Lewis, the s in the French not being heard; and therefore if we chuse to, write Louis XVIII, this is Louy dixhuit, and not Lewis the Eighteenth. In short, when we are writing Eng lish, we should spell in English those Christian names which admit of it.. I shall now notice the great historian Mr. Coxe's innovation in throwing aside capital letters (in his" History of John Duke of Marlborough") when introducing the names of different na-. tions. He no longer chuses to write as heretofore, English, French, Dutch, German, Austrian, Prussian, &c. with a capital letter to each, but to substitute small initials: viz. english, french, dutch, german, austrian, prussian, and the like, considering them all as adjectives, and therefore not requiring capitals; but surely the customary mode of using capitals to words, which characterize different people and nations, is more appropriate; and indeed this author goes farther, for when the above or like words cannot pass as adjectives, but stand absolutely, as proper names, and being substantives, still we have the small initials. This strange singularity I trust no one will follow, for it is unseemly, injudicious, and improper. CRITICUS. Account of ASHINGTON, CO. SOMERSET. (Continued from p. 17.) ASHINGTON contains about 630 a acres, exclusive of a third part of the adjoining hamlet of Sock, belonging to the parish, which may be estimated at 300 acres more; of the whole, not more than 240 are arable; the pasturage, which is excellent, being more advantageous to the farmer. In Ashington there are nine dwelling-houses (including the parsonage-house, which has been rebuilt by the present rector) and 13 families, consisting of 68 persons. that part of the hamlet of Sock, just alluded to, there is one dwellinghouse, containing four persons. The burials in the parish for the last seven years amount to 11, the baptisms to 16. In The Living is a Rectory appendant to the Manor, valued in the King's Books at 451. 6s. 8d. The Church (see Plate I.) is a small neat stone structure, of a single pace, having a stone turret at the Western GENT. MAG., August, 1820. 23 3 20 3 Breadth of the Church. The walls of the Chancel in thickness 26 The Building appears to have been erected at two different periods; the style of the Church is of the early part of the sixteenth century; the Chancel is of an earlier date. In the windows are fragments of stained glass, representing Scriptural subjects, of good execution; a beautiful head of our Saviour, radiated, now in perfect preservation, is a good' specimen of the art. The Font is without ornament, of the stone hewn from the neighbouring quarries at Ham Hill. A date (1637) is carved upon the pulpit, which is of oak. The Church has been ceiled by the present Incumbent. At a future opportunity I will communicate some account of the Epitaphs, with a list of the Incum bents. ENTE C. S. B. Mr. URBAN, July 17. NTERTAINING the highest respect for impartial Critics, and fully convinced of the great service rendered to the Lovers of English Architecture by the observations which occasionally appear on that subject in your valuable Miscellany, I cannot but think that your Correspondent "E. I. C." entered the Collegiate Church of St. Catherine with no very correct eye or candid judgment, when he made the remarks which were inserted in your Number for June, P.i. p. 497. From his lamentations, one would imagine that till now the North aile and West Front had remained uninjured, in all the hoary majesty of four hundred years, and that the windows had displayed some of those interesting heraldic remains, which at once heighten the beauty, and in some measure preserve the history, of our antient Ecclesiastical Edifices. The fact, however, is, that the North aile was only more venerable and and picturesque than the Choir, whose appearance, he thinks, so disgraceful, because the bricks, with which it had been previously patched, were older, and more irregularly scattered among the original stones. The East end and Tower (itself an innovation on the antient fabrick) was coated with a kind of dark grit, which had begun to fall off, and which in its best estate looked so remote from any thing like antiquity, that it would be hard to name the substance which could be said to spoil its appearance. The several Coats of Arms in stained glass" may be more particu. larly described as two imperfect and faded shields of a period, little, if at all, earlier than the commencement of the last century, which certainly were not highly ornamental to the former windows, and the preservation of which the most enthusiastic Antiquary would hardly have placed in competition with the absolute and apparent necessity of glazing the Church anew. The operation of whitewashing the Exeter Monument I am not at all concerned to defend; but the assertion of your Correspondent as to the covering of the initials on the effigies is to me wholly unaccountable, since they have not been touched with the brush either during the present or former repairs. I regret equally with him any deviation from the mouldings used in the antient windows, though in this instance I cannot think that much has been lost; for the models he mentions as still remaining are not very elegant specimens of the beautiful style to which they belong. As an inhabitant of the precinct, I should have rejoiced that his anathemas against parish carpenters and plasterers were