Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

1831.]

REVIEW.-Snow's Forms of Prayer.

logy of supplication, with a simplicity of devotional fervour very rarely combined. Without falling into that kind of conventional language (if we may use the term) which characterizes most forms of prayer, and really renders them the counterparts of each other, the author has avoided the opposite error of straining at originality of expression, and sacrificing the grand ends of supplication to an attempt at novelty of diction.

In the " appropriateness" at which he aimed, he has admirably succeeded, and in many passages which might be quoted, there is an attractive simplicity very likely to draw the attention and awaken the interest of young minds. The poetical effusions are chaste and musical; while the principles they subserve are pure and orthodox. Our limits admit but of a single specimen. MOUNT CARMEL.

[blocks in formation]

Six times the prophet's "servant" gave
His eager glances to the wave,
But the horizon made no sign
Across its hard and burning line.
But faith is strong, he looked again,-
A small cloud issued from the maiu,
Small as the least of clouds that lie,
Like snow flakes on a summer's sky.
Within him leapt the prophet's soul,
As on the spreading blessing stole;
Till with their freight the dark heavens
bowed,

And rushed the torrent long and loud,
And Judah's parched and withered sod,
Now felt a long-neglected God.
How oft, like Judah, we have known
No God, but idols of our own;
Our soul's best powers, all high desires
Withered by sin's consuming fires.
Forgive us, Lord,-and from above
Drop gentle dews that nourish love,
Till the full tide of grace divine,
Rush on our hearts and make us thine.

In many of these pieces the thoughts of some of our most eminent Churchpoets are released from the cramped diction and obsolete phraseology, which cloud their modern meaning to the GENT. MAG. April, 1831.

337

reader, and here flow in easy and pleasing numbers.

In the short prefatory remarks to these poems, a touching allusion is made to the contributions of a friend, "rich in all the treasures of human learning, and the accomplishments which exalt and dignify our nature." The contributions of C.* to this little collection, ought not, indeed, to be overlooked. To much originality of style and thought, is added an evident depth and reality of devotion.

A work like the present has long been a desideratum in our supplicatory forms, and we heartily recommend its use to those for whom it is benevolently designed.

Mr. Snow is the author of a volume of Poems recently reviewed in this journal, and is Secretary to the Literary Fund Society.

The History of Chivalry. By G. P. R. James, Esq.Author of De L'Orme, &c. (National Library, No. IV.) 16mo, pp. 348. Colburn and Bentley.

BY Chivalry, in the modern acceptation, we understand that romantic and noble code of manners, which mitigated the natural savageness of war among the higher nobility and gentry of the middle ages. The best exemplification of it is shown in the picturesque Chronicle of Froissart. Its real origin is chiefly to be sought in the refinements, engaging qualities, and arts of pleasing, which were indispensable in intercourse with the female sex, who among the Celtic nations were not only free, but were regarded with superior homage, and had an authority and influence not to be found among the orientals, where meretricious blandishments are alone practicable under their enslaved condition. The precise period of this improvement of manners cannot be given, because it was of gradual adolescence, through accompanying the progress of Society. By Chivalry (Chevalerie) however, no more was originally understood, whatever Mr. James, in that supercilious manner which here and there blemishes his work, may say to the contrary, than what appears in the following definitions of Cotgrave:

"CHEVALERIE. Knighthood; the order We believe the late Mr. Christie.

338

REVIEW. James's History of Chivalry.

of Knighthood; also chevalrie, doughtinesse, valour, prowesse; also a bold attempt, hardy enterprise, manly or gallant act."

[ocr errors]

CHEVALIER, signifies properly a horseman; one that rides, or is, on horseback (and hence also a Gendarme, or man of armes), but particularly, and more commonly, a Knight or Cavaleere (in France the title of Chevalier is often a bare title of honour, and often ordinarily conferred on great officers, (whether of the short or long role), and on the Lords of great and meane Seignories; all which may qualifie and stile themselves Knights, as well as ordinary gentlemen may terme themselves Esquires."

BACHELIER. CHEVALIER BACHELIER. A Knight Bachelor, a title of gentry inferior to Banneret, and superior to Escuyer, a young gentleman that aspires unto Knighthood, and the privilege of bearing a banner in the field. The Chevalier bachelier marched under other men's colours, and had twice as much pay as the Esquire."

In our Law Dictionaries and others, it will be found that the word Chivalry among us implied military service; and if in Cotgrave it occurs in an abstract form, as valour, prowess, &c. as above, it is evident that this is too limited a definition for the modern use, as a code of manners. If therefore Mr. James complains that he could not find in old authors a satisfactory elucidation of Chivalry in the modern sense alluded to, it is because those old authors never treated of the word in any such acceptation; not that the ancients were ignorant of a moral bearing of the word, but as chivalry signified military or martial service, and soccage that which is clownish and rustical; so between the habits and manners of these two classes of feodaries, they made a distinction similar to that which we now do, between a gentleman and a low-lived fellow. Nevertheless, they did not historicize it, as they would have done, had it been an affair of dates and details. Under their eulogies of individuals, as Milites or Knights, we shall find however their moral characters delineated upon chivalrous principles.

