bury, in 1806. bapt at Stratford, Aug. 8, 1760, and bur. there, Oct. 31, 1774, as "Francis Hart." John Hart, of Tewksbury, turner and chair-maker, living in 1806. William Hart, bapt. at Stratford, July 9, 1731, and bur. there April 28, 1745. Sarah Hart, bapt. at Stratford, Sept. 29, 1733. Mr. Wheler states she married Joseph M'Laughlin, a taylor of Stratford, but no issue, see Gent. Mag. ut supra. George Hart, bapt. at Stratford, Nov. 23, 1735. Mary Hart,bapt. at Stratford, Jan. 13, 1737-8, and buried there, July 30, 1794. Ann Hart, bapt. at Stratford, Sept. 29, 1740, and bur. there Feb. 5, 1760. Thomas Hart, bapt.Mary, daughter of Chomas at Stratford, Aug. 10, 1764, died at Woolwich, in Feb. 1800 (a butcher). near of Clifford Bite, Stratford, and Ann (Spiers) his wife, married Sept. 15, 1791, died Dec. 8, 1793, aged 26, buried at Clifford. Darah Hart,=William Whitehead, of Tewksbury, stocking frame-workknitter, living in 1806. living in 1806. Thomas, Elizabeth, and other children, all living in 1806. TT Fillis Hart, bapt. at Stratford, Jan. 25, 1742-3. JemimaHart, bapt.atStratford, June 19, 1745. William Hart, bapt.at Stratford, Nov. 27, 1747. Nanny Hart, bapt. at Stratford, Jan. 16, 1767. Jane Hart, bapt. at Stratford, April 23, 1783. One daughter only, who died an infant, buried at Clifford. N. B. That the whole of the latter part of this pedigree which is set forth in Old English, is taken from Mr. R. Wheler's Statement in the Gentleman's Magazine for Sept. 1816, p. 208, without farther investigation, the Stratford Registers not extending to it. REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 1. The Prisoner of Chillon, and other Poems. By Lord Byron, 8vo. pp. 60. Murray. THER HE peculiar facility with which Lord Byron pours forth his "unpremeditated trains" is not less astonishing, than the sublimity of ideas and strength of language which are generally discoverable in his writings -we say generally, because there now and then occur prosaic passages, which in a Bard of inferior fame would not be tolerated. To particularize would be invidious, as the Noble Author is himself aware of the "homely phrase" in some of them. The Grave of Churchill here stands prominent. But to us it is a more pleasing task to point out beauty, than to seek tor blemishes. On the whole, a line woich has been somewhat too much ridiculed, may strictly be applied to Lord Byron: "None but himself can be his parallel." The principal feature of the present publication is "The Prisoner of Chillon," an affecting story, pathetically and elegantly told in Lord By ron's best style, and introduced by the following Sonnet : "Eternal Spirit of the chainless mind! Brightest in dungeons, Liberty! thou art, For there thy habitation is the heartThe heart which love of thee alone can [sign'd bind; And when thy sons to fetters are conTo fetters, and the damp vault's day[tyrdom, less gloom, Their country conquers with their marAnd Freedom's fame finds wings on every wind. Chillon! thy prison is a boly place, And thy sad floor an altar-for 'twas trod, Until his very steps have left a trace Worn, as if thy cold pavement were a sod, [efface! By Bonnivard!-May none those marks For they appeal from tyranny to God." The Poem is illustrated by an interesting memoir, of which the author was not sufficiently aware when the Poem was composed," or, he adds, 66 "I should have endeavoured to dignify the subject by an attempt to celebrate his courage and his virtues. Some account of his life will be found in a note appended to the "Sonnet on Chillon," with which I have been furnished GENT. MAG. January, 1817. by the kindness of a citizen of that Republic which is still proud of the memory of a man worthy of the best age of antient freedom." We shall copy another Sonnet, as more easily detached than some of the other articles : 2. The Shepherd's Hunting. By George Wither. Reprinted from the Edition of 1633, collated with the Editions of 1615 and 1620. With a Preface containing an Account of the Author's Family, and a List of his Poetical Works. London, printed by T. Bensley, 1814, 12mo, pp. 71. THE fashion of reprinting scarce old English books, particularly Poetry, which had attained its height about two years ago, has for some time been on its wane. Perhaps it had been carried too far; but much is to be conceded to the generous zeal, which may sometimes have outrun prudence, and sometimes taste, As long as our notice might have been attributed to some selfish purpose; to a desire of promoting a sale; or an anxiety to secure approbation to an uncertain enterprise, we were silent. The impression of the beautiful little Poem now before us is stated to have been limited to an hundred copies, and the whole of this small edition, we understand, has been long * Geneva, Ferney, Coppet, Lausanne. sinca since sold; and we are now at liberty to give a calm and unsuspected judgment upon it, In the last thirty years the name of GEORGE WITHER has been continually mentioned, aud no where more often than in our own pages, as an instance of the unjust oblivion which frequently has overshadowed our Poets of former ages. There are those who have received this example of the position with doubt, or coldness, or contempt. The witticisms of the Versifiers of Charles the Second's Court, or the