Gentleman's Magazine, Or, Trader's Monthly Intelligencer

WE have received a Note from Messrs. J. G. and L. A. B. WALLER, remarking that in the review in our last Magazine of works on Monumental Brasses, it was stated that in the revivals of Pugin and Messrs. Waller ancient examples had been principally copied. To which they reply, "This is not so in either case. Many that we have executed are quite unlike any old examples, and even those founded on old existing types are much modified and altered from the originals; but it has often happened that we have been instructed to copy or imitate certain well-known examples, but in no case has a servile copy been made."-We are happy to find that Messrs. WALLER have an anxiety to distinguish themselves by original design, at the same time that they labour under the discouragement which has too often suppressed the genius of artists, of being required to follow some ancient model. Our remark had reference rather to the figure than the architectural accessories or framework; and we see no reason why monumental figures should not be designed in becoming contemporary costume, and quietly placed in modest and reverential attitudes, as our forefathers used to represent them, rather than have them carved in postures unsuited to a church, and either attired in "drapery" unmeaning in itself, or in a costume which is not of their own age, and therefore of no historical value. We have no doubt that these sentiments are, in a great measure, those of the Messrs. WALLER, and we shall be happy to see many works of theirs conceived in this manner. Hitherto we have not had that pleasure.

H. R. L. supplies the name to the figure of a lady with a horned-dress at Ash in Kent, engraved in our last number, p. 605, and we find it is mentioned in the Oxford Manual at p. xciii. as of about the date 1460. From a rubbing of this brass, taken by himself, our correspondent furnishes the inscription, as follows:

"Prey for the sowle of Jane Keriell Ye ffrendis alle that forthby pass, In endeles lyff perpetuell That God it grawnte mercy and grace. Roger Cletherowe hir fadir was. Thowgh erthe to erthe of kynde retirne, Prey that the sowle in blisse remaine." Our correspondent expresses his doubts as to the closing words of the last couplet. We cannot immediately refer to any other copy of the Ash epitaph; but have no doubt the last word ought to be "sojourne," whether so engraved at Ash or not. expression of kynde" was one in common use to signify according to nature.

The

It occurs very frequently in the Alliterative Poem on the Deposition of Richard II. printed for the Camden Society, as (p. 13) in speaking of the royal falcon,

it cam him not of kynde kytes to love, and in many other passages.

D. A. C. N. I. would feel greatly obliged for any information respecting the male descendants of Thomas Atkins, esq. Alderman of Norwich, Sheriff of London 1637, Lord Mayor 1645, M.P. from 1647 to 1658, and Colonel of the City Militia, knighted by the Protector, at Whitehall, 5 December, 1658. He had a son Thomas, and perhaps others; also two daughters are known, viz. one married to Humphrey Brewster, esq. of Hodenham, Norfolk, a Lieut.-Col., and Jane, married to Thomas Gooch, esq. of Yarmouth, Alderman of Norwich, and had issue. Who did Sir Thomas Atkins marry-what parish did he live in at London-when did he die, or where is he buried? Sir Thomas Atkins is said to have been a brewer, see "Somers' Tracts.-D. A. c. N. J. is very anxious to know the Christian name, family, and if any issue of the husband of Jane Berkeley, wife of Davis or Davies? She was a widow lady, and is named in numerous works as sister of the first Lord Berkeley, of Stratton, and in Miss Strickland's "Lives of the Queens of England," mention is made of this lady as being great aunt to Lord Fitzhardinge, A.D. 1695 (Life of Queen Anne, p. 369). She was then aged about 80 years, and appears to have been a very amiable person, and one much beloved by the young Duke of Gloucester, for the benefit of whose health she lent her residence at Twickenham.

P. 663.--The Rev. Richard Smith, M. A. was of St. Alban's hall, Oxford, and not of Trinity coll. Cambridge. He was fortytwo years Rector of Sutton, and twentyfour of Bignor, and was presented to both livings by the late Earl of Egremont. There was another Richard Smith, formerly Fellow of Trinity coll. Cambridge, who graduated B.A. 1789 as 11th Wrangler. He was Rector of Staveley, and incumbent of Edensor, Derbyshire, and domestic chaplain to his Grace the Duke of Devonshire. He died in 1837. (See Gent. Mag. Jan. 1838, p. 103.)

P. 531, col. 2, for Ballydowlan read Ballydonnellan.-P. 598, 1. 8, for depreciated read deprecated.-P. 605, note †, for form read former.-P. 606, in the plate, for Sir William Coke, judge of the King's Bench, read William Coke, esquire, judge of the Common Pleas.P. 607, 1. 2, for its read his.-P. 648, col. 2, for Castle Archdall, read Castle Archdall Church (Derryvullen).-P. 660, note †, for Alvesthorp, read Alverthorp.

GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE.

