painters, may grant the loan of these productions which have become doubly important from their associations and their universally applauded artistic merit; and when their return to the respective owners, becomes inevitable, their places will it is presumed be supplied by photographs from the originals, upon the principles of the most recent discoveries by prominently distinguished practitioners in that art.

On the whole it cannot be doubted that much of a beneficial and practical character will arise in the minds of many persons on inspecting the Johnsonian Chambers and their contents. Of Johnson's other early residences in the metropolis, we know but little, from the circumstance that Dr. Johnson's outset in life as a literary man, was one hopeless course of incessant and beggarly requited toil, and of bodily as well as mental wretchedness; hence his joyous resort to the social intercourse he found at Taverns, for his house presented but few comforts either to himself, or his wife poor dear Tetty.' He wrote his highly-praised poem of London,' in 1738, in the garret of a house in Exeter Street, behind Exeter Change in the Strand, then tenanted by a stay-maker | named Norris. In the same year he was lodging at No. 6, Castle Street, in the neighbourhood of Oxford Market, but the house has since been rebuilt. Onward for some years, Johnson and his wife shifted from lodging to lodging, many of them doubtless barely furnished and miserable in their accommodation, in courts in the vicinity of the Strand, Boswell Court, Bow Street, Holborn and Fetter Lane; but in 1747, having contracted with the booksellers for the compilation of an English Dictionary, Johnson to be near to Strahan, his printer, began to occupy the house, No. 17, Gough Square, and there, while busied in his lexicographical researches and composition, he wrote his admirable essays entitled The Rambler,' and 'The Idler'; but in this house, his wife died early in 1752, leaving him immerged in mental despondency and poverty. The stipend he drew from the booksellers while labouring on the Dictionary, finished late in 1754, but not published till May in the following year, is shewn to have been inadequate to his requirements; he was ever in need, and on balancing the accounts between the employers and the employed, Johnson was found to have consider. ably overdrawn the 15007., which had been agreed on. His literary exertions were incompetent to provide sufficiently for the passing day, and there are still evidences of his applications for loans to relieve him from arrest. In his mother's last illness, when nearly ninety years old, and dependent on him for subsistence; pennyless and in grief, impelled by sheer want, in the hope of opportunely obtaining money from the sale of his manuscript, he wrote in an incredibly short space of time, his world wide popular Eastern Tale, 'Rasselas,' a production that will only be forgotten when the English language shall cease to be remembered; he sold the manuscript to Johnston, the bookseller, for 1007., but ere this was effected, his mother had died, he attended

her funeral at Lichfield, and discharged all claims on her account. On his return to London in Jan. 1759, he relinquished housekeeping, quitted Gough Square, and endeavoured to locate himself either in Staple or Gray's Inn, but in March in that year he became a resident in Inner Temple Lane. In these chambers, Murphy in May 1762 deputed by Alexander Wedderburne, the future Lord Loughborough, to apprise Johnson of the proffered annuity from the King, of 300l., for Literary merit; found him within these panelled walls, in a home, which he emphatically states was the abode of wretchedness;' such indeed is too often the character of the dwelling of the potent spirit whose thrilling eloquence, the emanation of his jaded brain overcharged almost to madness, directs or excites myriads of his fellow countrymen, either too heedless, or too idle to think for themselves. Johnson momentarily hesitated to receive this pension, but on the following day at the Mitre Tavern, in Fleet Street, accepted it without reservation, still, his future political conduct marked the tone of its influence on him. Thus, within these walls about to be rendered familiar to, and recognizable by thousands, Johnson's transition from beggary to comparative affluence took place, and this fact will possibly induce the reflective consideration of many persons who may not idly, or without a purpose visit the JOHNSONIAN MUSEUM.

ARTIFICIAL DIAMONDS.

Another progressive step towards the possibility of creating Diamonds by a chymical progress has been duced. M. Gaudin has communicated to the Academy realised in the fact that Sapphires have been so proof Sciences, Paris, a process for obtaining alumina (the clay which yields the new metal called aluminum) in transparent crystals, which therefore present the same chymical composition as the natural stone known under the name of Sapphire. To obtain them, he lines a common crucible with a coating of lamp-black, and introduces into it equal proportions of alum and sulphate of potash reduced to a powder and calcined. He then exposes it for fifteen minutes to the fire of a common forge. The crucible is then allowed to cool, and on breaking it the surface of the lamp-black coating is found covered with numerous brilliant points composed of sulphuret of potassium, enveloping the crystals of alumina obtained, or, in other words, real sapphires or corundum. The size of the crystals is large in proportion to the mass operated upon; those obtained by M. Gaudin are about a millimetre, or 3-100ths of an inch, in diameter, and half a millimetre in height. They are so hard that they have been found to be preferable to rubies for the purposes of watch making. It is thus, that Chymistry by pursuing the recognised course of natural causes will in its operation achieve similar results and produce the diamond.

