indulgence of Sir J. F. Leicester, we have had an opportunity of inspecting his ancestor's MSS. which are now in his possession, at Tabley; and we found them to contain ample collections for the hundred of Bucklow, written by Sir Peter Leycester, in a very neat hand, but scarcely any thing relating to other parts of the county, except a large volume of pedigrees, written also by Sir Peter himself, being chiefly copied from the collections of Mr. John Booth, of Twenlow, with some additions made by Sir Francis Leycester, Sir Peter's suc

cessor.

"The earliest printed work relating to the county palatine of Chester, is that generally known by the name of King's Vale Royal, for which the editor, Daniel King, an engraver, seems to have enjoyed a much greater portion of fame than was his due. The first part consists of a brief geographical account of Cheshire, the course of its rivers, a summary ac count of the several hundreds, brief descriptions of the city of Chester, the market towns, and a few of the principal villages; lists of the gentry in each hundred, and engraved coats of arms in alphabetical order; and anuals of the city of Chester, all by William Smith, rougedragon pursuivant at arms in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. The most valuable article in the second part is an Itinerary of Cheshire, divided into the several hundreds, made in the year 1622, by William Webb, M.A. who was clerk in the mayor's court at Chester, and had been under-sheriff to Sir Richard Lea in the year 1615. The second part contains also a short history of the Earls of Chester, their barons, the Bishops of Mercia and Chester, the government of the county and city, and a more copious epitome of the annals of the latter, compiled from the corporation books, by William Aldersey, twice mayor of Chester, who died in 1617. A work entitled a History of Cheshire, in two volumes 8vo. was published in 1778, being merely a copy of the Vale Royal, with extracts from Sir Peter Leycester's History of Bucklow Hundred; an anonymous History of Nantwich, written by the Rev. Mr. Partridge, which had been published separately in 1774; extracts from a brief History of Ec- ̧ cleston, which had been published by the Rev. Thomas Crane in 1774; the Diary of Edward Burghall, some time rector of Acton, relating chiefly to public tran sactions during the civil war; and ex. from Pennant's Journey from Ches

tracts

ter to London, and other modern publica. tions. The Life of St. Werburgh, written in verse by Henry Bradshaw, a monk of Chester, and printed by Pynson, of which only two or three copies are known to be extant, contains many historical particulars relating to the city of Chester.

"The manuscript collections for this county have been uncommonly numerous; an account of most of these is given in a Sketch of the Materials for a History of Cheshire, in a Letter addressed to Thomas Falconer, esq. and printed, first auonymously in 1771, and a second edition afterwards with his name, by Foote Gower, M.D. who meditated a history of the county upon an extensive scale. The most important are the very volu minous collections of the Randal Holmes, (of which name there were four in succession) now among the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum; containing an immense mass of copies of charters, deeds, &c. taken from public records and private muniment rooms; pedigrees; letters, and various other matter collected by them, or copied from the collections of others; the collections of John Booth, esq. of Tremlow, Mr. Roger Wilbraham's collections for the town and district of Nantwich; Mr. Jolm Warburton's collections, consisting of the descents of manors, and an account of the principal families; those of the Rev. John Stones, rector of Coddington; and those of Mr. William Vernon, of Shakerley in Lancashire, consisting of many folio volumes, comprising extracts from deeds and other authentic instruments, descents of families, and a variety of matter relating to several towns and parishes in Cheshire. The collections of Lawrence Bostock, Sampson Erdswick, Ralph Starkey, Randal Catherall, Roger Wilcoxon, the three Chaloners, and others, most of which are now among the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum, are also described; and two very valuable epitomes made about a century ago from the several voluminous collections relating to this county; the one containing the descent of the principal landed property, compiled by Dr. Williamson, a physician, under the title of "Villare Cestriense;" the other an epitome of the ecclesiastical history of each parish, with an accurate account of charitable donations and institutions, under the title of " Notitia Cestriensis," compiled with great industry by Dr. Gastrell, bishop of Chester, by whose means the large collections of the Holmes, being offered to sale after the death of

Randal

Chester.

"It appears by Dr. Gower's prospectus, that he was possessed of the originals of some of the collections which he has described, that he had transcripts of some, and that others had been confided to his care by their respective owners. At the time of his death, which happened in 1780, the plan of his work is said to have been nearly completed, and the publication was undertaken in 1792 by John Wilkinson, M.D. who became possessed of all his materials for the history, except such as had been lent to Dr. Gower, and on his death had been returned to their respective owners. Dr. Wilkinson having afterwards declined the task through want of sufficient leisure to fulfil his intentions, all Dr. Gower's collections, with such additions as had been made to them by Dr. Wilkinson, came into the hands of the late William Latham, esq. F.R. and A.S. who, in 1800, published renewed proposals for a History of Cheshire, visited several parts of the county, and made some progress in the undertaking; since his death, which happened in 1807, most of the Cheshire collections above mentioned, have passed again into the hands of Dr. Wilkinson, in whose possession they now are. The Rev. Mr. Watson, rector of Stockport, made collections relating to that town and neigh bourhood, with the intention of publication: they are now in the hands of his son."

