Mr. URBAN,

PRESU

Jan. 10. RESUMING the monumental inscriptious inserted in the two last Magazines have not proved unac ceptable to some classes of readers; I must claim indulgence for the insertion of a few others, which, perhaps, are not less simple, correct, and elegant, than those communicated in my two former letters. As the subjects of them are far removed from the reach of human applause, the affectionate tribute of surviving friends can add nothing to their happiness; but these perishing records may awaken reflection in the minds of the thoughtless, aud evince to all the excellence and consolation of a life devoted to religious duty and practical Christianity. Yours, &c., J. C.

I. In Folkstone, Church, Kent. To the Memory of William Langhorne", A. M. Curate of Folkstone, who died in February 1772, at the age of fifty-one. In life belov'd, in death for ever dear, O friend, O brother, take this parting tear! [sigh, If Life has left me aught that asks a Tis but like thee to live, like thee to die. JOHN LANGHORNE. Of Langhorne's life, be this memorial given, [was heaven; Whose race was virtue, and whose goal Not through the selfish, drear unfriendly [trod; Which antient moralists and sophists But in an active sphere of Christian love, He mov'd himself, and will'd mankind

road

Yet was his aim to dissipate the night
Of Pagan's doubts by Revelation's light;
The Christian's steady plan to recom-
mend,

Just in its source, and happy in its end.
Thus to his flock, whom here he left be-
Thus to his neighbours, who were all
hind,
[mankind,
He gave example to pursue with zeal
His Saviour's steps to everlasting weal:
And in the moment of expiring breath,
To give a test of endless joy in death.

II. In St. Mary's Redcliffe, Bristol. On Mrs. Fortune Little, wife of Mr. John Little, died June 26, 1777, aged 57. O could this verse her bright example spread, [dead; And teach the living while it prais'd the Then, Reader, should it speak her hope divine, [thine : Not to record her faith, but strengthen Then should her every virtue stand con

fess'd,

Falconer's, where I dined, said, "I supposed it was by Miss Seward, the Poetess of thè "No, indeed it is not,' "Place:" the answer. It was written by her husband Dr. Grove himself; and, what is better, she deserved every word of it." Upon this, I re-visited the monument, and transcribed the epitaph. I knew Mr. Grove personally at Oxford, when he was there superintending the educa

of his son. He had much of the gentleman in his appearance, a handsome, intelligent, prepossessing countenance, and was reckoned a very sensible man. He had been educated at Oriel College; M. A. there 1765, and had the honorary degree of D. C. L. in 1781. He used to live, not at Lichfield, but I think at or near Coventry; and perhaps gave up his seat there to his son on his marriage, and then came and resided in the Close at Lichfield. May I add, that I have some reason to believe that Dr.Grove has occasionally corresponded with Mr. Urban?

Whether the other two epitaphs are rightly given to Hannah More and. Mrs. Carter, I do not know. Dr. Stonhouse, who wrote many religious tracts, a pious good man, perhaps a little tinctured with methodism, was likely enough to be the author of an epitaph for his wife. But I do not know the fact. One would suppose from these copies, that the names, "Anna Seward," "Hannah More," and Elizabeth Carter," are inscribed on the respective monuments; and if so, my memory must have imposed upon me in my Lichfield anecdote; but I verily believe that I am right. Yours, &c.

R. C.

Mr. URBAN, Lichfield, Jan. 12. TRUST you will feel anxious to take an early opportunity of correcting an error of the Correspondent who has attributed, I know not upon what ground, the much-admired epitaph to the memory of Lucy Grove, in Lichfield Cathedral, to the pen of Miss Seward, when in fact it was written by her husband, William Grove, Esq. D.C. L. as is well known to many persons here, as well as to

Yours, &c. ANTI-PLAGIARY.

original, that it is time his monumental bust in Stratford Church, the earliest authenticated likeness of our Bard, should recover its deserved en timation.