THE BIRTH OF THE LILIES.
Translated from the Latin, Current Notes, p. 78.

Thro' Asia's cities far and wide,
A rumour sped with rapid stride,
Thro' Europe's breadth from shore to shore,
That Holy Mary was no more!

Forthwith where'er this rumour spread,
The Saints by pious ardour led,
Forsake their homes, with anxious breast,
To find where Mary's ashes rest.
Crowd after crowd from every land,
With scrip on shoulder, staff in hand,
All urge, impatient of delay,
With naked feet their devious way.
Some to Jerusalem repair,

And round the Psalmist's city, where
The Virgin Mother had been said
Of late to dwell in humble shed.
Some to Achaia's regions speed,
And some to Ephesus proceed,
And search about in ev'ry place,
Where'er was seen her blessed face.
Yet of her corpse, or dust, no trace
Is seen in any earthly place;
Of her no monument is found,
No relic all the world around.
Now wearied of the tiresome road,
All sad reseek their own abode,
And wait with pious resignation,
For future, heavenly revelation!
At length from Palestine's blest shore,
The grateful news is wafted o'er,
'On spicy breezes toward the West,"
To cheer each long expectant breast.
That ere the hour of death, 'tis said,
The Twelve were summon'd to her bed;
Who buried, as the Church ordains,
With solemn rites, her cold remains.
That when the sun thro' orient skies
On the third morn was seen to rise,
The grave was void, and Mary flown
Substantial to the Saviour's throne!
How then to the astonished sight
A growth of Lilies, heavenly white,
In dense profusion sprung to birth,
'Where her pure body touched the earth !'❤
How day and night the Angelic throng
Were heard, with most melodious song,
To celebrate on harps unseen

The glories of their risen Queen !** Hence purer than the purest snows, The white, the modest Lily rose, Then first† unveil'd to mortal view, If Saint Neander's Tale be true?

Hawkshead, Dec. 9.

D. B. H.

* See Neander's Lecture on the Assumption.' But see Cantica Canticorum, II. 1, 2.

VISCOUNT DUNDEE AND HIS DEFAMERS.

Will that time ever arrive when history shall be written irrespective of political bias? when it will not be incumbent on a Tory to laud Mary of Scotland, and her grandson, Charles the First; to abuse the Protector, and to sneer at William of Nassau. Or, for a Whig to represent Lord William Russell as guiltless of treason; Algernon Sydney as the type of political purity; and Hampden as the disinterested opponent of kingly power.

At present, the system of wholesale praise, and wholesale vituperation is exceedingly offensive. Can any thing be more sickening than the perpetual laudation of Queen Mary, by Miss Strickland, or the attack uncalled for of Lord Macaulay upon Dundee? In the latter case, the noble baron in his anxiety to depreciate his victim, represented him in the first edition of his History, as Captain of the Town-guard of Edinburgh; and in this capacity superintending the progress of the unfortunate Argyle in his melancholy journey from Holyrood to the Castle. The idea of the fiercest' of the race of Grahame holding the position of Captain of the Town rats,' as they were called in common parlance, was too ludicrous not to excite at the time, the smile even of the sober Scotsman, and the new addition to the honours of the bloody Clavers' was received with shouts of laughter on the northern side of the Tweed.

Sir Walter Scott, has, we suspect, come nearest the real character in the picture he has given of Dundee, in Old Mortality; although we doubt much the correctness of the assumptions in his Notes derived from the allegations of Woodrow, many of whose statements are as regards him absolutely false. Thus the shooting of Brown, the Christian carrier, by the hand of Clavers is a fiction: this man was shot by six of the soldiers, not upon his refusal to take the oaths as ordered by the Privy Council; but because, in addition to his refusal, he positively declared he would not acknowledge the king, and had in his possession bullets and arms. The original letters on the subject from Clavers have been recently discovered, and will in due time be given to the public by the accomplished biographer of Montrose, who is engaged on a life of the much abused Viscount. Suffice it to say, that Clavers did what he was bound to have done, as a military officer, viz., obey the orders given to him. In the instance of Brown, he endeavoured to save him, but the unfortunate man preferred martyrdom.

