materials." P. clxxxii. On this fubject a variety of curious particulars are thrown together, which are the fruits of much perfonal inveftigation. From Sepulture and its accompaniments, we are naturally led to view the HABITS and extravagancies of drefs, as pourtrayed on ancient monuments: which, though fubjects of fatire and invective in almost every age, were fo in none more justly than the 15th century. Here, as throughout the work, Mr. Gough has not only felected and explained the drefs and fashions of the time, from MSS. and printed documents, but compared them with coeval exifting monuments in other countries. To point out the utility of fuch comparisons were furely needlefs. They enable us to afcertain our comparative progrefs as a nation in the arts of elegance; at the faine time difplaying the general advancement of thofe arts. Another, and an important portion of thefe introductory pages, is devoted to the EPITAPH. In treating of this infeparable appendage to Sepulchral Monuments, Mr. Gough, in a few lines of general reference, traces it to the fame period to which he carried the tombs themfelves; and goes back for the first infcribed funeral monuments in Great Britain, to those bearing names of Romanized Britons in Cornwall or Wales. In copies of a correfpondence between Mr. Lethieullier with Bishop Lyttelton, Mr. G. recommends a collection of infcriptions, on a plan like that purfued by Gruter and others for Roman antiquities. (p. ccxxxiii.) From Epitaphs he derives to us many valuable informations on our knowledge of letters, in the Saxon, Norman, and Lombardic characters. The latter of thefe became general on tomb-ftones in the 13th century; though inftances of a mixed nature occur fo late as the fixteenth. From Orthography he proceeds to NUMERALS; and throws confiderable light on the early ufc of our vulgar figures. "A MS. de Algorifmo in verfe, Brit. Muf. 8 C. iv. 16. afcribed to Groffetefte, exprefsly brings them from India, probably by Spain, from the Moors and Arabs: "Hec Algorifmus ars prefens dicitur, in qua Talibus Indorum fruimur bis quinque figuris." P. cclix. Fronting p. cclxi. is a plate of the Greck, Roman, Indian, and Arabian numerals, according to the variations time impofed upon them, from a MS. of Maurice Johnson, Efq. of Spalding. "The first date in Arabic numerals that has occurred to me on a tomb is on a brass of Elen Cook, at Ware, 18h8, 1454o "The "The fecond is 1488, painted on the plafter of the partition of the Poulet chapel in Bafing church, Hants." The variety of inftances not only adduced, but delivered to us in fac fimile, are but fo many proofs of the author's care and activity in his favourite walk of fcience. Nor, when confidering the Epitaph, is he inattentive to the efforts of Literature in its compofition. "The compofition of epitaphs must be referred to the depofitaries of every fpecies of learning, the religious. The names of our early epitaph makers are as difficult to afcertain as thofe of our architects or painters. In the 15th century we are fure of John Whetamstead, abbot of St. Alban's, whose verses, recorded by Weever*, do honour to his monastery, already diftinguished by producing fo many learned men. We trace his munificence and poetry in all the churches of its dependance; and in his period, for at least fifty years, from 1392 to 1464, we trace alfo the revival of claffical literature among us. maker of Peter Arderne's epitaph at Latton + had fet his name to his compofition; but time has deprived us of it, notwithstanding all his efforts at immortality." P. cclxix. The "The epitaphs made for our princes in the 12th and 13th centu ries, favour of the gratitude of monks in after ages; for in general the infcription on the ledge was merely compofed of names, titles, and dates, in Latin or French. They were lachrymæ in obitum, fhed now only by univerfities, or an occafional mourner in the newspapers or magazines. Such were also the duplicates on founders or prelates, of which Chichely, in Camdent, is one inftance. The epitaphs of prelates and ecclefiaftics fpeak the language of Scripture: Credo quod redemptor meus vivit, et in noviffimo die furre&turus fum, et rurfum circumdabar pelle mea, et in carne mea videbo deum falvatorem_mium; on Bishop Gravefend, at Lincoln; on others Credo in deum, Credo videre deum, &c. and on Bishop Brownfcomb, at Exeter, three texts from the New Testament. "In Fleetwood's Sylloge of Infcriptions, Part II. Monum. Chrif tian. p. 520, in Lombardic letters, not given in fac fimile, is this. B is put for V. "Credo quia redemptor meus bibit et in nobiliffimo Die de terra fufcitabit me et in carne mea videbo Deum meum, &c. "The Creed in Latin was curiously inlaid round the tombstone of John Paycock, 1533, at Coggeshall : "Credo in Deum patrem, &c. "About the verge of the ftone in brafs a Pater Nofter inlaid, Pater Nofter qui es in celis fanctificetur nomen tuum, and so to the end of the prayer. Upon the middeft of the marble this, Ave Maria gratia plena: Dominus tecum: Benedi&a tu: in mulieribus et benedictus fit fructus ventris tui Jefus. Amen. I have not feen fuch rich monuments for fo mean perfons," fays Weever*." P. cclxxv. "On the flab over Robert Tendring, at Great Baddow, was inlaid this prayer: +Omnipotens et mifericors Deus in cujus poteftate humana conditio confiftit animam famuli tui Roberti quefo ab omnibus abfolve peccatis ut penitentie fructum quem voluntas ejus optabit preventus morte non perdat: per dominum noflrum