IN ALL CLASSES OF LITERATURE AND THE FINE ARTS, ON SALE AT VERY LOW PRICES: TO WHICH ARE ADDED A List of New Publications AND CURRENT NOTES FOR THE MONTH, A SERIES OF Original Papers on Literary and Antiquarian Subjects. GEORGE WILLIS BOOKSELLER. GREAT PIAZZA, COVENT GARDEN LONDON. Allen's (Commander) Narrative OF THE Niger EXPEDITION OF 1841, with plates and maps, 2 vols. 8vo. new cloth, 10s 6d (pub. at £1. 12s) 1848 The narrative of the Albert's solitary voyage is, to our thinking, one of the most remarkable instances of quiet courage and unflinching constaucy of purpose to be found in any book of travels ever written."Examiner. "Full of instructive and amusing details of African life." Britannia. Andrewes (Lanceloti, Episc. Wint.) Preces Private Quotidiane, Gr. et Lat, a New Edition very carefully corrected, fcp. 8vo. cloth, 3s 6d (pub. at 9s) 1848 Ancient Tournaments and Armour, 62 FINELY COLOURED ENGRAVINGS of Ancient Arms and Armour, Engines of War, Tournaments, &c. with a History of Chivalry (in German), oblong 4to. bds. £1. 4s Stuttg. 1842 A well executed work; the plates are finished in silver and colours. Some of the combats are very curious. Autograph Letters, a collection of nearly 300 Autograph Letters and Papers of celebrated Individuals of all Nations, engraved in facsimile on stone, 8 parts 4to. complete, 15s, or half morocco, 18s Stuttgart, 1846 This is a very interesting collection, including numerous British Worthies, Q. Elizabeth, Mary Stuart, Cromwell, and many literary characters; also individuals of all countries, from the Sixteenth Century to the present day. Each autograph has the merit of being a complete document in itself. Bancroft's (Hon. G.) History of the United States, from the Discovery of the American Continent, last complete authorised edition; with numerous engraved portraits, views, &c. 6 large vols. 8vo. new cloth, £3.3s Boston, 1854 This is the last and most complete copyright edition of this valuable work by the American Minister, containing in addition engravings not Barnard's Sketches in Switzerland, Scenes and Incidents of Travel in the Bernese Oberlaud, &c. 26 large and beautiful tinted lithographic drawings, folio, new hf. morocco, £1.11s 6d (pub. at £4. 4s) in other editions. 1843 "The very best delineations of Swiss Scenery, Glaciers, Passes, Travelling Incidents, &c. are given in the large views of Mr. Barnard. They combine in a high degree picturesqueness with truth."-Murray's Handbook to Switzerland. Literary Gazette. Barrow's (John) Life AND CORRESPONDENCE OF ADMIRAL SIR SIDNEY SMITH, fine plate of Sir Sidney at the Breach of Acre, and plans, 2 vols. 8vo. new cloth, 8s 6d (pub. at £1.8s) 1848 "We recommend these volumes to our readers. Sir Sidney Smith's naval exploits, his glorious repulses of Bonaparte at Acre, his services in the subsequent Egyptian campaigns, and, in short, all his public and brilliant course, may be followed out in these pages, with their official data and private correspondence, now for the first time given to the world."Beltz's (G. F. Lancaster Herald) Order of the Garter; Memorials of that Most Noble Order, from its Foundation to the Present Time; including the History of the Order, Biographical Notices of the Knights in the reigns of Edward III. and Richard II.; the correct Chronological Succession of the Members, and many curious particulars relating to English and French History from hitherto unpublished Documents, with woodcuts of Arms, a large thick vol. royal 8vo. new half morocco, uncut, Roxburghe style, 98 (pab. at £1. 10s) Pickering, 1841 "In our opinion (and it is no slight praise,) MR. BELTZ'S ME MORIALS" deserve for research and ability to be ranked with the works of his predecessors (Camden, Anstis, Dugdale, &c.), and no historical library can be complete without them."-Athena um. Bingham's (Commander) Narrative OF THE EXPEDITION TO CHINA, from the commencement of the War to its termination in 1842, coloured portrait and engravings, 2 vols. post 8vo. new cloth, 5s (pub. at £1. 1s) 1843 Bojardo ed Ariosto, ORLANDO INNAMORATO E FURIOSO, with an Introductory Essay, Original Memoir, and Notes, 1 English, by ANTONIO PANIZZI, finely printed, 9 vols. post 9. new cloth £1. 10s (pub. at £5. 8s) Pickering, 1830-4 is edition is highly praised by Hallam in his "Introduction to the ure of Europe." The poem as written by Boiardo has never been 3 sincs 1544 Botta's (M.) Letters on the Discoveries at Nineveh, translated from the French by C. Tobin, illustrated by 50 LARGE FOLDING PLATES, consisting of Plan, Plates of Sculpture, and Inscriptions, 8vo. cloth, 5s (pub. at 10s 6d) Longmans, 1850 "This translation of M. Botta's Letters, with the accompanying valuable plates, is very acceptable. They are a valuable supplement to Dr. Layard's work."