in this instance pointless, or at least likely to hit other heads than those of parish officers, who have no concern in the repairs: but whether the late restorations and alterations have been made with strict taste or propriety, or not, the Chapter cannot fairly be charged with the crime of apathy. Former innovations had indeed left them but too little of real Antiquity to plead against the smooth surface and exterior accomplishments of plaster, cement, whitewash, and other compositions, yet of all people in the world, one would least have expected to hear "E. I. C." recommend the extension of their Veil to the Choir, whose brick walls still rise on bases of the original masonry, and on the North side discover one arch at least, accompanied by other relics of its former state. After all these abatements, I am willing to add one drop to the tears of your Correspondent; indeed this omission surprises me more than all his assertions. A beautiful doorway at the West end of the North aile, and another with richly-sculp tured spandrils in the aile itself, after remaining hid from Hollar's time, and I know not how long before, were discovered, and again hid from view. Had he mourned for these, I could have re-echoed his deepest lamenta tions. S. I. A. Mr. URBAN, THE Naples, July 7. HE following Character was written from Geneva in October 1819, by the return of the Post, which brought the intelligence of the late Sir Edward Knatchbull's death; and inserted in the Kentish Gazette. Yours, &c. S. E. B. "DEATH Consecrates the memory of the departed. We forget their faults; we remember their virtues. Common-place words of vulgar praise are worth nothing. That which is discriminative, and which, at the same time, unprejudiced common sense, taught by experience, allows to be just, can alone make any impression on the public mind. The death of Sir Edward Knatchbull is a public loss to the county of Kent. Men of higher natural gifts of intellect, and of far better mental cultivation, may easily be found. But, primary as these qualities ought to be, numerous others must concur to put a man in the situation of a County-representative. There was a sort of stern probity about Sir Edward Knatchbull, which was a substitute for showy endowments. He did not want intuitive sense, which fixed on right results, though he might not have the skill to unravel the paths to it. He was a man (speaking as a rational politician, and not as a mere genealogist) of an antient descent; and inherited the proud spirit of that adventitious advantage, which prompts a dignified independance, and a direct mode of supporting that t which the understanding dictates. They who think that the side which be took in politics was not the right will dissent from this praise. He supported the politics of Government; and it is assumed by the vehement advocates of an opposite system, that all such support springs from venal and interested molives. It would be idle to answer such uncandid and ignorant assumptions. Many of those who think that Government is corrupt, encroaching, and ought to be resisted, are honest and praiseworthy for the opposition they make why should not they who think the contrary be honest also? No honourable man, whose candour is enlightened by decent intelligence, will doubt that the side which Sir Edward Knatchbull took in politics, was honest. He could not please every one, because no man can take two sides. It is neither desirable, nor possible, that every Member of Parliament should be qualified to be a leader. A minor talent, and a minor sort of knowledge, are perhaps deceitful things, ' ignes fatui,' that only lead astray. They induce an empty self-sufficiency, and encourage their possessors to judge for themselves, when it were better they should trust to higher authority. "Sir Edw. Knatchbull had all that bodily strength, those animal spirits, that prompt decision, and that bold temper, which qualified him to go through the wearisome details of County business. Men, whose first manners were more conciliatory might easily be found; but that very conciliatoriness is in such a situation productive of embarrassments to the possessors, and of disappointments to those to whom it is exercised. It encourages false hopes: it nourishes endless misconstructions. Sir Edward Knatchbull was a constant attendant on his duties in Parliament: he was always at his post, ready to take upon him all the tiresome toils of his trust. Whoever is acquainted with the nature of the business of the House of Commons, knows that this is no light thing. There is a tact in executing this duty, which can seldom be attained but by experience; and which even experience often does not give. "There would be no difficulty in pointing out the occasions on which be failed, and the gifts which Na ture had denied to him. To seize with nicety the right distinctions; to express them in language at once precise and elegant; to add force of language and dignity of manner, to acuteness of understanding, and fertility of knowledge, would, when united in a man, whose birth, fortune, and alliance, character, temper, and health, contributed the other necessary qualities, constitute an object of choice, that would justly eclipse all inferior candidates. But, till such a man can be found, we must take our Representatives with such practical recom mendations as we can meet with. Take him for all in all, I doubt if we shall