In your Magazine for June 1759, p. 257, it was properly observed by the Rev. Joseph Greene, at that time master of our free-school, and whose contributions occasionally found a place in your early numbers, that the doubt whether the Stratford bust preserved any resemblance of the Bard did not take date before the erection of his cenotaph in Westminster Abbey; the admirers of which upheld the opinion that the country figure differed as much from the likeness of the Poet, as it did from the face in the Abbey; and so far endeavoured to depreciate its merit. From that period our Stratford bust has sunk into comparative neglect; and for these probable reasons-that ever since Scheemaker executed the Abbey bust from Zoust's painting, which must have been a copy, as his earliest known picture in England was done, according to Malone, in 1657; and since Roubiliacsis said to have made the statue of our Poet from the Chandos picture for Garrick, from the latter of which the Jubilee Statue presented by that inimitable Roscius to our Town was said to be copied, the publick have formed in their own imagination, and accus tonied themselves to a likeness of Shakspeare very different from what it probably ought to be. In this they have been too long assisted by the engravings of Simon, of Vertue, Houbraken, and Earlom; from one or other of which most of the subsequent prints have been copied: they have been familiarized to a frenchified head of the " sweet Swan of Avon" by the incalculable number of busts, medals, and seals; and by Malone, in his zealous yet ineffectual endeavours to establish the Chandos canvas, they have been taught to look with a su percilious indifference upon the "pertness in the countenance of the Stratford bust totally differing from that placid composure and thoughtful gravity so perceptible in his original [Chandos] portrait, and his best prints. The statuary (he continues) probably had the assistance of some picture, and failed only from want of skill to copy it."

Thus

Thus powerfully will prejudice and prepossession operate. That the Stratford bust has, however, been unmeritedly neglected, is most unequivocally affirmed. The tradition of the town is, that it was copied from a cast after Nature, a practice sufficiently prevalent in that age to support oral communication. "But we have still," says Mr. Britton in his Essay prefixed to Whittingham's edition, " a better criterion, and a more forcible argument in its behalf; one that flashes conviction to the eye of the intelligent artist and anatomist. This is the truth of the drawing, with the accuracy of muscular forins, and shape of the skull, which distinguishes the bust now referred to, and which are evidences of a skilful sculptor." That it was erected within seven years from the Poet's death is certain, being mentioned by Leonard Digges in his verses accompanying the first folio edition of Shakspeare's dramatic works, printed in 1623; and though I cannot altogether agree with the late Mr. Greene, in his before-mentioned letter, that if we compare the earliest engraving which was made of the Bard (that of Droeshout in the first folio) with the face on the Stratford Monument, there will be found as great a resemblance as perhaps can well be between a statue and a picture, except that the hair is described rather shorter and straighter on the latter than on the former; nor coincide with Mr. Malone, who could not, on comparing them, trace any resemblance whatever; yet I think there may be found a considerable similitude of our monumental bust to this print, for the correctness of which we have his friend Jonson's testimony; and the "surly Ben" would surely not have unnecessarily complimented the artist, nor ventured to affirm what, had it been untrue, numbers then living could and probably would have denied. The sculptors of that period seem to have excelled the engravers in their respective arts; and the Stratford bust, which in the disposition of the head indicates some acquaintance with Grecian models, is a much superior specimen of the labour of the chisel, than Droeshout's engraving is of that of the burin.

The intention of these tedious observations, Mr. Urban, is to introduce the mention of a new era in the his

tory of our Stratford bust. In November 1813, I gave Mr. Britton a cast which I had made of this face, and from which was copied the woodcut prefixed to his "Essay." By that gentleman the original was duly appreciated; and in consequence Mr. George Bullock, of Tenterden-street, Hanover-squre, visited Stratford in December last, with such sentiments as animate the connoisseur, and made the first complete cast of the whole bust. Let it, therefore, be hoped that an excellent engraving, upon a large scale, by the first artist in England, will be speedily given to the publick; for though it has been several times copied with the monument itself (in Dugdale's Warwickshire; in Pope and Sewell's 8vo edition, 1728, by Four drinier; in Ireland's Avon; Boydell's Illustrations; and in my own History of this Town) yet most of them are incorrectly and all of them unsatisfactorily engraved. To multiply the casts from Mr. Bullock's first, and consequently valuable mould, will be now impossible; for after that which he has in London, and one which I pos sess (the latter only half way down the body of the bust) were made, the original mould was broken up, and thrown into the Avon.