Chester forms, of course, the most curious article in the parochial topography. Under Whitegate, we have the following account of Nixon, the Cheshire prophet:

Here are deposited certain MSS. which are said to be the original prophecies of the celebrated Nixon. The popular story of this supposed prophet, which has been printed in various forms, and is current in every part of the king

dom, was first published in the ex part of the last century. The account given of him is, that he was an illiterate plough-boy, his capacity scarcely ev ceeding that of an ideot, and that be seldom spoke unless when be uttered his prophecies, which were taken down from his mouth, by some of the byestanders: many traditions relating to bim are still current in the neighbourhood of Vale Royal, where his story is inplicitly believed; but there are many circumstances which combine to render it suspicious. An anonymous author of the Life of Robert Nixon, the Cheshire Prophet," places his birth in the reign of Edward IV. but Oldmixon, in his Life of him, says that he lived in the reign of James I. and it is asserted in a letter annexed to the last-mentioned pamphlet, which has the signature of William Ewers, and the date of 1714, that there was an old man, one Woodman, then living at Coppenhall, who remembered Nixon, could describe his person, and had communicated many particulars of his life. The tradition at Vale Royal House, where the above-mentioned manuscripts have been long preserved with great care and secrecy, favours the for mer account; and were it not so much connected with Vale Royal and the Cholmondeley family, who are known not to have settled at that place before the year 1615, the story would have more the air of probability, if placed at a period so remote. If, according to Oldmixon's account, so extraordinary a person had lived at Vale-Royal in the reign of James I. we might expect to find some mention of him in the parish register either at Over, or Whitegate, both of which have been searched in vam; and it is almost incredible that he should not have been noticed by his contemporaries; yet no mention is made of him either by Webb, who in his Itinerary of 1622, speaks much of the Cholmondeley family, and relates a visit of King James I. to Vale Royal for four days, or by the industrious Randal Holme, who has recorded all the remarkable events and circumstances of his time. Indeed, whate ever be the age assigned to Nixon, if his story and his prophecies had been known in the seventeenth century, it seems very extraordinary, that neither of the Holines should have inserted a single note concerning him, in their voluminous and multifarious collections relating to this county; and that Fuller, who published his "Worthies" inime

diately

A more splendid work upon the

FINE ARTS

than the first volume of "Specimens of Ancient Sculpture, Egyptian, Etruscan, Greek, and Roman, selected from different Collections in Great Britain, by the Society of Dilettanti," has not often made its appearance. Prefix: d is a "Dissertation on the Rise, Progress, and Decline of Ancient Sculpture;" confined to the mimetic or technical part of the art. To go minutely through the contents of this dissertation would occupy more space than can be here allowed. It opens with a few remarks on Imitation in general, and the primitive chiorts of art; traces sculpture first among the gyp tians, and afterwards among the Hindoos, Phoenicians, and Etruscans; and devotes a space of letter-press to the Greek and Ronan periods of its history, adequate to the prodigious superiority which those nations evinced over every other state, in works of real taste and genius.

"The most ancient monument of Grecian sculpture (it is observed) now extant, is unquestionably the broken piece of natural relief in the ancient portal to the gates of Mycenae, which is probably the same that belonged to the capital of Agamemnon, and may therefore be at least as old as the age of Daedalus. It represents two lions rampant, sufficiently entire to afford a very tolerable idea of the style of the work. The plate of it given in the tail-piece to this discourse, is engraved from a sketch made upon the spot, and corrected by admeasurement, by William Gell, esq. and though this does not afford any very accurate information as to the details of the work, the three compositions of the engraved gem given with it are perfectly competent to supply such information; they being in exactly the same style, and having been found in the same country, by the same intelligent and industrious traveller. The head of Minerva on the silver tetradrachmn of Athens, engraved in the tail-picce to this volume, fig. 1. is probably copied from the sitting figure of Minerva, made by Endæus abovementioned; it being far the most archaic of the three variations of the head of that goddess observable on the Athenian coins, previous to those which seem to have been copied from the great statue of brass made by Phidias, and placed in the Acropolis.

"Next to these, the most ancient specimens of Grecian art are probably to be found on coius; and as the dates of

many of these can be fixed with tolerable accuracy, they may serve to show the style and degree of merit of many more important objects mentioned by ancient authors; and to ascertain the periods when others now existing were produced. Coins are said to have been first struck in Greece by lhido of Argos, in the island of Egina, eight hundred and sixty-nine years before the Christian æra; and we have coins still extant of that island, which seem, both by the rudeness of the sculpture, and the imperfection of the striking, to be of nearly as early a date: but as the device is only a tortoise, with an angulated incuse on the reverse, they do not throw much light upon the general style of art.