The Crusades had a distinct origin. The Saracens had not impeded or much distressed the pilgrims, but when in A. D. 1065, the city fell into the hands of the Turks, the latter treated the Christian devotees so cruelly as to provoke the first Crusade. Chivalry is no more connected with these expeditions to the Holy Land, than as the latter was an arena for the display

[April,

of it. Mr. James, however, has in the main treated of these sanguinary wars; and we willingly admit his work to be a satisfactory and able digest of campaigns, which were patronized because they had a tendency to impede the progress of liberty in Europe, and fostered superstition. In p. 181, Mr. James says,

"It is evident, from the continual mention of the corslet or breast-plate, that it was a piece of plate armour used during the first crusade. Mills is wrong in supposing that plate armour was not at all known before the beginning of the thirteenth century. As far back as the time of Louis the Debonair, the Monk of St. Gall gives a full description of a man in plate armour, and also mentions the barb, or iron covering of the horse."

Now it is certain, that the effigies upon the seal of Childeric, who was buried at Tournay about the year 481 (see Bouterove), has a halluret, or breast-plate. In Mezeray, Charlemague is cuirassed with a paludamentum, exactly like a Roman Emperor; his armour, according to historians, consisted of a helmet, cuirass, arm and thigh pieces, which latter his suite did not use, that they might more easily mount on horseback (Malliot, Costume des Français, p. 44). It also appears, that the guards represented on the frontispiece of the Bible presented to Charles the Bald (anno 869), did wear Roman cuirasses, with lambrequins and paludamenta (see Montfaucon). Catel has engraved two effigies of William and Raymond, Earls of Toulouse, anno 1061-1088, where the cuirass, though composed of rustres, is yet of the Roman fashion, with halfsleeves lambrequined, and plates protecting in front the thighs, knees, and legs. Now by comparing these specimens with others upon the arch of Constantine and the Theodosian column, such an assimilation (in regard to the cuirass at least) will be found, as to furnish an inference, that however co-existent might be the different sorts of mail, and which were of oriental and distinct origin, there nevertheless survived an imitation of the Roman armour, to which the authors quoted by Mr. James have given the appellation of plate armour, though not of the pattern and kind to which we apply

the term.

We have only room to add, that serenade is derived from poems of the

1831.]

REVIEW.-Cartwright's Rape of Bramber.

Troubadours, in which the word ser continually terminated each division (p. 219); and that it was a custom to cut the table-cloth with a knife or dagger before a Knight, who had in any way degraded himself (p. 327).

Cartwright's Rape of Bramber.

(Concluded from p. 266.) WE shall now proceed to give some details connected with antiquarian and topographical subjects.

Offington House, the seat of the last Thomas Lord La Warre, contained" sixty-five bed-rooms, and ninetyeight bedsteads."-p. 31.

In p. 32 is a ground-plan of Cissbury. It is an ancient encampment, surrounded by a single vallum, following the course of the hill, and enclosing within its area sixty acres, but it ap pears to have been totally destitute of

water.

That this camp was occupied by the Britons, Romans, and probably Saxons from the name, seems clear from the remains. But as there have been endless discussions among antiquariesabout the respective appropriations of camps to the Britons, Romans, or Saxons, it should be recollected that Cæsar mentions local fortresses, provided against intestine wars, as preexistent to his invasion of this island.

These, by the remains, were evidently occupied and sometimes altered by the the Romans, sometimes by the Danes or Saxons; and, wherever anomalous features occur, which baffle appropriation for want of a consistent plan, it may be justly inferred that the original camp was a local fortress of the kind mentioned. Such Cissbury appears to have been.

The origin in this country of the Truffle, or underground mushroom, as a viand of precious rarity, is thus described:

"The Beech-woods in this parish (Patching), and its immediate neighbourhood, are very productive of the Truffle (Lycoperdon Tuber). About forty years ago, William Leach came from the West Indies with some dogs, accustomed to hunt for Truffles, and proceeding along the coast from the Land's End in Cornwall to the mouth of the river Thames, determined to fix on that spot, where he found them most abundant. He took four years to try the experiment, and at length settled in this parish, where he carried on the business of Truffle-hunter till his death."—p. 78.

66

339

It has been said that the excavation of them by pigs led to their discovery. Evelyn mentions, in his Diary, that in Dauphiné this earth-nut was found out by hogs train'd to it, and for which those animals are sold at a great price. It is in truth an incomparable meat."

