: 542 Mr. Dyer on Coins. [Sup. To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine.. yered corn; Bacchus, the vine; Pallas, SIR, 'HE ftudy of medals is by many conThiered a frivolous and unprofitable puriuit ; and by many made the subject of fatire. But fatire may strike what is not vulnerable, and the blow may recoil on the affailant. Triflers, I confefs, are proper objects of ridicule, and triflers are found among the collectors of coins: but on what fubjects may not men trifle? Are not painters, poets, philofophers and divines frequently triflers, infuifera'ble triflers? Dulce eft defpere in loco—to trifle in feafon is fweet-is unquestionably an excellent maxim, but is liable to mifinterpretation, and may be carried beyond reasonable bounds, particularly if that rule of philofophy, laid down by an ancient writer, be admitted, "to perform nothing merely for the fake of pleafure, but with the profitable always to mix the agreeable."-Being convinced that the abute alone of the medallic art is entitled to ridicule, I beg leave, agreeably to my former notice, to fubmit to the confideration of your readers the following remarks: 1. The ftudy of coins may be rendered fubfervient to literary puriuits: I more particularly refer to ancient literature. It is not neceflary to inquire, a prefent, concerning the period when medals were firft invented: this would be a question rather curious, than ufetul; and though agitated with plaufibility, could not be fatisfactorily fettled. Suffice it to obferve, that the original method of commerce was, to exchange one commodity for another; and that when medals were first employed as fubftitutes, they were made ule of in rough bars. Thefe bars were valued according to weight and buik: hence the SHEKEL, the principal coin among the ancient Hebrews is derived from SHAKEL to weigh; to which ramnag from 15, to weigh, antwers among the Greeks. In like manner pendere, to weigh, among the Latins, is the origin of the words impendere, expendere, and other fimilar words, for pay ing and fpending money. An acquaintance with antient medals may be ferviceable to men of letters in the olive; and Triptolemus, the plough. Liber & alma Ceres, veftro fi munere tellus Chaoniam pingui glandem mutavit arista, Foung, inventis Achelola mifcuit uvis. Bacchus, and foft'ring Ceres, pow'r divine, Who gives us corn for neat, for water wine. Virgil Georgic: lib. i. Some have, in like manner, attributed the difcovery of medals to Janus or Saturn. Be this as it may, the ancients carried their religious ideas to their coins, and to treat difreipectfully a coin itamped with the head of their princes, was confidered an impiety. They were fond of adorning the reverfe of their medals with the heads of their deities, with their appropriate characters, and offices, or with the more ftriking circumftances and diftinations of their religious ceremonies. Thus we have Caftor and Pollux on horfeback; Apollo with his lyre: Cupid fharpening his darts, and with a quiver of arrows: Mercury with his caduceus, and Pegaius; and the like. The ancient Hebrews, in like manner, fhewed particu lar attention to their religious ceremonies on their coins, examples of which may be feen in the writers on Hebrew antiquities*. The religion of the Greeks is fuppofed by fome to be nothing but an uniform and impreffive fpecies of perfonification. Its peculiarities may be illuftrated by medals. With refpect to this view of the fubject, then, a good collection of coins may be confidered not only as a kind of MEMORIA TECHNICA, but as to many expofitions (laid immediately before the eyes) of the religious rites of remote periods. 2. The knowledge of HISTORY, and inquiries connected with hiftory, may be expedited by an acquaintance with medals. Many of the defigns on modern coins are as trifling and impertinent as the execution of the artift is mean and homely. This obfervation, however, is not intended as an infinuation, that antient art is entirely blamelefs. Some of the Roman coins, ftamped under their emperors, fpeak the language of adulation: but even in thofe tew inftances, it was the Vid. Villalpandus de Pond. & Numifmat, lib. ii. Diff. iv. cap. 22. language language of government, not the language of private individuals, confounding the customs of remote periods, and of different nations, or trumpeting forth their own praifes, and prefenting you with reprefentations of their own perfons. Mint-mafters were appointed, by the government, and the devices, more particularly in the purer days of the republic, were fignificant and inftructive. Every event of national importance is recorded on them, and many are noticed, that are left unrecorded by the hiftorian: fo that ancient coins may be confidered as monuments thrown over the devaftation of ages, or perhaps, more properly as cabinets, in which are preferved the arcana of ancient hiftory. Baron Spanheim, who, with fome diffusenefs, has written on the use of medals, establishes their importance from thefe long confiderations: firit from the injury of barbarous times, which transmitted