of wonder and woe, such as the
existence of many ages might be fancied to have im-
pregnated them with.

The older bridges of the capital were covered with
houses, hanging in an unsafe and unhealthy position
midway between sky and water; at numerous points
of the river ferries still existed, and quays were only
formed at rare intervals. In one of the gloomiest and
most antiquated parts of the city, stood the colleges of
the University, forming a little world within themselves,
perched on the sides of the hill of St. Genéviéve, or
clustering in ill-arranged confusion round the Sorbonne;
and large conventual establishments which possessed
such ample powers in that quarter of the town—the
Abbey of the sainted patroness of the city, and the great
monasteries of the Jacobins and the Cordeliers.

Nearly all the historical spots of Paris were, up to
1780, untouched; the annals of the capital could be
read by the monuments themselves ; and many of the
most important events that had distinguished the
BIRON AND THE BASTILE. 71

monarchy, were presented to the recollection of the
visitor in forms of stone, or brass, or other tangible
materials, The churches and the cemeteries had not
then been violated; the former contained an uncountable
series of monuments of all epochs, and of inestimable
value ; and it would have taken a careful examiner
many weeks merely to go through the conventual
chapels, and carefully inspect the memorials there con-
tained of departed worth or nobility. All the public
edifices of the capital, whether internally or externally
studied, were rich in traditions of bygone days, and
formed impressive illustrations of the country’s earlier
history.

The storm that broke over France in 1788, and the
six succeeding years, came with all its fury on the capi-
tal, and spared not the buildings with which it was
adorned. Paris, as well as many other cities, saw her
monasteries abolished and mostly destroyed; her
churches sacked, polluted, and given up to profane
purposes ; many of her civil buildings injured, and her
military ones altogether levelled with the ground. The
mad spirit of revolutionary spoliation, which then agi-
tated the public mind, wreaked part of its fury on the
monuments, the tangible evidences of a former and
better state of things; and the work of insensate de-
struction then began, which, under one shape or another,
has been continued ever since. The mob, too ignorant
to comprehend in what the welfare and honour of the
nation consisted, saw no better means of promoting the
licentious anarchy which they mistook for freedom, than
in destroying all that bore testimony to how much
better their ancestors were than themselves ; and the
interested rapaciousness of that peculiar class of men,
which in all countries is ever ready to profit by national
72 BIRON AND THE BASTILE.

calamities, urged the people on with redoubled madness
to the work of demolition. The first edifice attacked
and destroyed was, as is well-known, the Bastile, on
the 14th of July, 1789; and the fall of that fortress was
the signal for the Vandalic acts which rapidly followed,
not only in Paris, but throughout France.

The principle on which the mob acted in this particu-
lar instance, was not altogether without reason ; and it
was one of the very rare occasions—if, indeed, any
other occurred during the progress of the Revolution—
when the people thought with anything in the shape
of common sense. The Bastile was to them the per-
petual memento of lettres-de-cuchet and arbitrary im-
prisonments ; and it was fondly supposed, that, by de-
stroying the chief prison, the obnoxious régime would
for ever cease. No doubt, the destruction of the
ancient fortress was a serious lesson to government to
reform the penal administration of the country; but it
was one that was not needed, and it set so bad an ex-
ample by overshooting the mark, that the good effected
by it was utterly swallowed up in the flood of evil which
thenceforth ensued. The lesson was not needed by the
government ; for the mild and benevolent Louis, soon
after his accession to the throne, had publicly declared
himself against the old system of unjustified confine-
ment ; and the enlightened spirit of French lawyers
was quite prepared not only to sanction, but even to
propose the abolition of all imprisonment without the
express verdict of a competent tribunal. There is no
need to advert to the history of the destruction of the
Bastile, known as it is by every student of modern his-
tory. The popular view of the case, and all the exag-
gerated assertions concerning the soi-disant victims said
to have been found in it, have been “consigned to immor-
BIRON AND THE BASTILE. 73

tality”, as Dussaulx thought when he wrote the History
of the Parisian Insurrection, and Taking of the Bastile;
a precious production, curious for its being highly charac-
teristic of the times, and strongly recommended by the
republican antiquary Millin, as “a proper work for forti-
fying and disseminating the holy love of liberty!” Our
purpose is not to notice the Bastile in its days of dis-
grace and trouble, but to dwell upon its condition in
iron-handed times, and to rake up one of the many
bloody tragedies that have been enacted within its walls.

The original founder of the Bastile was Charles V, in
the fourteenth century. That monarch, after the peace
concluded with the English, posterior to the days of
our third Edward, determined to surround the northern
portion of Paris with new walls, and a regularly forti-
fied enclosure. The line commenced at the river side,
about half-way between the Louvre and the spot where
the Tuileries were afterwards erected, stretched north-
ward across what is now the Palais Royal, and went by
the Place des Victoires in a long straight line, still
traceable in the Rue des Fossés Montmartre and the
Rue Neuve St. Eustache, to the Porte St. Denis.
Thence it turned eastward and southward, and follow-
ing a line identical with the present Boulevards, passed
by the Porte St. Martin and the Porte du Temple, to
the Arsenal on the water side. A little to the north of
the Arsenal, Charles erected a fortress to command one
of the principal entrances of the city—that which
opened into the quarter of St. Antoine ;—and the only
one by which Paris could there be approached, passed
through a narrow, pointed gateway, under two lofty
machicolated and embattled towers. These defences
were begun in 1367, and were not completely finished
till 1383, when the imbecile Charles VI had succeeded
74 BIRON AND THE BASTILE.

his father on the throne. The latter monarch, wishing
to enlarge and strengthen the Bastile, which he in-
tended to be the citadel of Paris, erected two other
towers equally strong and lofty, some sixty feet behind
the first; so that the enemy, to force an entrance, would
have to brave the discharges of the rude artillery of the
times, of the cross-bows and balistas, and the showers of
molten lead which the machicolations could vomit forth,
while trying to break through the double portcullises
that blocked up the outer and the inner gateways.
Subsequently, Charles VI added another pair of towers
on either side of those already standing, and joining
them together by an external wall of the same height
as themselves, and about ten feet thick, made a stout
castle with eight of these lofty circular bastions. Round
the whole was dug a ditch five-and-twenty feet deep,
through which water flowed ; and the road of entry to
the capital was no longer suffered to go through the
citadel, but was taken round by the northern wall, and
carried under a strong barbican touching the outer edge
of the ditch. The plan of the Bastile was of an oblong
form, divided into two unequal courts; the larger of
these, on the southern side, was overlooked by six of
the great towers; the smaller, to the north, by four.
In the outer walls of the towers, or of the intermediate
spaces, the windows were as few and as narrow as they
could be made, serving strictly for the mere purposes
of defence; on the platform above, small watch-posts
occurred at rare intervals; and at a later period, the
only ingress afforded was by a drawbridge between the
two towers to the south. The gateway that served in
the time of Charles V, had been blocked up between
the two towers, and was converted into a chapel. Out-
side, over the ancient arch, there remained, till the final
BIRON AND THE BASTILE. 75

destruction of the edifice, the statues of the unfortunate
Charles VI, his wicked wife Isabel of Bavaria, two of
their children, and the good St. Anthony in the midst.
Viewed from the Rue St. Antoine, or from the opposite
side, the Bastile presented a broad, imposing front of
four towers; but from the Boulevards, which were at
that period identical with the walls of the town, only
the end of the edifice, with two towers, was visible.
The aspect, too, was neither so frowning nor so gloomy
as might have been supposed ; for, owing to the fine
climate, the stone had kept its light-grey colour, and
in many parts, even till the end of the eighteenth cen-
tury, preserved the tint which it still wears, now that
it has been worked up into the magnificent bridge lead-
ing from the Place de la Concorde to the Chamber of
Deputies. In 1830, when the lower part of one of the
towers remained on the Place de la Bastile, the colour
of the stone showed what that of the whole edifice had
been; and the pointed loopholes or sowpiraux, still
visible, testified how carefully the fortress had been
terminated in its minutest details. The governor of
the chateau lived in detached buildings to the south,
and had ample courts, terraces, and gardens wherein to
“apricate” and invent methods for better securing his
prisoners, or the other inmates of the Bastile: it was
not an easy matter to come even at his residence from
without, so circuitous was the passage, and so many
opportunities did salient corners afford for making a
stout defence. Ata period when the building had be-
come more exclusively devoted to the reception of State
prisoners, the chapel was transferred from between the
two central towers of the eastern front to a similar posi-
tion between those of the west. It was a narrow, in-
convenient room, savouring little of religion, but much
76 BIRON AND THE BASTILE.

of military control ; and on its roof, as if in diversion,
the pigeon-house of his excellency the governor was
constructed. Within, and opposite to the altar, were
six narrow niches cut out of the wall, and communi-
cating with a dark passage behind. Each of these
boxes could just hold one man in an upright posture ;
and a narrow slit, closed with glass and protected by
an iron grating, allowed a prisoner, when placed within,
to see what was going on at the altar, but in no other
part of the chapel. A wretched curtain, on the outside
of each slit, was withdrawn by one of the guards when
Mass was going on; and the prisoner, as one who had
experienced it has stated, could perceive the officiating
priest as if he were looking at him through a telescope.
Such was the religious consolation afforded to the
prisoners.

The lofty circular towers had each their name, de-
rived either from remarkable prisoners who had been
confined in them, or from some traditions with which
they were connected. The visitor, on entering the first,
or southern and largest court, had on his right hand
the Tour de la Comté, said to have been so called be-
cause the unfortunate Count of St. Pol—he who held
at bay the Duke of Burgundy and Louis XI of France,
till he was entrapped in his own toils—had been con-
fined in it in 1475, for the short time which intervened
between his arrest and his execution. After this tower
on the right hand, came the two which had originally
guarded the gateway of the fortress of Charles V; and
they were known as the Tour du Trésor and the Tour
de la Chapelle. In the former, Henry IV kept his
well-hoarded treasures under the safe guardianship
of his faithful Sully. Immediately on the left hand
of the entrance, was the Tour de la Baziniére, named
BIRON AND THE BASTILE. 77

from M. de la Baziniére, who was confined there in
1663: next to it stood the Tour de la Berthaudiére,
deriving its appellation from a similar cause, but ren-
dered more celebrated than any of its grim companions,
from its having been the abode of the mysterious Iron
Mask—that enigma and disgrace of the reign of Louis
XIV. Within the walls of this tower, the lingering
lite of that unfortunate prisoner was spent, after his
transferring thither from the Isle of St. Marguerite ;*
and when death put a period to his sufferings, the
governor of the Bastile had the interior of his apartment
entirely scraped, so as. to remove the possibility of any
writing on the wall betraying the secret of his name.
The third tower on this side, fronting the city, was by
a strange mockery called the Tour de la Liberté, as if
that name could ever be appended to anything con-
nected with the Bastile! A massive pile of building,
running athwart the fortress, and forming the northern
side of the principal court, contained a guard-house,
with various apartments less gloomy than those of the
towers, and fit for the reception of prisoners of rank,
such as the Cardinal de Rohan, M. de Saint James, and
others, who, from time to time, were their unwilling
occupants. The smaller court was flanked by the Tour
de la Chapelle, the Tour de la Liberté, and two others
at the northern corners, of which, that towards the Rue
St. Antoine was known as the Tour du Puits; the
other, frowning over the faubourg, as the Tour du Coin.
In this, the Maréchal de Bassompierre was immured for
twelve long years, from 1631 to 1643, and here he
wrote his admirable Memoirs : here, too, Le Maitre de
Sacy was incarcerated from 1666 to 1668, during which

* Tf the Iron Mask was not the Intendant Fouquet, he must

have been a brother, legitimate or illegitimate, of Louis XIV.
78 BIRON AND THE BASTILE.

time he made the greatest part of his translation of the
Bible ; while, at a later period, it had for one of its
tenants a third literary character, Constantin de Ren-
neville, author of the History of the Bastile.

Such was this famous fortress, the ready engine of
political vengeance, and the mute accomplice of royal
iniquity, at all periods of the French monarchy. To no
building could the inscription over the gate of Dante’s
Inferno be more aptly applied :—

“‘ Lasciate ogni speranza voi ch’ entrate ;”

and its fatal drawbridge led but too surely to what the
poet’s term of a “citta dolente” most aptly characterised.
Now, however, all is changed ; the site is no longer to
be recognised ; not a stone remains; a canal flows far
below where the deepest dungeons, the oubliettes, were
once constructed; and above, verifying the lines of
Pope, a brazen column-—
—— “pointing to the skies,
Like a tall bully, lifts its head and lies.”’

Here stands the vulgar and clumsy pillar ycleped “The
column of July”, covered with the gilded names of sov-
disant victims of that catastrophe, and bearing on its
apex a golden idol, to proclaim to the mob the triumph
of the Revolution, and the reign of a crafty usurper.
But our object is not to dwell on the present, we turn
back our thoughts to the past : and opening the worm-
eaten leaves of a venerable folio chronicle that lies be-
fore us, we read in it the narrative of a tragic scene
witnessed in olden times by the walls of the Bastile.

In the picturesque and wild province of Périgord is
the small town of Biron, which at a very early period
was the head place of a feudal barony, and has never
since ceased to give a title to one of the oldest houses
BIRON AND THE BASTILE. 79

of the French nobility. Gaston de Gontault, seigneur
of Biron in the middle of the fourteenth century, was
the first of the family whose name occupies a place of
note in French annals; and from that period the same
name has been borne by a series of men eminent for
their virtues, their public services, or their misfortunes.
During the reigns of Charles IX, Henry III, and
Henry IV, the head of the family, Armand de Gon-
tault, was a personage of no small importance; and the
last of these monarchs was under heavy obligations to
his courage and ability for possession of the throne.
The Baron de Biron had been educated as one of the
pages of Margaret of Navarre, and had afterwards been
first raised to the rank of “ Chevalier des Ordres du
Roy”, and then chosen by the brave Maréchal de Bris-
sac to bear his guzdon, or standard, at the head of a
chosen company of guards. He took an active part in
the Piedmontese wars of that epoch; and, while en-
gaged in the siege of a fortress, received a wound which
lamed him for life. During the civil contests in his own
country, he was present at the bloody fields of Dreux,
St. Denys, and Montcontour, as well as at numerous
sieges, covering himself on all occasions with honour by
his headlong gallantry. In 1569, Charles IX made
him grand-master of the Artillery; and, in 1577, Henry
III, who, amidst his many weaknesses, could sometimes
distinguish the merits of his friends, presented him
with the baton of Maréchal de France, and added the
lieutenant-generalship of the province of Guyenne. The
collar of the Order of the Holy Ghost, which he re-
ceived from the sovereign in 1581, counterbalanced the
chagrin he had afterwards to endure from being twice
defeated by Spanish commanders, when sent to succour
the Duke of Alencon in the Low Countries. On the
80 BIRON AND THE BASTILE.

assassination of Henry III, Armand de Gontault was
one of the first nobles and commanders who declared
for Henry IV; and the impulse which this act of de-
cision gave to the fortunes of that monarch was widely
felt by his partizans. He had many years before
married a lady of remarkable beauty, Jeanne, daughter
and heiress of the Seigneur of Ornesan and Blancart ;
and a family of three sons and five daughters were the
offspring of their union. The eldest son, Charles de
Gontault, was grown up to be a young man of great
gallantry and chivalrous disposition, and had already
distinguished himself by his military prowess under his
father’s command ; he was known to, and esteemed by,
the King of Navarre, and he followed his father in ar-
dently embracing that monarch’s cause as soon as the
throne of France became vacant. In the battle of
Arques, which was of so much importance to the future
prospects of Henry, the Maréchal de Biron, by his stra-
tegic abilities, contributed greatly to the success of his
sovereign's arms; and Charles, then in his twenty-
seventh year, fought with the most brilliant and im-
petuous courage. At Ivry, in the following year (1590),
the Seigneur of Biron and his son again showed their
devotion to the new monarch ; and shortly after, the
Maréchal succeeded in subjecting a large portion of
Normandy to the sway of that prince. He continued
to aid Henry both by his counsels and his sword, in
bad fortune and in good, until 1592, when he was killed
by a cannon-ball while reconnoitring the town of Eper-
nay, in Champagne. The Maréchal had the merit of
having dissuaded Henry from abandoning his cause at
a period when it seemed most desperate ; and it was
owing to his courageous advice that the king abstained
from flying to England, or from shutting himself up
BIRON AND THE BASTILE. 81

within the walls of La Rochelle, when pressed by the
superior forces of the Duke of Mayenne. The king had
always entertained the most affectionate regard for his
faithful servitor, and placed in his long-practised judg-
ment the most implicit reliance ; his loss, however, was
not felt so severely, since he was succeeded by his son,
who, with more brilliant but not such solid qualities as
his sire, held a high place in the opinion of the sove-
reign, and was at one time beloved by him almost as a
brother.

Charles de Gontault, after the battle of Ivry, was
present at the sieges of Paris and Rouen, and took an
active part in the engagement at Aumale; on the death
of his father, he was made Admiral of France, and two
years after, was created, like him, a maréchal. From
this period, the military successes of the Baron de
Biron, and the esteem felt for him by his royal master,
advanced concurrently in a long career of uninterrupted
brightness. The new maréchal was entrusted with the
government of Burgundy in 1594, and captured the
towns of Beaune, Auxonne, Autun, and numerous
others ; while at the battle of Fontaine Frangaise, in
the same year, his impetuous courage had carried him
into the midst of the enemy’s arquebusiers, and he was
rescued only by a charge, headed by the king in person.
His body was riddled with sword wounds, and he had
received such a desperate cut over the head, that his
senses were nearly gone; the blood, too, flowed so
copiously into his eyes and down his face, that he could
not recognise the monarch. On recovering from his
wounds, which confined him many months to his bed,
he resumed an active command, was at the sieges of
Amiens and La Fére, then held by the Spaniards, who

threatened to dismember France of some of her fairest
G
82 BIRON AND THE BASTILE.

provinces, and afterwards ravaged the whole of Artois,
where he took the Marquis de Varembon prisoner.
Diplomatic honours now awaited him; he was sent
ambassador to England in 1598, and was an object of
warm admiration at the court of Elizabeth. On his re-
turn, the king elevated the barony of Biron into a duke-
dom, annexed to it the privilege of the peerage, and
then dispatched the duke as ambassador to Brussels,
where he was to witness the Archduke of Austria swear
to the peace of Vervins. Three years after, he was a
second time sent an ambassador to compliment Queen
Elizabeth, and in 1602 proceeded in the same quality
to Switzerland, where he concluded an alliance with the
confederated Cantons. Few subjects of the French
monarchy have ever mounted so rapidly or so highly as
the fortunate maréchal; few have ever fallen more sud-
denly or more mournfully from their “high estate”.
This was the last phase of his grandeur, and he was
destined, within a few short months, to pay the bloody
price of overweening ambition and misplaced confi-
dence.

Our old chronicle notices, under the date of 1601,
that “this year a treason was discovered, although it
had been four years in hand”; it then goes on to
moralise upon the improbability of any man’s becoming
bad all of a sudden, strengthening its remarks by ob-
serving, that “the Northern Sea does not freeze of .it-
self, but rather the rivers and marshes which flow into
it”; and then details the history of the fall of the Duke
de Biron. Nothing but what his adversaries have re-
corded, or those who swore against him on his trial de-
posed, has come down to us concerning the treason, real
or imputed, which led to his disgrace and ruin; and
there are only reasonings from improbabilities and dis-
BIRON AND THE BASTILE. 83

crepancies to be alleged in his defence. The common
opinion of the day was, that the duke had been led
away, by base intriguers, to lend an ear to criminal
proposals, from the Duke of Savoy and the King of
Spain, against his own sovereign; that he was discovered
before he could carry his designs into effect; and that the
king, wounded to the heart at finding so bad a return
made for his extreme kindness, gave the maréchal over
to the parliament, and so to death. The chronicler
states, that the ambitious disposition of the duke being
evident to all the world, the crafty Spanish commanders
in the Low Countries thought him a likely man to listen
to projects which might raise his own fortunes, even at
the expense of the country he was charged to defend ;
and accordingly, soon after the taking of Laon, when
the duke had been momentarily offended at the king’s
giving to the Duchess de Beaufort a favour which he
had in vain solicited, they offered him an annual pay of
two hundred thousand crowns, and the chief command
of the Spanish forces in France, if he would pass over
to their side. He seems to have had the weakness not
to disclose the offer to the king, instead of simply re-
jecting it; and he ever after retained in his own bosom
an involuntary consciousness of the high estimation in
which his military abilities were held by the enemy.
The chronicle says, that he was often heard to say he
could never die till he should have seen his head on a
crown-piece—that he would rather lose his head on a
scaffold than get his bread in a hospital—and that he
often repeated the words “Aut Cesar aut nullus” to his
intimate friends. It was after the siege of Amiens that
a gentleman of Provence, of ruined fortunes and charac-
ter, La Nocle, seigneur of La Fin, who had been mixed
up with the troubles of that district, and was over-
G2
84 BIRON AND THE BASTILE.

loaded with debts, contrived to wheedle himself into
the duke’s confidence, and to offer his services for cri-
minal purposes with the enemy. He so far succeeded
that he induced the maréchal to give intelligence to the
Duke of Savoy, of an intended attack of a fort ; which,
however, did not prevent it from falling into the hands
of France. This was the first overt act of treachery,
and it appears to have been connected with a secret
proposal to him, when ambassador at Brussels, for con-
tracting a matrimonial alliance with the sister of the
Duke of Savoy. Negotiations to this effect were carried
on through the medium of La Fin and Renazé, the
Duke de Biron’s secretary, on the one hand, and the
Duke of Savoy and the Spanish Condé de Fuentes on
the other ; notwithstanding that the war continued on
the frontier, and that the maréchal took most of the
towns of the Bresse country from the Spanish garrisons.
It does not appear that the duke’s propositions ever
went so far as for himself to pass over to the Spanish
side; but rather that he hoped, by marrying the
Princess of Savoy, to obtain the hereditary govern-
ment of Burgundy from his own sovereign, and thus to
erect it into a kind of independent principality, to be
held by feudal tenure of France. He sent, however,
several pieces of information to the Duke of Savoy,
which saved the troops of that prince from great re-’
verses ; and, on Henry IV refusing to give the com-
mand of Bourg to some one for whom he had solicited
it, went into the most violent paroxysms of anger, and
even meditated personal vengeance on the monarch.
The king, however, who at this time had received in-
telligence of the enemy having tried to tamper with
the maréchal, discredited the report ; and on his favo-
rite coming to him at Lyons, and confessing himself to
BIRON AND THE BASTILE. 85

have been in the wrong about Bourg, freely forgave
him all offences he might have committed up to that
period—such were the words which issued from the
royal mouth. The enemies of the duke declare that,
immediately after this interview and his pardon, Biron
dispatched his agents into Italy, to Turin and Ivrea,
in order to push on the negotiations for his marriage
more rapidly than before. However this may be, evil
reports against him circulated again at court; the
monarch’s confidence was completely estranged ; and
the agent, real or supposed, of the duke, La Fin, was
brought to make revelations, while Renazé was secretly
arrested. Two noblemen were implicated in their de-
nunciations together with the Duke de Biron: these
were the Comte d'Auvergne, of royal blood, and the
Baron de Lux. The Prince de Joinville, the Duke de
Bouillon, the Baron de Fontanelle, and Montbarrault,
governor of Rennes, were more or less suspected of not
being altogether strangers to the duke’s proceedings.
Such, however, was the high credit and influence of the
Maréchal de Biron, that the king did not think it
prudent to attempt his arrest in an open manner ; and,
as the chronicle states, the monarch had still so much
affection for him, that he concluded his impetuous spirit
had been misled by the rogues into whose hands he had
fallen, and hoped by his influence over his friend to
lead him to a full confession. With this view, and with
the secret determination of making his clemency com-
mensurate only with Biron’s candour, Henry summoned
the duke to attend him at Fontamebleau.

La Fin had been to this royal residence ostensibly on
the duke’s business, but in reality to communicate with
the officers of the Crown, and to insure to himself the
reward of his treachery towards Biron. He had secret
86 BIRON AND THE BASTILE.

interviews with the king at the royal vineyards, near
the town; with the chancellor by night, in his own
house at Fontainebleau ; and in the heart of the forest
with Sully. “All,” says the chronicle, “had horror at
seeing the writings which they saw, and at hearing the
designs which they heard.” The chancellor, too, was
so much impressed with the importance of the papers
remitted to him by La Fin, that he sewed them up in
a corner of his pourpoint, and kept them by him day
and night. The duke had many misgivings after re-
ceiving the royal summons, and his friends were not
backward in cautioning him not to trust himself at
Court; still he could not openly refuse the orders of the
sovereign, and he journeyed slowly from Lyons to Fon-
tainebleau with only a small retinue. “ Against his
journey,” the chronicle relates, “he had many evil
omens: a bird called the ‘duke’, came into a room
where he was sitting, before he set out, without anyone
knowing how it had entered. He gave orders that it
should be carefully kept and fed: but as soon as he
was gone it died. JIncontinently thereon, the horse
which the archduke had given him, and which he called
the Pastrave, went mad, and killed itself. The same
did a horse which he had had from the Grand Duke of
Tuscany ; and another which the Duke of Lorraine had
given him fell ill. He arrived at Fontainebleau just at
the time when nobody believed he would come—that is
to say, on the Wednesday, 13th of June, and when the
king was beginning to think of taking horse within a
few days to go into Burgundy. As his majesty was
entering the great garden about six o’clock, he was
heard to say to M. de Souvre, ‘He will not come’; but
scarcely were the words out of his mouth, and he had
taken a step or two, when the Duke de Biron was dis-
BIRON AND THE BASTILE. 87

covered approaching, amid a troop of seven or eight.
The king, on perceiving him, said he was come just in
time to lead him to his house. Biron advanced, and,
still at some distance, made three profound salutations.
The king embraced him, and told him he was come just
in time to lead him to his house. This expression had
an apparent signification, which was accepted by those
who believed that the king was speaking of a lodge in
one of the pavilions of the garden ; but it had another
secret one, understood only by a few, which meant
that, if the duke did not make up his mind to humi-
liating submission, he would banish him from his favour
and presence, and would send him to one of his own
seats.” Biron began to make excuses for coming late ;
but the king listened to only the first words of what
he was going to say, and, taking the duke’s hand, led
him to see the new buildings he had been making, and
walked him from one garden to another. The Duke
dEspernon seized an opportunity of whispering in
Biron’s ear that he would repent having trusted to his
courage rather than his friends; and soon after, the
king, speaking to him of the causes of discontent that
he had against him as a friend and subject, the duke
only replied by protestations of innocence, which were
not free from certain petulant expressions ill-suited to
the presence of royalty.

When the time for dinner arrived—in those days
about eleven o’clock—Biron was observed to commit a
breach in etiquette, by asking the Duke d’Espernon for
leave to make one of his table, whereas he ought to
have dined at the table of the Grand-master of the
Court; and, as the chronicle remarks, “to have made
one of the king’s household, since his own had not
arrived”. The repast finished, the two dukes, and the
88 BIRON AND THE BASTILE.

noblemen who were with them, returned to the royal
apartments, where the king was still at table. As soon
as Biron entered, Henry desired the Duke de Vendéme,
his eldest son by the Belle Gabrielle d’Estrées, Duchess
de Beaufort, to salute him; and then, having walked
down the magnificent gallery known as the Salle de la
Belle Cheminée, amidst the Court, retired to his private
cabinet, ordering two or three noblemen to come in,
but not speaking a word to the Maréchal de Biron.
From that moment it became evident that the royal
favour was gone; and, to use the chronicle’s expression,
the duke, as he leaned pensively by the side of the
royal bed, “was shunned by the brilliant crowd as a
man who had got the plague”. He was not allowed
to remain long in suspense. The Marquis de Rosny,
Sully, came out of the royal cabinet, apparently to
speak to Monsieur de la Guelle, but in reality to see if
Biron were still at hand. He did not salute the duke,
but, returning to the king, re-appeared after the lapse
of a few minutes, and told him to enter the royal
presence.

Here Henry informed the duke of the substance of
what he had heard, and adding that he wished to have
a full account of his erroneous acts from his own mouth,
in order that there the matter might end, pressed him
to withhold nothing from one who desired so much to
continue his friend. The maréchal, not aware of La
Fin’s treachery, nor of Renazé’s arrest, protested in
the loudest and most vehement terms of his innocence,
and begged of his majesty that opportunity might be
given him of taking vengeance on his calumniators with
his sword. The king said nothing more, but desired
him to come to the tennis-court, and directed him and
the Duke (’Espernon to play against himself and the
BIRON AND THE BASTILE. 89

Count de Soissons. D’Espernon here told Biron that
he intended to set out for Paris next day; Biron begged
him to remain, and added, that they would play another
game at tennis. “ You play well,” rejoined the former;
“but you do not know whom you play with.” This
hint, which he for whom it was intended did not take,
was understood by the king; but the monarch said
nothing. Supper time came; the duke sat at the
grand-master’s table, silent and shunned by the court ;
and the king, who, after his repast, was observed to
pace up and down his chamber, ejaculating, from time
to time, ‘He must bend or break!” at length sent the
Count de Soissons to the infatuated maréchal to try
and overcome his obdurate resolution. All was in
vain.

Next morning at an early hour the king went into
the garden towards the aviary, and having been joined
by Biron, for whom he had sent, walked forward with
the duke, at some distance from the rest, and there
begged him once more to trust to his best friend, and,
by making a full confession, throw himself on his mercy.
The attendants who were behind observed Biron gesti-
culating with great force, striking his breast, waving
his arms in the air, and making loud protestations of
innocence. The king and Biron returned, the duke
quitting the monarch as the latter entered his apart-
ments for dinner; immediately after a letter was thrust
into his hand, in which some one anonymously conjured
him to quit the court without delay. Biron showed it
to the captain of his guard, who was then in attendance,
and the only reply it elucidated from that officer, was,
that he wished a dagger had been plunged in his breast
sooner than that they had ever come to Fontainebleau.
All the afternoon the king was observed to be in an un-
90 BIRON AND THE BASTILE.

usually absent and yet irritated mood: several of the
king’s confidential councillors were seen speaking to the
monarch in short whispers; there was a coming and
going ; there was evidently something of importance in
the wind, and most of the courtiers expected every
moment to see the duke arrested and subjected to sum-
mary execution. Henry was observed to be busily
engaged in giving confidential orders to the Sieurs de
Vitry and de Praslin; and after supper, while walking
again in the gardens, was joined by Biron and the
Count d’Auvergne. These noblemen had at length
taken the alarm: they had ordered their horses to be
kept saddled; had asked for leave to withdraw from
court, and intended to be off next morning. Henry,
with his usual kindness, invited Biron to join the
queen’s card-party; and led the way into her majesty’s
chamber. As they passed through the door, Auvergne
whispered in Biron’s ear, ‘We are undone!” and the
game began. The king, while the duke was playing
with the queen, moved rapidly about the chamber in
the greatest agitation; and at length, as the chronicler
says, unable to contain himself, rushed into his cabinet,
and falling on his knees, prayed long and earnestly that
he might be able to form a just judgment in this diffi-
culty of mind. Henry, relieved by this effusion, and
tranquillised as to the uprightness of his intentions
towards the duke, determined to make one last effort ;
and, if he should fail in inducing his proud spirit to stoop
to a confession, to yield him into the hands of justice.
He returned accordingly to the queen’s chamber, took
her majesty’s hand of cards, and at times walked about.
The Count d'Auvergne was gone, and Monsieur de
Varennes, lieutenant of Biron’s guards, as he stooped
to pick up his cloak, took the opportunity of whisper-
BIRON AND THE BASTILE. 91

ing his master that all was lost. The duke became
troubled, played false, and lost the game. The queen
rallied him for his want of skill; and the king, saying
that the play had gone on long enough, entered his
cabinet. Biron was summoned thither in a few min-
utes, and he had that last interview with his sovereign
on which his fate depended. The king was now more
explicit; he assured Biron that he knew all: that con-
cealment was in vain, and that his clemency would go
much further than the maréchal expected. He desired,
however, to hear from his own mouth all that had
passed between him, the Duke of Savoy, and the Condé
de Fuentes. The unfortunate Biron, prompted by
mistaken pride, and relying on the fidelity of La Fin,
asserted that it was too bad of his majesty to push an
honest man so hard, and that he had never entertained
any criminal ideas. ‘Would to God it were so!” replied
the king; “you are unwilling to confess to me; adieu!
good-night !”

These were the last words Biron ever heard from the
monarch’s mouth. As he passed out from the royal
cabinet into the grand chamber, Monsieur de Vitry laid
his hand on his sword, and demanded it in the king’s
name. Biron protested loudly, and desired the Duke
de Montbazon to request of his majesty that his sword
might be delivered into his hands alone; the king sent
back word to Monsieur de Vitry that he was to execute
his order. Biron still protested, and three or four
hours, as the chronicler states, were spent in contesta-
tion before the duke would give up his weapon; and
even when he did so, he looked around to see whose
sword he might snatch from its scabbard to use in his
defence. His purpose, however, was anticipated, and
he was desired to move forward; the royal guards, with
92 BIRON AND THE BASTILE.

their partizans and arquebuses on their shoulders, were
drawn up in the long gallery; and Biron, thinking that
they had orders to finish him at once, called out loudly
for some one to lend him a weapon, “that he might die
with something in his hand :” he asked in his fury for a
burning brand from the hearth, or for one of the silver
candlesticks, that he might at least defend himself and
not die without a struggle. The officer observed that no
harm was intended him, and he was removed to the
guard-room, where he passed the night. Meanwhile,
other officers hastened to his apartments and seized all
his baggage and papers. The conduct of the Count
d’Auvergne was widely contrasted with this. He was
preparing for bed when Monsieur de Praslin came to
demand his sword, “ Here! take it,” said the count; “it
has never killed anything but wild boars; if you had
told me of this beforehand, I should have been in bed
and asleep a couple of hours ago !”

Envoys were sent without delay to the different courts
of Europe to convey authentic information of the dis-
covery of the maréchal’s guilt, so important to the fate of
the monarchy was the arrest of the duke considered; but
the maréchal and the count were kept in custody at
Fontainebleau for a fortnight before they were ordered
to the Bastile. The day after his arrest, Biron thought
to alter the king’s purpose by sending him word that,
unless he took measures to the contrary, the Baron de
Lux would admit the Spaniards into the strong places
of Burgundy as soon as he should hear of his arrest.
This incensed the king to the highest degree, and con-
vinced him of Biron’s criminality—he had already
examined the Baron de Lux at Fontainebleau, and the
Maréchal de Laverdin had already been sent into Bur-
eundy to keep the country quiet. ‘ His obstinacy has
BIRON AND THE BASTILE. 93

been his ruin!” exclaimed Henry; “had he told me the
truth, though I have the proofs in my hand, he would
not have been where he is. I would have given two
hundred thousand crowns to have had the means of
pardoning him. I never loved anyone so much as I
loved him. I could have entrusted him with my own
son—with my kingdom itself.”

The two prisoners, Biron and Auvergne, were taken
by water to Paris in sumptuous barges belonging to
the court; rich carpets and hangings thrown over the
canopies raised within the vessels, concealed the noble-
men from public view: guards were in the barges, and
in the boats that accompanied them: and the simple
villagers on the banks of the Seine wondered as they
saw the cortége pass. The duke and the count were
placed forthwith in the Bastile, and within two days
after, the king and court having returned to the capital,
the preliminary proceedings of Biroh’s trial commenced.
On the deposition of La Fin and Renazé being commu-
nicated to the unfortunate duke, he burst into violent
paroxysms of indignation and despair, protesting that
their evidence was utterly false, and heaping on them
counter-accusations of moral turpitude of the deepest
dye. His mother applied in vain to the king’s lawyers
that an advocate should be allowed her unfortunate
son, to plead in his defence: she was told briefly and
dryly that it was contrary to rule, and could not be
granted on account of the enormity of his offence. The
forms of the law were allowed to take their course, and
Biron was brought before the Parliament of Paris.
The Peers of France had been summoned to attend
this trial; but they all abstained: and the duke's
judges met him for the first and only time on Satur-
day, the 27th of July, in the Golden Chamber. This
94 BIRON AND THE BASTILE.

splendid room, then richly adorned with hangings of
great worth and gilded beams, is the same apartment
as that now occupied by the modern Court of Cassation.
Biron was brought from the Bastile by water, at five in
the morning: one hundred and twelve judges were
assembled, and the proceedings lasted with little inter-
mission till ten at night. The duke was accommodated
with a stool of honour within the bar, and the deposi-
tions were read over to him; but he was never
confronted with the witnesses, nor allowed to call any
in his own behalf. He defended himself with great
acuteness and ability, and showed, with tolerable clear-
ness, that if he had been guilty of any treason towards
the king, it was prior to their last meeting at Lyons,
when the monarch had given him a verbal forgiveness
of all offences committed up to that time. He ended
by invoking on himself the direst punishment for any
thing that could be proved against him since. The
court overruled the fact of the king’s verbal pardon as
being of any value in his case, and agreed that he
should produce writing to this eftect—a solemn mockery
of justice this, which only aggravated the position of
the unfortunate prisoner: while, to his assertion of
innocence at a late period, the fact of one of his private
secretaries, Hebert, having been to Milan, though sent
ostensibly to show Italy to some of the duke’s noble
pages and to buy velvet stuffs, was considered a sufhi-
cient answer as proving late communication with the
Duke of Savoy. The Parliament could hardly dare,
even under a just monarch like Henry IV, to find a
prisoner, whose arrest had taken place under such
peculiar circumstances, innocent; and on the Monday
following the chancellor brought in a decree of guilt
and death.
BIRON AND THE BASTILE. 95

Though the king had been well received on his
return to Paris, popular feeling was rather in favour of
the Duke de Biron; and the members of the Gontault
family were so resolved to have their revenge on the
traitor La Fin, that it was found necessary to order him
a guard of twenty men for his personal safety. As
soon as the duke’s sentence was known, the gentlemen
of his family went up to the king with an address for
mercy; but the sovereign replied that it was impossible,
and that justice must take its course. At the same
time, he added, he should never consider that any stain
was attached to the maréchal’s relations. The only
favour granted by Henry was, that the decapitation
should take place within the Bastile, instead of on the
Place de la Gréve. The duke wrote a most affecting
letter to his majesty, which, however, is believed not to
have been received, on learning the decree of the
parliament; he reminded him of his military services,
and of his zeal for his service; prayed the royal clem-
ency to spare his family the pain of a disgraceful execu-
tion; and entreated the king to allow him to end his
life in the ranks of his own army, or in that of the
Hungarians, who were then fighting against the Turks.
It is remarkable that, even in this last appeal for mercy,
the maréchal avoids confessing his guilt, though he also
abstains from protesting his innocence:—he inveighs
against his enemies, but he maintains to the last the
evident traces of a bold unbroken spirit.

Henry remained firm ; and the preparations for the
duke’s execution were ordered to be made. By some
mistake the civil officers of the town erected a scaffold
on the Place de la Gréve, and this drew an innumerable
crowd of people, says the chronicler, who waited in
front of the Hétel de Ville from daybreak till midnight
96 BIRON AND THE BASTILE.

of the Tuesday following the trial. From his dungeon
windows in the Bastile, Biron saw several thousands of
country people hastening from the fields into the town
during the morning, and his immediate exclamation
was, “I am judged and dead!” He prevailed, however,
on M. de Barenton to go to Sully, then governor of the
Bastile, and beg him to intercede with the king. He
did so, and both Sully and his lady, with Zamet, the
eminent merchant and favourite of the king, who was
present, were so much affected by this appeal of the
duke, that they burst into tears and remained a long
time silent. At length Sully observed that it was too
late : that he could neither see Biron, nor intercede for
him: that if he had taken his advice at first, he would
not have been in the strait in which he now found him-
self: but that by his obstinate refusal to tell the truth
to the king at Fontainebleau, he had deprived his
majesty of the means of granting him his life, and his
friends of asking for it. Monsieur de Silléry delivered
to Sully that evening the royal warrant for the duke’s
execution ; and “at ten the next morning, which was
a Wednesday”, as the chronicle relates, ‘‘ the chancellor,
M. Pomponne de Belliévre, with M. de Silléry, and
three Masters of Requests, arrived at the Arsenal,
where M. de Rosny (Sully) was lodged, and thence
went with him to the Bastile. They mounted by a pri-
vate staircase to the chamber of the Concierge, named
Rumigny : there Messieurs the Chancellor, De Rosny,
and De Suléry took their seats on stools, the rest re-
mained standing against the coffers ; and they resolved
among themselves what it pleased them for the space
of half an hour; when, M. de Rosny having with-
drawn, the criminal registrar Voisin came, and after
him the first president, who took the place of De
BIRON AND THE BASTILE. 97

Rosny: and there they remained talking in a low
voice for another half hour. During this time M. de
Rosny sent one of his attendants, who presently ob-
tained from the chancellor a roll of those whom he
desired should be present at the execution, so that the
rest might be turned out; and he placed on the list
the three masters of requests mentioned above, three
auditors, three huissiers of the Council, three of the
Parliament; and of those who were to be present in the
afternoon, namely, Rupin the chevalier of the guet, two
lieutenants of the grand provost, the provost of mer-
chants, four eschevins, four councillors of the city, and
the registrary.

About eleven o'clock, when they knew that the
maréchal had dined, the Chancellor, habited in a
gown of satin with large sleeves, followed by three
masters of requests, the auditors, and the huissiers,
went down, and traversed the court to go to the room
of the Duke de Biron, who was lodged on the side next
to the fields, above the chapel; but as they were going
thither, the demoiselle, wife of the Sieur de Rumigny,
began to weep, with her hands joined and raised to her
eyes. This was perceived by the duke, who put his
head against the bars of his window, and exclaimed,
‘My God! Iam dead! Ha! what sort of justice is this
to put an innocent man to death? Monsieur le Chan-
celier, are you coming to pronounce my death? I am
innocent of what they accuse me of!’ But though he
continued to make exclamations of this kind, the
chancellor passed on firm, and commanded him to be
brought down into the chapel. Here the duke broke
into angry words and reproaches, and exclaimed to the
chancellor, ‘What, sir! you who have the appearance

of a worthy man, have you allowed me to be thus
H
98 BIRON AND THE BASTILE.

wretchedly condemned! Ha, Sir! if you had not told
those gentlemen that the king wished for my death, they
would not thus have condemned me! Sir! you could have
hindered this calamity, and you have done it: you shall
answer for it before God! Yes, sir, before God! to
whose presence I summon you within a year; you and
all the judges who have condemned me!’* As the duke
uttered these words, he grasped with a firm hand the
arm of the chancellor, who was covered, while the duke
himself was bareheaded, and in his pourpotnt, having
thrown off his mantle as soon as he saw that the officers
were coming up to his room.

“ Biron continued to exclaim in a violent manner
against the injustice of his sentence, and upbraided
the king with ingratitude for the services of his father
and himself. The chancellor, after endeavouring to
calm him, demanded his collar of the order of the Holy
Ghost; whereupon Biron drew it forth from his pocket,
not having worn it since his coming into the Bastile,
and, putting it into the chancellor’s hands, said, ‘There
sir, take it! I swear by the share of paradise which I
hope to obtain, that I have never done any thing contrary
to the statutes of the order.” Biron then asked for leave
to make his will; but on the chancellor’s ordering two
clergymen to attend him for the purposes of confession,
he said there was no need: he had confessed himself to
his own spiritual adviser every day for the last week;
and during the preceding night, as he lay asleep, he had
seen the heavens opened, and God extending his arms
towards him, summoning him to mount on high, “In
all that he spoke,” says the chronicler, “he uttered his
words without any appearance of perturbation; and it

* The chancellor died on the 9th of September, 1607, more than
five years after this imprecation.
BIRON AND THE BASTILE. 99

seemed as though he were haranguing at the head of
his army, or as if he were going to battle.”

The chancellor then left him, and shortly after
the registrary informed the duke that it was neces-
sary he should hear his decree of death read over.
“My good friend,” replied Biron, “what am I to
do?” Sir, you must hear it on your knees.” The
duke approached the altar of the chapel, knelt on
his right knee, and, with his elbow on the altar and
his hat in his hand, listened attentively to the fatal
sentence. When the registrary came to the words,
“for the crime of léze-majesté”, he said nothing ; but
when he heard him read on, “for having compassed
the king’s death,” he turned round and exclaimed, “It’s
false, it’s false—take that out!” Then hearing that the
Place de la Gréve, where malefactors were executed, was
appointed for his death, “What, on the Gréve!” he ex-
claimed; they observed to him that the king had
remitted this part of the punishment by special favour.
“What a favour!” rejoined the duke. At the words,
“all his estates confiscated, and the duchy of Biron
united to the crown,’—‘“ What!” exclaimed the duke,
“the king enriches himself with my poverty? And my
brothers! what are they to do? The king ought to have
been contented with my life.”

The reading of the decree ended, Biron began to
dictate his will, making many bequests of his ready
money and personal relics to his remaining servitors.
He left eight hundred livres of yearly revenue, and
a house that belonged to him, near Dijon, to his
illegitimate son* (he had never been married), whom

he had by Mademoiselle Gillette Sebillote, demoi-

* Charles de Gontault, legitimised and ennobled in 1618, died at

the siege of Dole, without issue.
H 2
100 BIRON AND THE BASTILE.

selle of Seveniéres, and daughter of the king’s pro-
curator at Dijon; and he gave directions for the pay-
ing of all his debts. His guards then came to take
leave of him, and they approached one by one, with
their hands on their swords, all weeping, to embrace
the duke. These melancholy scenes continued till five
in the afternoon, during which time he had sent a mes-
senger to the Count d'Auvergne to bid him farewell;
and the count in reply had returned a most affectionate
message, with a request that Biron would consider him
as the guardian of his little boy.

“Soon after five,” the chronicler relates, “the regis-
trary returned to announce to the unfortunate duke
that it was time to descend to mount to God, a sum-
mons which he willingly obeyed. The scaffold was
constructed in a corner of the court by the door to
the garden; it was five feet high, without any hangings
about it, and with a ladder placed at the bottom. The
guards were in the court, the officers and huissvers, with
the magistrates, here and there. Having come down
stairs, the duke advanced ten paces without uttering a
word, except ‘Ha!’ three times, and rather loud—then
turning towards the civil lieutenant, he said, ‘Sir, you
have got bad guests in your house; if you do not take
eare they will undo you’—alluding to La Fin and the
Vidasme of Chartres, his nephew, who were lodged in
the lieutenant’s residence. He then came to the foot
of the scaffold and went down on his knees, having
marched thither as though he were going to battle. He
threw aside his hat, and prayed to God in a low voice,
with the doctors by his side: this lasted half a quarter
of an hour; and having done, he mounted the ladder
without the least hesitation, clad in a habit of grey
taffetas.
« BIRON AND THE BASTILE. 101

“Here, after taking off his powrpoint, he made excla-
mations to the same effect as during the morning, and
added, that in truth he had been in error, but with
regard to the king’s person, never; for that, if he had
listened to the evil counsel given him, the king would
have been dead ten years ago. After these words he
received absolution from the priest ; then he looked at
the soldiers who were guarding the gate, and said, ‘ Oh,
how I wish that one of you would give me a shot
through the body! Alas, what a pity! mercy is dead!’
When the registrary said, ‘Sir, your sentence must be
read’—‘I have already heard it,’ he replied —‘Sir,’ re-
joined the registrary, ‘we must read it again ’—‘ Read,
read!’ said the duke. Still the duke talked on all the
time, at first tranquilly, but when he again heard the
words, ‘for having compassed the king’s life’—‘ Gentle-
men!’ he exclaimed, ‘this is false! Take that out of the
sentence! I never thought of such a thing!’ The
sentence having been read, the divines again ad-
monished him to pray to God, which he did, and then
bandaged his eyes himself, and put himself on his
knees; but all of a sudden he tore off his handkerchief
and looked full at the executioner. It was thought by
those who were present that he intended to seize the
executioners sword, which, however, he did not find;
because, when some one said to him that he must have
his hair cut off and his hands bound, he uttered an
oath, and exclaimed, ‘Come not near me! I cannot bear
it; if you provoke me, I'll throttle half the people I
see here!’ At which words there might be seen some
who had swords at their sides, and yet looked at the
ladder of the scaffold in order to get out of his way.
At length he called Monsieur de Barenton, who had
guarded him in the prison; and who, mounting upon
102 BIRON AND THE BASTILE. .«

the scaffold, bandaged his eyes, tied up his hair, and
then said to the executioner, ‘Be quick! be quick!’ The
executioner, to divert the duke’s attention, said to him,
‘Sir, you must repeat your In Manus, and then,
making a sign to his valet to hand him his sword, cut
off his head so dexterously that the stroke was hardly
perceived! The head fell off at a bound into the court,
but was taken up and placed on the scaffold; the body
was immediately covered with a black and white cloth,
and the same evening was buried in the church of St.
Paul, in the middle of the nave before the pulpit, the
interment being without ceremony, and attended by
only six priests, with a few other persons.”

Thus died, in his fortieth year, one of the most gallant
commanders and accomplished courtiers ever produced
by France. His execution was the last of any great
note that took place within the walls of the Bastile; and
his tragic end still remains as a difficulty to be solved
by the panegyrists of Henry IV. The king incurred,
among a large portion of his subjects, the imputation of
having too hastily listened to suspicious evidence, and
over-looked the great services of a misled but noble-
hearted gentleman. It was on the 31st of July, 1602,
when the execution took place; and, as the reverend
Fathers Félibien and Lobineau observe, with the utmost
naeveté, in their History of the French Capital—*< His
disaster made much noise in all Europe, and particularly
in Paris, where it was the subject of conversation in every
society for all the month of August.”

There are three portraits of the unfortunate maréchal
in the collection at Versailles: they represent him as a
man of personable appearance, with uncommon vivacity
of expression, sharp grey eyes, a high forehead, rather
florid cheeks, and the air of a man of noble birth and
BIRON AND THE BASTILE. 103

talent. His death, as Henry had promised, did not affect
his family ; and the name maintained its place among
the leaders of the nation until, within these later times,
when the republican spirit of France has driven out all
that are good and noble from any share in public affairs.

Of the noblemen implicated with the Duke de Biron,
Auvergne, after two months imprisonment, was fully
restored to royal favour; so was the Baron de Lux,
who seems to have satisfied the king’s conscience that
the maréchal was justly condemned, since Henry em-
ployed his usual expression, that he would not have lost
the explanations of the baron “ for two hundred thou-
sand crowns”. The Baron de Fontanelle was broken
alive upon the wheel, in the Place de la Gréve, in the
September following ; and Montbarrault, governor of
Rennes, was imprisoned for a long period in the fortress
that had witnessed Biron’s death. The Duke de Bouil-
lon, though promised a safe conduct to come and go if
he would wait on Henry at Fontainebleau, thought it
most prudent to retire into Germany ; and the Prince
de Joinville, who was arrested by the king’s order, was
after a long detention adjudged innocent and set at
liberty.
104

IV.—SKETCHES IN OLD FRANCE.

PLACE DE LA GREVE,

Just where the sea-green Seine—that winding river*—
after circling round the Isle of St. Louis, and cutting
it off from the Isle de la Cité, rushes against the northern
shore, and periodically throws up a wide-spread mass of
sand and gravel,—just in this spot there used to be
from time immemorial an open place of common land
where the inhabitants of Paris met the country dealers
as they landed from their boats, and purchased from
them the various products of the farms along the Seine or
the Marne. It was the general market for all the wood,
corn, vegetables, and fruit that came into the Capital,
and, as a point of central convenience, preserved its
liberty when the surrounding districts came to be
thickly covered with houses, and Paris began to grow
on either side of the stream. It was the general ren-
dezvous of all the clodhopping swains that lived up the
river, and whose fathers got such rough usage at the
hands of the Normans before they did the Saxons the
honour of visiting them; and hither the hewers of wood
in the gloomy forests of La Brie, with the reapers of
corn from the sunny plains of La Beauce, came as to a
spot of general meeting or ready sale. These good peo-
ple, in their simplicity, preferred the northern part of
Paris to the southern,—it was less court-like, less eccle-
siastical. If they approached the embattled wall of the

* The name of the Seine is derived by Thierry, in his Hist. des
Gaulois, from a Celtic word having this signification.
PLACE DE LA GREVE. 105

University from the high road to Orleans, they had to
pay plenty of tolls and dues to the Abbot of St. Germain
des Prés, ere they could invite custom in the market
under his jurisdiction,—the only one in that quarter of
the town. Here they paid less toll to the Provost of
Paris; they landed their goods commodiously; and the
citizens could cross from the island in boats to make their
purchases ; while those who lived in the new northern
suburbs,—the Town, or La Ville (as it was called, to
distinguish it from the Cité and the Universite), were
all traders and middling kind folks, who suited the habits
and ideas of their country visitors. Hence it was that,
though the unruly visits of the Seine were soon at-
tempted to be kept out by a sort of quay, and the
sandy gravel became in time transformed into a pave-
ment, the Place de la Gréve,* taking its name from its
former appearance, continued to be the principal port
or wharf of the capital until as late as the reign of
Louis XV. In the days of the dissolute Regent you
might here see great stacks of fire-wood heaped along
the water’s-edge ; innumerable porters bringing ashore
sacks of charcoal from barges moored in the river ;
and, close by, the corn-factors having the contents of
large craft packed, not in sacks, but poured out upon
wide-spread cloths laid on the ground :—here the early
wholesale dealers circulated in a busy crowd, and the
purveyance of the capital in bread and fuel was con-
ducted upon the most primitive principles.

Up the river extended the Quay de la Gréve ; here
the wine, hay, and straw brought into the capital were

* According to the analogy of the name, the introduction of the
article la is necessary, and so it was always used in former times ;
but of late days it has been omitted, and the spot has been com-
monly termed the Place de Greve.
106 PLACE DE LA GREVE.

sold, and all around the Place itself, ran streets, the
very names of which spoke of the toils of citizens, and
proclaimed it to be the central spot of business. Thus
there was the Quay Pelletier, with the Rue de la Tan-
nerie running behind it, and here all the leather-trade
of Paris was once carried on. Another street was the
Rue de la Vannerie, tenanted by the worthy fraternity
of basket-makers: the Rue de la Coutellerie opened
into this, full of knife- and axe-makers, and was con-
tinued into the Rue de la Tixeranderie, where doubt-
less the busy loom and gliding shuttle used to keep up
a perpetual din. When the Jews were allowed to live
in Paris, they had a small street here all to themselves,
called the Rue de la Juiverie ; but, after their savage
expulsion, it became inhabited by the unemployed jour-
neymen of the town, and hence took a second name of
the Rue de la Tacherie; while an opprobrious epithet
was transferred to a narrow alley in this immediate
neighbourhood, where a Jewish synagogue had long
offended the decorum of charitable Christians ; and it
is even to the present day* styled the Rue du Pet-au-
Diable.

By degrees, as the capital grew, the aspect of this
place of business improved ; on the northern corner of
it rose the Hépital du Saint Esprit, and near it was a
central institution for the indigent, called the Bureau
des Pauvres, where the worthy magistrates of the city
dispensed public alms, and administered to the neces-
sities of the poorer inhabitants. All round the Place
rose the high-peaked gables, with overhanging fronts,
that distinguished the urban architecture of the Middle
Ages. Some of these were costly edifices, built of stone,

* Tt should be observed that this paper was written in 1848, be-
fore the modern alterations of this part of Paris.
PLACE DE LA GREVE. 107

and ornamented with a degree of delicacy not often
surpassed ;—at their corners were little turrets, and in
their fronts oriel windows hanging over the public way :
—one of these turrets still remains with its conical roof
and rich mouldings, a valuable specimen of the good
taste of former days. On the eastern side there was a
goodly house in the time of Philip Augustus, built with
an open arcade below, and known by the name of the
Maison aux Piliers; which, after becoming Crown
property, passed through the hands of one of the
Dauphins of Vienne, and was at last purchased by the
municipality to form the Parloir aux Bourgeois. This
building, as the commercial and municipal importance
of Paris increased, was altered into the Hétel de Ville,
by Dominico Boccadoro di Cortona, in 1549; and the
central part of that grand edifice as it now stands was
completed by the commencement of the next century.
Behind it, rose the two towers of St. Jean en Gréve,
one of the principal churches of the capital ; and a few
hundred yards further to the east was the Church of
St. Gervais, in front of which an old elm tree remained,
in token of its once being a place of rural amusement,—
a sort of trysting tree to all who used to roam along
the meadows of the Seine.

The whole aspect of the Place de la Gréve was
picturesque, and, whether by day or by night, it
was always one of the most stirring spots in the
capital. Not only was it a general market-place, but
it was also the place where public rejoicings were
celebrated on a large scale. Every year, on the Eve
of St. John, the citizens crowded hither to witness a
display of fire-works :—were a prince born in the royal
family, the loyalty of the capital rose to the heavens in
a shower of fire from the Place de la Gréve :—did a
108 PLACE DE LA GREVE.

general gain some great victory, the Place de la Gréve
ran with wine from the old fountain in the midst, and
was trodden by the feet of all the holiday folks in Paris.
It has not seldom been the scene of political commotions,
from the days of the Catholic League against Henry III
and his successor to the periods of the two Revolutions,
when so many important events were consummated at
the Hotel de Ville. It was in this building that the
famous Commune held its sittings :—it was here that
Robespierre and his associates held their last meeting,
when they were arrested, shortly to be hurled by an
indignant people to destruction :—it was here that old
Lafayette put his head out of window one fine day, and
gabbled nonsense about the “ Best of Republics”. How
much political gibberish and rascality has been exhi-
bited here since that time all Europe knows!

But it is not for its commercial, its festive, or its
political recollections that we are now taking our readers
to visit the Place de la Gréve :—it is rather for the
bloody associations connected with its name, as having
long been the principal place of criminal executions in
the capital; this is why we have pored over its annals,
and interrogated the cruel genius of the spot. To no
locality in Europe does a darker series of recollections
belong :—nowhere has there been more guilty, and
more innocent, blood shed than here :—it has been the
Tower Hill of Paris, the Gehenna of France, the last
scene of the crimes of the bad, and the sufferings of
the unfortunate :—-its very name should be written in
characters of blood.

The precise epoch at which executions were begun
here is not known, but the earliest authenticated
date is 1310, under the reign of Philip the Fair, when
a poor woman, Marguerite Porette, was burnt here
PLACE DE LA GREVE. 109

for a heretic; and ever since that time until 1830,
the headsman, the hangman, and the stakesman plied
here too often their fearful trade. It is no small sign
of a better state of public feeling in France that execu-
tions are now performed in Paris at such early hours,
and in such a remote spot, that the morbid curiosity of
the vulgar is generally baulked of its gratification :—
criminals at the present day are executed either ata
distant and little visited barrier on the south of the
capital, or else on the platform of a large prison near
Pére la Chaise.

One of the most distinguished State criminals who
suffered on it in former days, if indeed he could be
called a criminal, was the Comte de St. Pol, brother-in-
law of Louis XI,—he and that crafty monarch having
espoused sisters. Louis de Luxembourg was one of the
most powerful nobles of France at that period, and, be-
sides his county of St. Pol, held the towns and castles
of Ham and Bohain, had command of the important
town of St. Quentin, and had received the dignity of
Constable of France, at the peace of Conflans in 1465.
He seems to have entertained an innate dread of the
treachery of Louis XI, and to have placed his hopes of
power in the being able to balance the King and Duke
Charles the Bold of Burgundy, one against the other :—
in fact, the last years of his life were a continual series
of machinations, partly for and partly against these
powerful rivals.

We quote now from the Annales Générales de la
Ville de Paris, mpcxt (fol.): a scarce and valuable
work :—

“The count was difficult to be seized either by the
king or the duke; for he lay just between them, and
possessed great resources. Besides merely holding these
110 PLACE DE LA GREVE.

towns he could throw garrisons into them from whence
and when he pleased: he had a constant guard about
his person of four hundred men-at-arms, well mounted
and well paid: he exacted a crown upon every pipe
of wine that passed through his estates into the Low
Countries: had forty thousand livres of ordinary re-
venue paid him by the king, as well as his own rich
and extensive seignories; and maintained wide-spread
communications in the territories of the king as well as
of the duke. He was a man of deed as well as of word,
and could do a great deal of good or a great deal of
harm : he knew that if he abandoned either party he
should be well received by the other : in short, both in
himself, and for the places he held, he was worth a good
peace between the king and the duke, and either of
them would have been rejoiced to get him entirely to
himself.”