Jefum Chriftum. Ament." "On a brafs, in Sibbesdon church, Leicestershiret, a fine figure of a priest, in his furred gown, extending his hands, from the palms of which proceed these scrolls addressed to the Saviour seated on a rainbow: Intret poftulacio mea iu conspedu tuo d’ne "Under him: Drate pro aia Johis Moore facerdotis facultatis artium magiftri "A fpecimen of our language in the clofe of the 15th century, may be feen in an epitaph from Weever§, in St. Benet's church, Gracechurch-ftreet, 1491. "At Aldenham in the County of Hertford: Here lyeth John Pen, who in his lufty age A thousand four hundred feventy and oon. "Another fample of the English of the time may be seen in this epitaph, in the fquare paffage to the Chapter-Houfe at York, cut in ftone: Berciful Thelu, son of heuen, for thi holi name and thi bitter paflion do thi grete mercy to the foule of Annes huet, the which decefid the vii day of November, in the yere of our Lord, MCCCCLXXI.¶ "Weever, p. 618. + Ibid. p. 641. Engraved for the fourth volume of Mr. Nichols's Hiftory of that County, under Sibbesdon. § P. 416. "Weever, p. 592. Chauncy, p. 494. This is not now to be Drake's York, p. 478.". found "Among Among fingular epitaphs take this at Colneye, Norfolk, on Thomas Bettys, rector there from 1455 to 1481: Qwan the Belle ys folemplye rownge And the meffe with devolyon fonge Sone fhall Sere Thomas Bettys be forgete. On whofe fowle God have mercy. Amen. Qvi obiit vo die Aprilis A°. D'ni MCCCCLXXXI*." P. cclxxxvii. Pray for the foule occurs in an epitaph, in 1558, the last year Mary's reign, and of expiring popery." P. ccc. of But we are very much mistaken, if two inftances of that expreffion do not occur on braffes in the church of Stanton Harcourt, in Oxfordshire, after 1570. Of many fubjects contained in the prefent Introduction, the great mafs of information was anticipated by that to the former volume. Particularly where barrows, coffins, inftances of extraordinary prefervation, and habits are concerned. But to many of these articles we are introduced in a new form; and fresh lights are thrown on the funeral ceremonies of our forefathers. Such is this publication. Our extracts from it, confidering its fize and importance, we confefs, are fhort and few; but to difplay its various contents with minutenefs, or to point out every mark of affiduity and tafte which it difcovers, would far exceed our limits: enough has been already extracted, to show that praise is almoft fuperfluous. It is a work, the aim of which is well-directed to fill up the great plan of National History. The plates, including vignettes, are fifty-one in number, befides a rofe (p. cccxxxv.) which is given from the original brafs, in St. Peter's Church, at St. Alban's. They are well executed by Mr. James Bafire; feveral of them from drawings by the artift, whofe death has been already mentioned as unpropitious to Mr. Gough's pursuits; and one has the fignature of R. G. The whole is clofed with accurate Indexes to each volume. *Blomefield, III, P. 2," ART. ART. II. L'Homme des Champs, ou les Georgiques Françaises. Par M. L'Abbé Delille. 12mo. 274 pp. Dekker, Pafle; L'Homme, London. 1800. WE are perfectly fenfible that it would be prefumptuous in English critics to deliver their opinion with much confidence on the delicacies and elegancies of French verfe. The French language impofes fo many restraints on the poet, and fupplies him with fo few aids, that there is perhaps no speech in which it is fo difficult to form a poetical ftyle. He is excluded from the ufe of inverfion, and of words appropriated to verfe, which, in other languages, men of genius fo happily employ to exprefs their grand conceptions, and rhyming fcribblers too often abufe, to give a falfe colour of poetry to their tame and common-place ideas. Deprived of thefe aids, he is obliged to exert much more art and vigilance to raise his style above profe, than the poet of any other country. The hidden but constant labour with which the structure of the ftyle must be raised, the fecret art by which elegance is diffused over the whole, the curious felection and combination of words, are fubjects which require too intimate a knowledge of the niceties of a language to be judged by the taste of a foreigner. In fcience, in narrative, in the grandeur or beauty of ideas and images, we can eftimate, in fome degree, the merit of foreign writers. But in the art of flyle, we must in a great measure leave them to the jurifdiction of their natural judges, the scholars and critics of their own country. Yet the laws of literary hofpitality feem to require, that we fhould not pass unnoticed the work of the moit illuftrious poet in Europe, who has taken refuge in England from the iron tyranny under which his country groans; who, equally fuperior to interest and danger, has never tarnished his fame, or prostituted his genius, by finging the praife of tyrants, and who fill prefers confcientious poverty and honourable exile, to all the difgraceful diftinctions and ignominious rewards of those who "dwell in the tents of iniquity." Under fuch circumftances, we should have thought it unpardonable, not to have gratified our readers by fome fpecimens of the beautiful Poem before us, though we fhall not prefume to indulge in the fame liberty of criticifm that would be allowed and expected in reviewing an English poem. The general object of the French Georgics, is to defcribe the enjoyments of a country life. On a fubject fo extenfive, felection |