A singular thing occurs at the same parish (Patching). Mr. Cartwright

says,

"At the time of the Norman Conquest, this parish appears to have contained half the population of later times. As fortythree men are stated as employed in agriculture, it is reasonable to suppose that the population amounted, including women and children, to three times that number."-p.73.

This depopulation appears to have ensued from the conversion of arable into pasture and wood; out of the 1582 acres of the whole parish, there being only 451 arable. The size of

the church, which is of the architecture of the thirteenth century, suggests an opinion, that at the period last named the parish was much more populous.

The dining-room of Wiston-house, built temp. Eliz. retains the original oak wainscot, bearing the date 1576, and on the cornice was carved, in all the pride of genealogy so fashionable in those days, the family pedigree.-(p. 152.) A more perfect specimen of the sacrifice of taste to pride cannot exist. The usual substitute of tawdriness could not have relieved this wooden gingerbread from heaviness of effect.

We have a presumed æra of pulpits mentioned under that of Edburton Church.

"The pulpit is carved in the fashion of the time of James I. and was probably done by direction of Archbishop Laud, who, in his archiepiscopal visitations, was very exact in his direction respecting the pulpit and the communion rails."-p. 239.

Church of Henfield, a prebend of the It appears by the endowment of the Cathedral of Chichester, that the said Vicarage was endowed, anno 1209, that "the Vicar for the time being, who shall be presented by the Prebendary aforesaid, may be able to live for the future in an honourable manner, and may have a suitable maintenance, and not be reduced to the opprobious necessity of begging."-p. 270.

Thus it appears that vicarages were endowed to prevent the incumbents living by mendicity.

340

REVIEW.-Cartwright's Rape of Bramber.

In several old houses are known to be secret rooms for the concealment of Jesuits during the reign of Elizabeth and her successors. One of the most ingenious was the following at Shipley:

"In a closet belonging to the garret, is a cupboard with two shelves, which served for steps, by which the Romish priest could ascend to a place of concealment, through a false top of the cupboard."―p. 301.

In p. 304 is engraved from the Ceimelic of the Church chest of Shipley, a reliquary of wood, in shape a box with a pyramidal house-roof, standing on four corner feet. It is made of wood, "seven inches in length, and six in height, enamelled and gilt in the sides and ends with the subject of the Crucifixion and angels; over the cross are the Greek letters X. P. 2. It is of a workmanship coeval with, or perhaps before the donation to the Knights Templars" [the beginning of the 12th century].

The nimbus around the head of our Lord is much larger than that of the Saints and Angels, being a wheel with four cross-patee spokes within the circle, the intervals picked out with blue

and red.

Below the ceiling of the Church of Horsham,

"When it was under repair in 1825, the remains of an inscription were discoverable, of which the letters were upwards of a foot in length, and which extended the whole length of the church on both sides."

In the Church of Raglan, co. Monmouth, still remains below the ceiling of the chancel, a hollow cornice, carved in open scroll-work. Tradition says, that it was intended to assist the sound; upon what foundation, we are too ignorant of acoustics to decide.

At Horsham Church,

"The room now used as a vestry is of the time of Edward IV.; over it is a chamber with strong grated windows, the access to which is by a stair-case, terminating in a trap-door."-p. 355.

These upper-crofts and rooms were not uncommon in Ireland, and there are some in England. The intention was to have a place of security under invasion, for the goods of the inhabitants, the relics, and sacred utensils. See full accounts of them in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy for 1789. p. 83.

Under the head of a skeleton in one
the graves on Lancing Down, were

[April,

found the bones of a fowl (p. 388). Mr. Pennant says, concerning a su perstitious custom still practised at Llandegla, by the sick,

"If the afflicted be of the male sex, he makes, like Socrates, an offering of a cock to Esculapius, or rather to Tecla Hygeia ; if of the fair sex, a hen. The fowl is carried in a basket first round the well, after that into the church-yard; when the same orisons and the same circumambulations [the Deasuil] are performed round the church. The votary then enters the church, gets under the communion-table [as under the cromlech], lies down with the bible under his or her head, is covered with the carpet or cloth, and rests there till the break of day; departing after offering sixpence, and leaving the fowl in the church. If the bird dies, the cure is supposed to have been effected, and the disease transferred to the devoted victim."-(See Fosbroke's Wye Tour, P. 171, ed. 3.)

As this ceremony was accompanied with the Druidical Deasuil, and a similar custom concerning fowls obtains among the Cingalese Priests, who are modern Druids, there can be little doubt of this custom being Celtic; and it may have been the cause why the bones of a fowl were here found; especially as on the breast of the skeleton was found a fibula, representing a cock (engraved in vol. c.ii. p. 17); and fowls, hares, and geese, were held too sacred by the Britons to be used for food.

