"Orate; pro : b: statu : d'ní : Ri cardi: Haegh: n'ne: p'oris : monasterii: 'ci: Toh'is: euangeliste : et: co'ue'tus : ista': cenon'e : fieri." * "Orate: pro bono statu: domini: Ricardi; Haegh: nunc: prioris monasterii: sancti Johannis: evangelistæ: et: conventus istam : xovwveit: fieri." "Pray for the good state of Richard Haegh, now Prior of the Monastery of St. John the Evangelist; and the convent comes into communion that this (prayer) may be made." I find that, in the year 1469, Richard de Leeds was Prior of the Monastery of Monk Bretton, in the viCable that he was the Richard Haegh cinity of this town, and I think it pro whose name is recorded in the above Inscription. They who are accustomed to inscriptions in the church text, in which I am not much conversant, will be able to determine whether I have succeeded in decyphering the words n'ne and cenon'e, and whether the lat ter be usually found in such inscriptions. It seemed odd to me that the reader should be required to pray for the "good state" of a man ("nunc") still living; since these petitions are generally offered for the souls of the dead; but the letters appear to me clearly to be those composing the word nunc; and it might be customary to offer such petitions for the sick. As for the other doubtful word, which I have rendered xowy, it is distinctly composed of the letters cenon'e. Now, I find that diphthongs are not used in these inscriptions; so that the e is, probably, substituted for the diphthong a, in the first syllable, and with the assistance of the dash placed over it, for the ei in the last. Monks were called Coenobites; a monastery Coenobium; and an abbot, Cœnobiarcha, from the circumstance of the community of living; and these words are all derived from the Greek theme xolvos, communis. This petition, therefore, was probably ordered by the Convent, in communion, to be of fered at the altar of this Church, by the Minister and congregation, for the "good state," or the health of We are incapable of giving a facsimile of this Epitaph, from a want of suitable types.-EDIT. + From xo1vwvéwin communionem venio. i. e. in Council assembled. this Richard Haegh. Is it meant that the Monks came to the Communiontable, in a body, to offer the petition of which the tablet was intended as a memorial, whilst the Inscription calls upon the Minister and congregation to repeat it? I shall be glad to receive a more satisfactory explanation than that which I have given. ORIGINAL LETTERS TO THE D. Grosvenor-street, May 29, 1756. "Ye hands of Dr. Yonge; who YOUR papers I have put into will return to Cambridge at the latter end of next week; and I thank you very heartily for the perusal of them. You have fully proved and established your point; but do not say that you have no talent for composition; leave your writings to speak for themselves. If Dr. Grey should publish the poetical parts of Scripture, I suppose he would do it in the same manner as the book of Job; but I like your method much better, with a new English translation and notes, which will be much more useful at home, and not much less useful abroad, so many learned foreigners learning the English language for the purposes of reading at least. If you should not proceed in the publication of the poetical parts of Scripture, I take it for granted you will engage in some other work of learning. A man accustomed to writing cannot well lie idle; and in the University you have fine leisure and opportunities for studying, which we cannot obtain in town, and therein you are almost envied by, dear Sir, "Your most obedient servant, And from all your idols will I cleanse you.' "I have two volumes of De Rossi, as far as the end of 2 Kings. His prolegomena are very useful; but my course of reading has not led me to consult his various lections. Michaelis is furnishing good helps in his Supplement to Hebrew Lexicons, and his Spicilegium Geographiæ post Bochartum. He has translated the whole Hebrew Bible into German, with notes for the use of the unlearned. I wish most sincerely that this work may soon appear in English; as I apprehend that very few of our scholars understand German. A subscription set on foot by the Bishops on your Bench would soon compass this very desirable end. "If I had the honour of being your Diocesan, I would charge you, on your canonical obedience, to revise every line of my Ezekiel. But, on looking again into your Letter, I fear that your health and age would not admit of such a task. All our Hebreans have quitted the stage, or are soon to quit it. Secker and Kennicott are gone; you and Lowth are going God grant us able successors! But I fear that the labourers are too few for the greatness of the harvest. "I am an Oxford man, about ten years older than your very worthy and very learned Bishop, with whom I am but very slightly acquainted. God