In looking over a large volume of miscellaneous manuscripts put together in the oddest manner many years since by those having the [mis]management of the Library of the Faculty of Advocates, Edinburgh; the following Verses on the death of the subject of these observations were discovered, and transcribed as indicating that the opinions propagated by Woodrow and Walker, and adopted by Lord Macaulay, were not at least universally received, and that even in the lower orders of society individuals might be found who did admire the elegant, but uncompromising and determined Cavalier.

ANE EPITAPH UPON THE VISCOUNT of Dundee,

compos'd be an ignorant Tailzeor.

Fools and Phanaticks feast you now and sing
What God and good men grieve, you joy doth bring.
Rejoice, rejoice, the noble hero's dead,
Quhoes presence was to yow, MEDUSA's head.
The bold undaunted Lord quhoes verie name
Made Traitours pale, lives only now by fame.
Unmatch'd Dundee in honor's bed hath dyed :
His name and Cuntries glorie, boast, and pryde.
Dy'd in the best of causes, but too soone
A martire for the Mytre and the Croune.

No vulgar error, nor a nick-nam'd law
His loyal resolutiones could o'erawe.

Nor plausible subtilities, nor all

The new distinctions whereupon men fall,

To reconcile their conscience, and their Cryme;

Nor hope, nor fear, could make him serve the tyme,

Nor stain his noble soul with such pollutione

As bears the impress of this revolution.
No, no, he walk'd in vertue's straitest road,
And bid the event be, what best pleased God.
Though Truth grew Treason, he disowned it not,
Though loyall mens rewards the Traitors got.

And though the punishment to rebells due,
Be all that honest men can look for now,
Yet amidst these distractions firm he stood,
And what he said, he sealed it with his blood.
But oh! my quill's too weak, Death, Blood and Wounds.
And Traytors groans his Elegie shall sound.
His Epitaph be Mars shall written be,
And for his death whole hecatombs shall die.

The Epitaph is included among a great many other poems, if they are entitled to that designation, said to be the Mass of Davidson's Verses,' but who this individual -is not known. The Taylor's versification is not very harmonious, nevertheless some of the lines are sufficiently vigorous, and as the production of the ninth part of a man, the whole merits commendation.

was

In the same Collection occur the following lines on the death of King William. If they are the composition of Davidson, we incline to think the Tailor the better poet.

Cromwell did laugh to see King William come
Tumbling in haste down from the English throne,
He straight raise up with a great pane and grace
In hell to him to yield the hottest place.
Great Sir! he says, ye have me far outdone,
For ye had still the advantage as a sone:
In all things else a lyk it was our cause,
Pretending still religione and the laws.
But, who is your Successor? added he.

George; quoth King William. Then I plainlie see,
Like to my owne son Richard, he will be.
25, Royal Circus, Edinburgh.

J. M.

INEDITED LETTER OF BISHOP WARBURTON.

The following, believed to have been addressed to Thomas Newton, bishop of Bristol, has no superscription. Prior Park, Feb. 20, 1768.

My dear Lord, I am much obliged to you for your last kind letter of the 13th. I think you so right as to the scanty sum, that it shall be 500/ instead of 4001, which I shall take care shall bring 4 per cent. The course proposed is to be three or four sermons a year for four years; and the course to be printed.

You are likely to have a very mad Episcopal seat this spring, but I suppose, the rage of it, will be over before you will venture down. If you give us, this Session, a new bill against bribery and corruption, it will vastly increase contested Elections. For every penal act has some little attention paid to it, for the first three or four months. The Inhabitants of Bath expect a large harvest this next Spring Season, when full stomachs and empty pockets will bring hither the gentry of England, who cannot afford to pass the summer at their own seats, nor pass it any where without the Waters.

My dear Lord,

Ever most affectionately and faithfully yours, W. GLOUCESTER.

CIVIC CHAPLETS OR GARLANDS.

