GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE. MAY, 1849. BY SYLVANUS URBAN, GENT. CONTENTS. PAGE VIII. Mines of Ireland On the Descent of certain English Surnames MINOR CORRESPONDENCE. Miss Betsy Austin Library of M. Libri-Church at Jerusalem THE ISLAND OF SARDINIA. By John Warre Tyndale, M.A. Who was the Sir John Ratcliffe buried at Crosthwaite ? Manuscript Compilations for "Histories of the Counties of Ireland.”—No. The Seize Quartiers of Elizabeth and James the First The most Remarkable Festivals of the Kingdom of Belgium Cholera in Glasgow 450 451 471 473 478 481 484 The Old Custom-House at Dover (with a Plate) Tarocchi Cards-an undescribed Pack Inscription on the child Caius Julius Maximus.. 489 491 493 494 494 496 Gravestone of the Southey Family at Crosthwaite.. PIOZZIANA: No. III.-Anecdotes, Criticisms, &c. by Mrs. H. L. Piozzi Rickman's Architecture, and Churches of Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Scotland, LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC INTELLIGENCE.-British Museum, 515; HISTORICAL CHRONICLE. — Proceedings in Parliament, 525; Foreign Promotions and Preferments, 533; Births and Marriages.. CLERGY DECEASED... DEATHS, arranged in Counties .537-548 Registrar-General's Returns of Mortality in the Metropolis-Markets, 559; 548 550 560 Embellished with Views of the OLD CUSTOM-HOUSE at Dover, and of a NORAGHE in Sardinia, &c. &c. MINOR CORRESPONDENCE. SCRUTATOR is informed that the singular epitaph of the Gounter family in Racton church, Sussex, was printed in our Magazine for June 1840. We are not aware where a perfect copy is likely to be preserved, as that in the Burrell MSS. is nearly as imperfect as the original appears to have been in 1835. The death of "Miss Betsy Austin" took place at Barbados 16th January, 1848, and not November, as stated in p. 222. The author of "Adventures in Mexico," published in January last year, says, Amongst the celebrated of Barbados whom I deemed it my duty to visit was the renowned Betsy Austin, once (in the days when the late King William was a jolly mid.) the pride of the 'Badian dignity balls, but now in the sere and yellow leaf,' fat as a turtle. I found the ancient beauty sitting in the verandah of her house, surrounded by a dozen sable and yellow handmaidens, who were engaged in pickling and preserving West India fruits. She insisted on my joining her in a sangaree, which was prepared in a tumbler holding about half a gallon; and shaking my hand at parting, being crying drunk, slobbered out a 'Gar bless you, sar! hab notin to do wid Car'line Lee,' which Caroline Lee is own sister to Betsy, but guilty of keeping an opposition house, and hence the warning."-J. T. P. 444. For Hennan read Hennah. Lieut. Hennah was the son of a Lieut. Hennah who was engaged in the battle of Trafalgar. He has left a widow and six children wholly unprovided for; a seventh child, dying at the same time, was interred in the same grave. P. 440. Mrs. Gibson of Quernmore is misdescribed. She was a daughter of Sir Thomas Stanley of Alderley, sister to the present Lord and the Bishop of Norwich. She never had any issue, and was second wife to Mr. Gibson, whose first wife was a Wilson of Dalham Tower. Statistics of Cholera in Glasgow.At a recent meeting of the Glasgow town council, Dr. Strang, the city chamberlain, presented a report regarding the extent to which cholera has prevailed in the city. From the 14th Nov. till the 22d of March, when cholera entirely disappeared, the number of deaths was 8,107. Of these, 3,777 were deaths from cholera, being about double the number reported to the Board of Health in London. 4,330 were deaths from all other diseases. From these tables it also appears that the deaths from all diseases other than cholera have increased rather than diminished during the prevalence of this epidemic; and that in Glasgow, as well as in Edinburgh, there is of late a gradually increasing rate of mortality, which may be fairly attributed to the increase of Irish immigration, with its concomitant misery, destitution, and pauperism. LIBRARY OF M. LIBRI. A valuable collection of books belonging to M. Libri, and to some of which unsubstantiated claims had been made by the Sotheby and Wilkinson on Feb. 19-23. It French government, was sold by Messrs. is seldom that fifteen hundred lots of such beauty and rarity come to the hammer at the same time, or fetch such good prices. The books were in uniformly good condi tion, and a great many of them finely bound. The catalogue was published some time since, and widely circulated, with fuller descriptions than usual of the individual copies. The names of the former possessors, whether Francis I., Diana of Poictiers, De Thou, D'Esling, or others, were announced; thus identifying the copies, and giving public notice to all who might suppose themselves entitled to advance claims upon any of them. CHURCH AT JERUSALEM. The new church erected on Mount Zion at Jerusalem has at length been completed. The work was commenced in July, 1841, under the direction of Mr. Johns; the first stone was laid by Bishop Alexander on Feb. 28, 1842, but the works were stopped by the Turkish authorities in Jan. 1843. Having been resumed and finished, it was opened on the 21st of January last, when the present Bishop preached a beautiful and impressive discourse, on the text, "My house shall be called a House of Prayer for all nations." THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE. The Island of Sardinia; including Pictures of the Manners and Customs of the Sardinians, &c. By John Warre Tyndale, M.A. WHEN Lord Nelson was in the Mediterranean, in one of his dispatches * in 1804 he describes Sardinia as the summum bonum of everything that is valuable to us in the Mediterranean. "The more I know of it (he says), the more am I convinced of its inestimable value, from position, naval ports, and resources of all things." And yet of this island it appears that the only English works we possess are one by Captain Smyth, R.N., in 1828, and a statistical report by Mr. M'Gregor, in the seventh part of his Commercial Tariffs, while a learned German professort says that it