METEOROLOGICAL DIARY, BY W. CARY, STRAND. J. J. ARNULL, Stock Broker, 1, Bank Buildings, Cornhill, late RICHARDSON, GOODLUCK, and ARNULI.. J. B. NICHOLS AND SON, 25, PARLIAMENT-STREET. 13 15 pm. GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE. FEBRUARY, 1836. BY SYLVANUS URBAN, GENT. CONTENTS. MINOR CORRESPONDENCE.-Ancient signification of "Valet."-The Monogram IHS.-Parochial Census temp. Jac. I.—The Unicorn, &c. .... PAGE DR. DIBDIN'S REMINISCENCES OF A LITERARY LIFE. Ancient Topography of Kingston-upon-Hull and Myton CHARACTERS OF PHILOSOPHERS, by T. Brande, Esq. F.R.S.-Roger Bacon, 129.-Peter Woulfe, 130.-Francis Bacon, 131.—Mr. Boyle Letter to Mr. Jesse on the Migration of Birds LONDINIANA, No. III.-Roman Antiquities in Eastcheap and Newgate.. Early Temperance Society in Germany Runic Inscriptions found at Hartlepool .. Account of Theobalds Palace, Herts.. Richardson's English Dictionary.. 105 107 119 121 125 132 132 136 137 144 146 147 148 154 POETRY.-The Ipswich Ball; Miss Julia Mandeville to her Mother RETROSPECTIVE REVIEW-Poems of Dr. Joseph Beaumont REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. Lewis's Journal of a West India Proprietor, 161.-Wilson on the Building of Churches and Parsonage Houses, 164.-Mendham's Life of Pope Pius V. 165.-Wilson's Route through France and Italy, 167.-Fox's Prometheus, Electra, &c. 168.-Dansey on Rural Deans, 169. — Tatham's Lexicon Egyptiaco-Latinum, &c. 171.-Loudon's Architectural Magazine, 172.Bloomfield's Greek Testament, 173. Phelps's History of Somersetshire, 174.-Bowles's Scenes of Days Departed, 180.-Wilson on the Presbyterians, 181.-Child's History of Women;-Chart of Britannia Romana, 182.—Elements of Ornithology, 183. Hervey's Book of Christmas, Clerical Guide, Harmony of the Gospels, &c. &c. 157 183 FINE ARTS.-The Lawrence Gallery, 185.-Waterloo Vase; St. James's Theatre, 186.-New Publications... 187 LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE. 193 OBITUARY; with Memoirs of the Marchioness of Salisbury; Lord Ward; Clergy Deceased, 208.-DEATHS, arranged in Counties ... Bill of Mortality-Markets-Prices of Shares, 215-Meteorological Diary-Stocks 216 Embellished with a View of THEOBALDS PALACE, Herts; the Seal of ST. OLAVE'S SCHOOL; and Entrance to LITTLETON SEPULCHRE. MINOR CORRESPONDENCE. MR. URBAN,-The highly interesting Volume of North Country Wills, recently published by the SURTEES SoCIETY, may assist in fixing the meaning of the term Valettus, alluded to in p. 23 of January Magazine. John de Nevill, Dominus de Raby, by his will dated 1386, directs that 500 marks shall be distributed, "inter servientes meos, viz. Armigeros, Valettos, et Garciones" (p. 40). Ralph de Neville, Earl of Westmoreland, in 1424, gives "cuilibet Armigero meo mecum equitanti, et continuò in hospicio meo existenti usque ad tempus obitûs mei, x marcas ; et cuilibet Valecto, xl. ; et cuilibet Gromo xx. ; et cuilibet Pagetto, vi. viijd." But he also gave "cuilibet Mulierum Generosarum cum uxore meâ adtunc existencium, x marcas ; et cuilibet Mulierum Generosarum alterius statûs, in nutritorio infancium meorum adtunc existencium, xl'. ; et Ancillæ vel mulieri adtunc servienti ibidem, xx." (p. 72). John Baron Graystok, in 1436, bequeaths 66 pro rewardo inter servientes meos faciendo, videlicet cuilibet Generoso xl., cuilibet Valecto, xx3. et cuilibet Garcioni, xiijs.iiijd." (p. 85). These extracts seem to denote three classes of servants; the high. est consisting of the Armigeri, Generosi, and Generosæ, who were attendant on the person of the head of the family, or his lady; the lowest, including the motley host of garciones, gromi, pagetti, and ancillæ; and a middle class, who not being embraced in either of these divisions, were generically named Valetti. If we may be allowed to draw any inference from the relative amount of the legacies bequeathed by the Earl of Westmorland, the gentlewoman who had the charge of his children belonged to this class; and if some snug chamber in the towers of Raby was assigned to a household bard, he too would be classed, in all probability, among the Valetti. Whilst the volume of "Wills and Inventories" is before may not be deemed "travelling out of the record," to mention that it contains the will, and very curious inventory, of