the entire length of the building: that on the eastern side is painted in fresco, with figures on niches; and a large room over the hall is also decorated in a similar style. The staircases were contained in spacious octagonal towers, one of which is destroyed; the other forms an important feature in every view of the building. The material of which the walls are constructed is red brick, "laid on English bond, so fine and firm, that every external ornament and moulding is cut on it as well as if on masonry ; and even the jambs, mullions, transoms, and labels of the windows are finely wrought in the same material, though they have since been stuccoed in imitation of stone." The house has suffered from neglect, and not addition, for scarcely a modern alteration appears in any part. An almost contemporaneous building will best assist in corroborating the traditional date of this structure. This is the hall of the Middle Temple, and, in common with Eastbury, the existence of a date, which appears a document of great value in every ancient building, has been disregarded. Some years since, the date, 1595, was to be seen there; and a Correspondent of ours snatched the brief opportunity afforded by a casual view of the frame which contained it, then lying among some rubbish, during a repair, to record its existence in our pages. The doorway within the porch had a Pointed arch, much resembling the principal entrance at Eastbury, and the detail of the architecture would, in all its parts, more closely agree with that structure if it had not suffered very greatly from injudicious alterations; although, we must admit, these evils have recently been in part remedied. The sixteen copper-plates, from drawings and measurements of every part of the building, by Mr. Clarke, some being engraved by his own hand, and others by Mr. Stone, show the principal parts of the mansion. The elevations are boldly given, on a large scale, and the parts with the fidelity of working drawings. We do not recognise among the subjects engraved a small niche in the hall, having the appearance of a receptacle for a holy * Gent. Mag. vol. xcvi. pt. ii. p. 320. water basin, the singularity of which renders it deserving of notice. We have no space to enter into a detailed account of these plates. Their fidelity is great, and their utility to any architect who may prefer buildings of solid materials, brick and timber, to the flimsy lath and plaster of the present day, is unquestionable. We have no hesitation in earnestly recommending this publication to our antiquarian readers' attention, feeling certain that if the publication effects for Eastbury no other benefit, it will, at least, show to posterity a faithful representation of its features, when that consummation, so much to be dreaded, shall have arrived, and this pure mansion shall exist no longer. Collectanea Topographica et Genealogica. Parts III.-VII. Royal Octavo. WE are much pleased to observe the useful progress of this Magazine of original and sterling information, which is now approaching the close of the second volume. The copy it contains of all Dugdale's manuscript corrections to his own copy of the Baronage, would alone stamp it with a character Cartularies, which is also now comof value. The catalogue of Monastic pleted, is acknowledged to be an elaborate and very useful performance; as is the list of the sales of Bishops' lands. Those abstracts of cartularies which have been given, are fraught with information to the topographer; though it is true they are not the most interesting portion of the work to the general reader. With respect to individual places, to preserve any detached fragments or the principal use of this collection is, stray documents which might otherwise be lost. The rule pursued by the Editors, that nothing should be inserted that has been printed before, precludes any complete topographical memoirs, nor could much in that way be effected within the limits of a quarterly Magazine; but the same regulation will greatly enhance the con centrated value of the work as a standard book of reference, containing what is not to be found elsewhere. The illustration of Genealogy requires less space, and it is certainly in this department that the most has been effected by the Collectanea. Among the longest articles of a general bearing, are the series of pedigrees from the Plea Rolls, and those of families related to the Blood Royal, compiled by Sir Thomas Wriothesley, Garter King in the reign of Henry the Seventh. Those who doubt the importance of Genealogy as an attendant on History, that is, as a key to the motives and influences operating upon the actions and fortunes of statesmen, need only look to what has recently passed before their eyes in the history of this country, in order to take a familiar illustration which will at once be intelligible to all. A north-country gentleman, of a family not previously remarkable, except for wealth arising from collieries, having become the sonin-law of a late Prime Minister, has not only been elevated to the Peerage, and shortly after to the title of Earl of that county which had previously been held sacred as an episcopal palatinate, but is now accustomed to make it his ordinary boast, that he was the author of that important Act of