Among the ordinances made by the Grocers' Company, August 20, 1376, it was—' -'Ordained, That all the Company of this Mystery shall assemble once in every year, in the month of May, and dine together, which dinner shall be ordered and provided by the Two Masters for the time being, and after dinner, or, in the quaint wording of the original, when the mangerie was ended' the Wardens were to come wyth garlondes on ther hedes,' and the Company were to choose for their three Wardens for the year following those upon whom the forseid garlondes shallen bee sett.'*

The election Ceremonies in all the Companies usually took place after the feast, differing in some minor particulars, but all having reference to one usage. - that of crowning with chaplets and garlands the newly elected principals. To the wardens thus chosen, was to be delivered all money, papers and other matters which belonged to the fraternity, under a penalty of 102. If the Masters thought fit to choose one of their company, though not then present, the chaplet or garland was to be sent by the beadle to his house, and if in town, he was to accept the office without any refusal: if absent, he was to accept it on his return. Refusal to serve was followed by fine or expulsion. In the Wardens accounts of the Grocers' Company, 1401, the sum of xxd. is debited for the ij chapellettes pour couronner les nouvels mestres,' and xvjs. for refreshment, which seems to have been provided for this election- en payn, vyn, cuoystre' blaundrett et fromage.' When these ceremonies had terminated, and the loving cup had passed round, the minstrels and players began their diversions, and with their disport the entertainment ended.

*Heath's History of the Grocers' Company, Privately Printed, 1854, 8vo. p. 56.

In the Carpenters' Company, the custom of crowning the new Master and the Wardens is yet observed, and the crowns or garlands used for the purpose are the same which were in the possession of the company nearly three centuries since. The Master's crown is a species of cap of crimson silk velvet, embroidered with gold and silver lace, it bears the date 1561, as also the initials and merchant's mark of John Tryll, Master of the Company, also the armorial insignia of the City of London, and the Carpenters' Company.

The crowns of the Three Wardens hear the same date, and are very similar, bearing the initials of John Ansell, with his mark; Wolstone Wynd, and Thomas Pecoke. Later, the records of the Company under June 6, 1738, detail more particularly the proceedings

at these elections:

Directions for the Election of Master and Wardens of the Worshipful Company of Carpenters.

Firstly, The old Master and Wardens to walk once round the Hall with the Musick and Cupbearers.

From the old Master and Wardens to Crown the new Master and Wardens, and to drink to each other.

Then the new Master and Wardens to walk once round the Hall, with the Musick and Cupbearers as before.

N.B-To call the four Junior Livery-men to be Cupbearers.

The ceremony of crowning the Prime Warden and his Associates on their accession to office is still observed by the Fishmongers' Company.

Sir William Stone, Alderman of London, who was Mercer to the Queen, Anne of Denmark, and resided in Cheapside;† presented in 1606 to his Company the Clothworkers, four garlands of purple velvet, with the scutcheons of the company's arms on each richly embroidered with gold and silver twine, lined with crimson satin; and a fair case to keep the garlands in, for the

History of the Carpenters' Company, by E. B. Jupp, Clerk of the Company, 1848, 8vo. pp, 211, 212.

† Sir William Stone, Knt., Citizen and Clothworker, was the son of Reginald Stone, Citizen and Fishmonger. He was honoured with knighthood June 16, 1604, by King James the First, being then on a visit to Michael Hicks, Esq., at his manor of Ruckholts, Leyton, Essex. Three months after King James's visit to Clothworkers' Hall, Sir William being then Master of the Company, died Sept. 14, 1607, and was buried on the following day in the church of St. Mary Magdalen, Milk Street, here the singular inscription to his memory, is noticed in Maitland's London, vol. ii., p. 1140. His arms were, Or, on a pale azure. Three escalops of the first. Crest, on a wreath of the colours, a Sea-horse Or, crined Gules, tail proper, holding between his fore-feet, an escalop of the first.

Probate to his will was granted by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury, Sept. 17, 1607, to Lady Barbara Stone his widow and sole executrix. He died possessed, inter alia, of certain freehold premises, No. 11, Old Fish Street, formerly the Feathers Tavern, which is now vested in Mr. Samuel Gregory, a member of the Cloth workers' Company.

The Books of the Barbers' Company, under the date Jan. 20, 1629, have the following entry, relative to the garlands which are still in their possession

It is ordered, that there shall be made four Garlands of silver enamelled, garnished and sett forth after the neatest manner, according to the direction of the present Governors, for the choice of New Masters, at the charge of the House.

the Ironmongers' Company on their entering upon The garlands worn by the Master and Wardens of office, consisted of a fillet of velvet about three inches wide, padded and lined with silk, and ornamented with the armis and crest of the Company engraved on small silver or iron plates, and enamelled in their proper tinctures. A set of such garlands, one of crimson, and the other two of green velvet, evidently of considerable antiquity, is still in the possession of the Ironmongers' Company, but the custom of placing them on the heads of the newly elected Master and Wardens has long been discontinued *

De grege pasto, rure sato, duce nempe subacto Nec lac, nec segetes, nec spolia ulla tuli. See Burmann's Anthologia Veterum Latinorum tarum, tom. I., p. 403. The authors of the three which follow, are not known, to me at least.