is an island "with which we are less acquainted than with Owhyhee or Otaheite." While Sicily is as familiar to English travellers as the Channel Islands or the Isle of Wight, and Charybdis is as well known as the Needles, the wilder and more romantic scenery of the ancient Ichnusa is still unexplored. The cause of this neglect may perhaps be found, partly in the reputed insalubrity of these beautiful shores and of the diseases that lurk in its dark forests and delicious vales, partly from the want of roads and of accommodation in the towns and villages, and something also may be attributed to the reputed character of the inhabitants. Silius Italicus mentions the climate as proverbially unhealthy, though, like Ireland, it was free from noxious animals,— Sed tristis cœlo, ac multâ vitiata palude; and Claudian agrees in the description,— Hinc hominum pecudumque lues, hinc pestifer aer and indeed all the ancient authorities lean the same way; extolling the fertility of the soil,--for Sardinia § and Sicily were the two bountiful nurses * See Nelson's Dispatches to Lord Hobart, on the capabilities of this island, in 1803. He calls it "the finest island in the Mediterranean. Malta, in point of position, is not to be named in the same year as Sardinia, and it possesses the finest harbour in the world."-See vol. i. p. 337-8.-REV. + See Heeren's Ancient Nations, chap. ii.-REV. † The Epitomiser of Stephanus says — Εκαλείτο δὲ Ἰχνοῦσα, διότι ἐοικῦια ν avoρárov xvel,-and Claudian mentions its resemblance to the human foot: Humanæ speciem plantæ sinuosa figurat Insula Sardiniam veteres dixere coloni.-De Bello Gild. : § Mr. Tyndale says-" My route over the mountains and valleys from Parao to Terranuova was through a continuous wilderness of forests and flowers, with the exception of a few 'tanche and occasional patches of pasture. Theocritus may proclaim his native country to have been Flora's peculiar garden, and our early ideas are, by his idyls and the praises of other poets, prejudiced in favour of Sicily; but any traveller who has visited both islands would decidedly give a preference to Sardinia.""-Vide vol. ii. p. 1. who fed the city of Rome,*-and attributing the noxious climate to the mountains preventing the winds of the north sweeping away the marshy vapours and exhalations that brooded over the land. We should recommend those who wish to become acquainted with the classical antiquities and history of the island to consult the works of the diligent and learned Cluver. The modern state will be found neither inaccurately nor imperfectly given in the volumes now before us. In the spring of 1843, while travelling for the recovery of his health, Mr. Tyndale was induced, at the instigation of some Italian friends, to visit the island of Sardinia. He has given a sketch of its history, antiquities, customs, and condition of the people, with the appropriate localities, and he has consulted the best authors in order to obtain information on the former condition of the country. Though not professedly a naturalist, he has mentioned some of the most remarkable productions of the island, both as regards its geology and its general botany, and he has explored its antiquities with the diligence and learning of a scholar. In the confined space to which we are limited we can do no further justice to the author than by extracting a few passages relating to the more remarkable subjects mentioned by him—as in a long and crowded gallery the casual spectator can only fix his gaze on the pictures of more prominent merit and beauty. To give, by way of introduction, some notion of the social state of the island in comparison with the countries that are its nearest neighbours, we extract a part of a description of one province, which may stand with partial allowances for no unfair representation of the whole. "The chief productions of the province (Alghero) are corn, wine, oil, and skins, the exportation of which is small; and the coral fishery, the most important of all the trades, is carried on by the Neapolitans and Genoese. There are no manufactures of any kind, industry being, as a Sarde author well observed, 'poco men che nulla.' The few mechanical operations are of the lowest and roughest description, and merely for the simplest necessaries of life. The education of the people is so neglected that it was calculated, in the population of nearly 32,000, where the number between six and twelve years old was 1,900, that not 150 attended the schools, while in the adult rural population, which has not had even the advantage of the present miserable system of education, not one in sixty can read or write. The moral character of the people is not much better than the intellectual. The principal crimes are vendetta,|| burning underwood, and theft. The first is mentioned elsewhere; the second arises from want of pasturage; and the last consists in a system of reciprocal robbery of cattle while wandering in the lonely dis * Val. Maximus, VII. c. v. says-" Siciliam et Sardiniam benignissimas urbis Romanæ nutrices." Exclusis regnant aquilonibus austri.-Claudian. Cluver says, with that modesty that is the companion of true learning and talent, "Si forte quædam minus rectè collimaverim, æqui, bonique ignoverint: mearumque curarum imperfectionem seduli expleant. Majorem me antiquitatibus hujus insulæ præstitisse lucem, quamquis quam hactenus alius, facilè fatebuntur." Vide p. 499.REV. § See account of this fishery, vol. i. p. 73-77. The annual value is reckoned at 60,0001.-REV. The "fuorusciti"'-outgoers-is a generic term, under which may be included the regular bandit, the petty robber, the fugitive from the arm of the law, the avenger of an insult or injury, the voluntary fugitive, in many respects different characters to the Italian and Spanish outlaws, or to the bandito of Apuglia, who unites the charm of a hero to the atrocities of a villain. The ladron, the salteador, and the ratero of Spain are distinguished; the first is the professional villain, the second the pouncer on whatever he can lay his hands upon, the third the common thief. See account of the Corsican Fuorusciti in vol. i. p. 92, &c.-REV. |