Parliament, which has wrought a most serious change in the constitution of the country. Now what has put forward this personage to figure thus in history? Is it not the genealogical circumstance that he was the son-inlaw of Earl Grey, and was thus introduced to the station of a Cabinet Minister? Why was the Duke of Somerset made Protector to King Edward VI., and his brother Lord Admiral? not from any commanding talents, but because they were the King's uncles. Why were Lord Rivers, and the Greys, and others, sacrificed by the Protector Gloucester? only because they were the King's maternal relatives. What introduced to wealth and power in England, the foreign family of Valence? their relationship to Henry III. What that of Beaumont? their relationship to Edward II. What, in the feudal ages especially, has elevated nearly every great family? we need scarcely answer-their alliances. How originated a vast number of the Writs of Summons to Parliament ? from the parties having married the dowagers of Earls or Barons. Or, to return to a more general view, why did one family adhere to the White Rose and another to the Red? We shall find them connected in blood with some of the principal chieftains of their respective parties. Why was one district more devoted to the Royal cause, and another to the Parliamentarian? Why have the Roman Catholics remained numerous here, and the Presbyterians prevailed there? These and similar historical and statistical facts we shall find explained by the alliances of predominant families. And, if we should be told that it is only in some instances that such historical interest is found to attach to pedigrees, whilst most of them can only be interesting to the parties concerned, we answer,—then, in an ancient pedigree observe how many are concerned how widely is the blood diffused; in how many ways is one ancient house connected with another. Nearly every old family in the west of England is descended from the Plantagenets, through the Courtenays: nearly half the Peerage through the Tudors. How extensively is the founder's kin of Chicheley and of Wyckham diffused, with its concomitant advantages, an inheritance which ought to be (and we trust ever will be) esteemed a property as sacred as any other. The additions to Dugdale's Baronage will, we understand, be concluded in the present volume, of which they constitute a large and important portion. Of the same class of articles are two very elaborate memoirs, one of the family of Foljambe, of Derbyshire, and the other of that of Rookwood of Suffolk, compiled in the reign of James I., besides a very curious poetical history of the family of Maunsell. The latter part of the long memoirs of the family of Foljambe, contains copies of some curious letters and other interesting documents. Among them is a letter of Privy Seal, from Queen Elizabeth to Godfrey Foljambe, esq., in 1589, requiring a loan of 501. towards the defence of the kingdom against the Spaniards; and a letter from the same Godfrey Foljambe to the Earl of Shrewsbury, also written in 1589, complaining of "sundry green heads in Chesterfield," who, in the previous year, had "practised divers abuses and disorders, under the pretence, colour, or name of a Lord of May," and requesting his Lordship's assistance to prevent the repetition of "such like disordered evils." One of the most interesting genealogical articles is that on two junior branches of the great house of Percy; the first of Beverley, and the second of Taunton and Cambridge, descended from the Gunpowder Conspirator; both here shown to have derived their descent from the fourth son of the fourth Earl of Northumberland. In these lines, and in that of the late Bishop of Dromore, male heirs of this illustrious house are shown to have existed for a hundred and forty years after the presumed extinction of the Earldom, in the reign of Charles the Second. The only legal obstacle in the way of the accession of Percy of Beverley, was the attainder of 1572, which the advisers of the Crown could have made no difficulty in removing, had he possessed sufficient acquaintance with his rights, and sufficient influence, to have urged his just claims. We do not find, however, that he troubled himself in the matter. His cousin, Mr. Francis Percy, the greatgrandson of "Gunpowder Percy," and then a "6 stone-cutter" of Cambridge (afterwards Mayor, in 1709), was less supine; but he failed in tracing_completely his descent from the Earls. He collected, indeed, certain certificates which, in the opinion of Sir William Dugdale, to whom he submitted them, proved that he was lineally descended from Thomas Percy, the conspirator; but he derived the conspirator's parentage erroneously in short, he made him great-grandson of the fifth Earl, instead of his greatnephew. Thus, when the Earldom became dormant, the elder heir was supine, and the junior was at fault; and, what is remarkable, a letter is preserved of Sir William Dugdale, dated 1681, advising him to forbear from urging his claims under the then existing circumstances. The King had already created one of his natural children Earl of Northumberland, and the question was otherwise under an ill odour, from the ungrounded assumptions of one James Percy, a trunkmaker, who some years after was sentenced by the