In Statuam Regis.

Rex, Vates, Lyricen, Mavortis, Apollinis, Orphei, Gesto, cano, tango, sceptra, poëma, lyram.

Mors Trium.

Anguis, aper, juvenis, pereunt si, vulnere morsu:
Hic premit, ille gemit, sibilat hic moriens.

In Petri Bembi mortem.

Adria, Castalides, Ænotria, Tuscia, Bembus,
Nobilis, unanimes, florida, culta, probus,
Undique, conjunctim, subito, velociter, eheu!
Ablue, complete, prome, profunde, obiit,
Littora, Parnassum, lamenta, fluenta, senectam,
Humida, laurigerum, grandia, larga, gravem,
Fluctibus, elogio, singultu, lumine, leto,

Luctisonis, moesto, triste,t gemente, hilari.

In this epigram, consisting of eight lines, and each line of five words, the construction proceeds downwards, Adria nobilis, undique ablue littora humida fluctibus luctisonis. Castalides, unanimes, etc. See Vaslet's Ars Metrica, pp. 86, 87.

Citerii Sidonii Syracusani de Tribus Pastoribus.
Almo, Theon, Thyrsis, orti sub monte Pelori,
Semine disparili, Laurente, Lacone, Sabino.
Vite Sabine, Lacon sulco, sue cognite Laurens.
Thyrsis oves, vitulos Theon egerat, Almo capellas.
Almo puer, pubesque Theon, at Thyrsis ephebus.
Canna Almo, Thyrsis stipula, Theon ore melodus.
Nais amat Thyrsin, Glauce Almona, Nisa Theonem.
Nisa rosas, Glauce violas dat, lilia Nais.

See similar to this, two other epigrams in Burmann's Anthol. Veter. Latin. Poetarum, tom. I., pp. 445, 446.

H.

SIR JOHN SPENCER'S MERCHANT'S MARK. Sir John Spencer, knt., Citizen and Clothworker, was the son of Richard Spencer, of Waldingfield, Suffolk; and ancestor of the ennobled family of Northampton. His Town residence was Crosby Place, now Crosby Hall, Bishopsgate; and he held the manor of Canonbury which was alienated to him in 1570, by Thomas Lord Wentworth. Canonbury is still the property of the

The year of his mayoralty was one of great scarcity, and in order to provide against the dearth in the City, he by precept required several of the companies to import from foreign parts a certain quantity of corn, and to store the same in the City granary, in the Bridge House. See his autograph letter, addressed to the Lord Treasurer Burleigh, dated Dec. 23, 1594, Lansdowne MS. 76, fol. 92.

In the following year, for the better ensuring the safety of the City, he applied by letter to the Lords of the Privy Council, referring to their consideration the propriety of closing up some five or six of the postern doors made in the City Walls; and at the same time protested against the interference of the Queen in the appointment of the Recorder of London. His letter on this occasion addressed to the Lord High Treasurer and dated July 23, 1595, is extant in Lansdowne MS. 116, fol. 8.

Sir John Spencer in 1599 appears to have begun to decorate at considerable cost his mansion at Canonbury. An elaborately carved oak chimney-piece, yet remains, consisting of six figures, representing Prudence, Temperance, Justice, Faith, Charity and Hope; also the arms of the City of London, the Clothworker's company, the Spencer coat, and his merchant's mark, dated 1601, as here represented. The whole supported by caryatides of an elegant form. The arms of the Spencer family are also in other parts of the building, No. 7, Canonbury Place, now occupied as a Ladies' boarding school.

16 S01

PNE

He died intestate at an advanced age, and was buried remains were discovered at the east end of the south in St. Helen's Church, Bishopsgate. In 1808, his reaisle, wrapped in lead, shaped to the form of his body, and on the breast, inscribed - Here lyeth ye Body of Sir John Spencer Knight, Lord Mayor of London, 1593; whoe dyed ye 3 of March, 1609.

Administration of his estate was granted in 1612 by the Prerogative Court of Canterbury to Lord Compton.

†The correct ablative is tristi.

Islington, Dec. 8.

S. GREGORY.