THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, For APRIL, 1811. ** The RoYAL HUMANE SOCIETY have, this Month, published a most interesting Report of successful Cases in the course of the last year; to which we shall pay proper attention in our next Month's Review. In the mean time, we are enabled by it to present to our Readers a faithful representation of the Tablet lately placed in Islington Church to the memory of the worthy Character to whom a due" Tribute of Respect" was paid in Vol. LXXVIII. p. 1121; and take a short Extract. "THE name of Dr. HAWES has been so long and so indispensably interwoven with the Reports of the Royal Hamane Society, and so inseparably blended with its Origin and Existence, that it is scarcely possible to enter on the task of recording its Annual Proceedings without reverting to the merits of its active and benevolent The Founder. But those merits, and the irretrievable loss which the Society and the Publick at large have sustained, have been so well and so forcibly pourtrayed by Mr. Martin in the last Year's Report, that it will now be unnecessary to expatiate any farther on that subject. Committee of Directors and Managers, however, have the satisfaction of stating, that the wishes of the last Year's General Meeting have been carried into effectual execution. Agreeably to their instructions, a neat and elegant Tablet has been placed in Islington Church, highly creditable to an ingenious young Artist, Mr. John Mallcott, of which an Engraving is here annexed. At the top of the Monument is the Honorary Medal of the Society; and at the bottom a small but correct medai lion of Dr. Hawes."-Annual Report, p.1. to offer a suggestion relative to the celebrated VANDYKE. Uu Upon the genius of that great master brightening into fame, he was incessantly courted by RICHELIEU to make Paris his seat of study, instead of Flauders; and to confide for protection in the French throne. These overtures proved unavailing ;-VANDYKE gave preference to an inviting message from Charles I. and repaired to England. Charles, though the ENEMY of our LIBERTIES, was a fostering friend to the polite arts. der the auspices of the Monarch, the Painter acquired great wealth, grew attached to England, married the beautiful daughter of the Earl Gowry, and maintained, through life, a state of elegant splendour. He paint ed the Royal Personages frequently, for the decoration of the palaces and the seats of the nobility; and the families of the great also received perpetuity from his pencil. The death of VANDYKE was premature he was but 42 years of age when he quitted the terrestrial scene. The Church of St. Paul was the chosen place of his burial:-The event took place in 1641; and a Monunient, bearing an Inscription from the after to his memory. The conflagrapen of COWLEY, was erected shortly tion of 1666, which was fatal to many of his works in the Halls and Churches of the City, was destructive also of this monumental Trophy. The Church was consumed in its perishable materials, and the stone-work fell into ruins soon after. Nothing that I am aware of, in the present Church of St. Paul, records even the name of VANDYKE. Now, Sir, describing ourselves, as we do, "a Nation friendly to the Sciences, and grateful to Genius, through the extensive range of the circle," allow me to appeal to the Members of the ROYAL ACADEMY; aud, if no leading Member has yet offered information peculiarly acceptable to myself, and 1 presume not entirely otherwise to that large proportion of your Readers, who are accustomed to entertain a curiosity on subjects of antiquarian research and monument. I may add, that a drawing would constitute an obvious and agreeable il lustration, our antient specimens of civil being much less frequent than those of ecclesiastical architecture, perhaps excepting monastic vestiges. offered a proposal on the subject, let me ask, whether it is not becoming their Establishment to adopt some measure for collecting a Fund for the purpose of erecting a Monument, tributary, from love and respect, to that great Painter. But, if the means are not within their command, let me hope the occasion will be seized by the OWNERS of those SPLENDID MANSIONS and SEATS throughout this Island, which derive additional celebrity from being the receptacles of many of this distinguished Master's Pictures; some of which even exhibit the Portraits of the possessor's ancestry. To these I earnestly appeal, and I beseech them not to suffer a disgrace to rest upon the land by neteenth century, in particular towards glecting the memory of the elegant VANDYKE. Yours, &c. W. P. Mr. URBAN, W March 20. WITHIN a short distance on this side the wall of Severus, a few miles to the South-westward of the If any of your Genealogical Correspondents are acquainted with the name of Hugh, as connected with the pedigrees of Tyndale of Brotherton, co. York, or Hockwold, co. Norfolk, (especially the second) during the fif the contest of the two Roses, whose immediate parentage I wish to ascerlain, as a point of domestic interest. Yours, &c. T. P. FASHIONABLE CHURCH LIVING. April 9. the close of the reign of Hen. VI. and beginning of that of Edw. IV. and