recall them, is not a homo gravis, but is diseased in his mind." (p. 365). "In all republics, however democratical they may be, there is a spirit of exclusiveness." (p. 399). He says the results of the abolition of the usury laws in Prussia in 1807 were very unfortunate. (p. 346). He compares the financial policy of Sully after the League to that of the tribunes after the Gallic calamity, and traces to it the subsequent prosperity of France under Louis XIII. (p. 356). At p. 334, he argues that without the ancient well in the Capitol the garrison during the Gallic siege must have surrendered. Yet in his other Lectures (vol. ii. 375) he considers that the badness of the water obliged Saturninus to surrender. Both may be true, for wells alter in their quality, but this should have been pointed out. It is acknowledged (vol. í. p. xii.) that Niebuhr sometimes committed oversights. Thus he refers to Virgil as connecting Hercules with the priestess Rea, whereas his words are Marte gravis (En. i. 274), nor does he say Rea, as Niebuhr's argument would further require, but Ilia. A passage about hostilities between Russia and Persia at p. 304 would indicate that they are perpetual, if we did not recollect that it was delivered in 1826, when they were embroiled. At p. 259 William II. of Orange is miscalled King, but this mistake may be an interpolation in the notes of the lecture. To say that places, such as Fidena and Ficulea," appeared with their armies" (p. 329) is not an Anglicism. The Samnite farm of Curius, at p. 512, is probably a misprint for Sabine. The other typographical errors are few and unimportant. A mistake in printing off one of the sheets has been promptly remedied by a cancel sheet, for which the early purchasers can apply. The tone of these Lectures is unobjectionable, and the distinct recognition of "the hand of Providence," at p. 421, deserves to be remarked. To those who wish to acquire a knowledge His reference to the Hebrew constitution at p. 95, though ingenious, is confused and inaccurate, which may partly be accounted for by his acknowledged ignorance of Rabbinical literature. of Niebuhr's views, this volume offers it in an advantageous form, because the most concise, with the benefit of his latest opinions. Those too who have read his larger work will be glad to see the subject condensed by the same hand, like a reduced copy of some celebrated picture by the original artist, in which the essential lineaments are retained, and the size only has undergone a change. Perhaps this work may more properly bear the name of a Roman History than the other, which is a large assemblage of materials, or "mémoires pour servir à l'histoire," as the French say. However they will mutually help each other; for those who begin with the Lectures will wish to learn the process by which the result was arrived at, and those who have read the larger work, will desire to be present at the summing up as well as at the hearing of the evidence. A History of the Architecture of the Abbey Church of St. Alban, with especial reference to the Norman structure. By J. C. Buckler and C. A. Buckler. 8vo. "OF all the grand architectural monuments of the piety and munificence of former times, or of the most deep historical interest, perhaps not one possesses stronger claims upon our attention than that which forms the subject of the present work. It is undoubtedly the most ancient that has survived the processes of early change, the inroads of time, or the insatiable enmity of sacrilege." That a church so justly characterized in this the opening sentence of the essay should have engaged the attention of one at least of the authors so long back as 1833, when for the first time an intimation of his intention to publish its architectural history appeared in the Gentleman's Magazine, will not be a matter of surprize to our antiquarian readers. The long interval which has elapsed from the intention first expressed to the appearance of the work has afforded to the authors every opportunity laboriously to examine with care and attention the structure they were engar upon, and without a most labe tentive lion sc acen that which is before us could not have been accomplished; the structure has been in a manner dissected, the materials analysed, the constituent parts fully investigated, and the original works carefully distinguished from successive alterations. All this is effected within the compass of a moderate octavo, confined to the structural portion of the abbey; the reader therefore will not find his attention drawn off from the architecture by long details of historical matter, so often found in works of this description. The investigation of the authors exhibits a very extraordinary feature of the building: one of the largest churches in England and one of the most ancient is shewn to be actually a brick structure covered with cement. To our modern imaginations, a brick and compo church would indeed be an abomination; yet true it is that this most ancient structure, the universally admired and never to be too highly valued abbey church of St. Alban, is in reality a structure of bricks, and those old ones covered with "Roman cement." 66 The section on materials is deserving of great attention. The authors' researches are strictly corroborative of the testimony of Matthew Paris, that the ruins of Verulam supplied the materials for the abbey. "The evidence," they add, seems irresistible that the material was not made for the church of St. Alban, but that the building was designed to suit its peculiar qualities;" and they remark that "it is not surprising that a mode of construction thus rendered familiar to the workmen (viz. in the destruction of the remains of Verulam) should have been adopted by them in the reemployment of the materials." "The resemblance is strongly marked in different parts of the building; and the courses of brick, whether single, double, quadruple, or more numerous, are in almost every instance carried quite through the substance of the walls." The use of brick is most remarkable. Many stone capitals have abacusmouldings of brick and cement. The inain horizontal cornices throughout the interior are formed of brick, but the impost members of the principal arches are of stone. So great was the partiality for the Roman material that in a cornice added so late as the