Roger de Kyrkby, vicar of Gainford, whose Epitaph is printed in the Minor Correspondence of your last Number. Yours, &c. Durham. me, JOHN GORdon. it In reply to a perfectly anonymous Correspondent, who differs from a statement in our Number for December, p. 631, that the letters IHS are a Greek and not a Latin inscription, and that they are an abbreviation of the name ΙΗΣΟΥΣ; and who asserts that "IHS are Latin letters, and stand for In Hoc Signo,' a transla tion of iv rer vixa, the inscription which accompanied Constantine's vision of the cross; which Latin inscription occurs on coins of Constantine and Vetranio ;" and adds that he knows no coin of the Lower Empire where the three initial letters of the name stand for the whole word; the monograms always are IC XC, for Jesus Christos :"-we beg to refer him to Akerman's Descriptive Catalogue of Roman Coins, pp. 283, 284, where the inscription on the coins of Vetranio is HOC SIGNO VICTOR ERIS, the initials of which would be, not I. H.S. but H.S.V.E.; and also to pp. 450, et seq. of the same work, where he will find abundance of examples of the monograms IHC XPC. These coins, therefore, furnish complete proof of the real signification of those three capital letters; and the same proof is afforded by the ancient inscriptions of our own country, where the monograms generally occur not in capitals, but thus-The Xps: and indeed it is incorrect to write them in capitals, unless the letters are placed close together, and the full points generally seen on modern pulpit-cloths, church-plates, &c. are omitted. Formerly the contraction was always noticed by a scroll or bracket above the letters. J. S. B. inquires if any of our readers can refer him to any Parish Register, containing a List of all the Parishioners of the parish, according to their families, ages, &c. The date will probably be about 1620 to 1640. The Rev. ROBERT MEEK, with reference to the observations of our Reviewer on his excellent pamphlet, "Testimonies of Dissenters and Wesleyans in favor of the Church of England; with some Remarks," states that he is willing to print a large edition solely for popular distribution, and supply those who will circulate it in the way recommended, at one guinea per 100. He desires such persons as wish to be supplied with the pamphlet on these terms, to intimate the same to him, at Brixton Deverell, near Warminster (post free) without delay. To the notices of the Unicorn (vol. III. pp. 450, 562,) might have been added, that the Unicorn of the ancients, universally spoken of as a beast of great strength in the Scriptures (Job, xxxix. 9; Numb. xxiii. 22, and xxiv. 8; Deut. xxxiii. 17,) is supposed with great probability to be the Rhinoceros, and is thus translated from the Hebrew in the Septuagint, and by Jerome, Tertullian, and others. ERRATA.-Vol. IV. p. 663, for Cherfield Lodge read Chisfield. P. 3, for Lunacy Bill read Currency Bill. P. 5, for Myotic read mystic. P. 32, b. l. 21, for necessary read unnecessary. GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE. REMINISCENCES OF A LITERARY LIFE. BY THE REV. THOMAS FROGNALL DIBDIN, D.D. 1836. (Continued from p. 10.) WE left the Doctor, we believe, disporting with his friend Mr. Douce in the Orchard of Syon,' a pleasant grove for their wits to walk in, and asking questions about Julian Notarys. We now rejoin him as he is putting this tremendous question to the World of Letters :-"Suppose the copy of the first Shakspeare to attain the height of thirteen inches and a half, and the breadth of eight inches and a half, what would be its cost?" a problem we much prefer the member for Newcastle solving to ourselves, seeing it is somewhat ticklish, and you can hardly handle it, as Friar Bernard says, without coming off scurvily. Living as we have long done (pray Heaven! not much longer) like Parnell's Hermit, Far in a wild,' &c. and thereby much pitied by our friends the urbis amatores' in their goodly dwellings in Torrington and Euston Squares, the fame of the illustrious Mr. Alexander Horn had never before reached us. But we fully acknowledge that inestimable erudition, aided by that intuitive sagacity, which could at first glance know a Ther-Hoernen from an Ulric-Zell, a Bechtermuntze from a Gutenberg, and an Eggesteyn from a