The Gentleman's Magazine

Partition of the Mowbray Inheritance between Howard and Berkeley.-Collins says, that in 15 Hen. VII. Thos. Howard, Duke of Norfolk, made partition with Maurice, surviving brother of William Marquess of Berkeley, of the lands that came to them by inheritance, by right of their descent, from the coheirs of Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk, and refers for his authority as follows:

Commun. de t. Pasch. 15 Hen. 7. Rot. 1. which is evidently taken from Dugdale, who has nearly the same words, and gives the same reference for his authority in the margin of his work. On examination of the Roll referred to amongst the Common Pleas enrolments, the document is not to be found. A search at the Chapter House and in the Exchequer has not been successful. As the Partition was a proceeding of some importance at the time, and may contain some accurate facts respecting the co-heirs of Mowbray, any of our readers who may have met with it, or can afford a clue to the roll referred to by Dugdale, will oblige the inquirer by communicating any information upon the subject. F. E. Monumenta Anglicana. A Correspondent suggests that few undertakings would be more desirable, in connexion with topographical inquiries, than to organise some arrangement by which the numberless Monumental Inscriptions, annually perishing in our churches from damp, neglect, and wilful mutilation, may be preserved to our posterity in print, or, at least, in manuscript. In counties which have already found historians, and which are well known, this step is not requisite: but in those, not so fortunately situated, the sooner the ravages of time are thwart ed the better. If the Society of Antiquaries, the legitimate mainspring of such a movement, cannot or will not come forward and employ its purse to do this work, let a Society be formed pro tempore, and let that Society, when it has collected the materials, either print them or hand them over in MS. to the British Museum, if possible, with an index. For the sake of expedition I would even be content, at first, to have the few names and dates on the monuments, and the armorial bearings, than to wait for an elaborate inquiry into all the architectural details of the building.

L. is informed that the Rev. G. H. Glasse was the author of the Latin trans

lation of "Miss Bailey." It is printed in Gent. Mag. vol. lxxv. 750.

Agas's map of Dunwich (see Oct. p. 349) was engraved in Gardner's History of that town, 4to. 1754. A copy drawn by Isaac Johnson of Woodbridge is also now before me, taken "From a MS. copy, formerly in the possession of Mr. Gardner, Author of the History of that town." It is surrounded by inscriptions; at one side is the account of the town, in English, which Gardner has printed at p. 20 of his History. On the other side and in three other vacant spots are varie ous extracts from Latin records, entitled "Quædam annotationes sumptæ ex antiq. monumentis evident, vil. de Dunwic specif. quasd, libertates consuet. et privil. ejusd. villa." Some of these Gardner has printed at pp. 13, 14, of his work, and of the others he has no doubt elsewhere made use. J. G. N.

The Christian Remembrancer for August, 1832, p. 497, states, "Another Church Bell of Glass has been cast in Sweden; its diameter is six feet, and its tone is said to be beyond comparison finer than that of any metal bell." A.C. inquires whether any of our correspondents can give a more detailed account of this description of Bell?

E. G. B. says, in looking recently into the Harl. MSS. No.7017, art. 51, he found a document bearing the following title in the Catalogue, "Description of a Picture representing a Mausoleum or sepulchral Monument of King Henry Darnly, husband of Mary Q. of Scotland, and father of K. James VI. of that Kingdom, first of Great Britain, by Mr. James Anderson. This picture is now in the possession of the Earl of Pomfret, 21 pages, fairly written." This picture is alluded to by Bridges in his History of Northamptonshire, as being at Easton Neston, from whence Mr. Baker, in his more recent work, states it to have disappeared. As it seems to have been a very singular specimen of the allegorical style of art of the 16th century, and possesses several points of historical interest, our correspondent is anxious to ascertain, if possible, in whose possession it at present remains, or whether it passed to Oxford with the ancient marbles from the mansion, through Louisa, widow of Thomas 1st Earl of Pomfret, as mentioned by Baker.

THE

GENTLEMAN'S

MAGAZINE.

VISITS TO REMARKABLE PLACES, &c.

By W. HowItt. 8vo.

THIS volume is pleasantly written and elegantly illustrated. It is true that Mr. Howitt's knowledge does not appear to us to equal his enthusiasm, and he is somewhat too romantic and florid for our taste; his extracts also from historical records and biographical accounts are too long, seeing that they are are not drawn from any curious or remote inquiries, but are familiar to most readers; but his work, notwithstanding these alleged defects, we have no doubt, will be favourably received by the great patron of authors-the public. We shall make a few remarks in our matter-offact manner; acting like a humble but useful drag-chain, to prevent the wheels of an author's genius catching fire from the rapidity of his course; as Mr. Howitt's is in danger of doing when he gets on the banks of the Avon.

