The Dutch Church at this place was built by the founder of the colony, Van Reibeck, in 1654. It is a handsome stone structure, with two uniform fronts and detached wings, adorned with pilasters surmounted with urns. The interior is supported by four columns of the Tuscan order, and adorned with a magnificent organ. A ponderous pulpit, supported by two lions, and the front ornamented with an anchor, symbolical of the name of the Colony, are the first objects that strike a stranger on his entrance into the church. The columns and walls of the structure are hung with the escutcheons, swords, and gauntlets of the first governors, with their standards suspended from the roof. The steeple is lofty, surrounded with a balustrade, and adorned with a good clock. In the body of the church are interred a few persons of note, who held high situations under the Dutch government *.

The Dutch congregation begin to assemble at divine service on Sundays at nine o'clock in the morning; which continues till eleven o'clock: when they are succeeded by the British, consisting of the civil and military servants, a few residents, and the greater part of the soldiers of the garrison not on duty. During the English service a band of music plays occasionally; and at one o'clock it terminates.

The following information I collected from Captain Benjamin Franklin Seaver, an American, who touched at the Cape in the month of March 1812, respecting an island hitherto almost unnoticed +, and, I

*On a future occasion I shall describe those monuments most worthy of notice; viz. that of the noble family of Van Reede, Van Oudtshaerne, Van Reibeck, Vander Staal, Adeler, Yale, &c. &c. with the tablets erected to the memories of Barnard Armstrong, and other English officers civil and military, who rest from their labours in this church. [For those of our Countrymen we shall be particularly obliged. EDIT.]

+ The only account of this island (a very imperfect one) is in Anderson's Account of the Embassy of Lord Macartney to China; but when on the point of exploring it, a storm came on, which compelled them to abandon the project.

believe, but little known, Tristan d'Acunha, or da Cunha. It is situated in Latitude, by observation, 37°. 7. S. Longitude 11°. 43'. W. from Greenwich; and was discovered by the Portuguese about the year 1449. It is in the tract of navigation between the Cape of Good Hope and the River Plate in South America, and in the course of ships bound to the former place or to India. An American of the name of Jonathan Lambert, with two other persons, landed there in January 1811, in order to establish themselves for the purpose of cultivating the soil, and rearing stock for the supply of any vessel or vessels that might occasionally touch there. The progress that these three adventurers had made in the pursuit of this object at the time that Captain Seaver landed there, on the 28th of February following, was (by his report) that they had with great exertion and much industry cultivated nearly ten acres of garden ground with various vegetables growing with great luxuriance.

;

On the 22d of December 1811, H. M. Frigate President, Captain Warren, at the request of Lord Caledon, late Governor of the Cape, and by order of the Lords of the Admiralty, touched there; and the Master, by an accurate survey, ascertained the extent of the island to be about 28 miles in circumference. In the centre of the island is a high peak, similar to Teneriffe, which can be seen in clear weather at 20 miles distance and from the base of this mountain a meandering stream proceeds to the cliffs on the North side of the island, where it disembogues into the sea. The best winds for anchoring are between W. S. W. and E. S. E. Southing. The surf that beats on the shore is never violent; and in fine weather there is scarcely any appearance of it; and persons on shore can have daily communications with shipping in the worst weather. The soil is a rich black mould, about two feet deep; and the face of the country is covered with small trees and brushwood.

The rocks that surround the island are continually visited by sea-elephants; and the offing produces great quantities of mackerel, perch, and crayfish, which are easily taken with

the

the hook and line; the woods abound with wild hogs. Mr. Seaver observed to me, that should this island be hereafter found worthy the attention of the British Government, it is capable of being fortified; on the West side of an inlet the ground rising from the beach nearly 100 feet, and by placing six pieces of cannon on the acclivity in a proper position, they would, if properly served, most effectually check an enemy, and prevent him from landing. On the S. E. of the island there is a considerable inlet or bay, which has not yet been explored. The island, from the offing, appears of a conical form: there is good anchorage off the North head in from 17 to 20 fathoms water. When the cascade bears by compass 8 E. distance three quarters of a mile off shore, the anchorage is defended from the surf by a reef of coral, and lies open about four points of the compass from N. N. E. to N. N. W. the depth of water from 10 to 12 fathoms *.

