Oswald was canonized after his decease, and was the first English saint at whose tomb miracles were said to be wrought. In one of the windows of Durham Cathedral, is a representation of Aidan in his episcopal robes, carried up to heaven by two angels. This history gives some insight into the character of the Saxons, as a people; and at the same time shews the benefi we must, suppose, not of the most refined, or spiritual kind. Conversions by the interference of royalty, can never be free from suspicion; conversions by means of a Royal interpreter, are liable to still stronger hesitation. However, the Saxons, certainly, were in many instances improved by conversion: from bad to worse, they hardly could change, if the histories of their roving bands be authentic and correct. sonable and so sensible caused the eyes of all who were present to be turned on the speaker, who was no other than Aidan, a private monk, but one who it seems had studied mankind though in a cloister; and being selected as the successor of Corman, proved that his knowledge did not rest in theory. On his arrival in England, he repaired to the court of Oswald, whose zeal for the conversion of his subjects was so great, that he undertook to be the inter-cial influence of Christianity, though, preter of Aidan's sermons, and to give the words in Saxon literally translated from the Pictish language. By the joint efforts of the king and the bishop, so great was the success of the gospel, that in seven days, fifteen thousand persons are said to have been baptized: some of whom forsaking the vain pleasures of the world, betook themselves to a solitary and religious life. Many of Aidan's brethren having heard of his success, left Scotland to be partakers of his holy work, and Oswald, in order to give them a permanent residence, founded the monastery and bishopric of Lindisfarn, and nominated Aidan as he well deserved to be, the first bishop. The situation was probably chosen by the monk himself, on account of its seclusion from the world, and its nearness to the royal residence at Bamborough. A religious fraternity was soon formed, which adopted the rules of St. Columba, its great master, as the bond of the society: and by a rigid adherence to his precepts and discipline, they became the benefactors and civilizers of the adjacent country, and the fame of their virtues transmitted to us by the Venerable Bede, bas extended even to the present time. Materials are wanting for a history of the progress of Christianity in England; for instance, as to the establishment of means of instruction; the foundation of parish churches, schools, &c. We have reason to think, that many establishments in behalf of learning, once extant, were ruined amid the calamities of the times; and were not restored : these are lost to history. On the other hand, the numbers of parochial establishments for worship were augmented, as the times became less turbulent, and the religion of the cross increased the number of its votaries. Population no doubt, determined, the situation of parish churches in most cases, though now at an inconvenient distance from the residence of the parishioners. Often too, the accommodation of the Lord determined the locality; and hence, as he erected the edifice, he claimed the patronage of it. Mr. B's. views of this subject are given in a note that we transcribe. Oswald, the founder of the church and monastery of Lindisfarn, is represented by Bede as a model of piety, humility, and benevolence; under him the land flourished in peace and plenty. His bounty to the poor is recorded in a singular anecdote, of which, as there is a miracle attached to it, we hardly can tell how much to believe. On a solemn feast day, seeing a multitude of poor people at his gates, he sent them from his own table many delicacies that had been prepared for himself, and ordered the silver dish on which they were carried to be divided among them. Aidan trans- The progressive increase of parish ported with this act of charity and humi-churches may be marked by the following lity, took the king by the right hand, and authorities. The first of the Constitutions prayed that it might never fail nor be con- of Egbert, Archbishop of York, 750, ensumed; his prayer was heard, for it re-joins that every priest shall use the utmost mained after his decease fresh as if alive, and being enshrined in a silver case, continued for many years in St. Peter's Church at Bamborough, to work as many miracles as the priests chose to invent, and the people to believe. diligence in rebuilding his church; in the second canon, they are charged to ring the bells of their churches at proper hours day and night; about 960, in the 2nd chap. of Edgar's