soon meet with such another Representative as the late Sir Edward Knatchbull." Mr. URBAN, July 10. YOUR Ched you with repeated Correspondents have of late Communications in praise of Dr. Cyril Jackson of Christ Church, and his establishment or maintenance of good discipline in that illustrious Foundation. Permit me to direct your attention, and that of your numerous Readers, to the praiseworthy adoption of similar regulations in the other Colleges of the University, and in most of the Halls. Of the latter, Magdalen Hall has certainly, to a wonderful degree, improved the condition of its learning and general discipline since the time (seven or eight years ago) that the late Dr. Green, whose decease you will no doubt notice in your Obituary, was for so long a period its Vice-Principal and Tutor. It is impossible to speak too highly of his character, as a sound Divine and an acute Logician: and if his classical attainments were unable to keep pace with the rapid improvements of the age in this department, he is at least, entitled to very great praise for not opposing the reformation of that "huddling" system in which he had been educated. It is a fixed and proper rule, to say of the dead "nil nisi bonum ;" and trusting that your Readers will "discover" the following anecdote of the deceased Divine, which will shew the difference of the new and old proceedings, to be by no means a bad thing," I present it you cheerfully for their edification. 66 The Doctor's favourite book for Latin reading seems, in lieu of all others, to have been Cicero's Offices: nor did his admiration of the finest language that ever was spoken since the memory of man (not even excepting the wonderful palaver of Brachmanic Shanscrit) entice him to exceed in Attic lore the Gospel of St. John for the Junior Sophs, or that general basis for the highest steps of the Grecian Ladder, which was usually taken up for a distinguished degree by the most advanced, to wit, the Anabasis. Not long after the establishment of the Examination Statute, and about the time of the first Quinquennial Reading of the "Bachelor's Determination Abolition Bill," a more ambitious Student proposed lecturing in the Tragedies of Sophocles, and requested his assistance in getting them up for the Schools. "Poh! Pob!" says the wining Tutor, "paltry book, paltry book; better take up the Offices at Ζητα. once." Mr. URBAN, July 24. Chaplains, one of whom was to be Custos, who were to celebrate the divine offices for the health of the Founders and their kindred, the Royal Family, the Bishop, and the Mayor and Sheriffs, while living, and for their souls when dead . It was originally endowed with a house in the parish of St. Vedast, and another in St. Giles', Cripplegate. And in the 20th Richard 11. by Stephen Spilman, mercer, with one messuage, three shops, and a garden, in the parish of St. Andrew Hubbard I. The Mayor and Chamberlain were appointed by the Founder's supervisors of their College after their decease. The Custos was to receive thirteen, and the four Priests, each twelve, marks out of the revenues, and the overplus was to be expended in the repairs of the College. The Mayor was to retain forty-pence, and the Chamberlain half a mark yearly for their trouble **. King Henry VI. in the eighth year of his reign (1430) gave license to John Barnard, Custos, and the Chap As the antient Chapel adjoining lains, to re-build and enlarge the the South front of Guildhall is now consigned to destruction, the following particulars of its foundation, and present state, may be thought worthy of a leaf in your Miscellany. Stow and Speed + say, this Chapel was founded as early as the year 1299, by three pious Citizens, Peter Fanlore, Adaro Frauncis, and Henry Frowicke. But Newcourt considers both these authorities are mistaken, and post-dates the foundation 69 years. The Charter of the Founders bore date on the Morrow of the Anuunciation of the Blessed Virgin, 1368, (42 Edw. III.) It was under the seals of Frauncis and de Frowicke, the other Co-founder have been dead some time, and was confirmed on the day of the execution by Simon Sudbury, Bishop of London. The Chapel, which was Collegiate, had been previously consecrated by Bp. Michael Northburgh, Sudbury's predecessor to the honour of God and the blessed Virgin, Mary Magdalen, and All Saints. It was founded for five * Survey. Strype's edit. 1754, i. 560. Speed has Peter Stamberry. Chapel, by adding to it the site of the house of the Custos and Priests, and in the twenty-seventh year of his reign, the Parish Clerks of London founded a Guild of it for two Chaplains, and to keep seven alms people. Henry Barton, Skinner, mayor 1428, founded a Chaplain there; as also did Roger Depham, mercer, and Sir William Langford, knt.++. The Mayor and Chamberlain were the patrons, and the Bishop of London, Ordinary. In October, 1542, Bishop Bonner ordained Statutes for the Government of the College ‡‡. At the dissolution, this College had a Custos, seven Chaplains, three Clerks, and four Choristers. The Revenues were valued at 127. 8s. 9d. per annum, and was at that period, in the general plunder of the Church, surrendered to the Crown. In the succeeding reign the Corporation purchased the Chapel, and divers messuages, lands, &c. valued at 407. 68. 8d. annually, for the sum of 4567. 13s. 4d. The date of the Patent was 10th April, 4th Edward VI. 1560. For many years service was regu |