The most accurate draught of the island extant is that in a set of charts published by Dalrymple in 1781, copied by him from a chart made by Monsieur Donat, à Frenchman, who touched there in the corvette L' Heure du Berghen in September1767. Yours, &c. ANTHONY SINNOT.

IN reply to your Correspondent, p. 444 of the last volume, there is no reason to suppose that the introduction of the Leopard's Face in the grant of Arms to those who distinguished themselves in the Royal Cause during the unhappy commotions which agitated this country about the middle of the Seventeenth Century, was any way connected with either the royal or national ensigns, or had any reference to the

* In addition to the information which I collected from Mr. Seaver, concerning this interesting island, I was favoured with the perusal of two letters addressed by him on the subject to Lord Caledon and the Hon. Admiral Stopforth, now on this station; explaining the local advantages attached to the island if taken under the protection or óccupied by the British Government,

loyalty so unquestionably manifested by the persons to whom your Correspondent alludes.

It was not the uniform practice of Garter Walker to introduce the Leopard's Face into the grant of Arms to those who had rendered themselves conspicuous for attachment to the Royal Cause, and who had made great sacrifices to support it.

Many grants of Arms were made after the Restoration to distinguished Loyalty, where the augmentation alluded to formed no part of the coat assigned; amongst others, I have an original vellum emblazoned, illuminated and written in Latin, signed by Sir Edward Walker, Garter, with the scal appendant, dated 1666, granting the following armorial bearings to Humphrey Burlton of Ribbenhall in the County of Worcester; viz. Argent, on a Bend Sable, three cres cents of the first within a border of estoiles.-The grant recites the many and great services rendered by the said Humphrey Burlton to Charles I, and his Successor in the Monarchy, as well as various acts of military valour displayed by him at Bristol, Gloucester, and Naseby; and had Garter, or his associates in the College of Arms, deemed the armorial bearing alluded to as indicative of unshaken and acknowledged loyalty, they would not have omitted that badge in the assignment to so diștinguished a personage as Burlton of Ribbenhall. J. G.

entailing his estates, after the death of Lady Ellys (subsequently Baroness Le Despenser), on the Hobarts and Trevors. The present Earl of Buckinghamshire (on whose family the Hampden estates are intailed) possesses the seat at Nocton, once occupied by Sir Richard Ellys, who be queathed the furniture, plate, &c. as an heir-loom, to accompany the mansion according to the limitations in his will.

William Strode, esq. of Barring ton, in the county of Somerset, was the heir at law of Sir Richard Ellys; and made a fruitless effort in the Court of Chancery to invalidate the will, and wrest the property from the noble families on which Sir Richard had settled it. The decree of the Chancellor, on sixteen sheets of parchment, finely ornamented, I have in my possession, as well as a highlyfinished miniature of Mrs. Cheeke, Sir Richard's sister.

The book written by Sir Richard, and alluded to by your Correspondent, is in the library of Sir John Dashwood King, Bart.

ANTIQUARIUS.

Randalstown, co. AnMr. URBAN, trim, June 30, 1812. HAVING been on a visit a few

weeks ago at Lissanoure, the seat of the late Earl Macartney, and now the residence of his niece and representative Mrs. Hume, I passed, according to my custom, as much of my time as possible in the Library, which (as might be expected om having been the collection of able a scholar as his Lordship) exhibited a noble assemblage of capital works. Among others, one caught my attention in a particular manner, so much so, that I thought a description of it might be interesting.

This book is a manuscript, of the size of a small quarto or royal octavo: it is written on vellum, aud contains 490 pages; is bound in red Morocco, richly ornamented, and the leaves gilt.

