MR. RIMMEL'S ART-PRODUCTIONS, ETC.

It would be as impossible for us to forget our own existence as it would be to neglect calling attention, year by year, to the charming productions of Mr. Rimmel, and to the debt of gratitude which every one owes to him for the wonderful—the marvellous -improvements he has effected in the elegancies of life. No man, of our age or any other, or of any nation under the sun, has done so much to create a better and purer taste in the production of a thousand and one not only elegancies, but essentials, of the household; and no one has done more than he in creating a refined taste in the public mind in all matters, pictorial or otherwise, that come within the wide scope of his influence. No matter what the article may be, or whatever its use, that Mr. Rimmel determines upon introducing, he brings to bear upon it a mind thoroughly imbued with the best and truest principles of Art; a genius fertile in invention and adaptation; and an energy that never flags and never allows difficulties to thwart it. His name is a "household word " wherever one turns, and Rimmel's Goods" in every corner of the globe command, as they eminently deserve, the first place in every sane person's estimation. His novelties are many and elegant. His Christmas Cards and Satchets are unequalled in their style, and are distinct in their manifold beauties from those of any other house. Foremost among them, as usual, are those upon which flowers are gorgeously painted by hand, in body colours, on white satin; they are gems of Art, and fit to be carefully preserved under glass. Others with charming bouquets of flowers on dead-gold ground, and others again where the ground is solid black, are wondrous in their effect; while others, with mechanical arrangements, are marvels of ingenuity. In fancy crackers, Mr. Rimmel still takes the lead of everybody; none equal them. "Costume Crackers," containing choice and droll articles of dress "Lottery Crackers," containing elegant articles of jewellery or other tasty devices; "Floral Crackers," each of which contains a beautiful flower, delicately scented, and fit for the hair or bosom of any lady in the land; "Fan Crackers," each containing within its folds a screen fan, which will last and wear for years; Rose Water Crackers," holding curious little metal fountains of sweet scent; "Conversation Crackers," a wonderful improvement on the old "Conversation Cards" so much in vogue; and "Oracular Crackers," for telling your destiny; these are only some of the tempting varieties produced by Mr. Rimmel, and prepared by him to add to the delight of family parties. They are, beyond praise, for presents at any season, and at all times-the perfumery caskets, boxes, cases, and baskets, are all that can be desired, even by the most fastidious. Filled with elegant bottles of the choicest perfumes (and Mr. Rimmel's perfumes are the choicest in the world), with toilet soaps, and other articles, these caskets, etc., are the nicest, and at the same time most useful of gifts. But it must not be supposed that Mr. Rimmel is only famed for elegancies. Far from that, his toilet soaps, whether in bar or tablet, are of finer quality and more deliciously scented than those of any other maker. He is a large producer of these, and it would be impossible to obtain better. The samne remark will apply with equal force to the cold creams, the pomades, the aquadentine, the toilet vinegars and all the rest of the useful articles made by him. We cannot better close our notice than by referring our friends to the series of elegant presents which Mr. Rimmel, to save his friends trouble in selecting, gives them the choice of at a guinea each. Doubtless the guineas will be sent in by hundreds, and thus hundreds of friends be made happy by the receipt of the presents.

Notes, Queries, and Gleanings.

CURIOUS MONUMENTAL PEDIGREE INSCRIPTION, LOWTHER CHURCH,

WESTMORELAND.

I COPIED the following singular pedigree-inscription during a recent visit to Lowther Castle and Church in Westmoreland. It occurs in the South Transept of Lowther Church, where it is engraved on a tablet above a recumbent effigy of a knight in plate armour. Beneath the inscription is a plain black tablet let into the stone, which has, there can be no doubt, at one time borne, or been intended to bear, the verses. It is now quite blank and plain, so that the " verses Sir Richard Lowther "vttring at his last breth" are literally blank verse!

was

LL. JEWITT.

CJR del

Harl Mss 6163 fo 23°

THE RELIQUARY.

APRIL, 1877.

ON ARBOR LOW-III.

BY WILLIAM HENRY GOSS.

Ir is no new discovery that ever until recent times, it has been the habit of peoples to bestow a magnificence and durability upon the temples of their gods immeasurably surpassing that of the habitations of men. This may have arisen from the greater piety of our ancestors, or from the circumstance that the temples of the gods were the creations of the labour and the wealth of communities, while the importance of domestic edifices bore proportion only to the wealth of individuals. And, in what land do we find monuments even of great national battles, which approach in importance those of the temples as exhibited in their ruins ? Such columns as those of Trajan and Vendome are not mementoes of battle-fields so much as the monu

ments of great conquerors. It is a strange and inconsistent theory of Mr. Fergusson's, which would deprive of its religious monuments all the long period of the ancient Celtic occupation of Britain, and assign to a post-Roman period what monuments are found here; although they are of so rude a character as to point distinctly to an antique rude period; and of a style so utterly inconsistent with the Roman or post-Roman period in this land; and even to assign them to a Christian king, when there is no symbol of Christianity about them; and as records of great battles, in an age of literature, of which battles they are perfectly dumb. Had Mr. Fergusson, instead of assigning the stone circles of Britain to the Arthurian age, devoted half as much learning, labour, and skill to showing that King Arthur himself was but a myth, and his attributed deeds but fables, I think he would have undertaken much the easier task of the two. Records of the chivalrous king are only found in works which are evidently romances; in which he is a Christian giant, or a knight and king of knights flourishing at a period long before knighthood was instituted in this land; a Briton with habits and usages all belonging to a date long subsequent to that assigned to him, being the habits and usages

VOL. XVII.

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