Besides the consciousness felt by Louis that the count
was too powerful for a subject, and by Charles of Bur-
gundy that he was too influential for a safe neighbour,
the Constable had given special causes of offence to each
of these potentates. A short truce of one year between
France and Burgundy had been patched up in 1474,
much to the displeasure of the count, who knew that,
if the king and the duke were not at war with each
other, they would most probably turn their arms against
himself. He laboured, therefore, to the best of his
ability to incense the king against his rival, and he suc-
ceeded to a certain extent; but not so adroitly as to
prevent Louis from perceiving the motives of his ad-
vice; and hence arose a main cause of quarrel in the
royal breast :—while, on the other hand, during the
siege of Amiens, the count had cruelly ravaged the
duke’s territory of Hainault, and burnt the Chateau de
PLACE DE LA GREVE. 111

Seure, belonging to Baldwin de Launay, one of the
duke’s principal favourites. The Annales observe :—
“The count had powerful enemies, both on the
king’s side and the duke’s, who conspired together for
his ruin, and urged on their respective masters to the
same point with all their might. Almost all this year
of truce, in fact, was passed in trafficking for the life of
the constable. Hymbercourt and Hugonet, Chancellor
of Burgundy, were more interested in the matter than
any other persons: for in a conference held at Roye,
where the constable appeared on behalf of the king, and
they for the duke, disputes and words had run to such
a pitch that the constable had given them the lie:—to
which the Burgundians, with apparent moderation,
answered, that they considered it an insult, not to
themselves but to the king, under the safeguard of
whose parole they were then assembled, as well as to
their master, whom they were there to represent, and
to whom they would take good care to report it. The
result of this was, that, at the instance of the Burgun-
dian functionaries, a secret meeting was soon after held
at Bouvines:—Hymbercourt and Hugonet came thither
for the duke, and for the king came the Seigneur de
Curton, Governor of the Limousin (whom the Count de
St. Pol had once ejected from St. Quentin in a manner
more summary than courteous), and with him Maistre
Jehan Hebergé, afterwards Bishop of Evreux. They
agreed to declare the constable an enemy and a criminal
to both princes, on behalf of whom they further
promised and swore, that the first of the two which
could should apprehend the count, put him to death
within eight days, or deliver him up to the other con-
tracting party to be dealt with at his pleasure. They
also promised on oath, that he should be proclaimed by
112 PLACE DE LA GREVE.

sound of trumpet a common enemy to both parties, with
all his adherents:—that all his estates, goods, and
chattels should be confiscated; that the king should
give up to the duke St. Quentin, Ham, Bohain, all the
count’s estates, and all his ready money ;—and, finally,
that on a set day the duke and the king should meet
before Ham at the head of their respective armies, and
there pursue the constable to the death.”

Designs such as these, sworn to between men of such
fiery and implacable minds as Louis and Charles of
Burgundy, were not likely to remain without effect;
but it was more than a year before this treaty was put
in execution, and during the interval the count had
found means to excite their wrath against him tenfold.
The constable got wind of the plan adopted against
him, and immediately dispatching a trusty follower to
the king, told him that his machinations were known,
and that he himself should immediately, with his forces,
join the Duke of Burgundy. To parry this stroke,
Louis delayed ratifying the treaty, and appointed a
rendezvous with the constable, whereat they should
treat of and settle their disputes. The place of meet-
ing was fixed on the bank of a small stream not far
from La Fére, within the territories of France; and the
precautions adopted for the interview between the
sovereion and his haughty vassal show strongly the
feeble condition, in which the crown of France had
been left after the mortal struggle of the country
against England. Across the road that ran by the
river-side was raised a strong wooden barrier, or frame
of stout trellis work, through which the parleying
parties could see each other, and could even put their
hands, but which did not admit the passage of any
weapons of offence, such as were used in those days.
PLACE DE LA GREVE. 113

The fate of Jean-sans-Peur, the bold and bad Duke of
Burgundy, who, in 1419, was killed by the Dauphin of
France, on the bridge of Montereau, in a conference at an
open barrier, had taught sovereigns and vassals a lesson
of caution which was not neglected upon this occasion,
The Count de St. Pol arrived first at the barrier, accom-
panied by three hundred men-at-arms, and soon after
Louis rode up at the head of double that number ;—the
Constable was clothed in a robe of state, under which
he had taken the precaution to put on his cuirass ;—the
king was in his usual dress of cloth of gold, and a well
furred velvet mantle. At the side of the king appeared
one of the Constable’s most inveterate enemies, the Sieur
de Chabannes, Count of Dampmartin :—and the former,
as he knelt to his sovereign, adroitly availed himself of
this nobleman’s presence as an excuse for coming with
so strong a retinue. The king feigned to accept the
excuse, listened to the Count’s grievances, approved of
what he said, gave him a general pardon for all that had
passed, continued him in the command of St. Quentin
and other strongholds, and then departed, resolving
within himself never to forget or forgive the insult put
upon his royal authority by a subject who had thus
treated with him on terms of virtual equality.

The Count was not more sincere at this interview in
his expressions of repentance for past intrigues than the
king in his assurances of pardon: and his first machina-
tion, prompted by the fear of having an army of his
sovereign on his frontier, was to persuade Louis to send
a large force from Picardy into Normandy, on a false
statement that the English were going to land at
Calais, and would march straight for that Duchy. The
king, after despatching troops thither, found out the

treachery, and yet was compelled to dissimulate his
l
114 PLACE DE LA GREVE.

wrath. He had soon after nearly got the Count into
his power by inviting him to the palace, and the latter
had doubtless fallen into the snare, had he not insisted
on the king’s swearing upon the relics of St. Leu to
give him a safe return. Louis offered to swear by any
other relics, or to take any other kind of oath than this;
but the Constable, wisely judging thereby that all was
not right, kept out of the way:—and sent, at the
same time, to the Duke de Bourbon, to induce him to
revolt against the crown, while he also made overtures
of reconciliation to the Duke of Burgundy. His
messages and his letters to each of these dukes were
delivered to Louis himself, and the monarch gained an
opportunity of showing the Count in his true colours to
his cousin of Burgundy. Louis de Creille, a gentleman
of the Count’s household, with his secretary, arrived at
court with the ostensible mission to induce the king to
grant a year’s truce to the English, though nothing was
in reality further removed from his wishes. Louis gave
the man audience in one of the dark chambers in which
he delighted to dwell, and had previously concealed an
envoy from the Duke of Burgundy behind the arras.
De Creille and his companion entered, and informed the
sovereign that the Count had previously sent them to
the duke in order to dissuade him from keeping up his
amity with the English foe; that the duke had burst
forth into one of his usual passions, had abused the
English, had sworn against them by St. George, his
most solemn asseveration; had called King Edward
Blane borgne, and had even asserted that he was
illegitimate. The king laughed heartily at their asser-
tions, and delaying to give an answer about the truce,
sent them away ;—but within three days every word of
the interview had been reported to the duke, and the
PLACE DE LA GREVE. 115

Constable’s destruction determined on. Louis, on the
other hand, actually agreed to a truce with England,
and invited Edward IV to the interview at Picquigny,
so graphically described by an eye-witness, Philippe de
Comynes, and where the two monarchs (like Louis and
the Constable a short time previously) dared not trust
to each other's honour, unless protected by a latticed
barrier “strong as a lion’s cage.” This interview and its
consequent ceremonies over, the king and the duke
proceeded to carry into effect the secret treaty of
Bouvines; and, having further agreed to a truce of nine
years, the duke ordered Esmeries, Grand Bailiff of
Hainault, to arrest the Constable, who was then visiting
him at the Castle of Monts. This was promptly done,
and on the king’s demand the Count de St. Pol was
delivered into the hands of the Grand Admiral of
France, Bastard of Bourbon, by his mortal enemies
Hymbercourt and the Chancellor Hugonet. He was
brought by easy journeys to Paris, and confined in the
Bastile ; as he entered which fortress it was observed
that he rode a small black palfrey, and wore a coat or
“cappe” of camlet lined with black velvet, “looking
much dejected and right piteous.” His offences were
immediately laid before the parliament of Paris; and
his various treacheries, with the letters and other docu-
ments in proof of them, having been duly recognised by
the court, the Constable, who had never been confronted
with his judges, was ordered to be brought up for
sentence. The Annales report :—

“On Tuesday, the 19th of December, 1475, the Sieur
de St. Pierre went to the Constable's chamber in the
Bastile, as being on guard over him, and tapping at the
door cried out, ‘Monseigneur, what are you about, are

you asleep? ‘Nenny, replied the constable, ‘it is long
12
116 PLACE DE LA GREVE.

since I have been able to sleep; I am here where you see
me, thinking and dreaming.’ St. Pierre then said that
he was ordered to deliver him over to the guard of the
chevalier Robert Destouteville, Provost of Paris,
to be by him conducted before the Parliament,
to hear two matters concerning the things whereof
he was accused; and the Constable, after express-
ing his fears that the populace might insult him,
was led on horseback, surrounded by the city archers,
to the presence of the Parliament, in the Chambre de
la Tournelle. After he had saluted the court, the
Chancellor of France rose, and said, ‘Monseigneur de
Sainct Pol, you have ever been esteemed one of the
- most virtuous and constant chevaliers of this kingdom:
and since, up to this day, you have always shown your-
self such, it is still more necessary that you should
show this constancy, which is so natural to you, in the
place where you now are. You must therefore, Mon-
seigneur, take from off your neck the royal order with
which you have been honoured by the king.’ The Con-
stable replied that he would do so willingly, and raised
his hand to take it off: but as it was fastened behind
with a golden pin, he requested St. Pierre to help him,
and then kissing the collar of the order gave it into the
chancellor's hands. The latter demanded of him his
constable’s sword, but he replied that he had it not,
that everything had been taken from him when he was
arrested, and that he stood before the court just as he
was brought into the Bastile. Upon this Maistre
Jehan de Popaincourt, President of Parliament, rose,
and after informing him that his case had been fully
heard, read the dictum of the court, which was to the
effect, that he had been attainted and found guilty of
high treason:—that he was to suffer death that very
PLACE DE LA GREVE. 117

day: that he was to be beheaded in front of the Hétel
de Ville; and that all his seignories, revenues, pos-
sessions, and inheritances were to be forfeited to the
king. The dictum being read, the Constable was
greatly astounded at it, and seemed quite perplexed:
for he could not imagine that the king or his officers
would ever condemn him to die. Thereupon he ex-
claimed, ‘Ha! God be praised! here is a rude sentence!
I pray that He may give me grace to have a right
knowledge of Him this day!’ Then turning to St.
Pierre, he added: ‘Ha, ha! Monsieur de St. Pierre, this
is not at all what you told me this morning :’—but the
latter answered him not a word, and withdrew. The
Constable was then left in the hands of four Doctors in
Theology, one of them a Cordelier, Maistre Jehan de
Sordun:—the second, an Augustin canon; the third,
the Penitencier of Paris; and the fourth, Maistre Jehan
Hué, curate of St. André des Arts, and Dean of the
Faculty of Theology, in the University of Paris. Of
these, and of the chancellor, the constable earnestly
begged that they would give him the Lord’s Body :—
but they did not grant his request :—a mass was, how-
ever, celebrated before him, and with this he was forced
to be content. Mass ended, holy water was sprinkled
on him, and they gave him consecrated bread to eat :—
of this he partook, and then remained in conference
with the doctors till two in the afternoon, when he
descended the steps of the Palace, where the Parlia-
ment sat, and mounted again on horseback to be led to
the Hotel de Ville. In front of the building some
scaffoldings were erected for persons to get on to see
him die; and as he advanced he was escorted by the
registrary of the court, with all the ushers of the same.
On arriving at the Hétel de Ville, he was taken into
118 PLACE DE LA GREVE.

the Bureau, against which a scaffolding had been
raised, with an enclosed passage of wood as a way of
approach, and adjoining was a smaller scaffold upon
which he was to be executed. The Constable remained
in the Bureau with his confessors, testifying great
regret, followed by many acts of repentance: he made
his testament as well as he could, and, subject to the
king’s good pleasure, it was received by a gentleman in
attendance. It was three o'clock when the Constable
came forth from the Bureau, and he threw himself at
the foot of the smaller scaffold. Then, turning his face,
he knelt towards the side which looks to Nostre Dame,
and said his prayers, which were very long, mingled
with tears, regrets, and many signs of contrition, ever
having the cross before his eyes, and the remembrance
of our Saviour’s passion in his heart. The crucifix was
held for him by Maistre Jehan Sordun, the Cordelier
Doctor, and he often kissed it with tears and great
devotion. His prayers ended, the Count stood up:—
and thereupon presented himself, a man named Petit
Jehan, son of Henry Cousin, executor of the Haute
Justice of Paris, and with a small cord bound his hands,
all which he bore with the noblest constancy. The
Constable was then made to mount the little scaffold,
where he stopped, and turning towards the Provost of
Paris, and other officers of the king, begged, through
them, pardon of his majesty, and requested them to
remember his soul in their prayers. Next, turning to
the people, he besought them also to pray for his soul:
—and then kneeling down on a small square cushion,
charged with the armorial bearings of the town, he put
it into the position which suited him by moving it with
his foot. He was then blindfolded, still speaking to
God and his confessors, and Petit-Jehan, taking a sword
PLACE DE LA GREVE. 119

from his father’s hand, made the Constable’s head, at a
single blow fly from off his shoulders. He then took
it up by the hair, dipped it in a pail of water, and
raised it on the scaffold in sight of all the people, who
were upwards of two hundred thousand in number.”

So perished the Constable of France, Count de St.
Pol. His body was carried to the church of the Cor-
deliers by the monks of that convent, in solemn proces-
sion by torch-light, and a costly tomb was erected in it
over his remains. The extreme haste with which the
trial was conducted, and the omission of confronting
him with either his judges or accusers, are strong testi-
monies of the count’s power and the king’s fear.

The Duke of Burgundy, too glad to have got rid of
so powerful a neighbour, thought he would try after
some larger game, and accordingly hired a bold des-
perado to poison the king. Jehan Hardy, as he was
not inaptly termed, was servant to a tradesman in
Paris, and he agreed with the duke for the sum of
50,000 crowns to take off Louis in a ready manner.
He had a friend in the royal kitchens, and disclosing
his plot to him, endeavoured to purchase his co-opera-
tion for 20,000 crowns; but the latter fellow, too wise
to embark in such a scheme, gave information upon
which Hardy was arrested. This took place at
Amboise, where Louis XI then was, and the king set
off immediately for the capital, having Hardy brought
after him in an open cart, strongly fettered, and guarded
by fifty archers. On arriving in Paris he was com-
mitted to the custody of the provost and eschevins of |
the city, tried within ten days, though it does not
appear that he ever saw his judges until they pro-
nounced sentence, and then was condemned to be
executed on the Place de la Gréve. Hither he was
120 PLACE DE LA GREVE.

drawn in a tumbril from the Conciergerie, and, four
horses being fastened, one to each of his limbs, was
speedily torn asunder: amidst the most horrible shrieks
from himself and shouts of savage exultation from the
multitude. His head was then fixed on a lance and
set out to view from one of the windows of the Hotel
de Ville, while the quarters of his body were sent
each with tickets on them, declaring his offence, to four
towns on the frontiers of the Low Countries and
Burgundy.

The taste for tearing criminals in pieces seems to
have been of long standing in Paris; for, in 1594, when
Jean Chastel had been found guilty of attempting to
murder Henry IV, though he only wounded the king
in the face with a dagger, this poor wretch (about whose
sanity strong doubts may be entertained) was ordered
to die a dreadful death. He first of all had to do
penance before the principal door-way of Nétre Dame
on a cold day in December, standing clad only in a long
shirt, and holding a heavy wax taper, lighted, in his
hand; subjected to all the taunts and indignities of the
multitude assembled in the Parvis: after which he was
made to kneel down and beg pardon of God for his
crime, while he acknowledged the justice of his sen-
tence. He was then taken in a tumbril to the Place de
la Gréve, and there his torments began. First, he was
pinched and torn with red-hot pincers on his arms and
thighs :—next, his right hand was struck off with a
hatchet :—then his limbs were fastened each to a strong
horse, and torn from his body. The dismembered trunk
and bleeding limbs were afterwards thrown into a large
fire burning in the middle of the Place,—and their
ashes scattered to the winds. We may add that his
father was banished the kingdom :—all the Jesuits (for
PLACE DE LA*GREVE. 121

he had been educated by them) were also banished and
their property confiscated; and Father Guinard, who
had been his tutor in the College de Clermont, was
himself brought to the scaffold on the Place de la Grave
two days after.

Ravaillac, the assassin of Henry IV, was one of the
many victims of the Place de la Gréve. After this
fanatic had confessed that he alone was the author of
the deed, and had persisted in declaring that no one
had incited him to it, the law officers of the Crown de-
cided that torture should be used to elicit some further
confession,—and, as the French law-term of that day
ran, La question des brodequins lui fut appliquée. Who
that has read Old Mortality does not remember the
vivid description of this horrible species of torture ?—
Rawvaillac bore it with considerable fortitude :—he en-
dured the driving in of two wedges between the close-
fitting iron boot and the knee without saying a word
further than to persist in his first declarations :—but,
on a third wedge being introduced, and hammered down
by the strong arm of the torturer, human nature gave
way, and he fainted into a long and deep swoon. The
officers of the Parliament were satisfied with going thus
far in the application of torture, and, on his recovering,
the remainder of his sentence was carried into effect, in
the description of which we quote the Annales :—

“ Ravaillac was laid on a mattress till mid-day, and
when the power of speech had returned, and he was
somewhat stronger, the executioner carried him into
the chapel, and chained him. Some dinner was then
given him: and before the reverend doctors, to whose
spiritual care he had been entrusted, entered into con-
ference with the prisoner, the registrary of the Parlia-
ment again adjured him to name his accomplices, if he had
122 PLACE DE LA GREVE.

any. He strenuously persisted, however, in taking the
blame of the action entirely to himself: said that he
never should have endured the torture so long, could
he have made any further disclosures : acknowledged
that he had committed a heimous crime through the
temptation of the devil;—begged of the King, the
Queen, the Court, and of all men to forgive him; and
then prayed to God that the sufferings of his body
might be accepted as a partial penance for the sins of
his soul. About three in the afternoon he was taken
out of the chapel to be led to execution, but all the way
from the chapel to the gateway of the Conciergerie, the
prisoners in a confused multitude, shouted the most op-
probrious cries after him, some calling him a wicked
man and a traitor, others a murderer and a villain :-—
and some would have attacked him had not the archers
and the officers of justice prevented them. On coming
out of the Conciergerie to get into the tumbril, the people,
(who were so numerous in the court of the palace that
the archers and officers of justice had no room) as soon
as they saw him, began to cry out: calling him mur-
derer, parricide, and other infamous names ; several en-
deavoured to throw themselves on him and maltreat
him, but were kept off by the archers. An usher of
the Court then came forth, and after crying for a long
time ‘Peace there!’ and ‘Hear now in the king’s name!’
everybody became silent in order to hear the sentence
read: but when the usher came to the words ‘ killed
the king with two stabs of a knife’, all the people began
again to shout, and so continued until Ravaillac was
brought before the principal entrance of Nostre Dame.
Here he did penance in his shirt, with a wax-taper in
his hand, the people all the while hooting and reviling

him. Every street through which he had passed was
PLACE DE LA GREVE. 123

thronged with people of every age and sex, who were
posted in all the shops and at every window. From
Nostre Dame he was taken to the Place de la Gréve,
the same insults being heaped on him all the way
along :—and many women as well as men would have
attacked him in the tumbril had it not been for the
archers. The sentence of the Court being again read
on the Place de la Gréve, Ravaillac, before getting
down from the tumbril, begged the king, the queen,
and all men, once more to forgive him for the great
fault he had committed, and that they would pray God
for him: but the populace instantly recommenced their
clamours and insults. He then mounted the scaffold,
and, after the doctors had given him their exhortation,
the Registrary of the Court again urged him to think
of his approaching death, and to declare his accomplices:
—but he gave the same replies as before. The execu-
tioner then seized him, and, in pursuance of his sentence,
began to burn over a sulphur fire the right hand with
which the murder had been committed. He held the
fatal knife in it, and, as he felt the flames, shrieked
loudly, and often called out ‘Jesus Maria!’ He was
then torn on the breast, the arms, thighs, and calves of
the legs with red-hot irons, and still reiterated the same
shrieks and ejaculations. While this was going on he
was several times admonished to declare the whole
truth, but he persisted in saying that he had said all
he knew: and thereupon the people shouted louder
than ever, while many cried out that his punishment
ought to be protracted. While his wounds were bleed-
ing, boiling oil, melted lead, pitch, and sulphur were
poured upon them, and made him shriek in the most
horrible manner. The registrary now turned to the
doctors, and told them that they ought to begin the
124 PLACE DE LA GREVE.

prayers for the dead, and chant the Salve; but they
had no sooner taken off their caps and begun to do so,
than the people, in immense tumult, cried out that they
ought not to pray for so abominable a parricide, and in
fact compelled them to desist. The registrary once
more said to Ravaillac, that this unusual indignation of
the people ought to move him to confess the truth:
but all he answered was, ‘It was only I that did it’.
“The executioner now fastened each of his limbs to
a strong horse, and having made the animals pull at
him for half an hour, with a few intervals between,
Ravaillac was again admonished to tell the truth ; but
he repeated only his former declarations. Upon this,
the people, far and near and of all degrees, continued
their shouting against him, and many took hold of the
ropes and pulled at them with all their might. A
gentleman near the scaffold, seeing that one of the
horses drawing at Ravaillac was restive, got off his own
horse, and put him in place of the other to draw the
stronger. At length, the horses having drawn him for
more than an hour without tearing away any of his
limbs, Ravaillac expired! The executioner then split
him in two, and then into four parts, and the people of
every degree rushed with swords, knives, and cudgels,
on the four limbs, snatching them from the executioner,
fighting for them among themselves with inconceivable
fury, and dragging them all through the streets of
Paris. Some took and dragged them outside the town,
by the city, ditches, and in the fauxbourgs, burning
portions in many different places: while country peo-
ple from the neighbourhood of Paris having found means
to obtain parts of the flesh and entrails, dragged them
to their villages, and there burnt them. Thus died this
infamous wretch! He was very tall in person, power-
fully made, large-limbed, and with dark red hair !”
PLACE DE LA GREVE. 125

The tale of another political offender who suffered
death on the Place de la Grave, in 1612, though of no
great importance in itself, is not without interest from
the picture which it affords of the manners of that
period. We abridge and quote from the Annales :—

In the picturesque province of Berry, and on a small
stream running into the Cher, stood the town and
chateau of Vatan; the former being one of those small
“bourgs” which almost everywhere rose up under pro-
tection of some feudal seigneur; and the latter one of
those small fortresses or castellated houses, which
abounded in France up to the end of the last century.
The possessor of this chateau, the Seigneur de Vatan,
was of a family that had rendered essential services to
Henry IV in his struggle for the crown: he was of an
ardent temperament, handsome in person, lived nobly
on his ancestral estate, and was, in short, as it was re-
marked at the time, altogether a “brave gentilhomme.”
His neighbours and dependents, who looked upon him
with respect for his many virtues, felt towards him a
kind of secret fear: for, in the first place he was a
protestant, and in the next he was greatly given to the
study of “mathematics, ephemerides, and speculations
upon celestial matters.” So says one who witnessed his
actions; and he adds that the country people strongly
suspected him of dealing in the black art, to which the
somewhat secluded life of a studious bachelor might
easily giverise. He was the most important personage
in his neighbourhood, and though without the title of
baron or count, was a good type of the old feudal
nobility of France, where every “ gentilhomme” was
named after his estate, and was considered equal in
point of blood with the highest noble in the land.

It appears that one of his tenants had been detected
126 PLACE DE LA GREVE.

by the farmer general of the salt duties in fabricating
salt without a licence; and the Provost des Marechaux
of Tours seized on his person for the offence, and carried
him off to prison. The Seigneur de Vatan, bound to
protect one of his own vassals immediately sent his
Maitre d’Hotel to the Provost to beg of him to take
bail ; but this emissary acquitted himself of his duty
with so little courtesy, that the Provost placed him
under arrest as well as the tenant, and carried them
both off to Tours. In retaliation for what he considered
an insult, M. de Vatan sent a party of his vassals, well
armed, to attack a house of the Farmer General’s not
far from thence, and to seize on one of his sons who was
studying there under a tutor for the Church ; the at-
tack was successful : the lad was carried off and lodged
in the Chateau de Vatan. Upon this the enraged
parent applied to the Council of State at Paris, and ob-
tained a warrant for the apprehension of M. de Vatan ;
but the execution of it having been entrusted to a lieu-
tenant of police who was not a gentleman by birth, M.
de Vatan refused to obey the summons and sent home
the lieutenant with little display of courtesy. His
enemies had influence to persuade the Council that M.
de Vatan, from his being of the Protestant party, was
a dangerous subject, and even got up an accusation of
his having been concerned in some petty and long-for-
gotten conspiracy against the State. They followed up
their insinuations with so much pertinacity, that an
order was issued by the Council for obtaining possession
of the refractory gentleman’s person by force of arms;
and the execution of the order was entrusted to the
Count de Chiverny, Governor of the Blesois.

It gives no mean idea of the power of one of these un-
titled gentlemen of France, when it is recorded that the
PLACE DE LA GREVE. 127

Governor, on hearing that M. de Vatan intended to de-
fend himself, ordered a force of twelve hundred French in-
fantry, a company of Swiss Guards, five hundred cavalry,
and six pieces of cannon, to proceed to the siege of the
Chateau. In fact, every seigneur, whose means allowed
of it, had from time immemorial fortified his residence
to the best of his ability, and had endeavoured to pro-
tect himself against his legal superiors, or against the
hand of predatory violence. France, in the reign of
Louis XIII, was not so far removed from the remini-
scences of the feudal system, that any gentleman of im-
portance would trust himself to reside in an open or
unfortified house. The Chateau de Vatan, like num-
berless other residences, was surrounded by a strong,
turretted wall with a fosse, barbican, and other small
outworks: while within this first line of defence rose
the corps de logis, a lofty pile flanked with towers, well
embattled, and machicolated over the gateways, with
many a narrow loop-hole and high pointed window,
strong portcullises at every gate, deep dungeons within,
walls some sixteen or twenty feet thick, and a forest of
peaked roofs, pennoned gables, vanes, and sculptured
chimney-tops rising over it into the air. Beneath the
castle, and huddled together near the outer wall, were
the houses of the town; around lay the wide-spread
estates of the seigneur; and in times of peace M. de
Vatan lived here with more real authority than, and
with as much comparative pomp as, the sovereign him-
self, As the royal troops advanced, the vassals of M.
de Vatan abandoned their seigneur and fled; the in-
habitants of the town, too, left it to seek refuge in the
nearest. villages, while the local authorities of this
petty place, headed by the “Lieutenant en la J ustice,”
came to the governor of the province to clear them-
128 PLACE DE LA GREVE.

selves from all suspicion of resistance. In his presence
they renewed the report of M. de Vatan’s being an
undoubted magician, and adduced as a proof that for
the last three or four years he had been engaged in
printing a work at Paris on this very subject. It was
discovered, afterwards, that this work was a Latin
commentary on the 10th book of Euclid; and it actually
issued from the Paris press some time after its author’s
death. As for M. de Vatan, he made no offers of sub-
mission, but having collected about one hundred armed
men from among his vassals, allowed the troops to take
up a position outside the town, and endeavoured to
defend that place against them. He does not seem to
have been backed by men of courage; for after the
thirteenth discharge of the besieging batteries, he
abandoned the town and retired within the castle,
carrying into it his lieutenant, M. de Maeny, badly
wounded by a cannon ball. The troops, after estab-
lishing themselves in the houses, commenced operations
against the castle itself, which appears to have been
unfurnished with artillery, and to have depended for
its defence only on the thickness of its walls and the
harquebuses of its small garrison. After a smart
resistance, the besiegers made a breach in the outer
wall of the chateau, and rushed into the great cowt,
where some of them, approaching too near to the draw-
bridge that led into the main body of the building,
were killed by a brisk discharge from the garrison.
The ensuing morning saw a regular battery raised in
the court at a few paces from the wall, and the garrison,
giving themselves up for lost, compelled their chief to
ask for a capitulation, while the greater portion of them,
retreating through a postern, escaped into the open
country. On the Count de Chiverny promising that he
PLACE DE LA GREVE., 129

would intercede for M. de Vatan at court, the draw-
bridge was lowered and the troops entered the great
hall of the castle, where, with signal treachery, they
immediately massacred all on whom they could lay
hands. M. de Magny, the lieutenant, was brought out
and hung: and some officers then made their way into
a room, where they found M. de Vatan. On being
asked for his sword he refused to give it, but said they
might take it if they pleased, and he was immediately
disarmed, placed under a strong guard, marched off to
Orleans and thence to Paris, escorted by a numerous
body of soldiers, and confined in the prison of Fort
VEvéque. As for his chateau, it was pillaged, and a
valuable library contained in it totally destroyed. It
was Christmas Eve when he arrived in the capital, and
by the following Thursday he had been tried and con-
demned to death for opposing the King’s troops. For
the remainder of his story we quote the words of the
account written soon after his ‘tragedy,’ as it styles his
fate, occurred ;—

“When he had been interrogated the last time, and
had been shut up in prison, he began to suspect that he
was condemned to die; for at his dinner they gave him
only a single bottle of wine and a brown loaf, whereas
he had previously been furnished with two good bottles
and a couple of dishes of meat. His fellow-prisoner,
for he had not been allowed a cell to himself, tried to
comfort him: but he ate only a morsel or two, drank a
drop of wine, and then rising walked up and down his
cell, saying to himself that he was certainly doomed to
die. Soon after he threw himself on his knees, and
continued at his devotions for a long time, until the
gaoler coming to unbar the door he arose, and seeing

several persons enter, exclaimed, ‘Hé bien, il faut
K
130 PLACE DE LA GREVE.

mourir! allons!’ He was then led to the chapel of the
prison, and ordered to go on his knees while sentence
of death was read. According to the terms of this de-
cree he was to be drawn in a tumbril to the Place de la
Gréve, there beheaded, and his body burnt to ashes;
his head being stuck on a lance, carried to Vatan, and
placed over one of the town gates. The chateau was
to be rased, the ditches filled up, and nobody allowed
to build on its site, under pain of being declared rebels to
the King; while all his estates were to be confiscated for
the royal use. This part of the decree was afterwards
remitted by the Queen Regent, and his sisters were
allowed to retain possession of the chateau and its ter-
ritories. On rising from his knees he asked for a
protestant minister, and the registrary told him he
might send for any one he could name; but when one
came with some of his friends, and they were going to
sing psalms, the catholics who were present declared
they would not tolerate it within the chapel, and forced
them to leave off. It was three o’clock when the pro-
cession set out for the Place de la Gréve; and M. de
Vatan, on taking leave of the minister who had
attended him, was four times heard to say, ‘Sir, pray to
God for me and I will pray to Him for you when I
shall be up on high;’ thus acting in conformity with
the practice of the protestants not to pray for the dead.
As he moved along he said to those he knew, ‘Adieu,
my friends, it is necessary that I should be made an
example!’ He was left alone by himself in the tumbril
as they took him to the Gréve, praying earnestly all the
way; and when he mounted the scaffold, such was the
dexterity of the executioner, that while he was shut-
ting up the shears, after cutting off the hair behind M.
de Vatan’s neck, and as he was asking him whether he
would like to have his eyes bandaged, he struck off his
PLACE DE LA GREVE. 131

head at a single blow unawares!’ The body was then
burnt in compliance with the sentence. The printer
who was engaged on his Latin Commentary was so
much alarmed at his employer's fate, that he left his
shop, fled from Paris, and soon after died of fright.”
During the reigns of Louis XIII and his two succes-
sors, though state executions on the Place de la Gréve
became less common, the executions of ordinary crimi-
nals went on there as usual, At the time of the
great Revolution, it was the common spot for inflicting
the extreme penalty of the law; and, next to the Place
Louis Quinze, no locality, while the revolutionary mad-
ness lasted, saw more innocent blood shed. Until
within a few years there used to be shown a famous
lamp-post on the Place, near the corner towards the
river, where victims of every class had been hung up
by dozens. After the Restoration, and until 1830, the
same state of things continued, and a most injudicious
display was generally made here of the crimes and the
sufferings of humanity. The usual course of proceeding
was to place the criminal in the Conciergerie, by the
river side, as soon as a sentence of capital punishment
had been pronounced; and he never left that prison
again, unless for death or for a reprieve. A scaffold,
with the guillotine upon it, was erected during the
night on the Place de la Gréve; and, as the materials
for its construction were kept in the Conciergerie itself,
the unfortunate prisoner could hear the cumbrous beams
dragged forth in the stillness of the midnight hour, and
rumbling along the quays, beneath the old towers of
the prison, towards the spot where his own tragedy was
in a few hours to be acted. The prisoners might easily
have been executed early in the morning, but this was

never done; and from what cause we know not, the
K 2
132 PLACE DE LA GREVE.

time of execution was always fixed for four in the
afternoon. The preparations were made so accurately
that, just as the clock of the Hétel de Ville gave the
fourth stroke, the fatal axe fell, and the prisoner's
sufferings were over. This has been wrought up into
an ideal narrative of the most heart-thrilling horror by
Victor Hugo, in his Dernier Jour Pun Condamné, a
work too well known to need much allusion; and all
the circumstances of execution just mentioned may
there be found detailed by a master’s hand: it is well
worth the perusal of all who take an interest in de-
scriptions of such a painful nature.

We will merely add, that in 1835, after executions
had ceased to be such prominently public spectacles in
Paris, a most infamous murderer, Lacenaire, who used
to decoy people into his room and there murder them
for the sake of the few francs he might find in their
pockets, was brought to the scaffold. Some days before
he was executed, the following verses appeared in one
of the Parisian papers, and excited great attention, as
they were rumoured to have been written by the crimi-
nal himself, who had once been a sort of homme de
lettres. They were in reality the production of a young
Parisian barrister, M. A. Lemarquier, but they had the
temporary effect of making many credulous people
believe that Lacenaire would be reprieved, on account
of his being a ‘‘ Bel Esprit!” They are full of allusions
to the old ceremonial of the Place de la Grave, and we
annex to them a liberal translation :—

DInsomnie du Condamné.

Elle est longue la nuit quand le criminel veille ;
S’il s’endort, il maudit le bruit qui le réveille ;
Libre et non criminel dans un songe il vivait.
Que voit-il maintenant aux lueurs des étoiles ?
L’aleove ott l’araignée a suspendn ses toiles,

Tit la paille de son chevet.
PLACE DE LA GREVE. 133

C’est un bien! c’est alors que vient & sonner V’heure
Oi, seul et sans témoins, l’assassin prie et pleure ;
Son orgueil se fait humble et sa fierté mollit ;
Son cceur est poignardé par des remords intimes :
Les fantémes sanglans de toutes ses victimes

Se dressent au pied de son lit.

Tl a beau fermer l’qil, un bras glacé le touche ;

Un cadavre tout nu vient partager sa couche ;

Tl livre son oreille & d’infernales voix :

Tl entend sur les quais une pesante roue :

T entend le bourreau, le gibet que l’on cloue,
Le chant lugubre des convois!

Alors le criminel s’amende: alors il pense
A celui qui punit et qui nous recompense,
Celui qu’on nomme Dieu dans le langage humain ;
Qui, sur son tréne, attend que le criminel meure,
Et le conduit, absous, 4 la sainte demenre

Dont seul il connait le chemin.

On peut mourir athée, alors que le délire
Dans le livre des cieux nous empéche de lire ;
Quand le lit est déja le funébre caveau ;
Quand le sang suspendu dans la veine glacée
Au malade expirant ne laisse de pensée

Dans le coeur ni dans le cerveau ;

Mais lorsqu’on va mourir dans sa jeunesse verte,

A lage ou nétre vie & peine s’est ouverte,

Avant que son printemps ait fait place 4 Vhiver,

Et que Clamart est 1a, le hideux cimetiére !

Demandant notre chair, notre chair tout entiére,
Pour servir de pature au ver ;

Alors, croyez le bien, une agonie immense

Vous rend votre raison et chasse la démence ;

Avant de dire au monde un éternel adieu,

L’homme veut éviter le céleste anathéme,

Et court a V’échafaud, comme au sanglant baptéme
Qui réconcilie avec Dieu.

 
134 PLACE DE LA GREVE.

Slow wanes the long night, when the felon awakes :
And he curses the noise that his slumber breaks ;
For he dream’d of other days,
When his soul was free from the stain of crime,
And he lived in a better and happier time.
But now, by the stars’ pale rays,
And the doubtful light they shed,
What sees he but only the dim alcove,
Where the spider hath spun her toils, above,
And, below, his straw-strewn bed !

To him ’tis a good! for the bell’s solemn tone
Sounds the hour, when, unwitness’d and all alone,
The assassin prays and weeps ;
The pride of his heart is brought full low,
And his savage temper is soften’d now,
And Remorse her dagger steeps
In his heart-core’s secret blood.
Around him his victims, a ghastly band
Of bleeding shades, vindictive stand
By his bed in angry mood.

His eyes he may close :—but the cold icy touch
Of a frozen hand, and a corpse on his couch
Still come to wither his soul.
He listens! ’t is only to fill his ears
With voices from hell, and unholy fears :
He hears the waggon’s roll,
And on the quays a heavy tread,*
And the headsman’s voice, and hammer’d blows
Of nails that the jointed gibbet close,
And the solemn chant of the dead !

It is then that the criminal tries to amend,
And he thinks of him who alone can send
Reward or punishment.
Of the Being, for whom the human mind
The name of God hath essay’d to find,
In adoration bent.

* All this could be well heard in the stillness of the night from
the towers of the Conciergerie. See Victor Hugo’s description in
the Dernier Jour, ete.
PLACE DE LA GREVE. 135

For still on his awful throne
The Deity waits, till the Sinner shall come,
Then leads him absolv’d to a holy home

By a path He knows alone.

We may die without God in the world, when the skies’
Mysterious volume is hid from our eyes,
And clos’d is its wondrous page:
When the bed that once refreshment gave
Is loath’d as a foretaste of the grave
From sickness or old age.
When that, which was wont to dart
Through all the veins, is slow and cold,
And the dying man’s sensations hold
No more in his head and heart.

But when death is our doom in the greenness of life,
When the flow’r of existence with strength is rife,
And as yet but hardly blown;
Before its hopeful spring-time hath fled,
And wint’ry age his hoary head
To frighten us hath shewn ;
When, Clamart!* thy hideous form
Sepulchral, is come to demand its prey,
Where our body, all, shall moulder away
As food for the gnawing worm ;

Oh! doubt not! ’t is then that the soul in its woe
Brings reason back and bids madness go:
E’en then, or ere he die,
To the world, as for ever it fades from his view,
Man gives his one long last adieu ;
He wishes then to fly
From Heaven’s chastising rod:
And the scaffold’s steps he hastes to mount,
As to a blood-baptizing fount,
That reconciles with God! H. L. J.

* The cemetery of Clamart is an enclosed spot near the Jardin
des Plantes in the south-eastern part of Paris, appropriated to the
sepulture of criminals.
136

V.—SKETCHES IN OLD FRANCE.

VERSAILLES.

WHoeEver wanders through the green alleys of the park
and bosquets of Versailles, or paces the endless galleries
and ever-succeeding suites of rooms that compose its
stately palace; be his object curiosity for the present or
inquiry for the past, a feeling of sadness as well as re-
verence must be excited in his breast, as he wakes with
solitary step the long silent echoes of this, the once
brilliant abode of courtly elegance and regal grandeur.
The slightest tincture of historical lore will revivify such
ground to a mind of even ordinary sensibility; the trees
would utter music, the shrubberies tell their tale, the
stones themselves would seem instinct with life and
voice to the least poetical imagination, if it could by
possibility forget that at Versailles it was treading in
the steps of all that was once the brightest and the
loveliest of Europe ; of all that was great and powerful
in those stirring and energetic times when the nations
of this quarter of the globe were assuming their present
relative stations, and when Versailles was the centre of
the politics, the arts, the literature and refinement of
the civilised world. True it is, that the sterner virtues
which hallow the plain of Marathon and the walls of
Iona had seldom, if ever, their echo on this spot: the
patriot and the religionist, at least in the usual accepta-
tion of these words, rarely appeared among the demi-
gods of this French Olympus ; the very idea of simple
and natural excellence was almost unknown to the gay,
VERSAILLES. 137

magnificent crowds that peopled this now deserted
abode. Man existed here in an artificial state ; the
good he aimed at, while within the circuit of Versailles,
was good only in a peculiar and restricted sense; and
the deities, if deities he worshipped, were never more
exalted in purity than the Muses, while they more fre-
quently took the form of Mars or of Mercury, of Bellona
or of Venus. The originator, the creator of the whole,
by whom and for whom it existed, assumed, as is known,
the attributes of the God of Day; and his motto, which
still glitters on the walls of the palace, “Nec pluribus
umpar”, stamped at once the character of the place and
of its inhabitants.

But though the severer developments of the human
mind and the more pure and beneficent of its operations,
found little room for exercise and scanty encouragement
to action within the precincts of the court residence of
the Bourbons, the full tide of human passions boiled and
swelled, ebbed and flowed here, with a more than ordi-
nary concentration of fearful violence. Pride and ambi-
tion, avarice and selfish cruelty, the thirst of blood and
the fever of lust, the mean workings of intrigue as well
as the heart-gnawing anxieties of jealousy, hope, fear,
revenge, and murder; even love,—for love was once no
stranger at Versailles,—all have borne their parts in the
great dramas enacted here; and none from the sove-
reign to the page but was a slave to one or more of these
imperious masters. State crimes and State virtues,
whatever their kind, have all been brought into exer-
cise at Versailles : at one time the lives and fortunes of
neighbouring nations hung here by no firmer link than
the flimsy thread that determined whether a window
accorded or not with the indications of the mason’s
plummet ; at another, the gloomy conscience of a royal
138 VERSAILLES.

penitent, anxious, perhaps, to compound for earlier
errors, was worked upon in the confessional to sign the
edict that should banish liberty of worship from his
realms, and sow in its place the first seeds of future re-
volution ; the unfortunate exiles who had lost a rival
throne, were received here with a generosity and a de-
licacy of feeling that have never since been equalled ;
and again, in later times, the virtues of other and still
more unfortunate sovereigns, exalted by the melancholy
exigencies of the times, here shed the parting ray of
their lustre on halls and groves, soon to be visited with
the long night of political oblivion. The evil probably
prevailed over the good in the springs of action thus
assembled and made to exercise their power. We are
perhaps warranted in so concluding from the effects
which the system of Louis XIV and his successor ulti-
mately produced; for we can certainly trace back most,
if not all, the faults of the eighteenth century to the
foundation of folly and extravagance laid so widely and
deeply in the seventeenth. Had not that monarch in-
troduced the system of State mistresses, had he not
carried on the wars of aggrandizement, had he not
levelled all the boundaries of old laws and customs to
pamper his own will or caprice, France perhaps had
not seen the public profligacy of the Regency, nor the
private libertinism of Louis XV; the Aristocracy would
most probably have preserved their fortunes, their ter-
ritorial influence and the love of the people ; while the
Clergy would have kept their moral hold over the nation,
and known how to stem the great social and political
cataclysm that afterwards swept and purified, though it
ruined and remodelled, the entire framework and ap-
pearance of the Gallic community. It cannot be denied
that the great French Revolution was the offspring of
VERSAILLES. 139

the system of the Grand Monarque ; but it is, perhaps,
idle to speculate in the present day on what might or
might not have been the results of courses of action that
were never adopted ; or to place men on their trial be-
fore posterity, when posterity itself is possibly not act-
ing a whit more prudently, or with any greater regard
to what may hereafter result from its own political sys-
tems and constitutions of society.

We would rather turn from the gloomy side of the
story of Versailles to look at it in a favourable light ;
for we do not desire the ungrateful task of criticising
what once was great and magnificent, and universally
reckoned to be good. Our present purpose is rather to
seek out a bright spot of the system identitied with
Versailles, and to trace the march of what constituted
the peculiar glory of Louis XIV, the fine arts of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as they existed
in France from the accession of the third monarch of
the House of Bourbon to the melancholy dethronement
of the fifth.

Aware, therefore, of all that may be advanced against
the Augustan age of the French nation, and by no means
taking up the gauntlet as its apologists, we leave to
others the task of being its defenders and judges; and
pass on to inquire into the mutual action which the
court system and the cultivation of the fine arts exer-
cised on each other during that period. From the en-
lightened taste and the really patriotic enthusiasm of
Francis I, who was in many respects the greatest
monarch that had till then swayed her sceptre, France
had made a rapid advance in the fine arts; and was in
possession of a school of native artists that bade fair to
rival, if not ultimately to excel, the longer established
masters and more cultivated skill of the Italian States.
140 VERSAILLES.

The immediate successors of the monarch in question,
though they did not equally encourage, yet by no means
neglected the branch of civilisation that had been fa-
voured by their ancestor. Henry I, for example, was
as fond of art and was as kind a patron of artists as his
father, Francis I, but he was not a man of the same
energy of mind or the same activity of body: he was
well calculated to fall in with the general inclination,
but not to lead the fashion of his age ;—and what may
be termed his premature death tended, by its political
consequences, greatly to check French art and refine-
ment of every kind. The ambition of Catherine de
Medicis, working on the infantine minds of the two next
sovereigns; the gloomy religious wars to which the
fanatical tyranny of these monarchs subsequently gave
rise ; and the lamentable period of the reign of the last
of the Valois ; all these went well nigh to banish art,
or at any rate so far disturbed and discouraged those
who cultivated it, that the good effects of what Francis I
had done were nearly obliterated. The dreadful mas-
sacre in which Peter Ramus lost his life, and Jean Gou-
jon was shot while chiselling a public monument, was a
signal for the peaceable lovers of the fine arts to gird up
their loins and betake themselves to more favoured re-
gions. They did so ;—France, with a few exceptions,
was left to herself, and Henry IV, on his entering Paris,
came into a ruined city, no longer the abode of the
muses. The public mind was too much absorbed by the
change of dynasty and the turmoil of civil and ecclesi-
astical discord to attend to the embellishments of life :
parties were contending, not in the senate, but in the
tented field, for political supremacy ;—Catholics and
Protestants disputed not so much with books as with
swords; Art found no place of quiet abode in a country
VERSAILLES. 141

so distracted within itself; nor was there any hope of
fresh progress for it until Henry IV was firmly settled
on the throne.

The last quarter of the sixteenth century, considering
the bright period that had preceded it, and the state of
art on the other side of the Alps, was a time of dark-
ness for France. That great architect and man of
science, Philibert Delorme, was a worthy continuator of
the school of Jean Goujon, Germain Pilon, and Jean
Cousin ; but he was about the last original genius of
that class of artists; and with him the spirit of what is
technically termed in France the school of the Renais-
sance may be said to have become extinct. He was, we
have said, the last originator: for, though great archi-
tects and men of excellent taste sprang up after him, at
no very long intervals of time, yet when they appeared
before the public they came forward as imitators of
classic, or at least of Palladian, elegance: they no longer
professed to be members of a French school with its
own peculiar standard of taste:—and hence, to instance
architecture alone, that part of the Tuileries which is
contemporary with Henry IV, the Hotel de Ville, and
the Church of St. Eustache at Paris, may be mentioned
as probably the latest of the really oraginal buildings
erected by French architects.

It may be said that the school of the Renassance,
itself a branch of the earlier schools of the Middle Ages,
was in its decline only keeping pace with the general
falling off of the antecedent styles in other countries of
Europe. The objection is valid to a certain extent.
The Italian schools were daily extending their influence
at the termination of the sixteenth century ; but yet it
is not to be conceived that the influence of such men as
Goujon, Cousin, etc., could so suddenly become extinct
142 VERSAILLES.

had not other and extraneous causes, foreign to art,
contributed to effect the change. For instance, the
Elizabethan style of architecture and even the remains
of the Tudor, the pointed Tudor school, remained longer
in force in England than the style of the Renaissance
in France: not that the English was, properly speak-
ing, at that time an original school, led, as we believe
it to have been, in great part by foreign artists; yet had
not the troubles of the civil war intervened, symptoms
are not wanting to show that a purely English school
might have been resuscitated. We cannot therefore
but infer that the French school, which was at its
brightest period under Francis I and Henry II, would
have continued to produce great original works, had
not its progress been checked by the untoward course
of events. The architectural wants of northern nations
being comparatively greater than those of the south of
Europe, there is every probability that the schools of
England, Germany, and France, in this branch of the
fine arts at least, would have retained the superiority
which they gained during the Middle Ages, and would
have developed their principles of taste to an indefinite
extent, had they not all been more or less thwarted
and finally cut off in their growth by wars and political
troubles.

The death of Henry IV was in its consequences a
great blow to civilization in France, plunging the
country as it did into the intrigues and wars of the
early days of his son’s reign; but its effects were in
part modified by the rise of the great Cardinal, and by
the international communication, which was then be-
coming daily more and more common between the
various populations of Europe. The Italian schools had
fully established their pre-eminence ;—Rome was then
VERSAILLES. 143

the centre of study, as it has been ever since;—art had
become a matter of foreign importation into France ;—
Poussin and Claude Lorrain were of Italy, rather than
of Gaul; and, in fact, everything was prepared for the
flood of Italian taste that Cardinal Mazarin afterwards
let in upon the country.

It is about this period, 1627, when Richelieu was
coming into power, and Louis XIII yielding partly to
his melancholy temperament, partly to his fondness for
the green solitude of the woods and diversions of the
chase, used to lodge for the night at the miller’s in the
remote village of Versailles, that our interest in this
place commences. That sovereign pitched upon the
spot as one entirely buried in the woods, where courtiers
were never likely to interfere with him, and as being
at an easy ride from the stately abode of Francis I and
Henry IV at St. Germains ; the requisite estates were
soon made Crown property; and the modest chateau
rose, which afterwards served as a nucleus for the gigan-
tic constructions of his successors. It is not our pur-
pose to go into the details of the history of Versailles,
of the various epochs of its growth and alterations, of
its rise or fall; we intend rather to consider it in the
different phases of its existence, as indicative of the
actual condition and progress of art at successive periods ;
we leave, therefore, to the regular chronicler, and to
none more able than M. Vatout, to describe all the
changes that successively took place in this great palace,
and refer our readers to the large work of M. Gavard,
for the admirable graphic illustrations that give ocular
evidence how the building grew and prospered.

When Louis XIII constructed his little chateau on
the site of the mill, just on the brow of the eminence
where a long valley, opening for miles towards the
144 VERSAILLES.

south-west, afforded an enchanting sylvan prospect, it
was by no means his intention to make it anything
more than a hunting seat; and it was in fact one of
the smallest of the royal residences. Built of red brick
and coped with stone, surrounding a small quadrangle,
and itself protected by a fosse, it was the complete type
of what a monarch, who loved country life, might wish
as a place of comfortable retirement. It sufficed for
his easily satisfied desire of rural elegance, and formed
an agreeable contrast to the more rigid and stately
magnificence of St. Germains. At this latter place, on
the brow of a long table-land, formed by a bending of
the ever-winding Seine, stood the royal chateau, the
Windsor of France, in which Francis I, after Fontaine-
bleau, so much delighted, and which Henry IV had so
greatly embellished. The part erected by the former
of these monarchs, a great pentagonal pile in red brick,
half castle and half mansion, stood on the summit of
the hill; it still remains there, shorn indeed of its splen-
dour, and vilely desecrated by the bad taste of a former
day, which had converted it into a prison: but now re-
stored by the good sense of an enlightened monarch,
and still stately and royal in all its outline. The part
added by Henry IV consisted of pavilions and connect-
ing galleries sloping down the side of the hill, and in-
termingled with gardens that ended only at the river's
brink. Of this nothing but two of the smallest pavi-
lions is now to be seen; the giant hand of destruction
and the plough of revolution having literally effaced
the very traces of its foundations: but it was here that
Anne of Austria kept her court, and it was here that
Louis XII soothed his ennu7, as best he might, in the
stately circle of his gloomy attendants. He mounted
his horse in the morning and galloped over the hills of
VERSAILLES. 145

Marly to the woods of Versailles, to avoid his wife,
whom he hated, and Richelieu his minister, whom he
feared ; Versailles became the abode of his predilec-
tions ; and as such was remembered with filial affection
by his son, who, on determining to erect a palace such
as had never before been seen, and in the newest style
of Italian taste, preserved intact the interior of the
court built by his father, and thus handed down to us’
a precious relic of the first half of the seventeenth century.

We borrow the following from M. H. Fortoul’s spirited
Mistory of Versailles:—

“As you approach by the Place d’Armes, where the
town dies away at the foot of the railings of the Chateau
of Versailles, you make out the different parts of
which this imposing mass of buildings is composed; you
see the movement of its lines and the arrangement of
its edifices. In the midst of all these wings, opening
and resting one on the other, you discover, in the cen-
tral part and in the furthest removed of the various
planes of building, a morceau of a peculiar style of archi-
tecture. It is modest and retiring, compared with the
adjacent masses of masonry, but it wears a serious air,
that attracts attention much more surely than all the
blanched walls by which it is surrounded: it shines
among them like a little diamond of great price en-
chased in metal of which it was easy to be prodigal.
This is all that remains at Versailles of the chateau
built by Louis XIII. The architecture of the time of
Louis XIIT breathes a perfume of vierlle gentilhommerce,
which hardly survived it. After him royalty imposed
its solemn and uniform livery upon everything; whereas
in the monuments in brick of the first half of the seven-
teenth century we still see the aristocracy of ancient
times shining forth,—an aristocracy of good stamp, and

L
146 VERSAILLES.

though of noble bearing yet without fastidious external
display : slightly countrified, still smacking somewhat
of the old country manor houses, which it had hardly
given up inhabiting, and yet full of urbanity and ele-
gance, and of a frank and open character.”

M. Fortoul has here happily characterised the style
of a period little known and still less relished in France,
but one which is perfectly appreciated in England. The
time, the habits, and the customs of Louis XIII and
his Court correspond to those of the end of James I and
of the unfortunate Charles: a period which, whatever
may be the political opinion entertained as to its acts
and their results, is one peculiarly grateful to all who
love chivalrous and noble deeds. At that period the
nobility and gentry of France and England, though
somewhat lessened in their baronial privileges and in the
rather dangerous power they had possessed in the times
of the Valois and Tudors, still kept up great state in
the country in their ancestral halls amid their numerous
retainers. They had not yet learnt to congregate in
towns or to flutter in numbers about a court, as after-
wards under Louis XIV and Charles II ;—they still
maintained the grand feature of a noble hospitality, and
lived, for the most part, loving and beloved amid their
tenants and friends. Though not very learned, they
were beginning to improve; and they had already
shown themselves just appreciators of the arts, both in
their residences and in their personal habits of luxury
and ornamentalism. Holbein had enriched the galleries
of many an English noble, and he was followed by
Rubens and Vandyke; while Inigo Jones was begin-
ning to give a decided bias to the national taste, and to
add his share—no small one indeed—to the cultivation
and diffusion of the fine arts. In France, we know how
VERSAILLES. 147

much Jean Goujon and his school had done in Henry
Il’s time ;—Poussin and Philippe de Champagne had
already decorated part of the palace of the Luxembourg
for Marie de Medicis, and had left France for Italy;
Claude Lorrain was flourishing; Puget was developing
his sculptural genius; and the future designers of the
park and palace of Versailles were laying the founda-
tions of their after-fortunes. Vouet was then the
leader of the French school of portrait painters; and he
had, like Vandyke, grand materials to work upon. At
that period, the graceful costume of Spain was in full
vogue throughout the south and west of Europe—that
costume, the best that our ancestors ever wore. The
ample folds of the mantle, the sober dignity and even
grace of the vest and the broad hat, the elegant display
of fine linen, of convenient and well fitting boots, and
the easy adaptations of the whole to either magnificence
or modest plainness, every thing was in favour of the
portrait painter of those days. For the fairer portion
of creation, the elegantly proportioned length and swell
of the silk or velvet robe, the gracefully tapering and yet
not too much confined waist, the modest and becoming
dress of the neck, and the coquettish espréglerie that
lurked in the delicate little curls of a beauty of the
first Charles’s or the thirteenth Louis’s court, all this
made the painter’s a task of comparative ease and en-
joyment. Asa matter of art, it was one of the greatest
injuries that Louis XIV caused to Europe to banish, as
he ultimately did, this elegant style of dress, and to
patronise in its stead the unnatural wig and stiff coat
of the men, and the untidy negligée, or the buckram
armour, in which the ladies of Versailles and, in imita-
tion of them, the world, were made to delight. To

carry the comparison still further, if we could suppose
L 2
148 VERSAILLES.

Vandyke himself set down to pourtray a beauty of the
court of George III or of Louis XV, it might very well
be questioned whether he would produce anything
beyond the wretched daubs that used to be called
pictures and likenesses about the year 1770.

Spain was still a great and powerful nation in the time
of Louis XIII; and from her rough and picturesque
country, where the aristocratical ideas of the age, like
those of monarchy, found their most stately and solemn
type, she sent forth tastes, fashions, and manners that
subsisted in the world long after her power had begun
to decline. Spain was always original; and it is to be
lamented that so much of what she has done for the
embellishment and improvement of social life should
have been so slightly preserved, so seldom copied in
later times, and so little studied. To any one familiar
with the solemn canvases of Velasquez, the real dig-
nity of his figures, aided in no small degree by their
dress, will be vividly apparent when they are compared
with the contemporary productions of French artists :—
and there can be no hesitation in placing him and Van-
dyke at the head of those who knew how to delineate
the noble patrons and the gentle beauties of their times.

Every thing relating to art in the days of Charles I
and the Commonwealth of England, of Philip IV in
Spain, and of Louis XIII and Richelieu in France, was
grand, solemn, and, to a certain extent, melancholy.
Art partook of many of the lights and shadows of the
time; and in one particular branch, and in some respects
the most permanent,—architecture,—the traces of this
state of things have come down to the present day.
The part of the palace of Versailles built by Louis
XIII, is the most simple in its arrangement, and
almost the most gorgeous in its decoration of the
VERSAILLES. 149

whole edifice. It includes the famous Cour de Marbre,
and the state bed-room of Louis XIV; the well-known
Chil de Boeuf, and the Petits Appartements of that
king. The internal decorations were made by Louis
XIV it is true, but the general spirit is that of his
predecessor; on the other hand, the spirit of the Siécle
@Or and of the Grand Monarque is shown in the Long
Gallery, and in the stately Saloons of Peace and War,
by which it is terminated at either end. A splendid
monument of the ecclesiastical architecture of that
period is found in the church of the Val de Grace, at
Paris, built by Anne of Austria in fulfilment of her
vow on the birth of Louis XIV; it is Italian through-
out, but is bold, and in many respects original; and it
is one of the most elegant edifices of that date now
remaining in France. Another instance is the church
of the Jesuits, dedicated to St. Paul and St. Louis, in
the Rue St. Antoine, also in Paris. Cardinal Richelieu
performed mass in this church at the epoch of its ter-
mination, and all the solid grandeur of the time is
displayed in its facade as well as in its dome. The
capital contains another fine facade of the same date,
that of St. Gervais; and another curiously tormented
and altered erection in the western part of St. Etienne
du Mont. All these are monuments not much attended
to by strangers who visit the French metropolis; but
we adduce them as some of the few remaining instances
of the grand and rather solemn style, that characterises
the epoch of the great Cardinal and the melancholy
King. The corresponding edifice in London that will at
once occur to recollection is Inigo Jones’s splendid frag-
ment of Whitehall. O, sisic omnia!—had all our British
palaces been like this!

Louis XIII was not more governed by his minister,
150 VERSAILLES.

Cardinal Richelieu, than his kingdom was tyrannised
over by that proud and able ecclesiastic. The Cardi-
nal’s influence over the political condition of the coun-
try is foreign to our subject, but his enlightened pro-
tection of the fine arts entitles him to rank amongst
the greatest statesmen produced by France. The
Palais Royal, originally constructed by him, was at
that time the centre of all that was refined, learned,
and artistic, of the court and capital. The Cardinal
himself was, if not an artist, at least a warm admirer
of all that related to art; a fabricator of dramatic pieces
if not an original author: and Richelieu laid the
foundation for Mazarin, just as the latter paved the
way for Louis XIV.