The exquisitely fine writing, the beauty and clearness of the letters, and finish of the whole, riveted my attention so much, that I had the book in my hand for a few moments before 1 examined the titlepage, when, to my great surprize, I discovered it to be the "Leviathan"

of Hobbes. I think I never beheld so fine a specimen of penmanship, or rather of limning, as the title-page presents. The whole has something of the execution of Buckinger.

The title-page is divided into compartments, according to the fashion of the day. The upper, and largest part, exhibits a city, in which the most conspicuous or rather ostentatious figure is a Church; in the back ground is a mountain; from behind which issues a colossal figure of a man, from the region of the heart upwards, crowned with an imperial crown, and holding in his right hand a sword, and in his left a crosier; his body and arms being wrought in most curiously with buman heads. The centre-piece is a mantle, containing the title" Leviathan; or the Matter, Forme, and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil; by TuOS. HOBBES, of Malmsbury.” On each side of this mantle are five smaller compartments, each containing an emblem. The five under the sword-arm are as follows: 1st, A fortified Castle; 2d, a Royal Crown; 3d, a piece of Field Ordnance; 4th, Colours, Spears, Matchlocks, and other warlike figures; 5th, a General Battle. The five beneath the left or crosier-arm are these: 1st, a Church *; 2d, a Mitre; Sd, a Thunderbolt; 4th, several Forks, typical of Syllogism and Enthymem, a horn with

Dilemma" inscribed on it: in short, embles of Logick and Sophistry; 5th, a General Council; and beneath all, “Anno Christi 1651,” on a tablet.

When we consider the genius of Hobbes, and the tendency of his writings, it does not appear a matter of much difficulty to interpret the figures above described; and while I hope that the whole will not be thought beneath the observation of the learned, I beg to offer, with diffidence, my sentiments.

In the first place, I conceive that a sarcasm is cast upon Religion by the prominent situation of the Church. The Colossus appears to me to mean, that all human Government is upheld by force, the body or the mind being kept in bondage, the heads expressing the union of opinion, under Power and Superstition, to that effect. The Castle has opposite to it a

*I think Old St. Paul's.

Church;

Church; the Crown, a Mitre; the Cannon, a Thunderbolt, i. e. Anathema, &c. The emblems of War are balanced by those of Controversy; and a General Council is paired (perhaps not unappropriately) against a General Engagement.

It remains now to make some in

quiries concerning the identity of this extraordinary Manuscript.-And first, when we consider the beauty of the workmanship, and the preservation in which it appears, no one can conceive for a moment that this was the copy from whence the printed impression could have been taken. And from the care observed in the writing, and the magnificence of the binding, &c. it is natural to conclude, that it was destined to be received into some public library, or by some personage of no ordinary rank. Accordingly I find in Bayle's Dictionary *, art. Hobbes, that while in Paris he prepared a copy of his "Leviathan,” written on vellum "in a marvellous fair hand," and had it presented to King Charles the Second. I own I was surprised to find, that it had been coolly received by that Monaren; but if this was the copy (and I am strongly induced to believe it to be that very one), I am by no means at a loss to account for its being turned out of the Royal Library in the succeeding reign, and having found its way into the world at large. Indeed, when I reflect upon the bigotry and ignorance of King James II. I cannot but look upon the book to have gotten a notable aspersion of holy water, and am only

amazed that it was not at once committed to the flames.-And I conceive this to be the Manuscript presented to Charles the Second for another reason; it is this: When I contemplate the book, I really think the life of man too short to execute such another, at least with such care; and if we admit that there was but one, this then must be it. I am sure, that had it been once in the possession of a member of the House of Cavendish, it never would have been dismissed the Library.

One word, upon reflection, I think necessary to state.-The question here is that concerning the identity of a

*This is not in every edition. I forget. that whence I drew this account; and I quote from memory respecting the fact.

SI was sauntering through Fleet

street, nescio quid meditans nugarum, I chanced to see, just by Bolt-court, the original of the inclosed, which I have transcribed for your use. It contains a medley of Epigrams and Apophthegms. It is said of the Mohammedans, that they scrupulously treasure up every scrap of tattered leaf with which they meet, fearful lest any neglect should be shewn to some portion of the Koran, which might thereon chance to have been written. A similar sort of zeal for a dissimilar object may account for the preservation of the inclosed, by I. G. D.