could favour me through the above medium, with the time and particulars of such connection, I should be greatly obliged; a gentleman of that name, or his father, havgrand confluence of the Tynes nearing settled in Gloucestershire during Flexham, is situated Langley Castle, an antient feudal edifice, occupying an eminence on the Western bank of the Southern branch, in view of the high road, which, according to the county topography, passes through Haydon, formerly its appendant manor, between Carlisle and the former place. It was the original Seat of the Tyndales, Barons of South Tyndale, and ancestors of several families of varions subsequent consequence in different parts of England; the first briefly mentioned by Camden as being settled there at the close of the twelfth century; but, whether any account of the Barony be included within the compass of Domesday Survey, I have not ascertained, though I certainly should conceive it probable. This building was visited about forty years since by some Tourists, who have given it a short notice; but, should any intelligent gentleman in that neighbourhood feel disposed, through the channel of your Miscellany, to communicate, any circumstances respecting it, or the family residing there at the preceding æra, comprising a general statement, as far as Convenient, of such particulars connected with either, or with the local river and site, &c, as may appear of interesting description, I shall remain indebted to him for a piece of right, in one of our best Reviews (The British Critic) that no such advertisement had ever seriously appeared in any newspaper, as announcing aChurch Living to be sold, "in a fine sporting country." Of this assertion I had at that time some reason to doubt, but could not recollect where I had seen advertisements of the kind, although pretty certain that I had seen them, and believed them to be serious. Without, however, impugning the memory of the British Critics, or refusing to share that zeal which makes every lover of the Church wish that no such shameful addresses existed, I now send you an advertisement taken from Jackson's last Oxford Journal, and I think the very respectable names of the Auctioneer and the Solicitor who were to furnish Particulars (if you choose to publish those names, which you are surely at liberty to do) will be a sufficient proof that this is a bona fide advertisement, and no joke at the expence of the Clergy. The The advertisement is as follows: "NEXT PRESENTATION. ris, Esq. and widow of Robert Drakes, Esq. of Cambridge,] with whom she lived. Under his tuition she acquired that learn "To be sold by Auction, by Hoggarting, and formed that taste, which was so and Phillips, at the Auction Mart, opposite the Bank of England, on Thursday next, the 11th day of April, 1811, atTwelve o'clock, The Next Presentation to a most valuable Living, in one of the first sport ing Counties: the vicinity affords the best coursing in England, also excellent fishing, an extensive cover for game, aud númerous packs of fox hounds, harriers, &c.; it is half an hour's ride from one of the first cities, and not far distant from several most fashionable watering places; the surrounding country is beautiful and healthy, and the society elegant and fashionable. 1 The Incumbent is about Fifty Years of age. - Particulars may be had, fifteen days preceding the sale, of Mr. Annesley, Solicitor, Temple; at the Mart; and of Hoggart and Philips, 62, Old Broadstreet, Royal Exchange, London." This address speaks so plainly, and, I think I may add, so impudently, for itself, that no comment of mine is necessary. The reflections of your Readers, especially your Clerical ones, will be probably in unison with those Yours, &c. of C. A. MR. URBAN, Yours, &c. conspicuous throughout the whole of her subsequent life. Mrs. Montagu had early distinguished herself as an author, first, by three Dialogues of the Dead, published along with Lord Lyttelton's; afterward, by her classical and elegant "Essay on the Genius and Writings of Shakspeare;" in which she amply vindicated our great National Dramatist from the gross, illiberal, and ignorant abuse, thrown out against him by Voltaire. The elegance of her manners, the brilliancy of her wit, and the sprightliness of her conversation, attracted to her house those who were most distinguished by their learning, their taste, and reputation as literary characters. This society of eminent friends, who met frequently at Mrs. Montagu's for the sole purpose of conversation, differed in no respect from other parties, but that the company did not play at cards. It consisted originally of Mrs. M., Mrs. Vesey, Mrs. Boscawen, and Mrs. Carter, Lord Lyttelton, the Earl of Bath (better known as Mr. Pulteney), the Hon. Horace Walpole, the classical owner of Strawberry Hill, afterward Earl of Orford, and Mr. Stillingfleet. The society came at last to contain a numerous assemblage of those most eminent for literature in London, or who visited it. Of these distinguished friends, Mrs. Vesey, though less known thau Mrs. M. was also another centre of pleasing and rational society. Without attempting to shine herself, she had the happy secret of