Cardinal Mazarin may be regarded as one of the
most enthusiastic patrons of arts and artists, and one of
the most earnest promoters of courtly refinement to be
found in the annals of the French nation—for though
an Italian by birth, by circumstances he was altogether
a Frenchman. The splendid collection of pictures
which he formed, and the library he left to the College
des Quatre Nations, now the Institute, are too well
known to need more than an allusion; but he, who
would learn the private state of this ecclesiastical
minister, should traverse the long galleries of the
Bibliotheque du Roi, at Paris, and examine the ar-
rangement of the suites, the ornamentation of the
walls, and the decorations of the ceilings. They form one
of the richest series of’ examples of domestic splendour
that we are acquainted with; and the paintings, princi-
pally, we believe, by the hand of Lebrun, are well
worthy of study. Another Parisian instance of the
taste of this epoch is to be found in the ancient hotel
of a President of the Parliament, the most eastern
VERSAILLES. 151

mansion on the Isle St. Louis, now known ag the
Hotel Czartoryski, but built by M. Lambert in the
time of the Cardinal, and decorated throughout by
Lebrun and Leseur:—the paintings of the Great
Gallery are here as fresh as on the first day of their
exhibition, and all bear testimony to the grand and
solemn taste that characterised the epoch.

The mention of Lebrun leads us naturally to Louis
XIV, and to consider the state of the fine arts in his
half century of glory. The causes that led this
monarch to raise the immense structure of Versailles
are very uncertain: but the idle story that he wished to
fly from St. Germains because he could not bear the
sight of St. Denis, where he knew he should be one day
buried, is more than improbable; especially since he con-
tinued to hold his court in the old palace of Francis I
for twenty-one years, from the date of the first works
begun at Versailles. M. Fortoul says that the monarch
was led to the scheme as much from love for Mlle. de
la Valliére as from any other cause; but he does not
make out a very clear case in proof of his assertion :—
the grand fétes that took place on the opening of the
new chateau were no doubt given in her honour: so
also was the grand carousel in front of the Tuileries:
but Louis would have built quicker had love been his
real stimulant. We are inclined to attribute it partly
to his desire of rivalling other monarchs; partly to that
of placing his own magnificence out of all danger of
eclipse by that of any of the great lords of the land;
and partly to his warm perception of and relish for all
that promoted art. The Spanish monarch had already
been installed at the Escurial, the Popes had long dwelt
in the Vatican; and for the French court to be lodged
more splendidly than either of these, the courts then
152 VERSAILLES.

imitated as the most polished throughout Christendom,
it was necessary to have a residence of greater size and
more modern luxury than the half-feudal, half-palatial
chateau of St. Germains. To effect this, Louis XIV
offended deeply against what now would be called all
rules of good taste in pitching the royal residence
amidst woods, well suited indeed to the hunting tastes
of Louis XIII, instead of fixing it on that ample
plateau, the terrace of St. Germains, which overlooks
the plain of St. Denis and almost that of the capital.
If the inspirations of Mlle. de la Valliére went for any-
thing,they may have been influential here in making
the monarch sigh for a quiet valley and soft bosquets;
but the truth is, that the taste for the picturesque
hardly then existed—or, if any where, only in Italy and
Flanders. Louis, troubled with few ideas of the kind,
laid out in his own mind plans which, had they been
realised, would have made the valley of Versailles one
of the sweetest spots in France. As an example, it
may be mentioned that the king’s original intention was
to turn the river Eure out of its course and to bring it
into the Seine at Sévres, instead of leaving it to flow
through Lower Normandy. St. Germains too, it should
be remembered, was not equal to the royal chateau of
Blois or to that of Chambord, and hardly to Fontaine-
bleau; nor was it so much superior to the chateaux of
several of the nobility as appeared necessary to a young
king, who remembered the insolence of the Fronde.
Jealousy, therefore, of some of his courtiers acted pro-
bably as a stimulus to the alterations and enlargements
of Versailles. An old story that throws some light on
this subject is so well told by M. Fortoul, that we hope
to be excused for repeating it in his words:—
‘Mazarin had scarcely been dead four months when
VERSAILLES, 153

the intendant Fouquet invited the king and the court
to an entertainment which he had prepared at his
chateau of Vaux. This chateau, recently built in the
neighbourhood of Melun, had acquired such a reputation
for richness and elegance that it was confidently said St.
Germains and Fontainebleau could not be compared
with it:—it had cost eighteen millions of livres: the
gardens were the first essay of a young man named Le
Notre, who promised to excel in this style even the
Italians, by whom, however, the art was supposed to
have been carried to perfection; nothing had ever been
seen so majestic and so grandly distributed. As for the
chateau, marbles, balustrades, and columns, had been
lavished upon it:—it was a prodigy of luxury and
novelty. An artist, a young man also, who had recently
arrived from Rome, and was named Charles Lebrun, had
adorned the interior; it was said that the pictures which
he had painted there would cause a revolution in art,
and would at length create a real school of painting
which France would be able to oppose to the glorious
schools of foreign nations. On the afternoon of the
17th August, 1661, the court came to visit the chateau.
The king, the queen-mother, monsieur, madame, and a
number of princes and seigneurs were assembled there;
but the queen was unable to come on account of her
pregnancy. The court began by visiting the gardens,
and examined with evident pleasure the water-works
and basins, to which forms of great beauty and variety
had been given. The king appeared to share the
general satisfaction expressed on this occasion: he was
observed however to stop before the coat of arms of
Fouquet, which met the eye on every side, and which
was charged with a squirrel, and the motto Quo non
ascendam?...... It has been said that Colbert, who was
154 VERSAILLES.

present at this féte, then first informed Louis XIV that
Fouquet had offered 230,000 livres to Mlle. de la
Valligre as the price of her virtue. The king was at
that time enamoured of this young lady: he however
concealed his anger, which this intelligence had worked
up to the highest pitch, and partook with good grace
of the supper served up after the promenade, and the
honours of which were performed with infinite tact by
Madame Fouquet. After supper he went with a per-
fectly composed countenance to the play that had been
prepared, and for which a theatre had been erected at
the bottom of the great alley of fir trees. Torelli had
made all the machinery, etc. of the piece, and Lebrun
himself had condescended to paint the scenes. Moliére
gave the first representation of his comedy Les Facheux;
and Pélisson, who was employed in one of Fouquet’s
offices, had composed the prologue. The comedy was
exceedingly successful. Menage declared that it was
one of the best that Moliére could write, the verses
were perfect, the characters happily and vigorously
traced. The king was quite charmed at it; he desired
to express his satisfaction to Moliére, and while he was
complimenting him, M. de Soyecourt, the greatest
sportsman in France, happening to go by, the king
added,—‘ There’s an original whom you have not yet
copied!’ Moliére took from this hint the subject of
the new scene of the Chasseur, which he was determined
on adding to his comedy, and soon after set to work
upon it. After the representation was terminated, the
Court went to see the fire-works, which were much ad-
mired. While the petards were battling with the
waters and the rockets were marking a thousand glit-
tering paths through the air, La Fontaine, placed in a
corner, was considering the pleasure he should have in
VERSAILLES. 155

writing the details of these fétes to his friend De Mau-
croix at Rome; he was already collecting the rhymes
for his narrative, and thinking of his beloved patron,
Fouquet, who would enjoy ‘wne fortune @ lasser la ré-
nommee’.

On a sudden, the noise of the royal trumpets suc-
ceeded to that of the fire-works; for the king, de-
sirous of returning the same night to Fontainebleau,
had ordered the mousquetaires to be in attendance.
Louis XTV all this time let no indication escape him
that could dissipate the enchantment of the innocent-
hearted poet, and before leaving he desired Fouquet
himself to accompany the Court on its intended excur-
sion into Britanny. The Intendant went thither; but
he was arrested at Nantes a few days after, and trans-
ferred successively to Angers, Vincennes, and at length
to the Bastile. His trial was held before the Parlia-
ment in a chamber composed of the relations and friends
of Colbert. The examination lasted three years; and
at the end of this time Fouquet was condemned to
banishment. Louis XIV was not to be turned from
his purpose either by the intreaties of Mlle. de la Val-
liére or the verses of La Fontaine. He even once said,
‘If his death is decreed by the Parliament, I shall allow
it to take place’. He thought the members of the Par-
liament had but badly ministered to his anger; he in-
creased the punishment, and changed the decree of
banishment into that of rigorous and eternal imprison-
ment. Before he was led to it, the unfortunate Fouquet
learnt that the king had just given orders to make
Versailles surpass not only the Chateau of Vaux, but
all the palaces of the world; that Le Notre had been
entrusted with the laying out of the gardens, and Le-
brun with the decoration of the apartments ; that fétes
156 VERSAILLES.

which had never been paralleled had already been given
in the palace, for which Molitre had also written
comedies; and that in fine Louis XIV had concentrated
round his person all the ¢éclat of luxury, of art, and of
genius, which the unfortunate Intendant had had the
culpable idea of sharing with the monarch.”*

This féte and the episode attached to it formed a fit-
ting introduction to a series of similar entertainments of
which Versailles was afterwards the scene, and of arbi-
trary acts of power equally inexcusable and equally
calling for the hand of retributive justice. We need
not do more than allude to these festivities, for they
are so mixed up with the personal history of the monarch
and of the great characters of the day, political and
literary, that they are fairly parts of history, and are
besides in the recollection of every reader. It rather
concerns us to remark that from this period the age of
Louis XIV, properly so termed, commenced, and that
the arts of every kind now began to take that universal
hold on the nation, which they have never afterwards
lost, except during the melancholy period of the Revo-
lution. The school of Louis XIV was now definitively
established ; it soon rose to such pre-eminence in the
opinion of the north and west of Europe that France
became the centre of taste and of civilised arts: and a
bright galaxy of great names it was that then appeared
in this western clime. To specify only a few out of
many eminent men: Lebrun, Jouvenet, Nicolas and
Pierre Mignard, Noel and Antoine Coypel, Bon and

* We have only to add to the above, that although doubt has of
late been thrown on the very existence of such a person as the famous
Iron Mask of the Island of St. Marguerite, yet common tradition is
ucarly unanimous in believing that he was the ill-fated Fouquet.
We doubt whether Fouquet’s sentence was reckoned anything more
than an excusable coup d’étut in those days.
VERSAILLES. 157

Louis Boullogne, Vander Meulen, Rigaud, and Watteau,
of the painters ;—Coysevox, Puget, and the two Cous-
tous, of the sculptors ;—Puget again, Francis and Jules-
Hardouin Mansart, and Gabriel, of the architects ;
Lendtre, the creator of landscapes; and Keller the great
founder in bronze :—all these names shed their full
lustre on the period in which they lived, and on the
monarch by whom they were protected.

To go into a detailed criticism of their works would be
superfluous: all that we contend for is, that they formed
part of one and the same great school, that they partici-
pated in a sort of community of principles, and that they
may be very well judged of and appreciated in a body.
They drew their inspirations from one and the same
source ; they had all the same principal patrons ; their
models were all taken from the same court; and their
works were all submitted to the same fashionable crowd
or the same junta of connoisseurs. Hence, little variety
is to be found, for the painters, in their style of face, of
position, of dress in their portraits; Pierre Mignard
being, perhaps, the one who showed the greatest indica-
tions of originality, notwithstanding the bland style
and soft accommodations of his palette. In their histo-
rical compositions they differed more widely according
to the liberty given to them by their subjects, the palm
being closely disputed between Jouvenet and Lebrun.
Of the sculptors no doubt can be entertained in assign-
ing the first place to Puget, and after him to Coysevox:
—of the architects Jules-Hardouin Mansart, the builder
of Versailles, Marly, Trianon, and the Invalides, is
by far the greatest: but he was ably seconded by his
illustrious contemporaries, and was rivalled in the de-
gree, not the kind, of his peculiar merit by Lendtre, to
whose genius for accommodating the works of Nature
158 VERSAILLES.

to those of art he was more indebted than he was pro-
bably aware.

One of the principal characteristics of the whole
school of fine arts in the time of Louis XIV was the
grandeur and magnificence of general design softened
by the ideas of luxury and elegance that were becoming
habitual to the nation. Thus, in all the elaborate com-
positions of Lebrun that adorn the ceilings of Versailles,
though everything is majestic and royal, there is little
either sombre or melancholy. The reigning monarch
was of an infinitely more joyous temperament than his
predecessor, and setting himself up, like Apollo, to give
light and life to the whole universe, he affected the
brilliant and dazzling rather than the terrific and gloomy.
Hence the general character imparted to the whole
school :—-and, as two of the best examples of it, the
ceilings of the Salon de la Paix and the Salon de la
Guerre at Versailles may be cited. The series of sacred
pictures that surround the interior of the choir of Notre
Dame at Paris, all of them masterly productions, are
also good types of this school as contradistinguished
from all those of Italy. How different, too, from the
Poussins, the Philippe de Champagnes, the Claude
Lorrains, the Vouets, and the Valentins of a former
day, imbued as they were with Italian ideas, and hardly
to be reckoned among the painters of France! In sculp-
ture the style was greatly changed from that of Jean
Goujon, Jean Cousin, and their contemporaries ; and it
had suffered by the alteration : the Milo was the prin-
cipal work of Puget, but it is doubtful whether it ought
to be preferred to the Diane de Poitiers of Goujon.
The admirable busts of Coysevox are in no small degree
the basis of his fame, but they are not evidences of any
improvement on the preceding school either in taste or
VERSATLLES. 159

execution. Still they were grand and correct as the
sculptors of this age; and they did not fall further below
their predecessors than did the painters below those of
the half century preceding them. In these two branches,
however, of the fine arts, it cannot be denied that
France, under Louis XIV, had not equalled either her
own painters, the Poussins, etc., of the period just
alluded to, or her sculptors of a still earlier epoch.

In architecture the styles had become so different
from those of the sixteenth and the earlier part of the
seventeenth century, that it is difficult to institute a
comparison. The Mansarts, however, uncle and nephew,
certainly did effect a great change in French taste, and
in fact fixed it for upwards of a century: they carried
the Palladian principles to a high degree of refinement,
and they superadded an abundance of minor ornaments
which the severer, and perhaps purer, taste of the
Italians would have led them to reject. If we take the
Chapel of the Invalides at Paris, or the Chapel of the
palace at Versailles, we shall find all the system of
sculptured garlands, of fruits and flowers, of panels with
richly ornamented mouldings, of the breaking up of
spaces by the introduction of niches and figures, brought
into full demonstration. The contrast of the excessive
ornamentation of each of these sacred edifices with the
plainness of many parts of the main buildings to which
they belong, cannot but strike the most indifferent eye:
but the cause is, that what the architect effected in one
case the painter and the ornamental decorator was left
to do in the other: and again, it was perhaps a religious
feeling, that the House of God should be more magnifi-
cent than the house of man, which led them to establish
the distinction.

As a whole, the facades of Versailles towards the
160 VERSAILLES.

gardens are the grand constructions on which the fame
of their architect mainly depends: nor, indeed, can
anything be devised of more courtly elegance or more
stately beauty than the long series of windows and
columns and statues, of which the whole erection is
composed. The building was admirably suited to the
purposes and the taste of the monarch, whose intention
was to make his court not only the most magnificent,
but also the most elegant of Europe. Louis XIV is
entitled to the name of “the Great” for this the main
idea of his life: he wished to be first in all that apper-
tained to monarchy; in power, in civilization, in litera-
ture, in art: and on the whole he succeeded: he was
the Great King of the epoch. Versailles was all that
such a sovereign could wish: the palace, in its extent,
could lodge the largest court that had ever been col-
lected round a throne, and the extent of which may be
judged of from the fact that the Grand Commun
accommodated two thousand servants every night.
In its internal arrangement and decorations it was all
that the most sumptuous taste, limited by no fears of
expense, could make it;*—and in its position it was a
striking example of the victory gained over almost
insuperable difficulties by labour and skill.

The framing a new system of court etiquette came,
therefore, as a natural consequence when the court
entered into possession of this splendid abode: and it
was the completion of the monarch’s scheme. In form-
ing to ourselves a picture of what Versailles was in the
bright and palmy days of its full glory, if we would

* M. Vatout after having examined all the documents, public and
private, that were of any authority on the subject, gives up the task
of fixing the sum which Versailles cost Louis XIV: it varies, ac-
cording to different calculators, from sixteen millions sterling to a
much larger amount.
VERSAILLES. 161

rightly appreciate it, we should take into account the
ideas of the time; for this immense monument was in
fact ‘the expression of the monarchy such as Louis
XIV had conceived it;—it was the faithful résumé of
the work of the Great King. We wonder sometimes
that his reign, so fertile in men of great genius, never
produced an epic poem :—but, in fact, poetry in these
days adopted any form except this; and the epopeia of the
seventeenth century was Versailles itself...... During the
two centuries that the French was an absolute monarchy,
nothing was done that had not either its cause or its
effect at Versailles. All the policy of the time was
debated on within its walls; every cannon-shot fired in
Flanders, in Germany, or in Spain, awoke here an echo.
veges The history of Versailles is the history of civiliza-
tion during the last two centuries; the chateau itself is
one of those culminating points, from which the sight of
the mental eye loses itself in boundless prospects; and,
as from the summits of the Alps we perceive the forests
that clothe the shoulders of these mountains, the
streams that issue from their sides, the towns em-
bosomed in their shade, the states they divide from
each other; so from Versailles we discover the move-
ment of the manners, the wars, the diplomacy, the
literature, the arts, and the powers that have agitated
Europe for two hundred years. To place oneself on the
balcony of Versailles is to view the whole world from
the throne of Louis XIV.”—Fortoul, p. 7, Hist. Vers.
The ideas here suggested are ably followed up in the
book we have just quoted. M. Fortoul has suc-
ceeded in laying before his readers a very pleasing
and original outline of the whole of the reigns of
Louis XIV, Louis XV, and Louis XVI, as connected

with the palace of Versailles and the scenes occurring
M
162 VERSAILLES.

within it. He puts the artistical point of view in the
chief place of his plan, and round it he collects a vast
number of anecdotes and reflections that well repay the
trouble of perusal.

M. Vatout, in leading his reader through the palace,
as it is at the present day, recalls to mind, at each
step that he takes, the principal events connected with
each hole and corner of the historic rooms through which
he conducts us. He performs, in good truth, the office
of a guide, but in a very agreeable manner; and he
supplies us with a considerable collection of anecdotes
and circumstances either unknown or little remembered,
which all throw additional light and interest on the
times to which they refer.

With these two works, added to M. Gavard’s won-
derfully accurate representations of all the architectural
details and all the decorative riches of the palace, the
fireside traveller, or the historical student, who never
stirs beyond his library’s threshold, may have a very
fair idea of this central pivot of the ancient monarchy
of France. The illustrations of the gardens, one of the
most interesting parts of this royal residence, and of
the satellites, as they are termed, or the small palaces
that surround Versailles—the two Trianons, that is to
say, with Marly, Meudon, St. Cloud, Sceaux, etc., are
to be found in M. Fortoul’s work, with an interesting
notice to each.

Versailles, as finished by Louis XIV, should not only
be regarded by the historical examiner with his mind
full of the events of the times, in which it was con-
structed, and with the spirit of the Great Court and
King, whether good or bad, before him; but should also
be looked on as a portion of a system of royal display
which is worthy of notice in all its parts: especially
VERSAILLES. 163

when the question of art is concerned. Thus the im-
mense park and gardens that surround it, in themselves
the best and grandest examples of the magnificent ideas
of the times, must never be omitted either by the
reader or the visitor of this palace ;—nor must the
ensemble of Versailles, park, gardens, and all included,
be contemplated, without connecting it with the other
palaces and domains of the crown. In truth, though
the modern style of landscape gardening is by no means
in accordance with the taste that prevailed in the time
of Louis XIV, there is much to admire in the system
adopted by Lenétre and other horticulturists of his age
—in the stateliness and solemn grandeur of his masses
of wood, his bosquets, and his groves, the principal
lines and the lights and shadows of which accorded so
well with the architectural magnificence and stiff forms
of society in the days when he lived.*

* In England, we have certainly gone into the opposite extreme
in our ideas of horticultural elegance: it is all very well to surround
the cottage ornée with the green lawns and undulating groves and
glades that form the only kind of landscape gardening now tolerated;
but, to think that a stately feudal castle or a Palladian villa must
necessarily look well in any kind of artificial rustic scenery that we
may choose to form round it, is inconsistent. All styles and orders
of architecture were formed with certain intentions, grew up in ac-
cordance with certain customs and ideas, made part of the national
mind of the people that originally used them; and there is always
something that shocks the eye when they are found incongruously
or inconsistently applied. Fora feudal castle to be surrounded with
“ tall ancestral groves”, with deep fosses bathing the walls, or with
broad and ample terraces, all this is very well; but to see the same
edifice placed in the midst of a nicely shorn lawn, with beds of roses
and geraniums fantastically interspersed, without any outward cha-
racter of stern defence, without anything that can remind us of the
approaches of a baronial tenement in former days—all this is absurd,
and destroys the illusion that the mind would gladly form to itself.
We are not sure that the comparison might not be carried still
farther, and that particular styles of residences should not only be

M 2
164 VERSAILLES.

We should bear this in mind when we examine the
rural system of Lendétre as displayed at Versailles, at
Marly, at Meudon, at the Tuileries, and at many a noble
chateau throughout France; and we are quite sure that
he is entitled to the praise of being the greatest master
in his art. To one standing on the great garden terrace
in front of Versailles and looking down the long valley
to the west, one of the finest specimens of cultivated
nature that is any where to be found is developed:
there is nothing mean, nothing little, to be perceived in
any direction ; nothing that can offend the eye or convey
a disagreeable impression to the senses. A rich expanse
of groves and woodlands, an undulating succession of
well cultivated hills, and a series of magnificent terraces
sinking one beneath the other immediately under the
feet of the observer—everything has a beautiful, elegant,
and royal air of richness and luxury. One of the great
charms of Versailles, and, indeed, of most of the royal
and noble residences of France (as they were originally
formed) is, that every thing is in keeping, and consistent
with all around it: it is all real;—no sham, no make-
believe; royal, or noble, or ecclesiastical, just as the case

accompanied by their own appropriate styles of rural cultivation,
but even limited in accordance with the style and class of persons
who are to dwell in them. Thus it may be very well for a nobleman
of extensive territorial possessions and long lines of proud ancestry
to inhabit a cottage or a forest lodge at the seasons when taste or
rural pursuits are supposed to lead him thither, because it may be
taken for granted that he possesses houses as various in their nature
as his estates are in their position and natural qualities; but for the
tallow-chandler who has realised his few thousands to go and build
his “Gothic castle” at Richmond, at Highgate, etc., is grossly
absurd ; because by no force of the imagination can any ideas of an-
tiquity or feudal power be attached to the line of the Stubbses or
the Stileses, etc. There is ample room for the formation of a strict
code of etiquette, or rather of good sense, in matters of this kind.
VERSAILLES. 165

may be; and the eye and the mind are alike satisfied.
We speak of things as they were in France, not of
things as they are.*

In all the subordinate chateaux of the French court,
when they were in their full glory, at the time of
Madame de Maintenon’s coming into favour, the system
of Versailles was repeated on a smaller but almost
equally brilliant scale. Marly, indeed, though a satel-
lite in some respects, eclipsed the central planet itself’;
that is to say, in elegance and the minor agiémens of
court society. Upon all these residences we would re-
commend our readers to consult M. Fortoul for a spirited
sketch of their condition; and, should they visit Ver-
sailles, they will find two or three rooms of the Cour de
Marbre (once indeed the ball-rooms of the unfortunate
Marie Antoinette) filled with highly interesting contem-
poraneous views of the various royal residences, just as
they were about the time above indicated. These
pictures are occupied in nearly all their foregrounds
with groups of the principal personages of the court;
the likenesses being highly finished in most cases, and
the whole forming a most instructive series of illustra-
tions of all that has been written on the age of
Lows XIV.

* Jt should not be forgotten that the influence of the Court of
Louis XIV was felt as much in England as in any other part of
Europe, introduced as it was by Charles II, and maintained even
after the Revolution of 1688, notwithstanding the hostilities of the
two countries. This part of the history of England, the social in-
fluence of our Gallic neighbours on ourselves, is too well known, as
to its general facts, to need more than a cursory allusion : but to the
lovers of domestic history, and to those who amuse themselves by
tracing the whims and fancies of mankind, in their fitful course of
wandering from the inventive nation through all the imitative popu-
lations, there is an ample field of inquiry ah regard to what we
may call the Gallo-mania of England at the end of the seventeenth

century.
166 VERSALLLES.

At the time of this great monarch’s death, Versailles
was the complete expression of the social tastes, and
the social ideas of France: and to form a really accurate
idea of what that Age did, and thought, and wished for
in matters of art, we must always recall to our imagina-
tions Versailles in its primitive glory.

When the aged king was dead, the spirit of the
monarchy received a mortal wound; absolute power had
under him attained its highest pitch, consistent with the
high degree of civilization that prevailed at the time.
After him the political influence of the monarch declined
no less rapidly than his moral prestige over a nation, that
had become not less dissipated in its upper classes than
miserable and degraded in its lower. Art did not so
soon decline;—the first attribute it lost was grandeur,
and the first symptom of this was shown by the taste
of the regent in quitting Versailles for the Tuileries.
Court etiquette relaxed; courtiers became more demoral-
ised than they had ever been; plebeian tastes began to
infect the nobility; and Paris, under the influence of the
Regent and Cardinal Dubois, was a sink of infamy.
Versailles never improved after this period; its true
soul had fled with that of the monarch who had erected
it: no one else was capable of inhabiting it as it de-
served ; and, as a sign of this, the state bed-chamber
of the grand monarque was never afterwards used.
Louis XV, giving himself up to an unrestrainable life
of debauch, and preyed upon by hundreds of intriguers
of each sex, destroyed many internal arrangements of
the great edifice to suit the exigences of his mistresses.
M. Fortoul well observes that Madame de Maintenon’s
wish at Versailles was the Chapel; that of Madame de
Pompadour the Salle de ’ Opéra: the comparative ex-
cellence of these two buildings is an exact measure of
VERSAILLES. 167

the relative tastes and ideas of the times. The latter
is very sumptuous no doubt, and when it was first
erected was a marvel throughout the world; but it
does not stand the test of time like its neighbour the
sacred edifice; this latter is as magnificent now, com-
pared with other chapels, as it was then; the former is
surpassed by twenty other theatres in Europe.

The general school of art declined in the same way
as the court :—elegance was preserved, and even volup-
tuousness of idea introduced; but grandeur and origi-
nality were gone. Bouchardon, the younger Coypel,
and Vanloo, did not sustain the reputation of Mignard,
Lebrun, and Jouvenet:—Gabriel the younger erected
nothing that could be compared with Mansart’s works:
—the younger Coustou had degenerated from the elder,
and from the traditions of Puget or of Coysevox:—
Lendtre had no one to replace him. Whoever has
studied the whole of the subdivisions of the French
school must be aware of what is here advanced. There
cannot be a more convincing proof of it than the general
fact that Louis XV attempted nothing grander than the
erection of Choisy and the Petit Trianon—not to speak of
his harem at the Parc aux Cerfs :—he added the theatre
to Versailles, but he destroyed one of the grand stair-
cases, and he spoiled many of the best apartments. In-
stead of founding any new and great institutions in
favour of art, he tamely and coldly patronised what
already existed; and art, as might have been foreseen,
inevitably declined. It was at this time that the pon-
derous decorations of the interior of noble mansions
were no longer formed of solid marble, crystal, and
stone, but of gilded wood; with an universal and undue
charging of all objects with ornament, breaking up the
grand lines that give force and dignity to architectural
168 VERSAILLES.

compositions, and frittering away labour and expense
upon parts that would have remained far better had
they been simple. No farther improvements were made
in landscape gardening: Lendétre was implicitly followed;
and this, to a certain extent, was fortunate, for it kept
things from deteriorating so soon as they would other-
wise have done:—but the genius of natural and artifi-
cial gardening was extinct: nothing except imitation
remained. Dress, which first of all began to affect
simplicity, at last became ungraceful, inconvenient, and
unnatural:—witness the common habit of the end of
Louis XVth’s time, as compared with that of the
beginning of the same century ;—the curling wig, which
might or might not be possible, changed for the absurd
cauliflower or the pigtail; the negligé of the ladies,
which at least had some plausible excuse on its side,
driven out by the monstrous hoop; and the long locks
of hair, with their natural colour, altered for the stiff
toupée, and the disgusting use of powder. All had
declined; all was getting disorganized; all was going
wrong: there was a malady at work in society itself,
which affected all outward demonstrations of human
intellect: the State itself was hastening to its decompo-
sition; and Art, the constant index of Civilization, was
degenerating with scarcely less rapidity.

The melancholy period of Louis XVI, although the
personal virtues of the monarch and his queen for a time
seemed to check the evil, saw the woes and ills of society
galloping on to their final goal. Under them little was
done at Versailles, little at the other palaces :—one name
alone of any really great eminence appears among the
painters, Vernet:—one only, Souftlot, among the archi-
tects. The sole act of any notoriety ordered by Louis
XVI at Versailles, was to cut down all the trees in the
VERSAILLES. 169

gardens, and replant them:—a melancholy type of what
was coming upon the palace, upon the kingdom, and
upon himself! Marie Antoinette, on the other hand,
laid out the beautiful gardens of the Petit Trianon—but
this was not in the style of France; England, Switzer-
land, furnished the models; French art was dead. All,
however, that the martyr-sovereigns did is hallowed by
their deaths ; and, to the visitor of sensibility, the little
relics they have left behind them in the great palace,
like the scenes that under them made so many parts of
that edifice remarkable, form some of the most attrac-
tive causes of interest that occur to his notice.

But here our inquiry stops ;—the infuriated mob from
Paris are in the Cour de Marbre, the dead bodies of the
guards are on the staircase ;—madness and treachery are
without the palace, fear and indecision within :—the
court sets out for the capital, and the palace becomes
the monument of the dead.

What has been said above concerning Versailles was written
some years before 1848 and the fall of Louis Philippe, when the
works of that king in forming the galleries of art at Versailles had
nearly attained completion. It was originally intended as a Review
of the excellent books by Vatoul, Fortoul, and Gavard; but, on a
revision of the whole, at an interval of nearly thirty years, it has
been condensed into the form of an Essay. Nothing has occurred
during that period in the history of the Palace to change the author’s
convictions, though the memory of Versailles has acquired for him a
melancholy, or rather a tender interest, on account of its holding the
graves of his Mother and a beloved Nephew.
170

VI.

MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART IN FRANCE,
BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND.*

Ir is one of the best points in the French national
character, that at almost all periods of the history of
the Gallic people, they have retained and evinced a
warm sense of art, a lively perception of the beauties
of imitative skill, and an innate taste for well-conceived
decoration. Not to allude to the French monastic
painters of the middle ages, their architects, or their
sculptors and monumental engravers, whose admirable
works made France, and have even yet left it, such a
rich mine for the archzeological connoisseur, we may ob-
serve, that an immense impulse was given to French
artistical genius, by the great men, native as well as
foreign, of the days of Francis I. That period, which
was so bright for most of the nations of western Eu-
rope in all that related to arts and literature, confirmed
the existence of a French national school of art; and
the stimulus then given to the tastes and inclinations
of the people, has made its effects felt even to the pre-
sent day. It is not our purpose to dwell on the merits
of Jean Goujon and Jean Cousin, or their followers;
nor on those of N. Poussin and Philibert Delorme, of a
subsequent period; nor even on those of Puget, Coy-
sevox, Lebrun, Mignard, the Mansarts, and all the host
of the reign of the “Grand Monarque”—the task has

* Originally published in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine for
December 1841.
MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART. 171

been already performed ;—we wish to make a few re-
marks on the state of art in France at the present day
—on the merits and demerits of the more eminent
among her painters, sculptors, and architects; to add
some brief observations on their imitators, if not their
disciples, in Belgium and Switzerland (the only two
relative schools); with a word or two of advice to the
artistical world, and the amateurs of our own country.
We are far from wishing to proclaim ourselves uni-
versal admirers of the French; we have too often had
occasion to point out defects in their political and social
systems, to allow of our being suspected of such an in-
clination. But, after a careful examination and compari-
son of the actual state and progress of the French and
the English schools in the various branches of art, and
after a conscientious weighing of their respective excel-
lences and defects, we cannot refrain from expressing our
opinion, in limine, that English artists, and especially
English amateurs, are guilty of great injustice in
making those sweeping condemnations of the products
of their continental brethren, in which they are so fond
of indulging. It is a painful thing for the connoisseur,
for one who has studied the immortal masters of former
days, to witness the fantastic and unnatural flights of
fancy displayed by the daubers and plasterers of what
is, in many points, a degenerate epoch; but it is scarcely
less painful to the conscientious amateur, as he walks
through the Louvre, while the great Spring exhibition
of modern artists is open, to hear the flippant criticisms
of the British loungers, nine-tenths of whom have never
been initiated into the mysteries of the pencil, the
palette, or the chisel, and who think to exalt the merits
of their fellow countrymen by crying down those of all
other nations. We wish to say this at the outset of
172 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART 1N

our remarks, since our object is that of exercising im-
partial well-founded criticism; not with the view of
discouraging the meritorious labours of our own national
school, but, on the contrary, to show in what points the
French school is more or less advanced, and in what
respects its artists may safely be imitated by those on
the British side of the Channel. The justice and the
necessity of making such a comparison, was most forcibly
impressed on our attention, after a visit to the ex-
hibition of 1841, at the National Gallery in London.
We had previously inspected the annual exhibition,
for 1841, at the Louvre—the Salon, as it is techni-
cally termed—and the comparison of the merits of
the two exhibitions was mortifying to those feelings
of national pride, from which a Briton is probably
never exempt. The exhibition at the National Gal-
lery was not striking for its excellence—certainly not;
but we had seen many at Somerset House not a
a bit better; whereas the exhibition at the Louvre was
complained of by every artist in France, as one of the
weakest which had been witnessed for many years;
nearly all the great names were absent from the cata-
logue; they were the tyros in art whose canvases,
drawings, and statues, filled the galleries; and the
English visitors were more loud than common in their
condemnation of its contents. We were greatly dis-
appointed with it ourselves, and lamented what appeared
to have been a year nearly lost to the arts. Well! after
rushing impatiently to Trafalgar Square to appease our
artistical longings, and after going there “determined
to be pleased,” we were compelled to admit, that what
we had seen in Paris was far superior to what we then
saw in London; superior not only in manual execution,
and in the special technicalities of art, but also in the
FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND. 173

life and soul of imitative skill, in the poetry of painting,
of sculpture, and of design; in all points that form the
serious solid qualities of creative imagination and re-
cordant observation. In the French exhibition, we
had seen the strongly pronounced features of a divided
school; in the English, we found no traces of any
school at all; in the former case, it was evident that
there was a corps of artists at work, who would gain
a name and reputation in future times; in the latter,
it struck us as doubtful whether there were any just
claims to immortality.* We shall advert to the proba-
ble causes of this difference by and by; at present, we
repeat our caveat against being supposed to wish to
trumpet the praises of French rather than those of
British artists, and we proceed with our remarks.
Towards the end of the last century, when the great
Revolution broke out, the French school of Art had
fallen into a kind of elegant enervation, not unlike that
of the upper classes of French society. The painters,
who depended for their support on the taste of their
noble and royal patrons, were forced to accommodate
themselves to the ideas and opinions of the epoch ; and
the prevailing characteristic of the French school at
that day was mediocrity, sustained upon an ancient
foundation of scientific and practical tradition. Histo-
* It may be said, that English artists are under a great dis-
advantage from having their works exhibited in such a place as the
miscalled National Gallery ; and the observation, as far as it implies
comparison with the Louvre, is correct. Nothing can be worse than
the rooms of the National Gallery in which the paintings and draw-
ings are exhibited, except the hole in which the sculpture is piled ;
that at Somerset House used to strike us as the “lowest deep” for
any purposes of this kind, but Wilkins’s cellar is a “lower still”, the
very bathos of architecture.—We said this in 1841, but we are writing

now in 1870, when Burlington House has been utilised for the pur-
poses of Art,—a happy feature of the Victorian sera,
174 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART IN

rical painting had dwindled away, till it was scarcely
to be met with; landscape painting was tolerated rather
than encouraged, and the principal occupation of a
painter during the latter half of the eighteenth cen-
tury, was to delineate the portraits of all who claimed
distinction or notoriety of any kind. We do not know
of any remarkable historical paintings, by French artists,
of that epoch, worthy of mention; among the landscapes,
the large canvases of Joseph Vernet, who was in every
sense of the word a most eminent artist, are honourable
and highly striking exceptions; while, for portraits,
every gallery in France, every house, and every broker’s
shop, contains pleasing specimens of the courtly style
which then prevailed. There was more of traditional
skill in the French school of that day, than of positive
pictorial science: painters then studied very little be-
yond the lineaments of the face—the severer labours
of the studio, and the working from the living model,
were not practised to a hundredth part of the extent
to which they now prevail. There was no demand for
anything beyond the representations of well-bred faces,
aristocratic hands, powdered perukes, and silk or satin
robes; a correct delineation of the torso would have
puzzled a French painter or sculptor, in the time of
Louis XVI; and very few, if any, could have attacked
with success, a stiff bit of mountain or woodland scenery.
Animal painting and flower painting, on the other hand,
were rather flourishing, because they fell in with the
taste of the upper classes of society; and architecture
still maintained itself at a respectable height of excel-
lence, based on the recollections of the days of Louis
XIV. The school wanted life, and energy, and origin-
ality; it was too formal, too conventional, too wide from
Nature and from simple truth. At this period, pictorial
FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND. Lio

art was at a much loftier pitch in England. Sir Joshua
Reynolds, the founder of the English school, and whose
name each succeeding year shows more and more clearly
entitled to rank with those of Titian and Velasquez,
had attained the zenith of his fame. Gainsborough,
too, and Wilson, the greatest landscape painters till
then since the time of Gaspar Poussin, had shed a de-
gree of illustration on art, never before witnessed in
England. These were giants in art; they possessed all
the bold vigorous qualities which French painters
wanted, and they were justly entitled to fix their
stamp and style on a school which must ever consider
them with profound veneration. In sculpture, Nolle-
kens was beginning to continue the masterly practice
and scientific combinations of Roubiliac ; but in archi-
tecture we had no name that could claim peculiar dis-
tinction, and English buildings of the latter part of this
century, are monuments only of the absence of all taste
and science. On the whole, however, art was more deeply
and more truly felt, and more efliciently patronised in
England at this period, than in France.

That melancholy and disastrous catastrophe, the
great Revolution, put a momentary stop to all progress
in art, as it did to all other things that were good ; and
it might have been expected that a total extinction of
the French school would have ensued. Some of the
richest collections in the country were dispersed and
carried to foreign lands; the patrons of art and artists
had lost either their lives or their fortunes ; everything
that was noble and civilised in the nation had disap-
peared; and the people received that stamp of ferocious
vulgarity, which even yet prevails, and, under various
forms, has totally metamorphosed the old and agreeable
character of the French. Art was dead, or dormant,
176 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART IN

for several years, and the merit of reviving it may be
entirely attributed to the genius of the greatest man
who has ruled France since the days of Francis I. The
patronage given to artists of all kinds, when the First
Consul had subdued the hydra of revolution at home,
and had restored something like order and subordination
to society—the importations of foreign collections re-
sulting from conquest or spoliation, and probably his
own innate love for all that was grand and beautiftl—
all this made the career of Napoleon one of hope and
promise. The splendour of the Empire, and the reviving
taste of the nation, succeeded in placing the fine arts on
their proper footing; and the comparative state of peace
which has since ensued, added to an increasing degree
of public patronage within the last few years, has
allowed of every thing that concerns art receiving con-
siderable development. There was only one good effect
that the Revolution produced in the French school,
violent and lamentable as were the causes by which it
was brought to pass—this was the complete sweeping
away of the old effete system of the ci-devant courtly
painters, and the placing of artistical patronage on a
much wider and surer basis. Instead of painters con-
fining themselves to one or two branches of art alone,
and those not the highest, historical painting came to
be practised by them, and ultimately landscape painting
was revived. The sculptors, too, again found employ-
ment; and architects, though for a time thrown into the
background, were destined to enter on a new and
more rational course of study and practice than they
had before experienced. As, however, one of the
fondest and falsest dreams of the revolutiouary mad-
men who came into short-lived power on the downfall
of the monarchy, was the Romanising of every thing;
FRANCE, BELGIUM, aND SWITZERLAND. 177

and as even the State itself attempted to deck itself out
in the ill-assorted paraphernalia of the Roman republic
—so public taste took a similar direction, and all persons
who cultivated the fine arts either followed the general
impulse of their own accord, or else accommodated
themselves to the turn of national fancy; hence the
classical and heroical school arose. Architectural forms
of all kinds, external and internal decorations, articles
of furniture, and even parts of female dress, assumed a
character more or less antique; the pseudo-Hellenists
and the quasi-Romanists carried the day in all matters
of painting, designing, or sculpturing.

David and his disciples fixed the standard of taste in
these matters, and his Leonidas at Thermopylae, with his
Rape of the Sabines, may be considered as at once the
types and the chefs-d’e@wvre of the French Revolutionary
school. The dates of these productions are, it is true,
posterior to the great cataclysm—but they are never-
theless the results and the crowning points of the
system, beyond which it could not effect anything
better.

The painters, who were contemporary with David
during the earlier days of the Consulate and the Em-
pire, and who were employed in recording the vic-
tories and the deeds of Napoleon, were most of them
below mediocrity. Their works have been lately col-
lected at Versailles, and are ranged in the galleries
which contain the Napoleonic series, where they form
a curious assemblage of the most atrocious daubs and
croutes that ever were misnamed paintings. They
possess interest, indeed, from their subjects, and from
the portraits, more or less faithful, which they contain;
but as works of art, they are generally beneath notice.

Some of David’s own productions constitute bright ex-
N
178 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART 1N

ceptions, such as his large picture of the Coronation of
Napoleon—which, though exceedingly poor in manual
execution and colouring, is vigorous in its drawing, and
is grouped with no small ability. It is by no means,
however, one of his best paintings; and in the great
Hall of the Guards at Versailles, where it stands,
another picture by the same artist, on the opposite side
—the Distribution of the Eagles to the Legions in the
Champ de Mars—is a glaring example of all the defects
of the Davidian school. One of the ablest painters of
that day was Gros, as his Buttle of Aboukir, placed by
the side of the two pictures of David just mentioned,
evinces ; and as may also be inferred from his Battle of
Eylau in the Louvre. Though he survived David a
considerable time, and, in fact, terminated his life by
his own hand only a few years ago, these two painters
may be considered as the chiefs and masters of the
Revolutionary and Imperial schools; and contemporary
French artists, in all their works, painted, or tried to
paint up to them. There was a sweet flower-painter
pursuing his quiet career during this period—the ami-
able Rédouté; and his works, far above the other pro-
ductions of his day in intrinsic merit, will survive in
reputation the larger and more ambitious canvases of
his friends and companions.*

Sculpture was almost in an embryo state during the
Consulate and the Empire; and the name of Bosio is
almost the only one of eminence which can be connected
with that of Napoleon. Sculpture, to be efficiently
patronized, requires, more than painting or architecture,

* Rédouté’s own private collection of pictures was sold a year or
two ago in Paris; it contained numerous gems. He has had the
great merit of founding a most flourishing school of flower-painters,
male and female, at the Garden of Plants in Paris.
FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND. 179

a period of political repose and national prosperity. No
persons, except the great and the wealthy, can foster
this branch of art on anything like an extensive scale ;
and itis only when noble and wealthy patrons are more
intent upon recording the eminent deeds of their an-
cestors, than upon gaining power or renown for them-
selves, that a demand for sculpture exists. Napoleon
did a good deal to encourage French sculptors; but
nothing of any moment has been executed since the
days of Louis XV, until within our own time.

As for architecture, during the Napoleonic era it
displayed itself rather in projects than in actual erec-
tions. Noble works were undertaken and finished, in
bridges and other monuments more nearly connected
with public utility than with public ornament; but the
number of great monumental edifices actually built
during the empire, was as small as that of medizeval
buildings destroyed was unfortunately immense. The
buildings planned were, some of them, of august
character, and reflected great honour on their architect-
ural designers; among them may be noticed, at Paris,
the great Triumphal Arch at the upper end of the
Champs Elysées, the church of the Madeleine, and the
Palace on the Quai d’Orsay. To have imagined these,
there must have been a body of architects of consider-
able merit existing; but the private buildings erected
throughout France at that period, were vastly inferior
to what were constructed during the reign of Louis XV;
and on the whole, as a school of national architecture,
the Empire witnessed little that was really worthy of
the name.

Napoleon had the good sense to maintain and en-
courage a Royal Institution, founded at Rome in the
days, we believe, of Louis XIV—the French Academy

N2
180 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART IN

of Fine Arts; and, by establishing a similar division in
the Institute at home, where the directing impulse was
to originate, he kept all the painters, sculptors, archi-
tects, and engravers of the epoch, in a well-organized
national corps. The foundation of public gratuitous
schools of design—the formation of a body of efficient
teachers, who have since grown into the professors of
the Ecole des Beaux Arts—and the opening of all the
great collections of objects of art to the public—these
judicious measures gave the greatest impulse to public
taste, and they constitute one of the chief glories of
what was in itself a glorious era. The uniting of so
many fine works of art at the Louvre, and the almost
constant facility of access afforded to the public and to
students, revived some of the sparks of civilization in
the bosom of the nation. Succeeding years have blown
these sparks into a flame; and whatever taste the
French public now possess for art of various kinds, may
be attributed, in great part, to the trouble taken by
successive governments to cultivate the national eye
and the popular mind.

The grafting of the French school of painting of the
present day on that of the Empire, was effected during
the Restoration, or a little previous, when Géricault and
Girodet produced, the former his Wreck of the Medusa,
and the latter his Endymion and his Atala, so well known
to the visitors of the Louvre, and the collectors of modern
French engravings. The latter painter, indeed, belonged
to an earlier epoch; but we mention them together,
because their productions formed a remarkable transi-
tion from the military and heroic style of David and
Gros, to the more natural and more truly historical
style of the present day. They were both painters of
great merit, as their productions just named will ever
FRANCK, BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND. 181

evince; the example they set has not been lost on their
successors; they led the way to a better and more en-
during style of art; and they may be looked on as
amongst the best French artists of this century.

It was during the peaceful reigns of Louis XVIII
and Charles X, that the fine arts in France acquired a
wholesome degree of development. Those monarchs,
themselves inclined to encourage merit of all kinds,
devoted a due share of attention to this branch of
national greatness; and though various political cireum-
stances hindered each of them from carrying into effect
all the good intentions they had formed, yet the degree
of protection they afforded to artists of different de-
nominations, and the regular action of the institutions
mentioned above, effected much steady progress and
solid good. The Royal School of Fine Arts, which was
made an introductory establishment to the Academy at
Rome, came to be well esteemed by the public, and
students flocked to it with regularity and eagerness.
At this school, a body of professors, selected from the
ablest painters, sculptors, and architects of the capital,
give public gratuitous instruction in their several de-
partments to young men who wish to devote themselves
to the arts, and who fulfil certain unimportant formali-
ties at the time of their entering. Every year prize
subjects are given out for competition; and the pupil
who is fortunate enough to obtain the grand prize—the
Prix de Rome as it is technically termed—is sent at the
expense of government to the eternal city, where he is
sumptuously lodged in the French academy—one of the
noblest palaces in that capital, and maintained for five
years. During the period of his stay in Italy, each
pupil is bound to send home every year one or more
productions, which are exhibited at the Heole des Beaux
182 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART IN

Arts, and the artistical world, as well as the public
generally, are thereby enabled to judge of what is the
progress making by the younger competitors for artist-
ical fame. On the return of the students from Rome,
they are either employed by Government, or are already
so well known by their works to the public, that their
fortunes may be said to be secure, and their future
career is one of comparative brightness. It sometimes
happens that two grand prizes for the same subject are
adjudged in the same year, or that a second candidate
is thought worthy to be sent to Rome: so that, on the
average, the French nation has always about twenty
young men of especial promise, studying upon scientific
principles at the very fountain-head of excellence. The
post of director of the academy at Rome is one of con-
siderable honour, and is conferred for five years: while
the professorships in the same institution are objects of
peculiar ambition to all who are able to compete for
them. The course of patient study continued for
several years at home in the Hole des Beaux Arts, and
the subsequent advantages of the residence at Rome,
seldom fail to produce an accomplished painter, sculptor,
or architect: but even those candidates in Paris who
miss the grand prize, are not therefore neglected; they
are known to their professor, they become introduced to
the notice of Government, and they attain public favour
in proportion to their several merits. The operation of
this gratuitous and perfectly open school, is admitted
by the profession to be of the utmost use and value,
both as a means of instruction and of encouragement.
The gratuitous schools of design, intended for
workmen in trades connected with ornamental opera-
tions of every kind, produce an under-current of art,
which is not without its effect on public taste and
FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND. 183

public wealth. By their instrumentality, numerous
young people of both sexes are annually sent out into
the world skilful designers, and imbued with fixed
principles of taste: and, were there no other proof
of the value of these acquisitions in a national point of
view, we would point to the rapidly increasing trade of
France in all ornamental objects, in bronze works of a
superior kind, in furniture, and in figured stuffs of every
description, as a testimony of the good these institu-
tions produce. The ability of French pattern-drawers
is almost entirely attributable to these minor but useful
institutions.

To return, however, from this digression to the actual
French School of the Fine Arts, we will give a sketch
of its principal members, and will begin with the highest
department—that of historical painting. Horace Ver-
net, grandson or great-grandson of Joseph Vernet, is
decidedly the chief and leader of the school: and on
the whole, we do not know whether France possesses
any painter of greater talent than himself. We are
not aware under what master he first studied, except
under Carl Vernet his father; but he was a most suc-
cessful student of the school of Paris, and much dis-
tinguished himself at Rome. The forte of Horace
Vernet is his extremely bold and accurate drawing, and
his intimate acquaintance with the anatomy both of men
and animals. His delineations possess all the vigour of
Rubens, without any of that illustrious master’s exag-
gerations, and his colouring in many instances has
shown that he has been a careful student of the great
Fleming’s best qualities. He is not only bold, but
very rapid in his execution, and anecdotes are told of
some of his feats, in painting against time, that are quite
surprising: the truth is, that he never has occasion to
184 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART IN

correct what he has once touched; and as he depends
much more on his drawing than his colouring for effect,
he can produce what he desires in a comparatively short
time. In all his larger canvases he draws and paints in
the broadest and boldest manner, yet without any ex-
aggeration or mannerism, and studiously avoids all
tricks of the art. His grouping is at once graceful and
scientific, and while he attains much vivacity of action,
he never descends to-the ridiculous or the improbable:
this constitutes one of his great excellences; and the
extreme naturalness of all that he paints, is sure to be
impressed on the most indifferent observer. It is not
always that he attacks large canvases: on the contrary,
he often paints cabinet pictures, and then, going into
the opposite extreme, finishes them with all the care
that would be bestowed on a miniature. There are
many of the smaller paintings of this master, the
handling of which is equal to that of a Vander Werf,
though it would be an exaggeration to say that it re-
sembled that of a Gerard Dow. In all his smaller
compositions great sweetness and delicacy of composi-
tion are to be observed, and we would instance the
well-known groups of his Arab figures—his Abraham
and Rebecca, his Abraham and Hagar, his Lien Hunt,
etc.—as instances of what we have mentioned. His
large pieces are nearly all military subjects, most of
them relating to real actions of the present day, and a
few of them ideal. Of the latter there is one at
Versailles, the Battle of Fontenoy, which, in many
respects is the best painting he has produced. The
design of the subject is graceful in the extreme, the
moment being that when Marshal Saxe presents the
British colours to Louis XV and brings up a convoy of
prisoners to the royal presence. The drawing is quite
FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND. 185

a la Rubens, only with greater delicacy of form; and
the colouring is of the same school, only it is too light
and too sketchily put on for a canvas of such large size.
His Storming of Constantine is another of his capital
pictures; and these, with his numerous other works, are
sufficient to stamp him as the most vigorous and ori-
ginal of French painters since the times of Lebrun and
Lesueur. He is at the head of a large school of pupils,
by whom he is greatly beloved, as, indeed, he is by all
the profession, being one of the most liberal open-
minded men breathing, and spending the handsome
fortune he has amassed in the most generous and
honourable manner.* The second painter of the
modern French school in the military line is Couder,
who is very much in the same style with Horace
Vernet; and though not possessed of the same versa-
tility of talent, nor of the same vigour of conception, is
still entitled to a high place in the annals of art. His
pictures will live, and do him much honour in future
times. There are several large battle pieces by him at
Versailles of great merit, and one, a decidedly histori-
cal picture, The Opening of the States-General, which
is as good a canvas as perhaps could have been produced
on that subject. Alfred Johannot promised to be a
first-rate painter in this line, but he has been prema-
turely snatched away by death: and the pictures he has
left give more favourable indications of what he would
have been than of what he actually was. This Branch
of the Historical School in France includes numerous
followers, and among them are some young artists of
great merit: Monvoisin, Fragonard, Bellangé, and
Eugéne Lami (though the two latter seldom paint any

* We are not aware that any of Horace Vernet’s works are in
England, but there are several, we believe, at St. Petersburg.
186 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART IN

pictures but those containing small figures) are the
best.

At the head of another branch of the French His-
torical School is Paul Delaroche, a master between
whom and Horace Vernet it is difficult to draw a com-
parison, their styles being so widely apart; but if he
yields in merit to any, it is to him alone. Paul Dela-
roche may be called a historical painter, par éminence :
he seldom, if ever, touches a military composition, and
his attention is generally turned to the tragic scenes of
civil life. He possesses great science in drawing, though
he has not the vigour and originality of Vernet: but
his compositions, which are evidently the result of much
forethought and labour, are almost faultless, and no
painter better than himself knows how to tell a volumi-
nous story with the aid of few figures. His chiaro-
oscuro is full of breadth and force, and his colouring
rich and harmonious: his principal fault is in the hand-
ling, which is deficient in firmness, and he proceeds far
too much upon the opaque principle—the besetting sin of
the French school. Three of his pictures will be suffi-
cient to stamp his merits in the eye of the British con-
noisseur—one, in the Palace of the Luxembourg, which
goes by the name of the Hnfunts d Edouard, the sub-
ject being the young King Edward V and the Duke of
York in the Tower—well-known from the masterly en-
gravings that have been taken of it; the others are in
the possession of Lord Francis Egerton, and are
Strafford going to Execution, and Charles I insulted
by the Parliamentary Soldiers. We have no painter in
England that could produce pictures such as_ these.
Paul Delaroche, like Horace Vernet, is at the head of a
most numerous school of pupils, and is very popular
among all his brethren of the palette. There are nu-
FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND. 187

merous artists who follow in his wake; one of the best
known among whom is Steuben; but in our own opinion
his merits have been greatly overrated: his colouring is
too gaudy, and his handling woolly and otherwise
faulty: he is, notwithstanding, an immense favourite
of the French public—we do not say with the artistical
world ; and his pictures are readily bought and quickly
engraved. A much more masterly painter, and second
only to Paul Delaroche, is Tony Johannot; he is one
of a severer class than the leader of this division of
the school, and possesses great originality and energy of
conception; he is famous for painting conspiracies, or
councils, or murders, and carries into practice upon his
canvas some of the best principles of Vandyke. Alaux
is a rising artist, who, though not on a level with Johan-
not, has of late produced some historical pictures of no
small merit; but he must yield the palm to a younger
competitor, Gigoux, who is one of the best hopes of the
French school, and who, for powers of drawing, comes
near upon the footsteps of Horace Vernet. His
spirited illustrations of the late French edition of Gu
Blas, are well known to the European public. This
subdivision of the historical school is very numerous, as
we have already stated; and, though we do not men-
tion their names, contains a strong corps of really able
artists, far outweighing, both in number and merit,
their rivals on this side of the Channel. There is one
among them, however, who for his eccentricity, if for
nothing else, cannot be passed over in silence—Eugéne
Delacroix. This artist is a better poet and a better
musician than he is a painter, and yet, in his latter
qualification, is the envy or the terror of almost the
whole French school. He has taken a great master for
his model in colouring, Paul Veronese; but he exag-
188 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART 1N

gerates the principles of that admirable painter to a
fearful degree, and indulges in most unjustifiable tours
de-force with ceerulean-green and brownish-purple tints,
etc. His drawing is often faulty, but his compositions
are masterly and original. He copies from no one, and
in his handling and rapidity of painting throws most
of his contemporaries into despair. He is not at all
understood by the public, but in every atelier in Paris
his name is mentioned as an object either of intense
admiration or undisguised astonishment. A Medea
killing her Children is one of his best works. There
are two painters in this division of the Historical School
whose names must also be mentioned, not for their ex-
cellence, but for the contrary qualities. The first, Court,
made his debut some years ago by a masterly pro-
duction, now in the gallery of the Luxembourg, of Mark
Antony haranguing the Romans over the dead body of
Cesar; but since that time, though he has been largely
employed by the present Government to paint public
subjects, he has been getting deeper and deeper into
the bathos of painting, till at last he has nearly for-
feited all claims to excellence. Sometimes he turns out
a good portrait; but that is the utmost he can do. The
other is Deveria, a painter as much employed in
Government orders as Court, and nearly as bad an
artist. He has done several good things in former days,
and he still retains a certain degree of boldness of
drawing, but he is getting worse and worse every year.
Louis Philippe swearing to the “Charte-vérité,” in the
Chamber of Deputies, is one of his largest and worst
productions: it is kept at Versailles, along with other
delineations of equally notorious acts of the “Best of
Republics.” M. Schnetz, who is now Director of the
Academy at Rome, which honourable post he obtained
FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND. 189

as a matter of Government favour, not from his indi-
vidual merit, may be ranked among the third or fourth-
rate painters of the same division.

There is a rather important class of painters who
compose what may be termed the third subdivision of
the Historical School. We allude to those who treat
of religious and sentimental or poetical subjects. Great
demand exists in France for pictures to adorn the
churches, and, though high prices are seldom paid for
such productions, yet a considerable number of artists
make a good living by it. The head of this division of
the school, though not so much in the religious as the
poetical line, is Ary Scheffer, one of the most accom-
plished painters of whom France can boast, and quite
entitled to take his stand by the side of Horace Vernet
and Paul Delaroche. He used formerly to paint mili-
tary subjects; but of late years he has had the good
taste to leave that branch of the art, for one which is
much higher, and in which he has attained the greatest
eminence. He hardly ever exhibits any of his produc-
tions, considering it, as many of the more notable
French painters do, to be infra dig.; but his pictures,
whenever they are to be met with, excite the warmest
approbation. He chooses subjects from Goethe’s ballads,
or some of the more poetical episodes of the Scriptures,
and he treats them as no one else of his countrymen
can do. In 1839, he exhibited at the Louvre an Agony
in the Garden, which was in every respect a chef-
@euvre, together with a Faust and Margaret, a
Mignon, and a King of Thule, than which we never
saw more beautiful paintings of the present century.
He was the master of the unfortunate Princess Marie ;
and on all hands, both by artists and amateurs, he is
considered, with justice, as the head of his own peculiar
190 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART 1N

line. His drawing is bold and firm, without any exag-
geration of Nature; his light and shade very broad and
forcible ; his colouring transparent, rich, and warm, yet
anything but glaring. If any painter in France can be
said to resemble Cornelius of Munich, it is Ary Scheffer.
The three painters who generally turn out the best
sacred subjects from their ateliers, after Ary Scheffer,
but far below him, are Hess, Decaisne (we are not sure
whether he is not a Belgian), and Brune :—they stand
nearly on a level for ability, though differing much
from each other in their practice, and their pictures are
fairly entitled to respectable places wherever they are
exhibited. On the whole, though we could name a
dozen more artists of real merit in this subdivision, it
is not a branch of art in which the French school
shines. Perhaps in future years, if the national taste
continues steady, it may acquire increased importance.
The fourth and last division of the Historical School
is the mythological and heroic. The chief painter in
this, though he continually produces sacred subjects,
is Ingres, late Director of the French Academy at
Rome, and who is generally admitted to be the fourth
great painter in the historical line. This artist is full
of science and experience in his profession, and has
studied the ancient masters more, perhaps, than any of
his contemporaries. He has selected an admirable
model, Raffaelle, and keeps his drawing and his com-
position strictly within the limits observed by that im-
mortal painter. All the works of M. Ingres are full of
scientific design, and are forcible for their chiaro-oscuro;
as compositions too, though sometimes stiff, they are
always pleasing; but he has committed the fatal mistake
of disregarding colour, or rather of establishing one
fixed and uniform olive-green tint, which pervades
FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND. 191

every corner of his palette. One would say that his
eyes laboured under some physical infirmity, such
abhorrence has he to prismatic rays; the evil, however,
is not confined to himself, for his disciples, and they
are numerous, have carried out his prejudices or princi-
ples to a false extent; and an artist of his school, an
Ingrist, as the French would term hin, is signalized by
the flatness and viridescence of his canvas in a moment.
Ingres has lately returned to France from Rome, and
has been received in the most enthusiastic manner. The
artists of Paris gave him a public banquet, and he is
constantly a guest at the table of Louis Philippe. A
chef-d’eurre of his execution, a Madonna, has just been
painted for the Emperor of Russia; and another, a
Stratonice, for the Duke of Orleans. His works, in
general, are seldom seen; but he is now engaged on a
large composition, the ceiling of the New Chamber of
Peers in the Luxembourg Palace. Of his pupils, M.
Flandrin, a young man, has attained the greatest repu-
tation; but he fails greatly from the monotony of his
colour, which detracts from the effect which his
Raffaellic drawing would otherwise produce. Papety,
another pupil, still at Rome in the Academy, gives high
promise of future excellence. There was a painter who
was rather of the same way of thinking as Ingres, and
who would perhaps have supplanted him, Sigalon; but
he was prematurely cut off by fever, a few years ago,
in Italy.