has blessed me with health, leisure, and affluence. I have a wife and eleven children; and attention to GENT. MAG. October, 1819. the duties of my station, to the education of my family, and to my books, very adequately and very happily fills up my time. "With every good wish, and with the most sincere respect, I am, Rev. Sir, 6. Your "Rev. Sir, very faithful and most humble servant, W. WATERFORD*." Waterford, Oct. 31, 1788. "I am extremely thankful to you for your Letter; and should have had the pleasure of acknowledging it affected by an epidemical influenza, much earlier, if I had not lately been indisposition to any kind of business. succeeded by a great lassitude and "The approbation which your candour leads you to bestow on my late work is very pleasing and encoutions with which you have favoured raging. But I consider the observame as the greatest mark of attention to me which you could bestow. By places, I have taken care that they transcribing them in their proper shall not depend on the uncertain ex istence of a letter. "I have had the pleasure of hearing that the late Dr. Jubb, Professor of Hebrew in Oxford, has left behind He has bequeathed them to Dr. Jackhim some valuable papers on Daniel. son, Dean of Christ Church; and has modestly desired that his learned friend will publish or suppress them, as he shall think proper. I should these remarks to Secker's, a comment suppose that, with the addition of on Daniel would want little more than digesting. I wish that your most excellent and learned Bishop would join you in selecting a proper person for such an undertaking. "I thank you for your anecdote relating to the Observations on the conduct and character of Christ. I could enlarge, and perhaps improve, that work. But I feel a great unwillingness to engage in the drudgery last winter I had a violent inflammaof correcting the press; especially as tion in my eyes in consequence of aplication to that business. late Dr. Thomas Leland's Sermons, in "Give me leave to recommend the * See p. 4. three three volumes, 8vo, as learned and eloquent performances; the first two, on the female character and attire, which seem likely to be read with pleasure by Mrs. Green. "I beg leave to present my best respects to her; and am, with great respect and esteem, Rev. Sir, "Your most obedient, Mr. URBAN, IN and very Oct. 12. N the Southmost of the two Chapels in the recess of the South transept of Winchester Cathedral is the following Inscription: "Here lyeth the body of Mrs. Mary Young, the wife of James Young, Esq. who was a Gentleman of the Privie Chamber unto King Charles the First, and dyed in his sayd Maties service. She was the daughter of William Bridges, the sonn of Thomas Bridges, Baron Chandois of Sudley. She died the 14th day of December, 1687, aged 80." Arms-In a lozenge Argent, on three piles Sable as many annulets Or, Young; impaling, Argent, on a cross Sable, a leopard's face Or, Bridges. On examination of various accounts of the family of Brydges, and the printed pedigrees prepared for the House of Lords on the claim of the late Rev. Edw. Tymewell Brydges to the honour of Baron Chandos of Sudeley, there does not appear to have been any Thomas Baron Chandos, nor any Baron Chandos within a period compared with the birth of the Lady above mentioned, who had a son named William. The copious article which treats of the title of Chandos in the last edition of Collins's Peerage, by Sir Egerton Brydges, mentions no such individual. Possibly some of your Correspondents devoted to genealogical pursuits may be enabled to solve this ambiguous and problematical point, which seems hitherto to have escaped the notice of all the writers on the subject of the Chandos Pedigree; and you will oblige me by offering it to the attention of your Readers through the medium of your Magazine. Yours, &c. DUNELMENSIS. Oct. 9. the Gentleman's Magazine, my reasons why a new Translation of the Bible should not be attempted without the concurrence of various aids and talents, well known and well accredited for the execution of such a work, I could not be indifferent to the Reasons in favour of a new Translation of the Holy Scriptures, which lately appeared from the ingenious and eloquent pen of Sir James Bland Burgess, especially as these reasons appear not only incapable of the good proposed by their Author, that of promoting the cause of Religion, but to have a directly contrary tendency. Mr. URBAN, H The main reason, on which the whole of the Tract is grounded, is of so grave and important a nature, as must (if substantiated) excite very uneasy feelings in the minds of serious and reflecting, but unlearned Christians. The Tract is intended as an answer to the Strictures of the Quarterly Review on Mr. Bellamy's new Translation, and on his Reply to their Strictures; and the bulk of