these plays. Such representations would not now be endured. I hope our mothers were not copied from life.

Feb. 18. Read Vanburgh's Relapse; it has all the licentiousness of Farquhar's pieces, with this additional aggravation, that wit and reason, and those of the most refined character, are sedulously employed to justify and encourage that licentiousness. Every incident, every notion, every remark, to dissuade from chaste love, and to recommend by every prurient device the most complete dissoluteness of morals and manners. Loveless and Amanda might easily have been rescued with good stage effect, but seem dropped for this very purpose in a state of unfinished but hopeful perdition. Vanburgh's Provoked Wife, still more mischievous than the Relapse, because the reasoning and the wit are still more refined and seductive. I am not surprised at Collyer's indignation: Vanburgh's dialogue sparkles more than Farquhar's, but is hardly so naturally easy and spirited. Read Vanburgh's Esop, and False Friend: they both evince that he possessed right moral feelings, and that they were only perverted on sexual topics by the profligacy of the times.

Feb. 28. In the discussion arising out of Warburton's Letters, the Edinburgh reviewers (No. 26.) observe that law arose from human feelings and notions of justice, which of course preceded law; and that the reason why crimes are punished, and virtue not usually rewarded, in legal polity, is that the right of avenging the former was transferred from the injured individual to the public, for the purpose of preventing disorder, and tempering its application by more important and extensive views of the circumstances of the delinquency; whereas the remuneration of Virtue was safely left in the hands of gratitude and sympathetic kindness. The Reviewers evidently stand, in their view of things, on a far loftier eminence than Warburton; but they are too much elated by their advantage, and do not render fair justice to his powers and achievements in the low station which he occupied.

March 1. Went to the Oratorio at Covent-Garden Theatre in the evening. Bellamy hard in Tears such as tender fathers shed:' Braham too full of license and extraneous embellishment, defying all accompaniment, in 'Lord, remember David,' and ruining the effect of 'Marmion towards the close by ill-judged gracings;-very great in 'Deeper and deeper still,' aiming here solely at expression; beautiful effect of slackeningandaccelerating time in Together let us range the fields,' with Mrs. Dickens. Braham forcing his natural voice up painfully; Catalani transcendent uniting every excellence; Garbet, a fine counter-tenor in 'Jehovah crowned with glory bright,' but apparently not quite at ease in the upper tones. Braham's shake imperfect. Went to Parkinson's at 12, and had a front tooth extracted-gradually increased resistance, and then horrid crash!

March 3. Read in the evening the first ten cantos of Southey's Curse of Kehama; displaying a vigourof feeling and vivacity of fancy, which one grieves should have been wasted on a theme at once so visionary, recondite, and preposterous,* as the Hindoo system of Mythology; though it affords scope for imagination. Lord Grey, Turner said, when I met him at the Oratorio, found the Prince (on the crisis of the approaching change of administration) very nervous.

Mr. Green has not done justice to the exquisitely skilful and beautifully modulated versification of this fanciful and elegant poem. The poetical language also is selected with the finest taste.-EDIT.

1

MANSION AT WORCESTER, NOW THE ROYAL PORCELAIN WORKS. ONE of the finest specimens of ancient internal domestic architecture in the city of Worcester, is to be found in the extensive premises now called "the Royal Porcelain Works," the property of Messrs. Flight, Barr, and Barr, situate in Palace Row, contiguous to the banks of the Severn, and very near the Bishop's palace. These works were established in the year 1751, and from that period, down to the present time, this ancient edifice has been the scene of progressive and important improvements in this branch of our national manufactures. The view from the back front is most delightful, commanding the whole range of the Malvern Hills, the beautiful valley below, the Severn Bridge, with the Abberley Hills to the right.

middle pillar in the nave, to the memory of Mrs. Cecil Warmstry, widow of William Warmstry, registrar of the diocese, who departed this life the 27th of Jan. 1649, as is intimated by the sepulchral stone. She is represented in a sculpture near two feet long, wrapt in her widow's veil, cumbent, with her head leaning on her right hand. The muscles of the body are admirably well expressed, the whole intimating the most piteous dejection and intense grief.

It was formerly a large and handsome mansion, with gardens laid out down to the banks of the river. A few of the old rooms are preserved in their original state, and have been much admired by those who delight in viewing the relics of past ages. The house forms a sort of quadrangle, with a court in the centre, and was formerly the residence of the respectable family of the "Warmstrys," several of whom were connected as registrars, and otherwise, with the cathedral church of Worcester. The library of the house is a lofty and spacious room, wainscoted with oak, carved in various parts with different devices, and the arms of the family of " Warmstry," viz. a cross moline between four crescents, and impaled and quartered with the arms of other families. The fireplace is of very ample dimensions, with handsome pillars on each side; and the chimney-piece is decorated with a scroll extremely well cut. Surmounting it, the royal arms of England appear most curiously carved, and around the room may still be seen the antique bookshelves, edged with a scolloped border of green cloth, remaining quite firm in its texture. Adjoining the library is a small study or reading room, fitted up with bookshelves in the same style.