Next after what is most commonly understood by
the Historical School, comes one to which it is difficult
to apply a generic name, and equally difficult to assign
any approximate limits. It includes all the smaller
historical works, cabinet pictures, Tubleaua de Genre,
comic pictures, and a heterogeneous assemblage of pro-
192 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART IN

ductions, numerous as the “leaves in Vallombrosa.”
Within it are ranged some painters who have every
title to be considered as historical painters, properly so
called, if we look at some of their productions; and we
are compelled to include in the same class all those who
have failed in the higher branches of art, and yet retain
some pretensions to thrust their thumbs through a
palette. This, with the class of landscape-painters, is
always the most numerous in the French and indeed
every other school. Contenting ourselves with the gene-
ral remark, that there are a considerable number of very
meritorious artists in this division, we will single out
the four leaders and types, whose productions are already
not a “little known to fame.” Robert Fleury stands in
the first rank: he is a serious painter, though, when he
likes, he can paint festive or fairy scenes with a truly
magic touch. As a colourist, he is perhaps the first
painter in France, both for the richness and transparency,
as well as for the science and harmony of his tones.
His handling is bold or delicate, according to his sub-
ject: his drawing is very able and vigorous: and his
breadth of light and shade is, at times, marvellous. To
instance among other subjects some that he exhibited
at the last Salon, and that of the year before, we may
point out the Tortures of the Inquisition, the Death of
Ramus in the Massacre of St. Bartholomew's Eve, the
Council of Divines at Poissy, Michael Angelo and his
sick Servant, and a large picture of St. Genevieve, as
admirable examples of his style. If we might venture
on a bull, we would say that his pictures are all bought
long before they are painted. Camille Roqueplan is the
second of this division; nearly equal to the preceding,
and superior to him in some points from the lovely
landscapes he can turn out: his failing is that of in-
FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND. 193

dulging in a little mannerism, and in not sufticiently
subduing the warmth of his colouring: he is just as red
as Ingres is green. Jacquand, the third, is one of the
sweetest painters that ever touched a palette or a brush:
rising at times to the highest points of historical dignity,
and the next moment indulging in all the breadth with-
out any of the coarseness of an Hogarthian caricature.
His rich interiors of feudal palaces or monasteries are
well known, not only from the original pictures, but
from highly popular engravings; and one, Gaston de
Foix, or another, Louis XJ, are so familiar to the
lounger in all print shops, whether of London or Paris,
that they need no further specification. His comic
subjects are little known out of his own country, where,
however, they are highly valued; and they are certainly
the acme of comedy in genteel life. He is one of the
most fortunate among the brothers of the brush in the
French capital: he has realized a handsome indepen-
dence, and a picture of his is not to be got for love or
money. His Gaston de Foix was purchased by the
Société des Amis des Arts at Lyons, and on being drawn
for by lottery among the members, fell into the hands
of an honest épicter of that city, who stuck it up in
the back parlour’of his shop. Jacquand was in despair ;
he set off for Lyons immediately ; offered the astonished
tradesman 10,000 franes for the picture, (it had been
sold to the Society for 8,000 francs;) came with it in
triumph up to Paris; and then started with it for
Rotterdam, where a distinguished collector purchased it
for 12,000 francs. This serves to show the animus of
the artist. The last of the four is Biard, a sort of uni-
versal painter, who can execute any thing he takes into
his fancy; and who, in the same Salon, will exhibit four
or five different kinds of pictures. He is, however,
0
194 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART IN

chiefly known as the comic painter, par excellence, of
the French school; and his Strolling Comedians in the
Luxembourg, his Suite d’un Bal Masqué, his Post-Office,
and his Confessional, are certainly not surpassed by any
thing that Hogarth ever did. Biard has been to “many
a place that’s underneath the world,” and he has con-
sequently been able to depict a Shipwreck among the
Cannibals of the South Seas, a Passing of the Line, a
Scene in an African Desert, and a vast series of Views
from Spitzbergen and Lapland, all with equal force and
facility. There are very few painters in any country,
who can at all approach him in versatility of talent, and
he resembles our own lamented Wilkie in a very re-
markable degree. Charlet, the caricaturist, may be
appended to this class: but his paintings are very
seldom seen, and he is too much of a mannerist.

The portrait painters form a class quite by themselves,
though there are many among them who are also known
in other lines: but in the French school the distinction
is tolerably decided, and those who are eminent among
them are strong only in their own way. By far the
ablest painter in this branch is Charpentier, who pro-
duces, from time to time, canvases not unworthy of Sir - -
Joshua. Without beimg a disciple of that great
master, whose pictures, perhaps, he has seldom seen, he
has arrived at similar results by his own talent, or
rather by following the same rules; and he paints with
a breadth, boldness, richness of surface, and warmth of
tone, that are quite admirable. He is by no means a
flatterer, and hence he is not a fashionable painter: but
his portraits of Monsieur George Sand, Mademoiselle
Rachel, and other celebrities, have stamped his reputa-
tion beyond the possibility of dispute. Chatillon and
Béranger follow him in many points, and so does
FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND. 195

Schlesinger: they are all three of the school of Sir
Joshua. M. Amaury Duval is an Ingrist, but not a
green one, or not much so: he possesses wonderful
powers of delineation, but is too fond of exhibiting
‘tours de force, such as rosy complexions on pink back-
grounds—a yellow drapery on a sky-blue ground, and
other incongruities, under which any but a skilful man
would infallibly break down. Winterhalter is a young
man rising fast into note, and possessed of the where-
withal to make a good artist; but he has latterly got
too much about the Tuileries, and has adopted a bad
style of designing, probably to be accounted for from
the models he finds there, which, if he does not hasten
to lay them aside, will cause him to degenerate. There
is only one man in France who can paint children, and
that is Jules Laure: he has adopted Sir Thomas Law-
rence for his model, professes an enthusiastic admira-
tion of our late President; and has been fortunate in
having some of the loveliest English children, that have
been taken to the French capital, to sit by the side of
his easel. The fashionable portrait-painter of the day
in France is Dubufe,—the most fortunate painter in
Europe, if the smallness of his artistical means be taken
into account. He is a dauber in the real sense of the
word, wretched in handling and in colour, and without
the least spark of poetry in his imagination ;—but he is
an unhesitating flatterer, can give a fashionable air to a
vulgar subject, and can hit off a silk-velvet robe in a
dashing manner that catches the undiscerning eye. He
has had the dubious honour of painting most of the
personages, male and female, who form the present
court of the Tuileries, and has contrived to amass a
very respectable income. Some of the principal French
historical painters, such as Ingres and Paul Delaroche,
02
196 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART IN

condescend at rare intervals to paint portraits; but,
notwithstanding their contributions, we doubt whether,
as a division of a general school, there is not a stronger
corps of portrait painters in England than in France.
We now come to that large and important division in
the French school that includes the painters of land-
scapes, marine subjects, and architectural views, whether
of the exterior or the interior of buildings:—that de-
partment in which the English school is richer than
perhaps all the world besides. Till lately, no school of
landscape painting worthy of the name existed in
France: the love for the picturesque was not known in
the time of Napoleon, and the Champs Elysées or the
Bois de Boulogne were in those days considered as the
ne plus ultra of all out-of-door beauty. The present
painters of this division therefore—for the same remark
will apply to the marine and the architectural painters
—are all the founders of the school: they have been
their own teachers ; they have had no theories to follow
but those of their own establishing; and, hence, their
methods and their progress become objects of peculiar
artistical interest. French landscape painters are
divided into two distinct and hostile camps: the one
adopting the transparent and laborious—the other the
opaque and the off-hand principle :—the one conforming
to the traditions and practice of the old masters—the
other following ideas of their own. We need hardly
say which is « pron the most likely to succeed; but,
what is of more importance, antecedent speculations are
in this case fully justified by the result. We will
begin with what we consider the better and more im-
portant subdivision of the landscape painters, and at
their head we place—though he does not hold the post
without a rival—Decamps. This great painter, or
FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND. 197

rather master—for he is worthy of the name—is
possessed in his peculiar province of almost the versa-
tility of Biard: his taste leads him to choose, nearly
exclusively, eastern subjects, such as views in Syria and
Asia Minor, or Egypt, streets in Turkish villages, in-
teriors of caravansaries, etc.; and he treats them in a
manner entirely his own, and of wonderful power. His
colouring is necessarily rich, but not too much so for the
scenes he represents; he has studied all the hues of
Oriental nature on the spot, and has imbued his soul
with all the warmth and variety that Asiatic climes can
impart : his drawing is bold and masterly; and, reposing
on his own accurate observation, he is exceedingly effec-
tive in giving the most vivid delineations of the scenes
he selects. He draws men and animals of all kinds with
the same power that he represents inanimate objects ;
and his pictures are commonly full of living objects.
His colouring and handling go jointly on the transparent
system, with a copious use of well-planned glazings, and
the effect of his surfaces is unusually rich and substan-
tial. His brethren reproach him with laying on his
colours too thick; and there is a well-known caricature
of this artist studying at his easel with a hod of colours
and a trowel, building upon the canvas a regular wall
of paint: it is said, in fact, that some of his earlier
pictures are beginning to crack and peel; if so, it isa
great pity, for they are all gems. He will choose a
simple subject, such as Arab Children playing with a
Tortoise by a Well-side ;—a group of camels with their
drivers near the edge of a rocky ravine—Joseph sold
by his Brethren ;—a dusty valley in Syria with a fight
of the natives—Sampson and the Philistines ;—or any
thing else of this kind, and he will work into his
picture such an infinity of details, that the spot or
198 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART IN

country he represents is brought before the spectator in
all the vividness of reality. His skies and distances
are wonderfully wrought, and it is an object of no small
curiosity to the connoisseur to trace, one under the
other as they appear at intervals, the different coats of
colour by which the ultimate effect is produced. We
cannot compare him with any English painter, because
we know of no one that proceeds on the same code of
principles as himself, nor who treats of the same class
of scenes. He is also famous for painting dogs and
monkeys—especially the latter! and we doubt whether
Landseer himself could hit off our first cousins in a
more effective style. There is only one opinion among
all his contemporaries as to his merits: he is above the
reach of praise or of envy, and he is followed by a
crowd of imitators. It is almost superfluous to add,
that his pictures fetch extravagant prices: he never
touches even a small canvas under 2,000 or 3,000
francs: his whole soul is given to his art, and he paints
all day and every day.

His rival in landscape painting is Jules Dupré,
who takes Ruysdael for his model with as much suc-
cess as Decamps has adopted Salvator Rosa. Jules
Dupré is one of the enthusiasts in painting that have
hardly ever been met with since the days of Raf-
faelle and his compeers: he lives only in his art, he
is identified with his pursuit, and knows no other occu-
pation, no other enjoyment, than that of investigating
sylvan nature in her wildest recesses, and in transferring
the results of his observations to canvas. He is a strict
theorist in his practice, and has laid down for himself a
code of laws, from which he never departs: thus, while
he paints upon nearly the same principles as his friend
Decamps, he allows many months to intervene between
FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND. 199

the superposing of each coat of colour, and he piques
himself on a picture, even the smallest, never quitting
his easel under two years; we have seen some of his
productions, not very large, which have been jive years
in hand. His reason is, that the vehicle of the colour
takes a much longer time to dry than is commonly
imagined; and that it is essential for each tint to be-
come, at least a little, modified by time before a fresh
one is laid upon it. He boasts that his coats of colour
are as hard and tight as stone, and that they will never
chip nor crack; his glazings are laid on over and over
again, and all his colours are applied nearly dry. Asa
peculiarity of his handling, we may mention that he
works with brushes, the handles of which, even for the
smallest quantity of bristles or sable, are made extra
thick and heavy on purpose—and, for his finest as well
as for his boldest touches, he never allows his hand to
approach within eighteen inches of the smallest picture.
And yet he works with surprising delicacy, quite in the
old Flemish style at times, and produces pictures of
which Ruysdael himself would not have been ashamed.
His peculiar subjects are glades in woods, scenes from
the picturesque country of the Limousin, from the south
of Devonshire, Brittany, and other similar spots. There
is not a thread of canvas that comes into his atelier but is
bespoken for some noble or royal patron, not in months,
but in years to come; and he does not possess a finished
picture, nor hardly an oil sketch of his own. When he
is not painting, he reads Shakespeare or Walter Scott.
A pupil of Dupré’s holds a very high place among
the painters of this portion of the school—Troyon,
who, though a young man, has, like his master, pro-
duced some astonishing pictures on the same princi-
ple, but with greater rapidity of execution. He, too,
200 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART IN

adopts silvan scenes, and is fond of introducing a good
many figures into his compositions: he has not, how-
ever, the same delicacy of taste as Dupré, nor the same
firmness of touch; but he is, notwithstanding, an artist
of high promise. Some of his large paintings put one
quite in mind, for the tone of their colouring, of the
best of the few good landscapes that remain to us of
Gainsborough. There is another young artist, Cabat,
who partakes of the best qualities of both Decamps and
Dupré, but yet is entirely an original painter: he has
taken Gaspar Poussin for his authority, and he produces
pictures which, without being copies of that great
master, run very close upon his heels. The year before
last he exhibited a picture of this kind, the Good
Samaritan, a fine woodland scene in Italy; and the
year before that a similar subject, the Road to Narni,
which made an immense sensation in Paris, and put the
seal on his reputation. He is the pupil of Flers, a
meritorious artist of the same kind of style, but whom
he has far surpassed. Marilhat is a disciple of Decamps:
like him he has travelled much in the east; and, like
him, paints eastern scenes with great vigour. Some
recent views in Egypt, in the Delta, at Cairo, ete,
which he has exhibited, have added considerably to his
reputation. Chacalon is of the same school, and so are
Diaz and Jeanron, each of great merit. All these
painters proceed upon the transparent principle, and
adhere to the precepts and practice of the old masters:
their names and their works will live. They differ ma-
terially from any of ow own painters in the immense
masses of colour they employ: there being as much
weight of colourmg matter on some of their canvases
as would cover an English painter’s picture of three
times the dimensions.
FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND. 201

The opaque division of the landscape school is headed
by Jules Coignet, an artist of great reputation and suc-
cess, who can command a host of pupils and followers,
and who is not unworthy of his fame. His chief quali-
fication is that of admirable drawing: there is, perhaps,
not such a landscape draughtsman in France; and his
intimate acquaintance with, and observance of Nature
in all her forms, confer on him a great advantage: there
is no one who can draw a tree better than Coignet,
however many there may be who can colowr it more
naturally or more poetically. He is famous for his
stumps of trees, brook-side scenes, pools with cattle,
etc. ; he is also a first-rate painter of game pieces, and
there are few painters better acquainted with Swiss
scenery: but his main faults are his too glaring colours,
the rawness of their tones, resulting from their entire
opacity, and his persistance in finishing his outlines in
too decided a manner, transeressing thereby the scienti-
fic rules which Harding has expounded and practises
in such a masterly manner. His works do not re-
semble those of any ancient master, and we confess we
do not think they will stand the test of time. Another
artist of the same division, only indulging a little in
transparency, is Lapito: he, too, is a first-rate draughts-
man, but a raw colourist; and even his beautiful Italian
scenes have an unpleasing effect from this circumstance.
Hostein is a painter of woodland scenery on the opaque
plan, but, notwithstanding, gets out of the scrape better
than might be expected: he has executed several good
works, especially Swiss scenes. Justin-Ouvrié is in the
same division, but inclined to be transparent in some
of his compositions; he is perhaps a better painter of
architectural subjects than that of champaign scenery,
and possesses much merit as a water-colour draughts-
202 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART IN

man. Giroux, son of the well-known colour dealer, is
a painter of vast promise, who redeems the fault of
opacity by the boldness and skilfulness of his handling.
In 1837, he exhibited at the Louvre a large view of A
Ravine in the Alps, which was by far the best picture
of the year. Mozin is a skilful delineator of coast
scenes, something mm the style of Callcott, but at a
great distance behind him: he has a true perception
of colour, and his effects are always natural.

The opaque division of the French landscape school,
includes nine-tenths of all who aspire to the name of
landscape painters: the transparent division consists
only of a select few, but the works of those few are
destined to live in future times.

Among the painters of marine subjects, there are two
who stand decidedly at the head of their class ; rivals
in almost all respects, and so nearly equal in merit,
that it is difficult to decide on their respective claims
to pre-eminence—Gudin and Isabey. They are both
excellent landscape painters, and the latter has the ad-
vantage of being a first-rate painter of rich interiors,
alchemists’ studios, and so forth: he also paints vessels
better than Gudin, having much more practical know-
ledge of them; but he cannot give the same effects
either to his sky or his water. Gudin is a painter full
of poetical imagination : one who, for the radiancy and
warmth of his sunny dreams, resembles Turner, with-
out running into any of his mad conceits : he can paint
morning and evening skies, as no one, save Claude,
ever did before him; and he knows how to give his
waves that lucid effect, which none but those who have
long studied the sea can attain. He works with ex-
traordinary rapidity, and inclines to the defect of
making his paintings too sketchy; he is the most
FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND. 203

transparent of all French painters, putting on a thin
but warm ground, and then, with a few opaque touches,
bringing out his subject in all its details. No painter
in France is so completely master of his brush as
Gudin; he can do anything with the merest stump,
and he seems to take delight in setting all means and
appliances of art at nought. At the same time, he is a
most careful and scientific observer of Nature, and the
variety of forms under which he has depicted the ocean,
is quite astonishing. A few years ago, he exhibited a
celebrated picture of a shipwrecked sailor clinging to a
mast in a deep blue sea, with the sun setting in one
corner of the canvas, and the moon rising in the other :
(he is very fond of the effect of the double light.) This
was one of the most beautiful things ever painted, and
he was immediately commissioned to execute three or
four of the same subject—one was sent to the Emperor
of Russia—and they all fetched fifteen thousand francs
a-piece. On another occasion he exhibited a Single
Wave in a stormy sea—nothing but a wave with a white
curling top; there never was such a piece of accurate
painting witnessed before or since: it was a perfect
chef-d’euvre. In the last Salon but one, he had his
sketches of Constantinople and Gibraltar, two brillant
gems, especially the latter. He is one of the most
fertile painters in the world, but has fallen into the
serious fault of allowing his pupils to paint considerable
portions of his pictures, giving a few finishing strokes
himself, and then affixing his name—an act of high
treason, we hold; but even his own genuine pictures
come off his easel in astonishing numbers, and the prices
they produce are always extravagantly large. He is
believed to be in the receipt of 70,000 or 80,000 francs
a-year. He is a great personal favourite of Louis
204 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART IN

Philippe, by whom he is most extensively and liberally
employed: he lives like a prince; and, if report does
not belie him, has not a sol in his pocket!

Isabey is not a court favourite; there is hardly a touch
of his on any royal wall; but he is in most extensive and
substantial practice; and to procure a picture from him, is
a favour to which few persons can aspire under several
years. He is well known for his great Naval battles,
and for his Fishing-boat scenes. He seldom attempts
the atmospheric effects of Gudin, but he commonly in-
troduces portions of rocky coast scenery into his com-
positions, and, in executing them, is beyond all rivalry.
One of his principal works is now in the United States,
representing an action on one of the North American
lakes during the war of 1812, in which the English were
defeated. It is a large canvas, fifteen feet by ten; he
was assisted in some parts of it by Morel Fatio, his
pupil; but from the first stretching of the canvas on
its frame to the time of its shipment for New York, the
period that elapsed was under two months! Heisa
transparent painter, but not so much so as Gudin, and
in many respects he resembles Callcott: his interiors,
which are very scarce, are invaluable; and the princi-
pal one is in possession of the Duke of Orleans. Isabey
is a good-natured little man, just like a sailor, with a
ereat deal of the Englishman about him: keeps a small
yacht of his own; sails about all the summer; paints
only in winter; is a good pére de faniille ; and lives as
happy as a king on his 30,000 francs a-year.

Lepoittevin is an able young artist, who partakes of
many of the good qualities both of Isabey and Biard.
He paints all sorts of things—no subject comes amiss to
his easel: but his principal strength lies in marine
pieces—battles and storms—in the execution of which
FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND. 205

he is to be ranked next after Isabey. He has been
much patronised both at St. Petersburg and Berlin.
Morel Fatio, mentioned above, has been in the navy,
and is therefore quite wu fact in the delineation of ship-
ping. He has not as yet got into the poetic region of
his art, and paints rather crudely ; but, on the whole,
he must be classed among the good painters. There is
avery promising artist of Boulogne, named Delacroix,
whose marine subjects are daily gaining for him in-
creased public approbation. He delights in groups of
fishing-boats, and sometimes treats market-scenes on
the coast in a very able manner. Dubois, Tanneur,
and two or three others, sustain the reputation of the
French marine school, which, though of not more than
ten or twelve years’ standing, has already reached a
point of great excellence, and promises to be one of the
best departments of French art.

We now come to the painters of architectural sub-
jects, exterior and interior. Of these, Dauzats is one
of the most able. His pictures are rarely to be met
with, but they are painted with great force and breadth,
are firm in their touch, sober in their colouring, and
always mathematically exact in their drawing. His
labours have been principally in Spain. Sebron is a
most excellent artist, whether for interiors or exteriors;
but he chiefly devotes himself to the former. He com-
menced his artistical career by painting the Dioramas,
which all the world has been taught to ascribe exclu-
sively to Daguerre and Bouton, his employers; and the
accurate drawing he displayed in them is well known
all over Europe. Of late, he has been treating Spanish
and Italian subjects with great skill, and has produced
a series of views of St. Mark at Venice, and the Duomo
at Milan, which are works of the highest merit. Joyant
206 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART IN

is an imitator of Canaletti, whom, pace sud be it said,
we think he in most points greatly excels. He resides
entirely at Venice, and paints nothing but Venetian
subjects. These, however, he treats in the ablest man-
ner; and, from the results he has obtained, by copying
Canaletti, there is little doubt but that when he strikes
out an original style for himself—for he is still young
—he will become a painter of great eminence. Frére
is a young artist, who has been much at Algiers and in
Egypt, and he has returned from thence with his mind
well stored with Eastern scenes, and the rich effects of
southern climes. He paints with astonishing breadth,
and has a certain wholesome tone of colour in all that
he does, with a bold masterly style of handling, which
show that he is destined to rise high in the ranks of
his profession. lLafaye is very able in his delineation
of old rooms, furniture, etc. ; the first, indeed, in that
line. Granet, as a painter of interiors, has established
his fame by good works done in former days: he is now,
however, a pictor emeritus; and if he could be per-
suaded to leave off exhibiting, would follow one of the
soundest maxims, for his own sake, that Horace ever
laid down. This division of the French school does not
number many followers, but it is one of a fair degree of
promise ; what it wants is more encouragement.

Until within the last few years animal painting had
hardly been heard of in France since the times of Louis
XV: the great Revolution, and the pecuniary distress
entailed thereby on the country, had entirely extin-
guished a branch of art which can only flourish among
a people who are rich and prosperous. Of late, how-
ever, it is coming into vogue, and there are several
painters of merit under this head who deserve to be
noticed. Alfred Dedreux is celebrated for his spirited
FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND. 207

delineations of horses, and the “animals” that mount
them—jockeys, grooms, and “angels”. In the drawing
and painting of subjects of this kind he is of extraordi-
nary force, and surpasses, we think, many of our animal
painters, strong as they really are. He paints with
great boldness, and depends perhaps more on his draw-
ing and his chiaro-oscuro than on his colouring, which,
however, is exceedingly correct. In the management of
his shadows his science makes him stand quite alone, his
bits of landscape are generally good, and there is a cer-
tain style about his productions which no one but
himself can attain. He spends his whole life in study-
ing the animals he loves to paint; has a beautiful black
Arabian mare in his stable, is well-known on the turf at
Chantilly and Newmarket, and is one of the greatest
dandies in Paris. Jadin is the rising Landseer of
France—an able young painter, who has got the spirit
of our great master upon him, and who in time, if he
attends to Landseer’s transparent colouring, may rival
him in reputation. He cannot, however, boast of that
universality of talent which falls to Landseer’s share;
but he draws figures notwithstanding in a skilful man-
ner, and on the whole is full of brilliant promise.
Robert is a careful and delicate, yet spirited, painter of
animals and birds, especially the latter: and has lately
exhibited some elaborate canvases at the Louvre which
reflect on him the highest credit. There are several
other artists practising in the saine line, but their
numbers are comparatively small.

The flower school has always been a respectable one
in France, and at the present moment can boast of a
master who has not been equalled since the days of
Van Huysum—we mean Jacobber. He studies on the
same principles as the great Dutch painter, and follows
208 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART 1N

him in practice closely. He is not such a master, how-
ever, of light and shade, as Van Huysum was ; other-
wise he would approach him more nearly. There are
several painters in the same branch, all of considerable
merit, and most of them have been pupils of that
admirable institution, founded under Rédouté, at the
Garden of Plants. Here a certain number of young
artists of promise, male and female, study botanical
painting under direction of the ablest teachers and
professors of the capital. The hot-houses are at their
disposal, and they are constantly occupied in producing
a series of drawings for the Government, which are
afterwards preserved in the botanical library of the in-
stitution. Their practice is almost exclusively (at least
for the exhibited subjects) on vellum. The number of
female painters who are thus put in an independent and
honourable position, is considerable.

There is another royal establishment which we may
mention, in this place, as having been productive of
the best results, and which is daily gaining ground
in public reputation; we mean the school of paint-
ing attached to the Royal Porcelain Manufactory of
Sévres. <A large body of artists, of whom Jacobber
is one, are here constantly employed and maintained ;
the most promising are sent to Rome at the ex-
pense of the king, and the rest are always sure of a
respectable maintenance. Their works are magnificent,
and are known all over the world, not being contined to
objects of pottery, properly so called, but extending to
large slabs of porcelain, upon which many of the most
celebrated portraits by Raffaelle, Titian, and other
masters, have been copied, and similar subjects from
original designs executed. Madame Jacotot is at the
head of this branch of the fine arts, and is in every
FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND. 209

respect a wonderful painter. There are several ladies
attached to the establishment, and there has been added
to it a school for painting on glass, which is making
rapid progress. The private porcelain manufactories
and glass houses in France, also give occupation to large
numbers of artists; and since the laudable spirit of
restoration for all medizeval monuments has come into
existence, glass-painting is daily becoming more and
more important both as a branch of art and a source of
trade.

Water-colour painting is what the French are weakest
in; and it is so little practised that we are afraid their
inferiority may last many years. Huber is the first and
best painter in this line: his subjects are landscapes,
almost always on a large scale, and his abilities would
entitle him to an honourable place even in our own
water-colour school. The late Alfred Johannot used
to paint historical groups in water-colours with admi-
rable skill, and there are one or two female artists,
Mademoiselle Taurin especially, and Mademoiselle Bou-
langer, now treading in his steps, and likely to do well.
In pastille painting and in pencil drawing, the French
are doing great things, and every year’s exhibition pro-
duces a series of subjects, principally figures, executed
in these styles, which are of high excellence. In mi-
niature painting, the French school always has been, and
always will be strong: it is a branch of art exactly
suited to the taste of the nation, and universally
patronized,—a considerable portion of it being executed
by females. The accurate principles of drawing preva-
lent among the French painters are of no small value in
keeping their miniatures above the insipid things done
in other parts of Europe; and though wretched daubs
are palmed off in Paris on the inexperienced foreigner,

P
210 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART IN

there is no place except London where such a strong
body of miniature painters exists.

The French school of engraving is not so rich in good
artists as might be expected, when the high condition of
other branches of art in that country is considered. It
has not yet recovered from the effects of the great
Revolution, and it is still too much indebted to the
assistance of foreign artists to claim the degree of origi-
nal merit to which we could wish it were entitled.
Calamatta and Forster, the first an Italian, the second
an Englishman, are the two chief engravers of Paris:
next to them come Dupont and Prudhomme, Estéve and
Aubert, sen.; all in the line department, and the last
affecting principally small landscapes on steel. The
school, however, is progressing, though it cannot as yet
compete with that of England, and still less with that
of Germany. In etching, great things have of late been
done by the French artists; and we have no one in
England who can approach Dubigny for the delicacy and
the science of his touch. Paul Huet is almost getting
a master in this line. In wood-engraving, the French
artists, originally taught by English ones, are now so
much encouraged by the public, that in some branches
they equal, if they do not excel, their instructors. It
should be observed that French engravers, in all styles,
complain of their inferior means for printing from plates
or blocks; English machinery and English workmen in
this line being infinitely superior to anything known in
Paris.

The sculptors of France, considering the few years in
which they have had to re-organize their school, must
be admitted to have made great progress. This branch
of art, one of the most sublime and the most lasting, is
of slower growth than any of the rest; it necessarily
FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND. 211

occupies a much smaller number of artists than the
more easy and expeditious methods of delineation with
less stubborn materials, and it requires, more than
any other, the fostering hand of Government to favour
its progress. Notwithstanding the unfortunate condi-
tion in which France has been placed during the present
century, and in spite of the uncertainty of her actual
position, her sculptors have shown a spirit of zealous
perseverance, that does them much honour. Great
credit is due to Bosio, the father and founder of the
present school, who with David, Cortot, Gayrard, sen.,
and some others, has instructed and chiselled out most
of the young sculptors of the present day. We are not
prepared to place Bosio on the same level with Chantrey,
nor can we single out any French sculptor whom we can
compare to Gibson; but notwithstanding this, there is
a large amount of skill and science in this division of
the French school, which must ultimately produce its
effect ; and we have little doubt that, if it could be in-
sured another twenty years of quiet steady patronage,
that school would produce some works destined for im-
mortality. Bosio himself is a most scientific and
accomplished sculptor, though now old, and waning in
his manual skill: David (a nephew, we believe, of the
painter) is full of life and energy, but too much given
to the stiffness of the Napoleonic school. Bosio’s busts
and statues are everywhere; and among the latter,
though by no means one of his best, may be mentioned
the bronze figure of Napoleon on the column at
Boulogne. David's largest work is the pediment of the
Pantheon at Paris, the stiffness of which is painfully
evident. His busts, however, and single statues, are
full of spirit, and, in many respects, he is considered the
ablest sculptor in France. Cortot, Etex, Pradier, and
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212 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART IN

Lemaire, are four names which honourably maintain the
reputation of this school. Their works are numerous
in the galleries of Versailles, and many of them may
be seen on the Arc de Triomphe at the Barriére de
l Etoile, on the pediment of the Chamber of Deputies,
by Cortot, and that of the Madeleine, by Lemaire. The
latter artist is now engaged at St. Petersburg in execu-
ting one of the pediments of the cathedral of St.
Isaac. In a softer style of the art it is impossible not
to mention, with the deepest regret, the name of the
lamented Princess Marie d’Orléans, whose Jeanne d’ Are
at Versailles, though almost a solitary work, is sufficient
to place her name in the first rank of modern sculptors.
Jouffroy, Simart, Maindron, Lescorné, and Debay, are
some of the most distinguished among the younger
sculptors of the day, and their works, especially those
of the second and third, are, with justice, highly ap-
preciated. The two Dantans, and the younger Gayrard,
are well known to the European public for busts and
statuettes, some serious, some comic, of which casts are
to be found in almost every collection. Their portrait-
busts have obtained great celebrity, and the command
they have over their spatulee and their chisels entitles
them to it. A subordinate branch of the art—if, in-
deed, it may be called so—the sculpturing of animals,
is practised in the French school to an extent, and with
a success, of which we have no idea nor instances in
England. Fratin, Rouillard, Méne, and some others,
are of great ability in this line; and Triqueti, in the
sculpturing of vases and other similar objects, has a
taste of composition and a delicacy of execution which
are very remarkable. We must not omit to state, that
many of the sculptors of Paris are under the greatest
obligation to Messrs. Soyer and Inge (the latter of
FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND. 218

English extraction) for the improvements they have in-
troduced in the founding of all kinds of metal, especially
bronze; the column on the Place de la Bastile was fabri-
cated by them, and the capital was cast in a single
mould. There is a large body of inferior artists and
workmen in France engaged in ornamental sculpture
and bronze work, who are justly entitled to be noticed
even by the side of the strictly professional sculptor.
The new buildings of the capital, the numerous works
of art in bronze, which form so important a branch of
French commerce, are all indebted for much of their
beauty to this lower school, which is formed principally
from the pupils of the gratuitous schools of design;
and at the present moment, there is a body of intelli-
gent workmen in these lines collected in the French
capital, who can hardly be matched in any other city in
the world. We may append to the school of sculpture
that of medallic engraving; but French medals, espe-
cially those of the Napoleonic series, the executors of
which are, many of them, still practising, are too
favourably known to need eulogium. With the excep-
tion of Wyon in England, and one or two names at
Rome, we would place those of Barre and other Pari-
sian numismatic artists before those of any other school
in Europe.

The modern school of French architecture is, in our
opinion, decidedly a strong one; reposing on sound
principles formed according to a good method, and
favourably placed for developing its power by practice.
It is true, that the principal patrons of architecture in
France are the Government and municipalities; but
they patronize liberally, and the works they cause to
be executed are on a large scale; they take care, too,
to foster the rising architectural genius of the country;
214 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART IN

and by means of the Royal School of Fine Arts, and
the Academy at Rome, they have formed an efficient
body of able men. This is not the place to enter into a
dissertation on the principles of architecture, nor to
compare the relative merits of the French and other
schools; the subject is far too extensive; it is sufficient
to observe, that the French go much more upon the
sensible plan of suiting their building and styles to the
exigencies of locality or purpose, than of sacrificing
every thing—comfort, utility, and even effect itself—to
the abstract rules of any given order of architecture.
As yet, though they have done much in effecting the re-
storation of medizeval buildings, they have erected very
few new ones in any of the pointed styles; they have
built much in that of the Renaissance, the most pliable
and one of the most generally effective of all, and the
capital has gained greatly by its introduction. The
taste of the nation is not yet completely won over to
medizeval architecture, but it is fortunately no longer
obstinately wedded to that of the classic orders, and in
adopting the middle style of the days of Francis I, a
field is opened both for fancy and for innovation, which
is highly agreeable to French feelings. This style, too,
has all the merit of being a strictly national one, well
suited to the climate and to the genius of the people.
The oldest of the architects now practising is Fontaine,
who was architect to Napoleon, and to both the prede-
cessors of the present king; he has had so much
influence in modifying or restoring many monuments of
importance, and in particular in superintending the late
alterations at Versailles and Fontainebleau, that his
name will always assume a distinguished place among
French architects. M. Huyot, who built the Are de
Triomphe de VEtoile, and was President of the Aca-
FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND. 215

demy of Fine Arts, has been lately cut off after a short
illness—otherwise he would have been the first architect
of his day, and would have carried the school to a great
height. Duban, architect of the Ecole Royale des
Beaux Arts—-that beautiful building—Lebas, of the
Palace on the Quai d’Orsay—and Lassus, restorer of
St. Germain |’Auxerrois—are all of great eminence in
their profession. Labrouste and Viollet Leduc, are
two architects, who, from their long residence in Italy,
and their travels in various parts of Europe, are
amongst the most able of their contemporaries. Nor
should we omit Albert Lenoir, who is a profound au-
thority in matters of medieval architecture, and pro-
fessor in that branch at the Bibliothéque du Roi. There
are several of the architectural pupils at Rome who
promise great things, and among them one in particular,
Clerget, has long been known for his admirable draw-
ings and his extensive archeological researches among
the ruins of the Papal capital. To the architects of
France, we must add, as we have done in the case of
the sculptors, the large body of builders and masons
who have been instructed by their superiors in the pro-
fession, and have become almost architects themselves.
France is very rich in intelligent men of this kind, and
the numerous public works executed in all parts of the
country, testify that sound architectural knowledge and
practical skill and taste, are widely disseminated among
the people.

Our notices of the various divisions of the French
school of the fine arts in general, apply (with one ex-
ception) only to the persons professionally engaged in
such delightful pursuits; but it should be remembered,
that in France, as in England, there is a large body of
amateur artists of all kinds, of great skill and taste. It
216 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART IN

would be indelicate to single out names; and it is sufti-
cient to observe, that anybody acquainted with good
French society, cannot but know how intensely art is
felt among them, and how much it contributes to the
intellectual enjoyment of the best portion of the com-
munity. In these occupations, the ladies take a promi-
nent part: and among the professional portion of the
artistical world, female artists are in a large relative
proportion compared with the whole number; but we
know of many amateurs, painters, sculptors, architects,
and even engravers of both sexes in France, whose
works would be honoured with warm admiration if they
could be exhibited.

The Belgian school of fine arts is rising, and some of
the actual members of it have attained no small cele-
brity on the continent. The first is Gallait, the histo-
rical painter, who, indeed, resides so much at Paris,
and practises there to such an extent, that he may as
properly be attributed to the French as to the Flemish
school. His principal production is the Abdication of
Charles V, which was exhibited at the last Salon of the
Louvre, and was painted for the Belgian Government.
It is a grand picture, showing its author to be a careful
student of Vandyke, and to possess a science in colouring
with a vigour of drawing that place him very near
Horace Vernet and Paul Delaroche. For this picture,
which is of great dimensions, the Belgian Government
had agreed to give Gallait 70,000 francs: but, on its
being brought to Brussels, it produced so much admira-
tion, that the Minister of the Interior informed the
artist that the original agreement was cancelled, and
that he had only to name whatever sum he should
choose to fix. The town of Tournay, his native place,
had thoughts of giving him a pension for life for this
FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND. 217

work, but has since made him a magnificent present of
plate instead; and he has been feasted in a sort of
artistical triumph at Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp, and other
large cities. There are some capital works by him at
Versailles, such as the Battle of Cassel; and he has
produced numerous sacred pieces and portraits. M.
Debiéfre is next to him in order of merit for historical
subjects; and after him M. de Keyser—the latter in
particular is full of good promise: and these three art-
ists together are sufficient to establish the character of
the school. Wiertz is a young painter, who has fallen
into the mistake of exaggerating the extravagancies of
Rubens, and, though not devoid of talent, is fond of
painting things which are more extraordinary than
agreeable. Wappers is another of the rising men in
Belgium; and there are several more of which their
country has reason to be proud. Wallays, as a painter
of interiors, is a very remarkable artist; and Brakeleer
for Tableaux de Genre, is of much merit. On the
whole, however, we doubt whether the Belgian school of
painting can be called an original one: it came into ex-
istence after the French, and many of its members are
palpably imitators of their Parisian contemporaries.
The Government is doing much to protect art and
artists, and private patronage is warmly exercised in
Belgium: pictures are bought readily—schools of art
have been founded at Brussels and Antwerp; and pub-
lic as well as private collections of pictures in that
country contain so many fine works, that all the ele-
ments of a good school of painting seem to be formed.
If the country should continue tranquil for a consider-
able period of time, many hopes may be formed: but
there is always a danger of Belgian artists, like Belgian
statesmen, becoming either apes of the French, or else
218 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART IN

remaining in a bastard state, half-French half-German.
It should be added, that the most eminent sculptor in
Brussels is M. Geefs, a man of real talent.

The Swiss school of painting—that is to say, the
School of Geneva—is fully entitled to the distinction of
an original one. It comprises, however, only two
divisions—landscape painting and portrait painting—in
which its artists have risen to celebrity: but it should
not be inferred from this that it is destined to remain
stationary. The school is but of recent growth; and if
the Helvetic confederation advances in prosperity like
other neighbouring states, there is reason to expect that
its school of art will receive a corresponding develop-
ment. Diday is the founder of the landscape school,
and he has confined his practice, almost exclusively, to
the Alpine grandeur of his native country. In deline-
ating these he has certainly attained great skill, and
has produced works which will live: his colouring is, on
the whole, true; and it is easy to see that he is a con-
scientious student of nature. In all the qualities, how-
ever, of a great painter, he is far surpassed by his pupil
Calame, one of the most rising artists of Europe. He,
like his master, has a certain rawness of colouring to
correct, and a poorness of handling to alter; but his
drawing is bold and accurate in the extreme: he is full
of the poetry of nature, and he represents the Alps
with a vividness of effect which no one before him has
ever attained. One of the great characteristics of these
two artists is that neither of them exaggerates: and this
is one of the most valuable qualities a painter can be
endowed with. There are some young artists studying
under these masters, and great things may be expected
from them. It should be mentioned that Calame is a
first-rate etcher and lithographer ; and he has recently
FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND. 219

sent out a numerous series of Alpine views, in aqua-
fortis, of extraordinary power and originality. There
is a celebrated portrait painter of Geneva, Horniing,
whose works have been exhibited in London and Paris,
where they have been much approved of by amateurs.
So warm, indeed, have been the encomiums pronounced
on him, and so liberal has been the patronage he has
met with, that we are conscious of incurring odium
when we venture to dissent from the opinion commonly
received on this point. He possesses great powers of
accurate delineation, draws forcibly, and produces, we
must admit, a fac-simile likeness; but there our praise
must end: we consider his colouring glaring and untrue,
his handling meretricious, and his whole practice as
evincing a greater attention to the tricks than to the
nobler principles of art. If the varnish were stripped
off his pictures, the inexperienced amateur would not
be able to recognise them; and in a few years, when
time shall have tested his colours, we are confident that
a very different opinion will be formed of his merits.
He is worthy of great praise, however, as being a labo-
rious artist, and as having given a considerable stimulus
to the cultivation of art in Switzerland. Horniing is
followed by some young artists; and on the whole,
though the Swiss school is still small, it is in a healthy
condition of vigour and originality.

We must not omit to observe, in adverting once more
to France, that there are some foreign artists, resident
and practising, in Paris, the merit of whose works is
sometimes carried to the account of the French school
instead of their own countries. Thus, of our own
countrymen there in Wyld, a most able oil painter of
landscapes, whose Venetian views entitle him to rank high
among our own artists: Callow and Boys, two water-
220 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART IN

colour painters of great merit: Barker, the animal
painter—Skelton, the engraver—and Daly, the archi-
tect, who, as founder of the Révue de l Architecture,
has done good service to his profession in all parts of
Europe. Of the Italians, there is the sculptor, Maro-
chetti, who in his own line is facile princeps, and who
has received the most signal testimonials to his wonder-
ful abilities, from the jealousy his fame has excited both
in England and France. Because he has produced the
best equestrian statue in modern Europe, he is hardly
to be allowed to try his hand at one for the Duke of
Wellington, even after he has been regularly commis-
sioned for that purpose; and he is not suffered to exe-
cute the tomb of Napoleon, even after the Minister of
the Interior had formally ordered him to do so. How-
ever, he can easily put up with these petty annoyances;
he is a nobleman by birth, the possessor of a good
fortune, and a man of singular béneficence and urbanity.
Bartolini is another Italian sculptor resident at Paris,
who has recently produced some works beautiful enough
to merit for him an host of enemies.

It has been often objected to the French school in
general, that it is too fond of theatrical effect and un-
natural exaggeration; but this reproach, which we admit
to have been true for the Davidian school, is becoming
every day less and less founded. It should be remembered
that the French, like all the southern nations of Europe,
are a much more animated and lively set of people than
the sober-minded Quakers and Methodists of the British
side of the Channel, and that they will always be apt
to transfer some of that animation to their canvases,
just as we are inclined to aim at a total abstinence of
all spirit and animation whatever. If it be a fault,
it is one which is fast disappearing, and there is every
FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND. 221

reason to augur the best things of their historical
school. Their colouring, too, has been cried out against
as too glaring; here the fault applies only to the younger
painters, not to the masters of the school. Their
colouring is indeed richer than that of their English
rivals, but for glare it is less offensive; the science of
colour is in reality one of those qualities in which
English painters are often very deficient. The chief
excellence of the French is in their drawing and compo-
sition, in which they have not only more science but
more invention than our own artists; and this is to be
attributed mainly to their much more extensive practice
as historical painters. In England, three or four his-
torical painters starve by their professson, while in
France, three or four dozen make handsome incomes by
it. This gives a stimulus to all the school, and produces
a constant succession of young artists ready to maintain
its character, and to gain for it fresh titles to superiority.
We shall never have an historical school in England—
it is impossible;—the principle of our Governments—
Whig or Tory, all the same—is to give the least possible
encouragement to public—that is, historical painting.
In France, on the contrary, it is one of the main objects
of the state to give as much as possible. No doubt,
very many of the paintings lately executed for Ver-
sailles, might safely be burnt without any loss to the
world of art; but the encouragement given by the
order for those paintings, bad or good, has been im-
mense:—King Louis Philippe has spent five or six
millions of francs (£200,000 to £240,000), in historical
pictures alone. Landscape painting, animal painting,
and other minor branches of art, want little or no en-
couragement from the state—they thrive well enough
on the generosity of private patrons; but historical
222 MODERN SCHOOLS OF ART IN

painting, historical sculpture, and monumental archi-
tecture, must be fostered by public patronage, or they
will degenerate, and ultimately become extinct; and
until John Bull chooses to give a few of his many
superfluous guineas, not to his butcher, fishmonger,
fruiterer, and wine merchant, but for the public and
enduring encouragement of the higher branches of art,
he may assume to himself the credit of being a warm
admirer of pictorial productions, but he must not expect
to possess a body of painters, who can record, as they
deserve, the glorious deeds of his ancestors. Our land-
scape school, our portrait school, and our sculpture
school, are quite strong enough; but in historical paint-
ing and its subordinate branches, British artists cannot
pretend to any but second or third-rate places. Public
and private flattery, at home, may indeed exalt the
names of favourite artists above the skies; but the
general voice of Europe pronounces another verdict,
which future ages will certainly confirm. Not that we
have not the wherewithal to make great painters; we
have got plenty of the stuff on hand, but we refuse to
fashion it; and as long as the State declines to do what
is impossible for private individuals efficiently to per-
form, the task must be abandoned as hopeless.

One thing we could greatly wish to see realized, and
that is a general international exhibition of works of
art, at stated periods, from all the living schools of
Europe;—a congress of art, if it might be so called, at
which the leading masters of each school might show to
their rivals and pupils their own productions, and at
which the relative merits of their various systems might
be fairly compared and appreciated. The interchange
of ideas, the communication of practice, the establishing
of sound fixed principles, and the universal correction
FRANCE, BELGIUM, AND SWITZERLAND. 223

of all extravagances which such a congress would pro-
duce, could not fail of working wholesome changes, and
effecting much real improvement. Petty jealousies and
rivalries would be softened down; artists would learn
to esteem each other; and patrons would be thrown
into contact with all the best painters of each country.
But even for this, the assistance and protection of
Government would be wanted; and in the furtherance
of a plan of this nature, a step of no small importance
would be taken towards advancing the general civiliza-
tion of Europe, and towards the maintaining of mutual
good-will between the various countries of which it is
composed, That any thing of the kind will be done,
we have, we confess, more hope than we have expecta-
tion.

The above paper was written in 1841, and therefore several years
before the Revolution of 1848 occurred to disturb all affairs of Art
as well as of Politics in France. The interval, too, that has elapsed
since its original publication has produced many new names of emi-
nence among the painters of France, chiefest of which is that ot
Rosa Bonheur, a name calculated to live in future days as that of
one of the greatest cattle painters of this century. The great name
of Leys in the Belgian school has also risen and prematurely been
extinguished among us. Still the main features of the schools re-
main without any great alteration, though the gaps made by death
among French artists, including H. Vernet, P. Delaroche, etc., are
such as have not, and probably will not be for a long time, filled up.
On the other hand, a glorious era has arisen for French architects,
and the great works carried on in Paris, under the auspices of the
present Emperor, are sufficient to mark the epoch as one of the
most distinguished in the annals of France.

It has been considered worth while to reprint this paper because
it contains a connected account and a general sketch of the French,
Belgian, and Swiss schools drawn from long and intimate personal
knowledge at a period when not much was known about them. The
author, too, has had the satisfaction of seeing the idea of Interna-
tional Exhibitions of Art carried into practice and producing excel-
lent results.
224

VIL.

THE DUTCH CRITICS OF THE SIXTEENTH,
SEVENTEENTH, AND EIGHTEENTH
CENTURIES.

In selecting for our readers’ notice the lives and literary
labours of some of those distinguished men whose names
are indissolubly united with that of Holland their
country, we have chosen those only who flourished at the
time of the revolt of the Netherlands from Spanish rule,
and during about one hundred and twenty years after
that event. Not but that great men lived and flourished
in the Netherlands both before and after that epoch, but
that we have thought the coincidence of their literary
labours with a time of troubled politics and almost con-
tinual wars worthy of remark, and that their appearing
at what may be termed the commencement of the
Dutch power in Europe, when their efforts in the
quieter pursuits of life aided the energy of their politi-
cal chiefs in exalting their national name, was a matter
to be noticed.

Thus we might say much upon the life and literary
labours of the great Erasmus—a man, of whom the
more we know, the more we have cause to admire and
to respect him; one who, all things considered, was
second to none of his age in candour and amiability,
superior to most in profound scholarship and general
learning. But Erasmus stands rather by himself: he
belongs to a time when Holland was not known as
Holland; and he lived successively in so many parts of
DUTCH CRITICS. 225

Europe, disseminating his light and his learning so
widely, that his native country is not quite entitled to
claim him entirely as her own. Italy and Switzerland
have almost equal claims; and he was a true citizen of
the world in the most elevated sense of the term. Our
notices will be confined to a period occurring after his
death; and we find in the annals of Holland such a long
catalogue of names all eminent, and justly eminent, in
their day, that the principal difficulty is to make a due
selection out of so many that are worthy of distinction.
The subject, therefore—which can never be popular,
from the very nature of its material—requires to be
condensed rather than expanded, and our remarks shall
be as brief as the case will admit.

Our readers should recall to their minds the peculiar
position in which Holland was placed at the end of the
sixteenth century, when that small assemblage of states
had ventured to brave the power of the greatest
monarchy in the world; and, aided partly by the pecu-
liar circumstances of the times, and the relative posi-
tions of other powers, but mostly by the indomitable
energy of their inhabitants, they emancipated them-
selves from the tyranny of Spain, and stood forth the
second really free republic since the decline of the
palmy days of the turbulent democracies in Italy. It
was a struggle, the magnitude of which we cannot, per-
haps, rightly estimate at the present day; but it was
the second attempt of a people to gain political liberty,
just as the Reformation had been, in the early part of
the same century, the second to gain religious liberty ;
and it was successful. Switzerland forms the other and
the closest parallel to Holland in modern Europe: but
Switzerland had not so unequal a contest to go through.
The power of the house of Austria in the days of

Q
226 THE DUTCH CRITICS OF THE SIXTEENTH,

William Tell was nothing compared to what it became
in the time of Philip II. And, again, the Swiss, though
eminently brave, had the natural strength and the in-
spiration of their mountains to aid them in the struggle;
the Dutch, on the other hand, had only the calm
monotony of their marshes and canals, or the intricate
windings of their old feudal cities, to help them in
fighting for their native homes, and to make those
homes dear to them. They fought notwithstanding,
aided at times by neighbouring Protestant powers; and
they fought well, and the victory was ultimately theirs.
But, at the outset of the contest, it was not as if Poland
should ever again rise against the colossus of Russia ;
or La Vendée against France; still less as if the North
American States could again have to fight for their lives
against their mother country; but it was as though a
single county or department of England or of France
should defy all the rest, and, after suffering the extrem-
ities of war, should win the title of “independent.”
We may judge, however, of the spirit which animated
the Dutch in their bloody and obstinate resistance, by
the results that immediately followed: they did not
split themselves up into states that were jealous of and
bickering against each other, and doing nothing in the
political world, as Switzerland has ever been; nor did
they run wild with freedom, and end in a military
despotism, as France has twice done; nor did they de-
generate into an upstart, insolent, and sordid set of
men, talking of peace and freedom, but prone to foreign
aggression and social tyranny, as in the United States
of North America. Though they had many faults to
reproach themselves with, and though they were, per-
haps, not more nor less immaculate as to political vices
than other nations, they certainly did present to the
SEVENTEENTH, AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES. 227

world, for nearly two centuries after their emancipa-
tion, the sight of a sober-minded, industrious, and intel-
ligent people, enjoying and not very greatly abusing
their freedom, leading the way in the pursuits of com-
merce, and maintaining in arts and arms, in science and
literature, one of the most honourable positions ever
attained by any people. Who would ever have sus-
pected the Dutch—those quiet, phlegmatic, amphibi-
ous, creatures—of being able to found and maintain a
school of painting, which in its peculiar points has never
been surpassed, and appears now in a fair way hardly
to be rivalled? Who could have foretold that the
merchants and fishermen of Amsterdam and Rotterdam
should send out navies to cope with those of England
and France, and even at one time to ride triumphant in
the Thames? Yet so it was ; and, as we shall see, the
sons of the merchants and the pastors of Holland
shed a lustre on the universities of their native land
not to be eclipsed by all the light of Italy, or Germany,
or France, or England; and they have taken a place in
the world of letters, not to be estimated by the
ephemeral opinion of a single generation, but such as
has stood the test of time, and becomes more solid the
longer it endures.

Modern scholars, in tracing back their researches, are
almost sure, in some branch or other, to come upon a
Dutch foundation; and there is scarcely any department
of ancient literature, in which they will not find that
Dutch critics have laboured so effectually as to leave
little room for new criticisms properly so called. If any
light be now shed upon ancient literatwre—and it comes
in a copious stream from Teutonic regions—it takes its
origin in the application of other sciences to polite
letters: it springs from a more extended knowledge of

Q 2
228 THE DUTCH CRITICS OF THE SIXTEENTH,

mankind, from a better insight into the physical differ-
ences of the human race—from more accurate geogra-
phical description—from the slowly-extending diffusion
of a knowledge of Eastern history, Eastern usages, and
Eastern languages—and from the advantage, which
every subsequent race of examiners into such matters
must have over their predecessors, by the possibility of
comparing and sifting the labours of those who have
gone before them.

Few modern critics will disclaim the debt of literary
gratitude due to their Dutch brethren of former days.
The circumstance of a bright period of literary distinc-
tion (to say nothing of what was done in the other
branches mentioned above), following immediately upon
the political emancipation of the Dutch, forms the
peculiar glory of that people. It has not happened to
the same extent in other republics, though much has
been done in Switzerland, and something is now doing
in the United States; the cases, it is true, are not in all
respects parallel; yet the harvest of literary honour, that
Holland had the good fortune to reap, cannot be denied
as fairly and peculiarly her own portion.

We now proceed to notice a few particulars of the
lives and labours of some of her more eminent literary
sons. Their lives, indeed, are so well known in the
learned world, that what is to be said may be put in a
small compass.

Justin Lipstus was born at the village of Isch, near
Brussels, Oct. 18, A.D. 1547, his father’s uncle, Martin
Lipsius, having been a great friend of Erasmus. It
appears that he made considerable proficiency in his
studies, for at the age of nine years he had composed
several poems: and soon after entering his nineteenth
year he published some lectures. It is said that he had
SEVENTEENTH, AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES. 229

once the intention of entering into the order of Jesuits,
but was prevented by his parents: he, however, became
Secretary to Cardinal Granvelle, and in this capacity
visited the principal libraries and literary capitals of
Germany and Italy. This fortunate circumstance
seems to have given the finishing touch to his studies ;
for we find him early in life filling chairs at Jena and
Leyden. In the latter university, Prince Maurice of
Orange was one of his pupils; and on his afterwards
accepting a chair at Louvain, the Archduke Albert of
Austria and the Infanta Isabella of Spain, Governors of
the Netherlands, were among his auditors.

Lipsius is principally known for his intimate ac-
quaintance with Roman antiquities, and for his acute
criticisms upon Roman authors, though his Latin style
of writing is not considered so correct as might have
been expected from his knowledge of the language; and
it is stated that he was not a good Greek scholar.
Nevertheless, his reputation as a learned man became
disseminated throughout Europe, and he received offers
from more than one Prince to settle in his states.
Henry IV of France, and Pope Paul V, each wished to
secure his services, and he was offered a chair in the
University of Pisa. The chief reproach brought against
him is his versatility in matters of religion: thus he
was born a Catholic, as being a denizen of the Spanish
Netherlands ; but on going to Jena and Leyden he pro-
fessed the Protestant religion; yet on taking his chair
at Louvain he again resorted to the Roman Catholic
Church, and even published a writing which encouraged
persecution. In his latter days he seems to have carried
his religious opinions much further than was approved
of by his friends; and he wrote several things in honour
of the Virgin, including an account of miracles per-
230 THE DUTCH CRITICS OF THE SIXTEENTH,

formed at a chapel where he was accustomed to pay his
devotions. In this place, La Halle, he suspended a
silver pen near the figure of the Virgin, with an in-
scription attributing the success of his writings to her
auspices. As a further token of his gratitude, he be-
queathed at his death a furred gown, commonly worn by
him, for this identical statue.

His works form six folio volumes, and are classed
under the heads of Sacred History, Roman History,
Foreign History, Politics and Ethics, Apologetical
Works, Letters, ete. Among other peculiarities re-
corded of him, it is stated that he knew all Tacitus by
heart. He wrote a very illegible hand, was ridiculously
fond of dogs and flowers, but hated music. He married
in 1574 a widow lady, Anne Calistrie, but had no family,
and he died at Louvain in his fifty-ninth year, .p.
1606. A monument was erected to him at Antwerp by
the magistrates of that city; but he was buried in the
church of the Cordeliers at Louvain, where a handsome
tomb and effigy were placed over his remains by his
widow.

CorNELIUS Grotivs, uncle of the celebrated man of
that name, was himself a scholar of no mean reputation.
His family, originally a French one, of the name of
Cornetz, settled at Delft in 1430, and was always one
of the most notable in that city. Cornelius, after filling
several municipal offices, was made Professor of Philo-
sophy and Jurisprudence in the University of Leyden
(A.D. 1575) then lately founded; and he filled this chair
with distinction until his death in a.p. 1601.