--Athenæum. Bourne's (Vincent) Poetical Works, both in Latin and English, the Latin Poems having an English translation on the opposite pages, printed by C. Whittingham, fcp. 8vo. new cloth, 3s Pickering, 1840 Boutell's Christian Monuments in England, an Historical and Descriptive Sketch of the various Classes of Monumental Memorials which have been in use in this Country from the time of the Norman Conquest, numerous wood engravings, royal 8vo.new cloth, 5s (pub. at 15s) Boutell's (Rev. C.) Monumental Brasses of England; a Series of 149 Engravings upon Wood, from valuable Memorials, with descriptive Notices, royal 8vo. new cloth, Es (pub. at £1. 8s)-A copy on LARGE PAPER, printed in FOLIO (a very handsome book, printed to range with 'Dugdale, &c.), new cloth, £1. 10s (pub. at £3. 3s) "I love the memory of Vincent Bourne."-Cowper. 1854 1849 above attractive work, renders this collection of examples of Costume, of "The amount of information conveyed in moderate compass, in the Decorative Design, and of Heraldry, highly acceptable. They are marked by minute and faithful exactness, and their variety is striking."—Archæol. Journal. Brenton's (Capt.) Naval History of Great Britain, brought down to the present time, from Official Documents and other authentic sources, numerous portraits and plans, 2 vols. 8vo. cloth, 14s (pub. at £1. 11s 6d) 1836 1848 This important work has long been an esteemed Chronicle of the triumphant exploits of the British Navy. Bridgewater Treatise.-Roget (Dr.) on ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE PHYSIOLOGY, second edition, with nearly 500 woodcuts, 2 vols. 8vo. new cloth, 16s (pub. at £1. 10s) Brougham's (Lord) Sketches of Statesmen who flourished in the Time of George III. with Remarks on Party, and on the French Revolution, three series complete, 6 vols. 18mo. in 3, cloth, 6s 6d 1853 This well known and interesting work comprises upwards of sixty biographies. Brougham's (Lord) Lives of Men of Letters and SCIENCE, who flourished in the Time of George III., with 8 beautiful engravings on steel, 8vo. new half morocco, 78 C (pub. at £1. 1s) C. Knight, 1845 Burke's (Rt. Hon. E.) Correspondence with many eminent Persons between the year 1744 and the period of his Decease in 1797, edited by Earl Fitzwilliam and Sir R. Bourke, fine portrait, 4 vols. 8vo. new cloth, 14s (pub. at £2. 28) 1844 This valuable work contains numerous Historical and Biographic Notes, and Original Letters from the leading State-men of the peric and forms an Autobiography of this celebrated Statesman and Writer. Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, rendered more intelligible with the help of Modern Prose, by J.Saunders; also,— CABINET PICTURES OF ENGLISH LIFE, from Chaucer, numeron s engravings, 3 vols. 18mo. in 1, cloth, 1s 6d C. Knight, 18-4 A very useful and instructive companion to the readers of Chaucer ** Poems, throwing much light upon the mysteries of antique spelling, Gati v construction, &c. Chaucer's Romaunt of the Rose, Troilus and CRESEIDE, &c. with Life by Sir Harris Nicolas, 3 vols. pos 8vo. new cloth, 18s (pub. at £1. 118 6d) 184 This forms a Supplement to Tyrwhitt's Edition, and completes Com Poetical Works of Chaucer. No. LIX.] WILLIS'S CURRENT NOTES. "Takes note of what is done By note, to give and to receive."-SHAKESPEARE. [NOVEMBER, 1855. MADRON WELL CHAPEL. Deep buried in entangled brushwood and heath, about a mile and a half from Penzance in Cornwali, are the ruins of Madron Well chapel, which though a good example of the well chapel, and in repute at the time of the Civil War, it is but little known, or, in fact noticed. Doubtless it cannot claim so high an antiquity as most of its fellow ruins, yet there are one or two points for which it should not be wholly passed by. The well, not very long since superstitiously used for healing some disease, but now dry, is in the south-west corner, and contrary to the usual custom, the only entrance is on the north side, usually assigned to Satanic influence. Opposite to the door, are the remains of a window; a low seat, with a slight moulding runs nearly round the building. The altar, a fine smooth slab of granite, supported on three or four huge masses of the same stone; has on its face a square sink nine inches on each side, and about an inch deep. The altar is one foot, three inches high, five feet, seven inches long, and two feet, nine inches in width. This is not, I believe, the largest of our Cornish Well chapels; the highest part of the ruined walls is not more than five feet; the thickness around the well is three feet, in other parts, two feet. Qu. Are there any other instances of the entrance to these chapels being on the north side? And again, was the square cut in the altar-slab, intended for the socket of