[ 290 ] MINOR CORRESPONDENCE. In the review of Mansford's Scriptural Gazetteer, in our October Magazine, allusion was made to our national history of St. George and the Dragon, as being a trite legend common to various persons or nations, in vindication of which we intended to refer to the Foreign Review, No. vii. p. 159. From that work it plainly appears, that Sir Tristrem, in his Metrical Romance, and that Wolffdicterich in the Heldenbuch, or Book of Heroes, has precisely the same combat with a dragon as is ascribed to St. George, and that such an incident is therefore nothing more than a hack embellishment much in vogue. We have been informed that the beautiful epitaph on Captain John Cooke, quoted in our last from Sir R. C. Hoare's Wiltshire, was written, not by the widow, but, in her name, by that truly natural and elegant poet, the Rev. W. L. Bowles. In reference to the observations of J.G.N. (p. 194), on Irish Peerages, an OLD SUBSCRIBER remarks, that "the number of extinct peerages was correctly stated at thirtyfive, in the article on Lord Clermont. Your Correspondent probably rates the number at thirty-seven, by erroneously including Roscommon and Barrymore in the list. The former has been claimed and admitted; and the latter, though extinct in the Earldom, has been claimed in the Viscounty, and the case is now before the Lords. As to the Earldoms of Dublin and Ulster, there was never any doubt as to their being available extinctions. How the error of inserting Roscommon in Lord Bloomfield's patent has been rectified, I do not precisely know; but probably by inserting Milford in its place. A title not claimed for a year is not thereby extinguished; it is only considered extinct pro tempore; but the Act particularly provided that such supposed extinction was not to militate against the after claim of any individual thinking himself entitled ; and that, if such claim should be successful, no new right should accrue to the Crown from the next extinction; or, in other words, that four extinct Peerages should be necessary to justify the next new elevation.-Sir David Baird (p. 274) was succeeded by his nephew, Captain (now Sir David) Baird; his elder brother, Robert Baird, of Newbyth, esq. having pre-deceased him." This respected Correspondent's remark regarding Mr. Leeson has already appeared at the close of our last volume. J. P. O. inquires for portraits of the following noblemen and others of the time of Queen Elizabeth, viz. Henry second Earl of Pembroke, Henry second Earl of Lincola, Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montacute, Edward Lord Morley, Edward 3d Lord Stafford, Arthur Lord Grey de Wilton, John eighth Lord Stourton, William third Lord Sandys, Henry Lord Cheney, Sir Roger Mauwood, Sir Thomas Gaudy, Sir William Fitzwilliam, Sir Marmaduke Dayrell. The noblemen above named were commissioners on the trial of Mary Queen of Scots, Manwood and Gaudy law officers of the crown, Sir William and Sir Marmaduke governor and deputy governor of Fotheringay Castle. H. W. M. in the course of examining the ancient church of Romsey, was directed by the sexton to a painting found, as he said, during some alterations in the edifice. The subject appears to relate to a portion of our Saxon history, and consists of a series of figures, one of which, a man bound to a tree, naked and pierced with numerous arrows, seems intended for Edmund, King of the East Angles, who was put to death in that manner by the Danes, in one of their barbarous irruptions. "This imperfect notice (adds H. W. M.) may perhaps induce some one of your numerous antiquarian Correspondents to furnish you with an ampler description, accompanied with a drawing.” It was not mentioned in our memoir of Dr. Wollaston (in our last Supplement), that he was at his death Senior Fellow of Gonville and Caius College. A CONSTANT READER would feel obliged to any of our Correspondents who could afford him information respecting the Rev. Wm. Ainsworth, the author of the Bible in verse, a copy of which, published in 1652, is now in the possession of the querist, viz. -where he was born, what family he was of, where educated, what livings he possessed, when and where he died, and whether he published any other works besides the one before mentioned. In the conclusion of his dedication of that work to his patron Samuel Sunderland, esq. he styles himself Mr. S.'s "humble servant, never unfaithfull, though always unfortunate, W. Ains. worth." What did he allude to by the lastmentioned mournful expression? Some particulars respecting the author's patron Samuel Sunderland would likewise be very acceptable. E. C. inquires who is the author of a book entitled "The Life and Reign of King Richard the Second, by a person of quality, 12mo, London, 1681." H. J. who writes respecting the Irving family, is informed that we are not acquainted with W. B.'s address. THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE. OCTOBER, 1829. ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. Mr. URBAN, ANECDOTES OF EARLY PRINTING. Exeter, Oct. 1. of celebrated libraries, stating the ex- The sums given at these sales evince that the passion for obtaining early printed books is rather increased than abated. The Latin Bible, printed between 1450 and 1455, sold at Hibbert's sale in June last for three hundred guineas, whereas the rare Latin Bible printed from blocks, and the first edition, sold at Willett's sale in 1813 for only 2571. 