Huco Grotius was son of John Grotius, or Van
Groot, brother of the above, and was born at Delft,
April 10th, 1583, where his father (who had been cura-
tor of the University of Leyden, and had lived there
SEVENTEENTH, AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES. 231

some time with his brother Cornelius) held the office of
burgomaster. The young Grotius received so good an
education, and had such remarkable abilities, that before
he was fifteen years of age he was able to sustain public
disputations in philosophy. In 1598 he accompanied
the celebrated Barneveldt in his embassy to the court of
France, and found time to draw up notes on the works
of Marcianus Capella, which he actually published be-
fore he was sixteen years old. At seventeen he began
to practise as a barrister, having previously taken the
degree of Doctor of Laws, and was appointed Advocate-
General before he had entered his twenty-fifth year. In
1613 he was settled at Rotterdam, was made syndic of
that city, and in the same year was dispatched to
England, to settle some disputes between the Dutch and
English East India traders. He had previously pub-
lished his treatise Mare Liberum, in reply to Selden’s
Mare Clausum, and had asserted the free right of the
Dutch to trade in the Indian Ocean. In 1618 he was
involved in the fall of his protector, Barneveldt, and
was condemned, not like him to death, but to a scarcely
less severe punishment, perpetual imprisonment and
confiscation of all his property. He was confined in
the castle of Louvestein; from whence, after a year and
a half, his wife, Mary van Regelsberg, rescued him by
smuggling him out of the prison in a chest employed by
a washerwoman at Gorkum, for bringing backwards and
forwards his linen. He now took refuge at the court of
Louis XIII, where he was munificently received and
allowed a pension by that monarch. Here he resided
eleven years, and wrote in the interval several of his
principal works, among others the celebrated treatise
De Jure Belli et Pacis, which is the foundation of the
modern law of nations. At this time, also, he published
232 THE DUTCH CRITICS OF THE SIXTEENTH,

his great work on the Truth of the Christian Religion,
which he had originally written, or rather sketched out,
in verse, having merely intended it to be a sort of
popular treatise for the use of sailors in the Dutch East
India service. He ultimately gave it to the world in its
well-known shape of Latin prose, of admirable elegance
and. purity—the characteristics indeed of all his Latinity
—and this work has since been translated, at various
times, into English, French, Flemish, German, Greek,
Persian, and even Arabic. The translator in the last
case was Pococke, the famous English traveller, who had
the highest opinion of its merits, and seems to have
contemplated its being employed in the conversion of
Mahometans to Christianity. In 1632 he once more
returned to Holland, on the invitation of Prince
Frederic Henry of Nassau; but finding his enemies
still too much embittered against him he went to Ham-
burg, and there, in 1634, received the post of ambas-
sador to the court of France from Queen Christina of
Sweden. Upon this he returned to Paris, and again
resided there eleven years; but after this period a feeling
of jealousy on the part of the Chancellor Oxenstiern
against Cardinal Richelieu (who had rescinded the pen-
sion of 3,000 livres formerly granted to Grotius,) caused
him to be recalled. He went to Stockholm, obtained
leave to retire from the queen, and set off to return
home; but the ship in which he had embarked was
wrecked on the coast of Pomerania, and he died in the
small town of Rostock, August 28th, 1645. His body
was brought to Delft, and there interred in the family
vault.

Few men, whether during or after their life, have en-
joyed a greater and perhaps a better founded literary
reputation than Grotius. His works are very volumi-
SEVENTEENTH, AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES. 233

nous, and all good; all characterised by profound
learning and good sense: the admixture of which qual-
ities may be ascribed to his long experience of the
world, arising from his habits of public life. His notes
on the Gospels are not inferior in excellence to those
of any commentator; and besides the greater works
mentioned above, his histories of Belgium and of the
northern nations, his letters, his various theological
tracts, and his minor historical treatises, are still read
by the studious. Altogether they form noble monu-
ments of such a well-stored, ingenuous, and excellent
wind. In religion Grotius appears to have been an
Arminian, although some have asserted that he was a
Socinian, and others have even called him an atheist,
without any foundation. One of his biographers styles
him a moderate Protestant, anxious to reconcile the
Lutheran with the Roman Church. Notwithstanding
the excellence of his treatise on the Right of Peace and
War—which was undertaken by him at the recom-
mendation of Peiresc, and met with universal approba-
tion in northern and western Europe—it was put on the
list of proscribed books at Rome. The History of the
Low Countries is divided into twenty-three books, and
comprehends the period from the departure of Philip
II to the year 1608: it isa work that may be compared
to the Historical Memoirs of De Thou. Salmasius,
Milton’s adversary, was jealous of this great man’s
merit, and employed his pen against him.

Grotius left three sons and a daughter. Of the
former the second, Perer Grotius, was one of the
most skilful diplomatists of the seventeenth century.
He held the important posts of Minister Residentiary
of the Prince Palatine with the States-general of
Holland: afterwards for seven years that of Pensionary
234 THE DUTCH CRITICS OF THE SIXTEENTH,

of Amsterdam: then ambassador to Sweden and the
Northern Courts; and subsequently he was sent, as his
father had been, on a mission to the Court of France,
in the time of Louis XIV. His latter days were troubled
by political prosecutions at home brought against him
by his enemies, and he was forced for a time to fly into
Germany ; but he ultimately surmounted these difficul-
ties, and died at his country seat in Holland, in his
seventieth year. The public talents of his family did
not expire with him, for one of his sons filled the office
of Drossart at Berg-op-Zoom, in 1695.

Few families in a private station of life can present
more honourable annals than those of the Van Groots,
who, from 1430 to 1700—a space of two hundred and
seventy years—stood amongst the foremost of their
fellow-citizens and countrymen in civic virtue, and pub-
lic as well as literary ability.

There were two families of the name of GRUTERUS
celebrated in the Dutch literary world. The one to be
mentioned first was that of Thomas Gruterus, who was
professor at Duisburg, and had taken refuge in the
Palatinate from the persecutions carried on against the
Protestants in the Netherlands. One of his sons, Peter,
practised as a physician at Dixmude and Ostend, and
is known for some learned collections of letters published
on various subjects; another, James, was Professor of
History at Middleburg in 1604; a third, Reinier, was
principal of the College of Casimir,.in the University of
Heidelberg ; and the fourth, John, travelled into Italy,
but, having there taken too active a part in opposing
the Roman doctrine of the eucharistical presence, he
was forced to fly from the country, in order to escape
the arms of the Inquisition.

The other family of this name, and the more cele-
SEVENTEENTH, AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES. 235

brated of the two, on account of the fame of JoHN
GRUTERUS, was of Antwerp, where his father, Walter,
was burgomaster, but was forced to fly to England for
refuge from the persecutions raised by the Spanish
Government against all Protestants; when he went to
reside at Norwich. He was married to an English lady
of the name of Catherine Tisham, who was a woman of
considerable learning, being mistress of the French,
Italian, Latin, and Greek languages; and it is recorded
of her that she used to read Galen in the original
Greek. It was to his mother’s instructions that the
young John Gruterus owed his early taste for profi-
ciency in the learned languages; and it was no doubt
through her influence that his father sent him to the
University of Cambridge, where he studied several
years. He afterwards studied law for some time in
the University of Leyden, and took there his doctor's
degree in that faculty. Being forced to leave his coun-
try, from the hostilities of the Spaniards, he went into
France, and remained there some years. We afterwards
find him in Prussia, and then in Saxony, where Duke
Christian gave him the Chair of History in the Univer-
sity of Wittemberg. Ultimately he became attached
to the University of Heidelberg, where he filled the
office of librarian, and had the misfortune to see not
only the public library plundered, and its most precious
MSS. and books carried off to Rome, but also to lose
his own private library, valued at twelve thousand
crowns, in the same manner. This happened in 1622;
and Gruterus, who had retired to Bretten, and after-
wards to Tubingen, died in the house of his son-in-law,
Smendius, at Berhelden, September 10th, 1627, aged
66.

Gruterus is reckoned to have been one of the most
236 THE DUTCH CRITICS OF THE SIXTEENTH,

indefatigable students that ever existed: he is said to
have studied nearly all day and the greater part of the
night, constantly standing to his work, and frequently
with his pen in his hand. One of his chief works is his
Thesaurus Criticus, in six volumes, 8vo, in which he
has collected a great number of the most celebrated
critical works extant in his time; another is the Delicie
Poetarum Gallorum, Italorum et Belgarum, in nine
volumes ; a third is the Florilegiwm, comprising a col-
lection of the proverbs of all nations, with learned
notes. He also published the Chronicon Chronicorum,
in four volumes ; but the best known of his compila-
tions is his celebrated collection of all the ancient in-
scriptions known to the world in his days. This work
had been originally begun by Martin Smetius, a native
of Brussels, who spent six years in visiting all parts of
Italy in search of inscriptions, and, having amassed a
ereat number, he added to them those already collected
by other scholars. When he had finished his work,
and it was still unprinted, a Flemish gentleman com-
missioned Smetius to write out for him a complete copy
of it. This he set about; but ere it was done his house
took fire, and all his MSS. were burnt, except fifty
leaves that had been kept apart from the rest. His
employer encouraged him to set about the work again,
and probably aided him in the task with his purse, for
we know that he accomplished it, and placed it in the
hands of his patron. This gentleman, Laurinus Van
Watervliet, went into France to escape from the wars
of the Low Countries, and took with him Smetius’s
MS., together with the great collection of ancient
medals formed by Herbert Goltzius, at an immense
cost of time and money ; but while on his road had the
iiisfortune to be pillaged of the whole by the English
SEVENTEENTH, AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES. 237

troops then in garrison at Ostend. Poor Smetius mean-
time lad been hung for a Protestant at Brussels ; and
these great collections seemed to be for ever lost.
However, Goltzius married the widow of his brother
compiler; and Jan Douza, happening to be sent at that
time by the States-General on a public mission into
England, had the good fortune to purchase there of a
soldier the MS. of the Inscriptions. This was placed
in the hands of Lipsius, who published them in one
volume folio; but Gruterus afterwards made consider-
able additions to them, and published them at Heidel-
berg in 1601. The Emperor of Germany had so high
an opinion of Gruterus from this work that he gave
him what was then considered a high favour, the ex-
clusive privilege or copyright of his works, and destined
for him the title of Count of the Empire, but died be-
fore the letters patent were signed. Gruterus is said
by one of his biographers to have left notes on all the
authors of ancient Greece and Italy, and he certainly
has given an excellent edition of Cicero. He was
married four times.

JoHuN Mevrsius was born at Losdun, near the Hague,
in 1579, and shewed so early an aptitude for classical
literature that, before he was thirteen years of age, he
could compose Greek verses with facility. Barneveldt,
when going as ambassador of the States-General to the
Court of France, took the young Meursius with him, in
the same way as he took young Hugo Grotius; and
sent him with his own son to the University of Orleans,
where he studied in the faculty of law. He afterwards
accompanied his benefactor to various parts of Europe,
profiting by the libraries he inspected; and in 1610, on
returning to Holland, was appointed Professor of His-
tory and of Greek Literature in the University of
238 THE DUTCH CRITICS OF THE SIXTEENTH,

Leyden. In 1625, however, being persecuted at home,
in consequence of his connection with Barneveldt, he
was induced to accept the post of Professor of History
and Politics in the University of Sora, then lately es-
tablished, offered to him by Christiern IV of Denmark.
Meursius discharged the duties of his new office with
great credit until his death on Sept. 20, 1639. Meur-
sius was one of the most learned of the great Dutch
professors, and has left us several most valuable treatises
on ancient Athenian laws and manners, which may be
said to be the foundation of what we now know on the
subject. These are all published in the great Thesaurus
of all by Gronovius. Another important work is his
Glossary of the Greek Language in the Middle Ages,
which, though superseded by the larger work of Du-
cange on the same subject, is nevertheless of no small
interest and value. He also left a considerable body
of annotations on various Greek authors, and _ his
authority is generally considered decisive in matters of
philology.

DanieL Hetystus was born at Ghent, A.D. 1580, and
was descended from a family of distinction which had
often supplied magistrates for the city. At the age of
three years, in consequence of the civil wars then dis-
tracting the country, he was carried by his parents into
Holland, and there remained for the rest of his life.
After studying at the Hague, he was removed to the
University of Franeker, in Friseland, where he dis-
tinguished himself, and thence came to Leyden, follow-
ing the lectures of Joseph Scaliger. He soon rose to
distinction in this university, and ultimately attained
the posts of Secretary and Librarian to the University,
having been, on Scaliger’s death, appointed Professor of
History in his stead. An eloquent Latin discourse of
SEVENTEENTH, AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES. 239

his, on the nature of a good library and the duties of a
librarian, attracted much notice in those days. The
great Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden wished him to
accept a political appointment as one of his councillors,
and Pope Urban VIII, a learned pontiff, and a patron
of letters, earnestly pressed him to come to Rome. The
Republic of Venice, too, conferred on him the dignity
of a Knight of the Order of St. Mark. He was an
excellent Greek scholar, and has left behind him nu-
merous works both im that language and in Latin,
including poems and translations of ancient authors.
He died Feb. 25th, a.p. 1645.

His son Nicholas, also a learned man, and a good
Latin poet, has left behind him numerous monuments
of his literary labours, including editions of Ovid, Vale-
rius Flaccus, Claudius, Prudentius, and Virgil, upon the
latter of which he is said to have spent thirty years.

We have now to review the labours of another family
of learned men.

JonN FRepERIC GRoNoviusS was born at Hamburg
in A.D. 1613, and, after travelling in Germany, Italy,
and France, was made Professor of Belles-Lettres at the
University of Deventer. He was elected to a chair at
Leyden in 1658, which he filled with great distinction,
and died there in 1671. He has left a considerable
number of works, but is best known in the learned
world for his annotations on classic authors, and -espe-
cially for his excellent editions of Seneca, Plautus,
Livy, Tacitus, Aulus Gellius, and Phedrus. These
literary labours alone are sufficient to entitle him to the
grateful remembrance of all modern scholars.

His second son, LAWRENCE THEopoRE, died at rather
an early age, but not before he had left memorials of
his learning, especially some notes and emendations on
240 THE DUTCH CRITICS OF THE SIXTEENTH,

the Pandects, and a treatise published in the great col-
lection of his brother.

JAMES Gronovivus, eldest son of John Frederic, was
esteemed one of the most learned men of his age. He
was born Oct. 20th, 1645, at Deventer, and, after
acquiring the rudiments of his education in that town,
studied at Leyden, under his father in both places, and
made the most extraordinary progress. - In 1670 he
came to England, and visited the Universities of Oxford
and Cambridge, making at the same time the acquain-
tance of Pococke, the traveller, Bishop Pearson, and the
famous Meric Casaubon, who, indeed, died in his arms.
Gronovius consulted some of the principal MSS. of the
English libraries, and afterwards went to Paris, where
Thevenot, d’Herbelot the Orientalist, and other savais,
welcomed his arrival. From hence he accompanied the
Dutch ambassador to Madrid, and afterwards visited
Italy, where the Grand Duke of Tuscany appointed him
to a valuable professorship in the University of Pisa.
After staying two years in this place, he went to Venice,
and from that city returned home, when he received a
professorship at Leyden. On taking possession of his
new chair, he made so admirable a discourse in Latin
that the curators of the university immediately gave
him an addition of four hundred florins to his salary.
He was afterwards made geographer to the university;
and, though repeated offers of chairs at Padua, Venice,
etc., were made to him, he refused to accept of any other
office, and he ultimately died at Leyden in 1716. The
great fault of this eminent man was his want of temper
in conducting literary controversy; and in this respect
he carried out one of the most striking errors of the
literary world of that date to a very unjustifiable
extent. Like his father, he was an indefatigable com-
SEVENTEENTH, AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES. 241

mentator, and we have editions by him of Herodotus,
Polybius, Macrobius, Arrian, Tacitus, Pomponius Mela,
Suetonius, Quintus Curtius, Ammianus Marcellinus,
etc. These, together with his numerous literary treatises,
would constitute him a critic and a scholar of the first
order; but his great work is his Thesaurus Grecarum
Antiquitatum, in 13 vols. folio: an immense compila-
tion; it is the standard book of its kind. It was
undertaken in imitation of the similar production of
Greevius, and is the chief monument of his literary
reputation.

JoHN GEORGE GRAEVIUS was one of the most learned
men of the seventeenth century, and one of the most
laborious in an age when men of learning did not spare
their time and their labour. He was born on January
29, 1632, at Naumburg, where his family lived in an
independent condition ; and in 1650 he was sent to the
university of Leipsic, where he studied under John
Stanchius, his mother’s kinsman. For two years he
stayed at Deventer, studying under John Frederic
Gronovius, who had induced him to abandon the pur-
suit of jurisprudence for that of polite literature; and
from thence he removed to Leyden and Amsterdam, in
which capital he became converted from Lutheran to
Calvinistic opinions. In 1656, being then in only the
twenty-fourth year of his age, he was appointed professor
at Duisburg by the Elector of Brandenburg; but two
years afterwards he succeeded Gronovius at Deventer,
on the removal of the latter to Leyden. In 1661 he was
named Professor of Eloquence at Utrecht, and twelve
years afterwards filled the chair of history and politics
in the same university. Here he remained till his
death, on January 11, 1703, notwithstanding that he

was often pressed by foreign powers, such as the Elector
R
242 THE DUTCH CRITICS OF THE SIXTEENTH,

Palatine and the Republic of Venice, to accept more
lucrative posts at Heidelberg or Padua. Out of eighteen
children, only one son and four daughters survived their
father ; but his literary productions remained and still
remain as imperishable memorials of his learning and
diligence. The great works by which his name is known
to modern scholars are the Thesaurus Antiquitatum
Romanarum, in twelve folio volumes, and the Thesaurus
Antiquitatum et Historiarum Italie, in three folio
volumes. The first comprises a collection of the best
treatises then extant upon the subject of Roman anti-
quities, specially so called, or as referring to the Roman
empire generally—to its government, its manners, etc. ;
the other is a similar compilation, referring to certain
populations of Italy. These works form the basis of
our knowledge upon these subjects, and are the standard
books of reference. In addition to these, Greevius gave
to the learned world numerous good editions of ancient
authors, including Sallust, Cicero’s Epistles, Catullus,
Tibullus, Propertius, Ceesar, etc. ; and he assisted Gruter
in editing his great collection of inscriptions. He kept
up an active correspondence with most of the literary
celebrities of his times, and was remarkable for the
general kindness and amenity of his character. Among
other works, he had begun a History of William ITI,
of England, and had brought it down to 1672.

The Family that bore the name of Vosstus, so dis-
tinguished in the republic of letters, was descended
from John Vossius, of Ruremond, who was obliged to
retire into the Palatinate, in order that he might hold
his opinions as a Protestant unmolested; and who, after
studying theology at Heidelberg, was made pastor of a
church in the neighbourhood of that university. From
hence, however, he was obliged to remove, on the Elector
SEVENTEENTH, AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES. 243

Louis requiring all the clergymen of his dominions to pro-
fess the opinions of Luther, as opposed to those of Calvin,
and he therefore came into Holland, where he became
a member of the university of Leyden, and ultimately
died pastor at Dordrecht, a.p. 1585. He appears to
have been a man of respectable acquirements, but not
greatly distinguished in the literary world. Probably
his ministerial duties left him little time for study; but
whatever may have been his own difficulties, he had
the good sense to remove all in his power from the
career of his son, Gerard John, who lived to become
one of the most eminent men of his times.

GERARD JoHN Vosstus was born at his father’s house
near Heidelberg, in the spring of 1577. He commenced
his academical studies at Dordrecht, graduated in 1591
as Master of Arts and Doctor in Philosophy at Leyden:
and the year after was appointed Rector of the Classes
at his old university, being then only twenty-two years
of age. In 1602 he married his first wife, who gave
him three sons; on her death he married again, and had
a second family of three sons and two daughters.
Vossius had now entered into the full career of uni-
versity studies and theological disputes, which were
always virulent in Holland: he took the Arminian side
of the question, and was much persecuted and annoyed
by his adversaries throughout the remainder of his life.
He had been appointed Rector of the States College at
Leyden ; and in 1618, when religious disputes were at
the highest, published his History of Pelagvanism,
This celebrated work brought on him a storm of per-
secution, in consequence of which he was deprived of
his university appointments; universities in Holland,
as well as in other countries, being then, as now, fond

of voting themselves infallible in theological matters,
| R 2
O44 THE DUTCH CRITICS OF THE SIXTEENTH,

and silencing their opponents, whom they could not re-
fute. He was not allowed to teach in the university, until
in 1622, upon a promise of suspending hostilities on his
part, the curators of the university summoned up courage
enough to appoint him Professor of Eloquence and His-
tory. Two years after this period, or at all events in
1624, we find the university of Cambridge opened
to him through the liberality of Fulke Greville, Lord
Brooke, who wished to found in it a Professorship of
History, and offered the first appointment of the Chair
to Gerard John Vossius. The negociation was carried
on by the means of Sir Dudley Carleton, then English
ambassador to the States General; and it might pro-
bably have ended in the acceptance of Vossius, had not
Mr. Doublet, a friend of his, who was then travelling
in Italy, and knew English society well, dissuaded him
from the project. The reasons of dissuasion were that
the English, however much they might admire talent in
foreigners, were too jealous and too proud of themselves
to admit of his being domiciled in England, and that he
would ultimately find such a post one of trouble and
harassing care. It is curious to remark that the salary
then offered was £100 a-year, and a house worth £20
a-year ; and it may be observed that no such professor-
ship was founded at Cambridge until the time of
George I,—a chair that has since been honoured by the
talents of such men as the poet Gray, and its late pos-
sessor, Professor Smyth. In 1624 Vossius published
his Treatise on the Greek Historians, and three years
afterwards that on the Latin Historians, dedicating the
latter work to the Duke of Buckingham and the uni-
versity of Cambridge. In 1629 Vossius came over to
England, accompanied by his sons Denys and Matthew :
and his reception, both by the king and the learned
SEVENTEENTH, AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES, 245

world, was worthy of his great reputation. Laud, who
had long been his correspondent, welcomed him heartily,
and Charles offered him a prebend in Canterbury
cathedral, with leave to enjoy it although resident in
Holland.

The city of Amsterdam founded a sort of university,
and prevailed on Vossius to put himself at the head of
this institution in 1631; but from this time he became
subject to bad health, and had the misfortune to lose
several of his children, especially his eldest daughter in
1638, by which his happiness was nearly destroyed.
Numerous works on grammar and theolegical subjects
continued to issue from his pen; but he gradually sank
under his infirmities, and expired after a violent attack
of erysipelas on March 17, 1649, aged seventy-two. He
had applied himself with great diligence to the exami-
nation and compilation of ecclesiastical history; he was
to have undertaken an enlarged edition of the Annals
of Cardinal Baronius: and for one of his works on
Gentile Theology and Christian Philosophy, dedicated
to the clergy of England, he received the solemn thanks
of the University of Oxford; a proof of the wide chasm
of doctrine that must then have existed between Oxford
and Leyden. His Etymologicon Lingue Lutine was
not published until after his death; and the French
critic, Menage, asserts that he was much indebted in
its compilation to the unacknowledged labours of other
authors, but this accusation appears not to have been
substantiated. He was the friend and correspondent
of all the most eminent literary men of his own country,
especially of Grotius; but he appears to have had warmer
friends and admirers in England than in Holland, pro-
bably on account of the harmony that subsisted between
his theological tenets and those of the Church of Eng-
246 THE DUTCH CRITICS OF THE SIXTEENTH,

land. He was a hard reader, and a quick writer; he
used to work late at night, and, on being once requested
to write a treatise on Greek grammar, assented, ob-
serving that it would be to him a thing of only four
days’ work.

The sons of Vossius, and they were numerous, were
all men who were either distinguished in the learned
world, or else gave great promise of what they would
have become had they lived longer. The eldest, JoHNn
Vossius, after studying at Leyden, went to Cam-
bridge, where, through the influence of Laud, he was
admitted at Peterhouse, and afterwards obtained a
Fellowship at Jesus College, in the same university.
About this time a friend of his father’s, Andrew Colvius,
who was travelling in England, sent over to Leyden an
opinion of the condition of Cambridge, which is curious
from its date and its nature. He observes that the
colleges of this university, though so celebrated abroad,
lose their importance on being closely examined ; that
advancement in them seems to depend more upon
seniority and length of standing than on literary or
scientific merit; and he confirms the opinion of Mr.
Doublet, mentioned above, by stating that though a
learned foreigner would certainly be welcomed at Cam-
bridge as a visitor, he would be by no means favourably
looked upon if he wished to become a resident. It
appears, however, that John Vossius had not that
energy of character which his father wished, for we find
continual remonstrances on his indecision and want of
application in his letters to his son ; and ultimately, on
his father’s recommendation, he gave up his post at
Cambridge, went into the civil service of the Dutch
East India Company, and died in India in 1636.

Francis Vossius, the second son, was a Doctor of
SEVENTEENTH, AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES. 247

Laws of the University of Dordrecht, and held the
post of advocate to the city of Amsterdam. Some Latin
poetry of his composition is extant; but he died in 1646,
without leaving any other claims to the title of an
author.

Marruew Vosstvs, the third son, distinguished him-
self in the historical department, and we have his
Annals of Holland and Zealand, besides some other
learned works of the same nature, to testify honourably
as to his acquirements. He obtained the posts of His-
toriographer of the States General and Librarian to the
city of Amsterdam; and he died in 1646.

GERARD, the youngest of the sons of John Gerard
Vossius, lived only to his twentieth year; but during
that short period had done enough to show that he was
worthy of his father, both in talent and industry. At
eleven years of age he had made great progress in
Greek and Latin, in sacred and profane history. At
seventeen he had collected notes and emendations of
Publius Syrus, and intended to give a new edition of
that author’s works. Two years afterwards he published
Velleius Paterculus, with notes of his own; but the
year following he died, of the same complaint as one of
his sisters, leaving behind him several works nearly
ready for the press.

The fourth son was Denys Vossius, and he was still
more distinguished than his younger brother Gerard,
although like him he died at an early age. He was
brought up under his father and Daniel Heinsius, and
at the tender age of ten attended the public lectures of
the celebrated Meursius on the Greek language. After
gaining an extensive knowledge of Greek and Roman
literature, he made himself a proficient in the Hebrew,
Syriac, and Chaldaic tongues ; and so well skilled was
248 THE DUTCH CRITICS OF THE SIXTEENTH,

he at an early period in Hebrew, that he is said to have
read through the Old Testament, in the original dialect,
twice before he was fourteen years of age. He studied
Arabic with such effect that he was able to increase, with
numerous words, the Arabic Dictionary of Raphelingius;
and when sixteen years old, occupied himself in trans-
lating a collection of Arabic proverbs. The Armenian,
AKthiopian, and some other eastern dialects, were also
acquired by him; and he was complete master of French,
Spanish, and Italian: add to which, that he probably
knew something of English, since he accompanied his
father to England in 1629, and must have been ac-
quainted with some of his numerous English friends.
He does not appear to have held any public post; for
although the king of Sweden had offered him a chair at
Dorpat, in Livonia, his father would not allow him,
from motives of health, to accept it. And when, at a
later period, the Swedish government had agreed to
make him historiographer to the crown, on condition of
his acquiring the Swedish language, and passing some
time in that country, death stepped in to mar the bril-
lant prospect, and this bright light was quenched just
as it was beginning to shed lustre on the literary world.
An edition of Julius Cesar, nearly completed by him
at the time of his death (1633, he was then only twenty-
two years of age), was afterwards published by Greevius.
The notes of this edition have been embodied in that of
Oudendorp.

Isaac Vossrus, the fifth, and the most celebrated of
the sons of Gerard John, was born at Leyden, in 1618,
where he was educated by his father, by his brother
Denys, and by a private tutor, conjointly. Attheage of
nineteen he became known in the literary world, and in
1639 he published an edition of Scylax, followed up the
SEVENTEENTH, AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES. 249

year after by one of Justin. In 1641 he set out upon his
literary travels, and visited the principal libraries of Eng-
land, France, and Italy, making the acquaintance of all
the most celebrated literary characters in those countries,
and commencing the voluminous correspondence which
he ever after maintained with them. In his letters to his
friends, written during the course of these travels, he
complains greatly of the extreme jealousy with which
the Italians kept their libraries ; observing, that they
guarded them more strictly than they did their wives :
that, even if one could enter them with the hands bound,
they would be afraid of something being stolen and car-
ried off by the eyes: and that after a library had been once
seen by any visitor, that same visitor could never obtain a
second entrance. Isaac Vossius fell ill at Venice, during
his Italian tour, which he attributes to over-indulgence
in the pleasures of the table ; for, as he remarks in one
of his letters, he found himself one day in a tavern, be-
tween some German and some English friends,—that is
to say, he adds, between the personifications of hunger
and thirst. The consequence was his malady. He re-
turned to Paris in 1643, and passed a winter there with
Hugo Grotius, enjoying the facilities for study, and the
charms of literary society, for which that capital was
then, as now, so justly celebrated. On returning home
to Holland he succeeded his deceased brother Matthew
in the posts of historiographer and librarian: but in
1649 accepted some pressing offers made him by
Christina, Queen of Sweden, and went to Stockholm.
Isaac Vossius had brought home with him from his
travels some valuable MSS., which he liberally com-
municated to all his friends who were engaged in edit-
ing learned works ; but, on his removal to the Swedish
capital, he took thither his own and his father’s library,
250 THE DUTCH CRITICS OF THE SIXTEENTH,

the latter of which, a valuable collection, he sold to the
queen for twenty thousand florins, keeping to himself
the privilege of being its inspector. The queen, who
had brought to her court Salmasius, Treinsheimius, and
other French and German savans, employed Isaac Vos-
sius to purchase for her books and MSS. in Paris : this
he did to a large amount, and, it is hinted, to his own
no small profit. From this time he began to quarrel
with Salmasius, and ultimately lost the queen’s favour :
so that he returned to Holland in 1654, shortly before
the abdication of his royal patroness. It appears, un-
fortunately for the reputation of Vossius, that he ab-
stracted some of the treasures of the queen’s library
before he left her capital; and afterwards, when that
Princess was in France, and in altered circumstances,
pressed on her the payment of some portion of his
salary, still due, in a most indelicate and ungrateful
manner. In 1658 he published an edition of Pomponius
Mela, the geographer; and soon after various other
works: at the same time he continued to collect rare
MSS. and scarce books, and to keep up his almost uni-
versal literary correspondence. In 1670, having taken
offence at the States General of Holland for presuming
to remind him that his office of historiographer had
hitherto proved a sinecure, he left Holland for England,
and in 1673 was appointed a canon of Windsor by
Charles II, though we do not find mention made of the
time when he took orders. An edition of Catullus was
published by him in 1683, and next year a volume of
various learned observations. His pen, indeed, was
never still; and he continued writing up to the time of
his death, which occurred at London, February 21, 1689.
It is related of him that his deathbed was anything but
an edifying sight ; and, indeed, it is asserted (what is
SEVENTEENTH, AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES. 251

very probable) that his opinions by no means coincided
with the doctrines of the church to which he nominally
belonged.

Vossius was exceedingly fond of shewing his know-
ledge of Asiatic antiquities and Eastern geography : it
being his principal pleasure to relate the marvels that
were to be met with in China. Charles II, hearing him
one day assert a great number of improbable things
concerning that country, turned to some of the lords in
attendance, and observed,—‘‘This learned divine is an
odd man: he believes everything except the Bible.”
This anecdote seems to shew the opinion currently en-
tertained of his orthodoxy. He understood most of the
modern languages of Europe, and had studied Arabic,
but is said not to have been a good scholar in them :
his strength lay in the ancient classic tongues. At his
death his extensive and valuable library, which he had
with him in England, was purchased by the university
of Leyden for thirty-six thousand florins : but, had not
the books been transferred immediately after the bargain
to the house of M. Van Citters, the Dutch ambassador,
means would have been found by the university of
Oxford to set aside the sale, and to secure these
treasures for the Bodleian library.

To the above biographical notes we wish to add only
the following brief remarks :—

1. The circumstance of so many eminent Literary
Families occurring in Holland is one of the greatest
rarity. Our own country affords few parallels ; France
and Italy few also: but, wherever such a circumstance can
occur, it speaks strongly to the moral integrity and the
sound national spirit of the people. Let us picture to
ourselves these grave and laborious professors of Leyden;
252 THE DUTCH CRITICS OF THE SIXTEENTH,

let us look at a Vossius or a Gronovius training up their
children by their fire-sides, and at an early period, in
those ways in which they were destined to tread so
honourably when old: how sober, how regular, how
constant must have been family discipline, when results
such as these could have been attained! It shews that
the children understood their parents’ pursuits: that
they took a pride in them : and that they were inclined
to form themselves on the same honourable models. No
wonder that great things are done by a small nation,
when such a stern and energetic purpose animates even
the children of the state.

2. Next it should be remarked, that the path of
literary distinction led frequently in Holland to public
employment :—that when a man, such as Grotius or
Heinsius, shewed great abilities in the abstractions, the
dry, and, what are called by modern political economists,
the useless niceties of literature, he was sometimes
thought worthy of being entrusted with diplomatic or
other public duties. He was not rewarded, as in other
nations has been the case, by being forced to adopt some
particular profession foreign to his pursuits, as an in-
direct mode of obtaining a reward. The Dutch had no
rich episcopal sees, no canonries and large livings to
bestow on their great literary men :—if they wanted
these they had, like Vossius, father and son, to apply to
the king of England:—but in Holland they had to live,
and they did live, by their profession as men of letters
only ; and the public institutions of the country were
sufiicienty ample, sufficiently open, to afford them suit-
able encouragement. The States-General of Holland
and the city of Amsterdam, we have seen, applied to
the family of Vossius for historiographers and librarians:
—to what great lights of learning have the Houses of
SEVENTEENTH, AND EIGHTEENTH CENTURIES. 253

Lords and Commons in England, or the Corporation of
London, addressed themselves for the same purpose ?
Is there any commercial city of England, approaching
Amsterdam in riches and population, or endowed with
a wealthy corporation, that ever thought of creating
oftices like these? In our own country the calling of a
mere man of letters is looked down upon; we are either
too aristocratic or too commercial to admit of such an
ill-defined, such a problematical vocation; but we are
almost the only people in Europe upon whom the
charge of such pride or such obtuseness can now be
fixed: and yet in Holland literature did not seem to
offer any great impediment to the progress of the
nation in wealth or power.

3. Few people now, except the most indefatigable
students, or the most confirmed bookworms, ever look
into the ponderous folios or the minute duodecimos,—
alike dark and dusty,—which bear the names of the
great authors and commentators who have been above
noticed. And yet there is a certain kind of pleasure
in thus holding converse with the learned dead, which
those, who have once tasted of it, are generally fond of
again enjoying. But who shall describe the delight of
the old-book hunter,—of him who values an “ Aldus”,
a “Stephanus”, or an “ Elzevir’, as he does a lump of
gold,—when he finds on some obscure stall a ponderous
and gloomy volume superscribed with the name of one
of these venerable Dutchmen? when he lights upon a
Greevius’ss Suetonius,—or a Variorum Seneca,—or a
genuine Lipsius’s Inscriptions,—any of them for a few
shillings? He throws down the vile cash, catches up
his dear volume, hurries home with it under his arm,
mounts to his garret four steps at a time, and passes a
night in its company worthy of the gods!
VIII.

LITERARY LABOURS OF THE
BENEDICTINES.

St. Benepict, the founder of this illustrious monastic
order, and indeed one of the fathers of monasticism in
Western Europe, was born at Nursia in the duchy of
Spoleto a.p. 480. At an early age he was sent to
Rome for the benefit of study, but quitted the Imperial
city at the early age of seventeen, and retired into the
solitude of Subiaco, about forty miles from Rome, where
he is said to have lived three years in a dark cavern.
Only one person, Romanus, as he is rather dubiously
called, and subsequently canonised, knew of his retreat,
and used to convey provisions to the young ascetic in
his subterranean abode, by means of a lowered rope.
Some inmates of a neighbouring monastery hearing of
Benedict’s conduct, and prepossessed with an idea of
his extreme sanctity, invited him to become their ab-
bot: he accepted the office for a time, but, finding the
mode of life adopted at the monastery unsuited to his
own ideas, he again retired into a state of solitude.
Many persons now began to follow him as their
spiritual leader; and, such was their munificence, that
he is said to have found the means of erecting several
monasteries in that district. In a.p. 529 he went to-
wards the more southerly portions of Italy, and ulti-
mately settled at Monte Cassino, where, on the hill-top,
was a famous temple of Apollo still flourishing. It is
said that he instructed the people of the surrounding
LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES. 255

districts in the doctrines of Christianity, converted
them, destroyed the image of Apollo in the temple, and
built two chapels on the hill itself. Subsequently to
this he founded there the celebrated convent of Monte
Cassino, established in it a large community of religious
personages, and at length drew up the orders of his
rule, called the Rule of the Benedictine Order, which
have since formed the foundation of nearly all the mo-
nastic rules in this part of the world. He died there
in A.D. 543 or 544, and it is said that his body was
afterwards carried into France to the large convent of
Fleuri; but this is disputed by some of the annalists of
the Benedictine order.

It is well known that from this original order of
monks, with various alterations of the rules, arose the
orders of Camaldoli, of Vallombrosa, of the Carthusians
under St. Bruno, of the Cistercians under Robert de
Molesme, and several others. Some enthusiastic chro-
niclers of the Benedictine Order have asserted, but
with the spirit of exaggeration rather than of truth,
that among the members of this religious fraternity
may be enumerated the following dignitaries, lay and
clerical ; 40 popes; 200 cardinals ; 50 patriarchs :
1600 archbishops; 4600 bishops; 4 emperors ; 12 em-
presses; 46 kings; 41 queens; and 3600 canonised
saints !

However, the learned Cardinal Baronius has shewn
that this list is far from being correct ; and he has
blamed the indiscreet zeal which caused it to be com-
piled; but, with the largest deductions made from
its numbers, it is still certain that the world is in-
debted to the Benedictines for a whole host of virtuous
and learned men, such, indeed, as cannot be surpassed
in the annals of any other monastic Order.
256 LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES.

A reform of the Benedictine monks took place in the
sixteenth century at the Convent of St. Vanne in Lor-
raine, and the improvements effected in the discipline
and arrangements of that institution were so consider-
able that the example was followed in other houses, and
ultimately received the Papal sanction. Pope Gregory
XV approved of the change, and Urban VIII allowed
the new congregation to assume the name of the Con-
eregation of St. Maur. This saint had been one of the
earliest companions of the founder of the order; but it
has been disputed even by the Benedictines themselves,
whether he was merely a monk of Monte Cassino, the
birth-place of the order, or whether he was not abbot
of the French monastery of Glanfeuil on the Loire: be
this as it may, his name became associated with this
peculiar branch of the Benedictines, and they require
to be distinguished by this appellation in order to sepa-
rate them from other congregations under the same
general rule. This new congregation of St. Maur was
divided into six provinces, each containing about twenty
monasteries, the whole being under the control of a
superior called the General. The most distinguished
of these monasteries were those of St. Remi, at Rheims;
Fleuri, or St. Benoit, on the Loire; Fescamp, in Nor-
mandy; the Trinity, at Vendéme ; Marmoustier, near
Tours; St. Denys, near Paris; and the famous Abbey of
St. Germain des Prés,in Paris itself. Altogether, in 1709,
there were a hundred and eighty-eight monasteries be-
longing to this congregation. The general chapter of
the order was held every three years at Marmoustier.
Besides the usual observance of religious exercises by
those who belonged to these houses, the members took
upon themselves in a special manner the honourable
profession of literary and scientific pursuits; and cer-
LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES. 257

tainly few bodies of men ever acted, collectively, more
fully up to the spirit of their vows than these learned
brethren. The various convents throughout France,
wherever the Benedictines were established, were dis-
tinguished for their size and their territorial revenues :
and those of the Congregation of St. Maur added, in
nearly every instance, the qualification of good learning
as well as piety subsisting among their members.
Though not the most central by position, nor the most
important of these houses by its wealth, yet the Abbey
of St. Germain des Prés, from the circumstance of its
being within the metropolis, in the centre of the lite-
rary world of France, became the most important house
of the Order, so far as the modern fame of the members
is concerned. It was within the walls of this abbey
that the recluse students, whose names have shed so
much honour on French literature, lived, studied, and
died, and hence the very title of ‘A Benedictine father”
carries the thoughts at once back to the walls of this
venerable convent and the shelves of its famous library.

The Abbey of St. Germain des Prés was situated on
the southern side of the Seine, and had been founded
by Childebert in 4.p. 550, on the recommendation of
St. Germanus, then Bishop of Paris. This king gave
it the fief of Issy, one of the richest domains in the
vicinity of Paris; and succeeding monarchs enriched
the institution with lands and privileges, until it ac-
quired a position of great importance. The superior of
the abbey had absolute jurisdiction within a large sur-
rounding district, and even had a prison within the
precincts of the abbey, where persons amenable to his
justice were confined. It was this prison (which still
exists, and which is one of the most curious of the His-

torical Monuments of Paris) that witnessed some of the
8
258 LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES.

most horrible massacres of the Revolution; and its name
will ever be associated with one of the worst episodes
of that abominable period. Westward of the abbey lay
the extensive meadows along the river side, from which
the abbey derived its name: and this meadow-land, from
being in after-times the resort of the students of the
university, was called Le Pré aux Clercs, just as the
abbey was itself styled St. Germain des Prés. In after-
times the whole became covered with sumptuous build-
ings, and is now known as the Faubourg St. Germain.
The only other portions of this once large establishment
which are still standing, are the abbatial house and the
abbey church. The former is a large building of the
time of Louis XITV—of imposing size and aspect; and
is one of the most characteristic features of that quarter
of Paris. The church is a fine specimen of the archi-
tectural styles of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries;
and, though two of its three towers have been partially
destroyed, yet the other portions of the building are
well preserved, and, indeed, a special reparation of the
whole has been undertaken by the enlightened zeal of
the French Government.

The literary visitor of Paris, the antiquary, the his-
torian, are almost sure to ask for St. Germain des Prés,
amongst the earliest objects of their curiosity; but they
will seek there in vain for what would have formed a
centre of powerful attraction, the famous library, for
which this monastery was known all over Europe.
During the Revolution the abbatial buildings were,
with the exception mentioned above, totally destroyed.
Among them was the library, but its contents were,
we believe, all transferred to the great national collec-
tion, now known as the Bibliothéque Impériale,—one
of the finest libraries in the world. There are, there-
LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES. 259

fore, no literary attractions to draw the visitor across
the Seine, towards this old Benedictine abbey. If he
would see the riches of the collection, he must stop in
the Rue de Richelieu, and he may there have a rich
bibliographical and literary treat. But he must know
how to ask for the treasures he seeks, and he must
know what those treasures are, otherwise his visit will
be of little use.

The bibliographical riches of the Benedictines do not,
however, come within the limits of the present paper ;
they may be found detailed in the various French
works written upon similar subjects: it is merely worth
while to observe, with regard to them, that they con-
stituted one of those mines of information from which
these monks extracted their literary gems. They were
both the cause and the consequence of their literary
labours. It was here that they found some of the
most valuable MSS. and printed books, upon which
they laboured ; and, as soon as the reputation of their
house had risen in the world of letters, donations and
legacies of books and MSS. came upon them from all
quarters.

Three curious MSS. may, however, be briefly men-
tioned : one was the Psalter of St. Germanus, written
on a purple skin, in letters of silver and gold : its date
was as old as the sixth century. Another was a Bible
of about the middle of the ninth century, in which the
famous seventh verse of the fifth chapter of the First
Epistle of St. John is found. And the third MS. was
another Bible of the same date, in which this same verse
is wanting. The first of these MSS., and, we believe,
the two others, may be seen in the collection of the
Bibliothéque Impériale.

The dress of the Benedictine Order was entirely

82
260 LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES.

black, and consisted, externally, of a long gown reach-
ing to the neck, with wide sleeves (from which it is
said that the gowns of several of the colleges in our
English universities have been copied), and also of a
hood, worn sometimes over the head,—as during the
long services of cold winter nights in the abbey church,
—sometimes thrown back upon the neck. The man-
ners and habits of the monks were exceedingly simple,
without being ridiculously austere: everything en-
couraged in them labour and perseverance, whether in
religious duties only, or in these conjoined with literary
pursuits. The eyes of all the men of letters in the
capital became turned towards the labours of these re-
cluses within their gloomy walls. The king and his
ministers favoured their exertions, while the Gallican
clergy and the Pontifical authorities of Rome promoted
them by all the means in their power. We have little
doubt but that very great sums of money must have
been devoted from the revenues of this house, and from
those of others of the same congregation, towards the
compiling and publishing of such large and expen-
sive books as we shall presently see they produced ;
otherwise a few poor monks could never have found
the means of getting their labours laid before the
world. It was, however, an honourable circumstance
in the French literary character of that day,—as, in-
deed, it has been ever since, and at no time more pe-
culiarly so than the present,—that works of solid lite-
rature, of great size and cost, such as were all those of
Benedictine mould, met with ready and even anxious
purchasers. Their ponderous tomes were speedily
caught up by the public. They were translated into
foreign languages, and reprinted in foreign countries ;
new editions became wanted, and new editions appeared.
LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES. 261

Even in our own times their labours are as fresh and
as useful as ever; new light has indeed been thrown
upon many of the subjects they treated of, but still
what they effected stands good; and accordingly, at the
present day, new editions of some of their works are
now passing through the press, and a fresh issue of
others is greatly wanted by the studious portion of
mankind.

The laborious activity of the Benedictines was not
confined, of course, to the members of this one monas-
tery of St. Germain des Prés; it shone forth with con-
siderable lustre in others of the same Order ; only here
it seemed to be concentrated into a flame of unusual
brilliancy, which, though made up of the single lights
that streamed from solitary cells,—fed, it is true, with
much midnight oil,—yet gave forth a steady and en-
during radiance that was felt throughout France, and,
we may say, throughout Europe. The peculiar pro-
vinces of literary research, assumed to themselves by
the Benedictines, were those of ecclesiastical and civil
history, in the most general sense of the term; anti-
quities of all kinds; chronology and geography ; divi-
nity, as a matter of course, throwing upon this subject
a vast amount of truly Christian philosophy ; and the
belles lettres, in the stricter meaning of the phrase.
Just as in the case of the Dutch critics, editors, and
commentators, there are hardly any profound students
of the great works of Greek and Roman literature but
must have found themselves anticipated, in almost every
portion of the field, by those industrious pioneers ; so
in all matters of modern history, in all that relates to
the study of antiquities, whether civil or ecclesiastical,
every inquirer is forced to confess his deep obligations
to these learned fathers for laying the foundations upon
262 LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES.

which the means of modern study are based. There
are very few students that can find out anything un-
known to a Benedictine.

In inquiring, however, into the lives and labours of
the Dutch Critics, ample materials may be found for
contemporaneous history and anecdote. We find them
mixed up with the civil history of their State, holding
offices of public trust, sometimes ambassadors to foreign
powers, often driven about and troubled from the cross-
ing of their path by political storms. Their peculiar
credit may be said to lie in their having been able to
effect so much, in the midst of a bustling and not very
literary community. We find, too, that their literary
genius seemed to run in a family, and that the Gronofs
and the Vosses seemed to inherit the abilities that made
their sires illustrious. It was necessarily a far different
case with the Benedictines, who, shut out from the
world by the rules of their Order—cut off from all the
troubles and the compensating endearments of family
life—seemed doomed to pass their lives over their books,
and were certainly placed in most favourable situations
for profiting by the contents of their extensive libraries.
It should be remembered, however, that this very state
of absolute (it might almost be called forced) repose
is one of the most dangerous temptations of monastic
life. For one man that has the courage and the perse-
verance to exert himself within the pale of a cloister, it
may be feared that there is a crowd who would let life
glide by in absolute indolence. The excess of quiet
acts as a fatal soporific to the mind, deadens the senses,
and weakens the faculties of the soul. Man requires
rousing to exertion; he wants to have the electric cur-
rent of thought sent through his brain by the great
battery of society ; like steel, he may have the hidden
LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES. 263

spark within, but he has need of the blow from the flint
to strike it out, and thus to originate the flame. Let
not the student sigh too much for the fancied sweets of
total seclusion. Monasteries have too often proved to
be “ Castles of Indolence”; and the warning of our own
admirable Bard may well be quoted as an argument
against some of their concomitant faults :—
O mortal man, who livest here by toil,
Do not complain of this thy hard estate ;
That like an emmet thou must ever moil,
Is a sad sentence of an ancient date;
And, certes, there is for it reason great;
For tho’ sometimes it makes thee weep and wail,
And curse thy star, and early drudge and late,

Withouten that would come an heavier bale,
Loose life, unruly passions, and diseases pale.

Though, however, the rules of the Congregation of
St. Maur provided most successfully, as has been proved,
against the evils of indolence, they could not hinder the
task of the biographer from becoming rather mono-
tonous and uninteresting, when applied to members of
that Order. For since the monks had no family con-
nections, no domestic events, to mix up with the details
of their literary lives, since they generally entered their
Order at an early age, and of course remained immured
in their cloistered solitude till their death, the usual
materials of a biographical account are absolutely want-
ing in all their cases.

When we come to inquire who these learned Benedic-
tines were, we find hardly any means of satisfying our
curiosity. All that is preserved of them are their names,
the places and dates of their birth, the times of their re-
nouncing the world, and the periods of their deaths.
They stand before us like solemn statues in the portal of
some ancient cathedral,—a goodly but uniform band of
264 LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES.

saints and priests,—motionless, voiceless. An inscribed
stone informs us of their identity, but that is all : there
they are, the monuments and records of the past. But
ever and anon some shade of the dead passes, as it were,
before our eyes—it points to the good works, the great
deeds, done in that body which it once tenanted: we
turn to the pages that contain their labours,—and we
come at once within the influence of that intellectual
voice which speaks not to the ear, but which thrills
through the soul; and we live in the ennobling company
of the learned and the good.*

There are, therefore, no biographical anecdotes, pro-
perly so called, to be given about the Benedictines. All
that we know of them concerns their written works,
and those only; it is only to the details of their lite-
rary labours that attention can be solicited. And even
here the materials that are available for the modern in-
quirer are not very accessible ; for the interest of their
works lies, not so much in the way in which those works
were compiled, as in the contents of the works them-
selves. But, then, who can pretend to have even skim-
med over all the books they wrote? who has had the
time to have dived deeply into more than a few of
them ?

The list of the more notable members of the Congre-
gation of St. Maur only, not including the other classes
of Benedictine monks, who flourished during the seven-
teenth and eighteenth centuries, and nearly all of whom
were authors, many of them exceedingly voluminous,
contains no less than four hundred names: a number
that might seem fabulous were there not the records of

* These pages were written and published several years before
the immortal work of M. de Montalembert—Les Moines de V Occident
—wus given to the world.
LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES. 265

the Order, and still more their works, to speak for the
fact. And probably we shall not be over the truth in
estimating the products of their pens at one thousand
volumes, for some of them published upwards of twenty
folio volumes each ; an amount of literary labour which
we really have not the means of appreciating in these
‘degenerate times”.

Taking, then, the names of these learned monks and
their works in alphabetical order,—not the whole four
hundred, but only a few of the more notable,—we come
upon the following (and wherever the word Dom. is
used—for that was the title they went by—it should be
remembered that it is an abbreviation of the old Latin
term of respect, Dominus; and by it they are univer-
sally known) :—

Dom. Luc p’AcHERI was born at St. Quentin, in
Picardy, a.d. 1609; and his erudition, as well as his
personal character, have entitled him to a high place
among the illustrious members of this Order. One of
his principal literary merits was the discovering and
the publishing to the world numerous valuable works
in MSS. which might otherwise have been slow in ap-
pearing before the literary public. Thus, in 1645, he
printed the Epistle attributed to St. Barnabas, and in
1648 the works of Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury ;
the Chronicle of the Abbey of Bec; the works of Gil-
bert, or Guibert, Abbot of Nogent; and numerous
other curious documentary works. The large number
of valuable charters and other rare documents, which
he printed along with these works, have been of great
use to the historical student. Finding, however, that
in the course of his reading he met with a considerable
number of rare documents, each possessed of their own
literary or historical interest, yet not sufficiently im-
266 LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES.

portant, perhaps, to publish by themselves, he resolved
to compile a large collection of them, which he accord-
ingly did, and gave them to the world under the title
of Spicilegium, in thirteen large 4to. volumes. This
extensive work contains more rarities than perhaps any
other of the same compass ; and the obligations of sub-
sequent scholars have been so great to the indefatigable
industry of this learned monk, that almost every one,
who has treated of the antiquities of medieval and
modern European history, has been obliged to acknow-
ledge the debt due to him. Dom. Luc d’Acheri was a
most sedulous student, passing his life in the most pro-
found retirement, seeing few persons, being remarkably
shy of communication, avoiding all visits, and of un-
usual modesty and reserve in his conversation. He
died at St. Germain des Prés, a.D. 1685 (April 16th),
eetat. seventy-six.

Dom. Beausois was the author of a learned history
of Brittany, in one volume folio; and also of a collection
of documents to serve for the illustration of this book,
in three other folio volumes: they are all of great au-
thority.

Dom. BovauET is a name better known to the conti-
nental historian than that of almost any other compiler
and editor, and indeed almost everyone, who has
studied the earlier portions of English history profes-
sionally, must be familiar with the sound. This Bene-
dictine was commissioned, by his Order, to draw up one
of those immense works, which from time to time have
been the peculiar boast of the French literary world, and
to which, it should be said with shame, we have little to
compare in our own country. It was considered highly
desirable that all the ancient and medizval writers
upon the history of France, of what kind soever,
LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES. 267

should be collected into one immense corpus historicum,
and published, it may be truly said, for the good of the
nation. Dom. Bouquet was entrusted with the com-
mencement of this arduous undertaking, and he lived
to compile and publish the first nine folio volumes of
the collection. Other Benedictines continued it after
his death : even in the times of Napoleon I more than
one volume was added: they now amount to twenty-
two very thick and large folio volumes, and it is said
that the collection is still going on. We know, how-
ever, that the collection of Memoirs alone concerning
French history, published nearly all by order of Go-
vernment, and principally under the auspices of M.
Guizot, amounts to three hundred 8vo. volumes. In
England, where we pride ourselves so much upon our
public spirit and national superiority, we have no
parallel to this.

Dom. Brtat, a Benedictine, born in 1745, and who
died in Paris so recently as 1828, was one of the com-
pilers of the twelfth to the eighteenth volumes of this
collection of Dom. Bouquet, or, as it is professionally
known, the Rerum Galhcarum Scriptores. He also
took part in the thirteenth to the sixteenth volumes
of the Literary History of France,—a great standard
work.

Dom. Brick was one of the authors of the Galha
Christiana, a large and most important work, being al-
most the equivalent of Dugdale’s Monasticon in Eng-
land, inasmuch as it comprehends accounts of all the
religious foundations of France, with complete lists of
the abbots, bishops, and other ecclesiastical function-
aries from the earliest periods.

Dom. Banpurt was the author of the Imperium Orien-
tule, in two volumes folio, so often appealed to by Gib-
268 LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES.

bon and Sismondi; also of the Medals of the Roman
Emperors, from Trajan to Constantine Paleologus, in
two volumes folio.

Dom. Avevstin Catmet, though of the Benedictine
Order, was not a member of that reformed portion of it
called the Congregation of St. Maur. He belonged to
another division, the Congregation of St. Vanne and St.
Hydulphe, and was born a.p. 1672. Having early dis-
tinguished himself by his profound knowledge of the
Greek and Latin languages, as well as Hebrew, he,
in 1707, by the advice of Mabillon, commenced the pub-
lication of his Cominentaries on the Old and New Testa-
ment. This valuable work was written in the French
language; it first appeared in twenty-five quarto volumes,
but afterwards in eight folios, and was subsequently
translated into Latin and republished at Venice. This
work he followed up by a History of the Old and New
Testament and of the Jews, in two quarto volumes; and
this again by the work for which he is best known to
English theological scholars, his Dictionary of the Bible,
which, with the Supplement, fills four folio volumes.
This admirable book, which displays an immense ex-
tent of learning and research, has gone through many
editions and translations. It was translated into Latin
and reprinted at Lucca, Venice, and Augsburg; it has
also been translated into Flemish and Dutch, and of
late years has appeared in English at London, with
various additions, and has even been issued in a cheap
popular form. A Life of Our Saviour also issued from
the pen of this active writer; and, besides numerous
works on various antiquarian subjects, he published the
Civil and Ecclesiastical History of Lorraine, in three
folio volumes, adorned with a multitude of plates. This,
like the other books above-mentioned, is appealed to as
LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES. 269

the standard of research in its peculiar department.
Dom. Calmet became abbot of two houses of his Order,
and was offered the dignity of an episcopal mitre by
Pope Benedict XIII, but this honour he did not accept.
Few names of theological writers are better known by
the world in general than that of this candid and in-
dustrious commentator.

Dom. CarPENTIER, who was born A.D. 1697, and died
A.D. 1767, is known to the learned world first of all for
his Alphabetum Tironianum, in folio; but, next and
principally, for his Supplement to the Great Glossary of
Ducange ; which latter work, taken conjointly with
this addition to it, may be safely pronounced as one of
the most valuable literary productions extant. Ducange
himself was not a Benedictine; he was a layman, and
one of the most profoundly-read men in mediezval an-
tiquities that ever existed. He conceived the useful
idea of publishing a complete Glossary of all the terms
of law, ecclesiastical and civil, as well as of all the words
used in the charters and writings of the Middle Ages,
in the debased or altered Latin of those epochs. The
way in which he accomplished this task was most satis-
factory : the work appeared in six folio volumes; but
still there was much to be added, and this Dom. Car-
pentier undertook to perform. He added four folio
volumes, but even this was not enough, and at the
present day the eminent Parisian publisher, Didot, has
brought out a new edition of this invaluable work,
thereby rendering a great service to all historians and
antiquaries. Without the Glossary of Ducange nothing
can be done satisfactorily in the study of history pre-
vious to the sixteenth century: we can hardly interpret
a single parchment without having recourse to these
pages. The original work is of high price, but the
270 LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES.

new one is of nearly the same amount; and those who
want information of this kind must be prepared to
pay for it. It is in seven quarto volumes, at no less a
cost than two guineas each. Benedictine learning is by
no means at a discount.

The name of Fretrpren is honourably known, not only
among the Benedictine authors, but also in the general
world of letters. The father of the monk was André
Felibien, a gentleman of independent property who
held the honourable post of historiographer to Louis
XIV, and was the protégé both of Fouquet and Col-
bert. He is best known for his work on the Celebrated
Painters of Modern Times, and for another on the
Principles of Architecture, Painting, and Sculpture,
both of them excellent books, and both translated into
English (the latter by the Duke of Perth). He was
one of the first eight academicians appointed by Colbert.
His brother James was a clergyman of great learning
and exemplary character, who has left behind him some
works that prove his literary merits. There were three
sons of André :—one of them, Nicholas, entered into
the secular service of the Church, and became Dean of
the Chapter at Bourges. The second, John Francis,
succeeded his father as historiographer to the king, and
has left behind him a standard work containing the
lives and operations of the most celebrated architects,
as well as historical descriptions of Versailles and the
Church of the Invalides at Paris. The third son,
Michel, entered into the Order of Benedictines when
he was no more than seventeen years of age, and from
thenceforward dedicated his life to the pursuits of
study. Among other books of reputation, which he has
left us, are the [istory of the Abbey of St. Denis, which
may be taken as a model for other works of the same
LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES. 271

nature, and is equal to that of Dom. Bouillart on the
Abbey of St. Germain des Prés, to which they both be-
longed. He was engaged by the civic authorities of
Paris to write a complete history of that city, but he
only lived to work at it for three years, and then left
his labours unfinished, to be completed by Dom. Lobi-
neau, the learned historian of Brittany. This latter
work, in five folio volumes, is still the great book of
authority upon Parisian history, and forms a noble
monument of the enlightened liberality of the corpora-
tion of that metropolis,—an example that might be
worthily followed elsewhere.

Dom. MicHEL GERMAIN was born at Peronne, in
Picardy a.p. 1645. We know little of his life, except,
that he was an active member of the Benedictine
Order ; but we have most extensive proofs of his learn-
ing, from the share taken by him in aiding the famous
Dom. Mabillon, not only in the great work De Re Diplo-
maticd, but also in the Acts of the Benedictines. He
wrote a history of the Royal Abbey of Notre Dame at
Soissons, and had even commenced the gigantic work
of a complete historical account of all the congregations
of the Rule of St. Maur. He died in the midst of his
labours a.D. 1694, before he had completed his fiftieth
year. He had been the companion of Dom. Mabillon
in his journeys into Germany and Italy in search of
manuscripts and various antiquities.

Dom. Gu1-ALEx1s LoBiInEAU was born at Rennes, in
Brittany a.p. 1666. He entered the Benedictine Order
in his eighteenth year, and became one of the best his-
torians of his time. His principal work is the History
of Brittany, in two folio volumes. It had been begun
by Dom. Gallois, but was left for Lobineau to complete
and finish. His intimate acquaintance with Celtic and
272 LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES.

Armorican antiquities rendered him eminently qualified
for the task ; and he in consequence produced a work
that has ever since maintained its reputation untar-
nished. Another work was the Lives of the Saints of
Brittany; and a third, and a more considerable one,
was the completion of the History of Paris, mentioned
above as having been begun by Dom. Felibien. This
great work has only the first two volumes devoted to a
continuous narrative of the events that have occurred
in that most historical city; the last three volumes con-
sist of charters, documents, proofs, and illustrations of
the narrative. Taken conjointly with the labours of M.
Sauval on the same subject, in three folio volumes, we
may be said to know as much about the antiquities of
Paris as we want. Few cities, indeed, have met with
so many able historians; and few have offered better
ground for the labours of the antiquary to be exercised
upon.