Ketelaer and De Lempt: and we should like to have made further acquaintance with this illustrious lynx-eyed book explorer, notwithstanding that he was made of such stern stuff, that" when he parted from a book, no tear moistened his eye, no sigh convulsed his bosom;" but the single star of his fame, however bright, is soon lost in the brilliant galaxy of the Roxburghe Sale, or, as the Doctor calls it,' the dense stratum of romantic lore.' We long pondered on the propriety of taking our readers with us, and boldly plunging into the very centre of this mass of collected erudition; but however interesting it might have been to a score or two of the Illuminati in London, we fear our country subscribers would have thought all the languages of Babel let loose against them. And when we began to repeat such mystic words as- Nothing could exceed the dexterity and the success of the concealment of the Duke's name-Mr. Heber's fire not only slackened, but was silenced-a race of giants seemed to spring from the earth,—who could not fail to admire such courage,' &c.; our unsophisticated rural readers would take it for something more than a Battle of the Books;' or suspicions, perchance! would arise that Sylvanus Urban himself was a little touched in those regions over which Mr. De Ville is said to hold imperial sway,-the arx cerebri-the goodly citadel of the brain. It must therefore suffice that we refer them to the Doctor's own volume, for ample information concerning the Valdarfer Boccacio, 1471; the Pastyme of Pleasure, by Wynkyn de Worde, 1517; the first edition of the Epistles of Cicero, by Sweynhym and Paunartz, in 1470; and other invaluable treasures, of such price that the Doctor says, "I absolutely held, on that same day, between my extended finger and thumb about 4007. of slim quartos," a sum that would have purchased a fine estate in Canada, or, as Mr. Willis tells us, a whole harem of Circassian beauties; or, per chance, bribed a rotten borough of half its constituents. There were, indeed, for well do we remember the sight, magnificent piles of the rarest literature glittering before the eyes of those whose unresisting steps glided over the pavement of St. James's-square. "A great nombre folowed by, and by, And Homerus the freshe historiar. Perseus presed forth with problemes diffuse; Of Alexander; and Macrobius that did treate Must'red there among them with many a mad tale; With Vincentius in Speculo that wrote noble workes, I saw Gower that first garnished our Englishe rude, How that our Englishe might freshely be renewed. The Monke of Bury than after them ensued, Dane John Lydgate, these Englishe poetes thre, &c. Some Romayne letters as I understode, Some were olde writen, some were writen new, Some carectis of Caldy, some French was full good, &c. The account of the disposal of these Morocco slaves, these Russian serfs, these calf skin heroes, and the bidding for them, and their ultimate dispersion, is told by Dr. Dibdin with his usual animation and spirit. Exhausted as well they might be, and drained of all their blood during the battle, the purchasers, under the name of the Roxburghe Club, met at the St. Alban's Tavern, to recruit themselves with the flesh of some of the animals, whose skins they had just been so dearly procuring. We don't know how the goblet circulated at dinner; but when the cloth was removed, and the waiters, who would certainly have taken them for a party of gentlemen just turned loose by Doctor Monro as incurable, were out of hearing, the following ten toasts were drunk:-1. The immortal memory of Christopher Valdarfer, printer of the Boccacio of 1471. 2. The immortal memory of John Duke of Roxburghe. 3. The immortal memory of Gutenburgh, Fust, and Schoiffer, fathers of the art of printing. 4. The same of William Caxton, founder of the British press. 5. Of Dame Juliana Barnes! and the St. Alban's Press. 6. Of Messrs. Wynkyn de Worde, Pynson, and Notary, the successors of Caxton. 7. The Aldine family at Venice. 8. The Guinti family at Florence. 9. The Society of the Bibliophiles Français at Paris. 10. The prosperity of the Roxburghe Club; and in all cases, as the last toast, the Cause of Bibliomania all over the world.Thus was established a Club, that, in immortalizing others, has secured its |