We have already spoken in high and just terms of Mr. Cartwright's splendid and valuable work; and we are happy to learn that he is about to publish a new and improved edition of Mr. Dallaway's History of the Rape of Arundel.

Historical Sketch of the Bank of England: with an examination of the Question, as to the prolongation of the exclusive privileges of that Establishment. 8vo. p. 76.

The arcana and effects of the Banking system are exhibited in no work more satisfactorily than in this. The great principle is to prevent over-issue; and this our author says, is seasonably controled by the Bank of England, which is itself again controled by the obligation of paying in specie. He shows us, from the Report of the Committee of the United States, that the

"Substitution of a National Bank would be most mischievous; that the Ministry would have, in fact, the entire management of the Bank; that it would eventually dege

1831.]

REVIEW.-Sketch of the Bank of England.

nerate into a mere financial and political engine that it would be abused in order to promote party purposes; and would necessarily become a focus for every sort of corruption and intrigue."—p. 64.

As to the Scotch Bank system he observes, that it will not do for periods of commercial depression. These banks

"Are most liberal of their advances, so long as they conceive they run no risk in making them; but the moment that alarm and discredit begiu to make their appearance, they demand payment of every advance that is not made on the very best security; they cease, in a great measure, to discount; and provide for their own security by ruining thousands of their customers. Had the Bank of England acted in 1792, 1815 and 1816, and in 1825 and 1826, as the Scotch banks act, when they apprehend a return of their notes, all classes would have been involved in bankruptcy, and we should have been fortunate had we escaped a revolution."-p. 54.

The third point is, the injurious consequences that would infallibly follow from multiplying banks of issue in

London.

"In periods of distress and discredit, arising out of a falling exchange, whether that fall be brought about by previous over issue, bad harvests, demands upon the Treasury from abroad, or any other cause, the mercantile classes are placed in a situation of great difficulty, and require efficient support. The Bank of England, aware of the demands that will be made upon her in such a crisis, and that she alone will have to uphold the pecuniary system of the metropolis and the country, takes care to have, generally speaking, her coffers well supplied with coin and bullion; and is able, from

her immense command of cash and credit, and the confidence placed in her by all classes, to meet a severe drain for gold, and, at the same time, to render effectual support to private bankers, merchants, &c. But, were there various banks issuing paper in London, then, as no particular bank would incur any sort of general or public responsibility, all of them would act only with a view to their own interest, in the literal and most contracted sense of the term. They would not endeavour, like the Bank of Eng land, to provide large supplies of cash and bullion against any emergency; but each being naturally disposed to trust as much, in a matter of this sort, to the efforts of

others as to its own, the chances are ten to

one that there would be a most inadequate provision to meet a fall of the exchange. But, although such were not the case, it is sufficiently certain that no private bank

341

would, at such a moment, venture to support its customers, either in the city or the country, by making advances to them. The stocks of coin and bullion in all the banks would necessarily be very much reduced by the drain for gold from abroad, so that the idea of their making an advance in coin would be out of the question. There is, however, quite as little probability that they would be disposed to make advances in paper, seeing that whatever portions of such paper came into the hands of any other bank, would be forthwith returned upon them; for each bank, anxious about nothing but its own safety, would be desirous of increasing its own supply of bullion, which it could only do at the expense of its neighbours; and it is easy, indeed, to see that the stoppage of any bank would be inevitable which did not husband its resources with the utmost care. The consequences of a considerable fall in the exchange, with a number of banks in London, would, in truth, be quite frightful. Every one knows the ruin occasioned by the crisis in the latter part of 1825 and the beginning of 1826; but we hesitate not to say, that that ruin was trifling in the extreme, compared with what it would have been had the paper currency of London been then supplied by different establishments. At the period in question, the Bank of England made loans upon the credit of funded and other property, which had become quit unsaleable, to the extent, we believe, of about ten millions; and those acquainted with the facts of the case will be forward to admit that, but for this opportune and liberal supply, the ruin of most private bankers, and of a very large part of the mercantile class, throughout the country, would have been consummated. It would, however, be worse than absurd to suppose that any such advance, or any thing approaching to it, would have been made by a number of banks, all jealous of each other, with scanty stocks of bullion, dreading the return of their notes, and exempted from any public responsibility. We submit, that, were nothing more to be urged, what we have now stated is complete and decisive."- pp. 52, 53.

In these statements we place the utmost confidence, and heartily pray, that the longevity of the Old Lady in Threadneedle Street may be protracted into immortality; and that we shall have no flaunting misses (some of them sure to be no better than they should be) substituted for her in the performance of her maternal and matronly duties. It was a maxim of our ancestors, "to let well alone;" but their posterity seem to think it an improvement not to do so.

« AnteriorContinuar »