Dom. LEGALLOIS was a fellow-labourer with Lobineau
in the History of Brittany, and was also author of seve-
ral ecclesiastical works.

Dom. LEPELLETIER was the author of an excellent
Dictionary of the Old Breton or Armorican Language,
in one volume folio. Like others of his brethren, he
belonged to a Breton monastery, and was one of the
most learned scholars in Celtic matters that Brittany
has produced. The Armorican portion of the Celts
have been truly fortunate in having such learned men
as Lobineau, Lepelletier, and Pezron, to illustrate their
history and their language.

Dom. JEAN MABILLON is one of the peculiar lights of
the Benedictine Order; and his name holds a place of
high honour, not only among his learned brethren, but
also among the very first of the most eminent anti-
LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES, 273

quaries of France. He was born in the diocese of
Rheims a.p. 1632, and took the monastic vows in the
famous Abbey of St. Remi, at Rheims, in his twenty-
third year. His whole life was consumed in the most
untiring pursuit of history, antiquities, theology, and
other subjects ; and the works, that proceeded from his
pen, would suffice to create the literary reputation of
several less diligent authors. The first book in which
he gave evidence of his future powers, was a new
edition of the works of St. Bernard, the sainted monk
of Cluny; and the learning shown in it was such, that
he was shortly after commanded by the superiors of the
Benedictines to undertake the history of the Acta Sanct-
orum, or the deeds of the saints of that order. The
first volume of this great undertaking appeared in 1668,
and he followed it up by no less than eight others, all
in folio; yet those sufficed to bring down that histori-
cal account only to the eleventh century. This work is
known, not only for the great mass of historical docu-
ments, charters, etc., which it recites and collects, but
also for the learned prefaces inserted in it by its au-
thor; in which he has shown himself to be not only
a complete, but also a thoroughly philosophical, master
of the history of the Christian Church—at all events
for those early periods: while many of his ecclesiastical
writings of a later date, and referring to more modern
eras, would lead us to make the same inference for the
whole of the Christian annals. These prefaces have
been printed in a separate form. Mabillon, in 1675,
published the first volume of his Analecta, which was
followed by five others, being a collection of documents
and short works upon various subjects, and including
the account of a literary and antiquarian journey made
into Germany in company with Dom, Germain. In
T
O74 LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES.

1681 appeared the great work, upon which his fame
chiefly depends with modern scholars, being that which
has served as one of the text books for historians and
antiquaries down to the present time—the Treatise De
Re Diplomaticd, in one folio volume. In this learned
book Mabillon not only gives, in a series of erudite dis-
sertations, a complete account of the principal ancient
charters and documents of importance subsisting in
Europe, but also lays down a complete code of paleo-
graphy, and furnishes a most ample statement of the
different variations, which the manner of compiling
and engrossing charters has undergone in various ages.
A large portion of the book is taken up by facsimile
copies of various royal charters, and the whole may
be described as a sine qud non to the professed an-
tiquary. It is a matter of surprise that the first por-
tion of this work should never have been translated
into English, illustrated with a selection of documents,
and published in a commodious form for the use of the
historical student. Mabillon, during the course of his
travels in Italy, came to Rome, and was received there
with great distinction by the Pontifical Court ; he had
an opportunity of examining all the most celebrated
libraries of Italy conjointly with Dom. Germain; and on
his return home he gave the results of his travels to
the learned public under the title of Museum Italicum.
Many works on points of controversial divinity pro-
ceeded from the pen of this universal author, and drew
him at times into much unpleasant discussion. At one
time, indeed, it was rumoured that he had altered his
views of orthodoxy, and he published a letter in conse-
quence addressed to the Roman Catholics of England,
where the rumour had originated, to deny its correct-
ness. It appears, however, that some observations
LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES. 275

which he had made upon the bodies of early Christians
buried in the catacombs of Rome, and which, it is said,
the Court of Rome has sometimes extracted, affixing
gratuitous names to them, as the remains of undoubted
saints and martyrs, caused offence at the Vatican ; and
we know that the learned author found it necessary to
make some explanations upon the subject. Another of
his works was the Liturgy of the Gallican Church, with
copious Annotations ; and another, not published, was
an Antiquarian Journey through Burgundy: he put,
however, the crowning stroke to his literary reputation
by the Annals of the Benedictines, of which he lived to
publish four folio volumes; a fifth was left by him
nearly finished, and was edited by Dom. Ruinart soon
after his decease, and the work has been since continued
by other members of the Order. Dom. Mabillon died
at St. Germain des Prés in a.p. 1707, aged seventy-
five years. The reputation which he enjoyed during
his lifetime was very great; and it was accompanied
by the respect and friendship of the principal literary
men of the day. He was a man of profound humility
and amiableness of character; his piety was sincere—
his industry is sufficiently attested by the works he
produced. A good biographical account of this literary
star was written by his friend Dom. Ruinart, himself
no small ornament of the Order, and several eulogies
appeared from various pens when his decease became
known.

Dom. EpMonp Martenne was born of a respectable
family in the diocese of Langres, 4.D. 1654. He entered
the Order of St. Benedict at the age of eighteen, and
throughout a long life was most laboriously occupied in
literary labours. After the appearance of some works
of minor importance, he published. his learned Treatise

pe
276 LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES.

on the Ancient Rites of the Monastic Orders, in two
quarto volumes, which has been ever since the standard
book on the antiquities of that subject, and has passed
through more than one edition. This was followed by
a similar work on the Ancient Rites of the Church, and
by another on Ancient Church Discipline; both of them
bearing the same character of being the standard books
of reference for subjects of this nature, and both re-
printed. Dom. Sainte Marthe having occasion to re-
quire aid for the compilation of the Gallia Christiana,
Martenne was ordered by the superiors of St. Germain
des Prés to visit most of the monasteries of the Bene-
dictine confraternity in France, accompanied by Dom.
Durand, in order to search for documents in illustration
of the great book just named. They performed this
task with so much activity and zeal, that, besides bring-
ing back with them to Paris more than two thousand
documents for the Gallia Christiana, they collected
materials for five folio volumes, consisting of other docu-
ments.and rare papers. These Martenne published un-
der the title of Thesaurus Novus Anecdotorum: to
which another volume, making the sixth, of similar do-
cuments, was also added. These two learned Bene-
dictines published besides an account of their literary
travels under that title; and the two quarto volumes
that resulted have been a storehouse for French anti-
quaries ever since. These fellow-labourers, not content
with this display of their learning, and the good service
they had thereby rendered to the world of letters, after-
wards published another collection of old writers and
documents, upon historical and religious subjects, which
they justly styled Aimplissima Collectio, it beg in
nine folio volumes. Dom. Martenne was concerned in
several other of the great literary undertakings of the
LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES. 277

Benedictines, and died in the midst of numerous pro-
jected works a.p. 1739, aged eighty-five.

Dom. BernarpD DE Montravcon, one of the brightest
stars of an illustrious galaxy of learned men, was of noble
birth, and first saw the day at the Chateau of Soulage,
in Languedoc, a.p. 1655. His father’s usual residence
was at the Chateau of Roquetaillade. He was not in-
tended, originally, for the Church; but, on the contrary,
was brought up to the honourable profession of arms,
entered the regiment of Perpignan, and served in its
ranks with distinction during two campaigns. The
death of his parents, and of a superior officer upon
whom his hopes of promotion much depended, induced
him to leave the army ; and some other events having
occurred to render him tired of society, he resolved to
enter a monastery; and, in 1676, he became one of the
Benedictine Order. He had made the ancient lan-
guages his deep study, and he soon edited various
works on ecclesiastical antiquities and history: among
others, a new edition of the works of St. Athanasius.
In 1698 he determined to go into Italy, accompanied
by a religious brother, Dom. Paul Brioys, in search of
manuscripts and rare works; and, on his return, after an
absence of three years, he published his Diariwimn [tali-
cum; a work that has been translated into English, and
was published in London in 1712. This curious book
gives an account of the principal libraries of Italy and
their contents, and is still a most useful book of refer-
ence for Italian travellers. In 1706 he published a col-
lection of inedited Greek authors upon ecclesiastical
subjects, in two folio volumes ; and many other smaller
works came out from his study about the same period.
In 1708 appeared his Paleographia Greca, in folio, a
work illustrating, by a considerable number of plates
278 LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES,

and learned dissertations, the whole history of Greek
writing, with the variations of the Greek characters
from the earliest times down to the present. This was
almost the first work written upon the subject, and it
has served as the text-book for all students of this
branch of Greek literature, until the same topic has
been taken up, only a few years ago, by some modern
scholars, and new light thrown upon it. In 1719 he
was named one of the members of the Académie Fran-
caise, and in the same year sent forth to the world
his magnum opus, VAntiquité Expliquée, in ten folio
volumes, with a Supplement of five more, making in all
fifteen enormous folio volumes. Of the importance of
this great book to the antiquarian and the historical
world, it is hardly possible to speak too highly. Its
object was to lay before the public a vast series of ob-
jects of ancient art, of architecture, of sculpture, ete.,
and to illustrate the whole by plates, executed in the
highest style which the age admitted of This the
learned author effected most completely ; and it is to
this very book that the foundation of all our most im-
portant branches of archeological knowledge at the
present day may be ascribed. The obligations of the
continental antiquary to Montfaucon are immense; and
his work will stand the test of future ages, as one of
the most extensive monuments of antiquarian research
ever made by one man. This large work was reprinted
almost immediately in France, and it has been trans-
lated into English and republished in London: the
price is still from fifteen to twenty guineas, and it is
likely to increase rather than sink in value. Dom.
Montfaucon followed up this great undertaking by an-
other of the same nature, The Monuments of the French
Monarchy, in five folio volumes, with a great number
LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES. 279

of plates and illustrations: and in 1739 came out his last
work, The Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum Manuscriptarwn,
—being a compendious account of the contents of nearly
all the MS. libraries of note with which he was acquainted,
in two folio volumes. This most indefatigable writer died
suddenly in the Abbey of St. Germain des Prés, a.p.
1741, aged eighty-six. Independently of the works
enumerated above, there is a whole host of papers and
memoirs upon all kinds of subjects by his pen, in various
collections ; and, to give an idea of the variety of his
objects of research, we may mention that the title of
one of his papers is that of “Objects to be Examined into
in a Journey to Constantinople and the Levant.” In
the world of letters there are few who have been able
to bring forward such proofs of unremitting labour as
Dom. Montfaucon.

Dom. Pernetry took a line of reading far different
from most of his colleagues; for he has left us an excel-
lent work on America and the Americans, a Mythologi-
cal Dictionary, a Collection of Greek and Egyptian
Fables, etc. He died as late as 1801.

Dom. PomMERAYE was an indefatigable recorder of
ecclesiastical antiquities, and produced Histories of
three Abbeys at Rouen, a History of the Archbishops
of the same diocese, and a History of the magnificent
Cathedral of that most interesting city—all ponderous
tomes, and, in the antiquary’s eye, worth their weight
in gold.

Dom. Rivet DE LA GRANGE was the principal author
of The Literary History of France, of which he edited
the first nine volumes. This is a most valuable and
learned work, to which we have not as yet any suffi-
ciently good parallel in England. All the writers of
France, with their works, are there classed and passed
280 LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES.

in review; and this, too, with a display of learning and
candour infinitely creditable to its authors. Many
brethren of the Benedictine Order contributed to this
work.

Dom. Turerry Rurtnart was born at Rheims 4.p.
1657, and entered the Benedictine Order at twenty
years of age. He placed himself under the guidance
and tuition of Dom. Mabillon, and helped that learned
author in several of his works. The first work of his
own that he published, and for which he is best known,
was the Acta Martyrwm, in folio, in which he contended,
in opposition to Mr. Dodwell, that the number of early
Christian martyrs was very large; and his arguments
on that side of the question are supported by great
learning and knowledge of ancient documents. In 1699
he published a new edition of the works of Gregory of
Tours ; and he afterwards aided Mabillon in compiling
and publishing the Acts of the Benedictine Saints, in
two volumes, folio; and after Mabillon’s death he wrote
and published his Life, which is an interesting piece of
literary and ecclesiastical biography. Dom. Ruinart
was the author of numerous theological works, less
known than those mentioned above. He died a.p.
1709s

Dom. CLAUDE DE Vic, who was born at Soréze A.D.
1687, though not such a voluminous writer as some of
the great men mentioned above, was yet intimately
connected with them in their labours, and is, in parti-
cular, well known to historians and antiquaries as being
joint author, with Dom. Vaissette, of the great History
of Languedoc. This work, like almost all other literary
productions of the Benedictines, is a standard work ; it
is the great authority for all that concerns the early
history of that part of France; and now that it is re-
LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES. 281

appearing in a new edition, we know all that has been
preserved of the history and traditions of a country
peculiarly rich in important events and remarkable
places. Dom. Vic had the agreeable task, during a
lengthened residence at Rome, of having to search the
libraries on behalf of his fellow-labourers at home; and
he had the good fortune to be of considerable use to
his friends in this manner. He was much looked up to
by literary men of his day, and he died at the compara-
tively early age of fifty-three, in a.D. 1734.

Dom. Sarnte Marrue was the principal author of a
great work already named, G'allia Christiana, of which
he was considered responsible for eleven folio volumes.
All the learning of the Order is shewn forth in this
work, which, as may be imagined, was beyond the com-
pass of any single person’s industry. Sainte Marthe,
therefore, had several assistants, but his name, never-
theless, takes precedence. He also published a life of
Pope Gregory I, and an edition of his works.

Dom. TassIn was a main contributor to another great
book, on paleeography and diplomatic matters, Nowveaw
Traité de Diplomatique, which was intended to serve as
a Supplement and a continuation to Mabillon’s magnum
opus. It is in six quarto volumes; and, like its pre-
decessor, may be pronounced as indispensable to the
professional historian and antiquary. While upon this
subject, we may mention that, if anybody, not aware of
the importance of such subjects, would see to what a
highly interesting and practical use it may be turned,
he should consult Prof. Westwood’s elaborate work,
entitled Paleographia Sacra, lately published in Lon-
don; or Mr. Henry Shaw’s Specimens of Ancrent
Tiluminated MSS., both splendid books of their kind
and readily accessible. Dom. Tassin also wrote the
282 LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES.

Interary History of the Congregation of St. Maur, a
most interesting book, and quite @ propos to our subject.

Besides the learned men whose names we have re-
hearsed. above, there were numerous others, who applied
themselves to Hebrew and Arabic, and who explored
the works of those languages with the same success
that attended their brethren in different pursuits. The
Benedictine character stands deservedly high in this as
in other branches of human knowledge. Others wrote
upon topics of natural history and physiology; some
upon medicine ; some on natural philosophy ; but their
numbers were less considerable, and their works were
not of the same importance.

The theological writers of the Order comprehended
almost every member of it; but it is not intended on
the present occasion to go into an enumeration of their
labours: we will only remark that they distinguished
themselves principally as editors and commentators ;
and that, among other valuable services in theological
literature, they gave to the world a nearly complete
edition of all the Greek Fathers.

We have reserved, however, to the last the mention
of one of the greatest of the Benedictine labours, as be-
ing, unfortunately, that very one, upon which we have
the least satisfactory information as to the names of its
authors. The work itself is of such a nature that we
may not unreasonably infer a great number of compilers
to have been employed upon it; we might almost say
that it is the result of the united labours of the whole
Order. Every reader of the immortal pages of Gibbon
or Sismondi, all who know anything about the labour
of making original researches in historical matters, will
recognise the work alluded to, L’Art de Vérifier les
Dates. This is the great collection of chronological
LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES. -283

tables, the great summary of all history, ancient as well
as modern, the great multwm in parvo, for which, if
the Order produced nothing else, the thanks of all sub-
sequent scholars would be voted unanimously. It may
be truly said that no book ever held so important a
place in modern historical literature as this. It con-
tains a most exact summary of the history of all na-
tions ; so exact, that to detect an error in it may, com-
monly speaking, be called an impossibility. The de-
cisions of this book are always looked upon as final; he
who possesses a copy of it has indeed a treasure. Seve-
ral editions of this splendid work have appeared; the
old ones are not now to be purchased in a complete
state except at a great price, twenty-eight guineas for
the eight folio volumes, of which it consists; even the
new edition, in quarto, is not much cheaper, being
twenty-four guineas for ten volumes. The last edition,
in 8vo., is, however, more accessible, and sells at four-
teen guineas for the forty-one volumes, of which it is
composed. We have found only three names of Bene-
dictines as immediately and ostensibly connected with
this great work, those of Dom. Clément, Dom. Clémen-
cet, and Dom. Durand; but it is well known that there
were many others.

To revert, in a few words, to the general literary
labours of the Benedictines of St. Maur, we cannot
avoid coming to the following conclusions :—

First, that the nature and number of the works pro-
duced by those patient and studious monks, the high
character they have ever held among all who are really
competent to judge of their merits, reflect the highest
honour on the Order itself, and on the literary spirit of
the age, which must have been a concomitant cause
and result of such learned exertions. There were
284 LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES.

learned authors in abundance amongst the other mo-
nastic orders of France, but there did not exist such a
compact body of hard-working and successful men as in
the Congregation of St. Maur; and at the present day
the very name of a Benedictine may be styled a by-
word, not of disgrace, but of high honour and esteem
amongst all the learned men of France.

Secondly. That during the same period, notwith-
standing our richly endowed Universities in England,
and our other wealthy institutions, we did not produce
anything like the same number of great and standard
books in similar departments of literature. Not that
the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were idle
times in England, but that our attention was turned
elsewhere. We had our Bacon, our Milton, our New-
ton, our Locke, and our Butler in those periods, and
our national fame may safely rest under their protec-
tion; but, in the way of patient compilation and editing
and examination, we did not effect so much as the
Benedictines did in France. The national mind was of
a different turn in our country from what it was in the
other, caused by differences of politics, of religion, and
of social institutions, too obvious to need further allu-
sion.

Thirdly. That this example of so much learning
and literary labour amongst men under such circum-
stances as the Benedictine monks, should make us sus-
pend awhile the sweeping condemnations, which it is
sometimes the fashion to pass indiscriminately on all
monastic orders and institutions. Monastic life has its
peculiar dangers, temptations, and evils; but, surely,
here is evidence that it has also its good results. The
peculiar style of works, to which the Benedictines de-
voted themselves, were all well suited to their condition,
LITERARY LABOURS OF THE BENEDICTINES. 285

their profession, and their mode of life. Whether in-
closed in their quiet cells, or hunting up the treasures
of their extensive libraries, or pacing round their solemn
cloisters and meditating upon the results of their studies,
they must have been always actively and usefully em-
ployed.

And what unusual feelings of literary enthusiasm
must have animated the men, who knew that they
were labouring altogether for others, and for pos-
terity—not at all for themselves! No public honours
nor emoluments awaited their brightest efforts; no
worldly advancement was to be their lot: they had
entered the cloister young, and, even should they live
to be old, were to die within its sacred pale; like
lamps lighted within the walls of some mausoleum,
they were to shine indeed, but only on the dead! Such
rare examples of literary disinterestedness should not
be without their due weight in times like our own,
when the thoughts of the present engross the national
attention, and traditions of past years, as well as pro-
spects of future ones, are made to bend in humble sub-
serviency to exigencies of the fleeting day. The Bene-
dictines have won for themselves an honourable name,
but they have left no posterity to profit by the reflected
honour. They are gone; their monasteries have been
demolished, or applied to other uses; the very country,
that once derived so much credit from their presence,
has repudiated the Order; all has disappeared except
their works. But these live, and the memory of their
authors cannot but be gratefully preserved by the whole
body of the literary world.

THE END.
 

 

Catalogue of Books
PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH,
36, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.

 

R|DLARD (George).—The Sutton-Dudleys of England, and
the Dudleys of Massachusetts, in New England.
8vo, pedigrees, &c., cloth. 158

An interesting volume to the English genealogist, it contains a
good deal of new matter relating to this old English Family and

SSI their collateral branches.

  
     

&,

AGINCOURT.—A Contribution towards an Authentic List of the
Commanders of the English Host in King Henry the Fifth’s
Expedition. By the Rev. JosrpH Hunter, post 8vo. 2s 6d

AKERMAN’S (John Yonge, Fellow and late Secretary of the Society
of Antiquaries) Archeological Index to Remains of Antiquity of
the Celtic, Romano-British, and Anglo-Saxon Periods. 8vo,
tllustrated with numerous engravings, comprising upwards of
Jive hundred objects, cloth. 15s

This work, though intended as an introduction and a guide to the study of
our early antiquities, will, it is hoped, also prove of service as a book of
reference to the practised Archeologist.

“One of the first. wants of an incipient Antiquary is the facility of comparison ;
and here it is furnished him at one glance. The plates, indeed, form the most
valuable part of the book, both by their number and the judicious selection of
types and examples which they contain. It is a book which we can, on this
account, safely and warmly recommend to all who are interested in the
antiquities of their native land.”—Literary Gazette.

AKERMAN’s (J. Y.) Introduction to the Study of Ancient and
Modern Coins. Foolscap 8vo, with numerous wood engravings
from the original Coins (an excellent introductory book), cloth.
6s 6d

Contents :—Szct. 1,—Origin of Coinage—Greek Regal Coins—2. Greek Civie

Coins—3. Greek Imperial Coins—4. Origin of Roman Coinage—Consular Coins

—5. Roman Imperial Coins—6. Roman British Coins—7. Ancient British

Coinage—8. Anglo-Saxon Coinage—9. English Coinage from the Conquest—

10 Scotch Coinage—11. Coinage of Ireland—12. Anglo-Gallic Coins—13. Con-

tinental Money in the Middle Ages—14. Various Representatives of Coinagse—

15. Forgeries in Ancient and Modern Times—16. Table of Prices of English

Coins realized at Public Sales.

 

 
 

 

2 BOOKS PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY

AKERMAN’S (J. Y.) Remains of Pagan Saxondom, principally from
Tumuli in England, drawn from the originals. Described and
illustrated. One handsome volume, 4to, dllustrated with 40
COLOURED PLATES, half morocco. £2. 2s (original price £3)

The plates are admirably executed by Mr. Basire, and coloured under the

direction of the author, which is not the case with a re-issue of the volume
now sold bound in cloth. It isa work well worthy the notice of the Archzologist.

AKERMAN’S (J. Y.) Coins of the Romans relating to Britain.
Described and Illustrated. Second edition, greatly enlarged
8v0, with plates and woodcuts, cloth. 10s 6d

The ‘‘Prix de Numismatique” was awarded by the French Institute to th
author for this work.

“Mr. Akerman’s volume contains a notice of every known variety, with
copious illustrations, and is published at a very moderate price ; it should be
consulted, not merely for these particular coins, but also for facts most valuable
to all who are interested in Romano-British History.”—Archeol. Journal.
AKERMAN’S (J. Y.) Ancient Coins of Cities and Princes, Geo-

graphically Arranged and Described—Hispania, Gallia, Britannia,
8v0, with engravings of many hundred Coins from actual examples,
Cloth. 7s 6d (original price 18s)

AKERMAN’S (J. Y.) Tradesman’s Tokens struck in London and
its Vicinity, from 1648 to 1671, described from the originals in
the British Museum, &c. 8vo, with 8 plates of numerous examples,
cloth, 73 6d (original price 15s.)—LARGE PAPER in 4to, cloth. 15s

This work comprises a list of nearly 3000 Tokens, and contains occasional
illustrative, topographical, and antiquarian netes on persons, places, streets,
old tavern and coffee-house signs, &c., &c., with an introductory account of the
causes which led to the adoption of such a currency.

AKERMAN'’S (J. Y.) List of Tokens issued by Wiltshire Tradesmen
in the Seventeenth Century. 8vo, plates, sewed. 1s 6d

AKERMAN’S (J. Y.) Wiltshire Tales, illustrative of the Manners,
Customs, and Dialect of that and adjoining Counties. 12mo,
cloth. 2s 6d

““We will conclude with a simple but hearty recommendation of a little book

which is as humourous for the drolleries of the stories as it is interesting as a

picture of rustic manners.”—Tallis’s Weekly Paper.

AKERMAN’S (J. Y.) Spring Tide; or, the Angler and his Friends,
12mo, plates, cloth. 2s 6d (original price 6s)

These Dialogues incidentally illustrate the Dialect of the West of England.

“Never in our recollection has the contemplative man's recreation been
rendered more attractive, nor the delights of a country life set forth witha
truer or more discriminating zest than in these pleasant pages.”—Gent.’s Mag.

ALEXANDER (W., late Keeper of the Prints in the British Museum)
Journey to Beresford Hall, in Derbyshire, the Seat of Charles
Cotton, Esq., the celebrated Author and Angler. Crown 4to,
printed on tinted paper, with a spirited frontispiece, representing
Walton and his adopted Son, Cotton, in the Fishing-house, and
vignette title page. Cloth. 5s

Dedicated to the Anglers of Great Britain and the various Walton and Cotton
Clubs. Only 100 printed.

 

 
 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE. 8

ALFRED'S (King) Anglo-Saxon Version of the Compendious His-
tory of the World by Orosius, with Translation, Notes, and
Dissertations, by the Rev. Dr. Bosworta, Professor of Anglo-
a lad Royal 8yvo, map and facsimiles of the MSS.,
cloth. is

ALFRED (King).—Memorials of King Alfred, being Essays on the
History and Antiquities of England during the Ninth Century—
the Age of King Alfred. By various Authors. Edited and in
part written by the Rev. Dr. Gizs. Royal 8vo, pp. 400,
coloured plate of K. Alfred’s Jewel, seven plates of Anglo-Saxon
Coins, and views of Grimbald’s Crypt, cloth, 7s 6d

ALLIES (Jabez, F.S.4.) The Ancient British, Roman, and Saxon
Antiquities and Folk-Lore of Worcestershire. 8vo, pp. 500, with
6 plates and 40 woodcuts, Second Edition, cloth. 7s 6d (original
price 14s)

“The good people of Worcestershire are indebted to Mr. Jabez Allies for a
very handsome volume illustrative of the history of their native county. His
book, which treats Ox the Ancient British, Roman, and Saxon Antiquities and
Folk lore of Worcestershire, has now reached a second edition; and as Mr.
Allies has embodied in this, not only the additions made by him to the original
work, but also several separate publications on points of folk-lore and legendary
interest, few counties can boast of a more industriously or carefully compiled
history of what may be called its popular antiquities. The work is very
handsomely illustrated.”—Notes and Queries.

ANDERSON (Wm.) Genealogy and Surnames, with some Heraldic
and Biographical Notices. 8vo, woodcuts of Arms and Seals,
cloth. 3s 6d (original price 6s) 1865

ANGLO-SAXON Version of the Life of St. Guthlac, Hermit of
Croyland. Printed, for the first time, from a MS. in the
Cottonian Library, with a Translation and Notes by CHaRLEs
Wrcuirre Goopwin, M.A., Fellow of Catherine Hall, Cambridge.
12mo, cloth. 5s

ANGLO-SAXON Version of the Hexameron of St. Basil, and the
Anglo-Saxon Remains of St. Basil’s Admonitio ad Filium Spiritu-
alem. Now first printed from MSS. in the Bodleian Library,
with a Translation and Notes by the Rev. H. W. Norman. 8vo,
second edition, enlarged, sewed. 48

ANGLO-SAXON.—Narratiuncule Anglice Conscripta. De ‘perga-
menis excribebat notis illustrabat eruditis copiam, faciebat T.
OswaLp Cockayne, M.A. 8vo. 68

Containing Alexander the Great's Letter to Aristotle on the situation of
India—Of wonderful things in the East—The Passion of St. Margaret the
Virgin—Of the Generation of Man, &c.

ANGLO-SAXON.—A Fragment of Ailfric’s Anglo-Saxon Grammar,
ZElfric’s Glossary, and a Poem on the Soul and Body, of the
XIIth Century, discovered among the Archives of Worcerter
Cathedral, by Sir Tuomas Paituirrs, Bart. Folio, PRIVATELY
PRINTED, sewed. 1s 6d
Several other Anglo-Saxon works will be found in this Catalogue.

 

 
 

 

« BOOKS PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY

ARCHAOLOGIA CAMBRENSIS.—A Record of the Antiquities,
Historical, Genealogical, Topographical, and Architectural, of
Wales and its Marches. First Series, complete, 4 vols, 8vo,
many plates and woodcuts, cloth. £2. 2s

Odd Parts may be had to complete Sets.

Second Series, 6 vols, 8vo, cloth. £38. 3s

—— Third Series, vol 1 to12. £1. 10s each
Published by the Cambrian Archeological Association.
ARCHAOLOGICAL INSTITUTE.—Report of the Transactions
of the Annual Meeting of the Archeological Institute held at
oo July, 1853. 8vo, many plates and woodcuts, cloth,
8 6d
Printed uniformly with the other Annual Congresses of the Institute.

ARCHER FAMILY.—Memorials of Families of the Surname of
Archer in various Counties of England, and in Scotland, Ireland,
Barbadoes, America, &c. By Capt. J. H. Lawrence ARCHER.
4to, but few copies printed, cloth. 12s 6d

ATKINSON’S (George, Serjeant at Law) Worthies of Westmoreland ;
or, Biographies of Notable Persons Born in that County since
the Reformation. 2 vols, post 8vo, cloth. 6s (original price 16s)

AUTOBIOGRAPHY of JoszrpH ListER (a Nonconformist), of
Bradford, Yorkshire, with a contemporary account of the
Defence of Bradford and Capture of Leeds, by the Parliamen-
tarians, in 1642. Edited by THos. WRIGHT, F.S.A. 8vo, cloth. 28

AUTOBIOGRAPHY of Tuomas Wricut, of Birkenshaw, in the
County of York, 1736-1797. Edited by his Grandson, THomas

Wrriceat, M.A., F.S.A. Fep. 8vo, pp. 376, cloth. 5s
Particularly interesting about Bradford, Leeds, Halifax, and their neighbour-
hoods, and a curious picture of manners and persons in the middle of the last
century.

AUTOGRAPHICAL Miscellany; a Collection of Autograph Let-
ters, Interesting Documents, &c., executed in facsimile by
Frepk. NETHERCLIFT, each facsimile accompanied with a page
of letter-press by R. Sms, of the British Museum. Royal 4to,
A HANDSOME VOL, extra cloth. £1. 1s (original price £1. 16s)

Containing sixty examples of hitherto unpublished Letters and Documents
of Blake, Boileau, Buonaparte, Burns, Calvin, Camden, Carrier, Catherine de

Medicis, Charles I., Chatterton, Congreve, Crammer, Cromwell, Danton,

D’Aubigne, Dryden, Edward VI., Elizabeth, Elizabeth (sister of Louis XVI.),

Franklin, Galilei, Glover, Goethe, Goldsmith, Henry VIII., Hyde (Anne), James

II., Jonson, Kepler, Kotzebue, Latimer, Loyola, Louis XIV., Louis XVI,

Luther, Maintenon, Maria Antoinette, Marlborough, Marmontel, Mary Queen

of Scots, Melancthon, Newton, Penn, Pompadour, Pole (Cardinal), Raleigh,

Ridley, Robespierre, Rousseau, Ruvens, Sand, Schiller, Spenser, Sterne, Tasso,

Voltaire, Walpole (Horace), Washington, Wolfe, Wolsey, Wren, and Young.

For the interesting nature of the documents, this collection far excels all the
prepious ones. With two exceptions (formerly badly executed), they have
never been published before.

BAIGENT (F. J., of Winchester) History and Antiquities of the
ee Church of Wyke, near Winchester. 8vo, engravings.
6

 

 
 

 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE. 5

BANKS’ (Sir T. C.) Baronia Anglia Concentrata, or a Concentration
of all the Baronies called Baronies in Fee, deriving their Origin
from Writ of Summons, and not from any Specific Limited
Creation, showing the Descent and Line of Heirship, as well
of those Families mentioned by Sir William Dugdale, as of
those whom that celebrated Author: has omitted to notice; in-
terspersed with Interesting Notices and Explanatory Remarks.
Where to is added, the Proofs of Parliamentary Sitting, from
the Reign of Edward I. to Queen Anne; also, a Glossary of
Dormant English, Scotch, and Irish Peerage Titles, with reference
to presumed existing Heirs. 2 vols, 4to, cloth. 15s (original
price £3, 3s)

Lance Paper Copy (very few printed). 2vols. £1. 1s

A book of great research, by the well-known author of the ‘* Dormant and
Extinct Peerage,” and other heraldic and historical works. Those fond of
genealogical pursuits ought to secure a copy while it is so cheap. Tt may be
considered a supplement to his former works. Vol. ii. pp. 210-300, contains
an Historical Account of the first Settlement of Nova Scotia, and the foundation
- ae eg of Nova Scotia Baronets, distinguishing those who had seizin of
ands there.

BANKS’ (W. Stott, of Wakefield) Walks in Yorkshire. I. In the
North West. II. In the North East. Thick feap. 8vo, 2 large
maps, cloth. 5s

 

N. E. portion separately, comprising Redcar, Saltburn,
Whitby, Scarborough, and Filey, and the Moors and Dales
between the Tees, &c. Feap. 8vo, sewed. 1s 6d

BARBER (G. D., commonly called Barber-Beaumont) Suggestions on
the Ancient Britons, in 3 parts. Thick 8vo, cloth. 7s 6d
(original price 14s)

BARKER.—Literary Anecdotes and Contemporary Reminiscences
of Professor Porson and others, from the Manuscript Papers of
the late E. H. Barker, Esq., of Thetford, Norfolk, with an
Original Memoir of the Author. 2 vols, 8vo, cloth. 123 1852

A singular book, full of strange stories and jests.

BARKER (W. Jones) Historical and Topographical Account of
Wensleydale, and the Valley of the Yore, in the North Riding
of Yorkshire. 8vo, illustrated with views, seals, arms, dc., cloth.
43 6d (original price 8s 6d)

“This modest and unpretending compilation is a pleasant addition to our
topographical literature, and gives a good general account ofa beautiful part
of England comparatively little known. It is handsomely printed with a
number of finely executed woodcuts by Mr. Howard Dudley .. . . No
guide to the district exists applicable alike to the will-filled and scantly furnished
purse—a defect which the auhor has endeavoured to supply by the present
volume.

BARNES (Rev. W.) Tiw ; or a View of the Roots and Stems of the
English as a Teutonic Tongue. Feap. 8vo, cloth, 68

“J hold that my primary roots are the roots of all the Teutonic languages;
and, if my view is the true one, it must ultimately be taken up by the German
and other Teutonic gramwarians, and applied totheirlanguages.”—The Author.

 

 

 
 

 

6 BOOKS PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY

BARNES (Rev. William, of Came Rectory, Dorchester) A Philological
Grammar, grounded upon English, and formed from a com-
parison of more than Sixty Languages. Being an Introduction
to the Science of Grammars of all Languages, especially English,
Latin, and Greek. 8vo (pp. 322), cloth. 9s

“(Mr, Barnes’ work is an excellent specimen of the manner in which the
advancing study of Philology may be brought to illustrate and enrich a scientific
exposition of English Grammar.”—Edinburgh Guardian.

“Of the science of Grammar, by induction from the philological facts of
many laugnages, Mr. Barnes has, in this volume, supplied a convise and com-
prebensive manual. Grammarians may differ as to the regularity of the
principles on which nations have constructed their forms and usagas of speech,
but it is generally allowed that some conformity or similarity of practice may
be traced, and that an attempt may be made to expound a true science of
Grammar. Mr. Barnes has so far grounded his Grammar upon English as to
make it an English Grammar, but he has continually referred to comparative
philology, and sought to render his work illustrative of general forms, in
conformity with principles common, more or less, to the language of all
mankind. More than sixty langnages have been compared in the course of
preparing the volume; and the general principles laid down will be found
useful in the study of various tongues. It is a learned and philosophical
treatise.”—Literary Gazette.

BARNES (Rev. W.) Anglo-Saxon Delectus; serving as a first Class-
Book to the Language. 12mo, cloth. 2s 6d

‘To those who wish to possess a critical knowledge of their own Native
English, some acquaintance with Anglo-Saxon is indispensable; and we have
never seen an introduction better calculated than the present to supply the
wauts of a beginner in a short space of time. The declensions and conjuga-
tions are well stated, and illustrated by references to Greek, the Latin, French,
and other languages. A philosophical spirit pervades every part. The Delectus
consists of short pieces on various subjects, with extracts from Anglo-Saxon
History and the Saxon Chronicle. There is a good Glossary at the end.”—
Atheneum, Oct. 20, 1849.

BARNES (Rev. W.) Notes on Ancient Briton and the Britons,
Feap. 8vo, cloth. 38

“Mr. Barnes has given us the result of his Collections for a Course of
Lectures on this subject, and has produced a series of Sketches of the Ancient
Britons, their language, laws, and modes of life, and of their social state ag
compared with that of the Saxons, which will be read with considerable
interest.”—Notes and Queries,

“‘We are very glad to meet with such pleasant and readable ‘Notes’ as Mr.
Barnes’. They are very unaffected essays, imparting much warmth to the
old carcase of British lore, and evincing some real study. He has found out
the value of the old Welsh laws, and has made some useful comparisons
between them and those of the Saxons with much freshness if not absolute
novelty.”—Guardian.

BARNES’ (Rev. W.) Views of Labour and Gold. Fep. 8vo, cloth. 33

“Mr. Barnes is a reader anda thinker. He has a third and a conspicuous
merit—his style is perfectly lucid and simple. If the humblest reader of
ordinary intelligence desired to follow out the process by which societies are
built up and held together, he has but to betake himself to the study of Mr.
Barnes’s epitome. The title ‘‘ Views of Labour and Gold,” cannot be said to
indicate the scope of the Essays, which open with pictures of primitive life,
nad pass on, through an agreeably diversified range of topics, to considerations
of the rights, duties, and interests of Labour and Capital, and to the enquiry,
What constitutes the utility, wealth, and positive well being of a nation?
Subjects of this class are rarely handled with so firm a grasp and such light and
artistic manipulation.”— Atheneum.

“‘The opinion of such a Scholar and Clergyman of the Established Church on
subjects of political economy cannot fail to be both iuteresting and instructive
and the originality of some of his views and expressions is well calculated to
attract and repay the mots careful attention.”— Finanieal Reformer.

 
 

 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE. 7

BARNES’ (Rev. W.) Poems, partly of Rural Life, in National Eng-
lish. 12mo, cloth. 5s

BARNES’ (Rev. W.) Poems of Rural Life in the Dorser D1atece,
Feap. 8vo, first collection, fourth edition, cloth. 5s

Second Collection, second edition, feap. 8vo, cloth. 5a
Third Collection, feap. 8vo, cloth. 43 6d

BATEMAN (Thos., of Youlgrave, Derbyshire) Vestiges of the An-
tiquities of Derbyshire, and the Sepulchral Usages of its Inha-
bitants, from the most Remote Ages to the Reformation. 8v0,
with numerous woodcuts of Tumuli and their contents, Crosses,
Tombs, dec., cloth. 153

BATEMAN’S (Thomas) Ten Years’ Diggings in Celtic and Saxon
Grave Hills, in the Counties of Derby, Stafford, and York, from
1848 to 1853, with Notices of some former Discoveries hitherto
unpublished, and Remarks on the Crania and Pottery from the
Mounds. 8vo, numerous woodcuts, cloth. 10s 6d

BATTLE ABBEY.—Descriptive Catalogue of the Original Charters»
Grants, Donations, etc., constituting the Muniments of Battle
Abbey, also the Papers of the Montagus, Sidneys,-and Web-
sters, embodying many highly interesting and valuable Records
of Lands in Sussex, Kent, and Essex, with Preliminary Memo-
randa of the Abbey of Battel, and Historical Particulars of the
Abbots. 8vo, 234 pages, cloth. 1s 6d

BEDFORD’S (Rev. W. K. Riland) The Blazon of Episcopacy, being
a complete List of the Archbishops and Bishops of England and
Wales, and their Family Arms drawn and described, from the
first introduction of Heraldry to the present time. 8vo, 144
pages, and 62 pages of drawings of Arms, cloth. 15s

This work depicts the arms of a great number of English Families not to
be found in other works.

“There has been an amount of industry bestowed upon this curious work
which is very creditable to the author, and will be found beneficial to all
who care for the subject on which it has been employed."—ATHENAUM.

BERRY’S (W.) Pedigrees and Arms of the Nobility and Gentry of
Hertfordshire. Folio (only 125 printed), bds. £1. 10s (original
price £3. 10s)

BIBLIOGRAPHICAL MISCELLANY, edited by Joun PETHERAM.
8vo, Nos. 1 to 5 (all published), with general title. 18

Contents.—Particulars of the Voyage of Sir Thomas Button for the Dis-
covery of a North-West Passage, a.D. 1612—Sir Dudley Digges’ Of the Cim
cumference of the Earth, or a Treatise of the North-Bast Passage, 1611-13—
Letter of Sir Thomas Button on the North-West Passage, in the State-Paper
Office—Bibliographical Notices of Old Music Books, by Dr. Rimbault—
Notiees of Suppressed Books—Martin Mar Prelate’s Rhymes—The Hardwicke
Collection of Manuscripts.

BIBLIOTHEQUE Asiatique et Africane, ou Catalogue des Ouvrages
relatifs a l’Asie et a l’Afrique qui ont paru jusqu’en 1700, par
H. Ternaux-Compans. 8vo, avec supplement et index, sewed.
10s 6d

 

 

 

 
 

 

8 BOOKS PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY

*“BIBLIA PAUPERUM.” One of the earliest and most curious
Biock Books, reproduced in facsimile from a copy in the British
Museum, by J. Ph. Berszav. Royal 4to, half bound. £2. 2s

The Brstia Pavpercm, known also by the title of Historr1# VFTERIS ET
Novi TESTAMENTI, is a set of woodcuts in which the Old and New Testament
are both brought to memory by pictures, and some lines of text in Latin. This
name, Brsuja PauperRum, is derived from its use by monks of the poorer orders
commonly called PaupEeRrEs CHRISTI.

As a specimen of the earliest woodcuts and of printed block-books, destined
to supersede the manuscripts anterior to the valuable invention of Guttenberg,
the Brsiia Pauperom is well worthy the attention of the amateur of Fine Arts
as wellas of the Bibliographer. It consists of 40 engravings, printed on one

e only of the leaves, and disposed so as to have the figures opposite to each
other.

The engravings were printed by friction, with a substance of a brownish
colour instead of printing ink, which was unknown at this early period. To
imitate as near as possible the original, the plates in this facsimile are disposed
opposite each other, and printed in a brownish colour. Various editions of this
Block-Book have been discovered, without any writer being able to say which

i the first one. A review of them is given in the printed Introduction of the
ook.

Besides the rhymed Latin Poetry—of which part was given by Heinecken,
aud after him by Ottley—the Introduction gives, for the first time, the whole
of the Text printed on both sides in the upper compartment, as well as an
English Explanation of the subject.

ONLY 250 COPIES HAVE BEEN PRINTED, UNIFORMLY wiTH Mr. 8. LeicnH

SoTHERBY’'S Principta Typographica.

BIGSBY’S (Robert, M.A., LL.D.) Historical and Topographical
Description of Repton, in the County of Derby, with Inciden-
tal View of objects of note in its Vicinity. 4to, a handsome
volume, with SEVENTY illustrations on copper, stone, and wood,
cloth. 18s (original price £3. 3s)

BLAKE (M.) A Brief Account of the Destructive Fire at Blandford
Forum, in Dorsetshire, June 4,1731. Reprinted from the edi-
tion of 1735, with a plan and 2 views. Ato, cloth. 23 6d

BLAVIGNAC (J. D., Architecte) Histoire de l’'Architecture Sacrée
du quatriéme au dixiéme siécle dans les anciens évechés de
Geneve, Lausanne, et Sion. One vol, 8vo, 450 pages, 37 plates,
and a 4to Atlas of 82 plates of Architecture, Sculpture, Frescoes,
Reliquaries, d&c., de. £2. 10s

A very remarkable book, and worth the notice of the Architect, the Archa-
ologist, and the Artist.

BOYNE (W., F.S.A.) Tokens issued in the Seventeenth Century in
England, Wales, and Ireland, by Corporations, Merchants,
Tradesmen, &c., described and illustrated. Thick 8vo, 42 plates,
cloth. £1. 1s (original price £2. 2s)

Nearly 9500 Tokens are described in this work, arranged alphabetically under
Counties and Towns. To the Numismatist, the Topographer, and Genealogist,
it will be found extremely useful.

BOSWORTH (Rev. Joseph, D.D., Anglo-Saxon Professor in the
University of Oxford) Compendious Anglo-Saxon and English
Dictionary. 8vo, closely printed in treble columns. 123

“This is not a mere abridgment of the large Dictionary, but almost an entirely
new work. In this compendious one will be found, at a very moderate price

all that is most practical and valuable in the former expensive edition, with a
great accession of new words and matter."—Author's Preface.

 
 

 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE. 9

BOSWORTH and WARING.—Four Versions of the Holy Gospels,
viz., in Gothic, a.D. 360; Anglo-Saxon, 995; Wycliffe, 1389;
and Tyndale, 1526, in parallel colunns, with Preface and Notes
by the Rey. Dr. Boswortu, Professor of Anglo-Sazon in the
University of Oxford, assisted by Greorcr Warne, M.A., of
oe and Oxford. One vol, 8vo, above 600 pages, cloth.

Ss

A very low price has been fixed to ensure an extended sale among students
and higher schools.

Lance Paper. 4to,a@ handsome volume, not many printed.
cloth. £2. 23

“The texts are printed in four parallel columns, and very great care appears
to have been taken iu their collation and correction.” —ATHENAEUM,

“We heartily welcome this volume, brought out with so much care and
ability . _. . It does credit to the printers of the University. . , . The work is
scholarlike, and is a valuable contribution to the materials for Biblical Criti-
cism. . . We heartily commend it to the stndy of all who are interested either
in the philology of the English Ianguage, or in the history and formation of our
Authorized Version.”—Tus CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER, @ Quarterly Review.

“Tt may almost be a question, whether the present volume phssesses greater
interest for the divine or for the philologist. To the latter it must certainly be
interesting from the opportunity which it affords him of marking the gradual
development of our languages. The four versions of the Gospel, . . . witha
learned and instructive preface, and a few necessary notes, form a volume, the

aoe and importance of which need scarcely be insisted upon.”—NoTEs AND
UERIES.

BLAKEY (Robert) Historical Sketches of the Angling Literature of

all Nations, to which is added a Bibliography of English Writers
on Angling, by J. R. Smith. Feap. 8vo, cloth. 5s

BOWLES (Rev. W., Lisle) Hermes Britannicus, a Dissertation on the
' Celtic Deity Teutates, the Mercurius of Cesar, in further proof
and corroboration of the origin and designation of the Great
Temple at Abury, in Wiltshire. 8vo, bds, 4s (original price 88 6d)

BRIDGER’S (Charles) Index to the Printed Pedigrees of English
Families contained in County and Local Histories, the “Herald’s
Visitations,” and in the more important Genealogical Collec-
tions. Thick 8vo, cloth. 10s 6d

A similar work to Sims’s ‘‘Index of Pedigrees in the MSS. in the British

Museum. What that is for Manuscripts this is for Printed Books. Itis the

most complete Index of its kind, and contains double the matter of other
hasty productions.

BROOKE (Richard, F.S.A.) Visits to Fields of Battle in England,
of the XVth Century, with some Miscellaneous Tracts and
Papers, principally upon Archeological Subjects. Royal 8vo,
plates, cloth. 15s

The work contains a descriptive account of the scenes of most of the memo-
table conflicts in the Wars of York and Lancaster, comprising the celebrated
battles of Shrewsbury, Blore Heath, Northampton, Wakefield, Mortimer’s
Cross, Towton, Barnet, Tewkesbury, Bosworth, and Stoke, and genealogical
and other particulars of the powerful, warlike, and distinguished personages
who were the principal actors in those stirring and eventful times, with plans
of some of the fields of Battle, and an Appendix containing the principal
Acts of Attainder relative to the Wars of the Roses, and Lists of the Noble-
men, Knights, and other personages attainted by them.

 

 
 

 

10 BOOKS PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY

BROOKE (Richard) A Descriptive Account of Liverpool, as it waa

during the last Quarter of the XVIIIth Century, 1775—1800.

A handsome vol, royal 8vo, with illustrations, cloth. 123 6d
(original price £1. 5s)

In addition to information relative to the Public Buildings, Statistics, and

Commerce of the Town, the work contains some curious and interesting par-

ticulars which have never been previously published, respecting the pursuits,

habits, and amusements of the inhabitants of Liverpool during that period,
with views of its public edifices.

BRUCE (Dr. J. Collingwood, Author of the “Roman Wall”) The
Bayeux Tapestry Elucidated. 4to, a handsome volume, ¢lus-

trated with 17 COLOURED plates, representing the entire Tapestry,
extra bds. £1. 1s.

BUCHANAN (W.) Memoirs of Painting, with a Chronological His-
tory of the Importation of Pictures by the Great Masters into
England since the French Revolution. 2 vols, 8vo, bds. 7s 6d
(original price £1. 6s)

BUNNETT (H. Jones, WD.) Genoa, with Remarks on the Climate,
and its influence upon Invalids. 12mo, cloth. 4s

BURKE (John) Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Extinct
and Dormant Baronetcies of England, Ireland, and Scotland.
Medium 8vo, SECOND EDITION, 638 closely printed pages, in
double columns, with about 1000 Arms engraved on wood, fine
port. of James I., cloth. 10s (original price £1. 8s)

This work engaged the attention of the author for several years, comprises
nearly a thousand families, many of them amongst the most ancient and
eminent in the kingdom, each carried down to its representative or repre-
sentatives still existing, with elaborate and minute details of the alliances,

achievements, and fortunes, generation after generation, from the earliest to
the latest period.

CALTON’S (R. Bell) Annals and Legends of Calais, with Sketches
of Emigré Notabilities, and Memoirs of Lady Hamilton. Post
8vo0, with frontispiece and vignette, cloth. 5s

PrIncipaL ConTENTS.—History of the Siege by Edward III. in 1346-7, with
aroll of the Commanders and their followers present, from a contemporary

MS. in the British Museum—The Allotment of Lands and Houses to Edward’s

Barons—Calais as an English borough—List of the Streets and Householders of

the same—Henry VIIIth’s Court there—Cardinal Wolsey and his expenses—

The English Pale, with the names of Roads, Farmsteads, and Villiages in the

English Era—The Sieges of Therouenne and Tournai—The Pier of Calais—Pros

and Cons of the place—The Hotel Dessin—Sterne’s Chamber—Churches of Notre

Dame and St. Nicholas—The Hotel de Ville—Ancient Staple Hall—The Chateau

and Murder of the Duke of Gloucester—The Courgain—The Field of the

Cloth of Gold—Notice of the Town and Castle of Guisnes, and its surprise by

John de Lancaster—The Town and Seigneurio of Ardres—The Sands and Duel-

ling—Villages and Chateau of Sangatte, Coulgon, Mark, Eschalles, and Ham-

mes—Review of the English Occupation of Calais, and its Recapture by the

Duke de Guise—The Lower Town and its Lace Trade—Our Commercial Rela-

tions with France—Emigré Notabilities—Charles and Harry Tufton, Captain

Dormer and Edith Jacquemont, Beau Brummel, Jemmy Urquhart, and his

friend Fauntleroy, ‘‘ Nimrod,” Berkeley Craven, Mytton, Duchess of Kingston

—A new Memoir of Lady Hamilton, &c. Altogether an interesting volume on
England’s first Colony.

BURN’S (J. Southerden) The High Commission, Notices of the
Court and its Proceedings. 8vo, cloth, only 100 printed. 38

 

 
 

 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE. 1

BURN’s (J., Southerden) History of Parish Registers in England,
and Registers of Scotland, Ireland, the Colonies, Episcopal
Chapels in and about London, the Geneva Register of the Pro-
testant Refugees, with Biographical Notes, etc. Second edition,
greatly enlarged, 8vo, cloth. 10s 6d

CAMBRIDGE.—Histnria Collegii Jesu Cantabrigiensis, a J. Sher-
manno, olim pras. ejusdem Collegii. Edita J. O. HatLrweE.
8vo0, cloth. 2s

CARDWELL (Rev. Dr., Professor of Ancient History, Oxford) Lec-
tures on the Coinage of the Greeks and Romans, delivered in
the University of Oxford. 8vo, cloth. 48 (original price 8s 6d)

A very interesting histurical volume, and written in a pleasing and popular
manner,

CARTWRIGHT.—Memoirs of the’ Life, Writings, and Mechanical
Inventions of Edmund Cartwright, D.D., F.R.S., Inventor of
the Power Loom, &c. Edited by E. H. Stricknanp. Post 8vo,
engravings, boards. 28 6d (original price 10s 6d)

It contains some interesting literary history, Dr. Cartwright numbering
among his correspondents, Sir W. Jones, Crabbe, Sir H. Davy, Fulton, Sir 8.
Raffles, Langhorne, and others. He was no mean Poet, as his legendary tale of
**Armine and Elvira”’ (given in the Appendix) testifies. Sir W. Scott says it
contains some excellent poetry, expressed with unusual felicity.

CATALOGUE (Classified) of the Library of the Royal Institution
of Great Britain, with Indexes of Authors and Subjects, and a
List of Historical Pamphlets, chronologically arranged. By
Bens. Vincent, Librarian. Thick 8vo, pp. 948, half morocco,
marbled edges. 15s ,

It will be found a very useful volume to book collectors, and indispensable
to public librarians.

CHADWICK (William) The Life and Times of Daniel De Foe, with
Remarks, Digressive and Discursive. 8vo, pp. 472, portrait,
cloth 10s 6d. ie

“Daniel De Foe devoted his life and energies to the defence of free institu-
tions and good government. He was the Radical of his day. He not only
wrote, but suffered for truth and liberty. He was impoverished and perse-
euted for his labours in this cause; nay, he was repeatedly imprisoned for
his principles, or for his unswerving attachment to them, and for his boldness
and honesty in asserting them. He was the vigorous and indefatigable
opponent of priestism, of ecclesiastical domination, and of the Popish
tendencies of his time. We might not approve of all he wrote against the

Catholics, but we should remember that he saw and felt, as we cannot, how

inherently opposed to true freedom is the Catholic system. Although we live

in very different times from those in which De Foe lived, yet his life is full
of pregnant lessons for the liberals and friends of religious freedom of our day.

—Bradford Review.

CHRONICLE of London from 1089 to 1488, written in the 15th
Century, and for the first time printed from MSS. in the British
Museum, with numerous Contemporary Illustrations of Royal
Letters, Poems, descriptive of Public Events and Manners and
Customs of the Metropolis. (Edited by Srr Harris Nicos.)

Ato, facsimile, cloth bds. 15s ;
Only 250 copies printed. It forms a Supplement to the Chronicles of Hard-
ng, Rastall, Grafton, Hall, and others.

 
 

—

12 BOOKS PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY

CHATTO (W. A., Author of “ Jackson's History of Wood Engrav.
ing”) Facts and Speculations on the History of Playing Cards
in Europe. 8vo, profusely illustrated with engravings, both plain
and coloured, cloth. £1. 18

“The inquiry into the origin and signification of the suits and their marks,
and the heraldic, theological, and political emblems pictured from time to time,
in their changes, opens a new field of antiquarian interest ; and the perse-
verance with which Mr. Chatto has explored it leaves little to be gained by his
successors. The plates with which the volume is enriched add considerably to
its value in this point of view. It is not to be denied that, take it altogether,
it contains more matter than has ever before been collected in one view upon
the same subject. In spite of its faults, it is exceedingly amusing; and the
most critical reader cannot fail to be entertained by the variety of curious out-
lying learning Mr. Chatto has somehow contrived to draw into the investiga-
tions.” —Atlas,

“Indeed, the entire production deserves our warmest approbation.’*~—Lite-
rary Gazette.

“A perfect fund of antiquarian research, and most interestiug even to per-
sons who never play at cards.”—Tait's Magazine.

“CA curious, entertalning, and really learned book.”—Rambler.

“THE GAME OF THE CHESSE,” the First Book printed in
England by Witttam Caxton, reproduced in facsimile from a
copy in the British Museum, with a few Remarks on Caxton’s
Typographical Productions, by Vincent Ficcins. 4to, pp. 184,
with 23 curious woodcuts, half morocco, uncut. £1. 1s—or, in
antique calf, with bevelled boards and carmine edges. £1. 88

Frequently, as we read of the Works of Caxton and the early English Printers,
and of their Black Letter Books, very few persons ever had the opportunity of
seeing any of these productions, and forming a proper estimate of the ingenuity
and skill of those who first practised the “ Noble Art of Printing.”

THe TYPE HAS BEEN CAREFULLY IMITATED, AND THE WOODCUTS FACSIMILIED
sy Miss ByrieLp. The Paper and Watermarks have also been made expressly,
as near as possible, like the original; and the book is accompanied by a few
remarks of a practical nature, which have been suggested during the progress
of the fount, and the necessary study and comparison of Caxton’s Works with
those of his contemporaries in Germany, by Mr. V. Fiaeins, whu spent two
years’ ‘‘labour of love” in cutting the matrixes for the type.

COLLECTION of Letters on Scientific Subjects, illustrative of the
Progress of Science in England. Temp. Elizabeth to Charles II.

‘Edited by J. O. HaLLrwELu. 8vo, cloth. 38

Comprising Jetters of Digges, Dee, Tycho Brahe, Lower, Hariott, Lydyatt,
Sir W. Petty, Sir C. Cavendish, Brancker, Pell, &c.; also the Autobiography
of Sir Samuel Morland, from a M8. in Lambeth Palace, Nat. Tarpoley’s Cor-
rector Analyticus, &c. Cost the subscribers of the Historical Society of Sci-”
ence £1, :

COPENHAGEN.—The Traveller's Handbook to Copenhagen and
its Environs. By Anauicanus. 12mo, with large map of Sea-
land, plan of Copenhagen, and views, cloth. 8s

COSIN’s (Mr., Secretary to the Commissioners of Forfeited Estates
Names of the Roman Catholics, Non-Jurors, and others, who
Refused to Take the Oaths to King George I., together with
their Titles, Additions, and Places of Abode, the Parishes and
Townships where their Lands lay, the Names of the then
Tenants, and the Annual Value of them as returned by thems
selves. Reprinted from the Edition of 1745. 8vo, cloth. 58

A curious book for the Topographer and Genealogist.

 

 

 
4((@

 

 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE. 13

CRAIG’S (Rev. J. Duncan) A Hand-Book to the modern Provengal
Language,.spoken in the South of France, Piedmont, &c., com
prising a Grammar, Dialogues, Legends, Vocabularies, &c., use
ful for English Tourists and others. Royal 12mo, cloth. 33 6d

This little book is a welcome addition to our literature of comparative philo-
logy in this country, as we have hitherto had no grammar of the sweet lyrical
tongue of Southern France.