the Tract is occupied in discrediting the authority of the Septuagint and Vulgute Versions of the Bible, and of our authorized English Version, which the Author calls "little more than a servile translation of the Septuagint and Vulgate," (p. 124.) The question relating to the three Versions I leave in very able hands, which want no coadjutor to support them *. The main ground, then, on which Sir James rests his Reasons for a New Translation of the Holy Scriptures, is thus stated by him: "As all our dearest interests, both temporal and eternal, depend on our obedience to the commands of our Maker revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures, nothing can be of more serious importance than to ascertain the fidelity of those Versions of the Sacred Text, through which alone a knowledge of thosecommands can be acquired by the majority of mankind. As many welldisposed persons, among whom were included many of our most learned *The authority of Jerome's translation, and of our English Version, has been lately very decisively vindicated by the Rev. J. W. Whittaker, in his "Inquiry into the Interpretation of the Hebrew Scriptures." See our Review for the present Month. EDIT. Divines, Divines, entertained considerable doubts on this point, the publication of Mr. Bellamy's New Translation of the Old Testament from the original Hebrew was favourably regarded by them." Again, towards the conclusion of the Tract, it is observed: "The question is too important to be left in a state of uncertainty. It has claims upon us of the highest and most serious nature, affecting all our dearest interests, both temporal and eternal. In order to obey a law, it is necessary previously to know distinctly what that law is. To the want of this certainty, arising from the manifold corruptions which have been introduced into the Sacred Text, must be attributed the origin and growth of those impious and abominable heresies by which the Christian Church has been invaded; every one of which, from those of the original Ebionites to those of the modern Unitarians, is founded solely on false interpretation of the Divine Law." (pp. 124, 125.) Again (p. 152), after contrasting certain passages of the authorized Version with Mr. Bellamy's, and giving the preference to the latter, it is concluded that "the matter is highly deserving of attention. It is a question of no less magnitude, than the choice between a blind adhesion to error, and a pure and perfect knowledge of the revealed law of God." This is a strong case; and, if it could be made out, a more important one was never laid before the publick: -a case involving "our dearest interests, temporal and eternal," inviting us to a deliberate choice between error and truth, between a "blind adhesion to error, and a pure and perfect knowledge of the revealed law of God;" and directing us to the only existing means of knowing correctly what the revealed law of God is, and of giving clearness and certainty to that which all the labours of the Reformation, and the learning of succeeding times, have left in doubt and uncertainty. But who, at the very first view of such a statement, can give any credit to it? Who will believe that Christ has so deserted his Church, and so forgotten the promise of his presence and grace, as to leave the world for seventeen centuries, that is, from the death of the last of the Apostles*, in darkness and error, and without a competent guide to the knowledge of his written Word? A Church may err, as the Church of Rome has erred; and, by its superstitions, and novelties, and corruptions, may obstruct the light of the Gospel; copies of the Scriptures are liable to errors + in transcribing and printing; and the best Translators to occasional misconceptions of their meaning: but the most incorrect copy that ever was printed, and the worst Translation of the very worst Church, never left the substance of the divine law, nor the work of our salvation, in any kind of uncertainty; never left it to any individual of the nineteenth century to bring that life and immortality to light, which has been revealed to the world by the Bible and its numerous Versions since the first general promulgation of the Gospel: much less can it be imputed to the authorized English Version, that the "majority of mankind" have still to learn what the will of the Lord is; and that they must wait for this most necessary and indispensable knowledge till Mr. Bellamy bas completed his undertaking. Yours, &c. S. T. P. Mr. URBAN, Westminster, Oct. 4. EING a constant reader of the B Gentleman's Magazine, I hope you will not refuse to oblige me by inserting a few lines, which I wish to meet the eye of Dr. Carey, who I see is a constant Correspondent of yours, requesting that he will condescend to satisfy me, and probably many other of your Readers, on the subject