House of Lords to stand in Westminster Hall, wearing a paper, designating him as A false and impudent pretender to the Earl " Such an dom of Northumberland." example might have been enough to deter any Percy from pursuing his claim; though, on the death of Mr. Percy of Beverley, two years after this occurrence, we find the Cambridge Alderman actually became the heirmale of the family. He does not, however, appear to have taken any further steps. The royal scion (who was now Duke of Northumberland) lived until 1716; and in 1749 a new Earldom was created to the heir female of the last Earl, which is now enjoyed by the Percies, whose original patronymic was Smithson. The true descent of the Cambridge Percies, and with them that of those of Beverley, is now first published. For this highly interesting article the subscribers to the Collectanea are indebted to Mr. Young, York Herald. It is followed by the will of the fourth Earl of Northumberland, communicated by the late Mr. Surtees, in which is bequeathed "to Gesselyne, my sone, lands in Sussex." This Gesselyne, or Josceline, was grandfather of the conspirator. His own will is added; as is that of George Percy, the Prebendary of Beverley, whose remarkable effigy still remains in that minster. He desired to be there buried, "in insula boreali juxta tumulum D'ne Elianore de Percy," which clause fully confirms the identity of the latter, as suggested in the Gentleman's Magazine, vol. c. i. 209 (where a plate of the now united monuments will be found), with that noticed in the almost parallel words of Leland, “ Under (below) Eleanor's tombe is buried one of the Percy's, a priest." " There are several other wills derived from the registry of York, which were communicated by the late amiable historian of Durham. That of John Dautre, 1459, is a very extraordinary specimen of superstition. He desires to be buried before an image of Saint John, whom, before all other Saints, he had from his youth held in maximo ardoris amore, in the hope that the beatissimus Johannes might intercede with his holy prayers pro me misero Johanne. He bequeathed to his spiritual father, William Langton, a book which the blessed Richard le Scrop had, and carried in his bosom at the time of his decapitation; desiring that, after Langton's death, it should be chained for ever near the place of rest of the said Richard. To his brother, Guy Fairfax, he bequeathed a great register which had belonged to William Gascoyne, Justice of England. Moreover, he bequeathed to the most blessed, his beloved Saint, Richard Scrope, a set of beads of coral, fifty in number, with gilt jewels, for the aid of his canonization," Quod Deus concedat pro magna gratia sua!" In the documents relative to St. John's Hospital, Coventry, we find, in 1444, the particulars of the foundation of a bed therein, which was to be called, after its founder, "Blakeman's bed," and "to be placed in a certain part of the church of the said hospital, on the west, near the door, and near the buttery of the poor there." The abstract of the Red Book of St. Asaph, though hastily executed (about two centuries ago, and the original is now lost), presents a good example of the contents of such episcopal registers. It seems to be a sort of common-place-book of the acts of the Bishops, chiefly of the 13th and 14th centuries, and contains several curious particulars. The text-book of the Gospels, belonging to the church of St. Asaph, commonly called "Erenegylten, " is twice mentioned. The silver plate of Bishop Anian, in the 13th century, is enumerated; as, "13 discos magnos, 3 mediocres, 6 sauceria magna, 11 parva." In 1295 we find this remarkable provision, on account of the wars; that the Canons, by two and two, should appoint between them one Vicar; that four Priests should live in one house, and live on common provisions. On the same account Bishop Anian petitioned the Pope to remove the see of St. Asaph from the plain, to a place where the noble King Edward had provided a site well defended with ditches and towers. This was the castle of Ruddlan. In an ordination for the cathedral service, made in 1296, it was provided, inter alia, that, besides the matins, canonical hours, and vespers, there should be daily sung in the choir, two masses-the great mass, and that of the blessed Virgin. Particular attendances were assigned, as at present, to the holders of certain stalls and benefices. The Archdeacon was to provide one priest or layman, bene cantantem et ad organa ludentem, and two of the Prebendaries were to find four boys, bene cantantes, called "queresters." Another Prebendary was to pay 10s. annually to the augmentation of the salary of the water-carrier, who was to be present daily in the church, with the other servants, during the times of divine service. There are some passages of equal curiosity in another article, the Annals of Crokesden Abbey. In 1268 the Abbat bought, for fifty marks, a Bible, in nine volumes, optima glosatam, by Salomon, Archdeacon of Leicester. In 1294, on account of the war with Gascony, the merchants did not buy the wools of England, and the monks, consequently, could hardly sell theirs at seven marks a pack. In 1313, when the great bell of the monastery was broken, Master Henry Michel of Lichfield came to found another, and after working at it with his boys from the octaves of the Trinity to the nativity of the Virgin (that is, for about twelve weeks), failed in the casting, and lost all his labour and expense. He had evidently taken the work, as usual, by contract. However, having recommenced his work, for which he provided a great portion of new brass and tin, he finished his business about the feast of All Saints, that is, in two months more. With these slight extracts we must conclude, bidding the editors and contributors to the work to proceed and prosper. THE ANNUALS. The Book of Beauty, edited by LADY BLESSINGTON.