CRESWELL’S (Rev. S. F.) Collections towards the History of
Printing in Nottinghamshire. Small 4to, sewed. 2s

DALE (Bryan, M.A.) Annals of Coggeshall, otherwise Sunnedon, in
the County of Essex. Post 8vo, plates, cloth. 7s 6d

D’ALTON (John, Barrister-of-Law, of Dublin) Illustrations, Histo-
rical and Genealogical, of the most Ancient Faminirs or IRELAND
(500), Members of which held Commissions in King James’s
Service in the War of the Revolution, wherein their respective
Origins, Achievements, Forfeitures, and ultimate Destinies aré
set forth. 2 thick vols, 8vo, pp. 1400, cloth. £1. 1s

DANISH.—English-Danish Dialogues and Progressive Exercises.
By E.F, Ancker. 12mo, cloth, 5s 1851—Key to Ditto. 5s

DAVIES (Robt., F.S.A., Town Clerkof York) Extractsfrom the Munici-
val Records of the City of York during the Reigns of EdwardIV .,
Edward V., and Richard III., with Notes, illustrative and e*-
planatory, and an Appendix, containing some Account of the
Celebration of the Corpus Christi Festival at York, in the Fit-
teenth and Sixteenth Centuries. 8vo, cloth. 48 (original price
10s 6d)

DAVIES (Robt.) The Fawkes’s of York in the 16th Century, in-
cluding Notices of Guy Fawkes, the Gunpowder Plot Conspira-
tor. Post 8vo. 1s 6d

DE GAULLE (Chas.) The Celts of the Nineteenth Century, an Ap-
peal to the Living Representatives of the Celtic Race. Trans-
lated, with Notes, by J. D. Mason. 8vo, sewed. 28

DEVLIN (J. Dacres) Helps to Hereford History, Civil and Legen-
dary, in an Ancient Account of the Ancient Cordwainer’s Com-
pany of the City, the Mordiford Dragon, and other Subjects.
12mo (a curious volume), cloth. 38 6d

“A series of very clever papers.” —Spectator. :
“A Jittle work full of Antiquarian information, presented in a pleasing and
popular form.” —Nonconformist

DRUCE Family.—A Genealogical Account of the Family of Druce,
of Goring, in the County of Oxford, 1735. 4to, only 50 copies
PRIVATELY PRINTED, bds, 7s 6d

EDMONDS (Richard, late of Penzance) The Land’s End District
its Antiquities, Natural History, Natural Phenomena, and
Scenery ; also a Brief Memoir of Richard Trevithick, C.E.
8v0, maps, plates, and woodcuts, cloth. 7s 6d

ELLIS’ (W. 8.) Notiees of the Families of Ellis. PartI. 8vo. 28

 

 
 

 

14 BOOKS PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY

ELLIS (W. Smith) A Plea for the Antiquity of Heraldry, with an
Attempt to Expound its Theory and Elucidate its History.
8vo, sewed. 1s

ELLIS’ (W. S.) Hurtspierpoint (in Sussex), its Lords and Families,
8v0, plates. Is 6d

ELLIOTT.—Life, Poetry, and Letters of Ebenezer Elliott, the Corn-
Law Rhymer (of Sheffield). Edited by his Son-in-Law, Jonny
Wares. Post 8vo, cloth, (an interesting volume). 38 (original
price 7s 6d)

ENGLAND as seen by Foreigners in the Days of Elizabeth and
James the First, comprising Translations of the Journals of the
two Dukes of Wirtemberg in 1592 and 1610, both illustrative
of Shakespeare. With Extracts from the Travels of Foreign
Princes and others. With Copious Notes, an Introduction, and
Ercuinas. By WiLtiaM BrencHuEY Rye, Assistant Keeper of
the Department of Printed Books, British Museum. Thick fools-
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“This cuwious volume has been the labours of a scholar’s love, and will be
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tors, and showing us how we appeared to others in the days of Bess, by way of
contrast and comparison to the aspect we present in the days of Victoria, was
one which involved much arduous research. Mr. Rye had had no predecessor.

Spe stan, He has not only added an introduction to the works he assembles
and translates, but has enriched them with some hundred pages of notes on all
kinds of subjects, exhibiting a wide and minute research.” —Fortnightly Review.
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their freshness is past: they help our familiarity with our history.”—Reader.

EVANS (John, F.8.A., Secretary to the Numismatic Society ) Coins of
the Ancient Britons. Arranged and Described. Thick Svo,
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JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE. 15

FINLAYSON (James) Surnames and Sirenames, the Origin and
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FRENEAU (Philip) Poems on Various Subjects, but chiefly illus-
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m at, with a Preface. Thick fcap. 8vo, elegantly printed,
cloth. 6s

Freneau enjoyed the friendship of Adams, Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, and

Munroe, and the last three were his constant correspondents while they lived.

His Patriotic Songs and Ballads, which were superior to any metrical composi-

tions then written in America, were everywhere sung with enthusiasm. See

Griswold’s ‘‘ Poets and Poetry of America,” and Duyckinck’s ‘‘Cyclop. of

American Literature.”

GILBERT (Walter B.) The Accounts of the Corpus Christi Frater-
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GILES (Rev. Dr.) The Writings of the Christians of the Second
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GILES (Rev. Dr.) Passages from the Poets, chronologically arranged.
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An Introduction to every History of Great Britain.

GRENVILLE (Henry) Chronological Synopsis of the Four Gospels
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Designed to show that on a minute critical analysis, the writings of the four
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HAIGH’S (Daniel Henry, D.D.) The Conquest of Britain by the
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HAIGH’S (Daniel Henry, D.D.) The Anglo-Saxon Sagas, an Exami-
nation of their value as aids to History, serving as a Sequel to
“The Conquest of Britain by the Saxons.” 8vo, cloth. 8s 6d

Tt analyses and throws new historical evidence on the origin of the Poems of

Beowulf, the Lament of Deor, the Saga of Waldhere, Scyld Scefing, the fight at

Finnesham, the Story of Horn, the Lay of Hildebrand, &c.

HAKEWILL (H.) Roman Remains discovered in the Parishes of

North Leigh and Stonesfield, Oxfordshire. 8vo, map, and 2
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HALLIWELL’S (James Orchard, F.B.S., &c.) Dictionary of Archaic
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Customs, from the Reign of Edward I. 2 vols, 8vo, containing
upwards of 1,000 pages, closely printed in double columns, cloth,
a new and cheaper edition. 15s

It contains above 50,000 words (embodying all the known scattered glossaries
of the English language), forming a complete key for the reader of our old
Poets, Dramatists, Theologians, and other authors, whose works abound with
allusions, of which explanations are not to be found in ordinary Dictionaries and
books of reference. Most of the principal Archaisms are illustrated by exam-
ples selected from early inedited MSS. and rare books, and by far the greater
portion will be found to be original authorities.

HALLIWELL (J. 0.) the Nursery Rhymes of England, collected
chiefly from Oral Tradition. The Sixta Eprrron, enlarged, with
many Designs by W. B. Scort, Director of the School of Design,

Newcastle-on-Tyne, 12mo, cloth, gilt leaves. 48 6d
The largest collection ever formed of these old ditties.

 

 
 

 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE. 17

HALLIWELL’S (J. 0.) Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales, with

Historical Elucidations. 12mo, cloth. 4s 6d
This very interesting volume on the traditional literature of England is
divided into Nursery zreeuitit, Fireside Nursery Stories, Game Rhymes,

Alphabet Rhymes, Riddle Rhymes, Nature Songs, Proverb Rhymes, Places,

and Families, Superstition Rhymes, Custom Rhymes, and Nursery Songs, a

large number are here printed for the first time. It may be consinered a sequel

to the preceding article,

HALLIWELL’S (J. 0.) Early History of Freemasonry in England
Illustrated by an English Poem of the XIVth Century, with
Notes. Post 8vo, second edition, with a facsimile of the origina
MS. in the British Museum, cloth. 2s 6d

“The interest which the curious poem, of which this publication is chiefh
composed, has excited, is proved by the fact of its having been translated inti

German, and of its having reached a second edition, which is not common with

such publications. Mr. Halliwell has carefully revised the new edition, and

increased its utility by the addition of a complete and correct Glossary.”—LitTE-

RARY GAZETTE.

HALLIWELL'S (J. 0.) The Manuscript Rarities of the University
of Cambridge. 8vo, dds. 38 (original price, 10s 6d)

A companion to Hartshorne’s ‘‘ Book Rarities” of the same university.

HALLIWELL’S (J. 0.) A Dictionary of Old English Plays, existing
either in print or in manuscript, from the earliest times to the
close of the 17th century, including also Notices of Latin Plays
written by English Authors during the same period, with par-
ticulars of their Authors, Plots, Characters, &c. 8vo, cloth, 128
Twenty-five copies have been printed on THICK PAPER, price £1. 1s,

HALLIWELL’S (J. 0.) Rambles in Western Cornwall, by the Foot-
steps of the Giants; with Notes on the Celtic Remains of the
Land’s End District and the Isles of Scilly. Fep. 4to, elegantly
printed by Whittingham, cloth. 7s 6d

HALLIWELL (J. 0.) Notes of Family Excursions in North Wales,
taken chiefly from Rhyl, Abergele, Llandudno, and Bangor.
Fep. 4to, with engravings, elegantly printed by Whittingham,
cloth. 5s

HALLIWELL’S (J. 0.) Roundabout Notes, chiefly upon the Ancient
Circles of Stones in the Isle of Man. Fep. 4to, only 100 printed.
238

HALLIWELL’S (J. 0.) Introduction to the Evidences of Christi-
anity. Fep. 8vo, 2ND EDITION, cloth. 18 6d (original price 3s 6d)

The only book which contains in a popular form the Ancient Heathen un-
conscious testimonies to the truth of Christianity.

HARROD (Henry, F.S.A.) Gleanings among the Castles and Con
vents of Norfolk. 8vo, many plates and woodcuts, c.oth. 178 6d,
—LakGE PaPER, £1. 3s 6d.

“This volume is creditable to Mr. Harrod in every way, alike to his industry,
aste, and his judgment. Itis the result of ten years’ labour... .. The
volume is so full of interesting matter that we hardly know where to begin our

extracts or more detailed notices.” GENTLEMAN'S MaGazing, November, 1857.

HOLLOWAY’S (W., of Rye) History and Antiquities of the Ancient
Port and Town of Rye, in Sussex, compiled from the Original
Documents. Thick 8vo (only 200 printed) cloth. £1. 1s

 

 

 
 

 

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HOLLOWAY’S (W.) History of Romney Marsh, in Kent, from the
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HARTLIB.—A Biographical Memoir of Samuel Hartlib, Milton’s
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of Engines of Motion.” By Henry Dircs, C.E., author of the
Life of the Marquis of Worcester, &c. Post 8vo, cloth. 3s 6d

To have been the familiar friend of Milton, the correspondent of Boyle and
Evelyn, Pepys and Wren, and to have had the honour of suggesting to Milton
his trace on Education and of receiving his high praise in his own lofty and so-
norous language, is honour enough to make Hartlib’s name and life worthy of
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HAWKINS (J. 8., #.8.4.) History of the Origin and Establishment
of Gothic Architecture, and an Inquiry into the mode of Paint-
ing upon and Staining Glass, as practised in the Ecclesiastical
Structures of the Middle Ages. Royal 8vo, 1813, 11 plates, bds.
4s (original price 12s)

HERBERT’S (The Hon. Algernon) Cyclops Christianus, or an Argu-
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HORNE (R. H., Author of “ Orion,” etc.) Ballad Romances. 12mo,
pp. 248, cloth. 38 (original price 6s 6d)

Containing the Noble Heart, a Bohemian Legend; the Monk of Swineshead
Abbey, a Ballad Chronicle of the Death of King John ; The Three Knights of
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“Pure fancy of the most abundant and picturesque description. Mr. Horne
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Drayton and Herrick. —EXAMINER.

“The opening poem in this volume is a fine one, it is entitled the ‘Noble
Heart,’ and not only in title but in treatment well imitates the style of Beau-
mont and Fletcher.” —ATHENZUM.

HUME (Rey. A., LL.D., F.S.A., &e., of Liverpool) Ancient Meols, or
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HUNTER (Rev. Joseph, #.8.4.) The Pilgrim Fathers—Collections
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This work contains some very important particulars of these personages,
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vered through the indefatigable exertions of the author. Prefixed to the
volume are some beautiful Prefatory Stanzes by Richard Monckton Milnea
Bsq., M.P. (now Lord Houghton.)

 
 

 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE. 19

HUSSEY (Rev. Arthur) Notes on the Churches in the Counties of
Kent, Sussex, and Surrey mentioned in Domesday Book, and those
of more recent date ; with some Account of the Sepulchral Me-
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HUTTON (W., of Derby) Description of Blackpool, in Lancashire.
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IRVING (Joseph, of Dumbarton) History of Dumbartonshire, with
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JOHNES (Arthur J.) Philological Proofs of the Original Unity and
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cloth. 68 (original price 128 6d)

Printed at the suggestion of Dr. Prichard, to whose works it will be founda
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JONES’ (Morris Charles) Valle Crucis Abbey, its Origin and Foun-
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JUNIUS—The Authorship of the Letters of Junius Elucidated, in-
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An exceedingly interesting book, giving many particulars of the American

War and the state of parties during that period.

KELKE (Rev. W. Hastings) Notices of Sepulchral Monuments in
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KELLY (William, of Leicester) Notices illustrative of the Drama,
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Large Paper Copies, in 4to, only 25 printed (only 4 copies re
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KENRICK (Rev. John) Roman Sepulchral Inscriptions, their Rela-
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KING (Richard John) The Forest of Dartmoor and its Borders in
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KYNANCE COVE ; or, The Cornish Smugglers a Tale of the Last
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LANARKSHIRE—The Upper Ward of Lanarkshire Described and
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#lfric’s Homily is remarkable for beauty of composition, and interesting as
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Useful for foreigners in Great Britain, and to Britons abroad, particularly of
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JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARH. 21

LETTERS of the KINGS of ENGLAND—Now first collected
from the Originals in Royal Archives, and from other Authen-
tic Sources, Private as well as Public. Edited, with Historical
Introduction and Notes, by J. O. Hantrweitn. Two handsome
volumes, post 8vo, with portraits of Henry VIII. and Charles
L., cloth. 8s (original price £1. 1s)

These volumes form a good companion to Ellis’s Original Letters.

The collection comprises, for the first time, the love-letters of Henry VIII.
to Aune Boleyn, in a complete form, which may be regarded, perhaps, as the
most singular documents of the kind that have descended to our times ; the
series of letters of Edward VI. will be found very interesting specimens of
composition ; some of the letters of James 1., hitherto unpublished, throw
light on the Murder of Overbury, and prove beyond a doubt the King was im-
plicated in it in some extraordinary and unpleasant way; but his Letters to the
Duke of Buchingham are of the most singular nature; only imagine a letter
from a Sovereign to his Prime Minister commencing thus ; ‘‘ My own sweet and
dear child, blessing, blessing, blessing on thy heart-roots and all thine.”
Prince Charles and the Duke of Buckingham’s Jouruey into Spain has never
been before so fully illustrated as it is by the documents given in_ this
work, which also includes the very curious letters trom the Duke and Du-
chess of Buckingham to James I.

LIBER ALBUS: the White Book of the City of London. Com-
piled a.p. 1419, by Jonn Carpenter, Common Clerk; RicHARD
Wuirtineton, Mayor, Translated from the Original Latin and
Anglo-Norman, by H. T. Riley, M.A. 4to, pp. 672 (original
price 18s), the few remaining copies offered, in cloth, at 9s- Half
morocco (Roxburghe style), 10s 6d—TVhole bound in vellum, car-
mine edges, 12s—- Whole morocco, carmine edyes, 138 6d

Extensively devoted to details which must of necessity interest those who
care to know something more about their forefathers than the mere fact
that they have existed. Many of them—until recently consigned to obli-
vion ever since the passing uway of the remote generations to which they be-
longed—intimately connected with the social condition, usages, and manners of
the people who—uncouth, unlearned, ill-housed, ill-fed, and comfortless though
they were, still formed England’s most important, most wealthy, and most in-
fluential community throughout the chequered and troublons times of the 13th
and 14th centuries. During this period, in fact, there is hardly a phase or
feature of English national life upon which, in a greater or less degree, from
these pages of the ‘* Liber Albus,” some light is not reflected.

LIBRARY OF OLD AUTHORS.

Elegantly and uniformly printed in foolscap 8vo, in cloth. Of some
there are LARGE PAPER copies for the connoissenr of choice books.

THE Vision and Creed of PIERS PLOUGHMAN. Edited by Tuomas
WRIGHT; a new edition, revised, with additions to the Notes
and Glossary. 2 vols. 10s 1856

“The Vision of Piers Ploughman’ is one of the most precious and interest-
ing monuments of the English Language and Literature, and also of the social

and political condition of the country during the fourteenth century. i

Its author is not certaiuly known, but its time of composition can, by internal

evidence, be fixed at about the year 1362. On this and on all inatters bearing

upon the origin and object of the poem, Mr, Wright’s historical introduction
gives ainple information. 28 In the thirteen years that have passed
since the first edition of the present text was published by the late Mr.

Pickering, our old literature and history has been more studied, and we trust

that a large circle of readers will be prepared to welcome this cheaper aud

carefully revised reprint.”—Literary Gazette,

 

 
 

 

22 BOOKS PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY

THE Dramatic and Poetical Works of JoHN Marston. Now first
collected, and edited by J. O. HaLLiwEL., F.R.S., &c. 3 vols.
153 1856

“The edition deserves well of the public; it is carefully printed, and the
annotations, although neither numerous nor extensive, supply ample explana-
tions upon a variety of interesting points. If Mr. Halliwell had done no more
than collect these plays, he would have conferred a boon upon all lovers of
our old dramatic poetry.”—Literary Gazette.

REMARKABLE Providences of the Earlier Days of American Co-
lonisation. By Increase Matuer, of Boston, N.E. With In-
troductory Preface by George Offor. Portrait. 5s 1856

A very singular collection of remarkable sea deliverances, accidents, remark-
able phenomena, witchcraft, apparitions, &c., &c., connected with inhabitants
of New England, &c., &c. A very amusing volume, conveying a faithful por-
trait of the state of society, when the doctrine of a peculiar providence and
personal intercourse between this world and that which is unseen was fully
believed.

THE Table Talk of JonNSELDEN. With a Biographical Preface and
Notes by 8. W. Stncer. Third edition, portrait. 58 1860

LARGE PAPER. Post 8vo, cloth. Vs 6d 1860

“Nothing can be more interesting than this little book, containing a lively
picture of the opinions and conversations of one of the most eminent scholars
and most distinguished patriots England has produced. There are few volumes
of its size so pregnant with sense, combined with the most profound earning‘
it is impossible to open it without finding some important fact or discussion,
something practically useful and applicable to the business of life. Coleridge
says, ‘There is more weighty bullion sense in this book than I ever found in
the same number of pages in any uninspired writer.’ . . . . . Its merits
had not escaped the notice of Dr. Johnson, though in politics opposed to much
it inculcates, for in reply to an observation of Boswell, in praise of the French
Ana, he said, ‘ A few of them are good, but we have one book of the kind better
than any of them—Selden’s Table Talk.’ "—Mr. Singer's Preface.

THE Poetical Works of Witt1am Drummonp, of Hawthornden.
Now first published entire. Edited by W. B. TurnBoty. Fine
portrait. 53 1856

“The sonnets of Drummond,” says Mr. Hallam, “are polished and elegant,
free from conceit and bad taste, and in pure unblemished English.”

ENCHIRIDION, containing Institutions—Divine, Contemplative
Practical, Moral, Ethical, Ciconomical, and Political. By
Francis QuaRLEs. Portrait. 38 1856

“Had this little book been written at Athens or Rome, its author would have
been classed with the wise men of his country.”—Headley.

THE Works in Prose and Verse of Sir Toomas OveRBURY. Now
first collected. Edited, with Life and Notes, by E. F. Rimpavir.
Portrait after Pass. 58 1856

HYMNS and Songs of the Church. By Gzorcz WirHer. Edited,
with Introduction, by Epwarp Farr. Also the Musical Notes,
composed by Orlando Gibbons. With portrait after Hole. 5s

1856

*«Mr. Farr has added a very interesting biographical introduction, and we hope
to find that the public will put their seal of approbation to the present edition
of an author who may fairly take his place on the same shelf with George Her-

bert.”—Gent’s Mag.. Oct., 1856.

 

 
 

 

 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE. 23

HALLELUJAG; or, Britain's Second Remembrancer, in Praiseful
and Penitential Hymns, Spiritual Songs, and Moral Odes. By
Gxrorce WitTHER. With Introduction by Epwarp Farr.
Portrait. 6s 1857

Hitherto this interesting volume has only been known to the public by
extracts in various publications. So few copies of the original are known to
exist, that the copy from which this reprint has been taken cost twenty-one
guineas.

MISCELLANIES. By Joun Ausrey, F.R.S., the Wiltshire Antt-
quary. Fourta Epirion. With some Additions and an Index.
Portrait and cuts. 4s 1857

Contents :—Day Fatality, Fatalities of Families and Places, Portents, Omens,

Dreams, Apparitions, Voices, Impulses, Knockings, Invisible Blows, Prophecies,

Miracles, Magic, Transportation by an Invisible Power, Visions in a Crystal,

Converse with Angels, Corpse Candles, Oracles, Ectasy, Second Sight, &e. ;

with an Appendix, containing his Introduction to the Survey of North Wilt-

shire.

THE Tliads of HOMER, Prince of Poets, never before in any language
truly translated, with a Comment on some of his chief Places-
Done according to the Greek by Groner CHapman, with Intro.
duction and Notes by the Rev. Ricnarp Hooper. 2 vols, sq.
fcap. 8vo. SECOND AND REVISED EDITION, with portrait of
Chapman, and frontispiece. 12s 1865

“The translation of Homer, published by George Chapman, is one of the
greatest treasures the English language can boast.”—Godwin.

“‘With Chapmap, Pope had frequently consultations, and perhaps never
translated any passage till he read his version.”—Dr. Johnson.

** He covers his defects with a daring, fiery spirit, that animates his transla-
tion, which is something like what one might imagine Homer himself to have
writ before he arrived at years of discretion.”—Pope. :

“‘Chapman’s translation, with all its defects, is often exceedingly Homerie,
which Pope himself seldom obtained.”—Hallam.

“Chapman writes and feels as a Poet—as Homer might have written had he
lived in England in the reign of Queen Elizabeth.”—Coleridge.

“T have just finished Chapman’s Homer. Did you ever read it?—it has the
most continuous power of interesting you all along. . . . The earnestness
and passion which he has put into every part of these poems would be incredi-
ble to a reader of mere modern translation.”—Charles Lamb.

HOMER’S ODYSSEY. Translated according to the Greek by
Grorcre CHapmMan. With Introduction and Notes by Rev.
RicuarpD Hoopger. 2 vols, square fep. 8vo, with facsimile of the
rare original frontispiece. 128. 1857

HOMER’S Battle of the Frogs and Mice; Hrstop’s Works and
Days ; Musaus’s Hero and Leander; Juvrnat’s Fifth Satire.
Translated by Grorcz CHapman. Edited by Rev. RicaarD
Hoover. Square fep. 8vo, frontispiece after Pass. 63. 1858

“The editor of these five rare volumes has done an incalculable service to

Engiish Literature by taking George Chapmanis folios out of the dust of time-

honoured libraries, by collating them with loving care and patience, and,

through the agency of his enterprising publisher, bringing Chapman entire and
complete within the reach of those who can best appreciate and least afford to
purchase the early editions.”—Athenceum.

 
 

 

24 BOOKS PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY

PUETICAL Works of Ropert SoutHWwELL, Canon of Loretto, now
first completely edited by W. B. Turnbull. 4s 1856
“His piety is simple and sincere—a spirit of unaffected gentleness and kindli-
ness pervades his poems—and he is equally distinguished by weight of thought

and sweetness of expression.”—Saturday Review.
THE Dramatic Works of Jonn WesstER. Edited, with Notes, etc.»
by Wu Hazuirr. 4 vols. £1. 1857

Lance PaPER, 4 vols, post 8vo, cloth. £1. 10s
This is the most complete edition, containing two more plays than in Dyce’s
edition.
THE Dramatic Works of Jonn Lity (the Euphuist). Now first
collected, with Life and Notes by F. W. FarrHoit. 2 ss
10s. 1

LaRGE PAPER, 2 vols, post 8vo, cloth. 15s

THE Poetical Works of RicHARD CrasHaw, Author of “Steps ta
the Temple,” “Sacred Poems, with other Delights of the
Muses,” and “ Poemata,” now first collected. Edited by W. B.
TURNBULL, 5s. 1858

“‘He seems to have resembled Herbert in the turn of mind, but possessed
more fancy and genius,” —EL.'s.

LA MORT d’ARTHUR. The History of King Arthur and the
Knights of the Round Table. Compiled by Sir Tomas Matory,
Knight. Edited from the Edition of 1634, with Introduction
and Notes, by THomas Wriaat, M.A., F.S.A. 3 vols, SECOND
AND REVISED EDITION. 15s. 1866

LarcE PaPER, 3 vols, post 8vo, cloth. £1. 28 6d

ANECDOTES and Characters of Books and Men. Collected from
the Conversation of Mr. Pope and other eminent Persons of his
Time. Bythe Rev. JosePH Spence, With Notes, Life, etc., by
8. W. Suveer. The second edition, portrait. 6s. 1858

LarGE PAPER, post 8vo, cloth. 7s 6d. 1858

“The ‘ Anecdotes’ of kind-hearted Mr. Spence, the friend of Pope, {s one of
the best books of ana in the English language.”—Critic.

Dr. COTTON MATHER’S Wonders of the Invisible World, being
an account of the Trials of several Witches lately executed in
New England, and of the several remarkable curiosities therein
occurring. To which are added Dr. IncrEAsE Mataer’s Fur-
ther Account of the Tryals, and Cases of Conscience concerning
Witchcrafts, and Evil Spirits Personating Men. Reprinted
from the rare original editions of 1693, with an Introductory
Preface. Portrait. 5s. 1862

THE Dramatic and Poetical Works of Tuomas Sackvintz, Lord
Buckhurst, and Earl of Dorset. With Introduction and Life
by the Hon. and Rev. R, W. Sackvie West. Fine portrait
from a picture at Buckhurst, now first engraved. 4s. 1859

REMAINS of the Earty Poputar Poetry or EncLan, collected
and edited by W. Carew Hazuitr. 4 vols, with many curious
woodcut facsimiles. £1. 1864—6

LakGe PaPER, 4 vols, vost 8vo, cloth. £1. 10s

 

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

JOUN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE. 25

LUCASTA.—The Poems of Ricuarp LoveELacs, now first editee
and the Text carefully revised, with Life and Notes by W.
Carew Hazuitt, with 4 plates. 5s. 1864

——— Large parer. Post 8vo, cloth. 7s 6d

THE WHotsE of THE Works oF RocER AscuHaM, now first collected
and revised, with Life of the Author. By the Rev. Dr. Giizs,
formerly Fellow of C.C.C., Oxford. 4 vols. £1. 1866

—— Lares paper, 4 vols, post 8vo, cloth. £1. 10s,

Ascham is a great name in our national literature. He was one of the first
founders of a true English style in prose composition, and of the most respect-
able and useful of our scholars.—Retrospective Review.

LONG (Henry Lawes) On the March of Hannibal from the Rhone
to the Alps. 8vo, map, 28 6d

LOWER’S (Mark Antony, Jf.4., F.S.A.) Patronymica Britannica, »
Dictionary of Family Names. Royal 8vo, 500 pages, with dllus-
trations, cloth. £1. 58

This work is the result of a study of British Family Names, extending ovei

more than twenty years. The favourable reception which the Author's
“English Surnames” obtained in the sale of Three Editions, and the many
hundreds of communications to which that work gave rise, have convinced
him that the subject is one in which considerable interest is felt. He has
therefore been induced to devote a large amount of attention to the origin,
meaning, and history of our family designations ; a subject which, when iuves-
tigated in the light of ancient records and of modern philology, proves highly
illustrative of many habits and customs of our ancestors, and forms a very
curious branch of Archeology.—Preface.

LOWER’S (M. A.) Curiosities of Heraldry, with Illustrations from
Old English Writers. With illuminated Title-page, and numer-
ous engravings from designs by the Author. 8vo, cloth. 148

“The present volume is truly a worthy sequel (to the ‘Surnamegs’) in the
same curious and antiquarian line, blending with remarkable facts and intelli-
gence, such a fund of anecdote and illustration, that the reader is almost sur-
prised to find that he has learned so much while he appeared to be pursning
mere amusement. The text is so pleasing that we scarcely dream of its ster-
ling value ; and it seems as if, in unison with the woodcuts, which so cleveily
explain its points and adorn its various topics, the whole design were iutende«t
for a relaxation from study, rather thanan ainple exposition of an extraordinary
and universal custom, which produced the most important effect upon tlie
minds and habits of mankind.”—Literary Gazette.

“‘Mr. Lower’s work is both curious and instructive, while the manner of itr
treatment is so inviting and popular, that the subject to which it refers, which
many have hitherto had tvo guod reason to consider meagre and unprofitable,
assumes, under the hands of the writer, the novelty of fiction with the im-
portance of historical truth.”—Athencewm.

LOWER’S (M. A.) Contributions to Literature, Historical, Antiqua-
rian, and Metrical. Post 8vo, woodcuts, cloth. 7a 6d

Contents: 1. Local Nomenclature—2. The Battle of Hastings, an Historical
Essay—3. The Lord Dacre, his mournful end, a Ballad—4, Historical and Ar
chzological Memoir on the Iron Works of the South of England, with numerans
illustrations—6. Winchelsea’s Deliverance, or the Stout Abbot of Battayle, in
Three Fyttes—6. The South Downs, a Sketch, Historical, Anecdotical, and
Descriptive—7. On the Yew Trees in Churchyards—8. A Lyttel Geste of a
Greate Hele, a pleasaunt Ballad—9. A Discourse of Genealogy—10. An Auti-
quarian Pilgrimage in Normandy, with woodcuts—1l. Miscellanea, &.,&c.

 

 
—— /

26 BOOKS PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY

LOWER’S (M. A.) Chronicle of Battel Abbey, in Sussex, originally
compiled in Latin by a Monk of the Establishment, and now
first translated, with Notes and an Abstract of the Subsequent
History of the Abbey. 8vo, with illustrations, cloth. 93

This volume, among other matters of local and general interest, embraces

—New Facts relative to the Norman Invasion—The Foundation of the Monas-

tery—The Names and Rentals of the Original Townsmen of Battel—Me-

moirs of several Abbots, and Notices of their Disputes with the Bishops of

Chichester, respecting Jurisdiction—The Abbey’s Possessions—A Speech of

Thomas a Becket, then Chancellor of England, in favour of Abbot Walter de

Luci—Several Miracles—Anecdotes of the Norman Kings—and an Historical

Sketch of the Abbey, from 1176 to the present time by the Translator.

LOWER’S (M. A.) Memorials of the Town of Seaford, Sussex. 8vo,

plates. 33 6d

LOWER’S (M. A.) Bodiam (in Sussex), and its Lords. 8vo, engrav.
ings. 1s

LOWER’S (M. A.) Worthies of Sussex, Biographical Sketches of the
most eminent Natives or Inhabitants of the County, from the
Earliest Period to the Present Time, with Incidental Notices
illustrative of Sussex History. Royal 4to, many engravings,
cloth. £1. 163s

LOWER’S (M. A.) Sussex Martyrs, their Examinations and Cruel
Burnings in the Time of Queen Mary, comprising the interest-
ing Personal Narrative of Richard Woodman, extracted from
“¥Foxe’s Monuments.” With Notes. 12mo, sewed. 1s.

LOWER’S (M. A.) The Stranger at Rouen, a Guide for Englishmen.
12mo, plates. 1s

LUKIS (Rev. W. C.) Account of Church Bells, with some Notices of
Wiltshire Bells and Bell-Founders, containing a copious List of
Founders, a comparative Scale of Tenor Bells and Inscriptions
from nearly 500 Parishes in various parts of the Kingdom.
8vo0, 13 plates, cloth. 33 6d (original price 6s)

MADDEN (Fred. W., of the Medal Room, British Museum) Hand-
Book to Roman Coins. Feap. 8vo, plates of rare examples, clotir.

5s
A very useful and trustworthy guide to Roman Coins.

MANTELL (Dr. Gideon A.) Day’s Ramble in and about the Ancient
Town of Lewes, Sussex. 12mo, engravings, cloth. 23

MARTIN MAR-PRELATE CONTROVERSY.

AN EPISTLE to the Terrible Priests of the Convocation House.
By Martin Mar-Prenate. 1588. With Introduction and
Notes by J. Petherham. Post 8vo. 2s

COOPER (Bishop of Winchester) An Admonition to the People of
England against Martin Mar-Prelate, 1589, with Introduction.
Post 8vo, pp. 216. 33 6d

PAP with a Hatchet, being a Reply to Martin Mar-Prelate, 1589,
with Introduction and Notes. Post Svo. 28

 

 

 

 
 

 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE. 27

HAY any Worke for Cooper? Being a Reply to the Admonition
to the People of England. By Martin Mar-Prelate, 1589, with
Introduction and Notes. Post 8vo. 2s 6d

AN ALMOND for a Parrot, being a Reply to Martin Mar-Prelate,
1589, with Introduction. Post 8vo. 2s 6d

PLAINE PERCEVALL the Peace-Maker of England, being a Reply
to Martin Mar-Prelate, with Introduction. Post 8vo. 2s

 

MATON’S (Dr. W. G.) Natural History of Wiltshire, as comprehen-
ded within Ten Miles round Salisbury. 8vo. Privately printed.
2s

MAYNARD’S (James) Parish of Waltham Abbey, in Essex, its
History and Antiquities. Post 8vo, engravings, cloth. 2s 6d

MENZIES (Mrs. Louisa J.) Legendary Tales of the Ancient Britons,

rehearsed from the Early Chronicles. Feap. 8vo, cloth. 33
Contents ; 1. Esyllu and Sabrina—2. Lear and his three Daughters—3, Cy-

nedda and Morgan—4. The Brothers Beli and Bran—5. Ellidure the Compas-

sionate—6. Alban of Verulam—7. Vortigern—8. Cadwallon and the Final

Struggle of the Britons.

MICHAEL ANGELO considered as a Philosophic Poet, with trans-
lations by Joan Epwarp Tartor. Post 8vo, SECOND EDITION.
Cloth. 2s 6d (original price 5s)

MILTON’S Early Reading, and the prima stamina of his ‘‘Paradise
Lost,” together with Extracts from a Poet of the XVIth Cen-
tury (Joshua Sylvester). By Cuartes Dunstur, M.A. 12mo,
cloth. 28 6d (original price 5s)

SIILTON; a Sheaf of Gleanings after his Biographers and Annota-
tors. By the Rev. JoszpH Hunter. Post 8vo. 2s 6d

MOORE (Thomas) Notes from the Letters of Thomas Moore to his
Music Publisher, James Power (the publication of which was
suppressed in London), with an Introduction by Thomas Crofton
Croker, F.S.4. Post 8vo, cloth. 38 6d

The impressions on the mind of a reader of these Letters of Moore in Lord

Lord Russell’s edition will be not only incomplete, but erroneous, without the

information to be derived from this very interesting volume.

MORLAND.—Account of the Life, Writings, and Inventions of Sir
Samuel Morland, Master of Mechanics to Charles II. By J.
O. HaLtrweLt. 8vo, sewed. 1s

MUNFORD (Rev. Geo., Vicar of East Winch, Norfolk) Analysis of
Domesday Book for the County of Norfolk. 8vo, with pedigrees
and arms, cloth. 10s 6d

“‘Many extracts have been made at various times for the illustration of local
descriptions, from the great national (but almost unintelligible) record known
as Domesday Book ; but Mr. Munford has done more in the case of his own
county, for he supplies a complete epitome of the part of the survey relating
to Norfolk, giving not only the topographical and statistical facts, but also a
great deal that is instructive as to the manners and condition of the people,
the state of the churches and other public edifices, the mode of cultivation
and land tenure, together with a variety of points of interest to the ecclesiolo-
gist and antiquary.”—Bury Post.

 

 
 

 

28 BOOKS PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY

NARES’ (Archdeacon) A Glossary, or Collection of Words, Phrases,
Customs, Proverbs, &c., illustrating the Works of English
Authors, particularly Shakespeare and his Contemporaries. A
New Edition, with considerable Additions, both of Words and
Examples, By James O. HatutweLt, F.2.S., and THomas
Wauicat, .4., F.S.A. 2 thick vols, 8vo, cloth. £1. 18

The Glossary of Archdeacon Nares is by far the best aud most useful work
we possess for explaining and illustrating the obsolete language and the cus-
toms and manners of the 16th and 17th Centuries, and it 1s quite indispensable
for the readers of the literature of the Elizabethan period. The additional
words and examples are distinguished from those in the original text by at
prefixed to each. The work contains between Five and srx THOUSAND addi
tional examples, the result of original research, not merely supplementary
to Nares, but to all other compilations of the kind.

NASH’S (D. W., Member of the Royal Society of Literature) Taliesin,
or, the Bards and Druids of Britain. A Translation of the Re-
mains of the earliest Welsh Bards, and an examination of the
Bardic Mysteries. 8vo, cloth. 14s

NASH’S (D. W.) The Pharaoh of the Exodus. An Examination of
the Modern Systems of Egyptian Chronology. 8vo, with frontis-
piece of the Egyptian Calendar, from the ceiling of the Ramasseum,
at Thebes, cloth. 128

NAVAL ARCHITECTURE, Elements of Naval Architecture, being
a Translation of the Third Part of Clairbois’s “ Traite Elemen-
taire de la Construction des Vaisseaux.” By J. N. Srraner,
Commander, R.N. 8vo, with five large folding plates, cloth. 5s

Lectures on Naval Architecture, being the Substance of
those delivered at the United Service Institution. By E.
GaRpDINER FISHBOURNE, Commander, R. N. 8vo, plates, cloth.
53 6d ‘

Both these works are published in illustration of the “ Wave System.”

NETHERCLIFF’S (F. G.) Hand-Book to Autographs, being a Ready
Guide to the Handwriting of Distinguished Men and Women of
Every Nation, designed for the Use of Literary Men, Autograph
Collectors, and others. Containing 700 Specimens, with a Bio-
graphical Index by R. Sims, of the British Museum. 8vo, cloth
extra, gilt edges. 10s 6d (original price 15s)

The Same. PRINTED ONLY ON ONE SIDE. 8v0, cloth extra.
£1. 1s

The specimens contain two or three lines each besides the signature, so that
to the historian such a work will reccomend itself as enabling him to test the
genuineness of the document he consults, whilst the judgment of the antograph
collector may be similarly assisted, and his pecuniary resources economized by
a judicious use of the Manual. To the bookworm, whose name is Legion, we
would merely observe, that daily experience teaches us the great value and
interest attached to books containing Marginal Notes and Memoranda, wheu
traced to be from the pens of eminent persons.

NEWTON (William) A Display of Heraldry. 8vo, many hundred
engravings of Shields, llustrating the Arms of English Families,
cloth, 148

 

 

 

 

 
 

 

‘JON RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE. 29

NEWTON (William) London in the Olden Time, being a Topo-
graphical and Historical Memoir of London, Westminster and
Southwark ; accompanying a Pictorial Map of the City and
Suburbs, as they existed in the reign of Henry VIII., before the
Dissolution of the Monasteries ; compiled from Authentic Docu-
ments. Folio, with the coloured map, 4 feet 6 inches by 3 feet 3
tnches, mounted on linen, and folded into the volume, leather back,
cloth sides, £1. 18 (original price £1. 11s 6d)

NORFOLK’S (E. E.) Gleanings in Graveyards: a Collection of
Curious Epitaphs. Third Edition, revised and enlarged, fcap.
8vo, cloth. 38

NUMISMATIC Chronicle and Journal of the Numismatic Society.
New Series, Edited by W. 8S. W. Vaux, Jonw Evans, and F.
W. Mappen. Nos. 1 to 24, Published Quarterly. 58 per
Number,

This is the only repertory of Numismatic intelligence ever published in
England. It contains papers on coins and medals, of all ages and countries, by
the first Numismatists of the day, both English and Foreign.

sree parts may be had to contplete a few of this and the former: series in

vols.

OLD BALLADS.—Catalogue of a unique Collection of 400 Ancient
English Broadside Ballads, printed entirely in the Black letter,
lately on sale by J. Russert Smira. With Notes of their Tunes,
and Imprints. Post 8vo, a handsome volume, printed by Whit-
tingham, in the old style, half bound. 5s

A Copy on thick paper, without the prices to each, and a
different trtle-page, only 10 copies so printed. 10s 6d

PARISH’S (Sir Woodbine, many years Charge d’ Affairs at Buenos
Ayres) Buenos Ayres, and the Provinces of the Rio de la Plata,
from their Discovery and Conquest by the Spaniards to the
Establishment of their Political Independence ; with some Ac-
count of their Present State, Appendix of Historical Docu-
ments, Natural History, &. Thick 8vo, Second Edition, plates
and woodcuts, also a valuable map by Arrowsmith, cloth, 10s 6d
(original price 14s)

“ Among the contributions to the geography of the South American Continent,
the work of our Vice-President, Sir Woodbine Parish, holds a very important
place. Professing to be a second edition of a former book, it is, in reality,
almost a new work, from the great quantity of fresh matter it contains on the
geography, statistics, natural history, and geology of this portion of the world.”
—President of the Royal Geographical Society’s Address,

PATERSON’S (Jas.) Histories of the Counties of Ayr and Wigton.
Post 8vo, vol 1. Kyz, in two parts, cloth, £1. 1s
Vol II, Carrick, post 8vo, cloth. 128,
Particularly full of information about the Family History of the district.
PEDLER (E. H., 07 Liskeard) The Anglo-Saxon Episcopate of Corn-

wall, with some Account of the Bishops of Crediton. 8vo, cloth.
88 6d (original price 7s 6d)

 

 

 
 

 

30 BOOKS PUBLISHED UR SOLD BY

PETTIGREW (Thos. Jos.) On Superstitions connected with the
History and Practice of Medicine and Surgery. 8vo, frontis-
piece, cloth. 43 (original price 88)

PETTIGREW (Thos. Jos.) Inquiries into the Particulars connected
with Death of Amy Robsart (Lady Dudley), at Cumnor Place,
Berks, Sept. 8, 1560; being a refutation of the Calumnies
charged against Sir Robert Dudley, Anthony Forster, and
others. 8vo, 2s

PILGRIMAGES to St. Mary of Walsingham and St. Thomas of
Canterbury. By Dusmerrus Erasmus. Newly Translated.
With the Colloquy of Rash Vows, by the same Author. and his
Characters of Archbishop Warham and Dean Colet, with Notes
by J. Goucu Nicwots. Post 8vo, engravings, cloth. 3s 6d (ord
ginal price 6s)

PIOZZI, Love Letters of Mrs. Piozzi (formerly Mrs. Thrale, the
friend of Dr. Johnson), written when she was eighty, to the
handsome actor, William Augustus Conway, aged Twenty-seven.
8vo, sewed. 238

a written at three, four, and five o’clock (in the morning) by an octo-
genary pen; a heart (as Mrs. Lee says) twenty-six years old, andas H. L. P.
feels it to be, al! your own.” —Letter V., 8rd Feb., 1820.

“This is one of the most extraordinary collections of love epistles we have
chanced to meet with, and the well-known literary reputation of the lady—the
Mrs. Thrale, of Dr. Johnson and Miss Burney celebrity—considerably enhances
their interest. The letters themselves it is not easy to characterise ; nor shall
we venture to decide whether they more bespeak the drivelling of dotage, or the
folly of love; in either case they present human nature to us under a new aspect,
and furnish one of those riddles which nothing yet dreamt of in our philosophy
can satisfactorily solve.”—Polytechnic Review.

POPE.—Facts and Conjectures on the Descent and Family Con-
nections of Pope, the Poet. By the Rev. Josera Hunter. Post
8vo. 2s

POPE.—Additional Facts concerning the Maternal Ancestry of
Pope, in a Letter to Mr. Hunter. By Robert Davies, F.S.A.
Post 8vo. 23

POPULAR Treatises on Science, written during the Middle Ages, in
Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-Norman, and English, edited by Thomas
Wright, M.A. 8vo, cloth. 33

ConTents :—An Anglo-Saxon Treatise on Astronomy of the Tenth Century,
now first published from _a MS, in the British Museum, with a translation ;

Livre des Creatures, by Phillippe de Thaun, now first printed, with a trans-

lation (extremely valuable to Philologists, as being the earliest specimens of

Anglo-Norman remaining, and explanatory of all the symbolical signs in early

sculpture and painting) ; the Bestiary of Phillippe de Thaun, with a translation ;

Fragments on Popular Science from the Early English Metrical Lives of the

Saints (the earliest piece of the kind in the English Language).

POSTE (Rev. Beale) Celtic Inscriptions on Gaulish and British
Coins, intended to supply materials for the Early History of
Great Britain, with a Glossary of Archaic Celtic Words, and an
Atlas of Coins. 8vo0, many engravings, cloth. 103 6d

POSTE (Beale) Vindication of the “ Celtic Inscriptions on Gaulish
and British Coins.” 8vo, plates, and cuts, cloth. 1s

 

 

 
 

 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE. 31

POSTE (Rev. Beale, M.A.) Britannic Researches; or, New Facts
and Rectifications of Ancient British History. 8vo (pp. 448),
with engravings, cloth. 15s

“The author of this volume may justly claim credit for considerable learning,
great industry, and, above all, strong faith in the interest and importance of
his subject. . . . On various points he has given us additional information,
and afforded us new views. for which we are bound to thank him. The body
of the book is followed by a very complete index, so as to render reference to
any part of it easy : this was the more necessary, on account of the multifarious-
ness of the topics treated, the variety of persons mentioned, and the many
works quoted.” —A thenaewm, Oct. 8, 1853.

“The Rev. Beale Poste has long been known to antiquaries as one of the best
read of all those who have elncidated the earliest annals of this country. He
is a practical man, has investigated for himself monuments and manuscripts,
and we have in the above-named volume the fruits of many years’ patient study.
The objects which will occupy the attention of the reader are—1. The political
position of the principal British powers before the Roman conquest—under the
Roman dominion, and struggling unsuccessfully against the Anglo-Saxon race ;
2. The Geography of Ancient Britain; 8. An investigation of the Ancient
British Historians, Gildas and Nennius, and the more obscure British chroni-
clers ; 4, The ancient stone monuments of the Celtic period; and, lastly, some
curious and interesting notices of the early British Church. Mr. Poste has not
touched on subjects which have received much attention from others, save in
cases where he had something new to offer, and the volume must be regarded
therefore, as an entirely new collection of discoveries and deductions tending
to throw light on the darkest, as well as the earliest, portion of our national
history.” —Atlas.

POSTE (Rev. Beale) Britannia Antiqua, or Ancient Britain brought
within the Limits of Authentic History. 8vo, pp. 386, map,

cloth. 148
A Sequel to the foregoing work.

 

PUBLICATIONS OF THE ANGLIA CHRISTIANA SOCIETY.

GIRALDUS Cambrensis, De Instructione Principum, with a Preface,
Chronological Abstract and Marginal Notes (in English), by the
Rev. J. S. Brewer. 8vo, boards. 5s 1846

Now first printed from the Manuscript in the Cottonian Library, particularly
illustrating the Reign of Henry II. Among our earlier chroniclers, there is not
amore lively writer than Giraldus de Barri.

CHRONICON Monasterii de Bello, with a Preface, Chronological
Abstract, and Marginal Notes (in English), by the Editor.
8vo, boards. 5s 1846

A very curious History of Battle Abbey, in Sussex, by one of the Monks.

Prioted from a M8. in the Cottonian Library.

LIBER ELIENSIS, ad fidem Codicum Variorum. Vol 1 (all
printed), with English Preface and Notes, by the Rev. D.
Stewart, of the College, Ely. 8vo, boards. 5s 1848

An important chronicle of the early transactions connected with the Monas-
tery of Ely, supposed to have been compiled by Richard the Monk, between
1108 and 1131.

The above three volumes are all the Society printed. They are well worthy
of being placed on the same shelf with the Camden, Caxton, Surtees, and Chet-
ham Societies’ publications. From the limited number of members of the
Society, the books are little known. J. R. Smith having become the pro-
prietor of the few remaining copies, recommends an ¢nrly purchase.

 

 
 

 

32 BOOKS PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY

PROVINCIAL DIALECTS OF ENGLAND

A DICTIONARY of Archaic and Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases,
&c., by J. O. HatLrw1t, F.R.S., &c. 2 vols, 8vo, 1000 pp., in
double columns, FIFTH EDITION, cloth. 158

GLOSSARY of Provincial and Local Words Used in England. By
F. Gross, F.S.A., with which is now incorporated the Supple-
ment. By Samurt Pecos, F.S.A. Post 8vo, cloth. 48 6d

BROCKETT’S (J. Trotter) Glossary of North Country Words, with
their Etymology and Affinity to other Languages and Occasional
Notices of Local Customs and Popular Superstitions THrrD
EpITIon, corrected and enlarged by W. E. Brocxztr. 2 vols,
in 1, post 8vo, cloth. 10s 6d (original price 21s)

SPECIMENS of Cornish Provincial Dialect, collected and arranged
by Uncle Jan Treenodle, with some Introductory Remarks and
a Glossary by an Antiquarian Friend ; also a Selection of Songs
and other Pieces connected with Cornwall. Post 8vo, with a
curious portrait of Dolly Pentreath, cloth. 48

CORNISH Dialect and Poems, viz.—

1 Treagle of Dozmary Pool, and Original Cornish Ballads.

2 Cornish Thalia: Original Comic Poems illustrative of the
Dialect.

8 A Companion to the Cornish Thalia. By H.J. Danteu,

4 Mirth for ‘One and all.” By H. J. DanrE.L.

5 Humourous Cornish Legends. By H. J. Danrext.

6 A Budget of Cornish Poems, by various Authors.

7 Dolly Pentreath, and other Humorous Cornish Tales,

8 The Great Mine Conference, and other Pieces.

9 i Poems. By Grorcr Hamiyn, the “Dartmoor Bloom-

eld.”

10 Mary Anne’s Experiences: her Wedding and Trip up the
Tamar. By H. J. Dante t.

11 Mary Anne’s Career, and Cousin Jack’s Adventures. By
H. J. Danrewn.

12 A New Budget of Cornish Poems. By H. J. DaNtett.

13 Mirth for Long Evenings. By H. J. Dawnieny.

14 Bobby Poldree and his Wife Sally at the Great Exhibition
tion. By H. J. Danzent. All 12mo, Sixpence each,

A GLOSSARY of the Words and Phrases of Cumberland. By
Witiiam Dickinson, F.L.8. 12mo, cloth. 2s

JOHN NOAKES and Mary Sryzes, a Poem, exhibiting some of
the most striking lingual localisms peculiar to Essex, with a
Glossary. By Cuarces Crarg, Esq., of Great Totham Hall,
Essex. Post 8vo, cloth. 28,

 

pre etnias ee SS ae ee Bl
 

 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE, 83

NATHAN HOGGQ’S Letters and Poems in the Devonshire Dialect.
The fifth Edition, with additions, Post 8vo. Coloured
wrapper. 1s.

“These letters, which have achieved considerable popularity, evince an
extensive acquaintance with the vernacular of the county and its idioms and
phrases, while the continuous flow of wit and humour throughout cannot fail
to operate forcibly upon the risible faculties of the reader. In the Witch story
Nathan has excelled himself, and itis to be hoped we have uot seen bis last
effort in this branch of local English literature. The superstitions of Jan
Vaggis and Jan Plant are most graphically and amusingly portrayed, and the
various incidents whereby the influence of tho ‘Evil Hye’ is sought to be
counteracted, are at once ludicrous and irresistible.” —Plymouth Mail.

NATHAN HOGG’S New Series of Poems in the Devonshire
Dialect, including the Witch Story of Mucksy Lane, and the
Kenton Ghost. Dedicated by Permission to his Highness Prince
Louis Lucien Bonaparte. Post 8vo, 4th edition enlarged, coloured
wrapper. 18

A GLOSSARY of Words used in Teesdale, in the County of Dur-

ham. Post 8vo, cloth. 28 6d (original nee 6s)

“Contains about two thousand words . . . Itis believed the first and
only collection of words and phrases peculiar to this district, and we hail it
therefore as a valuable contribution to the history of language and literature

- . the author has evidently brought to bear an extensive personal ac-
qnaintance with the common language.”—Darlington Times.

POEMS of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect. By the Rev. WILLIAM
BARNES, of Came Rectory, Dorchester. First Collection. Fep.
8vo, Fourts Epition, cloth. 5s.

Second Collection. Feap. 8vo. Srconp Eprtion,cloth. 5s.

Third Collection. Feap. 8vo, cloth. 4s 6d.

“The author is a genuine poct, and it is delightful to catch the pure breath
of song in verses which assert themselves only as the modest vehicle of rare
words and Saxon inflections. We have no intention of setting up the Dorset
patois against the more extended provincialism of Scotland, still less of com-
paring the Dorsetshire poet with the Scotch; yet we feel sure that these poems
would have delighted the heart of Burns, that many of them are not unworthy
of him, and that (at any rate) his best productions cannot express a more cordial
sympathy with external nature, or a more loving interest in human joys and
sorrows.”—Literary Gazette.

GRAMMAR and Glossary of the Dorset Dialect. By the Rev. W.
Barnes. 8yvo. 28 6d,

DIALECT of South Lancashire, or Tim Bobbin’s Tummas and
Meary, revised and Corrected, with his Rhymes, and an enlarged
Glossary of Words and Phrases chiefly used by the Rural Popu-
lation of the Manufacturing Districts of South Lancashire. By
Samvurt BamrorD. 12mo, second edition, cloth. 38 6d.

LEICESTERSHIRE Words, Phrases, and Proverbs. By A. B.
Evans, D.D., Head Master of Market Bosworth Grammar School.
12mo, cloth. 5s.

A GLOSSARY of the Provincialisms of the County of Sussex. By
W. Durrant Cooper, F.S.A. Post 8vo, second edition, enlarged,
cloth. 3s 6d.

 

 

 

 
 

 

34 BOOKS PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY

A GLOSSARY of Northamptonshire Words and Phrases, with Ex-
amples of their Colloquial Use, with illustrations from various
Authors, to which are added the Customs of the County. By
Miss A. E. Baker. 2 vols, post 8vo, cloth. 16s (original price
£1. 49

“We are » an great obligations to the lady, sister to the local historian of
Northamptonshire, who has occupied her time in producing this very capital
Glossary of Northamptonshire provincialisms.”—Ezaminer.

‘*The provincial dialects of England contain and preserve the elements and
rudiments of our compound tongue. In Miss Baker’s admirable ‘ Northampton-
shire Glossary,’ we have rather a repertory of archaisms than vulgarisms. But
it is much more than a vocabulary ; it preserves not only dialectical peculiarities,
but odd and disappearing customs; and there is hardly a page in it which does
not throw light on some obscurity in our writers, or recall old habits and
practices.”—Christian Remembrancer, Quarterly Review.
WESTMORELAND and Cumberland.—Dialogues, Poems, Songs,

and Ballads, by various Writers, in the Westmoreland and Cum-
berland Dialects, now first collected, to which is added a Copi-
ous Glossary of Words peculiar to those Counties. Post 8vo,
(pp. 408), cloth. 9s.

A GLOSSARY of Provincial Words in use in Wiltshire, showing
their Derivation in numerous instances, from the Language of
the Anglo-Saxons. By Jonn Yoncz AxKERMAN, Esq., F.S.A.
12mo, cloth. 38

THE DIALECT of Leeds and its Neighbourhood, illustrated by
Conversations and Tales of Common Life, etc., to which are
added a Copious Glossary, Notices of the various Antiquities,
Manners, and Customs, and General Folk-lore of the District.
Thick 12mo, pp. 458, cloth. 6s

This is undoubtedly the best work hitherto published on the dialects of
Yorkshire in general, and of Leeds in particular. The author, we believe one
of our fellow townsmen—‘for his introductory remarks are dated ‘Leeds, March,
1861’—has used not only great industry, but much keen observation, and has
produced a book which will everywhere be received asa valuable addition to
the archzological literature of England.—Leeds Intelligencer.

a LIST of Provincial Words in Use in Wakefield, Yorkshire, with
Explanations, including a few descriptions and localities. By
W.S. Bangs. 12mo. 1s 6d

THE Yorkshire Dialect, exemplified in various Dialogues, Tales, and
Songs, applicable to the County, with a Glossary. Post 8vo.
1s.

A GLOSSARY of Yorkshire Words and Phrases, collected in
Whitby and its Neighbourhood, with examples of their collo-
quial use and allusions to local Customs and Traditions. By an
Inpapitant. 12mo, cloth. 38 6d

A GLOSSARY, with some Pieces of Verse of the Old Dialect of th
English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, Ca
Wexford, Ireland. Formerly collected by Jacos Poots, of
Growton, now edited with Notes and Introduction by the Rev.
W. Barnes, Author of the Dorset Poems and Glossary. Fcap.
8vo, cloth. 48 6d

 

 

 
 

 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE. 35

PUBLICATIONS OF THE CAXTON SOCIETY.

OF CHRONICLES AND OTHER WRITINGS ILLUSTRATIVE OF THE HISTORY
AND MISCELLANEOUS LITERATURE OF THE MIDDLE AGES,

Uniformly printed in 8v0. with English Prefaces and Notes. Of
several of the Volumes only 100 copies have been
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CHRONICON Henrici de Silgrave. Now first printed from the
Cotton MS. By C. Hoox. 586d

GAIMAR (Geoffrey) Anglo-Norman Metrical Chronicle of the Anglo
Saxon Kings. Printed for the first time entire, with Appendix,
containing the Lay of Havelok the Dane, the Legend of Er-
nulph, and Life of Hereward the Saxon. Edited by T. Wricut,
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The only complete edition; that in the Monumenta Historica Britannica,
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LA REVOLTE du Comte de Warwick contre le Roi Edouard IV.,
now first printed from a MS. at Ghent, to which is added a
French letter, concerning Lady Jane Grey and Queen Mary,
from a MS. at Bruges. Edited by Dr. Gumus. 38 6d

WALTERI Abbatis Dervensis Epistole, now first printed from a
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BENEDICTI Abbatis Petriburgensis de Vita et Miraculis St. Tho-
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GALFRIDI le Baker de Swinbroke, Chronicon Angeliae temp. Ed-
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EPISTOL Herberti de Losinga, primi Episcopi Norwicensis, et
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RADULPHI Nigri Chronica Duo, now first printed from MSS. in
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ROBERT GROSSETETE (Bishop of Lincoln) “ Chasteau d’ Amour,”
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GALFREDI Monumentis Historia Britonum, nune primum in
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36 BOOKS PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY

ALANI Prioris Cantuariensis postea Abbatis Tewkesberiensis,
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par Chretien de Troyes. 16. Le Dit de Guillaume d’ Angleterre.

 

QUEEN DAGMAR’S Cross, facsimile in gold and colours of the
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with Introductory Remarks by Prof. Groner STEPHENS, F.S.A.
8v0, sewed. 33

RAINE (Rey. James) History and Antiquities of North Durham,
as subdivided into the Shires of Norham, Island, and Bedling-
ton, which from the Saxon period until 1844 constituted part of
the County of Durham, but are now united to Northumberland.
Bors Parts complete, folio, fine plates (wanting 8 plates in the
first part) dds. £1. 5s

Part IT. (wanting by many Subscribers) quite complete. 18s.
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RAINE’S (Rev. Jas.) Saint Cuthbert, with an Account of the State
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in Durham Cathedral, 1827. 4to, plates and woodcuts, bds. (a
very interesting vol). 103 6d. (Original price, £1. 11s 6d)

“ From the four corners of the earth they come,
To kiss this shrine—this mortal-breathing saint.”

RAINE’S (Rev. Jas.) Catterick Church, Yorkshire, a correct copy of
the contract for its building in 1412. Illustrated with Remarks
and Notes. With thirteen plates of views, elevations, and details,
by _ Savin, Architect. 4to, cloth. 63.—Or Lance Paper,
cloth. 9s

RAINE (Rev, James) Historical Account of the Episcopal Castle or
Palace of Auckland. Royal 4to, fine views, portraits, and seals,
cloth. 10a 6d (original price, £1. 1s)

 

 

 
 

 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE. 87

RAINE (Rev. John, Vicar of Blyth) The History and Antiquities of
the Parish of Blyth, in the Counties of Nottingham and York,
comprising Accounts of the Monastery, Hospitals, Chapels, and
Ancient Tournament Field, of the Parish of the Castle and
Manor of Tickill, and of the Family Possessions of De Buili,
the First and Norman Lord thereof, together with Biographical
Notices of Roger Mowbray, Philip of Olcotes, Bishop Sander-
son, John Cromwell, and others, with Appendix of Documents,
&c. 4to plates and pedigrees, cloth. 15s (original price, £1. 68)

Lance Paper, royal 4to. £1. 53

These copies have an additional view of the Remains of Scrooby Palace, not
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RECORDE.—The Connection of Wales with the Early Science of
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English Language. By J. O. HattiweELb. 8vo, sewed. 18

REDFERN’S (Francis, of Uttoxeter), the History of Uttoxeter, in
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Post 8vo, many engravings, cloth, 7s 6d

THE RELIQUARY ; a Depository for Precious Relics, Legendary,
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RELIQULEH ANTIQUE; Scraps from Ancient Manuscrips, illus-
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Many subscribers want the second volume. A number of odd parts of both
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RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW (New Series) consisting of Criticisms
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and scarce Old Books. 8vo, Vols I. and IL, all printed, cloth.
10s 6d (original price, £1. 1s). 1853—54

These two volumes form a good companion to the old series of the Retrospec-
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REYNOLDS’ (Sir Joshua) Notes and Observations on Pictures
chiefly of the Venetian School, being Extracts from his Italian
Sketch Books; also the Rev. W. Mason’s Observations on Sir
Joshua’s Method of Colouring, with some unpublished Letters,
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taining a Transcript of Sir Joshua’s Account Book, showing the
Paintings he executed, and the Prices he was paid for them.
Edited by William Cotton, Esq. 8vo, cloth. 5s

“The scraps of the Critical Journal, kept by Reynolds at Rome, Florence,
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RIMBAULT (E. F., LL.D., F.S.A., &c.)—A Little Book of Songs
and Ballads, gathered from Ancient Music Books, MS. and
Printed. Elegantly printed in post 8vo., pp. 240, hf. morocco. 68

‘“‘Dr. Rimbault has been at some pains to collect the words of the songs
which used to delight the rustics of former times.”—A das.