thirteenth century the mouldings and corbels only are of stone, all the other members being of brick, cased, and perfectly formed with cement. We can imagine we see the energetic Abbot Paul closely following his workmen through the ruined Roman city, learning lessons of construction from every pier or arch whose demolition he was directing; and though, as archæologists, we shudder at the destruction of such a mass of Roman remains as must have been removed, we admire the good sense which led the builder of the intended new church to profit by the lessons of scientific construction which the ruins of the Roman city taught him. A church of great antiquity (Holy Trinity, at Colchester) is noticed as another example of the use of cement. "The outer circle (of the western door), which stands in advance of the walls, resembling a label, consisted, when entire, of a prominent torus moulding, composed of cement, upon small blocks of stone, which remain, while the greater part of the composition for which they formed a core has perished." We have not space to notice in detail the description of the Norman church as it came out of the hands of its architect. As a sample of its construction, and as exemplifying the remarks on the brick and cement construction, we would point attention to two of the wood engravings at p. 42, showing exterior and interior views of one of the windows in the north transept, which are pronounced by the Messrs. Buckler to be the most unaltered portion of the original structure now existing. It is shown that the church, as finished by its Norman founder, was terminated eastward by an apse, as it is probable every church of that period was. Evidence of this fact is still existing in the building, and extensive remains of Norman work are still in being in the more recent sanctuary, and from which the authenticity of the plan of the church, which is given as it existed in the Norman age, is supported.* * The recent discovery of a portion of an apse, at St. Mary's Southwark, exhibits The existence of towers attached to the west front of the abbey church has been satisfactorily ascertained by digging, and by the portion of the remains of one which still exists; they are situated at each side of the nave at the west front, but engaged only with the wall of the aisles. The authors presume that the destruction of these towers was occasioned by an attempt to carry into effect a design of Abbot de Cella, who rather improvidently set about building a new front. The minute survey of the tower, one of the most striking Norman works in existence, speaks highly in favour of the indefatigable character of the authors for the most minute research. The interior of the tower, being devoid of plaster, afforded them an opportunity of fully carrying into effect their survey. Brick by brick, stone by stone, were carefully examined; not a moulding or peculiarity escaped their searching eyes; the wood-cut of a “capital in the arcade of the exterior gallery of the tower" (p. 121), is a curious example of the varied materials which compose the structure. Here we see an engaged column of Norman work, probably of Caen stone, placed against a wall constructed of Roman brick, with the addition of a piece of stone accidentally inserted, which a torus at the angle evidently shows to be the work of the Romans, a relic of old Verulam. The two cuts of loop holes given at p. 129, well exhibit the ingenious adaptation of Roman tiles. The first example strikingly exbibits a mode of construction found in the remains of Roman baths a corroboration of the suggestion of the authors that the builders of the Norman straes ture had studied and learned their art in the ruins of Verulam. We could mention another church, though of a minor character to St. Alban's Abbey, that of Low Halstow, in Kent, posited, amidst extensive Roman remains, where the Norman builders, with Roman tile and materials, have in an humble strneture shown a parallel example of the use they could make of the materials they found ready to their hands. another instance of this mode of terminating the eastern end of a Norman church. We have not space for extracts, even if they could be made with effect: such of our architectural readers who wish to study one of the most magnificent and striking examples of Norman construction in this land will find this work a very useful companion. The relics of the proto-martyr appear to have been preserved by the care of some pious individual, by whom they were conveyed to Rome, from whence they were consigned to the care of the Theresian convent at Cologne, in whose church of St. Mauritius in that city may still be visited the shrine of St. Alban of England. The coffin wherein are contained the relics stands at the east end of the south aisle: it is of black marble, elevated upon a pedestal of the same, and surmounted by a figure of the holy martyr, who is distinguished by the cross and palm and sword: beneath is inscribed, RELIQVIARIVMS ALBANI・ M. The History and Antiquities of Norwich Castle. By Samuel Woodward, F.G.S. 4to. A CONSIDERABLE portion of this volume is a posthumous work published by a son of the author, a gentleman who in his lifetime dedicated a great portion of his time to the investigation of the antiquities of Norwich and its neighbourhood. The author had two theories, one of which was that Norwich, and not Caistor, was the Venta Icenorum, and the other that Norwich castle was a Saxon edifice. Concerning the first, we do not offer any observation, as we confess we do not see that Mr. Woodward has ad and anything very conclusive in favour of this theory; and the supposition that the castle was a Saxon structure is entirely disproved by the evidence of the existing architecture of the entire building, which is as manifestly Norman as Rochester, Dover, or the White Tower of London. The plans, elerations sections, and details of the castle, are fatal to the author's theory of the present erection being of Saxon architecture: the divisions of the elevations into stories, the lower ones being those s ag in height mer." - arcad yeral 1848.] REVIEW.-Woodward's Antiquities of Norwich Castle. 