a cross? Under the south side of the Chancel in the church at St. Michael's Mount, Cornwall, is a small dungeon, it opens down from a seat, and seems tolerably secure from discovery. There are legends of bones and a huge skull being found there, which perhaps we should receive cautiously; it struck me as having been most likely a priest's hiding-place. Was it so? Torrington Square, Nov. 7. T. H. PATTISON. BELL AND MONUMENTAL INSCRIPTIONS. Mottoes on Bells are occasionally in Current Notes, but I do not recollect that you have given one that pleasantly expresses a quaint, but pious sentiment which I read some years since on one of the bells in the beautiful tower of Repton Church, Derbyshire,-. I sweetly toling men do call, To taste on meats thatt feeds the soule. JANE THACKER. 1622. GODFREY THACKER. The following verse, on a mural tablet in the church of Leigh Delamere, Wiltshire, may be considered curious from the perpetuation of provincialisms so richly crowded into the third line. Death in a very good old age, The monument commemorates Alice, wife of John Browning, who died May 22, 1763, aged 72 years; and J. BARNARD DAVIS. The Epitaph noticed in Current Notes, p. 82, as being in Kensal Green Cemetery, is also in the abbey churchyard of Great Malvern, with some words different, and the grammar betokening an older date. For Epitaph Collectors, there is one in St. Philip's churchyard, Birmingham, which might be classed among the ludicrous. It is written, I should think, by an Irishnian. I forget the first two lines, they are however a lament for his wife, and he concludes by thus apostrophising Death. O Cruel Death! thou should'st have taken both, if either; which would have been much more pleasant to the survivor. M. J. DR. JOHNSON justly observes: The business of life is to go forward, he who sees evil in prospect, meets it in his way but he who catches it by retrospection, turns back to find it. That which is feared, may sometimes be avoided; but that which is regretted to-day, may be regretted to morrow. We should, to be useful, decidedly condemn the indulgence of brooding over circumstances and events that thought cannot mend, because it unstrings the mind; and that once done, it is surprising with what rapidity all its peace unravels itself; and how much it loses of the power of judging rightly on the mixed condition of human affairs. N VESPERO SICILIANO. The massacre of the French, called Vespero Siciliano, did not take place on Easter-day, as stated in a note in Current Notes, p. 74, but, according to Giannone, on the Tuesday after-nel terzo giorno di Pasqua, March 31, 1282; or, according to Muratori, on the Monday after-nel lunedì di Pasqua di Resurrezione, the 30th day of the said month and year; he, however, adds-scrivono altri, nel Martedì, the 31st of the said month. Bossi assigns to it the last date, sayingnel giorno 31 di Marzo dell' anno 1282.‡ Bristol, November 9. F. S. DONATO. A CHRIST CROSS RHYME. Christ his Cross shall be my speed! I may chant the psalm and pray. With that bright Child in her hands. HORN BOOK. The two horn books, erroneously noticed at p. 77., as belonging to Sir Thomas Phillipps, are the property of Mr J. O. Westwood, who also possesses a third, more modern, like the old ones in general form and appearance, but with simply a marbled paper back. In reference to the earlier specimens, Mr. Westwood further intimates I have compared mine with the one in the possession of Thomas Longman, Esq., Paternoster-row, with which they agre e in size, and almost in type; but his specimen has on the back only St. George and the Dragon, whereas mine have respectively the figure of the reigning monarch with his initials printed in gold on the back from a rude woodblock, thus enabling us to determine the precise date of the two specimens, as well as to afford an approximate date to that belonging to Mr. Longman, to which an incorrect period had been assigned. * Storia de Napoli, Tomo III., Lib. xx., Cap. 5., p. 44. Annali d'Italia, Napoli, 1753, 4to., Tomo VII., p. 367. Storia d'Italia Antica e Moderna, Tomo XV., Lib. v., Cap. x., p. 289. FASTRADANA, WIFE OF CHARLEMAGNE. In the Illustrated London News, Nov. 10, p. 565, is a facsimile of a curious inscription to the memory of Fastradana, the third wife of Charlemagne, which I read thus Fastradana pia Caroli conjunx vocitata, Quem numerum metro claudere musa vetat. O king of heaven, with respect to her deeds, although she turn to ashes here, may her soul be heir to that country, which knows no sorrow. Virgo, de fœmina conjugata. Encomium Emma Reginæ, p. 172. Du Cange. Cinerescere, in cinerem redigi. Tertull. Apol., cap. 40. Ibid. Hawkshead, Nov. 12. D. B. H. The society of polished men, like smooth iron roads, renders the journey of life more