Ecclesiastical Laws, every Thane who had a church with a ce metery on his land held by charter, was to confer upon it one third of his tithes the increase of parochial districts is thus evidently pointed out. By the 9th of the Confessor's Ecclesiastical Laws, it appears there were then three or four churches, where, at an earlier time, there had been but one; with which, and the state of the country, as described in this respect in Domesday Book, there could be but little difference; yet Sir H. Spelman thinks, the number was much increased before and during the reign of W. Rufus: and it is not impossible that such districts as are not entered with the words ecclesia or presbyter, have become parochial since the formation of that survey. Beside Parish Churches, there were cells, hermitages, chapels, and minor places of worship-nor ought we to forget the larger establishments, priories, abbeys, &c. What proportion the places of worship now extant might bear to those then supported, and what proportion both might bear to the population of their times, respectively, were a curious subject of enquiry. A very proper conclusion to Mr. B's. work has been furnished by Mr. Repton, who has long studied the subject, and is as capable as any of our countrymen, of forming an opinion of the dates of the several edifices described in these volumes. As this question has lately somewhat agitated the antiquary world, and different opinions have been maintained; as it may also be pleasing to such of our readers as reside near these remains as to be able to assign a date to them, we add Mr. Repton's scale of ages, and with it close our Report on the contents of this interesting, elegant, and skilfully conducted undertaking. The list also serves as an index, shewing the principal contents of the work. FIRST PERIOD: Anglo Saxon or Norman Architecture to the Year 1100. | St. Sepulchre, Cambridge, (circular part ;) Henry I. Crosses, fig. 2, 3, and 4. Abbey Church, Malmsbury. Colchester Castle. Stewkley Church. St. John's Church, Devizes. St. Peter's, Northampton, W. the Conquer. Rochester Castle. Priory Church, Dunstable Ditto, additions and Chancel 1110-1180 .*1200-1250 1172-1185 *1150 1148 1140-1148 *1240 Temple Church, London (cir- Priory of Tynemouth Glastonbury Abbey. Middleham Castle .*1200-1250 .*1110-1210 .*1160-1250 1240 1153-1190 *1180 1190-1240 Cloisters of Norwich (E. S. and 1527 Boringdon Honse (chimney piece) 1640 1570-1610 W. sides). 1297 to about 1390 or 1400 Browseholme IIall Croyland Abbey (N. aile of nave) ante Ditto (eastern part of the about. 1246 1880 Ditto (two transepts) Ditto (pointed windows) Warwick Castle Bolton Castle Caernarvon Castle 1291 1250-1300 of different dates ditto. 1800 about 1880 about 1800 Redcliffe Church (N. door-way) about 1360 Porch of St. Mary's Church Beauchamp Chapel Croyland Abbey (the nave) Walsingham Priory (the East end) Font at Walsingham Skirlaw Chapel 1480 1613 1501-1515 1449-1464 1417-1427 .*1420-1540 .*1460-1530 1400 1560 about 1460 1540 Ludlow Castle (gate, stables, &c.) Crosby Hall Winchester Cross Leighton Buzzard Cross about Henry the Seventh's Chapel Old House at Islington Oxburgh Hall Etou College . Nether Hall, Essex West Stow Hall about 1520 1502-1560 1559 begun 1482 Those articles marked (by us) with a star[*], are such as W. Repton expresses uncertainty about; or what he has dated on probability. W. R. has treated the progress of English architecture from the Conquest to Henry VIII. in a 1490-1530 paper communicated to the Society of 1490-1540 Antiquaries, with drawings, &c. which 1490-1540 cannot but be interesting. 1520 The Rape of Proserpine: with other Claudian was a poet, who amid the decay of taste and elegance in writing, under the reigns of Honorius and Arcadius, maintained, by the power of his genius, the reputation of the almost expiring art of Poetry. The age was too far removed from grandeur, to allow a full effect to his efforts; and the political circumstances of the period perverted much of his talent to purposes destitute of interest to succeeding times. He was long a court poet; and he sung, as the minister, his friend and patron, directed his song. Nevertheless, not all his subjects were forced on him; some he chose, and these we now peruse with a pleasure, not unmingled, because we judge of what he might have done, from these instances of what he has done. In them, he has risen superior to his time; he has supplied the poverty of his matter, says Scaliger, by the purity of his language, the happiness of his expressions, and the melody of his numbers. He seems to possess all the majesty of Virgil." Mr. Strutt in his preface informs us, that after having enjoyed for a long period, the favour