the history of the first ages in an imperfect form: fecondly, from the contradictions of the Greek and Roman hiftorians: thirdly, from the character of hiftorians, who, through hatred, partiality, or negligence, have miltated facts: fourthly, from the conduct of hiftorians, in many relpects of great authority, but who have omitted circumftances of the utmoft confequence to the perfection and integrity of history *. The medal, faithful to its charge of fame, Through climes and ages bears each form and name:" In one short view fubjected to our eye, In like manner, the dates of remarkable events have been fixed, which, but for the light derived from ancient medals, would have been unknown; fo that the tudy of coins may affilt chronology: the names of various cities have been restored, and light has been thrown on ancient geography; the remembrance of remarkable cuftoms has been preferved; the form not only of the Greek and Roman letters, but of the Phoenician, the Hebrew, and Samaritan have been afcertained; and other particulars, throwing light on history, have been elucidated, confirming dubious facts, or difproving erroneous ftatements. 3. The medals of antiquity have been beneficial in the art of painting. This Ezechielis Spanheim Differtatio de præftantia et ufu numifmatum antiquorum, P. 97 543 divine art was advanced to great perfec-' tion by the Greeks. But where are the immediate proofs of its excellence? They are perifhed. The very few remains of the Grecian painters rather create forrow and regret, than pleafure and fatisfaction. Even Apelles only lives in reputation. The Venus, that obtained fo many admirers; the Alexander, with his thunder, that truck horror into beholders; thofe prodigies of skill, the productions of Parrhafius, Zeuxis, and Protogenes, are now no more: fo perifhable are the most exquifite exhibitions of the art of painting! The beautiful fimile of Cicero comparing the republic of his time to a picture perifhing through age, and lofing its genuine colours and lines, conveys a ferious and affecting truth, that one of the most fafcinating arts is the moft fleeting, and indebted for its remembrance to foreign affiftance. The importance of medals, with regard to painting, confifts not merely in their exhibiting patterns or exemplars, executed with tafte and ingenuity, but in their being, in fome inftances, the only means of preferving the defigns of the most perfect matters of painting. Nor need it furprife us, that painters have fo much contributed to promote the study of medals. Pifani, Bolderi, and other painters, firit revived it in the 15th century: Raphael had thoroughly ftudied the tub. ject, as well as Le Brun, and Rubens had a fine collection in his own poffeffion. It has been frequently obferved, that painters, ftatuaries, and medallifts worked from the fame defigns. The most beau tiful ftatues extant, all of them, make their appearance on ancient coins, though the figures that reprefent them were never conceived to be copies of ftatues, till the copies themselves were difcovered. This is true of the Hercules in the Farnefe Palace; the Venus de Medicis; the Apollo in the Belvidera; and the celebrated Marcus Aurelius on horfeback +. 4. The fourth ufe, that I fhall men tion, to which the ftudy of ancient medals frate the ancient poets. be rendered fubfervient, is, to illu may When it is recollected that the mint, as before obferved, was, in ancient times, entirely under the direction of government; that the medallist and the poet frequently worked from the fame models, lived at the fame period, and were habi tuated to the fame cuftoms; it is a natural + See Addifon's Dialogues on the usefulnefs of Ancient Medals, dial. i. confequsnce, 544 Mr. Dyer an Coins On this fubject it would be very eafy to multiply quotations; but I should unavoidably exceed my limits, and be in danger of merely repeating obfervations already made fo well by Mr. Addison, and therefore familiar to your readers. I fhall fatisty myfelt from a furvey of the "Three Series of Medals," brought forward by Mr. Addifon, to deduce one general obfervation, which is, that as the medallic art, and the art of poetry, as practifed by the ancients, reflect light on each other, fo modern poetry, by a comparative view of their qualities, may derive to itfelt confiderable embellishment, provided it indulge not in unnatural imitations, and incongruous imagery, and content itself with imitating the manner, rather than the matter of the ancients, otherwise it will lie exposed to the cen fure, Humano capiti cervicem pictor equinam II. I proceed to the fecond object of this effay, which is to confider the medallic art in reference to modern times. Among perfons acquainted with ancient and modern coins, I run no hazard of being contradicted, or charged with bigotry, when affirming, that the medals of antiquity are very fuperior to the modern. At prefent we feem rather ambitious of making new coins, than of collecting old ones. To give this propenfity then a useful direction, and with respect to antiquity, to carry the imitative art