-We hesitated for many a hour to whom, among the rival beauties who adorn this volume, we should award the golden prize. In fancy we supposed ourselves seated like the Shepherd of Ida, (the engraver standing like Mercury at our elbow), and the resplendent goddesses of Almack's advancing to put forth their claims. The Countess of Wilton spoke most persuasively, and we hesitated but her face was not quite oval enough for our taste, and there was a little heaviness about her chin. Lady Elizabeth Levison-Gower we could not get a sight of, the dressmaker and perruquier having so concealed her in their works. Helen's hands were so large, as to make her high descent and noble blood very doubt ful. Edith's eyes were too far apart, and she appeared to have the toothache; and Mrs. Knowlys ought to keep her mouth shut. We thought Lady Georgiana Russell's Italian pin, much more becoming than a comb. Ianthe and Constance were too busy thinking of their Love apple, to look much to our's. So just as we were deliberating on our decision, in flew Mrs. Leicester Stanhope, and with a smile that was irresistible, said- Pray Mr. Reviewer, give me the pomme d'or.' We looked for one moment, beheld eyes of enchanting lustre, and a face formed in the purest models of ancient art; and in spite of a little deformity in her right arm, which was caused by a blow from the engraver, we bestowed the well-disputed prize. The ladies being now gone, and we being left to our critical labours, we observe that the engravings, without being first-rate, are very respectably executed; for the prose and verse, it is that kind of mingled yarn,' which we may expect in such volumes. The verses by the editor, Lady Blessington, show equally the purity of her mind, as they do the elegance of her taste; and Lady Georgiana Russell ought to be as proud of her friend, as Count D'Orsay of his mother-in-law. Our respected acquaintance Lady E. S. Wortley has also contributed a Night Meditation, in which we remark these beautiful lines. Oh skies inscrib'd with argent charactry! [lie! Oh holiest meanings in the depths that Oh! worldless eloquence of all around! Oh! most consummate harmony without a sound! Mrs. Shelley has given us a very disagree able tale: W. S. Landor has vouchsafed a dialogue between Addison and Steele ; and Mr. Moore, the following lines. With skies now rude, and now serene, Together thou and I must float. Beholding oft on either shore, [stray: Bright spots where we should love to But time plies swift his flying oar, And on we speed-away, away! Should chilling winds and rain come on, We'll raise the awning gainst the shower, Sit closer till the storm is gone, And smiling wait a sunnier hour. And if that sunnier hour should shine, We'll know its brightness cannot stay, And happy while 'tis there and mine, Complain not when it fades away. Thus reach we both, at last, that fall Down which life's moments all must goThe dark, the brilliant destined all, To sink into the void below. Nor even that hour shall want its charms, If side by side still fond we keep ; And calmly in each other's arms, Together link'd, go down the steep. As for the rest of the Tales and the Poems, there is a general resemblance among them. facies non omnibus una, Nec diversa tamen, qualem decet esse so rorum. The New Year's Gift, edited by Mrs. ALARIC WATTS. 1835 -We honestly assure Mrs. Watts, that no Annual has reached us this year, which for pleasing composition, variety of talent, interesting tales, and easy graceful little poems, at all approaches hers. She need not envy the aristocratic pomp, or even the luxury of engraving, which adorns her rivalsthe talent is hers-and we must prefer the little and natural Shepherdesses Mary Howitt, and Agnes Strickland, to the gorgeous Princesses, who spout their heroics from their Opera boxes and chairs at Almack's, in language as flounced and furbelowed as their own dresses. Agnes Strickland has long been a pet of ours: and Mary Howitt we like so much, that we wish she bore another name. We will find room for her poem on THE GIRL AND DOVE. My father is served by an old henchman, My mother by the stately Mistress Ann, My brother by a little foot-page so free, And this true dove it serveth me. The old henchman is rude and rough, His foot it is heavy, his speech is gruff, While mistress Ann cannot smile if she would [pinch'd-up hood. With her pursed-up mouth, and her The little foot-page he is bold and vain, My father's squire, the henchman old, Could he win but a noble serving-fee. And the mistress Ann she would not stay To wait on my mother a single day, Although she has served her for many a year, [gear. Were it not for the winning her silken |