5s. The keen desire of possessing these curious ancient relics, creates an interesting competition, and we can hardly calculate what still more antiquated articles might obtain, if of fered to the public. I do not recollect any of Laurence John Coster's* wooden block and wooden type books being brought to market; these I reckon would have been esteemed precious morsels for spirited collectors to have contended for. Laurence printed many books, and some embellished with cuts, both on vellum and paper, among others, Horarium, Speculum Salutis, Speculum Belgicum, and two editions of Donatus; which were all printed between 1430 and 1440 †, in which year he died, and his son-in-law Thomas Peter succeeded him, and continued printing books with separate wooden types for several years. About A name imposed on him, from a distinguished public office he held at Haerlem, called Coster, hereditary in the family. +Some writers inform us, that Laurence carried on the printing business 12 years before he died: the date in that case would then be 1428, which would make this æra of printing 402 years to the present year. In 1450 a Latin Bible printed with metal types was published, and supposed to have been six or eight years in printing. 1444 came into use the metal or fusile types, typi mobiles, which was a considerable advance in the art of printing; though the improvements since have not been so surprising as many imagine; for a few days since I very minutely examined a fine copy of the rare and splendid edition of Cæsar's Commentaries, printed by Nicholas Jenson at Venice, 1471; it is in Roman pica, or somewhat larger; the type is a fair round letter, and little inferior to the letter of our modern Bibles; several of the Roman capitals are so finely executed, that they would have been no discredit to a letter foundry of the present day. The invention of printing appears to have been long known before it was practised in England, and it is to be traced many ages back. The Chinese performed printing at a very remote period, and the Romans were not ignorant of the art; the Roman sigillum, with which they stamped their earthen vessels when the clay was soft, is not uncommon, and is a species of printing. These implements were sometimes made with letters hollow by incision, and also in relievo; that in the Duke of Richmond's collection is a brass instrument, with raised letters and border, having a ring handle on the back to hold and impress the letters on paper or vellum; the words it impresses are Caius Julius Cæcilius Hermias, a private person. In Morel's "Thesaurus Numism." an account is given under the reign of Claudius, of a medal of large brass, with many lines in Roman capitals, which the artist might have accommodated to the purposes of printing on vellum and paper with little difficulty, if he pleased. The lines are, "S. P. Q. R. Aquas Claudium ex fontibus qui vocabantur, Caerulus et Curtius a milliario xxxxv, et item anienem novam a milliario LXII, sua impensa in urbem perducendas curavit cos. v. In Cicero's De Naturâ Deorum, Anecdotes of Early Printing.-Chelsea Botanic Garden. there is a passage that has a reference to printing, where he directs the types to be made of metal, and calls them, formæ literarum. The discovery of copper-plate printing by the rolling press, occurred about 1450, and the earliest that is dated is 1461; and the engravers since have been very numerous; which are amply recorded by Strutt and Bryant: though very few of the engravings of the old masters now produce much in commerce, except those by Albert Durer, Mark Antonio, Pass, Rembrandt, Hollar, Marshall, Faithorne, White, and three or four more. Copper plates have served the purposes of exhibiting accurate representations of paintings, drawings, and autography; but the most popular and important use has been to illustrate biography with portraits, and this branch has been carried to a greater extent than any other part. Such an immense profusion have been engraved of these, that all of the British denomination were arranged into a complete system in the year 1793, by Bromley, regulated into periods, classes, divisions, and subdivisions, embracing all, from the prince to the humblest character in society, omitting none whose portrait could be found, either cut in wood, or engraved in copper, from the earliest that could be traced, to the time of George III.; but another work of the kind is now much wanted. I cannot discover any English portrait that is engraved in copper-plate till the year* 1559, when one of Queen Elizabeth appeared by Geminie, in folio, with ornaments: it is a most wretched specimen of copper-plate engraving, and was undoubtedly intended for Queen Mary; but she dying in 1558, with a little alteration, the artist made it pass for her sister Elizabeth. The rage for English portraits appears to have risen to its highest pitch in the year 1800, when a warm competition was manifested at the sale of Sir William Musgrave's collection, which lasted 31 days, and the sale produced 4,9871.7s.; and it seems the mania for old heads did not subside for several years; for There is a portrait of Henry VIII. 1548, and another of Mary, 1555, by apparently foreign engravers, which have not been acknowledged by Bromley; the first is ridiculous caricature, the other a small Oval. [Oct. we find eight years after, at the auction of Sir James Winter Lake's collection in 1808, that, although many of the inferior class of portraits had decreased in value, others had advanced, and sold higher than was ever witnessed before in England; the Duke of Norfolk, sold for 321. 