513 work of the same class of amateurs. pilaster buttresses-the narrow circu- The staircase shewn in tab. xvi., the apse in tab. vi., the gallery F in the wall, tab. xvii. to say nothing of Bigod's tower, are fine examples of Norman detail of the period we have already suggested; not a feature at all resembling the Saxon is to be found in any of them. 66 A deficiency of knowledge of Norman detail is shewn in the description of the figures of huntsmen pursuing wild beasts, others with pointed shields, and figures on capitals, which evidently are pronounced to be Saxon." Such of the sculptures as are engraved are manifestly Norman, of the twelfth century. A man killing a boar has a kite-shaped shield and a pointed helmet, and a strange chimera of a centaur, having two bodies of horses united to one human one, is a Norman vagary quite common with the other grotesques so usual in the twelfth century. One sculptured capital represents two warriors with pointed helmets having nasals, who appear to be conversing. One has a large spear, the other a kite-shaped shield,-all decidedly of the Norman and not the Saxon period. The sculptures in the oratory and elsewhere are of later character. They are of the same class of rude representations which are to be found in Guildford, Colchester, and probably every other castle; the work, in some cases, of idlers; and the shields of arms, specially figure 4, are probably the GENT. MAG. VOL. XXIX. Bartholomæus. Per veris, a tort e saunz reson Bartholomew. Truly by wrong and without reason It is suggested he might be a heretic handed over to the secular power. The plates are well executed, and ably illustrate the ancient fabric, which it is to be regretted has been injured of late years by modern repairs. Several old plans of Norwich and its vicinity have been engraved, shewing the locality as it is supposed to have existed at various periods in its history; and they are executed with great precision. We are indebted to the editor for making known his father's researches. Saxon architecture was little understood fifteen years since. Mr. Woodward had probably never heard of its peculiarities; and the ascription of this building to the Saxons is but one of the many mistakes of the same kind which until a very few years since passed for truth.*The work is elegantly got up, and the engravings are valuable for their accuracy, and afford excellent illustrations of one of the finest castles in England. We have therefore to give the editor the thanks of antiquaries for this addition to their libraries, although we have felt ourselves bound, in accordance with the improved knowledge of the day, to dispute one of the theories he has advanced. *For much valuable information on Norman architecture, see J. C. and C. A. Buckler's Essay on St. Alban's, recently 3 U published. Hours of Recreation. By Charles S. Middleton. THE author has mentioned in his preface two circumstances which are alone sufficient to smooth the brow of a reviewer, and charm the scalpingknife from his hand.-viz. his youth (for these are poems written to the age of 21) and his ill-health. How ever, there is not much need of apology: and when he also adds that the object of publicity is partly to enable him to gain a livelihood, or only feelings will be those of cheering him on his path of duty, and affording him the trifling assistance of our approbation. That he possesses a poetical feeling, and is acquainted with poetical language, to an extent we should have hardly expected in his early years, cannot be denied. His first poem, called The Poet's Vision," will exhibit equally his merits and defects. We shall mention one thing to him that we have remarked.—that his various poems bear too strong a character and resemblance in their structure and style to those which he has taken as models of imitation: the "Poet's Vision" to the Byron and Shelley school; "Night" to Cowper's" Task;" "Ode to Disappointment" to Collins. But this is natural to beginners, and, indeed, is so far praiseworthy, as it is a mark of their respect to those great and gifted men whose works they have studied, and shows the attention they have bestowed on them. The poem called "Night," in blank verse, we think the least successful; indeed, the first three lines are not metrical, and several others are defective in the same way; as Rapid as thought, and yet so calm. Within the marble jaws of yawning sepulchres. Sits on her aerial throne with gentle smile. And legions of Angels circling his bright throne. These, and others like these, should be brought within the proper circle of metrical numbers. There are also oc casional expressions to be amended, as- A noble mansion to lock up his praise. In pointing out such slight faults as these, we trust the author will consider that we are doing him more essential service than by indiscriminate eulogies, and careless and lavish praise. True poetic fame must be won by thought, by labour, and by care. Nothing within the province of his art should be considered by him beneath his attention. The poet should be. like Justice, “to himself severe." Let him not only read but study the best models of composition: and let him recollect the words of Coleridge, “you can no more more a word out of a line of Milton without injury than you can displace a brick from a house." We now quote a pleasing specimen of the author's best manner; we exhort him to proceed in his honourable and delightful path, and heartily wish him the success he will deserve, if he will strenuously labour in his vocation. ODE TO DISAPPOINTMENT. Hast bent thy head upon thy mourning breast. Why that low pensive brow? Twin sister of Despair, Thy long disheveli'd hair Floats on thy cheek, which now is pale and cold; And thy lone heart seems gone To all it once had known of hope and peace so radiant to behold. Thou sad dejected maid, The world wilt thou upbraid With treacherous smiles and syren pleasures all? Art thou impassion'd now? Is anger on thy brow? Or is it anguish bids thy beauty pall? Did Hope and Peace e'er smile, Thy spirit to beguile, And then fly from thee in the midst of Joy, When all around was bright, Clad in one robe of light, Which thou hadst fondly deem'd nought could destroy? Like some poor stricken bind, Seems now unquiet with a trembling fear; And like a summer flower, Thy head reclines, and nothing gives thee cheer. And all around is gloom, Like Silence o'er the tomb, While thou sit'st lonely like a lonely tree; Far in the desert wild, A sad, deserted child, Withert a friend to look |