of the court, his prosperity was interrupted by the ruin of his friend and patron Stilicho, the great general and minister of the Western Empire; and the few remaining years of the poet were passed in poverty and disgrace ;"-but others rather describe his latter years as passed in retirement and learned ease. Certainly, his works do not bespeak poverty; and equally certainly, few of them have the air of having been perfectly finished, whether the hurry of a court life were, or not, the hindrance to his final revision of them. The friend of Stilicho could not but hate Rufinus, by whom Stilicho was supplanted and ruined; and his poem on the subject of that malefactor's atrocities, is evidently the production of a mind full of resentment for wrongs, and keenly vindictive of a patron's fame. All poets, then, are not ungrateful; and Claudian is an instance of gratitude. But, on the leading poem of this translation, he was at liberty to invoke his muse, and to profit by ber inspiration, as his fancy prompted; here we behold him as a poet, relieved from the shackles imposed on him as a courtier. In this he has tried his strength with Ovid; has contemplated an enlarged plan, and has taken more extensive ground for his poem. But, the probability is, and we wonder how it could escape Mr. Strutt, that both the latin poets are the echoes of earlier performances. Whether what is usually known as Homer's Hymn to Ceres,' be really the work of that illustrious bard, we are not called to determine: the prevailing opinion, we believe, is in the affirmative; but, beyond doubt, that Greek work is earlier than the earliest of the latin bards; and it had been well worthy of this translator's taste, had he so far compared that hymn with Claudian's poem, as to have pointed out where the two poets agree, and where they differ, with the causes of their conduct. Claudian commences his story at a period the most early, by far: Pluto is pained at enduring a celibacy forced upon him, while all the other gods have consorts; and sends his complaints to Jupiter. The sovereign of the sky gives directions to Venus to beguile Proserpine, the daughter of Ceres, into a situation where the grim king of Hades might most easily carry her off; Venus obeys, reserving her purpose in her own breast. She associates Minerva and Diana: the goddesses decoy the fair damsel to ramble in the vale of Enna, when she ought, in obedience to her mother's commands, to have staid at home, and been diligently engaged on her embroidery. Homer seems to have thought the fate of nations and heroes a more suitable subject for the councils of Olympus, than that of a simple maid, though the daughter of a goddess.-Only on great occasions his thunderer shakes his locks, in that full dignity, to which the poet either had not yet wrought up his ideas; or which having already depicted, he declined again to introduce, at no small maids hazard to his fame. He risqued nothing, | And pluck'd her fav'rite grief-inwoven flow'r. however, by describing a flowery vale; Meanwhile, dispersed around, the roving and his verses are thus translated by Mr. Hole. They afford many points of comparison with the poem of Claudiau. In Nysia's Vale, with nymphs a lovely train, Sprung from the hoary father of the main, Fair Proserpine consum'd the fleeting hours, Throng in each various path, as when a swarm In pleasing sports, and plucked the gaudy They spoil the treasures of the field; some flowers. Around them wide the flaming crocus glows, Through leaves of verdure blooms the opening rose; The hyacinth declines his fragrant head, The fair Narcissus far above the rest, And please the ruler of the shades design'd. The joy dispensing fragrance spreads around, Disparted. -the rocking ground Claudian is more diffuse he has indulged himself in the description of an earthquake, which, of course, in some degree, diverts attention from the blooming Proserpine. Now in the flow'ring fields the virgin train chnse Pale lilies to entwine with violet buds; They spare not thee, sad Hyacinth, nor thee, More ardent to collect the fragrant spoils, Too sure prognostic of her future fate! Invincible, resists embattled hosts, Disdain the sportive band: her tresses loose While thus in virgin pastime speed the hours, "The morning sky glows with light's earliest Lo! suddenly a tumult wild and loud ray, "And yonder star, shedding sweet influence, "Heralds th' approach of day's more fiery orb, "Come, sister-nymphs!" She spoke, and reach'd her hand, Arises; turrets bow their trembling heads, And tow'rs and lofty spires are levell'd low; No cause appears; the Paphian queen alone Acknowledges the sign, and trembling feels A doubtful pleasure, mix'd with secret fear. |