mean sarcasms of Pope, have considered this attempt to revive the memory of the old Puritanical rhymer, as they call him, as the unchastized enthusiasin of antiquarian bigotry. That there are antiquarian bigots, of crude knowledge, and utter want of fancy, feeling, and learning, no one of classical acquirements or cultivated mind will deny; but that there are no forgotten writings which deserve revival, and that the pursuit of literary antiquities is confined to the ignorant and the dull, none but the stupid and the prejudiced will as sert. Within these few months we have seen it argued in more than one work of criticism, that the reign of King James I. was a reign of genius, much misrepresented, and unjustly decried. We suspect that this opinion has sprung in some from a love of singularity, and in others from a very superficial and confused acquaintance with the era of which they were speaking. It was an age, of which the writings partook of the character of its Monarch; pedantic, subtle, unnatural, and frivolous. We except those whose character was formed, and fame established, under the glorious sceptre of his Predecessor. Their names are too bright to demand a recital here. Wither had a genius and cast of his own; not, perhaps, very vigorous; nor much endowed with the higher powers of invention or fancy: but easy, copious, sensible; full of matter, as well as fluent in language; sensibly impressed with all the varying shades of moral opinion; and elevated with the dignity of poetical endowment. certain Satires, entitled, Abuses Stript and Whipt, 1613, &c. and a Satire to the King, 1614, &c. in which he had made free with the corrupt and abominable manners of the Court and City. The present Poem, containing Certain Eclogues, was written during his confinement in the Marshalsea, and first published in 1615. They are dialogues, and open with one between the poet Philarete and his friend Willy (William Browne, the pastoral poet), who, visiting him in his prison, finds that conscious innocence keeps him cheerful under his sufferings. In the 3d Eclogue he says, "Though my body here in prison rot, [forgot; And my wrong'd Satires seem awhile Yet, when both fame and life have left those men, My verse and I'll revive and live again. So, thus enclos'd, I bear Affliction's load, But with more true content than some abroad; For, whilst their thoughts do feel my Scourge's sting, [and sing!", In bands I'll leap and dance, and laugh The 4th Eclogue consists of Philarete's (Wither's) Encouragement to Willy (Browne) "to sing out his Pastorals." Willy says, "The Pastoral I sung Let those then at thee repine Needs Needs those songs must be thine own; And that one day will be known." The Poet soon afterwards breaks out into the following noble apostrophe to Poetry: 66 Poesy, thou sweet'st content Though thou be to them a scorn, Tho' our wise ones call thee madness, What makes knaves and fools of them." The limits of our Review will permit no farther extracts. It ean scarcely be expected that the whole of these Eclogues are in a spirit of similar excellence, but they are seldom either tedious or unpoetical; though the fault of diffuseness too generally pervades them. Now and then the accentuation appears inharmonious to a mere modern ear: and there is something prosaic in the texture of the diction. The last edition was, we believe, as long ago as 1633; and although there had been three prior impressions, 1615, 1620, and 1623, yet a copy was seldom to be found, except in the libraries of the curious. The present is a beautiful little volume as a specimen of typography; and surely the attraction of modern printing is not to be despised, even by those whose principal attention is engaged by the matter rather than the dress of a work. It is dedicated to Mr.Park by Sir Egerton Brydges, who, among other proofs of his ardent love of old English Poetry, has taken on himself the cost and trouble of this reprint. It will surely at last become matter of general wonder, how, while many of the contemptible versifiers of the latter half of the 17th century continue to have their scribblings preserved among the body of our National Poets, a selection from the productions of men of so much genius as Wither should never have been attempted to be inserted among them. The political prejudices, which after the Restoration sunk him into neglect and disgrace, must long have ceased to operate; and the party pamphlets, in rhyme as well as in prose, by which he degraded his pen, and brought into doubt the nobler talents of his better days, might have been easily separated, and left in their merited obscurity without regret. In Wither's private character there seems to have been a strong mixture of good and evil-a factious spirit; an ill-regulated ambition; a busy and meddling temper; and a doubtful and been an egotist, grasping, querulous, unchastized taste: He appears to have and conceited. The active concern he took in the troubled waters of those times brought him first into suspicion, then into disrepute, and lastly into proscription. He wanted at least prudence, and that self-command, and reserve, which secures respect. He was therefore continually left to poverty, scoffs, and revilings. candid and sagacious perusal of his writings will, however, not easily refuse