fo far only as confifts with propriety, would deserve commendation. To keep alive the remembrance of important events, whether they regard the caufe of literature and humanity, of public liberty, and of public happiness, or to defcribe useful inftitutions, public buildings, or national customs, fome way or other connected with the intention of ftriking the medal, would be no lefs honourable to the present times, than useful to pofterity: and the parties concerned would not be Horatii Opera, Londini Æneis Tabulis incidit Johannes Pine, 1733. [Sup. exposed to the imputation of useless ingenuity or of perfonal vanity. Inftead of writing a differtation on the fubject, I fend a medal by way of illuftration, together with a fhort account of its origin and object. June 3, 1796, was a memorable day to the freeholders of Herefordshire; seve ral confider it as the era of their independence. The character of that county, beyond many other counties in England, naturally inclines to independence, in confequence of the number of small freeholds, into which it is divided, and the productive quality of the land. Notwithstanding this, through the interett of great families, the county had been long reprefented in parliament by perfons who had not efpoufed the interefts of the people, and one (Sir G. Cornwall) had recently expofed himself to fufpicions detrimental to his popularity. Thefe circumstances, together with the critical fituation of public affairs, and the impatience of the people on account of the high price of corn, which they supposed to proceed from the war, agitated the minds of the yeomanry, and they determined to do themselves juftice. Accordingly, a few days before the laft general election, the people of the county rofe, as it were, by one general impulfe. Till the Wednesday previous to the election, they had done nothing actively. The day of election, however, being fixed for Friday the 3d of June, a meeting of highly refpectable and patriotic freeholders affembled, who finally determined to nominate candidates, to afford the people an opportunity of expreffing their fentiments to the old members. The perfons in contemplation were, Colonel JOHN SCUDAMORE, Capt. SYMMONDS, and ROBERT BIDDULPH, racter of friends to liberty, and only preEfq. all equally entitled to the chaferable one to the other as accidental cirthe objects of public confidence. cumftances might render them more or lefs Confiderations of long and acknowledged fervices rendered every preference in favour of the name of SCUDAMORE natural; and the recent injuftice heaped on Mr. BIDDULPH, at his late conteft for Leominster, excited a general indignation in the breafts of the people. It was, therefore, determined to put these fent exclufion of Capt. SYMMONDS, the two gentlemen in nomination, to the preobject of their equal attachment, and of their future hopes. The yeomanry of Herefordshire confidering Vol. V.] Tour in the Vicinity of Dublin. fidering the 3d of June, 1796, the era of their triumph over the powerful influence of great families, and of their afferting and obtaining their independence, had an appropriate medal ftruck, which I fend you. The figure of a buli has long been received as fymbolical of the dullness or tameness of the English character. On the FACE of the medal, therefore, appears a bull breaking its chains, and trampling them under its feet. The infeription on the edge, or, as it is called, the LEGEND, is fimply Herefordshire. The exergue, June 3, 1796. The reverfe is defcriptive of the THE 545 agricultural character of Herefordshire, [The prefent Effay was fent to the Editor nearly a twelvemonth ago, but was mislaid.] TOUR IN THE VICINITY OF DUBLIN, PERFORMED IN THE AUTUMN OF 1797. [Continued from the HE next houfe which claims any attention as an architectural front, in Dublin, is Lord Powerfcourt's, in William ftreet; the architecture is found, and not devoid of tafte; it has a large ruftic gateway upon either fide, but its being fituated in one of the narrowest freets, together with one of the moft crowded meat markets in that city, being within a few feet of the hall door, renders it almoft wholly unpleasant, and unworthy of notice. The marquis of Waterford's house, in Marlborough-street, is a good, plain, Bone-fronted building, detached from the freet by a heavy wall, but it has a space of ground in the rife, forming a lawn and fhrubbery, and occupied by offices, &c. of not less than four acres in the whole. The former beauty of this fituation is almoft entirely deftroyed, by the number of houfes recently built in that vicinity, which, at prefent, nearly furround it. Lord Aldborough is now building, in a fituation the most fwampy, and one of the lowest levels in Dublin (called the North Strand), a very handfome houfe, as to external appearance; the north or principal front is of Irish granite, or mountain. ftone, which is of a very durable texture, and of a very bright colour, being much whiter than Portland ftone, and of a grain which works perfectly neat and Tharp, as far as is requifite for mouldings, cornices, &c. but