On the north side, and within the rails of the altar, in the cathedral of Worcester, is a very curious monument, removed thither in 1812, from the

On a gravestone in the middle aisle of the cathedral is the following inscription in capital letters :—

"The memory of the Just

is blessed.

Here lyeth the mortality of the most worthy Register of this diocess, William Warmstry, Esquier, whose name when thou readest, enquire of his virtues, that thou mayst learne by his example, to get and maintain love and reputation amongst men without the expence of the favour of God, or a good conscience; to be hospitable, patient in affliction, charitable, and tender of all men's good name, frequent and constant in prayer, faithful in wedlocke, willinge to dye that thou mayst live for ever. Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord."

Dr. Thomas Warmstry, son of William Warmstry, Esq. registrar of the diocese of Worcester, was installed dean of Worcester 27th of Nov. 1661. He was born and educated in that city. He was reckoned a famous divine, and was amongst the distinguished individuals appointed on behalf of the town to treat with the army of the Parliament respecting the surrender of the place, in the month of June, 1646.

The mansion of the Warmstry fa mily, of which we have been speaking, is conjectured to have been occupied as far back as the reign of Henry the Seventh and Henry the Eighth, by Sir William Windsor, second Lord Windsor, an ancestor of the Earl of Plymouth. On the first floor of the house is a parlour wainscoted round with oak, and over the fireplace is a very curious specimen of armorial ensigns, carved in wood, and bearing the marks of great age, quartered as below :

1. Windsor. Gules a saltire Ar. between twelve crosslets Or.

2. Blount.

Or and Sable.

Barry nebulée of six,

3. Echingham. Azure, fretty Argent.

4. Beauchamp of Hatch, co. Somerset. Vairy Argent and Azure.

Crest-a buck's head gardant, couped at the neck, Ar.

The arms have supporters, and underneath them is this motto or inscription-" Stemmata quid faciunt?"

The late Earl of Plymouth, when inspecting the process of the Porcelain Works a few years back, with his sister the present Marchioness of Downshire,

and his father-in-law Earl Amherst, recognized these memorials of his ancestors, and viewed them for some time with much interest.

After a lapse of ages, the family of the Plowdens occupied the mansion for some time; and ultimately this ancient edifice, about eighty years since, was devoted to its present purposes, and exhibits an animating scene of art and industry rivalling most successfully some of the finest productions of the royal porcelain works of the Continent. B.

THE FREE GRAMMAR SCHOOL OF ST. OLAVE'S AND ST. JOHN'S, SOUTHWARK. (With a Plate.)

EARLY in the reign of Elizabeth, when the foundation of public schools was promoted throughout the country under the authority of the Legislature and the patronage of the Crown, the parishioners of St. Saviour, Southwark, set a noble example to their neighbours in the establishment of their admirable Free Grammar School, and the inhabitants of the parish of St. Olave were not slow to follow so enlightened and benevolent a policy.

St. Olave's School was set on foot in the year 1560, and constituted "The Free Grammar School of Queen Elizabeth of the Parishioners of the parish of St. Olave," by letters patent issued in 1571.* It has since maintained a respectable rank among similar establishments until our own days; when, among the other great improvements to which the vicinity has been subjected, the School of St. Olave's has obtained a share which is calculated to add considerably to its credit and its efficiency.

A new site for the school was provided by the London Bridge Committee, nearly on the same spot as the old school, viz. on the south side of Dukestreet, leading from Tooley-street to London Bridge, and the sum of 3000l. was also agreed to be paid by the City of London to the Governors for equality

Our correspondent has favoured us with some original and copious memoirs of the history of the School; which we are compelled by want of space to defer to another month.-EDIT.

of exchange. But this new site being required by the London and Greenwich Railway Company for the approach to the railway, it was provided by their Act that they should find another site for the Grammar School in lieu of the former. After some considerable delay, and with a view to satisfy the inhabitants of St. John's, who were desirous that the new School should be erected in or near that parish, a piece of ground was fixed on in Bermondseystreet, near the division of the parishes, and on part of that ground the new School (of which we present a view) has been erected.

The building is in the Tudor style of architecture, similar to the original buildings erected by Cardinal Wolsey at Hampton Court. It is built of red brick, with stone quoins and door and window frames, and forms two sides of a quadrangle, which is cut diagonally by the railroad.

In the centre of the building is an octagonal embattled tower, containing, on the ground floor, a porch open on three sides, and leading to a corridor of general communication. The porch is raised on three steps, and above it is a library or study for the master. Over the central entrance of the porch is a square stone tablet, on which is represented a carved fac-simile of the ancient seal of the School. On the right of the porch is the principal or grammar-school, the interior of which is 70 feet in length by 35 feet in width, and 35 feet in height. At the end of this