Life of Theodore Hook. By the Rev. H. D. Barham. 2 vols. MUCH as we should have wished that some one who had lived in habitual intimacy and social intercourse with Theodore Hook could have been induced to collect his remembrances of the past, and, with a spirit congenial to the subject, have given us the result in a faithful and lively portraiture of his friend, yet as we think that few persons capable of doing this are now alive, and as what we wish will therefore probably never be executed, we feel thankful for what Mr. Barham has, with no unsuccessful industry, here set before us. A small portion, indeed, is from the personal recollections of his father, the late Minor Canon of St. Paul's, of whom we take the liberty of saying, that he was one whom no one ever met without pleasure, or parted from without the desire of meeting again; and who possessed, in scarcely an inferior degree, much of the talent and accomplishments of his friend. Had Mr. Barham's acquaintance with Hook commenced at an earlier date, we could have desired no other biographer; and what could have been told would have lost nothing of its spirit or force by the channel through which it was delivered. However, in the work before us, with the disadvantage of history supplying the place of observation, we have no doubt but that the leading features are delineated with accuracy; and no pains seem to have been wanting in collecting materials from different quarters to give a correct resemblance and animate the portrait with the reality of life.

Of every man's character much never has been known, much never has emerged from the recesses of the heart, much has never been remembered or recorded; and this oblivion tells with the greatest severity on the memory of those whose fame rests on personal qualities, and vivâ voce sayings, and looks, and manners, and extemporaneous effusions, rather than on permanent qualities, and such as may be judged of in their works. Still, in the present case, enough has been preserved perhaps to satisfy the general reader, and enable him to form no incorrect estimate of the character before him. It is probable that what has perished is of less value than that which has been preserved; that we are in possession of Hook's best things,—of his smartest repartees, his most brilliant puns, his most shining witticisms, his most amusing stories, his most eccentric follies, and his most romantic adventures. Enough also of his parlour fireside and his domestic history is told to give us a clear insight into the cause of those sorrows and misfortunes which might be seen rising even in the morning of his life, which clouded its meridian in still deeper shade, darkening alike his hours of labour and relaxation, and at length settled over an untimely grave. Heu! vanæ voluptates! breves, penitendæ, et in contrariam abituræ !* If we are not mistaken,

Some few years ago we were on a visit at a nobleman's house in the country, when he casually mentioned, "I wrote the other day, and asked Theodore Hook to come down and join us. His answer was, I can't stir-I am starving.'" This was about two years, we think, before his death-perhaps not so much.-REV.

a good moral lies at the bottom of this distressing history; but it has been often told: and we need not say how much misfortune was owing to the want of parental care, to a neglected education, to an early life, when there is danger everywhere around, subject to no control; to the flattery of the fair and the patronage of the great, acting on an ardent and susceptible temperament, and to the conscious pride of popular talents and acceptable manners. We think, too, that it will not fail to exhibit, beneath the surface of these wild passions and this thoughtless conduct, a disposition naturally amiable, generous, and good, and principles that, amidst erroneous conduct, were always striving, and, alas! vainly striving, to be correct. But let us hasten to our subject, and reserve the little more we have to say till we have obtained such a clear view as will enable us so to judge, as that we may not have to answer for praise or censure unjustly or partially bestowed.

The father of Theodore Hook, the well-known composer, was a native of Norwich, born in 1746. He was organist at the celebrated Marylebone Gardens, and afterwards at Vauxhall; and is said to have composed one hundred and forty complete works, and about two thousand songs. He is highly spoken of both by Burney and Parke. He is described as a person of a lively and joyous disposition, with something of his son's enjoyment of verbal jokes.* His mother was a lady of beauty and talents, and author of "The Double Disguise," played successfully at Drury Lane in 1784. She had two sons, at an interval of seventeen years. James, the elder, after possessing a succession of good church preferment, became Dean of Worcester, married the second daughter of Sir Walter Farquhar, and died in 1827. He wrote political pamphlets and a couple of novels: in talent he resembled his younger brother; and it is said that the pursuits and habits of their youth were not unlike, but being a clergyman, and well married also, he could not, to use an expression of his own, " be kicking up and down about London, be a lounger in the streets, an idler in society, and a dangler in the playhouse green-room." Theodore was born Sept. 22, 1788, in Charlotte Street, Bedford Square; sent first to a little school in Soho Square, then to Dr. Curtis at Linton, in Cambridgeshire, and afterwards to Harrow, where he was contemporary with Lord Byron; but the school intimacy was not maintained in after life, Hook having been early withdrawn from Harrow-to write songs and farces. His father's connexion with the theatre was the means of giving him the entreé, and the actors and actresses hailed so agreeable an addition to their party. Here he commenced his practical jokes and his popular melodramas, some account of which will be found in the work before us. He made his first appearance on any stage in 1809 at Mr. Rolls's theatre. Subsequently he gave the first public display of his extraordinary faculty of improvising at a dinner at Drury Lane Theatre, to commemorate the success of Sheridan at the Westminster Theatre. So rare a talent excited the admiration of a brother genius. He patronized the young poet, and gave such encouragement to him as led Hook into a higher circle of society than he had hitherto moved in, among the arbiters of fashion and disposers of patronage, and proved, we are told, eventually the remote source of all

The following is a specimen. "Walking with Mr. Parke along the Strand, they encountered-a great rarity in those days-a perfectly clean and well-appointed hackney coach, its number being 1. Mr. Parke remarked the circumstance, and said the vehicle really looked as good as new.' 'There is nothing extraordinary in that,' replied his companion, 'everybody you know takes care of number one.'"-REV.

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