of that surprising facility in scanning Latin verse, which he professes to possess. In the Preface to a recent edition of his "Latin Prosody made Easy," he states that he spent only six hours The first Latin translation of the Scriptures was, probably, made before the end of the first century. When the King asked Dr. Kennicott, on the completion of his great work, what was the result of all his labours; the Doctor told his Majesty, that, of the immense number of various readings which had been collected from manuscripts there was not one that affected the truth of any Scripture fact, or the certainty of any doctrine of faith or moral duty. and and a half in examining the whole of Virgil, and marking all the poetic licences, for the compilation of his Clavis Metrico-Virgiliana. Though I am myself a tolerable prosodian, and sufficiently acquainted with the different poetic licences, I confess that assertion struck me as somewhat extraordinary, at the very first sight, and without entering into any calculations;-but when I found, a little further on, that this was at the rate of thirty-two lines per minute, I was still more astonished, and concluded there must be some mistake in the numbers; for, as every line of Virgil contains at least thirteen syllables, and many of them sixteen, Dr. Carey must have read, at the very lowest estimate, at least seven syllables in every second of time, which appears to me-I will not say impossible, since that gentleman has asserted it but certainly very extraordinary, even with all the advantage that he may have derived from his mode of reading by quantity, to which he appears to attribute in a great measure the facility of his performance. To conclude, Mr. Urban, I request Dr. Carey, if he should happen to notice these lines, to satisfy me, and others in my predicament, whether there is any error in his statement from a slip of the pen or of memory, or a mistake of his printer, and whether he really did examine and mark 32 lines per minute. MARCUS. SHOULD hope the following cursory hints are not altogether unworthy of the notice of your readers. Travellers can observe a great difference as to the degree of attention paid by the Magistrates and Roadsurveyors to the following clause in the Highway Act, 13 Geo. III. c. 78, 3. 26. "The Justices at the Special Sessions shall issue their precept to the Surveyor, where several highways meet, and there is no sufficient direction-post or stone already fixed or erected; requiring him forthwith to cause to be erected or fixed, in the most convenient place where such ways meet, a stone or post, with inscriptions thereon, in large legible letters painted on each side thereof, containing the name or names of the next market-town or towns, or other considerable place or places to which the said highways lead, &c." The information to be derived from hand-posts is so apparent, that it seems strange they are so much neglected! Churches, Chapels, Halls, &c. formerly seldom contained the modern luxury of artificial heat, or probably their original architect would have contrived a handsomer method of conveying off the smoke; that concern appears now to be left to the discretion of some inferior artificer, who frequently introduces an awkward horizontal length of pipe, or in many instances runs up a brick deformity on the building, with a glaring red chimney-pot on the top, interfering with the symmetry of the Church, &c. perhaps a beautiful fabrick of stone, and a national ornameat. Would a regular Surveyor suffer this? Some highly approve of the entire removal of Pulpit sounding-boards, others do not-I think the latter opinion prevails. Government, in order to enforce the observance of the Third Commandment, enacted the Statute of 19 Geo. II. c. 21. s. 13, and ordained that it should be "publicly read four times in the year in all Churches and Chapels, by the Minister, immediately after morning and evening prayer, on the Sundays next after March 25, June 24, Sept. 29, and Dec. 25; on pain of 51. for every offence, to be levied by distress, by warrant of a Justice, or Mayor." Many of the Laity are unacquainted of the existence of this Act. Whilst on the subject, permit me to observe, that the introduction of the sacred name of the Almighty in Tragedy or Comedy (whether antient or modern) is highly improper; yet it has been done by certain Dramatic Clergymen !! Yours, &c. Mr. URBAN, m. Oct. 9. N reply to the queries of your Correspondent, G. H. W. (p. 194) you will favour me by admitting the following observations. On the first, it appears to me that the quarterings in a shield are chiefly, if not altogether, introduced for the purpose of preserving the remembrance of a family, whose male line is extinct. Now the case in question supposes that the father of the lady has male heirs; therefore no reason |