 

 

 
 

 

 

38 BOOKS PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY

RIMBAULT (Dr. E, F.) Bibliotheca Madrigaliana.—A Bibliographi-
cal Account of the Musical and Poetical Works published in
England during the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries,
under the Titles of Madrigals, Ballets, Ayres, Canzonets, &c., &e.
8vo, cloth. 5s

It records a class of books left undescribed by Ames, Herbert, and Dibdin,

and furnishes a most valuable Catalogue of Lyrical Poetry of the age to which
it refers.

ROBERTS’ (George, of Lyme Regis)—Life, Progresses, and Rebellion
of James, Duke of Monmouth, &c., to his Capture and Execu-
tion, with a full account of the “Bloody Assize,” under Judge
Jefferies, and Copious Biographical Notices. 2 vols, post 8vo,
plates and cuts, cloth, 7s 6d (original price, £1. 4s.)

Two very interesting volumes, particularly so to those connected with the
West of England. Quoted for facts by Lord Macaulay.

ROBERTS’ (George) The Social History of the People of the South-
ern Counties of England in Past Centuries, illustrated in regard
to their Habits, Municipal Bye-laws, Civil Progress, &c. Thick
8vo, cloth. 7s 6d (original price, 16s)

An interesting volume on old English manners and customs, mode of travel-
ling, punishments, witchcraft, gipsies, pirates, stage-players, pilgrimages,
prices of labour and provisions, the clothing trade of the West of England, &c.,
&ec., compiled chiefly from original materials, as the archives of Lyme-Regis

and Weymouth, family papers, church registers, &c. Dedicated to Lord
Macaulay.

ROBIN HOOD.—The Great Hero of the Ancient Minstrelsy of
England, “ Robin Hood,” his Period, real Character, &c., inves-
tigated, and perhaps ascertained. By the Rev. Jos—EPH HUNTER.
Post 8vo. 28 6d.

ROBINSON (J. B., of Derby)—Derbyshire Gatherings; a Fund of
Delight for the Antiquary, the Historian, the Topographer, and
Biographer, and General Reader. A handsome 4to, with engrav-
ings, extra cloth, gilt edges. £1. 5s

ROMAN COINS.—Records of Roman History, from Cneus Pom-
peius to Tiberius Constantinus, as exhibited on the Roman
Coins, Collected by Francis Hobler, formerly Secretary to the
Numismatic Society of London. 2 vols, royal 4to, frontispiece
and numerous engravings, in cloth. £1. 1s (original price £2. 2s,
only 250 printed).

“A work calculated not only to interest the professed numismatist, but also
to instruct the classical student and the historian. The unpublished Coins are
rather numerous, especially when we consider how many works have been
printed on the Roman series, and how much it has been studied. . . . .
The value of the work is much enhanced by the illustrations, executed by Mr.
Fairholt, with the peculiar spirit and fidelity which indicate his experienced
hand.”—C. Roach Smith's Collectanea Antiqua.

SACRED MUSIC.—By the Rev. W. Sloane Evans, M.A. Royal 8vo,
third edition, sewed. 1s 6d (original price, 6s)

Consisting of Psalm Tunes, Sanctusses, Kyrie-Eleisons, &c., &c., and fifty-
four Single and Double Chants (Major, Changeable, and Minor).

 
 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE. 39

SALVERTE’S (Eusebius) History of the Names of Men, Nations,
and Places, in their Connection with the Progress of Civiliza-
tion. Translated by the Rev. L. H. Mordaque, M.A., Oxon.

2 vols, 8vo, cloth. £1. 48

“Notre nom propre c’est nous-memes.”
“Nomina si nescis periit cognitio rerum.”
“Full of learning, well written, and well translated.”—Daily News.

“These two volumes are filled with a minute and philosophical enquiry into
the origin of names of all sorts among all nations, and show profound scholar-
ship and patient skill in wide and elaborate research. Much of the work is,
necessarily, too profound for general readers—particularly the appendices to
the second volume—but the larger part of the enquiry is so curious and interest-
ing that any ordinary reader will fully appreciate and profit by the researches.” —
Birmingham Journal.

SANDYS’ (W., F.S 4.)—Christmastide, its History, Festivities, and
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“Tts title vouches that Chrismastide is germane to the time. Mr. Sandys has
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ing information beyond the stale gossip about ‘‘Christmas in the oldgn time,”
and the threadbare make-believes of jollity and geniality which furnish forth
uost books on the subject. His carols, too, which include some in old French
und Provengal, are selected from numerous sources, and comprise many of the
less known and more worth knowing. His materials are presented with good
feeling and mastery of his theme. On the whole the volume deserves, and
should anticipate, a welcome.”—Spectator.

SANDYS (W.) and 8. A. FORSTER.—History of the Violin and
other Instruments played on with a Bow, from the Earliest
Times to the Present, also an Account of the Principal Makers,
English and Foreign. Thick 8vo, pp. 408, with many engravings,
cloth. 14s

SANDY’S (Charles, of Canterbury) Consuetudes Kancie. A History
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SANDYS (Charles) Critical Dissertation on Professor Willis’s “Archi-
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“Written in no quarrelsome or captious spirit; the highest compliment ig
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deal of extra information of a very curious kind.”—Art-Union.

SAULL (W.D.) On the Connection between Astronomical and
Geological Phenomena, addressed to the Geologists of Europe
and America. 8vo, diagrams, sewed. 28

SCRASE FAMILY.—Genealogical Memoir of the Family of Scrase,
of Sussex. By M.A. Lower. 8vo. 1s 6d

 

 

 
 

 

40 BOOKS PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY

SHAKESPERIANA.

A LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE, including many particulars re
specting the Poet and his Family, never before published. By
J. O, HaLLIweELL, F.R.S., ete. 8vo, llustrated with 75 engravings
on wood, most of which are of new objects from drawings by
Fairholt, cloth. 15s. 1848
This work contains upwards of forty documents respecting Shakespeare and
his family, never before published, besides numerous others, indirectly illustrat-
ing the Poet’s biography. All the anecdotes and traditions concerning Shake-
speare are here, for the first time, collected, and much new light is thrown on
his personal history, by papers exhibiting him as selling Malt, Stone, &. Of
the seventy-six engravings which illustrate the volume, more than fifiy have
never before been engraved. |
It is the only life of Shakespeare to be bought separately from his works.

NEW ILLUSTRATIONS of the Life, Studies, and Writings of
Shakespeare. By the Rev. JoszpH Hunter. 2 vols, 8vo, cloth.
7s 6d (original price £1. 18). 1845

Supplementary to all editions of the works of the Poet.

Part 2, price 8s., and Parts 3, 4, and 5 together, price 3s., may be had to
complete copies.

SHAKESPEARE’S Versification, and its Apparent Irregularities
Explained by Examples from Early and Late English Writers.
By W. Sipney Wa ker, Edited by Wm. Nansom Lertsom.

‘Foolscap 8vo, cloth. 6s. 1854

“The reader of Shakespeare would do well to make himself acquinted with
this excellent little book previous to entering upon the study of the poet.”—
Mr. Singer, in the Preface to his New Edition of Shakespeare.

A CRITICAL Examination of the Text of Shakespeare ; together
with Notes on his Plays and Poems, by the late W. Smpney
Waker. Edited by W. Nanson Lettsom. 3 vols, foolscap 8vo,
cloth. 18s. 1860

“Very often we find ourselves differing from Mr. Walker on readings and
interpretations, but we seldom differ from him without respect for his scholar-
ship and care. His are not the wild guesses at truth which neither gods nor
men have stomach to endure, but the suggestions of a trained intelligence and
a chastened taste. Future editors and commentators will be bound to consult
these volumes, and consider their suggestions.”—A thenceum.

‘*A valuable addition to our Philological Literature, the most valuable part
being the remarks on contemporary literature, the mass of learning by
which the exact meaning and condition of a word is sought to be established.”
—Literary Gazette.

“‘Mr. Walker’s Works undoubtedly form altogether the most valuable body of
verbal criticism that has yet appeared from an individual"—Mr. Dyce’s Preface
to Vol. 1. of his Shakespeare, 1864.

NARES’ (Archd.) Glossary, or Collection of Words, Phrases,Customs,
Proverbs, etc., illustrating the Works of English Authors, par-
ticularly Shakespeare and his Contemporaries. A new edition,
with Considerable Additions both of Words and Examples. By
James O. Halliwell, F.R.S., and Thomas Wright, M.A., F.S.A.
2 thick vols, 8vo, cloth. £1. 1s. 1867

The Glossary of Archdeacon Nares is by far the best and most useful Work we
possess for explaining and illustrating the obsolete language, and the customs
and manners of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, and it is quite inde-
spensable for the readers of the literature of the Elizabethan period. The
additional words and examples are distinguished from those of the origmal
text by at prefixed to each. The work contains between five and six thousand
additional examples, the result of original research, not merely supplementary
» Nares, but to all other compilations of the kind,

 

 
 

 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE, 41

A LETTER to Dr. Farmer (in reply to Ritson), relative to his
Edition of Shakespeare, published in 1790. By Epmunp
Matong. 8vo, sewed. 18 1792

COMPARATIVE Review of the Opinions of James Boaden in 1795
and in 1796, relative to the Shakespeare MSS. 8vo, 23 1796

ESSAY on the Genius of Shakespeare, with Critical Remarks on
the Characters of Romeo, Hamlet, Juliet, and Ophelia, by H.
M. Graves. Post 8vo, cloth. 28 6d (original price 5s 6d) 1826

HISTORICAL Account of the Monumental Bust of Shakespeare,
in the Chancel of Stratford-upon-Avon Church, by ABR. WIVELL.
8vo, 2 plates. 18 6d 1827

VORTIGERN, an Historical Play, represented at Drury Lane, April
2, 1796, as a supposed newly discovered Drama of Shakespeare,
by Witisam Henry Irnepanp. New Edition, with an original
Preface. 8vo, facsimile. 1s 6d (original price 3s 6d) 1832

The Preface is both interesting and curious, from the additional information
it gives respecting the Shakespeare Forgeries, containing also the substance of
the author's ‘* Confessions.”

SHAKESPEARE’s Will, copied from the Original in the Prerogative
Court, preserving the Interlineations and Facsimiles of the three
Autographs of the Poet, with a few Preliminary Observations,

by J. O. Hatiiwewt. 4to, 1s 1838
TRADITIONARY Anecdotes of Shakespeare, collected in Warwick-
shire in 1693. 8vo, sewed. 1s 1838

OBSERVATIONS on an Autograph of Shakespeare, and the Ortho-
graphy of his Name, by Sir Frep. MappEN. 8vo, sewed. 13 1838

SHAKESPEARE’s Autobiographical Poems, being his Sonnets
clearly developed, with his Character, drawn chiefly from his
Works, by C. A. Brown. Post 8vo, cloth. 48 6d 1838

SHAKESPERIANA, a Catalogue of the Early Editions of Shakes-
peare’s Plays, and of the Commentaries and other Publications
illustrative of his works, By J.O. HaLLIWELL, 8vo, ae ee

“Indispensable to everybody who wishes to carry on any inquiries connected
with Shakespeare, or who may have a fancy for Shakesperian Bibliography.”"—
Spectator.

REASONS for a New Edition of Shakespeare’s Works, by J. Payne
Cotter. 8vo. Is 1842

ACCOUNT of the only known Manuscript of Shakespeare’s Plays,
comprising some important variations and corrections in the
“Merry Wives of Windsor,” obtained from a Playhouse Copy
of that Play recently discovered. By J. 0. Hatrtwatt. ie
1s

“ WHO was ‘Jack Wilson,’ the Singer of Shakespeare’s Stage?” An
Attempt to prove the identity of this person with John Wilson,
Doctor of Music in the University of Oxford, a.p. 1644, By E.
F. Rowavt7, LL.D. 8vo. 1a 1846

 

 
 

 

42 BOOKS PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY

CRITICISM applied to Shakespeare. By C. BapHam. Post aye, de

CROKER (Crofton).—Remarks on an Article inserted in the Papers
of the Shakespeare Society. Small 8vo, sewed, 1s. 1849

THE Tempest asa Lyrical Drama. By Morris Barnett. 8vo. -
1850

A FEW Remarks on the Emendation, “ Who Smothers her with
Painting,” in the Play of Cymbeline, discovered by Mr. Collier,
in a Corrected Copy of the Second Edition of Shakespeare, by
J. O. HatuiweEL, &e. 8vo. 1s 1852

CURIOSITIES of Modern Shakespeare Criticism. By J. O. Hatu-

WELL. 8vo, with the first facsimile of the Dulwich Letter, sewed.

1s ‘1853

A FEW Notes on Shakespeare, with Occasional Remarks on the

Emendations of the Manuscript-Corrector in Mr. Collier’s copy

of the folio, 1632, by the Rev. ALEXANDER Dyce. 8vo, cloth.

53 1853

“Mr. Dyce’s Notes are peculiarly delightful, from the stores of illustration

with which bis extensive reading, not only among our writers, but among those

of other countries, especially of the Italian poets, has enabled him to enrich

them, All that he has recorded is valuable. We read this little volume with
pleasure, and closed it with regret.”—Literary Gazette.

A FEW Words in Reply to the Rev. A. Dyce’s “Few Notes on

Shakespeare,” by the Rev. Josrerz Hunter. 8vo. 1s 18538

THE Grimaldi Shakespeare.—Notes and Emendations on the Plays
of Shakespeare, from a recently discovered annotated copy by
the late Joe Grimaldi, Esq., Comedian. 8vo, woodcuts. 1s

18538
A humourous squib on Collier’s Shakespeare Emendations.

THE Moor of Venice, Cinthio’s Tale, and Shakespeare’s Tragedy.

By Joun Epwarp TaYLor. Post 8vo. Is 1855

CURSORY Notes on Various Passages in the Text of Beaumont and
Fletcher, as edited by the Rev. Alexander Dyce, and on his
“Few Notes on Shakespeare,” by the Rev. JonN Mirrorp.
8vo, sewed. 28 6d 1856

BACON and Shakespeare, an Inquiry touching Players, Playhouses,
and Play-writers, in the Reign of Q. Elizabeth ; to which is ap-
pended an Abstract of a Manuscript Autobiography of Tobie

Matthews, by W. H. Smiry. Foolscap 8vo, clovh. 23 6d_ 1857
“Lord Palinerston was tolerably well up in the chief Latin and English
Classics ; but he entertained one of the most extraordinary paradoxes touching
the greatest of them that was ever broached by a man of his intellectual calibre.
He maintained that the Plays of Shakespeare were really written by Bacon,
who passed them off under the name of an actor, fur fear of compromising his
professional prospects and philosophic gravity. Only last year, when this sub-
ject was discussed at Broadlands, Lord Palmerston suddenly left the room, and
speedily returned with a small volume of dramatic criticisis (Mr. Smith's book)
in which the same theory was supported by supposed aualogies of thought and
expression. ‘There,’ said he, ‘read that, end you will come over tu my
opinion,’”—Fraser's Maa Nov. 1865.

 
 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE, 48

HAMLET.—<An Attempt to Ascertain whether the Queen were an

Accessory before the Fact, in the Murder of her First Husband.
8vo, sewed. 28 1856

“This pamphlet well deserves the perusal of every student of Hamlet.”—

Notes and Queries.

SHAKESPEARE’s Story-Teller, Introductory Leaves, or Outline
Sketches, with Choice Extracts in the Words of the Poet him-
self, with an Analysis of the Characters, by George Stephens,
Professor of the English Language and Literature in the Univer-
sity of Copenhagen. 8vo, Nos. 1 t06. 6d each. 1856

PERICLES, Prince of Tyre, a Novel, by Geo. Wilkins, printed in
1608, and founded upon Shakespeare's Play, edited by Pro-
FESSOR Mommsen, with Preface and Account of some original
Shakespeare editions extant in Germany and Switzerland, and
Introduction by J. P. Comnrer. 8vo, sewed. 5s 1857

LLOYD (W. Watkiss) Essays on the Life and Plays of Shakespeare,

contributed to the Edition by 8S. W. Singer, 1856. Thick post

8vo, half calf gilt, marbled edges. 9s 1858
Only 60 copies privately printed.

THE Sonnets of Shakespeare, rearranged and divided into Four

Parts, with an Introduction and Explanatory Notes, Post 8vo,

cloth. 33 6d 1859

STRICTURES on Mr. Collier’s New Edition of Shakespeare, pub-
lished in 1858, by the Rev. ALEXANDER DycE. 8vo, cloth. 58
(original price 73 6d) 1859

THE Shakespeare Fabrications, or the MS. Notes of the Perkins
folio, shown to be of recent origin; with Appendix on the
Authorship of the Ireland Forgeries, by C MansFrireLD INGLEBY,
LL.D. Foolscap 8vo, with a facsimile, shewing the pseudo old
writing and the pencilled words, cloth. 38 1859

STRICTURES on Mr. Hamilton’s Inquiry into the Genuineness of
the MS. Corrections in J. Payne Collier’s Annotated Shakespeare.
Folio, 1632. By Scrurator. 8vo, sewed. 1s 1860

SHAKESPEARE and the Bible, shewing how much the great Dra-
matist was indebted to Holy Writ for his Profound Knowledge
of Human Nature. By the Rev. T.R. Eaton. Feap. 8vo, cloth.
2s 6d 1860

THE Footsteps of Shakespeare, or a Ramble with the Early Drama-
tists, containing New and Interesting Information respecting
Shakespeare, Lyly, Marlowe, Green, and others. Post 8vo, cloth.
5s 6d 1861

SHAKESPEARE, his Friends and Contemporaries. By G. M.
Tweddell. Second Edition, 8vo, PartsI to III. 6d eer ote
THE Shakespeare Cyclopcedia, or a Classified and Elucidated Sum-
mary of Shakespeare’s Knowledge of the Works and Phenomena
of Nature. By J. H. Fennell, 8vo, Part I, sewed. 18 1862

 

 
 

 

44 BOOKS PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY

A BRIEF Hand Book of the Records belonging to the Borough of
Stratford-on-Avon; with Notes of a few of the Shakespearian
Documents. Square post 8vo, cloth (only 50 printed). Le

SHAKESPEARE No Deerstealer ; or, a Short Account of Fulbroke
Park, near Stratford-on-Avon. By C. Holte Bracebride. 8vo,
privately printed. 1s 6d 1862

WHELER’s Historical Account of the Birthplace of Shakespeare,
reprinted from the edition of 1824, with a few prefatory remarks
by J. O. Halliwell. 8vo, front. 186d 1863

BRIEF Hand List of the Collections respecting the Life and Works
of Shakespeare, and the History and Antiquities of Stratford-
upon-Avon, formed by the late Robert Bell Wheler, and pre-
sented by his sister to that Town, to be preserved for ever in
the Shakespeare Library and Museum. Small square 8vo.
7s 6d Chiswick Press, 1863
Only 100 copies printed at the expense of Mr. Halliwell, not for sale.

SHAKESPEARE’S Coriolanus. Edited, with Notes and Preface,
by F. A. Lzo, with a quarto facsimile of the Tragedy of Corio-
lanus, from the folio of 1623, photolithographed by A. Bur-
CHARD, and with Extracts from North’s Plutarch. 4to, elegantly
printed, extra cloth. 15s 1864

SHAKSPERE and Jonson.—Dramatic versus Wit-Combats—Auxi-
liary Forces—Beaumont and Fletcher, Marston, Decker, Chap-

man, and Webster. Post 8vo. 4s. 1864
REPRINTS of Scarce Pieces of Shakespearian Criticism, No. 1, “ Re-
marks on Hamlet, 1736.” Feap. 8vo. 1s 6d 1864

THREE Notelets on Shakespeare—I. Shakespeare in Germany ; II.
The Folk-lore of Shakespeare ; III. Was Shakespeare a Soldier ?
By Wiitram J. THoms, F.S.A. Post 8vo, cloth. 436d 1865
“On this subject of Shakespeare in Germany, Mr. W. J. Thoms nas reprinted
apaper read some years ago before the Society of Antiquaries, together with
two other ‘Notelets’ onthe Poet—‘ The Folk Lore of Shakespeare,’ from the
ATHEN&UM, and ‘Was Shakespeare a Soldier? from Nores anD QuERtIES. Not
the least of Mr. Thoms’s many services to English literature is the invention of
that admirable word folk-lore, which appeared for the first time in these columns
only a few years ago, and has already become a domestic term jn every corner
of the world. His illustration of Shakespeare’s knowledge of this little world
of fairy dreams and legends is a perfect bit of criticism. He answers the query
as to Shakespeare’s having seen martial service in the affirmative ; and therein
we think his argument sound, his conclusion right. These ‘ Notelets’ were
very well worthy of being collected into a book.”—Athenceum.

SHAKESPEARE’s Editors and Commentators. By the Rev. W. R.
ARRowsmMITH, Incumbent of Old St. Pancras. 8vo, sewed. 1s 6d

1865
NEW Readings in Shakspere, or Proposed Emendations of the Text.
By Rozert Cartwricnat, M.D, 8vo, sewed. 28 1866

THE SHAKESPEARE EXPOSITOR: being Notes, and Emenda

tions on his Works. By Tuomas KeicuTiey. Thick fcap. 8vo,
cloth. 7s 6d 1867

 

 
 

 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE. 45

SHAKESPEARE’s Jest Book.—A Hundred Mery Talys, from the
only perfect copy known. Edited, with Introduction and Notes,
by Dr. Herman Oxstertuy. Feap. 8vo0, nicely printed by Whit-
tingham, half morocco. 4 6d

The only perfect copy known of the “ Hundred Mery Talys” was lately dis-
covered in the Royal Library at Gottingen. This is a verbatim reprint, supply-
ing all the chasms and lost tales in former editions, with copious Notes by the
editor, pointing out the origin of the various tales, and authors who have used

em,

 

SHARPE’s (Samuel, author of the History of Ancient Egypt, &e.)—
The Egyptian Antiquities in the British Museum described.
Post 8v0, with many woodcuts, cloth. 5s. 1862

- We strongly counsel every one who desires to obtain a true knowledge of

the Egyptian Department of the Museum to lose no time in obtaining this cheap

and excellent volume.”—Daily News.

“Mr. Sharpe here presents the student of Egyptian antiquity and art witha
very useful book. . . . . To the accomplished student this book will be
useful as a reminder of many things already known to him; to the tyro it may
serve as a guide and aide-memoire: to the mere visitor to the Galleries in the
British Museum, this will be a handy guide book, in which an immediate
answer may be sought and found for the oft-repeated questions before these
wondrous remains—of what are their natures? what their meanings? what
their purposes ?”— Atheneum.

SHARPE (Samuel) Egyptian Mythology and Egyptian Christianity,
with their Influence on the Opinions of Modern Christendom.
Post 8vo, with 100 engravings, cloth. 38.

SHARPE (Samuel) History of Egypt, from the Earliest Times till the
Conquest by the Arabs, a.D. 620. 2 vols, 8vo, third edition
(excepting the engravings, the sume as the fourth), elegantly printed,
cloth. 4s 6d (original price 16s)

SHARPE (Samuel) Critical Notes on the Authorized English Version
of the New Testament, being « Companion to the Author’s
“New Testament, translated from Griesbach’s Text.” Feap.
8v0, SECOND EDITION, cloth. 28 6d

SHEPHERD (Charles).—Historical Account of the Island of Saint
Vincent, in the West Indies, with large Appendix on Population,
Meteorology, Produce of Estates, Revenue, Carib Grants, etc.
8vo, plates, cloth. 33 (original price 12s)

SINDING (Professor, of Copenhagen) History of Scandinavia, from
the early times of the Northmen, the Seakings, and Vikings, to
the present day. First English Edition, thoroughly revised and
augmented. 8vo, pp. 490, large map and portrait of Q. Marga-
ret, cloth. 68

SKELTON (John, Poet Laureate to Henry VIII) Poetical Works,
the Bowge of Court, Colin Clout, Why come ye not to Court ?
(his celebrated Satire on Wolsey), Phillip Sparrow, Elinour
Rumming, etc., with Notes and Life. By the Rev. A. Dycz, 2
vols, 8vo, cloth. 16s (original price £1. 12s) :

** The power, the strangeness, the volubility of his language, the audacity of

his satire, and the perfect originality of his manner, made Skelton one of the

most extraordinary writers of any age or country.”—Southey.

 

 
 

 

46 BOOKS PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY

SIMS (Richard, of the Dept. of MSS. in the British Museun) A Me-
nual for the Genealogist, Topographer, Antiquary, and Legal
Professor, consisting of Descriptions of Public Records, Paro-
chial and other Registers, Wills, County and Family Histories,
Heraldic Collections in Public Libraries, &. 8vo, SECOND EDI-

TION, pp. 540, cloth. 153 :

This work will be found indispensable by those engaged in the study of
Family History and Heraldry, and by the compiler of County and Local
History, the Antiquary and the Lawyer. Init the Public and other Records,
most likely to afford information to genealogical inquirers, are fully described,
and their places of present deposit indicated. Such Records are—The Domes-
day Buoks—Monastie Records—Carte Antique—Liber Niger—Liber Rubeus
—Testa de Nevil—Placita in various Courts—Charter Rolls—Close Rolls—
Coronation Rolls—Coroners’ Rolls—Escheat Rolls—Fine Rolls—French,
Gascon, and Norman Rolls—Hundred Rolls—Liberate Rollsa—Memoranda Rolls
—Oblata and other Rolls—Inquisitions Post Mortem—Inquisitions ad quod
Damnum—Fines and Recoveries—Sign Manuals and Signet Bills—Privy Seals
—Forfeitures, Pardons, and Attainders—Parliamentary Records—County
Palatine Records—Scotch, Irish, and Welsh Records—also Wills—!’arochial
and other Registers—Registers of Universities and Public Schools—Heraldic
Collections—Records of Clergymen, Lawyers, Surgeons, Soldiers, Sailors, &c., &c.

The whole accompanied by valuable Lists of Printed Works and Manuscripts
in various Libraries, namely :—at the British Museum—The Bodleian, Ashino-
lean, and other Libraries at Oxford—The Public Library, and that of Caius
College, Cambridge—The Colleges of Arms in London and Dublin—The Libraries
of Lincoln’s Inn, and of the Middle and Inner Temple—at Chetham College,
Manchester ; and in other repositories too numerous to mention.

The more important of these Lists are those of Monastic Cartularies—
Extracts from Plea and other Rolls—Escheats—Inquisitions, &c.—Tenants in
Capite—Recusants—Subsidies+Crown Lands—Wills—Parochial and other
Registers—Heralds’ Visitations—Royal and Noble Genealogies—Peerages,
Baronetages, Knightages—Pedigrees of Gentry—County and Family Histories
—Monumental Inscriptions—Coats of Arms—American Genealogies—Lists o,
Gentry—Members of Parliament—Freeholds—Officers of State—Justices of
Peace—Mayors, Sheriffs, é&c.—Collegians, Church Dignitaries—Lawyers—The
Medical Profession—Soldiers—Sailors, ete.

To these is added an ‘“‘ Appendix,” containing an Account of the Public Re-
cord Offices and Libraries mentioned in the work, the mode of obtaining admis-
sion, hours of attendance, fees for searching, copying, &c, Table of the Regnal
Years of English Sovereigns ; Tables of Dates used in Ancient Records, &c.

SIMS (Richard) Handbook to the Library of the British Museum,
containing a brief History of its Formation, and of the various
Collections of which it is composed, Descriptions of the Cata-
logues in present use, Classed Lists of the Manuscripts, etc., and
a variety of Information indispensable for Literary Men, with
some Account of the principal Public Libraries in London. Sm.
8vo (pp. 438) with map and plan, cloth. 2s 6d

It will be found a very useful work to every literary person or public institu-
tion in all parts of the world.

“*A little Handbook of the Library has been published, which I think will be
most useful to the public.” —Lord Seymour's Reply in the H. of Commons, July, 1854.

“T am much pleased with your book, and find init abundance of information
which I wanted. ”—Letter from Albert Way, Esq., F.S.A., Editor of the
“Promptorum Parvulorum,” &c.

“‘T take this opportunity of telling you how much I like your nice little ‘ Hand-
book to the Library of the British Museum,’ which I sincerely hope may have
the success which it deserves,”—Letter from Thos. Wright, Esq., F.S.A., Author
of the ‘ Biographia Britannica Literaria,’ de.

“Mr. Sims’s ‘Handbook to the Library of the British Museum’ is a very
comprehensive and instructive volume. . . . . I venture to predict for it
a wide circulation.” —Mr. Bolton Corney, tn ‘‘ Notes and Queries,” No. 213.

 

 
 

 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE. 47

SLOANE—EVANS (W.S.) Grammar of British Heraldry, cons ting
of Blazon and Marshalling with an Introduction on the Rise and
Progress of Symbols and Ensigns. 8vo, SECOND EDITION, many
plates, cloth. 5s (original price 138)

SMITH’S (Henry Ecroyd) Reliquiae Isurianae, the Remains of the
Roman Isurium, now Aldborough, near Boroughbridge, York,
ne illustrated and described. Royal 4to, with 37 plates, cloth.

. 58

The most highly illustrated work ever published on a Roman Station in
England.

SMITH’S (Charles Roach, F.S.A.) History and Antiquities of Rich-
borough, and Lymme, in Kent, Small 4to, with many engrav-
ings on wood and copper, by F. W. Fairholt, cloth. £1.18

“No antiquarian volume could display a trio of names more zealous,
successful, and intelligent, on the subject of Romano-British remains, than the
three here represented—Roach Smith, the ardent explorer ; Fairholt, the excel-
lent illustrator, and Rolfe, the indefatigable collector.—Literary Gazette.

3MITH (W., jun., of Morley) Rambles about Morley (West Riding
of Yorkshire) with Descriptive and Historic Sketches, also an
Account of the Rise and Progress of the Woollen Manufacture
in this Place. Royal 12mo, map and numerous engravings, cloth.

5s

SMITH’S (Toulmin) Memorials of Old Birmingham, Men and Names,
Founders, Freeholders, and Indwellers, from the 13th to the
16th Century, with particulars as to the earliest Church of the
Reformation built and endowed in England, from original and
unpublished documents. Royal 8vo, plates, cloth. 4s 6d

SMITH (John Russell) Bibliothecana Cantiana—aA Bibliographical
Account of what has been published on the History, Topogra-
phy, Antiquities, Customs, and Family Genealogy of the County
of Kent, with Biographical Notes. 8vo (pp. 370) with two plates
of facsimiles of autographs of 83 eminent Kentish Writers. 68
(original price 148)

SMITH (J. R.) A Bibliographical Catalogue of English Writers on
Angling and Ichthyology. Post 8vo. 1s 6d

SMITH (J. R.) A Bibliographical List of all the Works which have
been published towards illustrating the Provincial Dialects of
England. Post 8vo. 1s

“Very serviceable to such as prosecute the study of our provincial dialects,
or are collecting works on that curious subject. . . . We very cordially
recommend it to notice.”—Metropolitan.

SPEDDING (James, Editor of Lord Bacon) Publishers and
Authors. Post 8vo, cloth. 2s

Mr. Spedding wishes to expose the present mystery (?) of publishing, he
thinks from a number of cases that we publishers do not act on the square.

However, there are two sides to the question; but his book will be useful to

the uninitiated.

STEPHENS’ (Professor George, of Copenhagen) the Old Northern
Runic Monuments of Scandinavia and England, now first Col-
lected and Deciphered. Folio, Part 1, pp. 862, with about 150
engravings. £2. 108 :

‘The Author promises the second and concluding Part next year.

 

 

 
 

 

48 BOOKS PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY

STEPHENS’ (Professor) The Ruthwell Cross (near Annan, Dumfries-
shire) with its Runic Verses, by Caedmon, and Ceedmon’s Cross-
Lay, “ The Holy Rood, a Dream,” from a Transcript of the 10th
Century, with Translations, Notes, &c. Folio, with two plates,
sewed. 103

This will be included in the forthcoming second part of Professor Stephens’s
work, this portion is published separately to meet the wishes of a number of

Archzologists.

STIRRY’S (Thos.) A Rot amongst the Bishops, ora Terible Tempest
in the Sea of Canterbury, set forth in lively emblems, to please
the Judicious Reader. (A Satire on Abp. Laud), four very curt-
ous woodcut emblems, cloth. 38

A facsimile of the very rare original edition, which sold at Bindley's sale for £18.

SURREY HILLS.—A Guide to the Caterham Railway and its Vici-

nity. Post 8vo, 2nd and revised edition, with a map, sewed. 60
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scenery without perhaps finding a country of more varied and interesting
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SURTEES (Rev. Scott. F., of Sprotburgh, Yorkshire) Waifs and
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SURTEES (Rev. Scott F.) Julius Caesar, Did he Cross the Channel
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“In giving an answer in the negative to the above question, we ask for a fair
and dispassionate hearing, and in order to avoid circumlocution pass at once
our Rubicon, and propound as capable of all proof the following historical
heresy, viz., that Caesar never set foot at Boulogne or Calais, never crossed the
Channel, or set eyes on Deal or Dover, but that he sailed from the mouths of the
Rhine or Scheldt, and landed in Norfolk on both his expeditions. "—AUTHOR.

TESTAMENT (The New) translated from Griesbach’s Text, by
SamueL SHarpz, Author of the History of Egypt, &c. 5th

edition. 12mo, pp. 412, cloth. 1s 6d

The aim of the translator has been to give the meaning and idiom of the
Greek as far as possible in English words. The book is printed in paragraphs
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by inverted commas, and the quotations from the ‘Old Testament” in italics,
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We cordially recommend this edition of the New Testament to our readers
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Upon the whole, we must admit that his is the most correct English Version
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TESTAMENT (Old).—The Hebrew Scriptures, translated by SAMUEL
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“Tn the following Revision of the Authorized Version of the Old Testament,
the aim of the Translator has been to shew in the Text, by greater exactness,
those peculiarities which others have been content to point out in Notes and

Commentaries. He has translated from Van der Hooght’s edition of the Hebrew

Bible, printed in Amsterdam in 1705; except when, in a few cases, he has

followed some of the various readings so industriously collected by Dr.

Kennicott.”—Preface. A Prospectus may be had.

 

 
 

 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE. 49

TANSWELL’S (John, of the Inner Temple) the History and Anti-
quities of Lambeth. 8vo, with numerous illustrations, cloth.
4s 6d (original price 73 6d)

THOMPSON (James) Handbook of Leicester. 12mo, Second Edit.,
woodcuts, bds. 2

THOMPSON (Ebenezer) A Vindication of the Hymn “Te Deum
Laudamus,” from the Corruptions of a Thousand Years, with
Ancient Versions in Anglo Saxon, High German, Norman
French, &c., and an English Paraphrase of the XVth Century,
now first printed. Fcap. 8vo, cloth. 38

A book well worth the notice of the Ecclesiastical Antiquary and the

Philologist.

THOMPSON (Ebenezer) on the Archaic Mode of expressing Nun.
bers in English, Anglo-Saxon, Friesic, ete. 8vo (an ingenious
and learned pamphlet, interesting to the Philologist). 1s

TIERNEY’S (Rev. Canon) History and Antiquities of the Castle and
Town of Arundel, including the Biography of its Earls. 2 vols,
royal 8vo, fine plates, cloth, 143 (original price, £2. 10s.)

TITIAN.—Notices of the Life and Works of Titian the Painter.
By Sim Asranam Hums. Royal 8vo, portrait, cloth. 6s.

TONSTALL (Cuthbert, Bishop of Durham) Sermon preached on
Palm Sunday, 1539, before Henry VIII.; reprinted verbutim
from the rare edition by Berthelet, in 1539. 12mo. 1s 6d.

An exceedingly interesting Sermon, at the commencement of the Reformation;
Strype in his ‘‘ Memorials,” has made large extracts from it.

TORRENT of PORTUGAL; an English Metrical Romance. Now
first published, from an unique MS. of the XVth Century,
preserved in the Chetham Library at Manchester. Edited by
J. O. Hatiiwett, &c. Post 8vo, cloth, uniform with Ritson,

Weber, and Ellis’s publications, cloth. 6s.

“This is a valuable and interesting addition to our list of early English
metrical romances, and an indispensable companion to the collections of Ritsun,
Weber, and Ellis,”—Literary Gazette.

TOPOGRAPHER (The) and Genealogist. Edited by J. G. NicHois
3 vols, 8vo, cloth. £1. 53 (pub £3. 3s)

This extremely valuable work forms a sequel to the ‘‘ Collectanea Topographica
Genealogica,” and the intrinsic value and originality of the materials comprised
therein, will entitle it not only to preservation, but to frequent reference.
TOWNEND’s (William) The Descendants of the Stuarts. An Un.

chronicled Page in England’s History. 8vo, portraits and
folding pedigrees, SECOND EDITION, WITH ADDITIONS, half morocco
53 (original price 10s) :

This volume contains a must minute, precise, and_valuable history of the
Descendants of the Stuart Family. Neither of our Historians from Hume to
Macaulay give even the more prominent facts in connection with many branches
of the House of Stuart. ‘

‘ This is a really interesting contribution to what we may term the private
records of history. . . . . What Mr. Townend has done is full of curious
information. His Genealogical tables shew all the ramifications which spring
out of the matrimonial alliances of the descendants of the Stuarts, and very
curious possibilities some of these indicate. . . . . We promise our readers
that this volume contains much that is worthy of perusal and recollection, a8
well as much that is suggestive.”"—Givbe.

 
 

 

50 BOOKS PUBLISHED AND SOLD BY

TOXOPHILUS ; the School of Shooting (the first English Treatise
on Archery. By Roger AscHaM, reprinted from the Rev. Dr.
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TROLLOPE (Rev. W.) History of the Royal Foundation of Christ’s
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TUCKETT (John) Pedigrees and Arms of Devonshire Families, as
recorded in the Herald’s Visitation of 1620, with Additions
from the Harleian MSS. and the Printed Collections of West-
cote and Pole. 4to, Parts I. to XII. Each 53

TURNER'S (Sir Gregory Page) Topographical Memorandums for
the County of Oxford. 8vo, bds. 28

TWEDDELL (G. M.) The Bards and Authors of Cleveland and South
Durham. By G.M.Tweppett. 8vo, PartsI. to VI. 6d each.

TWO LEAVES of King Waldere and King Gudhere, a hitherto un-
known Old English Epic of the 8th Century belonging to the
Saga Cycle of King Theodoric and his Men. Now first pub-
lished with a Modern English Reading, Notes, and Glossary by
Grorce SterHens, English Professor in the University of Co-
penhagen. Royal 8vo, with four Photographic Facsimiles of the
MS. of the 9th Century, recently discovered at Copenhagen. 153—
Without Facsimiles. 73 6d

VASEY (George) A Monograph of the Genus Bos.—The Natural
-History of Bulls, Bisons, and Buffaloes, exhibiting all the known
Species (with an Introduction containing an Account of Expe-
riments on Rumination from the French of M. FLourens).
8v0, with 72 engravings on wood by the Author, cloth. 6s (origi-
nal price 10s 6d)

Written in a scientific and popular manner, and printed and illustrated
uniformly with the works of Bell, Yarrell, Forbes, Johnston, &c. Dedicated to
the late Mr. Yarrell, who took great interest in the progress of the work. Mr.
Vasey engraved many of the beautiful woodcuts in Mr. Yarrell’s works.

VASEY’S (George) Illustrations of Eating, displaying the Omni-
vorous Character of Man, and exhibiting the Natives of various
Countries at Feeding-time. Feap. 8vo, with woodcuts by the
Author. 28

VERNON’S (E. J., B.A., Oxon) Guide to the Anglo-Saxon Tongue,
on the Basis of Professor Rask’s Grammar ; to which are added
Reading Lessons in Verse and Prose, with Notes, for the Use of
Learners. 12mo, cloth. 5s

“Mr. Vernon has, we think, acted wisely in taking Rask for his model: but
let no one suppose from the title that the book is merely a compilation from
the work of that philologist. The accidence 13 abridged from Rask, with

constant revision, correction, and modification; but the syntax, a most im-

portant portion of the book, is original, and is compiled with great care and

skill; and the latter half of the volume consists of a well-chosen selection of
extracts from Anglo-Saxon writers, in prose and in verse, for the practice of the
student, who will find great assistance in reading them from the grammatical
notes with which they are accompanied, and from the glossary which follows
them. This volume, well studied, will enable anyone to read with ease the
generality of ty oer writers ; and its cheapness places it within the reach
«f every class. It has our hearty recommendation. ’—Iuicrary Gavetie.

 

 
 

 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 86, SOHO SQUARE. 51

VICARS’ (John) England’s Worthies, under whom all the Civil and
Bloody Warres, since Anno 1642 to Anno 1647, are related,
Royal 12mo, reprinted in the old style (similar to Lady Willough-
by’s Diary), with copies of the 18 rare portraits after follar, etc.,
half morocco. 5s

WACE (Master, the Anglo-Norman Poet) His Chronicle of the Nor-
man Conquest, from the Roman de Rou. Translated into Eng-
lish Prose, with Notes and Illustrations, by Epoar Tylor,
F.S.A. 8vo, many engravings from the Bayeux Tapestry, Norman
Architecture, Illuminations, ete., cloth. 153 (original price £1. 8s)

Only 250 copies printed, and very few remain unsold; the remaining copies
are now in J. R. Smith’s hands, and are offered at the above low price in conse-
quence of the death of Mr. Pickering ; hitherto no copies have been sold under
the published price.

WACKERBARTH (F. D.) Music and the Anglo-Saxons, being some
Account of the Anglo-Saxon Orchestra, with Remarks on the
Church Music of the 19th Century. 8vo, 2 plates, sewed. 4s

WARNE (Charles, F.S.4.) The Celtic Tumuli of Dorset; an Ac-
count of Personal and other Researches in the Sepulchral
Mounds of the Durotriges. Folio, plates and woodcuts, cloth.
£1. 10s

WAYLEN (James, of Devizes) History and Antiquities of the Town
of Marlborough, and more generally of the entire Hundred of
Selkley, in Wiltshire. Thick 8vo, woodcuts, cloth. 14s

This volume describes a portion of Wilts not included by Sir R. C. Hoare and
other topographers.

WEST (Mrs.) A Memoir of Mrs. John West, of Chettle, Dorset.
By the Rev. Jonn West, A.M. A new edition, with Brief Me-
moir of the Writer. 12mo, cloth. 2s 6d

The fourth edition of an interesting volume of Religious Biography. The

Rev. John West was the first missionary to the Indians of Prince Rupert’s

Land, the first wooden church at Red River was partly built by his own hands.

WESLEY—Narrative of a Remarkable Transaction in the Early
Life of John Wesley. Now first printed from a MS. in the
British Museum. SEconp EpITIon ; to which is added a Re-
view of the Work by the late Rev. Joseph Hunter, F.S.A. 8vo,
sewed. 28 od

A very curious love affair between J. W. and his housekeeper; it gives
acurious insight into the early economy of the Methodists, It is entirely
unknown to all Wesley’s biographers.

WILLIAMS (John, Archdeacon of Cardigan) Essays, Philological,
Philosophical, Ethnological, and Archeological, connected with
the Prehistorical Records of the Civilised Nations of Ancient
Europe, especially of that Race which first occupied Great
Britain. Thick 8vo, with 7 plates, cloth. 16s

WINDSOR.—Annals of Windsor, being a History of the Castle and
Town, with some Account of Eton and Places Adjacent. By
R. R. Tighe and J. E. Davis, Esgs. In 2 thick vols, roy. 8vo,
illustrated with many engravings, coloured and plain, extra cloth.

£1. 5s (original price £4. 48) : ;
An ay application is necessary, as but few copies remain on sale.

 

 
 

 

52 BOOKS PUBLISHED OR SOLD BY

WILLMOTT (Robert Aris, some time Incumbent of Bear Wood,
Berks) A Journal of Summer Time in the Country. Fourtu
Eprtion; to which is added an Introductory Memoir by his
Sister. Foolscap 8vo, elegantly printed by Whittingham, extra
cloth. 5s

This ‘Journal of Summer Time’ is a genial gossip of literary matters under
the various days of the month from May to August. It is full of anecdote, and
full of interest; and is a sort of literary natural history, like that of Selbourne.

by good Gilbert White. The observations, the reading, the meditations of a

well-trained, well-filled mind, give this volume its charm, and make it one

which even the best-informed reader may wile away an hour with in recalling
his own wanderings in the literary fields. The great glory of this book is that
it is thoroughly natural. It does not aim at fine writing or sensational
stories, but jots down from day to day such memoranda as a well-stored mind,
familiar with the great treasures of our literature, would give forth in the quiet

of a country parsonage, when summer smiled over the fields and woods, and a

garden gave forth its pleasant sights and sounds.—Birmingham Journal.

WORSAAE’S (J. J. A., of Copenhagen) Primeval Antiquities of Den-
mark, translated and applied to the illustration of similar re-
mains in England, by W. J. Thoms, F.S.A. 8vo, many engrave
ings, cloth. 4s 6d (original price 10s 6d)

WRIGHT'S (Thomas, M.A4., F.S.A., Member of the Inststute of
France) Essay on Archeological Subjects, and on various
Questions connected with the History of Art, Science, and
Literature in the Middle Ages. 2 vols, post 8vo, printed by
Whittingham, illustrated with 120 engravings, cloth. 16s

Contents :—1. On the Remains of a Primitive People in the South-East
corner of Yorkshire. 2. On some ancient Barrows, or Tumuli, opened in East
Yorkshire. 38. On some curious forms of Sepulchral Interment found in East
Yorkshire. 4, Treago, and the large Tumulus at St. Weonard’s. 5. On the
Ethnology of South Britain at the period of the Extinction of the Roman
Government in the Island. 6. On the Origin of the Welsh. 7. On the Anglo-
Saxon Antiquities, with a particular reference to the Fausset Collection 8,
On the True Character of the Biographer Asser. 9. Anglo-Saxon Architecture,
illustrated from illuminated Manuscripts. 10. On the Literary History of
Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of the Britons, and of the Romantic Cycle of
King Arthur, 11. On Saints’ Lives and Miracles. 12. On Antiquarian Exca-
vations and Researches in the Middle Ages. 13. On the Ancient Map of the
World preserved in Hereford Cathedral, as illustrative of the History of
Geography in the Middle Ages. 14 On the History of the English Language.
15. On the Abacus, or Medizval System of Arithmetic. 16. On the Antiquity
of Dates expressed in Arabic Numerals. 17. Remarks on an Ivory Casket of
the beginning of the Fourteenth Century. 18. On the Carvings on the Stalls in
Cathedral and Collegiate Churches. 19. Illustrations of some Questions relating
to Architectural Antiquities—(a@) Medieval Architecture illustrated from Illu-
minated Manuscripts: (0) A Word more on Medieval Bridge Builders: (c) On
the Remains of proscribed Races in Medixval and Modern Society, as explaining
certain peculiarities in Old Churches. 20. On the Origin of Rhymes in Medi-
geval Poetry, and its bearing on the Authencity of the Early Welsh Poems. 21.
On the History of the Drama in the Middle Ages. 22. On the Literature of the
Troubadours. 23. On the History of Comic Literature during the Middle Ages.
24. On the Satirical Literature of the Reformation.

“‘Mr. Wright is a man who thinks for himself, and one who has evidently a
title to do so. Some of the opinions published in these Essays are, he tells us,
the result of his own observations or reflections, and are contrary to what have
long been those of our own antiquaries and historians.”—Spectator.

“Two volumes exceedingly valuable and important to all who are interested
in the Archzology of the Middle Ages; no mere compilations, but replete with
fine epegen anes theories, and useful information, put in an intelligible

manner on subjects that have been hitherto but imperfectly understood,”—
London Rev. :

 

 
 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE. 53

WRIGHT (Thomas) Essays on the Literature, Popular Superstitions,
and History of England in the Middle Ages. 2 vols, post 8vo,
elegantly printed, cloth. 16s

ConTENtTs :—Essay 1. Anglo-Saxon Poetry—2. Anglo-Norman Poetry—3.

Chansons de Geste, or historical romances of the Middle Ages—4. Proverbs

and Popular Sayings—5. Anglo-Latin Poets of the Twelth Century—6. Abelard

and the Scholastic Philosophy—7. Dr. Grimm’s German Mythology—8. National

Fairy Mythology of England—9. Popular Superstitions of Modern Greece, and

their connection with the English—10. Friar Rush and the Frolicsome Elves—

11. Dunlop's History of Fiction—12. History and Transmission of Popular

Stories—13. Poetry of History—14. Adventures of Hereward the Saxon—15.

Story of Eustace the Monk—16. History of Fulke Fitzwarine—17. Popular

Cycle or Robin Hood Ballads—18. Conquest of Ireland by the Anglo-Normans

—19. Old Enzlish Political Songs—20. Dunbar, the Scottish Poet.

WRIGHT (Thomas) Biographia Britannica Literaria, or Biography of
Literary Characters of Great Britain and Ireland. Awnazo-
Saxon Perrop. Thick 8vo, cloth. 68 (original price 12s)

—— The Anglo-Norman Period. Thick 8vo, cloth, 68 (origunal
price 12s)

Published under the superintendence of the Council of the Royal Society of
Literature. fi

There is no work in the English Language which gives the reader sucha com-
prehensive and connected History of the Literature of these periods.
WRIGHT (Thomas) Wanderings of an Antiquary, chiefly upon the

Traces of the Romans in Britain, many ilustrations, post 8vo,
cloth. 4s 6d (original price 8s 6d)

WRIGHT'S (Thomas) Saint Patrick’s Purgatory, an Essay on the
Legends of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise, current during the
Middle Ages. Post 8vo, cloth. 68

“Tt must be observed that this is not a mere account of St. Patrick’s
Purgatory, but a complete history of the legends and superstitions relating to
the subject, from the earliest times, rescued from old MSS. as well as from old
printed books. Moreover, it embraces a singular chapter of literary history
omitted by Warton and all former writers with whom we are acquainted ; and
we think we may add, that it forms the best introduction to Dante that has yet
been published.”—Literary Gazette.

“This appears to bea curious and even amusing book on the singular subject
of Purgatory, in which the idle and fearful dreams of superstition are shown to
be first narrated as tales, and then applied as means of deducing the moral cha-
tacter of the age in which they prevailed.”—Spectator.

WRIGHT'S (Thomas) Anecdota Literaria, a Collection of Short
Poems in English, Latin, and French, illustrative of the Litera-
ture and History of England in the XIIIth Century, and more
especially of the Condition and Manners of the Different Classes
of Society. 8vo, cloth, only 250 copies printed. 53

WROXETER. The Roman City of Uriconium at Wroxetcr, Salop;
illustrative of the History and Social Life of our Romano-
British forefathers. By J. Corbet Anderson. A handsome
volume, post 8vo, with numerous cuts drawn on wood from the
actual objects by the author, extra cloth. 12s 6d

YORKSHIRE.—The History of the Township of Meltham, near
Huddersfield, by the late Rev. JosrpH Hucuzs, edited with

addition by C. H. Post 8vo, cloth. 73 6d s
Several other books relating to Yorkshire, are interspersed through this Cata-
ogue.

 

 
 

 

54 BOOKS PUBLISHED AND SOLD BY

ADDENDA.
TWAMLEY’S (C.) Historical and Descriptive Account of Dudley
Castle in Staffordshire. Post 8vo, cloth. 4s

SCOTT (Henry, Minister of Anstruther Wester). Fasti-Ecclesie Scoti-
cane; the Sucession of Ministers to the Parish Churches of Scot-
land, from the Reformation, A.D. 1560, to the present time.
Part I. Synod of Lothian and Tweedale. 4to, pp. 400,cl. £1. 10s
To be completed in 3 parts—the second is now ia the Printer’s hands.

“Tre design of the present work is to present a comprehensive account of
the Succession or Ministers of the Church of Scotland, since the period of the
Reformation, Anattempt is made to give some additional interest by furnisb-
ing incidental notices of their lives, writings, and families, which may prove
useful to the Biographer, the Genealogist, and the Historian.

“The sources from which the work has been compiled are the various
records of Kirk Sessions, Presbyteries, Synods, and General Assemblies to-

ether with the Books of Assignations, Presentations to Benefices, and the

ommissariat Registers of Confirmed Testaments. From these authentic
sources the information here collected will, it is believed, be found as accurate
as the utmost care can render it. Having been commenced at an early period
of life, this work bas been prosecuted during all the time that could be spared
from professional engagements for a period of nearly fifty years.

“Some idea of the labour and continuous research involved in preparing
the work may be formed, when the Author states, that he has visited all the
Presbyteries in the Church, and about seven hundred and sixty different Pa-
rishes, for the purpose of examining the existing records. In this way he has
had an opportunity of searching eight hundred and sixty volumes of Presbytery,
and one hundred volumes of Synod Records, besides those of the General As-
sembly, along with the early Registers of Assignations and Presentations to
Benefices, and about four hundred and thirty volumes of the Testament Registers
in the different Commissariats.”—Eztract from Preface.

RECORDS of the Convention of the Royal Burghs of Scotland, with
extracts from other Records relating to the affairs of the Burghs
of Scotland, 1295-1597, edited by J.D. Marwick. 4to, pp. 600,
cloth, only 150 printed for sale. £1. 10s

PASSAGES from the Autobiography of a “Man or Kent,” toge-
ther with a few rough Pon and Ink Sketches by the same hand
of some of the people he has met, the changes he has seen, and
the places he has visited, 1817-1865. Thick post 8vo. Cloth. 5s,

KENRICK (Rev. John, Curator of Antiquities in the Museum at
York, author of ‘Ancient Egypt under the Pharaohs,” “ History
of Phenicia,” &c.) Papers on subjects of Archeology and His-
tory communicated to the Yorkshire Philosophical Society. 8vo,
cloth. 386d. (Original price 9s.)

ConreENnrTs.

The Rise, Extension, and Suppression of the Order of Knights Templar in
Yorkshire.

Historical Traditions of Pontefract Castle, including an Enquiry into the Place
and manner of Richard the Second’s Death.

Relation of Coins to History, illustrated from Roman Coins found at Methal,
in Yorkshire.

The Causes of the Destruction of Classical Literature.

The History of the Recovery of Classical Literature.

The Reign of Trajan, illustrated by a monument of his reign found at York.

Roman Wax Tablets found in Transylvania

New Year's Day in Ancient Rome.

 
 

 

JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE. 55

HISTORY of the Hebrew Nation and its Literature. By SamuEL
SHarpe, author of the History of Ancient Egypt, &c. Post
8vo, cloth. 58

TEXTS from the Holy Bible explained by the Help of Ancient
Monuments. By Samuen Saareg, Author of the History of
Egypt and other works. Post 8vo, with 160 drawings on
wood, chiefly by JosrPH Bonomi, Curator of Soane’s Museum.
Post 8vo, cloth. 38 6d (pub at 5s)

ON THE Chronology of the Bible. By Samus Saarrr, Author
of the “ History of Egypt,” &c. Fep. 8vo, cloth. 1s 6d

ANALECTA Anglo-Saxonica: w Selection in Prose and Verse,
from Anglo-Saxon Authors of various Ages ; with a Glossary.
Designed chiefly as a first book for students. By BrnsaMin
Toorrg, F.S.A. A New Edition with corrections and
improvements. Post 8vo, cloth. 7s 6d

ENGLISH Retraced, or Remarks on the “ Breeches” Bible (the
Genevan Version) and the English of the present day.
Post 8vo, cloth. 2s (pub at 5s)

An ingenious and instructive volume, the result of a good deal of reading.

A GLOSSARY of the Cotswold (Gloucestershire) Dialect,
illustrated by examples from Ancient Authors. By the
Jate Rev. Ricnarp WerssteR Huntiry, A.M., of Boxwell
Court, Gloucestershire. Crown 8vo, cloth. 28

A GLOSSARY of the Dialect of the district of Cleveland in the
North Riding of Yorkshire. By the Rev. J. C. ATKINson,
Incumbent of Danby. Thick small 4to, 662 pages, cloth.
£1. 4s

ON THE Dialect of Somersetshire, with a Glossary, Poems, &e.,
exemplifying the Dialect. By J. JEnnines. Second Edition,
edited by the Rev. J. K. Jenninas. Fep. 8vo, cloth. 48 6d

A DICTIONARY of the LANGUAGE of SHAKESPEARE.
By SwyFen JERVIS, of Darlaston Hall Staffordshire. to,
378 pp., in double columns, 4to, cloth (a cheap volume.) 128

The author died while the volume was in the press, when his friend the

Rev. Alex. Dyce, the Shakesperian scholar, completed it from the materials

he had left.

TRANSACTIONS of the LOGGERVILLE LITERARY SO-
CIETY. 8vo, pp. 174, with many humorous cuts, extra cloth
gilt edges. 7s 6d.

GENEALOGY of the Family of Cog, of Devon, and of those of

its Branches which settled in Suffolk, Hants, Lincoln,
Surrey, and Ireland. By JamEs Epwin-Coxz. 8vo, cloth.

5s

 

 
 

 

56 JOHN RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE.

PORTRAITS of Illustrious Persons in English History, drawn
by G. P. Harding, F.S.A., from Original Pictures, with
Biographical and Historical Notices, by Thomas Moule,
F.S.A. In a handsome roy. 4to volume, bound in cloth
extra, bevelled edges, and gilt leaves. £1. 18

Contents ; King Henry VIII. and the Emperor Charles the Fifth. Sir

Robert Dudley, Son of the Earl of Leicester. Queen Katherine of Aragon.

Sir William Russell, Lord Russell of Thornhaugh. Sir Anthony Browne.

Anthony Browne, Viscount Montagu. Margaret Cavendish, Duchess of

Newcastle. Sir Anthony Shirley. Sir Charles Scarborough, M.D. Henry

Carey, Viscount Falkland. Flora Macdonald, the preserver of Prince Charles

Stuart. William Leuthall, Speaker of the House of Commons, 1640. Edward

Vere, Earl of Oxford. William Camden, Antiquary. Sir Thomas Browne,

of Norwich, M.D.

Separate’prints may he had on folio, india paper proofsi3s 6d each.

EARLY ENGLAND and the Saxon English ; with sume Notes
on the Father-Stock of the Saxon-English, the Frisians.
By W. Barnes, B.D., Author of Poems in the Dorset
Dialect, &c., &c. Fep. 8vo, cloth. 38

ANCIENT Rotts or Arms, No. 1., Glover’s Roll of the Reign
of Henry III. Edited by George J. Armytage. 4to, with
Jrcntisprece of Shields, sewed. Price 4s.

It is the intention of the Editor to bring out a series of these Rolls to
the extent of a dozen or more, varying in price from 4s to 10s. No. IL.
will contain another Roll of the Reign of Henry III, in which nearly 700
Coats are emblazoned.

A HAND-BOOK to the Popular, Poetical, and Dramatic Litera-
ture of England, from Caxton the first English Printer, to
the year 1660. By W. Carew Hazuitt, one thick vol, 8vo,
pp. 716, in double columns, half morocco, Roxburghe style.
£1. 11s 6d

Larce Paper, royal 8vo, HALF MoROcCO, ROXBURGHE
STYLE. £3. 38
It will be found indispensable to Book-Collectors and Booksellers. It is
far in advance of anything hitherto published on Old English Literature.
A MARTYR TO BIBLIOGRAPHY: A Notice of the Life and
Works of Josepa-Marige QuéRanp, the French Bibliographer.
By Otpuar Hams. 8vo, cloth (only 200 printed). 3s 6d

HANDBOOK for FICTITIOUS NAMES, being a Guide to
Authors, chiefly of the Lighter Literature of the XIXth
Century, who have written under assumed names; and to
Literary Forgers, Impostors, Plagiarists, and Imitators. By
OvPHaR Hamst, Esq., Author of A Notice of the Life and
Works of J. M. Quérard. 8vo, eloth. 7s 6d

Turck Paper (only 25 copies printed). 153

An excee gly curious and interesting book on the bye ways of
Litersture.