easy and agreeable ; but that of unpolished men, like rough roads, makes all its ruts and inequalities painfully felt. Margaret, Countess of Blessington. MONUMENTAL SCULPTURE AT FINHAVEN. About a quarter of a mile eastward of the ruins of the Castle of Finhaven, on a rising ground at the junction of the rivers Lemno and Southesk, and at the foot of the famous vitrified fort, stood formerly the original parish church of Finhaven or Aikenhatt, in Forfarshire. It is supposed to have been dedicated to the Nine Maidens, whose festival is held on June 19, and the foundation appears to have been of a very early date, as it was rebuilt in 1380, and granted in free gift to the Cathedral of Brechin, by Sir Alexander Lindsay of Glenesk, father of the first Earl of Crawford. Tradition with its busy tongue, has hinted that Lindsay was induced to this bestowal on the church, in the hope of obtaining her propitiatory prayers for some rash acts committed by him, and that he imposed a further penance Land; certain it is, that while on his onward course on himself by undertaking a pilgrimage to the Holy thither he died apud insulam de Candey.' The old church is mentioned in 1576, but being situated in a corner of the parish, a new church in a few years after appears to have been erected for greater convenience, at the village of Oathlaw, being near to the centre of the parochial bounds; and the old church demolished. It would seem to have been but a small building, having an aisle on the south side, and the floor paved with square glazed tiles of the three primary colours, red, blue, and yellow, similar to those used in the principal Cathedrals of the middle ages. The land on which the church stood is now within the farm of Bogardo, and the immediate site of the church is staked ont by a rustic railing. The holder of this farm in 1849, had the graveyard or old burying ground trenched, with a view of growing corn upon it, and during operations, the old tiled pavement of the church was discovered, and, also, two coffin slabs, one of which had entombed a man of arms; the other, one of the vicars of the parish. These monumental remains now lie within the railing, but no other vestige of the church is extant. The first of these coffin covers, as here represented, them to Cardinal Beaton; but as this particular class of has the cross and sword incised, while the circular cross head decorated with the very unusual number of eight floriated points is executed in low relief. No example of this kind is described or figured in Boutell's Christian Monuments in England and Wales.* Of whom this mark of Christian remembrance was intended to commemorate, there is much perplexity of doubt-certainly it was not Sir Alexander Lindsay, or any of his descendants; he was buried where he died in the Isle of Candia, and none of his successors were interred at Finhaven till a comparatively late date. Lindsay's predecessors in the lordship of Finhaven are satisfactorily traced from the year 1250, when Cumyn, Earl of Buchan, then proprietor of the lands, and forester of the Royal Hunting Forest of Plater, within the boundary of which the lands and church of Finhaven were comprised, granted annually a certain surcharge out of them, to the monastery of Aberbrothoc. Philip, through whose boldness Robert the Bruce was enabled to capture the castle of Forfar from the English, was forester in 1308. Bruce's natural son, who fell at Dupplin, in 1332, held the same lands and office at the time of his death, and he was succeeded in them by Hew de Polayne, William Earl of Ross, and Sir David de Annand. This last was the immediate predecessor of Sir Alexander Lindsay, the rebuilder of the church. To which, or, if to any of these earlier barons, the coffin lid pertains is alike matter of great uncertainty; the Annand family held possessions in the district for a longer period than any other, since they also pos sessed the lands of North Melgund in the adjoining parish of Aberlemno till 1542, when a female descendant sold To the labours of this able reverend antiquary, the Editor gludly refers; his Monumental Brasses of England, 1849: and his Christian Monuments, embodying descriptions of Slabs devoid of Effigies, and Semi-effigial Monuments, 1854, should be found in every gentleman's library: they may now be secured, but the day is near at hand, when they will be no longer procurable. It is very rudely incised, and in much the same style in the year 1400, in memory of an old monk of that of sculpture as the one at Cupar Angus, placed there place. On the margin left blank in the woodcut, in old English characters commencing above the head of the figure, the following inscription remains HIC IACET HONOVRABILIS VIR DNS RECHERD' BR... VICARIVS DE FINHEVYN QVI OBIIT 20 DIE |