17

The Stratford bust is carved out of a solid block of stone (perhaps either Portland or Bath), but on no part of it could be, discovered any name or date. By comparing the style and the quality of the material with other contemporary works (between 1616 and 1623) a probable guess may be made which of the few eminent artists of James's reign might have executed it. The general glare of light beaming on all sides through the Gothic windows which surround the monument, is certainly disadvantageous to the appearance of the features of this face; but when a single or more con tracted light is properly thrown upon it, then the loftiness and beauty of the forehead, the handsome shape of the nose, the remarkable form of the, mustachios and beard, and the very peculiar sweetness of expression in the mouth, are particularly striking. At first sight there appears an extravagant length in the upper lip, which, if viewed in profile, shews in truer proportion. After all, it appears somewhat long; and Lavater, upon whatever principles he determined, and

whatever

}

whatever regard his physiognomical observations deserve, has, I believe, mentioned that the modern busts of Shakspeare do not represent a man of genius, from the invariable shortness of his upper lip.

In the description of a bust neither possessing a characteristic pertness of countenance, nor deficient in skilful ness of execution, a bust seen to the least advantage in its present situation, so long disregarded, except by the very few, who, having had the constant opportunity, have been in the almost daily habit of contemplating and admiring it; and at last likely to gain its due value in the opinion of the illustrious Bard's intelligent countrymen, when its merits are more fully known than hitherto they have been; it may be at present improper further to intrude upon your pages, which may be better occupied, if not by a subject more interesting to those who boast of being born in a country which produced the greatest dramatic genius in the world, yet by compositions less erratic than the " bald disjointed chat" of

Yours, &c. R. B. WHELER. Old Town, Stratford-upon-Avon.

Mr. URBAN,

Jan. 7.

logue of the bookseller, and the hammer of the auctioneer, afford a sufficient proof, whenever the History of Somerset is enrolled in the pages of the one, or subjected to the vibration of the other. The very limited patronage, which the venerable and well-qualified Historian of the neighbouring County of Dorset has experienced, would appear to afford in a pecuniary point of view an unfavourable prospect of encouragement to such an undertaking; but, sir, when the extent of our County, its infinitely more abundant population, and the perpetual change of property, to which that population necessarily gives rise, are taken into consideration, the adventurer, I am confident, would not feel that he was about to launch into an uncertain and precarious speculation. From my own per sonal knowledge, I can affirm that Proposals for a New History of Somerset would meet with general attention; and in the hope that these remarks will be considered as conveying a stimulus to the exertions of the living, rather than a reflection on the labours of the dead, I subscribe myself, URBANI AMICUS.

Mr. URBAN,

Jan. 7.

a ready admission to any observations relative to the general Topography of this favoured Isle, and as County History in particular seems at present to hold a deservedly high rank in the public estimation; I venture to address you in behalf of a spot, of which but a very unsatisfactory and imperfect account has hitherto been given. The county of Somerset, sir, has laboured under the misfortune of having had an Historian, who, for the most part, has been diffuse, where a less detailed account would have been desirable, and too often brief, where a more ample account would have been acceptable to his readers. His pen was not calculated for the office which it assumed; and, were it necessary, numerous instances might be adduced, in which profferred information was too hastily canvassed, and documents of an interesting nature too cursorily investigated. That the opinion of the residents of the county

vey of Devonshire an abbreviation occurs, which, as I believe, is not to be found in any other part of that Record. It stands thus,

par

in small characters, and appears first at folio 105, and again at folios 105 b. 108 b. 110, 111, 112, 112 b. 113, 114b. 115, and 116.

I am at a loss for its meaning, and shall thank any of your Correspond ents who will assist me in attaining it.

Mr. Kelham (in Domesday Book Illustrated) does not attempt its expla nation, but says merely, "This abbreviation occurs in the margin of. Domesday, p. 105, in six places successively, and once in p. 110; but what the signification of it is, or to what it refers, is left to the reader to determine."

Yours, &c.

R. R.

Mr. URBAN, Middle Temple, Jan. 9. HE very learned Mr. Bawdwen,

Book for Dorsetshire, communicated

to