11s.; James the First, by Elstrack, 471. 5s.; Oliver Cromwell, by Faithorne, 34l. 13s.; and Sir Francis Englefield, by Faithorne, 731. 10s.; this last portrait perhaps fetched the largest sum that any single engraved portrait had ever produced before; a wide alteration of times and prices since the year 1745, when Dr. Fothergill purchased John Nichols's (the Quaker) choice collection of two thousand portraits, including also his collection of rare tracts, for eighty guineas. Had no other mode of printing but the copper-plate been devised to the present day, it is very evident we should not have been destitute of printed books; for many superior and beautiful works have been published in this and other countries, in which not a single word or letter of wood or metal types has been introduced; for instance, Sturt's Common Prayer and devotional books, Pine's Horace and Virgil, &c.; for necessity and invention would soon have overcome its present slow process, as progressive improvements of dispatch would have naturally and consequently followed. IT SHIRLEY WOOLMER. MR. URBAN, Pomona-pl. Oct. 6. T would be a highly gratifying task to enumerate the means by which the Chelsea Botanic Garden has arisen to its present state of perfection; but however pleasing the task might be, yet it is in some measure rendered of secondary importance by the judicious endeavours of the local historian, Mr. Thomas Faulkner, who, in his "Historical and Topographical Description of Chelsea," lately published, appears to have been extremely anxious and careful to give a full and elaborate account of this establishment from its first foundation, as well as to enumerate a list of the most prominent plants which are therein cultivated, and perhaps it would require the knowledge of a very skilful botanist to be enabled to enter more fully into the subject. Mr. William Anderson, the present worthy Curator of this establishment, 1829.] Chelsea Botanic Garden.-Homer's Palace of Alcinous. from his active correspondence, which extends to all the Botanic Gardens in Europe, as well as to the other parts of the world, and from the constant interchange of seeds and plants, annually introduces a great number of plants new to the garden, and even to the country; and through the friendship existing between him and Dr. Fischer, the able Director of the Royal Botanic Garden at St. Petersburgh, he annually receives seeds of numerous new and rare plants, chiefly natives of Siberia and Persia, and various other parts of the Russian dominions. By this means the garden is continually presenting something interesting to the botanist or amateur. Amongst the late introductions to the garden, may be mentioned the Rheum australe, from the mountains of Nepaul, the true medicinal rhubarb of commerce; the Rheum palmatum generally supposed to be the plant, proving not to be possessed of any medicinal qualities, or in a very slight degree. Last year was also introduced and flowered in the garden, for the first time in Europe, the elegant and highly ornamental plant Tropaeolum tricolorum from Chile. The collection also contains an enormous root of the true Jalap, Ipomea Jalapa. It is also exceedingly rich in succulent plants, articularly in the families of Aloe and Cactus, and many rare and curious old plants, which have nearly disappeared in other collections, are still to be met with here. The science of botany, and cultivation of exotic plants, which has engaged the greatest portion of my time for the last thirty years, as well as my long residence in the vicinity, induced me to make the above addition to the Historian's account of this very interesting garden, and perhaps our astonishing efforts and success in this delightful pursuit, may be mainly attributable to the establishment of the Chelsea Physic Garden, and particularly to the exertions of Philip Miller, who was considered as the Prince of the Gardeners, and who gave a general taste for gardening and botany, by his various publications. But since his time the art of cultivation, and the propagation of difficult plants, has increased so wonderfully, that numbers The splendid crimson flowered Rhododendron arboreum, produces its grand flowers annually.. 293 which formerly could scarcely be kept alive, are now grown freely, and increased without the least trouble, every thing being so easily done when once thoroughly understood. Perhaps few of the sciences have made greater progress in this enlightened age of discovery and research, than that of Botany and Horticulture; aud it will be generally allowed, even by the best informed foreigners, that we have outstripped all other nations in the successful cultivation and propagation of exotic plants. They therefore send their young men intended for gardeners in superior situations, to this country for instruction; and our knowledge and taste may be said to have originally sprung from the old established botanic gardens, particularly that of which I am now treating, and to the exertions and industry of those eminent men by whom this establish ment has been conducted ever since its first institution in the reign of Charles the Second. Yours, &c. Mr. URBAN, A ROBERT SWEET. Sept. 21. tonists, that the Odyssey was a religious allegory, in which Ulysses represented fallen