bringing forward talents of every kind, and of diffusing over the society the gentleness of her own chaShe was the daughter of [Sir racter. "Sir Wm. Forbes's character of Mr. Stilling fleet and History of the Blue Stocking Club would be a treat to many of your Readers," it is a pity that you should not be furnished with it, when it may be done with so little trouble. I will therefore copy it from his " Ac-Thomas Vesey Bart. Bishop of Ossory, father of Lord Knapton, and grandfather count of the Life and Writings of Dr. of Lord Viscount De Vescy,] and wife of Beattie," vol. I. pp. 209, 10, 11. note, Agmondesham Vesey, Esq. a gentleman with the addition of a few trifling arof Ireland, who in his earlier years had ticles, which I will place within bracbeen the friend of Swift. Mrs. Boscawen kets. J. B. was the [daughter of Evelyn Glanville, Esq. and] widow of the gallant admiral of that name, a woman of great talents, and, though unknown to the literary world, acceptable to every society by the strength of her understanding, the poignancy of her humour, and the brilliancy of her wit. She died [26 Feb.] 1805, at the advanced age of 86. Mrs. Carter, the learned translator of Epictetus, and the author of a volume of poems of very considerable merit, is now the only original surviving member, at the age of nearly 90. But the gentleman to whom this constellation of talents owed that whimsical appellation, the "Bas bleu," was Mr. Stillingfleet, a man of great piety and worth, the author of some works in natural history, and of "Mrs. Elizabeth Robinson, daughter of [Matthew] Robinson, Esq. of Horton in Kent, [and of West Layton in the county of York, whose eldest son Matthew Robinson Morris succeeded to the English baronetage and Irish peerage of his cousin the late Lord Primate Rokeby] and wife of Edward Montagu, Esq, of Denton Hall, Northumberland, and Saudleford Priory, Berks, [son of Charles, fifth son of Edward, the first Earl of Sandwich.] In heriting from nature a genius for literature, she had the good fortune to meet with an able director of her early studies in the celebrated Conyers Middleton, D. D. who was married to her grandmother [Sarah, daughter of Thomas Mor some 1 some poetical pieces in "Dodsley's ColJection." Mr. Stillingfleet, being somewhat of a humourist in his babits aud inan ners, and a little negligent in his dress, literally wore grey stockings, from which circumstance Admiral Boscawen used, by way of pleasantry, to call them the "Blue Stocking Society;" as if to indicate that, when these brilliant friends met, it was not for the purpose of forming a dressed assembly. A foreigner of distinction hearing the expression, translated it life-1 rally "Bas bleu," by which these meetings came to be afterward distinguished. Mrs. Hannah More, (the excellent author of "Strictures on Female Education, Thoughts on the Importance of the Mauners of the Great to general Society, and an Estimate of the Religion of the fashionable World," with other pieces,) who was herself a distinguished member of the Society, has written an admirable poem with the title of the "Bas bleu," in allusion to this mistake of the foreigner, in which she has characterized most of the eminent personages of which it was composed. The concluding part of her prefatory memorandum to the poem is so very apposite to my present purpose, that I cannot resist the temptation of inserting it here. May the Author be permitted to bear her grateful testimony, which will not be suspected of flottery now that most of the persons named in this poem are gone down to the grave, to the many pleasant and ancestors, as soon as time has exposed their defects. But, perhaps, no age has had so much reason to boast its improvements as the present. Other generations may have felt some degree of honest pride in contemplating a particular art or science "Form'd by their skill, or foster'd by their care." But universal refinement was reserved for the present. I I am If we take a view of the manners and customs of our Ancestors, in their pursuits of either business or pleasure, we shall find abundant reason to deplore their ignorance, and congratulate ourselves upon the extinction of old-fashioned absurdities. would not, however, be thought to blame them for faults which they considered as virtues, or for ignorance which they could not avoid. well aware that most of their absurd notions may be traced to their EduWhat could be expected cation. from a woman brought up under their system? She might, indeed, make what they supposed to be a good wife or mother, and perhaps, in some instances, prove an useful member of society but how could she ever attain to that exquisite polish which we justly esteem the summum bonum of Female Education, and which can only be acquired at our most fashionable seminaries? Of these our Ancestors had no idea. They had not even instructive hours she had the honour to pass in this company, in which learning was as little disfigured by pedantry, good taste as little tinctured by affectation, and general conversation as little disgraced by calumny, levity, and the other censurable errors with which it is too commonly_French governèsses; and would, I tainted, as has perhaps been known in any society?'