not for ornamental carvings; the other three fronts are of a compofition of plaifter laid upon brick walls, and are intended to refemble ftone afhlers; there is a neat baluftrade furrounding the MONTHLY MAG. Ne. XXXIII. Magazine for June.] roof, decorated with fome ornaments of 546 Tour in the Vicinity of Dublin. "a Play-boufe, pleafe your bonour," meaning a theatre; it would, perhaps, be unfair to call all this either madnefs or folly, but fomething like one or the other, or both, it certainly moft ftrongly refembles. The city of Dublin has been highly improved within the last two years, by the completion of a very great undertaking, namely, docks of great magnitude, now finished by the company of undertakers of the grand canal. The two, or rather one great floating-dock (there being no lock dividing them), the only divifion being a drawbridge of a peculiarly light, yet durable conftruction, is capable of containing 800 fail of merchant-fhips, and give fufficient space for each to carry on their trade with ample room; there are besides attached to this dock, three graving docks for building or repairing hipping; the dimenfions of the largest is 180 feet long by fixty feet wide; and they appear to me to be built upon the fame inproved conftruction as that of the great dock at Portsmouth, which I remember to have feen in the year 1795, a little after it was finished. The walls which inclofe, or, in other words, the embankments of thefe docks, are built in the moft perfect and durable manner, and reflect infinite honour upon the spirit of the Grand Canal Company of Dublin. This inland navigation is now fo far completed, as to form a perfect water carriage from St. George's Channel, or the Irish Sea, at the cañern fide of Dublin, into the river Shannon, which empties itfelf into the Atlantic Ocean, at the western fide of Ireland, and thus completely interfects the whole kingdom through its centre. Thefe docks were, upon the 23d of April, 1796 (being St. George's day), opened with much pomp and ceremony, in the prefence of his excellency Earl Camden, the prefent Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Countefs Camden, and a vaft concourfe of nobility, and others; his Majefty's yacht, the Dorfet, commanded by ir Alexander Scombergh, first entered, with all her colours flying, difplaying the royal ftandard, and firing a royal falute of twenty-one guns; all the revenue cutters then in Dublin doing the fame, as they followed in fucceffion according to rank. The Earl and Countefs of Camden, with their fuite, then went round the great floating dock, as well as into each of the Jocks (which were then, in form, named after Lord and Lady Camden), by which [Sup. it is joined to the fea, and alfo into each of the graving docks, in a very elegant barge; after which his excellency conferred the honour of knighthood upon the chairman of the Grand Canal Company, Mr. Macartney (now Sir John), an eminent attorney of Dublin. The Pont ensemble' of the city of Dublin had been, for the last ten years, in a daily habit of improvement, but feems to have received a check within the last two years, from the aweful hand of terrific folemnity, which feems to be elevated and fufpended for the purpose of ftriking fome decided blow, more wonderful, if poffible, than is daily occurring in the European world. The general appearance of the city of Dublin (which is about two miles and a half long, and one and a half broad) is extremely beautiful, from the number of public buildings, &c., the principal streets are well paved and lighted, and the flagged way at either fide, with fome excep tions, broad and tolerably clean, which is a difficult matter to preferve, from the almoft continual wetness of the climate; but the inferior freets are equally filthy and diabolical. The places of that city which form fquares, are St. Stephen's Green, in the centre of which is an equestrian statue of George the Second, finely executed in copper, and elevated upon a large pedeftal; the ground in this fquare, being one mile in circumference, is occupied by cattle grazing in the winter feafon, and laid down as meadow in the fummer, the produce of which belongs to the lord mayor of Dublin, for the time being. This fquare might be made much more beautiful, by being inclosed with iron railing, which is now only by an ugly and uneven parapet wall. Merrion-fquare, delightfully fituated, moft of the houses having a view of Dublin Bay and Wicklow Mountains; the centre is inclofed by an iron palifado, erected upon a handfome cut-ftone plinth and bafe, and a neat fhrubbery running round the whole, immediately withinside the railing; the houfes are all of a very large fize, much uniformity has been preferved in building them; and the appearance altogether is highly improved by the rear of Leinfter-house, and lawn, forming the weft side of this fquare. Rutland-fquare already defcribed, from its lofty trees and handfome walks, fituated upon the declivity of a hill, adds much to the beauty of Dublin; and Mountjoyfquare, not yet finished, but began upon a piece |