On the King.
When clos'd (far distant be the hour!)
Thy life's eventful story;
When fled the Glories of a Crown,
Be thine a Crown of Glory!
On a Person highly extolling a Doctor
of the name of Cook.

Dr. Cook you commend-in his praise
I unite;
[be right.
Let a Cook be your Doctor*, and all will
On the Statue of Dr. JoHNSON, in

St. Paul's Cathedral, where he is
represented as leaning on a round
pillar.

What Sage is that, devoid of playful smile?

'Tis Johnson, musing on a rounded style. On Gen. PACK's Brigade being mentioned in a late Gazette announcing our Successes in Spain.

Of a General Pack here some mention is made, [were said! Of a general Pax would that something To a Friend just returned from the Funeral of a rich Man. "Well may'st thou mourn, of Nummulo bereft !" [left!" "Full well I may, for nought to me he

* The Eulogist was a self-starved valetudinarian.

On

Marriage.

A bad Husband, or a bad Wife, is a decayed tooth-scarcely to be bornehard to be removed. The contrary true of a good one; deep fixation being in that case assured comfort. The union of a fond and pious pair is like the lambent intermixture of two flames issuing from one hallowed fire, and both aspiring towards their kindred sky!

On Errors of Judgment. Error of Judgment often originates in Obliquity of Will.-A foul stomach causes a disordered head.

On Virtuous Leve.

The felicities of an affectionate and virtuous couple are permanent, because pure. They are the precious fragments of the primæval constitution; they are the scattered Roses of Eden's Bower, which, though withered, have not even yet altogether lost their fragrance.

On the Marriage-Ring.

It seems to have escaped the notice of writers upon this topic, that among the other uses of the Ring in the nuptial ceremony, this also may be intended-to signify the perpetuity of the matrimonial compact; a ring, or circle, being the emblem of Eternity.

P. S. It is a common expression in Cheshire, when a person is very ill, to say, they have had “a bad ache,” so pronouncing it.

Mr. URBAN,

Jan. 8. EADING lately in a volume of

Rthe London Post, or Halfpenny

Journal, a periodical news-paper published in 1723, 1724, and 1725; I observed mention made of the Funerals of different persons who had lain in state, and were buried in great funeral pomp, from different LiveryHalls in the City. I have extracted an account of three Funerals, one from Sadlers'-hall, and the other two from Mercers'-hall, which I send you.

London Post, Dec. 9-11,1723.-A few days ago, died at Richmond, in Surrey, M. Crop, an eminent Dutch merchant. day night in Sadlers'-Hall, Cheapside, The body, having laid in state last Monwas afterwards interred very splendidly at the Dutch Chapel in Austin Friars."

London Post, Nov. 20-23, 1724.Last Friday night the corpse of Major Rose, a Jamaica Merchant, was interred at St. Peter's, Cornhill, from Mercers'Hall, in a most pompous manner; the body, laid in a leaden coffin, and dressed in the richest linen and lace, and scarlet hose with gold clokes, after the custom of America.

London Post, January 8-11, 1725.Last Thursday night, the corpse of Mr. Thomas Guy, late Citizen and Booksel ler of London, after having lain in state at Mercers' Chapel, was carried with great funeral pomp, to St. Thomas's Hospital, in Southwark; where it is to remain deposited till the finishing of his Hospital for Incurables; and then to be laid in one of the squares, with a Tomb stone and his Statue upon it.

That several of the City Livery Halls were formerly let out for Funerals and other uses, appears by the records of several of the Companies *; Sadlers' Company a very rich Pall of and there is now belonging to the crimson velvet, having on one side of it embroidered in raised work of gold

* Among the Benefactions to the Stationers Company occurs "A herse clothe, of clothe of gold, pouderyd with blew velvet, and border'd abought with blacke velvet, embroidered and steyned with blew, yeìow, red, and green;" the gift of John Cawood, who died in 1572.-EDIT.

thread,