belief to his continual protestations of innocence and good intention; nor be unaffected by the perpetual recurrence of pathetic and virtuous sentiments which adorn and dignify numerous passages of his best and even of his worst compositions. It was his lot to fall on dangerous times, too severe for the trial of his versatile and restless spirit. A those to whose Muse the atmosphere of the city and the turmoils of business seem to have been fatal. Those poetical images which adorn his youthful effusions, seldom occur in his latter rhymes, which grew more and more flat and colloquial as he became deeper engaged in party politics and sectarian contests. Even in them,however, there are occasional passages of sentiment dignified in themselves, and striking from the simple force with which they are expressed. The mind of Wither was one of 3. Fidelia, a Love Epistle. By George Wither. A new Edition, from the Edition of 1619, &c. London, printed by T. Bensley, 1815, 12mo, pp. 42. THIS reprint, by the same Editor, is uniform with the last. The Poem, in five-feet couplets, has many interesting passages; but perhaps its extreme prolixity of style renders it, on the whole, inferior to the "Shepherd's Hunting." 4. Nympha 4. Nympha Libethus; or, the Cotswold Muse. By Clement Barksdale, A.M. of Sudeley, in Gloucestershire. First printed 1651. A new Edition. London, printed by Bensley, 1816, 12mo, pp. 105. THIS is also by the same Editor, and printed uniform with the two Poems of Wither already mentioned. The original Edition is among the rarest of our old Poetry; and is more valuable for the notices it contains of contemporary friends and authors, than for its poetical merit. 5. Hymns and Songs of the Church. By George Wither. A new Edition, with a Preface by the Editor. London, 1815, 8vo. pp. 306. IT is to be regretted that this little volume was not printed uniform with the two other Poems of the same Author already mentioned, more especially as it came from the same Press, under the care of the same Editor. 6. Poems by Thomas Stanley, Esq. Reprinted from the Edition of 1651. London, 1814, sm. 8vo. pp. 107. A NEW Impression of these original Poems, by that eminent Greek scholar the learned Editor of Eschylus, was a very acceptable and useful present to the curious. There is a great deal of ingenious elegance, a little tainted with an over-ambition of ornament and conceit, in these compositions. 7. Anacreon, Bion, and Moschus. With other Translations. By Thomas Stanley, Esq. First printed 1651. A new Edition, with a Preface Critical and Biographical. London, 1815, sm. 8vo. pp. 276. THESE Translations are by the same Author, and come from the same Editor as the five foregoing Reprints. The manner in which the Translations are executed, when examined with reference to the time at which they first appeared, is very admirable; and the Notes abound in a profusion of classical learning, and taste. 8. Poenis by John Hall, of Durham. The Second Edition. Reprinted from the Edition of 1646. London, 1816, sm. 8vo. pp. 145. JOHN HALL was the friend of Stanley; and dedicates these Poems to him. He died 1656, æt. 29. His early genius and acquirements amazed the University of Cambridge, where he was educated. In these productions there is rather mental vigour than poetical gift. These seven little volumes are brought together as a directory to the collectors of old English Literature. There has not been room to expatiate on any of these works, except the first. Perhaps a future opportunity may be afforded to say something more of the others. 9. The History and Antiquities of the See and Cathedral Church of Norwich. Illustrated with Views, Plans, Sections, Details, &c. By John Britton, F.S.A. 4to. Longman and Co. WE have to congratulate the publick on the appearance of this work, consisting of 24 plates, a wood cut, which forms the title page, and about 90 pages of letter-press. We have frequently been surprised and dissatisfied at the miserable and inaccurate engravings of the last century; particularly those of Grose's Antiquities, and also the incorrect specimens published in County Histories, which, however meritorious in their historical details, have some times been overloaded with the ordinary monuments of different parishes, and the number of bells specified in the Churches; while the architecture of antient and curious buildings has been entirely overlooked. Of the specimens of engraving published since the middle of the last century, perhaps those of "Hearne and Byrne's Antiquities" may be reckoned the best of the kind; but even in that work, which is only to be considered as a selection of picturesque subjects, or mere landscapes, there is great inaccuracy in the details of the buildings. Since that time, several others have followed, differing in form and execution; not only picturesque landscapes, but remains of antiquity, are represented by architectural drawings, with plans, sections, and minute details of inouldings, capitals of columns, &c. It is not our intention to enumerate the different publications of the present time, as it would be almost endless to mention the labours of living artists their merits must stand or fall on the degree of success they meet from the publick; and it would perhaps be deemed an act of injustice to speak of |