"Coins however of a form and fabric equally simple and archaic, bearing the devices of other Greek cities both of Furope and Asia, are found with the fi gures both of men and animals; but as they have no letters, there are no mie aus of ascertaining their respective dates; though they exhibit evident proofs of the infancy of the art; being shapeless masses, generally of native gold, nut stamped with the die, but rudely driven into it, first by a blow of a hammer, and then by a square punch or rammer. According to Herodotus, the Lydians were the first who struck coins or inade use of money; but it is probable that Greek artists were employed in sinking the d.cs, as they were afterwards in other works of sculpture, by the sovereigns of that empire. Stamped money in brass was was not in use till long after; none of the Greek being of an early date, and that of the Etruscans and early Romans being all cast in moulds."

The subsequent specimens of Grecian sculpture quoted, are arranged in chronological order.

The following observations are on some of the supposed works of Phidias.

"74. Of Phidias's general style of composition, the friczes and metopes of the temple of Minerva at Athens, published by Mr. Stuart, and siace brought to England, may afford us come petent information; but as these are merely architectural sculptures executed from his designs, and under his directions, probably by work.uen scarcely ranked among artists, and meant to be seen at the height of more than foty feet from the eye, they can throw but little light upon the more important details of his art. From the degree and mode of relief in the fritzes, tiny appear

to

to have been intended to produce an effect like that of the simplest kind of monochromatic painting, when seen from their proper point of sight; which effect must have been extremely light and elegant. The relief in the metopes is much higher, so as to exhibit the figures nearly complete; and the details are more accurately and claborately made out: but they are so different in their degrees of merit, as to be evidently the works of many different persons, some of whom would not have been entitled to the rank of artists in a much less cultivated and fastidious age."

The account of the Roman period of Sculpture is intermixed with a cursory view of the real principles of Roman polity, and the nature and extent of its influence on other nations.

The plates which accompany this work, are no less than seventy-five in number, exclusive of vignettes: many of them in the best styles of the best artists. Among those which are more peculiarly adapted to attract notice are, the head of Osiris, a fragment of a sta tue in green basaltes; a marble head, from the collection of the marquis of Lansdowne; the side view of a colos-al head of Hercules, from the Townleian collection, now at the British Museum, found in the ruins of Hadrian's Villa, at Tivoli; Hercules taming the hind, from the same collection; a bas-relief of one of the Dioscuri; the figure of an Aliptes or Auointer, from the muscum of Mr. R. P. Knight; a colossal head of Minerva; the Minerva from Mr. T. Hope's collection; Hygeia, from the same collection; the ancient copy of the Discobolus of Myro; the bronze figure of Jupiter, from Mr. Knight's collection; the maride Hercules, in the marquis of Lansdowne's; the figure of Venus or Dione, formerly belonging to Mr. Townley; the head of Mercury; the head of one of the Homeric heroes, from the earl of Egremont's collection; a pantheic bust of the mystic Bacchus; and a figure of Serapis, from Mr. Knight's.

A specimen of the descriptions which accompany each plate, may be given in that of plate 40. illustrating the Hercules helonging to the late marquis of Lans

downe.

Plate 40.-"This statue was found with the Discobolus, plate 29. in the neighbourhood of Rome; and the late Mr. Townley, to whom the choice of them was immediately offered, was in

duced, by the drawing and description sent to him, to prefer the latter; though when he saw them, he instantly changed his opinion; this Hercules being, with the exception of the Pan or Faun, át Holkham, incomparably the finest male figure that has ever come into this coun try, and one of the finest that has hitherto been discovered. It has also the great advantage of being quite entire, except some splinters of the club, and the part of the right leg between the transverse dotted lines in the print. The head has never been off; the hair and features, even to the point of the nose, so seldom preserved, are unbroken, and Parts of the the lion's skin is its own. surface of the body are indeed corroded, but not so as to injure in any degree the effect of the whole, which is peculiarly impressive and imposing; it being placed in a gallery worthy of it, and in the most advantageous light possible; which has enabled the artist, who drew and engraved it, to produce a print so accurate and complete, as to render all description superfluous. We know of no very fine statue, of which so faithful and adequate a representation has been given to the public."

In the front of the class of

POETRY

we place "The Lady of the Lake," by Mr. WAITER SCOTT. The scene of this phem is laid chiefly in the vicinity of Loli-katrine, in the Western Highlands of Perthshire.

The time of action

includes six days, and the transactions of each day occupy a canto. The following are the titles of the different cantos. 1. The Chase. II. The Island. III. The Gathering. IV. The Prophecy. VI. The Guard V. The Combat. Room.

Our first specimen shall be from the fifteenth stanza of the first canto:

From the steep promontory gazed The stranger, raptur'd and amazed, And, What a scene were here,' he cried, For princely pomp and churchman's

pride; on this bold brow, a lordly tower; In that soft vale, a lady's bower; on yonder meadow, far away, The turrets of a cloister grey; How blithely might the bugle horn Chide, on the lake, the lingering morn! How sweet, at eve, the lover's lute Chume, when the groves were still and

mute!

And, when the midnight moou did lave Her forehead in the silver wave,

How