-Works of Mrs. H. More, vol. I. p. 12. Mrs Montagu being left, by the will of her husband, in possession of his noble fortune, lived in a style of the most splendid hospitality, till her death, which bappened at an advanced age, 25th August, 1800." J. B. THE TIMES, No. I. Tempora mutantur, et nos mutamur in illis VERY race of men has consider an fear, have formed very harsh ideas of "Establishment for Young La dies." Their young men were equally limited in their advantages. When they had been whipped through a public School under the influence of that detestable, and, I am happy to add, obsolete maxim, that " Learning is better than house or land," there was no Four-in-hand Club to hail their emancipation, and, extend to them the right hand of fellowship. The only driving which they understood was that of the quill; and the Eed the preceding as inferior to only box with which they were ace itself in some particular or another, and has looked upon itself as a generation recently emerged from at least partial barbarism. Mankind, fond of novelty and aspiring to perfection, have never failed to alter and improve the modes and customs of their quainted was the strong one in the Back Counting-house.-Their amusements too were such as might be expected. They would sit whole hours to hear the fustian of Shakspeare; and even in very late times have been known to laugh with Foote, and smile with Sheridan. What boundless raptures would they feel, could they be revived and placed in the front boxes of our largest theatre, there to behold the masterly acting, not of a Macklin or a Garrick, a Foote or a Lewis, but of a troop of living horses! -not the dry insipid scenes of a regular Comedy, but the inimitable buffooneries of a Pantomime, with the fascinating embellishments of Dancing Lobsters and Vegetable Pugilists! -Such a Scene, so novel and so brilliant, would be too much for powers newly re-acquired, and would restore the antiquated Worthies to their graves, while the last faint echo of their sepulchral "Encore!" whispered their dirge. Great also would be the astonishment of our Forefathers, could they witness the important improvements which have taken place even in our inferior domestic concerns. I remember that when I was a boy (which, by the bye, is now full 50 years ago) if my good grandmother wished to make broth, it used to cost me an hour's work in the garden to provide her with the necessary ingredients: `a labour now perfectly unnecessary, when every description of animal and vegetable essence may be had ready for admixture. I am growing old; but I hope to see the day when our chemists shall write over their doors, "Dinners drest on the shortest notice;" when a Lord Mayor's feast may be packed in a medicine chest; and a family subsist a fortnight in a luxurious style on the contents of an eight-drop phial, price 10s. 6d. duty included. The advantages of this mode of concentration are too multifarious to admit of enumeration, and too evident to require it.' few, however, of the first which present themselves to my mind may be just mentioned. By this method, a good Citizen may eat at one meal, with the greatest ease and without the least danger of indigestion, six turtles and four haunches of venison, with an ad libitum accompaniment. In case, also, of a siege, how much would it facilitate the introduction of provisions! and in victualling our ships, how much room might be saved, when a ton of beef might be stowed in a quart bottle! And, when travelling, we should no longer be at the mercy of innkeepers, when a complete larder might be conveniently carried in a coach-pocket! That, however, which constitutes the chief glory of the age, and gives us a decided superiority over our Forefathers, is the total extirpation of the natural ills that flesh is heir to."-Who will suffer poverty, when ten thousand bills beg his acceptance of unbounded riches? Who will endure disease, when professional men, regularly educated, cloathed with certificates, and influenced solely by philanthropy, crowd, around him, and assure him of a cheap, speedy, and complete cure by n eans of their invaluable medicines? Who will bear the ravages of old age, when hair, teeth, and colour, are so temptingly offered to him? 56 But I think I have said enough to prove to most of my Readers that the change of system which has of late taken place is highly beneficial to the Nation. There are, however, some sturdy veterans of the Old School, some Laudatores temporis acti," who may not be so easily convinced; and, with a view to their conviction, I propose, in some future papers, to treat more fully of the subjects which I have above inerely mentioned, together with others which I have not specified. If, by reason of any thing which I may say, one elderly gentleman should be induced to renounce his antiquated opinions, one seminary should be enlarged, one new whip sported, one ticket for the next new pantomime be sold, or one box of pills be swallowed, I shall rejoice to think that I have contributed to the happiness of my fellow-creatures, and have not lived or written in vain. AARON, BICKERSTAFFE. |