1. From his account of Penshurst (where our days of boyhood were spent, and where we saw our schoolfellow, the last Philip Sidney, drowned in his own lake) and the pictures, we presume, that Mr. Howitt's readers would consider them to be the genuine works of the great masters mentioned; as he enumerates the illustrious names of Rubens, Vandyck, Murillo, Caracci, &c. whereas the greater part of them are very indifferent copies. We do not at present recollect a truly fine picture in the house. There is a noble collection of genuine pictures in the same parish, but Mr. Howitt caught at the shadows at Penshurst, and lost the substance at Redleaf.

2. Mr. Howitt's enthusiasm glows intensely at the mention of Ann Hathaway, better known by that name than by the more honourable one of Shakspeare's wife. He calls her "the first honourable object of the poet's affections," and he speaks of his domestic peace with his "true Ann Hathaway," and of his "strong and changeless affection to his Ann Hathaway;" and another author in the same spirit says, "To him everything was Ann Hathaway, but especially all wisdom, goodness, beauty, and delight took from her their existence, and gave to her their qualities." There is a good deal of what Warburton was used to call "artificial nonsense" about the writers of the present day, which is seen in remarkable luxuriance of bloom among the Magazines and Annual gentlemen and ladies,

"Where pure description holds the place of sense;"

and the above passage, taken from "The Youth of Shakspere," seems to us to be a genuine portion of it. We had rather trust one vellum-coloured antiquary as regards Shakspeare's history, than a thousand sentimental journalists; and accordingly, while Mr. Howitt is indulging in a delicious daydream on the dappled slopes of Ann Hathaway's orchard, and quoting

sonnets as applied to her, which were all written to a different person with very different motives than doing her honour, and not one of which contains the slightest allusion to her,-enters a very grave and learned personage called "Sir Industry," bearing on one arm a shield, on which are inscribed in large letters, Labor et Veritas, in the other hand holding a wand, which he waves over the scene, and which has the power of separating truth from "Illusive Falshood ;" and lo! a sudden and strange metamorphosis is seen. Instead of Ann Hathaway sitting like a bride in her bower, the picture of innocence and beauty, and the youthful Shakspeare lying like Hamlet all diffused at her ivory feet, warbling delicate and perfumed poetry to her ear, what do we now behold? a coarse country girl, or rather a woman of twenty-seven years of age, is seen trudging along the high road from Stratford to Worcester, showing by her appearance

That her shape, erewhile so graceful seen
(Dian first rising after change was not
More delicate), betray'd her secret acts,
And grew to guilty fullness.†

At some distance behind a young lad with a sheepish countenance, not more than nineteen years old, is seen slowly and unwillingly accompanying two parish constables (Wart and Bullcalf) who have got a magistrate's warrant against him, and who are not going to leave him till the matrimonial knot is tied, which is to release the parish from an enfant trouvé, and give to Miss Ann Hathaway the legal title of Mistress William Shakspeare. "I think it has not been observed," says Mr. Hunter, speaking of the bond given to the bishop on Shakspeare's licence to contract matrimony, "that the marks of the two husbandmen, Sandell and Richardson, are singularly coarse,-coarser I think, than the marks of marksmen of that period usually are; as if they belonged to the very rudest part of the population; and I can scarcely forbear coming to the conclusion that Shakespeare, then a youth of eighteen, was rudely dragged by them to the altar." So much, to use Spenser's language, for the "doleful ladie," and the "two greasie villains. "§ And now what says Mr. J. P. Collier, & Spaμarıκώτατος. "It appears to me little short of absurd to suppose that Shakespeare was more immaculate than his contemporaries, living, as he generally did, apart from his wife, who was eight years older than himself, and who had burn him a daughter, as is shown by recently discovered evidence, six months after his marriage. He then went away to London a penniless fugitive," says the same writer. ** But where did Mr. Howitt learn that he spent the last sixteen years of his life at Stratford? Mr. Campbell, the last biographer of the poet, observes, "The exact period when Shakspeare quitted the metropolis and settled in his native place has not been ascertained; but, as it was certainly some years before his death, it cannot

* See Thomson's Castle of Indolence, book ii.

† See Crowe's Lewesdon Hill.

See Gentleman's Magazine, Feb. 1840, p. 168. § See Faery Queene, lib. iiii. c. 12.

It must be observed that Shakspeare's wife never brought him any children after 1584; that is, after he had been married only two years. We think the less that is said on this subject the better. "If there be (as Master Slender says) no great love in the beginning, Heaven may decrease it upon better acquaintance."

See Letter to the Rev. Joseph Hunter, p. 8.

**See Letter to Mr. Amyot, p. 31; Ibid. p. 36.

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The Gentleman's Magazine, Volúmenes167-168