human nature, strug gling through its afflictions, and pursued by the physical principle of Evil, till restored to its first state. In this sense the Odyssey may be considered as a kind of Pilgrim's Progress. One circumstance certainly goes far to corroborate this notion; viz. the obvious detail of the scenery and accompaniments of the mysteries contained in the Book of Necromancy, the Descent of the Sisters into Hell, the Cave of the Nymphs, the Oracle of Proteus, Calypso's Island, and the Palace and Gardens of Alcinous. Of these the last is the subject on which I mean to offer some observations. Like all the other instances, it bears strong marks of Egyptian original. It will be easily seen by an examination of its details, that the architecture is entirely Egyptian. There are two walls (see Odyssey) receding on either hand from the doorway. The whole is surrounded by a cornice or moulding. The posts and imposts By a recent regulation, the whole of the pupils in the metropolis have free admission to this garden. 294 Homer's Palace of Alcinous. of the door are surmounted by a cornice, which Pope in a most absurd way translated "Aud gold the ringlets that command the door." The next instance of Egyptian architecture must be familiar to the unlearned as well as the learned, i. e. the avenue of dog-shaped sphynxes before the palace. Nor is the magnificent interior unlike that of the colossal cavern temple of Nubia, in which Champollion is now making his interesting researches. Golden boys, on pedestals, are described by Homer as holding torches to illuminate the royal chamber. In the cavern temples above referred to, sculptured figures of priests, highly decorated with gold and paint, instead of torches, which however they might have served occasionally to support, grasp the usual emblems of the Royal Shepherd Priesthood, the pastoral crook and flail. The literal description of the Gardens and Palace of Alcinous in Homer, is as follows:-The lofty dome was like the splendour of the sun or moon; the walls were brass, the doors of gold, the lintels silver, and the threshold silver, the cornice gold; gold and silver dogs made by Vulcan, with skilful internal mechanism, were placed in different directions to guard the palace, for ever undecaying and immortal. There were perpetual feasts within, and statues of youths in gold stood upon beautiful pedestals, bearing torches in their hand, to light the guests by night. -Near the palace was a garden of "four acres," in which there were trees, "whose fruit never perished, perennial, never deficient neither in summer nor winter, and zephyr, always breathing over them, caused some to blossom, while others ripened." In the inclosure ran two fountains; one diffused over the whole surface of the garden; the other flowing under the threshold of the hall, to the lofty dome, from whence the people were supplied. Such the "splendid gifts of the gods to Alcinous." On the same divine model, and referring probably to the ancient traditions of Eden, were doubtless formed the Garden of Pluto at Molossus, guarded by the dog Cerberus, and the Hesperian Garden in Northern Africa. Both were accompanied by dog [Oct. headed hieroglyphics of the cherubim and fury sword. See the triple chimæra, devoted to Serapis or Pluto. No reader can avoid being struck with the resemblance which the golden City of Alcinous, and his Gardens, bear to those of Ezekiel and St. John. A little reflection will soon shew that as the architecture evidently partook of the sacred architecture of Egypt, so under the whole description may be couched a portion of the masonic mysteries of that symbol-loving country. The Palace of Alcinous was in fact a general emblem of the final residence of the Edes Plutonis, the Golden City of the defunct just; and its description, which appears unneces sary and out of place in the detail of Ulysses' shipwreck (supposing Homer had no covert meaning), and which is ridiculed by Rapin and others as puerile, becomes allegorically appropriate and necessary at the period of the hero's miserable and protracted wanderings, looking on him as a type of human nature under its mortal trial. The never-extinguished light, the perpetual feast within the palace, and the life of the throned Magnates, like "the gods who live at ease," were a description of the early classical Paradise contrasting curiously with the Valhalla of Odin. The fifty virgins who waited upon them, offers a curious analogy of classical with scriptural mystery. So strikingly was the whole account considered as antiently illustrative of a pagan Paradise, that Diodorus Siculus applies it to the pagan Eden of Taprobane, while Justin Martyr refers it to Paradise. The front of the Palace is adorned with metallic columns precisely agreeing with the sacred columns of Egypt, Assyria, India, and Judæa; coppercolour or red, yellow, white, and blue (the heraldic coats of the present day); and there can be little doubt that the exterior of the Egyptian temples was painted in the same manner. The two walls of the façade are copper colour; the cornice blue; the posts and imposts argent, or white; the doors or, or yellow. Independent of its sacred intimation, no one can doubt that the architectural arrangement of such tints must be extremely magnificent; and we possess a singularly similar instance of the same mystic architecture in the Seven-towered Pyramids or fortresses of Chaldea and the East, each being |